'This Week' Transcript 10-13-24: Republican VP Nominee JD Vance & Gov. Andy Beshear

A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, October 13, 2024 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Final sprint, just 22 days to the election. Our brand new poll shows the race tighter than ever, as Kamala Harris goes on a media blitz.

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Let's push toward the future of our country. Let's not go backwards.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Donald Trump turns to darker campaign rhetoric.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered.

RADDATZ (voice-over): And former President Obama blasts black men hesitating on Harris.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I've got a problem with that.

RADDATZ (voice-over): This morning, all the latest from a busy week on the campaign trail, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, J.D. Vance and Democratic Governor Andy Beshear join us, plus analysis from our Powerhouse Roundtable. Painstaking recovery, after Hurricane Milton slams Florida, the Southeast reels from a second disaster in two weeks.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're fighting now to make sure people have the emergency relief they need.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Sarasota, Florida Mayor Liz Alpert joins us. And --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to continue the fight, continue to make sure that us minorities are not going to be suppressed.

RADDATZ (voice-over): (Inaudible) reports on unfounded claims of non-citizens voting, the latest in our series, "Protecting Your Vote."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, it's "This Week." Here now, Martha Raddatz.

RADDATZ: Good morning and welcome to "This Week." We are now just over three weeks to Election Day and the race for the White House is a dead heat. Our brand new ABC News-Ipsos poll shows Kamala Harris with a narrow two-point lead over Donald Trump nationally among likely voters. That's within the margin of error and a closer gap than the five-point lead she held just a few weeks ago.

One likely drag on the Harris-Waltz ticket, despite many positive economic signs, some 59 percent of Americans say they believe the economy is getting worse compared to just 23 percent who say it's getting better, with more Americans trusting Trump to handle the economy if he wins a second term. And while there remain deep divides on issues like immigration and abortion, our poll finds that 56 percent of Americans now favor deporting all undocumented immigrants as Trump has proposed, while 56 percent also support restoring abortion access to what it was before Roe v. Wade was overturned as Harris has advocated.

And in the battleground states that we'll decide it all, our FiveThirtyEight polling average shows a virtual tossup. With the race this close, we saw both campaigns with an all out blitz of events and interviews this week, to try to reach the voters who could decide the election. And this morning, we wanted you to hear directly from the candidates in their own voice as they make their pitch to voters.

I'll speak with Republican Vice Presidential Nominee J.D. Vance in a moment. But first, here's a look at some of what his running mate said this week on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ (voice-over): This week, former President Donald Trump hitting the campaign trail hard, holding five rallies across the country.

TRUMP: California's, really it's a paradise lost, but we're going to bring it back.

RADDATZ (voice-over): In Coachella, California last night --

TRUMP: If Kamala gets four more years, the entire country will become like the migrant camp of LA and San Francisco. What the hell is happening to our cities?

RADDATZ (voice-over): In battleground, Nevada, where Trump once again falsely referred to Democrats rigging the 2020 election.

TRUMP: We must defeat Kamala Harris and stop her radical left agenda once and for all. We want a landslide that is too big to rig, too big to rig.

RADDATZ (voice-over): And Colorado --

TRUMP: This state has to flip Republican. It has to.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Trump campaigning in Aurora, a city he's called a war zone overrun by a Venezuelan gang.

TRUMP: Members of the gang now beat down doors with hammers and engage in open gun battles with rival groups in this once peaceful, beautiful, pretty crime-free community.

RADDATZ (voice-over): A claim strongly disputed by local officials including the city's Republican mayor, but Trump continued regardless of the facts.

TRUMP: We will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them out of our country.

RADDATZ: All part of Trump's focus on migrants and the border, an issue where he is leading in the polls, although facts often not mattering.

TRUMP: They come from the dungeons, think of that. The dungeons of the third world. From prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions, and she has had them resettled beautifully into your community.

She lost 325,000 migrant children. Their parents are looking for them. Those children are now dead, in slavery, or just plain missing. Probably most of them will never be found again.

RADDATZ: Trump focused on women this week as well, where he is lagging in the polls in part because of his positions on abortion.

TRUMP: I think we're doing very well with women, but somebody said, women love my policy, but they don't like me. I think they do like me. I'll tell you what. I think women like me because I will be your protector, and I protected you for four years.

RADDATZ: Another favorite topic, transgender children, where Trump made this claim without any evidence this has ever happened.

TRUMP: Your child goes to school, and they take your child. It was a he and comes back a she.

RADDATZ: And on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, it was back to immigration. As Hurricane Milton approached Florida Trump accused FEMA of diverting funds to migrant care instead of Americans impacted by the Hurricane Helene despite FEMA's strong denial.

TRUMP: You know where they gave the money? To illegal immigrants coming in, many of whom are killers, many of whom are drug dealers, many of whom are gang members, and many of whom came out of prisons from all over the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ: And I'm joined now by Republican vice presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance.

