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Secret Service Director Resigns After Contentious House Hearing; Poll Done Partially After Biden Exit, Trump & Harris Neck- And-Neck; Some Republicans Push Back On Calling Harris "DEI Hire"; Harris Campaign Capitalizes On Charli XCX "Brat" Endorsement. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 23, 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]

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Came out asking for resignation and then the White House was silent. You knew that this was bound to happen.

I think it's absolutely necessary. When she said she could lead it for -- it's actually the exact opposite. And the reason and why is because the Secret Service needs to deal with the past and it needs to deal with the president.

The past is a really sort of a security planning and response that is incomprehensible at this stage. In other words, the gaps, the errors, the finger-pointing, all of it that Evan was just talking about.

Like, we need -- we need to figure out what happened and the reason why is because we are now entering -- we are in a heightened threat environment leading up to the election that we always knew was coming. And now there's a change.

We have a likely or, I guess, now, after the last 15 -- Kamala, Vice President Harris will be the nominee. And that will increase incitement. It will increase the racism. It will increase sexism because of who she is.

And that heightened threat environment that Trump already has focused on him but that Vice President Harris will certainly suffer from, and some of it depends on what's said about her by the Trump campaign.

This will lead to an environment where the Secret Service needs to look to the present and the future. Cheatle could not do that. There's no way she could do it.

Because of the sort of both because of the assassination attempt but, of course, because she -- she lost everybody's confidence. And when you lose the committee's confidence -- this is a committee, as Evan was saying, was not one that agrees on anything -- it was over for her.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: All right. Evan Perez, Juliette Kayyem, our thanks to both of you.

We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:25]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A new poll is showing that the race between Vice President Harris and former President Trump is neck-and-neck. And this is a poll that was partially conducted after President Biden dropped out of the race. It shows no clear leader.

Trump's two-point lead there within the margin of error. So this is a statistical tie, 4.2 percent. That is the margin of error there.

Let's discuss with former California Senator Barbara Boxer and strategist, Chuck Rocha. He's a former senior adviser for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns.

All right, Chuck, we, as I mentioned, when this survey was taken, Harris had not done any campaigning as president. So keeping that in mind, I wonder what you think about the poll. I wonder what you think she needs to do to move this.

CHUCK ROCHA, STRATEGIST & FORMER SENIOR ADVISER FOR BERNIE SANDERS' PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: People need to remember that there hasn't really been any money spent on her behalf. The president has spent money, but she hasn't spent money yet.

So I think there's nowhere to go but up with her. Now that's what I look at, the strategies. Who's spending the money? Are you out there on the campaign trail?

We're seeing today that she is in Wisconsin. I saw the coverage of you earlier showing her getting off the plane in Wisconsin, meeting the governor.

That's what you do because the press will follow that. The press will report on that. And that shows she's in a state, that she cares about those people. And as somebody who's run a presidential campaign, that's the goal that you have to dig every single day.

KEILAR: What do you think, Senator? What is the issue that she really needs to press forward on? And maybe the vulnerabilities that she needs to take care of?

FMR. SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-CA): Well, first, I want to say that -- how disappointed I was when the president said he just couldn't continue and I was sad. And then it quickly turn to gratitude and excitement.

And what does she have to do? She's in a beautiful situation. To start off, even Steven, with a guy who was a president, I think she needs to prosecute the case against him.

I think she's going to be a champion for jobs. In the administration that she's in, Biden-Harris, they created 15 million jobs. And there you had Donald Trump, the only president since records have been kept, to actually leave with fewer jobs than when he came. Two more things. She needs to be a champion of our personal freedoms. She needs to stand up against Trump and say, how dare you say women should be punished for making decisions about their own bodies and telling them they have to be forced to give birth. I think she'll prosecute that case magnificently.

Lastly, champion of democracy. She served with Joe Biden, a real champion of democracy, not only at home, but around the world. But here, she's going to go against Trump, who was admitted he wants to be a dictator on day one, loves, Putin, loves Kim Jong-Un.

I think the table is set in for a great victory, honestly.

KEILAR: Senator, there is a memo from the campaign arm for Republican Senators and it as a, quote, "weird" list for Harris. And it points out her laugh. It points out how she likes Venn diagrams, among some other notes.

These are also things that seem to be working as positives for her in sort of an atmosphere where memes rule. So I wonder if you think that these are negatives or if these are positives when it comes to the voters that matter.

How do you see this playing out?

BOXER: Well, I think it's so pathetic. I mean, if you go up to just the average person on the street and say, do you want as your president, someone who was happy and optimistic and loves this country.

[13:40:03]

Versus a guy who was seething with anger and wants to divide us and wants to go after his opponents. I think they're going to say I want her. So I think it's going to backfire. I really do.

