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The Situation Room
Trump in Georgia After Racist, Vulgar Remarks by Speakers at His New York City Rally; Harris Says, Trump's Fanning of Hate and Division on Display at New York City Rally; Harris and Trump Targeting Southwest in Final Full Week of Campaign. Officials Identify "Suspect Vehicle" In Ballot Drop Box Fires; More Than 43 Million Early Ballots Cast With Eight Days To Go. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired October 28, 2024 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, Donald Trump is campaigning in Georgia a day after his inflammatory and divisive rally in New York City, featuring speakers who unleashed racist and vulgar remarks. Will we hear similar rhetoric at the former president's rally in Atlanta tonight?
Also this hour, Kamala Harris is condemning Trump for fanning what she calls hate and division, arguing he's fixated on his grievances and on himself, the vice president on the trail in battleground Michigan with just eight days to go in the deadlocked race for the White House.
Plus, federal authorities are investigating how and why fires erupted in ballot drop boxes in both Washington state and Oregon. Hundreds of ballots reportedly were damaged in these final critical days of early voting.
Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Will Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.
And we begin with breaking news in the presidential race. Donald Trump rallying voters in a crucial battleground state tonight as the ugly rhetoric coming from him and his allies is being taken to new extremes. And that's giving new fuel to Kamala Harris, who is now seizing on the divisive message at Trump's event in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden last night.
CNN's Eva McKend is standing by at a Harris event in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But first, let's go to CNN's Kristen Holmes. She's at tonight's Trump rally in Atlanta.
Kristen, as the Trump camp faces backlash for that New York City rally last night, what is the former president saying today?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, right now, he just finished up a meeting with faith leaders. You have to remember what they're trying to do is drive out early voters. Georgia is a state that is critical to this election, but it's also a state where early voting has begun. So, what they are doing is they are targeting various groups to make sure that they are hitting the polls ahead of that November 5th election today. It was faith leaders. We've seen them do this with women and other various groups.
And as you noted, comes at a time where Donald Trump's team is really facing an enormous amount of backlash, not just from Democrats, but also from some Republicans over controversial comments that were not made by the former president but actually by speakers before the former president even took the stage last night at Madison Square Garden. We heard a series of vulgar, sexist and racist remarks by various Trump allies that caused really an uproar among both Democrats and, again, some Republicans.
Take a listen to just some of what was said.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TONY HINCHCLIFFE, COMEDIAN: I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yes. I think it's called Puerto Rico.
DAVID REM, NEW YORK CITY SANITATION WORKER: She is the devil, whoever screamed that out. She is the anti-Christ.
GRANT CARDONE, BUSINESSMAN: Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.
SID ROSENBERG, RADIO PERSONALITY: She is some sick bastard, that Hillary Clinton, huh? What a sick son of a bitch. The whole (BLEEP) party, a bunch of degenerates, low lives, jewel haters, and low lives.
HINCHCLIFFE: Heck, yes, that's a cool black guy with a thing on his head. What the hell is that, a lampshade?
I'm just kidding. That's one of my buddies. He had a Halloween party last night. We had fun. We carved watermelons together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America is for Americans and Americans only.
HINCHCLIFFE: And these Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that. They do. They do. There's no pulling out. They don't do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country.
TUCKER CARLSON, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Kamala Harris, she's just -- she got 85 million votes because she's just so impressive, as the first Samoan, Malaysian, low I.Q., former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.
HINCHCLIFFE: When it comes to Israel and Palestine, we're all thinking the same thing, settle your stuff already, best out of three, rock, paper, scissors. You know the Palestinians are going to throw rock every time. But you also know the Jews have a hard time throwing that paper. You know what I'm saying?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And, Wolf, that person you heard there at the top of that sound bite was a comedian who actually opened up the entire segment there, the entire rally. [18:05:00]
Now, the Trump campaign has since condemned those remarks. They tried to distance themselves, saying that this joke in no way represents the beliefs of Donald Trump or the campaign. You heard a series of jokes there, but the one that particularly came under scrutiny was the one where he called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. That remark is not only vile, but also could have some political ramifications. I'll have you keep in mind that Puerto Ricans make up a huge demographic in the United States and a huge demographic of voters within swing states. So, you heard a lot of backlash on that, particularly from Republicans as well.
