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Today, Trump to Speak on the Economy in Battleground North Carolina; Harris Campaign Blasts Trump's Economic Agenda; Inflation Falls Below 3 Percent for the First Time in Three Years. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired August 14, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

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

Today, former President Donald Trump is back in a battleground state for the first time in nearly two weeks, stumping this afternoon in North Carolina for the third time this year. This was the scene at the venue this morning, his supporters already gathering outside.

The Trump campaign is promising that today's event will focus on the economy. But the big question, of course, is whether he will stick to those economic remarks or revert back to his familiar outlandish attacks that we've seen in recent days on right wing media. His allies are begging for him to get back on script.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want this campaign to win. But the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb.

FMR. REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): You've got to make this race not on personalities. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR TRUMP ADVISER: The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see. It's fewer insults, more insights, and that policy contrast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So far, that's falling on deaf ears as Trump's often fact- free personal attacks against the vice president continue to remind voters that in his own words, he has not changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Kamala wouldn't have this conversation. She can't because she's not smart. You know, she's not a smart person, by the way.

What did she have yesterday? 2,000 people? I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size.

I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black. So, I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Joining us now ahead of Trump's visit to Asheville is the city's mayor, Esther Manheimer. Mayor Manheimer, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it.

I want to begin by showing the front page of the morning's Asheville Citizen Times newspaper, a great newspaper there in your hometown. It asks, why is Donald Trump rallying in Asheville? I think maybe the answer to that question is it is a pretty hotly contested battleground state this cycle. And I'm just curious, I mean, some of the recent polling that we've seen has shown kind of a shift from Trump to Kamala Harris. Are you hearing some of that from your constituents? What are you picking up on?

MAYOR ESTHER MANHEIMER (D-ASHEVILLE, NC): Well, first of all, thanks for having me on this morning. I would say what I'm hearing is a lot of excitement from Democrats, this has completely generated a lot of urgency in the campaign. We know there's less than 90 days until the election, and so a lot of excitement.

And, you know, seeing Trump come to Asheville to me speaks to the fact that North Carolina is in play. This is a state that went to Barack Obama in 2008 and something like that could happen again.

ACOSTA: And I love visiting the city of Asheville. It's a great place. I've been there lots of times, especially on those campaign trips. And I'm just curious, what are you hearing from your constituents in terms of what issues matter to them? I mean, I know a lot of times mayors hear about potholes and local issues and that sort of thing, but are there national issues that pop up and that you hear about?

MANHEIMER: Certainly. I mean, I think the economy is top of mind. People are concerned about the cost of living, they're concerned about affordable housing, but they're also concerned about health care and education and making sure that there's opportunity for everyone in our city.

ACOSTA: And as you know, Trump won North Carolina twice. As you mentioned, Barack Obama did win that state back in 2008. His margin of victory, a lot of people don't realize, has dwindled from 2016 to 2020. North Carolina was actually pretty tight last time around. Do you think Vice President Harris has a shot there?

MANHEIMER: Oh, absolutely. I think that's absolutely the case. We're already a battleground state. We have a gubernatorial race that's getting national attention. Candidate Mark Robinson for the Republicans is speaking today at the rally and he is getting national attention for all the wrong reasons. Josh Stein, our attorney general, is running for governor because Roy Cooper's term limited out at this point, and he's an fantastic candidate and I really hope to see him get elected.

[10:05:07]

So I think, you know, already things were in motion in North Carolina and we're ready to help catapult Kamala Harris to a win.

You know, in North Carolina, the voters here are very intentional. You know, in one election where Roy Cooper was on the ballot for governor, they selected him for governor. But at the same time, the state voted for Trump. So, this is a constituency that will zigzag their way down the ballot and be very thoughtful about each candidate they vote for. And in this case, I think there's an incredible opportunity for Kamala Harris to win North Carolina.

ACOSTA: And how big of an issue is the abortion issue in North Carolina? How much is that going to motivate voters? I know it's been a big issue on the state level.

MANHEIMER: Absolutely. And I think it's only because we have Roy Cooper here who can veto legislations that our Republican legislature puts forward on the abortion issue to continue to protect women's rights. We know that is on the line. And so each election counts to be able to preserve those rights for women. And right now, we're a state that still offers women choice. It's been limited, but still offers women choice. And so we're seeing folks travel here for their medical care. And we know the role we play nationally.

