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Laura Coates Live
Georgia Adopts New Controversial Election Rule; Early Voting Begins; GOP Scrambles To Contain North Carolina Scandal; New Reporting Shows The State Of Trump's Campaign; Laura Coates Interviews Eve. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired September 20, 2024 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
PHILIP BUMP, NATIONAL COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST: For every stolen bases. I think Shohei Ohtani could beat the White Sox in the base point.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't know what he just said.
(LAUGHTER)
Go ahead, Van, really quick.
VAN LATHAN, PODCAST CO-HOST, "HIGHER LEARNING": I think we have to expand government. We need bigger government. And we need a special bureau for the freakiness in Washington. We need a watchdog bureau to watch everything that's going on. You all are too freaky.
(LAUGHTER)
Every single story in the last couple of weeks, it's about freak, nasty stuff going on. Grow government, a new bureaucracy to hose everybody off. This is why we have the gridlock.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Are you going to run it?
LATHAN: I warn you (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIP: All right, everybody, on that note, thank you very much for watching. Have a great weekend. Thank you for watching "NewsNight." "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Tonight, were you hoping to get the election results like on Election Day? Well, the conversational and controversial new rule in Georgia that could have the entire country on edge for weeks.
Plus, new reporting on concerns inside the Trump campaign as Republicans scramble with the scandal that's rocking their chances in North Carolina. And who's that girl? Well, she conquered the hip-hop world and defied the odds. Now, Grammy award-winning artist and actress Eve is opening up about what it took to get there. A special Friday night conversation tonight on "Laura Coates Live."
We're now just 46 days away from the election. Well, Election Day, that is. But if you think you're going to know the actual winner of the election in 46 days, well, probably don't hold your breath. There's a new election rule out in Georgia, and it's now creating serious fears that we'll have a drawn-out vote count that could possibly take weeks to resolve. Weeks to resolve.
Now, it was narrowly passed by allies of Donald Trump, who control the state's election board. And the rule would actually require a hand count -- you heard me right -- a hand count of all ballots cast on Election Day in Georgia. Now, close to five million people voted in Georgia in 2020. So, you do the math on the timing of that hand count. Even top Republicans across Georgia say it's a bad idea and likely illegal.
But it fits with what has been going on there. The tug of war over voting has been escalating literally for years now in a place that Trump lost in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes. Georgia, you recall, once made it a crime to hand out food and water to people who were waiting in line to vote. It's also where Republicans tried to limit early voting on Sundays. And, of course, you remember, it was ground zero for 2020 election conspiracy theories spread by Donald Trump and his allies like Rudy Giuliani.
Now, the state's election board appears to be picking up the mantle with this latest controversial move. To run you through how it would work, so Georgia will have around 2,400 voting precincts this year. Now, the rule says three people per precinct will hand count the ballots, and then compare that number to the number recorded by the voting machines. Now, if you do the math on this, and I have, that means more than 7,000 poll workers would be involved.
So, you've got to make sure there's enough of those workers. You've got to train those workers. You've got to tell them they have to work hours on end, which is weeks until Election Day. And the officials who have been begging the board to reverse course say it is a recipe for disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN NABERS, GEORGIA STATE DIRECTOR, ALL VOTING IS LOCAL: If I were to hand this stack of paper to three random people in this room, especially at the end of a long voting day, and ask them to arrive at the same total number, do we think that's feasible? People doing a hand count are going to make mistakes, which can then be exploited to spread lies and sow further distrust in our elections and our election officials.
MILTON KIDD, ELECTIONS DIRECTOR FOR DOUGLAS COUNTY, GEORGIA: I challenge you to go into any county in the state of Georgia and to do the rules that you're passing on today. Work as a poll worker all day, and then count the ballots.
(APPLAUSE)
You can't even make this up. The world is watching what we do here today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: What could possibly go wrong? Now, Trump's allies and election boards, hey, they're just adding an extra layer of security. That's all. But George's Republican attorney general says the judges may block the rule if it actually is challenged. He argued that it exceeds the board's authority to even do this. And a familiar defender of Georgia's elections, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, he calls the timing of this rule, well, absurd. Sounds a lot like how he described really the board itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Do you feel like what's happening on the state election board is a direct result of the aftermath of the 2020 election and some of the election lines that were brought on?
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETRAY OF STATE: You'd have to ask each of them. All I really have said is that the state election board is a mess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Oh, really says it's a mess. Interesting.
[23:04:57]
My next guest is one of the speakers you heard urging the board to reject the change. With me now, Milton Kidd, elections director in Douglas County in Georgia, which is outside of Atlanta. Milton, thank you so much for joining us this evening. I mean, so many people are just trying to contemplate what it would be like to count the maybe millions of votes, knowing that to err is human and controversy has already started. I mean, the earliest these rules changes could actually go into effect is October 14th. That's just one day before early voting begins. Milton, how in the world would this work?
