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Sources: Top Dems Meeting with Biden about Stepping Down; J.D. Vance Accepts GOP Vice-Presidential Nomination; Cleanup Continues after Storms Sweep Across U.S. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 18, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:07]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: From relative unknown to the GOP's vice- presidential nominee, J.D. Vance puts himself in the race for 2024.

And --

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was an assassination attempt. You owe the people answers.

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HUNT: Senators chase down the director of the Secret Service at the RNC, insisting on answers over Saturday's assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Then, former President Trump set to deliver his first remarks since Saturday's attempt on his life as he is set to accept the GOP nomination for president for the third time.

Five a.m. here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 6 a.m. on the East Coast. My producers have started writing the times of the morning into my scripts instead of saying "X," because I keep screwing it up.

Here is a live look outside the Fiserv Forum, the host [SIC] of this year's Republican National Convention, where tonight, again, Donald Trump is going to accept the Republican nomination for president for the third time running.

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

We're not going to start here at the RNC. We are going to start with President Biden, isolated, quite literally, with COVID. But also isolated politically as pressure mounts on him to bow out of the race for the White House.

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HUNT: That was President Biden arriving in Delaware last night after canceling a campaign event in Las Vegas. Reporters there asking the president to respond to reporting from ABC News that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Biden it would be best if he dropped out.

Biden's response inaudible over Air Force One's engines.

Schumers office declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting, saying he, quote," conveyed the views of his caucus."

Those questions came just hours after Adam Schiff became the most prominent Democrat to call on Biden to step aside. The California congressman now the 21st Democratic lawmaker to do so, following waves of defections after Biden's debate performance three weeks ago.

We also learned that President Biden met with megadonor Jeffrey Katzenberg on Wednesday. According to "Semafor," Katzenberg told the president that he could no longer count on big checks from big donors. Not to his campaign, not to the DNC, not even to the super PACs supporting them."

In the evening as Republicans cheered on the floor of the RNC in Milwaukee, our Jeff Zeleny reporting this development from one of his senior Democratic sources.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: He's being receptive, not as defiant as he is publicly. Goes on to saying talking about Vice President Kamala Harris, who initially he wondered how she may fare in a campaign, should it come to that. I'm told now he's asking questions saying, do you think Kamala can win?

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HUNT: Joe Biden, more receptive to these calls. Joe Biden asking, do you think Kamala can win?

CNN then reporting that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke privately with Biden, telling him that polling shows he cannot defeat Donald Trump.

Pelosi further warned Biden that his presence on the ticket could destroy Democrats' chances of retaking the House in November.

A House Democrat telling me last night that Pelosi's, quote, "working on it" and that, quote, "she rarely loses."

The White House declined to comment on details of CNN's reporting, but did say, quote, "President Biden is the nominee of the party. He plans to win."

Our panel's here. Joining me now, Brad Todd, former senior adviser to Rick Scott's Senate campaign; Alex Thompson, national political reporter for Axios; Jason Osborne, former senior adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign; and Karen Finney, former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Welcome to all of you, as we cover the RNC in Milwaukee and we talk instead about the president of the United States.

Karen's already been in the hotseat, so Alex, let me start with you, because you're -- there's honestly no one better to talk to in terms of digging into Biden world and exactly what is going on.

And what is your latest reporting around where the president's head is? Jeff Zeleny was first last night to report that he is perhaps more receptive to these calls. What do you know?

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Well, think about all of these meetings that we're -- that we're talking about right now with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries.

The thing to remember, they were all last week. The fact that they're coming out now, and Joe Biden has still been publicly defiant, shows you a little bit of where his head's at.

And the truth is that, you know, you can have almost every Democrat in Congress basically speak out. But if Joe Biden still, at his core, believes that he is the most electable Democrat to take on Donald Trump, he is going to stay in this race.

[06:05:14]

There's almost a religious conviction among him and his inner circle. And unless you give him irrefutable polling evidence that the other Democrat would be more electable, I just don't see how he gets out of this race.

