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North Carolina GOP Nominee Faces Calls to Step Down; Trump Suggests Jewish Voters Bear Some Blame If He Loses. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired September 20, 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 20. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
[06:00:25]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON (R-NC), NORTH CAROLINA GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE: I have no idea how it was done. They are not my words.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Standing firm. The GOP candidate for governor in North Carolina vows to stay in the race after disturbing racist remarks surfaced.
And, turning blue? Will Mark Robinson's comments help flip the Tarheel State? We're going to ask North Carolina Democratic Congressman Jeff Jackson.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: In my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss. If I'm at 40 percent, I'm at four -- think of it. That means 60 percent of --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Pointing the finger. Donald Trump suggests Jewish Democrats would bear the blame if he loses the election while trying to court their vote.
And then --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We each have those moments in our lives where it's time to step up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Star power. Kamala Harris teams up with Oprah, getting another boost from one of Hollywood's biggest names.
All right, 6 a.m. in Washington. A live look at Raleigh, North Carolina, where of course, this political scandal is the talk of the town.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Friday morning. We made it to Friday.
And we are just 46 days away from election day. And of course, the race is coming down to the wire in nearly every battleground state, including North Carolina.
Absentee ballots are scheduled to go out in North Carolina today. It's a state Republicans have won every cycle since 2008. Recent polling does show that, with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, it is now incredibly close.
And a scandal involving the state's Republican nominee for governor, the current lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, is adding a new dimension to the race.
This new CNN KFILE investigation uncovered dozens of inflammatory posts that Robinson wrote on a porn site message board over a decade ago. Some of the messages include Robinson calling himself, quote, "a black Nazi."
Other posts praised slavery or ridiculed Martin Luther King Jr. as a, quote, "commie bastard," end quote.
When confronted with the evidence of his writings, Robinson denied any responsibility.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE REPORTER: How do you explain all of the matching details on this profile? The profile on Nude Africa lists your full name as Mark Robinson. The email listed on the account is an email that you used -- you have used elsewhere on the Internet, including with your photo. You have used that name, "minisoldr," on multiple social media accounts, including Twitter, Pinterest, Black Planet, and YouTube. How can you deny, with all of these matching details, that this is you?
ROBINSON: Look, I'm not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies. But I can tell you this.
There's been over $1 million spent on me through A.I. by a billionaire's son who's bound and determined to destroy me. The things that people can do with the Internet now, it's incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, some in Robinson's own party are calling him for -- calling on him to step aside. But that might not be possible anymore. The deadline to withdraw was a few hours ago, at midnight. Kamala Harris's campaign quickly moved to tie Robinson to the top of
the Republican ticket. They sent out social media posts showing Donald Trump and Robinson together at various campaign events.
And Trump has praised Robinson during stops at North Carolina in recent months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He's been an unbelievable lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson.
This is Martin Luther King on steroids.
I think you're better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.
Mark Robinson, he's out there. He's fighting. He's fighting. He's a great one.
I want to thank a very good man, and he's in there fighting. He's fading, and we know he's a fighter.
The next governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining us now to talk about all of it, Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor; Maya Wiley, civil rights attorney; Sarah Longwell, executive director of Republican Voters Against Trump; and Scott Jennings, a CNN senior political commentator.
Scott, it's your lucky day.
Look, it's unlikely that Mark Robinson would be in this position if it weren't for Donald Trump, who endorsed him. Thom Tillis had backed a different candidate in the North Carolina primary.
And now you have a situation where this stuff has come out. Republicans were already basically writing off this race. I mean, Tillis called it a tough day on Twitter, and he said it's time to focus on races we can win.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.
HUNT: Right. This was already jeopardizing things for Donald Trump. And now, I mean, if North Carolina were to land in Harris's column, it's very tough to see how Trump could win the presidency.
Is that a realistic possibility here? And what should Republicans be doing about this guy?
JENNINGS: A couple of things.
