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Erin Burnett Outfront
Harris, Trump Fight For Final Votes With Rallies In Wisconsin; U.S. Citizens Among 1,600 Purged From Virginia's Voter Rolls; Georgia's Election Chief Wants Musk To Delete Debunked Viral Video. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 01, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:30]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, Trump under investigation for saying, quote, war hawk Liz Cheney should be fired upon. The attorney general saying it could constitute a death threat.
This as Trump and Harris at this moment going head to head in Wisconsin, as you see on your screen.
And tonight, a CNN investigation, the Supreme Court ordering 1,600 people purged from Virginias voter rolls. The problem is, is that included U.S. citizens who do have every right to vote.
Plus a fake ad showing a Haitian immigrant voting repeatedly for Harris. It's still on X tonight, Elon Musk's social media site, even as the Georgia secretary of state has demanded it be taken down.
The Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will be OUTFRONT.
Let's go OUTFRONT
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT on this Friday, the breaking news. Trump's comment about Liz Cheney now under investigation as a possible death threat. The attorney general of Arizona saying she's investigating whether Trump's comment, quote qualifies as a death threat under Arizona law.
Well, this is as the final fight for the battleground states is underway tonight. And tonight, the candidates in Wisconsin, Harris and Trump, both holding rallies around Milwaukee this hour. Right now, Harris just took the stage at another rally further north in Wisconsin. You see her there live and then going to be heading down to Milwaukee as new polling in the state shows a slight edge for the vice president.
This is a new poll out of Marist. It shows Harris with 50 to Trump's 48 in Wisconsin. Polling tilting towards Harris in Michigan as well, three points spread there. You're still in margin of error here. But these are all going now in the direction of Harris within that margin of error. That's Michigan. And in perhaps the most crucial of the blue wall states for the
Democrats, Pennsylvania. That has Harris and the Marist poll up by two, 50 to 48.
And that led Trump today to do something he almost never does, which is to defend the comments he made about the former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who, of course, has endorsed Harris and appeared on stage with her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrel shooting at her, okay? Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.
You know, they're all war hawks when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh, gee, well, let's send -- let's send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy. But she's a stupid person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Harris, today, expressed outrage about those comments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He has increased his violent rhetoric. Donald Trump has about political opponents and in great detail -- in great detail, suggested rifles should be trained on former Representative Liz Cheney. This must be disqualifying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, Trump is defending his comments. He posted and I quote: all I'm saying about Liz Cheney is that she's a war hawk and a dumb one at that. But she wouldn't have the guts to fight herself.
As I said, this is a rare defense from Trump, you know, and then he came out moments ago at a campaign stop in Michigan to say this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And if you gave Liz Cheney a gun and put her into battle, facing the other side with guns pointing at her, she wouldn't have the courage or the strength or the stamina to even look the enemy in the eye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Here's the thing. Whether Trump was making a point about warmongering or not, what is clear is that Trump has made many comments recently that have been inappropriate and even violent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you look at Kamala and you look at what she's done to every place she's touched has turned to shit.
Crooked Joe Biden became mentally impaired, sad, but lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way. There's something wrong with Kamala.
We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics, and I think they're the -- and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary by the military.
We're like a garbage can for the rest of the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And here's the thing. It isn't just Trump. It's the people around him, too, on stage at those rallies, at his events and the rallies. Just take Tucker Carlson, who is actually interviewing Trump, as you saw there when Trump made the comment about Liz Cheney.
Here's some of what Tucker said at a recent Trump event.
[19:05:04]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: When dad gets home, you know what he says you've been a bad girl. You've been a bad little girl, and you're getting a vigorous spanking right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Trump bringing Tucker on stage at rally after rally. And if you found that disturbing, Carlson is also currently talking about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs in the bed and mauled, basically mauled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A spiritual attack by a demon?
CARLSON: Yeah, by a demon or by something unseen that left --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that right?
CARLSON: -- claw marks on my sides, on my --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he left physical marks.
CARLSON: Well, they're still there. Yeah, yeah
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's the campaign trail. Let's get to M.J. Lee. She is on that campaign trail tonight in Wisconsin, the battleground state just outside of Milwaukee, which is where Harris is taking the stage later tonight. So, M.J., what is the latest you're learning from the Harris campaign tonight?
M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, the Harris campaign continues to see this as a very close race where the outcome could really end up coming down to the margins in just a handful of states.
But in these final days, we are starting to see some bullishness starting to creep in from the Harris campaign particularly when it comes to the voters who have already voted and specifically the voters who they say only recently made up their minds in a number of these battleground states and in particular, campaign officials are pointing to some of the offensive and incendiary comments coming from Donald Trump and some of his surrogates, some of which you refer to in that intro there and saying that undecided voters simply do not like what they are hearing.
