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Harris-Walz Field Questions in First Campaign Interview; Labor Day Weekend Brings Cooler Temperatures. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 30, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR/CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's Friday, August 30. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[05:59:27]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: A critical moment in this campaign. Kamala Harris sits down and facing questions on where she would take the country in an exclusive interview with CNN.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She didn't want to go in alone. How do you think President Xi's going to --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Donald Trump weighs in on Harris's interview while slamming her for not scheduling one sooner.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Harris vowing to bring in diverse voices if elected, and that could include a Republican.

And later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Would you take pictures with us, sir? I said absolutely. I did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Trump addressing the controversy in Arlington Cemetery after he was accused of breaking the law during a moment with Gold Star families.

Six a.m. here in Washington. Here's a live look at Savannah, Georgia.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Manu Raju, in for Kasie Hunt. It's great to be with you.

Another first in the whirlwind presidential campaign of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, their first interview together since taking over the top of the ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I think that people are ready for a new way forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now in a sit-down with CNN's Dana Bash in Georgia, both wall -- Harris and Walz answered pointed questions about the goals and policies they have for a new administration if they win, including her change of heart on issues like fracking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Let's be clear: my values have not changed. I believe it is very important that we take seriously what we must do to guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate.

What I have seen is that we can -- we can grow, and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Harris was also asked about what she would do on day one if she becomes America's 47th president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Day one, it's going to be about, one, implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy. I've already laid out a number of proposals in that regard., which include what we're going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're going to do to invest in America's small businesses, what we're going to do to invest in families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, while America watched Harris's first interview as a presidential nominee, her opponent also seemed to be tuning in. As the interview concluded, Trump fired off this one-word take: "boring." And earlier in the day, he also went after Harris for delaying

interviews.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You have to -- as president, you have to be able to do -- you're dealing with the toughest, smartest, most ruthless people in the world. If you can't do an interview, we've got the wrong person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. Joining me now to discuss all of this, Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst and national political reporter for Axios; Matt Brown, national race and politics reporter for the Associated Press; Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator and former Biden White House communications director; and Brad Todd, Republican strategist.

Good morning. Thanks for joining me early this morning. All right. So, Alex, you talk to the Harris campaign quite regularly. You know what their objectives were coming in. Did they accomplish what they wanted to do in his big first interview?

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Which is basically they wanted to say they finally did the first big interview. And not have anything, any sort of viral clip that their opponents can seize on.

I can tell you that there was -- you know, among Biden aides, Harris aides, Democrats across town, that the main attitude was "whew!" Because essentially, some of his worst moments as vice president have been in these interviews; that she can get a little bit on her back foot; that she can get nervous and have these sort of viral word-salad clips.

Now, they -- I don't think everyone was saying this was an A-plus, but they basically got through it. And that was the one thing that comes up over and over again, is this old Kamala or new Kamala?

Old Kamala's the 2019 Kamala, the 2020/2021 Kamala, where she would have some of those moments. But there's this new Kamala, the one that we've seen the last six weeks, have been incredibly dynamic on the stump. That has really rallied Democratic Party behind her. And that's sort of the main anxiety going around -- going on among Democrats.

RAJU: And Republicans had hoped that does -- you know, she do this interview, in part because potentially, she could stumble. We could change some of the trajectory in this race that we've seen over the past month.

Did anything change in the aftermath of last night?

BRAD TODD, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think we saw why it took her 35 days to do an interview. She was mushy, she was weak, and it was artificial. It felt contrived the whole way.

And her second sentence, she said, we need a new way forward, but she's the incumbent vice president. So, she made the case for change in her second sentence into the interview. I don't think it worked out very well for her.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, see, I disagree, and I actually think -- I think she did more than just get through it. I think she -- there were a couple of things that she really had to do. There were high stakes here. There were certainly high expectations laid out for her.

