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Erin Burnett Outfront

Harris Heads To Chicago For DNC With Lead In New Polls; Trump Tries To Steal The Spotlight With Harris' Big Week At DNC; Uncommitted Delegates Who Represent 700K -Plus Voters Speak To CNN; Michelle Obama To Speak At DNC Tuesday, Same Night As Husband; New Poll Shows Harris Dominating With Voters Under 30. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired August 18, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett, and welcome to a special edition of OUTFRONT.

Tonight Harris riding high hours before she arrives in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. She hit the road today meeting with voters as she and her running mate Tim Walz make their way across the battleground state of Pennsylvania on a bus tour. Harris is trying to build up the momentum as she takes on Trump today calling him a coward without saying this name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This campaign is about a recognition that frankly over the last several years there has been this kind of perversion that has taken place, I think, which is to suggest, which is to suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, when what we know is the real and true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up. Anybody who's about beating down other people is a coward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Harris also visiting a high school football practice and she was there with Tim Walz, of course former football coach, and he leaned into that identity as he has, talking about what they're calling their game time strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Being an old football coach, there's an old saying, you don't hope you're going to win. You prepare to win. And you give it the best you've got. And you know when that game is over, you want to know you left it all on the field, and that's all we're asking. Let's leave it all on the field. Let's get this thing done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And as Harris makes her way to Chicago, her campaign getting a boost from several new national polls that came out today showing her leading former president Trump. There's a new "Washington Post"- ABC News poll, that has Harris ahead 49 to 45 for Trump and a CBS poll has Harris with a three-point lead over Trump, 51-48.

Now, just moments ago, Harris was taking questions from reporters. She was asked about the excitement surrounding her campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Poll shows that you're three points up nationally. What's your response to this? Do you still consider yourself the underdog here?

HARRIS: I'm very much considered as the underdog. We have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people. That's why we're on this bus tour today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, as for Trump, he is not sitting back. He's not waiting for the Democratic convention to end before stepping up his attacks. Here's what he's planning to do over these next few days while Harris is in Chicago. Trump is scheduled to visit four swing states where his campaign says that he will focus on the economy, immigration, and crime. We'll see what he actually does.

And as we've seen, he is no fan of sticking to the script. We know that, and he is proud of that. He has struggled to land an effective attack against Harris, tried different nicknames, his latest one is trying to paint her as a communist. And he wrote this today, she's a communist, has always been a communist, and will always be a communist, after posting what appears to be an A.I. generated image of a woman standing at a podium during a communist rally.

Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT live at the DNC in Chicago.

And, Jeff, I mentioned these new polls, two of them, ABC, CBS, Harris narrowly ahead in both of them, three and four points. I know there's margin of error. Nonetheless, though, that is, you know, in electoral politics in this country that is a real lead. Is the Harris campaign happy with where she is right now heading into a crucial convention week where usually you get a boost?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Erin, there is no doubt that Vice President Harris and her campaign are thrilled with where they are right now. Here's why. Look, this is going to be a Democratic convention. You can see it's just starting to be set up here. There's some music playing, et cetera, really speaking to the excitement inside the party. This is a unified party.

That was no guarantee when President Biden just a month ago decided to drop out of the race. There were questions about, would there be an open convention? All that of course is ancient history. She has the party behind her. She's riding a wave of momentum here into Chicago, but hearing what she said just a few moments ago in Pennsylvania is so instructive. She said, look, I still see myself as an underdog. I have to explain my positions to the American people. What that is, is a sense of there is no room or time for over-

confidence. I am told that she has instructed her supporters and her aides that, and look, even though polls look good particularly from where they were for President Biden, this is a very close race.

[19:05:05]

It's not like she is leading in some major way. She is just in the game. So coming into this convention, one thing she is trying to do is really to fill some of the blanks at around who she is, trying to use this week as a time to really tell her story to the American people and try and use this as a way to draw a contrast with Donald Trump. But there is no doubt this is a much more upbeat convention than it certainly would have been.

But, Erin, consider this. One month ago today, the Republican convention ended in Milwaukee. Republicans walked away feeling so giddy. Things change in politics. But for Democrats at least they are coming to Chicago feeling more confident than they've been all year -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Jeff, I mean, I guess we have all learned things can change more quickly than anyone can imagine. And maybe that gives everyone some pause, I guess, if you're in the Harris campaign.

All right. Here to talk about this, Errol Louis.

So the DNC, we were hours away. You heard them getting ready, playing a little Bruce Springsteen there as they're trying to I guess rev themselves up for the full setup here. The two new polls, though, I'm mentioning a narrow lead, OK, it is a narrow lead. It was -- under Biden it was a loss. The swing is so huge, and three and four points usually, we don't even talk about that as narrow in American electoral politics.