So happy to have you here this morning, Senator Vance. I know you've been going hard on the campaign trail, but I want to start with the hurricane.

During Hurricane Helene, as we heard, former president Trump suggested the federal government was not only sending FEMA aid meant for the hurricane to migrants, but going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. Do you think that is true?

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, Martha, what the president said is that fundamentally FEMA aid is distracted by going to illegal migrants, and by the way, good morning, and thanks for having me.

We've got Republican congressmen who are on the ground who represented that area saying that they have to call the White House to get food and water to FEMA. I don't frankly think there's anything malicious going on here, Martha, but I do think that we've had an incompetent response to this particular crisis, particularly in northwestern North Carolina, which, to be fair, was hit harder than a lot of us expected it.

But fundamentally if you've got six days after the hurricane, the 82nd Airborne is still trickling in, I do think that we had a fundamentally incompetent, overly bureaucratic response to the hurricane. So what you hear from folks on the ground is they feel left behind.

And Martha, we have to remember, of course, I know this area well. This is the Appalachian region of our country where people have felt ignored by their government for 30 years, and it doesn't help when you have a response to the hurricane, that's slow, that's halting, and then you layer on top of it of course --

RADDATZ: Senator Vance --

VANCE: -- that FEMA has done a lot of illegal immigration resettlement work.

RADDATZ: Senator Vance, I want to go back to --

VANCE: Go on.

RADDATZ: I want to go back to what former president Trump said. He said, they're going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. There is no truth to that, and on staging, Pentagon officials say that active duty troops were staged and ready to go before being called upon and were instantly out the door.

So President Trump -- former president Trump is saying things that aren't true about that money being withheld from Republican areas.

VANCE: Well, Martha, I think you're actually confusing staging of resources from the rapid response of the U.S. Military. I mean, look, in FEMA's defense, there are things after this hurricane that FEMA simply could not do. You actually need military command and control. You need military resources deployed to the area, and I think all the president has said is frankly, what some of Kamala Harris' surrogates have said, which is that if these areas were a little more Democratic, maybe Kamala Harris would have focused on them more.

That acknowledgment is not to attack frankly the good folks of FEMA. It's to suggest that Americans are feeling left behind by their government, which they are, Martha.

RADDATZ: OK. Let's --

VANCE: If you talk to folks on the ground, we've had -- I have had friends who have been in Boone, North Carolina, helping with the cleanup.

It is an extraordinary sense of betrayal and being left behind. People are worried that their government doesn't care about them. I’m much more worried about the incompetence of Kamala Harris's administration that led to that, more than I am --

RADDATZ: Senator Vance --

VANCE: -- the fact that Donald Trump --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: -- Senator Vance, I’m just going to say that local officials -- local officials and FEMA officials say that is just flat wrong.

But I want to -- we played some other comments about migrants and migrants including in Aurora, in Colorado, where Trump said the city had been invaded and conquered by Venezuelan gangs. The Republican mayor of the city said flatly, the city and state have not been taken over or invaded or occupied by migrant gangs.

So, do you support Donald Trump making those claims that the Republican mayor says were grossly exaggerated and have hurt the city's identity and sense of safety?

I understand what you're saying that some people left behind. But he's making these statements that the mayor is flat out disputing.

VANCE: Well, Martha, you just said the mayor said they were exaggerated.

RADDATZ: Grossly exaggerated.

VANCE: That means there's got to be some -- that means there's got to be some element of truth here.

And, of course, President Trump was actually in Aurora, Colorado, talking to people on the ground and what we're hearing, of course, Martha, is that people are terrified by what has happened with some of these Venezuelan gangs.

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: Senator Vance, I’m going to stop you because I know exactly what happened. I’m going to stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complex -- apartment complexes and the mayor said our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns. A handful of problems.

VANCE: Only -- Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem, and not Kamala Harris's open border?

Americans are so fed up with what's going on and they have every right to be and I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.

I worry so much more about that problem than anything else here. We've got to get American communities in a safe space again.

And unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions, most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don't know who they really are, you're going to have problems like this. Kamala Harris’ 94 executive orders that undid Donald Trump's successful border policies, we knew this stuff would happen.

RADDATZ: That’s --

VANCE: They bragged about opening the border and now we have the consequences and we're living with it.

We can do so much better, but frankly, we're not going to do better, Martha, unless Donald Trump calls this stuff out. I’m glad that he did.

RADDATZ: Okay. Let's -- let's just -- let's just end that with they did not invade or take over the city as Donald Trump said.

I want to move on to just --

VANCE: A few apartment complexes, no big deal.

RADDATZ: A few apartment complexes that the mayor did not see (ph) was invading the entire city.

