A Message of Unity on a Symbolic Stage
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This election, CNN brings the magic wall directly to you. Get election results right as they happen starting November 5th. To experience the magic wall for yourself, visit cnn.com/magicwall and download the CNN app. It's Wednesday, October 30th, right now on CNN This Morning. We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms.

A message of unity on a symbolic stage, Kamala Harris makes her final case to voters six days out from Election Day. And this. Damage control, the White House trying to clean up after Joe Biden. And a remark that Republicans are comparing to Hillary Clinton's line about deplorables. Also. They've already started cheating in Lancaster. They've cheated. Sound familiar? Donald Trump already pushing claims of voter fraud, laying the groundwork to challenge the results again. And later.

The path to victory runs through Philly. If we win Pennsylvania, we're going to win the whole deal. The crucial commonwealth in our battleground beat. We head to Pennsylvania, the must-win state. It's all tied up right now.

All right, 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Raleigh, North Carolina, another battleground where both candidates are heading to the Tar Heel State today. Again, the last Wednesday before Election Day. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Six days to go. And this morning we're hitting a major milestone. More than 50 million votes have been cast.

And with time running short, what Donald Trump and Kamala Harris say right now could be the last impression that many voters take with them into the voting booth. America was born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant. Across the generations, they didn't do that only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant. We are not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.

That was the vice president standing in front of the White House. A lot of stagecraft and imagery there on the ellipse. And that was, of course, the same spot where Trump addressed his supporters on January 6th before a mob attempted to overturn his electoral defeat. Even as she hammered Trump, Harris made explicit appeals to patriotism and bipartisanship. America, for too long we have been consumed with too much division, chaos, and mutual distrust.

And it can be easy then to forget a simple truth. It doesn't have to be this way. We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division.

Harris's message of unity, however, was somewhat complicated by this comment from President Biden during a virtual appearance at a Get Out the Vote event. And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Well, let me tell you something. I don't know the Puerto Rican that I know or Puerto Rico where I'm in my home state of Delaware. They're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is their supporters.

His demonization of the scene is unconscionable, and it's un-American. It's totally contrary to everything we've done, everything we've been. -The president later trying to clarify the remark. He tweeted that he was referring to, quote, "the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by a Trump supporter" at Sunday's rally. The White House even released a transcript claiming that what Biden was calling garbage was "the supporters," that is singular with an apostrophe "s,"

won supporters, quote, demonization of Latinos. The Trump campaign quickly seized on the comment. They sent this fundraising email saying, quote, First Hillary called you a deplorable. Then they called you a fascist. And moments ago, Kamala's boss, Biden, called you garbage. At a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania last night, Trump responded once again, attacking his former opponent's mental fitness. Remember Hillary? She said deplorable.

And then she said, "Irredeemable," right? But she said, "Deplorable." That didn't work out. Garbage, I think, is worse, right? But he doesn't know. You have to please forgive him. Please forgive him, for he not knoweth what he said.

All right. Our panel is here. Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios. Mark Preston, CNN senior political analyst. Karen Finney, CNN political commentator and a former senior advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. And Kristen Soltis Anderson, CNN political commentator, Republican pollster and strategist. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Alex, I got to start with you because we were just sitting here yesterday talking about the tensions between the Harris and Biden camps in terms of what exactly they're looking for from the sitting president in these closing days here.

And the reality is, of course, Biden's team trying very hard to clean this up. I think they recognize the damage that has been done. What's been the reaction from Harris's team? Yeah, well, no one here at this table knows what Joe Biden meant, unless someone here has talked to Joe Biden when he made those comments. And the sad reality is that...

They were indecipherable because this president is no longer able to coherently and consistently articulate a message. And that's just the sad reality. That is why he's no longer the nominee, because at the debate we all saw that very clearly. And it's also why Kamala Harris does not want him on the trail. This is a guy that just last week referred to former Representative Gabby Giffords in the past tense. She's very much alive.

is a person that last week said that he wanted to throw Donald Trump in jail and then very quickly tried to backtrack and said he just politically meant to lock him up. And we are in this sad scenario where clearly Joe Biden and the aides around him that want to make him feel better, want him to be able to sort of be inserted into this race that see Kamala Harris's

potential election as an affirmation of his record, but that Kamala Harris does not want him to be inserted and would prefer that he basically be absent this last week of the selection.

