Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Harris Delivers Her Final Speech of Her Campaign; Kong-Rey Intensified into a Super Typhoon within the Philippine Sea; CNN grants Exclusive Access to an Election Center in Detroit with Increased Security Measures in Place; Mother Sues an A.I. Chatbot Company for the Death of Her Son. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 30, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS (D), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: A rousing speech from Kamala Harris as both she and Donald Trump try to drive their message home with less than a week to go before election day.
A catastrophic situation in northern Gaza made worse as Palestinians dig for bodies in the rubble with their bare hands after more than 90 people are killed in an Israeli airstrike.
And later one mother's grief as she copes with her son's suicide while she's holding an artificial intelligence company responsible.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us. Well, Kamala Harris picks a prominent place for her big pitch to Americans one week before Election Day. The vice president's speech along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., attracted some 75,000 attendees, according to her campaign.
The location laden with symbolism, it was the same spot Donald Trump rallied his supporters on January 6, nearly four years ago, before they stormed the U.S. Capitol. Harris asking voters to choose freedom and unity over chaos and anger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: America, for too long we have been consumed with too much division, chaos and mutual distrust. And it can be easy then to forget a simple truth. It doesn't have to be this way. We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: When it comes to policy, Harris stressed the need to lower costs for people struggling to pay bills. She said Trump is focused on tax cuts for billionaires and policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: America, this is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better. This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power, and to people who disagree with me. Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I'll give them a seat at the table.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has further details on the Harris rally.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris spent her closing arguments here at the ellipse introducing herself again to voters. Heading into the remarks, senior advisors 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 healthcare, 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. 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 time, all of her political career in Washington calling back to her time also in California.
[03:05:09]
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 and her team seeing these remarks as the kick start to the home stretch of the election as she again tries to peel off those Republican voters and former president Donald Trump, but also convince those that the campaign believes still needs some convincing.
Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: With just six days 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 2,500 voter registration forms for suspected fraud. 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), U.S. 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 how that happened. It must be a coincidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: 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 event, where a comedian called the U.S. territory a floating island of garbage, as an absolute love fest.
Well, President Joe Biden is trying to walk back comments he made about Trump's supporters that have outraged Republicans criticizing the dark language at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally, in particular the comedian's tasteless joke about Puerto Rico being an island of garbage. President Biden said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: And just the other day a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Well, let me tell you something. I don't know the Puerto Rican that I know, or Puerto Rico where I'm in my home state of Delaware.
They're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization is seen as unconscionable, and it's un-American. It's totally contrary to everything we've done, everything we've been.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Republicans swiftly denounced President Biden's comments, likening them to Hillary Clinton's 2016 description of Trump supporters as deplorables. A short time later, President Biden posted on X that he was referring to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico at the rally when he used the word garbage, writing, Trump's demonization of Latinos is unconscionable.
That's all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don't reflect who we are as a nation. The Trump campaign has seized on the gaffe, quickly turning it to their advantage, saying there's no way to spin it. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don't just hate President Trump, they despise the tens of millions of Americans who support him.
Earlier, I asked senior political analyst Ron Brownstein about President Biden's comment and how it could affect the final stretch of the race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST AND SR. EDITOR, "THE ATLANTIC": As is often the case with Biden, the syntax, and the starter makes it hard to understand exactly what he meant to say. But I think you cut off the quote, I mean, there are two ways to read it.
I mean that the White House is saying he met that there's an apostrophe at the end of supporters, his supporters demonization of Puerto Rico is what Biden meant, I think that you can interpret it, you can certainly interpreted that way, it's hard for me to imagine that by the really meant to say that he considers the Trump supporters garbage, given how much he has tried to separate Trump from the mainstream Republican Party through his presidency.
But look, it is a reminder that when Harris came in this race, she stepped into a deep hole that Biden had left her, with voters, you know, discontented about his performance on the economy and believing that he was no longer capable of doing the job. I suspect that this will be a controversy mostly in the right wing media sphere to kind of further gin up you know the Trump electorate although it's hard to see how they could be you know anymore gin up than they are now.
