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Former Trump Rivals Sing His Praises At The RNC; Secret Service "Solely Responsible" For Security Implementation At Trump Rally; One- On-One With Vance's Yale Roommate. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 17, 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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[05:34:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:33 a.m. on the East Coast. I keep making this mistake. It's 5:33 a.m. on the East Coast. It is 4:33 a.m. here in Milwaukee. I bet you can imagine why I keep making this mistake. A live look at the Fiserv Forum this morning. It is -- I think it's Wednesday? Yes, it's Wednesday.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

One by one, Donald Trump's former rivals took the stage at the Republican National Convention last night -- there they are -- from 2016 and 2024. This time they are all taking -- singing a page in Donald Trump's hymnal.

Nikki Haley had once called Donald Trump unhinged, mentally unfit. She said that he couldn't win a general election. But last night she tried to speak directly to Trump's skeptics, and she called for all Republicans to unite behind him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll start by making one thing perfectly clear. Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:06]

HUNT: The fact that she actually had to say that says a lot about how we got here.

But anyway, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bashed the Democrats and warned of another four years under Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA: Donald Trump has been demonized, he's been sued, he's been prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life. We cannot let him down and we cannot let America down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So this, of course, stark contrast to how they previously talked about a second Trump term.

Our panel is back.

Matt Gorman, let's just take a little walk down memory lane --

MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TIM SCOTT'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yeah.

HUNT: -- in terms of what Nikki Haley had to say about Donald Trump in this primary. Because let's be real -- it -- look, attacking people on a presidential campaign primary is par for the course. Typically, everybody makes up. They get on the same page at the convention. But Donald Trump has had a problem with Nikki Haley

And this came together at the very last minute. And part of why that was was the way she talked about him in the past. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: Donald Trump cannot win a general election. He won't. We can make him the primary nominee if we want to, but we -- Republicans will lose come November.

He is not the same person he was in 2016. He is unhinged. Chaos follows him. And we can't have a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. We won't survive it.

And he's just toxic.

We cannot have four years of chaos, vendettas, and drama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And I think that unhinged, in particular, was one of those things --

GORMAN: Um-hum.

HUNT: -- that kind of really stuck in the craw --

GORMAN: Yeah.

HUNT: -- of the Trump folks.

GORMAN: You know, I was in the room when she came out and it was tepid at best, right? There were some -- certainly, some scattered boos. And one of her first lines was I was invited to speak. And they shot to Trump. Look, this is me saying this. It almost seemed like he mouthed "she wanted to speak." And -- but --

HUNT: We'll find that and play it. GORMAN: Well, yeah. What I --

HUNT: We'll see.

GORMAN: What I will say -- what I will say is this. Nikki Haley -- we needed Nikki Haley as a party for several reasons. And obviously, besides the fact that she's an accomplished governor, great candidate, et cetera.

In 2016, we had that clown car primary, so Trump was never truly tested in a one-on-one way and was able to kind of have a hand raised at the end of it and saying I'd beat all comers, including someone one-on-one.

This time, it was Nikki Haley versus Donald Trump, one-on-one, for an extended period of time. She got a clean shot. The anti-Trump or the people that were Trump skeptical in the party got their clean shot, and Trump won. And I think that made him stronger in the party and it allowed for more unity coming in now because there wasn't a what if in the back of a lot of folks' minds.

SHELBY TALCOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: But I wonder if this speech is enough to convince those Trump skeptics who for so long were told by Nikki Haley -- those Nikki Haley supporters -- how bad Trump was and how they couldn't vote for him, and now we're seeing sort of the flip from her. And I wonder if one speech does that or if this is going to be a persistent problem.

If Donald Trump is going to need to step up a little bit more and court those voters, which he really hasn't yet. President Biden has a little bit more, I would say, than Donald Trump. I wonder if she's going to need to take a more forward role going forward in order to convince them.

HUNT: But Margaret -- I mean, isn't President Biden doing that for Donald Trump?

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY, JOURNALISM AND CITIZENSHIP, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Yeah -- yes, in a word.

