Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Trump Weighs in on Violent Clashes; Violent Clashes at UCLA; Debate over Abortion Access. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 01, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:07]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, back now to our breaking news. At UCLA, rival protest groups continue to face off at this hour and things have turned violent. We've seen in video large objects being thrown, people being beaten. The LAPD has arrived on the scene, but they have yet to significantly intervene. And California's governor says he's monitoring the situation there. Take a look at these live pictures there as these campus protests are escalating.

Donald Trump did weigh in on the scene that unfolded on Columbia's campus last night as police cleared Hamilton Hall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just such a sad thing to see (INAUDIBLE) even believable. If you go back a year or go back three or four or five years ago, this would not even be possible to think about. Nobody would be thinking this could happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, our panel is here. Let's bring in CNN political commentator Kate Bedingfield, former White House communications director, senior political commentator David Urban, former Trump campaign adviser, and David Chalian, who's, of course, are CNN political director and host of the "CNN Political Briefing" podcast.

Good morning to all of you. That, of course, David Chalian, was Donald Trump weighing in on this. I was trying to kind of get a sense of what the White House had to say about this yesterday. And it was actually a paper statement from Andrew Bates, the spokesman. And we heard from John Kirby in an off-camera gaggle. Now, they did say, "forcibly taking over buildings isn't peaceful, its wrong. Hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America." This is, obviously, and I think the fact that there's nothing on camera from them reflects the difficult position that they are in politically as this unfolds.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: And I think Donald Trump calling into Fox reflects the political position he sees this potential opportunity here to want to weigh in on it. The White House, obviously, yesterday, both the Kirby and the Bates statements that you referenced, much stronger than we had seen before, but the president's going to have to address this on camera in some kind of way because this is just one of those moments, even though it's - it's the kind of thing that would drive Kate crazy I'm sure in the White House but like -

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's driving her crazy right now.

CHALIAN: No, but I mean it's not like the president has any direct responsibility here, but it's a moment of national - where you turn to your national leader and you need to see that your national leader is on top of this and can give voice to all the nuance around this situation, but also real clarity to the unacceptable nature of any kind of violent protests, which is what these statements attempted to do.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, and I think you've seen Biden consistently call out the anti-Semitism, you know, say that protest needs to be peaceful. I mean he's been consistent about that. I expect you will see him at some point over the next day or two say this on camera.

But remember, you know, when you look at the coverage that this is receiving, and then you look at, for example, CNN's polling on where people place this issue in their litany of concerns, it's very low. It's at the bottom. And so for the Biden campaign, I think what they will try to do is bring the focus back to what Donald Trump said in his "Time" interview about abortion and women being, you know, prosecuted under - in a - during a second Trump term, if they try to seek reproductive health care.

So, you know, in some ways that communications effort here, yes, is absolutely, people want to see leadership. And again, I think Biden's been very clear about renouncing and condemning the anti-Semitic nature of some of these protests. But, you know, from a communications perspective, they also want to move the conversation back to issues that are stronger for Biden, but also, you know, that people say have a more direct impact on their day-to-day lives.

URBAN: Yes, I think you'll see more of this, right? Polling is a lagging indicators, as we know. You're going to see more of this from the Republican Party. Chris Lacivita, from the campaign, has a video posted on his - on his Twitter page, which kind of clips and pastes some of this together with some statements that Joe Biden made. And it reinforces a narrative in America that - that crime is rampant. No one's in control. The police don't have the authority they need. They're - this is a combination of hate and loss of control, right? And so, there's this kind of anarchy feeling about it in America. Like, no one - no one's at the wheel and - which kind of goes back to the Republican theme about the Biden administration not really having a grasp on what's going on. The president personally not having a grasp. So, I think you'll see it iterated over and over again.

This is, you know, this is Charlottesville day in and day out for - this is going to be day three, four, five. Who knows how many more to come. And I think it's a problem for the - for the - for the Democrats. And as we move -

CHALIAN: But Charlottesville, David -

URBAN: Yes.

CHALIAN: But Charlottesville wasn't a problem just because of the event itself, which was the problem. It was a problem because the president of the United States came out and said there were fine people on both sides of the issue.

BEDINGFIELD: Right. Right.

CHALIAN: That - that was the actual political problem (INAUDIBLE).

BEDINGFIELD: I mean, and someone died. Someone died. But Trump can - right, and Trump can -

URBAN: And -

BEDINGFIELD: Sorry, I don't want to interrupt you again, but Trump condoned the language, the hateful language that was used in Charlottesville.

