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Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is Interviewed about the Trump Campaign. Look at the Harris Interview; Inflation Holds Steady. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 30, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Back with Senator J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee.

We have the duct tape in place. Hopefully, the audio was all fixed.

We were talking about Donald Trump's statement on abortion overnight where he said he would vote for more than six weeks in Florida, when the campaign then put out a statement saying, yeah, but he's not saying he's going to vote for the amendment which would allow for more than six weeks.

And I was asking you if it was a language thing, if he understood what he was saying, or if this was a shift in position?

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, again, John, and thanks. I can hear you much better now. I appreciate you guys fixing that.

But look, the president is simply saying he doesn't like six weeks. He obviously has said he doesn't like late-term abortion, and I think he will make an announcement on what he actually wants to do on the Florida law in particular.

But again, President Trump has been extremely consistent that he's going to make this decision as a citizen of Florida.

BERMAN: Yeah.

VANCE: But he wants the national government that he intends to lead to be focused on national issues like inflation, the cost of housing, and the wide-open southern border. He wants states to make their own abortion policy, and that will be his position for the remainder of the campaign and the remainder of his presidency.

BERMAN: You say he's been consistent, but, of course, there was a period in Donald Trump's life where he was not anti-abortion. Then he became anti-abortion, at one point suggesting that women should be punished if they have an abortion.

Now he's saying he's for more than six weeks, but it's not clear how he's going to vote in an amendment in his own state. So that's why I think people are seeking clarity. You can understand that.

VANCE: Well, John, the Dobbs decision, what it fundamentally did is this goes back to Democratic legislatures and the people, of course, who elect those legislatures. I think the president has said in a post-Roe, a post-Dobbs world, he wants voters to make these decisions.

I think it's important to remember, of course, that Kamala Harris has come out for taxpayer funding of most abortion, very late terms --

BERMAN: You know, sorry, Senator, but he's a voter in this case. The reason it matters --

(CROSSTALK)

VANCE: I just wanted to finish this --

BERMAN: -- the reason it matters in Florida is he's a voter. Go ahead.

VANCE: Well, of course, it matters what his position is and I'm sure that he's going to say what his position ultimately is, John. But I do think it's important to say that between Republicans and Democrats, Democrats have talked about trying to defund Christian hospitals that don't do late term abortions.

Donald Trump is trying to preserve some ability for the states to make these decisions. It is a very different approach to a highly contentious issue. I actually think what Donald Trump is trying to do is identify some common ground so that we can focus on the big national questions like, why can't Americans afford groceries and housing? That's what we're going to focus on when we win in November.

BERMAN: The president, former president, announced yesterday that he wants insurers or the government to pay for IVF. How?

VANCE: Well, he's been consistent again in this, John, that he wants the -- he wants people to be able to afford to have families. And it's one of the reasons why we supported an expanded child tax credit that Donald Trump actually got done. He didn't just talk about it. He got it done.

He supported a whole host of policies to make it easier for women to choose life, to bring new life into the world. And this is just part and parcel of his broader view that if we want to have more families in this country, and I think all of us do, we have to empower young women and young families to make those choices and to have access to what they need.

You know, this, John, I'm sure everybody who's watching has dealt with somebody, a friend or a family member who's struggling with infertility. It's a terrible, terrible problem that a lot of young families suffer in silence.

I think all Donald Trump is saying is we want to help those families --

BERMAN: How?

VANCE: -- make it easier for them to bring new families into the world.

BERMAN: How is he going to pay for it? Is -- is this an expansion of Obamacare? Is this a mandate?

VANCE: Well, look, I think you have insurance companies that obviously are forced to cover a whole host of services. The president explicitly said that he wants insurers to cover additional fertility treatments.

I think it's also important to point out that it's become way too expensive to raise a family in this country, John, thanks to Kamala Harris's policies. A lot of young families feel like they don't have the ability to buy a home, to raise a family, and they can't afford groceries if they have additional children.

[08:35:09]

You can't separate the pro-life issue from the fact that it's become way too expensive to afford a family, thanks to Kamala Harris's policies. And that's the thing that Donald Trump most wants to change.

BERMAN: How would this work if a state -- and you believe that states should have the right to make this decision -- if a state bans IVF, but Donald Trump says he wants to guarantee and/or pay for IVF for everyone who wants it, how would that work if a state banned it?

