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Trump Mans Fry Station During McDonald's Campaign Stop; Harris Tries To Win GOP Votes In Battleground Suburbias; New York Liberty Work Overtime For First WNBA Title. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 21, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: 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)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm looking for a job, and I've always wanted to work at McDonalds, but I never did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
TRUMP: I'm running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story. 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 is 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.
During this Sunday visit to McDonald's Trump donned an apron and manned the fry station. He handed out food through the drive-thru window to customers who, according to The Washington Post, were pre- screened by the Secret Service as the restaurant was closed to the public for the event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I love salt. Wait a minute -- I spilled some. I'm very superstitious.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: All right. Joining us now, Kevin Frey, Washington correspondent for Spectrum News NY1. Kevin, good morning to you.
KEVIN FREY, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SPECTRUM NEWS NY1: Good morning.
HUNT: I'll refrain from making the punch about your name. I'm so sorry that this ended up being the intro to you.
FREY: I avoided the small fry terminology when I was a child growing up as a kid, so let's not play it back.
HUNT: But let's talk about the actual fries because I have say when I initially saw these pictures of Trump I was --
FREY: Yeah.
HUNT: -- they're not the image that he was looking to project to the world for his time as --
FREY: No.
HUNT: -- the apprentice and the businessman. And they run very contrary to kind of a golden -- the gold that is in his apartment on Fifth Avenue. If you go to any of his offices, you will see kind of everything is gilded.
They clearly, though, are trying to run a strategy of appealing to working-class voters here in the final stretch. And obviously this is aimed at poking at Kamala Harris and something they are claiming about her again that she puts in her ads she worked at McDonald's one summer when she was going to school.
What did you make of this, and what else did you take away from it?
FREY: Well, I mean, look, as you mentioned, this is about appealing to those working-class voters and trying to maybe one, poke fun at Kamala Harris. It kind of fits into a long line of Trump taking without any degree of evidence umbrage with people's factual back histories, be it Barack Obama being an American citizen, Kamala Harris working as a fry cook.
But also, yes -- I mean, this is -- he's in Pennsylvania. He's trying to appeal to these working-class voters and also trying to appeal, it seems, to men through this as well. And so this is seemingly just part of the strategy. It also tries to play into this, I think, the way that the campaign is trying to kind of present him as a fun sort of off the wall kind of candidate that you can predict.
HUNT: Right. Well, I mean, humor has always been part of Trump's way of campaigning --
FREY: Yeah.
HUNT: -- but it has gotten darker and different here in this campaign than it was, say, in 2016. We also, of course, saw him do that rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
over the weekend -- again, seeming to appeal to male voters. Should I put it that way?
FREY: He -- that's one way of putting it. The -- it -- it's -- I think, and this is not an original thought to me, but I think it's appropriate to kind of underline here is that he's running almost one campaign and his entire campaign infrastructure is running a different one in terms of the ad outlays and in terms of what they're talking about and how they're going after Kamala Harris. And then he goes out on the campaign trail and has this event and talks about genitalia. And then also randomly plans an event at Madison Square Garden because it plays into this ego being a New Yorker.
And so it's sort of -- his campaigning is distinctively different not entirely, but from the kind of the -- the ad campaign that they're running, which is much more of a message thing that seems much more disciplined than anything he's doing.
HUNT: Right. And, of course, this McDonald's question, it does also play into how they are criticizing Harris in terms of -- and you mentioned this -- that he has done this in the past, right?
FREY: Yeah.
HUNT: Like, tried to call into question.
Let's just look at a little bit of the ad. This is how the Harris campaign likes to talk about her working at McDonald's -- watch.
FREY: All right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS CAMPAIGN AD: She worked at McDonald's while she got her degree. Kamala Harris knows what it's like to be middle class.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So it's like she's stating it there, right, in this ad, and then he's trying to show it.
Which do you think is more effective?
FREY: I think this event that he staged over the weekend is getting a heck of a lot more attention than anything she's saying in an ad in this sort of way --
HUNT: Hmm.
