Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Biden Exits Race, Endorses Harris; Trump Team Already on the Attack Against Kamala Harris; Democratic Convention Rules Committee Meets Wednesday on How to Pick Nominee. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 22, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden bows out. So, now what? We've got brand new reporting on where things stand at this minute. Who is back? Vice President Harris. Who has not, who else might jump in? Seconds ago, Senator Joe Manchin said he is pursuing the process. What does that mean?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're going to hear it from Kamala Harris for the first time this morning. A previously scheduled event at the White House just took on a whole new level of importance. What is she going to say in her first public remarks and when will we hear from President Biden?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, the director of the Secret Service will be on the hot seat on Capitol Hill facing fierce questions from lawmakers about security failures leading up to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

I'm Sarah Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan, lots of news for you this morning. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: Pay attention because everything you're about to see and hear will make history. None of it has happened before. Not like this. And no one knows how it will play out. Not really. So, President Biden has ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. There is less than a month to the Democratic Convention, just over 100 days until the election itself.

This is where things stand right now, insofar as we know. We will hear from Vice President Harris today. She says she intends to earn and win the nomination.

In less than 24 hours, she has picked up a ton of endorsements, and the Democrats have raised a ton of money. We have new information about what is happening behind the scenes around her, and if anyone might take her on, because just seconds ago, right on CNN, Senator Joe Manchin said he is pursuing the process. We're trying to figure out what that means.

We have new reporting on what pushed President Biden over the edge with two of his closest advisers telling him his path to victory was basically nonexistent. We'll start very quickly there.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with how we got here. Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, certainly a stunning and unprecedented moment played out over the course of the last 24 hours as President Joe Biden announced he was bowing out of the presidential race. This was a decision that the president were told kept very close to the vest with many on his senior staff and campaign team, unaware that he had reached this decision until the very moment that that letter was posted on social media saying he would exit this race.

Now, sources have told us the plans for President Biden to bow out of this race were really set into motion on Saturday evening. That included a sit down meeting with two of his closest and longest serving advisers, Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon. In that meeting here at Rehoboth, Delaware, they laid out for President Biden what the polling picture looks like, what the picture looked like when it came to Democratic support. And a source told us that they essentially told the president that the path to victory at this moment was nonexistent.

At that point, by the end of the meeting, President Biden directed his most senior aides to start drafting that letter that was eventually posted on social media on Sunday and start to get the rollout together for this announcement plan.

Now, within 30 minutes of President Biden saying that he was bowing out of the race, he threw his support for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee. And that really changed the course of this election even more as Harris very quickly herself said that she does intend to seek the nomination and plans on trying to earn and win that nomination before the Democratic Convention in August.

Now, the vice president herself has spent much of the day yesterday fielding phone calls. We're told she spent about ten hours on the phone reaching out to various Democratic leaders, state party officials, groups to try to earn their support heading into this Democratic Convention.

[07:05:12]

Now, we're also told that the campaign apparatus in many ways has already started shifting towards Vice President Harris. You have, for instance, on social media one of the campaign's rapid response accounts switched from Biden H.Q. to Kamala H.Q. And on the fundraising level, she is already raking in major cash, a spokesperson this morning telling us that she has raised $49.6 million since yesterday, since President Biden announced that he was endorsing her to become the Democratic nominee.

Of course, there are still many questions going forward about how this process will play out. There are some say that there needs to be an open Democratic process heading into that convention, and so that will be things that are closely watched in the coming days. But certainly for President Biden, this is a big moment as he is stepping aside from the race and throwing his support behind his vice president.

BERMAN: One of the biggest moments for the president. So, that's how we got here. Arlette Saenz, thank you very much.

The key question now, Kate, is what happens now?

BOLDUAN: Yes. What happens in the next minutes and in the next 106 days now, right?

So, let's get over to CNN's Eva McKend. She's got more information as it's all still coming, in a lot more details coming about what are you learning about what Kamala Harris has been doing since the announcement and what you expect to shore up support and what you expect to hear from her today.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: What I can tell you, Kate, is that she has spent these last crucial hours having these conversations with Democrats across the country trying to shore up internal support. These are members of Congress. These are governors, labor leaders, civil rights leaders.

