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Democratic National Convention Begins Today in Chicago; Blinken: Maybe the Last Chance for Ceasefire, Hostage Release, Tight Security for DNC in Chicago Amid Pro-Palestinian Protests. Aired 4- 4:30a ET

Aired August 19, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Anybody who's about beating down other people is a coward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is still a very competitive race. If the election were today, I'm not sure who would win.

CROWD: 40,000 people dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Security is a top priority. Law enforcement will also have support from the air, on the ground, and in the water.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a decisive moment. Probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home. To get a ceasefire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and around the world. I'm Ivan Watson. Max and Christina have the day off.

It is Monday today, August 19th, 4 p.m. here in Hong Kong, 3 a.m. in Chicago. That's where the Democratic National Convention is set to kick off in the hours ahead. Delegates from across the country have gathered in the city for the four-day event, as Democrats hope to build on the momentum sparked by Kamala Harris and her dramatic rise to the top of the ticket.

The theme of day one, For the People, when Democrats will look to show how they're fighting for everyday Americans while Donald Trump puts himself first. Harris traveled to Chicago Sunday, after spending the day campaigning in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. During one stop, she appeared to call Trump a coward, without mentioning him by name.

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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This campaign is about a recognition that frankly over the last several years there's been this kind of perversion that has taken place, I think. Which is to suggest, which is to suggest, that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down. When what we know is the real and true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.

HARRIS: Anybody who's about beating down other people is a coward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: We'll hear more from Harris on Thursday, when she's set to accept the Democratic nomination for president. But ahead of that, a number of key Democrats will speak at the convention, including the man once expected to be the nominee, that's President Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you feeling about your speech tomorrow?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good, really good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: CNN's MJ Lee is following developments and has more from Chicago.

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MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We are about to see a very different convention than the one that we would have seen four weeks ago. Some of the biggest changes, of course, we have seen so far have been to the programming and the speaking lineup. While the biggest names that we would have seen speaking before President Biden dropped out, they are still going to be speaking.

Some of the timing of when they're going to actually speak throughout the course of the week have changed, including, of course, President Biden, now speaking on the first night instead of the final night. One other person that is going to be speaking Monday night is Hillary Clinton, who, of course, eight years ago, accepted the party's nomination for the presidency at a convention in Philadelphia. And speaking with somebody who is familiar with her thinking, I am told that in her remarks, she is going to be speaking about the proverbial glass ceiling that she failed to shatter eight years ago and what she believes is possible if and when Kamala Harris breaks that ceiling herself.

Now, we are told that Harris and Clinton have actually been in regular touch since President Biden dropped out of the race and that Hillary Clinton was actually one of the first people that the vice president called that Sunday that the president dropped out. That's really interesting.

Speaking to some of the convention planners who say, basically, that switch at the top of the ticket from President Biden to the vice president happened just in the nick of time, that a lot of things had been already fully baked in, but those final touches, including even the printing of signs and some of the videos that had to be recorded, that those had not yet been executed.

So what we are about to see this week, again, very different from what we would have seen four weeks ago before President Biden dropped out of the race.

MJ Lee, CNN in Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: And as Mr. Biden prepares to address the convention tonight, Democratic Senator Chris Coons explains what that moment will mean for the president.

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

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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: And the race for the White House remains very tight. The latest CNN Poll of Polls, which includes the most recent national surveys, shows no clear leader, with Harris at 50 percent support and Trump at 48 percent. CNN's political commentators are weighing in on what lies ahead.

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ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: She's got Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama saying, there is room for anyone here. If you're more of a Bill Clinton Democrat, don't worry, I'm not too far out of the mainstream, you can be with me. So I think they're really running a smart race.

And this should be a very big week for her campaign. But Donald Trump's back out on the campaign trail after basically playing golf for a couple of weeks, because I think he's feeling that she's got serious momentum.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is still a very competitive race. If the election were today, I'm not sure who would win. And I think it may well be President Trump because it's an Electoral College fight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: Now for more, let's turn to Thomas Gift. He's the director of the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London and joins us now from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Good to see you.

