Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Trump On Comedian At Madison Square Garden Rally: "I Have No Idea Who He Is"; Rev. Billy Graham's Granddaughter Endorses Harris; Yankees Rout Dodgers In Game Four, Avoid World Series Sweep. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired October 30, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:30:13]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:29 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Raleigh, North Carolina on this Wednesday, the last Wednesday before Election Day. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Donald Trump appears to be laying the groundwork to challenge the election result if he loses next week. While Kamala Harris spoke to supporters in the nation's capital last night Trump was in battleground Pennsylvania where he claimed that the Keystone State is already the site of voter fraud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you have a mail-in ballot get that damn ballot in, please, immediately because they've already started cheating in Lancaster -- they've cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. No, we caught them cold -- 2,600 -- and every vote was written by the same person. Ha, ha -- I wonder how that happened. It must be a coincidence. It must be a coincidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Last week officials in that state did announce that they suspected incidents of voter registration fraud. That investigation is still ongoing. CNN reporting that state and county officials are looking to reassure voters and protect the integrity of the election process.

Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro pushed back on Trump's claims recalling the former president and his allies' legal challenges to the 2020 election vote count.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO, (D) PENNSYLVANIA: I understand that Donald Trump wants to again use the same playbook where he tries to create chaos and stoke division and fear about our system. But again, we will have a free and fair, safe and secure election in Pennsylvania and the will of the people will be respected and protected. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now Washington Post national political reporter, Sabrina Rodriguez. Sabrina, good morning to you.

So you were at Trump's rally in Pennsylvania yesterday. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you saw on the ground, what that crowd was like? And there was a lot of discussion about what might happen around outside it. Allentown a majority Latino city now. It just -- what did you see?

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST (via Webex by Cisco): Well, Kasie, it was -- it was sort of what we were expecting. We knew there would be some type of protest presence outside of it. Out of an abundance of caution the mayor of Allentown and the school district decided to cancel school. So there was some concerns about what exactly could transpire just given that in this majority Latino city where there are thousands of Puerto Ricans there could be some type of tension coming to head.

It was a peaceful protest. I mean, there was dozens of protesters, mostly Puerto Rican, that were coming out and denouncing Donald Trump. There was a lot of signs and Puerto Rican flags. People yelling "Donald Trump (INAUDIBLE)." Signs that were saying the garbage will be taken out on November 5 and criticism of Trump and his supporters.

But really -- I mean, what you saw as well was there were some Puerto Ricans from Allentown that were in the crowd. I talked to several who were offended by the joke. There was one man I met that was notable because he has a big Puerto Rican flag on his arm and talked about how much he loves his island. But at the end of the day he was focused on the issues that he thought that Donald Trump could address on the economy and on immigration.

So we really saw the Trump campaign really lean into this situation and make all the opening speakers Latinos speaking -- covering their speeches in Spanish and talking about their support for Puerto Ricans and for Latinos that they see from Donald Trump.

HUNT: Yeah. I was actually going to ask you that, Sabrina. I know you've covered a number of Trump rallies, including in some places where Spanish is relatively widely spoken like, say, Arizona or any -- a number of other places where such speakers might have been welcomed.

Have you seen them do this before or did you get the sense that this was specifically because of what happened on stage at Madison Square Garden?

RODRIGUEZ: This was a completely unprecedented unique situation. I mean, regardless of where Donald Trump does his rallies, even if it's in states or cities that have a significant Latino population, by and large his speakers are white and do not speak Spanish at his rallies. So this was a very clear message. I mean, from the beginning -- from the top of the rally and every speaker brought this up. Nobody directly mentioned the island of garbage comment that the

comedian made at Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden on Sunday but again it was in the ether, and it was in the environment as people repeatedly brought up that Donald Trump was a friend of the Puerto Rican people. That Donald Trump was a friend to Latinos.

[05:35:15]

To hearing Sen. Marco Rubio who has not been very active on the campaign trail for Trump -- to hear Marco Rubio come up on stage and offer his support for Donald Trump and make his pitch for Trump. And then also even switch to Spanish and say he wanted to make sure that there was a message for Spanish language media. That does not typically happen at a Trump rally.

HUNT: Very interesting.

