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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump-Backed Candidate Once Called Himself A "Black Nazi"; Oprah Hosting Massive Rally Tonight in Support of Harris; New Details About Low-Tech Devices That Exploded, Killing Dozens. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 19, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:44]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news: Trump's campaign rocked by an exclusive KFILE report, revealing the Trump-backed candidate for North Carolina governor called himself a, quote, Black Nazi, and supported bringing back slavery.
Also breaking, the Oprah treatment. Harris is about to appear alongside Oprah Winfrey. Hundreds of thousands expected to watch this hour.
And tensions mounting tonight as CNN learns new details about the thousands of exploding pagers and two-way radios. How Israel use companies as a fake front to get the deadly devices out.
Let's go OUTFRONT
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight: we begin with breaking news, the Trump campaign reeling tonight after a stunning report from our own KFILE which reveals the Trump-backed candidate for governor in North Carolina, mark Robinson has made dozens of disturbing and comments on a porn website.
Some of the comments are frankly so disturbing that we cannot air them. But they include Robinson writing, quote, I am a black Nazi, and, I wish they would bring it (slavery) back.
Robinson also calling himself a, quote, perv while discussing his affinity for transgender pornography. Keep in mind that he has called transgender kids sick and demonic. These comments were made between 2008 and 2012, and at this hour, Robinson is defiant, refusing to step beside. At this point, Robinson has only five hours to do so, five hours in order for Republicans to find a replacement candidate. The deadline is tonight at midnight.
As for the Trump campaign, they've released a statement trying to distance Trump from Robinson, saying, we're focused on winning North Carolina and we will not, quote, take our eye off the ball, by trying to avoid the topic. But here's the fact: Robinson's Trump's guy.
This is what Trump's been saying about Robinson for years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is Martin Luther King on steroids.
I think you're better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.
One of the great stars of the party, one of the great stars in politics, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson.
I'm a great supporter of his. You're incredible lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson.
He's a hot politician. He's a hot politician, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson.
A real star, great guy, friend of mine, Mark Robinson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. I just didn't want to leave any ambiguity out there.
The Harris campaign tonight is wasting no time highlighting that relationship, posting these images with a thumbs-up emoji.
Now, Robinson is really crucial in the presidential race because he is running to be governor in North Carolina. And Trump's road to the White House runs through North Carolina.
That is why this is a major issue. It is why the campaign cannot be happy with what he is telling our Andrew Kaczynski of KFILE.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ROBINSON (R), NOMINEE FOR NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR: This is not us. These are not our words and this is not anything that is characteristic of me nor has it ever -- has it ever been. The people here of North Carolina know, I have been completely transparent about my history. All the wards and we put them all out. We let folks know about it.
But the folks here also know my character. They know who I am, they know my voice, so to speak. This is not my voice. This is not things that we would ever say or even think.
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: How do you explain all of the matching details on this profile? The profile on Nude Africa lists your full name as Mark Robinson. The email listed on the account is an email that you used -- you have used elsewhere on the Internet, including with your photo. You have used that name "Minisoldr" on multiple social media accounts, including Twitter, Pinterest, Black Planet, and YouTube. How can you deny with all of these matching details that this is you?
ROBINSON: Look, I'm not going to get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this all, these salacious tabloid lies. But I can tell you this: there's been over $1 million spent on me through A.I. by a billionaire's son who's bound and determined to destroy me. The things that people can do with the Internet now, it was incredible.
But what I can tell you is this, again these are not my words.
KACZYNSKI: You mentioned A.I. Are you saying that somebody was somehow manufacturing biographical details to exactly match you using your username?
[19:05:01]
Is that what you're telling me here when you said that?
ROBINSON: Look, I have no idea how this was done. I have absolutely no idea how it was done, and I have five weeks left in this campaign to focus on the substantive issues that North Carolinians face. I do not have time for tabloid trash.
KACZYNSKI: Okay. Well, how do you explain some of this being on the Internet web archive, something that can't be --
ROBINSON: We are -- we are -- I've made my position clear and we are done with this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Andrew Kaczynski, who broke this story is OUTFRONT.
And, Andrew, I just want to make sure, you're going to go step-by-step in a moment to explain how certain you are that these comments came from Robinson since he is bringing up this -- this A.I. idea.
But I just first want to say, and it's incredible reporting. It is leading new sites everywhere. It's incredibly significant and in North Carolina is so significant. So lets go through what you found. You found many of his comments on this porn website, which is one of the places you found this, have to do with race. What else did you uncover?
