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President Biden Speaks at Democratic National Convention; Barack and Michelle Obama to Speak at Second Night of Democratic National Convention; Donald Trump to Hold Campaign Event During Democratic National Convention. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 20, 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]

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Just be nice if Hunter would tell the truth and give my daughter the father she deserves."

So first of all, her support for Joe Biden might come as a surprise because she's from a deep red county in Arkansas, and she hired two diehard Trump supporters as her attorneys. But more importantly, Kate, she revealed that after they settled that child support case last year, Hunter ended his five-year estrangement with his daughter and now they actually have weekly Zoom calls, and she says they have a very close bond.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Marshall, thank you so much for bringing us that reporting.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Top of the hour, 8:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. central. I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman in Chicago. Kate Bolduan in New York for us this morning. Today, a lot of anticipation because former President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama will take the stage here at the Democratic National Convention. There it is.

But first everyone might need to take a little bit of a nap today because boy, day one lasted way late into the wee hours of the morning. President Biden took the stage literally just hours ago, just before midnight. Multiple times, though, we saw tears filling his eyes as he reflected on his legacy, and then looked ahead towards the future he is now fighting for America to have.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president.

I love the job, but I love my country more.

Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became -- when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision I made my whole career.

She'll be a president we can all be proud of, and she will be a historic president who puts her stamp on Americas future.

America, America I gave my best to you. For 50 years, like many of you, I've give my heart and soul to our nation, and I've been blessed a million times returned.

But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, one of the biggest moments today will not be here, but north of here in Milwaukee. Vice President Harris holds a rally there. CNN senior reporter Isaac Dovere is with us now. Now, Isaac, I don't think anyone is better sourced than you are inside the Harris campaign. What are they feeling about how things went last night and how things look heading into today?

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Look, John, we're all a little sleepy after last night, but the Harris campaign very happy with how this has been going, the feeling of unity that's becoming across. And of course, it's going to continue into tonight. The Obamas taking the stage, Barack and Michelle Obama. We don't see a lot of Michelle Obama. The last speech she gave was at the convention four years ago. Obviously her taking the stage and Barack Obama, another passing of the torch, but also connecting to what that energy was in 2008 and 2012 that Harris is trying to replicate.

But that's not all that were going to started to see over the next few days. I've got new reporting this morning about Republicans who are going to start addressing the Democratic convention, including Geoff Duncan, the former lieutenant governor of Georgia, and John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona. Those two states, obviously very important, looking for Republicans there to help put Harris over the line in these battlegrounds as she tries to get a path to 270. And together, they are all trying to say that this is a mission that is bigger than the Democratic Party, about stopping Donald Trump, and about, they say, turning the page to what Kamala Harris as president would do all right.

BERMAN: All right, Isaac Dovere for us, Isaac, great to see you. Thank you very much.

SIDNER: All right, joining us now, former New York City mayor and former Democratic presidential candidate Bill de Blasio. You just heard from Isaac there. I don't know if I missed it, but at the Republican National Convention, I don't think we saw a bunch of Democrats who had changed over. How big of a deal is this? Because, obviously, you want to be able to get as many voters independents, Republicans that don't like Trump. How much do you think this is going to make a mark?

BILL DE BLASIO, (D) FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: This is where elections are won, Sara. Can you bring over some independents? Can you bring over some Republicans? And we see it happening now. And I think we need to recognize something unprecedented. Obviously, we've never seen a president United States leave office, be replaced this quickly, this kind of enthusiasm, the shift in the polls. But what's also happening is more and more of those moderates and independents, particularly women, are surging over to Harris and Walz.

And last night I thought was beautifully constructed to help draw them in, particularly the part about reproductive freedom. That was moving. It was touching. And I think for a lot of women in America, even if they identify as independents, Republicans, seeing that, that becomes very personal, and that's part of why they choose Kamala Harris.

[08:05:04]

BERMAN: So first of all, Mayor, it's nice to see you. I'm glad you made it through the ordeal, the travel. America was on the edge of their seat waiting to see how when if you would make it to Chicago.

DE BLASIO: The thunderstorms won. I lost.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Everyone go on social media for a minute-by-minute account of the mayor's trip here to Chicago.

So we saw a lot last night, and by a lot, I mean, like hours and hours of programming. I think as far as many Democrats are concerned, maybe an hour too much programming. What do you think was accomplished and still has to be accomplished here? Because there's three nights left.

