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Harris and Trump Hold Dueling Rallies in Wisconsin; Israel, Lebanon and U.S. Pursue Short-Term Ceasefire; At Least 95 Killed, Dozens Missing in Flash Floods in Spain; Russia Targets U.S. Voters as Presidential Election Nears; Trump Leans Into Controversial Tactics to Secure 'Bro Vote'. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired October 31, 2024 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

COATES: Your podcast again, "The Good Liars, Tell the truth," Davram Stiefler and Jason Selvig, thank you both so much.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you.

COATES: And thank you all for watching. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Hope you'll have a safe and Happy Halloween, and watch out for those disappearing ghosts. Hey, where did I go? Uh-oh. Anderson Cooper is next.

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can't lead America if you don't love Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Donald Trump tries to capitalize on Joe Biden's latest gaffe, despite but the Republican nominee's long history of insults.

Israel strikes deep inside Lebanon just as Hezbollah's new leader warns about the possibility of global war. And we're tracking the largest typhoon to hit Taiwan in nearly 30 years as it prepares to make landfall.

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

COREN: Rival rallies in a key swing state. The U.S. vice president and former president brought their campaigns to Wisconsin on Wednesday, a Midwestern state won by Joe Biden four years ago and Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Kamala Harris, speaking in the state capital Madison, where she briefly lived as a child and home to the University of Wisconsin. And Trump visiting Green Bay, the city best known for its NFL team, the Packers. The latest CNN poll shows the race remains neck and neck in the

battleground states that make up the so-called blue wall. Harris is holding a slight lead in Wisconsin and Michigan but in must-win Pennsylvania, it's a dead heat. And all the figures that you see here are well within the margin of error. The Harris campaign says she will revisit all the swing states again between now and election day, which includes another stop in Wisconsin on Friday.

While speaking in Madison, Harris urged supporters to cast their ballots before the early voting deadline on Sunday and she drew a sharp contrast with Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 my table. And I pledge to always put country above party, and self, and to be a president for all Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Meanwhile, Donald Trump showed up for his latest campaign event wearing an orange safety vest, similar to those worn by garbage collectors. He loudly mocked the Biden administration after Joe Biden seemingly called Trump supporters garbage, which the White House has since denied.

CNN's Kristen Holmes attended the Green Bay rally and has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former president Donald Trump in Green Bay, Wisconsin, continuing to seize on President Joe Biden's remarks calling his supporters, quote-unquote, "garbage. " Donald Trump has tried to use this as an opportunity to change the media narrative earlier in the evening, even taking questions from sitting in front seat of a garbage truck.

He also addressed those comments once again for the third time or more in days while he was at this rally. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Crooked Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them garbage. No way. No way. My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple. You can't lead America if you don't love Americans. It's true. You can't be president if you hate the American people, which I believe they do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He also, as you can see there, did the entire rally in his vest that he had worn when he was sitting on the garbage truck. They are clearly sticking to the schtick. Now the important thing here is that this isn't just because Donald Trump wants to seize on this or change the narrative, it's also because they believe that this playbook has worked before.

Remember in 2016, after Hillary Clinton said that Trump supporters were a basket up of deplorables, they tried to use the same thing then with supporters. They believe this kind of rhetoric could actually motivate people to go to the polls to back Donald Trump.

Now whether or not that's going to happen, it's just not something that we're going to go know until election day, but it's certainly something they are doing to really ramp up that enthusiasm.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, Green Bay, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein is a senior editor at "The Atlantic" and he joins us now from Los Angeles.

[00:05:06]

Ron, as always, good to see you. Let's start with Biden's gaffe, the fallouts and I guess the phony outrage by Donald Trump and his campaign. Let me ask you, does this help Trump? Does it hurt Harris?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it is not going to be a huge factor. You know, Donald Trump calls people he disagrees with vermin and the enemy from within. I mean, he calls Harris a fascist, you know, eight days a week, you know, as the Beatles would have said. So by, you know, what Biden meant, as is often the case is a little murky. You know, his syntax is often garbled. He has a history of gaffes.

You can make a plausible case that he was talking about Trump supporters in general or that he was talking specifically about the comedian who made the offensive remarks about Puerto Rico, but ultimately, you know, the Trump side of this electorate is pretty well-engaged as is the Democratic side of this electorate. And what you've got is, you know, those last few points of voters who aren't sure either who they're going to vote for, or whether they're going to vote. And I think we've got bigger, you know, bigger factors that are driving them.

