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CNN This Morning

Cross-border Fire Overnight Between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon; Trump Promotes Early Voting While Casting Doubts About It; Hurricane and Storm Surge Watches for Florida's West Coast. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired September 24, 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 24, right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[06:00:11]

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(MISSILE FIRE)

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HUNT: Trading fire. Israel and Lebanon once again, exchanging cross- border strikes overnight as the West looks to prevent a wider war.

Plus, this.

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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The election is basically here.

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HUNT: Forty-two days and counting. The votes, already being cast, with campaigns urging supporters to vote early, even as Donald Trump calls early voting stupid.

And this.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Migrant crime is totally out of control.

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HUNT: Violent crime, a focal point of Donald Trump's campaign, but will news statistics from the FBI actually give Kamala Harris an edge?

And later, Trump and the Juice. Why the former president is comparing a staffer's dad to O.J. Simpson. Six a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Capitol Hill on this

Tuesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

There are just six weeks until election day, if you can believe that.

But we're going to start here this morning. The Middle East inching closer to the brink as the fight between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies. And the United States looks for some way to prevent further escalation.

Overnight, Israel's Iron Dome defense system intercepting a barrage of rockets fired from Southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported. Those rockets coming just hours after Israel's largest attack on Lebanese soil in almost two decades.

The Israeli military saying it struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets on Monday. Nearly 500 people, including dozens of women and children, were killed according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The moment one of those airstrikes hit caught on camera as a journalist prepared to go live on the air.

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(EXPLOSION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ow! Aaa!

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HUNT: An Israeli official telling CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the goal of the strikes is to separate Hezbollah from Israel's war with Hamas.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We are not waiting for a threat. We are ahead of it: everywhere, in every arena, any time. We're eliminating seniors, eliminating commanders, eliminating rockets and counting. Those who tried to hurt us, we will hurt them gravely.

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HUNT: CNN has learned that American officials believe Israel's attacks have significantly weakened Hezbollah. Still, the U.S. is working behind the scenes to convince Israel not to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon.

U.S. officials' biggest concern: that Iran, Hezbollah's strongest and most influential backer, could become directly involved in a wider regional war.

Here was Iran's president in a new exclusive interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: Will you counsel Hezbollah to restrain itself? We know that Iran has a lot of influence over Hezbollah.

MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Now, if there is a need, Islamic countries must convene a meeting in order to formulate a reaction to what is occurring.

We must not allow for Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel. Hezbollah cannot do that alone. Hezbollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended, supported, and supplied by Western countries, European countries, and the United States of America.

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HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss is Avi Mayer. He's former editor in chief of "The Jerusalem Post."

Avi, thank you so much for being here. I really do appreciate it. Can you help us understand the dynamics here as to why this is happening now, the tactics that Israel is using, and what the plan would be to try to avoid a major escalation around this?

AVI MAYER, FORMER EDITOR IN CHIEF, "THE JERUSALEM POST": Well, Kasie, this war has been ongoing for nearly 12 months now, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into Northern Israel on October the eighth, the day after the Hamas massacre of the day earlier.

And, it started doing so in solidarity with Hamas and the people of Gaza. And it has continued to bombard Northern Israel since that has caused widespread death and destruction across the Northern part of the country.

One hundred thousand Israelis have had to flee their homes that have not seen their homes in 12 months. And that is the pretext here. That is the context that I think is necessary.

Israel, last week, started responding more forcefully to those attacks. Israel has said quite openly that it will not permit a situation in which entire parts of its country are off limits to its own people or people are forced from their homes.

And it said very clearly, if Hamas -- if Hezbollah goes back to the point it's supposed to be, according to U.N. Resolution 1701, North of the Litani River, if it vacates the area of Southern Lebanon and enables those Israelis to go back home, there's no reason for this war to continue.

The war would end immediately. And it is because of Hezbollah's refusal to do that and, in fact, its continuation of its bombardment that has caused this war to continue at this time.

HUNT: Avi, the U.N. General Assembly is meeting this week in New York, and President Biden is going to give his last address as president there.

And this dynamic is, of course, relevant to everything that we're seeing playing out on the ground where you are. David Sanger wrote this in "The New York Times": "Mr. Biden aides say the president's beginning to acknowledge that he's simply running out of time. With only four months left in office, the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas look dimmer than at any time since Mr. Biden laid out a plan at the beginning of the summer. And the risk of a wider war has never looked greater. In public, administration officials insist they've not given up. They say they simply cannot move ahead while missiles are bringing death and destruction in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon. And they are clinging to the hope that even this level of missile and rocket exchange between Israel and Hezbollah will not turn into the regional war that they have been trying to stave off."

How does the dynamic of an outgoing president along with the crucible of the final weeks of a presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris affect how Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli officials are conducting this war, if at all?

