Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

DNC to Kick off in Chicago Today; Trump: 'I'm Better Looking' than Harris; Trump Campaign Plans to Counter DNC with Events. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired August 19, 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 Monday, August 19. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING, the Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago, where Kamala Harris will accept her party's nomination for president.

Plus --

[06:00:17]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are still the party of hope, if only we dare hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Biden set to attend his 13th DNC tonight, where he will pass the torch to Kamala Harris.

And Hollywood buzz at the DNC, as a list of celebrities are set to rally around Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

And then --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She's a truly radical left lunatic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Donald Trump continuing to attack Kamala Harris as the vice president sees a boost in the polls.

All right, 5 a.m. here in Chicago, 6 a.m. on the East Coast. A live look at the United Center. It's home to the Democratic National Convention throughout this week.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

In just hours, the Democratic National Convention begins on this stage right behind me. You can really feel the enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris already building in this town. You could see it in O'Hare when people were landing here at the airport. Democrats basically here to party.

Harris herself, though, wrapping up a bus tour heading into the convention with a message to her party. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Polls show that you're three points up nationally. What's your response to this? You still consider yourself the underdog here?

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I very much consider us the underdog. We have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people. That's why were on this bus tour today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Don't forget to work for it, she says.

National polling continuing to trend in Harris's direction. A new survey from CBS News showing Harris beating Trump by three points nationally. The two in a dead-even tie in the battleground states that will decide the election.

Tonight, Harris will watch from inside the arena as President Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, address the delegates. His historic decision to leave the race giving Harris this chance and upending the race in a way that has clearly thrown Donald Trump, who is still struggling with how to take her on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: "TIME" magazine doesn't have a picture of her. They have this unbelievable artist drawing her. But I say that I am much better looking than her. I think I'm much better looking. Much better. I'm a better looking person than Kamala.

They said no, her biggest advantage is that she's a beautiful woman. I'm going, huh, I never thought of that. I'm better looking than she is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Joining us now to discuss: Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director; Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator, former South Carolina Democratic state representative; Shermichael Singleton, Republican strategist, CNN political commentator; and Mark McKinnon, former adviser to George W. Bush and John McCain, and of course, the creator of "The Circus" on Showtime. Welcome to all of you. Thank you, guys, for being here on this first day.

Mark McKinnon, I've got to start with you, because of course, what Trump was reacting to there, it's a very specific example in a broader universe of just how people are dealing with Kamala Harris right now. The excitement here.

He was technically responding to a Peggy Noonan column that was at the beginning of August where Noonan says she is beautiful. You can't take a bad picture of her. Her beauty plus the social warmth that all who have known over the years speak of combines to produce radiance. And it's foolish to believe that this doesn't matter."

But it really kind of put the -- this race into sharp relief.

MARK MCKINNON, FORMER ADVISOR TO GEORGE W. BUSH AND JOHN MCCAIN: It's the greatest and latest example of just how unprepared he is to deal with -- with Kamala Harris.

And Peggy Noonan, by the way, who's Reagan's speech writer and a terrific columnist, had another great line about what's happening here, when she said it's not so much that Kamala Harris created a movement as a movement created her.

To me, I think that really captures what's going on, which is there's this burst of pent-up enthusiasm that's been going on for the last eight years, really, since Trump came on the scene.

And by the way, I think this is going to be a night when -- or a week when Kamala Harris is standing not only on (UNINTELLIGIBLE)'s shoulders, but also on Hillary Clinton's shoulders. And again, that's part of that pent-up -- All those Hillary people who thought they were going to win eight years ago, are going to be just blowing up this week, right?

HUNT: Well, and to that point, Kate, I mean, we are going to see Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden on stage tonight in a real -- it's another contrast, quite candidly, with Republicans.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, absolutely. And I agree with Mark, but I also think you have to be the person who's ready to absorb and take it on and take on the mantle. And I wouldn't take that away from Kamala Harris.

MCKINNON: Sure.

BEDINGFIELD: Because I think she has risen to this moment in a way that has been maybe historically successful.

