Return to Transcripts main page
CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Kamala Harris Condemns Biden's Garbage Remark; CNN Polls Show Harris Has Narrow Edge In Michigan, Wisconsin, Tied In Pennsylvania; Economy Grows Again In Last GDP Report Before Election; Schwarzenegger Supports Harris And Walz; Actor George Clooney Reminds To Vote Wisely; "NewsNight" Panelists Discuss Merchandise Sold With MAGA Captions. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired October 30, 2024 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, he --
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters --
PHILLIP: -- doesn't speak for her.
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.
PHILLIP: Kamala Harris says Joe Biden got it wrong as Donald Trump tries to grab hold --
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're garbage. We're garbage.
PHILLIP: -- of a new narrative.
Plus, the blue wall or a blue fence, new CNN polls show slim Harris leads in must-win states and a tie in the commonwealth that may tilt the election.
Also, pumping iron for Harris. Arnold Schwarzenegger says on Judgment Day, he'll vote to terminate Donald Trump's un-American campaign.
And a CNN correspondent takes the red pill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to shut us down.
PHILLIP: And spends 24 hours enmeshed in MAGA media.
Live at the table, Nina Turner, David Polyansky, T.W. Arrighi and Leigh McGowan.
With six days to ,o. Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do. (END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Philip in New York.
Let's get right to what America is talking about, garbage. It is the word that may define the final week of the 2024 campaign. Joe Biden, he said it, stepping on his vice president's pitch to the other side of the aisle. Kamala Harris is running away from it saying Biden is wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: First of all, he clarified his comments. But let me be clear, I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.
I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: And Donald Trump is using it and cosplaying as Bob the Builder to rile up his supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them garbage, and they mean it. Even though without question, my supporters are far higher quality than Crooked Joe or Lying Kamala.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Did you hear that last part? It's hard for Donald Trump to really make this, you know, the cornerstone of his campaign. He really does spend most of his time talking about the other side of the aisle in negative terms, like he did at the very end of that clip.
T.W. ARRIGHI, VICE PRESIDENT, PUSH DIGITAL GROUP: Yes, but that's par for the course for Donald Trump. I think when he --
PHILLIP: So, it's hard to be like, well, this is you know maligning -- he says 250 million. I think he needs 150 million people.
ARRIGHI: Well, I think it's a big deal when the president of the United States called a half of the population garbage and I think that vice president was right to condemn it.
But I would point this out. This is part of a bigger problem that the Harris and Biden teams are having right now where they're out of sync, and they have been since they switched the nomination to Vice President Harris. You saw his complimenting it of Ron DeSantis during the hurricanes when they were trying to label the party as radical. You saw Joe Biden holding press conferences when she's doing a massive policy rollout. And now you see Joe Biden holding a Zoom roundtable when she's having the largest speech of her of her ending of her campaign. So, it's a massive disjointed problem.
And, by the way, I know the vice president doesn't want to go on Joe Rogan, but I bet you Joe Biden on Joe Rogan would put up numbers.
LEIGH MCGOWAN, SOCIAL MEDIA HOST AND CONTENT CREATOR, "POLITICS GIRL": Here's the thing. I think it's weird that we're asking Kamala to answer for what Joe Biden said, but we're not asking Trump to answer for what Trump says, right? Like this is the thing. We're talking about garbage. He's cosplaying as another working class person. But his quote, he's quoted, I mean, you see him at the end of that quote, but his quote from Wisconsin was, it's not her, it's the people around her, they're scum, they're scum, they're absolute garbage. And that's Donald Trump himself saying that.
So, while we're two days later talking about something that Joe Biden did where he tripped over his words then corrected himself right away on Twitter, we're still talking about it two days later but we're not talking about someone who says we're scum, we're scum, we're absolute garbage.
[22:05:08]
Like I don't know what we're doing.
PHILLIP: I mean, he said that and a lot more. I'll play it in a minute, but go ahead.
DAVID POLYANSKY, FORMER DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER, DESANTIS 2024 CAMPAIGN: Yes. Well, look, I think there are two problems here for the vice president and Democrats as a whole. Number one, there's the practical implication. When the president said this, the vice president was just hundreds of yards away in front of 75,000 people delivering the start of her closing message, not just to those 75, 000 people, but to the nation. And he stepped on that in a big and meaningful way. It cost her coverage that night and it cost her coverage the next day where she's had to go out and clean it up.
But, number two, I think it speaks to a larger issue here, which is why Donald Trump has been the nominee for the Republican Party three times. He won the presidency back in 2016 and he's neck-and-neck right now to do it again. It's because people in this country, whether you're Republican, a lot of Democrats, and certainly independents, feel like the political class looks down on them, that they do think they're garbage. And so no matter what the president intended to say there, it fed into that narrative. And I think when you saw the president and his team really do a good job taking advantage of that today.
