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CNN This Morning
Biden Courts Black Voters; Hollywood Celebrities Wrestle with Political Endorsements; Looking at Celebrity Endorsements and Influence on Voters. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired May 30, 2024 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:31:15]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And then Trump tells you he's the greatest president - I love this one. He says he's the greatest president for black people in the history of America, including more than Abraham Lincoln.
I mean, can you fathom that? Where in the hell - like I said, I think he injected too much of that bleach into his skin (ph). I think it affected his brain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden criticizing former President Trump during a trip to Philadelphia yesterday. He was working to appeal to black voters. His attacks come as the president, Biden, sees a slip in support among black Americans, especially black men, a critical group he won over in 2020.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: If black Americans had stormed the -- think about this. What do you think would have happened if black Americans had stormed the Capitol? I don't think he'd be talking about pardons.
He's that landlord who denies housing application because of the color of your skin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: OK.
Matt Gorman, I have to say, I heard some of this and thought - see - I see it as a little bit of an acknowledgment that there is a legit slip with black Americans in his support.
MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean we're seeing now, the de Niro press conference, that debate kind of gambit to push Trump towards an earlier debate. This - they're fighting on Trump's Democrat - like, Democrats are defending him on Democratic turf, (INAUDIBLE) with black men, really, where, look, you saw the rally in the south Bronx. And look, I don't think all a sudden New York will be in play all of a sudden, but I think it was a signal that the Trump campaign's going to compete for Latino voters, African American men.
And look, they have a lot of economic concerns. And I thought it was interesting the - he didn't talk about the economic stuff. It was a lot of kind of - it was democracy kind of, you know, stuff he could have kind of brought up before. Trump's going to talk about the economy. They have to be ready for that.
HUNT: One - I mean, Elliot, like this - Donald Trump's history on this - and, actually, Tara, I should throw this to you to consider how much reporting you've done in New York, like the Central Park Five, right?
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, yes.
HUNT: I mean the way that he has engaged on this. And yet here we are. Why?
WILLIAMS: Well, that's funny, right on my notes were Central Park Five, which are three words that sort of ring very powerfully for black people to this day, but particularly about Donald Trump just based on everything that that scenario where these five men were accused of a pretty horrific sexual assault that ultimately they all were exonerated for.
Now -
HUNT: And that Donald Trump egged on at the time.
WILLIAMS: Egged on. Called - taking out a full-page ad in "The New York Times" calling for the death penalty for them. And I think black people, for the most part, remember that.
Another point sort of lost in all this is affirmative action as well, which even in light of American's conflicted position and relationship with race-based preferences, black people feel strongly about it. And Donald Trump was behind putting three justices on the court that ultimately overturned it. These are the kinds of things that do stick in black folk's minds.
But to Matt's point, something's clearly not clicking. Particularly with young black men. That's - and brown men as well, that's - that's resonating with Trump that isn't landing for Biden.
HUNT: Donald Trump, of course, has talked about this. He has used his mug shot to try to argue that that's part of why he appeals to black voters.
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I got indicted a second time, and a third time, and a fourth time. And a lot of people said that that's why the black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against and they actually viewed me as I'm being discriminated against.
The mug shot. We've all seen the mug shot. And you know who embraced it more than anybody else, the black population.
[06:35:00]
It's incredible. You see black people walking around with my mug shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: OK, so I won't laugh (ph). I've never seen him - black people walking around with Donald Trump's mug shot.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: But that's what he's claiming. And again, this - I just - I find it a little bit head-spinning, Tara.
TARA PALMERI, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: I know. But then, at the same time, you know, thousands of people came out to his Bronx rally on - last Friday. And I've heard from - you know, I wasn't there, but I just had a guest on my podcast and she's a reporter that was there and she said people were wearing the shirts with the mug shot.
HUNT: Oh, they were wearing the mug shot.
PALMERI: I don't know that they were necessarily African Americans, but that they were wearing his mug shot. And I do remember, like, Trump had this like hip hop moment. I don't know if you guys remember that. And he was actually pulling - and I know this from talking to Trump advisers - that he looks back at the time when he was on "The Apprentice" and he was very popular with African American voters.