KACZYNSKI: Yeah, that's right. We found a series of highly disturbing comments made by Mark Robinson on a pornographic website's message board more than a decade ago. And I want to walk our viewers through just a few of the ones that were even allowed to show on TV.
In one disturbing post, Robinson defended slavery, writing, quote, slavery is not that bad. I wish they would bring slavery back. I would certainly own a few.
Another thing that we found was that Robinson used slurs on the website. We found that he often used anti-gay slurs. He used an anti- Jewish slur. He used an anti-Muslim slur, and he even disparaged civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., calling him a, quote, commie, bastard, and Martin, Lucifer, then using a racial slur.
BURNETT: All right. So, you -- all of this, again, just to emphasize right, calling himself a black Nazi, right? It was another thing you found. He's also said incendiary things about transgender people. We talked about a couple of them, horrific things that he has said about transgender people.
But he also admitted on this website to then watch ching transgender pornography?
KACZYNSKI: That's right. In one of the comments, we found Robinson says that he enjoys, quote, watching transgender porn saying, quote, that's f-ing hot. It takes the man out while leaving the man in and then adding, quote, I'm a perv, too.
BURNETT: I mean, all right. It's just -- okay. This just -- so this is all -- all of these things that you founded. And as I said, were going to go through in just a moment exactly how you know, this was him who posted it because it is very clear and the work was excruciatingly detailed.
I want to go to Phil Mattingly OUTFRONT in Washington though.
Phil, as you hear, Andrew lay all this out, you were at a Trump rally in North Carolina. He called Robinson onstage when you were there, you noted he called him a good man and I know today as KFILE's reporting has been breaking and people are just starting to realize the import of this, you have been fielding calls from Republicans. What are they telling you?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's been remarkable those calls and I explain why in a second, but I want to start with that rally down in Asheville, Mark Robinson didn't actually have a speaking role at that rally, which I thought was surprising at the time. But as you noted, the foreign president did call him up the stage and shake his hand. He called him a good man, said he had to win.
And one North Carolina Republican operative I was talking with earlier today said that's a really important moment for Mark Robinson. I said, why is that? He said that's the last time he will ever be in public with Donald Trump if this campaign knows what they're doing, you've made very clear, as you read Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign spokeswoman statement. They are distancing themselves. They are talking about his race, Trump's race in North Carolina, the fact he's won the state twice and needs to win it again, they are not talking about Mark Robinson.
Now, when it comes to this story Erin, I've been doing this 15, 16 years, have covered a lot of pretty explosive stories, I've never seen what happened in the hours before Andrew and KFILE story came out as I did today, which was this morning, I started getting phone calls from Republicans, both here in D.C., but also some in North Carolina, asking what this story was about. I had no idea. I wasn't involved in reporting it.
But the fact is the campaign or people tied to the campaign were clearly trying to front run -- to get out in front of this story, try and spin it in their direction as you heard, the lieutenant governor try and do with Andrew directly. That made it significantly worse. The anticipation for this story because of this, Erin, a number of Republicans I spoke to said, how could it possibly be worse than what he's said in the past, this is no stranger to very, very explosive remarks, offensive remarks in the past as part of his brand. And one of those people who said that before this story came out, after it came out, called me and said well, it was a very high bar, but he absolutely clear that bar.
I think that's the reality now for Republicans. We saw Ralph Norman on Capitol Hill, a South Carolina Republican House member, saying that he needed to resign. Marjorie Taylor Greene saying she needed to learn more about this, but couldn't support someone who has these positions if it's true.
How Republicans react in the days ahead is going to be instructive.
[19:10:00]
But one thing that's really important right now around, you have seen nobody come out and defend him or support his explanation that he attempted to give Andrew.
BURNETT: All right. Phil, thank you. All right.
So, you know, obviously, Margaret, we talk about how he -- Trump has to win the state, he has to win this state. And people tend to vote Republican or Democrat. So when you got to governor, Republican, and that's your candidate, that's not good for Trump, all right, just to put the obvious out there.
But the race is tight. Right now, Harris leads. She's way behind with Biden. This state wasn't even on the map, OK?
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Statistical tie is accurate.
BURNETT: Statistical tie, but all these states are statistical tie. She's up in many of them. She's up in this one.
Larry Sabato from crystal ball team this afternoon, says, they met after KFILE's report. KFILE's report comes out, they meet, KFILE. And in the fastest move ever, they moved the race for governor in North Carolina from lean D to likely D.
I mean, is this a five-alarm fire?
HOOVER: Well, Josh Stein can feel pretty good about himself now. He is the attorney general of the state. He'd be the first Jewish governor of North Carolina if he's able -- if he's able to win.