You know, I'm of the mindset that if you say it, you might as well just embrace it. And I do think that that's a problem for Democrats. We're going to ask our strategist over here in a second. You know, shocking that I would say that. No, but realistically, like, I do think if he said, listen, yeah, I do mean all those racist supporters of Donald Trump. Yeah, I do think that they're terrible. I think that people would look at the Democratic Party a little bit different.

I think, look, I do think that the Democratic Party in general doesn't look like they are strong enough and they will always back off of things. And I think that when Joe Biden backs off of saying what he really believes, I don't think that's a good look. Well, but Kristen, I mean, isn't this been kind of one of the fundamental issues that Democrats have faced in trying to run against Donald Trump and in fighting some of the...

in dealing with the cultural divisions in our country, the idea that... I mean, there are a lot of people out there who don't feel like, well, I might support Trump, I may have my own reasons for doing that, who may be alienated by a remark like this. There is nothing more powerful for someone than to hear a compliment. Someone likes me. And Donald Trump's stronghold on Republican voters is because he came around and said, the world tells you that you're racist, the world tells you that you're backward, the world tells you that you're Neanderthals, and I don't think that

I like you. I like you, I respect you, and I want to make sure that you have power. And that's why he's been able to so strongly hold on to Republicans. That's why this comment is so potentially damaging. It is bulletin board material. It is the sort of thing where you go, see, they really don't like me, and it motivates you in the same way that deplorables did, in the same way that for Mitt Romney, 47%, only 47% of the country is contributing that kind of comment, in the same way that the Puerto Rican garbage comments from Madison Square Garden, when people feel like

that candidate and their side doesn't like me, you will go to the mat for the side that you think does. - Well, I mean, Karen, one of the things that Harris has been explicitly doing here in the closing days is to try to bring more people into the tent, to give Republicans permission to come on board.

And she has been actually very careful to not talk this way. I think this is so absurd you guys if we're gonna sit here and compare crazy statements by old white guys Let's please do that because let's talk about what Donald Trump went on to talk about right when he talks about shithole countries and he talks about rapists and murderers and how and

accusing, you know, putting children in danger in Springfield because they're eating cats and dogs. And when we're talking, I mean, Joe Biden misspoke. He said something stupid.

He's not at the top of the ticket. Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket. He has been racist, misogynist, sexist. I mean, he's been attacking everybody for everything, spending hours. So I'm just saying, but let's do that. Like, if we're going to make a list, let's do that. I think I was on the set with you when those things happened. We talked about them at the time. And they happened last night. I mean, the point is they happen all the time, every day. Does this thing that Biden said not matter?

I think it's a little absurd to put so much attention on it when he's not at the top of the ticket. You know, I'm sure it's going to matter because the Trump campaign is going to make it matter. But it has, to my mind, there's no comparison to that based on then the kinds of things that Donald Trump has been saying all campaign, every day, every single event that he does. And then

Didn't even apologize for any of it. And we clearly know it's damaging because they're playing pin the apostrophe on the statement. Apostrophe game. He was saying supporters apostrophe. You know, I'm just saying that I'm saying it's absurd also because, by the way, Steve Bannon, fresh out of jail yesterday, started talking about election sabotage and violence and fomenting violence. And we're talking about where an apostrophe goes. Are you joking?

No. Well, the White House is talking. The apostrophe goes. Yeah. And granted, tens of millions, in fact, perhaps the majority of Americans feel the exact same way that you do. Like, honestly, this does not matter to their vote. I think the reason why a lot of Harris aides I talked to last night were very frustrated is because they felt like she delivered an incredible speech. It was like a great backdrop, a huge, excited crowd. And then...

And why was Joe Biden even on the Zoom at this exact time? Like, why even, like, risk it? And I think that's the real frustration and has to have Harris County. I completely get the frustration in the political context of it. I mean, yes, I walked out of that speech, which was fantastic, and was like, oh, you're kidding. But, I mean, at

at the same time, it's like, really? Let's compare old white guy statements. And please, I'll have that conversation any day. - Well, so I wanna, before we wrap up this conversation, part of why we're talking about this is because in these final days, absolutely anything can matter. And Kristen, you have this new piece in the New York Times

And I think it underscores why everything has the possibility to matter. Because you say, I have to admit, I laughed when I saw that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were tied 48 to 48 among likely voters in the final New York Times Siena College national poll, despite untold sums spent on advertising, a cavalcade of wild events, felony convictions, assassination attempts, the incumbent president withdrawing from the race.