All right, Sabrina Rodriguez for us. Sabrina, always grateful to have you on the show. Thank you so much.

All right. So to continue our conversation about this, former President Trump rethinking one of the opening acts of his rally at the Garden. He distanced himself from that comedian behind the now infamous "island of garbage" remark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have no idea who he was. I never saw him, never heard of him, and don't want to hear of him. But I have no idea. They put a comedian in, which everybody does. You throw comedians in. You don't vet them and go crazy. It's nobody's fault.

I don't know who it is. I don't even know who put him in. And I can't imagine it's a big deal.

I've done more for Puerto Rico than any president.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST, "THE SEAN HANNITY SHOW": Do you wish he wasn't there?

TRUMP: Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's a big deal or not, but I don't want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes. Probably he shouldn't have been there, yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I'm not sure I would have ever expected to hear Trump say I don't want anybody making nasty jokes.

Trump was responding there to the controversy yesterday after campaigning in the Latino majority city of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Those residents, of course, could be decisive in next week's election.

Allentown's mayor tells CNN that the comments are a powerful reminder of the community's past relationship with Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MATT TUERK, (D) ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA: For Puerto Ricans, this is the first since Hurricane Maria, since talking about selling the island -- this is the first time that he's -- that the campaign has directly come at La Isla del Encanto Puerto Rico. They're moved by this. They're irritated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, and joining us now is the mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania, Eddie Moran. His city also majority Latino. It's just about an hour away from Allentown. Mr. Mayor, I'm so grateful to have you on the show. Thank you for being here.

I want to ask you about your reaction to what Trump had to say in that Hannity interview. I know you'd appeared with Harris campaign officials in the immediate aftermath of the joke that was cracked on stage at the Garden.

Do you think that what Trump had to say there is enough?

MAYOR EDDIE MORAN, (D) READING, PENNSYLVANIA (via Webex by Cisco): Certainly not. I mean, first of all, it was just a bunch of bull that he was saying that he has done so much for Puerto Rico. Yeah, he's thrown paper towels at Puerto Rico. He has allowed to -- a community to be demeaned. He has allowed a so-called comedian to hurl insults at us.

You know, when he says that he don't know who he is, he don't know who put him there, well look, I've been to plenty of rallies and I'm always vested of what I'm about to say. I'm always asked for a speech at many times, so that way it could be viewed before it's up. And even if that wasn't the case there were still a lot of his other surrogates there that should have told him how disrespectful that individual was to the Puerto Rican community.

HUNT: So, sir --

MORAN: So, no, it was not enough.

HUNT: Oh, sorry. Go ahead -- continue.

MORAN: I'm sorry. So, no, it's not enough. I'm -- you know, I -- and please forgive me if I show a little bit of frustration. I am as a proud Puerto Rican.

HUNT: Well -- so you call yourself a proud Puerto Rican. Obviously, there are some in your community -- the Puerto Rican community -- who are supporting Donald Trump.

I'm hoping you could both help us understand a little bit of what the pride means to Puerto Ricans in the island because I am -- I'm not Puerto Rican but I have Puerto Rican family members, and it's been something I've started to come to understand just how much pride Puerto Ricans hold in the island well before any of this happened. I think it's kind of remarkable and I'd be interested to hear kind of you explain that a little bit.

And then also help us understand -- you know, Sabrina Rodriguez was talking about somebody who was basically wrapped in the Puerto Rican flag who was at the Trump event -- how those two things go together.

MORAN: You know, and that -- and that is the beauty of democracy, right? That we have choices. That we could support different individuals and we're all going to have our opinions. And some people would take more offense than others, and that's great. You know, I don't think it's a majority of Puerto Ricans that were in that rally or speaking on his behalf.

[05:40:00]

And to answer your questions about pride, Puerto Ricans are a very prideful community. We're proud Americans but yet we love our culture. We love to hold onto our Puerto Rican roots -- you know, our ancestors.

And the fact that this had mobilized individuals in a way that we have ever seen, I think it truly has woken a monster of a voting bloc that we have known it was there -- that it existed -- but it had not come out. I think that that's exactly what is going to happen here -- that a voting bloc that again, not to sound redundant, we knew existed.

