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Inside Politics
Trump Insults City Of Detroit During Speech In Detroit; Trump Stokes Anti-Immigrant Conspiracies In Aurora, Colorado; Obama Scolds Black Men Who Are Hesitant To Support Harris; Obama Suggests Black Men May Not Support Harris Because Of Sexism; Harris Makes Pitch To Latino Voters With Univision Town Hall; New WSJ Poll: Trump Holds 5 Points Lead In Nevada; Harris Falls Behind Biden's 2020 Margins With Latino Voters. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired October 11, 2024 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on INSIDE POLITICS, the final lap, with just 25 days to go and polls virtually tied. Kamala Harris is hoping familiar faces on the campaign trail will give her an edge, while Donald Trump focuses on fear mongering with an issue, he hopes will define this race
Plus, winning the pro vote. Barack Obama appealing directly to the men that team Harris desperately needs to win. Even calling out those who he says, may be uncomfortable with a woman in the Oval Office.
And CNN is on the ground as first responders in Florida, search for survivors of Hurricane Milton still trapped in their homes. The death toll is rising as so many return to communities obliterated by that storm.
I'm Jessica Dean in for Dana Bash today. Let's go behind the headlines at INSIDE POLITICS.
The Democratic Party's biggest star injected a shot of energy and emotion last night in this election's most important state, Pennsylvania. Listen to him last night in Pittsburgh, taking on his successor for pushing dangerous misinformation about disaster relief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, 44TH U.S. PRESIDENT: You have a guy who will just lie about it to score political points, and this has consequences. The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments.
And my question is, when did that become OK? I'm not looking for applause right now. I want to ask Republicans out there. You know, people who are conservative, who didn't vote for me, who didn't agree with me. I had friends who disagreed with me on every issue. When did that become OK?
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DEAN: We're going to have more on Obama in just a few moments. But first today, Donald Trump is campaigning in Colorado. It's a state he has virtually no shot at winning. So why is he there? Well, Axios calls it part of the Trump's Apocalypse America tour. He spent weeks, claiming Aurora, Colorado has been, quote, taken over by Venezuelan gangs. To be clear, Colorado officials, including Aurora's Republican mayor say that is simply not true.
CNN's Kristen Holmes is there. And Kristen, help us understand why Trump is in Aurora today.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just as you said. This is a chance for him to amplify his rhetoric about migrants, much of it not being true. But he has really used Aurora's epicenter for this disinformation about immigration, particularly, as you said, the city being taken over by Venezuelan gangs.
Now, not only did we hear the mayor, the governor saying, it's simply not true. We've actually heard from some state officials who hope the fact that he's visiting Aurora will show that it's not true. But of course, we expect Donald Trump to be on that stage hammering this message about immigration.
And one other thing to point out here, yes, this state is solidly blue. But if you talk to a number of Trump's advisers, they don't think that that matters. They believe that some of these events in blue states, like Colorado. He's going to be in California tomorrow, will garner so much attention, either within the media or online in different snippets, that they'll get the same level of attention. If not more, that he would get if he was at a rally in a swing state.
Of course, that has yet to be seen, but this is one strategy that they're banking on. Now this trip to Aurora and all the backlash that it is getting from these local officials, comes a day after he got backlash from a different set of local officials. This time in Detroit, when he was there giving a speech and went after the city of Detroit. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The whole country is going to be like, you want to know the truth, it will be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit, if she's your president. You're going to have a mess on your hand. She destroyed San Francisco. She destroyed along with new- scum California, and we're not going to let her do that to this country. We're not going to let it happen.
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HOLMES: Now, one thing I do want to point out here is that this fear- based messaging that Donald Trump has been perpetuating for the last several months, whether it be about the economy, whether it be about immigration, it seems to be working with at least some factions of voters. We are here in the ground in Colorado, and there are hundreds of people here, despite the fact that this is a solidly blue state.
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And obviously, we have talked about those polling numbers, showing that these are razor thin margins. So, people are receiving some of this messaging. He is putting out, no matter how much local officials say that it isn't true, and so you should expect him to continue doubling down on this kind of rhetoric as we get closer to November.
DEAN: Yeah. Certainly, people continue to believe things just that are not true. Kristen, but you're right, it is seeping in. Kristen Holmes in Colorado, thank you so much. Meantime, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz is in Michigan. And he responded to Trump's comments about the Motor City just a few moments ago. Listen?
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GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The guy would have ever spent any time in the Midwest, like all of us know. We know Detroit's experience in American comeback and Renaissance. Cities growing, crimes down, factories are opening up. But those guys, all they know about manufacturing, is manufacturing bullshit. Every time they show up.
