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CNN This Morning
Trump-Harris Dead-Heat in Polls As Election Looms; Four Israeli Soldiers Killed, Dozens Injured in a Drone Strike; U.S. Deploys Troops and Anti-Missile Systems to Israel. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 14, 2024 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
KASIE HUNT, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING: It's Monday, October 14th, right now on CNN THIS MORNING. The final sprint, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in a dead heat just 22 days to go. Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump cares more about scaring people.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Members of the gang now beat down doors with hammers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The border debate, Trump's message on a top issue for voters turning darker on the trail. And stepping in -- advanced weapons and dozens of U.S. troops deployed to help Israel face the threat from Iran. All right, 5:00 a.m. here on the east coast, a live look at Capitol Hill on this Monday morning.
Good morning, everyone, I'm Kasie Hunt, it's wonderful to have you with us. There are just 22 days until election day. New polling shows Kamala Harris and Donald Trump nearly tied. A new "ABC News"-IPSOS survey of likely voters shows Harris at 50 percent with Donald Trump at 48 percent.
But let's compare that to the same poll from last month in September, Harris was ahead by 6 points among likely voters in this survey. And there's a new "NBC" poll that paints a similar picture, Harris and Trump deadlocked at 48 percent among registered voters.
Last month, that same poll showed Harris with a 5-point lead. Now in these final weeks, both camps heavily investing in a handful of battleground states from spending -- sending out top supporters to stump on their behalf, pouring millions of dollars into targeted ads. Neither candidate can seem to get a solid edge over the other.
Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, Trump's rhetoric has been getting darker. In an interview with "Fox", Trump saying this when asked about potential unrest on election day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country -- by the way, totally destroying our country, the towns, the villages, they're being inundated. But I don't think they're the problem in terms of election day.
I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left, lunatics. It should be very easily handled by -- if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary, by the military.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: And Harris warning against a Trump presidency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails. He, who has vowed, if re-elected, he would be a dictator on day one.
(BOOING)
HARRIS: That he would weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us now, political reporter for "NOTUS", Reese Gorman. Reese, good morning to you, thank you so --
REESE GORMAN, POLITICAL REPORTER, NOTUS: Good morning --
HUNT: Much for being here. This is -- we are racing toward election day here, and this polling is bearing out something that has been evident to me in conversations with sources especially on the Democratic side --
GORMAN: Yes --
HUNT: Who have all been saying that there have been signs that Donald Trump has been doing better in recent weeks than she has.
GORMAN: Yes --
HUNT: And these numbers show that she had that bounced, she was up 5- 6 points in September, now it's back to being deadlocked. What does that mean for the final weeks here?
GORMAN: It just means there's going to be just a complete push just to the finish line. I mean, literally, there's -- it's a complete toss-up and they're going to be kind of just going after every single vote that they can, get in their surrogates on the road and just kind of just barnstorming across the country right now.
And I mean, it's -- it really is legitimate toss-up. I mean, every poll shows it within a margin of error, within one point, like there's truly nobody that knows who's actually ahead.
HUNT: I mean, I think there's an underlying reality too as well. I mean, Harris has been campaigning all the way along, saying, I'm the underdog, I'm the underdog. If these national polls are this close --
GORMAN: Yes --
HUNT: That leans more toward predicting a Trump victory. Now, I mean, Democrats -- when I talked to smart pollsters and strategists, they will say Democrats need a 5-6 point lead --
GORMAN: Yes --
HUNT: In this national polling if it's going to translate in the battleground states.
GORMAN: And additionally, there's a poll that "NBC News" released yesterday that basically just showed that retroactively, Trump's approval rating was better than where Biden currently is.
[05:05:00]
People just in retrospect, looked at his -- ahead and like yes, we are better off under Trump than Biden, which for Harris -- and I know that's not Harris' approval rating. But I mean, Harris is still kind of tied to Biden, that's something that Trump's trying to do. She is his Vice President, she has served with him over the past four years in the administration, and so if that number is legitimate and it holds, that's not necessarily great sign for her.
HUNT: So, two places where there are flashing warning signs for Harris, Latino voters and also black voters, especially black men. James Clyburn, who of course, has played a key role in Democratic primaries, he basically handed the 2020 primary to Biden, right? In South Carolina, appeared on the "State of the Union" yesterday talking about his concerns around black male voters. Let's watch what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Yes, I am concerned about black men staying home or voting for Trump. But my concerns don't tend to keep me from being energetic about this campaign. Yes, black men like everybody else, want to know exactly what I can expect from a Harris administration.
