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Laura Coates Live
Trump Roasts Harris and Democrats at Charity Event; Laura Coates Interviews John Miller; Musk and Cuban hit the Trail; Hamas Leader Killed in Gaza. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired October 17, 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]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: The Al Smith Dinner, Trump shows, Harris skips, tonight on "Laura Coates Live."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COATES (voice-over): Donald Trump dishes it.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Democrats really wanted to have someone not be with us this evening, they would have just sent Joe Biden.
COATES (voice-over): But can he and his supporters take it?
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally. No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.
(APPLAUSE)
COATES (voice-over): The war of words on the trail, and the new reporting on who Trump might blame if he loses. Plus --
(MUSIC PLAYING)
A former apprentice executive breaks his silence and issues a stunning apology about Donald Trump. The executive, live with me tonight. Plus, Elon Musk.
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA MOTORS: If Trump doesn't win, this is the last election.
COATES (voice-over): Mark Cuban.
MARK CUBAN, BUSINESSMAN: Would you all mind if I, like, kick on Donald Trump a little bit?
(APPLAUSE)
COATES (voice-over): And the battle of the 2024 campaign billionaires. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: All right, there are 19 days to go, and the presidential race tonight took about a two-hour break from its, well, serious and often dark tone to make some room for some levity. The jokes flew in both directions at the Al Smith Dinner, a Catholic charity event in New York City. Donald Trump attended, but Kamala Harris broke with 40 years of tradition and decided not to go in person which, of course, gave Trump some material to work with.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: All polls are indicating I'm leading big with a Catholic vote, as I should be, as I should be.
(APPLAUSE)
But I don't think Kamala has given up yet. She hasn't. Instead of attending tonight, she's in Michigan receiving communion from Gretchen Whitmer.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: If you don't know what he's talking about, just Google it. Now, Harris did appear, but it was via video, in a sketch with fictional SNL character Mary Katherine Gallagher.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Is there anything that you think that maybe I shouldn't bring up tonight?
MOLLY SHANNON, MEMBER, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: Um, well don't lie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: I do the whole armpit thing, but whatever. I watch it too many times. Harris was actually a no-show in New York because she was, well, busy campaigning. She made three stops in Battleground Wisconsin today, Milwaukee, La Crosse cross, and also Green Bay, where she took a more serious shot at Trump and once again rolled the tape at her rally.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I want to talk about IVF.
(LAUGHTER)
I'm the father -- I'm the father --
UNKNOWN: You don't hear that every day. TRUMP: I'm the father of IVF.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BOOEING)
HARRIS: Right? I mean it. It just gets more unbelievable sometimes.
(LAUGHTER)
And now, the man calls himself the "father of IVF." I mean, what does that even mean? When you listen to Donald Trump talk, it becomes increasingly clear, I think, he has no idea what he's talking about.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COATES: Well, joining me now, senior political correspondent for Puck, Tara Palmeri, senior advisor to the Trump-Vance presidential campaign, Bryan Lanza, and Democratic strategist, the man with the hat, Chuck Rocha. Good to have you all here.
Chuck, I got to begin with you. I mean, the Al Smith Dinner, it's a pretty big event. You got 40 years of tradition. Should Harris have gone in person?
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR FOR BERNIE SANDERS'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: I don't think so, because she has only had this little bit of time to run for president. If she'd been running for president for a year and years, sure, because she'd had plenty of time to go meet with lots of people. But with a finite amount of time, we've talked about this campaign as an old gray- bearded political professional. There is only one thing in campaign you can never get back, and that is time. Why go to New York City unless you're going to be on CNN or something? Go to a battleground state and camp out. Maybe do three stops. Maybe do as much local press as you can. That really is what makes a difference in a campaign.
COATES: Is that why you think she didn't go, though?
ROCHA: I think it is. I mean, I think it is because, again, she's worried like we're all worried, that she has only had so much time to make her stance with people. So, she can't give up a day.
COATES: Well, Bryan, I mean, Trump got off a couple of good one- liners.
BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN, SENIOR ADVISER FOR TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: He was funny.
COATES: He intended to do so, of course. And he talked about being subpoena- free, about Mayor Eric Adams's legal troubles as well. But he also went back to some of the familiar, the attacks on her intelligence, some of the familiar grievances. Did that help him?
LANZA: I don't think it matters. I mean, listen, we're 19 --
COATES: Really?
LANZA: Absolutely. We're 19 days out from the election. We see where polling shows. Polling shows that voters care about the economy and immigration.
