Milton Sets Sights On Tampa
50:01 Share

From all over the world, people turn to Cleveland Clinic for our expertise and our compassionate care. As leaders in heart, neurology, and cancer, the future of specialty care is happening right now at Cleveland Clinic. For every life-saving treatment, for every next step, for every care in the world, Cleveland Clinic.

Freshly made ravioli or hand-pulled ramen noodles. When you dine with Chase Sapphire Reserve, either will be amazing because it's the choice between a front row seat at the chef's table while getting a live demo of how to make ravioli or dining family style as you hear the story behind your ramen broth. This weekend, it's ravioli. Next weekend, ramen.

Find the detail that moves you with immersive dining experiences from Sapphire Reserve. Chase, make more of what's yours. Learn more at chase.com slash sapphirereserve. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval. It's Tuesday, October 8th, right now on CNN This Morning.

If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die. A dire warning. Tampa's mayor urging people to take Hurricane Milton seriously as they brace for a potentially catastrophic storm. Plus, four weeks and counting where the race stands just a month from Election Day and this. We got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.

Bad genes. Donald Trump once again turning to dark rhetoric as he hammers Kamala Harris on immigration and crime. And later... I have a Glock and I've had it for quite some time. Kamala Harris, the gun owner, what her campaign might be hoping to accomplish by highlighting her use of firearms.

All right, 6:00 AM on the East Coast. A live look at Tampa, FL. Mass evacuations underway as Hurricane Milton, an incredibly dangerous hurricane, is closing in there. Thankfully that traffic is moving. Good morning everyone, I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. We're following breaking news this morning. The new update on Hurricane Milton out just a short time ago. Right now, Milton, a category four hurricane, but that could change. It's expected to regain strength this morning after slowing down some overnight.

The storm expected to make landfall tomorrow evening near Tampa, the second major hurricane for Florida's coast in just two weeks. And now Florida officials are bracing for impact while still clearing debris from Hurricane Helene, distributing sandbags and encouraging people to evacuate. Tampa's mayor issuing this blunt warning.

Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic. And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die. Very stark. Let's get to meteorologist Derek Van Dam with the latest. Derek, what are we seeing from the storm at this hour?

Well, Casey, those are some sobering words, but taken right from the National Hurricane Center, West Central Florida is facing the potential of the most destructive hurricane in its history. And this is something that I've never seen before, a police escort of debris removal on Treasure Island in advance of the second major hurricane to impact the state of Florida.

the time is not on their side, unfortunately, and we need to get that debris away from the area from Helene, which was two weeks ago as quickly as possible. This is the latest 155 mile per hour category four storm. The storm timing has remained more or less the same. We're still thinking late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning time frame. It will likely make its

way into as a major landfalling hurricane. But one thing that's important and explicitly noted within the 5 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, the Tropical Storm Force and Hurricane Force wind field will double in size as it approaches the state of Florida. There will be a period of time as this makes landfall where Hurricane Force winds will be felt from coast to coast

from the Gulf all the way to the Atlantic. That will of course push up the water as well. Now, so many of our evacuation orders are based on this storm surge potential. Remember, we need to nail down exactly where that I makes landfall, but 10 to 15 ft of storm surge Casey, that's over double my height.

Wow. Stark way to put it. Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, busy time ahead for you and, of course, a very scary time for all those residents of Florida. We'll be checking in with you throughout the day, I'm sure. And that storm is, of course, just one of a number of major issues facing voters and candidates as Election Day nears. There are now just 28 days, four weeks, until November 5th.

This just in this morning, a new poll from the New York Times and Siena College finds Kamala Harris making some progress among likely voters. Harris with support from 49 percent to Trump's 46 percent nationally. In that same poll last month, the two were tied. In previous polling, voters have indicated they want to know more about Harris's policies. In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired last night, she was pressed on that.

In the last four years, I have been vice president of the United States. And I have been traveling our country. And I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground. I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds. And what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus.

where we can figure out compromise and understand it's not a bad thing, as long as you don't compromise your values, to find common-sense solutions. And that has been my approach. Trump was also invited to sit down with 60 Minutes. CBS says he canceled after they declined to promise not to fact-check him, and because they refused to apologize for the interview that they conducted with him before the 2020 election. Instead, Trump spoke with Fox News in a town hall event that aired last night, where he said this.

How will you restore faith in our justice system? A lot of people will say, well, he's just going to do to them what they did to him and get back at them. A lot of people say that's what should happen. You want to know that too. Right. Well, but I think...