So while, yes, people from New York remember Central Park Five, and that was a really big thing, there's a whole other part of the population, African American population, that probably does not remember it the same way that we do.
WILLIAMS: A reporter - and to add to that point, a reporter who was there at the rally had said that you also had - Bronx is also heavily Latino today as well. And there are Latino folks -
PALMERI: Right. Exactly. Afro Latino.
WILLIAMS: Yes, or not even - or just straight up, you know, where - from wherever, wearing shirts and shouting like, send them back, deport - and which was sort of this realignment (INAUDIBLE).
PALMERI: And it was - it was a message that was entirely on the economy and on migration, which has been an issue that has hit that populations in New York. WILLIAMS: Yes.
PALMERI: A lot - there's a lot of resentment from the migrants that were shipped up from Texas and Florida by Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott. Hundreds of thousands of migrants coming to New York City. And a lot of these people saying, why are they -
WILLIAMS: Yes.
PALMERI: You know, being housed in hotels on the upper west side and getting assistance from the state.
GORMAN: They say, you know, I came- I didn't come her illegally. I had to go through all these hoops. I didn't get handouts.
PALMERI: (INAUDIBLE).
GORMAN: And, you're right, they're in the Roosevelt Hotel, you know, getting whatever from the state. You're absolutely right.
And, look, it's an economic message. And I think we - you know, we talked about this a little bit before. Look, "The Apprentice" was a number one show on television. We can't overestimate that.
PALMERI: Yes.
GORMAN: That - that meant something. It really did mean something. So, Trump was defined in another way, to Tara's point. And also to, like, the Trump presidency. Like, you had record low unemployment for Latinos, African Americans. So, they also are able to kind of compare where they were then to where they are now. And I think the economic message, I think Democrats would be mistaken if they just kind of go and be like, come on, like, I'm saying this colloquially, come on, OK, every four years, like, you know, African Americans, time to vote for us. Like, they have to make a case on this proactively. They can't just expect folks to be there.
PALMERI: I also just think it shows that the Democrats are realizing that they cannot just make this a choice between Biden and Trump and assume that people will choose Biden. That actually voters are doing exactly what they do in - before, you know, a re-election. They're actually making it a referendum on the incumbent. They're not doing what they hoped. They didn't. They were hoping from the beginning, if we just sit back and let Trump be Trump, it will repel voters. It's just not happening. Perhaps it's the noise, the Trump amnesia. Maybe things will change. But clearly they've changed their strategy. They've become more aggressive. They have surrogates out there willing to punch him straight in the face. Biden's finally doing it. And they're -
HUNT: You're talking about Robert de Niro too (ph).
PALMERI: Yes, Robert de Niro. His own wife, you know, was on "The View," just like you teased earlier, and they're willing to - to attack Trump the way that he attacks his political rivals. And I think this is - we're getting into a very aggressive slug fest of a campaigns season that we haven't fully seen the extent of yet.
HUNT: Well, look, I'm not going to lie, this is the thing that a lot of Democrats have been badgering behind the scenes to get the Biden campaign to do more of. And, look, speaking of this, the Biden campaign is, as Tara was just talking about, bringing out his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, more and more frequently. She has been, in some instances, more willing to go after Trump than then her husband, although, again, Biden is ramping up the attacks as well. She appeared on "The View" yesterday and here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL BIDEN, FIRST LADY: This election is not about age, because like you're saying - I mean Donald Trump's going to be, what, 78.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seventy-eight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
JILL BIDEN: And Joe's 81. They're basically the same page.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some -
JILL BIDEN: So - but it's about character. This election is about character.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
JILL BIDEN: So you have two choices. You have my husband, Joe, who you all know, who has integrity. He's strong. He's steady.
As time goes on, as people start to focus a little bit more about what's at stake and start to become educated on the issues and the differences between them - the two men, I believe that Americans are going to choose good over evil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: I mean, Tara, I think part of why they have her going out is because she is that much more forceful oftentimes than her husband is.