[23:05:00]
So, these sort of other issues that people like to bring up and sort of the distraction, you know, campaign that we call it, sure, it will have a conversation, but what we've seen over time is they don't have an impact.
So, you know, Donald Trump sort of, you know, restating all those previous agreements that you talk about. They haven't had an impact before, they're not going to have an impact now, but Donald Trump stating what his policies are going to do to help the American people, to help people deal with the inflation, who've been wiped out, that's going to have an impact.
COATES: It's counterintuitive to me. I would think the closer the election, the more important it is for you to hone in on those aspects, people care all the more. But if you say that's the case, Tara, you've got some new reporting. I can tell you, Trump's strategy as of late in particular has been a bit head scratching.
I mean, he taped a Fox News town hall in a very friendly audience. It was also a Univision town hall where he talked about January 6 as being a day of love, which caused that moment when the voter sort of cocked his head to the side like, really, on that point. He also then canceled a sit down with Christine Romans on NBC. And then he got rid of the rally with the NRA.
And you've written and have reported that Trump is uncharacteristically buoyant, almost cavalier, convinced that the victory is his. What's going on?
TARA PALMERI, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yeah, I mean, I've been told from my sources inside of Trump's camp that he is extremely confident. He thinks that it's his to win. They showed him a polling memo, his pollsters, Tony Fabrizio, Don Gallagher (ph), John McLaughlin, that showed him up just, you know, a point a hair, really, within the margin of error in the -- in the, you know --
COATES: These polls.
PALMERI: Yeah, the battleground states. But he sees that as a decisive win. He thinks that he's going to win this. And the only reason he wouldn't win it is if his election integrity unit, the RNC, somehow fails him. So, he has been putting a lot of pressure privately on Michael Whatley, who is the co-chairman of the RNC and has been shepherding this entire operation.
And let's be serious, the RNC, when our -- when Ronna McDaniel was pushed out, was basically stripped down to its bones, to its -- it's nuts, and it's basically just an election integrity unit, and they basically outsource all of their ground operations. So, whatever is left of the RNC is to basically dispute the election results or lawfare, as they call it, in this election.
So, yeah, Trump is, like, I'm going to win, the polls show that I'm going to win, even though they really don't, they show them tied, and if I don't win, it's your fault. And so, people are feeling nervous, hot sweats, all of it I've been told.
COATES: Election integrity unit in the way you've described, it sounds like a total misnomer then in so many respects. Is -- and when you look at that and you hear that, Chuck, about the confidence, the fact that it's a jump ball and the polling -- you're smirking. Tell me why.
ROCHA: Because I spent the weekend in Arizona. And then I flew to Michigan. I flew back from Michigan last night. Not hooray for Chuck and his airline points, but hooray for being on the ground and seeing what I thought was happening.
You make a good point about the outsourcing of the ground game, as somebody who has done a lot of canvassing, door-to-door work, and what they're saying to all the viewers at home is normally that's a job that the campaign does, because nobody can make the case for a campaign better than the campaign.
But that has been outsourced to Elon Musk's Super PAC. And they have door hangers that I picked up in Michigan that's talking about Kamala Harris, which could work. But it's just different when it's coming from a Super PAC. Not that anybody is reading the byline, but that is you just can't do certain things as a Super PAC that you can do as a candidate on the door-to-door. I think that's a big difference in what we've seen.
The other big difference is we were in an age of the coronavirus last time. And now, we get to see the full potential of what both sides could do, whether it's the Super PAC or the campaign, with this field apparatus, because with just 18 days left, it's just about turning out the vote that you know you have in the bag.
COATES: Well, you know, part of what has been looked at, and "The New York Times" has been told by Harris officials, that one thing that is helping her campaign is to go on the offense against Trump. In fact, listen to how she is stepping up her attacks, Bryan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable?
(APPLAUSE)
He's just not ready and unfit and unstable.
Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged.
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You say now he's unstable?
HARRIS: He is unstable, Bret. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: I mean, you had heard a lot of, you know, insulting comments from Trump towards Harris. And now, she is using this theme of instability, of unstable. And it seems to be they believe getting her some traction in a way that Trump feels confident is getting him some traction to insult her. Do you see this as helping Trump or hurting him to have her say this?
LANZA: I don't think it matters. Like I said -- I go back to your polling. You know, the voters say they care about the economy. The voters say they care about inflation. You got some voters, Democratic voters, that say they care about abortion. When you look at those issues that matter, those are the things that are sort of driving.
When you're going door-to-door, you're talking to people. They're bringing up those issues. They're not bringing up Donald Trump insults this person or Kamala Harris is saying these things.
