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Biden Tours Florida Hurricane Damage For Second Time In Over A Week; Harris, Trump Locked In Razor-Tight Race With 23 Days To Go; The U.S. Sending Anti-Ballistic Missile System To Israel; Fatal Shooting Near Tennessee State University During Homecoming; Harris Trails Biden In Support Among Black Voters Compared To 2020; Meteorologists Get Death Threats Over Hurricane Conspiracies. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired October 13, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:32]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome everyone. Thanks for joining me. I'm Omar Jimenez in for Fredricka Whitfield.

A lot to get to so we're going to start today with President Joe Biden in storm-battered Florida, where he just got a bird's eye view from Marine One at the extensive damage left by Hurricane Milton.

It's the second time in a little over a week that the president has traveled to the state. Today, also announcing more than $600 million for electric grid resilience. 1.5 million Floridians are still without power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's the moments like this we come together to take care of each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. Americans who need help, an American who would help you if you were in the same situation? We are one United States, one United States.

I also came here to talk about all the progress we have made together. This is a whole-of-government effort from state and local to FEMA, to U.S. Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense -- just to name a few.

FEMA has delivered 1.2 million meals, over 300,000 liters of water, 2 million gallons of fuel and so far, we've installed 100 satellite terminals to restore communications in impacted areas so families can contact their loved ones to be sure everything's ok and be able to reach out for help as well.

Speaking of help, so far we're up in ten disaster recovery centers in Florida with more to come. So people are going to have one stop to meet with officials, get the federal help they're entitled to that's available to them such as direct immediate financial aid and no interest payment loans, mortgage relief, and so much more. You can also go online to disasterassistance.gov -- disaster assistance.gov. Or call 1-800-621-FEMA -- F E M A.

Yesterday after I signed the major disaster declaration, more than 250,000 Floridians registered for help during, 250,000. The most in any single day ever in history of this country -- 250,000.

I know you're concerned about the debris removal and its obvious why. We're prioritizing debris removal and working with state and local partners to clear roads, to get wreckage in the two hurricanes off properties and so more folks can return home and businesses (ph) can receive much needed deliveries of food, fuel, medicine, other essentials.

Thats a priority for me.

Power has also been restored to over 2 million people in a matter of days. And thanks to tens of thousands of power workers from 43 states and Canada working nonstop. Even more people will have more power restored soon.

Today I'm proud to announce $612 million to six new cutting-edge projects to support communities impacted by Hurricane Helene and Milton. That includes $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and another $47 million for Florida Power and Light.

This funding will not only restore power, but will make the region's power system stronger and more capable and reduce the frequency and duration of power outages while extreme weather events become more frequent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: That was President Biden in Florida a little bit earlier today.

CNN's Brian Todd has been traveling with the president in the state.

So Brian, I mean, how was Biden's message received? Clearly behind you, a lot of work still to go there in Florida.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Omar, it was well-received and maybe more notably, it was well-received on a bipartisan plane because there were several prominent local Republican officials who toured this area with the president today and who spoke at the event right behind me with the president after they had finished touring.

You had Adrian Petrila the mayor of St. Pete Beach and Kathleen Peters is the chair of Pinellas County. Both of them are Republicans.

[14:04:47]

TODD: They toured around the area with the president and both spoke after the president spoke, both saying how grateful they were that President Biden was here and basically saying that they could not get through the recovery efforts without the help of the president, the federal government, and the administration.

So you also had other prominent Republicans with the president on this visit. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who's a Republican from Florida and Senator Rick Scott also were traveling around this area with the president touring today.

So the president really wanting to kind of strike a bipartisan tone as he visited the damage here. He made the remark that the storm's impact was not as cataclysmic as they predicted, but he said that for some people, it was cataclysmic.

He acknowledged that some residents here were heartbroken and exhausted. He relayed a personal story of how one of his homes was damaged in a very major storm and kind of reiterated the personal losses that people are feeling.

So he really did want to strike that kind of evenhanded tone, that human tone, connecting with the residents here, but also kind of sending the message that this response is really bipartisan in nature.

Now that's, of course, coming on the heels of both Kamala Harris and Governor Ron DeSantis kind of accusing each other of playing politics with the response to this hurricane, Omar.

