Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Pelosi On Jan. 6th: Trump Has To "Pay A Price"; New Clip Of Vance Criticizing "Childless" Opponents Surfaces; Walz Talks Gutters On TikTok Show. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 28, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a live look right now at Kennedy Space Center, where the big countdown has been called off again for the second time. SpaceX scrubbing plans to launch the Polaris Dawn mission. This time it was the weather. Yesterday, takeoff was called off because of a helium leak. The weather not expected to clear up tonight or tomorrow, so unclear when this one's going to launch.

And speaking of weather, severe storms are hitting the Great Lakes region overnight, knocking out power to nearly half a million customers, plus a cold front making its way across the Midwest towards the Mid-Atlantic, finally breaking, hopefully, the record heat. Let's get to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar with more this morning. Allison, what are you seeing out there?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, so it is still summer, Kasie, but I think a lot of us are over it. We're ready for it to be fall.

HUNT: Yes. Correct.

CHINCHAR: Get the cooler temperatures in. And that -- and that will be the case for some folks today. But others, you've still got about another day or two of dealing with those extreme heat temperatures. And that's going to be highlighted in all of these orange areas you see here. So, St. Louis, Cincinnati, D.C., up through New York, still looking at another day of incredibly warm temperatures. St. Louis topping out at 102 yesterday, Chicago, 99. Again, we're going to start to see things calm down.

So place like Chicago going from 99 yesterday to a high of only 84 today, so a little bit better. Similar in Cleveland, going from 95 yesterday to 83 today. But it's going to take at least another day for areas in the Mid-Atlantic and the northeast to drop. So D.C., topping out at 100 today. Tomorrow will drop down maybe below that 90 degree mark. New York City, Philadelphia, both still going to be in the 90s today, but hopefully getting back into the 70s again tomorrow.

Now, one of the thing that's helping with that heat is it's also helping to fuel a lot of severe thunderstorms in similar areas, especially along the Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley. You can see here most of these areas, looking at the potential for damaging winds. Large hail also going to be a concern across portions of the High Plains. Could see some hail up around the size of golf balls.

HUNT: Wow. OK. Allison Chinchar for us this morning. Allison, thank you very much.

All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, just released footage of Nancy Pelosi during the January 6th Capitol attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: How many times did the members ask, are we prepared? Are we prepared? We're not prepared for the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:35:11]

HUNT: The former speaker also had quite a bit to say about who was to blame. We'll show you that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:40:28]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're done with Donald Trump. How does it feel?

PELOSI: I just feel sick that what he did to the Capitol and to the country today. He's got to pay a price for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: He's got to pay a price for that. This morning, newly obtained footage of then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 6th and the day after, showing us her real time reaction to the Capitol attack and revealing how in the hours after she sought to lay blame directly at the feet of former President Trump, with an unusually unfiltered set of footage here, Pelosi is seen slamming Capitol security for their lack of preparation.

Still, she saved her strongest rebuke for Donald Trump as she prepared and considered whether they were going to again impeach the outgoing president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: We've taken an oath to protect our coun -- our country from all enemies foreign and domestic. There's a domestic enemy in the White House. And let's not mince words about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Let's not mince words about this. Marcus Childress did not actually leave the show earlier, even though I said. Thank you. You're the former investigative counsel for the January 6th Committee. Some of what we saw there was from January 7th, where Pelosi is now, you know, the morning after digesting what has happened. And there's a little bit more footage I want to play for you also, she's driving in a car on her way in on January 7th, on the phone with her aides about what they're going to do to try to respond to what -- what they had just seen. Let's watch that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: I think our focus has to be on the President. Let's not divert ourselves. I don't want to have it on a par with the insurrection and the impeachment and the rest of that. If they ask, I will respond, but I'm not doing it on a part, because it's a diversionary tactic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understood, understood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So that's actually arguing with her longtime aide, Drew Hammill. And Hammill was noting that she should call in -- in the speech she was about to make for the resignation of the chair of the Capitol Police Board, Steven Sund. And she's saying, I don't want to do that. I want to I want to keep this focus on Donald Trump.

I know we talked about this a little bit earlier in the show, but this -- this does kind of illuminate how she was thinking about Trump himself in that moment, and especially that line, he needs to pay a price.

