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CNN International: Inflammatory Rhetoric at Trump Madison Square Garden Rally; Harris Makes Appeal to Latino Voters in Philly as Trump Rally Speaker Disparages Puerto Rico in NYC; Gaza Hostage and Ceasefire Talks Begins in Doha; Counting all the Votes Likely to Take Days; Democrats have Countered in Court to Defend Election Policies Under Attack; Scientist Develop AI Algorithm to Decode Pig Sounds. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired October 28, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
AMARA WALKER, CNN HOST: Hi everyone. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Amara Walker. This is CNN Newsroom. Just ahead, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris start making their final pitch to U.S. voters. On Sunday, Trump and his supporters intensified their attacks on migrants and Harris herself, while the Vice President sought out younger voters.
And another round of Gaza Ceasefire talks begins in Doha, but for the people of Gaza, the nightmare continues with more Israeli strikes over the weekend. And we take a look at a dramatic election result in Japan that has plunged the country into political uncertainty.
Just one week and one day until the U.S. picks its next president and then two candidates, their closing messages could not be more different. On Sunday night, Donald Trump held a major rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It featured speakers who used inflammatory rhetoric, including one who called Kamala Harris the anti-Christ and another who referred to Puerto Rico as a floating island of garbage.
The Trump campaign leader disavowed that remark. Now, for his part, Trump again, portrayed illegal immigrants as violent criminals who have invaded the country in what some say is one of the darkest closing messages in U.S. political history. Here is just a small sample.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will put these vicious and blood thirsty criminals in jail. We'll kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: By contrast, Kamala Harris is trying to portray a more hopeful vision for the future. She made multiple stops across Philadelphia Sunday, including a barber shop catering to black men as she tried to rally some of her core constituencies. In a speech, she spoke directly to young voters, telling them that she will address their biggest concerns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know you are rightly impatient for change. You are rightly impatient. You who have only known the climate crisis, you are leaders in what we need to do to protect our planet. You who grew up with active shooter drills, you know what we have to do to fight for safety in our schools.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: Let's get more from both of the candidates. Steve Contorno is tracking the Trump campaign, and Priscilla Alvarez is watching Kamala Harris. Steve, let's get to you first. And as we're saying, not just a fiery rally, but very disturbing, very dark message from Trump for his closing argument. How has all that gone down with Republicans?
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, to summarize, it was called racist, not funny and classless, and that's the Republican reaction to those remarks about Puerto Rico. The Trump campaign, as you said, also saying that joke was does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign. So clearly, the party and the candidate addressing in a sort of retro-active way, trying to clean up some of the fallout from yesterday's rally.
But look, the former president's message remains very dark and offensive to many people, and that is the part that they have actually scripted out yesterday. And they played -- put millions of dollars behind an advertisement in the Philadelphia Eagles football game that said our country is, quote, gone to hell, and this is what he had to say at his own rally about migrants and what he would do day one if he is installed as president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The day I take the oath of office, the migrant invasion of our country ends and the restoration of our country begins. We will put these wishes and blood thirsty criminals in jail. They kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible. I'm here by calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or law enforcement officer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONTORNO: So that is very much the closing message from Donald Trump's campaign. And look, Donald Trump has believed since the beginning of this race that immigration could be the most motivating topic for people. It worked for him in 2016. He lamented the fact that he could not run on immigration and the border as president in 2020 because he was an incumbent and because he had spent so much time trying to tell people that he had fixed the problem.
Well now here we are, four years later, and his closing message to voters is very much still focused on the issue that got him into this political arena 10 years ago, immigration and the U.S. southern border.
WALKER: All right. And to Priscilla now with the Kamala Harris campaign. She was focusing on young voters, black male voters as well. What was her message?
[08:05:00]
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, over the course of Sunday, she blitzed around the Philadelphia area doing exactly that, trying to lock in her core constituencies with black voters and Latino voters. And of course, this was all done in battleground Pennsylvania that is crucial to their strategy to win those 270 Electoral College votes when paired also with Wisconsin and Michigan.
Now the vice president, you're seeing images there, she stopped at a Puerto Rican restaurant while she was there. This was pre planned. This was before those comments at the former president's rally in New York City. But it was something that the campaign immediately cited on or as soon as those comments happened, saying that the vice president was outlining her vision for Puerto Rico while in Pennsylvania.