MAYER: Look, there have been those who suggested that both Israel and Hamas, and perhaps now Hezbollah, are trying to push the can down the road, in hopes of having some other administration coming up that would be more favorable to them or their terms.

I know that many Israelis -- I would say the overwhelming majority -- just want this war to end. They want the hostages brought back home as swiftly as possible. And if the president can bring about some kind of Hail Mary in the next few weeks, that would enable those hostages who are still alive and the bodies of those who've been killed to be brought back home, the vast majority of Israelis would be extremely supportive, whether that's something the president can actually pull off remains to be seen.

And it's very clear that Hezbollah has absolutely no intention of stopping its bombardment of Northern Israel unless it's forced to do so, either by Israeli response or by its masters in Iran saying, you have to stop now, and we'll wait to see what happens in the future administration.

HUNT: All right. Avi Mayer for us this morning. Sir, always grateful for your perspective on the show. Thank you so much for being here and I hope you'll come back soon.

MAYER: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump urging his supporters to vote early on the one hand. Then he says this.

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TRUMP: Then we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early.

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HUNT: Why he is both embracing him, criticizing early voting.

Plus, the haunting final message from the crew of the doomed Titan submersible just minutes before implosion.

And it only has one electoral vote, but it could all come down to it. Why Nebraska's second congressional district could be so important in this election.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's plausible that we could have a tie, and that whole notion of my vote doesn't matter kind of gets really tossed out the window.

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HARRIS: Early voting has already started in some states. And inf act, many of you may have already received your mail-in ballots. The election is basically here. It's basically here and we have work to do.

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HUNT: It is basically here. We are now exactly six weeks from election day, 42 days. And for some states, the election is actually already here. There's early and mail-in voting now getting started.

In 2020, nearly three-quarters of voters either cast their ballot by mail or during in-person early voting periods in their states. Those numbers were much higher than is typical because of the pandemic.

At the time, Trump cast doubt on early voting and instead told his supporters to vote on election day.

Now, four years later, Donald Trump's campaign is urging his supporters to go to the polls sooner in places like Virginia.

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TRUMP: I am urging every Virginia patriot to vote early. And don't wait. Go out and vote now.

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HUNT: But while Trump is saying that on phone calls, he's saying things like this at his rallies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We got to get out and vote. 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 -- see these votes? You'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.

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HUNT: Joining us now to discuss: Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios; Jonah Goldberg, CNN political commentator, editor in chief, "The Dispatch"; Karen Finney, CNN political commentator; Brad Todd, Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you.

Brad Todd, would you like voters to vote early in the Republican primary -- Party?

BRAD TODD, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think you should vote whenever you want to. Now is a good time, later's a good time.

You know, the one thing that's different this time from 2020 is the Trump campaign has done a masterful job of trying to get Republicans to fully take advantage of early voting if they want to.

You can see the results. In Pennsylvania, it's hundreds of thousands of votes better for Republican with mail-in ballot requests right now than it was four years ago.

[06:15:06]

So, Donald Trump's rhetoric aside there, I think the campaign is operating on all cylinders on that.

HUNT: Jonah Goldberg, it is a conflicting -- he does have a conflicting narrative about this.

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Look, I think Trump's hang-ups about -- his delusion that the last election was stolen, his obsession with it, is, you know, comes out in things like that.

It also comes out in the way he talks about vote -- you know, voter integrity stuff. The one he's putting more emphasis on voter integrity and less on the ground game.

And I think it's, in part, because I think he's trying to lay the groundwork, if he loses, that he can make this argument again. And it gets in the way of the professionals around him, the, you know, people like Brad Todd, who like, want to just get the right message out and win.

Because Trump can never get out of his own way.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, Alex Thompson, we heard him say in Indiana, Pennsylvania just yesterday that he needs the election to be too big to rig. Kind of already laying that groundwork.

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's been a chant now for months. And, you know, the Trump campaign knows that he probably -- I mean, he only lost by about 45,000 votes across three states last time. If he had actually supported mail-in voting, he actually could have won.

And that's why the -- the campaign has been really trying to push him. I mean, as recently as earlier this year, he basically called mail-in voting a -- like a disaster, a fraud. And the campaign has basically had to make the case to him on a personal way, saying you have to stop saying this. Because they know that this could be the difference-maker in this election.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, the other young voters are about 14 times more likely to face challenges on election day. Sometimes it's because of where they're trying to vote, because it's where they're going to college, their I.D., whatever. It's college kids, what can I tell you?

So, that -- and that is a segment of the electorate that we're all trying to get to. So, if you already know those young people -- so this is probably part of why the campaign is, like, just stop saying this. You're really hurting yourself literally with voters who we actually know will have the harder time on election day, who you want them to vote early.

Especially also because young people, you know, I mean, for a lot of us, if it's raining, if you're tired, if it's -- something comes up. There are a lot of reasons people can't always vote on election day.