ACOSTA: All right. Mayor Esther Manheimer, thanks so much for joining us from the great city of Asheville, North Carolina. I always love visiting there. Thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

MANHEIMER: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. Meantime, the Harris campaign is taking former President Trump to task over his economic agenda, saying in a statement, no matter what he says, one thing is certain, Trump has no plan, no vision and no meaningful interest in helping build up the middle class.

Let's discuss now with Harris-Walz Campaign Spokesperson Michael Tyler. Michael, thanks very much for being here. Good to see you.

The vice president is set to roll out her agenda for the economy later this week in North Carolina. We're just talking to the mayor of Asheville. North Carolina is going to be a battleground. What can we expect to see from the vice president when she rolls out that economic plan?

MICHAEL TYLER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: Yes, well, good morning and thank you so much for having me. The vice president will obviously speak to this on Friday, so I'm not going to get too far out in front of her. But you can expect her to talk about the ways in which she wants to move this economy forward and lower costs for middle class families.

She understands that for too many families, prices remain too high. She wants to make sure that the American people understand the ways in which we can grow our economy and make sure that everybody has the opportunity, not just to get by, but to get ahead as we move forward here.

And I think that will be in stark contrast from what we see out of Donald Trump today, regardless of what he actually says. The man has one track record when it comes to the economy. He's the only president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs than when he entered office, right, given the way that he bungled the COVID response.

But we also know that his Project 2025 economic agenda would be nothing more than an across the board tax increase for middle class families, and folks like Moody's and other economists are saying that his economic policies would likely cause another recession into 2025. So, when it comes to the economy, we're going to have a very stark contrast for the next 80 odd days here between Kamala Harris and Tim Walz who are fighting an economy that actually works for working people and middle class families and Donald Trump who is working for an economy that only works for folks like himself.

ACOSTA: Michael, let me press you one thing, though. The Harris campaign is embracing a Trump proposal. Kamala Harris is saying she will fight to end taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers. Trump says that she stole his idea. What do you say to that?

TYLER: Yes. Listen, again, I would say that there's only one candidate in this race that actually has a track record of standing up and working for working people, and that's Kamala Harris. So, yes, she supports no taxes on tips wages for actual service workers, but she also understands, but Donald Trump doesn't understand that. That's not enough. That's why we have to increase the federal minimum wage. That's why we have to actually lower costs for middle class families. That's why we have to create an entire economy that actually works for working people.

Donald Trump's entire economic approach is only built to benefit people like himself. It's more tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, more giveaways for corporations, absolutely nothing that would actually benefit working people in this country. So, that's going to be the contrast as we move forward.

ACOSTA: You know, Michael, I'm sure this is not going to be the first time you've heard this question, but the Trump campaign is also going after the vice president for not doing enough interviews, for not holding a press conference. Would it kill you guys to have a press conference? Why hasn't she had a press conference?

TYLER: Listen, the vice president and Governor Walz have been busy crisscrossing this country since the launch of this campaign and adding Governor Walz to the ticket. You saw the ways in which they went across the battleground states last week generating rallies of thousands, 10,000 here, 15,000 there. [10:10:03]

ACOSTA: But, Michael, you know a campaign rally is not a press conference. Do you mind if I cut in? I mean, you know, a campaign rally is not a press conference. Why isn't she at a press conference? She's the vice president. She can handle the questions. Why not do it?

TYLER: We absolutely are going to do it. You hear her take questions as she's out on the stump and as she said last week we're going to be having a sit-down interview here before the end of the month. What she's going to be focused on and what this campaign is going to be focused on is communicating directly with the voters that are actually going to decide the pathway to 270 electoral votes. That's why she --

ACOSTA: Can she commit to a press conference this week?

TYLER: That's why we're doing a bus tour in Pennsylvania as we head into Chicago, and it's why we'll sit down for an interview before the end of the month to make sure that we can have a deep dive conversation about the vision that Kamala Harris has for where she wants to take this country and the contrast that we're going to have with Donald Trump. We're going to have plenty of opportunities to do that throughout the rest --

ACOSTA: Michael, but one interview by the end of month --

TYLER: (INAUDIBLE) of this month, and throughout the rest of this campaign.

ACOSTA: I don't want to, you know, belabor this, but one interview before the end of the month, I mean, that's not a lot. I mean, can you commit to a press conference before the end of the month?