COREN: And no doubt, you know, Trump playing this up, looking that this is an opportunity to distract the electorate from the fallout of the rally at Madison Square Garden. But look, part of Donald Trump's shtick, as we know, is disparaging Kamala Harris and her supporters. Let's have a listen to what he said over the past week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're like a garbage can for the world. The United States of America, and dumped like we're a garbage can, like we're a garbage can for their people. I said, we're the garbage can for the world. We are. We're a garbage can. We're like a garbage can and they dump. The press gave me a hard time on this one. They said it was very -- now I don't think (INAUDIBLE). It's like we're a giant garbage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: He's quite fond of that saying. I mean, he can't have it both ways, can he?

BROWNSTEIN: No. No. And look, he's not really trying to, outside of the world of the kind of the conservative ecosystem, the kind of the bubble the conservative media bubble. You know, he said, again, you know, I will be women's protector whether they want it or not, which is something he originally said without the wanted or not in Wisconsin. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, said in Pennsylvania that if they win, they're going to take another run at repealing the Affordable Care Act.

One of his transition advisers was on with Kaitlan Collins tonight on CNN saying they're going to let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. question the safety and legality of vaccines. So, yes, Biden, as is often the case, kind of stepped in it and caused the problem for Harris. No question about that. It was a reminder of the communications problems that, you know, one reason why he's not the nominee again.

But there's a lot else going on. And honestly, at this point, I mean, it doesn't feel like, you know, we're within the last week. It doesn't feel like any of these statements are likely to really move the needle. What's going to move the needle is kind of the execution of each party trying to turn out as many voters sympathetic to them as they can. And that battle of execution really is where we are in a race that remains incredibly close across the battleground states.

COREN: Yes. Well, let's talk about that because CNN's poll of polls shows Harris ahead in two of the three blue wall states, Michigan and Wisconsin. But it's a dead head in Pennsylvania, that must-win state. Are you concerned?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think -- look, I felt, by the way, you know, I am the person who coined the blue wall back in 2000 and to kind of watch the phrase live on for so long is really kind of striking.

COREN: Credit to you.

BROWNSTEIN: But, you know, CNN poll today had Harris ahead in Michigan, a FOX poll today had her ahead in Michigan. CNN poll today had her ahead in Wisconsin. A Marquette Law School poll, Marquette is in Wisconsin, had her ahead in Wisconsin. And it kind of takes us back to where I have thought we would be all year, that one of them is very likely to win Pennsylvania by 50,000 votes or so, and almost certainly become the president as a result.

I mean, Pennsylvania is the Battle of the Bulge in this election. The amount of money, the amount of time that each candidate has spent there is enormous, as you point out, unlike Michigan and Wisconsin, it has been a dead heat in polling. In fact, the four polls out today either had it as a dead heat or Trump up one. I've always felt that Harris will regret at the very end not picking Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor.

[00:10:06] But, Anna, it is important to note two facts, which is, one, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin tend to move together. They're demographically, economically and culturally similar. They voted the same way in every presidential election since 1980, except one. They've even voted for the same party for governor in every election since 1994, except one, and if you're looking only at Pennsylvania and Michigan, they've diverged exactly three times since the U.S. Civil War in who they have backed for president and only once in the last 84 years.

So I kind of feel like in the end it is more -- you know, as they say on Wall Street past performance is no guarantee of future results, but I still think that in the end it is more likely than not they all tilt slightly in the same direction. But PA absolutely looks like the state, the tipping point state, in this election.

COREN: Ron, when you speak, people listen. Ron Brownstein, as always, a pleasure. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

COREN: We are learning more about a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile launched by North Korea and Japan's Defense Ministry says it flew for nearly an hour and a half. The longest test flight yet from a North Korean missile. Officials believe it fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. South Korea's intelligence agency has warned that Pyongyang might attempt a missile test around the time of the U.S. election.

The U.S. has already responded to the launch, calling it a flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Well, Lebanon's Health Ministry says at least 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes near the city of Baalbek. The Israeli military says its forces were targeting command and control centers and terrorist infrastructure in its fight against Hezbollah and took steps to mitigate civilian harm, including putting out evacuation orders. Residents of Baalbek could be seen fleeing after the Israeli army ordered evacuation of the entire city, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984.

