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Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Is Interviewed About Harris, Trump Locked In Dead Heat As Election Day Nears; Latest Polls Show Trump Chipping Away At Latino Support; FEMA Teams In NC Working From Secure Locations Amid Reported Threats. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 14, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR; Coming out of the weekend is this report, FEMA forced to pause eight operations in North Carolina because of these threats. It's just unbelievable. Just doesn't stop.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: It does not stop.

ACOSTA: Yes.

BROWN: And it shows you how dangerous disinformation and misinformation is with these --

ACOSTA: Yes.

BROWN: -- armed militias, apparently, that were discovered targeting FEMA, according to the National Guard there in North Carolina. And I -- I spoke to a DHS official this morning, and there is concern about this, but also they want to make sure to get the word out that, you know, the -- the search and rescue operations that need to happen, they are still happening with FEMA. There are still sites open, the disaster relief sites to help people.

But of course, Jim, the -- the idea that there is mass devastation and that FEMA has to pause some of the help and work from remote sites --

ACOSTA: Right.

BROWN: -- in some areas, is -- is just -- it's horrible. And, again --

ACOSTA: Yes. It's an -- it's an -- it's really, it's sad. And I was just talking with General Honore about this, legendary figure from the Katrina response. And of course, there was misinformation back then it -- it occurred. It just doesn't seem like it was to this level, to a point where you have militia members potentially going after, you know, people who are working in FEMA trying to -- to get the help out to people.

BROWN: Yes.

ACOSTA: But anyway, something else will be tracking throughout the day. I'm sure. Yes.

BROWN: Yes, we're definitely diving into it in this show.

ACOSTA: Yes.

BROWN: All right, Jim, thanks so much. You too.

ACOSTA: You bet.

BROWN: And good morning to you. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. Three weeks from tomorrow is Election Day, and Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are both campaigning today in the all-important battleground state of Pennsylvania. Both are desperate to break the stalemate of a tied race. CNN's latest poll of polls in Pennsylvania shows Harris with a narrow edge, her support averaging 48 percent in the state to Trump's 47 percent. This weekend, the former president leaned into some of his dark rhetoric regarding potential unrest on Election Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country, by the way, totally destroying our country, the towns, the villages, they're being inundated. But I don't think the other problem in terms of Election Day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary by the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Well, Pennsylvania is a key state that could decide who wins this election. Kamala Harris is campaigning Erie tonight, on the other side of the state from the former president. Democratic Representative, Brendan Boyle, who represents much of Philadelphia County, joins us now. Representative, thanks for your time. So I want to start with that CNN's poll of polls for the state you represent.

As I noted earlier, it shows an extremely tight race with no clear leader in either case. Why, despite all the campaign's best efforts, is Harris's message not pulling her ahead more with Pennsylvania's and your view?

REP. BRENDAN BOYLE (D-PA): Well, it's good to be with you, and it's -- it's not surprising to me, because that's the nature of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was a one point race in 2016. It was one point race in 2020. And I predicted about a year ago that actually Pennsylvania would be a one point race in -- in this election. So I, in many ways, this was -- this was very much expected.

Just as long as Kamala Harris is on the north side of that 1 percent not the south side, I will be happy. The nature of Pennsylvania is such that we have incredibly tight, close elections where an evenly or almost evenly divided country. And Pennsylvania, probably more than any other state comes closest to duplicating that. BROWN: So this is Harris's 10th visit to your state this campaign season. It shows just how important it is the campaign. And she is fighting this threat of voters not feeling passionate enough to get out and vote. What are you doing to get the vote in your district, which primarily includes Philadelphia?

BOYLE: Yes. So first I give Kamala Harris and Tim Walz a world of credit. They are here constantly in Pennsylvania, from Erie to Philadelphia to all points in between, asking for Pennsylvanians to vote for them, while Donald Trump is in California repeatedly. He's in Montana, he's in New York. It's -- it's an odd campaign strategy. Add to that the fact that the Harris campaign has invested so much in a field operation and door to door in these field offices, while Donald Trump's campaign hasn't at all.

In a one point race, I mean, I know this from my own firsthand experience, in a tight one point race feel can make all the difference. And I do think it will make a real difference here in Pennsylvania in favor of Kamala Harris.

BROWN: And you are right to note, Trump was in California and Colorado, but he is there in Pennsylvania today, campaigning as well. CNN's Harry Enten dug into Republican voter registration in 2020 verses now and found that Republicans have cut the Democratic advantage in half since 2020, meaning they've gone out and they've registered more voters, including some who have switched their party registration over. And also, you'll recall in 2020, Trump grew his vote total in Philadelphia compared to 2016 as a Harris supporter. How much does this worry you?