And I do suspect it will lead to Biden be even less visible any has been over the final days the campaign. I can imagine after this the Harris campaign is even if is his language is ambiguous and his meaning is unclear. And as I said, there's evidence that he really meant something different than the conservatives are saying. I can't imagine they're going to want him to be in a very visible role after this.
[03:10:03]
CHURCH: And Republican Nikki Haley hasn't been used by the Trump campaign despite endorsing him and offering her services. She's now criticizing Trump's overly masculine campaign, saying their messages are unappealing to women and they need to look at how they're talking to Whitman. She also said insulting Puerto Rico at Trump's Sunday rally was problematic. How big a mistake was it for Trump to freeze Haley out?
BROWNSTEIN: Women, Rosemary, are majority of the voters in every swing state and they are nationally. Women turn out of higher rates than men and the gap is especially wide among younger women and younger men which is interesting because so much of Trump's campaign is aimed at activating younger men who are not regular voters in fact, I think the core of the Republican confidence about this race is their belief that they will turn out more of those younger men and polls are now anticipating.
I mean, the problem they've got is the risk that everything that Trump, and this has been true throughout his political career, that everything Trump does to energize his base inspires at least as great a counter mobilization on the other side.
And if Harris is to win this race, it will be, I think, with support from women in the swing states, in the inner suburbs of the large cities who have traditionally lead Republican as a as I said lean probably still are more likely to favor Republican approaches on things like the economy and immigration but are deeply concerned about the rollback of rights led by abortion under Trump and are even maybe more concerned about him personally. And Haley is right she is pinpointing exactly the voters that will deny Trump a second term in fact he is denied that second term.
CHURCH: And Ron, of course, we know that the candidates have been in a dead heat for a while now. So where do you see this race going six days away from Election Day?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think, first of all, to me, one really important point is that we are not seeing the traditional divergence between the national popular vote and the vote in the swing states. You know, it is a, there is a dominant belief in both parties, certainly in the Trump era.
The Democrats have to win the pop -- national popular vote by a lot in order to have a chance of getting the 270 electoral college votes because the swing states all lean slightly more Republican than the nation as a whole. That's not really happening this time. We are seeing a convergence between the race where Harris has a tiny lead in the national polls, and the swing states are essentially deadlocked as well.
I do think there is a hierarchy in the swing states. I think the Sun Belt battlegrounds, which are Georgia and North Carolina and the southeast, Arizona and Nevada and the southwest, are a little harder for her, even though the CNN poll today had her basically dead even in Arizona, had them dead even in Arizona and Nevada.
I think that she has a much more plausible pathway through the three states that Trump in 2016 knocked out of the blue wall: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And if I had to bet as I said before I think one of them is going to win Pennsylvania by about 50,000 votes, and the odds are pretty good that person is president at the end of the day. The advantage for Trump, he probably only has to win one of those
three former blue wall states Michigan, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin in order to win. She in all likelihood, I think, will have to sweep them, but that is totally within her power to do.
And when people say you have an election within the margin of error, it also means it is an election within the margin of effort. And what the campaigns are able to execute between now and the finish line will determine, I think, who ultimately wins the prize.
CHURCH: We will see. Ron Brownstein, many thanks for joining us. I Appreciate it.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: 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 Lahia on Tuesday.
A warning, images from the scene are disturbing. Palestinians pulled bodies from the rubble of the collapsed building following Tuesday's strike. The Israeli military says it's, quote, "trying to understand why so many people were in the area at the time of the strike", as it had ordered civilians to evacuate several weeks ago.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments for us. She joins us live from Abu Dhabi. Good morning to you, Paula. So what is the latest on this deadly Israeli airstrike on a residential building in northern Gaza, and of course, the IDF's response to this?
[03:15:03]
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, it has been condemned by a number of countries, by the U.N. as well. We know that there's at least 90 who have been killed in this strike so far, but we also know from footage on the ground, from local journalists on the ground, that there are many more bodies that are still trapped beneath the rubble. This is an area where there is no heavy equipment, so you have fellow residents, you have rescuers trying to get to people with their bare hands.