You know, George W. Bush would describe that as a mandate. So is this really narrow or is she running away with it?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: She's doing an amazing job of turning around what had been a negative trajectory, especially in those critical swing states. You don't want to lose track of the fact that this is going to be an electoral college contest more so than a general national plebiscite. So, yes, the fact that she's head by a few points nationally, that's great. What really matters is what's happening in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Nevada, and some of the other swing states.

And there, she actually is reversing what had been losses, what had been serious losses, and it's those losses in those key swing states, seven or eight swing states, that had sparked panic within the Democratic Party where the strategies were saying, we can't turn this around and we've been outspending Republicans five to one, 10 to one in some cases in some of the swing states, and we're just barely staying even.

So she's reversed what had been a trajectory of doom and defeat. And that in itself is worth celebrating for them.

BURNETT: I should, you know, she's obviously, she wants to define herself. Now I will say there's an irony in that. I understand she's a vice president, but she was a presidential candidate. She has been VP for three and a half years. So you would think people would know her on one hand, but also she was VP. And she does feel the need to tell people who she is now. She's talked about that she needs to do that.

Here's what she said on the campaign trail today at a campaign stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We're all here, we love our country, and we know our country is going to be as strong as our willingness to fight for it, and to fight for what we stand for. You know, when you know what, just stand for, you know what to fight for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And, you know, she's going to define hopefully for more people exactly what it is. She's been starting to do so in a policy perspective. 64 percent in the CBS poll, Americans say they know what she stands for. 64 percent. 86 percent say the same for Trump. Now I'm surprised that those numbers aren't 100 for Trump and for her, I'm surprises it's as high as 64 in a certain sense because again, she's been the VP.

So are you surprised? 64 is higher. Do you think it's low?

AISHA MILLS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think it's relatively high in my humble opinion because as VP, your job is not to take the spotlight, right? And to be out in front defining the administration. It's actually the opposite. You're supporting the administration. What is going to be interesting to me about how the entire DNC rolls out, which really is an opportunity to put on, frankly, a show, right?

It's a little bit of a dog and pony show for the American public to define the party, to introduce her, to introduce her running mate.

BURNETT: Here she is getting on the plane, by the way, in Pittsburgh, getting ready to go to Chicago. Yes. So this is actually happening live. There she is with Doug Emhoff. Yes.

MILLS: On her way. What will be interesting is the way that she comes back to this idea that she is for the people. If you remember back in 2020, that was her tagline, Kamala Harris for the people. Didn't go over well with a lot of folks because it also had the connotation of being in a courtroom and a prosecutor, et cetera.

But this week when we heard the conversation around an opportunity and economy, and her talking about these kitchen table issues that matter to everybody, we got again from her, her saying, look, I am for you, I am for the people, I am with you. And I think that that is really the distinguishing factor here between these two candidates out there is that she is for the people and the other one is just pompous, right? And I think that you're going to see her defining herself, but also showing that separation.

BURNETT: So she's trying to make that point. My question for you, though, is when you look at these polls in the context of both the swing of where they were with Biden and now where they are with Harris, and the fact that we're talking about three and four points, which if that's actually the margin at the end of the day, and I know we're talking with the popular vote, not the electoral, but we're seeing it in swing states, too.

Do you really think this is close right now?

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN: Well, first of all, thank you for having me. Yes, I do think it's close because, you know, we do politics by electoral college, right. And when you sort of look the electoral college, it looks like a jump ball.

[19:10:03]

It feels like a jump ball. It's credit to the Harris campaign and the Democrats who have made it a jump ball. But, you know, it goes to only 64 percent, actually no, I think that's a smaller number considering she's been in politics for 12 years.

BURNETT: OK.

LANZA: But you also have to think about that 64 percent through Joe Biden. So they know her through failure, they know her through economic failure, they know her through immigration failure, they know her through failure in the national stage. And that's going to be hard to run from. She's hoping for the reset. I think it's going to be our job as Republicans to paint her as the second term of Joe Biden.

But even further to the left, dare I say socialist, communist is where it's headed. And we saw some of that on Friday when she rolled up price controls. You know, I'll tell you this. They have price controls in this country. It's called rent control in some of the highest rent in the country is San Francisco. So that's what price controls does, is --

BURNETT: OK. You're talking about -- now we could get into a discussion. I know everyone would have to bring news about policy.

(CROSSTALK)

LANZA: I'm talking about policies. Sorry. I'm excited about policy.

BURNETT: Right. But, yet, but I'd actually make a serious point here. They would prefer and what I -- the word I hear more is the word joy and I mean that literally, right? That people say that there's a joy in politics again, and right, that this is about emotion and this is about how people feel. And this is actually not about policy.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's right. I was on the phone with a friend who's on was on the bus tour today who said to me, the joy is real, the camaraderie is real. What you see between these candidates, they are really enjoying themselves.

BURNETT: The happy warriors, those words.