Here we sit on this razor's edge. Over the past few days, all of these other national news outlets have released polls, the same story, but they don't actually tell the same story. Several of them show a dead heat. Beneath the surface, they diverge in how they arrive at that result. And we still don't know if we're looking at a realignment or a reboot.

There are different narratives one can discern about the new political story that's about to be told. Can you explain that and how this matters to the conversation we're having? Sure. I would also add I laughed when CNN's polling came out and I think showed it 47-47 on the same day. I was like, oh, okay. But if you look under the surface, there's one of the polls, the New York Times poll, that really shows that we are facing a realignment this election, that we are going to see a gender gap expand.

a gap between voters that have a bachelor's degree and don't explode, with Republicans building a new coalition that looks a little more diverse, has more young people in it, and that would be a really interesting development in our politics. At the same time, I think CBS's poll tells a story that basically this is a reboot, that this is Harris assembling the Obama coalition back again. It's going to be supercharged.

Yes, there will be a gender gap, but the real story will be that Harris put the Obama, rebooted the Obama coalition, and we still don't know which of those stories is going to play out. So what happens, though, a decade from now? Because I have children that are 19 and 20 years old. They don't consider themselves Democrats. They don't consider themselves Republicans. They probably align more with the Democratic Party, is my guess. But they don't seem like they're going to be party stalwarts 10, 20 years from now. Is there a third party that comes along?

Which story do you think is right? I think it's more likely to be the realignment, but I am curious to see, can Trump actually put up the numbers that he's getting in some of these polls with, say, young voters? I'm a little skeptical of that. We'll see.

We'll see. Would just always remind us if the polls were right, Hillary would be in her second term and we would have had a red wave. And we sat together the weekend before and you said the red wave was coming. And I said, I'm telling you, women are not taking it. So I mean, I think I think it's hard when Celinda Lake says get off the polar coaster. I think we have to take every poll with a big grain of salt and realize I don't think I think part of what's going on with young people, which we can't even measure. Six hundred thousand young people have registered.

They're not being measured by any pollster. Since, Brittany, we got our famous endorsements, we're not measuring those people. And they don't like to align. That's part of what this younger generation is doing. They're not wanting to be part of either party, frankly. Well, I'll just say, we very much appreciate the work that you do, Kristen. And I know you guys have had a very, pollsters in general have had such a difficult time.

and we have seen realignments and changes move so quickly. I mean, my big question really is, is there something fundamental that everyone is missing altogether that may show that, you know, our understanding here in the, especially the first post-Dobbs election, is that gonna be different and potentially drive outcomes? All right, we gotta take a break. Coming up here on CNN This Morning, stoking fears of voter fraud, Donald Trump already floating baseless claims about cheating in a key battleground state, plus,

A successful rocket launch for China, a crucial step in its mission to the moon. The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson here to talk about the new space race. And battleground beat all eyes on Pennsylvania, the key voting block that Republicans are trying to win back. We Hispanics are funny, we have a sense of humor, and because we have a sense of humor, a lot of us do not care about that comment and we took it as is because part of it is true.

I'm CNN's John King. Join me for the podcast All Over the Map, where I'm traveling across the country to find out what American voters think. The energy is different. It's a lot different from when we were here last time. Eric Jones is an entrepreneur in Milwaukee. We're in the final days here now. It's a cliche, but every vote does count, especially in the battleground states. And the math is really complicated, the most complicated in the 10 times I've covered presidential elections. Listen to All Over the Map wherever you get your podcasts.

It looks like Pennsylvania is going to be ours by a lot. And then at 3:02 or whatever it was in the morning, all of a sudden they're finding all sorts of stuff. In Pennsylvania, there were 205,000 more ballots cast than there were voters. How do you get around that one? How about Pennsylvania where they throw the poll watchers out?

That was Donald Trump both before and after the 2020 election sowing doubt about the integrity of the vote. And now the former president claiming, without evidence, that two Pennsylvania counties are already experiencing voter fraud. They've already started cheating in Lancaster. They've cheated. We caught them with 2,600 votes. Now we caught them called 2,600 votes. Think of this. Think of this.

and every vote was written by the same person. I wonder how that happened. State and county officials in Pennsylvania are trying to reassure voters that they are investigating any alleged issues with ballots and protecting the integrity of the election process.

