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CNN This Morning

Early Voting Underway In Battleground Georgia; Vulnerable Senate Democrat Promotes Trump Ties In New Ad; Israel Still Weighing Options On How To Respond To Iran Missile Attack; Iran Denies Involvement In Drone Launch Toward Israeli PM's Home; Sources: U.S. Investigates Leak Of Its Intel About Israel's Plans For Iran Retaliation; Trump Claims Netanyahu Called Him; Not Listening To Biden's Advice. Pro-Trump Groups Targeting Harris; Dating Apps Making Politics Part of Matchmaking; Yankees Heads Back to the World Series. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired October 20, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:01:09]

AMARA WALKER, CNN HOST: Hi everyone, good morning. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Sunday, October 20th. Thanks for being with us. I'm Amara Walker.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. Our colleague Kaitlan Collins is in Tel Aviv this morning with new developments out of the Middle East. We'll check with her in just a few minutes.

WALKER: And we begin this morning on the campaign trail. Election Day is just 16 days away and the candidates are sharpening their attacks on each other. Voting is also already underway in most states with nearly 12 million ballots cast so far. The election could ultimately be decided in just a handful of battleground states and that is where both campaigns are focusing their efforts.

BLACKWELL: Vice President Harris will attend church services outside of Atlanta. Tim Walz will be starting his day attending church in Michigan. Former President Trump will hold a town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. J.D. Vance attends a Packers game in Green Bay and a campaign event.

Yesterday, Harris campaigned in Detroit and Atlanta, two cities where driving up turnout could be key to winning their states, of course. In both stops, she repeated her claims that Trump is becoming increasingly unstable and is unfit for office.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: And when he does answer a question or speak at a rally, have you noticed he tends to go off script and ramble. And generally for the life of him cannot finish a thought and he has called it the weave. (LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: But I think we here will call it nonsense.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WALKER: Now rallying in Pennsylvania, Trump blasted the Biden-Harris administration, calling the current White House a, quote, "nightmare of inflation, invasion and humiliation." And he promised a rosy future for the country if he is elected.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: With your support, we'll bring back our nation's strength, dominance, prosperity and pride. We're going to do it. This will be America's new golden age. 100 years from now, the presidential election of 2024 will be looked upon as America's greatest victory. I hope that's true.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WALKER: Georgia kicked off early voting last week and more than 1 million people have already cast their ballots.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Rafael Romo spoke with voters about the stakes of this election. Rafael?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Amara, some voters have been standing in line for over an hour at polling sites here in Gwinnett County and other locations across the state of Georgia. Gwinnett County is not only the most ethnically diverse in the entire state of Georgia but it has also had a great population growth in the last few years, surpassing the 1 million mark over the summer.

President Biden carried Gwinnett County in 2020 and it is in counties like this one in battleground states like Georgia where the 2024 election may be decided. People are very motivated. By Friday, voters had already cast more than 1 million ballots here in Georgia since early voting started Tuesday.

Some poll workers say they had never seen this level of interest from voters and are working extra hard to make sure the process runs smoothly given the unprecedented number of people voting early.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ANITA REDD, GWINNETT COUNTY POLL MANAGER: Yesterday was the highest voter count I've ever had in my career with elections. I worked my legs off. We had over 1,200 voters here in 12 hours.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ROMO: Some voters are motivated by how convenient it is to find a time when the lines are not too long and cast a ballot instead of doing it on Election Day when many people have to work. But other voters told us they are motivated by issues they deeply care about like the economy, abortion rights, and taxes.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

[07:05:03]

OLGA HICKS, GWINNETT COUNTY EARLY VOTER: The country is being headed in one way and I just want to see people getting along. And the negativity that's out there is just too much. It's too much. We have to learn to work together.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ROMO: And that may be easier said than done. Here in Georgia, a state judge overturned seven new rules passed by the Republican-led state election board that, according to Democrats, would have allowed local officials to delay or decline certification of election results.

Both the top lawyer for Georgia's secretary of state and the chairman of the state election board have directed all state and local election officials to ignore those seven rules. Victor, Amara, back to you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Rafael, thanks so much.

With me now, congressional reporter for Punchbowl News, Mica Soellner. Mica, good morning to you. Let's talk about this Latrobe rally with former President Trump. 16 days left, the point now is to get your voters out, especially while the early voting is happening.

