Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Trump Blaming Democratic Rhetoric for New Assassination Attempt; Secret Service Under Fire after Second Assassination Attempt; 6 Million People in North Carolina, Virginia Under Flood Watch. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired September 17, 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 Tuesday, September 17. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
[05:59:45]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE (via phone): The Secret Service did an excellent job, and they have the man behind bars. And hopefully, he's going to be there for a long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Firsthand account. Donald Trump talks about the apparent assassination attempt against him.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driver, walk straight back. Keep walking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The suspect charged. New details as the man accused appears in court.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In America, we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box, not at the end of a gun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Calls for unity. President Biden condemns political violence as Republicans point the finger across the aisle.
And Diddy in custody. Months of scandal for the embattled music mogul leads to his arrest in Manhattan. Six a.m. here in Washington. A live look at West Palm Beach, Florida,
where, of course, this morning that investigation into the apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump will continue.
Morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
We are just now seven weeks away from election day on this Tuesday, but the conversations that we're having are, of course, not about polls or policy. Instead, for the second time in almost two months, one candidate is giving a firsthand account of the moment that shots rang out near him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (via phone): I was playing golf with some of my friends. It was on a Sunday morning and very peaceful, very beautiful weather. Everything was beautiful. It's a nice place to be.
And all of a sudden, we heard shots being fired in the air. And I guess probably four or five, and it sounded like bullets. But what do I know about that? But the Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets. And they grabbed me.
I would have loved to have sank that last putt, but we decided, let's get out of here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: We now know that each of those shots were fired by the Secret Service to try to neutralize the threat posed by a gunman spotted in the bushes.
The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, now believed to have been lying in wait near Trump's golf course for about 12 hours. That's according to a court filing that's based on phone records.
He faces two weapons charges and could face more serious charges as the investigation proceeds.
Speaking yesterday in Philadelphia, Biden addressed this apparent second attempt on the life of his predecessor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: There is no -- and I mean this in the bottom of my heart -- those of you who know me, many of you do -- no place in political violence -- for political violence in America. None, zero, never.
America's suffered too many times the tragedy of an assassin's bullet. It solves nothing and just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it. And never give it any oxygen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: President Biden also called Trump yesterday to discuss Trump's Secret Service protection. The White House describing the call as a cordial conversation.
In a statement to CNN, Trump's said it was, quote, "very nice," end quote.
Still, Trump not shying away from blaming his opponents for this second attempt on his life. In a social media post yesterday, Trump claiming that Harris's words during last week's debate, in addition to his own ongoing legal cases, have, quote, "taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust. Because of the Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!"
Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, made this argument yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm not going to say we're always perfect. I'm not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right. But you know the big difference between conservatives and liberals? Is that we -- no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of month.
I'd say that's pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out. Somebody is going to get hurt by it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, on the point of rhetoric, Trump regularly calls Kamala Harris a fascist. And in May, he said Biden runs a Gestapo administration, referencing the Nazi secret police.
Some Democrats arguing Donald Trump's language is contributing to the problem. This was Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): He plays to people's fear. He plays to people's anxiety. He divides us with hate and fear.
This violence has to stop. Period.
But we also need to understand who and what he is and how much he is contributing to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Wow. All right. Joining us to discuss, Jonah Goldberg, CNN political commentator, co-founder of "The Dispatch"; Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios; Karen Finney, CNN political commentator, former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign; and David Urban, CNN senior political commentator and former senior adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
Welcome to all of you. Thank you for being here. It's another week of difficult conversations about violence in our
politics, when we should be covering polling and ads and other things. Instead, we're talking about bullets and assassinations.
Jonah Goldberg, we were obviously struck by what J.D. Vance said there about how, well, no one is shooting at Kamala Harris. Curious what you hear in that, because at a time when we are getting bipartisan calls to tone down the rhetoric, I'm curious if you think that that lines up with it.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think J.D. Vance has -- has a gift for phrasing things in such a way as to enrage the very people he's claiming to try and calm down.
And, look, I don't find this a difficult conversation to have. I found it a difficult conversation to listen to. I think this whole thing has gotten really dumb.
And, you know, you have Donald Trump saying, in his FOX News digital interview yesterday, that what's outrageous is that they're using extremist rhetoric about him, when they should be using it about Kamala Harris, right? So, his objection isn't about the demonization of political opponents and inciteful rhetoric. His problem is, is that they're -- the inciteful rhetoric is being rammed -- aimed at the wrong person. And he thinks it would be better placed at his enemies, because they're the ones who will destroy the country.
