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NY Times: Harris Plans To Visit Border On Friday; Israel- Hezbollah Conflict Accelerating In Lebanon; NC Gov. Candidate Robinson Defiant Despite CNN Report. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 24, 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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[05:31:30]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:30 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at St. Louis, Missouri on this Tuesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Election Day just six weeks from today and in poll after poll immigration continues to be a top topic on voters' minds.

This morning The New York Times reporting that Harris plans to visit the southern border during a trip to Arizona on Friday. The visit coming as Harris attempts to chip away at polling that shows voters trust Donald Trump more when it comes to handling immigration. The vice president has repeatedly criticized Trump's immigration policies -- in particular, his vow to conduct mass deportations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They have pledged to carry out the largest deportation -- a mass deportation -- in American history. Imagine what that would look like and what that would be. How's that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps? What are they talking about?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Harris is attacking Trump's plan while the former president continues to promote it on the campaign trail. The plan also seems to be gaining some traction with voters. In the latest CBS/YouGov poll 53 percent of registered voters say they approve a national plan -- of a national plan under Trump to find and deport illegal immigrants -- a plan he pushed again last night while also going after the migrants with legal protected status who are living in Springfield, Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do you think Springfield will ever be the same? I don't think. The fact is, and I'll say it now, you have get them the hell out. You have to get them out -- I'm sorry. They've destroyed it.

RALLYGOERS: Send them back! Send them back! Send them back! Send them back! Send them back! Send them back! Send them back!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now to talk about this, Jackie Kucinich, CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe. Jackie, good morning. Wonderful to see you.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: Good morning.

HUNT: So that -- the way that Donald Trump is talking about this it's clearly really impacted the residents of Springfield. Kind of the -- some of the stories that are coming out of there are very -- are very tough. The polling though --

KUCINICH: Who are not here illegally --

HUNT: Right.

KUCINICH: -- here.

HUNT: Again, yes -- here legally.

And Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, wrote this in The New York Times op-ed. "Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city in the past three years to fill jobs. They are here legally. They are here to work."

At the same time, voters are saying that -- more voters say that they trust Trump on this than they trust Harris.

How does all of this kind of connect because clearly, if she feels she needs to go to the border they understand that this is a vulnerability?

KUCINICH: Well, the other thing you're hearing her emphasize is the fact that Trump killed the bipartisan compromise in the House and the Senate. He called and said that he didn't want it to go through in order to retain this as a campaign issue. And that is something you heard her say, I believe during the debate and over and over again on the campaign trail.

And the fact of the matter is the Biden administration and Biden himself have backed these policies that are further right than you've seen from Democrats in the past. Whether that sinks in we'll have to see. But certainly, somewhere like Arizona where the margins are going to

matter, she's really looking to cut that down in order to potentially win that state.

[05:35:05]

HUNT: The border has been something for her that has been challenging, right? She was assigned to deal with it by the Biden administration. Now if you speak privately with people who worked for Harris, they will say that this was not a helpful assignment necessarily to get from her boss at that time.

But then she's struggled to talk about it. She did this interview with Lester Holt back in 2021 and it's one that clearly still stings because, again, if you talk to Harris people and you look at how kind of she dealt with it this was a real setback for her.

Let's just watch that moment and then we'll talk about it on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESTER HOLT, NBC ANCHOR: Do you have any plans to visit the border?

HARRIS: I'm here in Guatemala today. At some point, you know, we are going to the border. We've been to the border.

HOLT: You --

HARRIS: So this whole -- this whole -- this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border. We've been to the border.

HOLT: You haven't been to the border.

HARRIS: And I haven't been to Europe. I mean, I don't -- I don't understand the point that you're making.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I think this just underscores that in some ways a border visit for her is a fraught -- is a fraught topic.

What do you think they would accomplish by doing it?

KUCINICH: It's a good question, Kasie, because sometimes you see politicians go to the border and make a big to-do about it. I think it is -- I think she'll probably use it to reemphasize some of the plans that she and the Biden administration have put into place -- potentially, to talk about how crossings are down, I think at their lowest since 2020. But -- and certainly to try to forge some credibility on this issue that has been difficult.

