Israel-Lebanon, Trump-Harris, Violent Crime
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It's Tuesday, September 24th, right now on CNN This Morning.

Trading fire. Israel and Lebanon once again exchanging cross-border strikes overnight as the West looks to prevent a wider war. Plus this: The election is basically here. 42 days and counting. The votes already being cast. Both campaigns urging supporters to vote early, even as Donald Trump calls early voting stupid. And this: Migrant crime is totally out of control.

Violent crime, a focal point of Donald Trump's campaign, but will new statistics from the FBI actually give Kamala Harris an edge? And later, Trump and the juice? Why the former president is comparing a staffer's dad to OJ Simpson.

6 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at Capitol Hill on this Tuesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. There are just six weeks until Election Day, if you can believe that. But we're going to start here this morning, the Middle East inching closer to the brink as the fight between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies. And the United States looks for some way to prevent further escalation. ♪♪

Overnight, Israel's Iron Dome defense system intercepting a barrage of rockets fired from southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported. Those rockets coming just hours after Israel's largest attack on Lebanese soil in almost two decades. The Israeli military saying it struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets on Monday. Nearly 500 people, including dozens of women and children, were killed, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The moment one of those airstrikes hit, caught on camera as a journalist prepared to go live on the air. An Israeli official telling CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the goal of the strikes is to separate Hezbollah from Israel's war with Hamas. We are not waiting for a threat. We are ahead of it. Everywhere, in every arena, anytime.

We're eliminating seniors, eliminating commanders, eliminating rockets and counting. Those who try to hurt us, we will hurt them gravely.

CNN has learned that American officials believe Israel's attacks have significantly weakened Hezbollah. Still, the U.S. is working behind the scenes to convince Israel not to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon. U.S. officials' biggest concern? That Iran, Hezbollah's strongest and most influential backer, could become directly involved in a wider regional war. Here was Iran's president in a new exclusive interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria.

Will you counsel Hezbollah to restrain itself? We know that Iran has a lot of influence over Hezbollah. Now if there is a need, Islamic countries must convene a meeting in order to formulate a reaction to what is occurring. We must not allow for Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel.

Hezbollah cannot do that alone. Hezbollah cannot stand alone against the country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, European countries and the United States of America.

All right, joining us now to discuss is Avi Mayer. He's former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post. Avi, thank you so much for being here. I really do appreciate it. Can you help us understand the dynamics here as to why this is happening now, the tactics that Israel's using, and what the plan would be to try to avoid a major escalation around this?

Well, Casey, this war has been ongoing for nearly 12 months now. Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into northern Israel on October the 8th, the day after the Hamas massacre of the day earlier. And it said it was doing so in solidarity with Hamas and the people of Gaza and has continued to bombard northern Israel since. That has caused widespread death and destruction across the northern part of the country. One hundred thousand Israelis have had to flee their homes and have not seen their homes

in twelve months and that is the pretext for that is the context that i think is necessary on israel last week started responding more forcefully to those attacks israel has said quite openly that it will not permit a situation which entire parts of its country are off limits to its own people or people are forced from their homes and it's a very clearly if come out of his body goes back

to the point it's supposed to be, according to UN Resolution 1701, north of the Litani River, if it vacates the area of southern Lebanon and enables those Israelis to go back home, there's no reason for this war to continue. The war would end immediately. And it is Hezbollah's refusal to do that. And in fact, it's continuation of its bombardment that has caused this war to continue at this time.

Avi, the U.N. General Assembly is meeting this week in New York, and President Biden is going to give his last address as president there. And this dynamic is, of course, relevant to everything that we're seeing playing out on the ground where you are. David Sanger wrote this in The New York Times. Mr. Biden aid say the president's beginning to acknowledge that he's simply running out of time.

