Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
America's Choice 2024. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired August 12, 2024 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:32:01]
SEN. JV VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Harris campaign has frankly lied about what I actually said. I'm pro-family. I want us to have more families.
And obviously sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes for medical reasons, sometimes because you don't meet the right person. But the point is that our country has become anti family in its public policy.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance trying to reframe the debate about his now infamous childless cat ladies comment in a series of television interviews yesterday. Vance tried to paint Democrats as the anti-child party, and he defended Trump's position of leaving abortion policy to the states.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: I criticized Kamala Harris for being part of a set of ideas that exist in American leadership that is anti-family. I never, Dana, criticized people for not having kids. I criticize people for being anti-child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: And joining me now is CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, who hosts CNN's "Inside Politics," and co-host of CNN's "State of the Union." Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good Morning.
HUNT: Thank you so much for being up early with us today. This was a great interview. JD Vance clearly felt like he needed to -- I mean, this was a significant kind of push he made, doing these interviews, probably trying to contrast with the Harris campaign, simply by doing such sit down.
BASH: (Inaudible) said that too.
HUNT: Fair enough.
BASH: We're not fighting it.
HUNT: So walk us through what you learned from him, what stood out to you about what he had to say?
BASH: First of all, he is -- he's very eager to, we were talking beforehand, as you said, try to steer back the conversation as much as he can, perhaps from the man at the top of the ticket, two issues. You heard him talking a lot about some of the policies that the Trump campaign wants to push. He says that the Harris campaign hasn't fully developed yet, which is not wrong.
They're three and a half week old campaign. We're going to hear more of them this coming week. But the whole question of, well, let's just focus on what you just played, the family and the childless cat lady and so on and so forth.
[06:35:09]
One of the things that was interesting to me was, I asked him specifically, because he called out by name Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, about whether or not he considers them parts of families. Because in the case of Kamala Harris, she is a step mom, she has two step children. He said, yes, she is part of a family.
And Pete Buttigieg, he even said, yes. Later in the program, talked to Buttigieg, and he said, well, I wonder if that means that he's going to change his position on same sex marriage, which from the perspective of someone like Pete Buttigieg and others who are in his position, who are able to get married to somebody of the same sex. If JD Vance's, I guess, former position, or, who knows, you know, if the Republican, many Republicans, position stays in effect, he wouldn't have that family. So, go ahead.
HUNT: You want to play part of the --
BASH: Oh sure.
HUNT: Let's play part of the Buttigieg answer on this. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE BUTTIGIEG, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: The other part just as troubling, right, which is saying that anybody who disagrees with him is anti-child, and it's part of just who he is, right? He seems incapable of talking about a vision for this country in terms of lifting people up or building people up, or helping people out. It's always disparagement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: It does seem to actually play into, I mean, the negative framing of this is by itself, a contrast between Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz right now.
BASH: No, it absolutely is. The other thing that was striking to me was on Tim Walz's military record. He was not apologetic. He was not backing down on it. They clearly believe that they are on to something here. We had a pretty extended conversation about it, and I was giving him some of the facts, including the Harris campaign saying that Tim Walz misspoke in the one time that I have seen where he said back in 2018. That he used a weapon of war in war, which he did not do because he was not in an actual war zone, even though he did serve for 24 years. The fact that he continues to seize on that is, I'm not sure if it means that they see something that we don't, or it's just like the thing as Pete Buttigieg said, it's the exception that sort of defines the role that --
HUNT: Right.
BASH: He is kind of hard to attack on a lot of other issues.
HUNT: Yes. So one of the other places where Vance has tried to, well, he's been criticized by the Harris and Walz ticket as weird, right? There was some conversation back and forth about this in your interview with him, and there was a moment about handshake. I just want to show it, and then you can kind of explain it.
BASH: Okay, okay.