Now, if we are starting to see a little bit of those bursts of optimism from the Harris campaign, that does not mean, Erin, that Vice President Kamala Harris herself is anywhere close to predicting victory. And in fact, we have new reporting that gives us a little bit of a window into her frame of mind in this final stretch. I'm told by multiple sources that one thing that the vice president has been clear she will not discuss even in private with her team, is the question of who might serve in a future Harris cabinet or administration.
The vice president herself has said, described herself as being a little bit superstitious, and I am told that superstition is definitely a bit at play here. That's not uncommon for politicians, but I do think all of this adds up to, I think, a picture of a campaign that is not willing to take anything for granted. And number one proof of that tonight is the fact that the vice president is second time in two days -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. M.J., thank you very much.
Everyone is here with me now, this final Friday before Election Day.
David Axelrod, to hear M.J. saying, look, the campaign is -- they're feeling -- they're feeling good and they believe that they are outperforming Trump specifically on those undecided voters in the final days of their messaging about a democracy and disqualifying, they feel that that is working. Those undecided voters, they say, are there going that way. If that's the case and we know them to be 1 to 3 percent in these, these states where if the polls are right, that's the margin of victory. That could be the race could be.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, it could be. I think the emphasis should be on could because nobody really knows and I think what they do sense and what I sense is that she's closing better than he is. This is the week when people who have not been very tuned in to the race are going to finally pay attention to it, because they have to and Donald Trump is kind of off track, and she's got on her message and, and in some ways he's modeling the behavior that has caused people to be concerned about him in the first place.
So I think they feel good about that. They look at early vote numbers in these -- in these blue wall states. They feel good about that the gender, the gender composition of that early vote registration in Wisconsin you can register right up to election day, the registration. So they're looking at all of these things, but I don't talk to anybody who says, we got this thing. I just think they think that it is moving in a way that may be favorable to them.
BURNETT: So, Erin, you know, when you look at the polls, right? We just were going through a few of them. But Pennsylvania, one of them, where again margin of error. But she's on top in this Marist poll, 19 point shift there among independents. Harris now ahead of Trump 55 to 40.
Now in September, Trump was actually ahead of Harris by four points. And that's -- that's a huge shift right. That's 19 points. If that's accurate um, it's obviously a huge deal if it's accurate.
ERIN PERRINE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It is a big deal because that's a monumental shift in a very short amount of time. But what we're going to be seeing is if I mean, Pennsylvania is the largest electoral get in these swing states right now, you're looking at 19 electoral votes. There so Pennsylvania will be very indicative, I think, of the blue wall states that you're going to see in the close in the closing of the election.
[19:10:05]
But what -- what you're going to see is especially around the Pittsburgh area, that Republicans are going to make a concerted effort to drive up in those counties just outside Washington and get the numbers up so that they can try and close that gap. They need to drive up and we were talking about this a little bit before, the change in the electorate overall for Republicans means that a higher turnout election might actually be better for them because with so many low propensity voters, they're trying to swing into the Republican camp that while Democrats might be excited by early vote, Republicans are aiming for election day with less likely voters to try and swing the map. And that can count in any of these states.
BURNETT: Well, I guess that's true. And we know that you know, so far, at least it seems a lot of voters who are used to voting, who vote in midterms, they are the ones who have been going out in early vote, at least what we've been hearing from the campaigns.
In Pennsylvania, though, Ashley, since we're talking about it, Harris has turned to Shapiro, Josh Shapiro, the popular governor whom she did not pick to be her vice president, to put a closing ad in the state. Here's a part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Do you want more chaos or like me, are you ready for some common sense? That's why I'm with Kamala. I've known her for two decades. She's practical and she gets stuff done.
HARRIS: As president, I will chart a new way forward and find solutions to create jobs and bring down costs.
I will fight for you and your family every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Ashley, what does that do in Pennsylvania? Does that help her? Because he is popular. He has been a governor who has governed in a bipartisan manner.
Or does it remind people that they're sitting there in that picture and they're not going to be sitting there if she wins because she didn't pick him?
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think it does the latter. I think he's doing exactly what a surrogate for the campaign should be doing, and that's whatever the campaign asks. He's been on the trail with governors, the Democratic governors on a bus tour, knocking doors, doing rallies and now, he's up on television.
It's actually a unique way to close, but I think it's a clever way to close so you can reach as many people as possible and it is a reminder that unlike Donald Trump, Kamala Harris has all the Democratic governors, all the former presidents that are Democratic and vice presidents supporting her, unlike her running mate.