KEILAR: It does -- it seems like some of the younger voices in the party, as far as operatives go, maybe realizing that it's not a definite negative as they have previously thought.

Chuck, I want to get your perspective on something. Because there had been some gross attacks on Harris. I think we expect this. She is a woman. She's a woman of color. That kind of comes with the territory, unfortunately.

But the most recent one coming from Tim Burchett, a Republican Congressman from Tennessee, who called her a DEI hire.

And I just want to broaden this out a little bit bigger because he is also used this, as other Republicans have, to talk more broadly about women or people of color.

In fact, yesterday, the same day that he made this comment, he also said this about the now former Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I don't think she should resign. I think she should have been fired.

Ma'am, you are a DEI horror story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And then he said this about Vice President Kamala Harris to our Manu Raju.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're suggesting she's -- she was a DEI hire?

BURCHETT: One-hundred percent, she was a DEI hire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That came from a question he asked her about whether there will be an appeal, because she could possibly be the first African- American president.

And I wonder, as you've seen this coming from some Republicans, a female, I should say --

ROCHA: Right.

KEILAR: -- president. You've seen this DEI hire line coming, not just when it comes to Kamala Harris. What do you think about this?

ROCHA: I mean, I've been running campaigns for 30 years. You expect people to go low. You don't expect them to go this low. And it plays right into the Democrat's plans if they're smart.

You reported on this. And just a small group of folks, in just a handful of states, are going to make the difference. But what we know beyond a shadow of a doubt is a majority of them are women who live in the suburbs. Many of them married to Republican men.

And when you start looking at contrast and visuals back to those TV ads we we're talking about, if Democrats put this own TV and say Republicans don't think you, woman, should have a job because you're going to be some DEI hire, not that you're qualified, that you could do the same job that any man can do.

And then you put up an accomplished woman of color in contrast to Donald Trump and I think that's when you start really, really bringing those votes back to the Democratic column.

KEILAR: What do you think, Senator? Because there are cases where this is being used, this term, where it's not even someone who was hired. They we're elected. So it seems to sometimes be a stand-in, obviously, for something else.

What do you think?

BOXER: Of course, it is. It's ridiculous. And if I had the opportunity to speak with the congressman, I would say to him she's not a DEI, she's a W, W, W --winner, winner, winner.

She's won five times. Five times. It's crazy.

KEILAR: Yes, it is a lot.

Senator Barbara Boxer, Chuck Rocha, great to have your insights. Thank you so much.

From "Brat" summer to coconut trees. Up next, we answer the questions that you've been too afraid to ask when it comes to the viral videos surrounding V.P. Harris. No cap, whatever that means.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:51]

DEAN: We are looking at video -- when it begins rolling, there it is -- from just moments ago of President Joe Biden arriving at Dover Air Force base, coming back to Washington, D.C. He's in route back to the White House.

Of course, he's been recovering from Covid-19 at his homes in Delaware where he made that announcement via the -- via social media and a letter that he wouldn't be running for reelection. We now know he'll be speaking about that from the White House tomorrow.

But again, there he is, President Biden. We've not seen him in public in several days as he's been recovering from Covid-19.

KEILAR: You see him hanging onto his mask there --

DEAN: Yes.

KEILAR: -- right? Part of the protocol.

All right, meantime, superstar support is already pouring in for Vice President Kamala Harris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: A source tells CNN that Beyonce has given the Harris campaign approval to use that song, her song, "Freedom," throughout her presidential run. Harris has already used the anthem in the walkout to her first campaign event on Monday.

And since taking the reins of the campaign, Harris' team has made a concerted effort to appeal to younger Gen-Z voters, homing in on popular Internet memes.

Like this error page on the "Harris for President" Web site. It's a reference to a coconut meme. We just got this one?

DEAN: Well, the -- the --

KEILAR: This meme --

DEAN: The coconut video.

KEILAR: OK. That's right.

DEAN: Yes.

KEILAR: So an emojis that -- I'm not Gen-Z and --

DEAN: Nor am I.

KEILAR: -- say it without saying it. There you go.

That have regained popularity since Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket. We're going to explain all of that in a moment for you folks out there like me.

DEAN: Pop singer, Charli XCX, has also entered the chat, tweeting, "Kamala is 'Brat.'"

And if you're following along at home, that's actually a compliment. We'll get to that, too.

The Harris campaign, quick to capitalize updating its Twitter homepage in the style of the singer's "Brat" album with the signature lime green there, including that signature color.

And joining us now, Marianna Pecora. She's the director of communication for Voters of Tomorrow. It's a Gen-Z-lead non-profit organizing young people to vote.

[13:50:01]

Marianna, it goes without saying there's a lot of young people out there that will be eligible to vote and who we're not exactly enthusiastic for President Biden.

