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Harris & Walz Kick Off Bus Tour In Battleground Georgia; Harris Team Pours Ad Money Into Savannah, GA as Swing Kicks Off; Trump: Biden And Harris At Fault For Assassination Attempt To A "Certain Extent"; Special Counsel Files New Indictment Against Trump; FBI: Trump Shooter Saw Rally As A "Target Of Opportunity"; New Video Shows Pelosi's Anger At Trump In Hours After Insurrection. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 28, 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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[15:01:20]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Southern Swing: This hour, Vice President Kamala Harris arriving in Savannah, Georgia, a bus tour with her running mate, trying to win votes in places the Democrats usually don't win. As she prepares for the first interview, she and Tim Walz have done since becoming the Democratic nominees.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, as chaos unfolded around her on January 6, we're getting an inside look at how Nancy Pelosi was responding, her wrath over the insurrection aimed at one person, former President Donald Trump. Ahead, that new video shows her evacuating the Capitol, demanding to hold Trump accountable for what transpired that day.

And the former president's rallies are famous for their soundtrack, but some bands would just as soon not be a part of the set list. Why it's so hard to stop Trump's campaign from using their music?

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Soon, Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to arrive in Savannah, Georgia, where she's kicking off her two-day bus tour of South Georgia with her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz. They're looking to broaden their support in the state beyond Metro Atlanta.

Harris and Walz will also sit down for an exclusive interview with CNN's Dana Bash tomorrow while campaigning there in Georgia.

Joining us now, we have CNN's Priscilla Alvarez live from Savannah. All right, Priscilla, what more do we know about this intensified focus on Georgia by the Harris campaign? Who are they trying to reach?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Brianna, if you want to know how the Harris campaign wants to win Georgia, these stops are going to be the telltale sign because they are getting aggressive in South Georgia, an area that has leaned Republican. But the reason they feel confident that they can try to pull off something here is because of what Democratic senator, Warnock, did in December of 2022 in his runoff.

At the time, the person leading his campaign was Quentin Fulks. He is the deputy campaign manager for the Harris campaign, and he told me that he thinks that he can have a similar playbook this time around during a presidential election year. And what that boils down to is essentially winning big in Metro Atlanta while trying to peel off voters from Republicans in South Georgia, essentially losing by less, closing the margins with Republicans.

If they do that, he told me, then they have a potential path to victory in this crucial battleground state. A state, by the way, that President Biden won by less than 12,000 votes in 2020. So these stops are going to be key for this campaign to test out how the Harris-Walz ticket is playing and resonating with voters.

And to that end, there's also the Walz factor. Democrat strategist I spoke with said his rural upbringing and his roots of football and the military could help him with these voters in South Georgia. And so the question is, how exactly does that resonate and how can it help them boost the ticket going into November?

Now, of course, coinciding with this swing is a big ad buy and pouring ads into the Savannah area media market. Just in the last three weeks alone, $1.7 million poured into that media market. Of course, that includes the economy as well as today, building that stark contrast between Harris and Trump with his project or rather with the Project 2025 blueprint.

[15:05:00]

So again, Brianna, the stops this time around are as notable as Harris-Walz just visiting the state of Georgia.

KEILAR: Yes, good point. Priscilla, thank you for that.

Joining us now is Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. What does this tell you about her strategy, even as polls show she's got a tough road in Georgia?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Well, it - definitely like Priscilla said, the strategy is to get every vote they can in Georgia because we know states - you know, we have the Electoral College, but that depends on the popular vote. Harris needs every vote if she's going to try to carry Georgia again, because the polling shows that she - it's close, but that Donald Trump does appear to have the edge in Georgia.

I think it's also worth noting, you know, we talked about Biden winning Georgia narrowly in 2020. Well, the last president to do so before Biden was Bill Clinton in 1992. He was also the last president to - last presidential candidate to make a campaign stop in South Georgia.

KEILAR: That's a very good point.

When you look at how Joe Biden did win Georgia, does Harris' path to victory in the state, does it look different than Biden's?