MCGOWAN: He's an --
FMR. STATE SEN. NINA TURNER (D-OH): It's not going to hurt the vice president because she didn't say it and she got out there right away. So, any voter that is going to say, oh my God, President Biden called Trump voters garbage, I'm not voting for her, they weren't going to vote for her in the first place. But I do agree with my colleague here in terms of it's just too much name calling and people do feel as though the political elites have left them behind and do look down on them. I mean, as soon as I heard President Biden say that, he didn't stumble over his words. He meant that. He said it because people are getting caught up in this.
I think people are getting -- you know, it's kind of group think that's going on right now. And it's not just on the Republican side. Democrats do it too, even though President Donald J. Trump is the master of petty. I mean, he really is, and that is his territory. And when Democrats start to navigate his territory, then Democrats lose.
But it reminded me of when Secretary Clinton, you know, when she called Republican voters deplorables, you should not -- and the vice president was absolutely correct, you should not down anybody else's voters.
MCGOWAN: Well, the one side is allowed to do it and other side --
TURNER: No. No side is allowed to do it.
PHILLIP: I don't want to play this because I think it's very instructive at what you're talking about. Okay, Joe Biden said what he said, but this is Donald Trump all along.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple, you can't lead America if you don't love Americans. You just can't. And you can't be president if you hate the American people, and there's a lot of hatred.
It's the people that surround her. They're scum. They're scum. And they want to take down our country. They are absolute garbage.
Any Jewish person that votes for her, especially now, her or the Democrat Party, should have their head examined.
It's the enemy from within. All the scum that we have to deal with that hate our country, that's a bigger enemy than China and Russia.
Any African-American or Hispanic, and you know how well I'm doing there, that votes for Kamala, you got to have your head examined, because they are really screwing you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: This is the reality of the race that we are in. It's not in a vacuum. And Trump is -- he's just not the poster child for respecting people on the other side of the aisle.
TURNER: But he's doing what he does, though, Abby, and that's the thing. I'm not saying it's right.
PHILLIP: I get it. But I guess my only point is, Joe Biden, he acknowledged that -- well, first of all, he, he said that he was talking specifically about the people at that rally laughing at the racist, misogynistic jokes of the comedian, et cetera. But I don't think that there's an attempt to sort of double down on it, whereas Trump doubled down.
TURNER: It's not right. So I want to -- it is not right what President Donald J. Trump does. All I'm saying is that he is baked in.
However, this is a however, neither of them should be doing it. So, now, if I'm going to critique President Donald J. Trump, and I will, then I got a critique President Biden saying to Charlamagne tha God that if black people -- you know, if you don't vote for me, you ain't black. Donald Trump made the same reference to black people, Hispanic people.
So, I think the main point is this. While the elephants wrestle. The grass is dying. People are dying and suffering in this country and we're sitting up here talking about what either side is saying about the American people.
POLYANSKY: Yes. And, look, that's a great point. The reality is when you're complaining about the rules, whether it's because you're playing the Yankees in baseball and you think umpire is giving them the advantage or you're going against Donald Trump in a campaign and you don't think the rules are fair, you're usually losing.
[22:10:00]
The fact of the matter is there is a double standard in campaigning against Donald Trump. That's just the reality. And, by the way, I've worked on two presidential campaigns against him. There's always been a double standard. That's just the reality.
And so you've got to fight within the rules and the confines of the game that's at play right now and spending time complaining about it rather than trying to outmessage him is how Democrats will lose.
PHILLIP: I also wonder, I mean, Nina brought up the deplorables. Back in 2016, it felt like a completely different environment where we didn't know who the Trump voters were. We know now. I mean, if you're a Trump voter, you're probably not likely to be voting for Kamala Harris anyway. So, I'm not sure that it has the same effect that it did, you know, eight years ago.
ARRIGHI: Well, I also want to make a point that Democrats have been calling him a fascist and other names for a long time. There's plenty of blame to go around.
PHILLIP: Republicans too.
ARRIGHI: Hold on a second.
MCGOWAN: A fascist is not a name. A fascist is a bunch of things that add up to a way of being. They're calling him a fascist because he's behaving like a fascist, because he's talking about poisoning the blood of the nation and because he's talking about rounding up political enemies and because he's acting like a demigod and because he's saying the rules don't apply to me and because he's saying I'm going to close up the free press. I'm going to close your schools if you don't do what I say. He's acting like a fascist. That's why we're calling him a fascist. He's saying people are scum because he thinks they're scum, not because they are.
ARRIGHI: You will never find me doubling down or supporting some of the incendiary language that Donald Trump uses. You're not going to find me doing that. But I would say this that that would hold a lot more weight if Democrats haven't been using that argument for the last ten years and the American people hadn't seen him in office for four years.
And I would remind you that there is a bust of FDR sitting in the Oval Office. FDR ran for two terms and then ran for a third and then a fourth and would have ran for a fifth if he didn't die. He also -- the Supreme Court disagreed with him, so what did he do? He expanded it and packed it with loyalists. He interred an entire ethnic minority of people in this country, and then he expanded the federal government to employ 25 percent of extra U.S. people to build roads and bridges. That is what a totalitarian looks like, and Donald Trump's a long way from that.
