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Trump Makes Appeal To New Mexico Latino Voters; Jennifer Lopez Slams Trump Over Puerto Rico Comments At Madison Square Garden Rally; Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) Says She's "Never Seen A Tighter Election." Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired November 01, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:29 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Phoenix, that key Sun -- in that key Sun Belt swing state of Arizona. Electoral -- 11 electoral votes up for grabs there and, of course, as the candidates come through here in the final days.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
With just days left in this campaign time and where the candidates choose to spend it, it is the most critical resource any campaign possesses.
And Donald Trump spent part of his Thursday appealing to Latino voters in New Mexico, a state that he's lost in each of the past two elections.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, I'm only here for one reason. They all said don't come. I said why? You can't win New Mexico. I said look, your votes are rigged. We could win New Mexico. We could win New Mexico. I believe we won it twice, so, OK, if you want to know the truth.
And if you can watch your vote counter -- if we could bring God down from heaven and he could be the vote counter we would win this, we'd win California, we'd win a lot of states.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: If God could be the vote counter.
Let us underscore Trump did not win New Mexico twice. He lost by eight and 11 points, respectively, in the last two presidential races.
While Trump sowed more doubt about the upcoming election there, the vice president adding another celebrity to the campaign trail. Jennifer Lopez appearing late last night at a rally in Las Vegas hitting Donald Trump over the Puerto Rico comments that were made at his Madison Square Garden rally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER LOPEZ, SINGER: He has consistently worked to divide us. At Madison Square Garden he reminded us who he really is and how he really feels. And it wasn't just Puerto Ricans that were offended that day, OK? It was every Latino in this country. It was humanity and anyone of decent character.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us to talk about all of this, Nick Johnson, publisher at Axios. Nick, good morning to you.
NICHOLAS JOHNSTON, PUBLISHER, AXIOS: Good morning.
HUNT: Great to see you.
JOHNSTON: Great to be here.
HUNT: So, Trump in New Mexico basically saying well, if God counted the votes I would have won New Mexico.
JOHNSTON: I mean, if God counted the vote even then it would have been pretty hard for Donald Trump to win New Mexico. I'm going to go out on a limb. I don't think that state is in play here.
HUNT: So why do it?
JOHNSTON: I mean, I think there's two things to look at here. One, there's a lot of sense of optimism among the Trump campaign. Clearly, the story of the last week has been just their braggadocio almost on how confident they are about this.
And I think that's born a little bit in the polling trends. The movement has been in their direction. And then we had a scoop last night about what Trump's pollster is telling Trump. Trump's pollster is telling him about the election, saying that they're in the best finish that they've been in in the last two campaigns.
But, like, let's get down to it. This is like a coin-flip election. Anyone who tells you who is going to win, they are lying. And so it all just becomes a hunt for votes -- any votes you can possibly find and who you can get out into those ballots. Like, I don't want to have to take -- it's too hot this early in the morning but it's going to come down to how many vote and for whom.
And so searching anywhere for those kind of votes. That's Trump in New Mexico. That's Kamala Harris here in D.C. She's going to win D.C. but still thinking that giving that speech on the Ellipse about democracy is a way to try and get people out of the building into the polls.
HUNT: Yeah -- no -- fair enough.
You saw Jennifer Lopez there speaking to Puerto Rican --
JOHNSTON: Yeah. HUNT: -- voters. There also has been intense focus on women voters here in the final moments after Trump said that he's going to protect women whether they like it or not.
JOHNSTON: Yeah.
HUNT: How do you look at the way the Harris team has tried to seize on that?
JOHNSTON: I mean, the Trump -- the Harris campaign definitely sees women as a huge advantage. The gender gap is something we've dug more and more into this year. It gets more and more strident. And if you look at the numbers if more women vote them -- a vast majority of them will vote more for the Harris campaign. They see that as a huge benefit for them.
I remember while standing in front of a muted television yesterday when the chyron said that latest Trump controversy was (INAUDIBLE), and I was like, well which one was this? I had to go dig it up. So the Harris campaign definitely capitalizing on that.
It's also very true that the Trump campaign has made inroads in groups where Republicans haven't been traditionally successful -- Latinos, African American men. So trying to get them out. But I'm going to come right back to it. A lot of those groups are low propensity voters.
It's become very much a turnout game and so, like, what was the most thing I was most interested in earlier in the hour? Show me the weather forecast in the swing states because that can have a huge -- a huge impact on how people get to the polls.
HUNT: Yeah. Well, in an election this close -- I mean, everything matters. And yes, the weather is something that --
JOHNSTON: Look, I had someone send me an academic paper on the impact of football games on voter turnout. And so he said to watch -- the only thing that matters is Penn State, Ohio State this weekend. If Penn State wins that's great for Kamala Harris. Ohio State is favored by 3 1/2.
