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Trump Agrees to FBI Interview in Shooting Investigation; Presidential Campaign Heats Up. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 29, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:19]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Only 99 days until the election, and both sides sharpening their messages.

Surrogates for Vice President Kamala Harris zeroing in on former President Trump's own V.P. pick, while his campaign starts rolling out a new strategy to combat Harris' recent gains in polls.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, the FBI offering brand-new details on their investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Trump. He's agreed to be interviewed by investigators, as we're getting new information on how the shooter was able to get his hands on dozens of weapons and even chemicals used to create explosive devices.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of severe consequences after a rocket attack kills 12 children. Israel and the U.S. are both blaming the militant group Hezbollah, and now the U.S. is calling on American citizens to leave Lebanon.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Today, as Vice President Kamala Harris draws closer to naming her own running mate, CNN is learning how her campaign is seizing on GOP vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as a major liability for the Republican ticket.

Harris' advisers say Vance's relative lack of government experience and some very public gaffes are giving them a new opportunity to go after 78-year-old former President Donald Trump.

Here's Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I'm pretty sure voters are worried about the age and acuity of President Trump, compared to Kamala Harris, who represents being a generation younger.

And how could anybody not watch the stuff he's saying, the rambling on the trail, and not be just a little bit concerned?

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Now, on the veepstakes, two other top contenders being considered to be Harris' running mate, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, are criticizing Iowa's strict six-week abortion law that just went into effect.

Shapiro is also hitting the campaign trail today rallying voters in his home state.

Let's get now to CNN's senior White House correspondent Kayla Tausche.

All right, Kayla, these Harris V.P. contenders are out there sharpening their attacks, very clearly.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They are. They are spread across the airwaves, Brianna.

And they are increasingly describing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as weird, a descriptor that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, himself a contender for vice president, said it's a way to take down the temperature from what Democrats had previously been doing, which was issuing these very dire warnings about what Trump's policies would do to Americans if he were reelected.

But now, with reproductive rights in focus again this week, those warnings are back on, the Harris campaign putting out a statement calling Trump's views in particular weird and extreme.

And Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is headlining that Harris campaign event in his state today, tweeting this: "Another abortion ban brought to you by Donald Trump. We cannot let him back in the White House and we must restore every woman's freedom to choose."

The Harris campaign is now launching a week focused on reproductive freedom. The second gentleman will be headlining an event in New Hampshire. Other surrogates will be hosting an event in Nevada, a critical battleground state there. And Harris herself will be in Atlanta tomorrow and then in Houston the following day.

But it all comes as she's now backed by $200 million, 170,000 new volunteers, and just embarking on the hard part of this campaign, Brianna, of course, selling voters on her record, on her nascent platform and solidifying that crucial support across those battleground states.

Where she sees those gaps in support and how she tries to fill that with her vice presidential pick is going to be very indicative of how she views the map, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, she has a lot of money, but she has so much work to do as well.

Kayla Tausche live for us at the White House, thank you -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: As the sprint to Election Day heats up, so is the Trump campaign's race to define Vice President Harris.

Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, both tried out new attack lines over the weekend in Minnesota.

CNN's Alayna Treene joins us now.

Alayna, it does appear that, over the last few weeks, since Biden announced that he was dropping out, they have sort of ventured out into trying some things.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That's exactly right.

And, look, I think they're still trying to adapt to the change. Remember, it's only been just over a week since it became clear that Harris is the most likely opponent that Donald Trump is now going to face in November.

[13:05:02]

And it comes after they have spent an entire election really workshopping a playbook to go after someone like Joe Biden, an 81- year-old unpopular incumbent, rather than Harris. And so part of that is, they're still figuring out the best way to define her.

And it did feel like -- I was at that rally in Minnesota over the weekend. It did feel a bit like both Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, are throwing the kitchen sink out of attacks against Harris. But so far, it's been clear that they have an overarching theme.

They're trying to paint her as worse than Joe Biden, as someone who is far more radically liberal. They have been ripping into her record as the attorney general of California. And they have also tried to paint her as somewhat of a mastermind behind Biden's policies.

Take a listen to what they both said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She will be the worst president we have ever had. She will be worse than crooked Joe Biden.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have got to give some credit to our Democrat friends, because they were right in 2020. The American people are never going to elect a wacky, out-of- touch San Francisco liberal like Kamala Harris.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Boris, I also think, when I talk to Donald Trump senior advisers and those close to the former president, they argue that much of their strategy is not going to change, whether it was Joe Biden or now it is Kamala Harris they are going up against.

They say that the same things remain true, that the issues that they want Donald Trump to focus on continue to be immigration, crime, inflation, all areas where they think Trump polls better than someone like Harris or Democrats in general.