I spoke to the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, and he told me in their conversation, it was abundantly clear to him that she understands that the next coming weeks are going to be a real test, that just because President Biden endorsed her, that it isn't going to be a core a nation, that she will have to really put in the work in the days ahead.

One thing she does have on her side, though, is that she has built in support from key Democratic coalitions. I've been traveling on the campaign trail with her the last several weeks, and Democratic voters showed a real excitement for the prospect of Harris at the top of the ticket. But still, Senator Manchin, he might throw a last minute intrigue into this contest. Take a listen to what he said earlier this morning on our air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (I-WV): You would like to see some sort, you know, have some debates, have something. There's plenty of time. We act like there's no time at all.

I have been very humbled by people calling and asking, would you be considered -- would you consider, would you talk about? Also, my main thing is that we have a voice. I want the middle to have a voice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: What I can tell you also, Kate, is that Harris' allies are really eager for this contrast between her and Trump to come into focus. They believe that casting a prosecutor against a convicted felon will be a winning strategy. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So much to see how this all pans out and begins today. It's great that you're there, Eva. Thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: I didn't get the memo that orange was the color of the day. You ladies look great. All right, Republicans ramping up their attacks, not just on Vice President Harris, but on President Biden. Now, they're demanding he drop out of the presidency, calling him to resign from the White House.

In just hours, the Secret Service director will head to Capitol Hill to face down lawmakers who are demanding answers about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

And right now, travelers still delayed at airport, so much frustration. This is days after that software update grounded flights worldwide. Which airlines are still struggling to recover from the outage this morning? If you're going to the airline, make sure you check to make sure your flight's going off. We'll talk all about that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

SIDNER: This morning, Donald Trump's campaign is already ramping up their attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, no surprise there, with leading pro-Trump super PAC rolling out a new ad in key battleground states attacking her record as vice president, the prosecutor and attorney general in California.

CNN's Daniel Strauss is in Washington. Look, the Trump campaign quickly seizing on President Biden dropping out of the race, which is a historic moment for this country. Now, Republicans are turning on Harris. But the truth is they've been turning on Harris for quite some time.

DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, Sara. And the truth about that is that they had been preparing as a likely contingency plan for Harris to take some larger role in this campaign, like being the nominee or becoming the president before the end of 2024.

But in this situation has still caught Republicans somewhat flatfooted. They did not expect this to happen right after the convention. They did not expect this to happen necessarily in this way. And we've seen most recently from both former President Donald Trump and J.D. Vance on social media a set of new attack lines that they're trying to get to stick on Harris.

[07:15:04]

The former president himself has said that this is something of a reset, in his own words, and the Republican nominee for vice president, Vance, has also said that this is a result of Biden's presidency and being one of the worst presidents in American history.

It's still somewhat of a muted, sort of convoluted set of attack lines, but I expect it's something that Republicans will hone in the days and weeks ahead. SIDNER: And just out of curiosity, we're hearing from Republicans who are moving forward and trying to attack Biden still and get him, correct, to leave the White House, not just leave the campaign.

STRAUSS: Yes. From the Republicans I talked with yesterday, I mean, this change is not even 24 hours old. This is just an example of a bit of a lag time between a large -- a major political party shifting gears a bit. And I wouldn't expect that to last more than another day or so. It really does take some time for a large group of political operatives or politically-minded people to change their strategy across the country.

And so, we're going to hear more in the hours and days to come of attacks on Harris and less on attacks about whether Biden should step down from office, which he's clearly unlikely to do before the end of his term.

SIDNER: Certainly, Biden is not paying attention, nor will do what the Republicans are calling on him to do. Thank you so much, Daniel Strauss, I appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: President Biden may have endorsed Kamala Harris, but the road to the nomination is still not simple. The next steps now for Democrats to formally select a nominee, and are there others who are now looking to jump into the race.

And the news here is also just starting to settle in around the globe. World leaders now reacting to the announcement that Joe Biden says he is not seeking re-election

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. What is clear this morning is that President Biden is out of the race and he is backing Vice President Kamala Harris. What is less clear is the process in which this all actually happens right now.

