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Rep. Marcus Molinaro (R-NY) Discusses Election, Abortion Rights, Obamacare; FBI Warns Of Con Artists Cashing In On Election Schemes; Source: Iran Plans To Launch "Definitive And Painful" Response To Israeli Strikes Likely Before Nov 5; Israeli Official: Israel, U.S. & Lebanon Pursuing Short-Term Ceasefire Deal, At Least One Month-Pause In Fighting; RFK Jr: Trump Promised Me Control Of Multiple Health Agencies. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 30, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: -- her proposal to codify the protections of Roe versus Wade into law?

REP. MARCUS MOLINARO (R-NY): I want to be sure, first, that the laws in the state of New York are not -- not diminished at all. And that I think is the first priority for me.

I do not support a national abortion ban. And I won't. I'm the first Republican to embrace and seek to sponsor legislation to protect both IVF and birth control in this country. And I remain committed to it.

And I also believe in expanding, as I have by leading the bipartisan coalition, access to health care so that women have quality care, no matter the decision they make.

I want to be sure that any action that's taken -- I don't know that the Senate can move on much of anything -- but any action that's taken does not at all infringe on the rights of New Yorkers.

And that the law in the state of New York is protected and access and rights that are given New Yorkers are preserved.

SANCHEZ: And, Congressmen, a quick question before we go. House Speaker Johnson promised a group of Republicans that if your party won, you would overhaul health care within the first hundred days, specifically saying, quote, "No Obamacare," which some seven million New Yorkers are enrolled in.

Would you support that?

MOLINARO: No, I'm not voting for any repeal. It -- certainly, without ensuring that there is equal and greater access.

And I would say one last thing in that regard. You know, the ACA makes it very difficult, in particular, for families with individuals with disabilities.

I've been fighting to broaden access to ensure that those families that live with intellectual, physical and developmental disabilities have broader access to both physical and behavioral health care.

And I want to see, by the way, both the ACA and private providers step up to the plate to provide adequate behavioral and mental health care.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Marcus Molinaro, we have to leave the conversation there.

Just so you and our viewers know, we are inviting your opponent, Josh Riley, a state lawmaker, to come on and give us his view of things.

Thank you so much for joining us.

MOLINARO: You're very welcome. Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

Next, the FBI is warning that scammers are posing as candidates in an attempt to steal cash and victims' identities. We're going to tell you what you should be looking out.

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[14:36:38]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Voters beware. In these final days of early voting, the FBI is warning about scammers who are looking to cash in.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And many Americans could be targets.

CNN, chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller, joins us now.

John, what should folks be looking out for?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, this comes from IC3, which is the Internet Crime Complaint Center, run by the FBI.

And they've been getting these complaints and have identified some of these games.

So what you should be looking out for is what they call the Campaign Investment Pool Scam. That's when somebody calls you up and says, you know, if you donate money, you'll be one of the early investors here.

And when we hit our goal and we exceed that, we can start sending that money back. So give the money now and you'll get a return on that money and you should recruit others to donate, too, because you'll get the money back.

Basically, this isn't any campaign calling. This is a Ponzi scam, a pyramid scheme. And they've seen a lot of that.

Another is the scam political action committee. They say, we're this PAC, we represent this cause. But they may not even exist. They're just getting you to send money to a portal where they can take it in and launder it.

This is one of those things where you go to the FEC Web site and you say, does this PAC exist? And then you go to its Web site and say, does it look real?

Merchandise scams, you order the stuff, you pay for it. The stuff doesn't exist and the stuff never comes.

And the scam voter registration, this is a key one. Because this is when they call you up and say, let's get you registered to vote and they get all kinds of personal information, which has nothing to do with registering for you to vote. That's for identity theft.

So there's a lot of these scams out there now.

KEILAR: Yes, that's terrible.

And also, I do want to mention something that happened here recently to Pennsylvania voters. Instead of receiving a text stating that people were not registered to vote, last weekend, thousands of voters there received a text claiming that they had already voted.

And the organization behind these messages, called AllVote, said that text were meant to tell voters they'd already voted in 2022, that they should have directed them to a link with information about voting in 2024. But that -- that all important in 2022 part was left out of the texts.

John, how can people protect themselves from this other misleading election-related conduct?

MILLER: Well, this is the kind of thing -- and you know, AllVote is an organization we don't know a whole lot about. They say this was a mistake. But they've had other mistakes.

States like North Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin have flagged them as unreliable, if not a scam.

So this is one of these things where when you get something that looks like it may be an official thing, you're registered to vote or there's a problem with your voter registration, where is it coming from?

Is this from a government Web site? Is it from the state -- secretary of state's office? It is from the county elections commission? Is it from somewhere where you can back out of that message, circle to the official government Web site and check your own voter registration, which you can do.

The thing that people are taking advantage of -- and, you know, I was just looking at my phone. I've got one of these coming in right here right now, which is from some PAC saying, you know, donate this money, $30, $60, $100, $70 or you can sign up to donate. I don't know who these people are. It doesn't really say who they are.

[14:39:59]

Just back out of the thing and, first, slow down. Then find the place that you're looking to give money to.

If you are looking to give money, go to the official campaign Web site or locate that your PAC -- that PAC yourself, check it out, and then go through the front door.

