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Biden Meets With Netanyahu Over Gaza Ceasefire; Vice President Harris Calls For Immediate Ceasefire In Gaza; Jennifer Aniston Criticizes Vance's "Childless Cat Ladies" Comment. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired July 25, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:55]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Vice President Harris says, this election is a choice between freedom and chaos, taking on the former president without actually saying his name. What we know so far about her campaign strategy and the race to vet her running mate ahead. And less than a week after calling for national unity and reportedly rewriting his RNC speech after an assassination attempt, former President Trump is back on the attack.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, sky high tensions, NORAD intercepting Russian and Chinese bombers flying together near Alaska. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here at CNN News Central.

KEILAR: Right now, President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are holding a critical meeting at the White House. We have video that you're seeing here from just moments ago before their meeting began. And we're told that Biden is expected to be as forceful as he's ever been in pushing Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire agreement, which sources indicate is within reach at this point in time. And that pressure is expected to intensify even further later this afternoon when they both meet with families of American hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas.

Let's get now to CNN senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche. All right. Kayla, give us a sense of -- given Biden's decision to drop out of the race. Do the White House concerned about what kind of leverage he may have? Is he's trying to pressure Netanyahu here?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is absolutely a question of leverage, Brianna. It is a question that we expect Admiral John Kirby to have to answer now from the White House podium about how exactly Biden plans to pressure Netanyahu behind the scenes. And it's a question for the President himself, especially given the fact that it's now been two months since he began amping up the rhetorical pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as the leaders of Hamas to reach that deal.

Remember, it was the end of May when Biden gave a public address laying out the three part ceasefire framework, in essence, trying to lay out all of the facts of that potential deal and try to strong arm them into reaching it. And then it was just two weeks ago when during a press conference after the conclusion of the NATO summit that President Biden said that Hamas and Israel had agreed to a framework of that deal.

And shortly following that, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said that they were inside the 10-yard line. And now, senior administration officials say, they have never been closer than they are today to reaching such a deal. But, of course, it is not only the details of such deal, but also the political will of Netanyahu himself that are critical to actually reaching one. It's no secret that clinching that deal would be a major accomplishment for President Biden's legacy, but also a major gift that he could potentially give his vice president as she begins campaigning and begins distilling her own policy on Israel.

I'm told by participants in a call that campaign officials held with major Wall Street donors yesterday that those donors asked the campaign officials in no uncertain terms, what is Harris's policy on Israel? Rufus Gifford, the National Finance Committee of the now Harris campaign answered, give us a few days. That's all still being ironed out. Certainly, the meetings between Biden and Netanyahu, as well as Vice President Harris and Netanyahu will be critical in figuring out exactly where Harris is going to stand on that issue. And we'll wait and see how that meeting goes and what, if anything, there is to report out of it, guys.

KEILAR: All right. Kayla, thank you for that report. Live for us from the White House.

SANCHEZ: let's discuss the critical nature of today's meetings with CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kimberly Dozier and Washington Post Columnist Josh Rogin. Thank you both for being with us. Josh, first to you, I'm wondering how you see today's meetings potentially impacting the ceasefire and hostage talks.

[14:05:02]

JOSH ROGIN, WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: Well, Boris, I don't think they'll have much of an impact at all, unfortunately. You know, let's remember that when this meeting -- when Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit was scheduled, it was supposed to be a month ago, and that was when the Biden administration was pushing for this ceasefire deal that President Biden announced in May. And no one could have predicted that a month later, he would be a lame duck president. But Kamala Harris would be the presumptive nominee and Donald Trump would be waiting in the wing.

So, you know, if you just listen to Netanyahu's speech yesterday, it's very clear that he's willing to make zero concessions at this time. He said his hands won't be shackled. He has no intention of making any movements towards this deal. That's what all of the indicators say. So I think, yeah, it would be very nice for Kamala Harris if President Biden could get this done. But I don't see the leverage, I don't see the incentive for Netanyahu. And it seems like he's just going to wait and see how the election pans out before he does anything. Again, that's really unfortunate. KEILAR: Yeah. And he has, on this visit, can meetings with -- he's not

just meeting Joe Biden and Donald Trump. He's also meeting Kamala Harris. And I wonder how that change in the ticket is maybe changing his calculus, if at all, and how he's approaching this visit?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I think he is approaching this with, you know, one step at a time. You don't come to a foreign country without an ask. And we heard him hint at that ask in the speech yesterday. He talked about wanting more weapons faster, to "finish the job faster." And he also delayed sending a delegation that was supposed to go start renewed hostage talks. That's really angered the hostage families who believe that he's holding them back to try to get political concessions from Biden.