And they're also arguing that she is in part responsible for all of what the Biden administration does, given that she is Biden's vice president. So that is the current strategy that they have. But I also will note that they privately acknowledge they're still figuring out, what is the best way to go after her? How can they define her?

And I do think you're going to continue to see them trying out new lines of attack and really trying to figure out the best way to go after her as we look ahead to the next few weeks -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: And we will see what they ultimately land on.

Alayna Treene, thanks so much for the update.

KEILAR: All right, let's discuss now with Chuck Rocha, senior adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns in both 2016 and 2020, and Mark McKinnon, former adviser to George W. Bush and John McCain and the creator of the political docuseries "The Circus."

All right, we're all watching. We're all looking at social media. The J.D. Vance effect does not appear to be great here early on. Do you see it dragging down the ticket?

MARK MCKINNON, FORMER MEDIA ADVISER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, the thing about the vice presidential picks is that people always vote for president. The vice presidential pick is rarely determinative.

But in this case, I think it's a pick that will give people either confidence or concern. And right now, when you look at what's happened in the last couple of weeks, Kamala Harris has dominated the headlines, except where J.D. Vance has been in the headlines, and all those headlines have been negative.

So think about Donald Trump, who the thing that drives him more crazy than anything is not to be the center of attention. And so he's got two things going on. One, Kamala Harris is getting great headlines, and, two, J.D. Vance is getting terrible headlines.

So, you know, at the very least, it's driving Donald Trump crazy and it's certainly not helping.

SANCHEZ: I just want to say for the record, Brianna, I think we need some hats because the headwear game on this panel has been raised to quite a level.

KEILAR: I know. I feel left out.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Chuck, I'm curious to get from your perspective. I can imagine what you're going to say about J.D. Vance as a V.P. pick, but, outside of that, I'm curious what lessons you think Vice President Harris can draw from the choice of Vance for Republicans as a way for her to sort of inform her decision moving forward, because it's coming up in less than a week, we think.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, one of the things is, the golden rule -- in case you all didn't know it, there's a golden rule of V.P. picks, which is do no harm.

Be the pick, go over there and stand, look nice, say a few things good and then just kind of stay over there. That's the problem here is, J.D. Vance has been out there, but not in a positive way.

To Mark's -- my good friend Mark's point, it ain't that they make a big difference. It's they're supposed to do no harm. So, right now, she's looking at all these folks that you all have been reporting on that are on the short list that will do the least amount of harm or may have -- I take you back to Sarah Palin -- who may not say something that I would say down in these Texas that just don't sound quite right.

KEILAR: Just don't sound quite right.

All right, well, what does sound right as far, Chuck, as veepstakes go for Kamala Harris? What would you think would be her best pick?

ROCHA: Something that has electoral conflict -- it looked -- electoral -- let me get my words out there -- that could accentuate -- that's my big word of the day, Mark -- accentuate her status in a state.

That's why we keep talking about Pennsylvania. We talk about Minnesota. We talk about Mark Kelly in Arizona. I kind of lean towards Pennsylvania. I was on the phone this morning with my buddy Vince, who's out of sheet metal worker Local 19 in Philadelphia, and he told me that the building trades in Pennsylvania love the governor and love Shapiro, which tells me something.

[13:10:03]

Organized labor is really big in Pennsylvania.

SANCHEZ: Mark, to you. I'm curious about two things.

First, I want to get your thoughts on Chuck's comparison of J.D. Vance to Sarah Palin, because, obviously, you worked on the McCain campaign, and, second, what advice you would have for the vice president as she looks for her own V.P. nominee.

MCKINNON: Well, I think the happiest person in America right now is Sarah Palin watching what's happening with J.D. Vance because she may no longer be the worst pick in history.

I agree with my very smart friend Chuck. We're political guys, so we're always kind of looking for a political advantage. I mean, the sort of policy wonks say just pick the best V.P., the person that's going to be -- that you really feel good would be there as vice president.

But you have got to win first. And an election that's going to, inarguably, be incredibly close and come down to possibly just three states, you have got to take any advantage you can and you want that advantage.

So somebody like Shapiro in Pennsylvania or Kelly in Arizona, I mean, somebody that brings additional votes to the table, you have got to put them at the top of the list.

KEILAR: What about Walz? What do you see him bringing, Mark?

MCKINNON: He brings -- I mean, he's the kind of the dark horse in this deal, and he's everybody's sort of favorite right now because he's come out of nowhere. Nobody really knew him, and everybody loves him.

I mean, I do too. I mean, he's funny, he's human, and, most importantly, he's authentic, which I think is really important for the Democratic -- well, for any political party, but -- or ticket.

But the power of authenticity, don't underestimate that. And people look at him and go, yes, he's just a regular guy. And regular guys get me. They get voters. So, I mean, I think he's sneaky good. And he's a sort of thing where everybody's going, geez, who the hell is that guy?

He's good.

