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Israel Launched Strikes On Iran In A Retaliatory Attack; Beyonce Endorses Kamala Harris At Texas Rally; Trump Campaign In Battleground State of Michigan. Israel Strikes Iran's Military Targets in Response to October 1st Attack; Sources: Chinese Hackers Targeted Trump and Vance's Phone Data; Washington Post Declines to Endorse U.S. Presidential Candidate for the First Time in Decades. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired October 26, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:26]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, October 26. I'm Victor Blackwell.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: and I'm Bianna Golodryga in for Amber Walker, thanks so much for joining us. Good to see you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Good to see you too, Bianna. Beginning this morning with the breaking news out of Iran, Israel has carried out a major and highly anticipated series of air strikes against Iran in retaliation for Iran's attack on Israel at the start of the month.

This is video from Tehran, and it shows missiles being intercepted by anti-aircraft fire early this morning. The Iranian army says that two of its soldiers were killed in the attacks. The Israeli military said it hit, quote, precise military targets and did not include energy infrastructure. It also said that the strikes against Iran are over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESMAN: We conducted targeted and precise strikes on military targets in Iran, thwarting immediate threats to the State of Israel. The Israel Defense Forces has fulfilled its mission. If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: The White House said that it was not involved with the Israeli attack and responded to news of the strikes by urging Iran to not further escalate, saying the United States was not a participant in this operation. It is our aim to accelerate diplomacy and deescalate tensions in the Middle East region. We urge Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation. We have live team coverage of Israel's retaliatory strike on Iran. Our

Christiane Amanpour and Julia Benbrook are standing by. We begin though with Matthew Chance in Jerusalem for us and Matthew, you've been following all of the developments this morning, Iran says the strikes caused limited damage.

That statement alone suggests that perhaps we can expect a more muted response from Iran, if any at all. What more do we know about the damage from these strikes?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Iranians say that they reserve the right to respond, whether they will or won't. I mean, we just don't know at this stage. But look, I mean, I think the fact that limited damage was sustained was intentional on the part of the Israelis that they didn't want to kind of go all out and attack, for instance, nuclear research facilities or energy infrastructure facilities. And they kept the targeting to military sites.

And so what the Israeli Defense Forces, the Israeli military, say that they struck were missile production facilities, aerial defense batteries, surface to air missile installations, things like that, designed, according to Israeli military officials that I've spoken to this morning to send a message to Iran as a response to the attack that was carried out by Iran on October the first with hundreds of missiles being thrown at Israel's air defenses that so it was a message. It was symbolic on one hand.

On the other hand, what the Israeli defense officials are telling me is that it was also a very practical set of strikes, because it degraded Israel's, sorry, Iran's ability to carry out air defense, you know, kind of operations, and to strike Israel in the future, and it sets the scene, according to Israeli military officials, for a future possible strike that would allow Israel to operate more freely, they say, inside Iranian airspace.

But there's no getting away from it. This could have been much broader, much wider. In fact, it ended up it was quite narrow, targeted just at those military installations, and that's not necessarily a bad thing in terms of what the Iranian response will be.

BLACKWELL: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you. Let's bring in now. CNN's Julia Benbrook joining us from Washington. Israel has said that it's ended the retaliatory strikes against Iran. What's the view from the White House? We understand that they're asking Iran not to escalate this any further.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For them, this is about deescalation, and President Joe Biden was briefed on Israel's retaliatory strikes against Iran multiple times last night, and he has been closely following developments, and the White House has made it clear they were not a part of this operation.

[06:05:00]

But a senior U.S. administration official says that Biden had encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to design an attack that would deter future attacks against Israel, and in recent weeks, the United States had urged Netanyahu to exercise restraint and avoid striking Iran's oil and nuclear assets, and by avoiding striking those areas, Israel is opening the door potentially for deescalation. Of course, we will see how or if Iran responds.