DE BLASIO: Yes. Well, first of all, the clear message of unity, but it wasn't just words. You could see it. You could feel it. Look, I'm a Democrat, but this is a party that has often been a little unruly and not always unified. Tonight, or excuse me, last night, we saw perfect unity. We saw an energy that says to America, this party has its act together and that we really believe in our leaders. Thats powerful. That's palpable.

I think what has to happen now is to continue to welcome in the voters who are not yet sure. Of course, we got to energize our base, but I feel really good about where that's going honestly. But there's still a lot of voters out there who don't know Kamala Harris and Tim Walz yet. Here is an opportunity to continue to deepen this introduction. Now, if the first few weeks are an indication, it has been brilliant. But I think that's the point. There's a lot of folks still sitting on the bench. There's a lot of folks who are still not sure if they're going to vote. Here in the next few days a chance to get a message across that says to folks we actually can move forward as a country, we can do something different. That's what folks want. The vast majority Americans are really uncomfortable right now after COVID with inflation, all the challenges. They need a little bit a sense of things can change. That's the mission for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and I think they can do it.

SIDNER: A lot of folks, Biden included, Hillary, of course, but some of the new Democrats like Jasmine Crockett, they went hard on Donald Trump. And I do remember a time when it was when they go low, we go high. That has changed. Why?

DE BLASIO: That's over. Because I think people got sick of it, honestly. I think at a certain point, watching the extremism of Trump, the fact that he would literally call for political violence and would divide our country, I think at a certain point, even though there's a beautiful notion of go high, stay high, it wasn't working. I mean, let's face it, last night when folks started chanting, "lock him up", I'm someone who used to work for Hillary Clinton, has great respect for her. I'm glad she simply had a small smile on her face and let it go for a moment. A little smirk.

SIDNER: It was a revenge smirk.

DE BLASIO: Yes. And I think she deserved that moment. I really do, because it was outrageous how she was treated. I think Kamala Harris very brilliantly says when people do that, hey, we have a justice system. We need to respect it.

SIDNER: A very different tact.

DE BLASIO: Yes.

SIDNER: Takes a very different tact.

DE BLASIO: But I think Hillary Clinton express something she deserved to be able to express, and all the folks in this arena felt it too, that there had been a real miscarriage of the democratic process in the way Trump talked about her and talked about our democracy. And I think this is almost like people letting off steam and deciding, you know what, we're not going to take this anymore. And the emperor has no clothes, that's what's happening to Trump right now.

BERMAN: Is that done, though? Is this part of the convention in your mind done? Did they get their licks in on Donald Trump and now time to move to the future? I mean, I get when Biden was running against him, he really wanted the campaign to be largely about Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. The last four weeks and three days now, I'm trying to count, is it three days of this campaign, Harris has seemed to want to point it toward the future. So would you in the next three days talk less about Trump?

DE BLASIO: Yes. I have great respect for Joe Biden. He was given the love he deserved last night. But his campaign had devolved too much into just a negative depiction of Trump and not enough about where are we going, where are you going to take us? I think Kamala Harris very, very smartly started to change that almost immediately. And when she put out the economic plan the other day, talking to folks about price gouging, which everyone is feeling, talking aggressively about lowering health care costs, this is what people want to hear about. They want to believe something can change.

I think she has been smart to reduce the focus on Trump, increase the focus on the future, and introduce herself as someone who can do something about it, because in the end, that's what every voter is thinking. Can this person do something for me and my family? They don't want to hear you just attack the opponent.

SIDNER: Bill de Blasio, I am so glad that you finally won over the weather, because otherwise we would be talking to the wall right, just talking to ourselves. BERMAN: Are you taking the train back?

DE BLASIO: I think train travel is called for at this point. I learned a valuable lesson.

SIDNER: An ad for Amtrak. Excellent.

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: Thank you so much, appreciate it.

BERMAN: All right, so as prominent Republicans from several battleground states take the stage at the Democratic National Convention to endorse Vice President Harris, Donald Trump will be in Michigan as part of a swing-state tour. CNN's Alayna Treene has the latest on that. Alayna?

[08:10:00]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, John, Donald Trump well be in Howell, Michigan, today. It is a suburb of Detroit. And look, this is just one of many speeches he is giving this week to try and steal some of the spotlight away from Harris, although I can tell you from my conversations with Donald Trump's senior advisers, they recognize that it's going to be hard to do.

That's part of why you're seeing them actually hold these events at 3:00 p.m. like that one today will be, rather than in primetime when Donald Trump normally holds these large style rallies to really soak up the media oxygen. They recognize that some of the most high profile speakers at the convention this week are going to be talking then. And so they're going earlier in the day.

