Decision Day in America
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It's Tuesday, November 5th, Election Day, right now on this special edition of CNN This Morning.

Decision day in America. Polls open across the East Coast and the very first votes have already been cast. Plus... "Ready to fight it!" "I've been waiting four years for this." The wait is over, right? By this time tomorrow, we could know which of these two will be the next president or not. And... "We don't get to sit this one out."

Star power Kamala Harris counting on Oprah and other celebrities to push her over the finish line in the final hours. Also, Donald Trump's one-time primary opponent, now an outspoken supporter, Vivek Ramaswamy, joins us live on this Election Day 2024.

All right, the seconds are ticking up to 6:00 AM here on the East Coast. This is a live look at a polling site. There it is at 6:00 AM. They are opening right now in New York. Other sites opening in New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, portions of other states here in the East on this election day. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

We made it! Finally! Election day is here and voters are voting on this first Tuesday after the first Monday in America.

Election Day. At this very moment, polls opening up and down the East Coast in a presidential race that will mark an extraordinary moment in American history. The events of this year, let's put it simply, they've been stunning. Donald Trump facing a felony conviction and then an assassination attempt. Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket for just 107 days after President Joe Biden stepped aside.

And the way each is framing this race, the way each talks about America, sharply illustrates the choice facing our country this morning. I'll start giving you some beautiful things to listen to and some, and honestly, some terrible things to listen to. After nearly a decade of politics dominated by Trump, the former president held what might have been his final campaign rally ever in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It went like this.

Kamala is, I mean this is known, she's a very low IQ person. And we don't need a low IQ individual. Crazy, horrible human being Nancy Pelosi who cheats like hell. She's an evil, sick, crazy. Oh no. But these are bad people. These are bad, Adam Shifty Shiff. No, they have to cheat. They have to cheat and they do. And they do it very well actually.

His opponent, Kamala Harris, choosing a different tone, deciding not to mention Donald Trump by name here in the closing days. She ended her last day on the trail in Philadelphia. - American woman! - Lady Gaga, Oprah, the final headliners for Harris, the Rocky Steps nearby, invoking the ultimate underdog. The symbolism of the location also designed to illustrate how Harris and her team view the stakes of this election.

It's good to be back in the city of brotherly love where the foundation of our democracy was forged. And here at these famous steps, a tribute to those who start as the underdog and climb to victory.

have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics that has been driven by fear and division. We are done with that. We're done. We're exhausted with it. Tonight, then we finish as we started, with optimism, with energy, with joy.

All right, on this election day, our panel's here. Annie Linsky, reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Alex Thompson, national political reporter for Axios, CNN political analyst. Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator, former South Carolina state representative. And Brad Todd, Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you. Thrilled to have you. We made it. It's here.

- The Constitution says we must stop. - D-Day, baby. - God bless the Constitution. - It's a cherished freedom. - Alex, let me start with you. I want to get kind of everyone's sense as we head into this election day of how, in your two cases, your sources are feeling, those that you're talking to, your candidates are looking at this. I mean, Alex, what are you hearing from the Harris campaign this morning?

- They say optimistic, but then they always caveat it with some different adverb, cautiously, fragilely. - Isn't nauseously also one of the ones that keeps coming up? - They basically, and most of them say they feel, that I've talked to, they feel they'll win, but they'll win narrowly.

There's some that think that they have a chance to win more. There are also some that still just sort of don't want to even predict because they don't want to jinx it. But I think most of the Harris people I've talked to just feel the blue wall will hold and that if the blue wall holds, she wins 270, 268, maybe she picks up one more state. Annie, what are you hearing? How does the Trump team feel if you've talked to them? Yeah, I've talked to some of the Trump people. They were...

they were just flat out optimistic a week ago. I mean, you know, people I was talking to were saying he is the president, Vance is the vice president. I mean, there was a confidence, and that has shifted a little bit, at least in terms of the staff members that you talked to over there. But on the Harris side, there is this sense that Donald Trump has basically made

her closing argument for her and some of the things that he has said over the past 10 days. And so they've sort of sat back a little bit. I think that if at the end of the day, and we don't know what's going to happen, obviously it's a very close election, but if at the end of the day she prevails, he really would have lost this election rather than the other way around. Brad, what are you seeing and hearing for viewers who may not know? I know you're really involved in that Key Center race in Pennsylvania. You're seeing a lot of data coming in on the ground. Does what you're seeing line up here? Well,

