Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Today, Harris, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) Rally Voters During Georgia Bus Tour and Rally; Ukraine Says, Russia Launches Third Aerial Attack on Kyiv This Week; Chinese Leader Xi Meets With U.S. National Security Adviser Sullivan. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 29, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Phil Mattingly in Washington. Jim has the morning off.

And we begin this morning with swing state gains and battleground blitzes. Today, Vice President Harris and Governor Tim Walz are back on the road again, likely with a little more pep in their step. That it's because new polls show Harris gaining on former President Trump in four critical battleground states. And while there is no clear leader in these polls, President Biden was down in all of these states by at least five points just a few months ago.

Harris and Walz will get back on that campaign bus in Southeastern Georgia ahead of their interview later this afternoon with CNN. The vice president will round out the day with a rally in Savannah.

On the GOP side, former President Trump heads to Michigan and Wisconsin today to hammer his economic message, an issue where he is still enjoying a solid polling lead. Senator J.D. Vance will be in Boston to appeal to the firefighters union.

We begin now in Southeastern Georgia, where Vice President Kamala Harris is on her campaign bus tour. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is there. Priscilla, where is Harris headed today?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, today, she's going to also visit some small businesses in the region before heading to the arena behind me, where she will hold a rally.

Now, of course, where she has been is quite notable over the last 24 hours. She is, of course, hitting the southeast part of the state. It's a battleground state, but it's where she's going is those rural counties that typically lean Republican. And that has given us a window into the type of aggressive strategy that this campaign is trying to run in this state.

Now, of course, the strategy here really boils down to peeling off those Republican votes from these Republican-leaning counties, and especially so when they know it's going to be such a tight race. You were mentioning those polls. Campaign officials I've talked to are keenly aware it's going to be a close race, that there is no leader in this battleground like others, but that if they can start the work of trying to peel away these Republican voters, that may help them and give them a path to victory in Georgia.

Now, yesterday, she was visiting with high school students. She also met with voters in a barbecue joint alongside Tim Walz. There was also the Walz factor in all of this. How will he resonate with voters given his rural upbringing and his roots with football and his military background?

So, a lot of open ended questions coming into this tour, but what is clear is that the campaign sees an opportunity here and is going to target those areas that really do lean Republican with hopes of taking some of those away.

MATTINGLY: And, Priscilla, our viewers right now can see there's been a countdown clock on the screen that connotes importance at CNN, and it is important. It is going to be a highly anticipated and very closely watched interview with our very own Danna Bash with the vice president and Governor Walz set to air tonight at 9:00 P.M.

When you talk to campaign officials, what do they expect tonight?

ALVAREZ: Well, they expect her to be able to talk through some policy, the issues that are top of mind for voters, the economy, immigration, healthcare, abortion, and to do so in an unscripted moment. Of course, this is a condensed race, even more so for the Harris campaign. She was only at the top of the ticket a little more than a month ago. And up until this point, it's been a quite scripted and choreographed campaign that's helped them build momentum and enthusiasm, raking in about half a billion dollars into the campaign. But now come some of the harder, more challenging moments.

And in this interview, they hope that her along with the vice presidential nominee can lay out the contrast with former President Donald Trump, go deeper into where she stands on policy. And I think something that strategists are looking out for, too, is where she distinguishes herself from President Biden. Phil?

MATTINGLY: All right. Priscilla Alvarez live for us. Everybody will be watching at 9:00 P.M. tonight, but we're also paying very close attention to, as Priscilla was outlining where the vice president and the governor are, why they're there, particularly in the wake of the new polling that we got over the course of the last 24 hours.

[10:05:00]

What you're looking at right now is the CNN projected map, the race to 270. Where you see yellow states, there are seven of them, those of the battleground states, the swing states, where is very much a toss- up race.

Now, you talk to Democrats, they've always made clear, the most likely pathway for them is in the blue wall states. We're talking about Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin. You add in the one electoral vote allocated to the congressional district in the best Nebraska, and you get 270 electoral votes. That is a clear pathway.