We also heard from the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. This is the main hospital in the area where many of the injuries and the dead were coming to and he said that it is a desperate catastrophic situation that patients are lying on the ground.
They have no medical staff to be able to help them to help them as well as many were arrested by Israel just recently. His quote says, "those who can reach Kamal Adwan Hospital receive first aid, but those who cannot die in the streets, this is our reality, an utterly catastrophic situation in every sense of the world".
Now, the word, excuse me, Israel says that when they entered that hospital, they arrested 100 Hamas militants, the hospital though, saying that they desperately need medical staff to be able to treat those in the area. Now when it comes to what Israel says about this airstrike, there seems to be some surprise from the Israeli military that there were so many people in the neighborhood.
The IDF, saying that they are, quote, "trying to understand why so many people were in Beit Lahia at the time of the strike, saying that they had told residents to evacuate several weeks ago". Now there is an investigation ongoing but obviously a clear intelligence failure to know that there were so many residents still in this particular area.
As I say, it's been condemned by the U.N., the U.N. Human Rights Office saying it's one of the deadliest single attacks in Gaza in almost three months. We also heard from the U.S. State Department, Matthew Miller.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We are deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life in this incident. This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result. I can't speak to the total death toll, but there are reports of two dozen children killed in this incident. No doubt, a number of them are children who have been fleeing the effects of this war for more than a year now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: The IDF says they're investigating. The U.S. asks -- the UN asks for that to be open and transparent. Rosemary.
CHURCH: Alright. Our thanks to Paula Hancocks bringing us that live report from Abu Dhabi.
Well, the U.N. Human Rights Office is calling for a prompt, transparent and detailed investigation into the deadly Israeli strike in northern Gaza. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Jerusalem with the latest. Again, we want to warn you his report contains images that are graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN 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 survive 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.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyah 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 to the October 7th attacks, a blanket charge UNRWA vehemently denies.
[03:20:01]
It's a move the U.S. says could not come at a worse time.
MILLER: 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 (voice-over): In Gaza, that urgency is all 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)
CHURCH: Meantime, Hezbollah's senior council has elected Naim Qassem as the new secretary-general of the Iran-backed group. This comes after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike last month.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hezbollah has a new leader. Naim Qassem has been appointed the group's new secretary- general. A role he was already fulfilling, acting as the interim chief after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated by Israel in late September.
The killing of Nasrallah, a man seen to embody the Lebanese Shia movement, struck a huge blow and left a vacuum inside a group that had already lost much of its leadership as a result of months of Israeli assassinations. But soon after Nasrallah's death, Qassem issued a defiant statement
urging Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire in Lebanon or face Hezbollah's wrath.
NAIM QASSEM, HEZBOLLAH SECRETARY GENERAL (through translator): We are not speaking from a position of weakness. If the Israelis don't want a ceasefire, we will continue to fight.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Qassem was considered Hezbollah's number two, serving as deputy secretary general, meaning second in command of the organization since 1991. He is one of the group's founding members, helping to establish it in the early 1980s.
Nasrallah's cousin, Hashim Saifuddin, was previously viewed as the favorite to take the helm of the Iran-linked Hezbollah, but he died in an Israeli strike on Beirut shortly after his relative.
Since the killing of his predecessor, Qassem has made three televised speeches, speaking informal Arabic rather than the colloquial dialogue that gave his predecessor charisma.
Israel says he won't last long and issued this apparent threat. His tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization if he follows the footsteps of his predecessors, Hassan Nasrallah and Hashim Saifuddin, the Israeli government's official Arabic account on X posted.
