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Trump Claims "I'm The Father Of IVF" During Fox Town Hall; Trump: GOP Is "The Party Of IVF, We Want Fertilization"; Trump Defends His "Enemy From Within" Comments; Today: Harris Courts GOP Votes In Philadelphia Suburbs; Harris Defends "Scripted" Style: That's Called "Discipline". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 16, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, critical constituencies. "I am the father of IBF." That is a quote from Donald Trump, who was speaking to a audience of women at a Fox town hall, which is ending as we speak. He said that as he is trying to close the gender gap. He had a lot more to say, including what he thinks of states that have banned virtually all abortions. Democrats say, watch what he does and has done, not what he says.

While Trump is talking to women, Kamala Harris is focused on persuadable Republicans and independents. Today, she will be in the Philadelphia suburbs to talk about patriotism and democracy. The day after she agreed with an interviewer who called Trump a fascist.

And everything is bigger in Texas, including its Senate races. Ted Cruz is fighting for his political life in a surprisingly close race against a football star turned democratic congressman. Can he hang on?

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

This morning, Donald Trump spent time trying to close a cavernous gender gap with less than three weeks until election day. Part of his strategy, which played out at a town hall on Fox News with an audience of all women, was to talk about issues like inflation and the border. And he also talked about IVF, saying that he is, quote, in favor of fertilization. The town hall just wrapped up.

CNN's Alayna Treene is here talking -- was following that, talking about this. So, Alayna, a lot of questions for you. But the first, and this is definitely not one that I expected to ask. But what are you hearing from your sources about why he thinks claiming that he is the father of IVF and that he is somebody who is very supportive and involved in fertilization is a plus.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. I mean, this was obviously one of the most notable, if not bizarre moments of that town hall, Dana. I kind of -- I do want to read some of the quote for you just so you get a sense of it. And then I'll break down what I'm hearing from my conversations with Trump's top advisers.

So, he said, quote, I'm the father of IVF. He went on to say, we really are the party for IVF. We want fertilization, and it's all the way and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and were out there on IVF, even more than them. So, we're totally in favor.

Again, a pretty bizarre statement. When I asked him directly about what does he mean by saying, I am the father of IVF. I didn't really get a lot back. But I will tell you that, more broadly speaking, Donald Trump believes, and I've heard this in my recent conversations, but I've also known this from covering him on this issue for the last several months.

He believes that he set the tone for the Republican Party on this issue. I remind you, back in February, we know that the Alabama Supreme Court then had made a ruling that, you know, embryos and life began -- excuse me, life began at when they are embryos, when children are embryos.

That was the ruling that the Alabama Supreme Court had did. That had led a lot of hospitals and clinics and so on to pause IVF treatments. Donald Trump came out quickly on that, saying we are the party of IVF. I support IVF. And a lot of Republican officials followed suit.

This is something I can tell you, Dana, that Donald Trump consistently brags about. When he's asked about women voters, about why he doesn't think that he is doing so well with them. This is one of the issues that he points to. I think that's why he really tried to focus on this last night.

I mean, this came up because he was told, Harris Faulkner told him that one of the questions from the audience was about this issue. And he said, I love IVF. I'm the father of IVF. Again, a bizarre statement to make. I would also note that, of course, one of the reasons that this is even a question right now, question of access to IVF, is because of the Supreme Court justices that he had put on the bench, and the Dobbs ruling that has called a lot of this in to question.

But take a step -- just to take a step back and give you a broader sense of why he did this town hall at all. I think it's notable, given we have not seen Donald Trump speak before an all-female audience this cycle. They are really trying to narrow that gender gap. It is a huge concern for the Trump campaign.

And I will tell you as well that when I talk to Donald Trump's top advisers, they acknowledge that a lot of women do not like Trump the man. They do not like his rhetoric, but they think that they could maybe win them over by talking about the issues. Again, this is one of the issues that Donald Trump thinks that he can make headway on. Of course, I think the way he did it is definitely up for, you know, up for question. Dana?

BASH: Alayna, thank you so much for that reporting. I appreciate it. I'm joined here at the table with some other terrific reporters, Hans Nichols of Axios, The Washington Post's Leigh Ann Caldwell, and CNN and Bloomberg's Nia-Malika Henderson. Hi everybody. I'm going to just give you a break. Well, Hans, he's the father of IVF. See, I heard somebody else was.

[12:05:00]

So, this town hall as we said, they taped it yesterday, I believe, but it just aired today, and it was wrapping up as we were coming on air. And some of these questions -- actually the question about IVF and more broadly abortion, which we'll get to in a little bit. They were at the end of the town hall.