[23:10:00]
You know, Kamala Harris, we look at it this way: Every time she decides to focus on the insult, you know, try to insult Donald Trump, that's fine because she's not making her case of why she should win. You know, Donald Trump gets criticism for insulting people and saying he's getting people off message, he's not doing the right thing.
I always go back and say he's the most insulted man in American political history. He's allowed to punch back once in a while. But we always look at it from our standpoint. We're missing an opportunity by not talking about policy, by driving that contrast.
So, when Harris does it, she does the same thing. She's missing that opportunity. She's trying to bait the president. There are 19 days, we don't know what she's going to bait him for, but we clearly know she started her campaign insulting President Trump, where she had some momentum, she has continued to insult him along the way, and now she has lost steam and she has lost momentum.
So, I don't necessarily think it works with independent voters, but she's clearly trying to activate her base.
COATES: You don't -- you don't think that people are looking at Trump's rhetoric and failure to give detail on his policies as problematic for understanding how he's persuading them. I mean, you heard in the Univision town hall just yesterday --
PALMERI: Right.
COATES: You know, voters wanted clear answers. They wanted answers to January 6th inaction. They wanted answers to the idea of his cabinet members not supporting him. They also wanted information on economics and the economy more broadly. And the same argument that Bryan's making about the deflection and distraction away from the policy, can't that still be made against Donald Trump as well? PALMERI: Absolutely. And I think what you're seeing from Kamala Harris is that she realizes, in these final weeks in her closing argument, she needs to draw contrast with Trump. The best way to draw contrast with Trump is to talk about his instability, the fact that he makes people uncomfortable, that moderate voters, some of these perhaps swing voting women in the suburbs, that they don't personally like his rhetoric, they don't like the way that he comes off, doesn't seem presidential.
COATES: But, excuse me, they have compartmentalized in the past and suggested --
PALMERI: Exactly.
COATES: -- I don't like the way you do things, but I want you in office. So how do you combat that if you're Harris?
PALMERI: No, I know -- I know exactly what you mean. These are really hard voters to get. But I think that, increasingly, Trump is giving more and more evidence than ever before. I mean, you just saw him at an event literally dancing for 30 minutes, like he's not exactly making perfect sense anymore.
She has more -- she has got more material than ever before. She can say roll the tape. She's doing things that the Democrats never did. But I just think you're seeing Kamala Harris move on from the joy and that this is who I am and this is the contrast with Biden to, okay, this is the real contrast with Trump.
COATES: I do wonder if voters look at the contrast and say, well, they cancel it out. They might be complaining. Well, there's rhetoric and there's rhetoric. Is it the same person?
But speaking of rolling the tape, according to excerpts of the new biography of Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader described Trump after the 2020 election -- you may remember this -- as -- quote -- "stupid as well as being ill-tempered," a "despicable human being" and a "narcissist." Some pretty sharp choice words from McConnell towards him. Any impact?
LANZA: No. I mean --
COATES: You haven't thought a single thing I've asked today matter, Bryan. You know that's a little odd. We're 19 days before election.
LANZA: Because we're 19 -- we're 19 days out, right?
COATES: That's my point, though.
LANZA: Yeah, but it's not going to be the insults that move the thread, it's going to be somebody making that economic message, somebody making that immigration message to those undecided voters, not necessarily the partisan voters that I am or the partisan voters that Chuck is.
Those undecided voters, they don't care about the insults. They don't care about any of those things. They want to know, my pocketbook felt full during Trump's four years, it's now a lot lighter now, what's Harris going to do to meet that expectation? And she has never made that case. That's why she's relying on insults, because she had the opportunity to make the case on immigration and the economy, and she failed to make it.
PALMERI: I also just don't think that Mitch McConnell is particularly popular with the national electorate. I mean -- and also how many people around Donald Trump have said terrible things about him and then ended up in his good graces?
COATES: He makes that point, Tara. In fact, he talks about it and says, you know, whatever I may have -- this is Mitch McConnell -- whatever I may have said about -- see, I teed up for you perfectly -- whatever I may have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what J.D. Vance --
PALMERI: Yup.
COATES: -- Lindsey Graham, and others have said about him, but we are all on the same team now.
And you think about this, Chuck. Yeah, Mitch McConnell may not be as influential, maybe to the electorate, but behind the scenes, I mean, the machinations bureaucracy, it makes a big difference.
