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President Biden Ends Bid for Re-election; Vice President Harris Attempts to Earn and Win Her Spot as Biden's Replacement; Major Players in the Democratic Party Rally Behind Harris. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 22, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

KASIE HUNT, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING: It's Monday, July 22nd, right now on CNN THIS MORNING, after weeks of will he or won't he? President Biden ends his bid for re-election, sending his party into an unprecedented scramble to find a new nominee.

Plus, the Vice President Kamala Harris already attempting to earn and win her spot as the President's replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket. And major players in the Democratic Party line up to pledge their support for the Vice President, but a few big names still sitting silently on merit endorsements.

Five A.M. here in Washington. A live look at the nation's capital on a momentous Monday, just a few dozen series of days before we get to November. Good morning, everyone, I'm Kasie Hunt, it's wonderful to have you with us for the first time in over half a century, a sitting president who can still run for re-election will not appear on the ballot.

President Joe Biden making the stunning announcement on Sunday. He said in part, quote, this, "I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.

The President reportedly coming to this historic decision while in isolation at his home in Delaware as he continues to deal with his COVID diagnosis. He met with several of his top advisors over the weekend who laid out the case that a path for his victory is now quote, "basically non-existent" after his disastrous debate right here on CNN, that was filled with moments like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He wants to get away with -- get rid of the ability of Medicare to -- for -- the ability to -- for the -- us to be able to negotiate drug prices with the big pharma companies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Shortly after he stood down, Biden threw his weight behind his Vice President and formally endorsed Kamala Harris for the nomination. In her statement, Harris said this, quote, "I am honored to have the President's endorsement. And my intention is to earn and win this nomination."

Harris is now working to shore up support for her newly launched campaign. She received a flood of endorsements in the hours following the nomination. Donors also showing excitement with Democratic-aligned group Act Blue, reporting more than $46 million in small-dollar donations in the hours after Biden sent the letter, the single biggest donation day for the group in the election so far.

And Donald Trump fresh off receiving the Republican nomination, already taking to social media about his new opponent, saying this quote, "we're forced to spend time and money fighting crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after having a terrible debate and quits the race, now we have to start all over again."

All right, joining us this morning to discuss, our Jackie Kucinich; Washington Bureau chief for the "Boston Globe", Reese Gorman; politics reporter at "NOTUS" and Shelby Talcott; politics reporter at "Semafor". Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Jackie Kucinich, there was a lot of history that happened over the course of the last 24 days.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, BOSTON GLOBE: Oh my gosh, what a year, even this week has been.

HUNT: I know, it's really quite something. You know, you've covered this town for a long time. This clearly was -- you know, we're going to process Kamala Harris, obviously and what --

KUCINICH: Sure --

HUNT: Is next for her. But for Joe Biden, this man has been on the stage for half a century basically, and he clearly had a really hard time coming to this decision. It took longer than some Democrats I think would have liked to, but at the end of the day, he did it. And now, we find ourselves in a place that we as a country have never been before.

KUCINICH: Well, he was running out of time, right? Because we're barely a 100 days before the election. He had this COVID diagnosis that was keeping him behind closed-doors, and at the end of the day, it was just -- it was all too much. I mean, they tried to plan to reinvigorate him.

They got him on the news. They got him, you know, out there on the campaign trail, and it just wasn't enough to assure Democrats that he was up not only to end the campaign, but to serve four more years.

[05:05:00]

And when as those defections kept coming, something had to be done. And now, we're here and you could see -- you could see in the reporting just how tightly this information was kept and just how few people were around when he finally did decide to end his campaign and to pass the torch to Vice President Harris. HUNT: Yes, on, Reese, I mean, the reporting around who was actually in

Delaware with the President. He's secluded at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, it is the tightest of tight circles, right? It's his family, then it's Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, two advisors that have been with him for decades. It's Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal very close to the first lady, and that's basically it.

But we did get a sense that Biden had started to change his mind late last week, there was a difference. I had spoken to a number of Democrats, Democratic sources who said something changed, right? The tone that was coming out of the campaign was evolving, was different, and it suggests that, you know, he was kind of ready to make this decision earlier than he did, but it really all came together in the final moments before this letter went out. What's your latest reporting on all of it?

REESE GORMAN, POLITICS REPORTER, NOTUS: Yes, I mean, things also really changed not just for Biden, but also for top Democrats, just across the country. And in Congress, I mean, before they're saying pretty quiet, and then you saw all these leaks about Chuck Schumer telling him to stand down, Nancy Pelosi, what Hakeem Jeffries had told him.