Not a lot of new policy coming. It's not expected. He spent the first 12 minutes talking about golfer Arnold Palmer, who died eight years ago. Here's some of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: But Arnold Palmer was all man. And I say that in all due respect to women, and I love women. But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, oh, my God. That's unbelievable.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BLACKWELL: Talking about this man's genitals at his political rally, I didn't even know that there were group showers in golf. But his crowd there seemed to enjoy it, eat it up. Does it work if this is the get out the vote effort, and that's how he spends the first 12 minutes?

MICA SOELLNER, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Thanks, Victor. I think that we have to make sure we understand who former President Trump is addressing. I think that his kind of going off script, you know, invoking that kind of, you know, however you may want to call it, whether it's crude or that kind of humor or kind of the classic Donald Trump is something that really resonates with his base.

Obviously, this is a time where both candidates are making their closing messages. So, if Trump does go off script, which we've seen him at various times, I think that that's something that's going to, you know, help his base. But I don't know if it's actually going to sway any people that are still undecided, no matter how many -- despite how many there might be out there.

BLACKWELL: Yes, slim number. So let's talk about the Vice President in Atlanta and Detroit yesterday. In Atlanta this morning, she'll be back later this week, expected with her former President Obama. You cover Congress, what's the view from the Democrats on the Hill about how this campaign is run, the confidence that she can get across the line, and the way in which she's trying to beat Trump?

SOELLNER: Yes, Democrats are really excited, I would say, especially in the fact that they are out fundraising Republicans up and down the ballot. We've seen this with the Harris campaign and also just House Democrats and Senate Democrats in general.

I also think that they view Harris as someone that can excite a new base of voters that President Biden maybe struggled with. They're hoping that she can reach more voters of color, young voters, people that maybe wouldn't have turned out for the current president. So they're really hoping that she can kind of get that message out.

I know that there's key groups on the Hill, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Asian-American Caucus, and these groups that are also helping her reach these targeted groups.

BLACKWELL: There are some Democrats, though, that are keeping their distance. Some Democratic senators, especially in swing states, are now promoting their ties to former President Trump. We know that Senator Baldwin in Wisconsin, she is in a tight race. She has an ad up talking about working with Trump.

Here's a portion of an ad from Senator Casey in Pennsylvania. It's entitled -- titled "Independent." Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Casey bucked Biden to protect fracking, and he sided with Trump to end NAFTA and put tariffs on China to stop them from cheating. So in this house, we agree. It's Bob Casey who's doing right by Pennsylvania.

SEN. BOB CASEY (D), PENNSYLVANIA: I'm Bob Casey, and I definitely approve this message.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BLACKWELL: Yes, the title of the ad is "Independent." 538 shows that Casey voted with Biden 98.5 percent of the time. What does this attempt in the last few weeks tell us about some of these races?

SOELLNER: I think it goes to show how close some of these Rust Belt races are really going to be in the Senate and for the control of the Senate as well. You know, a lot of these senators running in places like Wisconsin, Ohio, Montana are really running to the middle right now. They want to appear independent. They don't want to be tied to the top of their ticket.

[07:10:00]

They don't want to be tied to Harris or Biden. And they want to show that they can buck their party at times because that's the thing that they think can appeal to Moderate Republicans or Independents that are going to vote for them in this final stretch. So it's a smart strategy to tie themselves to Trump because they will need to peel off some of his voters and possibly get some split ticket voters to win their elections.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's talk about this Texas Senate race. Just this morning, the editorial board at the Dallas Morning News endorsed Congressman Colin Allred to replace Senator Ted Cruz. I mean, for much as that is worth in this era and also that editorial board endorsed the two Democrats before who ran up against Ted Cruz. What do we know about that race and the potential for a Democratic flip?

I think that it's a difficult race for Democrats to win. We have to say that. I think that, you know, Ted Cruz has kind of been comfortable in the polls. And I know that some Democrats have been upset that more money and more infrastructure wasn't invested early in this race.

But Allred is also trying to moderate his stances as well and try to appeal with some of these voters. So anything can happen. But I know that there's definitely some Democrats that have said that they wish more was done to invest earlier. But we never know. So I guess we'll see what happens then.

BLACKWELL: Mica Soellner, thanks so much.

Anderson Cooper moderates a CNN Presidential Town Hall, where Vice President Kamala Harris will face questions from voters here their most pressing issues. That's on Wednesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

WALKER: In the Middle East, the Israeli military says about 70 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel this morning. We will have a live report when we come back.