[06:05:07]

So -- and yes, I mean, tonight you're going to see some of the elder statesmen and the kind of pillars of the Democratic Party. A dramatic contrast with where the Republican Party is right now, which is -- you know, the majority of people who have served under Donald Trump not willing to endorse him.

I mean, you have a Republican Party that is fractured, that is reeling. You have Donald Trump making an argument about who's more attractive.

Because if there's one thing that a swing voter in Pennsylvania really cares out, it's you know, is Donald Trump more attractive than Kamala Harris? That's what -- that's like, keeping them up at night while they're -- while they're grappling with who to vote for.

HUNT: Well, it does -- it doesn't -- I mean, Peggy Noonan goes on to say, it does matter. So many in this male-dominated profession have taken to Botox fillers, derm abrasions, facelifts, and all the cosmetic things is what she wrote. Because they're in a cosmetic profession that said it.

BEDINGFIELD: OK. That's fair. And absolutely it is. It is a -- it is a performance-focused industry platform. And Kamala Harris is beautiful. She is beautiful.

But you know, I just think it goes to the fact that Donald Trump has not found a way a substantive way to get at her. He's on his back foot. Republicans are on their back foot.

And you're going to see a really united Democratic Party this week.

HUNT: On the substance point, Bakari, or to the extent that that is -- that is something that his campaign is trying to push: their reaction to her economic plan on Friday.

And this was an area where I will say people I have talked to on both sides of the aisle have acknowledged, like, there's some questions here. She put -- she did that economic speech.

Now, the way that Republicans attacked her on that was to call her a communist.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

HUNT: They put up this graphic, which I think we can show. We should underscore it's AI-generated. It's not real. Kamala Harris does not identify as a communist.

And that's what Trump was out calling her also in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday. Let's take a look at that, and we'll talk to Bakari about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are going to defeat a communist known as Kamala Harris.

Kamala went full communist. You heard that. She went full communist. She wants to destroy our country.

Her father, a Marxist. He was a Marxist. It's what her father taught her from a young girl growing up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So of course, this is the Trump version of -- I mean, if -- if Trump were to be listening to Republicans and -- in his party, who say he should attack her on policy, I suppose this is a version of it. Do you think it gets any traction?

SELLERS: I'm not sure there's any Republican that actually has good common sense that is saying that is the way to attack Kamala Harris.

HUNT: Fair enough. SELLERS: I think that if you have Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, and -- and Jason and all of the other people around her who kept him very disciplined for the first four or five months of this race, they would probably say tie her as close to Joe Biden as you possibly can. Talk about the same policies, et cetera.

This isn't it. You know, Comrade Kamala is not a name that is going to stick. It seems as if he's trying to just throw whatever against the wall.

But Donald Trump has this unique inability to dial in whenever he's in the face of a black woman. It's almost weird to see. Whether or not it's Abby Phillip, or whether or not it's April Ryan, or whether or not it's Kamala Harris, he short-circuits. And it's -- and it's fascinating when you watch it.

And -- and one of the things that he's having a lot of trouble with is figuring out any way to attack Kamala Harris, any way whatsoever. Because what we're seeing is that this is not going to work. Next week it's going to be something else. Next week is going to be something else.

And September 10 is going to come soon enough when they have to stand toe-to-toe on the debate stage.

HUNT: Shermichael, can you weigh in on what his point here?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, look, I think there are some ways to distinguish the conservative message and the former president's record from the vice president. And that is on the economic front.

I mean, if you look at the polling data, if you are to believe the numbers that we have, many Americans would say that at least during the first two years of Trump's presidency, they did feel more financially secure.

There are still some issues I would argue with in the Democratic Party, which is why you're seeing so many protesters here protesting, calling for a ceasefire.

What occurs, Kasie, if that doesn't happen, particularly in a state like Michigan, where there's a strong Muslim population, where there are a lot of young Democratic voters, where this is a principal concern for the release in the top five or top ten issues.

And so while I would like the former president to get back to the message of the economy, foreign policy, immigration, I do think Republicans writ large are going to look at this and say there are areas where most people would say they're not happy with the past three-and-a-half years.

Vice President Harris has been with Joe Biden along the step. Nothing has improved. That should be the message the American people.

