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Tim Ryan is Interviewed Biden; Biden Campaign Faces Critical 72 Hours; Mass Outages Hit Airlines and Businesses Worldwide; A Look at Presidential Campaign Headlines. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 19, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: As well. What is your reaction to what Tester said here? Are you looking to see - do you think that Sherrod Brown will follow suit? And do you agree that it's untenable for down-ballot Democrats to be able to defend the president right now?

TIM RYAN (D), FORMER OHIO REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, I suspect you're going to see more. I don't know what Senator Brown's going to do, but I suspect you'll see more today. And I do think it is untenable. I think Democrats, especially after last night's debacle, I think Democrats are dying to get back on a more elevated message. I think there's a huge opening for Democrats, both in those Senate races, a key across the country, but also for the presidential race, if Democrats can articulate a big vision for the United States of America, an inclusive vision of one that's letting go of basically everything that happened last night, everything that Trump talked about last night. People don't want to live in that kind of country. That was a speech to that room. But I think a lot of independent voters want something different. And its incumbent upon the Democratic Party to give them something different. And I think that's what Jon Tester was saying, give me the - give me the leeway here in my own state, where I've gotten elected against conventional wisdom, because I'm able to talk to folks. Don't distract me with something that I can't defend.

HUNT: Congressman, do you think that Kamala Harris, at the top of the Democratic ticket, could beat former President Trump in the fall?

RYAN: I think she would smoke him, honestly. And I've been saying this for three weeks now. She is the candidate, in my mind. She will absolutely smoke him. She will rally our base. She'll pull in young people. She will - she will energize Democrats. She will prosecute, not just the case against Trump, because I don't think we want to talk about him too much, but you got to be able to call out his lies. And who better to do that than a - than a prosecutor.

But I also think talking and elevating that vision, generational change. People are so tired of the - the Vietnam-era politics, which is just toxic. It's been going on forever. Kamala Harris will elevate the American conversation. People will be drawn to that. Independent voters will be drawn to that. The never Trumpers in the Republican Party will be drawn to that. You can run on choice. You can run on re- industrialization. And look, JD Vance was a venture capitalist. Donald Trump cut taxes for the wealthiest people in the world. He just did an all-out assault on the auto workers.

I don't know, I've been running for office in Ohio. A lot of auto workers. A lot of retired auto workers in Ohio, in Michigan, in Wisconsin. Terrible politics.

So, Kamala will appeal to those folks. She should - we've just got to get her on the ground here in these Great Lake states and - and I think she's going to have great appeal to those working class voters. Whether they're white or black or brown or men or women, she will have appeal to them.

HUNT: Congressman, who do you think - if we end up in this - in this point, who might round out a presidential ticket? What names are - should be in the conversation, in your view?

RYAN: Well, we've got some great big state governors right here in the Great Lake states. Obviously, we've got a lot of stars. So deep, deep bench on the - on the Democratic side. So, I think she's going to have, if it's her -

HUNT: I hear no names.

RYAN: Yes, I mean, I'm not even getting into this because we still have a sitting president. We can have that conversation maybe if things unfold the way we think they may. Happy to have that conversation. But I think she would be very, very strong at the top of the ticket.

HUNT: All right. Fair enough. I will say, I think those names are flying in text chains and, of course, we're reporting that - that the Harris team is starting to kind of feel this out as well.

RYAN: I'm sure.

HUNT: Former Congressman Tim Ryan, I'm very grateful for your time this morning. Thank you very much for being with us.

RYAN: Thank you. Take care.

HUNT: So, of course, Trump has been celebrating this week. The Biden campaign has found itself on its heels.

Stephen Collinson, this is from your newest piece. "Biden, this week, has been forced to retreat to his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with a case of Covid-19, at a moment when many senior- ranking White House and campaign officials have come to believe the president must abandon his campaign for a second term. 'The next 72 hours are big,' one Democratic governor in close touch with party officials relayed to aides on Thursday. This can't go on much longer."

So, Stephen, I mean, talk to me about where - where things stand. This reporting is moving fast and furious about where the president may be. I will say that, in my own conversations, people that have been talking to the White House, to the campaign, oftentimes supporters of the president want to know, hey, what do I say, how do I defend him, how do I get out there, say that there has been a real change in posture from the campaign and the White House about how to deal with these things. Whether they're getting a different vibe so to speak or they're not getting a response at all, et cetera. There is something that is different about this - this point in time.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Right, we do seem to be getting to a critical point. In the last two weeks, things have seemed to boil up and then the president managed to establish a beachhead almost and allow himself to sort of wait a couple of more days, by a couple more days.

