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CNN International: Harris Marches Toward Nomination As Party Coalesces Behind Her; GOP And Dem Leaders Of House Committee Send Letter Calling For Secret Service Director To Resign; Israel PM Netanyahu To Address Congress On Wednesday. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired July 22, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:35]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: It is 8:00 pm in London, 10:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv, 3:00 p.m. here in Washington.

I'm Jim Sciutto. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM. And let's get right to the news.

We begin with the passing of the torch. Democrats swiftly uniting around Vice President Kamala Harris to take on former President Donald Trump just 24 hours after Joe Biden bowed out of the race. It's is not a done yield yet -- done deal yet officially, but no major candidate has so far come forward with challenge Harris, a whole host of them are coming out to endorse her.

Here's House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. What he said about her leadership just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: We all owe a debt of gratitude to President Biden for his tremendous leadership, and I'm also thankful for the incredible partnership that he has had for the last three-and-a-half years with Vice President Kamala Harris. Vice President Kamala Harris has excited the community. She's excited the House Democratic Caucus and she's exciting the country.

And so I'm looking forward to sitting down with her in person in short order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: He did stop short of a formal endorsement, but he said that he and Schumer going to meet with Harris shortly and CNN can report that both Jeffries and Schumer do plan to back Harris. Should she be the Democratic nominee? It is looking like that.

Harris enters a sprint to launch a campaign, craft her own message, and yes, choose her own VP. Moments from now, she heads to Wilmington, Delaware, home base for us now Kamala HQ.

Isaac Dovere joins me for a sense of what's next. So let's talk a little bit about the nuts and bolts because they

matter here, and that is how do you transfer a campaign built around reelecting the president to now electing the vice president, including issues such as campaign funding?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, this is sort of like flying an airplane and about 80 percent of the way through the flight thing, were going to go with a different pilot, right? It's not obviously an unknown pilot, but she is coming in and having to make a lot of decisions very quickly.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

DOVERE: What kind of campaign she wants to have, who the staff is going to be. Obviously, one big one sitting out there who her running mate is going to be.

But you can see how -- how much the struggle is here because she has not been in public except for this one moment today where she at a prescheduled of NCAA champions, and you can see she wanted to keep it short. What she said about Biden, let's take a listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: His honesty, his integrity, his commitment to his faith and his family, his big heart and has love, deep love of our country.

And I am firsthand witness that every day, our President Joe Biden fights for the American people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: There you go. I mean, that's why -- this is, by the way, every single endorsement of Harris has begun with that. We owe a debt of gratitude to him. He did the right thing for his country, et cetera.

Let me ask you about messaging here because to date in the campaign, Kamala Harris is particularly taking the lead on women's issues, reproductive rights, et cetera. Will there be certain to be part of her message at the top of the ticket, but will she craft a broader message that's distinct from the Biden message?

DOVERE: Yeah. Like I have reporting up on our website right now about what her plan is to run against Trump, and it is to return to some she's talked about before. She talked about a little bit in the last couple of weeks, but now, it's going to be much bigger, and it's to run as a prosecutor for president. The frame of this to her advisors is pretty simple and it comes down to it.

We've got someone who is an experienced prosecutor versus a literally convicted felon. Somebody who has taken on big banks versus somebody who is connected to a lot its billionaires given tax cuts, the rich people, somebody who has locked up rapist versus someone who's been accused of sexual assault.

SCIUTTO: I mean, that's -- that's hitting Trump head on as one might say.

DOVERE: This is not what I think will the big difference that you're going to see here in from far away, we go 30,000 feet is level of fight and taking it to Trump that people have been begging for Joe Biden to do.

[15:05:00]

SCIUTTO: Right.

DOVERE: And even in the last couple of weeks when they were saying, okay, so you want to try to establish the campaign, go for it. There was one event that Joe Biden really started to do it at in Detroit, right before he got COVID, and people responded really well to it.

They want that message. They think that this is a -- if you're going to make this an election, that is a fighting chance and that is a referendum on Trump, which was the thing that they kept saying, that they need to actually fight to do that. And Harris, even before this was planning to do that in the running mate capacity. Now, she's going to do it obviously as a candidate herself.

SCIUTTO: Well, and one of the biggest criticisms course, Biden beyond the halting performance there was just that did he not have the ability to be a vocal spokesperson for key Democratic position, you know, and well, it appears that that's certainly going to be one of her focuses.

