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Harris Tells N.C. Rally: We're the Underdog; Garland Defends Justice Department Against Critics; Flood Alerts for 7+ Million Across the Southeast. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 13, 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 Friday, September 13. Right now, on CNN THIS MORNING.

[06:00:42]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There will be no third debate.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I believe we ought to have another debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Refusing a rematch. Donald Trump says he won't debate Kamala Harris again. But what would change his mind?

Plus, this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The debate didn't really make that much of an impact for me. I'm not sure about others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A tight race. New polling shows the debate didn't do much for either candidate. So, what can they do to move the needle?

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A rare rebuke. The attorney general slamming efforts to turn the Justice Department into a political weapon.

And later a 9-11 conspiracy theorist invited by Donald Trump to a 9/11 memorial services. Now concern growing about how much sway she has over the former president.

Right, it's 6 a.m. on the East Coast. A live look at a beautiful sunrise in New York City on this Friday morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. We made it to Friday. Will we survive Friday the 13th? We will have to see.

There are just 53 days until November 5 election day, but make no mistake. Americans are already voting. Voters are voting. This week, Alabama became the first state to send out absentee ballots, and next week, Pennsylvania, which is of course, viewed as the top prize by both campaigns, will begin in-person early voting.

The timeline part of why Donald Trump now says he will not participate in a second debate against Kamala Harris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When a prize fighter loses the fight. You've seen a lot of fights, right? The first words out of that fighter's mouth is I want a rematch. I want a rematch.

And that's what she said: I want a rematch.

So, because we've done two debates, and because they were successful, there will be no third debate. It's too late anyway. The voting's already begun. You've got to go out and vote. We got to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Trump there, telling a crowd in Arizona that Harris lost their debate on Tuesday.

But that new Reuters/IPSOS poll finds Americans largely disagree. About half of registered voters who heard about the debate say that Harris won the night. Just about a quarter say that Trump did.

And of course, numbers like that are part of why the Harris campaign feeling they're still riding high. But advisors also urging caution.

One Harris campaign aide tells CNN, quote, "There's a quiet confidence and security in what we're doing and the mission. But no one thinks we have this in the bag. It's going to be a grind until election day, and after."

Harris herself sharing a similar message yesterday with supporters at a rally in North Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We are the underdog. Let's be clear about that. We are the underdog. And so, we have hard work ahead of us, but we like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work is good work. And with your help, we will win. We will win!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Our panel's here: Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor; Molly Ball, senior political correspondent for "The Wall Street Journal"; Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director; and Sarah Longwell, publisher of "The Bulwark," executive director of the Republican Accountability Project.

Welcome to all of you. Thank you, guys, so much for being here.

Sarah. I actually want to start with you, because you've been talking to voters about the impact the debate had. And I'm really interested in kind of your view of what happened and also what she needs to do next.

But let's listen to some of the voters that you talk to first. And then I'm going to let you explain exactly who they are. These are flippers, as you call them, right? People who may be willing to go either -- both ways.

Let's listen to them and then what -- we'll hear from Sarah about what else we've heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the things that, you know, Trump was, you know, criticizing and exploiting Joe Biden for, now he's the old man that can't keep up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was more presidential. He did a poor job of taking her bait and allowing himself to get upset and caught up -- caught up in different issues that we didn't need to spend a lot of time on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She -- you know, she addressed most of the issues pretty well, and she gave Donald Trump like, what maybe other candidates couldn't, you know. She was a little bit sarcastic or talking back with him, which I appreciated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:15]

HUNT: Sarah, really interesting, especially that last one there who liked kind of Harris's style? What have you -- what is your view of how this all has played out?

SARAH LONGWELL, PUBLISHER OF "THE BULWARK": We've done a couple of groups since the debate, and these -- these voters are people who voted for Trump in '16, Biden in '20.

But a lot of groups in that category -- we'd seen a lot of backsliding when Biden was the nominee. People were saying they were either leaning RFK or they were going to leave it blank.

And what Kamala Harris has done is just put that coalition back together.

This focus group was a clean sweep for Harris, both in terms of her winning the debate and in terms of vote choice. They were all going to vote for her. She had kind of gotten them over the hump.

And the No. 1 word that came up that really struck me was several people organically referred to her performance as presidential, right? And this is the hump she's trying to get over. Do people see her as presidential, somebody ready for the big chair? And for these voters, she got them there with this performance.

But I will say one of the things about this group is they all watched the debate. And as we know, lots of Americans don't always watch these debates.

So the question is, is can she ride this into a much more high-level narrative about how dominating she can be that sort of filters out to voters who are paying less attention.

