Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Harris, Walz Join CNN for Exclusive First Interview. Trump Says Six-Week Abortion Law Is "Too Short"; Trump Defends Arlington Visit, Says Family Asked Him To Take Photos At Gravesite; Trump Campaign Manager Mocks Army "Hacks". Aired 8-9p ET
Aired August 29, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ... and they veered very close to our vessel. They physically blocked it getting in front of it. They fired water cannons at one of the smaller Philippine boats hurting some Philippine personnel.
Strangely, neither the Philippine nor Chinese sailors were yelling or cursing at each other. They were all very professional, but tense during this confrontation.
By all accounts, the tactics have gotten much more aggressive since then with more with more injuries and boats damaged. But so far experts say China is stopping short of direct military to military confrontation -- Brianna
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, Ivan Watson, thank you. And for joining us. AC360 starts now.
[20:00:42]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening. Thanks for joining us.
Just an hour from now, CNN will broadcast Vice President Kamala Harris' first formal interviews since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
She and running mate Tim Walz sat down today with CNN's Dana Bash in Savannah, Georgia, a stop on their two-day visit to the state which turned blue in 2020 and is very much for grabs this time.
Here's a small sample of that interview
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I want to ask you about your opponent, Donald Trump.
I was a little bit surprised, people might be surprised to hear that you have never interacted with him, met him face-to-face? That's going to change soon.
But what I want to ask you about is what he said last month, he suggested that you happened to turn Black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity.
KAMALA HARRIS (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Same old tired playbook, next question, please.
BASH: That's it?
Harris: That's it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Harris has come under criticism, not just from Trump supporters, but also journalists, even supporters who worried that delaying this only raised the stakes for her. It's something we will talk about tonight before the interview airs. And no doubt will get plenty of attention afterwards.
In any event, this is how she and her campaign wanted to do it. It comes with the first batch of post-convention polling. Now out this one from Quinnipiac, showing her at 49 percent among likely voters and Donald Trump at 47. That's a national poll within the poll's margin of error, meaning no clear leader.
New polling from "The Wall Street Journal" shows the same nationally. Slight Harris lead, but within the margin of error. As for the former president, he's appearing at a town hall tonight in Wisconsin.
Earlier today, in Michigan, he had this to say about his opponent:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I saw her make a speech. It was so bad and after they get off, this was one of the greatest performances we've ever seen in our country.
With me I may a speech, I speak for two hours. Everybody loves that I got thousands of people, by the way outside trying to get in. They never said Trump is a great speaker. I don't even want that, but I must be a great speaker, right? I must -- we've got thousands of people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: A lot ahead as we roll into tonight's exclusive interview with Vice President Harris and Tim Walz.
First, the one asking the question, CNN, chief political correspondent Dana Bash.
Dana, I'm very curious to see how this went. One of the major points of criticism against the vice president is how she has changed some of her past policy positions. What did she have to say?
BASH: Well, Anderson, I asked her about some of those key policy positions, those that really matter to voters, not just here in Georgia, but particularly voters in the must-win state, for her, of Pennsylvania, issues like fracking, the Green New Deal, and also her changes on immigration.
She explained some of those changes, but even more broadly, I wanted to know what she thought voters should take from her evolution?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Generally speaking, how should voters look at some of the changes that you've made that you'd explained some of here in your policy, is it because you have more experience now and you've learned more about the information, is it because you were running for president and a Democratic primary?
And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you're saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?
HARRIS: Dana, I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.
You mentioned the Green New Deal, I have always believed and I've worked on it that the climate crisis is real. That it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.
We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act. We have set goals for the United States of America and by extension, the globe around when we should meet, certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as an example.
That value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border. That value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California, prosecuting transnational criminal organization, violations of American laws regarding the passage -- illegal passage of guns, drugs, and human beings across our border. My values have not changed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:05:19]
BASH: And Anderson, of course, we talked about the issues confronting voters right now. Most explicitly the crisis of affordability, people are having challenges buying groceries, buying homes, renting housing, and so those are some of the issues that we talked about with regard to what she would do in the future and how that lines up with what she and President Biden have done for the past three-and-a-half years among some of the other topics we talked about.
COOPER: What did the vice president have to say about this past month and what it's been like, how she found out that President Biden was stepping aside, I don't know, did she tell any details on that?
BASH: She did. She talked about the phone call that she got, Anderson, in July 21, 2024. It was a Sunday. We all remember that moment, but it was especially memorable for her and she gave us some information that I had not heard before about how that call went down, what President Biden said to her at the time, and that's a bit of a teaser. You can see what she said about it later on at nine, but I will tell you that she told me. She said, this could be TMI and I said, there's no such thing as TMI, give it to us. So, she did.