SIMMONS: Yes, they're really getting along very well together. And listen, I think when you're Kamala Harris and you're taking a look at what's happening on the polls, what's happening in the country, I've worked for a lot of candidates and I've seen this before. There's nothing like having lost an election to really make a candidate crisp and better. And what she remembers, I'm sure, in 2019 when she came out and she had that huge rally in Oakland, California, and it was meant -- it was magnificent. Her poll numbers were up. She was kind of in the first or second place for a long time.

BURNETT: She had the little girl was me moment.

SIMMONS: And then it didn't work out. Right. And when that happens to a candidate, it really does sober them up and every single time it's made them better. Whatever happens to them, it's made them better. So I think what you're going to see from her now is you're going to see her really run a very strong campaign that's really focused on election day. Focus on early election day, early voting, which is coming very soon in September.

So people are really doing this. And I think on her campaign, they're focused on trying to win the big show, not just when these little small battles with Donald Trump.

BURNETT: Which is interesting and obviously the timeline here, right, Errol, it used to be, OK, people will come back on Labor Day and you're focused, and that's when it all accelerates and then you lead into election day. And now you do have early voting.

LOUIS: That's exactly right.

BURNETT: Coast to coast in various places.

LOUIS: Yes.

BURNETT: I mean, people, you know, in a sense, I'm not going to say it could be over, but for many people who are voting, they're going to cast their votes.

LOUIS: Well, that's right. I mean, also, I mean, look, the timing and the strategy all have to be sort of adjusted for that, that, you know, you've got to be on the ground moving votes in key swing states in September and October. I mean, and you know, that means there's no time to sort of wonder about messaging. And so what -- you've got to get the field troops together, you've got to get the organization in place.

You don't have time to spend sort of wonder if and when it's going to come together, it has to happen right now. And so I think a lot of this is going to be frontloaded and every day that Trump and the Republicans fail to figure out how to effectively counter them is a good day for them. You know, the peculiarities of this very unusual season have made this, you know, 80-day sprint to the finish. And it's going to really be something that we're all going to have to keep up with.

BURNETT: All right. Well, all stay with us because we're going to be back in just a moment here. We've got new reporting from inside the Trump campaign. The one word that is front and center on the campaign's mind this week and it is not joy. Plus our Donie O'Sullivan on the ground in Chicago speaking to uncommitted delegates. These are still not sold on Harris. So what do they want to hear from the vice president when she speaks?

And I'll speak to one of the youngest delegates at the DNC. He is already taking on the Republican Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This redistricting stunt is a clear power grab by Republicans in the general assembly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:24]

BURNETT: And welcome back to this special Sunday edition of OUTFRONT.

Tonight Trump's counter punch. The former president is doing anything he can to try to steal the spotlight from Vice President Kamala Harris and the DNC, which of course begins tomorrow. Trump and J.D. Vance have planned multiple counter-programming events. They're going to go across four swing states to try to get their base on board, to wrestle any momentum Harris and the Democrats are likely to gain. It is a convention, that's usually what happens.

Trump's Chicago Hotel tonight is right now the epicenter of all of this. His allies are already beginning to arrive in Trump Tower in Chicago.

OUTFRONT now is the national political reporter for "The Bulwark," Marc Caputo. He has been reporting extensively on what's been happening behind the scenes in the Trump campaign.

And Marc, tonight, and I think it's ironic, right, as it does come down to, you know, a building, a hotel in Chicago, of course, for Trump. One should not be surprised, but still, it is interesting. You said there's one word that you keep hearing from Trump insiders this week. What is it?

MARC CAPUTO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE BULWARK: Survive. What they want to do is they want to make sure to survive this week. A few weeks ago when Kamala Harris first got in the race and the polling started to change, and the mood with Democrats started to change, and the electorate started to change its mood and opinions about this race, they thought Harris was having a honeymoon and that was going to last for a while. Well, this is sort of the crest of that honeymoon and they're hoping that by the end of this week, Harris doesn't climb higher in the polls. Already they think that she's plateaued. Now the question is, is that

hope or is that science? They say they have polling, they haven't shared it yet, but really right now, it's for Donald Trump to survive, keep calm, carry on, and then hope that the race essentially resets after this convention and that it's a race anew starting on Labor Day.

[19:20:04]

BURNETT: Right. As you say, it's unclear how much of that is hope, how much of that is science. You do have new reporting, though, when you look inside the campaign, there's been a lot of attention put on changes that have happened. One of them is Corey Lewandowski. Obviously highly controversial with his own, you know, issues that he had had prior, is now back working with the campaign. He's the former 2016 campaign manager. What can you tell us about why and what is going on?

CAPUTO: Well, I don't know if anyone can really tell us fully what's going on because this is a Donald Trump move in the Donald Trump campaign. Trump all of a sudden last week decided, well, hey, let's hire Corey, and then everyone asked, well, what's Lewandowski is going to do, and no one could quite answer that question. When asked that question, Donald Trump said he'll be my personal envoy. But no one has ever been able to really define that since.

