Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

VP Nominee J.D. Vance To Headline RNC Tonight; Special Counsel Appeals Dismissal Of Trump's Classified Docs Case; CNN Republican National Convention; Senate Republicans Blast Trump Attack Briefing As "Uninformative". Aired 4-5p ET

Aired July 17, 2024 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:02]

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Now, Biden also said that he believes after Labor Day, some of the more critical constituencies to his reelection will begin engaging with the process more, but, of course, that remains to be seen at some of the numbers, Brianna, are currently trending against him.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It's interesting that was a concern because of what was happening in Ohio, but that concern has been dispensed with.

Kayla Tausche, thank you so much. And CNN's coverage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee continues now on THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER.

(MUSIC)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on day three of the Republican National Convention, where just moments ago behind me, we saw former President Donald Trump take the stage for a walk through of head, head of his highly anticipated speech, his acceptance speech tomorrow night.

Tonight, we're going to hear from his running mate, J.D. Vance of Ohio, who will introduce himself to a national audience. The new MAGA torchbearer was proceeded last night by speeches from big boldfaced names, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, rivals turned endorsers. It's all a big display of Republican Party unity.

In just a moment, I'm going to talk about that with Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, another Trump detractor turned Trump supporter.

Democratic Party unity, meanwhile -- well, that seems harder to come by. Earlier today, Congressman Adam Schiff of California, the Democratic nominee for Senate, became perhaps the most prominent elected official to publicly call on President Joe Biden to drop out of the race and pass the torch to a new generation of leaders. But Biden and his acolytes at the Democratic National Committee are ignoring all of these calls and all of the data, proceeding full steam ahead, presumably, with the controversial plan to virtually nominate Joe Biden before the Democratic Convention, next month. That virtual roll call could start as soon as August 1st, despite

protests from Democratic members of Congress, we do not know which faction of these Democrats will win this struggle because more polls and more problems have just entered the chat. A 65 percent majority of Democrats now say that Biden should withdraw from the race, according to a brand new AP poll.

And I was able to get my hands on polling from the firm BlueLabs, funded by some Democratic donors, polling that shows post-debate, President Biden is losing ground significantly to Donald Trump in 14 key battlegrounds throughout the country, including the five states that Biden flipped against Trump in 2020. Those are, of course, Arizona and Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

But in addition, Mr. Biden is also quite vulnerable post-debate in Colorado and Minnesota and Maine and New Mexico and Nevada and Virginia and New Hampshire. The data also found four Democrats outpaced President Biden significantly in a potential matchup with Donald Trump in these seven key battleground states, those Democrats are Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

President Biden, meanwhile, pressing ahead with his campaign. This hour, he is planning on speaking to a Latino civil rights and advocacy group. We will bring that to you live.

Yesterday at an NAACP event, Mr. Biden appeared to lose his train of thought, several times in this speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know -- I know they're saying, Joe, you may not have a Congress. Well, guess what? You all told me I couldn't pass the Inflation Reduction Act. You all told me I couldn't face -- anyway, we didn't.

We're going to rent down, like I said, we're going to build 2 million affordable homes, cap rent increases of 5 percent a year. So corporate landlords can't -- anyway, I don't want to get going.

By the way, not only saves lives, it will save taxpayers just what I did on the first round on dealing with Medicare. It saves the taxpayer $160 billion because they don't have to pay these exorbitant prices to these -- anyway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Anyway.

Then there's new reporting about a Zoom call on Saturday between Biden and a group of more moderate congressional Democrats which took place right before the rally shooting, the assassination attempt on President Trump. Two participants told Julia Ioffe that Biden in that call was rambling and would lose his train of thought. CNN's Dana Bash learned that Biden lashed out at Colorado Congressman

Jason Crow after Congressman Crow bluntly told the president that voters are concerned about his vigor, president told the Crow that he knows Crow is a Bronze Star recipient like his son Beau, but the Crow, quote, didn't rebuild NATO, unquote. At one point, Biden told Crow that, quote, cut that crap out, unquote, and that if Crow wants to walk away from him, then he can walk away.

[16:05:06]

Crow did say he didn't want to fly the coop, but Biden dismissed it, saying he should.