We spoke over the weekend on a different broadcast, Thomas. I wanted to start by asking you, you know, some have described this expected speech as the beginning of President Biden's long goodbye, but he's going to be president for months still. Why are they characterizing that that way?

THOMAS GIFT, DIRECTOR CENTRE OF U.S. POLITICS AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Well, thanks so much for having me, Ivan. It's great to see you again. I think Biden is a lame duck president, pure and simple.

He's got three, four, five months where he really has the reins of power, but not much is going to happen during that period. I mean, we have a divided Congress. We've had that for the last several years.

At the same time, you know, no policy is really going to get done. This is about passing the torch. It's about a new generation of candidate. And so Harris is going to try to take that opportunity and run with it at the convention.

WATSON: And we have seen in the polls that Harris has enjoyed this surge of enthusiasm. Some could describe this as a honeymoon. What does she have to do this week to capitalize on this moment?

GIFT: Well, these conventions are really four-day infomercials for political parties. In many respects, this is Harris's first opportunity to introduce herself to the American people. She has been VP for the last three and a half years. She also has been the presumptive presidential nominee and now officially the nominee for several weeks now.

But polls show that considerable portions of Americans don't have a firm impression of Harris. That's especially true when it comes to policy. She's really been riding this wave of vibes, so to speak, now for several weeks. She hasn't answered any significant questions from reporters. She hasn't done any sit-down interviews.

Harris did deliver an economic speech that we talked about where she introduced some new proposals, such as banning price gouging, creating new housing subsidies, expanding child tax credits. But Harris's honeymoon period is going to end. She needs to extend that honeymoon period for as long as possible with the convention and really define herself, as well as with Tim Walz.

WATSON: Has she, in your opinion, been truly tested as a presidential candidate?

GIFT: In my opinion, she has not. I mean, she's really had this grace period from the media. Of course, there was a lot of excitement, a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm. Those are all words that really haven't come out of the mouths of a lot of Democrats in recent years, especially with Joe Biden. And so it's understandable why that side of the political aisle is so excited about having a new candidate. Obviously, we've seen a surge in the polls, and a lot of discussion really has been about the horse race, about the fact that she's closed this gap, particularly in key swing states with Donald Trump.

But at the same time, you really can't ride on vibes alone. There's a lot of consternation among Republicans, and I think increasingly journalists and members of the media, that she hasn't answered tough questions, that we don't necessarily know what Harris represents in terms of policy. So I do think that reality is going to set in.

Her staff has insisted that she's going to do some press conferences, answer tough questions, and I think that that's important because Americans obviously deserve to know what she represents.

[04:10:00]

WATSON: We're hearing that this will be a love fest of sorts for President Biden, but does Harris have to distance herself at all from him, given that he is not a very popular president right now?

GIFT: Well, I think yes and no, and this is a difficult needle to thread. There is going to be a lot of discussion about Joe Biden at this convention. I think that that was probably part of a deal in the back rooms.

I'm not sure about that, but he wants to use this as an opportunity to really define his legacy, but at the same time, right, Harris can run on some popular proposals of the last three and a half years, but she really needs to define herself. In some issues, she absolutely wants to distance herself, and she's had trouble doing that. It's particularly the case when it comes to inflation and cost of living.

She gave in her speech about a few days ago, said, you know, three and a half years ago, prices were much lower. Whenever you went to the grocery store, you could afford the items that you wanted to buy. She seemed to conveniently forget that she's been the vice president.

Now, of course, she's not responsible for everything that Biden did, but she has been by his side, and to the extent that some of those policies really did contribute to increases in cost of living, she's going to have a hard time to distance herself from that, but she's going to do her best for sure.

WATSON: All right. Thomas Gift live from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Thanks for your analysis.

GIFT: Thanks, Ivan.

WATSON: All right. Moving on now to the Middle East. That's where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that the current ceasefire proposal could be the last chance to get Israel's hostages home. He met a short time ago with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, and Blinken is trying to push for a ceasefire and hostage-release deal. CNN has learned his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun. Blinken's also expected to speak with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later today.