Hezbollah's newly appointed leader is speaking out amid the fighting, saying in his inaugural speech as leader of the Iran-backed militant group, that they are now involved in a quote, "global war."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAIM QASSEM, HEZBOLLAH SECRETARY-GENERAL (through translator): Today in Gaza, Lebanon, and the region, we are facing a major project. This is not an Israeli war on Lebanon and Gaza. This is an Israeli- American-European global war. It has all the capabilities on a global level to eliminate the resistance and eliminate our peoples in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COREN: Despite the ongoing fighting Lebanon's caretaker prime minister says he's optimistic a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel could be reached soon. That word, as we learned, Israeli American and Lebanese officials are pursuing a short-term ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting for at least a month.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the details from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are now stepping up their discussions to try and reach a ceasefire agreement that would end the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Two top advisers to President Biden set to arrive in Israel on Thursday to meet with Israeli officials to discuss the state of those ceasefire negotiations.

And it comes as we're learning of one of the options on the table here, which would involve getting to a short-term ceasefire agreement, perhaps at least a month between these two sides in order to give more space for longer term negotiations to reach a permanent solution to this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as the enforcement of Resolution 1701, which resolved the 2006 war between those two parties, that would see Hezbollah withdraw its forces some 30 kilometers north of the Israel-Lebanon border.

Israeli officials believed that now is the right time to pursue this kind of a ceasefire agreement. They've achieved enormous gains in their fight against Hezbollah in recent month, that ground operation has now been going on for about a month as well. And there is now the option they believe of the military pressure and the internal Lebanese pressure bringing Hezbollah to the table in a way that the Israelis would see as favorable.

That being said, it is still early days in terms of these negotiations, and Israel is also making clear that for the time being at least, they are going to continue to negotiate under fire as one Israeli official told me. And that is to say we've the Israeli military stepping up its strikes inside of Lebanon. On Wednesday, we saw the Baalbek, the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, was ordered to evacuate by the Israeli military and hours later we saw some very intense airstrikes happening within that very city.

[00:15:06]

Now as we are seeing these ceasefire negotiations seemingly advancing, or at least taking place regarding the conflict in Lebanon, Iran is now separately vowing a new wave of retaliation against Israel for Israel's strikes, retaliatory strikes in Iran last weekend. A high level Iranian source now telling my colleague Fred Pleitgen that the response of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be, quote, "definitive and painful." That comes after Iranian officials had seemed to downplay that Israeli retaliation. So some uncertainty still about the scale and the scope of Iran's retaliation and when it might come.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: For more, we're joined by Firas Maksad. He's the director of outreach and a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Good to see you. Let's start with the U.S. proposal to end the war in Lebanon. There is a draft proposal making the rounds. You have a copy. What can you tell us?

FIRAS MAKSAD, SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR STRATEGIC OUTREACH, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: Well, Anna, yes. I mean, this is kind of late-breaking development. It seems that there is a copy going around. We have it right here. Spoken to several sources in Washington, senior administration officials confirmed that there is a leak coming from the Israeli press.

What's amazing about this is that it first calls upon Hezbollah to decouple the Lebanon front from the Gaza front. And there seems to be from the words of Lebanese official a major Hezbollah concession where after a year refusing to separate the Lebanon from the Gaza front, it accepts to do so. It would also have to accept an added layer of monitoring and enforcement mechanism that's created and that will presumably be chaired by the United States and also possibly by France to make sure that Hezbollah does not go back to retrench itself south of the Litani River on that northern border with Israel or Israel's northern border, and that weaponry supplies do not go into the country.

Perhaps most astonishing of all is a side letter of guarantees from the United States to Israel, which gives it the right to impact, continue striking at Hezbollah if in fact they violate this proposal.

COREN: Firas, we have heard from the prime minister's office, Benjamin Netanyahu's office that they have downplayed this proposal. They say that there's lots of proposals making the rounds and that it doesn't reflect the state of negotiations. What's your response to that?

MAKSAD: Anna, I beg to differ. I've been in touch with senior U.S. officials, including those who are directly involved in these negotiations. Amos Hochstein, the American envoy on this war, has left Washington for Israel precisely because there has been significant progress. It seems that the Israelis have reached the point of diminishing returns in their war in Lebanon. Much of what they can do in terms of going after military targets, military objectives that those have already been achieved.

And the concern here on the Israeli side, it seems that there is more risk and thus reward as this war drags. They very much want to capitalize on their military successes by having a political agreement in their favor take shape, take hold.

COREN: And what role does Hezbollah play in all of this? You know, are they willing participants in these talks and negotiations?