We're going to talk with a former Biden White House communications director coming up. But first, I want to bring in my colleague, Erin Burnett -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Well, Jake, you know, when you talk about what's going on in the Democratic Party, that's why the stakes are so high and their high tonight at the RNC, especially for the now known VP candidate, J.D. Vance. He's going to be delivering that prime time speech at the Republican National Convention.

Obviously, all eyes on him, but especially in the context of the disarray that Jake is talking about in the Democratic Party.

Let's go to Phil Mattingly, who's at the convention in Milwaukee.

And, Phil, you know, when you talk about the context here, that is so important for the fact that this will be the first time that a lot of Americans will hear directly from J.D. Vance, who now formally rounds out the Republican ticket.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Erin, it's something Vance's advisers, the Trump campaign team, are very aware of, and it's why, at least according to several people familiar with the matter, the speech is going to be very heavy on biography, really trying to introduce himself to the broader American public.

Now, yes, a lot is already known about J.D. Vance. He has a best- selling memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy". His rise in politics was extremely fast and not come up through the Ohio machine or the Ohio Republican Party, has only been in the U.S. Senate for just about 18 months. There's a lot people don't know about him if they haven't been paying close attention to his life.

But that life is a story that even some Democrats I've spoken to acknowledge is a very compelling one as he laid out in his book, kind of hard scrabble upbringing in the industrial Midwest, service in the Marine Corps, Yale Law School, venture capital, our colleague for a period of time here at CNN before turning to politics.

Where he goes from here is obviously a huge question given the lack of political biography that he has up to this point. But there's also value to that. And I think when you talk to people around the former president, they see that, they understand that. They're aligned politically. They're aligned ideologically. And certainly this is a new generation.

BURNETT: And so, you know, all right, you talk about his story and how compelling it is. And it is, right? I mean, it touches on so many issues, broken families, addiction, all of the things that he can talk about. But when it comes to who he is now and what he will do in office, for J.D. Vance, foreign policy is front and center, right? If anyone was hoping that Donald Trump would go the way of Nikki Haley or Lindsey Graham, or the way Marco Rubio usually is, right? And say that America needs to be active in the world. J.D. Vance is a very different worldview, and I know that there are a lot of us allies watching that are very concerned about J.D. Vance and this America First foreign policy that he's embraced.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, and it's important to point out there are near-term concerns and then there are longer-term concerns. When it comes to the issue of Ukraine, specifically, there has been no more vociferous opponent in the United States Senate in the Republican Party than J.D. Vance.

He took on his party on the Senate floor. He tried to work to block additional Ukraine funding, very supportive of funding for Israel, said he could see the goals there, could see the outcome did not really put much weight into the value of the alliance with Ukraine and the U.S. support for that.

That is putting him in a very different place than many Senate Republicans. In fact, once in a Republican said, look, we know he is extraordinarily smart, but he's not exactly an extrovert inside the conference. Now, that may actually be a bonus for J.D. Vance, political establishment, particularly the Republican Party, not super well-liked here.

One of the most interesting elements over the course of the last couple of days, seeing Republican senators on the convention floor asking them what they think about the pick, very cautious, very careful, don't know him super well, very concerned about his form from policy.

And in the near term, that means he's going to be a voice in the room in the situation room, if President Trump is elected. Talking about these issues, he will have wait there.

In the long term, they see this as the direction of the Republican Party. This will become the new standard bearer. This will be the passing of the torch, and this certainly is a direction that is antithetical to where more traditional established Republicans are bent on foreign policy for decades -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Phil.

On such a crucial night to see J.D. Vance, Jake.

TAPPER: Right. Erin Burnett. Thank you so much.

Let's bring in Republican Governor Chris Sununu of the great state of New Hampshire. Governor, you know polling in New Hampshire maybe better than anyone. How -- how up for grabs is New Hampshire, right now, with President Biden in this weakened position?

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): A legitimate coin toss. There's no question about it. Some of the polls have Trump up a little bit. I think they kind of hitting a bit of an apex, but the reality is, this is going to be a coin toss come November, assuming Biden stays on the ballot, which again, I'm still like kind of 50/50 on that one.

I just think the pressures are building against the current president to get off the ballot when you have all the Democrat disarray that's going on there. That's going to be significant over the next few weeks. So, no, it's definitely a toss up and New Hampshire, hasn't had a -- gone Democrat for the presidential nominee since 20 -- 2000, I believe. But it very well could this time.