MARCUS CHILDRESS, PARTNER, JENNER & BLOCK: Yes. I mean, I think the big takeaway from January 6th, even to this day, right, right now, is the fragility of the peaceful transfer of power, right? And that's -- that's a core tenet of our, I know we use the term democracy, and it's not really popular now on the campaign trail, but it is a tenant of talking points. Is it -- it's real fragile.

And I think what you see here Speaker Pelosi saying that, but for the actions of -- of Donald Trump, not acting in this capacity as President, but acting as a candidate who wanted to keep power, Capitol Police would have had to respond. National Guard would have had to respond, just like every other election in American history.

And so I think she's appropriately pointing at the leadership, pointing at the head that was actually inspiring sowing down to our election, and wanting to keep the focus there in those important moments at moments after January 6th.

HUNT: Yes, and it's worth, sorry, Stephen, go ahead.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I'm just going to say what's so fascinating about that and following on from your point, that key phrase she -- he needs to pay a price, it explains so much of what's happened in the subsequent years. At that point, it would be impossible for us to imagine that there is a way back politically for Donald Trump, yet his strength in the Republican Party was such that within three or four weeks of that, Kevin McCarthy was down at Mar-a- Lago. And the speaker's reaction there helps us understand why she was so active in recent weeks about trying to change the Democratic ticket, because she believed that this under President Joe Biden, was a ticket that couldn't thwart a return of Donald Trump. And what she's see -- seeing there is why she believes that a second Trump term could be so dangerous for the country. It's like, it -- it's a full circle moment at that -- that footage.

HUNT: Yes.

MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO TIM SCOTT'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: But I -- I always take it she kind of with -- with the thought that McCarthy legitimized Trump, or -- or gave him kind of a path back. I mean, Kevin McCarthy is now not in power, right? The voters legitimized Trump. I mean, look, I -- I was -- I was there. You know, he won a primary. I think -- and it was, I think it was very important for the party --

[06:44:59]

HUNT: Right. But the argument, I mean, he was not I mean, that photo that Kevin McCarthy took just a handful of weeks after going down to the floor and saying that he bore some responsibility, I mean, the -- the 180 I mean, I remember talking to --

(CROSSTALK)

GORMAN: But like, but McCarthy, like people -- the Republican primary voters didn't just say, you know, Kevin McCarthy, I'm going to listen to him. No, McCarthy was in response to the primary voters, and -- and that. It was -- I think it was a little the opposite. He was seeing what was happening.

HUNT: You're saying that the tail was wagging the dog?

GORMAN: Exactly. It was not like --

HUNT: And not the dog was wagging the tail.

GORMAN: -- you know, yes.

BRAD WOODHOUSE, SENIOR ADVISER TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, look, Mc -- McCarthy gave -- McCarthy gave him a lifeline. But I think what we're sleeping on here is what Stephen mentioned earlier, is that Trump's doing all this again. He said that Kamala Harris going to the top of the ticket, or -- or that you said, Marcus --

CHILDRESS: Yes.

WOODHOUSE: -- is -- is a coup. He's showing that doubt. He's -- he's going to work his supporters up. And, you know, if -- if she wins, we're -- we're going to see --

CHILDRESS: The damage was done to your point, the damage was done by January 6th, January 7th of 2021. For five, six months, all you had heard from the candidate Trump out in the campaign trail was that he was being cheat -- cheated. He was being rigged through mail-in voting. This -- this election was fraudulent. The same thing we're hearing right now. It's not just from the candidate, either. You're hearing it from all of his surrogates. You're hearing it from other members of Congress.

So the damage was done. You can't now turn around until your base that it is a lawful election. I think that's why it is such a red flag right now to start seeing some of the big lie rhetoric return back to the campaign trail and why we outlined in our report for January 6th, the long prelude before the actual day of January 6th.

If you look at our report, we don't get to January 6th until chapter eight, right? We're talking about what led to that day on the campaign trail, who was the president of the United States, who was not acting as president, but acting as a candidate to keep power?

HUNT: Marcus Childress, I'm going to go through kind of looking -- look and see, because we've seen some of this just in recent weeks since Harris was at the top of the ticket, of how these conversations are playing out. Look at perhaps how they -- they played out before. And we'll have you back. Thank you very much for being here today. I appreciate it.

All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, another old video clip resurfacing of Trump running mates, J.D. Vance, we're going to dive into his history of going after political opponents who don't have children.

