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CNN This Morning
Poll: 59% of Voters Say America's Best Days are Ahead; White House to Unveil New Aid Package for Ukraine; Florida Braces for Helene's Arrival. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired September 25, 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 Wednesday, September 25. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
[05:59:16]
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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've named it an opportunity economy.
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to rebuild our manufacturing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The fight for the working class. Harris and Trump both trying to pitch a better future. The new polling suggests they really have their work cut out for them.
And this.
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HUNT: Israel warning displaced residents in Southern Lebanon not to come back as Hezbollah launches a missile dangerously close to Tel Aviv.
And later --
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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We do anticipate that it will intensify before it makes landfall.
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HUNT: A life-threatening storm. Florida's entire West Coast bracing for a direct hit from what could be a major hurricane.
And a damning report. Boeing workers say they were pressured to put speed over quality when they were building the planes that we all fly in every day.
All right, 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at New York City on this Wednesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
We are now just 41 days away from election day, less than six weeks until November 5. New polling data, released just this morning, shows a decline in Americans' optimism about the future.
CNN's latest poll finding 59 percent of registered voters say America's best days are still ahead of us. Five years ago, before the pandemic and the 2020 election, almost three-quarters of voters agreed that it was ahead of us.
Today, 76 percent of voters say the federal government isn't doing enough to help the working class. That response was higher by 20 points than for any other group of Americans our poll asked about.
No surprise, then, that working-class voters are the group that both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are focused on. Today, Kamala Harris is heading once again to the must-win state of Pennsylvania. The vice president will focus on American manufacturing at a speech in Pittsburgh, where she's planning to draw a sharp contrast with Donald Trump.
She'll say, quote, "For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers. Not those who build them. Not those who wire them. Not those who mop the floors."
On this issue, Harris has a lot of ground to make up. By 11 points, likely voters trust Trump more than they trust her to handle the economy. And even some Democrats admit the party needs to communicate better.
Here was Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): I think we all need to do a better job of making that argument.
And when families look around and say who's going to fight for me? They can either go for the billionaire who's out there telling people he wants to give more tax cuts to the billionaire, or that can go for someone like Kamala Harris, who literally has spent her entire adult life fighting for families so they will have just a chance to build some security in their lives.
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HUNT: Harris's remarks likely to stand in contrast to Trump's vision for how to revitalize American manufacturing. Here's what he told supporters at a rally in Georgia on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: This new American industrialism will create millions and millions of jobs, massively raise wages for American workers, and make the United States into a manufacturing powerhouse like it used to be many years ago.
This horrific nightmare for American workers ends the day I take the oath of office, January 20.
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HUNT: All right. Our panel's here: Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor; Dana Milbank, columnist for "The Washington Post" and author of the new book, "Fools on the Hill: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunces who Burned Down the House." We're going to talk about that later.
Plus, Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director; and Matt Gorman, former senior adviser to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you. Thank you, guys, for being here on this Wednesday.
Kate Bedingfield, this -- the economy is this kind of persistent thing for Democrats, right? Harris is in Pittsburgh to make this speech.
The question is always, how is she separating herself or not from the current president, who a lot of Americans blame for the state of the economy?
What kind of job is she doing on -- you know, I mean, it's a tough needle to thread.
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is.
HUNT: Because she's a sitting vice president. How is it going so far?
BEDINGFIELD: It is -- it is a tough needle to thread. I do think she's making progress. I mean, I think, you know, if you look at the -- in the aggregate of polling since she went to the top of the ticket, you see she is making progress in terms of closing that gap on this question of who do you trust more on the economy, Trump or Harris?
So, you know, I think she's been smart about talking about it in terms of -- they actually heard Senator Warren, I think, articulate quite effectively what -- what I think Kamala Harris needs to do, which is, you know, continue to make clear: I'm fighting for you. He's not.
In many ways, it's not about -- you know, the battle of one policy versus another. In some ways, it's really just about being able to communicate, I care about you. I'm fighting for you. He's not.
And I think the other overlay here is, you know, don't forget, obviously, Donald Trump is also an incumbent. Donald Trump has a four- year record.
I mean, you know, he promised all sorts of manufacturing jobs when he was president four years ago. You know, ask people of Wisconsin about the Foxconn factory, which he promised that never that -- you know, that never materialized.
HUNT: Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: So, her other task here, I think, is to, you know, not only articulate her path forward and that she, you know, she is fighting for working-class, middle-class people, but to really paint him as somebody who had a shot at this, didn't do it effectively, is -- you know, is more of the same.
