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Obama Gives Sharpest Rebuke Yet of Trump at Pittsburgh Rally; Trump Slams Detroit While Campaigning There; Florida Begins Recovery in Wake of Hurricane Devastation. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 11, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

With just over three weeks to go until Election Day, the presidential candidates are crisscrossing the country to get their messages out to undecided voters today, Donald Trump heads out to Colorado and Nevada to focus on immigration and the economy while the Harris campaign is hoping the Democratic Party's heaviest hitter can close the deal for their nominee.

Former President Barack Obama was in Pittsburgh last night, where he delivered perhaps his most fiery rebuke yet of his successor, Donald Trump. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Donald Trump at a rally just started making up stories about the Biden administration withholding aid from Republican areas and siphoning off aid to give to undocumented immigrants, just made the stuff up.

The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments, and my question is, when did that become okay? I'm not looking for applause right now.

When did that become okay? Why would we go along with that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez and Kristen Holmes joining me now. Priscilla, to you first. Obama was -- I mean, he was, he was fired up last night, as they might say in the old Obama campaign days. Do we know what motivated this? And I have to think that they're pretty happy inside the Harris campaign right now.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are getting all the help that they can get right now. This is the final stretch of the election. But with the former president, there's a specific target in mind here, and this is black men, black voters. In fact, before that the former president making an unannounced campaign stop at a campaign office in Pennsylvania, where he had a bit of a sobering moment with those staffers. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: You're thinking about sitting down or even supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you because you think that's a sign of strength, because that's what being a man is, putting women down? That's not acceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So, remarkable moment there from the first black man to be the U.S. president, and making an appeal there because this is a weak spot for the Harris campaign. It's demonstrated in polls that they have the former president, Donald Trump, has been able to peel off some black men, black voters to his coalition. And so that is what they're trying to shore up again.

So, that was a remarkable and sobering moment from former President Barack Obama, making that appeal and suggesting that what is contributing to this is this waning enthusiasm is sexism.

Now, he's not the only surrogate hitting the campaign trail and he's going to do a lot more of it. Jill Biden, the first lady, also going to be hitting battleground states next week. Vice President Kamala Harris next week, also looking to speak directly to black voters, she's going to participate in a radio town hall with Charlamagne tha God who, by the way, has millions of listeners, half of them are black.

So, clearly, this is an all out effort by the Democratic Party to try to build up and lock in that coalition ahead of November as these polls just completely remain deadlock, only slight edges here and there and something that there is some anxiety about, but that they are trying to hit and target with these surrogates hitting the trail.

ACOSTA: Yes. There's a new Wall Street Journal pull out this morning and it shows these margins, just razor thin in these battleground states. So, any, you know, percent here or there will definitely make a big difference.

Kristen Holmes, you're an Aurora where Trump will be later today. Give us a sense of what we're going to hear out there today.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, this messaging is going to be all about immigration. I mean, this is a solidly blue state of Colorado. He's not here to reach out individually to swing state voters. Instead, this is a chance for him to amplify his rhetoric, much of it false, about immigration in America, particularly the fact that he has gone on and on about Aurora, Colorado, saying time and time again in his various campaign speeches that it is overrun by Venezuelan gang.

Something to note, of course, we have heard from state officials, including the governor, who says this is simply not true, one state official saying that perhaps this rally here would actually shed light on the fact that those are falsehoods.

[10:05:10]

But Donald Trump continues to use that kind of fear-based messaging. And one thing to note is that it could be working. This is something that we hear from him when it comes to immigration, when it comes to the economy. Part of his messaging yesterday in Detroit was essentially attacking the city of Detroit and soaking fear that any problems with Detroit could become problems within the entire United States.

But, again, his campaign and he himself believe that this messaging works. And if you look behind me, you can see that there are hundreds of people in line. And as you mentioned, those Wall Street Journal polls, they show how slim that margin is. So, it doesn't seem like this rhetoric is going to stop anytime soon.

Now, one thing I do want to point out, and this is just in terms of Barack Obama and Harris campaign, we all know that the former president has very thin skin, former President Donald Trump. And one thing that really gets under it is the former president, Barack Obama. So, this is likely to be something that comes up either here today or later when he's speaking in Reno, Nevada. I find it hard to believe he would let this just slide because of the fact that he takes things so personally.