MCGOWAN: And that's why you guys passed the 25th Amendment, so we could never have that again. So, yay, good for you guys. But we also got the whole new deal out of it. So, you know, yin and yang.
PHILLIP: I didn't realize that FDR was going to come up with this conversation.
TURNER: I mean, yes. I mean, today, you know, we recognize that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Ralph Abernathy were arrested, put in jail for breaking laws to desegregate and get voting rights. So, fascism has American fascism, that those should that you will use laws, you'll elevate one group of people over another has been going on in this country for a long time. Now, we got to recognize that and then do something about it.
There is a however here. President Trump does in his words comport himself to want to be an authoritarian. He does. However, he is not the only one. And I understand that. I understand that history you laid out. I understand the history of the suffering of African- American people in this country under the face of laws, de jure and de facto that happened that had fascist nature.
So, that's why it troubled my soul. To call his supporters, all of them, Nazis, you diminish what happened to Jewish people, people who are disabled, people from other ethnicities, how millions of them were murdered. And you also, more importantly, diminish what happened to black people on this soil.
PHILLIP: All right. Well, we're going to leave it there for this conversation, but much still ahead. Everyone stick around for us.
Coming up next, the last polls before the election show surprising results from the all important blue wall states. Plus, why Arnold Schwarzenegger is endorsing Kamala Harris and what he thinks of Donald Trump. We've got a special guest joining us in our fifth seat. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Will the blue wall hold? That's the question that may ultimately decide this election in just six days. We have brand new CNN polling that shows that there are cracks in the places that Kamala Harris must win in order to win the election. New CNN polling shows Michigan and Wisconsin find Harris a clear leader over Donald Trump, but let's look at Pennsylvania. What's happening there? It is deadlocked.
Joining us in our fifth seat at the table, Franklin Leonard, he's the co founder and CEO of the Black List.
Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, this will be the state that will give us a hard time next week. I'm just telling you right now. It is tied in virtually every pole. And I just want to show you this, because when you talk about the economy being the central issue of the election, it might explain why Harris has a little bit of a lead in Wisconsin and in Michigan. She's closed the gap almost with Donald Trump on the economy. In Pennsylvania, it's a lot wider.
Something is happening there where voters in Pennsylvania aren't -- they're not there with her on the economy. This is going to be what ends up deciding the election, fundamentally.
POLYANSKY: Well, look, yes, I mean, I think the reality is we started this journey when President Biden stepped aside and put her in a position and she's done exceedingly well in the Sun Belt states, meaning she's closed the gap mightily in places like Nevada and even North Carolina. But the reality is this was always going to come down to those blue wall states for her and the Democrats.
And, seemingly, she's doing pretty well in Wisconsin and Michigan, considering. But the reality is the RealClearPolitics average has Donald Trump up, yes, 0.7 percent in Pennsylvania.
[22:20:02]
But, man, if my entire candidacy and race for the White House depended on a state that I was down in the averages like that, it'd be very concerning for me, and it'd be especially concerning if I passed up the state's popular governor as my running mate in the process.
PHILLIP: Well, they also got some really good economic news. I mean, I think we forget about this, right? Like, look at the headlines. The U.S. consumers keep the economy on solid ground ahead of the election. We've got GDP growth strong, low unemployment. Gas prices, we were talking about that yesterday, they're low. And so that's good news if you are Kamala Harris.
FRANKLIN LEONARD, FOUNDER AND CEO, THE BLACK LIST: Inflation down as well. PHILLIP: Yes.
LEONARD: It's in pre-2021 numbers. So, all the economic indicators are good. So, if the economy is your concern and you, like Donald Trump, claims he's going to do is, which is bring inflation down to back when he was president, don't worry about it. Biden's already brought the inflation down, so I would encourage everybody to look at the actual numbers.
Now, that doesn't address people's kitchen table concerns and I think we have to be very cautious about how we talk about these economic indicators. But the reality is the trend lines are very good and having a Harris presidency would likely continue them. And we certainly, given all the news we know about who would be running the Donald Trump administration, can't reasonably have faith that he would continue the path that we're currently on.
ARRIGHI: Can I play potty pooper for a second? I agree. Overall, the GDP --
PHILLIP: I think that might be your job tonight.
ARRIGHI: I embrace it. But I want to point out a couple of numbers. First of all, the leader for this GDP growth was government expenditures, fueled by a 15 percent increase in military expenditures. If you actually strip out government expenditures, private real GDP growth was up less than 2 percent. That's a problem.
And you talked about people Trump would bring into the administration. And Elon Musk gets a lot of flack, and I understand, he says a lot of stuff.
LEONARD: I was talking about RFK.
ARRIGHI: That too. He does this. But the point I was trying to make is there's another number that freaks me out. It is that the Treasury Department released numbers saying that interest on our debt this year will be about 12 basis points shy of a record high of GDP, share of GDP.
One of the things Elon Musk wants to do is cut $2 trillion out of the budget, streamlined government, the most since Coolidge, another presidential reference. So, I actually think those issues, people understand why --
PHILLIP: Do you really trust Elon Musk to do -- I'm surprised to hear you say that.