With only four months left in office, the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas look dimmer than at any time since Mr. Biden laid out a plan at the beginning of the summer. And the risk of a wider war has never looked greater. In public, administration officials insist they've not given up. They say they simply cannot move ahead while missiles are bringing death and destruction to northern Israel and southern Lebanon, and they are clinging to the hope

that even this level of missile and rocket exchange between Israel and Hezbollah will not turn into the regional war that they have been trying to stave off. How does the dynamic of an outgoing president along with the crucible of the final weeks of a presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris affect how Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli officials are conducting this war, if at all? Look, there have been those who suggested that both Israel and Hamas and perhaps now Hezbollah

are trying to push the can down the road in hopes of having some other administration come in that would be more favorable to them or their terms. I know that many Israelis, I would say the overwhelming majority, just want this war to end. They want the hostages brought back home as quickly as possible. And if the president can bring about some kind of Hail Mary in the next few weeks that would enable those hostages who are still alive and the bodies of those who have been killed to be brought back home,

the vast majority of Israelis would be extremely supportive. Whether that's something the president can actually pull off remains to be seen. And it's very clear that Hezbollah has absolutely no intention of stopping its bombardment of northern Israel unless it's forced to do so either by Israeli response or by its masters in Iran saying, we have to stop now and we'll wait to see what happens with the future administration. All right. Avi Mayer for us this morning. Sir, always grateful for your perspective on the show. Thank you so much for being here. And I hope you'll come back soon.

Thank you. All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, Donald Trump urging his supporters to vote early on the one hand, then he says this. Now we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early. Why he is both embracing and criticizing early voting, plus the haunting final message from the crew of the doomed Titan submersible just minutes before implosion. And

It only has one electoral vote, but it could all come down to it why Nebraska's second congressional district could be so important in this election. It's plausible that we could have a tie and that whole notion of "my vote doesn't matter" kind of gets really tossed out the window.

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Early voting has already started in some states. And in fact, many of you may have already received your mail-in ballots. The election is basically here. It's basically here, and we have work to do.

It is basically here. We are now exactly six weeks from Election Day, 42 days. And for some states, the election is actually already here. There is early and mail-in voting now getting started. In 2020, nearly three quarters of voters either cast their ballot by mail or during in-person early voting periods in their states. Those numbers were much higher than is typical because of the pandemic.

At the time, Trump cast doubt on early voting and instead told his supporters to vote on Election Day. Now, four years later, Donald Trump's campaign is urging his supporters to go to the polls sooner in places like Virginia. I am urging every Virginia patriot to vote early and don't wait. Go out and vote now. But while Trump is saying that on phone calls, he's saying things like this at his rallies.

We got to get out and vote. You can start right away. You know that, right? Now we have this stupid stuff where you can vote 45 days early. I wonder what the hell happens during that 45. Let's move the CDs votes. We've got about a million votes in it. Let's move them. We're fixing the air conditioner in the room, right? No, it's terrible. What happened the last time was disgraceful, including right here.

Joining us now to discuss Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios. Jonah Goldberg, CNN political commentator, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch. Karen Finney, CNN political commentator. Brad Todd, Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you. Brad Todd, would you like voters to vote early in the Republican Party? I think you should vote whenever you want to. Now's a good time. Later's a good time.

You know, the one thing that's different this time from 2020 is the Trump campaign has done a masterful job of trying to get Republicans to fully take advantage of early voting if they want to. You can see the results. In Pennsylvania, it's hundreds of thousands of votes better for Republican with mail-in ballot requests right now than it was four years ago. So Donald Trump's rhetoric aside there, I think the campaign's operating on all cylinders on that. Jonah Goldberg, it is a conflicting, he does have a conflicting narrative about this.

Yeah, look, I think Trump's hang-ups about his delusion that the last election was stolen, his obsession with it, comes out in things like that. It also comes out in the way he talks about voter integrity stuff. He's putting more emphasis on voter integrity and less on the ground game. And I think it's in part...

because I think he's trying to lay the groundwork if he loses that he can make this argument again and it gets in the way of the professionals around him, people like Brad Dodd who want to just get the right message out and win because Trump can never get out of his own way. Yeah, I mean Alex Thompson, we heard him say in Indiana, Pennsylvania just yesterday that he needs the election to be too big to rig.

kind of already laying that groundwork. - Oh yeah, that's been a chant now for months. And the Trump campaign knows that he probably, I mean, he only lost by about 45,000 votes across three states last time. If he had actually supported mail-in voting, he actually could have won. And that's why the campaign has been really trying to push him. I mean, as recently as early this year, he basically called mail-in voting like a disaster, a fraud. And the campaign has basically had to make the case to him on a personal way saying, "You have to stop saying this."

because they know that this could be the difference maker in this election. You know, the other thing, so young voters are about 14 times more likely to face challenges on election day. Sometimes it's because of where they're trying to vote, because where they're going to college, their ID, whatever. It's college kids, what can I tell you?

