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Democratic National Convention Opens in Chicago as Harris Edges Trump in Polls; Harris, Walz Take Part in Phone Bank During Pennsylvania Bus Tour; Interview with Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) about Joe Biden Attending the DNC and the Harris-Walz Ticket; Heightened Security Ahead of Democratic National Convention. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 18, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:20]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You see it right there, the stage is now set here in Chicago. We're less than 24 hours away from the opening of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Thanks so much for joining us for our CNN special coverage. I'm Jessica Dean here in Chicago.

Vice President Kamala Harris' ascension to the top of the ticket making this a dramatically different convention from what we were all anticipating just even a month ago.

Let's take a look at this week's schedule. Opening night will now feature the man many thought would be accepting the nomination on Thursday, President Joe Biden. Former President Barack Obama headlining Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we'll see Governor Tim Walz delivering his vice presidential acceptance speech. All building to Thursday night when Harris will accept the Democratic nomination for president.

A party that was struggling to gain any momentum will be going into this convention with a wind at their backs. A new "Washington Post," ABC News, Ipsos poll out this morning showing Harris up four points in a head-to-head matchup with Donald Trump. That is outside the margin of error.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is joining us now. And Jeff, we're looking at live pictures of the vice president with her husband, Tim Walz and his wife. They are in Pennsylvania on this bus tour as they go through that critical battleground state just outside of Pittsburgh.

Again, Jeff Zeleny joining us now. And Jeff, they're on the bus tour looking to Thursday, of course, when she's going to accept this nomination and they've got some momentum that we're seeing bear out in new polling.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: They certainly do. And it looks like the vice president is getting a bag of Doritos. Looks to me like WaWa and Sheetz perhaps.

DEAN: I think it's a Sheetz -- yes. I think it's Sheetz because they're in Pittsburgh or outside of Pittsburgh.

ZELENY: OK. So you would know, you obviously are a veteran of Pennsylvania reporting. And my guess is if she had the Sheetz, she will go to a WaWa later.

DEAN: She must.

ZELENY: Because that's what they do.

DEAN: You have to.

ZELENY: But speaking of the Doritos there, I'm just thinking back to earlier this week. She said when Donald Trump was elected she was binging Doritos, sitting on a couch watching that. So that's certainly an interesting trajectory. Should we listen? I'm not sure if she is speaking there or not, I guess just buying snacks.

DEAN: We'll keep an ear out and when she starts talking we'll listen, for sure. But again, like these moments, these kind of just stops there on this bus tour as they try to really humanize her and make her personal to people.

ZELENY: Right. And making her way here, obviously Western Pennsylvania, so critical. And really that is part of the blue wall that President Biden obviously won, that four years earlier went to Donald Trump. But as she makes her way here in Chicago, we were looking at those polls earlier. The national polls certainly are more in the vice president's favor than they have been within the margin of error.

But if you look at the CNN Poll of Polls, that is also very interesting. This is an average of all the polls and that shows her with just a slight edge about 50 percent to 48 percent or so. But let's look back to these swing state polls. When we talked to delegates here, this is what they're focused on. North Carolina now is a central battleground.

DEAN: Which is incredible, right?

ZELENY: And it was not before.

DEAN: Yes.

ZELENY: And I was spending some time there just a couple of days ago and it's clear that it is because Donald Trump is focused on it, spending millions there and also Arizona and Georgia. Those were effectively out of reach for Democrats with President Biden on the top of the ticket. Georgia is the only one where former president Donald Trump is in the lead there.

So the bottom line to this, it's a new race. It's a new day, and now she has a campaign ahead of her that she has to win. I mean, there's no sense of over-confidence. I think there is a sense of excitement here, but at the end of this week, they're really trying to fill in some of the gaps around who she is. You think we know Kamala Harris, but, you know, she's not that well-known about her life story. So that's what this convention is about.

DEAN: It is interesting because in that polling she more than Donald Trump -- and this isn't surprising. He's very well-defined. Americans have a very solid opinion of him one way or the other. She is less so and so it is an opportunity for Democrats. It's also an opportunity still for Republicans.