Here in Washington, there was a Pentagon press conference today where the secretary of defense said, we have not slowed down our deliveries of weapons. We don't know what Netanyahu is talking about. But behind closed doors, I think Biden is going to get an ask from Netanyahu for something before these talks can go forward.

SANCHEZ: Kim, I'm also wondering how the political situation in Israel informs Netanyahu's thinking, because the Knesset is set to go -- their session is set to end at the end of the month, right?

DOZIER: Yeah, time is running out to get the Knesset's approval of a deal. We've had a senior White House official tell us in a briefing yesterday that they're very, very close. They have the framework done. They just need some implementation details from both Hamas and Israel. But we've been told this kind of thing before. That's why you had hostage families in Netanyahu's speech yesterday, standing up with t- shirts on that say, "just sign the deal." And some of them getting escorted out of the chambers for that silent protest.

And also, Kamala Harris is going to be walking into this. Brianna, to your question, she doesn't want to tip her hand too much about what her policy might be, especially if it's more restrictive than Biden's because Netanyahu is going to see Trump tomorrow. And that would possibly hand Netanyahu some information to hand Trump for the campaign trip.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's interesting, Josh, when you listen to how she's spoken about this -- just the tone when it comes to Israel, she's been a bit of -- she's taken a little bit of a tougher tone even if a lot of folks look at what she's said and they say there hasn't been substantive daylight between her and Biden. I want to play something that she said back in March in Selma when her call for a ceasefire really escalated.

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KAMALA HARRIS, USA VICE PRESIDENT: People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are in humane. And our common humanity compels us to act. I will repeat, the threat of Hamas poses to the people of Israel must be eliminated. And given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Harris, of course, is also, Josh, married to Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish. And he, for instance, attended the memorial service for the World Central Kitchen workers who were killed in that IDF attack. Does she have an ability to walk a line that President Biden does not have as much?

ROGIN: Right. Well, you know, I think internally, Vice President Harris has been pushing the administration for a long time to be more critical of the Netanyahu government and Israel's conduct of the war, and more compassionate and supportive of more humanitarian aid for the Palestinians in Gaza.

[14:10:15]

And so those public remarks are just sort of the tip of the iceberg of what she's been doing behind the scenes. And that's the message that she's expected to give to Netanyahu in their private meeting, that if she becomes president, that there will be more pressure and more focus on the needs of suffering Gazans. And that's a message that Netanyahu cannot afford to ignore because she might win. On the other hand, she might lose, so he doesn't have to do anything right now. But yes, that is who she is. She's in a different place on this issue than President Biden.

And if she becomes president, she'll be in a position to implement that vision. Now, as for her husband, listen, he's just one of a lot of Jewish Americans who care a lot about Israel and has been very critical of the Netanyahu government. There are a lot of Israelis who fit that position as well. So I don't think it's really about being Jewish or Israeli or about Palestinian. It's about having two ideas in your head that you can support Israel and also think that the Netanyahu government's prosecution of this war has been cruel and inhumane. And I agree with both of those things.

SANCHEZ: Josh Rogin, Kim Dozier, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate the perspective. As we await Harris's meeting with the Prime Minister, we want to discuss with CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny and CNN National Politics Correspondent Eva McKend.

Jeff, how important is it politically for Kamala Harris to sort of articulate a defined position on this issue?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, I mean, she is still the Vice President of the United States, so there are limits to which she can sort of deviate from the President. There's one foreign policy at a time. But this will be the first indication, the first test for her to see sort of how far she can go. And she already has, really, I mean, when she has been speaking out much more forcefully about the need for a ceasefire. But also, I'm struck by what she brings to this. She does not have a lifelong relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. She comes at this from a fresh perspective, a fresh set of eyes, if you will. So I think on the margins, maybe stylistically and perhaps rhetorically, there'll be some differences. But again, she's not setting policy. She has to win the election before that. But so interesting that they're having two separate meetings.

Now, she has been alongside President Biden during many of the phone calls he's had over these last many months since October 7th. So she's not coming at this today for the first time by any means.

KEILAR: She rolled out the first official campaign video. Let's play some of it.

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HARRIS: There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate. But us, we choose something different. We choose freedom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: There's some people she's talking about very clearly, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance. How would you describe how she's trying to define herself even as she's defining the competition?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly, she is trying to setup this contrast with Trump. But it's not only about that. I think the next few weeks will really be paramount in trying to define herself. But she has a huge opportunity here. Just today, when she was speaking before the teacher's union, she was talking about being on the White House labor task force, right? Many people don't know about that aspect of her portfolio. Many Democrats have said that she's been really adept and powerful in talking about reproductive rights. So now, over the next few weeks, the entire nation gets to know about all of the different aspects of the Vice President.

