Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Israel Braces For Iran Attack; Inflation Slows; Harris and Trump Push Economic Visions. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 14, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:49]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. This is a special edition of the CNN NEWSROOM. We are reporting live today from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Right now, senior U.S. officials, they're on their way here to the Middle East for Gaza cease-fire and hostage talks. They're set for tomorrow in Doha, Qatar. The effort to end the war comes as Israel is expecting Iran to attack at any time.

People here in Tel Aviv remain very, very nervous and tense about what's going on. We will have all the very latest developments on this important story coming up in just a few moments.

But, first, today, Donald Trump is back in a key 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 in Asheville, North Carolina earlier this morning. Supporters are already gathering outside.

The Trump campaign is promising that today's event will focus on the U.S. economy. Ahead of that speech, the Harris campaign is blasting the former president's economic agenda saying this -- and I'm quoting -- "We already know who Trump's Project 2025 economic agenda is assigned to benefit, Donald Trump and his wealthy friends" -- close quote.

The vice president, meanwhile, will head to North Carolina on Friday to pitch her economic plan.

And, this morning, major news about the U.S. economy. We just learned that inflation hit its lowest level since the spring of 2021. Much more on that coming up just ahead as well.

I want to bring in CNN reporter Alayna Treene and national politics correspondent Eva McKend. They're both joining us live from Washington.

Alayna, to you first.

Asheville, North Carolina, it seems to be a pretty blue part of North Carolina. So why is Trump campaigning there today? ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I actually had the same

question, Wolf. And so I asked the Trump campaign about this. I spoke with Brian Hughes. He's a senior Trump campaign adviser.

I'm going to just quickly read for you what he told me in response. He said -- quote -- "Unlike Kamala Harris, we are not afraid to go to any area for events, do debates with unfriendly moderators, or agree to unscripted interviews and press conferences with national news. It's called running for president. And it used to be something the media expected of candidates."

So, clearly, this was a bit of a dodge. They are really trying to emphasize their point that Donald Trump is showing up. He will be doing press conferences. We just learned that he's actually going to hold another press conference tomorrow at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

But, to be honest with you, Wolf, I think the real reason they chose Asheville is because it's a city where they can have a large venue and it's also tucked into a very conservative area. And so I think that's most likely why they selected that city for this rally.

But, look, there's no question that North Carolina is being viewed by both the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign as a battleground. Even though the state voted for Republicans in the last 10 out of 11 elections, Democrats have consistently run close in the state.

And so they have both been spending millions of dollars on reserving airtime as they look ahead to November. But I do, Wolf, just want to quickly point your attention to what I expect Donald Trump's speech to focus on.

So I talked to the Trump campaign about this morning. And they said, look, they know that Harris is expected to talk about health care and the economy this week. And so their big focus is to try to have Trump compare and contrast that.

Now, as for the economy, you can expect Donald Trump to try to talk about inflation, to say that America was better off, the economy was better off four years ago. He's going to have a specific emphasis on grocery prices. We actually saw the campaign spokesperson put out a statement on grocery prices this morning.

As for health care, they're going to try to claim that Harris is running away from Biden's health care agenda and also from her past health care beliefs, which is they're arguing that she once supported Medicare for all. Now she doesn't. That is going to be the goal.

But I think my big -- the big thing I'm looking for today, Wolf, is whether or not Donald Trump will actually be able to stay on message. We know he's been receiving a ton of criticism from within his own party, both privately, but recently in the last 48 hours publicly as well, telling him, stop with the personal attacks on Harris and start talking more about policy. That is how you will win.

[11:05:09] So we will see if he heeds that advice today.

BLITZER: I suspect he won't, but we will find out.

Eva, what will we see from Kamala Harris when she campaigns in North Carolina on Friday?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is going to be an economic plan really grounded in aiming to lower costs for middle-class families.

She will talk about increasing the federal minimum wage. She will argue that Trump's economic policies would cause another recession. Out on the campaign trail with her, she talks about taking on price gouging, taking on corporate landlords by capping unfair rent increases.

And they will have the money over the coming weeks to get this message out there, the Harris campaign announcing that they're launching a $90 million paid media buy throughout key battleground states for the last three weeks of this month aimed at sharpening the contrast with the former president.

Now, these campaign ads, they will lean into Harris' personal story, her career as a prosecutor in California, as they really seek to court undecided voters. We have a statement from the campaign on this ad buy.

It reads: "On the heels of our historic launch, we know that the more voters hear during the month of August about the differences between Vice President Harris' longstanding history of delivering commonsense solutions for the American people from her early days as a prosecutor to the present and Donald Trump's dangerous, extreme and out-of-touch Project 2025 agenda, the more they will know that Vice President Harris is the only candidate fit to lead our country over the next four years."

So we got that from the deputy campaign manager. They believe running an aggressive paid media campaign over the next few weeks to really ensure their message gets out there will help cement certain ideas with voters even before the fall.