JIMENEZ: And I know you just mentioned a lot of officials there at the local and federal level. Do you know -- do you know if President Biden met with Governor DeSantis too? I didn't hear him in some of the folks you mentioned.

TODD: Right. He did not meet with Governor DeSantis today and the president was asked, when he left here if he had spoken to Governor DeSantis on the phone. He said he had not spoken to him, but he again, wanted to reiterate that he really believes that Democrats and Republicans are coming together, that this really is a bipartisan response.

Previously, the president had described Governor DeSantis as being very cooperative, so you don't really sense any ill will between the two men. Ironically, maybe Governor DeSantis is scheduled to tour an area not far from here, Treasure Island, and he'll hold a news conference just a short time from now in that location.

JIMENEZ: All right.

Brian Todd, really appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

Now after President Biden asked Congress to step up and provide additional funding for FEMA's disaster relief fund, House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated Sunday that Congress will not return early from recess, telling CBS News FEMA has tens of billions of dollars to handle their needs.

But Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says more needs to be done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: FEMA has the money to address the immediate needs of individuals impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. But we need Congress to act swiftly to fund FEMA and specifically its disaster relief fund because hurricane season is not over and also seasons are less and less important now, given the effects of climate change and the increasing gravity and frequency of extreme weather events.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now we've still got seven weeks left in hurricane season and it's part of why Mayorkas warned last week that the agency does not have the funds to make it through the season in its current budget plan so appropriate planning is what's needed.

All right. I want to turn to the race for the White House, because within all of this, we are still just 23 days way from the election. And as we enter the homestretch, polls continue to show the presidential race neck and neck.

CNN's national poll of polls out today shows no clear leader with 50 percent of likely voters supporting Harris and 47 percent for Trump. But again, no clear leader and that is in trend with what we've seen for a good portion of when it's been these two in the race.

Both candidates are hitting battleground states this week. And in the next couple of hours, Trump will hold a rally in the swing state of Arizona.

Right now, Harris continues to campaign in storm-battered North Carolina where she just spoke at a church. And she's going to hold a rally in that critical state later this afternoon.

Tomorrow Harris her running mate, Tim Walz, will begin a week-long campaign blitz of blue wall states, where voters there could decide the next president. States on your screen there -- Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania. And then of course we know her schedule in North Carolina as well.

As I mentioned, it has shown these two in a deadlocked race at this point over the course of this, which again has been the trend as we've been polling throughout this race, you see some of the numbers there.

We have a team of correspondents that has been covering every aspect of this out on the campaign trail. You hear the roar of the crowd and it seems like Alayna's live shot there.

Alayna Treene is with the Trump campaign in Arizona. But I want to start with Eva McKend with the Harris campaign in North Carolina.

Eva, so what is the vice president planning for today?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well Omar, what we're seeing from the vice president is her doubling down on her outreach to black voters. She was in Raleigh meeting with black elected community leaders. She also is slated to meet with black farmers in this state. [14:09:46]

MCKEND: But she also spoke at a black church today where she spoke passionately about the people in this state still suffering from the impact of the hurricane. She admonished the former president for his response to the natural disasters, but she notably did not use his name.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yet church, there are some who are not acting in the spirit of community. And I'm speaking of those who have been literally not telling the truth, lying about people who are working hard to help folks in need, spreading disinformation when the truth and facts are required.

And the problem with this beyond the obvious is it's making it harder then to get people life-saving information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And Omar, she'll set the stage here in Greenville in just a little bit. It is in this county -- this is a county that President Biden won by about ten points in 2020 so the campaign, hoping to replicate that success.

Even though that they have suffered, Democrats, routinely heartbreak in this state of North Carolina, they are hoping that they can drive up the numbers in communities like this one.

I will tell you that this arena, signs around it say that it has a capacity for about 8,000 people here.

The vice president not only trying to do these types of events, so packing the rafters here. She's also trying to meet voters at more intimate spaces and settings on announced stops. Just getting as much critical facetime as possible with voters in these battleground states with just about two weeks left, 20 plus days left rather, to make her case, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Eva McKend, and I was guessing whose live shot was loud. It actually sounds like your live shot is the loud one right now.

But I don't want to take anything away from Alayna Treene who's in Arizona where Trump will hold a rally soon in that swing state.

