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Biden Appears With Harris For First Time Since Quitting Race; Trump To Hold News Conference As Allies Beg Him To Stay On Message; Pentagon: "Some" Russian Units Sent To Russian Area Under Attack. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 15, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:06]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Sharing a stage and passing the torch: President Biden appearing with his vice president Kamala Harris for the first time in a public rally since he quit the 2024 race. As they take the stage, former President Trump is preparing for a news conference coming up next hour, we'll discuss.

Plus, multiple arrests in the death of Matthew Perry, including a drug dealer known as the Ketamine Queen. Police have executed search warrants, seizing computers and phone records, all part of an investigation into the death of this beloved actor.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Taylor Swift back on stage. London police are on high alert after the singer's last concert had to be canceled because of a foiled terror plot.

I'm Jessica Dean, along with Boris Sanchez, we're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: President Biden and Vice President Harris just wrapped up an event in Maryland, their first joint appearance before supporters since Biden dropped out of the presidential race. They spoke separately, but at one point were side by side on stage. And they had similar messages touting the administration's work, lowering prescription drug prices. Also, going after former President Trump and Republicans. Here's President Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You may have heard about the MAGA Republican Project 2025 plan. They want to repeal Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices. Let Big Pharma back to charging whatever they want.

Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is. Beat the hell out of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Next hour, former President Donald Trump will hold his own event, a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. With us now, CNN's Eva McKend and Kristen Holmes.

Eva, let's start first with you.

What we saw with President Biden and Vice President Harris was officially a White House event in Maryland, but it sure had the feel of a campaign event.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It did, Jess, because it really included the themes that Vice President Harris wants to run on: Lowering the cost of prescription drugs. She argued that in America, people should not be forced to ration their medication, that Americans deserve to live with dignity and access affordable health care.

What was notable is the way that she came, presented herself with President Biden on that stage, the way she embraced him. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And as vice president, together with Joe Biden, our president, we finally addressed the longstanding issue that for years was one of the biggest challenges on this subject, which is that Medicare was prohibited by law from negotiating lower drug prices. And those costs then got passed on to our seniors, but not anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And what we're all watching now is how much she continues to do this on the campaign trail. Does she continue to talk about President Biden as she has done all along? There are often chants at her rallies of thank you, Joe, or does she start to put some distance there?

She's giving an economic policy address of her own tomorrow where she's supposed to address this issue of price gouging. And then, of course, she'll also have to address probably one of the most persistent issues I hear about on the campaign trail from voters, and that is the high cost of housing. She talks about corporate landlords, lots of folks worried about the cost of rent and how difficult it is right now to buy a home.

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SANCHEZ: Yes, we look forward to that speech tomorrow.

In the meantime, Kristen, what are you hearing about former President Trump's news conference that's set for the next hour?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, I was told that this is going to focus heavily on the economy. Obviously, he's going to open it up for questions, but that he wants to reiterate that messaging on the economy.

Obviously, we saw yesterday he gave a speech in North Carolina where the focus was supposed to be the economy. And for Donald Trump, it was a rather focused speech, a smaller venue, a crowd that was sitting down. And we're told he's going to give more of these kind of issue- based speeches across the country as his team tries to keep him on message.

Obviously, as again we have reported, Kamala Harris has really shaken up this race, her boost in enthusiasm, her boost in polling and among - amid all of that, we've seen Donald Trump at times really seeming to not be able to contain himself, not be able to stay on those important issues that his campaign thinks will help him win in November. So as for this news conference, we will see how it goes. We will see if he stays on message. But the big goal coming out of that was to keep yesterday and today focused on the economy.

DEAN: And Kristen, we are also learning an old face is coming back to the Trump campaign. What more can you tell us about that?

HOLMES: Yes, a few old faces, actually, but perhaps the most notable is Corey Lewandowski. He was the first campaign manager ever for Donald Trump. He joined Trump's campaign in June of 2015. He ultimately was ousted and replaced by Paul Manafort about a year later. He is going to be back on the campaign.

And again, all of this coming at a time in which allies have expressed concerns about the direction that this campaign is going in and then the direction the candidate is heading in. Lewandowski is a staunch supporter, a staunch ally of Donald Trump's.

