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Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is Interviewed about Trump's Rally; Voter Turnout's Impact on Race; A look at the Red Mirage and the Blue Shift; Chris Harvey is Interviewed about Trump Conceding the Election. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 28, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

ANGELIQUE HINTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PA YOUTH VOTE: Every election cycle.

So, to answer you question, yes. But if we're really looking to engage young voters long term, we really need to make the investment and helping make sure that all of them are getting educated about how all of this works and really how it's connected to being able to address issues that they care about from a policy perspective.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The ones that matter to them.

Angelique Hinton, thank you so much for coming on and explaining all that to us from Pennsylvania. A very important swing state. Appreciate it.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Trump campaign disavowing what one speaker said from the stage at his big rally in New York last night, as we were just talking about, trashing Puerto Rico. Up next, Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joins us live to respond.

And the Miami Heat unveiled a statue to honor NBA great Dwyane Wade. The only problem is it has many, including Wade himself, asking, who is that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DWYANE WADE, FORMER MIAMI HEAT PLAYER: That's crazy. I can't believe that. Who is that guy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[08:35:33]

BOLDUAN: This morning, the Trump campaign is playing cleanup, trying to distance the campaign and the candidate from comments made from the stage at his big rally yesterday here in New York. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe was among the warm-up acts to speak. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HINCHCLIFFE, COMEDIAN: I welcome migrants to the United States of America with open arms. And by open arms I mean like this.

And these Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do.

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 Puerto Rico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now, Democratic congresswoman from New York, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

Thanks for being here.

You called this out last night. You were - you were stream - you were hanging out with Tim Walz. You guys were streaming. You called it out last night.

Fresh eyes on it this morning. When you see that remark and you see now that comedian responding to you guys - I'll read a bit of it for you. I know you've seen it. But for everyone out there. "These people have no sense of humor. While the vice presidential candidate would take time out of his busy schedule to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone. Watch the whole set. I'm a comedian, Tim. Might be time to change your tampon," is what he ends it with.

What do you - what does it mean today? What does it do today?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): You know, this, honestly, isn't really about a comedian. This is about the Trump campaign. This - those comments and that individual saying those things on that stage, inciting an entire arena of individuals who had been previously incited to commit attacks, like the ones we saw on January 6th by people like Donald Trump, none of that was an accident. These campaign events are put together. They are vetted. That language was vetted by the Trump campaign. That - that person was approved by the Trump campaign because he is speaking on behalf of the Trump campaign.

And I think it's really important that people understand that when we see everything that's happening, what is being transmitted and said about Latinos in the United States is exactly what the Trump campaign means. He believes that Latinos, as we've seen, are an unimportant, unvalued and unnecessary part of the United States of America. And when Stephen Miller comes on and talks about America for Americans, he's not even talking about U.S. citizens as Americans. Because Stephen Miller kind of flirts with this idea of taking away U.S. citizenship from people depending on his own personal opinions about what being an American means. And so the Trump campaign is very clearly transmitting who they

believe is an American and who they - and who they don't, not based on citizenship, but based on ethnicity and based on their opinion of Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: Your family's from Puerto Rico. You're - this is not the first time that Donald Trump has said disparaging things or uninformed things about Puerto Rico, or those around him.

What did you think when you first heard it last night?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: You know, under the Trump administration over, 3,000 Puerto Ricans died due to Donald Trump's intentional neglect of the island after one of the worst natural disasters and hurricanes in American history, and the history of the entire western hemisphere. People in Puerto Rico were left without power for up to a year, over a year. So there's really nothing that's an accident about what was said last night.

It is an authentic depiction of how Donald Trump believes and what he thinks about Puerto Rico. He even talked about selling Puerto Rico and brought up the idea of selling Puerto Rico when he was president pf the United States. This is what these people believe. And it's not a joke.

BOLDUAN: How do you square then, when we look back at the numbers and the gains he has made with Latino voters since 2016. From 2016, depending on what you're looking at with the numbers now, you see a nine-point gain, you've seen Harris getting - I've seen 12 points fewer than Hillary Clinton got in 2016. Seen some recent gains in some new polling just out yesterday that she's making with Latino voters.

How do you explain it? How do you explain that Trump is making ground with Latinos?

[08:40:02]

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, you know, I think, ironically, it's because he realized that he needed to keep his mouth shut with his bigotry for a very long period of time in order to try to make some kind of disingenuous case into - to the Latino community.

But the fact -

BOLDUAN: You don't believe him when he speaks to it?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Pardon?

