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CNN This Morning
More Than 1 Million Ballots Already Submitted; Harris Deploys Liz Cheney To Target Anti-Trump Republicans; Israel Escalates Airstrikes Against Beirut; Port Strike Suspended After Tentative Deal Reached; Late Season Heat Continues In Western U.S. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 04, 2024 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:32]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, October 4th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to win the state of Michigan.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is so good to be back in Wisconsin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The home stretch. Just 32 days left until Election Day. Kamala Harris, Donald Trump trying out new strategies to win crucial voters.
Plus, this:
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FORMER REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): Donald Trump is not fit to lead this good and great nation.
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HUNT: All in for Harris. She was once the third highest ranking Republican in House but now Liz Cheney is voting for a Democrat.
And later:
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TRUMP: To make the statement, please leave their nuclear alone? I would tell you that that's not the right answer.
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HUNT: What will Israel do? Donald Trump wants them, it sounds like there, to hit Iran's nuclear sites, while President Biden is urging caution.
(MUSIC)
HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast, a live look at the Capitol on this Friday morning, here in Washington, D.C.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
There are just 32 days until election day and more than 1 million ballots have already been submitted across 30 states, with the latest CNN poll of polls showing Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, essentially tied, both Trump and Harris's campaigns are really narrowing their focus on the battleground states.
New this morning, president -- former President Barack Obama will hit the trail for Kamala Harris, crisscrossing swing states throughout the coming weeks. Aides telling CNN the former president is concerned about Democratic complacency in such a tight race.
Yesterday, Harris appeared alongside prominent Republican Liz Cheney in Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican Party.
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CHENEY: I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray- tanning.
I have never voted for a Democrat but this year, I am proudly casting my vote for vice President Kamala Harris.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD: Thank you, Liz! Thank you, Liz! Thank you, Liz!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Trump in return going after the former Wyoming lawmaker, of course, the daughter of former vice president, very conservative Vice President Dick Cheney.
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TRUMP: Well, Liz Cheney lost for Congress. She was terrible. Liz Cheney is a stupid war hawk. All she wants to do is shoot missiles at people.
I really think it hurts -- I think frankly, if Kamala -- I think they hurt each other, I think they are so bad, both of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Trump's campaign taking a more untraditional approach on the ground, trying to target irregular voters in areas that his campaign didn't focus on four years ago.
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SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are seven battleground states. I actually think we have a chance at winning all seven, but only if we bust our ass for the next 32 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining us now is Bloomberg political editor, Laura Davison.
Laura, good morning. Wonderful to have you back.
Let's talk a little bit about where things stand today. We can start with Liz Cheney here.
She -- we knew she had vowed she was going to do whatever she could to make sure that Donald Trump never gets near the Oval Office. Again, that's kind of her framing on it. They obviously tried to underscore the symbolism by where they held this event, going to the birthplace of the Republican Party in Wisconsin.
The bottom line question, how much does it move the needle?
LAURA DAVISON, POLITICAL DIRECTOR, BLOOMBERG NEWS: You know, that's the real question here. And you know, Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney, her father, has also come out and endorsed Harris. She has been a Trump critic for a long time. She even sat on the January 6 commission? She has been very outspoken about his threat to democracy.
So it's unclear that she's going to really be able to but, you know, pull away people who are thinking about supporting Trump now. But she gives a permission structure to some people who may stay home or just not interested in any voting for Trump to vote for Harris.
HUNT: Yeah. I mean, the big question again. And in places and I think were going to see our Jake Tapper reported yesterday that she and some of the other Republican women who were kind of swept up in all this, Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and others are going to go to the collar counties of Pennsylvania, right, Bucks County, Chester County area to try to find those very voters, the kind of Nikki Haley type voters, especially women who need the permission structure that you are talking about.
[05:05:02]
Let's talk for a second though one of the things that, of course, we saw happen this week was the release of Jack Smith's new major 156- page filing about January 6, right. In some places, it was cast as an October surprise, but I will say the sources that I have talked to really question whether it's going to matter in the election.
Stephen Collinson, who sort of writes these big picture pieces for us here at CNN, he wrote this. New focus on Trump's refusal to accept the result of the last election and the January 6 attack on the capitol might seem like a political disaster for the ex-president. But it's a mark of Trump's success in rewriting history, that this is not necessarily an election-defining issue.
How do you look at this?
DAVISON: I think that that's right on the mark. You know, the issues we know that people care about are more these pocketbook issues, you know, the economy, jobs, interest rates, as well as things like immigration. And that January 6 isn't factoring into the calculus as much.