ARRIGHI: Yes. Why?
PHILLIP: You would -- okay, here's the other -- all right. So, here's the other thing.
POLYANSKY: Our government's locking people into space.
PHILLIP: I have two quibbles with what you're saying. The first is that you can't just take the GDP and be like, well, let's strip out all the good stuff numbers and only use the stuff that we want. So, there's that. The second thing is explain to me how Donald Trump, with all the giveaways that he's planning, no taxes on anything, and spending on, you know, free childcare because he's going to be paid for by massive tariffs, which are taxes on Americans, how is that going to lower the deficit?
ARRIGHI: There's a lot of parts there.
PHILLIP: I'm just saying, I've not heard a plan for Donald Trump to actually do what you're saying that he's going to do.
ARRIGHI: Streamlining government and cutting government waste is a great plan regardless of anything else you do.
PHILLIP: He wants to get rid of parts of -- whole parts of the government. That's not government waste. That's like literally just the government.
POLYANSKY: Yes. I think that's more than fine. You're (INAUDIBLE) that too.
PHILLIP: Department of Education, Health and Human Services.
MCGOWAN: Do you mind if I speak of this, because we're talking a lot of numbers and a lot of Americans don't understand percentages and pulling this part out of the -- you know, most of us don't think like that. It's great information, but most people don't think like that.
Here's what I would say to undecided voters in, say, Pennsylvania or swing states, right? That's what we're talking about. We're constantly told that Kamala Harris doesn't have any plans, that we're just talking about the border and inflation and gas prices and things like that. And I think you have to think of it more if you are at home and you're trying to decide if you're going to vote, I think you have to think of it as she's playing both defense and offense.
So, in defense, Kamala Harris is coming in and saying, I'm going to protect things. I'm going to protect the Affordable Care Act. I'm going to protect things like your Social Security, your Medicare. I'm going to make sure that the EPA is protected, so your air and your water are good. I'm going to make sure that your workers rights are protected, so you can have a union. So, these are all things she's going to protect that Donald Trump has said, and the Republican Party has said they're going to get rid of, they're going to strip.
Elon is one of those people, I'm going to cut this, this, this, and this. People are going to suffer for a little while, and then we will come out of the ashes. And you're like, the problem with that analogy that Elon has been making all day today is that Americans are the ashes he wants to rise out of. He wants to create a new society in which he burnt it all to the ground by getting rid of all of those things, and he builds something new on top of it. And I don't want to be the fodder. I don't want the American people to be the thing that was burnt to the ground. And as far as on offense, what Kamala is doing, she's doing paid medical and family leave that will help regular people in Pennsylvania. She's doing Medicare at home, which has literally never been done (ph) before, helping people who are stuck in the sandwich generation like me, who have young kids and parents that are getting older. No one has ever said, hey, we see you at home, let's do that. No one's talking about that.
[22:25:00]
She's talking about returning the rights of Roe to American women. These are real things. And you're talking about percentages of things.
LEONARD: She literally talked about it in her speech --
MCGOWAN: Thank you, yesterday.
LEONARD: -- at The Ellipse yesterday.
MCGOWAN: Yes, yesterday.
LEONARD: Look, and if there's any debate about it, I encourage everyone to go back and watch the speech, wherein she enumerated very specific policies that she would try to pass if she was president, including making sure that if you have elderly parents, it would be covered under Medicare.
POLYANSKY: Here's the problem. Here's her problem. The reality is she's still a young candidate in terms of this country. She was the vice president, but as a candidate for president, most people don't know much about her. So, they have bad feelings about the Biden economy in the past four years in terms of how the country's gone. That's just -- hold on, hold on. That's just a reality.
MCGOWAN: Would you think the economy is in great shape right now?
POLYANSKY: No, it is not in great shape. If you go and ask an average normal person, Pennsylvania --
MCGOWAN: I'm not about a normal person. I'm asking every economist in the world that says America is doing better than all the other nations.
POLYANSKY: That's where --
TURNER: You're wrong. The economists, when we measure it -- I understand why we measure it by what the economists have to say.
POLYANSKY: Go focus groups.
TURNER: Big mama and big papa are not feeling like the economy is doing okay.
POLYANSKY: Can I just get back to my point? Okay, go ahead.
TURNER: Go ahead. POLYANSKY: I just wanted to say that her challenge though is in a state like Pennsylvania, she's still trying to lay out her vision. Presidential races are about what you're going to do for me going forward. And her problem is she's having to defend past policies, like fracking and electric vehicle mandates in a state like Pennsylvania, and trying to shift positions while at the same time trying to show continuity on other issues. That's a very hard thing to do over a few months.
TURNER: Yes. I mean, yeoman's job and getting her plans out, but Bidenomics, you know, I'm old enough to remember when my party refused to accept that people were suffering, and I think that's another key ingredient to the problem.
Yes, the economists are saying everything is good, it's bristling, Wall Street is doing just fine. But people who live in places like my city, in Cleveland, where one out of every two children live in poverty, where people are working three to four jobs just to make ends meet, that was the Democratic Party's biggest mistake.