That's really a stupid position to take, as are most of these things. I'm one of these conservatives who has been consistent on this for 20 years. You shouldn't blame the actions of madmen on politicians who use rhetoric.
It was wrong when they did it to Sarah Palin. It's wrong when they're doing it to Harris. It's wrong when we're doing it to Trump.
Only one of these two shooters, right, which is a very small data sample, do we know had very serious political opinions. The other one, the one from Butler, is kind of a black box still.
In a country of 337 million people, I could talk right now about how vests have no sleeves and make someone violently angry. We cannot order our entire political system around that.
HUNT: David Urban.
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I agree with Jonah. You can't -- you can't ascribe -- or at least I wouldn't ascribe -- any motives to the either of these gentlemen for what they did. Lying in wait. They're obviously -- both probably have mental -- mental illness issues.
But then again, I -- similarly, you know, we're talking about blame and incendiary language. I think there's a level of personal responsibility in America. I think that if Democrats and Republicans want to agree that Democrats aren't inciting Republicans to violence, and Republicans aren't inciting Democrats, has to be, you know, across the board.
You can't just say, well -- well, Trump did it on January 6 by telling people to go to the Capitol and do these things. But when we -- when we talk about, you know, Trump being a threat to the democracy and our union will end --
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Do you think it's --
URBAN: -- that's -- it doesn't really matter.
FINNEY: Do you think it's equivalent, David?
URBAN: Yes, I do. I actually do. Because, I mean, think about this. When in American history -- I mean, press the way, way back button -- and you remember when Sarah Palin -- excuse me, Sarah Huckabee Sanders got, like, chased out of a restaurant. That her family was kind of being yelled at and physically -- I don't want to saw physically threatened, but she said, To me they felt physically threatening.
Do remember when Maxine Waters said, If you see a Trump official, go get in his face, make him uncomfortable?
That's not normal. We crossed the line there.
It's like do you remember back in New York City when -- in New York City, when those kids were throwing buckets of water on the police and things at the police, garbage cans? And I said that's not -- that is not acceptable behavior. And it's a slippery slope from there.
So, it's a slippery slope from protesting -- nobody during the Obama administration chased Obama officials out of restaurants or chased people down, or said, go find somebody and chase them out, because we don't like their politics.
FINNEY: OK. Secretary Tony Blinken and his wife -- I mean, their children are terrorized, because they have people outside of their house screaming 24 -- let me finish -- 24/7.
You have the Democratic mayor of Boston, having this --
URBAN: How about just say this. It was wrong. Just say it. It's wrong.
FINNEY: How about let me finish my sentence.
URBAN: OK.
FINNEY: Then you get to talk. OK, great.
So, the point I'm going to make is it's less -- I think it's not about Democrats or Republicans. It's about understanding that there are crazy people out there who may take whatever you say, as Jonah just said, and do something crazy.
I mean, and that's where the level -- no, I'm not doing that.
URBAN: Oh, come on. You want to do it. It is. It's the truth. FINNEY: That's the level of responsibility, though, that they all have.
And I will just bring this back to particularly the J.D. Vance. Two things. He's such an -- just a jerk, because the thing is we -- you don't know that no one has tried anything against President Biden or Vice President Harris. because guess what? Usually, we never know about it.
We shouldn't be talking about whether or not there are -- you know, is that the measure? Well, nobody shot at you, so that means your rhetoric is OK.
No. How about also, J.D. Vance, don't perpetuate, on this very network, racist rumors that are false about people who are immigrants living legally in a town in your state that we now know the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, they were terrified to let their children out of their homes this weekend, because the Proud Boys and the KKK showed up.
How about use your leadership to stop spreading this information, to spread accurate information, and to actually protect the people who live in your state? How about that?
[06:10:00]
HUNT: I think -- I think the bottom line here -- and Alex, I've kind of put this one to you -- is that the -- we have reached a point in our politics -- I actually this morning was thinking about Mike Gallagher. He's a congressman who was considered a rising star, a young, very conservative Republican. Had a significant role in trying to take on China.
And he left Congress, right? And when he announced he was going to retire, there were a lot of questions about why. Why would you abandon this really promising career?
And then David Ignatius wrote a column a couple of weeks ago that basically said his family got swatted, right? Which is where somebody calls the cops and, you know, alleges there's something going on in the house. And these, you know, men with giant guns show up. And it can be very dangerous situation.
And this was part of why, if not exactly why, he bailed out of politics, out of politics entirely.
The reality is that the temperature at which the country is living right now is causing good people to bail out of the system, because they don't feel like they can operate in it safely. What are the implications of that for all of us?
