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Path to Victory: How Trump or Harris Can Get to 270; International Community Keeping Tabs on Election; Legendary Music Producer Quincy Jones Passes Away at 91; Weary Voters Keep Campaign's End in Sight. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 04, 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: Hello, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of the top stories we're following today.
Just one day remains for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to make their case to undecided voters in the U.S. presidential election. Harris will spend all of Monday in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, while Trump will hit three key swing states, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. More than 75 million Americans have already cast their ballots.
The Associated Press reports that Moldova's pro-Western President, Maia Sandu, has won a second term in office after an election marred by allegations of Russian interference. With 99 percent of the vote counted, Sandu apparently has beat her opponent from the pro-Russian Socialist Party. Sandu is a former World Bank advisor who has worked to curb Moscow's influence and pushed for Moldova to join the European Union.
Tornadoes injured at least 11 people in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. They were spawned by severe thunderstorms that moved through the area overnight. Oklahoma and Texas are expected to see severe weather throughout Monday, including flash floods, hail and possibly more tornadoes.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: In less than 24 hours, six voters in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, will cast the first election day ballots in the U.S. presidential race. Whilst that tiny community traditionally gets things started, the real prizes for both campaigns are the seven key battleground states. CNN political director David Chalian is at the magic wall to break down which of them Trump and Harris need to win if they want to take the White House.
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DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Here it is. The path to 270. The red states are in Trump's column. The blue states are in Harris's column for the purpose of this exercise. And we've got seven remaining yellow toss-up battleground states. And as you know, those battleground states are razor thin.
Look at these are our Poll of Polls in the battleground states. No clear leader in any of them, in any of these battleground states. So this is razor thin.
So what is the path to victory for each candidate? Well, the Harris campaign will say that their best, most direct path to 270 electoral votes is through the blue wall. If she were to win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, she'd be at 270 electoral votes and the next president.
But what if Donald Trump repeats his 2016 victory in Pennsylvania? Then Harris drops down to 251 and she has to go hunting in the sunbelt to find some more votes. Certainly, if she were able to flip North Carolina from red to blue this time, that would get her knocking on the door to 270.
And then maybe Nevada behaves like it has for Democrats in recent cycles. And that would put Harris over the top in that scenario.
What about Donald Trump's path? Well, let's reset the map. Seven yellow battleground states. And Donald Trump's most direct path is to hang on to North Carolina. That is the state he won by the narrowest margin four years ago. In fact, it's the only state he won of the seven battleground states. And let's say he flips Georgia back.
You'll recall he famously lost it by just fewer than 12,000 votes. So let's say that ends up back in his column. And let's say he does get that Pennsylvania victory repeated from 2016. That's it. He'll be at 270 electoral votes. He doesn't need any of the rest of the battleground states.
But what if Harris does pull it out in Pennsylvania? Then where does Donald Trump go for the next 19 electoral votes? Well, even if he were to win Nevada and Arizona out west, that still would not get him to 270.
He would need at least one of the other remaining so-called blue wall states such as Michigan. And that would do the trick and get him over the top at 283.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Whether it's Harris or Trump, the outcome of this election will have major ramifications around the world. And we have correspondents standing behind a number of countries to gauge the international reaction to this incredibly tight race.
FOSTER: Larry Madowo is in Nairobi. Mike Valerio is in Seoul. But first, senior international correspondent Melissa Bell is in Paris with a perspective from here in Europe.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: American elections are always closely watched here in Europe, but this one really like no other, not only because of the likely economic consequences of a second Donald Trump term given his pledges of tariffs on imported goods and what that would mean for the global economy. But also from this continent's point of view for its security.
Remember that the last time Donald Trump was president, there had been all this talk in Europe of needing to achieve greater strategic independence. The fears are now on the continent that that hasn't gone far enough with the war in Ukraine not helping either.
[04:35:00]
A lot of questions, a lot of attention then on what happens Tuesday in the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Larry Madowo in Nairobi where a lot of people here in Kenya and across Africa are watching the U.S. election with interest. They know that whoever sits in the White House has an impact even here in Africa.
And speaking to people even while I've been here on the street, a lot of them tell me they like Donald Trump. They like that he speaks his mind. They're aware of his more controversial comments, reportedly having called some African nations (BLEEP) countries. But they like that they know where they stand with him.
And for many religious Africans as well, they're attracted to his opposition to abortion, to LGBT rights. Many Africans also know that Kamala Harris has Jamaican heritage. Therefore, her roots trace back to Africa.
But they even know that she's been traveling in Africa as VP to Ghana, to Zambia, and to Tanzania. But there's just a certain attraction to Donald Trump, the myth of a successful businessman. And that is just another reason why they're more attracted to the candidacy of Donald Trump and they think he'll be a better president for Africa.
