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Democratic National Convention; Harris Accepts Democratic Presidential Nomination; Trump Responds to Speech in Real-Time; Gaza Ceasefire Talks Expected to Resume in Cairo. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired August 23, 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: I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: I am standing here in the California delegation where everyone just watched that speech. A lot of them had tears in their eyes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, if you go by his True Social feed, Trump was watching intently, sharing an avalanche of posts.
HARRIS: Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
KIIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you joining us from around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. It's Friday, August 23rd, 4 a.m. here in Atlanta, 3 a.m. in Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention wrapped up just a few hours ago with Kamala Harris officially accepting her party's presidential nomination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I know there are people of various political views watching tonight, and I want you to know I promise to be a president for all Americans.
(CHEERS)
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: You can always trust me to put country above party and self. To hold sacred America's fundamental principles from the rule of law to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: And Harris talked about her childhood, being raised by her immigrant mother, and her decision to become a prosecutor to protect victims of fraud and abuse. She promised, as president, to protect reproductive rights and take action on immigration that Donald Trump derailed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: I refuse to play politics with our security, and here is my pledge to you. As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Harris said Donald Trump's tariff plan would amount to a tax hike for most Americans, and she vowed to pass a tax cut for the middle class.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners --
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: -- and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs, to grow our economy, and to lower the cost of everyday needs like health care and housing and groceries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Harris's remarks lasted a little more than 30 minutes, and delegates from her home state of California were fired up for the entire speech. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: I am standing here in the California delegation where everyone just watched that speech. A lot of them had tears in their eyes as the vice president was speaking. Before she could even get the sentence out of her mouth, she was accepting their nomination as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. They shot up out of their seats. They were up essentially every few lines as she was delivering that speech.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Authorities had to restrict access to the Democratic convention in Chicago Thursday night because the United Center was filled to capacity. We have more now from CNN's MJ Lee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: For four days, there was a jubilant celebration here in Chicago culminating in Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday night formally accepting her party's nomination for the presidency.
HARRIS: On behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination --
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: -- for president of the United States of America.
[04:05:00]
LEE: But despite all of this, the confetti and the balloons and the celebration, I am told that the vice president remains clear-eyed about what could come next after Chicago. I spoke with somebody who recently spoke with the vice president, and they said that even though the vice president with them didn't use the word honeymoon, the idea is definitely there. The idea that the honeymoon period that we have seen over the past month or so could come to an end at some point, and that there's a recognition by the vice president and others on down in the Harris campaign that the enthusiasm and the momentum that have fueled Harris' quick ascension to the top of the party's ticket, that those things could wane for reasons that may or may not be under the vice president's control.
But for the time being, Thursday night, the partying, the celebration, all of those things continuing in Chicago, including with the vice president, heading over to the Queenie's Supper Club here in the United Center, where she was going to be greeted by supporters.
And also there's something else she's celebrating tonight, her 10th wedding anniversary with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
M.J. Lee, CNN in Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Now the convention brought speakers from all across the country and across political parties. Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, spoke passionately about his concerns with the way his party is going. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADAM KINZINGER, FORMER U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: The Republican Party is no longer conservative. It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself.
(APPLAUSE)
KINZINGER: Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was also there, drawing a contrast between the former president and the newly nominated Harris. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D) MICHIGAN: Donald Trump called me that woman from Michigan as an insult.
(APPLAUSE)
WHITMER: Being a woman from Michigan is a badge of honor.
(CHEERING)
WHITMER: Like women across America, we just GSD.
Get stuff done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now Donald Trump watched Kamala Harris' speech and posted about it on his True Social platform in real time. Here's Harris talking about Trump possibly abusing his power.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Consider, consider the power he will have, especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: So on his social media page, Trump responded with a question about whether Harris was talking about him. Harris also slammed Trump for the overturn of Roe v. Wade and taking away women's reproductive rights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress. Simply put, they are out of their minds.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: One must ask, why exactly is it that they don't trust women? Well, we trust women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Trump responded with a post in all caps accusing Harris of lying about Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican president, which he disavows. After Harris wrapped up her speech, Trump went on Fox News with more complaints. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It was a lot of complaining. She didn't talk about China. She didn't talk about fracking. She didn't talk about crime. She didn't talk about 70 percent of our people are living in poverty. She didn't talk about the trade deficit.
She didn't talk about child trafficking that she's allowed to happen because she was the border czar and she presided over the weakest border in the history of our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now, in the last hour, I spoke with Brett Bruen, a former U.S. diplomat who served on the National Security Council and at the State Department, and I asked him if Harris can expect any political boost on the heels of the convention. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRETT BRUEN, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL AND STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I do think she gets a boost out of this four, maybe five points, and that may be enough to provide some level of buffer because we will see a counterattack from Trump. We will have the debate on September 10th, and that will be another pivotal point in the election.