Most of the questions from what appeared to be a pretty friendly audience in Georgia were about crime, immigration, about trans issues. So, it was kind of a Fox friendly topic selection, if you will. Let's talk about that kind of big picture before we get to the nitty gritty of IVF and abortion.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, listen. I mean, if you're Donald Trump, you really hope that the campaign turns on these issues where he is strong voters, immigration and crime, and in many ways, those are culture war issues. They are motivating issues, quite frankly, in a way that the economy is not. He is very, very weak on abortion.

And you see this playing up and down the ballot with not only Donald Trump or Republican candidates, all across the country who are really having to sort of try to reframe their approach and the language around abortion.

And you saw, I think, some of the most effective moments in the debate, some of the most effective moments that Kamala Harris has had on the campaign trail, have really been dissecting what the Republican approach has actually meant for actual women on the ground in some of these states.

You saw Colin Allred, who we'll talk about later. Talk about this in the debate against Ted Cruz. So, Donald Trump doesn't have a real answer, the reality that some women are facing, including some women who have died in Georgia. Amber Thurman, who died because of these abortion restrictions. He is fond of saying, listen, it's back in the states. That's what everybody wanted. That's not what everybody wanted.

BASH: Well, that's exactly what he said in this town hall on the issue of abortion. He said point blank, that the whole notion of a federal law on abortion, otherwise known as Roe, wasn't what anybody -- nobody wanted it anymore. That's debatable, or what you said. Here's the next thing he said in this town hall about abortion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's where we have it. And the states are now voting for it, and honestly, some of them are going much more liberal, like in Ohio. I would have thought it might.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of them are not.

TRUMP: And some of them are not, but it's going to be redone. It's going to be redone. They're going to -- you're going to -- you end up with a vote of the people. And some of them, I agree, they're too tough -- too tough. And those are going to be redone because --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: You can see what Nia was saying and what Alayna was reported that he understands that he set the ball in motion, even though he's not admitting it. He's the one who appointed these Supreme Court justices. They're the ones who enacted Dobbs, and now he's trying to kind of find a sweet spot politically. It ain't easy.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CO-AUTHOR, THE WASHINGTON POST EARLY-BRIEF: Only Donald Trump can try with a straight face to take credit for overturning Roe, while also saying that -- while also claiming that he is a friend of, you know, states' rights and abortion, and those if states want it.

But the reality is, is that women are not believing him, and women do not trust Donald Trump and Republicans on the issue. That is a big part why there is such a large gender gap. You know, I asked -- I was talking to the Trump campaign, and I said, well, what are you doing to appeal to women? They point to this town hall.

They also say, well look, look at his position on abortion from 2016 and how much he has shifted on it until now. And so, that -- they think is the answer of how to appeal to women. But as you mentioned, Nia, you look at debates, not only at the presidential debate, but down ballot as well, Republican after Republican after Republican, and House and Senate races continue to struggle on this issue. And it's -- you know, Harris is comfortable where she is, but then there is that gender gap that they've already --

BASH: Yeah. And then the question is, how much are people, women and men going to be voting again, as they did in the midterms on the issue of abortion? And how much are these other issues, namely the economy and even what they talked about in this town hall, crime and immigration going to be higher on their list.

[12:10:00]

OK. Now we're going to get to IVF. Sorry, Hans. Because we do have a clip from what happened when a voter, I believe it was one of the last questions asked of a woman, of course, brought up the issue of IVF and concern about access to IVF. This is how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I got a call from Katie Britt, a young just a fantastically attractive person from Alabama. She's a senator. And she called me up like emergency, emergency because an Alabama judge had ruled that the IVF clinics were illegal, and they have to be closed down. A judge ruled.

And she said, friends of mine came up to me, and they were, oh, they were so angry. I didn't even know they were going, you know, they were -- it was fertilization. I didn't know they were even involved, and nobody talks about. They don't talk about it, but now that they can't do it. She said, I was attacked in a certain way, I was -- (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: OK. Lots of things to unpack there. First of all, what would happen if you referred to a Democratic senator before saying that they were a member of the United States Senate as a fantastically attractive person.

HANS NICHOLS, POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Dana, I would never do that. I don't ever talk about anyone --

BASH: I don't know-- I don't want to let that go, because I know that, you know, Trump would say that's his thing. But, like, I don't know. I'm not sure that if there's an undecided voter out there, a woman who is proudly. So, is that before this -- before the United States Senate?

NICHOLS: Yeah. I think in general, politicians commenting on females looks, fellow senators looks, is probably not the wisest idea, but just, you know, you can check on that later. Look --

BASH: Let's dig into the issue.

NICHOLS: What's clear is that Republicans know they have a problem with both abortion to your broader point, and especially with IVF. And leave aside how Trump explained it in the language they use. What he's saying is he's listening to a senator on this who is potentially has her sort of has a real finger on the pulse of where the country is and be a big problem for Republic.