Let's move on to women and abortion. Donald Trump is leading Kamala Harris in our poll among males by eight points, but lagging behind Harris by seven points -- nine points among females.

You said during the debate that you and Trump have more to do to earn back people's trust specifically as it relates to women and reproductive rights. Fifty-six percent of those polled support restoring abortion access to what it was under Roe v. Way -- Roe v. Wade.

So what would you say specifically to the women watching this morning who believe they should have their own say over their bodies and not the government, either state or federal?

VANCE: Well, Martha, first of all, what I'd say is that I think re-nationalizing this entire debate is a big mistake. And I understand that a lot of Americans according to that poll apparently disagree with me and President Trump here, but we want to respect Californians. We want to respect Alabamans. We want to respect Pennsylvanians.

These folks are going to have different approaches to this particular topic, and I think that what we had in this country for 50 years was a culture war over this particular issue because we had nationalized it. And it's also important, Martha, that while Kamala Harris uses the slogan of returning to Roe versus Wade, she has endorsed policies that go way beyond anything that Roe versus Wade ever meant in this country.

Taxpayer-funded abortions for late term abortions. She's explicitly refused to endorse things like the Born Alive Act which would protect babies who survive botched abortion. So while she hides behind the popular slogan of Roe versus Wade, Kamala Harris's actual abortion views I think are much more radical than even a lot -- I think frankly most of our pro-choice citizens.

RADDATZ: Well, let me go back again. What would you say to those women who don't want people involved in their individual rights? Kamala Harris is on that side of that, not you.

VANCE: Well, I think, Martha. That's -- that's not right actually. I think Kamala Harris has taken this so far that a lot of women if they knew Kamala Harris's actual view and not the slogan, they would recognize that it's far more radical. They can believe in individual autonomy but also recognize there are of course limits here.

We don't want to abort nine-month-old babies here, and we don't want to have taxpayers funding it. So I think everybody recognizes there's a right balance to strike.

But to answer your question, Martha --

RADDATZ: I --

VANCE: -- what I would say to women is that Donald Trump and I want to make it easier to make the choice of life in the first place. And I know a lot of young women, especially when I was younger, who chose abortion because they feel like they didn't have any options. And what I want to do as a person who admittedly, Martha, wants to protect the most vulnerable members of our society, I'd like to make it easier for women to choose life to begin with.

RADDATZ: OK.

VANCE: I think that goes to lowering the cost of housing, which, of course, has skyrocketed under Kamala Harris' administration. I think it's making it easier for working moms to balance work and life and family. There's a lot that we can do to become more pro-family.

That's how I think we can best earn back trust and --

RADDATZ: Senator --

VANCE: Yes?

RADDATZ: Senator, I want to get to some other topics here.

VANCE: Sure.

RADDATZ: On the attorney general, you said on Friday that the most important person in government in a Trump-Vance Administration, other than the president, is not you. It would be the attorney general. Why do you consider that the most important spot, the second most important spot?

VANCE: Well, one reason, Martha, is just public opinion, and what I mean here is that we really want the American people to believe that we have a fair and equitable administration of justice. If not, the entire sort of system falls apart. You need people to believe that if the attorney general prosecutes somebody, it's motivated by justice and law, and not by politics.

And unfortunately --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: Would Donald Trump go after his political opponents?

VANCE: -- is the --

RADDATZ: Would Donald Trump go after his political opponents?

VANCE: No --

RADDATZ: He suggested that in the past.

VANCE: Martha, he was president for four years and he didn't go after his political opponents.

You know who did go after her political opponents? Kamala Harris, who has tried to arrest everything from pro-life activists to her political opponents --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: He said those people who cheated would be prosecuted.

VANCE: -- and used the Department of Justice as a weapon against people -- well, he said that people who violated our election laws will be prosecuted. I think that's the administration of law. He didn't say people are going to go to jail because they disagree with me. That is, in fact, been the administration and the policy of Kamala Harris, Martha.

Look, under the last three-and-a-half years, we have seen politically-motivated after politically-motivated prosecution. I'd like us to just get back to a system of law and order where we try to arrest people when they break the law, not because they disagree with the prevailing opinion of the day, and there's a fundamental difference here between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Donald Trump may agree -- agree or disagree on a particular issue, but he will fight for your right to speak your mind without the government trying to silence you.

Kamala Harris is explicitly --

RADDATZ: Senator Vance, I --

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: -- censorship of folks who disagree with her.

RADDATZ: I want to go back to Donald Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: We’ve got to get a Department of Justice that believes in the First Amendment, Martha. The First Amendment is the bedrock of our Constitution.

RADDATZ: Senator --

VANCE: We have Kamala Harris who doesn't even believe in it.

RADDATZ: Senator, we're just about out of time here. We're just about out of time here. And I want to end with this -- in interview after interview, question after question, and in the debate, you refused to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

So I’m just going to assume that if I ask you 50 times whether he lost the election, you would not acknowledge that he did. Is that correct?