TYLER: We will commit to directly engage with the voters that are actually going to decide this election. And that is going to be complete with rallies, with sit down interviews, with press conferences, with all the digital assets that we have at our disposal. We are running a campaign that is built to communicate with the voters that are actually going to decide the pathway to 270 electoral votes. We are confident in the plan that we have in place, and we're going to execute on that plan.

ACOSTA: And yesterday the Trump campaign tweeted out this meme hitting the vice president on immigration. It implies that if she wins, suburban neighborhoods would be overrun with black and Hispanic immigrants. What is your -- I'm sure you saw this. What's your response to that?

TYLER: Yes, this is Donald Trump's entire campaign tactic, division, fear, hatred, without actually offering any solutions to solve the problems. The vice president has been very clear about immigration and how she wants to tackle this challenge. She obviously wants to secure the border. If you want to look at an example of the ways in which these candidates want to approach this issue, the bipartisan border security deal that was ready to go and we signed into law, was tanked by one person, one person alone. And that was Donald Trump, because he's not actually interested in solving for the border problem. He's interested in serving himself. He's far less interested in border security. What he wants is made very clear in his Project 2025 agenda, it's mass deportation. It is the return of family separation. It's doing nothing to actually solve the problem. The vice president has said of that bipartisan border security deal gets on her desk, she will sign it, Donald Trump will not. That's all the American people need to know.

ACOSTA: All right. Michael Tyler, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

TYLER: Thanks for having me.

ACOSTA: All right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could say, as a woman, I believe that --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I can't identify myself as a woman. People can't know that. Men hate that. And women who hate women hate that, which I believe is most women. Don't you agree with that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: A classic scene, Selena Meyer is headed to the DNC. Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus is set to host a panel at next week's Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It's expected to feature all eight of the nation's Democratic women governors. Louis-Dreyfus won six straight Emmys for playing the first female vice president in the HBO series, which has seen a major resurgence following the launch of Kamala Harris's presidential campaign.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister joins me now. Elizabeth, this is one of my favorite shows of all time, and so I love that we're just talking about Veep. I mean, we could just do that all morning. But what do we know about this panel? How much of an influence is it going to be at this DNC to see all of these celebrities supporting Kamala Harris?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You know, before I answer your question, Jim, I want to say you are certainly not alone in wanting to talk about Veep all day long, because ever since President Biden stepped down and endorsed the vice president, viewership has surged 353 percent just the day after the Biden endorsing Harris.

But to answer your question, of course, this is going to be a big part of the strategy. We have seen a ton of celebrities come out to support the vice president and her presidential campaign. And Julia Louis- Dreyfus, she has a long history with the Biden-Harris administration. She spoke at the DNC in 2020. She did a bit with President Biden in 2014 at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Now, she is going to be hosting this panel that is putting the spotlight on the eight of female Democratic governors in the country. I've confirmed with their publicist that she is going to be moderating this panel and that she's very excited to showcase the women Democratic leaders in this country. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been a longtime Democratic supporter and she's also spoken about women's issues. Just this past week, she spoke about abortion and reproductive freedom.

And I want to read you a quote what she recently told The Hollywood Reporter about this panel.

[10:15:00]

She says, quote, throughout their time in office, Democratic women governors have made history, changed the conversation surrounding women in executive roles, and gotten big things done for the good people of their states. They've shattered marble ceilings and demonstrated excellent leadership. Their voices are essential.

So, again, we can expect her to be shining a light on issues that impact women in this country, but also on these female leaders.

ACOSTA: All right, we'll be watching. Now, you've got me in the mood to binge some Veep, but maybe I'll be doing that over the next couple of days.

All right, Elizabeth Wagmeister, thanks very much. I appreciate it.

Still to come, finally some good news for your wallet. CNN's Matt Egan is tracking this. Matt, we've all been waiting for these inflation numbers to come down. They're coming down.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: They are, Jim. We have a major milestone on the inflation front and even some falling prices at the grocery store. More after the break.

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[10:20:00]

ACOSTA: New this morning, some good news for your wallet. Inflation is dipping below 3 percent for the first time in three years.

CNN's Matt Egan joins us now. Matt, does this mean our trips to the grocery store won't hurt as much? And I suppose some of this reflects the fact that, I mean, we've been seeing like the big fast food chains lowering their prices, trying to offer new deals to consumers. I have to think some of this is having an impact.

