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Harris Challenges Trump to 2nd Debate; Taylor Swift: I'm Voting for Kamala Harris; Hurricane Francine Set to Make Landfall in Louisiana Today. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 11, 2024 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, September 11. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[05:59:22]

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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We can chart a new way forward.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: But I just ask one simple question: Why didn't she do it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A head-to-head confrontation. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump meeting for the first time on the debate stage.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: People start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

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HUNT: Taking the bait. How Harris's strategy of putting Trump on defense paid off.

And --

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TRUMP: Will she allow abortion in the eighth month, ninth month? Seventh month?

HARRIS: Come on.

TRUMP: OK, would you do that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Contentious moment after contentious moment. All the policy arguments, from abortion to the economy and immigration.

And later, there's this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Entering her endorsement era. Taylor Swift throws her support behind Kamala Harris, just moments after the debate concluded.

All right, 6 a.m. on the East Coast. A live look at New York City on this Wednesday morning.

It is, of course, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. We don't want to lose sight of that this morning. We're going to see both President Biden and Vice President Harris travel to Ground Zero, to Shanksville, to the Pentagon, as we Mark and remember those lives.

But we do also want to start here with the historic night last night.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It is wonderful to have you with us.

Democrats are waking up this morning thrilled about last night and asking, Hey, when can Kamala Harris debate Donald Trump again?

Last night's debate was the first time that Harris and Trump had ever met in person. And the tone was set before either had spoken.

Harris crossed the stage, extended her hand, and insisted on a handshake. She introduced herself: "I'm Kamala Harris," she said.

The vice president did seem nervous at first when she started talking behind the podium, but she found her footing pretty quickly after the moderators asked about abortion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Now it's not tied up in the federal government. I did a great service in doing it. It took courage to do it. And the Supreme Court had great courage in doing it. And I give tremendous credit to those six justices.

HARRIS: They did exactly as he intended. And now, in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care. In one state, it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I was talking to sources all night last night, and Democrats told me that Trump's answer there is sure to end up in paid campaign ads. One Republican source who actually is in the anti-abortion camp, the

pro-life camp, as they would describe themselves, said that Trump's answers made them wince on this issue.

After that exchange, Harris basically baited Trump, and he just took the bait.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies, because it's a really interesting thing to watch. You will see, during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills cause cancer.

And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.

TRUMP: She said people start leaving. People don't go to her rallies. There's no reason to go. And the people that do go, she's busing them in and paying them to be there and then showing them in a different light.

So, she can't talk about that. People don't leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, during that answer and others, I mean -- like, you can see it right there, Harris's facial expressions. There's amusements. There is laughter as he spoke, which as we know, may have contributed to her getting under Trump's skin there.

Many Republicans who support Trump have been expressing frustration with how the moderators approached the debate, especially around fact- checking.

But again and again, Trump himself seemed simply unwilling or unable to avoid the traps that Harris laid for him or to stay on the message that he was there to try to deliver.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there.

Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.

HARRIS: Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so let's be clear about that. And clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that.

TRUMP: You talk about a threat to democracy. He got 14 million votes, and they threw him out of office.

And you know what? I'll give you a little secret. He hates hir. He can't stand her.

HARRIS: And what did the president then at the time say? There were fine people on each side.

TRUMP: On Charlottesville, that story has been, as you would say, debunked. Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Jesse, all of these people.

All I can say is I read where she was not black that she put out, and I'll say that. And then I read that she was black, and that's OK. Either one was OK with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That was a lot.

And if that weren't enough, minutes after the debate wrapped superstar Taylor Swift telling Kamala Harris, you belong with me.

[06:05:06]

She wrote on Instagram, "Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight." She declared, "I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election."

And Swift signed that post, quote, "With love and hope, Taylor Swift, childless cat lady."

Hmm. Look what you made her do.

Joining us now to discuss: Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor; Mark McKinnon, creator of "The Circus" on Showtime, former adviser to John McCain, George -- President George W. Bush; Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director; and Matt Gorman, the former senior adviser to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you. Thank you for getting up early after a very late night.

Mark McKinnon, I think you're fussing with your microphone.

MARK MCKINNON, FORMER ADVISER TO JOHN MCCAIN AND GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes, I've got it.

HUNT: So -- It's -- it's --

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: He's got this scarf, and it's a whole thing.

HUNT: It's all right. We'll figure it out.

