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The Chris Wallace Show
Kamala Harris Accepts Democratic Party's Presidential Nomination at Democratic National Convention; Panelists Grade Democratic National Convention in Terms of Political Effectiveness; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Suspends Presidential Campaign and Endorses Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump; Donald Trump Continues Personal Attacks against Kamala Harris; College Administrators Announce Rules for Upcoming Semester Designed to Eliminate Violent Protests; SpaceX Announces Mission Which Will Take Non-Astronauts on a Spacewalk; Social Media Trend Features Various Uses of Word "Demure". Aired 10-11a ET.
Aired August 24, 2024 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:48]
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 Kamala Harris riding high after the Democratic convention, can she keep the vibe alive long enough to win the election?
Then odd couple, Robert Kennedy Jr. drops out and backs Donald Trump. Will it make a difference?
And later, just plain awesome. We'll show you the new housing solution that's taking off.
The panel is here and ready to go. So sit back, relax, and let's talk about it.
Up first, Democrats rallying round Kamala Harris at their convention this week as she introduced herself to many Americans for the first time and laid out the dangers of putting Donald Trump back in the White House. But now that the fun is over, can she keep the party going?
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
KAMALA HARRIS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Let's get to business. Let's get to business.
WALLACE: Like a prosecutor making her opening argument, Kamala Harris laying out the case for her campaign.
HARRIS: Our nation, with this election, has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward.
WALLACE: And the case against her opponent, saying it's Donald Trump, not heard, who is pushing a radical agenda.
HARRIS: Simply put, they are out of their minds.
WALLACE: Every convention speaker bolstering her argument.
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: Who is going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs?
(CHEERING)
WALLACE: And trying to turn a campaign into a full blown movement.
OPRAH WINFREY: Let us choose joy.
(CHEERING)
WALLACE: But leaving no doubt, despite the excitement in the hall, this will be a tough race.
GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's the fourth quarter. We're down a field goal, but we're on offense and we've got the ball.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
WALLACE: Here with me today, podcaster, journalist, and author Kara Swisher, Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute and "National Review" contributing editor, Nia-Malika Henderson, opinion columnist at "Bloomberg," and conservative pollster and "New York Times" opinion writer Kristen Soltis Anderson. Welcome back everyone.
So let's put aside the convention as a show -- it was very well produced -- and talk about the real purpose, the real question, which is how well did it push Kamala Harris's effort to win this election in November forward? Kristen, start with you. Give me a grade and explain why.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, FOUNDING PARTNER, ECHELON INSIGHTS: I give you a grade of a B-minus, and that's because we're not grading this on it being a show, right? If it was a show, you have everyone from Lil Jon to Oprah firing up the crowd, certainly, unifying this party. But I do wonder, if you were somebody who is a swing voter who is very worried about the cost of groceries or very worried about immigration, et cetera, will this pivot from Kamala Harris of the past too tough on the border Kamala Harris, tough on crime Kamala Harris? Will it be credible? I still think it's too soon to tell. So that's why I give it this cautious grade of a B-minus.
WALLACE: Kara?
KARA SWISHER, PODCAST HOST, "PIVOT" AND "ON": Well, an F. Actually, an A. What are you talking about, Kristen? No. I would never give her an F. I'm wearing her shoes, for example. I thought it was great. I thought it was really well done as a production. I think that matters. This is marketing. Everything is marketing now, and I think she put on a very good show of presenting herself for the first time because -- WALLACE: But does it help her win the election?
SWISHER: Yes, because she's a blank slate. And so what the Trump campaign isn't doing, they haven't been able to define her for some reasons. He keeps talking about the coach Walz versus her, assistant coach, whatever. He cannot address her. And so she's been able to define herself. So I give it an A because she was able to rush in there with lots of good information about herself.
WALLACE: Reihan, if she was blank slate to a lot of people going into those convention, did it help write in and fell in that slight?
REIHAN SALAM, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NATIONAL REVIEW": I do think that she addressed, and the Democrats more broadly addressed a key vulnerability for the party.
[10:05:00]
They needed to project themselves as a party of patriotism. They wanted to seem like a party of normalcy, a party that was accessible to suburban moderates. And I think that they did a very good job by not really addressing any policy issue in any substantive or sustained way other than abortion, an issue where they're broadly in line with suburban moderates.
