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CNN This Morning
Trump, Harris Campaigns Intensify with 15 Days to Election; Trump and Harris Go on Campaign Blitz in Michigan; The U.S. Investigates an Unauthorized Release of Classified Documents on Israel's Planned Attack on Iran. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 21, 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 21st right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He's becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She never worked at McDonald's. In other words, she's lying Kamala.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Fifteen days to go, Kamala Harris stepping up her attacks, Donald Trump steps into the fry-cook role. It's the final stretch of the campaign if you couldn't tell. Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things are really bad right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Battleground beat. The race for Michigan. Voters there are going to play a huge role in choosing who's going to be next up in the White House and which party will control the Senate. Also, a shocking week, the U.S. investigation into the Intelligence documents revealing Israel's plans to strike back against Iran.
All right, 5:00 a.m. here on the east coast, a live look at the Capitol dome on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone, I'm Kasie Hunt, it's wonderful to have you with us. We have just 15 days to go until election day, both campaigns now making their final pitches to voters in those critical battleground states.
The Vice President spending much of her weekend in Georgia and Michigan, sharpening her attacks on Donald Trump's fitness for office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: He's becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged. And it
requires that response. I think the American people are seeing it, witnessing it in real-time. And we must take note of the fact that this is an individual who wants to be president of the United States. And I think the American people deserve better than someone who actually seems to be unstable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Trump's team had called this weekend the start to his closing argument for the campaign. He's advanced his media appearances though, ranged from late golfer Arnold Palmer and his genitalia, to doubling down on his attacks on political opponents like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff as the enemy from within.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But again --
TRUMP: No --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a political opponent --
TRUMP: He's not, no --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he's the enemy --
TRUMP: No, he's a -- well, he's of course, he's an enemy, he's an enemy. That's an enemy from within. That's really -- that is a threat to democracy. These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people, but when you look at shifty Schiff and some of the others, yes, they are to me the enemy from within. I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within. She lied. She was supposed to protect the Capitol.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us now to discuss, Margaret Talev; senior contributor at "Axios". Margaret, good morning.
MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: Good morning.
HUNT: Nice to see you. If you couldn't tell we're in the final days of the campaign --
TALEV: Yes --
HUNT: Because everything kind of went laterally off the rails --
TALEV: And no doubt about Arnold Palmer --
HUNT: Over --
TALEV: And yet now I can't un-see it.
HUNT: The course of the last 48 hours -- well, I mean, look, should we start there? I feel like we should start there. TALEV: Oh --
HUNT: Do we have Arnold Palmer? Yes, we do. Donald Trump started off his rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of Arnold Palmer -- by talking about the golfer in this way, let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women, and I love women. When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, oh my God, that's unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, he was talking about what you think he was talking about. And this, of course, again, 15 days from the election, this is where we are. Trump is obviously used humor, crude, unconventional campaign tactics throughout his political career. But what would you pull out from what we saw this weekend and what does it tell us about where the race stands right now?
TALEV: Well, that tells me that he wants men to vote for him, and that he wants women who like manly men to be in charge to vote for him, because when they think of Arnold Palmer, they think of Donald Trump. It would seem like all male messaging to me.
But what we're seeing right now is sort of everyone's proxies for everything, right? So, you've got Vice President Harris looking to people like Lizzo and Usher to help her turn out the vote with crucial voting blocs into these key states, right in Georgia and Michigan. You've got Trump putting on the McDonald's apron and serving the fries and saying he always wanted to work at McDonald's which --
HUNT: Yes, let's put some of those pictures up, so, we can take a look at that --
[05:05:00]
TALEV: Nobody believes Donald Trump always wanted to work at McDonald's, but he does love McDonald's. Harris actually worked at McDonald's, he's saying she didn't, she's saying she did. But these are all proxies like one out of eight Americans worked at a McDonald's. Millions of Americans including me love McDonald's. So, these are --
HUNT: I love, I love McDonald's fries, I will say. I will seek out McDonald's when covering -- when you're looking at which fast food joint you've got to stop out on a campaign trail? McDonald's is actually pretty close to the top of my list --
TALEV: And you can order them with an Arnold Palmer, but although, I may never do that again. So -- but yes, and so --
HUNT: I'm never going to look at -- I see nominate the same way --
TALEV: I see these are all like pop culture ways to try to reach masses of crucial voting blocs. And in some cases, they're scattered with mistruths, and in some cases they're not. But we can never un-see that either. So, yes, I think this is -- this is the final two weeks and they're both looking to both their bases while trying to capture the wobblers in the middle. And we're just going to see -- oh, again, anything goes --
HUNT: Yes --
TALEV: When we're starting to see --
HUNT: So, let's talk about Harris for a second because she is over the course of the next day going to go to the suburbs in -- of Philadelphia, Detroit, Wisconsin, I believe the suburbs of Milwaukee, although maybe Waukesha, Wisconsin with Liz Cheney, right? And they are looking at suburban women voters, possibly who voted for Nikki Haley in the Republican primary.
