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Erin Burnett Outfront
Harris Team Weighs Border Visit, Take On Trump On Key Issue; GOP Senators: Trump-Backed Candidate "Toast", Should Drop Out; Israel Not Ruling Out Possible Ground Operation In Lebanon. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 23, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:34]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, Kamala Harris weighing a major decision tonight, one that takes on Trumps biggest lines of attack as the race is getting tighter this hour. John King tonight with new paths to 270.
Plus, more breaking news. New calls for Mark Robinson to quit the North Carolina governor's race as Robinson lashes out publicly. And tonight, new reporting OUTFRONT from where it all started, KFILE.
And he faked a back injury to get out of fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine. The story of Ivan and how deserted the army, the Russian army, and still made it out alive. An incredible story.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, Kamala Harris to the border? Breaking news right now from our Priscilla Alvarez, she is reporting that Vice President Harris may travel to the U.S. border this week on Friday. The trip and attempt to take Trump head-on on an issue he is very happy to pound the table on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe his open borders.
She is a Marxist with open borders.
She is thrown open our borders. She does not care about the deaths, sex slavery, drugs, criminals coming across our border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: According to the latest national poll, Harris trails Trump when it comes to securing the border and this is the widest margin that there is. So its a crucial issue, 54 percent in the most recent polling, say Trump would be better at controlling immigration, 33 percent say the same for Harris.
Now, the context of this very big decision that Harris is making tonight comes as Trump is about to take the stage at the rally that you see on your screen in Pennsylvania, a make-or-break state for both campaigns. Harris will be in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
And tonight, with just 43 days to go until formally Election Day, we've got new battleground state polls. In Arizona, and that this is actually kind of flip from what you heard last week on the -- on the swing state polls. So you've got Trump with a slight lead in Arizona, 48-43. In Georgia, same thing, slightly three points. Other polls last week that showed the opposite. And North Carolina, just two percentage points separating Trump and Harris.
North Carolina, of course, a must win state for Trump for his path to 270. It has quickly though turned into chaos for the campaign after CNN's KFILE uncovered disturbing comments on a porn website made by the Trump-backed candidate for North Carolina governor.
Today, Mark Robinson was defiant as he returned to the campaign trail. And we have new reporting from KFILE coming up this hour OUTFRONT.
But as Trump prepares to take the stage, as Pennsylvania rally, any moment, he is reeling tonight from another big financial hit. His Truth Social media stock hitting an all-time low today, his investment in Truth Social has lost 80 percent of its value since March. The dramatic fall after Trump had this to say just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Truth Social is doing very well. It's hot as a pistol and doing great.
The stock has gone through the roof and really this is -- I think in the true sense, this is really a -- it's a great sign of where the people in this country standards almost like a poll. But you see all what it is, its one of the hottest stocks anybody who's ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, obviously that is not the case tonight. And the value of Truth Social, just like whether Trump ends up in prison, may rest upon one thing, whether he wins this election.
Priscilla Alvarez is OUTFRONT, live in Washington tonight.
And, Priscilla, you are breaking these new details. What more are you learning about the fact that the Vice President Harris may go to the border this week?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, it certainly tells you that this remains a top issue among voters, one, that they are trying to make a pitch on with the vice president. Now sources tell me that some Harris campaign officials remain concerned about the lead that former President Donald Trump continues to hold in polling on this very issue, but they also tell me they see an opportunity they feel as though the gap is closing and that they want to close that even further by doubling down on their message, encountering those Republican attacks that she does not visit the U.S. Mexico border nearly enough.
Now, of course, the vice president has visited the U.S.-Mexico border during this administration. She also did so once he was California senator and attorney general. Now, no final decision has been made on this visit, but should it happen, it would happen when border crossings are at a low -- the lowest they've been since 2020.
Of course, this has been a political vulnerability before the Biden/Harris administration, after multiple crises over the last few years.
[19:05:03]
But after executive action this summer, those numbers have plummeted. So, this visit again, would come when the border crossings are low and also Erin, when Republicans continue to hammer her as the border czar, falsely claiming that she is solely responsible for border security when her portfolio was focused on the root causes of migration.
Now, either way, this is a visit to Arizona, a battleground Arizona, which as you mentioned in the polls, the former president holds a slight lead on, but it would be significant if during that visit which we anticipate on Friday, the vice president also added that border stop.
BURNETT: Absolutely. Priscilla, thank you very much with your breaking reporting.
All right. A panel here with me.