[06:35:03]

I think that's what a lot of the tactics were about.

But look at the comparison we saw last night. We saw Donald Trump walk out here, embraced by his party, the party he remade in his image. At the same time, the president was isolated down in Rehoboth watching the Democratic Party desert him after a long career. And he's a beloved figure. It's very poignant.

So, with all the elections I've covered all over the world, the party that's at - that is at war with itself has always lost. If the Democrats don't get this sorted out pretty soon, time is running out, right? The New York convention is in, what, four weeks. You don't - you've go to -

(CROSS TALK)

COLLINSON: You know, you're the candidate for (INAUDIBLE) that's going to walk out on the stage.

BRAD WOODHOUSE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes. Well, look, I couldn't agree - I couldn't agree more, a party at war with itself. This party should not be at war with itself.

Look, President Biden has said repeatedly, his campaign has said repeatedly, I was with Quentin Fulks about four hours ago. This campaign, he said, this president is running. The White House has said this president is running.

HUNT: And you don't think that that's changing right - I mean, because it feels like something is changing.

WOODHOUSE: Well, look, I - well, you know what - you know what's changing is, there's a lot of anonymous reporting. There's a lot of leaking. There's a lot of backstabbing that - you know, a lot - a lot of these conversations that supposedly have been had with President Biden have not been put on the record. And -

HUNT: So - so -

WOODHOUSE: And so look, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I've heard this from - from, you know, a lot of people. They'll say their advice to the president, but at the end of the day they say, it's one person's choice.

And I'll just asked you, Scott, if you won - if you won the primary of your party -

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

WOODHOUSE: If you ran in a primary, if you got 14.5 million votes, if you got 87 percent of the votes cast, would you - and you saw what you saw last night from the other party and its candidate, would you bow out no?

JENNINGS: No.

WOODHOUSE: No, of course you would not. And I -

JENNINGS: No. No. No. My message to Joe Biden in Delaware -

WOODHOUSE: And I know - no, I - look don't -

HUNT: Yes, be careful. Be careful, Brad.

JENNINGS: Stay in the race. Stay in the race, my friend.

WOODHOUSE: Well - well -

JENNINGS: You - you earned it.

WOODHOUSE: Well, look - look -

JENNINGS: You earned it.

WOODHOUSE: And you -

JENNINGS: Brad and I are in agreement.

WOODHOUSE: Well, stop. So, you're -

JENNINGS: Stay in the race.

WOODHOUSE: Look, you - look, you know, go ahead and keep - keep mocking Joe Biden.

JENNINGS: I'm not.

WOODHOUSE: And people have mocked him his whole -

JENNINGS: I'm for it.

WOODHOUSE: His whole career. And he's come back and he's come back and he's come back.

And, look, I've - we've lived through moments - Kasie, you've lived through moments. And, look, I was at the DNC when - when Obama's debate performance - we walked into the -

HUNT: It's not the same. I'm sorry, it's just not. Like -

WOODHOUSE: I understand that. Hold on. Time out. I'm just telling you, the feeling. We walked in the next morning. We didn't think he could win. And he fell seven -

HUNT: But nobody thought that he would be incapable of serving another four years.

WOODHOUSE: I understand that. I understand that. He fell seven points in the polls after that - after that debate.

HUNT: Yes. Sure.

WOODHOUSE: And so I'm just saying, I'm saying there - but campaigns are dynamic. We don't know what - we didn't know that somebody would take a shot at Donald Trump. We didn't know that Joe Biden would have the debate performance that - that he had three weeks ago.

HUNT: Yes, this has been a historic three weeks that I'm still trying to figure out what has gone on.

WOODHOUSE: Right.

COLLINSON: Yes.

WOODHOUSE: And - and - and you - no one has a crystal - no one has a crystal ball about the next thing. No one knows yet what the - how the American people react to the speech they saw last night.