Thanks so much, Isaac Dovere.

DOVERE: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, for months, the Trump campaign has stood up a national operation focused on this defeating President Joe Biden. So how did they adapt that playbook for a whole new candidate and opponent in the Vice President Kamala Harris? On the campaign trail today, J.D. Vance slammed the Democratic Party's nomination -- nominating process. He also tried out some new attack lines.

Here's what -- some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The idea of selecting the Democrat Party's nominee because George Soros and Barack Obama, and a couple of elite Democrats, gotten a smoke-filled room and decided to throw Joe Biden overboard, that is not how it works. That is a threat to democracy, not the Republican Party, which is fighting for democracy every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: I mean, there's no evidence whatsoever George Soros was involved in that, but that's a favorite name attack line from Trump and his backers there.

And we should also note, voters voted for Vice President Harris as part of the ticket in 2020.

But anyway, that's their line. They're going to stick with it.

CNN's Kristen Holmes covers the Trump campaign and she joins me now.

So, Trump's got a new opponent here and therefore someone else they have to frame and caricature. They did not want this. They felt they had a stronger chance against Joe Biden.

So, what do they do now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're going to see a lot of vicious personal attacks against Kamala Harris, as Isaac said, this is going to ramp up on not just the Democratic side, going after Trump, but its also going to really ramp up on the Republican side.

Now, we've started to see that a little bit. Remember, Donald Trump's team, as you said, has put an entire national campaign apparatus into beating -- into beating Joe Biden, not into beating anyone else. And so what we've only seen so far when it comes to Kamala Harris has been recent weeks after that debate, this kind of soft launch of these personal attacks, and that has been something we've seen from Donald Trump. We've seen it from a number of his allies.

And we even saw today from J.D. Vance. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: What I see her give a speech and she talks about the history of this country, not with appreciation, but with condemnation, and look, of course, every country, just like every family, certainly mine, has its pockmarks, right? Not everything is perfect. It's never going to be.

But you, if you want to lead this country, you should feel grateful for it. You should feel a sense of gratitude and I never hear that gratitude come through when I listened to Kamala Harris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, expect a lot more personal and vicious attacks and just what J.D. Vance said, and part of that reasoning is this. They have seen the polling that says of all the Democratic potential candidates for president that could fill the top of the ticket, Kamala Harris does have the highest name identification or name ID, but what they say when they looked deeper into these polls is that just because she has name identification doesn't mean she has what they call, quote/unquote, name education -- meaning that they want to spend the next several months re-introducing her with their spin to the American public.

And that's going to mean that they believe that there is a way to paint her in a very negative light as she's being introduced to the American people. Now, in terms of just the campaign apparatus, what they're going to do those millions of dollars they spend on data modeling, they say that that was for their candidate. They were running for their candidate, not against Joe Biden, but, of course, as we know, there has been an enormous focus on President Joe Biden.

Everything shifts when you change the top of the ticket, the lack of enthusiasm among Democrats that was aimed at Joe Biden. They have no idea what this actually looks like with Kamala Harris or anyone at the top of the ticket. And to be fair, the person is might affect the most is J.D. Vance because he doesn't even know who he's going to be running against for vice president at this time.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

HOLMES: He's trying to figure that out, too. He had honed some lines on Kamala Harris over last week. Now, obviously, he's going to have a whole other turn of the wheel here.

So, clearly, they have a lot of work to do to try to figure out what this campaign looks like moving forward.

SCIUTTO: And, listen you know, I think you could fairly say that both parties got to figure that out, right --

HOLM ES: Right.

SCIUTTO: -- because they're not a lot of hard data as to how voters are going to react to an entirely new candidate.

HOLMES: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: Kristen Holmes, good to have you on. Thanks so much.

HOLMES: All right. Let's dig a little deeper to political experts, strategist for more, Molly Ball of "The Wall Street Journal", Ron Brownstein of "The Atlantic".

[15:10:01]

Well, guys, lots have changed since we talked like a couple of days ago. So now you got it. You got a new candidate.

