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Deadly Hezbollah Drone Strike in Israel; Interview With Former FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor; Harris and Trump Campaign in Pennsylvania. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 14, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:24]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A vicious fight to the finish line. Both candidates in the consequential battleground of Pennsylvania today, duking it out for every last undecided vote. We will take you live to the campaign trail.

Plus, an area of North Carolina devastated by Hurricane Helene now taking another hit, FEMA workers forced to stop their relief work and relocate after receiving reported threats from an armed militia. What we know about those threats and who exactly was targeted.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And the Pentagon is sending one of its most powerful anti-missile defense systems to Israel after one of the deadliest strikes on Israel since October 7, the IDF trying to figure out how a Hezbollah drone managed to get past its air defenses.

We're following these major stories and many more all right here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: There are just 22 days to go until the election. And we are glad you're joining us this afternoon CNN NEWS CENTRAL. I'm Boris Sanchez, alongside Alisyn Camerota, filling in for Brianna Keilar.

CAMEROTA: It's good to be with you.

SANCHEZ: A pleasure, as always.

Today, the presidential candidates are targeting battleground Pennsylvania as they compete for an edge in what is an extremely tight race. In the coming hours, we're going to see former President Trump in the Philadelphia suburb of Oaks, where he's expected to hammer home his economic policies.

Vice President Kamala Harris, meantime, will be speaking in Erie as she kicks off a weeklong blitz to crucial swing states.

CAMEROTA: And as this final stretch shifts into high gear, a new CNN poll of polls shows a neck-and-neck race with no clear leader. Just three points separate the two candidates.

We have a team of correspondents covering the state of the race.

Let's begin with CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. She's following the Harris campaign in Pennsylvania.

OK, so, Priscilla, Harris is looking to shore up this support with a key demographic, and that's black men. So what's her latest effort?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right. She is trying to lock in her coalition and fill the void when it comes to questions about what -- about her economic agenda and her proposals if she were to win in November.

That is what she is focused on today and unveiling here in Pennsylvania. That includes, for example, forgivable loans to black entrepreneurs, up to $20,000, promoting apprenticeships, and legalizing recreational marijuana, among other measures.

Taken together, this is a sweeping proposal, again, trying to appeal to black voters. While polls show that she still has the majority of black voters, there is erosion there when compared to other election cycles, and that is exactly what the campaign is trying to target, fearing that there may be voters who sit out the election or who vote for her Republican rival, Donald Trump.

Now, all of this is an extension of what she did over the weekend, where she was in North Carolina there. She met with local black elected officials, as well as faith leaders, and again tried to drive home her own message and shore up that support among the community.

Now, one of the other messages that we're likely to hear from the vice president today here in Pennsylvania and over the course of the week, is also about the former president's transparency. Yesterday, she launched a new line of attacks, saying the former president was hiding by not doing the "60 Minutes" interview or by not releasing his medical records, which she did do over the weekend.

So anticipate some form of that to come through in her remarks later this evening. But just to show you how important Pennsylvania is, she is returning to the state later this week. She's also heading to Michigan. Tomorrow, she's participating in a radio town hall with Charlamagne tha God, who has millions of listeners, most of whom are black. So she will be focused on that there, as well as later in the week also returning to Michigan and Wisconsin, hitting, of course, those blue wall states.

So, certainly a blitz that this campaign is launching today and will be under way over the course of the week, as the vice president, again, tries to lock in that coalition and secure that path to 270 -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much for that report.

And with us now is CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

OK, so Jeff, just hours ahead of Trump's town hall today, he's now calling on Harris to take a cognitive test, though he has not released his medical records. Let's remember that. So tell us about the messages that we expect to hear. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Shiny object

alert, 22 days before the election. Look, I mean, this is what the former president has done.

[13:05:00]

But he will be talking about immigration, as he has been doing over the weekend, also talking about the economy, but where he's going is very interesting. The suburbs of Philadelphia obviously are critical swing areas

And where Priscilla was just coming to us from was Erie, Pennsylvania. That is a county that Trump won in '16, lost in '20. So these are the battlegrounds within these blue wall battlegrounds. So that is what this has come down to.

But, look, the former president is mining for votes wherever he can get them, not trying to change minds, but trying to reach out to some of his people who are like-minded, but may not vote. That's why the immigration rhetoric is so harsh.