So, that's the other kind of overlay here for her.
HUNT: Matt Gorman, I want to read you this first line from the lead "Wall Street Journal" editorial, which is headlined "A Deere in Trump's Headlights," D-E-E-R-E.
[06:05:09]
"Hard to believe, but Donald Trump is giving U.S. companies a reason to think Kamala Harris might be better for their business." This was of course, because he, at a campaign event, threatened to slap tariffs on John Deere.
MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TIM SCOTT'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Yes.
HUNT: And, of course, Mitch McConnell yesterday saying, well, that's, like, a bad, bad plan. We don't agree with -- with tariffs.
In some ways, there -- Harris and Trump are more on the same page than ever on the economy.
GORMAN: Well, I mean, at least on China. Like in tariffs, like there is more continuity on that issue among those two parties and more consistency coming in -- on January 2025 than probably any other issue.
But what struck me as you're playing the clips, close your eyes. You can play each of those quotes from Harris and Elizabeth Warren in October or September of 2012 about Mitt Romney. Right? These are very -- they feel very generic, and they don't feel very specialized to Trump.
But I think that's the issue here. It's a little bit of a paint-by- numbers message when it comes to the economy on this stuff.
And I think the difference also is that people feel better about the four years of the Trump presidency than they do about the four years of the Biden presidency. And that's one of the things that the Harris campaign has been trying to contend with. That comparison is not good for Democrats. It's not good for Harris's campaign.
And so, with 41 days left, it's a tough education process.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Kasie, the John Deere example, you point out is a really interesting one, looking at how Trump's economic policies are also waning. There was really interesting polling and reporting that Axios put out
yesterday that said that, you know, of the people they polled, 47 percent of voters that -- you know, from the survey thought that this tariff idea was a good idea.
OK, fine, if it lands with people. Guess how many economists did? Zero. Because of the fact that the significant costs that could come from the kinds of tariffs that he's talking about slapping on American companies like John Deere.
When you actually unpack some of these policies, they don't really make a lot of sense.
To that end, it's really incumbent on Harris and her campaign to, one, make it just about personalities. Like, do you like Donald Trump?
And I -- I don't know if people necessarily, Matt, universally feel that things were better under the Trump presidency. Certainly, their checkbooks might have felt better then.
GORMAN: The polling, is the perception.
WILLIAMS: But the chaos and the madness is not --
GORMAN: Economically, though, by far.
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DANA MILBANK, COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": It seems like like there's a case of mass amnesia. You know? I can't believe every time Trump or others in his campaign say, Are you better off today than you were four years ago?
Well, the answer is obviously no. The economy was in a freefall. Everything had collapsed. And, you know, Trump has the worst job creation record, I think, since Herbert Hoover.
So, to the extent there's a malpractice on the Democratic side, it's, like, why aren't they the ones asking, are you better off than you were four years ago?
Now, sometimes, though, they'll switch this a bit and say, weren't you better off in 2019, which is a little bit of an awkward question.
HUNT: Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: Well, this is what I mean about this is her task, to paint him as the incumbent, to saddle him with this, to not give him free rein, to just sort of use a paintbrush to say, you know, here's my plan for the new American industrialism.
You had your crack at this. It didn't go well. That's -- that's part of her task.
GORMAN: I think -- I think people get that where they talk about the presidency. They're not going to the exact date. OK. After COVID, like the exact thing. It's the general feeling of the four years of the Trump presidency, with the jobs over the course of the four years, not the exact date, four years on the date of COVID.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. But if you were to -- if people really get to get their heads around, how did you feel in the year 2020 when cities were burning?
HUNT: Ho.
WILLIAMS: When you were locked at home with your kids and not able to get out, when -- and again, whether this is about Donald Trump, that's for people to decide.
But on the central question, what was it like for you four years ago? It was pretty bad. I think most people would say that.
GORMAN: To be fair, a lot of the locked-in policies were in Democratic states. I'm just saying.
WILLIAMS: But it's --
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GORMAN: I'm just saying. You said there were more Democratic policies --
(CROSSTALK)
WILLIAMS: Broad sentiment. How did you feel in 2020?
MILBANK: Of course, people are thinking about inflation now and holding that against Harris, as well as Biden. Inflation is actually right back down at where the Fed, the Fed target wanted it to be.
I think it's a question of does that filter in over the next six weeks or so to a greater extent? Wait, interest rates are coming down. It's only costing me three bucks a gallon. I think there's a little bit of a delayed effect on that, too.