And then something else that she mentions on the campaign trail that I thought was really interesting, nothing to do with Trump, she says that a defining goal of her presidency would be to help the middle class. I just -- the idea that it would be a defining goal, that really stuck with me.

SANCHEZ: What are you hearing about where the vice presidential vetting process is right now?

MCKEND: So I think Jeff has done a little bit more reporting on this than I have, crisscrossing all of the -- on the campaign trail with her. But it sounds like she is choosing between about a dozen folks, right? Some of which include North Carolina's Governor Roy Cooper, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, among a host of others. And then she's looking among, I would say, like a moderate white man is what she's deciding. And which makes sense, right? You don't -- you want to choose someone as your running mate that has a different background than you did. That's what President Biden did when she selected -- he selected her.

ZELENY: And it's definitely on an accelerated timeframe. We are told that she will make this decision before August 7th. So we're talking two weeks here. So she had to wait for a very long time, four years ago, four summers ago, four months as then candidate Joe Biden was sort of working his way through. [14:15:09]

These other men on the list will have to wait far less. But look, she is looking for governors, one senator on the list, and perhaps even a cabinet secretary as well and Pete Buttigieg. But look for her relationship she has with some of these governors, and Roy Cooper from North Carolina is at the top of that list.

MCKEND: That is something we keep hearing from allies that ultimately it's going to boil down to someone that she can trust.

KEILAR: Obviously, that personal relationship is important. I wonder, Jeff, in their calculus, as they're thinking about this, does it seem like they're trying to be more conservative in the selection or do they feel like maybe they need to kind of shake it up with some really interesting VP pick?

ZELENY: It's a great question. And I think you hear some arguments from both sides of that. They have the advantage of knowing who Trump picked with J.D. Vance. So I think a conservative pick would be Roy Cooper, right? A more, you know, roll-the-dice pick might be Pete Buttigieg, who now calls Michigan home hugely popular. So we'll see. That's her decision. But I'm told all the vetting that's happening, obviously. But then she's going to do interviews as well.

And of course, other vice presidents have found running mates of their own. I mean, history is filled with that. But it's been a minute, someone who's actually serving in the moment as Vice President. So she knows what she's looking for. She knows what the actual job position is. So that has to shape so much of this, I think.

SANCHEZ: That has to be helpful given the condensed nature of the search. Jeff Zeleny, Eva McKend, thank you both so much.

ZELENY: You bet.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead this hour on CNN News Central, he is apparently not being nice. Hear what former President Donald Trump says about claims that he's been changed by the attempt on his life. Plus, a surprisingly strong economic report. We're going to tell you what it means for your wallet.

KEILAR: And NORAD intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers near Alaska as more Russian naval ships also head to Cuba. We have these stories and more coming up right here on CNN News Central.

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[14:21:46]

KEILAR: Well, that was fast. As he faces a new opponent in Kamala Harris, former President Trump returning to some familiar tactics in his campaign for president. Just listen to what he said to a crowd of his supporters in North Carolina nearly one week after he called for unity at the republican national Convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, I was supposed to be nice. They say something happened to me when I got shot, I became nice. 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. You really can't be. So if you don't mind, I'm not going to be nice. Is that okay?

I get a kick out of one thing they say, Sir, you just got hit with a bullet. Maybe he's changed. Be nice. And I'd love to be nice, but I'm dealing against real garbage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right. Steve Contorno is with us now. He is covering the Trump-Vance campaign. Well, that was fast, Steve.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yeah. And let's be clear, Brianna. Nice Trump lasted about 30 minutes into his convention speech. Since then, he's been on the attack, including last night where he tested out all manners of lines going after his new potential opponent, Vice President Harris.

But look, the Trump campaign realizes, there is a narrow window for them to define Vice President Harris. And they're going to try to go on the negative as quickly as possible. So you're going to hear Trump in media appearances, in rallies, in campaign ads, going hard against her record and trying to tie her to the Biden administration. Because at the end of the day, they believe that Harris is likely going to get a bump in the polls coming out of this excitement, and energy, and this new face at the top of the ticket. They've said as much in some of their public comments. They expect that maybe she may even be leading in some of these polls. But they also know that before she gets her chance to get on the airwaves, they need to introduce her to Americans the way they want to. So you're going to hear Trump be pretty negative in the coming weeks.

KEILAR: All right. And our Harry Enten, Steve, reported last night that J.D. Vance is the only VP pick since 1980 with a net negative favorable rating. There's some widespread blowback over a resurfaced clip of him criticizing childless cat ladies. You even have Jennifer Aniston actress coming out about this. What is Trump saying about his new pick?

