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Robert Kennedy Jr. To Address Supporters In Arizona; New Weapons Against COVID; Trump Campaigns In Nevada Amid Rumors Robert F. Kennedy Jr. May Drop Out And Endorse Him. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 23, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:16]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: At any moment, Robert Kennedy Jr. and these are live pictures, will be speaking to his supporters as he's expected to end his campaign. His exit could shake up the race for the White House, but which candidate will benefit most if he quits?

And making nice. Donald Trump once called Georgia's Governor a bad guy who was disloyal. Now, the former President says he's looking forward to working with Brian Kemp. Why the about face? Well, maybe it has something to do with just how critical the Peach State will be in November.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And as COVID infections surge across the country, some help is on the horizon. How you could soon see updated vaccines in pharmacies. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

KEILAR: It's the top of the hour. And we have a potential shakeup in the race for the White House because any moment now, independent presidential candidate RFK Jr. is speaking in Arizona. These are live pictures of the stage he's expected to take here shortly. And sources say he is expected to end his campaign and could, though not guaranteed, throw his support behind former President Trump.

Trump is also in Arizona today. And his team says that a special guest will join him for a rally in Phoenix. They're not saying exactly who that is, but you could guess, I guess.

Yeah, not much room for interpretation there. RFK Jr. is likely departure leaves Trump and Vice President Harris now strategizing how to pull in Kennedy's supporters with fewer than 75 days until the election. This comes just hours after Harris made history by accepting the democratic nomination for president.

Our correspondents are covering all the latest angles and developments. Let's start with CNN's Kristen Holmes who's live for us in Phoenix awaiting Kennedy's press conference. Kristen, what are you hearing about exactly what he's going to say?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Boris, the next few hours are a little bit unclear exactly how they're going to play out. Both Donald Trump's team and RFK's team have been pretty coy about the events. But here's what we do know. As you mentioned, we are told by sources that RFK is expected when he takes the stage to suspend his campaign.

Now, we also know that there were high level talks about a week before the RNC. They started then. They've been ongoing between Team Trump and his orbit, as well as RFK's orbit about a potential endorsement.

At the helm of those discussions, Don Jr., Trump's son, Tucker Carlson, and a man named Omeed Malik, somebody who is a donor to both RFK and to Donald Trump. Donald Trump, who is currently in Nevada, is going to be in Arizona later today. And he alluded last night to a potential meeting with RFK Jr. to discuss a potential endorsement.

We also know he's having that rally. And as you said, Brianna, he has now kind of started to hint at a special guest. There was a shadowy figure that they put out there. And if you've covered politics long enough, you don't believe in any sort of coincidences. But they are not confirming yet that RFK is going to officially endorse Donald Trump.

Now, you might have some questions as to why it would be so important for the Trump campaign to be endorsed by RFK, particularly since he has had a campaign that has been so plagued by controversy.

Obviously, in the last couple of weeks, we've seen him sit down for an interview with Vanity Fair in which he essentially avoided questions or ignored questions about an alleged sexual assault from a nanny. He also admitted to leaving a bear cub carcass in Central Park.

But when you look at RFK's base, sure, it is small, but it is very substantial and it seems to be very loyal. And the hope is that they can siphon away voters from that base to Donald Trump in an election that is guaranteed to be razor thin margins. And I just want to give you one example of that is here in Arizona, the current polling showed that RFK Jr. was at 6%, Donald Trump was at 42%, and Harris was at 45%.

[14:05:08]

Now, the Donald Trump's team think that if RFK drops out and endorses him that he will get -- that Donald Trump will get all 6%? No, they don't think that, but they just think that if they can get any of that or a majority of that, that could help Donald Trump put him over the edge here in Arizona, a battleground state, a very critical state. And it's obviously not just here in Arizona. It's across the country. RFK was polling in certain areas at 5%. They believe that any vote in a race like this is going to count, going to matter, and they hope it goes to the former President.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes live for us in Phoenix, thank you so much. Let's take you to Las Vegas now. We're seeing Alayna Treene is with former President Trump. He's holding a campaign event there before he heads to Arizona.

