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Harris Accepts Nomination; Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is Interviewed about Harris; David Hogg is Interviewed about Gun Violence Speakers at DNC. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 23, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning, everyone. I'm John Berman, with Sara Sidner in Chicago. Kate Bolduan is in New York.

And they're off. The conventions, both of them, are now in the books. And it happened exactly like we all predicted it would a few months ago.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Not.

BERMAN: What a summer.

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: What an incredible summer this has been. In these last four days, the capstone on this unprecedented period of campaign history with Vice President Kamala Harris, who was not the Democratic choice five weeks ago, is now very much the Democratic choice to be the nominee for president. She accepted that nomination on the stage last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My entire career, I've only had one client, the people.

On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And that was the moment history was made. The first woman of color as a major party nominee on a stage like that last night.

And now, in just 18 days, she will debate the Republican rival, Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In many ways Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences - but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.

Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: With us now, speaking of no guardrails, CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny, resident scholar at UVA's Center for Politics, Tara Setmayer, and CNN political commentator Paul Begala.

Jeff Zeleny, we're going to get to you first because you are going to be the responsible adult in the room. I shall not.

BERMAN: Well, he was on the podium. You have to go to Jeff first because he had like the closest view to this entire week.

SIDNER: It is true. You were close and in person. What did it feel like being there and what's next?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, what it felt like looking out into this convention hall that was filled with Democrats, a unified party. And, yes, we saw that last month in Milwaukee. There is no doubt about that. But this was something different. As we looked out into the hall, really this was a broad spectrum of the party. A big tent party, if you will. Just think of the speakers who have addressed his convention over the last few days, from AOC, to Bernie Sanders, and then all the way to the other side of the spectrum. Bill Clinton, of course, was here. You know, the moderate Democrats.

But I was struck by, right before Vice President Harris took the stage. They didn't choose a celebrity. There was a lot of anticipation, would Beyonce be in the room? No. I am told, by design, the campaign wanted the spotlight to be on the candidate.

And Leon Panetta, the former defense secretary, was one of the final speakers. He made the case for the vice president as commander in chief.

And if you think back to some of the last recent presidents, let's start with Bill Clinton, for example, George W. Bush, for example, Barack Obama, for example, Vice President Harris has more foreign policy experience than all three of them. But it was in the mold of commander in chief, that is what they were trying to present the vice president as.

And this felt so different than 2016 when Hillary Clinton was accepting the nomination. That was history. She was wearing a white suit. The first woman to be president. So much has changed since then.

But the thing that has changed the most is the election of Donald Trump in 2016. So, hanging over this entire convention was a sense and a fear of complacency. So, I'm thinking now, when Michelle Obama, a couple days ago, said, I'm Michelle Obama. I'm calling you to act. This convention was a call to action for the next 74 days for Democrats, independents, and any voter who would choose to not want Donald Trump to return to the White House.

BERMAN: Jeff Zeleny confirming what has been a Twitter discussion among Peter Hamby, Jonathan Martin, and Jake Sherman. Leon Panetta, it turns out, was the surprise guest according to Jeff Zeleny here.

ZELENY: I mean, we loved it. Yes.

SIDNER: You better watch out. He's going to come for you.

BERMAN: Look, but I do think there's a key point that Jeff is making there about what that was - what message that was sending.

So, we're here with Paul and Tara and I'm just going to back up and I want you guys to - I'm going to listen to some smart people explain to me what happened and where we are now.

TARA SETMAYER, RESIDENT SCHOLAR, UVA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Well, I think that the - the idea that we were watching history was already implied to the point where they did not have to - she didn't have to wear the white suit again because the arena was filled with women wearing white, including myself, as an homage to the suffragette and to women's rights and all of that.

[09:05:15]

I run a women's organization called the Seneca Project. We - we were looking at this moment and already understood the assignment.

So, they didn't have to put it in the faces of Americans again because we're kind of - we're trying to move forward. And she has to portray herself as someone that people see as the commander in chief.

I think the speech was brilliantly not only written but executed because she looked presidential. She sounded presidential. She used terminology that it could - it almost felt like a State of the Union. And I think that they're, by design, the whole - the idea that they didn't want anything or anyone overshadowing her moment, because this was the opportunity for Kamala Harris to define herself to the American people ahead of what MAGA has been trying to do, what Donald Trump has been trying to do.

