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Trump Doubles Down On Debate Claims At Latest Rally; Todd And Mia Minor Share Their Son's Story; Miami's Tua Tagovailoa Concussed Again In Loss To Bills. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired September 13, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:50]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:30 a.m. in -- on the East Coast. A live look at Las Vegas, Nevada -- one of those critical swing states and the center of some campaign activity today. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris now back out on the campaign trail after Tuesday night's debate.
Donald Trump returning to a rally crowd in Arizona. He spoke for more than an hour claiming victory in the debate while attacking the moderators. And he also repeated some of the debunked claims he made involving migrants, the 2020 election, and crowd sizes. We, of course, heard those also on the debate stage.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town's geese and even walking off with their pets. My dog has been taken.
And they said we lost. I was told if I got 63 million votes, which is what I got in 2016, you can't lose. Just get 63. I got close to 12 million more votes than that and we lost. But we didn't lose.
And her crowds are zero. Her crowds -- she's got no crowds. They bus the people in. They pay buses to bring people. Nobody here rode in on a bus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining me now Sabrina Rodriguez, national political reporter for The Washington Post. Sabrina, good morning. Wonderful to see you.
You were at this Trump rally yesterday. We, of course, also heard from Trump that he doesn't want to participate in a third debate. He says there will be no third debate.
What did you see on the ground there, and what were your takeaways from that rally that we can't see from just watching the sound bites?
SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST (via Webex by Cisco): I think the number one thing I will say, Kasie, was seeing the number of people who do leave Donald Trump's rallies early. I think obviously that came up during the debate and hearing Vice President Kamala Harris sort of take a jab at him and get under his skin by mentioning that people leave the rallies early. That was something I was kind of keeping an eye out for yesterday in Tucson.
And I will say -- I mean, I talked to several of the folks that did leave early and a lot of people that go to Trump's rallies are in line for six-seven hours before the rally takes place. We saw yesterday in Tucson over 100-plus-degree weather. I mean, because of the heat there was dozens of people that had to be taken out of the line with heat exhaustion symptoms.
And really, we did see thousands of people turn out. We did see that some of the folks that I talked to that left early was because it was a middle-of-the-day rally. And seeing the family commitments -- having to pick up kids at school. And a lot of people kind of jabbing at me talking to them and saying I'm not leaving because I'm bored, I promise.
But I think that was kind of one of the sights to see. And some people expressing disappointment at the idea that there wasn't going to be another debate. A lot of people -- Trump supporters there were saying they would love to see him take the stage again, and a lot of them kind of reiterating the points he's making where he's trying to sell that he won the debate.
HUNT: Sabrina, can you talk to me a little bit about the state of play on the ground in Arizona? Because, you know, as we're kind of tracking these final -- you know, just under eight weeks of campaigning there is -- are these questions about each candidate's path to 270.
And I've talked to some sources who suggest that Arizona has really moved away from Kamala Harris and toward Donald Trump. I'm curious if you have picked that up in your reporting on the ground there and what your sources are saying to you about it.
RODRIGUEZ: I mean, I think I will say with any state of just how tight it is right now. I think it applies with Arizona as well.
But really, I've been looking at the Senate race here between Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego and Kari Lake. And that one is the one that sort of gives me the sense that things might be shifting back in Democrats' favor.
A couple of months ago if you had asked me and in looking at polls and just talking to folks on the ground in Arizona, it really did look like there was -- there was this shift towards the Republican Party. There was this support for Kari Lake and Donald Trump.
[05:35:00] And with that shift at the top of the ticket there has been many more conversations that I've been having with more moderate Republicans and Independent voters who are a key group in this state that are much more Kamala Harris curious. Are much more into this idea of OK, a new -- a new kind of leadership. A younger candidate at the top of the ticket.
We are sort of seeing that messaging that is coming from both Ruben Gallego's campaign and the Harris campaign that is actively courting those people in the middle. Is actively saying politics can go back to being normal again and it doesn't have to be people launching insults at each other.
So I think there is this openness. But again, I think as we see in a lot of these battleground states just how tight it's going to be. Just how much it may come down to those people who are doing the door- knocking right now in the intense Arizona heat and sort of what people are listening to on the airwaves as well.
HUNT: All right, Sabrina Rodriguez for us this morning. Sabrina, very grateful to have you. I hope you'll come back soon. Thank you.
All right, now to the Harris campaign as she is riding a wave of debate momentum and an infusion of campaign cash into North Carolina. The vice president reporting $47 million in fresh donations in the 24 hours in the wake of the debate.
At a rally in Charlotte she went after the former president for his position on health care, making the case he doesn't have a real plan.
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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump intends to end the Affordable Care Act. As he said in the debate, he made clear he has no plan to replace it. In fact -- you remember -- concept. You remember, he has "concepts of a plan" -- "concepts of a plan."
