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CNN This Morning
Kamala Harris Accepts Nomination in Historic DNC Speech. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired August 23, 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 Friday, August 23. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING, the most momentous night of her career. Kamala Harris accepts the historic nomination to lead the Democratic ticket.
[06:01:17]
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Harris tackles some key issues in her pitch for her vision of a new way forward.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE (via phone): All of these things that she talked about -- we're going to do this; we're going to do that; we're going to do everything. But you didn't do any of it. She --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Donald Trump doesn't hesitate to give his reaction to Harris's acceptance speech.
And then --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: With the DNC wrapping up, we take a look back at the week's biggest moments. Five a.m. here in Chicago, Illinois. Most of the balloons have been
popped. The confetti has fallen. It is 6 a.m. on the East Coast. You're looking live at the United Center here in Chicago, where just a handful of hours ago, Kamala Harris accepted that nomination.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
The 2024 election now entering a new phase. Just hours ago, Kamala Harris making history on the stage behind me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: In the biggest speech of her life on the biggest stage of her life, Kamala Harris telling the story of her childhood in California, pointing to lessons that she learned from her father, a professor from Jamaica, and her mother, a scientist from India.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: She taught us to never complain about injustice but do something about it. Do something about it.
She also taught us, and never do anything half-assed. And that is a direct quote. A direct quote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Harris attacked her opponent, Donald Trump, for his actions on January 6, his threats to jail his perceived opponents, and his bragging about the overturning of Roe versus Wade.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences -- but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Harris framed her vision as rooted in the middle class, and she framed the election as one of the most important in American history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: -- when he was in office but --
It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth; the privilege and pride of being an American. And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most
extraordinary story ever told. Thank you. God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Our panel is here. We're not going to count up the collective hours of sleep at this table, because it would simply be depressing.
[06:05:06]
Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director; Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator, former South Carolina Democratic state rep; Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor; and Scott Jennings, CNN political commentator, former special assistant to President George W. Bush.
Welcome to all of you. So grateful to have you here.
Bakari, you OK?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.
HUNT: Caffeine. Caffeine, caffeine.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Kasie -- Kasie, before we were on, I actually added it up. It's about eight hours and 45 minutes among the four of you. I don't know what you add to that.
HUNT: Put like three-and-a-half on file for me.
WILLIAMS: Kate -- Kate got three.
HUNT: Yes.
WILLIAMS: So, she bumps up our average.
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I did.
SELLERS: I don't -- I don't know where I am or what I'm doing, but I'm -- I'm apparently here.
HUNT: Just a little concerned.
But look, Kate, let me start with you. Last night we heard the -- from Harris. Her presentation in particular stood out to me in terms of the decisions they made about how to frame her, how to present her. There wasn't as much policy as maybe there could have been. What was your evaluation of what we saw last night?
BEDINGFIELD: Well, it was a huge night for Vice President Harris. I mean, I think she had a high bar to clear, and she cleared it.
You know, I think one of the things that's so challenging about a nomination speech is they can be a really sprawling affair. There's so much business you want to do. You want to do some of the, you know, personal bio. You want to do some of the forward-looking agenda. You want to frame up your opponent.
And I thought one of the things she did so effectively was just tie all of that into a narrative that just felt like common sense.
I mean, she told her own story in a way that I think resonated with people across the country, talked about her family, talked about why she's motivated by the things she's motivated by in public life, based on her own growing up.
You know, and then kind of -- I think pretty effortlessly transitioned into how that will shape her term if she's elected to office.
And I think at the end of the day, it felt like a speech that I think, to a lot of people, was just reasonable and common sense. And I think that contrast with Trump is powerful. But I also think she just did a terrific job introducing herself, selling herself in a moment that's -- it's not always easy to do that.
HUNT: Bakari, they made some really interesting choices. She didn't wear white. I think Ron Brownstein was here last hour, said, you know -- this -- her suit without a law and order right? When the crowd was behind her in suffragette white. That was a decision.
It was very clear to me they wanted to send a message of strength in the way they presented her, the themes that they chose to really focus in on and talk about.
What did you see in that, and -- and how did she do?
SELLERS: What I saw was flawless execution. I mean, I think that one of the things that Kamala Harris wanted to do yesterday and the campaign wanted to do yesterday was show strength. That was what yesterday was about. That's what the speech was about.