Just a few months ago, the Biden team was looking at that pathway as really their only pathway. Here's what's changed over the course of the last six weeks. We'll put these back into the toss-up category. We're talking about Sun Belt states. I was talking about the polling that came out from Fox News and what it shows. It shows an extraordinarily tight race in places like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. Three of those four states, Joe Biden won in 2020. North Carolina has long been an aspirational goal for Democrats. Now, they feel like it is very much in play.

Now, while Harris has very narrow leads in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, they're all within the margin of error, that means there is no clear leader. But here's what's interesting when you look at these numbers, the clear gains the Harris team has made over the course of the last couple of months. Compare them to where Joe Biden was just a few months ago, down by in every single one of those states by at least five points.

Now, why does that matter again? Again, I kind of already laid out, the blue wall, those Midwestern states are really where the Democrats mostly look to get to 270. However, what they have now on the Harris team is what we saw in 2020, which is more pathways to 270. And for the Trump team, as they pour money into Pennsylvania and Georgia, what they're looking at right now is if they can hold on to North Carolina, win those two states, they've got 270 electoral votes.

If, and this is a big if right now, given how close things are, the Harris campaign can hang on to Pennsylvania, win North Carolina, flip North Carolina, only once in the last 11 presidential cycles that they've been able to actually do that, then they put Georgia in play as well. They have a number of different pathways, and we're not even talking about some of those blue wall states.

Now, is that all going to happen? Look, it's very much a toss-up race right now. Everybody on both sides will acknowledge that fact, but the battle is real. And it wasn't so much the case just a few months ago. Now it certainly is.

Now, one area of the polling continues to show that Donald Trump holds an advantage, though it's narrowing a bit, it's the economy, something the Trump-Vance ticket and their surrogates are highlighting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Do any of you buy for a second that the Kamala Harris economy has been good for American workers? Nobody buys it. Inflation has failed -- or, sorry, wages have failed to keep pace with the price of groceries, the price of housing. So, you've got people working harder and harder feeling like they can't get ahead. They're, in fact, falling further behind as they work harder and harder. That is not an economic record to be proud of.

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): That's what this race needs to be about. It needs to be about the economy, cost, the 40-year high inflation that really Joe Biden and Kamala Harris created. They're taking credit now for inflation going down. Hell, they created it to start with. You can't take credit for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Joining us now to discuss all of this, CNN Political Commentator and Democratic Strategist Maria Cardona and former Deputy Communications Director for the Trump 2016 Campaign Bryan Lanza. Guys, thanks so much. I expect definitive answers. No hedging. No ambiguity, which is impossible in this moment, given what we're looking at right now.

Maria, I want to start with you. The new polling, the extremely tight races across the Sun Belt, not just in those blue wall battleground states, in Georgia in particular, Joe Biden flipped it by just shy of 12,000 votes in 2020. The Democrats feel like that is in play right now with Harris and Walz down there.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There's no question, Phil, that it is absolutely in play and what you saw coming out of the Democratic National Convention is that mobilization, that energy, that inspiration from so many new voters that are looking to the Harris- Walz campaign as something that is inspiring them to get involved, that she's speaking to what it is that they are looking to a leader for.

And the other thing I would say, Phil, is that if you look at the new registrations, TargetSmart, the data firm looked at registration in 13 states, even since Kamala Harris became the nominee. And as they have updated their voter files, it shows an increase for young black women registration of 175 percent. That is unheard of. Latinas are not far behind, 150 percent over what they were in 2020. That says to me that this inspiration, this mobilization is real. And you're going to see that on the ground.

Now, I will say, and I've always said this, that this campaign needs to run like they're ten points behind. And I love that Vice President Harris knows that, understands that. She always talks about being an underdog, because I think that that is exactly how they will run and how they can win.

[10:10:02]

But the other thing I would say is that an underlying issue that is not being really read in the polls, measured in the polls is this issue of reproductive freedom. We saw this play out in 2022 when everyone was talking about how this was going to be a red wave because the focus was on the economy. Yes, the economy, people care about the economy, but people also have the ability to go into a polling booth and have several issues on their mind and reproductive freedom is top notch.

