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CNN This Morning
4 Days Left: Trump & Harris Fight For Female Voters; J.D. Vance Confirms Chinese Hackers Targeted His Phone; Rainfall To Start Across Central U.S. As Northeast Temps Dip. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired November 01, 2024 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:33]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, November 1st.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is someone who simply does not respect the freedom of women.
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HUNT: Winning women. Kamala Harris slams Donald Trump's pledge to protect women quote, whether the women like it or not.
And this --
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: New Mexico, look, I -- don't make me waste a whole damn half a day here, okay? Look --
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HUNT: Taking a detour. Why Donald Trump took a break from his swing state blitz to visit New Mexico, a state Republicans haven't won in 20 years.
And this --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't anticipate the type of shenanigans that occurred during that time.
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HUNT: Battleground beat, the extensive security measures that Michigan has put in place to protect poll workers after the chaos of 2020.
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HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Las Vegas, where the vice president is waking up in Vegas this morning, after both campaigns headed out to the silver state last night in this final push before Election Day.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us on this last Friday before the election.
And the fight for female voters continues to be the absolute epicenter of the final days of this campaign. Kamala Harris seizing on this comment from Donald Trump.
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TRUMP: About four weeks ago, I was saying, no, I want to protect the people. I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women. Sir, please don't say that. Why? They said we think it's -- we think it's very inappropriate for you to say. So why? I'm president. I want to protect the women of our country.
Well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them.
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HUNT: Harris calling the remark offensive and tying it to women's reproductive rights, arguing Trump doesn't understand a woman's ability to make decisions specifically about their own bodies.
She capped off a swing through western states yesterday with a rally in Las Vegas, zeroing in on that remark again.
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HARRIS: He said that he will do what he wants, now I'm about to quote whether the women like it or not. We know the man simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to be able to make decisions about their own lives.
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HUNT: Harris joined on stage by Jennifer Lopez, who had this message for female voters.
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JENNIFER LOPEZ, SINGER AND ACTRESS: I believe in the power of women.
Ladies, where are my ladies at? Let me hear you. Yes.
I believe that women, women have the power to make the difference in this election.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: A recent CNN polling shows Harris leading among likely female voters by six points in the seven states most likely to decide the election. So far, women have cast 55 percent of votes, while men have cast 45 percent. That 10 percent margin represents about 1.4 million ballots.
Trump not shying away from women's issues also in Nevada, Trump said he would tap this controversial figure to spearhead women's health.
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TRUMP: The greatest Robert F. Kennedy Jr. we have. And he's going to work on health and women's health and all of the different reasons, because we're not really a wealthy or a healthy country.
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HUNT: All right. Joining us now, D.C. correspondent for "The Nevada Independent", Gabby Birenbaum, and White House correspondent for "Bloomberg News", Akayla Gardner.
Welcome to both of you. Thanks so much for being here, just a handful of days out from the election.
Gabby, obviously, Nevada at the center of this. It's a state you focused a lot on. They really wanted to put this women message to women front and center in part to move off of some of the things that obviously Joe Biden had talked about garbage. This was an opportunity they thought the Harris campaign to move off of that, to underscore to women what they think a Trump administration would mean, what do you make of how their messaging around this here in the final days?
GABBY BIRENBAUM, D.C. CORRESPONDENT, THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT: Yeah, I mean, I think Nevada is one of the states that's the exception to early voting trends so far, and that its one state where you see about even rates between men and women. And so when you look at the voter file data, its younger women and women of color who have not yet come out to early vote.
[05:05:03]
And that's, I think, exactly who with rallies like that, Democrats are trying to reach to say, turn in your mail ballot, come vote on this last day of early voting make sure you get out there.
And I think you know, it's a -- it's a strong message. If abortion is really, really popular in Nevada in 1990, it was on the ballot by referendum. It won with about two thirds of the vote. It's on the ballot again this year to put it in the state constitution. And I think a closing message of your health should be between you and your doctor and not, you know, a man with a brain worm is probably a good a good way to get people out. So --
HUNT: Between you and your doctor, not you and a man with a brain worm, that is, that is quite the evocative way to put it, Akayla. And this is how the Harris team responded on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, when Trump announced that he wanted to put RFK Jr. in charge of women's health, the word no and a heart emoji this obviously RFK a controversial figure for many reasons but again, women's health.
AKAYLA GARDNER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Yeah, well, the Harris campaign is really in rapid response mode. We saw Harris yesterday really start off the day addressing those comments from Trump, where he said he would protect women whether they like it or not, specifically talking about migrant crimes. So this is really the mode that they're in, right now. They're trying to draw a contrast with themselves and Donald Trump.