Alayna, have you heard anything from sources giving you a clear indication of whether Trump is going to be meeting up with Kennedy? ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That is the expectation as of

now, Boris and Brianna. But again, things are fluid. And I think Kristen just laid it out perfectly that nothing is guaranteed, but we can kind of read between the lines there. There's a reason that they're both in Phoenix today. I don't really believe in coincidences when it comes to politics of this nature. So I keep an eye out for that.

What I also am paying close attention to is what Donald Trump says at this event about RFK Jr. Because RFK Jr. Junior's announcement where he is expected to suspend his campaign, is about an hour before Donald Trump is slated to speak just behind me here.

And so I would anticipate some live reaction before they potentially see each other in Arizona later today. But I also just want to walk you both through quickly what you're going to expect from this event before he goes to Arizona, this event in Las Vegas, this is all about touting his no tax on tips proposal. This is something he actually first pitched at a rally in Las Vegas in June.

I'm told that today, he's going to be interviewing some people in the audience. And I'll tell you, this is a very small venue. This is very unlike Donald Trump's normal event. This is not a rally. We're in a small Italian-Mexican fusion restaurant, not roughly a little over 100 people here who are his supporters. And so very small event, but really trying to drive home that message that his economic outlook and his economic proposals are better than those of Vice President Kamala Harris.

And another thing I think you can expect is he is very angry with Kamala Harris for also announcing a similar policy regarding no taxes on tips. You saw Donald Trump kind of slam her on social media, saying that she's copying his proposals, that she can't make up her own mind about her own proposal, so she has to steal his. You'll hear some of that same rhetoric at this event shortly.

KEILAR: All right. No Impuestos en Propinas we see the sign behind you. We'll be digging into that policy here coming up. Alayna, thank you.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez here with us now. All right, the convention is over. It was arguably a very successful week for the Harris-Walz campaign. What now?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot more work to be done. That's what the vice president also included in her message last night. But a source tells me that the next focus for them is going to be that September presidential debate. That is an opportunity where she will, again, be able to speak to a very large audience and draw a stark contrast right next to former President Donald Trump.

Now, over the next few weeks ahead of that September debate, we can anticipate that she's going to continue her travel, but not at the same pace as the last couple of weeks when she was hitting all of the battleground states. That cadence of travel will continue after the fact as they focus now on the debate prep. But I will note that the Vice President, those around her say that she is clear-eyed.

She knows that this is a truncated campaign for them and that there is a lot of work to be done in the weeks to come. We also heard this week from the battleground state director for the campaign.

One of the places that they're looking at, and we can -- we anticipate to see a lot of action is North Carolina. They want to stay very bullish there. And one of the bounces that he described that he wanted to see after the convention is more volunteers and more setting up their infrastructure because this is a race that's going to be called on the margins. And so they need to get out the vote. And that is something they're keenly aware about.

So a lot of the focus that we can see on the ground at the very least is trying to make sure they mobilize those voters. One way to do that is through your surrogates. And we know from the campaign that the Obamas and the Clintons will be among those who are going to be hitting the campaign trail.

Obama's senior advisor said that one way that the former President wants to get involved is in areas where he thinks he can move the needle, so looking for those opportunities. Again because they know it's going to be close, we've talked about this extensively. And so how do they capitalize on the moments that they have between now and Election day? But at least for now in the next couple of weeks we can anticipate a lot of debate prep, something that the Vice President already started and is going to continue to do a lot of ahead of September 10th, and travel, though maybe not as much as we saw over the last couple of weeks.

KEILAR: Yeah, a lot riding on those debates and the specifics that so many people do want to hear. Thank you, Priscilla for that. I do want to go back to Alayna Treene who is there ahead of Donald Trump's remarks.

[14:10:04]

He is reacting to her speech last night. He kind of did it in real time as well. It's really stood out.

TREENE: It has. And look, I mean, he clearly did not like that speech, Brianna and Boris. And you could see that in the live play by play and reaction of his posts on true social is what else what he said to Fox News after her speech wrapped? I want you to take a listen to exactly what he told them.

