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Harris Delivers Last Major Speech of Presidential Campaign; Israeli Strike in Gaza Kills 93, Including 25 Children; Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Describes Urgent Need for Aid; Super Typhoon Kong-Rey Strengthens Quickly, Heads for Taiwan; Detroit's Plan to Prevent Repeat of 2020 Ballot Center Chaos; Bannon Out of Prison for Last-Week Election Push. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired October 30, 2024 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:03]

COATES: I'll be eager to see that bus with Thurgood Marshall as well and her office, and look at that as well.

Look, fans taking matters into their own hands in game four of the World Series tonight. It's the bottom of the first inning, Yankees player Gleyber Torres hitting a long fly ball heading for the stands. Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts leaps up for the ball. He makes the catch. Then come in the Yankees fans. One tries to rip the gloves off of Betts' hand, another firmly holds onto his wrist.

Both cheering when the ball drops from Betts' glove. But it all backfired because the play was ruled out as fan interference. And they were removed from the stadium. It was their loss. The Yankees pulled off an epic comeback scoring 11 runs and forcing a game five. Dodgers end the show with one piece of advice. Watch out for those Yankee fans.

Thanks for watching. "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" is next

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Anna Coren live from Hong Kong. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

Kamala Harris makes her closing arguments to a massive crowd at a symbolic setting, saying the election is a choice between freedom and division. Plus how election officials in the battleground state of Michigan are trying to avoid a repeat of the chaos that followed the 2020 election. And digging for bodies with bare hands in besieged northern Gaza as an Israeli strike kills more than 90 people on Tuesday.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Hong Kong, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Anna Coren.

COREN: Kamala Harris has delivered the final major address of her run for the White House on a stage that's symbolic and conveys the gravity of the choice facing voters. The U.S. vice president spoke along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday just steps away from the White House before a crowd of 75,000 people, according to her campaign. Well, this was the very same spot where outgoing president Donald

Trump stood on January 6th, 2021, when he urged his supporters to march the U.S. Capitol ahead of the deadly riot and insurrection.

Well, Harris told Americans their vote in this election will probably be the most important one they ever cast. That they're making a choice about whether they want to live in a country rooted in freedom, or one ruled by chaos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided. An afraid of each other. That is who he is. But, America, I am here tonight to say that is not who we are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: And Harris said it doesn't have to be that way. She also promised to seek common ground and common sense solutions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: My presidency will be different because the challenges we face are different. Now, our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic. and that are still too high. I will make sure you have a chance not just to get by, but to get ahead because I believe in honoring the dignity of work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: One week before election day, more than 50 million ballots have been cast across 47 states and the District of Columbia. And six states, including four key battlegrounds, have already exceeded 50 percent of their total votes from four years ago.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez was there for the Harris speech and has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris spent her closing arguments here at the Ellipse introducing herself again to voters. Heading into the remarks, senior advisers to the vice president said that they wanted to target undecided voters. Those voters who may still be on the fence, like disaffected Republicans or those who are just fatigued by former president Donald Trump.

And over the course of her remarks, the vice president laid out her policies and proposals on a number of issues, including on immigration, on health care, on reproductive rights. And as she did so, she compared each of those to the priorities of former president Donald Trump, essentially casting him as consumed by revenge or, in the case of the military, as someone disrespectful to the military service. Now, the vice president did, of course, spend some time talking about

January 6th. That speech back in January 6th of 2021 by former president Donald Trump leading to supporters storming the U.S. Capitol.

[00:05:02]

Now she talked about, again, the former president being focused on what she called, quote, "the enemies list" versus her to-do list for Americans. And what was telling about the remarks was how much time she was spending introducing and reintroducing herself. At one point saying that many of those that were watching may not know her well yet. A recognition of her truncated campaign but also her explaining that she has not spent all of her political career in Washington calling back to her time also in California.