CONTORNO: Yeah. Think about the situation J.D. Vance is stepping into. He was picked for vice president two days after former President was the attempted -- there was an attempted assassination on him. Then within a week of getting the nod, there's no longer a democratic opponent for him. So he's entering this very unprecedented moment. And he's sort of getting it from all sides because what -- Harry was right, he is underwater in his favorability. But 38% of people also don't know who he is.

So you're having all kinds of information about him resurfacing for the first time as Democrats try to define him. And one of those clips of him speaking caught the attention of Jennifer Aniston. She posted on her Instagram, "I truly can't believe this is coming from a potential VP of the United States." And along with that was a clip of him saying that the country is being run by, a bunch of childless cat ladies, and we've turned our country over to people who don't really have direct stake in it."

[14:25:07]

Aniston followed by saying, "all I can say is, Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. Now, Trump, though, is saying that he thinks that the rollout of J.D. Vance as his VP has been going great. He's been impressed with how he has spoken on the campaign trail so far. And he had this to say when asked whether or not he would have chosen someone differently had he known that Harris would be the opponent and not Biden.

Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Wouldn't have mattered. And I thought she was probably going to happen anyway because I knew there was a palace coup going on. And I assumed that she'd be probably getting it. She had the advantage, so, yeah, it wouldn't matter. Now, he's doing a fantastic job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Vance is going to be dependent on to keep up with the energy of Harris. He has five events over two days next week in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, Brianna.

KEILAR: Just to be clear, real quick, Steve, he said he knew this was going to happen, that Harris would end up at the top of the ticket. Is that what you're reporting about what his campaign was preparing for indicates?

CONTORNO: They certainly were preparing for contingencies ever since the debate and Joe Biden's performance. They woke up that Monday after the debate expecting this to subside. Instead, the democratic hand wringing was continued. And at that point, they started really preparing for the possibility.

Now, publicly, they still expected or privately they tell us they still expected Joe Biden to be the most likely nominee, but they were certainly preparing for contingencies.

KEILAR: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you so much. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Let's get some insight now from former White House Communications Director for Donald Trump, Anthony Scaramucci joins us now. Anthony, great to be with you. As always, you endorsed Kamala Harris earlier this week. You are still, though, a registered Republican. I'm curious about what you make of the recent comments from the Trump campaign calling Harris a radical left lunatic who's going to destroy the country. How much do you think that sways voters?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR: You know, that stuff is not landing. I mean, that's helping him with his base, but it's not landing. I know the President very well. He's flailing right now. He hasn't really figured out what punches are going to work. He hasn't come up with a good nickname. His default nickname is lying like, Lying Ted Cruz or Lying Kamala Harris. So he's flailing right now. And he's got some tips to his personality. When he says someone is doing a fantastic job, it's like George Steinbrenner saying Billy Martin's safe, and then five days later, firing him.

You know, Vance is not doing a fantastic job. He knows that, we know that. He hated Vance's speech. He doesn't like Vance's performance on stage. He thinks he's very dull. And from a casting perspective, because Donald Trump is all about casting, J.D. Vance is not living up to the expectations, or at least the expectations that he was told about. And in fairness to President Trump, he was wounded in that assassination attempt, that horrible act of political violence. And I would imagine that for 48 hours period where he was making this VP decision, I'm sure he was under a little bit of stress. But this was a really bad decision for him.

As an example, if he had gone with somebody like Nikki Haley, that would have really helped him vis-a-vis going up against Vice President Harris.

SANCHEZ: I'm really curious about where you're hearing that perspective from. Are you talking to folks in Trump world who say that he's expressed some dismay with J.D. Vance?

SCARAMUCCI: Boris, no, I'm not -- Listen, I campaigned with President Trump for a year. I knew him for 20 years prior. When you give a speech and you're the vice presidential candidate, it's one minute on yourself, 35 minutes on Donald Trump. You don't give your life story and tell people you went to Yale because that makes Trump feel insecure about himself. And so, no, this is my assessment. This is my opinion. Go back and look at the tapes and look at the body language of Donald Trump listening to J.D. Vance speak during that nomination acceptance.

And just take a look at some of the tapes of J.D. Vance on his own or interrupting the president, he did an interview, I guess, on Fox News with one of the hosts there with President Trump earlier in the week. The body language, the chemistry is off.

Trump knows it. The internal team knows it. Just watch how this plays out, you'll invite me back. These are my opinions based on working with the man and understanding the psychology of who the president is.

SANCHEZ: Given that vantage point that you've had into Donald Trump, how do you think he's absorbing these comments by J.D. Vance about childless cat people and the sort of blowback that he's gotten on social media and elsewhere from --