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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip

Source Says, Harris Set To Interview Finalists For V.P. Pick; Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) Calls Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) At Total Phony Baloney; Georgia GOP Tries To Ban Geoff Duncan From Running As A Republican; "NewsNight" Tackles State Of The 2024 Presidential Race. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired August 02, 2024 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Tonight, a time for choosing for V. Kamala Harris nears a decision. Who gets participation trophies and who gets a rose?

Plus, plot holes in the American rescue story. New numbers show the economy struggling to turn the page.

Also, yes they did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRSEIDENT: Yes we can.

DEAN: Now Harris hires the Obama Corps to do it again in 2024.

And Georgia's GOP says --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bless his heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: -- after one of their own throws in for Harris, right as Donald Trump jumps a midnight plane to Georgia. The supposedly sour peach responds in moments.

Live at the table, Geoff Duncan, Mo Elleithee, Jason Osborne and Lauren Leader. Welcome to a special edition of NewsNight, State of the Race.

Good evening, I'm Jessica Dean in New York. Abby Phillip is off tonight.

And let's get right to what America is talking about. That's job interviews. Kamala Harris closing in on a potentially campaign- altering decision, that's choosing her vice presidential nominee. And this weekend, she's meeting with the final contestants in what's been the most watched reality show this summer. We've got our panel here to talk all about it. Good evening everyone. It's a summer Friday and we have a veep stakes going on. Is this Josh Shapiro's job to lose? I think that is what the buzz is as we close out this Friday. Mo, what are you hearing?

MO ELLEITHEE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF POLITICS: Look, I got out of the prediction game in politics after 2016, right? But I think she's got a couple of really strong options. And I think all of them bring something to the table.

There is a lot of buzz about Governor Shapiro right now. He balances ideologically the ticket a bit. He's really good, really dynamic on the stump. And this is an election where you really want a really good and dynamic running mate out on the stump and he might be worth a couple of points in a state that is a must win for her, and that will probably be decided by a couple of points.

But I think when you look at him and you look at Secretary Buttigieg and you look at Governor Walz, the great thing about this field is I don't think she goes wrong with any of them. I think each of them can bring something that will help do the most important thing a running mate can do, help her win.

JASON OSBORNE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Does a Shapiro hurt her with that left wing part of her base on the progressive side that is, you know, the free Palestine movement?

LAUREN LEADER, CEO ALL IN TOGETHER: Well, a lot of us in the Jewish community are very worried about that. I mean, that's been one of the, I think, sort of undercurrent concerns among Jewish-Americans, is that given the climate and the anti-Semitism of the last, you know, that has become so fevered in the last year, there are real questions.

I mean, and then there are some folks on the left who are already trying to paint him as Genocide Josh. It's repellent. All of the vice presidential candidates have basically indistinguishable positions on Israel. But he's the only Jewish candidate in the field and so he has been tarred with this horrible label.

But I would be shocked if she let that dissuade her if he's her choice. She's married to a Jewish person. I think this is not something that she's going to allow to sidetrack. And, you know, we've also seen like a huge backlash in the Democratic Party against the far left. You know, Jamal Bowman lost his race. I think Cori Bush is very close to losing. So, you know, I think she, she needs that center.

So, I feel like she's auditioning them all, not just for herself, but also for the whole party, right? She wants to sort of show everyone from all the factions that she's listening. You know, the union folks really love Walz. Buttigieg is beloved, but the guy's never won more than like 50 votes in his life. I adore him, but, you know, he doesn't bring anything electorally. But people are very, you know, passionate about his leadership.

So, I think there's a kind of optics piece of this as much as --

OSBORNE: (INAUDIBLE) about he hasn't won more than 50 votes in his life. Neither has she, right?

LEADER: She's attorney general of California. It's an enormous state and a U.S. Senator.

OSBORNE: Yes, on the presidential stage.

LEADER: Well, she won -- she was on the ballot with President Biden. So, you can argue, you know, as any vice president does, she won. And she won 14 million votes in the primary. So, I mean, I think that's a complete like red herring about the vice president, I mean, about Harris.

[22:05:02]

The issue, if she's trying to boost her chances by picking a vice presidential candidate that enhances something she lacks, that's why people keep looking at Shapiro. He's wildly popular, as is Walz, by the way. She's not going to have a problem winning Minnesota. I think the issue is going to be, you know, some of the swing states, like Pennsylvania.

We know Cooper is out. I thought North Carolina was in play there. But she needs someone who has electoral prowess and --

GEOFF DUNCAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: She has 0 percent chance of making a mistake. I think with the list of finalists, it's certainly not going to be a J.D. Vance moment like Donald Trump did when he picked the V.P.

I think the elephant in the room for me is Pennsylvania, right? It's a huge swing from where it looked like. Pennsylvania was a lost cause with Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. Now, with the Shapiro coming in, it probably flips enough points to bring that state in and that regional effect on what it does to Michigan also in the cascading events then into Wisconsin. I think it's a big play.