Bill Kristol, let me just start with you. Look, the numbers are low right now, and that's something that Biden administration has been trumpeting. However, during the overall Biden administration, the number of illegal border crossings is north of 7 million. That's a lot, just to state the obvious.
So the question is, Bill, whether a trip to the border will help her or not? What do you think?
BILL KRISTOL, EDITOR AT LARGE OF THE BULWARK: I think it could help. You know, what hurt Biden so badly on the border was partly that a lot where people were coming across it. It's very difficult issue.
But also, he seemed not to care. He didn't want to address it. People didn't visit it that often. There's a sense that, well, he just doesn't take this issue seriously.
I think if Vice President Harris goes to the border, it shows that she's taking the issue seriously. The actual solutions are very complicated obviously, and policies can be debated. But I think it would be a swipe gesture.
I was talking to someone in western Pennsylvania the other day. BURNETT: Yeah.
KRISTOL: And he was watching the Steelers game, actually an old friend, and he said he's seeing nonstop ads, of course, political ads and they're mostly on immigration and the border from the Trump people. They are pummeling Harris on that.
I don't think it's been quite as effective as they had hoped but its probably done some damage. And I think showing just that she takes that concern of ordinary citizens seriously, not just an Arizona, but a Pennsylvania and Michigan and elsewhere, I think it would be wise.
BURNETT: So, Aisha, Harris as vice president has only been to the border once and it actually was a couple of weeks after she had this exchange with Lester Holt, which some may remember, but if not, let me play. This is back in 2021.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LESTER HOLT, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Do you have any plans to visit the border?
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm here in Guatemala today. I -- at some point, we are going to the border. We've been to the border. So, this whole -- this whole -- this whole thing about the border., we've been to the border. We've been to the border.
HOLT: You haven't been to the border?
HARRIS: And I haven't been to Europe. I mean, I don't -- I don't understand the point that you're making.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So does it make sense for her to go now when she's clearly going now because she's, you know, she's receiving the tennis ball over the -- over the net from Trump, right? She's not gone since a visit right after that.
So does it make sense for her to go now, do you agree with Bill?
AISHA MILLS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I just wonder if we're having kind of the wrong conversation, right? So I think that it absolutely makes sense that Kamala Harris talks about the humanitarian crisis that we are experiencing, where people are wanting to cross the border. There is a massive implications to that, right? And we're seeing that play out.
Her job was to figure out what the root causes of migration are to the United States. And what is it that we could do about it? That conversation has gotten lost in what Trump has been doing by saying, look those evil, awful people are coming and they're doing really bad things.
And I don't think that this is a criminalized conversation. I think we need to remember that it was actually Donald Trump that was displacing families. That was literally taken babies and putting them in places that warrant where their parents were. There's a whole humanitarian crisis that I believe that Kamala Harris is poised to talk about at the border and the implications for all of the Americans who are around there trying to deal with it.
BURNETT: So, Shermichael, should she do that? I mean, obviously, that -- that is true, what Aisha says. You know, Trump will point to criminal and criminal gangs. And another side of this story, we will hear more of that from him.
So should she go on Friday and what did she say if so?
SINGLETON: I mean, look politically, of course, she should go. She's been beaten on the issue. I mean, Donald Trump holds a 21-point lead as you showed at the very top of this segment.
Also that same NBC News polls suggested that 65, 66 percent of the American people believe the country is on the wrong path. And so, while I agree with Aisha that the vice president was tasked with figuring out the root causes of immigration, the available data that we have not just from the NBC poll, but a Times/Siena poll, CNN poll that came out two-and-half, three weeks ago suggests that most Americans don't believe whatever suggestions the vice president and may have on this issue are the right suggestions to actually solving the problem, Erin.
So, strategically speaking, it absolutely makes sense for her to be there. Will it make a difference? I'm not convinced based on the numbers I've seen so far.
BURNETT: All right. So, Shermichael, want to ask you about the big dinner this weekend. Presidential candidates you usually attend it, gets a lot of coverage.
[19:10:04]
It's called the Al Smith dinner. It may sound esoteric to some, but it's a usual rite of passage. It raises money for Catholic Charities. Harris has come out and said that she is not attending. Trump is attending. So he posted today in connection with Harris's decision not to attend the, quote, Catholics are literally being persecuted by this administration. Any Catholic that votes for comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined.
So, Shermichael, what is he -- what is he saying here? I mean, is this something about he's assuming all Catholics aren't for -- I mean, what is the point that he's making?
SINGLETON: I mean, look, I'm not Catholic, but I assume that perhaps the former president is talking about that most Catholics are pro- life. Clearly, the support of Democrats and the vice president is not politically pro-life. I certainly understand the argument there.