KIDD: That's the thing that -- well, first of all, good evening. My name is Milton Kidd. I'm the elections director for Douglas County, I know you did the intro. But one of the things that myself and my colleagues have been asking the state election board when they were considering these rules at this late hour were, how exactly do you plan on us implementing them? Poll worker has training, has already begun. The election has begun.
COATES: Well, they're going say, I'm assuming, they're just asking you to tabulate the actual number, not what's on the actual vote and actual ballot. Is that somehow comforting to know that it's a sheer count, not a tally at each vote? KIDD: To that, I would ask the question of it is not supposed to be a tally, but human nature is human nature, and you have individuals looking at a ballot that are being asked not to see anything that they're looking at other than count a paper. That's not feasible.
COATES: I mean, try to put those blinders on in election years. I know difficulty even contemplate. But supporters of the change, they are saying, Milton, that it would improve transparency in the entire process. Do you think it would actually contribute to something the opposite of transparency? Is that why you're opposed to it?
KIDD: This rule adds nothing to the litany of rules that we already have. We do reconciliation in the precinct hourly under the current rules. And if this was so important as a rule, why was the state election board not before the state legislature to ask for additional resources for additional poll workers, additional resources?
The individuals that work in a polling location are not paid the most money. They are paid, but they are paid a modest stipend. They come in at 6 a.m. and work sometimes to 10 or 11 on a normal election. So, to say that we're going to add another step to them and it's not going to be burdensome, I have emails from poll workers as of today that have told me they don't want to be a part of this process anymore. This is chaos.
COATES: I mean, they don't even want to do a part, they don't want to do it at all, let alone have to do the counting. They don't want to participate now, you're saying.
KIDD: Yes. The eyes of the nation are on Georgia and on our process that has to succeed. This election, like all elections, are fundamental aspects to what it means to be American. So, those individuals that participate in these processes take their work seriously, but they also understand the toll that their work does on you. And the human body working 16 and 17 hours, and to add an additional two to three hours, you can say that that's just a small step, but that's a large move, right, days before an election is getting ready to begin.
COATES: Milton Kidd, the frustration quite expressed is that you said all these things. They were aware of it, and they voted anyway. We will see how this all unfolds. Milton Kidd, thank you so much for joining me.
KIDD: Thank you.
COATES: Look, I want to go to the panel here, but you may think Election Day is still weeks away. But, you know, in some states, it's already here, right now. People are voting for president right now in places like my home state of Minnesota, also South Dakota, also Virginia where early voting is already underway. That means that these last-minute changes to the election process, they're even more jarring than you think.
And Georgia is not the only one even considering these changes. Right now, you've got Nebraska. Donald Trump's allies are pushing to change how the state allocates electoral college votes. Why? Well, you know, most states have this winner-take-all system. Nebraska is not one of those states. In Nebraska, they allocate two of their five electoral votes to whomever wins the popular vote for their state. But the other three electoral votes are then divvied up based on who wins specific congressional districts.
Now, look at this map. See that one blue dot? That's the area surrounding Omaha. Now, Biden won there in 2020.
[23:09:56]
And Republicans are concerned that Vice President Kamala Harris could win that district this very year and, therefore, one electoral college vote for the state. Now, if they went to a winner-take-all allocation, she'd get zero electoral college votes.
They're not alone. Maine actually considered making the change to a winner-take-all system as well. But they're past their deadline now, and they've indicated that they would not switch systems unless Nebraska did.
Well, here with me now, Mike Leon, host of the "Can We Please Talk?" podcast and director of strategy for the Free & Equal Elections Foundation, Nayyera Haq, former Obama White House senior director, and Matt Gorman, Republican strategist and former senior advisor to the Tim Scott presidential campaign.
Just laying it out there, everyone, thinking about the divvying up and how this would change and how it works. Michael, let me begin with you because the idea of changing the rules now and a winner-take-all system, that to me strikes me as a time you would do long before the 40 something days of foreign election. What is it tell you that it's happening now?
MIKE LEON, PODCAST HOST, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY FOR FREE & EQUAL ELECTIONS FOUNDATION: Well, first off, I come from a state where this has all happened before, right? The 537 votes documentary on HBO Max that people can go watch about all of the Florida issues that we had back in 2000. So, nobody knows how to mess up a little bit of vote counting than Florida, right?
But what it says to me is that the Republican Party, specifically Donald Trump, he has said this in press conferences, the one in Bedminster, he got asked about credit card debt, and he started talking about we should make paper ballots, one-day voting. He was very specific about that. This message is trickling from the top down.