I did want to pull up a statement from a White House National Security spokesperson who said Israel has announced that their response to Iran's ballistic missile attack on October 1st is now complete. As the Israelis have stated, their response was an exercise in self-defense and specifically avoided populated areas and focused solely on military targets, contrary to Iran's attack against Israel that targeted Israel's most populous city.

Now the White House is urging Iran to seize its attacks and end this cycle of fighting.

GOLODRYGA: All right. Julia Benbrook, thank you so much. Let's turn to CNN chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour joining us now with more. So, Christian, I am told from senior Israeli officials that they do expect some sort of response from Iran, they say it could be even imminent, but they are hoping, given in the -- given the limited scope of this strike by Israel, and given the pressure that they expect to see from the United States and other regional players there on Iran, that that response be indeed very limited and can lead to more deescalation. Is that what you're hearing as well?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It is, but from different sources, and it's sort of like a strike retaliation strike, you know, it's essentially a plan that's been heavily influenced by the United States. As you see, Israel has taken, you know, more than three weeks to design its so called self-defense retaliation, and the reason, I think, for that is because they've been in heavy negotiations with the U.S. to keep it in a way that doesn't massively escalate. Because oil infrastructure, nuclear infrastructure would have been a whole another level of targeting an attack, and would have created so much more ripple effects around the world that that could have been seriously, very, very risky. And clearly all sides decided that at this time that is not what they wanted or needed to do right now.

So what we're in is this process of reestablishing deterrence. As you know, Bianna, Iran and Israel have been in this shadow war for many, many years, Iran, through its proxies around Israel, Israel through its human intelligence sources and cyber inside Iran, whether blowing up centrifuges at Natanz, whether, you know, assassinating either, you know, nuclear scientists, or lately the is the Hamas leader.

So I think what we're expecting is this response from Israel, potentially, as you know, as the others said, a small response from Iran, or no response from Iran, and then for all sides to say, well, this now is reestablished deterrence for the moment.

Clearly, the United States has a huge amount of interest in how this goes. They don't want a wide regional war. Iran does not want and cannot afford a full scale attack from Israel. It is definitely the weaker partner in this, in conventional warfare and everybody's trying to deescalate. Meantime, you know, Gaza is exploding, and so is Lebanon. So there are more pieces of this horrible puzzle to resolve.

GOLODRYGA: Of course, let me ask you, what you make of reporting from Axios that Israel sent a message to Iran Friday ahead of these retaliatory strikes, and Israel said that they made it clear to the Iranians in advance, what they are going to attack in general and what they are not going to attack. How significant is that this was obviously done through a third party?

AMANPOUR: Well, I mean, look, it's extremely, again, programmed. It's extremely telegraphed. I mean, if you go back to what happened in April and Israel attacked the Iranian mission in Damascus and killed Revolutionary Guards and other, you know, other officials there, that wasn't necessarily telegraphed at all.

Then Iran responded. You remember in April with, I think back then it was 180 crews ballistic and drones and the U.S. and all its allies in Israel basically made sure that that actually didn't target anything, and nobody was killed, except, well, somebody was injured. And then you had the, you know, the -- it's just strange because each side is telegraphing the other through third parties what they're going to do and what they're not going to do.

[06:10:05]

So this is clearly attempted to be calibrated. This is not all out war. This is a series of strikes and counter strikes that's happening around this Gaza war that's gone on for the last year now, and it's all sides telegraphing each other how far to go.

Now, everybody was very worried, because when Israel and Iran got into it directly, it was the first time, as I say, in 45 years, of the Islamic Republic's antagonism and, you know, the militants and their militias around Israel. So this is the first time they've engaged directly in this last few months. And I think everybody's hoping that this is going to now, as I say, draw a line under it and see what happens.