VANCE: Martha, you've -- you asked this question, I’ve been asked this question 10 times in the past couple of weeks. Of course, Donald Trump and I believe there were problems in 2020. You haven't asked about inflation, the --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: No, I’m sorry, let's stick to this. I know -- I know --

VANCE: The American people want us to talk about how to make their lives better. They don’t want us to --

RADDATZ: Why won’t you say that? Why won’t you say that?

VANCE: Because -- because, Martha, I believe that in 2020, when big tech firms were censoring American citizens, that created very serious problems. And by the way, Martha, you're -- you're a journalist. You represent the American media.

Look at the polling on this. A lot of Americans feel like they were silenced in the run-up to the 2020 election. That is such a bigger issue. That fundamental problem --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: If you -- I just want to --

VANCE: -- that me and Donald Trump talking about it, and unfortunately, Martha --

RADDATZ: But I don't understand why you want to say that you believe it?

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: She's -- well, won't just say what, that I think the 2020 election had some problems? I’ve said that repeatedly.

RADDATZ: Did Donald Trump lose? That's the question, and you know that's the question.

VANCE: Martha, I’ve said repeatedly I think the election had problems. You want to say rigged. You want to say he won. Use whatever vocabulary term you want -- I want to focus on the fact that we had big technology firms censoring our fellow citizens in a way that violated our fundamental rights.

The fact that you're so obsessed with what word I use to describe this phenomenon rather than the phenomenon itself suggests something very broken in the American media.

If we want to restore trust in American elections and democracy, which I want to do, Martha, we have to talk openly about what happened in 2020 and most importantly we've got to talk about what happened afterwards.

RADDATZ: OK.

VANCE: Americans being unable to afford the basic necessities of middle class life.

RADDATZ: Thank you, Senator Vance.

VANCE: Because Kamala Harris is in the White House. Thanks, Martha.

RADDATZ: We're going to leave it right there. Appreciate your time this morning.

Up next, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear on the state of the Harris campaign. We're back in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: While Donald Trump was rallying crowds across the country, Vice President Kamala Harris was on a media blitz. A string of interviews from late-night to radio and podcasts to right here on ABC's "THE VIEW" with a town hall wedged in between it all.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll try not to fall asleep during this interview.

RADDATZ (voice-over): Who says Kamala Harris is avoiding interviews? Certainly not this week. From a sobering "60 Minutes."

HARRIS: I have a Glock.

RADDATZ: To late-night laughs with Stephen Colbert. Topped off by a popular podcast.

ALEX COOPER, HOST, "CALL HER DADDY" PODCAST: Madam Vice President.

HARRIS: Alex.

COOPER: Welcome to "Call Her Daddy."

HARRIS: It is good to be with you.

RADDATZ: Kamala Harris trying to invigorate her campaign and paint a sharp difference with former president Trump, talking aimed at his comments about the administration's response to Hurricane Helene on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

HARRIS: What just upsets me so is the idea that any politician would play political games with these folks, and then for the sake of political gain tell these lies in a way that is meant to make people distrust the help that is there for them to receive.

RADDATZ: But when it came to differentiating herself from Joe Biden, when speaking to the ladies of ABC's "THE VIEW," Harris struggled.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CO-HOST, ABC'S THE VIEW: Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?

HARRIS: There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of -- and I have been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.

RADDATZ: But 25 minutes and two commercial breaks later, Harris came back to the question.

HARRIS: Listen, I plan on having a Republican in my cabinet. I got a list. You asked me what's the difference between Joe Biden and me, well, that will be one of the differences.

RADDATZ: Having a Republican in her cabinet is not exactly on top of voters' minds. It is the economy, and Harris took that on with Latino voters in a Noticias Univision town hall.

HARRIS: The macroeconomic numbers are looking good, but it still doesn't change the experience you're having at the grocery store, and we still need to deal with that.

RADDATZ: And reiterated her plan to lower costs for Americans.

HARRIS: Part of my plan is to expand the child tax credit, to give first-time homebuyers a $25,000 down payment assistance. For startup small businesses, the tax deduction right now is $5,000, to extend it to $50,000.

RADDATZ: While Harris focused on Latino voters, she did have some heavy hitter help this week. Former president Barack Obama encouraging black men to get out and vote for Harris.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: On the other side, you have someone who has consistently shown disregard not just for the communities but for you as a person. And you're thinking about sitting out? Part of it makes me think that -- well, you just aren't feeling the idea of having a woman as president.

RADDATZ: For Harris, a strong voice in a race she acknowledged this week --

HARRIS: Good evening, Arizona!

RADDATZ: -- could not be closer.

HARRIS: This will be a very tight race until the very end and we are the underdog. So we have some hard work ahead of us but we like hard work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ (on camera): And Democratic Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky joins me now.

