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NFL Hall Of Famer Handcuffed On United Flight In Front Of Kids; Rep. Adam Schiff Calls On Biden To Step Aside In 2024 Race; Former Trump Rivals Endorse Trump, Call For GOP Unity; Source: J.D. Vance's Speech Tonight To Focus On His Life Story; Homeland Security Inspector General Investigating Secret Service; Director: Secret Service Was "Solely Responsible" For Security; Shooter First Raised Suspicions When He Passed Through Rally Magnetometers With Rangefinder. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 17, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

TERREL DAVIS, FORMER DENVER BRONCOS RUNNING BACK: Yes, as we were - well, as I was leaving, they were - they were recording the incident. I mean it's - it was just the most embarrassing, humiliating experience I've ever had. You know, I just - I just - I don't want anybody - I think, you know, what - what I take away from this is that I don't want anybody to ever have to go through that. Like a passenger on a plane - now, I know you have some unruly passengers. I know. I've seen them.

BURNETT: Yes.

TERRELL DAVIS: But, you cannot, I guess -

TAMIKO DAVIS: Have that much power.

TERRELL DAVIS: Have that kind of - yes, incident, or, quote/unquote. There wasn't an incident. And just take a passenger who has done nothing and then believe the flight attendant and then treat them like they are a convict.

TAMIKO DAVIS: Yes.

TERRELL DAVIS: That's - that's the part - the part I'm having a problem with is there's got to be some processes in place. You know, when he made the call, did somebody corroborate the story?

BURNETT: Right.

TERRELL DAVIS: Right.

TAMIKO DAVIS: And I think, like you said, when you alluded to, like, a convict. Someone who's been convicted of something has due process.

BURNETT: Yes.

TAMIKO DAVIS: Steps are taken. There's explanation. You know, there's context.

BURNETT: Yes.

TAMIKO DAVIS: My husband had no context.

BURNETT: And is there any message you would have to that flight attendant now?

TERRELL DAVIS: I just want to know why. I mean, I just - I want to know why. And if I - if I were to talk to him, I'd - I'd tell him, I want you to talk to my kids and I want you to look them in the eyes and tell them why you did what you did. Why did you try to harm your dad, potentially trying to harm this family. But he -

TAMIKO DAVIS: Not potentially. He harmed our family.

TERRELL DAVIS: No, I was - yes. Right.

TAMIKO: DAVIS: He harmed our children.

TERRELL DAVIS: Yes, and try to -

TAMIKO DAVIS: And to acknowledge their pain.

TERRELL DAVIS: Yes.

TAMIKO DAVIS: To acknowledge the trauma. To acknowledge the experience that they will - we can never take - they will never forget -

BURNETT: No.

TERRELL DAVIS: Right.

TAMIKO DAVIS: Seeing their father handcuffed right in front of them. And it was because of that flight attendant.

BURNETT: Well, I appreciate you both talking about it. I know that was a decision you don't take lightly. And I know your children, you know, support you in that. And thank you very much.

TERRELL DAVIS: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: I'm glad it's important people (INAUDIBLE).

TAMIKO DAVIS: Thank you.

BURNETT: All right, Brianna, back to you

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, Erin, thank you so much for that interview.

Ahead, from rivals to allies, some of former President Trump's most vocal former opponents backing him as the GOP nominee last night. Can Trump unite the party behind him in a way that he hasn't before? Well discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:36:44]

KEILAR: We're following breaking news. California Congressman Adam Schiff has become the most-prominent elected Democrats to call on President Biden to drop out of the race.

We have CNN chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, on this story.

What are you hearing, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is actually significant because Adam Schiff is a very prominent Democratic member of the House who is running for the Senate.

Of course, he emerged as one of the most foremost critics of Donald Trump in the Trump era, was impeachment manager, part of the January 6th Select Committee, is someone who is very close to the former speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who has not yet called on Joe Biden to step aside.

But there had been 19 other House Democrats, mostly rank-and-file members, and that includes actually one Senate Democrat as well, who have called on Biden to drop out of this race, raising serious concerns.

Here's Adam Schiff, a prominent member, adding his voice to this effort to oust Joe Biden from this race because of concerns about his viability. This is what he says in his statement.

He says, "Our nation is at a crossroads. A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of democracy. And I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November."

He said, "While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden's alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch. And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election."

Now, this is the first member who has come out since the assassination attempt on Saturday of former President Donald Trump.