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[07:16:24]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Good morning. I'm Kaitlan Collins in Tel Aviv, Israel, as we are continuing to follow major developments happening here in the Middle East. Right now, Israel says that 70 rockets have been fired from southern Lebanon as the Israel Defense Forces says that some projectiles were intercepted. Others were identified on the ground in remote areas.

Crews are working out to put out fires as a result of all of that. And despite Israel's incursion across the border, I should note it's been targeting dozens of South Lebanon villages and towns overnight, we are seeing. It also targeted one city for the third time this week, as tensions are very much still running high in this region.

As right now, Israel is weighing how and when it's going to respond to Iran's missile barrage from October 1st. All of this is happening following the death of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. As tonight, we're learning more about a leak of U.S. intelligence that could give more insight into how Israel is weighing its response to the Iranian attack.

CNN's Matthew Chance is here with me now. And Matthew, for people who are just waking up and learning about this, this intelligence leak that has happened, it's unclear if it was a hack or a leak exactly where the sources information came from. But it's U.S. intelligence documents that seem to show what -- as they're tracking and spying to see what Israel is thinking when it's considering its response to Iran's attack. What are we learning in these documents?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, the documents themselves are what's been described to me as sort of embarrassing rather than damaging. They are two documents that describe satellite images, doesn't actually show the satellite images themselves. But one of them sort of talking about a recent Israeli exercise, which just was appears to be planning certain elements of a potential strike against Iran.

The other document is talking about weapons and equipment placements around Israel as well. But nothing so specific that it would actually, you know, kind of cause actual damage to the battle plans that Israel may have. But, nevertheless, there's a lot of concern being expressed. It's sort of behind closed doors in Israel about where this leak came from.

And obviously, the U.S. is investigating that, it says. It's possible it could have been some sort of low level sort of operative in the U.S. with opinions. This is what Israeli sort of sources that I've been speaking to are saying.

But it's also possible and Israeli media is speculating on this. It's also possible this could have been some kind of deliberate leak to try and contain Israel and to prevent it from moving ahead right now with any plans it may have to strike Iran.

COLLINS: Yes.

CHANCE: That's not clear that it is that, but that's certainly something that's being discussed behind closed doors here in Israel.

COLLINS: Yes, U.S. officials seem angered and embarrassed by this leak because, I mean, everyone knows that allies spy on one another, but it just shows how closely the U.S. is tracking what Israel is considering, as President Biden has been very clear publicly that they should not go as far as to hit nuclear sites, facilities -- oil facilities as well.

CHANCE: Yes.

COLLINS: But this is coming as Netanyahu has issued a new statement about the drone that was fired, they say, from Lebanon towards his house. He was not home at the time, neither was his wife, Sara Netanyahu. It didn't actually hit the home, we believe, but it landed somewhere in the area.

But he's calling this an assassination attempt, obviously saying it came from Lebanon, Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. How could that factor into this response that we're waiting to see?

CHANCE: Well, it's interesting. I think it's a very hard line interpretation that the Israeli prime minister is making about what was a drone attack that didn't actually sort of injure anybody at his residence in Caesarea, a coastal city where his private house is.

[07:20:01]

But the fact that the Israeli prime minister has come out and said this was an assassination attempt by the agents of Iran in Lebanon, he's talking about Hezbollah, obviously, and saying it will not deter him or Israel from carrying out its plans and its war of revival, as he's characterized these military operations that are taking place around the region at the hands of Israel at the moment.

You know, it implies that, you know, this is sort of adding sort of momentum. It's adding justification, if you like, for some kind of strike against Lebanon, some kind of strike against Iran in the very near future. To what extent, the recent U.S. leak that we've been discussing has changed those plans or delayed them. That's not clear.

But certainly the whole region right now shows no sign of calming down. There's been a big strike over the past several hours inside northern Gaza. Health ministry officials they're saying --

COLLINS: Yes.

CHANCE: -- 87 people have been killed in a single strike. And so, you know, all these hopes that were around about the death of the Hamas, the Yahya Sinwar, opening a window for a possible ceasefire, for peace, you know, those are looking like ancient history at the moment.

COLLINS: Yes. Those were lasted for about 24 hours, and it seems to have dissipated.

Matthew Chance, thank you for that reporting.