Now, maybe that evidence exists, but it's also very difficult. How can you poll a hypothetical?

Joe Biden does not want to be sitting at -- on his couch on the night of November 5, having seen Donald Trump win, and not having been the nominee. You saw him talk about this to George Stephanopoulos. At the very least, he wants to be the guy to take on Trump.

And how do you get him to move off of that position? Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are trying, and they tried several days ago. But clearly, that has not worked.

HUNT: So, I mean, the reporting from -- from Jeff is that he has gone from asking -- from saying Kamala can't win to saying can Kamala Harris win. I mean, that's to your point.

THOMPSON: Yes.

HUNT: So, you think that's the thing that changes him? Numbers that would clearly show someone else doing better?

THOMPSON: Yes. I think if someone were to unambiguously, absolutely show that someone else had a better chance against Donald Trump, that would be the only thing that can move him. I just don't know if it's possible at this point.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the other piece of this, though, having been with candidates when you have to make hard -- tough decisions, there has to be -- and I'm not saying he's getting out, so let me just be clear. There has to be a pathway.

You can't -- I mean, in addition to everything you're saying in terms of the data, there's also the recognition, OK. It's not -- if you get to the place where you decide it can't be me, all this -- you know, George Clooney in public sort of saying you shouldn't be in is not the way to actually get him to say, OK, I'm going to do it.

HUNT: Right.

FINNEY: Like, people have to figure out how do you honor the fact that he has been an excellent president and has, you know, had so many successes.

And the second thing I would say is we -- we're not reporting on it, but he is also hearing from a lot of people who are saying stay in, stay in, Joe.

I mean, I'm part of a group of prominent black female leaders who will be having a letter come out today, who are saying -- he was at the NAACP. He was at UNIDOS. I mean we also have Liz Shuler, right?

So, when you have other big leaders saying, don't get out, you know, we're talking about the 20 of 200.

HUNT: Yes.

BRAD TODD, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO RICK SCOTT'S SENATE CAMPAIGN: Well, let's go back. This isn't -- the desire to be president, is an ambition curable only by a pine box. And so, Joe Biden is going --

HUNT: That's a good way to put it. I have learned that lesson many times in my career, but that is the most succinct way to say it.

He's going to want to stay president for as long as possible. And Democrats made this bet. They -- you know, a lot of people thought he was too old in 2020, and Democrats cleared the field for him, shielded him from a long grueling primary campaign and installed him as the nominee.

They asked for this. This was a problem a long time in the making.

HUNT: Well, Jason Osborne, on the polling question, to what Alex was saying, that he needs to see polling that shows other people would do better. The Trump campaign is actually doing that polling. And if my understanding from talking to sources behind the scenes here is correct, they see very clearly that they would rather run against Joe Biden than Kamala Harris. It -- the race seems to change in certain ways. It's a different campaign.

But I guess I'm missing -- like, Republicans are clearly seeing the polling that, I guess, Joe Biden is not wanting to see.

JASON OSBORNE, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TRUMP'S 2016 CAMPAIGN: Well, I mean, I think the hard part on polling and a situation like this is that the vice president has been untested. I mean, you see this all the time in presidential campaigns and primaries. Before somebody actually gets in the race, their numbers can be very high, but once they become the target --

I mean, I learned there's very well with Dr. Carson. We were kind of doing really well for a long time, and then all of a sudden --

HUNT: Till we all showed up.

OSBORNE: -- when we became the target --

HUNT: Yes, right.

TODD: But Joe Biden had a problem before the debate. He had a 38 percent approval rating before the debate. Kamala Harris owns that approval rating, too.

And that was a choice, as well. Instead of being a bipartisan, centrist administration, they gave the left almost everything they wanted. And so that's where they get in this box.

FINNEY: Can I just say that after what happened Saturday, can we please not talk about pine boxes? That seems a little inappropriate.

HUNT: Sure. Fair enough. I think that -- I think -- I took what he had to say as the idea that you would eventually pass of natural causes.

TODD: Joe Biden's going to be president 'til last day possible for him to be president. That's -- that's -- that's a fact. Everyone's known that. He's been running since 1987.