So I mean, Alayna, look, Trump took a detour from the battleground states to hold a rally in deep-blue California last night, I know you're in Arizona now. But what's the strategy on the California visit and what did he have to say there?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yes. Well, it wasn't just California. That wasn't the only blue state he visited this weekend. On Friday, he also went to Aurora, Colorado, of course in a very deep-blue state. But look, this strategy is mainly trying to get in front of audiences,

at least this is what the Trump campaign is telling me, in front of audiences that are typically not normally associated with being super Republican or being part of Donald Trump's base.

When I talked to Trump's team, they argue that they are running a nationalized media campaigns. So even if he's not in a battleground state, the messaging is being broadcast to the states that matter.

But I do want to, you know, talk and dive into more of what he was saying at these different events because what I've noticed is, you know, I go to multiple rallies a week, Omar and I've really noticed in recent weeks, Donald Trump has been escalating his anti-immigrant dark rhetoric.

We heard him do that in both Aurora on Friday, but also Coachella yesterday. I want you to take a listen to what he said in California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will rescue California and every town across America that's been invaded and conquered and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of the country which is number one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now Omar, I will tell you that when I talk to Donald Trump's senior advisers, they say that they think this strategy of him leaning in-to this fearmongering and stoking fear in the minds of voters, particularly about immigration and what he says are alleged crimes that they are committing in this country, they think that is working.

They think that strategy is working for him as they look ahead to November, even as people are still urging him to focus more on the economy and maybe rein in some of that dark language.

They're also paying very close attention to the polls. Of course, they recognize just as we are analyzing these, they recognize that this is going to be a very tight election. But they do think again that this rhetoric could help on the margins.

So Donald Trump is very much leaning-in to this, leaning-in to the dark anti-immigrant language that we know he's used in the past. But he has taken it really to a new level as we look ahead to the final few weeks of this election cycle.

JIMENEZ: And you know, we've really seen it from the campaign's sort of that theme as well, even from his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, who I know is also out on the campaign trail today as well in North Carolina, I believe at the Charlotte Motor Speedway there.

It seems like he's about to either take some questions or is in the middle of a bunch of people greeting them there. But regardless, he was on the Sunday talk shows today defending Trump's claims about migrant gangs overtaking that Colorado town -- Aurora, Colorado.

What can you tell us about why it seems they've they focused so much on places like Aurora, so much on places like Springfield, Ohio.

TREENE: Yes, they really have made both a Aurora and Springfield focal points of the Trump campaign.

[14:14:47]

TREENE: That's why you actually saw him go, you know, give away or not spend time in battlegrounds to go to Aurora on Friday.

Look, they have really tried to make this such a central part of their campaign because they do believe, as I was saying earlier, that this is something that voters are afraid of. They think that they can seize on this and that it is an issue where

Donald Trump, they believe, is polling better.

Now as to what J.D. Vance said this morning on ABC News, he really dismissed the claims, we've heard this from Aurora, the mayor of Aurora, he's a Republican mayor. He's been pushing back on these claims arguing that they're being very grossly exaggerated at this idea of Venezuelan gangs invading or conquering Aurora.

They said honestly, that's just not true. Vance dismissed that. I want you to take a listen to how he did so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well Martha, you just said the mayor said they were exaggerated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS HOST: Grossly exaggerated.

VANCE: That means there's got to be some -- that means there's got to be some element of truth here. And of course, President Trump was actually in Aurora, Colorado talking to people on the ground.

And what we're hearing, of course, Martha, is that people are terrified by what has happened with some of these Venezuelan gangs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now I think the issue here, Omar, and what we're hearing from a lot of people, particularly these local officials on the ground in these cities, they're saying that they're creating a much bigger problem that doesn't actually exist and its creating fear and confusion and disinformation within our communities.

We heard from Mike Coffman, the mayor of a Aurora, like I said, a Republican mayor. He issued a statement saying, "The reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated." He also said that the incidents were limited to just several apartment complexes in the city of more than 400,000 residents.

So I wanted to be clear with that that they are very much pushing back on these claims that Donald Trump continues to peddle, Omar.

JIMENEZ: And we see some of the same pushback from Republican officials in Ohio as well. The Republican mayor of Springfield, the Republican governor of Ohio as well. So it's be interesting to see kind of how that dynamic plays out as we approach the election.