His appointment to lead Hezbollah, now meant to demonstrate the group can reconstitute and recover even as it fights for its survival.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: More extreme rainfall is expected across parts of Spain where floodwaters have already wreaked havoc in one southeastern city. We'll have details for you after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Extreme rain warnings are in effect for parts of Spain. Torrential rains have sparked severe flooding in the south and east, where some areas saw up to 12 inches of rain in just a few hours on Tuesday. Valencia's regional leader says some bodies have been found as rescue teams searched the area. Forecasters expect the rain warnings to continue today for parts of eastern and southern Spain. Here's how one resident described the disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO CARMONA, LOCAL RESIDENT (through translator): What happened here is that when we looked by here, we saw everything going down. It took cars, took down half of the house of one of our neighbors, and we had to come in. Look how we have our torn clothes because we were saving dogs. Dogs were around and near the river one hour ago. We were able to save the dogs. They are over there now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: At least 40 wildfires have broken out across Oklahoma and the central U.S. Evacuation orders have been issued in four counties. We are told some structures were lost in one county, but the extent of the damage is unclear. So far there are no reports of injuries. The National Weather Service says gusty winds, dry air, warm temperatures and drought conditions all contributed to the outbreak of fires.
Kong-Rey has quickly strengthened to a super typhoon in the Philippine Sea. It's now as powerful as a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane and could impact almost the entire island of Taiwan when it makes landfall early Thursday. Meteorologist Chad Myers has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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 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 will 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 4 or 5 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 Gaemi 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, an intensity probably likely go down before landfall, but we're still going to watch this. This is going to be a very damaging and likely deadly storm.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A Chinese spacecraft blasted off today with three astronauts on board.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
The crew is heading to China's permanently inhabited space station to conduct dozens of scientific experiments. One involves exposing bricks made from simulated lunar soil to conditions in space. If successful, the bricks could eventually be used in the construction of a permanent research station on the moon. China is now focusing on landing a person on the moon in 2030.
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)
[03:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: With six days until the U.S. election, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are doing all they can to shore up support from undecided voters.
On Tuesday, Harris chose a symbolic spot for what her campaign called her closing argument, speaking at the same location where Donald Trump rallied supporters before the January 6th Capitol riots. Harris told the crowd it's time for a new generation of leadership in America.
Trump, meantime, spent his day campaigning in Pennsylvania. In an interview with Fox News, he described his dark and angry Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday as an absolute love fest. When he was asked about the comedian, who described Puerto Rico as an island of garbage, Trump had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's a big deal or not, but I don't want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes. Probably he shouldn't have been there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: In Michigan, another hotly contested battleground state, election officials in Detroit are hoping to prevent a repeat of four years ago when Republican demonstrators gathered 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 REPORTER (voice-over): What if I told you this could help prevent this?
UNKNOWN: The scene here is incredibly tempting.
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.
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.
UNKNOWN: They're trying to steal the election.
TRUMP: In Detroit, there were hours of unexplained delay.
COHEN (voice-over): This year, Michigan's new election laws could help avoid a repeat of the chaos.
COHEN: We have 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.
DANIEL BAXTER, DETROIT ELECTIONS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: So today, after we receive 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.
BAXTER: Can't get counted without a signature.
COHEN: Now why is that signature important?
BAXTER: The signature authenticates the actual ballot.
COHEN: When people out there say there's no verification, your response to that?
BAXTER: They're wrong.
COHEN (voice-over): CNN blurred personal information for the sake of privacy.
UNKNOWN: This part is the most human part of the process. Now this one. COHEN: This one looks pretty different.
UNKNOWN: Pretty different. This one is a full name. And this one is two initials.
COHEN: So what happens here?
UNKNOWN: So at this point, that return 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.
[03:35:09]
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 because I had a big family thing going on.
COHEN: So you voted by mail?
FORTON: Once.
COHEN: You just told me. I thought you said I don't know how to --
FORTON: -- the township. I don't, I took it to the township and put it inside the building at the clerk's office (inaudible).
COHEN: You saw it going.
FORTON: I saw it going.
COHEN: Four years ago, this was a very hot spot.
BAXTER: 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.
BAXTER: 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 --
COHEN: Now, did you stop the count?