BLITZER: We certainly did. All right, Kristen, stand by for us. I want to go to CNN's Eva McKend right now. She's awaiting the third Harris event of the day in battleground Michigan. Eva, how is Harris responding to the vitriol from the Trump rally in New York City?
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this entire episode lends itself to an argument that the vice president has long made, that the former president lacks the character required to return to the White House, that he surrounds himself with problematic people and that he's more concerned about his own grievances than the everyday concerns of Americans. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump's event in Madison Square Garden really highlighted a point that I've been making throughout this campaign. He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself, and on dividing our country.
Donald Trump spends full time trying to have Americans point their finger at each other, fans the fuel of hate and division. And that's why people are exhausted with him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKEND: The challenge for Harris is that some Democrats argue that there is limits to this argument, that the former president has proved that he's impervious to this type of criticism. So, that's why instead we saw from the vice president a big manufacturing push. She was in Saginaw at a semiconductor facility, visiting with workers on the assembly line, talking about the Chips and Science Act, and the work the Biden-Harris administration has done to fortify these types of union jobs. Later on, she was in Macomb County at a labor union training facility, focusing on apprenticeship programs.
And the vice president will end her Michigan swing here in Ann Arbor. She'll be joined on stage by Governor Walz, a rare opportunity to see them campaigning together, and then Maggie Rogers will be performing as well. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much, Eva McKend and Kristen Holmes. I appreciate it very much. I want to get some more on the breaking news. Our political experts are here with me in The Situation Room. And, Shermichael Singleton, hearing those vile, racist, pretty hateful remarks at that Madison Square Garden rally last night that Trump organized and his people held, with the rhetoric that we heard, and it was awful rhetoric, was it acceptable to the Republican presidential nominee?
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Wolf, let me answer this as a strategist. So, I'm looking at a state like Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state where we know there are 465,000-plus Puerto Rican voters. Now, I would argue that the Harris campaign has sort of been struggling to find their footing in Pennsylvania, which I believe is a must-win state for either side. You've now given the Harris campaign an opportunity to potentially target that demographic with ads, Spanish and English, to be able to put their door-knockers and focus on heavy Puerto Ricans communities to turn them up -- turn them out, rather.
So if you're looking at a one to two percent marginal turnout among Puerto Ricans along, the math tells you that that would potentially be enough for the vice president to win that state. So, it was an unnecessary, unforced error. And I do think it was smart for the campaign to disavow it, to step away and say, hey, this guy doesn't represent us, but my word of caution would be, at this late in the game, you just do not want to make these types of mistakes, Wolf, because every single vote will count, particularly on the margins.
BLITZER: Well, Shermichael, let me press you, because the only disavowal from the Trump campaign was regarding the Puerto Rico comments about that island being just garbage in the Atlantic Ocean over there. There was no comment, no reaction to the other vile statements going after a whole bunch of other groups in the United States, including Jews, Palestinians, among others.
SINGLETON: So, look, I would say the other remarks, I can see how they would be problematic to swing voters. I can see how it would be problematic to the folks in the middle. I'm focusing specifically on the comedian though, Wolf, because I just think racism, there's just no place for that. That's why I'm focusing on the comedian more so than the others.
And I think the other stuff people will get upset about, they'll get angry about, but when you're turning people away because you're talking and attacking others based on their ethnicity, something that no one can change, that's when I think you're making an incalculable mistake. So, that's how I would differentiate the two.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: But there were also, you know, the other people, let's not forget there were other speakers there, who were attacking her as a woman, you know, effectively calling her a prostitute, the devil, the anti-Christ. I mean, these are things -- I don't know. If you're trying to win over women voters, I don't think that's a way to do it.
