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John Bolton is Interviewed about a Plot by Iran to Assassinate Trump; Polling Shows Biden Losing Ground; Jason Miller is Interviewed about the Trump Campaign. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 17, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:32:19]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back.

CNN has learned that authorities here in the U.S. have obtained intelligence in recent weeks about a plot from Iran to try to assassinate Donald Trump. A development that led the Secret Service to increase security around the former president. And this was ahead of that Saturday rally.

It's important to note that there is no indication that there would-be assassin who attempted to kill Trump on Saturday was connected to this Iranian plot.

But the existence of the intelligence threat from a hostile foreign agency and enhanced security raises new questions about the security lapses at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and how a 20-year-old man managed to get access to a nearby rooftop and fire those shots that injured the former president.

Joining me now to discuss, the former U.N. ambassador, Trump's former national security advisor, John Bolton, who also was the subject of an alleged Iranian assassination plot.

Mr. Bolton, good morning.

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Good morning. Glad to be with you.

HUNT: So, Ambassador, can you just bring us inside, as you absorb this news, what you think this means, why the Iranians would be doing this, and give us some insight into what it's like to have the Iranians after you in this way.

BOLTON: Well, it's a lot of fun. What can I say?

Look, it's been pretty clear, I think, since the Trump administration quite correctly sent the head of the Quds force, Qassem Soleimani, to an early exit. He deserved it. He was a terrorist. He had killed Americans. He deserved exactly what he got. The Iranians, in response, decided that they were going to take some measure of retaliation. They've specifically mentioned Trump and a number of others of us since - since Soleimani's execution in January of 2020. So - so, this is - this has been a continuing problem. It - it's kind of surprising to me at least that it's arisen now. But I can tell you, I don't have any more insight into whatever the information was about Donald Trump in this particular case than - than anybody else watching the news.

HUNT: But given your understanding of kind of the landscape, we talk a lot about how sometimes foreign actors have been trying to interfere in American elections and that wreaking havoc is something that could potentially benefit, say, the Russians or the Chinese, depending on how you - you think through it. Your understanding, given how the Iranians look at it and think about the world, is that this would be directly related to Soleimani and is unlikely to be related to sewing more general chaos, or how do you think we should be thinking about it in those terms?

[06:35:06]

BOLTON: Well, it certainly could be related to more general chaos, but the Iranians do have a fixation on Soleimani. And we know this. I'm in the somewhat unusual position that a lot of the facts and circumstances regarding at least one iteration of the threats against me are on - online at the Justice Department in the criminal charging documents against a fellow named Shahram Poursafi of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, where they - they were trying to hire a hitman to take me out. And unfortunately for them, fortunately for me, they were talking to a confidential human source of the FBI.

So, this is - this - these threats by Iran or not internet chatter, this is - this is the real thing. And it is something to be concerned about. And I do think Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, and others would like nothing better than to - than to cause disarray in an already highly conflicted U.S. political season.

HUNT: Well, we're very glad that you are, in fact, OK, and that it was that confidential human source. And I really appreciate the insight you're able to bring to us because of all of that, I will say, considering the outcome was fine.

Let me turn to ask you about the horrible attack against former President Trump at his rally on Saturday. The U.S. Secret Service has been - I should say the director of the U.S. Secret Service has not been terribly direct in the wake of that in terms of trying to account for the failures. I'm wondering where you think the agency did fail here, and whether the top, the director of the agency, should resign given what happened.

BOLTON: Well, it was obviously, with respect to Donald Trump, a tragedy avoided, not - not avoided in the case of one of the rally goers.

Look, I'm a - I'm a protectee of the Secret Service. I have been before. I am now. That doesn't make me a security expert. I'm - I'm sure that the review that the president has ordered into this whole affair will turn up a lot of information. There are going to be congressional hearings. I just assume leave it at that for the moment.

HUNT: Yes.

Considering you are a protectee, one thing we have heard from some corners of the right is a denigration of some of the agents that you could see in that frame carrying, helping get Donald Trump off that stage. They threw themselves in - in front of any potential additional bullets that might have been coming his way. Some of them - some of the right-wing commentary is around the women agents in particular.

Is it your experience that that has any bearing on a Secret Service agent's ability to do their job on your behalf or anyone elses?