The problem is that administratively, like you just mentioned and Milton just mentioned, it's not feasible. If you want this all to work in one day, it's not going to happen. And it's seriously an analogy for other problems that are happening like immigration at the border. It is an administrative issue.
If you don't have enough people, resources in place, and there's too many people at the system, you're not going to be able to process everybody. So, how are we supposed to do all of this? How are you actually taking this seriously and having it in a one-day format when you're complicating matters? And to complicate it all, you heard Brad Raffensperger say, this is probably illegal.
COATES: Hmm.
LEON: I mean, the subject matter, experts are saying it's probably illegal.
NAYYERA HAQ, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE SENIOR DIRECTOR: To your point about how this is part of a connected worldview, the worldview is undermining trust in systems, right? Administrative process is the enemy. And trust Donald Trump and what he wants done. And specifically, what he wants done are older archaic systems, including, you know, undermining any trust and massive lawsuit for Fox News as a result of undermining trust in digital voting systems.
We have seen consistently though that the Trump campaign has been setting up processes in multiple states, mostly states where there is a significant minority population. Arizona, just last week, the Republican Party decided to challenge a hundred thousand voting records of people who, actually many of them are older Republican reliable voters. So, the idea of restricting who, when, and how you can vote is something that Donald Trump and the Republican Party specifically makes part of their process.
MATT GORMAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Biggest concern here, I think, is length, figuring out when first people have voted in your state. If you're figuring this out a week or two weeks after election, that's a problem. You talked about Florida. Florida is a shining example because after 2000, my old boss, Jeb Bush, reformed the laws down there. And 93% of votes in Georgia, ProPublica (ph) reported in 2020 by 9:30 that night. Look at Pennsylvania, for instance, only 75% by 9 a.m. the next morning.
So, take away Georgia for a second. States reporting taking too long to report their results also cast a little bit of a poll (ph). You see, California takes sometimes two weeks --
COATES: Uh-hmm.
GORMAN: -- to get their full results in. That's unacceptable. You need to be able to do it. First of all, you need to start counting votes before Election Day, ones that have already been submitted, just like Florida does, and then you need to have them out rapidly once the polls close. That also helps restore trust, not taking two weeks to just as votes come in.
COATES: I mean, the longer you have people thinking, wait, I wonder who it is, and the more the other state numbers come in, the more you're going to have this trajectory of, well, where is it going? People are going to naturally think that you're trying to put your thumb on the scale, which makes me just wonder, we heard just a few weeks ago and for days ago and probably hours ago where Trump has said, listen, Democrats are putting their thumb on the scale by taking Biden out of the race entirely, and they're trying to switch through up in the middle of the game. Isn't this the middle of the game pushing up the rules? Wouldn't that be the same critique?
HAQ: Well, those critiques that other people -- they only belong to other people, not to Donald Trump, in that universe. The consistency of criticism that he launches about, oh, well, they're the ones doing divisive rhetoric, they're the ones who are undermining democracy. But meanwhile, he's the guy who called up a Georgia state official and said, find me a couple of thousand more votes, so I can win your state.
[23:15:00]
LEON: I was going to say, and you know the larger part of this conversation is that there's no uniformity, right, from a federal perspective, like it's every state. And to Matt's point, I want to go back to Florida for a second, yes, the laws under Jeb Bush have been reformed. I think Florida does it the best in terms of the way the mail-in ballot process starts, like what Matt was mentioning before in terms of counting early, and then what they do on election day.
But to what Milton was saying before, you know, undermining these systems, these are people that in some states are volunteering their time, right? And so, to be able -- and I know in Georgia, he just said that they were paid for this. But like -- it's a stipend, right? Like these people are putting democracy ahead of everything in their country.
HAQ: These are neighbors, right?
LEON: Right.
HAQ: These are the seniors in the community who've been there for, you know, 30, 40 years.
COATES: And they're critical.
HAQ: Yes.
LEON: Right.
COATES: Our system cannot work --
LEON: Work without them.
COATES: -- unless they're actually doing it.
LEON: Right.
HAQ: And this is -- this is part of what the intention was, to have these be local -- locally connected systems where people recognize each other, right? Help build community trust. This is why you use public facilities. And all of that has now had this poll put on it that not only will we not know, but you cannot trust these local officials who are practically -- are literally your neighbors. But beyond that, it creates this window of opportunity for phone calls, lawsuits, anything to be said.
And it's not just Trump denying or saying he will not certify the election. There has been a consistent presence on national television of Republican-elect officials saying, well, we'll see. You know, it really depends. I don't know about certifying the election. They've been explicitly asked. Fifty states all say what the vote is. Would you certify? I mean, I got to see what happens.
COATES: I mean, I have monitored a number of elections, and I think to myself about the individuals who are doing it. And I think back to what happened last time when you had a mother-daughter passing a piece of ginger candy and the accusations. You can imagine people counting by hand and then being asked about it.