PALMERI: Oh, she's a great communicator. I think she's like their best asset really. And she makes the case about their age better than he does. Like, he's an older man. What is he supposed to say, like, I'm young and hip? Like, they make jokes about it, right? That's their way of deflecting. But she's able to articulate it for him, without him having to say, like, look how - you know, that - he's trying to appear in a way that he doesn't.
And, yes, she's really - she's feisty, you know? [06:40:02]
She's his - she's his attack dog. And like everyone needs that.
Robert de Niro also acted that way. I don't know that he's as effective as a communicator as Jill Biden was. And that's a - you know, I think they need to have her out on the trail more.
WILLIAMS: To your punch in the face point, Joe Biden punching someone in the face lands very differently than Jill Biden punching someone in the face, you know? And it's - it's almost - you know, it's like the stand-up comic in the 1980s who used to have a puppet that would say offensive jokes. You'll hear him say it, but, you know, coming out of me it's something totally different. And it just lands harder coming from Jill Biden. You don't expect it.
PALMERI: Right.
GORMAN: He needs to be doing more of those interviews, though. I mean, like, let's face it, like the big - one of the biggest - I think probably the biggest is his age, right, and the perception he's just not up to it. He's lost his step, right? And so, while that is great having Joe Biden be that surrogate for you -
HUNT: Yes.
GORMAN: He needs to be doing those things and making (ph) that case.
HUNT: Let me pause you because he - this was not in an interview, but there was a moment that's been very widely circulated yesterday where he was - it's an - it's an odd setting. It's a little hard to hear the question. We - we'll be able to hear the question in the clip. You can see Joe Biden struggle to here the question.
Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Biden, will you be serving your full four year term or handing over power to Vice President Harris?
JOE BIDEN: You're not hurt, are you?
Are you OK? Did you fall on your head or something?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Pretty sharp words, but -
GORMAN: Sharp words, but like, it's not something that is an affirmative case, right? Like it's a deflection. And I think, look, also the more reps he does getting those questions, the better he will be. We have this kind of - a lot of times with our bosses that when we deal with politicians, if you don't do a lot of interviews, when you get tougher questions, you won't be as sharp. It's like you've taken batting practice in the cage, right? So, the more interviews he does, the better he'll be. He needs to be
better on that answer and start making the case himself, not relying on Jill or on Robert de Niro.
HUNT: All right, coming up next here, could Elon Musk join Donald Trump in the White House if the former president wins in November?
Plus, celebrities backing political candidates. A century old tradition. Even Sinatra did it in his way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK SINATRA, MUSICIAN (singing): And the more - much more than this, I did it my way.
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[06:46:40]
HUNT: All right, 46 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.
A California judge ruling that a piece of evidence in the murder case against Scott Peterson will get new DNA testing. Peterson's attempt to get a new trial comes roughly two decades after he was first convicted of murdering his wife, Lacey Peterson, and his unborn son.
Prosecutors say they are investigating new claims against Harvey Weinstein that could lead to a new indictment. The news coming ahead of Weinstein's re-trial after the New York Court of Appeals voted that some witness testimony should not have been allowed.
A new Louisiana law makes it a crime to come within 25 feet of a police officer while they are engaged in law enforcement duties. But only after the officer orders the person to stay back. Critics argue that the measure will hinder the public's ability to film officers to try to hold them accountable.
And football fans in the nation's capital are hating the new name of their NFL team. A "Washington Post" poll finds nearly six in ten Commanders fans do not like the name. Two years after the change, only 16 percent said keep it. No NFL team has ever changed its name three times in decades without changing regions.
I mean, I got to say, I get why they changed the name in the first place, but like I - I mean - I was at an event where they were handing out free gear and I looked at it and I didn't recognize - does anybody -
GORMAN: It's benign. It just really - there's no history here. It needs something that connects them a little more to the city.