Trump only lost this state by about 2,500 votes in 2016 and so, there's clearly a much stronger sentiment towards Republican unity to what folks here are seeing on the ground, what they want to see out of their presidential candidate.

[16:10:10]

TAPPER: You have called J.D. Vance, the new running mate for President Trump, you've called him a strong VP pick. On some of the issues, though, you really are very different with him. He opposes abortion rights, even in the cases of incest or rape.

He's been one of the leading opponents of U.S. military support for Ukraine. You on the other hand, you signed a state ban on abortion after 24 weeks. That's basically codifying Roe. And you've also said opposing aid to Ukraine, quote, is not a viable foreign policy.

On a policy level, do you think J.D. Vance would take the party in the right direction?

SUNUNU: Yeah. Well, again, we can disagree on a few of these policy items and their significant to be sure. But no, I don't think the vice president is going to be driving the policy for Donald Trump, right? Donald Trump drives the policy.

I mean, he'll be an adviser but there is on the economics or foreign policy. I'm sure he'll be a voice here. That's fine. There's a lot of voices within the Republican Party, but Donald Trump and his team are going to -- are going to really drive the ship.

What J.D. brings, as was just being reported, he brings such a contrast to Kamala Harris, right? As an outsider, someone who doesn't come up to the political establishment. He's only been in D.C. for 18 months. He's a bit of a disrupter, but he's actually quite, quite brilliant.

And as a marine, as someone who graduated from Yale, but had a very tough upbringing. And that upbringing matters because that means he understands when someone talks about mental health or the drug crisis or issues of poverty, he's lived it, right? He has these real lived experience and I think that's going to be -- that's a bit of a opposite, if you will, to Donald Trump, right?

Donald Trump, we all say, know he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has never really had economic hardship. So in that sense, they are very complimentary team. They bring different perspectives, but with the same goal and vision to unify the country.

I'm sure they'll have their differences on policy. I'll see and even personality. That's okay. Last time, I checked Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have a lot of differences on policy and personality, but they make it work.

So I think these two are going to be a great team going forward for the next few months and talk about not just unity of the Republican Party, but unity for the American public, right? Because it's about the individual, not just about some big government solutions to take care of everybody.

They really believe in allowing individuals to have more say.

TAPPER: You've endorsed Trump. Recently, you said you still believe that President Trump contributed to what happened on January 6, 2021. Obviously, Trump's then vice president, Mike Pence, averted likely constitutional crisis by certifying the election results. I know you think that Mike Pence did the right thing.

What he did was the opposite of what Trump won. And are you confident that if J.D. Vance were put in a similar situation, forced to make a choice between President Trump or the U.S. Constitution. Are you worried at all about the choice he might make?

SUNUNU: No, look, those -- we're not -- I'm not worried about that at all. At the end of the day, I have a lot of faith and confidence in the institutions and the responsibilities that individuals carry. I think Mike Pence did the right thing.

You know, look, we're all trying to understand that we never want to see January 6 again. It was one of the low points in modern American history to be sure. I don't think it was a disqualifier. Most Americans don't see it as a disqualifier because all these other pressing issues really drive.

So that's obviously a hypothetical. None of us want to see. I think what America is looking for is a way from that polarization, away from that fear, that fear of that messaging, of fear, if you will, and a messaging more of not just hope and optimism.

But tell us what you're going to do. Tell us how you're going to fix inflation. How you're going to fix the border crisis. And that's what the Republicans are putting forward in a very positive way.

And it isn't unifying a MAGA brand. That's not what this is about at all. I'm not MAGA or an extremist. Nikki Haley isn't some extremist. It's really unifying the Republican Party around what the average American wants to see. And I think, you know, it's come out very well. I mean, this has been

one of the more positive and energetic national conventions we've seen here in modern history. It's pretty amazing and it's all in a very positive way.

Democrats are going to have a hard time explaining how their convention looks and the disarray that comes from that. And the building like, I think last week, we were thinking a lot of the Democrat leaders were just going to kind of cave and say, well, I guess we're stuck with Biden.