COOPER: Dana, we'll look forward to it. That interview as CNN said 9:00 about 54 minutes from now.
With me here, CNN's Audie Cornish, host of "The Assignment" podcast, also CNN senior political commentator, David Axelrod, "The New York Times'" Maggie Haberman, CNN political commentators Alyssa Farah Griffin, Ashley Allison and Scott Jennings.
David, do you think the vice president addressed concerns about policy positions over changing policy positions, it seems like there's going to be more, but --
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I think that is a reasonable answer, which is that whatever changes I've made I've been within the parameters of my values. I don't know whether -- first of all, I don't know how much voters are sitting around and thinking about this. They don't know much about her honestly.
They're gaining information about her all the time just last month has been all about filling in information about her and particularly about her experience and her values and so I don't know how -- this may be a bigger issue too reporters and perhaps the other --
COOPER: That would be stunning and that's --
AXELROD: Yes. But I mean, look --
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But, David, in a way, isn't that why people want to know, right? If you're Kamala curious and you don't know because she hasn't necessarily been an executive and you want to say, well, what is different?
AXELROD: For sure. Look, I think that she has filled in gaps that people do want to know about her life, about the other jobs that she's had, what she's done in those jobs, positions that she's taken when she was running the show.
Look, I think that what's interesting about this she's done a splendid job for the last month and doing all of that. But she's been hitting off of a tee, right? She's working off of a prompter. It's different than when you have live pitching and people come at you with questions and probe and poke.
And so, part of what's interesting is how she answers those questions. And part of it is, is she comfortable doing it? She seemed pretty comfortable there to me.
COOPER: Audie, do you think it was damaging to wait so long? I mean, that it builds up expectations, more people are like why -- whether people are waiting to take a breath but --
CORNISH: Yes, I can see why you're asking, because I think with the sort of infamous interview, she had with NBC way back when -- COOPER: That was with Lester Hold at the start of her vice presidency
--
CORNISH: The stakes were high then as well because there had been, again, a narrative building up. When is she going to talk? She hasn't been on the border. Let's talk about it. So, it snowballs and I guess we're kind of doing it again but fundamentally, she is a different person and I think we are performance-wise, you can see a difference in how she is speaking and engage.
But has she been able to deliver information that we need to make a decision? I think the jury is still out on that.
COOPER: It's also interesting Maggie, you know, Dana, asking the question about Trump's comments about her being not being Black, clearly, she was ready for that and brushed it and chose to just brush it aside to not go down that rabbit hole.
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Her campaign has made a very concerted effort to try not to get baited and Trump has been trying very hard to bait her and to bait her supporters on issues related to race, on issues related to gender, and her campaign and the vice president are not interested in doing that.
Now, I don't know whether they will decide strategically to say more or engage more at some point. The debate might be a place where they do that. It might not be a place where they do that. Her convention speech and she had a very successful convention.
[20:10:04]
Her speech really didn't get into the historic nature of her candidacy. Other people talked about that and their speeches. She did not and I think there's a variety of reasons why, but that was a very intentional answer that I think you will hear a lot of.
AXELROD: Can I just say one thing on this, which is, I thought that was absolutely the right thing to do, but there's another turn of the wheel which is if this is the way he wants to spend his time, that's his business.
I'm talking about the problems that are -- people are confronting in their lives. And I think that's what the American people want to hear. I think that would have further turned the screw on him.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean, you can look at Kamala Harris and know the historical nature, we've never had a woman be president of United States. So you don't actually need to say the thing. I agree with David rise above it, she is talking about policies. She's answering the questions about what she would do for this country.
Donald Trump is doing this childish, demeaning behavior that he has done from most of his political career and even before, let him do that, we'll talk about how we will lead. ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The one thing that
did stand out to me though, is this answer around values. I thought was partially effective, but she's walking this tight rope where she needs to reach undecided voters and convince them that she's not the candidate of 2019. She has evolved, she is more centrist while not alienating her left flank and that felt like an answer a little more for the left flank to say, my values are still these, these are still my priorities. The policies may look different.
So I'd be curious to see if we hear more kind of flushing out the specifics that -- okay, but what caused you to evolve on fracking? What is your policy now? Those are the things she would be very wise to get ahead of and not wait for the debate stage when she's challenged standing next to Donald Trump. She needs to get out there and answer it now.
COOPER: Scott, the other night when we talked, you had, I think you call it weak sauce, the idea that she was going to be doing this interview with Tim Walz.
If, I don't know how long the interview is, but if for viewers just so they know, if it's a 40-minute interview and you suddenly have two people. That means you are going to ask some questions to Walz, that's going to eat up time you would otherwise be asking Kamala Harris questions.