WILLIAMS: What - why would - I've through - what would the solution have been, right? It's a rhetorical question. It's not for you. But it's, given all the baggage around the old name, what could or would they have done that people would have embraced? And I don't know what the answer is.
HUNT: But not this.
GORMAN: It's a palate cleanser. I think they're - I'll come up with a new name.
HUNT: Right.
GORMAN: I think it kind of cleanses it out a little bit.
HUNT: Oh, OK. All right.
Let's turn now to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections, forget about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: We've seen it before. That was Robert de Niro, of course, stumping for Biden. And we had Oprah stumping for then Senator Obama back in 2008. There was Clint Eastwood's infamous empty chair speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention. Celebrities pitching candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINT EASTWOOD, ACTOR: Want me to tell Romney? I can't tell him to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: But in the hyper divisive political climate that we are now seeing, many celebrities are apparently wary of getting involved in politics now.
CNN White House correspondent Priscilla Alvarez joins us now to discuss her new reporting on this.
Priscilla, what are you learning?
PRISCILLA ALVARE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kasie, by all accounts it's going to be a close race. And for that reason, celebrity endorsements may hold outsized influence. That's what multiple strategists are telling me. But it could be even riskier. And there is some trepidation given the highly polarized, political landscape, which also includes the Israel-Hamas war.
I mean take Mariah Carey for example, who simply with a stop at the White House last December got a flurry of criticism in her comments on Instagram. That's just an example of the type of response that some celebrities, according to consultants, are wary of.
But as you were laying out there, historically, Hollywood has rallied around Democratic candidates. And the Biden campaign has clearly acquired some star power. You played Robert de Niro earlier. There's a June fundraiser that has been planned that's going to include Julia Roberts and George Clooney. And this helps them rake in a lot of cash as we saw when Biden held a fundraiser in New York City.
[06:50:05]
But more endorsements are expected between the Democratic National Convention and election day. That's what campaign officials tell me. And the timing really is everything. They say that closer to Election Day is when it matters so they can reach voters that are otherwise hard to reach.
And one senior adviser telling me that people know who Biden is, but they need these celebrities to help get their message out. The question is, how many of them are actually going to show up.
Kasie.
HUNT: All right, Priscilla Alvarez for us at the White House. Priscilla, thank you.
And Hollywood endorsements do go back quite a while.
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Come on and vote for Kennedy, vote for Kennedy, and we'll come out on top.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): With a wide open country in my eyes (ph), and these dreams. Vote for change tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Everybody sing now (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): America, America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Vote for change. Some change. I want change.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that is why I'm with her.
If you're ready for freedom, make some noise.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. So, that, obviously, a parade of celebrities endorsing political candidates.
I have always come from the school that this doesn't really matter at all. Perhaps Taylor Swift might move some people. I don't know. What do you think, Tara. PALMERI: Yes, I mean, that was the thinking in 2020 that Taylor Swift's endorsement of Joe Biden may have activated some younger voters to actually go out and vote. But I do think that celebrities are aware that Donald Trump, they - they came out pretty forcefully against him in 2016 and he still won. 2020, he still won a very sizable amount of the popular vote.
Basically half the country still voted for them. And I do think ultimately they probably feel like this is also their careers and they're not sure if they're willing to put their names out on the line anymore to fight against this person that clearly half of the country is still behind. And it impacts them if you're trying to sell records. And it's just such a divisive, polarizing time that people just like, you know, country music stars, they don't want to go out against Donald Trump because they know so many of their listeners and followers are also supportive of him.
I think it was easier around the time of Barack Obama because he was like truly a transformational figure. He's almost like a celebrity himself. It didn't feel quite as polarizing. But this time around, with Trump in the mix, I think celebrities are just like, we tried in 2016. We said we were moving to Canada in 2017. We didn't. You know, 2020, they came out, but now they're probably just like, it doesn't matter.
GORMAN: You see a lot of this - oh, I'm sorry. You've seen a lot these too with corporations, the same sort of calculus, right? They realized that after the 2020 years, once you tap in as a political activist (ph), there's no tapping out.
HUNT: Right. Yes.