MATTINGLY: You know, Brian, what I think is most interesting right now, look, there is understandable focus on a very different race in the Democratic side, a very different candidate, a very different campaign, a very different moment. And yet, if you look at all these numbers, the Trump team's pathways, and there are very many, to 270 electoral votes are pretty much static. They're the same as they've been, which means they have a lot of options right now.

As you look at the campaign and what they've been doing over the course of the last several weeks, should they be changing anything? Does their strategy need to shift at all?

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN: You know, first of all, thank you for having me. You're absolutely right. I think for the past two months, if you look at two months ago, President Trump was playing in these blue states. It was offense. The map has expanded a little bit, but we're still playing offense in blue states. I think Pennsylvania is going to be the state that matters the most. We all expect Georgia to fall back into place to what it normally does.

You know, the San Francisco values towards this taking place in rural Georgia is just not going to sell. I mean, at the end of the day, when you drive through rural Georgia, you know, what the voters there, what the taxpayers see there is they see the inflation mobile. You know, Harris brought this inflation to their communities, wiped it out, extended their credit, causing them to lose their farms. That's what they see with this Harris tour through rural America and through these swing states.

So, I think Georgia's going to fall back into place. But as long as we continue to play offense, it's going to be good. You have to remember, you know, Trump's support has stayed stagnant. That's where he needs to remain. And as policy gets rolled out, as Harris makes these policy announcements, these policy decisions, it's not going to be a game of addition for her. It's going to be a game of subtraction. Because as more and more people learn about her policies, the more and more she becomes less of this sort of inspirational figure, and the more and more she falls back into this partisan figure.

MATTINGLY: You know, and, Maria, to Bryan's point, I've heard that from a lot of Republicans who say, when she starts talking to the press, people are going to start opening their eyes a little bit more about where she stands on very specific issues. The interview tonight, it has been 40-some odd days. Republicans have been very critical of the fact there hasn't been one yet. Democrats have said, guys, we had to stand up a campaign in 40 days. But this is an important moment, and there's going to be a ton of eyes on it. And it's unscripted, and we know Dana is pretty darn good at her job. What do you think the campaign wants out of this?

CARDONA: I think the campaign is really looking forward to this interview, Phil, and I love that they chose CNN and that they chose Dana, because they are looking forward to having her sit down along with her vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz, to be able to talk more about what she and he have already presented to the American people.

I know Republicans love to use this thing, you know, to have it be a criticism because they have nothing else, right? This issue that she hasn't done interviews, they have nothing else to fall back on. She has been talking to the press, but more importantly, Phil, she's been talking to voters. And that is why you see the enthusiasm across the board, across this country, even in the polls. That's why Republicans are so concerned.

Tonight is another opportunity for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to show and to talk to and tell the American people about what they would do to lower their cost of living, about what they would do to expand access to health care, to lower prescription drugs the way that they have been doing, to help American families deal with crushing student debt, with which Republicans don't want to do, frankly.

And so there's so much of a contrast that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can show tonight. They will show how they wake up every single day focused on helping the American people. Contrast that with a 34 times convicted felon in Donald Trump, who only focuses on what he can get out of this for himself. He's never done anything in his life that doesn't have anything to do with what benefit he can get out of it. He's only in this to stay out of prison. And you can tell he can never stay on message.

Bryan, I know is blue in the face talking about how Donald Trump should continue to talk about the economy and inflation and immigration, but he doesn't do that. He is on social media. He is reposting sexual slurs and, you know, horrific content. That's the contrast.

MATTINGLY: I mean, I would say, after working on the 2016 campaign, Bryan's pretty practiced at all of this. I think at some point. It's a fascinating moment because both campaigns really do want to talk about the contrast of the policy issues, which they both think they can win. We'll have to see what happens.

Maria Cardona, Bryan Lanza, as always, thanks so much.

CARDONA: Thanks, Phil.

