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CNN This Morning
Harris to Announce V.P Pick Today; Global Markets Look to Rebound after Monday Sell-Off; Tropical Storm Debby Moves Through Southeast. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired August 06, 2024 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, August 6. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING, Kamala Harris now officially the Democratic nominee and in just hours, we expect her to name her running mate. We'll take a look at the final two contenders.
[06:01:05]
Plus, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So, Google is really crooked. It's horrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Why Donald Trump is calling for his supporters to stop Googling.
Then, Asia markets are rebounding. Will the U.S. follow suit?
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): It tells us the strength of this movement, because they put millions against us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: It's the second most expensive House race in history. Can the Squad's Cori Bush survive today's primary?
All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the White House on this Tuesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
It's official. Kamala Harris has won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Overnight, the DNC announcing she won 99 percent of a virtual vote. Harris is the first black woman and the first Asian American to lead a major party ticket, a historic moment that will pass probably pretty quickly in this whirlwind of a news cycle. In just hours, Harris set to announce who she's chosen as her running mate. Sources tell CNN Harris is focused on two top contenders: the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.
Harris has not commented publicly about her decision-making process, but on Monday, allies on Capitol Hill offered these insights.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER (D-DE): I know that she's going to be looking at both who is going to be great on the campaign trail, but also again, that person who could be ready on day one.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): It's a question of who she feels the most comfort level with in terms of governance. People say, well, who can help us win, but it's about who can help us govern more than that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, with so much attention focused on Harris's campaign, Donald Trump trying to grab the spotlight back with new attack lines and insults.
In a series of social media posts last night, Trump misspelled Harris's first name as "Kamabla," claiming that she wants to defund the police, ban fracking, and cause an economic depression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: All of the people that she's looking at are considered much better than her. These were people that were thinking about running. They would have run, except that they didn't want to go through this roadblock with her. And you know, because you're the vice president.
So they wanted to go pick them. And I think virtually every one of them is considered better, smarter; would be a better president than her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So that guy that he's sitting next to. Trump made those comments in an interview with a highly controversial videogame livestreamer. His name's Adin Ross.
Ross has hosted a white nationalist and neo-Nazis on his show. Later he gave Trump a Tesla Cybertruck that was plastered with a photo of the former president raising his fist after the assassination attempt against him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'll tell you about TikTok. Trump is going to keep TikTok going, whereas Biden and Harris, they have no idea what it means. So, for all the people on TikTok, vote for Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: There was a lot going on in that video, right? The hair.
Joining me now to discuss all this and more, our panel's here: CNN Politics senior reporter Stephen Collinson; former federal prosecutor, Elliot Willilams; Meghan hays, the former Biden White House director of message planning; and Bryan Lanza, former deputy communications director for the Trump 2016 campaign.
Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here.
Stephen, I want to start with you, kind of big picture, because this is going to be a big day on the campaign trail. We are anticipating learning who Harris's running mate is basically any minute now.
But it's taking place in a very volatile environment. Obviously, Trump doing what he's doing. But you also have this massive stock selloff. You have fears about what's going on in Israel, a wider potential crisis in the Middle East.
[06:05:03]
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, presidencies are about making choices. And today we will find out perhaps more than we've already known about Vice President Kamala Harris; how she's going to define her campaign. It's the biggest choice a nominee makes as they head into their convention.
And as you say, this is taking place against a swirling backdrop of events. The crash of stocks around the world or the plunge of stocks around the world. Crash is perhaps too much. Underscored the fact that once the euphoria of the pick is over, the convention is done, it's possible that outside events could come back into this campaign.
And we don't really know what's going to happen. And perhaps they could give Donald Trump, who's been grappling for a way to deal with this transformed campaign and this new opponent, an opening.
As you see, he's tried to exploit the stock market issue, the unrest in the Middle East. Trump is saying World War Three is beckoning. He's trying to play to a sense of insecurity among Americans at the moment at home and abroad.
That is one of the questions that Vice President Harris has to answer in the next two months.
HUNT: Yes. I mean, Elliot Williams, this -- this kind of underscores and -- and sharpens the reality that she needs a governing partner, right? And that's kind of been the argument we've been hearing.
Nancy Pelosi was making it with Dana Bash yesterday, as it seems like Tim Walz may be starting to become the center of this conversation.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Because he's run a state and gotten reelected there.
Now --
HUNT: I mean, Shapiro has, too.
WILLIAMS: I was going to say, well, that's what I was going next.
HUNT: Yes.
