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Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign Launches First Official Campaign Video; Kamala Harris Reportedly Searching for Vice Presidential Candidate; Donald Trump Attacks Kamala Harris as Too Liberal in North Carolina Rally Speech. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 25, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Josh Rogin, thank you so much for bringing your perspective here to us this morning.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New candidate, check. New campaign video, as of this morning, check. New running mate -- standby to standby. The latest on the Harris campaign that is taking shape and the race now to define Kamala Harris the candidate before the other guy does.

And no more Mr. Nice Guy. Just a week after toning it down at the Republican convention after his assassination attempt, Donald Trump's message now to supporters, if you don't mind, I'm not going to be nice when it comes to Kamala Harris.

And a former Uvalde school police officer will appear in court next hour on felony, child endangerment, and abandonment charges.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Brand new this morning, the first official campaign video from Vice President Kamala Harris calling on voters to choose, quote, freedom this November. Today, as you just heard extensively, she will sit down now with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and people are looking to see if there is any space between her policy toward the war on Gaza and that of President Biden.

Behind the scenes right now, one of the fastest searches for a vice president in modern history. Governors Andy Beshear, Roy Cooper, Josh Shapiro, Tim Walz among the names being floated, Senator Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also in the mix, maybe.

CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny is with us now. Jeff, you always bring the goods, and you've got some new information on the timing of this V.P. vetting process and search.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, good morning. It is going to be a very accelerated process to search for a vice president here. Four years ago when Senator Kamala Harris was in the running, she was waiting around four months and months to see if Joe Biden would call her. But we are told that she will make a decision for her own running mate in less than two weeks time. The reason is, of course, time is running short before the Democratic convention, and also running short to just get on with this campaign.

But we do know that some teams have Democratic lawyers have been looking into the finances and the voting records and the personal histories of several of those candidates. Let's take a look at them once again just to kind of break down what they may bring. There are a lot of governors on that list. Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, of course, a key battleground state. He has been elected three times in statewide office there, so he certainly is popular. Roy Cooper, the governor of North Carolina, has a long-standing relationship with a Kamala Harris. They served as attorneys general together as well. And you can see the rest of the list there. The only senator on the list, we believe, is Mark Kelly. Of course, he's from Arizona, the NASA astronaut, the former Navy pilot.

So look, these are the people that she is looking at. You can see the key swing states there. All three of these candidates would be potentially helpful in the swing states. But look, the bottom line is she is going to pick someone who she's comfortable with, someone who can be a governing partner. And yes, the vetting is going on now, but the interview process that she does with these candidates, of course, is going to determine all of this, John.

BERMAN: Former attorney general Eric Holder helping lead that vetting process. And as the veteran of the 2000 Bush campaign when Dick Cheney led the vetting process then then ended up picking himself, I'm always curious if Eric Holder is in the mix. I'm leaning no here. I don't think that Holder will make himself.

ZELENY: Probably not.

BERMAN: Jeff, question. We woke up this morning, a whole lot of reporting this morning on the race now to define Vice President Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate. What does the campaign itself see as the need here, particularly perhaps creating some space between her and President Biden?

ZELENY: John, that is going to be fascinating to watch. Yes, there is a race to define her by all sides. You could hear that really on the lips of former president Donald Trump yesterday in North Carolina. He's trying to define her. The Harris campaign is trying to define her in that video that was released this morning, talking about freedom, talking about reproductive rights.

But one thing that will be fascinating to watch and actually comes in the public schedule of the Democrats this afternoon are those separate meetings with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Is there going to be any daylight between Vice President Harris's position on these issues with President Biden's position on these issues. History has shown when a vice president is running while the president is still an office, there are some awkward moments sometimes. Think back to the Clinton-Gore race back in 2000, as you remember well. But look, she is running as part of the administration. She's not

distancing herself from it. But there are different things that she may choose to emphasize. But the race to define her in this video here, we're just getting a glimpse of.

[08:05:02]

She certainly is going to be more energetic, more viral, more memes, things like that. But there are no ads up yet from the Harris side. There are ads on the Republican side trying to go after her record, et cetera. So that is probably the best indication how the Harris campaign did not realize this was coming this week, John. There were no ads ready to go to introduce her candidacy. I'm told that those will be coming in the coming days. But the race to define her is really the urgent matter here that all sides are trying to do really at the same time.

BERMAN: Jeff Zeleny, great to see you. Thanks so much giving us a sense of what to look forward today. Appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: And we just heard from Harry Enten, like 19 percent of the population doesn't really we have an opinion of Harris, so it's really important, whoever gets to shape it, that's who it ends. That's right.