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, in the last 24 hours, I think you're just seeing -- and even this roundtable discussion is evidence that -- that there's already finger-pointing going on. So, the temperature is actually going up, not -- not down. And you're six weeks away from, you know, what everyone is saying is
an existential election for the country. Both sides are saying that. So, essentially, you know, we are tiptoeing closer and closer to political violence becoming normalized.
And it didn't just start in Butler, Pennsylvania. You also had, you know, the shooting of Steve Scalise just a few years ago. You had January 6th, obviously. Like, the fact is that both sides -- and both sides feel embittered and entitled to their anger.
You saw that from J.D. Vance last night. And Democrats, we saw from Debbie Dingell, that she feels that, hey, Trump was the one that lit this fire, or at least stokes it, and pours gasoline on it. And as a result, we're basically just in this sort of, you know, cyclone where everything gets hotter and hotter and hotter.
HUNT: I mean, David, the bottom line is this is a Trump era thing.
URBAN: Yes, it started -- it started with the Trump era, right? It started with people.
FINNEY: It's actually not true. It started --
URBAN: Oh, come on.
FINNEY: It got pretty bad under Barack Obama, if you were a black person in this country.
URBAN: OK, Karen. I'm -- I'm not -- I can't.
GOLDBERG: There were two assassination attempts against Gerry Ford within a few days.
URBAN: Yes.
GOLDBERG: In 1972, there was, like, five domestic bombings a day from 18 months. We've had more violent periods in our life.
FINNEY: Yes.
URBAN: Of course, yes. We had the Civil War. We had the race riots in the '60s. We had Vietnam. People got shot at campuses. I mean, it's been
around for quite some time.
GOLDBERG: Yes. My point is we have a lot of recency bias.
Look, the only place where I'm going to disagree a little bit with David is I think any statement that has a truth claim in it, a factual truth claim in it, is a defensible statement, right?
So, that's why the lies about Haitians are outrageous and demonizing. And that's why I think you have -- there's a colorable argument to say that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, because of what he did on January 6th. And to say that, like when -- when Donald Trump says America will be
over if Kamala Harris will be reelected, that is just gassy hyperbole. When you say Donald Trump tried to steal an election, I think that's a factually true claim, and therefore, it's easier to defend.
URBAN: But it's easier to defend, but America will not cease to exist if Donald Trump is the president of the United States.
GOLDBERG: I agree.
URBAN: But the Democrats won't agree with it. Democrats would say it every day. They say he's going to -- he's going to end your rights; going to do this; going to do that. We're going to -- we're going to end abortion in America when Donald Trump says, I'm not going to do it. He said I'll veto a ban.
Karen, just be factual. He said I'm not going to sign a ban. He said I'm for -- I'm for the exceptions.
FINNEY: He said it will never get to my desk. It will never get to my desk.
URBAN: He said he won't sign a ban. He said it numerous times.
Democrats talking about Project 2025, as if it's Trump's DNA. He said, I've disavowed it numerous times. The vice president stands up and talks about it.
She stood up the other day and talked about -- about how Donald Trump said there are good people on both sides in Charlottesville. Clearly not said. She's she talked about the bloodbath statemen. Clearly, he didn't say that.
So, she's repeating the lies to inflame things.
FINNEY: Well, he said -- he said --
URBAN: But she said it -- she said it in a context that was disingenuous. She knows the truth. She knows what she's doing.
And so, the other side, your guys should say, yes, she needs to dial it back, as well. So exactly. Both sides need to dial it back. Someone's got to be first.
To Alex's point, it's a cyclone right now. We're in a cyclone. Who's going to step back and say, this is really bad for our country? You know who's sitting back and laughing? The Chinese, the Iranians, the Russians.
All our enemies right now are saying, bravo, this is great. This is exactly what we want. We want to see America torn apart.
THOMPSON: Yes, and one quick example of that is that yesterday, Ohio's governor, DeWine, said that a lot of those bomb threat calls were coming from overseas in Springfield, Ohio.
HUNT: Yes, a really difficult reality.
All right. Thank you all for kicking us off with a good conversation. You guys will be back in a minute.
Coming up ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, ready their campaigns in critical battleground states.
And the Secret Service's latest fallout on Capitol hill as lawmakers raise concern over the protection of the former president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can you have faith. It's 60 days. We've had two assassination attempts. That doesn't mean there's not great men and women working there. It just means at this moment, they've had two fails in 60 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:19:35]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REP. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-FL): Look, I think both the Secret Service and the FBI have to get out of this paradigm of you get this when you're the current president, and you get this when you're a former. I mean, I think that makes sense if maybe you're Jimmy Carter or W. Bush, that, you know, is painting and -- and living a retired life. But it needs to match the threat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was Florida Republican Congressman Michael Waltz, calling for greater protection for Donald Trump after that second apparent attempt on the former president's life.