MITCHELL: So actually, it doesn't look different, but it looks different than what Biden in 2024 was looking like. So in 2020, Biden carried the state, but he was helped by the fact Ossoff and Warnock's Senate races were also on the ballot in 2020. In 2024, the presidential contest is the only statewide race on the Georgia ballot, and the polls showed that Joe Biden was having a lot of problems rebuilding that coalition, making sure his base was ready to turn out, particularly black voters. And so that was a change in 2024.

Now, again, with Harris at the top of the ticket, those numbers are looking better, but it's still going to be tough for Harris because, again, there aren't other races and other candidates to help her make that make that pitch.

KEILAR: It's a good reminder. There was so much going on, right? There were a lot of good shows on TV for Democrats, if you will.

On the Republican side, you have Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, who's going to be helping fundraise for Trump tomorrow. This is in Atlanta. These two really seem to have reconciled. Is this a very quality reconciliation? How do you see it?

MITCHELL: I think both Gov. Kemp and Donald Trump see this as a necessary reconciliation. I don't think they'll ever be the best of friends, but both of them have a goal in mind, and that's to put Republicans back in the White House. And for Governor Kemp, unfortunately, that means he's got to support Donald Trump. And he's doing so in raising money and putting his political machine behind getting the Republican ticket elected.

For Donald Trump, you know, for weeks, his advisors and supporters and money donors were saying, hey, stop picking a fight with the popular governor in a battleground state. And so Trump has decided to listen. And so for right now, there is a truce.

KEILAR: Really interesting. Tia, thank you so much for the Georgia knowledge. We do appreciate it. Boris?

SANCHEZ: As Harris and Walz launch their Georgia bus tour, former President Donald Trump is off the trail but still on the attack. He said during a recent interview with Dr. Phil that to a certain extent, he believes President Biden and Vice President Harris are to blame for the assassination attempt against him. CNN's Alayna Treene joins us now live.

Alayna, Trump making a series of bizarre remarks during this conversation with Dr. Phil, that being just one of them.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yes, that's right. And it is something, his remarks about the assassination attempt and trying to place some of the blame on both Biden and Harris, mainly about rhetoric. He said, you know, he thinks that some of their rhetoric had contributed to perhaps this shooter and other people being very angry with him. He mentioned particularly the line about him being a threat to democracy. But one other area that he also focused on that I found very interesting is, remember when a couple of months ago, Donald Trump had spoke to a room full of Christian voters and he said, you know, don't - like you only have to vote once more this time. You won't have to vote again in four years. Some people were saying, how are we taking that meeting? Are you saying you won't have more elections?

Dr. Phil asked Donald Trump about this. Take a listen to that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I said to the Christians, we got to win this election. If we win this election, I'll straighten everything out in less than four years by a lot. Then you don't have to - it doesn't matter - in other words, I'm saying, you don't have to vote. Doesn't mean we're not going to have elections, you're going to have elections but you have to vote this time, because we have to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So a few things there, what I will say, I actually personally believe just having covered Donald Trump so - for so long and knowing how him and his team thinks, I don't think he was trying.

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I think the idea that he was saying there won't be any more elections was overblown. But I do think what he means and he kind of doubled down on it in this interview is that, you know, he - well, he argued first of all, I should say. He argued that he doesn't think Christians and gun owners vote that much. I don't think that's true. But he was saying that if they're not going to vote so - that often, at least vote for me. Vote for me this time. I'm not going to run again. If you put me back in the White House, you won't have to vote again.

That's what he was trying to say and break down in that interview. I'm not sure it puts a lot of people at ease or makes a lot of sense, but he did address it and he didn't move away from it, I guess, is what I'm trying to say here. Yes.

SANCHEZ: Alayna Treene, thanks so much for the update. Appreciate it.

Want to discuss now with former Nixon White House counsel and CNN Contributor, John Dean.

John, we wanted to get into the conversation with you. This detail about Trump facing this superseding indictment, this updated indictment and the federal election interference case against him. Official Counsel Jack Smith revising the original filing, taking into account that Supreme Court decision, the ruling that granted Trump some immunity for official acts taken as president.

