Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Harris Campaign Ad Seizes on Trump Rally Speaker's "Floating Island of Garbage" Remark; Crunch Time For Campaign In Battleground Arizona; More Than 43 Million Early Vote Ballots Cast Across U.S.; Republican Participation In Early Voting In Battleground States Arizona And Nevada Higher Than At This Point In The 2020 Election; Judge To Determine If Rudy Giuliani Must Turn Over His $3.5 Million Florida Condo To Election Workers He Defamed; Jeff Bezos Defends Washington Post Non-Endorsement. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired October 28, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, AUTHOR, "MERLIN'S TOUR OF THE UNIVERSE": ... even when you give it an extra day.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Even with the help.
TYSON: The fun part about the Merlin character that takes the reader through is Merlin is quirky and Merlin existed for all of time. So, recalls conversations with famous characters like Isaac Newton, there's a conversation between them and Isaac Newton explains gravity. So it was fun to just re-inhabit that character from so long ago in my life and then bring it to the present day.
BURNETT: Well, I love it and it's -- I hope everyone will -- will get this new copy of it, especially because it is quite a beautiful cover.
TYSON: Yes, thank you.
BURNETT: All right, Neil, thank you and thanks to all of you. Anderson starts now.
[20:00:40]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, more fallout from the former president's hate-filled rally here in New York. New reporting on what one of the ugliest voices on stage who almost called Vice President Harris in his prepared remarks.
Also tonight, new early voting numbers and the story that 43 million ballots and counting could be telling about where the race is heading.
And, how far can Rudy Giuliani actually fall? Will he lose his Florida condo in addition to his New York apartment for the lies he spewed defaming two election workers.
Good evening. Thanks for joining us.
Tonight, there is one more of the kind of normal campaign events you see a little more than a week out from the election day. This is the Harris rally in Michigan, and we'll bring you any news that comes from it.
The story of the moment, however, continues to be the former president's hate-filled event last night in Madison Square Garden.
Not normal in any conventional sense of the word, but not surprising either. Certainly revealing of what the candidate wants voters to hear in the campaign's closing days. And let's face it, it's a preview of the kind of things we'll be hearing an awful lot of in the next four years if Donald Trump wins.
I want to point out with just a single exception neither Trump, his running mate, nor the campaign have disavowed any of what was said.
Now, here's the exception with a warning that like so much of what we are playing tonight, it's offensive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY HINCHCLIFFE, AMERICAN COMEDIAN: You know, there's a lot going on. Like, I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yes, I think it's called Puerto Rico.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's a guy called Tony Hinchcliffe who calls himself a comedian last night. The Trump campaign says that remark, "does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign."
But again, that's the only remark they've disavowed. Today, in Wisconsin, running mate, JD Vance, by the way, would not even do that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JD VANCE (R) VICE PRESIDENT NOMINEE: I haven't seen the joke. I -- you know, maybe it's a stupid racist joke as you said, maybe it's not. I haven't seen it. I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke, but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just -- I'm so over it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So over it. There you go, a little bit of both sides saying a touch of gaslighting and a big gallop of BS. He's over it, so you know, lighten up, friends, everyone. As for now, as for not having seen the remarks, Wisconsin maybe cheese, but it is not the dark side of the moon. In any case, he was actually at the Garden to hear the remarks.
So, in case Mr. Vance maybe watching let's just play some of what else was spewed at this rally, none of which the campaign has had disavowed and yes, it too is offensive. This one is about Latinos and if there are children in the room, you might want to mute the sound.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HINCHCLIFFE: These Latinos they love making babies, too, just know that, they do, they do. There's no pulling out, they don't do that. They come inside just like they did to our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Yes. So, that's Puerto Rico and Latinos, he also had thoughts about Black men.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HINCHCLIFFE: Who? Black guy with a thing on his head, what the hell is that? A lamp shade? Look at this guy. Oh my goodness. Wow.
I'm just kidding. That's one of my buddies. He had a Halloween party last night. We had fun we carved watermelons together, it was awesome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He also mocked Jewish people as tight with money and, of course, none of this should come as a surprise. The campaign -- one campaign adviser told CNN they knew enough in advance about his intended remarks to at least veto a joke in which he called the Vice President Harris, these C-word, something of that Elon Musk actually does in a new campaign ad which tries to make a joke out of it. However, that same adviser says the campaign was not given a draft which included some of the comedian's more indecent jokes.
And another adviser suggested that no one had reviewed his remarks in full. A lot of advisers seemingly had no idea about this, but it wasn't just a series of racist comments from a so-called stand up. There was this from a radio talk show host.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SID ROSENBERG, NEW YORK TALK RADIO HOST: You've got homeless and veterans, Americans. Americans sleeping on their own feces on a bench in Central Park but the (bleep) illegals, they get whatever they want, don't they?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, there was also this from a businessman and internet personality.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRANT CARDONE, AMERICAN ENTREPRENEUR: She's a fake, I'm not in here to invalidate her. She's a fake, a fraud, she's a pretender, her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:05:08]
COOPER: In case you missed the implication there, he is calling the vice president of United States and Democratic candidate for president a prostitute.