BURNETT: Yeah. HOOVER: Look -- Mark -- look, Mark Robinson was not on his way to win this race. What we have seen now and we should -- we should be realistic about this, a lot of Republicans, especially in the southern states, this has happened in Georgia. This has also happened in Arizona. They will leave Trump off the top of the ticket and vote down-ballot for Republicans, they will also likely they sometimes do the opposite.
So I don't think we should necessarily think that Donald Trump is toast here because the terrible Republican candidate for governor is on his way to being toasted.
BURNETT: What do you think, Aisha?
AISHA MILLS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think that this is hilarious.
I think that this is hilarious because there's a long history of hypocritical Republicans getting caught up in some messy sex scandal, during the entire -- well, it all -- it's ongoing, so I can't say it's over.
But this witch hunt against LGBTQ people has been led by a bunch of homophobes who themselves were in the closet. These folks who are getting caught in transgender, relationships, people who are soliciting sex from, you know, sex workers, all kind of crazy stuff has gone down.
And so I'm not surprised by the hypocrisy here that we're seeing on display. And so I am looking forward to seeing who in Republican Party actually starts to call for him to step out of this race like in the next hour.
BURNETT: All right. So, Erin Perrine is with me obviously and, you know, Trump well, Erin. Let me ask you about that.
He has literally there five hours -- there's less than five hours, there's four hours and 49 minutes left for him to get out of this race if he's going to get out of the race. Should Trump be forcing Robinson out?
ERIN PERRINE, FORMER DIRECTOR OF PRESS COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: That's really a question for Donald Trump at this point, but it doesn't seem like he's ever been the type of candidate to at least in this race, walk away from Mark Robinson. Mark Robinson had previous comments that voters were well aware of and still elected him lieutenant governor, and he got Trump's endorsement.
I can't imagine that Donald Trump would backup wait from that endorsement and somehow turn up the heat the next four hours to try to boot Robinson off the ballot and bring in a different Republican. But this is the craziest election cycle in the history of election cycles. So, I can certainly never say never.
BURNETT: That's important, right? I got to put that caveat out there. I respect you for that, Erin. Andrew, when you spoke with Robinson, though, he was very -- one of the arguments he was making there was this was an A.I. thing and they're spending this billionaire all this money and A.I. to make up things about me. And this is in that category.
Here are some of the things he told you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBINSON: A.I. has been used against me and anyone that knows how to use A.I., to manipulate anything digitally. I have no idea how it was done, but they're not my words.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. Explain how, you know, it's him.
KACZYNSKI: Well, Erin, we found that Robinson consistently use the same username, minisoldr, that he used on Nude Africa in all of his social media. As you can see, he used it on Pinterest, Black Planet, YouTube, he even previously used it as his Twitter handle, and actually his full name was even listed on this website along with an email that we found that he used on Nude Africa he used on several other websites.
Now, the biographical data from multiple websites using the username minisoldr also matches Mark Robinson exactly to his date of birth, his hometown. The fact that his mother worked at an HBCU, and even that his favorite episode of the "Twilight Zone" is number 22.
BURNETT: I mean, an excruciating, as I -- I use the word excruciating amount of detail, but I think its important and you lay all that out.
Aisha, this is all posted on Nude Africa. That's why I hear you responding.
HOOVER: Responding.
MILLS: I mean, the fact that it's all posted and if you actually read some of the things that you found and how graphic they are, it seems like --
BURNETT: Some of it we're not sharing, I mean, we're not --
MILLS: We can't make share because it's literally written lie someone who wants to be a writer for pornography films, but -- I mean, at the end of the day though, I think that there's a lot of hypocrisy happening.
Now remember, Donald Trump at the top of the ticket has actually been found liable for sexual assault.
[19:15:03]
Donald Trump has said a lot of really off the wall things that are not dissimilar from what this guy said. So the fact that they're bedfellows really is, you know, I'm excited to see that the commonly campaign is actually making that connection because this is not an isolated incident in North Carolina. This is symptomatic of who the Republican Party is right now.
BURNETT: So, Margaret, you know, Republicans, many of them not Trump yet, although I guess he's distancing himself by not over -- coming out and saying, oh, I support him, but, you know, he's many Republicans are very clearly distancing themselves from Robinson, calls for him to step down, but he made a lot of incendiary comments before, right?
It's not as if suddenly this -- oh my gosh, you know, KFILE's reported on some of these other things like these.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBINSON: There's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth.