And if you don't think it was effective, all you have to do is look at how Donald Trump and his surrogates were responding to her speech. There was a meltdown overnight. And that tells you that it struck a nerve, that he's nervous, but it's still a very close race so we can't get over confident.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is a party that has captured the center. Elections in this country are won in the middle, the moderate mainstream. And Zeleny talked about Hillary's convention in 2016. I was there. John Allen, a retired four-star general, stood up to credential her on national security, and far left extremists on the floor of the Democratic Party convention boot him. That didn't happen here.

We had Adam Kinzinger and Geoff Duncan, two of the most conservative guys I know, really conservative, Republicans, stand up and endorsed her, and they cheered them.

This is a party that has moved to the middle. This is a part that wants to catch - there was no defund the police. There was no green new deal. There was - none of that. This - this candidate stood up and she said, not - I - "we are here not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans." She said, "I know there are some people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know, I promise to be a president for all Americans."

This is so important. Zeleny said that two - he's got the two elements right, which party is more unified, which party is more mainstream. Now, you can unify a party at the extreme. You can. You know, if it's all just the Cro-Magnons and the neanderthals. Not naming names to any party. But to take a big, diverse coalition, like Kamala Harris has, and hold it all together, welcome Tara Setmayer into the fold. Adam Kinzinger. I - to me, that was a moment.

I mean, I love Leon. He's an old - he's an extraordinarily old friend. But that wasn't important. What was important was Kinzinger and Duncan standing up as Republicans. Tara, Ana Navarro, so many Republicans welcomed it.

There's two - I'm a faithful Catholic. There's two kind of churches, those who hunt down heretics and those who welcome converts, OK? Kamala Harris is welcoming converts to her tent. And that's how you win in this country.

SIDNER: Leon Panetta is going to come for you, and I am nothing -

BEGALA: No, he knows me. Trust me. We're old pals.

SIDNER: I had nothing to do with it, Leon Panetta. I am - I am here being kind.

BEGALA: He's the guy who got bin Laden. I don't want to anger - I don't want to anger Leon. Old, dear (ph) friends.

SIDNER: That's what I'm trying to say, it was a warning to you, Paul.

When you are on the flight - you know what, I'm going to - I apologize. I'm going to start with you.

SETMAYER: OK.

BEGALA: Much better (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: Because - because, you know, the women in the room, what did you see? Women were really centered during this debate. And in a very powerful way they took the stage one after the other and told their stories.

SETMAYER: Yes. SIDNER: Men did too, but it seemed that women were centered. Is that something that you think is important because - I'm asking because the polling shows that Donald Trump still has the majority of men. A majority of men, compared to Kamala Harris.

SETMAYER: Right. But Kamala Harris has the majority of women overall with - plus 17. And that is remarkable, because as Paul knows, in 2016, it was white suburban women who elected Donald Trump. And in 2017 - I mean in 2020, Donald Trump actually increased his voting share there.

So, where - what's the difference? The difference is Dobbs. Because now women, including those white suburban women, which is what we're targeting mainly at the Seneca Project, is moderate women giving those right of center women a permission structure to vote Democratic this time, because the assault that is facing women transcends party lines. The assaults on our rights.

And this impacts everyone. It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican or if you voted for Donald Trump twice. If you're bleeding out in the lobby of a - an emergency room in a state that has now criminalize women's health care. That is a really impactful thing that women are going, wait a minute, we won't go back. The idea that our daughters or granddaughters would have less rights than our grandmothers did is something that resonates across party lines with women. And women are having a moment. They're saying, enough is enough. We're not going to be - we're not going to go back there.

And Kamala Harris has really brilliantly captured that spirit.

[09:10:02]

And women, I think, are coming together in solidarity because it's those women in the battleground states that are going to make the difference. We're talking about 100,000 votes possibly in four states roughly. I mean that's a - that's a New York Giants game on a sold-out Sunday. So -

BERMAN: There aren't many sold out Sundays for the New York Giants anymore.

SIDNER: I was just going to say.

SETMAYER: I was going to say (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: Wow.

BEGALA: At a Texas Longhorn home game. We'll put it that way.

SETMAYER: Well, there you go. Or Michigan, right? (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: Everyone shows up for the Rams game. Anyway (ph).

BERMAN: Mike Allen - Mike Allen at "Axios" used a word today and I don't want to give you a bad Dick Morris flashback to 1996, but Mike Allen used the word triangulation, OK. He said that one of the things that Harris and the Democrats have done successfully this week is triangulation. But - no, no, no, not the - a different kind. I want - is there a different kind of triangulation going on here -

BEGALA: The triangulation is -

BERMAN: Between Biden and Trump. Is Harris positioning herself between Biden and Trump?

BEGALA: It's moderation. She's being her authentic self. OK, this is a woman who was a prosecutor. OK, this is a woman who was an attorney general. She has a record. This is not positioning by Kamala Harris. This is who she is, right? The record speaks for itself.