No. 1, I agree, by the way, that North Carolina is extremely close. No. 2 -- for the presidential. No. 2, I think it was unlikely Robinson was going to win in the first place. He was already behind. Obviously, this doesn't help.
And -- and I don't want overstate it, but -- but -- but I think Republicans have already kind of internalized. This was a very steep battle.
The Trump people feel very good about their operation in North Carolina. I find it unlikely that this will flow uphill. Normally in politics, it flows downhill. This -- I don't think it will flow uphill on Trump.
And Trump endorses a lot of Republicans. He doesn't own all of their --
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Like, we just -- we just showed all of the times that Trump --
JENNINGS: He's made -- he's made hundreds of speeches about Republicans. And he does not own all of their oppo files, any more than Harris owns every Democratic oppo file out there.
HUNT: No, but he did do those things after we knew an awful lot about all the other inflammatory things that Robinson had said that were leading him to likely lose this race, even before any of this came out.
JENNINGS: All I can tell you is that Donald Trump, I assume, will do what's best for Donald Trump. And I would be surprised if he continues to drag him around North Carolina.
HUNT: Yes. I'm going to show some voters that Sarah Longwell talked to about this guy in a second, but Maya Wiley, I going to let you weigh in first on what we've seen from Robinson.
MAYA WILEY, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: I -- I -- I just have to say, you know, exactly to Scott's point, we already -- look, Mark Robinson had already said he absolutely thought women shouldn't be allowed to vote.
He had already said things that were so extremist, that this is shocking on one level, but also fits the character we had already heard from Mark Robinson.
But I -- I actually think, you know, this pattern of Donald Trump picking candidates that are quite extreme -- I mean, this was a pattern we also saw in the midterms when there was supposed to be a red wave. And that was one of the factors of the red wave, I think.
We saw -- remember Herschel Walker in Georgia was actually tame compared to what we were hearing now in these stories about Mark Robinson.
But remember that North Carolina, as a swing state, also has a very large black population. HUNT: Right. North Carolina helped propel Obama in 2008.
WILEY: Absolutely. And that it is the state that had been covered by the Voting Rights act and had been in litigation for five years over -- over voter suppressive laws out of the state legislature; that many, many local groups had to work very hard on. This candidate actually foregrounds a lot of the fight to make sure there is political voice for black people.
Because he is so far outside of anything anyone black in North Carolina would be saying about anything.
HUNT: Well, anything, I think a lot of -- anyone, anyone.
WILEY: Anyone, anyone.
HUNT: In many of these instances. But let's -- let's take a look at Sarah Longwell, who's here with us today, a friend of the show. Obviously talks to voters all the time. And -- and this was a group that she had before all of this came out yesterday from KFILE.
But talking to Trump voters, people who voted for Trump in 2020, about whether they would be willing to vote for Robinson. Let's watch it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I used to be -- not a big donor, but a donor to Wake County Republican in the state of North Carolina, Republican.
And I keep getting text messages that my membership has expired. And I keep sending them messages that I will not give them a penny as long as Robinson is on the ballot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know he is an antisemitic. I know that he believes that the Holocaust never happened. He is a big ridiculous conspiracy theorist. He -- he -- he leans heavily on stuff that -- that just doesn't even correlate what he's trying to do with our state.
He's very unfriendly to the LGBT community on a whole.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, Sarah Longwell, I mean, again, that was before. It helps us understand why he was losing this race so badly. What is your understanding of the connection between Robinson and Trump and how this might all impact the presidential race, based on what you heard from these people?
SARAH LONGWELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, REPUBLICAN VOTERS AGAINST TRUMP: Well, there's this set of voters that looks at somebody like Mark Robinson and says, man, he is just too extreme to vote for. I think he's nuts. But Trump, he's still my guy.
And it's such an interesting -- and there are a lot of those voters in every state. Right now, if you look at Arizona, if you look at Wisconsin, the gap between how down-ballot within the Senate races like Tammy Baldwin is outperforming Harris.