Well, I think -- you know, I mean, being in the convention hall last night you're exactly right. I looked over at Trump and he was like (rolling eyes). And a couple of time -- a couple of times he was like -- but really, it was sort of like --

HUNT: Let's make a GIF of that. I wonder if the control room can do that. We're going to (INAUDIBLE).

TALEV: We can do actual Trump. You don't have to do me doing Trump. But anyway -- but her point was basically you don't have to like him to vote for him. I mean, I'm paraphrasing but I was -=

HUNT: Yeah.

TALEV: That was just -- HUNT: Quoting the night (PH) from her.

TALEV: Right.

And it's interesting. Like, when you're talking about just the delegates -- like, Vermont -- as you'll remember, the only -- the anomaly. The state that gave Nikki Haley her victory. Those delegates have all come together now around Donald Trump. So at the delegate level, at the activist level, her releasing her delegates and her coming and saying things like that last night was enough.

If you are not a political person and you just happen to be a voter who leans center-right, it is a different decision tree for you. And in that case, the structure that she has set up is basically to say if you were doing better under Trump you should vote for Trump. That Biden is the -- she's not making an affirmative case for Trump so much as she's making such a negative case for Biden that there is no other alternative. That's her case.

[05:40:00]

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: And I think what you're going to see, right, is -- so she's creating sort of this bridge and decision tree for her voters. Whereas I think JD Vance's role is going to be to say hey, I was a Never Trumper and then I got to know --

HUNT: Yes.

FINNEY: -- the guy.

Now, obviously on our side, we're going to take the things that he has said, the things that she has said, and used that to create that decision matrix for those voters who are in the middle who are not sure to say you were -- you're right about how you feel about Donald Trump, and that's why you should vote for Joe Biden.

HUNT: Yeah.

All right. I mean, again, I think the challenge is when -- before America saw that debate there was, I think a lot more space around dinner tables -- kitchen tables to say hey, you should really consider this guy. That space has really shrunk in the race --

TALEV: Um-hum.

HUNT: -- in the wake of the debate. I mean, some of that is firmly in the anecdata realm but --

TALEV: It's all about turnout now. It's not about swing voters. There was a minute --

HUNT: Yeah.

TALEV: -- when it could have been about swing voters and now it's just about both sides turning out their bases. HUNT: Yeah.

All right, let's get now to this story. The Secret Service director telling CNN that the agency was "solely responsible" -- OK -- for implementing security at the Trump rally that turned deadly over the weekend.

This comes just days after she told ABC News, "There was local police in that building. There was local police in that area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building." The building she refers to there is the one where the gunman who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump fired from.

Now, Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle clarifying those comments. She told CNN this. "What I was trying to stress was that we just divided up areas of responsibility and they provided support to those areas of responsibility."

I have been sort of trying to parse exactly how the Secret Service director has been dealing with this because yesterday, it was really a -- it seemed like a very specific pass the buck situation to the local police in a relatively small town, right? This was not -- they were not working with, like, the New York City police department here. Because the bottom line here -- this was a massive failure and it's -- it does not feel or has not felt like there is accountability coming from the Secret Service.

GORMAN: They are making this worse, and this is me speaking -- saying this. She's going to resign, she doesn't know that yet, in my opinion. Like, I don't think she is long for that job not only because of the security failure but more importantly the way she's handling the fallout of this. She's not taking any sort of responsibility.

She's doling out this information and all of this in piecemeal, and she has just not handled this well and neither has kind of the whole structure of this. I think we're always made this point. The people who rushed that stage -- the people on the --

HUNT: Yeah.

GORMAN: -- ground -- the president -- the protective folks, incredible. I think where the failure, if it's going to come -- if we see it it's going to be from the folks that were planning this and figuring it out.

HUNT: Well, I mean, she didn't show up at multiple --

GORMAN: Yes.

HUNT: -- press conferences, right, that she could have showed up at. She does one interview with ABC where they kind of tried to push her to say hey, are you responsible here? She's almost reluctant to say the buck stops with me.