You have heard the former president talk about how he's really going to get out there and make his case after the DNC Convention. They're essentially arguing today there's no time to waste -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Eva McKend, thank you very much. Alayna Treene, thanks to you as well.

I want to discuss what's going on right now with CNN political commentator Jamal Simmons. He's the former communications director for Vice President Harris.

Jamal, thanks for being here.

The vice president has been out there on the campaign trail talking about what she would do if she's elected in November. I want you and our viewers to listen to this. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will take on price gouging and bring down costs. We will ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: We will take on corporate landlords and cap unfair rent increases.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: And we will take on big pharma to cap prescription drug costs for all Americans.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: As you know, Jamal, Republicans have been arguing that Harris is already elected and hasn't addressed these issues during her time in the Biden administration. Is that a fair criticism?

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's not really a fair, Wolf.

Here's the reality. The vice president's been a part of the president's decision-making over the course of the last three-and-a- half years. So many of those Biden policies were policies that she helped pull together and policies she will talk about.

But she also has her own stamp on these policies, things that she's going to talk about that are going to be particular to her and her experience and the people she knows. Keep in mind, the vice president is one of these people who has friends and family members, her stepchildren, her godchildren who are at every age, whether they're in elementary school, like some of her nieces, couple of her nieces, or they're in college or just recent college graduates or newly married.

So she knows what people are going through. She knows what parents are going through. She knows what young adults who are trying to get housing and going through the inflation numbers. The macroeconomy under the Biden/Harris administration is doing extraordinarily well.

But there's a concentrated pain point for people when they go to the grocery store, they go to the gas pump. And that's the point where I think she understands intrinsically. It's not something she has to read about in the newspaper. She understands that that's the point where people need help.

BLITZER: We learned today, Jamal, as you know, that inflation in the United States has now dipped below 3 percent, this for the first time since 2021. Vice President Harris will be happy to talk about this report.

But Axios is also reporting she plans to distance herself from President Biden's unpopularity on the U.S. economy. How should she navigate this very sensitive top issue for voters?

SIMMONS: Well, again, Wolf, I think she's going to be talking about things that are really important about workers, wages, but then also I think we will hear later about wealth-building, because this is something she's talked about already, not just about getting by, but how do people get ahead?

[11:10:05]

One of the things -- there are all kinds of things she's been focused on when she was in the vice presidency, making sure people had good housing appraisals, because so much of our wealth is tied up in our houses. So she wanted to make sure that the appraisers weren't being -- weren't looking at people badly or being discriminatory, particularly toward people of color, and how they build their housing wealth.

I think she wants to make sure that people have access to capital, these Community Development Financial Institutions. We're talking about whether or not -- she just mentioned the other day about tipped wages, and whether or not people have to pay taxes on tipped wages.

So they're thinking about wages, thinking about workers, but then also thinking about how do those of us who are building wealth, whether they're in the working class, the middle class, how do we do that in a way that's going to be equitable?

So everybody participates in the American society. If there's one thing about the vice president that I knew working for her, she was always thinking about the people who weren't being talked about, the people who weren't being included.

And how do we make sure that more of those people get included and, when we're talking to them, we're being real, we're not just using big macroeconomic statistics? One of the things we laughed about when we were on -- when I was on her staff is, she would go into a city and we'd talk about the infrastructure investment that was happening in the city.

She didn't just want to know like, oh, we're going to spend a billion dollars in infrastructure. She'd go, where? What project? What street corner? So, we could say, on the corner of Fifth and Main, the Biden administration is going to spend X-number of dollars to repair that road and to build that bridge. She wanted to make it very plain for people.

So I think you could expect to see her do that as well when she gives the speech and talks about her own economic policies.

BLITZER: Jamal Simmons, thank you very much for joining us.

Still ahead, we're watching more news and much more on the inflation dipping below 3 percent for the first time in the U.S. since March of 2021. What that could mean for an interest rate cut and what it could mean for you.

Stand by. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:38]

BLITZER: Breaking news right now: Ernesto is officially now a Category 1 hurricane.

As it continues to plow through the Caribbean, hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico are without power today after the storm's winds and rain hit the island's very vulnerable power infrastructure. Ernesto is expected to unleash up to 10 inches of rain on Puerto Rico alone and could trigger very dangerous flash flooding and mudslides.

The storm is expected to move northward into the open Atlantic and could threaten Bermuda by the weekend.

This morning, Americans are also getting more news about inflation. Prices last month rose at their lowest level in more than three years.

CNN business anchor Julia Chatterley is joining us right now.

Julia, explain how the Consumer Price Index dipping below 3 percent might affect our viewers and essentials we all buy, for example, like groceries.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: Thanks, Wolf, both good questions.