All right, our panel's here to discuss Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios. Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor. Leah Wright-Ragore, CNN political analyst and historian. She's also an associate professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. And Mike Dubke, former Trump White House communications director. Welcome to all of you. Good morning. Good morning. Mike, let me start with you on the new polling. This...

The most interesting thing here to me, polls, snapshots in time, we get it. National poll, not battleground state polls. It's really battlegrounds that matter at this stage. But there's some movement in Harris's direction. What do you make of it? Well, you took away all my talking points. It's a snapshot in time and we need to look state to state. I'm not necessarily surprised. I think these polls are going to rise and fall. We've seen if I was talking to a...

a Democrat yesterday about Nevada as one example of where Harris had made these advances over the last couple weeks and the latest poll that they had coming out showed Trump up. So I think we're going to see this ebb and flow of polling as we go forward. I'm not necessarily surprised that the national numbers are shifting this way. I think that takes, that encompasses the states in which

there are going to be runaway winners. Trump's going to win North Dakota. Harris is going to win New York State. I feel really confident in saying those things. But if we focus on the seven states and watch that back and forth, that's where it's...

mind-bogglingly, which I mispronounced, close. Yes. No, I mean, Alex Thompson, when you talk to your sources in the Harris campaign and Biden world, what do they feel this race is right now? I was talking to someone just yesterday, and they just said, it's so tight.

And, like, listen, they're nervous. Now, obviously, their line is we're the underdog, we're the underdog. At the same time, their strategy is more of, like, they're protecting a lead in terms of being a little bit more risk-averse. The thing is that they basically believe that any sort of outside event...

could really shake up this race in a significant way. Maybe it's a hurricane, maybe it's something else the next four weeks. - Yeah, can I ask you about the hurricane because there was this back and forth between Ron DeSantis and Kamala Harris. She tried to call him reportedly and he refused to take the call, saying she doesn't have anything to do with it, but then Republicans are also trying to hang failures in response or slower response times around, you know, trying to blame Democrats for that. How much of this do they see as a potential major problem for them?

I think we should really stop having elections in hurricane season because the fact is that now a very serious storm, now the second serious storm is becoming incredibly politicized. And this has happened, this happened in 2012. It basically happens every single time. The fact that there are politics now involved and what is really just a natural disaster where people need emergency help and rebuilding is not surprising but disappointing.

So, Elliot, some of the other numbers in this poll, one of them is who is more fun? And Kamala Harris gets 43% to Donald Trump's 35%. Look, an important primary that happens, and you might have heard the term of the beer versus wine primary. And when it's a question of which candidate would you rather have a glass of beer with,

versus the candidate you want to have a glass of wine with, often the beer candidate wins. Oddly enough, going back-- - Wait, I'm sorry, the beer's opposite to the wine now? - Excuse me? - Just drink. - Beer dad versus wine mom, it's 2024. - Beer dad versus wine mom is 2024, but it's the quintessential

uh you know romney versus or mccain versus obama right now who do you want to have a beer with if you want to have a glass of wine with americans often cast part of their vote on who they feel more comfortable with who you think you could socialize with now look is kamala harris going to be the president united states because people think she's more fun and does more tick tocks and killer banging dank memes no however it's something that's on people's minds people assess personalities

Keep a straight face. Those words coming out of your mouth, as soon as you say call her daddy, I will... Oh, but...

But the Call Her Daddy, and we may talk about it over the course of the show, but the Call Her Daddy was a brilliantly... See, I made you say Call Her Daddy. You did make me say Call Her Daddy. But that's brilliant given that it's an audience of five million people, many of whom are women, many of whom are young women, and that's a constituency that Kamala Harris needs to double down on. We can goof about it sort of silly because of how much of the other content on the program, but...

And I think a lot of people picked on her about it, but it was a really smart interview to do. As we wrap up here, Leah, one of the other, possibly the most important number here in this polling is who more represents change, which Harris has a two-point edge over Trump in this latest New York Times poll, 46% to 44%. This often, I mean, if you talk to anyone who worked for Bill Clinton back in 1992, right, change was, and Obama in 2008, this can be really determinative.