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MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for millions of South Koreans, one of the biggest consequences of the U.S. election involves North Korea. Specifically, could the next U.S. president decide to keep the roughly 30,000 U.S. troops here on the Korean peninsula in part as a security guarantee against North Korea? Or could the next U.S. president decide to reduce the number of U.S. troops here on the peninsula?
Certainly, former President Trump has considered doing so in the past. And in 2018, he paused military exercises between South Korea and the United States. That pause happened when Trump was negotiating with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, over Kim's nuclear program.
But under the Biden-Harris administration, those military exercises between South Korea and the United States have begun once again. In fact, the Biden-Harris White House takes credit for the formation of a new security partnership between Japan, the United States and South Korea, forged in part to counter North Korean threats. So, security looming large here as we await the results of the U.S. election.
Mike Valerio, CNN, Seoul.
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FOSTER: Now some breaking news for you. The music industry has lost one of its trailblazing luminaries. Musician and producer Quincy Jones has died at the age of 91 at his home in Los Angeles, and that's according to his representatives.
MACFARLANE: Jones' decades-long career included highlights like Michael Jackson's genre-shifting Thriller album, among many others, and collaborations with the industry's biggest and most sought-after stars. Our Sara Sidner looks back at his illustrious life and career.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As the man behind some of music's most memorable hits, Quincy Jones was one of the most Grammy nominated artists of all time.
QUINCY JONES, MUSICIAN AND PRODUCER: When you do what you love, it's not work.
SIDNER (voice-over): Born Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. on the south side of Chicago in 1933, Jones found his passion for music when his family moved to Seattle in the late 40s. Jones took a job with the Lionel Hampton band as its trumpet player.
He worked steadily with musical greats like Sarah Vaughn, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington and his friend Ray Charles.
JONES: We didn't think about money or fame ever.
SIDNER (voice-over): During the 60s, Jones began writing film scores for movies such as "The Pawnbroker," "In Cold Blood" and "In the Heat of the Night." He even crafted iconic themes for the TV shows, "Ironside," and "Sanford and Son."
The in-demand musician even arranged and conducted his friend Frank Sinatra's second album with Count Basie, It Might As Well Be Swing. The 1964 album included Old Blue Eyes' hit song Fly Me to the Moon.
FRANK SINATRA, SINGER: Fly me to the Moon --
JONES: We had the best time. It's like being on another planet with him. Frank would say, Q, live every day like it's the last and one day you'll be right.
SIDNER (voice-over): Jones suffered two brain aneurysms in 1974 that nearly took his life. He recovered and went right back to work.
He produced albums for Aretha Franklin, George Benson, and Michael Jackson's first solo effort "Off the Wall" in 1979.
Jones' successful collaboration with M.J. also led to "Thriller" in 1982. It became the best-selling album of all time. The dynamic duo teamed up again in 1985 with "We Are the World."
JONES: I like to think about the studio as a place that's real sacred, you know, where magical things happen.
[04:40:00]
Hopefully, you know, that's what great records are supposed to be about.
SIDNER (voice-over): He produced his first film, "The Color Purple," in 1985. The drama earned 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Q, as his friends called him, seemed to always have a good idea. He created Quincy Jones Entertainment in 1990. The following year, he produced the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" TV series, starring rapper turned actor Will Smith.
LARRY KING, LARRY KING LIVE: You never think of retiring, do you?
JONES: Never. When you're retired, you travel and you do what you like to do, and I'm already doing it.
SIDNER (voice-over): In early 2013, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored Q for his exemplary contributions to music.
JONES: I've worked with every major artist in the world in the last 60 years. It's a such a blessing, man. You have to take the light part of your life, you know, wipe out the darkness.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL.I.AM, RAPPER, PRODUCER, SONGWRITER: We all immigrants, different characters, but together, you know, we can break down the barriers. So register and vote for your life. Do it for your daughters and your sons and your wife.
If you're a woman, then vote for your rights. And don't let them take away your rights. We could be better than we ever been.
We're about to have a woman president. Haters going to say that we can't, but the word American says that I can. And we say --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, she can.
WILL.I.AM: And we say --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, she can. WILL.I.AM And we say --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, she can.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: And that is Will.i.am. He's sending his powerful voice to the Democratic presidential nominee just days before the election. The rapper, producer, and songwriter says, yes, she can is a quote, heartfelt anthem celebrating Kamala Harris and the people of every, the power of every people.
FOSTER: Will.i.am says it's a song celebrating women in particular, those who hold every job, every role in society, calling them a doorway to life.
