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CNN This Morning
Biden Tests Positive For COVID, Leaves Campaign Trail; J.D. Vance Accepts GOP Vice Presidential Nomination; Now: WSJ Evan Gershkovich's Trial In Russia Resumes; Special Counsel Files Notice Of Appeal In Trump Classified Docs Case. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired July 18, 2024 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:39]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, July 18th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
President Biden isolating in Delaware after a COVID diagnosis. It comes as the calls for him to leave the race altogether seemed to grow louder and more prominent.
Plus, this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, I pledge to every American, no matter your party, I will give you everything I have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: J.D. Vance takes center stage, accepting the Republican nomination for vice president and trying to introduce himself to America.
Then, there's this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm only telling you this because you answer to us. You answer to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: You answer to us. Senators demanding answers, confronting the head of the Secret Service on the floor of the RNC.
(MUSIC)
HUNT: Four a.m. here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast.
A live look at the Fiserv Forum here Milwaukee, the home of the RNC. I can tell, some of those people walking around are still actually head back to their hotel rooms after a late night. Their badges probably still say Wednesday or say Thursday.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
President Biden forced off the campaign trail by a case of COVID-19, just as calls for him to leave the race grew only louder. President Biden arrived to his home in Delaware late last night, where he will be self-isolating with a mild case of the virus. That's according to his staff.
The president is finding himself isolated in more ways than one with calls to step aside now coming from some of the most senior leaders of the Democratic Party.
Sources tell CNN, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently spoke to the president. Her message, the polls show he cannot defeat Donald Trump in November. She also warned Biden's candidacy could sink their chances of winning the House and keeping the Senate.
The president reportedly got defensive, saying his own polls show he can win. But remember back to one week ago at NATO when Biden suggested he would only reconsider his campaign under one condition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Unless they came back and said, there's no way you can win. Me. No one is saying that. No poll says that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: But people are saying that, even the president's allies. Adam Schiff becoming the 21st Democratic congressman to call for Biden to leave the race. He is the most prominent Democrat to do so in public as of yet.
And privately, the pressure seems to be potentially changing the presidents thinking. One senior party adviser tells CNN, quote, "He's gone from saying Kamala can't win," to, quote, "Do you think Kamala can win?," according to this adviser. Quote, "It's still unclear where he's going to land, but he seems to be listening".
Joining me now to discuss all of this, Stephanie Lai, politics reporter for "Bloomberg News", Reese Gorman, political reporter for "NOTUS", Karen Finney, CNN political commentator, former spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and Lance Trover, former spokesperson for Doug Burgum's presidential campaign.
Welcome to all of you early on this Thursday morning, late on this Wednesday night.
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I know where you're coming.
(LAUGHTER) HUNT: Karen, we very much appreciate your presence today. Thank you for being here.
FINNEY: Lance is going to take this one. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
LANCE TROVER, FORMER SPOKESPERSON FOR DOUG BURGUM'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: The floor is yours.
(LAUGHTER)
HUNT: Look, this -- it's pretty remarkable because we saw obviously J.D. Vance had his big moment in the sun at the RNC last night, but the reality was all anyone was talking about was the president of the United States last night, ahead of that, anyway, and our Jeff Zeleny had a report that kind of rippled across the landscape where he said that one adviser says that President Biden seems more receptive to these entreaties for him to leave the race.
I'm wondering if you can kind of give us a sense of what the conversation is among Democrats right now. Clearly, Nancy Pelosi in particular, and I was talking to one Democratic member last night who said that she is clearly making her moves behind the scenes, that she rarely loses.
What's the next turn of the screw?
FINNEY: Well, look, I think that juror member as of right now, President Biden has the delegates to win the nomination.
[05:05:07]
And these are people who ran specifically to be pledged Biden delegates in their home communities. So, unless and until there is some movement among those delegates and some chance that when the vote happens, he would not win again, I keep saying this. He's got the cards in his hand and again, members of Congress don't get to vote until the second round of voting.
So look, he's negotiating with a pretty strong hand here. I do think the polls matter.
I think the other piece though that will tell you that's rippling through the Democrats. Number one, I will tell you that most of his people are saying he's not going anywhere. He may have COVID, guess what? There's a whole new COVID strain that were all probably kind of get at some point this summer or fall.