MAKSAD: Absolutely. The main role is for Hezbollah and its Iranian backer. In fact the Lebanese state is but a conduit for this agreement or the U.S. does not talk directly to Hezbollah. And so it talks through the Lebanese state, through the Lebanese speaker of parliament. But there is no way that such an agreement can come to fruition and can actually be implemented without the acceptance of Hezbollah.

And so if we do see this American proposal at this stage accepted by the Lebanese government, I think we can very clearly understand then that Hezbollah has made the painful concessions after about a month or so of a very devastating war for Lebanon.

COREN: And how would that look for Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem to agree to this ceasefire?

MAKSAD: Well, I mean to be to be blunt about it, it's not a good look. The new secretary-general of Hezbollah has big shoes to fill given the status of Hassan Nasrallah who preceded him and who Israel assassinated about a month or so ago. And today was his first speech as secretary-general. And so to start off by having to make such painful concessions that your predecessor refused to do, decoupling the Lebanon front from the fate of Hamas in Gaza, and then accepting an American-led monitoring and enforcement mechanism in south Lebanon that would not allow you to entrench yourself in the south.

[00:20:08]

Those are major concessions and that's definitely not the best foot forward for the new secretary-general.

COREN: CNN is also hearing from top Iranian sources that Iran is planning to carry out a definitive and painful response to Israel's attacks. Is that accurate and what does Iran gain from this tit-for- tat because you'd have to presume that would only risk further escalation with Israel? Something that Iran clearly wants to avoid.

MAKSAD: Yes, well, whether it's the peace proposals for Lebanon or the retaliation, the Iranian retaliation against Israel, all this is marred up also in the election timeline here in the U.S. with the various parties keeping an eye on who might be president. I don't think that the Iranians have made their mind up just yet. There might be preparations for a retaliation. They've certainly said that it's within their right to retaliate to and against Israel.

But I think the math will then change if we have a president-elect Trump in the White House past November 5th. The Iranians are -- and their allies are much more concerned of what a president like Trump might mean for them than a president-elect Harris which would mean a continuation of the current U.S. policy towards Iran.

COREN: Faris Maksad, we're going to have to leave it there, but we certainly appreciate your insights. Thank you.

MAKSAD: Thank you.

COREN: Well, just a short time ago the Los Angeles Dodgers won game five of the World Series securing the eighth title in franchise history. It was a wild one in New York as the Yankees jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. But some costly errors by New York and clutch hitting by LA. helped the Dodgers tie the game in the fifth inning. The Yankees retook the lead in the sixth. But L.A. came back again in the eighth, and held on for 7-6 win. It's the biggest comeback to clinch a World Series in baseball history.

Well, still to come, Taiwan is bracing for a powerful typhoon that is expected to impact the entire island. We'll have the latest on Kong- Rey after the break. Plus Spain is observing three days of mourning after severe flash floods killed dozens of people and left a trail of destruction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: The biggest storm to hit Taiwan in nearly 30 years is expected to make landfall soon on the island's southeastern coast. Well, Kong- Rey has weakened slightly from super typhoon strength, but it's still the equivalent of a category three Atlantic hurricane with winds around 200 kilometers per hour. The powerful winds and torrential rain could impact almost the entire island. All cities and counties in Taiwan are shutting down for the day, the financial markets are closed and flights have been canceled.

[00:25:08]

The Spanish government has decreed three days of official mourning for victims of severe flash floods. At least 95 people were killed after the high water swamped the southern and eastern parts of the country. Emergency services are working to find dozens of people who are still missing.

More now from Atika Shubert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Muddy waters gushed through the streets of Spain, ripping through homes, leaving a trail of destruction behind.

Rescue services are working tirelessly trying to save residents from flash floods that have struck parts of southern and eastern Spain since Tuesday. The severity of the weather has killed dozens of people, according to authorities, with torrential rain in many cities. And the death toll is only expected to rise.

Now, this is the Turia riverbed in Valencia. Normally it's a dry riverbed with hardly any water in it. But as of this morning, the water was nearly to the top and that's because according to meteorologists a year's worth of rain, about 20 inches or 500 millimeters was dropped here in an eight-hour period that ended on Tuesday.

In Valencia, Spain's emergency military unit were deployed to help save locals, wading through the destruction to reach them and bringing them to safety. One local resident witnessed the severity of the water destroying his neighborhood. ANTONIO CARMONA, RESIDENT (through translator): We saw everything

going down. The floods took cars, took down half 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.

SHUBERT: In other areas of southern Spain, a different kind of catastrophe took place with locals being hit by a severe hailstorm.