HUNT: So, speaking of the Democratic divisions or fissures, Mark, Maureen Dowd over the weekend kind of said out loud what --

SELLERS: Democrats saying, listen to Maureen Dowd.

HUNT: OK, fine. I concede that. But let's look at what she said. OK.

[06:10:02]

So, this is what Maureen Dowd writes. Quote, "We are ahead -- we head to Chicago on a wave of euphoria, exuberance, exultation, excitement, and even you might say ecstasy. It's going to be a glorious coronation, except that everybody's mad at each other. Top Democrats are bristling with resentments, even as they are about to try to put on a united front at the United Center in the Windy City. A coterie of powerful Democrats maneuvered behind the scenes to push an incumbent president out of the race."

And it is true that there is some real anger in the Joe Biden camp that is currently being, you know, suppressed. But it's there, and he's going to be here tonight on the stage.

SELLERS: I mean, I just loved the plethora of adjectives Maureen used. Coterie -- coterie. I felt like I was studying for the SAT, Mrs. Dowd. I don't know.

Look, the fact is, that's not accurate. I think what you're going to see tonight are a lot of "thank you, Joes." We're going to see his staff feel very warm about the fact that this man gave 40, 50, 60 years of his life, and he's going to get a coronation tonight on this stage.

He's going to have the woman who he loves the most beside him in Dr. Jill. And he's going to have somebody who he has a great deal of respect for.

And what Mrs. Dowd misses is, if she actually spoke to any of us or had an inroad to anybody who knows what's going on, is that he looks at Kamala Harris with this great love and admiration, because of Kamala Harris's love, respect, and relationship with Beau Biden.

And a lot of what he sees in Kamala he sees through the prism of Beau. And so, we're going to see that tonight.

And I just think that it's going to be so much euphoria. And I think -- I think whatever dissension people may believe exists is going to be tampered.

BEDINGFIELD: I mean, I totally agree with this, and I will tell you somebody -- as somebody who worked for Joe Biden for a long time, if there is one thing that he puts above all else -- Well, first it's family. But then secondly, it's service, and it's the idea of service.

And if he's feeling any frustration about what happened over the last month, I can tell you that it's something he will keep private, that he will talk to his own family about, that he will not in any way allow to roll out and infect, and disrupt this moment where Democrats have come together in a really unprecedented way. MCKINNON: Well, that's -- and that's going to dissipate completely tonight. I mean, this will be the gold watch moment.

I mean, his legacy could have been one of two things. It was, possibly, that the guy to beat Trump reelected Trump, or that he is the guy responsible for handing off the baton --

BEDINGFIELD: Absolutely.

MCKINNON: -- to the next generation of leadership --

BEDINGFIELD: Absolutely.

MCKINNON: -- in the Democratic Party and possibly win the election.

BEDINGFIELD: Absolutely.

MCKINNON: So, it's going to be a coronation for -- for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

HUNT: It's a real legacy moment in many ways --

MCKINNON: A hundred percent.

HUNT: -- for him. I mean, I will say, Shermichael, I mean, I've talked to people. People are willing to say out loud that if -- if Harris goes on to lose the election to Trump, that also is going to reflect poorly on Joe Biden.

SINGLETON: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think some Democrats would probably say, man, we probably should have kept Joe in, despite his issues.

HUNT: Well --

SINGLETON: I mean, look --

HUNT: I don't know.

SINGLETON: I would say this. Again, I'll go back to the issue of men. Yes, women are energized because of the reproductive issue, but you cannot win this election with just women only.

Yes, the vice president has increased her margins with Hispanic voters, writ large. She's still behind, I think, about seven points. She's around 77 percent with black voters. She needs to be at 90 or above in order to win as a Democrat.

Democrats, in order to win the Electoral College, need, I believe, two to three million more votes. I mean, these are real numbers despite this energy that we're seeing.

I congratulate, again, my Democratic friends. I congratulate Vice President Harris. But the numbers are what the numbers will be. And those things haven't necessarily changed. SELLERS: NO, I mean, the blessing is that you're running against

Donald Trump. And Donald Trump forever has a very high floor and a low ceiling. I mean, he's a 46 percent candidate.