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DEAN: I want to bring in my excellent panel of reporters, CNN's Gloria Borger, CNN's Camila DeChalus, Margaret Talev of Axios, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times. What a great panel to have today. Zolan, let's just start first with you. I want to get your take on what Tim Walz just said in response to Trump going to Detroit, saying what he said to that economic group there.
ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, for the Harris campaign, this is going to be a moment that I think you're going to see them sort of seize on here. I saw that the Harris campaign put out a statement where they sort of use Trump's comments to say, look, he's not just criticizing Detroit, but it's an American city. Patriotism has been such a theme for the Trump campaign. So how patriotic is it to then go ahead and insult a city?
A city, by the way, and a state that the Democrats need to win as well. So now you have an image of Tim Walz standing behind, standing with union workers and sort of labor is something that very much resembles Michigan, or something they need in Michigan. While the former president is criticizing a major city in that state, I'm sure hanging over this is the fact that the Harris campaign knows they need not only labor support, but also Michigan in order to win this election.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Can we just say that he did it in Detroit?
DEAN: To the Detroit, economic, right, yeah.
BORGER: Right, either on the podium. I mean, it was -- you know, the silence in the audience, right, because they're probably thinking themselves. What is he doing? He is standing in Detroit, criticizing Detroit. I mean, it's almost unthinkable when you're -- when you're looking for votes in Detroit.
DEAN: In a must win state. I want to -- so, it's interesting because Axios' Margaret calls it, as we mentioned at the beginning of the show, Trump's Apocalypse America tour. And we have -- we've kind of got a few of his clips of just what he's saying at his recent rallies. It's obviously all zeroed in on immigration. Let's listen.
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TRUMP (voiceover): How about allowing people to come through an open border? 13,000 of which were murderers. Now a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes, and we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.
TRUMP: They had no money. You know, where they gave the money, to illegal immigrants coming in, many of whom are killers. We're going to deport them so rapidly we're going to get the criminals, the murderers. And essentially, I will liberate Pennsylvania and our entire nation from this mass migrant invasion.
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DEAN: So, Margaret, there's the rhetoric there that is so anti- immigrant. There's also the politics of it, which is that he has decided to really triple, quadruple down on immigration over the economy.
MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: Yes. And the economy messages are still going to be there too. It's going to be tied to immigration, fears that undocumented worker will take your jobs or be the reason why you don't get paid enough in the age of inflation and things like that.
He's pushing these messages because they're the messages that work strongest for him, and where Vice President Harris is most vulnerable. The messaging is tied less to the place than to the message. So, why is he in Aurora, Colorado? Because he's messaging to people in other states.
DEAN: About a -- falsehoods about a race.
TALEV: Yes.
DEAN: Yes.
TALEV: Why is he messaging that message that you just played in Pennsylvania to reach voters who don't live among immigrants, who live in solidly red places. The Detroit one gets a little tricky and a little like tactically dangerous for him, because there are actually plenty of like, center right Republicans who are part of -- who are invested in the Detroit comeback, who are probably someone in the room for that meeting. But that message is aimed at voters in other parts of Michigan who think those old ideas about Detroit and are nodding their heads and saying yes. So, it is not targeted at the place. It's targeted at the people outside of the place who could be receptive to that message.
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CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: This is something that even going back to when he first ran for office, I mean, he really doubled down on this immigration policy, this rhetoric that this kind of inflammatory language when it comes to immigrants. And so, we see this kind of playing out. And we can go back to his record when he was at the White House and some of the policies that he put forward.
I mean, this is a very strategic move on his campaign to really double down when it comes to his immigration rhetoric because he sees this as a vulnerability to the Harris campaign. This is something that Republicans have really gone after the Biden administration about saying that they're not doing enough on the southern border, and therefore it's hurting Americans who are living in different parts of the country.
And so, this is something we're going to see him move forward. And some voters I've talked to say that they find this very effective because they feel like the Biden administration has not done enough in the last three years when it's come to this issue.
KANNO-YOUNGS: The border is definitely a vulnerability for the Biden administration. But it is important to note too, that the language that Trump is using, and the dehumanizing sort of nature of it, it is an escalation. You know, from the time that he was in office to his first campaign. And it's backed up also by more extreme policies as well.
Talking about setting up mass detention camps, using the military as well in deploying them to the border. I mean, this type of language describing immigrants as a threat. Yes, there's been a through line, but it has been escalated.
