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CNN This Morning

Obama Tears Into Trump At First Rally For Harris; Anti-Nuclear Weapons Group In Japan Wins Nobel Peace Prize; 15 Deaths Reported After Hurricane Milton Slams Into Florida. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired October 11, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:32]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, October 11th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Get off your couch and vote. Vote for Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States!

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RAJU: Turning to a familiar face, Barack Obama hits the campaign trail for the first time for the vice president.

Plus --

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president.

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RAJU: Stumping in Detroit while making his pitch to Michigan automakers, Donald Trump takes a jab the city he was speaking at.

And --

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. President Trump, or former President Trump, get a life, man, help these people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Get a life. That's the president's message to Donald Trump, amid the storm response misinformation he's been pushing.

(MUSIC)

RAJU: It's 5:00 a.m. here Washington and here's a live look at Capitol Hill.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Manu Raju, in for Kasie Hunt. It's great to be with you.

Just 25 days to go until Election Day, and its crunch time on the campaign trail. So the Harris campaign is turning to a familiar face for a boost.

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OBAMA: It is good to be back in Pennsylvania.

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RAJU: Former President Barack Obama making his first campaign appearance for Kamala Harris, since his fiery speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Now, during his 45-minute address in Pittsburgh last night, he tried to rile up voters for Harris, but also levels some of his harshest attacks at the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: When Donald Trump lies or cheats or shows utter disregard for our Constitution, when he calls POWs "losers" or fellow citizens "vermin", people make excuses for it. They think it's okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now with Obama campaigning in Pittsburgh, Kamala Harris rounding out her week of stepped-up media appearances with a rally in Arizona in a town hall with voters on Univision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I am elected president, I will bring back that border security bill, and I will sign it into law and do the work of focusing on what we must do to have an orderly and humane pathway to earn citizenship for hardworking people.

I think it is a false choice for people who would say, you do one or the other. I believe we must do both. I believe we can do both. And my pledge to you is to work on that.

Now, while Harris was making her pitch in Arizona, Donald Trump was in Detroit, trying to appeal to swing voters in that battleground state. But at one point in his speech seemed to insult the very city he was speaking in.

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TRUMP: We're a developing nation, too. Just take a look at Detroit. Detroit's a developing -- Detroit's a developing area, hell of a lot more than most places in China. The whole country is going to be like -- you want to know that truth? There'll be like Detroit, our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Okay. Joining me now to talk about all of this, Catherine Lucey, White House reporter for "The Wall Street Journal".

Catherine, good morning. It's so great to be here.

Insulting the city you're campaigning and maybe not the best idea, but, you know, he's not going to win Detroit. So that's one thing. But maybe some voters who look favorably upon Detroit may not look so favorably on those remarks.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yeah, it's an interesting choice to insult the place you're literally standing. And I do -- I'm not sure --

RAJU: And it's one of the biggest swing states in the country.

LUCEY: In this key state. I mean, it's a continuation of remarks we've heard before from the former president about cities. You remember he talked a lot about Baltimore. He clearly has some cities that he thinks are problems in talks a lot about crime.

But even -- even people who don't live in Detroit and Michigan might not appreciate those comments. And that state is so close, it's going to be so key and they are both fighting a really, really hard for it.

And he's very competitive. He's been very effective, I think with messaging around manufacturing, around cars, talking about electric vehicles, like a lot of his appeals have landed in Michigan.

[05:05:02]

So this -- this may not help that effort.

RAJU: Yeah. You know, it's interesting about the economy as you're referring to about obviously polls still show that Trump is leading Harris on the economy and that is something that you hear Democrats say they need to do more effective job in trying to define the economic arguments on their terms.

And that was one of president, former President Obama's messages last night in Pittsburgh, last night where he talked about the economy and gave -- delivered this message.

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OBAMA: The reason some people think, oh, no, I don't know, I don't remember that economy when he first came in, been pretty good. Yeah, it was pretty good because it was my economy. He had 75 straight months of job growth that I handed over to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: You know, you've heard that much that argument really being made by the Harris campaign that Trump inherited the economy, but how much of that is rhetoric, how much of that is actually truthful?

LUCEY: Well, I don't think you'll hear a lot about Harris flexing on the Obama economy. I'm not sure that's necessarily the most helpful argument to litigate for her.

