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Erin Burnett Outfront
New Ads Featuring Trump Accusers Airing On Trump's Turf; Analysis: Harris Narrows Gap With Trump On The Economy; Helene Forecast To Reach Category 4 Hurricane By Time It Hits Florida. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 25, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:47]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Exclusive, a Trump accuser is OUTFRONT as the former president tells women he will be their, quote, protector. Why is she speaking out now?
Plus, "Show Me The Money", our special series on America's economy as Trump is losing his edge on the number one issue for voters.
And the breaking news tonight, bracing for impact and Florida about to get hit by a category four hurricane. It has gone from 0 to four in hours. The strongest to hit the United States in more than a year. We'll go live on the ground.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, confronting Trump on his own turf. New ads airing tonight on television stations around Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster trolling Trump and targeted at national pickup for non-affiliated voters to see.
The prominent Republican critic of Donald Trump, George Conway, is releasing two ads featuring two of the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault. Now, George Conway knows Trump really well. His ex- wife, Kellyanne Conway, is a longtime adviser of Trump's.
And so, George Conway is targeting these ads with surgical precision. He knows they're not just airing on local television stations that Trump gets in his home. So it turns on the TV, he sees them. There also airing on national stations and shows Trump watches, Fox News, CNN, ESPN, and the Golf Channel.
And one of the ads is focused exclusively on journalists, Natasha Stoynoff, who testified under oath that she was assaulted by Trump while interviewing him, and Melania back in 2005. This is part of our story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLPI)
NATASHA STOYNOFF, TRUMP SEX ASSAULT ACCUSER: My name is Natasha Stoynoff. In 2005, I went to interview Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. At one point, Melania with upstairs to change your clothes for the next photo shoot and Trump said to me, I want to show you this beautiful painting, this beautiful room.
He leads me to this room, pushing back against the wall and starts kissing me forcefully and tried to push him, kept coming back at me. I was in shock and smothered than he had his hands here against my shoulders, and I felt sick inside. I felt horrified.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Trump, of course, has repeatedly denied the allegations, but Stoynoff is someone on Trumps mind. In fact, it was just two weeks ago that he brought her up during a press conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And this one is a writer for "People Magazine" who I actually thought was very nice. She came to Mar-a-Lago and she wrote the most beautiful story you've ever seen. It was a love story about Melania and myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: A love story. I mean, of course, there enough said after Trump sexually assaulted her when Melania, who was seven months pregnant, was changing, when Melania came back downstairs, she said I was nauseated. It didn't seem to register him in the slightest that what he'd done might have hurt or offended me or his wife.
Now, Stoynoff is going to be OUTFRONT in just a moment, and here's what's really interesting. Even though you just heard Trump lauding Stoynoff's article in people magazine, right, still talking about it, moments later. This is how he talked about her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Her name was -- whoever. Let's see, her name was who? Swarnoff (ph), yeah. I don't have it. Whatever her name was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Whatever her name was, even though he talked about the wonderful love story that, you know, article that she wrote, it is clear that these new ads paid for by George Conway are designed to get under Trump's skin. It is clear that is the purpose, but they're also designed to remind women of things like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH, TV HOST: Whatever you want.
TRUMP: Grab 'em by the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now right now, CNN's latest poll shows Trump trailing Harris by ten points when it comes to women, that actually puts him exactly in line with how he performed in 2020 when he lost the election.
So, Trump knows women matter, which is why he's appealing to them now, even though his latest appeal to women is odd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared.
[19:05:00]
You will no longer be in danger. You're not going to be in danger any longer. You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected and I will be your protector.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Natasha Stoynoff is OUTFRONT now for her first interview since this ad was released.
Natasha, thanks so much for choosing to speak out and -- because I -- I say this in the context of when you first shared your story when you hoped that it might make a difference in 2016, you received death threats. She was -- you were under incredible threat.
And yet you believe now it's worth the risk again to be heard, to make sure people hear what you have to say.
Why do you feel it's worth that?
STOYNOFF: It is a risk to come forward. I feel that way and all the other women felt that way as well.
But the risk that the country faces if he wins again is far greater to me. And I do think coming forward again right now could make a difference. I actually was in Montana a few weeks ago and in a ten- minute Uber ride, I changed someone's vote, a die-hard Trump supporter.
BURNETT: By telling your story?
STOYNOFF: Yep.
BURNETT: So one vote at a time. And that -- that is what matters. I -- we all -- we all know and look at these states last time and how razor-thin these margins are.
These ads, though, obviously I know you're hoping unaffiliated voters will see them, that they will make a difference.