ZELENY: Without a doubt, and some Republicans are sort of frustrated that Donald Trump has been talking about everything but trying to define her and has a month gotten away. Come November, I think we will look at the last month really from the Republican convention until now at, you know, whichever happens as how they defined her or missed the opportunity.

But I think the bottom line from this convention as well, change elections are winning elections. So she is a change candidate but to the degree to which she's able to sort of show change and embrace the Biden administration's record as she needs, but also make this not a referendum on that. This is a choice election, so she is also going to be laying out a stark contrast with the former president.

We got a hint of it in her economic speech on Friday in North Carolina, and she was really shining a brighter light on the Trump tax policies and we've seen up until date, shining a brighter light on what his inflationary policies on some respects would do.

[18:05:10]

So I think there'll be a little bit more substance of this convention as well.

DEAN: All right, it's going to be fascinating to see, Jeff Zeleny. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it.

ZELENY: You bet.

DEAN: And I want to bring in Patti Solis Doyle now. She was Hillary Clinton's campaign manager in 2008, also worked with the Obama campaign and then Vice President Joe Biden. She joins us now in Chicago.

Patti, it's great to have you here.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Great to be here. Thanks.

DEAN: You have had a front row seat to so many campaigns and so many Democratic campaigns, and conventions for that matter. This goes without saying as we just laid out kind of a wild time for all of these reasons. This last month has been incredibly tumultuous up and down and all around. So we know that. Bake that in. But how do you think this convention and this moment in time for Democrats compares to previous cycles?

SOLIS DOYLE: Well, first of all, for all the wildness and the ups and downs in the last month of the most unprecedent events, seismic events that have been going on, it's still going to function as what most conventions function as, right? One is sort of the rah, rah, the whoop, whoop, unite your base, keep them revved up, make sure that they're ready to go knock on doors and make phone calls and vote and all of that stuff.

And then also a sort of defining narrative of who your nominee is. And I think that's the two functions of this campaign still. You know, when Harris really clinched the nomination 24 hours after Joe Biden withdrew, there was going to be a race between the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign as to who could define her first because whoever could do that really I think would have had a leg up in the general election. And it turns out that the Trump campaign has really sort of stumbled and haven't been able to zero in.

And Harris really has. She's put herself as the change candidate, someone who is looking towards the future. And I think that's what we're going to see as her defining narrative this week.

DEAN: And we're going to hear from President Joe Biden, and I want to ask you about that in a minute, but first, we're going to hear from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state. Of course, the first woman the Democrats nominated for president. Vice President Harris will be the second.

I'm curious as someone who played a role in a lot of that, what kind of impact do you think Clinton's candidacy is having on Harris's, and how maybe even the American people are kind of metabolizing that as well?

SOLIS DOYLE: That's such a great question because I think Monday night is, yes, about passing the torch but it's also about hearing from the two people who allowed Harris to be where she is, as the nominee of this party because if it weren't for Hillary Clinton, both in '08, the race that I ran and in 2016, I don't think we would see Harris as the nominee today.

Back in 2020, we had more women running for president than ever before. We had Harris, we had Warren, we had Klobuchar, we had Gillibrand, and we've never seen that before and that's all thanks to Hillary Clinton. She took a lot of incoming in '08. She took a lot of incoming in 2016. But the end result, while she's not president, which breaks my heart of course, the end result is that she's made it easier for women.

It's yes, it's still extraordinary that Kamala Harris may be our first woman president, but it's a little less extraordinary to see her up there. And I think that's a big thing. And then for Biden, also were it not for Biden, Harris would not be here. So I think it's interesting that they put them both on the same night. They can both sort of speak to passing the torch to her.

DEAN: Yes. And he has said, and we -- the band is practicing and then we're -- you can hear it a little bit. But we have had this reporting that Joe Biden is -- the word that our reporting uses is still smarting from being, you know, pushed to the side and, you know, in his view, but that is he's also focused on his legacy now, focused on Harris. What do you -- obviously tomorrow night will be very positive from him, but I would think it would likely be very legacy-based.

It's going to be looking at what he has accomplished and then passing that on. Is that what you expect, too?

SOLIS DOYLE: That's exactly what I expect. Joe Biden is also a former boss of mine, by the way.

