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Biden Exits 2024 Race, Puts Full Support Behind Kamala Harris; VP Harris Calling Dems, Pressing for Donations as Biden Exits Race; Interview with Representative James Clyburn (D-SC); Interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA); Trump Campaign Reacting to Biden's Exit and Kamala Harris. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired July 21, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:30]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening.
On an unprecedented night in both American politics and history, Vice President Harris tonight working the phone, rallying Democratic lawmakers, donors, even potential Democratic opponents for her impromptu presidential campaign, as Republican and the Trump campaign have begun to redirect their attack lines after President abruptly ended his candidacy this afternoon. Something no sitting president has done so late in the election cycle in American history.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Truly a stunning decision, Anderson, one that brings to mind President Lyndon Johnson's sudden exit from the 1968 presidential campaign, or so I've read. President Biden's decision comes after weeks of defections by congressional Democrats and donors following what is largely considered one of, if not the worst presidential debate performance in the history of these United States and one that made concerns over his cognitive abilities and fitness for office a seemingly insurmountable hurdle to win a second term.
Quoting President Biden's announcement today, quote, "It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president, and while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term," unquote.
COOPER: President Biden, who says he will finish his term, intends to address the nation later this week, but already he's endorsed his successor saying in his note, he said, "My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my vice president and it's been the best decision I've made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats, it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this."
TAPPER: Now, shortly after that statement, Vice President Harris announced her intention to run for president, quote, "I am honored to have the president's endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination." She later added, quote, "I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party, and unite our nation to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda," unquote.
And already you can see by the FEC statement, the campaign has officially changed its name from Biden for President to Harris for President. Should she win the Democratic nomination, she would become the first black woman and Asian American to lead a major party ticket in the United States.
COOPER: But of course first she must win the nomination. The Democratic National Convention begins just four weeks from tomorrow. Many Democrats, including the leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and Hispanic Caucuses already have endorsed her.
TAPPER: Yet, of course, there are still calls for an open process to replace President Biden with one Democratically ally, Senator Joe Manchin, independent of West Virginia, saying he's considering throwing his hat into the ring, placing Democrats in an unprecedented landscape where there is no map, only deadlines.
We're going to start our coverage this evening with our own M.J. Lee, who is outside the White House right now.
M.J., what more are you learning tonight about how President Biden arrived at this decision to make this announcement earlier today?
M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the president was so resistant on the calls for him to drop out until he suddenly wasn't. We are learning that that moment came within the last 24 hours or so that it was really Saturday night that he approached that decision and gave the green light to two of his closest aides, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, to begin drafting that letter to the American public.
This was a decision, Jake, that was so closely held that even the senior most advisers close to the president didn't know until moments before that letter went out and Kamala Harris, the vice president, didn't find out about the president's decision until today. Something else that I'm learning is that medical issues were not a factor in his decision.
I'm told by a senior White House official that he's had no major medical exams. He's of course been seen daily by his doctor just to get check-ups on his COVID condition. But the reason I want to clarify this is because as recently as this week, the president suggested in an interview that only a new medical condition could potentially sway him to drop out of the 2024 race. But again, that was not a factor, I am told.
But of course, Jake, the reason that we are here in the first place is because of the serious concerns about the president's health after that disastrous debate performance as you were talking about really raised so many concerns across the party about his ability and his fitness to serve. And at the end of the day, what we are learning more than three weeks later is that he was unable to overcome what the American public saw for those 90 plus minutes on the debate stage. TAPPER: M.J., do you have any idea when President Biden is planning on
addressing the nation? He said he would do it this week, I think.
[20:05:05]
LEE: Yes, in that letter, he said that he would be speaking to the nation later this week. But at this moment in time, the team around him, they really have no idea when exactly that will be because he is still isolating in Rehoboth recovering from COVID. So the setting of that speech, we have no idea. We don't know whether it could be a speech plus a press conference where he takes questions.
It is remarkable, though, Jake, that the president of the United States has dropped out just three and a half months out from election day but we have yet to see him and we don't know yet when we will next see him either.
TAPPER: He separately endorsed Vice President Harris and it does seem as though many members of the House and Senate are rallying to Vice President Harris. Do they think -- do Democrats in the White House behind you think that there will actually be a competition for the nomination, a serious one, or do they think that his endorsement of her, the president's endorsement of her, essentially will cause the party to coalesce around her?