But as I think Matthew and the others were saying, what they struck Israel is probably significant ballistic missile infrastructure and also probably air defense infrastructure. But they didn't, it seems, go after regime targets. So no regime change, no nuclear strikes. And what strikes on the nuclear infrastructure and no oil infrastructure strikes.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, and that is something that not only that the U.S. had been warning and asking the U.S. not to -- Israel not to do, but you also got pressure internally from opposition Israeli figureheads, including the former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who had been publicly arguing ever since that October 1 attack, and even before then that, it's time, in his view, to go after leadership, perhaps directly in Iran, and target the oil and the nuclear facilities in the country.

Quickly, Christiane, can I get you to weigh in on something that you touched on earlier? And what if any impact does this have on the possibility of resuming cease fire and hostage talks as it relates to the war in Gaza. Antony Blinken making his 11th trip to the region just this past week, trying to get that back on the table.

AMANPOUR: Well, I think this is the last dish -- last ditch dash of this administration's last month, they absolutely wanted to make sure that the Iran retaliation, which everybody expected, was going to be manageable. They absolutely need to get a ceasefire and a resolution in Lebanon to somehow strengthen the Lebanese government, maybe put other third party monitors inside southern Lebanon to protect that, you know, that border there, and make sure it's not an active border between Israel and Lebanon.

And then they absolutely need to continue ceasefire talks for Gaza, that war has to end. Dozens of people have been killed even in the last 24 hours, and that is what first the attack on Israel, then the year of massive attacks on Gaza is, you know, firing up the whole region. And it's not an accident that the Secretary of State was in the region, in Israel and in Qatar and in other places, and in London, meeting with Arab foreign ministers, Allied foreign ministers, just ahead of this Israeli response, and to brief everybody on what they're trying to do in the last few months of this administration.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, just 10 days before a crucial U.S. election here as well.

AMANPOUR: Election. Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Christiane, yes, Christiane Amanpour, always great to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. Your great analysis as always.

AMANPOUR: Thank you, Bianna.

BLACKWLEL: All right, let's talk about that election. Both presidential campaigns are focusing on the battleground state of Michigan today because early voting kicks off in Michigan today, just hours after taking the stage with Beyonce in Texas, the other high profile Democrat, Vice President Harris, will campaign today with, we'll have that for you coming up.

And former President Donald Trump is preparing for his rally at Madison Square Garden that is tomorrow. Why he apologized to his crowd of Michigan supporters last night.

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[06:18:44]

BLACKWELL: 10 days. It's all you got 10 days left of the presidential election, and it is crunch time for the candidates. Here's where the campaigns will be today. Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Kalamazoo, Michigan, joined by former First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Donald Trump arrived in Michigan last night, and he'll hold another rally there this afternoon, before heading to Pennsylvania.

Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz is touring Arizona, and rival J.D. Vance will be in Atlanta and Pennsylvania.

GOLODRYGA: As we've been reporting, the tickets are separated by a razor thin margin, new CNN polling released Friday shows the two are tied with 47 percent of the likely vote each more than 30 million people have already voted in the election.

Friday night, Harris got a major endorsement as guess who Victor, Beyonce, joins her on stage.

BLACKWELL: Your former schoolmate.

GOLODRYGA: My former schoolmate, yes, slightly more successful than I am on stage in the singer's hometown of Houston. CNN Rosa Flores has her message.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the energy here in Houston is electrifying because the star power is Texas size. I'm talking about Beyonce, Queen Bey in her hometown of H Town.

[06:20:00]

Now as I look around this stadium, the venue is also Texas sized, I can see that pretty much every seat here has been taken, and this stadium seats about 21,000 people. Now in addition to that, the organizers deployed a floor that meets up to the stage what you would expect during a concert, and I can tell you that there are multiple pens of spectators, and they're standing shoulder to shoulder, standing room only.

Now, if you're wondering why Paris is in Texas when Texas is not a battleground state, you're probably thinking what most people in the United States are thinking. Why? Well, as Kamala Harris continues to create a contrast between what an America under a Harris administration would look like and an America under a Trump administration would look like when it comes to abortion rights, Texas is center stage. Texas is the biggest stage because Texas is one of the states with the strictest abortion bans.