BOLDUAN: You don't - you said disingenuous. You do not think, when he speaks to Latino voters, when he speaks to -

OCASIO-CORTEZ: No.

BOLDUAN: Speaks to helping them, helping community - when he's in Nevada speaking to workers, you don't believe it? OCASIO-CORTEZ: No. No. I mean you don't - you don't insinuate that Latinos are un-American or less American if you actually value them. He wants to be president of the United States. He'll say what he needs to say. But, at the end of the day, when you look at what Kamala Harris does, she actually, ironically, unveiled her platform and plan for Puerto Rico yesterday, before that rally even started. And that plan involves actually addressing the displacement crisis that Puerto Ricans are facing right now. The displacement of doctors and teachers. The closures of schools and public facilities. The lack of investment infrastructure, you know.

You know, and as a Puerto Rican American, extremely concerned about people using tax loopholes to displace people in Puerto Rico. You know, that's - that - she's actually trying to see and solve and create opportunities for Puerto Rican Americans.

And you see the conscious of Donald Trump maybe trying to distract from the fact that he has no economic plan for Latinos in general. But also not only that, blaming economic issues, for example, our housing crisis on Latinos and on immigrants instead of actually coming with a - coming up with a plan to help lower our cost of rent and mortgages, he's coming out here just trying to blame immigrants for the fact that its actually his buddies and friends that are driving up the cost of housing in America.

BOLDUAN: On the broader - speaking of the broader campaign, I've seen Trump aligned PACs. I've seen it on - I've seen it on air and I've seen it digitally. Trump-aligned PACs have used you in ads to hit Kamala Harris, saying to label her San Francisco liberal is the - is the term that they often use again and again.

Do you think your support for her hurts her with moderate voters, which we have very clearly seen in the recent weeks that she's making a direct appeal to?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: I don't think so. And I think that that bears out in the data and the evidence, not just a matter of personal opinion.

I worked very closely alongside many of my colleagues across the House Democrats caucus, and they are of all different kinds of political opinions. And frankly I think moderate voters and everyday people see right through some of these scare tactics for what they are. They see how they are exaggerations. They see that these are kind of just baseless attacks. And that's made evident by the fact that I'm proud to be able to support, you know, swing district Democrats. And they're not afraid of these attack ads. They're just not landing and they're not effective.

BOLDUAN: Flip side of this. She has gone on a whole tour with former congresswoman, Republican congresswoman, Liz Cheney to try to win moderate Republicans. I mean looking back, you and Liz Cheney, in - in, you know, in the House, you guys butt heads on issues over and over again. She calls Liz Cheney a true patriot when they were campaigning together.

Is that hurting Kamala Harris with more progressive voters? OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, listen, I don't - I think there's plenty of people that aren't happy about that. And I think that is part of the nature of putting together a coalition.

I don't love it, but that doesn't mean that we aren't on the same team and we aren't on the same page when it comes to who is unequivocally the better candidate in order to win the presidential election.

BOLDUAN: On the issues, her evolution on positions, and she's explained the evolution on her positions over - from four years ago. Fracking, border wall, border security, Medicare for all. They have moved from more progressive to more moderate. That's the direction we've - you very clear them (ph) see in this election. Do you like that she is doing that? Do you like that shift?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: I think that my stances on these issues are very clear. I believe that every single American has the right to health care, and we should be working to guarantee to improve and expand Medicare and lower the age of eligibility to zero. And that's my goal.

I also believe that we need to have a real plan to document people who wish to come into the United States and be - and contribute to our growing economy and really be part of what is charging the economy, which is, frankly, also what bears out in the data. That's not a matter of personal opinion.

American - the American economy thrives because of our immigrant population. The way that we address the crisis is by actually providing a path to citizenship and documenting people.

And, you know, when it comes to the climate crisis, our time is ticking down. But what I believe is that the Democratic Party is a coalition.

[08:45:00]

And the stronger we make our case, and the stronger that we say we need to get big money out of politics, we need to tax these billionaires so that they - to the point that - that they stop manipulating our economy and squeezing the working class.

I know what candidate the progressive flank has a fighting chance with. And it's not Donald Trump. It's Kamala Harris.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, thank you for coming in this morning. Really appreciate your time.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Of course. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so more than 40 million people have cast ballots in person or mail so far. But what do we really know about what turnout will be in this election? This guy has a sense.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Oooh. BERMAN: CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten is with us.

Now, Harry, you see signs for all the people voting early that turnout might end up being lower. Why?

