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Law Enforcement: Chicago is Ready for the Democratic National Convention , US Greenlights Potential $20 Billion in Weapons to Israel; NFL Titans Quarterback Will Levis Promotes Mayonnaise Scented Cologne; Nikki Haley Criticizes Donald Trump for Questioning Crowd Sizes for Kamala Harris; Donald Trump's Comment to Elon Musk on Union Strikes Draws Controversy. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 14, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: But I do want to ask you about your favorite sports related topic, which is mayonnaise. Yes, I said mayonnaise. So something about a mayonnaise ad now grabbing attention, starting with an NFL player showing off his unusual take on his coffee recipe. Please bring me up to speed. I'm missing something.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: So Kate, Titan's quarterback Will Levis, he's a big fan of mayonnaise, and you know, sometimes when you really love your condiment, maybe you want to smell like that condiment. Well, now it is a possibility because Titans quarterback Will Levis and Hellmann's getting together for an ad for a mayonnaise smelling cologne called Parfum de Mayonnaise, the Will Levis 8 brand. And it is not only a cool ad, Kate, this is actually a product. It sold out yesterday, but it's going back on sale 10:00 eastern, $8 a bottle. I might be trying it myself.

BOLDUAN: I'm just going to say, I'm not going to hate it. I'm not going to hate on it until I try it. You know, I am a girl from the Midwest and I do love mayonnaise. I don't know if I want to wear it, but we'll see, we'll see.

SCHOLES: Saturday night, we'll Parfum de Mayonnaise.

BOLDUAN: You pronunciation is just, you're so fancy. Thank you so much, Andy.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Talking about crowd sizes is not going to win. Nikki Haley basically it says that Donald Trump and his campaign are doing it wrong. New alarm from inside the Republican Party.

We are standing by for key new inflation data. This hour the release of new numbers that will have huge economic and political ramifications.

And we've got new reporting on why pop star Katy Perry is now under investigation after releasing a new music video.

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

SIDNER: We'll head to the polls in just 83 days. Key allies of Donald Trump now asking him to change his ways. Their advice, stop the insults, stop the conspiracies, and the latest from Nikki Haley, stop the whining.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Quit complaining that she's not giving an interview. You don't need an interview from Kamala Harris. I take her at her word. Quit whining about her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And there's more advice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, (R) FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: You've got to make this race not on personalities. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FORMER SENIOR COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see. It's fewer insults, more insights, and that policy contrast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Over and over again, historically staying away from insults and conspiracies is not something that lasts for Donald Trump, and everyone will soon see if he listens to any of this advice when he hits the trail today.

CNN's Steve Contorno is here with us. Steve, the hope from the allies that you heard over and over and over again is that Trump stays on message. Do we expect that to happen? This is, this is a record that we've heard before.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: It certainly is, Sara, but the concern is that Donald Trump, at this point in the race, has squandered the opportunity to define Vice President Harris and now is risking alienating people that potentially could be voters for him, people who maybe didn't vote for him in 2020 and are now being reminded of why they decided they were done with Donald Trump.

And there is especially concern about all these conspiratorial and far right messaging that is coming from the former president around Harris's crowd sizes and her in her race. Kellyanne Conway, who was in that clip you just played earlier, actually recently went to Bedminster to talk to Trump about this very issue, according to sources who spoke with Kristen Holmes and I. And they really want Donald Trump to fold focus on immigration, on crime, on the economy. But listen to what he decided to talk about last night, talking to Univision, a captive audience with millions of potential Latino and Hispanic voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kamala. Nobody knows her last name. It's Harris. Everyone thinks of her as Kamala. So it's Kamala Harris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: That's certainly not where they want her to be -- want him to be talking about going into this critical stretch of the race. Again, economy, inflation, the border that is not -- talking about her name is not one of those things.

SIDNER: There are plenty of things to talk about, but you can hear what his aides are telling him over and over and over again. Steve Contorno, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Can Donald Trump make a McFlurry? Strange question, yes. Is it the latest political barb flying right now? Yes. Let me set the scene. Governor Tim Walz in Los Angeles for his first solo campaign rally since becoming Kamala Harris's running mate, speaking to the largest government workers union in the country.