And I've been very direct with them, and I've also contrasted that with what they can expect from a Trump administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, he says, I am concerned about black men staying home or voting for Donald Trump. And what can Harris do to try to make in- roads here?
GORMAN: That's a very difficult question because there's been -- you would think that, I mean, she would be doing better than Joe Biden just because she is a black woman, and -- but it seems like, I mean, Trump is making in-roads --
HUNT: Well, she's doing better with -- than Biden was when Biden was at the top of the ticket --
GORMAN: Yes --
HUNT: But she's not doing as well as Biden did in 2020 --
GORMAN: OK, yes.
HUNT: Right?
GORMAN: And I think Trump and his campaign really just kind of sought to make in-roads there, and I think that's something that they've really focused on is black voters, is Latino voters. And it's something that their campaign is focused on whether -- since 2023 when he -- or 2022 when he first got into the race.
HUNT: Yes, and in some ways, we're starting to see gender and frankly, college degree status maybe matter more than these demographics.
GORMAN: Yes --
HUNT: Reese Gorman for us this morning, Reese, thank you very much --
GORMAN: Thank you so much for having me --
HUNT: I really appreciate it. All right, coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, a deadly Hezbollah drone strike targets an Israeli military base. One of the bloodiest attacks on Israel since the war began. We're going to have more on how dozens of U.S. troops will now be deployed there.
Plus, a man with guns arrested near a Trump rally. Why officials say this was not an attempted attack, and Kamala Harris and Trump both courting Latino voters. The border, front and center in the final days of this race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: We can already see the harm he's up to as a candidate. Blocking real solutions that would stop drug cartels from crossing the border.
TRUMP: If Kamala gets four more years, the entire country will be turned into a migrant camp.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:10:00]
HUNT: All right, welcome back. Let's go now to the latest in the Middle East where Israel is dealing with one of the bloodiest attacks on its soil since the war began last year. Israeli military officials say Hezbollah launched a drone strike on Sunday, killing at least four soldiers and wounding more than 60 people.
The drones targeted an army base, about 40 miles from the Lebanese border. Hezbollah says the attack was in retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon -- in Lebanon on Thursday that killed nearly two dozen people. Israel's military says it had no warning about Sunday's attack, and it's investigating how a drone got so deep into Israeli territory without being spotted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL HAGARI, SPOKESPERSON, ISRAELI MILITARY: We will learn from and investigate the incident, how a UAV entered without an alert at the base. The threat of UAVs is a threat we are dealing with since the beginning of the war. We need an improvement to our defense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All of this comes as the U.S. is set to deploy an advanced missile system to Israel along with a 100 U.S. troops. This as Israel expected to retaliate for Iran's missile attack earlier this month when 180 ballistic missiles were launched at that country. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen joins us live now.
He is in Tehran, he's one of the few western reporters who is there for much more on all of this. Fred, what is the latest from there as this conflict continues to unfold?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know what, Kasie, over the weekend, what we have seen here in Tehran is a real escalation of the rhetoric coming from the Iranians. In fact, just yesterday, the Iranian Foreign Minister who was on a visit to Iraq, he said that right now, Iran is ready for war as he put it, but also ready for peace.
The Iranians have over the past couple of days really been warning about all this escalating into a possible full-on war, that of course, could engulf the entire region, and in the end, of course, also could pit the United States and Iran directly against one another. Is one of the other things that top government officials here have said is that there are no red lines as they put it in the defense of their citizens as they say, but also in the defense of their interests.
And specifically, what the Iranians keep saying is that they say that any attack coming from Israel, any strike from Israel will be met by Iranian retaliation. So, they are vowing to strike back. They have not yet said what exactly it's going to look like. But one of the things that we have heard is the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guard coming out and saying that if for instance, the Israelis strike Iranian oil and gas facilities, that the Iranians could then also strike Israel's energy sector.
One of the other things that we also are picking up on is that the Iranians are saying that they are going to continue to support Hezbollah. [05:15:00]
We of course, saw that drone attack that happened over the night, the Iranians are saying a lot more of that is going to come if Israel continues to attack Hezbollah's leadership. In fact, the speaker of Iranian parliament was in Beirut this weekend, and he also warned countries of the region not to allow Israel to use their airspace to attack Iran, that, that could have serious repercussions for them.
And then finally, you had the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Forces, which is the force here in Iran that's responsible for their ballistic missile program, so, for that strike on Israel, but for their air defenses as well. And they say that they are prepared by any mistakes as they call it, that Israel might commit, Kasie.
HUNT: All right, Fred Pleitgen for us in Iran this morning. Fred, very grateful to have you there for us, thank you very much. And coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, an armed man arrested outside a Trump rally over the weekend. Ahead, why police say they do not believe this was another assassination attempt.
