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CNN This Morning
Harris Campaigns For Biden, Trump Ramps Up Attacks; Progressives Offer Support For Biden's Embattled Campaign; George Clooney: We Need A New Nominee. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired July 11, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:52]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:30 a.m. here in Washington, D.C. A live look at Capitol Hill on this Thursday morning. It's set to be a consequential Thursday with President Biden expected to offer a news conference later on this evening that will be very closely watched.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
As much as we've been talking about Joe Biden someone else has been waiting in the wings still on the ticket. Kamala Harris, who has been standing by Biden on the campaign trail. The vice president is making a case for a second Biden term. And she's doing what they wish that they were doing -- they wish what the president was doing instead of what he has been forced to do, which is attack Donald Trump.
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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Consider Donald Trump has openly vowed if reelected he'll be a dictator on day one. That he will weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies. Round up peaceful protesters and throw them out of our country. And even, and I quote, "terminate" the United States Constitution.
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HUNT: Trump's campaign obviously -- you really can't miss what's going on with the Democratic infighting they're paying attention to. In recent days Trump and his allies have started to ramp up attacks against Kamala Harris. Trump workshopping a new nickname for the vice president while -- and we should note he does this -- he intentionally mispronounces people's name, and he does it to her here.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Laughing Kamala. Laughing Kamala. He picked Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was given two jobs. As a senator, Kamala sided with socialist Bernie Sanders. We're leading against Kamala and we're leading against everybody else. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: OK.
Joining us now, Catherine Lucey, White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal. And Matt Brown, national politics reporter for the Associated Press. Good morning to both of you.
Catherine, that -- it's interesting that Trump is starting to focus on Harris. He is -- he has a political nose and that's, I think, what you're -- what you're seeing there. But for the president, right now, this is something that has really, in many ways, seems to have gotten away from him in the last 24 hours in a way that it wasn't before.
CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yeah, that's right. I mean, the president is clearly struggling. I think folks around him thought that mid-week they were starting to stabilize some of the Democratic anxiety. We saw yesterday, obviously, Nancy Pelosi expressing concerns, suggesting he needs to continue to think about his decision, and other voices coming out really raising concerns about whether he can continue.
So he is -- remains in this very destabilized place, which means that even though she is putting no distance between them, she is very firmly defending him -- very strongly defending their case -- there's a lot of tension on the vice president right now because a lot of people feel that should he decide to step aside she is in the best position to move forward.
HUNT: Right.
So, Matt -- I mean, one question I have, I will say, is that as this conversation has continued I have been trying to figure out where she would stand in such a process, and that seems to be a moving target as well along with the president's fortunes.
Let's just -- I want to remind everyone what Jim Clyburn had to say. This was back on July Fourth. I mean, it's only what, a week ago, but it feels like a lifetime in the -- in this story. But he used the phrase "mini primary." Let's watch.
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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): You can actually fashion the process that's already in place to make it a mini primary, and I would support that absolutely. I think that Kamala Harris would put herself very well in that kind of a process. But then it would be fair to everybody. To all of the other governors who may be interested, and there is some that I -- that would be interested hearing from as well. Because if she were to be the nominee, we need to have a running mate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:35:05]
HUNT: Yeah. I mean, this is the challenge for Democrats, right Matt, is that there does need to be some form of legitimacy, right? Like, buy-in from voters. And what does the process for that look like?
MATT BROWN, NATIONAL RACE AND POLITICS REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Right, Kasie, absolutely. And it was interesting seeing Kamala Harris on the stump this week really trying to pat down these debates over whether or not she should take the top of the ticket or whether -- how the party should move forward.
But I do think that it's very notable here that Democrats, both on the trail and here in Washington, are starting to remember why they liked Kamala in the first place in a lot of -- in a lot of ways. For seeing how she rallies the base. For seeing how she engages in -- with voters. And frankly, how she's able to just bring a certain youth that Joe Biden at this moment is not bringing.
I think that that's very notable in this moment when the party is debating what bylines they're going to be able to reform. How they're going to be able to proceed when it comes to this convention -- at the Democratic National Convention next month -- just because there's going to be so much pressure on delegates -- on the party to see how it can reform itself and how it's going to have to reshape this entire process.
HUNT: Well, and Catherine, again, we are -- we're firmly in the realm of the hypothetical in talking about this --
BROWN: Yeah.
HUNT: -- mini primary. But the reality of what President Biden is doing right now and part of why Pelosi's comments I think were so telling because she talked about the time -- the time is running short, basically -- is that -- and this is --
Adam Nagourney, legendary Times political reporter and editor, and Jim Rutenberg on the front page this morning. "Biden is angling to make time his best ally. President Biden's resistance to pressure to end his reelection bid appears to be a strategy aimed at running out the clock. A play to leave his party so little time to come up with another candidate that his opponents stand down."