DEAN: Yes.

SOLIS DOYLE: And he deserves it. I mean, 50 years of public service. That's an incredible career. And his presidency, you know, very impactful, generational impact on this country whether it's the infrastructure bill, or the CHIPS bill, or the IRA. These are going to have long lasting impacts for us, for our children, for our grandchildren, and that's quite a legacy. And 50 years ago he became a U.S. senator and I hope he takes a nice long time to take a victory lap because it's an incredible career.

[18:10:03]

He spent his entire adult life serving this country and it's something to be proud of. At the same time, though, he needs to really credentialize Kamala Harris. I picked her, I picked her for this reason, and now you're lucky to have her.

DEAN: All right. Well, we will look to see what he says tomorrow night.

Patti Solis Doyle, thank you so much.

SOLIS DOYLE: Thank you.

DEAN: Good to see you.

Our special live coverage from the DNC continues here in Chicago. Up next we're going to be joined by our panel and get their takes on these new poll numbers and if they think the momentum is going to continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:22]

DEAN: Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz taking calls today at their campaign field office in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Harris telling a voter this election is, quote, "the most important of our lifetime."

And here with me now, a panel of experts. I'm so delighted to have all of you here because there's a lot to chew on.

Kate Bedingfield, let's start first with you because the first day of the convention tomorrow President Biden is the keynote speaker. All eyes on the man who, up until about a month ago, we thought would be accepting this nomination. I think we can expect to hear about his legacy and then also why he believes Kamala Harris is ripe. You've worked with him for years. What do you think is going through his mind as he prepares for this?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I imagine that he views this as an opportunity to sort of one more time talk to the country about the reasons why he ran in the first place. There are some really kind of bedrock themes that have run through his campaign in 2019 and 2020 that really motivated him to get in office that I think he would say or maybe even more relevant than ever in this election.

Things about, you know, protecting our democracy, what kind of country do we want to be, what does our future look like. So I think he views this as a significant moment to not only kind of underscore and crystallized some of the things that he was able to accomplish in his four years as president, which is certainly important to him as you would imagine, but also to really hand the baton to Vice President Harris, and say, you know, we can ensure that this -- you know, this legacy will continue, that the things that we want to make progress on in this country, we're going to keep making progress on if we elect her in November.

So I think there will be -- I would imagine, there will be equal parts talking about what he's done to make life better for people, but also really handing the baton to her, kind of credentialing her, underscoring why she's the right choice, and really making this a transitional moment.

DEAN: And so much about this convention as it always is, but I think especially in this unique environment in which we found ourselves in, with the kind of snap election, will be about Kamala Harris introducing herself to so many Americans.

Astead Herndon, I know you've done a lot of reporting on all of this. How do you think, based on all of that, what are the messages they're trying to get across to Americans who know who she is, obviously the vice president, but maybe don't really know her backstory, don't really know her personally?

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I think we're going to get an -- a reintroduction to Kamala Harris. She obviously there was that opportunity four years ago when she was running for president. The last changed from then to now. And I think she has the party behind her in the way that will tell a story both personally and I think politically. I think they'll build on the Biden administration's accomplishments, a record that they're proud of, but I think there's over all the question of, what does a Kamala Harris Democratic Party look, if that's any different than a Joe Bidens Democratic Party?

Are we talking about really asking voters to give Biden a second term with a different person at the top? Or are there different legislative priorities? I think we can see some of those even in her speeches. The economic speeches was a little more populist than I think some folks expected. I think her emphasis on abortion rights and embracing the language of freedom that will be more kind of top of mind I think in the Harris version of this DNC than the Biden one was.

But I do think we're going to see a continuation of messages. And so, you know, maybe the presidential race four years ago ended in that disappointment. I think maybe left a kind of bad taste in some folks' mouth, but she's done a lot the work from then to now to really grow as a politician. And I think we're going to see that on the stage.

DEAN: And Audie Cornish is with us as well. And Audie, we've got some new polling today that's really giving us a look, a kind of the underbelly of this race if you dig in beyond those top line numbers. A couple of things that stuck out to me in the ABC-Ipsos poll.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN HOST, "THE ASSIGNMENT" PODCAST: Do you mind if we step back for a second?