The best available evidence is that now that the campaign is starting to really grow and turn into a general election posture, they transferred a bunch of staffers from the Republican National Committee down to Palm Beach County. They need to just start executing, not planning anew, bot executing on their plans that they've already made. And Lewandowski will help with that as sort of an office linebacker.

The real hire that the campaign made that should be paid more attention to was Taylor Budowich, who's an adviser of Trump's for a long time, has very good relationships with him, with the campaign, and with J.D. Vance. And Budowich is really going to be playing a large role that a lot of attention hasn't been paid to. But what I'm told by the campaign is that Taylor Budowich is really going to be the hire that they're looking forward to help Trump get back on message and get the campaign sort of back on track.

BURNETT: All right. Marc Caputo, thank you very much with all that reporting from the Trump insider world. Thank you from Chicago.

And everyone is back with me.

Bryan, let me just start with you there, though not really on Corey and Taylor to start. But first of all, the word survive. He's very clear on that word survive.

LANZA: Yes.

BURNETT: That means that there are people in the campaign who are very, you know, senior, knowledgeable, who are admitting that they just want to try to get through this week. LANZA: I mean, listen, it is hard to deny the last month has taken

place for Kamala Harris and the Democrats. I mean, you sort of look at six weeks ago, they were depressed. I had friends, Democratic friends who are depressed, they were thinking that, you know, I don't want say they're having suicidal thoughts, but they're like, how does this end? When can it end soon?

And now there's enthusiasm. So yes, you know, from our point, we want to survive the enthusiasm. You know, they have data that says it's crested. I've seen individual data that says it's crested in these swing states. We'll see where this ends up. But I think from our standpoint survive is probably the best word. You've never seen this much media coverage. Somebody in politics getting nearly five weeks of positive media coverage because I will point out, remember at the start of this, Kamala Harris was the most unpopular VP in American history.

And all she did in that time is make 1800 phone calls to Dem insiders to get the nomination, and that's what changed it? No, it's the media sort of pushing the reset. And so from our standpoint, we know the media coverage is going to be excessive, positive, saying all these great things, although when you look at inflation life is not that great. When you look at immigration, life is not that great. But we need to survive the media push. And I think we will.

SIMMONS: You know, it's just funny, I'm listening to you talk about the media and how the media is interpreting. And a lot of Democrats felt this way in 2016 that we had to live through the Trump media onslaught. And he was there kind of every day making his case in the media, doing live call-in shows that were being unanswered. And so, no, this happens and folks will remember that and keep moving.

I think what's more important here is the macro economy. You can keep talking about policies, have a little reset. The macro economy under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in pretty good shape. You got prices, inflation that's coming down, you have wages that are going up faster than inflation. You've got job growth, you've got unemployment down. You got all these things and the Trump plan is tariffs, universal tariffs.

And so we're talking about taxes on all the American people and all the products they buy. I don't think that people want to sign up for that. I think they were looking for somebody who's going to keep this going, but make it real as Kamala Harris said the other day, so people's prices and they could actually afford to buy houses, buy food, and take care of their kids.

BURNETT: So can I discuss this point about the polls cresting, OK, and you said you've also seen this and you hear that Marc's reporting that they see this. OK. But yet they're still I'm sure expecting her to get yet another bump after the convention. I mean, that would be standard for anybody. He got it himself after his convention. And she's most likely going to get another one now, which would mean it didn't crest.

MILLS: No, I don't think it's crested at all and I think the piece of this that we're not talking about is the actual ground game here, right? So what's happened is that the Harris campaign actually inherited a really great 50-state strategy infrastructure from the Biden campaign that had already started and so it's not surprising that jumping into this race, they are making connections with and riling up people all over the country because they have the apparatus to actually campaign, organize and to do so.

The Trump campaign never really seemed to have that. And so now they seem to be tripping over themselves in order to try to figure out how to get out there and actually talk to voters in a way that the Harris campaign is way ahead, even though she seems, you know, to be new and starting late.

[19:25:04]

And so the infrastructure piece of the ground game is what wins elections. We can talk all day long about who gets media coverage, et cetera. But it's not a coincidence. It is -- it's not a coincidence that she started off going directly to the people and moving through the state and actually talking to voters as opposed to just simply talking through the media.

BURNETT: It is also interesting that Marc is using the word survive, that that's one word. I mean, survive is not really an optimistic word, Errol. I mean, I'm not trying to be -- I'm not trying to be, you know, funny either. But I mean --

LOUIS: No. I mean, look, it's real. There's 79 days left, right? That's 79 news cycles. They're going to basically have to give up four or five of them in the next week, you know, and each cycle is really, really important and you'll never get it back. And, you know, within those polls and again, it's the details of the polls that bother the strategist, right, which is that there are key constituencies that are moving toward Kamala Harris.