I do want to get more on this intelligence leak that has now happened that, as Matthew noted there U.S. officials are very much investigating this right now, how this information could have become public. Was it deliberate? Was it an accident?

We've got Colonel Cedric Leighton, a CNN military analyst joining us. And first, Colonel, let me just ask you, as you're looking at these documents and what has been revealed out there, how damaging do you believe this is, whether that's in terms of what it reveals or just for the relationship in and of itself?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Kaitlan, good morning. There are certain factors here, and Matthew is absolutely right. These are not documents that will reveal everything that the United States knows about what Israel is doing and also, by extension, won't reveal everything that Israel actually is doing or planning for these attacks on Iran or this attack on Iran.

But it's still bad news because it shows some degree of vulnerability of the U.S. intelligence system. The two documents in question, one of them is from NGA, which is National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. That's the one that does all the imagery, all the satellite data.

The other one is purportedly from NSA, from the National Security Agency. And that's the agency that intercepts communications, the signals intelligence agency I worked for during part of my career. And basically, what they do is, of course, not only get the signals intelligence, but also potentially cyber information.

So those are the kinds of things that we're talking about. But documents themselves reveal very little about what the Israelis are actually doing. The movements discussed in them would be routine in any case when there's a preparation for something major, whether it's an exercise or an actual military event.

As far as the actual --

COLLINS: Yes.

LEIGHTON: -- relationship with the U.S. and with Israel, that can do some damage. These revelations can do some damage. And of course, it raises suspicion among the Israelis as to how secure the Americans actually are in their intelligence services.

COLLINS: Yes.

LEIGHTON: And it also gives them the idea that maybe we couldn't be sharing information with the Americans after all.

COLLINS: Well, on that front, I mean, U.S. officials that we were talking to last night as this was becoming public and posted on Telegram seemed stunned by the disclosure of this material. I mean, what level of employees would have access to this? Would low level employees have access to this kind of sensitive intelligence information?

LEIGHTON: Yes, potentially they would, because the way the United States organizes its intelligence agencies, a lot of low level employees, whether they're military or civilian, actually do have access because they are the ones that are doing the analysis and the collection of that intelligence. So they would be able to see some of that.

Plus, the way the U.S. structure is set up, there is basically a requirement to share a lot of the information so that you get the disparate pieces together if you're performing intelligence analysis. So, if you have access to the computer networks that where this stuff resides on, then you basically have access to a large portion of the U.S. intelligence take. It doesn't mean you have access to the most sensitive information. This was not the most sensitive information, but it does show that you have a pretty broad understanding or can achieve a pretty broad understanding by having access to that network.

COLLINS: Yes. And let me ask you another question on this, because we are waiting to see how Israel responds to Iran after that barrage of missiles that they launched towards Israel in response to another attack from Israel on October 1st.

And last night, President Biden -- or President Donald Trump was at a rally and he was talking about a call he had with the Israeli prime minister. And he effectively said that Netanyahu, he referred to him as Bibi by his nickname, told him he's not listening to President Biden on what steps to take next.

[07:25:11]

The U.S. has urged Israel to act with a bit of restraint here, not to go after nuclear facilities, not to go after oil facilities. And I just got a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister's office, their version of that call with Trump. And they said, quote, "In his conversation with former U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated what he has also said publicly. Israel takes into account the issues the U.S. administration raises, but in the end, will make its decisions based on national interest."

What do you make of that claim from Donald Trump?

LEIGHTON: Well, that one might actually be accurate, because what you're seeing is, you know, some of these things that we think about when we talk in public about the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, that there's a reluctance from the Israeli side to actually follow President Biden's advice. That does seem to be playing out in several different instances.

The way the Israelis went into Rafah, for example, in Gaza, the way the Israelis conducted their operations against Hezbollah, a lot of that is, you know, pretty clear that they didn't limit the way they conducted their operations, that they didn't listen to those U.S. requests.

But on the other side of this, though, Kaitlan, is the fact that what Israel is doing does help the U.S. strategic interest in a way because it helps secure Israel. We have committed ourselves to Israel. And in essence, what the Israelis are doing is breaking the ring of, you know, of conflict that Iran and its proxies have had all around Israel.

So by eliminating leadership in Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon, the Israelis are actually securing their area and thus making it easier for the U.S. to help Israel protect itself. So that's one side of it.

But to get back to what former President Trump said, the discussion --

COLLINS: Yes.