DEAN: Yes. I want to hear from Rabbi Jay Michaelson, who's here with us. You're kind of the expert at the table on what we're talking about right now. And we had some reporting from our colleague, Isaac Dovere, today, who talked about how some Jewish Democrats are nervous or wonder if America is ready for a Jewish vice president. What do you say to that? And what do you say, too, to the idea that it is maybe most -- a lot of Jewish people that are mostly nervous about it, about one of their own being in this spotlight?

JAY MICHAELSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think, you know, we have reason to be nervous, as you were saying, you know, the last few months have been pretty alarming. On the other hand, this country was ready for a Jewish vice president in 2000 when the vice presidential -- the Jewish vice president was part of the ticket that won the popular vote.

So, I'm not really sure that that is really the case, but, you know, I think also, you know, folks like Josh Shapiro, and I'm not putting myself right next to him, but, you know, where you support both the existence of the state of Israel and hopefully the future existence of the state of Palestine and the aspirations of the Palestinian people, we get it from all sides. The right calls us self-hating Jews. Donald Trump has called me a non Jew, right, because I'm voting for Democrat.

DEAN: Well, he's done that also to Doug Emhoff this week. He called him -- yes.

MICHAELSON: There is no floor with this man. He will say anything. And, look, the left has called me a kapo and an apologist for genocide because of columns that I've written. So, we're used to this.

You know, it's really easy to say that my side is always right and the other side is always wrong. It's a little more honest to say that a place that I do care about currently has a government that's prosecuting a war that I profoundly disagree with.

That may be too nuanced for people who like everything to be black and white, but I think it actually resonates with the majority of the American people. And whatever votes may be lost on the far left are more than picked up, I think, with both centrist and liberal Democrats.

LEADER: Yes, I'm not saying I don't agree. I mean, I'm not worried about losing those votes. And I think there are going to be folks on the far left who, you know, have kind of written their own rules on this, that, you know, they've been very marginalized in the party, they have no congressional power anymore. So, you know, we'll see where it goes.

I just think it is a little triggering for Jewish-Americans right now. I mean, I think he's extraordinary. He's one of the most incredible orators. There's been some jokes going around online, you know, that he's Baruch (ph) Obama, you know, like he's just so extraordinary as an orator. If he's her guy, if she has a comfort with him, if they believe in him and he's gone through the vetting, I mean, I really think he's going to be the pick.

ELLEITHEE: And, look, and I say -- and I think this can apply to both sides of this, right? And I'm going to speak to those progressives who are nervous about him. As an Arab-American who is very sympathetic to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza right now, if she chooses him, Governor Shapiro, and Governor Shapiro helps her win, I am a thousand percent fine with it, because the alternative is Donald Trump.

And if you think, as someone who is pro-Palestine, that Donald Trump will be better for the Palestinian people, you don't know what you're talking about, right? And the same can be said on the other side, I think, to Jewish-Americans who may -- like if he helps her win, that is better for the country because Donald Trump is worse.

OSBORNE: But, I mean, we are talking about -- when I bring it up, I'm only bringing it up from the standpoint of that far left aspect of the wing. When we're talking about a race in Pennsylvania, Georgia, for example, Michigan, Ohio -- not necessarily Ohio, but Arizona, where it's 5,000, 10,000 votes in a county, and you're losing part of your traditional base --

LEADER: That's not your base. I think -- yes.

OSBORNE: These are people that voted for Biden in 2020.

DUNCAN: The 10 percent in the middle are very pro-Israel. And you're not going to listen to this comment.

MICHAELSON: This moment is one in which there's a plurality of potential V.P. picks. And if I were further to the left, I would, might also prefer somebody who's further to the left.

When we get closer to the election, after Donald Trump says 85 more Islamophobic things, 25 more racist things, I do not think that -- progressives are not stupid, right? They are going to wake up and recognize, if they live in a swing state, that a protest vote is a vote for Donald Trump and a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Bibi Netanyahu. I mean, that is what this is.

LEADER: The big concern in terms of the Democratic coalition was not about the far left because that has not been -- you know, in states like Michigan, that's a factor, but it's not in many other places.

[22:10:08]

And I think she makes that up.

What now has come together is this extraordinary coalition of young people, of black women, of now, you know, white women and the white dudes who turned out on the Zoom calls, I mean, the enthusiasm, I think she has such a window right now to really do what feels right to her because she has unbelievable momentum. And the coalition is there, if it holds the way it's looking like it is. I mean, you don't get to $300 million raised with a big plank of the party not supporting you.

OSBORNE: We always have this discussion about a presidential candidate picking a vice president that's going to help them win the state. And if you look at the last, at least since, you know, the 80s, I mean, for sure Cheney helped Bush win Wyoming.

LEADER: Yes, for two electoral votes, yes.

OSBORNE: For sure Obama -- you know, Biden helped Obama win Delaware. I mean, the only one -- I mean, this is probably the first test. Can a vice presidential candidate help the presidential ticket?