And we did get a statement from Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. They are the heads of the Trump campaign. And we are told by sources they're not going anywhere. These are just additions.

But in the statement, they say, "As we head into the home stretch of this election, we are continuing to add to our impressive campaign team: Corey Lewandowski, Taylor Budowich," who was the head of MAGA Inc, the super PAC aligned with Donald Trump, "Alex Pfeiffer," spokesperson for MAGA Inc, "Alex Bruesewitz, and Tim Murtaugh are all veterans of prior Trump campaigns and their unmatched experience will help President Trump persecute - prosecute the case against Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the most radical ticket in American history."

Again, this is very clearly these additions are coming at a time in which we've seen the polling. We've seen the energy shift on the Democratic side and we've seen the concerns from Republicans around Donald Trump that he needs to be more on message heading into this critical period. So very interesting to see this kind of changes at this time.

SANCHEZ: Yes, notable, to say the least.

Kristen Holmes, Eva McKend, thank you both so much.

Let's discuss all the aspects of the campaign right now with former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Anthony, great to see you as always. Thanks for being with us. First, I want to ask you about the economic speech that Trump gave last night in Asheville. Kristen pointed out that the campaign is going to be focused on these smaller events, not rallies, kind of centered around a single issue. Why do you think that is? And what grade would you give the former president's performance yesterday?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, I mean, listen, it's the same grade. I give him a grade of a T, which is he's Donald Trump. That's how he's going to talk to people. He's demeaning and degrading and he's off topic. So he's going to try to repair that today with the press conference.

And I, you know, want to give a shout out to Corey Lewandowski. He's a - he is a friend of mine, even though he's on the wrong team. I like Corey and I don't wish him well with this thing, but I wish him well in general in life because I want Donald Trump to lose.

But I would say this to you, the smaller events are because he's worried about crowd sizes. He does not want his crowd sizes to be overwhelmed by Vice President Harris. And it looks that way.

If you look at her crowd sizes recently, she's getting way more people. He knows that. And so that's why he's making this adaptation. So we can't rule Mr. Trump out of this race. He's a very aggressive, very formidable competitor. And he's recalibrating right now how he's going to approach the race from here to November.

And I'll just point out to viewers and listeners, he did the same thing in August of 2016. We had a swap out in August of 2016. And Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon joined. And the race, you know, got a lot tighter and a lot more complex after they joined. So he's doing something very similar right now.

SANCHEZ: He made a similar move in 2020. Do you believe the campaign when they say that their current heads, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, aren't going anywhere? Do you think that might soon change, too?

SCARAMUCCI: I think there's a lot of pressure. You know, there's been a lot of news reports that Chris was in particular trouble. You know, the inside scuttlebutt is a little rough on the staff and Donald Trump doesn't like the direction things are going in.

[15:10:06]

And Boris, I don't know if you remember George Steinbrenner, but Donald Trump sees himself as a modern-day George Steinbrenner. So when things are not going well, it's never his fault. He's got to find scapegoats.

So I think the pressure, though, now that this has been reported in the press that he was going to fire Chris, has probably stayed that execution for a while. But there's disarray in the campaign. Corey is very close to President Trump, and I think he's been relying on some good advice from Corey. And so, listen, a three-headed monster didn't work. You can ask Pompey, Crassus and Caesar. It didn't work in Rome. It's not going to work here. They'll be fighting with each other coming into Labor Day.

SANCHEZ: So what do you think it means, then, for the campaign that they're relying on this boost and that they're potentially jeopardizing the dynamic with bringing someone like Corey Lewandowski in?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, Trump wants a shakeup. He doesn't like where things are. He's not on firm footing with his messaging. The stuff that he used against Hillary Clinton is not sticking with Vice President Harris and so he wants to shake things up. And we'll have to see today at 4:30 if he can stay on message.

He's being told by his aides, if you stick to the issues, the border, the economy, people feeling better, meaning having more money in their pocketbook, inflation, he'll tighten up these polls. If he doesn't want to do that and he wants to call the Vice President mean, and nasty and he wants to use derogatory insults about her intelligence, I think he'll lose the race.