SANCHEZ: Chuck, when it comes to the criticism of Vice President Harris as border czar, whether that criticism is fair or not, it's notable because she picked up some endorsements from a handful of border mayors, including at least one Republican from Arizona.

Obviously, Texas, a border state. How do you see this issue playing out for her? How do these endorsements potentially help?

ROCHA: I think I can take it back, believe it or not, to Tim Walz. And I want to say something about him.

He was a high school football coach. It will surprise nobody here that I played football for nine years and played high school football. A lot of dudes in the Midwest played high school football. They are still, like me, reminiscing their days playing high school football.

And Tim Walz reminds them of that. It makes them feel good. So this could help them take the focus off of the border, which Republicans are definitely going to hang around her neck. She was responsible for a lot of that. But they're going to be done there saying, look, she went to these other countries and literally stood in the other countries and said, don't come.

We have all seen the memes. Don't come to America. Don't come here, and then the executive action where they literally said they would close the border if too many people were coming. We don't talk about this because the right does a really good job at demonizing her around this issue. But hiring somebody like Tim Walz or Shapiro that could give you Midwestern values helps take the focus off of that, I think.

KEILAR: Mark, on the issue of the economy, I wonder, can she credibly take, I guess, credit? Can she effectively take credit for Biden's successes on the economy, the things that he likes to tout, like reducing childhood poverty, the 2021 child tax credit, infrastructure, capping seniors' drug costs?

And I wonder if you think that she maybe needs to communicate better on that, because, when Biden tried to sell the economy, it didn't really work. And I always wondered if that was because he didn't do enough validating of how people really feel.

MCKINNON: Well, as Chuck would say in Texas, shoot at everything that moves and take credit for whatever falls.

Hell, yes, she should. I mean, she's going to get blamed for the problem. She might as well get some credit for the things that have gone well. And there's a lot about the economy they can talk about, particularly on the jobs front, much better than the Trump record.

So, yes, I think that she should absolutely talk it up. And the other thing on the border, Republicans are always going to win on that issue. But the problem, I think, largely for Biden, or one part of the problem is just, he never made it appear that it was a priority. He never talked about it. He rarely went there.

So Kamala Harris should do -- at the very least, talk about it and just close that gap a little bit to say, yes, it's something we care about, we're concerned about, and, by the way, we're actually doing some good things on it.

KEILAR: Chuck Rocha, Mark McKinnon, and their beautiful respective hats, we appreciate all of you. Thank you so much.

And still ahead: Former President Trump has agreed to meet with the FBI for a victim interview surrounding, of course, his attempted assassination. And this is coming as remarks from a local SWAT team are newly -- and newly revealed text messages give some fresh insight into what may have gone wrong on that day.

SANCHEZ: Plus, Israel vowing that Hezbollah will pay the price after blaming the militant group for a deadly rocket attack. Iran is now warning of severe consequences if Israel attacks inside Lebanon.

[13:15:05]

Coming up, what the latest rhetoric means for growing tensions in the Middle East.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: New today, former President Trump has agreed to sit for a victim interview with the FBI. This is part of the investigation into the assassination attempt against him just over two weeks ago.

This is routine. It is voluntary. Investigators say they want Trump's perspective, just like any other witness to a crime.

SANCHEZ: Now, just a short time ago, officials held a conference call with reporters to discuss where the case stands.

And here's some of what they revealed.

[13:20:02]

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

KEVIN ROJEK, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: We have learned the subject was highly intelligent, attended college, and maintained steady employment.

His primary social circle appears to be limited to his immediate family, as we believe he had few friends and acquaintances throughout his life. From our subject's Internet search history, we determined the subject specifically searched -- and I quote -- "How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?"

Additionally, our investigation has revealed he also made searches related to power plants, mass shooting events, information on improvised explosive devices, and the attempted assassination of the Slovakian prime minister earlier this year.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's get the latest from CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez, also with a CNN security correspondent, Josh Campbell.

So, Evan, walk us through the other details we got from this call.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the FBI has been trying to put together a profile of this shooter, and one of the things that we have seen in so many of the mass shootings in this country is, you find a lot of these shooters are fascinated with other mass shootings, and that's what they're finding in this case as well.

He is not only researching the Kennedy assassination in 1963. He's looking into the Slovakian prime minister's attempted assassination earlier this year. He also was looking at mass shootings in general, and along with starting to prepare his attack.

One of the remarkable things about this is that the FBI says they found that he was certainly preparing for an attack of some kind, for some time, starting to get some of the components, not only gun components, but also chemical components.

Listen to another part of this briefing, where they talk a little bit about what they found when they searched the shooter's home.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ROJEK: As far as what was in the home, the chemicals and explosives- related materials, it's our understanding from the parents and others that the shooter had a long interest in science and things like this and had been doing experiments and things like this over a period of time.