ENTEN: Yes, why might turn out end up being - well, I'll note that the early vote, when you combine it with the mail vote, is actually, fewer people have voted so far through this point before Election Day than four years ago.

But it's not just that because I want you to take a look at feelings towards voting. And this is in the polling, right? Remember, 2020 had record turnout. Feelings towards voting. Certain to vote. Back in 2020 at this point, 88 percent of registered voters said they were certain to vote. Where are we today? It's just 81 percent, John. It's a seven point drop.

But that's not the only polling metric in which I'm looking at. How about extremely motivated to vote? At this point in 2020 it was 73 percent. You look now, it's just 65 percent. Again, a high single digit drop. Eight points in this particular case.

But it's not just the polling, right? Remember, in 2022, the midterm turnout fell compared to four years before that in 2018. And that Washington top two primary, which is often predictive of what's going to occur in the general election, back in August, the turnout there fell versus four years ago.

So, when you're looking at polling, when you're looking at these different metrics, all of them look just weaker compared to four years ago. But, to me, the polling here, which is oftentimes quite predictive, is the most important nugget where we see fewer people saying they're certain to vote and fewer people saying they're extremely motivated to vote, John.

BERMAN: Yes, clear trends there.

Any sense of why, Harry?

ENTEN: Why? You know every single year people say, this is the most important election ever, right? Well, they actually polled this. The most important election of my lifetime. Back in 2020, look at this, 74 percent of registered voters said that, yes, it was the most important election of their lifetime. This time around, it's actually less. It's 65 percent. Now, that's still a pretty impressive number, but it's a drop of nearly ten points of Americans who are registered voters saying it's the most important election of a lifetime, despite the fact that we have all these politicians out there saying it. Voters are actually less - less - slightly less likely to agree with them, John.

BERMAN: All right, so the zillion dollar question here is, if turnout does drop, which candidate does that help or hurt more?

ENTEN: Which candidate does it help or hurt more? This is the million dollar question. And the million dollar answer is one that probably satisfies neither side. Harris versus Trump margin, lower turnout may not benefit either side. You know, if you look at the broader universe of registered voters, you see Harris up by a point, well within the margin of error nationally. If you look at likely voters, it's still Harris by a point.

Now, what's interesting here, of course, if you look historically, normally Republicans actually benefit with lower turnout. If you look at the polling earlier this year, as the Democratic coalition becomes more and more educated, it would have said that Harris would have done better with slightly lower turnout. But in the polling right now, it does not seem to me that either side would necessarily benefit.

I think the question ultimately is though, given how tight this is, who's going to get those few extra voters off the sidelines on that question. We're just going have to wait and see.

BERMAN: Yes, I'm smiling because, you know, this is such a close election. Everyone's looking for some way to tell which way it's going to trend, this way or that way. And even on this there's just no way to tell.

ENTEN: There's no way. The close election continues on. Only eight days to go.

BERMAN: Herold, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, you've heard of political waves, right? But what about the phenomenon known as the red mirage or the blue shift? It happens when Republicans take an early lead after the polls close on election night, but in the ensuing hours and days, and as mail-in ballots are counted, Democrats make gains in a race that Republican lead.

CNN political senior writer and author of CNN's "What Matters" newsletter, Zachary Wolf is joining us right now.

Zachary, we saw this play out in 2020. It was part of the reason Trump pushed the idea that the election was stolen. Do you expect to see the situation again?

ZACHARY WOLF, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER: And look what happened there. It was really interesting when we all went to bet on election night, or normal people went to bet on election night and 2020, there were still eight states where CNN had not projected a winner. And those eight states, if you - if you go back and look at them, they're all still battleground states with the one exception of Maine. So, we can - this is why - why are they called battleground states? Because we don't know what's going to happen in them when we go to bed on election night.

And so the question becomes, what is going to happen in these states? Back in 2020, let's take Georgia for instance. That was the state it took longest to project. When everybody went to bed on election night, Donald Trump had a pretty sizable - well, not a sizable, he had a lead there of some votes.

[08:50:04]

When they got up the next morning, he still had a lead. People were still counting. It wasn't until in the wee hours of November 6th that Biden's lead presented itself.

Now, we should remember, when people - everybody voted by Election Day. So, it's not like people are additionally voting. It's just when they are able to count the votes. And part of the problem in 2020 is that there was so much mail-in voting because it was the pandemic year. Think about the process of counting mail-in ballot. You have to take it out of an envelope. You have to, you know, make sure that it matches a registration. It's not like just holding an ID up and finding the person. You have to match signatures in some cases. It takes time.

