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The Chris Wallace Show

Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris Attempting to Distinguish Herself from President Biden as Democratic National Committee Approaches; Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Holds Press Conference on Economy Policy but Veers Off onto Other Topics; Donald Trump Compares Prestige of Winning Congressional Medal of Honor to Presidential Medal of Freedom; Media Outlets Not Publishing Hacked Documents from Trump Campaign Anonymously Sent to Them; Jorts, Combination of Jeans and Shorts, becoming Fashionable Again in U.S.; Costco Implementing Stricter Measures to Reduce Membership Card Sharing Among Family and Friends. Aired 10-11a ET.

Aired August 17, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:01:14]

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again and welcome. It's time to break down the big stories with some smart people. Today we're asking, with the Democratic convention now two days away, can Kamala Harris distinguish herself enough from President Biden without alienating his supporters?

Then, friendly fire, Donald Trump's latest foot and mouth moment, which could cost him support from those who honor our nation's greatest heroes.

And later, from tacky to trendy, the surprising comeback for a fashion item and a word people have hated for years.

The panel is here and ready to go. So sit back, relax, and let's talk about it.

Up first, at the Democratic convention next week, Kamala Harris has to pull off a delicate maneuver, showing she intends to build on Joe Biden's record without breaking from it, all part of an effort to carve her own path without coming off as disloyal.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: Vice President Harris unveiling part of her economic message.

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will focus on one element that's on the minds of many Americans, and that is lowering the cost of living.

WALLACE: Calling for a federal ban on price gouging, especially for groceries, in a bid to cut costs and win votes.

HARRIS: We will help the food industry become more competitive.

WALLACE: Harris is walking a tightrope, taking a more populist stance while trying to stay in lockstep with Joe Biden.

HARRIS: There's a lot of love in this room for our president.

WALLACE: Appearing together for the first time since Biden left the race.

HARRIS: It is my eternal and great, great, great honor, I have to tell you, to serve with this most extraordinary human being.

WALLACE: It's a tough spot, praising the president whose job approval remains in the mid-30s. Now Harris hopes the Democratic convention will help her turn the page.

HARRIS: When we fight, we win.

WALLACE: But what happens outside the convention could change that as thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters are expected in Chicago.

RANIA SALEM, PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST: Killer Kamala is just as complicit as Genocide Joe.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: Here with me today, conservative pollster and "New York Times" opinion writer Kristen Soltis Anderson, "New York Times" journalist and host of "The Interview" podcast Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Jim Geraghty, senior political correspondent for "The National Review," and Natasha Alford, senior correspondent and host of TheGrio. Welcome, everyone, especially Natasha as a first timer.

NATASHA ALFORD, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT AND HOST, THEGRIO: Thank you for having me.

WALLACE: Delighted to.

Jim, is Harris doing enough to become her own candidate?

JIM GERAGHTY, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE NATIONAL REVIEW": Well, she's neck-and-neck in the polls. She's had a really great launch. If she's ever got down to sitting down and having an interview or doing a press conference, when she unveils things like her economic agenda she did Friday, at some point, like, hey, these are great ideas. Why are you not doing them now as vice president? You're in an administration. Is there anything here that you want to do that Joe Biden doesn't want to do? I have a very hard time believing Biden would say, oh yes, we're not doing that. That's a terrible idea.

WALLACE: So would you like to see her be more open in saying, here's something I'd like to do.

GERAGHTY: I would love to see her sit down and do interviews, and I'd love to see her do press conferences. But apparently you don't need to do that anymore. Apparently, you can cruise to the top of the -- LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, "NEW YORK TIMES" JOURNALIST AND PODCAST HOST: I

just love, though, that right now the right is all of a sudden embracing the free press. I'm very excited about this as a journalist. I think it's wonderful that everyone, including Donald Trump is really pushing Kamala Harris to do this. I agree. I think she should do a press conference. I think she showed sit down for an interview. But it's a little disingenuous for some on the right to do this.

GERAGHTY: No, it's not. When has it ever been -- Donald Trump will do interviews with anybody.

[10:02:00]

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's not true.

