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Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) Interviewed on Speaking Democratic National Convention and Representation of Women in Congress and Business; Republicans to Hold Convention to Nominate Donald Trump as Party's Presidential Candidate; Vice President Mike Pence Live on NEW DAY. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired August 21, 2020 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't think they're safe and ready, they won't be open.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. Joe Biden accepting his party's nomination for president, pledging to lead the nation out of the darkness and into the light. This morning we have heard from several people who watched Joe Biden for years say they believe it was the most effective speech he has ever given.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger, too much fear, too much division. Here and now, I give you my word, if you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It's time for us, for we, the people, to come together. And make no mistake, united we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So how will the Republican Party respond? President Trump accepts his party's nomination next week, and we will speak with Vice President Mike Pence in just a moment.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The closing night of the Democratic Convention was a family affair with Hunter and Ashley Biden singing their dad's praises, and another video paid tribute to Joe Biden's son Beau who died in 2015 from brain cancer.
Among the many speeches, there was this powerful moment. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Purple Heart recipient who lost her legs in Iraq, standing next to her wheelchair declaring President Trump unfit to be commander in chief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH, (D-IL): They have a coward in chief who won't stand up to Vladimir Putin, read his daily intelligence briefings, or even publicly admonish adversaries for reportedly putting bounties on our troops' heads.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: And joining us now is Senator Tammy Duckworth. Senator, great to see you this morning. So last night you spoke as a military woman, you spoke as an Army commander. You spoke of the sacrifices made by military families like yours. You spoke of your husband having to get you through the grievous industries. You spoke of the Bidens. President Trump has often talked in terms of the military, the U.S. military, of wanting to bring our service men and women home from Iraq, from Syria, et cetera. What do you think Joe Biden would do differently?
SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH, (D-IL): Well, President Trump hasn't actually brought more of our American troops home. We actually have more American troops overseas in the Middle East right now than when he started in office, and that's my understanding. And frankly, he's turned our back on our allies. He's left our leadership role in all sorts of places around the world, whether it is NATO and he's abandoned our allies there. He has allowed Russia to do whatever it wants to in the Ukraine. It seems like Donald Trump loves those little dictators all around the world, and he'll do whatever Vladimir Putin wants him to do.
And time and again he said that he believes Russian Vladimir Putin over our own intelligence agencies and our own American patriots. And so what Joe Biden would do is actually listen to our intelligence agencies, would actually participate but also lead with our allies around the world, whether it's in the Asia-Pacific region or whether it is in NATO. And I know that Joe Biden will be the commander in chief on military needs right now, because they don't have one.
CAMEROTA: You have been keeping a running tally, basically marking the days that it's been since President Trump did not confront Russian President Vladimir Putin about Russian bounties on the heads of U.S. soldiers. Why do you think it's taking so long?
DUCKWORTH: Because this president continues to put Vladimir Putin's preferences over our own nation's interests and over the safety and well-being of American troops. Listen, I've asked multiple times, is this true, have the Russians done this? You know what, the commander of the United States military, the first thing he should have done was publicly said this better not be true, and try to seek this out. I have actually asked the department of Defense and the Department of the Department of the Army, have you even begun an investigation to see if any of the deaths of American troops in Afghanistan over the last 18 months are tied to these supposed bounties? And you know what their answer has been? No, they've not even begun an investigation.
I have to talk to Gold Star families, and I had a Gold Star mother who marked the one-year anniversary of her son's death in July, and she said I just need to know, I just need to know. And Donald Trump listens to Vladimir Putin but doesn't listen to our Gold Star families. That's not the kind of leadership we need for our military.
CAMEROTA: As you know, President Trump has been making a lot of claims about what he believes will be, I guess, fraud in this upcoming election.
[08:05:01]
And so last night he was talking about how he plans to, I guess, deploy law enforcement to different polling places. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Are you going to have an ability to monitor, to avoid fraud and cross check whether or not these are registered voters, whether or not there's been identification, to know that it's a real vote from a real American?