ACOSTA: Yes. Kristen, I mean, there was that moment last night when Barack Obama said the reason why Trump's economy was, was good in the minds of a lot of voters is because it was his economy before it was Trump's economy. I have to think that got under Donald Trump's skin and he's going to be responding to that at some point today.

All right, Priscilla and Kristen, thank you so much.

Joining me now is Florida Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost. Congressman, what did you make of former president Obama's, comments particularly those geared towards African American men? What did you think of that?

REP. MAXWELL FROST (D-FL): Honestly, I think the, I think President Obama is a little bit ticked off at a lot of the things he's seen coming from the Republican Party, from Donald Trump, from J.D. Vance in light of major devastation. Hurricanes just hit my home of Orlando, the state of Florida, and, of course, Hurricane Helene last week. I mean, it's just shameful that somebody in the politicians with a lot of influence like Donald Trump would use this platform to spread mis and disinformation, which could lead to lost lives and more lost property.

The other thing is, I think, you know, we're getting up to the election here, and the president wants to speak frankly to young black men, young men of color across this country and in a very frank way. And I think we need a little bit more of that on the campaign trail.

And you need the right surrogates, the right people to have that frank conversation. The president knows when he is talking to a room of people, he's not just talking to that room of people, right? He knows that that video will get out, be spread to the masses, and it creates a situation where you're going to have tons of young black men watching that video at home, on Twitter, on Facebook, on whatever, and maybe reflecting on the decision they've made, either to support former President Trump or to not vote at all. And I think that's a really important thing that we people to have that conversation with themselves.

ACOSTA: And, Congressman, I do want to ask you about the hurricane in just a moment, but I want to ask you about some of the anxiety in the Democratic Party about the race with just 25 days until the election. There are some in the party, let's just face it, they worry that Kamala Harris has lost some momentum here. Do you share that view? What's your sense of it?

FROST: I mean, it's a tight race and we've always known it would be a tight race. The vice president has said since the beginning that we're the underdog. And so I think for the campaign and for us out on the trail, nothing has changed. We knew it would be like this a while ago. We knew that people would be excited, that excitement would continue.

I mean, you look at the rallies that are going on, the enthusiasm is still there, especially on the trail, but we know that the enthusiasm in it of itself is enough to win. The vibes, though, always equal votes. And that's what we have to do as organizers on the trail, as volunteers, as people working on this to make sure that those vibes do translate into votes and then we get people out to make sure they vote.

I do believe that this year we're going to have the highest youth voter turnout in the history of our country. The highest right now was in 2020. I think we're going to beat that here in 2024. I think we're going to be able to expand the electorate and we're going to have one of the highest turnouts for an election in the history of our country as well. And we just need to keep going until the end here. But we always knew it would be a close election.

I do believe the vice president is going to win the popular vote, but we know that that's not how elections are decided, you know, for, I think, worse, for worse in this country, it comes down to just a few states. And so that's why the vice president, Governor Walz and all the surrogates are on these states making sure that people know we're not taking your votes for granted.

ACOSTA: And, Congressman, I did want to ask you about Hurricane Milton, and I guess to wrap into that, I mean, Trump's repeated lies about the federal hurricane response.

[10:10:01]

We saw that after Hurricane Helene. Are you concerned that you're going to see that in Florida after Hurricane Milton? And we should note, I mean, President Biden didn't respond to some of this. Let's play a little bit of that, talk about it on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Mr. President Trump, former President Trump, get a life, man. Help these people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Yes. Congressman, I mean, are you starting to run into some of this after Milton in Florida, in your district? What can you tell us?

FROST: Yes, running into it after Milton, and I was running into it before Milton, when we were at the shelters, when we were out talking with people. A lot of folks would come up to me and ask about some of these rumors they've heard. And what people need to realize is when someone like Donald Trump is speaking to his base at a rally, again, he's not just speaking to his base. And a lot of times these folks will take this mis and disinformation, bring it to their community, and it spreads.