DEAN: Yes.

CORNISH: Because we were at the RNC.

DEAN: Yes, please, go ahead.

CORNISH: Mind shift, you know, like at that convention, delegates had a lot of confidence. We were talking about this in the hallway. It really felt like a little bit of cruise control, a little bit of like, well, look at us, we're ahead this is great. They were also exalting Trump himself. His posture throughout his entire convention was literally sitting down and back while everyone kind of filed to the stage and talked about the great things he would do for this country.

So the whole thing wasn't a pep rally, which is what a lot of times conventions can be. Creating an atmosphere that says, come join us. This is a party and we want you to join us. And it's interesting because Democrats are in this moment where they feel like they've launched a party, right, between the means, the energy, the this, the that. We're going to see the kind of convention that people will start to compare to the Barack Obama years, et cetera, simply because of the high amount of energy and the sense that people feel like they still have a chance to make their pitch to the country.

DEAN: Right.

[18:20:01]

CORNISH: Whereas all these same people a month ago were like, it was like a sad trombone being played over and over again.

DEAN: It is --

CORNISH: Kate maybe not. Kate is always up. She's optimistic.

DEAN: But it is remarkable to see --

CORNISH: I don't mean to (INAUDIBLE) to you. But it was a sad trombone for a lot of people.

DEAN: Quite a shift.

BEDDINGFIELD: I would not dispute.

DEAN: But I was mentioning those polls, and Shermichael, you really see swing and independent voters really key. Women, female voters are really driving this, voters of color, where she's really making tremendous inroads with them and pulling away those voters who maybe were either waffling or with the Trump campaign. How does the Trump campaign begin to blunt that when they have a messenger that seems focused on a lot of personal attacks?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I think the campaign is going to try to focus on getting the former president back on message. You're seeing that bringing in people like Corey Lewandowski and others from the 2016 race where the president's heart appear to be in wanting to win, then I think you will also see Republicans say that, to Astead's point, this is a continuation of Joe Biden's failed policies, which are not very popular on two significant fronts, immigration and the economic front.

The vice president gave a speech which a lot of Democrats and progressives lauded as a great speech in terms of her plans on the economy. But our very own reporting showed that it would increase spending by $1.7 trillion over eight to 10 years. How can the American people pay for that? The "Washington Post" editorial board called it gimmicks. And so I think Republicans still have an opportunity to continue to contrast, although it's going to be more difficult.

I'll give credit to the vice president. This is historic moment for her. I'm proud of her. I congratulate her on what I believe will be a successful week. But on the issues of policies I think the Republican Party and conservatives, generally speaking, still have the advantage and a polling suggests that we still have the advantage despite 28 weeks of incredible coverage of the vice president.

This race statistically speaking is still tied. And that says something to the strength of the former president.

BEDDINGFIELD: I think there's one thing I would say, though, I would really dispute in what you said, Shermichael, which is actually a lot of the economic policies that Biden and Harris enacted that you I think will see Harris running on, if you pull them away from Joe Biden, whose popularity was lagging in part because people had concerns about his age, they actually are popular. They are popular with bipartisan audiences, things like capping the cost of insulin.

I mean, there's a lot of work that Biden was able to do that what Vice President Harris now has an opportunity to do is take some of these economic policies, kind of more populist economic policies that are broadly popular and put her own imprint on them and talk about them in her own voice, message them in her own way, which I think we started to see her do last Friday when she was laying out her kind of economic vision.

And I would imagine you'll hear her do this week as well. So, you know, I think there is an opening and an opportunity for her on the economy, in part because people don't kind of view her time in the White House with the same frustration or suspicion, fair or unfair. Obviously, I would say unfair, but, you know, that they do when those policies are being advanced by President Biden, who was suffering because of unpopularity with issues around his age. SINGLETON: Kate raised obviously very factual points in terms of

capping cost of insulin, et cetera. That is broadly popular among Republicans, Democrats, independents. I'll cede that point. But when the vice president says that she's going to cap the cost of certain goods, where the federal government is going to now control costs as of -- as if demand and supply is no longer matters, supply and demand, rather, doesn't matter.