Alayna Treene really appreciate the reporting; Eva McKend as well. Thank you both.

We've got other stories we're following as well. Just ahead the U.S. says it is sending troops and anti-ballistic missile systems to Israel.

We'll go live to the region and find out why the U.S. is doing that (ph).

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us.

[14:17:07]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: All right. Welcome back everyone.

We've got some breaking news on a few different fronts.

The United States says it's sending an advance anti-missile system to Israel as it faces a heightened threat from Iran, and about a hundred U.S. troops will also be sent to operate the equipment.

It's what is known as the THAAD system and it's specifically meant for anti-ballistic missile defense. Iran has vowed to respond if Israel retaliates over Iran's missile attack earlier this month.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Tel Aviv and Ben Wedeman is in Beirut.

Nic, I want to start with you because as I understand, we're also hearing of a new drone strike in central Israel. What do we know there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's about 30 miles north of Tel Aviv in a town called Binyamina. This strike appears to have caused a large number of casualties -- 46 is the figure we have at the moment, although I do expect those numbers to change.

There's still a lot of confusion because the casualties are being sent to various hospitals. Some of them have been taken can by ambulance including IDF ambulances and some of them have been flown by helicopter to other hospitals across Israel.

So we understand that a number of them are seriously injured. A number -- likely a number moderately injured. But I think it's too soon to say precisely the nature of all of these casualties and a final figure at the moment. But this does appear to have been and although the IDF is yet to

confirm this because of the nature of involvement of the IDF in recovering some of the casualties. This does appear, and because of some of the video that's emerging on social media, it does appear that this may -- may have been a military base.

This is something that, as I say again I have to stress this, we're only beginning to learn the details. But if it were that this would potentially be one of the deadliest strikes on troops away from the front line since October 7th last year. But as I say, we're working on those details.

Now, this evening, the IDF said that further north from this strike, they'd intercepted a drone and brought that down.

We also understand from Hezbollah this evening that they said that they sent a squadron of drones -- suicide drones they called them to an IDF base in Binyamina which is the town where this incident has happened.

Now Hezbollah made that claim after this incident began being reported on news media. It certainly would be their drones that were targeting this place. Difficult to know if they intended to target a military base if indeed that's what they hit.

But it's certainly what Hezbollah has been saying over the past few days. They've been saying that they've been targeting collections of troops.

And if this incident is what it appears to be at face value at the moment, then this would appear to be the first time that they may have been successful.

[14:24:53]

ROBERTSON: I'm using a lot of qualifiers here because we're still sort of sifting through the information. But the headline here is a very bloody strike, 46 casualties, and I don't think we've seen that from a drone or any other type of single incident across the center of Israel Certainly in over a year.

JIMENEZ: And as Nic is stressing, these are preliminary details as we work to confirm even more of them. Of course, will bring them to you as quickly as we can.

And because Nic, I also want to ask you about another aspect here because clearly this is part of the day-to-day skirmishes that we have seen back-and-forth between Hezbollah and Israel the significance of which we will see as we confirm more details.

But what is the significance of the United States' move to send these advanced anti-missile systems to Israel accompanied by troops as well.

ROBERTSON: Yes, about a hundred troops is what we understand. And I should probably -- while we're talking about casualties potentially among troops -- probably worth mentioning that over the past 24 hours, right along that northern border with Lebanon, the IDF in their fight with Hezbollah has confirmed a couple of soldiers have been killed, and 25 soldiers have been injured. Some of them seriously injured in that -- in that number of 25 along the northern border.

But what the United States is doing here is providing a weapons defense system, not for direct confrontation with Hezbollah on the northern border of Israel but a defensive system.

We don't know where it'd be positioned, but we do know that Hezbollah has been firing ballistic missiles into Israel. And when Iran fired its attack into Israel. That was about more than 180 ballistic missiles.

So this THAAD system, the T-H-A-A-D, which I believe is Terminal High Altitude Aerial Defense system, this would be designed to interdict those Hezbollah missiles and in particular, any missiles that would come from Iran.

JIMENEZ: I want to bring Ben Wedeman into this conversation who's in Lebanon for us because look in another key development today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning the U.N. to get its peacekeepers out of southern Lebanon as it pushes forward with its military operation.