But I also will say the rhetoric that Trump is putting out there might not be helpful to him as well because people are seeing that they -- the "Get them out!" chants at his rallies -- I mean, we saw that at his convention as well. And that necessarily isn't a message that's going to attract some of these swing voters who are out there and are waiting until the last minute to try to figure out how to cast their vote.

HUNT: Right. I mean, that's the difficult part of this, right? It's in many ways Trump and the Republican Party have moved in the direction of the country on immigration but when you get to points like family separation --

KUCINICH: Yes. HUNT: -- under the Trump administration, for example, they can take it too far, which I think is -- kind of underscores the point that you're making.

Jackie Kucinich, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

KUCINICH: Thanks, Kasie.

HUNT: I really appreciate it.

All right, let's turn now to developments in the Middle East where fears of an all-out regional war are escalating this morning. Hezbollah launching a barrage of missiles into Northern Israel overnight targeting the port city of Haifa. Those attacks come one day after Israel struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon killing nearly 500 people, including dozens of women and children. Israel is continuing those strikes this morning.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria just sat down for an exclusive interview with Iran's new president. He says all Islamic nations must join forces with Hezbollah if Israel's attacks don't stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): What can Hezbollah do in the face of aerial bombardments? They were forced to defend themselves, but the danger does exist that the fire of events that are taking place there will expand to the entire region. And this can be dangerous for the future of the world and planet Earth itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, Paula Hancocks is tracking the latest developments and joins us live now from Abu Dhabi. Paula, good morning to you.

You heard the Iranian president there. Obviously, they play a significant role in how this escalates or doesn't. What do you hear in his words, and what does it say about what we might see next?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kasie, Hezbollah really is for Iran. It's not just an Iranian proxy; it is a buffer zone in many ways for Tehran. So they will be watching very closely what is happening. We have heard some strong words from Tehran but we haven't seen at this point any action, and that is what everyone is looking out for -- whether any of these other Iranian proxies are going to get involved in a significant way when it comes to these cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israel.

Now, Israel says that just in the last 12 hours there's been about 100 launches from Hezbollah, and they say that they have carried out dozens of airstrikes. The aerial bombardment is continuing.

We're hearing from the Israeli side they are calling on citizens and civilians to move away from areas where they know that Hezbollah might be operating. They also say that Hezbollah has been planting and putting missiles -- long-range missiles in civilian houses themselves. And this is what the spokesperson at the Israeli military said about it.

[05:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL HAGARI, COMMANDING OFFICER, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: Let me be clear. Hezbollah is responsible for this situation. This is Hezbollah's plan to turn Southern Lebanon into a battlefield for its attacks on Israel. We cannot accept terrorist groups storing weapons inside people's homes, using them to fire at other civilian communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: There are serious concerns in the region that this is expanding. And also within the Biden administration we've heard from one official saying, "We are the closest we've been to spiraling to a regional war since October 7."

U.S. officials are saying that they believe that Hezbollah has been hit hard by Israel just in the last week but there is feverish work behind the scenes to try and cool this down now -- to try and convince Israel not to go through with a ground invasion as well of Southern Lebanon.

Now, up until now the Israeli military has not committed either way -- has not given any kind of clear indication as to what comes next, although we do hear from the chief of staff of the IDF that planning is underway for the next phases. And we know that the security cabinet has given approval for this to increase in intensity over the coming days -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right, Paula Hancocks for us this morning. Paula, thank you.

And straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING a rookie makes history on "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL." Washington's Jayden Daniels with a near perfect performance in just his third NFL game.

Plus, North Carolina's embattled lieutenant governor Mark Robinson in damage control mode after a devastating CNN KFILE report.

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LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON, (R) NORTH CAROLINA, GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You folks want to focus on tabloid trash and, quite frankly, I am sick of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[05:46:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBINSON: While this country is literally facing a crisis situation on the world stage, while our border is wide open, while our businesses are struggling, while folks are dying from fentanyl, while crime is spiraling out of control, you folks want to focus on tabloid trash -- and, quite frankly, I am sick of it. And every time I get in front of you, I'm going to cut you off and tell you you need to refocus yourself on the issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: North Carolina Republican candidate for governor Mark Robinson attempting to mitigate the fallout from a CNN report of inflammatory comments he made on a porn website. The scandal throwing the North Carolina gubernatorial race into chaos.

