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Trump Dismisses Harris' Momentum, Massive Crowds; Harris Expected To Roll Out Her Economic Policy This Week; Defense Secy. Austin Orders Sub To Middle East, Speeds Up Arrival Of Strike Group Ahead Of Anticipated Iran Attack. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 12, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:45]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. This is a special edition of the CNN Newsroom. We're reporting live today from Tel Aviv, Israel. And there are growing tensions here in the region of an all- out potential war. We'll have all the very latest developments, very, very important developments coming up in a few moments.

But first new this morning, the Trump -- Trump campaign is placing its largest ad buy of the race, at least so far. And they're getting big on two-must win swing states. We're talking about Georgia and Pennsylvania. Meantime, in the Midwest, the former president is now facing warning signs and troubling polls which show Vice President Kamala Harris now leading in the critical blue wall states by a sizable margin.

The fresh wave of Democratic enthusiasm has Trump once again making outrageous claims, saying this weekend with no evidence that Kamala Harris is using artificial intelligence, AI, to create images of, quote, fake crowds. Of course, there's no truth to that. You can see right here, Harris objectively brought out big crowds at her events over the past several days.

And only moments ago, the former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy offered Trump some advice on how to address Paris crowd size. He simply said, don't. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN MCCARTHY, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: You've got to make this race not on personalities. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as Attorney General on crime. Question, what did she do when she was supposed to take care of the border as a czar. Question that they brought inflation. And she was the tie breaking vote when it came to inflation, when it came to IRS agents.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: New polling shows that for the first time in this presidential race, Americans think the Democratic candidate will do a better job handling the nation's economy. I want to bring in CNN's Phil Mattingly. He's joining us live from Washington right now. So Phil, walk us through some of this new polling. It's pretty dramatic.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's no question about it, Wolf. And I think when you look at the battleground states, when you look at the national polling, what you're seeing is a shift based mostly on Democrats coming home. This race has become the race that I think a lot of people expected in a very polarized electorate before Joe Biden dropped out of the race and was having serious issues with that Democratic coalition over the course of several months.

However, the numbers on the economy are striking, and if you're the Trump campaign or Republicans who support that campaign, very problematic. You see right there the financial term -- Times-Michigan Ross Survey, Harris at 42 Trump at 41, that is a seven point jump for the Democratic candidate since the last time the survey was taken. The first time in the nearly year that the survey has been taken, the Democratic candidate holds an advantage.

Now, it's not a statistically significant advantage. Donald Trump, still, in many other polls, holds a clear advantage on the economy. But the fact that Harris is not being tagged with kind of the economic doldrums that many people had placed on President Biden for month after month after month underscores a real concern for Republicans, particularly when you look at some of those broader surveys.

Take a look at some of the New York Times-Sienna polling on those swing states in each of the critical blue wall battleground states, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, while they are within the margin of error, Harris has certainly bumped up from where Biden had been with a four point lead in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. If you look at the national polling from New York Times-Siena, Harris still within the margin of error, but with a lead in that polling more than anything else, showing that there has been a jump.

So, Wolf, when you put all of this together, it has certainly been a good few weeks of momentum, both on fundraising, on volunteers, on polls, no question about it. What the real concern is, is on the issues that Trump has long held a very clear advantage, perhaps that gap is closing as well.

BLITZER: As you know, Phil, Kamala Harris is set to roll out her economic policy in the coming days. What should we expect?

MATTINGLY: You know, what's fascinating about this is, throughout this kind of burst of momentum of these first several weeks, we haven't seen many tangible new policies coming out of Vice President Harris or the Harris campaign. In large part that's because she's very aligned with where President Biden, where the Biden-Harris administration has been on the economy.

[11:04:58] Now, over the weekend, she did endorse, proposal first put forward by former President Trump, no tax on tips, doing that in the critical state of Nevada, where that is very important for service workers in that state, putting a very explicit guard rails on what she would want to propose, which is a little bit different from the former president. When you talk to economic advisers, though, in the White House or who have worked for the Harris team, they talk constantly on bringing costs down critical components of President Biden's agenda that did not get over the finish line during his legislative kind of burst of success in his first two years, the care economy, home care, child care, things of that nature are areas where Harris has been focused on.