And that is a segment of the electorate that we're all trying to get to. So if you already know those, that young people, so this is probably part of why the campaign is like, just stop saying this. You're really hurting yourself literally with voters who we actually know will have a harder time on election day, who you'll want them to vote early. Especially also because young people,

You know, I mean, for a lot of us, if it's raining, if you're tired, if it's something comes up, and there are a lot of reasons people can't always vote on Election Day. But hey, if you want to listen to Donald Trump and you don't feel good about early voting, don't do it.

- Motor suppression here, right here. - Right here, right here. Hey, I'm just echoing your guy. - So big picture, let's talk about kind of where this race stands. CNN has a new documentary coming out about James Carville, who I know many of you, if not all of you at this table know well and have worked with. It's great and I'm excited for everybody to be able to get to see it. Carville was on our air talking about where he thinks the election stands as of Monday. Let's watch what he said.

It's closer to Poland. I'm not convinced that it's going to be close to election day. I'll say that if there's seven swing states, the least most least likely scenario is it breaks for three. I don't like to predict elections. I would just say this just doesn't feel like a race that Harris is going to lose. So that seems to be a vibe, Jonah. Right. He doesn't feel like this is a race Harris is going to lose. But do you think he's right?

I honestly don't know. I think Harris, it feels like she definitely has momentum and trend lines in the national polls that are going her way. I think she's creeping up on outside the margin of error, if you look at it in a favorable light.

but it does also feel really tied in the swing states and uh trump has i mean the thing that that is so confounding about all this is that trump has an incredibly low ceiling and an incredibly high floor and you cannot knock him off 47 of the electorate so that means that harris's universe of gettable voters is 53 of the electorate and that just makes the politics weird

And in those swing states, it's closer to 50/50. And so that gives-- it's just very difficult to gauge. Alex is right about last election was 45,000, 48,000 votes. We could talk about what Arab Americans in Dearborn are going to do or what Jewish voters in the Philly suburbs are going to do. Or we can talk about the weather, right? I mean, it's like-- it's just so tight.

No, it's a really good point. All right. Sorry, Brad, jump in. I was just going to say that James is wrong in that it could break 4-3 if Trump holds on to Georgia and North Carolina, but she wins Pennsylvania. North Carolina is a state where Democrats have only won three of the last 24 federal statewide elections. Trump could easily win there. He could easily win in Georgia. I still think that a split of those swing states is

So basically he said the least likely scenario is that it breaks 4-3 in the swing states. You're saying that's actually entirely likely. It actually could happen. Absolutely. All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, a former Republican candidate for president has a new book, Entrepreneur, and Trump supporter Vivek Ramaswamy is going to join us with his thoughts on the state of the race. Plus, Florida bracing for what could be the most powerful hurricane of the season later on this week.

All right, you're looking live at Miami and this morning Florida is bracing for what could be the most destructive hurricane to hit the US so far this hurricane season. Right now, thunderstorms building strength in the Caribbean before potentially bringing life threatening storm surge and hurricane force winds to the southeast later on this week. Let's get to our meteorologist, the weatherman Derek Van Dam. Derek, good morning. What are these folks looking for?

Good morning, Casey. Latest update from the National Hurricane Center at 5:00 AM issuing newly issued, I should say, hurricane watches and this includes Englewood northward into Indian Pass. Basically this is the catcher's mitt of Florida, the Florida Peninsula. I want you to take note that hurricane watch

includes Tampa Bay. Tropical storm warnings extend further south. We also have a large area of the Gulf Coast of the Florida Peninsula included within storm surge alerts. So why such an expansive area? Well, we believe that this storm will grow in size as it approaches Florida come Thursday into Friday.