FREY: -- in no small part because there's not the images that go with it. And so this allows for kind of that fun moment that can become a viral moment on the internet that you see him in the fry cook outfit as opposed to a more stated ad where I believe it's juxtaposing a picture of her, I think at Howard. And even though that is, of course, when she says that she was working at the McDonald's. And so it's kind of this -- I don't know. I would imagine this at least has more staying power just because you can think of the TikToks, and the memes, and the social media posts that will go with it.
HUNT: Indeed.
Let's talk for a second about what the campaign trail looks like today.
FREY: Yeah.
HUNT: You've got Kamala Harris campaigning with Liz Cheney in the suburbs. It's all about suburban women. You have Donald Trump in North Carolina. He's going to be looking at some of the damage from Hurricane Helene.
[05:35:00]
In some ways, though, that demonstrates she's trying to play offense today. He's a little bit on defense. North Carolina is a state that Republicans haven't lost --
FREY: Yeah.
HUNT: -- since Obama.
Frey: Yes. And obviously, as you know well, the collar counties around Pennsylvania, which I believe is where one of her events is today, and then she's doing other events across the country as well. This is about trying to make inroads into that Republican base and try to pick off some of those Nikki Haley voters that might seem uncomfortable about exactly the idea of having Trump at the top of the ticket again.
North Carolina is, again, this kind of weird situation for Trump where he's trying to be defensive, but this also then goes to highlight the conspiracy theories as well as he's kind of -- because North Carolina -- we have seen the stories of FEMA workers being --
HUNT: Um-hum.
FREY: -- questioned and even in danger at one point because of some of the things that he has been spreading about what's going on.
Yes, he can play up this argument that the Biden administration is not there and that's why proxy Harris is not there. But at the same time, this is a state that he won, albeit by a slim margin a few ago, and so he has to keep that in his column.
HUNT: He does.
All right, Kevin Frey for us this morning. Kevin, very grateful to have you.
FREY: No problem. HUNT: Thank you very much for being here.
All right, let's turn now to another state that could hold the keys to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a lot of people -- these final 16 days is where they make up their mind and they start thinking about it. They're busy. Their kids are in school. They're watching football, complaining or whatever. It takes solace, Michigan. Alabama lost too so you can feel good about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Alabama did lose.
Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz out talking to voters in Saginaw, Michigan yesterday as the Harris campaign tries to make the state go blue.
Today, Kamala Harris will be there herself campaigning with former GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney, making their case to disenchanted Republicans in that state's suburbs.
Donald Trump is not expected to be in Michigan this week, but he was there on Friday for a rally in Detroit. And CNN's Alayne Treene spoke to some of his supporters there about why they'll be voting for the former president in just about two weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER ZEANU, MICHIGAN TRUMP VOTER: It's unfair for somebody to come in this country to get all these benefits while the hardworking people -- my taxpaying money and his taxpaying money go to people who don't deserve.
RICK CANNADY, MICHIGAN TRUMP VOTER: I worry about our jobs, too. And I think that Trump is the only one who can really save it.
SAMER RASSAM, MICHIGAN TRUMP VOTER: Me and my family have very traditional values, and we think Trump aligns best with those values.
DANETTA SIMPSON, MICHIGAN TRUMP VOTER: I support him because he always tells the truth, and he has seen America rise and fall. And I feel like he's the man, he's the guy, he's the one that can make Detroit beautiful once again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us now is Zoe Clark. She is Michigan Public Radio's political director and the co-host of "It's Just Politics." Zoe, good morning. Thank you very much for spending some time with us today.
You obviously heard some of the Trump supporters there talking about why they're backing the former president. Harris is going to be in the suburbs -- Kamala Harris is going to be in the suburbs later today with Liz Cheney as she tries to particularly focus on suburban women.
What is -- what's your view of where this state stands right now -- your home state -- things that we may not be seeing from our perch inside the Beltway?