You know, in these natural disasters, word of mouth is very important in getting information out to the masses, and a lot of this has been spreading, whether it's the false numbers on how much money FEMA's get -- or how much individual assistance people are getting, or people coming up to me saying, I heard that something's already been approved, has it been approved, bas it not been, because they're getting their news from the back from bad sources. And Donald Trump wants to use this natural disaster to rev people up and make FEMA and responding to this natural disaster a political point.

In these disasters, every second matters. And when people have to spend more time sifting through all the lies to get to the truth, people can die. And this is why it's important, and I agree with what President Biden said, he does need to get a life. And if he wants to be a part of this conversation on the storm, maybe he better put his money where his mouth is and set it towards his legal fees and helping people recover from this.

ACOSTA: All right. Florida Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost, I saw that you went on a ride on a hurricane hunter flight earlier this week, getting a view of what Hurricane Milton was all about from up in the skies as well. Congressman, thanks so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it.

FROST: Thanks for having me.

ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, they thought they were safe from Milton's Fury, but hundreds had to be rescued from places thought to be out of reach by the floodwaters. Some of those dramatic images are coming up in just a few moments. Stay with us.

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[10:15:00]

ACOSTA: In Florida, the daunting process of recovery is beginning as people grapple with Hurricane Milton's deadly devastation. This is Siesta Key where the storm made landfall, the monster hurricane mangling homes and inundating neighborhoods with floodwater. Tornadoes also ripped through parts of the state carving paths of destruction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never have I experienced damage or the amount of tornadoes that came through this area. And it was the most frightening thing I've ever lived through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Water rescues, we should note, are ongoing. First responders have already rescued about a thousand people so far. This incredible video showing a Coast Guard helicopter, look at this, saving a man found clinging to a cooler 30 miles off of Florida's Gulf Coast. Just incredible that that man is still alive.

There have been at least 16 deaths, though, resulting from the storm. And this morning, we're learning more about some of the victims, including 66-year-old Deborah Kennedy, described as an amazing mother and grandmother by her family. She had been living in Fort Pierce, one of Florida's hardest hit communities.

St. Lucie County on Florida's east coast was hit by multiple tornadoes as Milton tour across the state. Emergency responders there receiving 900 calls in 90 minutes during that tornado outbreak.

St. Lucie County Commissioner Larry Leet joins us now. Larry, you toured some of the areas impacted by these tornadoes. Just incredible what was unleashed by this hurricane. What are you seeing? What can you tell us?

LARRY LEET, ST. LUCIE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Yes, I've been here since 1983 and I've never seen anything like it. We had, according to FEMA, 12 confirmed tornadoes hit throughout the county and literally from one end to the other. They were hitting down on our Becker Road area, which is on the southern. They hit around the airport, which is right in the middle of the county and where the worst damages is in the northern part in the Lakewood Park area, went through a golf course community and then through the trailer park where the deaths occurred and most of the -- not most of the damage, but a lot of damage occurred.

ACOSTA: Yes. We're looking at some of the video right now, and it's just extraordinary, I mean, the power of these tornadoes that tore through. And we know that there have been deaths in your county. Any (INAUDIBLE) did not make it through this storm?

LEET: Yes. We have six confirmed deaths. And I would like to comment that there is people circulating that there's the 20 and 35 deaths out there. That is not confirmed and it's not true. We do have six confirmed death. There are roughly 30-plus people still in the hospital from injuries from the storm. We do have the National Guard here and, of course, all of our local enforcement going through. And we pretty much did the search and rescue yesterday. We don't believe there's any more individuals out there, but we did have a very high death toll compared, I think, the last I heard in the state was somewhere in the upper or in the mid-20s, and we had six of them just right here in St. Lucie County.

[10:20:02]

ACOSTA: Yes, Larry, I'm very sorry about all of that, but I appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for the update. I will get back to you for new information as it comes in. But, Larry Leet with St. Lucie County, thanks so much. We really appreciate.

I want to go out to CNN's Isabel Rosales -- thank you, sir -- in Hillsborough County, Florida. She's back on one of the most -- it looks like a fan boat that you're on right now. Isabel, what can you tell us? Looks like you're in the middle of something. I'll let you take it away.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. We are in Valrico of Hillsborough County on yet another airboat with the sheriff, Chad Chronister. This is the Alifia River, sir. I know that this is an area that typically floods, but have you seen anything like this?

SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Not like this. Remember, to put things in perspective, we're a mile away from the Alifia River, and this water is at least six ft deep and it's still rising. We just did a rescue from that house over here to the left, right here, the grayish one. The water's just -- great job, the house is built up, but the water's just getting ready to get into the house. We got flagged down from the owner saying, can you please help me help me, help me? Went over there and rescued her six cats and her seven birds.

ROSALES: And that person's okay?

CHRONISTER: And she's okay. The parents got out last night and we got them out this morning.

ROSALES: Do you have a grasped yet of the extent of the homes that are impacted? How many more people might need help?

CHRONISTER: We don't. This is early. This is just starting to come into play here. So, we're in the helicopter now assessing how widespread this damage is and trying to predict where the water is going to crest. We're six feet deep. We have some people who believe that it might get as high as 20 feet.

ROSALES: And actually I do have some data, thanks to our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, that peak crest for the Alifia River is expected tonight. So, that's 25.5 feet is what they're expecting that crest to be. That is major flood stage.

Sir, yesterday when we were talking, you got emotional seeing all these people who had lost their homes. That's over in the university area, upstate area. What else have you seen at the loss that people were experiencing, even days on after Milton has passed?

CHRONISTER: And that's heart wrenching, right? The water will come in, the water will leave, and then these poor people will have to deal with the aftermath. Once again, what's next steps forward for them? They've lost their cars, they've lost their homes. But at the end of the day, I get it, it's material items, we'll rescue all the pets and keep them and themselves safe, but it's hard for me not to imagine the heartbreak that comes along with next steps.

Where do those people go that don't have family? They don't have friends. They don't have the money to get a hotel. What happens to them?

ROSALES: And, sir, I can imagine you guys are being stretched right now with the number of rescues, so many rescues that you guys are conducting. Are you getting the support that you need at every stage, state and federal?

CHRONISTER: We are, and that's the great thing. We have another 500 deputies that have been deployed to this area to help us out, Fish and Wildlife. The governor has been fantastic about, hey, I'm sending it to you.

So, we have other sheriffs from other areas that weren't impacted. I was on the phone with them until late last night, and they're either here or on the way. So, we want to make sure if there's one person that needs saved, one person that needs rescue, we have the ability to do so.

ROSALES: I imagine that this is exhausting for, for you guys, for your men and women out there. Any idea of when -- because so many people are thinking about recovery, turning the page, repairing their homes, but, clearly, we're still at a stage in some areas where it's life or death and rescues. Any idea when that will end?

CHRONISTER: That's a great question. Don't know. If this river continues -- you know, we're a mile away from the river of flooding and we're six feet. What happens if we get that 20, 25 feet and it continues to go? These emergency calls for help are going to be more widespread.

ROSALES: And so when we're seeing flood levels at this stage, even going above stop signs can you talk about the dangers that your deputies could be experiencing out on the waters? If it's not from just debris from Helene, we know there's gators, what else are you guys seeing in the waters?

CHRONISTER: Yes, you're exactly right. It's not just the wildlife. It's just not the obstacles. Like when we came in and our sergeant here had to give us a little more gas, we were riding over someone's fence. You know, there are fences underwater. There's a lot of dangers and obstructions that we can't see because it's hidden under the cover of water and it becomes very dangerous.

ROSALES: And, sir, is there any message that you would have to people right now that live by a body of water? They're not sure if from the overflow, this torrential rainfall, if maybe this is going to be their experience next?

CHRONISTER: Yes, please get out now. You know, we're we have some people here that were rescuing that thought it would be okay. Listen, get your news from a trusted news source.

[10:25:01]

The water is not going down. The water is only going to increase. So, if you're on the fence on whether you should leave or not leave, please, let's keep everyone safe. Let's leave now.

ROSALES: Sheriff Chad Chronister, thank you so much for your time. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right, Isabel Rosales and the sheriff, thank you both so much. I really appreciate it. Please stay safe.

And we'll be right back.

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ACOSTA: In an address to Detroit's Economic Club yesterday, former President Donald Trump blasted the city, warning the country could end up looking like Detroit if his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is elected.

[10:30:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The whole country's going to be like -- you want to know the truth? It'll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like.