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Trump Tries New Lines of Attack; New Polling Shows Slight Uptick for Harris; Harris Team Looking for VP Pick; Alzheimer's Blood Tests for Early Dementia; New Details on Trump's Security At Rally. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 29, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:33:28]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, one week into facing a new opponent and 99 days left to figure out how to beater her, Donald Trump is trying out new lines of attack against Vice President Kamala Harris.

CNN's Steve Contorno joins us now.

So, what is he trying? Why is he having difficulty landing on something, Steve?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it's a scattershot approach because they really have been planning to go against an 81- year-old unpopular incumbents and now find themselves against a much more dynamic opponents.

And so what you're seeing is then test a whole bunch of lines. In front of a Christian audience on Friday, they were attacking Vice President Harris' abortion position. They said she was insufficiently pro-Israeli. They actually said she doesn't like Jewish people. That was a direct quote from the former president. Obviously, her husband is Jewish.

And then later in the weekend, he appeared before bitcoin enthusiasts where he claimed that Vice President Harris was anti-crypto and anti- innovation. And then when we got to Minnesota, he was attacking her saying that if Harris wins, the, quote, "the American dream is dead."

The attacks are also getting increasingly personal. Take a listen to what else he said over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She was a bum three weeks ago. She was a bum. A failed vice president, and a failed administration.

We have a new victim now, Kamala. We have a new victim. We have a brand new victim. And, honestly, she's a radical left lunatic. [08:35:04]

And she is - when you find out about her - all I have to say is, defund the police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: John, clearly the message of unity and the so-called nice Trump that may have emerged for a brief moment during the convention is gone. And Trump himself has said, there's no more being nice in this race. And we expect this to get increasingly nasty and personal as we go on. And part of that is because the Trump campaign believes that Vice President Harris, though she is well recognized, she isn't well known. And so they are trying to define her before she can define herself.

BERMAN: That is the race right now.

Steve Contorno, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, how are voters feeling now that Kamala Harris is topping the Democratic ticket? New polling just dropped and guess who's coming to visit? Yes, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten joining us now.

As you ran the numbers, what are you seeing? What are people feeling?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: You know, Steve mentioned this. You know, Harris is, yes, she was the VP, but now she's at the top of the ticket. And I think opinions of her are moving rather fast.

So, this is the net favorability ratings. This is from an ABC News/Ipsos poll that literally dropped just within the last 24 hours. I'm going to be interested if other polls follow. So, this is net favorability. It's favorable minus unfavorable.

Look at this, a week ago -

SIDNER: Wow.

ENTEN: She was at minus 11 points. Look at this. She's jumped all the way up to plus one point. Trump has actually dropped a little bit, from minus 11 to minus 16, but that movement isn't so wide compared to this 12 point movement.

And I think the real question is, will this stick in other polling, because Democrats absolutely love this. And it gets back to Steve's point, that opinions on Harris, I think, are much more malleable than they were for Joe Biden, where you just had that consistently negative rating.

Here, this is the first time I've seen a politician running for national office with a net positive rating I don't know since when. I mean it's - it's something unforeseen, at least over the last four years.

SIDNER: And that is quite a spread there when you look at those two.

ENTEN: Yes, that is quite - Democrats love this spread, Sara.

SIDNER: I'm sure they do.

All right, voter enthusiasm among Democrats, speaking of Democrats, what did that look like and how did that change?

ENTEN: Yes, you know, opinions are one thing when it comes to the individual candidates, but enthusiasm, we know that Democrats were suffering from low enthusiasm. So, enthusiastic about voting. So, this is Democrats for Biden or Harris.

SIDNER: Wow.

ENTEN: Look at this, back in February, just 62 percent of Democrats said they were enthusiastic about voting for Joe Biden. Look at this now. Woof. Up to 88 percent now say that they are enthusiastic about voting for Kamala Harris. That is a huge jump. That is a 26-point jump.

Look at Trump during the same stretch, Republicans for Trump. It was 80 percent in February. Look, it's still fairly high at 82 percent. But compared to February, where Trump had this 18 point advantage, now we see Harris with a six-point advantage. It's definitely for Democrats game on. They are very enthusiastic. We see it in the money being raised. We see it in the volunteer sign-ups, and now we're seeing it in the polling as well.

SIDNER: Yes, and they're hoping that translates to, in the line to vote or voting (INAUDIBLE) -

ENTEN: That's what they're hoping for. We'll wait and see.

SIDNER: That's what they're hoping for.

What about the all-important battleground states, because that's what everyone's looking at. This is going to be, according to you and many others, a very tight race.

ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, this is all national polling, but ultimately it comes down to the Electoral College. And this is Harris versus Trump. These are the northern battleground states. This is all polling conducted since Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, or the very likely Democratic nominee.