Absolutely. I also would say the economy. But with regard to, I think, change, part of what we know is that going into this election, whoever is perceived as the change agent, whoever is perceived as the outsider, the insurgent, that is the person that is going to win the election, that has been consistent over and over again, except in moments when there are mass crises, massive wars, these kind of large overarching issues where Americans tend to prefer

the incumbent or whoever has been in charge for a very long time but this is a change election so I'm not surprised to see that there were were kinda positioning having this moment where we're positioning people as outsiders one of the most remarkable things about Kamala Harris is very kind of explosive

short campaign is how she has managed to position herself as an outsider to all of these places in a way that the American public has deeply responded to. So if she can do that in these swing states, when these places were really at the margins, where that's where the election is going to be decided, she will win the election. All right. Come up here on CNN this morning defending her record. It's a long standing problem and solutions are at hand.

Kamala Harris pressed about the Biden administration's immigration policy and her promise to be tougher at the border. Plus, Georgia's six-week abortion ban back in effect as the state's Supreme Court weighs an appeal. And we continue to track Hurricane Milton, now a major hurricane barreling towards Florida's Gulf Coast. The former director of FEMA here to discuss the challenge ahead. We're talking about storm surge values higher than the ceiling. Please, if you're in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate.

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair? Done well. Kitchen sink install? Done well. Deck upgrades? Done well. Electrical upgrade? Done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well. Hire high-quality, certified pros at Angie.com.

From all over the world, people turn to Cleveland Clinic for our expertise and our compassionate care. As leaders in heart, neurology, and cancer, the future of specialty care is happening right now at Cleveland Clinic. For every life-saving treatment, for every next step, for every care in the world, Cleveland Clinic.

All right, welcome back. Immigration, of course, continues to be a leading issue among voters in the presidential election, both candidates discussing it on Monday. During an appearance on 60 Minutes, Vice President Harris called illegal migration a longstanding problem. She was pressed about border crossings under the Biden administration. But the numbers did quadruple under your watch. And the numbers today, because of what we have done,

We have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half. Should you have done that? Should you have done that? We have cut the flow of fentanyl by half. But we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem. Trump has made immigration a central part of his campaign in all three of his bids for the White House. Now he's suggesting there's something wrong in the genes of some of the migrants coming to the U.S.

She has no clue. How about allowing people to come to an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers, many of them murdered far more than one person, and they're now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. Got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. Elliot Williams, this is sort of...

there's been a lot of this underlying his remarks and now he's just flat out saying it? - Yeah, so there's a couple big things going on and set aside the allegations of whether you want to call it blood libel or eugenics that underlie these comments about bad genes. It's bigoted, it's racist, we don't need it in this country, but we're used to it from the former president.

The thing that strikes me, and remember I worked at ICE for five years, this horribly misleading statistic about 13,000 murderers running around in the country freeing the United States. - Yeah, okay, help us explain. - So once those, whatever the number is, ICE does not track people who are not in federal ICE custody. Now, those people, many of whom might have been convicted or charged with murder, are very well in state and local prisons. So they are locked up.

And after they're released from prison, because of the nature of the felonies they have, they're kicked out of the United States. But the idea that there's somehow 13,000 people that America knew were murderers that they let in that are now running the streets is simply inaccurate. Now,

That took me about 30 seconds to explain, and I think that doesn't really work on a campaign trail. And you can garble it really easily saying there's 13,000 murderers from Mexico that are going to come in and kill your daughter. But that's just simply not the case. Most of them are incarcerated and will be removed from the United States when their time's up.

- Leah, I mean there's a very long history in the, I mean Eugene kind of ran through some of this, of immigration being an issue that comes into the conversation in a way that is very,

bigoted as, to use Elliot's word. What do you see in where we are in this conversation in our country today? - Well, you know what, Donald Trump promised to make America great again and I think one of the things that we're seeing is that we're actually experiencing a return to 1936.

maybe 1924, right? All of these moments where xenophobia and these kind of replacement theory, eugenics, right? All of these really deeply bigoted ideas about migrants and immigration are coming to the surface. And they're rising to the surface for a very specific purpose because it has

turned out to be a very good political strategy for addressing the anxieties and the fears and generating outrage around the issue of migration. The problem is that it doesn't offer a solution. And so instead of having actual solutions to the crisis or the problem of migration in this country, many of the structural issues that come about from it

What we have instead is eugenics and eugenic theory. We have replacement theory. We have a candidate on the campaign trail, former president of the United States, who is actually saying things that are deeply dehumanizing and degrading and that actually do, I think,

instill a sense of dehumanizing that ultimately leads to violence. We saw this with Haitian migrants in Springfield a couple weeks ago. We're seeing it again, particularly around these issues of Mexican migrants.