Every presidential candidate has done a sit-down interview, big sit- down interview with their vice president, potentially if its vice president that isn't a well-known to get them out there. Do you still think it's weak sauce and I wonder what you made of what you saw?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the interview is much shorter than 40 minutes actually, from what I've read coming in here tonight. Well, I don't know. I haven't seen it. I don't know how much time they let Walz take up there. So, I will withhold judgment on that. I do think it was strange.
Look, a lot of tickets have done interviews together after the top of the ticket has done countless solo interviews and running a primary and done all sorts of things on their own. So I did think it was a strange choice.
I think Alyssa is right on the topic of my-values-haven't-changed and I think it's more than just undecided voters.
I think they've been trying to make a play for these moderate Republicans that they think may -- don't like Donald Trump anymore?
If they are other trying to convince them that she is some sort of a moderate or a centrist and at the same time, she seems to be embracing the politics of her past, which are quite liberal. That would complicate that effort.
The other thing about this that I'm waiting to hear is whether she's also going to continue to embrace the politics of her current, which is supporting Joe Biden, who was quiet popular. The results of it are unpopular. I know the Trump campaign thinks, the more they link her to Biden's economic choices, the better off they are so one thing I'm looking forward tonight is how closely did she align herself with Biden, even as much as she aligned herself --
ALLISON: I think --
AXELROD: That's the most difficult challenge I think because on the one hand, her campaign is about a new way forward. And that implies a new way forward from everything.
And so how do you embrace the person with whom you've served for the last three-and-a-half years and be respectful to that person and turn the page and say, we're going somewhere else or we are going somewhere beyond.
ALLISON: I think the values thing though is a nice way to draw a contrast. What are your values? And then what are your values, Donald Trump? Do you believe in democracy? Do you believe in voters having the right to choose? And when you lose an election, you actually concede.
And the reason why, to the point we played, she hasn't met the former president because he didn't show up to the inauguration, because he didn't believe he lost, because he doesn't believe in values of democracy.
So, I think it's a nice way to tease how she made a pivot on some issues, but also draw a context term.
COOPER: It might have been a good answer, Ashley -- because he didn't show up at the inauguration.
ALLISON: Yes.
COOPER: We're going to take a short break.
Next, what Vice President Harris told Dana Bash about bringing Republican into her Cabinet if elected, and what the former president just said on camera about Florida's six-week abortion referendum. How he says you wants to vote on and how his campaign is responding.
Plus, he weighs in about his visit to Arlington Cemetery and allegations that he did it for campaign publicity.
The Army weighs in as well with a rare and forceful rebuke of the Trump campaign and we'll bring that to you as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:18:45]
COOPER: We're talking tonight about CNN's exclusive first interview with Democratic presidential ticket. It airs at the top of the next hour at 9:00 PM Eastern where it follows a Democratic convention featuring a number of high-profile speakers chosen to appeal to conservative, but anti-Trump voters. Here's another moment from tonight's interview. Dana Bash asked the
vice president, whether she would continue reaching across the aisle if elected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: You had a lot of Republican speakers at the convention. Will you appoint a Republican to your cabinet?
HARRIS: Yes, I would.
BASH: Anyone in mind?
HARRIS: No, no one in particular in mind. I've got 68 days to go with this election. So I'm not putting the cart before the horse, but I would, I think -- I think it's really important -- I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion.
I think it's important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences and I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who is a Republican.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We're back now with the panel. Alyssa, what do you think of that answer?
GRIFFIN: It's a smart answer. She's trying to appeal to some disillusioned Republicans, the Nikki Haley voters and listen if you're looking for my suggestion Will Hurd for Secretary of Homeland Security, somebody who is a border state congressman and CIA official.
[20:20:04]
Listen, it's showing that when Trump has at time said, we don't want McCain, Romney, Republicans, they're saying we're open to those voters. They brought Adam Kinzinger and they had Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan.
I do think it's going to need to be backed by more substance, though, to the point we made earlier, if the policies are what are going to move those individuals. They want to know if there's an authenticity to this move to the center, which I think she's perfectly capable of conveying. And I think we're going to see if she does tonight.
COOPER: Scott, who do you think that appeals to?
JENNINGS: Look, it's not unusual for administrations to do this in a Cabinet slot. For Bush, we had Norm Mineta, head of Transportation. He did he did a fine job. I mean, Biden-Harris barely talk to their Cabinet now, so sticking a token Republican in some far-flung corner of the federal government is not going to make them super influential. But as it relates to public relations tonight, it's a fine answer.
AXELROD: We had Bob Gates in the Obama administration. We had Ray LaHood was a secretary of Transportation, former senior member, Republican member of Congress. I think it does matter. I think symbolically its important. And just one point on the point you're making, you talk about whether she can break from her past, her liberal past.