Look at this, in the Great Lake battleground states, pure toss-ups.

SIDNER: Wow.

ENTEN: Plus one in Wisconsin. Well within any margin of error. Michigan, tied. Pennsylvania, tied. We thought these were going to be tight. At this point they look like they're going be tight. Perhaps a little bit more interesting were these GOP reaches where

Donald Trump was competitive with Joe Biden. But look now, Minnesota, plus six Harris. Look at New Hampshire, plus seven Harris. Maine, plus nine Harris. The GOP reaches where they thought they could play against Joe Biden, at this particular point it doesn't look like they can play against Kamala Harris. It looks like this election is going to be decided here in the northern battleground. And of course those sunbelt battleground, where you don't have new polling yet, but we'll just have to wait and see, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina. But it looks like it's going to be much more like the traditional map than it's going to be one of these wide ranging maps where we're going to have states that are put into play that we're not used to. These, at this point, at least these particular states, looked like the GOP reaches will continue to be GOP reaches.

SIDNER: This is interesting since the governor of Minnesota is also a potential vice presidential pick, but it looks like she's doing quite well, so it will be interesting to see if she does.

ENTEN: She is doing quite well. It's going to be interesting. Maybe the Democratic vice president might come out of here, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro. Maybe you get one little extra point, turns those ties into maybe plus one for the Dems.

SIDNER: I think Gretchen is out, so it may be Josh. We will have to wait and see.

ENTEN: We'll see. Everyone - everyone is out until they're back in.

SIDNER: Correct.

All right, Harry Enten, thank you so much.

John.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: We had a woof there and enthusiasms, like De Niro in "The Untouchables."

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, Republican strategist Rina Shah. Also with us, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield.

And I would like to say, we have shown enormous restraint so far in this broadcast. It's 8:39 a.m. and I don't think we've mentioned the veepstakes once. I'm ending that restraint right now. They just mentioned it right there, but it took a long time.

[08:40:03]

And, Kate, I want to play some sound for you because the contenders were out this weekend, including one who hasn't received quite as much attention, and that's Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who went on Fox, where he's very comfortable, and he went on the attack.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: People think that crime is up when crime is down under Joe Biden, and crime was up under Donald Trump. Now, I don't know how often that gets reported on this network. So, if you're watching this at home, do yourself a favor and look up the data.

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Well, we invite that.

BUTTIGIEG: That - great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Kate, two part question here.

Number one, do you think there is any realistic shot for Pete Buttigieg, who doesn't really bring a state necessarily with him? And, two, the way he goes about that, the attack rather than defend their, what does that represent in terms of what might be a strategy for the Harris campaign going forward?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Well, I think there's absolutely a possibility for Secretary Pete because here's the thing about the VP conversation, everybody wants to game out the x's and o's of, you know, who can bring what state and what constituency. And, obviously, the political calculation is - is part of the discussion. Of course it is.

But ultimately the choice is going to be, you know, who is the person that VP Harris feels has the best connection with, trusts would be - you know, would have as a governing partner, would have as reliable, you know, campaign partner, somebody who's going to be able to go out and make the case in an effective and reliable way, which Secretary Pete obviously can.

So, sometimes I think that the - you know, the kind of calculation around who is the - has the best electorate - who adds the most, you know, electoral benefit is a little overplayed relative to what's actually happening inside the campaign in terms of discussions about who she picks.

So, I think people should - should remember that. And for that reason, you know, obviously, VP Harris has worked with - with Secretary Buttigieg in the administration. And, of course, as we've all seen many times, and just saw yesterday, he's a terrific communicator.

In terms of his response there, I mean it was - it was textbook. It was excellent. He - you know, one thing that he's so great at is, you know, he's always level-headed. He's always calm. You know, he goes back on offense without seeming like he's flustered. And I think that is absolutely what Vice President Harris is going to do over the course of this next three-and-a-half months, taking it to Trump. She has, you know, all the reason in the world to be on the offensive and to be aggressive. We've seen her campaign kind of put this race in the freedom, you know, versus wanting to take away your freedoms frame, which I think is terrific and resonates with people. And so I think she has every opportunity to be - to be aggressive over this next three-and-a-half months.

BERMAN: You know, Rina, we just had that - that graphic of the six possible VP picks up there. It's got to be so tempting - and we can put it back up again - if you're in the Harris campaign looking at that being, you know, gees, Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's so important. Mark Kelly, Arizona. Arizona is so important. And then to a lesser extent, Cooper in North Carolina, and then Tim Waltz.

But - but that Shapiro and Kelly thing, I mean, could you resist the temptation of picking people who may be very good on paper, but also come from a key state?

RINA SHAH, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, look at history. The VP pick doesn't need to come from a swing state or a state that's in play or important for the VP pick to be successful, for the ticket to be successful. Look at Paul Ryan when he joined Mitt Romney. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Look at Tim Kaine, when he joined Hillary Clinton, but from Virginia. So, I'm just saying, it doesn't need to be from this all- important state to be successful.