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to have everything. We're going to have sheriffs, and we're going to have law enforcement, and we're going to have hopefully U.S. attorneys, and we're going to have everybody, and attorney generals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: What do you think, Senator, about how he's planning to gear up?
DUCKWORTH: He's doing everything he can to undermine this election. He has taken the post office off line. They have taken those high- speed mail sorting machines offline to slow down mail-in voting. He has tried everything he can to undermine the confident in our nation's election. This is the president of the United States, and he's trying to undermine democracy. And now he's trying to intimidate voters by sending out law enforcement.
We saw him do this when he perverted the United States military by sending U.S. troops out against peacefully demonstrating Americans who were exercising their constitutional right to free speech. Now he's going to try to intimidate Americans and keep them from exercising their right to vote.
It is shameful. It is shameful that this president of the United States would actually be doing this because he's so afraid of losing the election. And you know what, we're going to do everything we can to stop him, and we're going to make sure that Americans do exercise their right to vote. It is not on Donald Trump to decide whether or not the election should go on.
CAMEROTA: Not only that, President Trump has also said multiple times, his press secretary said again just this week that he's just not quite sure if he's going to accept the election results. Then what, Senator? What does Congress do? What does the military do if that is the situation?
DUCKWORTH: We will make sure that he is escorted out of the White House at the end of his term. Period.
CAMEROTA: And just tell me what would that look like?
DUCKWORTH: I don't know. We'll plan for it, and we'll look and see what needs to happen. But we have a democracy. It is tinpot dictators, the likes of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi that don't accept elections or try to rig elections, and that is not acceptable in the highest office of this land of the free. And we're not going to let Donald Trump do this.
CAMEROTA: As you know, this month marks the 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote, the 19th Amendment. It was August of 1920 when that happened. It's sort of remarkable that it is actually so recent, that it was only 100 years ago that women got the right to vote. But now, as you saw this week, Kamala Harris accepting the vice presidential nomination, so what are your thoughts on that?
DUCKWORTH: I'm so proud. And Illinois, my home state, was one of the first in the nation to ratify women's right to vote. So it is so great to see in our democracy women stepping forward. But we have a long way to go. We don't have 51 percent of our representatives in the House of Representatives or senators who are women. And until we get to 51 percent where there is equal representation of women in our offices, public offices, and even in those c-suites at those corporations we do not full equality.
And we have to have diversity as well that reflects the diversity of the American people. I'm so proud to be a Democrat and a big umbrella of my party that welcomes people from all races, sexual identification, your origins, your religion. We are a big tent and we represent and reflect more of our nation. And I'm just really, really proud of that.
CAMEROTA: And how close did you get to being the vice presidential pick?
DUCKWORTH: Listen, close enough. Just so great to be mentioned among all these great women. Imagine, there were over a dozen of us who could have stepped up and done the job. That says a lot about the Democratic Party, that there were so many diverse women who could step up and do this. And I'm just so proud that each and every one of us, most of them are my girlfriends. Kamala and I were freshmen in the Senate together, and many of the other women were freshmen with me in 2012, class of 2012 rules.
(LAUGHTER)
DUCKWORTH: And so it's great to have folks out there, and to show America what true representation can truly look like in this country.
CAMEROTA: Senator Tammy Duckworth, thanks so much for being here. Great to get your take on all of this.
DUCKWORTH: My pleasure.
CAMEROTA: A quick programming note -- join CNN's Erin Burnett for a CNN special report on gender equality in America. Special guests include Jessica Alba, Melinda Gates, Roxane Gay, and more. "Women Represented, The 100 Year Battle for Equality," that's tomorrow night, 10:00 p.m. eastern on CNN.
[08:10:00]
BERMAN: So for more on where the 2020 race goes from here, joining us now is CNN White House correspondent John Harwood and CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod. Do I have your permission to ask two questions at once?
CAMEROTA: Sure, go ahead.