MATTINGLY: And make sure to tune in tonight. CNN has that first sit down interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz since launching their campaign, Dana Bash has the exclusive at 9:00 P.M. Eastern.

[10:15:01]

Well, still ahead, looking to improve ties with China. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as time is running out for Biden to make moves before the election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: New this morning, Ukraine says its air defenses have destroyed more than a dozen Russian drones flying toward the capital of Kyiv. One Ukrainian official described the overnight attack as, quote, massive, leaving several buildings damaged and says it's the third aerial raid on the city just this week.

Now, we're learning also that Ukraine wants to expand its list of targets on Russian soil. A Russian lawmaker tells CNN that two top officials will brief the Biden White House this week in face-to-face meetings. [10:20:03]

They're going to ask for the U.S. to lift restrictions on the use of long range American weapons inside Russia.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live for us at the Pentagon. Oren, what more do we know about what these meetings are going to entail?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Phil, the push to use U.S. weapons to hit targets longer range, deeper in Russia has been a very public and private campaign on the part of Ukraine, stretching from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and on down. It'll be Andrii Yermak, the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, and the defense minister who will be here for meetings tomorrow with Biden administration officials to present a priority list of targets that they want to hit with long range U.S. weapons deeper inside of Russia. They need a green light from the White House to be able to do that. And that's their goal here.

So far, the Biden administration hasn't changed its position. In fact, U.S. weapons can only be used inside of Russia in a very small area north of Ukraine inside of Russia, and they have used those weapons to that effect. The Kursk offensive has been carried out effectively within that restriction from the U.S. But they say they need to be able to target military assets and high value targets deeper inside of Russia to change the course of the war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talked about this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We continue to insist that their determination now, lifting the restrictions on long range strikes for Ukraine now will help us to end the war as soon as possible in a fair way for Ukraine and the world as a whole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Ukraine has used its medium range assets, its medium range weapons to target and carry out cross border attacks. But Russia has simply moved their high value assets farther back, farther away from the frontline. And they're out of range of Ukraine's current weaponry within the restrictions placed upon them by the U.S. That's why they say it's so important to get these restrictions eased or outright lifted. And that's their goal here.

MATTINGLY: Oren, you make a great point in the sense that this has been a public campaign that has been going on for a while from top Ukrainian officials, including President Zelenskyy. Do we have any sense right now that because of some reason or another, the U.S. is actually considering changing the restrictions?

LIEBERMANN: So far, the administration and the Pentagon have been clear that the restrictions remain in place. But, Phil, you and I have seen this so many times over the course of the war, especially when Ukraine carries out a very public camp campaign that the Biden administration will say no, no, no, no, no,. and then suddenly, yes. We saw it with Patriots. We saw it with ATACMS. We saw it with Abrams tanks.

And that's what Ukraine is hoping for here, that the public and private pressure campaign, that perhaps, say, a comprehensive list of targets of what they want to hit to make that clear to the White House, that that will build up enough pressure and convince administration officials that finally they will go from all of those no's to the yes that Ukraine is hoping for.

MATTINGLY: We'll have to wait and see. Oren Liebermann from the Pentagon, thanks so much.

Let's continue this discussion with CNN Political and National Security Analyst David Sanger. He's also the White House national security correspondent for The New York Times and the author of the great book, New Cold Wars, China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West.

David, I want to start with you where Oren ended in the sense of there has been, month after month, an evolution of kind of the administration's analysis of the escalatory risks related to specific requests from Ukraine. Why is this time different? Why would they not consider signing off on lifting restrictions?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's a great question, Phil, because we're not completely certain where it is that they are in their assessment of Putin's sensitivity to these kinds of escalations. You know, early in the war, you'll remember, because you and I were both covering this in the White House at the time, President Biden was concerned that if the U.S. even provided some long range weapons just for use inside Ukraine, that that could lead Putin to threaten again to use nuclear weapons. As they discovered he wasn't that sensitive to it, they allowed the use of the HIMARS, the ATACMS, they sent tanks, that whole list that you heard from Oren.