But look, his speech today is going to be focused on crime and safety. We saw yesterday, Donald Trump was in York, Pennsylvania, another battleground, talking about the economy. Later this week, he'll be at the border in Arizona focusing on immigration. All of these are the top three issues we know the campaign has been urging Donald Trump to talk about. These are the issues that they think he can win on in November. That's part of why they're also holding these events at smaller venues with smaller crowds, really trying to keep Donald Trump on message.

Now, I do want to just talk about Michigan specifically, given that he's going there today. This is a state, it's actually his first visit to this state since Harris kind of shook up the race and upended a lot of the Trump campaign's plans. And remember a month ago, actually, Chris LaCivita, one of Donald Trump's co-campaign managers, had told reporters in the state that they believe Michigan is the easiest state to really turn red in November out of the blue collar Midwest states that they are looking at.

But of course, that has changed now with Harris at the top of the ticket. Polls have shown that the race is tightening, that it's going to be far more competitive this fall. And Donald Trump, for his part, has also struggled to kind of let that go and let Joe Biden go, and he kind of touched on that during an interview with CBS. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, look, they did a very bad thing. They took a man who won, and they said, get out of here, Joe. This is a coup. And if you don't get out the nice way, we're going to get you out the bad way. Get out of here, Joe. It was a terrible thing they did. And then they put them on Monday night. You know what that's called? That's called, like, the worst night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, John, this is something Donald Trump has said before, that it has been a coup against Joe Biden to get him out of there. But part of this is, even though Donald Trump has said publicly that he believes Harris may be easier to beat, privately, he complains about Joe Biden not being his opponent often. Now our Kaitlan Collins actually asked Biden about this yesterday, and he said that Trump's stability is in question. So that's how Joe Biden is handling that. John?

BERMAN: I was really curious to see what Trump would come up with when he was asking, you know what they call Monday night? I mean, he had me on the edge of my seat waiting there. And then apparently he said, it's the worst night. So digging deep.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: All right, Alayna Treene. Thank you very much for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Monday night is the night before Tuesday morning.

Donald Trump pushes his own plan to fight inflation. Why some economists are warning they believe his proposals would actually make things worse. An analysis on that.

And hurricane Ernesto was hundreds of miles away, but the storm whipped up currents so strong it tore a North Carolina home right off its foundation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:12]

SIDNER: The first night of the Democratic National Convention was all about praising Kamala Harris, lauding Joe Biden, and slamming Donald Trump. Many speakers called him a threat to democracy and reminded voters of the violence that happened on January 6th when he refused to accept the results of the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): I'll never forget the pounding on the doors of the House Chamber on January 6th, or the screams to follow. Hundreds of our police officers taunted and attacked. SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): He instigated an insurrection, a violent

assault on our nation's Capitol and the peaceful transfer of power, all driven by the big lie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Former US Capitol police officer, Harry Dunn defended lawmakers during the January 6th insurrection and later testified before Congress about that attack on Capitol Hill.

He is with us here now.

Harry, thank you so much for being here. I know you were in the room where it happened last night. What was your takeaway when you hear people talking one after the other about that day? And then conversely, you've heard what Donald Trump has said recently to NABJ.

He said of the 140 officers that were attacked, well, I might pardon them if they're innocent, all of them have been convicted. What was your takeaway from last night?

HARRY DUNN, FORMER CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: It was a mixture of emotions because it's supposed to be a joyous time, like you said, it was a celebration honoring Joe Biden for his lifelong service to this country.

But then every speaker referenced January 6th. So, it kind of like took you back to that moment, so you're having a moment of jubilation and then you sit back and you're like, man, this is -- January 6, it shouldn't be a badge of honor.

Donald Trump wears it as a badge of honor. Every -- any other person would run away from that and want to be as far away from that as possible, but not Donald Trump.

[08:20:10]

Donald Trump, like you just said, he wants to pardon the people responsible if they're innocent. He said that they did nothing wrong of the people that were, not only were they convicted, they pled guilty.

So, as long as Donald Trump is out there pushing those lies about January 6th, then I'll be out here pushing back against him and letting people know what happened that day. It wasn't peaceful. It wasn't patriotic, it wasn't American. It was one of the darkest days this country has ever seen.

BERMAN: How much of the campaign now that it is Vice President Harris as the nominee do you think should be about what some Democrats and vice president -- sorry, what President Biden called the threat to democracy. So how much would you like to see voters reminded of that and January 6? And how much would you like to see the focus on something else, the future?

