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Today, Biden Gives News Conference as Pressure Builds to Exit Race; Trump Claims Not to Know Anyone Behind Project 2025, CNN Finds 140-Plus People Who Worked for Him are Involved; Finnish President Says, I Have Absolutely No Concerns About Biden. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 11, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You're live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin with President Biden just hours away from what may be one of the most important moments in of his political career. Later today, the president will face the White House Press Corps holding a lengthy news conference for the first time since his shaky debate performance here on CNN.

And this afternoon, top campaign officials are set to meet with Senate Democrats as some senators are hitting the panic button, worried that Biden will lose to Donald Trump in November and possibly take the rest of the party with him.

Now, another Democrat on the Senate side is speaking out, Senator Peter Welch, saying President Biden should step aside, quote, for the good of the country. The sudden erosion of support comes amid a torrent of bruising headlines, sparking a brutal 24 hours for the president's campaign. One donor telling CNN quote, everything is frozen, top Chicago donors in the meantime halting a fundraising lunch during the Democratic National Convention, and that comes as George Clooney reported this yesterday, who hosted a star studded multimillion dollar fundraiser just weeks ago, is calling on Biden to step aside.

New wrinkle to all this, Politico now reporting that Clooney spoke to former President Barack Obama before publishing that op-ed. And the former president did not object to the piece. Obama's team for now declining the comment.

Let's begin this hour at the NATO summit in Washington, where President Biden, as we said, will hold that news conference.

CNN's Kayla Tausche is there. Kayla, what are the president's aides doing to prepare him for this news conference? Maybe they're not preparing him as much as they did for that debate. Maybe they'll just let him just do his thing. What are you hearing?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, there were some worries that perhaps he was overprepared for the debate last month. Aides have said that they have been briefing the president throughout the week on all matters of national security, including the bilaterals that took place, the large group negotiations that happened, the dinners, the pull asides, and of course the press conference that is happening this evening.

It's not just the first press conference since the president's disastrous debate just two weeks ago here on CNN. It's the first press conference for the president in more than six months. It's a format he doesn't engage in often. The last time he did was in November, 2023 at the APEC summit in San Francisco after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In recent months, the president has leaned on a more comfortable format, and that is having another world leader by his side and taking a very limited number of questions. Just last month, he did this in Italy on the sidelines of the G7 on stage with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where they were talking about a new and novel plan to funnel frozen Russian assets or the proceeds from those to Ukraine for their defenses.

But Biden bristled when reporters at that event tried to ask him about the situation in Gaza. Here's the president's response then.

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I wish you guys would play by the rules a little bit. I'm here to talk about a critical situation in Ukraine. You're asking me another subject. I'll be happy to answer it in detail later. But the bottom line is that we've made an agreement. I've laid out an approach.

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TAUSCHE: The White House and the Correspondents' Association later said there are no rules for these press conferences. The president was simply just frustrated. But now, given the backdrop of this moment, it is understandable that the entire press corps will have questions about the president's candidacy after a stunning deterioration of support among Democrats in just the last 24 hours that surprised even some members of the president's own party.

Just the swiftness of that decline after what just a few days ago seemed like some relative safety for the president, some calm in the storm, especially after the president's confidence after a swing through Wisconsin and Pennsylvania over the weekend and a warm reception from voters there. That is what led to his confidence Monday morning when he sent a letter to House Democrats and when he appeared on cable television saying that he doesn't care what the party elites think. It's really about the voters.

But with these elected officials defecting now, Jim, these represent voters. And so he will have to address the concerns of these lawmakers at some point, Jim.

[10:05:00] ACOSTA: That's right. I'm sure he asked lots of questions on that front this evening. Kayla Tausche, thanks very much.

Turning now to Project 2025, a conservative policy plan that could radically change the future of America as we know it, the mandate would overhaul parts of the federal government and replace civil servants with Trump loyalists if the former president wins in November. Donald Trump insists, as he's done this time and again, he knows nothing about the nearly 1,000-page playbook crafted by the Heritage Foundation or who's behind it. But a CNN review finds that at least 140 people involved in this Republican blueprint actually worked in the Trump administration.

CNN's Steve Contorno joins us now from Florida. Steve, tell us what you found out.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Jim, with Donald Trump said that he didn't know who was behind Project 2025, we decided to take a look at who exactly was involved. And we read through the list of authors, contributors, looked at staff pages of all these advisory groups that have been working on the project. And we found more than 200 people have some sort of tie to Donald Trump, his campaign, his past transition teams, people he has endorsed, people he has nominated, including 140 people who contributed directly to that playbook you discussed, who have previous experience working in the Donald Trump White House and his administration.