[11:05:20]

BOYLE: Not -- not. Well, there are two separate issues. One, the second question was about performance in Philadelphia. I'll get to that second. The first one about party registration doesn't worry me at all. Historically speaking, party registration tends to be a lagging indicator. For example, West Virginia had a majority Democratic voter registration not too long ago, even though it had been voted Republican for the last 25 years, you see a lot of that in western Pennsylvania.

You would also see in suburban Philadelphia a good 10, 20 years after those counties were voting Democratic, it still had majority Republican registrations. So that doesn't really worry me. The second part of your question, though, about Philadelphia actually does concern me.

There has been a small drop in recent elections and turnout in urban areas like Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Detroit, that is a place where I'm spending some of my time and resources. I know a lot from the national campaign is going into that as well. I mean some drop off from the enthusiasm of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 was to be expected.

But frankly, on the Democratic side, I do think we have more work to do in urban areas, both in terms of turnout, but also persuasion to match the sort of gains that, remarkable gains that we've made among well-educated suburban voters.

BROWN: When you talk about persuasion, and what sense I mean, how important is that, and how, at this --

BOYLE: Yes.

BROWN: -- late stage in the game are you going to persuade?

BOYLE: Yes. So it's not just turnout, it is old fashioned persuasion. There are undecided voters. I -- I have this debate almost every day with -- with friends of mine. Because it might be hard to believe for some, but there is anywhere from a good 5 to 10 percent of people who are torn. There sometimes more liberal on some issues, more conservative on others.

They might be people who otherwise vote Republican, but can't stand Donald Trump's dictatorial tendencies and what he did in provoking the insurrection on January 6th and some of his rhetoric now. They might be people who are generally more liberal, but they don't necessarily know enough about Kamala Harris, because they don't consume as much political information as those of us who are in the business.

So making sure that we reach out to those persuadable voters and actually reach them where they are and where they consume information that is critical over these final 22 days.

BROWN: All right. Congressman Brendan Boyle, thank you so much.

BOYLE: Thank you.

BROWN: I'm going to bring in CNN political director David Chalian, first off, your reaction, what he was just talking about that there are still undecided voters there that they need to persuade.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: There are undecided voters. I don't know if it's truly 5 to 10 percent that he's saying, but there is a small slice of undecided voters. But the reality, Pam, if you talk to any political operative worth their weight and solve, I -- this -- politics is a both end proposition. You can't just choose the base and get them out and get -- get out the vote and persuasion.

You got to do both what is and -- and I believe that the Harris campaign is sort of focused in that direction. What the Trump campaign -- what the sort of aberration that Trump is in American politics is that while they do sometimes do things to try and persuade, they realize they've had little success in -- in that over the time of him in the national spotlight, they have found real success in mining deeper into areas where they have found aligned voters and finding more gold there, right?

And so for instance, where's Donald Trump going to be today? He's going to be in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It's one of those collar counties outside Philadelphia. He's going to be in OAKS, Pennsylvania. So you're, well, Joe Biden won it huge there. Hillary Clinton, even though she lost the state, won big there. What is Donald Trump doing there? Well, he's trying to find more Trump voters, even in places that he may not win. I'll give you an example, in Montgomery County, between his victory in Pennsylvanian '16 and his loss in Pennsylvania in '20, he still found 20,000 more voters to come out for him between those two elections in Montgomery County. And so he may have lost it by a bigger margin because Biden did so well in the suburban areas, and that was part of why he won Pennsylvania, and that is what Harris needs to do if she's going to win. But he was still able to find more voters, even in a Biden rich territory.

BROWN: I want to dive into that a little bit more. And we were talking about Philadelphia and how he had more turnout in 2020 versus 2016, that worried the Congressman. And when you look at his -- his dark anti-immigrant rhetoric, that is continuing. And yet you look at the polls and in terms of how it's impacting his support on Latino voters, it doesn't seem to be hurting him in terms of losing votes in that territory. In fact, he is gaining some ground with Latino voters. What do you make of that?

[11:10:18]

CHALIAN: Well, first of all, Latino voters are not a monolith here on anything and not on the issue of immigration and border security either. There are lots of Latino voters who are aligned with Trump's thinking on the border and immigration. Now the -- the anti-immigrant rhetoric that you talk about, this is -- this fits into what I'm describing about their strategy, which is to dig deeper into their aligned universe of voters, to find new voters who have not participated in the past but don't need to be persuaded to their viewpoint just need to be found, identified and pushed to come vote this time.