And so I think his aides are telling him that and so I think he'll recalibrate because this guy wants to win and he's a formidable politician. And this is one of many adaptations that he's made during the course of his political career. And we'll see if he - if he's less derogatory at 4:30.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we'll see. It is interesting, though, because even that sort of sentiment when you hear reporting about sources inside the Trump camp that he wants a shake up, that he doesn't feel like he's on firm footing. His favorability numbers in a campaign have never been higher. I believe he's close to 45-, 44 percent right now. You look at 2020 and 2016, what do you attribute that to?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, I think he's been fairly disciplined up until the Harris shakeup of the Democratic presidential nomination. So he's been fairly disciplined. But I think those numbers are his ceiling. I think he has - as everybody says, he has this high floor, but a low ceiling.

When you look at data, he could get to 47.5 percent. That's why the Republicans want people like Jill Stein and RFK Jr. in the race so they can chip away at Vice President Harris.

But, you know, that's a good number for him. That's about as good as it's going to get, frankly. And that's the fact that he's off of Twitter. If those meanderings on Truth Social, the insanity that he writes on Truth Social was actually on Twitter, and for those 80 million plus people that follow him on X or now called X, I think it'd be a disaster for him and those numbers would drop.

So he's been a beneficiary of being on Truth Social because he's talking to a hard-right MAGA echo chamber over there. People are not seeing the full insanity of the stuff that he's writing.

SANCHEZ: Conversely, I'm wondering what you think Vice President Harris needs to do as she lays out her vision of the economy in this speech in North Carolina tomorrow. What do you think would be an effective message from her?

SCARAMUCCI: I think an effective message is that the Joe Biden policies are working. Same thing that President Biden said yesterday, stay the course. We're heading for a soft landing. Rate cuts are coming. Inflation is coming down. Manufacturing is up. Onshoring of manufacturing is there. The infrastructure bill is lowering the cost of the delivery of goods and services.

There's some rumors that she's talking about price controls. I hope she doesn't go in that direction, because that'll be very bad for the stock market. It'll be very bad for the capital markets in general in the United States. I think she should also emphasize that she wants an independent Fed.

Donald Trump is calling for a dependent Fed on Donald Trump. So I guess he wants to be Erdogan of Turkey, and he wants to turn our Federal Reserve into the Turkish Central Bank, which would be an unmitigated disaster for the United States.

So she should compare and contrast her messaging to his, but I really hope she stays away from price controls because that would be very bad for the economy, and it would be very bad for her campaign.

Last point, though. I think this is a good one. I recommend that she does not take any interviews between now and her nomination. There's no need for her to do that.

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I know the media wants her to do that, but she's running a campaign for the American voters. I think her number one goal should be on missile lock to get that nomination before she steps out.

SANCHEZ: That's an interesting point, Anthony Scaramucci. By the way, I do remember George Steinbrenner. He was great on Seinfeld. Anthony, thank you so much.

SCARAMUCCI: Better at Seinfeld than he was as a Yankee boss, yes.

SANCHEZ: That's what I'm implying. Thanks so much, Anthony. Appreciate you.

Still ahead, Ukraine captures more Russian land and soldiers. New videos showing Russian POWs lined up along a road. Part of what Ukraine says is their largest capture of troops at one time.

DEAN: Plus, an accused drug dealer known as the Ketamine Queen is one of five people now charged in connection with actor Matthew Perry's death. We'll tell you what we're learning about that investigation.

Also, as the White House touts historic negotiations on lowering prescription drug prices, we'll take a look at which medications will become cheaper and by how much.

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DEAN: Major developments in two global conflicts, talks happening now in Qatar to try and negotiate a ceasefire for the war in Gaza. On the table, a deal President Biden first proposed back in May. But not in the room, any member of Hamas.

While in the war in Ukraine, the Pentagon just revealing the U.S. has seen, quote, "Some Russian units be redirected from occupied territory in Ukraine to the Kursk region inside Russia, where Ukraine has launched an attack.

SANCHEZ: Kyiv officials say that since last week, Ukraine has captured 380-some square miles of Russian territory in Kursk. You see that's the blue area on the map. Let's dive deeper now with Beth Sanner. She's a former deputy director of National Intelligence. And David Sanger, he's a White House and National Security correspondent for The New York Times. He's the author of the book "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West."