URBAN: OK.

BEDINGFIELD: Biden has very clearly condemned the hateful language that's been used here.

[06:35:01]

URBAN: But I will - I will say if you go look at the clips, go watch - go watch the clip that's put together by the RNC, Biden his time and time again said, well, look, the other side, these guys have a point. The protesters should be heard. They've got a point. So, there's a little bit of what about ism through this whole thing as well.

BEDINGFIELD: Well, but they're - he's been clear that there needs to be spaced for peaceful protest in this country. And I think most Americans would agree with that.

URBAN: Yes, but what - yes, but -

BEDINGFIELD: That is a fundamental bedrock that is not the same as saying, you know, someone carrying a - we saw footage if someone carrying a final solutions sign on the GW campus. That's not the same as saying, there are very fine people on both sides of this conflict. That's saying -

URBAN: Yes, but, wait. But if we - hold on - just let me - let's put a pin in that. As we know, that's - that very fine people on both sides was about a specific rally that took place at a monument before the tiki torch. So, let's not - let - if we're going to get Daniel Dale in here to fact check, be very specific.

HUNT: Well -

CHALIAN: I was just saying -

URBAN: Yes.

CHALIAN: Well, you're - you're trying to make the comparison, and I think the - the political problem of Charlottesville was not as much of the imagery, which was horrible -

URBAN: Right.

CHALIAN: But sort of, I think, in unified fashion, the country saw that as horrible. I think it was the president's remarks that made it a political problem.

HUNT: Right.

URBAN: And - but my point is, that was horrible. This is horrible. And this is horrible day in and day out and day in and day out. And I suspect we're going to see it again in Chicago, some version of this, right, at the convention in Chiago. We'll see this similar behavior.

HUNT: Look -

CHALIAN: We may see it in Milwaukee too, by the way.

HUNT: Yes.

URBAN: Yes.

HUNT: No, I think that - I mean, again, I - just to underscore kind of David's point here, I do think that what your leaders are saying in these moments matter. And President Biden is saying things like, we don't condone this, this is anti-Semitic. And we did have the fine people on both sides. I take your point. But when we know who exactly was in that crowd, you know, that's exactly what was so inflammatory.

I also want to raise - we saw this very long interview that former President Trump, current Republican nominee Trump, did with "Time" magazine. And he was asked whether or not there was going to be political violence, or if he expected political violence in November. And he responded this way. He says, "I do think we're going to win. If we don't win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of the election. I don't believe they'll be able to do the things they did last time. I don't think they'll be able to get away with it."

David Chalian, whether or not there's going to be violence depends on the fairness of the election. I hear in that, I mean, Trump is invoking January 6th in regards to these protests. But this seems like something we may be revisiting again and again.

CHALIAN: And yet it's not new for Donald Trump, right? I mean we all remember the 2016 debate against Hillary Clinton where he made clear as a first-time candidate that he may not accept the results to the election. And then we saw - we actually lived through the violence of January 6th - HUNT: Yes.

CHALIAN: In the aftermath of the 2020 election and - and Donald Trump's silence during that time.

So, having language like this is no doubt yet again and - of laying groundwork for the potential for a repeat of what we saw on January 6th. I'm not suggesting Trump is calling for that here. I'm just saying, by not having like totally just clear, unequivocal language that this should be -

HUNT: I mean the answer should be no.

CHALIAN: Exactly. That's what I'm saying. I mean that's the answer.

HUNT: Right? I mean the answer should be no. There should be no political violence.

BEDINGFIELD: Right. Right.

CHALIAN: And yet he wants to continue to live - I mean this is - this is why, and, David, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Anytime he's sort of like back in this space of the election and things not being fair and therefore the outcome of that, he's in a losing space for him.

URBAN: Yes, look, I don't - I don't disagree. I think that forward- looking is much better than backwards looking. Everybody kind of agrees on that. The president's stuck on '20. The more you talk about '20, the less we're talking about things that are occurring today, inflation -

HUNT: But this question was about the future. Just like -

URBAN: No, no, I understand. No, I understand, Kasie, but it's - that futures is kind of a look in the rearview mirror saying, if it - if what happened in '20 happens again then we're going to have problems because he should say, look, I hope that we have a free and fair election. I hope people accept that. But there are people, a lot of people, I mean I've talked to some people this past weekend who you would never think, you know, kind of suburban housewives, who are really hard over that the election was rigged, stolen.

