Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

V.P. Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) Launch Battleground Blitz; New Poll Shows Harris, Trump Neck-in-Neck in Battleground Wisconsin; Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) Speaks at Campaign Event in Michigan. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired August 07, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

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

With just 90 days until the election, the Harris-Walz and Trump-Vance campaigns are in full swing this week, an all-out battleground blitz across the country as the candidates take their messages directly to swing state voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We got 91 days. My God, that's easy. We'll sleep when we're dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Fresh off their kickoff rally in Philadelphia last night, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are taking the Midwest by storm, stopping today in Wisconsin and Michigan. Meanwhile, at any moment, J.D. Vance will deliver remarks at a manufacturing event and take questions from the press, we're told, in Michigan before heading to Wisconsin later on this afternoon, be sure to sharpen his attacks against his new opponent as the two vice presidential nominees cast each other as radical extremists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: J.D. Vance literally wrote the foreword for the architect of the Project 2025 agenda.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Tim Walz's record is a joke. He's been one of the most far left radicals in the entire United States government at any level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The GOP is wasting no time in rolling out their attacks on Kamala Harris' vice presidential pick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VANCE: But the fact that Kamala Harris selected him, I think, shows really, really poor judgment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And we'll likely hear more of those comments from J.D. Vance when he takes the mic in Michigan any moment now.

CNN's Alayna Treene joins us now. Alayna, what do we think we're going to hear from J. D. Vance today? We heard some of this yesterday.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: We did. And I think you'll hear a very similar type of speech today. What I do actually find really interesting, Jim, is that you're seeing Vance go to the exact same cities that both Harris and Walz are, and that is by design. Yesterday, he was in Philly, just four miles from where Harris and Walz, you know, introduced Walz to America, to the crowd. Today, he's starting in Michigan and then going to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the same city where we're going to see Harris and Walz today.

But, look, We're going to hear from Vance is he's going to point out that they're both from, you know, more Midwestern towns, middle America, they're both veterans. And then he's going to say that is where the similarities stop. You heard him say that last night in Philly. And then he's going to go very hard after Walz, his record.

And part of this is exactly kind of what you laid out at the top, which is they're trying to paint Walz as a radical liberal, someone who is more liberal than both Harris and Biden can be a little bit tough to do. Remember, when Walz was in Congress for 12 years, he was actually widely seen as more of a moderate Democrat. He voted with Republicans on a number of things, on strengthening the border, on lowering deficit deficits. He was backed by the NRA, which later pulled their support once he became governor, but that is their plan.

And part of this is that, look, over the last couple of weeks, ever since Biden ended his campaign, we've talked about this, there's no question that they've struggled to define Harris. Now, they see an opportunity with Walz and being her running mate, that they can try to define them together.

And we did hear both Vance and Donald Trump kind of make that point in comments over the last 24 hours. Take a listen to what they said.

ACOSTA: Okay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Everyone thought it was going to be Shapiro. It turned out not to be Shapiro. I have very little doubt that it was, you know, not for the reason we're talking about. It was because of the fact that he's Jewish and they think they're going to offend somebody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP) TREENE: Now, Jim, that point in particular is something that I've actually been hearing a lot from senior advisers, which is, one, they were actually more concerned about someone like Josh Shapiro becoming Harris' running mate, of course, because he's very popular in Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania is a state that both the Harris and Trump campaigns see as vital to winning in the fall.

[10:05:00]

But this is going to be a key attack line from them as well, the idea that Harris did not select Shapiro and instead went with Walz because there was concerns over Shapiro, who is Jewish, having criticized some of the protesters over the Israel-Hamas war. What they're trying to do, again, is to alienate a lot of Harris' voters, particularly on that issue, and then also paint Walz as someone who is very liberal who will move the ticket to the left.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, of course, I mean, you know, Kamala Harris is married to Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish. So, I mean, a lot of this is just silliness.

But also this morning, Trump reignited the conversation over debating Kamala Harris. I mean, at first we thought he was backing out of the ABC debate, now he sounds like maybe he's leaving the door open a little bit.

TREENE: He is. Look, I mean, you did hear him over the weekend. Donald Trump said he will only engage in the September 4th Fox News debate, that if Harris didn't show up to that, he didn't want to debate at all. Now, he's kind of walking away from that a little bit and saying he recognizes that they're probably going to need to debate and it might not always be on his terms. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We'll be debating her, I guess, in the pretty near future. It's going to be announced fairly soon, but we'll be debating her.

