Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump Allies Worry Fallout From NYC Rally Overshadowing His Message; New Rule Requires Automatic Cash Refunds For Canceled Flights; New Video Shows Missouri Inmate's Final Moments. Aired 7:30- 8a ET

Aired October 29, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:08]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Donald Trump is headed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania today, what might be the most important state in the race to 270 electoral votes. Why? This is the map that would look like if Kamala Harris won all the states that Joe Biden did last time -- 303 electoral votes.

This time, 2024, the Harris campaign -- pretty much everyone thinks her clearest and easiest path to victory would be the so-called blue wall states in the north -- Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. Why? Part of it is a simple math thing. If she wins these three states but still loses the other swing states right now -- Georgia, Arizona, Nevada -- she still wins. She's still at 270 electoral votes.

Let's take them one-by-one here, OK? Let's just look Wisconsin to start out -- Wisconsin to start. Why is it circling like that? Wisconsin to start off here.

OK, if she were to lose Wisconsin what would need to happen? Loses Wisconsin -- all she would need to do, and I'm not saying it's easy, is win Arizona and she's back to 270 electoral votes. She wins.

Let's talk about Michigan. What would happen if, for instance, she lost in Michigan and flipped Wisconsin back to blue? Flip Wisconsin back to blue. You flip Michigan to red. What would she need to do in theory? North Carolina -- no Democrat has won since Barack Obama. But if she did, she would get to 270 electoral votes.

Let's flip this back and talk about Pennsylvania. This is where the rubber meets the road. If Harris were to lose Pennsylvania, she would need to win a combination of two of the remaining swing states, and not just any two. Because she could win Nevada and Arizona and still lose the election if she loses Pennsylvania. She would need to win a combination of probably something like Georgia -- Georgia here and Nevada. That would get her to 273 electoral votes.

But it's a hard path. You can see why Pennsylvania is so hard, and so challenging, and so important for the Harris campaign -- Kate. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And when it comes to that race to 270, we

have just one week to go before the votes start being counted. And the candidates, as part of this, are focusing on their closing arguments right now.

Vice President Kamala Harris giving a primetime speech at the Ellipse this evening. Donald Trump is headed to Allentown, Pennsylvania. John is talking about Pennsylvania. And just as his campaign is struggling to contain the anger sparked by the racist jokes told by one of the warm-up acts at his rally on Sunday.

Let's talk about all of this right now. Joining us right now, Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky, and Republican strategist Matt Gorman all together in the studio. This is very nice.

OK, so the backlash, Matt, it's -- it is growing -- the fallout from the remarks coming from that warm-up act from the Madison Square Garden rally.

Part of it -- I was just seeing from Politico reporting this morning about a letter that they have seen exclusively shared by the president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Puerto Rican Agenda. It's a nonpartisan group.

And this president saying this. They're urging Pennsylvania Puerto Ricans now not to vote for Donald Trump, saying "I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat, I'm an Independent. But at this point, it's not about political, partisan issues. It is about the respect and honor our Puerto Rican and Latinos deserved as citizens and legal residents of this country. That's the issue."

And some estimates are there are 300,000 Puerto Ricans that live in Pennsylvania.

Is this a real problem?

MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TIM SCOTT'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think a couple of things. I think what you're seeing today with the press conference, it is a classic Trump P.R. move to reset the headlines out of this, and we've seen this numerous times over the years. So I think is what you're seeing, number one, here.

I think a couple of things. I would be very surprised, just candidly, after a decade of all of that he's done and said and four years of the presidency that finally this -- like, from a comedian who no one has heard of, except for the Tom Brady Netflix roast, is going to change votes.

And honestly, on a more factual level -- I'm not trying to be flip -- but the guy was shot in the head and the polls really didn't move. I would be surprised if this was the thing that actually tipped it one way or the other.

BOLDUAN: Julie, what do -- let me add this to the conversation because we have -- there's also a letter to Donald Trump that was posted on social media on Monday. It's -- the Archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Roberto Gonzalez Nieves said this. "It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologize. It is important that you personally apologize for these comments."

And then J.D. Vance -- he spoke about this yesterday. He seemed to dismiss the concern about this fallout. Let's listen.

[07:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I haven't seen the joke. I -- you know, maybe it's a stupid racist joke, as you said, and maybe it's not. I haven't seen it. I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke.

But I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just -- I'm so over it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you think of this, Julie?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I mean, Donald Trump was there, right? He could have stood up on stage literally moments after this comedian made this joke and distanced himself from it and said this was wrong. Somebody could have come out there and said this is wrong. If you saw the audience reaction, they were kind of wincing.