HUNT: That's hilarious. But, like, Trump decided not to go to the game.
JOHNSTON: Right, exactly. I mean, but again, like moving the needles here and trying to figure out where can we possibly have that kind of impact to kind of boost the numbers. Because again, at the end of the day this is a coin-flip election. Maybe we'll know by next Friday.
HUNT: Yeah, for real.
Nick, so you mentioned kind of low propensity voters --
JOHNSTON: Right.
HUNT: -- Hispanics, Latinos.
Let's watch a little bit of what Donald Trump had to say about that at his rally -- watch.
[05:35:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I treat you much better than the Democrats. The Democrats -- they're destroying your country. They're destroying your country. So I'm here for one simple reason, I like you very much and it's good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: And, of course, there was also another part of that where he basically asked the crowd: Do you out here, out in the West, like to be called Hispanic or Latino?
JOHNSTON: Yeah. I mean, it's trying to figure out these wedge issues that move the needle on any of this thing. Like, any individual or number of voters -- remember, the race last time came down to tens of thousands of people. And so what kind of groups can you get to move out? The challenge here is whether those votes are more traditionally likely to vote.
Remember, we talked a lot about it during the Obama years. Like, here are the young people and they're finally going to vote. No, they don't vote.
And the one group that votes the least, young men. That's the people that Trump are trying to get. If he gets them he could win the election, but it's hard to get them off the couch.
HUNT: It sure is.
All right, Nick Johnston, thanks very much.
JOHNSTON: Great to be here.
HUNT: I really appreciate it.
All right. Speaking of young men, trying to appeal to male voters, the Trump campaign continues to make the rounds on several podcasts that are popular with men.
J.D. Vance appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast after Trump did an interview with Rogan just last week. Vance's episode aired yesterday. Trump's running mate telling Rogan he believes the Trump campaign will get this group's vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wouldn't be surprised if me and Trump won just the normal gay guy vote --
JOE ROGAN, HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE" PODCAST: Oh, I'm sure.
VANCE: -- because again, they just wanted to be left the hell alone. And now you have all this crazy stuff on top of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us now, CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter. Brian, good morning. Wonderful to have you --
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning.
HUNT: -- just four days out here.
Let's talk about the media strategy for each of these campaigns. It's kind of exemplified by "The Joe Rogan Experience."
STELTER: Yes, it is. Trump and Vance both on Rogan in the span of a week. The Harris campaign says it has not ruled out a Rogan visit, by the way, but I would be surprised by it at this point in the race.
Normally, you know, Kasie, we've seen this before. We've seen this twice with Trump. We know what Trump normally does in the closing days. He normally uses Fox as the cornerstone of his get out the vote effort. He was on with Sean Hannity on Tuesday. I think he'll be back on Fox this weekend.
He was also on stage last night in Arizona with Tucker Carlson, and those clips are going viral, in some cases, today for very ugly reasons.
Kamala Harris, on the other way -- on the other hand -- she kind of has more buttons to press -- more different levers to pull. She's calling into Black and Latino radio host shows talking to those audiences on morning radio. She's doing local television this week and pulling sides with national reporters.
It seems to me Harris has more people to help her. What I mean by that all the people endorsing her. You know, Jennifer Lopez last night, LeBron James last night. It kind of reminds me of Trump's old slogan "I alone can fix it."
Whereas for Harris, she has a lot of people helping her. One of her slogans is "When we vote, we win." And it seems like she has a lot more amplifiers right now in the closing days to help her out. But, of course, the Democrats always have that celebrity advantage, right?
HUNT: Right. Well, and, I mean candidly, Hillary Clinton had a similar celebrity advantage in 2016 --
STELTER: Yes.
HUNT: -- and it does not -- it doesn't --
STELTER: That's right.
HUNT: -- necessarily move the needle. In fact, sometimes you'll find Republicans motivated by this idea that the establishment is trying to tell them what to do. But Brian, I want to -- I want to show you something that unfolded last night. You referenced Tucker Carlson and this event --
STELTER: Yeah.
HUNT: -- that he and Trump had together.
STELTER: Yeah.
HUNT: And the way the press and -- now talking more about the establishment media -- the news media as opposed to kind of these podcasts and other ways to go about reaching voters. The conversation was, quite frankly, really interesting and I'm really interested to know your take -- watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And hopefully, we'll get a fair press eventually because that's a very important element. You need a fair press. So I've exposed them for being a total fraud. They're a fraud. But hopefully they won't be a fraud for long.
The press -- a free press -- a real press is a very important part of greatness -- of making the country great. They're like -- they're almost like the glue that keeps it together. But they're also like, in a way, a police force that keeps it honest. But they're so dishonest that they have no credibility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: What's your reaction to that?