It's not just a one or two points in a key swing state. It's that, you know, Democratic leaning independents who were not all that thrilled about Biden are rushing to her side. Women, suburban women in particular are moving towards Kamala Harris. Voters under 40 in big, big numbers going back to Kamala Harris.

BURNETT: Right.

LOUIS: And that's something you can't wait five days, 10 days, 20 days. It will all be over.

BURNETT: OK, right, and yet here's the thing. And maybe this is why they used the word survive, because you, every time you start talking here, you start trying to switch it to policy. That's what, OK, I get it.

LANZA: It's what the voters care.

BURNETT: OK. But this is what Trump did this weekend. He didn't sound like you. Here he is.

SIMMONS: Here we go. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am much better looking than her. I think I'm much better. Much better.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Much better. I'm better looking in person than Kamala. They said no, her biggest advantage is she's a beautiful woman. I'd gone, huh. "TIME" magazine doesn't have a picture of her. They have this unbelievable artist drawing her. They took a lot of pictures. It didn't work out, so they hired a sketch artist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LANZA: You know, he is not focused --

BURNETT: I mean, is that why you used the word survive?

LANZA: Yes. I mean, listen, he's not focused on what we know are the issues that matter to the American people. And I think that's what's sort of frustrating for somebody who supports Trump. And I'm sure that's something makes you giddy as well who doesn't support Trump is that we're wasting valuable seconds in not talking about the economy, not talking about inflation, not talking about immigration. But those are the things --

BURNETT: That's because the guy at the top of your ticket is talking about this.

LANZA: Sure. Like I said, I wish we were talking about the other things because it gives this panel an opportunity to talk about other things other than inflation, immigration, and the wars. I think anytime we dedicate one second that is not talking about the economy, that's not talking about inflation, that wiped out the middle class, you have credit card, you know --

BURNETT: OK, see, OK.

(CROSSTALK)

SIMMONS: You know, Errol is right that there are only a certain number of days that you can do this in the campaign. So winning day is important, but it's also most important to win the big arguments. And one of the things that are becoming incredibly clear is Donald Trump doesn't have a thesis. He doesn't have a core argument about what's the case he's making against Kamala Harris.

And we've seen him in previous iterations. He tries to do this with a really drag people down strategy. Little Marco, Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, something that grabs you in the gut, it tells you something about the person. And then he just starts banging on that every day to bring them down. He can't find that with Kamala Harris. And I think --

LANZA: Dangerously liberal is the word, guys. (CROSSTALK)

SIMMONS: And I think he's struggling to hit us, and he's just throwing things at the wall until he could find something that sticks.

BURNETT: All right. Well, we're going to see what happens here because obviously we're hours away from the DNC beginning. And next our Donie O'Sullivan is speaking with a group of uncommitted Democratic delegates in Chicago who represents hundreds of thousands of voters. So that's a lot of voters and they are still not sold on Harris. How come? Plus new reporting this hour about one of the big name speakers at the convention this week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:33:00]

BURNETT: And welcome back to this special edition of OUTFRONT on this Sunday.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, right now flying. They just took off from Pittsburgh, heading to Chicago. Moments away from arriving there to kick off the Democratic National Convention.

Before boarding that flight Harris said she was not giving up on an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will tell you that these conversations are ongoing and we are not giving up and we are going to continue to work very hard on this. We've got to get a ceasefire and we've got to get those hostages out.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BURNETT: An important message for the uncommitted Democratic delegates meeting tonight in Chicago, because there are uncommitted delegates, despite all of this.

So what does Harris need to do to get them on board? Why are they uncommitted? Donie O'Sullivan has been speaking with them OUTFRONT at the DNC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBAS ALAWIEH, MICHIGAN UNCOMMITTED DELIGATE: We've got 30 uncommitted delegates that are representing over 740,000 uncommitted voters nationwide who voted uncommitted as a pro-peace, anti-war vote in the Democratic Primary

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is a meeting of uncommitted Democratic delegates here in Chicago on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

ALAWIEH: But it's not sustainable for our own government to fund at the mass killing of civilians.

JEREMIAH ELLISON, MINNESOTA UNCOMMITTED DELEGATE: Folks become delegates at their state party and then they come to the National Convention and they are either committed to the candidate to one of the candidates or not. In our case, we're not committed because we haven't heard what we wanted to hear.

We're looking for a ceasefire, we're looking for a strong commitment on a ceasefire. We are looking for an arms embargo for us to stop sending weapons that are contributing to the genocide there.

ALAWIEH: I represent some of the over 101,000 voters in Michigan who voted uncommitted as a pro-peace, anti-war vote.

LEXIS ZEIDAN, CO-CHAIR OF UNCOMMITTED NATIONAL MOVEMENT: Nobody wants to see Trump in November. We are a very anti-fascist movement. We are actually doing what we can to say to the Democratic Party by saying, listen, VP Harris, there is a key base of over 730,000 anti-war voters who are telling you that we want to see you turn the page on Gaza policy and save the Palestinian lives.