LEIGHTON: -- with Bibi was probably pretty accurate, and it was probably pretty frank. And it wouldn't surprise me if Prime Minister Netanyahu actually said those things to former President Trump.

COLLINS: Yes, of course, as we're waiting to see the results of the election, Israel's watching that just as closely.

Colonel Cedric Leighton, as always, thank you for your expertise.

More on these stories and also on the 2024 campaign trail after a quick break. Stay with us.

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[07:30:00]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Pro-Trump groups are banking heavily on the issue of transgender rights in this final stretch of the race. In just the first half of October, the former president and groups supporting him have spent $21 million dollars on these kinds of ads attacking Kamala Harris and the transgender community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, HOST: Kamala supports taxpayer funded sex changes for prisoners.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: Surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For prisoners.

HARRIS: For prisoners. Every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Hell no, I don't want my taxpayer dollars going to that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kamala is for they, them. President Trump is for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: To talk about all this, joining me is Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen. He is the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Rodrigo, appreciate your time this morning. I just want to put that $21 million figure in context here to show just what a priority anti-transgender, I guess, language has been for this campaign and also for these allied outside groups. They spent a total of $66 million dollars on broadcast TV ads in the month of October. So, a third of that money, $21 million, is going to ads about LGBTQ rights.

Why do you think the Trump campaign is targeting the transgender community when polls have shown that it's not really a top issue for voters right now?

RODRIGO HENG-LEHTINEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CENTER FOR TRANSGENDER EQUALITY: Well, thank you so much for having me. And you are exactly right that this is really not a top issue for voters. But I think the reason that Trump is doing this, it is because it is part of his playbook of playing division and chaos to distract from the fact that he doesn't really have a plan.

You know, Trump over and over again has targeted minority groups and has really gone after small minorities to try to make people in the American public fearful. It is a divide and conquer strategy. He's done this not only against transgender Americans and our families but also, against immigrants, like we saw in Springfield. This is what Trump does. He sows division. He tries to make Americans fearful of each other, so that he can gain his own power. It's selfish, and it's a disservice to the American people.

WALKER: You have an interesting story about coming out as transgender within your own family. You come from a Republican family. Your mother, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, was a member -- a Republican member of Congress for 30 years. Tell me what those conversations sounded like, because you came out and, of course, there were concerns, as you say, about your mother being re-elected.

HENG-LEHTINEN: Yes. I mean, my family are all Republican and they are lifelong conservatives. And then, I came out as transgender. And it was a shock to them, just like it is for many people. I was raised as a girl and have now since transition to live as the man that I long knew myself to be. And my family did not see this coming, you know, which is the case for a lot of parents.

Thankfully, they stood by me. They may not have really understood what it meant to be transgender yet, but they knew that family is family, and parents don't abandon their children. So, I'm very grateful to have my family support.

[07:35:00]

But once they accepted me, then there was the question of, what about the voters? As you said, my mom was a Republican member of Congress representing a Republican district, and we didn't know what was going to happen. And thankfully, the voters did re-elect her, not only re- elected her, but did so by wide margins in a Republican district.

So, what I think that shows is that when -- even though trans people were such a small population, so a lot of people don't really understand us yet, when they do get to know their transgender neighbors, they come around and they realize we are just people trying to get to work in the morning like anyone else.

WALKER: Have you or, you know, your friends in the trans community, have you felt the impacts of these ads that have been playing, many of them in these battleground states?

HENG-LEHTINEN: Definitely. You know, whenever ads like this run, they foster an environment of hostility, and they make a lot of families of transgender people worry about discrimination and harassment. But what we've also seen is that every time MAGA extremists have tried to run ads like this, it has backfired.

You know, this is not the first time it's happened. MAGA extremists ran anti-transgender ads to try to defeat Governor Roy Cooper in North Carolina, and it failed. He won re-election. They also tried it in Kentucky against Governor Andy Beshear, and it failed. He won re- election. And lastly, they tried it in Virginia, in multiple districts, in the State Assembly and State Senate, and not only did they fail, but actually, the voters ended up electing a record number, double the number of out LGBT delegates, and even elected Virginia's very first openly trans state senator.

So, even though MAGA extremists may be trying this to score political points at other people's expense, it doesn't actually work.

WALKER: Well, I'm glad to hear that a little bit more awareness is creating more acceptance as well in your community. Rodrigo Heng- Lehtinen, I really appreciate sharing your story. Thank you.