STELTER: I hear some euphemisms there, Kasie. When he says fair, what he means is fair to me. We've studied Trump long enough to know that what he wants is a press corps that will roll over for him. He's now though using really friendly language, right, claiming to be a friend of the press, but the evidence suggests anything but.
Yesterday, his legal team sued CBS News alleging $10 billion in damages over that "60 MINUTES" episode last month with Harris. We spoke with First Amendment experts overnight who say this case is outrageous, it's meritless. It's not going to go anywhere. It's just designed to get publicity as Trump tends to do.
So I would suggest we look at his actions more than his words when it comes to the press. Suing CBS not exactly the actions of someone who wants a fair press in the United States.
HUNT: Yeah -- no. It's an important point.
All right, Brian Stelter for us this morning. Sir, always grateful to have you.
[05:40:00]
STELTER: Good seeing you. HUNT: We've got some tense days ahead, so I hope to see you again soon.
All right. After the break here on CNN THIS MORNING, protecting poll workers after violent protests in 2020. The new security measures now in place. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell joins us next in our battleground beat.
Plus, the catch of the year. The Jets break a five-game losing streak with an incredible one-handed touchdown. That's next in the Bleacher Report.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:45:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know it is completely, 100 percent bogus. They're trying to steal the election from our president, and we will not stand for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Nearly four years ago, hundreds of people converged on the convention center where poll workers were counting Detroit's 2020 election ballots. The chaotic scene spurred on by then-President Donald Trump's false claims that the election was being rigged against him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Detroit is another place, and I wouldn't say it has the best reputation for election integrity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: After experiencing what it was like to be at the center of an election conspiracy, Detroit city officials are preparing differently for election night this time around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANICE WINFREY, DETROIT CITY CLERK: They came to my home in 2020 and threatened my life because they thought that I had something to do with the fact that Trump lost. Then it became different for me.
DANIEL BAXTER, COO, DETROIT ELECTIONS DEPARTMENT: We now have bulletproof glass on the front of our building. We have more cameras. We have a panic button. We have a lot of security measures in place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us now, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan. Congresswoman, always wonderful to see you on the program. Considering what election officials feel like they've had to do to
prepare for Tuesday, how concerned are you about violence breaking out in Michigan?
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI) (via Webex by Cisco): Look, we all have to work together to try to find ways to bring people together, to try to minimize the tensions -- the kind of fear that we have. I think there's some people that might intentionally try to cause trouble.
But, you know, I know I have colleagues on the Republican and Democratic side of the aisle that know we -- that the strength of our democracy is Election Day, and people's confidence in the integrity and the credibility of the process.
So I'm not -- we may see some incidences. But I have talked with law enforcement from the federal, state, and local level, to community leaders, community members, and everybody's going to work very hard to try to keep it calm on Election Day.
HUNT: Congresswoman, you, of course, famously saw Trump coming in Michigan in 2016 and you make it a point of spending so much time with your constituents who are in really a key swingy potentially area of Michigan.
What are you picking up on the ground in union halls and in other places about which way the state may go?
DINGELL: Kasie, I'm not old, I'm seasoned. I have been through enough elections that I can tell you I have never seen a tighter election. It -- neither one of the candidates has won Michigan. Many hours I'd rather be us than them. It's really going to -- this is going to be turnout election. It is who shows up at the polls and who votes.
I think that the vice president has made significant progress in some of the organizations she was -- you know, in 2016 I said Hillary Clinton has a union hall problem. There are still many union voters that are going to vote for Donald Trump. But I think more union voters --
I've been in a UAW hall every day this week and some other union halls as well and many of the unions on the ground here have far more aggressive, stronger, worker-to-worker programs than I've seen in several elections. I think that's going well.
I think that the African American community is much more engaged than I saw them a month ago. The Hispanic community which, quite frankly, wasn't as energized has become energized this week.
But there are other issues on the ground. So we just have a lot of work to do between now and Tuesday night when those polls close.
HUNT: We've learned, Congresswoman, that Donald Trump's final rally is planned for Grand Rapids, Michigan. What does that say to you?
DINGELL: So, you know, that's where he went in 2016. That was where his final speech was. I think Donald Trump -- look, I'm not going to lie. Donald Trump and
J.D. Vance have been in the state a great deal. Donald Trump's going to be in Michigan today and he's going to Dearborn and visiting Arab American businesses. He's working the state hard -- very hard.
It is Michigan that delivered his presidency in 2016 and he's hoping for a repeat. And I'm working very hard so that people -- I remind people of what promises he made in 2016 that he did not keep. But he's looking for that good luck of 2016.
[05:50:05]
And I hope he has a safe and wonderful visit to Grand Rapids on Monday night, and that everybody go to the polls on Tuesday and really vote for what they want their future to be, which I hope is going forward and not back.