Everybody talks about the fact that the Latino vote is going to determine the outcome of this election, specifically in Pennsylvania who has 1.2 million Latinos. Of those, about 600,000 are registered. Out of those, about 400,000 are Puerto Rican. Three hundred of those are registered.

Can you imagine? The last election the difference here was 80,000. The fact that this has energized a community to come out and vote in anger because this is going to be an angry vote.

We would love to have seen a rally where we go to hear changes, policies, issues, new vision. But we got rallies to hear insults. So people are going to come out and vote in retaliation to that.

HUNT: It's actually -- it's a really interesting way to think about it as opposed to switching votes away from Trump. Instead, people who perhaps would have stayed home are angry about what was said and might get up off the couch which has, of course, been in many ways what Harris has been running against this entire time.

All right, Mayor Eddie Moran. So grateful for your time. I hope you'll come back. Thank you.

MORAN: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING more Republicans endorsing Kamala Harris. We're going to talk to the granddaughter of the Rev. Billy Graham to find out why she's voting blue.

Plus, there will be a game five. The Yankee bats came alive last night. The Bleacher Report up next. (COMMERCIAL)

[05:46:35]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I'll give them a seat at the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Vice President Kamala Harris has been rallying anti-Trump Republicans and Independents to try to help propel her to the White House. She has campaigned with Republican Liz Cheney in key battleground states, and she's earned the endorsement of Dick Cheney who was, of course, George W. Bush's vice president.

George W. Bush's own daughter Barbara Pierce Bush is now endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket after campaigning for her in Pennsylvania over the weekend. Bush telling People magazine, "I'm hopeful they'll move our country forward and protect women's rights."

My next guest is the granddaughter of the famous Rev. Billy Graham, and she is also endorsing Kamala Harris. She writes this in a recent op-ed: "Trump's words and actions are fundamentally incompatible with evangelical principles." And goes on to say, "For Harris, assuming the Oval Office isn't about prestige or avoiding criminal prosecution, it's an opportunity to serve. Trump, on the other hand, spews apocalyptic nonsense that serves only to demonize others and divide America."

The author, Jerushah Duford, joins me now. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us to explain your views.

Can I just start --

JERUSHAH DUFORD, GRANDDAUGTHER OF REV. BILLY GRAHAM (via Webex by Cisco): Hello.

HUNT: -- with -- you know, I read the opinion piece you wrote in Newsweek and you use language -- the language of Christianity, which you clearly speak very fluently and matters a lot to you, to try to talk to these voters about why you are opposing former President Trump. And obviously, many of them are with Trump, if not most of them.

What do you say to them now here in the final week?

DUFORD: You know, the fact -- the reality that my opinion here is unique is shocking and heartbreaking, right? I mean, look at what happened on Sunday night.

We're talking about basic principles of our faith -- kindness, gentleness, humility. These aren't theological things that I would have learned in bible school; this is basic tenants of our faith. And this president has shown since 2016 that he doesn't represent any of those things. So the fact that I even have to say these things is discouraging, to be honest with you.

HUNT: What do you hear from others in the community about what they're wrestling with this time around? Where do you think and how do you think the Harris campaign could find their best opportunity to talk to them?

DUFORD: You know, I think that I'm not sure a lot of them are listening, to be honest with you. I think at this point the people that I speak to talk about just a little bit of the tug in their spirit -- that the church leaders that I have been following for decades are telling me to vote for this man. But I'm reading scripture and I'm saying this doesn't really line up. Can you speak to that? And so that's really what I'm speaking to.

My vote for Kamala is really a vote against Donald Trump. A vote against another four years of Christians holding up a man as a representative of our faith that really doesn't show anything that represents our faith.

[05:50:00]

So I think what the Harris campaign could do is honestly just keep doing what they're doing.

HUNT: Can I ask you -- I mean, you mentioned your vote is one that's really against Donald Trump. And obviously, abortion has been front and center --

DUFORD: Yeah.

HUNT: -- in this campaign. The fall of Roe versus Wade is something that a lot of evangelical voters had hoped, had prayed for.

How do you square what your beliefs may be -- what are your beliefs on that with your vote here?