Look at the size of this ball, this person says, it's completely round. Leaving drivers to battle through extreme weather.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the storms were the worst the country has experienced in the last century, and advised citizens to proceed with caution.

PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Our absolute priority is to help you. We're going you provide all the necessary means today and tomorrow, and for as long as it takes so that we can recover from this tragedy. We are not going to leave you alone.

SHUBERT: Scientists say a human-caused climate crisis is making extreme weather more frequent and more severe. And as the world warms, more intense and more frequent catastrophes are on the horizon.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Valencia, Spain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: British taxes are going up drastically as the Labour Party seeks to shrink the country's growing public debt burden and plus the hole in its budget. The new budget would raise an additional $52 billion by targeting high earners, wealthy foreigners, and businesses. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves, a former Bank of England economist, unveiled the plan on Wednesday. She told parliament that the tough measures were necessary because of inadequate budgeting by the Conservative Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL REEVES, U.K. FINANCE MINISTER: Together the hole in our public finances this year, which recurs every year which recurs every year. The compensation schemes that they did not fund and their failure to assess the scale of the challenges facing our public services means that this budget raises taxes by 40 billion pounds. Any chancellor standing here today would have to face this reality. And any responsible chancellor would take action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: The new budget would also increase employee contributions to national insurance and boost public investment. It also extends a freeze on fuel duties and cuts the tax on draft beer in pubs.

Still to come, it's like 2016 all over again. How Russia is conducting a new disinformation campaign targeting the U.S. election. Apparently they have a preferred candidate in mind.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Emergency workers put out fires and searched for the victims following a Russian strike on Ukraine's second largest city.

[00:31:43]

Officials say one child was killed and 29 others injured after this nine-story building in Kharkiv took a hit Wednesday night. The attack came just days after Russian bombs tore through one of the city's most iconic landmarks, which dates back to the 1920s.

Far from the front lines in Ukraine, Russia appears to be waging another war, one of disinformation, targeting U.S. voters ahead of next week's presidential election. It's reminiscent of what we saw back in 2016, and U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Russians are again trying to tip the scales in favor of Donald Trump.

CNN's Alex Marquardt reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It's from this 23-story building in Russia's St. Petersburg that some of the most effective Russian disinformation of the 2024 U.S. election has been cooked up.

One of its occupants in recent years is believed to be the so-called Russian Foundation to Battle Injustice, or RFBI. CNN teamed up with researchers at Clemson University to investigate RFBI's long tentacles and its impact.

PATRICK WARREN, CO-DIRECTOR, CLEMSON MEDIA FORENSICS HUB: The connection between Prigozhin and the FBI is cut and dried.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): RFBI's origins can be traced back to Yevgeny Prigozhin, longtime ally of Vladimir Putin and the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, who, after launching an audacious revolt on Moscow last year, was killed in a mysterious mid-air explosion.

But Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren say that the story of RFBI makes it clear that Prigozhin's legacy persists beyond the grave.

DARREN LINVILL, CO-DIRECTOR, CLEMSON MEDIA FORENSICS HUB: They're pretending to be this really positive force of good in Russia. In reality, they're really an arm of the Russian state.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): One recent viral post baselessly accuses Governor Tim Walz of sexually assaulting a minor.

WARREN: I mean, that thing flew across the Internet in days, millions and millions of views.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): Senator J.D. Vance and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene even pushed a fake Russian story that Ukrainian officials used American aid dollars to buy yachts.

There was one that Kamala Harris carried out a hit and run and also that she killed an endangered rhinoceros while on safari. Both wildly false.

But both pushed with the help of another shady Russian network, which researchers have dubbed Storm-1516, which Linvill and Warren believe works hand in glove with RFBI.

MARQUARDT: When you look at all of the efforts that the Russians are undertaking in this space, where does the FBI rank?

LINVILL: In terms of disinformation, as opposed to just propaganda, I think that the RFBI and Storm-1516 are probably the single most important actors in Russia right now.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): RFBI is now led by Mira Terada, who spent two years in American prison for money laundering connected to cocaine smuggling.

MARQUARDT: And she kind of took the effort and ran with it?

WARREN: It really kicked off upon her return.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): From there, she has joined forces with foreigners, including American John Mark Dougan, a former Florida sheriff's deputy who fled to Russia following felony charges.

Dougan denied to CNN that he's acting on behalf of Russia.

WARREN: His face is there for a reason.

MARQUARDT: He's a useful idiot?

WARREN: He's a useful idiot without question.

[00:35:02]

MARQUARDT: How much of a win is it for the Russians to be able to get an American like this to essentially launder their -- their narratives?