And so I think it's a good reminder for the state of Pennsylvania particularly.
BURNETT: So, David, can I ask you about this Liz Cheney comment and not about what people have been talking all day of what he said and what he meant and all that business that happens with Trump comments. I don't mean that.
I mean the fact that Trump has explained his comments now twice. He posted on media, on social media, and then he went out and said, and he wanted to say I wasn't saying firing squad. I was saying she wasn't willing. He went out and did that.
AXELROD: Yes.
BURNETT: We all know that that Trump doesn't usually do that. He doesn't. Is that a sign that he feels weakness, that he feels that could hurt him?
AXELROD: Well, I think he was told this was not good. Listen, I keep thinking about what it would be like to be in that campaign headquarters never knowing what my candidate is going to do that day. You're trying to drive a message about the economy or immigration and he's out there and he's doing this and that becomes the story. And there are only a few days left, and now a day is hijacked by that story.
So yeah, I think it's -- it -- he's trying to clean up. But if you're cleaning up, you know the old expression in politics, if you're explaining, you're losing. He's doing lots of explaining.
BURNETT: And you've, you know, you've -- you've worked with him, right. You know, so what do you read into him now explaining this twice.
PERRINE: Well, it was interesting watching that tape back because the secondary set of remarks he made where he was explaining, that was loaded into the teleprompter. So there was a conversation, a broader conversation about moving those remarks for him.
But listen, right now, I think to David's point earlier, now that Halloween is over, I think a lot of those persuadable voters, moms, people with families, they're now starting to tune in because were in the final stretch going into election day so I don't know that they are necessarily going to change their mind because of this comment.
There's so much noise right now. Trump needs to stay focused. There was a bad jobs report today and two -- two adjustments to the previous job reports to bring those numbers down.
BURNETT: They were bad.
PERRINE: They should be talking about the economy and hitting Kamala for this.
Anything that's not doing that is detracting from their ability to try and win this election.
BURNETT: Ashley, how much insight do you think the Harris campaign has on the voters who are making their decision at the last moment as to whether they are people who simply don't pay attention or they are people who just actually do pay attention and do know what's going on, and just haven't been able to decide what they're going to do about it?
You know, do they -- do they -- how much do they really know about these individuals?
ALLISON: Well, I think this campaign is a little bit different in terms of what their knowledge is because of the short runway of her campaign, voters who might have tuned in here or there in a June debate. Well, it's not the candidate anymore. It's a new candidate. And maybe they missed the fall debate.
[19:15:01]
So I think they know a couple of things. One, they are looking state by state on the early voting and the mail in ballots and determining are these voters that have voted in a midterm election is that they're going to probably vote Democratic if they -- if they have party ID in that state. They also probably are putting voters in two other buckets, people who are still making a decision.
And people, to David's point earlier that are just now paying attention, and those individuals, they're going to be that Donald Trump seems to be making day after day, multiple times a day. But then they're also are going to be looking for low propensity voters. There still are a lot of folks that if they have never voted before, that if they go to the polls, they will vote. And we call those the knock and drags. You knock on the door and you drag them to the polls.
So I think that they're looking at people in a couple of different ways because of the consolidated timeline.
BURNETT: David, bottom line, does this change the view out there that Trump has a ceiling and the ceiling is the ceiling where he was in 2016 and 2020?
AXELROD: I think that's very much an open question. And he has to prove that it's not the case. And I think this makes it harder for him to surpass that ceiling. So yeah, I don't think Trump is finishing. Well, I said this before last week. I think he was in better shape than he is in this week. And you want to close strong in a presidential race.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you all very much.
I do want everyone to know, 600 -- 600 episodes of the "Axe Files". That's incredible.
AXELROD: Yeah.
BURNETT: So congratulations on that. The 600th episode of is out the guest is. Okay, this is an interesting one.
AXELROD: Yes.
BURNETT: You.
AXELROD: I'm the guest.
BURNETT: You are the guest, Anderson is interviewing you. I can't wait to see it so that is great. Yeah. Or listen and see. So I hope everyone will tune in to that.
AXELROD: Thanks, Erin.
BURNETT: And next, an OUTFRONT investigation, 1,600 people purged from the Virginia voter rolls because they had said they weren't citizens -- well, guess what? Many of them are citizens. So you're going to hear from them.
Plus, new reporting from our KFILE on Kamala Harris's mixed messages about Israel and Gaza. Can you have a mixed message on that one? Now it depends on what state you live in, of what you'll hear?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating.