Mark, you have worked for candidates at this incredibly high level. You know what it's like to prepare them. You know what it's like to sit and watch your person, your guy do something like this on the debate stage last night. And between what we saw onstage with Trump and then what we saw with Taylor Swift moments after the debate stage, your big-picture takeaways here?

MCKINNON: Absolutely dominant performance, just a TKO.

I mean, I've seen -- watched prep for dozens and dozens and dozens of debates. I just can't remember one that's that dominant sense of what she achieved what she needed to do.

And I mean, we can go through the points. And we'll go through all of them and how she -- how he baited him. I mean, she just put cheese on the trap, cheese on the trap. He took it every time.

But I mean, if you just stand back and think about what she was trying to do, which was introduce herself to 30 percent of the electorate who don't feel like they know her very well, they saw a calm, cool, confident, presidential-looking candidate.

I mean, if you just watched the screen and turned off the sound, it looked like she was on the beach in the sun, and it looked like he was in a howling rainstorm. She just looked good, and she looked presidential. She looked in control.

WILLIAMS: What was truly remarkable about last night is that and what she did was she is the vice president of the United States to a president who's popularity is underwater.

She's been vice president since day one of the administration and owns, whether she likes it or not, everything tied to the president.

Yet, somehow, you came out of last night seeing her as the candidate for the future, her as the break from whatever it was, whether it's Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

And it was -- it was -- it was as if she managed -- this is market set (ph) -- on every pivot point to get Donald Trump to walk himself into a hole. It was really remarkable.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, and she also looked strong, I mean, that's the other -- that's the other thing here. That's -- that has been one of Trump's advantages in this race. It was the advantage of -- one of the advantages he had when Biden was at the top of the ticket. He looked strong.

And she managed to make him look weak. I mean, she made him look angry, defensive, weak. She, as Mark was saying, she looked calm. She looked in control.

And so, you know, not only did she manage to draw out kind of the worst of him and his worst impulses and kind of show the country, you want the guy who's shouting about how they're eating dogs? Is that -- you know, is that what you want in your leader?

You know, she managed to get it at that. But she also, I think, undermined his, you know, perceived sense of strength. And that was a critically important thing for her to do, and not easy.

MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TIM SCOTT'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: A couple of things. I mean, look, I think was the story of missed opportunities for Trump last night. I mean, he didn't lose his cool, but he did lose his train of thought, right, in a lot of respects.

And look, I -- I don't think -- she went into some prosecution, overpower him. She played it safe, played it scripted.

But what she did do is she chummed the waters. And he took the bait over and over again.

What I'm interested to see, though, in the polling, I think -- I think, you know, certainly, there were some red lights with her with this "New York Times" and Siena poll earlier in the week, and it gave her a bit of a roadmap.

But I think both candidates, a little bit of a road map of what each needed to do.

She obviously needed to make herself in the more of the change agent. But one thing I think she didn't do. And look, that's probably not the story of the debate is she didn't really go into specific policies that we saw a lot of folks in the poll say we want to hear more from.

I'm curious if that pops, if it continues or it doesn't. But, look, the story of the night is the fact that --

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: Yes, do you think -- I mean, that -- that piece of that poll was obviously what stood out to all of us the most. Do you think what people were saying there was really -- I think my question about it, I guess I would say, is whether people were saying, OK, I really want to know exactly what her policy prescriptions are, or I actually just want to know her a little better.

GORMAN: I think -- I don't think it's either/or. I think it's a little bit of both. She did the buy-in a little bit better, but she did not do the policies.

Because also, she has to compress, right? The bio is one thing, but it is policy. You saw some of focus groups on this network and others talk about, well, you know, I was still better off four years ago.

So, there is absolutely a policy element that she hasn't articulated yet. But, you know, that is something I'm very interested to see in the next round of polling.

BEDINGFIELD: But I think successful political communication at this level is also about enthusiasm. It's not just about rattling off a list of policy proposals. We've seen many candidates kind of attempt that, only to be sort of be left by the wayside.

[06:10:10] People want to know who you are. They want to know why you are advocating for the policies you're advocating for. And so, I thought she did do a very good job last night of infusing her own story, her own bio, and also just kind of presenting to people, this is how I think about the world, which I think is what people actually want from a debate and from a presidential campaign across the board.

HUNT: Yes, we're going to go to break in a second, but Mark McKinnon, I wanted to -- I noticed this last night. I wanted to save it for you.