BERMAN: Yes.

SHAH: And history tells us that. But as a practical matter, look, I would have loved an all-woman ticket. It does need to be somebody who is not just a male - and I don't even know that it needs to be a white male, but somebody that's got this broader appeal.

Shapiro's definitely turned some Republican heads. You see a lot of center right types say this is a governor I actually like. And then for Kelly, of course, I mean, we can't discount the fact that he's so well liked in Arizona. The sunbelt is a place that Democrats need to do better in.

So, when we look at the numbers, the veepstakes gets a little, for me, a little sort of, how can I put it, boring.

BERMAN: Whoo!

SHAH: I think Minnesota is exciting because Republicans in Minnesota I've known have always been very independently minded, very purple in ways. And I think Tim Walz is turning a lot of heads with gen z and millennials.

BERMAN: Yes.

SHAH: He speaks in a practical manner. He's somebody that looks like maybe he might be one thing, but then you peel back the cover and you get a whole lot of what you may like. And I'm talking about you meaning independent voters.

BERMAN: Right. SHAH: Center right people who could come and join that Democratic coalition and help out like they did in 2020.

BERMAN: Man, you've never been a political reporter if you think the veepstakes is boring. I've spent, you know, decades of my life digging and reporting on this, and you're suggesting it's all for not. But be that as it may.

In terms of -

[08:45:00]

SHAH: Well, I say that because I would have liked a woman.

BERMAN: I got it. I got it. I'm just kidding.

SHAH: I would have liked a woman.

BERMAN: Let's talk about - about vice presidential nominees here. And I will say one thing that Paul Ryan and Tim Kaine both have in common, they lost. So maybe you do - you do want to go for a state there.

I want to talk about Senator J.D. Vance because the Democrats, in this bit of oppo (ph) that's had legs, uncovered this interview from 2021 where he talked about then Senator - or I guess she was Vice President Kamala Harris and others as being childless cat ladies, and maybe look at things differently because they don't have children.

Well Vance, last night, Kate, tried to clean that up a little bit on TV. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I do think that being a parent actually has a profound effect on somebody's perspective. And we should honor and respect that. But there are a whole host of people who don't have children for a whole host of reasons, and they certainly are great people who can participate fully in the life of this country. And that's not what I said, Trey. If you look at what the left is done, they have radically taken this out of context, and, in fact, aggressively lied about what I've said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: There is the old adage, if you're explaining, you're losing, Kate. But I guess my question is, does this have legs beyond this going forward?

BEDINGFIELD: His position on this? Yes, I think it does. I mean, look -

BERMAN: This issue. This whole thing.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Yes. Well, I think it absolutely does for a few reasons. I mean, first of all, he - this is now, I think, his second or maybe even third, but we'll charitably say his second, effort to clean this up. I mean the first time he essentially doubled down on what he had said about women and apologized to the cats that he had insulted in the - in the original clip.

So, you know, voters have seen over the last now almost week, they've seen him doubled down on this and - and really embrace it. So, tough to now come out and say, oh, well, you know, that wasn't really what I meant. But even - in some ways even more importantly, I think it will continue to have legs because it reinforces a broader problem that the Republican ticket has in being anti-woman. I mean their position on choice, the fact that they believe that, you know, they should insert themselves in between women and their doctors in making health care decisions, the fact that they're, you know, supportive of restricting birth control and IVF. I mean, they have a problem with women in this race, particularly suburban moderate women who have supported Democrats in the wake of the Dobbs decision.

And so I think, you know, everything that J.D. Vance does that continues to remind people how much the Republican ticket rejects the idea that women should be able to live their lives the way they want to live them is going to be a problem for them, absolutely.

BERMAN: Kate Bedingfield, Rina Shah, thanks to both of you. Great discussion this morning. Really appreciate your time.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, new details this morning in the Trump attempted assassination investigation. We're getting new insight into the planning ahead of that Pennsylvania rally from some of the local police officers there.

Plus, firefighters battling wildfires out west are getting a little help from the weather, but it's unclear how long their luck is going to last. The fire is still burning out of control this morning.

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[08:53:10]

SIDNER: This morning there is new hope for the early detection of dementia. A new study shows a blood test for Alzheimer's disease outperforms doctors in diagnosing cognitive decline.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has the details on what the results actually show.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There have been so many exciting developments when it comes to the world of Alzheimer's. And this is another one. We're talking about a two-part blood test here to give you an idea of how much amyloid you likely have in your brain. It's an amyloid probability score.

Now, I want to be clear, this is not an Alzheimer's test per say. You can't take the blood test and say you either have Alzheimer's or you don't, but it can provide a lot of information for people, especially those who are worried, could the memory loss they're experiencing actually be due to Alzheimer's.

