Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Trump Lashes Out After Latest Election Interference Indictment; CNN To Host Exclusive Interview With Harris And Walz; Latinos In Reading, PA Could Swing State In November. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired August 28, 2024 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:30:45]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it is 5:30 on the nose here on the East Coast. A live look at Detroit, Michigan on this Wednesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Donald Trump facing a new superceding indictment related to the 2020 election. He, of course, is trying to turn it to his advantage in this upcoming election after special counsel Jack Smith unsealed the charges in D.C. on Tuesday.

Trump's campaign fired off this email telling supporters, "How many times do I have to go through this" before asking for donations. Trump also lashed out on social media. He posted several paragraphs about the charges and declared the case a "persecution of a political opponent."

And in a new interview with Dr. Phil, Trump complained about his legal woes, baselessly blaming President Biden and Vice President Harris for them, and then discussing the assassination attempt on his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When this happened people would ask whose fault is it? I think to a certain extent it's Biden's fault and Harris' fault. And I'm the opponent. Look, they were weaponizing government against me. They brought in the whole DOJ to try and get me. They weren't too interested in my health and safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: OK. Joining me now to discuss, Stephanie Lai, politics reporter at Bloomberg; and Nick Johnston, Axios publisher. Welcome to both of you.

Nick, worth noting that interview with Trump and Dr. Phil was taped on Friday, so it was --

NICHOLAS JOHNSTON, PUBLISHER, AXIOS: Yeah.

HUNT: -- before this news all unfolded.

But obviously, we know how these indictments played in the Republican primary. They actually helped Trump, or it seemed to. Certainly, Ron DeSantis, who lost to him in that primary --

JOHNSTON: Yeah.

HUNT: -- thinks that they helped him.

What impact does this coming back up right now have on this campaign?

JOHNSTON: I think none, you know, to be honest. I will say -- like, I'll confess I was walking across the Axios newsroom when the news broke yesterday afternoon. I saw a CNN chyron "Trump indicted" and I just thought oh, he was indicted again, not even realizing it was a superceding indictment.

There is no undecided voter, I don't think, anywhere on Earth who is saying you know, I think I don't know where to go here, but now that they've narrowed the scope and cause in relation to a Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling, now I'm going to really affect vote here.

I think there's a lot of very fascinating legal implication here, as you talked about earlier in the hour --

HUNT: Um-hum.

JOHNSTON: -- but I think politically, this is the same kind of conversation we've been having before. Like, very, very often we think is this the kind of outrage that is finally going to turn people (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: Sure. Yeah, no -- look, I take your point. I take your point.

JOHNSTON: Yeah.

HUNT: However, I will also say that when we went through this in 2016 with Jim Comey and Hillary Clinton, there was a last-minute impact. I mean, there is a difference in timing, right, between the last 60 days of an election. I realize for us there isn't, right?

JOHNSTON: Yeah.

HUNT: We're in it 100 percent of the time.

I guess my question is just are the American people now, they're with us. Have they -- is it significantly different from then?

JOHNSTON: I mean, the one thing where I will grant you in your disagreement with me is just a sense of tiredness. Like, what we see a little bit in polling data and talking to voters is it's just enough.

And I think there's a compelling case that the Harris-Vance -- the Harris-Walz campaign is making you think that we're not going back. Do we want to have this kind of constant drumbeat of like, OK, what has the president been indicted for now? What is the latest controversy of the moment? And what this does is resign -- remind people that there are a slew of indictments against this president -- former president.

And it's like -- maybe it's kind of just like that sense of fatigue and tiredness in that one pack (PH). I think it'll be more on that than the fact that this case has been narrowed and shifted based on the response to a Supreme Court --

HUNT: OK.

JOHNSTON: -- ruling.

HUNT: Stephanie, one of the realities that we are facing here as a country, frankly, is that the courts have become involved in how all of these questions around Donald Trump and around some of our elections have played out, right? It's the Supreme Court's biggest involvement in our elections since Bush versus Gore in terms of presidential immunity and putting off the timing of this case.

Now we're getting a rare interview with the sitting Supreme Court justice in this case, Ketanji Brown Jackson. She does have a book coming out.

But she was asked about this in a recent interview about whether or not she is prepared for what the Supreme Court may have to do in the event that this election is very close and there are elements of it that become contested in the way that lands at the Supreme Court.

Let's look and see how she answered this question -- watch.

[05:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORAH O'DONNELL, ANCHOR, "CBS EVENING NEWS": Are you prepared that his election could end up before the Supreme Court?

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Uh, as prepared as anyone can be. Let me ask you. Are you prepared for all of the news cycles that you're getting as a result of this election?

O'DONNELL: No.