HUNT: Yes, well, that's - that's fair. I mean the one person I'm really watching, Brad, is Nancy Pelosi, who all of my reporting indicates she does not think that he should stay and she has not yet said it publicly. The Hill is saying - one Democrat said it's apparent that Pelosi has presented data to Biden that he can't - that can't be dismissed or denied. She's helping the White House understand the consequences that will flow if that data materializes in the election. This strategist says, once she weighs in, its done. He, Biden, wanted the Lord almighty. Well, this, Pelosi, is the Lord almighty. I had one member say to me, you know she rarely loses. If she wants him out. I mean, like, at some point, like, how does this continue to be tenable I think is where I am?

WOODHOUSE: It's his decision. It's his decision. And, you know, we could - we could wind up in - near the end of the first week in August and there's a virtual for roll call and he's the nominee. And I think people will have to get on onboard. People will have to get on board because this campaign - Democrats need to run a general election campaign against Donald Trump and need to stop trying to rerun the Democratic primary.

COLLINSON: But - but if you have a candidate -

HUNT: Very briefly.

COLLINSON: The money is running out. The polls are going down. How can you gather at a convention behind that?

WOODHOUSE: Yes, but is the money running out and the - and I don't - look, I don't believe the polls. I don't know what data that anyone could show the president that he couldn't show some other data. But there are polls all over the place.

I was looking yesterday -

HUNT: I mean the swing state polling is pretty devastating. Like -

WOODHOUSE: Well, he's - he's behind - he's behind, on average, about two points in Michigan, about two points in Wisconsin and about -

HUNT: If you look at the - the - look, I - the public data is one thing. The internal data that I am seeing from all of these outfits that I know that you all trust, you use it to make your decisions, it's showing like five plus points in places that are in the best corners in Michigan and Wisconsin. I mean it is rough.

WOODHOUSE: Well, how much - how much of that, if you believe it, is accountable to his debate performance three weeks ago, and how much of it is accountable to the civil war that's going on within the Democratic Party and the backstabbing that is occurring against - you know, against Joe Biden? I mean there is a self-fulfilling prophecy here. If you -

HUNT: It's - it's you that has the Democrats in disarray, Brad. I mean that -

WOODHOUSE: It's my fault.

HUNT: No, I just mean - anyway. I - look, I take your point. It's a very tough - it's very tough situation.

[06:40:01]

It's a very tough situation for a man in Joe Biden who has had a long and storied political career.

Jamie Raskin wrote a letter to him that focused on how great he was at a leader before going on to say, hey, you know, Pedro Martinez didn't bow out at the wrong time. Maybe you should take a lesson from him. From George Washington. We'll see if any of that's resonating with the president.

All right, up next here, breaking news. Delta Airlines now pausing all flights this morning as a global tech outage has airlines and businesses scrambling around the world.

Plus, a look at some of the more lively moment from the final night of the Republican National Convention.

This one's for you, Scott Jennings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HULK HOGAN, PROFESSIONAL ENTERTAINER AND WRESTLER: Enough was enough. And I said, let Trumpamania run wild, brother. Let Trumpamania rule again. Let Trumpamania make -

(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:01]

HUNT: All right, we've been covering breaking news this morning. You're looking live at Philadelphia International Airport. It is one of many experiencing major tech outages. Airports around the world dealing with this. This outage has caused delays, so many issues for travelers. You can see, not that much movement at that airport at what should be a relatively busy time.

Delta, we have learned, has paused all flights Friday morning citing a vendor technology issue.

American Airlines is saying that they have reportedly resolved their problem.

United is apparently resuming some flights at this hour.

We've also learned that public transportation, including trains and buses in Washington, D.C., have also been impacted. Around the world, in Europe and Asia, airports, banks, hospitals, news outlets, stock exchanges, all experiencing similar outages and problems. The largest hospitals in the United Kingdom and in Germany have been impacted.

CNN's Tom Foreman joins us now with the latest on this.

Tom, good morning to you again.

What are we learning at this hour?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm learning that you might have a 12-hour drive back to D.C. That's what I'm learning. Whether -

HUNT: I'm secretly dreading that. I have a backup flight on Southwest, OK. I might have to drive to Chicago.

FOREMAN: Good luck. Well, and the truth is, there may be workarounds here.

Look - look at what's happening in Europe right now. What's been happening over in Europe, over in Asia has been rolling this way as this problem has progressed. So, all sorts of things here in this country you may want to check as you try to move forward.

You're looking at Madrid right there.

But - but American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Allegiant Airlines, Son Country, Frontier Airlines, all have had some kind of impact from this. And they're trying to move past it.

