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GOP Tries To Pin Immigration Crisis On "Border Czar" Harris; Iran Escalation Concerns Grow In Middle East; Today: Harris To Announce Running Mate. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired August 06, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: The bottom line here is that Kamala Harris was named as the person that should address the root causes of migration at the beginning of the Biden administration. And we had seen that crisis continue to unfold not just here in the U.S. but also in many of these countries.

Can you explain what you found and how you look at her role in this?

CAITLIN DICKERSON, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC (via Webex by Cisco): Sure. I mean, I think what trying to interrogate Kamala Harris' record on immigration shows us is just how complicated this issue is and how simple fixes don't work.

I mean, I have been following immigration for a long time as its ebbed and flowed over administrations, Republican and Democrat, and it's not like you can impose one simple tool and change global movement patterns.

So Vice President Harris' job was to, as you said, look at the root causes of migration. She focused on Central America, which was sending the most people to the United States at the time. She raised about $5.5 billion of private funds to help support jobs in those Northern Triangle countries of Central America. And migration has actually gone down from that region during the Biden administration.

Unfortunately, at the same time, conflict, and climate change, and instability, and poverty has unfolded elsewhere.

I'm sure your viewers are paying attention right now, for example, to what's happening in Venezuela where a seemingly stolen election has sent scores of protesters into the streets. Two thousand have been arrested. That's a country where already about a quarter of the people have left and even more are expected to.

So the reporting I've just finished up took place in the Darien Gap, a dangerous route through the jungle where many migrants are taking to get to the United States, and they're coming from all over the world. So as we see migration go down from Central America, we're seeing it go up from other places at the same time.

HUNT: We heard, actually, from Chris Murphy on this question of Venezuela over the weekend. Let me show you what he had to say and we'll talk about it -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): What drove the increase in migration was, in part, huge increased travel from a country like Venezuela, which was plunged into economic crisis because of Donald Trump's policies. Kamala Harris was given an important but discreet task. She was able to dramatically reduce migration from those countries. And again, apples to apples. Crossings at the southwest border are lower today than they were at the end of the Trump administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: When he says that the Venezuela crisis was caused by Donald Trump's policies do you think he's correct in that criticism and how he frames this?

DICKERSON: So what he's talking about there is the impact of American sanctions against the Venezuelan government, which has certainly played a role.

But, no, American policy and American sanctions did not start the crisis in Venezuela. You know, I think it's really a combination of factors -- again, a challenge with writing immigration policy. Sometimes you have the State Department imposing sanctions on a country that's violently cracking down on protesters while, at the same time, the Department of Homeland Security is saying hey, you're hurting the economy when it was already in a tailspin, and that's creating more migration -- another issue for the United States.

So you really have to have foreign policy taken into account when you're writing immigration policy. And I think the unfortunate thing is that immigration has just become so politicized that we're all laser focused on the southern border on a month-to-month basis and comparing numbers that tell a much larger story. We have to look abroad and really take into consideration what's happening.

You know, Kamala Harris alone, or even Donald Trump alone could not have taken Nicolas Maduro out of power in Venezuela, but we've got to have a more comprehensive approach to these issues.

HUNT: Caitlin, what's your sense of the Biden administration and the decision to put Kamala Harris in this position in the first place? Because I will say when I have private conversations with people around her, they will say that doing this didn't do her any favors partly because of all the difficulties that you outline. That perhaps they handed her an impossible task.

DICKERSON: Yeah. Harris' aides at the time were pretty open about the fact that they didn't want to take on that job. Look, it was a continuation of the work that President Biden did when he was vice president. He got the same job from Barack Obama.

And I think that's governing. You know, you don't get to pick your issues when you're serving as vice president or when you're serving as president. You have to deal with the most important issues that are facing the nation, not the ones that you think are going to be best for your career.

HUNT: Fair enough, yeah.

Let me ask you about -- I actually talked to Kamala Harris about this. She visited the border in 2018 and I accompanied her on this visit to Otay Mesa, which you probably know is facility down on the border near San Diego.

[05:35:05]

And I asked her about something that was flaring up at the time, which were calls from progressives to abolish ICE -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Here's how she answered the question -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A lot of the signs at the rally you just held were people standing there saying "Abolish ICE."

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yeah.

HUNT: Is that a position that you agree with?

HARRIS: Listen, I think there's no question that we've got to critically reexamine ICE and its role, and the way that it is being administered, and the work it is doing. And we need to probably think about starting from scratch because there is a lot that is wrong with the way that it is conducting itself, and we need to deal with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So I'm curious how you read those comments because at the time, Harris' team, a couple of days later or in the hours afterward, tried to clean that up a little bit. Now, of course, a lot of the reporting is saying well, she never actually said she was going to abolish ICE. Starting from scratch, at the time, felt pretty clear to me. This issue has obviously evolved in the years since and the way we talk about it here in the U.S.