I'm all for Fox. I'd like to see it on Fox. I think Fox would do a really good job. But two people have to agree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Look, Donald Trump has been all over the place when it's come to this debate. And you've actually seen Harris seize on that. One thing she has been saying repeatedly is what happened to anytime, anywhere, any place. Now, it seems like a specific time at a specific place.

But for the Trump campaign's part, what they've been arguing is that the agreement to have the September 10th debate with ABC was between Trump and Joe Biden, and that they were not obligated to follow up on that when it comes to Harris. But at the end of the day, my conversations with Trump's team is that they actually -- and Trump himself actually doesn't want to debate. He thinks it's an obligation. He thinks it will provide some sort of good contrast. But there's definitely more concern about him debating Harris than there was about him debating Joe Biden, and, of course, especially after that CNN June 27th debate.

ACOSTA: Yes. And Alayna, I mean, I've covered Donald Trump for a long time. He has been playing these games about debates for years now, and it's hard to imagine he's going to pass up an opportunity to be in primetime television on a debate stage with millions of people watching him. This doesn't sound like Donald Trump.

We should note right now to our viewers. You're seeing J.D. Vance come out to the podium there in Shelby Township, Michigan, we're going to dip into that in just a moment.

We're going to do that now. What do you think guys? Should we dip into that now? Not yet.

All right, Alayna Treene, we'll dip into in just a moment. Thanks very much.

Let's discuss now with the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Ben Wikler and Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge. Ben and Emily, I almost cut you off there, went to the J.D. Vance event. We might have to do that.

But, Ben, what do you make of, I guess, first of all, the race to define Tim Walz and, you know, the ease or difficulty that is going to be for the Republican side?

BEN WIKLER, CHAIR, WISCONSIN DEMOCRATIC PARTY: The race to define Tim Walz fundamentally is over in the sense that people can see exactly the kind of guy that Governor Walz, Coach Walz, Command Sergeant Major Walz really is. This is someone who's dedicated his life to lifting up his neighbors, to defending his country, to serving his community. And he's a relatable figure for so many people in states like Wisconsin.

When you see the picture of him ice fishing, you think, oh, I know that guy. And then you hear him talk and you think, oh I definitely know that guy. Maybe he's my dad. Maybe he's my neighbor. Maybe he's my favorite teacher from high school. He's somebody who, you know and I think that's a really connects and understands that whether you live in a town of 400, like the town that he was born in, or in a city or a suburb or, you know, a rural area.

This is someone who actually cares about other people, which is really different from what you get from Trump and from Vance. The Harris-Walz ticket is a ticket that believes in lifting everyone up, making sure everyone's free to live their own lives, not subject to control and to making sure we have an opportunity where everyone can get ahead. And those are pretty basic. Midwest values that unite people, not the kinds of extremism you see from Project 2025.

ACOSTA: And, Emily, how is the Tim Walz pick going down in Wisconsin? I mean, they're going to be there later today. J.D. Vance will be there as well. What do you think? EMILY BERGE, EAU CLAIRE CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Well, since I hit the news yesterday morning, I think people have been really excited from what I hear my circles on social media, Eau Claire is just buzzing they are really excited to host the presidential ticket. And then, yes, and then we heard that J.D. Vance is coming to. Bon Iver is playing in our hometown, Grammy-winner musician. So, it's just like the whole city is just lit up. And the whole -- I know people are coming from Minnesota to see the rally. So, it's all very exciting.

[10:10:00]

ACOSTA: Yes. And, I mean, I've traveled to Eau Claire many times for campaign events. It's a critical part of the state. So, there's no question as to why both of these campaigns are going to be focusing on that.

And, Ben, I do want to ask you about, I mean, we were just talking about this a few moments ago with Alayna Treene's Trump kind of going back and forth on the debates. What do you think? Do you think he's going to show up at this ABC debate?

WIKLER: I think Trump cannot help himself. He is drawn to cameras the way that he seems to be, you know, drawn to the worst fringe online when he's reposting their posts on his social. I also think Trump is desperately trying to find some way to recapture the attention of the country, because across the country, people right now are seeing Vice President Harris out on the trail or reposting the clips of her speeches. They're seeing Tim Walz, you know, out and learning about his whole life and the kind of dad he is and the kind of person that he is. And that's got to be so hard for Trump, who's used to controlling the narrative and constantly wants to be at the center of attention.