It includes people who reached the highest levels of his government, including six people who rose to cabinet positions, such as Ben Carson, his former head secretary and the OPM director, Russ Vought. He also has several people that he nominated for ambassadorship, many of the key architects behind his early immigration crackdown, one of his deputy chiefs of staff. All of these people had some sort of involvement with writing Project 2025's playbook.

Now, we took this information to the Trump campaign and they said, look, these people may have worked for Donald Trump. They don't work for him now. They may never work for him again. What they say does not reflect the views of Donald Trump. He has posted his own agenda on his campaign website. He supports the Republican Party platform, but he has no ties at all to this organization.

And we should note that the former president overnight posted on Truth Social, once again, distancing himself from Product 2025. But, Jim, this is going on as Democrats are intensifying their efforts to connect him to many of his more controversial policies.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Steve, why, why are Trump and his allies trying to distance themselves from Project 2025? I mean, some of these things, you know, Trump has talked about out on the campaign trail himself.

CONTORNO: He has. Like, for example, the Project 2025 playbook talks about getting rid of the Department of Education. That is something President Trump endorses. He is also very closely aligned with Project 2025 over their proposals for the immigration crackdown. But he has been very deliberate in how he talks about some of these hot button social issues, particularly abortion.

And Project 2025 is out on a limb on several suggestions for Trump's second term. They have put out ideas like banning pornography. They want to make it more difficult to get medication for inducing an abortion. They want to make it more difficult to get certain contraceptives. They want to make it more difficult to get care for adults -- transgender adults. All of these things are things that Donald Trump has not specifically talked about, and Democrats have been working overtime to tie them to him, nevertheless.

ACOSTA: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you very much.

Let's discuss now with CNN Political Commentators Paul Begala and Scott Jennings. Paul, I do want to talk about Project 2025 in just a moment, but, I mean, first of all, Paul, how big is this news conference this evening?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's a walking a high wire without a net, right? There's just no margin for error. And this is the problem. Before the debate, a lot of people were worried that maybe President Biden was too old for the job. He confirmed that with his catastrophic debate performance.

So, every single time he sits down, he does interview with George Stephanopoulos. He has a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, which I thought went very well, great NATO speech. But in the back of every voter's mind is, gee, I wonder if he's up to. It's like it's like watching like a good friend of yours who you really like trying to cross an icy street, maybe after having a few cocktails like, whoa. So, it's a very tough, tough thing for Mr. Biden to be doing.

ACOSTA: Yes. And I've talked to a number of lawmakers, talked to a House Democrat yesterday who said, you know, basically he was waiting to weigh in on whether or not Biden should stay in the race based on in part what the president does this evening at this news conference.

Scott, let's talk about Project 2025. As Steve Contorno was saying a few moments ago, you've got dozens of former Trump officials involved in this project. Let's look at the organization behind the project, which is sponsoring the RNC, has banners up at the Milwaukee Airport, welcoming convention goers. What's going on? Why is Trump, why are his advisers trying to distance themselves from the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025?

[10:10:01]

I mean, it sounds like, you know, they are very much likeminded on a lot of these things.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Because they're not the president. They're not running for president. Heritage Foundation doesn't appear on the ballot. The people working on this don't appear on the ballot. The only person who decides what policies they're going to pursue is the person on the ballot or the person in the Oval Office. At least that used to be the case. Today with Joe Biden, I'm not so sure, given the reporting about how he's out to lunch or whatever. But in this case, Donald Trump will ultimately decide what his agenda is and that's why the RNC put out a platform.

If the Democrats want to play this game, though, I think they should be prepared to own every single policy proposal ever issued by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the rest of the squad, Bernie Sanders, socialist organizations in America that support that group. If you want to play this game, then you're going to have to own everything starting with defund the police. So, what I'm going to assume, Jim, is that Democrats want to own for Joe Biden, defund the police. If they want him to own Project 2025, then they can own defund the police. And we'll see how the American people sort it out.

ACOSTA: And, Paul, I do want to talk about some of the new polling that's come out. A new ABC News poll still has Trump and Biden neck and neck in the wake of that debate. What do you make of this? We're looking at this Washington Post/ABC poll. I believe among registered voters, it's all tied up. Our poll of polls here at CNN finds, you know, that Trump's still ahead. But, I mean, if you have that kind of a debate performance, shouldn't Donald Trump be way ahead right now? I mean what's going on?

BEGALA: Absolutely. At first I got to say kudos to my buddy Jennings there for that deflection of your quiz. He's slicker than a bucket full of eels, man. I mean, I love it. But this is not about AOC.

JENNINGS: That's the greatest compliment I've gotten all morning. I love it.

ACOSTA: Well, I was going to say defund the police. What year is this? I mean, anyway, I thought we were talking about the Project 2025.

BEGALA: I love Scott. I really do. And I'm lucky to work with a guy like that. I mean, he's a great guy. But it does tell you something. It tells you something really important. The central fact of American politics today is there is an anti-Trump majority in this country. There's not a pro-Biden majority. I love Joe Biden. I voted for him last time. I'll vote for him this time. But it's not a pro-Biden majority but there isn't anti-Trump majority.