As for the candidate that he is supporting, now, if Trump wasn't so spineless, he might have stood in podium and criticized some of what his warm-up acts were spewing out, but of course he didn't. He called Harris as he often does, a low IQ individual, called Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a racist slur against Native Americans, repeated lies about hurricane reliefs such as this one, which have led to threats against hurricane relief workers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They haven't even responded in North Carolina. They haven't even responded, there's nobody. They don't see any FEMA. You know why? They spent their money on bringing in illegal migrants. So they didn't have money for Georgia, and North Carolina, and Alabama, and Tennessee, and Florida, and South Carolina. They didn't have any money for them.
They spent all of their money on bringing in illegal immigrants and flying them in by beautiful jet planes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: By now for all the times, he has said that, that lie must sound almost like background noise marking the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff made a case for why he thinks it should not be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG EMHOFF, SECOND GENTLEMAN OF THE UNITED STATES: He demeans immigrants with the same hateful slurs hurled at our ancestors -- vermin, animals, who poison the blood of our country.
He scapegoats Jewish voters, right to our faces, saying that if he loses it will be the fault of Jews. He looks at Adolf Hitler's generals and see something to admire. Just let that sink in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's the Second Gentleman earlier today.
Tonight, the Harris campaign put out a new ad referring to the slur against Puerto Rico. Here's part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HINCHCLIFFE (voice over): A floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean. I think it's called Puerto Rico.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Puerto Rico.
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will never forget what Donald Trump did. He abandoned the island and offered nothing more than paper towels, and insults. Puerto Rican's deserve better. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Joining us now our team of CNN political analysts and commentators, David Axelrod; "The New York Times'" Astead Herndon; Republican strategist Scott Jennings, Republican strategist, Ana Navarro, who is a Harris supporter these days.
COOPER: David, I mean, it seems like the Trump campaign is fine with this other than trying to disavow one comment about Puerto Rico.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you know, a disavowal of any kind from the Trump campaign is unusual. So, I think it's some acknowledgement that this was, this did not go off the way they hoped it would go off they planned --
COOPER: How was that possible? I mean --
AXELROD: I don't know, because to me it was like, like this bizarre-o open-mic night at some sort of hate-filled comedy club where a bunch of people just stood up and said the most tasteless things that they could say. And I don't know why they think that might help their campaign. I really do think they're going where Trump can draw a big crowds because he measures everything in terms of how big they are, crowds and ratings and so on.
So, that's why they're ending up in places that aren't necessarily battleground states. But I don't think -- this is a marginal race, Anderson. Anything can tip this race and something like this heading into the final week of the campaign is unhelpful to them and I think unwise.
COOPER: Ana, I mean, you heard JD Vance saying that people need to "stop" getting offended at every little thing. Is this much ado about nothing?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, there's a bunch of jokes going around the internet about how JD Vance had sex with a couch. If he doesn't want to take offense at that that's his jurisdiction, I'm going to take offense at people calling my community trash. I'm going to take offense at people making jokes about Black people. I'm going to take offense at people calling the first woman who might be president, a prostitute. I'm going to take offense of all of that, JD Vance is free to do whatever he wants.
But listen, this idea that this doesn't reflect Donald Trump is simply false. Let us just remember what Donald Trump has been saying for the last few days. He's been throwing around the term about how immigrants have turned America into the trash can of the world. That 'trash' word came out of his trash mouth.
And let us remember that Donald Trump treated Puerto Rico like trash. Let us remember the way he threw paper towels at needy people after Hurricane Maria, the second class response to Maria in comparison to the red states that have gotten hurricanes that same year. Let's remember when it was reported that he talked about trading Puerto Rico or selling it off, trading it for Greenland. [20:10:06]
This should not come as a surprise. I've been saying it for years. Donald Trump is a racist. If you are voting for him, does that make you a racist? That's up to you, but it does mean you are okay with racism.
And that is why this comedian said this because he knows it is okay with Donald Trump and it is okay with that crowd. Which is why Donald Trump took the stage, the podium, four-and-a-half hours after the comedian had made those tasteless jokes, when it was already a five- alarm fire. Every major Puerto Rican star had come out and condemned it.
COOPER: Yes.
NAVARRO: Republicans in Florida had come out and condemned it. But Donald Trump took that podium and was incapable of saying one word against those racist comments because he believes them.