Plus, why Tim Walz is waxing poetic about his love of gutters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I've had problems with gutters before. You get your basement wet. You get ice dams. It causes a lot of problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How often do you like looking at gutters?

WALZ: I look quite often, surprisingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:33]

HUNT: All right, 50 minutes past the hour, here's your morning roundup. Israel launching a deadly military operation overnight in the northern occupied West Bank. Palestinian health officials report at least nine people have been killed. Hamas is responding by calling for a, quote, escalation of resistance, end quote, against Israel.

Arlington National Cemetery confirms an incident occurred around the use of photography when Donald Trump visited the cemetery on Monday. The cemetery says federal law prohibits political campaign or election related activities there that includes photographers. In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump shared a statement from families of fallen soldiers expressing their approval for photography use. NPR reports there was a verbal and physical altercation with an official at the cemetery. Trump's spokesperson disputes this, but says an unnamed person did physically block the Trump team during the ceremony.

And an environmental group is calling for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be investigated. They want more information about Kennedy's beheading of a whale carcass that washed ashore near his home. The story was shared by Kennedy's daughter, Kick Kennedy in a 2012 interview with Town and Country Magazine, and is getting renewed scrutiny right now.

And then there's this, more past comments from J.D. Vance resurfacing where he is talking about the childless status of a political opponent. This during a 2021 Ohio Senate forum, then candidate Vance went after a teacher's union leader who didn't have kids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, the -- the -- so many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but there are people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of our own and leave ours the hell alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The CNN K-File report found several un -- other instances in recent years where Vance brought up this topic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: We should care about declining fertility, not just because it's bad for our economy, but because we think babies are good. And we think babies are good because we're not sociopaths.

Why have we let the Democrat Party become controlled by people who don't have children? And why is this just a normal fact of American life?

We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via -- via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies. Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So while that childless cat lady's remark is perhaps like you can print it on a t shirt, which is why it makes it so devastating for him, this is part of a pattern, Matt Gorman, there are more comments that basically underscore the philosophy he was trying to articulate with that one phrase.

GORMAN: Yes. Look, I -- I -- I kind of keep thinking back also to -- to earlier in the show. This is kind of in a new reality now we're seeing for candidates. It got -- it -- it changed very -- it was a little bit 10 years ago when you had a little sporadic things, what are the best attacks we have against Kamala Harris? Things on video. What are the best attacks they have on J.D. Vance? Things on video. Pelosi talking. We talked about before whether Trump will use, you know, I feel responsible for this.

The proliferation of videos now a massive and you're being foot -- you're being videoed everywhere. And I think how candidates deal with that, especially with vetting candidates, and how they respond to these attacks, is going to be a huge new problem with the campaigns going forward.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, look, I take your point. I will also say one of those was in a televised, you know, a forum for when he was running for Senate, and the other was when he was a candidate for vice president. I mean, that's actually really interesting to me in terms of he -- he was articulating the childless cat lady philosophy, what underlies it as recently as July 30th.

[06:55:16]

GORMAN: Matt, you did a really good job there of not addressing how disastrous your vice presidential candidate is. And, I mean, who is -- who does he think he is? I mean, some people can't have children. Some people have circumstances where they don't want children or can't have children at a certain -- at a certain time. I mean, this -- this is turning off suburban America.

There is no doubt in my mind that J.D. Vance is a huge anvil on -- on Trump's chances of winning for -- because of stuff like this. And he'll say, Well, I made one comment. It was sarcastic. It's not -- it's over and over and over, and it's really, as -- as -- as Tim Walz would say, it's weird as hell.

HUNT: Stephen, this was how he addressed it in an interview on Meet the Press. He did say he has no regrets about the childless cat lady comment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: Look, I regret certainly that a lot of people took it the wrong way, and I certainly regret the DNC and -- and Kamala Harris lied about it.

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: But do you regret what you said, Senator?

VANCE: Look, Kristen, I'm going to say things from time to time that people will disagree with I'm a real person. I'm going to make jokes. I'm going to say things sarcastically. Those sarcastic comments were made in the service of a real, substantive point, this country has become too anti-family.

WELKER: So no regret?

