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New Day Saturday

Midterm Elections on Tuesday - Republicans Selling Hope or Fear?; Georgia's Gubernatorial Race Heats Up with Big Name Supporters Coming Forward; Shooting in Pittsburgh Synagogue Leaves 11 Dead; Trump Statements Analyzed for Truth. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired November 03, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They want to turn America into a giant sanctuary for violent predators and MS-13 killers.

BARAK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They've got to know that no one person can decide who is an American citizen and who's not.

TRUMP: I heard President Obama speak today; 28 times he said "you can keep your doctor," lie after lie.

OPRAH WINFREY, TELEVISION PERSONALITY AND TALKSHOW HOST: We have this incredible opportunity to make history.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'd like to remind Stacey and Oprah and Will Ferrell, I'm kind of a big deal, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Michael Cohen is once again unleashing on Donald Trump, his former boss.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alec Baldwin was just arrested for punching somebody out during a parking dispute.

TRUMP: I wish him luck.

(END VIDEO)

CNN ANNOUNCER: This is "New Day Weekend" with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: Good morning to you on this final weekend before Tuesday's midterms. Big names from both sides fanning out across the country this morning.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: President Trump is holding two rallies today. One in Montana, the other in Florida. He's reminding his core supporters of the booming economy and his Supreme Court picks, but he's not going too far from the core message of fear. Fear of immigration, fear of crime, and most of all, fear of a Democratic takeover.

PAUL: On the Democrat side, Former President Barak Obama trying to get the coalition back together again while calling his successor a compulsive liar who's leaving a trail of broken promises. CNN White House Reporter Sarah Westwood joining us live. It seems, Sara that we are seeing some pretty abrasive language out there in these final hours here.

SARA WESTWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right Christi. The president is sticking to his immigration rhetoric, talking about the caravan of Central American migrants heading to the border, continuing to talk about ending birthright citizenship and some really contentious issues as he heads down for his final sprint to Election Day. That includes rallies this weekends in Montana, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee all where he's working to help Republicans running in statewide races where they're either on defense like in Georgia or trying to pick off a vulnerable Democratic incumbent.

Yesterday the president got some good economic news. He learned along with rest of us that the U.S. economy had added 250,000 jobs in October, keeping the unemployment rate at 3.7 percent, a 49-year low. The president yesterday at his rally in West Virginia acknowledged that those good economic numbers are not necessarily as juicy a campaign topic as immigration. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

TRUMP: They all say speak about the economy, speak about the economy. Well, we have the greatest economy in the history of our country. But sometimes it's not as exciting to talk about the economy, right, because we have a lot of other things to talk about.

(END VIDEO)

WESTWOOD: Now as you mentioned, Former President Obama is also back out on the campaign trail, stumping for Democrats across the country. Yesterday he was in Florida trying to help Democratic governor candidate Andrew Gillum. And he accused President Trump of using inflammatory and divisive rhetoric to try to motivate voters to the polls. Listen to what Obama had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

OBAMA: In the closing weeks of this election, we have seen repeated attempts to divide us with rhetoric designed to make us angry and make us fearful, that's designed to exploit our history of racial and ethnic and religious division, that pits us against one another to make us believe that order will somehow be restored if it just weren't for those folks who don't look like we like or don't love like we love or pray like we do.

(END VIDEO)

WESTWOOD: Now of course President Trump has used Obama's re-emergence on the political scene as a foil. He went after Obama at his rally in Indiana yesterday. We're likely to see Trump continue to take aim at his predecessor, and with seven rallies still left on his schedule between now and Election Day, Victor and Christi, we are likely to see the president continue to double down on that contentious immigration agenda.

BLACKWELL: All right Sara Westwood for us at the White House. Sara, thank you.

PAUL: CNN Political Commentator Errol Louis with us now, political anchor for "Spectrum News," as well there. Errol, so good to see you this morning.

ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR FOR "SPECTRUM NEWS" AND CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

PAUL: President Trump is using immigration; Obama seemed to be using President Trump. When we talk about the fear factor, how effective is fear to get people to the polls because we know at the end of the day it's going to be determined by who makes it there.

LOUIS: Yes, we've got to assume that what the president is doing has some rational basis. He seems to be going to his base. Whether or not it works depends on the strategy you're trying to implement. The president clearly trying to bring out the Republican base that is loyal to him.

[06:05:00]

That's not necessarily going to work for the rest of his party because he is technically not on the ballot on Tuesday. So there are a lot of people in marginal districts who are going to probably have a much harder time than they would have because the president is seizing one news cycle after another, putting this very divisive rhetoric out in front of people, walking away from the economy, and talking about immigration.

So this is going to work for him or -- I guess he thinks it's going to work for him. It might even work for some of the Senate candidates who are running, trying to unseat Democrats. For -- on the House side, for a lot of the marginal Republican incumbents, it's going to be a real problem on Tuesday.

PAUL: The president seemed to, when you talk about divisive rhetoric, hit the rewind button a bit when he was talking about Joe Donnelly, specifically, and as he referred to him, Barak H. Obama. Let's listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

TRUMP: It's no surprise that Joe Donnelly is holding a rally this weekend with Barak H. Obama.

CROWD CHANT: Boo.

TRUMP: Barack Obama.

CROWD CHANT: Boo. TRUMP: I watched him speak today. He had a very small crowd. They don't talk about that. And they never talk about how big our crowds are.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: The reference to Barack H. -Hussein Obama. Of course citizen Trump was very vocal about the whole "Birth of Conspiracy" which we know is not true. Couple that with what Michael Cohen has come out and said, the man who was known as a protector to President Trump for so many years. He is now alleging that the president is very different behind closed doors than he is in his public persona. One of the things he's alleging is some of the -- is alleged racist comments that the president made. Michael Cohen says, quote, "I told Trump that the rally looked vanilla on television." Trump responded, "That's because black people are too stupid to vote for me."

Now again, these are allegations from Michael Cohen. We don't know the truth of any of it, but they're allegations. You couple that with what the president is saying about resurrecting the Barack H. Obama verbiage. Does he run the risk of giving credence to what Michael Cohen is saying?

LOUIS: Well, there's a very long record that goes beyond Michael Cohen's comments. I mean, you suggest Christi, that he may not be a reliable source of information, and that's true. Michael Cohen is an admitted liar. He pleaded guilty to a bunch of felonies so we're not going to take him at his word. On the other hand, there's a record going back years of the "Birther Conspiracies," the discrimination lawsuits that the president had to settle as far back as the 1980s.

You know, the reality is -- Omarosa Manigault, his former assistant, who made similar kind of comments about what she says the president is like behind closed doors. I would say that what he says in public is actually pretty bad. So that, you know, hearing that he also says some pretty awful things behind the scenes, well, that multiyear "Birther Conspiracy" that Donald Trump peddled was all the information I think most people needed to sort of get his take on where folks are coming from.

I've interviewed members of the Central Park Five. These are some innocent kids who were wrongly imprisoned, and to this day the president has claimed that they should be punished, somehow. He called for the death sentence for them. People who were wrongly convicted, who are innocent. This is not a president who has ever, I think, conveyed the impression that he's going to be fair, even-handed, that he has even a pleasant relationship to the black community. The polls don't bear it out. The vote in 2016 don't bear it out. His actions and words don't bear it out.

PAUL: I want to talk about the economy; 250,000 jobs added in October. Wages up 3.1 percent, unemployment down 3.7 percent, as Sarah was talking about. Does the president deserve credit like that, and -- for that, and why would he not be bringing that up more?

LOUIS: The president and the Republican Congress do deserve credit for that. There are some questions about whether or not it's going to last. Is it a sugar high economically? Is it going to be paid for in the long term in a way that's going to be harmful to the economy? All of those are questions but for right now, yes, it's a highly simulative economy. It's getting people back to work. It's probably a good thing for a lot of people.