The party had, at times, been drawn to the extreme left. It did. Not at this convention and not this party. She seems absolutely determined.

And the issues that motivate her base that she's focusing on also ring out - ring out strong with swing voters. Very different from Trump. He excites his base with J 6 - January 6th stuff and election lies. But that alienates that swing vote.

So, look, I think it's all because of Kamala. And I - Kamala Harris, the vice president. Don't want to be disrespectful. She's the one who did this. It's not just like positioning and triangulation. This is her authentic self as a moderate, mainstream American.

SETMAYER: And her messaging has been extraordinary, right?

BEGALA: Right.

SETMAYER: I come from right-of-center. And using the term freedom.

BEGALA: Right.

SETMAYER: Last night she had a line that teared me up about - that's right. And all the chants of USA. I've been to six Republican conventions.

SIDNER: Yes.

BEGALA: Yes.

SETMAYER: This is my first Democratic convention. And it was a surreal experience. And the chants of USA. I was in a section with two former January 6th officers, Officer Gonell and Dan Hodges. And watching their reaction, especially when they had Officer Sicknick's family there. I mean, there wasn't a dry eye in that - in that area. They were - and I was just watching them.

And when Kamala Harris said, between tyranny and democracy, I know what side I'm on. And to feel - I'm giving myself chills again - because the idea that our democracy is under threat and the existential threats, not only to, for us as women, but just overall as Americans, our democracy potentially being in the hands of someone like Donald Trump, who disrespects everything that makes America great, people are recognizing this. They're exhausted. They don't like the insults. They don't like the petulant behavior. They don't like the love affair with authoritarians.

And I think the vice president, soon to be president, she's using that in a way where she's going for it very colloquially also, where people get it. And I think that's important. We're seeing that reflected in the polling and the excitement and the enthusiasm behind it.

And like I said, the - there's a lot of work that still has to be done in these battleground states. So, nothing can be taken for granted. And Paul knows that better than anybody else. It's got to be done on the ground. The works on the ground. People have to go out there and vote and make sure that they take five of their neighbors with them.

BERMAN: All right, Tara Setmayer, Paul Begala, our thanks to Jeff Zeleny and Leon Panetta as -

SIDNER: Yes.

BEGALA: I know, Leon, I love you.

SIDNER: Uh-huh. He's coming for you.

SETMAYER: Come for them, not me.

SIDNER: Kate, do not get into the Leon Panetta thing. Just be safe.

BOLDUAN: It's me. You know, I'm going to. I mean - well played, Friends. Well played.

OK. OK. Let's - let's get back to it.

Coming up for us, Kamala Harris laying out her foreign policy vision last night. How critics are responding to her stance that she laid out on Iran, Israel and Gaza.

And Pink performing with her daughter on stage at the Democratic convention in another beautiful moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOMEN (singing): What about us.

PINK, MUSICIAN (singing): What about all the times you said you had the answer.

WOMEN (singing): What about us.

WILLOW SAGE HART, PINK'S DAUGHTER (singing): What about all the broken happy ever after.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:18] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Trump, on the other hand, threatened to abandon NATO. He encouraged Putin to invade our allies. Said Russia could, quote, do whatever the hell they want.

As president, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining us now, New Hampshire Senator, and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Jeanne Shaheen. Thank you so much for being here this morning.

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): Good morning.

SIDNER: Of course this is the one issue - the issue between what is happening with the policy, U.S. policy with Israel, vis-a-vis what is happening in Gaza and the suffering there. And Kamala Harris spoke directly to that. She knew she had to. There were a bunch of uncommittedes that were inside here and that were outside. And there is a concern about that. And it's really the one issue that has kind of torn at the fabric of the Democratic Party this time around.

How did she do, from your perspective?

SHAHEEN: I thought she was very strong. She made a very important statement about support for Israel and the right of Israel to defend itself, about the terrorism from Hamas and the horrible events of October 7th. But then she pivoted, and she talked about the need for a ceasefire, and the need to ensure that the Palestinians people get the support they need and have the right to self-determination ultimately.

So, I thought she struck just the right balance. Just as I did - thought she did on Ukraine as well and support for NATO. A very good start to what she will say about continuing America's foreign policy.

[09:20:01]

BERMAN: Senator, we've seen a lot of happy Democrats over the last couple hours here on this show after this four days. But to be fair, covered a lot of conventions, you usually see happy Democrats or Republicans the day after the convention. You were a big supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016. Why do you think Vice President Harris can be successful against Donald Trump when Hillary Clinton was not?

