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CNN This Morning
Trump Tries to Exploit Biden's 'Garbage' Comment; Protestors Interrupt Harris Rallies; Scary Warm Halloween Temperatures. Aired 6- 6:30a ET
Aired October 31, 2024 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, October 31. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
[05:59:10]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: How do you like my garbage truck?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Taking out the garbage. Why both campaigns are talking trash in the closing days of the race.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Everybody has a right to be heard. But right now, I am speaking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Protest pushback. The vice president handling hecklers on the campaign trail.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), 2024 VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Make me the vice president, I'll come back to Wisconsin all the time.
HARRIS: And we need you to vote early, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Winning Wisconsin. In our battleground beat, we zero in on the Badger State and how third-party candidates might impact Wisconsin voters.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This might be the best day of my life!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: With a historic comeback, the Dodgers now celebrating one of the biggest comeback victories in the playoffs to win the World Series.
All right, 6 a.m. on the East Coast. A look at Las Vegas, Nevada where it's 3 a.m. Both campaigns heading to that Sun Belt swing state today. Kamala Harris and Trump will both hold rallies there.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Happy Halloween to all who celebrate.
Garbage in, garbage out. We have five days from election day and an incredibly tight race, where anything could make a difference.
Donald Trump climbing into a garbage truck. A, shall we say, striking visual designed to capitalize on President Biden's remark that Trump's supporters are garbage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Trump even went onstage at his rally in that bright orange vest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And they said, "It would be unbelievable if you could wear it onstage." I said --
"There's no way I'm wearing it onstage."
They said, OK, sir.
I said, "Get me my jacket."
"But if you did, you -- it actually makes you look thinner."
I said -- and they got me. I said, "I want to wear it onstage."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Biden, of course, has said that he was only referring to a single Trump supporter who called Puerto Rico garbage in a joke. But the remark still recalled moments like these.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All there, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, you name it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, that was both Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton, insulting millions of voters just days before an election. Both, of course, went on to lose.
Biden, the contrast here, of course, no longer on the ballot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: First of all, he clarified his comments. But let me be clear. I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.
I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, this garbage truck thing is not the first time that Donald Trump, a former president, but also former reality TV star, has produced events to drive a message in a way that's hard to look away from. That's the point, right?
But here's the thing. These events are also designed to get us to look away from what we shouldn't ignore; to distract from what Trump is saying about what happens after polls close on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you imagine any circumstances under which you would be defeated but not say that the election was stolen?
TRUMP: If it was a corrupt election, that could happen. But so far, we're doing pretty. We -- they found a lot of smaller things in Pennsylvania, as you know, and I think they've been corrupted and taken care of. They were -- they were corrupt. They were corrupted. But I think it's been taken care of.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Either way, will you accept the results of the election?
TRUMP: Yes, sure. If it's a fair election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: "If it's a fair election," he says. So, does he think it's going to be a fair election?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS RADIO HOST: What worries you the most?
TRUMP: Cheating.
KILMEADE: Which one, though? Which state?
TRUMP: No. All of them. I mean, they cheat. All of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: "All of them," he says. "All of them."
So, when you're out on the trail covering a political campaign -- I've done a number of them -- the job is to report what the campaign is doing, sure. That's the part that they want you to see.
But it's also to make sure you're reporting what they don't want you to cover or pay attention to; not to miss the forest for the trees.
And five days out, the campaigning is frenetic. But we may look back and say that this was the calm before the storm.
Joining us now to discuss: Molly Ball, senior political correspondent for "The Wall Street Journal"; Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics senior reporter; Brad Woodhouse, senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee; and Matt Gorman, former senior adviser to Tim Scott's presidential campaign.
[06:05:01]
Welcome to all of you. Wonderful to have you this morning.
Stephen Collinson, you often paint these sort of big sweeping pictures for us every day. I still don't totally know how you do it. But all of our readers very much enjoy it.
When you look at this, I mean, I think the moments that really stood out to me in both this event he did at McDonald's and this garbage truck, show that there is still this question and this persistent situation where he is calling the election results into question.
Obviously, the campaign wants to focus on what Biden had said. But as we are barreling toward this election, how do you see these five days in this context?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: think you put your finger on it right there. The narrative that was developing about this week was all about the darkest closing argument of any modern presidential campaign. That wild rally.
Whatever the president meant, he gave Trump a huge break. That photo- op allowed Trump to walk from his personal Boeing 757 to a garbage truck, take up all the oxygen.
HUNT: That's a contrast.
COLLINSON: And nobody is talking about that rally, which was hurting Trump among Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania.
Now we seem to be moving inexorably to the stage where -- now in our elections, we have the pre-vote. We have election day, and now it seems we have this prolonged period after of questioning the validity of the election.
Trump seems to be laying the groundwork rhetorically for what looks like a pretty sophisticated legal effort under the -- under the hood here to challenge this election, if necessary.
MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TIM SCOTT'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: First of all, I was kind of looking at Brad during the Mitt Romney thing, because we both were --
BRAD WOODHOUSE, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: That was a flashback.
GORMAN: I know we both worked in 2012. And I was -- when the Biden garbage comments broke, there's a little text chains among couple of Romney folks. And they're like, remember that night?
HUNT: Oh, yes, I remember. I wrote the lead for A.P.
GORMAN: Exactly. And we were all sitting around being like, what's the content? Can we spin that? Like, there's no real way. We could rewind it.
There is -- there is no good answer. And -- and, you know, the White House tried, as they might.
And look, you know, Steve has a point. I think we were barely into this week with Trump and the Trump campaign on defense. And then quickly, the -- Biden came in and gave him something to go on offense.
I think more acutely, instead of just rhetoric, what they've done really well, is they've been funny and creative with things that can get them visually back on offense.
Look, I'll step back for a minute, too. I think this is one of the things also where if -- if Kamala Harris doesn't win, I think it's a little bit more indicative her campaign, where she has been less likely to be that -- do that funny or creative or even slightly risky move, right?
Sure, at the McDonald's, she should have beaten Trump to McDonald's a month ago, right? On that sort of thing. And I think also, like, do the Rogan thing. Do those little things that can extend you out there just a bit, crystallize something visually in their mind. Get people talking about it.
WOODHOUSE: Well, look, I don't think the McDonald's things did anything for Donald Trump. And I don't think riding around in the garbage truck does anything for Donald Trump, or wearing an orange vest onstage that is only supplanted by the orange -- the orange on his face.
But -- but let me say this. So, I do think that the Biden faux controversy is -- just points out what you were saying, which is we need to focus on what is going on in this campaign.
The Harris campaign has a GOTV effort. And this is a margin-of-error race. We believe it will be a margin of effort race, turning out the vote in every single state.
The Trump campaign and Trump's allies have a voter suppression strategy. And that is to go into every court. They're doing it in Pennsylvania. They were successful with this effort, or Republicans were successful in this effort in Virginia. They're trying to knock out votes, not turn out votes. That is their strategy in this election.
MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, look, I think at this point, people understand that sowing doubt about elections is just something Donald Trump does. And it's not based on anything true or real, or substantive, or anything that's actually happening. It's something he's going to say no matter what is out there.
And the same thing with these lawsuits. Many of them are not based on anything actually happening. They are just an attempt to seed this narrative.
And so, hopefully after, you know, so -- after three successive elections in which he has made these false claims, people understand that it is a rhetorical strategy, not -- not a real phenomenon, not something based in fact.
HUNT: Even if it is a rhetorical strategy, I mean, we've seen in the polling that it has made people less likely to trust our elections. I mean, don't our elections fall apart in the absence of trust?
BALL: Absolutely. And that -- and it's a real problem for that reason. And a lot of Republicans do believe it.
Now, the majority of Americans believe, accurately, that our -- that our elections are secure. But it is a real problem.
I think in terms of the photo ops and the stunts, you see that these campaigns have a different theory about who the undecided voters are at this point. Right?
The Trump camp's theory is that the voters they need to reach are the ones who are marginally interested in politics and will only pay attention if something funny or weird happens. So, they see Donald Trump on a garbage truck, and it's like, oh, that's kind of cool. The Harris campaign's theory is different. Their theory is that the undecided voters who were still out there are conservative-leaning, college-educated suburbanites who want the president to be a serious figure.
[06:10:10]
So, she's not doing these kinds of stunts, because she wants to be seen as a serious figure. She wants to convince people that she's presidential. She wants to do things like the speech that I attended on the Ellipse earlier this week, where she is trying to strike that tone and have that stature and that gravitas.
Because the -- the undecided voters they are trying to reach and get off the fence at this point are the ones who want to see a president behaving in that traditional presidential manner.
HUNT: It's a really interesting way to think about it.
Molly, you also had -- your most recent story was a couple of days ago now for "The Journal." The headline is "America is Having a Panic Attack Over the Election."
I have to say, the anecdata in my own family and friends really does actually support this thesis. But what are you saying? Oh, look at this: "There are not enough gummies I can take to sue the angst."
WOODHOUSE: What kind of gummies are we talking about?
BALL: I think you know.
I'm saying I -- you know, I -- there's -- there's data to support this. It's not just anecdotal. In our "Wall Street Journal" poll that was released last week, 87 percent of voters -- so this is across the spectrum -- said that they believe the country will sustain serious damage if their candidate loses. Only 10 percent said no to that question.
So, people really do profoundly feel the stakes of this election sort of weighing on them.
And -- and I asked a lot of, you know, people attending political events, but also just rank-and-file voters at an early voting center outside Atlanta: how are you going to deal with, you know, this angst that you're feeling? How are you going to get through the next couple weeks, particularly if you've already voted and there's nothing else you can do?