LEE: Yes. You know, the president really didn't wait long after sending out that letter announcing his decision to then separately fully throw his support behind the vice president. Clearly, this is a president that wanted to quickly put his thumb on the scale, tried to get the party to coalesce around his vice president and avoid a chaotic process, an open primary, an open convention basically and a mini-Democratic primary to repeat itself.
It is just too early to know exactly how much of a difference that will make. But what we do know is that the vice president has been busy, furiously making phone calls, reaching out to Democratic leaders all afternoon to try to round up that support and make sure that she comes across as the person that is leading the party.
One thing, Jake, just to note quickly is that, you know, we've also just been discussing this idea of the president back in 2020 having run as the bridge and the transition candidate, will now, as of this afternoon, we finally have the 81-year-old president trying to successfully now pass that torch on to his 59-year-old vice president. We just don't know whether he is going to be successful in helping that effort.
TAPPER: All right. M.J. Lee, thanks so much. Anderson?
COOPER: Jake, I'm joined now by Eva McKend with more on Vice President Harris' efforts to secure the nomination.
So what have you learned so far about Harris' current level of support within the Democratic Party?
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Anderson, there is fierce support for her among key Democratic coalitions and this really comes at a time when Democrats need this boost. These are the voices I have been listening to most closely the last couple of weeks, groups like Black Voters Matter, Higher Heights, other organizers, because they are so core to the get-out-the-vote strategy and have a true pulse of how voters are feeling on the ground.
They've been quietly organizing for weeks to ensure that if President Biden stepped aside, Harris would be well-positioned to lead the ticket and they've been doing this without appearing as if they or by extension her were angling to force Biden out. Tonight they tell me they expect the full Democratic apparatus to get behind her or Democrats will lose this election. So some warning shots there, Anderson. They're going to hold a call later this evening.
COOPER: I've heard from a number of donors over the last two or three weeks who warned of -- or said that they didn't want there to be a coronation of Vice President Harris. They wanted others to, you know, throw their hats in the ring as well.
What are you hearing from the groups you've been talking to, the people you've been talking to? Do they want, I mean, do they want her to go unchallenged?
MCKEND: You know, Anderson, certainly there has been that anxiety among some corners of the Democratic Party, but these organizers really have very little appetite for a contested convention because in their view that would just prolong the chaos. They think Vice President Harris really is well-suited and meets this moment, and want to move on with her.
COOPER: Eva McKend, thanks so much.
Joining me now is a longtime ally and friend of President Biden, South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, who's already endorsed Vice President Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Congressman Clyburn, thank you for being with us. Just this morning you reiterated your support for President Biden's candidacy. You said Democrats should look for ways to coalesce around him. Obviously you were instrumental in his victory the first time around. Were you surprised by his decision to drop out?
REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, thank you very much for having me. No, I was not surprised at all. This morning when I made that statement I made it and followed it closely. I was saying that if he's -- were to change his mind I would change mine. But I've been saying now for several weeks that if for any reason, President Biden were to decide not to run, I thought that the Vice President Harris should be our choice.
[20:10:02]
And that's who I would be supporting. And that's -- I said that this morning, last night. And I stand by that. He decided not the run and so I've decided to support Vice President Harris. COOPER: And you have endorsed Harris already today. You've also
previously warned your party about trying to bypass Harris for a different candidate. How concerned are you tonight about that possibility? Do you see anybody on the horizon who you think might try to run?
CLYBURN: Well, you know, I also said that our rules committee, the Democratic National Committee Rules Committee, put together a process and they must have had something like this in mind because the process spells out what you do if you wish to run for the presidency. And in this instance, all you need to do is gather some hand signatures, no more than 50, from a single state and you can have your name placed in nomination. Go to work and do that within the next few hours, next few days, and you may have your name placed into nomination and then start working the phones like everybody else.
Now, that is the process that's in place. So when I hear people calling for a new truncated process, this rules committee put that in place from the beginning. And so if people were to just pause a little bit, took a look at the rules, it's there, laid out for anybody to see and anybody can participate in.
COOPER: Well, as you mentioned, sources tell my colleague Jake Tapper that West Virginia senator who is now an independent, Joe Manchin, is considering re-registering as a Democrat running for president. What's your thinking on that?
CLYBURN: Well, he is free to do that, and I suspect that Vice President Harris will welcome him into the contest. And that's as it should be. It also so happens that he preceded me on Jake Tapper's show this morning, saying something just the opposite. So I guess times change even in short order. And people's minds were changed as well. In fact, he spoke this morning, he had no interest in running for president.
COOPER: Congressman Clyburn, some black voters have expressed to CNN that they're not confident or not sure that the nation would vote for a woman of color to be president. And what do you say to that concern?