You know, she was a prosecutor. She's a pretty tough prosecutor. The left wasn't very fond of her because of it. She did as she makes a point prosecute transnational gangs and so on. She did as attorney general, do the things that we've heard on a variety of issues that wouldn't place her on the left.
So, you kind of have to look at what people have done. I know that 2019 campaign, is like a treasure-trove.
JENNINGS: It's not just the campaign, in sheet you're doing what she likes to do, which is skip all the way back to being a prosecutor. And you're skipping her time in the Senate. You're skipping her time as a presidential candidate. And if someone walked up to you and handed you a resume with that kind of gap you'd say, well, gee whiz what the heck have you been doing?
And yes, I would skip it too because it's not going to be palatable for swing voters.
GRIFFIN: I'm just saying --
AXELROD: I'll tell you what, you said she skipped over the first 20 years of her career, I figured between us we can put the whole section together.
HABERMAN: But can we just also make the point that the number of swing voters we're talking about is a really, really narrow slice of the electorate. We're not talking about a bunch of people who are millions and millions of people sitting at home saying, you know what, I really just can't decide which today I'm going here.
The vast majority of this electorate has made up its mind, something that we were discussing earlier was about the vice president's comfort level right now.
And, it is true, she ran in a cycle in 2019 for president, which was a very difficult cycle to run as a former prosecutor and a Democrat, she is clearly much more comfortable now, I think both because the moment has changed, but also she's not someone's vice president.
I think that was clearly a big piece of this.
GRIFFIN: And that way -- time, someone leaves the White House, they should leave more centrist than they entered it, or they're not somebody who has the capacity to self-reflect, like Donald Trump.
CORNISH: I think, another way to think about it as she was rejected by voters as a progressive during a very the progressive cycle, right? She was standing next to Bernie Sanders and people didn't say that's the one, right? Because clearly that's not really where she was positioned and at the same time, you know, we're doing a documentary on her and looking into some of her past issues and one thing about her personality, she is data-driven.
She does like consensus. She is not out on a limb on policy. That's not really been her position even in Congress. She's very good at asking questions, interrogating. She's not necessarily the person who is out there first on some piece of legislation far past everybody else.
So when she says something like I might have a Republican, I'm open to that. I believe her. I think she fundamentally likes to get in a lot of information. And of course that's tough for us as reporters because we're like decide right now before you get there, tell us right now, but that's not actually how her brain works.
ALLISON: I wonder what Donald Trump's answer would be. Donald Trump, would you plant a Democrat to your Cabinet? No. Would you appoint anyone that even whatever dare challenge you to your Cabinet? No.
So again, she's saying I will be the president for all Americans. That is the job and it's all about drawing this contrast. I understand about the substance and whatnot, but I think she is doing a yes, and I'm going to give you substance and I'm going to also tell you how I will lead and that goes to the values.
AXELROD: Just -- can I -- go ahead.
GRIFFIN: Just to the point, I was thinking, polling from her time in the West Wing, she can say, I have seen issues that couldn't get solved to every other level and over the four years, I realized that some of the were dogmatic positions I had are not the best solution --
AXELROD: Yes, but the question is how -- the question is who -- over the sweep of her career, was she this dogmatic progressive and the answer is no. And I think Maggie makes a really important point.
She was a bad candidate in 2019, never made it to 2020 because she was taking positions that she was told she needed to take in order to be competitive and that's a hard thing to explain.
COOPER: There was piece in "The Times" the other day that the writer had read her first book, which was about being smart on crime and criminal justice. Then in 2019, she would style -- her campaign was telling her as a progressive prosecutor, and then this is she's the pragmatic prosecutor.
[20:25:16]
HABERMAN: It doesn't mean that she's not going to have to explain to people her position switches. That's part of why Dana asked that question. I don't know that her answer is going to be enough for the number, the very small number of people we're talking about who are open to either candidate in this electorate.
But when we talk about why she is where she is, that is why she has very, very long history in various --
AXELROD: I'm not sure Donald Trump is the best exponent for consistency.
HABERMAN: Well, I know, but I do think that that's actually an important point. I do think that we are in -- I know there's been a lot of questions about is the Trump campaign going to paint her as John Kerry from what they did in the '04 campaign and so forth.
I think that Trump has taken so many different positions that are contradictory throughout his life, not let alone the last nine years that I think it has made the charge of flip-flopper really hard to make stick on people --
JENNINGS: It may be more effective to just paint her as a loyal lieutenant and continuation of Biden because you can muddy the waters to your point, Ax and Maggie, and so -- but to paint her as a continuation of the current people do not like.
HABERMAN: You should not --
AXELROD: That's the most -- that is probably the most -- it may not be the winning strategy, but it may be the most credible strategy they can take. The problem is the candidate doesn't stick to that.