That's why the National Hurricane Center has issued these wide stretching watches and alerts. We even have the potential for 10 to 15 feet of storm surge right here near the Big Bend of Florida and up to nine feet including the Tampa Bay region. Storm system not looking like much now other than disorganized showers and thunderstorms over the Western Caribbean, but believe me, a lot of warm water ahead of it and that means it will strengthen and likely to be a major hurricane before making its way inland

bringing lots of rain associated with it. So we want to keep a head's eye on this, not just for coastal impacts. Casey, the typical with a hurricane, but also inland impacts with heavy rain and flooding northward into Georgia. Back to you. All right, Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Busy week ahead, Derek. Thank you. All right, still ahead here on CNN this morning. We are one week away from the next debate. We're going to have details on how J.D. Vance is getting ready for the vice presidential debate against Tim Walls. That'll be in our morning roundup. Plus,

The FBI releasing the latest crime statistics showing violent crime trending downward nationwide as the issue takes center stage in the campaign. We will crush violent crime and protect all law enforcement. The former vice president called for defunding federal law enforcement. Travel is all about choosing your own adventure. With your Chase Sapphire Reserve card, sometimes that means a ski trip at a luxury lodge in the Swiss Alps.

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Crime is rampant. We will crush violent crime and protect all law enforcement. I will make you safe at the border, on the sidewalks of your now violent cities, in the suburbs where you are under migrant criminal siege. You will be protected and I will be your protector.

Donald Trump claiming crime is spiraling out of control under the Biden-Harris administration. But new FBI crime statistics don't seem to bear that out. According to the bureau, violent crime dropped approximately 3% in 2023. The data also shows murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped in the United States nearly 12% from 2022 to 2023, which represents the largest decline in decades. Reported rapes also dropped by more than 9%, and reported hate crimes fell by nearly 1%.

The Harris campaign put out this statement. New data submitted to the FBI confirms that our dedicated efforts and collaborative partnerships with law enforcement are working. Americans are safer now than when we took office. Of course, there, Brad Todd, is a lot of argument on the Internet about whether these statistics are accurate or not.

But 12 percent is a very significant number. And we should note that these statistics, the FBI has been putting them out for many years now and we all collectively rely on them. Does this help significantly push back against for the Harris team, the Trump argument on crime or does it not matter?

I think this is a very dangerous thing for Harris to talk about. I mean, she has a philosophical disconnect with the center of the electorate on it. You know, she said we needed to reduce incarceration. She said we need to stop thinking that putting more police on the street makes us safe. I don't think she wants October to be about crime.

- So here's where I would disagree. I think she was talking about mass incarceration and over-incarceration, which is a huge problem in this country. Additionally, I think it is important to talk about the declines in violent crime. The challenge though, I think on the issue is

Whereas those statistics are correct, in our daily lives, we're still, like here in D.C., we've got carjackings, we've got people getting mugged in the middle of the day, so it's the-- - It doesn't feel like crime is down. - Exactly. - In a lot of places. - I mean, it's great, but we should say,

If murder rates are down, that is a good thing, right? But it is the crime that we interact with on a more day-to-day basis that I think makes us feel like it's not down. And I think that's the challenge. And the problem with talking about that at the presidential contest level is that's really about what's going on in cities and states. One of the things that President Biden did do is put more police on the streets. Kamala Harris was part of that.

So, but that's having mixed effect, I think, in different communities. - Well, and the statistics did show that carjackings were one of the types of crime that did go up

in 2023. The other thing, I think the reason why the feeling is because you saw a huge spike during COVID. And the fact is that we've seen a steady decline, but now crime is only about back to where it was in 2019, which is why I think that the vibes, the feeling is because we had this spike because of the pandemic. Yeah. Well, I mean, and Jonah, it matters not just

what's going on in your own community, what you personally experience, but also what you read about, what you're consuming via news media or on TikTok on your phone. And there is, I mean, carjackings are one that, you know, I mean, I get warnings to not rent certain classes of cars because they get stolen all the time, right? Yes, I mean, I used to do, I used to be a statistics nerd on crime stuff when I was a policy gnome when I first came to Washington. And I find this stuff...

Really fascinating. I suspected this about you. Yeah, the national crime victimization survey stuff contradicts the FBI thing and yada, yada, yada. We get in all that. I personally have a theory that the pandemic, because it just upset the apple cart on all of these sort of settled rules of daily life, did so for crime as well.