I'm curious why you think that the vice president is having such success with them online. Because it really seems to have happened, first, pretty organically.

MARIANNA PECORA, DIRECTOR, VOTERS OF TOMORROW: Yes. So even for someone like me, I'm 20, this is the first election that I'm eligible -- eligible to vote in.

And for young people like me, we've seen young people, Gen-Z specifically, turnout in the last couple of election cycles in really high record numbers, right?

And it specifically been young women. Young women are the people that are driving the culture online as well.

And to have a candidate where we're seeing both the culture that we're using in our everyday lives and on the Internet reflected and the fact that young women have become the base of the Democratic Party and are a real powerhouse in decision-making margin in winning in the elections.

KEILAR: So older people, I think, knowing that some of her little moments were becoming memes to the extent that they even knew it, Marianna, I think they maybe thought this was a negative thing.

But now it's sort of turned on its head and we're seeing that it seems to be a positive thing.

Can you sort of explain that? Because I think it has surprised some people looking at this phenomenon.

PECORA: You know, I think for young people, we're really tired of politics being something that's scary and heavy and challenging to deal with on an everyday basis. The news isn't fun. Right?

But to have a candidate who can go out there and be in on the joke and have fun with this idea of being a "Brat" and being -- existing in the context of all that came before, you know?

Having a candidate who is in on the joke and can have fun with this idea makes politics something that young people want to participate in.

And it's getting a lot of energy in -- on the ground activism. We've seen it, Voters of Tomorrow, that our chapter network has grown significantly in the last 48 hours.

We've had more people apply to join or start a chapter of Voters of Tomorrow in the last 48 hours than we did in the month before that.

And that excitement, it's going to translate off of the Internet and into the mobilization work that we're going to be doing for the next 105 days to make sure that young people are turning out to vote.

DEAN: And I want to talk about the coconut trees and the memes that come from that. What I believe is ironic -- what is ironic, I believe it was cut by Republicans as an attack ad --

(CROSSTALK)

PECORA: Yes, it originally slated from the RNC researcher account.

DEAN: Right? So let's play it for everybody and then you can talk through it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: None of us just live in an asylum. Everything is in context. My mother used to -- she would give us a hard time sometimes and she would say to us, I don't know what's wrong with young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: You think in the context of all in which you live, and what came before you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

HARRIS: Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: OK. So that's a little sample of how that got turned on its head.

Marianna, walk everybody through that. Because that's where all the coconut tree stuff came from, was from what was an attack ad.

PECORA: Yes. I think that what people are really resonating with there is that what she's saying is something that really is meaningful and important to consider and something that we have to remember in our everyday lives.

But she said it in such a fun, relatable and entertaining way. And that brings people into it.

And having a great song from Charli XCX about culture and being fun and exciting and having a good time. I'm so Julia versus a Julia.

We have a FOX Internet personality sort of. It makes it something fun and exciting, and it makes it this meaningful idea, something that the people can have fun with and people can relate to.

KEILAR: The key to politics, if you really, I think -- you know, if you want to understand what's going on, which, of course, all operatives in politics do, is they need to be in on the conversations that are being had.

But this, to me, is an example of they're not, right? There may be not as clued into what's going on. They aren't -- they aren't clued into what's going in on TikTok or their algorithm isn't taking them through these kinds of things.

And I think, all of a sudden, they're realizing, whoa, there's a whole conversation going on that I'm not a part of. And I wonder how you're seeing that, sort of the different conversation for younger people versus older people.

PECORA: I think that's a reflection of the fact that, as a generation, we've been really, really out there and politics and we've made our voices heard and we have built power for Gen-Z, right? In the last couple of the election cycles, young people have been the

deciding factor both in the midterms and in the 2020 election and in special elections that happened just last year.

And I think this is a moment where we're seeing that young people are a decision-making factor in this election, and they are driving the conversation. And the campaign knows that, too.

[13:55:04]

Vice President Harris has been doing a lot of work to engage with young voters over the first couple of months of the campaign. And now she's going to be doing even more, hopefully.

But even -- even in the last three years as vice president, she's been leading on the issues that matter most to young people. She's been leading on reproductive health care.

She's been leading on establishing the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, on the mental health investments at this administration has been making.

And she's also gone onto college campuses. She did a whole tour in the first semester of the last school year, going to college campuses, reaching out to Gen-Z.

And making sure that they're hearing from this administration and that they are hearing from this campaign about what we're accomplishing for young people, what progress we still have to make, and what we want to accomplish in the next four years, and how she's an ally for our generation.

DEAN: All right. Marianna Pecora, thank you so much.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: Great to have you here with us. Thanks for walking us through all that.

We're just minutes away from Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in Milwaukee at her first rally since launching her presidential run after President Biden stepped aside. We're going to bring you her remarks live. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)