And to that end, the vice president saying that she would welcome other opinions and include those who disagree with her at what she called a seat at the table. So again, the vice president, her team, seeing these remarks as the kickstart to the homestretch of the election, as she, again, tries to peel off those Republican voters from former president Donald Trump, but also convince those that the campaign believes still needs some convincing.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: With six days left to go, Donald Trump isn't waiting to begin suggesting the election is rigged after Pennsylvania election and law enforcement officials announced they were investigating some 2500 voter registration forms for suspected fraud.

Well, speaking at a rally in Allentown, Trump warned supporters they need to get their ballots in as soon as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They've already started cheating in Lancaster. They've cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. Now we caught them cold. 2,600 votes. Think of this, think of this, and every vote was written by the same person. I wonder who's that? It must be a coincidence. It must be a coincidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Trump also defended his controversial Madison Square Garden rally where speakers insulted everyone from Kamala Harris to the island of Puerto Rico. Trump described the events where a comedian called the U.S. territory a floating island of garbage as an absolute lovefest. That comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, Trump conceded probably he shouldn't have been there.

For more, I'm joined by Lara Putnam, a professor of history and director of global studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Lara, lovely to see you. Talk us through the symbolism of Kamala

Harris speaking, you know, where Trump held his January 6th rally and then fired up the mall, which led to a siege on the Capitol. Her message was of unity with that freedom sign in the background. Will this resonate with voters and most importantly, undecided voters?

LARA PUTNAM, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: Sure. Well, what we know is that, that location absolutely pounded home one of the themes the Harris campaign has sounded, especially in recent days, about the importance of democracy and about the threat that Trump's character presents to democracy. She's been emphasizing how former members of his own administration have come out and said that he's a fascist or similar to a fascist.

But what we know from polls and from research is that for undecided voters, those aren't really as compelling. So for some highly engaged Democrats and others, that theme of protecting democracy is a priority. But for the voters who Harris might not otherwise get, those undecided voters, the independents, the younger voters, people who are less politically engaged, that's really not what resonates most.

We know that what resonates most with them is a clear communication of what her economic policies and economic priorities are. And so, you know, I think what we saw tonight was Harris using the setting to reinforce the points that she was making about the value of democracy, about unity, about moving the nation forward. But she used the text to her speech to also make he sure she hit those points about making homeownership affordable, bringing down prices and protecting Medicare, protecting Social Security.

So, again, those core economic policy issues that we know are actually what are most likely to make the difference in for that independent voter, that undecided voter, who hasn't yet made up their minds to support her.

COREN: Harris framed the election as a choice of whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or one ruled by chaos and division. I guess, is this enough when we know that the economy and immigration are still the overriding issue in this election?

PUTNAM: Yes. I mean, that's the -- part of the question is, just how motivated to get to the polls the voters who have somewhat different priorities are going to be, and is there going to be a surge of -- you know, is Trump going to find even more voters in places like rural and rustbelt Pennsylvania, than he managed to find in 2020?

[00:10:02]

When I think, you know, so many people thought that his margins and the sheer turnout rate in some of those areas that he had achieved in 2016 was close to maxed out and then in 2020, turnout surge even more in those places. Of course, turnout for Biden surged as well, sort of even more, just barely enough to make the difference. So for sure we know that the theme of freedom, and sort of correlate the theme of reproductive freedom and abortion rights is really resonating strongly with women, especially but not only younger women this year. And it does seem like voters for whom that's a top priority are

extremely motivated to get to the polls. So it's sort of a, what we're waiting to see is how these different degrees of intensity as well as the different issue profiles balance out at the end of the day.

COREN: Trump has already been speaking about them, the Democrats stealing votes in Pennsylvania. Is this a preview of what we'll hear on November 5th and moving forward?

PUTNAM: Yes. Unfortunately I think we can expect that. I mean, we've seen him hang on to those false, proven false claims that there was -- those false claims that there was fraud in the vote count in Pennsylvania in 2020. He has clung to those claims. He pushed them through the aftermath of the election in 2020. Of course, all the way to that riot and the assault on the Capitol on January 6th. And he has clung on, clung to those same claims ever since.