So it's not like this is something that Donald Trump was not aware of or J.D. Vance. I mean, he didn't see it? Really? He was there. I mean, it's kind of insane.

But from Donald Trump's perspective he'll never apologize. He will never apologize.

And to your point, Matt, yeah, he's said a lot of horrible things, but this is really personal. I mean, they got really personal about a very specific group of people.

And by the way, I spend all my time that I'm not in New York -- my free time in the Lehigh Valley. I know Allentown really well. It is incredibly dynamic and is incredibly diverse. They're not going to put up with this nonsense.

And by the way, that north -- it's in Lehigh County but Northampton County, right next door --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

ROGINSKY: -- that is the swingiest county in the swingiest state in the nation, and people there are paying attention. And the fact that he's coming there, and I think probably pouring gasoline on the fire because I can't imagine he's going to stand up and apologize, it's going to be a slap in the face unless he does anything short of saying this was inappropriate. This was said on my behalf at my rally. And by the way, this is not the kind of language I condone. That is not anything you'll ever hear from Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: I think a lot of people will hear you on the raw politic of everything that Donald Trump has said in the decade that he has been a politician. There has really not been one that's really done it in for him.

GORMAN: No.

BOLDUAN: You've not seen it.

GORMAN: No.

BOLDUAN: Then I am -- I am just -- I am curious about it and it's an unknown. Is the timing of when this happens and how it takes a moment -- I've seen Democratic strategists -- activists. They are making sure this is getting circulated more on social media and circulated in communities. This is just a 15-second clip of this comedian.

I'm just wondering about the timing of something that to contain it also takes time. I don't know.

GORMAN: I think a couple of things. I think they see the risk and pure opportunity costs about talking about this even before the election.

ROGINSKY: Right.

GORMAN: That's why -- that's why they disavowed it. The campaign disavowed it pretty quickly.

And also, like, think about what the Trump campaign was doing for the last month, right? Their plan I think was to starve Kamala's campaign of oxygen. They didn't want to get as much as possible -- not give them grist to use off of. That's, for example, why he didn't go on "60 MINUTES." Let the focus be entirely on her instead of making a comparison where they can point things out.

And I think what you're seeing now with this press conferences -- recognizing they need to change the headlines and need to do so a week after -- or week before Election Day. Realizing they need to get back a little bit out of the headlines on this.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. I mean, we have also seen a tactic that is not -- forget an apology. Maybe it comes or maybe it doesn't. What impact it has, who knows? But also, say something outrageous to distract from this distraction as it is.

Let us see what happens at this -- at this press conference.

ROGINSKY: I wonder whose genitalia we hear about in this press conference. Some weird --

BOLDUAN: Things I never think you're going to talk about, Julie.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Here we go.

ROGINSKY: I wonder what --

GORMAN: At 7:30 in the morning.

ROGINSKY: I wonder what dead -

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: That's exactly what I'm talking about at 7:30 in the morning because I've been awake since 3:00.

Um, before we go, this split screen that Kamala Harris and her campaign are presenting today -- this evening with the speech at the Ellipse. The split-screen is intentional, obviously. What do you think of the choice?

ROGINSKY: I think it's a great choice. I think she needs to focus not just on January 6 because obviously, they've been leaning very hard into what happened on January 6 and the whole fascism thing in the last couple of weeks. She needs to also talk about the future. She needs to talk about herself.

And I think she needs to go back to that line of we're not going back. We're not going back to January 6. We're not going back to the chaos. We're not going back to the insults. We're not going back to the selfishness of the Trump administration or Donald Trump personally. We're going forward.

And that's a line that I think was very effective. I don't know that they've been using it a lot lately, but I think she really needs to lean into that. It's not just about Trump; it's also about forward moving and forward thinking politics and policies.

BOLDUAN: And you think that no matter the words that are said it's the setting that's going to dominate, and that's a bad choice.

GORMAN: Look, I think it's a risky day for both campaigns in a sense because you see Kamala focusing on January 6 and focusing on the democracy argument. In a lot of ways, preaching to the choir. And you have Future Forward, her super PAC saying stop talking about this. Use the -- talk about your economic plan. It's testing far better.

This is a -- it was a very risky choice. We'll see if it pays off.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

GORMAN: But it's going to tell us a lot a week from now.

BOLDUAN: And the campaign says she's going to talk about the agenda -- the middle-class agenda. She's going to talk about the economy. But again, when the picture is what the picture is, what's the -- what is the message that goes -- that takes from it? Let us see together.

It's good to see you, guys. Thank you so much. ROGINSKY: Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, Kate.