GERAGHTY: He went to the National Association of Black Journalists and she didn't.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's not true.

GERAGHTY: Does he do a lot think interviews with amen corner at FOX News? Yes, no doubt about that. But he will sit down. He'll kibitz with reporters. He does a lot more accessing that either Joe Biden has done for the last four years, or Kamala Harris, and she's become the nominee.

WALLACE: But I want to get back to this question of is she doing enough to become her own candidate and not Joe Biden's vice president. Back in 1968, Vice President Humphrey didn't start surging in the poll until he broke with his president, LBJ, and said he would stop bombing North Vietnam. Kamala Harris's effort to establish her own political identity isn't made any easier by comments like this from President Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much does it bother you that Vice President Harris might soon for political reasons start to distance herself from your economics?

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She's not going to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Natasha, does Harris need to more explicitly show differences with Biden? Obviously, she's on the Biden team. She has been part of the administration. But to say, for instance, as she did on Friday, you know, I am so concerned about prices that I'm going to start going after price gouging, and we're going to make a new -- make some policy statements that are hers.

ALFORD: I think that one of the things we've seen Joe Biden struggle with is the accomplishments that he touted, and then the public's actual understanding of those accomplishments. So I really think that she has somewhat of a blank canvas. Even though she's a part of this administration, there are people who still can't articulate what's in the Inflation Reduction Act, what was in the chips and science bill. So I think that she can talk about these things while also, again, having her own style. And we've seen it in the communications. I mean, look at her comms team, the wittiness, the sharpness, the way that they're able to give and take jabs in a way that the Biden administration would -- when you talk about Joe Biden and the way that he communicates, it's just night and day. So I think she's already defining herself.

WALLACE: Going back to 68, as we were, that Democratic convention in Chicago was disrupted by anti-Vietnam war protesters battling police in the streets. And that chaos hurt Democrats with middle America. Kristen, will the pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt Harris's coming out party?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, FOUNDING PARTNER, ECHELON INSIGHTS: I expect that they likely will. They have certainly expressed an interest in doing so. And I think that'll be a really, really big problem for Harris because she is using this coming week to introduce herself to voters who actually don't know that much about what she has done as vice president over the last four years. In some ways that blank canvas, Natasha, that you were talking about, at the time when she was vice president it was sort of seen as a bad thing, right? The administration, do they not trust her? Why are they not putting her out there on things? What has she actually done for the last four years? But that is now, weirdly enough, allowing her to have this break, to be this person who is her own person on issues like the economy where voters were trusting Donald Trump over Joe Biden by huge margins. Now, she's running much closer to Donald Trump.

So by having this opportunity at the convention to introduce herself. It's a big, important moment. And if it is overshadowed by chaos, that makes voters think, oh look, Democrats can't even control their own convention. How are they supposed to bring about law, order, safety, security, peace in this country? That would be a bad message for them.

WALLACE: Lulu, Harris has, much more than Biden, spoken out about the bloodbath in Gaza and been, on the margins, more critical about Israel, but the protesters say they hold her responsible. She has blood on her hands as well as the entire administration. How disruptive -- and they're talking about tens of thousands -- how disruptive could the protesters be, and how much that damage this this fairly flawless launch so far by Kamala Harris?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, I think it's potentially damaging. I mean, that's the objective of protests, right? They want attention, they want there to be accountability. There is a huge portion of the younger part of the Democratic Party that is very upset by what's happening. And that's why I think you're seeing the clock ticking right now in terms of what's happening in Israel and the ceasefire. I mean, I think there's a real push to try and make that ceasefire happen as quickly as possible to try and dampen these protests.

But at the end of the day, I think those images of chaos, if chaos there are, will be damaging to the Democratic Party. That said, protest is part of what makes America what America is. They have the right to protest. They have the right to ask their leaders for accountability.

WALLACE: Meanwhile, the Democrats have come up with a new way to try to win over more traditional shuttle Republican voters. Here's Secretary Pete Buttigieg promising a return to a more normal GOP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Beating him twice would, I think, have a different effect on a lot of people in the GOP who know better than to be on board with him.