So now we're entering into socialist economic type policies that I don't think most Americans would want? How does the federal government, Jessica, decide what the cost of a good should be today compared to tomorrow? How does the federal government decide how much of that good should actually be in the marketplace?

CORNISH: But, Shermichael, to your point --

SINGLETON: So, again, Republicans have the opportunity to challenge Democrats and the vice president on an incredibly flawed economic position.

DEAN: I want to let Audie answer and then we will go to break.

CORNISH: I just want to jump in very quick because now we're talking about literally how do you craft a message, and in a way, it turns the tables. So instead of Joe Biden having to talk about the GDP, and this number and that number, now it's going to be Republicans talking about, basically talking economic theory when voters want to talk about costs. As soon as you have to do that explanation about goods to the government and reach in, like if economists were the ones who are going to vote, Joe Biden probably wouldn't have left the race because there's certain data that would make him feel good.

But what's going to be interesting is her messaging is directed at people in layman's terms and does not involve spitting out --

SINGLETON: But Audie, the vice president has been there for three and a half years now.

DEAN: OK. We've got to take a break. We got to take a break.

SINGLETON: She hasn't done any of those things. Three and a half years.

CORNISH: That's not socialism.

SINGLETON: Three and a half years.

CORNISH: It seems --

SINGLETON: It's certainly -- it's close to socialism.

DEAN: OK.

CORNISH: Is it?

SINGLETON: Socialism lite. Absolutely. CORNISH: No, it's not.

DEAN: We can keep talking about it, but thank you all for being here. I wish we had more time. I really, really do.

Our special coverage from the DNC in Chicago continues. Just ahead, I'm going to be joined here by Senator Chris Coons, the Harris-Walz national co-chair, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:29:29]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hi, hi. What you got?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here, right here. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

HARRIS: Yes, it's almost done. I mean, there's some little tweaks that I'm going to, you know, work on it probably starting tomorrow for next Monday. But it's coming along. I feel good about it. I mean, essentially it's much of what you've probably heard me talk about before in terms of just what I believe to be the promise of America and the fact that we're all in this. And there's obviously a lot at stake, but there's also a lot to feel good about in terms of the future of our country.

[18:30:03]

So there will be a lot that is about what I believe is a way forward, a new way forward, and bringing everyone along in that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) some economic policies last week.

HARRIS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you explain how you're going to pay for those? And can you give us a sense of what other policies you want to unveil going forward?

HARRIS: Sure. Well, I mean, you just look at it in terms of what we are talking about, for example, around children. And the child tax credit and extending the EITC. That -- it's $6,000 for the first year of a child's life. The return on that investment in terms of what that will do and what it will take will be tremendous. We've seen it when we did it. The first year of our administration we reduced child poverty by over 50 percent. So that's a lot of the work.

And then what we're doing in terms of the tax credits, we know that there's a great return on investment. And when we increase home ownership in America, what that means in terms of increasing the tax base, not to mention property tax base, what that does to fund schools, again, return on investment. I think it's a mistake for any person who talks about public policy to not critically evaluate how you measure the return on investment.

When you are strengthening neighborhoods, strengthening communities, and in particular the economy of those communities and investing in a broad-based economy, everybody benefits and it pays for itself in that way.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Madame Vice President, CBS News has a new poll, shows that you're three points up nationally. What's your response to this? Do you still consider yourself the underdog here?

HARRIS: I'm very much considered as the underdog. We have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people. That's why we're on this bus tour today. And we're going to be traveling this country as we've been and talking with folks, listening to folks, and hopefully earning their votes over the next 79 days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more, last one.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is your second time in Pennsylvania since you became the Democratic nominee. Do you feel like you have ground to make up here?

HARRIS: I feel like we need to earn everyone's vote, and that means being on the road, being in communities where people are, where they live, whether it be a high school football team and being there at their public school while they're there at practice, and talking to their coaches, whether it means going to the local fire station and talking with our incredible firefighters about what they need and what they have a right to expect, such as that we are going to pay attention to how they give up so much to keep communities safe, what they do to preserve what we want in terms of a quality of life and we need to give it back to them in terms of better equipment and the work that they do every day.