You have to embrace people's pain. You can't say, oh, you're not feeling pain because I'm in office. No. And that kind of hamstrung the vice president when she was first -- you know, when she first got out there. 70 days, that's a short period of time to try to turn this thing around.
LEONARD: I think that's absolutely right. But she has offered plans. I would also go back to today's economic report. The side of the consumer optimism about the economy has actually improved dramatically in the last quarter. So, things are improving. They are not where any of us want them to be. But how did we get where we are from 2022 when inflation was high and we all felt terrible about the economy? It was the leadership of the Biden-Harris administration that instituted policies that got us moving in the right direction. The question is --
POLYANSKY: I don't think that's marketable.
LEONARD: Well, here's the question. It's not marketable, but that's the conversation that we're actually having.
PHILLIP: Actually, you say that it's not marketable, but I just showed you the numbers showing she's within, in two of the blue wall states, within five points of Donald Trump on the economy. When Joe Biden was in the race, it was like a double-digit score.
POLYANSKY: Of course, but people also felt worse to that plan (ph).
LEONARD: Right, but here's the question.
POLYANSKY: But we only have a week left.
LEONARD: In a week, who do you trust to continue the trajectory that we have been on since things were bad in 2022?
POLYANSKY: If you didn't have a Biden-Harris administration, would things have been as bad in 2022 to begin with? LEONARD: Well, let's ask people -- look, I don't have a PhD in economics.
POLYANSKY: Me neither, thankfully.
LEONARD: But people who do are any number of Nobel Prize economists --
POLYANSKY: It doesn't matter what they think.
MCGOWAN: It does matter.
LEONARD: No, it absolutely matters.
MCGOWAN: You just throw out every expert in the universe because they don't go with what you want.
ARRIGHI: There are stubborn prices --
PHILLIP: Okay, very last word for you to hear.
ARRIGHI: There are stubborn prices that people are still feeling. Mark Cuban himself said two weeks ago that there are a lot that are --
LEONARD: No one disagrees with that.
ARRIGHI: Hold on, hold on. If you go to an average voter in any state, sorry about that, they cannot enumerate the top three principles of a Harris administration. I'm glad she laid them out at The Ellipse, but as David Axelrod said, less time at the National Mall, more time at a suburban mall, and she'd understand the voters more, and it's now practiced on her part.
PHILLIP: We're at the sharing pens stage of the conversation here. Hang tight.
Coming up next, the last action hero is sending a message to Americans. Your vote is not expendable. Arnold Schwarzenegger's endorsement of Kamala Harris is next. And he's also warning about how America could become collateral damage to Donald Trump. We'll discuss that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:33:48]
PHILLIP: Tonight, everybody freeze. Six days before the election, Arnold Schwarzenegger, yes, he's back. And the former California "Governator" is channeling his inner kindergarten cop in a message to voters --no more complaining. No more tuning out. You could sum it up, Arnold Schwarzenegger's take on both parties this way -- they're horrible.
But it's clear to him that Donald Trump is unpatriotic, un-American, unfit for the White House. He said this, "I will always be an American before I'm a Republican," and Schwarzenegger also wrote, "-- that's why this week I'm voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz." So, maybe not a surprise, but I mean, he is -- was a very popular Republican governor and maybe a blueprint, honestly, for Donald Trump. And he's saying, not me.
ARRIGHI: Yes, I have a lot of love for Arnold Schwarzenegger, loved his movies, loved him as governor. I love the work he's doing on gerrymandering. If we want to fix some of the division in this country, get to gerrymandering.
MCGOWAN: High-five. That's awesome.
ARRIGHI: Let's be honest, he hasn't endorsed a Republican since Romney. I don't think this moves any more voters than Hulk Hogan did.
MCGOWAN: Yes, but we have these undecided voters, right?
[22:35:00]
We have these people that can't decide if they're going to vote or not.
ARRIGHI: Everyone was waiting on the --
PHILLIP: He's been a Republican since Mitt Romney. I mean --
LEONARD: Yes, I was like, who has been the nominee since Romney?
MCGOWAN: It's just Trump. It's been Donald Trump for a hundred years.
PHILLIP: I mean, he doesn't endorse Donald Trump.
LEONARD: He has not endorsed Donald Trump is what you're saying. And not only that, he's been outspoken about the parallels that he sees between the model movement and his childhood in Nazi-dominated Austria. He said explicitly, and you can smirk all you want, go back and watch his own words on this network to Dana Bash that January 6th reminded him of Kristallnacht. And he issued a 12-minute video warning about the dangers of a hateful movement in March of 2023.
I think it's not a surprise given who he has been and the communities that he's embraced over the last several decades. And believe me, I disagree with Arnold Schwarzenegger on a lot of politics, but fundamentally, like he says, I'm an American first and a Republican second. And it's very clear to him who the choice is that can best give us an opportunity to become the country that he so loves.
MCGOWAN: Yes. And I would say as a fellow immigrant, I'm also someone that chose America as my chosen country. Arnold Schwarzenegger is that, too. And I think sometimes when you come to a country and you buy, you know, the red, white, and blue and the stars and stripes and the people from anywhere can make it if they just work hard enough thing, you have this faith in American patriotism and the America that you love.