HUNT: Yes, I mean Kate, how much do you think it matters?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I do think it matters.

I think one of the things she did, which I think Sarah's groups kind of reaffirmed this is, you know, your voters were saying she was presidential. I think she was strong. She seemed strong. And it was one of the things that she needed to do going into this debate. She needed to show, you know, that she could essentially kind of take the -- the foundation out from under Trump.

And -- and that helped sort of reinforce for people the idea that she's capable of being president, that she's strong. And she did that.

So, I do think -- I do think it mattered. I think, you know, in a -- in a time and in a race where, you know, we're on this really condensed timeline having this really high-profile moment where she went out and kind of nailed the key things that she needed to do. Yes, I absolutely think that's important.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And I also think she neutralized what should have been Donald Trump's two biggest strengths: one, immigration; and two, the economy.

Now, the criticism has come her -- oh, she didn't talk about her plans enough. And, you know, others can quibble about that, but when asked questions directly about the economy and about immigration, she managed to get him talking about crowd size and people -- Haitians eating dogs and all kinds of other nonsense when had he --

those are actually vulnerabilities for Kamala Harris. Just look at the polling.

Yet somehow, if you were a voter who was not familiar with who these two people were and where this race stood, you'd come away thinking, wait a second. She's got -- she's far more serious on these two really profound issues that are important to me as a voter. MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL":

Yes, the sense that I've gotten is that that's exactly right, but there still may be more for her to do to close the deal, right?

WILLIAMS: Yes.

BALL: That for a lot of voters -- and we talked to several swing voters as well who said, yes, she did a better job than him. Yes, she won the debate, as a matter of sort of performance. And yes, I didn't like how he came across.

They may still not be convinced that they're ready to support her. They -- a lot of them saying, I still need to know more about who she is. I still need to know more about what she's going to do for me.

So, she may still have some of those blanks to fill in. But I think the good thing for her is that door is open.

WILLIAMS: To clarify, I didn't mean neutralized it as an issue through November 5. I just -- walking out of that room that night, I think she came off looking better.

But -- but no, there is a huge way she has to go on these.

LONGWELL: Yes, but to your point, one of the things I heard in the group was somebody talking about how the fact that Donald Trump had scuttled the immigration deal was new information to him.

Yes. I mean, this is one of the things that debates really do, is people tune in who are just really starting to get a feel for the race.

And you have an opportunity to tell them things that they don't know yet. That's not filtering down. And so, there was a guy in the group, he was the most skeptical of Kamala Harris. But he was saying, I didn't know Trump did that. I don't like that.

And so, I think that that is a way in which -- and look, I do think there's always -- there's something about American voters. They want to be courted, right? They want to be told -- especially these late- breaking undecided ones.

But what you see is when she turns in a performance like this. At the end of every election, there's a break in independent voters. They break one way or the other. And I think what she's doing is chipping away to the point where, when it comes time to break, they've seen enough.

BEDINGFIELD: It also gave the Harris campaign a lot of fodder to continue to educate voters, right? Like, she had these great moments, which now the campaign is turning into clips. They're using in ads.

I mean, there was the incredible impact of, you know, the enormous number of viewers who were watching the night of the debate.

But, you know, now she has a lot of this material that she can keep working with over the next five weeks as we move toward the election.

BALL: I think that's right, that it's incremental. Yes. It's bit by bit and you chip away. And also, if you didn't watch the debate, probably the one thing you heard or saw on TikTok is eating cats and dogs.

[06:10:08]

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. That, too. That, too.

HUNT: OK. That's where we are.

Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, he took on the role of Donald Trump for Kamala Harris's debate prep. Philippe Reines joins us live to discuss how each candidate did on the debate stage.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is everybody out?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, there are kids in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A police officer hailed as a hero as he saves two kids trapped in a burning building. One of five things you have to see this morning.

And a strong warning from the attorney general about the threat turning -- of turning the DOJ into a, quote, "political weapon."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARLAND: There is not one rule for friends and another for foes; one rule for the powerful, another for the powerless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:24]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They weaponized the Justice Department. Every one of those cases was involved with the DOJ: from Atlanta and Fani Willis, to the attorney general of New York and the D.A. in New York. Every one of those cases.

And then they say, oh, he was -- he was a criminal. They're the ones that made them go after me.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: Donald Trump, once again claiming without evidence the criminal cases against him in Georgia and New York were initiated by the federal Justice Department.

Now, the attorney general pushing back. In a rare and forceful public statement, Merrick Garland defended the Justice Department from attacks its work is politically motivated.