Expect to see proposals along those lines. And more than anything else, there's a recognition inside the campaign costs have been too high. Inflation has been very problematic. That is an area where they need to focus, want to focus. How they decide to address that, though, we're going to have to wait and see in the coming days, Wolf.

BLITZER: And Phil, the Trump campaign, as you know, has just placed its largest ad buy of the election so far, $37 million. What states are being targeted?

MATTINGLY: You know, I -- I think this is the most fascinating kind of piece of information that we've got right now. You can read anything you want in a lot of the polling and things are fluid as we try and get our heads around a very new race, where the campaigns are spending, that's what tells the story, and where the Trump campaign is spending a $37 million ad buy and ad reservations starting this week through the election, tells you all you need to know, with millions of dollars going to states like Georgia, $23 million for Georgia, but also states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, more than $4 million.

Just a few weeks ago, Wolf, Republicans were pretty confident that despite what Democrats wanted with that state, that Trump has won twice, that was pretty much going out of reach. Now, clearly spending money there trying to defend that Republican held state. But more than anything else, when you look at these numbers, the combination of the 23 million in new reservations in Georgia and now with the new Pennsylvania money in total, more than 30 million in that state. That says everything, because, Wolf, Democrats can hold on to every single state that President Biden won in 2020. But if they lose Pennsylvania and Georgia, Donald Trump ends up with exactly 270 electoral votes, and Donald Trump would be the next president of the United States. That's why the Trump campaign going very big on those two states. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, extremely big indeed. All right, Phil, thank you very, very much.

I want to discuss all of this with CNN political commentators, Jamal Simmons and David Urban, and also joining us, our senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein. David, let me start with you. Harris's momentum is clearly getting under Trump's skin. Take a listen to what he's said about her crowd sizes and his own in the past week alone. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They said, oh, she had a big crowd. All had a crowd the press is talking about the crowd. In New Jersey, I had 107,000 people. The press never even talked about it, because they're fake.

I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size in history for any country. Nobody's had crowds like I have. Nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, we actually had more people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: David, why is crowd size such a big deal for Trump?

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Wolf, I can't answer that. But I can't answer -- I -- I can't make a suggestion just like former Speaker McCarthy did, stop talking about it. If we -- I -- I didn't know how many minutes the -- the former president spoke there, but I wish he would have spoken about Kamala Harris's policies. Let's talk about them. Let's talk -- she ran for president before. She wants to take Americans guns away. She wants a single payer healthcare system. She wants to end fracking in Pennsylvania, on and on and on. Let's talk about those things.

Let's talk about the failed Biden-Harris administration that we're currently in right now. She's trying to run as an outsider, which is really the consummate Insider. She's the current Vice President of the United States, so she's trying to divorce herself from the Biden- Harris administration. Her name is on the door. Tough to do. Let's talk about those things, Mr. President. Listen, talk about the issues.

If we make this about personalities or crowd size, we're going to lose and you see that in the polling. The polling currently reflects that, because we're not talking about issues that matter to Americans. Run away, inflation, a porous border, crime, failed policies, and -- and Afghanistan, the Middle East. Let's focus on those. Let's drive those home. From now the Election Day, Donald Trump will be the next President, if he talks about those.

If he continues to talk about crowd size, Kamala Harris is going to be president. And I don't want to see that. So Mr. President, let's focus.

BLITZER: Let's see if he does. Jamal, the Harris campaign is now mocking Trump's crowd size on Trump's own social media platform, Truth Social, is that the right move, or should they just ignore it?

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, what they're trying to do is to go at Trump in a way that gets underneath his skin. I think here's what maybe is up. It's hard to get into the head of Donald Trump. But if we were just try for a minute to take kind of a magical mystery tour through Donald Trump's head, I think what he may be trying to do, first of all, everything's about him. It's not about the voters. He's not ca -- he doesn't care about inflation that much, doesn't care about the impact for people on getting childcare for their families, or any of the things that -- that people want to talk about.