BOLTON: No. Look, I've, as I say, I've been - been a protectee before and am now. And I have never once seen anything other than the highest professional behavior from all of these people, as in the case of the FBI agents that I've been in contact with and have been with the FBI over many, many years in a number of different capacities.

Look, these people work long, hard hours in - in - in unforgiving circumstances with their lives on the line. It's easy for people who sit and watch television to critique them as if they know what they're talking about. I'm not going to be one of them. As I say, I think we wait for the investigation and - and see what the real facts are, as opposed to what can be illusory in a couple of second clips on a television camera.

HUNT: Yes.

Briefly, sir, before I let you go. The - another former U.N. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley addressed this convention here. She gave her full-throated endorsement to Donald Trump. Were you surprised, and do you think that's what she should have done?

BOLTON: Well, look, her political future is up to her. I - I - I think Donald Trump is unfit to be president. Needless to say, I'm not in Milwaukee. But the battle goes on. And I - I think ultimately for the sake of the country, and certainly for the Republican Party, people are going to do what they want. I am unalterably opposed to - to Trump. And, you know, that - that may or may not eventuate in him being defeated.

I don't favor Joe Biden either, let me make it very clear, because I don't think he's fit to be president either. It's going to be a bad four years for the United States whichever one of them wins.

HUNT: Are you going to vote for Joe Biden even after that debate performance?

BOLTON: Of course not. I didn't vote for him in 2020. I wrote in Dick Cheney because I wanted to write - I wanted to vote for a real conservative Republican. And I'm inclined to vote for Dick again this November. HUNT: All right. Ambassador John Bolton, thank you very much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it.

BOLTON: Glad to be with you.

HUNT: All right, new this morning, another troubling sign for the Biden campaign. Democratic-funded polling obtained by CNN shows Biden losing ground to Donald Trump in a number of key states, including the five that Biden flipped against Trump in 2020.

[06:40:07]

Polling, some other different new polling also looks at certain Democrats chances in a matchup against Trump in battleground states. Sorry, this is the same polling. Four of those Democrats, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, all outpacing Biden.

Our panel is back.

Stephen Collinson, there also are the - this is - is polling from Democratic donors. We don't normally report on it, but I have to tell you, the overwhelming amount of, you know, internal data that I've seen from various campaigns and people, some of it is - we know Stanley Greenberg, for example, John King has reported, they're trying to get this data to the president that just shows this massive gap in the wake of his debate performance. It doesn't necessarily seem to be reaching him.

And then even when you look at the Senate candidates that are up here in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, you can see, this is from "The Times" and the YouGov polling, these are actual numbers here, I mean, these gaps are enormous. Like, sometimes over ten points. This is typically - I mean this is not how this normally goes. And it shows you just - just why Democrats are so concerned that the president is going to be a massive drag on their chances of retaking the House, keeping the Senate, which, I mean, is basically gone at this point.

But where are we in this conversation? We were talking a little bit about this earlier. Like, it's clearly stuck. The president doesn't want to engage in it anymore. In fact, he has been pushing back aggressively on - privately for people - with people on Capitol Hill. But the data just keeps getting worse.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, I think we have to have a little bit of humility. We don't know how voters are going to end up working. But I can't remember an election where the numbers have been this bad for an incumbent president, this close to an election. The approval rating is sort of low to mid to high 30s. That's historically an area where presidents never win re-election. The thing about the president though is, he has always overcome the odds. So, that may be something that's playing into his own psyche when he sees this and his belief that he can still beat Trump.

And the other thing to say is that Trump nationally is also very unpopular. It's not like there is a younger, new Republican candidate that is surging to public attention. Everybody knows what it was like to have Donald Trump as president. So, I think that maybe some of the things that are factoring in, but this, you know, this close to the election it looks terrible.

HUNT: Lanhee, a lot of my Republican sources are starting to talk about Minnesota, in particular, is one that is floating to the top of the list. Basically, they're talking about expanding the map. Minnesota, New Hampshire is kind of the next one on the list. Virginia further down. New Mexico seems to be a wildcard. Then there's Nevada, which, frankly, sources on both sides of the aisle are telling me is likely to go for Donald Trump at this point.

LANHEE CHEN, FORMER MITT ROMNEY POLICY DIRECTOR: Yes.

HUNT: How realistic do you think that is, and where are the conversations that you're a part of?