HUNT: Because -- let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: Tim Walz gives this big speech. He's been announced as the VP nominee. And I remember when I had just been announced as the VP nominee, I gave my big speech. And I saw my wife, and I gave her a big hug and a kiss, because I love my wife and I think that's what a normal person does.
Tim Walz gave his wife a nice, firm, Midwestern handshake, and then try to sort of awkwardly correct for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: What?
BASH: Well, that's what I said. I said, I don't really understand what you're saying. And then he continued to sort of explain it. I can't believe we're having this conversation.
But we went -- but we, in fact, Jeff Zeleny, who was there, sent me a photo of the two of them hugging. I mean, when Tim Walz did go to his wife, it almost looked like he was turning around to -- with his hand out, not knowing who was there. And it was like, oh, it's you, and then hold her hand.
HUNT: Right.
BASH: But I guess, look, the point is, is that he's not afraid to play in this sandbox, and that is why the Tim Walz actually came up with this term weird, because Democrats, for so long, have brought a sort of a knife to a gun fight when it comes to the rhetoric of Donald Trump, and they're trying to be more in that space. DAVID FRUM, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Also, look, JD Vance spends way too much time online and spends way too much time with people who are online. So a lot of what he says is going to be incomprehensible to you, unless you participate in or have some acquaintance with this strange underworld that he comes from. So when the point to the -- I'm going to say this.
HUNT: Yes.
FRUM: It's not nice, it's not true. But what he's trying to suggest is that Tim Walz is a sexual deviant of some kind.
MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TIM SCOTT'S 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: What? What are you talking about?
FRUM: That's what he's trying to -- that's what he's trying to imply.
GORMAN: That is ridiculous, David.
FRUM: Of course, that --
GORMAN: No.
FRUM: -- that as well.
GORMAN: No, That's ridiculous. (Inaudible) no, first of all, Tim Walz starts the weird line attack --
FRUM: Look at Donald Trump --
GORMAN: -- Brad (ph) summer, and you go to (inaudible) that is ridiculous.
FRUM: If you want to -- if you want to understand, this is a point of analytic understanding not -- look at Donald Trump Jr's twitter feed to understand what the underworld, the lava coming up from the ugliest parts of American life are, and what they tried to suggest.
[06:40:10]
The point to JD Vance, when he says, I want to talk about policy. He's in the -- he's a candidate who's trying to say, when I said that the unemployed are a bunch of lazy, loud, swilling beer on the couch at 9:00 AM, what I meant to say is this country needs to do a better job of creating work for people, you know.
That everything is couched as a personal attack of the most vicious kind, and that's what he's doing with Tim Walz. That's why people think he's weird, because he's so brilliant, he's so capable. So why is he so filled with rage and contempt for others?
HUNT: You're saying that JD Vance is brilliant. You're giving him --
FRUM: Yes, he is brilliant. I mean, very, very intelligent. Why is he so filled with rage and contempt? HUNT: I appreciate, Matt, you being -- you pushing back on that. I want to kind of bring it back to Dana's interview, because you also spoke with him about the president's -- the former President Donald Trump's comments at NABJ and these, questions that, you know, he said Kamala Harris, "happened to turn black, questioning her racial identity." Let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: I believe that Kamala Harris is whatever she says she is. But I believe, importantly, that President Trump is right that she's a chameleon. She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience. She pretends to be something different in front of another audience.
Look, Dana, she's not running a political campaign, she's running a movie. She only speaks to voters behind a teleprompter. Everything is script.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, I mean, this is what the campaign would like Donald Trump to be focused on, right, like this messaging around calling Kamala Harris a chameleon. That's not what Trump is doing, even though Vance is out there doing it.
BASH: And what happened right after that in the interview is, I said something along the lines of, with respect, if you want to talk about people changing your positions, you changed one of the biggest which is that you were very anti-Donald Trump, and now you're not. And then he explained, as he has done before, why he thought that he was wrong about Donald Trump before.