New rules take effect today to force airlines to refund you automatically if your flight is canceled or significantly delayed. No more jumping through hoops or waiting for weeks to get your money back.

[07:40:00]

CNN's Pete Muntean is with us now. So how long do airlines have to return money to passengers? And this is -- this is huge for a lot of the traveling public, including the two of us.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You get the money back nearly immediately, Sara, which is gigantic, especially for those of us who fly all the time. And it's also huge with the holiday travel rush on the horizon. Hard to believe that we are 30 days until Thanksgiving.

Change is music to the ears of consumer advocates and also Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg who originally announced this back in April. Known officially as the Automatic Refund Provision, the Department of Transportation says this is now fully in effect as of just yesterday.

Here's what it means. If your flight gets canceled or significantly delayed -- more on that in a second -- the airline must give you money back automatically. This is big because airlines have long offered vouchers or credits for you to use on a later flight. So this is, in essence, a cash refund.

A little bit of fine print here though. If the airline rebooks you on a different flight, you must not accept that rebooking or any other compensation the airline offers you. Bottom line, choose not to fly, you get your money back.

The big change here is that this also defined what is a significant delay. If you're on a domestic flight that's going to be three hours late, an international flight, more than six hours late, you now qualify for a full refund.

The big question that you asked at the top -- how fast are you getting your money back? It really depends on how you pay. The requirement says the airline must refund you within seven business days if you paid with a credit card; 20 calendar days if you used another form of payment.

And the pushback on this initially came from the airlines who said this would be overly complicated for them to implement. But Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg, in announcing this is a post on X, said passengers deserve to get their money back when an airline owns them without headaches or haggling. He really put airlines on notice back in July telling them to make it super clear to passengers when they are entitled to a refund.

This is really blowing up on social media and on TikTok. So many people are happy to hear this who have been caught up in the cancellations and delays that were really big in 2021 and 2022. But the good news here is that airlines are doing much better. The cancellation rate was about one percent of all flights.

SIDNER: Pete Muntean, it is good news for a lot of travelers. They hate having to negotiate when they are frustrated --

MUNTEAN: You bet.

SIDNER: -- their flight isn't taking off.

All right, appreciate you -- John.

BERMAN: All right, new video obtained exclusively by CNN shows the final moments before an incarcerated man's death after being restrained by police.

And this morning, two college quarterbacks quitting football the same week. How concussions could be pushing more young athletes away from the sport.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:46:50]

BERMAN: This morning the war in Gaza remains one of the key issues keeping some Democrats from backing Kamala Harris for president.

Senator Bernie Sanders addressed these voters last night making it clear that despite their hesitations he thinks Harris should still have their support over Donald Trump -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Some of you are saying, "How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she is supporting this terrible war?" And that is a very fair question and let me give you my best answer. And that is that even on this issue, Donald Trump and his right-wing friends are worse. We will have, in my view, a much better chance of changing U.S. policy with Kamala than with Trump, who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded, right-wing extremist ally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. With us now is the co-founder of Uncommitted, Abbas Alawieh. Thank you so much for being with us.

What do you think of the argument made by Sen. Sanders right there? Convincing?

ABBAS ALAWIEH, CO-FOUNDER, UNCOMMITTED (via Webex by Cisco): Thank you so much, John. It's a pleasure to be with you. I certainly agree with the senator. The Uncommitted movement has made

clear from the beginning that Trump is not right for our communities and not right for the anti -- for anti -- for the anti-war movement in this country. He wants Netanyahu "finish the job." It's clear to us that he's a purveyor of hate and white supremacy who is actively preying on the pain of Arab and Muslim American voters right now.

And it's resonating not because he's particularly convincing but because he's filling a void that's being left by Harris' actions on this issue -- the absence of support for families like my own who have family in Lebanon right now or we have family in Gaza or the West Bank right now who are on the receiving end of U.S. weapons that are being used illegally to harm and kill civilians.

So while I agree with the senator, as a Democratic strategist and as someone who is in a swing state who is voting for Harris against Trump, I'm still terrified by the vacuum that she's leaving. And so I'm urging fellow Democratic voters to pair their vote -- their support for Vice President Harris with a public commitment to pressure her to stop sending weapons should she become president.

BERMAN: So you just said something interesting there. You are voting for Harris but your organization not exactly endorsing Harris. What's the difference there?

ALAWIEH: Yeah. In our view, an endorsement is a very specific thing. And we made a public -- a public offer to Vice President Harris that if she embraces a different approach, if she endorses a policy that would truly implement international law and truly implement U.S. law and stop the flow of weapons to Netanyahu for his mass killing campaign -- he's killing babies to the tune of over 16,000 babies -- then we would come out and publicly endorse. And that would mean we would mobilize people here in the state of Michigan and elsewhere.