The transgender movement in this country -- if there's a movement in this country that is demonic, and that is full of anti -- the spirit of antichrist is the transgender movement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So on the sexual side of this, okay, because there's the stuff he said about slavery, there's a sexual side. So people who are saying, oh, well, you know, he's posting these disgusting, horrific you know, porn posts -- it's the hypocrisy is one thing. Okay? So he's watching transgender porn after he said these things. They were okay with him saying these things.
HOOVER: Yeah.
BURNETT: Because we've known about this.
HOOVER: Maybe hypocrisy still is the unforgivable sin in politics, Erin. We shall see, we shall see.
Look, you know, obviously, there will be some Republicans who suggest that he should step down and there will be a majority of Republicans who stay silent and hope it works itself out, and then will silently concede that, you know, North Carolina's governorship has gone, most likely, and that that will probably have an effect on enthusiasm amongst Republicans in North Carolina. Look, MAGA supporters are MAGA supporters, regardless who the Republican nominee is for governor.
But it is again an illustration and an example of the corrosiveness of the Republican Party that Trump has overtaken that these nominees, these candidates are blessed by Donald Trump simply because they flatter him and they adore him, they look up to him and not because there's any discretion about who they are as candidates. I mean, the candidate quality question is just completely out the window as illustrated once again by this kind of candidate. BURNETT: All right. Erin, what do you think it is that is, as, you know, Phil Mattingly's talking about all the calls he's getting today from people ahead of KFILE's reporting, wondering what it was Andrew was going to have and then afterwards saying it was a really high bar to be awful and he cleared it.
I mean, he did say these things before. So he said that demonic transgender movement. He said all of these things before. Is it the hypocrisy that he watched the porn that is a problem for them now, is it the stuff about slavery? Do you -- from people you're talking to, do you know?
PERRINE: If this one -- if this is true, which the lieutenant governor has said it isn't, but if it is true, it's all of it. It's every part of it. All of it would be unexcusable and disgusting language that should be condemned in the strongest terms and Republicans shouldn't campaign or support a candidate like that, and that's the issue here. It's all of it. It's not one piece that makes one part of it worse than the other. It's the fact that there is a litany, a possible litany of all of these messages of really dark, disgusting comments that can't be said on air.
If that's true, this is a problem and we need to make sure on both sides of the party that we are putting up better quality candidates in the long run, because we always talk about the moral clarity and the moral -- morality of the Republican Party. If this is true, this is one of those instances where we would have coming up so unbelievably short.
BURNETT: Andrew, let me just give you the final word here in your reporting, when you found this?
KACZYNSKI: Yeah.
BURNETT: You know, what did you think? You find this and you're thinking, oh, my gosh, you're checking it. You're realizing all the names match up, all the details match up, you find incredible things all the time. But was your jaw go on the floor with some of this?
KACZYNSKI: You know, it gets interesting about one thing that's really interesting about this, too, is actually the point that Phil made, which was that he was getting inquiries from people about what's the CNN story, what's the CNN story?
BURNETT: Yeah.
KACZYNSKI: We weren't leaking the story, you know? Somebody on his campaign was going to people telling them that there's a forthcoming story and that's going to reporters, and I think the question, at least here, sort of becomes, why was that happening? Are people trying to get him out of the race before that deadline?
And so when you found this, for me, at least some of it matches things that you know, you might think Mark Robinson had said. But a lot of this, there is a major hypocrisy angle to it as well. BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, absolutely. But as you point out, I mean, all
day, it was this upcoming story on CNN. Obviously, you're doing your reporting, so you're calling them for comment. They knew there was a story coming. They knew some of what it was about. So why were they -- why were they putting it out there?
[19:20:04]
KACZYNSKI: Who was leaking it and why?
BURNET: All right. Thank you all very much.
And next our breaking news coverage continues because, you know, as Andrew just said, and as Erin said, you just got a few hours left if Mark Robinson is going to be out of this race, North Carolina's Republican treasurer who ran against Robinson is my guest. Is he calling for him to drop out tonight in these final hours?
Plus, Vice President Harris tonight pinning her hopes on Oprah. The two expected together shortly for what the campaign is calling big night.
And just in, more election workers receiving suspicious mail as threats against poll workers are surging.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could not, quote, quantify the number of death threats that we have received here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:25:13]
BURNETT: Breaking news, North Carolina's top newspaper now calling for Mark Robinson to drop out of the race for governor. He has just about four-and-a-half hours to do so. The deadline is midnight.
In a new editorial, the "News and Observer" writing in part, quote, Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson has only one decent option now, quit the race for governor. Once he was obnoxious and mean. Now he has become creepy. If Robinson won't go on his own, Republican leaders should explore ways to revoke his nomination.