COOPER: Scott, I know you were critical earlier today, with the so- called comedian set. I want to play another clip of Trump's rally. This is part of what Tucker Carlson said to warm up the crowd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: It's going to be pretty hard to look at us and say you know what, Kamala Harris, she's just -- she got 85 million votes because she's just so impressive, as the first Samoan Malaysian low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I mean, you worked in the Bush-Cheney White House, you're close allies with Senator Mitch McConnell, I mean, none of them would come within a hundred miles of this stuff. Does it, I mean, does it make you sad that this is what a Republican rally sounds like a week before the election?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. I'm not going to sit here and pretend like its good or helpful. I mean, some of the things that were said by some of these people who I had never heard of before. Maybe it works on a podcast, maybe it works on a radio show.
But when you're trying to win an election and you're trying to put on a face for your party and for your presidential campaign, it doesn't work at all. I mean, it's stupid, it's a distraction. I'm sure from what the Trump campaign wanted to do.
And in fact, if you look at their TV ads from Sunday that they released, and you listen to what Trump said at the rally it's clearly not on the same measure. They want to talk about the economy and immigration, not all this stupid stuff. But I'm also, let me just put my strategist hat on here for a second. I'm also not going to pretend that if you've lived for the last nine years with Donald Trump and live through everything, everything he said, everything he has done, his presidency, the attacks and everything that's happened, you know, is a no-name comedian's comments or a radio host comments or even Tucker Carlson's comments is going to change your opinion for better or worse? I doubt it.
And finally, I would just say, if you're offended by this, and I totally think it's a perfectly fine to be offended by it because some of the things that were said were offensive. But if you are offended by this, people from the entertainment industry saying vile and offensive things in the context of politics, Kamala Harris certainly has entertainment industry supporters that have said violent offensive things. Not all of them were at her rallies but if you look at some of the lyrics and other production that they've done, it is terrible, violent offenses.
So if we're all going to professionally faint tonight. I would just say let's --
COOPER: Was that introducing her, is that valid?
JENNINGS: -- on both sides of the line, because I have nothing against it -- I said, it's not all been done. It's not all been done at any of her events --
COOPER: Right, and has it been on any of her --
JENNINGS: -- and some of the people who are her most vicious -- some of her people that are her most ardent supporters have said things about women and domestic violence, and the treatment of women and other issues that are truly beyond the pale.
So, I do think when you're in the entertainment industry, you get edgy and this is what you get when you put them at your political rally.
COOPER: Astead, I want to play something that Trump said at this rally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The United States is now an occupied country. I will launch the largest deportation program in American history, and I'm hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.
And when I say the enemy from within the other side goes crazy, its becomes a sound -- oh, how can you say, no, they've done very bad things to this country. They are indeed the enemy from within, but this is who we're fighting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I mean, does this help him, do you think? ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the electoral is important here, but probably not sufficient to really get at the scope of what's happening. Does this make -- does the kind of hate-filled, bigoted rhetoric coming from Donald Trump make him invalidated or lose his support for next week? Probably not altogether. I do think like Scott said, a lot of this has been baked in with Trump, that doesn't mean it's irrelevant.
He is an unpopular presidential figure and the anti-Trump coalition, that Democrats have rallied in 2020 and 2022 exist because he has made it a central kind of plank of his rhetoric and platform to frankly target others as political opponent and he does that even on issues that folks agree with him at the premise, like immigration, the mass deportations, the language of vermin, the language of folks that's poisoning the blood of the country is not a -- is not a happenstance rhetoric from Trump. It's been core to his belief system and ideology.
And I would say, that this 2024 race is even more so than 2016 and 2020, but I think these are some of the most baffling strategic decisions they've made, I think even back to the selection of JD Vance, a couple of months ago, that has been tracked to the Tucker Carlsons, to this kind of masculinity ecosystem.
[20:15:21]
They're trying to raise an army of these type of folks. And we know that this is -- that the Harris campaign has been using this on the other side as a way to rally around their base too and I think the Democratic side is helped more so than this, than the Republicans.
COOPER: David, I mean, it's certainly to remind our people of what the next four years will be like. I mean, these folks will be, can be, you know, the White House, they're telling jokes.
AXELROD: I think it's easy to because it is so repulsive to chase some of this rhetoric down. But the bigger question is, what does it portend? And I think Harris has been smart to start raising this question that she started at your townhall.
He's coming with an enemies list. I'm coming with a to-do list. My to- do list is going to be your concerns. He's going to be worried about himself and how he wreaks vengeance on all those he thinks have trespassed on him. And I really do think that's the choice that they should focus on. That's the choice the American people should focus on.
COOPER: We're going to have a break.
Next, the vice president barnstorming Michigan today -- her plans for the final week. Later, more breaking news, what Jeff Bezos is saying for the first time about the uproar after the paper he owns, "The Washington Post" did not endorse a presidential candidate for the first time since 1976.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:54]
COOPER: A Harris event is just wrapping up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As we showed at the top, her campaign is out with a new ad on last night's Trump's show here in New York.
CNN's Eva McKend, joins us now with more.
How else has the fallout from this Madison Square Garden event impacted the Harris campaign?