This year was supposed to be the year that Trump was spending all year in court dealing with his various myriad legal troubles. Really, he would just spent a couple of weeks in May. That was longtime ago now and sort of Trump's legal problems and both whether it be you know, classified documents or his role in January 6 are not top of mind for people and it's not what polls show people are making decisions on.
HUNT: It's like the courthouse campaign that wasn't right. I mean, we were all expecting to be covering that when we were looking at how this year is going to unfold in the primary season and it just hasn't happened that way. Also one of the other noteworthy developments yesterday was the firefighters union, major firefighters union basically deciding not to endorse anybody.
This follows, of course, the teamsters did -- did something similar. But historically, they have endorsed the Democratic candidate. They endorsed Joe Biden in 2020.
What does that say about Kamala Harris and kind of the state of the race?
DAVISON: This is not a great sign for her support him on working class voters know that the firefighters union was the first union to endorse Joe Biden when he announced that he was running back in 2020.
So, you know, between the Teamsters, between this, it's not -- there's some weak signs of that, particularly among white men for the Harris campaign. However, we'll also note that the dock strike was announced. There would be a suspension and the dockworkers will return back to work today the Biden administration is really touting that as a success. So you could maybe see he shift, in messaging there.
HUNT: Alright. Laura Davison starting us off this morning -- Laura, thank you very much for being here on a Friday. I appreciate it.
All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, Israel targeting Hezbollah leadership in Beirut, vowing to continue their aerial Campaign in Lebanon.
Plus a photo surfaces showing New York Congressman Mike Lawler in costume as Michael Jackson with makeup darkening his face. Why he says it wasn't blackface.
And it's back to work at the ports, the strike is over, at least for now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just coming back off of a major catastrophe, maritime tragedy with the bridge collapse. We were out of work for two months. Now we're out of work for a few more days. We're very excited to be back.
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[05:12:31]
HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
Israel escalating their airstrikes in Lebanon. Overnight attacks pounding Beirut's southern suburbs. The U.S.-backed Lebanese army reporting the strikes killed two of their soldiers, 1.2 million Lebanese people have now been displaced by the fighting.
According to the World Health Organization, at least 28 health care workers in Lebanon have been killed in the past 24 hours. Israel also vowing to retaliate against Iran for last week's deadly missile attack. The State Department believes the Israeli war cabinet is still trying to decide what to do.
President Biden says he's hoping to avoid any major escalation.
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REPORTER: Mr. President, how confident are you that an all-out war can be avoided in the Middle East?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How confident are you that it's not going to rain? I don't believe there's going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it, but there's a lot to do yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Let's go live to London, bring in CNN's Max Foster for us.
Max, good morning to you.
This, of course, a very tense situation, although there do seem to be signs here coming out of the White House that there's nothing imminent right now, as of course the Jewish holidays have started here, the new year, Rosh Hashanah, yeah, which is, of course, celebrated in Israel and "The Wall Street Journal" though, writes that the White House has been really blindsided by a lot of what we've seen here. And they note that President Biden hasn't spoken to Benjamin Netanyahu since August 21st.
What does that tell you about the risks here?
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, a lot has happened since then escalated to extraordinary levels. You could imagine last week in Lebanon. So, Benjamin Netanyahu is
cracking on without consulting with his major partner, and you got to look at the language coming from the U.S. You remember, Kasie, we're talking about this very clear call from the U.S. and other allies for a ceasefire across the Israel, Lebanon border. That didn't happen.
We're now hearing from U.S. officials that Israel does have a right to carry out very specific targeting within Lebanon. What you're seeing in Beirut at the moment.
[05:15:01]
So it seems that whatever the U.S. says Israel isn't responding right now, we don't know exactly what the conversations are behind the scenes. For example, maybe Israel has been planning something wider if the top two leaders aren't speaking between Israel and the U.S., it's a problem and clearly U.S. isn't playing into the decision-making in a way that it might have hoped.
HUNT: We heard yesterday, Max, you and I talked about it on this show. President Biden basically say directly that no, he does not think that Israel should strike nuclear research sites in Iran in retaliation for this, I want to show you what Donald Trump had to say about that yesterday, and then we'll talk about on the other side. Watch.
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TRUMP: I mean, to make this statement, please leave their nuclear alone? I would tell you that that's not the right answer. That was the craziest answer, because you know what? Soon, they're going to have nuclear weapons. And then you're going to have problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Max, what do -- I mean, what do you make of that?