The key takeaway so far is the Democrat performance in early voting and absentee voting has been way, way, way off what they wanted it to be. They have to do something today that they haven't done in 20 years, which is to get a massive performance from their base on Election Day. Democrats, through the Obama campaign, Barr was involved. They shifted their voting to early voting 20 years ago, and they became masters at it. They have not succeeded at that this year to the level that they wanted. So they have to do it today. Can it happen? Of course. They've done it before, but it's been a long time.

Bakari, is that true? No. I mean, we actually hit all of our numbers in early voting that we wanted to hit. I mean, if you look at Georgia, North Carolina, we kind of came on strong late, particularly in Georgia. But I mean, we're going to be looking at-- we still need-- I mean, he is correct in the fact that we do need turnout today.

But everybody's really confident about where we are. I mean, Georgia is ripe for a Harris victory. I mean, particularly in those three areas that I keep mentioning where people still need to come out. The thing I want people to understand is in Georgia in particular, Republicans have exhausted all of their votes in Republican rural counties.

They've exhausted 98, sometimes more than 100% of their voters. But still in these areas like Fulton County, right, like Chatham County, like Richmond County, Savannah, Augusta, Atlanta, there's so much room there. And you're going to see those people show up to the polls. In North Carolina, we get 300,000 black voters today to show up at the polls.

we win North Carolina. Is that a lot? No. You know, one thing I thought about Georgia, though, the fact that rural Republicans have already turned out in waves in early voting records tells you the Republicans don't have an enthusiasm problem. The fact that Democrats have not come out the way they did in 2020 tells you you might have an enthusiasm problem.

Well, two things. Enthusiastic votes count as much as unenthusiastic votes. Sure, absolutely. That's the story of 2012. But also, Democrats on the ground in Georgia that I have talked to, the one thing that does give them anxiety is in 2020, you had Raphael Warnock on the ballot. You do not have a statewide black elected candidate

you know, like a Senator that's been there for a long time and that is organized. - Or Stacey Abrams that is organizing. - Yes, exactly. You do not have them on the ballot this time. There's also just concern, not necessarily with Atlanta and the immediate suburbs, but sort of, you know, what do rural black voters do? What do rural black men voters do? There's also a little bit of concern because Trump finally made nice with Governor Kemp down there.

belatedly for sure, but he does have that. He does have a little bit of that machine behind him. Does that make a difference? You know, Bacardi is not wrong. I'm just saying this is what Democrats in Georgia have anxiety about. Yeah. Brad, how much does the way Trump is closing impact? I mean, you look at, say, Dave McCormick's Senate race and you can kind of extrapolate out to the presidential, right? I mean, how much does that rhetoric hurt?

hurt him here in the final days. It's not as much what Trump said as what he didn't say in the last couple of days. You know, I thought his rally yesterday was devoid of ideology. Uh,

I think the way to beat Kamala Harris to say she's a California liberal who's further up in the mainstream. I didn't hear near as much of that in the last two days or so as I would have liked from Donald Trump. I think that he's not an ideological person himself. And so, therefore, I think he doesn't project that the voters are going to be ideological in their decision making. But that's Kamala Harris's vulnerability. If I were Donald Trump, that's what I'd been saying the last two days. Bakari, what would you be doing differently if you were running the Harris campaign? Anything at all?

No, I mean, look, you started July 21st. You're here. I mean, you raised and spent $1.2 billion. You kind of built this plane while you're flying and you're running against... The unique thing about Donald Trump is that he, outside of 2016, he hasn't won anything.

I mean, you can put Donald Trump in any light you want to put him in. 2018, walloped. 2020, got beat. 2022, you guys had us on here talking about this red wave that was coming. And you know what happened to the red wave? It never showed up at the... Well, in fairness, in 2016, you would have been telling me that Clinton was going to win. So it happens. I mean, my point is he's won one out of the last four cycles. Nikki Haley might argue he's won another one.