CHEN: Well, look, I think it's realistic. I think if you're talking about Minnesota and New Mexico and Virginia, that tells you everything you need to know about where the election is. It's almost immaterial at this point because the pathways for the president or so limited versus the pathways for the former president, Donald Trump.

So, I mean, I just think about this in terms of optionality. And the - the Trump campaign's challenge, in my view, is going to be figuring out, where do they allocate resources? There's so many places, if you look at the polling now, where they could put points on the board, versus for the Biden campaign, it really does still come down to those midwestern states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. If they're unable to clear through those states, I just don't know where else they can go at this point.

So, the conversation about places like Minnesota is interesting. But ultimately, like whether they win Minnesota or not is not the issue. Because if they're winning in Minnesota, they're winning everywhere else.

So, I just think it's about pathways. And right now Trump has many more pathways than Biden does.

MATT GORMAN, FROMER TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: And real quick also. If you look at the down-ballot, that's split where you have Biden say at 42 percent and Jacky Rosen at 47. The era, at least it seems, of a presidential race going one way in a state and a Senate candidate winning it of a different party, that era has really come to an end. In 2000 there were ten of them. In the last two cycles, there's been one, Susan Collins in Maine. So, it's very unlikely that suddenly all across the country you're going to have Trump win these states in the presidential level, but Jacky Rosen, Sherrod Brown, and all these other Democrats survive. It just doesn't - really doesn't happen much anymore.

HUNT: Very briefly, because we've got to go.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Don't - but don't - don't forget Georgia. We did have Republican governor re-elected and Democratic senator win. But -

GORMAN: Runoffs.

FINNEY: What - runoff. What I would say though is, look, it was always going to be a tough map for Democrats. One of the things though that I think we're in a cycle where Democrats - it's becoming a life fulfilling prophecy. The more we talk about how afraid we are of losing instead of how we're going to win, voters are seeing us as losers.

[06:45:04]

They're looking at our candidates and saying - and I don't mean that in the Donald Trump way, but in the, if - if you don't believe in yourself that you can win, voters are sort of saying, well then why am I going to -

HUNT: Why should I -

FINNEY: Why should I vote for you?

HUNT: Why should I vote for you, right.

FINNEY: So, my - you know, I keep saying to my Democrats, you have to believe you can win to even get on the board and the attempt to win. So.

HUNT: Fair enough.

All right, coming up next here, a former Trump White House adviser about to be released from prison, heading straight to Milwaukee to speak here at the RNC.

Plus, we're going to speak with Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller about what we can expect from the former president when he speaks tomorrow night.

And on that note, we thought we'd take this occasion to remind you about one of the more surreal moments in RNC history. Remember this? Clint Eastwood at the 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida.

GORMAN: Oh, I remember.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINT EASTWOOD, FILM DIRECTOR: What? What do you want me to tell Romney? I can't tell him to do that. That - he can't do that to himself. You're - you're crazy. You're - you're absolutely crazy. What's that? You're getting as bad as Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:50:26]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (April 28, 1981): The warmth of your words, the expression of friendship, and, yes, love meant more to us than you can ever know. You have given us a memory that we will treasure forever. And you have provided - provided an answer to those few voices that were raised saying that what happened was evidenced that ours is a sick society. The society we heard from is made up of millions of compassionate Americans and their children, from college age to kindergarten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That was shortly after an assassination attempt on his life. Ronald Reagan thanking his fellow Americans for their message of support and communicating a message of unity.

This is one that former President Donald Trump has also embraced in the days after Saturday's assassination attempt against him. His son, Donald Trump Jr., now telling "Axios" that Saturday's near-death experience has changed his father for good.

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MICHAEL ALLEN, CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "AXIOS": Getting shot in the face changes a man. Is your father a changed man?

DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF DONALD TRUMP: I - I think actually, yes. I think we're trying to, you know, certainly deescalate some of that rhetoric.

I think it lasts. I - you know, I think it lasts. I think those are - you know, there are events that change you for a couple minutes, and there's events that change you permanently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And joining me now to talk more about this is Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller.

Jason, good morning to you. Thanks so much for being here.

JASON MILLER, TRUMP 2024 SENIOR ADVISER: Good morning.

HUNT: You have worked for the former president, Donald Trump, for quite some time now. And I just want to put the same question to you that Mike Allen there put to Donald Trump Jr., which is, do you think that Donald Trump is a changed man after what happened on Saturday?