What is the latest you're seeing and hearing on the ground there?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the prime minister is referring to what the U.N. is calling "shocking violations". There are two incidents just today in addition to five soldiers, peacekeepers being wounded over the last 72 hours. But they're referring specifically the U.N. at 4:30 in the morning in a base in the central border sector of inside Lebanon, two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the front gate of a U.N. base and then entered the base.

And it was only after protests from the U.N. peacekeepers that they left about 45 minutes later. And then at 6:40 in the morning, there was an incident where Israeli forces fired some sort of smoke projectiles toward the same U.N. base.

And apparently 15 of the U.N. peacekeepers had to be -- or had to receive medical treatment as a result. So the U.N. is strenuously protesting against the Israelis. The Israelis are basically telling the U.N. peacekeepers, you have to get out of this area.

But of course they are there under a United Nations mandate and even though the Israelis have repeatedly ordered them to leave, they have refused so far.

And speaking of orders of evacuation, the Israelis put out another series of evacuation orders for 21 villages in southern Lebanon. The total number now is 157 villages that have received such orders.

However, this evening, Hezbollah put out their own evacuation orders for Israelis living there, any military facilities. Telling them to leave immediately for the sake of their own lives and not to return until further notice, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Ben Wedeman, Nic Robertson -- appreciate you both.

And for everyone else, we'll be right back.

[14:29:22]

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[14:33:47]

JIMENEZ: One person was killed and nine others injured in a shooting near Tennessee State University after their homecoming parade Saturday. The ages of the victims ranged from 12 to 55. And officials say at least one is in critical condition. Investigations are ongoing.

Here to tell us more here is CNN correspondent Brian Abel.

So, Brian, obviously an unfortunately familiar scene that we're -- that we're seeing here as we follow this story. But what else are you learning about what happened here?

BRIAN ABEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Omar, really a frightening scene that played out Saturday nights as celebrations turned to chaos when shots were fired following the homecoming parade off campus near Tennessee State University. Now, police are still looking for some possible suspects involved and tragically, one man is dead. Police only saying at this point, he was 24-years-old.

The gunfire erupted around 5:00 p.m. along Jefferson Street. That's a street or TSU's homecoming parade went through just hours earlier when we do have these images here of the aftermath from our affiliate WZTV, nine people as you mentioned, were injured during the shooting. The youngest victim we've learned, just 12-years-old.

Two 14-year-old girls were also injured and taken to the hospital.

[14:35:01]

Other victims' ages range from 23 to 55. That 55-year-old woman, that's the one that's in critical condition.

And one of the injured police do believe was involved with this shooting, Omar, though they are keeping information pretty close to the vest at this point. They are looking for others who may be involved in say, their investigation is making progress.

Here's what police say may have led to the shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON AARON, DIRECTOR OF MEDIA RELATIONS, NASHVILLE POLICE: There's no indication of any gang relation that was two groups of people who are beefing and they opened fire on each other with a crowd around.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ABEL: And Nashville's mayor, Freddie O'Connell reacted on X posting: What was a joyous atmosphere is tonight very different because of a senseless act of violence carried out by people who didn't care who else might be caught in the crossfire. TSU did put out a statement as well about the mass shooting, saying, please keep the effect the families in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: And as these things typically go, what was supposed to be something so happy turned completely opposite in a matter of seconds.

Brian Abel, really appreciate the reporting.

Now, when we come back, we are continuing to follow campaign news here, but Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to unveil new policy proposals in an effort to court but the Black male vote.

Stay with us.

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[14:40:47]

JIMENEZ: Welcome back.

The Harris campaign is expected to announce new policy proposals this week to appeal to more Black male voters.

Now we saw former President Barack Obama give maybe his sharpest remarks yet, while campaign -- while campaigning for her in Pittsburgh last week, telling black men directly that's sitting out this election is not acceptable.

This morning on CNN, South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn also expressed concerns about the growing gender gap and whether the country can elect its first female president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): This country has never had a woman at its helm. England has had Margaret Thatcher, and we talked about how great she was. Germany has had Angela Merkel, and we talked about how great she was.