VANCE: Well, John, I think it's such a ridiculous hypothetical because Alabama, which is maybe the most conservative state in the entire Union, has actively protected fertility access and fertility treatments. There's no state in the Union, whether a right-wing state or left-wing state, that I think is trying to ban access to fertility treatments. And if Alabama's protecting this stuff, I think it's safe to say the whole country is as well.

So, look, I think that what Donald Trump wants to do is protect access.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Who's to say there's not another court -- who's to say there's not another court in another state that could decide that IVF should be banned? It happened in Alabama for a minute.

You also voted against a measure in the Senate that would have guaranteed access to IVF around the country. So it's possible, right?

VANCE: Well, two -- no, two things, John. First of all, yes, a court made that decision in Alabama and like the next second, the Alabama state legislature fixed that problem and ensured women had access to these fertility treatments.

And all that I voted on, John, is for religious liberty. I don't want Christian hospitals or Christian charities to be forced to do something that they don't want to do. We have multiple Republican measures that support fertility treatments, support IVF, but don't require Christian hospitals or other religious organizations to violate their conscience.

I think all of us accept that we live in a big country with diversity of opinions. We want women to have access to this needed medical treatment. We also want to make sure that Christian organizations can live their conscience.

I don't think there's any tension or any conflict. And fundamentally, it's Democrats who are trying to force people to do things against their will. That is a way to inflame this topic instead of solving the problems for young families.

BERMAN: Is it fair to say the details on IVF haven't been worked out yet, how either the government insurers would be forced to pay it -- for it (ph)?

VANCE: Well, well, John, of course, all details get worked out in the legislative process and we're not in the legislative process because we haven't won yet.

But I think that President Trump again just believes that we want women to have access to these fertility treatments. He wants to make it more accessible, more affordable for more families because we believe in the Republican Party and Donald Trump believes American families are the foundation of our country. They're the best thing about living in this great country.

You have a lot of young women today who say they'd like to have more children but for some reason health or financial, they're not able to. We want to try to solve that problem because we want young women and young families to have the family life that they want and that they choose.

BERMAN: Vice President Harris in her interview with CNN last night said she would put a Republican in the cabinet. Do you and Donald Trump commit to putting a Democrat in the cabinet if you're elected?

VANCE: Yeah, of course, John. And we've got Democrats who are actively on the team. Tulsi Gabbard who ran against Kamala Harris in the 2020 Democratic primary, RFK Jr. -- these guys have all come on board the Democrat -- or the Donald Trump ticket. And why have they done that, John? Because our party is the party of common sense.

We don't agree on everything. We may disagree about tax policy or environmental policy, but we think we should have a closed border. We think American family should be able to afford housing and food, and we want calm and peace all over the world, not the world in constant conflict that Kamala Harris has delivered.

So we've got a great big ticket with Democrats, Republicans, and independents on the Donald Trump team, and we're going to keep on running that way. And then we're going to govern that way when we win.

BERMAN: You cited Robert Kennedy Jr. What role could you see him playing in a Trump administration? What cabinet position?

VANCE: Well, I don't want to commit Bobby to anything, but look, he's a very, very smart guy. He's got a lot of interesting ideas about why do we have an obesity epidemic in our country? What is going on with our food system? How can we better ensure that Americans are living healthy lives?

So I hope that Bobby plays some role in answering some of the big questions and we'll see what that looks like. Of course, he's joined the transition team where I serve as the honorary chair.

We're going to work with everybody. Again, we don't have to agree on every issue, John, but what I love about President Trump's campaign is that we're talking to everybody. We're going everywhere and we're trying to persuade the American people that we can win with this big tent party and we can govern effectively.

BERMAN: Would you trust Robert Kennedy on issues around vaccines? Could you see him involved with health policy that way?

VANCE: Well, look, again, John, I don't agree with Robert Kennedy. I don't agree with Bobby on everything. I've gotten to know him. I think he's a very smart guy.

But again, while I might not agree with them on everything about vaccines, I do agree with him that something is clearly messed up about our food system because we have a terrible obesity problem.

[08:40:07]

And I certainly agree with him back in 2020 that we should not be masking toddlers and keeping young children out of schools. He was right about that while a lot of public health experts were wrong.

And this is my point, John, is you don't have to agree with everybody. But when you're willing to listen to big voices and you're not trying to censor people, but you're trying to have a debate with people, I think it surfaces the best policy and allows us -- allows the best ideas to rise to the top.