GORMAN: And you can pick a side, but what you can't do is you can't pick and choose. Once you're in, you are in. and I think celebrities, corporate - people who have - don't have an incentive to play kind of in the political game are realizing the downside is a lot, lot bigger than the upside is with this.
WILLIAMS: And it's also just a different world than it was ten or 20 years ago. This is arguably Donald Trump - in Donald Trump, the first celebrity president. Even Ronald Reagan had been governor of California twice prior to running for the presidency. And people just saw him differently, right? There's a different power to celebrity and it's just - the world's just different than it - than it was before. And I - and, to your point, it's almost Michael Jordan, Tara is saying, that Republicans buy sneakers too. He was never going to inflame -
PALMERI: Right.
WILLIAMS: You know, a subset of the country and wanted to stay out of it.
HUNT: I mean, even Harvard University now is out there saying we're not going to - we're not going to do this. GORMAN: Yes. Yes. And I think the other thing is too, what we see is, again, when you deal with celebrities, political campaigns, corporation, there's a different incentive structure. Let's pretend hypothetically that de Niro said something that was over the line in that press conference and we were kind of going after him, the Biden campaign, to step back. De Niro has zero incentive, zero, to refrain back, yet Biden does. So you're dealing with a different set of kind of incentives there where, when you deal with celebrities, you have to be very, very careful how you do it.
WILLIAMS: This is exactly - we were talking about a couple segments ago though with surrogates, where Jill Biden can punch in a way that people just don't expect of Joe Biden, or just don't want from him. I mean they do, but, I mean, we say, you know, and sir - sorry.
PALMERI: She can go to topics he can't either.
WILLIAMS: She can go to topics he can't, right.
PALMERI: Yes. And I think the celebrities, they - they are - they're uncomfortable. And I don't know that they necessarily even want their brand aligned with Biden. I was talking to some people though who are trying to create content for him that makes him appear younger, fun, like -- like, remember when Obama did "Between Two Ferns" with Funny or Die?
HUNT: Yes.
PALMERI: And that was like a viral video that millennials were really into.
[06:55:01]
And that was like the key voting base at the time. And they're trying to create this content for gen z to get into Biden. But I think celebrities see it too. It's just not their brand. And - and they can try to create content around Biden that makes him seem younger and cooler and appealing to gen z. But, like, are you going to - if you put him next to a celebrity, is that really going to change it? And how does that impact the celebrity too? They're increasingly caring so much about their own brands and being canceled. Like, who knows anymore. If they align with Trump they can get canceled. If they align with Biden they can have a whole subset that cancels them. They're safer just staying at home.
GORMAN: The apotheosis (ph) is that was really during the Obama years, you're absolute right. He also - Obama wasn't as awkward as Biden or a lot of Republicans too dealing with these celebrities. There's harm -
HUNT: He sees himself as one of them.
GORMAN: Oh, I mean, yes, content creator in chief now on Netflix, right?
HUNT: Yes.
GORMAN: But, like, there is harm if you come off as awkward in this sort of thing. It's better off not to do it.
HUNT: Yes, all right.
PALMERI: There could be retribution too if Trump is truly going to go after his enemies. That's another part of it.
HUNT: And there is that as well.
All right, we've been talking about celebrity endorsements. Let's add to this list.
"The Wall Street Journal" is reporting the Trump has had discussions with Elon Musk to become a White House adviser if he wins in November. The exact role they report remains unclear. It doesn't really come as a huge surprise that he's courting the billionaire. Musk's social media presence has definitely skewed Trumpian in recent years. In March, Musk posted this on his platform, quote, "there's either a red wave in November or America is doomed. Imagine four more years of this getting worse."
Tara, I mean it seems very clear Elon Musk is aligned with Donald Trump at this point.
PALMERI: Oh, right.
HUNT: Although he has been a little bit - like there was reporting that they were meeting and then there was some distance from that. Now it's clear something else is going on. What is kind of underlying this and is there - I mean we're talking about risk to celebrities. Is there any risk to Elon to do this?