I know the campaign for the vice president said that she's going to be in battleground states. I get it. The election is going to be close. She wants to spend her time there.
But, Erin, this is a charity that raises money for children. So I don't think it would have harmed the vice president to be there. She could have made some jokes about the former president just as he did with Clinton, a couple of years ago. It would've been a great night and you also doing something for a great cause. And so I think this is a missed opportunity.
BURNETT: Aisha?
MILLS: Forty thousand Christians threw out an event for Kamala Harris through a Zoom call. You've got 16,000 Black clergy that came together in support of her. You have Catholics for Kamala. Of course, you have Jewish women for Kamala.
What Donald Trump always does is tries to create divisiveness. In this instance, he's suggesting that Christians, that evangelicals, that people have faith shouldn't support the Democratic candidate. And the reality is, is that people of faith are tired of the evil, nasty, hostile, divisiveness that he has perpetuated at our absolutely lining up for good and for something that is far more better that connects us.
And so this dinner, be it as it may certainly isn't a reflection of where people in their values are in America and people who believe in various face, but certainly Christians absolutely who are Christ-like are going for Kamala Harris.
BURNETT: It's interesting. It is a break with tradition though.
You know, Bill, CNN is reporting tonight that Melania Trump and we really have not -- we haven't seen anything on the campaign trail this year, very, very a little. You know, she -- she had posted something for sale.
Now, she's posting got a six-figure paycheck, $237,500. That's the price we've just confirmed this, Bill, for, quote/unquote, speaking engagement in April and Trump's latest disclosure form tells us what this says. He says that she was paid by the Log Cabin Republicans for that April fundraiser she appeared at again, $237,500 for that.
Bill Clinton get paid speeches after Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy in 2016, OK? So, I will put that out there. This -- you know, and I'm assuming he gave them at the rate that he would have gotten before. I don't know in the world of speaking engagements if her rate would be $237,500.
But, Bill, what's your reaction to this?
KRISTOL: It's the first thing incidentally. It's foolish of her not to go to the Al Smith dinner. Candidates of both parties have done it forever. I don't think they've ever missed that except in 2020 when there was the pandemic and it just -- it just an easy talking point for Trump.
Whatever you think of the dinner, whatever you think of her merits on various issues, I think it's silly.
On this thing, I mean, the grift never stops with the Trumps. It's really unbelievable that you can buy the Trump coin, Melania Trump gets paid to go to a dinner for Republicans. I -- when I was a Republican, I spoken a couple of functions for the Log Cabin people. I didn't know I could get $237,000. I did it for free because I was a Republican, and they were Republican group, you know? That's kind of what Republicans do.
What Democrats do for Democratic groups -- I mean, it is amazing. The hucksterism and the grift, you know, even what, what do we have six weeks out from the election, neither of them -- neither Mr. Trump nor Mrs. Trump stops with the -- with the attempt to make --
BURNETT: Well, we got the gold coins and, you know, Trump -- Trump, Shermichael putting out gold coins, you know, with his face on it and selling them. But Shermichael, just on the face of it, what do you think? Melania Trump, $237,500, who appear to speaking engagement for Republicans?
SINGLETON: I mean, you know, look, I does it make the best sense in the world considering this political climate, Erin? Probably not, in the ordinary set of circumstances. I'm not necessarily against politicians or their spouses for that matter getting paid to speak at public events, if a group decides to spend the money.
But I think just during the climate, right, and now in the midst of the campaign, it probably wasn't the most logical thing to do. I probably would have advised the former first lady to wait until after the election. Let's just see how this thing goes first.
We're talking about it, right? And that's the last thing you want this type of a distraction in the midst of what will be a very close race.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you all very much.
And next, a crowd favorite at Harris rallies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: We are not going back. We are not going back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Do new polls show that specific line is working?
John King is OUTFRONT next.
[19:15:02]
Plus, breaking news this hour, some big name Republicans tonight, speaking out, calling on Mark Robinson to step down after KFILE's explosive reporting.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): Of course, he should step aside. It's outrageous, disgusting, vile.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: And more breaking news. Caught on tape. The editor in chief of a news network caught in the middle of an Israeli airstrike.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, Donald Trump hitting a major snag. His hopes to change Nebraska's election law, which could get him one more electoral vote running into opposition from his own party, the Nebraska Republican state lawmaker refusing to go along with Trump's push.
[19:20:02]
As I mentioned, this is all over one electoral vote, which frankly could be what it all comes down to in a race that's in a dead heat right now. New polls that I mentioned at the top of the show, showing just how close this race is at this moment.