And it's critical here to note that Pennsylvania has a really big Latino population, but more importantly, as well, a Puerto Rican population, so that is why there was a focus yesterday on trying to shore up support there. Now, to the surprise of the campaign, Bad Bunny had posted on his Instagram a clip of the vice president explaining her policies for Puerto Rico.
Now I'm told that the Harris campaign had been in touch with Bad Bunny's team over the last several months to try to get him to lend his support to the vice president's plan for Puerto Rico, but they were surprised to see him do it yesterday, and that, of course, is important, because Bad Bunny holds incredible influence over the Latina vote and the Puerto Rican vote.
He is a superstar and one that they had again hoped would endorse her. Now this is not quite an endorsement, but it is support, so they were very much celebrating that publicly and privately. But in addition to all of that, the focus yesterday and in the days to come is throwing up black support.
If you look at polling, the vice president has been grappling with some waning enthusiasm among black voters, especially young black men. And part of that, or part of trying to make up for that, is the vice president going on multiple platforms to speak directly to them. That includes a podcast from Former NFL Player Shannon Sharp that was released today. Take a listen to that interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: You think he's having you over for dinner? You think that when he's going -- when he's with his buddies, his billionaire buddies, he's thinking about what we need to do to deal with addressing, for example, my work around what I'm doing to address disparities in black men's health, around colon cancer, around what we need to do around screenings. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ALVAREZ: Now the vice president today, will continue on to Michigan. That is where she plans to talk about manufacturing jobs, as well as unions and appealing to union workers. So, as we are hitting the final stretch of the presidential election, what we're seeing from the vice president and her team is again trying to lock in her support, her coalition be with black voters, Latina voters, union workers, among others.
And doing so in these three critical swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which President Biden only narrowly won. They know it's going to be a very close race, so they are blitzing across the blue wall, as it's known, to try to clinch support from all their constituencies in addition to much more battleground travel over the next several days.
WALKER: As we all understand, every single vote will count, especially in these battleground states. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you and Steve Contorno thank you as well. With more on the extreme rhetoric on stage at Trump's New York rally, we are joined now by CNN Politics Senior Reporter Steven Collinson. And Steven, let's first start. Let's play an excerpt from what we heard from Trump and his allies last night. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY HINCHLIFFE, COMEDIAN: There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it's called Puerto Rico.
SID ROSENBERG, RADIO HOST: She is some sick -- that Hillary Clinton, huh? What a sick son of a -- the whole -- party a bunch of degenerates.
DAVID REM, REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN: Can you imagine Kamala Harris performing a random, kind, generous act? She is the devil whoever screamed that out. She is the anti-Christ.
GRANT CARDONE, BUSINESSMAN: Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country. We need to slaughter this other people.
TRUMP: They're smart and they're vicious, and we have to defeat them. And when I say the enemy from within, the other side goes crazy. They are indeed the enemy from within.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: Stephen, just so much hate emanating from there racism, misogynistic comments, the grievance filled speeches that were -- we've become accustomed to hearing from Trump. I mean, what did you make? What are we to make of this being Trump's closing argument?
[08:10:00]
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I think the only conclusion you can draw is that the former president and his team think this is the smart political way to go. I've seen some people talking about how some of those extreme statements detracted from the former president's economic message.
And as you said, the campaign disavowed the remark about Puerto Rico. But that was at an event that was held by the former president. Everyone there supported him, and he is trading in his own extreme rhetoric on immigration. I think what has happened is that his message -- there's been an evolution since 2016 then he was playing these anti-immigrant lines.
He thought that was the way to whip up his most loyal supporters, and it was proven right. This election he's going to step further. He's linking that with an economic argument. So, he says, for example, unfortunately, that legal Haitian migrants to Ohio taking resources from Americans make it impossible for them to have a good life.
He talked about after the hurricane in North Carolina again, falsely, that Kamala Harris had given away all the aid money to illegal migrants. He's arguing to Americans that the problems they have economically, the cost of groceries, perhaps difficulties in finding high paying jobs are because of what he calls an immigrant invasion.
Blaming outsiders for economic problems is a classic trope of authoritarian right-wing leaders throughout history. So, I think the campaign believes that not only does this get Trump's most loyal voters out on November the 5th, it may also help to activate people who share his views but don't necessarily habitually turn up to vote in general elections so he can expand his electorate.
WALKER: I wonder if this time around, it could backfire. I do want to read just a snippet of what you wrote on cnn.com in an article entitled "Trump unveils the most extreme closing argument in modern presidential history". You wrote much of Trump's speech brimmed with falsehoods and exaggerations. It was exactly the kind of rhetoric that the Harris campaign believes could prompt moderate voters and disaffected Republicans to choose the vice president.