Well, and actually one of the things we saw last night that nobody's really talking about is the Dixville Notch voters. Yes. And the unique thing about- And the Dixville Notch was, there's six of them. It was three to three, split right down the middle like the polling is showing. Continue. Who did they all vote for in the primary? What's that? That I don't have to hand. Go ahead. Nikki Haley. Right.

So out of the six Nikki's... But to be fair, if you look at how they voted, I did examine the results from this morning from Dixville's notch. And they, I mean, they did, four of them voted for the Democrat in the congressional race. So there's a lot of ticket splitting going on in Dixville. Yeah, it is actually fascinating. Is it a fatality on the governor?

Yes, they voted for Kelly Ann. But it's four registered. But they all voted for Biden in 2020 and now they're split. But my point is that there are four registered Republicans and two unregistered. There's not a singular Democrat in there. There's not a singular registered Democrat of those six. You know what that means. They are New England Republicans.

This tells you how desperate we are to talk about such things. All right, we've got so much coming up ahead on this special Election Day edition of CNN This Morning. Donald Trump landing a last-minute endorsement from popular podcaster Joe Rogan. Is it going to help him win over voters who weren't already leaning his way? Plus... Every single vote, every one is going to matter.

Kamala Harris turning to some famous friends in the closing hours of her race. And the gender gap, one last look at how this Mars versus Venus election could determine who wins the White House. We're running like everything's on the line because it is. He will be a protector of women and it's why I'm voting for him. I'm Anderson Cooper.

Grief isn't talked about much, but that's what my podcast is all about. Crying was not helping. This is beyond crying. This is All There Is, Season 3. This is beyond comprehension. Irene Weiss was 13 when she arrived in Auschwitz. Suddenly you became a non-person. What you owned wasn't yours. The civilization that we lived in turned upside down. Listen to All There Is with Anderson Cooper wherever you get your podcasts.

It's election day in America and some battleground voters are going to need an umbrella. Let's get to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek Van Dam. Derek, in a race this close, quite literally anything could make the difference, including say, turnout in Detroit or Milwaukee. What are those voters looking at? Good point, yeah. So if you're in Michigan or Wisconsin, two battleground states,

there's a lot of what weather to contend with. So you might have to go a little early this morning heading to the polls. We've got an area of low pressure that's racing through the Midwest and this will bring rainfall to those locations. Cold front extends as far south as the Mississippi Valley, so that'll bring rainfall as well. So let's get a little bit more granular, a little more specific.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, my hometown and home state. Yeah, getting wet right now across the big Lake Michigan, Milwaukee also anticipating rainfall. So the election day weather forecast for Grand Rapids to Detroit. Unfortunately, it will be wet. You'll be battling some raindrops falling from the sky a little bit heavier, though. The further south you travel, check this out. St Louis to Little Rock. We've got flash flood watches and warnings in place that are valid through this morning. Anywhere you see the shading of red, that includes St Louis.

downtown as well. So this cold front advances eastward. Maybe you're hitting the polls for your lunchtime this afternoon. You'll see the cold front impacting places like Chicago, Memphis, but notice the east coast stays dry. So other battleground states into Pennsylvania, Georgia, the forecast looking fantastic. In fact, no reason to get out there and vote this morning for Philadelphia, Atlanta

Temperatures very tranquil in the upper 70s and low 80s, depending on where you're located. And out west, a little bit of a different story. Nevada will be a bit on the cool side, and Arizona also cool but stays dry. Casey? I think you mean no reason not to get out there and vote, because look at that. In most of these battleground states, it's a beautiful day to cast your vote. That's what I'm saying. Exactly. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

All right, polls, of course, already starting to open across the East Coast. At the top of the hour, they'll open in the critical swing state of Georgia. They, of course, have already been dealing with threats and misinformation swirling around this election. CNN's Isabel Rosales joins us live in Atlanta.

With more. Isabel, I know you're at a polling place. Tell us what you're seeing there. But then there's also this question about misinformation and what impact they may have on people coming to the polls. Questions perhaps in the aftermath as well. Georgia, the epicenter of Donald Trump's challenges to the 2020 election. What are you hearing?