And this is what I say to people when that issue comes up, let's compare what the women have done in European countries, and I just think that our women here in these United States of America are just a strong, just as energetic, just as smart as any woman on Earth. And so when that comes up, I just take people to experience you know, to me, history is instructive and then when people talk about things in a vacuum, I think we had to fill a vacuum for them. And it's amazing how at the time people tend to kind of wake up and ask different questions when you give them examples to point to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: All right, a lot to talk about here.

Joining me now is Margaret Talev, senior contributor for "Axios".

So, look, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are going to be traveling across blue wall states this week. What do you think well hear from them to help close the gender gap in this race. Where do you start?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Michigan has been one of those states, Omar, that all eyes are on. Look, part of the issue with the gap in support or the less support than Harris would apparently with black male voters is just that there is this gender gap in Black men or men, but also she's married to a white man. Her running bring mate is a white man.

We're going to be seeing more and more surrogates, I think in these closing days, who are African-American men, whether she's talking to Charlamagne Tha God, whether there are cultural personalities, are athletes on the road stumping for her. We know were gonna be seeing some policy appeals some economic appeals in areas like support for small businesses or helping men and women, but Black men with their credit scores, you know?

But I think one of the big questions is, how much of this is really about policy and how much of this is a personal appeal or cultural appeal? And how does she thread that needle? She -- it's not that she is at risk for losing the majority of Black voters, is that if these races really are within a one percentage point or two percentage point margin of error, she needs the kind of turnout, at least that President Biden had from Black men as well as Black women and the polling right now suggests that she has work to do to get there.

JIMENEZ: And that's what we should be clear about here. As you mentioned, it's not that they are competing at the margins at 50 percent, 50 percent for Black men, they overwhelmingly support Kamala Harris. But as you talked about, if those margins don't get her all the support that she needed, could be a margin that makes the difference here.

And I bring that up because also on CNN this morning, Senator Raphael Warnock did pour a little cold water on the concerns around the margins here, but take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): Let me tell you something this morning, Black men are not going to vote for Donald Trump in any significant numbers. There'll be some. We're not a monolith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now, look, when we look at some of the polling we've got, Harris is at 78 percent among likely Black voters, but that's nearly 10 points behind what President Biden got in 2020 exit polling.

So how do you navigate this? Is the campaign -- you get the sense that the campaign is concerned about those margins?

[14:45:01]

TALEV: They're clearly concerned about the margins because since mid- September, we've seen story after story, proposal after proposal whether she's seen publicly or whether it's aides speaking on background, talking about the work that she needs to do to close the enthusiasm gap with African-American men.

I mean, Senator Warnock may be right. We will find out after election day. But if you are the vice president and her campaign, you're clearly not going to take any of that for granted. And I just think between now and the next three weeks, we're going to see both Vice President Harris and former President Trump in every battleground state talking to every group.

Of course, this weekend, we have seen her in North Carolina, which where she's messaging to group. She's messaging to storm affected people, but she's also messaging to African-American voters and to Black male voters, really in particular. So, she's doing that in North Carolina, which could be a really important swing state. The margin looks very close there. The governors race, there has probably working in her favor. If she could take back North Carolina, that would be huge.

But in Michigan, which is part of the three states that make up that blue wall. It is a very close race. And if she does not have enough support compared to historic turnout from black male voters, even if these are not voters who turn out for Donald Trump, they may just be voters who stay home without those votes. She may not get where she needs to be.

So we are already seeing and are going to continue to see a really big push in the closing days.

JIMENEZ: And we sort of seen efforts on both sides here to close gender gap. I mean, former President Donald Trump, he's going to take part in a town hall Tuesday in Forsyth County, Georgia -- Georgia, that will have an all female audience, which is significant because it does seem based on what's polled more, people trust Kamala Harris for issues like reproductive freedom.

Do events like that move the needle for Donald Trump?

TALEV: I mean, I think Donald Trump probably wishes that Georgia was not nearly as close as it still appears to be this time around. And so, I think these turnout efforts are message different ways, whether it's Trump or Harris and they are targeting different groups.

But if you are Trump and you are trying to reach suburban women whose school policies and maybe social policies lean center right, but they support abortion rights, right, you are trying to get them to care more about inflation or their memories of what their money was like, you know, 5, 6 years ago pre-COVID when more about fear around the border and to try to put your desires for bodily autonomy or reproductive rights in kind of a second tier bucket, right? So I think all of these things are we are going to matter if these

races are as close as the polling suggests that they are.

