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Anti-Trump Republicans Among Speakers At DNC; Trump On Role For RFK Jr.: "Certainly I'd Be Open To It; Kate Cox At DNC: "Nothing Pro- Family About Abortion Bans." Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired August 21, 2024 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:33:14]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it is 4:32 a.m. here in Chicago. I think that they keep putting these X's in my script and I keep wanting to say it's 5:00 a.m., but it's not. It's even earlier here inside the United Center here in Chicago, which you are looking at live. I'm not even sure if the vacuum cleaner is out yet to clean up yet. I think they've come and gone already. Look at that.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
Democrats not the only ones hyping up Kamala Harris at the DNC this week. A number of anti-Trump Republicans have joined their ranks to try to make the case about why they plan to support Harris in November.
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STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth.
MAYOR JOHN GILES, (R) MESA, ARIZONA: John McCain's Republican Party is gone, and we don't owe a damn thing to what's been left behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe our leaders should bring out the best in us, not the worst. That's why I'm voting for Kamala Harris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Basement dwellers -- and tonight, another prominent Republican will take center stage, a source telling CNN. Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan will direct his remarks to "Republicans who are sick and tired of making excuses for Donald Trump."
Our panel is back. We are joined by Republican strategist David Polyansky. Very grateful to have you here, sir. I know it was a very -- a very late night for everybody, so there's some question if it's still night or morning but here we are.
David, there are a number -- this -- it's very rare for -- you know, to have these kind of cross-party speakers. It does happen occasionally. I remember back to -- I believe it was Zell Miller, at one point, crossing over. But John -- Joe Lieberman, at one point. But this is, of course, a different kind of reality in terms of how the Republican Party has splintered in the age of Trump and you're seeing it pop up here.
[05:35:09]
How effective do you think this is because there does seem to be -- the Harris campaign may need to choose a little bit between playing to its own base and building up that coalition, and appealing to some of these Trump voters? How do you think they're threading the needle, and is it working?
DAVID POLYANSKY, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF FOR SEN. TED CRUZ, CSO, AXADVOCAY, FORMER DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR DESANTIS CAMPAIGN: Look, I think having a former White House staffer do it is kind of yuck, to be honest. I don't think that's going to move voters.
HUNT: You're talking about Stephanie Grisham.
POLYANSKY: Stephanie Grisham.
HUNT: We're going to -- we're going to try to play a little bit of her speech here in a second.
POLYANSKY: I do think the Mesa mayor -- that was a compelling choice. In fact, he sat on the set last night and talked about what went into his decision, and it was really policy-based in many ways, about the border and his frustration with how he felt that Donald Trump had impeded the Senate bill, and I found it pretty compelling. I didn't necessarily agree with him, but I do think that kind of message can resonate.
But former staffers Adam Kinzinger -- those folks are kind of tired and true already and I don't think they're going to move the needle much. But the lieutenant governor of Georgia, the mayor of Mesa, those are folks that on the fringes when we're talking about races in the battleground states where it might be 10,000 votes or less, that's not nothing.
HUNT: Hmm, fair.
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION CONSULTANT: I was just going to -- on the former staff piece you spent a significant amount of time with these folks in private and really see who they are.
HUNT: Yeah.
HAYS: So I do think that matters. I know I spent a significant time with President Biden, and I saw him in situations and moments that people don't see. So you can speak a little bit more to the personal side. So, she -- I wouldn't discredit her completely there.
HUNT: One of the things that stood out to me about what Stephanie Grisham did on stage, Margaret -- well, I mean two things. One, she talked about how she witnessed Donald Trump denigrating his own supporters as "basement dwellers."
She also -- they displayed over her shoulder a text message she had sent to Melania Trump on January 6 asking would you like to tweet about supporting peaceful protests but condemning violence, and Melania Trump wrote back simply, no.
That was clearly part of the message they wanted to get across here last night.
MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY, JOURNALISM AND CITIZENSHIP, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Yes. And there are obvious reasons why these kind of speakers are important at the convention because you are trying to reach sort of wobbly center- right voters or truly in-the-middle voters. I know there are supposedly not that many, but there are actually a lot living in battleground states around the country.