Usually, when you look poll after poll after poll, Donald Trump is winning on who is the strongest, who portrays the most strength. And yesterday was her opportunity to take that away.
And also, I mean, I think Kate was absolutely correct in what -- what she was trying to do yesterday was weave in these personal narratives about who she is, frame her opponent, and also say, look, I am Kamala Harris, and I'm for the people.
And yes, she didn't wear white, right? And one of the things that I believe everybody recognizes at this table is this campaign has not been a campaign about identity. You know, you can see the history in who she is, but not one time did she mention that she's going to be the first of anything.
Not one time did she talk about I'm going to be the first this or that. You can see that history. What she wanted people to understand, though, is that, while I am a historical figure, I'm also someone who's going to make your life better. Because just because I am going to be the first African American woman to be president of the United States, or the first woman to be president of the United States does not mean that your life will be better. Let me show you how.
HUNT: Scott Jennings, you're -- I saw what you had to say late, late last night.
SELLERS: I didn't. I was -- I was at the club. I didn't see nothing.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I sent you a -- I sent you -- I patched -- I texted it to you. I knew you wouldn't watch it.
HUNT: Admittedly, I did watch it at about 3:30 this morning. I did not watch it in real time. So, you were up later than I was. But it -- tell us. I mean, this -- there were elements of this that -- that seemed to me likely to be very effective. I'm curious if you agree with that. You know, do you see that in this? And what's the next, you know, how does this push the ball forward?
JENNINGS: Yes, I think the convention for Democrats was effective. I mean, they wanted to come out of here feeling like they had a chance to win.
They didn't have a chance to win with Biden. Now they have a chance to win with Harris. So that was mission accomplished on that front.
I think on the speech, look, she's gotten much better behind a podium. She used to be not all that great at this. She's an improving person on that front.
She delivered from behind a podium last night. She's been doing that since she got into the race. So that -- that was also another box checked.
She seemed plausible. This speech -- I agree with Kate. It did portray her as someone who sounded like a reasonable person.
[06:10:05]
Now, what she did not do was take any amount of responsibility for her current job, which is vice president of the United States for the last three-and-a-half years under Joe Biden. There was not an ounce of humility about the inflation gripping the country.
She talked about immigration without talking about all the things that happened right up until this border bill that they had hung all their hats on over at the Biden White House.
So, to me, where the Republicans are going to be headed is all the pablum, all the platitudes, all that aside, you cannot leave the same people in charge. If you believe that country's on the wrong track, if you believe they made all the mistakes on the economy and on immigration, you cannot leave the same people in charge that have run the country off into the ditch.
Until she comes up with a good answer for that, which I suspect will have to be litigated at the debate on September 10, Donald Trump is still in a very good place.
BEDINGFIELD: But see --
SELLERS: The problem -- the problem that you have, however, is that respectfully to you and my brother, Shermichael, who are oftentimes on that side of the table at this hour, is that you all are more disciplined of a messenger than Donald Trump is.
And -- and Donald Trump has an inability, at 78 years old, to prosecute any message similar to what you're talking about. And we can debate. We can debate the merits of that.
And I would love to debate the merits of immigration with you or inflation with your economic policy with you.
But Donald Trump and one of the things this week showed, is Donald Trump is not capable of that. He's a diminished individual. And he also doesn't want to do that, because he represents the chaos. He represents many -- I'm sorry, Elliot. He represents many of the things that I -- we're betting the country wants to move away from.
WILLIAMS: Yes. And I think your point's well-taken, Scott, that by being in power for any number of years you own -- you're holding the bag.
The problem with that is that you would be getting the bag back to the person who had the bag before. And part of the message was, do you wish to go back to that chaos and disorder --
JENNINGS: It's -- it's --
WILLIAMS: -- of 2017, 2018.
JENNINGS: It's a good question.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
JENNINGS: But people have a -- right now, Donald Trump's more popular than he's ever been. And the view of his presidency is as good as it's ever been. I mean, in some of the polling, he's over 50 percent in terms of, do you think he did a good job?
The Biden-Harris results, the job approval of this presidency, is still quite low. There is a reason for that.
So, to me, there's really only one question left to answer in this campaign. Are the American people going to hold her accountable for that? And yes, you're right. Is Donald Trump going to help them reach that conclusion?
