Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Five Days Until Election Day in the U.S.; Voters in Battleground Wisconsin; U.S. Envoys Head to Israel for Discussion on Lebanon; North Korea May Be Seeking Iran-Style Ties with Russia; Pro- Trump Media Paint a Picture of His Near-Certain Victory. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 31, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Now, a hearing to consider re- sentencing for Erik and Lyle Menendez is set for December 11th. The brothers are serving a life sentence for killing their parents in 1989. Last night -- last week the Los Angeles District Attorney requested they have a possible -- possibility for parole.

And they're celebrating in the streets of Los Angeles right now after the Dodgers won the World Series, the eighth title in franchise history. They beat the New York Yankees four games to one. Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman was named the series MVP.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the race to the White House and the push for votes in critical swing states as the clock winds down. Donald Trump was in Wisconsin on Wednesday repeating claims that he's a protector of women. Previously he said women won't be thinking of abortion if he's elected. Also claiming women are less safe, less healthy and poorer now compared to his time in office. Here's what he had to say Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: About four weeks ago I would say no I want to protect the people. I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women.

Sir, please don't say that. Why? They said we think it's we think it's very inappropriate for you to say so. Why? I'm president. I want to protect the women of our country.

Well I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well it remains to be seen how many women agree with Trump but some of the numbers don't look promising for him. New CNN polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump in both Wisconsin and in Michigan.

CNN's John King spoke with voters in Wisconsin about the upcoming election and the trends that they're observing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunrise in the suburbs. Milwaukee on the red side of a critical dividing line in battleground Wisconsin. Octane Coffee is a startup. Your morning jolt here prepared by a robot. Adrian Deasy is the founder and CEO.

DEASY: This is all of the robotics.

KING (voice-over): He grew up in a Democratic household, voted twice for Barack Obama, moved to the Milwaukee suburbs a decade ago.

DEASY: Toppings, cold foams.

KING (voice-over): A self-described moderate ready to vote a third time for Donald Trump.

ADRIAN DEASY, WISCONSIN RESIDENT: I just see that Donald Trump from a business minded standpoint, from a let's make a deal standpoint, and from an economics and financing perspective, I think he's got the right mindset for how the country should be run, how to support small and medium-sized businesses.

KING: Are there downsides to him in your view?

DEASY: Does he have some character or personality, things that go on? For sure. But I would say you have to separate the message from the messenger sometimes.

KING (voice-over): Trump won suburban Waukesha County in both 2016 and 2020, but his margin was smaller the second time, and Wisconsin flipped back to blue. Deasy believes Trump is stronger this time.

DEASY: I would say over the last say 6 to 12 months, definitely a large Trump bump if you'd want to call it that.

KING (voice-over): Waukesha is a key test of whether Trump can reverse his suburban slide. And across the county line in Milwaukee, a pivotal test for Kamala Harris too. This is the Trickle B Cafe on Milwaukee's north side. Pay what you can is the motto here. We found a lot of apathy on our first visit to these predominantly Black neighborhoods a year ago. Chef Zakiya Courtney says the switch to Harris ended that.

ZAKIYA COURTNEY, WISCONSIN RESIDENT: You know, you got somebody that's younger, you have somebody that's with an agenda, you got somebody that's relatable, you know, you got somebody who understands the issue.

KING (voice-over): Courtney hears talk more Black men are for Trump this time. She doesn't believe it's a big number.

COURTNEY: And I've heard what it is that people have said. I've heard people talk about the fact that she's been a prosecutor and she's put, you know, Black men in jail and things like that. Well, you know, you have to look at that closer. You know, if you've done a crime, you deserve to go to jail. And there's nothing that shows that she has a track record of targeting Black men and put them in jail.

KING (voice-over): This line for early voting is in Sherman Park, one of the north side neighborhoods where Harris needs high turnout and giant margins.

COURTNEY: What I'm seeing right now is an enthusiasm and excitement that's even bigger than when Obama won.

KING: The vice president's chances here depend on Zakiya Courtney being right or at least close to right about that level of enthusiasm in the Black community. Joe Biden won only 13 of Wisconsin's 72 counties en route to his victory here in 2020.

