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Series Of Polls In Pennsylvania Show Harris And Trump Neck And Neck Even As Trump Leads On Economy; Alleged Would-Be Trump Assassin Back In Court; Experts Raise Alarms About Vote Count Delays In Battleground States. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 23, 2024 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

REP. DAN MEUSER (R), PENNSYLVANIA: -- has been a failed one in her plans, the Vice President's plans, if she would be president, are really Biden 2.0, more spending, more taxes, more regulation. So, it's a good question. What we're trying to do is have an informed electorate, the most informed electorate possible. We believe an informed electorate will overwhelmingly vote for the Trump agenda.

Now, some people say, you know, I don't want to vote for Trump. I, you know, I don't like his personality. He's this, he's that. Well, let's vote for the Trump policies. And that's what's going to be expressed tonight in Indiana, reminding everyone the importance of this election, how important it is that Pennsylvanians come out to vote. That's the key.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Indiana Pennsylvania. Not Indiana, the state, right?

MEUSER: I'm sorry, Pennsylvania, yes.

BASH: Yes, yes. No, no, just so our viewers know. OK, so on that note, I want you to listen to what Donald Trump said when he was asked to give specifics on how he would bring prices down for Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are the specific mechanics of how prices come down? You know, the steps that would be taken in a second term for you.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So, first of all, she can't do an interview. She could never do this interview because you ask questions like give me a specific answer. She talks about her lawn when she was growing up. This woman is not equipped to be president. She's not equipped to deal with President Xi, who I was very -- I took in hundreds of billions of dollars with him. And Putin, we had no war with Putin.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: So, Kamala Harris is attacked by a lot of Republicans for not giving specifics. She has talked about some specific economic plans and she's going to give another address later this week. You heard his answer there, which was a non-answer on the specific question, which is, how are you going to give -- bring prices down? Could that be the reason why he is not doing better when it comes to the economy, because he is not giving specific answers either? He's instead attacking his opponent?

MEUSER: That, honestly, I think that's a rarity. I think President Trump is makes himself extremely available is quite clear and what he's going to do. I think America knows --

BASH: What is it?

MEUSER: -- he will close --

BASH: Can you articulate it? How is he going to bring prices down?

MEUSER: Through competitive tax rates, through a more responsible spending initiatives, through a pro-energy, a pro-America energy initiative. So as gasoline prices come back down to $2.27 where they were before and deregulation, the same sort of regulation reform that he did his president.

And, by the way, he talks about tariffs. We're talking about free and fair, free and fair. It's a new way to look at tariffs.

BASH: But don't you think tariffs will, in the short term at least, bring consumer prices up?

MEUSER: A reciprocal -- no, it will bring U.S. manufacturing back as he did when he was president, along with trillions of dollars in repatriation. And it's a pro-America position, but not America alone. You know, the Biden-Harris, or excuse me, the Harris plan is the tax. They talk about taxes like the terrible, and then they say, well, tariff is a tax.

Why do you want to tax American companies that will drive U.S. manufacturing away?

BASH: So you don't think that tariffs will make things more expensive, at least in the short term for Americans?

MEUSER: No. Well, they didn't before. We had 1.7 percent inflation when President Trump was using them as a tactic to force other nations to bring down their tariffs. reciprocity. That's what we sought. That's what we sought. I was on his trade work group.

We were looking for 0 percent tariffs to come out of countries and look at the agreement he did with Japan, but also with China right before COVID struck. That was fantastic, along with the USMCA. That drove American business, drove American manufacturing, which has an incredible multiplier effect.

People remember this. Inflation was low, wages were up, jobs were more plentiful. We were on a roll. The world was at peace. That's what we're running on.

BASH: Yes.

MEUSER: And I will -- I got to add this.

BASH: Yes.

MEUSER: We have over 400,000 more registrants versus -- Republican versus Democrat here in '24 than we did in 2020, over 400,000. Now, President Trump had got 81,000 less votes last year -- four years ago in Pennsylvania, but we've actually increased 400,000. So that's just one reason.

BASH: All right.

MEUSER: That if Biden hacks, buyer's remorse, there's a whole slew of reasons that I think we're going to win Pennsylvania.

BASH: Congressman, thank you. I will just say that obviously there was -- the Middle East does -- did not look like it looks now. Russia had not invaded Ukraine. I would not have called the world at peace. And I just also want to quickly add that taxpayer dollars went to help the farmers in Iowa and elsewhere because of the tariffs. But we're going to talk more about that the next time you come on because I really appreciate you being here. Thank you so much.

MEUSER: Likewise. Thank you. Thank you.

[12:35:05]

BASH: Coming up, calling out antisemitism. It should not be hard, no matter where it comes from, but for some reason, it is. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: ?Breaking news out of Florida, Ryan Wesley Routh, the man allegedly attempted -- who allegedly attempted to assassinate Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf course, is back inside federal court where prosecutors are asking that he remain behind bars.