Ron, if I could start with you. I know your feelings going into it, so, now, Biden has stepped aside. Can't -- simplest terms, can Harris beat Trump? Is she likely to be Trump?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. She can be Trump. And like Biden, she's probably an underdog at this point against Trump. I mean, she carries many of the same crockery with one big exception as Biden. I mean, voters who are discontented over inflation and the administration's record at the border are going to carry over those discontents to her, but she does not have to carry the burden of the doubts that Biden's faced among three quarters of the voters about whether he was too old to continue doing the job. She brings energy. She brings the opportunity to help reverse his

slide among younger and non-white voters. And maybe most importantly, while she might be on the defensive around the same issues as Biden, I think almost all Democrats believe she is much more capable than Biden as Isaac was noting, of taking the offense against Trump, particularly on the interrelated issues of whether Trump and his movement are a threat to Americans' rights, centered on abortion, their values and democracy.

Jim, that's been her job for the last two years --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: -- since Dobbs, our job has been to kind of make a case against what's happening at the Supreme Court, and in the red states on rights and I think almost all Democrats believe that she is just much more, much better positioned, more cogent, more crisp in delivering that argument than Biden was even before the debates.

So there are obviously risks in swiftly at this late date, but there are some assets on the other side of the ledger, too.

SCIUTTO: So, Molly Ball, I mean, in one measure of just how quickly things move, right? If we were talking 25 hours ago, right. It would still be an open question as to whether Biden was going to stay in the race and there is division in the party about whether he should stay in.

But there was also thinking if he left, than you might very well have some sort of mini primary or a series of town halls and maybe even a contested Democratic convention, just in 24 hours. It looks like that ship has sailed right? Because virtually, you know, all the big rivals and by the way, these were pictures just a few moments ago as the vice president left Washington I believe, to go up to Delaware, you've had all the potential rivals, Whitmer, Newsom, Buttigieg, Shapiro, and more, they've all endorsed.

You've had folks like Nancy Pelosi and clearly it's imminent that Jeffries and Schumer will endorse as well. Does that surprise you and was that -- was that an organic process where just one follow the other, or was there some meeting of the minds?

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: As far as I know, there's no conspiracy. I do think it has been organic and I think what it reflects and I think its not particularly surprising is the fact that this was a party that was very hungry to look toward November. They were terrified by what they saw at the Republican National Convention, a unified and excited did and enthusiastic party that was laser-focused on driving toward November, and part of the angst that Democrats have had around the Biden candidacy was the feeling that they didn't have that and that every day that they were arguing about whether or not he should stay on the ticket was the day that was lost to drive that message toward the general election.

There is a palpable well sense of relief among the entire Democratic political class. And while there is some grumbling, there are some misgivings about Vice President Harris, in particular, there's some grumblings about the process and the fact that there hasn't been an opportunity for regular rank and file Democrats to have more input, but that is by far from a minority view. And the reason I think you're seeing everyone from elected officials to the delegates attending the convention, come out and mass and throw their weight behind Vice President Harris, is they are just dying to get this general election started make the argument against Trump and get into the fray.

SCIUTTO: Ron, you just put out a piece on the Kamala Harris coalition. What voters she needs to capture in order to win what almost certainly will be a close election as they always are.

So, so who are they exactly and how is it different from Biden's 2020 coalition?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, what would a comma coalition look like?

What Biden's biggest problem relative to 2020 has been his erosion among younger and non-white voters. And I think many Democrats feel that she is well-positioned to recover at least some of that brown and they also believe that she is well positioned to a. Squeeze, at least a few more points out of mostly college educated pro-choice suburban women who are mostly voting Democratic, but maybe not at the levels that they need given the doubts about Biden.

The other side of the ledger is whether she can maintain what has been somewhat surprisingly Biden's biggest strength through all of these challenges launches this year, which is that even with everything else going wrong for him, polling shows him largely holding his 2020 support among older and blue collar whites, where he improved in 2020 from Hillary Clinton among those groups.

[15:15:15]

Now, he's basically in the same place.

Can she, you know, as the first Black female presidential nominee with roots in California and San Francisco politics can she hold those voters? And if not, can the gains on her side of the ledger exceed those potential losses? The geographic implications of this are pretty important too, though, Jim, real quick, which is that the groups where she is strongest may allow her to bring back into play some of the Sun Belt swing states, Arizona and Nevada maybe Georgia. But if she can't, she will have to win the same way that was available to Biden, which is sweeping Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which were all -- which are all older, whiter, more blue collar states where her strengths don't come into play. And that could be challenging.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. I mean, there are some -- there are some risks, there are some weaknesses there.

Molly Ball, there was a lot of confidence in the Trump camp before Sunday that they had this locked up. And you watch the RNC, it was basically victory celebration there. And as you know, there was a lot of talk of expanding the map, going into places that used to be automatics really for the Democrats.