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, I can tell you that the message here tonight from the Vice President was leaning on Michigan voters to vote early. She pledged to do all that she could if elected to pursue policies to bring down the cost of living.
There was another notable moment tonight when young people were protesting over Gaza. That's not unusual. That is a regular occurrence at Democratic events. But what struck me is what she said in response to them. She said, unlike the former president, I don't believe in the enemy from within. We are all here fighting for democracy and I understand your desire to be heard.
But listen, here in Ann Arbor, a heavily Democratic county, she is trying to drive up the numbers in places like this one across the state. President Biden won this county by over 50 points in 2020. She's trying to replicate that success.
COOPER: Eva McKend, thanks so much. Back now with the panel.
David, where do you -- I mean, where do you think the race is?
AXELROD: I honestly, I just was reading a piece in your paper saying that the Trump aides were quietly -- I mean, Harris' aides were quietly getting more optimistic. I think it's a dead-even race. I think you know, you see these models, analytic models that have Trump ahead by a whisker, but that essentially is a tied race. So, I think all of these battleground states are well within the margin of error.
So, you know, I think it's going to come down to who mobilizes their voters. It's going to come down to whether there are in fact real Republican voters and White non-college women who are not saying that they're going to vote for Harris, but are going to vote for Harris. It's going to be whether Black voters and young voters and Hispanic voters approximate or come close to some of the numbers that Biden produced in 2020 and those are all open questions right now.
COOPER: Astead, you're just where in Georgia.
HERNDON: Yes, I was just in Georgia.
COOPER: What did you see out there?
HERNDON: It feels like, to David's point 270-268 race, something that's really close. I think, the groups he identified are certainly the ones to look for from the shift to 2020 until now. Can Harris rally around working class kind of multicultural base that did seem to sour on Biden?
Can Trump kind of get out those lower propensity voters or make his losses in the suburbs lesser than they were in the midterms?
And I think those are kind big open questions here, but which campaign would you rather be? Would you rather be the campaign who's candidate tonight in Atlanta, Trump is clarifying, I am not a Nazi, or would you rather be campaigning Harris that is landing their message, knows their targeted voters and is actually feeling pretty good about it as the way gets closer and closer.
But for the Harris campaign, even back when it was the Biden campaign, they believe that as election day got nearer, Donald Trump would re- remind America of his extremism. Last night's rally did that for them. And that is their plan of how they close the deal in this race is to recreate those type of coalitions we saw in the midterms based on Donald Trump's own in-kind donation on that front, last night, they got that.
COOPER: And now, the former president went after Michelle Obama during his rally in Atlanta tonight. I just want to play this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know what's nasty to me? Michelle Obama.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: She was really -- oh, I always try to be so nice and respectful, oh, she opened up a little bit of a box, she opened up a little bit of something.
She was nasty, oh. It shouldn't be that way. That was a big mistake that she made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The list, I mean, it's so interesting that just think there's no new tricks that this guy has. I mean, the whole nasty thing is something he's just gone over again and again. Any woman, particularly a Black woman, it's a word he uses. It's like he's just playing to type.
[20:25:11]
NAVARRO: Well, what can I tell you? We all know he's got very few words to play with. But I think he brings home the point that Barack Obama has been talking about when he talks about Trump.
Here he is, this billionaire with all of these other -- and all he does is whine and complain, bitch, and moan, and he's the victim and the woe it is me. Pobrecito yo.
Listen, oh, Anderson, you know what you missed in the litany of things that you did in the beginning of the racist things that capping last night? They introduced Byron Donalds, the Black Congressman from Florida, Trump supporter, to the tune of "Dixieland," the unofficial anthem of the confederacy. You missed that one in your long list. I know that it's easy to miss with so many other things going on.
Listen, I think yesterday was manna from heaven, yesterday was the October surprise because it reminded people of what they had forgotten -- the chaos, the ugliness, what Donald Trump does and emboldening and permitting racism and bigotry and division.
And I think it does matter because character does matter. And tomorrow, you're going to see a huge contrast with Kamala Harris laying out her final comments.
COOPER: Scott, I mean, where do you think the race is?
JENNINGS: Well, I actually agree with David. I think it's exceedingly close, you know, there's a lot of Republicans that I talked to, who seem to take it as an article of faith that he's going to -- meaning Trump is going to over-perform his polls just the way he did in '16 and '20. And he might, and you might be right, but you don't know that.
And so I would just caution that it feels close to me. I also feel like Trump has had a pretty good October and he's tracked down this race, I mean, Harris was ahead at the beginning of the month and he's now effectively caught up. I do think there's a pretty good percentage chance that if it tips one way or the other, it may tip everywhere, not just in a state or two, but it may tip more broadly.
And finally, to me, the real October surprise is that Kamala Harris still cannot answer basic questions about where she wants to take the country. She's not gotten any better at this since she got into the race and she's having a real trouble closing her campaign on anything other than a purely negative message on Trump.