ROCHA: It does. And Laura, you made a great point a while ago. When people are talking about these imaginary, moderate voters, undecided voters, there's still a little bit out there -- I'm working from coast to coast, from California to New York. You know who those voters are? It's who you just described, of that moderate who don't like Donald Trump, who ends up voting for Donald Trump because of what Bryan says. But they're not hearing the thing about the inflation or the other thing. They're hearing the insults. They're hearing whatever.
So, you see Kamala Harris trying to be like me, just like me as a person, like me as an adult, somebody who has a plan or whatever. And I think when she goes after him, she's just goading him to go back to goading her, so he's not talking about the economy or talking about gas prices or the price of milk. She's doing that on purpose because it's a strategy.
I'm a strategist. We tell our candidates to do that all the time in a local congressional race. Get them talking about what we want them talking about, not the message that they're on.
[23:15:00]
COATES: Hmm. Well, all of you, we have 19 days to go. Bryan, you're going to care eventually. It's going to matter all of a sudden.
LANZA: I care about the economy, and I care about inflation. You're right.
COATES: All right, well, there you go. I'll leave it there. Thank you so much. PALMERI: Thank you.
COATES: Breaking news tonight in the case of death row inmate Robert Roberson. The Texas Supreme Court has just halted his execution. They issued a partial stay. Texas State Representative Lacey Hull told CNN he's not being executed today. Roberson claims that he was wrongfully convicted of killing his two-year-old daughter more than two decades ago.
Ahead, -- quote -- "We created a monster" -- unquote. That's a direct quote from a top NBC executive who now says he regrets selling the illusion of Donald Trump on "The Apprentice." That executive breaking his silence is with me next.
And ahead, the dueling billionaires, yep, with a "B," Mark Cuban and Elon Musk, taking sides in this election. Could they be making a big difference?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
TRUMP: You were in charge of branding star.
You're fired.
You're fired.
You're fired.
UNKNOWN: Thank you. Thank you, Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: I remember that so well, even the money, money, money. Second, (INAUDIBLE) used to watch it all the time. And it's so hard to imagine for that reason today. But Donald Trump, he wasn't always so polarizing. In fact, he once had a pretty broad appeal. I mean, turn the calendar back about, what, 20 years? And Trump was a pop culture phenomenon, largely fueled by his hit NBC reality series, "The Apprentice."
Now, a former top NBC marketing executive is pulling back the curtain and expressing his regrets for propping up the Donald. In an op-ed for U.S. News & World Report, John D. Miller writes, "I want to apologize to America. I helped create a monster."
Miller admitted NBC's fluffed-up image of an ultra-successful businessman was -- quote -- "highly exaggerated" and categorized it as fake news. He also offered up some behind-the-scenes details like Trump's alleged pitch to have a black versus white season, season of "The Apprentice." Miller says his first reaction, WTF.
Joining me now, the man who wrote that op-ed, former NBC chief marketing officer, John Miller. John, good to see you. The op-ed really thought-provoking. I mean, can you tell us about the Donald Trump you knew back in those Apprentice days and how you spun his image?
JOHN MILLER, FORMER CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, NBC AND NBCUNIVERSAL: Well, the conceit of the show was that he would be a successful businessman and that people were trying to do that. The idea was you didn't win a date, you won a career.
COATES: Hmm.
MILLER: And the show, I didn't produce the show, but I did produce the promos for the show or lead the team that did the promos for the show. The whole idea was that you would get a chance to be with the top business executive, then you would win a prize, and then for a full year, you would be with them.
And the thing is that not many CEOs actually have the time or the desire to have somebody that was a reality show star come on and be in their inner circle. Donald Trump had no problem with that. He had the time. He liked the adoration.
And so, in order to make it successful, we had to make sure that the idea of you're going in for a big businessman. And in truth, he had been -- he had bankrupt four of his businesses and was not all that successful. But in order to make the show a success, we had to make him as successful as we possibly could, and that was the conceit of the show.
And, you know, when he was just a businessman and it was just a TV show, that was one thing we were doing for television. Quite honestly, when you're promoting television, you exaggerate an awful lot of things. As I said in the article, we're making mountains out of molehills all the time. We did that. Sometimes, they were good shows. Sometimes, they were bad shows. But when we market them, they were always the best show you had ever seen until, of course, you had seen it.
And in this particular case, as we're now only less than 20 days to the election, I simply felt it was very important, pursuant actually to your last guest who talked an awful lot about the economy --
COATES: Uh-hmm.
MILLER: -- where people were thinking that Donald Trump was an expert in the economy, when we effectively made him seem like a great businessman, when he was really a small businessman that had a bunch of different LLCs. And if they went bankrupt, he could protect them by making them by making them sort of weeding them out. And to a large degree, it was a creation for a TV show, and we were very good at it. And some people say, well, I didn't see the TV show. And I said, well, I bet you saw the promos.