There is -- there are no exceptions for rape or incest in this state, and there's a very narrow exception for life of the mother. Now it's not just the star power that Harris has brought to Texas, it's also the stories of real women who have been impacted by the lack of abortion care in several states. In the United States, take a listen.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The reality is, for every story we hear about, about the suffering because of a Trump abortion ban, there are so many stories we've never heard an untold number of women and the people who love them, who are silently suffering, women who are being made to feel as though they did something wrong, as though they are criminals, as though they are alone. And to those women, I say, and I think I speak on behalf of all of us. We see you, and we are here with you.

FLORES: And after Texas, you guessed it, Harris is returning to the battleground state of Michigan. Rosa Flores, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Rosa Flores. Meanwhile, Trump campaigned in Traverse City, Michigan, a late night for rally goers. CNN's Alayna Treene explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: On n a very chilly evening in Traverse City, Michigan, on Friday, Donald Trump arrived to his event nearly three hours late. Now, Trump is normally a bit late to some of his events, but that was uncharacteristically late for the former president.

Now Donald Trump, when he did arrive, he walked out onto the stage two, a pretty dark theme song that was actually known as The Undertaker, a song for a WWE wrestler, and he stood on stage for roughly seven minutes before the league run was God Bless the USA played, and then he began addressing the crowd.

Now, before he took the stage, I will say hundreds of people had already left because of such a delay. Donald Trump apologized for that once he got to the podium, take a listen.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We had some other things really important. And I said, you know, we're going to get this stuff done. And my people came to me, sir, we could cancel our evening event. I'm sure the people wouldn't mind. I said, are you crazy? I'm not canceling. There's no way. I'm not canceling. It's no way. We never even -- so I apologize, but you know, it's all about winning. We got to win, and we did some things today that will help us win.

TREENE: Now, the reason that Donald Trump was so late, his senior advisers say, is because his interview, he had a scheduled interview with podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday that went over way longer than they expected. It lasted roughly three hours, and that was taped in Austin, Texas. Of course, a roughly three hour flight to Traverse City, Michigan.

But look, taping with Joe Rogan was very important to Donald Trump's campaign. Not only is he one of the most popular podcasters in the United States, he has roughly 14 million followers on Spotify. But also this is something that they had been working to secure for several months.

Particularly, they really view this as a crowning achievement on their overall strategy this cycle, to really try and target not only men, but young men, and specifically low propensity voters, meaning people who aren't necessarily political, trying to get them to turn out for Donald Trump. So that was a huge part of why they were late on Friday. But Donald Trump, of course, apologized to the crowd and then spoke for roughly an hour beyond that. Alayna Treene, CNN, Traverse City, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLACKWELL: All right, Alayna, thanks so much. Let's say good morning now to Chicago Sun-Times Washington bureau chief, Lynn Sweet.

[06:25:02]

Good morning to you, Lynn. Let's start with the new CNN poll tied at 47 clearly, no leader here. Have both campaigns moved from the persuasion phase of the campaign in now to get out the vote, or with this podcast with Joe Rogan, is Trump still trying to convince some voters?

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: It's both. The answer is both, because voting, as you know, has started in many places in America, right between states, what votes are doing is not dismissing one strategy or putting one strategy over another, with the race to go after everybody who seems a toss-up voter, or who would be your vote, you only got them to vote.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's talk now about the Joe Rogan interview, as Alayna said, three hours that went -- there was some New York Times reporting ahead of the interview that the former president was considering a plan to get rid of all federal taxes. And here's what Joe asked the former president, and let's play that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ROGAN, PODCASTER: Did you just float out the idea of getting rid of income taxes and replacing it with tariffs.

TRUMP: Well, OK.

ROGAN: Were you serious about?