So I'm going to be out here with Tim, with the second gentleman, with Mrs. Walz, and we're going to be working on earning every vote between now and November.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last question.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you think the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is ready to agree to a ceasefire deal?

HARRIS: I will not speak for him, but I will tell you that these conversations are ongoing and we are not giving up and we are going to continue to work very hard on this. We got to get a ceasefire and we got to get those hostages out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Madame Vice President.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, press.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And you were listening there to Vice President Kamala Harris as she campaigns in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The Democratic nominee on a bus tour through the commonwealth along with her running mate Tim Walz, who you saw there, and their spouses. This as she gears up to take the spotlight here in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. And that's where we are right now along with Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.

Senator, wonderful to have you here with us. Thanks for being here.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Thanks.

DEAN: We have made it to Sunday, a big week ahead. Of course, you have known President Biden for many, many years. You're considered one of his closest allies, one of his most effective emissaries. He's going to speak tomorrow night at a convention until up to a month ago we thought he was going to accept the nomination.

COONS: Yes.

DEAN: It's an interesting position to be in. What do you think this moment means to him? What is he thinking through as he gets ready for this moment?

COONS: This is an incredibly important moment for Joe Biden -- for Joe Biden, for our democracy, for the campaign of Vice President Harris and Governor Walz to be our next president and vice president.

I talked to our president last Monday. He was optimistic. He was looking forward. He was excited about the prospects of the campaign, as there's been energy nationwide, new volunteers, new donors, great coverage, big crowds.

Look, it was a hard decision. It was hard for him to decide to step aside, but it was an act of selflessness. An act that recognized that in the end as a public servant for more than 50 years, Joe Biden has always been about others, about putting the country before himself. And he is perfectly clear that beating Donald Trump and defending our democracy is the most important thing that he could contribute going forward.

There's lots more that he and Jill are going to do. They're going to work on the Cancer Moonshot. They're going to work on women's health issues. They're going to work on veterans' families and education. But tomorrow night, you're going to hear a proud Joe Biden reflecting on what he and Vice President Harris have accomplished.

[18:35:01]

and optimistic Joe Biden, who believes in the United States and in our democracy. And frankly, somebody who loves to campaign and is going to get the crowd fired up about his trusted and loyal vice president, Kamala Harris.

DEAN: He does like a crowd.

COONS: He does.

DEAN: As someone who covered him in 2020, we spent a lot of time waiting for him to work that rope line. We have new reporting from "The New York Times" about Biden's dynamic with former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. They write, quote, "The two have not spoken since he made the difficult decision to step aside. There are multiple reports that Mr. Biden is angry with her. It is not clear when they will speak again, a painful reality that Miss Pelosi admits keeps her up at night."

Do you know if they've spoken? Do you know -- what can you say about that relationship?

COONS: I don't know if they've spoken, but look, they've served together. They've been friends literally for decades. And so all of us have been through hard moments or hard decisions in our lives. Initially, it may be tough, but you come around and I've spoken to our president repeatedly over the last couple of weeks. He's looking forward. When I last spoke to him, he was excited about the Cancer Moonshot event that he was about to do this coming week.

He was excited to campaign with Kamala Harris. At the end of the day, he knows this was for the best. And what he's going to share with us on the stage tomorrow night is just how proud he is of what he and Kamala Harris got done, pulling us out of the depths of the pandemic, moving us forward from January 6th, rebuilding our country. He's got a stronger record as a one-term president than most two-term presidents. And that's something I think he can and should be proud of.

DEAN: Yes, and --

COONS: And Speaker Pelosi was a key part of a lot of what he got done and a lot of the future of our party.

DEAN: Yes. So much of any big decision, obviously, this being a very, very big one, not whether or not to run for president is about processing. I would imagine he's been on a journey.

COONS: Yes.

DEAN: As a friend of his, processing, right?

COONS: Yes.

DEAN: Yes. I think that makes sense. I also want to talk to you about these new polls that we're seeing today.

COONS: Yes.

DEAN: In the CBS poll 64 percent of voters say they know what Kamala Harris stands for compared to 86 percent for Donald Trump. She's still undefined for a lot of Americans who know her as Vice President Harris, but maybe don't know her.