I think this is a really dangerous moment that we are in, but it also harkens back to really dangerous moments that we've been in in this country before. And we've seen what the outcomes of that have been. It directly ends up targeting, I think, deeply dividing the American people, but also really ginning up violence against people who are migrants in this country. - Mike Dupke, I just wanna give you that last word here. This is obviously a challenge for so many of these communities, right? There is a problem here. - Absolutely.

and voters are telling us that they believe that it's a problem and they're living the problem i mean first of all thank you for playing the whole clip he's talking about murderers not migrants uh necessarily in that clip secondly bill whitaker had it right quadrupling of the number during her administration when they finally decided to crack down in may june of this year that number decreased she's right about that as well but she had it in her

power and Biden did to crack down on this. If she comes basically back to the White House, I think it is fair to call her

She's going to be the new Bob Barker of the border, meaning that come on up. Migrants listen to this. They listened to Biden's rhetoric during the last campaign and flooded the border. And until he cracked down and said we're cracking down, then it stopped. We're going to see the exact same thing in a Harris administration. Just really quick, I'll say I think there's one answer that all of them can give, which is that it's on Congress to fix it.

The problem is that requires so much explanation. And time. Do you have any idea how many times I've covered an attempt to pass comprehensive immigration reform? And how many times I worked on it, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013. At a simple point, that's the answer. But it requires her too much explanation. And it's too easy for the other side to sort of demonize. And the politics of it are impossible. All right. Coming up next here on CNN This Morning, the Gulf Coast of Florida preparing for catastrophe.

The Tampa Bay area has never seen anything like this before. People need to get out. We're on the ground in Tampa as mass evacuations are underway ahead of a monster storm. Plus, North Carolina picking up the pieces from Hurricane Helene. Just four weeks from Election Day, officials say they won't let the damage stop voters from casting their ballots.

Hurricane Milton quickly approaching Florida's Gulf Coast as a major hurricane, forcing thousands to evacuate. The storm expected to bring historic storm surge flooding to areas around Tampa. We have the time, the knowledge, and the resources to make sure everyone can make it through this storm alive. But our time to act is very short.

In about 90 minutes, Florida's governor will give an update on how the state is preparing. One Florida meteorologist who's covered some of Florida's worst storms got emotional when he saw just how fast Milton intensified. It has dropped. It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours. I apologize. This is just horrific. All right, joining us now with the latest on the ground in Tampa, CNN News source correspondent Ivan Rodriguez. Ivan, good morning to you. What are you seeing down there?

Casey, a lot of people are still trying to get out of the Tampa Bay area and we've been hearing it all

all morning long and also yesterday, officials pleading with millions of people that now is the time to evacuate and do so before conditions begin to deteriorate. We want to show you these live images here of traffic bumper to bumper getting out of this Tampa Bay area. We know that across the state of florida, tolls have been suspended on these major highways as well to assist with the evacuations and

Also, the state is allowing for hurricane evacuees to drive on the shoulder in order to keep that traffic moving. All day yesterday, Casey, we saw traffic also backed up on several highways here in the Tampa Bay area, and it really seems like people are taking this seriously, especially on the heels

of Hurricane Helene, which caused so much devastation across the Florida Big Bend region specifically here as well. But another concern from officials is also all the debris that is left behind in so many neighborhoods here in the Tampa Bay area. When Hurricane Milton does make its landfall, all that debris could end up in the air and as a projectile. So it's something to keep a close eye on here as well. All right, Ivan Rodriguez for us this morning. Ivan, thank you very much for that.

Coming up next here on CNN this morning, new 2024 polling showing a very close race, but some movement for Kamala Harris, plus politics complicating storm preparations as Florida braces for a direct hit from a second hurricane. The governor and vice president publicly feuding. And about political gamesmanship. I'm not worried about playing her political games.

Freshly made ravioli or hand-pulled ramen noodles. When you dine with Chase Sapphire Reserve, either will be amazing because it's the choice between a front row seat at the chef's table while getting a live demo of how to make ravioli or dining family style as you hear the story behind your ramen broth. This weekend, it's ravioli. Next weekend, ramen.

Find the detail that moves you with immersive dining experiences from Sapphire Reserve. Chase, make more of what's yours. Learn more at chase.com slash sapphirereserve. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval.

Oh, it's such a clutch off-season pickup, Dave. I was worried we'd bring back the same team. I meant those blackout motorized shades. Blinds.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install? No, it's easy. I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Hall of Fame's son? They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Blinds.com is the GOAT!

Shop blinds.com right now and get up to 45% off select styles. Rules and restrictions may apply.