John King is OUTFRONT at his magic wall.
I mean, John, incredible moment. You got polls one day look one way, the next, a different way tonight, Trump showing some of his strongest numbers in swing states, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. It's a "New York Times"/Siena poll. What -- what's in them that stands out to you?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So let me echo your point as I bring them up with flashes away or breaking them up. This is just one poll, don't overinvest in one poll, but these are Trumps best poll numbers in quite some time. Now, as I've -- before, I show them to you, there are other polls that showed a little bit different, as Erin noted.
So don't overinvest in this, but let's just walk through where we are, beginning with this. This is where we have the map right now, Harris with 225 electoral votes likely or solid, Trump at 219 likely or solid. So what does it matter when you bring these?
And let's look, forgive me for turning my back. I just want to stretch this out, as "The New York Times"/Siena poll. I'm including here the third-party candidates on the ballot in these states. You see Trump at 48 to 43 in Arizona. That's just outside the margin of error, five point lead, 47, Trump leads in Georgia, to 44 for Harris. That's within the margin of error, but Trumps best number in a long time. And in North Carolina, 47-45, Trump on top.
Again, there's been some other polls that are less favorable to Trump and better for Harris in those states. But just imagine this health, right? Trumps leading in Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina.
Let's say Trump wins them, not out of the realm of possibility, Erin. Trump won North Carolina twice, right? He won it both in 2016 to 2020. So let's make that red. Let's see he wins Georgia again. Joe Biden flipped in 2020, but Trump
won it in 2016. Same with Arizona. Biden won it in 2020, but just barely. So it's not out of the realm at all.
If Trump held those Sun Belt states and everything else we have in their map, that would get him to 262. So that what is the point here?
Number one, don't overinvest in one poll, but number two, this is why the blue wall is so critical for Kamala Harris. If Trump were to win there across those three Sun Belt battlegrounds. And as at 262. She has to win Pennsylvania. He's only eight votes shy, right?
So she has to keep this blue. Any one of these states would put Trump over the top. She has to keep this blue and she has to keep this blue. She has to win the blue wall.
And then were she? She's at 269 which gets you to your point about Nebraska's second congressional district. If she won those three and Trump won those three he would -- Nevada would not be enough for Trump. Let's say Trump won Nevada, it would put her over the top, but would only get him to 268.
So there is a scenario. It's most unlikely there, but there is a scenario where it comes down to one congressional district right here. But if Trumps swept the Sun Belt battlegrounds, Harris would have to win the three blue wall states and what they in Nebraska call it the blue dot to get there.
So again, this is a hypothetical, this is one poll. What it tells you, though, is we have a very, very competitive race, and watch when the next ones come out because these are Trump's best numbers in quite some time.
BURNETT: Yeah, they are and they do stand out from what we saw last week, which really did look quite different. which I find fascinating. I know you can't compare one polling organization to another, but it is fascinating.
When you look beneath this neck and neck horse race such that it seems to be right now, John, what stands out to you most right now?
KING: To me, this is most important the horse race numbers is going to bounce a little bit. So you've got to look into the bones and you see what's happening on the issues here, right? So let's look at the top issues in these three states.
Again, forgive me. I just want to stretch this out. The economy is the number one issue in all three states, not by huge margins, but 26 percent, 28 percent, 25 percent, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina.
Immigration second in Arizona, abortion third, immigration and abortion kind of trade almost in a tie for second and third when it comes to the other battleground states.
So the issues economy, immigration, we know there are Trumps issues, and abortion is a Harris issue. So voters were asked in this poll, whose care, what candidate best represents you on your issue? So it could be the economy for any voters that might be something else just generically, who is the candidate you trust in your top issue and look at this -- again, I'm just going to stretch this out.
On just the generic top issue question it's narrow, but Trump leads in all three states, right? So, people are saying, I'm with him, he's best for me on my top issue.
Here's what's even more damning, Erin, we know issue number one is the economy and just look at this and we've seen this again, this is only one poll. Don't overinvest in any one poll, but we have seen this data in other polls. This is a constant problem for the vice president.
Who's best on the economy? Trump by 14 points leads in Arizona, Trump by 12 points leads in Georgia, Trump by 13 points leads in North Carolina. It's the top issue and Trump has a huge edge. That's a problem for the vice president.
BURNETT: Right, and I guess when you look when you look below the numbers at the top of the poll that actually bolsters at least in this one poll what the, what the overall outcome was.