Clearly, that's not the case with Adam Schiff coming out. You'll have more individuals coming out, more money being frozen on the Democrat side. That's very real and that's going to build a lot of pressure on the former president and his team to make the right decision and move out the -- move off the ticket.

TAPPER: All right. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, always good to see you, sir. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

SUNUNU: You bet. Thank you.

TAPPER: We have some breaking news. Special Counsel Jack Smith is challenging the controversial ruling by Judge Aileen Cannon when she threw out the classified documents case against Donald Trump. We're going to talk with one Trump's top attorneys coming up.

Plus, the politics at stake as J.D. Vance takes the stage for the biggest speech of his career. What to watch for. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:52]

BURNETT: And welcome back to THE LEAD. We are just hours out from J.D. Vance giving his first speech as the Republican vice presidential nominee. The theme of tonight as they've been giving each night a theme, tonight, it's make America strong once again.

Republicans will argue America standing on the world stage was stronger under Trump as he pursued isolationist policies.

And I want to bring in our political experts, so we're going to be here all night.

Shermichael, that's what we're going to hear from him.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.

BURNETT: It's very much that America first. Thank God, we got water all around.

SINGLETON: Yes.

BURNETT: And a wall on one side. SINGLETON: Well, look, I think the MAGA movement, if you will, for many of Trump's supporters, they view it as sort of a restitution of years the past, where things were better, where you were more confident in what the future would look like, not only for your own kids, but for your grandchildren to come.

And so for J.D. Vance coming from a poor, troubled family, not only speaks to poor white Americans, you have a whole lot of poor Americans of color who also understand what it's like to have a family member struggle with drugs, to be raised by your grandparent, to wonder if your dreams as a kid can come to fruition as an adult.

So this is a powerful moment for him.

[16:20:01]

BURNETT: And it's that isolationist policy, Jonah. But I think it comes down to Ukraine says so much. Nikki Haley speaking to 20 percent of the GOP primary voters, said Ukraine matters to who America is, that democracy and J.D. Vance has said the very opposite, right, and just to play for everyone, how stark these differences are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We cannot possibly support Ukraine and Israel and our own defense needs in the way that these guys demand. So I think we should focus. I think Israel is a much closer ally, is a much more core American national security interests.

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Supporting Ukraine is actually preventing war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So what happens to the 20 percent of GOP voters who believed in Nikki Haley's view of the world?

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, it's important to point out like you could -- you could ask -- you could actually almost the opposite question. What's going to happen to all of the people who like this coherent, sort of neo-isolationist, non- interventionist, wherever you want to call it foreign policy that J.D. Vance subscribes to, that is not at all clear that Donald Trump subscribes to it, right? I mean, Donald Trump's position on Ukraine is much more opaque and --

BURNETT: Well, he'd solve it on day one.

GOLDBERG: Right, right or what, once he gets into office, they'll say, we'll do it in two weeks, because that's what he always does when he says he's got a solution to something.

The point is that, I -- J.D. Vance is setting himself up to basically have to defenestrate a lot of his positions based on what Trump decides to do at any given moment. Now, I don't know what Trump's going to do on Ukraine. I think J.D. Vance is completely wrong on Ukraine, but just look at it in terms of like abortion, his position on abortion is a straight down the line, pro-life position. And now he's said, whatever Trump's wants, he gets.

And I think a lot of the people, a lot of people I have arguments with the conservative movement on the nationalist, conservative, you know, post-liberal universe, they're putting all this stock in J.D. Vance being their champion and their avatar, but the reason J.D. Vance was picked was that he convinced Trump he would be a blind loyalist to Donald Trump.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the reality though, is that with J.D. Vance represents at least in terms of foreign policy, is where the younger part of the GOP is. Whenever I look at data about what Republicans think about foreign policy, on the Democratic side, there's almost no age gap. But on Republicans, it's the biggest issue area where you see older Republicans and younger Republicans very different, older Republicans remembering the Cold War, remembering a time where they say yes of a strong muscular American foreign policy that is out in the world, that does good, that brings about peace.

J.D. Vance represents a generation that says, yeah, we supported the Iraq war in 2004 and look where that got us.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. I am so troubled as a Democrat because for years, we all battled against this idea of the Republicans being the strong national security party, and how is it that we're going to compete on national security and foreign policy? And it's like the Republicans are just handing back to this notion of being strong.