HUNT: Well, that's because Trump told them that.

BEDINGFIELD: Right, I mean but this - this is where -

URBAN: Yes, but these - but these - no, these aren't people - these aren't people who are like toothless, you know, living in a Yurt someplace. These are educated -

HUNT: I don't think that - I don't think those people are (INAUDIBLE).

BEDINGFIELD: But that's - we talk about - we were talking about leadership. I mean this is - that is because Donald Trump has hammered over and over again this lie that the election in 2020 was stolen. I don't think there are a lot of suburban housewives who are saying, you know, who are on their own sort of going out and saying, I dispute the results of the election in Arizona.

URBAN: See -

BEDINGFIELD: That's a function of Donald Trump and his people going out and telling lies about what happened in 2020. And now you have an interview where he's saying, essentially, if I don't like the outcome of this election, I'm going to do that again. That is a fundamentally dangerous thing. It is also, to David's point, of political loser. I mean we've seen time and again, we saw it in the midterms in 2022, the concept of political violence, the notion and that our democracy was under threat, was motivating to people.

[06:40:08]

Voters said, I don't - I reject this. I don't want this.

URBAN: OK. I - listen, I 100 percent again agree, right? We should be talking about the economy. We should talk about like ideas, Trump versus Biden on x, y, foreign policy, all the things that I think are winners.

HUNT: Maybe not abortion if you're a Republican.

URBAN: I think - I think are winners. Right, well, we have to talk about abortion.

HUNT: Yes, you do.

URBAN: We just have to have an answer on abortion. A better answer on abortion. I don't think Trump's position is a bad position whatsoever, right? I mean his position was the position of the Republican Party for 50 years. It's a state's rights issue. You had other members of the Republican Party, like Lindsey Graham and others, putting out pretty extreme positions. But Trump's position was - was reasonable for many, many years.

HUNT: But -

URBAN: It was the dogma of the party.

HUNT: To go back to the main point though, why can't Trump just say, no, there's not going to be political violence?

URBAN: I don't have an answer for you. Right. I wish he did and I wish he'd said, just like I said, I wish he'd say, listen, Joe Biden says repeatedly, don't compare me to the almighty, compare to the alternative. Well, Joe, I want to do that. And let me give you a side- by-side one-pager here, America, on foreign policy, on fiscal policy, on regulation, on energy. I wish Trump would do that, right? Then we could have substantive debates about things that matter, household issues to people that really impact - listen, you know why you can't buy a house, interest rates are 8 percent. They're not coming down anytime soon because of inflation and runaway spending. Let me tell you about this, student debt. I mean - HUNT: They should give you a job in Republican coms, I got it.

URBAN: No, but -

HUNT: I got - I got the message.

CHALIAN: (INAUDIBLE) protecting democracy is a highly rated issue.

HUNT: Yes, very much so.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

CHALIAN: I mean it's second to the economy. And, by the way, it rates highly for both Democrats and Republicans. They, obviously, come at it from different perspectives.

URBAN: Well, but we see this in 2022, right? This is what the - this is what the - all the exit polling said in '22. We expected this big red wave. Remember, we were all sitting here and Kate and her colleagues were just like gleeful because - and they're like, look, Urban, you're going down, right? Because -

BEDINGFIELD: That was actually what I was saying in the White House. I was saying, David Urban, you are going down.

URBAN: That - because - because everyone expected this big red wave and then all the exit polling said, democracy, democracy, democracy.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

HUNT: Yes.

URBAN: Look, we - our hand is on the stove. Take it off.

HUNT: All right.

URBAN: We learned.

BEDINGFIELD: His - yes. Well, we're not.

HUNT: All right, we're going to take a break here because we do need to make sure we continue following breaking news out of UCLA up next. The LAPD has now moved in. They've begun pushing back counter- protester. We are live on the ground after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:46:31]

HUNT: Welcome back. Let's get back to our breaking news.

At UCLA, the Los Angeles Police have moved in. They have now pushed counter protestors back, separating these two rival groups. Late last night, things turned very violent between the two sides. We saw large objects thrown, people being beaten. They were fighting for several hours before the police arrived on the scene. We've now learned that California's governor is monitoring the situation.

And CNN's Stephanie Elam joins us live from campus.