BERMAN: Granted. OK, so John, I want to ask you what we can expect to see or what we know about what we're going to see at the Republican Convention next week. And David, the follow-up to that is to what extent has the last four days of the Democratic Convention prepared or inoculated, if it has at all, Joe Biden for what's to come? So John, you first.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think what we can expect to see next week is the consistent themes we have seen struck by President Trump as a candidate in 2016, as a new president, and throughout his term. That is a pretty dark vision that tries to divide the country, that paints a picture of fear for especially white voters, older white voters in particular. Joe Biden's doing very well with them.
But in doing so, President Trump is kind of going to make the case that Joe Biden made last night, with -- I have heard a rumor that sports metaphors are allowed on this show, so what I will say is that with his divisive behavior, with his concern for himself above others, with his inaction on the coronavirus, with his obvious lack of an agenda, specific policy agenda for a second term, the president left the ball up by the rim for Joe Biden. And at 77-years-old he went up and dunked it last night.
So the question is, what's the response going to be from the president? And everything that we've seen is going to be -- make the case that Joe Biden made, which is that a darkness is what he's got to offer.
BERMAN: All right, David, so now to you. What condition is Joe Biden in after these four days of the democratic convention, and how is he set up to withstand what's coming?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, let me give Harwood credit. He's clearly been watching the NBA playoffs, so good for you, John.
CAMEROTA: Yes. Great football metaphor.
(LAUGHTER)
AXELROD: But, look, I think Biden did everything he needed to do in this week, or virtually everything he needed to do in this week, and I put the accent on virtually. I think the convention was a really masterful exercise in storytelling, which is what conventions should be.
But the most important element was last night, because we know what the president has been running at Biden for months. The president, his supporters, his kids, he's not up to it, he doesn't have the acuity, he doesn't have the energy. Well, the guy who stood at the podium last night looked like he had the acuity, the energy, and the vision to lead this country out of this crisis.
We are in the grips of an epic crisis, and people are hungering for a president to take charge. And what happened last night was that rather than give a convention speech, Joe Biden gave a presidential speech, and spoke to the country. And at the end -- after bringing the indictment against Trump, after talking about where we are in terms of the virus and the economy and the challenges that we face, Biden left people with a sense of hope that there is a better day.
And I think if you look at successful campaigns, that is where you want to be when you're running for president of the United States. People are thirsty for that right now. So I think he did inoculate -- I agree with John that that is where they're likely to go.
I think there's one other place they're likely to go. We're in this peculiar situation where the president wants to be the insurgent challenger, and he wants to treat Biden as the incumbent. He's going to portray Biden as a career politician, a Washington politician, among Washington politicians who had failed the American people. That is what the message is going to be. Look at the tweet he's pinned to the top of his Twitter feed today. It goes -- it really speaks to that theme.
The problem is, that works well when you're a challenger. He is the president, and he's the president in the middle of a crisis, and people are waiting for him to recognize the crisis and instead of spinning the crisis. And if they navigate all around that at the convention next week, it will only exacerbate his problem. People want to know what's your plan, how do we get out of this? And if it's all diversionary tactics, I think that will be noticed.
CAMEROTA: John, the Democrats really brought out their hall of famers in the party to speak on behalf of Joe Biden, from Barack and Michelle Obama, the Clintons, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders. And so who will do that for President Trump next week?
HARWOOD: Well, look, we have seen that the president does not have a deep bench of Republican -- impressive Republicans to call on.
[08:15:02]
I mean, just look at what happened yesterday. His campaign strategist, Steve Bannon, who was his White House strategist, was arrested for fraud. To add that on to the fact that the campaign chairman, his political adviser, his personal lawyer, his national security adviser in the White House have been charged and found guilty of federal felonies. The president, you know, he's going to have -- showcase grievances
among conservatives. We have talked about the couple that in St. Louis that walked out in front of their yard with guns while protesters were going by. They're going to speak at the convention.