I mean, the reason Donald Trump got elected in 20 -- 2016 is because of a young lady named Jill Stein. I mean, we all know that.

And so, I agree with Kamala [SIC]. I mean, excuse me. I agree with Shermichael, and I think that one of the things that come --

SINGLETON: Thank you, thank you.

SELLERS: I don't know if you understand, all black people look alike.

The beauty -- the beauty that Shermichael is exuding right now has me off-kilter.

But what I was saying is I agree with Shermichael. And I agree with Kamala, because I want people to understand what you just said. Democrat -- she's still an underdog.

BEDINGFIELD: Absolutely.

SELLERS: Like I don't know why --

HUNT: I said that off the top.

SELLERS: We're still underdogs in this race. I mean, you're still running against somebody who has won a national election before.

And Kamala Harris says has -- has not had success on this level before. So, she's still an underdog. We just have the wind at our sails. Is it going to be enough November 5? I'm not sure.

MCKINNON: Here's a really interesting quote. This is from about a month ago, and it is the following. "I don't think Joe Biden has a ton of advantages, but I do think Democrats do." You know who that was?

SELLERS: You.

HUNT: I do.

MCKINNON: Susie Wiles.

HUNT: Susie Wiles.

SELLERS: Wow.

HUNT: In "The Atlantic." Yes.

MCKINNON: Before that. So, she's admitting that the Democrats have a lot of inherent built-in advantages that Joe Biden didn't have because of his age, primarily.

HUNT: Well, we're seeing that in just the lineup here. Right? That so many -- all of the former presidents are here. That is not something that happened at Trump's Republican convention, as euphoric as it was for Republicans.

SELLERS: Save for one. One is not here.

[06:15:03]

HUNT: Save for one.

SINGLETON: And I wish we could have had George W. Bush. That -- that would have been great, Mark, to see the former president there, but I know that that's unlikely.

SELLERS: Why wasn't Mike Pence there? I forget.

SINGLETON: We know why Mike Pence was not there, guys. I mean, come on.

HUNT: I mean --

SINGLETON: Look, Kasie, I will say quickly, I do expect this to be a great week for Democrats. And I do expect potentially for them -- for the vice president to see another maybe four or 5 percent bump after this.

And so, I do think Republicans have to take this very serious. She's a different candidate. This has superseded policies in some ways. It's a cultural thing. It's a movement.

And it is difficult to message against something like that. And I think that's why you're sort of seeing the former president struggle a little bit.

SELLERS: She's also -- she's also receiving the blessing of -- of circumstance, because what's happening right now is inflation is easing.

MCKINNON: Yes, I was just -- yes.

SELLERS: Border crossing numbers are going down. Violent crime is going down. And so, like it's -- it's -- the timing of it could not happen at a better time. I mean, you'd rather be on the downslope of those numbers than those numbers rising.

Now, do I know Shermichael's about the dive in and say, are people feeling it, X, Y, Z?

SINGLETON: Well, we're in Chicago where crime is still a problem. We're in Chicago, where the migrant issue has cost the city $1 billion --

BEDINGFIELD: Not a swing state. Not a swing state.

SINGLETON: Hey, but Kasie, but the point is --

SELLERS: We're not in Chicago (ph).

SINGLETON: But the point -- but the point that I'm trying to make here, if I'm a conservative and Democrats are to make this lofty argument that their policy and their -- and their ideas are going to work, generally speaking, well, here's a great city that we're in. And some of those policies are not working very well.

And these are certainly not the policies that I would like to see all across America.

MCKINNON: I think the compressed schedule, if Kamala wins, we're going to look back and say what a huge advantage it's turned out to be, because look what's happening just in a few weeks.

I've always said that, in a presidential campaign, the three really big times when you can move the dial are your announcement, your V.P. pick, and the convention and the debates. And she's doing that all within, like, a four-week period.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

MCKINNON: So, I mean --

BEDINGFIELD: And she said, I think -- I also think what this freedom message. So yes, absolutely. A lot of the economic circumstances are in this moment moving in her direction, but she has also tapped into, remember, this kind of -- this fear and this anxiety that people have about Trump and the Republicans in a post-Dobbs world in particular.