How did he do it? Run it up big in the Democratic areas like Milwaukee and hold your own in the suburbs.

John King, CNN, Milwaukee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority is allowing Virginia to continue its efforts to remove suspected noncitizens from its voter registration rolls.

No reasoning was given for the ruling, but voting right groups say that there's evidence that eligible voters have been caught up in the state's purge.

FOSTER: Republicans have long argued that noncitizens are trying to vote in the U.S. election, but those cases are extremely rare. And the U.S. Justice Department and immigrant rights groups slammed the Supreme Court's ruling, which comes just days before the presidential election.

[04:35:00]

MACFARLANE: Now, two U.S. envoys are expected in Israel today to discuss the situation in Lebanon.

An official says Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are pursuing a short term ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah for at least a month.

FOSTER: But for now, the Israeli strikes continue. Lebanon's health ministry says at least 19 people were killed on Wednesday 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.

Residents of Baalbek could be seen fleeing, though, after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation off the city.

MACFARLANE: Meantime, Hezbollah's newly appointed leader is speaking out amid the fighting, saying in his inaugural speech as leader of the Iran back militant group that they're 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 people's in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Salma is with us. If he's right, a ceasefire is desperately needed.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and there is this flurry of diplomatic activity that's taking place. You have two White House officials that are expected in Israel today Thursday to discuss this matter. The CIA director Bill Burns is going to be in Cairo as well, pushing on negotiation efforts around the hostage situation and around Gaza. You have the CENTCOM commander in the region as well.

The point here being President Biden is making a huge diplomatic push right before the U.S. elections, and that is because there are a few issues on the table here that could be of concern.

Let's go to Lebanon, where there is optimism that a short term ceasefire deal could be reached, that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could be temporarily stopped for at least a month and that during that month, intensive negotiations would take place as to what would happen the day after the war.

Would the U.N. resolution that's kept the peace kept that ground? Would that be enforced? How would that would be enforced? Who would enforce it? All of those questions. How do people return to their homes? What about aid?

So all of that would potentially be discussed if, if, if, a ceasefire deal is reached, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister expressed optimism as well. He says he hopes that a deal could be reached within days or weeks. That's based on his conversations with U.S. officials.

Now you'll note I haven't mentioned Israel's response yet. So far, with these media reports, they seem to downplay them in response to questions to reporters saying, Yes, there's a lot of paperwork out there. There's a lot happening out there. Meaning essentially, I don't think that there's going to be anything said from Prime Minister Netanyahu until we're closer to a done deal.

But if a deal is reached, that would give some hope some relief to those suffering on the ground. More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of this offensive. Thousands more displaced, thousands more wounded. They need, they need that respite. MACFARLANE: And as we've been seeing, obviously, there's been very little response from Israel as well, too, until we have the election date done. So we'll wait to see, you know, if that can progress in the days to come. But what is also hampering potential ceasefire negotiations here is the expansion of Israel's war now to the north of Lebanon. The intensification of that.

ABDELAZIZ: Absolutely so important to mention this, and I believe we do have images of Baalbek to show you. This is a major population center. It is north of Beirut. It is very far from the Israeli border. It is deep within Lebanon in Israel's military ordered everyone to evacuate that city. So you have people fleeing unaware of where to go. Eyewitness accounts on the ground saying people were literally shouting at each other from their cars.

Which route do we take? Where do we go? Where is safe?

That's the chaos that's happening on the ground. And again, I mentioned that it's in the north of the country because we already know the south has been struck by Israeli firepower. We already know Beirut has been struck by Israeli firepower.

So for those families, there is this sense of disarray. It shows that Israel is expanding its campaign to areas far beyond what is in Israel's border. And for Lebanon, the question becomes how much further does this go? How many more lives will be caught in the crosshairs?

FOSTER: The amount of weaponry that Israel has been using over the last year does really show what a phenomenal amount of defense equipment it's got. And you wonder, you know, how long does it last? Doesn't seem to be a question.

ABDELAZIZ: An unprecedented amount of firepower has been used in this conflict. I know that when the offensive started on Lebanon, just within a period of 48 hours, the amount of firepower used in two days was greater than people had seen an entire conflicts just to give a sense of the amount that is being used on the ground.