COATES: Sure.
MILLER: And the promos were like little messages that I called little fake news messages that covered America like a snowstorm. And --
COATES: Well, if you didn't see those promos as well, you would have certainly heard Trump talk about it, because you actually write about it in the piece, how Trump used to constantly lie about the show's ratings.
MILLER: Yes.
COATES: And if you take a little bit, not even a small leap, to think about those tactics --
MILLER: Yeah.
COATES: -- helping him develop his now political playbook, right?
MILLER: Well, yes. I mean, one of the things that I noticed in dealing with him, very early in the show, he would call me first thing.
[23:25:03]
I was on the West Coast at that point. He was on the East Coast, and so I was pretty sure that he had seen the ratings before. I had the ratings in front of me. I was probably not his first call, probably his fifth or sixth, but he'd call up and say, hey, John, how we do? And I would say, very well, because we did do very well.
We've just not -- he said, number one show on television. And I would say, we did very well. And he would say, number one show on television. He would continue to repeat that, and repeat that well into the second or third season. And, quite honestly, then he would do that for a press tour and say, number one show on television.
And for the people who are covering television, they knew the ratings as well as anyone. And so, when he was saying, number one show on television, you know, they would just sort of laugh.
COATES: Hmm.
MILLER: But he would be undeterred in that regard and would continue saying it, feeling that eventually someone would believe it, and I guess, in America, many people did.
COATES: Well, you know, many people who are in the electorate often looked at that success or the purported success of his business, the acumen that was illustrated or displayed, as part of the magic of television and thought that must translate to leadership. And he certainly talked about this a great deal. By the way, you know, I earlier talked about this, Trump pitching this black versus white season of "The Apprentice."
MILLER: Yeah.
COATES: Earlier this year, my colleague, Abby Phillip, interviewed former Apprentice contestant, Kwame Jackson, on how he felt Trump treated his Black contestants. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KWAME JOHNSON, FORMER CONTESTANT, THE APPRENTICE: I've never known Mr. Trump to be comfortable around Black people. I think he might be comfortable around a certain sliver of Black people, a certain type of Black people, but I've never known him to be comfortable in our general company.
I remember when I was on "The Apprentice," there was always this stilted interaction between us where he couldn't quite figure me out. I was that, you know, unicorn Negro.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: I mean, look, outside of the black versus white idea, did you ever see moments that Kwame is speaking about or that gave you pause when it came to Trump's judgment or evaluation of people?
MILLER: Well, you know, um, to a degree, although my interaction with him was an awful lot about marketing the show --
COATES: Hmm.
MILLER: -- so I didn't get too much involved in the show. But I will say that when he suggested that to me, I -- he did not -- he didn't seem to have a sense that it would be inappropriate or that advertisers would reject it or that it didn't seem to be correct in sort of the culture we live with today.
COATES: What did he think would be the result of that in terms of how people would view it?
MILLER: He thought it would be very noisy. He thought everybody would be talking about it. He thought that it maybe actually would help the ratings.
And what I said to him in the brief minute when he said that, not wanting to insult him because that was basically something you didn't want to do because then you would get the same insult you got from anybody else, so you found a way to compliment him, and what I would say was, well, I can understand why you said that, because that's a really noisy idea. Everybody would be talking about that. There would be headlines everywhere.
On the other hand, no advertiser -- you make most your money off of the integrations in the shows itself. He made some months-salary, but he makes most of it from the integrations because the show -- a company was featured as part of the integration of the actions between the two teams of "The Apprentice." And that's what he -- they would pay a significant amount of money for that because unlike a commercial that you could be (INAUDIBLE), could skip, this was part of the show and would not be (INAUDIBLE), so he would get a significant amount of money for that.
And what I told him was that no advertiser is going to be one of the integration partners in your show, and that's how you get paid, and so I tried to rationalize it to him with something he would understand, which was a money.
COATES: Hmm.
MILLER: And then he sorts of huff-tuff (ph). And my wife was with me at that particular R.A.P. party. He asked her, and she said, I think it's wrong, to which he just sorts of decided to move on.
And then, eventually, it went to the program people. The idea was shot down, and we never really made that. But that was sort of my integration with him. And so, it was more about the notoriety.
COATES: The marketing, the provocateur notion of the noisiness. Interesting.
MILLER: The notoriety and the noisiness that would come from it.