The thing that's been the hardest for Harris, which was hard for Biden when he was a candidate was inflation and prices. I mean, that's really the issue here because all these other economic indicators are really good at this point. You know, they've seen a lot of improvement in jobs and other areas, but you know, prices are still higher than they were four or five years ago. And people feel that very strongly.

And so, I think that's the thing. And so what you've seen her do is talk a lot about things like price gouging, trying to talk about specific ways that she says that she can target those higher prices.

RAJU: Yeah, and one of the concerns of course, is her guilty to work appeal to those very voters of working class voters, in particular, white working class voters, people who don't have a college degree. You write about this in "The Wall Street Journal". He said that an internal poll done by Democrat Tammy Baldwin, Senate campaign, of course, its almost godson last week showed Harris down by three percentage points in Wisconsin while Baldwin was up by two points that you talk to a person familiar with the poll.

The poll said, much of the narrowing is due to Republican strength with non-college educated men. Public polling has shown Harris with a slight lead in the state. So what are you hearing about the concern the level of concern Democrats about this and what Harris needs to do to change the dynamic here?

LUCEY: What we heard for that story was a lot of anxiety about white working class voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. Those three really key Great Lake states that for the reason that, you know, Bi -- one of the reasons Biden won in '20 and Trump won in '16 and remain her clearest path to victory, right?

And what we've heard as she is really struggling to connect with some of those voters. I think the economic message is a big piece of it. Trump has been very successful in talking about I'm talking about the economy, talking about various tax breaks he wants to do, and has -- just has a lot of appeal in those groups that the Biden was able to chip away at, and she has not really been able to do as much.

And the other thing which is pretty basic, Manu, people want to see her more. In Michigan, they want to see her a lot more. I mean, you were obviously you're seeing her out. You're not now seeing this or strike force of other, you know, other surrogates heading out.

But there is a real desire to get her into those states more as well.

RAJU: You hear some voters saying that they want to know more about what she's doing, which is one reason why she's been out more talking and media. We'll see much more. She has to do with not much time left though.

Catherine Lucey, thank you so much for coming in this morning. I really appreciate your reporting.

Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, new this hour, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the winners of the year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Plus, Floridians picking up the pieces of Hurricane Milton claims more than a dozen lie.

And in the wake of two catastrophic hurricanes, political battles sparking over unverified claims about the federal response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're never going to let the people of that region of our country -- the region really built our country, we're never going to let him be left behind and forgotten.

BIDEN: Lives are on the line. People are in desperate situations. Have the decency to tell them the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:44]

RAJU: All right. Just in to CNN, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize just announced. I mean, in a year that's been anything but peaceful with conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

So let's get straight to CNN correspondent Melissa Bell, who's in Paris.

So, Melissa, who's the winner?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Manu, in the end, Nihon Hidankyo. Now it may an organization you've never heard of it as a Japanese grassroots organization that's been fighting ever since it was created in the 1950s to create what the Nobel Peace Prize committee have just described as a nuclear taboo. They were a group of survivors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And by the way, it will be 80 years. Next year since the bombs were dropped on those cities. They'd come together to campaign against the use of nuclear bombs.

The award explained the committee was to do with the fact that that nuclear taboo that the group has worked so hard to try and establish is now being rolled back with countries are upgrading their weapons systems and threatening to use nuclear bombs once again.

There had been a lot of speculation as there is every year about who would get this year's prize. Some of the speculation was around groups, U.N. body specifically involved in the Middle East UNRWA, but also the ICJ, the International Court of Justice.

And, of course, some of those would have been seen as controversial, not least by Israel, there was also speculation about Navalny, the Russian dissident who died in a penal colony earlier this year Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president.

[05:15:10]

But you're quite right, Manu, this is a price that comes in a year of particular difficulties and violence, more than 50 conflicts raging worldwide and there have been calls that this year's Nobel Peace Prize be withheld all together, given the state of fighting in the world in the end. A fairly unknown until now Japanese grassroots organization doing all it can to make nuclear war, nuclear power, nuclear weapons a taboo once and for all, Manu.

RAJU: All right. Big news coming out from the Nobel Prize Committee, the Nobel Peace Prize there from an anti-nuclear weapons group in Japan.

Melissa Bell with that report from Paris, thank you for that.