Garland didn't mention Trump by name. He did denounce the spread of conspiracy theories and asserted the department's independence and impartiality.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARLAND: There is not one rule for friends and another for foes; one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless. One rule for the rich, and another for the poor. One rule for Democrats and another for Republicans.

Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Elliot Williams, what did you hear from Garland there? Why did he do this now? Just help us understand kind of the context because he's a pretty mild-mannered guy.

WILLIAMS: He is. And the -- now is an important question. They -- once a year, the attorney general has all the U.S. attorneys from around the country in Washington and gives a speech to them in some ways.

Now, this one was a little bit different, because they invited the whole Justice Department personnel to tune in. And it was partly on account of the attacks against the Justice Department that have really been chum in the water in the United States for the last five, six, seven years, however much.

What was interesting about that clip from the debate, which sort of also turbocharged some of this, is that even though fact checking in debates is sort of a controversial issue, he was allowed to go on making claims about the Justice Department having its hands in these state and local cases. That is simply not true.

And I think the attorney general felt some need to weigh in here because of the fact that the Justice Department is getting lumped into cases that they truly have nothing to do with.

Like, this whole idea of state attorneys general and local prosecutors and -- being, you know, puppets of the attorney general is just not how the Justice Department works.

And he felt the need, I think, to reassure the many Republicans who work with the Justice Department, but people of all parties, that their work is protected, is important, and is sort of separate from politics. HUNT: And again, for -- for someone who, I mean, many Democrats are

very critical of how Merrick Garland didn't step in. Some of these Trump things for him to kind of step out in this way. I think noteworthy for that reason.

All right. Coming up here after the break, Kamala Harris making the argument for another debate, while Donald Trump now says, no way.

Plus, the Miami Dolphins quarterback forced to exit last night's game early after he took a brutal hit. That's one of the five things you have to see this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:38]

HUNT: All right, 22 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is everybody out?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, there are kids in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Two children rescued from their burning home just in time. Two Texas police officers now being called heroes, because their body cam footage shows them running toward the flames and getting the kids out. Look at that.

A bear going for a stroll on a crowded beach, causing quite a stir on Lake Tahoe. The bear seemed completely unbothered by the weekend lake crowd.

People gave him, smartly, plenty of space to explore. He hopped in the water, took a swim. You know, as you do.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

(CRASHING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Wow. In South Carolina, a train smashing into a tractor trailer hauling a tank.

Witnesses say the truck got stuck on the railroad tracks and was unable to move out of the way of the train. Thankfully, we can say nobody was hurt.

That is crazy.

All right. Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa -- sorry, forced to leave tonight last night's game against the Buffalo Bills with a concussion.

He suffered it late in the third quarter on a hit by Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Hope that he is OK.

And one of California's largest wildfires igniting a mountain top in Orange County. This fire burning more than 21,000 acres so far.

And its only 5 percent contained.

All right. Time now for weather. Francine no longer a hurricane, but there's still plenty of rain across the Southeast, with flood alerts impacting just over 7 million people.

Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, who is sartorially celebrating National Cloud Appreciation Day, we learned in the 5 a.m. hour.

Allison, good morning. What do you got?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning and happy Cloud Appreciation Day to you, too.

Yes. We take a look. You can see how much the heavy rain impacted these areas the last few days. This video from New Orleans, you can see a good Samaritan rescuing a man whose vehicle got trapped in the flood waters.

But the key thing to notice the system, while it is well inland, it has significantly slowed down. Forward speed only three miles per hour. To put that in perspective, that's about how fast an average human walks. So, we could walk faster than this system is moving.

And what that means is it's got a lot of time to dump a tremendous amount of rain over some of these areas in the southeast.

[06:25:00]

Already, several places in Louisiana, and even Mississippi, picking up eight to even nine inches of rain. More is still yet to come, because this system, while gradually starting to make its way towards the East, it's going to take time. We really don't even see it spreading to, say, Atlanta and much of Georgia until Saturday and then into the Carolinas by the time we get into Sunday.

Now, a lot of these areas are dealing with drought conditions. They need the rain. The problem is you don't want too much rain in a short period of time.

And this swathe right here, where you see the yellows, oranges, and reds, a lot of these areas are expected to see widespread two to four inches. And some of them could end up picking up 6, 7, even as much as 8 inches of rain before this system finally moves out, which is why you end up having the risk for flooding.

HUNT: All right. Allison Chinchar for us this morning. Allison, thank you very much. Have a good weekend.

Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, he played a critical role in Kamala Harris's debate prep, pretending to be Donald Trump. Philippe Reines is standing by with the inside story.

Plus, the Trump campaign trying to get some help from Taylor Swift by imitating her best-selling merch. We'll explain what that's all about in our morning round-up.

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