And I would say I'm an American first and then I'm currently a Democrat. I think I'm a liberal. And he's an American first and a Republican. And I think the thing is, is that we can really see that this one character who we've now had, as we've said, for three different campaign seasons as this same figure for the Republican Party is just not what America is supposed to stand for. It's not the country he bought into and moved to. It's not the country I bought into and moved to. And I think it's a country that we really need to move.
POLYANSKY: That was all well said. It doesn't matter at all. Zero influence.
PHILLIP: Yes, but the message is so consistent across the board. It doesn't matter if it's coming from a celebrity or a four-star general or whatever it is. I mean, it's a pretty consistent message about what a lot of people from all different walks of life see as the future for this country under Donald Trump. Wouldn't you agree?
POLYANSKY: No. Look, I mean, I think you're talking about right now, again, on the average, which is unbelievable to say this, Donald Trump is leading nationally right now on average. A majority or at least a plurality --
MCGOWAN: Based on what polls?
POLYANSKY: Real clear politics average.
LEONARD: Electoral vote or popular vote?
POLYANSKY: Popular vote right now.
PHILLIP: I don't think we want to fight over the validity of polls.
LEONARD: I think people should just go check online and you can get an answer.
PHILLIP: It's fair to say that this is a race within the margin of error at the popular vote level --
LEONARD: That's what matters at this point
PHILLIP: -- at the battleground state level. To your point, that means it could go either way.
POLYANSKY: It can go either way. The point is, this -- Arnold Schwarzenegger or Liz Cheney or anybody else that wants to make an argument against the MAGA movement or Donald Trump, they're fighting against almost half the country.
MCGOWAN: No, but if every celebrity came out for Donald Trump --
POLYANSKY: No, nobody cares. Nobody cares.
MCGOWAN: -- and every single Democrat came out for Donald Trump, it wouldn't matter.
PHILLIP: Go ahead.
LEONARD: The thing that struck me about Arnold Schwarzenegger's endorsement was actually not who he chose. I think about -- when I read it, I'm reminded actually of my grandmother, oddly enough, who was born in 1918, a black woman. She was two years old when the 19th Amendment was ratified. She was 47 when the Voting Rights Act was passed that guaranteed her vote.
On Inauguration Day, she will turn 107. I think about the votes that she's had to cast in her lifetime. And at no point, at very rare points, has there ever been anybody that she fully agreed with. And there were probably two candidates that she was choosing between the lesser of two evils almost all of the time.
Our vote is not a gift that we give candidates. Our vote is not a present that we present to them. It does not indicate that we agree with everything that they say. It is a strategic choice about whom we wish to have a fight about the future of this country.
And I think what Schwarzenegger is saying and what most people are saying, and again, I would encourage everybody to watch the MSG rally, watch Trump's speech and watch Kamala Harris' speech at the ellipsis.
Who do you want to have a fight about the future of this country with? And who do you think will allow you to have a reasonable argument, who will listen to your opinion and then do what they think is best, having consumed all of those opinions and accept the results as they are determined? I don't think anybody can reasonably say that about Donald Trump. He won't even accept the results of an election that he lost.
PHILLIP: Can I throw one more celebrity into the mix? But because the message is really interesting. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Come on, boys, let's make America great again.
UNKNOWN: It's your turn, buddy.
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR (voice-over): Before you cast your vote in this election, think about how it'll impact the people you care about the most.
UNKNOWN: Daddy.
CLOONEY (voice-over): Remember, you can vote any way you want and no one will ever know.
UNKNOWN: Did your patriotic duty?
UNKNOWN: You bet I did, brother.
CLOONEY (voice-over): What happens in the booth, stays in the booth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[22:40:00]
PHILLIP: That's the voice of George Clooney --
UNKNOWN: A lot of people--
PHILLIP: --about he's sending a message to a lot of white men - here --
TURNER: Yes, I mean, very well-made commercial. A lot of people might not know that that is his voice -- that's first. Secondly, you know, as a politician, certainly, we take great joy in having celebrities and famous people. I mean, I am a witness to that as a politician myself.
And I was on two presidential campaigns with Senator Bernard Sanders. And when celebrities came and the crowd is going crazy, but it's really more to the faithful of that person than to the people outside. But it does make us feel good. You definitely feel good. Now, will it move one or two voters here or there? Maybe, maybe not. I don't necessarily think celebrities move voters at all. However, it feels good.
PHILLIP: Yes, there's a message, though, about the kind of quiet vote, not -- we've been hearing a lot about it when it comes to women. They're trying to say there are some guys out there.
MCGOWAN: This is about the fourth or fifth -- people don't need to know your vote ad that we're seeing. A lot of them are arranged towards women and understandably so. But I think it's like what is wrong with your party if what you're saying is don't tell anyone your vote, it'll be okay.