And so like it used to be understood there was this unspoken agreement between police and criminals about these are neighborhoods where like you can do this or that or whatever and like and all of a sudden it was just a sort of a free-for-all and the police didn't remember how to do the old sort of law enforcement stuff and the criminals didn't obey any of the old rules.

and we are still settling out from that. The thing that makes this all difficult to talk about is Trump lies about crime, period. In 2016 when he ran, talking about America as a crime scene and all that kind of stuff,

He loves this talk. He grew up in New York City. He speaks the language of the New York Post when it comes to crime. And so he's going to say this stuff regardless because he wants people to be on edge and fearful, period. One last thing, though, I would say. Somebody who has been an attorney general who has actually dealt with crime and who understands how states and communities are dealing with crime as the president.

that could actually help change the dynamic because that's a different conversation than has been had in a White House in a very long time. When you look at their paid ads, they're very much focusing on a prosecutorial record and like a tough on crime border state prosecutor, right? Yeah, for a reason. She thinks she has a problem there. That's why she's doing that.

All right, let's turn out of this. A last-ditch effort to change Nebraska's election laws has seemingly hit a dead end. National Republicans, including Donald Trump, putting pressure on Nebraska's lawmakers to change to a winner-take-all system for the Electoral College, the state...

currently awards electoral votes by congressional district with one vote going to the winner of Omaha's congressional district. The only other state that does it this way is Maine. Yesterday, a key state senator from Omaha announced he would not support this effort. Omaha's single electoral vote, it really matters because depending on how the battleground states go for Harris and Trump, it could

Make it all or break it all. Let's look at this map of how it could look on election night if Harris were to win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin while Donald Trump were to win the Sun Belt. In this scenario, Omaha's single electoral vote would determine whether Harris wins with exactly 270 votes

Or if we would have been headed to a truly unprecedented scenario because if Trump were to win that fifth Nebraska vote, the election would result in a true tie, which would of course throw the election to the House of Representatives to decide. It's plausible that we could have a tie and that whole notion of my vote doesn't matter kind of gets really tossed out the window because this could be it. This could be the deciding factor.

So, of course, he's wearing that blue dot shirt because the idea is that Omaha is this blue dot, right? That it goes for Democrats. Brad, we were talking about this in the break because it really did come down to this one member of the state legislature in Nebraska who was under immense pressure. He had been a Democrat. He's now a Republican. They were trying to convince him, hey, change this law in Nebraska. They thought a couple other people would follow him if he did that. And he came out and he said, no, I'm not doing it. So this is a

apparently off the table, is it? And what are the dynamics here? - Well, if it were to be a tie, it goes to the US House and each state delegation in Congress votes by itself, which might mean, for instance, Minnesota's a 4-4 tie in their delegation. Tim Walz's home state might not even vote for them, even if the people did.

But I think in the end, this is a bad idea. I didn't like it in 2020 when Democrats were changing election rules in the middle of the election. I think it's a bad idea to do it now. Last year, I could have been for this, but I think now it's a bad idea. Well, one thing I just wanted to add is the Harris campaign and the Biden campaign before them have been incredibly focused on Omaha. They've spent over $10 million there.

They've sent people to this district because they know exactly what you said, that all they have to do is hold the blue wall and they win with exactly 270. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's smart politics, right? I mean, Jonah, the Wall Street Journal sent a reporter to go look in Warren Buffett's yard to see if he had a blue dot sign. They didn't find one. It's a bit of pride there. Well, I mean, it's also like

Look, Nebraska, what, 20, voted for Trump for 20 points or something like that? So, like, without the blue dot, you don't get any national media parachuting in looking for blue dots. I would have no problem in the merits of them changing this one way or the other. I kind of agree that in the middle of the election, it's a little creepy. I mean, that's the problem, right? It's for the football.

football fans, fourth quarter, five minutes to go, and they're trying to change the rules in Nebraska. We're seeing them try to change the rules in Georgia, and it's very clear what this is about. This is about either A, trying to foresee if there is a tie, but also injecting a bit of

chaos into the system. I mean, I'm sure we're going to hear Donald Trump rail against Omaha, Nebraska, and how it's not fair and it's not right, even though it's the law. But it's all about injecting a bit of chaos so that he has the rationale to-- and we're already hearing him do it. We were just talking about mail-in voting, how he's already trying to say there's something wrong with that.