But people are going to have a huge influx of voters because of what is kind of on the ballot, an invisible ink or not. And one thing that the Harris campaign was doing in Georgia today was focusing on why people are turning out. She was focusing on, after this ProPublica report, that described two women in Georgia dying after taking abortion pills and suffering from complications. Now, the state medical experts, they say that their deaths were preventable, and their families blame Georgia's six-week abortion ban. Harris addressed that in Georgia today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And these hypocrites want to start talking about this isn't the best interest of women and children? Well, where you've been? Where you've been --
(APPLAUSE)
-- when it comes to taking care of the women and children of America?
(APPLAUSE)
Where you've been?
(APPLAUSE)
How dare they. How dare they.
(APPLAUSE)
Come on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Look, polls in Georgia who a very tight race. And so, you know, when you think about this, Matt, given that, could abortion be a deciding factor among all these things?
GORMAN: It could be major factor. I mean, look, Brian Kemp won after issuing the six-week ban pretty handily. So, there's a pathway to win there. You actually have to put together a kind of message to campaign, one that we haven't seen as of yet from the Trump campaign. I'm not saying you go and you fight any abortion ban (ph). We need to provide the economic message, immigration message.
Look, the Trump messaging right now (INAUDIBLE) 10 days. The debate has been pretty scatter-shot. You need to provide essentially messaging counterprogramming to this. It can be done, as Brian Kemp showed, but you need to be able to do it, and you can't just try to fight it.
HAQ: It is also much harder to do that counterprogramming when the impacts of laws are now taking place. That's part of what we're seeing. It has gotten to the point where there are lawsuits. There are hospital records showing that with these two women, it was considered medical negligence. To get to medical negligence is a pretty high standard.
Forget about all of the anecdotal stories that we are hearing about -- the reality of what it was like in the 1950s and 60s, women will have abortions. But if they can use medical advancements to have healthier families, healthier bodies, that is the part of denying women that -- denying families that opportunity, I think, is what has woken up this anger in what potentially will be swing voters.
LEON: And just really quick, to her point, you know, in my state in Florida, the six-week abortion ban is on the ballot here. Seventy-five percent of voters, when that came out at the end of April and Governor DeSantis signed the law and went into effect in May, said that they did not want the state constitution to have that six-week abortion ban.
So, this is impacting people in my community and stuff like that. This is a major issue. I think Democrats are positioning this right. Put it back, the onus on the person who says that he caused all of this, right, in terms the way he hired the Supreme Court justices, et cetera. So, it's smart of them to do that.
COATES: Well, we'll see. We don't have any medical or charges against any officials in the state over these two deaths. But certainly, this is continuing to be a topic of conversation in Georgia and all across the country. Stand by, everyone, please.
[23:20:00]
Tonight, a new excuse enters the conversation. Forget the dog ate my homework or I was hacked. Now, it's blaming on the A.I. Up next, a closer look at the rise of that political excuse. Plus, Donald Trump gets ready to campaign in North Carolina. So, what's exactly his strategy to try to deal with the Mark Robinson scandal? The panel tackles that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COATES: Donald Trump is heading to battleground North Carolina for a rally tomorrow. Who won't be there? Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. He is the Republican running for governor, and he is dealing with a pretty big scandal right as we speak. CNN's KFile uncovered a series of derogatory and racial comments that Robinson reportedly posted on a porn site. Robinson denies writing the post and blames it on, well, artificial intelligence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON (R-NC): There has been over one million dollars spent on me through A.I. by a billionaire son who is bound and determined to destroy me. The things that people can do with the internet now is incredible.
[23:25:01]
But what I can tell you is this, again, these are not my words. This is simply tabloid trash.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: So, it went from it wasn't me from Shaggy to blame it on the A -- A -- A.I. Kept on denying (ph). One thing it has happened is one thing. Blaming it on A.I. with no evidence, that's another. It's a relatively new excuse we're seeing, right? The one that Donald Trump himself has begun using. Remember this photo of Trump with E. Jean Carroll? Trump said it was A.I.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I never met the woman other than this picture, which could have been AI-generated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: When Democrats played a montage of Trump's lapses at the Robert Hur hearing, Trump also claimed it was A.I., posting -- quote -- AI -- quote -- "was used by them against me in their videos of me. Can't do that Joe!" There was even a harmless photo of red marks on Trump's hands. Trump, when asked, suggested it was also A.I.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN (voice-over): You didn't see the photos coming out of Trump Tower?
TRUMP: No.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): There was, okay.
TRUMP? What was wrong with them?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): The other one. Yeah, yeah.
TRUMP: Okay.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Do you want to tell us what happened with the hand?