I understand that Donald Trump wants to again, you know, use the same playbook where he tries to, you know, create chaos and stoke division and fear about our system. But again, we will have a free and fair, safe and secure election in Pennsylvania, and the will of the people will be respected and protected.

So it's important to point out that issues that have been identified in Pennsylvania relate to voter registrations, not to ballots, as the former president was saying there. I mean, Mark Preston, we are already seeing, we know there are legal groups in the background looking at potential challenges. We have seen the president already, the former president, start to talk about cheating in an interview on Fox News Radio. He was pressed by a Fox host

to say, "Where are you worried about cheating? Which state?" And he said, "All of them." What does that mean for, I mean, you're gonna be one of our people working really hard behind the scenes and on the air on election night. What does that mean? - It means probably the story, the most important story for us to tell in the coming days is to be as transparent as possible about what is happening right now with the ballots that are being collected, to be as transparent as possible about when we think that we're gonna be able to count the votes. If you see, I think the New York Times today, the Washington Post,

today, I think CNN.com today, all have stories about explaining how the states are counting and when we think we will actually get their vote. The reason why that's so important is because, look, Donald Trump just go out and said something.

And just because he says that, it's true. And his supporters believe him. Well, I was going to say, there's a lot of people that believe what he says. A hundred percent. And look, just going back to the difference between him and Joe Biden is that there is a double standard. Donald Trump can go out and say the most ludicrous things, the most absurd things, and get away with it. Joe Biden couldn't at that time. Yeah. When do you think we'll know Pennsylvania on election night? What are the scenarios? Oh, my God. You're going to

clip this and get me in trouble. I mean, look, you know, I don't know. Well, we wrote about it on CNN.com, I guess. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

what's going to happen like Georgia we expect to count quickly but you know we may not see the same thing in Wisconsin I'm just saying that like this is probably going to go to Friday you know perhaps Saturday and again just because it takes a while to count all the votes does not mean that they are being encountered incorrectly incorrectly or fraudulently all right straight ahead here on CNN this morning Kamala Harris won't get the Joe Rogan experience why the podcast host claims he refused an offer from the Harris campaign to appear on his show

And an electoral milestone: more than 50 million ballots already cast will dig into the issues driving voters. I'm a senior, you know, Social Security, Medicare, and you know, drug prices. I don't think men should be in women's sports. Women's rights is huge. I think the economy is also a big thing. Robert F. Kennedy cares more about human beings and health.

and the environment than anybody. Having him is such a great honor. I've been friends with his for a long time. And I'm going to let him go wild on health. I'm going to let him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on medicine. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. going, quote, "wild." The former independent candidate endorsed Donald Trump back in August and is now campaigning for him under the banner of, quote, "Make America Healthy Again."

Kennedy has long been a proponent of baseless anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and made numerous false attacks on the safety and efficacy of vaccines during his run for office. Now we're getting an idea of what Kennedy's role in a potential Trump administration could look like. President Trump has promised me his control of the public health agencies, which are HHS and its sub-agencies,

CDC, FDA, NIH, and a few others, and then also the USDA, which is key to making America healthy.

So we have Elon Musk as government auditor and potentially RFK Jr. in charge of all the agencies that he outlined right there. Alex Thompson, is this a case where, I mean, if Donald Trump were to win this election, we should believe him that RFK Jr. is going to be in charge of all these agencies that...

deal with all these things that RFK Jr. thinks are basically baseless and worthless? I mean, I think Donald Trump has a very long record of promising things that seem incredulous than actually trying to do them. That being said, you know, in terms of in charge at HHS, that Senate confirmation hearing would be fascinating. I don't necessarily know if he's going to get the votes there. But RFK Jr. is going to have a significant role within these agencies in a Trump White House. That part is

has been made very clear. And it is interesting in a political sense. In one way, you could argue RFK Jr. is making inroads among sort of like the crunchy left, for lack of a better term. Well, this is why I was so confused. The crunchy left. Well, he had a long track record as an environmentalist on the left. And he's a Kennedy. Some of the anti-vax crowd was on the left. It was not just like a right-wing thing. That being said, while doing this, he also...

manage it. He could still further separate the suburbanites, those parts in the middle that are already wary of Trump. Yeah. So I just want to remind everyone, I actually interviewed RFK Jr. when he was still running. This was back in December of last year. And this is what he said about vaccinations. Watch. It is safe and effective.