[11:10:24]

What he cares about is his own strength, his own attention in media, his own attention and how much people pay attention to him in the media. But I think what he also understands is, you go after somebody on their strength. This is a classic Republican tactic. You go after them on strength. And right now, the Harris campaign is energy campaign based on energy. It's all momentum. George H.W. Bush called the Big Mo, right? This is all momentum. And if he can try to find a way to blunt her momentum, maybe he can get back in this race.

It's the same reason he's going after her on attributes, because, again, people are for her because of who she is, the -- the big issue she represents, the freshness, the newness, getting us out of this funk of the last couple of candidates. So she -- if he can -- if he can find some way to do that, I'm sure he thinks that that will give him a chance to get back in. The problem is we don't have a lot of time. And usually when you're running those kind of campaigns, as we're taking on somebody like that, you need enough time to get in to the voters' minds. And we just don't have it.

BLITZER: And Ron Brownstein, Trump is suggesting that Harris should be disqualified from the entire race, saying this, and I'm quoting now, the creation of a fake image is election interference. Anyone who does that will cheat at anything, close quote. Of course, Harris did not do that. But are you concerned about the former president spreading this sort of rhetoric that led, as we all remember, back to January 6th?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, well, first, Wolf, just going back to the clip you played at the news conference last week. That was the oldest I've ever seen Donald Trump look. He looked old. And, you know, it was a reminder that if not for Biden's performance in the June debate, we would have been talking about how disorganized and at times incoherent Donald Trump was.

You know, polling has shown it was completely eclipsed, because 75 or 80 percent of Americans said they worry that Biden had lost the physical and cognitive ability to do the job. But consistently, around half or slightly more of Americans have said they also worry that Trump is too old to be president. And with Harris as the backdrop now as Biden, that is suddenly, I think, a -- a weakness and a glaring issue. And -- and that press conference really underscored it.

I mean, he was really incapable of delivering a coherent message. And I mean, it's hard to say what -- what he came out there to do, other than to insult her intelligence. Now, certainly on your question, yes, he continues to, you know, frame the election as we win or they cheated. Those are the only two options out there. And in the process, he reminds voters of the other aspects of his presidency that they didn't like. His retrospective job approval has been going up against Biden because voters were measuring him, mostly by the yardstick of what they disliked about Biden, which was inflation and immigration.

Primarily with Harris as the -- as the foil, the comparison is different. And when Trump does things like call preemptively, call into question the validity of the election, he reminds voters of why his approval rating never reached 50 percent at any point when he was president even though they were broadly satisfied with the economy.

BLITZER: And David, I want to get to you because I think this is pretty significant, a new poll now showing for the first time in the 2024 presidential race, voters across the country think the Democratic -- the Democratic candidate is better suited to handle the U.S. economy. How concerned should the Trump campaign -- campaign be about this big shift?

URBAN: Well, listen, Wolf, any -- polls are snapshot in times, but it -- it is concerning to me. What Ron just said is concerning to me. People -- she's -- the -- the Vice President is trying to divorce herself from the failed economic policies and the failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration. She's a part of the team. So inflation, she owns, the border, she owns, crime, she owns, Afghanistan, she owns. But she's running as an outsider, and the Republicans are allowing that, the media is allowing that, the press are giving her pass.

Wolf, people need to ask her tough questions. She ran at '20, she had all these policy positions, yet no one's asking her about, you know, Madam Vice President, you were the champion of the Green New Deal, but you sent out a spokesperson to say, now you're for fracking. Can you explain that to Pennsylvanians? Can you explain to Pennsylvanians how, you know, they shouldn't be afraid of you coming to take away your guns, but yet you advocate for a mandatory gun buyback.