Thank you both for being with us.

Beth, let's start in Gaza. How big of a problem is it that Hamas is not participating in these talks? Is this just, like standard operating procedure, as the White House National Security council spokesperson John Kirby is claiming?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I mean, it's a little bit more than that. I don't think it's the big issue. They can easily communicate with Hamas. So them not being in the room is not weird because there aren't direct negotiations.

The big issue is that Israel and Hamas see the end of the war in very different ways. Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire to live and fight another day. And Netanyahu wants to militarily crush Hamas so there can be no future Hamas in Gaza. And threading that needle is what the United States and the other negotiators are trying to do. But that is why, you know, a lot of people are in the kind of low probability of success, not zero, but low.

DEAN: David, how do these talks factor into any potential Iranian retaliation or vice versa?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's a really great question. And we were pressing Mr. Kirby on that issue today. So we're three weeks now since the assassination of the central Hamas negotiator in Tehran. And we would have expected an Iranian attack weeks ago.

The fact that it hasn't come yet probably tells you that the Iranians are still debating among themselves what the wisdom is of doing this and whether the U.S. is right that it would lead to significant escalation or could that would cost them in Iran itself as the Israelis retaliated. If they do an attack, it probably at least delays, if not derails, the negotiation. If they don't do an attack, it's a bit of a humiliation for them that the Israelis were able to reach deep into Tehran and do a killing like this involving a bomb that was pre-planted in a - in an Islamic Revolutionary Guard guest house right in the middle of the capital during their inauguration. So the Iranians are not in an easy spot here.

SANCHEZ: David, the Palestinian ministry of health says that 40,000 people have now been killed in Gaza since October 7th. We should point out the ministry does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. I'm still wondering how that milestone impacts the hostage and ceasefire talks and any international pressure that Israel might feel going into them.

SANGER: Well, I think the Israelis are feeling a significant pressure already internationally. They will argue that, you know, 10,000, 15,000 of those were either Hamas militants or people sympathetic to them or people who hated them. But even if you believe that and accepting the fact that we can't take on face value the 40,000, clearly the number of dead is in the tens of thousands.

And I think the issue that will be debated for some time and will become central if - to whoever becomes president in January is can you let a situation persist in which Israel argues that in the pursuit of a fairly small number of remaining combatants, it's okay to do attacks that end up taking out lots of civilian lives.

[15:25:17]

These are not attacks that would normally be approved under the U.S. rules of engagement. And, of course, much of it's being done with American weapons.

And that's going to be the core issue and it'll be very interesting to see how Kamala Harris handles that issue in coming days and at the convention, because obviously she's under a lot of pressure from the party's left.

DEAN: Beth, I do want to talk about what's going on with Russia and Ukraine as well. This - what appears to be a major reversal in Russia's war on Ukraine, with Ukraine saying it's advanced some 20 miles past Putin's defenses into Russia. We're looking at that map there.

Earlier today, President Zelenskyy said a Ukrainian military command's office is being set up in the Kursk region. What do you make of all of this and what it says about where we are in this conflict?

SANNER: Well, the surprise attack by Ukraine is very audacious and definitely going around. You know, they couldn't figure out how to get through the set lines, and so they had an offensive somewhere else. And in doing so, they have changed, really, the vibe of this war, the trajectory, both domestically and inside the Ukrainian military, but really importantly, here in the United States, with Lindsey Graham there, you know, talking about it big and beautiful, keep going. So these kinds of things are very important. But I think in the long term, as well, strategically, it gives Zelenskyy, for the first time, an actual card in his hand, you know, when negotiations come. And if Trump wins, those negotiations might come sooner rather than later. And so he needed to get, improve his deck of cards and he's done that so far.

Still big risks and whether he can hold on to that, you know, card or not is in question, of course. But it's looking, you know, so far, so good.

SANCHEZ: Yes, TBD on that. Beth Sanner, David Sanger, thank you both so much.

SANGER: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, two doctors charged in connection to Matthew Perry's death. The damning text, one of those doctors allegedly sent another shortly before the actor died.

Plus, the president of Columbia University resigning after months of protests on campus over the Israel-Hamas war. We're going to speak to a Jewish student about the resignation and what they want to see change at the school.

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