GORMAN: Like, I have to. I guess I have to say the words.

HUNT: Anyway, I'm -- like, these comments are clarifying at least, but I do have serious questions about this.

FINNEY: Yeah. I mean, look, the way -- I think number one, we're still learning the details about what actually happened. So before we go firing people let's have some facts.

That being said, traditionally, having been a scheduler who dealt with Secret Service for years on this and been a person on the ground negotiating with Secret Service, there's always a tension between staff and Secret Service because we want more. We want it bigger. We want more crowds. We want more -- you know. And Secret Service looks at every site and is, like, oh, where are the threads.

HUNT: Well, the service has told Trump hey, don't do outdoor rallies --

FINNEY: Yes, absolutely.

HUNT: -- and they ignored it, you know.

FINNEY: Now, that being said, as they've also said -- you know, you've got the Presidential Protective Division. Those are the folks who are directly responsible for the president. Then you got an advanced team that is there on the ground early and that works with the local law enforcement to figure out what's in the security zone and what's not in the security zone.

So again, I think there are very serious questions she needs to answer for. The folks who were there on the ground need to answer for what was going on with that building. We're learning things like people were trying to warn the police that there was somebody on the roof though. We're learning things like there may have been an attempt, actually, to go after the shooter.

So look, no question, complete failure on every level. But as we learn more, I think we'll get a clearer picture of where exactly was the breakdown. Because there was even a report that said there was a counterassault team in the building, just on a lower floor.

HUNT: Yeah, many, many failures here.

All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk to JD Vance's law school roommate to talk a little bit more about the man who could be vice president.

Plus, in a week celebrating Republican unity, a reminder of the bitter Republican fight for Speaker of the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN MCCARTHY, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The other part that you have --

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Are you speaking tonight?

MCCARTHY: And the other part you have is one person who raised --

GAETZ: No?

MCCARTHY: -- the issue. He's got an ethics complaint about paying -- sleeping with a 17-year-old. So that's the way they would go.

GAETZ: You're not -- if you took that stage, you would get booed off of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[05:49:25]

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

JD Vance's rise from Never Trumper to Trump's choice for vice president bringing back memories for those who knew him before his life in politics.

Back in 2016, JD Vance sent a message talking about then-candidate Trump to his old roommate at Yale Law School, and in it he wrote, "I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical (expletive) like Nixon, who wouldn't be that bad and might even prove useful, or that he's America's Hitler. How's that for discouraging?"

Vance has since, of course, walked back his Trump criticism and has become one of his biggest cheerleaders in the Senate.

[05:50:00]

Joining me now to talk about the shift, the man who received that message from JD Vance. Josh McLaurin is Vance's Yale roommate and now a Democratic state senator in Georgia. Thank you very much for joining us, sir.

Now, I have to say my immediate thought in reading all of this is that maybe never put anything in a text message? Probably better -- safer, if you will.

But can you just tell us a little bit about what it was like to be JD Vance's roommate in law school? Obviously, Yale Law School is full of ambitious people who, like yourself -- you're now a politician. He, of course, now the vice-presidential nominee.

What have you seen in terms of his evolution and the evolution of your friendship, which I assume is something that no longer is on the table?

JOSH MCLAURIN, VANCE'S YALE ROOMMATE, (D) GEORGIA STATE SENATE (via Webex by Cisco): Well, thank you, Kasie. Glad to join you this morning.

Yeah. I mean, we're not friends. We haven't spoken since 2016. At the time, I still had hope that he might be a different type of voice for the Republican Party. You know, in politics, you often hear people act like there's nothing

good about their opponent. I'll acknowledge that JD is a smart guy who is good with people one-on-one. I mean, that was why he had some charisma at the time in law school.

It was why I reached out in 2016 when I was worried about the rise of Trump to ask him what he thought was going to happen. And he gave me a very insightful and cutting response that you quoted some of. I mean, he said the Republican Party, at that time, had a collective neglect that Trump was the fruit of and that he was a demagogue who was exploiting it.