HABERMAN: Correct, that's the thing. There is -- it is very clear that there are a number of Trump advisers who would like him to be doing that. He would like to talk about how she looks.
ALLISON: I know we often talk about like this small configuration of voters that she's trying to win over. But I also don't want to lose sight of their -- there are so many Americans who still don't even vote that are -- if they were to vote, would go vote for Kamala Harris.
And so she also still needs to speak to them that I am the person who could lead. I have grown in four years. I hope we all have grown in the last four years. Nobody wants to stay stuck where they are.
So, I think she needs to speak to them and it's not just the progressive base, it's people who have never really believed in our democracy. And for this time, might give them a chance to find a way in.
COOPER: Everybody stay there. Next, new comments from the former president on Florida's six-week abortion ban referendum, which he will have a chance to vote on this fall if he chooses to, we will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:31:26]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The interview with Dana Bash and Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz begins in about 30 minutes from now here on CNN. As the former president campaigns in battleground states, Michigan and Wisconsin, he's also signaling how he's going to vote on a six-week abortion ban that's on the ballot in his home state of Florida. CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Wisconsin with -- where Trump is holding a town hall tonight. What is it he said about the ballot measure that's gotten attention?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this was in an interview with NBC. He was asked about a proposed constitutional amendment that will be on the November ballot in Florida, which will essentially undo what is currently a six-week abortion ban more or less in the state of Florida.
Take a listen to how he answered how he would vote on that proposed constitutional amendment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think the six-week is too short. It has to be more time. And so that's -- and I've told them that I want more weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you'll vote in favor of the amendment?
TRUMP: I'm voting that -- I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: And, again, it is essentially six weeks that's on the ballot. Now, his campaign has tried to walk that back, essentially saying or claiming that he did not say how he would vote one way or another, just that he wouldn't -- he does not support these six weeks. But again, it's the six-week threshold that's on the ballot and he seemed pretty clear there.
COOPER: Yes, he said he was going to vote, so, yes. So the former president is doing a town hall in Wisconsin, where you're right now with former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. I understand he talked about IVF. What did he say?
JIMENEZ: Yes, this just opened up a few minutes ago, and the way this is happening is in a town hall format. Tulsi Gabbard is sort of leading the questioning, but also we're hearing some questions from some voters as well. And it started off with Tulsi Gabbard opening up about her struggles with IVF to conceive, and Donald Trump reacted after that. Take a listen to some of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: For IVF -- and I've been looking at it, and what we're going to do is For people that are using IVF, which is fertilization, we are, the government, is going to pay for it, or we're going to get, or mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great. We're going to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: And, you know, you mentioned he'd been campaigning across Michigan and Wisconsin today. What he just said there, here in Wisconsin, echoed a little bit of what he proposed a little bit earlier in the day in Michigan, saying that the government or insurance companies would pay for IVF treatments.
He even went so far as to say that when the Alabama Supreme Court threatened IVF access, that that was something that he did not support as well. Now, whether that view is held all across Republican circles or in lockstep with that, we will have to see, but again, we have heard it from Donald Trump multiple times over the course of today, and it was how things started in this particular event.
COOPER: All right. Omar Jimenez, thanks very much.
Back now with the panel. Maggie, obviously, the, you know, the discussion of IVF was front and center at the Democratic National Convention. Tim Walz talked about his family's experience, although it wasn't exactly IVF, it was another form of fertilization. What do you make of what Trump is doing here?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think Trump is incredibly uncomfortable with the topic of abortion being so prominent and the fact that the Vice President has actually been a pretty consistent and effective messenger on this for the Biden administration.
[20:35:01]
At a time when President Biden was really struggling to talk about this issue after the Dobbs decision, Trump both proudly says that he is the reason that Roe v. Wade is gone, falsely claims everybody wanted it to be gone, says that the decision should be with the states, but then says, I think there should be a different number of weeks and I'm going to vote for those weeks, responded to something not just that, I think Tim Walz said, but I think that the Vice President said at the convention about IVF on his Truth Social website that night.
He put out a Truth Social post, I think, it was either earlier this week or last week, these days are all the same at this point in the race but saying that he -- women would be treated well under his administration on, quote unquote, "reproductive rights." That is the language of the abortion rights movement.
It did not make his anti-abortion allies particularly happy. And so what it tells me is that he can't figure out where he should be on this, but he knows that this animates the Vice President's voters.
COOPER: Audie, what do you think?
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that there is no avoiding this issue. Abortion rights supporters know each and every time they put it in front of voters. They're going to get energy and interest. And people who are against abortion rights want to put it out there in various capacities to test the mettle of their candidates.