But --
HUNT: They're there, we swear.
TALEV: But I also think that what is underlying a lot of this is the fact that as much enthusiasm as we've seen in this convention hall this week and on the road over the last few weeks among the Democratic base -- there is a real concern -- and these conversations are happening off-mic and in hallway conversations this week or bar conversations this week.
There is a real concern among many Democrats that this does not reflect the reality on the ground in the country. That polling is soft. That there's still several weeks in the race. And that in those battleground states the numbers are not strong enough to feel as confident as the people in this room feel.
And you hear a lot of it. You heard some of it in Michelle Obama's remarks last night saying, like, you can't take it for granted. You have to get out there, and stuff. That's not just a line that you put in a speech. This is something that Democrats are really worried about in Michigan. Like, Georgia, yes.
Geoff Duncan is going to tell you that Georgia's winnable. The polls are going to tell you that would be a huge thing and people who can vote but don't usually vote would have to come out in force to make that happen.
HUNT: Right. And well -- I mean, and look, if anyone can help her do it, it's the Obamas. But I think your point is very well taken. I mean, when I talk to strategists -- the Republicans are watching Georgia, but they'll say, eh, we're not there yet.
SHELBY TALCOTT, REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yeah.
HUNT: We're not worried -- we're not that worried about it yet. TALCOTT: Yeah. And I think to your point, too, the reason, probably, that these folks on stage as so aggressively optimistic is because, again, it goes back to that comment "the vibes," right? If you are projecting confidence, then the voters feel confident, and they feel like this is somebody that they can get behind.
So it is important in that aspect, but it also runs the risk of getting people too complacent. OK, right, we're up so big that we don't have to worry about it anymore. So it's a really fine line and that's a really interesting point, I think.
HUNT: All right, I also want to touch on this. Donald Trump, yesterday, confirming that he's open to having RFK Jr. play a role in his administration if the Independent candidate decides to drop out of the race and endorse Trump.
According to Kennedy's running mate, that is apparently a very real possibility.
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NICOLE SHANAHAN, (I) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's two options that we're looking at. And one is staying in and forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump, or we draw somehow more votes from Trump -- or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump.
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[05:40:20]
HUNT: CNN previously reported RFK Jr. had made a similar pitch to the Harris campaign, offering an endorsement in exchange for a role in her administration. The Harris camp did not respond to that publicly.
Trump appeared open to embracing the idea. CNN's Kristen Holmes asked him about it at a campaign stop in Michigan yesterday -- watch this.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I like him a lot. I respect him a lot. I probably would if something like that would happen. He's a very different kind of a guy, a very smart guy. And yeah, I would be honored by that endorsement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: OK, our panel is back.
This seems, I will say, David, like -- when Nicole Shanahan says out loud well, if we stay in, we run the risk of a Harris-Walz presidency. I mean, they're kind of saying out loud what -- I interviewed RFK last year and pushed him because a lot of members of his family are opposed to him because they thought at the time he was betraying Joe Biden and was going to get Donald Trump election. And he said well, no, no, no. This is actually about me. That doesn't actually seem to be the case based on these comments.
POLYANSKY: It sure doesn't. You know, look, I think the math for them, it's a -- it was a different equation when it was President Biden in the race. I think right now they do cut more from the vice president and her ticket than they do Donald Trump.
So that being said, you know, that's not an insignificant number, whether it's three to five percent --
HUNT: I'm not sure. I want to push back on a little bit --
POLYANSKY: Yeah.
HUNT: -- though because it does -- I -- the polling seems to maybe dispute that a little bit in that Democrats seem to be coming home to Harris. There seems to be with -- the Kennedy name provided some space for Democrats who thought Joe Biden was too old to say well, I'm going to go with that guy. And that's gone now.
POLYANSKY: I think he -- I think with that ticket -- I mean, look, that's why you've seen them drop fairly substantially -- you know, as much as you can given where they were polling before. I think right now they're still cutting into the Harris type of voter who is dissatisfied with Trump perhaps, but really was looking at -- looking past Biden and looking at Harris. I think that's where we're at today.