DEAN: So, here's my question. Wait --

MICHAELSON: This is a good test case because this is an enormously popular governor, right? And that brings strength to the ticket, right? This is somebody who's not just from the state, but who is beloved. I mean, the numbers are off the charts.

DEAN: He has a 62 percent approval rating in a state that no one gets 62 percent anywhere. And here's what I want to ask you though, because I think, look, it could be -- she hasn't decided yet. We don't know who it's going to be. She is --

OSBORNE: Twitter says otherwise.

DEAN: Well, yes. And Twitter, all-knowing. Yes. But our indications are she's still meeting with them, still making this decision. But it is obvious that Trump and Vance have zeroed in on Josh Shapiro. I want to play a clip of Vance and then saying something about Shapiro and then what he said back. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A lot of talk is going to be this guy, Josh Shapiro, from Pennsylvania who, you know -- I've seen this couple of clips of him talking. He talks like Barack Obama. It's like if I did try to do a really bad impression of Barack Obama.

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): You know what he said? It's great. I love how we get the real time quotes here. I mean, look, I don't know, Barack Obama was probably our most gifted orator of my time. So, it's kind of a weird insult, I guess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: He got to use the magic word. He got teased.

DEAN: Weird, drink.

DUNCAN: They need to wrap J.D. Vance with consultants every which way, personality consultants. And obviously I keep seeing these weird ways he's sitting weird there. There it is again. He needs a posture coach. This guy's slouched over, like he's sitting in the corner of the locker room.

DEAN: He was sitting in an interesting way. I noticed that as well.

DUNCAN: But, look, I love the way Josh Shapiro was quick on his feet and he embraced it. And it was just -- he was talking like he was sitting at your kitchen table or walking down the street with talking to those neighbors. He was a real person and he embraced it.

MICHAELSON: Yes. Any of us remind sound talk like Walter Cronkite, I think we take it as a compliment. So, you know, if you say to Josh Shapiro, you sound like Barack Obama, that's great.

DEAN: Okay. Staying on Vance for a second, I want to play a clip. This is what he was saying about abortion. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: Two wrongs don't make a right. At the end of the day, we're talking about an unborn baby. What kind of society do we want to have? A society that looks at unborn babies as inconveniences to be discarded?

It's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term. It's whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of that child's birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: So, Donald Trump was poised to maybe find a way through on the abortion issue when he was running against Joe Biden, and they didn't talk about it much at the convention. And now with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, of course, she is their chief speaker on abortion rights for that White House and J.D. Vance is obviously very vocal on this issue. What do you make of his -- how he is telegraphing this to voters, and where might that 10 percent that might actually decide this election, will likely decide this election in these swing states, where are they -- how are they metabolizing this?

OSBORNE: I mean, the comments that you're attributing are J.D. Vance or that were attributed, were from 2021, right? That's not 2024. And I think, you know, in Donald Trump's defense, I think that's a question that's been asked and answered. I mean, he addressed it when he was president. He feels like mission accomplished if we're going to use that term in this cycle.

I don't think in his mind, you look at the platform of the Republican Party, we talked about this earlier, which nobody reads the platform except once every four years, there was nothing in there on the pro- life stance and they didn't want to amend on it.

So, I think we have to look at the statements that J.D. Vance ran or made when he was running for Senate don't really necessarily correlate clearly. There were some attacks on Trump during that time or before that time. They don't correlate with the top of the ticket. And so --

LEADER: Well, unless you -- I read it. Unless you picked up a copy of the Project 2025, in which case it actually perfectly --

[22:15:04]

OSBORNE: Yes.

LEADER: Okay, it could be. But you know what? I think Republicans really lost the talking points on this one because people on the left, voters, young people, you have major figures in the party who've gotten people to go Google and read what's in Project 2025. And whatever distance they try to make, put between it, the fact is it was authored by a whole bunch of folks who worked for Trump. And Heritage has been at the core of Republican politics for decades.

The problem with J.D. Vance, it doesn't matter when he said it. Because, ultimately, from a political perspective, what's happened, he's done exactly what you said, he brought back to the forefront an issue that Trump absolutely does not want to touch with a 10-foot pole, because the next part of that conversation is when you bring back the clips of Trump recently, you know, within the last five years saying that there should be punishment for women who seek abortions. He has repeatedly said that he is comfortable with the extreme restrictions in states that have happened because of the, because of Dobbs. And the result of that is you have women dying in emergency rooms because they've been denied life saving care when they are having miscarriages, you have women who've been rendered sterile, because they cannot access the basic healthcare that abortion provides. And you have J.D. Vance ignoring that, comments that come back again to the same -- to these very now seemingly dated pro-life positions, which Trump himself wants nothing to do with. It's politically terrible for him.

OSBORNE: Are we going to sit here and parse -- I understand completely what you're saying. But are we going to sit here and discredit or say the same thing about Kamala Harris?

LEADER: Yes, they're going to bring back everything she's ever said.

OSBORNE: Should we focus on that position or the position that they're talking about right now?

MICHAELSON: There's no way to compare the issue of fracking to the moral question of abortion. J.D. Vance is moralizing Trump.

