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Hurricane Helene Strengthens As It Approaches Florida; Harris And Trump Vying For Undecided Vote; Caitlin Clark's Rookie Season Ends In Playoff Sweep. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 26, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:30:50]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:30 a.m. on the East Coast. A live look at Miami, Florida as Hurricane Helene barrels its way toward the other coast of that state. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Hurricane Helene is forecast to make landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane this evening. The powerful storm expected to deliver catastrophic winds of at least 130 miles an hour and potentially, a 20-foot storm surge along parts of the coast. Helene is set to impact much more than just Florida. Eighty-six million people across five states are currently under a combination of hurricane watches and warnings, as well as tropical storm warnings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA: So, Florida -- we're just kind of the opening act. You're going to see more, so to try to outrun it is probably not something that is advisable. You can go within your own county to higher ground, a shelter, hotel, friends-family house. That is totally sufficient for this. Remember, you hide from wind, but you run from the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us live now in Steinhatchee, Florida is CNN's Marybel Gonzalez. Marybel, what's the latest there?

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN NEWSOURCE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, good morning, Kasie.

Right now it is eerily quiet here in Steinhatchee -- the calm before the storm if you will. But we know that can change very quickly as Hurricane Helene inches closer, right now turning at a category 1. But we know it is intensifying and bringing with it those dangerous winds, that potentially life-threatening storm surge you mentioned earlier, and, of course, flooding, which is a major concern for small coastal counties and also small coastal towns just like the one we're standing in. And just taking a look around -- I know, it's dark right now but you can easily see why that is a major concern. We are just steps away from the Steinhatchee River. And on its banks are homes, businesses, and if you can see behind, even boats just out in the elements -- all of it in the path of Helene and its potentially devastating path.

Now, we know Floridians -- they're no strangers to these types of alerts and also to these types of preparations. They have been preparing and bracing for days. A great example of this is just right outside of Tampa yesterday we were in a city called Hudson. And there was a sandbag distribution center. People were loading up those sandbags to protect their homes -- not only their own but also their neighbors. We saw volunteers helping load up these sandbags.

And very interesting to us was also a small group of men. These were -- these men were also serving their communities, but these men were inmates -- are inmates and are serving time in the Pasco County Corrections System. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER SHAUN FOGARTY, PASCO COUNTY CORRECTIONS: In times of need with storm preparation and disaster relief, we will go ahead and reallocate those resources to helping, like today, with sandbags and really focusing on the residents of the community that are elderly or infirmed or need some assistance. You can see even on the inmates' faces that they do smile and that they feel appreciated for what they're doing. They know they are doing it for a good cause.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GONZALEZ: Neighbors helping neighbors there now.

Another major concern here are power outages. We know that at this hour around 4,000 people have already been impacted.

Reporting live from Steinhatchee, I'm Marybel Gonzalez. Back to you.

HUNT: All right, Marybel Gonzalez for us. Thank you very much.

All right, let's turn back now to politics. With less than six weeks to go before Election Day it's -- is it possible that there are voters who are still undecided?

Our next guest, Ron Brownstein, says yes. This is what he writes in his latest piece.

"When most people think about a voter still trying to make up their mind, they probably imagine a person who is highly likely to vote but uncertain about whether to support Harris, Trum, or a third-party candidate. Both political parties, however, are more focused on a different and much larger group of undecideds: potential voters who are highly likely to support Harris or Trump, but unsure if they will vote at all."

[05:35:00] And Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic joins us now. Ron, good morning.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC: Good morning.

HUNT: I do think there are a lot of people out there who --

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

HUNT: -- look around and they're like how --

BROWNSTEIN: How --

HUNT: -- do you not know who you're going to vote for --

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, that's exactly right.

HUNT: -- in this election? Explain.

BROWNSTEIN: You know -- so, like, pollsters ask all sorts of questions trying to figure out how many people are undecided in the election. And if you look at some of the recent national polling that comes out, they will go as far as saying roughly one in six people are either undecided or have left open the possibility of switching to the other candidate. I don't think there's anyone in either party who believes the number is anywhere near that high.

You know, if we're talking about persuadable voters -- people who are very likely to vote but unsure who they're going to vote for -- it's probably something like four, five, six percent of the electorate in the battleground states clustered among kind of white-collar Republicans who are resistant to Trump but having trouble getting to Haley (sic), and a lot of younger non-white voters.

HUNT: Getting to Harris, not Haley.

BROWNSTEIN: That's right. Oh, Harris, excuse me.

But there really is a much bigger group of people who are undecided who are not so much undecided between Harris or Trump -- they have a pretty good idea who they would vote for -- they're really deciding between participating and staying on the couch.

Don't forget even in 2020 when we had the highest turnout since before women had the right to vote, 80 million eligible voters did not vote.