But over the weekend, he was talking about that in Arizona and in California, of all places, trying to drive up his popular vote as well. But it is clear that Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral votes, the biggest of all battlegrounds, that's why both candidates are there today.

SANCHEZ: Jeff, it might be shiny object du jour, but Trump has been talking about adding an additional 10,000 agents to Customs and Border Protection. Walk us through what he said.

ZELENY: Look, I distinguish that from a shiny object because it's actually something substantive, which we can talk about, as opposed to a cognitive test, which is not a serious proposition.

The 10,000 border agents, this is something the former president was talking about over the weekend, it is exactly what a piece of that would have been in the bipartisan border bill that Oklahoma conservative Republican Senator James Lankford tried to get through last year. It failed because the former president said, no, we are not going to have success or progress on immigration before the election.

So this is at the root of all of this immigration discussion. I was in Arizona last week. It is absolutely a critical issue. Border security is a critical issue. But the voters I talked to on both sides actually want solutions. And there is very little in the former president's remarks that were solutions-oriented, to put it charitably.

SANCHEZ: Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for that update from the Trump campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Let's expand the conversation now with Republican strategist and CNN political commentator Shermichael Singleton and CNN political commentator and former Democratic South Carolina state representative, Bakari Sellers.

Thank you both for being with us.

Bakari, I want to start with you, because in light of Harris releasing this opportunity agenda targeting black men, a "New York Times"/Siena College poll released this weekend shows that Trump is making a dent in Harris' margins among likely black voters, with one in five black men saying they are supporting Trump.

Do you think what's in this agenda, the forgivable loans, the legalization of recreational marijuana, the apprenticeship promotion, investing in more black teachers, do you think that's enough to sway the demographic?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first, let me say this.

I applaud black men today. I mean, I think that, today, black men should be able to take a victory lap, because we have been raising our concerns for a very long period of time, wanting candidates to hear our calls and hear our cries about what we want to see done and what we want our government and elected officials to do.

And, finally, you had a candidate who actually went out and put pen to paper and did some of those things. The other thing I want to talk about is this narrative that people are pushing that somehow she is losing ground with black voters.

I mean, if you look at the CBS poll, it was 81-12, which is what it was exactly back in 2020, when Joe Biden became president of the United States. But, yes, I mean, there's work to be done. I'm in Detroit, Michigan today with Don Cheadle doing that work on the ground, meeting black voters where they are.

And the plan is so robust because one of the things we didn't mention was the sickle cell database or ensuring that the Affordable Care Act covers colorectal and prostate exams, because we all know that black men die at disproportionate rates because of that. And it talks about putting money in our pockets.

I mean, look, there's something in there for everybody. We may not like it. But the thing about this is that now we're talking about issues that directly affect our lives.

CAMEROTA: Shermichael, what about that? I mean, what about Vice President Harris' plans to help black men start businesses, to help them become teachers? Do you think that that will help her shore up their vote and/or, if there has been any erosion among them, win them back?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, look, I don't actually have much to push back on in terms of the actual policies.

I mean, everything that Bakari laid out, I agree with 100 percent. I don't particularly think those issues are partisan. And by that, I mean I don't think they're Democratic or Republican issues, at least not in the ideological sense.

However, I think, when you look at younger African-American men 18-44, you have seen a diminishment among that particular group going back to Hillary Clinton. And you can just look at the data and you see less and less of them voting for the Democratic Party.

Now, that correlation hasn't necessarily meant that Republicans have increased their margins. Now, Donald Trump certainly did to 12 percent in 2020. Can he potentially get 2 percent, 3 percent more? I think it's mathematically possible, but it's going to take some real work to turn out those sort of low-propensity guys who don't typically always vote.

[13:10:12]

Now, the campaign has to have the GOTV strategy in order to do that, but I think the greater risk, not only for the vice president, for Democrats for writ large, is, how did you connect with younger black men who fit into that category?

I applaud that the loan forgiveness plan. That helps people like Bakari and I who went to college and maybe some brothers who could not complete college, but what about those who did not complete college? I applaud trying to help black men who are entrepreneurs.