[10:10:00]

But we got so close to the fever breaking, but it didn't quite break, because Republicans found that their access to power still depended on their standing with Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Jim, Buttigieg said that to our very own Lulu Garcia in her podcast. Is "break the fever" a good way, a realistic way to try to win over some not very happy with Trump Republicans?

GERAGHTY: If you could make the argument that Kamala Harris is going to be a centrist, New Democratic Leadership Council, centrist, middle of the road style Democrat, you'd probably have an easier sell. Maybe there are some Republicans out there who are so fed up with Donald Trump and so exasperated by this and the idea that this is going to drive a stake into the heart of Trumpism, than maybe so.

My sneaking suspicion is we all thought that January 6th was going to do this, and we thought that the convictions were going to do this. I could very -- you know, if Trump loses, he's going to say, oh, it was cheated, it was stolen, I did nothing wrong. It's going to be all --

WALLACE: Best you do the rest of the show with your Trump --

TRUMP: Chris, I'd love to do it. I was so fed up with the way you handled that debate, it was absolutely -- I won't do that because the voice gets into my head, and it gets -- it's kind of hard to get out. It's like demonic possession.

The point is that like I'd love the idea that if Trump loses in 2028, the Republican Party resets.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think this is right, though. I mean, I think -- he said it to me, and at the time I understood what he was trying to say. Pete can dream. I'm not -- I don't buy it. I think also because the takeover of the Republican Party has been so complete. I mean, it's not just Trump --

WALLACE: But wait a minute, wait a minute.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's not just Trump himself, though.

WALLACE: There were Nikki Haley voters. And even after she dropped out, she was still getting 20 percent of the vote in the primaries. Those are people, one would think, who might, you know, if we drive a stake into the heart of Trumpism -- no?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I just don't buy it because what happened to the Republican Party is it's not just Trump himself. It is a financial system, it is a philosophical system. There are so many things around what Trumpism has become and the Republican Party has become that, you know, Nikki Haley coming out of the back to, like, the crypt master and driving a stake is just not going to happen in my view.

WALLACE: Donald Trump also deliberate a speech on the economy this week, or at least that's what it was supposed to be. Next, how the former president is out-of-focus with what some of his most loyal allies say he needs to do.

Then not fit to print, why some major news organizations are sitting on what's in some sensitive Trump campaign documents.

And later, flag on the play. We'll show you the new and kind of nasty menu items coming to a stadium near you.

I somehow think I could see you eating --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:12]

WALLACE: Donald Trump tried to stick to the script this week, highlighting policy differences with Kamala Harris. But as usual, Trump adlibbed his way into trouble, ignoring some close advisers and insulting some of the nation's war heroes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The radical-left person wants to put price controls all over the place, which will end up driving up your prices.

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: In two events this week, both supposedly on the economy, Donald Trump couldn't stay on message.

TRUMP: She wants to change a free enterprise type country into a communist country. That's what she knows.

WALLACE: Drawing from his playbook of personal attacks, which even some of his most loyal supporters are now criticizing in public.

PETE NAVARRO, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISOR: When Trump attacks Harris personally rather than on policy, Harris's support among swing voters rises.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FORMER SENIOR COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: The waiting formula for President Trump is very plain to see. It's fewer insults, more insights, and that policy contrast.

WALLACE: But Trump isn't listening. TRUMP: I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot

of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence.

WALLACE: And Trump once again insulted a key group of voters, veterans.

TRUMP: It's the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

WALLACE: While talking about giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a billionaire supporter, Trump, who reportedly his called soldiers who die for their country suckers and losers, diminished the nation's top military honor.

TRUMP: Everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor. That's soldiers. They're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets, or they're dead.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: Kristen, when it comes to the advice we heard from Peter Navarro and Kellyanne Conway, don't make it personal, make it about policy, will Trump ever listen --

ANDERSON: No.