All right, more breaking coverage as people in Tampa continue to flee a monster storm. The traffic bumper to bumper right now heading out of that city. What's expected to be the most powerful storm of 2024 is approaching the Gulf Coast of Florida at this hour. Here's the view of Hurricane Milton from the International Space Station. Wow, look at that. It's expected to make landfall late Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Mandatory evacuations ordered in parts of nine counties.

thousands jamming highways looking to get to safety. Forecasters expecting Milton to hit cities like Tampa with up to 15 feet of storm surge. That is double what Hurricane Helene delivered less than two weeks ago. Let's bring in former FEMA Administrator Brock Long. Brock, good morning to you. Thank you very much.

for being with us this morning. Obviously the Tampa Bay area is still reeling from Hurricane Helene. FEMA is stretched pretty thin. What are the challenges here and how do you think the preparations are going for this? What are you preparing for? - So this is the most dangerous storm scenario. This is a catastrophic planning scenario within FEMA.

This track, if it holds, and it will, is extremely dangerous. I can't say that enough for Tampa Bay and communities to the north and south of Tampa Bay. People really need to heed the warnings. And I don't think that people realize that most of the evacuation planning is centered around storm surge. It's not necessarily the wind as much as it is the water.

And the storm surge associated with this has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of destruction. And that's why we're asking people, local leaders are asking people to get out and find a safe place. Regarding FEMA, it's not an ideal situation. I faced a similar situation in 2017 when Harvey, Irma, Maria, and the California wildfires all hit within a two-week period. The good thing about this is that because of the previous event with Helene,

FEMA has a pretty sizable force down in Florida already working initial recovery from Helene. And a lot of those jobs will flip over to the response side to make sure that things are in place and that they're highly coordinated with Florida's Division of Emergency Management and the governor's office as Milton makes landfall.

When this storm hits, there's going to be all sorts of debris still left over from Helene. What does the presence of that debris mean for the response, recovery, and how this might go?

So it's definitely what I worry about more than the debris is what damage was done to the homes by Helene because any damage to a home may reduce its ability to handle the next event when Helene comes in. So the temporary repairs that were made to homes and buildings, hopefully they're very strong. But in this case, when you're talking about a major hurricane,

The damage is going to be off the charts as the forecast track holds. The debris is vegetated, but it's also commercial and demolition. And unfortunately, if it's not picked up, it's going to be scattered by Milton.

All right. Former FEMA administrator Brock Long. Sir, thank you very much for your time today. I'm sure we'll be talking to you again in this week, which is set to be a really, really tough one for all of your former colleagues at FEMA and all of the residents down in Florida. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

- Absolutely. - Thank you. - All right, with Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida, the response to Hurricane Helene in that state has become a full-blown political campaign issue. On Monday, CNN learned Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, refused to return calls from Vice President Harris in the wake of Helene's landfall on Florida's coast. The vice president has this to say about the governor dodging her calls.

But DeSantis says the vice president is the one playing games, arguing she has no role in the hurricane response process during an interview on Fox News.

I've had storms under both President Trump and President Biden, and I've worked well with both of them. She's the first one who's trying to politicize the storm, and she's doing that just because of her campaign. She's trying to get some type of an edge. She knows she's doing poorly, and so she's playing these political games. I don't have time for political games.

All right, our panel is back. Mike Dubke, the one question I do have, I mean, if Rhonda says, well, she's got nothing to do with this, and yet they're trying to hang any failures around the neck of the Biden administration, those two things do seem to be in conflict. Yeah, except I can't remember the last time a vice president of either party called and inserted themselves in an emergency situation. So on the one hand, I totally understand

why she would want to be part of the story. But really, to Alex's point about hurricanes and elections, I would wish that these were separated as well, because this is more about the president of the United States, who is Joe Biden right now, getting aid down to Florida for Governor DeSantis. And if she has made calls throughout the three and a half years that she's been a vice president and there have been hurricanes, I will stand corrected. But I bet you she hasn't.

Both sides are doing political gamesmanship here. Rhonda Santos doesn't have time for political games because she has time for a Fox News interview to talk about political games. Kamala Harris has time for a phone call. And I can tell you, she almost never goes over to the reporters before walking on the plane, but she did have time to go to the reporters and then call out Rhonda Santos for political gamesmanship. Both are trying to get an edge here, in part because...

who is seen as being more responsible in terms of the reaction to the hurricane. - And responsive. - Responsive, yes. - And I think the saddest thing about it as people either are suffering or will be is that both of them win in a way from that exchange. She gets the, oh my gosh, I attempted to call the governor, he didn't even call me back, and the governor gets his

big talking point. It's the sadness, this is to Alex's point earlier in the show, about our election is always happening during hurricane season. You have these major events where people's lives are at stake, but either of them are trying to score points and succeeding at it.