It seems that in 24 hours, that confidence has waned. Is that -- does that make sense to you?

BALL: Well, of course, they spent a lot of time and money on this plan and to see it all fall apart is, of course, dismaying and you see that where even as the campaign is continuing to argue that they're just fine and they were prepared for this and so on and so forth, Trump himself is complaining quite bitterly on his social media network about the wrench that this has thrown into his plans.

But this is going to be a race to define Kamala Harris. They are going to throw tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars into trying to define her before she has a chance to do it herself. As was said previously, she's someone who has very high name recognition, but people don't well have a very fully formed impression of her -- what she stands for, whether they -- whether she is strong and presidential, whether they trust her to be the president of the United States, not just the vice president.

And so, you're going to see the Trump campaign put a lot of effort into defining how they think she should be the perceived and part of it is going to be tying her to the unpopular policies of the administration. But I think you're also going to see them try to be more imaginative than that in making a case against her, in particular, trying to convince the American electorate that they cannot trust her.

SCIUTTO: Ron, before we go, what role do you think Biden my play on the campaign trail for Harris? I mean, prior to his stepping out, there already concerns among for instance, down-ballot Democrats. They didn't want to campaign with him because he was unpopular, even among a lot of Democratic voters. But to see campaign loudly and proudly alongside Vice President Harris?

BROWNSTEIN: Really interesting question. Look, I mean, one consideration is that after having the airwaves largely themselves almost completely unrebutted all year and spending tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars in the swing states, the public polling that's come out and showing his approval rating even in those states where they've been spending on unrebutted, you know, still stuck at around 40 percent.

So I would suspect that it would be his role would will be somewhat limited, although you can also see him playing, playing, playing a part of touting their successes, particularly on a private investment and infrastructure in some of these swing states before some of the constituencies that I just mentioned where he is holding up pretty well, particularly those blue collar whites and unions and so forth. I could see him playing a valuable role for her there.

SCIUTTO: Ron Brownstein, Molly Ball, got a lot more questions for you, but I think I opportunity to do so as this campaign goes forward.

BROWNSTEIN: We'll do that, yeah. SCIUTTO: Still ahead, elected Democrats across the country have been

quickly throwing their support as well behind the vice president, including folks in some difficult races. Nancy Pelosi, she announced her support a couple of hours ago.

We are still waiting on some major figures in the party, though their endorsements are expected, too. We're going to have more on all their decisions, the timeline as well, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:29]

SCIUTTO: So in the end, the call came from inside the house. President Joe Biden's seismic decision to step aside followed a host of conversations on Capitol Hill with Democratic leaders, as well as a slew of public statements from sitting lawmakers. It is somewhat ironic ending for president seen as a creature of Capitol Hill who spent decades in the Senate.

CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju has more on those critical hours leading up to some of these announcements and decision by the president and the fallout.

First, Manu, what's been the reaction among lawmakers to Harris, particularly those, and you spoke to many of them, who had been publicly calling for Biden to step aside?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There's a big sigh of relief. I mean, there was a lot of concern about what Joe Biden would mean for down ticket Democrats, particularly ones in swing districts and swing states, fearful that the president's toxicity could essentially saddle them with that. So same vulnerabilities and cost them their chances of retaking the House and keeping the United States Senate.

The Senate is already going to be difficult. It was going to look at to be even more difficult with Biden at the top of the ticket, which is one the biggest reason why the Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer had privately relay those concerns to Biden in the run- up to his momentous just yesterday.

And I talked to a number of Democrats today about what this means going forward, about whether or not there should be any sort of open contest in the incoming -- the convention in mid August to Kamala Harris's candidacy to -- for the nomination and is very clear that Democrats are falling in line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Are you worried though that there could be backlash from voters by looking like this is a coronation?

REP. KWEISI MFUME (D-MD): Well, I'm not worried about backlash. You're going to get there all the time. Everybody doesn't agree on everything. But I think it's very important that we have an orderly process.

And I'm a Harris support. I make no bones about that whatsoever. We've got to get this wrapped up. Are you concerned at all about her more liberal politics for a more -- more moderate district like yours?

REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): It's funny. During the primary in 2020, right, she was getting a lot of flak from progressives that she was too far to the middle. So, you know, everyone is trying to frame her, oh, she's to the left or she's too centered depending upon, you know, what side of the aisle you're on. Let -- let Vice President Harris come out and talk about her vision for the country before everyone starts to try to put her in a box.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And even as Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, offered her endorsement for -- endorsement for Kamala Harris, we still have not heard an explicit endorsement from Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the current House and Senate Democratic leaders.