All right, so I mentioned before the commercial break, John, that we are not going back, but we hear it all the Harris rallies on his become a rallying call for many of her most ardent supporters. It's on t-shirts, it's on bumper stickers okay.
So you know, there's a certain group of people for whom it resonates very well but is it working big picture?
[19:25:02]
KING: I think that is a giant open question.
On the abortion issue, which is part of where it came from -- yes, it does. That issue plays well for the vice president, but look at just look at this numbers in "The New York Times"/Siena poll, they asked people, would Trump policies and Harris policies helped or hurt you? Right, would you -- if they were elected president, you think it would help or hurt you?
Trump comes out on top help in all three states, 46 percent to 34 percent say Trump would help. In Georgia, it's 43-30, 13 points. In North Carolina, its 9 points, 46 percent say help, 37 percent say hurt.
I'm not going to throw that away. I'm just going to slide it over there. So again, not a majority, but a plurality say if Trump wins, that would help me, right? Well, that's an interesting psychological dynamic.
Look at the flip side though. Again, the vice president has to do a better job of convincing people she's on their side.
Look, in Arizona, she's underwater, hurt 43 to 36 percent help. In Georgia, hurt 43 to 39 percent help. And in North Carolina, hurt 41 to 37 percent help.
So on the who do you trust, who's on your side, who would make my life better, in this one poll, Trump has a clear advantage and that's how a lot of people vote if they're not quite sure. But he has an advantage on the economy. And I'll call this more of a who's on my side issue. Trump has a bit of an advantage there.
Again, one poll, but it does tell you how competitive this race is. And as the vice president tries to introduce herself more, she's got some work to do.
All right. John, thank you very much, as always.
And next, we do have some breaking news. A Republican pile on now happening. Some major names now calling on Mark Robinson to step down after CNN's KFILE reporting on a must-win state of North Carolina. Robinson, though, just moments ago, defiant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ROBINSON (R), NOMINEE FOR NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR: You folks want to focus on tabloid trash, and quite frankly, I'm sick of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Of course, he posted it. Therefore, it maybe tabloid trash, but it's real.
Tonight, our KFILE has new reporting.
Plus, it's been two weeks since J.D. Vance learned his claim that Haitian migrants eating pets was a lie. But he repeated it again today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:31:26]
BURNETT: Breaking news tonight, Senate Republicans turning on Mark Robinson in North Carolina in light of KFILE's investigation into this history, Robinson's history of discussing offensive posts that he made on a porn website.
Here's some of what GOP senators told CNN today.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If you're not wrong , he's toast. If he can't credibly rebut these accusations, he's a zombie.
ROMNEY: Of course, he should step aside. It's outrageous, disgusting, vile and his efforts to say it wasn't him need to show a good deal more substance than just saying its not me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And this came as Robinson was defiant on the campaign trail today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBINSON: While this country is literally facing a crisis situation on the world stage, while our border is wide open, while our businesses are struggling, while folks are dying from fentanyl, while crime is spiraling out of control, you folks want to focus on tabloid trash, and quite frankly, I'm sick of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, while the Republican Governors Association has announced now that it is cutting off all funding for Robinson's campaign. It is a massive blow in a state that Donald Trump, as the Republican at the top of the ticket, needs to win.
Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBINSON: In order to put the people first, we've got to concentrate on this campaign and that's exactly what were going to do.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a mild day in North Carolina, Republican Mark Robinson is a man in a hurricane. After CNN's KFILE unearthed a history of him posting graphic and sexual comments on a porn website supporting the reinstatement of slavery and calling himself a black Nazi, all of which he calls salacious, false lies.
ROBINSON: We are not going to let CNN thorough us off of our mission. Our mission is to win this race.
FOREMAN: But the accusation seems to have former President Donald Trump's team on high alert. He did not mention his handpicked candidate while visiting the battleground state this weekend, even though Trump had enthusiastically endorsed Robinson.
TRUMP: I said, I think you're better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.
FOREMAN: Trump's running mate J.D. Vance's take on Robinson's denials.
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't not believe him. I don't believe him. I just think that you have to let these things sometimes play out in the court of public opinion.
FOREMAN: It certainly playing out among Robinson's campaign staff were more than a half dozen key players have resigned and in vice president Kamala Harris, his campaign, which has rolled out a new to add scorching Trumps ties to the controversial Robinson.
ROBINSON: Abortion in this country, it's about killing a child because you weren't responsible enough to keep your skirt down.
TRUMP: I've been with him a lot. I've gotten to know him and he's outstanding
Democratic gubernatorial contender Josh Stein says, it's all proof his opponent isn't fit for office.