Yeah, so I do think that there have been moments, particularly in times of crisis, where presidential candidates have inserted themselves into the conversation. And so I think that's actually what we're seeing with not just Kamala Harris, we're also seeing it with Donald Trump. So if we look back at, say, the economic crisis of 2008, Barack Obama absolutely suspended his campaign and said, hey, I'm going to insert myself even though I have no standing to do anything because I am not president of the United States.

We also saw John McCain do the same thing. And I think part of what we are seeing right now is, yes, an attempt to really position themselves politically. But also there's the recognition that this is a moment that is devastating, right?

Essentially, one of the things that we're hearing over and over again from FEMA is that the amount of misinformation, the amount of politicization that has entered the conversation right now is actually negatively affecting what they are able to do and how people are able to respond to the storm right now.

I actually think the focus right now from everybody should simply be on safety. It should be on what are we going to do here? How are we going to stop this? How are we going to deal with the fallout and the continued fallout because hurricane season isn't over. It is not. All right. After the break.

on CNN this morning. One month to go, Election Day just around the corner. What, if anything, is going to change undecided voters' minds at this point? We're going to talk to longtime political strategist, friend of the show, Mark McKinnon, plus Kamala Harris opening up about her gun ownership after this candid moment with Oprah last month. If somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot. Sorry. Yes, yes. I hear that. I hear that. Probably should not have said that. Here we are again in October.

So, a major port strike could make for an October surprise. Could the infamous October surprise in this year's election actually be coming from overseas? Hurricane Helene affecting at least two battleground states. This, to me, might be the October surprise. Is a spike at the pump the October surprise that no one wants? Why are October surprises always so f***ed?

with less than a month to go to election day could anything change voters minds and shake up a race that is basically deadlocked a new focus group moderated by pollster frank luntz in the new york times recently asked a group of young undecided voters exactly that what have they changed their minds about in recent weeks 27 year old lillian told them this quote i think the thing raising my opinion of trump is my opinion of kamala the biden harris administration couldn't establish deterrence in the middle east for the last year and so now they are bombing the heck out of israel

"Walls surprised me as well. "I thought he was eloquent and civil," responded 20-year-old Laura. And for 24-year-old Joseph, it was foreign policy. He felt like, quote, "At points in the last month, "we haven't even been a power, "giving everything going on in the Middle East." Joining me now, former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain, Mark McKinnon, also the creator of Paramount's

The Circus, Mark, always wonderful to have you. Thank you so much for being here. A lot of talk this week about October surprises or lack thereof. I feel like we may be at the point where there's just so much that's stacking up that there's no single thing that may surprise us. But also, when you make these kind of predictions, I think we've all learned that lesson enough to know not to do it anymore in our politics.

What do you see as being the major, potential major impacts on this race that has been so, so, so close all the way along here since the top of the ticket changed? - Good morning, Casey. Well, the one thing I would say is that at this point in this race, there really aren't very many undecided voters. Frank Luntz had to do a lot of work to find those undecided voters, I guarantee you.

So the question when you have limited resource, you spend them trying to find those very limited undecided voters. Do you try and persuade those people? Or do you try and motivate people who have already made up their minds? That's where you should spend the resource you're trying to. You're trying to animate.

and make enthusiastic voters who are for you and get your base out because there just aren't that many undecided voters. So that's kind of a waste of resources because there just aren't that many people. Now, that said, with the election pretty much set and with voters decided, what could change it? Well, the one thing that could change it is a storm and a massive storm and a historic storm. Ask me about Katrina. You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie. Remember that one? Well, you know, major storms are the one time

when people really do look to government to say this is your job this is when this is the one time we can on you to respond so I mean not only will the the you know they'll be looking to see how the Harris by administration responds I but think about this too if it's near anywhere near as big as is is likely to be this is gonna dominate news coverage for the next couple weeks maybe through the election it may be the only story that people are talking about so of course is going to be politicized

because it may be the only story.