WALLACE: What's your grade?
SALAM: So my greatest is an A because, again, being evasive, not actually talking about policy, and really focusing on those positive, warm and fuzzy Americana type vibes was what they needed to do.
WALLACE: That's kind of a backhanded day, I have to say.
SALAM: Look --
SWISHER: Reagan did it. It worked for Reagan.
SALAM: It's better to stay quiet and stay focused on not actually talking about the Biden agenda. And they avoided it entirely. It seemed as though she was a challenger, not part of an incumbent administration.
WALLACE: Well, I agree with that to a certain degree that she made, which they very much want to do, make it a referendum about Trump, not a referendum about her or, to a certain degree, even a choice.
Nia, grade, and why?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, OPINION COLUMNIST, "BLOOMBERG": I agree. There is no higher grade in an A-plus-plus-plus, and that's what I give the convention in terms of the presentation, the television aspect of it, which I do agree is quite important for the political aspect of it and the sort of how you're making an argument to average Americans. And they had all sorts of people to make those arguments to average Americans, people like Adam Kinzinger who was a Republican, reaching out to those Trump-Biden voters, those Nikki Haley Republicans to get those sort of centrist Republicans and moderates to back her ticket.
And then she looked like a boss. She looked like a president. To the extent that she is trying to break the highest and hardest glass ceiling, and being a woman could be problematic, she went in there and said, I am tougher than Donald Trump. He's the one that would kowtow to a dictator. I'm the one that would be tough on Kim Jong-un and Putin. So I thought it was an excellent presentation both politically and in terms of television.
WALLACE: I've got to say, I'm actually with you, Kristen. I thought it was a B at best, and I just don't think it credibly convinced people that -- the swing voters, not the base that she is not the person that they that they fear.
I'm going to move forward, on. Democrats continued their new attack against Trump, which instead of building him up as a big threat, is tearing him down as almost kind of a joke. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This weird obsession with crowd sizes.
(LAUGHTER)
ADAM KINZINGER, (R) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong here.
He is a small man pretending to be big.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Kristen, is the Trump is small strategy, is that a big deal?
ANDERSON: I think it's certainly better than the really apocalyptic tone that you had seen come out of the Biden campaign when he was the nominee presumptive, because really, what a lot of voters who don't like either candidate want to know is, is there somebody who I think will just let me get my life back to normal. I won't have to think about them being president, et cetera.
And so I've always thought this election was going to be who's going to be the strong hand on the wheel that's just going to keep things going in a good direction. And when it was Trump versus Biden, the answer was very much not Joe Biden. Now that this election has been flipped, I think it's gutsy of Democrats to really try to flip that whole dynamic on its head and say, no, no, no, he's week, he's small, rather than he's going to bring about the end of the country.
WALLACE: Kara, is this the right way to go out after Trump, or --
SWISHER: Absolutely.
WALLACE: -- so they shouldn't stick to the Biden argument this guy is a threat to democracy. SWISHER: No, no, because if you do the whole democracy is on the
line, at stake, even me, I'm like, I've got to feed my kids in the morning. I don't want to, like, save democracy today. Like, it's heavy, it's heavy, heavy. And I think first of all, it bothers him and triggers him, and he's so easily triggered. That's works in that way, and therefore he responds not in the right way. So he gets preoccupied with it. And it also does -- you start to go, oh, he is small.
And what I was going to note before is a lot of the independent voters and undecided after on CNN, were like I'm interested in her. This is interesting. And they, someone, I think Audie Cornish was calling it "Kamala curious." They're Kamala curious. And then they didn't, they're tired of him. And so it's an interesting dynamic to make them --
WALLACE: I think we all agree that Kamala Harris has had an almost magical month, but it's all been programmed. And now she's got to face interviews, and she's got that September 10th debate. Nia, what happen when Kamala Harris comes out from behind the teleprompter?
HENDERSON: Well, listen, some of her former advisers are a bit nervous about this because they had over this past year really put her out there doing interviews. She, for instance, did an interview with "60 Minutes." She did an interview with Maverick Carter, who, of course, is LeBron James's BFF. And they felt like getting her out there made her more comfortable with it. And that hasn't happened over the last couple of weeks.