And that is the real prize for both campaigns I think in terms of undecided voters between now and the end. Can they get voters who lean in their direction but are uncertain whether it makes sense to participate -- can they get them off the couch and into the voting booth?

HUNT: Who do you think the couch is more dangerous for right now?

BROWNSTEIN: I think it's really dangerous for both. I mean, Trump -- you know, Trump is a -- Trump's superpower, really,

as a national candidate has been -- has been his ability to turn out low propensity or irregular voters, white, non-college, in particular, non-rural voters. This time, if you look at his gains in polls among non-white voters, among Black and Latino voters, especially men, they're primarily among low propensity voters.

So the question will be does the Republican Party of Pennsylvania have the experience and the infrastructure to find the two 27-year-old Black guys on a block in Philadelphia who want to vote for Trump, or in Detroit?

And Harris, of course, has that traditional challenge for Democrats. There are a lot of younger non-white voters who would be leaning in her direction --

HUNT: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: -- who don't vote.

You know, 40 percent -- roughly 40 percent of both non-college whites and non-whites are eligible didn't vote in 2020, and that gives you some sense.

Catalist, the Democratic targeting firm, gave me access to some numbers that are very rarely discussed in public --

HUNT: Oh, interesting.

BROWNSTEIN: -- and they show -- and it shows that 70 percent of more of the voters they model as likely Trump voters who are irregular -- not guaranteed to show up -- are non-college whites. Whereas for Harris, particularly in the Sunbelt, it's mostly people of color.

HUNT: Yeah, that's fascinating.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

HUNT: So, Ron, obviously the economy has been front and center in the campaign all the way along but especially this week with both Trump and Harris focused on it. Harris giving that speech yesterday --

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

HUNT: -- in Pittsburgh.

She also sat down for an interview with Stephanie Rhule on MSNBC. Here is what she said about Trump and this back-and-forth that they're having over economic policy -- watch.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, part of it is you don't just throw around the idea of just tariffs across the board, and that's part of the problem with Donald Trump. I -- frankly, I'm going to -- and I say this in all sincerity, he's just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues. And one must be serious and have a plan -- and a real plan that's not just about some talking point ending in an exclamation at a political rally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, what do you make of the plan or lack of one that Harris has --

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

HUNT: -- presented and how it contrasts with Trump?

BROWNSTEIN: Right. I mean, there are two issues.

I mean, one, we have to talk about costs versus jobs and growth, right?

On costs, Harris is laboring under the frustration of voters about inflation early in Biden's term and there's really no way to make that cloud entirely go away. She has a lot of specific policies -- building more housing, challenging pharma on prescription drugs -- but I don't think she can get past that lived experience.

She does, though, have an important there. I mean, most economists -- not only economists -- Mitch McConnell, the other day, rejects Trump's intention that it is foreign countries that will pay his tariffs. In fact, multiple analyses -- Moody's, Goldman Sachs -- have said the combination of across-the-board tariffs and mass deportation, which will be very disruptive to the ag industry, to the construction industry -- Trump's agenda is more likely to rekindle inflation than what Harris is talking about.

So that's on the cost side.

[05:40:00]

The growth side is fascinating, right? Because on the one hand you have Trump who is basically offering a fortress America kind of economic vision with these giant tariff walls, severe immigration restrictions, lower tax rates on people who produce domestically. That's how he wants to generate more domestic manufacturing.

Harris is extending what is probably the biggest policy success of the Biden administration. Tax credits to encourage domestic private investment in manufacturing, it's at the highest level in decades. Literally hundreds of billions of dollars invested in clean energy. Now she wants to extend that to other key sectors.

And it really is a stark vision between kind of this industrial policy approach the Democrats have moved toward and this Trump fortress America of high tariffs, tight immigration, and lower tax rates -- which, by the way, was pretty much the agenda of the Republican presidents in the decade before the Depression -- Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. That was their policy mix, and, in many ways, he is reviving it for the 21st Century.

HUNT: Interesting, the Hoover --

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, yeah.

HUNT: This is why we invite you, Ron Brownstein --

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

HUNT: -- because of this --

BROWNSTEIN: We got Wendell Willkie in last time.

HUNT: We did. It's great.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, yeah.

HUNT: Thank you so much for being here.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks.

HUNT: I really appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING we're continuing to track Hurricane Helene as Floridians prepare for catastrophic winds when the major hurricane makes landfall tonight.

And in sports, WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark's rookie season comes to an end. The Indiana Fever falling to the Connecticut Sun in a win-or- go-home playoff matchup. We'll have that and more in our Bleacher Report.

Plus, in our battleground beat, Joe Biden won Nevada four years ago by just a little over 35,000 votes. What might tilt the state this year?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That a lot of it is going to be built in Nevada.