And she had to answer these big questions about changes in her positions from 2019 and also how she's going to handle this question of being vice president. How are you the change candidate if you are the vice president?

And I actually thought she did both of those things quite effectively. I mean, she really articulated, I thought, a great case for a change from the kind of politics we've seen over the last decade. I mean, she really kind of laid -- you know, laid that kind of at the foot of Trump and really drew this contrast between, you know, I'm the change candidate. Donald Trump is not.

[06:05:10]

He's the one who represents the way we've been doing things for the last decade, really since he came on the scene, which I thought was -- was smart and effective.

And then on this question of, you know, you're the vice president. I thought, you know, she really went to -- she made a really forceful case for some of the best things that she and President Biden have been able to do in the White House.

She didn't seem like she was, you know, running away from the person that she served with for four years, which I think there's an integrity element to that, a character element to that, that voters absorb.

So, I -- those were two really tricky things that she had to handle that I thought she did quite well.

RAJU: Yes. And just some of the reviews from the right, obviously, not very positive, as we heard from Brad here. But, you know, about this comment that she made about her values not changing. She was asked, as we played earlier about the fact that she's changed her positions on some of these key issues, whether it's about fracking or about any -- something else.

She said her values have not changed. "The Wall Street Journal" conservative editorial board wrote this morning and said, "'My values have not changed,' she said more than once in a practiced answer that can be read any way you want. We take it as a studied wink to her left flank that she's on their side but can't say so clearly until she's elected."

Do you think that folks on the left will see it that way?

MATT BROWN, NATIONAL RACE AND POLITICS REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well, we definitely know that progressives are far more satisfied with the Harris campaign at this point than I think that they were expecting to be, should there -- should Biden have stepped down.

At the same time, though, I think that that answer is a bit of a Rorschach test, as "The Wall Street Journal" is pointing out there, which is that if you're a moderate, you can see that, OK, well, she did step away from those positions that she took in 2019.

But if you're a progressive, you can say, Well, OK. Maybe she still has the political instincts that we like.

And that's honestly probably going to be the more frustrating thing for Republicans as they attack her, but then also a question for voters as they -- as they say, well, how do we navigate this person and who we're about to give the most powerful office in the world to.

TODD: Dana gave her plenty of chances to say she was wrong about fracking. She didn't want to do that. She's saying I can't be for it right now, because she has an election ahead.

Dana gave her plenty of chances to say she was wrong when she said we shouldn't criminalize border crossings. She wouldn't do that.

She gave her plenty of chances to renounce the things Joe Biden did on his first day to stop fracking. She didn't do that.

I didn't think that this was designed to move her past the mistakes of 2019, 2020. I didn't hear her do that at all. It wasn't very strong.

RAJU: And before you jump in here, Kate, I want to -- you mentioned the border crossings issue. That wasn't exchange between Dana Bash and Kamala Harris last night.

Let's see how the vice president responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: In 2019, when you first ran, there was a debate. You raised your hand when asked whether or not the border should be decriminalized? Do you still believe that?

HARRIS: I believe there should be consequences. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally. And there should be consequences.

I would enforce our laws as president going forward, I recognize the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANU: I mean, how do you explain that? Her reconciling the position she took running in the Democratic primary to now as a general election candidate.

BEDINGFIELD: Well, she's pretty clear. I mean, she says there should be consequences, and people should not cross the border illegally. I mean, she says that. In the answer, she uses the word "illegal."

So, if we're going to start parsing, you know, what does she mean by this word and that word, she used the word "illegal" in the answer.

She also -- we didn't play it here, but in -- as in part of this answer, she talked about, you know, being attorney general in a border state, enforcing laws in a border state.

She went back to her own experience, which predated her time in 2019. So -- and then she also used this answer to pivot to -- you know, to Donald Trump wrecking the bipartisan border security bill.

And she really actually sort of went to a forward-looking, I thought, more offensive frame on what she would do as president and the responsibility that she believed that Donald Trump and the Republicans have for -- for destroying the chances at getting that bill done.