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE: I mean, I just don't think we should be in the business of questioning people's race. I just think it's a weird place to be. I think it's -- they need to stick to issues and I think that he was trying to do that there. But again, Donald Trump's not going to do that.
So I just think when you start having these conversations about race, you are turning off people who are these Independent voters who don't -- this -- it just is weird to them start overuse. But just as like --
HUNT: Becoming a word for the campaign.
HAYS: It's just like an interesting place to be again. We need to focus on issues and like the economy and how are you going to make people's lives better and the vision for the future, and leave all this personal stuff behind it. I just think it's turning off people in these battleground states
HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, Democrats say that they are spreading a message of joy. They want to ride positive momentum to the White House. We're going to dig into that. Plus, Team USA appealing a decision to strip the bronze medal from American gymnast Jordan Chiles.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HUNT: All right, 46 minutes past the hour, here's your morning roundup. The fight for Jordan Chiles to keep her individual bronze medal continues, USA gymnastics formally submitted video evidence to show the team's head coach request to file an inquiry on Chiles' score was submitted 47 seconds after the judging. That is within the one minute deadline required. This has all happened because they were told that they missed that deadline.
Former foes Elon Musk and Donald Trump sitting down for a one on one interview on the platform formerly known as Twitter tonight. Musk has already endorsed Trump for his 2024 candidacy. He promises the conversation tonight will be, "highly entertaining."
Imagine trying to get around Los Angeles without a car. That's what Mayor Karen Bass says she is aiming for when the Olympics head to LA in four years. She said she wants the games to be car free. This is part of a plan that includes expanding the city's public transportation. Just say I will believe it when I see it.
Call me skeptical, but hey, I suppose it's a (inaudible) and it's an admirable goal. All right, let's turn back to the 2024 race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM WALZ (D), MINNESOTA GOVERNOR AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're trying to steal the joy from this country. They try and steal the joy.
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In this fight, we are joyful warriors.
WALZ: She has brought back compassion and decency, and humor, and joy to our politics.
HARRIS: Hard work is good work, and we will do it with joy.
WALZ: She has brought out the joy in our politics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: OK. So now we're stating the obvious, the Harris-Walz campaign has centered their campaign around joy. Its message is one that our next guest said -- says could be decisive in November in his latest piece for Variety magazine.
Mark McKinnon writes this, "Eight years of MAGA gloom, with a global pandemic in the midst of it, has enveloped the country in a dark cloak. When Biden initially handed the reins to Harris and voters responded so enthusiastically, they were evidently starving for a break from the drum beat, seeking a more optimistic message, even if many may not have realized it at the time, they were primed for the positive. And while there will be battles royale during the next three months over ideology, policy and personal biographies, I believe this election will fundamentally boil down to a contest between the future and the past, between joy and anger." Joining me now is Mark McKinnon, former adviser to George W. Bush and John McCain, one of the creators of Paramount, "The Circus." Mark, good morning. It's always wonderful to see you.
[06:50:06]
MARK MCKINNON, FORMER ADVISER TO GEORGE W BUSH AND JOHN MCCAIN: Good morning. Good morning.
HUNT: So I really enjoyed your piece, and you really compare this, this new attitude from the Harris campaign, to some of the most successful campaigns of the past, regardless of party. And we pulled together -- you write about them in your piece. We thought it'd be fun to show them on TV.
You're citing, again, these are little pieces that you put together to kind of show how this kind of a message can help somebody win. Let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's morning again in America, and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger, and better.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: I mean, the contrast could not be more clear, right? I mean, that first one was, of course, JFK's campaign song,
MCKINNON: Yes, the great series of clips there, Kasie, you know, the other campaign I didn't even mention but, of course, I'm closest to was George W Bush and his compassionate conservatism. I just heard Walz in your clip talk about compassion.
We've been missing compassion. We've been missing joy. And I just think there's this pent up hunger for optimism joy, and I think that goes a long way toward explaining what's happening. Because something unique and different is happening, and I think a lot of it just has to do with people just embracing the joy of this campaign. And how weird is it that one of the first things the Trump campaign did was attack Kamala Harris's laughter, for God's sake.