So, I feel like part of what we're seeing right now is (INAUDIBLE) and from Vance, the kind of creepy following Vice President Harris around the country from Vance right now is part of the same thing. They're trying to get back into the center of attention. And right now it's not working.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Emily, I mean, I do want to ask you how J.D. -- I mean, he's speaking right now in Michigan -- how J.D. Vance is perceived there in Eau Claire. What are you hearing from voters about J.D. Vance?

BERGE: I actually don't hear a lot from voters about J.D. Vance.

ACOSTA: You don't?

BERGE: I carry more about Tim Walz and Minnesota is closer to Wisconsin. Eau Claire is only an hour from the border. Kind of what Ben was saying, it's very familiar to us. I have family in Minnesota. I grew up in Minnesota. I came to Eau Claire to go to, I actually went to (INAUDIBLE) for college and settled in Eau Claire. And I think my story is very familiar. It's common. A lot of people have family. So, he's definitely been dominated more in the news cycle, from what I can tell Walz's. ACOSTA: All right. Ben, Emily, thank you very much. We're going to go to J.D. Vance now, the vice presidential candidate for Donald Trump. He is talking about Tim Walz now. So, let's dip into that.

VANCE: -- who needs common sense safety but doesn't have access to it because our government so often refuses to do its job. I want to do a couple of shout-outs here and I think encourage these folks, if they're willing to make a couple of remarks, and then I'll close this out and take some questions from the media. But I got to meet --

ACOSTA: We might have just missed him commenting on Tim Walz.

Let me go back to you, Ben Wikler, just to get a reaction from you to -- I mean, Donald Trump right now, I mean, he seems to be struggling in terms of how to go after Kamala Harris, go after Tim Walz. Earlier this morning on Fox, he was saying, well, if they come into office, it's going to be like communism immediately. I think he used words along those lines. But there was a Truth Social post that he put up yesterday where he was almost sort of daydreaming out loud that somehow Joe Biden is going to get back into this race.

What is it that the Harris campaign has done in just a short period of time to sort of throw the Trump campaign off balance, do you think? Can you put your finger on it?

WIKLER: Part of what we're seeing from the Harris-Walz campaign now is a kind of aggressive and focused and joyful, prosecution of the case against Trump, and also a laying out of a vision for the future, about signing into law national protections for abortion. So, you don't have things like what we saw in Wisconsin, 451 days where every abortion clinic stopped providing services after the Dobbs decision. They're talking about signing voting rights legislation into law, which must be terrifying for Trump, who's constantly pushing these lies about voter fraud in order to justify voter suppression.

They're making the case for unions and for workers. And all of that kind of just moves the spotlight away from Trump's fantasies about what he thinks everyone should be talking about. There's this kind of energy from the Trump-Vance campaign about wanting to control people's personal lives that I don't think the country really has time for. And I think it's got to be tough for them not to hear it.

We see on our end, people coming to wisdoms.org and signing up to volunteer and to donate these huge responses to the rallies and first in West Allis, Wisconsin, now here in Eau Claire. There's so many people who want to be involved.

And I think the Harris campaign, by making moves day after day, by having this amazing process with the vice presidential pick and then this national tour and then the convention next week, it's really bringing the country's attention to an opportunity to close the book on the Trump era and move towards a brighter future where people can get back to living their lives and not having to worry about what Trump's going to do to them if he gets back into power.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, Ben and Emily, great to talk to both of you. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much.

WIKLER: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, I'll speak to someone who knew Governor Tim Walz as her senior class advisor and then worked on his very first campaign.

[10:15:05]

That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is hitting the campaign trail with Kamala Harris today after his official rollout as a vice presidential pick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: Minnesota's strength comes from our values, our commitment to working together, to seeing past our differences, to always being willing to lend a helping hand. Those are the same values I learned on the family farm and tried to instill in my students. I took it to Congress, and to the state capitol, and now, Vice President Harris and I are running to take those very values to the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:20:04]

ACOSTA: So, who is Tim Walz? He's a former teacher, coach, National Guardsman and was elected to Congress six times. Now, he's the Democratic pick for vice president. But Walz is still relatively unknown. 71 percent of Americans say they don't know who he is.