[18:10:03] And so she was attacked very personally there. I mean, not only -- I mean, it's just hard to imagine that a campaign wouldn't vet these things and say, wait a minute, that's not what we want to do.
AMESHIA CROSS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: And I think they did vet it. I just think that they were okay with it. They were expecting people because holistically they have time and time again, Trump has said really offensive things and his acolytes have said really offensive things and it has not changed his, you know, polling numbers amongst Republican voters. He's not trying to expand to women. He's proven that time and time again to talk about Kamala Harris is somebody who has pimp handlers. We know what that means. There is not anything that we have to uncover there. They said exactly what they meant.
This is the same party that has gone after her for dating history. This is the same party that has tried to dredge up misogynistic commentary about sexual past, which may or may not be true, nobody knows, but it is not something that should be even a part of this political discussion. I don't care who you dated 40 years ago. That does not matter. What we have is somebody who is fine digging his heels in on racism, on misogyny, on anti-semitism, on Islamophobia, he dug everything possible in, what, eight days before the election and decided to do it and was fine doing so and only stepped away from one thing, that -- not to mention all of the other people who got up there and said ridiculous things.
That is not the America we should live in. It's not the America or the future of America we should envision. And what we saw last night was akin to a KKK rally. I'm sorry.
BORGER: Well, how did they choose these speakers? I mean, this is -- you know, this is the question. How did they choose this comedian who has a history, who wasn't funny at all, who has a history of disparaging Asians, for example? How did they pick this fellow and say, you know? We think he'd be right at this political rally. This is your closing argument?
CROSS: And this feels like something about their values.
SINGLETON: Again, in terms of strategy, I'm not certain of a strategist in this country right now with significant experience on presidential races. Considering how close this race will be, 1, 2 percent can make a difference in a state would advise something like that. The statements are out there. There's nothing you can do at this point. So, the best thing the campaign can do strategically is to try to distance themselves as much as they can.
BLITZER: On that point, Senator J.D. Vance, the vice presidential running mate of Trump, he just weighed in on the hateful Puerto Rico comments that were made at the Madison Square Garden rally. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I haven't seen the joke. You know, maybe it's a stupid racist joke. As you said, maybe it's not. I haven't seen it. I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke, but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just -- I'm so over it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BORGER: He's pulling the woke card there, you know, stop getting offended at these things cause you're so woke. This wasn't woke. This was just offensive. And, you know, he's finding out new ways every single day to dodge direct questions because he is not allowed to criticize Donald Trump or to criticize the campaign. He's on the team and he's a team player. And so he looks like an avoider almost every single day. And this is just another example.
CROSS: And if you're offended by racism, then somehow --
BORGER: What would be so bad to say, the campaign said, we disavowed these comments? What would be so bad if J.D. Vance had said the same thing?
CROSS: We live in a multicultural America. So, to have a campaign, to have a president, somebody who's served as president before, mind you, to look at America and basically say that, you know, he wants to take us back to the 19th century, where women didn't have rights, where people like me and Shermichael were still, you know, in chains and being bought and sold across this country. This is the envisionment. This is the embodiment of what they are doing when they are pushing Project 2025, when you have speaker after speaker, get up there and talk about what they want America to go back to. Make America great again looks like make America all white again.
BLITZER: We got some reaction just coming in from the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, who just said this about the very awful, insulting rhetoric at the rally last night. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG EMHOFF, U.S. SECOND GENTLEMAN: He demeans immigrants with the same hateful slurs hurled at our ancestors, vermin, animals who poison the blood of our country. He scapegoats Jewish voters right to our faces, saying that if he loses, it will be the fault of Jews. He looks at Adolf Hitler's generals and sees something to admire. Just let that sink in. You do not reward someone like that with a platform or with power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Gloria, he's Jewish, Doug Emhoff. And, obviously, he takes all of these words very, very seriously.
BORGER: He does. And, you know, there have been people who represent Donald Trump who say that, that she is anti-Semitic, which is absurd and ridiculous. And to let anti-Semitic comments, I want to go back to the closing argument thing, this was supposed to be the capstone of the campaign for him, Madison Square Garden.