So, you know, I thought she actually navigated this quite well. She was -- she went back to an answer that was rooted in her time in public service. And she made very clear that she believes there should be consequences.

And you know, I think that was -- I think that was a strong answer.

THOMPSON: Beyond -- well, just beyond the parsing of this particular answer, the fact is that, when she was running four years ago -- and Kate will remember this as working for Joe Biden then -- she was not introducing herself as a border-state prosecutor that took on multinational gangs.

And even if you think that her position is good now, the fact is that her pitch to voters is very different than it was five years ago.

BEDINGFIELD: No question. But I think the other way she tackled that across the board in answering these questions in this interview was to say, you know -- and I've spent four years in the White House learning how to get things done.

And so, I thought that's the other piece of her answer on the -- on the values thing that we haven't talked about yet. She said, you know, my values haven't changed, but I have learned how to get things done. And I've learned about finding consensus and that you have to be able to -- to get things done to move forward.

[06:10:03]

And so that -- you know, that is the important kind of second piece here that lets her say, you know, yes, I am a different candidate than I was in 2019, because I've spent four years in the White House getting things done.

TODD: I think she has -- she's going to own what the Biden record of getting things done on the border. I think Republicans are going to be ecstatic about that.

And when she goes back to her experience as A.G., that's memory-holing the last four years. It's a big case of amnesia where she had -- was given a prominent role in stopping illegal crossings at the border. I don't think it's going to fly. And I think the longer that this race

dwells on immigration and border enforcement, the worse it is for Kamala Harris.

RAJU: And --

BEDINGFIELD: But cross -- it's important to note. I mean, she was responsible for migration from the Northern Triangle. Crossings are down from those countries in the Northern Triangle since she took that portfolio on.

So, if we're going to talk about the numbers, then we should -- to be fair to her, we should talk about the numbers as they exist.

TODD: This is the thing -- This is the thing where Washington's disconnect with America, I think, is really stark. For Americans, it's is the border closed, and are people still coming across illegally? That's the question.

And this administration's record on that's terrible. And it started on their first day when they reversed Donald Trump's immigration laws.

RAJU: And we'll talk more about that later on. Do you want to add quickly?

BEDINGFIELD: I just -- I just in the wake of the executive order being implemented, numbers are down. And you cannot argue that Republicans have been acting in good faith on trying to find solutions here in an election year.

So, if we're going to be -- if we're going to be talking about immigration as a political issue, Republicans have to own, and Donald Trump has to own his part in ensuring that Congress didn't take any meaningful steps to fix the problem.

RAJU: One thing is clear. Trump is still leading, though, on immigration. And we'll see if she's able to close that margin and how much it impacts voters come November.

We're going to talk more about this later on in the show and a lot more about the interview to digest.

And just don't forget: just in a few hours, we're going to hear from Donald Trump's running mate. Senator J.D. Vance is going to be joining CNN live, responding to Harris's and Walz's first interview. You can watch that on CNN News Central in the 8 a.m. hour.

Now, coming up next on CNN THIS MORNING, if elected, Kamala Harris is looking for a presence of bipartisanship. Why she says it's important to have a Republican in her cabinet.

Plus, the rules are laid out, but there's still some pushback about if those mics will actually be muted or live at the next debate.

And Governor Tim Walz addressing that tear-jerking moment from his DNC speech when his son, Gus, cheered him on, shouting, quote, "That's my dad."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It was just such a visceral, emotional moment that I'm -- I'm just -- I'm grateful I got to experience it. And I'm -- I'm so proud of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Will you appoint a Republican to your cabinet?

HARRIS: Yes, I would.

BASH: Anyone in mind?

HARRIS: No, no one in particular in mind. I've got 68 days to go with this election, so I'm not putting the cart before the horse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. Kamala Harris's plan of nominating a Republican to serve in a cabinet post is something that President bomber Obama did more than once.