FOSTER: Well, you know, so many people around the world don't understand the complexities which most people don't understand the complexities because this is very complicated, it's a very logical argument, isn't it? You are concerned about Iran using nuclear weapons and you take out the nuclear facilities.
But the entire G7 see that as highly provocative and they see an alternative solution, presumably ultimately to have some sort of negotiation over those nuclear facilities. So, you know, most diplomats are saying that's a really bad idea. Donald Trump suggesting is very logical.
I mean, the other potential very damaging target, of course, is the oil installations we should undermine the Iranian economy, which perhaps is a -- is a more effective strategy to undermine the leadership of Iran, which is what Benjamin Netanyahu has been very clear on. He says he does support Persian culture and the people of Iran. His issue is with the leadership in Iran. HUNT: Yeah, I will say, Max, also, when you think about what Trump said there, what Biden has said, there are -- there are things that you do behind the scenes and there are words that you use in public. And as you know, as someone who studies optics of this, of all sorts of different and of different things that, that can really matter, right? What you're doing behind the scenes, what you're saying in public. I thought it was very noteworthy that the Biden was out there. Basically saying no, don't do this on camera.
Max, always grateful to have you. Thank you so much. Have a good weekend.
All right. Still to come here after the break, recovery efforts continue in the wake of Hurricane Helene's devastation. And now, the storm's aftermath becoming a central focus of the presidential campaign.
Plus, the verdict is in for three former Memphis police officers involved in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.
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[05:22:09]
HUNT: Twenty-one minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.
Three former Memphis police officers convicted of witness tampering for their attempt to cover up the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols last year. Two of the men face up to 20 years behind bars. The third up to ten. All three are also awaiting trial on state murder charges. Nichols died of the injuries he sustained after the officers beat and kicked him following a traffic stop.
Plus, this is --
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BIDEN: Dockworkers are going back to work, and in the next 90 days, they're going to settle everything.
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HUNT: Fifteen thousand dockworkers from Maine to Texas are headed back to work this morning. There union suspending the strike after reaching a tentative deal that would include wage increases for workers if it's ratified. That deal extends until January 15th.
And -- The Boss, Bruce Springsteen announcing his support for Kamala Harris. Springsteen took to Instagram explaining why he's siding with Democrats in November, calling the election one of the most consequential elections in our nation's history.
All right. Time now for weather, late season heat waves sweeping the Western United States. In Phoenix, ten consecutive days of record- setting temperatures, it could continue into next week. Let's get straight to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek Van Dam. Derek, good morning. What are you seeing?
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. Happy Friday, Kasie.
Of course, the heat sounding like a broken record, but that is basically what it is. It's been so hot this summer across so many locations over the southwest, we always focus in on Phoenix, but it's just because we've got this never-ending broken record of records being broken. I don't know how else to say that, right?
Ten consecutive days of daily high temperatures broken just this month, and we've had the hottest high temperatures this month of the month of October. So, just millions of people impacted by this excessive heat warnings and heat advisory for much of the southwestern portions of California the interior of Nevada, and Arizona. This is a heat risk map from the national oceanic atmospheric administration.
See those purples, their shades of red, especially in those low elevation valleys. That's where some of the most intense heat is expected. That is either major to extreme. Of course, that means that vulnerable populations, the youngest and our most elderly can be impacted by this excessive heat. So we're not seeing any relief that's going to continue. That's really the story going forward for the Southwest.
The East Coast, looking fantastic this weekend, Hurricane Helene recovery efforts will stay dry. So, hopefully, we can get the water levels to continue to come down in some of those rivers.
Tropical Atlantic, though, we are just rocking and rolling, it seems like the peak of the hurricane season, even though we passed that, we've got major hurricane.
Kirk not a threat to land, but I do want to focus on what's happening across the Gulf of Mexico. We've seen an increase now from the National Hurricane Center, regardless of if this gets name that doesn't matter, it will bring a lot of rain the potential for flooding across south Florida. The last thing they need after all the rain they got from Helene last week, Kasie.
HUNT: Indeed.
All right. Derek Van Dam for us this morning -- Derek, thank you so much. See you next hour.
VAN DAM: OK.
HUNT: Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, the world watches to see what happens next in the Middle East as Israel weighs their response to Iran's massive ballistic missile attack.
Plus, in the wake of Hurricane Helene's destruction, the response in recovery thorwn into the middle of campaign politics.
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HARRIS: We are here for the long haul.
TRUMP: This is the worst response in the history of hurricanes.
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