[18:15:00]
He wanted to be idolized at Madison Square Garden. He's a New Yorker. And they let this stuff flow, this vile chatter flow there. And it is remarkable to me, and Doug Emhoff has said this before, and I think it's even more emphatic now after this weekend, and Donald Trump personally has not said anything about this. He's let the campaign do it. He's let surrogates do it, but he hasn't personally said, I heard that and I thought it was vile.
SINGLETON: I mean, I would imagine, Wolf, at some point a reporter is probably going to ask a former president a comment about the comedian, if I were advising the former president --
BLITZER: He's not shy. He's got a social media platform. He could have reacted in that way, too.
SINGLETON: Sure.
BLITZER: He could have put out a statement.
SINGLETON: Sure, he could have. But I think (INAUDIBLE) about it, and if I were advising the former president, I would just say, look, this guy came out and said some pretty disgusting things. That's not where we stand. We're going to move on. That would be the best advice I would give him.
CROSS: Well, what's taking him so long to do it?
SINGLETON: That's a good question. You have to ask the Trump campaign. I don't have an answer for that, Ameshia.
BORGER: You know, you'd think that since there are 500,000 Puerto Rican voters in the state of Pennsylvania, and Donald Trump is very transactional, that he would have done it already.
SINGLETON: Well, I think we'll see.
BLITZER: And he wasn't just insulting Puerto Ricans, he was insulting Latinos, in general.
BORGER: In general, too.
BLITZER: Yes.
BORGER: Exactly.
BLITZER: All right. Guys, everybody stand by. I want to thank all of you for coming in.
Just ahead, we'll go live to Arizona. CNN's John King breaking down how the Grand Canyon State factors into the road to 270 electoral votes. And we'll speak live with Democratic Senator Mark Kelly.
Plus, the veteran journalist, Geraldo Rivera, joining us live with his reaction to Trump's Madison Square Garden rally and the state of the 2024 race. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:20:00]
BLITZER: This week, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are taking their campaigns to the southwest as they try to close the deal in a pair of very crucial battleground states, Arizona and Nevada.
CNN's John King is on the ground for us in Phoenix tonight. John, how are Harris and Trump targeting Latino voters in these two states?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you can't turn on the car radio, you can't turn on the television, you can't ask a voter to show the phone, show your text. The campaigns are inundating people with messages trying to get them to vote, trying to get people to vote early, and if not, to turn out on Election Day.
I'm in Maricopa County now. More than six in ten Arizonans live here, Phoenix and the fast-growing suburbs. We spend most of the day, though, to the south, if you're in the Tucson area. That's Pima County. Listen to these two Latino voters. One is Tamara Varga. She is a female. 30-year resident of Tucson, a lifelong Republican who says she thinks Trump's going to do better this time because of concerns about the cost of living and immigration. But then you listen to the other gentleman, Claudio Rodriguez. He's a community organizer, an activist who bangs on doors. He says he thinks the polls are wrong and the Latinos are going to come out for Vice President Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAMARA VARGA, ARIZONA VOTER: I just see that more people are willing to talk about Trump. They're not closet Trump supporters anymore, and it's not taboo to be a Trump supporter. We really have more people that are coming out and supporting him, making it easier on us.
CLAUDIO RODRIGUEZ, ARIZONA VOTER: Kamala has it. She has it. She's honest. She's not a felon, you know, once again. So, I think it's, it's one of the things that folks really look at, especially amongst our older Latinos. So, I don't think it's something that we're too worried about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And, Wolf, I brought my friend along on the road here. We have a mini version of the magic wall. Let's zoom in. This is the 2020 map. Let's zoom in. You remember how much of a surprise Arizona was Joe Biden winning the state by just 10,000 votes in 2020. Well, as I said, I'm in Maricopa County now, more than six and ten Arizonans live here. Look how close it was in Maricopa County.