So, what some states have done this year is they've made it easier and actually, most states make it much easier to count those mail-in ballots here. Hoping it will be quicker.

SIDNER: We will see, Zachary Wolf. It's going to be a tight one. So, you never know.

Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: A Texas election clerk assaulted over the weekend at an early voting site. The growing concerns about safety at the polls this year.

And McDonald's, the popular Quarter Pounder is back on the menu after a deadly E. Coli outbreak, and the change that they're making after they believe they found the source of the outbreak.

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[08:55:31]

SIDNER: On our radar this morning, 900 McDonald's restaurants will resume selling Quarter Pounders but without the slivered onions after a recent E. Coli outbreak. The outbreak led to 75 illness across 13 states and one person died. Federal agencies have not confirmed the source of the E. Coli but previously said the slivered onions or the beef patties were likely the source. Well, those beef patties were tested by the Colorado Department of Agriculture and were found negative for the bacteria.

Former NBA star Dwyane Wade now has his very own statue outside of the big Kaseya of Miami Center. The statue crafted by Timeless Creations is supposed to be Wade in a moment of celebration. You see him celebrating there. But the final product is making waves. Or perhaps not the way this sculptor intended. Some fans are saying, who is that guy? He looks more like maybe actor Laurence Fishburne Dwyane Wade himself certainly didn't recognize himself in the statue. And just a fun fact here for you, John, this is the first Mami Heat player to have a statue outside the team's arena. Good times.

John.

BERMAN: I don't think it looks like him.

SIDNER: It doesn't.

BERMAN: Not at all.

SIDNER: We don't have to pretend.

BERMAN: Lawrence Fishburne was exactly right.

All right, new this morning, a CNN poll reveals that nearly 70 percent of registered voters think that if Donald Trump loses he will not accept the outcome and concede. We saw it four years ago.

With us, Chris Harvey, co-founder for the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Look, you just saw the numbers there. Most voters think Donald Trump won't concede if he loses. What issues does that present?

CHRIS HARVEY, CO-FOUNDER, COMMITTEE FOR SAFE AND SECURE ELECTIONS: Well, thanks for having me, first of all.

You know, concerns about people conceding the election is problematic before the election because it can affect turnout, it can affect confidence in what goes on. At the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, we've spent the last year-and-a-half or so getting law enforcement with election officials, getting them to train together, getting them to learn from each other, finding out how they can help each other so that when people come to vote, they are voting in an atmosphere that's safe, it's secure, it's accessible, and that they get to have their voice heard without any type of coercion or interference. So, that's really what we're focused on is - is getting to the election, getting the election done professionally, completely, in such a way that you really limit some of these opportunities for people to Monday morning quarterback what's gone on.

BERMAN: What are your biggest safety concerns?

HARVEY: Well, the safety concerns have to do, I think in some of the swing states, you know, I'm here in Atlanta. Georgia is one of the swing states. I was the state election director in 2020. And I saw what happened after the election. And that's really where most of the controversy came was after the election, when the votes were tabulated. The voting itself in 2020 went very smoothly.

My concern and - this time is that people have had four years to sort of ruminate and marinate in some of these ideas and some of these theories from - from all sides. And so they go to vote with a - with an attitude or trying to find something that they think is going to be there and create some hazardous conditions or create some violence at polling places.

BERMAN: There was a man in Texas this weekend that was arrested for assaulting an election clerk at a polling place. How do you prepare election workers for this type of situation?

HARVEY: Well, you can - it's really a question of combining elections workers and law enforcement. You know, election workers have done things like - they've done de-escalation training. They've done training on trying to keep - keep order. But when somebody's intent on doing violence, you really need law enforcement available and present and able to respond.

And what we've done is we've spent a tremendous amount of time training law enforcement on the - the peculiar laws that have to do with elections, the specific laws that are in effect for elections, how they can be at polling places in a way that's unobtrusive, in a way that's not intimidating, but be able to respond quickly, effectively when something like this does happen.

And - and that's exactly what I was - I was talking about before is you create - you know, you can create such a - a tense atmosphere at some of these polling places that the slightest - the slightest spark may spark some type of violent reaction. And - and that's what we've spent, you know, a year-and-a-half trying to prepare for.

BERMAN: Look, we can all help by talking about respecting election workers, respecting the process.

[09:00:04]

Chris Harvey, we respect what you do. Thank you so much for your work. Appreciate it.

HARVEY: My pleasure. Thank you.