[12:40:02]

Prosecutors are revealing several new details, including, they say, that the suspect left behind a note admitting he planned to kill the former president.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is following the latest developments. Katelyn?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Dana, there's quite a lot of apparent planning from this man, Ryan Routh, who was in Florida for a full month around Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and the golf course, where he was ultimately spotted by a Secret Service agent trying to secure the area as Donald Trump was heading up to the sixth hole, that's when Ruth took off.

After he was apprehended by law enforcement on the interstate in Florida, they found a lot in his car, and that is what we were learning today. And this is part of what the prosecutors are arguing to the judge is evidence that they're gathering about Ryan Routh that should keep him behind bars as he awaits possible further charges, which are very likely, as well as a potential trial ultimately.

In his car, they found six cell phones, including one with a Google search of how to get to Mexico from Palm Beach, extra license plates, not the license -- the license plate for the car he was driving was not what was on the car when he was picked up by police and then documents, including a list of Trump appearances. That's not all.

There also is what's called a civilian witness identified in court records that the Justice Department filed this morning, a civilian witness who was given by Routh a box of materials. In that box, a letter from Routh that was opened after Routh was picked up by the cops, writing, "This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job, and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job."

That piece of evidence now very likely being discussed in court as prosecutors want to keep him behind bars.

BASH: Boy, is that chilling. Thank you so much, Katelyn, for that report. I appreciate it.

And now to a sad reality, and that is antisemitism is everywhere. And it comes from both ends of the political spectrum. But politicians sometimes sidestep calling it out when it comes from a member of their own party. We saw two examples on State of the Union yesterday.

First, with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, when my co-anchor Jake Tapper asked about a Democratic congresswoman's accusation that the state's Jewish Attorney General was letting her religion influence her job.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that Tlaib's suggestion that Nessel's office is biased, was antisemitic?

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D), MICHIGAN: Listen, Jake, you know what? All I can say is that I know that our Jewish community is in pain as is our Palestinian and Muslim and Arab communities in Michigan.

TAPPER: Congresswoman Tlaib is suggesting that she shouldn't be prosecuting these individuals that Nessel says broke the law and that she's only doing it because she's Jewish and the protesters are not. That's quite an accusation. Do you think it's true?

WHITMER: Like I said, Jake, I'm not going to get in the middle of this argument that they're having.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: And then there was this exchange with Republican Senator Tom Cotton.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

TAPPER: Are you comfortable with that? With Donald Trump saying if he loses preemptively, it's the fault of the Jews, a group already experiencing a rise of antisemitism in this country, from the left and the right, but still preemptively, it's the fault of the Jews?

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: Well, Jake, Donald Trump has been saying things like this for at least 11 months since the October 7th attack.

TAPPER: I've never heard you say anything like that. If we lose, it will be the fault of the Jews.

COTTON: But, Jake, Donald Trump, again, has been saying for months that anyone who cares about Israel, anyone who cares about the fate of the U.S.-Israel alliance should vote for him.

TAPPER: I'm talking about Jewish voters who vote for any number of reasons on any number of issues.

COTTON: And he was at an event talking about combating antisemitism here and around the world.

TAPPER: Just yes or no. Are you comfortable with him using that language?

COTTON: Jake, it's the same kind of language he's been using for months --

TAPPER: That doesn't mean it's OK.

COTTON: But it's -- his point, Jake, he's the most pro-Israel president we've ever had.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: Now Jake asked that question over and over again. Senator Cotton never answered. Now Cotton has spoken out when it appears to come from the political left. He actually tweeted, there's no place for antisemitism in America when Jake posted about people harassing yours truly at a book event.

CNN's David Chalian is back with me. I was grateful for that as are -- as anybody who is the subject and the victim of antisemitism --

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hate.

BASH: -- hate --

CHALIAN: Yes.

BASH: -- or any other hate. And the key is, which we have learned the hard way, is you've got to call it out no matter where it comes from. What does it tell you about the inability or unwillingness to do so when it comes from a prominent person in your own party?

CHALIAN: Let me change your word, it's not an inability --

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: -- it's unwillingness. And it's because you're putting politics ahead of principle and morality. And that's what both of them did there.

[12:45:07]

It's not very hard to say that Rashida Tlaib saying that Dana Nessel is pursuing charges because she's Jewish is an antisemitic thing to say it is. It is not hard to say that Donald Trump should not be pointing fingers at the Jewish people if he loses this election.

First of all, the math of that just doesn't make sense either because, you know, in an election this close, you can finger point any single group you want. None of it is going to be correct. It's going to be a whole different sort of composition of the electorate that is going to affect the outcome of it.

So, it's pretty easy to call out. Obviously, they didn't want to take on their own party at this. You know, Fareed Zakaria interviewed Hillary Clinton this weekend, and they had a fascinating exchange about Hillary Clinton's perception about those campus protests when she was teaching at Columbia last year.