TRUMP: Nothing. Maybe it's A.I.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: And then, sometimes you can falsely blame your opponents of using A.I. Remember this crowd for the Harris campaign? Large turnout. Trump yet again attributed it to A.I., saying -- quote -- "There was nobody at that plane, and she A.I.'d it." Now, it's a verb.
But Trump won't be able to blame A.I. for his endorsement of Robinson. So, how will he handle it tomorrow is the big question everyone is asking. Well, "The New York Times" reports that -- quote -- "People close to him anticipate that he will deliver a version of a comment he has made about countless supporters or former aides; that he hardly knows the guy."
My panel is back with me now. All right, there are receipts.
LEON: You need a better --
COATES: And then there are receipts.
COATES: I can't do the Trump impersonation because my hair is laid. So, I can't do it. Let me ask you this, Matt, on this point, I mean, the receipts you're talking about, they never met him routine as well. He's going to have to address it at some point because this is somebody whose name is going to go right underneath the top of the ticket on the ballot in North Carolina. Whether he likes it or not, people are looking at straight ticket or maybe split ticket, but it's going to be impactful for people to know how he stands on this issue. What should he do?
GORMAN: I don't think he'll mention it at all, actually, tomorrow. It'll be probably a stump speech. I don't think he'll mention it at all. And look, I think broadly -- I don't think this will impact him as much, Trump's electoral standing in the state. Look, Robinson was a severe underdog a week ago. He's not today. That hasn't changed.
But look, I think what we've seen, whether it's other swing states, Trump can outrun kind of flawed or not as great statewide candidates by about 10 to 12 points, hurting him at the top of the ticket. We've also seen that. We talk about the abortion referendums, right, in Florida. He's going to win that state pretty handily along with probably the abortion referendum passing as well. He can do that.
And even in this state, we went back in 2020, Cal Cunningham self- immolated with about a month or two to go in the race. Roy Cooper, Democrat, who was above him in the top, same party at the top of the ticket, still won his race. So, there's precedent in that state as well. End of the day, I don't think it's going to matter that much for Trump.
HAQ: It does point to this idea that, you know, the Herschel Walkers or Roy Moores and now are -- you know, new candidate in North Carolina, they think they can beat Trump and get away with what Trump does and behave in the same way. And it is something uniquely to Trump, that he has been able to pull it off for as long as he has. COATES: You mean, by behaving like him, Nayyera? You mean, the idea of saying that the media is weaponizing this news against him and the litany of things, not the actual conduct?
HAQ: Well, and even some of the bravado and the way they talk about women, the way they talk about the culture wars. I mean, this is somebody who had leaned in hard on transgender issues being a problem for society. And now, we find out that's apparently one of his sexual proclivities, right? Like the layers to this, of the pathology, is ever present. But that's a Trump-specific playbook that doesn't happen to work when you get down the ballot.
GORMAN: It does, though, work in this sense. I think I want to take issue with the analogy in one instance, right? This isn't Herschel Walker, it's not necessarily (INAUDIBLE), and Roy Moore was statewide elected Supreme Court justice but a little different, where they were kind of plucked out of obscurity and hadn't really run for (INAUDIBLE). Like it or not, this guy had won statewide before.
So, there is a track record that makes him a little different than the other candidates who were able to, you know, kind of ride this wave. It does make it a little different. Now, I think it's a certainly different running for governor. That's why you're seeing these things come out now when they weren't four years ago when we won in 2020. It's a little different. Hard to compare Herschel Walker and him.
[23:30:00]
HAQ: Yeah, well, I mean, I also think that Black men running for office can't get away with as much as Trump does, which is the racial dynamic in many of these states. But you also then have this layer of Trump really having gone in. He's saying he's like --
COATES: Martin Luther King.
HAQ: Right. And that we have not seen Trump back off of statements of who he feels of support of his team and his people, right? No matter how crazy anybody else thinks it is. So, I would be shocked if this wasn't another moment of both of them doubling down on exactly who they've been the whole time.
COATES: Let me turn to Florida. Sorry, I cut you. Let's go to Florida because Congressman Byron Donalds spoke about this very issue. Listen to what he had to say. I'll come back to you.
LEON: All right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): This issue is going to come and go. But the reality of what's happening in our country remains, and that's why Donald Trump is going to win the state of North Carolina.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: What's your reaction? LEON: Well, first off, Laura, you know I would not lose -- oh, sorry --
(LAUGHTER)
I wanted to give you the impression first off.
COATES: It was good.
LEON: Thank you. I appreciate that. Look, he can walk down Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody. He said it years ago, and it has not changed for the core MAGA base. My reaction to Byron Donalds is, Byron Donalds is one of the best surrogates for the GOP, for the MAGA movement himself. He's able to twist and turn, just in terms of the way he articulates things and comes on, and he can spin anything around in that direction. So, my reaction to Byron Donalds is he is doing his job for the former president.