But the other pieces, I think people are I want to say furious in many corners at the idea that if for some reason President Biden did step down that it wouldn't become a Harris.
The idea I think a lot of folks don't understand what a revolt there would be in the party if you try to step over this woman in favor of --
HUNT: Yeah. So, I mean, look, on the one hand, you're trying to say, well, Biden is not going anywhere, but then on the other hand, if he does, right?
FINNEY: Well, because that's the conversation people who are having, there saying, you know, I mean, even our own Van Jones said --
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: -- leave, right?
FINNEY: No, I think its just people really want them to leave and they're trying to throw out names of people like all will be so exciting and we could do this and the thing that I keep going back to is, okay, great. So let's have a food fight in August and then turn around at the end of August or early September and say, hey, you can trust us to run the country. I don't think people realize.
And if it's not Kamala, we're fighting for ballot access in every state. We're fighting -- that person has to basically start from the beginning in terms of staff and money in September. So --
HUNT: It's a -- it's a tough -- it's a tough climb for sure.
But, Reese Gorman, what are you hearing from your sources this morning?
REESE GORMAN, POLITICAL REPORTER, NOTUS: So, Democrats are, the COVID Biden having COVID is just another example of them kind of being worried. I mean, now, he's going to be taken off the campaign trail when they're already skeptical of the fact that it could be the nominee. I'll talk to some Democrats earlier this week who were even before this all played out, they were really scared.
And then -- I mean, these conversations with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, they just don't leak on accident. They talked to them last week about this. And clearly, Biden did not heed their concerns.
And so now they're trying to come out in public and forces in a public arena. Because he's not listening to them. So they are really scared about the prospect of Biden being their nominee from what I'm hearing, and there are grave concerns, especially from more vulnerable Democrats.
HUNT: Yeah. Stephanie Li, let me -- let's -- let's show everybody kind of how President Biden has evolved as well in talking about what would cause him to reevaluate his decision. Because he obviously, after the debate was very dug in, starting out with that interview that he did with George Stephanopoulos.
But another thing he said yesterday, also piqued the ears of Democrats. Let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: If the Lord Almighty came down and said, Joe, get it out of the race, I get out of the race. And Lord Almighty is not coming down.
Unless they came back and said, there's no way you can win.
Unless I get hit by a train, yeah.
If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody -- doctors came to me, said, you got this problem, that problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Some medical condition that emerged.
So some people are reading, I think over-reading this as well, COVID could not be the excuse that he uses to do this, but at the same time, it's a change.
STEPHANIE LAI, POLITICS REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: It is and I think you're completely right and that interview yesterday, really did turn the page on what we were seeing from Biden's response earlier when he was very stubborn about not dropping out of the race, not ceding control of the party and now it seems like he's more open to the idea of, you know, should something happen. Kamala Harris is perfectly capable of taking over the control of the White House.
I do think that some of these conversations that were hearing from Democrats on the Hill among senior top brass Democrats, it seems like the more polling shows that other candidates could be Donald Trump, the more willing he seems to be.
HUNT: Lance Trover on that on that point about who is most likely to beat Donald Trump. I mean, it's clear from the conversations I'm having here the RNC, Republicans would prefer to run against president Biden they feel like the battleground map is incredibly expanded. And then I talked to one source who says they've also tested Kamala Harris can see how the race would be different with her. I mean, they still feel I think relatively confident about taking her on, but it does change the dynamics.
What are you hearing? Some of our panel last night -- last night, it was just a few hours ago, I guess, I'm trying to remember it was David Urban or Scott Jennings, but they were I kind of pointing out that, I think was David Urban, that the Trump team hasn't run the debate ads yet against Biden because they don't want to push him out of the race.
(LAUGHTER)
[05:10:18]
TROVER: I was -- I was thinking on the way over here, could life be any better for the Trump campaign right now in there?
Every just in the last week alone, granted, I mean, he survived an assassination attempt. The court cases getting tossed out the unity that has been shown here in Milwaukee with complete disarray on the other side.