(Begin VT)

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and current U.S. Presidential Candidate: Now, she's not having success. I'm having success. I'm doing great with the Hispanic voters. I'm doing great with black men. I'm doing great with women because women, they want safety and they don't have safety when they have somebody allowing 20 million people into our country, many of them very dangerous people. No, it's only in your eyes that they have that, Martha. She's raising taxes. She's going to give a tax increase of four to five times what people and companies are paying right now. The country will go into a depression if they do it.

(End VT)

TREENE: Okay. So that was a little all over the place. But look, I can tell you that she clearly got under his skin with those remarks and a big thing that Donald Trump has been focusing on.

Throughout his week, which really was supposed to be dedicated to focusing on the issues. And really, his team had urged him to move away from the personal attacks on Harris. But in many ways, he couldn't help himself. You heard him repeatedly this week, slam Harris, slam the other speakers, like the Obama's earlier in the week after their speeches for what they were saying in a key grievance of his, is that they've spent so much time focused on attacking him, Donald Trump, rather than on the issues. You heard a lot of that last night. And he's continued to post about her speech today.

So I can tell you, Boris and Brianna, I would definitely expect him to bring that up and have more reaction at this event in Las Vegas and later in Arizona as well.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be looking for that. Alayna, thank you. Priscilla, thank you so much as well. Boris?

SANCHEZ: With RFK Jr. expected to drop out of the race, the big question now is how will his supporters vote? We're joined now by CNN's Tom Foreman. Tom, first, what does the polling say about his support generally?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What the polling says is that in a race this close, it could make a difference. Let's say that these polls of ours, most recent one where there's no clear leader, let's say that that was the exact case, two points behind.

Look at the CBS YouGov poll, with everybody in there, there it is, 2%. If Donald Trump could scoop that up, he would be tied in this poll. Look at this New York Times/Siena Poll where it had a three way race. Look at this. Here, they're showing Donald Trump ahead. If he grabbed 6% here, even more so and as Kristen mentioned a little while ago, the swing states like Arizona. Look at that. That's where the support for RFK is. That's a really tempting goal out there for the Trump campaign to try to grab ahold of. But there are counterfactuals to this.

Now, you're going to ask me a question and I'll tell you what they are.

SANCHEZ: What are those counterfactuals, Tom?

FOREMAN: Funny you should ask, Boris, because there are several things involved here. One is much of this was based on people who were supporting RFK, who told Pew, more than half of them, that they supported him because they didn't like Biden or Trump.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

FOREMAN: When Biden dropped out, 39% of them shifted to Harris. According to Pew, only 20% went to Trump and 39% are still sticking with RFK. And here's another important one. Among those who say they are RFK supporters, look at this, 75% have an unfavorable view of Harris. That sounds really bad until you look at the 81% who have an unfavorable view of Trump.

And one more thing, you have to think about in all of this is we decide what happens. Very typically, when people say they're supporting a third-party candidate like this, when it comes to actual voting, the performance is much lower than what people expected, sometimes a third, sometimes a quarter of what people expected. So these votes may be a mirage anyway.

SANCHEZ: Interesting.

FOREMAN: And there's plenty of evidence to tell us we don't have enough evidence to know where they're going to go.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's possible they may not go anywhere and they --

FOREMAN: They may just go anywhere or they may already be gone. And all of this -- in an election changing this fact this fast, they may be striking a deal here for a half of 1%, and that may matter, but maybe it won't.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Very, very narrow margins expected from both sides in this election. Tom Foreman --

FOREMAN: Yeah. And he had bigger numbers, bigger numbers further back.

SANCHEZ: Right.

FOREMAN: It was already dwindling.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

FOREMAN: We don't know where it'll be in two more weeks.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Who knows? Tom Foreman, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Stay with CNN. We're keeping an eye on that RFK event in Arizona. And still ahead, we're following new developments. In the case of a missing mom in Virginia, the role officials believe her husband may have played in her disappearance.

And later, as the U.S. faces a summer surge of COVID, some new tools to fight it are on the way.

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You're watching CNN News Central. We're back in just moments.

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KEILAR: All right. Any moment, and this keeps getting pushed back, which is kind of interesting. So we're keeping our eye on this live location in Phoenix. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Junior expected to take the stage for an important news conference.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And what is now an empty podium could soon be very active with a move that may change the dynamic in this presidential election.