HARRIS: Nevada, today I ask you are you ready to make your voices heard?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[05:46:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS, ACTRESS, "VEEP": Do we actually have a chance in Nevada?

GARY COLE, ACTOR, "VEEP": Nevada.

LOUIS-DREYFUS: Oh my God, I get to be president. I don't have to move. What do we do?

COLE: Well, ma'am, we need to be sure that when we get on the ground --

LOUIS-DREYFUS: No -- shut up, Kent. You already lost Nevada for me once.

COLE: Nevada.

LOUIS-DREYFUS: Ben, what do we do? What do we do?

KEVIN DUNN, ACTOR, "VEEP": We need to get ahold of our people in Nevada -- don't, don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The man's right, it's Nevada.

Vice President Kamala Harris back in the crucial swing state of Nevada this weekend. It's her second visit to Las Vegas since launching her presidential campaign. According to most recent polls, Harris leads Trump by just three percentage points, still within the margin of error.

In recent weeks, both campaigns have released ads specifically targeting the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS POLITICAL AD: Her record as district attorney and attorney general locking up child abusers, online predators, and violent offenders, and shutting down international drug cartels. Under Donald Trump, a violent crime wave. And Trump ordered MAGA extremists to kill the bipartisan border security bill.

TRUMP POLITICAL AD: Harris and Biden have literally unleashed the IRS to harass workers who receive tips, and they just may be coming to your house next. Only President Trump has a plan that ends all taxes and service workers' tips.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now is The Nevada Independent's D.C. correspondent Gabby Birenbaum. Gabby, good morning.

GABBY BIRENBAUM, D.C. CORRESPONDENT, THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT: Good morning.

HUNT: Wonderful to see you.

So look, I want to talk about Nevada big picture because I think the last time -- one of the last conversations we had because this campaign with Harris has been so short -- BIRENBAUM: Yeah.

HUNT: It was only a month or -- a couple of months ago.

BIRENBAUM: Right.

HUNT: There was this assumption that Donald Trump had a major upper hand over Joe Biden in Nevada and he was on track to win the state. Harris has clearly put it back on the map. Why?

BIRENBAUM: Yeah. I think Nevada Democrats feel that her strengths are exactly the strengths of their party and of the Nevada electorate with younger voters, voters of color, Latino voters. Those are the groups that she is doing better with relative to Biden, and those are huge voting groups in Nevada.

Nevada and the Southwest in general is younger than the Midwest. Nevada, of all the swing states, is majority-minority. Has the highest percentage of Arizona Latino voters.

And so those are all groups that they feel like were not necessarily even supporting Trump, but like you talked about in the last segment going for the couch.

And so they feel like she's expanded the electorate in Nevada -- exactly what the kinds of people who have powered elections for Democrats in Nevada before.

HUNT: How does the union vote in Nevada differ from the union vote in states like -- the Rustbelt states like Michigan and Pennsylvania because it's obviously huge? The Culinary Workers Union, in particular, is a major driver of turnout. How does that factor in here?

BIRENBAUM: Yeah. I mean, it's not as much about manufacturing, right, because of the culinary union, as you mentioned, and that's the critical player in Democratic politics in Nevada. Those are hospitality workers.

So there's some 60,000 workers who organize through the culinary union. You know, when you think of Vegas those are waitresses, those are bartenders, those are card dealers. And so for them the economy is hugely critical and top of mind.

And this is also a union that's really, really well organized. They knocked on a million doors for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in 2022. They know how to run a ground game and how to turn our Democratic voters. They're really engaged in their own member education.

And so you see, right, former President Trump making a play for them with some of this no taxes on tips stuff. But when I talk to the culinary, they don't seem to be particularly worried about keeping margins with their own members strong.

HUNT: Yeah, that's interesting.

So you mentioned Catherine Cortez Masto. You are, of course, talking about Senate races.

And I know you were recently writing about the split in this race which was, of course, Jacky Rosen and the head-to-head for Jacky Rosen. She is up at -- this is registered voters in Nevada -- 51 percent to Sam Brown's 39 percent. That is a contrast with how tight the presidential race is where we've got Kamala Harris 49 and Donald Trump 46.

What's the story here?

BIRENBAUM: Yeah, it begs the question, right, who is a Trump-Rosen voter? It's hard to imagine who that might be.

[05:50:03]

I think the conventional wisdom is the polls are going to tighten. I think when you talk to both campaigns, they know that this is not going to be an eight, nine, 10-point race.

What it does indicate I think to both sides is that Rosen is winning. She's had a significant financial advantage. She was up on air positively defining herself and negatively defining Sam Brown before the primary had even finished for Sam Brown.