But what do you make of her answer there, and how do you understand her position on this?

DICKERSON: I think of Kamala Harris as, first and foremost, a law and order politician. You know, she -- that's existed as a throughline throughout her career. And so I really can't see her ever abandoning enforcement of immigration laws. It's just sort of an anathema to the trajectory of her career.

I think what she was responding to there was allegations of abuse and allegations of really, really harsh treatment -- overly harsh treatment, especially of children and families, at that time that a lot of voters were taking issue with and wanting to sort of rethink the way immigration enforcement works in this country. I mean, again, like we've said, it's so complicated. ICE primarily works on enforcing immigration laws within our borders.

And so there are questions when you're going after people who have been living in the United States for a long time, who have been working. You know, should children be arrested in those contexts? Should family be arrested in those contacts -- excuse me, in those contexts?

So I think that criticism of cracking down on children and families that took place during the Trump administration is what Harris was responding to. I expect her to go nowhere near comments like that as the election continues and, really, to go nowhere near comments like that if she were to win the presidency. Because as you've talked about, most Americans at this point are citing immigration as a top issue for them and right now, saying that they trust Democrats more than Republicans.

And so there's a lot of pressure on Harris to show that she's going to have a strong backbone on this issue and hopefully, one that takes into account the work that she's done for this Biden White House so far, looking at root causes --

HUNT: Yeah.

DICKERSON: -- and taking a more comprehensive long view.

HUNT: Yeah, for sure. And the issue has changed so much in the six years since we had that conversation.

Caitlin Dickerson of The Atlantic. Very grateful for your time this morning. Thank you for being here. I hope you'll come back.

DICKERSON: Thank you.

HUNT: All right, let's go now to this story. The Pentagon now blaming Iran-backed groups after several U.S. soldiers were injured in a rocket attack on an American base in Iraq. Iran has been at the center of heightened tensions after it vowed "blood vengeance" against Israel for the killing of a key Hamas leader in Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NASSER KANAANI, SPOKESPERSON, IRAN FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): Iran cannot be indifferent towards its security, its friends' and allies' security, and the security of the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The U.S. trying to urge calm in an effort to prevent the Israel-Hamas War from turning into even -- an even larger regional conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We are engaged in intense diplomacy pretty much around the clock with a very simple message. All parties must refrain from escalation. All parties must take steps to ease tensions. Escalation is not in anyone's interest. It will only lead to more conflict, more violence, more insecurity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So while Israel is on high alert anticipating the retaliation, the timing is unclear. U.S. officials tell CNN it could happen in the next 24 hours or the coming days.

Let's bring in CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton right now to talk more about this. Cedric, good morning. Always wonderful to see you.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST, AIR FORCE COLONEL (RET.): Thank you. Thank you.

HUNT: So what is the U.S. doing right now to try to deter this strike?

LEIGHTON: So there are a lot of things that the U.S. is doing. On the one hand, you've got the diplomatic track as you saw with Sec. Blinken. But from a military standpoint, you have a carrier battle group going into the Eastern Mediterranean that is replacing another carrier battle group that is actually in the Gulf of Oman.

So all of those movements are designed to basically tell all the parties in the region and Middle East that the United States is not only paying attention but that the United States will protect Israel from an attack like we saw on April 13.

[05:40:05]

In addition to the carrier battle groups you've got air defense assets moving in, plus a fighter squadron of F-22s that's moving into the region as well.

HUNT: What is it about this moment that makes the fears of a -- of the regional conflict expanding higher than they've been since October 7?

LEIGHTON: That's a great question. I think the basic answer to it is that all of the different parties -- you've got Iran on one side, you've got Hezbollah in -- you know, sitting in Lebanon. You've got Hamas sitting in Gaza for the most part. And, of course, you've got the Israelis.

And each one of them has some kind of grievance that they want to actually move forward in a -- in a -- very much in a -- in the way of a conflict. And as a result of that, what they're trying to do is they're trying to set themselves up, in essence, for a military victory.

Netanyahu has been doing that for -- trying to do that for Israel. He's basically been unsuccessful in achieving a full military victory in Gaza. Basically, he's playing Whac-A-Mole with Hamas in Gaza.

And when it comes to Hamas, they are basically looking at things from the standpoint of what can they do in order to survive as an organization given the Israel onslaught in Gaza. But they're also successful in reconstituting a lot of their units.

HUNT: Um-hum.