Yeah, they were battling that back in 2020 and still today in 2024, the Republican-led Secretary of State's office working around the clock to counter disinformation campaigns. A lot of the deeply held mistrust coming from within their same party.

So let me talk about Georgia, the peach state that is so critical for both parties here. Democrats, of course, hoping to keep it blue after managing to flip it back in 2020, the first time they've been able to do that in nearly 30 years since Bill Clinton. I am in Fulton County, the most populous county in the state, home to Atlanta. And this is what we're looking at at one of 177 polling locations at this library, about

30 minutes out to polls opening. 6-7 people in line so far starting to trickle in. At 7 on the dot, Casey, all 159 counties here in the Peach State can start tabulating all absentee mail-in ballots and early voting. And then 12 hours later, by 7 p.m., polls close. Now, we are anticipating here in Georgia...

to get an early indicator early on in the evening of which way this battleground state possibly could be swinging, depending on how close those margins are, because they count the votes so quickly. There's, in fact, a new state law that aimed to speed up the counting. Secretary of State...

Brad Raffensperger saying that by 8 p.m., Casey, we should have 70 to 75 percent of all votes cast in Georgia tabulated. Of course, we don't that might not be the case for the rest of the of the country. That could take days more.

Yeah, well, Georgia is really going to provide us kind of an interesting indicator there at the beginning of the evening. It could be a long one, but if for whatever reason Georgia showed signs that Harris was going to overperform, it might be a shorter night. Isabel Rosales, thank you very much for that report. All right, still coming up after the break, Donald Trump trying to make up ground with women voters.

However, that didn't stop him and his allies from using some choice words to describe some of his female rivals in the final days of the campaign. Plus, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy spent this election cycle pitching Donald Trump to younger voters. He joins us next. This is a six-pack under the leadership of Kamala Harris. This is a six-pack under the leadership of Donald J. Trump. Let's make America great again.

Okay, the Trump and campaign taking their final pitch to social media. I'll let you decide whether you think that's effective. It's certainly visually arresting. Their goal for months has been to reach Generation Z voters, especially young men. Our next guest has spent a lot of time making the case for Trump to young people on college campuses who, like these students at Penn State, have a wide range of opinion about the candidates. I am not a fan of Trump. I think it's all a show. I think...

He truly does not care about anything other than himself. I'm voting for Donald Trump. For me, it's really just the threat of rising global conflict. There's just some things you can't play with. You know, the economy stretches, goes back and forth all the time, but the abortion's gone, it's gone. The past four years haven't been great. I think that January 6th was one of the most unacceptable attacks on democracy. Just from the people I'm friends with, I would say it's a cool thing to vote for Trump.

The cool thing to vote for Trump. Joining us now, entrepreneur, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is now, of course, backing Donald Trump. Sir, good to have you in the program. Thanks for being here.

Good morning, Casey. So I don't think anyone would argue with more beer. My question for you, big picture though, because the majority of voters in America are women, straight up. If Donald Trump's going to win this election, he needs men to vote for him in greater numbers than women vote for Harris by greater percentage. Is Trump going to be able to do that tonight?

I think he is, and that's one way to cut it. I also look at other demographic groups that have historically gone for Democrats that are clearly coming our way this time around. Greater portions of the black vote and Hispanic vote, I think no doubt. And then you put your finger on an important one, where I have traveled college campuses, met with young people across the country, and especially in swing states.

And I think decisively we're gonna see a greater shift in Gen Z towards voting for Donald Trump this time around. Casey, principally motivated by staying out of foreign conflicts, avoiding World War III, growing the economy and bringing down housing costs. Those are some of the issues most on the minds of young Americans. And I think those shifts are together gonna comprise, I think, a new coalition for Republicans. Reagan was the last Republican candidate to do this, to really build a new coalition. I think that's happening in plain sight.

And if my experience traveling the country is any indication, I think that's going to be very positive for Donald Trump tonight.