A consistent answer that I repeatedly got was drugs or alcohol. So --
HUNT: Maybe you should --
BALL: I'm just reporting here. But that is the answer that I got from -- from numerous voters. Scotch, marijuana, gummies.
HUNT: Maybe we should have Bloody Marys instead of coffee. BALL: Happy Halloween, everybody.
HUNT: Happy Halloween. Oh, man.
All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, concepts of a plan? House Speaker Mike Johnson hints at, once again, going after Obamacare, if Republicans take control in Washington.
Plus, the Dodgers shutting out the Yankees with an epic comeback to clinch the World Series.
And a seat at the table. Kamala Harris sticks to her vow to listen to all sides as protesters crash two of her rallies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: It should be emphasized that, unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy from within.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:17:16]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): I understand that there are millions of Americans who disagree with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the terrible war in Gaza. I am one of them. Let me be clear: we will have, in my view, a much better chance of changing U.S. policy with Kamala than with Trump, who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded, right-wing extremist ally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was progressive Senator Bernie Sanders this week, issuing a call for Democratic unity behind Kamala Harris as the war in Gaza remains a divisive issue on the left.
The divide was put on display during two rallies on Wednesday when two different sets of protesters interrupted the vice president, one group unfurling a sign that said, "No funding for war crimes." Another interruption called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Here was how Harris responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!
HARRIS: Hey, you know what? Listen, we all want the war in Gaza to end and get the hostages out as soon as possible. And I will do everything in my power to make it heard and known. But -- and everyone has a right to be heard, but right now, I am speaking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Brad Woodhouse, what do you make of how she has handled that?
WOODHOUSE: I think she's handled the protests extremely, extremely well. She's good on her feet. I mean, probably, you know, from being a senator, from being a prosecutor, from being from being in -- from being in public life.
But I think the key here is what they're calling for, right there. A ceasefire. She has been for a ceasefire. President Biden has been -- been for a ceasefire.
It's reported that she's been very tough in private on Benjamin -- on Benjamin Netanyahu.
And I just think about those protestors. What do they think they're going to get out of Donald Trump? What do they think they're going go out of Donald Trump and his approach to Israel, to Netanyahu, and to the war -- to the war in Gaza?
COLLINSON: That was why Bernie Sanders's video is so interesting, because he was making that pragmatic case.
The problem is, this issue is so existential for many of these voters Arab Americans, progressives, that is one -- it's a one-issue election. And that's where it's going to hurt the vice president.
The irony of the situation is that she is going to potentially pay a political price of Michigan, a key swing state. But the person who has the more pro-Netanyahu policy could benefit. And that is Trump. And that's a conundrum that she's not really been able to wriggle out of.
HUNT: All right. Very interesting to continue to watch this.
Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, election heads (ph) on alert. Ahead, the measures that officials are taking to make sure poll workers and voters are safe on election day.
[06:20:04]
Plus, Speaker Mike Johnson forced to clean up remarks about the future of Obamacare under a possible second Trump term.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HUNT: All right. It's a particularly important day for weather, because, of course, we have trick-or-treating, and the Northeastern United States will experience one of the warmest Halloweens on record.
Let's get straight to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek van Dam. Derek, good morning. What can folks expect?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Kasie.
Scary weather, Halloween forecast for people here today, because it's going to be so warm. I mean, quite frankly, if we take Boston, for instance, if it reaches 80 degrees, could be one of their warmest Halloweens on record.
D.C., more of the same. It could potentially tie their third highest temperature on Halloween day.
[06:25:05]
Overall, we've got over 75 locations across the Northeast and mid- Atlantic that could set these record-high temperatures for the afternoon. Of course, that's not indicative of what it will be like once the sunset and all the trick-or-treaters head outdoors.
But you could see temperatures here today ranging from the upper 70s to the lower 80s. That's more like end of August into mid-September- type weather.
So, here is the most important forecast in talking about the temperature as you head out the door this morning with all the trick- or-treaters.
It looks like it will reach the lower 70s. So, along the East Coast, mild. Those costumes will be rather appropriate. And in terms of it being a warm, warm, Halloween, trick-or-treat forecast.
But the cool weather is advancing Eastward. And we'll finally feel the relief from this warmth heading into the end of the weekend.
So, hopefully, you've planned accordingly, Kasie. A warm trick-or- treat forecast for you.
HUNT: News you can use.
VAN DAM: Right.
HUNT: Derek van Dam, thank you.
VAN DAM: Love it.
HUNT: I really appreciate it.
All right. Still to come on CNN THIS MORNING, an epic comeback. The Dodgers take the World Series over the Yankees.
Plus, a look at Wisconsin in our battleground beat, where third-party candidates could prove to be spoilers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wisconsin's red. Wisconsin's been red. If it wasn't for all the cheating that happened back in 2020, he would have won it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