Obviously reproductive rights is kind of the most illustrative example of that.

HUNT: Salient.

BEDINGFIELD: Salient, yes. Thank you.

But -- but -- but you know, she -- let's also give her and her campaign some credit, that they have kind of, I think, kind of put their finger on the zeitgeist of what people are anxious about, about Trump.

And so she's been able to sort of harness this energy in a way that I think, you know, she could have mis-stepped.

SINGLETON: But the race is --

BEDINGFIELD: Right? And she hasn't.

SINGLETON: But the race is still incredibly close, despite all those things.

BEDINGFIELD: No question.

SINGLETON: Thirty days of incredible coverage.

BEDINGFIELD: No question.

SINGLETON: And despite Donald Trump sort of meandering all over the place on some issues, there is still obvious, obviously some strength of the former president --

MCKINNON: It's his to lose.

SELLERS: We're an equal -- we're to an equally divided country.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, yes. Partisanship is so calcified. And yes, you could not -- you cannot look at the head-to-head in battleground states and say this is not a coin toss race. It is.

But you also, to what we've been discussing, you also can't look under the hood at where some of the key constituencies that need to rally for Kamala Harris are and say there isn't a little bit more work to do. And this is a very close race.

MCKINNON: I think it was amazing is that, over the last year, Trump was indicted, convicted. There was assassination attempt, and now he's grumpy.

HUNT: Fair enough.

All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, Kamala Harris rolls out her pitch on the economy to try to tame inflation, drawing praise from Democrats and some ridicule from the GOP.

Plus, Hillary Clinton, the first woman to win a major-party presidential nomination, takes the stage tonight to voice her support for fellow trailblazer Kamala Harris.

Plus, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance hit the trail this weekend, critical swing states to try to counter-program the DNC and continue their offense against the Harris campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Under Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden, the American dream was dead, and it is dead. It's dead as a doornail. They'll never bring it back unless we win. If we win, we're going to have the American dream.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:23:44]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We know that there's a great return on investment. When we increase home ownership in America, what that means in terms of increasing the tax base, not to mention property tax base, what that does to fund schools, again, return on investment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Vice President Harris, rolling out specifics of her economic agenda, something the Trump campaign is now criticizing. The former president and his running mate set for a blitz of swing

states this week to try to counter the DNC. They'll start with two events in Pennsylvania today.

Trump also starting to hone in on the details that Harris outlined in her economic agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Her plan is very dangerous, because it may sound good politically; and that's the problem. And we have to be very careful, because when somebody gets up and says, We're going to give you everything -- 25,000 for a house. We're going to give you all sorts of little goodies, free healthcare. We're going to give you everything. Universal health care. Sounds so beautiful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, the panel is back.

Kate, you have your head (ph).

BEDINGFIELD: Can I just say, when your opponent is saying your -- your -- your plank, your policy platform sounds really politically great and is sort of like sarcastically touting the things that you're doing, you're probably starting from a position of strength. Let's just call it what it is.

So, you know, I think the -- there's going to be a really interesting needle that I imagine that Kamala Harris is going to try to thread on the economy. I know there's been a lot of discussion in Michigan, to distance herself from Biden.

[06:25:08]

You know, I think what's interesting here is, if you look at some of the key things that the Biden administration was able to get done on the economy. We always go to, you know, capping insulin, because that's a very tangible -- capping the cost of insulin, I should say. Because that's a very tangible thing that makes a difference in people's lives.

Those are really popular policies. And so I think the thing that Kamala Harris can do here, the opportunity she has is to take some of these policies that were -- that have broad bipartisan support, that are kind of populist, aimed at, you know, making people's lives better, and talk about them in her voice, put her -- you know, put her framing on it.

And so, you know, to me, it's less about sprinting away from some of the economic policy proposals of the Biden administration -- or accomplishments, I should say -- of the Biden administration and more about her using this moment to do this in her voice, which I think is -- is what we've seen so far. I think it's what we saw on Friday. And I would imagine it's what we'll see more of this week.

So, to me, the question is not quite is she going to sprint away from the thing she was able to do in the White House?