And so, there's -- there's -- there's always been this gap where Trump's -- people who think that these people that Trump has attracted to the party are too extreme. But Trump is fine.
And I just want to say, the thing that Trump is doing, though, Trump brings all these cranks into the party. Trump is a conspiracy theorist. Trump is a liar. Trump is a crazy person. Trump is a misogynist.
[06:10:00]
And as a result, more and more of those people are coming into the party. But Trump has a little something: the celebrity and other elements there. He's sort of baked into the culture in a way that people forgive him, in a way that they don't these other politicians.
HUNT: Let's consider, like, the rules of political gravity we've seen repeatedly not apply to Trump, but they do still seem to apply to people not named Trump.
JENNINGS: And she's right. Trump has something that gives him a -- a layer of protection.
I will point out North Carolina in '16 and '20, Trump won the state. A Democrat was elected governor in both instances. So, he does have a history of outrunning local Democrats in the state.
And if I just make one other issue, I've noticed some Republicans are doubting what our own KFILE, Andy, did in the reporting here. Let me just -- he's a trustworthy reporter. He's been writing about politicians in both parties all years, including Kamala Harris, unearthing lots of things that she said in her previous campaign, which Republicans are more than happy to tout.
So in Andy, I trust. And I don't think -- I just don't think it's a wise decision today to say, Oh, well, it's coming from CNN or Andy, so we can't -- no. I mean, it's obviously a real thing. And you should believe real things when you see them.
HUNT: Thank you for saying that, Scott. I appreciate it.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: To your point about why it's not sticking to Trump, it's the power of Trump's celebrity, which is sort of what got him catapulted on the political stage to begin with.
People value celebrity in a way that they don't other areas of life. And this idea of Trump as the successful businessman and so on is part of what propelled him into success, even in spite of all of this.
Now, the thing -- it's like what's fascinating -- and Maya touched on this a little bit. There's nothing that Mark Robinson's saying -- well, we didn't know about the transgender porn before yesterday.
But there's nothing he's saying that people who are supporting him were not aware of already, given the statements he's made about Hitler and Stalin and Martin Luther King and so on.
The problem is that, in such a close race as North Carolina's going to be, every single vote could be problematic. And who knows what this does?
HUNT: Yes, we'll see. All right.
Up ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Oprah on the trail. Kamala Harris teams up with the television mogul to try to reach undecided voters.
Plus, North Carolina Democratic Congressman Jeff Jackson joins us to talk about the Robinson scandal and whether it could make a big difference in the Tarheel State.
And the former president's call for Jewish Democrats to abandon his opponent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You have to defeat Kamala. More than any other people on earth, Israel, I believe, has to defeat her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:16:47]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I say all the time that any Jewish person that votes for her, especially now -- her, the Democrat [SIC] Party -- should have their head examined.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Donald Trump criticizing Jewish voters who support Kamala Harris at an event combating antisemitism.
But he didn't stop there. The former president also suggesting yesterday that, if he loses in November, Jewish voters will deserve some blame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: With all I have done for Israel, I received only 24 percent of the Jewish vote. Now, think of this. I really haven't been treated very well, but that's the story of my life.
I'm not going to call this as a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I'm at 40 percent. If I'm at four -- think of it, that means 60 percent are voting for Kamala, who in particular is a bad Democrat.
The Democrats are bad to Israel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Trump went on to say that, quote, "Israel has to defeat Harris," end quote, and touted his record with both Israel and Iran during his time in office.
Scott Jennings, this taps on a lot of -- I mean, it taps on tropes about, you know, loyalty and other things. What do you make of what he said here? And do you think he should continue to talk about Jewish voters like this?
JENNINGS: He's competing for the Jewish vote in a way that Republicans don't normally expect to compete. Jewish Americans normally overwhelmingly vote Democratic and have for a very long time. And he's directly competing to get a better percentage. I mean, normally, you get 70 percent --
HUNT: But why is he doing that by, like, criticizing them? Right? Like --
JENNINGS: He's -- he's making an overt appeal that, if you don't like the policies toward Israel or the language or the rhetoric toward Israel coming out of the Democratic Party, there's another way.