In the aftermath of October 7th, she had no problem calling it out, even though some of those young supporters may have been Democrats in their political ideology, calling that out as something other than critiquing the Israeli government as what it was, which was, you know, some antisemitism coursing through that. So, you got to call it out when it's in front of them.

BASH: And the key is it's not going away. Debbie Dingell just released a statement about more violent incidents in Ann Arbor calling it out as antisemitic and saying others are about Islamophobia, which are also being called out. I should say Sara Jacobs called out some Islamophobia, this Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, about Rashida Tlaib. Good for her. It all needs to be called out.

CHALIAN: Exactly.

BASH: Thank you.

Coming up, we're going to turn the conversation into a very different direction, chaos and gridlock. Why some election experts are already sounding the alarm about potential delays in counting 2024 ballots.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:11]

BASH: An important note that bears repeating. This election will very likely not, I repeat, not be decided on election day. And that is, in part, because key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin won't even begin opening mail-in ballots until 7:00 a.m. on election day, which leads the Republican city commissioner in Philadelphia to tell CNN that he puts the odds of knowing the winner on election night at almost zero. The Democrat who chairs the Wisconsin Election Commission agrees saying a final tally isn't likely there until the morning after the election.

Joining me now to help us wrap our heads around all of this is CNN Political Correspondent Sara Murray and Republican strategist Sarah Longwell. Sara Murray, I love having the Sara Elizabeths (ph) here. You did some terrific reporting, which people can read on CNN.com with Fredreka Schouten about what we need to, sort of, be bracing for, broadly, but specifically because of the way that the Pennsylvania and Wisconsin laws are.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think what Fredreka and I heard from election officials, especially in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is really preaching patience. They want people to understand that the rules that many election workers hoped would change since 2020 in those states did not, which means that if these states are processing hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots, they're not going to be able to start that process until 7:00 a.m. on election day.

And in a race that is very close, which all the polls are suggesting this race is going to be, that means we may not know who is winning the state of Pennsylvania for a day, two days, maybe three days. That could be potentially the same situation in Wisconsin. And they're saying, you know, this doesn't mean that anything nefarious is going on.

It's not even necessarily a delay. This is just the time it takes to process these many ballots. And obviously we saw a lot of misinformation, a lot of protests, that kind of thing spring up in the amount of time it took between when the polls closed and when the election was called in 2020.

And so election officials really want the public to understand this is a process. It's going to take time. And in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, political gridlock has prevented the laws from being changed there like they have been in so many other states, allowing them to process mail ballots early.

BASH: And Sarah Longwell, you have a new documentary out that reminds people of exactly what happened when we had some delays in counting in 2020, where people were if Donald Trump was ahead, Republicans were saying, OK, stop, don't count anymore.

I just want to give our viewers a little taste of what happened in Michigan as part of your documentary.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DANIEL BAXTER, CHIEF OF OPERATIONS, DETROIT DEPARTMENT OF ELECTIONS: When the initial results were reported, Trump was leading in Michigan. But after Wayne County began to report their results, Biden was up. And then that's when this chanting erupted.

ALL: Stop the chunk (ph)! Stop the chunk (ph)!

BAXTER: But even in the midst of the chaos, every last one of those ballots were tabulated.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

SARAH LONGWELL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, the reason I wanted to be involved with this documentary is that the amount of pressure that these election officials are under now is unbelievable. And I -- the great thing about the documentary is it shows how these election officials and administrators, how much they love the process, like, these are civic nerds who love the country and just want the American people to be able to vote in ways that are --

BASH: And they're under attack.

LONGWELL: And they are, they're just under -- they're under attack, they're under scrutiny. We're in an enormously low trust environment now when it comes to our elections. And so, right in the last, you know, couple of years, they have been doing everything they can to educate voters more about how the election system works to make sure that people are increasingly trusting of the process to try to get it so that we can count things fast and quickly and efficiently because that time span.

[12:55:10]

I think the frustrating thing about this new reporting is, in that time span where votes have been cast, but not yet counted, is where the misinformation enters. It's where the conspiracies come in. And so, they're doing their best right now to try to get in front of this because they know 2024 is going to bring a new set of challenges.

BASH: And it's up to us to continue to get in front of it. The question is, who's going to tell Donald Trump that?

LONGWELL: Yes, look, I mean, I do focus groups all the time with voters and what I hear from them is that because of the way that Donald Trump approached 2020, you've got 70 percent of Republicans who do not believe that the 2020 election was free and fair. And so they're going to come in sort of --

BASH: Yes.

LONGWELL: -- primed for that.

BASH: Quickly, where can we find your documentary?

LONGWELL: On Time. It is part of --

BASH: OK.

LONGWELL: -- Time magazine. Please go check it out.

BASH: Great. Thanks.

Thanks so much to both of you. Thanks for your great reporting as always.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN New Central starts after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)