A lot of hard work ahead. I'd like to hear a quick reaction to what you heard J.D. Vance talk about.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: It's just amazing. Apparently, there is no lie too big for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

I mean, when you ask him about the last election, all you're asking him to do is admit reality, and we deserve to have a vice president who believes in democracy and can say, yes, Donald Trump lost the last election, and now, we're running in this election.

And then the lies on -- on FEMA and disaster response -- listen, in Kentucky, we went through our worst tornado disaster and our worst flood disaster in our history, and I didn't have to deal with any of the shenanigans that Donald Trump has putting out right now.

And his lies can hurt people. I mean, lying that $750 is all that's available, that -- that means that individual might not apply for the $40,000 plus in individual assistance.

Like if you truly care about the people that are harmed more than yourself, you wouldn't politicize this. You wouldn't be putting out all this misinformation and that’s somebody --

RADDATZ: Governor --

BESHEAR: -- who has led through natural disasters. It -- it hurts.

RADDATZ: Governor, Governor, to your point though, you talk about Donald Trump lying. The Harris campaign has consistently said that Donald Trump is a liar, a threat to democracy, a convicted felon, and yet, the race appears tighter than ever, even with record-breaking dollars for Kamala Harris.

What is happening? What is not happening?

BESHEAR: Well, we've got a lot of partisanship in America right now, and it's something that I hope after this election that the vice president can move us beyond, that she can remind us that this isn't supposed to be an us versus a them, that Donald Trump seems to do in everything that -- that he's about and that he does.

She can remind us that we are all Americans first and Democrats, Republicans and independent second, third, or fourth.

You look at her plans and that's exactly what they do.

RADDATZ: But again --

BESHEAR: A middle-class tax breaks -- go ahead.

RADDATZ: Governor, again, this race is incredibly tight. Vice President Harris's campaign motto is a new way forward.

Our ABC/Ipsos poll, however, found that while 74 percent of Americans want Harris to diverge from President Biden if elected, 65 percent think she'll mainly continue the administration's policies.

Why isn't her idea of being a change candidate resonating?

BESHEAR: Well, I think it's starting to resonate and it's going to resonate even more. And what we need are for folks to look at her policies. Again, the middle-class tax break would help right now. Expanding the child tax credit would help right now.

She's the first presidential candidate in my lifetime talking about affordable housing, both on the supply and on the affordability side. All of her plans are about helping people right now.

Donald Trump, his plans are -- Project 2025, are tearing away the Affordable Care Act, which will eliminate health care coverage from tens of millions of people. You know, it couldn't be clear whose policies will help the American people, but we've got to communicate that over and over and over beyond the scare tactics.

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: What do you think the biggest difference will be? Do you think she will be different than Joe Biden? What do you think the difference is?

She struggled on “The View” to say anything about anything different, that she would be different.

BESHEAR: Well, of course, she'll be different because we are -- we are all different individuals. But just look at the plans --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: Policy-wise, policy-wise.

BESHEAR: I mean, right there -- right, but President Biden plans were about building a future economy that is happening right now. We're building the two biggest battery plants on planet Earth in Kentucky.

We built the cleanest -- greenest recycle paper mill the world has ever seen. Those are all through his policies, but hers are about right now. How do we help the American people that are struggling to pay the bills? And that's middle-class tax breaks. That's affordable housing. That's the child care tax break. All the things that she is working on will help us get through the next six months and the next year, so that we will walk into this really strong economy that's being built out there.

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: Which is a problem for her right now.

BESHEAR: -- yet.

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: A problem according to our polls right now, despite the positive jobs and inflation reports, in our new poll, 59 percent of Americans say the economy is getting worse, more than twice the 23 percent who say it's getting better. I also want to talk a little bit about what she said about her economic plan. She said she'd make sure the rich pay their fair share. That's something we heard Biden say over and over and over again. Then there's been no major tax overhaul.

So why would that be different under Harris, especially since she might be play -- might face a Republican Senate? How does she get that through?

BESHEAR: Well, certainly she's telling you what her values are and the idea that those that have benefited from the United States of America, from being able to get out there and live the American dream, and have created wealth for themselves and their family should pay back into America to make sure that that dream is available for everybody else.

I think what you're seeing is someone who has been in the Senate, who has that expertise, who has cast tie-breaking votes, and when you look at her policies, is seeking common ground with common sense. And ultimately that helps all of us. It helps her govern closer to the center in a way where she can build confidence from all the American people because after this election, after she wins, we've got to get past this constant us versus them, being asked to pick a side in everything from the car you drive to the beer you drink -- somehow beer became political in the last couple of years.

She is an answer that can get our country back on the right track. Being someone who knows her and Governor Walz very well, I have full confidence that they're going to lead us in the right direction.