And again, if you take a Michigan, a Pennsylvania -- heck, go down into the Sun Belt states. That's not an insignificant number of votes that are available to them. And so if they came aboard do I think everybody would follow them? No. Do I think enough would that could tip the balance? It sure could.
TALCOTT: I think -- I think Donald Trump's answer is interesting, too, because I remember months and months ago when RFK Jr. was really sort of semi-significant in the polls. We had internal polling from the campaign showing that -- from the Trump campaign showing that RFK Jr. was taking more votes from them.
And so this has been something that Donald Trump's campaign has been eyeing for a really long time and I think his answer there is notable. I think they're recognizing that this race is so close right now that every percentage vote or every possible percentage vote counts.
HUNT: Yeah.
TALCOTT: So he could make that decision (PH).
TALEV: I think nobody really knows who he's going to take it from. But what we've seen in so many focus groups this year that my institute has been involved in --
HUNT: Yeah.
TALEV: -- and -- is that he appeals the most to Independent voters who don't want either. And it -- and who -- most of them haven't done a lot of homework on him but they like the idea that he could bring something different into politics.
I think what Trump may be doing is thinking if he comes over to our side, maybe that brings some of those voters who weren't going to --
HUNT: Vote.
TALEV: -- vote for either one of us over.
HUNT: Right. Fair enough.
All right. Shelby Talcott, thank you very much for joining us this morning. I really appreciate it.
All right, coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, Kate Cox, the Texas mother who was forced to flee her state to obtain an emergency abortion, made a very happy surprise announcement at the DNC last night. We're going to talk to her about that.
Plus, more from the DNC. The grandson of former President Jimmy Carter took the stage on behalf of his grandfather.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON CARTER, GRANDSON OF PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER): Though his body may be weak tonight, his spirit is as strong as ever. My grandfather can't wait to vote for Kamala Harris.
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[05:49:05]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE COX, TEXAS MOTHER FORCED TO FLEE STATE FOR EMERGENCY ABORTION: When I got pregnant, doctors told us our baby would never survive, and if I didn't get an abortion it would put a future pregnancy at risk. But Trump didn't care. And because of his abortion bans, I had to flee my home. There is nothing pro-family about abortion bans. There is nothing pro-life about letting women suffer and even die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Kate Cox, the Texas mother who was forced to flee her home state to receive an emergency abortion, appeared for the DNC's roll call vote last night. She slammed Donald Trump and Texas Republicans for abortion bans that endangered her and her future fertility.
Cox, who sued Texas for denying her access to abortion care, also made this surprise announcement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COX: Today, because I found a way to access abortion care, I am pregnant again. [05:50:00]
(CHEERS)
COX: Thank you very much. And my baby is due in January, just in time to see Kamala Harris sworn in as President of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining us now is Johnny Olszewski. He is currently serving as a delegate from Maryland here at the DNC. He's also a congressional candidate for Maryland's second district. Johnny-O they call you back home. Thank you so much --
JOHNNY OLSZEWSKI, MARYLAND DELEGATE, BALTIMORE COUNTY EXECUTIVE, (D) CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE, MARYLAND'S 2ND DISTRICT: Good morning.
HUNT: -- for joining us.
OLSZEWSKI: It's a pleasure to be here.
HUNT: It's very early or late --
OLSZEWSKI: Very early, yes.
HUNT: -- depending on how your evening went.
So let's start with -- you know, abortion rights have really taken center stage here at the DNC. Donald Trump has tried to downplay the impact that issue will have in this election.
Your view of that?
OLSZEWSKI: There's no downplaying it. I mean, Kate Cox, last night -- the first night when the -- you know, the air went out of the room with that powerful moment where no child should have to have their parent's child.
And so this is an issue that's front and center for voters across the country. It's literally on the ballot in Maryland. We're trying to enshrine those rights in our state constitution. And everywhere I go in Baltimore County and in our race for Congress we're hearing this is an issue that is top of mind for all voters and transcends party affiliation.
HUNT: One of the other things we saw last night on the convention stage was a speech from Angela Alsobrooks, who is the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maryland.
Talk to us a little bit about the contours of that race. She'd be the first Black woman elected to the Senate from the state of Maryland where she -- to win. But she does have a potentially formidable Republican opponent in Larry Hogan.