BORGER: Well, when he first came down the escalator, remember it was that the immigrants were rapists. Remember that. But this is getting worse and worse, because it is about lies. There are lies that he is telling and, you know, yesterday, Barack Obama talked about this. But there are lies that he is telling about immigrants. And he was going to go to Springfield, Ohio, but they don't want him.
DEAN: Well, no, world authorities have said --
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DEAN: Right. Listen, this isn't true. I do want to talk about Obama. Finish your thought, but I do want to talk about Obama.
BORGER: This is his -- this honestly is his comfort zone. I think, much more so than even talking about the economy. Always likes to say, talking about the economy is boring, right? This is something that he can -- these stories that he weaves, which are false, which he lives in, is something that is more comfortable for him to talk about before an audience because he thinks it gets more of a reaction.
DEAN: Yeah. And so, you mentioned Barack Obama yesterday. He talked very bluntly, very directly. I want to play a clip. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president, as you're coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for them. And so, now you're thinking about sitting out or even supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that's a sign of strength.
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DEAN: Zolan, you have a headline, black men rally for Kamala Harris and confront an elephant in the room. It was interesting to hear the president speak like that.
KANNO-YOUNGS: Yeah, yeah. I mean, for some Democrats I've spoken to this morning, the former president's comments are that of, he's the latest official to confront that uncomfortable truth and connected to a concern many Democrats have. That a slight minority of black voters, it's not a monolith, would feel hesitancy in supporting Vice President Harris. And that could be for a variety of reasons, depending on who you talk to.
That could be because of her career in law enforcement, and also, even more uncomfortable, the elephant in the room, as described when we talked to many black leaders last month. Also, a historical trend for some black men to not always rush to support a black woman in a position in power, and that is due for a variety of reasons. That could be a streak of social conservatism in the community.
It could -- and it's also -- I mean, it dates back to also Shirley Chisholm being in Congress and saying, that she wasn't getting the support that she needed from black men in Congress. Again, it's not a monolith. This is not every sort of black voter, and for some, this was a really necessary message from the former president, who isn't just a former president, but also a trusted messenger in the community.
But for others, there's also a risk here. You know, when I'm talking to black leaders, they've said, look, black voters are ready to support a woman in power. Are ready to support Vice President Harris. But also demand more from their government and feel that their votes have been taken for granted year after year. And warned that a potential tone that came off as lecturing voters would also risk alienating voters.
BORGER: He was like daddy, you know, chiding voters, saying, come on, that's -- you know, you can't do that. He was -- you know, he was very -- he was lecturing. DECHALUS: But I think a part of it is that the Harris campaign knows that this is a demographic of voters that they may struggle with. I was talking to some people that are close to the campaign, and they said that what they feel like the strategy moving forward is that they're also hearing concerns that even if you generate enthusiasm among black men voters. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to go to the polls. There's that disconnect there.
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So, when I asked, OK, well, what does the campaign need to do in these upcoming weeks? They said, it's more getting more campaigns surrogates out there. It's putting more advertisements out there. It's really getting the message out there of what this Biden administration has done in the past and what Harris is going to set out to do in the future if she's reelected.
But there is that real concern there among the Harris campaign that this demographic of voters is something that they still need a fight to get their support and to really get black male voters to support the Harris at this upcoming election.
DEAN: All right, stay with us. Coming up, Vegas vibes. Kamala Harris gets personal while making a push for Latino voters in Nevada. We're going to -- will it help break into Trump's lead in the must win Sunbelt state. We're going to talk about that. That's next.
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DEAN: Vice President Harris amped up her outreach to Latino voters last night with a Univision Town Hall. Defined by efforts to make an emotional connection, like this moment with a woman who says her mother died because her immigration status prevented her from getting healthcare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm so sorry for what you've been through. And, you know, my mother came to the United States at the age of 19 by herself. Came alone by herself. She raised my sister and me, Maya. and I know what it is like to have a hardworking mother, who loves you and to lose that. The reality is that in terms of having access to healthcare, had your mother been able to gain citizenship. She would have been entitled to healthcare that may have alleviated her suffering and yours.
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DEAN: My panel is back with me now. Camila, interesting to watch her kind of try to strike this tone between being very empathetic, but also embodying these policy positions she's taken in this race, very different from 2019 when she was in that primary, that are much tougher on immigration, tougher on the border.
DECHALUS: Exactly. I mean, there's been so many research out there and polls that just show when it comes to Latino voters. They're not just caring about what happens when it comes to immigration or the border. They're caring about what happens when it comes to healthcare and the economy. And that's what they really want to understand, is where each candidate lies when it comes to this.