[06:20:02]
Waltz, far from the only member of Congress sounding the alarm, with the Secret Service now a bipartisan focus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): The service is at a breaking point. Something has to change. The paradigm has to shift. The resources have to be given, as well, because we can't continue to ask the Secret Service to do all of this in this particular threat environment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Let's bring in CNN senior law enforcement analyst, former FBI director Andrew McCabe.
Andy, wonderful to see you. Thank you so much for being here. We were actually talking in the break about what exactly is the solution here? Obviously, there's bipartisan calls for more money for the Secret Service. What should that additional money buy for them, in your view?
I mean, how do you do a better job of, honestly, having the imagination to prevent things like this?
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure. So just to clarify one thing from that piece you were playing just before we came in, contrary to what the congressman was saying, the FBI doesn't have anything to do with determining what sort of protection Secret Service protectees receive. The FBI doesn't do protective work.
What they do do is support the Secret Service by providing intelligence of threats. And that's super important, because it gets right to the heart of your question.
What the service needs to do is rethink their methodology to adapt a more nimble approach to designing a package for each protectee, no matter who they are or what position they currently occupy, based on the threat picture they face, not based on these kind of predetermined stratifications of you're at this level, so you get "X," "Y," "Z" package.
As far as resources are concerned, the service has been under- resourced for decades. If you look back over each of their, you know, near misses in the last three, four, five decades, the -- each one of those can be tied, in some way, to a shortage of manpower. They are a very small service, and they push their people to extreme lengths in terms of hours and travel and things like that. Mandatory overtime, all that sort of stuff.
The best thing we could do at this point is to provide them with more people. But Kasie, that is a long-term solution. That does not happen overnight. It takes a while to recruit, identify, hire, and train those folks.
So, they are going to be really under the gun in this elevated time of threats to be able to provide the sort of protection that the country expects.
HUNT: I was going to say, I mean, what can they do in the next seven weeks, because clearly, I mean, this election is -- is a tinderbox.
MCCABE: It is. And I think -- I think the DHS has done a few things to address that immediately. I've seen it reported that they allocated 1,500 additional homeland security investigators.
They've basically assigned those people over to the Secret Service to assist with protective operations. They need to keep leaning in that direction. There's really nothing that they're doing right now that is more important than guaranteeing the safety of these candidates and these protectees.
So, they need to really kind of reach out across the federal law enforcement community to tap into personnel resources, tactical resources, technological resources that can augment their current capabilities.
That's something that the president and the administration could demand tomorrow if they wish to do so. And you would see results of that right away.
HUNT: All right. Andy McCabe for us this morning. Andy, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I hope to see you soon.
MCCABE: Great to be here.
HUNT: All right. Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Diddy arrested in New York. The possible charges that he is facing and what his legal team is saying about the prosecutors.
Plus, two assassination attempts in two months. Why some say it's important -- it is important to tone down the rhetoric on both sides.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:28:25]
HUNT: All right. Historic rain levels from so-called potential Tropical Cyclone 8 causing life-threatening flooding in parts of North Carolina. More than 10 million people still under a flood watch today.
Let's get straight to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek van Dam.
Derek, good morning. What are we looking at?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Here's the thing, Kasie, this is why we never want to underestimate these tropical systems, even though it was never given a formal name; called potential Tropical Cyclone 8. It sure left its damage in its wake.
And these tropical feeder bands created the most flooding in and around Carolina Beach, North Carolina, yesterday, where a state of emergency was declared. And you can see the flooding that was left in its wake of this non-named tropical entity.
Now, some of the rainfall totals here, just incredible to see. Well over a foot for many locations, including Carolina Beach and unofficial measurement of 18.32 inches, kind of centered just South of Wilmington. There it is, right near Carolina Beach.
And a lot of the heavy rainfall from the system still working its way inland, as well as along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. So, this is the area that we're watching out for the potential of flooding, the potential here for another two to four inches of rain, especially across Virginia and into the Northern sections of North Carolina.
There's a flash flood warning for Morehead City as we speak. So, that's the flood threat ongoing with this system that continues to move inland.
Then we're focusing our attention on severe weather that will bubble up across the nation's midsection. This is really between two cooler air masses. This is where the heat will take place today and then the possibility of severe storms for portions of Nebraska.
Look at these temperatures skyrocketing: 91 in Rapid City today -- Kasie.
HUNT: Wow. All right. Derek van Dam for us this morning. Derek, thank you very much.
All right.
[06:30:00]