This coming hours after the stunning new KFILE reporting that Robinson posted numerous disturbing comments on a pornography website's message boards, calling himself a black Nazi, defending slavery, saying he'd buy slaves, talking about watching transgender pornography, incredible things that we will not say, pornographic posts.
OUTFRONT now, Dale Folwell. He was Republican candidate for governor against Robinson. He's the state's treasurer, and this is your first national interview on this story.
Dale, I appreciate your time. This just ask you where were you stand on this right now. Does Robinson need to withdraw from this race now?
DALE FOLWELL, NORTH CAROLINA STATE TREASURER: Well, Erin, normally, when we talk about North Carolina stands for nothing compares in terms of our financial stability and our growth, but unfortunately, that's not the story today. I've never thought that Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson should run for governor at the start with and that's why I chose to run for governor of North Carolina. And after the losing to him in the primary, I did not endorse him.
The people who selected him to be the nominee himself, obviously, filing for the office, as well as President Trump and RNC chair Michael Whatley, those are the ones who selected him to be the nominee and the favorite, and those ones that need to make that decision and make that call.
BURNETT: And so, you're -- are you hoping then that former President Trump will speak out here in these next hours?
FOLWELL: I think that what former President Trump hopefully believes in is the Republican Party that I've observed in the last 50 years. And that's a party that's based on conservatism, common sense, courtesy, humility, humanity, and ethics. And I have not observed in my time serving with Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson that he possesses any of those traits.
BURNETT: So we went through some of the things and as I said, some of the things that KFILE found, we're not talking about because we can't. They're just -- they're inappropriate for a broadcast like this. It's -- some really disgusting things.
But he talked about being a black Nazi. He talked about slavery wasn't a bad thing, that he would like to buy slaves. He posted in pornographic detail about watching transgender porn, which is something that we know already in the past. He has said that transgender people are demonic and he has said other horrific things like that in the past.
Does the KFILE reporting that we are hearing tonight fit with what you know about Robinson? Had you heard about any of these things, kind of in the ether?
FOLWELL: Well, first, if any of that is true and it's just another example of how Mark Robinson has not only fleeced the voters, but also the taxpayers and the donors to his campaign. And for any of that, any part of that, he should apologize. There is also quotes that came up during the campaign where he stated that if rhetorically, if you beat the bird dog hell out of your wife at the mall, is that still considered domestic violence?
I mean, there's no part of that sentence that should ever come together in terms of how we view things. And my answer to your question is, is that as I said earlier, the things that the Republican Party that I have been a member for nearly 50 years is based on those qualities that I mentioned earlier. And I've never observed him possessing any of this. BURNETT: So the deadline as I -- as I understand it, for Robinson to
get out of the race is 11:59 p.m. tonight. So this news is breaking just hours before the final decision has to be made.
So I know that there is a way -- if Republican Party is able to kind of the bosses of the party are able to approve it that you could theoretically replace him. Do you think that Republicans can win the governor\s race in North Carolina, though, if Robinson does not withdraw?
FOLWELL: What I think is that every single person in North Carolina has conservative in some way, shape or form. Some of them turn the spigot off when they brush their teeth, sometimes cut that toothpaste into to get that last little dropout. What we need and what we've always needed as someone who can not just explain but governed conservatively which means to conserve in a way that people can understand.
[19:30:07]
And that's what we have always need in North Carolina and that's why this governor's race is in jeopardy.
BURNETT: So you mentioned former President Trump. So he has not come out and denounced this at all in these past hours. They have sort of distanced themselves from him, saying, North Korea is an important state to win. But the reason that I'm classifying that is distancing is because we know what Trump thinks about Robertson because he has told us repeatedly in ways like this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is Martin Luther King on steroids.
I think you're better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.
One of the great stars of the party, one of the great stars in politics, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Dale, will you be disappointed if he does not speak out tonight?
FOLWELL: I was not selected by Donald Trump for his endorsement and I was looking forward as the next governor of North Carolina to actually worked with President Trump because he is going to be inheriting federal government that has an addiction for money, which has a negative impact on our state, and working with anyone who can help us get low-cost natural gas in the eastern North Carolina, which will liberate a big part of North Carolina.
So I was not selected by former President Trump to be the endorsed candidate in this race, and obviously, what happens over the next few hours is up -- is up to him. BURNETT: It's up to him. And of course, we should note he did not
endorse you. He endorsed vociferously Mark Robinson.