All right, coming up, his opponent in his sights, Donald Trump is reverting right back to his old self on the campaign trail. In his first big rally since Biden exited the race, Trump riled up his supporters with angry rhetoric focused, of course, on Vice President Kamala Harris calling her a liar and an ultra-radical liberal. He is standing by that divisive tone. Here is what the former president and Republican nominee said just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's a San Francisco radical. She's actually, I think a much worse, in a way, a much worse candidates. She's the most radical person probably that we've had in office, let alone the office of the presidency. I'd love to be nice, but I'm dealing against real garbage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Wow. CNN's Steve Contorno joins me now. I think that might be the first time we've heard a presidential candidate call another American garbage. Give us some sense. This sounds like this is the way things are going.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely, Sara. And let's be clear. Nice Trump only lasted about 30 minutes into his convention speech. And it's certainly nice Trump did not make the stage last night in North Carolina. Instead, he was on the attack from almost the moment he took that stage. Listen to what he had to say about his potential new opponent, Vice President Harris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So now they bring in this one who is worse than him. She's worse than him, because he's a fake liberal. He wasn't that liberal. He was fake. She's a real liberal. She really is a real liberal. She's much worse than him. And when you're dealing with these people, they're very dangerous people. When you're dealing with them, you can't be too nice here, you really can't be. So if you don't mind, I'm not going to be nice. Is that OK?

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: From there, he launched a litany of attacks against Harris, her record, tying her to the Biden administration, really testing out how they intend to define Harris in the coming weeks. And as Jeff said, that opportunity for the Trump campaign to give their first impression of Harris to the American people is now underway, and it's a frantic sprint by the Trump campaign because they know this campaign has changed dramatically in the past week.

They have built a campaign to go up against an unpopular 81-year-old incumbent. Well now, they have a much more dynamic, a much more unknown opponent in Vice President Harris, someone who potentially could appeal to voters that Joe Biden was having trouble keeping in the Democratic tent. And so now you are seeing the first and early attempts by the Trump campaign to define Harris.

And one of the more interesting criticisms was that he took a shot at Harris for not appearing in Washington for the Israeli prime minister's address to the Congress. He actually said she's quote, "totally against the Jewish people." That's a remarkable statement given that her own husband is Jewish and also his vice presidential nominee also did not appear at that speech either, Sara. But you're seeing these attacks come out. They will be sharpened in the coming weeks, and they will not end until November.

SIDNER: All alright, Steve Contorno, things are going to get nasty. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Southwest Airlines announcing major changes today, getting rid of its first-come, first-serve seating. What is driving this massive change for the airline? We've got more coming up.

And a former Uvalde school police officer is facing a judge this morning, heading to court as he's charged with a felony for his response to that horrific school massacre.

And the 2024 Summer Olympics officially kick off tomorrow with opening ceremonies, even though some of the competitions are already underway. The lengths organizers are now going to keep the Paris games safe.

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[08:14:17]

BOLDUAN: Kamala Harris's campaign for president is in full swing, no doubt. Still, the Democratic Party has yet to officially choose its nominee. But now they have a date and a plan. August 1st, just seven days from today, less than two weeks from Joe Biden ending his campaign, the virtual roll call could begin.

The new rules just established and approved by the DNC yesterday. The virtual process will be open to any candidate who gets 300 signatures from elected convention delegates with no more than 50 from any single state. So you have that. Whoever ends up the new nominee must pick their running mate by August 7th.

Two obvious points here. Clearly, no one has stepped forward to challenge Kamala Harris yet for this, and Harris has already secured far more delegate endorsements than the delegates required.

Joining us right now, senior advisor to the DNC, Biden-Harris campaign co-chair, former former senior adviser of President Biden, former congressman and all-around good guy, Cedric Richmond. It's good to have you here, Congressman, thank you so much.

[08:15:00]

So, you have the rules. You have the process in place. Can you just cut through it and say at this point the Democrats now have a date certain that Kamala Harris will be named the nominee.

CEDRIC RICHMOND, SENIOR ADVISER, DNC: Yes. Soon as that roll call is done, she will be the official nominee and you will see -- look, the exciting part is that everyone has united around her right now.

So, she would be considered the nominee in waiting, but the American people can afford for her to wait. So, she's out there now, a new ad released this morning talking about her values, talking about what her vision is, and talking about what this means to the American people.

BOLDUAN: DNC has its process. Republicans are calling this something else. I want to play for you what Republican Senator Tom Cotton said on this show. He's calling the process a coup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): You had Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, George Clooney, Hollywood moguls, Wall Street bankers, all working behind closed doors to bring unbearable pressure to bear on Joe Biden, who in the end, threw in the towel and now you have the Democratic Party uniting around Kamala Harris, who not only has never won a Democratic Primary.

She's never won a single vote for president, yet they've installed her as their nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Congressman, I'm hearing just now that Donald Trump said the exact same on an interview on another network, just moments ago, calling the Democratic nominating process now a coup. What do you say to that? RICHMOND: Well, that's the typical name-calling. Let's be clear, now,

I want Donald Trump to hear it. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden got 81 million votes. They beat Donald trump by seven million. They went through a nominating process where they both received 14 million Democratic votes in the process and now the process is you have to get a majority of the delegates, 1,976 and she has 1,976 pledged to her so far.

She's going to have to go through the roll call and earn the Democratic nomination. This is not a coronation.

But I just want to be clear, when you hear Donald Trump and his allies talk and use the words like coup, use the words like DEI, they just can't help themselves. When the Speaker of the House has to write a memo to his caucus saying, hey guys, can we just keep the racist rhetoric in-house? Can we not say what we're thinking out loud? That's what we're going through.