Their view of America first seems too often too much like America alone. And they give them the power of our example in the soft power influence that America is able to have around the world, and by having somebody like Donald Trump, who people don't really see as a democratic icon, it makes it so much more difficult for us to go to countries and say, hey, we think you guys ought to be doing it this way, when we've got a president who doesn't seem to be following it that way.

BURNETT: That was interesting the way you put it first and alone, I think everyone can understand the difference between those two things is important, an important nuance.

All right. All staying with us here.

And you saw him standing beside Donald Trump for weeks during the New York hush money trial. But now he is at the Republican National Convention. And you will see him right here next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:28:06]

TAPPER: We're following some breaking news now just moments ago. Special counsel Jack Smith formally appealed the ruling by Judge Aileen Cannon earlier this week to dismiss the classified documents case against Donald Trump. This sets up a process that is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is down on the convention floor with one of Trump's top attorneys -- Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Yeah, Jake, I'm standing here with Todd Blanche, obviously, one of Donald Trump's lead attorneys who was working on that classified documents case.

And, Todd, great to have you, especially with the news that Jack Smith is now filing an appeal to what Judge Cannon decided on Monday to try to get this -- to throw this case out.

Do you believe that this will stand on appeal or do you think Judge Cannon will be overturned?

TODD BLANCHE, DONALD TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: Oh, I think it's going to stand on appeal for sure. I mean, the 11th Circuit, which is the court's going to hear it, there's no precedent, there's no -- there's no case that's ever appeared in front of them consistent with this. And Judge Cannon's opinion, 93 pages, consistent with the law, consistent with the legislative history. It's a really beautifully accurate, well- written decision.

We have no fear in front of the 11th Circuit. I think the 11th Circuit is going to affirm Judge Cannon and then we'll see what happens after that.

So, when Donald Trump was in office, when he was president, the 11th Circuit did face a case like this with Robert Mueller as special counsel and they upheld his appointment.

So why do you think that they'll rule differently now?

BLANCHE: Well, that's a D.C. Circuit? So the D.C. Circuit ruled in a different way than the 11th Circuit. Judge Cannon is not bound by the D.C. Circuit and the 11th Circuit, is not bound by the D.C. Circuit.

And if you look at Judge Cannon's opinion, all 93 pages of it, and you can compare that and stack up against the other opinions that are out there, we're very confident that the 11th Circuit is going to affirm. And if it goes to the Supreme Court, that Supreme Court will affirm as well.

COLLINS: But there are a lot of U.S. attorneys that are not Senate confirmed. So I think for some people may look at this and say, well, why does the special counsel have to be?

BLANCHE: Well, that's not true. There aren't a lot of U.S. attorneys who are not --

COLLINS: There are multiple U.S. attorneys who are not Senate confirmed. BLANCHE: No, absolute, that's not true. There's a process that happens when there's a U.S. attorney vacancy, and you can be acting for awhile and then the judges of that district actually make you the U.S. attorney.

[16:30:08]

It's not -- nothing like what Jack Smith, it's not a situation where the attorney general just says, hey, you're a private citizen and you can come and you can sign indictments and you can prosecute people, and you can take away somebody's liberty. You can take away the president of the United States' liberty.

That's not like a U.S. attorney who is temporarily -- who is temporarily appointed, and then the judges actually ultimately approve them if the Senate does not.

COLLINS: So, the big question here is whether or not your team plans to use this decision by Judge Cannon to try to get the case in D.C. missed -- dismissed, the election interference case.

Do you plan to do so? And if so, when?

BLANCHE: Look, we're -- that case is still stayed. We're looking into what the best thing to do about that case. Judge, as you know, Judge Chutkan and the special counsel have lots of deal with what the immunity decision.

And so, whether we're going to make a motion under the appointments clause, we're still -- we're still thinking through that. We don't know yet.

COLLINS: But why would you think through it if you believe that Jack Smith cannot be in his position as special counsel because he wasn't picked by the president and he wasn't confirmed by the Senate. Why would you not argue that in Washington?

BLANCHE: Well, because there's a D.C. Circuit case that has come out the other way. So in theory, Judge Chutkan is bound by that decision. Judge Cannon was not bound by that decision. So -- and I'm not saying we're not going to do it. We're looking into it.