And in the aftermath of that, Democrats we're keeping their powder dry. They we're not really speaking about this publicly, given the seriousness and gravity of the situation involving the former president.

Then the Republican National Convention kicked off here in Milwaukee, where I am right now, and the talk publicly has subsided a bit, until just now.

Now the question is whether this will actually lead to more calls, intensified calls for Joe Biden to drop out of the race. We know that Biden has said publicly, time and time again, that he is a candidate, that he is running. He does not believe that there's anybody else who be better at beating

Donald Trump.

But there is many, many members of the House and Senate Democratic Caucus, in particular, who are unnerved, who are panicking about Joe Biden's chances and want to do anything they can to get Joe Biden out of the race before there is that formal vote to lock him in as the party's nominee, at the head of their party is nominating convention in August.

So, so much on the line here in this presidential race. And you hear from Adam Schiff saying, Joe Biden, to step aside, pass the torch to another candidate.

KEILAR: Yes. It is a huge development.

Manu Raju, thank you so much for that report.

And it's -- it's so interesting, Boris, where you have, you know, one- time allies of President Biden now turning away from him, at the same time that you see Donald Trump finding allies in people that were, at one point, very hard to imagine filling that role.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, clearly, an effort by Republicans to put forward this united front, Brianna. They were once Donald Trump's toughest rivals and loudest critics. Not anymore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity.

(APPLAUSE)

[13:40:03]

Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period.

(APPLAUSE)

You don't have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him.

(APPLAUSE)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Donald Trump has been demonized. He's been sued, he's been prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life. We cannot let him down.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Together, we will make our country safe again.

Together, we will make Donald Trump our president again.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss on day three of the RNC with David Polyansky, a Republican strategist, who has helped run five Republican presidential campaigns, including Ron DeSantis'. And also with us, Axios senior contributor, Margaret Talev.

Margaret, first to you.

When you watch that video of these folks, who some of them, just a few months ago, strongly criticize Donald Trump, now come forward and draw an ovation from the crowd, endorsing him, what goes through your mind?

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: It certainly makes sense for former President Trump to try to galvanize all these disparate -- the former rivals in the disparate parts of the Republican Party into one.

I think Nikki Haley's appearance last night was potentially the most significant or important, although she had sort of the weakest embrace of the crowd.

And she was sort of feeling it the least, right? I mean, her support for President Trump was in the service of the Republican Party and then defeating Joe Biden.

It wasn't sort of a full-throated endorsement of everything Donald Trump does and has said and believes and his policies and his manner and his character.

And, in fact, the case she seemed to be making was you don't have to agree with him, you just have to vote for him. The reason this could be important is because in the choice of J.D. Vance as his running mate.

Trump is speaking to the base and to a different segment of the party, the party that is more -- a little more isolationist, a little more populist.

In terms of turnout, he does not have to worry about those voters. We used to worry about the Republicans who moved away from him since the time he was first elected.

And what Nikki Haley was doing was giving all of them, not just a permission structure, but an appeal to go and cast their ballot anyway, even if they have misgivings.

SANCHEZ: She repeatedly said, "You don't have to agree with him all of the time." And you pointed out, the crowd -- when she first came out, I heard some boos. There was a scattering of boos, but they eventually came around to her.

David, I'm interested to get your perspective, specifically on Florida's governor, someone who was pretty critical of Donald Trump, now coming out and being effusive in his praise.

DAVID POLYANSKY, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, look, I think the governor did a great job last night. Governor DeSantis delivered a message that I think Republicans and a lot of Independents in this country want to hear and feel.

And I think, look, you look at last night, you saw five of Donald Trump's former serious competitors, two from the 2016 race, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and three, Vivek, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis from this race.

But I think what you're seeing is, as we march out of here at the end of the week and into the real final push of the campaign, you're seeing two narratives. And I think last night played into it.

It's the Republicans are strong and united and Democrats, right now, look weak and divided. And so we can talk about the strength.

Look, there's an assassination attempt on the former president. He gets up and fist pumps and shows up here hours later versus what we're seeing with the incumbent president right now, we're his own party is worried about his ability.

But more on the united front here, look what we saw last--t last night. This place is -- not just the speakers, but the party is energized beyond belief. I've never seen a convention, a Republican convention with this much enthusiasm.

And you contrast it with the next morning and we've got Democrats pushing to oust the incumbent president, you know, days after probably this convention ends in just a week.

TALEV: You've got Democrats watching this convention --

POLYANSKY: Yes.