[08:05:07]

He was making the point that Donald Trump can't make a McFlurry, would never be seen working at a McDonalds to mean that Donald Trump is out of touch with the lives of working class Americans he says he is fighting for. You're going to hear more on that in just a moment. But here's more of the pitch from Governor Walz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, they see the world very differently than we do. The only thing those two guys knows about working people is how to work to take advantage of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So that attack are coming as Donald Trump is getting ready to talk about the economy, issue number one in North Carolina today, an issue he continues to lead on with voters across the country. The Harris campaign is now fighting and trying to make inroads on that, saying this, "No matter what he says, one thing is certain -- Trump has no plan, no vision, and no meaningful interest in helping build up the middle class." Kamala Harris, for her part, going to lay out her economic agenda and her first big policy speech Friday. John?

BERMAN: With us now is the former deputy communications director for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign Bryan Lanza and former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield. Let us communicate. As Stephen Stills one said, something is happening here. We heard Governor Walz bring up McFlurrys at this event yesterday, and then "Axios" this morning has new reporting on what we will hear from Harris on her economic message later in the week. They say, quote, "Harris won't say it this bluntly in public, but her advisers do so privately. She wants to break with Biden on issues on which he's unpopular. First up rising prices. This is part of a highly choreographed effort to define herself, in some cases, redefine herself as a different kind of Democrat." A McFlurry Democrat, maybe, Kate. Explain to me what you think this message will be and how effective it could be?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think she's going to very clearly draw the contrast between her own upbringing, her own experiences, and those of Donald Trump. Look, in some ways what we're seeing from Trump as he's being his Trumpiest self and talking only about himself and using this moment to continue to complain and whine about things that have gone wrong for him, in some ways, he's helping her make that case, right? She and Governor Walz are out talking about what they intend to do if they went a term in the White House to help working people. And he's out complaining about himself.

I think one of the opportunities that Vice President Harris has here is to take the meat of the Biden economic agenda and run on policies that are very popular, capping the cost of insulin, taking on junk fees. I mean, these are things that resonate in people's lives that she and President Biden were able to do during their time in the White House. her opportunity now is to take those successes and talk about them in her own voice and lay out a vision for how she intends to build on that success and make life more affordable for working people.

So she has a great foundation of the work she's done over the last four years, which I can also tell you from my time in the White House, a lot of those accomplishments, capping insulin, for example, polls through the roof, enormous bipartisan support for some of what she and President Biden have been able to achieve. So she has a great foundation here to work from.

BERMAN: In terms of the messaging, Bryan, I'm sure you disagree with what Kate just said there, and you'll have your chance in a second here, the timing is interesting, because Donald Trump did this interview with Elon Musk. So two rich guys talking. They talked about a lot of other things, but at its face is two rich guys talking. The Harris campaign lean into that. And actually, we can play some sound here, if we have it, of slot number three. They discussed unions at a moment and the idea of firing workers who go on strike. So listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, you want to quit? They go on strike.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say that's OK, you're all gone. You're all gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So there has been a reaction to this, this morning, from the president of the Teamsters, Sean O'Brien, who spoke at the Republican Convention. And I know Republicans are hoping he ends up endorsing Donald Trump. But he's pretty pissed about that conversation between Musk and Trump, and he put out a statement, "Politico" was first to report it, but now its public, quote, "firing workers for organizing, striking, and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism," O'Brien said. So to what extent is Trump risking maybe some of that support he was hoping to get?

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN: I mean, he's risking it. I mean, the bottom line is, is Trump has a lot of labor support. He's had that for a number of years. It has grown over the years. He certainly has more labor support today than he had in 2016. So comments like that are not helpful.

But the good news is, is the voters, the union voters had four years of President Trump. They understand what he brings to their pocketbook. And they've had three years of Biden-Harris, and they you understand what that brings to their pocketbook. And so they're making the case. They don't want a second Joe Biden term.