I think the mistake they're making is going fully negative and not telling people what would you do as president? People know what Trump would do, he was the president. I still think the deficiency in her campaign is that they don't really know what she would do as the commander-in-chief.
COOPER: David, I mean, do you think that -- go on Ana.
NAVARRO: Scott, yesterday while people were attacking Puerto Ricans, can I just say that yesterday while people were attacking Puerto Ricans at the Trump rally earlier in the morning, Kamala Harris had released an entire Puerto Rico policy agenda, putting out all the different items that she's going to do for Puerto Rico to help the people of Puerto Rico and bring some equity.
So, she is working hard on agenda and the interview talking about who's -- who are the ones making jokes and doing racism and division. Look in the mirror, bud.
COOPER: I mean David, this idea that she has no plans, he has all these ads, I mean, it's ludicrous. AXELROD: No, in fact, I think she's released a more voluminous program to deal with housing and the cost of elder care and a whole range of things that touch on people's lives.
And in fairness to Scott's point or at least in fairness to her, the Trump campaign has not run a positive ad and this whole campaign since she got in the race. Every single ad has been aimed at taking her down.
I've said before that the challenge for her, she has to introduce herself and fend that off. But I think the frame is there, which is she's put -- she is talking about things that touch people's lives, will improve people's lives and he is engaging in a thoroughly negative campaign.
HERNDON: I somewhat think the plan's discussion is too small though for Harris' big problem in this race. I think if Democrats have a challenge, they have to overcome, it is that they are tied to the status quo and what feels like a change election. You can put out policies to kind of project how you're different than that. But I think the biggest thing that is really weighing them down on that question, was they spent two years defending Joe Biden and kind of defending a status quo administration that's really unpopular.
And so, they are still playing catch up on the new way forward question. That is the litmus test that she laid out for herself in those interviews.
AXELROD: The question at the end of the day for voters is, are they voting on change from Biden's policies or change from Trump's politics and I think that's why this is such close race.
COOPER: We've got to go. Astead Herndon, David Axelrod, thank you. Scott Jennings, Ana Navarro as well.
Coming up, getting out the Latino vote in Arizona. John King gives us a first-hand reporting. The door-knocking efforts there by the Harris campaign, part of his All Over The Map series, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Vice President Harris and Tim Walz will hold a joint rally in Phoenix this week. John King is there now with a focus on Latino voters for his All Over the Map series, which examines the race through the experiences of key voting blocs in battleground states.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Crunch time in the battlegrounds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice to meet you. My name's Meg (ph). Hello. I'm with LUCHA, Living United for a Change in Arizona.
KING (voice-over): One handout promotes the Arizona Ballot Initiative expanding abortion rights. The other promotes Kamala Harris and Democratic candidates for the Senate and the House.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that your voice has power in this election?
KING (voice-over): LUCHA canvassers are at 600,000 door knocks and counting. They encourage early voting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know where your polling location is?
KING (voice-over): Many of the targeted homes are Latinos who are registered, but don't always vote.
KING: What's the most common question you get at a door knock about the Vice President?
CLAUDIO RODRIGUEZ, ARIZONA VOTER: The most common question we get at a door knock is, why Kamala? Why Kamala? And my answer to that is like, first, she's not a felon. One, she's a strong woman. And as a Latino man, we like strong women and we don't like weak men.
[20:35:04]
KING (voice-over): Claudio Rodriguez volunteers for LUCHA and also runs a community farm and food bank. He is upbeat about Harris's chances here. Says encouraging younger voters to turn out is one big need in this final week.
RODRIGUEZ: You do get the folks who are like, kind of like, feel hopeless, but then you got to bring them back in. You get folks who say like, voting doesn't matter, my vote doesn't matter. And to my response to that is like, whether you believe it matters or not, it still exists. And so why not participate in it? Put your voice in there, your little 2 cents.
KING (voice-over): Tucson is in deep blue Pima County. Biden's giant 2020 edge here was critical to winning the state by just 10,000 votes.
TAMARA VARGA, ARIZONA VOTER: Mickey is one of our biggest sellers.
KING (voice-over): Tamara Varga is a lifelong Republican who came to Tucson 30 years ago from San Diego. She thought she lived in a blue pocket of a red state.
KING: Did it surprise you in 2020 when Biden won Arizona?
VARGA: Absolutely surprised me. I was not expecting that.
KING (voice-over): Varga owns two candy shops and two food trucks, so she can provide jobs for individuals with special needs, including her sons. She says housing and other costs of living are up. Her gut says Trump is stronger this time.
VARGA: I feel that Trump's ahead, but I felt that way in 2020 as well. So, it's hard to say. You know, I feel that I have had more friends that are open to Trump and are flipping to a Trump vote.
KING: And the local friends who are doing that? Do they cite a reason?
