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CNN This Morning

Harris: "Yes, I Do" Believe Trump Is A Fascist; U.S.: North Korean Troops Now In Russia; Union Members Reject Deal To End Boeing Strike. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired October 24, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:29]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, October 24th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do believe that Donald Trump is unstable, increasingly unstable and unfit to serve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Kamala Harris in a CNN town hall painting Donald Trump as a threat to the nation.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration.

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HUNT: Not -- no, Biden 2.0. The vice president telling undecided voters in Pennsylvania, she'll take a different approach to the job.

And cyberattack thwarted. Georgia fends off an attempt on its absentee ballot site. It's a threat that several swing states are facing

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right. Five a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Capitol Hill on this Thursday morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

As we enter the final days of this campaign, Kamala Harris not mincing words. She's calling Donald Trump unstable and unfit to serve. This was during last night's CNN town hall. The vice president's primary focus on the Pennsylvania stage, warning

Americans, especially undecided independent voters and moderate Republicans, that the former president poses a threat to the core principles of the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN MODERATOR: Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?

HARRIS: Yes, I do. Yes I do.

And I -- and I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Harris repeatedly pointing to new reporting this week involving former Trump chief of staff John Kelly. Kelly described the former president as a fascist who has spoken in glowing terms about the loyalty of Hitler's Nazi generals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Why would someone who served with him, who is not political, a four star marine general, why is he telling the American people now? And frankly, I think of it as he's just putting out a 911 call to the American people. Understand what could happen if Donald Trump were back in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Trump pushing back against General Kelly's comments with this post on Truth Social. He wrote this, quote, thank you for your support against a total degenerate named John Kelly, who made up a story out of pure Trump derangement syndrome. Hatred. This guy has two qualities which don't work well together. He was tough and dumb. The problem is his toughness morphed into weakness because he became jello with time.

All right, let's bring in Mychael Schnell. She's a congressional reporter for "The Hill".

Mychael, good morning. Nice to see you.

MYCHAEL SCHNELL, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Hey.

HUNT: The final days here of this campaign its very clear that Kamala Harris's strategy is coming into sharp focus. And it is to go after Donald Trump repeatedly. She was very quick to answer Andersons question about whether she thought Donald Trump was a fascist, quicker than she has been in previous interviews.

She called the press to the Naval Observatory yesterday after she had previously planned to just be holding prep for the town hall. Is -- what is the fact that they are using this strategy here in the final days? Tell you about the state of the race. I mean, it's been clear for a few weeks now that the Harris campaign is trying to target these right leaning independents, these disaffected Republicans, folks who may have voted for Donald Trump in the past, but don't want to support him this time.

And I guess they have some sort of data that shows them that this message and argument against Trump, that Trump is a danger to the country resonates with those specific voters, because the folks who are voting for Kamala Harris are already in her corner. The folks who are voting for Donald Trump are already there, but who are those independents still undecided folks who could potentially be picked up?

The Harris campaign clearly thinks that some of those right leaning folks, and they clearly think that this argument that Trump is a danger to democracy, it's what's going to resonate with them. It's also worth noting that, as you mentioned, she talked about Liz Cheney a lot last night, and Dick Cheney.

She's been campaigning with Liz Cheney in some of those districts, those counties where Nikki Haley won during the GOP primary. She's very clearly trying to target this subset of voters that may still be undecided. And she thinks the winning message there is this democracy message.

HUNT: Yeah. And Michael, lets talk for a second about how Republicans have responded to this. Obviously, this reporting came out this week. Twin stories, one in "The Atlantic" and then of course, Kelly going on the record, in audio with Michael Schmidt of "The New York Times". We compiled a few reactions from Republicans asked about this.

[05:05:00]

Let's watch that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: This is the time when folks are going to say extreme things. I have all the respect in the world for John Kelly. Half the country doesn't think they're voting for a fascist.

SEN. BILL HAGERTY (R-TN): I'm not agreeing that Trump is praising Adolf Hitler, because all you have are the comments from General Kelly again, who did not mix with President Trump, who did not get along with President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then he obviously has frustration. And I could absolutely see him go. Now, you know what? It would be great to have German generals that actually do what we asked him to do, knowing that to maybe not fully, fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals were Nazis or whatever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That last clip of course, a media host, but that did raise some eyebrows.

What do you make of how Republicans have responded to this?