[07:50:00]

And what we did -- the Uncommitted campaign here in Michigan -- in February, we did 1.5 million voter contacts and drove out 101,000 voters to vote for peace and against war -- Democratic voters. And so what we were saying is empower us to do that -- to run that kind of mobilization campaign here in Michigan.

I was astounded that the Harris campaign told us in no uncertain terms that they do not want the endorsement of the Uncommitted movement. I was surprised by that. And I hope that when we look back on this moment we don't look back at that specific decision by the Harris campaign and think wow, it's unfortunate that they left those votes on the table.

But I think we need a reckoning in our country of why it is that Democratic leaders would rather appease the AIPAC pro-war lobby in our country instead of siding with the majority of Democratic voters who want to stop the unconditional flow of weapons to Netanyahu's murderous campaign. I think we need a reckoning in this country.

And my hope is that President Biden, ahead of Tuesday's election, does something. It's not too late to save lives. Does something and takes decisive action to distance this administration from Netanyahu so that we can apply real pressure to save lives.

BERMAN: How much are you willing to do to help get Harris elected?

ALAWIEH: So, the Uncommitted campaign has been extremely clear about the threat of Donald Trump. Donald Trump not only is, himself, a purveyor of white supremacy but he also is promising to potentially criminalize pro-Palestinian advocacy in our country.

And so what we are -- what we are doing here through the Uncommitted movement is the kind of advocacy that we -- that we did at the Democratic National Convention. We had a pro-Palestinian anti-war movement from within the Democratic Party that is clear. We've got to block Donald Trump in order for us to continue our organizing to pressure the Democratic Party to take an approach that does not fund the genocidal actions of Netanyahu.

And so we're engaging folks. We're encouraging them to go out and vote. We're making clear that a third-part vote unfortunately in our broken Electoral College system -- a third-party vote in a swing state, like Michigan, does help Donald Trump and we're not recommending a third-party vote.

And we're continuing to stay engaged to have the nuanced conversations with communities that are in an immense amount of grief. The number of funerals that I have attended here in southeastern Michigan, John -- people who are actively mourning not just one or two but multiple family members. I'm among those people. This is an immensely painful moment for us.

We need Democratic Party leadership and Vice President Harris and President Biden's, specifically, to do more. It's on them to mobilize voters in this -- in this last stretch by signaling clearly that they value Arab lives and Muslim lives just as much as anyone else's life.

BERMAN: Abbas Alawieh, we do appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

ALAWIEH: Thank you so much, John. I appreciate it.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: The affordability crisis, a huge issue for voters across the political spectrum. When it comes to inflation, gas prices have always been one of the first places where people feel that pain. And now with gas prices dropping nationwide what does that mean for the Republican attack line against Kamala Harris this election?

CNN's Matt Egan is here with more on that. You've been looking into this. What do you see here, Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well Kate, look, gas prices are falling fast right now and that is really good news for all consumers. So the national average is $3.13 a gallon. That's the lowest level in nearly nine months. Clearly heading in the right direction, down nine cents from a month ago. Thirty-seven cents cheaper from this time last year.

And GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan -- he tells me that in the next seven to 12 days the national average is very likely to break below $3.00 a gallon for the first time in 3 1/2 years.

Now, this is a big deal because a lot of people view gas prices as sort of a real time barometer into the cost of living. And remember, it was just two years ago when the most visible part of the inflation crisis was gasoline prices spiking above $5.00 a gallon for the first time ever. I mean, this was a nightmare for consumers.

And it was a disaster politically for the Biden-Harris administration even though a lot of it was caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But U.S. officials had to scramble to release emergency oil to try to put out the fire. Thankfully, we are a long way from that right now. Gas prices are much lower than they were at that point.

And look, battleground voters -- right now they are experiencing much cheaper gas than they were 12 months ago, including in Nevada, 79 cents cheaper. Arizona, 78 cents -- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.

And listen, we know Kate that many Americans are voting with their wallets in mind, right? The economy is consistently the number one issue. And falling gas prices are a very visible sign of significant progress when it comes to the cost of living.

BOLDUAN: What is driving the prices down?

EGAN: Well, some of this is seasonal, right? I mean, when summer ends, we see gas prices come down because demand is lower. Demand is also lower right now in China, so that's a factor. Supply is pretty strong because the U.S. is producing more oil than any country in history. But there's also the situation in the Middle East, which is not as bad as feared just a few weeks ago.