And that's -- that's precisely by quadrupling down on that kind of rhetoric, that's what they're aiming to do strategically, Pam. And you saw this in covering the Trump White House. Tell me a single day in his four years as president that you could point to where Donald Trump was all of a sudden playing for the middle or to expand his reach in the middle, they are few and far between -- between. The bulk of his four years was constantly trying to increase those that are already aligned to be with him, increase that share.

BROWN: All right. David Chalian, hard to believe we're so close to Election Day, right?

CHALIAN: Yes. Three weeks.

BROWN: Three weeks tomorrow.

CHALIAN: Yes.

BROWN: All right. Coming up, polls show Vice President Harris's support among black men is behind what President Biden had in 2020. Ahead, how she sharpening her outreach to the group with a batch of new policy proposals. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:16:21]

BROWN: And back to our top story this hour, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are hitting the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania today in the final stretch before Election Day. And with three weeks to go, polls continue to show a dead heat between the two candidates.

Joining us now is CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and the former spokesperson for North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum's 2024 presidential campaign, Lance Trover. Great to have you both here.

All right, so let's just dive into some of the polling we're looking at, OK. It shows a dead heat between Harris and Trump, but among Latino voters, Harris is leading 56 to Trump's 37 percent. It sounds good, but that's actually pretty low for Democrats. She's underperforming compared to the last three of her party's candidates. How concerning are those numbers to you, and what could she do to boost them?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first, I will say that Democrats should always be concerned, because that's the only way you win. A -- a note on the numbers that you are quoting, that's from a "New York Times" poll. There is a "CBS" poll that came out two days ago that has her at 65 percent and has Trump at 33 percent. There are other polls, both a Latino poll, a Hispanic Federation poll, a Pew Research poll, an Univision poll that has her in the mid to low 60s with Latino voters and has Donald Trump in the mid to low 30s, which seems to be his ceiling with Latino voters.

So she is at right now what Joe Biden had and won with in 2020. Now that is by no means to say that we should be spiking the football.

BROWN: -- you look at is what you --

CARDONA: Well, right. But what I'm saying is that the polls that actually have very robust numbers of Latino voters, right, the sample sizes need to be large and robust in order to get the numbers correctly. They have to do bilingual polling as well. A lot of the national polls don't do that. So that's why it's better to focus on the myriad, it's not just one, myriad of polls that know how to pull Latino voters, that have her in the mid to low 60s, which is where she needs to be.

Absolutely she's going to continue to go out there and talk about how she is the one that will fight for Latino voters. There's only one candidate here that wants to keep families together. Donald Trump, wants to rip families apart, wants to put in mass deportation, wants to put in proposals for the economy that will raise taxes and will lower the economic opportunity, especially for Latino voters in this country. The racist, xenophobic attitude of this press -- of -- of the former president, is not something that the majority of Latino voters want.

BROWN: Right. So Lance, to bring you in on what Maria said, and to get your viewpoint on this, because Trump does continue with his sort of dark anti-immigrant rhetoric. But according to The New York Times/CNN poll, which I know Maria has issues with --

CARDONA: Thank you for pointing that.

BROWN: He -- he seems to be, you know, gaining ground with them, and again, they -- they don't vote in a monolith, as I was just dis -- discussing with David Chalian. But why do you think that is?

LANCE TROVER, FORMER SPOKESPERSON, GOV. BURGUM'S 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Shocker, Maria and I are not going to agree on this issue completely. There is angst you hear from the Democratic Party, and there is a reason for that. And that is because they are seeing both internally and publicly, what Republicans are seeing both internally and publicly, and that is the trend lines for Kamala Harris are not good right now.

We are three weeks out of an election. Campaigns at this juncture are looking at the trend lines. You are looking at what happened in presidential races previously, but more importantly, you are looking at the trends moving forward. She is having issues with Latino voters. She is having issues with African Americans. And she is having trouble distinct with the union and blue collar workers that are critical for Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and that type of trend three weeks out is not where you want to be, where you're losing voters and not gaining that are going to Donald Trump.

[11:20:12]

I'm not saying this isn't going to be a close election. I'm not saying she can't win it. But at three weeks out, the cake, you know, the cake isn't fully baked, but we're definitely in the oven at 350.