BEDINGFIELD: But see that's -- just quickly. That's why I would argue that the way she addressed these things last night was smart. I mean, she didn't -- you're right. She didn't address them in the way that you, as a Republican strategist, would like to see her address them.
But she did talk about immigration. And she said, hey, Donald Trump blew up our best option to make progress on this issue. So, if you're an independent voter, and you're trying to sort out, you know, left from right in this race, you say, oh, well, that -- that seems like actually she's making a good point here.
Like, there -- there's -- it's not that she didn't address these issues. It's that she actually took them on in a way that was --
JENNINGS: Well --
BEDINGFIELD: -- smart. And on the offensive.
JENNINGS: You're asking the independent voters to all get collective amnesia and not remember all of the actions that --or inactions that Biden and Harris did or didn't do for three-and-a-half years leading up to the political fight over the border bill.
The reality is everybody believes this administration made the border weaker. This legislative thing is a political argument. And you're asking people to forget that she had the job.
BEDINGFIELD: But it is -- but it's also true that border encounters have dropped since the E.O. If we want to start debating the merits here, the numbers are actually -- the numbers are down.
JENNINGS: If you want to campaign on immigration, go ahead. I wouldn't advise it, but go ahead.
SELLERS: I don't -- I don't think we want to -- I -- I don't want to get into weeds for a second. I'm not asking anyone to have amnesia.
But what we are asking people to do is make a choice.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
SELLERS: And I think that -- that people forget that this is a referendum on both candidates. And oftentimes, we like to get up here and prosecute that case in kind of one -- in a vacuum.
And look, it's Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump, period. What we displayed this week is that you have a -- you have a resounding choice. Do you want to go back to what was chaos or January 6? Or do you want to go back to the buffoonery?
And I think that one of the things that the Democratic Party did this week, that was actually so well done, was they took away this kind of nemesis feel that Donald Trump had. Like, he had a knife to the throat of democracy.
And instead, they just castigated him as this buffoon, right? He is this bumbling kind of idiot, who --
HUNT: He was small and selfish, the way Michelle Obama painted it.
BEDINGFIELD: I thought the term unserious man, but serious consequences was -- was the articulation of that strategy. I thought that was such a good --
SELLERS: And by the way, we were talking about her outfit. She looked absolutely flawless. BEDINGFIELD: She did. The navy was --
SELLERS: And she was beautiful. And if any -- and if any beautiful woman looks in the camera and calls Bakari Sellers unserious, I'm going to have to reevaluate my entire life.
JENNINGS: On the -- on the image question, this is actually really important. She looked young. She looked calm.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
[06:15:
JENNINGS: And she looked competent. And these --
BEDINGFIELD: And confident, yes.
JENNINGS: And these are all the things Joe Biden does not -- did not. She was like the anti-Biden.
On the image front, she gave Democrats an image of something they -- they lacked for the entirety of this campaign. That's obviously a win.
WILLIAMS: And moreover, she looked young. She looked competent but was out there talking about police and veterans and foreign policy in a way that Democrats, frankly, have not, certainly in any of our political lives. Where it almost felt like -- and I was talking to Scott about this. It felt like a mid-2000s Republican, moderate Republican speech.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
WILLIAMS: It was not sort of your typical cut-and-run Democrats that the Democrats have been criticized for, for so many years.
HUNT: Well, and actually Scott, can I ask you that -- to weigh in on what your view of that was? Because I thought everything that built up to a speech that did emphasize foreign policy in all the ways that are important. I think image-wise, in addition to substance-wise.
But everyone was waving American flags --
JENNINGS: Yes.
HUNT: -- in the crowd. There were veterans on stage ahead of her introduction. She was introduced by Roy Cooper from North Carolina. Not exactly an example of, you know, one of the country's most progressive Democrats. There was a lot there.
JENNINGS: He's one of the biggest pop stars of our era, Roy Cooper. I mean.
HUNT: Do you understand what I mean? If the goal is a couple thousand independent voters in swing states.
JENNINGS: Yes, look, the power of patriotism is real. When I -- when I saw these American flags in here, I was thinking, what do we identify with the left for the last few months in this country? Waving around the Palestinian flags, the Hezbollah flags. Everything we've seen on campuses and out in the streets.
They did not permit any of that to permeate the hall. That was an important thing. Republicans ought to pay attention to this. The Democrats are obviously not going to cede this ground. And they're -- the American flag waving still means something to every single one of us.