Look, these cases should not have been charged, period. And any way we can get them dismissed, the Cannon case, that's dismissed. It's gone. The case in D.C. should be gone as well. And if it's immunity, if it's the appointments clause, we're going to get that case dismissed as well, but we're still looking into it strategically.

COLLINS: Todd Blanche, you are here on the convention floor, thank you for joining us.

Jake, back to you.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Thank you, Kaitlan.

The divisions among Democratic elected officials over President Biden the remaining at the top of the ticket, those divisions continue to grow and they continue to become even more public as President Biden makes his latest push to try prior to shore up support, and that push itself continues to raise questions. That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:36:32]

TAPPER: A break-in scene on the campaign trail right now. Moments ago, President Joe Biden made a stop on the trail in Las Vegas. He met with voters that are -- at a restaurant there in battleground Nevada. He's on his way to speak to a Latino civil rights and advocacy group.

While Republicans are projecting unity and strength here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Democrats across the country are projecting the exact opposite of unity and strength.

Today, CNN is reporting that the Democratic National Committee is moving ahead with a controversial plan to virtually nominate President Joe Biden before the Democratic Convention even begins officially in Chicago next month, despite more and more Democratic elected officials and donors and voters expressing their concerns about President Biden remaining on top of the ticket.

Fueling those concerns, new polling from firms such as BlueLabs funded by Democratic donors showing post-debate, President Biden losing ground to Donald Trump in 14 key battlegrounds across the country, not just the seven battleground states, including the five states that Biden flipped against Trump in 2020, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.

But more alarming to Democrats, Biden is now vulnerable in Colorado and Minnesota and Maine and New Mexico and Virginia, and New Hampshire.

Now, the Biden campaign has stepped up. The presidents media appearances and an attempt to show critics that the president still has the skills and the vigor to defeat Trump. This includes a taped interview with Speedy Morman on "360 with Speedy" that was taped last Friday and released on Monday.

The president's performance will no doubt do little, however, to calm anxious Democrats crowds because there were, as we've seen, for quite some time now, moments where President Biden appeared quite confused.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But I didn't plan on running because when I, in 2020, when I -- when Barack asked to be vice president, I joined him, which is a great honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Of course, President Obama tapped Biden to be his running mate in 2008, not 2020. There were also moments where President Biden appeared to lose his

train of thought, such as this moment when he was answering a question about Trump's appeal to hip hop artists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Every time, every election that I ran and whether it was on your off-year, I got over 90 percent of the Black vote and the number of folks participating didn't slow down because it didn't reduce. So, look, I -- you know, Trump --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Here now, former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield.

Kate, Biden is losing ground to Trump in 14 -- 14 key battlegrounds across the country according to Democratic funded polling. Just last week, Biden said this when asked if he would consider stepping aside, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Unless they came back and said there's no way you can win -- me. No one's saying that. No poll says that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So that was President Biden saying no one is saying that he can't win and, Kate, there are quite a few Democrats saying that he can't win, most recently, Adam Schiff, who's running for Senate in California, who loves Joe Biden, who is loyal to Joe Biden. Is this information not getting to President Biden?

[16:40:02]

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think, look, first of all, there's no question this is not a great state of play for the Biden campaign. I think that, you know, obviously, the polling that we've seen today combined with what you heard from Congressman Schiff, you know, it is clear there is frustration amongst a subset of the party. It's not a great state of play for the Biden campaign.

I think -- look, I have no doubt that Joe Biden is hearing this information. He's -- remember he's not somebody who is -- he's not cloistered in a hermetically sealed box. I mean, he reads the papers. He watches television.

He's -- he's seeing this information. I think what he needs to do is get -- get on the horse, on a message that is less about the numbers aren't good. You know, these numbers aren't accurate. This isn't right. This isn't where the polling is.

And it's more about, you know, nobody knows more about a comeback and how to mount a comeback than I do. I am putting together, come back here, get on board, we're going to beat Donald Trump. I would love to see a message from him that was more about showing some get up and go rather than denying the state of play.

And I think that would be a more compelling message for Democrats who want to get on board and want to defeat Donald Trump. And I think he has an opportunity to do that, but I think he needs to do it now.