BASH: Well, it was a huge problem in Alabama.

NICHOLS: Yeah. Where they don't -- where they're -- if they're not on the right side of it. And so, yes, it's -- you know, we can tittle. And if there is fairly absurd the language they use, but they recognize that it's a problem. You don't need a Republican operative in this town that isn't worried about abortion and IVF with swing voters and women voters, and it's showing up in all the data.

You know, it's not like, don't look at the top line polling numbers, but just look at the demographics. Donald Trump is underperforming where he was with non-college educated women, with women generally with white women, then he did in 16 and 20. And that's a big problem for him.

HENDERSON: Yeah, listen. This election is not going to be decided on the economy. It's going to be decided on abortion, immigration --

BASH: She's going against -- oh, I completely agree with you.

HENDERSON: Yeah. I think the economy -- listen, the economy is the economy, and sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad. But these issues are motivating factors for voters in a way that the economy just is.

BASH: Just real quick. I do want to get in, because the enemy within was a phrase that he used, that Kamala Harris seized on, played the sound bite in her event earlier this week, and he just doubled down on that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're very, very different. And it is the enemy from within, and they're very dangerous. They're dangerous for our country. We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are, you know, the Pelosi, these people, they're so sick and they're so evil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: They, by the way, are liberals. He's talking about it.

CALDWELL: Right, exactly. I mean, obviously this is divisive language. It's dangerous language. Trump supporters will dismiss it as hyperbole, the same thing that we heard over and over again when he was running in 2020 and 2016.

And so, you know, if he wins, we'll see what happens. But like I said, most of his supporters dismiss it as not a real thing. Don't worry about it. You liberals, you Democrats, are overreacting. The media overreacts to it, but he knows how to do the job a lot better this time than he did last time.

BASH: All right, everybody standby. Because up next, we're going to look at the other side of the ledger. Kamala Harris is speaking this afternoon near the site of one of America's most pivotal moments from the American Revolution. Her message, moderate Republicans should pick country over party.

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[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: This afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down for her first ever interview with Fox News. But first, she'll speak in Pennsylvania, surrounded by dozens of former Republican officials who have endorsed her. And she picked a spot with a major historic significance. Washington's crossing, where our first president, he crossed the Delaware River.

CNN's Danny Freeman, is there, at least very close to there. It's beautiful where you are, Danny. What are you hearing about how she's going to frame her message today?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana, Bucks County and fall, you truly can't beat it. Listen, nearly 250, years ago, President George Washington crossed the Delaware, not far from where I'm standing. Well today, Vice President Harris will try to cross the aisle and reach out to Republican voters to convince them to support her candidacy instead of former President Donald Trump.

[12:20:00] Like you mentioned, this event will have about hundred Republicans who are already backing her in attendance. We'll also hear from former Representative Adam Kinzinger, as well as the former Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan. They'll in attendance as well. And the Harris campaign says this event is going to be all about patriotism, uniting the nation and also putting country over party.

Specifically, we expect the Harris campaign to focus on January 6. Former President Trump's role in questioning the results of the 2020 election and more. And the effort here is really to try and demonstrate, this can be a bipartisan ticket. Especially, Dana, in such a critical location like Bucks County.

Bucks County, suburbs Philadelphia, we talk about it all the time. Bucks usually has gone blue over the past several presidential cycles, but that margin always is very, very small. And interestingly enough, Republicans now have a registration advantage in this county over Democrats.

So senior Harris campaign adviser in Pennsylvania says, listen, you just can't win Bucks County without winning some Republicans. That's what we're going to see on display here today in just a matter of hours. Dana?

BASH: I see what you did there, crossing party lines, crossing. I got it. Well done. I just want you to know how much you're appreciated, Danny. My panel is back here. Thank you so much.

Let's sort of put more of a spotlight on Bucks County in particular. Let's look back at 2016. Donald Trump won Pennsylvania, the broader commonwealth by one, Bucks County. Hillary Clinton won by one. Then fast forward to four years ago, 2020, Joe Biden won the -- won Pennsylvania broadly by one, Bucks County by five.

So, you can see there it's margins in places like Bucks County that you need to boost in order to, at least traditionally in order to win. And then I just want to look quickly at some of the data we have from the 2024 election, the Republican primary in particular Pennsylvania.

This is after Nikki Haley had dropped out of the race. She won 16 percent and in Bucks County 19 percent. So theoretically, you have 19 percent of the Republican voting electorate in the primary up for grabs if they voted for Nikki Haley, who wasn't even a candidate over Donald Trump.

NICHOLS: It's a big mystery where the stray Nikki Haley voltage is gone. Some people think it's come back the Republican Party after the president, which the former president was shot. But those numbers really tell you the importance, not just of her overall argument, but the actual geography, right?