With me is Elaine Kamarck, co chair of the RATE Coalition and former consultant for the Clinton-Gore administration, but most importantly for us this morning, someone who understands delegates and party rules and conventions. And to be honest, there are not many people like that on Earth, something of a unicorn, so thank you for being here.

I'm asking you this first question facetiously. What does it say in the Constitution about how parties pick their nominees?

ELAINE KAMARCK, FORMER CLINTON/GORE CONSULTANT: Nothing.

BERMAN: And that's important, isn't it?

KAMARCK: Very important.

BERMAN: Why? KAMARCK: Because the process of choosing a nominee has always been, from the beginning of the republic, it's been a party process, not a constitutional process, not governed by state law. In fact, a lot of times when state law, when people take the process to court, the state law loses and the party wins.

So, this is a party process. It's pretty old. It's over 200 years old. The first constitutional -- the first party convention was 1831. So, it's been around a long time.

BERMAN: And the primaries, insofar as we've had them over the last several generations, are about picking delegates who go to the convention to pick a nominee. The primaries, they picked Joe Biden overwhelmingly, like 99 are going to vote for Joe Biden. What happens to his delegates now? Because he has endorsed the vice president, does that mean they all have to vote for her?

KAMARCK: No, no. In fact, the delegates are now formally uncommitted, okay? They can do whatever they want to. Now, you got to think about this for a minute. She's his vice president. She has been all around the country with him doing political stops, et cetera. So, the Biden says it's Kamala Harris, I'd say most of those people are going to vote for her.

And remember what vice presidents do. They do a lot of political work for their president. So, I would guess that of that 4,000-plus group of people, a big percentage of them have actually met and shake hands with Kamala Harris. So, she's got a lot going for her in this race.

BERMAN: So, just a few minutes ago on Kasie Hunt's show, West Virginia Senator, independent senator, but we'll leave that aside for a second, Joe Manchin said he is pursuing the process. Now, to be fair to Joe Manchin, it wasn't exactly clear what process he said he was pursuing, but let's say he wants to get in this. How does someone else get their name and nomination at the convention?

KAMARCK: Okay, well, first of all, they've got to concentrate on these 4,000-plus people, okay? Those are the deciders right now. There's nobody else making this decision, not Obama, not President Clinton, it's the delegates. So, he has to start calling delegates, calling into state delegations.

By the way, there're state delegation meetings going on all over the country. One is in Maryland today. There was one in New Hampshire yesterday. He has to call those delegates and say, I'm a better equipped to challenge Donald Trump than is Kamala Harris. That's a hard job to do. And I think, frankly, given his role in the party, I'm not sure he's going to find a very receptive audience.

BERMAN: You have to get signatures from, what, 300 delegates and delegates can't sign more than one petition to begin with to even get your name and nomination.

[07:25:01]

KAMARCK: Yes. BERMAN: So, it's a little bit of a process even to get there, 3,900 regular delegates, then there are the super delegates who people may remember from 2008, the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton race. These are elected officials. What can they do here?

KAMARCK: Well, I think a lot of them will attempt to lead the delegates in their congressional districts. Remember, most delegates are elected by congressional district. They're political people. They're going to pay a lot of attention to their congressmen. They'll pay a lot of attention to their senator. But we are well past the days of party bosses, okay? There's very few people who can deliver a state or deliver, you know, a big city or something.

So, a lot of this is going to have to be the delegates looking at whatever other candidates get in and saying I'm for Kamala or I'm for this person.

BERMAN: Very last question. What are the chances you think anyone's name, else's name, besides Vice President Harris, is actually even placed in the nomination at the convention?

KAMARCK: I think it's very, very small. I think we have run out of time here. One of the reasons the party is coalescing so quickly behind Kamala Harris is, frankly, we have no time.

BERMAN: It'll be very interesting to see at the bottom line here is. For those who were thinking there might be an open convention, it won't happen that night. I mean, we'll know soon if this is going to be a, quote/unquote, open convention or not.

Elaine Kamarck, thank you so much. I think this has been educational for everybody. Sara?

SIDNER: It was really good segment there, you guys.

All right, soon, we hear from Vice President Kamala Harris for the first time since being handed the torch to run for president.

And this morning, tough questions for the head of the Secret Service following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. We'll have those stories and more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]