And the Harris campaign is really encouraged by those numbers of female voters. That 55 percent of early voters are women. And we know from polling that women are overwhelmingly breaking for Harris polls right now really show the gender gap, potentially the starkest, really, in modern history. So they're really encouraged by these numbers, right now. Of course, early voting doesn't always give the full picture. Or has the tea leaves here, but right now it sounds like they're confident at this moment.
HUNT: The other piece of this, Gabby, is that the billionaire Mark Cuban, who has been supporting Harris's campaign, was on "The View", and he basically said that Trump does not surround himself with, you know strong, intelligent women.
Trump wrote back, calling Mark Cuban, quote, a really dumb guy who thinks he's hot stuff, but he's absolutely nothing. Now out saying, I don't surround myself with strong women. Actually he's very wrong. I surround myself with the strongest of women with the understanding that all women are great.
I mean, it's clear the Trump campaign also understands that they have a problem with women voters. The seem to be trying to make up for it by appealing to young men to try to get them out but still trying to seize on this moment.
BIRENBAUM: Yeah, I think that, you know, first of all, that's vintage Trump, right? With that criticism of Cuban, but yeah, I mean, I think you've seen his strategy throughout going on all these podcasts that have predominantly young male listeners both him and J.D. Vance doing Joe Rogan in the closing days here. I think you're really starting to see that. They hope that young men are not only going to break for them on Election Day, because as Akayla said, but turn out that's you know, a low propensity voter demographic typically. And so they're hoping that that's a group that will come through for them on Election Day, because Akayla said, the numbers with women are looking pretty positive for Harris.
HUNT: Well, and, Akayla, the question that many some women keep raising on the campaign trail, I'm thinking of Elissa Slotkin, who's running for Senate in Michigan, Liz Cheney, who's been campaigning for Harris, is this idea that there is a secret vote of women, right, who are not willing to say to their husbands, to their families that they're going to go and vote for Harris. There was an exchange between Charlie Kirk, or I should say, both Charlie Kirk and Jesse Watters, who's a Fox News host out there talking about this potential phenomenon. Let's watch what each of them had to say.
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CHARLIE KIRK, CO-FOUNDER, TURNING POINT USA: It is the embodiment of the downfall of the American family. She's coming in with her sweet husband who probably works his tail off to make sure that she can go, you know, and have a nice life and provide for the family, and then she lies to him saying, oh, yeah, I'm going to vote for Trump. And then she votes for Kamala Harris as her little secret in the voting booth.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: And if I found out Emma was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that's the same thing as having an affair. That violates the sanctity of our marriage. What else is she keeping from me? What else has she been lying about?
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HUNT: There's a lot there, basically I'd love to find out what his wife actually thinks there. But this is also the kind of framing that the Harris team seizes on to kind of try to say to women, these people don't take you seriously.
GARDNER: Yeah. I mean, former First Lady Michelle Obama made this argument pretty explicitly when she campaigned with Harris, telling women, your vote is secret and private to you, and I think we've seen Harris really appeal to Republican women. She's even talked about having conversations with Liz Cheney about abortion, someone who is staunchly pro-life and saying she did not intend for some of the consequences that were seeing, particularly in the South, where women are not able to seek emergency care. And we've seen the Harris campaign really have these ads of heartbreaking stories of people who needed this emergency care and weren't able to have it in some cases, those women dying.
BURNETT: Very sad.
All right. Gaby Birenbaum, Akayla Gardner, thanks for starting us off on this last Friday before Election Day. I really appreciate it.
All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, battleground Michigan, both campaigns making a final play for the Wolverine State.
[05:10:04]
We're going to talk to Congresswoman Debbie Dingell about the key group Kamala Harris needs to win there.
Plus, China's perspective how people there see the upcoming election as Chinese hackers target senior officials in both parties.
And the Latino vote, Vice President Kamala Harris with another superstar celebrity endorsement as she tries to shore up another part of her coalition.
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LOPEZ: It wasn't just Puerto Ricans that were offended that day, okay? It was every Latino in this country. It was humanity and anyone of decent character.
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HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
Just days ahead of the election, U.S. officials believe Chinese government-linked hackers targeted senior figures in both parties. Republican VP candidate J.D. Vance confirmed Thursday during his interview on the Joe Rogan podcast that both his and Donald Trump's cell phones were hacked.
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SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Luckily, I'm a pretty boring guy, so I don't think that they got really anything. We'll find out.