BAXTER: Absolutely not.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Look at your screen. At one site, workers put cardboard over the windows of a vote counting station so no one could see in.
BAXTER: These three windows were boarded up.
COHEN: Yeah, that's it right there.
BAXTER: 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 cardboard down. I hated that. I hated when that happened. Why? 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 signed my name for a 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 two 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)
CHURCH: Courts in both Pennsylvania and North Carolina have rejected lawsuits filed by Republicans that sought to challenge how overseas ballots are processed. Republicans wanted an extra level of verification on those ballots in Pennsylvania, but a federal judge ruled changing the policy with just days until the election would upend the procedure and put undue stress on volunteers and staff.
A slightly different situation in North Carolina, where Republicans wanted extra checks on ballots from people who have never lived in the state but are still allowed to vote there because of family ties.
CNN's Paula Reid has more on the precautions both Democrats and Republicans are taking ahead of potential legal battles involving election certification.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Both the Trump and Harris legal teams have been preparing for years for legal challenges around the 2024 presidential race.
Now, speaking with sources on the Republican side, they've told me, look, they believe the Democrats historically, they do this kind of thing better. But Republicans this time around knew for certain they could not repeat what happened in 2020 when they lost 61 out of 62 legal challenges.
So this time around, I'm told, they were focusing on hiring top legal talent and also trying to go to court and get questions resolved before the election itself, which is why we've seen them be involved in over 130 different election challenges.
Now, in terms of the preparation, these legal teams, both sides, in addition to having a national team, they also have local lawyers that they have networked with who will be ready to help them in any jurisdiction where they see a potential issue. Both sides have also engaged in war gaming, working out potential scenarios.
For example, Republicans have war gamed natural disasters, things that could potentially impact voting. Of course, we've already seen that here in Florida and North Carolina. Republican sources tell me they say when they saw that happen and impact voting efforts, they said, look, we worked through this. This is something we prepared for.
And in terms of preparation, the Democrats, they've actually drafted thousands of pages of potential pleadings that they could fire off if those pleadings match what they're seeing in and around Election Day.
In terms of these teams, on the Democratic side, they have a former White House counsel, Dana Remus, leading that team. The Trump side, they have a couple veteran GOP lawyers, including David Warrington, who represented Trump in and around the January 6 investigation on the Hill.
[03:40:03]
Now, a CNN poll shows that just 30 percent of Americans think Trump will accept the results if he loses. And the important thing about these legal challenges are these are going to help him if he is not happy with the results, try to challenge those results. And even if the legal challenges don't work in a court of law, they could help him in the court of public opinion, so doubt and confusion about the legitimacy of the outcome.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A 10-story hotel collapses in Argentina. When we come back, the race against time to find those trapped beneath the rubble.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Some Western intelligence officials believe a small number of North Korean troops are now inside Ukraine. That assessment comes after the Pentagon and NATO both confirmed that roughly 10,000 North Korean troops are training in eastern Russia to join Russian forces on the battlefield soon.
South Korea is speaking out about the North's troop deployment as CNN's Mike Valerio reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, South Korea's spy agency just revealed some striking details about North Korean troops in Russia. They are training to fight in the war against Ukraine, and that is according to NATO, the United States, and South Korea.
But lawmakers who were briefed by South Korea's National Intelligence Service here in Seoul say that North Korea may be trying to hide from its own people that these deployments to Russia are actually happening.
So, let's take you through what we know. We have two lawmakers briefed by South Korea's spy agency, the NIS. And the NIS says that North Korean families of these soldiers are being told the troops went to a, quote, "military exercise, not to Russia, not to Ukraine".
The lawmakers add news of these troops going to Russia has spread within North Korea despite the regime's effort to contain the truth. And they say there is some, quote, "unrest among North Korean residents and soldiers about why they're making this sacrifice for another country".
That certainly would be remarkable considering North Korea tolerates virtually no dissent against the regime of Kim Jong-un. We also heard from South Korea's president on this subject. Listen to what he said.