Now, back to what Matt was saying earlier about will this impact Trump on the ticket. We haven't seen it impact him. I would compare more to Doug Mastriano, like in Pennsylvania. You saw the margin that Shapiro won the governorship in 2022. But Donald Trump, you know, in Pennsylvania, the margin right now is pretty close. He could potentially win the state in the 19 electoral votes.
So, it doesn't really affect Trump. It's -- we're going to all analyze this. It's going to be a hit in this district in years. We're going to snap our fingers. We're going to go back to discourse and arguing with each other about how we implement policies.
HAQ: Oh, I love your optimism there.
LEON: No, no, it's going to happen --
HAQ: I love that.
LEON: -- because once Trump loses --
HAQ: So sweet.
LEON: -- once Trump loses, it's going to happen. It's like a hipness district, it's going to happen. And then we're going to go back. All these books that have been written about Trump so far, it's too early because the hold that he has on a party and the institutions, 2008, I just heard in Abby's show earlier, 2008, John McCain grabbed that woman's mic and said, no, no, no, I just have disagreements with them. Look at where we are over the last 14, 15 years in American politics. It's going to happen. Trust me. But nothing affects Donald Trump. We haven't seen anything affect him. A poor debate performance, it doesn't matter what it is. Questioning Kamala Harris and her -- how to be biracial, which I am, it doesn't -- nothing.
HAQ: But what it also doesn't do, it doesn't hurt him with his base. It also doesn't help him win that slice of voters --
LEON: Correct. HAQ: -- that you need to actually make it -- making a win at campaign.
COATES: Well, hello, everyone. Let's see.
HAQ: Are we awake?
COATES: Oh, we're awake again. There we go.
(LAUGHTER)
LEON: Yeah, but it's not two years ago (ph).
COATES: We've always been awake. I mean, it's "Laura Coates Live." Thank you, everyone. I appreciate it so much.
Donald Trump sounding confident in public about his chances. I mean, he says that he'll even win New York. But what's it really like within the campaign right now? The reporter with a view from the inside joins me next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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COATES: It has been a wild week for the 2024 campaign, particularly for Donald Trump's. On Sunday, a gunman perched himself outside of Trump's golf course in an apparent assassination attempt. On Wednesday, the FBI confirmed that Iranian hackers stole info from the Trump campaign and tried to give it to the Biden camp. And in the days since, there has been a dizzying number of polls out that suggest the race is either very tight in some key states or starting to lean towards Harris. Now it all begs the question, how exactly is the Trump campaign doing right now? Well, my next guest reports, "The mood within Mar-a-Lago is decidedly grim" -- unquote.
Joining me now, senior political correspondent for Puck, Tara Palmeri. Tara, so good to see you tonight. All right, spill the tea for me. It's Friday night. What is driving this dark mood in Trump world?
TARA PALMERI, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: I mean, Laura, they just went through a second assassination attempt. Right now, a lot of the staffers and campaign aides, even at the highest level, tell me that they're really focused on their own personal safety at this point. There have been threats of poisoning, obviously the hacks. They're afraid of even being outdoors for rallies. They're afraid of drones above them.
You know, there's phishing emails that are constantly going out towards them, people pretending to be journalists that are reaching out. Some of them said that they get death threats, their parents are getting death threats. You know, it has been a summer of violence, essentially. And I think the second assassination attempt was made it real for them, that this isn't going away, this is a persistent threat that is going to be part of this election.
And at the same time, I mean, they're still in this to win it, right? I mean, we have seven weeks to go, and they're just trying to figure out which polling they can trust. They trust the public polling, the Siena/Times polling which shows Harris and Trump essentially tied, but Harris up maybe four points in Pennsylvania, or their own internal pollster.
Tony Fabrizio, who is very much, you know, esteemed in the polling profession, but he has numbers that are much rosier for Trump. His numbers show them up nationally and in the swing states.
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And if you look at his numbers, it would seem to suggest that Donald Trump shouldn't debate again, right? That's the calculation that they've made. A lot of people are still wondering if they can really trust those numbers when public polling is showing a much tighter race and Harris starting to rise above Trump, above the margin of error in some polling. So --
COATES: It is pretty striking to think about.
PALMERI: -- the debate going on right now is one of -- Yeah. There's a lot of anxiety, definitely.
COATES: The way you describe it, from the assassination attempts to how you read the polls and the tea leaves, is the bane of existence for every strategist. And, of course, then there's the polling, then there's --
PALMERI: Right.
COATES: -- the ultimate poll, the actual ballot box, and the voter turnout operation. I mean, one Trump campaign source told you -- quote -- "We are totally f--ked in the field. Whoever takes over the Southwest states has to start from scratch, and it's nearly f--king October." So why is the campaign stuck in this predicament in the first place?