And he said -- he used the term.
HUNT: Well, he could have said that. I mean, he could have said it that way.
JENNINGS: He -- I mean, he used the term six -- if he got 60 -- if he got the Democrats down to 60, that would be a significant movement, far below what Democrats normally get.
I think he's right to try to compete for these voters, to appeal.
WILLIAMS: I think that's what's remarkable about Trump, though, is that I really think the one party, the one issue that divides the Democratic Party right now is Israel. Everything else, there's some disagreements on the margins. But Israel really is the big rift.
This should be a gimme for the former president. But always taking the argument one step farther than he probably needs to, by actually attacking Jewish people.
Literally, Kamala Harris is married to a Jewish man. Not that that changes her policy positions or whatever else, but the idea of demonizing her as an enemy of Israel and enemy of Jewish issues is just sort of silly.
And I think, again, we were talking about this in the last block. It's a close race, and little things like that might turn off more people than they actually pull into the fold.
JENNINGS: You think Democrats are going to do better with Jewish voters this year than before?
WILLIAMS: That's not what I'm saying, Scott. What I'm saying is that, when the former president goes after Jewish people -- and you can't say that --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: He's not going after them. He's going -- he's trying to -- he's trying to make an overt appeal to the people who always vote Democrat.
LONGWELL: Yes, and --
JENNINGS: But it doesn't have to be this way.
LONGWELL: That's why you make friends and influence people. Right? You tell them they've got to have their head examined. Look at these idiots. You'd be so stupid.
That is how you normally entice people to come over to your side. It's great. It's great work.
[06:20:00]
WILLIAMS: Well, Mordechai, we are idiots. I mean, come on.
WILEY: He's actually doing the quintessential Trump thing, which he's making it about him, right? He's actually not speaking to the actual issues that --
HUNT: No, he says I haven't really been treated very well.
WILEY: It's all about me, me, me.
HUNT: I'm at 40 percent, I think that.
WILEY: And therefore, you're doing something wrong if you're not supporting me, because I'm not being treated well. So, I agree with you, Scott, that of course, he should be competing for voters.
That's what any candidate running for office should be doing. And if you know what is of interest. And you know, Israel is a large interest to very many Jewish voters. Absolutely.
But he is, he is reinforcing what so -- what turns off so many voters? I think, which is he isn't really speaking to the policy, and he's speaking more about himself.
And I think I -- as we know, because the Harris campaign will, and continues to remind people who's the one when Unite the Right, when the very antisemitic Unite the Right rally took --
JENNINGS: Oh, come on.
WILEY: No, not come on. Good and bad people on both sides.
JENNINGS: If you would like to discuss the -- the relative gatherings of antisemitism in this country going on over the last few months, and you want to talk about who's getting together where and what their political proclivities are, let's -- let's talk about what's going on on all these college campuses.
Let's talk about what's going on in the streets in New York City.
And he is talking about the policy. He did have strong pro-Israel policies. He did take a hard line against Iran. And right now, the U.S. government is constantly Lucy with the football --
HUNT: And he also did have dinner with --
JENNINGS: -- trying to deal with Hamas.
WILEY: Kamala Harris --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: The antisemitism problem in this country is on the left. It is not on the right.
WILEY: No, no, no, no, no, no. This is --
LONGWELL: It's with the presidential nominee.
JENNINGS: No way.
WILEY: This is a really important --
(CROSSTALK)
LONGWELL: How many dinners (ph) with Nick Fuentes?
HUNT: Scott, I'm not here to dispute that we have seen antisemitism on display in college campuses. I -- that point is taken.
But also, this happened with Donald Trump, that he dined with Nick Fuentes, right?
LONGWELL: Mark Robinson, Holocaust denier. Nominated.