BERMAN: So Vice President Harris in the interview last night said she'd like to see a culture shift, not based on you beating people down, a politics where you beat people down, but a politics where you lift people up.

How do you feel about that? How do you feel about the idea of lifting people up in politics?

VANCE: Look, I think it's a great idea, John. The problem is that Kamala Harris hasn't governed like that during her three-and-a-half years as vice president. If she wants to tackle the affordability crisis, if she wants to lift people up and inspire this country, why hasn't she done it for the last three-and-a-half years?

I think most Americans think that we're on the wrong track.

I think what Donald Trump has really believes is the way to lift people up is to open the country to all voices, to not try to censor people that you disagree with, to have a conversation with somebody rather than try to shut them up.

We have to remember, back in 2019, Kamala Harris wanted to kick Donald Trump off of all social media. We believe in debating and having a conversation with our fellow Americans, agree or disagree. That's how you lift this country up, not by shutting people down, making life unaffordable for their families.

BERMAN: You are talking about Donald Trump's social media. Would you describe his posts over the last 40 hours is lifting people up, quoting, re-posting QAnon statements, re-posting these misogynistic memes about Vice President Harris and Hillary Clinton? That's the kind of open discussion that you think is lifting people up?

VANCE: Oh, John, I think if you look at Donald Trump's full campaign appearances and yes, his social media appearances, what you see is two things -- a guy with an agenda to lower prices and bring back American prosperity and a political candidate who isn't stodgy, who likes to have some fun and likes to tell some jokes.

I'd much rather have a candidate who's willing to go off script, who's willing to give every interview and is willing to tell some jokes. I do think that's how you lift people up.

A politics of boring scolds telling people they can't laugh, that is not lifting Americans up. That's how to tear us down.

BERMAN: All right. Fun and jokes.

Last night, after CNN released a small clip of the Harris interview, you on Twitter posted a clip from a Miss Teen USA beauty pageant from 2007, Caitlin Upton, and you wrote: I have gotten a hold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview.

Now, this thing that surfaced around the Internet for a few years, she had, you know, she struggled answering a question back in this beauty pageant.

I'm not sure you're aware, in 2015, Caitlin Upton did an interview in "New York Magazine" about all the social media attention this clip got, and she said: I definitely went through a period where I was very, very depressed, but I never let anybody see that stuff except for people I could trust. I had some very dark moments where I thought about committing suicide.

So when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you are posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention that it received?

VANCE: No, certainly not, John. And my heart goes out to her and I hope that she's doing well.

Look, I've said a lot of things on camera. I've said a lot of stupid things on cameras. Sometimes when you're in the public eye, you make mistakes. And again, I think the best way to deal with it is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at this stuff, and try to have some fun in politics.

I posted a meme from 20 years ago and I think the fact that we're talking about that, instead of the fact that American families can't afford groceries or health care, young families can't afford to buy a home to raise their families, those are the real crisis that we should focus on. And there's nothing that says that we can't tell some jokes along the way while we to deal with a very serious business of bringing back our public policy.

Politics has gotten way too lame, John, way too boring. You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you're going to improve their lives.

BERMAN: I just want to be clear, though. You said you didn't know. Would you like to apologize to Caitlin Upton for posting that last night given what you've now learned?

VANCE: John, I'm not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin. I hope that she's doing well. And again, what I'd say is one bad moment shouldn't define anybody and the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.

BERMAN: Last night, Vice President Harris was asked about the Middle East in this situation in Israel. She said that she supports Israel's right to defend itself, but she also talked about a two-state solution there.

How do you feel about the future possibilities for a two-state solution?

VANCE: Well, first of all, John, I just step back here because, you know, Kamala's interview, she said a bunch of things about what she would do.

[08:45:03]

She is the sitting vice president of the United States. If she wants to tackle the affordability crisis or close down the southern border, she should be doing it now.

And I think it takes a lot of shame -- shamelessness, I should say, to be able to stare at the American people's eyes and say, I'm going to fix your problems now when I've already been in power for three-and-a- half years.

And this Israel issue, John, is a great example of it. She says on the one hand, she wants to empower Israel to defend itself while on the other hand, minimizing civilian casualties, her government has limited the supply of precision weapons to Israel that would allow them to cut down on civilian casualties and end this war as rapidly as possible.

Donald Trump's view is very simple. We want peace in the world. We want Israel to destroy Hamas, and we want this war to be over with as soon as possible, because that's how you rebuild the Middle Eastern peace process.