SCHNELL: I think this is part of what Kamala Harris's argument is, is that the Republican Party is really firmly behind Donald Trump and its something that she's talked about, that if Donald Trump is elected president, he won't have those guardrails that were in office during his first administration. People like John -- people like John Kelly, John Kelly, General Mattis, other folks who pushed back on him and have publicly spoken about their concerns.

He Kamala Harris is voicing concerns now that those people won't be in office. And I think that's something she can point to, is how the Republican Party has defended and justified these previous comments. Really, really being apprehensive to come out and criticize the former president. It shows that the Republican Party is firmly behind Donald Trump, and that's something that adds to Kamala Harris's message that he is a danger to democracy because of what he said.

HUNT: All right, Mychael Schnell, starting us off this morning, just 12 days ago. Mychael, thank you.

SCHNELL: Thanks, Kasie.

HUNT: I appreciate it.

All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine could take a troubling new turn. Why White House officials say thousands of North Korean soldiers are now showing up in eastern Russia.

Plus, how Republicans are preparing to spend millions to blitz battleground Pennsylvania. And Kamala Harris, she's been called a joyful warrior. J.D. Vance says he's not feeling it.

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SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The first month of their campaign was that they were the joyful campaign, and, my friends, the joy is gone. The joy is gone from the Kamala Harris campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:11:36]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

North Korean troops now in Russia. The Biden administration says at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers arrived in the eastern part of the country earlier this month.

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LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are seeing evidence that that there are North Korean troops that have that have gone to Africa. Now what exactly? Excuse me? Not Africa, but Russia. What exactly they're doing left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out.

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HUNT: The U.S. doesn't think that North Korean troops have reached Ukraine yet.

But the movement signals a potential escalation in the ongoing conflict. A senior administration official tells CNN that Russia is training North Korean soldiers and potentially sending them to Ukraine is a sign of serious desperation. Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelenskyy warning about North Koreas movement earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Now, we have clear evidence that people are being supplied to Russia from North Korea. And these are not just workers for industries, but also military personnel. And we expect a normal, honest strong reaction from our partners to this. In fact, this is the entry of another state into the war against Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining us now, CNN international anchor Max Foster.

Max, good morning to you. Thank you so much for being here.

A really remarkable development here that there are -- the U.S. believes North Korean troops in Russia. And obviously you heard the warning from Zelenskyy there.

I want to show you what John Kirby, he's an admiral here at White House spokesman says about what he thinks that this could mean. Let's watch.

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JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: If Russia is indeed forced to turn to North Korea for manpower, this would be a sign of weakness, not strength, on the part of the Kremlin.

What it would also demonstrate an unprecedented level of direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, with security implications in Europe, as well as the Indo-Pacific.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So again, he says, there would be security implications for Europe, where, of course you are. What more do we know about this? And how are you understanding it?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, only that there's multiple, you know, pieces of intel saying that these troops are there. They're in the you know, the images that you showed were from the east of Russia. The other side of the country from Ukraine, so we'll have to wait to see whether or not they end up in the battle for Ukraine, or they're just there for training or they're backfilling Russian troops that had gone into Ukraine.

There's a lot of unknowns here, but I think a lot of people are very alarmed by this idea that these two countries have become so tight. They're actually, you know operating militarily together now in such an embedded way. We knew that North Korea was starting to supply Russia with weaponry. It takes it to a whole new level that the North Korean forces are embedding with Russian forces.

HUNT: Yeah, Max, I mean, it does seem to -- I mean, Kirby's argument there is that this shows that Russia doesn't have the troops that they need, right?

So, of course, it has direct implications, potentially for that particular conflict. But there is also I mean, this -- this is an increasing sign of the way the North Koreans and the Russians and I think my question is, what does this say if anything, about China and how kind of that, um set of alliances of, you know shared interests potentially does have implications more broadly?

[05:15:07]

FOSTER: I mean, there are fears that this is a major escalation that goes well beyond Ukraine and that is that, you know, you've got to ask what does North Korea get out of this well, presumably they're getting money for a start. They're also getting knowledge in how to use Russian battlefield equipment. So they're being trained more.

Crucially, if they do go into Ukraine, they're going to get battlefield experience, which they don't have. As we understand it, these are elite troops. So what you've got is elite trained North Korean troops who will now have battlefield experience, which makes them a greater threat to South Korea. And then that wider, you know tension between the U.S. and China and what's going on in the Indo- Pacific.