VARGA: The border and the economy. Yes, people are having a hard time putting food on their table and gas in their cars, and it's really affecting them. So I think that they now think about their vote and how it will affect their household.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: John, how often does the economy come up when talking with voters in Arizona about their top concerns?
KING (on-camera): In every conversation, Anderson, not only here in Arizona, but across the country. Let me just show you. I have the mini magic with me. This is the 2020 election map. But let me bring up this graphic. It is stunning when you take a look at it.
This is the cost of living, an analysis across the United States. If you look closely at the graph, the darker the shading in any county is where the cost of living, housing, food prices, other prices, have outpaced wages over the last six years or so.
You see all that dark in there? Those are places where housing costs, energy costs, and more have outpaced what you're getting paid in your paychecks. So let's zoom in on Arizona. Look how dark this state is. Most of the counties filled in, more dark, including Maricopa County, where I am right now.
More than six in 10 Arizonans live here in Maricopa County. And look how punishing the cost of living had been. So that is the headwind facing Vice President Harris. Turn on the TV here, turn on the radio here. She's running ads saying her plans, as you were just discussing with the panel, would help with this.
Another thing that might help her, though, Anderson, is also the conversation you were just having. There's no question, the cost of living is her headwind. But there are also two critical voting groups here that are often put off by Trump's rhetoric, and that is Latinos and moderates in the fast growing suburbs here. So Arizona it's just a fascinating test case as we get into the final days.
COOPER: And if Harris wants to duplicate Biden's 2020 win in Arizona, where does she have to perform?
KING (on-camera): So let me show you something else. We come back to where we were earlier today. Let me stay in Arizona. Let me blank this out for you here. So if you look at the state, if you come back, so Joe Biden flips this by 10,400 votes, right? It doesn't get much closer than that in a state that didn't reliably read.
So you can look at, again, Maricopa County is 6 and 10 people in the state live here. So that's where you're going to focus. That's where both campaigns are focusing. But look how close it was in Maricopa County. 50.3 to 48.1.
Yes, Joe Biden won by a bit there, but where you saw those voters in that piece? That was here in Pima County. Look at the margin here. This is a big blue area. This is where Harris has to turn out to vote. Biden had a 90,000 plus advantage in that one county. Won the state by 10,000.
So you have to go where the Democratic voters are and you have to turn them out. And that's why those canvases are going door to door, especially at Latino households who vote sometimes, but not always.
COOPER: All right. John King, stay with us.
Just ahead, we want to dive into the early vote count already. Tens of millions of Americans have voted. What did those numbers tell us?
And more breaking news. Billionaire Jeff Bezos, his new op-ed in his newspaper, the Washington Post. His first comments on the anger over the paper's late decision to not publish a presidential endorsement.
Our Brian Stelter joins us ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:43:43]
COOPER: As of this moment, more than 43 million ballots already have been cast in early voting. That's across 47 states and the District of Columbia, where CNN has obtained figures. To put that in perspective, that number represents almost 28 percent of the total number of votes recorded for president 2020.
More on the early vote count, I'm joined by our Political Director, David Chalian. Back with us, also, John King. David, try to just put the context, or in context, the significance of the early vote.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, listen, we saw a revolution of early vote in the pandemic four years ago, Anderson. I don't think we will see early vote make up as large of a share as it did four years ago, but I think we'll see it make up as large of a share in any presidential election other than 2020 in the height of the pandemic. But we will see some shifting to more people participating on Election Day than we saw as a share of the overall vote back then.
COOPER: And John, the party, I mean, which party is participating more in early voting? Do we know?
KING: Well, that's the fascinating thing. Democrats are still participating more. But if you go state by state by state, and David can correct me, there may be some exception to this. But I know I'm in Arizona going tomorrow to Nevada. In both of these states, the Republican percentage of early voting is up at this point in the election over where it was in 2024, no -- over in 2020, excuse me.
No surprise there because remember, Donald Trump spent all of 2020 saying mail voting was -- early voting, mail voting was open to fraud. Of course it's not.
[20:45:06] So that Republicans are trying to get their voters out earlier. The big question is, are they getting new voters, low propensity voters who might not show up otherwise? Or are people just enjoying the convenience of voting early so they don't have to wait in line on Election Day? We're not going to know the answer to that question.
Are we getting a lot of new voters, or a lot more Republicans just now getting more comfortable with voting early? We won't know that until actually several days after the election when you get final turnout and all of that. But I will tell you quickly, though, this helps the campaigns and this becomes a giant test of the turnout. The get-out- the-vote operations.
Because if you vote early, that's a public record. So they know you have voted. So then they go knock at the next house for somebody who hasn't voted. We know the Harris campaign, labor unions, that progressive group you saw me with in my piece in the last block earlier today in Pima County, they know what they're doing. They have deep experience at this.