HENG-LEHTINEN: Thank you so much.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Could you find a partner based on politics? Better question. Could you eliminate a potential partner based on politics? Some popular dating apps are betting on it and they've added a new feature to test the waters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Well, it's coming up on cuffing season and some popular dating apps are allowing you to look beyond just the profile pictures. Maybe find somebody who shares your political values.

WALKER: Yes, apps like Tinder and OkCupid are rolling out profile stickers, matching questions, and partnerships with voter organizations to make politics a bigger part of the matchmaking process. Interesting. CNN's Clare Duffy joining us now with more. So, Clare, tell us more how these new features work.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes. Amara, Victor, for a long time, the dating platforms have allowed people to display sort of general political affiliation, are you liberal, conservative, or moderate? But the updates that we've seen rolled out in the past few months are really targeted at helping people understand how potential matches are engaging in this year's election.

So, you mentioned those Tinder stickers, they're letting people add these stickers showing that they're a registered voter or that they support certain causes like reproductive freedoms right on their profiles. Tinder is also helping people actually register to vote by providing this action center within partnerships with vote.org that tells people how to register registration, deadlines, things like that. Elsewhere, you have OkCupid that has added these matching questions that users can answer to show potential matches, things like what's the most important issue to them in the 2024 presidential election, or when I find really interesting, is it a deal breaker if your date is voting for a different candidate than you in the 2024 presidential election?

So, really trying to give people a sense of where folks stand, where potential matches stand on these very personal issues that are so top of mind for people as we head into the election.

BLACKWELL: Yes, let's just put it right out front, right? Let's not wait until date three and then something's disqualifying if it is.

WALKER: Yes.

BLACKWELL: What's been the response from users so far?

DUFFY: Yes, what's really interesting is these platforms say that they had been hearing demand from users. Users wanted to be having these conversations about politics early on, and especially, as I talked to folks who work in this space, younger users, they say that younger users really want to form a connection with a potential match before they ever get off the app. Whereas older users maybe want to just end the conversation quickly, get to a real live date. Younger users want to be having deeper connections before they get off the app. So, this feels very much in service of that.

And this comes at a time when we know that people are sort of burnt out on dating apps. They feel like they want to meet people in real- life. They're kind of tired of online dating. So, these apps are having to try to roll out updates to bring in new users and to keep existing users on these platforms.

WALKER: I don't know. Maybe there's a generational difference. Maybe the younger people who are dating now, I'm not saying that it's only for younger folks, but it's focusing on the generation. Maybe they're just more open to talking politics versus, you know, the older generation. And I ask you this because I'm wondering has -- you know, are there concerns about losing some of these users as a result?

[07:45:00]

DUFFY: I think really there were concerns about losing users if they didn't roll out things like this. If they didn't make it easier to have these kinds of conversations. And one of the things we heard from experts is that this really started during the COVID pandemic, when people had to ask about people's safety protocols, people just got used to having this sort of politicized conversations early on.

BLACKWELL: All right. Clare Duffy, thanks so much.

DUFFY: Thank you.

WALKER: Thanks, Clare. Well, the first half of the fall classic is set. The Yankees are heading back to the World Series after another dramatic night in Cleveland.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:00]

BLACKWELL: A storm system is dumping heavy rain across parts of the west.

WALKER: And it is leading to a flash flood threat in some areas. CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking all that for us, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Amara, Victor, this all broke overnight where Roswell, New Mexico, so, we're talking about the eastern sections of New Mexico, saw over four times its monthly average of rainfall just in a few hours' time. This is just incredible. Breaking their prior daily record that stood for over a century. There's still a flood warning for Roswell. Points northward. There's a river that flows through the area that's burst -- overflowed some of its banks, but there's also the flood wash that extends over a great portion of Eastern New Mexico, and you could see.

Why how much rain has fallen? Some of those darker shades of orange and yellow, indicating three to upwards of six inches of rain. And guess what? It's still raining. More precipitation with this system. Believe it or not, that actual low is going to be the reason why this hurricane I'm about to show you will also be kicked away from the Eastern United States. More on that in just one second.

It could be a few pop-up isolated tornadoes today across Eastern New Mexico as well. This is the tornado, Hurricane Oscar, defying all of the weather models that we watched yesterday, moving from a tropical storm rapidly into a hurricane.