I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Wall Street betting on a Trump victory. But we're going to explain the details there because they're really important.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:25]
BURNETT: Breaking news, the Supreme Court tonight handing Republicans a major defeat, shutting down their argument that thousands of mail in ballots in Pennsylvania should not be counted. This is CNN investigates another Supreme Court ruling that is affecting voters in the state of Virginia, where 1,600 people were purged from the voting rolls for not being American citizens.
The court siding with the Republican governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin.
The problem was that it was more complicated than that. Many of those people actually are citizens, legal voters who then got scrubbed from the system.
CNN managed to track down some of them. Rene Marsh is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just weeks before Election Day, daily purges from Virginia's voter registration rolls. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin calls it an effort to prevent illegal noncitizen voting, something that rarely happens.
CNN got access to the list of 1600 people and called over 100 of them. While we did identify noncitizens, we also found many citizens who are eligible voters.
Are you a citizen?
Some of them were even born in the U.S. and had voted in several previous elections without problems.
RACHEL XU, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY STUDENT: It's a bit confusing that, like I registered and now I'm not?
MARSH: George Mason University student Rachel Xu spoke to CNN from her dorm room. She didn't know she'd been purged until CNN called.
XU: I was originally born in China. I immigrated here about six years ago. I got my citizenship like a year ago, but that doesn't change the fact that I still have the right to vote. So that's really weird.
MARSH: She's still not sure why she was purged. Neither is 21-year-old Abdullah Al Mosawa, who even sent CNN a picture of his U.S. passport as proof of citizenship. He learned about Virginia's daily voter registration purges on TikTok. Then realized he was affected. I wouldn't say it feels great, he told CNN. CNN reached out to Governor Glenn Youngkin's office about what we
found. His press secretary said in a statement, Governor Youngkin has been clear every eligible Virginia citizen who wants to vote can do so by same day, registering through Election Day. Youngkin has driven the narrative that illegal voting is a problem in Virginia saying the purge addresses it.
GOV. GLENN YOUNGKIN (R), VIRGINIA: That just provides further, further comfort across the commonwealth that this election will be secure, it will be accurate.
MARSH: Youngkin and other Republicans have followed Trump in stoking fears over voter fraud.
Trump baselessly claims illegal voting is part of the reason he lost the 2020 election.
TRUMP: Removing illegal voters off the voting rolls should be a big priority for this country.
MARSH: While the Virginia purge involves a relatively small number of voters in a state not considered a battleground, voting rights groups worry about the chilling effect of the purge on eligible voters.
ANNA DORMAN, COUNSEL, PROTECT DEMOCRACY: It's also causing a lot of fear within immigrants and new citizen communities. More generally, who are getting this information via social media and through the Grapevine and hearing that there's some sort of issue and that people could be prosecuted for felonies.
MARSH: As for Xu, she says she won't be deterred and plans to reregister and cast her ballot for the very first time on Election Day.
XU: I'm a citizen, I still have -- I have my right to vote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH (on camera): Well, Erin, the most important message tonight any Virginia voter who has been purged and you are a U.S. citizen, you're eligible to vote, you can use Virginia's same day registration process to vote in person at early voting locations, through this Saturday.
[19:25:07]
Or you can vote on Election Day at a polling place.
BURNETT: All right. Rene, thank you very much. It's fascinating just to hear from those voters, the citizens. I want to go now to the Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
So, Senator, you hear Rene talking to that woman in Virginia who was purged from the voter rolls, even though she is a citizen, she is eligible to vote. Now, Rene did lay out that. And there are loops but she can still register. She can still vote, according to Virginia law, so she would be able to vote. The people on that list who are not citizens would not.
Do you think that this is a situation that is ending in a fair way, or no?
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): What we see across the country is that Republicans are making it difficult for legal -- legal voters to vote. We know that it is illegal for people who are not citizens to vote, and that is a crime. But when they start kicking people off the rolls who are actually legal as the people that the CNN reporters talked to, that is a major problem. Fortunately in Virginia, people can register.
But of course they don't know exactly where they kicked off, were they not? And they're going to have to go and check, hopefully, by going there early, that's better off for them. Not on the same day, even though they can do it on the same day. Let us make that clear. But they can actually register.
So I hope all those people who find out and go right away to their polling places or their early voting places, and make sure that they're registered.
But this is the Pennsylvania story actually similar thing in that these people were simply this is about envelopes. They were simply when people have an envelope issue, of which envelope did they use? They were simply allowing them to make good on that so they could still vote ahead of time.
And the Pennsylvania court said, of course they should be able to do that. This ruling went a good way, and that the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Pennsylvania to keep curing these envelope issues. But this all started with a Republican suit.