I will say it's anecdotal for sure, but conversations among moms, other women I run into about young people, not necessarily quite college age yet, but they perhaps are showing, especially men, an inclination to be more willing to vote for conservatives than perhaps people would have assumed in the past. You mentioned wars, foreign conflicts. Do you think that's the main issue?

for them i mean what what is driving that if i had to boil it down to two issues one is the concern that if there is a foreign war god forbid that the united states is involved in that's going to fall on gen z's shoulders i think there's a lot of skepticism even from the millennial generation on down about the failures in iraq and afghanistan i think people give donald trump a lot of credit for not being a partisan in the sense that he was actually bucking the republican trend

of supporting wars like the Iraq war, I think that's carried a lot of credibility with young people who feel duped by a lot of the bases for entering those wars. And then you look at the results in terms of the Ukraine conflict and the Middle East conflict. We didn't have that under Donald Trump. So I think that's probably the number one motivator for young people. Combine that with rising costs.

What we've seen over the last several years, and this is a hard fact, is that prices have gone up, but wages have not kept up. And that keeps the American dream out of reach for a lot of those young people. I think the top concern, frankly, for people graduating from college with debt is are they going to be able to start a family and own a home?

And it is a hard fact, Casey, that about 4 million Americans, fewer Americans own a home now than they did under the Trump years. And so I think those are the two factors, especially motivating young voters, especially young men. But I see it among some young women, too. This is a real concern. All right. I want to play for you something that Donald Trump said at his rally in Pittsburgh on Monday about he called the election too big to rig. Let's watch.

I do believe it is too big to rig. I think it's too big to rig. They'll try. And they are trying, you know, though. It's too big to rig. This is a big movement. This is, you know, we did great in 2016. We did much better in 2020. But a lot of bad things happened. This is that big, powerful, vicious party that I'm in. No, it's a vicious machine. I mean, they can take all these bad ideas and win elections. It's like there's only way you could do that. One way. There's only one way.

Sir, if Donald Trump loses the election today, should he concede? Look, I think that one commitment I think Republicans can make is if Donald Trump loses this election and Kamala Harris becomes the president, God forbid in my case, I'm not rooting for that outcome, Republicans are not going to launch some type of multi-year investigation that impedes the first two years of her presidency with false allegations of foreign election interference. We've seen that within the last decade in this country. Right, but it's a yes or no question, sir. I mean, should he concede or should he not?

I think whoever wins the election should win the election and whoever loses should concede. But the fact of the matter is, when we look at the last 10 years, in case you and I both understand the subtext of this question, there's been this, I think, brewed up concern that I think is really designed, I think, in many ways to mislead voters about what's happened in the last 10 years. Misleading voters. I mean, people attack the Capitol to try to interrupt the process of certifying the last election. If I may just finish my point, that's

no doubt been talked, the January 6th issue has been talked about ad nauseam. What hasn't is the fact that the presidency was actually undermined by Kamala Harris and the Democrats, the Democratic Party that Kamala Harris is a part of, for the first two years of Donald Trump's presidency on allegations of a false Russia collusion hoax that was disproven. So what do we want this time around? We want a free, fair election where the winner is decisively decided

Americans can then move forward as a country behind that. Whichever candidate wins, I'm looking forward to that happening for the country. And I'm hoping that's Donald Trump tonight. Are you confident our election today is going to be free and fair?

I certainly hope so. I mean, I think I would ask the same question of you. I have every hope that the polls are the polling locations are properly monitored, that you see a lot of the cases that have worked themselves out this time around with respect to early voting, the timestamps that need to be on them. I think Pennsylvania and their courts came down, I think, on the right side of that decision. One of the things that we have.

a great consciousness of as well as people being able to vote effectively on time. So I'm hopeful that we're going to see an outstanding, well-run election with a great result. And as you know, I'm supporting Donald Trump and I'm rooting for that victory tomorrow. All right. Vivek Ramaswamy for us this morning. Sir, thanks very much for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, let's turn now to this. Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have spent the past several weeks looking to win over voters of the opposite gender, respectively. At the same time, in the final days of this campaign, Trump and his allies have gone after Harris and other Democratic women in remarkably disparaging terms. Watch this. Kamala is...

I mean, this is known. She's a very low IQ person. In two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and the trash's name is Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris is a C-word. You heard that right. A big old C-word. That crazy, horrible human being, Nancy Pelosi. She's an evil, sick, crazy. Oh, no. It starts with a B, but I won't say it.

Brad Todd, is it productive to use B and C words for women that you would like to vote for you?