TAPPER: All right. Kate Bedingfield, thanks so much.

Here now, the political panel to discuss.

David Chalian, the Democratic National Committee, despite having been proven not being honest about what's going on in Ohio because there was questions about whether or not they had to do this virtual nomination because of some law in Ohio, but that's now changed, whether or not the DNC wants to acknowledge that.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: They don't.

TAPPER: They don't want to acknowledge it, right? They're not being honest about it.

What are you hearing about this plan to start with this virtual nomination against the wishes of Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and so many other elected Democrats as early as August 1st?

CHALIAN: Right. So the plan had been and it was the Ohio thing that triggered it before resolved to do a virtual or remote roll call, and it would be happening prior to the convention.

By the way, this is what happened four years ago because of COVID. When we saw that roll call at the convention, that was not -- he had already been the nominee. They had done this before. So they were doing that again.

But this is happening in an entirely new context right now because there's a massive question about whether Joe Biden is going to remain atop the ticket for the Democratic Party. So now, what you're dealing with his, his political arm is trying to say, let's get this done and make him the nominee. But then they're getting blowback, that that's not a very small D democratic process, and why shouldn't this be at the convention?

And, of course, those -- some of those people want to buy more time here to try and make the case that he should step down.

And Audie Cornish, we talked about this polling from the Democratic donors, showing Biden sinking in 14 states, not just the big seven battlegrounds, but more traditionally Democratic states, reliably Democratic -- New Mexico and New Hampshire and Virginia and Minnesota and Colorado.

This poll also found the four Democrats, in particular, did much better in head-to-head matchups with Donald Trump than did Donald -- than did Joe Biden.

Those Democrats are Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Now, the Biden theory of the case would say, well, because there hasn't been really anything negative about these people. People only know positive things about them as opposed to what they've been hearing about Joe Biden.

What do you think?

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. There's not a lot of time and as soon as you're in the spotlight, it's 50/50, whether you'll thrive or wither.

The fact that they commissioned this, to be armed with data and information to continue to make this case, and we heard this reporting of this meeting with House Democrats where Biden basically starts yelling at them for raising this. So it's still falling on deaf ears. It's still a struggle and sort of surprised that even as donors are speaking out, that there is still this kind of reluctance to hear them because like the money is meaningful. And I think the president is in danger of falling behind.

TAPPER: Manu Raju, Congressman Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, Senate candidate for Democrats in California is now the 20th congressional Democrat to call on Biden to step down. For those 20, there are dozens more that haven't done so publicly, but feel the same way. How big a deal do you think is the Schiff announcement?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's very significant. I mean, he is the highest profile Democrat by far. He's got real poll with the donor communities. He's very close to (AUDIO GAP) is indicating that this was not coordinated with her in any way, but this is going to get a lot of attention. It's going to give more Democrats, this has been quite for the last few days (AUDIO GAP) assassination attempt and the RNC convention, lot of Democrats have been keeping their powder dry for the lat life as few days, not wanting to say anything.

Now that Schiff has said something, expect more calls to come forward.

[16:45:02]

But where are the Democratic leaders in all of this? That is where the frustration is beneath the surface. Nancy Pelosi has not really said a whole lot publicly, neither is Hakeem Jeffries, neither has Chuck Schumer.

We do know from our reporting that Chuck Schumer and Jeffries were involved in helping delay this virtual roll cover beyond August 1st for the DNC. But will they come out and take a position one way or the other but keeping Biden atop the ticket? That's going to be a key question in the next two weeks.

TAPPER: And, Jeff -- Jeff Zeleny, tell us more about this, the moderate House Democrats' phone call with President Biden over the weekend. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, this was

Saturday, just in the hours before the shooting. So, at the time, and this is part of President Biden going through a really (AUDIO GAP) in a conversation with the new Democratic coalition, largely moderate Republicans, there was a very heated conversation and an interesting one (AUDIO GAP) stark information and saying, look, we don't think you can win.

Jason Crow from Colorado and Chrissy Houlahan from Pennsylvania, and most importantly, but as our Dana Bash reported earlier today in a conversation with the president and Jason Crow got quite heated.