OSBORNE: I'm not talking about the issue.

MICHAELSON: I'm talking about his tone when he says that it's inconvenient for a woman to have the authority to forced birth of the child of her rapist, that is inconvenient? Again, as a rabbi, that is a disgusting way to talk about what is such a profound choice. This isn't one issue. This is all of the issues. Whenever he talks on any moral issue --

OSBORNE: Again, are you going after Kamala on this too when she talks about defunding the police and all that stuff?

MICHAELSON: If you're going to die on the Hill comparing fracking to abortion, that's your choice.

DEAN: We're in deep into a discussion, but we do have to take a break. We'll talk about it during the commercial break.

Jay, I do want to say thank you for joining us.

MICHAELSON: My pleasure.

DEAN: Our rest of our panel is going to stick around.

Up next, this is what a campaign of retribution looks like, the Georgia Republican Party punishing one of its own and the man they're attacking is here with us to respond.

Plus, the band is getting back together. They're not John, Paul, George and Ringo. The Harris campaign is hiring Obama All-Stars out of retirement. They're hoping that means she wins in November.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:22:10] DEAN: Georgia's Republican Party is trying to ban former lieutenant governor and our guest at the table tonight, Geoff Duncan, from ever running as a Republican in the state. And the final straw for them, Duncan endorsing Kamala Harris for president last week.

In an open letter, Josh McKoon, the chairman of Georgia's Republican Party, wrote, among other things, you are not and never will be considered a Republican ever again. I request that you govern yourself accordingly.

I'm back with my panel now. And, Geoff, the floor is yours. This letter is long. It's pretty personal. It's --

DUNCAN: It talks about my minor league baseball career.

DEAN: It does. It talks about your minor league baseball career. It goes back some. What were your thoughts, yes, in a life otherwise devoid of accomplishment, i.e. dropping out of college, failing as a minor league baseball player, starting a series of sketchy businesses, your nominations by the Republican Party were signal honors, without which you would have never served as a member of the Georgia General Assembly or the lieutenant governor of this great state. That's --

DUNCAN: You know, I literally spent all day looking for Josh McKoon's baseball card online today and I just never found it. I found a couple of my baseball cards still online, but I never saw any of Josh McKoon's. Maybe he played kickball or something in middle school and I just missed that.

Look, it'd make better news if I said I was really shocked and surprised and had tears in my eyes but, you know, this has been coming for a long time. You know, I read it first as like a breakup letter. But what they missed was I broke up with them a few years ago when they decided to not be conservative, but be crazy.

DEAN: You're talking about 2020?

DUNCAN: Well, 2018.

DEAN: 2018, yes.

DUNCAN: And I'm going to give you a little bit of context. Josh McKoon got beat by Brad Raffensperger to be the secretary of state of Georgia. I beat David Shafer to be the Republican nominee. And David Shafer went on to become the party chair. So, these two guys cooked up this mini cult, right? They switched us from being conservative to being crazy in Georgia, even to the point where Governor Kemp had to set up his own, you know, PAC to be able to raise money outside of the state party.

And you fast forward, that little mini cult then formed a relationship with Donald Trump's cult in 2020, and it was a match made in hell. And they sucked into each other, and now all of a sudden you've got this crazy party that is not really a party. It's just chaos and confusion. And there's nothing that I'm proud about what they're doing. It's not certainly the Republican Party that I grew up in. And I have no desire to be a part of that party.

Now, I do have a desire to be a part of a conservative Republican Party at some point. And I guarantee you the voters will have a say. It may not be this week. It may not be this year. But at some point in my lifetime, there will be a Republican Party that is respectable, honorable and conservative and it will not look like anything Josh McKoon is created in Georgia.

LEADER: I mean, they keep losing. It must be -- it's so frustrating and yet somehow it like doesn't get through, right? I mean, they just lost two Senate seats.

[22:25:00]

DUNCAN: Their addiction to the cool kids club is what keeps bringing them back, right? Josh McKoon and his cast of characters want to sit in the front row with every, you know, chicken dinner and they want to be able to act like they're important. But, you know, being important means you actually make a difference. I couldn't tell you what that party stands for, other than just Donald Trump.

OSBORNE: Well, I will say, you know, to your point, that part does keep losing. But let's talk about Brian Kemp, and Brian Kemp ran probably one of the best campaigns I've ever seen, because he didn't run with that operation. So, whatever they are doing to you, I don't know what precipitated this, I don't know what it gains them for doing this.

DUNCAN: Well, they wanted good seats to Donald Trump's rally that's coming to Georgia tomorrow. That's I'm sure what's precipitated this, or they wanted to get their name called out, but whatever. It is what it is.

Interesting to think this same party actually raised money and propped up David Perdue to primary Brian Kemp, who is very, very popular in Georgia, if you haven't heard. And he beat him by 52 percent. I mean, you don't win paddleball games or what's the new game that's out there?

DEAN: Pickleball.

DEAN: Pickleball games by that kind of score.