I -- Karen, I think it's a totally appropriate idiom for him.

HUNT: We are -- we are not talking about political violence ending -- ending anyone's life. Let's be clear, Alex.

THOMPSON: Well, and speaking of Joe Biden's ambition, if you actually read his memoir before he ran for president in 2008, he admits that one of his old school instructors brought out an essay from when he was literally in elementary school about how he wanted to be president one day.

OSBORNE: But was that his essay?

HUNT: OK. Let's watch briefly, Alex, because I want you to weigh in on this quickly before we go to break.

Joe Biden has evolved in saying what would get him out of this presidential race. And we kind of stacked it all together so you can kind of see his evolution from that George Stephanopoulos interview to yesterday. Let's watch.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If the Lord Almighty came down and said, "Joe, get out of the race, get out of the race." The Lord Almighty is not coming down.

[06:10:05]

Unless they came back and said, there's no way you can win.

Unless I get hit by a train. Yes.

If I had some medical condition that emerged. If somebody -- if the doctors came to me and said, "You've got this problem, that problem."

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HUNT: This medical condition that might emerge. What's that -- how do you explain that? Why is he saying that?

THOMPSON: I think he is literally trying to come up with a better answer than "unless God tells me to drop out of the race, I'm not going to."

I think this is just -- the fact is that doctor or sorry Dr. O'Connor, Joe Biden's longtime doctor, has cleared him for duty, has -- is also very, very personally close to Joe Biden, has been with him for a long, long time, sees him regularly, also helped treat his son, Beau Biden.

I think this is not -- I think some Democrats are trying to see, Oh, Joe Biden's, like, opening the door a little bit with these answers.

That is not what's happening.

HUNT: Yes.

THOMPSON: Joe Biden's just trying to come up with a better answer than, Well, if God tells me I might do it.

TODD: He's not, because if he acknowledged -- if he says I'm not fit for duty, than he's not fit to serve till the end of the term. I mean, he's -- if you're not good enough to run, you're not good enough to stay.

And so that's -- that's the problem. He's not -- he's not creating an answer here for he -- where he's going to acknowledge that he's not up to this.

FINNEY: But I would just acknowledge, he's been doing an excellent job. This is a man who literally helped negotiate to get the first round of hostages out of Gaza.

And I've been to Israel, and that is what Israelis to a person would tell you. So, we can't -- let's not say this man is not up to the job, or doing the job.

TODD: I'm with you. Let's keep him in the race.

OSBORNE: A hundred percent.

HUNT: Yes. Republicans are, like, unified here. Karen, I think, but for different reasons.

Anyway, we've got a lot more to get to here on CNN THIS MORNING.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: J.D.! J.D.! J.D.!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: J.D.! J.D.! J.D.!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: J.D.! J.D.! J.D.!

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HUNT: We'll bring you the highlights of J.D. Vance as he officially became the Republican vice-presidential nominee last night.

Plus, cleanup continues after a string of damaging storms. We'll bring you the weather.

And this: a wild scene. It's kind of a reversal. Senators chase the Secret Service director through the halls of the Republican National Convention.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly what you were doing today. Stonewalling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was an assassination attempt.

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SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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.

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HUNT: Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, leaning hard on his humble roots as he accepted the GOP's vice-presidential nomination. His RNC speech focused on those Rust Belt roots. A look into his life's journey that's taken him from Appalachia to the Marine Corps, to Yale Law School and now the U.S. Senate. Vance highlighted in the night's keynote address how he feels Washington has failed families like his. And then there was this moment.

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VANCE: Mamaw raised me as my mother struggled with addiction. And I'm proud to say that tonight, my mom is here, ten years clean and sober. I love you, Mom.

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HUNT: A really touching moment, quite honestly.

Brad Todd, what did you make of J.D. Vance's speech?

TODD: You know, I thought it was a pretty big moment for the Republican Party in general, beyond this election. Realignment happens among voters organically, but parties have to choose it.