And Crow, you know, who's in -- a military veteran. He has had several tours of duty. He is seen as a leader among House Democrats. He really pressed the president to see if he's still able to serve. There are national security questions.

And Biden pushed back quite forcefully. So, now, we know that Biden --

TAPPER: He told him to cut the crap.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah.

ZELENY: Now we know Biden is hearing this information, can't just blame it on the media that he's seeing, but the question is, does he believe it and does it comport with the polling he's seeing from Mike Donilon.

All eyes right now are in Mike Donilon, the president's longstanding adviser and strategists.

HENDERSON: And, listen, what Jason Crow in that meeting said to Joe Biden was Americans expect a strength and vigor in a sense of energy from their commander in chief, right? I mean, if you think about commander in chief, the sense of command.

And I think the problem that Biden it has is he's keeping -- he keeps going out there thinking that he's going to quiet these calls, but he keeps giving these interviews where he seems to lose his train of thought. And even physically, there seems to be some sort of infirmity going on with him. His walk is a little bit slower. He seems to have trouble moving his arms in a way that we've seen him move them in years past.

So that's the problem. That's why these calls haven't been quieted.

TAPPER: Thanks to one and all as J.D. Vance takes the convention stage, the spotlight is also shining on his personal story. Who's his wife? How has she helped shape his political fortunes? That story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:51:52]

BURNETT: All right. The stage is set. J.D. Vance will be delivering a massive speech tonight. As the country gets to know him, the attention is also turning to is wife.

CNN's Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When 38-year-old, Usha Vance, walked onto the convention floor with her husband on Monday, her life may well have changed forever.

KATE ANDERSENT BROWER, AUTHOR, "FIRST WOMAN": Now, she's really going to be under the media microscope and we're really getting to know who she is, what she believes in, and more importantly, why she married J.D. Vance.

TODD: In an interview with FOX News last month, Usha Vance said this about the prospect of her husband becoming Donald Trump's running mate.

USHA VANCE, J.D. VANCE'S WIFE: I'm not raring to change anything about our lives right now. But I really -- I believe in J.D. and I really love him, and so, we'll just see what happened with our life.

TODD: She described their victorious 2022 campaign for the Senate seat from Ohio, J.D. Vance's first ever attempt to public office as a shock.

VANCE: It was so different from anything we've ever done before, but it was an adventure.

Our family story is an Ohio story. My husband J.D. grew up in Middletown and things weren't easy.

TODD: And Usha Vance seemed as eager to win the race as her husband, taking the lead role in a campaign.

VANCE: He's an incredible father and he's my best friend.

TODD: That proclivity to be able to comfortably appear with her husband in public contrast with Melania Trump, who's rarely seen with the former president at public events.

BROWER: We don't see Melania Trump humanizing her husband. That's really not a role that she's ever played. And so, perhaps, Usha could be a really big advantage to this campaign, just like her husband is. She's young. She's well-spoken. She's successful.

TODD: Born Usha Chilukuri in 1986. She was raised in a San Diego suburb by Indian immigrant parents and met J.D. Vance when they both attended Yale Law School. They married in 2014 and have three young children, which Usha Vance has balanced with some impressive professional accomplishments.

She clerked for two Supreme Court justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh, when he served on the U.S. Court of Appeals. She just resigned from a highe powered law firm.

In a 2020 podcast, J.D. Vance joked about how tough it is to argue with her at home.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh my God, it's terrible. It's -- it's terrible. She uses, you know, so much facts and logic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: In fact, when Fox asked J.D. Vance how he would debate Vice President Kamala Harris, he motioned toward Usha and said, well, I have to debate this litigator all the time. So, I think I would do okay there -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Brian, thank you very much.

And next details of the failures and missed warnings before the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. We've got those breaking details after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:59:31]

TAPPER: And we're back with some breaking news.

Several Republican U.S. senators are blasting today's briefing by federal officials about the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. They're calling the briefing, quote, uninformative, and quote, a cover your ass briefing.

In a separate briefing, a House lawmaker says officials told them that the shooter had a major depressive disorder.

We also have some new details about the shooting. According to a senior law enforcement official, a counter sniper team saw the shooter looking at their position, through a rangefinder around the same time that witnesses alerted police that the shooter was crawling on the roof.

There are also new images of what was found on the shooters body including a transmitter --