And then I thought about I thought, you know what's really weird, you never hear Donald Trump laugh. I mean, have you, and if you have, please roll the tape.
HUNT: I'll have them go looking for it. But this, I mean, that's come up -- we've seen that come up before, right? This note that Donald Trump very rarely laughs. I mean, sometimes humor is part of his rallies, but it was -- it was much more that way in 2016. I mean, that really seems to be one of the really striking differences between that campaign that he won, what we saw in 2020 and what we're seeing this time around. I mean, even if you look at him, Mark, I'm really interested in kind of your take on what we saw from the former president over the weekend, because there had -- there was this big report in the New York Times where they said he had called Kamala Harris the b-word. He was reportedly kind of angry and brooding, and demanding, you know, updates from his campaign advisers about what is the latest polling.
His mood seems to be to match the darkness of his campaign right now. What impact is that having?
MCKINNON: A ton. I mean, think about it. This is, again, something that George Bush used to say, people don't say, I'm really pissed off, follow me. If they do, nobody does. And to your point, that just -- it's so dark in Trumpville right now.
And by the way, the crazy tweet that he did, that you also mentioned on the program, is just -- I mean, we think we've seen the total crazy of Trump, and then he does something like this. And, you know, I mean questioning the 2020 election, I mean, is sinister, but this is like another level.
Because think about it, if he were president again, and he's fantasizing about his enemies, like China, and he thinks that they're using AI to create whatever, like crowds for like Harris, how's he going to respond as president, if he's actually thinking these things are true about his opponents?
HUNT: Mark, the sort of overall question, and I'm sure that you know, when you come back, we'll kind of continue to talk about this as this goes on. But this has been such a period of highs for the Harris campaign, how would you evaluate how they're dealing with the speed bumps that are coming their way?
There was this military service question around Walz. Obviously we're going to head into the convention. That's likely to be another kind of upper for them, but surely the rubber is going to meet the road at some point. How do you evaluate them so far, and what do you see in that regard, in the future?
MCKINNON: Great point. Great point, Kasie, because they are. And that's when -- that's the real test of a campaign. But when we look back on this campaign in the future, if Harris wins, I think this compressed time schedule will really have worked to her advantage.
Because think about it, she's had three-and-a-half weeks of great press. If she can get through this week with good press, you know, she's going to get great press during the convention. That will be more than a month of like solid positive press, and then rolling into September. So that's tough to beat.
Now, yes, Walz military record that they -- I think they did the right thing with the statement about he misspoke. So that was good on that point. She did do a little presser at the airport, as you saw, which of course, Trump thinks his AI now.
[06:55:06]
So they know that they've got to do that. They know they've got to face some press and some tough questionings. But they can kind of fade this, and they're rolling with it just right, and they roll it up through the convention. That gives her more confidence. So that when they do face these speed bumps, they can do it with a whole shield of armor.
Final point I'll make is that, you know, Democrats are always accused of bringing a knife to a gunfight. Well, this positive campaign is like bringing biscuits to a gunfight. And I think the Republicans are going, what?
HUNT: Right, fair enough. Mark McKinnon for us this morning. Mark, always grateful to have you. Thank you. Hope you'll come back soon.
MCKINNON: Kasie, thanks.
HUNT: All right, let's turn now -- let's turn now to this.
(MUSIC)
HUNT: This was the slow dance at my middle school dances. Donald Trump opened his Montana rally this weekend. I'm sure you can recognize it, Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" if you've been living under a rock for all this time. You may remember, this is a romantic ballad that served as the theme to James Cameron's "Titanic," and now it was at a Trump rally.
Dion took issue with Trump's use of the song and then posted, in no way is this use authorized. Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use. The singer also posed this question. Tell me you weren't thinking it, really, that song? I mean --
GORMAN: First of all --
HUNT: I love that.