And for that reason, they weren't concerned that it was focused on committing an attack of this nature or harming other people.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PEREZ: And the fact that the parents didn't notice any of this is also, of course, a striking thing.

One last thing about the explosives, there were improvised explosives, and one reason why they did not go off, according to the investigators, is that they were in the off position. The receiver on the explosive devices was in the off position, so even if he tried to trigger it from where he was, it would not have gone off because of that.

KEILAR: That's really interesting.

Josh, what was a big takeaway for you on this call?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what is so striking is what we still don't know, and that is the motive of the shooter.

We live in this information era where all of us demand a lot of information and we demand it quickly. We're not getting that here. The feds are still doing their investigation. There hasn't been a manifesto. The FBI on that call just a short time ago said that they had reached out to over 80 different companies with search warrants and subpoenas for accounts associated with this individual.

And they still -- even after going through a lot of that material, have not been able to identify a specific motive. And I think that is what is so striking. We have seen that in the past. You look, for example, the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.

The FBI closed that case, not coming to any type of conclusion about the motive. And, for that matter, look back to the assassination of JFK. I mean, there's still questions about what the motive was there. So that is what is stunning right now. We're still in that period where investigators are doing their best to try to figure out, did this person telegraph what was about to happen? Was there an actual motive?

We just don't have it yet.

SANCHEZ: And, Evan, notably soon after the incident, there was some finger-pointing between the Secret Service and local law enforcement. And now for the first time we're actually hearing from members of a local SWAT team that was assigned to protect the former president that day.

What are we hearing from them?

PEREZ: Well, one of the things that emerges from, again, some of the things that we heard over the weekend is that it appears they first -- local law enforcement first caught sight of this suspicious person about 90 minutes before the attack. So that's -- that moves the timeline even further. Previously, we

heard 60 minutes. Listen to at least one of these SWAT team members, again, describing to ABC News in an interview a little bit about what they were watching as they were trying to find him. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was looking up and down the building and just wandering around and just seemed out of place. We had a text group between the local snipers that were on scene.

I had sent those pictures out to that group and advised them of what I noticed and what I'd seen. I assumed that there would be somebody coming out to speak with this individual or find out what's going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:25:14]

PEREZ: And so this is going to be a big focus going forward.

Tomorrow, there's a hearing in a Senate where you have both the Secret Service and the FBI testifying. And, look, a lot of the focus is going to be on these communications, right? You're hearing there, they're describing how they're passing information on a text group and then someone is supposed to tell the Secret Service what they're seeing.

Again, this person aroused suspicion because he was hanging out right near this AGR building, which is where he ended up taking -- getting on the roof and shooting at the former president. So the question is, again, what were the communications like, what were the failures there that happened because messages weren't being sent over to the people who should know as quickly as possible?

And, again, 90 minutes transpired between the time that they first got suspicious of him and the time the shots ring out.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, Josh, I look at that, what Evan just described and we heard about, and I think, were they playing telephone, you know that game where things get passed on, maybe they're not quite right?

It goes to this command center. Someone has discretion about what they pass on. Why not just have sort of a running channel of things where maybe, even if you don't pay attention to all of it, someone's paying attention to all of it and you do have access to all the information coming?

CAMPBELL: No, it really is baffling.

And the more we learn, there appear to be two key areas of failure here, the first being, securing the building itself, identifying an area with a line of sight toward the former president. But, also, this idea about failure in communication is so, so critical.

I mean, a basic component of law enforcement, whether you're on a regular day for law enforcement, or you're in a crisis situation, is having the ability to communicate in real time, specifically, if you have someone who might be potentially taking a shot at a protectee of the U.S. Secret Service.

And so that, I think, is going to be subject to a lot of ridicule here by these investigations that are ongoing. I mean, we know, for example, the Secret Service, their communications are encrypted, so oftentimes local law enforcement can't tap into those.

But just as far as the preparation to secure a venue, there has to be some type of real-time communication, because, if someone actually sees a threat, you want them to be able to articulate that very quickly.

And, the last thing, I would say we often and frequently hear from law enforcement telling the public, look, if you see something, say something. The question here is, what happens after you tell law enforcement? We saw in so many videos from bystanders around that area yelling, there's a man on the roof with a gun, trying to get the police attention.

But it appears hearing from law enforcement officers themselves and the clip that Evan just played they were in the dark about what was happening, because all this information wasn't getting to where it needed to go.

KEILAR: Yes, it's pretty stunning.

Evan Perez, Josh Campbell, thank you so much to both of you.

And still to come: The Biden administration says concerns about a broader war in the Middle East are exaggerated. But the rhetoric and tensions are only escalating after a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. We have new details ahead.

SANCHEZ: Plus, new polling showing that many Americans believe the dream of homeownership is just that, a dream.

We're going to break down the numbers ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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