WILLIAMS: Which is that Josh Shapiro also has. But that would be, Kasie, under the conventional wisdom, that someone would pick an individual who was ready to lead on day one or rounded out some aspect of their resume that they need to clean up; that throughout history, that's how vice presidents have been picked.
But just look at the volatility of the last -- I don't even know -- month. If you're ranging from an assassination --
HUNT: Has it only been a month? Because I feel like it's been a year.
WILLIAMS: The assassination attempt on the former president; the debate performance of the current president; the switching out of a candidate; the replacement of another candidate. And Lord knows what happens between now and October.
And so, it just seems to me that the rules that would typically apply to how you pick a vice president just may not even apply here. And it might just be what works for the vice president at that given moment.
HUNT: Yes.
Bryan Lanza, let's talk a little bit about what we saw from Trump yesterday, because here's how "The New Yorker" talks about Ross, this streamer that he talked to, 23-years-old: "A Twitch streamer first became famous for playing NBA 2k online with LeBron James's son before he was banned from the platform after repeated use of slurs. As he has grown into his fame, the Gen Z streamer has grown more conservative, hanging out with Andrew Tate and hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his stream."
Now clearly, that -- that dance he was doing is like a TikTok -- you know, kind of for TikTok. He's talking about, Well, Kamala Harris is the one that would end TikTok. There is an appeal to Gen Z voters there, many of whom have been engaged with the Harris campaign, because they have found some traction in some of those spaces.
What do you make of Trump doing this with this guy in particular? Is that what you think the party needs to be doing as they try to win this general election? And what does it say about how they're running against Harris?
BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR THE TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN: Well, first of all, thank you for having me.
Listen, I think, you know, if you look at the Trump campaign in the last year, they've done a lot of non-traditional media. You know, they've -- they've done podcasts. You know, people we haven't even heard of in the podcast spaces but just know the person. But the message is still the same. The message is, you know, inflation is driving -- is driving bankruptcy to the working class and the middle class; immigration is -- is a serious threat of our border; and the Biden -- the Biden-Harris administration have done nothing to address it. And you have these two wars abroad that could potentially lead to a third.
I don't think the platform matters, at least he's not thinking where the platform matters, where he's delivering this message. He's just delivering the message to and to sort of an external platform that we're not used to.
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: Is he delivering that message or is the campaign delivering that message? Because I don't think that's what the people are hearing.
And also, that's great that he's appealing to Gen Z voters. But this is going to be won with independent suburban women in these battleground states. And I don't think that they are listening to this very extreme podcast person.
HUNT: Yes. I mean, I will say, it doesn't seem like it's just any other person here. I mean clearly. There are a lot of questions I hear if he's being banned there.
But Meghan, let me ask you kind of big picture here for Harris. You know, Stephen touched on the potential looming controversies for her. This is going to be the biggest day for her campaign so far of 100, what 110 days total.
HAYS: Yes, 15 days in.
HUNT: Exactly. Exactly. What do you expect to see from her today? Do you have any news you want to break? Your friends in the White House told you who this is going to be?
HAYS: I have no news to break. However, I do think that this is an important --
WILLIAMS: Blink twice. Josh Shapiro is the nom? We won't tell anybody.
HAYS: No one will see.
[06:10:02]
I -- I think that this is an important pick for her, as we've all discussed. It is an important person.
But to Elliot's point, this could just be for a moment in time. She needs to win Pennsylvania. You cannot govern unless you win. So, they need to be thinking about that. And I think that they very much are thinking about that.
I also think that Walz is more progressive than people are probably tracking, are giving credit for at the moment. So, I think, you know, there's been a kind of attack on Josh Shapiro, but I don't necessarily know that that's warranted with Walz having a more progressive standing.
LANZA: Yes, but how could you be more progressive than Kamala Harris? She comes out as San Francisco politics, which is the far left of the American spectrum. So, everybody to her is mainstream.
And so, whether it's Tim Walz or even Governor Shapiro, I mean, that is a more conservative position than what she came out of San Francisco, which is what she's selling as a campaign. She's doubling down on Biden, which the voters have rejected.
HAYS: Well, I just don't think that she has defined all of her issues yet, and I think that she's probably an evolving candidate, which I -- but I think she -- to your point --
LANZA: We have video of her defining her issues.
HAYS: But I don't think that she has defined herself as the presidential candidate, and I think that she needs to do that. And I think that there's a lot of room for her to do that. Right? She needs to do interviews. She needs to be out there.
But her pick will be important to do that. And they will go re- introduce themselves to the people and let the voters decide.