LEIGHTON: And then, of course, you have Hezbollah that is trying to avenge the death of one of their key leaders. And you have Iran that feels very aggrieved because the Hamas leader was killed in -- the political leader Haniyeh was killed in Tehran under their -- as a guest of theirs in that guest house there.

HUNT: Right.

And so what does this situation do for Netanyahu in terms of the -- kind of the way it pushes him politically as he wages this war in Gaza?

LEIGHTON: So for him, his imperative is to continue the war effort as much as he possibly can because there are domestic political reasons for it, but also from a military standpoint. His military strategy is based on achieving victory over Hamas. The problem that he has is that going after a group like Hamas and achieving complete victory is almost impossible except with total annihilation. Total annihilation then gets the international community arrayed against him -- even the effort to do that -- and that is really the problem that he has.

So he is trying to continue on a path that, in the long run, will prove unsuccessful. But the problem that he has is he has to find a way off of -- off of that -- to an off-ramp and he cannot really find that off-ramp given the way in which he's pursuing his policies.

HUNT: For sure.

All right, Col. Cedric Leighton for us this morning. Colonel, thank you. Always appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, personality versus policy. Why Donald Trump keeps bringing up an old feud with a Republican governor.

Plus, one Olympic athlete reaching new heights for a world record.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:47:10]

HUNT: All right. While the Democratic Party unites around Kamala Harris and her VP pick, which we're set to find out here in just a few hours, Donald Trump is back to fighting old fights inside his own party.

During his rally over the weekend in Georgia, Trump once again went after Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp refused to go along with Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. That is something that Trump still can't get over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kemp is very bad for the Republican Party. He wouldn't do anything. He could have ended the travesty with a phone call because I did nothing wrong. He's a bad guy, he's a disloyal guy, and he's a very average governor. Little Brian, Little Brian Kemp.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Little Brian.

Joining us now, Charlie Dent, former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania. Congressman, always wonderful to have you.

Is it helpful for Donald Trump to be -- I mean, he calls -- this was -- he's using the same label for Brian Kemp that he uses sometimes for Kamala Harris, who he's running against and who's a Democrat.

CHARLIE DENT, (R) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, SENIOR ADVISER, "OUR REPUBLICAN LEGACY", EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASPEN INSTITUTE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRAM (via Webex by Cisco): Look, the irony of what Donald Trump just said is really stunning.

The Georgia GOP has suffered terrible defeats in the U.S. Senate because of Donald Trump's conduct. Because he threw a snit after the 2020 election and really undermined the Republican Senate candidates in the runoff in early January. He cost them -- he cost Republicans -- Trump cost Republicans the United States Senate.

And he's still -- he's still aggrieved because Gov. Kemp and Brad Raffensberger wouldn't overturn the Georgia election outcome. And he's just a very petty, vindictive man, clearly, and he just can't get over it. He's obsessed.

And he's actually -- Kemp is the one who's actually winning in Georgia. Trump's the one who lost and cost the loss of the Senate seats.

So it just amazing that Georgia is even at all competitive for Trump. You'd think Republicans would have bolted from him a long time ago but that's where we are, and Georgia is still a -- still a battleground state.

HUNT: Indeed, and especially with Harris now, that's kind of changed considerably.

Look, I want to ask you honestly about Pennsylvania because this -- it's a centerpiece for -- the future president really needs to win Pennsylvania, whether they're the Democrat or the Republican, right?

DENT: Yeah.

HUNT: Kamala Harris has this huge decision looming and Josh Shapiro has been at the top of the list. It seems like he's fallen back a little bit. And there is a lot of focus on Tim Walz here as we wait in these intervening hours. But I'm curious what you think about what a Shapiro pick would

actually do on the ground in Pennsylvania because of how popular he is.

[05:50:00]

DENT: Well, it's pretty obvious to me that Kamala Harris has no path to victory to the White House without Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is almost the entire game for her. She loses Pennsylvania, her election is over.

And that's why Josh Shapiro was at the top -- is at the top of this list because of his popularity and his strength. He has good political chops. He's a skillful politician.

And especially, because he is strong in the Philadelphia media market. The city of Philadelphia -- the four Collar Counties, one of which you are from, as well as up into the Lehigh Valley. That represents probably around 40 percent -- maybe a little over 40 percent of the entire statewide electorate, and that is where Kamala Harris needs to run up the score. And so Shapiro actually helps her on the margins in that case.

And remember, Pennsylvania is so competitive. It was won in the margins. Trump won it by 44,000 votes in 2016. Biden won it by about 81,000 votes in 2020. It's in play. So to the extent that Shapiro is on the ticket, he can probably help bring some of those soft Republicans and Independents over to Harris.