JIMENEZ: Margaret Talev, thank you so much for the time and perspective.

For everyone else, we'll be right back.

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[14:52:33]

JIMENEZ: As people across Florida face the huge task of cleaning up after Milton, those forecasting the weather had been facing their own challenges. I mean, some meteorologists across the country say they've been threatened and harassed for debunking wild conspiracy theories, including that they, along with the government, are somehow behind the devastation stating hurricanes that have hit the United States.

We're joined now by Katie Nickolaou, local TV meteorologist, who said she's received threats.

Now, look, you posted about these threats on social media. I want to bring up one of your tweets. You were responding to a threat you received, claiming meteorologist created the hurricanes and calling for others to, quote, stop the breathing of those that made them and their affiliates.

You tweeted back: Murdering meteorologist won't stop hurricanes. I can't believe I just had to type this.

So did you ever -- I mean, did you ever think your job would somehow lead to threats on your life?

KATIE NICKOLAOU, METEOROLOGIST: Unfortunately, this is nothing new actually. Since I started working in the field in 2019, I've had threats of bodily harm for no real good reason and so, this just seems like with Hurricane Milton and with Helene so recently before it, it was on peoples minds and it just open the floodgate for more people to try to say these things to meteorologists.

And it's not just me. It's so many across the nation.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, it feels like just with social media stuff can get out there so fast, whether it's on TikTok, on X, otherwise, and Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, she posted on social media earlier this month suggesting that storms -- that storms here are controlled events. So, first of all, how dare you, Katie, for creating both of these hurricanes.

But also, you posted a video recently where you literally went through each of these theories like nuking a hurricane, stuff like that. Why do you feel like this is something to engage with rather than just let it roll off?

NICKOLAOU: It's definitely something to engage with because the weather affects everyone, all across the world no matter where you are. And people have so many questions about it.

It's a very nuanced and changing field. So naturally people want to know why did things happen the way that they did, and so that's why I do all the social media that I do is because I want to be able to open myself up to answer these questions for people because the weather, I mean, I took four years of a degree in college to get this degree of meteorology. And it's still -- there's things that are changing, and I'm learning every day and I want people to learn along with me.

I guess it's just because I grew up watching Bill Nye, Miss Frizzle and Steve Irwin, that's my personality with this.

JIMENEZ: All great people just get us started.

[14:55:02]

I'm saying as you. They got me on a good path. Actually think we have Bill Nye on later today. It's going to be great.

But you were just talking about how this started a few years ago, just sort of the nature of these threats. Why did you get the sense like what the first one that you got, what -- what seemed to trigger someone? What seemed to make someone feel like, all right, I need to actually go after this meteorologist?

NICKOLAOU: Uh-huh, the reason they thought that they should come in, come and get me is because I told them that icicles could have bird poop in them. It was a silly TikTok, one of my first ones I made and it was just explaining how, you know, birds pooped on roofs, and water melts off of the roof, freezes into icicles and you could be eating bird poop if you eat sickles.

And yeah, he threatened to scalp me, and come and kill me, and it was a whole mess. And you get meteorologists who also get these kinds of threats for interrupting sporting events --

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

NICKOLAOU: -- for severe weather coverage and like trying to protect people from tornadoes. And then you have people threatening them. Please just work with us.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. No, I -- working in local news, we dealt with that all the time. But I will say if you're telling people that there could be bird poop in your icicles -- one, I --you shouldn't be eating icicles, but also the fact that there could be bird poop. That feels like a, hey, thank you so much, really appreciate it. But that may -- that's just how I would respond.

Katie, really appreciate you being here.

NICKOLAOU: Yeah.

JIMENEZ: Thanks for taking the time.

NICKOLAOU: Thank you. JIMENEZ: And as a meteorologist, I guess I can say to you, please stay safe in doing your job.

NICKOLAOU: Thank you. You as well.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

All right, everyone. Coming up, we're following a lot of stories across the world, including breaking news out of the Middle East. The United States announcing it will send Israel an advanced anti-missile system and about 100 troops to operate it.

We have the very latest. Stay with us.

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