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Ukraine Continues Attacks Inside Russia; Republicans For Harris Group Rallies Support. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 14, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:33:19]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Donald Trump may have won the Republican nomination by a wide margin, but the former president still faces some serious opposition from within his own Republican Party.

Last night, a group called Republicans for Harris held a call to mobilize disaffected GOP voters. Thousands of lifelong Republicans and former lawmakers shared their stories and made their case for putting country ahead of party. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: As a firsthand witness to the chaos of the Trump presidency behind closed doors, I can say this. We cannot go back.

AUSTIN WEATHERFORD, NATIONAL REPUBLICAN ENGAGEMENT DIRECTOR, HARRIS/WALZ CAMPAIGN: This is no longer the party of principles, and it shows.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): If we can defeat Donald Trump, then we can go back to the luxury of arguing about policy.

FMR. REP. JOE WALSH (R-IL): So if your neighbor, a Republican, doesn't want it to beat Trump's party, Trump's got to lose, and he's got to lose by a lot, and that means we Republicans have to vote for the only person who can beat him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's discuss with the former RNC communications director Doug Heye and Democratic strategist Laura Fink.

Doug, should the Trump campaign right now be concerned about these voices, disaffected Republicans in your Republican Party?

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They should.

And I will tell you specifically why, Wolf. It's not because of anything that we necessarily just heard. It's what I saw in Raleigh, North Carolina, earlier this year at a Nikki Haley rally, one of the last ones she had before pulling out of the race. The atmosphere in that room was very real, and those voters who were

there, they were very real,the ones who were wearing their T-shirts that said "Permanently Banned," suggest that they're less likely to go to Donald Trump in a swing state.

[11:35:06]

But, yes, one of the things that you do in campaigns is you bracket. You pull out surrogates. That's what the Harris campaign is doing here. This may be marginally effective, but in so many states where things are going to be marginally close, changing turnout models by 1 percent in this demographic or that demographic definitely matter.

BLITZER: Every vote counts, as they say.

Laura, Trump is getting some serious backlash over his comments about workers on strike earlier in the week. I want you and our viewers to listen to what he actually said and how Tim Walz is responding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you, you're the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, you want to quit?

(LAUGHTER)

ELON MUSK, OWNER, X: Yes.

TRUMP: They go on strike. They -- I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that's OK, you're all gone. You're all gone.

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Vice President Harris and I have both had the privilege of joining workers on the picket line. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, they see the world very differently than we do. They have waged war on workers and their ability to collectively bargain to take that away from them.

All's we're asking for is better wages, better benefits, better lives and dignity in the work that we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Laura, as you know, Trump is trying to win over union workers around the country, but isn't it hard to imagine that they'd actually buy this anti-union position he's advocating?

LAURA FINK, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think he's targeting a very small sliver of union workers with his rhetoric. And he thinks that he can win them over by insulting the rights that they fight for every single day.

This is not uncommon. The fact of the matter is that he has always sort of pretended to be about the working class, but then given big tax cuts to the wealthy and really given big corporations the upper hand when it came to those very fights that are happening at the bargaining table and on the shop floor.

So I just think it's going to fall largely on deaf ears and this is more of a media conversation than something that's happening. And, sure, there are conservative union members that will vote for Trump, but the question is, is he reaching the undecideds? And that's the type of thing that tells me absolutely not.

BLITZER: Yes.

Doug, today, Trump is campaigning, as you know, in North Carolina.

HEYE: Yes.

BLITZER: So what does that say about spending time there? How is your party performing at this critical moment in the race if Trump has to go spend some critically important time in a state like North Carolina?

HEYE: Yes, North Carolina is my home state. I have worked there a whole lot, Wolf. And it's a state that's been a perennial battleground now since 2008, when the Obama campaign did an amazing job of not just organizing, but really catching a North Carolina Republican state party asleep.

It's been close ever since. And what we have seen is, time has been invested by Donald Trump and certainly by Joe Biden as president, Kamala Harris as vice president, spending a lot of time in the state. And I know Harris is going to go back as well.

It's a critical battleground. I'd say two segments of voters are really important here, one, Hispanic voters. It's a very big, growing part of the state. Republicans and Democrats, for that matter, would be very smart in investing more resources in Hispanic media. Two, African-American voters. That makes a lot of sense. It's a high population of the state, but specifically young African-American voters.

What Barack Obama was able to do in 2008 was, he was able to turn the 11 HBCUs in North Carolina into absolute turnout machines. And that's something that is hard to replicate. But if Harris has this real enthusiasm and can match it with the organization, that can make a difference in the state that was the closest one that Joe Biden lost just four years ago.

BLITZER: The HBCU, the historically black colleges and universities, in North Carolina, and, as you correctly point out, there are several very, very important.

Laura, Trump's allies are begging him to stay on message and refrain from personal attacks. But we haven't seen that from him in recent days. What do you expect to hear?