HUNT: Do you think he has -- that Donald Trump has an opening with Arab Americans in the Dearborn area? And if so, why?
DINGELL: I'm going to be very candid. He is working that community very hard. There -- but, you know, here's one of the things that we all have to remember. No community is monolithic. You know --
HUNT: Sure.
DINGELL: -- the Hispanic community -- everybody puts over. Well, they vote Republican and Democratic. The Arab American Muslim community is also not monolithic.
You know, the mayor that endorsed Donald Trump last Saturday, Bill Bazzi, a good friend, is a Republican. So I'm not surprised by that.
I think he is reaching out and talking to this community and he will get some votes.
But we also know that there are a lot of Arab Americans that remember one of the first official acts he did was try to ban Muslim travel. That he has said that he wants to deport them. And he's got a history of many other horrific statements. So many are just skipping the top of the ticket, and some are voting for Jill Stein, and some will vote for the vice president.
HUNT: All right, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. Always grateful for your perspective, and good luck -- nonpartisan good luck to everyone working really hard in these last four days. Thank you very much.
All right --
DINGELL: One thing I want to say.
HUNT: Yeah, go ahead.
DINGELL: We've got come back united. This is a very important time, as you just talked about, for potential violence. Things that could happen. We're all Americans. United we stand, divided we fall. We've got to try to work about how we're all going to come together when election night is finished. And whoever is elected we need to respect the integrity of the democratic process and try to bring ourselves back together.
HUNT: A really important note to end on, Congresswoman. Thank you so much.
All right, time now for sports. An amazing one-handed touchdown grab lifts the Jets to a huge win over the Texans, snapping their five-game losing streak.
Carolyn Manno has this morning's Bleacher Report. Carolyn, good morning.
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kasie.
Well, Halloween pales in comparison to how scary the Jets' season has been. They went into last night's game with a 2-6 record.
Linebacker Quincy Williams went all out -- look at the Joker costume -- very nice -- for "THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL" fully committed.
And his teammate Garrett Wilson should have dressed up like a wizard with his catch early in the fourth quarter. Stop what you're doing real quick if you can and just watch this.
So down by three on third and 19, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers chucked one up and Wilson somehow hauled this in with one hand in the back of the end zone. This was originally ruled an incompletion but after further review he did get his left foot and left shin down inside the end zone. So that put the Jets up 14-10.
They'd go on to win 21-13.
And afterwards, Wilson and Rodgers talked about what is being called one of the NFL's greatest catches of all time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARRETT WILSON, WIDE RECEIVER, NEW YORK JETS: This is trying to make a play. I'm glad I was able to make it and I'm they overturned it and all that. But yeah, that's all, man. Just trying to make a play and find a way to score some points.
AARON RODGERS, QUARTERBACK, NEW YORK JETS: I was looking at the weak side safety and I was like if he drops down at all I'm just going to say screw it. I'm going to throw it up to G. I feel like I put it in a decent spot but yeah, I didn't do a whole lot when it comes down to it. I just kind of lobbed on up there. He made an unbelievable catch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANNO: Victor Wembanyama taking center stage with his Halloween look as No-Face. That's a character from the popular Japanese film "Spirited Away." But once he was on the court he was transformed into the Stat Man. The Spurs French phenom registering his second career five-by-five game.
He ended with 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals, five blocks in the win against the Jazz. And that makes him just the third player in NBA history with multiple five-by-five games joining Hakeem Olajuwon and Andrei Kirilenko. Good company there.
Grizzlies star Ja Morant had a 26-point, 14 assists, 10 rebound triple double in a win against the Bucks last night. But this play was even more impressive than the stat line. This is midway through the second quarter. He went to the floor here to grab a deflective pass then threw up a pinpoint alley-oop while sitting down at the three-point line. The 'how did he do that' pass has been going viral on social media.
So some really fun stuff last night. Kasie, back to you.
HUNT: Fun stuff, indeed.
And congrats to the Jets. It has, in fact, been rough -- a rough year.
Carolyn, thank you very much.
All right. Coming up in our next hour on CNN THIS MORNING, not just the top of the ticket where the races are tight as ever. We're going to look at some key Senate races and why Democrats seem to be linking themselves to Donald Trump.
[05:55:00]
Plus, Trump takes his violent rhetoric directed at former Congresswoman Liz Cheney to a new level.
(COMMERCIAL)
HUNT: It's Friday, November 1. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let's see how she feels about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Violent rhetoric. Donald Trump going after political foe Liz Cheney with some of his darkest language yet.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We trust women. We trust women to make their own decisions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Winning over women. How both campaigns are trying to appeal to this key group which makes up more than half the vote.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: I wouldn't be surprised if me and Trump won just the normal gay guy vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The normal gay guy vote.