What's different this time is that the Ukrainians are actually attacking inside Russian territory and holding some Russian territory. And they haven't been able to answer very convincingly, at least in public, two questions. The first is, what's their long-term goal? Do they really plan to hold this land or are they trying to trade it away for a territory that Russia has invaded inside Ukraine? And second, what's the purpose of striking deep inside Russia with American weapons? It's a pretty -- you know, imagine for a moment Vladimir Putin was allowing a similar kind of attack using Russian weapons inside the United States.

[10:25:03]

MATTINGLY: Yes, it's very clearly the balance they're trying to figure out right now. David, I got to be honest throughout the course of the last several days, I've been like on the brink of texting you about this next question. So, now we're just going to do it live on television because I want to get your perspective on it. Obviously, the election, everything that's going on right now, looming large in U.S.-China relations. Today, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Beijing, very rare visit to Beijing for the president's top national security official. Now, it comes as both countries are trying to repair strained relations. How much will the outcome of the U.S. election impact the future of this bilateral relationship?

SANGER: Well, it could impact it a lot. But there are two sort of curious aspects to this, Phil. The first is we know that the Russians would prefer Trump. We know that the Iranians would do anything to defeat Trump. We don't really understand where the Chinese are in this election. They have many reasons to dislike Donald Trump, particularly after he blamed them for COVID and much else, but they also think that he's susceptible to any kind of trade deal. They don't like Vice President Harris because it's the Biden administration that has put into effect the most effective export controls on China that we've ever seen, mostly on advanced semiconductors and the equipment to make them. But that's only been a piece of it.

So, the interesting issue is, first of all, why did Xi Jinping decide he really wanted to see Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser? It's not a given thing that the president of China would see a visiting national security adviser. And second, is Xi, at this point, hoping to strike one last agreement, one last moment of reconciliation with President Biden at the one moment they might see each other at the G20 summit later this fall, or at this point, is he just riding it out to the election?

MATTINGLY: Yes. It certainly seems like, at least on the U.S. side, they're trying to move towards some type of meeting between the two leaders at the G20, at the least a phone call.

Finally, while I have you, David, because I got like 30 more questions on that, so I'll just go back to trying to text you, you have a really fascinating piece --

SANGER: Text me in caps, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Yes, you always answer, fascinating piece in The Times about how the former president views the world, how different the world would be, in his mind, if he were president. Russia wouldn't have invaded, Trump claims, Hamas wouldn't have attacked Israel. In your piece, you say, quote, Mr. Trump's view is based on an unspoken assumption that what the United States does guides all major events in the world, and specifically that the president is the driver of history. Do you really think he believes what he says on these issues or is it just a message?

SANGER: You know, I actually do think he probably believes it, because he is of the sort of great man, great leader camp of American presidents, which is to say everything happens because of the relationship with another leader. And you would see this even when he was in the real estate business. You saw it throughout his career. You always thought, well, if I just call and work it out with the top guy, rarely a top woman, but with the top guy, we'll make this, you know, all happen. And thus his, you know, conviction, as he said, that Ukraine would not have been invaded had he been president because Putin respects him too much, that Hamas would not have invaded Israel and conducted the terror attack on October 7 because it was too scared of Donald Trump.

It seems a little bit bizarre. We've seen other presidents who believe that it was all about them, but he really thinks it's all about them and all about the United States. And you know what, Phil? As you and I have discovered many times, sometimes things happen in the world that have nothing to do with the U.S.

MATTINGLY: Yes, I mean, exceptionalism aside, every once in a while, it is a fascinating piece.

SANGER: Rare occasion.

MATTINGLY: Rare occasion. David Sanger, my good friend, I always appreciate it. Thanks so much.

SANGER: Great to be on with you.

MATTINGLY: Well, coming up, it's a state that went blue in 2020 and Vice President Kamala Harris looking to keep it that way in November. Could the key to winning Georgia be young voters? Next, I'll speak with the president of the Young Democrats of Georgia. You may recognize him from that. It was viral in Atlanta, jamming, of course, to Kendrick Lamar.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]