LUCEY: Right. I mean, I think the thing that people are thinking about here is you have the convention next month. But before the convention, as you know Kasie, there's a whole -- there's a series of meetings about the rules and how the process works, and those start much sooner. And so, if they were going to make a change, they need every minute they have to try and figure out how this works.
I mean, another open question would be should Biden set aside, what does he tell all his pledge delegates? Does he endorse a -- some kind -- some kind of mini or quickie primary process? Does he say they should be with his vice president? That is I think another thing that people -- I mean, obviously, again, it's all entirely hypothetical right now.
But certainly, yes. I think the Biden folks really felt like if that he gets through this week with NATO, the speech, the press conference, that just gets them more time as this process moves along. HUNT: Right.
And briefly, Matt -- I mean, that press conference -- the stakes could not be higher this evening at 5:00, 5:30 when we expect to hear from President Biden.
BROWN: Absolutely. I think that this is going to be a make-or-break moment in a lot of ways for President Biden because we saw, as you said, a week ago this completely changed the narrative at the debate against Donald Trump. So it's going to be very, very important for the most public situation that he's been in since that debate to see can he really stand up to scrutiny from multiple reporters, and for how long.
HUNT: All right. Catherine Lucey, Matt Brown, thank you both very much for being with us this morning. I really appreciate it.
All right, let's turn now to this. New CNN reporting on how progressives are providing a lifeline to President Biden's embattled campaign this week. Notably, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders both publicly backing Biden as support for his reelection bid continues to divide the party.
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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Right now, President Biden is the Democratic nominee. Until I hear differently, I will support him. And I do believe that if he makes it clear that he is prepared to stand up for working people and take on powerful special interests -- yeah, he will win the election.
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HUNT: All right. Joining me now to discuss her latest reporting, CNN Capitol Hill reporter, Annie Grayer. Annie, good morning to you. Wonderful to have you --
ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Good morning.
HUNT: -- here.
This is a really interesting dynamic in no small part because Bernie Sanders ran against Joe Biden in the 2020 election fight, basically arguing that Joe Biden was not progressive or sufficiently progressive for where the party was. And now they're kind of emerging as this voice.
What's behind it?
GRAYER: I think there's a couple of things.
First, -- I mean, as you -- I mean, as you mentioned, this was -- Joe Biden was not progressive's first choice back in 2020. There was a very divisive primary. I mean, Bernie and Biden were going at it up until the end. And AOC had endorsed Bernie in his presidential race. And I think now when we're seeing a lot of moderates and Democrats running in competitive races coming out against Biden now progressives are taking a step back and saying this was -- Biden was not our first choice. This is not necessarily our mess to clean up. That moderates are the ones who are really leading this charge and let's let them kind of take this mantle.
But I think bigger than that, progressives have found an ally in Joe Biden. That they have had a great working relationship with him over his first term. They have moved Biden to the left on a number of key policies.
[05:40:04]
I mean, like the child tax credit. Getting Biden to be the first president on a picket line. Inflation Reduction Act. These are big progressive values and policies that Biden has come around on and really given progressives and year (PH) in the West Wing.
So when AOC and Bernie both said they had calls with Biden over the weekend and came out so strong in support, a lot of other progressive offices took note of that and kind of are following this playbook laid out by the two of them.
HUNT: Yeah, it's a really interesting way to set it up -- that they have -- they now have a friend in the White House and they're going to try to stand by him.
One also interesting kind of aspect of this. So, Adam Smith, one of the congressmen who has called on Biden to step aside, pointed out that while Joe Biden is out there saying I beat Trump before and that's why I should be here, it's not actually why necessarily he ended up consolidating support for the nomination back in 2020.
Let's watch Adam Smith.
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REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): And look, the talent in the Democratic Party -- this myth that only Joe Biden could have beaten Donald Trump. And I've said this over and over again. Joe Biden was not picked in 2020 because he was the only person that could beat Trump. He was picked because he was the only person that could beat Bernie Sanders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: A really interesting dynamic there, possibly part of this.
GRAYER: Definitely a big part of this. I think progressives are kind of taking stock of this moment. And if you really were to zoom out four years ago and say that Bernie and AOC were going to be leading the charge in defending Biden now -- I mean, that would really just make you scratch your head. You would be like what? How is that possible?
HUNT: What has happened, yeah.
GRAYER: I mean, even four weeks ago, think about another big divide in the Democratic Party over President Biden's handling of the war in Gaza. Progressives have been leading that call in pushing the -- in pushing the president and disapproving of his handling of that. And now all of a sudden, we're seeing a different tune with progressives saying that Biden is our nominee. We take him at his word, and we are behind him until we hear otherwise.