You know, he's not talking about it because it's not going to move the voters that he needs to get moved. His strategy has been, in fact, to ignore that. And that to me is the biggest clue, Christi that there's really something going on that we're going to see on Tuesday that the Republican strategists are fearful of. That even with this great economy they don't think that's enough and so the president and the White House, the Republican strategists are saying, "We've got to jit(ph) up a lot of fear and a lot of energy around this migrant caravan that's still two months away. People walking on - desperate people walking on foot who might get here around Christmas time or something. They're trying to make it seem urgent and get people to the polls based on that.

PAUL: All right. Errol Louis, thank you very much for the perspective this morning.

LOUIS: Sure, thank you.

PAUL: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: Three days away now, and it is a critical election with a lot at stake. The balance of power in Congress, 36 governor's races and thousands of local elections. We'll bring you all the key races with up-to-the-minute results. Our special live coverage starts on election night at 5:00 Eastern.

PAUL: I don't know if you've heard, but Actor Alec Baldwin was arrested and charged with assault. We'll tell you what happened. We have a live report from New York.

BLACKWELL: Plus, a yoga class fought back when a man started shooting in their studio. We'll tell you what happened there as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: "Saturday Night Live" actor Alec Baldwin arrested and charged with assault and harassment. New York police say he allegedly punched a man in the face over a dispute over a parking spot.

BLACKWELL: Now Baldwin denies punching anyone and called the situation egregiously misstated. The alleged victim was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition. CNN's Polo Sandoval is in New York with more. What do we know happened? There are different perspectives here but what do we know?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes various perspectives here Victor and Christi. Ultimately Alec Baldwin calls these allegations, quote, "false." The NYPD saying he will eventually have to fight these allegations in court -- this misdemeanor assault and harassment. In the meantime though, he's also having to fight off some criticism mainly from some Republicans.

Actor Alec Baldwin stayed quiet as he walked out of a New York City police precinct Friday. The actor largely known for his recurring "SNL" portrayal of President Trump, was charged with assault and harassment. The NYPD alleging Baldwin punched a 49-year-old man during a fight over a parking spot. This isn't the first time Baldwin finds himself in trouble with the law or making headlines. In 2014, Baldwin was arrested for bike riding on the wrong side of the road. The short-tempered actor has also been seen getting into scuffles with paparazzi. Back in 2007, Baldwin was heard on a voicemail recording yelling insults at then-wife Kim Basinger and their daughter.

(BEGIN AUDIO)

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: You are a rude, thoughtless little pig. I don't give a damn that you're 12 years old or 11-years-old or that you're a child...

(END AUDIO)

SANDOVAL: Baldwin's behavior has attracted criticism from conservatives. On Twitter, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took a sarcastic jab, at Baldwin, the president's son Don, Jr. calling him a piece of garbage. Earlier the president called Baldwin's impersonation of him terrible and agony inducing. This time, though more measured response from the White House South Lawn.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

TRUMP: Who was arrested?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alec Baldwin. Punched somebody out during a parking dispute.

TRUMP: I wish him luck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's it?

(END VIDEO)

SANDOVAL: Luck and a simple shrug coming from the Commander in Chief. I want to read more of the response from the actor as posted on Twitter late yesterday. I want to read more of the message posted on verified Hillaria and Alec Baldwin Foundation twitter account, part of it reading, quote, "I realize it has become a sport to tag people with as many negative charges and defaming allegations as possible for the purposes of click bait entertainment. Fortunately no matter how reverberating the echoes it doesn't make the statements true." Again, this coming from the actor who is being charged. Ultimately, though he will be back in court at a later date. Guys?

BLACKWELL: Give this man a lozenge. Paolo Sandoval. Thanks for powering through it.

SANDOVAL: Right here.

PAUL: Thank you Polo, there you go, there you go.

So also police say a yoga class fought back as a gunman opened fire at a hot yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida. Six people were shot and two died.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MICHAEL DELEO, CHIEF OF TALLAHASSEE POLICE: There were indications that several people inside fought back and tried to not only save themselves but other people which is a testament to the courage of the people who don't just turn and run, the strength of our community and spirit of people trying to help and save and protect others.