COONS: Right.

DEAN: It's an opportunity this week for Democrats.

COONS: A huge opportunity.

DEAN: There's also an opportunity for Republicans. How do you see that playing out?

COONS: So first, what you're going to hear from Joe Biden is just how central Kamala Harris was to a lot of the work that they did together on the world stage and at home. Most Americans aren't aware that the more than 200 judges that we were able to confirm under the Biden- Harris administration the most important ones all happened because of Kamala's votes.

The prescription drug price cuts that they just celebrated this past week, Vice President Harris was the deciding vote. So there'll be some looking back at how she's contributed and participated and grown. Then there's going to be some looking forward. The most important choice any person running for president makes is their running mate. Tim Walz is going to help give the American people a view into why she chose a sergeant, a coach, a congressman, a governor, a dad, a Midwesterner, someone who is a patriot, someone who is a person with a heart for the middle-class, just like Kamala's.

And then the last night Vice President Harris is going to lay out her vision for our country. And I think you'll hear a pretty sharp difference between Donald Trump, who, yes, is very well-defined and Kamala Harris, Joe Biden is optimistic about the American people and so is Kamala Harris. She's going to draw a sharp and clear contrast with the record of former president Trump and lay out positive and optimistic path forward for how she and Governor Walz are going to make our country better, safer, and stronger.

DEAN: And there were a lot of positive signs within various demographics, kind of deeper in some of those poll. She's doing really well with women, young women in particular, voters of color. You're seeing even young men, independent voters. However, Harris, in terms of older voters, aged 65 and older, Trump is still winning that demographic, 57 to Harris's 43 percent.

And I hear you talk about the prescription drugs savings and insulin cap.

COONS: Nothing moves older voters more than the concrete progress they've made. Xarelto, Eliquis.

DEAN: So where are they going to start --

COONS: All these drugs that we hear every night on the national news with ad after ad after ad. They're coming down 50 percent, 70 percent in cost. You're going to hear a lot about that as she's connecting with older voters.

DEAN: And what about --- quickly, we don't have a ton of time left, but this gender gap that we're seeing.

COONS: Yes.

DEAN: What do you make of that? Because what we're seeing is, as I mentioned, women really shifting toward Harris, men shifting toward Trump.

COONS: Yes.

DEAN: Why do you think --

COONS: Reproductive freedom is on the ballot, both literally and figuratively. There are statewide referenda in a number of key battleground states and whether or not the country is going to shift further and further to the right, distrusting women, taking away the opportunity to choose IVF, taking away the access to contraception, continuing to take away reproductive freedom.

[18:40:04]

That is a core issue in this campaign. And Kamala Harris will speak directly and forcefully to that. At the same time, they're running mates, tell you a lot about how these two candidates view masculinity and gender. Without digging too deep into that topic, I'll just say that I'm very comfortable with Governor Tim Walz as a husband, father, veteran, and coach, and I think he will full support Kamala Harris and show together a very positive vision for the future of our country.

DEAN: Will you be with the president tomorrow, right?

COONS: Absolutely.

DEAN: You will. All right. Senator Chris Coons, thanks so much.

COONS: Thank you.

DEAN: Straight ahead, more of our special live coverage from the DNC here in Chicago.

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[18:45:21]

DEAN: And welcome back to special live coverage of the Democratic National Convention here in Chicago. Joining me now CNN's senior political analyst and senior editor at "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein.

Ron, in person.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: In person.

DEAN: What a joy. We're so happy.

BROWNSTEIN: And Aretha. What else can you ask for?

DEAN: No one is happier than me. BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

DEAN: So we just heard from Vice President Harris taking questions. We played the clip just a little bit ago. It's something she's been criticized for, not talking to the media enough. She's doing it a little bit more on this bus tour that you rightly note, we should take note of where she is, Western Pennsylvania.

BROWNSTEIN: You know, this is where Bill Clinton win on his bus tour right after the '92 convention. It's just striking to me that no matter what else changes in politics states like Virginia and Colorado go from red to blue, Ohio and Florida go from purple to red, different demographic groups move. We end up in the same place as the tipping point of elections.

DEAN: Always.