COATES: That's very telling in terms of where we see right now. John Miller, a fascinating piece. I encourage everyone to read it. Really great. Thank you so much to hear from you.
MILLER: Thanks for having me.
COATES: Up next, two billionaires walk into a political rally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA MOTORS: Donald Trump has to win this election.
MARK CUBAN, BUSINESSMAN: We need Kamala Harris to be the next president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: So, who was the most convincing? And what's behind their support? And ahead, the leader of Hamas killed today, raising new hopes and new fears for what could happen next.
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[23:30:00]
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COATES: Tonight, we bring to you the dueling campaign billionaires.
(BELL RINGING)
On one side, we have Mark Cuban. Current net worth, $5.7 billion, according to Forbes. He is backing Kamala Harris.
On the other side, you've got the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. Current net worth, $247.5 billion. Had to add the.5. That's according to Forbes.
Well, now on Cuban's side, he is currently donating $0 to Harris's campaign, but he has become one of her most visible surrogates. And his message to the people of Wisconsin today, Trump is going steal your Christmas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUBAN: Donald Trump is that grinch, the grinch that wants to steal your Christmas.
(APPLAUSE)
If Donald Trump is elected and he puts these 60% tariffs on Chinese products, they are all going up. All those things you buy are going up.
[23:35:01]
Not by 10% or 20%, but by 50% or 60% or more. It'll be up so much you won't be able to afford the presents that you want for your family and friends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Well, as for Musk, just in the last quarter, he donated $75 million to Trump. His message to people of Pennsylvania today? Well, it's a bit more ominous than Cuban's. Just listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: If you don't put hardened criminals in jail, they will -- they will kill people. That's the way it comes down to. And that's, unfortunately, the situation we have here is, is that the Democratic Party will not put hardened criminals in prison. And so, they roam free, and they prey upon you and your kids and your family and your friends. This is insane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: So, exactly what effect will these billionaires have on the presidential race? Let's talk about it. Back with me now, Tara Palmeri. And joining me now, Teddy Schleifer, a reporter for "The New York Times."
Teddy, I am curious, because you were actually at the Musk event today.
THEODORE SCHLEIFER, REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah. COATES: And I'm always curious about what the vibe was like in the room, and what audience he pulled in. Are you talking diehard MAGA? Was it more diverse than that?
SCHLEIFER: There were a bunch of people there who were only there for Elon Musk.
COATES: Really?
SCHLEIFER: You talk to people in the crowd, you see lots of crypto, t-shirts, Space X paraphernalia. You know, there are people there who worship this guy. I mean, I think one difference between Elon Musk and Mark Cuban is Elon Musk has a huge audience of people who, you know, especially with young men, which is an audience that both campaigns are really going after, who absolutely worship this guy. Cuban, obviously, was on Shark Tank, big name on his own.
But, you know, I was struck at the Musk event today. If you closed your eyes, you might forget that he's not the guy running for president.
COATES: Really?
SCHLEIFER: The production value was, you know, big American flag, as you saw on the screen there. You know, he comes out to a song that often plays at Donald Trump rallies. You forget that, you know, not only is he not eligible to be president because he's not born in the U.S. but, like, he is the main character of his own events.
COATES: So, I mean, what's in it for him? You write about that he is almost obsessive and almost manic about getting Trump to win.
SCHLEIFER: Yeah.
COATES: Why?
SCHLEIFER: You know, Elon thinks that this could be the -- quote, unquote -- "last free election in the United States." That sounds hyperbolic but, you know, in Elon's view of the world, which is not really hard to get a glimpse into, you can just look at his Twitter feed, you know, he is obsessed with the issue of immigration. As you heard a second ago, obsessed with the issue of crime.
He seems to think that, like, American democracy is over if Donald Trump does not win Pennsylvania, which is why he himself is in Pennsylvania basically until Election Day.
COATES: I mean, Tara, Cuban is not unaware that Elon Musk is also vying for Trump. I mean, he took a swipe at him today and really Trump's reliance on Elon Musk. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUBAN: For Donald Trump to pretend that he's a CEO and knows how to run an organization, and then to just leave his organization hanging so that Elon Musk not only has to take over his ground game but fund it, I mean, that's just insane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Is he right? Did Trump actually cede Pennsylvania or the ground game to Musk?
PALMERI: Yeah, he did, actually. I mean, the RNC has a very bare bones ground operation. It is literally just an election integrity unit. You know, election integrity as in lawfare. They want to dispute every vote. And so, what is left is they don't have a ground game. So, they've outsourced it to people like Elon Musk and Charlie Kirk.
