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CNN This Morning
Kamala Harris Announces Tim Walz as Her Running Mate; Cori Bush Loses Primary Due to Pro-Israel PAC; Tropical Storm Debby Forecasted to Make Second Landfall. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired August 07, 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 Wednesday, August 7. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
[05:59:51]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't ever underestimate teachers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Teacher, coach, National Guardsman, now candidate for vice president, Tim Walz, introduces himself to America.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But the fact that Kamala Harris selected him, I think, shows really, really poor judgement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Donald Trump and J.D. Vance trying to define Walz on their terms, giving us a sneak peek at their plan of attack.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): And you know what else I love? I love being your governor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Why it didn't go to Josh Shapiro, who at one point seemed to be the V.P. favorite.
Plus, Debby still wreaking havoc as cities up and down the East Coast deal with massive flooding.
All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the White House on this Wednesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
This morning, the newly-minted Democratic ticket heading out onto the campaign trail with a jolt of energy. I was in the room in Philadelphia last night, and I have to say, the excitement was at a level that has just been, quite frankly, completely missing from Democratic events in recent cycles. Basically, since President Obama was running for reelection.
Here's a little bit of what it looked like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was the moment that Walz and Harris took the stage together, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the current vice president, introducing her pick for her own No. 2 to a country that doesn't know him yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D), U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To his fellow veterans, he is Sergeant Major Walz. To his former high school students, he was Mr. Walz. And to his former high school football players, he was Coach. And in 91 days, the nation will know Coach Walz by another name: vice president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Walz talked about his Midwestern roots, his military service, his record as governor, but it was Walz's attacks against Donald Trump and running mate J.D. Vance that drew roars from the crowd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALZ: If Trump gets a chance to return, he's going to pick up exactly where he left off four years ago. And I've got to tell you, his running mate shares his dangerous and backward agenda for this country.
These guys are creepy and, yes, just weird as hell. That's what you see. That's what you see.
So, you know what's out there. So, say it with me. We aren't going back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We aren't going back!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We aren't going back!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We aren't going back!
WALZ: We aren't going back! We are not going back!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Our panel is here to discuss: Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters; Mo Elleithee, the former communications director for the DNC; and Jonah Goldberg, CNN political commentator, co-founder of "The Dispatch." Good morning to all of you.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning. Good morning.
HUNT: So, Mo, I have to say, the big "mo" was with the Democrats last night in a way that, you know, I did not see on the trail with Hillary Clinton, quite frankly. Joe Biden similarly struggled to get a crowd going like this.
What was your sense of how Walz and the presumptive nominee herself, Harris, rose to this moment or not?
MO ELLEITHEE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DNC: Yes. I mean, holy smokes. This was -- I almost didn't recognize my own party, right? -- Right? -- last night.
This was -- you know, Kasie, I remember when we were in Milwaukee for the Republican convention talking.
HUNT: Yes.
ELLEITHEE: And talking about the energy that -- and excitement that you felt there. And I remember thinking to myself, God, like, how do we come back from this? How do we combat it?
HUNT: There was no way to do it with Biden.
ELLEITHEE: This is how we do it, right? Last night, we saw not just two, but three national political figures on that stage with an energy and an excitement and a crowd that was fueling it.
It's a whole new -- it's a whole new ballgame. And I think both of the party's nominees last night rose to the occasion. And Tim Walz introduced himself in a way that, for those who didn't know him, really connected, I think, with -- with a lot of folks.
So, everyone I know in the party is loving life today.
HUNT: Yes. Jonah Goldberg, ahead of this rally, there were a lot of Republicans who don't like Donald Trump, who were lamenting that this did not go to Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor. We're going to show a little bit of what he had to say later on in -- in the show.
But I'm curious how you think Walz acquitted himself last night. If you still -- I feel like there was a shift from, oh, they should have picked Shapiro to, Well, OK. This guy has a profile that perhaps will appeal to rural Americans in a way that maybe Shapiro actually wouldn't.