So you did say it. Do you still believe it? Well, here's what I would say. First of all, I'm not anti-vaccine. How is that statement not anti-vaccine? Well, I can say right now there's no medicine for cancer that's safe and effective. It doesn't mean I'm against all medicines. I've been fighting 40 years to get mercury out of fish. Nobody calls me anti-fish.

Well, now that you got a whale head on the top of your cart, we might. OK. Kristen, I mean, do--

Does this help Trump? So there is this interesting crossover of, in particular, like women who their politics is not necessarily the thing they're the most interested in, but they've been concerned for a long time about things like chemicals and food, et cetera, for whom RFK and his acolytes have become kind of a rallying thing. And it is interesting watching these left-right divides around a whole range of, you know, voters not trusting big institutions, whether it is not trusting, you know,

in one case the media, in some cases food producers. I mean, remember how the right at a time made fun of Michelle Obama for pushing, like, we want to have more healthy organic foods in schools. I mean, things have really changed a lot in the last 10 to 15 years, where now suddenly you have Republicans who used to trust maybe business now don't, Democrats who are now not trusting other institutions. Like, the declines in trust across the board are creating these strange bipartisan bedfellows, and this is one example of it.

- Yeah, for sure. All right, still ahead here on CNN This Morning, famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson joins us in studio. He has a new book shedding light on some cosmic questions about our universe. And it's gonna be wonderful to take a little break from politics to talk about it all. Plus Nikki Haley not backing down from supporting Donald Trump, also not backing the bromance. - This bromance and this masculinity stuff, I mean, it borders on edgy to the point that it's gonna make women uncomfortable.

This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. This is a 24-7 effort. Bill Gates, and not that Bill Gates, but Bill Gates of Arizona, he represents District 3 on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The refusal to respect the peaceful transfer of power is a major difference from what those of us were doing back in the 2000s. We spoke with him at the county's voter tabulation center in downtown Phoenix.

Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app. Proceeded. And there it is, Houston. There's Camelot. Wow. Target. I see it. We got them all. As I step off at the surface of Taurus Littoral, we'd like to dedicate the first steps of Apollo 17 to all those who made it possible.

That right there was the last time NASA astronauts stepped foot on the moon. It was back in 1972. It was a feat that many Americans saw, of course, as the apex of human discovery. But 52 years later, we still haven't been back. Even as one of America's wealthiest men, a man has become fixated. Look at that. That was his rocket getting caught recently. He's become fixated on colonizing Mars.

"Elon Musk has been campaigning every single day in Pennsylvania. You know, when that rocket landed last week, I saw that rocket land. I said, 'This guy, if that's his, I gotta call him.' I said, 'Was that yours?' He said, 'That was mine.' That sucker came back down. It's coming in and it's gonna crash. I'm saying, 'Oh no!' It's going right next to the gantry. It's coming down at an angle. I don't like that. It's not good."

But what the hell do I know? It's up to Elon, not me, but it's coming. And then all of a sudden you see the fire and the jets go in the bottom and the fire's ripping the... Then it came and those beautiful arms came and they hugged it like you would hug your little beautiful baby.

Joining us now to discuss is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. He is the author of the new book, Merlin's Tour of the Universe, A Traveler's Guide to Blue Moons, Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Everything Far. Sir, I am so grateful to have you on the program. Thanks for having me on. Thank you for being here. Honestly, it's a welcome...

I would say it's a respite from the campaign trail, but I guess it's not actually because-- Well, yes, space is everywhere. Space is everywhere. But yes, there are connective points. Yeah, so this was your first book, and you've updated it. Yeah, my very first book. I wrote in graduate school, actually. And it turned out to be the proving ground of all the different ways, even to this day, that I communicate science to the public.