TRUMP: Yes, sure, but why not? Because we -- ready? Our country was the richest in the relatively in the 1880s and 1890s, a president who was assassinated named McKinley, he was the tariff king, and then around in the early 1900s they switched over, stupidly, to, frankly, an income tax. And you know why? Because countries were putting a lot of pressure in America, we don't want to pay tariffs, please, don't you. You know they, believe me, they control our politicians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So getting rid of all federal income tax, sure? Why not? Isn't really the most assertive case that he could have made. But is he out there on his own on this? I mean, what's the likely support of GOP on the Hill?

SWEET: Well, this is a total revamping the finances of government, but also pay attention to how to try to frame it and twisting history, bringing up assassination, when we was the potential target -- he was the target of assassination attempts. I get it, and people do too.

But the reason, you know, the graduated income tax came to the United States in a bit of controversy. It is an essential part of funding government. It also is not necessarily a regressive test tariff is (ph), meaning, I don't mean to use a jargon word here, so let me explain quickly. A tariff increase on goods for most of the instances, or else it's of a profit for the entity importing those goods. You can't necessarily --

BLACKWELL: Hey, Lynn, I'm going to jump in here, because the technology just won't let us be great. We're taking hits to your picture and your audio. I have more questions, but unfortunately we will have to leave it there. All right. Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: All right. thank you. Still to come for us, a nationwide E. coli outbreak has been linked to one of the most popular sandwiches at McDonald's. We'll tell you where recalls have been issued, and Israel has carried out a major long anticipated series of air strikes against Iran. We'll have the latest from the region after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CO-ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: All right, let's press forward on the breaking news from overnight. This morning, Israel says it has completed its targeted retaliatory strikes against Iran. Israel says the attacks were directed at Iran' military bases. And people who live there say that there were explosions, and air defense firing back could be seen and heard around Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we were so worried. The truth is, we thought the incident wouldn't be directed at us right now. I was working a night shift, and at the workplace, we heard the sound of cannon fire and explosion. In fact, the sound echoed across the sky, a terrible and horrifying sound.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CO-ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: Iran says the strikes caused quote, "limited damage". Israel launched the airstrikes at military bases as a response to Iran's missile attacks on October 1st. CNN's chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance is following this story for us. And Matthew, these strikes are now over for now at least, what are we hearing from both sides?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, from the Iranian side, this bit of statement from the Foreign Ministry saying that they reserve the right to strike back and retaliate for this Israeli attack. But it's not clear what form that retaliation will take or whether it will even materialize at all.

What we do know is that the widely anticipated Israeli strike on Iran, which comes in response to the Iranian strike on Israel on October the 1st, and it's part of a tit-for-tat series of strikes that have been carrying on for several months was relatively limited in scope. I mean, there were concerns that energy infrastructure like oil terminals, oil facilities, nuclear research facilities would be struck, in fact, that didn't happen. [06:35:00]

And what the Israelis did is to limit their strikes to military installation, specifically according to the Israeli military missile manufacturing facilities, surface-to-air missile installations, and striking Iran's aerial capabilities. And they said they did that for two reasons, first of all, to send a message that the strikes against Israel would not go unanswered.

And so, there's a symbolism to this, but there's also a practical reason that these targets were selected according to Israeli defense officials, saying that it basically degrades Iran's capability to strike at Israel in the future and degrades their ability to counter it further, Israeli airstrikes if they're deemed necessary in the future.

It's been criticized in Israel by one opposition figure, saying that these strikes did not go far enough, that the targeting should have been much broader and much wider. But others in Israel have said that military logic has prevailed, and that this is a retaliation which was necessary, but not one that draws Israel further into a conflict directly with Iran. And so, yes, there have been mixed reviews if you like, to this Israeli military action in Israel itself over the course of the past few hours.

GOLODRYGA: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead, hackers linked to China may have targeted the phones of former President Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance. Why it could be part of a much bigger scheme.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: We are seeing more foreign efforts to interfere in the U.S. election in these last ten days. Hackers linked to the Chinese government targeted the phones of former President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance. Sources tell CNN that it's not clear what data, if any, they were able to access.