And so, you started seeing Democrats really kind of trickle out because he wasn't heeding their advice in private, in person, started trying to make this public, kind of pushed to get him out of the -- out of the race. And I mean, Biden has always been somebody that is kind of always had a few handful of advisors, trusted advisors that he's talked to.

He's not like our past President Trump who spoke to everybody -- and oh, it's just kind of leads, always kind of happened. So, he's always kind of been this secluded guy, and when Democrats are realizing that he wasn't taking their advice, they really tried to push him out, and that's ultimately what happened.

HUNT: Shelby Talcott, talk to me a little bit about how Republicans are going to receive this, how the Trump team is taking this in. There seemed to be a couple of things. I mean, first of all, we have this tweet from Mike Johnson; the Speaker of the House kind of leading a charge that you're also going to see from other Republicans that "Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he's not fit to serve as president. He must resign the office immediately, November 5th cannot arrive soon enough."

Now, the other line too is one that we heard from J.D. Vance, "Joe Biden has been the worst President in my life-time. Kamala Harris has been right there with him every step of the way." He talks about the policy failures, but he also says that "she lied for nearly four years about Biden's mental capacity, saddling the nation with a President who can't do the job."

And I was talking to some pollsters and other sources who say that line of attack against Harris is potentially very potent with voters in swing states. SHELBY TALCOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yes, and that's what

you're already seeing from the Trump campaign. That's been their focus, which is really notable. It has been less on the policies so far, which I do anticipate they're going to get into, they're going to talk about how she would -- she was tapped to fix immigration, and she didn't do that.

They're going to talk about some of her policies from her past. But right now, it's all about tying her to Joe Biden, tying her not only to his policies, but to all of this drama and saying she knew what was happening, she is just as culpable, and as he is, and as the rest of the White House is, and so, that's what you're seeing in the immediate aftermath coming out from Donald Trump's campaign and from also top Republicans.

HUNT: Yes, Jackie, we're already seeing the Trump Super PAC is already on the air attacking Kamala Harris.

KUCINICH: Yes, and you started to hear this even during the convention last week, you started hearing Harris' name be woven into the attacks. So, the fact that they were able to pivot this quickly is not terribly surprising. And you know, the -- and on the other side, we know that Harris was able to raise quite a bit of money last night in those hours following this announcement.

HUNT: Yes, for sure, no, it was pretty interesting to kind of hear her. Look, I had a Republican e-mail me ten minutes or 15 minutes into the debate, saying, well, the Trump campaign's biggest mistake is that they allowed this debate to happen early enough for them to replace Joe Biden's ticket --

(LAUGHTER)

HUNT: I guess we made it here. All right, we've got so much to get to this morning. Coming up next, foreign leaders react to President Biden's historic decision to step aside from his campaign, plus, how the Vice President looks to lock up support for the Democratic bid for the White House.

And big news here, independent Senator Joe Manchin will join me live, it's his first interview since Biden's historic announcement. He is teasing his own presidential run. What did he say? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:10:00]

HUNT: All right, welcome back. Reactions of gratitude and support from world leaders pouring in after President Biden's historic exit from the 2024 presidential race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER, AUSTRALIA: President Biden deserves today, I think to be recognized for once again, not putting himself forward first, but giving his first consideration to being what he believes is in the interest of the United States of America as his -- as he has done his whole public life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The Australian Prime Minister there, others writing on social media, quote, "he's a great man and everything he does is guided by his love for his country." That was Canada's Justin Trudeau. New British Prime Minister wrote quote, "I know that as he has done throughout his remarkable career, he will have made his decision based on what he believes is best for the American people."

[05:15:00]

CNN's Max Foster joins us live now from London. Max, good morning. I -- of course -- we have been -- you and I have talked so much about how the President's re-election prospects, the challenges he faced as an older man and how that was on display at various meetings is going to impact what is a central pillar of western security, which is of course, NATO.

The German Chancellor said this, quote, "Trans-Atlantic cooperation is close and NATO is strong, thanks to President Biden." Obviously, we're now looking at a completely different landscape here. How is everyone on your side of the Atlantic taking this in?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you see from those messages, he, you know, he's got a towering reputation on the international diplomatic scene. He's got huge amount of foreign policy experience. He's an internationalist, worked very closely with allies, and there from the Germans, this reference to NATO, which is really the backbone of that.