TALEV: -- and recognizing what they're seeing and understanding, that there is a momentum and energy, at least in this -- this isn't every Republican in the United States, but it's a lot of important Republicans who helped turn out votes.

POLYANSKY: I think, after Saturday, this arena is more in line with the party base all across the country than we've ever seen as a party.

SANCHEZ: There are also, despite the show of unity, significant policy disagreements even within this room.

And you have someone like Nikki Haley coming out in support of former President Trump, while his vice-presidential pick on foreign policy doesn't really share a lot of overlap with the former South Carolina governor.

I'm wondering what you're looking for in J.D. Vance's speech tonight.

POLYANSKY: Well, look, I think the value of a J.D. Vance, he's the right pick for the right moment. I don't know that he would have been the right pick, you know, in 2016 and may not be the pick in 2028 when we nominate somebody -- somebody else.

[13:45:07]

But for the moment, when this is -- ultimately, the fundamentals of this race are still about the economy. People are voting, people are making decisions based on their ability to pay for food on the table, to send their kids to school.

Even young couples who want to buy their first home and can't because of interest rates.

And so his story, his background, the story that he's written and sold and told, coupled with where he's from and what he represents, gives us, as a party, who recognize the only pathway Democrats have in this race is to sweep the Rust Belt.

And we've got a guy who not only has the right narrative, the right story, he also represents it out there. It makes it that much more difficult for Democrats to push through.

So I think we're going to hear a very populous-driven economic-based message.

SANCHEZ: Quickly, Margaret, your thoughts?

TALEV: I think, no matter how much he talks about policy, this is not going to be how most Americans watching it take it in. They're going to be trying to have an introduction to a person that they may not know yet.

You've seen resales of his book skyrocket. By the way, it's a beautiful book. But I would treat it as kind of a historical document on which this J.D. Vance has emerged.

If you read this book, you will get a sense of the feeling on the ground in Appalachia. But you will not get a sense of his politics. His politics has changed dramatically since that character in that book. And we're going to get to know him tonight and so will the country.

SANCHEZ: You'll also read a lot of praise for Barack Obama, notably, in that book.

Margaret Talev, David Polyansky, thank you both so much.

Still ahead, an update on the investigation into the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. We have new details as lawmakers demand answers about exactly what transpired and potential security lapses.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:19]

SANCHEZ: This afternoon, members of Congress are going to get separate briefings on the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. The updates come as the Department of Homeland Security's inspector

general launches an investigation into the Secret Service's handling of the attack.

Meantime, the director now says that her agency was solely responsible for securing the rally amid growing calls for her resignation. She actually spoke to CNN law enforcement correspondent, Whitney Wild.

So, Whitney, what more did the director of the Secret Service tell you?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: What the director of the Secret Service really wanted to stress was that she, again, as we had said, that the Secret Service was solely responsible.

And that's important because what is one of the key facts here is that the building where the gunman perched was outside of the perimeter. So that means that the Secret Service didn't sweep it.

And that local law enforcement was on duty, responsible for being at that building inside, as well as inside. And sources told us that there we're local snipers who we're actually perched inside that building.

However, what Director Cheatle is making absolutely clear is that she does not blame local law enforcement for that failure. And it is the Secret Service's operational plan that put that building, just 150 yards from the podium, outside of the perimeter.

So again, Director Cheatle trying to make clear that those law enforcement partners are critical. Boris, that relationship is absolutely critical. They -- they have to have a good working relationship with the locals because the Secret Service has limited size.

And when -- you've been to tons of these. You see that there are always a lot of local law enforcement there. And if there's a fractured relationship there, it is not just bad internally. It is bad because it is dangerous.

And so that is what the Secret Service is trying to make clear that they do not blame the local law enforcement and are -- still very trusting of their local law enforcement partners and really want to build on that trust.

What -- you know, let's hear a little bit more from Director Kimberly Cheatle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY CHEATLE, U.S. SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: On that particular day, a full advance had been completed, but this is also why we are doing an internal review and we look forward to the external review as well.

And obviously, if there are things that we need to change about our policies or our procedures or our methods, we are certainly going to do so.

WILD: Was that perimeter too small?

CHEATLE: The perimeter encompassed the area that we needed to secure for the event that we had on that day.

What happened is a terrible incident and should never happen. And we are obviously going to make sure that, moving forward, we take whatever lessons we -- that come out of this and adjust accordingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: There are many more questions to answer. The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General launching an investigation.