ELLEITHEE: Here's the thing. There were 28,000, 30,000 people in Georgia who voted Republican down ticket, but didn't vote for Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, right? When Republican leaders say this kind of stuff to people like you who were not for Donald Trump but still want to be Republicans deep down, they're basically saying, we don't want you at all, right?

And that was -- you know, as a Democrat, like, I say to those people, like come on in. The water's fine, like we'll take you. The first rule of politics is people aren't going to vote for you unless you ask them to. Second rule is if you tell them not to, they won't. And that's what they're saying. Don't be a Republican. DUNCAN: By kicking me out, you kick probably 10-plus million other Republicans out across the country, because they're just like me. They're conservative. We believe in conservative principles. They make sense. But we don't like Donald Trump. In fact, we can't even imagine him running the White House.

DEAN: There's a lot of people in D.C. I mean, there's a whole class of Republicans in D.C. that would love to go into the White House, would love to serve in an administration, but don't feel comfortable doing it for Donald Trump and don't feel like the Republican Party --

LEADER: Well, and they tried. And let's be clear, I mean, they tried in 2016, the difference between what Milwaukee was like and what Cleveland was like. It's night and day. I mean, I --

DEAN: Yes, that is true.

LEADER: So, you know, in Cleveland, you still had lots of the former Bush administration people. I could name all the people who were there.

DEAN: It almost felt like it was -- just like it was so empty and this Milwaukee was raucous and joyful and it was fully complete, the term.

LEADER: Well, right. But the point is it's a faux unity because what you saw in Milwaukee was that all the people like, Geoff, who had principles, were all purged from the party and had no place there. And that includes people with, you know, decades of political experience who ran Washington under multiple Republican administrations, who have no place now in a Trump world, which is so scary to people like me, who, you know, follow really closely how government operates.

I mean, and that's really what I'm talking about in terms of that difference, like Cleveland, you still had people who were optimistic, that if Trump won, that there might be some sort some embracing of even folks who maybe who hadn't really, you know, been in his corner. None of that happened. And, in fact, his own cabinet and you know, most of the people work for him, none of them showed up to support him. They're all distancing themselves from him. And so it's just a reemphasis of what --

DUNCAN: Everybody who ends up behind the curtain with Donald Trump, whether it be a business partner, whether it be somebody in the cabinet, whether it be somebody in the administration, everybody who gets a chance to watch how that man makes a decision, right?

I got to watch it in the front row around COVID. I got to watch Brian Kemp and I try and other members of the legislature trying to make the best decisions possible for Georgia. History is really kind to how we did things in Georgia. We weren't perfect, but we did it really, really well and with a lot of data and with a lot of compassion.

And Donald Trump tried to usurp all of us only because he just had a personal vendetta against Georgia, and he wanted to double down. He lost Georgia because he didn't -- he picked on Brian Kemp, who was extremely popular, and he just continued to be a fool and a clown. And to me, it's very simple to see why he lost Georgia.

And it's going to be very simple to see why he loses this election cycle. I mean, this is pretty scripted right now. If you had asked me two weeks ago where I felt like this was going, it was headed in a tough direction. But, boom, there's a pent up demand for something new and something different and something not Donald Trump.

DEAN: And we're going to see how it goes. All right, let's take a quick break.

Up next -- hang on with us for a second. Up next, a second day of concerning economic news with recession fears growing. We will discuss that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:34:07]

DEAN: Tonight, did the Fed move too slowly? Recession fears growing after today's underwhelming jobs report, the U.S. economy adding 114,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate rising to 4.3 percent. That's much worse than it was expected.

Back with my panel now, along with senior correspondent for "Business Insider" Linette Lopez, who's joining us here at the table. Linette, let's start with you. Help us understand all these data points we got today and how they connect together.

LINETTE LOPEZ, "BUSINESS INSIDER" SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Okay, so one thing I can say is that we are not in a recession yet, and we won't know whether or not we are in a recession for a couple of months. A few things that tell us we're not in a recession, the unemployment rate is still pretty low.

We're still creating jobs. We're not losing jobs, okay? But what we are seeing are some telltale signs that things are slowing down. Now, the Fed has wanted to slow things down because after the pandemic, our economy was flying.

[22:35:00]

We had crazy inflation. The Fed has two mandates, keep prices stable, lower inflation, and also make sure that people in America are employed. As we're getting to this complicated period, the economy is slowing, and the Fed has to kind of stick the landing, to use an Olympic reference, and make sure that we land this economy with a low unemployment rate and also price stability. So, it'll be focusing on making sure we have interest rates at the right level to do that.

Right now, they're at like five percent, a little over. The Fed can cut interest rates to keep the economy going a little faster. In September, it can cut again later in the year. We have room. We have time. But these numbers are telling us we're getting to the end of this weird pandemic economy where prices were going up, and there was a lot of growth, and things were just really messy. DEAN: So, at one point today, Senator Elizabeth Warren called on Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, to cut rates now. That's what she wants him to do. Not wait until September. Is there any chance that happens?

LEADER: Stay out of it.