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HUNT: I'm joined now by Ebony McMorris, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks. Ebony, good morning. Wonderful to have you on the show today.
EBONY MCMORRIS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: Good morning.
HUNT: You cover the Harris-Walz campaign. And we were just talking with Sabrina about Arizona which, of course, was a big battleground state in 2020. It's kind of actually where we were all focused as they were heading into calling the election.
North Carolina had kind of fallen back off the map a little bit for Democrats since Obama won it back in 2008.
MCMORRIS: Yes. HUNT: But it's really back on now. And, in fact, some of the same sources I'm talking would say well, Arizona may not be as much in play for Harris are saying actually, North Carolina might be more in play.
What are you hearing, and what did we see from the vice president there yesterday?
MCMORRIS: I'm absolutely hearing that. I mean, you've got to look at this campaign as a whole. This is a place, like you said before, where in North Carolina people weren't really checking for that much and we hadn't seen anything since Obama in 2008.
But when I'm talking to my sources on the ground and with organizations who are trying to help with get out the voter pushes -- they're talking about what is it that people really want to hear in this -- part of her plan.
Of course, the economy is one of the top issues that she's been talking about and that's why you're hearing more about her 'Opportunity Economy' that she talked about not just in the debate. She talked about it at the DNC. She's put out her 100-day plan to show how important this is.
I know that we've had a lot of people saying things like she hasn't talked about her plan. But she's talked about a $25,000 housing downpayment that she wants. She's talked about the child tax credit that she wants to bring back. She's talked about continuing to lower the price of Medicare -- of prescription drugs.
And so on the opposite side it looks like we're seeing something else. It's funny because we see the bar for the Harris campaign, in many stances, being raised so high. But why are we not also asking the same question on the other side about what policies are we hearing come out of the -- out of that camp -- even on the debate stage when we look at it.
HUNT: So, Ebony, one of the things that led Obama to win North Carolina and perhaps the thing was just the rate of Black turnout, right?
MCMORRIS: Absolutely.
HUNT: The level of enthusiasm. And there have been some questions about why especially young African American men have been a little bit more inclined to give the Republican candidate a look than we have seen in previous elections. The over-under being about 20 percent, right? If it's under 20 percent, it's a little bit closer to the norm. But in some instances -- in some polling we see young Black men at a rate of more than 20 percent looking at Donald Trump.
Why is that, and what is your reporting on how Harris is specifically working on that piece of things?
MCMORRIS: So I want to talk about the polling for a second because we did see that in some. But I will say that Black Futures Lab, which actually did one of the largest surveys of African Americans and even for Black men actually found a different set of numbers. And they saw that those numbers as far as when it came to Black men -- that they were actually closer to around 10 percent -- not even 15 percent.
[05:40:00]
And I just had an interview Kristin Powell, who is the president of Black Futures Lab, and we were talking about that. But still, there is some dissatisfaction around those numbers.
And so when it comes to what the -- what the Harris campaign is doing, we've seen her working with a lot of organizations on the -- on the ground, like Black Voters Matter, in that area. The NAACP is getting the word out. She's working with Urban League, and she's going directly to where people are.
But I think part of this in -- all of this campaign is pushing back on disinformation and on misinformation. And so we have to be careful, first of all, checking our sources -- where we're getting our information from. But then also that doesn't mean you don't let a -- it doesn't matter who is -- who is in office or who is running in office you still have to put that pressure on that candidate so that people can get what they want.
This is -- this is a transactional relationship. You don't have to be in love with the candidate but make your demands. And I see her working with a lot of organizations on the ground to help get that out. And also, meeting with groups of young Black men. And so I think you'll see more -- you'll see more of that.
And I wanted to make one point though when we talk about the rhetoric of this campaign. Because you played a clip earlier talking about what Donald Trump was saying during the debate about eating animals.
HUNT: Yeah.
MCMORRIS: And some of the racial tropes that we're seeing is very dangerous and I think that it is also backfiring. And for me, I think it's a part of what we saw Kevin Phillips, who was one of the architects of the 'southern strategy' who passed away last year talk about, which is the key to politics is finding out who hates who.
And so I think we have to be careful about when we hear that type of rhetoric because it has real-life consequences and people suffer behind that. So --
HUNT: Yeah, very interesting points. Thank you so much, Ebony, for being here. I really appreciate it.
Coming up after the break, the Miami Dolphins quarterback taking a major hit during last night's game against the Buffalo Bills and leaving the game early with a concussion. We've got more on the Bleacher Report coming up.
Plus, parents pushing Congress to pass legislation that would provide more protection for kids online. We're going to speak with a family who experienced the devastating impact of social media firsthand. (COMMERCIAL)
[05:46:32]
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DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: This is a really hard time for parents across the country. Many of us are trying to figure out how to manage these technologies that we didn't grow up with that are having profound impacts on the health and well-being of our kids. And right -- until now, what really pains me is that the entire burden of managing this has been placed on the shoulders of parents and their kids, and that's simply not right.