They're looking at them as a group of people that they may be able to get out here at the last second, while also appealing to their base with the same message, right? Is it going to work?
TALEV: I don't know. In the many focus groups we have asked persuadable voters over the last several months in different battleground states. How do you feel about -- will Liz Cheney's endorsement make a difference to you on Vice President Harris? We just don't hear a lot of yeses, but that doesn't mean that it won't move the needle.
It means that people -- voters aren't consciously saying will move the needle. I think one of the big questions has been, will there be just the same way that in 2016, there were people who wouldn't say they were voting for Trump, but they voted for Trump. One of the questions has been, will there be Republican voters, especially female Republican voters who aren't going to say they're voting for Harris, but they are voting for Harris.
HUNT: Yes --
TALEV: This will test that proposition. But in the focus groups where people are talking about it with each other, we just don't hear that as a major factor.
HUNT: Very interesting. All right, Margaret Talev, thank you for kicking us off today.
TALEV: Thanks, Kasie --
HUNT: As we head down this final stretch, I really appreciate it. All right, straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, highly classified U.S. Intelligence materials leaked, Israel's reported plans for a retaliatory attack against Iran now made public. How the U.S. is responding to the breach. Plus, Kamala Harris' push in blue wall states to win over Republican voters alongside Liz Cheney, we're going to talk more about it throughout the hour.
And the Vice President and Donald Trump campaigning across Michigan vying for the 15 electoral college votes that may just decide the election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree that we're not in a good situation, but here's the thing about Trump, is when he speaks, he's unfiltered. But the thing is that, don't look at words, look at action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:10:00]
HUNT: All right, welcome back. This morning, the investigation continuing into a stunning week of highly classified U.S. Intelligence materials. The subject of the leaked materials, America's Intelligence, about Israel's plans to retaliate against Iran for their attack against Israel earlier this month.
The two documents marked top secret were shared by a pro-Iranian account on social media on Friday. One U.S. official telling CNN, the leak is quote "deeply concerning". Another official described the leak as quote, "bad but not horrible", but noting the concern is if there are more. The House Speaker Mike Johnson telling CNN yesterday, he's following the matter closely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): And the leak is very concerning. There's some serious allegations being made there, investigation underway.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Joining us now to discuss, Shawn Turner; former director of Communications for U.S. National Intelligence. Shawn, good morning to you, thank you very much for being here. What can you tell us about the seriousness of what has happened here, and how it may impact what Israel ultimately decides to do?
SHAWN TURNER, PROFESSOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: Yes, good morning, Kasie, thanks for having me. You know, I'm glad you asked that question because it is important to put into context the substance of these documents. First of all, it's important to say that these do appear to be legitimate leaked Intelligence documents.
They're marked top secret, as you said, and they have the five eyes marking, which indicates that this is Intelligence that we only share with some of our closest allies here in the United States. With regard to the seriousness of these documents, it's -- you know, these documents appear to be what we call analyzed tactical Intelligence.
That is to say that there's collection and there's an analyst that looks at the collection and basically decides what that -- the collection tells them, what it looks like Israel is doing. This is not Israel's plan for an attack, now Kasie, that doesn't make the leak any less egregious.
But it is important to point out that these documents don't take away Israel's ability to launch their attack, and they certainly don't take away some element of surprise. This is analyzed tactical Intelligence, basically a picture of what they're doing on the ground.
HUNT: So, what does it tell you that this information is out in the public domain at all? How --
TURNER: Yes --
HUNT: Concerning is that piece of it, and how do you think it happened?
TURNER: Yes, you know, there's two possibilities with regards to the way this happened. The first, and I think least likely possibility -- and this was talked about earlier on, was that -- was that the possible -- maybe there was a hack and this information was pulled and posted on Telegram.
[05:15:00]
I don't think that's likely, Kasie, because typically when there's a hack in my experience, there are a number of other protocols that go into place in government. Basically, people are reacting to that hack so that further more information isn't compromised. And I'm not seeing that happening right now with my former colleagues that I'm talking with.
The more likely scenario is that we do have a leak here, that we have someone who has access to this information either at the Pentagon or one of the other agencies in the Intelligence community, who took this information and they made this as someone who may be agenda-driven, we don't know what their motivation is right now.