MILLER: Well, when somebody tries to kill you, you have an assassination attempt, of course it's going to change your life. It's going to change your outlook. And I think we've seen that from President Trump ever since Saturday. You look at the Truth Social posting that he put out Sunday morning where he talked about the resilience in our faith, and our defiance in the face of wickedness.

This is a different country that we're in right now. We - literally, when you're putting an attempt on somebody's life, this is going to change everything. And American politics has become such a tinderbox. It's so negative, so nasty. Somebody has to take that step forward and say, this isn't the way to do it. It doesn't mean we don't have serious issues that we don't have to tackle, but the tone has to change.

HUNT: Is this what we saw on President Trump's face the first night of the Republican National Convention? Because when he did come in - I mean he obviously had a hero's welcome from the crowd when they saw him for the first time after this attempt. But you could see emotion on his face. And I have to say, all these years of covering him, it - it - it struck me as something we don't normally see.

MILLER: Well, you walk into a room with some 10,000 people and everybody's cheering, and literally it's within 48 hours of an attempt on your life, that's going to impact you. And I think that's even what you're going to see with the president's speech tomorrow. I think he's going to talk about his firsthand experience, but also how this applies to what's going on in society today. These challenges we have with people who are suffering from the economy, or from the open border, all these things, we've seen so many of these everyday voices that have been the first two nights the convention. We'll see it tonight with additional everyday voices and obviously with Senator Vance. But that's - President Trump, I think, is going to have a very powerful message tomorrow.

HUNT: So can you tell us a little bit more about the speech. I mean he has, in - in some interviews that he's done with print outlets on the phone, he has talked about how he previously had, you know, he refers to him as crooked Joe Biden and he was going to go very hard after the Democratic president, but that he has decided to tone that down.

Can you give us a little bit more of a sense of what was changed, what is out and what's in?

MILLER: Well, again, we're still going to talk about those important issues, but the tone of it, the approach is going to be notably different. President Trump has spent much of the last several days dictating what he wants that speech to look like, really in real terms, saying I want to say this and I want to go into the following. Because what I've really been upset by, what I've seen in many places in the media, or many places of political pundits and such, where there's a talk about this need to unify, but then this immediate pivot to what about ism. I don't think that has a place on either side right now. It doesn't matter who it is. We cannot have a country where there are literally attempts on peoples life if you're running for office. I mean we are not some banana republic, some third-world country. That might be normal place in certain countries, but not in the U.S.

HUNT: I think we can all agree that political violence has no place the way we saw on Saturday in our - in our discourse. We have, unfortunately as a country, a sad history of it. But I completely understand where you're coming from.

Let me ask you, as we wrap up here. There has been some recent criticism on the right of the Secret Service agents that swarmed President Trump. Some people noting that there were a lot of women Secret Service agents on his personal detail, and calling into question whether or not they were up to the job.

And Eric Trump actually was on with my colleague defending them because one of them in particular was apparently a member of his detail.

I want to show you what Eric had to say and then I'll ask you about it.

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ERIC TRUMP, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: I've been very outspoken in terms of the people on that stage. I've probably said this ten times now. The people on that stage love him. They would take a bullet for him. And they -

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Obviously. They ran right in front of him.

TRUMP: And they - and they demonstrated that.

TAPPER: Yes.

TRUMP: One of the females on the stage, she was with me for three years. I know everything about her. She would take a bullet for me. She would take a bullet for him. As courageous as they come. Same with everybody else that was around him. The head of his detail was on that stage. Believe me, the last thing that they wanted was that to happen. And they did all the right things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, he says that she would have taken a bullet for Eric. She would have taken a bullet for him.

What do you - what would you say, as - as the person speaking on behalf of the Trump campaign, to people who are criticizing that detail, those women and men who swarmed the president that day?

MILLER: I want to echo what Eric was saying. And what Eric was saying really reflects what President Trump has been saying, both publicly and privately. Everyone who's a part of his detail, they put their life on the line anytime for anyone to make sure to protect them. And there shouldn't be any criticism. You saw the way that they pounced literally on top of President Trump within seconds, putting their own bodies in the way. You can't criticize people for that.

HUNT: All right, Jason Miller, thank you very much for joining us this morning. Appreciate your time. Thanks for getting up early too.

MILLER: You got it.