And there are other tactics being used to influence the election like disinformation and deep fakes. "The Washington Post" reports the Russian military paid a former Florida sheriff's deputy, who now lives in Russia to create A.I.-enhanced deep fake videos, smearing the Harris campaign.

CNN's senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem is with me now. Juliette, good morning to you. I would have expected that --

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning --

BLACKWELL: And they're part of, according to this reporting, a larger Chinese scheme here --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: But I would have expected Trump and Vance's phones to be safeguarded against these types of hacks. Are they --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: And what potentially could these hackers have accessed by going through their phones?

KAYYEM: Right, so, we don't know the details of what in fact, what I would say instruments in fact, were targeted. We know just from history that Donald Trump has kept various phones. He's been more lax on security than previous Presidents, and so, China's goals -- let's start with China is really about policy rather than sort of the election.

They want -- they target -- Republicans are -- tend to target Republicans because of their concerns of anti-Chinese sentiment, strong anti-Chinese sentiment within the Republican Party. So, I'm not surprised that even though we've heard some stuff about the Harris campaign, that they are aggressively going against hook -- you know, the potential Republican President and Vice President.

And we don't know now what information they would have gotten. They could have gotten personal information that could be used against the candidates, or they could have just gotten conversations about what policy might be in a Trump-Vance administration.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about this deep fake reporting from the --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: "Washington Post", and a stunning report of they using European Intel sources here. A former Palm Beach County Sheriff, former Marine --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: Working with Russia to flood the propaganda sites, of social media with deep fakes, they target the VP Harris' campaign, Governor Walz as well. Name is John Mark Dougan, he denies it, but if true, does the law enforcement background, the military background --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: And make him even more dangerous here in the U.S.

KAYYEM: Yes, I mean, for one, it suggests that the -- some entity in the U.S. is supporting this. Look, the disinformation campaign which is -- which is both domestic, but also being amplified by the Russians as we're seeing in that case. And there's been some other cases since where the Russians are clearly creating information to -- or videos to suggest that polling areas are being sort of utilized to sort of undermine votes against Trump. And they, the Russians here are different than the Chinese. The

Russians want to both support Donald Trump and also want to create a narrative that if he loses, it was because of nefarious behavior. What does that do? That would make a President Harris have to contend with a lot of narrative that maybe it was an unfair election that -- and Trump's people would still be upset.

So, what the Russians are trying to do is create a lot of noise in the system, either to support Donald Trump, who is clearly their ally, we know this, or to undermine Harris, should she win. And that's basically what's going on. That's why the Russians and Chinese are somewhat different in their motivation here.

[06:45:00]

But the Russians are supporting Americans who are willing to do this to create this narrative that the election is unfair, I should say now, no evidence that votes are being changed, no evidence that polling booths or voting instruments are being undermined. This is all disinformation to create a narrative in support against democracy, essentially --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

KAYYEM: And in support of Donald Trump.

BLACKWELL: We have seen how divisive that supporting even the narrative has been over the last several years --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: And why we behoove them toward their ends to reinforce that again in this cycle. Let me talk to you about the RNC and Republicans saying they're going to deploy tens of thousands of poll watchers --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: Thirty four million people have already voted early, but toward election day --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: Listen here to Michael Whatley, the chair of the RNC.

KAYYEM: Yes --

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MICHAEL WHATLEY, CHAIR, RNC: We are going to be aggressive, if you see things that are out there, send them to us, flag them, we're going to track them down. We're not going to wait until after the election is certified when it's too late to be able to go in and challenge these things.

(END AUDIO CLIP) BLACKWELL: We're going to be aggressive. Are you concerned about this

mobilization?

KAYYEM: I am. I mean, look, it is very natural for a party to deploy resources to either support the state election process or the state party, or to get eyes and ears on the ground. This kind of language though, this use of aggressive leaning for it, it is all -- the Republicans always have this tinge of sort of you know, everything is illegal and only us can save America from itself.