JENNINGS: Look, if you guys want to draw, if you guys want to pooh- pooh what we have seen on the streets of America in the wake of October the seventh, the amount of anti -- ugly antisemitic -- people ripping down the posters --
LONGWELL: I agree. I agree with that.
JENNINGS: -- of hostages. These are not Republicans ripping them down. OK?
WILEY: I run the nation's oldest and largest civil rights coalition, co-founded by black people and by Jewish people. I have very many national Jewish organizations as part of this over 200 organizational coalition. We have had this conversation.
Antisemitism is on the rise. One of the things we just saw this past week in our politics was an Arab American woman testifying, including on antisemitism, including saying that the thing that unites us is organized extreme -- extremism, hate groups.
We've had hate crimes go up, since 2016, historic levels, year after year after year. And there's a direct link to Trumpism. Ism, ism. And to the rhetoric.
And yes, is there antisemitism? Absolutely. Have we seen language? I don't -- my partner is Jewish.
But we cannot compare organized white extremism -- I'm saying this as white supremacy, neo-Nazism -- and equate that to kids on a college campus struggling with very difficult issues. And it's our obligation to do a better job with how we have --
(CROSSTALK)
JENINGS: I respect you very much and -- and the work you've done. You cannot deny what we have seen in America since October the 7th. And it has only to do with one thing: antisemitism is on the rise, and there are people who feel like now is the time to let it out. And it is ugly.
LONGWELL: It is ugly, and that is why we shouldn't nominate a president who dines with white supremacists who makes one of his key allies someone --
JENNINGS: You want to make apologies for it on the left, go ahead. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it.
(CROSSTALK)
LONGWELL: You were -- you were denying that exists on the right. You were -- you were stumping for Trump in a way that tries to ignore that he -- he himself dined with a white supremacist.
He -- he's cozied up to Marjorie "Jewish space lasers" Greene.
JENNINGS: You're making -- you're making -- you're making a tactical argument, and I -- and everybody sitting at this table knows where the source of antisemitism is in this country. It is not on the right. It is not.
WILEY: That -- that is an extreme statement.
JENNINGS: It is not on the right.
WILEY: That is an extreme statement.
HUNT: I don't think denying it --
(CROSSTALK)
LONGWELL: Did Trump --
HUNT: -- anywhere.
LONGWELL: Hold on. Did Trump dine with Nick Fuentes? Is Nick Fuentes a right white supremacist?
JENNINGS: He did dine with Nick Fuentes.
LONGWELL: Is he a white supremacist?
JENNINGS: He shouldn't -- he shouldn't have done that.
LONGWELL: Yes?
JENNINGS: He shouldn't have done that.
LONGWELL: OK. So now we know that it is not only -- only on the left.
JENNINGS: So, you're saying one person who got -- who got invited to a stupid dinner versus the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of progressive activists in the streets, that that's the equivocation?
LONGWELL: Actually, I say it's equal. Because these college kids, who are wrong. I have done -- denounced those.
JENNINGS: That's your party now. Those are your people. Those are the people you seek to represent.
LONGWELL: Yes, because I would never belong to a party --
(CROSSTALK)
[06:25:00]
JENNINGS: That's your coalition. That's your coalition.
HUNT: We are at the point -- can I have a (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
WILLIAMS: Namaste, om.
HUNT: Guys, this is obviously a very emotionally charged conversation. I appreciate, Maya, the perspective that -- that you bring.
I appreciate your acknowledgement that this did happen, as Sarah kind of pushed you.
But I will say, I think it's very important that any corner where we see antisemitism: left, right? Wherever it comes from, it is deeply wrong.
All right. Still to come here after the break, North Carolina Democratic Congressman Jeff Jackson joins me live to discuss the -- the scandal surrounding North Carolina's governor's race.
Plus, pandas! But they're not actually pandas, after all. They are chao chaos in disguise. Let me do that. That's one of the five things you need to see this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HUNT: All right. Twenty-nine minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning.
Terrifying moments for a hiker in China as he falls down the side --