You don't do it by making it easier for Israelis to kill civilians and harder to minimize civilian casualties, which is what Kamala Harris has been doing.

BERMAN: Senator J.D. Vance, we appreciate your time. We appreciate you sticking with through a -- with us through the technical issues. We'll talk to you again soon.

VANCE: Thanks, John. See you.

BERMAN: All right, the latest numbers are out on one of the major issues of the election, inflation.

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[08:50:30]

BERMAN: All right, we spoke to the Republican vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, just moments ago. He was reacting to statements that both President Donald Trump made yesterday and to the Kamala Harris interview, which was right here on CNN.

With us now, Republican strategist Rina Shah and Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha.

Rina, let me just start with you here because Senator Vance, one of the things he was talking about last night was that Kamala Harris has not governed how she says she's going to govern. He said she's had three-and-a-half years to do this. She hasn't done it. How is that as an argument and how did Harris do in maybe stemming that argument?

RINA SHAH, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, Senator Vance should know because he's now the VP pick. The VP doesn't quite govern. You lend support to the principal, who is the president of the United States, and you don't directly have a chance to go make laws, to go execute policy in the way in which a president does. So, I think it's quite rich of him to frame it this way, that she has failed in some way.

I didn't see it that way, John. I looked at that interview last night and I had three r's for her. And she had, again, a job of reinstalling confidence, reinforcing trust, and retelling her story prior to VP. And I think when you - when we talk about the game of basketball, when we talk about how athletes show up on the court, she showed up on that court and made all the shots she came to make. Did she make any three- pointers? I don't think so. But she got the job done of those three r's. And to me, that's what I think he's a little bit afraid of because what's he going to step too with that?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: And, Chuck, having listened to that J.D. Vance interview, did he make any points for Trump's side of the thing - for Trump's side? I mean, did he help in any way in that interview?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, J.D. Vance has already done the one thing he is supposed to not do, and that is stay out of the news about anything negative. The vice presidential pick has only got one job, and that's not to be seen, to be supportive, and to just stand over there and be nice but not be in the press every day. So, J.D. Vance has already failed that.

But as a political professional who runs campaigns every single day, if you watch this interview, it tells you what strategies they have in their polling that says will work because they keep repeating it. And so what they're trying to do is they want to tie the vice president to the president's record. They want to tie it to the economic downturn, the more expensive prices, which are now coming down. But that's their narrative.

And the other thing that really struck me as somebody who's prepped somebody like this to be on TV, who goes through polling every day, is the way they're walking back the choice issue. Donald Trump owns the Supreme Court and the Dobbs decision, and it is crushing them in the battleground states. That's why you see this absurdity yesterday in Florida with him saying six weeks is not enough. You see J. D. walking that back. As a professional, who does this every day, it tells me exactly what their numbers are saying and they know it's their Achilles heel and they're trying to push back on it in any way that they can.

BERMAN: Rina, I want to actually talk about your basketball metaphor there. You said she made a bunch of baskets, but no three-point shots. The thing about the game today is you need to hit the 3 to win. Playing safe with the twos doesn't get you a victory in the NBA. And I'm wondering if you can extend that metaphor to a campaign. Is safe good enough at this point? You know, the answers that Kamala Harris gave, they - they were - they were long. They sometimes were meandering and they maybe didn't address head-on some of the issues that some voters may have wanted to see.

SHAH: John, I disagree. I think those answers were quite concise and quite good. She did the job that most of us political professionals know she has to do, which is re-tell what she thinks is most important for the public to know. That was an interview aimed at moderate and independents last night. That was not an interview for anyone else. It was not meant to get very detailed. She repeated herself over and over because that was the job she had to do.

She came to do one thing, and that was essentially re-instill the trust. And I can tell that because she said, I am who I am, and I'm not going to change from it. I've said it once, and I'm not going to say it again, you can trust me to be this person. That's why she brought up her values.

I love the phrase, diversity of opinion. I thought that was a key phrase because that's what we need right now. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance do not court that.

And so, I made a couple of notes here listening to Senator Vance. I found his response to her interview last night to be quite weak. And if I was advising him, which I'm not, I would say it's bad of them to keep talking reproductive care and access.

[08:55:05] That's a losing issue for them.