I have been in private settings with her. I find her very smart, engaging. She knows policy. She's going to have to get out there, and they have promised that she's going to do that by the end of -- by the end of the month. So we'll see when that happens.
[10:10:03]
WALLACE: I was going to say, that's a week.
HENDERSON: Yes, that's a week. But there --
WALLACE: And I thought it was interesting, because the word coming out of the Harris campaign is, well, now she's really preparing for the debates. So I'm wondering if they know --
HENDERSON: Yes, they've got to stick to this.
WALLACE: I wonder whether they're backing up this interview this week.
Reihan, the fact is you look at the record, we could run a bunch of clips. Harris does not have a strong record in facing tough interviews. What do you think happens when she's not programmed, not teleprompters, got to face reporters, got to face Donald Trump on a debate stage?
SALAM: I believe that the Harris team has done one thing exceptionally well. And this is even before she became the Democratic Party's nominee for president. She has done an excellent job of cultivating the press in D.C. and nationally. She has a really big fan base among reporters at the major, most prestigious media outlets. And I think that she is going to have an interviewer who is going to have shared interests, who will want to be covering the White House in the next administration. And I think that it's going to be pretty straightforward. So I think that they're teeing that up.
It's true that she struggles with improvisation, and it's true that she's changed her opinions pretty markedly on a range of issues and might have a tough time explaining that with a really critical and rigorous interview. But I don't think that's what she's going to do.
WALLACE: Despite Harris's momentum filled month and Donald Trump's constant insults, the race for president is still tight. Will it stay that way?
Then campus crackdown, college students return to school, but with new rules and hopes of avoiding more mass protests.
And later, what's in a word? Our panel will be mindful about their answers thanks to the latest hit on TikTok.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:16:25]
WALLACE: While Kamala Harris is riding high, Donald Trump's rough patch continues as, once again, his personal insults get in the way of his effort to paint Harris as far too liberal. But his week has ended on a high note with some help from third party candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
WALLACE: Running out of money and tanking in the polls, RFK Jr. ending his presidential run and endorsing Donald Trump.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path of electoral victory.
WALLACE: The two appearing together.
KENNEDY: Don't you want a president who is going to protect Americans freedoms?
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is a phenomenal person.
WALLACE: As Trump wrapped up his sprint across swing-states.
TRUMP: Comrade Kamala Harris, you're fired.
WALLACE: Where he counterprogrammed the Democratic convention, attacking the Biden-Harris administration.
TRUMP: But crime in America is out of control. I'm going to make it, along with the economy, inflation, strong borders, and energy dominance, my top priority.
WALLACE: But amid the policy critique.
TRUMP: They always say, sure, please stick to policy. Don't get personal. Should I get personal?
WALLACE: It was Trump's personal attacks that made the headlines.
TRUMP: Kamala is also on a regulatory - regulatory jihad to shut down power plants.
WALLACE: From questioning her background --
TRUMP: I wonder if they knew where she comes from, where she came from.
WALLACE: -- even to discussing her appearance.
TRUMP: I am a better looking person then Kamala.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
WALLACE: Kristen, you've done some polling on this. At this point in the campaign, not what he was at 15 percent in the polls, but now when he's in the low single digits, how big a deal is RFK Jr.'s endorsement of Trump? Will it make a difference.
ANDERSON: I think it will help Trump just a little bit. And that's because for many of these voters who liked RFK Jr. to begin with, it was the Kennedy name that was really drawing them in. That's why his Super Bowl ad earlier in the year had really drawn on that Kennedy family iconography.
But as his numbers have fallen, those still remaining are the ones that really liked his antiestablishment message. I would do focus groups talking to disaffected Trump voters, and they would say they were RFK Jr. curious, and they describe him the way they used to describe Trump, anti-establishment. He's not afraid to offend people and say the thing nobody else is willing to say.
So with him getting out of the race, I think some of those folks do revert back to Donald Trump, making it still the close race we always knew it was, but a point or two here and there is not nothing.
WALLACE: Nia, does Kennedy getting out of the race and backing Trump, does it boost Trump's candidacy?