[14:20:06]

Sources close to Kennedy tell us that he plans to end his campaign and that his team has been talking to Trump insiders about potentially endorsing the former President. Joining us now to discuss is Larry Sabato. He's the Director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Also with us, CNN Political Commentator and Political Anchor for Spectrum News, Errol Louis. Great to be with both of you. Larry, is it automatic that a majority of RFK Jr. supporters will wind up going to vote for Donald Trump?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR FOR THE CENTER OF POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Absolutely not. Look, this is a classic example of an event that seems important at the time. And after the election, we go back and say, gee, that didn't matter much, did it? There are going to be a lot of them, but this is going to be one of them.

RFK Jr. has dropped like a rock since Kamala Harris entered the race in and exited the race because the whole rationale for his candidacy was that you had two old white guys running against one another and people didn't like either one of them. Well, that's changed. And we've learned a lot more about RFK Jr. And let's just say a lot of it hasn't been favorable and other pieces have been embarrassing.

KEILAR: Well, Errol, let's pick up on that. I mean, put this into perspective. I was saying to myself, I need to write this down because I have to remember how strange this campaign has been from -- there's, of course, the vaccine positions. There are assault accusations. The bear, the baby bear, Errol, I mean, how do you see this?

ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS: Oh, you mean just because he picked up some roadkills, put it (inaudible) --

SANCHEZ: The brain worm.

KEILAR: The brain worms.

SANCHEZ: I'm surprised (inaudible) --

KEILAR: Sorry, Errol.

SANCHEZ: -- the brain worms, Errol?

LOUIS: Yeah, the brain worms, the roadkill in the trunk that he, you know, staged and dumped in Central Park to make it look like a bicycle had killed it, yes, there's a lot of that. But look, the larger problem, in addition to those amusing sideshow antics, is that he's not really tied into anything. If you're not part of a major movement, whether it's the prochoice or antiabortion movement, or the environmental movement, which he really was a part of, but then sort of distanced himself from, if you're not part of the labor movement, the civil rights movement, you're not riding the currents that lead to the White House.

You can become maybe a county commissioner or a city council member. If you're lucky, you might even get a congressional seat. But Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was never playing on the national stage in any realistic way. And the small handful of followers that he has don't really cluster in any particular important state or location that you could put your finger on it.

So, yes, Trump may get his endorsement. But as Larry says, it may not be worth very much at this point.

SANCHEZ: I think any fair-minded person would look at that list and think that stuff, Larry, is weird. And weird is what the Democrats have been trying to paint Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as.

So I'm wondering if in folks that you've spoken to, you see that attack resonating and whether there could be a potential blowback from someone like RFK Jr. endorsing Donald Trump.

SABATO: Oh, that is definitely one of the attack lines that Democrats are planning to use. They're saying RFK Jr. piles on more weird to the Trump dance ticket.

And look, just to argue with myself, if you have another 2,000 Bush v. Gore race and the whole race and the whole presidency is determined with 537 votes in Florida, sure, it's possible for anything to make a difference. But the odds are enormous that it won't -- the best recent poll, a network poll, CBS YouGov, has Kennedy already down to 2%, or rather he was down to 2% in the middle of August? I don't know that he would be more than an asterisk now, at least in most states. Maybe a few of the swing states, he's higher. But we got a long time to go and his supporters will splinter. They will scatter, just as Errol was saying.

KEILAR: What Errol about folks who supported him before, which was a much bigger number than now. I mean, it really is an asterisk.

SANCHEZ: Word to say.

KEILAR: It is a hard word to say. To Larry's point there, he had more supporters before. It just really dwindled. What about trying to put those folks in one category or another, and what these candidates can do for that?

LOUIS: Well, as far as I can tell, I mean, one category, because remember, he was going to run as a Democrat, he had the magic of the Kennedy name. It was a bit of an illusion. It was a bit of a magic trick, but even that went away. Because as we just saw, the Democrats have their own path that they're moving to the future with Harris and Walz. And they've made their choice. And the excitement is there. And, you know, nostalgia for the Kennedy name is just not going to crack that. So that's gone. The anti-vax groups that are out there and individuals that are out

there, well, sure, but they're disparate, they're scattered, they're not a political force.