But to your point, I think you're right. I think they want to run against Joe Biden. Absolutely. They do not want to see him out of the race. And so I think yeah, look, I they also there is an air of confidence here that they can take on that he is so strong right now. And I think you also saw just in case there was a Kamala Harris coming that was part of the strategic thinking of getting a J.D. Vance, a 39- year-old guy who comes from the Midwest and marine veteran and that type of stuff. I think they were also thinking ahead just in case because look, the age factor is clearly going to be a case going forward.
FINNEY: Can I make one other point?
HUNT: Yeah, go ahead.
FINNEY: Let's talk about former president Wesley Clark and former president Fred Thompson and I think that to say, if you remember in both of those elections people were freaking out. We need another candidate, we need another candidate, both of those men got in and different moments and they tanked because here's part of what happened, until you're actually the candidate and the theoretical looks great to people because people put on you all the things they think the existing candidate does not have.
And then they go on the campaign trail and they start to hear and see and I'm not saying that these people who have been named or not great, but it's very different. And so I think they're to be really mindful.
And again, I think in addition to that, its part of why people are saying Joe Biden's not going anywhere. But if he is and I think more people, he would get more people supportive if some of the predominantly white folks in my party would stop talking about jumping over Kamala Harris?
HUNT: Yeah. No, it's a very interesting point. I think one thing I'm going to be digging in today in my reporting live heard from one Democratic sources suggestions that the president may be feeling like she needs to earn it in a way and some sort of process. And I think if that's actually what he thinks, some of what you just said is going to light up pretty asked.
All right. Up next here, Donald Trump makes his triumphant return to the RNC tonight. He's going to have his big moment on the main stage.
Plus, this -- Republicans rally around J.D. Vance. His big moment on the main stage. We'll show you some highlights.
And in our morning roundup, journalist Evan Gershkovich back in a Russian courtroom.
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[05:17:01]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: And so tonight, Mr. Chairman, I stand here humbled, and I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to say I officially accept your nomination to be Vice President of the United States of America. (CHEERING)
CROWD: J.D.! J.D.! J.D.!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Ohio Senator J.D. Vance accepting his role as the new second in command of the MAGA movement. His RNC speech giving America a fresh look at his life's journey from Appalachia to the Marine Corps to Yale Law and the U.S. Senate.
Vance also gave his pitch for his new running mate, Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again.
President Trump represents America's last best hope to restore what if lost may never be found again -- a country where a working-class boy born far from the halls of power can stand on this stage as the next vice president of the United States of America.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, panel is back.
Lance Trover. I kind of want to dig into this speech a little bit because it honestly, I thought we were going to get like a super compelling like biographical story. Instead, it was a little bit all over the place. And it was clear to me that he seemed a little nervous, right?
Like this was a moment. He didn't have a lot of time to practice the speech, what, one of the reviews.
TROVER: Seventy-two hours maybe.
Look, I did I thought he projected an air of humility, which I think goes along way with voters. I do think he got elements of his story out there. This is an introduction. It's an introduction to not just American voters the Republican voters as well out there.
And I think he did a nice job of that and I thought he -- I was also struck by the contrast because when you think about his upbringing versus Donald Trumps upbringing, I was looking at that like two completely different people.
But in a way, it kind of is an example of American as its greatest, right? That you've got a rich guy like Donald Trump and a guy who grew up certainly very, very poor in the hollows, as he said of Kentucky. And it's quite the contrast. But bringing that together, I think the Trump team, they've been thinking about this for a long time, but I think they thought about the age factor. They thought about his biographical factor. They did put some thought into this and you can kind of see where we got to last night that how they landed on J.D. Vance. And I think as a contrast to whether it is Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or anybody else.
HUNT: Reese Gorman, let's watch the -- there was a moment where J.D. Vance, if people are familiar with his biography, its likely from "Hillbilly Elegy" and there was a movie made with Glenn Close who starred as his grandmother and he talked about his meemaw as he called her, and how he was raised by her.
[05:20:02]
But then there was a very touching moment actually, where he introduced his mom. Let's watch that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: Our movement is about single moms like mine who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up. And I'm proud to say that tonight, my mom is here. Ten years clean and sober.