HENDERSON: Yes, I think this is exactly right. I mean, it's unclear who, if you look at the expanse of voters that are shrinking that were RFK Jr., some of those folks are Trump folks. Some of those folks are sort of the original anti-vaxxers, like the hippy dippy liberal types, and some of those folks. And a lot of it just sort of low information voters who maybe think he represents the old kind of Kennedy name. So it's kind of unclear to me what those folks will do. Some will back Donald Trump, I think. Some will probably just stay home. WALLACE: I was going to say, a lot of these were double-haters,
particularly when it was Biden versus Trump. I think a lot of them are just going to stay home.
HENDERSON: Maybe they'll vote for Jill Stein. Maybe if Cornell West is on the ballot in some of these places, maybe they'll do that. But again, maybe they just don't, don't vote at all.
WALLACE: Then there's all the noise from Trump, "Comrade Kamala," "regulatory jihad." "I wonder where she comes from." Kara, are Trump's personal attacks undercutting, at the same time he's trying to make an argument about her on policy?
[10:20:05]
SWISHER: Keep them coming. He looks like an idiot when he's doing them. Honestly, it's just, he can't help himself and he doesn't know how to deal with her. It's really interesting to watch him trying to formulate an attack, and it has to be personal.
The other part is, I know this sounds crazy, but he talks about her looks a lot. And everything with Trump is looks, and it's creepy. And he thinks she's pretty, I think.
HENDERSON: Beautiful.
SWISHER: Beautiful -- and doesn't know what to do. So, again, he's going after Coach Walz. Like, who cares about who the vice president is on many levels? So I think keep them coming. And he should be focusing on her record, but he can't, he just can't.
WALLACE: I want to pick up on that with you, Reihan, because there is a solid case on the record to be made against Harris, the far-left position and she took in a bunch of issues in 2019 when she thought her real opposition was Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, some of the policy failures on the economy and immigration in the Biden-Harris administration. So why does he keep getting in the way of making those arguments? I mean, he does make them, but there he tops it and ends up getting the headline on the focus that calling our "Comrade Kamala."
SALAM: Well, I think that this is who Trump is. That's who he's always been. It's very difficult for him to be really disciplined. But here's the challenge. If you look at the Harris campaign, they've had the best political month in modern political history. It's really quite extraordinary. And part of that that is bringing in new talent, bringing in veterans of the Obama campaigns.
And I think that Trump is going to have to do something similarly dramatic. He needs some kind of change. He had a team that in a very disciplined way prosecuted the case against the incumbent president Joe Biden. They were not prepared to get punched in the mouth. They have been. So the proof is going to be in whether or not they're able to make a similarly dramatic change or shakeup to how they're approaching this race. Will Trump rise to the challenge?
WALLACE: Because everybody has praised the team that he had, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. And he ran a really smart campaign in the primaries. I think his really best decision was not to engage in the debate at all. Are you saying, because Corey Lewandowski, his original campaign manager is there. Do you think there should be a staff shakeup? Do you think there will be?
SALAM: I do think that they will likely bring in other folks to augment the team. I think that Wiles and LaCivita have a lot to -- they've accomplished a lot. They deserve a lot of credit and praise. But I do think it's very clear that they need a different kind of approach in the months to come. And will see --
WALLACE: Two months.
SALAM: That's right. That's right.
HENDERSON: But I do think Trump understands that most elections are vibes elections. As much as we talk about sort of policy and we want more policy, meat on the bone from the Kamala Harris team, he very much wants to kill the vice around the Kamala Harris campaign. His whole election in 2016 was a vibes election.
TRUMP: But going after her personally isn't doing that.
HENDERSON: I think he thinks this sort of "Comrade Kamala", he thinks that kind of stuff works. Where is she really from? You know, it's sort of a rebirth of birtherism, for lack of a better word. So he very well knows, I mean, that sort of her beauty, he is obsessed with that because he knows that that sells to the American people, someone who is very telegenic.
TRUMP: Kristen, I want to pick up on exactly what Reihan was saying, which is she could not have had a better month than she's had. And he has had a pretty terrible month. This race is still within the margin of error. Why?