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HUNT: That was the Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who has called for a warning label on social media platforms. And he wrote this in June. "The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency -- and social media has emerged as an important contributor."
What what's Congress doing about it? The Senate has passed a bill that's called KOSA. It's the Kids Online Safety Act. This would be the first major reform to the social media tech industry since the late 1990s. Think about how much has changed since the late 1990s.
Part of why this bill passed the Senate is because of parents who have incredibly painful firsthand experience with the dangers that kids encounter online.
The Minor family lost their 12-year-old son Matthew in 2019 after he attempted the viral blackout challenge that he saw online, which ultimately led to his tragic death by accidental asphyxiation.
And joining me now to share their story are Matthew's parents, Todd and Mia Minor. It's very brave of you to be doing what you're doing here on Capitol Hill as you push for this. I'm so sorry for your loss.
MIA MINOR, MOTHER OF MATTHEW MINOR, MATTHEW E. MINOR AWARENESS FOUNDATION: Thank you.
TODD MINOR, FATHER OF MATTHEW MINOR, MATTHEW E. MINOR AWARENESS FOUNDATION: Thank you.
HUNT: Tell me about Matthew -- the kind of kid he was, and what happened to him.
M. MINOR: Well, he was a fun-loving, good kid. He liked playing sports. He loved his family.
T. MINOR: He had dimples.
M. MINOR: His dimples when he smiled.
T. MINOR: He lit up the room when he came in.
M. MINOR: He lit up the room.
T. MINOR: And --
M. MINOR: Yeah.
T. MINOR: -- he always stood up for his friends and his classmates.
M. MINOR: Yeah.
T. MINOR: And we feel his loss every day.
HUNT: How did you lose him?
T. MINOR: In 2019, we lost him to the blackout challenge and joke challenge and TikTok and YouTube. It was a normal day, and we had dinner. Actually, it seemed like one of the --
M. MINOR: Yeah.
T. MINOR: -- greatest days we had, to be honest. And he asked to go upstairs for one hour of internet --
M. MINOR: Yeah.
T. MINOR: -- and we said you can go upstairs for just one hour.
M. MINOR: Yeah.
T. MINOR: And so he went upstairs and got on the internet. Our oldest son had come back from -- a little bit later -- probably 40 minutes later our oldest son came back from working out for football and he goes upstairs. And he yells down and says "Come upstairs. There's something wrong with Matthew."
M. MINOR: (INAUDIBLE).
T. MINOR: And --
HUNT: And this was because he found this on a social media site. And what you have found since then is that the social media companies bear no responsibility for this? Is that basically what's happened? And that this bill --
T. MINOR: Yes.
HUNT: -- is aimed at changing that?
M. MINOR: Right.
T. MINOR: Yes. The algorithms send the -- send these -- this information to the kids. They said that they can't turn it off and it's just continuous. But yes, section 230 protects them from liability.
HUNT: Yeah. And so this bill would impose what's called a duty of care -- T. MINOR: Um-hum, duty of care.
HUNT: -- on social media platforms to help try and prevent these things.
[05:50:00]
And right now it's being held up in the House of Representatives. What are people in the House who are opposing this bill telling you to justify where they stand?
T. MINOR: Well, I think -- I think we've heard as far as the first amendment and freedom of speech -- those things. But this is a design bill --
M. MINOR: Right.
T. MINOR: -- so it doesn't deal with content at all.
M. MINOR: It didn't, no.
T. MINOR: The main thing is for it to focus on the algorithms --
M. MINOR: Algorithms.
T. MINOR: -- that are being pushed to our kids.
HUNT: Yeah.
So what -- the algorithm was basically letting your son see all of these things. He wasn't going looking for it.
T. MINOR: Right.
M. MINOR: Right.
T. MINOR: Correct.
M. MINOR: So it was -- it was coming onto the -- his screen. And so --
T. MINOR: Yeah, and I guess it was --
M. MINOR: It was a --
T. MINOR: -- a repulsive thing and he just --
M. MINOR: Right.
T. MINOR: -- tried it because they make it look like it's fun.
M. MINOR: Right.
T. MINOR: Sometimes -- the ones we've seen later that sometimes they look like cartoons. They just say it's fun -- you must try it.
M. MINOR: Yeah.
T. MINOR: And so from a kid's perspective it just seems like it's fun. You could try it and then you'll just walk away from it. But kids are dying.
M. MINOR: Yeah.
HUNT: And Matthew (INAUDIBLE).
T. MINOR: And Matthew passed, unfortunately.
M. MINOR: And it's a consent. It's a lot of challenges that will -- that's coming out. The week before we had a challenge that was a concern that it was on the news and that was led to so many other challenges that came thereafter.