UNKNOWN: Yeah, you don't want that.

LEADER: You do not want any elected officials, whether it's Donald Trump or Elizabeth Warren, telling the Fed what to do. And by the way, the Fed does not care what Elizabeth Warren has to say, because they are an independent body. They will do what they see fit.

But I mean, this is an amazing economic team. It is extraordinary what they pulled off in the last few years to keep us out of recession, you know, to get the right balance. It was expected that this was going to pull back. Everyone's praying for interest rate cuts. So, but yeah, the politicians need to stay out of the Fed. LOPEZ: I think the interest rates cuts are coming. You know, we still

have a very manageable situation here, but it is like a little harrowing to see that America is slowing down. We are still the fastest growing economy in the world right now. We're the engine. And the last thing we want to see is America falter.

So, you know, the Fed has its eye on the situation. And so far, we haven't had major missteps. You know, if anything, we waited too long to act when inflation set into the economy. Maybe we're a little slow now, but I think the Fed has its eye on the game.

DEAN: And Lauren, you make an interesting point, because it is the Fed is an independent body, and politicians are not supposed to meddle in it at all. And yet the economy, again and again and again, is what's at the top of voters' minds. And so inherently, whatever happens becomes political. Not that they're politicized, but it's a political issue.

DUNCAN: And inflation specifically, right? It's ironic to watch both sides point at each other and say, hey, it's your fault. No, it's your fault. It's your fault. It's both people's faults. It's both parties' fault.

Donald Trump printed $8 trillion we didn't have. He gave out PPP loans to Republicans and Democrats and everybody in between and then forgave them. Then you had Joe Biden come in and print what's probably going to be close to $8 or $9 trillion worth of money that we don't have. We created free, cheap money, whatever we want to call it.

And we dropped it in the economy and said, go have fun. Go keep your lives exactly where they're at. And now, you know, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. The reaction is going to have to be to catch up from this.

LEADER: Well, what Janet Yellen will say about that, and I've heard her talk about it, is that she will say that the concern was, remember, a lot of this economic team, the Biden economic team was there during the crash in 2008, and they learned from it. And what Yellen has said is that they were terrified that it would take a decade to recover from COVID the way it did after the 2008 crash.

And so, they intentionally overstimulated the economy because they were so worried that it could take, you know, as long as it did. And after that, they learned their lesson is how she would put it. But yes, the flip side of that is obviously everything we all have come to understand.

But, you know, if you ask me, relative to most of the rest of the world, I think they made the right call.

DUNCAN: If you bought a house in the last couple of years, it's going to take you a decade to recover, most likely. If you bought stocks in the last year or two, it's going to maybe take you a decade or at least some function of time longer than that.

LOPEZ: The stock market has been flying. Everybody who owns stocks is happy.

DUNCAN: And that will be a function of a pullback.

LOPEZ: I think that we were in this weird circumstance. We turned off the economy -- part of it and turned it back on again. There's no way to say what was the right way to deal with the pandemic, what was the wrong way to deal with the pandemic. The important thing is that Americans are getting through this and that, like, our government showed that we care about keeping the economy going.

DEAN: Can I show you, though, hold on, can I show you the -- it's interesting, how would you rate the economy today among likely voters? Only 28 percent say excellent or good, 72 percent feel it's fair or poor.

DUNCAN: And it doesn't get any better than this. Your house has never been worth more. Your 401K has never been worth more. Your portfolio has never been worth more. Your boat's never been worth more. Your used car's never been worth more.

LOPEZ: I don't have a boat, honey. I don't have a boat.

OSBORNE: It's assuming that --

DUNCAN: Look, this is New York City.

LOPEZ: Inflation -- inflation is a problem. It eats into people's wallets. It makes people feel nervous. Runaway pricing -- you don't know when it's going to when prices are going to stop going up. That's why this was so important to the Fed. And then that's why the Fed has two mandates keeping unemployment low.

I think it's what's interesting is if you've ever read Project 2025 and if you want to go to sleep tonight with have nightmares to it, but that -- that recommends that the Fed get rid of the keeping the unemployment low mandate and that it just focus on price stability.

[22:40:06] So, the Federal Reserve would not care at this moment that -- that we're losing jobs or that unemployment would be going up. That would -- we're having a slowdown. So, that this --this, what what we want to do is keep things normal. You know, we want to keep politics out of the Fed. That is what I why I would say over and over again. And the Fed has its eye on the ball. I think we keep things kind of --

OSBORNE: That's fine. But I mean, I think you would -- we're all talking, you know, at a 30,000-foot level or probably even way down below. But the middle America that sees what they're spending day in and day out, they're not understanding the fact that they don't have a boat, they don't have a car, they're still renting.

And if they want to buy a house right now, a house that they wanted to buy three years ago that cost them maybe $3500 a month is now with interest rates costing them $7000 a month. And so, I think when we go back to Carville and Stephanopoulos is, you know, it's the economy, stupid tagline. That's what the folks voting in November.