(LAUGHTER)

ANDERSON: Sorry, I cut you off. You don't have to finish. We have seen so many rounds of, oh, my goodness, is this going to be the time that Kellyanne finally takes the phone from Trump so that he stops tweeting or what have you? The idea that he can be contained, I feel like we've just got to get over the idea that this will ever happen. He's like Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk. Like, you can keep the normalcy going for so long. And he did, frankly. He kind of held it together through the Republican primary, through the Republican convention, and it was about 30 minutes into that speech at the Republican convention that Bruce Banner starts turning into the Hulk. And that's what we've got. He's in full Hulk mode. Good luck to anybody trying to put them back in.

WALLACE: Well, and speaking of Hulk mode, Lulu, Trump has never been, I think we'd all agree, a disciplined campaigner, but it seems since Biden dropped out, Harris came in and this huge lead has just disappeared, Trump seems like he's really been knocked off kilter.

[10:20:00]

GARCIA-NAVARRO: He's been knocked off kilter. He is clearly upset. He keeps talking about the same things over and over again. He's obsessed with Biden. He brings up Biden every opportunity that he can. It's kind of touching in a way. It's like the odd couple. It's this kind of relationship that he clearly has -- he misses him. There's some definite tenderness there, I think.

But he doesn't know what to do. And I would also say, and in this I do think that the shakeup within the Trump campaign that we've recently seen with Corey Lewandowski coming back, I think we're going to see a push to let Trump be Trump, right? Which is the whole idea that this is someone who cannot be corralled. And he has expanded the Republican Party. He has brought more people into the party. He has fundamentally changed it, and he's done that by being himself.

And so I think what people are going to come to is that this is the man who won in 2016, who has managed to keep the party in his grip all this time. Let him do what he does and let the chips fall where they may.

ALFORD: And I think what he does, though, is starting to get boring. Like I'm looking at the meme that came out, the racist meme that he tweeted. And yes, there was some level of outrage, but I think there was also eye-rolling. It's like, we've seen the show before. You're going to the -- you're appealing to the most base instincts of voters. And I think people are kind of over it.

Today in her speech, Harris pointed out, she said, you know, he gives this this talk about the economy, but the actual policy plans were really light. And so she's reversing the critique that Trump gave of her, that she had no policy, and now she's saying, where are the details, besides the rage, besides the fearmongering? And I think that she's exposing --

WALLACE: I want to pick up on that, Kristen, because whatever you want to say about Trump, he really has -- he's been entertaining in a kind of demented way, and as I watched his presser at Bedminster on Thursday, I thought, what a bore, what a bore this man has become.

ANDERSON: Well in part of his appeal all along, or part of his political power has been that he understands the medium of television very well. And you saw flickers of that, right? He had all the products there lined up at that Bedminster press conference. He understands entertainment, he understands television. But he can't control himself. And that's where he's getting into trouble.

And so I, frankly, want to put this on a poll. I want to know, if you ask voters, who would you rather spend 10 minutes watching, Kamala Harris or Donald Trump? I actually think that if you'd ask that question six months ago, Donald Trump wins that in a landslide. It doesn't mean people would vote for him, but he would win that question. I wonder what people would say today if I asked.

WALLACE: Because God forbid, well, first of all, it wouldn't be 10 minutes.

ANDERSON: People feel like, OK, I've seen this show before.

WALLACE: It would be an hour of droning on and on and on.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What I don't like, though, is the one that was reading in that huge binder that looked like my sixth grader giving a book report. I mean, that's not a Trump that's going to sell anything.

WALLACE: In fact, I thought to myself, talk about political malpractice. Who gave this man that binder? Because, I mean, it just had page after page and he kept reading.

I want to go to this other utterly gratuitous slam at the Congressional Medal of Honor winners. Jim, why would he keep insulting vets?

GERAGHTY: I suspect that every Trump campaign advisor is asking the same question. Why? Whose idea was it that you want to compare the Medal of Honor and the Medal of Freedom and which one is better?

WALLACE: I mean, the Medal of Freedom, there are a lot of great people who get it, but also billionaire donors get it, like Miriam Adelson. Nice lady. Not a hero.