Both are not exactly like political scientist. They don't have a lot of experience with this kind of thing. So, he obviously has to hire operatives. He hired the former DeSantis crew that did the Never Back Down operation, which was mocked widely because they spent $6,700 per vote in Iowa in the primary and they still came up 30 points down from Trump.
So, this is not exactly a ground operation that anybody would want to model after and yet he hired the exact same people. They also ended up having to replace their canvassers back in August and September.
And I heard that Elon Musk is very frustrated. He felt like he was being taken advantage of by the Washington operative class. So, he hired someone to sort of shepherd this to be the quarterback. Elon doesn't know what he's doing. He's just, like, why is this not working like it does in, you know, in business and my corporations? And so, he's learning the Washington way and it's not something he quite understands.
COATES: I mean, Teddy, it seemed as though, and you talked about this, they were very -- maybe many people are very enamored with Elon Musk, the billionaire. Elon Musk, the world's richest man. You talk about how it was kind of unclear as to who was really running in that particular zone.
[23:39:56]
Here is just a moment when Senator Fetterman even addressed the idea of don't discount the likeability of Elon Musk and the influence. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Surrogates really doesn't count for much. But Musk, it's undeniable that he's successful. He's the world's richest man, and he has been involved in a lot of important things like Space X or A.I. and those things. And he has -- he has a brand, and that's attractive to a demographic that we need to have to win in Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Is he right? SCHLEIFER: Yeah. look, if you look at polling, Elon Musk, who used to be celebrated by the left primarily for, you know, pioneering the first kind of successful electric car, a person who used to be -- you know, his obsession was climate change.
COATES: Uh-hmm.
SCHLEIFER: He is now extraordinarily popular with young men specifically. You look at this in polling (INAUDIBLE) like with Trump. Actually, there's a very big gender gap. Lots of women voters do not like Elon Musk. Lots of male voters do. At today's event, you know, I would say it's probably two-thirds men. And so, you know, Fetterman, I think, is speaking to a real --
COATES: And the age, what was the age of those men?
SCHLEIFER: It was young. I don't want to say all young, but it was disproportionately young people. And Elon is a cult hero. You know, Tony Stark was kind of modeling him back in the day. And Fetterman is getting at something that, you know, if you're in Wilmington, at the Harris campaign, you're aware of the fact and, you know, this is not only a problem that Elon is communicating to young men, this pro-Trump message.
I also think that more symbolically, Elon is somebody that some Democrats will say got away from them, right? This is a guy who used to care all about climate change. And suddenly, he's out there, you know, promoting conspiracy theories about Kamala Harris. He's almost symptomatic, I think, of what lots of Democrats fear about this type of person, that how did we lose Elon Musk is something that Democrats say privately.
COATES: Wow. Iron Man for Teflon Don. This writes itself. Tara, Teddy, thank you so much.
The leader of Hamas, the man behind the October 7th attack in Israel, killed in Gaza today. Biden telling Netanyahu, now is the time to move on. But will he?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COATES: The Middle East faces a moment that could reset the war in Gaza. Israel's military killed the head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, the man behind the deadliest terror attack in Israel's history. And how it went down? Extraordinary.
The IDF says this drone video shows Sinwar's last moments alive in Raffa, sitting in a hollowed-out apartment building during a shootout with Israeli troops. Sinwar, his face covered, his hand shot, tosses a stick at the drone. Moments later, the IDF kills him. But the IDF didn't know it was Sinwar until they inspected the rubble. This graphic and disturbing photo purports to show Sinwar after he was killed. The IDF says he had a vest, a gun, and the equivalent of $10,000 on him when, of course, he was killed.
President Biden and Vice President Harris say the world is better off without Sinwar, and Biden said he hoped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would take this moment to end the war soon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I told him we were very pleased with his actions, and further that now is the time to move on.
HARRIS: This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Here to talk about what's next, David Sanger, CNN political and national security analyst and White House and national security correspondent for "The New York Times." David, good evening. President Biden, Vice President Harris, they want Israel to take the win, but Prime Minister Netanyahu says this war isn't over. What happens now?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE AND NATIONAAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES: Laura, what a remarkable day and an unpredictable one. I mean, this man had been the subject of the biggest manhunt of the past year. You know, American special forces, the drones that you saw, satellite tracking. In the end, he runs into a training operation of Israelis who are training local commanders, and they're the ones who trip upon him, literally trip upon him and didn't know it was him.