What do you think are the most significant differences between the first indictment, the original one and this one? JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think the most significant thing based on the two - comparing the two indictments is that the new indictment, the superseding indictment is tighter and does not address the issue that the Supreme Court seems to be concerned about, which was his relationship - Trump's relationship in his scheme to overturn the election with the Justice Department.

So all that material about his dealing with Jeff Clark has been excised from the original case and not in the revised case. They've tweaked the language here and there. It's about 10 pages shorter, but it is a much more powerful indictment in its new elegant form. It's the same four charges. They have not changed. But it is a sleeker document, if you will.

SANCHEZ: And John, Trump responded to the updated indictment, citing this informal rule that states that DOJ has to avoid taking major steps in criminal investigations on candidates within 60 days of an election. We're still 69 days from November 5th, so what do you make of the timing here?

DEAN: Well, I wasn't surprised at that at all being his first reaction, but it actually applies to new cases or cases that are not in court. In this instance, the delay is really Trump's fault. He got the Supreme Court to delay after delay after delay, and that was his strategy. So it's not surprising it has come up in the middle of the campaign now.

And the 60-day rule, as I say, doesn't really apply to cases that have already been filed. It's new cases that might affect an election.

SANCHEZ: Were you surprised that Jack Smith didn't give the Trump team notice that it was coming when it did? I mean, the defense expected that there would be a superseding indictment, but there was no sort of flag to say it's coming now. Is that standard practice?

DEAN: Well, it can go either way. It depends upon the rapport between the two bodies or the two sets of attorneys. And I don't think the rapport is very good here. There's pretty vicious attacks by the Trump people on the government. When the government is just doing its job and they'll go out of their way to attack the government, and the government just doesn't have to go out of its way to try to help inform and give them a heads-up.

SANCHEZ: And, John, to go back to the Supreme Court decision, they did push certain specifics on the limits of presidential powers back to lower courts. And one part of the indictment seems to test that, the idea of presumptive immunity in relation to Trump's interactions with the former vice president, Mike Pence. How do you foresee that getting hashed out?

DEAN: Well, that could well result in a mini-hearing in Judge Chutkan's district court to resolve the factual part of that. The Supreme Court opinion on immunity did call for factual analysis and examination of these issues and I think that's a possible hearing. Now, that could happen before the election. I doubt if it'll happen before the election. But it will be interesting when it does happen. And if it happens after the election and Trump is in the White House, this whole thing is just going to wilt and go away, because Trump will try to get it killed, you know, trying to influence his later presidential powers.

[15:14:58]

So if they ever tried to pursue this case between now and inauguration, it would be very interesting.

SANCHEZ: John Dean, thanks so much for the analysis.

DEAN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

KEILAR: The FBI says Trump's would-be assassin saw the rally last month in Butler, Pennsylvania, as a target of opportunity after also researching events for President Joe Biden. Still no motive has been identified. And investigators say he expressed no definitive ideology, either left-leaning or right-leaning.

The FBI also released today these new photos of the gun that was used to shoot Trump, as well as a backpack and explosives that were found in the shooter's car. We're joined now by CNN Chief Law Enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller.

John, what do you make of this new information?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, it told us some things we knew and reinforced that, but it told us some new things, particularly those photographs, which explain one of the burning questions. The photograph you were just standing in front of, where it shows the gun disassembled next to the backpack.

A lot of people were asking, how is it that at a Secret Service- protected event with cops everywhere that someone could walk around with a long gun, an assault weapon and climb up to the roof and not be spotted? But the theory has been that that gun has a folding stock and a detachable barrel, which would have fit into the backpack.

So he would have just looked like a guy with a backpack walking around until he got into that alleyway. And today we learned that he climbed up on top of an air-conditioning vent and used that to boost himself onto the roof, presumably with the backpack which was found there.

We also learned that he was fixated on doing some kind of attack, attack planning, attack research, but when it came to motive, well, attack who and why, he looked at a large number of events, political figures, but then became hyper-focused on the Trump rally because it was coming near to his home.