Emphasizing, you know, what that means to America's allies. You know, the sort of things I'm hearing are -- you know, will he use the rest of his term now to really secure that legacy and maybe push a bit further on some of those foreign policy issues that he cares about, Ukraine, Middle East, you know, South China Sea, those sorts of issues wish he wouldn't have done if he wasn't falling out of the race.

That will be an interesting one. Also the big debate, of course, but who replaces him? Kamala Harris may continue a lot of what Biden believed in, but we're not entirely clear on that until she asserts herself. But you'll notice in none of those statements, they mentioned, obviously, don't want to get involved in that internal politics before it's decided.

HUNT: Fair enough. Yes, let's put up what President Zelenskyy of Ukraine said here, quote, "will always be thankful for President Biden's leadership. He supported our country during the most dramatic moment in history, assisted us with preventing Putin from occupying our country and has continued to support us throughout this terrible war."

Now, of course, it's also been clear that Zelenskyy had been in recent weeks preparing for the prospect of President Trump in the Fall. You know, my reporting and the general sense here is that Harris getting in, she still has a lot of challenges around the fact that people, you know, are struggling with the economy here in the U.S., right?

She will be viewed as tied to the incumbent. And as we've seen where you are, but also throughout American history, when things are not going well, people tend to take it out on the incumbent. The bottom line is, she still has a really tough race ahead of her if she does lock down this nomination in relatively short order. What is your sense of how people are understanding who they think is going to come out on top?

FOSTER: Well, you know, Kamala Harris does not have much foreign policy experience. She did go to various conferences, but before she was vice president, she hadn't really channeled that much. We don't really know where she stands on those issues and how she will play them out.

But she has been under President Biden, who does have all the experience. And I think that there's a general acceptance that she's got very strong internationalists advisors. So, I don't think there's a huge amount of concern about her taking that position.

Is just how it plays into who ultimately becomes president as you're suggesting. You know, can she beat President Trump? Because I think frankly, a lot of people, a lot of allies, would prefer to see her taking over rather than President Trump, because it's in more -- it's in the interest of many allies to have someone that's fully behind that, you know, international way of thinking full support behind NATO, and you know, being the world power, the world policeman, which the world desperately needs.

Donald Trump isn't seen as someone that's going to push that forward, we'll have to wait and see what he eventually does, but she's a known entity. I think there's so much -- too many unknowns as it were in relation to Donald Trump as President again.

HUNT: Many unknowns. All right, Max Foster for us, Max, I'm always grateful to have you, thank you so much. All right, coming up next here, top Democrats lining up to support Kamala Harris' presidential bid. Plus, Harris vowing she will work to earn -- key word, earn, the party's nomination in her own right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:00]

HUNT: All right, welcome back. Kamala Harris vowing to put in the work to secure the Democratic nomination. Here's what she wrote on social media yesterday, quote, "I am honored to have the President's endorsement and my intention is to earn and win" -- key emphasis on 'earn', "this nomination."

Harris has received plenty of backing from high-profile Democrats already, including a majority of Senate Democrats, and of course, from President Biden. Some Democrats were supporting her even before President Biden officially dropped out. Here's what one former Democratic Congressman told me last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM RYAN, FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: I think she would smoke them. Honestly, 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: However, it is not quite that easy. CNN reporting that Harris has spent more than 10 hours on the phone on Sunday, making calls to more than a 100 party leaders, members of Congress, governors, labor leaders, leaders of civil rights groups, saying that she plans to work to earn the nomination in her own right.

It of course would be historic. She could be the first black woman and first Asian-American to lead a major party ticket. Panel joins me again. Jackie Kucinich, let's just talk about kind of brass tacks here, because a big --

KUCINICH: Yes --

HUNT: Part of the behind-the-scenes conversation among Democrats were questions about whether or not Kamala Harris could win. I think it became clear through the data that Biden was just so damaged that honestly, those concerns became less important. But she has stepped very carefully, she stepped very carefully around the President when the conversation was about her waiting in the wings.

[05:25:00]

She very well could have done damage to herself, she did not. And now it's very clear that they are in their show-their-work-phase, right? Like she wants to show that she is doing this in a way that does not make it seem as though she believes she is entitled to anything. Why?