PALMERI: Well, the campaign decided to take a pretty big gamble. They decided when they took over the RNC to basically dismantle its ground operation and to outsource all of its ground operations like get out the votes, it's canvassing, it's digital, it's data accrual, like a lot of the basic campaign operations to major super PACs like Elon Musk's Super PAC. Okay?
And so, he brought -- they're basically allowing outside groups to do the main work that a campaign would do. So, they're trusting them to do that. And they did that because the FEC changed the rule recently that allows them to coordinate a little bit more with Super PACs than they were allowed to in the past. The problem is that they have no control over what these Super PACs do.
And in the case of Elon Musk, he hired all of DeSantis's former staffers to run his Super PAC. These were the same people who created Ron DeSantis's major never-back-down Super PAC, the largest super PAC in history. A hundred and thirty million dollars spent basically on Iowa alone, $6,700 spent per vote, and he still came in 30 points below Donald Trump. They're thinking to themselves, why do we have these people coming on when they did so miserably, when they did such a terrible job for the DeSantis team?
And the problem right now, too, is that they are firing a lot of the groups that have been on the ground already and replacing them. And a lot of people are worried that to, you know, fire canvassing firms that are in battleground states like Arizona and Nevada in September and August, I mean, it takes a long time to hire people. It's like an HR nightmare just to get people back out there knocking on doors doing the get out the vote. And so, it was a big risk. We'll never know if it worked until after the election.
COATES: We certainly won't either. It's the best gamble, the worst mistake. Tara Palmeri, thank you so much.
PALMERI: Thank you.
COATES: Up next, Jay-Z once told her that women rappers -- quote -- "don't really do that well." Who's that girl, you ask? The one, the only Eve, and she's with me next.
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COATES: Well, Eve is that girl. The groundbreaking rapper behind some of the biggest hits of the 90s and 2000s tonight out with a memoir called "Who's That Girl?" revealing how she would go from battle rapping in her hometown of Philadelphia to becoming a Grammy award winning artist and actress. She was one of the few female rappers topping the charts. And her style and substance really stood out, talking about taboo topics like domestic violence while flaunting her lyricism. Her success led to her own TV show, "Eve." Movies like the "Barbershop" franchise, then followed her crossover classic, "Let Me Blow Your Mind," literally blew the mind off of music executives.
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Eve revealing in her book, her label originally didn't even want to make that song with Gwen Stefani because they thought listeners wouldn't believe it. That song went on to win a Grammy. And that story is one that Eve shares, opening up about being unapologetic woman in a male-dominated industry, her meteoric rise and struggles at the top, and how she found inner peace and her voice on and off the stage as a businesswoman, a partner, and a mother.
I have been a fan for so long and, you know, when I read this book, I was so taken aback by your vulnerability, by your honesty, by your personal integrity and journey. And you lay it all out there for people. It must have been a little bit nerve wracking to write a book like this.
EVE, RAPPER, SINGER, ACTRESS: Completely. The beginning, the process in the beginning, I kind of approached it as I would an interview --
COATES: Hmm.
EVE: -- in a way of like, I'll say the right things, I'll put this little bit here and sweep that little bit maybe. But my co-writer, Kathy, actually like called me probably after our second sitting, and she was like, listen, I don't want to take you to the trauma, but if you're going to do this book, you have to allow people to feel what you felt at that time.
COATES: Hmm.
EVE: You have to, you know, let them in. And once she said that, I was like, you know what? Okay, I've made the decision to do this, I'm just going to do it.
COATES: You detail the personal work that is done, that so many people try to avoid. And frankly, you talk about your dreams and ambitions as a young woman.
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: You knew at a very early age that you were destined to perform.
EVE: Yes.
COATES: But what you didn't necessarily know was the business side of what it would take.
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EVE: Yeah.
COATES: And you're so honest about having a little bit of naivete --
EVE: Oh, yeah.
COATES: -- when it came to that.
EVE: Oh, my God. I thought it was, you know, what you see on screen.
COATES: Hmm.
EVE: I thought it was celebration all the time like, okay, I'm famous now. All we do is have parties and laugh.
COATES: Uh-hmm.
EVE: No.
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I quickly found out that, obviously, it is a business. I also quickly found out, you know, that not everybody is going to accept you and not even accept you. Actually, I guess, let you in fully. And then there are people around you which I found out, and I talk about this in the book, is like my first tour, I brought all my friends on tour because I thought that's what you do, you know.
COATES: Uh-hmm.
EVE: And also, I didn't want them to think that I changed.
COATES: Hmm.