ANDERSON: Yes. Well, we're a very divided country, and so in that kind of an environment, right now, most of the voters in the polls I'm looking at that are going toward Harris are not people who are switching from Trump to Harris. There are not a lot of people who are like, yes, I was for Donald, but now I've changed my mind. What she's doing is consolidating all of those people who it said, I don't really know. I don't even know if I want to participate in this process.
When I look at polls compared to July and today, Donald Trump's numbers are about the same place, 43, 44, 45 percent. It's Harris's numbers that are now five, six, seven points higher than Bidens. She's collecting all of these undecideds, who are making up their minds, but their minds may not be firmly made up. And so she still has to seal the deal.
WALLACE: They kept saying at the convention that she's the underdog. Do you think that's true today?
ANDERSON: I don't think she's the underdog right now, but I think she's smart for running like she is.
HENDERSON: Well, listen, I think in America, a black woman who is trying to be the commander in chief, I think she is the underdog.
SWISHER: But I spoke to a lot of Harris officials, and they really are worried about Pennsylvania. They're worried about -- I don't think it's a fake thing what the --
WALLACE: Why Pennsylvania in particular?
SWISHER: Because the 19 electoral votes, I think --
WALLACE: No, no, I understand the stakes.
SWISHER: Because they're doing better in Michigan and Wisconsin than they are in Pennsylvania.
HENDERSON: Older, whiter voters.
SALAM: They're internal polls are weaker as well. Future Forward, the main Harris super PAC is out there saying, guys, our polls are a lot tighter than these polls.
[10:25:00]
Harris has done well and is polling decently well right now, but she's still polling behind where Joe Biden was in 2020 and where Hillary Clinton was in 2016. This is actually a very tight race. Other than the last two months, this is the best Donald Trump has ever polled against a Democratic presidential contender. So they're still in the fight.
WALLACE: So buckle your seatbelts.
SALAM: Indeed.
WALLACE: With college kids returning to campus, some universities are cracking down on protests before they even start. Is it too much?
And later, one small step for man literally. The first of its kind space mission for regular folks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:30:18]
WALLACE: Predictions of tens of thousands of demonstrators disrupting the Democratic convention did not materialize this week. Yes, there were a few thousand activists protesting the war in Gaza, but the vast majority were peaceful. Chicago police reported only about 70 arrests, a far cry from what Chicago saw back at the 1968 Democratic convention when police officers and Vietnam protesters battled in the streets.
Now, as students head back to college, school administrators are leaving nothing to chance. Several universities, including liberal schools like the University of California, are already cracking down, hoping to avoid last spring's violence. They're forbidding encampments and banning masks that conceal identities.
We'll get to campuses in a minute. But first, Reihan, why weren't the Chicago protests a bigger deal?
SALAM: Well, the biggest reason is that the folks who are anti- Israel, the folks who want a different approach to our foreign policy in the Middle East that is generally more pro-Iran, really achieved a huge victory by ensuring that Josh Shapiro was not the running mate for Kamala Harris. And so I think that the fact that you've got Tim Walz there, the fact that Bernie and AOC were part of the platform, I think that the people who wanted that shift in orientation in the Democratic Party's orientation toward Israel in the Middle East succeeded in their main goals.
So what you had left where a group of bitter-enders and provocateurs who are not necessarily going to be incredibly important power brokers in the next administration. But the people who really matter, they got their wish before the convention.
SWISHER: I don't know. It seems a little bit conspiracy theory kind of thing. I think they just, these things tend to -- no, I think these things tend to flame out, a lot of these things. And it isn't quite, campuses aren't happening, things that things tend to go like this with these protests.
SALAM: Just to be clear, you don't think the anti-Israel protesters were very concerned about Josh Shapiro as the running mate?
SWISHER: I think that's water under the bridge at this point. I don't think they didn't protest because Josh Shapiro didn't get the job. There's lots of different reasons for that. I do think these protests tend to flame out. They just tend to, and there's not, there's not protests all over the country.
SALAM: They flame out when they don't actually have an object of their ire that's there, right. But then given that they were able to get this very big concession, yes, you're right. It was bitter-enders.