Secretly vote for the person you know is best. But don't tell your friends. Don't tell your church group. Don't tell your bros. Don't tell your husband because you're in danger if you do. I think it's a sad state of affairs that we're in a position where this is what we're doing.
PHILLIP: All right, everyone--
ARRIGHI: I thought that was patronizing.
PHILLIP: -more to come. Franklin, thank you very much for joining us. Everyone else, stick with me. Coming up next, people can get their social media and news in bubbles. And what does it look like from the inside of MAGA media world? Our reporter took a look at that and he'll be joining us next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Join us in the MAGA media universe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: How do you get your news? Hopefully here. But for some people, it's not our show. It's a podcast or the paper. But for millions, it is a steady diet of MAGA media. It's filled with conspiracies, lies, sycophants for Donald Trump. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: The secret ingredient to the COVID-19 injections has been found.
O'SULLIVAN: Today's going to be a long day. Big part of what's happening on MAGA media is convincing their audience that there's absolutely no way that Trump can lose.
ALEX JONES, "THE ALEX JONES SHOW" HOST: There's a 99 percent chance we are facing total crazy town.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): As the day went on --
UNKNOWN: If anyone believes that Kamala Harris is ahead in the polls, you need to have your brain checked.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): It became clear that MAGA Media is telling their audience to expect the election to be stolen.
MIKE LINDELL, CEO, MY PILLOW: This woman has done it three times in a row. Three times in a row. Three elections in a row. They had more votes than voters.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): This is not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Common sense. Donie O'Sullivan, CNN senior correspondent, is here with us in our fifth seat. MAGA Media is not for you, Donie. It really is not, obviously. What did you learn?
O'SULLIVAN: Twenty-four hours in the MAGA Media world. Yes, I mean, one thing I will just say, there's so many of these outlets from Steve Bannon to Mike Lindell there. You saw Sean Spicer, Rudy Giuliani. The list is endless of guys who have shows.
But look, one thing that's really clear and I think is important to know about this is they're really setting up their audience, Trump supporters, for this idea, one, that Trump is not going to lose. He can't lose. They're very selectively looking at polls that happen to show Trump being a hit. So one, they're saying that.
Then it's two, the only way Trump can lose is if the Democrats steal the election, in their words. Again, that didn't happen last time, of course, either. And so then, you can really just see that they're setting the stage for a whole other round of stop the steal 2.0, basically.
PHILLIP: Yes, I mean, I think this is a thing that is the most scary. It's like the second time around is always the more sophisticated time. The audience is primed. They're ready for the argument. So, it's not going to take three months this time if there is an attempt to do what Trump did the last time around, frankly.
TURNER: Yes, I mean, it is very scary. It's almost brainwashing. But as my sweetie said to me, these people are not in the sunken place. So, either you're going to choose to believe this stuff or you're going to get right with reality. But if you're listening to it over and over and over and over again, it can take a psychological toll on you. And the president is setting up a power -- powder -- the former president is setting up a powder keg, and he should not be doing that.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes, I think we talk a lot about Fox News and conservative radio and things like that. But really, and I mean, I think it was quite symbolic yesterday that Steve Bannon got out of prison because his show, the "War Room", has just such -- plays such a fundamental, pivotal role in this election denial movement and him getting out of prison right in time for this election.
I mean, the effect that he has and what happens on his podcast, on his show that streams live, by the way, I found I can get it on my TV without even downloading anything. It comes pre-loaded onto Samsung televisions.
TURNER: I was going to say, what?
O'SULLIVAN: Yes, yes.
ARRIGHI: Is that right?
O'SULLIVAN: Yes, so, like, it's everywhere. I don't think we truly realize, a lot of us, just how ubiquitous this is.
PHILLIP: But it's also a business, a big business. They're selling a lot of things.
O'SULLIVAN: A lot of things.
PHILLIP: As you can imagine, the pillows are there.
[22:50:00]
But there's Make America Great Again honey. Rudy Giuliani's coffee.
O'SULLIVAN: Rudy Coffee. Yes.
PHILLIP: Rudy Coffee.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes.
PHILLIP: Freedom Steaks. Freedom Water.
O'SULLIVAN: Steaks from unvaccinated cows.
PHILLIP: From unvaccinated --
O'SULLIVAN: No, I swear to God. Yes. Freedom Water, H-two-O.
POLYANSKY: Can you send me that website? O'SULLIVAN: So, it has, like, I mean, it's gone beyond because, of
course, we kind of all know Alex Jones made so much of his money from selling penis pills and whatever else. But that's essentially what is happening on scale now. And it was quite sad.
People can go on CNN.com, see our full piece. But you have Sean Spicer with an online show. He is selling a sleep aid, sleeping pills, basically, I guess. And then Rudy is selling coffee. So, you can go to bed with Sean Spicer and wake up with Rudy.
PHILLIP: Well, I guess if you buy Rudy's Coffee, that money is going to go to the election workers that he smeared.
MCGOWAN: Maybe.
PHILLIP: It's good use of your time.
MCGOWAN: But see, the thing is, is it feels like it's not only a grift. Like, there's the grift section--
O'SULLIVAN: Yes.