MACFARLANE: Well, this election appears to have galvanized American women with Republican attacks on reproductive health care, including abortion care and in vitro fertilization. Many women voters see their rights and freedoms at the center of the campaign. And in the seven most contested battleground states, women have cast 55 percent of early voting ballots.
FOSTER: They are mobilized. Recent CNN polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris with an edge over Donald Trump amongst women, 50 percent to Trump's 44 percent, which will surprise some people, those sorts of figures. But take a listen to the candidates and what they have to say about women's rights.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm through the roof with men. I'm great with men, but I'm sort of like soft with the women stuff. Women have to be protected when they're at home in suburbia.
I consider myself to be the father of fertilization, remember?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Ours is a fight for freedom, freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:45:00]
FOSTER: Some early voters are making their voices heard and celebrating with pioneering women's rights icon Susan B. Anthony. They're placing their I voted stickers on their headstone and memorial statue in Rochester, New York.
Susan B. Anthony was one of the best known early suffragists and campaigning for voting rights for women in the 1800s.
MACFARLANE: Yes, she died before women were granted that constitutional right. But modern women are recognizing her groundbreaking work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECKY D'ANGELO-VEITCH, VOTER: Now I'm a mom of two daughters and I want my daughters to be engaged citizens. I want them to vote and to be able to do that here today. And then just to come and honor the work that Susan B. Anthony did to give me the right to do that was beyond important.
JANE CARDEN, VOTER: The fact that she took the stand over 100 years ago, that I could do this, and that my daughters can do this, it's a privilege. I wouldn't be anywhere else. I wouldn't vote anywhere else this year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: It's so important, isn't it? American women gained the right to vote in 1920, 14 years after Anthony's death.
FOSTER: It's been a highly unusual U.S. presidential campaign in many ways, often unprecedented in both tone and action. And a lot of weary voters will be glad when it's over.
MACFARLANE: CNN's Jason Carroll looks back at some of the highs and lows.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was just a few days ago when former President Donald Trump got into the cab of a garbage truck bearing his name while campaigning in Wisconsin.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.
CARROLL (voice over): The latest eyebrow-raising photo op in a campaign that's full of unexpected moments and race-altering developments.
The jury in the Donald Trump hush money cover-up case has reached a verdict. May 30th, 2024, the day Donald Trump made history after becoming the first former president to be convicted of a felony.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The jury in the Donald Trump hush money cover-up case has reached a verdict.
CARROLL (voice over): May 30th, 2024, the day Donald Trump made history after becoming the first former president to be convicted of a felony.
TRUMP: The real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people. CARROLL (voice over): As stunning as the day was, then came this night in June, the first 2024 debate between President Joe Biden and his Republican rival.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to with --
CARROLL (voice over): Questions raise about whether the 81-year-old had the fitness to serve a second term.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party.
CARROLL (voice over): Amid all the uncertainty, a near tragedy during a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The former president had just survived an assassination attempt, a bullet grazed his ear. Days later, the GOP nominee would receive a hero's welcome at the Republican National Convention.
Meanwhile, the calls for Biden to step aside reached a fever pitch.
BIDEN: So, I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news and it is historic, President Joe Biden, dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
CARROLL (voice over): Biden endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris who quickly gathered the support of the party and make history as the first woman of color to become a major party nominee.
HARRIS: I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.
CARROLL (voice over): This new presidential race continued to see contentious moments, like this one where Harris railed against Trumps rhetoric.
HARRIS: He's talked about locking people up because they disagree with him. This is a democracy.
CARROLL (voice over): And the unusual would continue, even by this campaign cycle's standards.
GOV. TIM WALZ, D-MN, VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know it, you feel it, these guys are creepy, and yes, just weird as hell.
CARROLL (voice over): Take the repeated racist lies about Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
TRUMP: They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats.
CARROLL (voice over): Democrats trying to energize voters with star power saw former President Barack Obama rapping to Eminem's "Lose Yourself" during a rally for Harris. BARACK OBAMA (D) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm nervous, but on the surface, I look calm and ready.
CARROLL (voice over): Some heads scratching over this musical moment when Donald Trump stopped questions at his townhall outside Philadelphia.
TRUMP: Let's not do any more questions. Let's just listen to music.
CARROLL (voice over): Instead, Trump stood and swayed to a playlist for some 30 minutes.
TRUMP: So play "YMCA" go ahead, let's go, nice and loud.
CARROLL (voice over): In the final stretch, this Trump rally at Manhattan's Madison Square Garden marked by vulgar and more racist rhetoric.
TONY HINCHCLIFFE, COMEDIAN: Like, I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it's called Puerto Rico.
CARROLL (voice over): Trump said he didn't know the comedian and made no apologies for what was said.