CLYBURN: Well, you know, you're never confident as to what the voters would do under any set of circumstances. I am confident of this as well. You will never know until you get into the contest and you run the race. But to sit on the sidelines and say, I'm not sure. My dad cautioned me against that from a little child. You get into the contest and run the race. I remember when I got elected to Congress a lot of people discouraged me from running because I had run for other officers and had lost.
And one friend said to me, you've lost three races. Three strikes and you're out. And that's the baseball rule. You don't live your life by baseball rules. And so, you can't not say I can't if you've never tried. So we get in here. You make the best case. I do think she's the best candidate, best prepared candidate at this particular juncture. I think the American people will see that in her, and they will compare her to the alternative. Just as Joe Biden often asked people to do with him and Donald Trump, she gets that opportunity. And I do believe that when the American people see her stacked up
against Donald Trump and his 2025 Project, and what he has in store for the American people, she is going to win this race and she is going to win it with massive support, not just from other Democrats across the board and independents. I've already seen it. I don't know if it's true or not. I'm very leery about the stuff I see online. That some PAC associated with Nikki Haley just endorsed her. I don't know if that's true or not but I would not be surprised and I think you'll see a lot of that taking place between now and election day.
COOPER: Do you have any thoughts on who she should select as a vice president, as a running mate? And also, do you think she should name that person relatively soon before the convention?
CLYBURN: Well, I don't know as to what the timeframe ought to be. But I know there are a lot of people out there.
[20:15:02]
As Manchin said this morning, he likes the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro. I like him, too. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, I don't know Beshear as well as I knew his father before him. This is my 84th birthday, so I've been around for a long time. And so I remember Beshear's father and I know who he is. I don't know him very well. But I also know Roy Cooper up in North Carolina who is a two-term governor in North Carolina. North Carolina is a swing state, whether we call it that or not, Obamacare, the first time, lawsuit the second time.
Joe Biden came within three or four percentage votes of candidate this time, So North Carolina brings about 15 electoral votes. It would be a very good contest for us if you had Roy Cooper on the ticket. So you've got a great proper governance and there are also business people whose names I've heard, who might be looked upon as that as well.
She'll go through her process. She'll vet these candidates and she'll make a decision and I'm going to support her decision whoever it might be.
COOPER: Congressman Clyburn, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
CLYBURN: Well, thank you very much for having.
COOPER: Jake?
TAPPER: Thanks, Anderson.
Let's bring in the political panel here in D.C. Jamie Gangel, Karen Finney, Kate Bedingfield, Audie Cornish, David Chalian, and Shermichael Singleton.
We dragged them all here on this Sunday evening to talk about this momentous day in American politics.
Kate Bedingfield, former communications director for the White House under President Joe Biden. You left about, what, a year and a half ago?
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. March of 2023.
TAPPER: OK. Your reaction, I mean, this is a, well, you tell me. What's this day like for you?
BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Well, it's an emotional day. It's as proud as -- I can only speak for myself, as proud as I am that he made this decision, which I know was excruciating and hard for him, but I think was incredibly selfless, it's still -- it's emotional. I mean, this is somebody who has achieved an incredible legislative records, made enormous progress on things that, you know, the country has been trying to make headway on for many, many years.
And Joe Biden was somebody who was able to do that as president and as somebody who worked for him, I am enormously proud of that. I know the people who were working for him in the White House are proud of what they've been able to achieve in these now almost four years and I think it's also -- we should also acknowledge the campaign staff in Wilmington who have been going through an excruciating three weeks here.
You know, on every campaign, look, I've worked on campaigns for 20 years. On every campaign you're going to have bad moments. You're going to have moments where you're up and down, where you feel like you have to send your staff out to really, you know, to really fight the fight in a tough moment. I don't know that any moment politically has been harder than the last three weeks the Biden campaign has been through.
And so, you know, for the people who kept their heads down and were doing the work in Wilmington, I know this is an incredibly emotional and difficult day, but I do think that President Biden will be remembered fondly for it. I do think it's an incredibly selfless thing that he did. And I think it's frankly rare in politics to see somebody, you know, put their own self-interest aside and say, I don't think this is what's best for the country anymore. And I think he should get some credit for that.
TAPPER: David Chalian, we see a lot of Democrats rallying around Kamala Harris to a degree that I was not expecting because there are people who a year ago before President Biden announced that he was going to run for reelection, were ready. I'm talking about Governor Newsom. I'm talking about Pete Buttigieg. I'm talking about Amy Klobuchar and on and on. Gretchen Whitmer. And already Newsom and Buttigieg have endorsed Vice President Harris.