That's not you going and optionally turning your gun, that's somebody from them -- from the government, showing up at your door saying, give me your gun. Tell Pennsylvanians why they shouldn't be afraid about that. Nobody's asking her those questions. She's allowed to float on this good vibe, and no one's asking her tough questions. Of course she's going to do well, of course we should be concerned. I'm concerned that the media is not holding her to the same standard that hold any other candidate too.

[11:15:07]

BLITZER: Yes. I think poll significant if it's still the economy stupid, as James Carville used to say, as a lot of us remember, it's the economy stupid, if that's the -- the key issue, and the Democratic candidate is now seen as doing potentially a better job with the U.S. economy than the Republican candidate, that would be very significant. Go ahead, Jamal, you want to add a point?

SIMMONS: Yes. So, you know, I -- I hate to disagree with my friends, James and Paul from, they're right sometimes it's the economy is stupid. But it's not always the economy. It's not always just the economy. When George Bush ran in 2004 it wasn't just about the economy, it was about national security, right? So in this election, I think Democrats didn't want to fight this election on the economy, didn't want to fight this election on the inflation. They wanted it to be on abortion, the freedom for women to have rights their own -- of -- of their own lives. We wanted to be about democracy.

And if we're holding, if we're even, if Kamala Harris is even on the economy, and we still haven't started talking again about abortion and democracy, this thing is a wrap. But I do want my friends in Democratic Party, just hold it a little bit.

URBAN: It -- it -- it's about the economy in Pennsylvania, I promise you.

SIMMONS: No, no. We're not saying the economy is not important. What I'm saying is people aren't voting for Democrats because of the economy. They're voting for Democrats because they're afraid that Donald Trump wants to take away the democracy they hold so dear, and that is the thing to hold on to. But Democrats to have a little -- a little caution on one issue. There -- there's a debate that's going to come up.

Remember this, Kamala Harris hasn't been in a debate since she debated Mike Pence four years ago. Donald Trump has been in a couple of debates since then. She does not -- she has not been in this debate format. So I think Democrats should give her a little bit of space to have maybe a slow start. Give her a little bit of space to have some time to learn how to do the debate format. Again, she's going to do very well against Donald Trump. She's got a lot of bullets in her arsenal. But let's not oversell what's going to happen this debate. Donald Trump will not be a whimpering pile of tears when it's debates over. This is going to be Trump versus Harris in a very --

URBAN: Jamal is smart. Jamal is a smart guy.

BLITZER: All right, guys, stand by. Everybody stand by. We're going to continue this conversation down the road to be sure. David, Jamal and Ron appreciate it very, very much.

Still ahead this hour, we're getting new details right now from where I am here in Tel Aviv, where Israeli officials are now anticipating a major attack by Iran. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has just ordered this nuclear powered U.S. submarine to deploy to the eastern Mediterranean, not far away from where I am, here in Tel Aviv. What that says about America's assessment of a potentially wider conflict? Stay with us. Lots going on.

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[11:22:19]

BLITZER: Welcome back to a special edition of the CNN Newsroom live from Tel Aviv. And there's breaking news. Breaking news overnight, the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has just ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East, to the eastern Mediterranean, and asked a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group to get to the region as soon as they can. All this, according to a public Pentagon statement, and it comes as Israel is bracing for what it anticipates will be a large scale attack from Iran, which could come at any moment. And as pressure is building on Israel and Hamas to return, to resume ceasefire talks later this week.

Joining us now are CNN chief international editor Nic Robertson. He's here with me in Tel Aviv, along with CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier, who's in Washington and retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt. Nic, we're getting a lot of information, and there's a lot of worrisome developments. People are getting nervous right now here in Tel Aviv, elsewhere in Israel as well. What's the latest? What are you hearing?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I think there's less diplomatic optimism that the talks on Thursday will actually go ahead or can produce a result that's going to convince Iran not to strike at Israel. And the concern is that because the mood music and the diplomatic talk ahead of these important negotiations is looking bad that Iran may choose to strike even before those talks start.