Netanyahu says Israel will not give in to demands to end the war in Gaza as a condition for a deal, and Hamas claims Netanyahu is obstructing a possible agreement. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us live now from Tel Aviv. Good to see you, Nic.

You know, we're hearing accusations now both from Prime Minister Netanyahu and from Hamas, each side accusing each other of trying to -- of creating obstacles for a deal, but we're also hearing from reports that senior members of the Israeli defense establishment are also accusing Netanyahu of throwing up obstacles to a peace deal. What is your reporting saying about that?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, and we've also heard from the Prime Minister Netanyahu's sort of key negotiating officials, the head of Mossad, the head of Shin Bet, the head of the intelligence around the whereabouts of the hostages. They also have told Prime Minister Netanyahu that now is the time to go for a deal. But the Prime Minister is resistant, and most people here analyze that being because that is what is best for his political future.

He does have members of his cabinet, right-wing cabinet, who are absolutely insistent there can be no compromise with Hamas. So despite the fact we've heard positivity from the U.S. side coming into this latest sort of round of diplomatic push by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, it doesn't really seem to match the reality here on the ground. President Herzog, when he was meeting with Antony Blinken earlier, spoke about the blame needing to be put on Hamas.

Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday was talking -- was saying essentially that he's not that optimistic at the moment, that again, the pressure needs to go on Hamas. He said that, you know, Israel has flexibility on some issues. On other issues, it can't be flexible. And on some issues, it's going to absolutely insist on holding to their position.

But for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, this is high stakes. And the moment he sees that the deal he believes is in reach and should be done, this is what he said.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a decisive moment. Probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security. It's also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process.

[04:15:00]

And so we're working to make sure that there is no escalation, that there are no provocations, that there are no actions that in any way could move us away from getting this deal over the line. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And of course, that's part of the push here. It's not just about securing a deal on Gaza, but it's about making sure that Iran or Hezbollah don't follow through on their statements that they were going to strike back at Israel for the killing of senior Hamas and Hezbollah figures just over a couple of weeks ago. So all of that is at stake.

But there are key areas where there's disagreement. Israel wants to be able to filter Palestinians going from the south to the north of Gaza, make sure they don't have weapons. That is a red line, no-no, for Hamas.

The control of the Egypt-Gaza border, the so-called Philadelphia Corridor. Israel insists it must have control of that. Otherwise, they say Hamas will continue to operate tunnels and smuggle in weapons into Gaza. Hamas is saying absolutely not.

Israel wants to continue to control the Rafah border crossing. That's the main sort of area, place where trucks come and go in and out of Gaza into Egypt. That also is a red line for Hamas.

So there are still some very, very contentious issues, and that's before you even get into details about the number of hostages, who's alive still, what their names are, which Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange, all of that. The bridging proposal is designed to get across.

So Secretary Blinken will have a very, very, very tough job here.

WATSON: And in the meantime, Nic, the fighting and the killing continues day after day in Gaza. Can you bring us up to date on the latest developments there?

ROBERTSON: Yes, Friday, or rather Saturday, there was a family of 15 killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis. Sunday, it was a family of seven. The father survived, but six of his children were killed in an airstrike in central Gaza.

The U.N. says that the safe zones in Gaza are now smaller than ever. They're down to 11 percent only of Gaza. 80 percent of the population, they say, has been forced to move.

And this is a tragedy that is going on minute by minute by minute in Gaza. Israel says that it is targeting Hamas where it is operating close to civilians, even inside those so-called safe areas, and that it will continue to do so. In fact, it says it stepped up military activity around Khan Younis in the sort of south center of Gaza.

So the dynamic is still an utterly deadly dynamic in Gaza. So while the talks are stalling and all that effort is going into moving them forward, people are still dying. The conditions, the living conditions are worsening. The safe places are lessening.