BROWN: All right, let me just follow up really quick. Just it -- it may seem like a curveball question, but why was Trump in California just three weeks until the election? Is that you would have advised?

TROVER: Well, I mean, look, I think -- I think Donald Trump is a unique entity into all of American politics. Anywhere he goes, he's going to command attention. I would remind people there are a lot of competitive House races out in Southern California, which galvanizing Republicans out there, it's not a terrible thing. I think this is somebody who be anywhere and go anywhere. He takes advantage of earned media everywhere he goes every single day, and so I -- I don't see any big issue with it.

BROWN: All right. Go ahead.

CARDONA: There's a couple of other trends talking about trends that I would like to point out. If we're going to look at this "New York Times" poll, then let's look at the person who now the majority voters see as a candidate of change. That's Kamala Harris. Let's look at the person that majority voters see is a person who is going to look out for people like me, right? That is Kamala Harris. Let's look at the person who voters now look at is almost even and even in some other polling with Donald Trump on the economy, let's look at the numbers that show her gaining ground on immigration. And it's because she is talking about solutions. She does not talk about a divisive, dystopian, ridiculous America that Donald Trump talks about every single day that he's -- at his rallies, that divides people, that insults communities, that insults American cities, that is not what the American people want. And Kamala Harris, is there talking about solutions, talking about an economic opportunity economy, talking about what she wants to do for black voters, what she wants to do for Latino voters.

But what she wants to do for the majority of middle class, working class voters, which is somebody who's going to champion them every day, not somebody who is a 34 times convicted felon who is only in this for himself and to stay out of jail.

BROWN: Lance, final thoughts from you.

TROVER: I -- I think we've seen the polling out there. Voters are very clear eyed about who Donald Trump is at this point. I think he's in the driver's seat in this election.

CARDONA: Oh, see, and I would rather be us than them structurally, with money, with infrastructure, with the ground game, Kamala Harris has a campaign that is built to win.

BROWN: All right. Maria Cardona, Lance Trover, you both got your messages out there. Thank you both.

CARDONA: Thanks Pam.

BROWN: And when we come back, hurricane misinformation, it's now having real world impacts. FEMA is forced to adjust its operations in Helene affected North Carolina after threats against workers. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:27:27]

BROWN: Well, new this morning, some FEMA aid is paused in North Carolina after reports of armed militia threats and some FEMA teams that are helping Hurricane Helene victims are now working from secure sites instead of going door to door. That's because workers in two counties received these threats. And the agency says it's now working to assess the threats and protect those workers. CNNs, Gabe Cohen is here with us now. What do we know about these threats, Gabe?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, Pam, FEMA has pulled these response teams back a little bit, and it is because of these disturbing threats that they've been receiving. Look, it's been happening for days and days now, ever since Hurricane Helene hit -- hit. But really it hit a boiling point over the weekend when National Guard troops that were in western North Carolina encountered what "The Washington Post" described as armed militias that said they were out there hunting for FEMA.

And so immediately, FEMA responded and said, we need to pull people back. They sent CNN a statement saying, for the safety of our dedicated staff and the disaster survivors we are helping, FEMA has made some operational adjustments. Those disaster recovery centers will continue to be open as scheduled. Survivors continue to register for assistance, and we continue to help the people of North Carolina with their recovery.

But look it is critical that inspectors, FEMA inspectors, are able to go home to home. It's part of the process when people request assistance who have lost everything. That's part of the process to approve those application -- applications that get money in their pockets. So it could slow things down if they can't have their workers going door to door in western North Carolina. And we also know this is a real reflection of this flood of misinformation that we have seen since Helene and now since Milton, a lot of it has been fueled by former President Donald Trump, as surrogates' people online.

And we have local officials in these impacted areas, both Democrats and Republicans, who are begging those who are spreading rumors to stop it, to cut it out. One in particular, Congressman Chuck Edwards, a Republican who represents western North Carolina, put out a fact check last week, and it was stunning to read he is telling his constituents, essentially, do not believe that the government is going to take your land just because you were hit by a storm. It is not true. Do not believe that FEMA recovery money is all being spent on undocumented immigrants. That is not true. And do not believe that the federal government is going to bulldoze impacted communities from the storm. That also not true.

[11:29:52]

And look, there are implications here. Obviously there's the safety of these FEMA workers, but there's also a lot of concern that there could be people on the ground in these communities who are desperately in need of help, one who are now waiting for that help. But also, what about the vulnerable people who are buying into these rumors, who are too scared now to --