[04:10:00]
But, look, Harris is now sailing with the wind at her back. I think most Democrats, but quite frankly, even on CNN, I was listening to the focus group that CNN organized, and you had eight out of ten undecided voters in that panel after Harris' speech saying, we're voting for her.
That's a pretty strong testament to what she achieved.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, and again, that may be just a reflection of all the energy and momentum coming from this. We'll see whether it sticks.
You mentioned Donald Trump. I talked about him giving kind of a play- by-play on social media. What do you make of his response so far to Kamala Harris as a candidate? He's sort of struggled with that. Is he honing in on an effective message, do you think?
BRUEN: Haven't seen it yet. He's been trying out a lot of one-liners, those famous attacks, and yet they seem to be falling flat, and I think, quite frankly, it's because Kamala has gone from playing defense to playing more offense, and that has really rattled Trump. He, you know, is trying, obviously, to scratch back control of this conversation, but there is no sign, Kim, that he has a message yet that is going to be able to be effective against Vice President Harris.
And for the time being, what we heard all this week were very strong lines, very strong attacks, both from Harris, Governor Walz, and other Democratic figures, luminaries like former President Obama and Michelle Obama. All of that creates a pretty strong frame for the conversation around the election going forward.
BRUNHUBER: I only have about a minute left, but I did want to ask you this. RFK Jr. has filed paperwork to withdraw from the presidential race in Arizona. There's some reporting that he'll drop out of the race completely and support Donald Trump later today.
The Harris campaign says it's unlikely to significantly impact the election. Is that true, do you think? What influence might it have, if any, on the race?
BRUEN: Yes, quite frankly, I think it just reinforces this weird narrative around Trump. RFK Jr. has been a pretty strange figure with some of his personal antics as well as some of his policy positions. Also, it seems as though, you know, his voters split about 27 percent for Harris, maybe 29 percent for Trump, but I don't think it has a major impact on the race, and quite frankly, it allows Harris to show the effect that she's having in changing this to a two-person race.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER (on camera): Chicago police are praising the protesters who held street rallies during the convention on Wednesday. More than 50 people were arrested the day before during a pro-Palestinian rally outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago, but police say some of those protesters came there with the intent to commit crimes, while the rallies held on Wednesday were a whole different story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY SNELLING, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: We had another protest yesterday over at Union Park, a pretty large protest, not as large as we had necessarily anticipated, but yesterday's protest ended with no arrests, no one injured, no officers injured, and it shows that when you have some type of contact and collaboration with those who are organizing, that you can have a peaceful First Amendment gathering, and that's what happened yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, a group called the Uncommitted National Movement held a peaceful sit-in outside the convention hall, joined for a time by U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar. The group says the convention denied their request for a Palestinian American to speak, but a senior Harris advisor says the organizers engaged the group in different ways. Israel is stepping up its military operations in Gaza ahead of
ceasefire talks expected to take place this weekend. We'll have the latest in a live report from the region straight ahead.
And critical humanitarian aid is flowing again into Sudan's famine- threatened Darfur region. Still ahead, a dire situation still facing more than half the country's population, and how it got this bad.
Stay with us.
[04:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: Gaza ceasefire talks are set to resume this weekend in Cairo. CIA Director Bill Burns and top White House envoy Brett Gerk are expected to attend the high-level meetings with Israeli and Egyptian officials. Officials confirm the talks will focus on the Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah crossing on the border between Egypt and Gaza.
Israeli forces ceased control of the area in May, and it remains a key sticking point to reaching a deal. Now the talks come as Israel steps up military operations in Gaza. Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes killed at least 22 people over the past 24 hours, and thousands of displaced civilians have been forced to flee again under the latest evacuation orders from the IDF.
I want to go live now to Tel Aviv and CNN's Nic Robertson. So, Nic, can you bring us up to speed on the ceasefire talks?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah crossing, absolutely right. That will be the key issue that we understand. The head of Mossad, David Barnea, and the head of Shin Bet, Ronan Barr, will be discussing with Egyptian counterparts.
And why is it such a big issue? Well, as you say, the Israeli forces took control of it. And part of what Hamas has demanded from their point of view is that Egypt should remove, rather, Israel should remove all of its troops from Gaza as part of a final ceasefire deal.
Israel is absolutely resistant to that. In fact, the prime minister's office last night put out a statement knocking down reports that there might be some kind of international force stationed along the Philadelphi corridor, the border area between Gaza and Egypt.
But just to kind of give you an idea of how complex the nature of these talks become, so you've got a very clear position from the Israeli prime minister that Israel is not giving up troops along that border.
Hamas has not yet signaled whether or not they accept, reject, or partially accept and partially reject the U.S. bridging proposal, which there's an expectation that the next step is that they would accept it. But we're not there yet. So you have Egypt and Israel only talking about their views about the Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah border crossing.
This doesn't appear to involve Hamas in any way, and it's not clear how joined up they are to the bigger part of the negotiations because, of course, the Philadelphi corridor and Rafah crossing is just one tiny part of the bigger deal, and there are many objections between Israel and Hamas over that deal.