JOSH STEIN (D), NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: Look, Robinson exists because Donald Trump has lifted him up throughout.
And yet, Robinson for now is pushing on.
ROBINSON: We are confident that we have a team of people that were going to be able to put together. They're going to be able to carry this campaign to victory.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (on camera): Polls had Robinson well behind in his race before this story broke, it's still a little too early to know if this scandal will affect him or if it will affect Trump.
And this we do know, Erin, the Trump team says, he really needs to win this state to get the White House back. And this is about the last thing they wanted -- Erin.
BURNETT: That is for sure, a must-win state. And when you've got the Republican gubernatorial candidate below you in that kind of a state, not good.
Andrew Kaczynski is with me now. Tom, thank you.
And Andrew is with me now.
Obviously, this is your reporting KFILE. So more fallout tonight because of all of the reporting you have done on Robinson, what are you learning?
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Well, we've learned today that Robinson is no longer running ads on Facebook, Google, and YouTube. All of those digital ads for Robinson stopped over the weekend on Friday. He might not be running them because as we mentioned right there, he doesn't even really have a campaign staff anymore. His campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, his director of operations, his finance director, all those handful of staff have resigned. So Robinson is essentially not even advertising right now.
BURNETT: I mean, it's incredible. So your reporting led to the Republican governors association to pull all of their funding for Robinson's race, which is a huge blow, whether its linked specifically to a Facebook ads in the moment, it means -- it means huge, huge, negative things for his campaign.
What more can you tell us about that?
KACZYNSKI: Yeah, Erin, what you just said right there is absolutely true. It is a massive blow to his campaign. And I want to run, I'd write down some of these numbers. So again, run people through them because its actually really, really remarkable through Tuesday, the Republican Governors Association and their affiliated PAC had spent almost $16 million on the North Carolina governors race. That was means they since July, they were spending $1 million per week.
BURNETT: Wow.
KACZYNSKI: And then when you look at all of the groups combined, they have spent $87 million on this race. That is the most expensive governor's race in the country, and it doesn't just stop there. What's really, really remarkable here now to is look at the data showing spending going into election today, starting on Wednesday, ad time that are reserve $12.5 million for Democrats, Republicans have $0 being spent right now, through day to elect Mark Robinson.
So, nothing on the air, nothing on Facebook, nothing on YouTube, nothing on Google.
BURNETT: It's incredible. I mean, and maybe they look at his case, have don't throw good money after bad, but just to look at the money they had spent $1 million a week, $87 million, the most expensive government race in the country.
And they said all that, obviously before your reporting, but I just want to be clear. Some of the things that he had said we had reported on and yet they were spending all this money.
KACZYNSKI: Well, that's right. One of his opponent Josh Stine's ads, used an ad -- a comment from me and you talking, the clip was a clip of me talking to show that made it into the ad when we were talking about Mark Robinson's comments on abortion that we exclusively reported on this show earlier in the air.
BURNETT: Right. I mean, it's your reporting all the way through.
KFILE, thank you so much, Andrew Kaczynski.
And also tonight, religious leaders have been slamming the Trump campaign specifically for one thing. And that is the fake stories about migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. Christian, Jewish, and Islamic leaders gathered together in Springfield to say this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't cry fire in a crowded theater. And if you do, and people get hurt then you can get the charges for that and so what we have is somebody doing that and what has done now is unleashed bomb threats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: J.D. Vance today, again, though, refusing to admit the story is not true.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: I wish the American media was half this interested in the stress on the local schools, that stress on the hospitals and unaffordable housing as they are in debunking a story that comes from the residents of Springfield.
Did you ever think about listening to people speak their truth instead of listening to some bureaucrat and assuming that everything that they tell you is true?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: The city is under a state of emergency. This situation there is tense tonight.
The mayor of Springfield, Rob Rue, joins me now.
So, Mayor, you just heard J.D. Vance basically saying why -- why should we listen to, you know, elected officials and government officials and just listen to the people of Springfield, you know, obviously, he knows the facts, he knows that the story is not true. But how does hearing him say that make you feel?
MAYOR ROB RUE, SPRINGFIELD, OH: I think its important to know just our governor has trusted the local government here because we are here and we do know what's going on and we hear concerns about the community. But, you know, we have told the America that this story isn't true. There's no reason for us to other than to tell you the truth.
We care about our community and we don't lie spread around like that that has happened after the last 12, 13 days.