This could change the face of the war, but it may not necessarily change the face of the war. As you heard in those clips, both Vice President Harris and President Biden said, okay, this is the time to move to the next phase. But when we heard from Prime Minister Netanyahu, he said, the war goes on. And that raises the question, will he now pull back or proceed with the attack on Iran? Will he continue to bomb inside Lebanon and particularly in Beirut, or will he pull back?
COATES: What about the more than a hundred hostages as well who are still being held in Gaza? I wonder if Israel is more likely now to secure their release or does this put them in even greater peril?
SANGER: It's hard to predict. And the hardest part of that may actually not be Netanyahu, it may be Hamas. I mean, at this point, the United States has decapitated so much of the Hamas leadership. And so much power had been vested in Sinwar, not only as the leading military figure, but the leading political one in recent months, that it's not clear who would want Hamas and who would have the authority to make decision about a ceasefire and hostage deal in his absence.
[23:50:00]
COATES: As you point out, I mean, the military and political heads of Hamas are now dead. So, who would be the Hamas negotiator? Who would take over?
SANGER: Well, there are, you know, a group of surviving, more mid- level leaders there. But we don't know what the dynamic is between them. And presumably, it would take a number of months for them to sort of sort that out. And, of course, given what Israel has done to the leadership along the way here, people may not be eager to volunteer themselves as the next leader of Hamas.
COATES: Look, as you mentioned, the world has been also waiting for Israel's possible retaliation against Iran's ballistic missile attack this month. Does this death of Sinwar impact that at all?
SANGER: It may, and you're seeing that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed to Israel. And I'm sure he's going to make the argument, as you heard from the president today, hey, you're in the catbird seat at this point, you've scored your point against Hezbollah, you've killed Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, three weeks ago, Sinwar this week.
So, that has already weakened Iran. And the question is whether Prime Minister Netanyahu says, you're right, this is the moment to convert the military win into a political objective, or this only proves that Netanyahu's strategy is working, and he plans to continue in that vein.
COATES: David Sanger, a lot left to unfold. Thank you so much.
SANGER: Thank you, Laura. Great to be with you.
COATES: Thanks. Up next, some laughs to end your night, Trump's opening act. Comedian Jim Gaffigan roasting Trump, Harris, Eric Adams, and a whole lot more right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COATES: Jim Gaffigan with the thankless job of emcee at the Al Smith Dinner, a role that can make giving a monologue at a room full of partisans problematic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM GAFFIGAN, COMEDIAN AND ACTOR: By the way, can I point out that this is -- this is a very nimble thing that I'm trying to do, right? Because if I am too critical of president -- of Vice President Harris, I will -- you know, I will lose friendships and, you know, and mess up my career. And if I am too critical of President Trump, I will lose friendships and improve my career.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: But Gaffigan pulled zero punches, starting with Kamala Harris's decision to skip the event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAFFIGAN: You know, this event has been referred to as the Catholic Met Gala. Twenty-two percent of Americans identify as Catholic. Catholics will be a key demographic in every battleground state. I'm sorry, why is Vice President Harris not here?
(APPLAUSE)
I mean, consider this. This is a room full of Catholics and Jews in New York City. This is a layup for the Democratic nominee.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Speaking of New York, New York's indicted mayor, Eric Adams, well, he has certainly got a grilling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAFFIGAN: We will break $10 million.
(APPLAUSE)
Ten million dollars! Everyone, look at Michael Bloomberg and tell him he should give more money.
(LAUGHTER)
Ten million dollars is pretty impressive. You know what I mean? I mean, granted, it could get you a studio apartment in Manhattan, which seems, you know, expensive, especially considering you can get a mayor for two business class flights.
(APPLAUSE)
I'd like to also welcome Mayor Adams, brought to you by Turkish Airlines.
(APPLAUSE)
I was told to say that. It's a sponsorship deal, people.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: No one was safe in that room, whether they were facing federal charges or not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAFFIGAN: Because this room is -- I'm glad you guys have a sense of humor about this because this room is undeniably impressive. It really is. The prestige, the wealth, the allegations.
(LAUGHTER)
I mean, wow. And don't feel bad if you don't have any allegations yet. Okay?
(LAUGHTER)
Which reminds me, Letitia James is here. She had a great year. She's just back there watching all of you. She is watching.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: And yes, Gaffigan roasted Trump as well with a joke, frankly, that almost left the entire room speechless.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAFFIGAN: During the first and only debate, President Trump talked about migrants taking cats and eating them. You know, if you're keeping track at home, this is the second time grabbing a kitty has been part of a campaign issue.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[00:00:00]
COATES: Thanks for watching. "Erin Burnett OutFront" is next.