(END VIDEO)

BLACKWELL: Police say the shooter died of a possible self-inflicted gunshot wound and they believe he acted alone. They don't know why he allegedly did this. The Tallahassee Mayor, Andrew Gillum, who is the Democratic nominee for governor there in Floridia tweeted, "No act of gun violence is acceptable and says he will suspend his campaign in light of the shooting."

PAUL: Well the battle for control of Congress all comes down to who can excite the base enough to get them out to the polls, of course. Coming up, how President Trump's courting one of his most important voting blocs -- evangelical voters.

BLACKWELL: Plus, the president says he always wants to tell the truth, but according to the folks at the "Washington Post" fact- checker blog, the president is not doing that and has done it thousands of times over the 649 days of his administration. We'll tell you how many and show you how many false and misleading claims the president has made.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO)

TRUMP: I always want to tell the truth. When I can, I tell the truth. Sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that's different or a change, but I always like to be truthful.

(END VIDEO)

BLACKWELL: That was President Trump with Jonathan Karl of "ABC News." He tells the truth when he can. It's a remarkable admission and according to the folks at the "Washington Post" fact-checker blog, the president is increasingly not telling the truth, and at a dramatic rate. According to the "Post," in his first nine months of his administration President Trump made upon average five false or misleading claims a day. But in the seven weeks leading up to the midterm elections, the daily average is up to 30 false or misleading claims a day.

And whether about the migrant caravan, a tax cut, health care, or the Saudi Arms Deal, the president is just not telling you the truth.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

TRUMP: You're going to find Ms-13, you're going to find Middle Eastern, you're going to find everything. They have a lot of everybody in that group. It's a horrible thing and it's a lot bigger than 5,000 people.

[06:25:00]

We are going to be putting in and are studying very deeply right now, around the clock, a major tax cut for middle income people, not for business at all, for middle income people. I would say sometime around the first of November, maybe a little before then.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) asking the Senator Elizabeth Warren (inaudible) of her DNA test?

TRUMP: You know I have ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... results...

TRUMP: Who - who care?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President you said (inaudible) $1 million to ...

TRUMP: I didn't say - I think you better read it again.

We have $450 billion -- $110 billion of which is a military order but this is equipment and various things ordered from Saudi Arabia -- $450 billion.

We're talking about over 40,000 jobs.

It's 450,000 jobs.

It's 500,000 jobs.

Six hundred thousand jobs, maybe more than that.

You're talking about over a million jobs.

We will always protect Americans with preexisting conditions. We're going to take care of them. Some of the Democrats have been talking about ending preexisting conditions.

I don't think we like sanctuary cities up here.

CROWD CHEER: No.

TRUMP: By the way, a lot of people in California don't want them either. They're rioting now. They want to get out of their sanctuary cities.

If I remember Dick Russell a friend of mine, a great guy. He headed up the New York Stock Exchange on September 11 and the New York Stock Exchange was open the following day. He said, and what they had to do to open it you wouldn't believe.

(END VIDEO)

BLACKWELL: Well the latest count from the "Washington Post" Fact- Checker Blog shows the president has made 6,424 false or misleading claims since inauguration day - 6,420 in 649 days. And when we started highlighting that running tally earlier this year, I searched for a way to make something conceptual like a false statement tangible, visual.

I remembered a party game I hated as a kid, guessing the number of gumballs in the jar. Remember that one? Well ever since we've used jars of gumballs to show you the president's thousands of false claims and sometimes downright lies. Here's the latest count, 6,420 gum balls. We've now filled 11.5 jars fewer than two years into the term. W

hen we started this this January, I just went to a local party supply store and filled a cart with whichever gumballs they had in the store. There are so many now that we buy the gumballs from a wholesaler. Let's take a look at the last couple of months. According to the "Post," September, 2018, was President Trump's second-biggest month with the total of 599 bogus claims. The biggest month of false claims, October, 2018, with more than 1,100. The president is just not telling the truth.