Still a hurricane right now with the 5:00 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center impacting parts of the Turks and Caicos overnight, and now it's got its eyes set on the southeastern sections of Cuba. Why is this not a threat for the United States? Well, it's all because of the trough that is going to grab the hurricane and move it away from Cuba, once it makes landfall later today, and then moves it into the Bahamas, away from the eastern seaboard of the U.S.

So, again, repeating, not a U. S. threat, but one thing's for sure, a lot of rain, a lot of wind for these islands, these beautiful islands. And just going to recap this, because this is astounding, another prime example of rapid intensification. Just between 11:00 a.m. yesterday to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, that three-hour stretch we saw an increase in wind speeds by over 40 miles per hour. That's something. Victor, Amara.

WALKER: Wow. That is significant. Derek Van Dam, good to see you. Thanks.

DAM: OK.

WALKER: So, the New York Yankees are heading to the World Series for the first time in 15 years. BLACKWELL: Andy Scholes is here. Great into this series.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I mean, guys, this series in Cleveland, and especially the games there, it just had so much drama. But in the end, it's the Yankees making it back to the World Series for the first time since 2009.

Now, New York was down to nothing in the sixth inning of this game. Giancarlo Stanton at the plate. He just continues to be one of the best postseason sluggers of all time. He homered again. This was a two-run shot to tie. It was his fifth home run of the playoffs. And Stanton was named the ALCS MVP.

Now, we'd go to extra innings, two on for Juan Soto. And this is why the Yankees traded for him. He comes through in the clutch with the three-run home run. Yankees would then get the final three outs to clinch the pennant. And they now await the winner between the Dodgers and the Mets, game six of that series is going to be tonight in L.A.

Now, it was a busy sports weekend in Austin, Texas with F1 in town. But the main event was number one, Texas hosting fifth ranked Georgia third quarter. Texas gets the interception here, but they throw a flag for pass interference. So, long are fans were not happy. They started throwing trash all over the field.

Well, get this. The officials then got together. They actually reversed the calls. Never seen throwing trash on the field actually work. Kirby Smart was livid. He said the refs tried to rob them, but the Bulldogs, they would end up handing Texas their first loss of the season. Georgia wins 30 to 15.

Missouri quarterback Brady Cook, meanwhile, he got injured on the team's opening series against Auburn yesterday. He went to the hospital to get an MRI on his ankle. Well, it came back OK. Cook then rushed back to the stadium and led the Tigers on to fourth quarter touchdown drives to win the game. He said afterwards, he knew only had two and a half home games left in his career, so he needed to find a way to get back on the field. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz said Cook was an inspiration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELI DRINKWITZ, MISSOURI HEAD COACH: I mean, for all the criticism that young man takes, 12 sure would die on that field for everybody. I mean, for him to be out there and put his body on the line for us is incredible and it ought to be inspiring to everybody that watched it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, it was a great win for Missouri. Finally, Arizona State missed two field goals late in their loss yesterday to Cincinnati and head coach Kenny Dillingham is so unhappy with their kicking game that he's made a plea to the entire student body.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KENNY DILLINGHAM, ARIZONA STATE HEAD COACH: Our kicking game is atrocious. So, if you can kick and you're at Arizona State, e-mail me, right? We're going to have kicking tryouts on Monday. So, bring it on. Kicking tryouts Monday. Let's go.

Yes, I'm dead serious. I'm going to put it out on our social. We're going to kick and try it on Monday. We got to find somebody who can make a field goal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So, there you go. If you got a big leg and you go to Arizona State, you can be on the football team by next week.

[07:55:00]

WALKER: Send him an e-mail.

BLACKWELL: That is embarrassing.

DAM: A little pressure on their kicking team, right?

BLACKWELL: I don't like the reverse of the call after the trash thrower.

SCHOLES: Yes, bad precedent.

BLACKWELL: Yes, are they going to reinforce? Like, if you throw trash, maybe we'll think about it.

WALKER: And now, more people start throwing trash, hopefully not.

SCHOLES: Yes, I know.

DAM: Andy, you always get the fun stories, man. I'm just talking about hurricanes all the time.

SCHOLES: Hey, it was a great day at college football. Looking forward to another good one in the NFL, hopefully.

WALKER: Andy Scholes, thank you. And thank you for being with us this morning. We'll see you back here next weekend.

BLACKWELL: Inside Politics with Manu Raju starts after quick break. Have a good day.

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