JOE ROGAN, PODCAST HOST: That's nice. It's nice to be boring if your phone gets hacked.
VANCE: Yeah, that's right, that's right. Well, it also, I mean it's apparently they couldn't get the encrypted messages that were sent, so I'm making sure I use Signal and iMessage and all that stuff, anyway.
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HUNT: Chinese officials have not released an official statement in response.
Let's get to CNN's Marc Stewart, where we find live in Beijing.
Marc, good morning. It's wonderful to see you.
Now you have a very unique perspective as one of the few American journalists on the ground in China, this alleged hacking, of course, a big headline here. How does this appear as you cover China and how else does coverage of the U.S. election drive conversations where you are?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I will tell you, Kasie, as someone who lives in China, someone who works in China, there is a lot of curiosity about the U.S. election. People ask me all the time who's going to win? Who am I supporting?
But at the same time, Chinese citizens have their own issues. They are worried about their families. They're worried about the economy. They're worried about their health. So the curiosity has a limit.
Let me share with you some of the reaction we got when we recently took to the streets of Beijing.
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MS. WEI, BEIJING RESIDENT: I know about it, but I don't pay too much attention to it.
MR. LI SHOU, BEIJING RESIDENT: I don't think it will have any impact on our life here. To us, ordinary Chinese people, whoever becomes the president, whether its candidate A or candidate B, it's all the same.
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STEWART: He said it's all the same.
A lot of response in China on social media, a similarity between the responses on social media. Let me show you some of the responses we have seen in recent times as this race really heats up.
One person saying the U.S. is about to split that was the response on one platform. Someone else saying, doesn't matter who it is, their containment of China won't ease. Another response that really caught my attention, there's no perfect system, but at least they allow people to question them.
I should point out it goes without saying, but media here in general, state media social media is very censored. But, Kasie, the moment there is any sign of discord, any kind of tension in the aberration of the U.S. political system, that is something that seeps through and becomes a big talking point in state media and of course, on many of the social platforms here.
HUNT: Yeah, Marc Stewart such an interesting perspective. You are able to bring us there. Really interesting to hear. Keep us posted. Thank you very much for that report.
All right. Straight ahead here on CNN this morning, the final media blitz, the strategies both campaigns are deploying to try to reach as many voters as possible in the final days.
Plus, pack the umbrella if you're heading to the polls election day could be soggy out there for some you.
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[05:22:55
HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
Temperatures on Halloween in the Northeast were not exactly spine chilling, but the record warmth finally ending this weekend as the central U.S. gets ready for rainfall from a new storm system.
Let's get to our meteorologist Allison Chinchar. Allison, I will say my son could not keep all of his costume on. He
had to take off the cape because it was so hot out. But you know, it sounds like it's going to change.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, you know what? I grew up in the north, and I have many memories of my childhood adding snow boots and mittens to my costumes.
HUNT: I was always freezing.
CHINCHAR: Yes, I would have much rather have this than have to add more accessories that no one really wants to have. And yes, it was a very warm one.
Take a look at this list D.C., Philadelphia, New York, even Burlington, Vermont, all hitting record temperatures yesterday. But for many of these areas, yesterday was it, you're really going to start to see those temperatures dropping back down.
Burlington for example, only 71 today, then 45 tomorrow. But even Boston, 76 today. Back into the 50s by tomorrow, D.C. going from 80 down to 65.
So those temperatures are coming down. And it's all because of this cold front right through here, that's finally going to exit the area. As we head into the weekend.
But there's another front that were keeping an eye on, and that's the one that's really going to be quite impactful. Not only this weekend, but into early next week.
You can see here by the weekend you really start to see that set up along the central U.S. then by Monday and into Tuesday, election day, you really start to see the focus become more of the Midwest, down into the Deep South. But notice, it didn't really move all that much in a couple of days. That's going to be a problem in terms of flooding, because a lot of these same areas have rain chances two or even three days in a row.
So over time, even though it starts today with the potential for flooding in eastern New Mexico and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, you'll notice the threat really doesn't shift all that far east in the coming days. But the threat itself begins to increase, so well certainly have to keep a close eye on that, even though the rain itself is necessary for these areas.
HUNT: All right. Allison Chinchar for us this morning -- Allison, thank you very much for that.
All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: how to win the Wolverine State.
[05:25:01]
We're going to talk with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell about battleground Michigan and which way the state might lean this year after its flipped in each of the past two elections.
Plus, courting the Latino vote, Kamala Harris turning to another star endorsement in the closing days of the race.
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HUNT: All right, 5:29 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Phoenix. That key sun -- in that key Sunbelt swing --