What is your sense of how he performed and the way they're trying to present him? GOLDBERG: Yes, it's funny. I was recording my podcast yesterday
morning, right around the time this was announced. And I was telling Jonathan Rausch that -- from "The Atlantic," well, I think this is a big mistake. I think this is -- this is the first misstep since the rollout of Kamala Harris.
[06:05:12]
I think I've changed my mind about it a little bit.
HUNT: Interesting.
GOLDBERG: That's -- before I get to that just -- I want to stipulate. If they lose Pennsylvania, this was a pick. And that will be remembered as a terrible pick simply because, if the governor can bring you 10,000 votes, you know, and has a ground game that helps you carry the state you have to win and you don't carry it, there's going to be recriminations.
That said, I keep -- I've been saying for two years that this is a vibes election. And every time I try to come up with another mode of analysis, I'm proven wrong, right?
The right -- the Trump campaign will go hard at his progressive record, and they should, because there's a lot of the stuff there that is worthy of attacking from a conservative point of view.
But on the vibes level, he just comes across as a -- as a Midwestern good dude, right? And I think that that is a really good balance for Harris. I think it is a good, you know, opposition to J.D. Vance.
And I think the -- the most telling line that I think is more important isn't the weird thing. And I thought the couch thing was a false note.
It is when he talks about how Kamala brings the joy. Whether you love Trump or hate Trump, it's always so unbelievably dark and dour. And to have an optimistic candidate whose -- a ticket that is enjoying things, I think, sends a really good message electorally, but particularly for the Democrats.
HUNT: I mean, that does seem to be, Jeff, the biggest -- It honestly feels like the biggest difference, what Jonah just hit on. Kind of the "vibes," quote, unquote.
I mean, they're different from when Hillary was running. I mean, even then, I mean, Democrats struggled to get excited about her campaign.
And then with Biden, there was just this sense of dread, you know, and by the end, everyone was just hoping that nothing bad happened. This is so completely different.
And the contrast with the Trump side of it is also stark, as Jonah says.
JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: I remember in 2016 when Trump was getting these big crowds and making such a big deal of it, that there was some counter spinning saying that crowds don't matter. You know, it doesn't matter that he's getting these big groups, and that's not necessarily a sign that things aren't going very well on the other side.
And then, of course, he won. I think some crowds and energy really do matter.
HUNT: Yes.
MASON: And I think that that -- what most was getting to there is -- is a sign. And it's also something that we're seeing in terms of money. We're seeing in terms of volunteers coming out. And now you're seeing this voter enthusiasm in the -- in the stadiums.
HUNT: I remember at the conclusion, about a week, week and a half before election day in 2016, I said something on -- on the air about how covering Hillary Clinton didn't feel like covering a winning campaign in the final weeks. And basically, got laughed at by the Hillary team, because they were so sure that they were going to win.
There is, I think, very much something to what you can feel, energy- wise. And the -- the Kamala team, the Kamala Harris team, actually put this up, Mo, on Truth Social. So that's Trumps platform. OK?
If we're going to talk about crowd sizes, they're comparing the crowd in that -- this is the same arena in Philly. And they're arguing that -- it's a little bit hard to see, but they're arguing that the Trump crowd is smaller than the Harris-Walz crowd was last night in Philadelphia.
I will say that, if we're going to go by crowd size, you know, they had a good night.
ELLEITHEE: They had a good night, and look, I think Jonah's point is one that can't be said enough.
I think every election, frankly, is a vibes election in some way or another. And I think there really are only two vibes that matter in American politics. One is hope and joy, and the other is fear and anger.
And what you saw last night was a party that is betting on the fact that people are tired of fear and anger. And so they're going to give to them the hope and the joy. Right?
A good campaign is one where the candidate and the crowd and the voters feed off of one another's energy. And if last night can be sustained, like, that's a good place to go into the fall.
HUNT: And Trump 2016, Jonah, was not devoid of fun. It just wasn't, whereas now, it's -- it's considerably different from that.
GOLDBERG: Yes. That's in part because Trump doesn't have a lot of new material, right? So, it's like --
HUNT: And a lot of really terrible things have happened in that --
GOLDBERG: And a lot of terrible things have happened. But like, and Trump's -- Trump's, you know, kind of bitter and all that kind of stuff.