And I don't know whether Democrats are benefiting from that.
HUNT: All right. So, on next Tuesday, Tim Walz and J.D. Vance will meet for their first and only face-to-face debate. It's a CNN special event, the vice-presidential debates simulcast, hosted by CBS News. But it's going to air live Tuesday at 9 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
And coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump calling out Ukraine's president.
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TRUMP: Every time Zelenskyy comes to the United States, he walks away with $100 billion why he's questioning if Ukraine can win its fight against Russia. Plus, a new report out this morning highlights extreme lapses from the Secret Service on the day that Donald Trump was shot. We'll dig into that.
[06:10:03]
And later, Florida preparing for a direct hit from the first major hurricane of the year.
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DESANTIS: There's still some uncertainty, but I think the fact that this would be forecasted as a major at this point without formation shows that this has the potential to be a really, really significant storm.
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TRUMP: Biden says we will not leave until we win. What happens if they win? That's what they do, is they fight wars.
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As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler. They beat Napoleon. That's what they do.
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HUNT: Donald Trump questioning whether Ukraine can win its fight against Russia's invasion.
The Biden administration is set to announce billions of dollars in new aid for Ukraine in the coming days.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, insisting Russian President Vladimir Putin has no interest in negotiating a peace agreement.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Putin has broken so many international norms and rules that he won't stop on his own. Russia can only be forced into peace.
And that is exactly what's needed: forcing Russia into peace as the sole aggressor in this war, the sole violator of the U.N. charter.
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HUNT: So, Dana Milbank that's Donald Trump talking about the Russians, right? They beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That's what they do. They're going to win. MILBANK: Yes. No, no, I think it's great that he's talking about the
Napoleonic wars a couple of -- a couple of centuries later.
You know, look in this election, I don't think there's anything that would change as starkly. Like, if Donald Trump wins the presidency, it's pretty much curtains for Ukraine.
You know, you've already got in the Congress, a Republican majority opposed it, bringing any more aid to Ukraine.
And so, I -- I mean, of all the issues we look at across the waterfront, this is the one that I think would change most significantly.
And Donald Trump has his own autocratic tendencies, but it really seems like he has sort of a little bit of a mind meld going on -- yes, well, with Putin, but lesser autocrats like Orban, Modi, and others.
It just seems like we can all carve up the world as we see fit.
WILLIAMS: And tying -- tying into the economy question we were talking about in the last segment before the break, this idea of now, he gave the number -- was it $100 billion every time.
HUNT: Yes.
WILLIAMS: Unverified number. However, it lands with people at a time when the country is dealing with some economic uncertainty, that, wait a second. Why are we giving money here? Not recognizing that the spread of Russia is bad for everyone, right?
BEDINGFIELD: But I actually -- I disagree with this little bit, because I -- I think actually the way people absorb this, this is a defeatist message.
And this is a message that says America is now willing to roll over for autocrats, for dictators, for somebody who murders and imprisons his own people.
I think people across the board -- is there -- is there some exhaustion about the notion that we're sending money? Yes, there is.
Now, look, if you look at the scope of the federal budget, it's basically a line item. But, you know, fine.
But I actually -- I think this is a losing argument for Trump. I think this goes to one of the things people dislike about him the most: this sense that he, you know, is constantly ragging on America; the idea that he has this weird affinity for -- for autocrats.
People are not -- you know, there are a lot of -- there's some things that Americans hold really fundamentally as core -- as a core value. And one of them is that we stand up for democracy and that we don't get pushed around on the world stage.
And I think this is a message that actually makes Trump look weak and makes him -- I think it really goes to this question of whether he is fit to be president of the United States.
GORMAN: You know, look, I would say when it comes to the Congress, a majority of Republicans in the Senate actually do want some sort of Ukraine funding, independent.
Eighty-one of the Republicans in the House. That was kind of the truest test when the government funding was up. There really just wanted to zero out Ukraine.
So, it is. It's a majority when it comes to the House.
I would say one thing. I'm backing it up. I mean, a lot of this was spurred by Zelenskyy kind of bashing Vance, saying he was too radical, saying he should study World War II.
HUNT: Yes, well, so, that -- I wanted to bring that up. In this "New Yorker" article, Zelenskyy was asked about Vance. He said he is too radical, and he would claim -- seemed well aware of the interview that Vance had given where he said that Ukraine should hand over territory they've lost. There should be a demilitarized zone and that they shouldn't be allowed to join NATO, his opinion.