I think when you talk about U.S. defensive missile capability and cruise missile capability being brought in closer and quicker, that speaks to the potential for Iran to strike before that deadline. However, others are telling me, other diplomats in the region are saying, look, there still is space for diplomacy, but it looks more tenuous at the moment. And I think that's the position we're in by bringing in the USS Georgia, this nuclear powered cruise missile capable submarine, you give the United States the ability not only to support Israel and defend Israel from Iranian strikes, but also better support and defend U.S. troops in the region in Iraq and Syria. And that's significant, because a bigger escalation could well put them, not just the Israeli population, in danger here.

WHITFIELD: Yes. A significant developments indeed. And, you know, what I -- I assume is that there's a public statement that the Pentagon issued with this submarine. I spent years as a Pentagon correspondent. I don't remember very often the Pentagon publicly announcing the deployment. Yes, they announced aircraft carrier battle groups where they're heading this time to here in the eastern Mediterranean, but a -- a nuclear powered missile submarine, they usually keep that very, very quiet.

[11:25:08]

ROBERTSON: One of the most important and useful strategic assets that the military has, because the enemy doesn't know where it is. So why would you state that it's coming into this tiny body of water in the eastern Mediterranean if it's not to communicate the strong signal, typically, you would be trying to keep them out of the eyes of the -- the Russians or even the Chinese these days. It is significant that it will be stated public.

BLITZER: Yes. Let me get General Kimmitt into this conversation. General, what do you make of this public announcement by the Pentagon that this submarine is now being deployed? I see it personally as an effort by the U.S. to have some sort of deterrent to the Iranians, think twice before you attack Israel, because the U.S. now has aircraft carrier battle groups, nuclear powered missile submarines in the region, which could cause you a lot of harm. BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY (RET.): I think you got it exactly right, Wolf. This is about deterrence. And to some extent, it's about defense. But the fact remains is that tea lands, the cruise missiles on those submarines are primarily offensive in nature, in the sense that they can reach out throughout the Middle East, into Iran, if necessary, and take out key targets such as launch sites, such as resupply sites.

But more than anything else, I think Secretary Austin is sending a clear message of capability, perhaps not intention, but a capability as a deterrent to Iran from conducting exactly as Nic said, either attacks on Israel or attack on U.S. assets in the region.

BLITZER: Yes, I think it's clear that what the U.S. is telling Iran, right now, you mess with Israel, you're going to be messing with the United States as well. Kimberly, President Biden, was asked about a ceasefire, potential ceasefire deal, this past weekend. Here's some of what he had to say. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is a ceasefire possible before the end of your term?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes. It's still possible. The plan I put together, endorsed by the G7, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, et cetera, is still viable. And I'm working literally every single day to and my whole team to see to it that it doesn't escalate into a regional war, but it easily can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Easily can, very strong words from the President. Could an attack Kimberly by Iran before this week's planned talks, they're scheduled to be take place either in Cairo or Doha, Qatar on Thursday, could an Iranian attack further derail any possibility at all of a ceasefire in Gaza and a return of the hostages?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I can't see Israel agreeing to take part or agreeing to the current deal on the table if they face a massive attack by Iran, especially if coordinated together with missiles from Hezbollah in Lebanon that could reach much more of the country than the previous Iranian April missile barrage of some 300 missiles and armed drones, et cetera. And it's the kind of thing that in the past, has led Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to recalculate with a certain degree of public support, but more importantly, a certain degree of pressure from the right wing side of his coalition.

So if there is an Iranian attack before Thursday, it does head off the negotiating room that the U.S., Britain and others, had tried to create, together with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries that met in Jeddah last week, trying to convince Iran, hold off. Let us see if we can try to produce a real ceasefire. Give talking a chance. BLITZER: Tension clearly escalating here in the Middle East right now. Nic Robertson, thank you very much, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, thanks to you as well. Kimberly, stay with us. I have more questions for you.

[11:29:14]

Coming up, burned out vehicles on the side of the road. That's the scene in parts of Russia, yes, Russia right now. How Vladimir Putin is reacting to Ukraine's surprise military offensive inside Russia. We have details, that's next.

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