They are, of course, also going to be in Trump's homes. They're going to be on television, Mar-a-Lago television, in Bedminster. They're going to be and all the networks that he watches faithfully or sporadically, including this one, including "Morning Joe," right, that he will tune into.
So you've covered Trump for many years, right? The context of this is you would cover him as a reporter for "People Magazine". So you do know him.
How do you expect he's going to respond?
STOYNOFF: The same way he always responds. He'll call us liars. He'll write some sort of outrageous tweet.
Now, he may be extra careful so as not to defame us. I mean, he owes quite a few million dollars to somebody, E. Jean Carroll, for defamation. I don't know if he'll be careful this time, but I don't think he can control himself in that way.
And the thing is that we have truth on our side. I know I have truth on my side and so it doesn't really bother me how he's going to respond.
BURNETT: So as I was doing the introduction and I was playing part of what Trump is saying to women now, as he is trying to --
STOYNOFF: Yes.
BURNETT: -- to move that margin just a little bit, your ad comes as he is saying this. I just want to play part of it. You know, he talked about how people would -- women would not have anxiety and fear if he wins. He also said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You will no longer be in danger. You're not going to be in danger any longer. You will be protected and I will be your protector.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So what goes through your mind when you hear that?
STOYNOFF: When I first saw that clip, I laughed, and then I sent it to the other women. I'm friends with several women who have been groped by him, and I feel like we had like a universal -- like vomit onto our phones.
The fact that he's saying that, he is not a protector of women. He is a predator of women.
BURNETT: So, in the incident that happened, Melania is seven months pregnant, as you've talked about. She goes upstairs to change for the next part of the photo shoot. You're alone with photo shoot -- I'm sorry. You're alone with Trump. He says, go look at this art, then he assaults you.
She actually did respond to that allegation at one point. And let me just play what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELANIA TRUMP, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: Even the story that came out in "People Magazine", the writer that she said that my husband took her to the room and start kissing her, she wrote in the same story about me, that she saw me on Fifth Avenue and I said to her, Natasha, how can -- we don't see you anymore? I was never friend with her. I would not recognize her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It's interesting there. She knew the detail of what you said happened. She knew your name. She knew all of those things.
Do you think, though, that she at this point truly believes her husband?
STOYNOFF: And by the way, I had a friend with me that day when we bumped into Melania Trump. So I have confirmation.
Do I think she believes the women?
BURNETT: Yeah.
STOYNOFF: I -- I can't imagine that she would marry somebody and not know what they're about. So I'm assuming she does, and I'm assuming that she just tries to live with it, but --
BURNETT: So --
STOYNOFF: -- I'm not sure. We'll see what happens in her memoir, which --
BURNETT: Yeah. Well, we'll see what's in there about that.
In an op-ed after Trump won in 2016, you wrote: It took months before the cruel truth dawned on me. Trump supporters knew we were telling the truth.
[19:10:01]
They just didn't care.
You know, one thing I find interesting and we are pointing out recently on the show, Natasha, was that, you know, 39 percent of women voted for Trump the first time, it went up the second time. Everybody, this was all known and all of those cases, he's doing the same now and polling as he was last time. We'll see what happens.
So, do you think anything has changed?
STOYNOFF: Well, I have hope that we have millions of new voters, young people who did not know of our stories before in 2016.
BURNETT: Eight years is a long time for a young voter, yeah. STOYNOFF: Right. And so, my hope is to talk to them. And my hope is
also that since he has been civilly found liable for sexual assault by a jury, that people will open their minds up a bit and say, these women are telling the truth.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Natasha, thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
STOYNOFF: Thank you.
BURNETT: And thank you for speaking out. I know, you know, to kind of open -- open all that again, it's not a small thing. So thank you.
STOYNOFF: Thanks so much.
BURNETT: And let's go now to our panel.
Jane, let me start with you, where Natasha just finished when she said she's -- it's not as if she's trying to relitigate with this with people who've already made up their minds. Although I'm sure she would be happy if that's the case, but she's talking to the many people who are voting this time around, who maybe were too young to really understand this or process all this eight years ago, that this might be new information for them and matter to them, what do you think?
JANE COASTON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Look, first of all, I really want to thank Natasha for telling her story. I think the challenge is twofold. One, the efforts should be to get people to not just not vote for Donald Trump, but to vote for Kamala Harris, where we are in a system in which we have two options, essentially.
And so, my concern is that this is an effort that is going to turn people off Trump, but then doesn't seem to then make the logical transition towards, you should vote for Kamala Harris.
I think the second point here is that my real concern is that so much of peoples views of Donald Trump are baked in, and I don't mean that as being a good thing. I don't think it's good that there are you can tell your story about what happened to you as a result of his actions. And people are going to respond with, eh, we knew that, like that's horrifying to me.