FINK: Listen, Wolf, I have been wanting to talk about this for a long time, because, fundamentally, Republicans and Trump have made a mistake when it comes to Kamala Harris.

And that's that fun -- they just believe that she's not worthy of being on the stage. And when you believe someone's not worthy, you make errors in judgment. By underestimating her, they expected that the attacks that she was not qualified, that she was not presidential, not capable were going to land.

But at the same time they were throwing those punches, she was ascendant. She was filling stadiums with crowds who were enthusiastic. And what they saw before their eyes was someone who had gravitas, someone who was charismatic, and someone who had the full weight of her years of public service behind them.

Now, right now, we see just the latest steps with Donald Trump trying to come up with a nickname, trying to come up with an attack. But the reality is that there's no context in which that's believable for swing voters.

So, by underestimating her -- and I will let viewers decide why they may have done that -- they are not able to land that punch. And within just 90 days out, they don't have the traditional weapons that they usually employ of right-wing media to try to calcify and define her.

[11:40:12]

She has defied them. And that is what has enabled her to pull ahead in swing states from North Carolina -- or not ahead in North Carolina, but even to make North Carolina competitive. She's brought those voters you're talking about, Wolf, back to the Democratic tent with enthusiasm.

And she's got Republicans running scared. All the while, she's competing like she continues to be the underdog because she knows the race is going to be close. But if Donald Trump doesn't retool -- and there's some question as to whether he can -- he will just continue to unravel and become unhinged, which I think is the source of his problems day to day that we're seeing right now.

HEYE: Wolf, if I could say quickly, Kamala Harris has been very effective on the stump.

BLITZER: And she has certainly -- she has certainly...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Go ahead.

HEYE: Kamala Harris has been very effective on the stump. She's done very well. What she hasn't done and what she needs to do to be a good candidate and show that she really is strong is sit down with you or sit down with Dana Bash and take real questions.

We haven't gotten any questions yet or have her asked questions yet to determine, how she's going to react to those? Voters need to see that before they make those decisions.

BLITZER: She has certainly energized that Democratic base so far.

FINK: Well, if I can just say...

BLITZER: All right, Laura, very quickly.

FINK: Oh, I was just going to say that she's taken questions like before every plane ride, and she will get to that interview that I know my colleague is looking forward to. So am I.

BLITZER: We're looking forward to a full-scale interview with a serious journalist, to be sure.

All right, Laura Fink, thank you, Doug Heye, thanks to you as well.

HEYE: Thank you.

BLITZER: And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:46:03]

BLITZER: Ukraine now says its forces are making more advances inside Russia after last week's surprise cross-border attack.

The Russian military says it's shot down more than 100 Ukrainian drones and four missiles overnight, as Ukraine launched what it's calling its largest attack on Russian airfields since the war began.

Russia's Belgorod region on the border became the latest to declare a state of emergency, as fighting has forced thousands and thousands of Russians to evacuate.

A warning: What you're about to see may be disturbing.

CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A Russian attack gunship firing at Ukrainian forces from the air in the Kursk region inside Russia, while, on the ground, a Russian soldier's bodycam records what appear to be several killed Ukrainians near their destroyed armored vehicle, the Kremlin trying to show its forces are halting Ukraine's advances.

But the reality is this, more Russian civilians having to evacuate their towns and villages as Kyiv's troops press ahead.

"We left the chickens at home," this woman says. "We gave them two bags of grain, some water and left. Maybe there will be nothing to return to."

What seemed to be Russian prisoners of war transported in a Ukrainian pickup as a Ukrainian soldier spray paints the Ukrainian spelling of a town's name inside Russia. Kyiv's lightning offensive caught not just its allies off guard, but Moscow as well.

Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to publicly brush off Ukraine's incursion, meeting with the head of the Palestinian Authority in Moscow after earlier berating his generals to oust Kyiv's troops from Russian soil.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The main task for the Ministry of Defense is, of course, to drive and squeeze the enemy out of our territories.

PLEITGEN: Russia has vowed a massive retaliation. And Kyiv fears Moscow could launch even larger missile strikes at Ukrainian cities, but Ukraine's president vowing not to back down.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia needs to be forced into peace, especially if Putin is so set on fighting.

PLEITGEN: And Vladimir Putin's grip on power may not be as strong as some believe, Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was recently released from a Russian jail in a prisoner swap, said on CNN's "OUT FRONT."

VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION POLITICIAN: I don't only think, I don't only believe, I know that Russia will change, that I will be back in my homeland. And, as I told him, it's going to be much quicker than you ever think.

PLEITGEN: But, for now, Moscow says it will bring more reinforcements to its Southwestern regions to try and oust Ukraine's invasion force before it can dig in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: That was CNN's Fred Pleitgen reporting for us on the scene.

And joining us now for some analysis, the former CNN Moscow bureau chief and Georgetown University adjunct professor Jill Dougherty.