The front page of "Drudge Report" last night, if we could put it up on the screen. So, Matt Drudge -- and I'm asking you, because you have a great memory of the role that Matt Drudge has played in our politics.

And, you know, there's a little note up in the far top of the screen, where it was the night Trump lost it, is how he says it. And then it's the end. And it's, of course, him with cats.

This comes after Taylor Swift endorses.

I don't -- I don't know that the Drudge Report plays the same role that it did in our politics, but it's telling that this is where he, of all people, is on this.

MCKINNON: Well, it's incredible that the Drudge is still very relevant and still a real driver of a lot of news and a lot of attention.

And what's particularly interesting about that is that, you know, it's when -- whenever Drudge has a poll, it's usually dominated by conservatives who are driving the poll numbers. And if that's the case, even they said that Harris crushed it last night.

HUNT: Yes. I know we were looking at those numbers earlier, and 30 percent of Republicans thought that she won the debate; 69 percent of independents.

MCKINNON: When your only defense after your team gets beat is to take on the rest, you know, you're --

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, and I would just say from a tactical perspective, too, Trump going to the spin room is a sign that his campaign believes he didn't win.

You don't send your candidate into the spin room if you believe they --

HUNT: Knowing him, he probably sent himself into the spin room. And as you remember, that was a tactic he used to grab the -- in '16.

GORMAN: In primary debates, it's become far more common. I think it's less of a sign of losing. General election debates, it's unprecedented.

HUNT: Yes. It's really interesting. All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, will there be

another debate? We're going to talk to members of both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris's campaigns later on this hour.

And of course, Taylor Swift speaks now. The global superstar endorsing Kamala Harris. How might her support help with younger voters?

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, CBS'S "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": It's not fantastic when your character reference is an Eastern European strong man. Mussolini loves me, Stalin. Gargomel. The guy from Minions movie, Captain Hook. Captain Hook loves me. He's -- he's going to get that Peter Pan and that Tinkerbell. I'll tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Late-night host Stephen Colbert, weighing in on one of several eyebrow-raising moments from Donald Trump's debate performance last night, from praising Hungary's controversial leader, to spouting baseless allegations about migrants eating pets.

And then the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Trump made a number of comments over the course of last night that -- let's say -- may be outside of the mainstream for many voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men. They call him a strong man. He's a tough person, smart. Prime minister of Hungary.

He said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump.

In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there.

I said during my speech, not later on, peacefully and patriotically. And nobody on the other side was killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So that last bit there was about January 6. But can we -- can we just -- Jimmy in the control room, can we play the pets bite one more time? Can we just watch that one more time?

Oh, we just have the video of it. All right. OK. Well, the laughter and the pets. Buys, the way that that moment

played, we have -- we do have sound of undecided voters talking about this pet-eating conspiracy.

Because the way he talks about it, just like directly, they're eating dogs. They're eating cats, takes this very sort of complicated Internet conspiracy meme and makes it very direct. Let's watch what voters had to say about it.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've not heard anything about it before, so I thought it was just another one of these kind of crazy things that he comes up with that kind of turn me off.

What really bothers me about it is what I -- the underneath message I get from that. As a pastor, I hear kind of the dismissing the other, keeping other away, giving bad impressions about other people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: What do you make of that, Kate?

BEDINGFIELD: It was such a -- I mean, I think I would imagine 80 percent of the people watching the debate had no idea what he was talking about or felt, like, what the heck does this have to do with me? What even is this?

Like, you had to -- I saw I think, Dan Pfeiffer said on Twitter, like, you had to have a Ph.D. in MAGA to under -- even understand what he was talking about.

So, you know, wasted opportunity. You have this audience. You -- this is your moment to talk about what you're going to do for the country. And you're using it on these far-right, you know, memes, essentially, there on Twitter.

They are also, as the undecided voter was saying, there is also an element of hatefulness of racism.

In some ways, it was the quintessential Donald Trump moment. It was absurd, but it was also hateful.

And Kamala Harris's reaction, I thought, was actually -- was perfect, because it was sort of one of those like Kamala Harris is all of us moments, where she was just sort of like what the heck is this guy talking about?