But my concern here is that the view of Donald Trump is so baked in that it even influences how we cover him, that he can say things that are objectively insane and it just is kind of like, well, that's just Trump being Trump, which is to meet ridiculous, but I think I'm just -- I'm a little concerned about what this means moving forward. I think that it really is to just how strange this moment is that this is an allegation, and this is a story in which for most politicians before Trump, that would be career ending.
But Trump has managed in some ways to blot out the sun in many ways. And so I think that's a concern for me.
BURNETT: Well, look, you got Mark Robinson still in the race and, you know, I don't -- I don't want to go down, hold a sack there, but I mean, just to make the point of the world that we live in.
Meghan, what do you say though when you have ads like this coming out? Yes, they are targeted in two ways. One specifically at one individual, which can be very important because it can totally influence how he behaves, what he posts, what he says in these next days, but also at these unaffiliated voters out there.
MEGHAN HAYS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I think absolutely. These are the women who are independent, who are these undecided voters in the battleground states, these ads hit them in a place that is going to turn them off from voting for Donald Trump. It is just showing that heat, the contrast between his leadership style and the vice president's leadership style. This coupled with when he says that he is a protector of women when, he says the horrible things he had about Jewish people are just making women feel like a second-class citizen.
You know, these are all things that just add onto how women feel about him. And I just -- these -- these are not helping him with independent women, which is going to decide the election so these are incredibly powerful and meaningful. And I do think it will impact women at the end of the day.
BURNETT: So, Scott, does this get under Trump's skin? I mean, what I was planning saying there about him talking about how wonderful the article was in detail, was just a few weeks ago, right? So he remembers this article from 20 years ago in detail, because he cares about that sort of stuff. And then he goes as if he didn't remember Natasha's name.
You know, I mean, you could see it. He's angry, right? So does this get under his skin?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, if he turns on the television to virtually any channel, any news channel 24 hours a day, he's going to see a constant and consistent barrage of allegations. So I would hope that if I were in his shoes, I wouldn't be too overly impacted by another set of television and commercials, negative television commercials like what he might encounter.
I mean, he's being attacked on TV and every swing state all across the country, every hour of every day, so throw another log onto that fire. So I don't know if hell be impacted by or not.
[19:15:01]
But there's -- there's already quite a bit of negative stuff out there that he's probably taking it on a regular basis.
BURNETT: All right. Well, all stay with me because we have more to talk about here in just a moment.
Also, our special series "Show Me the Money" on America's economy, tonight, we're going to take you to two counties that voted for Obama, then Trump, then Biden. So how will they vote this time?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I always tell people, I'm not a Republican, I'm a realist. I think they're all terrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, breaking news, Vice President Kamala Harris and a brand new interview going for Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And that's part of the problem with Donald Trump. He's just not very serious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And the biggest hurricane to hit the United States in more than a year, accelerating intensifying as we speak, expected to be a category four when it hits Florida in hours.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:13]
BURNETT: Tonight, Kamala Harris on the attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: You see, for Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers not those who actually build them, not those who wire them, not those who mop the floors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: This as Harris is closing the gap with Trump on the economy. Trump does hold a six-point advantage for voters, but it was a 12- point advantage when he was against President Biden.
And tonight, in part two of the "Show Me the Money" series here on OUTFRONT about America's economy, Phil Mattingly reports from two true swing districts in battlegrounds Michigan and Pennsylvania, breaking for Obama twice, then flipping to Trump and then back to Biden.
Phil is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HURLEY COLEMAN III, CEO, SAGINAW COUNTY COMMUNITY ACTION COMMITTEE: Our region has been screaming and crying out, hey, we're here. Hey, we're here.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As we drive with Hurley Coleman through Saginaw, Michigan, the raw tension --
COLEMAN: We're trying to change, we're trying to grow, we're trying to develop, but it all things that we're doing.
MATTINGLY: Between what was and what could be.
COLEMAN: And yet, nobody truly paid his attention until we became a battleground county.
MATTINGLY: Thrust to the forefront of the 2024 campaign, same way as this town 350 miles away.
PHIL KERNER, 3RD GENERATION TOOL AND DIE MANUFACTURER: Your drive down on that industrial corridor on 12th Street, just four shops.
MATTINGLY: Erie, Pennsylvania, home to Phil Kerner.
And what happened to that street?
KERNER: You can drive down it. It's pretty decimated now.
MATTINGLY: Two of the most important battleground counties --
BISHOP HURLEY COLEMAN, JR., WORLD OUTREACH CAMPUS: Because I know my conversation at home, its like, how are we going to pay for this?
MATTINGLY: -- in two of the most important battleground states.