I thought it was really smart to hand them out. Even at the end, they had larger --
WILLIAMS: The big ones.
JENNINGS: The big ones up there.
HUNT: Yes. It got bigger as the night went on.
JENNINGS: That's a powerful image. Look -- look, if we're going to have more patriotism in our politics this fall, I'm for it, no matter which party is doing it.
So, I thought that was a wise choice. And I think it's good, because we've seen some disturbing stuff on the streets of America for the last several months. And I'd like to do away with that. And I thought that was a good thing they did in the hall.
WILLIAMS: You had -- you had a woman standing on stage saying -- this is a paraphrase -- in the battle between us and tyranny, I know where I stand and where the USA belongs.
That is the rhetoric -- that's Margaret Thatcher, dude. I mean, that's -- no, it is powerful rhetoric in -- in an arena where people were chanting "USA, USA," something you don't hear at Democratic rallies a lot, and waving these flags. I was -- it was almost shocking to see.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes. And at a moment --
WILLIAMS: And very powerful. Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: At a moment where there is a question about whether the Republican nominee, if he becomes president again, stands on the side of democracy or tyranny.
JENNINGS: Oh, come on
BEDINGFIELD: That's another sort of mind-blowing -- but it is. That's sort of the mind-blowing backdrop here. I mean, that's -- she was able to articulate the stakes in a way that made the Democratic platform and her position muscular, but also highlighted that, you know, this is not just rhetoric in this moment.
And that is potentially very frightening.
WILLIAMS: And it's something that came up, and I can't remember who -- I'm tired -- who made the point, though, and a few times. We all love America, right? Now, different people have different ways of expressing their love for America. Patriotism means different things to different people. But no one owns the mantle of patriotism in this country.
And when you saw a room of people who might have been pilloried for some time for not loving their country or not being true patriots, it was a powerful reminder of what it means to --
SELLER: Let me also say this. One of the things that Kamala Harris's campaign internally has done and one of the things that's a little different than what happened in 2019, is you -- you kind of have this collective effort of every -- where's my voice going?
HUNT: Here, have some water.
JENNINGS: What Bakari was going to say was that all her positions from 2019 are going to come back to haunt her. And it was all this and this.
All right. Go, Bakari.
SELLERS: I said, let's get that commercial break. Let me take about three or four minutes.
WILLIAMS: Are you covered in glitter? Where were you going?
SELLERS: So, I was with Wes Moore last night, Governor Wes Moore, and one of the things that Governor Wes --
HUNT: That man can have a good time.
BEDINGFIELD: Obviously.
WILLIAMS: As one is wont to do.
SELLERS: Yes. So, I was with Governor Wes Moore last night after the -- after the balls dropped, and we were in some clandestine place enjoying where -- what this week has been.
But he actually is the person who just advised Kamala Harris and advised the campaign to make sure that you envelop yourself in that patriotism. You envelop yourself in the American flag. You talk about these issues in a way that frame it, that if you're a black guy in Milwaukee, or a white guy in Peoria, or you are somebody who's Hispanic down at the border, I mean, you still believe in the promise of what this country can be.
And there's no fear of Democrats -- like, for a long period of time, things like religion and patriotism, we ceded that ground to the Republican Party. What happened last night is Kamala Harris took that back.
[06:20:02]
HUNT: Yes. All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump takes the
airwaves to react in real time and list his complaints with Kamala Harris's acceptance speech.
Plus, family members of the vice president took the stage to try to set the record straight on how to correctly pronounce her name.
And we'll take a look back at some of the most memorable moments from the DNC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This weird obsession with crowd sizes. It -- it -- I -- it just goes on and on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:25:15]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (via phone): Why didn't she do the things that she's complaining about? All of these things that she talked about -- we're going to do this, we're going to do that, we're going to do everything. But she didn't do any of it.
She could have done it three-and-a-half years ago. She could do it tonight by leaving the auditorium and going to Washington, D.C., and closing the border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Donald Trump weighing in on Kamala Harris's acceptance speech last night. The former president was on his Truth Social platform to react in real time to Harris's address. Our intrepid producer, Abby, counted 56 truths -- quote, unquote, "truths" -- over this period.
The criticism, though, did go both ways. Harris had these words for Trump in her speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: He was found guilty of fraud by a jury of every --
Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences -- but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, panel is back.