But it also represents a bet from the Republican nominee that he can drive out a huge base turnout and activate voters who don't normally cast ballots but who agree with his hard-line politics. Steven, I mean, we've seen time and time again that Trump with his inflammatory comments.
It hasn't been a huge political liability for him, but you just heard there from Priscilla Alvarez reporting. Now you have a Puerto Rican super star, like Bad Bunny, who has what, 45 million followers on Instagram. Now he is signaling support for Harris after these comments disparaging Puerto Rico. Do you think what Trump did last night, along with his allies, could turn into a liability?
COLLINSON: Well, you can tell the Harris campaign thinks so in some respects, because she has returned to this argument in recent weeks that Trump is an extremist. She's been willing to address questions about whether he is a fascist. Former -- President Joe Biden, his former campaign, he talked a lot about how Trump was a threat to democracy.
And that message was slightly down played by Harris when she took over the nomination. I think what the theory is, is that if Trump alienates small numbers of voters, that could still be quite important in some of these swing states, where the result could be decided by tens of thousands of votes, Pennsylvania being an example.
There's also this group of voters, Republicans who don't like Trump, who voted in their tens of thousands for Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the primary election for the Republican nomination. If Harris can get some of those voters, she could also play down Trump's margins in areas where his strongest in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
That's why you saw Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney out on the campaign trail warning about the dangers of Trump with Harris in recent weeks. So, a lot of this what's going on now is not necessarily trying to change the mind of Trump voters, but for holding up Trump's comments, and Harris is now saying Trump's extremism isn't just dangerous, it could cause economic effects which could hurt everyday Americans.
So, she's also got her own linkage between the extremism Trump and economic argument mirroring Trump's argument, and that's what I think the campaign is trying to do in the final days. It's all about shifting a few 1000 votes in what they expect to be a very close race.
WALKER: It's remarkable, and we will be hearing from Vice President Kamala Harris tomorrow, just a week from Election Day.
[08:15:00]
She'll be giving her closing argument on the ellipse in Washington. The ellipse, of course, the same location where Trump gave that speech telling his supporters to fight like hell. And then, of course, January 6th, the insurrection happened that day. Stephen Collinson, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
WALKER: Well, the latest round of Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks have begun in Qatar. But a source says no significant progress is expected until after a winner is declared in the U.S. election on November 5th. This as the United Nations issues a stark warning about the dire situation in Northern Gaza, saying the entire population there, the entire population is at risk of dying.
Israel is vowing to keep up its nearly month-long assault around the Jabaliya Refugee Camp in North Gaza for at least a few more weeks. Separately, Gaza's civil defense says several people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school near Gaza City, where hundreds of displaced families were sheltering. Israel says it targeted a Hamas control center in the compound.
Meanwhile, Iran is vowing what it calls an appropriate response to Israel strikes over the weekend, but says it does not seek a wider war with Israel. Let's bring in CNN's Jeremy Diamond now, who is joining us from Jerusalem. Jeremy, obviously, the fighting is still raging. The strikes are still coming from Israel, at least into Gaza right now, and Lebanon. What are we learning about what's happening on the ground versus this latest round of ceasefire negotiations?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, we saw that yesterday some of the top negotiators involved in these ceasefire negotiations assembled together in Doha, Qatar. It included the Head of the Mossad Israel's Intelligence Service, as well as the CIA Director, Bill Burns, meeting with the Qatari Prime Minister.
And this latest round of negotiations, though it's not clear that they're going to go anywhere fast, anytime soon. In fact, the expectation is that we will have to wait until after the U.S. Presidential Election next week before there's any kind of real progress on this.
But as these negotiations restart, the Egyptians have now put forward a new ceasefire proposal that is kind of looking to break the mould with the main proposals that have been on the table for months on end. And that is, instead of looking for some kind of a grand -- you know three phase deal that would ultimately lead to an end of the war in Gaza.
They are now talking about something far more limited in scale. A two- day ceasefire that would see the release of four Israeli hostages in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. And the goal isn't just to do a two-day ceasefire. It's also to allow for negotiations then to happen over the course of ten days in order to try and reach a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
It's not clear how tenable that idea actually is, but it is being discussed by the Egyptians, the Americans as well as the Israelis. And part of this is also aimed at trying to understand a little bit better who is actually able to negotiate on Hamas's behalf, and to what extent are they open to ceasefire negotiations at this point, following the killing of Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar and a number of other senior leaders in Hamas.