LINVILL: I think that it's incredibly important, and you see the importance in how hard they've worked to recruit Americans like him.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): And what they're seeing this year is a much bigger impact on the social media conversation than in the past.

LINVILL: We know they work for the Russian state, but you know, they're still allowed to spread these messages, these completely false narratives with -- without, you know, any mitigation whatsoever.

MARQUARDT: How well do you think we're doing in this war against Russian disinformation, more broadly?

LINVILL: Extremely poorly. MARQUARDT: Do you see that changing anytime soon?

LINVILL: No.

MARQUARDT: Just moments after our interview, the Clemson researchers identified yet another piece of disinformation coming from these same Russian channels: a video claiming to show mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed in critical Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Darren Linvill said it was immediately shared tens of thousands of times. And as he says, it's going to be a rough few weeks.

Neither Senator Vance nor Congresswoman Greene responded about their roles in spreading that story about Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign tells CNN that Putin wants Trump to win this election and condemned the Russian interference efforts.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Just ahead, Donald Trump targets the "bro vote" to attempting to win over young male voters. But will it drive away female voters in the process?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: A former Republican governor of California is endorsing the Democratic nominee for president.

Arnold Schwarzenegger explained his decision in a post on X, saying, "calling America a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious. And I will always be an American before I am a Republican. That's why this week I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz."

Last week, Trump said the U.S. is like a garbage can for the world as he railed against illegal immigration at a campaign rally in Arizona.

Well, the rhetoric at Trump's rallies has intensified in the build-up to election day, becoming more derogatory and hyper masculine as Republicans try to appeal to younger male voters, or what some are calling the "bro vote."

But some experts say this focused effort could be doing more harm than good. CNN's Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump!

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New warnings from some key female supporters of Donald Trump about an apparent political strategy to reach younger male voters.

NIKKI HALEY (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This bromance and this masculinity stuff, I mean, it borders on edgy to the point that it's going to make women uncomfortable.

TODD (voice-over): Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, weighing in on racist, vile, and misogynistic remarks at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally, much of it targeting Kamala Harris.

[00:40:05]

GRANT CARDONE, BUSINESSMAN: Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.

HULK HOGAN, FORMER PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER: When I hear Ka-MAH-la speak, it sounds -- Yes -- it sounds like a script from Hollywood with a really, really -- [SPITTING SOUND] -- bad actress.

TODD (voice-over): Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly also raising concerns about the rally.

MEGYN KELLY, HOST, "THE MEGYN KELLY SHOW": It was too bro-tastic. OK? It was. You clean up the bro talk just a little, so you don't alienate women.

TODD (voice-over): Some analysts say Trump has really been leaning into the bro culture recently, between his crudity --

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You're a shit vice president.

TODD (voice-over): And his hypermasculinity, like when he praised the physical attributes of a late Hall of Fame golfer.

TRUMP: Arnold Palmer was all man. When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there. They said, Oh, my God.

TODD (voice-over): Trump's male allies have joined in, Tucker Carlson referring to the former president as "Dad."

TUCKER CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: When Dad gets home, you know what he says? You've been a bad girl. You've been a bad little girl, and you're getting a vigorous spanking right now.

TODD (voice-over): So, what exactly is the so-called "bro vote?"

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Targeting young men who, through a variety of measures, polling shows are more alienated from opportunity, from government; in many ways, even from community.

TODD (voice-over): And, analysts say, there is a real targeted strategy by the Trump campaign on this.

MERIDITH MCGRAW, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": The Trump campaign is really focusing on young men who they think could be critical to get him over the edge on November 5.

And they're seeing in data that young men are skewing more conservative. And that's really informed a lot of their strategy here in this final stretch.

TODD (voice-over): Trump has spent precious time talking to podcasters who appeal to young men like Joe Rogan. But it's a strategy that could backfire.

MCGRAW: We've already seen some criticisms that the Trump campaigns focus on the bro vote could alienate young women or female voters.

TODD (voice-over): There's another risk here for Trump: the voting history of the demographic he's targeting.

BROWNSTEIN: There is the risk to Trump, first, that many of these men he's -- he's targeting will not turn out at the rate he's hoping.

TODD: Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has been doubling down on her targeting of women with the language she uses and her appearances, speaking often about abortion rights and appearing on shows like "The View" and popular podcasts like "Call Her Daddy" and "The Shade Room."

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Thank you for your company. I'm Anna Coren. I'll be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT, after this short break. Stay tuned.

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