To what degree do you think the party is just going to essentially coalesce around her even though Senator Manchin is talking about re- registering as a Democrat and running? Do you think there's actually going to be a competition as Pelosi and Obama want there to be an open competition?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, I think it's unclear how much like President Obama really wants there to be a fully robust, open competition or wants there to be some ability for everyone to have the chance to buy into the outcome. I think those are two different things. And I -- and to your question, Jake, to a great extent, I think this is quickly coalescing around her. It's not just the names of the people, AFT, that teachers' union, SEIU, you have Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who have certain state delegations from South Carolina to Tennessee already.
It's like each sort of faction and building block of the Democratic coalition is starting to emerge here in addition to all the names you mentioned, and Roy Cooper and Josh Shapiro, I'll add to that, as well as potential people that were mentioned as somebody that could throw their hat into this ring, Mark Kelly, and they're backing her. And I think that is significant.
[20:20:06]
Now I am not terribly surprised by it. In my conversations with people over the last three weeks there has been this sense inside the Democratic National Committee and Democratic circles of people who were all going to convene in Chicago in a few weeks, that this was going to be an extraordinarily difficult thing not to go to Harris given the structural advantage, the demographics, her history-making nature of her candidacy.
This was going to be an extraordinary difficult thing not to move. That signal was Joe Biden endorsing her within a half an hour of him getting out of this race and that meant that as much conversation that may have happened around this, that started cutting off that oxygen pretty quickly.
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Can I just mention, though, that there has been a lot of work going on very quietly behind the scenes out of respect for Joe Biden to get us to a place where it would not be -- it would not take long, it would be within hours, not days that you would see donors coming forward and different parts of the Democratic Party coalition to normalize the idea that not only is she the sitting vice president, and as David mentioned, the logistical considerations, the financial considerations, you know, history- making, yes. But so many other considerations, even ahead of that.
Not to mention Joe Biden said he wanted a governing partner. She's been a governing partner and the best way to prepare for the job is to be the vice president and she has been Joe Biden's vice president through COVID, through ups and downs, through getting the Infrastructure Bill done. So she's tested and vetted in a way that no one else has been or will be.
CHALIAN: But, Karen, what do you make of what Jake was saying, the argument that it may look like a coronation and not a process. And is there a concern about that?
FINNEY: Look, I think that's part of why it's so important that she is working the phones, calling the delegates, calling different, you know, groups, different parts of the Democratic Party coalition to ask for their support. And that in her statement, she made it very clear. I want to earn your support and win. And look, as we know so the Rules Committee can meet within 48 hours of Joe Biden dropping out. They will meet, they will determine what process goes forward.
It may be that the delegates do a round of voting that is still virtual and she wins on that first round. It may be that it has to go to a couple of rounds. They may suggest some sort of process that is open, although I think, you know, open, but, you know, with some organizations, so it's not a free-for-all because I think people are also very excited about the idea of coalescing around her.
Let's, again, she's been doing the job for three and a half years and people supported the Biden-Harris ticket when those 14 million who voted in the primary and so -- you know, but people are excited to get to the convention, honor Joe Biden, and prepare to get behind her and win,
TAPPER: And Jamie, what is it about the importance of what Karen just laid out here, the importance of all these endorsements coming before we could even get to air this evening? Adam Schiff, the congressman who is running for Senate from California, Governor Newsom of California. And I think five or six governors have already endorsed her.
This is -- it's pretty much a groundswell of support among, although we still have yet to hear from Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, and Nancy Pelosi.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: So let me add one more to that list. The speed of the endorsement from former President Bill Clinton and from former secretary Hillary Clinton was I don't think an accident and I think it was very well-timed. I think they were prepared for this moment. And so you had someone other than President Biden endorsing her and then you saw -- I'm not saying these other people wouldn't have followed, but it was a big endorsement to get very, very quickly.
I also think it's interesting that three of the four names of possible VP candidates, if she is the nominee, that have been floated have also endorsed her. We've seen Arizona Senator Mark Kelly got up there very quickly. Senator -- Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Governor Josh Shapiro.
TAPPER: Let's show the Shapiro tweet if we can, Jamie. I will -- he wrote, I will do everything I can to help elect Kamala Harris as the 47th president of the United States. Josh Shapiro, the governor of one of the three must-win states. The blue wall of the battleground states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin must win for Kamala Harris should she be the nominee.