But who took this information, were able to get it outside of one of our Intelligence buildings or the Pentagon and posted it on Telegram. The important thing to see here, Kasie, is I do think there were some protocols put into place a few years ago that make it highly likely that this investigation will narrow down and find out who posted these documents.
HUNT: All right, Shawn Turner for us this morning with all of that, Shawn, very grateful to have you this morning, thank you so much.
TURNER: Thanks, Kasie, my pleasure.
HUNT: All right, still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump's closing message on the campaign trail -- more fries with that, the Republican nominee at McDonald's. Plus, Kamala Harris amplifying her appeal to Republican voters today across blue wall states, when -- we'll talk about that with a former GOP congresswoman -- excuse me, she's going to have a former GOP congresswoman by her side.
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[05:20:00]
HUNT: All right, 20 minutes past the hour, here's our morning roundup. Donald Trump's campaign continuing to attack "60 Minutes" on Sunday. The show released a statement rejecting his claim that their interview with Kamala Harris was deceptively edited. Trump has repeatedly claimed without evidence that they edited the Vice President's answers to make her sound more coherent.
He's now vowing to subpoena "CBS" for records if he wins the election. Two missing Navy aviators now declared dead after their aircraft crashed in Washington state last week. It took days to find the crash site. The aircraft went down in a remote area east of Mount Rainier during a training mission.
A ferry dock collapsed in Georgia leaving seven people dead and six others critically injured. It happened on an island off the Georgia coast Saturday during a celebration of the community's black slave descendants. At least, 20 people were on the gangway when it collapsed. Officials now trying to determine the cause.
All right, time now for weather. A flood watch in eastern New Mexico extended through 6 O'clock this morning. The record-breaking rainfall turning deadly in the eastern part of the state. We're going to go straight to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek Van Dam with the latest. Derek, good morning.
DEREK VAN DAM, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Kasie. You know, I worked this weekend and saw this all unfolding. And what we're seeing is some real devastation in the town of Roswell, New Mexico. So, we're talking eastern New Mexico, and not only do they get their daily rainfall record broken, but this is the all-time wettest day that they have ever recorded.
And unfortunately, the result has been catastrophic. Look at some of the damage that has been left behind by the fast-moving water, you can see how it impacted these buildings, overturning vehicles and pushing up all of this debris right along the side of this bridge here, there was some damage to a local car dealership as well.
Just incredible amounts of rain, nearly six inches in one day, and remember, this is a particularly dry area of the western U.S., so, when we see this rainfall this time of year, it's tough, that will overtake a lot of the drainage systems, and of course, allow for the flooding to take place.
The good news is that the rain is quickly moving away, so, we're going to get a period to dry out and hopefully clean up from the damage, but it's already been done certainly. Some snowfall across the higher elevations of Colorado, but this is a system moving eastward, and it's actually going to be partly responsible for pushing away a tropical system that has no threat to the U.S., but certainly, will help to axe that away from the eastern seaboard and out to sea.
Damaging winds, large hail, a tornado or two possible across the nation's mid-section, particularly across Nebraska, stretching into the panhandle of Oklahoma, otherwise, mild and dry over the eastern U.S., temperatures have been very Fall-like and very beautiful, if I can say so myself, Atlanta here at 58 degrees right now, I think will top 80 for the afternoon. And for you in D.C., I'll be visiting you soon, Kasie, 80 degrees --
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Yes, we're excited to see you, obviously --
VAN DAM: Me too --
HUNT: You don't really -- you don't really need to bring your packets(ph), a bit warm here. Derek Van Dam for us this morning --
VAN DAM: Good advice, I'll take it.
HUNT: See you next hour. All right, still to come here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump trading his suit jacket for an apron, stopping by a McDonald's to work the fry station and go after Kamala Harris. Plus, with just over two weeks to go in the race, we're going to take a look from the ground in battleground, Michigan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Detroit. I'm not going to come up here and say it's the best city in America. I don't get offended by that, I just see it as OK. If you want to make this city a flashy city, make it a flourishing city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[05:25:00]
HUNT: All right, 5:28 a.m. on the east coast, that is Boston, Massachusetts at this hour. Good morning, everyone, I'm Kasie Hunt, it's wonderful to have you with us. Donald Trump stepping behind the counter at a Pennsylvania McDonald's at a campaign stop yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm looking for a job, and I've always wanted to work at McDonald's, but I never did. I'm running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony stories. So, if you don't mind, I want to work the French fry counter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, Trump there again claiming without evidence that Kamala Harris never worked at McDonald's in the '80s. That dispute inspiring this campaign stop over the weekend, Trump no stranger to the golden arches, his love for their fast food is well-documented. In 2019, Trump hosted Clemson's football team after they won the national championship and served this spread of French fries and hamburgers to them at the White House.