WALLACE: I mean, not to be too cynical about it, but I always questioned this, because you know those anti-Vietnam war protesters. They were getting drafted incentive Vietnam. And I just don't think -- I know people feel very strongly about what's going on in Gaza, but it is not the same personal stakes as what was happening in 1968.
Anyway, as students return to college, let's turn to administrators cracking down on protests even before they happen. At the University of California system, including Berkeley, here are the new rules. Bans on encampments, bans on masking or concealing your identity, and bans on restricting others' movements on campus. Kristen, are college presidents over overreacting?
ANDERSON: No. This is good. I think they understand that they cannot afford another year of looking like a joke. They cannot afford another year of getting hauled in front of Congress and being grilled on why are your institutions not doing the core things you're supposed to be doing because you're too busy coddling children who have taken over your quad.
I think they get that this is -- there are -- set aside the politics of it. There are parents out there trying to figure out what should I help encourage my child to do? Do I send them to college? If they're looking on the news and they're seeing that our nation's elite universities are effectively babysitting protesters rather than focused on educating children, that is a massive crisis for higher education. So I don't think they're overreacting. I think they're doing exactly what they need to be doing.
WALLACE: Nia, do you think this is the right way to handle protests, lay down the law really strictly, even before anything happens?
WALLACE: Yes, listen, I do think there's some guidelines that need to be put in place. And if you look at the vast majority of elite college campuses, they handled the protesters pretty well. I mean, if you think about what happened at Brown, for instance, you think about what happened at Northwestern, places like Duke, there weren't these situations that were like Columbia. And of course, the president of that university has since resigned because she did handle it quite horribly. And so I think there was just a different leadership style that we saw on Columbia that really didn't exist across a lot of these other campuses.
SWISHER: There are also students. I have two students in college. One is at the University of Michigan, one is at NUT. And while they have -- they want people to be able to protest, both them are like, I kind of want to learn, too. So it's not just parents. I just think they're focusing on a mixed group of people, but I think the people, kids who want to learn and also respect protesting thought it had gone too far.
[10:35:00]
WALLACE: Reihan, I think we would all agree that any kind of violence is clearly over the line, the encampments, the preventing people, like Jewish students from going where they want on campus, that has to be forbidden. But I find it interesting that colleges, and there's been so much talk about free speech on college campuses. What's happened to that?
SALAM: Well, I think a big issue is that many institutions, many elite institutions undermined their credibility on the question of free speech because there was a perception that they were not even handed in terms of who they're punishing, who their sanctioning when it comes to their political speech.
And I think that this is an opportunity for a reset, because as you've acknowledged, as the panelists acknowledged, what we were looking at campuses this past spring was actually intimidation, violence, unlawful encampments. And thankfully, it seems that there's a stepping away from the brink and acknowledging that that is nowhere, anywhere close to a debate about free speech. So I think that that --
WALLACE: So when you say, they were not evenhanded, are you saying that they were tougher on conservatives, on the right wing protestors, than they were on the left wing.
SALAM: Absolutely. Just in general, when you're looking at how faculty was treated, the independence of tenured faculty, when you have faculty members who are expressing dissenting views coming from, call it the political right, rather than the extreme political left, then you did see very different treatment consistently. And that's one reason why you had a lot of trustees, you had a lot of donors, a lot of alums who started getting involved, not because they were rightwing but because they were appalled by the double standards.
WALLACE: The Association of University Professors is not happy with what these college administrators are doing, putting out a statement this week that condemns, quote, "hastily enacted, overly restrictive policies dealing with the rights to assemble and protest on campus."
Kara, they say that these new rules infringe on students' free speech.
SWISHER: And yet donors do matter. I think that they got really hit badly with donors. And I'm sorry to wake everyone up, but colleges operate on big donations. And I think they were probably responding to that, and students being unhappy, both. So that's good that they really said, that's fine.
WALLACE: So you're not concerned at all about the fact that this is stifling -- I mean, again, violence is unacceptable, but it's stifling the kind of free exchange or even protests?
SWISHER: I think protests are great. I think it's always great to have these debates. I was always against people trying to yell out people I didn't agree with on college campus. That's very different from what happened. And I think they went too far. They went too far --
WALLACE: The protesters?
SWISHER: The protesters did, on many campuses, not all of them. That's absolutely true. But they went too far, and this is what happened.