Stephanie, the last time we talked to you we saw the lines of police. We are now hearing that they have moved in. What have you seen - what have you seen over the last hour?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, definitely. We've definitely seen or felt, I should say, more of the police presence from this side. Now, keep in mind, where we're standing here, this is the line of police officers here on - if you were entering off - from the eastern side of campus, just to kind of give you an idea.

But if you look down through there, if you look down through there, you can see on the other side, that is where you'll see the encampment. And so what - how this has been broken up here on campus is you have this side, which is the pro-Israeli demonstrators, and then cross the other side there's a barricade, there's a walkway, and then there's another barricade. And on the other side of that is where you'll find the pro-Palestinian demonstrators on that side and the encampment.

So, what we have seen is we've seen some people being pushed out just now coming out of the center of this grassy area. We've also seen the police increase their line and move it up a bit here as well. So, we have seen some movement.

It got quiet for a while and it seems like it is right now. But we've heard some chanting from the pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the last few moments here. But definitely there does seem to be more of a presence here.

We've seen out here, where we're standing, that there have been arguments between people. And there is this one woman who's walking around actively separating them to try to just keep people and the high tensions apart, separating them. Something that we've seen. I mean we've seen people who were agitating throughout the night. We saw people playing loud music. We saw fireworks being thrown out here. We saw people using whatever they could find to toss at the other side.

And what's still not clear is what turned everything from when we were out here all day yesterday, which it was relatively calm, I mean, and I should also point out that the vast majority of campus is very calm. I walked around. People are out studying. They're readings, sitting. It was a beautiful day yesterday. They were sitting on the grass.

This is the area that has been the point of contention. So, what happened from the day, where we did see they were unloading more barricades and bringing them out, and what led to what happened here overnight. It's still unclear what has gone on here.

But what we have seen from the aerials, what we have seen from here on the ground as we have seen people from both sides engaging and then people trying to break them up. But all night long there were these skirmishes. There were people really going at each other. Now that energy does seem to be changing now that we have this - this police presence here.

HUNT: All right, Stephanie Elam for us at UCLA. Stephanie, thank you.

Just in here, we have brand new CNN polling out this morning that shows nearly half of Americans want to see federal lawmakers protect access to abortion nationwide. Nearly a quarter of American say they'll only support a candidate who shares their views on abortion.

Plus, a majority of voters say they're unhappy with President Biden's handling of abortion policy.

[06:50:04]

Vice President Kamala Harris heads to Florida today where a ban on abortion after six weeks goes into effect today. In her remarks, Harris is expected to blame Donald Trump for that ban, calling it, quote, "a Trump abortion ban."

Our panel is back.

David Chalian, this one's for you. What have we learned about where Americans are on abortion? And the number that I was particularly interested in was the number of people who say they're interested in a federal abortion ban, which seems pretty low.

CHALIAN: Oh, that does seem very low. I think, what was that, 14 percent?

HUNT: Fourteen percent.

CHALIAN: Yes, something like that. So, listen, what I think is really interesting is, overwhelmingly, and this has been consistent since Roe was overturned in the Dobbs decision, two-thirds of Americans disagree with that decision. I mean that - just from a - like the 30,000 foot view, this is still a largely unpopular thing that occurred, right? And Republicans we see are still scrambling to deal with it.

But what I find interesting here is, the consensus isn't quite as broad when it comes to what to do. And this is why you see Donald Trump landing where he's landed on this right? Because, yes, no doubt, 49 percent still, as you noted there -

HUNT: Yes.

CHALIAN: Want to see federal politicians work to enshrine abortion rights nationally. But that's a lot lower than the 65 percent of the post-Dobbs. There is this other number, this 37 percent or so, that say, leave it to the states, which is where Donald Trump is.

Now, do you want to be with 37 percent or 4 percent if you're a politician? Obviously, you'd want to be with the larger group.

HUNT: Right.

CHALIAN: But in - you can see why he's landing where he is and not, going to your point, for this federal, national abortion ban, which has not nearly any kind of (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: Right. You want to be - if we can put that screen back up for a second, it's not politically tenable for Donald Trump as a Republican to be with the 49 percent.

CHALIAN: Correct.

HUNT: But if you've got to choose between 37 and 14, right, like, that's what explains why he's not listening to people like Kellyanne Conway and Lindsey Graham.

CHALIAN: And what the Biden campaign is attempting to do and is going to try to do is try to say, hey, hey, I know Donald Trump isn't coming out for a national abortion ban, but you can't trust him. As soon as he gets there, he's going to do it. But in our poll -

HUNT: Yes.