Trump has largely contracted his get-out-the-vote operation out. Maybe they're great. Maybe they'll be perfect. We don't know that yet. But we know the Democrats and their allies have great experience at this. It allows you in the age of big data to know that person's voted. We don't need to knock at that house.
We need to get that other one. Let's keep going. Let's keep texting. Let's find that person and get them to vote.
COOPER: David, I mean, as John mentioned, the Republican participation early voting is higher, but I mean, that doesn't necessarily mean there will be high Republican turnout overall, right?
CHALIAN: It doesn't. And this is, as John said, this is the question I ask political operatives I speak with every day right now, which is, you are tracking these voters. Do you know, as we do see, you just put up the pie charts, Anderson, we saw back in 2020 Republicans at this stage, eight days out in Arizona were 34 percent of the votes that had already been cast.
Now, I think it's up to 43 percent. So yes, we are seeing Republicans participate in greater numbers. But I ask operatives all the time, do you know if they are just shifting from Election Day voters to early voters, or if this is new Republican voters coming into the fold?
And right now, I will tell you that Democratic operatives tracking this both in the Harris campaign and in other Democratic statewide campaigns, they think state by state, they just see Republicans participating early. The reliable Republican voters. They don't yet. So they claim.
And as John said, we won't know the actual answer to this until Election Day. They don't yet see in their tracking that these are new Republican voters, these low propensity voters that Donald Trump has a proven ability in '16 and '20 to get out into the fold and be part of his coalition. COOPER: John, how does it feel on the ground there?
KING: Well, it's fascinating to do that. I'm just going to bring up the mini magic again to show you when I was with canvassers today in Pima County. We see a lot of Democratic canvassing. We do not see a lot of Republican canvassing. We could be missing it. We could be missing it.
But the Harris campaign, its progressive allies, they're out there all the time. Pima County, Joe Biden won it by 90,000 votes. Democrats need to maximize turnout there, right? Maximize turnout in this state. But the last time we were here, not on this trip, we were in Pinal County.
And if you see that, that's a county Donald Trump won with 58 percent of the vote. But we were out with Democratic canvasses. A lot of Latinos there who are low propensity voters. And again, if you get to them early and get them to vote, then in the final hours, final days of a campaign, you can dedicate your resources elsewhere. That's why early voting is so important.
If you can take people off the table, then it's a much smaller universe that you're targeting, knocking on the doors, trying to get out to vote. And so, this is a giant test of both the tried and true Democratic operation, which had a lot of experience in 2020 and is built from that. And this new Trump operation that we're not going to know for a bit whether it works. But I'll tell you, when you're out in neighborhoods, you don't see them much.
COOPER: David Chalian, John King, thanks so much.
Now, to an incredibly important court hearing today for what remains of Rudy Giuliani about whether he'll be able to keep his million dollar residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Our Senior Crime and Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz joins us with the latest.
So what happened in court today, Katelyn?
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, in court, this is Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss going to court and trying to get access to the things that the judge have -- has not allowed them to get access to yet because Giuliani has put up legal arguments. So already, they have been awarded by this judge in federal court in Manhattan.
Giuliani's condo on the Upper East Side, it's worth about $6 million. They're going to be able to sell that off, collect that money. A lot of other luxury items he has. Two dozen or so watches, a Rolex, things he got as gifts after 9/11.
But what he's fighting about, in court still, is a condo he owns, the only other property he owns. It's in Palm Beach, just down the street from Mar-a-Lago, where he spends quite a bit of time. It's worth about $3.5 million. And Giuliani argues, he lives there.
Now, there's been quite a question for some time, when did he start living there? And even today in court, his lawyers couldn't identify the exact day. That's going to be a question they're going to have to identify. And it will matter whether he can keep it, because if he -- if it is where he lives --
COOPER: Right.
POLANTZ: -- he can keep it in Florida. And the other thing he's trying to hold on to are things of quite a lot of sentimental value to him, for World Series rings. When the Yankees won in the 90s and then 2000, his son, Andrew Giuliani claims that he was given to them by his father, even though Rudy still wears one from the Subway series, that all four should be belonging to Andrew Giuliani, and then out of the hands of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
[20:50:15]
But they're going hard to get everything, and there's a deadline tomorrow that came up in court as well, that they're going to get all this information, or all of these items.
COOPER: Giuliani's also in the news because of what he said at Madison Square Garden last night. I just want to play some of that.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: And then they indicted him four times. And it had to stop. If they indicted him one more time, he'd have been elected by acclamation. And now I don't know, I don't know, I'm not going to do conspiracy and I'm not going to do conspiracy. But it's kind of funny that they tried everything else and now they're trying to kill him. They better not try again.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: Is it clear what standing this guy has in Trump's orbit? I mean --
POLANTZ: Well --
COOPER: Because he asked Trump for money a while back.
POLANTZ: Yes. And he actually claims that the Trump campaign never paid him for his work as a lawyer. And Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss can sue the Trump campaign now, theoretically, to get that 2 million they owe to Giuliani. But, at this time, he's not a top surrogate, but he's still out there for Donald Trump.