So what you're seeing with the Kamala Harris surging in the polls, as you guys just pointed out in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and now Pennsylvania, Donald Trump is back to his old games. He is doing everything to try to suppress the vote and then seed misinformation, so that afterwards, if and when he loses, he's going to claim its not fair and everyone has to be on their A-game to make sure that people know that they can still legally vote and go to vote.
BURNETT: So I want to ask you about that. The Harris campaign said it does fully expect that Trump will declare that he has won on Tuesday, regardless of whether he wins or loses and I know that this has actually been a big topic in your own Senate race against the former professional basketball player, Royce White.
He once tweeted out a photo actually senator of him with the words Trump won written on his head during a game and you and he had a debate just the other day. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MODERATOR: Did Donald Trump lose Minnesota in 2020?
ROYCE WHITE (R), MINNESOTA SENATE CANDIDATE: It would appear so. Yeah, it would appear so, but I can't be sure. And I don't think that that's dangerous to say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I know you disagree on whether it's dangerous to say. Can I -- can I ask you, though, how do you think Trump and his supporters will accept? I mean, do you think that violence is something that you just legitimately expect is going to happen here, or not?
KLOBUCHAR: There have been a lot of changes to our laws including the Electoral Count Act that I worked on with Democrats and Republicans as chair of the Rules Committee, that we have made that is going to make it very clear that you can't mess around with the electoral ballots and you can't use leverage with one member of Congress to object to the result. That does make a difference.
We also have made it very clear we just as we put out a report from the Rules Committee on this, the Democrats that we know there are differences on election night in counting, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, for instance, do not start counting their ballots from their citizens until that day of the election.
Michigan has made it a little easier. Like many other states, they're at least opening the ballots for jurisdictions over 5000. So they will be able to count things quick.
Do I wish Wisconsin and Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania? I'm going to Pittsburgh tomorrow to help out on my mind. Do I wish they did things like they do in Minnesota? Maybe. But the point is, states have the right to make their own election laws.
And so that's why we know we often see the results come in later in some of these states. And he tries to mine that for saying there's something wrong with our system.
[19:30:01]
But remember -- everyone should remember he is doing that once again. We've seen the playbook before to breed suspicion about our democracy, and those that stand up for democracy, like a Liz Cheney, the who attacked just today like a number of Republicans have joined Democrats in saying, no, our democracy is too important and we're voting for Kamala Harris.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Senator Klobuchar, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much tonight. And you said you'll be in Pittsburgh on the trail tomorrow.
And next, a fake voter fraud video about Georgia going viral on Elon Musk's social media platform. The Georgia secretary of state wants it taken down. He's OUTFRONT tonight.
And Speaker Mike Johnson was all for repealing Obamacare until Trump said he wasn't. And KFILE has a special report tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BURNETT: Tonight, this fake ad of a Haitian immigrant saying he voted multiple times is still all over Elon Musk's social media site. It's nearly 24 hours after the Georgia Republican secretary of state told Musk to remove the debunked video, which is the product of a Russian disinformation campaign.
The driver's license that you see in this still frame of the video, we're obviously not going to show you the video.
[19:35:03]
But this drivers license, even uses a stock image for the person's picture.
Tonight, a spokesperson for X tells us that the site is taking action against posts containing the video. However, they are still all over the site at this hour, with new posts still going up.
OUTFRONT now, the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
And, Secretary Raffensperger, I'm glad to speak with you again.
As we said in inning one of nine here on this election but that video is still all over X despite two hours ago. They told us that they were going to be taking action. By the way that was 20 hours after you asked them to take it down.
What is your message to Elon Musk tonight?
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, my message is really to everyone that has these social media sites, to make sure you have the facts and really check it out. I believe in freedom of the press and freedom of speech, but we looked at it and very quickly we realized it was fake, and then very quickly we came to the conclusion its probably or came from a Russian origin today, says a Department of Homeland Security confirmed that that it was, you know, came from Russia.
But there aren't -- people don't come here and get papers, citizenship papers in six months. And in Georgia, we have a robust citizenship verification and you don't get your driver's license, certainly don't get two drivers license with the same name.
So we knew there it just didn't smell right. So we checked it out came to a conclusion real quick. So we responded very quickly. You know, on Twitter and then also with a press release just to let people know it's fake don't fall for it, because in effect, what people want to do these nation state actors is really get us fighting among ourselves.
BURNETT: Yeah.
RAFFENSPERGER: We got enough that splits us. We don't need to have the Russians or other bad actors try and split us further.