And look, and women are not a monolith. We care about the economy too. And that's what I heard Kamala Harris talked about last night. She sounded more like a Republican to me in some ways, talking about tax credits for families, children, talking about tax credit for small businesses, talking manufacturing, talking about having a clean driving energy policy that does not ban fracking, basically making us independent of foreign sources for oil. I loved all that because that was what I heard from the Republican Party right before Donald Trump came in. And I thought it was brilliant in its execution. Was it perfect, absolutely not, but it was not intended to be perfect.

SOLOMON: Chuck, did she say enough to address voters in Pennsylvania, independents and moderates in Pennsylvania, because, you know, we've spent a lot of this week, rightfully, talking about Georgia, but you say that Pennsylvania may actually be the most important state at this point?

ROCHA: I think it is because you can't win the presidency without Pennsylvania. I was the political director of the steel workers union for 15 years and came from the rank and file there. My son lives in Pittsburgh and he's a union steam federer (ph) with my two beautiful grand boy twins, the Rocha boys.

This is middle America. These are folks who get their hands dirty every day. These are people who take a shower after they leave work. These are the ones you have to have to win this election.

I ran Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. I know these workers. And right now they want to be with Kamala Harris. They really like Tim Walz. And they just won't back some common decency in their government. If you cared deeply in this election about an issue, guess what, you've already made up your mind. This is not a congressional race or a Senate race. There's a lot of working class, blue collar, steel workers, auto workers, and building trades members in Pennsylvania who just want stability in their life. They'd like gas to be a little cheaper, which it is today, groceries to be cheaper, which it is today, but they want to trust somebody that will get that done over the next four years. And I think this is going to be an ongoing conversation more than just one bite at the apple through an interview. I think as long as they keep making that and pivoting to helping people buy houses and bringing costs down, they're in the right place.

BERMAN: Well, you know, on Pennsylvania and fracking, she was asked about this position shift she's had from 2019, where she's was a candidate, where she said she would ban fracking. And then she said that when she was on the vice presidential debate stage in 2020, she actually came out for fracking, which isn't exactly accurate. She said that President Biden said he would not ban fracking and she supported President Biden there. Does she need to explain more about how she came to conclude that fracking is not worth banning at this point, especially for a state like Pennsylvania, Rina?

SHAH: I think she did enough. And I would advise she doesn't do more than that because, again, then you lose people in the weeds there.

For me it was enough for her to stay what she said. Now, was it perfectly accurate? No. But look at how Donald Trump talks every day. He thinks he says something and it's truth. And I, just like so many millions of other Americans, I'm mentally exhausted of the lies, the misinformation and disinformation out of Trump world every day that congressional Republicans and other elected Republicans that are actually good people and don't believe in lying have to defend.

So you know what this party could have done, John, they could have dumped Trumpism, but they chose not to. That's why they are where they are right now. And Kamala Harris, in order to get through the door fully with independents and moderate r's, who I think are continuing to take a second look at her. She is just going to have to do more of these types of interviews, like yesterday, and she's going to have to get more detailed.

One place in which she did so brilliantly yesterday, illustrated really well exactly where she stands and what went wrong and how she'd get it right, was in talking about how Donald Trump killed the bipartisan immigration border bill. And I think if she's able to do that on other issues, then she gets people to start talking. But whatever she did last night, Republicans are going to slam her as too scripted, not presidential enough. I didn't feel that Senator Vance's arguments were enough to really put a sink in her sail - excuse me, in her ship of her interview last night. And I think overall I'd give her an A minus.

BERMAN: All right, Rina Shah, Chuck Rocha, thank you both so much.

Rahel.

SOLOMON: All right, John, thank you.

And new inflation numbers just in this morning, a short time ago, from the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. That would be the personal consumption expenditures holding steady at 2.5 percent on an annual basis.

Let's bring in CNN's Matt Egan, who joins us now.

Matt, what could this mean for potential rate cuts? We heard Jay Powell say last week, I believe it was, the time has come. What does this mean?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Rahel, rate cuts look like a slam dunk in September. And this report does not change this. This is the PCE index. Two-and-a-half percent up year over year. This is slightly better-than-expected. Some contexts, this is tied for the lowest rate since early 2021. And when we look at the trend here, you can see that there's been massive improvement with this inflation gauge. And really all of them, at 1.2 years ago, this was above 7 percent.

[09:00:00]

So, not quite back to the 2 percent goal yet, but getting there as this chart shows, moving in the right direction.

Now, I do want to stress, no, this does not mean