[15:25:06]

We do expect though, that that will happen after they are but privately meet here in the upcoming days. But the message from Hakeem Jeffries and talking to reporters earlier, Jim, there's no mistake about it. It is a much different change in tone, much more enthusiastic as Democrats believe that this campaign had been lost with Biden at the top of the ticket. Now, they believe they have a chance and that's one big reason why were seeing a lot of unity coming for the Democratic Party after weeks and weeks of infighting.

SCIUTTO: Now, a Republican talking point has become, this was undemocratic process. How she was chosen here. I wonder, do you hear from many Democrats privately on the hill frustration that they didn't have a chance to either raise their own hands and or push their person who they might prefer to be at the top of the ticket?

RAJU: You know, at this point, no, Jim, which is interesting now. I should caution though, that most of the members are still getting back into town. We expect to talk to a lot more members night at votes in the House. The Senate doesn't come back until tomorrow. So we'll get a full breadth of the next day or two about how members feel.

But overall, the sentiment that I'm getting, the people that I am speaking with, is that a really a sense of relief and that they believe that there really is no time for any sort of contest to find a different candidate just because they have been battling and battling for weeks now, last three weeks have been such an ugly period for the Democratic Party, and they just want to move past this now closed was this chapter move on to a new one, even if common layers may not be their favorite candidate, at least they believe she's better than Biden and gives them a fighting chance against Trump.

SCIUTTO: Manu Raju on the Hill, thanks so much.

RAJU: Thanks, Jim. SCIUTTO: For more on President Biden's decision, really momentous decision to leave the race, I'm joined by Chris Whipple. He's author of "The Fight of His Life: Inside the Biden White House".

Chris, thanks for joining us this afternoon.

CHRIS WHIPPLE, AUTHOR: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: "The New York Times" editorial board, they put it this way, Mr. Biden has now done what Mr. Trump never will. He has placed the national interests above his own pride and ambition. And, of course, we have to go back to 1968 and LBJ to have similar situation, a president stepping down, although he did so earlier before the election.

One, are you surprised by this decision? And what does it mean for Biden's legacy in your view?

WHIPPLE: Well, it was shocking when we heard the news, but really not surprising in the end. I think what happened was that Joe Biden made a cold calculation. To be honest with you, I think that Joe Biden believes to this moment that he could have won this election. Biden and his inner circle think that they know a lot more about elections than Barack Obama or George Clooney and maybe even Nancy Pelosi.

But I think that what happened, Jim, is that at the end of the day, he sat down with his inner circle, Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, and he realized not that he would lose necessarily, but that the party has just splintered all around him. There was just no way forward.

And I think you can see that some of the inner circle is still feels that they were the victim of a coup let led by the donors and Pelosi and the gang. So it's -- it's a Shakespearean, drama full of betrayals and been wild.

SCIUTTO: And some -- some knives, perhaps political knives.

You in writing, your profile of Biden and his presidency, made the point that -- I mean, you had to run through layers, right? You call it an extremely controlling White House in terms of messaging. So let me ask you this do you believe the evidence shows that they hid his decline?

WHIPPLE: I don't know the answer to that question, Jim. I mean, you do have -- you do have to wonder because it was that -- that debate performance was just shocking and it was shocking I can tell you even to some members of Joe Biden's family which makes me think that, okay, this may have been a real event of some kind happening in real-time in front of us if even the family was surprised, it's hard to make the case on a cover up.

But it is true and I did write that this is the most button-down, buttoned up, batten down, on script White Houses in recent memory, and that's certainly the case.

SCIUTTO: So Biden will address the nation later this week. Of course, the announcement came just in the letter. What do you expect to hear from him? And what will his -- I don't want to say final message, he's going to remain in office. But this will be quite a moment for a president explaining his decision to step aside it.

WHIPPLE: Well, and I expect that Mike Donilon will weigh in on it. John Meacham will be probably a part of crafting it. I expect it's going to be gracious and its going to be vintage.

You know, Joe Biden really hasn't been anything like this since Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

[15:30:03]

And, you know, a lot of people thought that LBJ got out because he'd been beaten by Gene McCarthy or at least surprised by Gene McCarthy and New Hampshire over the Vietnam War. But it really was because Johnson wanted to get a peace settlement in Vietnam and he thought he wouldn't live another four years in office.