I just got a major multimillion-dollar investment in my own company, so I get it. That's a great thing. But, again, that only fits a certain cohort of African-American men. And so I just think there's some work there that the Harris campaign is going to have to do here to try to improve those numbers.

SANCHEZ: Shermichael, I could use a forgivable loan, but we can talk about that after this conversation.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: I'm curious, Shermichael, to get your response to Trump calling on Vice President Harris to take a cognitive test. This comes obviously after she released her own medical records, saying that she was in excellent health, and as Harris is hitting Trump for not really releasing extended medical records.

I think his campaign put out a letter from one of his doctors from like almost two years ago. It doesn't quite compare.

(LAUGHTER)

SINGLETON: I mean, of course it doesn't. Trump's going to beat Trump.

You asked Jeff Zeleny that same question. And I'm not surprised that Trump's playing a little politics here. Look, I looked at the medical records. I think Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked about it. The vice president appears to be in exceptional health. She clearly has the issue of potential prostate cancer because of her mother.

And she's been going on with the necessary testing, I guess, yearly. I think a lot of Americans have experienced that if they have lost a parent due to that form of cancer.

But for the most part, Boris, I don't think this is really going to matter. I mean, this is just Trump throwing things out there. For the most part, my personal beliefs on this is, this is a tight race. And if I'm advising the former president, I have always argued, guys, that I think this thing is going to come down to Pennsylvania.

You heard Jeff Zeleny talking about it. So when Trump is in the area, a place that he lost in 2020 to President Biden, what message is he going to deliver to those voters who voted for him in 2016, but that may now be skeptical of Vice President Harris, but sort of on the fence of whether or not they want to vote for Trump again?

That's what I think the former president really has to focus on strategically here.

CAMEROTA: And, Bakari, what about you? Do you think that Donald Trump's health matters to voters ultimately?

SELLERS: I think it should matter. I mean, he is the oldest candidate in American history to run for president of the United States. I believe he's 78 years old. And so, yes, I think it should matter, particularly for Democrats, who are looking at a vice presidential candidate in J.D. Vance who has some just bottom-dweller type of favorability ratings.

So, yes, it matters. And I think that Kamala Harris is showing the transparency. She's doing things like sitting down with Bret Baier on FOX News on Wednesday. She sat down with "60 Minutes." She's challenged him to another debate.

And Donald Trump ain't doing none of this. I mean, he's simply saying I'm a 78-year-old man who has slowed down. You can tell by his schedule and rally schedule. I'm not the same man I was in 2016. You know, I weigh a good bit, and I eat McDonald's and KFC on my airplanes. And so vote for me, because that's who I am.

And I think that lack of transparency should matter. But, Alisyn, you asked a great question, because we're in politics, and nothing really matters anymore.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

SINGLETON: Wait a minute here, guys.

(LAUGHTER)

SINGLETON: I think a lot of people in the car eat like McDonald's and KFC, I just want to say.

SANCHEZ: Oh, a hundred percent.

(CROSSTALK) CAMEROTA: And I haven't seen a picture of former President Trump eating the bucket of wings lately. I think he might have cleaned it up.

SANCHEZ: Maybe that will sway undecided voters in Pennsylvania. We shall see.

CAMEROTA: Wow, if it does, is all I can say.

Shermichael, Bakari, thank you very much for the conversation.

All right, next, this is really serious. FEMA is forced to stop helping desperate people in parts of North Carolina who are still struggling after Hurricane Helene because these FEMA workers are being threatened by locals who are falling for disinformation.

SANCHEZ: Plus, the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon urging Americans to depart now, the warning coming as attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli Defense Forces escalate. We will take you live to the region.

And a man armed with guns was arrested outside of a Trump rally. What we're learning about the person taken into police custody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:19:15]

SANCHEZ: A big development now amid reports of threats against FEMA workers in disaster zones.

A local sheriff has arrested a 44-year-old North Carolina man for allegedly threatening to hurt FEMA teams who have been helping hurricane survivors. Investigators in Rutherford County believe that the suspect acted alone.

Rutherford is the same county where FEMA teams were forced to temporarily stop work altogether and move over the weekend after National Guard troops reported seeing armed militia threatening them nearby. This is according to an e-mail obtained by "The Washington Post," which reports -- quote -- "The message stated that National Guard troops had come across times two trucks of armed militia saying they were out hunting FEMA."