[14:25:07]

And frankly, vaccination is not an important pressing issue now that COVID has been sort of contained. Thanks, of course, to vaccines. So I don't know where he goes to try and gain any relevance. I'm trying to think what would be the subject that he would headline in New York, or Washington, or really anywhere in the country, Phoenix, for that matter, that would make a news organization say, hey, let's hear what this guy has to say. There's something happening here. There's really just nothing happening there.

SANCHEZ: It is ironic that RFK Jr. made a name for himself advocating these lies about vaccines. And one of the singular achievements, a generational achievement of the Trump Administration, was coming up with a COVID vaccine as rapidly as they did. But Errol, it still strikes me that someone like RFK Jr. was able to capture as much attention and have this sort of relative success doing, you know, Joe Rogan's podcast and getting this platform for himself, it -- what does that tell you about politics in the United States that there is an audience for -- you're laughing. What does it tell you that there's an audience for that kind of message?

LOUIS: Well, look, what it tells me, Boris, is what you know. And I think all of us in this business know. There's over 300 million people in this country. You can pretty much find about 1,000 people who will believe almost anything, you know?

I mean, you can find a website, I could point it to you, where people who believe that there's a flat earth. You know, they have meetings. You know, there's people who have a geocentric associations where they think that the sun goes around the earth. And again, they have meetings, they have conferences, they've got, "proof." They "do their own research." It gets pretty wild and woolly out there. You know what? You normally don't have it attached to something like the Kennedy name, so that it never really breaks through.

But once in a while, it does. And I think that's what we're seeing here.

KEILAR: You know, Larry, it's interesting, I -- sorry, go on Larry.

SABATO: I was waiting for your question.

KEILAR: Oh, I'm sorry. I heard a weird sound. I thought you were talking. I'm tired. I've got to be honest. I was up really late in Chicago last night.

SABATO: Yeah, we all are.

KEILAR: I flew in this morning. Yeah. So I was talking to folks at the DNC. And what I found really interesting was if you talked to democratic operatives, publicly, they're not going to be phased by this RFK Jt. stuff, whatever. It's not a concern.

And it's interesting then to hear you say that they really should not be that concerned. But privately, I think there's a feeling that they don't want to deal with any uncertainty and that they feel like the margins are going to be so slim, that even something like this could cost votes. What do you say to that?

SABATO: Well, I say that I understand because people in and around politics, and particularly political operatives, really have the market cornered on source. They worry about absolutely everything, absolutely all the time.

Now, they're paid to do that, but they worry about things they really shouldn't worry about or they don't have to worry about. And he is one they need to put into the category of don't worry about this.

Look, he benefited from the magic of the Kennedys from the 1960s. And I was a little part of that as a kid. I loved President Kennedy and Senator Kennedy, but that's long gone. And I don't know that being opposed to vaccines and eating roadkill really fits into the Kennedy magic. Most of his family, as you know, strongly opposes his candidacy.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it is not difficult to imagine that he would not have gotten the attention that he's gotten if his last name were not Kennedy. Larry and Errol, please stand by because we do have breaking news just into CNN. We want to go straight to Kristen Holmes who's live at this event where RFK Jr. is set to speak in moments.

And Kristen, we've learned that it is now official RFK Jr. will endorse former President Donald Trump for the White House in November.

HOLMES: That's right, Boris. We're actually learning about it from a court filing in Pennsylvania. Just a reminder that RFK was challenging several different motions across the country, trying to get ballot access. He has now withdrawn from his Pennsylvania ballot access challenge. And this is why he states, it is a result of today's endorsement of Trump. So he is now officially pulling out of a legal suit to try and get on the ballot in the swing state of Pennsylvania because he is expected to endorse Donald Trump. He also withdrew from his ballot access challenge here in Arizona, another critical swing state.

I do want to expand on one thing very quickly. I've heard your guests talking about the idea that RFK's voters not necessarily going to hurt Kamala Harris. But I will say that the other side, Donald Trump's team very much thinks that this could help him in a race that is razor-thin margin. They are looking at the people who potentially were supporting RFK as people who would come to Donald Trump.