Get ready 'cause it's coming. Wait a bit though. Four years ago, every blue jurisdiction, every blue state was changing the rules right now, like four weeks after the election. Like Democrats should are in no position to say this like Republicans can sell this. Don't change the rules, but Democrats would do anything in 2020 even against the guidance of state attorney general state Supreme Court state constitution dealing with COVID as

is actually what was happening. They were changing the rules against the Constitution in some states. In a national pandemic, trying to protect people's lives. For their political advantage. Not the same. No, it was actually to make it easier for people to vote. For the Democrats' advantage. Actually, if your guy would have stopped telling people not to vote by mail, you might have won.

The same. All right. Let's move on now, though. He's been out of the race for months, but he hasn't gone away. Coming up on CNN this morning, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy joins us live, his take on the state of the race. Plus, Donald Trump making a unique introduction to the woman behind his campaign. I don't want to use the word O.J. I don't know if he was O.J.

Since this story leaked, and this is something that everyone needs to hear, the hateful language in this community has spiked. It's really, really bad. I'm half black, I'm half Hungarian, I'm half black, half white, whatever you want to say. I've become a target of the hate. I can probably count on my hand, both hands, how many times a racial slur has been said in my whole life.

I've been called the N-word twice this week by just people who group me, friends of mine, friends of friends, and say, like, get out of here. You're Haitian. We don't want you here. Even with a six-month-old baby at a grocery store. So regardless, I find it shameful and I find it inappropriate whether I'm Haitian or American.

That was one lifelong resident of Springfield, Ohio, last week telling former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy during a local town hall what he has experienced in the wake of Donald Trump's false claims about Haitian migrants eating pets in his hometown. Trump once again evoking Springfield on the campaign trail during a Pennsylvania rally last night and reiterating his promise to deport the town's illegal migrants. Do you think Springfield will ever be the same? I don't think...

The fact is, and I'll say it now, you have to get them the hell out. You have to get them out. I'm sorry. They've destroyed it. It's terrible. Joining us now is entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. He is the author of the new book, Truths, The Future of America First. It is out today. Mr. Ramaswamy, congratulations on the book. Thank you very much for

for being here. You in the book have a chapter, one of your truths is dedicated to border security. You say an open border is not a border. But I want to ask you about that moment in Springfield, Ohio from someone who has lived there their whole life

and who says they've not experienced this kind of racially motivated animosity from the members of their community before this past week. Is President Trump's rhetoric contributing to what happened to that man, and do you think it's right?

So look, the reason I went to Springfield is I wanted to have open dialogue with the citizens of that community close to where I grew up as well. That was important to me. And I want to be precise about what that man said, because I think it was actually really important and insightful. He didn't say it was in the last week. You heard in that clip, he said it was in the last year. And I'll tell you what I told him to his face, which I believe is true, is a big part of the uptick we are seeing in anti-black racism and anti-minority racism. And we are seeing that uptick in the country. And it worries me.

is a response to the anti-racist policies that have increased race consciousness in this country over the last several years. I say this, I'm releasing a new book today. I wrote a book about three to four years ago called "Woke Inc." predicting exactly this trend.

And that's my concern with race conscious policies. There is no better way to create racial animus in this country than to take something else of value from somebody else based on the color of their skin. That's a prediction I made in my first book several years ago, and I'm sad to say that has come to transpire. And that man and I had a great exchange

I also think we need more of that in this country. We had several hundred people come out, about 2,000 people RSVP for that event in Springfield, which tells me people across this country are hungry to be heard. And that's how we get our country back through open debate, free speech and open dialogue. And that's the core thesis of the book that I'm putting out today.

So, Mr. Ramaswamy, I understand you're making this argument about raising race consciousness from the left, and that's one way you put it in your book. But I do want to kind of circle back to some of the things that we're hearing from your party, from your Republican presidential nominee who has been traveling, for example, with Laura Loomer.

who wrote on Twitter, quote, if Kamala Harris wins, the White House will smell like curry and White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center. Marjorie Taylor Greene came out and said that that was racist. Do you agree with her?

Look, I'm against identity politics in all of its forms, whether it comes from the left or from the right. I've been crystal clear on that. I think we need to revive our shared American identity. That being said, I do think we've gotten into a bad habit where Donald Trump says some word or a supporter of Donald Trump says some word that gets airlifted out and becomes the story rather than focusing on the substance of the actual underlying issue.