CHALIAN: That's not what voters think. That - they're not buying that argument yet. They - they - they think he's more likely to leave this to the states.

HUNT: Well, and a couple of things here, right, because, of course, leaving it to the states has significant ramifications for people in those states. As we noted, Florida's band goes into effect today. It's a six-week ban. There are some exceptions, but they are relatively limited.

And this is what Donald Trump had to say to "Time" magazine in a lengthy interview when he was asked, "do you think states should monitor women's pregnancies so they can know if they've gotten an abortion after the ban?" Trump says, quote, "I think they might do that. Again, you'll have to speak to the individual states."

Raising kind of the prospect of this monitoring because, again, these bans raise questions. If the ban is violated, how do you hold accountable people involved?

I want to flash us back to 2016 when Donald Trump was asked by Chris Matthews about what should happen in some of these situations. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIS MATTHEWS, MODERATOR: Should abortion be punished?

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, people in certain parts of the Republican Party, and conservative Republicans, would say, yes, they should be punished.

MATTHEWS: How about you?

TRUMP: I would say that it's a very serious problem. And it's a problem that we have to decide on. Is - it's very - I mean are you going to say -

MATTHEWS: But you're for banning it.

TRUMP: Well, wait, are you going to say put them in jail. Are you - is that the punishment that you're talking about?

MATTHEWS: Well, no, but I'm asking you. Because you say you want to ban it. What's that mean?

TRUMP: I - I would - I am against - I am pro-life, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: David Urban.

URBAN: Yes, look, so I think, as David points out, the president has kind of been where he's been, you know, pre this in terms of the states - states issue, right? This has been - the Republican dogma since I've been in Washington, D.C., in the late '90s has been - it's - it's -

HUNT: Yes, but now - now Roe has fallen.

URBAN: No, no, I understand, it's a state's rights issue, but it's been - listen, overturned Roe, it goes to the states, right? That's always been the Republican mantra until Roe was overturned and then you have these different, various folks who are advocating for a national ban, which is crazy, and a six-week ban.

Listen, I live in the state of Florida. There was no hue and cry for a six-week ban in the state of Florida. I don't - I'm not quite sure why the governor, others felt that they should do this, right, and really put it -

CHALIAN: Well, he was running for the Republican presidential nomination.

URBAN: Yes, but put it - put an issue -

HUNT: Trying to get to the right of Donald Trump. Yes.

URBAN: But to your point, David, it's a very unpopular position to take. Plus, you know, reasonable people, right, know that you can't - women don't even know if they're pregnant at six weeks, right?

HUNT: Right.

URBAN: It's a really untenable position to have.

HUNT: I'm going to clip and save that, David.

URBAN: It's a really - it's an untenable position to have, right?

HUNT: Yes.

URBAN: And it's politically a loser, right?

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, it is. URBAN: And, listen, Trump's a smart guy. He knows it's a political loser. And the less he's talking about abortion, the more he's winning. And so he gets it.

And you saw that the numbers up there too where people are saying, we're not really happy with what Biden's doing either on it, right? So, it's - you know -

HUNT: Yes, I find that confusing too.

BEDINGFIELD: Well, the problem - but see the problem for Trump on this, the message problem, is twofold. One is, you know, he appointed the three justices who overturned Roe.

[06:55:03]

So that's a - you know, if you're going to have a back-and-forth about where -

HUNT: And he's literally bragged about it repeatedly that he (INAUDIBLE) Roe verses Wade.

BEDINGFIELD: And he's bragged about it. So, for him to sort of kind of back away from that is - is challenging - challenging.

But then secondly, now to say, you know, leave it to the states. If you ask somebody in a poll, are you for leaving it to - or leaving it to the states, they may say yes. But the reality, we're now seeing what that looks like. We're seeing a six-week ban in Florida. We're seeing, you know, a law in Arizona that predates the Civil War that's going to prevent women from being able to access health care. So, you know, it's - it's fine. It's not fine, I would argue in the abstract, to say it should be left to the states. But in reality now the practice of what he's got to defend, now he has to defend what's happening in Arizona.

And it's - you know, it's not - and it's not just abortion, right? This conversation has moved to IVF. It's moved to other forms of reproductive health care. And it just - its - its very challenging for Republicans to defend having fought to bring Roe down and then turn around and say, well, but actually I'm, you know, I'm not actually for the ramifications of that. I don't actually want to own the -

HUNT: The consequences.