At the end of the day, they're going to weigh in. Are we okay Donald Trump and his vernacular and what he says? Or am I feeling a little bit better because I'm spending less on groceries? I'm spending less on gas. I'm spending less on cars. I can afford a house. That, I think, is going to sway five to ten percent of the problem.

DEAN: Yeah, we're going to have to see. The voters will tell us what they think on that. Linette, thank you for joining us here at the table. We appreciate it. You guys are going to stick around. We have more to discuss. Up next, Team Harris announcing some big and familiar hires for its campaign. What does it mean that key Obama campaign alumni are now working for Harris? We're going to talk about that.

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[22:46:06]

DEAN: Vice President Harris throwing it back to 2008 in some ways, hiring a number of notable alumni from President Obama's campaign for hers. They include the mastermind behind Obama's winning strategy, David Plouffe, along with former senior adviser Stephanie Cutter, Mitch Stewart, the 2012 Battlegrounds States director and the former head of public opinion research, David Binder.

So, some familiar faces there that certainly have -- have been around since Obama and continue to kind of find their way back into these national campaigns. Do we think, do you all think is this a case of all hands on deck? Bring in who you've got to win. Is this should anybody be reading into this, you know, bridge under the -- just water under the bridge between any kind of tensions between the Obama and Biden camps?

LEADER: No, I mean, this is part of the --I mean, I'm sure this is part of the coalescing of the party. I mean, first of all, these are like veteran, extraordinary people. And a lot of them have been very involved in the campaign, even in some informal ways. I mean, Stephanie Cutter was running -- was basically running the convention with Mignon Moore.

So, she's never said she's not a private firm, but she's barely set foot outside of Democratic politics. You also have people like Jen Palmieri who've come back, come back in. These are like the A-Team. And we -- I was surprised, actually, that she did not make more significant changes at the top of the campaign in those first few weeks.

But I think it turned out to be exactly right. Like keep the steady ship. Don't mess with it. She's got a loyal team of folks in Delaware. They're all killing themselves for her. And just bring in the big guns like they are taking no chances.

OSBORNE: I also think I mean, having run campaigns, I look at -- and if I'm not mistaken, I think every one of the folks that you just mentioned there have done international campaigns. And in the U.S. we have very long campaigns.

DEAN: Very long.

OSBORNE: Nationally, there's snap elections. So, they're 60 to 90 days in some cases. So, bringing in somebody that has kind of that foreign experience --

DEAN: That's a great point.

OSBORNE: But also the domestic experience, because she is running a snap election.

DEAN: That's right. That's right.

ELLEITHEE: But, you know, look, this is -- I agree with everything that's been said. This is the A-team. They're coming in. A lot of them have worked with the people who have been running the Biden campaign.

And so, it will make for a much more seamless integration. But remember, that campaign was built for a Joe Biden candidacy and now there's a new candidate. And so, there's got to be some recognition that it's going to change a bit.

And I give her a lot of credit for keeping that campaign infrastructure entirely intact. You know, I haven't heard of anybody losing their job. But these new people are coming in. They'll be fully integrated and they will help her make this campaign just a little bit more her. And that's not a reflection on the people who were there. If anything, it's just bolstering what they've already built.

LEADER: Well, it's the history piece, right? I mean, I think that's what's so powerful about David Plouffe. The reason why everyone said they wanted David Plouffe back is because David Plouffe oversaw this history making transformative campaign with Barack Obama. And that is absolutely what this is.

If Vice President Harris is on track to become the first woman president, the first woman president of color, it is history making. And she is completely changing the game in the process. Everything about what's happened in the last few weeks is game changing.

And nobody knows that better than David Plouffe. And I think that's why people really wanted him, that he helped Obama embrace that mantle to take on the sort of greatness of that moment. The things that were bigger than him, that were really about a movement.

And that's really what's so magical about what the Harris campaign has been able to do in such a short period of time. They've embraced this movement that's bigger than them. And I think we're going to keep seeing that over the next 97 days.

ELLEITHEE: If you would have asked me two years ago what the Democratic dream team of operative would be, I would say whatever it is, it's got David Plouffe and General Mally Dillon sitting at the top of it.

[22:50:06]

DEAN: Well, and look what you have. It is, and you know what's interesting?

LEADER: He's also running a lot of foreign elections. So, I was not surprised Monsignor didn't come back.

DEAN: It's interesting, too, because she isn't known for, whereas Joe Biden, also older, but comes in with Steve Ruscetti and Donald and all these people that have been with him for decades. You know, she doesn't necessarily have a key group around her that's been with her through all of the iterations. And so, she likely is wanting to start to build that real inner circle.

DUNCAN: You might have heard a little bit about this, but I went to my first Democratic rally this week on Tuesday.

DEAN: You don't say no one in Georgia seems to notice. I

DUNCAN: t was like an out of body experience, but it was great. Saw lots of great friends and folks I served with and just really, really good. But the thing I kept hearing over and over and over again from colleagues that were in elected office, people I knew just in general and from the media was it felt a lot like the Obama run.