DUFORD: Sure, absolutely. I think what I would ask a lot of people to do is ask what pro-life means to them, right? What is the definition of pro-life for them?

For me, pro-life is womb to grave. So to support a baby in the womb but also support people being labeled as human garbage doesn't really seem to line up for me, right? And so can we support life all the way through life?

Also, the statistics. I ask people to look at the statistics and see that about eight percent -- abortions went up about eight percent under Donald Trump.

So I'm not really sure either party is pro-life. I have tried to look at which one is more pro-family, and I think that's more Kamala Harris' administration. HUNT: A really fascinating perspective.

Jerushah Duford, so grateful to have you on the show. Thank you very much for being here.

DUFORD: Yeah, thank you so much. Bye-bye.

HUNT: All right, time now for sports. The Yankees keep their World Series title dreams alive with a big win against the Dodgers in last night's game four.

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

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

So the Yankees are just the fourth team ever down 0-3 in the World Series to force a game five. No team has ever forced a game six. Will the Yankees be the first to do it tonight?

In game four, Freddie Freeman once again just letting the air of Yankee Stadium with a first inning home run. Freeman has now homered in all four games of this World Series and six straight dating back to when he was on the Braves -- a new World Series record.

The Yankees' offense though would finally come alive, and it was the bottom of the order coming through. Third inning, Anthony Volpe, the New York native, gets ahold of this one for a grand slam, sending Yankee Stadium into a frenzy. That put New York up 5-2. The Yankees would then add five more in the eighth.

They would go on to win 11-4 to stay alive in this series.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY VOLPE, SHORTSTOP, NEW YORK YANKEES: I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it go over the fence. But no, you just want to keep putting pressure on them. And I think everyone had confidence in everyone in the lineup that someone was going to get the big hit.

AARON BOONE, MANAGER, NEW YORK YANKEES: Look, we just showed up today ready to play and we were trying to get one and trying to -- trying to get the game -- trying to get it to tomorrow, you know? You don't want to get ahead of yourself and start thinking about the series. It's like our guys were ready to play.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Now, in the first inning, Gleyber Torres fouled out to Mookie Betts into right field, and as Mookie made this catch a Yankees fan then grabbed his glove and pried the ball out while another fan grabbed Mookie's arm. Look at this. This is wild. I mean, you know Yankees fans want to help the team, but you can't do that.

Umpires called it an out. Both fans were ejected from the game.

Here's what Mookie had to say about it afterwards. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOOKIE BETTS, OUTFIELDER, LOS ANGELES DODGERS: When it comes to the person in play, it doesn't matter. We lost. It's irrelevant. I'm fine, he's fine. Everything's cool. And we lost the game and that's what I'm kind of focused on here. Turn the page and get ready for tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, Kasie, I mean, I didn't even try to say look, Mookie came into our area. I will say this. You obviously can't do that. If the Yankees somehow come back and win this series in miraculous fashion, those two guys are going to be heroes in New York, especially the guy that grabbed his glove.

HUNT: There was a -- yeah. I mean --

SCHOLES: It's wild.

HUNT: In some ways I admire the hutzpah. Could you imagine actually doing that? I cannot imagine it but hey, you know, I'm also not a Yankees fan. So maybe that's the issue.

Andy, thank you.

SCHOLES: All right.

HUNT: I appreciate it.

All right. Still coming up after the break, China inching closer to stepping on the moon. The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is going to join us live in studio to discuss the new space race.

Plus, Kamala Harris taking the stage exactly where Trump spoke on January 6. How she's trying to contrast with the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute. This is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:59:10]

HUNT: It's Wednesday, October 30. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A message of unity on a symbolic stage. Kamala Harris makes her final case to voters six days out from Election Day.

And this -- damage control. The White House trying to clean up after Joe Biden in a remark that Republicans are comparing to Hillary Clinton's line about deplorables.

Also --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They've already started cheating in Lancaster -- they've cheated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Sound familiar? Donald Trump already pushing claims of voter fraud, laying the groundwork to challenge the results again.

And later --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The path to victory runs through Philly.

TRUMP: If we win Pennsylvania we're going to win the whole deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The crucial commonwealth in our battleground beat. We had to Pennsylvania, the must-win state that's all tied up right now.