YOON SUK-YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a significant security threat to the international community and could pose a serious risk to our national security.
VALERIO: So what he means by that, North Korean troops potentially threatening South Korean security, analysts tell us that North Korean troops could potentially come back home with more knowledge about modern warfare than ever before. The secretary general of NATO has also said that North Korean troops are already in Russia's Kursk region. That is where Ukraine has had a foothold in Russian territory since August.
[03:44:57]
The Pentagon is also saying that it assesses there are about 10,000 North Korean troops who have been deployed to train in Russia, Pyongyang, and Moscow have neither explicitly confirmed nor denied these troop deployments.
Mike Valerio, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The teen charged over fatal stabbings at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class now also faces terrorism charges. The suspect had already been charged with murder after three young girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport, England in July. Another eight children were injured. Police say the new charges stand from a search of his home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF CONSTABLE SERENA KENNEDY, MERSEYSIDE, ENGLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT; The additional charges are number one, production of a biological toxin, namely ricin, contrary to section one of the Biological Weapons Act 1974. And charge number two, possessing information, namely a PDF file entitled Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants, the Al Qaeda Training Manual, of a kind that is likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The 18-year-old suspect will appear in court tomorrow. Then his trial is expected to begin in January.
A man is dead, and as many as nine other people are believed to be trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Argentina. Authorities say the 10-story building came down early Tuesday. Emergency crews have been working to clear the debris and reach those who are missing. Among them are workers from a nearby construction site, which was allegedly operating without proper permits.
Still to come, a grieving mother is trying to hold an AI chatbot company accountable for the death of her teen son. Details of her heartbreaking story after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Now to a heartbreaking story of a mother who blames AI for her son's death by suicide. She is suing an AI chatbot company for the wrongful death of her 14-year-old son following his online relationship with the chatbot. She says the platform lacks proper safeguards for young users. Here's part of her conversation with CNN's Clare Duffy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEGAN GARCIA, MOTHER OF SEWELL SELTZER WHO DIED BY SUICIDE AFTER CONVERSATIONS WITH A.I CHATBOT: My child's gone. My child's gone. When I think of how scared my baby must have been in those moments, and then being encouraged by something that's not human, but the ability to behave perfectly human, to say, come home, I'm here waiting for you. It was hard to listen to that, but it was also very confusing because I didn't quite understand how a chatbot could respond like a person.
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH WRITER (voice-over): Megan Garcia discovered a disturbing virtual relationship when her 14-year-old son, Sewell, died by suicide. He'd been chatting for months with chatbots he accessed through character A.I., including one called Daenerys Targaryen, a reference to the Game of Thrones character.
DUFFY: As his sort of relationship with technology evolved that you talked about, there was more screen time, like did you have a sense of why that was happening and that it was related to the character A.I.?
GARCIA: No, I thought that he's a teenager now, but I didn't automatically think that the beginning changes in his behavior was because of a bot.
[03:50:02] He was always an ABA student. He took pride in, you know, oh mom, did you see the hundreds of my tests? So when I saw the changes in his academics and then in his overall behavior, that led me to believe that something else was wrong beyond just your regular teenage blues.
DUFFY: On the day that Sewell passed in February, did you know that he had been talking to the A.I. that day?
GARCIA: No.
DUFFY (voice-over): Garcia also discovered some of their conversations were sexual.
GARCIA: They're all very romantic in nature and sexually explicit. That was gut-wrenching.
DUFFY (voice-over): With character A.I., users can talk to a range of different chatbots modeled after celebrities and fictional characters, and they respond with human-like conversational cues. And for Sewell, the chats took a dark turn.
GARCIA: The conversations about self-harm particularly with this Daenerys Targaryen character, he talks about being sad and wanting to self-harm, and initially the bot's response was, oh don't do that, you know, I'd miss you. There were no suicide, like, pop-up boxes that says, if you need help, please call the Suicide Crisis Hotline. None of that.
