Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Harris Secures Enough Delegates To Win Nomination; Harris To Skip Netanyahu's Address To Congress; Trump Appeals $454 Million Civil Judgment; Another Day of Excessive Heat & Fire Weather Out West. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired July 23, 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 Tuesday, July 23rd.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Are you ready to get to work?
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Vice President Kamala Harris, in just a day's time locks down enough support to become the Democratic presumptive nominee.
Plus, Democrats rejuvenated by the vice president opening their wallets to try and kick start her campaign as the race for the White House is reset.
And the director of the Secret Service faces mounting anger on Capitol Hill with bipartisan calls for her to resign.
(MUSIC)
HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at Capitol Hill on this Tuesday morning.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. There's now a new presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.
Less than 48 hours after Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris has now secured enough endorsements to win the delegates needed for the nomination. The vice president visited campaign staff in Delaware for the first time in the top slot, and she delivered a preview of how she'll attack her opponent Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators will abuse women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: In the hours following Biden's announcement, Democratic Party donors and leaders quickly rallied to Harris's side, potential rivals for the nomination at a contested convention cleared the field and endorsed Harris. Here was Michigan governor and now campaign co-chair, Gretchen Whitmer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D), MICHIGAN: I think everyone was surprised by the news yesterday, even though there was a lot of conversation about it, and that means co-chairs included. So wanted a minute to check in with all my colleagues and let the dust settle and proud to be supporting the vice president the president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Donors also flocking to try and help the new Harris led campaign. The campaign and outside Democratic super PACs have announced they've raised more than $150 million in the 24 hours after Biden left the race.
Harris is going to be on the road for her first rally as the presumptive nominee later on today in Wisconsin.
Joining me now to discuss all this, Stef Kight, politics reporter at "Axios", and Mariana Alfaro, she's politics reporter at "The Washington Post". Good morning to both of you. Thanks so much for being here.
Harris, of course, heading to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was the site of the Republican National Convention.
And, Stef, I mean, the bottom line here is that there certainly were concerns about whether Harris is capable of beating Trump. I'm not going to say those concerns have entirely gone away, but everything with Biden got so bad that the risk that Harris presented became a much more or preferable choice. And you have sort of felt this palpable sense of relief and excitement around Harris his campaign in these opening hours.
STEF KIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: Yeah. I mean, I think there's something to the fact that there were so many weeks of intense internal fighting, it was almost like Democrats were like, okay, we're done. Let's move on, and let's rally around the most obvious choice to move forward.
Someone who obviously has her disadvantages, but someone who that Democrats feel will be better than they had with Joe Biden and that there's plenty of plus sides, who were already kind of seeing them walk through their strategy, trying to show a contrast between her and Donald Trump, especially on the whole, prosecutor versus convicted felon situation.
So there's clear excitement there. It's been pretty remarkable for all of us. I'm sure watching how quickly everyone fell in line, even those who are clearly aspirational for presidential runs in the future.
HUNT: And, Mariana, the immediate, of course, speculation is who's going to be her number two on the ticket because the reality is she's got a very short timeline. It looks like Democrats are still headed towards planning a virtual nomination before August 7th, which is just weeks away. It has to do with the rules for getting on ballots in all 50 states. Of course, the actual convention is not until August 19th.
But let's hear from a couple of these possible picks that she has.
[05:05:07]
They've all kind of gotten quickly on board with her, including Andy Beshear. We do know -- we're not sure that Andy Beshear has received vetting materials, but Josh Shapiro, who has, Roy Cooper from North Carolina. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: I am excited to fully endorse the vice president to be the next president of the United States.
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D), PENNSYLVANIA: President Biden yesterday endorsed Vice President Harris, as did I, as did many across this country, not only because of how honorably she has served in the past, but how absolutely ready she is to be president and to be the standard bearer for our party.
GOV. ROY COOPER (D), NORTH CAROLINA: If you want to nominee who can but Donald Trump's destruction of Roe v. Wade at center stage, if you want a nominee who actually prosecuted criminals like Donald Trump, and if you want a nominee who can put Trumps age and fitness and the forefront, Kamala Harris is the person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, Mariana, what is your sense of kind of how -- how this plays out? I've also heard Mark Kelly being mentioned as a significant possibility.
MARIANA ALFARO, POLITICS REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes. I mean, it has -- it can all note that these are people from swing states, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, and again, Andy Beshear, he is a very likable new Dem. You know, he's rising, but again, he's not from a very swing states. I think that that might be the reason why we haven't really heard of he's gotten these materials.