GANGEL: And now they're I'm told to informally polling delegates to make sure that people who were committed to Biden-Harris are now committed to Harris X.
TAPPER: White man.
GANGEL: Whatever, white man. Exactly, which it does --
TAPPER: But those are the names being floated. GANGEL: Wait -- this is -- right. It's --
FINNEY: Right.
GANGEL: But I do think that this does two things. It helps get more endorsements.
TAPPER: Yes.
[20:25:01]
GANGEL: It makes -- it's good for PR. But also, we are four weeks from a convention. They have to get organized. I spoke to the person who's in charge of sort of getting videos together. Those profiles. And I said, you know, how's it going, and the source said the mission is this -- the message is the same. But we're waiting for who to profile.
TAPPER: Yes. So, Audie, something I suspect we're going to hear a lot from the Republicans is borders are Kamala Harris, borders are Kamala Harris. She was never actually designated borders are, she had a select part of the border portfolio having to do with South and Central American countries. But she is going to be saddled with that, which is one of President Biden and now Vice President Harris' biggest policy vulnerabilities.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, I think for Democrats, you know, when you think of money, momentum, message, they're excited to coalesce around one, right? And really focus. With Republicans you're hearing a kind of scattershot amount of things. There's the immigration czar thing, there's some nasty things about her as a person, which have always been floating around her in that media ecosystem in particular about her background in California.
There's this kind of flip-flopping of she's a law and order Democrat and so some people don't like that, and other people who say she's soft on crime because she participated in supporting, you know, bail reform or something like that during Black Lives Matters. So you're seeing a swirl of things as people realize, OK, it could be her. We're going to just start throwing things at the wall and see what sticks.
I can tell you. Hearing from some like black female voters in swing states, what they are preparing for is vicious basically. They're preparing to not necessarily be her super fan, but to understand that as a proxy for black women in the public space, we're going to hear a lot of really kind of sexist misogynist and also just the vague sense of you're just kind of not right for the job.
We don't know why, there's just something I don't like about you, which I think for some women feels very familiar.
TAPPER: Yes.
CORNISH: So even though she might not have the constituency within the black community, that people would assume given barrage Obama --
TAPPER: No. Biden was more popular at the black community or is. CORNISH: Every four years, yes, he was. That's when he came around.
But I think for her in this moment, there are going to be people who are going to be protective of a woman of color in this space, not to mention that Indian Americans are the fastest growing and most sort of growing powerful group of Asian voters and country.
TAPPER: Yes. So, Shermichael, does what happened today make it easier for President Trump to win in November or tougher?
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I mean, I think it's going to be more challenging. All right? To Audie's point, I assume black women, at least a cohort of black women will be excited about the vice president. I assume some young voters will be excited about the vice president. But from the Republican perspective, and I was just messaging with someone on Trump's campaign, a senior adviser, she can't run away from Joe Biden's policies.
She can't run away from his four years on the economy and inflation, which is still a top issue for most Americans. She can't run away from the issue of immigration. That's still a top issue for a significant percent of Americans. And there is a very valid question, politically speaking, of how will the vice president will perform with swing voters? How well can the vice president perform with some of those moderate-leaning Republicans?
It's one thing to support President Biden. It's a whole another thing to support his vice presidential running mate, and she hasn't been tested yet to see if whether or not she performs well. But I will just say as quickly, Jake, congratulations to the vice president. She will be the nominee, and this will be an incredibly historic moment for her. She's just a step away from the politics. In that regard I'm very proud of her, but to get back into the mix of politics, let's have that exchange of ideas.
TAPPER: I will grant you that moment of humanity, Shermichael.
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: You are permitted to be a person, you're permitted to be a person for 30 seconds.
Thank you, everyone.
Coming up next, Senator Elizabeth Warren on why she thinks Vice President Harris is the right candidate to take on and defeat Donald Trump in November. We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:40]
TAPPER: There has been an outpouring of praise from Democratic leaders as well as some international leaders for both President Biden's time in office and the political legacy he leaves behind, perhaps none more important to him than this Instagram message posted by his wife of 47 years, First Lady Jill Biden. It shows the president's statement announcing his withdrawal and above it on the left, a double pink heart emoji.
Joining us now to discuss Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Senator, what was your reaction when you heard President Biden's announcement today, which I assume you learned the same way the rest of us did because he tweeted it?
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): I did. You know, I was reminded he has been a transformative president. You look back at his time in office and here's a man who has completely centered working families at the heart of everything he does, and that's how we end up with $35 insulin and seniors now having a $2,000 cap on what they spend on medications. Five million people have seen their student loan debt canceled. Going after junk fees and these giant corporations that are gouging people at the grocery store and at the gas pump.