So specifically, we're - again, we're talking about two specific blood test here. One is called P=Tau 217. That's measuring for Tau protein. And something known as Beta Amyloid 42. That's another biomarker of Alzheimer's disease.

Now, again, these are blood tests. In the past you had clinical exam where you had your doctors sort of examining you and trying to determine what your risk or your probability of Alzheimer's disease was, and/or you could do a lumbar puncture where they're actually taking fluid from your spine, from your cerebral spinal fluid, and examining that. That's a much more invasive procedure. This would be a blood test specifically.

I actually had this done recently as part of a documentary that I was working on. And you can see, it's - I mean it's a blood test. There's nothing more to it. They take those samples. They send them off. And you get these results back.

The real question I think, and part of the reason there's so much enthusiasm is, how predictive is it really, and how predictive is it against what is typically out there?

[08:55:02]

And what you find is that the accuracy in determining if memory loss is likely due to Alzheimer's disease with this blood test, around 90 percent. Compare that to neurologist memory specialists, around 73 percent, primary care doctors, around 61 percent.

So, again, I want to be clear, this is an amyloid probability score. It's not an Alzheimer's tests per say, saying either you have it or you don't. But it's another tool that doctors are likely to start using as part of a more complete evaluation.

There's also these new medications out there. With these new blood tests, you might be able to follow along how well those medications are working. Take the medication, did the amyloid score start to improve as a result of that? You can do that in conjunction with actually looking at someone's real life functioning.

So, again, these are exciting days when it comes to Alzheimer's disease. A lot of progress being made. And the idea of having a blood biomarker for the brain, that's another step toward - towards all those advances.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: That's amazing. All right, that was our Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Thank you to him.

John. BERMAN: All right, brand new this morning, Nicolas Maduro is claiming

victory in his re-election campaign in Venezuela, though the opposition leader rejects this. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also has expressed serious concerns over the election claims, stating that the international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly.

This morning, firefighters in northern California are battling the country's largest active wildfire. The Park Fire, as it's called, has burned more than 360,000 acres. Evacuation orders or warnings are in place for four counties. And the man suspected of starting this fire is scheduled to appear in court today.

U.S. officials say Mexico is, quote, "totally pissed" following the arrests of cartel leaders Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez. U.S. officials say they did not tell Mexico about the operation beforehand, worried that it might be leaked. The details were also kept secret within the U.S. government until the arrests happened. Zambada's lawyer claims that he was kidnapped and did not surrender or negotiate with the U.S. government.

Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you, John.

For the first time the local SWAT team assigned to protect Donald Trump the day of the assassination attempt is speaking out. And details reportedly show a lack of communication among the multiple agencies involved.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was this a failure of communication?

PATRICK YOUNG, CHIEF DETECTIVE, DEAVER CO. EMS: I believe so in a lot of respects. In multiple agencies working together is always taxing no matter what the problem.

I know that we could not communicate with Secret Service or Pennsylvania state police, really in effort the patrol directly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Former Secret Service agent, and CNN law enforcement analyst, Jonathan Wackrow joins me now.

That was quite a stark thing to say that the communication, they sort of didn't have an easy way to do that. How does this normally work?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, good morning, Sara.

And yes, this - you know, to hear this directly, not through testimony, but directly from individuals that were on-site is quite shocking. And it is not the norm. The norm is to have interoperable communication between local law enforcement entities, whether that is the local SWAT team, state police, and the Secret Service. You want a unified structure around communications setup so that the moment that a suspicious individual or a threat is identified, that there's a unified approach on who is going to engage with that individual and then, should it be necessary, coordinate the response to a specific threat.

What we saw here was multiple failures of, you know, communication. And then, you know, on top of that, when there was communication, that the messages that were passed were not actioned off of quickly enough. Again, pointing to, you know, the tragic, you know, consequences that - that that caused.

SIDNER: Yes, and, you know, we should again and again note that a man was killed, a father, a firefighter. He was killed during this. Two others were gravely injured. We understand one of the two has been - finally been able to come out of the hospital, but they have lifelong - they're going to have lifelong problems because of the shooting.

I do want to take a look at some of the text messages. We're getting to see for ourselves what the communication was sort of like with the local agencies. And this is one of the text messages that has been shared with the - with "The New York Times." And in it there is a text saying, look, there's a kid leaning around the building we're in and I - I did see him with a rangefinder looking toward stage. FYI. If you want to notify the SS - which a Secret Service -- snipers to look out. Oh, I lost sight of him.

So, these text messages are going between each other. But the Secret Service clearly not on the chain.

[09:00:01]

And certainly, I guess, there would be a big lag between the time in which you're texting each other and the time in which the Secret Service found out about it.