GERAGHTY: Besides having the focus and attention span of an overcaffeinated ferret, Donald Trump also has this impulse to focus on the dumbest thing imaginable, and then make that the focus of his attention. There is an easy -- I want to say easy. There is a soup to nuts case to be made against Kamala Harris, if nothing else, pointing out look at who she was in her 2019 presidential campaign, look at who she is now, look at all of these positions she's abandoned. Who is the real Kamala Harris? Kamala chameleon, you can tell the Trump nickname, there's stuff to work with there.

But he's a 78-year-old man. I don't think he can remember any of this stuff anymore. That's why he needs the giant construction paper binder and things to flip through. They need to make it very simple, very large font, all that kind of stuff.

WALLACE: Well --

GERAGHTY: Maybe we should not have geriatric presidential candidates. Boy, wouldn't that be a delight --

WALLACE: Well, a lot of people said that the key to this election was who was going to switch from the 78 to 81-year-old person. The Democrats did, and they may reap the benefits of that.

While he was randomly insulting key voting blocs, Trump also went after union members who go on strike. Here he is praising Elon Musk for how Elon handles workers. And then doubling down on it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They go on strike and you say that's OK, you're all gone. You're all gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you really comfortable with companies threatening to fire workers who go on strike?

TRUMP: Well, no, I want companies to get workers that are going to love them and work for a wage that lets the company make a profit so they can go and expand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:25:02] WALLACE: Kristen, has Trump jeopardized his support among union workers?

ANDERSON: It depends on if that support is rooted in an economic populism, or if it's rooted in a cultural connection. And I think there's a lot of the latter going on in Donald Trump's appeal to union workers across the country, that it's not just that they view Donald Trump as, say, a break from the Mitt Romney style economics of the Republican Party of a decade ago, but that he has something in touch with the working class in terms of cultural appeal. And that's still there regardless of comments like that.

WALLACE: Take a look at this CNN exit poll from 2020. As you can see there, among members of union households, 56 percent supported Biden, but 40 percent backed Trump, which is a good number for Republicans. Lulu, after Trump's remarks about union workers, strikers, to Elon Musk, the head of the United Auto Workers called him a scab.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This isn't new, though. I mean, unfortunately, I think that Donald Trump, instead of making statements that will actually expand the kinds of people who would want to vote for him, he does the opposite. But it is cultural. He does appeal to certain values. And so I think that, you know, I don't know that it's going to make a huge inroad.

ALFORD: I think wherever you go, there you are, right. And he continues to show who he really is, even though he tries to portray himself as an ally of certain groups, from veterans to auto workers. They're seeing who he is.

WALLACE: I think Maya Angelou said something sort of like that.

ALFORD: If they show you who you are, believe them the first time, that was her famous quote, which also applies to this situation.

WALLACE: Hackers dig up key Trump campaign documents and send them to several news organizations but you may never know what they say.

Also ahead, the Costco crackdown that'll have you digging through your purse or wallet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:31:41]

WALLACE: A big political and media story you may have missed this week. The Trump campaign says it was hacked by Iran, and several documents about vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance were stolen. The former president downplayed the hacks in an interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I've been briefed, and a lot of people think it was Iran, probably was.

I think it's pretty boring information. And we know pretty much what it is. It's not very important information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now, three organizations, "The Washington Post," "The New York Times," and "Politico," said they all received the documents from an anonymous email, but none of them reported what was in them. That's a stark contrast to eight years ago when news organizations reported on thousands of hacked emails from Hillary Clintons campaign chair John Podesta, which were posted publicly on WikiLeaks, including one in which Podesta criticized Hillary Clintons instincts, and another from a top adviser who wrote about Clinton saying, apologies are like her Achilles heel. Lulu, why haven't the media reported what's in these hacked documents?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: First, I want to say I have no inside knowledge of what decision-making has gone into this at my news organization. What I will say is that I think there are a couple of things that are different. First of all, the media has learned a few things. Second of all, I think that the fact that it was potentially a foreign hostile power that did this makes it materially different. And thirdly, last time they were released by WikiLeaks, which is not an organization like "The New York Times," "The Washington Post," or "Politico," which has different values, a different structure.