PAUL: And in case you're wondering, Victor does personally count every single one ...

BLACKWELL: Every one.

PAUL: ... of those gumballs.

All right. The outcome of Tuesday's midterm elections come down to really which party can motivate its base. President Trump and the Republican Party strongly leaning in on one group in particular, evangelical voters. For instance, in 2016, 81 percent of evangelicals supported the president's candidacy. In return, President Trump says he has delivered for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

TRUMP: Well, they're going to show up for me because nobody's done more for Christians or evangelicals, frankly, religion than I have. We've seen they're happy. The question is whether or not they're going to vote when I'm not running. I have no doubt they're going to be there in '20. I hope they're going to be there now because it will be a lot easier if they are, a lot better.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: Now the president has done some things that align with conservative religious values. Appointing two conservative Supreme Court justices, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Will the evangelicals though turn out for Republicans heading into the midterms? John Fea, author of "Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump" and evangelical leader and former Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus, Reverend Barbara Williams-Skinner, I thank you very much for being with us. John, I wanted to ask you...

JOHN FEA, AUTHOR, "BELIEVE ME: THE EVANGELICAL ROAD TO DONALD TRUMP": Good to be here.

PAUL: ... the president said he has done more for religion than anyone else. What has he done specifically?

FEA: Well if you look from the perspective of American evangelicals, as you mentioned Christi, he's done a great deal. The evangelicals, most conservative evangelicals, operate under a particular political playbook that's driven by a few issues. Supreme Court justices, religious liberty, as white evangelicals defined religious liberty, the Jerusalem Embassy. All of these things are part of that playbook, and much of political engagement among conservative evangelicals is limited to those things. So all the other policy issues or even what Victor just talked about, the lying, you could give him a pass on that.

[06:30:00]

One famous - one famous leader of the Christian right, Tony Perkins, said give them a mulligan, using the golf term. As long as Trump's delivering on these things and as long as candidates in Senate and Congressional and governors and local races are delivering on these things, I think you're going to see evangelicals showing up for them on Tuesday.

PAUL: Reverend Williams-Skinner --

BARBARA WILLIAMS-SKINNER, EVANGELICAL LEADER: Yes.

PAUL: Lies are not an edict of evangelicals by any means. How do they reconcile these things?

WILLIAMS-SKINNER: Well, to be an evangelical means that you are a follower of Jesus. The word "evangelical" comes from "evangelium" that means the gospel -- the good news. There is no good news in demonizing Jews and Muslims and poor people and nonwhite people. So I think people have to decide whether they believe the word of God or they're going to believe their politics. That's what's at stake.

What's at stake Tuesday is hate versus love. Loving our neighbor as ourselves, that's the bottom line. Not the policy issues. We have a responsibility, all of us, to make America better right now. This is not about one person or one man. It's about every American seeing every other person the way God sees them. That's -- that will turn around fear to love. That's what we are trying to do.

PAUL: I wanted to ask you because I know that you were recently in Chicago ...

WILLIAMS-SKINNER: Yes. PAUL: ... and were speaking to a large group of thousands of evangelicals, encouraging votes against hate and violence and bigotry. When you encouraged those votes, where do they go?

WILLIAMS-SKINNER: Those voters will go to vote for justice and for care for the least of these. They will vote to make sure that people whose jobs are being moved overseas, people of every race are concerned about healthcare and being safe on the streets. Fear mongering is really a way of manipulating people to turn away from their own self-interests. Poor people who are black, white, Asians, Latinos, African-American, have more in common if they would come together and focus on the things that unite us rather than divide us. That's what I told these people.

PAUL: So you weren't encouraging them to go one candidate or another.

WILLIAMS-SKINNER: Find the candidate who will bring America together and not divide us. Find the candidate who will lift up the bottom and not the top. Who will help employ people, train those who have no jobs, bring jobs back to America find healthcare. I said to find those candidates but do vote because not voting is a vote against your values.