Mark, can we dig into this a little bit? I mean, what do you think the risks are for Harris? And we've already seen her. We were just talking about the back and forth she's having with Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, DeSantis declining to take her call. It is pretty normal for vice presidents to, I mean, Alyssa Fair Griffin was on our air last night saying Mike Pence always used to do it and always used to make calls to local officials in disaster areas. But because she's in office, the risk to her may seem

Seems to me that it might be higher for her here heading into the final stretch of the election. What's your take on it? Well, yeah, the risk is that she's an incumbent and she's going to be incumbent during one of the worst storms in our history, possibly. So, yeah, the risk is very high because all the responsibility for the response is going to be on her and Biden.

So it's a huge it's a huge it's a huge potential problem for Harris. It's also an opportunity if they respond well. But man, something that's as massive as this, it's just, you know, people are going to be unhappy. So, you know, it's it is a it's a factor that, you know, in an election that's this close could be a big factor.

Yeah, for sure. Mark, speaking of the election being close, there's new New York Times-Siena polling out this morning that shows, and again, it's a national poll, but it does show some movement toward Harris in September. They had it 47-47. Now they've got it 49-46.

What do you read into this, if anything, in terms of where this race stands? Or I always try to in these closing weeks, I feel like the thing that makes the big difference is where is the ball rolling, right? Who's got the momentum? Because that tends to really, in my experience, make a difference heading into Election Day. Do you think this says something about that or not?

100 percent, Casey. And, you know, listen, it's been my job over years to look at all the data and, you know, all the polling. But as you said, in the last couple of weeks, you just get kind of a spidey sense of where things are going and momentum is really key. You could feel that shift in the last week of the campaign in 2016. So that's going to be huge. And I think that there's two things that you mentioned in your polling earlier about Harris that I think are important.

are compelling and relevant. One is that she's become the change candidate, but you know, more than Trump has, which is astonishing when you think about the fact that she's technically the incumbent. So that's a kind of a magic trick that she's pulling off, that she's become the change agent as an incumbent. The other thing was your fun factor. I mean, you know, at a very base level,

This is kind of the Occam's razor point of view on this thing, which is who do you want to see on your television for the next four years? Donald Trump, more that fury and payback and all of that and that anger. Or do you want to see somebody who's more joyful and just you want to see on TV so you can't discount that?

- Mark, how do you see the week of the election playing out considering Trump's rhetoric has been pretty dark and we're kind of already seeing him lay the groundwork for questioning the fairness in various places. What are you concerned about? What are you looking for? Where do you think we should be focusing our attention?

Pennsylvania, that's where I'll be. It's just astonishing to me that they still don't count their early votes until election day. You know that that's that's just a crime because that means that the elect we know that the election that how important Pennsylvania is going to be and we know that Pennsylvania will very likely not be counted.

the day of the election. So that means that it's highly likely we won't know the results of the election on election day. And that just feeds the conspiracy theories. So I'm very worried about it because Pennsylvania is so key and Pennsylvania still has a screwed up system. All right. Mark McKinnon for us this morning. Mark, always love having you. Come back soon.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. 52 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Hurricane Milton still a dangerous category four storm right now. The latest update just a short time ago says it'll be a major hurricane when it makes landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast. We expect that tomorrow night. Highways out of Tampa are slammed with traffic as residents follow mandatory evacuation orders. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will hold a news conference on how the state is preparing for the storm in the next hour.

Georgia's six-week abortion ban reinstated while the state's Supreme Court considers an appeal to the ruling. Last week, a Fulton County judge found the ban on abortions beyond six weeks was unconstitutional. The ban will now remain in place indefinitely as the appeals battle plays out. And... We're actually in a good shape for what we need to ensure that people are able to vote North Carolina. What I worry about more is actually motivation.

Asheville leaders echoing Senator J.D. Vance's confidence, confirming that North Carolinians will be able to vote despite the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Helene. Early voting is scheduled to begin across the state in nine days. All right, let's turn now to this line that Kamala Harris has been using on the campaign trail. I am a gun owner, and Tim Walz, my running mate, is also a gun owner. Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We're not taking anybody's guns away. I'm a gun owner. Tim Walz is a gun owner. I did not know that!

If somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot. Yes, yes. The firearm that she owns, well, turns out, it's a Glock. So what kind of gun do you own, and when and why did you get it? I have a Glock, and I've had it for quite some time. And, I mean, look, Bill, my background is in law enforcement. And so there you go. Have you ever fired it? Yes, of course I have.

at a shooting range? Yes, of course I have. All right, our panel's back. Mike, we were talking off camera. I know you've been curious. I've been curious for two weeks now. No one has asked this question. Thank goodness for Bill Whitaker.

because he finally got to the bottom of this. I have no idea why this has been such a mystery for so long. - Why? What? - The Glock. Just the type of gun. Now, she didn't ask the why and how and why you got it. She avoided that question. So now we have more questions as a follow-up. - But why specifically is whether it's a Glock or a Smith & Wesson,

- What is the importance of that? - Mainly because I wanna know if this is something that her political team said you need to go out and say.

and whether or not she was aware of, you know, if a gun owner knows the type of gun they have, they know, they should know about gun safety, they should know about how to handle a gun. - Right. - And none of those questions were ever followed up until 60 Minutes had to do it. And this is why we need her on hard hitting news programs because she didn't get that question on again, The View, The Late Night with Stephen Colbert, or Call Her Daddy. - Next one is-- - I guarantee. - Next one's Soldier Fortune Magazine.

Guns and ammo. She has talked about owning a gun in the past before this campaign, but you're 100% right that she has never talked about it as much as she has the last several weeks. It is clearly an effort, part of an ongoing effort, to show people in the middle of the country. Their team feels comfortable. They have the Democratic base rallied. They're trying to present her to the middle of the country as someone that's pragmatic, someone who isn't, as the Trump campaign has been trying to label her, as dangerously liberal. And I think

there's a value in being seen as pissing off her own folks. It's angering to people on the left. - Queen Latifah moment, right? - Queen Latifah moment and that, the sister soldier moment. And that excites some folks. - But it's also, I mean, if we look at the stats, if we look at the demographics, black women are actually the fastest growing group of people who are gun owners in this country.

And so for us to sit around and be like, huh, this is kind of curious. I don't really understand. She actually lines squarely up with these kind of changing trends. Not only that, I think there's an enormous amount of appeal twofold here. One, she gets to talk to gun owners. This is an area that largely Democrats have been cut off from. But she also simultaneously gets to talk to two thirds of Americans

who believe in sensible or stricter gun reform, right? She gets to do both. And then the last point here is that while we focus on this, while we talk about, okay, what kind of gun is she gonna do? How long has she been this? She actually doesn't have to answer other questions,

Right? So we're so focused on these kind of conversations around gun ownership and things like that, we're not actually talking about the other hit points from these interviews, whether she answered them, did she answer them appropriately, that kind of thing. So it ends up being a really great talking point for her that allows her to do multiple things across multiple audiences with very little effort.

Mike Dupkey fell into the trap. No, I told you. You snared in her web, Michael. After listening to your explanation of this, she's finally learning from Donald Trump. You say a few things that get the news media focused on, and then you go. You don't have to talk about Ukraine and the UN Charter and whatever that word salad answer was last night on 60 Minutes. You don't have to talk about it. So here was Trump back in 2018 talking about firearms because, again, this is

continually an issue that we deal with in our political space. Let's watch. You might take the firearms first and then go to court because that's another system because a lot of times by the time you go to court it takes so long to go to court to get the due process procedures. I like taking the guns early like in this crazy man's case that just took place in Florida.

He had a lot of fires. They saw everything. To go to court would have taken a long time. So you could do exactly what you're saying, but take the guns first, go through due process second. So, Mike, this was obviously in the wake of the Parkland shooting in Florida. Horrific. But what he said there didn't sit well with the NRA and others. I mean, there are questions really about both of these candidates and their guns, too.

Yeah. Look, again, going back to this point on the gun ownership, she obviously wanted to inject a way for her to seem relatable to folks in the Midwest. Now, with Trump, he is known to react to news stories of the day. And sometimes he just speaks as in that case.

And he's walked comments back before. I think most of our politicians have done this. Yeah, well, Trump is speaking to the NRA this week. Kamala Harris, as far as we know, is not speaking to the NRA. So I think in terms of the people that probably vote on the Second Amendment, you know, Trump still has an edge there. Yeah, well, yeah.

I almost forgot there's questions about Trump's gun ownership because he's a convicted felon. He's a convicted felon, but the conviction is not final yet until he goes through all appeals. So as of right now, he's still lawfully able to possess a firearm. This is why we have you at the table. Thanks so much for that. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

From all over the world, people turn to Cleveland Clinic for our expertise and our compassionate care. As leaders in heart, neurology, and cancer, the future of specialty care is happening right now at Cleveland Clinic. For every life-saving treatment, for every next step, for every care in the world, Cleveland Clinic.

Don't let CNN's John King have all the fun. Experience the CNN magic wall on your mobile device. Get live results, expert insights, and an immersive election experience. Find it at cnn.com slash magic wall or the CNN app today.