And so you'll see D.C. Republicans -- the National Republican Senatorial Committee -- they're going to kick in and they have kicked in millions of dollars in Nevada. But I think as they think about it vis-a-vis other states Brown could absolutely still win, particularly if Trump wins Nevada. But I think it's perhaps not as promising to them as it once was compared to certainly Montana and Ohio, and maybe even Michigan.

HUNT: Yeah, really interesting.

All right, Gabby Birenbaum for us this morning. Gabby, always grateful to have you.

BIRENBAUM: Thank you so much.

HUNT: Thank you very for being here.

All right, let's turn now to sports.

Heavy rain ahead of Hurricane Helene forces the final two games of pivotal series between the Mets and the Braves to be postponed.

Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy, good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, good morning, Kasie.

So Major League Baseball -- they could have got ahead of all of this and started the Mets-Braves series on Monday and then moved yesterday's game to noon, but they didn't. So now we have this mess. The Braves and Mets are going to have to play a doubleheader on Monday after the season is over to probably decide who gets in the playoffs. Now if for some reason the Mets pull away in the standings over the next three games, they wouldn't have to play those games, but that's unlikely.

The Mets are now on to Milwaukee for a three-game set. The Braves, meanwhile, will start a series Friday at home against the Royals once Hurricane Helene is gone. Right now, Atlanta a game back of the Mets and Diamondbacks in that National League wildcard race.

All right. Caitlin Clark's season, meanwhile, coming to an end last night at the hands of the Connecticut Sun. Clark and DeWanna Bonner getting a little chippy early on. Clark thought she was fouled there. Clark the first rookie ever to go for 25 points, five-plus rebounds, and five-plus assists in a playoff game, but it was not enough last night. The Sun beat the Fever 87-81 to finish off the sweep and advance to the semifinals for the sixth consecutive season.

But here was Clark though after the game on her rookie season.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAITLIN CLARK, GUARD, INDIANA FEVER: It's a good little taste of what's possible for this organization and for this franchise. And there's a lot for us to hold our heads high about. Um, you know, this team won five games two years ago. So we're a young group, we're a pretty inexperienced group, but we came together and had a lot of fun playing with one another. And that's sometimes the worst part of it is like you feel like you're really playing your best basketball and then it has to end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now after the game the Sun's Alyssa Thomas said that she had been the victim of online racial abuse by the Fever's fans, and she called for the WNBA to step in and do something about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALYSSA THOMAS, FORWARD, CONNECTICUT SUN: I've never been called the things that I've been called on social media, and there's no place for it. And, you know, basketball is headed in a great direction, but we don't -- we don't want fans that are going to degrade us and call us racial names. It's uncalled for and something needs to be done, whether it's them checking their fans or this league checking it. There's no time for it anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, the league released a statement saying they will not tolerate abuse, adding "League security is actively monitoring threat- related activity and will work directly with teams and arenas to take appropriate measure, to include involving law enforcement as necessary."

All right, in the other matchup last night, Napheesa Collier tying a WNBA playoff record scoring 42 points as the Lynx knock out the Mercury 101-88. Now this may have been legend Diana Taurasi's final game. The 42-year-old got a standing ovation from the Minnesota crowd when she was pulled from the game in the fourth quarter. Taurasi, though, has not said whether she plans to retire.

All right, finally, we have our first big case of when NIL money goes wrong. Starting quarterback Matthew Sluka, who led UNLV to an undefeated 3-0 start in a ranking in the coach's poll for the first time in school history, has quit the program and taken a red shirt because he said he didn't get the NIL money that was promised to him. Now, UNLV fired back saying payment demands were a violation of NCAA Pay for Play rules as well as Nevada state law.

But Kasie, I'm kind of surprised it took this long for this thing to happen because you have all these coaches saying oh, come play for us -- we'll give you this. And then you have the people who control the NIL money saying well, you know, you can't really do that. So it's unfortunate that this is where we are in college athletics right now, but it is what it is.

HUNT: Yeah, it's a real minefield. Yeah, it's a shame.

All right, Andy Scholes for us this morning. Andy --

SCHOLES: All right.

HUNT: -- always grateful to have you. Thank you so much.

All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, we'll bring you the latest on Hurricane Helene. The storm is expected to bring catastrophic winds to American soil tonight.

Plus, months of subpoenas and investigations lead to an indictment for New York City's Mayor Eric Adams. What's up next for the city's top official.

[05:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We do not want to see this happening in our city but unfortunately it is. And I think for the best of the city and so that we can continue to staff the administration of the city it would be best for Mayor Adams to step aside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

HUNT: It's Thursday, September 26. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to have a plan, and you need to get out now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Catastrophic and life-threatening. Hurricane Helene rapidly intensifying. It's expected to be a major storm when it makes landfall tonight.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I have pledged that building a strong middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A direct appeal. Kamala Harris making her pitch to the middle class. Are undecided voters buying it?

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK CITY: These charges will be entirely false based on lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)