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Israel Vows Iran "Will Pay" For Missile Attack; Tim Walz & JD Vance Square Off In VP Debate; Biden Visiting Carolinas In Hurricane Helene Aftermath; President Biden Weighs In On Dockworkers Strike; CBS News: Trump Backed Out Of Interview. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired October 02, 2024 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:42]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, October 2nd.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I actually think -- I agree with you.

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm in agreement with him on this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A civil debate, something we haven't seen in awhile. The VP candidates taking the biggest stage of their careers, focusing on policy over personal attacks.

And this -- vowing to retaliate. Israel promising Iran will pay after they launched more than 180 missiles in the largest -- their largest attack ever.

And viewing the damage, President Biden will get a firsthand look at Hurricane Helene's wrath as he visits the hard -- visits the hardest hit areas today.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: Five a.m. on the East Coast. Here's a live look at New York City, home of last night's first and only vice presidential debate wrapping up last night.

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

We've got two major stories that we're following this hour, one abroad and, of course, the one at home.

Last night, the vice presidential debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, the high-stakes showdown could be the last major campaign event between now and Election Day.

This morning, we are also waiting to see what Israel's response to a massive aerial assault from Iran might be. Iran launching its largest attack ever on Israel Tuesday, firing about 180 ballistic missiles. At least one person was killed, several are injured, even though Israel and its allies were able to intercept most of the missiles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: At my direction, the United States military actively supported the defense of Israel. The attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective, and this is testament to Israeli military capability and U.S. military.

Make no mistake: the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The question now, how will Israel respond? This, of course, was the first topic of the first question posed to the candidates at last night's debate. Tim Walz answering first. He appeared visibly nervous as he took the biggest stage of his political career.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: Iran or I -- Israel's ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental. Getting its hostages back, fundamental, and ending the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: J.D. Vance also talked about supporting Israel's right to self- defense with his first answer of the night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: It is up to Israel, what they think they need to do to keep their country safe. And we should support our allies wherever they are when they're fighting the bad guys. I think that's the right approach to take with the Israel question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Those answers, setting the tone for a debate that stayed remarkably civil and policy-based, featured it seemed plenty of Midwestern nice moments between the candidates from Ohio and Minnesota.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: I agree. It should not take seven years for an asylum claim to be done.

VANCE: I agree with you. I think you want to solve this problem, but I don't think that Kamala Harris does. WALZ: I agree with a lot of which senator Vance said about what's

happening. His running mate though does not. And that's the problem.

VANCE: Governor, I agree with you. Amber Thurman should still be alive and there are a lot of people who should still be alive. And I certainly wish that she was.

WALZ: I'm in agreement with him on this.

VANCE: First of all, I didn't know that your 17-year-old witnessed a shooting, and I'm sorry about that.

WALZ: And I appreciate you saying so.

VANCE: Christ, have mercy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining us now to talk about all of this, Errol Louis, CNN political commentator, Matt Gorman, former senior adviser to Tim Scott's presidential campaign, Meghan Hays is former Biden White House director of message planning, and Margaret Talev, senior contributor at "Axios".

Good morning to all of you. Thank you so much for being here after what was a late night for many of us watching the debate.

Margaret Talev, let me start with you just as we look at the big picture here.

Obviously, Midwestern nice, Minnesota nice, doesn't always mean actually nice. But there did seem to be this interest, especially from J.D. Vance, who has developed this reputation as a kid of sharp -- you know, someone who throws elbows. He clearly seemed to want to present a different version of himself to Americans. And in fact, some of the polling, the instant polling that we got back after the debate shows that both of them, both J.D. Vance and Tim Walz now have higher favorability ratings than they did when they went in to this debate.

[05:05:08]

What was your takeaway from last night?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. I think if you've been watching J.D. Vance in the political space for the last few months and you think of him as the guy who hates childless cat ladies, and is willing to kind of make scapegoats or caricatures out of legal status immigrants in Ohio, you would have seen a very different candidate last night. You would have seen someone who was gentle, poised who listened, who found ways to agree, even on what problems are, even when you disagree on the solutions.

So I think that was in terms of sort of image rehab, we've seen in polling J.D. Vance since being just underwater in terms of favorability, and I think we saw really different side of him last night and that probably helps him with some voters. But, you know, fundamentally, there were also a lot of missed mistruths and on accuracies that reveal themselves in last night's discussion and some weak points on the part of both candidates. So I'm not -- the fact that civility was one of the takeaway headlines that we keep saying is in theory for American democracy. But it probably neutralized some of the other headlines that could have been coming out of that debate.

HUNT: Errol Louis, one of the obviously key exchanges in this debate was on the issue of abortion rights and the two have very different positions. But I thought the way Vance tried to talk about it was pretty interesting because he was -- he acknowledged, we need, Republicans need to win voters' trust back on this issue.

What did you make of that? And what overall were your -- stood out to you the most about the debate last night?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, they -- on that issue as on several others, but mostly on that issue, both candidates are trying to run to the center. This is the system working, by the way, both the civility and the move toward the center are really is what you want to see in the closing weeks of a debate. You want people to try and kind of claim the broad middle. That's how we get a stable democracy.