HAYS: Bryan with a line that I'm sure Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wish that their own candidate would actually stick to in talking about Kamala Harris.
All right. We've got a lot more coming up this morning. How yesterday's market tumble could shake up the race for the White House.
Plus, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY MELDER, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, CITY MANAGER: This is a once-in-a- thousand-year potential rainfall event.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Debby's soaking the Southeast as it stalls, dumping an unprecedented amount of rain on the region.
And Donald Trump's surprising compliment for one of his harshest critics: the congresswoman, AOC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:16:18]
HUNT: Overnight, a sigh of relief in the economy as Asian stocks tick back up after that global selloff on Monday. Financial markets here in the U.S. are on track for a positive start after the Dow dropped over 1,000 points yesterday, the worst day on Wall Street in nearly two years. This morning, though, millions of Americans still nervous about their
401(k), and fears of a recession are still growing with just three months to go ahead of the election.
Stephen Collinson, you put it this way in your new piece: quote, "In a tightened election, likely to be decided by a few thousand votes in a handful of swing states, any issue can be decisive. Any economic shocks in the weeks to come could prove treacherous for Harris, given she's tied to the current administration."
You also go on to discuss that she doesn't -- she might be tied to the administration. She doesn't have the same power that the president has.
But the economy at the end of the day, I mean, we've talked so much about what's in the control of the various candidates. Biden's decision to not run for reelection was in his control. Who she's going to choose as vice president, within her control.
What happens in the economy, not within her control. And no matter how either of these people run their respective campaigns, I mean, this could be the entire ball game.
COLLINSON: That's right. And administration's probably get too much credit when things are going well and too much blame when they're not. But this is a central issue in the campaign.
This is not 2008. There's not an impending financial crisis. As we know, the banks are sound. Growth has been decent. Unemployment has been low for a long time, even though it's now rising.
But any sense that, in the weeks before the election, Americans in those key suburban districts, which will decide the election, are looking at their 401(k)s cratering. If there's an economic shock that occurs, that's going to put the focus on what is a key issue in the election and one that the president and the vice president really trail Trump.
That's possibly his best bet to win back the White House, is to play into this sense of great insecurity among Americans. Prices are high every time they go to the grocery store. It's possible that could just, you know, overwhelm anything we've seen in the last few weeks.
WILLIAMS: And the funny thing is people don't quite understand the mechanics of how these things work. They understand this is what gas prices are. This is what -- how much a gallon of milk is.
And if you think back -- to tie this into the campaign or a campaign, think back to '92, the -- a big moment in the debate. Clinton versus Bush, was where a woman gets asked a question. I think it was about the deficit or the debt, not knowing that she was asking them about prices. She just -- she didn't understand the question she was asking and had actually tripped George W. Bush up.
People really --
HUNT: H.W. Bush.
WILLIAMS: H.W. Bush. Pardon me.
But people don't really understand the mechanics of this. It really comes down to something visceral. How do I feel?
LANZA: But I would say they certainly understand inflation.
WILLIAMS: No, that's what I'm saying, right?
LANZA: The Democrats talked about -- they feel it. Every time they make a purchase, they feel it. I mean, the Democrats have talked about, you know, wages have gone up in the U.S. That's a positive sign. Oh, the unemployment rate is at a historic low. It's now rising, as you said. It's going to continue to rise.
But the reality is, it's sort of -- they're speaking a different language to what the voters are concerned about. The voters are like, what are you doing about inflation, and the Democrats are, We have low unemployment.
OK, what do you do about inflation that's wiping out our middle-class? They're saying, oh, but wages have gone up.
So, there's a disconnect, which is why you had Joe Biden request the debate as early as he did. Because he knew there's a disconnect. and he was trying to sell it. And he failed at selling it.
WILLIAMS: Conversely -- conversely, that's also why Donald Trump is able to say inflation is up 25 percent this year, misrepresenting the numbers, because he knows, I thank, that people are caught up about inflat -- are concerned with inflation.
HAYS: But neither person are talking about this issue. And neither -- neither side right now is talking about the actual issues that -- the Trump campaign is just throwing insults and personal insults at the vice president, which that -- I get that's his style.
[06:20:05]
But until we start talking about the economy, until we start letting people and the voters understand, I'm -- like, getting that issue in front of them, we're not going to have people deciding on the economy.
LANZ: Well, I would say this. We're all political players here. Most of the times in the presidential year, voters will make the decision on the economy in July, which was if they made a decision in July, Joe Biden-Harris, it is an abject failure to their pocketbook as it is an abject failure to their future.