This Republican Party is a race to the bottom under Donald Trump and the MAGA extremists and we're going to be here to protect and defend Kamala Harris because she is a brilliant, thoughtful, strong leader.

BOLDUAN: My colleague, MJ Lee, had reported that just after Biden's announcement that you unleashed on big donors who had pulled back on giving money after Biden's debate performance.

Essentially, you said that -- they had created for you all a self- fulfilling prophecy. One of the quotes that stuck out to me was, you telling MJ, "Now those donors need to step the eff up."

We've seen the fundraising numbers and they're huge. Big numbers and largely from grassroots donations. So, what's your message to those big donors today?

RICHMOND: Look, I am so excited about the grassroots' fundraising. Raised over $100 million in 24 hours, 1.1 million unique donors and the 58,000 volunteers that have signed up since then. So, it shows the energy in the party.

Yes, I was pissed off at big donors, absolutely, because what I know is that in this process, the voters drive the machine.

And so, now we see grassroots donors coalescing around her and that's not to the exclusion of big donors but the excitement is with the unique regular donor.

BOLDUAN: Kamala Harris is meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister this afternoon. This is four days into, like the most consequential week of her career.

She's now face-to-face with one of the most fraught foreign policy issues facing the country. Are you aware of any difference in Kamala Harris' position on Israel from Joe Biden's?

RICHMOND: Well, I think the vice president has been very clear about her desire for peace and enduring peace. But let's be clear, there's only one president at a time and that is going on and been policy for decades.

So, I won't speak for the vice president on that. I know that she is a staunch believer in Israel's right to defend itself. I know that she is concerned about the innocent civilians that have been killed, and she has voiced all of that.

So, I think that she speaks for at best. But at the same time, there's only one United States president at a time.

[08:20:10]

BOLDUAN: Do you expect people to hear daylight between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on this issue then?

RICHMOND: Well, that's a decision for the vice president to make. The one thing I do know about the vice president is that she's not shy. She's outspoken, she is strong, she is thoughtful, she's brilliant, all of those things.

And so, I think that she will make a decision on how she approaches this issue. But this is a very sensitive issue concerning National Security. So, I would imagine that she will give it some thought. But like I said, we have one president who's now trying a broker a permanent ceasefire, create enduring peace, and I don't think anyone should do anything to interfere or get in the middle of that.

BOLDUAN: Have you been asked for VP vetting materials by the campaign?

RICHMOND: All I can say is, I want Kamala Harris to be the next president of the United States, may have been on the ticket with her is not one of those things that's going to happen. I will do anything for her and I'm going to work very hard in this campaign and I'm going to make sure she wins in November, but it will be as a co-chair of the campaign. It will be as an adviser, it will be as a person knocking doors and contributing personal money. But no, it won't be as a vice president.

BOLDUAN: Cedric Richmond, good to see you. Thanks for coming in -- John.

BERMAN: So, what is the path to 270 electoral votes for Vice President Harris?

We've got some new polling just in and we are standing by as a former Uvalde school's police officer is set to appear in court facing felony charges of child abandonment for his actions during the Robb Elementary School mass shooting.

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[08:26:13]

BERMAN: And just moments, a former Uvalde school's police officer is due to be arraigned in a Texas courtroom. Adrian Gonzales faces several felony charges in connection to inaction during the 2022 massacre. Gonzalez is expected to plead not guilty. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is at the courthouse this morning.

Good morning, Shimon.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Twenty-nine charges of abandoning and endangering a child is the number of counts Adrian Gonzales is facing. It is representative of each of the victims and the survivors from over two years ago at the shooting here in Uvalde at the elementary school.

Adrian Gonzalez is expected to appear here for his arraignment. Interestingly enough, his attorney has the option of waiving his appearance. He did not. So, we do expect for the first time, really since this horrific event, to see Adrian Gonzales.

It will be the first time that many of the parents and people in the community will be able to see him and be face-to-face.

Also, as you recall, the chief, the former chief of the school police department, Pete Arredondo, was also indicted. He will not appear. His attorney waived his appearance. He has pleaded not guilty, so, we will not see him.

He's also facing 10 charges of endangerment and that relates to the survivors. He's not facing any charges related to the victims that died that day. But this is certainly an unprecedented moment in this story where you have officers now finally, facing some accountability.

And really, for the first time, we're seeing a district attorney bring charges against officers who failed to act that day. Of course, the Department of Justice and other investigators have found that there was inaction and failures from police officials here in Uvalde, allowing the gunman to remain inside that classroom for over an hour, as many of the officers stood outside waiting for backup, waiting for resources which violated active shooter policy, which violated every piece of training these officers have received.

And that is why the DA in this case brought these charges. Certainly, family members here did not expect to have this moment. They are glad that they can come here today and face the people that are now charged with the alleged inaction in this case -- John.

BERMAN: Shimon, you were there at the very beginning. You've been there all along. Thank you for being there now, appreciate it -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, new polling promises to make Republicans nervous. How does Vice President Harris stack up against former President Trump in the new race for the White House?

And a new check on the health of the economy. How today's numbers could translate into the fight against inflation? That and more coming up.

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