EGAN: Yes, Jim, absolutely, good news on the price of food and the big milestone here. When you look at inflation overall is the fact that we now have sub 3 percent inflation, consumer prices up by 2.9 percent year-over-year. That's better than expected. And look at that chart. You can see the trend here, right? Things have really improved.

Just about two years ago, this metric was at 9 percent Yes. We had 9 percent inflation. Of course, that's when we had record high gas prices and price spikes on a whole bunch of items.

Now, I want to be clear. We are not saying that prices are plunging across the economy or that we're suddenly back to 2019 prices. That is not happening as much as we wish it would. But what is happening is that prices are going up at a more gradual pace, and that is very encouraging.

On the food front, we are seeing that supermarket prices have increased 1.1 percent year-over-year. That is encouraging as well. Some items are still getting more expensive. The Custard Grilla Hamburger is more expensive because ground beef prices are up. My kids are not going to be happy to see that hot dog prices are up 10 percent or egg prices are up 19 percent. But some items are actually falling in price. We saw a 1.6 percent drop for seafood, a drop for potatoes, apples are plunging almost 15 percent. So, all of that is encouraging.

One other item I want to call out here, Jim, is the price of men's suits. We've seen that fall 12 percent. I know that you're going to be happy to hear about prices falling for men's suits. And, look, when you put all this together, it does suggest that the Fed is going to be able to cut interest rates in September. The only question is how big of a cut and how many more cuts are they going to be able to do after that?

ACOSTA: Are you trying to get me to buy some new suits? I kind of feel like the show is kind of tired of looking at the same suits over and over.

EGAN: I'll take the nudge.

ACOSTA: And, Matt, more and more people are refinancing their homes. That's the other thing that's been happening. And a lot of this kind of got going when the stock. Stock market was going bananas a few weeks ago, but mortgage rates are dropping and they look like they're heading down.

EGAN: Yes, that's right. We have seen a massive improvement on that front. Last fall, mortgage rates were flirting with 8 percent. They have come down significantly since then. You could see it on that chart down to around 6.5 percent.

Now, that is not cheap, of course, but it is improvement and it is being driven by the fact that inflation has cooled off and that people are expecting the Fed to start cutting interest rates. And we're already seeing Americans take advantage of this. We saw just today new data came out showing that the refinance applications spiked 35 percent just in the last week, 100 percent from a year ago, and we could see people do even more refinancing if the Fed is able to start cutting interest rates. Jim?

ACOSTA: Yes, those refines (ph) are flying off the shelves right now.

Matt Egan, fascinating stuff, great information. I'm sure a lot of people are welcoming that relief right now. Matt, thanks so much.

EGAN: Thanks, Jim. ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, how safe are our elections? Russia, China, Iran, all trying to influence our politics. Can America stay ahead of the hackers? That's coming up.

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[10:25:00]

ACOSTA: This morning, we're following the latest developments at Iran's suspected targeting of the Trump campaign. Multiple sources telling CNN that federal investigators believe hackers were able to compromise the personal email of longtime Republican and Trump operative Roger Stone. Donald Trump blames Iran and Tehran denies the allegations.

In June, Microsoft and the FBI alerted Stone that his personal email was hacked. A Harris campaign official says last month the FBI alerted them that Iranian hackers were targeting the campaign. And this week the FBI announced It's investigating the cyberattack on the Trump campaign.

And joining us now at CNN National Security Analyst Beth Sanner, a former deputy director of national intelligence, and Miles Taylor, chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration.

Beth, let me start with you. First of all, guys, both, I appreciate you being with us. But how significant is this Iran suspected hack that we've seen in recent weeks? What does it mean moving forward?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, this particular hack is actually, you know, it's not particularly audacious or sophisticated. They found a weakness. Phishing campaigns are about human error, right, but it's part of a pattern.

And we shouldn't forget the context of this is that in 2020, Iran was actually the most aggressive of all of the actors in terms of the types of activities that they did, threatening U.S. voters, sending letters to individual Democratic voters pretending to be Proud Boys, for example. So, you know, it's part of a parcel. And I think that we risk kind of underestimating Iran because this particular hack wasn't very sophisticated, but it can have outsized effects.

[10:30:06]

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Miles, it sounds like they're trying it again.