WALKER: All right. And also, you know, we were mentioning the strikes in Gaza, what more do we know -- what's -- about what's been happening over the weekend?
DIAMOND: Well, the United Nations is warning that life is becoming untenable in Northern Gaza, and that the entire population is at risk of dying if things continue as they are. And that's because we've seen the Israeli military carrying out not only an assault, but really appearing to besiege major parts of Northern Gaza, allowing very little aid to actually enter the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
We saw an operation at Kamal Adwan Hospital late last week that resulted not only in the detention of dozens of health care workers at that hospital, but also damage to the facility itself, including to the oxygen center at the facility. I actually pressed an Israeli military official during a briefing earlier today about that, and he acknowledged that Israeli forces did indeed destroy oxygen tanks at the facility, insisting that they, quote, could be booby trapped.
And he also said that an oxygen tank that explodes can cause more than significant damage to the hospital and to our forces. The Israeli military says that there was significant fighting with Hamas around the hospital, although they said that there were no fire fights inside the grounds of the hospital.
They claim to have arrested some 100 Hamas terrorists they say, although it's not clear how many of those 30 health care workers at the hospital are actually included in that number? This military official also said that they believe this operation in the Jabalia Refugee Camp is expected to continue for several more weeks.
[08:20:00]
And that there are still an estimated nearly 10,000 civilians in Jabalia who they say are being encouraged to leave, Amara.
WALKER: All right, Jeremy Diamond, appreciate your reporting as always. Thank you so much. And let's take a closer look at all these developments in the Middle East. H.A. Hellyer is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. He is also a Middle East Studies Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is joining us now from Cairo, Egypt.
H.A. thank you so much for your time. What are your thoughts on what's being floated right now in these latest rounds of Gaza ceasefire talks. Egypt proposing this two-day Gaza ceasefire, just two days for a small exchange of hostages and prisoners.
H.A. HELLYER, MIDDLE EAST STUDIES SCHOLOR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Thank you very much for having me on the program. There are a few things here. First of all, it's not a ceasefire proposal. We're talking about a pause in hostilities. It's not -- it shouldn't be framed as a ceasefire proposal, because the Israelis have made it very clear that they're not interested in a ceasefire proposal. They're talking about a pause and hostility so they can get hostages out.
A ceasefire would mean that we're looking at a permanent cessation of hostilities and moving on to the day after. The Israelis have made it very clear that the day after will include a permanent presence of Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza. They've already assigned somebody, a major general, I believe, to manage quote, unquote, the civilian population in Gaza itself.
There's legislation currently in the Knesset that looks at banning contact with UNRWA, the UN agency that would be -- that's usually responsible for civilian humanitarian needs and others in the Gaza Strip. So that -- you know the idea that we're moving towards some sort of a negotiation where political settlement is actually on the table. It's not on the table. It's not being discussed.
The Israelis have made it very clear they do not intend to leave Gaza, whether -- you know in the next few weeks, the next few months, or, frankly, in the next few years, on the country, there's even talk about resettling Gaza from senior ministers of the Israeli cabinet.
WALKER: Then what changes after the U.S. election? And I'll ask more specifically, let's say Trump were to win re-election. We know it's no secret that Netanyahu obviously favors Trump. We know that they have spoken in the last few days, at least according to Trump, that's what he has said in his rallies. Under a potential Trump presidency, would this war look different?
HELLYER: So, we were speaking in hypotheticals, right? All we can go off of is what the Trump administration -- what the Trump campaign and Donald Trump himself has said, which is he would empower Netanyahu to finish this war quickly. And I'm not quoting verbatim here, but basically, take off any breaks that exist.
So, the Trump campaign's criticism of the Biden Administration at present is that they seem to think that there's been some sort of restriction from the Biden Administration over Netanyahu. I don't happen to agree with that analysis, but I think that that's the perspective that they hold, and that they would see it in their interest to remove any restrictions on Netanyahu in terms of moving forward, which I think is why Netanyahu favors a return of Trump to the White House.
So, it might mean, quote, unquote, the war ends. But I also question this type of framing of the war ending. From the Israelis point of view, I think the war is over when it comes to Gaza, I think this is already the day after scenario. We're already in it. There will be no return of the PA, the Palestinian Authority, to Gaza.