And now they've been -- we've heard a sort of a drumbeat of, again, making false claims, false claims about non-citizens having access to the ballot, having access to vote in Pennsylvania, which is completely untrue, and false claims about mail ballots being insecure or they're being problems with the counting of mail ballots in Pennsylvania. Even as the campaign, the Trump campaign has been trying to convince more of their voters to make use of mail ballots, we've also still been hearing messaging from them calling to question the security of the mail ballot system.

COREN: Lara Putnam, we appreciate your analysis. Thank you for joining us.

PUTNAM: Thank you. Pleasure to be here as always.

COREN: Human rights groups are condemning an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in northern Gaza that killed dozens of Palestinians. Gaza's Health Ministry says at least 93 people, including 25 children, were killed in Beit Lahiya on Tuesday.

A warning images from the scene are disturbing. The Israeli military says it's, quotes, "trying to understand why so many people were in the city at the time of the strike as civilians had been ordered to evacuate several weeks ago. The U.S. State Department is calling the incident horrifying. And it's also calling the new Israeli law banning the U.N. agency for Palestinians deeply troubling.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These men aren't looking for survivors. Amid the rubble of another Israeli airstrike, they are here for the bodies. After all, how could anyone survived destruction on this scale?

More than 90 people were killed in this Israeli strike in northern Gaza early Tuesday morning, including 25 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. An Israeli military spokesman said the military was targeting a suspected terrorist in the area and did not intend to collapse the building. But the bodies have not yet all been counted as this man can attest.

Here's a body and here's another and another, he says, pointing out their locations.

And then there are the bodies of this boy's uncle and cousin, wedged between two thick slabs of concrete. A pair of feet is all that is visible.

Gaza's rescue workers cannot reach this part of northern Gaza, which has been besieged by the Israeli military for nearly a month. That means no heavy machinery, just bare hands sifting through the rubble.

Doctor Hussam Abu Safiya is one of just two doctors here, and he's growing desperate, calling for a humanitarian corridor to bring surgical teams to his hospital.

There are children with bones protruding from their bodies, needing orthopedic surgery. There are brain injuries that require neurosurgeons, he says.

But Israel's parliament may make matters worse. In an overwhelming vote, Israeli lawmakers moved to ban UNRWA, the main U.N. agency aiding Palestinians from operating in Israel or engaging with Israeli officials. Israel accuses UNRWA of ties to Hamas after linking a handful of its thousands of employees so the October 7th attacks, a blanket charge UNRWA vehemently denies.

It's a move the U.S. says could not come at a worse time.

[00:15:02]

MATHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: There's nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis. So we continue to urge the government of Israel to pause the implementation of this legislation.

DIAMOND: In Gaza that urgency is all too real.

If UNRWA is gone, who is going to feed us, who will provide us security, this young man asks. Who is going to take us in?

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Live now to Amman, Jordan and Dr. Nabeel Rana, a vascular surgeon who volunteered with MedGlobal at Nasser Hospital and Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza.

Doctor, thank you so much for joining us. You have just returned from Gaza. Your second trip there after working at both Nasser and Al-Aqsa hospitals. Described to us the horrors that you have witnessed and the conditions on the ground. DR. NABEEL RANA, VASCULAR SURGEON AND MEDGLOBAL VOLUNTEER: Yes. I just

returned about 10 hours ago and I'm still getting calls about everything, just continuing on every day. The reality is that, you know, you hear a story and that doesn't end, you know, the story for that day. That's just for that moment. It's just a continuation of indiscriminate killing of women, children, civilians every single day.

All the atrocities that have been described that I've described, that all my medical colleagues from around the world have described for months and months, just continues on every single day. And that's from a trauma standpoint, it's from a living conditions standpoint. All of this stuff just worsened and worsened and worsened, even in just the three months since I was there last. So it's been very, very difficult to return there and see what's happening, knowing that nothing is really improving or changing from the outside.