But the people who show up at his rallies are like the guys who shout, you know, "Free Bird" at a Skynyrd concert. They just want to hear the greatest hits over and over again. I don't know that that attracts new people to it. That energy now is kind of kitschy.
I will also say -- just say, you know -- we'll talk about Shapiro in a second, but this is the first Democratic ticket since Jimmy Carter that doesn't have a lawyer -- without a lawyer on this -- one of the spots, right?
[06:10:10]
I mean, like, Walz is the first one who doesn't come from that slice of the meritocracy of the Democratic side that talks like a lawyer. And I think that that's part of the vibes thing, too. He talks like a normal person.
HUNT: Well, and also, can we put up that -- just the V.O. of that -- the video that -- that Tim Walz had where they were talking. So -- so Kamala Harris calls Tim Walz, right? Tim Walz takes the phone call from him. He's wearing a camouflage hat right there, right? And he's not -- this is something he also seems to wear in his normal life.
They start selling these hats on the Harris H.Q. website, like right away. They apparently sell out immediately. I mean, Jonah, this is something that, like, Walz can do authentically that not a lot of Democrats in national office can these days.
GOLDBERG: Yes. And I don't think people should get ahead of themselves. They're not going to win the white non-college-educated working-class vote, right? They're not going to take that demographic away from Trump.
But they might limit how much -- how bad the damage is, right? They -- if this whole election is going be at the margins in a handful of states --
HUNT: Yes.
GOLDBERG: -- if you can just keep Trump's loss -- gains to -- put a ceiling on them, that's enough. And I think that that sort of helps.
HUNT: Yes, really interesting.
All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, a very striking result in a closely watched primary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): All they did was radicalize me and so now they (EXPLETIVE DELETED) be afraid! (END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Cori Bush, member of the Squad, vowing to fight back after losing her House seat.
Plus, Tropical Storm Debby regaining strength, about to make a second landfall.
And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: We're white guys from the Midwest. I guess there are similarities there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: J.D. Vance and Tim Walz already taking jabs at each other.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:16:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: AIPAC, I'm coming to tear your kingdom down!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Another member of the progressive House group known as the Squad now out.
Congresswoman Cori Bush lost the Democratic primary in her Missouri seat on Tuesday. St. Louis prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell will now be on the ballot in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WESLEY BELL (D), MISSOURI CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: But this race got nasty, and so -- and I'll be honest, I was still good. But there were a couple of times that, you know, it started getting to me a little bit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: At the center of the race was Bush's stance on the Israel-Hamas war. Bush was targeted by the pro-Israel group AIPAC. The group spent almost $9 million criticizing Bush and boosting her opponent.
AIPAC also played in the race that ousted New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman six weeks ago.
Bush vowed to use her remaining time in Congress to fight back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BUSH: Because they now don't have to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) some strings that I attached as much as I love my job. But all they did was radicalize me, and so now, they (EXPLETIVE DELETED) be afraid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: There's a lot there, Jonah Goldberg. Or Mo, actually, I should probably give this one to you. This is your party.
I -- I feel like I see there why she was so polarizing and why this result played out the way it did.
ELLEITHEE: Yes. Look, yes, her position on Israel-Gaza drew in a lot of outside attention and AIPAC got involved. And understandable to some point, right? Like, you can end should be pro-Palestinian and still be able to say Hamas is a terror organization, which she had trouble saying, right? So I get that part of it.
But the thing that she and Jamaal Bowman had in common, besides the attention from AIPAC, was they were both also really bad candidates and flawed candidates for other reasons.
She was under investigation by the DOJ and House Ethics for improper use of funds. She was really, really strident on some things like infrastructure.
And so, it's -- it's one of those things where I think you can definitely see some national lessons here. But also, the biggest lesson is candidates actually matter. And I don't think she was the best for that district.
MASON: Hard to say it better than Mo. I mean, that that matters a lot is the strength of the candidate.