JACKSON: No, exactly. I mean, I think there are legal issues that arise out of the political process. And so, the Supreme Court has to be prepared to respond if that should be necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Stephanie, this, of course, a reflection of the nature of the political process we've all endured here for the last few years. But there is this question of trust in the institution.

How do -- how do -- how do you view what Ketanji Brown Jackson said there? She was willing to say more than I feel like most justices do say. And how it relates to everything we're learning about this superceding indictment.

STEPHANIE LAI, POLITICS REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: Yeah. I mean, I think what we're seeing from that interview is that everyone in Washington is really bracing for what's going to seem like a contested election. We've already seen Republicans gear up in terms of hiring thousands and thousands of lawyers just to deal with this case in 2024. Regardless of the outcome, they're already preparing for a legal fight.

And so I think what we're seeing is that everyone here is already thinking about what's going to come next. What sort of laws might they pull in? What sort of arguments might be made and how do we respond to that?

And so I think even with this indictment, you know, we probably won't see a court case come up in the next 10 weeks before the election. But we should see this come up in the aftermath, and this might impact how people view the sanctity of our elections.

JOHNSTON: Yeah, and there's also -- I keep noticing the last election ended up before the Supreme Court -- some of the contested election results. But that ended with a whimper and not a bang. A unanimous ruling, 9-0. None of these things have any valid off we go.

I think the real interesting thing is if it returns to the Supreme Court will it not be a 9-0 ruling? Will it be a somewhat much more closer case like you said to Bush versus Gore? And then it becomes a far more interesting and dicey situation.

HUNT: Yeah. You mean that when Trump challenged results in --

JOHNSTON: Exactly.

HUNT: -- 2016 and the court said eh eh, we're not taking it.

JOHNSTON: Didn't even touch it, right?

HUNT: Yeah.

JOHNSTON: Like, it was like a three-page, one paragraph, unsigned thing, off we go into the argument, OK? But, like, if we get to this again and this year would be the same, and I think that's where the risk comes in.

HUNT: Yeah.

All right, now this. CNN will host the first joint interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz. Our Dana Bash will be asking the tough questions tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Harris has, of course, been facing growing criticism for not doing any interviews since becoming the Democratic nominee.

But, of course, there's the matter of the September 10 debate scheduled on ABC between Harris and Donald Trump. The former president claims the two sides have agreed on the rules and that the microphones will be muted when a candidate is not speaking. The Harris team says that's news to them. They claim that negotiations are ongoing.

Team Trump has been attacking Harris relentlessly ahead of the CNN interview and the debate. They are focused on the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kamala Harris is the candidate of American decline. She cast the tiebreaking vote for the inflation explosion act. She cast the tiebreaking vote to send interest rates and mortgages through the roof. Stop talking about what you're going to do, stop -- start talking about what you are going to do right now because you're the vice president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, Stephanie and Nick back with me.

Nick, this is -- they clearly -- they were saying that hey, we're going to schedule an interview before the end of the month, and they went ahead and did it.

JOHNSTON: Right under the gun.

HUNT: Right under the wire.

JOHNSTON: They made it.

HUNT: We're heading into September.

What do expect from -- I mean, it's interesting to me it's a joint interview. Obviously, our Dana Bash is going to be in the chair for it. She's interviewed Kamala Harris in the past. What do you expect?

JOHNSTON: Well, I'm expecting when is she going to do her alone interview, right? Like, this course immediately changes. I think what happened in this calculus here, which maybe have been a mis calculus, is that when you hold off on these kinds of things it becomes much more important.

Like, just now, we've been talking about Donald Trump doing a number of interviews and being taped constantly. He's done press conferences. J.D. Vance is in front of the press. So what they say has less of an impact because we're paying attention to those.

HUNT: Like, if they make a big mistake or they say something off --

JOHNSTON: We're on to the next thing.

HUNT: -- you move on more quickly.

JOHNSTON: Right. And I think there's going to be much more focus. Like, we're always spending a lot of time thinking about what are the inflection points in this campaign? The debate, of course. The last one was a huge one and I'm expecting the next debate to be a big one. Now there is a lot of pressure on this one. How will Kamala Harris respond? Like, there was her last big interview she did with NBC where she got a little flustered on some of the questions about immigration -- whether to lock -- batten down the hatches for a year.

So I think it's a little more higher stakes when there are fewer of them. And so I think that the campaign is hoping, like, keep -- exactly that -- nothing, right? No big news. No big changes. Be able to say like, yeah, we did our interview and we can turn to the next big discussion of like, well, why don't you do an interview by yourself?

HUNT: Yeah, one thing after the other.

Stephanie, there's a new Reuters/Ipsos -- some new Reuters/Ipsos polling out this morning considering one of the big questions that she's going to have to answer in this interview with Dana Bash are on her economic policies. How is she going to try to tackle inflation? How is what she does going to be different from what the sitting president Joe Biden has been doing?