And Harris is going to need some help because she took a position opposing fracking back in the 2020 presidential race. She's going to need someone to blunt those criticisms.

Obviously, there's been erosion among Jewish voters not just in Pennsylvania but nationally from the Democrats -- some very loyal constituency to them. Shapiro can help there as well. You know, to put it -- to ease those who are concerned about the anti-Israel wing of the party.

So I think he brings a lot of benefits.

Walz, of course -- I know Tim. We served together. He's a good man. But she already has Minnesota and I'm not sure that he'll -- that he would bring quite as much value as a Shapiro would to the ticket.

HUNT: Very interesting. Well, I guess this will be one of the last conversations that we all have speculating about this because in just a couple of hours we should actually have an answer to this question.

Charlie Dent --

DENT: Exactly.

HUNT: -- so wonderful to have you. Thank you so much. Hope to see you soon.

DENT: Thanks, Kasie. Good to be with you.

HUNT: All right.

Time now for sports which, of course, means the Olympics. This heartwarming display of sportsmanship on the podium from two American gymnasts has just lit up social media.

Amanda Davies joins us now more -- with more from Paris. Amanda, this was just amazing to see, honestly. These athletes -- absolutely, the very, very best in the world being willing to look at each other and recognize -- you know, game recognizes game.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ANCHOR: Exactly that. That is the phrase I have been using this morning. You know, the biggest sporting state where these athletes are fighting for the biggest prizes. But we got what is being talked about as the most iconic image of Paris 2024.

I'm dubbing them the "ABC" -- Rebecca Andrade, Simone Billes, and Jordan Chiles. Not only the first all-Black Olympic gymnastics podium but a true show of love, support, and respect between the trio. All gamechangers in their own rights with Biles and Chiles bowing down to celebrate Brazil's Andrade as she celebrated her first Olympic gold at here third games after coming back from not one, not two, but three ACL tears to win the floor competition in style.

It really is women supporting women in the best possible way. You know, there's been so much celebration of Simone Biles, rightly, signing off here in Paris with three golds and a silver. She's described it as more than her wildest dreams.

But this really was an iconic very, very special moment.

And speaking of iconic pictures, we've had a fair few produced 10,000 miles away as well in the French territory of Tahiti. That's been the venue of the surfing competition. You might have missed, while you were sleeping, Team USA's Caroline Marks taking the gold. The 22-year- old World Surf League champion upgrading her fourth-place finish in Tokyo in the best possible way. Look at those scenes.

But maybe the best possible way is the way that Mondo Duplantis did it in the pole vault. The world champion successfully defending his gold from Tokyo by setting a new world record. The 24-year-old just keeps rewriting the record books. He raised the world record six centimeters in the last 4 1/2 years since he first broke it. And to put that into context, it previously took 23 years to move it that distance.

He joined us here on the rooftop a little while ago and he was talking me through how he's visualized his golden moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONDO DUPLANTIS, 2-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: When I was just a kid jumping in my backyard, like, I always visualized winning a world record height Olympic final, and it's just me against the bar. And then it's like -- it's the moment and it's actually there, and it feels like I've prepared for this for my whole entire life. So I feel like this feeling of like peace and confidence that is -- yeah, hard to explain really. For it to work out the way that it did it's just like unbelievable really.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:55:13]

DAVIES: Unbelievable, much like that calm, self-assurance. He said he'd given everything, and you could tell speaking to him this morning.

Noah Lyles was there congratulating Mondo on his success. As you were saying, game recognizing game.

And there's plenty more to come today, including Team USA's Gabby Thomas heading into the 200 meters very much as the favorite having posted the fasted time in the semifinals up against Lucia's 100-meters champion Julien Alfred.

And I hope you noticed there was only one glass of champagne on that table -- not to -- I didn't join him.

HUNT: I was very -- I'm glad you brought it up because I was, like, what is that. Did he bring -- did he show up with it?

DAVIES: No. We actually -- there's a bar on the rooftop here. And if you're going to do it at 8:00 in the morning it's going to be the day after a gold medal and breaking a world record, I guess.

HUNT: I was already jealous of your assignment and now I'm learning that you just -- you know, like, knock off after you're done and have a glass of champagne.

DAVIES: I've got a water.

HUNT: We've got coffee here.

Amanda, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'll see you later this week.

All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, the list is down to two as Kamala Harris is set to announce her running mate in a matter of hours.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Everybody should maybe just go off Google and not use it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Go off Google. Donald Trump ratcheting up his attacks against them during an interview with an extraordinarily controversial online streamer. (COMMERCIAL)