The truth of the matter is, as recently as three months ago or even three weeks ago, we as a country weren't really talking about the kinds of issues confronting communities like Springfield in Ohio, a town that's really important to me and to the country. And so what I do think we need more of is focusing on that actual substance. There are people struggling in that community, including not least of whom are even many people who are, I believe, used as political pawns

as migrants in this game. And so I think the more open debate we're able to have on the substance and the less we're able to fixate on airlifting some particular quote, the better off we're gonna be in our discourse. - Well, do you think that this debate's been good for Springfield, Ohio though? I mean, the schools have been closed, there've been bomb threats,

Everyday denizens of the place because of the focus, the national political focus on them. But when this is a group of legal migrants, these Haitians have come here legally. I mean, the Republican governor of Ohio has has said as much and said they're taking jobs that that businesses in that community needed to be filled.

Look, I went and met with many of those Haitian community leaders during that trip myself. I think it's important to get all perspectives. What I will say is this: I think this debate about immigration is in the long run going to be a good thing for the country. We can't sweep under the rug in a town of 50,000 people yet an influx of 20,000 Haitian migrants to a community that was unprepared to actually integrate them, migrants who were unprepared to integrate themselves.

That's a tough conversation, but it's one that we actually need to be having in this country and we weren't before. It's one of the things I talk about in this book is how do we actually get to solutions on this issue? People skirt around this issue of legal immigration. I'll tell you what I told those Haitian migrants.

a tough exchange, but one where we actually came out stronger for it. I said it's my view that if anybody enters this country, the United States generally should not admit somebody who's going to be a client of the welfare state, somebody who's going to be a recipient of government assistance. I don't think the U.S. policy should admit those immigrants, legally or not, into the United States of America.

And in that exchange, the people on the other side, they thought about it and they said, you know what, that's a fair policy. That's constructive. And I think that we need to think about immigration policy. Well, a lot of these migrants came for jobs, right? I mean, people that are working in the manufacturing roles in the city of Springfield, which is why they're there, are not immigrants.

are not what you just described there. Well, actually, I respectfully disagree. When you look at the rates of usage of welfare, Medicaid, etc., I think it's a reasonable immigration policy for the U.S. to set that if you're going to come to this country, we want people who are able to speak the English language that's broadly used in the United States,

and able to stand independently without relying on government assistance or the welfare state. That's the kind of debate we need to be having. If people believe that we should admit migrants who are going to be reliant on Medicaid or welfare, then they could represent that view. But we haven't been having that debate today. Those are the kinds of issues I explore in my book, focusing on the substance rather than in the mudslinging that we sometimes

see in the media-driven, fueled, social media-fueled political discourse. We need to speak about stone-cold hard truths and have that debate even when it's uncomfortable in the open. That's how I think we're going to save the country. It's a big part of why I wrote this book. And I also think that I'd like to see that standard applied a little more even-handedly across the board.

In that same debate, you had Kamala Harris making the claim also repeatedly many times since that women are bleeding out in parking lots when there isn't a shred of evidence of a single woman bleeding out in a parking lot of a hospital. Well, there was actually a woman who died in Georgia who, because she, there were two women in fact,

one in particular who couldn't receive the care that she needed. There's no evidence of a woman bleeding out in a parking lot. My point is the kind of rhetoric that's used across the board, we should apply it to even him. Have you seen evidence of Haitian migrants eating pets? Like if we're going to talk about evidence, have you seen evidence of Haitian migrants eating pets?

Having gone to Springfield, I didn't see that evidence. But what I will tell you is I'm bringing that up because you brought up the Haitian migrant point. There are residents in the community that had pointed to that. There isn't even that level of a shred of evidence to support a single woman in the United States bleeding out in a parking lot. That's been a repeated claim made by Kamala Harris.

So I think when we're getting into fact checking, I think we should apply the same standards 360 degrees. And I think we should not use Kamala Harris's quote there to sidestep a debate about abortion policy, just as we shouldn't use some other quote as an excuse to sidestep a debate about immigration policy. And a core thesis of this book is let's not use the fringe words that somebody on either side might say. And let's focus on the actual content of the debate, even when we disagree most.