[06:20:02]

MCKINNON: Her reaction was as good as he was bad.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, exactly. And it just diminished him. It made -- it rightly made it seem like what he was talking about was nonsense. And you know, but she didn't get, like, up in arms. She was just like ,what the heck is this guy talking about? GORMAN: I mean, look, I think Republicans were waiting for that really

strong case on immigration. That's one of -- one of our best issues, right? And I think that with her having, you know, kind of been in charge of immigration, the border for Biden, there's plenty to go from there.

And I think one of the other tough parts is he kind of entered -- he entered the answer as if people already knew what he was talking about, right? He talked about just Springfield. Right? Springfield.

And so, like, there's a lot of Springfields. It's from "The Simpsons," right?

(CROSSTALK)

GORMAN: So, it was Springfield, Ohio, right? So, it's -- I think it's always a challenge. And we talk about this with any candidate. It's always a challenge in itself with Trump.

In this instance, it's where they are down on, you know, the ten yard line, but people are back at the 40. So, you need -- you need to bring them along.

And so, that was always a chunk. That was an insight in there of how the -- how -- how it's just kind of -- we went all the way down.

WILLIAMS: To pick up on the immigration point, he kept getting in his own way. And one of the best lines against Kamala Harris is this fracking point; that she changed her position between 2019 and the present.

And she was asked a question about fracking. She answered it -- you know, and sort of ducked it.

He then started talking about transgender operations for illegal aliens in prison. Totally different topic.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Sure, but the simple point is, when he had an opportunity to attack the vice president on a vulnerability, he went down this, you know, list of MAGA's greatest hits. And it just sort of --

MCKINNON: Without any context.

WILLIAMS: Not any context. And to the extent, if it's about illegal aliens in the United States, then make that the focal point and go there.

But it was just sort of a grabbing --

GORMAN: It was a lot -- go ahead.

BEDINGFIELD: I just want to say it also -- it also put on display the fact that he -- he cannot make a coherent argument. Is this somebody you want to be president of the United States? It's like there's the issue of the substance of what he's raising. Substance.

And then there's the fact that he's somebody who's sitting there and cannot carry an argument out to its logical conclusion. Is that the person you want sitting in the Oval Office decisions?

MCKINNON: And fundamentally, who do you want to be watching for the next four years?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, that, too.

MCKINNON: This confident woman or this just crazed guy talking about cats?

WILLIAMS: It's not an unfair point. There are people that care about the border. And he said immigration or border, there are migrants. A bunch of ties. They were sort of all over the place and thrown in with this nonsense about cats and ducks eat.

MCKINNON: He disarmed his own argument.

WILLIAMS: The Internet meme was about cats. He threw in the word dogs last night, to make it even worse.

GORMAN: Cats. Did he say geese?

HUNT: Yes. He did not say geese.

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: No, it's not your -- it's not your responsibility. The meme, the responsibility of the meme.

Still to come after the break, Donald Trump questioning more than Kamala Harris's politics. We're going to look at how he weighed in on her racial identity again.

Plus, voters sharing what they thought about last night's debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's saying she can fix the problems that her administration has caused, but I just don't know if I can afford to take that risk.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just felt more strongly for her, as opposed to her opponent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:30]

HUNT: All right, there's also this story today. Hurricane Francine is approaching Louisiana. As the storm strengthens, conditions in that state expected to deteriorate over the course of the day. Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, for what folks

should be looking out for.

Allison, good morning.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good morning. Yes, right now, Francine has sustained winds of 90 miles per hour, gusting up to 115.

The real question becomes, how much more does it intensify before it finally makes landfall late this afternoon and early evening.

We are forecasting that it gets up to around 100 miles per hour, which would make it a Category 2 storm. And then it will continue to spread its way inland, taking with it the potential for very heavy rain, strong winds, and also the storm surge.

Already some impressive rainfall totals coming in from Texas, specifically Brownsville, Texas, picking up over seven inches of rain. For some perspective, that's more than they would normally see in the entire month of September, getting that in just the last 48 hours.

Some of those rain bands already starting to spread inland across Louisiana. We also have the potential for tornadoes, waterspouts, and damaging winds, even as far East as the Panhandle of Florida.

HUNT: All right. Allison Chinchar for us this morning with that. Allison, thank you very much.

And coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, a coveted endorsement for Kamala Harris from the childless cat lady of all childless cat ladies.

Plus, Vice President Harris calling for a second debate. We're going to ask one of Donald Trump's top advisors if he's on board.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.

TRUMP: We handed them over a country where the economy and where the stock market was higher than it was before the pandemic came in.

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