BROWNSTEIN: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin once again are at the absolute tipping point of this election. And she is running surprisingly well, holding Biden's support by and large among older and blue-collar whites, and in the kind of places where she is today. And if she can do that all the way to the finish line, no guarantee, she'll be very tough to beat.

DEAN: It is fascinating to see her really embracing this role, because again it's only been a month.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

DEAN: And she's -- they are still building this plane kind of as it takes off, but we're going to see her on this stage as a fully formed candidate, a really different Kamala Harris than we saw in that primary in 2020.

BROWNSTEIN: Absolutely.

DEAN: A very different candidate.

BROWNSTEIN: Just over the last few weeks, a much more confident candidate, much steadier, much more secure in her instincts about where to go. You know, also, the one important part about this convention is she doesn't necessarily have to focus on making a case against hiring Trump. You know, the double-haters existed because there was not a majority of the country that wanted to reelect Biden and there was not a majority that wanted to put Trump back in the White House.

Her principal task is to introduce herself to voters in a way that causes those who are uneasy about Trump to say, yes, I can envision her as commander-in-chief. I could envision her as president. She will keep me safe. She is one of us. The phrase I hear most from people working on planning the convention, she's just like you. They talk about her work at McDonald's --

DEAN: As you said, it's like -- it looks like a man from hope like Bill Clinton. BROWNSTEIN: Paul Begala, our colleague, his great line that he wrote

for Bill Clinton in '92. I still believe in a place called hope. The last line of his convention speech. I think the McDonald's is the same kind of thing. What Clinton was able to do was convinced people that he would defend the middle-class because he was a product of the middle-class.

And I think that is a key goal for Harris at this convention, along with pre-butting the Republican arguments that she's too soft on the border and crime to keep you safe. Just like you and she can keep you safe I think are the principal things they have to achieve this week.

DEAN: It is going to be really interesting to watch it all play out. It is lovely to have you here in person, Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: It's so nice to be here.

DEAN: Thank you.

We're going to have much more from Chicago including a look at the security situation outside when we come back.

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[18:53:04]

DEAN: And you're looking live there at pictures from Chicago where you see crowds gathering. Of course, the Democratic National Convention going to be held here this week and there is a lot of planning underway for security and also how to deal with any potential protests and protesters that might be popping up.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is here in Chicago with more on all of that.

We see the barriers behind you there, Shimon. What's the latest?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, Jessica, as you know, when you came here today, you can see the barriers. You felt the security yourself. Look at where we are. This is one of the checkpoint areas for vehicles actually just up the street here. But the reason why I wanted to come over here because I wanted to show our viewers just how far we are from the United Center where you are sitting in your nice little cozy studio there at the site of the convention.

It's really far, when you look how deep the United Center is and where -- how they've set up this perimeter here. I mean, this is blocks and blocks and blocks, over a mile, the perimeter and this fencing, and part of it is because of these protests. They are expecting thousands, tens of thousands of people here to protest. And so some of the extra precautions that we're seeing here is as a result of that.

I was at the RNC and certainly the perimeter here is much larger, it's much wider, and it stretches all the way down here. What I want to show you, though, also is that one of the things here that's different also is that people are living, there are homes, apartments here in the middle of the area of the convention. Obviously, a big inconvenience for many of the people who are living here. But that's something that the city has had to deal with as well and explain to residents and businesses around here what this massive security presence is going to be like it.

And it certainly is massive because it stretches everywhere you go around this area you could see this fencing here and just up here is where the -- there's a checkpoint here for some of the cars that are going to be driving through.

[18:55:04]

But all along the street here, there are these fencing, there's checkpoints everywhere you go. There's Chicago PD. There is also Secret Service. As to the perimeter and who's going to be overseeing that, Secret Service is in charge of everything inside and outside of the United Center. But the protests that is going to be managed by the Chicago Police who have been training for this day and they say they're prepared, and tomorrow around noon, we should start seeing the beginning of those protesters, the large number of protesters gathering here.

DEAN: Yes, it is quite a perimeter there. So much security.

Shimon Prokupecz, thank you so much for that reporting.

And I want to thank you for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Special coverage continues after this break with "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT."

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