Biggest climate package in the history of the world paid for by a 15 percent minimum corporate tax on these billionaire corporations.
[20:35:06]
So he's got amazing accomplishments. Truly transformative. But today is about what Joe Biden did. He gave America a lesson in patriotism. Donald Trump thinks that to be a leader, it's all about himself and preening in front of the cameras and everyone has to bow down to him. Joe Biden reminded us that true patriotism, true leadership is putting the people of the United States of America first. And that's what this president has done. I admire that.
TAPPER: You were quick to endorse Vice President Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination. We know she's been making calls all day, shoring up support among delegates and superdelegates such as yourself. Have you spoken with her?
WARREN: I don't talk about private conversations, but let me do say this about Kamala. She is someone who is ready to step up, to bring our party together, to take on Donald Trump toe to toe, and to win in November. She's ready for that.
TAPPER: If she does end up at the top of the ticket, whom might you want her to consider as her running mate?
WARREN: You know, I actually want to hear this from the vice president herself. Let her figure out what she wants to sort through this because Joe Biden treated Vice President Harris like a partner, with real respect, someone that he had a working relationship with and that he could count on and that he could say to the people of the United States of America, you vote for Joe Biden and if needed, we have a vice president who is ready to step up.
Vice President Harris, as our nominee for president, needs to be able to do the same thing. She needs to have someone she feels right about and I have a lot of confidence in her judgment. I'm sure we'll talk about it more over the next several days. But at this moment it's really about the vice president getting out there and working it. She has said she wants to earn this nomination and I think she's going to be terrific at it.
TAPPER: Do you think a competitive process -- I know it's only three weeks until the Democratic convention, but do you think a competitive process in any way could be good for her should she end up being the nominee?
WARREN: You know, I'll put it this way. I think it is competitive by definition. She's out there making those phone calls. She's saying, here's what I've got to offer and do remember, for me, I have known Kamala for nearly 15 years now, right after the crash in 2008, when Kamala was the attorney general for California and I was setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We were shoulder to shoulder to push back on the giant banks that were cheating homeowners.
As vice president Kamala Harris has been out there leading the charge to restore Roe versus Wade and protection for women to make their own health care decisions all across this country, and besides, when the guy on the other side is a convicted felon and a jury has found that he engaged in sexual assault, that former prosecutor, Kamala Harris, is going to be the right person to hold Donald Trump accountable.
I think she's got it. She's ready to go. She can bring us together. She can take it to Donald Trump and she can win.
TAPPER: She ran against you and President Biden for president in 2020. Her campaign did not make it very far. Yours lasted months longer than hers. Are you sure that she's ready for this challenge?
WARREN: Look, she has been vice president for three and a half years now. She's been on the frontlines. She is now battle-tested and ready to go. I don't have any doubts about Kamala Harris' ability to win and more importantly, I don't have any doubts about Kamala Harris' abilities to govern as president of our United States of America.
TAPPER: Senator Elizabeth Warren, from the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A pleasure. Thank you so much for joining me.
COOPER: Just after the Biden-Trump debate here on CNN last month, I had this exchange with Vice President Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish and what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people on substance, on policy, on performance.
[20:40:09]
Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong and that cannot be debated.
COOPER: But, I'm sorry, on substance and policy and performance tonight, I mean, he -- the president's performance tonight clearly was disappointing for his supporters. CNN is reporting Democratic lawmakers watching the debate were worried about the president's performance. One said it was a disaster, another called it a train wreck. Those are Democrats especially worried that Biden did not punch back on Trump's lies.
HARRIS: Listen, people can debate on style points, but ultimately, this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance, and the contrast is clear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And we have certainly come very far since then.
Joining me now Abby Phillip, David Axelrod, Kaitlan Collins, also Van Jones, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Jamal Simmons.
David, you've been vocal that President Biden needed to step aside and talk about this historic moment.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, Anderson, it was interesting. I was flying to New York and I got a text saying he's out and the letter was sent to me, and my first impulse was to feel profound sadness. I mean, this is the guy that I worked closely with in the White House, within four, and who I think is -- had just this spectacular career over half a century. He's done things as vice president that I think history will appreciate far more than he was appreciated during this campaign.
But my concern and this dates back to a year and a half ago was that it's hard to persuade people that you should be president until you're closer to 90 than 80. That's just a very hard lift. And the job itself and anyone who's worked in the White House know, looking across at Alyssa there and Jamal knows this, that is -- you are there, too, Van, briefly before they -- before the right routed you out of the place but --
(LAUGHTER)
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I rose above it, sir.