You have as well the tensions on the northern border. Hezbollah launched a barrage of missiles and drones into northern Israel this morning.

And just last night, there was what we understand to be an explosion on the streets of Tel Aviv here, the first in several decades of this type that intelligence authorities believe was terrorist-related. So all of that adds to the picture of the reasons to get the deal done. It doesn't mean it's going to happen.

WATSON: All right, Nic Robertson, live from Tel Aviv. Thank you very much for that update.

Still to come, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters converge in Chicago ahead of the Democratic Convention. What officials are doing to ensure security, that's coming up next.

Plus, Trump working overtime this week, holding daily rallies in battleground states to prevent Harris from having, quote, free shots on goal during the convention.

Plus, we'll ask an expert how much impact the U.S. Secretary of State could have on the push for a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Stay with CNN.

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WATSON: All right, that's dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters you can see there in Chicago ahead of the Democratic National Convention. They marched through the downtown area on Sunday, calling on Kamala Harris to take a harder line with Israel amid the staggering civilian death toll in Gaza. Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to march during the convention.

And the Harris campaign says their free speech rights need to be protected.

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MICH LANDRIEU, NATIONAL CO-CHAIR, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: This is a really emotional issue for a lot of people. And so the First Amendment is critically important. Everybody has a right to protest.

They should. They should protest as loudly as they want. Just the protests need to stay peaceful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Security has been ramped up across the city. The Illinois governor says around 250 members of the National Guard will be on standby. CNN's Whitney Wild has more.

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WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the Democratic National Convention gets underway, security is a top priority.

MAYER: It takes several days to put these security perimeters into effect.

WILD (voice-over): Secret Service Deputy Special Agent in Charge, Derek Mayer, has spent more than a year directing the planning for this massive event.

DEREK MAYER, Deputy Special Agent IN-CHARGE, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: The United Center's been closed down now for almost a month. As you can look at this entire perimeter, that will take over the work that goes into putting something like this into effect.

WILD (voice-over): Non-scalable fencing will surround two locations, the United Center and McCormick Place. Law enforcement will also have support from the air, on the ground, and in the water. Security officials are on alert for possible retaliatory attacks against Democrats more than a month after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, according to a new intelligence report on the DNC obtained by CNN.

MAYER: I think the world is a very dangerous place nowadays.

WILD: When you look at the overall threat landscape, what is the most concerning thing to you?

[04:25:03]

MAYER: I mean, I think from a Secret Service perspective overall, I think everything. You have to take every risk, every threat seriously.

WILD (voice-over): As war rages in the Middle East, angry protests are expected during the DNC.

CROWD: Free, free, free Palestine!

WILD (voice-over): The Chicago metropolitan area is home to the largest Palestinian population in the U.S., and thousands of pro- Palestinian protesters have marched downtown for months.

HATEM ABUDAYYEH, CO-FOUNDER, U.S. PALESTINIAN COMMUNITY NETWORK: Absolutely there will be tens of thousands of people, especially if there's an expanded war.

WILD (voice-over): Chicago has hosted several political nominating conventions in the past, none more notorious than 1968. The city has been unable to shake the memory of those violent clashes. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling says the department is training for high stress and high risk.

LARRY SNELLING, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: But we've also given our officers extensive training to help them deal with these types of protests through stress inoculation training, just putting them through real-time scenarios, which is going to help them out there in the field.

WILD (voice-over): Chicago Police will lead any response while under scrutiny themselves.

WILD: What is a realistic measure of success for you and for your officers?

SNELLING: Everything that we trained to do was in full effect, and our officers are safe. The residents here and our businesses, they were here long before the DNC ever thought about coming here, and they will be here long after it's gone.

WILD: In addition to this massive police presence, the Illinois governor says that up to 250 members of the National Guard have been authorized.

Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: Still to come, dozens of uncommitted Democratic delegates are still not backing Kamala Harris. CNN speaks to some of them to find out why.

And U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says this could be the last chance for a ceasefire and to bring Israel's hostages home. We'll ask an expert if a deal could be imminent.