[19:35:02]

O'SULLIVAN: What do you want to hear from Harris in Chicago this week?

ALAWIEH: I want to hear from Vice President Harris, how is that she's going to turn a new page on Gaza policy from the destructive and disastrous policy of the last 10 months to one that saves lives.

O'SULLIVAN: You got to meet Harris briefly in Michigan.

LAYTA ELABED, CO-CHAIR OF UNCOMMITTED NATIONAL MOVEMENT: We wanted to be able to speak to her directly and the fact that Michigan voters would want to support her in the November election. But we can't do that right now while our family members, our friends, our loved ones, are being killed with US-funded bombs.

I told her that we need a policy shift that will save lives in Gaza. My community is telling me that they're losing tens and hundreds of their family members. And she said, it's horrific. She's been incredibly empathetic. I do have to say that. We have seen more empathy and compassion from Vice President Harris, but that is not enough, Palestinian children can't eat words.

O'SULLIVAN: Is there more hope in this movement, right now with Harris at the top of the ticket than there was when Biden was there?

YAZAN KADER, WASHINGTON UNCOMMITTED DELEGATE: I think that in general, we would all say were cautiously optimistic. There is a little bit more wiggle room, we feel like with Vice President Harris. We've already seen her change the rhetoric a little bit, but words are not enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'SULLIVAN: And Erin, you heard some cautious optimism there. Those delegates, those activists, they're going to be in here. They're going to be in the convention, most of this week working the room.

Of course, there's expected to be thousands, potentially tens of thousands of demonstrators outside the convention for the pro- Palestinian cause.

And look, a question these activists get a lot is, could this uncommitted movement, this saying, we will not vote for Harris unless she changes policies on Gaza, could that potentially help Trump win the election? Those activists that we spoke to said, that's not their problem. That is for the Harris campaign.

BURNETT: All right, Donie, thank you very much. Fascinating though don't you think and as they put it, they represent 740,000 voters between them, those uncommitted delegates.

Let's go out front now to one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party, Quinton Lucas. He's the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri and is also a DNC delegate. He is not uncommitted. He does support Kamala Harris.

Mayor, I appreciate your time, though, and I am curious when you hear some of these uncommitted delegates and people may remember obviously in the primaries it was the ability to vote uncommitted, which many people did to register their frustration with the Biden administration's policy on the Israel-Gaza War.

But now you hear these delegates saying, look, we represent 740,000 voters and we are still not sold. What do you say to them now?

MAYOR QUINTON LUCAS (D), KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: I think what you just heard is one step that the vice president is communicating that she is sympathetic, that she's looking to get to a solution. This is not some rigid resistance to making sure that there is humanitarian relief for everyone involved in the situation, but it is saying that she is going to take the time, to make sure that everyone feels heard.

I think that is a positive shift in some ways from what the discussion has been in the past. I think she is somewhat understanding to all in connection with the issue, and I expect that to pay dividends as we go through the next few months of the election.

BURNETT: So, obviously you support her and you do know our personally, I'm going to show an image -- some pictures of you. You were sitting down with her earlier this year. This was a panel that the two of you were doing on gun violence and you have then since described her as both personable and relatable? Those are your words. Of course, the GOP ticket is using much different words repeatedly to describe her, I'll play them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ...fake new Kamala --

SEN. JD VANCE (R) VICE PRESIDENT NOMINEE: Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She's a fake. TRUMP: You have a candidate who is fake, fake, fake.

VANCE: This is a fundamentally fake person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So they're using that word "fake." And there was a North Carolina rally just the other day where Trump supporters and were taking that word too and starting to repeat it. Here's one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are too enthralled with the facade that the Democrats are putting up with Kamala, and it's a joke, it's a fake, all of that is just so fake. Trump is the real deal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's not real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, that was North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Are you concerned, Mayor, about that sticking, this concept of fake?

LUCAS: Not at all. I mean, first of all, the woman has exceptional experience. Prosecutors statewide office, federal office, one of the few who's actually held office at all of those different levels.

She's somebody and the reason I said she was personable is because I think we've heard a media narrative for years about who Kamala Harris is. But if you get a chance to talk to her, to listen to her, you see someone who is understanding, someone who has actually fought crime, somebody who is actually running to make a real change for America in the future, not coming the very vain type of campaign you see on the other side.

[19:40:07]

So, I hear fake, I guess that's the word that they're trying to stick with. But I don't know anyone who has ever met her and said that she is the least bit inauthentic, that she doesn't connect with almost every person who spends time to talk to her and more than anything you are seeing that in the energy on the ground in every battleground state.

I've been to a chunk of them and in each place, people are excited, they are encouraged by this campaign. And I think they're doing quite well getting that authenticity across.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Mayor Lucas, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

LUCAS: Thanks so much.

BURNETT: All right, Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City.