EVE: That was a bad idea because not everybody is meant to be on your journey. But I learned. It was lots of hard lessons that I learned. But I'm thankful and grateful that I did learn those lessons.
COATES: You also talk about, and I appreciated this in the space that I'm in --
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: -- about how people want to pit women against each other.
EVE: Always.
COATES: How they cannot wait to tear you down as opposed to what you thought was going to happen.
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: You're going to join the sisterhood.
EVE: I thought it was. I thought it was a sister. I was such a nerd. I was running up to everybody like oh, my girl. I love you so much, girl. Can you be on my album? Like if people were looking at me like wow --
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-- bring it down. And yeah, and it was not like that. It's a very lonely place. It's a very lonely place. I did -- and I say that but I will also say, I am very lucky that people like Missy and Queen Latifah had looked out for me, did look out for me, and they were people that I could call. So, while it wasn't this giant sisterhood, there were some people there, thankfully. COATES: Thank God. And, you know, you also have -- we know you from the Ruff Ryders as well. And I think when I would watch you and be like obsessed with your music --
EVE: Thank you.
COATES: -- I always wonder what that dynamic was like. Here you were, the first lady of Ruff Ryders.
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: There is always a perception in hip-hop that women are mistreated.
EVE: Yup.
COATES: That everything is geared towards misogyny.
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: You had a real support system and family. It made me feel good to know that they were who I thought they were to you.
EVE: Hundred percent. I was -- I always say I'm the adopted kid of Ruff Ryders because all of them are from New York, I'm from Philly. But I was the most protected, respected, celebrated female in the business at that time. I -- you know, they never tried to make me anything other than who I was. They never tried to, you know, put me down this path. Also, they never actually pitted me against anyone else.
COATES: Uh-hmm.
EVE: Any other females. They were so focused on like, what is it we do and what is it -- how can we make you better? You know, I was -- I was very lucky, definitely.
COATES: You write about that was not the experience of many other people. And I'd be remiss if we didn't point out that there is even a criminal proceeding happening right now against a huge hip-hop mogul.
EVE: Yes.
COATES: Diddy. What was your reaction when you heard that news?
EVE: I mean, you know, it's one of those things where you never ever, ever want to see anything like this, of someone that you've known and seen throughout my whole career, obviously. Of course, it's shocking and sad. You're sad from it because, you know, we don't always know all the parts of people. And yeah, it's shocking and sad, definitely.
COATES: What I have seen in this book and just following your career is you have been unapologetic about using that voice. I mean, love is blind, as example, for a song. No one was making hit records about domestic violence.
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: You went there.
EVE: I did.
COATES: You took that path.
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: Why?
EVE: Again, I will say with Ruff Ryders, they -- I was actually shocked that they were okay with the song, to be honest, because, like you said, at that time, nobody was doing that. But I, one, did feel like it was an important song for me to get out because, for me, when I make my music and when I was writing, especially back then, I always wrote about things that I did experience or want to experience. So, it had to be real.
COATES: Uh-hmm.
EVE: That's -- and that was a real situation that happened to me. A friend of mine, you know, went through this horrible time and it was a poem that turned into a song. And thankfully, the industry, you know, the execs, Ruff Ryders, they were like, okay, yeah, let's do it, yeah. And at that time, it was very rare but, yeah, it's important. It was important.
COATES: Uh-hmm. I mean, there are so many parts of this book. You talk about an issue that so many women are facing right now --
EVE: Yes.
COATES: -- and so many Black women in particular --
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: -- are experiencing reproductive rights, infertility, IVF treatment, and beyond.
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: You also talk about how you experienced a miscarriage and said that it was something else at one point in your career.
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: Why was it so important for you, now a mother --
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: -- of a beautiful little boy, why was it so important for you to share that very personal part of your journey?
[23:55:03] EVE: Yeah. Lots of reasons. I think it was me coming to terms with having to do IVF, me kind of healing through the ectopic pregnancy and dealing with that because I kind of blame myself. I blame -- I thought it was something wrong with me.
COATES: Do you still feel that way?
EVE: No, I don't.
COATES: Good.
EVE: No, no. I -- honestly, I did -- I've -- it took a -- I had to get through that part, I feel like, to even get pregnant with my son now. I feel like I had to release that to receive him. And -- but that's another reason writing about this is also releasing all of that and also sharing because so many women are going through it.
COATES: Leave us with this Eve --
EVE: Yeah.
COATES: -- what do you say to people who are looking to find their voice or have been muting themselves?
EVE: Yeah. One, I would say, just believe, just believe. I know sometimes it can be hard, but just believe and stand on business. Believe in yourself, bet on yourself, bet on yourself.
COATES: Thank you so much, Eve.
EVE: Thank you.
COATES: That was wonderful.
EVE: Thank you.
COATES: Thank you for watching. "AC 360" is next.
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