VANCE: Those thing that people disagree with. I have a lot of regrets, Kristen, but making a joke three years ago is not at the top 10 of the list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINSON: Look as you said, he was running for office. The point that he made some of these remarks, it almost seems that some Republicans are going out of their way to widen the gender gap, even though it's a massive issue in this election, and female voters and suburban voters are going to be very important. I think it does speak to the fact that primary elections are so important in politics. People speak to their own concentrated, ideological electorate. And they say things to woo those people that end up when they're on a much wider stage, being quite damaging.

HUNT: All right, let's turn now to this in the battle for younger voters, both the Harris and Trump campaigns have turned to social media influencers to try to bring in new voters. Here is the latest instance. This is Democratic vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, making an appearance on the popular TikTok show, Subway Takes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what's your take?

WALZ: My take is the most neglected part of homeownership is the gutters. It's personal for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundred percent agree.

WALZ: I've had problems with gutters before. You get your basement wet. You get ice dams. It causes a lot of problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How often do you like looking at gutters?

WALZ: I look quite often, surprisingly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like you're inspecting?

WALZ: No. I try not to be judgmental on people, but when I see a well- tended gutter says a lot about somebody, so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Brad, he's losing it over here.

WOODHOUSE: Well, first of all, that's so -- it's so relatable, and it gives me a little bit of PTSD. I remember as a child, my father would make me take a 40-foot ladder and walk up and pull the --

HUNT: Oh, we didn't even play the part where they get to the ladders.

WOODHOUSE: Right.

HUNT: Guys, can you pull that up? I'm probably asking the too much of the control room. But continue.

WOODHOUSE: I would -- I would have to get the -- the leaves out of our gutters at our home. And we had a -- we had a sloping backyard. It was like a 40-foot ladder.

HUNT: So your dad would make you get up on the ladder?

WOODHOUSE: Oh, he would make me get up on the ladder.

HUNT: I mean that's probably smart on his part, I think.

WOODHOUSE: This is -- this is just great. I mean, I think about gutters too.

HUNT: I -- I mean, I think about -- I mean I think about I make my husband think about the gutters which is unfortunately. Gender division of labor in our household. But there you go.

WOODHOUSE: Very relatable. Very relatable.

HUNT: Do you -- I mean this -- I will say, like, in a seriousness, this is something that they feel like Tim Walz brings the ticket is this sort of down home. I'm like, this is something that -- it doesn't matter what -- what party you're in, if you own a home and you're like, dealing with a problem, like, gutters are a problem that most people have to --

GORMAN: I'll take it from you. I -- I -- I don't have any to worry about. But, no, look, I -- I think that was always like -- that's always a thing, right? Like, it -- it's how do you balance, right, whether these -- the TikTok shows, how do you balance kind of the non- mainstream media is -- as we've talked about, and -- and -- and Kam -- Kamala's team has talked about the more kind of normal mainstream channels, with ways that you can reach a more subsection of audiences, but it displays your personality a different way.

I mean, one of the things on our side, we did was Bryson DeChambeau and Trump played around a golf, right? And it was very interesting to see kind of personalities. You're always looking for what are the ways that aren't too weird and put your candidate in a weird spot, but can show off a personality in a -- in a relatable way.

HUNT: Yes, there's that weird again. I will say Stephen, I've been --

GORMAN: No, no, no, they're not kicking over the word weird.

HUNT: No. I know. I understand. I understand.

GORMAN: We're fine. We're taking that back.

HUNT: Stephen, I have been surprised this is firmly in the realm of anecdata. But I have been surprised how much of the sort of social media, viral stuff has made its way to people in my life who are over the age of 55.

COLLINSON: Right. I'm just grateful for a turn to gutter politics after all that joy we had last week.

(CROSSTALK) COLLINSON: But to your -- to your point, it's not just the -- the Harris campaign that's been doing it. Trump has been going on all of these podcasts, social media stuff that appeals to young males, you know, the whole extreme fighting, fear of -- all the -- the -- the Nelk Boys, all of that is playing into this as well. So both these campaigns are pretty clear about, you know, slicing this electorate and -- and getting certain people who perhaps don't watch the mainstream media how they can reach them.

[07:00:26]

HUNT: Central definitional difference between this campaign and campaigns past the fragmentation of media and speaking to different audiences. All right, guys, thank you very much for joining me today. I appreciate it.

Thanks to all of you for being with us as well. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.