AXELROD: But anyway, but it is such a hard job. I had the office next to the president. And I mean, I was exhausted every day and I didn't have to deal with half of what he had, a quarter of what he had to deal with. And every decision is consequential and has, you know, grave implications for people's lives or livelihoods. And it comes at all times of day or night, seven days a week. That is an inhuman burden.
And so he was asking a lot of himself to handle that and run for president -- for reelection for president. And the stakes were so large as he said. So, you know, I'm glad that he has reached this decision. I think it was a really selfless decision. The timing maybe wasn't the best for him but it does change this campaign in a profound way. And I think that the people who are most unhappy tonight are sitting over in the Trump headquarters.
COOPER: Well, Kaitlan, you spoke to former president Trump right after President Biden made this decision. What did you say?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: It's probably one of the worst days that the Trump campaign has experienced as far as challenges since that debate happened, and I mean, they haven't acknowledged that publicly, but they were worried about this very scenario. Trump was paying close attention during the RNC last week, asking people, is Biden going to get out, is this really going to happen, as those calls continue to grow.
I spoke to him minutes after Biden posted the letter and he called him the worst president in U.S. history. So that's how he believes he'll be remembered. It's obviously not a surprise. And he also told me that he thinks he can defeat Vice President Harris and I pointed out, you know, she's not the nominee yet. And what does this mean for your campaign? He said he believes he can defeat her very well, maybe her as the nominee based on what we're seeing tonight, we don't know yet, but they have been prepared to run against President Biden.
After that debate in Atlanta they felt that was going to be a pretty easy prospect and they were kind of, you know, measuring the drapes already and riding a high, you could feel it at the Republican convention last week. This has injected so much uncertainty in that just because they don't know what the numbers look like with Harris? Yes, they're familiar with her. Yes, they have oppo on her. If it is her, you know, it's not clear what a debate between the two of them will look like. It's not clear --
COOPER: If there was a debate.
COLLINS: If there is a debate, they're already -- Trump is saying that they should change the moderators for the next scheduled debate. And he's also complaining saying that they have to start from ground zero basically on what this campaign is going to look like.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP: And I talked to Jason Miller, the Trump senior adviser, he said there will be a debate, but there they are talking about changing moderators. Trump floated FOX News. I think that's a sign that they know that they have to do something a little bit different. I mean, they can't go into a debate with Vice President Harris if she becomes the nominee in the same way that they would have gone into it with Joe Biden.
And that is really at the heart of why so many Democrats felt like something, anything needed to be done.
[20:45:04]
They see the path here to go at Trump, but they did not see a candidate in President Biden who could execute that plan. And that's deeply problematic. I think on top of that, we all have been reporting for days, weeks now, the swing-state polling was cratering. And there are a lot of reports now about what that really look like in the campaign's realization of that. But it's a crucial importance whether or not the vice president can reverse that trend because the hole that they are in now is pretty significant. JAMAL SIMMONS, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR VP KAMALA HARRIS:
Anderson, you know, I want to get it on this because the reality show President Donald Trump has got to understand this better than just about anybody else. His RNC convention was a split-screen. It was him sitting there and what was happening on stage. And then the Democratic dramatic process. And if you have a president who believes that some attention is better than no attention Democrats have been getting a lot of attention and a dramatic process for the last few weeks.
And now we've got a brand new candidate, kind of pushed out on the scene, not the same old guy. We didn't end up with the one that everybody thought we were going to have. So we've got this new person who's going to come out. And I think from just a show running perspective, he's got to know he's got his back up against the wall and they've got to do something to change the narrative.
COOPER: Alyssa, I mean, how do you think it's impacting his campaign?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The reality is, Trump world has been overconfident. I frankly think the selection of J.D Vance signaled an overconfidence, not choosing somebody who'd bring in some independents and moderates more of a doubling down. This is an X factor that yes, they're ready for it in the case that she's a known quantity. But this short runway actually favors her.
The one thing I would predict is this. I think this will get incredibly ugly. You have the issues of race, you have the issues of gender when you have Kamala Harris involved, and I could see a world in which they push, they go way too far in some of those issues and can massively, massively alienate moderate voters.
JONES: Something is happening out there. Energy. Energy. $30 million raised already for ActBlue. Jotaka Eaddy, one of the great African- American power houses behind the scene. Her Win with Black Women Sunday call crashed today because so many people were trying to get on that call. There's also something happening on TikTok. Trump owned Twitter. I think Kamala Harris is going to own TikTok.