But these other folks, Shapiro, Cooper, Mark Kelly, you know, they are relatively newest faces in the Democratic Party nationally. They're not as well known as Harris was when she was chosen as VP, and so now the test is to see how they play out in the national field if people really connect to them and they bring this balance to the ticket that Democrats are seeking in order to get those purple-ish votes across the country.
HUNT: Stef Kight, the sort of euphoric stage here for Democrats is as Donald Trump really fully engages against Harris, likely to start, start to face I think it was Al Sharpton called and told Harris, this isn't going to be a prize fight, its going to be a street fight, right?
And so, here was J.D. Vance yesterday talking about what he thinks Harris -- what Harris should be saying in a way that I think has a lot of undertones. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you want to lead this country, you should feel grateful for it. You should feel a sense of gratitude and I never hear that gratitude come through when I listen to Kamala Harris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: I mean, I'm flashing back to some of the criticism that Michelle Obama received when she, when her husband was running for president, and we also, of course, have at least one congressman coming out and saying, well, this is a DEI pick, which is again very loaded language.
KIGHT: Yeah, I mean, it's wild. How dirty this has gotten almost immediately from Republicans, both of those comments are clear that Republicans see her as a threat. They feel like they need to go on the attack right away. And they're not giving Democrats a break despite the weeks of dysfunction, the Democratic Party has been in.
You know, we're kind of moving past this whole lot "let's tone down the language" thing that we were in just a short few days ago, following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
They're ready to go on the attack. They recognize that she is a stronger for candidate than they had initially. Republicans were very eager to keep Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. And now they're trying to pivot and you I've been reported that Republican senators, the NRSC, is also including a category in their memo of just weird, just going after Kamala Harris for some of her maybe more awkward moments, things that don't necessarily matter when it comes to policy and politics for a lot of voters, but they're trying to hit her in any way possible and they're trying to see what sticks.
HUNT: All right. Stef Kight, Mariana Alfaro, thank you so much for starting us off this morning. I really appreciate it.
All right. Coming up next here, Vice President Kamala Harris set to skip Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's address to Congress this week.
Plus, how the quick rally of support behind Harris is reshaping the race for 2024.
And a bipartisan call as top leaders on the House Oversight Committee demand the chief of state the Secret Service step aside.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:13:20]
HUNT: All right, welcome back.
As Kamala Harris settles into her new role as the presumptive Democratic nominee. She's also getting ready for a sit-down with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is set to address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday he gave we preview of his message before he departed Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I will tell my friends on both sides of the arm that regardless who the American people choose as the next president, Israel remains America's indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: But Vice President Harris will be notably absent from his address. Her team says she had a prior voter outreach events scheduled for the same time. Instead, the vice president will hold a separate one-on-one meeting with Netanyahu later in the week. It's her first visit with a foreign leader since being slotted into the top of the ticket.
Joining me now to discuss this dynamic between Harris and Netanyahu is CNN's Max Foster, who's live for us in London.
Max, good morning to you.
What a massive shift in dynamics in just such a short period of time? And of course, now we're going to be talking about how a Vice President Harris might be interacting with a -- a future President Harris, I should say, might be interacting with Benjamin Netanyahu as opposed to Biden, we have a pretty good sense of where he stands here, right? And the longstanding relationship those two men have had over many years in public service.
So, back in December, Vice President Harris said this about Israel's offensive in Gaza. And now, of course, we should underscore these remarks are all made in the context of her being Biden's vice president. So they do sound similar.
Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: President Biden and I have also been clear with the Israeli government in public and in private, many times, as Israel defends itself, it matters how the United States is unequivocal international humanitarian law must be respected.
[05:15:16]
Too many innocent Palestinian since have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So this is something certainly that is going to be from a domestic political perspective heavily scrutinized for her, but its also going to be one that our international partners are watching very closely.
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, it's going to be fascinating to see, obviously she cant move to offline with Biden on such a key important relationship, you know, the U.S.-Israeli relations. But she will now be thinking about how she may differentiate from now to express herself more freely, I guess, on that issue.
Biden is seen as someone who wasn't necessarily as tough on Israel as it should be in the context of what Kamala Harris is speaking to there, which is the massive amount of civilian casualties in Gaza. Will she be tougher on that? If you look back on some of the language -- I mean, there are certain researchers who do feel that Kamala Harris has expressed more sympathy for Palestinians than perhaps Joe Biden. So, will she be more balanced on that?