PAUL: So John, is there any indication that 81 percent of evangelicals who went to the polls in 2016 for President Trump will duplicate that for their Republican -- their Republican candidates on Tuesday?

FEA: Yeah. Well, it's hard to tell at this point since we don't have good statistics on evangelical voters and where they're leading. We do know there are particular races where evangelicals are going to play an important role. Places like Missouri, for example, where Claire McCaskill's opponent, Josh Hawly, has strong support. Marcia Blackburn in Tennessee has strong support among Trump kind of conservatives. In Texas, too, Ted Cruz, of course, is going to carry a lot of the evangelical vote.

According to recent reports and recent journalism, there are evangelicals, especially evangelical women, who are turning against Ted Cruz in Texas. It will be interesting -- it will be interesting to see. We have this one model, the special election in Alabama earlier this year, when there were a lot of white and African-American evangelicals who turned against Roy Moore after the -- after the charges of sexual harassment and so forth.

So it will be interesting to see how evangelicals -- once we get some solid numbers, it will be interesting to see how evangelicals came out. Of course, much like the general public, evangelicals do not vote as often as -- in midterms as they would in national elections. But they're also very fired up. And Trump won some very important victories for them especially with the Supreme Court. We will see if they will reward him for that by electing some of the candidates that the president endorses.

PAUL: So John, you mentioned Texas. And there is a Christian author there with a huge following, Beth Moore. And in 2016 - well actually in March, March 12th, this is what she put out on twitter. She said, for many of us about whom people say I liked them better before they goat political, we liked us better, too. Who wanted to be where a mountain of manure was hitting the fan? This manure came to us in the church. We didn't go for it. For a lot of us, it's a fight for the faith. Do women of faith, John, do they struggle with reconciling what they see, their policies, the tone, and what they're going to do at the polls?

FEA: Well, I think they struggle with the long history of misogyny that comes out of the mouth of Donald Trump, misogynistic statements. I think women and men, white evangelical women and men, are disgusted by the nativism, the xenophobia, just the course rhetoric coming out of Donald Trump.

So Beth Moore is absolutely right, and I think a lot of evangelical women are concerned and I as an evangelical male are concerned about what this does to the church and the witness of the church in the world. There's this old Baptist saying, Beth Moore is a Southern Baptist and this old saying when you mix horse manure and ice cream together, the horse manure pretty much stays the same, but the ice cream, the church, is ruined forever as a result of this.

So I think that's what she's getting at. Beth Moore is concerned less about the fate of America, although I'm sure she's concerned about that, too, as she is about the purity of the Christian church. What the support of Donald Trump is doing to damage the witness of the gospel.

PAUL: Reverend, your thoughts on that? And what did you hear when you were with all of these people in Chicago?

WILLIAMS-SKINNER: I heard at 9/11 when America was under attack, from the outside, we banded together, we prayed together. People who didn't even have a connection to a house of worship came together - whites, blacks, people of all races because we were under attack. What I heard in Chicago is that we're under attack now. Our democracy is under attack. People cannot ...

PAUL: By who?

WILLIAMS-SKINNER: ... vote. Those who would suppress the vote, 34 states today deny the right to vote. Native Americans right now are denied the right to vote. Students in Prairie View(ph) are denied the right to vote. In Georgia, 53,000 people, duly registered citizens, cannot vote. That's what we are voting about. Not voting is dangerous. It's important to vote for democracy. Our faith leads us to believe part of the nation, to be in the world, but not of it. Not of its values, but in it, making it better. That's what faith is about.

PAUL: All right. John Fea and Reverend Barbara Williams-Skinner, we appreciate you being here.

FEA: Thank you.

PAUL: Thank you.

WILLIAMS-SKINNER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Well first Oprah, then Obama, then Pence, and tomorrow it's Trump. The race for governor in Georgia is attracting a lot of star power. We'll have the latest on that deadlocked race and all the attention that's coming.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Polls show the race for governor of Georgia is really as close as it gets. And it's attracting a lot of national attention.