When he was trying to move away from the conversation, she keeps stumbling back. She asks him, be honest with me, and I won't be mad at you. I promise I won't be mad at you, depending on what you say. Are you thinking about suicide? He never said the word suicide. Yes, he did indicate self-harm, but he never said suicide. When he says yes. She asked him, and have you thought of a plan? I don't understand how a product could allow that.
DUFFY (voice-over): Now, Garcia is suing Character A.I., claiming the company failed to implement proper safeguards for young users. The lawsuit also names Google, although a Google spokesperson told CNN the two companies are separate and Google was not involved in the development of Character A.I.'s product or technology.
MATTHEW BERGMAN, FOUNDING ATTORNEY, SOCIAL MEDIA VICTIMS LAW CENTER: Character A.I. released a product on young kids, knowing that it wasn't safe. It wasn't ready for prime time. What happened to Sewell wasn't an accident. It was not a coincidence. It was a foreseeable consequence of the deliberate design decisions that Character A.I. and its personnel made to prioritize their profits over the safety of our kids.
DUFFY (voice-over): A spokesperson for Character A.I. told CNN the company does not comment on pending litigation, but is heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users. It also implemented changes such as a pop-up directing users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and a notification after they spent an hour on the platform.
DUFFY: What do you wish had happened?
GARCIA: Well, to be candid, I wish that children weren't allowed on Character A.I. There's no place for them on there, because there are no guardrails in place to protect them. They did roll out some safety stuff, but in my opinion, at least for my child, that's too little, too late.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And if you or someone you know may be contemplating self-harm, help is available. People in the U.S. can call or text the Crisis Lifeline at 988. And cnn.com has information on global resources.
CNN's Richard Quest is in Riyadh this week, attending the Future Investment Initiative Summit where attendees are discussing innovation and how it could spark the newest investment opportunities. He spoke with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son about the future of artificial super intelligence and the challenges it poses to humans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MASAYOSHI SON, CEO, SOFTBANK: AGI definition is same level as the human brain. That's AGI, artificial general intelligence. But people have a different point of view definition of artificial super- intelligence. How super? 10 times super or 100 times super?
My definition of ASI is 10,000 times super, smarter than human brain. That's my definition of ASI and that's coming in 2035. 10 years, ten years from today. 10,000 times smarter. That's my prediction.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": What is different in that? What will it do that we -- that we should either look forward to or be worried about?
SON: Both, both. We should be looking forward to that. Of course, we have to also be careful. We have to regulate.
[03:55:02]
If such a superpower comes and no regulation, it could be super dangerous. Of course automotive industry was very beneficial, productive to humans, but we have a regulation. Same thing.
QUEST: No, no, I don't, I, with respect. Because we don't have anybody in the world who's willingly building or wanting to build automobiles that are dangerous. When it comes to A.I., there may be state actors, there may be independent actors that want to build A.I. that can be harmful to other people. How can we guard against it? How do you guard against it?
SON: Of course, there is always some bad guy, you know, 1 percent, 2 percent of human are bad guys. Okay? But 99 percent of human are actually good guys. Okay? So the bad guy, of course, try to use A.I. for the bad intention. However, those bad guys not necessarily have enough capital. This is a massive capital. Our hundreds of billions of dollars of investment is required to make superintelligence. The bad guys, how do they sponsor? There is not enough money to sponsor the bad guys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Richard Quest there in Riyadh.
Well, the Yankees live to fight another day in baseball's World Series. Game four Tuesday night in New York, the L.A. Dodgers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead off the red-hot bat of Freddie Freeman, who set a record with a home run in his sixth consecutive World Series game.
But the Yankees would answer Anthony Volpe with a grand slam in the third inning, sending the crowd into a frenzy and giving New York a 5- 2 lead. And they never looked back, winning 11-4. Game five is Wednesday night in New York with the Dodgers up three games to one in the series.
A curator at a museum in New York City has discovered an unknown waltz written by Frederick Chopin. It is 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 as a gift for someone. Experts say the newly discovered Waltz expands their understanding of Chopin as a composer.
And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster and Christina McFarlane in London.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