KERNER: All the suppliers that I used to pick up the phone, I need this, I need this, I need this. I mean, there's a -- ten minutes away from my shop, they were all gone.
MATTINGLY: Replaced by what?
KERNER: Let's see, the one right down the street was an August industrial supply. They were really good with cutting tool and oils. What they teach in there now, knitting? It's a knitting place. Go GDP.
MATTINGLY: Through the eyes of two families who have lived through dramatic change. The Colemans embody Saginaw's journey from the manufacturing boom of the great migration --
BISHOP COLEMAN: Eighty to 90 percent of the adults in the church were employed full-time with GM. By the time I became in the pastor, that percentage was still a lot of the adult percentage of population was still there was connected to the auto industry, was still there.
MATTINGLY: Pastor Hurley Coleman's congregations still strong but those ties to manufacturing --
BISHOP COLEMAN: And right now, in our congregation, I have one person, full-time employee by the auto industry.
MATTINGLY: For his son, the CEO of a non-profit here new industries have created. Finally, some hope.
COLEMAN: That's the story that I'd like for us to tell, that we're resilient, that we do bounce-back. MATTINGLY: While the Colemans backed President Joe Biden, even got a visit from him this spring, Vice President Kamala Harris has sparked marked a whole new level of energy.
BISHOP COLEMAN: It's now - the conversation is not how bad Biden was or how good Trump was, but what possibly could happen with -- with a Harris presidency. I think there's more opportunistic hope that's been created in the last few weeks.
MATTINGLY: But with an election just months away --
COLEMAN: I will say in our line of work, I'm nervous. I'm nervous about the future.
MATTINGLY: Concern driven by what a Trump administration may do to poverty programs in a community, or Trump's hard line border stance and first-term pandemic era stimulus checks resonate.
COLEMAN: Some of the things that Trump was able to do was stems around the ability for them to be able to maintain some dollars, have some dollars come back to them.
MATTINGLY: An observation echoed by his father.
BISHOP COLEMAN: There are people who think that these stimulus checks that came out during the pandemic things of that nature are something that's going to happen again.
MATTINGLY: For Phil Kerner.
KERNER: My grandfather did this by father did this. My uncles, my brothers that I did it. My kids are doing it. That tells you everything, right?
MATTINGLY: Deep personal passion for a family trade, tool and diming, as he confronts economic numbers, he's just not feeling.
KERNER: I get the -- I see, that's touted a lot, wages going up, wages going up. Why did you go and talk to my friends, your wages going up? No. I know whose wages going up?
MATTINGLY: All theses that inform a political approach.
The promises that are made by the political class, do you believe any of them at this point?
[19:25:04]
KERNER: I always tell people, I'm not a Republican, I'm a realist. I think they're all terrible.
MATTINGLY: Leaving in his view, this binary business choice.
KERNER: I have two phone numbers for you. This one's Kamala Harris, and this one's Donald Trump. Who are going to call? We got it. You're going to go bankrupt if you don't figure inside out. You lose your home, you're going to -- they're foreclose on you, who are you going to call? Probably going to call Trump.
MATTINGLY: Two different men from two different walks of life work, but unwavering and their dedication to two different communities long after the political spotlight fades.
COLEMAN: What was oh, what was outdated is about experience of heavy transformation and rebirth. And I think that's what -- that's what those silos represent and it's the future. It's the future for this region.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: I mean, so thoughtful about how they get to their different decisions here, and the one Michigan family, the Pennsylvania family, up in Erie.
So you had -- you get econ speeches today, one from each candidate. And by the way, Trump's done town halls on electric vehicles, Harris has given speeches. They actually have talked a lot about the economy.
Are they breaking through it all?
MATTINGLY: I think what's so striking, one is your first point, which is there are actually thoughtful views on policy when you talk to people out in the country, I know some people that might think that it's Trump's blunt force rhetoric on the economy that wins. And certainly it resonates. He talks about the things that you hear when you're in counties like this.
Well, it was fascinating about the vice president's speech today is just how much of the key pillars of it or what you're hearing in the community, whether it's about manufacturing jobs.
Phil Kerner, obviously, going to support Trump, talked a ton. We had a very lengthy and detailed conversation about apprenticeships and why that's so important in his train, he'd like to see those standards raised in uniform. That was in the Harris policy proposal today.
Whether or not they break through, I think it's still very much an open question.
BURNETT: Very much an open question.
All right. Next installment tomorrow?
MATTINGLY: Yeah, next installment is tomorrow. First, I do want to note that the most fascinating part of this entire process was finding out that Phil Kerner's wife is actually related to you, which I want to be very clear about. We did not know in advance.
BURNETT: No, no.