So, J.D. Vance had the harder assignment when it came to that because he's defending something that we know from the polls is pretty much out of sync with a lot of where for the rest of the country is. He tried to make it seem reasonable. He tried to make it seem that he was both 100 percent pro-life, but also not in favor of a national abortion ban. That just is not, you know, a coherent position.

And Tim Walz, I think it took advantage of it. He had three different anecdotes of the kind of horror stories that have already started to pop up as a result of some of the restrictions that are in place with the ending of Roe versus Wade, but J.D. Vance didn't really have an answer. He had his own anecdote, but it was for an anonymous person, a very sort of suspects story, frankly.

Matt Gorman, I want to ask you what -- about what J.D. Vance had to say or didn't have to say about the 2020 election results as January 6 became a topic of conversation, I -- Walz, Tim Walz took the question and kind of turned it on J.D. Vance.

Let's watch that moment and I want to ask you about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: I would just ask that, did he lose the 2020 election?

VANCE: Tim, I'm focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind and the wake of the 2020 COVID situation?

WALZ: That is a damning -- that is a damning non-answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Is that a damning non-answer, Matt?

MATT GORMAN, FORMER TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: Look, I -- let me quickly step back for a second. I think to the civility point to both candidates saw it was in their interest to not attack the other person on that stage and keep focus on the top of the ticket. I think that's where the civility in name only kind of came from. But it's really kind of focusing on the person.

And look, I will say this: Vance was clearly prepared for that sort of question. And that pivot talking about kind of the misinformation, talking about the Kamala Harris and Facebook and misinformation on the 2020 election I think spoke to the fact that he was ready for it. Number one, he had and pivoted out of it.

And number two, I think the story of it with Vance was, you saw all the interviews in the prep he had done over the last, you know, what, three, four months that he's been on the ticket, if not more, really show up. And when you saw with Walz who hasn't done really many interviews, only really want outside of it with Dana Bash, obviously, not having that interview prep, that having the tough questions and the ability to refine your arguments made him a little tougher to kind of pivot out of those trickier subjects. We saw that with a bunch of things, too. That really forced show to me that he was very experienced in pivoting out of it, J.D.

HUNT: Yeah. Actually, Meghan Hays, that's exactly what I wanted to ask you about because I mean, you can really see -- Tim Walz, obviously, seemed to relax as the debate went on.

[05:10:05]

But he was really nervous at the top and if he had done more of this, might they've been able to avoid this and do you think he met the kind of do no harm threshold last night considering that?

MEGHAN HAYS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. He absolutely method do no harm threshold that there is no major slip-ups, there is no major cleanup that has to be done from the campaign are from or from the top of the ticket for either candidate today really, except it's probably the January 6 answer on the Trump side, but I do think he probably should be doing some more interviews. I'm big fan of local media, so should probably get out there more to do local media.

But I just think, look, I think that there was a good debate. There's a good policy conversation whether or not you, who are you agree with on the side, they laid out policy initiatives here and it gives the American people some more meat to hang onto when they're starting to look now at who they're going to vote for.

But I do think he met the do-no-harm threshold. I think he surpass that. I think he did a good job. Of course, it's -- you'd be nervous, it is not a natural format or a natural thing for most people to do so.

I mean, I get him a lot of credit for even showing that he was nervous like a normal human being.

HUNT: Well, certainly fair enough. Although he is obviously running to be vice president United States.

So, guys, thank you for starting us off with this conversation going to stick around throughout the hour as we actually have a very big news morning already unfolding.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, Iran launches a barrage of missiles, attacking Israel and now Israel is vowing payback. What that response might look like.

Plus, the Hurricane Helene death toll is rising as the search for the missing grows more desperate in hard-hit North Carolina.

And in a debate full of Midwestern nice, some moments got a little contentious. Like when Donald Trumps 2020 election loss came up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: I would just ask that, did he lose the 2020 election?

VANCE: Tim, I'm focused on the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:23]

HUNT: Iran will pay. That is the message from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Iranians launched a deadly missile attack against Israel.

The IDF says about 180 missiles were fired at Israel. Many of them intercepted, but a few got through, killing at least one person and injuring several others.

Celebrations breaking out in the streets of Tehran moments after the rocket attacks subsided. The world now waiting to see how Israel will respond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it. The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies. We will stand by the rule we established. Whoever attacks us, we will attack him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Iran's armed forces chief of staff dismissing that warning. He says Israel should prepare for more strikes if it continuous aggression.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJOR GENERAL MOHAMMAD BAGHERI, IRAN'S ARMED FORCES CHIEF OF STAFF: If the Zionist regime that has gone crazy is not controlled by America and Europe and wants to continue these crimes or wants to do anything against our sovereignty and territorial integrity, tonight's operation will be repeated several times stronger in all their infrastructure will be targeted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: CNN political and national security analyst, David Sanger, also, of course, longtime "New York Times" correspondent joins us now.