And again, you know, I mentioned darkness before the president -- while this convention has been going on, he says you know what Joe Biden is going to bring you in America? He's going -- he talked about burning cities and anarchy in Portland and murder rates in Chicago. He is citing things that are all happening under his own administration. He says, well, Joe Biden is going to bring those to every city and town in America. He's the president right now. And people are judging conditions in the country right now.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: David Axelrod -- go ahead.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It will be interesting to see how many prominent Republicans actually participate and want to be associated with the convention. The president really operates on his own behalf and there are a lot of Republicans who are looking at this polling and saying you know what? This may be a good time to be working at home, you know, and away from all of this next week.
John, one last point. You asked how he -- Biden fortified himself. I mentioned the big one which is strength. But the storytelling about him was also really important culturally. One of the reasons that Donald Trump fought an impeachment trying to stop Joe Biden from becoming the nominee of the Democratic Party, is that Biden is culturally inconvenient.
You know, he's really a Middle American character and we saw that during this week, the military -- he's part of a military family. We know that story well. Now you met his wife, the teacher.
And you've got a sense of a guy who could be your neighbor, who is rooted in your community. He looks anything but the kind of guy who would usher in chaos and anarchy and would shred values and so on. I think they did a lot of good work there in safeguarding against those attacks which are sure to come next week.
BERMAN: David Axelrod, it's interesting, because we're learning from the Biden campaign they're not sure he's ever going to hit the campaign trail physically this year, travel to swing states because of the pandemic. And to an extent, the Trump campaign I think maybe oddly or not, you tell me, is going after Biden on this.
Bill Stepien overnight tweeted out that Joe Biden was only traveling, you know, three miles from his home to deliver his convention address. Mike Pence mentioned that Biden hadn't been to Wisconsin.
Is this something that should concern the Biden campaign? What do you make of this?
AXELROD: Look, I mean, I think they're taking precautions. They're also abiding by advice which is something the president has not, and yes, they will -- again, this is a surrogate for he doesn't have the energy. He's not up to it.
But, you know, there are three big events coming up, called debates. And I think those are going to answer a lot of those questions. He's going to be visible. He's going to be out there. He's going to be doing things virtually.
But these debates are not going to be virtual. They're going to be head to head. And, you know, I think maybe the most important date on the calendar in this campaign will be September 29th, that first debate, because if Joe Biden -- if the Joe Biden we saw on that stage last night shows up at the debate on September 29th, I think it shoots a lot of holes in the argument that somehow he isn't vigorous enough or engaged enough and it could turn out -- I felt a little bit when the president was traveling around this week that it looked like he was sort of a traveling salesman, you know, looking -- you know, desperately looking for a sale.
And I'm not sure that the contrast is that helpful to them. People want serious people who are sitting down with experts and talking about how we get out of this mess and making plans to do so. And right now, Joe Biden looks more like a president than Donald Trump does.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: John Harwood --
HARWOOD: And remember, guys, Joe Biden is ahead by a significant margin and he has been all year. The onus is on President Trump to try to change the dynamic here. He's the one as David said he has to make some sort of sale in the public and what he's done hasn't worked for some months now.
CAMEROTA: No. In our recent CNN poll, that margin was narrowing.
[08:20:01]
But in any event, John, there was a real tearjerker of a moment last night where this 13-year-old boy with a stutter spoke about his relationship with Joe Biden and that Joe Biden had made him basically feel seen and feel like they were members of this special club. So let me just play a little moment of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRAYDEN HARRINGTON, 13-YEAR-OLD BOY BIDEN MET IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: Without Joe Biden, I wouldn't be talking to you today. About a few months ago I met him in New Hampshire. He told me that we were members of the same club. We stutter.
It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president.
I'm just a regular kid and in the short amount of time, Joe Biden made me more confident about something that's bothered me my whole life. Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he can do for all of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: John, I mean, I don't have to remind you that President Trump famously mocked someone with that disability in public and used it as a laugh line. So, you know, there's that contrast as well.
HARWOOD: Alisyn, anybody who has children or even just remembers what it was like to be a kid at 13 years old and shy and struggling with an issue had to be moved by that appearance by Brayden Harrington. And the empathy and character contrast that it drew with President Trump was profound.