Thank you very much, Dale Folwell. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
FOLWELL: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, we have breaking news on the Democratic side, Harris calling in heavy hitter tonight, Oprah. And tonight, we have a special report on how Harris's candidacy has unleashed a surge of voter activism among Black women.
Also breaking tonight, new reports of more election workers now receiving suspicious mail just tonight, as states are now taking drastic measures to try to protect the vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, this building his turned into a bit of a fortress, but that's the reality of elections in 2024.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:19]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Harris gets the Oprah treatment in what the Harris campaign is calling a, quote, big night. Oprah Winfrey will be joining Harris for a massive rally, just moments from now. More than 200,000 people have already signed up to watch on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, part of a nationwide movement led in part by Black female supporters to motivate voters to vote for Harris.
Rene Marsh is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kamala Harris's historic candidacy has ignited a surge of activism among black women.
JOTAKA EADDY, WIN WITH BLACK WOMEN, FOUNDER: We often talk about this idea of black girl magic and, or the secret sauce. It's the work. It's the work that Black women have put in.
MARSH: Jotaka Eaddy, founder of Win with Black Women, organized the Zoom call that she says netted 90,000 Black women in support of Harris in the hours after President Joe Biden exited the race in July. She also organized Thursday's virtual rally with the vice president, hosted by Oprah.
EADDY: There have been over 140 Zooms for Kamala that have raised collectively over $20 million that many of them have said that they were inspired by our call.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are here in these states. MARSH: Black women are crisscrossing battleground states to mobilize
voters in places like North Carolina where Donald Trump won by a little more than a point in 2020.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.
MARSH: At this political house party south of Charlotte, Janice Robinson is training a kitchen full of suburban women how to boost voter turnout and flip the state blue.
JANICE ROBINSON, RED WINE & BLUE, NC DIRECTOR: We call them troublemakers. We are training them how to talk to there friends, family, and acquaintances about the issues that are important in North Carolina. When it comes to convincing people to vote and become consistent voters, people will listen to the people that they trust.
MARSH: After Trump's 2016 victory, the occupational therapists turned political activist made it a mission to prevent his reelection.
ROBINSON: I pulled those lists of Democrats and independents who lean Democrats and we went knocking on doors, making phone calls.
MARSH: She flipped her historically Republican precinct blue and hopes to replicate the strategy statewide. In 2020, Black women were key to Joe Biden winning the presidency, backing him over Donald Trump by roughly 80 points.
Harris is counting on their support in November. And while she has not leaned into the history making aspect of her candidacy, she has embraced her ties to Black sororities, including her own Alpha Kappa Alpha, which is one of nine historically Black fraternities and sororities that boast 2.5 million members.
The sorority recently launched its own political action committee, allowing it to support candidates. The driving force for these Black women are the issues.
Why is this so important for you to do this work?
ROBINSON: I went through one of those back alley abortions at 15. I'm looking to be alive today. That's personal to me.
EADDY: Not only is it historic, but they're pivotal issues that on the ballot that black women are paying very close attention.
MARSH: Paying attention, but also clear-eyed about the challenge ahead this fall.
ROBINSON: We're going to work our asses off to make sure that this election turns out the way that we wanted to turn out. And if it doesn't, then it won't be because we did not do everything we could.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH (on camera): And, Erin, you can see that these Black women who are organizing, they're going beyond communities of color, but will the unprecedented outreach that we are seeing by Black women be enough to help Harris carry those tight battleground states? Well, that is something that we'll have to wait and see after election. But tonight, Harris's campaign sees this virtual event as a moment to try to reach a broad cross cross-section of persuadable voters -- Erin.
[19:40:09]
BURNETT: All right. Rene, thank you very much.
And, of course, you know, time with Oprah and all the people watching that is hugely significant for Harris.
Harry Enten is here to go beyond the numbers.
So, Harry, let's talk about this. When it comes to Black voters and we just recently had a poll, obviously, out of Pennsylvania that showed Harris up, that was an overall poll.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yeah.
BURNETT: What are you seeing among this group in the state of Pennsylvania?
ENTEN: Yes. I think this is one of most interesting trends and lines that we see in the electorate. And that is, let's take a look at black voters in Pennsylvania. We'll compare the 2020 exit poll to what we have in the September polls.
And what do we see? Joe Biden in the exit poll carried black voters by 85 points. Look at the margin that Kamala Harris has right here. It's just 65 points on average, significantly less than what Joe Biden carried the state by, and this is part of a larger trend, Erin, because the fact is if we look for example, nationally what do we see? We see the exact same thing going on here, Black voters. This is nationally.