[04:50:00]
TRUMP: Nobody gets along better with Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican people than me.
CARROLL (voice over): In the final days of the campaign, Harris pledged to try to put an end to the divisiveness.
HARRIS: 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.
CARROLL (voice over): Election day now less than 48 hours away, for an anxious electorate weary of a presidential campaign cycle unlike any other, it cannot come soon enough.
Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: I think I could say with conviction that this election cycle has been wild.
FOSTER: When you put it all together.
MACFARLANE: He did well to summarize it there. It's just been, this has been so much, right? And it's not over yet. There could be other things impacting this election like the weather.
FOSTER: We like to talk about that here in the U.K., in the U.S. as well. CNN's Elise Raffa tells us what to expect in terms of weather on election day.
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ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The strong cold front that we've been talking about all weekend continues to impact our weather on election day. We still have very warm temperatures surging out ahead of that front for Georgia and North Carolina. We have some showers and storms now stretching across the Great Lakes. Some of those battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin.
The storm threat stretches down towards the Gulf Coast and that punch of cooler air behind that front could prompt some snow showers up in the Pacific Northwest. We'll be watching those rain chances closely in the Great Lakes, Milwaukee, with some showers around through a lot of the afternoon temperatures in the middle 60s.
We'll find that rain again pretty healthy across Grand Rapids, Michigan. You'll need that umbrella as you head out to voting locations. Temperatures in the upper 60s with a steady south and west wind that could get up to 20 miles per hour at times.
Now one study shows that for every one inch of snow that drops voter turnout by a half a percent. For every one inch of rain that could drop voter turnout by one percent.
We'll also find temperatures really cooling down behind this front. You find those highs, daytime highs, dropping into the 40s from Billings down towards Salt Lake City. But you'll still find the very warm temperatures ahead of the front nearing 80 degrees from Atlanta all the way up to Columbus, Ohio.
Now we're not just talking about temperatures warm for this time of year. We could set more than 20 record highs on Election Day. A lot of them across the Great Lakes. If you are in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, you'll actually have a really beautiful day as you head out to vote. Temperatures climbing into the middle 70s with lots of sunshine on that southerly wind will be really nice if you get stuck on some long lines at those voting locations.
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FOSTER: Now that Max Verstappen is on the verge of another Formula One championship after a remarkable victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo. Our story is just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: An upcoming ITV documentary shines a light on Queen Camilla's work to give a voice to survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence. It's a cause the Queen has long campaigned for. She hopes the documentary will raise awareness whilst removing the stigma from its victims.
The documentary is called "Her Majesty the Queen Behind Closed Doors" and it airs next Monday.
MACFARLANE: It captures her meeting with survivors of domestic abuse and others who have lost loved ones. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[04:55:00]
QUEEN CAMILLA, UNITED KINGDOM: Please don't be nervous. I should probably be just as nervous as you. I don't know where you'd like to begin your story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we first met. We clicked straight away. He was funny and charming, witty, romantic.
QUEEN CAMILLA: Like they usually are.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then the abuse started gradually. The old slap turned into a punch. And then beating.
QUEEN CAMILLA Did the violence get worse?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
QUEEN CAMILLA: Yes. And when we suffers for days.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: I saw it last week at the Palace, I got a preview and that survivor had just gone into the refuge and she had never spoken about what happened before, so it was quite a powerful little thing.
And what, you know, I don't know, what's interesting is that Camilla says she had no experience of any of this, so you really see it through her eyes and all the survivors that they spoke to, you know, you talk about the violence there. So many of them were talking about how there wasn't any violence until right at the end when it became almost fatal and how the documentary really shows you it's more about coercion and control and none of them felt they were being abused because they didn't recognize the signs of coercion and control they were waiting for violence almost.
MACFARLANE: It's clearly an important documentary for highlighting that but also the work that Queen Camilla has been doing in this space that perhaps people aren't aware about.
FOSTER: Yes and it all starts, it went back to 10 years ago, she describes in the documentary she met a mother of a daughter whose ex- boyfriend killed her and they connected because Camilla couldn't get her head around the idea that you can lose your daughter in that way and it's pretty good.
MACFARLANE: Now, Max Verstappen has won his first Grand Prix since June with victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix. I don't know who saw this, it was pretty crazy. The Dutchman maneuvered his way to the front from 17th on the grid in Sao Paulo. The first place points extend his lead in the Drivers' Championship with his nearest competitor Lando Norris starting on pole but finishing sixth.
FOSTER: Verstappen could clinch his fourth consecutive title in the next race which takes place in Vegas later this month.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. We are --
MACFARLANE: Election week!
FOSTER: We are sort of here tomorrow on standby but our colleagues in the U.S. will be taking you through the election.