BURNETT: So, so, you know, this was a week after the intel community had said that a phony video showing fraud in Pennsylvania was just that was phony. And that also had come from Russia. I mean, Secretary, how widespread do you believe I mean, you talk about state actors. I understand you're using a plural there, but I'm talking specifically about Russia. How widespread do you think the Russian interference is?
RAFFENSPERGER: We expect further interference and disinformation and just making up stuff that gets us arguing with each other or starting these, you know, wild conspiracy theories. We've got some reports from CISA and other DHS, you know, they've sent us some notices and just things to expect.
And so, we're fully prepared. We have been. We already had a DDOS attack, 420,000 pings came to our website. That would be on Monday, October 14th. And we very quickly saw what it was and quickly, you know, disengaged.
We added a little, you know, interface that said, I am a human. I am not a robot. And they had to press that. And that got rid of all those bots that were pinging us.
But the thing is, we were expecting it. We prepared for it. But you can never prepare enough because it seems like they never sleep. They got very clever minds and they have they're very devious people just trying to upset us.
BURNETT: Yeah.
RAFFENSPERGER: They probably don't like us supporting Ukraine. And you know they just want to take a shot at us, right and we can't let them.
BURNETT: Yeah, no, I am, I am curious when you when you reach out to Twitter, do you feel like they're listening? I mean, I understand once a video is out there it is very hard to shut it down. You're playing whack a mole. So I understand that.
But, you know, more than 20 hours after you had requested them take it down, it's your state. You said it was fake. They still hadn't taken any kind of action when we called them they said they were then going to, although we still see it everywhere.
Do you think they're listening? Do you think Elon Musk is listening? He didn't retweet this one, although he has other conspiracy theories, which turned out to be inaccurate?
RAFFENSPERGER: Well, I would hope that they would. He obviously is a very, you know, bright fellow. He's -- I guess he's a genius. If you look at what he's done with EVs and rockets, and I'm sure he can figure this out to take down something if he really, truly believed it needed to come down.
And so, we are going to be very respectful, but we're also going to be very proactive, and were going to hit back hard when we see disinformation, misinformation, outright lying from any actor, both foreign and domestic.
We want people to understand here what the facts are. Come to draw your own conclusions based on the facts, not by stuff that's just made up.
BURNETT: So I want to talk about where we are right now next week. You know, it was so close with the election in 2020. It was so close in Georgia. We all know the phone call. I hope everyone's read your book and the transcript of the phone call. The whole thing, right?
Hand recount was required. It took 16 days for you to be able to make the final formal call for Georgia after Election Day, 16 days.
Do you expect anything like that this time around or do you think that its fair to say Georgia's going to be in the -- they're going to make a pretty quick call category?
RAFFENSPERGER: It depends how close it is. What we have done is, first of all, on Tuesday we have a new electronic poll pads, which we've been using this election that's why the lines are moving so quickly, so the lines will move quickly. By state law, lines have to be shorter than one hour on Election Day.
[19:40:01]
But also all this early voting that you've seen, that's 65 percent. That has to all be reported no later than one hour after the polls close primarily at 7:00 p.m. So by 8:00 p.m., 65 to 70 percent of all the vote totals will be reported, who voted for who, and then the people that voted absentee that we've received, that we've accepted it. That'll all be tabulated, ready for report no later than 8:00 p.m. also.
So that's 70 to 75 percent. The other 25 percent that happens on Tuesday during the election day. That's going to be reported with constant uploads of feeds starting probably. My guess is 7:30. You might start seeing something, but no later than 8:00, and it will continue on through the night. And by no later than the end of the evening, you're going to see all the results.
But we think many of the smaller counties will be done by 10:00, 10:30 at the latest. And so you'll have a good idea. But before the end of the night, all of that will be reported.
The only thing well be waiting on is any of these absentee ballots that come in over the weekend that aren't handled and also the overseas ballots. Federal law allows those to be accepted up until Friday.
We'll just have to see how many of those federal ballots we get in by Friday, how many outstanding absentee ballots? A few thousand there, and what is the difference between the top vote-getter and the number two vote getter? And that'll give you your answer pretty quick.
BURNETT: Yeah, where you can, which is -- and so you said it really is all about the margin. You could know election night or you could have to wait a few days.
Today is the last day to vote early, and I know that it has -- it has been a wonderful thing to see what's happened in Georgia, record after record after record broken. Nearly 4 million people have already voted, if you compare that to your total number of votes in 2020, that's 80 percent.
Now, do you expect to just shatter the overall records in terms of your turnout? You know, we're saying, you know, 80 percent of what happened in 2020, do you think you're going to do significantly better than that.
RAFFENSPERGER: I -- for some reason, I think we will, because actually on 2020, the turnout we had on election day was under 800,000, and we were actually disappointed. We expected it to be 1.1 to 1.3 million.