You mentioned his mocking of one of our colleagues who has a disability in public, in front of the entire country, on camera. Here you had a young man, young boy, testifying to Joe Biden's empathy and it just shows you that that is as stark a contrast in personal qualities that you're ever going to see among two candidates for president.
BERMAN: John Harwood, David Axelrod -- go ahead, David.
AXELROD: That kid is one of the most heroic I have seen on television. What an incredible moment that was. One of the most incredible moments -- is certainly at any political convention. By the way, it displayed Biden's willingness to show his own vulnerabilities and turn them into the strength, which I, you know, in addition to the contrast with Trump, is really important moving forward.
CAMEROTA: I mean, as the parents of 13-year-olds, we know what that must have taken behind the scenes.
Gentlemen, thank you very much.
BERMAN: So what are the Republicans planning next week? Vice President Mike Pence joins us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:26:33]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The president keeps telling us the virus is going to disappear. He keeps waiting for a miracle. Well, I have news for him: no miracle is coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden criticizing the Trump administration response to the pandemic in his acceptance speech last night.
Joining me now is the vice president of the United States, Mike Pence. He leads the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Mr. Vice President, thank you so much. Good to see you this morning.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning, John. BERMAN: You do lead the coronavirus task force.
PENCE: I do.
BERMAN: As of this morning, 174,000 Americans have lost their lives to this pandemic.
As we sit here this morning, what is the projection you're looking at for the number of Americans who will lose their lives by the end of the year?
PENCE: Well, John, we -- we don't -- we're continuing to work every day to save lives and we -- our focus will remain there. We're encouraged to see cases declining across the Sunbelt, holding steady in the Midwest, but we all continue to have a role to play. But -- but listening to Joe Biden last night --
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: Mr. Vice President --
PENCE: John, I got --
BERMAN: -- about a thousand people -- about a thousand people newly reported deaths yesterday.
(CROSSTALK)
PENCE: Well, and let me be very clear, John, if I may. Let me be clear.
We mourn with those who mourn. Never been a day gone by we haven't thought about families who've lost loved ones in the midst of this pandemic.
But I must tell you, I truly believe that when President Trump suspended all travel from China before the end of January, and stood up the White House Coronavirus Task Force, an action that Joe Biden criticized as xenophobic, essentially said it was racist for the president to suspend travel from China, the reality is that bought us an invaluable amount of time to begin work on a vaccine.
We're already in phase 3 clinical trials, to stand up our national response, we're doing 800,000 tests a day, to develop hundreds of millions of medical supplies --
BERMAN: Right.
PENCE: -- tousands of ventilators.
BERMAN: Mr. Vice President --
PENCE: And I got -- I got a news flash for Joe Biden, John, and that is we think there is a miracle around the corner --
BERMAN: OK. PENCE: -- because the president called on pharmaceutical companies -- we believe it's very likely that we'll have one or more vaccines for the coronavirus before the end of this year. All of that is a tribute to President Trump's leadership.
And so, while we grieve with those who lost loved ones, I truly believe that had we waited and not suspended travel to China --
BERMAN: OK. Mr. Vice President --
(CROSSTALK)
PENCE: -- stood up the response as Joe Biden wanted us to do, we'd have lost hundreds of thousands of more Americans.
BERMAN: My question just so people know was how many more Americans will lose their lives by the end of the year? The IHME model that you look at I know projects it could be 300,000 by the end of the year.
One more thing on China, the president did suspend travel from China, did not suspend travel from Europe until mid-March and a lot of the cases that did come to the Eastern United States came from there. And also, one more thing on China, at the same time he was suspending travel, he noted that President Xi, China is working very hard to contain coronavirus, I want to thank President Xi.
My question to you, again, about where we are, and where we will be, stems from this, on June 16th, you wrote: We are winning the fight against the invisible enemy, and you said the panic is overblown. You said that on June 16th. Since then, 53,000 more Americans have died. More than 3 million more Americans have been infected with coronavirus.
So how was the concern overblown?
END