OLSZEWSKI: Absolutely, formidable, a Republican opponent in Larry Hogan. A very popular former governor. Angela is an amazing colleague of mine and fellow county executive.
She will be a barrier-breaking U.S. senator. We are confident we're going to win because this is a different race when you think about the context in which they're running. We're not talking about re-electing a Gov. Hogan. We're talking about whether or not the Senate falls into Democratic or Republican hands, and that's the conversation we're having in Maryland.
And issues like reproductive freedom and abortion rights are not just on the ballot in terms of our constitutional amendment, but they're on the ballot in this race.
And so when you ask who are going to caucus with -- the Republicans and make Mitch McConnell the majority leader in the Senate -- that's real on the minds of voters in Maryland. And so that's why we think Angela is going to win. She did a great job last night. I'm proud to have her representing Maryland.
HUNT: So earlier this year, I interviewed Lara Trump, the co-chair of the RNC, and I actually asked her about her father-in-law's support or lack thereof for Larry Hogan -- again, the Republican Senate candidate.
Let's take a look at what she said because the endorsement was not ringing. Take a look.
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LARA TRUMP, CO-CHAIR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think it's ridiculous. And I think anybody who is not speaking up in the face of really something that should never again have seen the light of day -- a trial that would never have been brought against any other person aside from Donald Trump --
HUNT: But does the RNC support his bid?
L. TRUMP: -- doesn't deserve the respect of anyone.
HUNT: He doesn't deserve the respect of anyone?
L. TRUMP: Well, I'll have to get back to you -- he doesn't deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point. And quite frankly, anybody in America, if that's the way you feel. That's very upsetting to hear that.
HUNT: So are you willing to cede the Senate seat in Maryland to the Democratic Party and not support Larry Hogan?
L. TRUMP: What I'll tell you is that we, of course, want to win as a party, but that is a shame. And I think he should have thought long and hard before he said that publicly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: What impact does this have on the Senate race in Maryland? OLSZEWSKI: Well, you can't have it both ways. You can't have Trump endorse Hogan and then disavow him at the same breath. So I think as we sort of think about this race, this is not boding well for the Republicans in Maryland and it's not boding well for Gov. Hogan.
He's a nice guy. I work closely with him. There were some places where we worked well together, including the response to the pandemic and the -- and COVID.
But I think this really speaks to the disarray that Republicans are seeing, especially in Maryland but across the country as well, and why we have so many high-profile Republicans here at this convention talking about why they're supporting Kamala Harris for president.
HUNT: Yeah.
TALEV: I grew up in Maryland, so I'm really familiar with that history where it's, in many ways, a very Democratic state. But they elect Republican members of Congress, and they elect Republican governors from time to time also. Larry Hogan is beloved in Maryland across party lines.
Trump complicates things for Larry Hogan --
(LAUGHING)
TALEV: -- period.
HUNT: Understatement at the end.
All right. Coming up next here in our next hour of CNN THIS MORNING, a two-city taunt. While Democrats packed out the United Center in Chicago, Kamala Harris heading 90 miles north, speaking before thousands at an arena in Milwaukee.
Plus, a full night of star power on night two of the DNC.
Before we get to this end, I just want to say thank you, Johnny O, for being here because I think we're going to say goodbye to you now.
OLSZEWSKI: Yes. Thank you.
HUNT: Go O's!
OLSZEWSKI: Go O's!
HUNT: Even though we -- we've both spent time at Wrigley here, which is a great ballpark but it's no Camden Yards.
OLSZEWSKI: No Camden Yards.
HUNT: No Camden Yards.
All right. Coming up next, Democrats of the past, present, and future taking the stage.
[05:55:00]
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America's ready for a new chapter. America's ready for a better story. We are ready for a president Kamala Harris.
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HUNT: It's Wednesday, August 21. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --
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MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Don't just sit around and complain, do something.
B. OBAMA: So let's get to work. God bless you.
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HUNT: Barack and Michelle Obama return to rally Democrats around Kamala Harris and warn about what a second Trump term may have in store.
Plus --
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DOUG EMHOFF, SECOND GENTLEMAN: She's always been there for our children and I know she'll always be there for yours, too.