And if that happens, then well be all over 5.3 million. We actually just went over 4 million. It's not uploaded to, you know, our data hub yet, but I got a feedback before I got on your show, and so we'll be uploading that and get that. But we'll be over 4 million, you know, in the next hour or so once we get that all, you know, uploaded to our website, Georgia data hub.
BURNETT: All right. Well, that is certainly something to celebrate. Turnout going up for everyone.
Thank you so much, Secretary. It's good to talk to you.
RAFFENSPERGER: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. And next, Kamala Harris has different messages on Israel and Gaza, totally different ones depending on what state you live in.
And why are the betting markets right now going for Trump? Right now, more than a billion dollars at play that is set to surge in the coming hours
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:46:57]
BURNETT: Tonight, mixed messages. A KFILE investigation this hour finds Kamala Harris is targeting crucial battleground voters with vastly different messages on Gaza and Israel.
This ad is running in Michigan, which has the largest Arab population in America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Well, it's a very different story for an ad in Pennsylvania targeting Jewish voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Let me be clear. I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused. on October 7.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: A different message. Andrew Kaczynski is OUTFRONT now.
So, Andrew, those obviously do sound starkly different to say the least. Tell me more about what you found.
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDTIOR: Yeah. That's right. And look, this really illustrates the sort of fine line that the Harris campaign is trying to walk here in the closing weeks closing days of this campaign on the issue of Israel here. You have two entirely different constituencies and they are getting two entirely different messages that are often at times these constituencies have very opposing views on this.
If you are a Jewish person in Pennsylvania, you saw that ad that you're getting, you are getting that ad that talks about how strong, strong she is in Israel. If you're a Muslim voter in Michigan you are getting that ad on Facebook that's talking about -- talking about how she wont be silent on the issue of Gaza.
Now, what's really interesting here is that ad that we that we just played, the one that's going to Jewish voters in Pennsylvania. Now, it sort of sounds like those two clips of her talking about Israel are together, but they actually cut part of it out. Take a listen to what they cut.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security freedom and self-determination
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KACZYNSKI: And you've seen through that, she -- well, they obviously they cut out that portion of the ad where they talked about Gaza from her DNC speech those two ports were together. They sliced them. They cut that part out.
Now, look, she's also getting hammered a lot on this issue by Republicans. We talked just a couple of days ago about how those robocalls were airing in Wisconsin that are made to sound like they're in support of Jill Stein talking about her position on Gaza, saying that they're highlighting her pro-Israel position and its they're sort of trying to siphon those votes away from her. So this is a really delicate issue for her. BURNETT: Oh, it certainly is. I mean, the Palestinian people can
realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self- determination being cut out.
[19:50:04]
It's important to notice that.
All right. Now, you also have new reporting on Speaker Mike Johnson. Speaker Mike Johnson and his position on repealing Obamacare, which he had been all about, then Donald Trump seemed to realize how popular Obamacare was for many Americans, says he won't repeal it.
But Speaker Mike Johnson in Pennsylvania just said this, which indicated he was still open to repeal. Let's play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: When I say we're going to have a very aggressive first hundred days agenda, we've got a lot of things still on the table.
REPORTER: No Obamacare?
JOHNSON: No Obamacare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK. But Trump has said that he won't repeal it, so now they're at odds, at least from that. So then Manu Raju asked Johnson to clarify what you were trying to say. He responds this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How much are you talking about what you will do if you're in power, and does that include repealing the ACA?
JOHNSON: No. Look, we --
RAJU: Not repealing the ACA.
JOHNSON: Not, no, this has been ascribed to me. That is not what I said. And you can pull the recording of the event in Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You did pull a recording of the event in Pennsylvania, right? No Obamacare? No Obamacare says Johnson. So, is there ambiguity here?
KACZYNSKI: I mean, it's sort of wild. Like we've been doing this a long time, Erin, that there's a whole news cycle about Republican's not wanting to get rid of Obamacare now. Okay, Mike Johnson, he says now that he doesn't want to get rid of Obamacare, Democrats have said that quote shows that he does.
But this isn't where he was in, like tons and tons of clips that we found from 2017 through 2022.
Take a listen to what we found.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
JOHNSON: If you remember, we fumbled the ball on the repeal and replace of Obamacare. This time, it's going to be different and I'm going to tell you why because everybody learned some -- some very difficult lessons at that point. I've been working deliberately with my colleagues, Scalise, McCarthy and everybody, preparing this very deliberately so that we get these players on the field.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KACZYNSKI: And, Erin, that was that was two years ago. All right? That's him talking about how the new Republican Congress, how excited he was that they were going to repeal Obamacare. So just a couple of years ago, he wanted to repeal it. He's all for it.