Outside groups now pulling support for Robinson in the critical battleground state less than two months out from the election. The Republican Governors Association says their current North Carolina media buy expires today and they don't have any other placements made.

Even if outside groups appear to be redirecting resources away from the governor's race, North Carolina does remain key to the presidential race. Both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance spending time there over the past few days. Vance addressing the controversy while campaigning in the Tar Heel State just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people of North Carolina are going to make that decision. Now look, I've seen some of the statements -- I haven't seen them all. Some of them are pretty gross to put it mildly.

Mark Robinson says that those statements are false -- that he didn't actually speak them. So I think it's up to Mark Robinson to make his case to the people of North Carolina that those weren't his statements, and I'm going to let him make that case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now, congressional reporter for The Hill, Mychael Schnell. Mychael, good morning.

MYCHAEL SCHNELL, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Hey.

HUNT: Thanks for being here.

I mean, look, these outside groups pulling their ads just shows you that they think Mark Robinson is going to lose this race more than anything else. They have other places they could spend their money instead.

It raises questions. I mean, you heard J.D. Vance there say OK, he's denying it. It's up to him to prove it. This is, in many ways, the Trump playbook, right -- deny it -- except for whatever reason, voters seem to be willing to give Trump that kind of slack. Those rules don't seem to apply to Mark Robinson.

SCHNELL: Well, and I'm also interested to see particularly what happens in North Carolina since recently it's had a bit of this checkered political history. It went Republican in the presidential races for 2020, 2016, and 2012. But in 2020 and 2016, there were victories by Roy Cooper, the current Democratic -- the current Democratic governor of the state.

So I'm curious to see if this weird dynamic in North Carolina with this ticket-splitting has any impact this time around with former President Trump still trying to take that state -- but now, Mark Robinson.

Before this bombshell report he was already slipping in the polls. He already faced this cash disadvantage to Josh Stein. So all of this just doesn't help his efforts in that sense.

HUNT: Well, and Mychael, we know regardless that at the presidential level, right, we don't know very much about who is going to win this election because it's so close. That's really the only thing we know --

SCHNELL: Yeah.

HUNT: -- is just how close it's going to be. And so, how the candidates are talking about voting and what happens in the event of a close election very important to keep an eye on.

And Donald Trump, in Indiana -- Pennsylvania -- a town in Pennsylvania, not in Indiana -- yesterday was talking about what he needs in terms of -- he was comparing -- he was talking about what happened in 2020, which he still is convinced it was stolen. Let's watch what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We've got to get out and vote and you can start right away. You know that, right? Now we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early. I wonder what the hell happens during that 45? Let's move the -- she needs votes. We've got about a million votes in there. Let's move them. We're fixing the air conditioner in the room, right? No, it's terrible.

What happened the last time was disgraceful, including right here, but we're not going to let it happen again. Two -- you know, too big to rig, right? That's one way you do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:50:00]

HUNT: "Too big to rig," he says, trying to say that the victory -- the margin of victory to be too big to rig, but also raising all of these questions already before Election Day is here, really setting the stage for potentially what we saw in 2020 to unfold again. SCHNELL: Yeah. I mean, this is his typical playbook. We have seen for months now him talk about how it has to be too big to rig. It's something that we're even hearing on Capitol Hill with Republican lawmakers. He's sort of laying the groundwork if he wants to go that path after November. But, I mean, election integrity has been front and center for his campaign and for Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Not to veer too much into another subject, but former President Trump is urging Republicans -- he did last week -- to shut down the government if they didn't get this Trump-backed election -- what they call election integrity bill. It would prevent non U.S. citizens from voting in U.S. elections, something that's already very well legal. It would -- you know, he wanted to get that legislation in the government funding bill. It was never going to happen, but Trump is staking a shutdown -- a government shutdown on this piece of legislation.

He has put election integrity front and center throughout this entire campaign. I'm curious to see now if it ramps up as we get closer to November and as these polls continue to show this race is just getting closer and closer.

HUNT: Yeah, it's an interesting -- it's an interesting way to think about it. It sort of flips on its head how we normally would cover that story from the Hill where it's like oh, they're going to shut down the government without this poison pill thing. But really, if you look at what are Donald Trump's priorities immigration, election integrity -- it's all there.