There will be a permanent presence of Israeli troops on the ground. Gaza is being separated into several different zones. As I said, there's a suggestion of resettling, particularly the north of Gaza, by Israeli ministers of state. So, I'm not sure that -- you know the idea of ending the war is really on anybody's mind, because I think that, from the Israelis perspective, this is now going to be the post war scenario.
And I don't think that we can rely on a Trump Administration to sort of turn that back, whether in terms of occupation in Gaza or the West Bank, or any progress on any political front.
WALKER: Fascinating perspective. H.A. Hellyer, we're going to have to leave it there, but thank you for your time. And still to come, Japan's new prime minister says he will not step down after a snap election delivers bitter results for his ruling party.
[08:25:00]
Plus, toxic air pollution blankets Northern India ahead of a major festival, we'll have the details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: Election results in Japan have plunged the country into political uncertainty, with the ruling coalition losing its majority for the first time in 15 years. But new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is signaling he will remain in his post. That is after voters punished his Liberal Democratic Party over a funding scandal. CNN's Marc Stewart has more.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After this monumental defeat, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is bruised but defiant. He says he is not stepping down. He has two big tasks. One, tackling a long list of issues, and two, winning the support of people outside his coalition and the Japanese public. And as such, he's acknowledging the need for some reflection. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIGERU ISHIBA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER: I recognize that the biggest reason is because people's doubts, distrust and anger regarding politics and money have not gone away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: Among his challenges, Japan is reeling from a political scandal involving kickbacks and lawmakers failing to declare their income. There are also economic issues, including a weak Yen and high inflation. The prime minister also has a strong relationship with the United States, which is important for diplomatic, economic and military reasons.
And by the way, Japan's stock index, the NIKKEI is responding favorably closing Monday showing some gains. The Yen, however, slumped to a three-month low Marc Stewart CNN Beijing.
WALKER: Thick toxic smog is choking Northern India and Eastern Pakistan just days before the start of a major Hindu festival. Diwali, the Hindu "Festival of Lights" is set to begin Thursday, and is typically celebrated with fireworks that each year exacerbates air pollution. Air quality across the region is set to worsen as winter smog season approaches.
LA Dodgers Japanese Superstar, Shohei Ohtani, is expected to play in game three of the World Series on Monday, despite injuring his shoulder during game two on Saturday. Ohtani was hurt while trying to steal second base in the bottom of the seventh inning. Team Manager Dave Roberts says Ohtani will have to go through the team workout and batting practice, but doesn't see a reason to bench Ohtani if he can play through the pain.
The Dodgers currently have a 2-0 lead over the New York Yankees in the best of seven series. Still to come, a look at how the votes will be tallied on Election Day in the U.S. and why it could create illusions about who is actually winning? Plus, a barrage of Republican legal challenges is working hand in hand with Donald Trump's campaign strategy. We're going to look at how that is all playing out.
[08:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: Back now to our top story in the closing days of the U.S. presidential election. With just eight days to go, the candidates are hitting the swing states as much as they can. Donald Trump is in Georgia today with the rally planned in Atlanta focused, supposed to be focused on the economy.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris will spend today in Michigan, and she will also have a pair of powerful surrogates rallying Pennsylvania voters, as Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are appearing together there. Meanwhile, a brand-new CNN poll shows deep concerns from Americans about what will happen after the election.
88 percent of registered voters think there is an obligation for the losing candidate to accept the results and concede, but about 7 in 10 think Donald Trump will not do that if he loses. The vast majority of Americans think Harris will concede if she loses. Now, the way votes get counted in the U.S. could impact when we know the winner and loser of the race.
There are often delays in the way states count mail-in ballots, and that can create the illusion one side is winning when it really isn't. You may recall that in 2020. It took four days for CNN and other news organizations to call the race for Joe Biden, as all the mail-in votes were counted in key swing states.
Zachary Wolf, the CNN's Senior Politics Writer and Author of CNN's "What Matters" newsletter. Zach, good to see you this morning. We all know the race is dead locked. When does it look like we're going to have a good idea of the winner of this presidential race?
ZACHARY WOLF, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER: Well, I mean, polls are going to close at different times across the country on election night. And one of the key questions that you talked about there is how these mail-in ballots are going to be counted. They're going to be a lot fewer of them this year. It's the pandemic is not happening.
More people are voting early in person. They're going to vote on Election Day. So, we're talking about fewer mail-in ballots that could cause less in the way of delays. And also, a number of states have changed the way they count these ballots. Just think about taking many thousands of mail-in ballots out of envelopes, and, you know, trying to verify the signatures on them.