Young people are remixing her dancing. They're remixing some of her moments that -- we have found like, oh, this is cringy. Young people love it. They're putting they not like us under those TikTok memes. They're putting -- get information. Something is happening terms of energy. And I think that would scare the jeepers out of the Trump campaign.
The Trump campaign is scared tonight because something is happening now outside of their calculations, outside their control. This thing could go outside of the control of the campaign. It could be a real movement here.
AXELROD: Well, it's always been the case that you had two, you know, unpopular, essentially an incumbent and a quasi-incumbent or a former incumbent each trying to make the other the focus of the race, and Biden has been the focus of the race particularly since the debate. That shifts now, and that's not a good scenario for Trump.
COOPER: For Trump. For Trump.
COLLINS: And look at what Nikki Haley said in January, the first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to win the election. Well, the Democrat Party has become that.
AXELROD: She's asked to revised that tonight.
PHILLIP: She was criticized for saying that by some people, but I will say that the voters have been speaking about this for a long time, and they've been backing that up from the beginning.
SIMMONS: I mean, David, because were this so often changed beats more of the same in almost every election where that goes up.
COOPER: All right. Ahead, John King joins us from Pennsylvania, a battleground state with a governor who has floated, been floated as a potential Harris running mate should she get the nomination. We'll be right back.
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[20:52:52]
COOPER: A historic decision, President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, to replace him.
Want to go to John King, who's in a crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania tonight.
So, John, I mean, immediately after the debate, you raised the possibility of this happening. What are you hearing from Democrats in Pennsylvania and your sources around the country?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really fascinating, Anderson. I'm so looking forward tomorrow to seeing a bunch of our voters face to face, but we've been texting and emailing with them all day long. I remember about five months ago we did a piece not far from here with a bunch of older voters, Democrats, most of whom said they thought President Biden was OK enough for the job.
Well, the debate changed their mind. We were about to talk to them again tomorrow, and most of them were going to say, Mr. President, please get out. Now that that has happened, we've been checking in with them and most of them are gratified. They're grateful for the press president to make his decision. And most of them think Kamala Harris is the right choice. A couple still want to watch it play out.
But, Anderson, here's a flip side. Remember we also had some Nikki Haley voters in the Pennsylvania suburbs here who don't want to vote for Donald Trump, but weren't sure they could. Some said they never could vote for Joe Biden. We're getting a lot of hook about Kamala Harris when we talked to them so that they don't think she's up to the job. So we'll watch how this shakes out. Democrats do seem to be happy. But the middle, if you will, still has questions about the profile, the identity, the issues perspective of the vice president. COOPER: So Pennsylvania's Governor Josh Shapiro has been discussed as
one of Harris' potential running mates. He also endorsed her tonight. In your view, what are the pros and cons for putting him on the ticket?
KING: Well, he's certainly under consideration. I know that from key Harris allies. He's a first-term governor. He's Jewish. There could be some risks in putting him on the ticket, but certainly some of our voters here in Pennsylvania said, hey, we like Governor Shapiro, I'll give him a look. Also told, though, Anderson, that some other governors, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, are on the list of the Harris team.
One Harris ally told me today they hope to get her within a few days assuming her path to the nomination continues to look good, and it does tonight, but we still have some question marks. They hope to get her a list. They say within several days to a week of four or five names for her to pick from.
COOPER: And what do you think is going to be the most frequent line of attack against her if she is the nominee?
KING: Immigration, immigration and immigration. The Trump campaign already wanted to run on immigration. Republicans have always overexaggerated exactly what her job was at the border, but Biden did give her a job to work with Mexico and the Central American countries to try to address the root causes of migration.
[20:55:07]
And we all know the border crossing numbers have soared. So it's pretty T ball for the Republicans to say, Joe Biden, put Kamala Harris in front of the border, and she failed. So that is one of the things. Her campaign team knows this. She wants to focus on black voters, on abortion rights, on women voters, on essentially using her prosecutor skills to go after Donald Trump but they know she has some weaknesses and that's one they're going to have to work on. Watch, immigration ads will come to a TV quite soon if she continues on her path to the nomination.
COOPER: All right. John King, thanks so much.
Ahead in the next hour of our special coverage, the Trump campaign's playbooks is going to have to be rewritten now that his opponent will not be President Biden. Plus what the poll suggests about which Democratic candidate would be the toughest challenger for the Republican presidential nominee. We'll be right back.
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