I think Joe Biden at this moment probably what he wants more than anything else is a peace deal in Gaza and you imagine can you imagine if he got that?

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

WHIPPLE: Having step aside to give Kamala the baton. I think it would be an extraordinary finished for him and achievement that LBJ couldn't match.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. Well, he's going to be meeting with Netanyahu in D.C. on his visit this week.

Chris Whipple, good to have you on. Thanks so much.

WHIPPLE: Good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: Coming up next the, quote, most significant operational failure in decades. That what -- that's what the director of the Secret Service is saying about her agency's handling of the security prior to the assassination attempt on former President Trump. The key takeaways from her sometimes heated interactions on the Hill, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:34:32]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

In a rare moment of bipartisanship on the Hill. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, Republican, and ranking member Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat, called on the director of the Secret Service to resign. Director Kimberly Cheatle testified for four hours over one of the agency's biggest security failings in decades. Of course, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

In her opening statement, Cheatle did take full responsibility for the security lapse.

[15:35:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY CHEATLE, DIRECTOR, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: On July 13th, we failed. As a director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.

We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNN's Zachary Cohen joins me now.

Bipartisan, not just that demand to resign, but even the questions. You know, they were pressing on a lot of issues here, particularly how close that shooter was able to get. I wonder what the biggest takeaway from the testimony was, because there were a lot of questions. She said, listen, I just can't answer that right now.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Jim, I think the fact that the end result of this hearing was a bipartisan letter calling for Director Cheatle to resign, does kind of tell you everything you need to know about how unsatisfied they were with her answers to their questions today and she was constantly criticized by Republicans, and Democrats for essentially failing to provide any level of detail about some very basic questions, including one that was just how did this happen? How is this allowed to happen?

The shooting at the Trump rally, lawmakers really wanted to know more about the timeline which Cheatle was unable to provide any specifics on. They also pressed her on how the shooter the 20-year-old shooter was able to get on the roof where he was able to have a clean line of sight at the former president while he began speaking, despite the fact that for two to five times Secret Service had been notified prior to Trump taking the stage that there was a suspicious person in the area.

So, really, we listen to about four hours of lawmakers venting an airing their frustrations with the Secret Service director here who like you said, did take accountability and responsibility for what she called a colossal failure, the security failures, but that accountability and the personal accountability may not be over yet, obviously, Comer and Raskin, the top members of both parties on the oversight committee, rare bipartisan call for her to step down.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, difficult to see how she survived that.

Zachary Cohen, thanks so much.

So, joining me now to discuss in further detail, retired Secret Service agent Jeffrey James.

Good to have you on, sir. Jeffrey, I wonder what your reaction was watching this hearing here

because I know its only been nine days and God knows, there's a long investigation to come, but -- but the director just passed on a lot of fairly basic questions here and they are key questions, right? Because we're in the middle of the presidential race, right? And I imagine the security environment for Harris and Trump continue to be -- to be dicey.

JEFFREY JAMES, RETIRED SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Yeah, I got to say, Jim, this is exactly how I expected to unfold, for two reasons. One is whenever someone is attacked, he's under Secret Service protection, that investigation automatically goes to the FBI, like, we -- the Secret Service doesn't get involved, we have a quick current investigation going.

So, for the director to start speaking and speculating would do two things. One, it would make it look like she's getting involved in the investigation, which she absolutely shouldn't.

But, two, if she would speak out of turn and say something that when the investigation is done comes out to be misproven, then people are going to speculate, okay, who was right? Was the Secret Service, right? Was the FBI, right? Now, it would create distrust in both -- in both agencies.

SCIUTTO: She said that they did identify the shooter as a suspicious individual before the shooting, but not a threat. Can you -- can you explain to us? Because she emphasized the distinction there. Can you explain in layman's terms how that distinction is made?

JAMES: Yeah, Jim, I will tell you, in 22 years of working sites with presidents, there were suspicious people at every site. The difference between someone acting suspiciously and someone becoming a threat isn't overt act. If he would have tried to jump a fence, if someone would have seen him attempting to get up onto that -- onto that roof.

Now, all right, now he's a threat but they were -- there was a constant string of suspicious actions at every site the president want to.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, I spoke to another former agent who said it's also very common for people in the crowd to say, there's a suspicious person over there, or over here, that agents are kind of hearing this all the time let me ask you this because she was also asked solely by Democratic lawmakers because Republican lawmakers didn't go there about access to guns as a part of the threat.