WALLACE: Kara Swisher, the hardliner.
SWISHER: What do you want? I don't know. I want my kids to learn.
WALLACE: You're paying for it.
SWISHER: I am paying for it.
WALLACE: Speaking of college students, they're not reserved at all about using a word these days that even some politicians are picking up on.
Plus, home is where the plane is. The interest in fuselage phenomena you don't want to miss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:42:28]
WALLACE: Once again, it's time to get our groups yea or nay on some big talkers. Up first, Michael Jackson had the moonwalk, but soon you could do the spacewalk. For the first time ever SpaceX is taking non astronauts on a spacewalk as part of the mission that will soar higher than any human has traveled since the Apollo program. The four private citizens are set for takeoff Tuesday on a journey that will have them wearing protective spacesuits that have never been used before. The goal, to expand space tourism and allow regular folks to experience what only astronauts have done up until now.
Kristen, are you yea or nay, yea or nay, and for you, on doing a spacewalk?
ANDERSON: I love space. I think it's so cool. I think it's incredible. And I have no interest in going there whatsoever. There is no amount of money you could pay me. Not that I would pay, but no amount of money you could pay me to get me on that ship.
WALLACE: Because?
ANDERSON: I wish them the best. I hope it is safe for them. I hate that zero gravity. When I'm on a plane and there's a little turbulence, I'm like, no, I'm out. Could not imagine going to space. No thank you.
WALLACE: You know "The Right Stuff"? You have the wrong stuff.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: Nia, to take a line from "Star Trek," would you go boldly where no non astronaut has gone before? Would you go on a spacewalk?
HENDERSON: Listen, if lots and lots and lots and lots of people did it before me and it was deemed absolutely safe, and maybe I'm getting paid a lot of money to do it, sure. But otherwise, aren't there people who are stuck in space at this point who were supposed to be there for a week and they're going to be until 2025? So that would also be a fear. So I'm with Soltis Anderson.
WALLACE: Perhaps because I'm older, I would do it.
SWISHER: What?
WALLACE: I would absolutely do it. I'd go into space, and if I'm in space, I'm definitely taking the spacewalk.
HENDERSON: I have to say, I'm from the Christa McAuliffe generation, right? I watched the spaceship explosion when I was a sixth-grader. So I'm telling my age.
WALLACE: Back on earth, a new home style is taking off. Some folks are turning old airplanes into homes without those uncomfortable seats in the upright and locked position. And they're being creative, putting a hot tub inside the cockpit, finding a spot for a washer and dryer, even adding a nice modern kitchen in the fuselage of this house plane rental in Alaska. Reihan, are you yea or nay on landing and one of those homes?
[10:45:00] SALAM: To my own surprise, I'm a nay, because I love tight, claustrophobic spaces, which is why I live in Brooklyn, New York.
WALLACE: Like?
(LAUGHTER)
SALAM: I do like them, but I also love natural light. And I've got to tell you, on one of those fuselages, you're not getting enough. And, you know, America is great country, people live in different ways, but not for me.
WALLACE: Finally, the word that's become a TikTok sensation. According to Merriam Webster, "demure" is a fancy word for reserved or modest. But in the last few days, "demure" has become anything but reserved thanks to a woman named Jools Lebron who used it on TikTok and turned it into a cultural phenomenon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOOLS LEBRON: See how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: TikTokers everywhere, including celebrities and politicians, are now using "demure" to describe their outfits, even their coffee orders. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See how I did this. I drink from the bottle. Very demure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see how I come to Chicago. I come very demure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see how I'm reading this book? Very demure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I keep my hair very demure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Kara, I think of you, and I don't mean this in any way to be a dig, as one of the least demure people --
SWISHER: My wife said the same thing.
WALLACE: -- I have ever known. Where are you on this whole demure thing?
SWISHER: Well, why don't we just see what I said about it? Let's see my social media contribution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: So?
SWISHER: I'm just riding a wave of meme-ness, and I love it. I think it's great. It was really fun. It's one of those fun things. It will be gone next week.
(LAUGHTER)
HENDERSON: It might already be gone.
SWISHER: It's gone. It's gone now.