So, let's bring in someone who knows him pretty well. Meredith Vadis served as Walz's deputy chief of staff when he was in Congress. She had both walls and his wife as senior advisers in high school. Meredith, welcome to the program. Thanks very much for joining us.

What was your reaction when you heard that your governor and I guess former adviser was the vice presidential pick?

MEREDITH VADIS, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF TO THEN-REP. TIME WALZ: I am incredibly excited and so are all my other classmates. Honestly, the text messages came in fast and furious yesterday. People were in tears. They're so happy. And I think it says a lot about him that he still resonates with so many students. People are lining up to ask what they can do. Minnesota obviously is in a swing state, so we're looking for things, but we feel great.

ACOSTA: Meredith, standby, I'm sorry, I got to go to J.D. Vance. We're going to listen to J.D. Vance and dip in. We'll talk about on the other side.

VANCE: -- like Shelby Township, which the media would tell you is far away from the southern border and its problems. And geographically, of course, it is far away from the southern border, but it's not far away from its problems I heard just today, in the last couple of months about a mother and daughter who were just enjoying their day here in Shelby Township, and you had an illegal alien plow into them and kill this innocent mother and daughter. I talked earlier about this poor 11-year-old who had a heinous crime committed against this poor girl by an illegal alien, a person who was deported, who shouldn't have even been in this country in the first place. You can go through the list of things that are happening even here, and the simple message is we could do so much better.

So, to the American people, I'd ask you something very simple. Give these guys a federal government that makes it easier for them to keep American communities safe and not harder. One of the most heartbreaking stories I've heard on the campaign trail, and I've only been at this a couple of weeks, but one of those heartbreaking stories I heard was yesterday from two young kids, both teenagers. The youngest has been in four foster homes. And why have they been bouncing around? They've been bouncing around because their mother and father took fentanyl, that was certainly brought in by the Mexican drug cartels and that orphaned these poor children.

And so to the American people who have a chance to choose a better path in November, I'd ask you to choose the candidate who will stop that fentanyl from coming into our communities, who will stop our parents from losing their lives to this terrible fentanyl overdose and stop the children from dying as well. I'd ask you to vote for a candidate who wants to support our police officers, not make their lives harder. I'd ask you to support a candidate who wants to make it easier to deport illegal aliens and not harder. I'd ask you to support the candidate who has shown that he can deliver security in our streets. We just have to give him the opportunity to govern, and that's President Donald J. Trump.

The contrast could not be more clear between a candidate. Every law enforcement agency is telling you Kamala Harris is bad news. She makes it harder to keep you safe. Donald Trump is good news. He makes it easier to keep you safe. We ought to give him a second term in office and all of our communities will be safer and better and more prosperous because of it.

So, thank you all for what you do despite the policies of Kamala Harris. But I promise you in just six months, the cavalry is coming. You're going to have a federal government who makes your life easier, not harder, but only if the American people support us and get us over the finish line this election.

Now, I want to take some questions from the media, but before I do, just a couple of points. One, I'd like to start with Michigan reporters, people who are in this area So, if you are a Michigan reporter, raise your hand and I'll start with you.

The second thing I want to say is while we're on the topic of reporters, Kamala Harris had another scripted set of remarks before a teleprompter yesterday, and today marks 17 days where she has been the presumptive Democrat nominee and 17 days where she has refused to answer questions from the media. President Trump will go anywhere, into hostile audiences, into friendly audiences, and answer tough questions. I will go anywhere and answer tough questions, because I respect the American people enough to say that I should have to earn your vote. I shouldn't be expected to be given your vote while I hide in a basement or stand in front of a teleprompter, which is exactly what Kamala Harris has done.

So, I'd ask all the reporters here to show a little bit of self- awareness and demand that Kamala Harris actually do the job of a presidential candidate and speak to the media and speak to reporters. Until she does, you guys have got to stop giving her a honeymoon and pretending that she's something she isn't.

This is a person who said she supports the police, yet she promoted policies to defund the police. This is a person who says that she wants a secure border, but she has been the border czar for three and a half years while it's been wide open.