And that, that language is sort of the threat of violence, that aggressiveness, that is the kind of thing that makes me worried. We need to -- you know, these people -- we don't know who they are. Are they trained? Look, there are laws across the states that prohibit certain types of political activity during a campaign or during an election. Those are state laws, they're not campaign laws that the Trump campaign will have to abide by them.

But I think what it shows is that the Trump campaign does not care what the vote is. In other words, they -- the Republicans, they will -- they are going to contest regardless of what the votes stay. And so --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

KAYYEM: What that means is state secretaries of state, where the Republican or Democratic, and of course, the Democratic Party, have to be ready for that. We know Donald Trump won't concede. And so, these are the scenarios that election officials, secretaries of state, the Democratic Party, and of course, the media have to go through knowing that there's going to be this alternative narratives --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

KAYYEM: Out there, as part of the election, as part of election day, that will exist regardless of what the votes say. And so, what I've been writing as you know, is we shouldn't be surprised by this. This is part of the election strategy.

BLACKWELL: And even part of the strategy is to threaten the tens of thousands of poll watchers. I mean, they made --

KAYYEM: Yes --

BLACKWELL: The same threat before the 2022 election, and those numbers did not come to fruition, but we'll see if they make good this cycle. Juliette Kayyem, thanks so much.

KAYYEM: Thank you, see you soon. I'm sure --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

GOLODRYGA: Still to come for us, the "Washington Post" says that it will not endorse a candidate in this year's presidential race. The reason for the change and the fallout in the paper's newsroom as a result. That's ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:00]

GOLODRYGA: And a major break from recent tradition. The "Washington Post" says that it will not endorse a candidate in this year's U.S. presidential election or any in the future for that matter. Its publisher says the decision is consistent with its values and a return to the paper's roots.

It has made an endorsement in every election since the 1980s. A person with knowledge of the matter told CNN that the "Post's editorial page staffers had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. But the "Post" said owner Jeff Bezos; the founder of Amazon made the decision not to endorse. Robert Kagan; an opinion editor at large at the paper says he resigned over the move.

BLACKWELL: All right, here are some other top stories we're following for you this morning. New numbers released in the E.coli outbreak linked to McDonald's, the CDC now reports 75 confirmed cases across 13 states, more than 20 hospitalizations and one death. Now, the FDA has identified slivered onions or beef patties used in McDonald's quarter pounder sandwiches as the likely source.

The chain has removed these ingredients from affected states while the investigation continues. Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and international prostitution charges in a New York court yesterday. He was released on a $10 million bond, but he has to stay in New York, Long Island or southern Florida unless given permission to leave by the court.

Now, Jeffries allegedly used his company as a sex-trafficking network, is due back in court December 12th. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: Well, next week, we will be announcing this year's top five CNN Heroes, one of whom will be named the next CNN Hero of the year. Last year you chose veterinarian Dr. Kwane Stewart for that top honor. Here's what he's been up to since the big win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 2023 CNN Hero of the year is --

KWANE STEWART, VETERINARIAN: It's like the Oscar moment where they open the card -- I think I had a little bit of a blackout moments when they said my name.

[06:55:00]

I saw my 26 years as a vet sort of flash before me, and to fill the recognition from everybody, it was really special. The other side effect of the award is that I just had veterinarians from all around the country reach out and say, can I do that in my city?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I saw what he was doing is, I said, wow, this is great. This is exactly what we need here in New York. STEWART: There was always on my dream board to come to New York, and

it just timed out perfectly with the CNN events, and made contact with some good people here, and it was go time.

This little mission is now in seven cities. I'm building a team, more people, more pet serves, more cities and then the dream will just keep going on.

Be good, man --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good, yes --

STEWART: I'll see you, man, you all right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: So great to see that his message and work is spreading. To see the full story and find out which famous animal lovers have teamed up with Kwane to help pets in need, you can go to cnnheroes.com. Well, we're staying on top of the breaking news out of Middle East this hour, Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes on Iran. We'll have the very latest from Israel coming up after the break.

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