I mean, of course, not -- progressives are not a monolith, obviously. There is some division here. But by and large, what we're hearing from progressives is we're with Biden.
HUNT: Yeah. It's -- I mean, especially when you mention it -- that dynamic as well -- to have them -- it's kind of remarkable that this would have made progressives go from criticizing Biden very vocally on what he was doing in Israel to being some of his staunchest defenders. Tough times for President Biden.
Annie Grayer, thank you very much for being with us. I really appreciate it.
All right. Coming up next --
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MICHAEL DOUGLAS, ACTOR: This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your 14 minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I am the president.
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HUNT: The esteemed actor Michael Douglas has played a president on the big screen before. He's now voicing his own concerns for the actual elected head of state.
Plus, coming up in sports, a wild scene after a huge soccer match. Our Bleacher Report is ahead.
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[05:47:35]
HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
President Biden, of course, has been fighting to shore up support for his campaign. The reality is that we're learning some of Hollywood's top stars believe that the script is already written.
Longtime ally George Clooney co-hosted a fundraiser for Biden just a few weeks ago raising $30 million. But this was The New York Times op- ed yesterday. Clooney writes, "It's devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe 'big F-ing deal' Biden of 2010. He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."
The stars really not aligning for Biden.
Here was actor Michael Douglas telling ABC's "THE VIEW" that Clooney is right.
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DOUGLAS: Well, I think it's a valid point. I mean, I'm deeply, deeply concerned. I mean, especially it's difficult because the Democrats have a big bench. I mean, they've a lot of heavy hitters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining me now from New York is Sara Fischer. She is senior media correspondent for Axios. Sara, good morning. Always wonderful to have you.
You wrote about this a little while ago about how Hollywood moguls were nervous about this. There's been some reporting about the behind- the-scenes scramble that the White House made when they learned that Clooney was going to do this op-ed yesterday.
How much of an earthquake is this? In a second -- I'm interested in your thoughts. I also -- I want to show in a second what Biden sort of did when he was asked about this. Let's -- but please, first, your thoughts on the impact of Clooney.
SARA FISCHER, SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: I mean, it's huge Kasie because for a long time, Biden was starting to actually relinquish some of that pressure. He came out -- he did the George Stephanopoulos interview. He's starting to do press conferences. And he's been very defiant.
And so, amid that campaign you saw folks from Hollywood -- celebrities and even fellow politicians -- start to pull back some of the pressure on him and wait and see what.
What Clooney did in dropping this op-ed is he's ignited a new earthquake into this campaign. Now he has set the bar for anyone else in Hollywood or on Capitol Hill to also come out and voice what they really think.
And I'm glad that you're going to play Biden's reaction because I don't think it was very strong. You know, basically, when you have a huge hitter coming out like this you need a very, very big pushback.
HUNT: Yeah. Well, and here -- let's show -- I think we have that -- the video we can show of President Biden being asked about it. We don't have it? OK.
[05:50:05]
The reality here, too, is that the White House has had to -- has had to push back -- well, not had to but the way that they push back against this is that they put out background quotes to reporters.
We can put up this tweet from -- this is Annie Karni from The New York Times. We got something at CNN as well. "Biden is fighting back on Clooney. From a source familiar with event planning, 'The president stayed for over three hours, while Clooney took a photo quickly and left.'"
And this is Ben Rhodes who is a former Obama speechwriter. "When you're attacking George Clooney's fitness on background it might be time to rethink the comms strategy."
Sara?
FISCHER: That's absolutely right. The real point here is that George Clooney saw Biden very recently. That fundraiser was on June 15. And so if he says that the Biden that you saw on the debate stage is the one that I saw there, for Biden to come back and say well, George Clooney just wasn't really as fit as I was, it's not an argument that anyone is going to believe.
But the question I have Kasie is that why did George Clooney stay silent from June 15 to now? If you're a person who is looking to figure out how I'm going to vote in this election, there's a question there. What did -- what is everyone else hiding, right? I mean, one of the big pushbacks against the media writ large was how did you guys miss this? How did we only find out about this at the debate?
And so I think you're going to have more people come forward now the way that George Clooney did as a way to sort of save face. You know, to make sure that they're getting their real true colors out about how they feel about the issue before it's too late.
HUNT: Right. Well, and the question, too, is how quickly this happened with him.
I want to play a little bit of Jon Favreau, who also worked for President Obama on "INSIDE POLITICS" here on CNN yesterday. Watch this.
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JON FAVREAU, FORMER OBAMA SPEECHWRITER: It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there and Clooney was exactly right. And every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn't say that. But I remember my wife Emily turned to me after the fundraiser and said, "What are we doing to do?"