Ultimately, the debate is between the public's right to know, which is what news organizations have evaluate when looking at this information. Is the information here of such importance that it supersedes other considerations? And perhaps in this case, I don't know, they made the estimation that the public's right to know was not actually imperative.

WALLACE: But sources that give the media documents often break the law to get them. They steal them, they violate security classifications. That's on the source, not on the news outlet that receives them.

Kristen, to get back to Lulu's point, what about the public's right to know, particularly when it's information that might affect, since it's about the vice presidential nominee, the Republican Party, information that might affect who they vote for?

ANDERSON: What I wonder is whether this decision to not publish this information has something to do with it genuinely not being that juicy information in it. If it was something that was a true bombshell that might upend the election, I wonder if the calculation would be different. But if this is, say, the opposition research file on J.D. Vance, then that is something that the Harris campaign is also putting together, will probably find all the same stuff, and will surely be putting it into the happy hands of reporters very soon.

WALLACE: So you're suggesting that the reason that they're not putting it out is it isn't that interesting in the first place?

ANDERSON: Well, no. It's that it's weighing, just what Lulu said, that you've got a weigh these different considerations. And I, frankly, think that learning the lesson from the Clinton campaign where it was don't reward bad actors for doing bad things when it is foreign, I think that's a good lesson.

WALLACE: All right, but let's go back to 2016 and the media's exhaustive reporting of the Clinton campaign's hacked emails.

[10:35:02]

Neera Tanden, who was a top adviser to Hillary Clinton and who wrote that "Achilles heel" email, tweeted this, "Seriously, the double standard here is incredible. Do they," the media, "now admit they were wrong in 2016 or is the rule hacked materials are only used when it hurts Dems? There's no in-between."

Jim, is it hacks hypocrisy how they are handling this as compared to how they handled the Hillary Clinton material?

GERAGHTY: When the documents are already up on a site like WikiLeaks that anybody can just go up onto the Internet and go you look, it's a lot easier for a news organization to say, well, they're already out there. People want to see him, they can. We should at least write about the response to them. We should already respond -- are these emails causing bad blood within the Hillary campaign, blah, blah, blah.

The question, one, would you want to do a favor for Iran? The Iranian mullahs want you to put this out there. They want to stir up trouble in some sort of --

WALLACE: Well, but we think that the WikiLeaks came from the Kremlin.

GERAGHTY: Yes, absolutely. And the second thing is, once bitten, twice shy. The question of OK, if you feel like 2016 was a mistake, do you go back and make the same mistake again in order to be fair? Or do you realize, hey, you know what, when foreign intel -- here's the thing, if Iran, the government of Iran says, oh, you guys won't publish it. Here they are. Here's all the stuff we hacked out of the Trump campaign. Here is J.D. Vance deep, dark -- then all of a sudden you see a lot of people writing about it and talking about it.

WALLACE: Natasha, are you troubled at all by the difference, this very stark difference between how they handled the hacked material from Hillary Clinton, the Podesta emails, as compared to how they're not handling, not reporting this material?

ALFORD: No. I agree with Jim. I think if you realize you make a mistake, you don't have to double down on it for the sake of balance. But I do wonder if hackers are looking at this and saying, well, then we'll just publish our documents directly going forward to create that incentive for media outlets to report on what's in the documents, versus sending it directly to reporters.

WALLACE: But, you know, all of this presupposes that -- and I go back, I kind of agree with Kristen. It's just that it wasn't that juicy. Do you really think that today if they got the hacked material from John Podesta with people inside the campaign criticizing their own candidate, in other words, juicy material, do think the reporters, the press wouldn't cover that? ALFORD: I'm not sure. I mean, we look at the way that they handled

Kamala Harris, "they" meaning the press, even just in those first few years, there's something about covering women in leadership. And I think the press still struggles with it. Right, there are elements of it where you see a double standard, where you see sometimes sexism come through. And so, again, I can't say if it were to happen now how they would approach it. They might still fall prey to those instincts.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Chris, I just want to correct you, though. I mean, you're using this word "juicy," and again, that makes it sound like the thing that the media is doing, and I'm talking about the fact- based media here, is really trying to get something out and sensationalize just to see --

WALLACE: No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying some material is interesting and some isn't.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But it's interesting -- the question is, again, the public's right to know. Is it impactful? Is it important for people to know this information to make informed decisions?