So, how did Joe Biden get his victory? I would argue the cushion came here, where we were earlier today in Pima County. If you look here in the Tucson area, Joe Biden won that county by more than 90,000 votes. If you're going to win a state by just 10,000, you need some places where you run it up to offset Trump support in the rural areas. That happened down there in Pima County. So, you see the activity now. Trump has no expectation of winning in Pima County. He'd like to win here in Maricopa. But in the places that he knows are deep blue, Trump's challenge, especially in the suburban areas, just try to improve his number sum. That's what we're watching for to see if that happens when we start counting votes more than a week from now.
BLITZER: Yes. As you know, John, Trump has made immigration among his biggest campaign issues. What are voters who live near the border where you are telling you about that?
KING: It's fascinating. I know you're going to talk to Senator Kelly, too, from Arizona. He can talk about this as well. The tone is very different. Again, look at the Arizona map. Look at these counties along the border here. There are four counties along the border, right? Two of them voted Democratic. One of them is Pima County, which I just showed you, which voted Democratic by overwhelming. That is by far the most populated of the counties along the border.
So, the people who live immigration, live the border crisis, live the stress every day, well, in two of the four counties in Arizona, they vote Democrat by big numbers. Now, that is not to say they don't want more border security. That is not to say they don't want the chaos gone and a more organized immigration system, a guest worker program, some other way. They want all of those things. But they don't like -- most of them, don't like the former president's tone, because a lot of them have relatives in Mexico, have Mexican heritage themselves. And they want something done, but they don't like the nasty rhetoric, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. John King reporting for us, John, I love your mini magic wall as well. We'll continue these conversations over the next several days.
I want to bring in right now Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. A new poll shows that Kamala Harris is seven points behind with Latino voters in your state of Arizona. Why is that? And do you think Trump's support could wane after the racist, really ugly comments we saw at his Madison Square Garden rally last night?
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Yes, Wolf, I think the comments last night will resonate with Latinos and folks who are in this community here in Arizona.
[18:25:05]
We've got a very large Latino population, and using racist rhetoric at your -- for your closing argument in a presidential election is not going to go over well here.
There are other things that aren't going to go over well as well. One is on the Joe Rogan show just a few days ago, he said he was going to cancel the Chips and Science Act, which is bringing thousands, tens of thousands of jobs, in fact, to Arizona. Many of these people have these jobs right now, construction jobs, semiconductor manufacturing jobs. He's already committed to doing a pretty big hit job on the Arizona economy if he's back in the White House.
BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, Senator, that the top super PAC backing Kamala Harris is warning Democrats that attacking Trump for being a fascist is, quote, and I'm quoting now, not as persuasive as contrast messages featuring Harris' economic plans and her promise to protect reproductive rights. Senator, so how much should Harris call out Trump in her closing message tomorrow here in Washington on the National Mall at The Ellipse, versus focusing in on her own agenda?
KELLY: Well, Wolf, I've been traveling all across the state. I've been flying myself around in a little airplane. I've been up on the Navajo Nation a couple times, down in Yuma and Sierra Vista, basically all over in very rural areas. And these -- you know, the issues that affect, you know, families and everyday folks, you know, they're important issues about the economy. When you consider Trump's Project 2025 and, you know, his plan to put tariffs on every item that we import into this country, it's going to cost families here in Arizona $4,000 a year, probably minimum. On top of that, if you're working in the semiconductor industry, not only are your costs are going to go up, you might be out of a job because of Donald Trump.
So, those issues are important. I imagine she's going to address them. They're incredibly important. And that's the communication we're doing here in the state. We are -- you were talking about the Latino vote. We're knocking on doors and making phone calls in Spanish. So, we have canvassers that are communicating with people, you know, in the Spanish language, we're meeting people where they live and work, reminding them we have this election on November 5th. It's just a week away. And the consequences of this election could not be higher.
BLITZER: Axios, Senator, is reporting that President Biden wants to campaign for Vice President Harris, but the Harris campaign is keeping him at a distance because they see him potentially as a political liability. Do you think President Biden should join Kamala Harris out there on the campaign trail? Would you support that in your state of Arizona?