So it does have much wider implications because you're empowering North Korea effectively by allowing this to happen and then you've got Kirby's point of view that its just a sign of desperation or desperation on Russia side. But, you know there are you know, you've got to look at it from the North Koreans point of view and the Russian point of view to fully understand it, I think.

HUNT: For sure.

All right. Max Foster for us this morning, Max, always grateful to have you. Thank you so much.

All right. Still to come here after the break, a handful of counties in Pennsylvania are going to have an oversize role in shaping this years election, where Trump is hoping to crack Democrats' blue wall. We'll have that in our battleground beat.

Plus, Boeing workers not heading back to work anytime soon. We're going to have that and more in our morning roundup.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:21:04]

HUNT: All right. Twenty minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

McDonald's supplier removing yellow onions from the market following the deadly E. coli outbreak linked to quarter pounders from the fast food chain. The spokesperson says the company found no traces of E. coli in its raw onions. They're simply removing them out of an abundance of caution.

Union workers rejecting a second deal to try to end their strike against Boeing. The deal promised better wages, retirement benefits and job security but 64 percent of workers voted to reject it. One major sticking point, the deal failed to restore the traditional pension plan.

Quote, completely wrong, end quote, that's how Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell describes the MAGA movement in his upcoming biography. CNN obtained a copy ahead of its release next week. In the book, he writes this: Ronald Reagan, quote, wouldn't recognize the GOP today.

In an interview with the "Associated Press", McConnell says the biggest reason for that is Donald Trump.

All right. Time now for weather. In the past month, we saw two major hurricanes hit parts of the Southeast just two weeks apart as temperatures rise from climate change, so, too, does the number of extreme natural disasters.

Our meteorologist, our weatherman Derek Van Dam, has more.

Derek, good morning.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. Kasie, you know what we used to consider extreme weather is now the new normal. And it will continue to be this way unless we address the root problem, which is the heat trapping greenhouse gases that we're emitting into the atmosphere. And there was this huge void on the topic of climate and environment.

And last night's town hall with Vice President Harris, but there was this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Finally, on fracking, you said you're clear you would not ban it as president.

HARRIS: No, I wouldn't ban it as president.

COOPER: Right, I know -- you're clear on that. Do you think it is bad for the environment though?

HARRIS: I think that we have proven that we can invest in a clean energy economy. We can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. We can work on and sustaining what we need to do to protect this beautiful Earth of ours and not ban fracking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN DAM: Mitigate greenhouse gases. That is the key. And I'm going to let you in on a little secret. If we don't, it's extremely expensive.

Take last year, for example, a record setting billion dollar plus disasters. And fast forward now to 2024, our current year, we already have tallied up $20 billion plus disasters. And not to mention the confirmed fatalities.

And, by the way, this data that you're looking at only is valid through August. So they need to still get in the numbers from what was September and October, remember, Helene and Milton that caused so much damage, devastation and destruction? Just look at the trend over the past decades, 2010 to 2019.

Look at that. Almost $1 trillion from these disasters and remember 2017. That one stands out, Hurricane Harvey, Irma and Maria.

And the reason for all this is the heat trapping greenhouse gases. We continue to warm the earth. The water takes in a lot of that heat as well. And that allows for more water vapor to be held in our atmosphere. So extreme rain events are becoming more prolific, more frequent and more intense and with that heat baked into our oceans, we're seeing this rapid intensification like what we saw with Milton on several different occasions occur more frequently as well.

So these storms are coming in hot and they're coming in a lot more powerful as well. And there are no states across the U.S. that are sheltered from these billion dollar disasters. They happen everywhere and they happen across the world as well.

Here's another example. This one, fortunately, hurricane Kristy fish food for the time being -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Derek, some good perspective on just what the impact of some of these what these smaller decisions that are politically motivated add up to in the long run. And what it means we're going to -- we're going to face going forward.

All right. Derek, always grateful to have you. See you next hour. Thank you.

Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, a new cyber threat ahead of election day. Microsoft reporting attempts to breach election related websites across several states, largely in key battlegrounds.

[05:25:07]

Plus, Kamala Harris continues her attempts to differentiate herself from the president that she serves alongside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration. I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right, 5:29 here on the East Coast, this is a live look.