RADDATZ: OK, thanks for joining us this morning, Governor Beshear. We appreciate it.

Up next, we'll check in with the mayor of Sarasota, Florida on the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those who engage in such lies are undermining confidence in the rescue and recovery work that's opening and ongoing. Lives are on the line. People are in desperate situations. Have the decency to tell them the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: President Biden weighing in on the misinformation surrounding the hurricane response in recent weeks. He visits Florida today to survey the damage.

I'm joined now by Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert whose city took a direct hit from Hurricane Milton.

It's good to see you this morning. I'm glad you're okay. But what's the latest you can tell us about where things stand in the recovery in Sarasota right in the region where Hurricane Milton made landfall?

MAYOR LIZ ALPERT (D), SARASOTA, FLORIDA: Well, we're still -- it's still a mess but it's going to be a long recovery. We're still working on getting power restored. The power is back at probably about 80 percent of Sarasota County right now. There's still no water out to the barrier islands or power, but we're hoping by maybe end of the day Monday that that will be resolved.

Lots of debris, as you can imagine, to clean up. Sand that washed onto the roadways we're working on cleaning up that. But, you know, everybody is all hands on deck, even our Finance Department was out yesterday helping with the cleanup. So people are coming together. Neighbors are helping neighbors. It's been heartening to see all of the outpouring of support and help that people have been offering.

RADDATZ: And Governor DeSantis said that you avoided the worst-case scenario. So far deaths are really low compared to what we saw in North Carolina with Hurricane Helene. What's your message to residents who might want to ignore evacuation warnings next time since the storm didn't end up as bad as expected thankfully?

ALPERT: Yes. I think because of Helene, this time people did heed the evacuation orders. But since it wasn't as bad now as they predicted I fear that people will again say, well, you know, it was OK last time, so maybe next time it won't be. But because they did heed the evacuation orders, in the city of Sarasota, we did not have one call for a rescue. And I think that speaks volumes about how you can save lives if you follow the orders and evacuate when a storm like this is coming.

RADDATZ: Fair.

ALPERT: And if it's not as bad as it was supposed to be, that's fine.

RADDATZ: Mayor, that's such good news. And we do hope everyone continues to heed those warnings.

Up next, the powerhouse roundtable breaks down the state of the race with just three weeks to go. We'll be right back.

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RADDATZ: The roundtable is all here ready to break down our new poll, and we'll have the latest report in “Our Protecting Your Vote” series.

We'll be right back.

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RADDATZ: Now to our month-long series on the integrity of the voting process, and this morning, we look at how some candidates are using the unfounded threat of noncitizens voting in national elections to rally their base and intimidate voters, while some state officials have used those claims to purge voter registration lists.

ABC's Mireya Villarreal has the latest in our series, “Protecting Your Vote”.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CECILIA CASTELLANO (D), TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE CANDIDATE: How are you? I’m Cecilia. Pleasure to meet you.

MIREYA VILLARREAL, ABC NEWS NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over) Cecilia Castellano's roots run deep in South Texas. She grew up in a small conservative town just outside San Antonio, and now she wants to be their Democratic representative.

CASTELLANO: I've been living here in Atascosa for 24 years.

VILLARREAL (voice-over) But she never thought she would be caught up in the middle of a political storm, accused of violating election law.

CASTELLANO: We are still working hard.

VILLARREAL: August 20th, what happened that day?

CASTELLANO: I remember being woken up, my doorbell going off and a banging on my door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, police department.

CASTELLANO: They said, ma'am, we have a search warrant. I said, a search warrant for what? They're like, well, can we come in?

VILLARREAL (voice-over): Officers were looking for evidence of vote harvesting, a newly minted Texas law that says it's illegal to interact with people while their ballot is nearby. But Cecilia says she's never been charged, so she's not clear what she's accused of. What is clear, Cecilia says, is that this is voter intimidation.

CASTELLANO: Why are they coming to the areas where the -- where it's predominantly Latinos, the rural areas? Why are they targeting this area?

VILLARREAL (voice-over): What happened at Cecilia's home was one of more than a dozen raids that morning.

SEAN MORALES-DOYLE, DIRECTOR, BRENNAN CENTER'S VOTING RIGHTS PROGRAM: Many of these search warrants, investigations are often sort of tied in the public rhetoric of the AG to conspiracy theories about non-citizens participating in our elections.

VILLARREAL (voice-over): Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott says this is a crackdown on illegal voting, but critics say that he's using new election law as a tool to make voting more difficult and to purge eligible voters from the rolls. And Republican officials in states like Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama are also purging their voter lists.

MORALES-DOYLE: I don't think that there's anything wrong with voter list maintenance. It's a good thing and it's required by federal law. Sometimes election officials get aggressive in conducting voter list maintenance. Some officials engage in large-scale removals of voters.