And so, we're going to see what this new-- you know, this new thing with Kamala coming in the last minute, if it's able to reset it. The reality is, is pocketbooks are still drained. They're still in the red as a result -- as a direct result of the Kamala Harris-Joe Biden administration. And the policies have caused that. You know, you can say long-term, you know, presidents don't have control. They have controls over policies, and those have long-term effects.
I think we need to talk about the IRA juicing up inflation. We can talk about even -- even, you know, college debt relief and how you're juicing up more money into the market. That's creating more inflation.
So, I disagree with you. Policies actually do lead to inflation, and it's been these policies that have led to out-of-control inflation for the last time.
COLLINSON: I think what's going to be really interesting --
HUNT: Quick last word.
COLLINSON: -- is Democrats have a new chance for the new candidates to try and address this. That's the test for the vice president: if she can find a way to talk about the economy that the president didn't come up with.
HUNT: We are in absolutely unprecedented times on all of this, so buckle up.
All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: We are going to unify this community. It has been devastated by this race.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Squad member Cori Bush fighting to keep her seat at the -- after the ouster of Congressman Jamaal Bowman, just weeks ago.
And there's a tornado taking the roof off a building in Buffalo, New York. That is one of the five things you need to see this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:26:02]
HUNT: All right, 25 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning.
Europe's largest and most active volcano erupting again. Mount Etna in Italy now spewing lava and sending ash clouds six miles into the sky. The local airport, delaying flights to clean up piles of ash build-up.
Bangladesh's prime minister resigning and fleeing to India after protesters stormed her official residence. This comes after weeks of deadly anti-government protests.
Right now, there are no proposed candidates for an interim government. A history-making podium wraps up the Olympic gymnastics competition.
For the first time, all three medalists, black women. Gold went to Brazil's Rebeca Andrade. Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles bowing down to her. I absolutely love this. They collected silver and bronze there.
But hey, you know, game recognizes game.
All right. Let's take a close look at a small tornado tearing the roof off a building in Buffalo, New York. It started as a waterspout over Lake Erie. The twister damaged buildings, flipped cars, sent debris swirling over the downtown area.
Debby weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm making its way through the Southeast United States. In Sarasota, Florida, the county saw record rainfall on Sunday, putting entire neighborhoods underwater.
And that brings us now to weather, as other parts of the Southeast United States still on alert, with Debby continuing to threaten historic levels of rainfall in parts of Georgia and South Carolina.
The severe weather leading Kamala Harris to postpone events in both Raleigh and Savannah, where she was supposed to be joined by her yet- to-be-announced vice-presidential pick.
The slow-moving storm also expected to produce life-threatening flooding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELDER: Historic or unprecedented rainfall totals for our area with a probability of less than 1 percent happening on any given year in our area. This is a once-in-a-thousand-year potential rainfall event.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Let's get straight to our Weatherman van Dam. Derek, good morning.
What should folks be preparing for down South?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Kasie, what I'm seeing right now is a concerning situation unfolding in Charleston, with a fire hose of water being aimed directly at the city.
So, what you're looking at here is the remnants of Debby; center of circulation still over Southeastern Georgia. But look how it's pulling in the moisture from the Atlantic Ocean, creating these tropical feeder bands and directing them right at the city.
You add that in. So that's inland rainfall that's accumulating. But you've got the surge component with that onshore wind, as well. So, we still have two to four feet of storm surge into Charleston Harbor.
So, both of those work against each other. And the water rises very quickly. Downtown Charleston, I've been in that city several times covering tropical systems. It doesn't take much to flood. So that is an ongoing threat going forward today.
Now, it's not just Southern South Carolina. Look how the moisture overspreads much of the East Coast. It's going to interact with a cold front. And that is going to bring an uptick in rainfall across Philadelphia, where the V.P. will be today, into New York City. We have flood watches located across that location.
And we have our very rare multi-day high-level risk of excessive rain leading to flash flooding across coasts of Georgia and South Carolina. Because computer models depicting, again, over a foot to upwards of 20 inches of rain from this system.
But it doesn't stop there. The moisture all gets strewn across much of the Eastern Seaboard for the rest of the week, Kasie. It's going to be a long, drawn-out process.
HUNT: For sure. All right. Derek van Dam for us this morning. Derek, thank you. I really appreciate it.
Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Everybody should maybe just go off Google, not use it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Why Donald Trump is fuming about Google in an interview with a deeply controversial video game livestreamer.
Plus, the NTSB looking deeper into why that door plug ripped off the Boeing passenger jet.