Don't let people be coming in through your back door and saying, trust us, give us all your information and send money.

KEILAR: Yes, very good point.

John Miller, thank you so much.

And next, we're going to head live to the Middle East as a high- ranking source tells CNN that Iran will retaliate against Israel before election day.

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[14:45:10]

SANCHEZ: We're tracking some new developments in the Middle East on several fronts today.

A high-ranking source telling CNN that Iran is planning to carry out a "definitive and painful" response to Israels attack last weekend. And that it's likely to happen before next Tuesday's election here in the United States.

KEILAR: Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, the U.S. State Department now calling yesterday's devastating attack on a five-story building horrifying. Dozens of people were reportedly killed. And that included 25 children.

Also happening today, Israel striking the historic city of Baalbek, which is in northeastern Lebanon, in what the local governor calls intense raids.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live for us in Jerusalem.

Jeremy, I know you have some new reporting on the Israel-Lebanon war. What are you learning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Brianna. Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are, indeed, stepping up their discussions around the potential ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

And one of the centerpieces of those discussions has been the possibility of a short-term ceasefire, perhaps at least lasting a month between the two parties, during which time they would ultimately negotiate a final deal to end the war between the two sides.

And also to implement U.N. Resolution 1701, which led to the end of the two 2006 war between those two parties. That would, of course, involve the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces some 30 kilometers north of the Israel-Lebanon border. Israeli officials believe that now is the right time for them to pursue these ceasefire negotiations after having achieved some really significant military gains against Hezbollah over the course of the last couple of months, namely killing Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

And so now the question is, Will Hezbollah feel similarly? And clearly, they have expressed openness to ceasefire negotiations.

For the time being, though, Israeli officials are also making clear that these negotiations that are happening now are going to continue, quote, under fire, as one Israeli official told me,

And that's exactly what we've been seeing this week as the Israeli military has really been stepping up its airstrikes in Lebanon.

Today, we saw evacuation orders issued for the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon. This is a historic city where some 80,000 people have been living.

The city was ordered to evacuate and, then hours later, we saw a series of very intense airstrikes, some enormous fireballs resulting from some of those strikes.

So clearly, Israel is showing that even as it is willing to engage in these stepped-up negotiations with some top U.S. officials set to arrive in Israel tomorrow, they are also not going to let up on the military pressure.

KEILAR: All right, Jeremy Diamond, live for us from Jerusalem, thank you.

Vaccine denier, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, says Trump has promised him control of multiple health agencies if Trump wins the White House. We'll have that ahead.

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[14:52:26]

SANCHEZ: RFK Jr has been one of the leading proponents of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. But now the former presidential candidate says Donald Trump promised him control of health agencies if he wins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR, (I), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What President Trump has promised me is control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and it's subagencies, CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others. And then also the USDA, which is -- which is -- which, you know, is key to making America healthy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, is with us now.

Meg, you've been looking into RFK Jr's stance on health policies, talking to experts who are very concerned. What did you find?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, leaders in the public health space have been telling me it would be disastrous for public health if Robert F. Kennedy takes any sort of leadership role in that realm.

Specifically because of his history of spreading false and misleading statements about the safety of vaccines. They warn we could see a resurgence of preventable diseases, like polio and measles.

We've also heard from Robert F. Kennedy directly that he wants to gut parts of federal agencies. He tweeted on Friday about the FDA, that they've, quote, "aggressively suppressed things like psychedelics, raw milk, Ivermectin, clean foods, sunshine and exercise."

He says, "If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you. One, preserve your records. And, two, pack your bags.

He has also talked about cleaning out the NIH of infectious disease research. And so that sort of plays into these fears that public health experts have about the fact that we are still in the midst of many infectious disease threats.

And if you get rid of these things, it really puts the entire country's public health at risk -- guys?

SANCHEZ: I really don't know what to make of his accusation that public health officials are waging a war against sunshine.

But, Meg, I'm wondering, there are areas where experts actually agree with Kennedy. What did they tell you?

TIRRELL: Yes, what's been really fascinating to look at how Robert F. Kennedy has been talking about his health care policies over the past few weeks. His Make America Healthy Again platform really focuses on chronic disease and not so much on vaccines.

Now, health experts I've spoken with aren't convinced that that shows he is not focused on vaccines. They just think it's not politically popular issue. And so he's not talking about it.

But in terms of things on food policy, focusing on ultra-processed foods, trying to eliminate conflicts of interests from government, I've talked with researchers who are sort of surprised to find themselves agreeing with these things.

[14:55:03]

However, they say they are not convinced that Robert F. Kennedy will put these things into place.

I talked with Marion Nestle, who is a leading food policy researcher. And she said there's plenty of evidence from Trump's presidency that public health, education and health care will suffer. So even if they come to the same conclusions, they're very skeptical

that they are really on the same page and worried about public health. If Robert F. Kennedy were to take a health leadership role.

KEILAR: Yes, maybe he's just packaging something that is more palatable.

Meg Tirrell, thank you so much.

And next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, damage control for the White House and the Harris campaign after comments by President Biden throw a wrench into her campaign plans.

We're going to talk about what he said. We're going to talk about the fallout. We'll have that ahead.

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