BEDINGFIELD: I don't want to own the consequences.

CHALIAN: Well, he is making the (ph) strong argument, isn't that the - I think you're making your strong argument rather than, don't trust Donald Trump, he's actually going to ban it.

BEDINGFIELD: I think so.

CHALIAN: OK. Yes.

BEDINGFIELD: I - yes, I think so. I think so. Because also, you know, that is - you are - any time you can point somebody to the tangible impacts of, you know, that's happening in their lives, rather than saying, you know, don't trust this politician in the future, that's - of course that's a strong argument. Of course it is.

HUNT: I mean I have to say, I have women friends who are pregnant who are concerned about going to Florida on vacation because God forbid something happens and they need miscarriage care.

BEDINGFIELD: Absolutely. Absolutely.

URBAN: So, it has been shown in the - after these elections, right, this is an issue for Republicans. They have to have an answer. And they're kind of wandering around in the wilderness with disparate position, disparate, you know, viewpoints. And - and we have a national election coming up. We need to have a position that's going to resonate with the electric because otherwise Kate and her messaging team is going to win the day, right?

HUNT: All right. Let's go back now to this because if you're just joining us we've been following these escalating protests overnight. The main flashpoints has been at UCLA, where police have now pushed back protesters after hours of violent clashes between two protest groups.

At the University of Arizona, police have used chemical irritants overnight to disperse protestors and several people were arrested.

In New Orleans, a Tulane University, police dismantling a campus encampment overnight, arresting protesters who refused to leave.

And this is, of course, a growing political issue for the White House. And Peter Baker at "The New York Times," longtime chronicler of the men who have occupied the Oval Office, writes this morning, quote, "Mr. Biden's history with the protest movement of his youth" - this, of course, back in 1968, "informs his current position. He was an institutionalist even as a young man, focused more on how to make change inside the system rather than on the street." Baker goes on to write, quote, "by his own account, Mr. Biden never saw the war," the Vietnam War, "as a great moral issue, but instead a tragic mistake based on a faulty premise. In other words, he said, I saw the Vietnam War in terms of stupidity, not morality."

My panel is back.

Kate, I want to kick this to you in a second, but, David, I just have found this kind of historical comparison very interesting and layered between people who are baby boomers and remember 1968 and in some ways seem to be identifying with these protesters and saying, well, I remember being in something like that. I mean certainly Hamilton Hall was taken in both 1968 and now in this. But also the differences are so dramatic. I mean there's no draft, right?

CHALIAN: Right.

HUNT: These kids are not at risk of them having, you know, their own kind of lives put on the line after they leave school. CHALIAN: Right, American soldiers or not - I mean I don't think it's all that comparable. I get why people want to draw the comparisons, but we are in - and we're in a totally different universe as well. But what is - what is interesting to me about the Baker piece and about Biden on this, you've got - there's so much nuance in this issue and so you know - and you see Biden trying to do all, like denounce anti- Semitism, of course, unorderly and violent protests are unacceptable, but expressing some space for peaceful protests against Netanyahu's government policy here and trying to wrap all of that, it just - it requires a lot of nuance and our society doesn't live so well in nuance.

HUNT: Yes. We're running up against the show, but, Kate, you've known Bidne. You worked for him.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

HUNT: What do you hear in this?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, look, I think one thing this misses is that Biden was motivated to get into politics by the civil rights movement, was shaped by the civil rights movement. So, I think, you know, to suggest that he has sort of no - you know that he in no way connects with movement in the streets, I'm not sure is - at least, you know, when I would listen to him talk about why he is in public service, that was always - those stories from his youth were always a big piece of how he talked about it. So, I think that is missing, at least from the Joe Biden that I know.

But I will say - but I will say that this idea of making change from inside the system is absolutely a motivator. And I think - you know, I think he has shown time and again that getting involved, that being involved in politics is a way to make change.

[07:00:02]

And I think that's - I think that's an honorable thing to advocate for.

URBAN: If Joe Biden isn't out today on television with a strong statement behind, you know, official statements someplace, people don't see him, he's losing today. Today's a very big day. If you don't see Biden out forcefully saying, this is bad, I get to condemn this, the country looks out of control, he looks week, loser for him today.

HUNT: It does underscore the very real challenges the president has inside his own party as he faces re-election.

Thank you all for joining us on this Wednesday morning. Thanks to our panel for being here. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.