MATTINGLY: We were talking to them. She had made us pepperoni roles. They were absolutely delicious.
And then she asked if I knew who you were. BURNETT: That's definitely mean -- pepperoni rolls.
MATTINGLY: Yes, I am -- I was like, I will tell you so you anything about Erin Burnett. She's like, oh, we're related. We're second cousins.
BURNETT: It turns out she is my second cousin, yes.
MATTINGLY: Which was not the plan nor did we know going in, but she's also probably the real star of the family. I will say we've had a number of random occurrences, including our next story.
We're going down to North Georgia, this is Trump country. We go to a plant, a green energy plant, really the cornerstone of Biden's success on green energy, and an area that is Trump country through and through, and tell that story. What people are thinking and why the plant manager, Ohio state grad in Georgia, also an alum. It's nice to see friends. You never know you're going to run into.
BURNETT: You never know, when they say its a big country of hundreds of millions of people --
MATTINGLY: They're related to Erin Burnett.
BURNETT: It's amazing -- all right. Thank you so much.
And next, breaking news, Vice President Harris in a brand-new interview, making her case on an issue that could be slipping away from Trump. You're going to hear that next and the state that it could all come down to what you just heard there with the corners from Pennsylvania right tonight morning, America will most likely not know who wins that state on election day. Wow, can you imagine how long this could be? That is a special report OUTFRONT tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:32:42]
BURNETT: The breaking news, don't trust Trump. Those are the words from Kamala Harris sending that message moment to go to voters who say in poll after poll that they believe that Trump would be better in the economy then she would be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Top economists in our country from Nobel laureates to people at Moody's and Goldman Sachs, have compared my plan with his and said my plan would grow the economy. His would shrink the economy. Some of them have actually assessed that his plan would increase inflation and invite a recession by the middle of next year.
So the facts remain that Donald Trump has a history of taking care of very rich people.
My perspective on the economy is when you grow the middle-class, America's economy is stronger. And there's empirical evidence to prove my point correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Everyone's back with me.
So, Meghan, now were here together. So obviously, the economy has been one of the strongest areas for Trump, immigration and the economy. But the question is, does it make sense for her? I mean, is this the way to address it?
And I mean, she's talking in big, big terms and obviously more specific ones as well. But talking about inflation and then recession, is that going to convince people?
HAYS: Look, I think she should be doing more local media as and hitting people in their in their areas and where they are watching at their nightly news when they're cooking dinner for their families on issues that are going to impact them directly in their homes and in their regions.
BURNETT: So very specific to a local market, specific plans, specific thing.
HAYS: Exactly, and talking about what is impacting them, the things that are impacting with Wisconsin are probably different than what's impacting North Carolina, gas prices are coming down. Grocery prices are coming down across the country.
But people in Wisconsin, in North Carolina in these battleground states might not be feeling that. So I do think doing more of a local media strategy is probably better than we're not all sitting here talking about the one interview that she's done in the past couple of weeks, we would be talking about interviews that she's doing every single day out on the trail, which I do think what it reach voters more and I do think it would help her on the economy.
BURNETT: And perhaps being more personal. I mean, Scott, here is more of what Harris is trying to lean in two in this national interview. And well talk more about the fact that it's national in a moment. But first, here's what she's saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: We have ambition. We have aspirations. We have dreams. We can see what's possible. We have an incredible work ethic, but not everyone has the access to the opportunities that allow them to achieve those things.
[19:35:06]
But we don't lack for those things, but not everyone, you know, gets handed stuff on a silver platter. And so my vision for the economy, I call it an opportunity economy, is about making sure that all Americans, wherever they start, wherever they are, have the ability to actually achieve those -- those dreams and those ambitions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And that specific moment, Scott, she doesn't, of course, tie silver platter specifically and explicitly to Trump, but it's a phrase she's used to attack him after the debate. It's clearly implications she's trying to make. Does that break through? Does talk like this have some people say, okay, maybe I should reconsider, you know, who were in that group that trust him on the economy more.
JENNINGS: Yeah. I'm still confused about which billionaire rich people are good and which are bad. Trump is I guess bad. The people who support Trump or bad the billionaires that she goes around with I guess were good. I think it's a very muddled thing and I still don't understand.
I think today was a mess for Harris. I mean, Joe Biden went on "The View" today and said he delegated all sorts of authority to have her on domestic policy. We know that the Biden administration is not popular on domestic and economic policy.
She gave a speech today saying, we've got to move past the policies that people think it failed. Well, people think the last four years or a failure. And from what I can tell from this interview tonight which was really a home game, I mean, going on with this particular interviewer was like effectively interviewing with her campaigns press secretary.