Because certainly, if you look back on all the presidencies in the U.S., Joe Biden is one of the most pro-Israel we presence there has been, certainly in terms of his language and his actions and some would say the lack of pushback that he's given the Israelis on some of the things he didn't approve of going on in Gaza. So it'll be fascinating to be a fly on the wall in that meeting.
But I'm sure she's not going to rock the boat whilst obviously Joe Biden is president because it would undermine that central relationship to the world, not just the U.S. and Israel.
HUNT: Yeah, it's a tricky line to have to walk.
Max, briefly, what is Netanyahu's goal with this address to Congress?
FOSTER: Well, he's in a lot of trouble for going there in some quarters of Israel because until he signs a deal, he should be staying in Israel in dealing link with that. Some people see this is just a political personal mission to increase his own profile in Washington. But he does have a role there, which is this relationship which has been damaged certainly with Joe Biden, and to prove to Israelis that he hasn't undermined the Israel-U.S. relationship. So, being seen in front of that big honor of that address to Congress, I think will be really important to him, but also to Israel to feel that America is still behind them.
HUNT: Yes. All right. Max Foster for us this morning -- Max, always grateful to see you. Thank you so much.
All right. Coming up next here, Donald Trump trying to get his $454 million civil judgment tossed by a judge.
Plus, the head of the Secret Service gets grilled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): Both sides of the aisle today have asked for your resignation. Would you like to use my five minutes to draft your resignation letter? Yes or no?
You're full of (EXPLETIVE DELETED) today. You're just being completely dishonest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:22:16]
HUNT: All right. Twenty-one minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.
Donald Trump is asking a New York appeals court to throw out his $454 million civil judgment. Lawyers for the former president argue the penalty was unconstitutional and then much of the case falls outside of the statute of limitations. The judgment found the former president, his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and their real estate business liable for fraud.
A Massachusetts judge is now setting a date for Karen Read's new trial. She is accused of striking and killing her police officer lets her boyfriend with a car back in 2022. The mistrial was declared earlier this month when the jury couldn't reach a verdict on the charges. The prosecutors say they want to try it the case again, the date set for January of 2025.
Hundreds of U.S. flights were canceled on Monday as carriers still work to recover after that global tech outage. The Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has expressed frustration with the pace of Delta's recovery and its CEO has apologized to stranded travelers.
Nearly 70 wildfires are burning across the West this morning with hot and dry conditions leading to air quality alerts in multiple states. The mayor of Riverside, California, confirming that this brush fire destroyed at least six homes. It was sparked by fireworks.
Let's get straight to our weatherman, Derek Van Dam, with more on this.
Derek, good morning.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. Kasie, the mayor of riverside, also saying that how a 24 hours of using fireworks and then 24 hours later can cause $11 million worth of estimated damages. It's not of course, just the financial losses. It's the loss of to people's homes, their livelihoods.
I mean, look at what is unfolding here in Riverside, California and also take note of just how dry this vegetation that is. So it doesn't take much of a spark to allow for a fire to become uncontrolled and, of course, so active.
We have nearly 70 active wildfires, large burning, active wildfires over the western U.S. Here's the Hawarden Fire in Riverside County, but there's others into south central California, Trout Fire, Lake Fire. You can see the containment numbers on there.
But the greatest threat of fire weather today would be within this area of brown. So the reason this is highlighted brown is because it's an area that the Storm Prediction Center identifies that potential risk of dry thunderstorms. So it doesn't take much for a thunderstorm to form in these areas during the summertime, but they don't have a lot of rain that falls from those thunderstorms were evaporates before it reaches the ground. It's called Varga. And then that lightning strike, of course, reaching the dry tinder brush brown and that sparks fires.
We all so have the air quality alerts that are ongoing across the western U.S. Look at the kind of the evolution of the smoke impacting Boise, Idaho to Billings, Montana, and points westward.
[05:25:01]
And of course, the heat on top of that, just making it oppressive for so many people, millions of Americans feeling the triple index heat factor today, Las Vegas to palm springs, Phoenix, Fresno, and Boise, a little bit cooler in Spokane, but still very, very hot, and again, very dry.
That sounds like a bit of a broken record, but that's the major story over the western U.S. -- Kasie.
HUNT: Yeah, really tough out there. All right.
Our weatherman, Derek Van Dam -- Derek, thank you. I really appreciate it.
VAN DAM: Thanks.
HUNT: And coming up next here, the head of the Secret Service facing lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss the security failures that led to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Plus, how Joe Biden offered Democrats and reset button on the 2024 campaign.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