But I think it also underscores the importance of money in an election. I mean, the fact that a group like AIPAC was able to come in and have that sort of an impact with millions of dollars just underscores how much that influence and how much impact that can have.
HUNT: Yes.
GOLDBERG: I'm skeptical about the money part. I don't know about whether Cori Bush raised that --
HUNT: May have boosted her opponent.
GOLDBERG: Yes. I know, but in the Jamaal Bowman thing, I think if AIPAC hadn't intervened at all, Bowman would have still lost.
HUNT: Yes.
GOLDBERG: I think -- first of all, I think nature's healing. What happens a lot -- and this happens with Republicans, as well, is that when they have really good years, some really bad candidates are swept in on waves.
And then when the tide goes back out, you're left saying, how do we get this detritus?
And I think that, you know, Cori Bush was -- reasons having nothing to do with Israel stuff -- a bad congressman, very radical, and very left-wing. And the Democratic Party is better off without her.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, talk about a hazard.
Next, a golfer in California nearly hit by a crashing plane. Surprised nobody put the word "fore" in this tease. This is one of five things you have to see this morning.
Plus, America getting to know Kamala Harris's newly-minted running mate.
[06:20:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALZ: And then we're going to go get some food. Corn dog?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm vegetarian.
WALZ: Turkey, then. And then --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turkey's meat.
WALZ: Not in Minnesota. Turkey's special.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:24:36]
HUNT: All right, 24 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning.
Here it is. Fore. A wildly close call for a golfer after this plane crash landed on a course in Sacramento.
The plane's engine failed when it was about 400 feet in the air. This is terrifying.
The NTSB is now investigating.
A baby is among those rescued from a German hotel after it collapsed overnight. At least one person was killed. There's no word on what caused this collapse.
Fire crews say that the building is still shifting, and they're still searching for several people who are missing.
An extra bumpy ride for people on the Santa Monica pier after a 5.2- magnitude earthquake hit Southern California late last night.
Officials there say there's a, quote, "low likelihood" of any deaths or damage. The quake was centered just South of Bakersfield.
The Edgehill Fire destroying properties and injuring a firefighter in San Bernardino County, California. It is now fully contained with firefighters forced to battle the flames in 109-degree temperatures on Tuesday.
All right. Tropical Storm Debby continues its path across the East Coast. Here you see damage in parts of Sarasota, Florida, where more than 17 inches of rain fell from Saturday morning to Tuesday night. And we are not done with it yet.
Time now for weather. Debby is expected to make a second landfall on Thursday after it regained strength off the Georgia/South Carolina coast.
Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, with more on this. Allison, good morning.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good morning. And you said Thursday. I think that's kind of the key point. It's going to sit here for at least another day before it finally makes that second landfall, which means it's got a lot of time to dump even more rainfall on a lot of these areas that have seen plenty enough.
Tropical Storm Debby still has sustained winds of 45 miles per hour. That is actually up from the overnight, because now that it's backup over open water, its able to intensify a little bit more.
Very early into Thursday, we anticipate that to make a second landfall before finally getting picked up through that front and sliding up into the Northeast.
In the short term, still the potential for some extra flooding across portions of the Carolinas, not only today, but also tomorrow. We see it shift a little bit farther inland as the storm itself begins to move inland, as well.
But adding more rain is the last thing we need. Take a look at this video from Hilton Head, South Carolina. We can see the sheer weight of that rain collapsing the roof here.
And very similar stories of all of that rain for much of both of the states here, both South and North Carolina.
Forecast rain accumulation is still looking at widespread totals of at least four inches. Some spots could pick up an additional six inches or even more.
But it's also not just the Southeast. Look at how much that moisture spreads into the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. So even some of those areas can expect several more inches, as well.
HUNT: All right. Allison Chinchar for us this morning. Allison, thank you very much.
All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHAPIRO: She is battle-tested and ready to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Tim Walz, Kamala Harris's choice for vice president. Why did she pass over Josh Shapiro?
Plus, one of Arizona's fake 2020 electors takes a plea deal. That's in the roundup.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:00]