And still to come after the break, as Sean "Diddy" Combs faces mounting allegations, a trial date is now set. How soon his case will go before a judge?

Plus, Hurricane Milton, the second major hurricanes in Florida, and less than two weeks. A look at the damage just left behind with our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:42]

RAJU: Twenty minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Sean "Diddy" Combs the stand trial in May of next year after a ruling by a federal judge in New York on Thursday. Diddy is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy the and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.

Elon Musk promising the world driverless taxis at an event in California. The Tesla CEO debuted a prototype of what he called his cyber cab and teased a larger cyber cab. It could carry as many as 20 people. Musk says production of the cyber cab could begin as early as 2026.

And tennis legend, Rafael Nadal announcing he will retire next month. The 38-year-old has won 22 grand slam titles. Nadal's final tournament will be in Spain at Davis Cup Finals in November.

Now, still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, hurricane Milton bringing historic damage across Florida. Up next, we go inside the rescue recovery efforts are unfolding across the state.

Plus in our battleground beat, a deep dive into the must win state of Pennsylvania with the latest polls showing the neck and neck race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you, Pennsylvania. I don't understand that.

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[05:26:42]

RAJU: It's 5:26 a.m. here in Washington. Here's a live look at Miami.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Manu Raju in for Kasie hunt. It's great to be with you.

At least 15 people are dead after Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida as a category three storm, 2.6 million people are still without power and residents cannot seem to catch a break after Hurricane Helene barrels into Florida and that was just two weeks ago.

CNN's Randi Kaye has more on the recovery efforts.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really hard to see. It's kind of spooky to see all the damage.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hours after Hurricane Milton moved off the coast of Florida, Floridians are surveying the extensive damage across the state.

There were a number of confirmed dead in St. Lucie County, over 100 miles from where the storm made landfall following tornadoes.

MICHAEL BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: The tornadoes we saw develop yesterday in Milton, were really kind of supercharged paired to the typical tornadoes you see in a hurricane environment.

KAYE: New drone footage shows Milton's destruction on the west coast of Florida, where the hurricane made landfall as a category three storm. The storms monstrous wins, ripping the roof of Tropicana field in St. Petersburg to shreds and downing several cranes in downtown St. Petersburg.

AMADOU DIOP, LIVES IN PETERSBURG, FLORIDA: Things can be replaceable but life cannot.

KAYE: Just hours after the sun came up, water rescues taking place in Hillsborough County where massive flooding due to the rain, not the storm surge trapped people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I just happen to be on the airboat for that one. It's over 200 rescues we've done and are still actively conducting. He was frantically waving his arms. We went over and it literally was like a scene out of the "Castaway" movie, how he's hanging on for dear life.

His mom evacuated him to a safer area last night. He was walking home, didn't realize the water was going to get flooded as deep as it did. And he's not a good swimmer. And hence, hence the rescue and he was visibly shaken

KAYE: In Fort Myers, Robert Haight says he got his pregnant wife and kids to a safe spot just moments before tornado bore down on them.

ROBERT HAIGHT, FORT MYERS, FLORIDA, TORNADO VICTIM: I saw the tornado coming, my wife can look at it as cool, kid and wife can look at it. Starting to close at trees, and we all started going through the hallway, didn't make their time, so glass break and suck the roof off and I felt things sucking up, my grandma, kid, my wife and hunker down another.

KAYE: Another Fort Myers homeowner says the storm ripped his home apart in a matter of minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All this has happened like instantaneously like these windows blew out. I was about probably right here when it happened.

KAYE: One Tampa business owner braved floodwaters to assess the damage to his commercial property Thursday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what to say. It's a lot more than race or never seen anything.

BILL FORQUER, LIVES IN VENICE, FLORIDA: With Helene, we further first time, we had storm surge and took on water in the 20 bottom units. Now with Milton here we've lost the brand new car ports. Our dock is destroyed.

KAYE: While many evacuees are hoping as soon return home, hard hit Sarasota's chief of emergency management is urging people to hold on a little longer.

SANDRA TAPFUMANEYI, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CHIEF, SARASOTA COUNTY, FLORDIA: Still dangerous out there. So we're asking for residents just to stay put. We know a lot of people evacuated, which we appreciate, but we just need some time. It's a clear everything so that safe for them to return.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Just devastating.

All right. Now, turning to our battleground beat with just 25 to go -- days to go until election day.