HUNT: I know you've had a lot of late nights

All right, it is 55 minutes past the hour here. Here is your morning roundup (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): I have never ever been a foreign agent. And the decision rendered by the jury today would put at risk every member of the United States Senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be.

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HUNT: Democratic Senator Bob Menendez responding to the news of his guilty verdict. A jury found the New Jersey senator guilty on all 16 counts in his federal corruption trial. He says he plans to appeal.

Police shot and killed a man yesterday about a mile away from the RNC here in Milwaukee. The officers involved were from Ohio. They were in town for added security. Police say that the man killed had knives in both hands and was trying to attack someone.

Today, former Trump White House Adviser Peter Navarro is expecting to be released from prison. And his plan, go straight from lockup right to hear in Milwaukee and the Republican National Convention, where we expect him to speak.

All right, now there is this story.

A long simmering feud between Congressman Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy boiled over again here at the RNC yesterday. And it resulted in this awkward moment captured during a live CNN interview.

Let's watch.

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KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Look, one who's not coming back and then -

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Hey, Kevin, what night are you speaking? What night are you speaking? Are you speaking tonight or -

MCCARTHY: And then the other part that you have - and the other part you have is one person who raised the issue.

GAETZ: No?

MCCARTHY: He's got an ethics complaint about paying - sleeping with a 17-year-old.

GAETZ: Hey, you're not - if you took that stage, you would get booed off - you would get booed off the stage.

MCCARTHY: So, that's the way they would go. So, that's - that's the biggest challenge we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, that angle, I - obviously, McCarthy has the microphone in that - in that angle and he powers through it. The social media sort of angle kind of shows you a little bit what was out of that frame, which was Gaetz walking right up there.

Matt Gorman, I mean, this is very - there it is - this is very personal between these two men.

GORMAN: It seems personal, yes.

HUNT: But it also - I mean it also kind of puts on display, you know, some of the broader themes we've been talking about too.

GORMAN: I disagree in that part. I think this is a very personal feud between these two guys about, you know, when it - the ethics stuff with Gaetz and how that kind of went with McCarthy.

FINNEY: Nice spin (ph) to pick your words on that one.

HUNT: Ethics. Ethics issues with Gaetz. Understatement of the morning.

GORMAN: As a communicator - as - as a communicator, I was keeping it -

FINNEY: Yes. Yes. Very good.

GORMAN: Right, I'll leave it there. And it is, you know, it is personal to say the least. And, yes, bubbled over on the floor. Got to give McCarthy credit. He just - he was hitting those talking points even with somebody in his line of sight. That -

HUNT: Uh.

GORMAN: Yes.

HUNT: Yes. He - well, he's had some experience with it, I will say.

GORMAN: Yes. Yes.

HUNT: So, briefly, let's just go around. We're expecting JD Vance tonight on stage.

Lanhee Chen, what are kind of looking for tonight?

CHEN: I am looking for a full articulation of the sort of populist agenda of the Republican Party, you know, particularly some of the things that - on which he and President Trump agree. Whether it's issues like trade or the embrace of unions. I think it is a direct turn in economic policy and foreign policy as well. So, I think we're going to see that.

HUNT: Stephen Collinson.

COLLINSON: This is a big moment. This is somebody that's going to be at the center of our political lives for the next four years and probably many beyond that. Has air (ph) about him (ph).

HUNT: Well, if - if he wins. COLLINSON: But even if he doesn't, he's still, you know, he's - he's already at the top of the list for potential MAGA candidates in a future Republican race.

HUNT: Matt.

GORMAN: The energy. The people aren't going to probably remember ten years from now, or even, you know, ten months from now what he said exactly. But if he brings a youthful energy to this stage, it could usher in a new era.

[07:00:07]

HUNT: I mean he could also put a chair next to him and talk to a chair, and then we might be talking about it for how many years after 2012 we are now.

GORMAN: That's true.

FINNEY: Well, I mean, but you can't bring a dog because that's been done, right?

HUNT: Yes. Ten seconds.

FINNEY: Look, mostly the tone. How - what - not just the policy differences, but what is the tone? Because his tone on Saturday after that horrible event was quite harsh and not in the - in the sort of spirit of what this convention is supposed to be.

HUNT: Yes, we'll see if he - we'll see if he got the memo.

FINNEY: Yes.

HUNT: This is JD Vance's big chance to introduce himself to a country that still really hasn't met him yet.

Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.