She had nothing -- nothing new to say on the economy beyond this ridiculous pablum. You would want to talk about aspirations and dreams, their crushed in this country because of inflation, and these kinds of interviews, and the day that she had today are not going to solve it.
BURNETT: So, Jake, can I just ask you about where this happened, right? To Meghan's point, which is she could be doing local knew she has done some local interviews, right. But she did the joint interview with --
COASTON: Yeah, she's been doing more local news, yeah.
BURNETT: Right. She did a CNN interview. But nationally since then, she hasn't. And now she's doing with MSNBC, which is friendly turf, right? I'm not going to be pejorative about it. It just -- it's MSNBC, that's their brand.
Is that -- is that the audience she needs to be talking to, Jane? I mean, it would appear to me that that core base of that audience is already voting for her. So she's trying to win people over. What is she doing?
COASTON: I think that -- I mean, she's doing a ton of earned media and she's doing a ton of interviews. She did local Pennsylvania news just a couple of weeks ago, but look like Trump goes on Fox News and they tell him how great he is, and he says how much he likes Fox News, like that's been going on for nine years now.
So I think that doing -- you know, it's important to do big national media. I want her to be doing media every single day, but you know, I get her emails from my inbox. She is doing national media. She's doing local media. She's talking to people. She's going on podcasts.
She's doing conversations, she's having town halls. I think that there's a town hall on a couple of weeks with Telemundo. Like I think that the work that she's been doing, I mean, it's one of the hardest things about being in media is that I'm aware that I will say I want you to do more media and then I will be she will do more media and then she will get criticized for doing more media.
But I think it just so important to remember that we are not the audience here. The audience are the actual undecided voters who haven't really thought about this election very much. And they have their own concerns.
BURNETT: Okay.
COASTON: That's where I think it's really important to just keep doing it.
BURNETT: I am curious though to that point and I think highly of the interviewer herself, but to that point, Meghan, why do MSNBC? Because viewers with MSNBC, they're not the undecided voter, right? I mean, you know, I mean, and her base is already very energized and turning out for her. I mean, I know you cant ever give up on that if you're a candidate.
But where should she be going to reach out to undecided, unaffiliated voters?
HAYS: So we're all talking about it. So whether she does MSNBC or CNN, we're all sitting here talking about it. So it's still getting covered.
BURNETT: Fair.
HAYS: So, it still is getting -- in broad strokes, she's still getting a lot of coverage from the media interview that she does. She, you know, she could go to Bloomberg, she could go to CNBC to do an econ interview, but I do think --
BURNETT: I'd love to have her right here to do an econ interview.
HAYS: But I do think Stephanie Ruhle dads have a reputation for being a person who is very knowledgeable on the issue.
BURNETT: She is.
HAYS: And is a good interview person for her to do and it is getting covered. So I do think it's a smart thing to do.
I also agree that she should be doing more podcasts and more social media things where -- with influencers and meeting people where they are, a lot of youth voters are on TikTok and that's where they get their news. So yes, she should be meeting those people where they are as well. But I do -- I don't think it really matters what networks she's on because we're all covering it.
BURNETT: All right. So, Scott, I want to ask you about something President Trump said today, and this was just an interesting point.
He has been saying that different groups of people, he's been very specific about who they are, that if they vote for him, they should have their head examined. Those are the words he's been using repeatedly in ways that could be very offensive, these individual groups. But nonetheless, this is what he's saying.
So here's what he's saying about senior voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If any senior doesn't vote for Trump, we're going to have to send you to a psychiatrist to have your head examine.
Any Jewish person that votes for her, especially now, her, the Democrat Party should have their head examined.
[19:40:07]
If they love Israel, anybody that votes for Democrat or Kamala, especially because she's -- this is the worst ever, you should have your head examined.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And then on Monday, Scott, I just don't want to leave a group out. He's talking about the Catholics and he said, any Catholic that votes for comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined.
All right. Scott, laughing aside, you've got seniors, Jewish people, people who love Israel and Catholics would all have their head examined if they're not voting for Trump. How does talking to people like that help Trump?
JENNINGS: Well, quite a few people will vote for Harris. So I think we should all open up ahead examination doctors office will have plenty of people to a lot of things.
BURNETT: And all those categories a lot of people are going to vote for Harris.
JENNINGS: Look, it's -- it's -- look, look, look, it's a joke. He's literally -- it's a turn of phrase. It's a funny aside. It's a joke. These are not meant to be offensive statements and I think people who are trying to spin it that way or being a willfully dishonest.
It's a joke. He's saying, I'm so much better than her that how could you possibly make a different decision? It is the same kind of statement that politicians make in every election. My opponent is terrible. I'm better how could you possibly make this decision. It is a joke.