It just -- there was an energy in that room. There was just something different than just an election. It was a movement that was showing up. There was like this release valve of tension. And when I see these moves, I'm still learning these names, right? I don't really know who these people are.

I don't really run in these circles. But when you see that they used to work in the Obama campaigns, you watch the same sheet of music starting to show back up again.

LEADER: Well, and compare it to 2008 and what happened, excuse me, in 2016 and the sort of splits between the Bernie Sanders wing and Hillary Clinton. Like there's none of that. None of that is going to happen this time. And I think that there is no I mean, 96 days. They don't have a lot of time to get it, you know, to get pissed off at each other.

The thing that's so magical, I think, about this moment is that there is this sense of we are not going to let this opportunity get away from us. We lost it in '16. A lot of those folks will never forgive themselves for the mistakes they made. A lot of voters will never forgive themselves. They absolutely are not going to let that happen this time. And everyone's willing to put in the time and the energy to make sure --

OSBORNE: So, you're saying Kamala is going to go to Wisconsin?

LEADER: Yes.

OSBORNE: Because Hillary didn't. I mean, that was the issue.

LEADER: Oh, I missed what you were trying to say. Yeah. I mean, look, there's nothing she's not going to do. Sorry, I didn't get what --

ELLEITHEE: Look, I mean, to that point, right? Like one of the biggest frustrations, even for those Democrats that wanted Joe Biden to stay in, right? There was a frustration that there wasn't the feeling of a campaign, right. And I'm not talking about the campaign operation, but he wasn't out there. He wasn't --

OSBORNE: Well, I thought he was running for governor of Pennsylvania. It seemed like every weekend he was in.

ELLEITHEE: But that's not the issue now, right? She is out there non- stop. They just put out a press release announcing what six states they're going to next week.

DEAN: They're going to all the swing states after she chooses the V.P., yeah.

ELLEITHEE: There is just this energy that you're feeling is fueled by the candidate and the operation that she's running now and her travel schedule, I t feels like they're operating on a slumber.

DEAN: All right. We got to leave it there. Everyone, stay with me. Up next, the panel is going to give us their nightcaps. We'll be right back.

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[22:57:39]

DEAN: We're back and it's time for the "NewsNightcap". You each have 30 seconds to say your piece, so please keep to 30 seconds. Mo, you get to start.

ELLEITHEE: Elon Musk is back in the news for his involvement in this election. The latest is this Super PAC that he's launched to support Donald Trump is making it easy for people, reportedly, to go and register to vote. You go there and they click on a button that says register to vote and it takes you to a form where you dump all your personal information in. You know what it doesn't do? Register you to vote.

LEADER: Oh, no.

ELLEITHEE: And so, this Super PAC, these well-meaning people who think they are registering to vote, are giving all their data to this Super PAC that is going to help Donald Trump. For a party that's really worried about election fraud, let's maybe take a look in the mirror sometimes.

DEAN: Okay. Lauren?

LEADER: It's the summer of joy and Kamala Harris is the joyful warrior. She is leading a kind of turnaround in this moment where the Olympics are giving people hope and the release of hostages yesterday are giving people hope. And Americans have been tired of dark messages, of all of the negative views of America, all of it. And she came along at this moment just when Americans needed a summer of joy.

And she's the joyful warrior. And I think that's going to make Donald Trump look very small and very angry and very meek and very weak. And it is a moment of total transformation in politics that I think is going to last through the summer.

DEAN: Wow. All right, Geoff?

DUNCAN: All right. Time to talk about something way more important than politics.

DEAN: Yeah. Sports?

DUNCAN: And that's college football. It's almost upon us.

DEAN: It's August now.

DUNCAN: It's almost here. I've got additional reasons to be watching college football. I've got a son who's going to be a freshman at Georgia Tech playing football. We open up in Ireland. It's really expensive to fly to Ireland.

DEAN: Will you be flying?

DUNCAN: Yes. But with all that being said, my heartburn is I wish we could put this genie back in the bottle with this portal and NIL change. It has just, in my opinion, disrupted the game in a way that's just not normal. When you watch coaches like Nick Saban, who's talking about they can no longer talk to kids about grades.

And how they're going to take good care of them and keep them off drugs. And keep them strong in the weight room and out of jail and all that great stuff. They just want to know how much money are you going to pay me?

DEAN: All right.

DUNCAN: I just wish the game was better.

DEAN: Jason, you get to deal with all of this.

[23:00:00]

OSBORNE: Like Geoff, last night, I gave a shout out to my daughter. Tonight, my son is also starting -- started football camp this --or two days ago or three days ago in college. So, you know, thank you for that. But I do want to talk about Texas and Oklahoma entering the SEC. And it is a travesty, much like the NIL, that we have Texas and Oklahoma thinking that they are part of the Southern football.

DEAN: It's an Arkansas Razorback, I understand.

OSBORNE: Thank you.

DEAN: Yes, thank you. Thank you for all being here on a Friday night in the summer. We appreciate it. Thank you for watching "NewsNight State of the Race." "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.

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