SCHNELL: And that's dripping down to Republicans on Capitol Hill, too, because they still seem him as the quasi leader of the party -- the nominee of the party. So they feel like they need --

HUNT: I know.

SCHNELL: -- to take cues from him. It just percolates throughout the entire party.

HUNT: Yeah.

All right, Mychael Schnell for us this morning. Mychael, always grateful to have you. Thank you for being here.

All right, time now for sports. Commanders' quarterback Jayden Daniels steals the spotlight with a near-perfect performance on "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL."

Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy, good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Good morning, Kasie.

So Washington fans -- I mean, they could not be more excited this morning. They look like they may have finally found their franchise quarterback in Jayden Daniels, the second overall pick. He was just awesome last night outdoing fellow Heisman LSU quarterback Joe Burrow.

Daniels completed 21 of his 23 passes, which was a rookie record. He ran for a touchdown and threw for two more -- the big one right here to Terry McLaurin in the fourth quarter to put the game away. Just an amazing catch by McLaurin there.

The Commanders upset the Bengals 38-33 to improve to 2-1 on the season. The Bengals now 0-3 for the first time since drafting Burrow.

And afterwards Daniels -- well, he was asked if he's surprised by his quick success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAYDEN DANIELS, QUARTERBACK, WASHINGTON COMMANDERS: Yes and no. Yes, because obviously, it's something new to me as I continue the journey in my rookie year. But also just knowing the aspect. You know, I put in the work and what's done in the dark will always come to light. So I just know I'm prepared for these moments week in and week out. I've just got to go out there and play football and execute.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. The Buffalo Bills, meanwhile, look like the best team in football. Josh Allen and company just destroying the Jaguars. The Bills scored a touchdown on every single drive in the first half. Josh Allen, for touchdown passes. Buffalo led 34-3 by halftime. Thank goodness there were two games on last night so you could turn this one off.

The Bills would win in a rout 47-10 to improve to 3-0. The Jaguars now 0-3. Trevor Lawrence and the Jags have now lost eight-straight games dating back to last season. And it was another rough night for the former first overall pick.

In the second quarter, Lawrence -- he got picked off here by Damar Hamlin. This is the first interception of Hamlin's career. Now the last time Hamlin started on "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" was in January of 2023 when he suffered cardiac arrest out there on the field.

Here was Hamlin afterwards on his INT.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMAR HAMLIN, SAFETY, BUFFALO BILLS: It was -- it was special, you know. We all know my last start on "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" and how that game went. So to be able to come all the way back from that and to have a special moment like that, it's all God right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. In baseball, for the first time since 2011, the Philadelphia Phillies are National League East champions. They clinched their first division title in 13 years with a 6-2 win over the Cubs last night. The Phillies -- they moved into sole possession of first place way back on May 3 and never looked back. They're a half-game behind the Dodgers for the best record in baseball.

And finally, the Giants -- they're out of the playoff race but they were playing spoilers last night in Arizona. Matt Chapman here at the plate. He gets ahold of this one. The ball is going to go deep to centerfield and it's going to bounce off that wall and then just carrying out into the outfield. Chapman turns on his jets and makes it all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

The Giants would win 6-3. The Diamondbacks up a game and a half on the Braves for the final NL wildcard spot right now.

And Kasie, those Braves -- they host the Mets starting tonight for a three-game series here in Atlanta. Going to have big-time playoff implications. That NL wildcard and AL wildcard coming down to the final weeks. It should be lots of fun.

[05:55:00]

HUNT: Yeah, it really is. I'm not going to talk about the Orioles, but I've got my fingers crossed, Andy.

SCHOLES: All right.

HUNT: Andy, thank you. I'll see you tomorrow, I hope.

And coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING the intensified battle in the Middle East as Hezbollah launches a barrage of retaliatory rockets toward Israel.

Plus, new numbers from the FBI show that violent crime took a dip last year. Do these new statistics help the Harris campaign seize on one of the Republican Party's favorite attack lines?

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HARRIS: My entire career I have fought for the people. As a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland I stood up for women and children against predators who abused them.

TRUMP: Crime is rampant. Anybody that thinks crime is going down has a serious brain problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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HUNT: It's Tuesday, September 24.