KELLY: Well, Wolf, I was just with the president here in Arizona less than a week ago. So, he's getting around the country. He's talking to folks about the issues they care about. He was here specifically for a Native American event and the entire -- you know, we have 22 tribes and many of the tribal leaders were there and members of the Native American community.
If you're a Native American in the state of Arizona and you listen to some of the things that Donald Trump says about, you know, people that don't look exactly like him, those are things that will really concern these folks and, and they should.
So, I've been out there, you know, with the president and I know he's going to be in, you know, Pennsylvania in a couple of days, and this is a really critical state to putting together the Electoral College votes that you need. You know, John King with his magic wall can speak a little bit more to that, but Pennsylvania is key in this election. The president's going to be there.
BLITZER: All right. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, thanks so much for joining us.
And coming up, former Trump ally turned Harris supporter Geraldo Rivera is joining us live here in The Situation Room, his message to Latino voters following those racist remarks at Donald Trump's New York City rally.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:30:00]
BLITZER: There's growing backlash against the Trump campaign tonight after the former president held a New York City rally filled with racist and other offensive, very offensive rhetoric. A number of Latino celebrities are rallying behind a Kamala Harris in reaction to one of the insults at that Trump event, a speaker calling Puerto Rico, and I'm quoting now, an island of garbage, an island of garbage.
Joining us now, the veteran T.V. news journalist and longtime friend, Geraldo Rivera, who endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris two weeks ago. Geraldo, thanks so much for joining us.
Like all of us, you heard some really vile, racist, very hateful rhetoric by some of Trump's allies at that rally at Madison Square Garden last night. And the rhetoric was especially vile about Latino voters. What do you make of that?
GERALDO RIVERA, CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE, NEWSNATION: Well, Wolf, first of all, I'm delighted to see you and honored to be on your program. The principal reason I do not support former President Trump is that he can't be trusted to honor the Constitution. But my goodness, the vile racist remarks that he's been directing at migrants, principally the Hispanic migrants, but also the Haitians eating dogs, makes him really an outlier, a person who could do and say almost anything to get elected.
[18:35:00]
And when I heard the comedian, the so-called comedian at the rally in Madison Square Garden, the first thing I thought of when I heard him was how dare he? A floating island of garbage?
And when you take the president's rhetoric and overlay it, the poisoning of the blood of the nation, that migrants, Hispanic migrants commit murder because they have it in their genes, you know, mass deportation on day one, there is no reason a Latino American should vote for Donald Trump. He has disqualified himself by surrounding himself with hateful, ugly rhetoric. These racist remarks have divided this nation. They've made people feel embattled. They've made people worry about their future, their children. It is something that is beyond the pale. This is not politics, Wolf. This is hate speech. And I've had it.
You know, Madison Square Garden is famous for a lot of things. I think it will be famous for ending President Trump's meteoric campaign to be reelected. I think that the surveys, the polls will show that this was the time, this was the moment where things turned on Donald Trump, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, it's really, really, was really ugly.
Pennsylvania, as you know, Geraldo, is home to a very large population of Puerto Ricans. What kind of impact could these comments about Puerto Rico, and Latinos for that matter, have in this key battleground state?
RIVERA: Well, if they listen to Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez and Bad Bunny and me, I think that they will flock to vote for Kamala Harris. Pennsylvania, as you correctly point out, Wolf, is the second largest concentration of Puerto Ricans on the mainland, you know, with a very proud community, the Puerto Rican Day parades are so festive and gay and welcoming and ebullient. And now you have a president, a would-be president, a once and possibly future president, who speaks of Latinos or Latino migrants, but it's all of us.
If you have any pride in yourself, if you have -- if you were -- just in memory of your grandparents and your parents and your own children, to have this kind of hate speech directed at you, it really makes you feel embattled. It makes you feel as if they would do or say anything to be reelected. And I really will not countenance it. I will absolutely not allow anyone to speak that way without speaking up. It is really very offensive. It's a blow to the gut. And I think that President Trump should apologize right now.