COREN: Talk to us about the resources inside the hospitals that you were working in. We just saw from Jeremy's package that a doctor in northern Gaza, you know, pleading for medical supplies. He talks about bones protruding from children's bodies. He's obviously at his wit's end. I mean, we hear about these acute shortages of medical supplies, these hospitals being completely overwhelmed, and very much at breaking point.

RANA: Yes. Look, it's been like that for months now. And so you can imagine that you're in the most dire and desperate situation from a medical aide's standpoint with no supplies, no equipment, have no personnel coming from outside, barely, and that doesn't improve over months, you can imagine the worst. It's really, really tough to describe. And that's the (INAUDIBLE) feeling there is everybody's at their wits' end.

As you say, they're exhausted, they're to the point of feeling hopeless, which is very difficult to see, because these are people who, you know, the last time I went no matter what happened, they kept going because they didn't have any other choice. And it's beyond, you know, I would say that three months ago I used the same thing that we're at the point of this entire system and society collapsing, and things have just gotten worse.

And so when you think it can't get any worse, it continues to. There's absolutely no medical supplies coming in. Every single thing from sutures to antibiotics and medicines to gauze to dressings is just running out, and you're just finding other things to replace. And I just don't know what else we can do to plead for help and there's just no response.

You know, this letter from the U.S. about two weeks ago with a 30-day window to try to improve humanitarian aid, I mean, you see what the response is. Aid organizations were banned from sending personnel in which was already almost nobody coming in, now they're talking about banning UNRWA, which is basically the backbone of humanitarian aid there. So instead of things improving, it's just, with impunity, making moves to make things even worse when you can't even imagine how much worse they can get. COREN: It is heroic work that you are undertaking when you go to Gaza.

But tell us about the staff who live there, who are from Gaza. You know, they can't leave. How are they coping day in and day out, dealing with the mass casualties that you are having to deal with on a daily basis?

RANA: I honestly don't know. I mean, I said this when I went three months ago, I don't know how they've been doing this. I'm a surgeon. I've been trained to deal with these kinds of things, to deal with tragedy and injuries, and things that, you know, most people aren't supposed to see and this is the most extreme case of that on a daily, regular basis.

[00:20:04]

And so I was there for a month in the summer. I was there for a month now, and it's mentally and physically exhausting to be dealing with this every single day and the most difficult day for me is the day I leave because I know that I'm able to leave, I'm able to leave the situation and go back to my regular life, but these people can't, and they have no choice, and they continue to show up every single day.

And I honestly don't know how they do it. And, you know, the little aid that we can provide is to give them some support, try to give them a break, try to assist with what we can, but it's very limited because we're not even allowed to take supplies in ourselves, not allowed to bring anything in that can actually help them, other than our physical body. And when you don't have anything to work with, how much can you actually do?

And so we show up, we go there, we stand, we work, we operate, we do these things right by their side. And we leave and they continue to do this every day. And one of the most important things to realize is that all these nurses and doctors and staff that continue to show up every day despite being targeted, despite coming from hospitals that have been destroyed, many of them have been detained and tortured, and they continue to come back to work, and these are also displaced people treating patients who are displaced people.

These are surgeons and nurses, ER physicians who are living in tents themselves in what I would call unlivable conditions. And yet they still continue to come to try to help who they can and it's as if, you know, your hands are tied, your feet are tied, you're blindfolded. And at that point, what can you possibly do, and they're pleading for the world to help. They're pleading for the world to try to stop what's happening, stop this genocide from continuing, and just even sending aid in to be able to help the people that are suffering.

And yet nothing, nothing is happening. And so it's very, very disheartening as an aid worker tried to go there and volunteer and see how helpless the situation is. I mean, it's beyond hopeless at this point. From three months ago, it's just worse and worse and I honestly, every day, I can't imagine how things can get any worse and somehow they continue to.

COREN: It's an absolute tragedy. Dr. Nabeel Rana, we commend you and your colleagues for the extraordinary work that you are doing inside Gaza. Thank you so much for joining us.