BURNETT: And, Jane, will people can take it as such as this one of those things where people -- people actually get the joke and people who take it seriously are the ones missing the moment?
COASTON: I -- no, absolutely not. Like at what point has this particular campaign ever implied that it is a fun, jovial effort? This campaign has been largely based on the idea that if you do not support Trump, you are a stupid idiot who hates Israel, who hates America, and who should obviously, seek psychiatric care.
Like, I think that -- I'm aware that many people find Donald Trump funny, but in this particular effort with what he's saying, the idea is not ha, ha, ha, how stupid could you be to vote for others. But no, it's very serious, like it's not -- I am so much better. It's you are so stupid. How could you possibly favor this other candidate?
And it's been so interesting because again and again and again, Donald Trump gets the benefit of the doubt for absolutely no reason. I was just reading a piece. You mentioned the economy talking about tariffs earlier.
I was just reading a piece in a conservative outlet that essentially said, oh no, he won't do tariffs just like he didn't build a wall. So it just things he says, and so people are supposed to vote for him for doing things that he doesn't talk about, but don't vote for him because of things that he does talk about that he wont do.
It doesn't make any sense to me at all.
BURNETT: And then you got to get a whole new thing about why he should be examined. So thank you for --
COASTON: Exactly.
BURNETT: -- Jane, Meghan, and Scott. I appreciate all of you. Thank you.
And next, officials in all important Pennsylvania tonight with a pretty grim warning for all of us, which is that we probably won't know who wins Pennsylvania on election day, and God knows, we all know what that probably means, right? It means we don't know who wins the whole thing and they are sounding the alarm in Pennsylvania about conspiracy theories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that there's going to be a lot of allegations that are just not based on any truth whatsoever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And breaking news, the southeast about to be hit by a category four hurricane 70 million people in its path, the strongest storm in more than a year and America. We'll go live on the ground.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:23] BURNETT: Tonight, Trump zeroing in on Pennsylvania, the state that could decide the election. And a state that he has already accusing of fraud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now, we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early. I wonder what the hell happens during that 45? Let's move -- see, these votes we've got about 1 million votes and then lets move them. What happened the last time was disgraceful, including right here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. That comes as Pennsylvania officials tonight are warning, it is unlikely the world will know who wins the state on election night. Therefore, who wins the election probably.
Sara Murray is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL SCHMIDT (R), PENNSYLVANIA SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH: It is a real frustration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The odds that people are going to know who won Pennsylvania on election night?
SETH BLUESTEIN (R), PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONER: Almost zero.
MURRAY: Almost zero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tightening race in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
MURRAY (voice-over): Forty-three states allow election workers to start preparing mail-in ballots before Election Day to speed up the time it takes to count them. Pennsylvania does not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it leads to a perception that the vote count is delayed in Pennsylvania. No one's sitting around waiting. Everybody is aware of how time sensitive and how highly scrutinized the election results are in Pennsylvania.
TRUMP: We want to get rid of mail-in voting.
BLUSTEIN: We know that there's going to be a lot of allegations. They're just not based on any truth whatsoever.
TRUMP: How about Pennsylvania where they throw the poll watchers out, they throw them out?
BLUESTEIN: From the moment when polls are closed, until the race can be called, that window of time is the biggest opportunity for mis and disinformation to spread.
TRUMP: We don't want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and --
MURRAY: OK. So, it's like just after 6:00 a.m. We're headed to the elections warehouse in Philadelphia. It's just a little bit a preview of what's coming in November.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tightening race in the commonwealth.
MURRAY: I mean, they held for these election workers that they have figured out ways to expedite the process because they got a lot of heat when it takes a while.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is despicable what they did election night. We will not accept what's going on, absolutely not.
MURRAY: Just for the election workers today, again, this is special election, so maybe 5,000 mail-in ballots, much smaller than what were going to see in November.
[19:50:02]
But it gives you an idea of the process.
SCHMIDT: That process and I know this is an election administrator or myself for ten years takes time to do it right, to review the envelope, to make sure the voters signed it and dated, to open that envelope, to extract the secrecy envelope, to open the secrecy, to extract the ballot, to flatten the ballot before you count a single vote.
MURRAY: And there's no reason those steps couldn't happen before Election Day other than this law in Pennsylvania.
SCHMIDT: It does not benefit any candidate. It does not benefit any party.
MURRAY: In 2022, the Pennsylvania state legislature increased funding to cover the cost of elections but thanks to political gridlock in the state's capital, attempts to change the law preventing mail-in ballots from being prepped ahead of time have failed.
BLUESTEIN: I mean, we would be able to finish on election day if all we had to do is do the scanning portion.