And I think this is what ought to have the Republican so panicked. Joe Biden has had the worst week or two weeks in presidential campaign history and they still are -- and Mr. Trump is still tied with him. And, by the way, let's do the turnabout on this question of who should run. I have been very, very critical of Biden and his campaign since the debate, panicked, right?

Where are the Republicans calling for Mr. Trump to get out, like I didn't know that Biden would have such a terrible debate. Every Republican knew that Mr. Trump was found liable for sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll on 5th Avenue at Bergdorf Cove. Every Republican knows he was guilty of 34 felonies. Everybody knows he was adjudicated in a civil fraud trial, liable for defrauding the taxpayers of the state of New York. They knew all that about Trump, and no one is calling on Mr. Trump to stand down. By the way, 50 -- in the ABC pulled out today, 50 percent of Americans want Trump to get out of the race. So, where are my Republican friends standing up and saying, well, this guy can't lead our party?

ACOSTA: Yes, Scott, to that point, I do want to show, and I will definitely let you respond. I'm not going to change the subject. The New York Times Editorial Board, to Paul's point, is saying Trump is, quote, unfit to lead. I mean, some of this coming after a lot of criticism among progressives that, you know, the New York Times Editorial Board and other editorial boards were saying Joe Biden should get out of the race. They didn't say the same thing about Donald Trump, despite everything that Paul just mentioned there.

But your response to that, I mean, why aren't Republicans having a conversation among the adults in the room about whether or not Donald Trump should stay in this rate, despite all of these things that we've been talking about?

JENNINGS: Because he's winning, number one. Number two, everybody watched the debate, and they realized that Trump is with it enough to be the president. And number three, and I've been saying this since the primary, Republicans want vindication. They want, more than anything in this world, Donald Trump to beat Joe Biden in November. And now they're on the cusp of that vindication, and that's why the party is so united behind him right now.

Regarding this polling, look, it is a close race. It's going to be a close race. But here's the dirty little secret about a national poll showing the race tied. Joe Biden loses that race. It's not a national popular vote, as you both know. This will be decided in the swing states. And I think Paul might agree that if Joe Biden simply ties Donald Trump or loses to him by one point, it likely means he got blown out in the Electoral College.

I think Joe Biden actually has to go beyond tying Trump. He's got to win by one, two, maybe three points. And if you look down below the surface of this thing, if you throw open the hood of this car, there are major problems on Joe Biden's only path. He has to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Omaha. And I think he's down in three of those four. And the only one he's winning is Omaha. And that's only one electoral vote. So, right now, I mean, Trump is ahead.

ACOSTA: And, Scott, I mean, you're absolutely right about -- I mean, we don't elect presidents by popular vote. We do it by Electoral College. I mean, obviously, Biden is going to need a healthier margin in the popular vote in order to win the Electoral College.

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But, I mean, I do want to just ask you just, you know, I think there's a question to be raised, is there not? I mean, Donald Trump is a convicted felon. He also out on the campaign trail glitches and says things about Hannibal Lecter and sharks and electric boats and all. I mean, he does at times sound a little out of -- in outer space. Why aren't Republicans having the same conversation? They just want to win? I mean, you were saying a few months ago, they just want to win? Is that it?

JENNINGS: Well, Republicans want to win, but broadly, the polling is quite clear that far more Americans think Joe Biden is unfit. That's just a fact. I mean, that poll you threw up with the head to head, I mean, 85 percent of people in that survey said Joe Biden is too old and it's a lower number for Donald Trump. I mean, people have already judged this by what they've seen.

And Republicans right now are very unified. They think Biden has been -- Trump's been treated unfairly on the legal stuff that, that Biden campaign keeps bringing up. There's a whole host of reasons. But right now the Republicans are unified. The Democrats are fractured. The polling nationally may be close, maybe it's not, maybe it is, but Republicans feel absolute momentum right now behind what's going on and all of the fracturing that's going on underneath Joe Biden.

ACOSTA: Paul, quick final word?

BEGALA: Scott accurately described the debate by Mr. Biden, President Biden, as a cannonball into an empty pool. And guess what? He's still tied with Trump. This country does not want Donald Trump. Going back to this agenda that he's going to enact from Project 2025, the country doesn't want to ban abortion pills. Mr. Trump will do it. This country doesn't want to ban pornography, which I don't know if that's like a payback for Stormy Daniels, because I think Mr. Trump had a pretty intense conversation with Stormy Daniels. They don't want this. They want to shutter the Department of Education. They don't want to cut and close NOAA and the National Weather Service, my family in Houston still cleaning up from Beryl. So they don't want this agenda. The country is screaming at Mr. Jennings' party, we don't want Trump.