Next, new details this hour about a special guest at the convention and what the message of that individual will be. And I will speak to one of the youngest delegates who will be in Chicago

My guest made headlines when he put Republicans on notice with this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC WILLOUGHBY, DNC DELEGATE: Young people like me are watching and young people like me are fed up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:30]

BURNETT: Welcome back to this special edition of OUTFRONT. We are learning new details tonight about what's in store at the DNC.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to speak Tuesday, the same night as Barack Obama. And we're also learning about how quickly convention plans are coming together. After the shocking switch up at the top of the ticket, so it is essentially an entirely new program, all of it.

MJ Lee is inside the convention hall tonight and MJ, Democrats really flooding the zone this week. But obviously, in a sense, everything had to change, right? Even though you had some of the same players. So what do they have planned?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Erin, we are about to see a completely different convention than the one that we would have seen four weeks ago. And of course, some of the biggest changes have come to the programming and the speakers lineup. Many of the big names that we expected to hear from when it was supposed to be President Biden at the top of the ticket, they are still going to speak, but there have been some notable timing changes.

Of course, the biggest one being President Biden himself, who's going to be speaking tomorrow night instead of on the final night. And somebody else were going to be hearing from tomorrow is Hillary Clinton. She of course, eight years ago accepted the Party's nomination for the presidency in Philadelphia before month later, losing the election to Donald Trump.

I spoke with somebody who is familiar with her thinking and they told me that tomorrow night she is going to be talking about the proverbial glass ceiling that she couldn't fully shatter eight years ago and what she believes is possible, once Kamala Harris does.

Now, those two women have actually been in touch regularly, I am told since President Biden dropped out and actually, Hillary Clinton was one of the first phone calls that the vice president made that Sunday that the president dropped out but, Erin, it's really interesting talking to some of the convention planners.

They basically have told me that that change at the top of the ticket from President Biden to Vice President Harris, basically happened just in the nick of time. A lot of the sort of infrastructure, it was already fully baked in ,

including the set design that you see behind me. But some of those final details that you see executed just in the final weeks heading into a convention, they hadn't actually happened yet, for example, just even the printing of the Biden-Harris signs, I should say, and some of the videos that were going to see this week, most of them had not been recorded yet is what I'm being told by convention planners.

But do expect throughout the course of the week to see odes I'm told to President Biden as one person involved with the convention planning told me earlier today, we felt it was important that people still be reminded that President Biden really set the foundation for this convention -- Erin.

BURNETT: And interesting and of course they have him on the first night, it makes sense, just sort in the passing of the torch, but incredible to see something this big being turned around so quickly.

All right, thanks so much, MJ.

And I want to go now to Eric Willoughby. He'd be one of the youngest delegates at the DNC this week. And Eric, you're 18, I know you are from North Carolina, now a key state what did not look like, it was winnable a month ago. It's certainly seems that it could be now and you first gained national attention as high school senior when you confronted Republicans in your state at a hearing about redistricting, and I just want to play a little bit of that for everybody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLOUGHBY: If these people cannot be trusted to protect our most basic rights, how can we trust them to draw fair and impartial maps that will promote a healthy and vibrant Democracy.

This redistricting stunt is a clear power grab by Republicans in the General Assembly. So, I urge you now, watch your step. Be very careful in what you choose to do, because young people like me are watching and young people like me are fed up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And Eric Willoughby is OUTFRONT now. So, Eric, everyone gets a sense there of your speaking and your passion, your candor. You're not afraid to speak out. So what is it about Vice President Harris --

WILLOUGHBY: Sure, I'm not.

BURNETT: No, and there you are tonight. So, what is it about Vice President Harris, Eric, specifically that gets you excited?

WILLOUGHBY: Vice President Harris served as the district attorney of San Francisco. The attorney general of California, US Senator from California.

It is very clear to me that the vice president values justice. Justice is something that myself and many other young people find incredibly valuable in a candidate and considering Donald Trump is a 34 times convicted felon, I don't think that's the road of justice that we want to go down as young people.

You know in North Carolina, our state motto is 'Esse quam videri', 'To, be rather than to seem,' We don't like frauds. North Carolina is going to vote for the real deal and that real deal is Kamala Harris.

BURNETT: So, all right. Were you this enthusiastic, Eric when you were going to be voting for President Joe Biden?

WILLOUGHBY: Listen, I'm going to start and say this, you know, there has been a massive enthusiasm bump across all fields where young people, old people, all people are more enthusiastic about voting for Joe Biden.

[19:50:15]

I've always been a politically geared individual. So I was enthusiastic about politics nonetheless, but I absolutely feel a lot more energetic about Kamala Harris.

BURNETT: All right, so let's talk about some of the new polls. Eric and I'm sure you've had a chance to see these. But looking at young voters like yourself, 64 percent of voters under 30 right now support Harris and that's a 30 points more than Trump, just about 30 points more.

Longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz, I saw this on Twitter and I'm sure you saw it, but he said he was trying to do a focus group and find undecided voters under the age of 27. I don't know why that was the demarcation, but under 27 and he said, this is what he posted.

"I can't recruit young women to this, because they don't exist as undecided voters... The people who are 'undecided' have all collapsed towards Harris."

What are you hearing from friends your age? And are you hearing, Eric, from people who are sort of in that category that Frank is talking about?

WILLOUGHBY: The category that Frank was talking about very much did exist before the president dropped out of the race. But now I think Kamala Harris has consolidated those voters behind her fully.

Young folks like me are incredibly opinionated and are not afraid to share our opinions and I think Donald Trump is seeing that work against him right now.

BURNETT: And what do you think about the Palestinian issue? Obviously, kids are going to back to college, your friends are going to go back to school. Do you think that this is -- how big of an issue is this going to be? We do understand this week there will be tens of thousands of people marching in opposition to the Israeli war in Gaza outside this convention. So it could be very palpable this week.

WILLOUGHBY: Absolutely and I have friends on both sides of this issue who feel incredibly strongly about this. I mean, this is an issue that tugs at the heartstrings of course, and foreign policy absolutely means a lot in a campaign.

But young folks right now, I think are uniting a lot more behind the reproductive rights messaging, climate messaging, fair redistricting messaging, even as unsexy, a topic is that is, we like fairness.

So, I think those are the bigger issues that young voters are beginning to focus on.

BURNETT: And I know it's an issue of obviously great passion for you as I just played that sound bite for everybody.

But Eric, hey, thanks so much. Look forward to meeting in person this week and thanks so much for coming on tonight, appreciate it.

WILLOUGHBY: Thanks for having me.

BURNETT: All right. And next, breaking news, live pictures out of Chicago, the National Guard now on standby ahead of the convention

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:57:18]

BURNETT: All right, the breaking news: You see live pictures right now out of Chicago. Protesters are marching ahead of the DNC. We are learning now that roughly 250 members of the Illinois National Guard are on standby as the convention gets underway because tens of thousands of protesters are expected to come to Chicago over these next days.

Governor JB Pritzker is putting "troublemakers" on notice saying that they will be arrested. Whitney Wild is on the ground OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As the Democratic National Convention gets underway, security is a top priority.

DEREK MAYER, DEPUTY SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, US SECRET SERVICE: It takes several days to put these security perimeters into effect.

WILD (voice over): Secret Service deputy special agent in charge, Derek Mayer has spent more than a year directing the planning for this massive event.

MAYER: The United Center has been closed down now for almost a month. As you can look at this entire perimeter that we will take over, the work that goes into putting something like this into effect.

WILD (voice over): Non-scalable fencing will surround two locations: the United Center, and McCormick Place.

Law enforcement will also have support from the air, on the ground, and in the water. Security officials are on alert for possible retaliatory attacks

against Democrats more than a month after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, according to a new intelligence report on the DNC obtained by CNN.

MAYER: I think the world is a very dangerous place nowadays.

WILD (on camera): When you look at the overall threat landscape, what is the most concerning thing to you?

MAYER: I mean, I think from the Secret Service perspective overall, I think everything. You have to take every risk, every threat seriously.

WILD (voice over): As war rages in the Middle East, angry protests are expected during the DNC.

(PROTESTERS CHANTING "FREE, FREE PALESTINE.")

WILD (voice over): The Chicago Metropolitan Area is home to the largest Palestinian population in the US and thousands of pro- Palestinian protesters have marched downtown for months.

HATEM ABUDAYYEH, CO-FOUNDER, US PALESTINIAN COMMUNITY NETWORK: Absolutely. There will be tens of thousands of people, especially if there's an expanded war.

WILD (voice over): Chicago has hosted several political nominating conventions in the past. None more notorious than 1968. The city has been unable to shake the memory of those violent clashes.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling says the department is training for high stress and high risk.

LARRY SNELLING, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: Well, we've also given our offices extensive training to help them deal with these types of protests through stress inoculation training, just putting them through real-time scenarios, which is going to help them out there in the field.

WILD (voice over): Chicago Police will lead any response at will, under scrutiny themselves.

WILD (on camera): What is a realistic measure of success for you and for your officers?

SNELLING: Everything that we trained to do is in full effect and our officers are safe. The residents here and our businesses, they were here long before the DNC ever thought about coming here, and they will be here long after it is gone.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WILD: Erin, one of the biggest marches is set to kick off at noon and there's a big question about where that march is going to happen.

The city has outlined a route that's about a mile long, but the protest group wants to go a route that's about twice that. So, we'll see where those protesters end up, Erin, especially when you consider that that organization says tens of thousands of people are going to descend on the city.

BURNETT: Yes, absolutely and of course not much room to maneuver to adjudicate all of that in these next hours.

Whitney, thank you.

And thanks to all of you. Our special coverage continues now with Anderson.

[20:00:42]