And more a question of, you know, how is she going to talk about some of these things without the anchor -- we'll just call it that -- of Joe Biden's personal unpopularity as a result of his age kind of around her neck.

HUNT: Where do you think that separation is?

MCKINNON: Well, two things. One is I loved it when Donald Trump criticized Harris, saying elect Harris and everyone's going to get health care.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, exactly. This is what I'm saying.

MCKINNON: But the other thing I'm -- you know, when part of her proposal that came out with, you know, the Republican response has been, oh, price controls. Nixon.

And I thought, well, maybe this is an opening. But then I also just saw some data. And again, to your point, the political power of her argument: using antitrust to enforce laws against price gouging and price fixing. That's a plus 42. That's a winner.

SELLERS: That's what I thought. That's --

BEDINGFIELD: Totally. And like, Republican A.G.'s -- Republican A.G.'s have pursued these kinds of suits, too.

SELLERS: But I think that -- I think it starts from a different premise, which is something that I appreciate. And it's subtle, but I think voters recognize it, as well. Which is that, although we've had successes with the Inflation Reduction Act, people still feel the pain.

And Kamala Harris is saying, Look, I know that we didn't do everything for you. Like, you still are hurting. Right? Prices are still high. So, this is what I want to do to do that.

And it's boxing Trump in, in a very unique way, because Republicans have this really very tangible history of saying, We don't like something. And then failing to identify how they would replace it. Right?

You could talk about health care. The Affordable Care Act is the most glaring example. For seven, eight, nine, 10 years, they've been saying, We're going to repeal Obamacare.

HUNT: Well, just last week, Trump was like, I'm not doing that.

SELLERS: And we're like, with what?

And then, you combine that with the fact that they have a really hard time articulating an economic message, which is really rare for the Reagan Republican Party to be able to not articulate an economic message. But you also have a diminished candidate. Like Donald Trump is not

Donald Trump of eight years ago. He cannot -- did you see the Tic Tac thing the other day? The little Tic Tac and the big Tic Tac.

HUNT: Not the -- not the first time he's done that. He didn't --

SELLERS: And nobody knows what the hell he was talking about. Like --

HUNT: Well, I think -- well, he was talking about inflation, right? Your money buys the little Tic Tac, not the big Tic Tac.

SELLERS: That's what he was saying?

HUNT: I think so. I mean, I don't know. It was relatively clear to me. All right. It might have been a gimmick, but it -- like, I don't know.

SELLERS: It was -- I was wondering what those Tic Tac things were.

SINGLETON: Kasie, look, I understand my Democratic friend's point. But I think honestly here, you've had three-and-a-half years to address inflation. Why should Vice President Harris be given an opportunity to do something that the Biden-Harris administration have yet to be able to do?

During her speech, Vice President Harris said the loaf of bread is up 50 percent since the pandemic. Yes, she's right. It is.

Two years before the pandemic, people could afford a loaf of bread. They could afford to put food on the table. They could afford to put gas in the car. They can afford to go on those extended vacations if they so chose.

They can't do that under the Biden-Harris administration. And so, I think Republicans have to continue --

(CROSSTALK)

SINGLETON: Republicans have to continue to hit Vice President Harris on those issues.

SELLERS: Let me just fact check for one second, because you said a word in there that matters a lot. It's called "pandemic," right?

And so, we went through a global pandemic which caused global inflation. And what you want to see is that, actually, the Biden- Harris administration has helped ease inflation at rates faster than any other country around the globe.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

SELLERS: And so, like, we're doing this better than absolutely anyone. And you're right, but we have to remember that -- and the reason I want to just interrupt you is because you made it seem like Biden and Harris caused inflation; and they didn't.

If we want to talk about real numbers, the fact that -- HUNT: Well, economic analysts will say that the Inflation Reduction Act did -- had the opposite effect, that it piled on the spending.

SELLERS: I don't know that --

HUNT: Just there was a lot of pandemic spending, right, that Donald Trump infused into the economy.

Then there was more spending from Biden. I'm just -- I'm just offering you the counterpoint. I'm letting you make your argument.

SELLERS: I don't think -- I don't know --

HUNT: Then Republicans will push back and say that this --

SELLERS: -- I have to --