I know he's infamous for never wanting to apologize, but he must. If he seeks to salvage his now embattled campaign, he better speak out about the words that were spoken at Madison Square Garden last night. It was absolutely the Rubicon in many ways. He jumped over to the hateful side. He jumped over to the hate, the haters, the rhetoric that was absolutely unforgivable. And I believe that this is a historic moment, Wolf.
BLITZER: You were critical, Geraldo, of how Kamala Harris talked about the issue of immigration during her interview with Fox the other day. What do you see as her mistakes on this critical issue? Is it too late for her to correct this?
RIVERA: Well, I was heartened by the fact that she released this policy toward Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, in my view, and I know that many Puerto Ricans don't agree with me, I think Puerto Rico deserves to be a state and should be a state and should be treated with the dignity, even as a commonwealth, should be treated with the dignity and the equality of other states.
You know, it is -- I'm glad that she pointed out the electrical grid. Puerto Rico is a place where the sun shines every single day in that paradise that we adore, but there's no solar power anywhere. How is that? We import this dirty diesel fuel to power our light.
It is -- you know, I think that Kamala Harris has to be much more practical and offer Puerto Ricans a way to the future and also while damning the speech that we cannot allow to seep in, you know, between Haitians eating dogs, that ugly lie about the Haitian community here in Ohio, to the poisoning the blood of our nation, to floating island of garbage, there's a pattern there. The Republicans have absolutely, in their ruthless pragmatism, to get whatever they want in tax policy or whatever it is, they have allowed the candidate to go out of control and to break the boundaries of what is normal, ordinary, prudent reasonable politics.
[18:40:08]
BLITZER: Like you, Geraldo, I love Puerto Rico as well.
Geraldo Rivera, thank you very, very much. We'll continue this conversation down the road, very well said.
And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: In New York tonight, a federal judge is deciding whether Rudy Giuliani should be required to turn over his $3.5 million Florida condo to the two election workers he defamed.
CNN's Katelyn Polantz is joining us right now. Katelyn, what's at stake for Giuliani right now? Remind us how he got here.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Wolf, Rudy Giuliani is in a situation where he stands to lose everything he has of value. He's already ordered by this judge in New York to turn over essentially $6 or $7 million dollars of his worth, his assets, a condo he has or an apartment he has in Manhattan, as well as a host of other things, a Mercedes Benz, a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey that the baseball great gave to him as a gift. Things he was receiving from soldiers from European presidents after 9/11, all of those things of value he has, he must turn over to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia election workers he defamed and who he owes $150 million to.
In court today is the discussion, the beginning of the discussion over what happens to two pieces of property he's trying to raise arguments to keep. A condo in Palm Beach that he says he shouldn't be able to give to them because he lives there now. They can test that.
They say that it's primarily a vacation home. He's not there very often and then the other thing he has for championship rings from the World Series in the '90s and in 2000 around the time he was mayor. The argument in court is that he gave those to his son a few years ago, and even though he still wears the ring from the subway series, they are his son's.
Now, the Ruby Freeman/Shaye Moss legal team, they are trying to get as much information out of Giuliani as possible, but he has dodged them many times. They can't see tax returns that might show the gifts. They can't figure out just yet in court if he actually lives in Florida.
So all of that is going to come to a head in the next couple of days, even weeks, he's turning over all of the rest of that property within 24 hours and just a portrait wolf of how far Giuliani has fallen. This is a hearing where a judge is ordering him to turn over millions in a courthouse where he was once the top prosecutor and it has his picture from the opening of that courthouse when he was the mayor -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Yes, its shocking stuff that's going on.
All right. Katelyn, thank you very, very much. And we'll be right back.
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[18:51:07]
BLITZER: Officials now say they've identified a suspect's vehicle tied to a pair of ballot drop box fires in Portland, Oregon. Authorities are investigating the very disturbing incidents as well as another blaze at a drop box in neighboring Washington state.
I want to bring in CNN's Sara Murray. She's working the story for us.