KUCINICH: And it can't resemble the campaign that she ran in 2020. I mean, that -- and it will be very interesting to see who she surrounds herself with. Who her vice presidential pick, should she end up getting the nomination will be? Because that's another, you know, political hurdle that she'll have to clear.

But yes, you're right. Up until this point, she's been very careful, very cautious, and you would imagine at this point, she really does -- she will need to get the entire party behind her, and time is running short, the convention is just a couple of weeks away.

HUNT: Oh my gosh, yes, the end of August is the convention, just over a 100 days left until --

KUCINICH: Yes --

HUNT: Election day. Reese, one major thing I was looking at yesterday and still I'm kind of watching, you had both Bill and Hillary Clinton, they put out a joint statement, they endorsed Harris. President Obama, however, has not yet. He put this out, "will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead, but I have extraordinary confidence the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges."

And he says that the convention -- "and Joe Biden's vision for opportunity for everybody will be on display at the Democratic Convention in August." What's going on here?

GORMAN: Yes, I mean, this is -- it's not just Obama too, it's Nancy Pelosi, it's Hakeem Jeffries, a lot of these people are not immediately backing Harris, but neither did -- I mean, to Obama's point that he made there. I mean, endorsements are great, but she needs delegates.

She needs to get delegates in the convention. I was talking to one state Democratic Party chair last night, who -- they are saying that -- I mean, Harris, like while these members are endorsing Harris, at the end of the day, Harris is going to have to call these delegates, call these state party chairs and try to get their delegates for the convention.

It doesn't matter if the senator of their state is endorsing Kamala Harris, at the end of the day, she's going to have to make an effort to kind of win these people over. I think that's what a lot of them are thinking.

HUNT: Yes, Shelby Talcott, obviously, Americans have gotten to know Kamala Harris through her role as Vice President over the course of the last four years. But it is still very different to be the number two than it is to be the number one. People know a lot more about Joe Biden.

One thing we've seen a lot of on social media are two emojis in a row, a coconut and a tree, and there may be people who are just trying to -- who maybe are not as online as all of --

(LAUGHTER)

HUNT: People who intuitively understand --

TALCOTT: Too online --

HUNT: What that means. Let's just play the sound of where this kind of originally comes from, and then we'll talk about it. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: Thinks (ph) in the context, of all in which you live, and what came before you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, the beginning of that is, she's saying that her mother used to say this to her, right? That you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? Like no, that's not how it is. Can you explain -- do you -- are you online enough to explain more about this and how this has evolved?

TALCOTT: I'm too online --

HUNT: OK --

TALCOTT: And it's funny that you bring this up because one of my younger brothers sort of dubbed her -- who is also very online, dubbed her as like the potential meme president. And if you're on TikTok, which I unfortunately am, you'll see this -- these sort of younger kids are making her into memes.

And it's just -- and this is one of the things I think that Republicans think that they can capitalize on as these sort of odd moments where she says something and it becomes a meme, and it's unknown. Some people are laughing with her, some people are laughing at her.

And so, it's this sort of -- the sort of thing that she's going to have to deal with, that she's already become really a meme online in terms of the folks who are very online. But in terms of the folks who are right everyday voters, who are less online, they have no idea what this stuff is.

And so, I don't think it's going to necessarily impact those kinds of voters which are really -- I think the kinds of voters that are going to ultimately decide this election.

HUNT: Yes, I mean, briefly, Jackie, I mean, the sort of -- the thing that is hanging out there is the fact that she is black. She is a woman.

KUCINICH: Yes.

HUNT: I actually had a Republican source who used to work for Donald Trump say this combination is likely to bring out the worst in him. Like we are going to see some very ugly stuff here.

KUCINICH: Yes, and unfortunately, I think that is true. And the real question is, you know, how far does it go back? Does this -- does this create the same kind of environment that really turns off voters, particularly women voters that we saw in 2020.

I mean, there is -- they can -- the sense you got coming out of the Republican Convention was that, you know, a little bit of the spiking of the football? I think that has to go away now, and it has to be -- you know, can they stick to policy? I don't think so.

HUNT: But you know, this person was basically like, well, if Trump was able to kind of rise above the fray, which, you know, we saw him sort of failed to do in his nomination speech --

KUCINICH: Right --

HUNT: For example -- KUCINICH: All sides point to --

(LAUGHTER)

HUNT: That Kamala Harris would make that even less likely.

KUCINICH: Right.

HUNT: All right --