I love you, mom.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Blows that kiss, big later joke that, well, maybe they can have the celebration at the White House, quite something. I mean, I will say that.
GORMAN: A hundred percent. I heard from Republicans when J.D. Vance was first elected as a running mate, who were concerned about him as the running mate, did think he was too much like Trump. He didn't bring much the ticket.
Then after this speech that he gave, they were a lot more comfortable about it. They were telling me that the he kind of made this stark contrast and while there were some kind of MAGA moments in this speech, it felt like he especially this moment he touched a regular Americans and the American voters.
And also, whenever he referenced these kind of Midwestern states, whether Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, that they realized that this is why Trump had them on the ticket to appeal to blue collar working class voters, and it kind of set them at ease. And even some of the members that I talked to and they were like, we don't know if Donald Trump made the right decision with Vance because he's too much like Trump, after seeing this kind of went back to them and they're like no see you the decision he made. I was not very familiar with J.D. Vance as probably a lot of America isn't.
HUNT: Right. GORMAN: But this kind of --
HUNT: It's a chance for him to rewrite what people, what people think about him in this biography is a really strong set of things to bring to the table.
All right, coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING:
Special counsel Jack Smith announces his next move after the classified documents case against Donald Trump was thrown out.
Plus, a deadly inferno. A mall goes up in flames. That's in our morning round-up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:26:23]
HUNT: All right, 25 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.
Evan Gershkovich's trial in Russia resumed this morning for a second hearing. It was all held behind closed doors. "The Wall Street Journal" journalist has been detained in Russia for over a year on espionage charges.
The special counsel counsel's office has filed a notice of appeal in Donald Trump's classified documents case earlier this week. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case on grounds the appointment of special counsel, Jack Smith, violated the Constitution.
This incredible video out of southwest China, smoke billowing from a mall after it caught fire on Wednesday, 16 people were killed, close to 30 people had to be rescued. Initial investigations point to construction work as the cause.
And this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Paris mayor and I and a bunch of other Parisians have been able to jump into the Seine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: CNN's Melissa Bell joining the mayor of Paris for a swim in the River Seine ahead of the Paris Olympics. They start next week. I really don't know how I feel about this. This is the mayor's way of making a point that the river is clean after it tested at unsafe levels of E. coli last month.
We're going to call Melissa in about, you know, I don't know, three days, to make sure all is well. She's a champ.
All right. Time now for weather after a week of severe storm, community storms, communities from the Midwest to the East Coast are picking up the pieces. New York Governor Kathy Hochul assessing the storm damage in the city of Rome, New York, yesterday, that National Weather Service says a tornado touched down there Tuesday.
Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, with more on this.
Allison, good morning.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.
Yeah, this was pretty significant damage for this area, especially given the time of year. We know severe weather takes place in the spring, but for summer, that's usually when we start to see that transition out of it. Again, pretty significant damage here, just so you know, this was an EF2 rated tornado.
But for some context, the estimated wind speed was 135. Had it been 136, it would have been an EF3. So this was about as high of an EF2 rating as you can possibly get for that storm. That tornado was one of 23 tornado reports that we've had across the country just since Sunday, over 1,100 damaging wind reports and almost 100 hail reports, some of them the size of tennis balls or even larger.
Now, in terms of tornadoes, has been a very active year. Since January 1st, we've had over 1,400 tornado reports. Normally by this point, we would have just under 1,000. So certainly above average there.
More severe weather is expected for today, especially across the Carolinas and Virginia. You'll see a lot of those storms beginning thank to ramp up late this afternoon and into the evening hours and continuing overnight. But also notice to this front isn't really moving all that much. That means there's going to be a tremendous amount of rain dropped in a very short period of time. So you have the potential for flooding from Virginia, all the way back through Texas.
HUNT: All right. Allison Chinchar for us this morning -- Allison, thank you very much.
Coming up next here, a heated confrontation at the RNC, the Secret Service director chased by lawmakers. Plus, as Trump is showered with praise here at the RNC, Biden forced off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: Apparently, the first signs of trouble for president were earlier today when he stopped at a restaurant and reporters noted that he looks slower and more pale than the day before. More pale? How can you tell? His foundation shade is already Casper.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[05:30:00]