ZOE CLARK, POLITICAL DIRECTOR AND CO-HOST, "IT'S JUST POLITICS," MICHIGAN PUBLIC RADIO (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah -- so aside from it just being entirely crazy close as we have talked about.
The candidates seem to be doing two things right now, right? So one is enthusiasm and turnout. So we saw Trump here on Friday, as you mentioned. We saw Harris here with Lizzo on Saturday, the first day of early voting that is happening ever in a presidential race here in Michigan. So the first day of early voting in Detroit. It begins later in the state. And so it's sort of like getting that enthusiasm out, right, and getting your base of supporters to turn out.
And then the second is still persuading, which is pretty fascinating when you think again about being just over two weeks away from the election that there's still some persuading to be done, particularly, as you've mentioned, in Oakland County, in the suburbs, and particularly around suburban women, which is where we'll see Liz Cheney.
It's also where these sort of Nikki Haley voters, as we've continued to talk about -- if Kamala Harris can sort of get them to move over.
But, you know, 16 days out and during persuasion it's not something that we've ever seen. But again, like, this is an unusual presidential campaign and one that we haven't seen before.
HUNT: Yes, it's really quite the understatement. But I do take your point that normally they are just trying to get people that they already know are going to support them out to the polls at this phase in the campaign instead of potentially taking a risk on someone that you might get out and they might vote for your opponent --
CLARK: Exactly.
HUNT: -- at this point -- yeah.
Can you talk to us a little bit about when Biden was at the top of the ticket there obviously was a lot of attention on the uncommitted -- what's been going on in Dearborn, especially with Arab Americans who live there and have concerns about what's going on in Gaza.
[05:40:00]
How is that dynamic playing out right now, or has it kind of faded?
CLARK: I wouldn't say it's faded but what I'll say is that in many respects it sort of seems like the Harris campaign is sort of like look, we've said what we've said. We would like to see a ceasefire and we're going to now look at all of these other constituents that make up sort of the voting pie within Michigan. I mean, of course, the Harris campaign would like the support, but I don't see them sort of doubling down and doing anything extra at this point.
Again, this is where you're sort of trying to make decisions about who is going to make up the vote and instead, as we keep saying, what we're seeing now is going to suburban women.
And also, I will say I think it's interesting that Harris also has started talking a little bit more about manufacturing and manufacturing jobs vis-a-vis the economy when she's here in the state as well.
HUNT: Very interesting point.
All right, Zoe Clark for us. Zoe, thanks very much for being with us this morning. I really appreciate your time.
CLARK: Sure, Kasie. Good to be here.
HUNT: All right.
Still to come here on CNN THIS MORNING, we got to battleground Pennsylvania. The vice president campaigning with a Republican there. We're going to talk to another Republican who says he's already voted for Harris.
Plus, the New York Liberty women's basketball team securing their first WNBA championship. That's next on the Bleacher Report.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:45:50]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On Monday, I will be headed to Pennsylvania, to Michigan, and Wisconsin to spend some time with a great American leader, Liz Cheney, and talk with folks about why it's important for us to put country before party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Kamala Harris campaigning hard in blue wall states in the last two weeks of the presidential race alongside former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney trying to win over moderate disenchanted Republican voters in suburban areas who may be open to voting for a Democrat this time around.
It comes amid reports that former presidential candidate Nikki Haley may be joining Trump on the campaign trail in an attempt to court those very same voters.
Republican senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham had this message over the weekend to those in his party thinking about voting for Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): To every Republican supporting her, what the hell are you doing? You're supporting the most radical nominee in the history of American politics. I can't take four more years of this crap.
KRISTEN WELKER, MODERATOR, NBC "MEET THE PRESS": All right, but --
GRAHAM: When you support --
WELKER: Sir?
GRAHAM: -- her you're supporting four more years of garbage policy.
WELKER: Senator, we've got a lot more to get through so let me keep moving. I want to ask you about --
GRAHAM: So what the hell are you doing as a Republican blessing this stuff?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining us now, former Republican congressman Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania. He recently revealed that he voted early for Kamala Harris. Congressman, always good to see you. Thank you so much for being here.