At this particular point of polls, Biden was up by 80 points. Kamala Harris is up by just 63 points. You may be asking yourself how the heck is Kamala Harris winning in the state of Pennsylvania at this particular point, at least according to the polls? Here's the reason why: look at white voters. White voters in Pennsylvania, 2020 exit poll, Trump won by 15, his margin right now is just seven points.
BURNETT: Right. So it's white voters right now that are pushing her over the top, which is obviously very significant.
All right. The breaking news from Andrew Kaczynski and KFILE about the gubernatorial Republican candidate in the state of North Carolina. We have said this was not a swing state when it was Biden Trump.
ENTEN: Correct.
BURNETT: Now it is a swing-state.
ENTEN: Correct.
BURNETT: That is terrible news for Trump.
ENTEN: Correct.
BURNETT: Okay, what -- how important is North Carolina for Trump's path to the White House?
ENTEN: He believes in a three-state strategy. He believes that if he can carry Georgia and he can carry North Carolina, and he can carry Pennsylvania, then all of a sudden he gets to exactly 270 electoral votes.
But if he loses just one of these states, let's say he loses in the state of Pennsylvania, all of a sudden, Kamala Harris can get to 270 electoral votes this way, or if we take away these states.
And in fact, we then say, okay, let's give, we're going to put that there, but we give North Carolina and Georgia and then we go okay. We're going to give Arizona and then we give Nevada. That's another way she can get the 270.
BURNETT: So, she's got a lot of paths. It seems more, right, than he does.
ENTEN: Correct.
BURNETT: All right. So in light of this news, when you're watching, you know, politics, what do people Googling? What are they looking at? What are you seeing tonight?
ENTEN: Yeah, take a look here. Google searches for Mark Robinson compared to yesterday. My goodness gracious, up 4,900 percent nationally. And in the great state of North Carolina, up 1,900 percent.
It seems to me that our dear friend Andy Kaczynski's reporting has had a lot of impact, a lot of people search.
BURNETT: It certainly has. And just to note, North Carolina, they know who he is and they're still looking at this.
ENTEN: A hundred percent.
BURNETT: All right. Harry, thank you very much.
ENTEN: Thank you very much.
BURNETT: And next more breaking news, the number of suspicious letters sent to election workers growing tonight, officials now having to take extraordinary measures in order to keep the vote safe. Tis is a special report you'll see first OUTFRONT.
Plus, Hezbollah vowing to retaliate after thousands of pagers and two- way radios exploded. And tonight, incredible new details about how Israel was able to do it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:47:26]
BURNETT: Breaking news: two more election officials in battleground states receiving suspicious mail tonight, more than 17 states now receiving the threats and it comes as election workers at this hour are bracing for chaos us, turning voting sites into fortresses. They've installed panic buttons and some bulletproof glass. I mean, this is -- this is America, preparing for the worst.
And as Republicans are continuing to blame Democrats for the latest assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life, in Maricopa County, Arizona, which is the second largest voting jurisdiction in the United States, a CNN exclusive tonight, this is a behind the scenes look at how election workers are under threat and are depending now on the police to actually protect the vote.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(CHANTING)
BILL GATES (R), MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: People were coming up these stairs and there was a real concern that they were going to breach this door.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Election night 2020, this was the scene outside the Maricopa County elections department.
You can see a line of law enforcement here, the sheriffs department.
There are a number of people out there living seen with long guns, with automatic -- semiautomatic rifles because this is an open carry state.
Since that night security has been ramped up. The vote count surrounded by surveillance cameras, iron fencing and armed guards.
Maricopa County is one of the largest and most competitive counties in the entire country.
It's also a cauldron for conspiracies and misinformation. CNN is getting an exclusive look at how law enforcement now protects democracy from chaos.
GATES: Now, unfortunately, this building has turned into a bit of a fortress. But that's the reality of elections in 2024.
LAH: It's primary day in Arizona. And Sergeant Jeff Woolf has been on duty since dawn monitoring for potential threats.
SERGEANT JEFF WOOLF, MARICOPA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Our staff has been out on the roads since approximately around 5:00 this morning.
We want to know that our plan is providing a safe environment, but we don't want to project that were possibly intimidating the election process by having a large amount of uniform resources or patrol cars and things like that.
We have eyes everywhere, video surveillance, or drones. So were just watching for anything that might look like suspicious, anything that might potentially turn into a crowd or something criminal.
[19:50:04]
SHERIFF RUSS SKINNER, MARICOPA COUNTY: Thank you, everybody, for all the preplanning, logistics.