So, Boris, every time we learn something, we have a new question and so this is going to continue for a while.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we'll see how she responds to members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson calling for her resignation.

WILD: Right, right.

SANCHEZ: Whitney Wild, thanks so much for that reporting.

Brianna, we'll send it back to you.

KEILAR: And, Boris, we are also getting some alarming new information about what the gunman was doing before he tried to kill the former president.

Law enforcement officials tell CNN that Thomas Crooks was spotted at the Trump rally site about three hours before the shooting.

And he aroused suspicion when he actually passed through the magnetometers carrying a rangefinder, which is a device that is used to measure distance when setting up a long-range shot.

Authorities did not stop him. They did keep an eye on him. In fact, at one point, law enforcement watched Crooks eyeing police through the device.

Crooks eventually left the secure area and later returned outside of the screened area with his father's rifle. The working theory, of course, there is that he went to his car to retrieve that weapon.

And these police photos that we're obtained exclusively by our affiliate, WPXI, we're taken of Crooks at least 26 minutes before he fired his shots. And those photos had been sent up the command chain we have learned.

Our affiliate also reports that the photos show the cell phone and the transmitter device that police say we're found next to Crooks the moment -- just moments after the Secret Service killed him.

We've also learned that Crooks gained access to the roof by scaling an air conditioning unit at the base of the building.

Let's bring in CNN law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent, Jonathan Wackrow.

I mean, so many details there the of questions for you about.

I want to start with going through the mags with a rangefinder, which, of course, hunters will be familiar with, golfers may also be familiar with.

Should he have had surveillance? I mean, clearly, they were watching him inside the secure area. What about outside? Should he have had surveillance outside the secure area once he left?

[13:54:59]

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. Brianna. Good afternoon. And listen, when you're working a magnetometer post as an officer or as an agent and you see someone bringing in something that's anomalous, like it's -- yes, hunters in this area probably have rangefinders that are on them, but are they bringing it to a political rally?

So someone should have keyed in immediately that that is anomalous. And not only just you surveil them, but a protective intelligence team should have gone up and done a field interview just to fully assess, double-check, right? Trust -- trust, but verify that this was an honest mistake bringing it in.

But now we know it wasn't an honest mistake. This individual, from our reporting, is showing classic pre-attack behavior, right? He's trying to find distance to the target, trying to figure out where there's potential vulnerabilities in this site.

So he ended up leaving that checkpoint, that magnetometer site, and then going back -- you know, back outside, was not followed. So no one saw that weapon, you know, him attaining that weapon and then going to what he perceived was the best attack site based upon his observation of the security structure that was established.

So there are a lot of, you know, questions that the Secret Service must answer. And -- and it starts right there with, why didn't someone address that moment in time?

KEILAR: And also, we now know that one sniper saw him on the roof of the American Glass Research Building observing, a counter-sniper position through a rangefinder. What should have been done at that point in time?

WACKROW: So this is where you need to take immediate action, right? Because you don't know that that is a threat yet. You know, so that counter-sniper team is not aware that that is a threat.

However, they do know that that person shouldn't be there. So local law enforcement, different Secret Service teams should have responded to that location where -- where he was and, again, done another field interview.

Hey, what -- how did they get up there? They could have prevented that -- this tragedy from happening because, at that time, the -- the counter-sniper did not see a weapon. He's not seeing that as a threat.

He's just seeing that as an unauthorized person in that location that needs to be adjudicated quickly. And now we know that it wasn't.

KEILAR: Can I ask you, just quickly, should they have shot him? Because I think, at this point, an issue of getting a police officer there, that didn't work, right?

At that point, should a counter-sniper position have taken a shot if they weren't sure that he had a rifle?

WACKROW: Well, at that point in time, you know, it's unclear whether or not he presented a threat, right? Law enforcement -- you know, counter-snipers are law enforcement officers.

They're only going to escalate to deadly force when they feel that is absolutely necessary and there's no other alternative.

If there's no gun present, Brianna, then they're not going to take that shot, but they are going to communicate. They are going to try to get people to that location to assess the situation firsthand.

And clearly, there was some sort of communication breakdown as to why that didn't happen.

KEILAR: All right. Jonathan, thank you so much for your insights. We do appreciate it.

And this just in. The Biden campaign has accepted a new potential date for the vice-presidential debate on August 12th. This is on the heels of former President Trump choosing Senator J.D. Vance, of course, as his running mate.

We'll have more ahead. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)