Jill, thanks very much for joining us.

First of all, what do you make of Ukraine's strategy here, moving troops inside Russia?

JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, psychologically, in a propaganda sense, it's huge. Obviously, militarily, it is too, the fact that they were able to just kind of walk over the border.

Russian intelligence didn't appear to be working on this or, if they picked anything up, they seem to have ignored it. It raises huge questions, I think, Wolf, in terms of how the military answered this and really questions about how Putin is answering this.

[11:50:11]

BLITZER: What do you think is Ukraine's end goal here?

DOUGHERTY: Nobody really knows.

And I think that's one of the questions. I mean, yes, there are theories they want to grab some land so that, if there's a peace agreement, that,eventually they can trade. They're actually obviously taking prisoners of war, and they can trade those.

There's also the idea that they want to embarrass Putin. And I think that could be part of it, changing the narrative with this really outrageous military step by Ukraine. There's no question that this is a real dilemma for Putin.

People who are being moved out of those areas, the Russians who are being moved out of those areas, on social media, you can see they're saying they feel abandoned by the government. They're not quite sure where they're going to go.

This is a real problem for Putin. And the people who are being brought in, the forces that we understand, a lot of this is unclear, are being brought in to fight against the Ukrainians are conscripts. And conscripts are young guys who are just brought into the military, not very well-trained.

Their parents are worried about that. So I think, on a social level, this is a real problem for Putin.

BLITZER: It's a huge embarrassment for Putin, I should say.

We're seeing new video, Jill, out of the region that appears to show a Ukrainian truck transporting blindfolded men in Russian military uniforms away from the border. How do you interpret what's going on here?

DOUGHERTY: Oh, I'd say they're probably prisoners of war, and they're probably -- this is just my personal opinion, but they're probably going to be used for exchanges. And that is another purpose for this military operation.

Interestingly, Wolf, Putin won't even use the word military here. He's calling it a terrorist act. His response is a counterterrorism operation. That too is kind of softening it, trying to make it seem as not as big a deal as it actually is, very similar -- remember, at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he said, it's not a war. This is a special military operation.

And you're seeing in some of this, again, social media on the Russian side some pushback and criticism for that, like, well, this is very much a military operation by Ukraine.

BLITZER: Very much so.

Were you surprised, Jill, to hear Russia has pulled reserves from key battleground areas inside Ukraine to help hold off this Ukrainian offensive inside Russia?

DOUGHERTY: I'm not, because, obviously, they're the better-trained troops. And what are they going to do?

The Ukrainians -- I think the real question is, how far do the Ukrainians go? Probably as far as they can. But will they try to hold that territory? What's the purpose? How long do they stay there? If they push too far, could the Russians surround them?

There's still a lot of lack of clarity about what the Ukrainians are up to, and that is probably part of what they're trying to do, keep it as opaque as possible. Keep the Russians trying to figure out, how do we respond? Where are those Ukrainian troops? It's a very, very important, I think, step in this war.

And, Wolf, we can't lose sight of the fact that Vladimir Putin right now is the first Russian leader since World War II to have foreign troops fighting on his soil. That is something that Mr. Putin, who's obsessed with history, would never, ever want to be said about him, but it's the truth.

BLITZER: It certainly is. You have got to give Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military a lot of credit for this very bold initiative, going across the border from Ukraine into Russia and going after Russian positions, and doing so pretty successfully, at least so far.

Jill Dougherty, as usual, thanks very much for your analysis.

Meanwhile, here in Israel, on the morning of October 7, Israeli photojournalist Ziv Koren grabbed his camera and his body armor and started driving towards Southern Israel near Gaza. Today, his haunting images are on display at the Shimon Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in nearby Jaffa.

I visited the exhibit and spoke to Koren on the eve of the cease-fire and hostage talks and asked him about what he's seen on his many trips inside Gaza. Listen to this.

[11:55:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZIV KOREN, AWARD-WINNING ISRAELI PHOTOJOURNALIST: The hostages should be everything we think about, because we will not return the dead after they were slaughtered on October 7, but there's definitely something to do while there are still hostages, Israeli citizens that were taken from their beds on October 7, and they're somewhere underground in Gaza.

This is unacceptable. This is something you cannot normalize and say, OK, we can live with that. No, we cannot live with that.

BLITZER: And you see what's going on in Gaza. What goes through your mind?

KOREN: It's a mixture of a lot of different feelings.

On one hand, everything needs to be done in order to find the hostages and to defeat Hamas. This is not a question. On the other hand, you see the destruction, which is horrible. And thinking that, at some point -- and I think that it should be Israel's responsibility as well to think of what's going to happen the next day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And you can see much more of Ziv Koren's story later tonight when he joins me in "THE SITUATION ROOM" starting 5:00 p.m. Eastern, a special two-hour edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM."

To our viewers, thanks very much for joining me. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Tel Aviv.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts right after a very short break.