And Harris telling CNN's Dana Bash it would not just benefit her, but she says also, the electorate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I think it's really important. I -- I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it's important to have people at the table, when some of the most important decisions are being made, that have different views, different experiences.

And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Republicans actually not exactly embracing that Harris offer to appoint one of their own to her cabinet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, she says she wants Republicans in her cabinet. She loves diversity of views. I mean, has Kamala brought you into the West wing and asked about your conservative viewpoint or any of your colleagues?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): No, of course not. She's on the far opposite end of the spectrum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Great. Panel is back. So, all right, Alex. What do you think? Is this a good idea? I mean, look, this is not unusual. This has been not the precedent in the last couple of presidencies.

But about -- she clearly -- the strategy, of course, is that she needs Republicans. She needs those moderate Republicans skeptical of Donald Trump. Is it an effective strategy?

THOMPSON: Yes. I mean, this is a well-worn strategy and an effective one in past presidencies. It's very normal to say, I'm going to appoint a member of the opposite party.

And then usually, it's sort of one of not necessarily insignificant, but sort of the bottom-tier cabinet post. Right?

You're talking about Department of Transportation, Department of Commerce. No offense to those departments, but they're not usually as prominent as sort of the big three Treasury Department, Defense Department.

You know, that being said, what you're basically seeing Kamala Harris be able to do, by the fact that she didn't have to do a primary, is she's only basically, doing a general election run to the center.

The Democratic Party is incredibly united right now. You look at every single poll. It's like 90 percent approval rating, excited to vote for her.

So, what she's doing right now is, like, OK, well, we already have the Democratic Party unified. Let's go to the center. This is just one of many moves she's been doing to do the --

RAJU: That's the benefit of not having run on a primary. Although she's got to reconcile her positions from her previous primaries.

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: So that's kind of an issue. But still, she can't -- and it's a great point. I mean, she could just focus on trying to court the middle, right?

BROWN: Absolutely. And this is -- this is both messaging and policy. I mean, you know, the -- there's not any shortage of Republicans who she could be picking for this position.

I mean, Vermont's Republican governor, for instance, is well to the left of, you know, many Democrats in her own party.

So, the question here is really how -- what messages can she make to, you know, overture for the moderate voters that she needs in states like Georgia, like Michigan, like Pennsylvania, to really win them over?

[06:20:04] And saying that I'm going -- that I welcome you; I'm going to select you. And I can even select one of your own to be included in my governing coalition, is something that I think really does show that she is trying to go -- now that she's consolidated the base; now that, you know, for instance, younger people, people of color have come back into the fold, who are -- these are the voters who were not as energized when Joe Biden was at the top of the ticket, you're really seeing her say, OK, well, now we can go for the moderates, go for the former Republicans, go for the people who were, you know, the core of the GOP.

RAJU: I want to ask you, Biden did not name a Republican to his cabinet. Trump didn't name a Democratic to his cabinet. But George W. Bush had one on that end. Obama had a couple. So why didn't Biden do that?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, some of it is just picking the right people that you believe are the people for the job in the moment, regardless of party.

There was never an intentional, you know, decision to say we're not going to select a Republican. He, you know, looked around and picked the people that he thought were going to be best for those jobs for -- in their respective agencies.

But I do think this is -- it is really smart politics. And -- and certainly, it appeals to voters in the middle, no question. But actually, I think this is one of the things that often gets lost, you know, in this moment of hyper-partisanship in our politics. People tend to believe that, you know, Democratic voters, you know, only want to see Democrats, and they only want to score points.

That's actually not true. And I -- Biden's candidacy in 2019 was actually sort of a test of this hypothesis within the Democratic Party. To actual Democratic voters, not the chattering class, not pundits, not activists, but actual Democratic voters want to see bipartisanship a lot more than it feels like they do in the national conversation.