A little quirky, fun. Merlin is a fictional character that I created to be this tutor

of the universe. And Merlin's been around. It's not the Arthurian Merlin. Right. There's more than one Joe in the world. More than one Merlin. That's fair. But Merlin is from another galaxy visiting Earth and has known everybody. So people have asked questions. I don't quite understand how gravity works. And so Merlin would recall a conversation with Isaac Newton. Okay. So it was a fun... And my brother, who's my artist brother, illustrated it. Yeah, that's so cute. It's just a... It's a...

So can I ask, how would Merlin explain Elon Musk and his view of colonizing Mars? Oh, so Merlin is wise, okay? So you can say, let's colonize Mars, but you have to ask, well, what's motivating you to do that?

And we went to the moon, not 'cause, "Oh, we're Americans and we're explorers." No, we were, like, scared witless because of Russia, the Soviet Union at the time. And we got to the moon. By the way, the clip that you showed, Apollo 17, but we go to the moon, we look over our shoulder, and the Russians aren't there. So we stopped the program. We had an Apollo 18 ready to fly. And now it's in captivity in Huntsville, Alabama. You can see all the rocket-ready parts, but we stopped going once we saw that the most

motivating driver was no longer there. So to just say you want to go to go, I don't see that as, we can go geopolitically. If there's some force operating, China says, we want to put military bases on whatever, something that'll prompt us. Well, that's some of what's going on now. So I have another set of sound from Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I don't think they're directly in the forms of questions, but I think Merlin could take them as such. Let's watch. Okay.

There's no reason not to. I mean, there's no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don't have life. Maybe the aliens will come visit us. Maybe they are here right now. I haven't seen any sort of green aliens with antennas on their head or anything like that. And maybe they are, they're just very subtle.

Okay. So are aliens here? Quickly, aliens with antennas, the only people who imagine them that way are those who remember the antennas on TV sets. Remember back when that was how you communicated through space? Our aliens that we drew had antennas. So that's an old-fashioned way to think about aliens. Elon is wondering whether they've already visited us. I'm pretty sure had they visited us?

that they ran home concluding that there's no sign of intelligent life on Earth. Well, that's underselling you, sir. Sorry. No, and so one other question I have for you, because obviously everyone is wondering, certainly a lot of viewers of this program and others, who's going to win the election. And The Economist, okay, so a serious publication, The Economist, wonders what astrologers, is that how you say it? Astrologers?

astrologers are predicting the result of America's election. So quote, "Donald Trump's horoscope illuminates the laptop screen. He's going to enter the peak of his life in April 2025." Helena Woods, a professional astrologer, tells your correspondent, a Pisces. As for Kamala Harris, Jupiter and Saturn are aligning in her favor. If she does win, I do think she might carry out two terms, said Ms. Woods. Is there anything to this? - Yeah, if astrologers had power, as much power as they want, we would still be living in caves.

Okay. Think of the ego involved in suggesting that the universe cares about us on a level where the planets are trying to fix outcomes of your life, of your love life, of your financial life, of your political engagements. That means you think you're in the center of the universe. And these people have not seen how big the universe is and how small we are to make such claims. So you don't read horoscopes. No.

Can I make that clear? Yes, very clear. There's a whole section of the Merlin book where Merlin addresses this topic. It's why I asked. Because there's 13 constellations, not 12 in the Zodiac, by the way. That's also a fair point. Yeah. So look, I have one serious question for you, and it goes to what we had heard from RFK Jr. there.

Are you concerned about the way Americans are willing to believe or not believe science in this day and age, especially in the wake of COVID? It would be the extent to which science is either denied or rejected or ignored will be the unraveling of an informed democracy at a time when...

So much of who and what we are, our health, our wealth, and our security, pivots on the advances in science that surround us. To the extent that that's ignored or rejected, we just give up. Just forget our leadership in the world, and let's just watch the rest of the world take over. Because they...

embrace science in ways that scares me here, the way I see people talking about it and reacting to it. - All right, well, it's a fascinating book. Fascinating to have you on the show. - Thank you. - Come back anytime. I really appreciate it. - And maybe next time I'll have like a real mug instead of a plastic mug. - We'll get you a mug. I'm sorry about the paper cup. Yes, I know. Hopefully we'll actually have CNN This Morning mugs. I think I told you in the break, I'm the indecisive one, which is why we don't have them yet.