[07:55:00]

So yesterday, we saw oil prices crash by six percent -- the worst day for oil in a year. And that came after Israel attacked Iran over the weekend. Now, normally --

BOLDUAN: Yeah, this has been -- yeah, this has -- this is Israel-Iran Middle East.

EGAN: It is. Normally you'd expect that to spike prices but that didn't happen because Iranian energy facilities and nuclear facilities were unscathed. And so that was a big sigh of relief for everyone in the energy market, which had been fearing kind of an all-out war.

Veteran analyst Tom Klose -- he told me this was probably the best- case scenario for consumers. He said this was about as calming a round of military strikes as you'll ever see in the Persian Gulf.

But listen, no matter the reason, gas prices are moving lower just as voters head to the polls.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

Thank you, Matt.

EGAN: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. New this morning, Trump ally Steve Bannon out of federal prison in Connecticut and going back on the airwaves. He served four months behind bars for contempt of Congress charges. Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

He's expected to hold a new conference today and he plans to resume his political podcast.

Michigan quarter Jack Tuttle says he's quitting football because of concussions and other health issues. The 25-year-old says he recently had his fifth concussion and needs to prioritize his health. He now hopes to go into coaching.

Last week, North Carolina State's quarterback also retired from football over concussions. As you know, repeated concussions can cause traumatic brain injury.

All right, thinking of Thanksgiving already a month out? Target is -- it just announced its Thanksgiving meal will be five bucks cheaper for a grand total of 20 bucks -- $20.00. The spread is for four people and includes a frozen turkey and some sides, like potatoes and stuffing mix.

Aldi and Walmart are also cutting the cost of their Thanksgiving meal bundles kicking off the holiday price war -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, CNN has obtained exclusive video that appears to show the moments leading up to the death of an incarcerated man in Missouri. Othel Moore Jr. died nearly a year ago while in the Jefferson City Correctional facility. He was serving a 30-year sentence on a range of charges.

Now, the video appears to begin after he had been pepper-sprayed during a sweep for contraband. Now, four officers are charged in his death.

CNN's Omar Jimenez has been doing amazing reporting on this. And Omar, you can explain what we're seeing here and why.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So this is an incident that may have flown under the radar for a lot of people, but what you should know is that this ended in four now-former corrections officers charged with second-degree murder, and at least 10 people who are no longer employed by the Missouri Department of Corrections as a result of this incident.

So this is a video got exclusively and shows what may have been the final breaths of that Missouri inmate Othel Moore Jr. while he was heavily restrained and as a prison employee stood just outside.

So what you're seeing on your screen there -- this is at the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Right at that moment -- this is after the county prosecutor told us Othel Moore Jr. was pepper-sprayed during a sweep for contraband and these officers essentially were adding restraints to him.

So we are now seeing him wheeled out. His legs are restrained. He's got things over his face as well to -- what some have said were masks that an inmate -- a former inmate who spoke to us who said he witnessed it said that it restricted his breathing, and he was yelling "I can't breathe." This video does not have any audio.

And in this second part of the video he's wheeled into essentially what's known as a dry cell, and he's really just left there after this. And he is still -- as you watch this video, he is still heavily restrained from his feet down. He has head gear over his face. He has a mask over his face as well.

And then the door closes and essentially -- we're not going to play the whole thing, but while he is in there you see at points he's moving back and forth and then nothing. And then that is the lasting image that you see.

And a guard -- an employee does eventually come and check right there and goes and signals for other help, but it was over 30 minutes past from when he was first wheeled in there to when help finally arrives. They checked for vitals but essentially did not -- did not seem like they were able to do so successfully. He was declared dead that day.

And as I mentioned, four now-former corrections officers charged with murder as a result. They pleaded not guilty.

BERMAN: So what happens next? They pleaded guilty.

JIMENEZ: So they pleaded not guilty.

BERMAN: Or not guilty -- sorry.

JIMENEZ: Not guilty at this point.

Right now -- so that investigation goes forward at this point. But also now the family is filing civil litigation against these former officers but also against the state -- the head of the state corrections as well, saying that this was someone who was responsible for a culture of this.

And I want to read a quick statement from the attorney here, Andrew M. Stroth, who said that the "...graphic video shows the unjustified and brutal murder of Othel Moore, a 38-year-old Black man, by correctional officers and highlights the complete disregard for the sanctity of life, deliberate indifference and failure to provide emergency medical care to Othel."

The Department of Corrections told me they don't comment on pending litigation, but we do expect to hear more from the civil attorneys on this as the criminal proceedings go ahead.