DUNN: Yes. Well, January 6, like I said, it was a moment in time, but let's be clear, Donald Trump, he's already said during the debate, he said that well have to see if he accept the results of the election. So he's already alluding to a possibility of him doing it again.

The purpose of accountability is two things, to make sure -- it serves as a deterrent, to make sure something doesn't happen again, and it also provides some type of reassurance to the people who were affected by it. Those things have not happened yet.

In fact, the Supreme Court has went out and said that those things probably likely won't happen. So Donald Trump is kind of given ultimately a free pass about what happened that day. So, it's very dangerous.

And we talk about January 6 as a snapshot in time, but let's be clear that the moment that the threat that he wants to do it again, and he wants to rule like that. If you don't agree with me, then we're coming after you. It's very dangerous.

So yes, January 6 was a moment in time, but that's a prelude to how he will run this country.

SIDNER: I'm curious. I know you ran for office and it's such a hard thing to do beyond measure, right?

We saw some young Democrats from the AOCs to the Jasmine Crocketts. What did you think of the next generation? Did you see a real shift here going from Joe Biden tearfully, sort of saying, I gave it my best to Crockett come in hard for the opponent?

DUNN: Well, people just love energy. I mean, like, there were so many people in this country. I saw somebody said, I would've crawled over broken glass to vote for Joe Biden, but that doesn't mean I'm not excited to vote for Kamala Harris.

The point is to stop Donald Trump and the energy that Vice President Harris has brought into this campaign, it is through the roof, it's palpable.

Like in here, last night, there was just so much energy and happiness and excitement. So, I think people are excited.

BERMAN: I am curious because you're talking about the way Donald Trump talks. And one of the things that he, and some Republicans seem obsessed with is how Vice President Harris became the Democratic nominee. They call it a coup.

DUNN: That's weird.

BERMAN: But why do you think they're using that language? Do you think it's possible they're using that language as a predicate if Trump loses the election again to say, hey, this was some kind of a rigged thing.

DUNN: As much as people say that Donald Trump isn't a smart man, he's kind of calculated, so he does stuff in advance to plant those seeds to make his most staunch supporters believe everything that he says. The ticket was Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. So it's just silly to hear

that talk. Attempted coup was what him and his co-workers or his colleagues in Congress tried to do on January 6th.

SIDNER: You said sort of laying the groundwork in your mind?

DUNN: Yes.

SIDNER: All right. Harry Dunn, thank you so much for waking up early.

DUNN: Good to see you all.

BERMAN: Get some sleep if you can.

SIDNER: Stayed up late --

DUNN: Absolutely, yes.

SIDNER: You got up early for us and we appreciate.

DUNN: Thanks y'all. It's all good to see you.

SIDNER: Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So Donald Trump is promising, "Total pro-American overhaul of our tax regulation and trade systems," as part of his economic plan.

Why some worry it could actually make matters worse. New analysis on that.

And Disney backtracks on a wrongful death lawsuit, the company had claimed a widower's Disney+ agreement prevented him from the lawsuit. What the company is saying now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(08:28:27)

BOLDUAN: Donald Trump is promising to tackle inflation and slash prices on everyday items if he is elected this year. What he's laying out to do that and why it has some economists skeptical?

CNN's Matt Egan has a new analysis of this. He's tracking this for us. He's joining us now.

Matt, what are you finding here?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, good morning, Kate.

Listen, some of former President Trump's inflation promises, they're not just unrealistic, they're probably undesirable.

It would be one thing to promise to lower the rate of inflation. Right? That would mean prices are still going up, just at a more gradual pace. That is actually happening right now. But Trump at times has gone much further and he's promising outright

price drops. Take a listen to what he said during a speech last week in North Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The prices will come down. You just watch, they'll come down and they'll come down fast. Not only with insurance, with everything.

As president, I will seal the border. I will send them all back to their countries where they belong. Prices will come down and come down dramatically and come down fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Now, dramatically lower prices. That obviously sounds great. I mean, who doesn't miss pre-COVID prices at the grocery store or for car insurance. And it is possible to have price drops in certain services and goods.

For example, we've actually seen price drops recently for appliances, for used cars, and men's suits, but widespread price declines? That's deflation. That's not just in improbable. It's actually kind of scary.

University of Michigan economist, Justin Wolfers, he told me the best way to get deflation would be a recession. He said, "This is extremely dangerous and feeds on itself. The Fed would be terrified. It's very hard to get out of a deflationary spiral."

Now, deflation freaks out the FED because it could really stall the economy in its tracks. I mean, think about it. If you knew, you could buy something cheaper next month, then you would never buy it right now.

[08:30:32]