RANA: Thank you.

COREN: As Palestinians try to flee the bombardment in northern Gaza, a new photo shows what some men had to endure as they evacuate out of Jabalya. A large crowd of more than 200 people, mostly men and many are almost naked, some elderly, some are visibly wounded. They were detained and most were ordered by the Israeli military to stripped to their underwear, and held for hours outdoor in the cold.

The photo was taken on Friday and one survivor says Israeli soldiers insulted the group, called them names, laughed and took pictures. The Israeli military declined to comment on the photograph, but it has admitted to routinely detaining and strip-searching people in Gaza as part of its operation.

Lebanon is reporting its highest daily death toll in nearly a month. At least 82 people were killed and nearly 200 injured in Israeli attacks on Monday, according to Lebanese Health Ministry. According to CNN's tally, more than 2,000 people have been killed since Israel ramped up its campaign against Hezbollah in mid-September.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's senior council has elected Naim Qassem as the Iran-backed group's new secretary general. This comes after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike last month. State media says Iran's president is praising Qassem, calling him a, quote," right figure who will strengthen resistance against the country's foes.

Kong-Rey is now a super typhoon. We'll bring you the latest on the storm's path and the damage it's expected to bring as it makes its way towards Taiwan. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:26:19]

COREN: Take a look at floodwaters rushing through the streets of Valencia, Spain. Severe flooding tore down walls and swept away parked cars. Some areas saw up to 300 millimeters or 12 inches of rain in just a few hours on Tuesday.

Well, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says an unknown number of people are missing, and he's urging people to avoid going out in the floodwaters. Extreme rain warnings are in effect around Valencia and forecasters expect the warnings to continue through Wednesday for parts of eastern and southern Spain.

Kong-Rey has quickly strengthened to a super typhoon in the Philippine Sea. It's now as powerful as a category four Atlantic hurricane and could impact almost the entire island of Taiwan when it makes landfall early Thursday.

Our meteorologist Chad Myers has the latest forecast.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Now, a super typhoon, greater than 240 kilometers per hour is the threshold to get you there. This thing went from 120 to 230 kilometers per hour in just 24 hours. What an impressive rapid intensification headed right to Taiwan.

On the east side of Taiwan, there will be places that will pick up more than 500 millimeters of rainfall, half a meter. And that's the entire area that's white. That's the computerized forecast of how much precip is going to come down.

Now, there's going to be obviously flooding damage. But this is a wind event. Everything has a certain factor. Is it a wind? Is it a surge? Is it a flood? We know the one that moved through the Philippines didn't have much wind, but it certainly had flooding just last week. So this is what we're seeing here as the wind and the surge would probably be equal to or not even greater than the flooding potential here.

An awful lot of wind damage here. Many spots here all the way even into China are going to see tropical cyclone winds somewhere, maybe even over 100 kilometers per hour. And then on up toward Kyushu.

Now, Taiwan is no stranger to these big things. Since like 1950, there have been 30 Taiwan landfalls of what's an equivalent of a category four or five Atlantic hurricane. So yes, major damage can happen there in Taiwan and it does, but this year we've already had two and really another, but Krathon and also Gimme has already taken its toll there in damage across the eastern parts of Taiwan.

There's going to be more. Obviously we could even still see this continue to increase in intensity. Probably likely go down before landfall, but we're still going to have to watch this. This is going to be a very damaging and likely deadly storm.

COREN: Still to come, CNN gets exclusive access to Detroit's election center as early ballots are counted. We'll show you how officials are hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaos that followed the 2020 election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren.

[00:31:37]

In Michigan, a hotly contested battleground state in the U.S. presidential race, election officials in Detroit are hoping to prevent a repeat of four years ago when Republican demonstrators gathered out outside a convention center where ballots were being tallied, chanting for volunteers to stop the count.

This year, there are some changes to the process. CNN was given exclusive access to see how officials are trying to avoid more mayhem and get faster results.