DAVID AXELROD, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: That is devastating. That's devastating and it's what people fear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So that, of course, some validation for what Clooney said from someone else who was at that's same fundraiser.
FISCHER: Yes, that's exactly right.
And the thing to remember is that if you're somebody who has been shilling for Joe Biden this entire time and suddenly there's a lot of pressure campaigns coming out around you saying no, no, no, he's not actually fit, you feel awkward if you're not now coming forward.
And so, I think you're going to see a lot more of these types of voices from Hollywood donors to anybody who has bundled for the president try to come out and correct the record themselves.
We've already seen a lot of folks in Hollywood express frustration with some of the president's co-chairs -- Jeffrey Katzenberg being a big Hollywood mogul -- who they feel deceived that they were not up front with Biden's condition, but they gave money.
And so I do not think that this is the end of the story here in terms of Biden's big breakup with Hollywood.
HUNT: Yeah, for sure.
All right, Sara Fischer for us this morning. Sara, always grateful to have you. Thank you so much.
FISCHER: Thank you.
HUNT: All right, time now for sports.
Tempers boiled over after Colombia's win against Uruguay in the Copa America semifinals.
Carolyn Manno has more in this morning's Bleacher Report. Carolyn, good morning.
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kasie.
For the first time in 23 years, Colombia heading to the Copa America final. A 39th minute header from Jefferson Lerma sealing the 1-nil victory for the Colombians, who extend their unbeaten streak to 28 matches.
Next up, a meeting with the defending champs Argentina and superstar Lionel Messi in Sunday's final.
This was a physical, contentious match. And after the final with still players from both Colombia and Uruguay got into it on the field with some of the Uruguayan players making their way into the stands to actually mix it up with the fans. The majority of the 70,000 people in attendance here were supporting Colombia.
And Uruguay captain Jose Maria Gimenez said that the players were actually trying to defend their family members in the crowd, some who had really young children. He called the incident a "disaster."
CNN has reached out to the Uruguayan Football Association and the Charlotte Police Department for comment on what exactly happened there.
After the match, England will square against Spain in the final of the European championship on Sunday.
In the semifinal against the Netherlands here in stoppage time with the score tied at one, Ollie Watkins, who had just entered the game as a sub for England captain Harry Kane minutes earlier, delivering a sensational strike into the back of the net for this first goal of the tournament. He is the toast of England. The 2-1 win keeping England stream of finally winning a first major trophy since 1966 alive.
And afterwards, Watkins told reporters that his loved ones knew this moment would come.
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OLLIE WATKINS, ENGLAND FORWARD: I've had a few messages from my friends just saying be patient -- you're going to get an opportunity. And they feel like I've got a big part to play in the tournament. And the amount of people that have messaged me today saying I'm going to score tonight when I come on is ridiculous. And obviously, they put I out into the universe. So hopefully, they can do the same for the final or even give me the lottery numbers.
[05:55:15]
MANNO: That would be nice.
The road to the Paris Olympics got off to a slow start for Team USA's men's basketball team, but it ended up yielding a good result. The Americans have only been together as a team for less than week. They didn't score their first basket until the fifth minute of play. But once they got cooking they really showed why they are favored to win Olympic gold for the fifth consecutive time.
Anthony Davis leading the way with 13 points, with first-time Olympian Steph Curry adding 12 of his own in the 86-72 win.
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STEPH CURRY, GUARD, TEAM USA: We just want to win gold. I mean, whatever that takes. So we always talk about no matter what your stats are and no matter how many minutes you play, like, everybody on the floor commits to just doing what you're asked to do. We'll be good.
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MANNO: And rapper Flavor Flav, Kasie, is something of chameleon. He's a rapper. He's a reality star. He's a restauranteur. And now he is the number one hype man for the U.S. women's water polo team as they get set for this summer's Olympic games. The clock-wearing musician lending his support after an Instagram post from Maggie Steffens calling on more people to follow the sport.
The team, by the way, is looking to make history by winning its fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
So, Flavor Flav said he wanted to give back, Kasie. He wanted to help these women achieve their goals. And I think it's great. He is -- he is the absolute hype man. They will always know what time it is when they need to go to practice or doing what they need to do.
HUNT: So much fun.
MANNO: I'm (INAUDIBLE) to seen.
HUNT: Yeah, it's great.
All right, Carolyn Manno for us this morning. Carolyn, thank you very much.
All right. Coming up next here, Ohio Democratic Congressman Greg Landsman will be here to talk about the top of his party's ticket.
Plus, a Boeing 737 forced to abort its takeoff because of exploding tires.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A blown tire!
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