And that's one of the things that she, I think, is being really smart in seizing on here. People actually want to see their elected officials work across the aisle. Even, you know, loyal Democratic voters who are going to vote Democrat up and down the ticket.

TODD: I think that's actually her problem. I mean, she's the leftmost candidate for president we've ever had run. Maybe George McGovern in 1972 was equally left.

I think that -- and this whole notion of a Republican who had -- might got on her cabinet, it's a shiny object.

Because when she was in the Senate, she was ranked No. 100 out of 100 is how far left she was. She -- when she ran in 2020, she was the leftmost candidate on the stage, maybe save Bernie Sanders.

This is a real problem for her: ideology. If Trump will choose it, if he will run his campaign on ideology, he will whip her. But I'm not sure he will.

RAJU: That's a big "if." That's a big "if."

TODD: It remains to be seen if he will.

RAJU: All right. We'll dive into that a little bit more later, as well.

So still ahead for us on CNN THIS MORNING, the Army now weighing in on what happened at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week. The latest on that back and forth between the Trump campaign aide and a cemetery worker.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I'm the only person in this race who actually served a border state as attorney general to enforce our laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Kamala Harris taking on the issue of the border during a sit- down with CNN.

And ABC --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:11]

RAJU: ABC News laying out the rules for its debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. And it includes the contested muted microphones.

CNN obtained a copy of the rules, which states, "Candidate microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when time belongs to another candidate."

Now, while the Trump campaign has accepted those rules, Harris's team says they are still in discussions and pushing back on that issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUENTIN FULKS, HARRIS DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: But I think it's comical, because we thought that this issue was closed. But unfortunately, Donald Trump's handlers are telling him that his mic has been muted. So, we hope that he shows up.

He said himself that he didn't care. He wanted the mics to be unmuted, and then his team back that -- backtrack that.

So, we really don't know what the problem is.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: That highly anticipated debate, of course, scheduled for September 10. Labor Day weekend is almost here, and it could bring cooler temperatures, thankfully, for many across the United States,'

Let's go right to CNN's meteorologist Derek van Dam with your holiday forecast. So, Derek, which parts of the country should be taking shelter, and which should be enjoying those barbecues outside?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good question. So, it depends on what day of the holiday weekend you're really talking about.

The cooler weather is actually going to be confined to the Eastern Seaboard. But before we transition from the warmth to the cooler weather, we've got to get through some showers and thunderstorms.

But I think Labor Day looking very nice across the Northeastern parts of the U.S. If you like the cooler than average weather. There's still a lot of heat sandwiched right across the Ohio River Valley, stretching to the Deep South. What's new there, right? Atlanta all the way to Charlotte.

If you're looking for cooler weather, head to New York and Boston. That's where temperatures today will be in the lower 70s. But you can see a -- quite a stark difference between Cincinnati, Nashville, all the way to the ATL.

This is the cold front responsible for the shower and thunderstorm activity through the course of the weekend, kind of a reinforcing shot of cooler weather.

Notice the time stamp on the top portion of the TV screen. That's for Sunday. Of course, we still have one more day of this extended holiday weekend.

In the meantime, today's chance of severe weather across the state of Michigan, that shifts and advance Eastward to the interior of New England and the East Coast. So, heads up, Pittsburgh to Philadelphia.

Your forecast through the course of the holiday weekend, calls for cooling temperatures again, with several cold fronts moving through the Pacific Northwest. This is the place to be.

And just a general overall picture for your Labor Day. Look at the sunshine and nice weather for you, Manu, in D.C.

RAJU: I will take it. The -- that crisp fall weather cannot come soon enough. I can tell you. I speak for all of D.C. when I say that.

Derek van Dam, thank you so much.

And straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, more of Kamala Harris's first interview as a Democratic nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Prices, in particular, for groceries are still too high. The American people know it. I know it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: How the vice president says she will help Americans who are hurting in the post-COVID economy.

Plus, why the candidates --