I think one of my business partners is finally saying we've reached the groundling phase of this campaign in Shakespearean terms, you know, that they appeal to the people on the ground who paid a nickel for the show and not the people in the boxes who are perhaps a bit more high-minded. It's definitely not a wrong track appeal or an economic appeal, which is, I think, what would get Donald Trump more votes. But I don't think we're going to change Donald Trump or his Vol-Dem style. But even like Nikki Haley and Megyn Kelly are saying, you know, hey, the

The bro-tastic, the bromance. It's the economy. It's the economy. Well, I mean, we do have a gender gap in this election. It sits right on top of a marriage gap. And I think your segment with Vivek Ramaswamy points to something. Single men really are important because the male vote is definitely for Donald Trump, but it's less so if you're single.

The same thing in reverse for Kamala Harris. And so I think that that portion of what you saw with the beer and all that sort of stuff, I actually think that's productive for that Xbox single male burger. I mean, I laughed at the beer. That's fine. One thing, there's two questions here. One is the political effect of all of these things that he's saying. Honestly, a lot of what he's saying reminds me of exactly what they did to Hillary Clinton in 2016. But there's also, I think, we should just call it out, that there has been a...

large sexist campaign against Kamala Harris in the final days. You had Hulk Hogan going up there and making very crude jokes at Madison Square Garden. You also, and Kamala Harris, because she does not want this race to be about questions about is America ready for the first woman president, has basically had to not respond and just like take it and she's had the discipline not to do that. - Well, again, I think Donald Trump would be much better off if he would focus on ideology.

but much better off. I don't think he's going to get swing voters over personal insults. I think he can get them on saying she's too far in the line. And he was in 2016 and 2020. I mean, if you look at the last two weeks of his election campaign in those two races, he was a much more disciplined candidate than he is being right now. 2016, he won. 2020, he way overperformed where the polls were saying he was at. So there is a difference in how Trump is behaving in the end of the race.

Also, I mean, one of the things that I haven't really seen, and I mean, we have all of these amazing papers and we work with a lot of journalists all the time, is talking about the double standard that we've applied in this race. Donald Trump gets up there and he makes no sense and calls it a weave. And Kamala Harris goes out and presents herself. You don't have to like the ideology. That's a sound debate. But she gets called everything but a child of God by people. But she has to be perfect. I mean, Kamala Harris, and I've said this before, as a woman in this country running for president,

has to run the 110 hurdles in high heels and then do a flip at the finish line just for the media to treat her with the same type of lens that they treat Donald Trump. There is no way that someone who goes up there and dances or does like this really weird fixation on microphones or loses his train of thought

or actually is in Georgia and thinks the Senate candidate from Pennsylvania is there. - I think it's North Carolina. - Well, North Carolina, and thinks that, thank you, and thinks the Senate candidate from Pennsylvania is there and gets treated with some level of credibility, whereas she has to be perfect. The crazy thing about that is she's talented enough to give herself an opportunity to be President of the United States today, and I think that's a failure on all our parts.

All right. Annie, Alex, Bakari, thank you all for being with us on this election day. Alex Bakari, you guys are going to be up overnight with me. 2 a.m. We're going to actually be in New York. We all have to go right after the show is over. Brad's going to stick around for our next segment. Straight ahead here on this special edition of CNN This Morning, I'm joined by a panel of Republicans, two of whom

are voting for Kamala Harris. We're going to talk about what it could mean for the GOP if this is Donald Trump's last turn on the national stage. And how we got here, we're going to take a look back at the events of the last two years, its head spinning, how this race has been transformed leading up to this election day. The total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers.

President Trump? I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either.

This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Kornish. So I'm sitting down with my friend David Chalian, CNN's political director. I think it would be a fool's errand, given how close each of these seven battleground states are, for someone to say that they know what the outcome of this race is going to be. What goes into the decision making at the decision desk? And what lessons have been learned from the election surprises of the last few years?

Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app. All right, welcome back to CNN This Morning. Also at stake in this election, the future of the Republican Party as Trump completes his third presidential campaign. Traditional conservative Republicans like Mitt Romney and the Cheney family are finding they don't have much of a voice in Donald Trump's Republican Party. ♪♪

It began on that golden escalator ride in Trump Tower back in June of 2016, where Trump announced his candidacy for president. First floated the idea of a border wall. And then, of course, came Trump's presidency. You also had people that were very fine people on both sides.

Then-President Trump talking about protests in Charlottesville, Virginia that featured neo-Nazis chanting "Jews will not replace us." In those protests, dozens were injured. A young woman was killed after someone drove their car through a crowd. To this day, Trump maintains those remarks were perfect. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay?

And of course, before that, there were Trump's remarks about John McCain's military service, the start of a pattern of derogatory comments directed at the former prisoner of war. And in so many ways, Trump has transformed the GOP, culminating in these closing remarks last night. We will defeat the corrupt system in Washington because I'm not running against Kamala. I'm running against an evil Democrat system. These are evil people.

All right, joining us now, former Congressman Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan. They are both part of Republicans for Harris and have been campaigning for the Democratic nominee. And of course, Brad Todd, who is...

is a more traditional Republican, I guess, shall we say, is actually really not anymore. You're a Trump Republican. Gentlemen, I'm so grateful to have you here on this consequential day. Congressman, let me start with you. I mean, what do you think is really at stake here? Certainly, Democrats seem to be using the phrase nauseously optimistic about what's going to happen. But put it

Put it in terms of what you think is at stake for the country and what it means for the party that you served in for so long. I think it's the future of conservatism. I mean, honestly, there is nothing conservative about the Republican Party today. There really isn't, you know, standing with Vladimir Putin against your own

you know, Intel services kind of throwing Ukraine under the bus, a lot of spending, a future that's just based on dividing people against each other and not really showing any kind of an optimistic future. I think if the Republican Party loses, if Donald Trump loses, it's a chance for the GOP to kind of look inside and say, what have we done with our soul? How many times? I mean, if they'd have elected Nikki Haley, you probably could have won the presidency today and had the presidency for eight years.

but instead there's this cult. And so I think it's the future of conservatism. And that's why I, and I know Jeff, have no, we have no,

Regrets for what we've done and I always jokingly say I'd do it twice as hard if I could go back in time Jeff yeah, this isn't position a right I didn't get into politics 12 years ago and expect to be doing this but this is where I believe is the best place for us to be able to hit the reset button and create a GOP 2.0 a party that that focuses and defends on policies and uses empathy to grow the size of the tent and use a tone that invites and encourages

I think all Republicans, for the most part, including the ones that are voting for Donald Trump, would agree he's not the future of the party. And I think we're in this really awkward spot right now where regardless of whether Donald Trump wins or loses,

This party's got this little short window of time to get it right, to start taking our own medicine. If Donald Trump wins, there's no doubt he'll wreck the car and continue to soil the brand of being a Republican. And so I think you're going to watch entire herds of Republicans look for somewhere else that's more respectable. That could mean we could start hemorrhaging to Democrats by the droves.

If Kamala Harris wins and actually does govern towards the middle, she's a chance to grow the size, the net total of the party if she does govern towards the middle. Not in the middle, she's a Democrat, but if she governs towards the middle like she did on the campaign trail and ask our opinion on certain policies, then I think she's got a chance to grow the party. Brad, if

Someone other than Donald Trump, to the Congressman's point, had been at the top of the Republican ticket considering the approval rating of President Biden and even the way some of the way Harris's numbers have moved. Would Republicans be running away with this election? I mean-- This is a big debate inside the Republican Party. I mean, there's certainly an argument to say that a candidate like Nikki Haley could have had a lot more suburban voters who are skeptical of the way Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have run the country. That's one argument. Another argument is the fact that a lot of former Democrats, blue collar voters,

are a lot more comfortable in Donald Trump's Republican Party than they would have been in Mitt Romney's Republican Party. And the data is pretty clear that there's a good argument for that, too.

I didn't predict Donald Trump would win in 2015. In fact, I said the opposite plenty of times over and over in the primary. After that election, I wrote a book with Selena Zito on the Trump coalition, trying to understand a little bit more about how the populist coalition was reshaping it. It is a realignment, and we have a working class coalition on the Republican side now, and the Democratic Party's become an upper class coalition. Historically in America, the working class coalition wins.