VILLARREAL (voice-over): With less than a month left until the November election, rhetoric is ramping up. And with it, a number of conspiracy theories like unsubstantiated claims of non-citizen voting.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: We all know intuitively that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections.

VILLARREAL (voice-over): It is illegal on both the federal and state level for non-citizens to vote, and experts say it almost never happens. "The Washington Post" publishing a report this week saying they found no evidence supporting the Virginia Governor's claims that non-citizens were illegally voting.

MORALES-DOYLE: Typically, the people who are telling you that non-citizens are voting in our elections don't have any evidence to cite. At the same time, you see the conspiracy theories about responding to Hurricane Helene.

TRUMP: They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them.MORALES-DOYLE: I think that politicians are spreading these conspiracy theories with a focus on immigrants in order to pander to xenophobia.

VILLARREAL (voice-over): Back in Texas, Cecilia is undeterred.

CASTELLANO: We're going to continue the fight, continue to make sure that us minorities are not going to be suppressed, to be intimidated and to be told you don't have rights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ: Our thanks to Mireya and ABC's investigative team. Let's bring in our Powerhouse Roundtable, Former DNC Chair, Donna Brazile; Former RNC Chair and Trump White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus; New Yorker Staff Writer, Susan Glasser; and Politico Playbook Co-Author Rachel Bade. Good morning to you all.

Our latest poll, Donna, still shows a very, very tight race. Kamala Harris does not seem to be moving the needle. She was out there all week with the media blitz, with many interviews, many friendly interviews. What's happening -- what's -- what's your take on that?

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER DNC CHAIR & CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's anybody's ball game, we all know that, this is going to be a close election. It was close in 2020. It was close in 2016. It's going to be close in 2024. What matters right now is that the campaign is reaching people where they live, where they work, where they play, and where they pray. This morning, the vice president is down in North Carolina, activating souls to the polls. That is people who go to church, people who know churchgoers will be told that this is a very important election. The only way Kamala Harris wins is if she gets on the ground, not just the vice president, but all of her supporters, and talk to people directly.

RADDATZ: So you're saying just ground game, ground game, ground game, right?

BRAZILE: Oh, right.

RADDATZ: She does have a very strong ground game going, and especially as Donna will say, female voters. Donald Trump is lagging with female voters and some of the statements he makes are probably not helping.

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER RNC CHAIR & FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF & ABC POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Well, you can't win every demographic. I mean, the reality is, is that for the first time in 32 years in this poll, it shows that Republicans are beating Democrats straight up. When you ask people a generic ballot, in 32 years, it shows that Donald Trump's doing better with black voters, Hispanic voters, off the charts. But what the most important thing is what happened last week is that what was working with female voters with Kamala Harris was that there was some feeling of joy in the air.Well, that joy is gone. She had a terrible week. She picked a pointless fight with Ron DeSantis.

She -- you know, she's losing in the Sun Belt, and she tried to recover by going on "THE VIEW" which a lot of women watch. she went on "THE VIEW." You talked about it earlier, and she wanted to clarify the two most important issues that are facing these two candidates, the economy and immigration, and she bombed like Rory at the U.S. Open, and she went out there and said there was nothing she would do that would be different than Joe Biden, and she created a campaign commercial for Donald Trump, and so she's trying to recover.

There is no joy here, and --

RADDATZ: He created a few himself this week.

PRIEBUS: And everybody knows it, and it's obvious that there is a leak in the balloon here in the Kamala Harris campaign.

RADDATZ: And Rachael, despite what Reince said, and I'm sure you would argue with some of that, Donna, she is still very popular among female voters.

RACHAEL BADE, ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTING POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Absolutely.

RADDATZ: You've actually said this is kind of boys versus girls because --

BADE: It seems like it.

RADDATZ: Donald Trump is not.

BADE: It seems like it. I mean, look, we've been talking about women this entire election, how they're running away from Trump. Childless cat lady comments, abortion, just Trump's temperament in general. But, you know, in the final weeks of this election, we are really starting to see that Donald Trump has been very successful with turning out men or at least getting them excited to vote for him.

And not just, you know, conservative men, men who consider themselves to be, you know, pro-abortion rights, socially liberal men, black men, Latino men. And, you know, I was interviewing one of the sort of more famous focus group analyst, Sarah -- I'm sorry, Sarah Longwell at "The Bulwark," and she was the talking about why, and it sounds like a lot of these men, they don't view Donald Trump as extreme.

You might disagree with that. They like him. They think he's sort of somebody that they would want to hang out with, and he has just been sort of successful and leaning into the strongman mentality that right now with, you know, all the chaos in the Middle East, with the issues with the hurricanes, she's hearing more and more in focus groups not just from men, but also some women who are reaching for that sort of strongman mentality and starting to second guess Harris.