GORMAN: I would -- I would caution Zelenskyy. Look, I certainly give him grace. His country is under attack. Absolutely.
I would caution him to be strategic about what's being seen to be injecting himself into a presidential race with 41 days out. There's no surer way to get Republicans, that number creeping up against you, then suddenly injecting yourself in, seemingly bashing Vance.
And also, I mean, the photo op with Shapiro. Even if it doesn't mean it -- who's paying for what, it doesn't look good. The appearance makes it seem like a campaign thing.
HUNT: All right.
Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Florida bracing for impact.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just deal with it and take it, you know, like everything else, one day at a time.
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HUNT: People on the Gulf Coast rushing to get ready for Tropical Storm Helene.
Plus, in our morning round-up, speed over quality. Troubling new revelations from the floor of Boeing's airline factories.
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HUNT: All right. Going live to Tampa, Florida, as Tropical Storm Helene is now tracking North after swiping Mexico's coast this morning.
Mandatory evacuations being ordered in several counties around Florida's Big Bend as some 7 million people along Florida's coast are now under a storm surge warning.
Storm surge flooding could reach up to ten feet in some places.
Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, with the latest. Allison, what are we looking at today?
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right. Yes. So, we take a look at where the storm is now, and you can see it's just off to the East of Cancun, Mexico.
Sustained winds of 65 miles per hour, but those winds are expected to go up as the system begins to spread into the Gulf of Mexico. The water there is extremely warm, that is fuel for these types of systems.
So, we expect it to strengthen more as we go throughout the day today, becoming a hurricane at some point today and then gradually making its way up to major hurricane strength by the time we get to Thursday.
And then late Thursday, that's when we finally start to see the system get really close to land, making landfall and then spreading all of those impacts inland, even as far North as Tennessee and Kentucky.
[06:25:10]
Storm surge is going to be a big problem. You'll notice we have some level of storm surge pretty much up and down the entire Western coast of the Florida Peninsula.
The strongest is going to be right through here in the Big Bend region, where ten to 15 feet of storm surge is possible. West over towards Apalachicola could be five to ten feet. Even once you start spreading South of Spring Hill, looking at six to ten feet.
Even Tampa, Saint Pete, Sarasota, looking at at least five feet of storm surge.
The winds are also expected to be quite strong, obviously near landfall. But this system is going to move relatively quickly, which means it's going to spread a lot of those really strong winds, even as far North as places like Atlanta, Georgia.
HUNT: All right. Allison Chinchar for us this morning. Allison, thanks very much for that.
All right, 25 minutes past the hour, here are five things you have to see this morning. Watch.
Whoa. That's dashcam footage of a high-speed police chase in Miami Beach that ended with the suspects crashing into trees on I-95.
The chase reached speeds of 130 miles per hour. Three people were arrested. One other suspect died trying to escape into a waterway.
A massive wildfire ripping through Ecuador's capital. Authorities working to get the blaze under control. But a historic drought is not helping. No deaths or injuries have been reported so far.
Another house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina has collapsed into the ocean. This is now the third home to collapse since Friday.
This area of the Outer Banks has been dealing with extreme erosion since 2020. Ten unoccupied homes have crashed into the water over that time.
Rescue crews helping bring a trapped dear to safety. Firefighters responded to a report of a deer stuck upside down between a house and a garage.
The crews used rope to pull the deer right-side-up and eventually to safety. Oh, dear.
And this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is up, and just about anybody can make this play. And at the end, nobody really does.
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HUNT: Oh, dear. The Chicago White Sox did overcome that boneheaded play with a late inning rally to defeat the L.A. Angels last night and avoid losing their 121st game of the season.
They still have five games to go to break the all-time record for losses in a season. That was set by the New York Mets in 1962.
That's like a clip and save moment.
GORMAN: So pathetic.
HUNT: Really so bad, although I have to say.
BEDINGFIELD: Little League.
HUNT: I just have to say, I've got a household. We're Orioles fans and Mets fans. So, you know what? White Sox fans, I have been there. It is no fun. So, you know, eventually, hopefully, it will turn around for you.
Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, Israel intercepts a ballistic missile targeting Tel Aviv.
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(SIRENS)
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: And now Israel's prime minister is delaying his trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Plus, Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss joins us live next to talk about that escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.
Plus, Donald Trump, the protector? His promises to women to keep them safe.
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STEPHEN COLBERT, LATE NIGHT TELEVISION HOST: There's no better way to start a first date than by saying, "Diane, I'm your protector. I want to be your protector. You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared. I'll be with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, looking at you."
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