So, what are you learning, Sara?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, obviously this is very disturbing. We don't yet know what the motivations are behind us, but officials are saying that there appear to be three different instances that are linked, the ones that were hearing about today that took place in Oregon, as well as Washington. And one that took place earlier this month in Washington state where there was an incendiary device that was somehow attached to these ballot drop boxes cause these kinds of videos that were seeing here, these flames and ballots burning in Oregon.
They said it was just three ballots that were impacted and that they've reached out to the people who were impacted and Washington state, though they said there are hundreds and so they're basically telling people if you cast your ballot over the weekend in this its drop box to check the ballot tracker online. These are both states that conduct their elections predominantly by mail.
And of course, in Washington, we have seen this very hotly contested congressional race and Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez put out a statement. She's one of the candidates, of course, in this hotly contested race saying, I'm requesting an overnight law enforcement presence be posted at all ballot drop boxes in Clark County through election day, southwest Washington cannot risk a single vote being lost to arson and political violence.
And, Wolf, these drop boxes, again, we don't know the exact motivation behind these efforts. They have just become targets for misinformation claimed from the right that there is ramping voter fraud that hasn't been proven out, but we have seen a Department of Homeland Security warned that these kind of drop boxes are targets for domestic violent extremists.
So, you know, we'll wait to see officials are investigating locally, the FBI's investigating. We'll see what comes of those investigations.
BLITZER: Yeah. I'm sure this story is going to continue.
Sara, thank you very, very much.
And we'll be right back
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[18:57:26]
BLITZER: We're tracking early voting across the nation. Right now, more than 43 million ballots have been cast so far, with a little over a week to go before election day.
CNN's Brian Todd is taking a closer look at who's voting early and why.
Brian, break it down for us.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, early voting is not only in full swing, it's already broken records in some states. Tonight, we've got new information on the early voting trends and what they can and can't tell us
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): President Biden voting early today in his home state of Delaware, a reporter asking him about casting a ballot that he had hoped to cast for himself.
REPORTER: Is it bittersweet for you?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, this is just sweet.
TODD: The president's party meantime has brought out the star power to promote early voting.
Former President Barack Obama hitting the trail in battleground states in recent days.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Find out where to vote early.
TODD: So far, more than 43 million Americans have already cast their ballots, either in-person or by mail. Michigan has never conducted early in-person voting in a general election until this year the secretary of state in the Wolverine State says it's been a hit.
JOCELYN BENSON, MICHIGAN SECRETARY OF STATE: A quarter of a million Michigan citizens voted on the first two days alone.
TODD: The state of Georgia got off to a record start for early voting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We thought we were get ahead of the game a little bit, but looks like everybody got the same thing in mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This first time I've ever done it and would like so this line, maybe the last. TODD: State officials in Georgia said that as of this afternoon, more than a third of active voters in Georgia had already cast their ballots.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So now is the time to vote early.
TODD: Once again, Democrats seem more likely to vote early, or at least by mail, if not in person.
But Republicans are expected to turn out on election day.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Kamala Harris is almost certainly going to win that vote by mail. She leads in an average of recent polls get this by 43 points, that early in-person voting, that's going to be pretty split down the middle.
But then we're expecting that Election Day vote to be very good for Donald Trump in the average polling, we see him up by 17.
TODD: This year, more Republicans are voting early than in 2020, partly because the former president has changed his tune on it. For years, Donald Trump denigrated early voting is being suspect, even fraudulent.
Now --
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Early voting is under way. Get everyone you know, and vote.
TODD: Why do you think the Republicans have changed their messaging on early vote?
HANS NICHOLS, POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Oh, they know they've gotten trounced on this, right Republicans are playing catch-up, whether or not they'll fully ever equal Democrats on the early voting front, unknown.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (on camera): Analysts say it's also almost impossible to project overall from early voting who is going to win this election.
One key reason why it's difficult to tell from that, the fact that the majority of states do not report to us the party affiliations of those who vote early -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Brian Todd reporting for us -- Brian, thanks very much.
And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