Are you still with us when we, quote unquote, "have momentum coming off of the Dobbs ruling?" So there's no escape hatch, right, for Donald Trump. This question is always going to come up because there's always someone out there who is still putting it before the voters to have the conversation.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And Trump doesn't have a core conviction on this issue. And it was actually one of the many reasons that Mike Pence said that he wouldn't be supporting him, is he thought he would be betraying the pro-life movement by moderating too much on the issue.
And to Trump's credit, I think he reads the political dynamics of reproductive health better than a lot of Republicans do --
COOPER: Or has them read to him.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Or has them read to him. But this IVF proposal he's coming out with, I would love to see the numbers he's seeing of support with women because this, for any Republican to come out and say that they're going to mandate -- the government should mandate insurance companies cover this, or the federal government will pay for it, I mean, that's Bernie Sanders' policy.
COOPER: By the way, it's also a lot of gay couples who are using IVF.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Right, right.
COOPER: So I'm not sure --
FARAH GRIFFIN: If that he fully understands that. But that -- I mean, that is such a vast break from decades of Republican Party orthodoxy that I imagine he will get some blowbacks.
HABERMAN: Well, it is a good point to -- just to go back to our previous conversation about him attacking the Vice President for her stance from 2019, universal healthcare and so forth, you're going to attack her for that and then you're going to say the government is going to pay for IVF or we're going to mandate insurance companies will do it. It's hard to judge (ph) these days.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It also is today he's saying he won't vote for six weeks, which is a position that a Republican governor worked to get on and a Republican House incident in the state of Florida worked to get on the ballot. And so you're going against your party in a state that you really should win.
And then I would put money on it that tomorrow or even tonight, his team walks it back a little bit, which means he changes issues. And so I just want to say, like, we -- our first block was talking about Kamala Harris changing issues. Donald -- and that's over the course of maybe 20 years, five years. We're talking about in five minutes Donald Trump is changing on an issue. So it's just like a little hypocritical to, you know, say you can't change on the topic.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's possible for multiple things to be true here. Number one, he's obviously more moderate on abortion than some of the most ardent pro- lifers want him to be. And a lot of Republicans are very comfortable with something like 15 weeks, the three exceptions, just like Ronald Reagan back in the day.
But it's also possible that he'll have no influence over this because there's no chance the United States Senate would ever send anything his way to sign. So it's possible to express your personal views and then weigh in on the one thing you might be able to do. And I think the big news of the day was this IVF announcement.
I'm still squaring it in my mind about the concept --
ALLISON (?): The pay force will be interesting.
JENNINGS: -- of a conservative, you know, running on that. But at the same time, he has been accused repeatedly by the Democrats of wanting to do away with IVF. He has repeatedly said he doesn't. Now he's taken it a step further. And so I agree there must be something to it.
But I think it's going to get a pretty good reception. I mean, everything I know about this issue is it has broad support. IVF technology has broad support across all --
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, which is of course why he's taking that position. But you say there's one thing that he might be able to do. There's one thing he absolutely can do. He can vote for the initiative in his own state to overturn the six weeks and he appeared to be saying that he was going to do that and then his campaign whistled him off of that because he's in this situation of his own creation where he basically threw in with the people who wanted to overturn Roe.
That's how he got -- you know, that's how he got the evangelical movement behind him with Mike Pence's support. He put three justices on the Supreme Court to accomplish that task. It's created chaos on this issue and now he's trying to run from it and burrow back into some acceptable position. It's a mess of his own creation.
COOPER: Everyone, stick around.
Up next, as we get closer tonight's exclusive interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at the top of the hour, about 20 minutes from now, new comments from the former president defending his visit to Arlington National Cemetery and the commercial that he made about it after a fallout over an incident between his campaign and a cemetery employee. Plus, a rare rebuke of the Trump campaign from the Army because of that commercial.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:44:30]
COOPER: A bit more than 15 minutes away from tonight's exclusive interview with Vice President Harris and Tim Walz. Also tonight, former President Donald Trump defending his visit to Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week. The issue is not that he, as a former president, was there to honor 13 American service members who were killed during the United States chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago, it's that people, apparently associated with Trump's campaign, took video of him in an area of the cemetery known as Section 60, which is largely reserved for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which they then turned into an online video.
[20:45:03]
According to the Army, not only was Trump's team told beforehand that political activity is prohibited there. But when a cemetery official tried to enforce that prohibition, she was, according to the Army, quote, "abruptly pushed aside." Today, Trump downplayed the incident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: While we were there, they said, could you take pictures over the grave of my son, my sister, my brother? Would you take pictures with us, sir? I said, absolutely, I did. I go there, they ask me to have a picture, and they say I was campaigning. I don't need -- the one thing I get is plenty of publicity. I don't need that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, the video of Trump in Section 60 was later posted by his campaign with wording to TikTok. Top Trump aides have accused the cemetery official involved in the incident of being, quote, "despicable" and derided her as having a, quote, "mental health episode."