But hey, if you want to listen to Donald Trump, and you don't feel good about early voting, don't do it.

TODD: Voter suppression here, right here.

FINNEY: Echoing your guy.

HUNT: So, big picture, let's talk about kind of where this race stands. I was -- CNN has a new documentary coming out about James Carville, who I know many of you, if not all of you at this table, know well and have worked with. It's great, and I'm excited for everybody to be able to get to see it.

Carville was on our air talking about where he thinks the election stands as of Monday. Let's watch what he said.

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JAMES CARVILLE, VETERAN DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It's -- partial (ph) to polling. I'm not convinced that it's going to be close on election day. I'll say this. If there's seven swing states, the least -- most least likely scenario is it breaks four, three.

I don't like to predict elections. I would just say this just doesn't feel like a race that Harris is going to lose.

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HUNT: So, that seems to be a vibe Jonah, right? He doesn't feel like this is a race Harris is going to lose. But do you think he's right?

GOLDBERG: I honestly don't know. It feels -- I think Harris, it feels like she definitely has momentum and trend lines. And in the national polls that are going her way. I think she's -- she's creeping up on outside the margin of error. If you, you know, look at it, you know, in a favorable light.

But it does also feel really tied in the swing states. And Trump has -- I mean, the thing that is so confounding with all this is that Trump has an incredibly low ceiling and an incredibly high floor. And you cannot knock him off 47 percent of the electorate.

So, that means that Harris's universe of gettable voters is 53 percent of the electorate. And that just makes the politics weird.

And in those swing states, it's closer to 50-50. And so, that gives -- it -- it's just very difficult to gauge. Alex is right about the last election. It was 45, 48,000 votes.

We could talk about what Arab Americans in Dearborn are going to do, or what, you know, Jewish voters in the Philly suburbs are going to. Or we can talk about the weather, right? I mean, it is -- it's just -- it's just so tight.

HUNT: Yes, it's a really good point.

All right. Sorry, Brad. Jump in?

TODD: I was -- I was just going to say that the -- James is wrong in that it could break four-three if Trump holds onto Georgia and North Carolina, but she wins Pennsylvania.

North Carolina is a state where Democrats have only won three of the last 24 federal statewide elections. Trump could easily win there. He could easily win in Georgia.

I think -- still thinks that a split of those swing states is possible.

HUNT: So, basically, he said the least likely scenario is that it breaks four-three in the swing states. You're saying that's actually --

TODD: It actually could happen. Absolutely.

HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, a former Republican candidate for president has a new book. Entrepreneur and Trump supporter Vivek Ramaswamy is going to join us with his thoughts on the state of the race.

[06:20:05] Plus, Florida bracing for what could be the most powerful hurricane of the season, later on this week.

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HUNT: All right. You're looking live at Miami. And this morning, Florida is bracing for what could be the most destructive hurricane to hit the U.S. so far this hurricane season.

Right now, thunderstorms building strength in the Caribbean before potentially bringing life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds to the Southeast later on this week.

Let's get to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek van Dam. Derek, good morning. What are these folks looking for?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kasie.

Latest update from the National Hurricane Center at 5 a.m. issuing newly issued, I should say, hurricane watches. And this includes Inglewood, Northward into Indian Pass. Basically, this is the catcher's mitt of Florida, the Florida Peninsula.

[06:25:10]

And I want you to take note. That hurricane watch includes Tampa Bay. Tropical storm warnings extend further South.

We also have a large area of the Gulf Coast of the Florida Peninsula, included within storm surge alerts.

So, why such an expansive area? Well, we believe that this storm will grow in size as it approaches Florida, come Thursday into Friday.

That's why the National Hurricane Center has issued these wide stretching watches and alerts. We even have the potential for ten to 15 feet of storm surge, right here near the Big Bend of Florida and up to nine feet, including the Tampa Bay region.

Storm system, not looking like much now other than disorganized showers and thunderstorms over the Western Caribbean. But believe me, a lot of warm water ahead of it, and that means it will strengthen and likely to be a major hurricane before making its way inland, and bringing lots of rain associated with it.

So, we want to keep a head's eye on this, not just for coastal impacts, Kasie, that typical are with the hurricane, but also inland impacts with heavy rain and flooding Northward into Georgia.

Back to you.

HUNT: All right. Derek van Dam for us this morning. Busy week ahead, Derek. Thank you.

VAN DAM: Definitely. HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, we are one week away from the next debate. We're going to have details on how J.D. Vance is getting ready for the vice-presidential debate against Tim Walz. That'll be in our morning round-up.

Plus, the FBI releasing the latest crime statistics showing violent crime trending downward at -- nationwide as the issue takes center stage in the campaign.

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TRUMP: We will crush violent crime and protect our law.

HARRIS: The former vice president [SIC] called for defunding federal law enforcement.

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