[10:25:04]

And this is a person who says that she wants secure American communities, yet all of the people who are -- the police officers who are ensuring that we have safe communities, they don't seem to like Kamala Harris. And you guys have got to ask her tough questions about why that is.

The media honeymoon for a person who runs away from the American people is disgraceful. It's not just disgraceful for Kamala Harris, it's increasingly disgraceful on the part of the media.

So, with that Michigan reporters, I'll start with you, sir.

REPORTER: I'm from C&G Newspapers and Iran and Hezbollah are in the news as the world waits for a attack on Israel. You said on a radio talk show this week you suspect that a number of Iranian related militias that have terrorist agents are within the United States thanks to the current administration. What -- do we know about these suspected Iranian agents or other terrorists and their leverage? And do you think they're preparing an October 7th-style attack in the U.S.? If so, how does a Trump administration, a future Trump administration or a potential one, navigate that Iranian leverage on their foreign policy?

VANCE: Sure. Well, first of all, let me just say that President Trump noticed that when he was in office, we did not have the world on fire. We did not have a war in the Middle East and a war in Europe and war threatening to break out in East Asia. President Trump was the candidate of peace and prosperity. He delivered peace all over the world. He would do it again if he was president of the United States.

Now, what's going on in Israel, again, highlights Kamala Harris administration. Kamala Harris is a person who says she wants the war in Israel to be over with and also that she wants to minimize civilian casualties. Well, I want those things too. Then why isn't she giving Israel the weapons it needs to minimize civilian casualties? And why isn't she giving Israel the weapons it needs to end this conflict quickly?

The best thing for the United States of America is for Israel to end its war, to destroy Hamas and then to rebuild the Abraham Accords of President Trump so that the Sunni Arab states and the Israelis can form a regional counterbalance to Iran. That is what is the best interest of our country, that's what's in the best interest of Israel, and it's telling that Kamala Harris refuses to do what she needs to do to keep America and its allies safe.

And the final point that I'd say is, yes, I believe that there are Iranian-backed militia groups in this country right now because we know thousands of people have come across the U.S. southern border who have ties to terrorism. Well, it really endangers our country and I fear we're going to have a very bad headline here and a lot of people who could lose their lives because Kamala Harris refuses to keep terrorists out of our country.

It's disgraceful, but it highlights the fact that unless you have a border, there is no peace and there is no security for American citizens, even in a place as far north as Shelby Township, Michigan.

Other questions? Yes. Thank you.

REPORTER: When Trump was at the NABJ conference, he was asked whether you'd be ready to assume the presidency on day one, and he responded by talking about how the vice president pick doesn't really impact the election outcome. Was that the response that you were hoping for from the former president?

VANCE: Well, what the president has said, and I agree with him, is that most people are voting at the top of the ticket. Now, Tim Walz is a crazy radical, of course. He allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis, but most people are going to be voting for Kamala Harris or for Donald Trump. I think it was a common sense observation. He said it before I was the pick. He said it after I was the pick, and I think he's absolutely right.

Now, I will say that on the vice presidential issue, it's interesting what Tim Walz says about Kamala Harris. Tim Walz is a person, again, who promoted rioters burning down the biggest city in his state. This is a guy who wants to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens. This is a guy who wants to take children away from their parents if those parents don't consent to sex changes for minors. This is a radical human being who comes from the far left wing of the Democrat Party.

And what Kamala Harris is telling all of us by selecting Tim Walz is that she bends the knee to the far left of the Democrat Party. She's done it every single time in government. She's done it in who she selected as her V.P. nominee, and she will do it if the American people give her a promotion to president of the United States. We don't have to guess at what Kamala Harris believes. The fact that she keeps on leaning on the most far left people in the Democrat Party tells us exactly who she is and what she stands for.

Sir. REPORTER: You're giving a policy to speech on immigration essentially today. What is the plan from the Trump team to execute this mass deportation? What will that look like in the United States? How will you make that happen?

VANCE: Well, I think it's very simple, actually. The first thing that you have to do, and the first thing that President Trump will do, is stop the massive inflow of illegal aliens in the first place. You got to stop the bleeding before you can actually fix the problem here. And we still have thousands of people coming across the border illegally every single day.

So, the first thing you do, you re implement deportations, you finish construction of the border wall, and you stop proposing mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

[10:30:03]

That solves the majority of the border problem on day one. President Trump already did it.