WALLACE: So I ask you the same question. Do you think if the 2016 material came out today and Hillary Clinton were running, not Kamala Harris, do you think that "The New York" Times and other news organizations would report it as they did back then?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But they reported because WikiLeaks first put it out. It was already out -- it was already out in the ether. It was a very different --

WALLACE: We were all jumping on it because it was interesting information about how people inside a campaign felt about their candidate. We agree to disagree?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We agree to disagree.

(LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: That's one of the things we do on this show.

One thing the media is reporting on, two blended words for a once hated fashion trend that's now having a Gen Z revival.

Plus, what in the world? Why you might soon be ordering a beer and this thing at your local stadium.

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[10:43:43]

WALLACE: Once again, it's time to get our group's yea or nay on some big talkers. Up first, the days of going to a game and eating a hot dog are over. This coming football season, Arizona Cardinals fans can eat a cotton candy burrito. Looking as unappetizing as it sounds, the burrito contains eight sweets from marshmallows to gummy bears wrapped inside cotton candy. And over the top food isn't just for football fans. Baseball's Kansas City Royals last month launched the taste of the K taco. It's a hotdog wrapped in a cheeseburger quesadilla, topped with brisket, fries, lettuce, onions, crackerjacks, and barbecue sauce, all for $25.

Kristen, are you yea nay on these calorie busters?

ANDERSON: I like things that are classic with a twist. This is too much twist. I am pretty nay on all of this, with one exception. One of these ballparks supposedly has rolled out a waffle that is topped with ice cream, pretzels, caramel sauce, and bacon. I would give that a try.

WALLACE: OK.

ALFORD: As an elder millennial whose metabolism is a little bit slower than it used to be, I'm going to say no on this. And also, as the mother of a toddler, I want to stay as far away from sugar as I can. So it's a no for me.

[14:45:02]

WALLACE: OK, speaking of food, next time you go to Costco, be sure to bring your documents. The retailer is now requiring both your membership card and a matching I.D. to get in, and they'll soon install scanners to speed up the process. It's part of an effort to stop card sharing among family and friends since it turns out that's the main way Costco makes money, more than from what you buy. The store earned $4.6 billion last year in membership fees from about 128 million people. Lulu, are you yea or nay on the new Costco crackdown.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: A hundred percent nay. I think this is outrageous. First of all --

WALLACE: Wait, wait, wait. Outrageous? It's not your card. You're taking somebody else's membership card.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: If it's among family and friends. And also do you want to be going into a Costco now and having it feel like you're going into maximum security prison? First of all, no. The second thing is, has anyone everyone ever gone into Costco and not spent $300 to $400 just on like bulk candy? I don't know anyone like that. You're always going in there like that. So all of this is just a horrible --

WALLACE: But wait a minute, Jim, because I was surprised to learn that Costco actually makes more from the membership fees, which were $60, going up to $65 on September 1st, than they do from all of the stuff that people but. So where are you on this?

GERAGHTY: Yes, because the I.D. check used to be about as easy as getting passed at Walmart greeter. Now apparently it's going to turn it to the TSA. Empty your pockets. Let's see some I.D. All of a sudden were in East Berlin in 1949.

(LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: Wow. And a maximum security prison -- maybe a little hyperbole here.

Finally, a fashion alert, the summer staple you didn't know you need, the jorts, a combo of jeans and shorts made out of denim is back in style after surging in the 80s and 90s, then going through an uncool phase in the 2000s. The jorts is finding new fans according to fashion experts. The trend was even the focus of a recent video on "The Tonight Show."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I prance in my jorts, water plants in my jorts, take my pants and enhance, do a dance in my jorts. I can sing in my jorts. I'm the king in my jorts. By all means, take your jeans, cut the seams, now their jorts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Natasha, are you yea or nay, on jorts?