And I think last night J.D. Vance added a lot of purpose to Trump's populism. And he did something else that Trump has not been able to do for himself. And that's sort of allow room for disagreement.

Many times during his speech, he talked about ways we might disagree, ways he might disagree with other people, how the party was a big tent. That's a very new key of music for a Donald Trump campaign.

HUNT: We also pulled together his -- he, of course, grew up in Ohio, but has you know, these family ties in Appalachia. He talked about the Rust Belt states repeatedly that Donald Trump is going to obviously need to win if he wants to be president of the United States. President Biden would need to win to hold the Oval Office.

Here's a little bit more of a taste of his speech and how we talked about that.

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VANCE: O-H-I-O.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: O-H-I-O.

VANCE: You guys, we've got to -- we're going to chill with the Ohio love. We've got to win Michigan, too, here. So --

It's about the auto worker in Michigan. It's about the factory worker in Wisconsin. It's about the energy worker in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The factories of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. And every corner of our nation.

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HUNT: So, as a Michigan fan myself, I am skeptical from anyone -- of anyone from Ohio. But Jason Osborne, his -- I mean, his point's very obvious.

OSBORNE: A hundred percent. I mean, and this isn't something that, you know, J.D. Vance hasn't talked about previously, right? I mean, this isn't an -- just a token appeal to --

HUNT: But most Americans haven't heard it before, right?

OSBORNE: They haven't. And I -- I think you've seen over the last couple of days, you know, some of that message resonating through. We had the Teamsters guy's speech was -- it was really impactful.

I mean, this is my ninth convention, and I don't think I've seen this kind of energy two days before the president speaks, or the nominees speaks. And then one day when the vice president speaks.

The energy last night was amazing. And his speech really resonated with a lot of folks. And I think, you saw that in some of the organic chance that were coming out and his message about -- you know, that -- his struggle growing up with his grandmother raising him and his mother, that really -- you could see tears in a lot of people's eyes when they saw that.

And I think what we're seeing now is you've seen a toning down of J.D. Vance's speech.

HUNT: Yes.

[06:20:04]

OSBORNE: And he's really kind of addressing what happened in his life.

HUNT: All right. Well, coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, we have lost my Teleprompter, so I'm going to try to figure out what our tease is.

Coming up next, we're assessing the damage.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to rebuild all this.

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HUNT: New York's governor tours a city upstate that was hit by a tornado.

Plus, days after the assassination attempt on his life, Donald Trump set to take the stage at the RNC tonight.

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GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): You cannot imagine the impact of seeing from the sky how vast the destruction is.

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HUNT: New York Governor Kathy Hochul standing in front of a church in the city of Rome that had its roof ripped off. The National Weather Service says a tornado touched down there on Tuesday.

Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, with our weather for today.

Allison, good morning.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good morning.

Yes, it was very significant damage for this community and quite late into the season. You know, we think of springtime is the time when we usually have these type of events.

Now, this particular tornado here was rated an EF-2. But I want to emphasize that's as high as you can get for an EF-2, because the estimated wind speed's 135. Had it been 136, it would have been an EF- 3. So pretty significant damage there.

And that tornado was just one of 23 total tornado reports we've had across the country just since Sunday. Over 1,100 damaging wind reports and over 90 hail reports. Some of those tennis ball size or even larger.

We have more severe weather in the forecast for today, mainly focused across the Carolinas and Virginia. A lot of those storms will fire up late this afternoon, continue through the evening and overnight.

But also notice, too, this front is going to be stationary. It's not really going to move that much. That means you're going to have a lot of time to dump a tremendous amount of rain.

So, there's also a flooding threat from the Carolinas back through Texas.

The big thing as we head into the weekend is going to be the change of temperature starting to go back up again once again across much of the West.

HUNT: Oh, boy. OK. Allison Chinchar for us.

Allison, thank you very much.

All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, former Republican Congressman Rodney Davis joins us as we talk about what to expect from Donald Trump on stage tonight.

Plus, the latest private calls for Biden to resign, sending shockwaves through the Democratic Party.

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