[08:10:02]

There's a reason Joe Biden is not running for a second term, is because the voters rejected him and Harris's economic policies. And so what you're going to see with Harris on Friday is not only double down over those failed economic policies, you're going to see a pivot to the left, a pivot to her San Francisco liberal roots, which is very dangerous for the economy. We're going to see that more and more as she lays out her policies.

BERMAN: You know, one of the things that "Axios" also points out is that Harris in some cases has shifted positions on topics, and some of those are economics. Fracking, she was opposed to fracking before. Now --

LANZA: "Shift" is a nice word. She completely flipped without an explanation.

BERMAN: OK, but that gets to my question here to both of you. and I'm actually hoping you can both help me understand this now. Do we think the flip-flopping or changing positions carries the same stigma as it might have 20 years -- I used to cover campaigns where if you flip- flopped on something, that was it, you were out. But does anyone care anymore? I mean, Donald Trump flipped on abortion, J.D. Vance flipped on Donald Trump. How much does it matter, Bryan?

LANZA: But I think what's important, though, is when Donald Trump flipped on abortion, when he ran, we knew what his position was on abortion. When J.D. flipped on Donald Trump, on his position with Donald Trump, when he ran, we knew what his position was with Donald Trump. So what we see today is voters passing judgment on their flip and saying that's OK. The problem with Harris's flips, and there's many. I suspect she is

going to flip on the death penalty pretty soon. Her and Walz is the most anti-death penalty ticket we've ever experienced in U.S. history. They're going to be flipping on that because that results with KSM sort of being released on the death penalty.

She's running, and this is her first time running on her flipping these positions, so she has to explain them. We haven't seen her have success explaining them. I suspect she can't, which is why she's avoiding press interviews. But flipping is a common thing, but Trump and Vance have already gone to the voters with their flip and they accepted it. We'll see if the voters accept Kamala's flip.

BERMAN: Kate, you want to weigh in on that?

BEDINGFIELD: I've got to say, though, I don't think that really holds water when you have Donald Trump, who bragged about putting three justices on the Supreme Court who overturned Roe, and then during the course of this campaign has started to say, well, no, actually, you know, it's a states issue, and, well -- and you've seen him try to flip on this over the course of just in the last few months as he's desperately trying to redefine its position.

So look, I have to say I agree broadly that I think in an era where you have J.D. Vance who once called Donald Trump America's Hitler, and is now running on the ticket with him, I don't think that a shift in policy position holds the same kind -- gives voters the same kind of concern that it used to 20 years ago, 30 years ago, as John was saying.

But I think for Harris, she has for years in the White House where she can talk about her experience, she can talk about what she's learned. AND again, we go back to the underlying policies of the Biden-Harris administration are very popular. The issue that Joe Biden had was that people were concerned about his age, didn't think he was going to be able to complete a second term. And that was dragging down the overall popularity, his overall popularity in the race, I should say.

Vice President Harris doesn't have that issue. So she has a slate of policies to run on. You have violent crime has come down to a 50-year low, border crossings are back down to where they were in fall of 2020 when Donald Trump was president. She has a lot of good stuff to run on. And I think she's going to be making that case over the next three months.

BERMAN: We'll see. Again, two open questions, how much space does she try to put between herself and Joe Biden, and do flip-flops still matter? I don't know, but we'll see. Bryan Lanza, Kate Bedingfield, great to see both of you. I really appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: It was like there now categories of flip-flops, some are cool, some are not. I think that's what we established today.

A new deal to send billions of weapons, including fighter jets, to Israel. How this long-term security commitment from the United States could impact hostage and ceasefire talks in the immediate. That's coming up.

And body camera footage just released showing the violent incident that left a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer in critical condition.

And a charity scrambling to track down candy it gave out after it turns out the candy was actually meth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:43]

BOLDUAN: Police resources out and about in every Chicago neighborhood. That is the promise from local and federal law enforcement as they are in the final preparation stage now for next week's Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The security is always tight around these major political gatherings, of course, but this year it's a special focus after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump last month, just ahead of the RNC.