You see this improvised explosive device that was found in the trunk of his car. There were two there. There was another in his bedroom. We learned today during the briefing that he had been researching how to make bombs in different configurations going back to 2019. So without a motive, what the FBI said, quote, he was interested in, quote, "a mixture of ideologies." It almost seems like he plotted to do an attack and plotted the why later.

KEILAR: Yes, he wanted some notoriety very clearly.

John Miller, thank you for the very latest on that. We appreciate it.

And still ahead, a new behind-the-scenes look at the aftermath of January 6th. CNN has obtained video of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's real-time reactions.

And Hamas is calling for a conflict on - is calling for a conflict on all fronts after a major military operation in the West Bank. Why Israel says it was justified.

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SANCHEZ: CNN has obtained dramatic new video revealing Nancy Pelosi in the immediate aftermath of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. In real time, you see the former House Speaker react to rioters temporarily stopping the certification of Joe Biden's electoral win.

KEILAR: And she is seen really focused on holding Donald Trump responsible for the insurrection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're done with Donald Trump, how does it feel?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I feel sick that what he did to the Capitol and to the country today. He's got to pay a price for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Just yesterday, the first person to break into the Capitol was sentenced to more than four years in prison.

For more now, let's go to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty and Katelyn Polantz as well.

Sunlen, tell us about this footage, what it shows and where it came from.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it came from HBO. And I should note here that HBO, of course, is owned by Time Warner Discovery, a parent company of CNN. This was a documentary that Alexandra Pelosi shot, and it aired in 2022.

But this new footage, and it's 15 minutes of new footage, was turned over to a Republican-led House committee that's investigating January 6th. And I want to highlight one moment here from this video. It's Speaker Pelosi and it's in the morning after January 6th. So she's returning to the Capitol. She's riding in her SUV and she's talking to her staff about what message they want to put forward at an upcoming press conference. And her staffer essentially proposes to call for the resignation of the Capitol Hill Police chief, Steven Sund and she interrupts him. Here's that moment.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We salute all who sacrificed to keep members staff, and the Capitol Hill community safe, but yesterday was a profound failure ...

PELOSI: Wait, wait a minute. Let me just say this. I think our focus has to be on the president. Let's not divert ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Now, in other footage here that was released, the speaker, she talks a lot about security preparedness. We see her as she's hustled out and evacuated from the Capitol. First, she laments having to leave. But second, she laments that where's the National Guard? Why aren't they here? Why haven't they been called? And also, you know, blast that the security officials were not more prepared, although she does go on to accept responsibility in a phone call later that day with her chief of staff.

SANCHEZ: Katelyn, some 1,500 people have been charged over their actions on January 6th. And we're learning that one of them learned today that he's no longer facing an obstruction charge. Why?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, this is highlighting the aftermath of the Capitol riot and how the judicial proceedings are playing out to bring people to justice.

[15:25:02]

This man, Joseph Fisher, he was a person that was facing an obstruction of an official proceeding charge. So a core felony charge that the Justice Department was using. He challenged that in court and said this wasn't about documents, the way that you would obstruct a trial and I shouldn't have to face this charge. It went the whole way to the Supreme Court.

And in June, the Supreme Court decided on Joseph Fisher's case and said, yes, documents needed to be involved here. And so today in court, years after this riot took place, that this man was yelling charge, running into the U.S. Capitol and not wanting to have a charge like this. He is not going to trial on the obstruction charge. There are six other charges that the Justice Department today was told they will go forward on and have a trial for Joseph Fisher in February.

The Justice Department is still working out how to prosecute all of these cases. It's not just him. There are other people, too. Another person that I saw today, they're dropping the obstruction conviction of another Capitol rioter. And so we're still figuring out exactly how people can be brought to justice under the law, 300 or so were facing that obstruction count.

KEILAR: Yes, really interesting. Katelyn, thank you so much. Sunlen, we really appreciate it.

Still ahead, Hamas calling for escalation and mobilization in the West Bank. This is after Israel carries out raids and airstrikes over what they say are terror threats. Video obtained by CNN shows bulldozers tearing up a road. What we're learning about the operations.

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