[05:40:01]

The polling does show she starts with a little bit more breathing room on the economy than Biden had. Forty-three percent say they prefer Donald Trump on the economy to 40 percent who prefer Harris. The Biden number was tougher. It was 43 Trump, 37 for Biden.

Now that shows a little bit of what we kind of know about this electorate generally if you, like, dig into swing state data. It shows that Harris' kind of bumps here tend to be -- or seem to be from Democrats who are coming home. It's not necessarily eating into Trump's support, which these numbers also kind of underscore and suggest.

But what is her imperative for this interview in terms of actually laying out what she would do as president, which seems to be something a lot of people just don't know yet?

LAI: Absolutely. I think you're very correct on the fact that she hasn't quite laid out the nuances of her policy, and I think that's going to be a big point here in this interview. A lot of Americans are wondering how will you actually match your performance on housing and building new -- you know, new constructions. And when it comes to lowering taxes, how exactly do you do that without blowing up the national deficit?

And so all these questions are in the -- in the front of mind of many voters and it's something that the Trump campaign is going to hit really hard on. And so it is extremely imperative on her to answer those questions and provide almost like a guidebook to how to do that.

JOHNSTON: She's got a bit of a blank slate situation going here. I think when you saw exactly in those poll numbers on the economy when it switched from Biden to Harris, a lot of people sort of cast aside the Biden position and said OK, we'll see what -- we'll give Harris the benefit of the doubt.

And so I think these interviews are a huge chance to begin to paint in that picture. HUNT: Yeah, all right.

Stephanie Lai, Nick Johnston, thank you both very much for being here. I really appreciate it.

LAI: Thanks.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, the Harris and Trump campaigns are trying to court Latino voters, and in the state that could decide who wins it all that's especially important. The focus on Latinos in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Plus, Naomi Osaka makes a statement at the U.S. Open. Our Bleacher Report up next.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:46:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Hey, guys. I want to (INAUDIBLE) to my gold record to the Reading Phils for helping me out. This is the first place where I sang nationally (INAUDIBLE). I'm never going to forget where I came from, and that is Reading, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That is Reading, Pennsylvania. It's a town about an hour from Philadelphia and it is perhaps best known for being the home of popstar Taylor Swift. But Reading, Pennsylvania is also a place that could sway the 2024 election.

The Trump campaign has focused on the Latino majority city as an opportunity to make inroads with a key voting bloc after they showed gains with Latinos in 2020. As his most recent Pennsylvania rally, Trump made this overt appeal to the Latino community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: With us today is Daniel Campos, a pilot in Venezuela who now lives in Pennsylvania. A great gentleman. Daniel came to tell us what you think of Kamala Harris leading our country into socialism.

DANIEL CAMPOS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: We are going on a path that is taking us to what Venezuela became, and the only way right now that we can avoid keep going down that path is making Trump president again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Hmm.

Joining me now is the Democratic mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania, Eddie Moran. Eddie, thank you -- Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your time this morning. Now, of course, Reading voted overwhelmingly for Biden in 2020. But when we look at the data from 2016 and 2020, you do see movement in the direction of Republicans. I'm interested to know why do you think that is?

MAYOR EDDIE MORAN, (D) READING, PENNSYLVANIA (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, you know -- good morning, first of all, Kasie, and thank you for having me.

I think there have been a split moment where Democratic voters and specifically, in the Latino community, didn't feel engaged. I'm not sure if the party was doing enough to keep them on the fold. But I think that the peak has reached its limits. I don't think that we are going to foresee any higher than that.

In fact, as I speak to our community on a day-to-day basis, I see the disappointment with the former president -- how disrespectful he has been to the immigration community, specifically the Latino community.

HUNT: Mr. Mayor, I -- one question I have for you is in terms of Democrats and how they are talking to the Latino community. And you kind of touched on this in your -- in your answer just there that maybe people felt they weren't being reached out to in a way that was effective.

I was reading an interview with Carlos Odio. He's the co-founder of a research firm that's focused on the Latino electorate. And this is what he said.

He said, "Latinos don't want to be invited to a separate party. They want to be invited to the same one as everybody else. They want to be included within the larger American story. They want to lean into their Americanness."

Now, he says he thinks it's been one of the strengths of the Harris campaign, in part because in her first Latino-focused ad it didn't just run in Spanish; it also ran in English. And he called it "an invitation to Latinos while not being othering or exclusionary of others."

What do you think of how he frames this, and is this something that we should be thinking about as we look at how these campaigns are trying to reach Latinos?

MORAN: You know, I couldn't agree more with that statement and his philosophy. I, you know -- again, as a first-generation Puerto Rican raised in the states, I always wanted to feel part of, not in addition to.