So these technical-level talks that are happening today, significant, important, but they're only a fraction of just one of the issues that's getting discussed at the moment, and it's already hugely contentious. There's pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu that he can't afford to concede on that issue because that could, you know, trigger a revolt from right-wing members in his cabinet.
So you know, it's all eyes on Cairo, but I think, big picture, it's a slow-moving process.
BRUNHUBER: Nic, looking at it from a U.S. perspective, we had Kamala Harris's comments at the DNC about the Israel-Hamas war.
[04:20:00]
They were perhaps her strongest yet in terms of her support for Palestinians in Gaza. I want to play a bit of it here.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done. And let me be clear, and let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself. At the same time, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself.
What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.
The Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: So, Nic, do you get any sense that the Biden administration's position is hardening? Do you expect the U.S. to exert more pressure on Israel to get a deal here?
ROBERTSON: What I think is happening is that a calculation will be being made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who a month ago thought he could perhaps realistically expect Donald Trump to win the election in November and therefore have a partner more akin to his thinking, even though Donald Trump has signaled that he wants Netanyahu to get the war in Gaza finished before he becomes, you know, assumption on his part, before he would become president. So I think, you know, while that will resonate with some of the
electorate and it lines up with President Biden on, you know, support for Israel and, you know, the self-determination for the Palestinian people as being a final product of any ceasefire deal, bringing in regional players like Saudi Arabia, while that language is the same, she's more expressive.
And I think that would signal to Benjamin Netanyahu that if Kamala Harris wins the election, his calculation that he'll be dealing with Trump is a wrong calculation, and he now needs to sort of recognize that whatever tactics he's going to use in the coming months, he could be facing a different outcome early next year. He could be facing a slightly tougher time in getting what he wants from the White House to back his position.
Now, she hasn't said that. This is sort of positioning semantics in a way, but it's loud semantics, and it's not going to be lost on the prime minister here for sure.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting. Appreciate that analysis. Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv, thanks so much.
Well, the Democrats' celebration has drawn to a close, and it was quite a party in Chicago. Spotlight on Kamala Harris, the president's nominees, vision for America's future.
Plus, after the vice president's speech Thursday night, some undecided voters in a key battleground state are telling CNN they've made up their minds. We'll hear from them coming up. Stay with us.
[04:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. If you're just joining us, our top story this morning, the Democratic National Convention, which wrapped up just hours ago in Chicago.
During the biggest political moment of her life, nominee Kamala Harris shared her life story and values and vowed to be a president who, quote, leads and listens. While laying out her foreign policy vision, the U.S. vice president vowed to hold autocrats accountable, which she said Donald Trump won't do. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: Who are rooting for Trump. Because, you know, they know, they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And Harris, who no one thought would be the Democratic nominee even five weeks ago, went on to warn about what would happen to America should Donald Trump win. She said Trump is trying to pull the country back into the past, and just imagine him with no guardrails.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: We are not going back to when he tried to cut Social Security and Medicare. We are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions. We are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: We are not going to let him end programs like Head Start that provide preschool and childcare for our children.
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: America, we are not going back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Recent polling shows a tight race between Harris and Trump, with Harris making up ground in key swing states like Pennsylvania, which President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020. CNN's Gary Tuchman spoke to some undecided voters there to get their reaction about Harris' DNC speech.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do come to you from Allentown in the heart of the beautiful Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania, and we are with eight residents of the Lehigh Valley who've been watching television with us tonight and watching Kamala Harris' speech.
None of these people before tonight have made a decision about who they will vote for in November, and at least one person here before tonight wasn't sure she was going to vote at all because she doesn't like either of the candidates. Also, what they have in common, five of these people, they are all, five of them, loyal union members from the UAW local, United Auto Workers here in the Lehigh Valley.
So thank you all for being here. First thing I want to ask you, I want you to grade the speech, OK? A is excellent, B above average, C average, D below average.
We all know what F is. Let's start with you. How do you grade the speech?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I gave her a B+. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: B.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: B+.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: B+.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: C.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought she looked very confident. I liked how she spoke from her heart. I liked her message of unity and the division that we have in America.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She hit all the points that I wanted to know about. I wanted to know more about her, her economic policies, her foreign policy. I know she couldn't go into depth about that, but, I mean, I felt that she looked very presidential. She sounded presidential, and I think she's going to be a unifier.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She didn't go in depth. I did like what she said about what she's going to try to do for the middle class, about a tax break for us, which will be very nice, but still a little bit more information on some of the things that she's planning on doing.
TUCHMAN: Like I said, none of you were ready to make a commitment to any candidate in November. Please raise your hand right now if you're now ready to make a commitment after today. Wow.
I'm just kind of surprised, Bob. We haven't rehearsed this. I want to make that very clear.
I want to ask you this.