I mean, I don't think I've had an editor. In my 25 years as a journalist, who hasn't said, got to get to Bucks County in October. Like it always decides, in some way or another, whether that's the margin or how well she's doing there. But what we're seeing from Harris is a slightly different argument in a slightly different tone. She's snapping back to the sort of Joe Biden democracy January 6 argument.

And remember when she launched, she went heavy on freedom, she went heavy on hope, she went heavy on opportunity. This is a bit of a snapback. Now she's talking about the constitution. Biden was talking about, you know, democracy January 6. Not sure. That's a huge difference Valley Forge versus the Delaware. And we should toss it back to Danny to have, like a good --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Well, it's, you know, more of a to use a politically -- political operative term. It's the more of the contrast, which she's adding to the hope and the joy and the economy and the other things that she had. I mean, just look at some of the Republicans that she's going to have today. Adam Kinzinger, former Republican congressman who left because of his anger at Donald Trump and vice versa.

The former Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan, Christy Todd Whitman, who is a throwback to my home state of New Jersey. And so, you have all of that. And then the question is, how much will this kind of event really lure, maybe the former Haley voters, or the independent voters, or independent minded voters who didn't vote in the Republican primary earlier this year.

CALDWELL: Yeah. Hans is absolutely right. For the first part of her campaign, she did not focus on this nearly as much. She was almost acting as if Donald Trump didn't exist. She was having her own message. But now the reason she's standing next to all those people and talking about the democracy issue is because these anti Trump Republicans, maybe independent voters, this is the defining issue for them.

And so, it's a message that they're not voting for Kamala Harris because of her housing policy. They are voting for Kamala Harris because they don't like what Donald Trump did on January 6, and they don't trust him to be president again.

And so, you know, there's some argument that perhaps that she needs to focus more broadly on our base, make sure those people get out to vote as well. But it's a constituency that she needs. But she's also doing it more broadly too. She did it with Charlamagne Tha God, talking about the fears of Donald Trump with for black voters.

[12:25:00]

Let's talk about that for one second about yesterday, the appearance that she had with Charlamagne Tha God, which I thought was really fascinating. One of the things that he asked her about was these accusations that she just says words and says over it over and over again. But in in this context, was asking about the fact that she is overly scripted. Let's watch and her answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, CO-HOST, THE BREAKFAST CLUB: Folks that you come off as very scripted. They say you like to stick to your talking points and some media says you have.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: that would be called discipline.

THA GOD: Oh, OK.

HARRIS: OK. But go on.

THA GOD: But what do you say to people who say you stay on the talking points?

HARRIS: I would say, you're welcome. Some people say that at if -- until someone has heard the same thing at least three times, it just doesn't stay with you. So, repetition is important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENDERSON: Donald Trump knows that very well, right? Repetition, even if it's lies, for him, you know, she is very relaxed in these settings, right? It's sort of a different version of her. She's done very well in these type of settings. She'll do Bret Baier. And you know, part of what I think the strategy is around Bret Baier and even standing with all of these Republicans in Bucks County, it is to appear as a centrist.

You see on television. There are all these ads that are saying, Kamala Harris is basically a member of the squad, and she is a scary woman of color. Emphasis on woman of color. So, there she is, standing next to the likes of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. She'll go into the Fox din and sit there with Bret Baier. And so, it's harder, I think, to demonize her and make her essentially a member of the scary squad who wants to take away your guns and side with the black and brown things.

BASH: And do you think she did with the -- with all the questions about reaching out to the black community, particularly black men.

HENDERSON: You know, I think some of it is just kind of showing up, right and reaching out to that audience. Her coalition is going to be different than Obama's coalition is going to be different than Biden's coalition. It might not have the same sort of percentage of African American men. Maybe it'll be 82 percent as opposed to 88 percent.

They'll still be overwhelmingly pro Kamala, pro-democracy, but she very likely is going to have a coalition that's a little whiter, particularly among upper educated white voters, which is why she's standing next to Adam Kinzinger and those folks in these counties.

BASH: And when he -- either he or one of the callers, said to her, are you going to ask the -- basically the white people who are supporting you, whether or not they're going to criticize or chastise the white voters as they -- he clearly believed Obama, like you wrote. Obama did to black men. She turned it and said, thank you for recognizing and highlighting that I have female moderate Republicans voting for me?

NICHOLS: Yeah. Look, this is her -- this is her whole case, right? This is like the Adam Kinzinger goes out there. It's a permission structure to independents and Republicans to go ahead and vote for her and that, and that's what they're trying to do.

BASH: Standby everybody. Michigan is vital to Kamala Harris's blue wall strategy. So, what are Michiganders thinking about? With less than three weeks to go. John King is all over the map when we come back.

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