WALLACE: Kristen, as our opinion expert, why is this "demure" thing such a hit?
ANDERSON: Well, I wish I had a lot of data for you. I'm actually asking people if "brat," the other big trend of the summer, if you were ever called brat, would you feel offended, or would you feel relieved? Or would you feel confused? I feel like "demure" is a nice palate cleanser after "brat." If "brat" is excess, "demure" is, let's just let's take that accessory off. Let's do less.
WALLACE: So when people say, "I'm demure," are they saying it like yes, they are, or making fun of --
SWISHER: I don't people are really thinking a lot about the actual definition of the word.
WALLACE: The panel is back with their takes on hot stories or what will be in the news before it's news. That's right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:52:11]
WALLACE: It's time for our panel's special takes on what's happening or predictions of what we should be looking out for. Kara, hit me with your best shot.
SWISHER: So I want to talk about Gus Walz because I thought he was just an, it was an astonishing, genuine moment of true love of --
WALLACE: This is the son of the vice presidential nominee.
SWISHER: Yes, exactly. And he said, "that's my dad." When I hosted this show a couple of weeks ago, my son did a similar thing like that, said "that's my mom" to me. She called me right away. And it was really touching.
So I was really super offended by all the people, mostly on the MAGA right, who attacked him, including Ann Coulter and a guy named Jay Weber in Wisconsin. It was, I don't know another a word except for "heinous" the way to talk about this, especially about someone who is 17. He's neurodivergent. But then in the apology, when it was like, I didn't know he was disabled. So you would also then attack a regular 17-year-old? Those people, if they have children, they should be ashamed. And if they don't, they should probably not have them.
WALLACE: Reihan, you're focused on a controversy that we've discussed here, but about how another country is handling it.
SALAM: Ireland recently announced that they're going to ban phones from classrooms, not just classrooms, but from schools outright for middle schoolers and high schoolers across the country. This is a movement that I believe is really taking shape in the United States as well, thanks to the interventions of Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at NYU, and a variety of other folks as well. There's this real effort to say, wait a second. This is having a huge effect on this student's ability to pay attention, to think clearly. And I think it's also a good sign of a social movement that's really spread quite quickly, awareness that has spread quite quickly. So if you're ever feeling grim and depressed about the state of our civic discourse, this is something to look forward to.
WALLACE: Nia, best shot?
HENDERSON: So Donald Trump, what's he going to be up to next week? He was actually fairly all over the map in battleground states. Next week, he's going to be in Detroit, Michigan. He's talking to a National Guard Association gathering, and there's a gathering Moms for Liberty in D.C., where he's also giving remarks. Nobody knows if and when Trump is going to land on some sort of way to slow Kamala's momentum. We'll see if she gets something of a bump out of this convention. But I think people are waiting to see, is there going to be a campaign shakeup, for instance? What is he going to be doing in these next couple of weeks in terms of trying --
WALLACE: But you think he's going to do something?
HENDERSON: We'll see, we'll see. I mean, he's obviously -- he's both unpredictable, but very well-known in terms of what we think his strategies are. And it's about killing the vibe around Kamala Harris.
WALLACE: Kristen, bring us home.
ANDERSON: So this week some new data came out from the Pew Research Center, showing that among TikTok users, older users of TikTok are not using the platform to get news. But for younger users of TikTok, 18 to 29, over half of them say they use the platform to get news.
[10:55:01]
I imagine a lot of this week's Democratic convention is going to be consumed on that platform by younger voters. And in fact, the convention seemed almost programmed to be optimized for TikTok. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: DNC, turn out the --
(CHEERING)
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- for our next president Kamala Harris.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM, (D) CALIFORNIA: California, we proudly case our 482 votes for the next president Kamala Harris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: If they were trying to get something to go viral, having Lil Jon is a pretty good way to do it.
WALLACE: I have a production. I think we're going to end up with a roll call arms race, and now this is going to become a thing. And every convention, both Republicans and Democrats are going to try to figure out some more inventive way --
(LAUGHTER)
SWISHER: They don't have the music. They don't have the music. The musicians are barring them gang. They are.
WALLACE: Gang, thank you all for being here, and thank you for spending part of your day with us. We'll see you right back here next week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