It takes more time to count mail-in ballots, so things should go faster because there are fewer of them, and a lot of states are now able to start the process of taking them out of the envelopes before Election Day. That said there are a few states, and they are key states, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, that don't allow quite as much pre work to be done. So, it still could be very close.
[08:35:00]
And also, I think, just in the event of a very close race in any of the states, you know, nobody is going to be able to project, if it's a few states or a few votes separating the two candidates, we're not going to be able to project a winner. We're going to have to wait until every vote is counted. And there will be overseas ballots that could come in, there are provisional ballots. So, this could take days. And just think back to 2020. There were eight states that we didn't know on election night who the winner was going to be. Seven of those states are still the battleground state. So, it's not like the map has changed very much this year.
WALKER: And of course, that there's that concern, right? That the longer it takes to count the votes, that's going to open opportunities for conspiracy theories to throw out misinformation and disinformation out there regarding fraud, even if there's no evidence, and of course, create some chaos. Have states then made changes, Zach, to speed up or slow down the vote counting process since 2020?
WOLF: Yeah, and in particular, Georgia has made a lot of changes in North Carolina too. North Carolina, they're not counting any mail-in ballots that get there after Election Day. So, that will certainly shrink the number of mail-in ballots that are available for them to count.
And in Georgia, they did change their pre-processing rules. Their Secretary of State said recently he thinks that most of the votes in Georgia, 70 percent of them, could be ready to display on election night when polls close by 08:00 p.m. So, we could know Georgia very early, unless it's very close. And then it will take more time.
WALKER: All right, we will just have to be patient and expect it to take a few days. CNN's Politics Reporter Zachary Wolf, thank you. Good to see you.
WOLF: Thanks.
WALKER: When Former Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley ended her campaign, she went on to endorse Donald Trump and recommended her supporters do the same. But in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, not everyone is following suit. CNN's John King spoke to some Haley voters who are opting to vote for Harris instead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS (voice-over): Michael Pesce is methodical, a stickler for detail and preparation. Pennsylvania's archery deer season is now open. This range a place to shoot targets and adjust your gear. Rifle season is a month away, and at this stop, Pesce is no nonsense.
Just a few shots to help him adjust the site. Two more to let a visitor get a feel for the 30 odd six steer rifle. Conservative in every way. No wasted shots or time, everything by the book. Not a fan of surprises. Yet, Pesce is voting for Kamala Harris because he is even less of a fan of Donald Trump.
KING: You're going to vote for her. But do you know what you're getting?
MICHAEL PESCE, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: No, I don't, and that's the scary part is, you know, I'm not voting for a candidate, I'm not voting for a policy. I'm voting against a candidate, and policies, and not even all the policies, just, you know, the unstableness of some of the things he says, they're truly scary.
KING (voice-over): Pesce is a Reagan Republican supporting Nikki Haley in this year's GOP primaries, a never Trumper in a place where that really matters. Bucks County, one of the suburban Philadelphia counties crucial to the math in battle ground, Pennsylvania. He wants his party back and sees a second Trump loss as essential.
PESCE: Then I think that the Republicans will start coming back to what they were, because they don't have that radical right side. They don't have the craziness and the instability.
KING (voice-over): Berks County is a bit more away from the city, more rural and more Republican, yet not as deep and reliably red as just a few years ago.
JOAN LONDON, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: This neighborhood is becoming a lot like the Philadelphia suburb. This is a primarily Republican leaning borough always has been, but when it comes to national elections, I do see more and more support for Democratic candidates.
KING (voice-over): Attorney Joan London switched her registration to independent after voting for Haley in the GOP primary. London was asked to join this local political program not long after our first visit five months ago, back then, she told us she would write in a conservative because she viewed President Biden as too old.
And later she told us she viewed Vice President Harris as too liberal and untested, but then she watched the Harris-Trump debate.
LONDON: The last straw was what he said about the Ukraine, where he said that we have to have a negotiated settlement for someone who claims to be a conservative to say that was, in my opinion, outrageous. It's appeasement.
KING (voice-over): So, London is now voting Harris, voting Democrat for president for the first time, because she believes Trump must lose because she gets the battle ground state math.
LONDON: I needed to vote against allowing him to become president again.
[08:40:00]
I don't want it on my conscience that I contributed in some way to that. Sometimes you have to say American first, conservative second, Republican third.