SHAHEEN: Well, one of the things that's different about this convention though than 2016 and almost every convention I've been to is that we didn't see the factions, the rivalries, the -

SIDNER: You're talking about the Bernie Sanders, the Hillary Clinton -

SHAHEEN: That's right.

SIDNER: Yes. SHAHEEN: The differences in the party. We saw people united. It was

what Paul Begala talked about. Everybody was there saying, we know we've got a very short timetable until November. We know we've got to come together. And we are going to hold on to the White House because the alternative is so unthinkable.

SIDNER: What happens next? In your district - John - John is giggling over there. I - he's had some silly sauce this morning. But - but what happens next because, of course, everyone's happy here, they're talking to each other and they're talking to the country as well, but they're around each other. Everybody's sort of supporting each other. What do you have to do to actually make it a reality for the Democratic Party?

SHAHEEN: Well, we have to convince those people who are still undecided. This was a great start in introducing Kamala Harris. She talked about her history, about growing up. She really prosecuted - started that prosecution of the case against Donald Trump.

But this is just the beginning. And we've got a lot of work to do between now and the election. We've got a knock on doors. We've got to persuade people who are still undecided. We've got to let them know what the choice is.

But I think most people who watched the Republican Convention, who saw the sort of dark picture of America, everything that's wrong with America from Donald Trump, and contrasting it to Kamala Harris talking last night about the promise of America, about the opportunities, about our ability as a people to unite, to work together, to address the challenges that we face, I think that's a choice that the American people are going to find it very easy to support the opportunity of America.

BERMAN: Senator Jeanne Shaheen, from New Hampshire, have a beautiful weekend.

SHAHEEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Back up (ph) middle (ph) lakes (ph) hopefully maybe by the sea (ph).

SHAHEEN: Yes, headed home to the ocean.

BERMAN: All right, safe travels.

SIDNER: Thank you so much. Appreciate you coming on this morning.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, so one of the many people posing live reaction to Kamala Harris' speech, her rival, Donald Trump. How he's responding to the final night of the DNC.

And also on that convention stage, heartbreaking stories of loss, losing children to gun violence, surviving mass shootings, surviving gun violence themselves, and one of those survivors of gun violence, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, also telling her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABBY GIFFORDS: A man tried to assassinate me. He shot 19 people. He killed six. Terrible, terrible day. I almost died. But I fought for my life, and I survived.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:31]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBEY CLEMENTS, TEACHER WHO SURVIVED SANDY HOOK MASSACRE: Twenty beautiful first-grade children and six of my beautiful colleagues were killed. They should still be here.

EDGAR VILCHEZ, GUN VIOLENCE SURVIVOR: They say schools are for learning. And I did learn a lot that day. I learned how to run, how to hide and drop. That what happens in the news can happen to me. But I learned something else too, that we can write and must write a new story if we choose to.

KIMBERLY RUBIO, DAUGHTER LEXI KILLED IN UVALDE MASSACRE: We were taken to a private room where police tell us she isn't coming home. Uvalde is national news. Parents everywhere reach for their children. I reach out for the daughter I will never hold again.

REP. LUCY MCBATH (D-GA), SON JORDAN KILLED IN SHOOTING: Make no mistake, our losses do not weaken us. They strengthen our resolve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican. Some of those stories really, really brought out the tears in people. A teacher, a young activist, and a gun violence survivor, mothers of children lost to gun violence, all on stage, side-by-side, on the final night of the Democratic Convention, making that emotional plea.

BERMAN: Joining us now, David Hogg. He co-founded March for Our Lives after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Most recently he co-founded a PAC called Leaders We Deserve to Help Elect Young Progressive.

David, great to see you this morning. Looks like it was a busy week for you here. And I mean that in a nice way. What'd you think?

DAVID HOGG, PARKLAND SHOOTING SURVIVOR: It was an incredible week. For so long people have felt, I think, hopeless, angry, dreadful, just, you know, they didn't want to be part of this. And I think what - what we've seen under Kamala Harris' leadership is the building of a movement that people really want to be part of. And we've seen the Democratic Party, you know, stop running from gun control, stop running from addressing gun violence and start running towards addressing it, because we realize, you know, fighting the NRA is not the third rail anymore. The NRA is the third rail. And that's what we saw last night.

BERMAN: I just want to ask, because you - you said you see it energized and people were living in dread. I mean you're talking, I think, pretty explicitly about when Joe Biden was the nominee.

[09:30:02]

And you were out there working for him hard, trying to drum up progressive support for him.

What you're saying is you really have seen