BURNETT: So, in that time, Governor DeWine, your governor, who's also said the story is not true, has said that foreign actors though, are the ones behind the bomb threats that has so disrupted your community schools, government offices, grocery stores, what do you know about where the threats are coming from there?
RUE: Yeah. I think that's been answered. That's something that I believe the FBI is looking into and well just let them continue to investigate where they're originating from.
[19:40:03]
BURNETT: Just to be clear, though, you're not -- you're not hearing that it's some sort of right-wing Trumps supporters who are doing this. I mean, right? That's not what you're hearing?
RUE: We're hearing threats from all kinds of ways. So like I said, its being looked into. I'm confident with those that are looking into it are telling us what we need to know right now.
BURNETT: So, Senator Vance had something to say about the legal status of the majority of the Haitian immigrants in the country. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VANCE: I'm thrilled to have Governor DeWine support, but there is one thing that he has just wrong about. When the media says that people are here legally, here's what they mean, that Kamala Harris has granted mass amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.
Now, I happen to think that what Kamala Harris has done is not just wrong, it is illegal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Mayor, he's referring to the policies of the Biden administration, which, of course, the immigrants in your community, I understand almost all of whom are legal, increase the population of your city by a third. Do you think that the Biden ministration made a mistake by granting legal status to some of the immigrants who ended up in your community?
RUE: I think it's just important to note that those that are here are human beings and we want to make sure that they are not anything other than cared for, and they are here under a legal status based on this administration. And that's what is a local leader as a one of five commissioners and the mayor is dealing with.
People who are here. We don't want people to be harmed. We want to secure community. That's our focus in Springfield, Ohio.
BURNETT: So, I know you've personally received threats. How is your family doing and managing that?
RUE: Yeah, thank you for asking. My family's doing well and we are staying strong just like the rest of Springfield is staying strong. We've had strain like the rest of Springfield has, and we will persevere. Springfield's a resilient community.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Mayor Rue, I appreciate your time. I'm glad to speak to you again.
RUE: Thank you so much for having me on.
BURNETT: All right. Next, an incredible story of how one soldier escaped Putin's war, faking an injury to stealing his own passport from a safe inside Russia, waiting here, how did.
Plus, Israel unleashing new strikes on Hezbollah tonight, killing nearly 500 people, injuring many more in Lebanon, including the editor in chief of a news network during the middle of an interview.
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[19:46:52]
BURNETT: Tonight, the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and the U.S. addressing the U.N. condemning Russia's, quote, terror in his country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Putin has stolen much already? But he will never steal the world's future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: This comes as a new investigative report tonight reveals what's really happening inside the Russian military right now.
The reporter, Sara Topol, spending a year and a half to report out this story and it is an incredible one.
So she met a Russian officer photographed here from behind and given the pseudonym Ivan. Ivan had faked an injury and stolen his own passport from a military safe in Russia to escape the front lines and Ukraine and then made the incredibly risky, courageous decision to share his story.
Sarah Topol is OUTFRONT now and he shared it with you. You spent an extraordinary amount of time with him just that that photo that we showed, I want everyone and to understand, you photographed him from behind to protect his identity from people watching. And of course, from people inside Russia who could wish to do him harm now.
So, he talks to you about being on the front lines and you write about it, Sara, the front was squalid. There's trash everywhere, toilet paper, bottles, ration wrappers, boxes, boots in the grass. Ivan was baffled, didn't these men realize that the Ukrainians would see this crap, they would throw their own back at them in the form of rockets at their heads.
It's amazing in the Ukrainian villages you've been to see all that. It's just -- it's a desecration in so many ways how did he come though to the decision to desert?
SARAH TOPOL, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: I mean, I think he came to the decision to desert because the alternative was his death. I mean, this war has resurrected a culture of brutality in the Russian armed services that stretches back to the Soviet Union and after he saw what was happening in Ukraine, where soldiers, Russian soldiers are referred to by their commanding officers as meat, sent to the front with no regard for like the strategy of any kind of operation. No intelligence.
He decided that he had really no alternative than to flee if you wanted to live in peace and to be with his family.
BURNETT: And so you obviously spent an extraordinary amount of time talking to him and his wife and he is with his wife and his child. They are together.
He reenacted for you the moment and that he had to steal his own passport from a locked military safe. Need to do that in order to get out of the country. So he swaps it with a fake that he had purchased on the Dark Web, but he had to do it in a room right in plain view of a lieutenant who's sitting there watching him. And so you write that he spent a day and night and a day at home
practicing the movements. He timed it into he could do it fast, almost was his eyes closed. He wanted it to be quick muscle memory. So if you were nervous, he wouldn't stumble or shake.