Marshall Cohen has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What if I told you this could help prevent this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the count! Stop the count!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the count! Stop the count!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the count! Stop the count!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The scene here is incredibly tense.

COHEN (voice-over): For election officials in Detroit, that's the hope.

JANICE WINFREY, DETROIT CITY CLERK: Laws have changed. We have pre- processing now. That's helpful.

COHEN: That could speed up the results.

WINFREY: That certainly will speed up the results.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It's election night in America continued.

COHEN (voice-over): In 2020, vote counting dragged on past election night. As Joe Biden overtook Donald Trump on his way to winning Michigan, chaos erupted at the convention center where they were tallying mail ballots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're trying to steal the election.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: In Detroit, there were hours of unexplained delay in delivering --

COHEN (voice-over): This year, Michigan's new election laws could help avoid a repeat of the chaos.

COHEN: We've been granted exclusive access to the election center in Detroit where today, right behind me, they are processing about 10,000 mail ballots.

So, the ballots in this room very well could decide the election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, today after we received the ballots, my staff go through all of the mail.

COHEN (voice-over): Signed ballots and envelopes are fed into a new million-dollar sorting machine that Detroit bought after 2020. It snaps a picture of each document so clerks can compare the signatures to those on file.

COHEN: Can't get counted without a signature?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can't get counted without a signature.

COHEN: Now, why is that signature important?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The signature authenticates the actual ballot.

COHEN: When people out there say there's no verification, your response to that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're wrong.

COHEN (voice-over): CNN blurred personal information for the sake of privacy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's part -- it's the most human part of the process. Now, this one --

COHEN: This one looks pretty different.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty different. This one is a full name, and this one is two initials.

COHEN: So, what -- what happens here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, at this point, that returned ballot is rejected for further review.

COHEN (voice-over): But even with these safeguards and reforms, some Michigan Republicans still don't have faith in the process, like here in neighboring Macomb County, which Trump carried twice.

COHEN: So, you're no fan of vote-by-mail?

MARK FORTON, MACOMB COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIRMAN: No, I hate it. The drop boxes are terrible, because people just stuff anything in the drop boxes.

I voted by mail last time.

COHEN: Yes.

FORTON: Because I had a big family thing going on.

COHEN: So, you voted by mail?

FORTON: Once. By absentee ballot.

COHEN: You just told me -- I thought you said you don't trust it.

FORTON: I took it to the township. I don't. I took it to the township and put it inside the building at the clerk's office, straight to the box.

COHEN: So, you saw it go in?

FORTON: I saw it go in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the count! Stop the count!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the count! Stop the count!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the count! Stop the count!

COHEN: Four years ago, this was a very hot spot. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it was. Someone posted on social media, asking

for every Republican in the state of Michigan to come to Detroit. It was so crowded to the point where we had to stop people from coming in.

COHEN (voice-over): Federal prosecutors recently suggested the Trump campaign tried to incite a riot that day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden, we heard the walls and the windows rattling. And then people began to chant, "Stop the count, stop the count." And --

[00:35:07]

COHEN: Now, did you stop the count?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely not.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Look at your screen. At one site, workers put cardboard over the windows of a vote counting station, so no one can see in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These three windows were boarded up.

COHEN: Yes, that's it right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they were trying to board these up. But before they could, that's when I came over here, and I said, "Take all those cardboards down."

I hated this. I hate it when that happened.

COHEN: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

COHEN: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because this is all designed for transparency. This is democracy.

COHEN: Do you regret that those papers were put up on the window?

WINFREY: I don't. I don't regret anything we did to keep our poll workers focused and feeling safe. and if that's what it took for that to happen, I'll do it again.

You know, I'm a government employee. You know, I sign my name for living and swear people in. That's what it used to be. But now, I truly feel like the protector of democracy.

COHEN: So, according to the latest data, more than 75,000 ballots have already been cast by mail in Detroit, nearly 2 million across the entire state of Michigan.