[04:40:04]

Now Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure. Baalbek is an area known to be supportive of Hezbollah. It is right along the Syrian border. But those on the ground say it is residential buildings, it is homes, it is hospitals, it is people's lives that are being impacted and lost.

MACFARLANE: And let's not forget a lot of this military capability is obviously coming from U.S. backed support. Salma Abdelaziz, thank you.

Now Ukraine's second largest city has come under Russian fire. Ukrainian officials say one child is dead and 29 other people injured after a nine story building in Kharkiv took a hit Wednesday night.

FOSTER: The video from the scene showed emergency workers putting out fires, combing through the rubble in search of victims. The attack came on the heels of Monday's bomb strike that tore through one of the city's most iconic landmarks, which dates back to the 19 twenties.

South Korea laying out what it believes is the strongest threat of North Korea's troop deployment to Russia.

MACFARLANE: They say Pyongyang is trying to gain access to more advanced weapon technologies, including nuclear. CNN's Oren Liebermann has the details from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: One of the big questions we've had about North Korean troops going to train in Russia and then perhaps the fight on behalf of Russia in Ukraine is what does North Korea get in return? And this is an area where the U.S. has simply said they're very much watching this space, but they have nothing to say yet. They won't speculate here, but they have made clear that they're looking to see if there is some sort of quid pro quo between Russia and North Korea in terms of what does North Korea get in return?

Now, the U.S. hasn't gone that far yet, but South Korea did. The South Korean defense minister speaking alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday at the Pentagon said it is, quote, very likely that North Korea will receive help in critical technology areas, including perhaps nuclear weapons, specifically tactical nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles, satellite technology, all of the areas we have seen North Korea trying to push forward with some successes and some failures.

Of course, that is technology that Russia already has at its disposal here and a space that the U.S. was watching in South Korea to see if that's what they would give in return.

Now South Korea didn't say it definitively, but they said that's effectively what their indications are showing what's very likely to happen.

Now that would effectively mirror a sort of arrangement that Iran has with Russia, where Iran provides drones and ballistic missiles, and in exchange, Russia provides technology in the nuclear realm, on ballistic missiles, on drones, as that relationship grows.

Now, this is an area where South Korea and the U.S. will expand their intelligence sharing to see how this relationship grows and in what direction it goes. What sort of steps and advancements is North Korea able to make in these critical technology and crucially weapons areas? So you're likely to see an expansion of that cooperation and intelligence sharing.

This, of course, all happens as Western intelligence officials tell CNN that a small number of those North Korean troops in Russia are already on the battlefield in Ukraine, a situation U.S. President Joe Biden called, quote, dangerous.

Oren Liebermann, CNN in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: North Korea confirms it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile earlier today. Japan's defense minister says it flew for nearly an hour and a half and fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. North Korean state media says leader Kim Jong-un was at the launch site.

MACFARLANE: Well, 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. This is the first missile test of its kind from North Korea since last December.

Now pro-Trump media versus reality. Still ahead, Trump friendly media personalities talk about his victory as a foregone conclusion despite the polls showing otherwise, and they appear to do that for a reason.

FOSTER: Plus, Ticketmaster is about to get a fiery message about what some call its greedy pricing policy.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Most polls show the upcoming U.S. presidential election is a dead heat.

MACFARLANE: But that's not the case in the media universe, dominated by supporters of former President Donald Trump. According to them, the outcome is already set in stone and as Donie O'Sullivan reports, they appear to be laying the groundwork for Trump to potentially challenge the results.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. The reason you are here at my home at this godforsaken hour of the morning is because we are about to spend the day in the MAGA Media universe.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Every day, millions of Americans get their news and information, not from newspapers or cable news.

DANIEL BONGINO, HOST OF "THE DAN BONGINO SHOW" ON RUMBLE: The momentum behind Donald Trump's campaign, ladies and gentlemen, you know, it's almost tangible at this point.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But from a new world of online MAGA Media outlets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The secret ingredient to the COVID-19 injections has been found.

O'SULLIVAN: Today is going to be a long day.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But you don't have to work too hard to get sucked into the MAGA Media universe. O'SULLIVAN: I have a Samsung television. Long as it's -- you're connected to the internet, you got all these free channels. You have channels you'd recognize, but then you go down, "Real America's Voice." But "Real America's Voice" is anything but a normal news network.

STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: Because we're going medieval on this, people.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): It's the home of Steve Bannon's war room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do people like that go to share the big lie, MAGA Media.

O'SULLIVAN: I know that guy.

DAVID BOSSIE, AMERICAN POLITICAL ACTIVIST: Good morning, Bossie. This is Dave Bossie, sitting in for Steve Bannon.

O'SULLIVAN: Big part of what's happening on MAGA Media is convincing their audience that there is absolutely no way that Trump can lose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, INFOWARS: There's a 99 percent chance we are facing total crazy town.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): As the day went on --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if anyone believes that Kamala Harris is ahead in the polls, you need to have your brain checked.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): It became clear that MAGA Media is telling their audience to expect the election to be stolen.

MIKE LINDELL, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MY PILLOW: Pennsylvania has done it three times in a row, three times in a row, three elections in a row. They had more votes than voters.

O'SULLIVAN: This is not true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just voted in the white settlement election. I voted for one president, checked it on the video screen. When I got the paper ballot, it had the other candidate's name on it.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): This video was quickly going viral with some saying it was proof of election fraud.

O'SULLIVAN: This one has 7 million views. Voters in Tarrant County are reporting that the voting machines are flipping their votes from Trump to Harris.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Election officials had responded to the video.

O'SULLIVAN: Now, Tarrant County has put out a press release, 51 retweets compared to millions of views for the video. The original ballot was spoiled and the voter re-marked a new ballot with his preferred choice reflected.

Essentially what they're saying is this guy made a mistake and that's the whole point of having the paper receipt. You can make sure, and he was able to cast his vote correctly.

LINDELL: But I want to tell you guys about our file sheets that just came in.

SEAN SPICER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Before I do that, I want to tell you how I sleep every night.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But MAGA Media isn't all doom and gloom. There's also a lot of stuff you can buy.

SPICER: But I've got my Beam Dream Powder. Now this --

O'SULLIVAN: It is kind of sad, you see Sean Spicer, once the White House Press Secretary --

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: My own brand of organic specialty coffee, Rudy Coffee.

O'SULLIVAN: Rudy Giuliani, once America's mayor, selling sleeping pills and coffee.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The MAGA Media universe is surreal, but also scary.

[04:50:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The country's probably going to be in a state of whipped-up chaos.

O'SULLIVAN: There are so many shows, so many influencers, so many people just posting all day long. Clearly, one thing that is being pushed really, really hard is that Trump is definitely going to win, and if he doesn't win, it is because of fraud. It is because the election was stolen.

Donie O'Sullivan, CNN at my apartment in New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: You know, we all hope that this isn't going to be the case on the night. But we certainly have to prepare for this, right, as a possibility.

FOSTER: That one candidate calls the election too early.

MACFARLANE: Indeed, as we have seen before. It's interesting to dive into the MAGA world there with Donie for a few minutes.

Now, in other news, those trying to scout tickets for the upcoming Oasis reunion tour have struck a sour note with the England rock legends. FOSTER: Yes, promoters say the group is cancelling about 50,000 tickets that were resold to unapproved sites. The reason? Resale prices went through the roof and the band wants to stop price gouging. The cancelled tickets will be put back on Ticketmaster and sold for face value. I'm on that.

MACFARLANE: I think that's the right move, isn't it? Ticketmaster itself will also take some heat literally on Saturday. This is a taking it to a slightly different level.

An effigy representing the company will go up in flames as part of a traditional bonfire celebrations in England. Organizers want to send a message about what they call greedy pricing of the Oasis tickets and band members Liam and Noel Gallagher are portrayed on the sculpture. But organizers say the message isn't aimed at them.

The Oasis tour kicks off in England next July. Love a bonfire, don't we?

FOSTER: You know, on this debate, we had this with Taylor Swift as well when the site crashed. And what a lot of the people in the industry were saying is actually the artists are quite involved in the decision about how these tickets should be sold. It's not entirely in Ticketmaster's, you know, is in their control, but they do liaise with the artists.

So sometimes the artists need to take more responsibility of it as well. If nothing else, stay across how they're being sold.