Now some FEMA teams are no longer going door to door due to threats. Instead, they are working from secured centers.

[13:20:05]

Joining us now to discuss is former FEMA administrator Pete Gaynor.

Pete, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon.

What are you learning about these threats against FEMA and how do you think it could impact recovery efforts?

PETER GAYNOR, ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Thanks, Boris. It's a pleasure to be here.

So I think right now it's a small group of individuals or small groups, and I think they're just looking for opportunity to sow mistrust in government. This is probably something they have been doing for a long time. And they hit the trifecta, right?

So they have FEMA in town. They have Helene that's created this disaster, and they have a pending election and they're going to try to take advantage of it, at the cost of disaster survivors, and I think that's the real story.

SANCHEZ: It reminds me of other accusations that have been made, conspiracies that have somehow involved federal agencies, specifically FEMA, throughout the years about taking federal land and about stealing people's resources during a tragedy like this one.

I wonder why you think these agencies and specifically FEMA are always a target.

GAYNOR: Well, I think FEMA is out there when the American -- our citizen is having his worst day or her worst day, right, disaster survivors who just went under a tremendous disaster and maybe have lost everything.

And I think people, they look for advantage to -- for their own benefit to take advantage of that situation. It's completely unfortunate. And, yes, FEMA seems to be the perennial agency that is doing these things at the cost of Americans.

It's all completely untrue. We don't confiscate goods. We don't confiscate land. We don't have black helicopters. We don't have FEMA camps, but some of those stories just continue to persist, again, at the cost of delivering needed resources to disaster survivors, and, in this case, in North Carolina.

SANCHEZ: What role do you think misinformation plays in creating this kind of distrust of federal agencies? And what can be done, perhaps by the agencies, to end these sorts of rumors?

GAYNOR: I'm not sure you're ever going to end it, but you can do a few things, I think, to continue with the mission.

First of all, I think it's an unfortunate distraction to our effort, and not only FEMA's effort, but our partners like the National Guard, Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, and on and on and on, that are trying to deliver resources to those impacted by the disaster.

I think, as Americans, most Americans that I have met, they think that this is despicable, especially now as we try to deliver those resources, not only in North Carolina, but all these impacted locations across the United States, most recently with Milton.

I think Americans are caring, they're considerate, and they're giving, and these things undermine that mission. It is demoralizing to the FEMA staff and our partners to have this happen, door to door, trying to make that handshake with a disaster survivor to get them to register for services and resources from the federal government, undermines this complete mission.

And, honestly, these are our neighbors, right? These are our neighbors that we're trying to help, no different here in North Carolina than anywhere else in the United States, and this is truly unnecessary.

SANCHEZ: Former FEMA administrator Pete Gaynor, thank you so much for the time, sir.

GAYNOR: You're welcome. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: There are still a lot of folks reeling, not only from Hurricane Helene, but Hurricane Milton as well, and you could lend them a helping hand. For more information, go to CNN.com/Impact. You can also text Storm to 707070 to donate.

Still ahead this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL: a Hezbollah drone attack striking an Israeli army base, killing several soldiers. How was it able to go undetected as it penetrated Israeli air defenses? We will discuss.

And the growing questions as the Pentagon says it's sending over additional support to Israel -- new details still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:29:05]

CAMEROTA: Israel's defense minister says Israel will take a forceful response against Hezbollah after a drone attack on an army base deep inside Israeli territory overnight.

That killed at least four Israeli soldiers. Israel is trying to determine how Hezbollah managed to slip those drones into the country.

SANCHEZ: And as this clash escalates, the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon is telling Americans there to depart now.

We have CNN's Nic Robertson live for us in Jerusalem.

Nick, what is the IDF saying about how those drones got past their defenses?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, they said when this incident happened, which was about 7:00 p.m. in the evening, yesterday evening, just at the same time these trainee troops were sitting down to eat their dinner, they intercepted a drone coming in from Lebanon.

At that time, they thought there was a second drone, but they lost sight of it, possibly because it was flying too low. But the next thing they knew about this drone was when it was impacting this base.

Now, Hezbollah have put out their own statement afterwards. I mean, I think it's -- Hezbollah has been threatening to hit what they described as sort of collections of troops behind the front lines over the last few days and weeks.