I think that's going to be a key step to reviving our country. And the beauty of America is we can disagree badly and I believe still get together at the dinner table at the end of it. That's the America I miss when I grew up not that far from Springfield myself. And that's the America I'd like to see us revive. And that was a core motive for me writing the book that we're releasing today.

All I will say is that we did see that the family of the woman in Georgia, they were at the event where Kamala Harris did an interview with Oprah and they heartbreakingly had lost their daughter, who of course was also a mother. But look, Vivek Ramaswamy, I really appreciate your time today. I'm sure we're going to see much more of you on our political scene. And like I said, congrats on the book. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you for having me, guys.

All right, 55 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. New video of the Titan salvage operation released by the Coast Guard. You can see a remotely operated underwater vehicle recovering parts of the submersible. Also released the final message from the Titan crew dropped two WTs. That refers to the weights that the submersible could shed to stop its descent. Six seconds later, all contact was lost. And this.

It's disappointing. We have a Republican majority. We should be cutting spending, not continuing to pass spending bills that grow the national debt. But the votes weren't there, so now we move forward.

Opposition growing on the right flank of the Republican Party to Speaker Mike Johnson's three-month government spending bill. Later today, House Republican leaders plan to use a procedural floor move to rely on Democrats to help pass the legislation and avoid a government shutdown. This move would require two-thirds majority to pass. J.D. Vance has recruited House Majority Whip Tom Emmer to help him practice ahead of the vice presidential debate. Here's what Emmer had to say about those preparations.

What's it like playing Tim Walls? Well, you've got to learn how to lie with a straight face.

But according to Vance, they haven't started yet. They might want to get started. The debate is just a week away. I want to spend a minute talking about this vice presidential debate that we're about to see because, Jonah, the dynamics between these two men, in many ways, very different profiles, in many ways, not a lot to lose necessarily. What do you expect when they meet on the debate stage next week?

Look, Vance has decided that a big part of his future is to play to a certain kind of bro out there. And I don't think it's all that helpful for the Trump campaign, but I think he thinks it's helpful for him. And so I think you could actually see former high school coach, who I do think takes liberties with the truth, too, but like scolding young, obnoxious young man vibes.

as the dynamic of that debate. Well, it's sort of going to be, it might be a debate over who owns masculinity and what it is, right? Possibly, although I agree with Jonah. I think the dynamic, I think J.D. Vance is probably not even aware, he could end up looking very small and not very masculine, by the way. But also, it's an opportunity for Democrats to point out that given Trump's age,

this guy could end up being your president and he says wacky, crazy stuff. I think that's a big part of what you're going to see coming out of the debate. I mean, Joan is also right that, you know, JD does sound like a Yale educated lawyer, right? But I will say the one thing that I'm going to look out for is, you know, JD's been getting in reps.

You know, he's been doing interviews. He's been doing tough interviews, press conferences. You know, Tim Walz is not. And Tim Walz, that's also raised the stakes for this debate because Tim Walz is basically has not done a solo national interview yet. This is going to be Americans real first opportunity to see him. So I think the stakes might even be a little bit bigger for Tim Walz. Last time we saw Tim Walz, he was in the interview with Dana Bash. And best I could tell, all he was there for is to be the emotional support animal.

You know, and so he's not been doing the kind of combat that a VP nominee has to do on the trail. JD has. And while we weren't watching, JD Vance has become a much more effective communicator in the last two months or so.

uh... childless cat lady i would think there's a lot of years ago and he had better than that double then triple down on the on that says the will see on tuesday morning but i mean if you like it coming back to with that is just how much that particular thing has broken through with normal people the childless cavities issue it jd's

fault is communications I think is that he's a little bit too online he's a little bit too aware of what right-wing Twitter says he has to get past that the challenge for anybody run for president this generation he's not going to be the last candidate for president vice president who has that problem people grown up on Twitter he needs to aim at that middle of the electorate this conflicted well that's why we ended up with the pets in Springfield

is J.D. Vance being very online about it. And speaking, I mean, I think you're absolutely right. Both parties have problems with people who are way too addicted to Twitter. In fact, you just interviewed someone who's like the poster child of that. All right, guys, thank you very much for being here today. I really appreciate it. Thanks to all of you for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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