MCGOWAN: -- which is like -- but I'm priming my audience to believe everything I say.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes.
MCGOWAN: But they will also then buy everything I tell them to buy. So, it's like a yin-yang situation where it's like a circular thing where it feeds themselves. The host makes a lot of money. You know how much money Alex Jones has.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes.
MCGOWAN: And yet he's still there, even though he should be going to his victims.
PHILLIP: And then another person whose money hopefully should be going to his victims.
MCGOWAN: Exactly.
PHILLIP: Yes.
MCGOWAN: And then it's circular.
O'SULLIVAN: And so much of this stuff, by the way, is because they are convincing you the world is about to end or something terrible is about to happen. They're also selling you freeze-dry food. They're telling you put your money into gold and silver. On the Bannon show, I text a number, Bannon's Gold, basically. And they haven't stopped calling me in a week. I put my 401K, put my savings, the few pennies I have into Bannon's Gold.
ARRIGHI: I have a slightly different view of it all. Look, there's a lot of bad voices in the MAGA movement. Your great piece highlighted a lot of that. That's in every movement in politics. We're in a fractured media landscape. It's a byproduct of the 21st century. Yes, the wacky things they sell. The podcasts I listen to, you should hear the stuff they sell on it. It's bananas. But like, part of my--
O'SULLIVAN: You should hear what we sell on CNN.
ARRIGHI: Roman wipes, you look them up. But so, there's crazy things. But it's a fractured media landscape in the 21st century. It's a by- product of our free speech society. It's going to get worse or better, however you look at it.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes, I will say, though, that this really is funding. If you look at what Mike Lindell and stuff is doing, Mike Lindell is using the money he makes on pillows to support a lot of these podcasters, a lot of these influencers who every single day are pushing lies that undermine American politics.
PHILLIP: And hey, there is a substantive difference. There is an alternative universe that is being created for people and it's damaging to them and to the country. Donie, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Hope your detox is going well.
Everyone else, stay with me. Coming up next, the panel is going to give us their nightcaps, including a prediction about an upset for a key Senate race.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:57:41]
PHILLIP: We're back and it's time for the "News Nightcap". You each have 30 seconds to say your piece. Nina, you're up.
TURNER: Yes, a quote from the great Nina Simone, " I'll tell you what freedom is to me -- no fear. I mean, really, no fear." And I'm laying that out in terms of we got to take stock of our politics after this election cycle, that people should move with care. They should move with caution, but they should never, ever move with fear, no matter what the outcome is. So, Nina Simone.
PHILLIP: Okay, that's a word from Nina, your namesake.
TURNER: My namesake.
PHILLIP: All right, David.
POLYANSKY: That's great. Well, look, I tried to keep mine light tonight. Given the seriousness of the moment. And I think we should all unite and recognize that the great fellow Americans in the seven battleground states have really taken a real hit for us over the last several months.
They've had to endure campaign visit after campaign visit, but more importantly, millions and hundreds of millions of dollars in ads. So, I think we should all unite here and demand that our government make sure that in those seven battleground states, through the end of the year, they have commercial-free streaming and broadcast.
PHILLIP: Commercial-free reparations.
POLYANSKY: Yes, let's just take care of those people now, so--
PHILLIP: All right, that might be a good idea. Go ahead, T.W.
ARRIGHI: Yes, so the other day I was at an event and a friend came up to me, a Democrat, lovely lady. And she asked me if there was one race that the media isn't covering that you think will be an upset, what would it be? I didn't hesitate.
I said Eric Hovde is going to beat Tammy Baldwin in the state of Wisconsin. Look, Tammy Baldwin is the type of politician people in states like Wisconsin are sick of. Career politician, hasn't really done anything, doesn't live in the state anymore. Sort of go along to get along.
Meanwhile, Eric Hovde, as bright and accomplished of a candidate as you're going to get. Detailed policy platform and Wisconsin to its core. So, Cheeseheads, get out there and support Eric Hovde.
POLYANSKY: I second that.
PHILLIP: The look on Leigh's face when you were talking.
MCGOWAN: Well, because he's pitching bad Magnum P.I. Like, no thanks, bro. Tammy's amazing. But listen, my hot take is the American drinking age should be 18. I think it is crazy that our children can go to war and die for our country.
That they can vote for our leaders, but they can't have a beer. And I really think we need to get really serious, lower that drinking age to 18 and allow children to learn how to drink properly when they're still in the protection of their parents. And they won't turn into weirdos when they go off by themselves.
[23:00:00]
ARRIGHI: It's like a perfect Wisconsin platform.
PHILLIP: Yes, you can go like buy marijuana these days at 18.
MCGOWAN: Yes, man, what are we doing? We're being very weird.
PHILLIP: Yes, and we're creating bad drinking habits for generations. Yes.
MCGOWAN: Yes, because they're learning alone.
PHILLIP: And they're going to college and drinking secretly and binging.
MCGOWAN: Exactly.
PHILLIP: I'm with you on that. New platform for you, Leigh. All right, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us. And thank you for watching "NewsNight State of the Race". "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