KING (voice-over): Media is in Delaware County, just outside Philly, reliably blue now. But still a test of whether Harris can match or exceed Biden's 2020 math. It's also a big test for Trump. He lost the Philly suburbs in 2016 but narrowly won statewide. But he lost these suburbs by a bit more in 2020 and he narrowly lost Pennsylvania.
KING: We're getting to the end here. Have you made up your mind?
CYNTHIA SABATINI, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: No.
KING (voice-over): Cynthia Sabatini is another never Trumper, another Haley primary voter, another Republican who won't vote for him but isn't sure about her.
KING: Finish the sentence, Madam Vice President, if you want my vote here in the very important Philadelphia suburbs, you need to do.
SABATINI: You need to answer questions on point. You need to provide more details about your economic plan. You need to provide more details about your vision, also for this country. I'm bottom-line person. I want details.
KING (voice-over): Sabatini is mad at local Democrats she sees as tax and spend happy.
KING: Is she going to pay the price for that?
SABATINI: She may, she may.
KING (voice-over): But she does see an upside for Harris over Trump.
SABATINI: I believe she's a person of character. I have no qualms about that. I really do. I think she's an upstanding individual. It's just that I really don't know what to expect from her if she is indeed elected.
KING (voice-over): Sabatini meditates frequently to clear her mind and reduce stress,
SABATINI: Deep inhalations and long exhalations.
KING (voice-over): She predicts a final day decision to either vote for Harris or to write in Haley. A vote to help score the suburbs and settle the biggest of the battle grounds. John King, CNN, Media, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER: Just another fascinating look by our John King. John, thank you. Republicans have filed an unprecedented number of lawsuits ahead of the November 5th election, more than 130 lawsuits have been filed in an attempt to change the rules even as votes are being cast.
It's part of an aggressive legal approach by Republicans. It goes hand in hand with Donald Trump's strategy to use the courts to preemptively cast doubt on the election results, many more suits are expected in the coming weeks. CNN's Marshall Cohen joining me now with more on all this. So, break down what the top issues we are seeing play out in the courts, Marshall.
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Amara, more than 130 lawsuits. That's how many the Republican National Committee says they're involved in this year, and not without controversy, because they filed cases challenging nearly every element of the election process, mail- in voting, signature matching, ballot deadlines, the certification procedures for after the election is over.
They've also filed cases involving the voter rolls, poll watchers, and for the very first time, they have targeted overseas voting by military service members and expats who live abroad. So just in the past week, the Republicans secured a major victory in a case in Mississippi that's obviously not a swing state, and the ruling won't kick in right away.
But this could help the GOP in other states, that case was about the deadline for when mail ballots need to arrive in order to get counted. A conservative federal appeals court ruled that the ballots must arrive by Election Day. They cannot be postmarked by Election Day. That was a rare win for the GOP.
But also, in just the last few days, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected their lawsuit that tried to end ballot curing that's when voters whose mail ballots are rejected are given a chance to fix the problem and get their vote counted. So of course, Amara, this dizzying array of litigation comes while the man at the top of the Republican ticket, Donald Trump, has been spreading lies about many of these same election procedures.
And he has already baselessly questioned the legitimacy of the results before we've even reached November.
WALKER: That's right. What about the Democrats, Marshall? Have they countered with any of their own legal maneuvers?
COHEN: Well, they've certainly filed some lawsuits as well. And whenever the Republicans file their cases, the Democrats quickly step in to counter it. Democrats probably you would point to Georgia as their most successful intervention, but that wasn't necessarily to change the rules, so much like the Republican lawsuits have been, that one was to stop new rules.
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You remember, we've been talking about it for the past several weeks, those controversial new rules that the Trump backed state election board in Georgia rammed through several weeks ago that could have possibly delayed the results, delayed the counting.
Democrats rushed to court there, and multiple judges agreed to pause or strike down those rules, and those cases were brought by the Democrats. So just a lot of litigation, a lot of confusion, but so far, we have seen mostly failure in terms of the Republicans attempts to use the courts to change things up for this election, Amara.
WALKER: All right. Marshall Cohen, thank you very much. Still to come, Georgia's disputed parliamentary election we're talking about the country of Georgia, why the president refuses to recognize the results there that is just ahead. Plus, how AI could help humans understand how some animals are feeling. That's all ahead.
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WALKER: Georgia's pro-EU opposition says it is the victim of foul play after losing the country's parliamentary election. Now Saturday's disputed vote was seen as a choice between a closer future with Europe or Russia. The Georgian dream party secured just under 54 percent of the vote, while the collective opposition parties received 21 percent.