And even Joe Biden, the worst performance I've seen in my lifetime, is tied with their guy. If I was a Republican, I'd be calling on Trump to get out of race.

ACOSTA: Yes, there's been a lot of channeling.

BEGALA: They have a lot of good Republicans.

ACOSTA: Yes, on Project 25, there's been a lot of channeling of Leslie Nielsen and the Naked Gun. Please disperse, nothing to see here on Project 2025. Paul and Scott, great conversation guys, thanks a lot. I appreciate it.

All right, still to come this morning, while the president is gearing up for a high-stakes solo press conference at the end of the NATO summit, world leaders are preparing for two different realities come November. What this could mean for NATO's future, that's next.

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ACOSTA: Today, a critical test for President Biden on the final day of the NATO summit. The president will face tough questions from reporters when he holds his first solo press conference since the CNN debate. Moments ago, Finland's president vouched for Biden saying he has no concerns about his ability to lead.

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ALEXANDER STUBB, FINNISH PRESIDENT: I've had the opportunity to speak to President Biden on many occasions during the past 48 hours. I have absolutely no concerns about the capacity of the current president of the United States to lead his country and to lead our fight for Ukraine and to lead NATO.

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ACOSTA: Let's discuss more now with former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy Jim Townsend. Jim, thanks very much for being here. This is just sort of part of the background noise at this NATO summit, which makes it very unusual. What are you picking up on?

JIM TOWNSEND, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR EUROPEAN AND NATO POLICY: Well, the background noise is very loud. Yes. And it's, and it's elbowing out of the way some important things that the alliance has done at the summit, things that the American people and the NATO public needs to know about how we're preparing to deal with Russia.

So, I hope at some point we can get that out, but right now it's Biden all the time.

ACOSTA: Yes, and the president's opponent, Donald Trump, deeply skeptical of NATO. He has said this time and again. He's even said he'll let Russia do whatever the hell they want if NATO members don't make their funding obligations to the organization. Let's listen.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, well, sir if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us? No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And it's rhetoric like that that has folks saying at this summit that they're trying to Trump-proof NATO. What are you hearing in that?

TOWNSEND: Well, we're now turning that from Trump-proof to future- proof NATO. Let's look at the future. We know if Trump is elected. We've all been there before. The allies are saying we can we can handle this, but can we handle Russia? Are we ready for that future problem, China? This summit came down hard on China. The Europeans have lined up now behind the United States, talking about China as a threat. So, you add that to Russia and there's a lot to worry about in the future. And so they're saying let's look at that and less at Trump.

ACOSTA: But, Jim, let me ask you. I mean, what are the NATO allies saying when they hear rhetoric from Donald Trump like that, are they concerned that Trump is giving the green light to Vladimir Putin, if Trump gets back into office, that Putin and Russia will go into perhaps the Baltics, some of these smaller NATO countries, and that might require -- that would obviously require a NATO response?

TOWNSEND: Well, that's absolutely right. And when Trump made that statement a couple of months ago, that set off the anxiety bells all over Europe and also here in Washington, by the way. What's different now, though, is the NATO that Trump dealt with four years ago is different than the Trump presidency would see in terms of NATO now.

ACOSTA: It's bigger.

TOWNSEND: Well, it's bigger and it's stronger and the money is coming in. And I'm sure Trump's going to claim credit for that, but Putin gets the credit.

[10:25:02]

23 allies are now meeting the 2 percent. There's nine left to go and we're hoping to bring them under the tent as well.

But I think Trump the, the argument that he would lay out to the American people about the U.S. is carrying the burden, the free riders, that type of thing, that argument has been diluted. It's gone now. So, it might be different.

ACOSTA: Europe has picked up the pace in terms of helping fund the Ukrainians. And what are you picking up on in terms of the conversation around providing aid to Ukraine, perhaps putting Ukraine on a path to membership into NATO? I mean, that is certainly front and center this week.

TOWNSEND: Well, it is. So, that's the irreversible path to full membership, not just in NATO, but in the E.U. as well. They put that into the communique. It's different than the Vilnius summit last year, which ended pretty poorly. This time around, Ukraine is happy. Zelenskyy is going to be happy. I'm just certain of it. There's a lot that NATO is doing that's on a practical basis to make sure that no matter who's the president in November, NATO is going to carry the load in terms of providing training, assistance on a military site, financial assistance. There's things that NATO is going to do now that it didn't say last year it would do, and so we're in better shape in case Trump comes in. There's a lot of stuff he will not be able to reverse.

ACOSTA: Interesting. All right, Jim Townsend, great to talk to you. Thanks very much. I really appreciate it.

Coming up fake electors some facing criminal charges, are making their way to the Republican National Convention to participate as delegates. How is that allowed to happen? That's next.

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