PAUL: President Trump is going to be in Georgia tomorrow to campaign for Republican candidate Brian Kemp. Democrat Stacey Abrams has big names supporting her bid to become the nation's first African-American female governor. Correspondent Kaylee Hartung reports on the state of the race here.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

OBAMA: This Tuesday I believe may be the most important election of our lifetime.

(END VIDEO)

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the final days of Georgia's contentious governor's race -

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm kind of a big deal, too.

(END VIDEO)

HARTUNG: The leading candidates bringing unprecedented star power to the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

OPRAH WINFREY, TELEVISION PERSONALITY AND HOST: I've been watching what's been going on down here.

CROWD: Cheers.

WINFREY: Y'all about to make some history down here.

CROWD: Cheering.

(END VIDEO)

HARTUNG: Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp are deadlocked in the polls. Early voting ended Friday with a record number of ballots cast, more than double the amount at the same point in the last midterm election.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

GEORGIA FEMALE VOTER: I'm very, very excited that we are getting the national attention that we're getting because I hope that it is actually encouraging the local people to be involved.

GEORGIA FEMALE VOTER: I have my "vote" shirt on, and I'm going to do it today.

(END VIDEO)

HARTUNG: With few undecided voters left, these big names continued the campaign-long mission, appeal to the candidates' polarized bases.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

PENCE: Let me make you a promise. With President Donald Trump in the White House and Brian Kemp in the State House, we will never abolish I.C.E.

OBAMA: You can't think there's anything proper about ripping immigrant children from their mothers' bosoms at the border.

(CROWD CHEERS)

(END VIDEO)

HARTUNG: Georgia's race has garnered national attention over claims that Kemp is suppressing voter access, putting more than 50,000 registrations on hold in his capacity as Secretary of State. Kemp's office says the registrants, nearly 70 percent of whom are African- American, will be able to vote if they bring the proper I.D. but still, voting rights, a battle cry for Abrams' supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

WINFREY: Every single one of us has something that if done in numbers too big to tamper with ...

(CROWD CHEERS)

WINFREY: ... cannot be suppressed and cannot be denied.

(END VIDEO)

HARTUNG: Vice President Pence leaning on familiar lines of attack from Kemp ads that say Abrams is out of touch with Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

PENCE: I got a message for all of Stacey Abrams' liberal Hollywood friends -- this ain't Hollywood. This is Georgia.

(END VIDEO)

HARTUNG: What's notable is not just who's delivering the pointed messages but where. Abrams' surrogates in the metro Atlanta area where they hope to motivate first-time minority voters while Team Kemp is focusing on rural areas of the state eying the same path to victory that President Trump took to win it in 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

[06:45:00]

TRUMP: She is not qualified.

(END VIDEO)

HARTUNG: Trump has voiced his on this race from afar. Sunday he'll do it on Peach State soil. Kaylee Hartung, CNN, Atlanta.

BLACKWELL: "New Day's" Alisyn Camerota goes to Pittsburgh and talks with Rabbi Meyers about how he feels when looking at the synagogue now one week after the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history that killed 11 people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: It was a week ago today that we were sitting at the news desk and had to tell you that 11 people were murdered at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history.

BLACKWELL: And CNN's Alisyn Camerota went to Pittsburgh and she spoke with Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and revisited that synagogue where this horrific killing happened.

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JEFFREY MYERS, RABBI AT TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: These just showed up. We didn't put them here. They just showed up.

ALYSON CAMEROTA: They just organically showed up and these are the names of the victims?

MYERS: These are all the names of the victims. It just showed up. This is an outpouring of love ...

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh.

MYERS: ... from countless people. I'm floored by the love. I don't know where the tents came from. These weren't here yesterday.

CAMEROTA: Is that right?

MYERS: This is -- the rain is coming in. Somebody brought in tents. This is amazing.

CAMEROTA: To shelter all of the stars.