So here's -- my question for you, I suppose, is simply whether or not you think what Harris is planning to do with Liz Cheney is going to work. Because this is part of a broader strategy, right, to turn out suburban women, especially. She's going to be in my home county of Chester County today in Malvern with Cheney trying to convince women who perhaps have been Republican for, in many cases, I'm sure their whole lives to vote against Trump this time.
CHARLIE DENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE ASPEN INSTITUTE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRAM, (R) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, PENNSYLVANIA (via Webex by Cisco): Well look, many of us -- many Republicans out there are very dispirited right now. They're not happy with the direction of the party. The party is divided. I grant you it's not evenly divided and the MAGA wing is ascendant, but many of us want to turn the page on Donald Trump and what he has done.
We just heard Lindsey Graham. He very -- he questioned Donald Trump's fitness when he ran for president back in 2015 and '16, and many of us still share that opinion that Sen. Graham and others had that Donald Trump was unfit. I felt that was the case back in 2015 and I feel the same way now.
And, of course, I also hope that Harris has made a pivot to the center. I hope it's sincere and I hope she continues to embrace that. And many of us are also hoping for a divided government so that neither side can really get too much of an advantage because we're all kind of tired of the more extreme elements within both parties.
But right now, Donald Trump has just made a comment to the effect that people who disagree with him are enemies within. He's talked about using the military against them. He embraces these autocratic thugs like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Il. He rejects our allies. There are just so many things.
Economically, he's proposing tariffs now that would have a destructive -- a destructive impact on the American economy that is much more extreme than anything that Harris has done.
So a lot of us -- you know, we want a new direction for the party. And Liz Cheney is going to certainly go out into the suburbs of Philadelphia with Kamala Harris and talk to a lot of Republicans, particularly college-educated Republicans who want something different.
HUNT: Well, Congressman, it really does seem to come down to Nikki Haley voters in many ways in the Republican Party. And we've heard that she's talking about going out with Trump.
She recently recorded a robocall for Donald Trump. I want to play that for you and then we'll talk about it on the other side -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY, ROBOCALL FOR TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Hi, this is Nikki Haley calling on behalf of President Donald Trump's campaign. I don't agree with President Trump 100 percent of the time. You might not either. But we have a decision to make, and I'm looking at what we know about each candidate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:50:00]
HUNT: So there you have Haley making that pitch saying we don't agree with everything.
Are you surprised she did that? And who do you think these women are more likely to listen to, Nikki Haley or Liz Cheney?
DENT: Well, it's hard to say, but I was one of those Nikki Haley voters in the primary in Pennsylvania. And I think right now -- you know, a lot of people can think for themselves. I truly don't think these endorsements matter that much. But what Haley is doing is she's -- you know, she's protecting her political options going forward, and I get that, but a lot of us don't have to do that any longer.
And so I suspect there are a lot of women, especially, in these collar counties of Philadelphia who are very uncomfortable with Donald Trump. Even if they agree with some of his policies, I think there's a general discomfort with the way he conducts himself -- the misbehavior, the erratic behavior. You know, he's -- the growing incoherence in many of his comments. So I think there's a lot of concern about him.
And so I suspect at the end of the day people are going to make up their own minds and I -- maybe Nikki Haley -- she'll have an impact on some voters, but I think a lot of those Haley voters are gone for Donald Trump and I suspect Donald Trump's going to have a tough time getting 90 percent of the Republican vote in order to win the election. He's going to need at least that.
HUNT: All right, Charlie Dent for us. We didn't even get to the comments about the son of Latrobe, Pennsylvania that Donald Trump made over the weekend.
Thank you very much for being with us this morning, sir.
DENT: Thank you.
HUNT: Always great to have you.
DENT: All right.
HUNT: All right, time now for sports.
The New York Liberty are the WNBA champions for the first time in the team's 28-year history.