Importantly, the issue seems to be, at least part of it seemed to be, an update by CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm out there, a big vendor to Microsoft, they said they had a single content update to Windows, and there was some kind of mismatch, some disagreement. They said this is not a security incident or a cyberattack, and they say this issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix deployed.

So, what we have right now is kind of a - a Denzel Washington action film going around the whole globe right now as this fix is trying to catch up with the problem. And as Mary Schiavo mentioned earlier, one of the issues is, when you start talking about transportation and all of the other things, there's a rolling impact. Even if you solve the problem right now, you still have a bunch of people who have had flights delayed. So, those planes didn't show up somewhere else on time. And on and on. It's not going to be a good Friday for travel in all likelihood, no matter where you go, Kasie.

HUNT: Oh, the understatement.

FOREMAN: Yes.

HUNT: I was really hoping.

FOREMAN: Yes.

HUNT: We haven't had a lot of sleep here at the Republican National Convention.

FOREMAN: I know.

HUNT: I was - I was ready to be out of here and home in time to take a nap, but -

FOREMAN: Well, I didn't get much sleep here either because this cut loose and we took a - you know, even Hong Kong Disneyland was having trouble selling tickets. And now you're looking at other - all sorts of vendors, grocery stores, health systems. Think about every place in your life where you potentially encounter Microsoft, and you might want to double-check. Now, they're not all affected, but a lot of them might be, and you might want to check to save yourself the headache of going somewhere and being told, oh, well, we can't do that. We can't, you know, sell you a soda or we can't get you some ham, or we can't have you in for your x-ray because we're just - the systems are not working.

HUNT: All right. Everybody just hunker down for the day, I suppose.

FOREMAN: A good day to read a book.

HUNT: Tom Foreman, very grateful to have you. Thank you very much for that report.

FOREMAN: You're welcome.

HUNT: All right, it has been quite a week in politics. It's an historic week in politics, quite frankly. There was an assassination attempt. We were here for this convention. And there is a president sick with Covid-19 who could decide to drop out of the 2024 race and leave us with a fundamentally altered campaign that, you know what, it's hard to believe it looked like this just one year ago today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: A third indictment of former President Donald Trump could be coming, and coming soon.

GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): We're running a campaign. We expect to be the nominee.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, the affirmative case for Ron DeSantis, and there is one to make. He won re-election with 60 percent of the vote.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): When I become president, we are going to impose our will on it.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Really does make a difference in terms of the good work that we do together for the sake of our country.

MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I'm Mike Pence, I'm from Indiana, and I'm running for president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Well, that's a throwback.

Here to help us make sense of where all this stands with the 2024 race is Michael Smerconish. It's a Smerconish Friday. He's the host of CNN's "SMERCONISH," and CNN political commentator.

Michael, good morning to you.

This is a little bit of choose your own adventure. So, you tell me, we've got Trump's speech last night, which started off on that really unifying note that we expected from him that his team had been saying this sort of changed man was going to give us, that then devolved, I think you could say, into a very traditional campaign speech that was full of misrepresentations and falsifications and some of his particular grievances.

[06:50:18]

And then, of course, you have, you know, as we were watching that, we're all frantically reporting, is President Biden about to step aside from the top of the ticket? It's just a remarkable situation.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The only thing I know for sure, Kasie, and good morning, is that at "The New York Post" they went to bed early because the cover this morning is, "A New Don."

HUNT: Yikes.

SMERCONISH: And to your point, for 25 minutes, it was last night, but then he reverted to the old Don.

Big picture, if that's what you're asking me, for three nights in prime time, I thought the RNC was choreograph and compelling, but they didn't keep it tight last night. He went off the rails. And you could see the wheels turning in his head, as you often do at rallies where he's on prompter and when he senses that the audience may be getting a little bit bored, then he throws in red meat, which in the rallies has worked for him, but last night I think was a missed opportunity.

Big picture, you'd rather be among the R's than the D's because of the vulnerabilities in that Biden White House. But I think that Donald Trump, long-term last night in that speech, showed some of those weaknesses that still persist.

HUNT: Michael, where do you think things sit with the Democratic Party. Meghan McCain, who I know, I think you know, she - she tweeted this in - in relation to something that had - had - she said it as something was unfolding with Biden. Quote, "this is the most insane, intense, dramatic election cycle of my life. And my dad picked Sarah Palin as his VP without the campaign knowing her teenage daughter was pregnant."