Now, he says he doesn't want to do it right.
BURNETT: Right. It went from repeal to repeal and replace to just let's just keep it.
KACZYNSKI: Let's not talk about it anymore.
BURNETT: Let's not talk about it.
All right. Thank you very much, Andrew Kaczynski, FILE.
And next, more than $1 billion at stake in the betting markets about to triple in just the next few days. One candidate is favored. Are the markets right?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:55:54]
BURNETT: Tonight, prediction fever. Polls right now show Kamala Harris and Donald Trump locked in a tight race but there is also another way to see how the race is going in real time. There are 12 financial betting markets going right now, 12, and well over $1 billion is already at play. Volume has tripled in the past 72 hours and could triple again up to $3 billion by election eve.
OUTFRONT now, Jim Bianco, economic analyst, President of Bianco Research, he follows this closely. First bet himself on an outcome back in 1992 and points out there's a very long history of these, even trading on the stock market all the way back to the civil war.
So, Jim, here we are 12 markets. Crypto is involved in. Some of them what do the betting markets say tonight about who's winning?
JIM BIANCO, ECONOMIC ANALYST: So, let's keep in mind that these are probability markets. And right now, they're showing that Donald Trump is trading at around 55 to 60 percent chance of winning. Kamala Harris is trading at around 40 to 45 percent.
Now, don't look at this as Trump has a ten point lead because that's not what prediction markets are probabilities are about. It's more like if you ran the election 100 times, he would win 55 times. She would win 45 times. We don't run 100 elections. We run one.
And you have to ask, are we going to have one of those 45 elections next week? Are we going to have one of the 55?
So, obviously, you'd rather be 55 than 45. But this is probably best called a toss up in the betting markets with a slight, slight underscore advantage to Trump.
BURNETT: All right. So -- and that's interesting because some of these polls even in the past hours right, have come out and given Harris -- Harris a couple of points in these must win states still within the margin of the polling margin of victory, margin of error. But she has been has been going up. And in that you expect the amount of money in these markets to surge in the next few days. I know, Jim, that odds could move dramatically, in fact, as things like exit polls come out right.
When you're not going to be getting polls anymore, you're just getting an exit polls, and really, the financial markets that were looking at -- those are the only place that you can really see what's happening to the odds. And it is for anyone who gets involved on all or nothing bet.
BIANCO: Yeah. And on that last point, I think you got to keep in mind that whatever money is bet, whenever the election is done, one candidate will be at one or a dollar and the other candidate will be at zero and half the people will lose money and half the people will have made money, and we're just going to divide up the pie. The betting markets are going to probably surge, as you pointed out, because that's what they do. If you've ever been to the horse track in the two minutes before the race goes off is when you get all the betting that goes on -- well, that's the way that these markets work too.
In the couple of days, or even Tuesday morning of election day, you'll get a surge of money because then the outcome is known later that day, or maybe in the next day or two. People are not going to bet this in February and hold it for nine months, waiting for the election. They're going to bet it the day of.
And they're also very good because they give you a way to summarize because that's what I think they are. They are just the summary of all the information we know into one number.
So on Election Day, they're going to be very volatile. They usually are. They could move 30 or 50 points as opposed to 2 or 3 points, which is what were comfortable with. And what would they move them on exit polls, you know, updates on vote counts and you'll get a lot of data. And you want to know what does that mean? Look at the betting market. It'll tell you if one candidate goes up or the other candidate goes down. That'll be the summation of what we think it means. BURNETT: And, obviously, if anyone you know, watching, if you think
they're wrong right now on sort of you said coin toss but advantage Trump they think Harris you go in on that if you're right you can make a lot of money. It depends.
Now there's been some talk quickly before we go, Jim, that these markets are being manipulated. Few big players are trying to get the outcome they want. They're trying to influence people by making it look like, I guess in this case, Trump is winning. You're skeptical, though.
BIANCO: Yeah. I mean, there are a few big players that are playing these markets and sometimes they move them around a little bit. But the premise of manipulation is if somebody comes in and pushes the market to a level where it won't be, that the rest of the country is going to notice that, and its either going to dissuade them from voting because they're depressed or energized them to vote because they think their candidate is going to win.
I don't think that these betting markets are going to change anybody's opinion, so its a waste of time to manipulate these markets, which is why I push back on that argument.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Jim, thank you very much. I'm glad to see you. We'll see what happens over these next few days. Have a good weekend.
And all of you, I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for joining us.
"AC360" starts now.