In response, the U.S. Army today issued a rare rebuke of the campaign, saying, quote, "Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws. Army regulations and DOD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside."
"This incident," they went on to say, "was unfortunate and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked."
Back now with the panel. What do you make of this? It seems like the Trump campaign continues to talk about it. They think there's a reason to, and now the Army has put out this statement.
HABERMAN: A couple of things. To your point about the Trump campaign continuing to talk about this, they clearly see benefit in continuing to talk about this, even if it's simply doubling down, you know, amid mistakes that obviously took place because they want to focus on Afghanistan.
They want to focus on the withdrawal. They want to focus on these deaths by these service members at Abbey Gate, which is why he was there. And it's absolutely true that there are family members who lost loved ones who are buried in Section 60, which is this heavily restricted section of Arlington Cemetery, and they wanted him there.
The issue is not that he appeared with service members families. Many politicians have done that including Joe Biden, including President Obama, a number of them, President George W. Bush. The issue was that they were told, according to the Army, not to film, and they brushed past this official and did anyway.
So Trump painted this as, the family members just asked me to take a picture, it sure seems like his campaign was there to take pictures. And they put this video, as you say, on his TikTok. It was -- it had implicit criticism of the Biden administration and implicit praise of his own administration.
And then there's a related issue, which is that some of the pictures that were posted and part of the video that he posted showed the back of the gravestone of another service member who was not involved in Abbey Gate, who died by suicide --
COOPER: Green Beret.
HABERMAN: Green Beret. He died by suicide, Sergeant Marckesano and his family's very private. His death was very jarring to them and to his friends and they were not asked about this. And they then don't have a say in how this is being used. And the Trump campaign has expressed no remorse whatsoever about that and is attacking anybody who raises questions about it and is attacking this Army official.
COOPER: And calling this employee mentally unstable, which is --
HABERMAN: Right, and --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her is the key point.
COOPER: Her, excuse me.
HABERMAN: Right. Yes, they're -- and she declined to press charges. And, again, there's a lot we don't know about the nature of what this altercation entailed, but she declined to press charges. I don't know what those charges specifically would have been because she was afraid of retaliation, which is a story that we have heard over and over from the Trump era about people who feel like they are worried about retaliation for being critical of them.
COOPER: By the way, I think before the break, I called it a campaign ad that they put out based on this.
HABERMAN: It's not an ad.
COOPER: It's not an ad.
HABERMAN: It's a video.
COOPER: It's a video, a campaign video. They added text --
HABERMAN: Correct.
COOPER: -- and voiceover.
HABERMAN: Narration.
COOPER: And narration.
HABERMAN: Yes, that's right.
COOPER: And they posted that.
HABERMAN: But it's -- but it is a political video.
COOPER: Without a doubt.
Scott, I want to play something that J.D. Vance said about this yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You guys in the media, you're acting like Donald Trump filmed a TV commercial at a grave site. He was there providing emotional support to a lot of brave Americans who lost loved ones they never should have lost. And there happened to be a camera there, and somebody gave him permission to have that camera there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I mean, that's not true. I mean, there happened to be a camera and that, you know, I mean, it's not an ad, but it is clearly a campaign video that was posted online with text and voiceover by Donald Trump.
JENNINGS: I mean, I think the reaction to this is solely because people are mortified that we're remembering what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did.
COOPER: You don't -- you really believe that that's --
JENNINGS: Yes, I do.
COOPER: That's what?
JENNINGS: This is -- Anderson, for the person who --
COOPER: Isn't it? Because --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's from --
COOPER: -- every time he's gone to the grave site, he's said something to like General Kelly about --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
COOPER: -- his people are suckers and losers.
[20:50:00] JENNINGS: Here's what I think. For the President and the administration that was supposed to be fueled by empathy, to have sent these soldiers to their deaths and never to have given them the time of day since, to have not met with them and to have not interacted with them in any way, apparently, that's not Donald Trump's fault.
COOPER: I get --
JENNINGS: Now he was invited there. They asked him to come. He did it. This is not a campaign ad. I think they ought to talk about it. I think the outrage over this ought to be with the current administration, not with Donald Trump. I think this is completely on its head.
FARAH GRIFFIN: But the challenge is --
HABERMAN: Scott, serious question. If there is a federal regulation that you're not supposed to shoot, he brought his campaign team. This was a campaign person filming. It's a federal law. It has nothing to do with what the families asked him. I mean, should that be obeyed or not? Like, that's the bottom line, right?
JENNINGS: I don't know what they were told by Arlington. I heard from someone in the campaign that they thought they had been given permission to film.
FARAH GRIFFIN (?): OK, OK.
JENNINGS: So if that -- and if that's true --
COOPER: But, I mean, the Army is saying that they were told specifically.