All right, don't forget, this new book is Merlin's Tour of the Universe, A Traveler's Guide to Blue Moons, Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Everything Far. It's out now. I highly recommend it. All right, still coming up on CNN this morning, Battleground Beat, the Pennsylvania vote has been critical this entire race. Now, of course, the stakes are even higher for one key voting bloc there. I usually don't plan to vote because it's always the same. To me, it's always the same thing. But in this case, yes.

The headlines have been really rough for the GOP, including Trump's Puerto Rico fallout is spreading like wildfire in Pennsylvania. Puerto Rico Republican chair is demanding a Trump apology for his rally's racist remarks. And the Trump campaign is struggling to contain Puerto Rico October surprise. Here's a little pro tip. When running for president, try not to October surprise yourself.

"Oopsie daisy, I filmed myself pushing an old lady into the river and sent it to CNN." Classic October surprise.

So there's been outrage on both sides of the aisle over the island of garbage joke that was made at Trump's rally at the Garden. But will it actually sway voters at the ballot box? The answer to that question is key when it comes to the critical Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the state home to hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans. And some Puerto Rican voters made their voices heard yesterday protesting outside Trump's rally in Allentown.

Trump making something close to an apology while also brushing aside the joke's potential effect on the vote. I have no idea who it was. Never saw him, never heard of him, and don't want to hear of him. But I have no idea. They put a comedian in, which everybody does. You throw comedians in. You don't vet them and go crazy. It's nobody's fault. I don't know who it is. I don't even know who put him in. And I can't imagine it's a big deal. I've done more for Puerto Rico than any president. You wish he wasn't there?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's a big deal or not, but I don't want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes. Probably he shouldn't have been there, yeah. Most campaigns actually in the final days, at least the ones that I've covered, do actually bet the speakers that they put up before their candidates. But hey, joining us now, Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania. Congressman, wonderful to have you on the show. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me, Casey. So let's start with how this remark and, you know, you saw Trump

Sort of, not really. I mean, you characterize what you think that was from him, an apology, not an apology. There's clearly some acknowledgement from the campaign that this is a problem. They had people speaking Spanish up on the stage at the rally in Allentown. The campaign did distance itself from this comment. What impact are you seeing with Latino voters on the ground in Pennsylvania?

Well, you know, I happen to represent more than 100,000 Puerto Ricans, people who are either born on the island or come from families that hail from there, one of the really largest Puerto Rican populations anywhere in the United States. And so I was talking, as you can imagine, to a lot of folks from that community in the last 24 hours. And what they tell me is they're struck by the fact that this is broken through.

That in a time in which a lot of people tune out politics, not much breaks through the noise. This really has and has spread like wildfire, as Stephen Colbert said in his late night monologue last night. So, look, I know there's a school of thought when it comes to Donald Trump after the last 10 years that ultimately none of this has any sort of effect.

I don't think that's actually true, though. I mean, we saw that in 2020. It was the first president since George Herbert Walker Bush to lose reelection. And I do think that this comment, especially coming as late as it does, is having somewhat of an effect with the half a million or so Puerto Ricans who live in Pennsylvania.

Congressman, of course, the other person who used the word garbage in a recent interview is President Biden, who had made a comment saying that Trump supporters were garbage. And they put out a statement saying they put out the transcript that said it was supporter apostrophe S that he was speaking about.

speaking about this person singular. Obviously, the Trump campaign has already seized on it. Do you think what President Biden said is helpful? Well, let's not do the false equivalency thing. I actually read the transcript. It's pretty clear in the same sentence. I'm not trying to do false equivalency, sir. I'm just asking six days out from the campaign if this is helpful. He referred to the speaker, meaning the person who was the comedian who said this. Donald Trump

Everyone knows who Donald Trump is. Is anyone really surprised by that festival of hate that he had at Madison Square Garden? And frankly, it wasn't just the one mean-spirited, vicious joke of a comedian that he decided to platform. There were many other speakers as well at Madison Square Garden. And his final closing argument

Compare that to Kamala Harris, who in her closing argument last night said that to her political opponents, she's not going to threaten to jail them as Donald Trump has. She's going to give them a seat at the table. That's probably why so many Republicans, especially in the suburbs of Philadelphia, are actually supporting Kamala Harris in this campaign.

Sir, briefly, there's been some back and forth in the press and kind of in these final days. There's a super PAC that pays for a lot of Kamala Harris's ads. They've been focused on an economic-based message. The campaign has had a slightly different closing message. What do you think is most productive for Pennsylvania voters to hear here in the final days? Do you think it's helpful for Harris to continue to call Trump a fascist, or do you want to see more economic messaging?