HUNT: Yeah.
T. MINOR: Yeah.
HUNT: Are there any social media companies you feel are willing to be responsible here?
T. MINOR: No. I mean, not that we've found. We've sent emails, we've sent --
M. MINOR: Right.
T. MINOR: -- letters. And a lot of our other parents in our parents' group has done the same thing and we haven't received any response. We plead with them to work with parents to put in safety measures to keep kids safe. So far, they say that their platforms are safe, but we are proof that it's not.
M. MINOR: Exactly.
HUNT: Well, again, I'm so sorry for the loss of Matthew. The world is poorer without him. But the parents out there whose kids' lives may be saved by the work you're doing are very lucky to have you.
T. MINOR: Thank you.
HUNT: Thank you both very much for being here today.
T. MINOR: Thank you.
HUNT: I really appreciate it.
All right, we're going to turn now to sports where we actually have a really scary story as well. It was a really tough moment in last night's Dolphins-Bills game when the Miami quarterback suffered the third concussion of his NFL career.
Andy Scholes is here with more in the Bleacher Report. Andy, good morning. What happened?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, good morning, Kasie.
You know, just lots of concern right now for Tua Tagovailoa. A couple of years ago we had one of the scariest moments in recent memory with Tua's hand seizing up on the field after taking a hit to the head.
And in last night's game against the Bills, Tua lowering his shoulder here. He's going to slam right into Damar Hamlin. Tua immediately went into a fencing response with his arms in an unnatural position. And he was attended to on the field and was able to walk off on his own. But this was Tua's third diagnosed concussion of his career.
And he has admitted in the past he considered retirement due to concussions and his status moving forward right now is unclear.
And here was Dolphins' head coach Mike McDaniel after the game on his quarterback.
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MIKE MCDANIEL, HEAD COACH, MIAMI DOLPHINS: My thought was concern and I was just worried about my guy. So, yeah, it's -- yeah, not something that you ever want -- ever want to be a part of, you know. You hope not to.
The furthest thing from my mind is what is the timeline. I want to know. We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate and -- like the rest of the guys are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Now, Tua did play all of last season but in 2022 he had a series of concussion problems. In week three against the Bills, he stumbled after a hit but was cleared to return to play. Now, the NFLPA ended up firing the independent neurologist that let Tua stay in that game.
And the very next week Tua hit his head and his hands seized up on the field, and he was carted off with a concussion.
And he would return two weeks later and would play until week 16 when he suffered another concussion against the Packers. Tua then ended up missing the final two games of the season and the playoffs.
Now, as for the game, it was dominated by the Bills. James Cook -- he ran for two touchdowns and caught another from Josh Allen.
Now, Miami dominated time of possession and had more yards, but Tua threw three interceptions, including a pick six in the third quarter before leaving the game.
The Bills beat the Dolphins for the 14th time in 16 games -- 31-10 was the final.
And after the game, though, Allen concerned about Tua.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSH ALLEN, QUARTERBACK, BUFFALO BILLS: Understanding what's happened in the past and just knowing that I'm praying for him and his family. He's a great football player. But I've been around him outside of the football field and even an amazing human -- an even more amazing human. So again, prayers are going out to him and his family and hopefully everything's all right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: All right, to baseball where Yankee's slugger Aaron Judge hasn't hit a home run in a career-high 16 games. But no worries because New York keeps on winning thanks to Juan Soto. The star right- fielder with a walk-off single in the 10th to beat the Red Sox 2-1.
[05:55:07]
The Bronx Bombers are now two games ahead of the Orioles for first place in the AL East.
And afterwards, Soto -- well, he was asked what he's going to remember most about his first walk-off as a Yankee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUAN SOTO, OUTFIELDER, NEW YORK YANKEES: So many things. The crowd, my teammates, and everybody. I mean, those guys, they were running hard on me. So that's one of the biggest things I'm going to remember. I mean, we'll see what's coming in and I just did not know where to go. But definitely, it was a fun way to finish the game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yeah. And the Yankees and your Orioles, Kasie, have been neck-and-neck all season long there for the AL East. Got the two-game lead now, which seems massive considering they've just been going back and forth. We'll see what ends up happening.
HUNT: Uh-huh. I could never be a sports reporter. I am -- I am --
SCHOLES: A little (INAUDIBLE).
HUNT: -- incapable of lack of bias. I can't do it. I can't do it.
Andy, thank you.
SCHOLES: All right.
HUNT: I really appreciate it. Have a good weekend.
Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump refusing to commit to another debate with Kamala Harris. He says he remains confident he was victorious on Tuesday night.
Plus, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, issuing a rare and forceful warning about political threats to the Department of Justice.
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MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The public servants of the Department of Justice do not bend to politics, and that they will not break under pressure.
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