Plus, people across the south still reeling from those two hurricanes. Now, we're going to see a change in temperature there. We'll bring you this morning's weather up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:20:00]
HUNT: All right, 20 minutes past the hour, here's your morning round up. There's currently no evidence that a man arrested outside a Trump rally over the weekend with weapons was attempting to assassinate the former President. Two federal officials tell CNN, on Saturday, police arrested a man who allegedly had a shotgun, a hand-gun, a high- capacity magazine, and multiple passports in his car.
The Secret Service says that Trump was never in any danger, and that the FBI is now investigating the incident for potential federal charges. "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich, who spent more than a year in a Russian prison will detail his time behind bars in a book expected out in 2026.
Gershkovich was detained in 2023 while on a reporting trip and later convicted of spying by the Russians. He was freed in August as part of a prisoner swap that involved at least seven countries. Twenty three people are confirmed dead after Hurricane Milton ripped through Florida last week.
Residents are left cleaning up from two hurricanes, Milton and Hurricane Helene, but are facing fuel and electricity shortages. Over the weekend, President Biden visited Florida to survey the damage and vowed that federal assistance will be available to those who were impacted.
All right, time now for weather, if it hasn't felt much like Fall, it certainly hasn't here. That is all about to change. Cooler temperatures blowing across the central U.S., let's get to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek Van Dam. Derek, good morning, what can folks expect?
DEREK VAN DAM, METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kasie, I don't mean to be dramatic on a Monday, but this weather forecast is quite dramatic and you know, if you've gotten used to the heat, this is going to be a big wake-up call, many first taste of Fall is coming your way and you can see it just with the over 13 million Americans under some sort of freeze alerts.
We have freeze warnings stretching across much of the plains even into my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Low temperatures are actually going to drop below that 32 degree mark, and it's all thanks to this cold front. And a couple of different reinforcing shots of cold air that will impact the eastern half of the country for the first half of this week.
So, let's talk about the change in our temperatures, we're talking about a 15 to 25 degree temperature-drop compared to this time yesterday. Look at yesterday's high in Atlanta, 84, it will be 70 today, more dramatic temperature swings for places like Little Rock, look at St. Louis for instance, 88 on Saturday, today's high temperature is 62, so, we're topping a 26-degree temperature spread here, Washington D.C., where Kasie is located, a big temperature drop coming tomorrow.
So, you've got a little bit more of a delayed cool weather-start for you even though temperatures here today will be considerably cooler than yesterday, but it really drops out tomorrow. Look at the temperatures as far south as Orlando, dropping into the lower 70. So, we'll welcome the change and enjoy the Autumn weather for, again, the eastern half of the country.
Before temperatures start to moderate back to more normal conditions, here's a look at New York City, enjoy it while it last, because -- well, temperatures go right back up end of the week, Kasie.
HUNT: Yes, the case of the missing Fall, I guess we're getting a little bit of a taste of it this week, I have --
VAN DAM: A teaser --
HUNT: Not wanted to --
VAN DAM: We'll call it a teaser --
HUNT: Take my kids to get -- I realized you guys deal with this in Atlanta all the time. I can usually put pumpkin safely out and carve it this time -- well, yes, they're not going to last at all even if I do it now. Derek Van Dam for us --
VAN DAM: Not yet --
HUNT: This Morning --
VAN DAM: That's true --
HUNT: Derek, thank you. All right, still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, the U.S. increasing support for Israel with a new missile defense system. New details on how the U.S. is deploying not only American hardware, but also U.S. troops to operate it. Plus, Donald Trump's rhetoric around immigration taking a dark turn over the weekend with election day just about three weeks away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Members of the gang now beat down doors with hammers and engage in open-gun battles with rival groups in this once peaceful, beautiful pretty crime-free community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:25:00]
HUNT: All right, 5:28 a.m. here on the east coast. A live look at Savannah, Georgia on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone, I'm Kasie Hunt, it's wonderful to have you with us. There are just 22 days until election day, and the latest polling shows the race is as tight as ever.
Both candidates, of course, are making closing pitches to voters. CNN's most recent poll of polls has Kamala Harris with a 50 percent to 47 percent edge over Donald Trump among likely voters nationally. But of course, that means there is no clear leader. New polls released narrowed Harris' margins over the weekend.
Both candidates headed to battleground states talking to voters about key issues, immigration, a big one. Kamala Harris vowing once again to pass a by port -- bipartisan border deal if she's elected, and attacking Trump for his handling of the issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: When he tried to kill and did that border security deal, because you see, Donald Trump cares more about scaring people, creating fear, running on a problem.