David, honestly, there's no one I'd rather talk to on a morning like this as the world waits for -- to find out what Israel is going to do here. And I was just reading your piece in the times and, I actually wanted to ask you, I mean, it seems like the question about how Israel is going to retaliate here -- does seem to come down to -- I mean, there were several Israeli officials that were on with my colleague Wolf Blitzer last night. Naftali Bennett, former prime minister, Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington.

And they both had pretty hawkish things to say about Israel seizing this moment to take on an attack. Frankly, the Iranian nuclear facilities and you write in your piece that that is something that Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, has been looking for an opening to potentially do for many years.

Do you think that is on the table here? And what does that mean in terms of escalation?

DAVID SANGER, AUTHOR, "NEW COLD WARS": Well, I think it's on the table, Kasie. I' not sure they're going to go that far and certainly, the Biden administration is urging them not to.

Well, let's just step back for a moment. The wider war that we were trying to -- we spent the past year of trying to avoid, it's here, it's upon us, right? I mean, what -- what it meant was don't spread the Gaza war, the war against Hamas elsewhere. And now, of course, we have seen Israel go after Hezbollah, kill its leader. We've seen Israeli attacks and Houthi attack on Israel and Israeli counter attack.

And now, we've seen for the second time in six months Iran sending missiles directly at Israel. They had not really done that since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

So, and all fronts were there and then the question is, does Prime Minister Netanyahu choose this moment to escalate further and take out what's the true long-term threat to Israel, which, of course, is the nuclear program or does he say, this is going to get us on a cycle we can't stop?

[05:20:10]

And that's the administrations view. And frankly, that's a decision I think well know about in the next 24 to 48 hours.

HUNT: Really interesting. And, David, you write this, you know, of course, that American officials believed they can persuade Mr. Netanyahu to make his point without but setting off a full-blown war. But they concede, you write, that the Israeli prime minister may see the next five weeks until the American presidential election as a right moment to try to set that program back by years. After all, former President Donald J. Trump would not complain about a major attack on Iran's military infrastructure and Democrats cannot be -- cannot afford to be accused of restraining Israel after Tuesday's missile attack.

Can you explain a little bit more about how this interacts with the presidential campaign?

SANGER: Sure. You know, in the past dynamic, whenever Netanyahu has threatened to strike the Iranian program and two or three times he's come very close to doing that over the past decade or so, and always held back.

The U.S. has always urged caution, that there are diplomatic options here. The cost of striking could include nuclear pollution around -- around Iran. So really bad precedent does that, let's find some other ways to restrain the program, especially since Iranians don't seem to be right on top of building a weapon.

But now, who's going to go say that? Certainly not Donald Trump who pulled out of the Iranian nuclear accord and has threatened the Iranians at various moments and who the Iranians have sent out people to try to assassinate him and broken into his campaign. So no love lost there.

And I think for Vice President Harris, it's a really tricky time. If she said after a missile attack like this, really the Israeli should -- should pare back on this, you can imagine how the Republicans would leap on her. So, he probably thinks he's got a few weeks passed until the election.

HUNT: All right. David Sanger for us this morning -- David, so grateful to have you on the show today. I hope to -- hope to have you back soon.

SANGER: Always great to be with you, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. See you soon.

All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: Donald Trump backing out of a "60 Minutes" interview. Why he's passing up one of the final opportunities for voters to see him in a primetime event before the election.

Plus, thousands of Americans are still grappling with the devastating destruction left behind from Hurricane Helene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to jumpstart this recovery process. People are scared to death. People wonder whether they're going to make it. You still haven't heard from a whole lot of people. This is urgent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:09]

HUNT: All right. Twenty-six minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

President Biden visits the Carolinas today in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The president is expected to fly over Asheville. Since the damage to the city is so extreme, the president's motorcade can't get in. He will also make a stop in Greenville and one in Raleigh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: This is a storm of historic proportion, nothing like this has happened in the region since the turn of the 20th century.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: More than 160 people are confirmed dead, and that number could rise as the search for people who are missing continues.

President Biden is urging dockworkers and port operators to return to the bargaining table nearly 50,000 workers have been on strike now for two days at ports from Maine to Texas. The prolonged on strike could cause supply chain issues, but Biden has not yet indicated he will use emergency powers to end the strike.

CBS News says Donald Trump has backed out of a previously scheduled interview with "60 Minutes", a typically coveted setting for presidential candidates because of its very high prime time viewership. Four years ago, Trump abruptly walked out of an interview with "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl apparently objected to her questions.

Trump says he won't do this latest interview until he gets an apology for the news magazine's reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They came to me and would like me to do an interview, but first I want to get an apology. So I'm sort of waiting. I'd love to do "60 Minutes". I do everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, a key moment in last nights vice presidential debate. How J.D. Vance responded when Tim Walz asked him if Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

And the world on edge, waiting to see how Israel responds to Iran's missile attack. Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, is going to join me live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT MILLER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: What you saw was Iran launching a state on state attack to protect and defend the terrorist groups that it has built, nurtured, and that it controls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)