RADDATZ: And what does she do about that? Because, look, the battleground states are also very, very close.

SUSAN GLASSER, THE NEW YORKER STAFF WRITER: Well, that's right. I mean, and it's interesting to see the national polls, but in the end it's going to come down to a handful of states. Six or seven or maybe even just three, the same three that determined the race in 2016. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

The polls this week underscored what, you know, in many ways we already knew, which is that Harris has not yet definitively managed to lock down the must-win states for a Democrat, but I think this conversation we're having, Martha, it's really a question of who in the end is the election about, and if people's gaze is focused on Donald Trump, his escalatory rhetoric, I mean, some of the things we've seen this week are the most nakedly racist and xenophobic things I've ever seen from a national candidate, and that includes Donald Trump in his previous two outings.

He thinks that's going to motivate his base. That's going to motivate his most committed supporters. Donald Trump always runs a base election, but for Kamala Harris, she also needs the race to a certain extent to be about Donald Trump and if he's not defined as an extremist at this point, you know, that is why she has not succeeded yet in putting away a race where she had an enormous amount of momentum this summer.

RADDATZ: And Donna, I want you to respond to some of the things that Reince said about black voters, Latino voters. You had Barack Obama out there this week saying, you know, you've got to vote. That didn't go over so well with a lot of people.

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER DNC CHAIR: You know, I talked to my brothers, and they liked it. My nephews, you know, they said, wow, that was tough. But you know what, sometimes you need tough love in order to get people to focus on the reality and the dangers of another four years of Donald Trump.

You know, you talk about joy. Joy is something that comes in the morning. Joy is not dissipated simply because you put out a fog of lies. Going to Detroit, a city that is on the rebound, a city that is proud of its future and they are working very hard, and by the way, the Detroit Lions are very happy at this moment.

Look, Kamala Harris is going to have to go out there every day and not just restore trust, but also outline the vision that she intends to provide for the American people. If she provides a vision that includes not just men, but women in the country as well, she will win.

PRIEBUS: There is a feeling --

(CROSSTALK)

RADDATZ: I want to just let Rachael jump in here. Go ahead.

BADE: Yes. I was going to say, we have a colleague, Brent Booker, who actually went to Detroit to talk to a lot of these black men that we're seeing in the polls who are sort ofturning from Harris and considering at least voting for Trump and they said a couple of things. Number one, they want to hear from Harris herself. They want to be asked for their vote and they didn't want to be lectured, and that's something he heard sort of universally, you know, around, you know, town in Detroit.

And so, the fact that Obama came out there and as you mentioned, this tough love, maybe it works for some, but it certainly seemed even before he hit the campaign trail, a lot of these folks who were on the fence were saying, we don't want to be looked down upon for thinking maybe we want to vote for Trump. Tell us why we're wrong, but don't lecture us about being on the fence on this.

PRIEBUS: First of all, people who are 30 years old today were about 14 during Barack Obama's heyday. It just doesn't move the needle. The reality is, I'm going to go back to what Donna started with, which is going to be a unified time for Donna and I, which is, this is going to come down to 75,000 votes in six states. Nothing.

So the kinds of folks that we're talking about are not paying attention to what Barack Obama is saying in some swing state somewhere. This is on the ground, person to person, thousands of people getting paid to target people knowing everything about a person, what beer they drink, what car they drive, how many kids they have, and what's going to move them. That's what is happening right now across America.

RADDATZ: I want to just wrap up here with each of you, hopefully, if we can get to each of you, on what you really think this race will boil down to you. You touched on it, Susan, but I want to start with you, Donna. What is this race really about? Why are voters going to the poll?

BRAZILE: It's about hope. It's about believing that this is a country that we have all put in the work, and now we want -- we are hiring a leader that will represent all of us, our values and our sense of optimism. That's what I believe this will come down to.

RADDATZ: Susan?

GLASSER: Martha, we're nine years into the Donald Trump era. This is the third consecutive election that Republicans have nominated Donald Trump. That's never happened in Republican Party history before. We have not re-elected a president who was defeated in more than a hundred years and only once in American history. Donald Trump challenged the results of a legal election for the first time in American history. He refused to accept the results. He has said things that are outside the mainstream of any candidate. And if Americans are going to return him to office, that's going to tell us something very important about this.

RADDATZ: We have literally 10 seconds.

(CROSSTALK)

BADE: Yeah, I would say it's -- it's -- how it's going to impact their own lives, whether it's their own pocketbooks, their own freedom.

PRIEBUS: People are tired of being lied to. They're tired of being told the economy is great, the border is secure. They're tired of being told that they're wrong to want the illegal crime gangs deported out of this country, and they want the economy back on track, and that's Donald Trump.

RADDATZ: OK. Thank you very much. Good to see all of you. We'll be all right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: And that's all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Check out "World News Tonight" and have a great day.

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