CNN's John Miller has been talking to a lot of his sources is here with me now. They spent a year preparing they said for this event in terms of the security. What are you expecting and what do you think their chief concerns are?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, top of the hit parade is always going to be terrorism, not the only thing that they're confronting, but when you look at a world with two wars going on promises from ISIS-K to launch attacks. The shadow of Hezbollah, the looming threat of Al-Qaeda, and then domestic extremism, that's where you start. And you know, that's where you see all of that locked down perimeter, required credentials to get in, distance between the targets and the outside world.

And then there's the stuff you don't see or you barely notice. It's a lot of the same things we did for similar events in New York where you've got teams of people with baseball caps and backpacks walking around that you think, what are those guys maybe graduate students, they're a little old to be college kids.

That's a nuclear emergency search team that is looking for radiation in the air and you know, little devices that are popped up on top of poles that are searching for biological threats. So, that's all built into the package but it starts with terrorism.

[08:20:22]

BOLDUAN: So when you talk about the perimeter, I mean, we saw -- I saw a perimeter at the Republican Convention. The security was really tight. Of course, they weren't messing around. But how close are people that aren't ticketed, aren't allowed don't have the badges and the lanyards and all that. How close can really get?

MILLER: Well, you've put your thumb on the pulse of the problem there because let's assume that if everything is planned and executed properly perfectly, that the perimeter is locked down and safe, you can't touch the convention. What about beyond the perimeter and that's where terrorists find those choke points, which is large crowds of people trying to get -- lined up to get into the perimeter. But that's also where the -- let's get off the terrorism piece for a minute and go to the potential for disorder and disruption.

Protest groups have come to Chicago. They've announced their plans. They want to shut down the convention. We've heard that before but outside the perimeter, you've got factors that you can't fully control in a big city like, you know, the delegate buses have to get from the hotels to cross into the perimeter that puts them in traffic, that puts them in Chicago. They will be escorted by police, but you know, protest groups are looking to say, what street can we seize? What route can we shut down? What bridge can we grab that can start to bollocks this up and bring attention to us and our cause?

And that's where Chicago PD really has the lead over the Secret Service for the outside of that perimeter to anticipate all of that and be ready to respond.

BOLDUAN: Yes, especially as Secret Service has been taking a lot of heat since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, since the security failures around it, and which brings a special focus again here. It's good to see you, John. Thank you.

MILLER: You too, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right ahead, how is his age playing with voters now that Biden is out and Trump is the oldest presidential candidate in American history. We'll take a look at the numbers.

And, new numbers on inflation just minutes away for you. What the brand new data will mean for you and for Wall Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:27:46]

SIDNER: As tensions grow in the Middle East, new this morning, the US has given the go-ahead to potential sale of around $20 billion worth of weapons for Israel. The military package includes up to 50 F-15 fighter jets that would be there in the coming years. At the same time, Israel being heavily criticized for its strike on a Gaza school and mosque compound that killed at least 90 people there.

Let's get right to CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson. What's the latest there, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The latest is the preparations for the talks and who is going to go. And the indications seem to be that both the United States will be represented along with Israel, both at an intelligence level along with the senior players of Egypt and Qatar, the interlocutors.

There has been so much pressure or expectation in the region that pressure would be put on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a delegation that would go with softer terms for a ceasefire in Gaza. And the interpretation in this region by diplomats in the region, is that the United States was going to have to do something to change the calculus for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's thinking.

So, the decision which has been part of a very long process yesterday to say that this provisionally $20 billion of weapons, up to 50 F-15 fighter aircraft, ammunition for tanks, that that would be sent to Israel potentially, part of a long process, the announcement coming yesterday is seen here as potentially part of the pressure of package on Prime Minister Netanyahu.

But the outcome of it, we won't really find out until the mediators have had a chance to meet in Doha on Thursday. The expectation though is being set low and the expectation is also being set that whatever comes out of the talks, it may not be enough to stop Iran striking Israel. And this is something that's concerning President Biden right now.

SIDNER: I know they have been waiting to see if Iran is going to strike which has said it will at some point. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for your reporting there in Tel Aviv for us -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, In 28 seconds, were going to get brand new data on inflation. We will pour through the numbers at the break and tell you what it all says about the future of the economy.

Plus, Katy Perry under investigation. Really, for a music video.

[08:30:28]

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