Scott Jennings, I kind of want to give this one to you, because Trump put these 56 posts that we counted up overnight while this was going on. He called into FOX News.
FOX kind of, you know, they -- they spoke with him. They ended the interview.
Then he called into Newsmax, continued the conversation. Then he calls back into FOX News and has this to say with Greg Gutfeld. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (via phone): What difference does it make. We're doing well. We're leading in the polls.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Mr. President.
TRUMP (via phone): -- he's down.
GUTFELD: Yes.
TRUMP (via phone): And they said he has to get out, and they basically staged a coup.
GUTFELD: Yes.
TRUMP (via phone): And you know, let's -- let's all see how it happens. But I think we're doing very well.
GUTFELD: All right. All right.
TRUMP (via phone): We're going to do very well.
GUTFELD: All right, Mr. P. I've got to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Sort of seems like they're trying to get him off the phone. But I mean, what did you -- what did you what make of his, quote, unquote "responses"?
JENNINGS: He's doing his own bracketing. You know, that's an old campaign term that Kate knows. But, you know, when the other side is doing something big, you try to racket it a little bit. And obviously, the Democrats have had the attention this week.
So, I -- I think that he is not wrong, that he is still in a strong position in the polls. I think where he's really got to focus on is he's got one real chance to frame up this race on September the tenth.
He had the race against Biden totally framed, totally pegged, and everybody sort of thought it --
HUNT: I mean, he was on track to win that -- that race.
JENNINGS: In a landslide. And it was strength versus weakness. And now he's got to settle on something here.
I was -- I was thinking about how did he actually win in '16? And it was kind of inside/outside. Hillary was the insider. I'm coming from the outside.
I've been thinking about this. Maybe, you know, it's going to be radical Democrat versus commonsense conservative. But it may be that he goes back to the old 2016 framing. She's on the inside, literally on the inside of the White House. And we're coming back from the outside. And the people on the inside --
SELLERS: That's not going to work. I think that the most fascinating thing about this --
JENNINGS: Why?
SELLERS: I think the fascinating --
JENNINGS: Is she not the vice president?
SELLERS: But --
JENNINGS: Is she not at the center of American policy making?
SELLERS: I hear you, but I -- OK. That's -- I don't think that's the point, though. I think the point is a lot like what Nikki Haley said. And I said this yesterday again.
It's the first party that's able to actually change the person at the top of their ticket. Because it's not inside versus outside. Because what you saw last night was a changing of the guard.
You don't have a Clinton. You don't have an Obama. You don't have a Bush. You don't have a Trump. You have a totally new figure.
The country is --
JENNINGS: She's not totally new. She is the vice president.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes, she is. But she is seizing the mantle. She is seizing the messaging mantle of change.
SELLERS: Correct. I --
BEDINGFIELD: I mean, the way forward. Now look, again, you can argue --
JENNINGS: That's the fight, though. You can own it.
BEDINGFIELD: I don't disagree with this. I don't disagree with this. But she's --
SELLERS: You've got to -- your microphone.
WILLIAMS: I know. I know.
SELLERS: What are you doing?
WILLIAMS: I didn't want to cause a scene. But listen, he used to be president of the United States. The idea that he is some insurgent -- BEDINGFIELD: That's the other problem with it.
WILLIAMS: -- coming out of nowhere.
BEDINGFIELD: For him. Yes.
HUNT: Well, I mean, yes. And -- and I mean, Kate, I think my question is the thing that Trump was saying and has been saying last night is that, OK, if she wants to do all these things, why didn't she do them over the course of the last three-and-a-half years?
I mean, that seems to me to be the thing that, OK, like if you're a voter in a swing state, like OK. She says the border is a problem. Like you've -- you have been part of what has been in charge. That seems to me like it could work.
BEDINGFIELD: I think that -- I think if he were able to stick to that message, I think that is probably the -- their best shot. I think that's probably their best lane.
However, you have -- first of all, I would argue she has actually a very strong record to run on. I think you saw her -- again, we were talking about this earlier in the show, but you saw her take on the immigration argument last night by flipping it back on Trump. That will be the name of the game.
And I mean, that's the name of the game in campaigns generally. I mean, you are -- you are trying to -- you know, to move the focus generally to your opponent. You're trying to define your opponent. I mean, I don't see a world where she's going to sit back and sort of let Trump define her time --