Carolyn Manno has more on their thrilling overtime win in this morning's Bleacher Report. Carolyn, good morning.
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. I am low on sleep. It was electric last night at Barkley Center. I mean, this series has been electric. It's been excruciating for Liberty fans, Kasie. They've been waiting such a long time for the franchise to win a title. New York coming into this game with a 0-5 record in previous finals and this fan base just desperate for them to get it done.
And it actually looked like that trend might continue to start. I mean, Minnesota was looking for a league record fifth championship. They got pretty much every shot they wanted in the first half of this game. They jumped out to a 12-point lead.
But the title was decided in the final seconds of the fourth quarter of this game, which makes sense given how this series has gone. New York down by two. Breanna Stewart driving and gets the foul. Minnesota cannot believe it. They certainly weren't happy about it after the game, but even after a challenge the call upheld. The officials saying the defender wasn't in legal guarding position.
So Stewart hitting both free throws and sent the game to overtime, and that is when the Liberty really took over in this game. Leonie Fiebich coming out. She immediately hit that huge three, and then Nyara Sabally breaking away with a layup there to put the Liberty up five. That was the largest lead of the game for them.
The series MVP was Jonquel Jones. She finished with a team high 17 as the Liberty get the win 67-62.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONQUEL JONES, 2024 WNBA FINALS MVP: I could never dream of this. I mean, it's -- wow. You all know my story. You all know how many times I've been denied it, but it was delayed. That's all it was. And I'm so happy to do it here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANNO: She deserved it, let me tell you.
The Dodgers are heading to the World Series for the first time since 2020. They punched their ticket to the Fall Classic with a 10-5 win over the New York Mets in last night's game six of the National League Championship Series.
Shortstop Tommy Edman sparking a lay here in the first inning, a two- run double, then added a two-run homer in the third to that total.
So now the Dodgers will face the Yankees in a star-studded Fall Classic. The Dodgers and Yankees faced each other 11 times in the World Series in a 40-year span between 1941 and 1981, but they have not played each other in the Fall Classic in 43 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOOKIE BETTS, OUTFIELDER, LOS ANGELES DODGERS: It's kind of what the people wanted, you know, and it's what we all wanted. I mean, it's fun. It's going to be two -- a battle of two good teams and a lot of long flights across countries -- across the country. But that's what makes it fun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANNO: The Dodgers have now won four National League pennants in eight years. Game one of the World Series is set for Friday in Los Angeles.
I know this is tough for you, Kasie. I know your husband is a Mets fan. I apologize.
Seven weeks in the NFL season and just one team remaining undefeated, by the way. The Chiefs improving to 6-0 after a 28-16 (sic) win over the 49ers in the Super Bowl rematch.
Both quarterbacks struggling in this one. San Francisco's Brock Purdy throwing three interceptions. Patrick Mahomes threw a pair.
But Kansas City punching four scores on the ground, including a pair of TDs from Kareem Hunt. So the Chiefs now have a five-game winning streak over the Niners, including two Super Bowls.
So, Kasie, your husband is a Mets fan. My husband is a Dodgers fan. This is -- this is anchors divided here, but I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
HUNT: No, look -- no, I appreciate that. I'm sure he's -- I haven't -- you know, he sleeps in, so I haven't had a chance to actually talk to him about it yet. I'm sure -- I'm sure he'll be fine.
[05:55:05] I -- look, I think the Yankees-Dodgers series -- it's -- I can't wait to see Shohei Ohtani. And as an O's fan I will forever root against the New York Yankees, so count me in L.A.'s corner for this series.
Carolyn, thank you --
MANNO: I like it.
HUNT: -- very much.
All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Elon Musk's latest political strategy giving away his money. We will dive into his new pledge to raffle off $1 million a day to registered voters in battleground states. Is it even legal? Questionable.
Plus, Donald Trump's rally speech starring legendary golfer Arnold Palmer and -- well, we'll explain. His campaign says that this is part of this closing argument to voters.
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