And so, really putting on that strong suit of saying, this is where I stand on this certain issue, and this Latino voters are just a critical voting block. And they can really swing the outcome of each election cycle, and especially where certain states lie, whether they're going to go to Trump or to Harris.
So, the fact that she's going out to Nevada, the fact that she's been spending a lot of time in Pennsylvania. Really just paying attention to this demographic of voters, because she knows that this is not just only these voters that can go and support her, but they can really decide the outcome of this election cycle.
And that's really -- her campaign just knows that it's not just focusing on other issues when it comes to immigration, but focusing on healthcare, focusing on what she can do when she's in office, and how that can better their lives. That's what you're really going to see in these upcoming weeks.
DEAN: And it's interesting, the Wall Street Journal put out some new battleground state polls. The Nevada poll, Trump at 47, Harris at 42, 8 percent undecided, which is a significant number, of course. But outside the margin of error, that was the only one amongst those battleground states in their polling that was like that.
TALEV: Yeah. I mean, it's pretty worrisome. If you're a Democrat and you're looking at Nevada. I do think the economy and the way economic issues and inflation have played are very important in Nevada to think like both President Biden and Vice President Harris, have not been able to regain that really solid lead that Democrats have held in years past with the Latino community, Latino voters still clearly prefer as overall as a bloc, clearly prefer the Democratic candidate to the Republican candidate. But there's been some slide and --
DEAN: It's funny. You say that we have a -- we have a statistic we can --
(CROSSTALK)
DEAN: No, no. This is support what you're saying. But look, it's right now, choice for president among Hispanic registered voters, Trump at 38, Harris at 54, that spread. But listen, it was 33, but Biden was ahead by 33 --
BORGER: And he got -- and he got 65 percent of Latinos. So, she's almost running, yeah -- and well, 10 points behind, you know --
TALEV: It's bad for Democrats. Yeah. BORGER: And it's bad for Democrats. The interesting thing to me is the way the immigration issue plays into this, because there are a lot of Latino voters who say, look, I don't like Donald Trump because he's anti-immigrant. And then there's a block of Latino voters who oppose illegal immigration because they came in and got their citizenship, and they don't want to make it easier for anybody else. They think that would -- that would be unfair.
TALEV: And by the way, those are not just Republican or Republican leaning Latino voters. It's a lot of centrist Latino voters and many democratically Latino voters as well. I think, from a policy strategy perspective, healthcare is a really smart area to hit on though and showing that empathy around the healthcare issue. We know that healthcare and housing costs are two of the biggest concerns for Latino voters, regardless of where you are --
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DEAN: Where you thought that's been exactly --
KANNO-YOUNGS: When I see this -- these stats, I do think of sort of the two vulnerabilities of the White House over the past couple years, that being immigration and the economy. Even the last segment -- this segment, black voters, Latino voters, still like every other American voter, the economy is still a top concern. Housing prices, particularly in the Sun Belt as well.
I think that's a prime motivation. And Harris actually focusing on policy proposals that address housing and lowering costs. It is because of the stats you're seeing here with a slide with these two crucial voting blocks.
BORGER: And you have to ask yourself, why isn't Donald Trump talking about that more? If he has such an advantage on it, does he feel like he can rest on his laurels and say, OK, I'm going to move on to immigration, chuck. The economy is what people vote on generally.
DECHALUS: I think it's a top issue. Democratic party knows that they cannot take the Latino vote for granted, and so that means really catering their messages to them. And that is something I've heard from campaign surrogates as saying that it's just not enough to say, this is what we're going to do for Latino voters.
We really want to be on the ground and really make that connection between this is the policies that we have enacted in the past, and this is what we're going to set out to do. So, the fact that Harris is talking about her policy proposals and really putting it out there on healthcare, on talking about the economy, on addressing housing, and just for first time homebuyers, that's a really important like aspect of this.
And so, when I've talked to Latino voters, they've just said, I don't want to feel like taken for granted. I really want the message to go. What can they do for me? And how is this going to better my family, or just my standing in life?
TALEV: They don't throw Spanish language at -- three days before --
(CROSSTALK)
DEAN: Yeah.
TALEV: But we'll see if it's enough. I mean, it's -- it might be the right tactic, but it may not be enough when you're looking at the margins as narrow as that poll suggested.
DEAN: All right. Thanks guys. Coming up, a desperate search for Hurricane Milton survivors. Survivors like this, 91-year-old woman in Lithia, Florida who was just rescued from her flooded home. CNN is on the ground amid devastation that you really do just have to see to understand and believe. That's coming up next.
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