ALFORD: I'm yea, Chris, because, because fashion sustainability, I can just get some jeans, cut them. I don't have to go to the store. So anything that's, you know, money conscious I'm with it. I support it.

ANDERSON: This is outrageous. This is a generational gap.

WALLACE: Let me ask you a question. Have you ever won jorts?

ALFORD: Of course. I've made them many times. You could fray them at the bottom, fold them up. I'm here for it. Everything comes around. All fashion comes back around.

WALLACE: Lulu, you are our fashionista. Where are you in jorts?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I am a hard nay on jorts. I was a child in the 80s, and I think some things should be left back then. Forget it.

WALLACE: OK.

The panel is back with their takes on hot stories or what will be in the news before it's news. Thats right after the bright.

WALLACE: Did you ever where jorts?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I did not wear jorts, other than when I was a child, absolutely not.

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[10:52:40]

WALLACE: It's time for our panel's special takes on what's happening or predictions of what we should be looking out for. Lulu, hit me with your best shot.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: For me, it's still the Olympics, and Jordan Chiles, the U.S. gymnast, got her Bronze Medal taken away. She has said that she feels this was unjust. It was because apparently the court of arbitration for sport, which is an Olympic body, basically said that U.S. gymnastics hadn't put in at a certain amount of time --

WALLACE: It's objection.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's objection.

And ultimately, what I think this shows is that this is a body that is unaccountable. It's filled with fat cats, and it really is, I think a very, very sad day, for Julia Chiles and for U.S. gymnastics.

WALLACE: The best thing about the Olympics, the athletes. Worst thing, the officials.

Jim, you're focused on the remarkable incursion by Ukraine into Russia and the impact it could have back here on Capitol Hill.

GERAGHTY: Yes. The expectation was the aid package passed earlier this year should get the Ukrainians to the end of the year. We'll see. But at some point, they're going to come back and they're going to say, hey, can we get some more weapons? Can we get some more ammunition? Demonstrating success on the battlefield and saying, yes, for a lot of these stretches, it's been a stalemate. It's been a bloody World War I style fighting. But hey, look at this giant chunk of Russian territory we have. That will make it easier to convince people this is a cause worth supporting and that they have a plan for victory.

WALLACE: Natasha, best shot?

ALFORD: My prediction is that President Obamas DNC's speech is going to be a hit. It will be the icing on the cake for introducing Kamala Harris as the official nominee. There's a nostalgia for the past for Dems, and he brings that. And there was a lot of question about, OK, is Obama going to endorse her? Why did he take so long? Now he gets to have his moment.

WALLACE: I am also fascinated, he is going to get to have his moment. Bill Clinton is going to get to have his moment. I suspect they're going to feel a little competition as to who is going to give the blow away memorable speech. Don't you?

ALFORD: Well, I think they bring something different, right? And I'm particularly interested in Hillary Clinton, because she's the what would have been. She's always come up as we could have had a woman president. Now, we can again.

WALLACE: Kristen, bring us up.

ANDERSON: So my best shot is also about Ukraine, but it's a little bit different. It also involves combat dolphins. "The Wall Street Journal" this week reporting on what happened to the Nord Stream pipeline.

[10:55:03] It is a fascinating story of some friends who were attached to the military, got drunk, decided they were going to take a yacht around and go learn how to dive, go put these explosives on this pipeline, which cut off Russian gas --

WALLACE: You look at the boat here. It's not exactly.

ANDERSON: Unbelievable. I can't wait for the movie of this to be made. But it real-time, what's going to be interesting is how will this affect NATO allies and their support for Ukraine in trying to deal with Putin's aggression, because this really, this caused a lot of European countries to lose their supply of Russian gas. It was very economically problematic, and I'm sure it has not made the authorities in those countries very happy.

WALLACE: Yes, and Germany, which has been one of the country's biggest supporters of Ukraine, the pipeline was blown up from Russia coming into Germany. They were not happy about that.

Thank you all, gang, for being here. And thank you for spending part of your day with us. We'll see you right back here next week.

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