GORMAN: Yes, it's a great song. A little renaissance of Celine Dion right now by the Olympics.
HUNT: I know. We love to see it.
GORMAN: It's funny, right, because if you've been to a Trump rally, like the soundtrack is quite good, actually, beforehand, it is. And it's like really like the adult contemporary station that your parents would listen to while you're in the backseat of the car. It's like Celine Dion --
HAYS: Queen.
GORMAN: -- easy listening Rolling Stones in there. It's actually a pretty good like mix. But, yes, it's always also the tough part with Republicans and finding those songs, and they -- we always would get dinged on this a couple times every election running a bunch too.
HUNT: Yes.
GORMAN: The artists tend not to be on our side of the aisle.
HUNT: Right. Usually, the celebrities are more on the other but, I mean, it's sort of telling, David Frum, that they like allowed this to happen.
FRUM: Playing a song from a movie that hit -- a giant ship that hit an iceberg and sank --
HUNT: Yes, that's the one
FRUM: -- and killed almost all those aboard. Well, he -- Donald Trump plays strange songs. I want to put in a special word here that Celine, not only Celine Dion Canadian, but so is James Cameron that we need to have a little (inaudible).
HUNT: Our resident Canadian. Meghan, you want to weigh in on this?
HAYS: One, I mean, I think that the Harris campaign got a lot of credit for Beyonce things you could do your song. I think there was something over the weekend with Tim Walz. So I just -- I heard with Governor Walz, I just think that, like, it's incredible that, like your point, the Democrats always seem to get the good music. But this is like an advanced fail 101, like the very first thing you do is make sure the music is vetted, make sure you have permission to use it. I mean --
GORMAN: I remember having very in depth conversation about what song Jeb Bush got to be (inaudible).
HAYS: Yes.
FRUM: But the Trump campaign doesn't pay for its venue, so why would they pay for its music?
HUNT: Well, yes. It's -- it is -- it is -- one of the things about the Trump soundtrack that I always thought was interesting is that it really deviated from, like, sort of the country music heavy.
GORMAN: Yes.
HUNT: Like way that other campaigns would do.
GORMAN: Yes. Again, when you're on the road and you're hearing this for a year straight, it's nice to have some -- ten songs.
HUNT: Right, yeah.
HAYS: Celine Dion.
GORMAN: Oh absolutely. In my opinion, yes. It's my persona opinion, personal.
HUNT: All right. So speaking of musical acts, we'll get to it. I'm going to leave you with this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Tom Cruise giving the Olympics a Hollywood send off during the closing ceremonies in Paris. He zip lined into the stadium, grabbed the Olympic flag from Simone Biles, and then set off on his motorcycle. And then, there was this, prepared package.
(Music)
HUNT: The US take over the closing ceremony, then took us to a beach side concert in LA with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And the mascot of the 2024 Olympics took the stage, Snoop Dogg,
(Music)
HUNT: Now LA is on the clock as the US hosts the world at the next Summer Olympics in 2028. First of all, I hope Snoop is coming back, right? He has to, right?
HAYS: Yes,
GORMAN: Yes, absolutely. He have the high bar in LA but Paris did such a great job.
HAYS: He's amazing.
HUNT: Paris did a great job. David Frum, what you make of Tom Cruise? They changed the Hollywood sign. They put the Olympic rings up there.
FRUM: Yes. LA has been a great center of Olympics. 1984, I think, was the one Olympics that didn't lose money. And of course, the whole shape of modern Los Angeles is owing to their first Olympics --
HUNT: Yes.
FRUM: -- the Olympic Avenue. And the whole shift of the city from the center to the west, they owe to the Olympics of almost a century ago. So I -- I don't disbelieve the mayor that the Olympics could be transformational for the Los Angeles of the 21st century.
HUNT: All right, fair enough. All right. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate you joining me today.
Thanks to all of you for being here. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN "News Central" starts right now.