HABERMAN: Right, the Army is saying --
JENNINGS: That's the -- but the Trump people think differently.
(CROSSTALK)
FARAH GRIFFIN: I also think you are highlighting that this is an important issue and a tragedy and something that should be discussed. No one's talking about Afghanistan or Abbey Gate now, they're talking about the fact that he very clearly shot this --
AXELROD (?): Well --
FARAH GRIFFIN: -- with a thumbs up in front of a --
JENNINGS: Republicans we're still talking about.
AXELROD: Anderson raised an important point, which is this isn't in a vacuum. This is in the context of a long history going way back to when he denigrated John McCain for being a prisoner of war. It goes to the things that he told Senator -- that told General Kelly about -- and the staff about people who were in the cemetery, the military cemetery in Europe were suckers and losers. There is a history of denigration of people who serve and that is the context in which this happened. So this is an ongoing problem.
COOPER: Yes. We got to -- we're out of time on this block. Stick around.
Next, we have a reaction from the former president to Dana Bash's interview with Vice President Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, which is about to start in about eight minutes. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:56:37]
COOPER: About four minutes ago until tonight CNN's exclusive interview with the new Democratic presidential nominee and her running mate, the former president has just weighed in on some of the portions we've shown of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I just saw her, Chelsea, on -- she was sitting behind a desk doing this interview. And I said, Dana Bash, you could make yourself big tonight. All you have to do is be fair. I haven't seen the questions, but they gave out a sample. In fact, she's going to be on later on tonight, with a tape, there was a tape.
We're doing it live. Why are we doing it live and she's doing it taped? But --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right. He's real.
TRUMP: -- she was sitting behind that desk, this massive desk, and she didn't look like a leader to me, I'll be honest. I don't see her negotiating with President Xi of China. I don't see her with Kim Jong- un like we did with Kim Jong-un.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Back with our panel. I mean, I guess Kim Jong-un looks like a leader in that estimation. But those are comments similar to things he said, obviously, about women before.
HABERMAN: Sure, and look, yes, I think that you are going to see him frame it this way going forward. I think he will do it at the debate. Women who are running for executive offices just face a different level of scrutiny and a different challenge. And the weak label is often applied to them. It's going to be no different here.
You are going to see him, I think that frankly his advisers would like him to do it more often than he is doing. It's part of why he is focusing on military this week and his visit to Arlington. Whether he will stick to that in some kind of a consistent way that doesn't veer off into something else is always the open question. I'm positive he will have thoughts about this interview.
COOPER: Do you think Kamala Harris is going to do more sit down interviews? Or, I mean, if --
FARAH GRIFFIN: She absolutely should. She should be talking to local press at every stop. She needs to -- she can't do it -- she shouldn't be doing an interview and have it be like a Bigfoot site.
AXELROD: Yes, yes.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Like, the anticipation built around it, it gives bigger scrutiny to it. Donald Trump did a, by the way, tape interview with Dr. Phil just the other day. It's not really driving headlines. The more you do them and get in this pace, it makes you a sharper candidate, it'll make her better for the debate, and it will take away this really, actually, frankly, strong and fair attack line that she hasn't been as accessible as he has been.
AXELROD: And she could do interviews with local outlets in these battleground states. There are lots of ways to do it, but I quite agree that if you do -- if you turn it into a remarkable event, then you actually raise the stakes for yourself. I also -- you know, I fundamentally challenged the idea that these things are minefields to be navigated.
You know, they are also opportunities to burnish your message. And the third thing is --
COOPER: Which, by the way, is what Donald Trump uses them for. I mean, for him, they are opportunities to burnish his message. It doesn't matter what questions you're asking him --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
COOPER: -- he will answer whatever he wants.
AXELROD: Yes, there often is collateral damage along the way, but he -- yes, he views -- he does not shy away from them. And I think, you know, that is part of the test of running for president. There are lots of different. You can't just do one thing.
Every time you do something well, and she's done everything very well, the bar gets raised. And you have to keep clearing the bar. Obviously, the debate is one of the biggest bars and that's coming up.
JENNINGS: I'm most interested on what she says about Biden. I don't -- I mean, to me, her answering for this administration, the one that she's in, the one that she cast votes up in the Senate to promote its agenda, that is number one. And number two, I'm wondering if she has any comments about when she knew Joe Biden was on a downhill decline because we didn't find that out until late, but I suspect she may have known it sooner.
ALLISON: I think that Donald Trump does this thing of she's weak. And then when she proves herself, she's nasty. And so there's this really fine line that women candidates unfortunately have to walk. And I think she's done it really well today.
COOPER: Yes. Everyone, thank you. Appreciate the conversation. Right now, Dana Bash's exclusive interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz.