The trick wasn't just in the double handed swap, but in moving the pages and cover backward and forward with his fingers simultaneously like a difficult piano piece.
[19:50:08]
OK, tell me more about this and what happened in that moment when he walks in that room, like, because if he mess that up, he's dead, and he does it.
TOPOL: Yeah. So, he spent about a week casing the human resources office to try to figure out the best time to do it. He thought maybe he would go at night when the duty officer was at the bath in the bathroom, pick the lock he decided that that would be too dangerous.
So he decided to do it when the guy I was actually there. So, while he was observing the office, he thought that maybe the best time would be in the evening when there were the least amount of people. He went in and he practices routine ahead of time, including exactly how he would walk up to the duty officer, what he would say, how he would take the passports. So he takes the past and he walks with a limp over to the desk sits down with a piece of with this passport in notebook that he had cut a hole in and he makes the swap with his hands after he does that, he casually leans back he talks to the young lieutenant, asked him about the morning formation, walks back, hands him back the fake passport, goes to his car, opens the notebook and realizes that it really is his passport.
BURNETT: Oh my gosh. And so at that point he knows again, he could still be dead at any moment. They could realize the passport wasn't really need handed back any of these things could happen he then gets to the Belarusian border with Russia and their, you know, passport control and all of a sudden the computer freezes.
So what happens?
TOPOL: The computer freezes and he starts to sweat profusely. The woman asked him whether he has another passport, whether he has an international -- oh, sorry, the computer freezes and then he she has to run them through the system again. She asks him whether he has an international passport. He says he doesn't and then she runs them through the computer. She resets the computer events and then eventually she lets him through.
BURNETT: Which is just an amazing moment, just before we go, 18 deserters you spoke to, obviously extraordinary amount of time with Ivan, but do you think that there's a lot of this going on in the Russian military, or is it impossible to tell?
TOPOL: I think that it is really difficult to tell, but for sure that number of people considered AWOL is a radical undercount. And I think that people like Ivan and the other deserters that I spoke to really want there to be some -- really want there to be a system in which deserters can have people who want to desert can fleet the Russian military and enter some kind of asylum system.
BURNETT: All right. Which, of course, does not exist right now.
Sarah, thank you very much. Incredible reporting. I hope everyone will read it.
And next, Israel launching hundreds of strikes on Hezbollah, the deadliest in two decades. Are we on the brink of a massive war?
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[19:57:32]
BURNETT: Breaking news, the editor of a Lebanese news network injured in an Israeli airstrike during a live broadcast.
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BURNETT: We don't know what happened then. The video is horrifying.
It comes as U.S. troops are now being sent to the Middle East amid growing fears of an all-out war. Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah today killed nearly 500 people in Lebanon, the deadliest day since 2006.
Ben Wedeman is OUTFRONT tonight in Beirut.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As dawn broke, Israel launched the first of a series of punishing airstrikes, starting in South Lebanon, pummeling what it claimed were Hezbollah targets, hitting, hitting and hitting again.
While Hezbollah battered over the past week, it struck back as it did early Sunday. Its missiles reaching deep into Israel to Haifa and beyond many others, intercepted through text messages and by breaking into local radio broadcasts, Israel warned people to leave and stay away from buildings where Hezbollah might be operating.
But the bombing was enough to send thousands flee north. The roads packed.
Strikes, warplanes, destruction, says Ahmed, no one is left there. Everyone has fled. We took our belongings and left. Yet even those fleeing vowed they will return.
We will be back God willing, shouts this man. We will be back. Tell Netanyahu, we will return.
When and how and to what, unknown.
The death toll for one day reached into the hundreds, the wounded well-over 1,000. Coming after week of pager and walkie-talkie blasts and a deadly strike on southern Beirut that killed a senior Hezbollah commander, but also many civilians.
All classes in schools and universities across Lebanon have been suspended with some schools being turned into shelters for the displaced seventy-year-old Gina Ayest (ph), fled her village at 5:00 a.m. taking shelter in a training institute in Beirut. I buried my son a week ago under bombardment, she says. My other sons stayed behind. He didn't want to leave our home.
With Israel's air offensive intensifying, it may be some time before Gina sees her other son again if at all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN (on camera): And just to put today's death toll in perspective, the death toll 492 with 93 women and children among them, that's just a little less than half of the entire death toll for the 34-day war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 -- Erin.
BURNETT: Absolutely horrific what is happening, and, of course, the repercussions and you talk about the women and children.
Ben, thank you very much.
And thanks to all of you for being with us.
"AC360" begins now.