The bottom line here, with inflation in the United States on an annual basis at around 2.9 percent now, I think it seals the deal from the Federal Reserve to be able to cut rates by a quarter-of-a-percentage point in September, barring any surprises. And I will always say that.

Food prices did rise again last month, which is uncomfortable, but it's more calibrated. It depends what you're buying. If you're a hot dog fan, prices, unfortunately, have risen around 10 percent over the past year. If you prefer a healthier apple option, for example, then those prices have fallen by 15 percent over the last year.

So it really is mixed. Let me show you what else contributed to the price rises that we saw. Shelter is by far the biggest component of the pressure on prices that we're seeing. It's painful, of course, because it takes around a third of Americans' incomes.

Affordable housing, let's hear that from the presidential candidates, because that really does stand out in this report. What did come down? Let's give you some good news in this as well. We did see motor -- trucks and car prices coming down, which was one of the big standouts in this as well.

Wolf, if there are people listening to this and thinking, why is she telling us this is good news when it still feels so painful, let me just give you a sense of how far prices have risen overall over the past two years. This data hasn't been updated for what we saw today, but it really does give you a sense.

Shelter, what I was just talking about, housing up 13 percent. If you have got rent payments of $1,000, you're paying an extra $130 a month. I think this is why voters want to hear solutions, rather than sympathy, from some of these presidential candidates, whether it's Trump today or Kamala Harris on Friday, but good news for now, fingers crossed Fed rate cut in September -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, we shall see. Julia Chatterley, thanks very much, important information indeed.

And still to come here in the CNN NEWSROOM: We are less than 24 hours away from what could be the most consequential round of cease-fire talks yet in the Israel-Hamas conflict. But Iran now says that meeting won't deter its threat of an attack against Israel, including right here in Tel Aviv, where I am. We will have a live report.

That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:24:35]

BLITZER: Welcome back to a special edition of the CNN NEWSROOM. We're reporting live from Tel Aviv.

Right now, senior officials from the Biden administration have already arrived or are on the way right now to the region. They are bound for Doha, Qatar, where Qatar is hosting the next round of Israel-Hamas cease-fire talks. The negotiations are set to get under way tomorrow, as Israel remains under the very, very real threat of a potential Iranian attack.

[11:25:05]

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is here with me in Tel Aviv right now.

And, Nic, I know you have some new reporting about what's going on. What's the latest?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, what we're hearing from the Israelis now that they're sending their usual delegation, their intelligence chiefs, Ronen Bar, the head of Shin Bet, David Barnea, the head of Mossad, but also Major General Nitzan Alon, who is in charge of essentially the intelligence around the hostages. These three men have been to most of these talks before. So this does

seem to indicate that the prime minister is giving a full team the authority to go. What we don't know is what they're going to talk about. And I think the other part of the dimension of what's happening at the moment, it's also about trying to stave off a Hezbollah attack.

Amos Hochstein has been in Beirut today, has talked to the press, has talked about the importance of trying to defuse the situation in Gaza to defuse the tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMOS HOCHSTEIN, WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL ENVOY TO LEBANON: The deal would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon. And that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war and create the conditions for the displaced Lebanese people to return to their homes in the south and the displaced Israeli residents to return to their homes in their north.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And so Hamas is sort of putting ambiguity into their position. They're saying that they will talk to the mediators after.

It's always been sequential and separate, proximity talks, not face- to-face talks, said they would meet with the mediators afterwards if Israel sticks to the framework that President Biden made out in May. That's quite a high bar from what we have seen over the recent weeks.

BLITZER: And in the midst of all of this, and I don't think it's coincidental, the Biden administration announced yesterday approval of an additional, what, $20 billion in U.S. military packages for Israel, including additional, 50 additional F-15 fighter jets, for example, a lot of mortar ammunition.

Give us a little background on that.

ROBERTSON: Yes, and important tank ammunition as well. It's exactly what the Israeli military needs to develop going forward.

But, of course, this conversation about this military package is something that's been in the works for a long time, which goes exactly to your point. When it's announced on the eve of these talks, there are many in the region that might interpret that as additional pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu, a carrot for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

It was certainly something that was appreciated by the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who said this shows a very strong support by the United States for Israel for the development of Israel's military going forward. Now, this is still a proposal. It isn't a done deal yet.

But I think the fact that this has come back into the foreground shows the way potentially that the United States is trying to say diplomatically to Prime Minister Netanyahu, look, let's keep this relationship as strong as it's always been, better still, stronger. But we also need and expect things from you. And that's a more moderate position in the talks with...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Yes, it's still got to go back to Congress. It can be blocked by Congress if there's what's called a resolution of disapproval. But I don't think Republicans, by and large, are going to vote against additional military assistance for Israel at this sensitive time.

All right, Nic, thank you very, very much for that.

Nic Robertson reporting.

Still ahead this hour: Republicans for Harris holding an online rally in support of Kamala Harris' presidential bid, the actor Mark Hamill among them. Their message, that's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)