And whether Secret Service protectees are safer or less safe, given things like concealed carry laws. I mean, this or even the ease with which he was able to get his hands on an AR-15, his father's AR-15.

From your perspective as an agent separate the politics out of this, but do more does greater accessibility to guns make the job harder? It's a simple question. I mean, after RFK was assassinated, in '68, there was bipartisan legislation focusing on the Saturday night special handgun. After Reagan was nearly assassinated, eventually years later, you got a waiting period for him guns, but you're not seeing in a bipartisan effort now.

JAMES: Jim, the proliferation of firearms in our society is not just making life harder on the Secret Service, it's making harder on every law enforcement agency.

[15:40:07]

I'm currently the chief of police at Robert Morris University and I want to know like, who can carry guns and who can't. And that's just not something law enforcement is able to know anymore. Everybody you encounter might be armed, whether legally or if they have an illegal weapon. But that proliferation of weapons is a huge concern to law enforcement across the board.

SCIUTTO: Final question, like I said earlier, we're in the midst of a campaign here.

And, by the way, the DHS and FBI warned that the danger of retaliatory attacks, how -- I'm not saying nervous your professional, but how difficult of a job is it for the Secret Service? It always is difficult, but how particularly difficult is it now for the weeks and months to come?

Oh, we might have lost Jeffrey James there, but Jeff James, former Secret Service agent, I'm sure we'll have him back.

Coming up, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is in Washington this week, as I mentioned earlier, planning, not just to address Congress, but also to meet with President Biden. What to expect for his trip to the U.S. Capitol, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is on his way to Washington today, due to address Congress on Wednesday. Officials say he is also likely to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden.

Before he left on his trip, now, Netanyahu said Israel would remain the most loyal ally, most important ally of the U.S. regardless of who has chosen to lead.

Joining me now to discuss Netanyahu's visit, former State Department Middle East negotiator, senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment, Aaron David Miller.

Aaron, first of all, is that a sincere comment from Netanyahu because he has played footsie more and more with Republicans over recent years, seemed too as made a partisan preference clear. Is it true he doesn't have a horse in the election in the fall?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: I don't think so. I mean, we're still a long way from Tipperary, by the way.

[15:45:04] So he has to hedge his bets. He needs Joe Biden because Israeli security needs and military assistance is critically important. At the same time, he needs to repair his relationship with whom I think he believes going to be the next president, Donald Trump.

Trump's angry at him because he was related to Biden at his election, didn't talk about the election being stolen. He's made pretty negative comments. He, Trump, about Netanyahu, over the last years or so.

So, this is all about, not about substance, Jim, it's all about Netanyahu's politics. His politics and ours. And right now, he doesn't have a meeting with the president. There's a report I saw that Kamala Harris will not be in the Senate to his speech on Wednesday.

So this -- this isn't working out quite the way he hoped to.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. It's amazing that Trump demand, even a foreign leader, him to echo the election lie as a sort of sign of loyalty, but here we are.

All right, so a lot of attention focused on whether a -- cease -- I don't call a peace deal. It's not that, but a ceasefire deal can get across the table in the coming weeks. What's your view? And if there is a chance, when would it be most likely?

MILLER: You know, we talked about this before negotiations and Middle East have two speeds, slow and slower.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

MILLER: And I think right now, I venture to say we have the best chance ever, quote/unquote, ever to get a deal. But I think it won't occur until sometime in August.

The Knesset goes out in recess July 28, and they will come back until two weeks before our elections. During that period, it's very hard to bring down an Israeli government. I think Mr. Netanyahu is calculating if he's made a decision that he wants to do, which is still far from certain. Best time to do it would be after Knesset goes on recess, because the two problematic ministers, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, will have a very hard time bringing down the government.

If there's going to be a deal, Jim, it will be again, and even if there is a deal, I'm thinking we won't get beyond phase one, 16 weeks ceasefire with limited return of hostages and more humanitarian assistance.

It's hard to believe, Jim, we could get to the end of a three-phase deal, Israeli and Hamas end games are mutually irreconcilable.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. And, listen, if that's true, I mean, you kick a lot of cans down the road, including the fate of the hostages who might be left behind.