Jeff Duncan, I do want to make sure that we kind of end this show today talking about what I think is one of the things that brought you to where you are, and that is the sanctity of our peaceful transfer of power and the stakes for the election here, because there are already signs that if, in fact, Donald Trump were to lose, there's unlikely to be a concession. You obviously personally experienced the violence that came with standing up to Trump when he tried to convince the Democrats

Georgia officials you included to change the election results. What are the stakes of that today? Well, there's so much at stake, but I think, and way more than a party. I mean, just the ideology of a country, the nature of having a fair and free election, and then a peaceful transfer of power. But I can't help but think

how off base this country is right now, how off base the Republican Party is. And it all goes back to one person. And I think what's happened is we've lost, we don't have any leaders. We don't have anybody standing up modeling the right thing to do. The job of president is the least important. It doesn't determine how much traffic you sit in, how good your kids' schools are, or how safe your neighborhoods are. The job of president sets the North Star. And Donald Trump has set that North Star in the gutter. And we as Republicans have said that's okay. It's not okay.

I will say, Congressman Kinzinger, I remember sitting on a different TV set, but with you as this was first unfolding with Trump and you saying something very similar to that, that our leaders have to lead. And of course, now here we are. I would love to have this conversation all morning. Unfortunately, we're out of time because I do want to spend the last few minutes of this taking a little bit of a walk down memory lane. This election has been many things, unprecedented, unpredictable, and really more than anything, unforgettable.

-In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States. -This is not a time to be complacent. That's why I'm running for reelection. -His approval numbers are historically low, rivaling only Jimmy Carter, who got slaughtered, of course, in that election. Donald Trump will officially become the first former president in the history of these United States to face a criminal trial. -This is an assault

You would never abuse power as retribution against anybody. Except for day one. He says, you're not going to be a dictator, are you? I said, no, no, no, other than day one. The first Biden-Trump debate of 2024 is now set for June 27th right here on CNN. What I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with, look, if

We finally beat Medicare. -We are effed, that reaction from a Democratic source after watching President Biden's performance in last night's CNN debate. -It sounds like you're actually open to the idea that it might be the right decision for him to step aside.

I think what I'm stressing is it has to be his decision. It's up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We're all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short. This is CNN Breaking News. Donald Trump injured but safe. The 2024 election fundamentally altered.

America reeling from a horrific act of violence. Congressman, do you think that Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket could beat former President Trump in the fall?

I think she would smoke them, honestly. For the first time in over half a century, a sitting president who can still run for reelection will not appear on the ballot. President Joe Biden making the stunning announcement on Sunday. Kamala Harris! Do we believe in the promise of America? Are we ready to fight for it? Next Vice President of the United States, Tim Walz.

You know it, you feel it. These guys are creepy and yes, just weird as hell. That's what you see. It is therefore my honor to nominate Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. The childless cat lady. Would you like to comment on that? Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I've got nothing against cats. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. This weird obsession with crowd sizes. We are not going back.

We are not going back. Welcome to all of you. So grateful to have you here. Bacar, are you okay? Yeah. Caffeine. Caffeine. Caffeine. I don't know where I am or what I'm doing, but I'm apparently here. Just a little confused.

concern. Do we put this shirt button on? First of all, I am making a statement. Hang on, hang on. Let me get my Bakari. Here we go, Bakari. Oh my God. Thank God you can barely see that. The Trump campaign says shots were fired in the vicinity of the former president, uh,

at his Doral Golf Resort. He is safe. - A few days ago, we had an incident. I have to say Secret Service did a hell of a job. They really did. - Arnold Palmer was all man. He took showers with the other pros. They came out of there, they said, "Oh my God." - I'm looking for a job and I've always wanted to work at McDonald's. - How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden. - Are we ready to vote? - Win!

With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces. All right. On this election day, a final reminder that it is now up to you. It's in your hands. It's the beauty of the system that we have, that no matter what we may or may not say here as we cover the candidates, it's your decision. It's up to you. Voters are voting. Get out there. Don't miss your chance. Thanks to all of you for being with us. I'm Casey Hunt. CNN's Election Day coverage continues right now.

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