Well, first, I believe the people who have called Donald Trump a fascist are literally the people who work side by side with him. The fact that the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, has labeled Donald Trump a fascist. The fact that a four star Marine general in General Kelly, Trump's own chief of staff, called him a fascist.

That is really remarkable and truly unprecedented. And do you think it's moving folks?

His tax agenda when he was in office was to provide a massive $2 trillion tax cut to billionaires. And every single one of Trump's budget over four years cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. That is the message that I tend to lean on the most here in Philadelphia. All right. Congressman Brendan Boyle, very grateful to have you on the show. I hope you'll come back soon. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. All right. Turning now to this former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley raising alarm over some of the Trump campaign's recent rhetoric. She's warning that they could be scaring away women voters.

This is not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos. This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they've got going. 53% of the electorate are women. Women will vote. They care about how they're being talked to and they care about the issues. Some of these, the so-called bromance is possibly on display during Trump's recent appearances on a number of podcasts.

There's no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don't have life. Is cocaine a stronger up? Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of wrestlers want to be, they want to do the UFC thing, but they can't take the shots. I played football too. I didn't particularly like it. What position were you in? No, I didn't like it. I played tight, tight end. I'll tell you about TikTok. Trump is going to keep TikTok going.

All right, our panel's back. Kristen Soltis Anderson, is Nikki Haley correct? I don't think it's bad for Republicans to do outreach to young men who feel like both political parties have failed them over the last couple of decades. I don't think that's a bad strategy. I do think if it's all you're doing, if you're not making overtures to women, I do think that that's a problem.

considering that women are the majority of voters in this country. But it wouldn't surprise me, frankly, if we don't see a huge gender divide in this election. In today's New York Times, a great column by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, Republican pollster Amanda Iovino, I adore both of them, and they've written about how this election is going to be the one where the gender divide is huge. Trump is gambling that he can run up the numbers more with men than Harris will with women. I think

it's a dangerous gamble, but I don't think it's wrong for Trump to go after disaffected young men who feel like the two political parties have failed them. But to your point, he's not making a huge effort to go after women. That Madison Square Garden speech, there were 31 speakers. 25 of them were men. Um,

And I know, because I was there for all eight hours. And Nikki Haley could be out there on the trail for Donald Trump if Donald Trump could get over his own bitterness and ego and actually give her a call. She's made very clear she'll do it, but you have to call me first. And if he loses, he'll regret not making that call.

I think I do agree. If he does lose, it will be because of the margin of women that he lost in these key battleground states, whether it be Wisconsin or Pennsylvania. Women and probably young women, I think, in particular, who are, again, turning out in huge numbers, both in voter registration and in early vote. And I mean, I agree. Talking to young men, absolutely an important thing to do. It's how you do it. You don't have to do it at the expense of

crapping on women and constantly talking down to women and constantly- Can I- I want to show a part from the rally that Haley was talking about and then you can continue. Let's watch this. She's just so impressive. As the first Samoan Malaysian low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president. She's a pretender. Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country. When I hear Kamala speak-

It sounds, yeah, it sounds like a script from Hollywood with a really, really bad actress. Kamala Harris is a C-word. You heard that right. A big old C-word.

Yeah. Difference between romancing with the podcasters, dancing, which I take your point on. Exactly. And all of that. And actually, that's pretty tame for Tucker. Because remember last time he talked about daddy coming home and spanking his daughter. So, yeah. So that happened, too. And I learned about it on your show, Casey. So, I mean, I think that's the problem. But you were making news. No, but that's the problem, right? And he's...

- He tries, I'm the father of IVF and he's trying to have it both ways in terms of talking about his position on reproductive rights, which he knows is a big issue with women. But then it feels now like they just kind of said, "Ah, go out and say what you want." - I was just gonna ask, is this more overt than what you faced in '16 with Hillary?

No, because Trump's and the hatred against Hillary was so visceral and 30 years baked in. But it's not more gendered, but it's more racist for sure. Yeah. All right. Well, here we go. Six days out. Thanks, guys, for being here. Thanks to all of you for joining us as well. I'm so grateful to have you. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNI News Central starts right now.

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