It - it - it - it - there's - there's - this - this is an incredibly dramatic moment.

SMERCONISH: I say this with no glee in my voice, but two weeks ago I did a commentary on my program on CNN. I said it's a - it's a matter of when, not if. There's just no doubt in my mind that President Biden will not be the standard bearer for his party. I just don't know at what point in the next few days that happens.

The data is just overwhelming, and the voices among Democratic leadership, there's no one missing. I mean, by extension, even I think President Obama is involved in this because of George Clooney having given him the tip off that he was going to write for "The New York Times." It's - it's just so overwhelming. And money talks in the end. I think it's dried up. It's sad. It didn't have to be he this way. But it is where we are.

And the question of the day is, now what? Is it going to be by acclamation that it becomes the vice president or is there going to be some type of competition in the next five weeks? That's the issue.

HUNT: Do you think Kamala Harris can beat Donald Trump, Michael?

SMERCONISH: I think that she can, but I doubt that she's the strongest among the bench. I think that there's a lot of polling data out there that suggests that somebody from one of those three critical states, my own, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, Wisconsin, you tell me who can keep those in the Democratic fold and I'll tell you who the strongest candidate is.

I don't think you help the vice president, nor the Democrats, nor the nation, if you just hand it to her. I think she'd be enhanced if there's some type of a blitz primary and she emerges from it victorious. I think it's in everybody's best interest. I think that it would be good for the country to have that level of competition.

HUNT: Very interesting.

All right, Michael Smerconish, always grateful to have you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

And don't forget -

SMERCONISH: Hope you make it home. Thank you.

HUNT: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Don't forget to tune in to "SMERCONISH" tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. It's right here on CNN. He'll be there for his show. If I was doing one tomorrow, who knows if I would make it. But, anyway.

All right, now this. Let's take a look at the floor of the Fiserv Forum here in Milwaukee. You probably can't hear the drills because we've got these so-called Brittany microphones on, but they are literally unscrewing the floor of the convention. They're packing up the stairs. They're rolling up the red carpet. That noise has been, of course, throughout the show.

But just hours ago, all eyes were on former President Donald Trump as he stood on the stage. The stage is still standing. The leadup to the former president's speech made for some memorable moments. We've touched on some of them, but let's walk through them.

From an appearance by WWE's Hulk Hogan -

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HULK HOGAN, PROFESSIONAL ENTERTAINER AND WRESTLER: The next President of the United States. Enough was enough. And I said, let Trumpamania run wild, brother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: To a concert performance from the country star Kid Rock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KID ROCK, MUSICIAN: He put Detroit City back on the map. We (INAUDIBLE) Trump. Trump. (INAUDIBLE) in the house. This is where I'm at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:55:00]

HUNT: Formerly country, now - now a lot more than that.

It was a night filled with fanfare for the former president and, well, let's just - let's -- just let Hulk Hogan say it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOGAN: Let Trumpamania make America great again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Scott Jennings, this one's for you.

WOODHOUSE: Oh, God, not again.

JENNINGS: Every time -

HUNT: (INAUDIBLE). You, Brad. You go.

WOODHOUSE: Not again. Come on. No.

JENNINGS: Every time I see the Huckster appear on the screen and I feel Hulkamania running wild, it - no, look, it - it - it -- the floor -

WOODHOUSE: Keep your tie on, Scott.

JENNINGS: The floor - the floor of the convention - by the way, it's not been since July of 2000 than a Republican candidate for president, the nominee, hat a lead. We're always behind in July. Trump's never been ahead. This is an unusual feeling for all these Republicans to be ahead while, at the same time peering over the hedge and wondering, well, heck, who are we even running against.

And so, to me, the big takeaway here was, the Republican Party is the party of fun.

By the way, there's two major political parties in America. One is functioning properly -

HUNT: We've got ten seconds.

JENNINGS: Brad -

WOODHOUSE: Oh, come.

HUNT: (INAUDIBLE).

JENNINGS: And, Brad, you've got the other one. I will just say.

WOODHOUSE: No, no, no, no, no. I - look, I -

HUNT: We've got no clock, guys. We're about to hit the other show.

WOODHOUSE: Right. Look, Donald Trump returned to American carnage last night. That's what people will remember, not Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt open.

HUNT: All right. We're going to continue this conversation in what is one of the most dramatic and unprecedented election cycles in recent memory.

Thanks very much to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. If you're traveling today, good luck. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)