Before we go, the tensions in the northern border have been heightening in recent weeks, more and more fire exchanged. Where did -- where does the talk of Israel opening up a northern front in this conflict? When I was there even going back to November, there were a lot of folks in the military and the public who said Israel has to finish the job up there after they finished the job, however you described that in Gaza, would you say a military incursion by Israel into Lebanon is likely?

MILLER: I think you'd have to be more than incursion. We're talking about a major ground, sea and air campaign. And frankly, I don't think anybody wants it. The Biden ministration doesn't want it. I don't think the Iranians wanted. I don't think Hezbollah wants it.

I'm not sure the IDF wants it now. So I'm still, you know, betting on air against Arab-Israeli peace is usually a pretty safe bet. And on this one, I'm betting we can avoid what could be something Middle East has never experienced you which is a major war, which is regional and character.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. And listen, the other flashpoint there is the West Bank, right? I mean, you have just increasing Israeli activity there, and discussions of how the Palestinians might react.

Aaron David Miller, thanks so much.

MILLER: Thanks for having me, Jim.

SCIUTTO: After the break, the parallels and differences between President Biden dropping out of the race, and the last time an incumbent ended their bid for reelection. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:49]

SCIUTTO: It has been 56 years since a us president dropped out of a reelection race. That was Lyndon Johnson, the year in 1968. The country in embroiled in the Vietnam War, at that point only one state primary had taken place. At this time, the Democratic primaries have all taken place and Election Day is just four months away.

Randi Kaye looks at how things played out back then.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDON B. JOHNSON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifty-six years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson suddenly ended his campaign as Joe Biden did today.

JOHNSON: I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

KAYE: That stunning announcement during what was billed as a speech about Vietnam shocked the country. DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: When he withdrew from the race, he talked about the fact that he just wanted to use those remaining months for presidential duties, hoping to bring the war in Vietnam to a close rather than campaigning, and the response was extraordinary.

KAYE: At the time, there was widespread disappointment in Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War and his approval ratings were down. Like with Joe Biden, there were concerns about LBJ's health and there were doubts he could win a second term.

GOODWIN: He'd done something for an ambition for the country rather than himself, that in all of his 37 years, he had never sacrificed himself this way.

KAYE: After Johnson withdrew, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy. Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York was also in the running for the nomination, but wouldn't survive the primary season. After declaring victory in the California primary in June 1968, Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles at the Ambassador Hotel.

GOODWIN: Bobby Kennedy was killed and then that summer, they go to the Democratic convention with the war is still going on. Chaos reigns.

KAYE: The 1968 Democratic convention, which also happened to be in Chicago like this year's convention, followed not only the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, but also Martin Luther King. The country was in turmoil and protests have broken out over the Vietnam War.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley called up the National Guard to protect the convention arena and put thousands of Chicago police on 12 hour shifts.

There were also tense moments on the convention floor among competing sets of delegates pushing to be seated. Even some of the media was roughed up, including CBS's Dan Rather, while trying to talk with anchor Walter Cronkite from the convention floor.

DAN RATHER, CBS NEWS: Walter, as you can see --

WALTER CRONKITE, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: I don't know what's going on, but this -- these are security people apparently around Dan obviously getting roughed up.

RATHER: What happened is a Georgia delegate, at least he had a Georgia delegate sign on, was being hauled out of the hall. We tried to talk to him to see why, who he was and what the situation was, and at that instant, the security people -- well, as you could say, put me on the deck. I didn't do very well.

[15:55:00]

CRONKITE: I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan, if I maybe permitted to say so.

RATHER: Well, I'm all right. It's -- it's all in days work.

KAYE: In the end, Hubert Humphrey won enough support from delegates to become the nominee. But after all the upheaval in the party, it wasn't in the cards for Democrats that year.

Republican Richard Nixon ultimately defeated Humphrey to become the 37th president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Well, now, we're seeing history play out again before our eyes. Our thanks to Randi Kaye for that report.

Before we go, he's a four-time NBA champion, multi NBA MVP, two-time Olympic gold medalist. And now, the Lakers superstar LeBron James can add one more honored to long list of achievements. He's going to be an Olympic flag bearer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On behalf of the entire men's Olympic basketball team, we would like to nominate LeBron James to be the flag bearer for all the Team USA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got that honor, so you get to wave the flag in Paris, my man.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: The female flag bearer will be announced tomorrow. James called it an incredible honor, saying sports have the power to bring us all together. And I'm proud to be a part of this important moment.

We'll be watching.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.