LAH: Maricopa County Sheriff Rust Skinner says this is so a blackout week. All hands on deck, all law enforcement on duty.
The heart of the operation is in this room
SKINNER: So this is called the EOC or the EOR, basically emergency operations room or emergency operations center.
Stay hydrated, stay cool, and work together and watch your six.
LAH: Here, this is outside the very office where they were counting the votes.
SKINNER: 2020 change things dramatically at this as a major event now at it goes beyond just the election security. We've seen a lot of threats that have come out to public officials, elections, workers, and that's very concerning because you have people that just doing their job, serving the public, serving the community.
REPORTER: Very busy start this morning for this primary election.
GATES: Well, when I came to the Maricopa County board of supervisors in 2017, it was a sleepy but important part of government here. In Arizona, we now have to worry about things like our personal security.
LAH: Bill Gates is a Republican Maricopa county supervisor.
GATES: I could not quantify the number of death threats that we have received here. Today when somebody knocks on the door or rings the doorbell, our first urge isn't to swing the door open. Instead, it is. Who is that? What are they doing? Why are they at our house?
LAH: And it's not just Bill Gates. This year across the U.S., more than one in three election official say they have been threatened, harassed, or experienced abuse simply for doing their job.
Here, Maricopa County officials have invested more than $3 million since 2020 to secure the election center and the workers who will be inside counting the ballots. People choose that they want to rush this building it would be extremely hard for them to do that.
WOOLF: Should I think that elections would ever come to this? Well, this kind of presence, I guess not. I guess I didn't foresee this happening. So I think the important thing is true prepare for that. And that's -- that's what we've done now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Part of how all the people you just saw in that story handled all of this is that they've been dealing with it since that night in 2020. They're simply used to it.
So Bill Gates and all of those other election officials in Maricopa County, some of them have lost friends. They've had to testify in court against people who've threatened to kill them, kill their children. They've had to, you know, figure out how to exist in this world. Yet deal with all of these threats. So as they entered November, they entered with mental fortitude, but a belief that law enforcement will protect them and that this will be safe and transparent for the voters -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Kyung, thank you very much. Kyung Lah, tonight.
And next, Hezbollah vowing revenge, threatening a war or Israel packed devices with explosives. And we are learning some new details tonight just in these past couple hours of how Israel pulled off this attack. We'll share them with you after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:25]
BURNETT: Breaking news, declaration of war. The leader of Hezbollah vowing to retaliate against Israel after its deadly attacks using explosives in pagers and two-way radios. At least 37 people died, more than 3,000 injured as a Hezbollah chief spoken his first remarks, calling Israel to be punished, Israeli fighter jets struck dozens of targets in Lebanon.
Nick Paton Walsh is OUTFRONT with new details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A militant group proud of their discipline and secrecy, over 24 hours torn up by two waves of thousands of exploding low-tech devices, walkie-talkies causing much bigger blasts than the pagers. CNN has obtained a copy of the ICOM device bought by us openly in India, 40 of which blew up in Hezbollah areas Wednesday, discontinued, ancient, there's a big battery at the back, probably where explosives were hidden.
The company who designed them said they are widely counterfeited.
ICOM even released a guide as to how to discern a counterfeit model, showing where holograms are on genuine articles, and also warning that the counterfeit, there is a risk of leakage fire, or explosion of the battery.
The director unable to be clear whether these were genuine though. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a period of time when we didn't add holograms. So if this device comes from that time we cannot eliminate the possibility that it may be our product.
WALSH: Beirut is a wash with counterfeit products shipped in huge volume, often to ports effectively controlled by Hezbollah. So there would be opportunity to insert booby trapped fakes once the model Hezbollah used was clear.
Another complex infiltration required for the thousands of pagers seen here in a promotional video that detonated Tuesday when they received the message.
A global affair, Taiwan's Gold Apollo said the AR-924 design was licensed to BAC Consulting in Hungary. Their offices closed and Hungary's government said the referenced devices have never been in Hungary. Instead a Bulgarian company that possible recipient, yet Bulgaria state agency for national security said the devices never came through Bulgarian customs either.
Shell after shell, making their source so tough to divine someone clearly wanted to hide it.
Israel struck with sophistication before, killing an Iranian nuclear scientist here, apparently with the facial recognition activated machine gun and killing Hamas's lead negotiator in this Tehran guest house, apparently planting a bomb.
But the Lebanon blasts on another scale in terms of the innocents hit, and the months of meticulous involved.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Thanks to Nick and thanks, of course, to all of you as always.
Anderson starts now.