And, you know, Anderson, it's important for us to just remember what this court case is. This is the consequence of what Rudy Giuliani did as Donald Trump's lawyer after the last election, spreading disinformation about election fraud in Georgia, speaking about these women in a way that caused them a severe amount of intimidation and threats from Trump supporters.
He was disbarred as an attorney. He's being sued by other people who haven't gotten to the point of having 150 million judgment against him. And so, it's just a reminder of the harm that these women have faced and why they're being owed $150 million --
COOPER: Yes.
POLANTZ: -- by Giuliani.
COOPER: Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Well, coming up next, we have more breaking news. Jeff Bezos speaking out on his newspaper, The Washington Post, not endorsing a presidential candidate for the first time in nearly 40 years, as he and the paper face backlash for that decision.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:56:28]
COOPER: More breaking news tonight, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is defending his decision that the paper not endorse a presidential candidate this year. This is thousands of Washington Post readers cancel their subscriptions and at least three members of their editorial board quit over the move.
Tonight, Bezos wrote an op-ed for the paper with the headline, quote, "The hard truth: Americans don't trust the news media. A note from our owner." Bezos argues, and I quote, "Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election." He adds, "What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence, ending them as a principled decision, and it's the right one."
Joining us with more, CNN Chief Media Analyst, Brian Stelter. It's interesting that he wrote this, you know, presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Right.
COOPER: Is that what this is about?
STELTER: For Bezos, it might be, and this might be the right decision, but at the wrong time. And he acknowledges in his note tonight -- by the way, I've never seen him write an essay like this. It's a reaction to the unprecedented pressure The Post is under. But I think he wrote this tonight because tens of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands of subscribers have bailed on The Post in the past few days, even more might do it in the days to come, out of a fear that he's capitulating to Donald Trump, that he's giving in to Trump.
Bezos is saying that's not the case. He's doing this as a principal decision, but he's doing it on the eve of an election. And that's really the issue at the heart of this. He acknowledges maybe he had some poor timing, maybe he should have announced this earlier, but he's doing it because he wants to win back people's trust over time. In the short term though, he's lost a lot of his audience's trust. COOPER: The -- he also wrote there's no quid pro quo of any time or there's no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here, that's a quote. The head of his Blue Origin had met with Trump apparently on the day the announcement was made. He says he didn't know about that meeting and it was an unfortunate.
STELTER: A total coincidence. That's right. A person close to Bezos says, no, this had nothing to do with it. There's no quid pro quo. Here's the thing. There's hard pressure, a quid pro quo, a deal with Trump, and then there's a form of soft pressure.
And the real concern I'm hearing from post reporters, from editors, from columnists, is that there's a form of soft pressure being applied here. The author of "On Tyranny," Timothy Snyder, has talked for years about the idea of obeying in advance. That in democracies that are studying toward autocracies, people try to obey in advance.
That wealthy businessmen, that media leaders, that powerful people, start to give in to the aspiring authoritarian whims in advance. And that's exactly the concern that exists here. In fact, Snyder came out over the weekend and said that's what he thinks is happening at the Washington Post and at the Los Angeles Times.
COOPER: Has Bezos said who he would vote for in this election?
STELTER: He has not. But the paper under Bezos, when he owned the paper, did endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016 and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. Strangely, Anderson, the paper actually endorsed the Maryland Senate Democrat candidate for the Senate just four weeks ago.
So this sudden change in endorsement. It's the timing that's created such controversy.
COOPER: The owner of the Los Angeles Times decided not to endorse as well.
STELTER: Yes. And there's been the same kind of fallout. Not quite as many subscriber losses, but there as well. More than 10,000 subscribers canceling subscriptions. You know, basically an act of protest. The only kind of protest that an audience member can have if you're paying for a publication that you can back out.
And the fear at both the L.A. Times and the Washington Post is the same. That these owners are giving into pressure from Trump ahead of the election, expecting that he will win.
COOPER: It's interesting, Bezos cites former editor or owner I think of the Washington Post back, I think, I mean, decades and decades ago, as somebody who didn't want there to be endorsements.
STELTER: Right. And this is true. 50, 60 years ago, The Post did not endorse. But in modern history, The Post has. More importantly, for a lot of The Post columnists, the opinion writers, they don't believe this is important to endorse Harris, as it is to condemn Donald Trump.
They believe Trump is a threat to the American free press and that he will impose draconian restrictions. And those fears are palpable in other newsrooms as well. I think that's why this story has resonated so wide and so far. But Bezos, he's saying he's trying to do the right thing, trying to restore trust in the media.
COOPER: Brian Stelter, thanks so much.
STELTER: Thanks.
COOPER: That's it for us. You can check out my podcast on grief called All There Is at CNN.com/allthereisonline or wherever you get your podcast.
The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