So the same arguments Democrats are making now, he was making with a real sophistication then. I mean, the only thing that really changed is Trump got elected in 2016. And, I mean, he -- JD, himself, has said in interviews that if he wanted to keep serving the voters who had chosen Trump, he had to suck it up and get on the Trump train.

So that's I think why we are where we are. It's obviously extremely disappointing. And, you know, I struggled for about a year when he had his Senate campaign launch about whether to really accept texts. Because, yeah, I mean it's a really uncomfortable thing to do but I did it because the stakes are huge. JD wants to be at the center of national life, obviously, and this kind of thing I think is really relevant for the public to know.

HUNT: Can I just ask you, was his ambition and how was it on display when you were at Yale? I mean, can you just kind of give us a little bit of insight into what he was like then and whether this seemed like something --

MCLAURIN: Sure.

HUNT: -- that he was shooting for.

MCLAURIN: I never -- I never had the idea that he really wanted to be a politician. I think a lot of kids that go to Yale Law School fancy themselves to be policy wonks or want to be involved in the world of policy somehow. And I think that -- I certainly thought that about him.

I mean, he studied economics recreationally on his own. He had thoughtful conversations even with me about -- one I remember is about the Second Amendment. You know, a lot of Republican folks will use hardcore talking points about the Second Amendment. Like, it's absolute -- whatever.

I don't know that he had that view. I mean, he once shared with me that he felt like the Second Amendment was a paradox because on the one hand, it's law -- it's from the Constitution. But he understood it to guarantee the people's right to overthrow their government, which is inconsistent with law and order. I mean, that's a really thoughtful analysis.

And so, he -- that's why I think he struck me as somebody who might have a real role to play in changing Republican politics in the 2000s and 2010s from being sort of an obstructionist party of no culturally or aggressive party, quite candidly, to being some kind of a party in the future.

But instead, while we're going through this Trump nightmare -- and so -- I mean, that's my opinion, right -- JD has decided that I guess he can't wait for a brighter future. He's got to plug in now and double down on the toxic politics and amplify Trump's message of revenge, which is obviously extremely disappointing.

HUNT: He has explained his changed views, and I honestly will give him credit for it. There are a lot of people out there who have said a lot of things about Donald Trump that they then have changed on, and they have not been sort of straightforward or willing to kind of defend themselves or try to explain why they made that switch.

He has basically said that he was misled by the media and that he made a mistake. I mean, do you -- do you buy that in terms of an explanation?

MCLAURIN: Here's what I think. I don't buy his explanation the way that he says it.

I think his instincts told us -- told him what Americans see for themselves -- that Trump -- has a narcissistic-style personality, cares about attention and fame. Wants to be the showrunner who picks among people in dramatic fashion, like doing an "APPRENTICE" style VP selection process. That's Trump. And he cares about revenge and he wants to get revenge on his political opponents, and JD has signed up for that.

So I do think that JD has changed. I actually think he sincerely has changed. And to your point about credit, he gets credit for not just being an empty suit. So many of this Republican-elected official colleagues just say whatever they need to say even if privately they hold different beliefs.

[05:55:00]

I think he has sort of forced himself to be angry enough and to carry that anger through to where he has actually changed as a person and is willing to embrace and amplify all of this MAGA messaging willingly. I kind of think that's why he got picked because he is such a convincing messenger. You kind of can't make it up and be as effective as he is at it.

So many people -- Republican-elected officials who you mentioned have flip-flopped try to sort of evoke the MAGA energy, but I think they're just really bad at it. JD is good at it, and I think that reflects a wholesale change in his convictions.

HUNT: All right, an interesting assessment from Georgia State Sen. Josh McLaurin, who was also JD Vance's roommate in law school. Thank you very much, Josh. I really appreciate your time.

MCLAURIN: Thanks, Kasie. HUNT: All right. Coming up in our next hour here on CNN THIS MORNING, once bitter rivals, now supporters. How some of Donald Trump's biggest critics bent the knee last night at the RNC.

Plus, new exclusive reporting about a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Trump, coming as the Secret Service already facing intense scrutiny.

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