PALMERI: I mean he's already taken so many risks already the way that he's managed Twitter. He's made a lot of enemies. But there is certainly like this sort of red pilling in Silicon Valley, and they are coming around and courting Trump openly.
You know, we did some reporting at Puck about this. David Sacks hosted an event for Donald Trump. He's a billionaire in Silicon Valley. He hosts the "All-In" podcasts, very popular in the Silicon Valley set. And they're all sort of like opening their homes, having him come in and they're willing to fet (ph) him. Back in 2020, they didn't want anything to do with him. His brand was way too toxic. And now he's being welcomed in San Francisco. I mean this is kind of unheard of. I - Trump was - never campaigns there. Never even goes there for fundraisers.
And I don't think it's so much about Trump as it is that they're unhappy with Joe Biden. And it's happening on the fringes. I'm not saying it's all of Silicon Valley, but it is happening on the fringes and they're, you know, talking about like, what do they call it, woke mind virus. That's their -
HUNT: Oh, yes.
PALMERI: Their phraseology.
HUNT: Silicon Valley bros (ph) words.
PALMERI: Yes, exactly. So, they - they find Trump as more appealing, but the egos, I mean, getting Elon Musk and Donald Trump in a room together, like, I don't think Elon Musk is going to Mar-a-Lago. If you want to get Trump out of Mar-a-Lago, that's pretty hard as well.
But the one thing that will bring him out is money, and he's pretty desperate for it. So, I could see him being willing to dangle this advisory role like he's been doing with a lot of other donors.
HUNT: Right, well, that's a big - a big part of this, right. Like, how much - how much money can he get from these people at these events.
PALMERI: Right.
HUNT: All right, I will leave you with this. Big news for panda lovers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mood is tense. I have been on some serious, serious reports, but nothing quite like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Two new giant pandas will be coming to the Smithsonian's National Zoo right here in Washington, D.C. The zoo announced yesterday a pair of two-year-old pandas will arrive by the end of this year through a partnership with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. There was a bit of panda drama last year when the last pandas at the National Zoo were taken back by China. First Lady Jill Biden releasing this tongue in cheek video of the behind-the-scenes panda diplomacy at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL BIDEN: OK, so let's get to it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Formal dinner or barbecue on the South Lawn?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think you want them on the South Lawn.
JILL BIDEN: What about a tire?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, they are pretty partial to black and white.
JILL BIDEN: Black tie it is then.
What's on the menu?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any dietary restrictions?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, they're strict vegetarians.
JILL BIDEN: Any special greetings they use?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're pretty shy until you get to know them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they're really nervous they might honk. So, that's something you have to watch out for.
JILL BIDEN: Honk?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, I feel like I'm missing something. Who's coming?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: I'm definitely missing something there.
But, Elliot, this is - I'm sorry, I was so sad when the pandas left Washington.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: And my son was too. And now we're going to get to see them again.
WILLIAMS: So, a couple things. One, that is why Jill Biden is a very effective surrogate on political issues because she's humanizing on issues like pandas. You know, I - we did our - one of our kids birthday parties at the National Zoo several years ago.
HUNT: Oh, I didn't know you could do that.
WILLIAMS: You can do that.
HUNT: You might have told me that.
WILLIAMS: Yes, pre-Covid, pre-Covid, but we'll - I think you can do it again now.
HUNT: Yes. Yes.
WILLIAMS: And they're just amazing animals in that - and the conservation behind having them at the National Zoo, because of how much trouble they have reproducing, they have a very limited diet -
[07:00:08]
HUNT: I forgot you were a panda expert. So happy you're here.
WILLIAMS: I - CNN - CNN - CNN chief panda analyst Elliot Williams.
No, but - but - but the efforts that humans have done with respect to bring conservation and understanding how pandas live is very important.
HUNT: Yes.
WILLIAMS: It's great having them at the National Zoo.
HUNT: It's - well, I'm thrilled anyway. All right, thanks, guys. I really appreciate your time today.
PALMERI: You got it.
HUNT: Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.