MACFARLANE: Yes, I didn't know that. Which in so in this sense, Oasis are doing the right thing, it seems to me, to put the tickets back out there --

FOSTER: Yes.

MACFARLANE: -- necessarily.

FOSTER: It does affect a lot of people because as someone who tried to buy them for several hours, I did notice on this other site that we all know, the tickets were going straight on there and being sold for you know, 10 times as much. And there were certainly people buying them. So those people, but you know, they shouldn't -- you know, they took a risk, didn't they? And it hasn't paid off.

MACFARLANE: Did you get a ticket?

FOSTER: No. I eventually got through. I'm going to be very boring for a moment. But there were so many stages to the crashing of the system. And the last one was when I actually got through and I pressed pay. And it said you've been timed out. Seven hours later.

MACFARLANE: We all know that feeling, don't we? Oh, well, you'll have another chance. They're going back online.

And now today, if you hadn't noticed, is Halloween. But at Baltimore in North Carolina -- FOSTER: It's a Halloween jacket.

MACFARLANE: It's really a Halloween jacket, but it's as best as I could rustle up.

But in Baltimore, preparations for Christmas are already underway. It's more my season Christmas. The 28 foot Christmas tree was delivered to the historic estate on Wednesday, just days before it plans to welcome guests back for the first time since Hurricane Helene. The storm hit North Carolina in late September, forcing the entire area to shut down to tourism.

And the estate will kick off its Christmas at Biltmore events on Saturday, a tradition that spans 130 years. The holiday celebration runs through January 5th.

Are you a Christmas or a Halloween kind of guy?

FOSTER: Definitely Christmas. Yes.

Burger King. Latest company to mark the coming holiday season with its own advent calendar as well. The fast food chain says it's 12 day BK advent calendar, nods to the past and present menu items, including the Whopper. I mean, they don't have the burgers in, right?

MACFARLANE: Well, if it doesn't, you'd be disappointed, right? Like 28 mini burgers?

FOSTER: I'd be disappointed if I did see one 25 days later.

MACFARLANE: Yes. Well, it will include what they say are daily curated gifts. A full list of items will be released. Oh, we don't even know yet. Released in mid-November. The calendars go on sale November 22nd for just under $20.

25 Big Macs, please. Mini Big Macs.

FOSTER: I think it's vouchers.

MACFARLANE: I can't, I just have no idea what else you would be putting in there.

Anyway, you'll soon be able to make your home smell like Thanksgiving feast without any cooking or clean up.

FOSTER: Really?

MACFARLANE: Campbell's, the soup famous for its -- the company famous for its soup, is releasing scented candles made to smell like everyone's favorite side dishes for the U.S. holiday. That includes green bean casserole, jalapeno cheddar macaroni and cheese and everything bagel seasoned with mashed potatoes. And it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a stuffing on the side.

[04:55:02] FOSTER: Campbell's released a report called State of the Sides, full of information on its consumers. It found 56 percent of people prefer side dishes over a main course of turkey. With stuffing or dressing ranked number one. More than 60 percent believe sharing family recipes makes the meal more special.

I'm not sure how that translates into candles.

MACFARLANE: They're so wholesome, Campbell's, aren't they? We'll be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Yes, I think it's just one baby.

We're confused about a story coming out, but the White House getting into Halloween spirit, a night of trick or treating as U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden celebrated with children and their families and their feet.

MACFARLANE: The first lady wore a full panda suit as her costume. Well done, Jill Biden. And they handed out candy and books to the children. And this is the Biden's final Halloween celebration at the White House of course.

FOSTER: I'll explain my feet comment. Apparently he was biting baby's feet.

MACFARLANE: Yes. I don't know if you've seen the picture. We don't have it sadly, of President Biden jokingly biting --

FOSTER: Three feet. Here we go.

MACFARLANE: No, no, no, is it going to be a bite?

FOSTER: Here we go. He's going in. He's going in. Is it going to be a bite?

MACFARLANE: We're going to have to go. We'll leave you on that cliffhanger.

Happy Halloween. I'm Christina McFarland. He's Max Foster.

Stay with us. CNN "THIS MORNING" after the break.

[05:00:00]