[05:50:00]

So that is very true, you know, especially with Puerto Rican, Dominican that are so accustomed to always going out and vote because something is meaningful to them. They want to be felt that they are part of, not just be reached out to when necessary. And again, you know, that is something that it can concerns me if we're doing enough, especially with the new generation -- with the millennials. Like my son would say, let's be very demure and very mindful of we excluding -- including them or are we excluding them, or are we having a second conversation with everyone.

HUNT: I think you might have dropped the first demure, mindful reference on this show, so thank you. Thank you for that.

Can I also just ask you, sir -- some of the appeals that the Trump team and Trump himself -- like, when I went to the Republican National Convention, it felt very much testosterone-driven, right? They're really trying to appeal to men.

How does that play in the Latino community? What role does that have?

MORAN: You know, again, I don't think that the Latino is paying very much attention to the GOP message. I think there's a few that have been dislocated or, rather, not felt part of the party. We still very much engage. I don't think that they're doing enough to get the attention.

Again, you know, I mentioned a few minutes ago about the fact that the former president was -- has been very disrespectful to the Latino immigration. I mean, who is going to forget that vision of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and having the former president throw paper towels at him? So, you know, when they try to deliver a message, at least for me and the majority of the Puerto Rican community, that's what we remember.

So we -- I don't think that they are resonating with the common -- you know, the typical Puerto Rican voter or Latino voter.

HUNT: All right, Mayor Eddie Moran, of Reading, Pennsylvania. So grateful to have you. Thank you so much for your time, sir.

MORAN: Oh my God, thank you, guys, and best of luck.

HUNT: Thank you.

All right, time now for sports. The two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces losing last night despite an epic performance from their star.

Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy, good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, good morning, Kasie.

So, you know, Las Vegas superstar A'ja Wilson, she's showing why she's the favorite to win the WNBA MVP award this season last night, but it still wasn't enough for the struggling Aces.

So they were in Dallas taking on the seven-win Wings and Wilson was just dominating this game. She made 16 of her 22 shots. She scored 42 points. This is the third 40-point game of her career joining Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, and Maya Moore -- the only players in league history to score more than 43 or more times.

And LeBron -- he was watching. He posted on X saying, "Lil sis going crazy right now!"

But the Aces were down three in the closing seconds and Wilson's game- tying three here no good at the buzzer. So the Wings win 93-90. The Aces just 2-4 since returning from the Olympic break.

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, meanwhile -- they're set to face off on Friday in Chicago in their last matchup of the season. And according to TickPick right now, it's the most expensive ticket in WNBA history. The get-in price is more than $200. The previous WNBA record was also set by Clark and Reese when they faced off back in June.

All right, to tennis where world number one Jannik Sinner advanced to the second round of the U.S. Open after beating American Mackenzie McDonald.

Sinner's win comes in his first match since news of his doping case became public last week. The Italian avoided suspension after testing positive for trace amounts of a banned substance twice in an eight-day span back in March. Sinner says he was contaminated inadvertently by his physiotherapist, a claim that satisfied the powers that be.

Now, after the match Sinner was asked how the fans were treating him in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANNIK SINNER, 2024 AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPION: The response from fans, I feel like it has been great. Also throughout the -- when the news came out, you know, in a practice session, there still was a lot of support, which I'm very glad and happy about that. It is still a little bit, you know, not easy and all you have to go through, you know, day by day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And yesterday, the U.S. Open saw the longest match in the tournament's history. Britain's Dan Evans outlasting Russian Karen Khachanov in a match that lasted five hours and 35 minutes. It beat the record by nine minutes.

Evans trailed 4-0 in the fifth set before running off the final six games. And that final point, fittingly, was a marathon 22-shot rally. I bet he's pretty tired.

All right. And finally, Naomi Osaka advancing to the second round yesterday as well. But all anyone could talk about was her pre-match outfit. She was rocking a tutu and a giant bow on her back. Osaka said, well, she loves trying out new fashion at the U.S. Open and she joked that she hoped it wasn't too much.

[05:55:14]

I'll tell you what, Kasie, I love it. I think she should do something wild before every game because it's pretty cool watching --

HUNT: I was going to say I love it. Good luck --

SCHOLES: -- her warmup.

HUNT: Good luck trying it at Wimbledon is the only thing I would say to that.

SCHOLES: No, yeah.

HUNT: But yeah, I think it looks awesome. I love it.

SCHOLES: Only white at Wimbledon. Yeah, that green wouldn't fly.

HUNT: All right, Andy. Thank you so much.

SCHOLES: All right.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, tomorrow night on CNN, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sit down for their highly anticipated first joint interview since Harris became the nominee.

Plus, brand new footage showing then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reaction to the Capitol riots on January 6. It's exclusive and we'll look at it here.

(COMMERCIAL)