MURRAY: The election workers are just getting started down at the end there. They bring in these trays of ballots and they started by reviewing that outer envelope, looking for the date, looking for the signature. And then they're going to move step-by-step through the warehouse from there.
Having been here for the 2020 election and having every election worker I talked to say, we wish we could have been these mail-in ballots earlier to be here again, four years later and have every election worker I talked to say the same thing, like it just seems crazy that it wasn't fixed.
BLUESTEIN: Yeah. And this is not a partisan issue. You have red counties and blue counties all asking for the same thing. So it really comes down to a matter of does the legislature have the will to pass the law that most other states already have or not?
MURRAY: Are you hopeful that the legislatures suddenly going to remedy this issue?
BLUESTEIN: No, I don't think so.
MURRAY: This step is called the flattening. They're literally taking the ballots, flattening them to make sure that they're ready to go into the machines and we scan.
I mean, you're a Republican. Why do you think there's so much mistrust of the mail ballots system in the Republican Party at this point.
BLUESTEIN: Unfortunately, I think it just comes down to the fact that the former president said that the ballots can't be trusted. And therefore, people don't trust them.
TRUMP: The mail-in voting isn't working. It's corrupt.
BLUESTEIN: Counting votes takes time and not knowing the results on election night is not a sign of anything that's wrong. It's a sign that the election workers are still doing their job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MURRAY (on camera): Now, it took four days for news outlets to call Pennsylvania and the presidential race in 2020, there are some reasons to think it might go faster this time. One is that officials are just expecting fewer mail-in ballots now that it's not a pandemic. And also these counties have invested in ballot scanners faster machinery to try they get these ballots moving.
And part of that bucket of money and it came from the state legislature requires the counties that took it to count the ballots continuously, which means they're going to be counting overnight, although election officials would certainly prefer to start this process earlier, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Sara, thank you very much. Wow. And again, here we are in uncharted territory of how all this plays out.
All right. Well, next, bracing for category four hurricane, it had been quiet. It seems until now, and fears are growing in Florida as Helene gains strength is on the verge of becoming a massive and powerful storm, the biggest in more than a year. The latest forecast, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:52:52] BURNETT: All right. Breaking news on Hurricane Helene now on a collision course with Florida, and that storm has rapidly intensifying, expected to be a massively powerful category four when it hits in hours. It is a sprawling storm expected to be the strongest storm to hit the United States in over a year.
And it is right now nearly the entire your state of Florida is under tropical storm and hurricane warnings. Much of the Southeast also under threat, 70 million people. The storm surge will be huge and the shoreline bracing for the worst bringing with it life-threatening storm surges, catastrophic wind damage.
I want to go to Derek Van Dam. He is in the panhandle of Florida right now, and he is going to be there as the storm hits.
It could obviously it could be very direct hit where you are, Derek. The entire shoreline under threat, category four is the expectation. Tell me about where you are right now, what you're looking for?
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. Erin, the verbiage, some pretty strong verbiage coming from the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, very near here, saying that there's increasing confidence that storm surge near Apalachee Bay will be catastrophic if not, in survival or unsurvivable.
And if this storm surge measurement tool is any indicator of what's to come with approaching hurricane Helene, then we need to prepare for the worst here in Apalachicola, this shading of blue represents where water could inundate this area with a landfall and category four hurricane, which of course is what we have in the forecast, this yellow represents the water levels for a category three that red, of course, indicating level two.
But we have a forecast of 10, 15 feet of storm surge. That's over twice as tall as I am. This could be a once-in-a-generation storm for people here, one that they feared the most. And the reason that's so susceptible is because of the shallow nature of the Gulf of Mexico over my right shoulder.
You can go out 50 miles and is still only have about 10 feet of water underneath you and then that shelf drops off considerably. So it doesn't take much of a storm to push up the water at reaches that shelf and it has nowhere to go, but inundate this very low line area known as the Big Bend of Florida. I like to call it the catcher's mitt.
I want to show you these graphics because the storm is looking very impressive on satellite, but not only is it growing in strengthening and intensity, it's growing in size as well. And that's going to be key to the storm because we will feel the impacts well outside of the center and its also going to be responsible for pushing this threat of hurricane storm force winds inland as well as the potential for life -- a catastrophic and dangerous flooding that we anticipate here across central portions of Georgia into South Carolina as well.
Erin, this is so kind of a triple punch here. We've got storm surge, catastrophic winds, and extreme rainfall according to the National Weather Service in Atlanta.
Erin, lots to think about.
BURNETT: Really terrifying for so many people. And, Derek, thank you very much, that image and just looking at high that water is going to go in just hours.
Thanks for joining us.
"AC360" starts now.