MYERS: This was not done by the synagogue. We didn't do this. The community did this. I'm just amazed. Amazed.

CAMEROTA: And so what is it like for you to walk around here just six days after you ran for your life from this building?

MYERS: It was painful. It still is. It's painful. I know it's part of the grieving process, but I'm a witness, I'm a victim, and I'm a survivor. I'm also a pastor, but I'm also human. And I stand here, and I'm in pain.

CAMEROTA: Are you scared when you see this building?

MYERS: No.

CAMEROTA: Do you feel...

MYERS: I'm not scared. I'm angry. How dare you defile our holy space? What made you think you could ever do that? How would you feel if someone did that to your mother's house of worship? How would you feel? Those are questions he's going to have to deal with.

CAMEROTA: Do you sense anxiety and fear from the community?

MYERS: Yes, yes, they're afraid.

CAMEROTA: They're afraid this is going to happen again?

MYERS: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: You know, you've been so stoical on national TV and you have given your message of love and to tone down the hate, but I just wonder, do you have moments where you break down, or are you still on adrenaline?

MYERS: Perfect example, after the last funeral today, it was the last one, I appreciate the fact that outside is a side there with a contemplative garden. I sat down there and cried like a baby. I couldn't stop. I thought the procession was waiting for me, I couldn't stop. It came out. I couldn't stop. Because I haven't held it in me nonstop, but this is the last funeral, and every time I do one, almost for me because I'm also a cantor. When I chant the memorial prayer it takes a piece of my soul away. And I have no more left to give. My tank's empty.

CAMEROTA: And so what do you say your congregants who say why does this happen? Why? How does God let this happen?

MYERS: I don't believe God lets this stuff happen. Humans have a choice and this person chose - made this choice. To me God is the one I turn to when I have no strength to say, God give me strength to get through this and that's what I do, every moment of every day, give me strength. And somehow, God does. I never thought I'd see the horror of this ever, ever.

CAMEROTA: Just show me here what stands out to you. Show me -- when you come here to look at this outpouring of the community ... MYERS: It's the sheer immensity of love. It gives me hope because it

reminds me there are so many good people. And this gives me strength to say hate will never win.

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PAUL: And Jeff Ballabon is an adviser to the Trump campaign and spokesman for the Jewish Community. I spoke with him yesterday. He told me what he believes needs to happen now.

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JEFF BALLABON, TRUMP ADVISOR AND SPOKESMAN FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY: Where can we find common humanity to sit down and talk about what it is in our culture that's driving this fear? If we could try to understand what each other are afraid of, at least that, and how we understand the world, then maybe we could at least begin to come together.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: You can watch the rest of the interview with Jeff Ballabon. It's at cnn.com.

BLACKWELL: Up next, democracy under attack. Twitter deletes thousands of automated accounts that were trying to discourage people from voting. President Barak Obama's former Cyber Czar Michael Daniel, joins us next.

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[06:55:00]

BLACKWELL: More than 40 million Americans don't have enough food at the same time, up to 40 percent of the food supply in the U.S. is wasted every year. Maria Rose Belding saw this first hand when she was in the eighth grade and what she decided to do about it is why she's one of this year's Top Ten CNN Heroes.

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MARIA ROSE BELDING, CNN TOP TEN HEROES FOR 2018: There was a food pantry in my church that I grew up working in. You would have way too much of one thing and would be in desperate need of a different thing. Inevitably some of it would expire. And I ended up throwing a lot of it away. When I was 14, I realized that doesn't make sense. The internet was right in front of us. That's such an obvious thing to fix. This is not unclaimed, it has turned green. You would think the novelty would wear off. It doesn't.

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BLACKWELL: Well Maria's nonprofit means has helped redistribute more than 1.8 million pounds of food since 2015. Go to cnnheroes.com to vote for her for CNN Hero of the Year or any of your Top-Ten Heroes. That's again cnnheroes.com. (BEGIN VIDEO)

TRUMP: I want to turn America into a giant sanctuary for violent predators and MS-13 killers.