Georgia's President is calling for protests after announcing she will not recognize the results, adding that to do so would legitimize a Russian takeover. CNN Contributor, Jill Dougherty is a professor at Georgetown University and a Former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief, she's joining us now live from Tbilisi in Georgia.
Jill, can walk us through what's happening, the allegations from Georgia's opposition and what's behind it all?
JILL DOUGHERTY, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, essentially, the opposition is saying that this parliamentary election was carried out across the country, but there were egregious violations, including ballot stuffing, violence, you know, physical violence, fighting, stealing ballots, you name it, an entire list of what they would say are violations.
And after they said that, then there were international observers and Georgian election observers who gave numerous press conferences yesterday. In fact, there was another statement today, and they agreed that this election was not carried out according to international norms, or actually, as they put it, did not reflect the will of the Georgian voters.
And then the president, who is Western oriented, President Zourabichvili said, actually this was a Russian special operation, a hybrid operation, as she put it. So now we've today gotten some reaction from the Kremlin.
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And the spokesperson for President Putin is saying, we categorically reject this. It is not true. And in fact, he said that there are European countries that are trying to subvert or destabilize Georgia. So right now, we're just waiting for this protest, and we don't know how many people will be showing up, but it was announced by the President, and it is for the opposition to gather downtown, now actually about a 15-minute walk from here.
I was just down there, and they will try to make the point that they do not believe that this was actually a fair election.
WALKER: Yeah, so tell us more, Jill, just about some of the conversations you been having with the people. And also, are you feeling some tensions out there in the streets when you talk to the people?
DOUGHERTY: You know, so far, not, and I actually expected that it would be more tense. But, you know, walking down there, I was walking for about an hour, and it feels like a normal day, but behind the scenes, I can definitely tell you, speaking with the opposition, they are hustling throughout a strategy, because at this point, according to the official results, which, you know, international observers would question, they've lost.
And so, what are they going to do, now the president says number one has brought them together, which is very important. They're always fractured, but she brought them together in four coalitions. And last night, they stood shoulder to shoulder, saying we reject the elections and we're not going to participate in the parliament. So, that's where we are. It's really a standoff, and it is dramatic politically.
WALKER: Yeah, absolutely. We'll watch to see what happens next. Jill Dougherty, thank you so much for watching this for us. All right, still to come, setting sail in a giant pumpkin boat. How locals in a small Belgian town are making good use of their gourds this harvest season?
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WALKER: It looks like pigs are still a long way from flying, but thanks to scientists in Europe, they are that much closer to talking. Our Anna Stewart explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Does this indicate happiness, discomfort or stress? With the help of AI, European scientists developed an algorithm that may just be capable of decoding pig's noises, as well as keeping farmers updated on their pig's well-being.
To develop the AI algorithm, scientists collected thousands of recordings of pig sounds in various scenarios, including play, isolation and competition for food. Once collected, they were placed in a database.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You had this huge database of calls that are producing specific emotions, specific context, by many different pigs and kinds of pigs.
STEWART (voice-over): Scientists found short grunts typically signal positive emotions. Long grunts often indicate discomfort. Screams or squeals could show stress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We developed AI so artificial intelligence that could tell us be trained to tell us if the calls that we recorded were emotionally positive or negative.
[08:55:00]
STEWART (voice-over): The study of animal emotions is a relatively new field. It highlights the importance of livestock mental health to their overall well-being. Most welfare strategies today focus only on the animal's physical health.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And now, with the explosions of AI methods, it actually becomes more and more easy to do these things. STEWART (voice-over): Scientists hope this tool will be developed into an app for farmers phones helping to translate what pigs are saying in terms of their emotions. Anna Stewart, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER: And this just into CNN this hour, Manchester United has sacked its manager, Erik ten Hag. We will stay on top of this. Sunday's loss to West Ham was the final straw for the Dutch men. Manchester United sits 14th on the English Premier League table with just three wins in 14 games.
And finally, hundreds of kayakers in Belgium have taken part in a rather unusual tradition, paddling in giant carved out pumpkin boats. Those are pumpkins. The annual regatta taking place in the Town of Kasterlee. Organizers say the event began as a way of putting the oversized pumpkins to good use.
All right, that's my time. Thanks so much for being with me here on CNN "Newsroom". I'm Amara Walker. "Connect the World" with Erica Hill is next.
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