Look, Joe Biden won in 2020 by three points. Everyone is expecting a very tight race this year. But with these new procedures in place, hopefully, the process will be a lot smoother.

Marshall Cohen, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Trump ally Steve Bannon went to prison for defying a subpoena in the investigation into the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Coming up, what he's planning to do, now that he's out of prison.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Trump ally Steve Bannon is out of prison. He was released Tuesday, one week before the election that could put his former boss back in the White House.

And he's looking to pick up where he left off, energizing Trump's base with his right-wing podcast and election-denying rhetoric.

CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He says four months in prison didn't break him; it empowered him. Now, just days before election day, Steve Bannon is out from behind bars and ready to fire up Donald Trump's MAGA base.

STEVE BANNON, TRUMP ALLY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: The 2020 election was stolen. OK? I will never back off that.

TODD (voice-over): One of the most influential agitators for Trump and a key mobilizer for Republicans, the 70-year-old Bannon is poised to try to light a fire with potential Trump voters in the final stretch before November 5.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: He might be able to energize some of the younger white males that are infrequent voters, who are pro-Trump but rarely show up. They seem to listen to him, and he has some special message for them, I'm sure.

TODD (voice-over): One of the levers Bannon will use for that is his provocative podcast, "War Room," which Bannon wasted no time returning to on Tuesday.

BANNON: So, No. 1, on November 5, we have to crush them at the ballot box.

[00:40:07]

TODD (voice-over): Sources tell CNN that, while in prison, Bannon kept in touch with loyalists, some of whom filled in for him on the podcast while he was incarcerated.

But while he was in jail, the podcast suffered, the rotating cast of guest hosts not able to attract as many listeners as Bannon could. Now that he's out, analysts say, Bannon could revive the fortunes of "War Room" and use the podcast as he did so effectively before, encouraging volunteers to head to polling places, challenge procedures, and potentially challenge results.

BANNON: We need to get people in the counting rooms. We need to get people around the tables to do ballot cheering.

TODD (voice-over): On Tuesday, Bannon already sowed doubt about the election results on the podcast.

BANNON: If they can't take it away from Trump, if they can't nullify it right there, they can't nullify it right there, they want to at least de-legitimize his victory.

TODD (voice-over): Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He'd been one of the most prominent voices in the Stop the Steal movement.

JOSHUA GREEN, AUTHOR, "DEVIL'S BARGAIN": From the moment the polls closed, Bannon was busy trying to stir up chaos, trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Joe Biden's election and trying to do everything he could to get Trump's supporters agitated.

TODD (voice-over): Including one ominous remark on his podcast the day before the January 6th attack.

BANNON: All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. Just understand this. All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.

TODD (voice-over): Still, there's no evidence that Bannon was involved in planning any aspect of the attack on the Capitol or that he knew it would happen.

TODD: While Bannon's podcast is viewed mainly as an engine for Trump's base, there's a chance that, now that he's back behind the microphone, he could make a difference in the election. Data from a prominent firm that researches podcasts found that about a third of Bannon's listeners were independent voters.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: A curator at a museum in New York City has discovered an unknown waltz written by Frederic Chopin. It's the first time that a new piece of work by the Polish composer has been uncovered in nearly 100 years.

Curators found that the ink and the paper used in the small manuscript found at the Morgan Library and Museum match those that Chopin normally used.

They also believe that the manuscript is so small that it might have been intended to be a gift for someone. Experts say the newly discovered waltz expands their understanding of

Chopin as a composer.

And finally this hour, the curious case of the black bear bandit. A surveillance camera at a home in Alabama caught this bear sniffing around a family's trash bin.

Pretty soon, the bear, standing on its hind legs, starts pulling the been away. The homeowners say he dragged it down the driveway, laid it in a neighbor's yard, and started eating the trash.

Well, they say he's no stranger to their home. And clearly, in this case, he just wanted his dinner to go.

Very clever little bear.

Thanks so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren. I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news. WORLD SPORT laugh is next.

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