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Inside Politics

Pelosi: Up To Biden "To Decide If He Is Going To Run"; George Clooney In NYT Op-Ed: Biden Should Drop Out; Biden Aides To CNN: The Discussion Is Over, Biden Is Running; Cook Political Report: 6 States Move Towards Trump Since Debate; Dem Sen. Bennet: Trump Could Win In Landslide; Trump: Democrats Are "Divided In Chaos"; Trump Mocks Harris As An "Insurance Policy" For Biden; Trump Returns To Trail And Revels In Democratic Turmoil. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 10, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, a party divided, and president define it. Democrats fear and desperation about Joe Biden's candidacy is palpable, but only a few are willing to say it publicly. And the White House says there is, quote, zero chance Biden will drop out.

Plus, a political bombshell from Hollywood. George Clooney, a major Biden donor who was with the president three weeks ago says, he's not the man he wants was and the party will lose unless Biden drops out.

And an Obama White House reunion. Jon Favreau and his former boss David Axelrod will join me with their blunt advice for the White House and the president that they love. But they say feels is quote, dangerously out of touch.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

First up, a lot of anxiety, very little action. Many Democrats we talked to are panicking. They think that their candidate is going to lose and is going to lose big. And while just a handful are actually calling for Joe Biden to drop out publicly. They're not answers in many cases are incredibly telling.

Here's former Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier today on MSNBC, when she was asked if she supports Joe Biden at the top of the ticket still.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): It's up to the president to subside if he is going to run. We're all encouraging him to make that decision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has said, he has made the decision. He has said firmly this week he is going to run. Do you want him to run?

PELOSI: I want him to do whatever he decides to do. And that's the way it is. I said, everyone, let's just hold off whatever you're thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don't have to put that down on the table until we see how we go this week. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House. How's the White House and the Biden campaign more specifically reacting to not only what we just heard from the former House speaker, but still other pretty influential people who are talking out not just in public, but we know to the White House in private?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Dana. President Biden and his team are pushing forward with this campaign, essentially arguing that the debate over whether President Biden will remain in the race has been settled. Aids have consistently this morning pointed to the fact in the previous statements from President Biden, whether it's that letter to House Democrats on Monday or other public pronouncements where he has explicitly said he is remaining in this race.

But still, this comes as there are some serious doubts within the Democratic Party, from some lawmakers speaking out publicly and privately. Also, the donor class as well as Hollywood celebrities, who've given a lot of money and help to Biden raise money like George Clooney, just this morning calling for the president to step aside in this race.

Now the president has behind the scenes work to the phones, trying to the shore up support that he can, as he's looking to stay in this race. And today, the president stopped by an AFL-CIO meeting to meet with union leaders from across the country. The president still believing that union support could be key to his reelection in November. Take a listen to what he had to tell those leaders earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think you as my domestic NATO, not a joke, not a joke. You're the ones. You're the ones beyond me. And you know, you know that with us for better than I do. Beyond me. It's all about whether or not we're going to grow the economy, whether we're going to give working people a shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now that event, just in the last hour with the AFL-CIO is another one of those off the cuff moments that the Biden campaign is trying to embrace. The president and his team have received a lot of advice from ally, saying that the president needs to hold these more unscripted, impromptu style events -- of events to show Americans and voters that the president can serve a second term in office.

But certainly, the president, even as he has made these public pronouncements that he is remaining in the race. He still will face a lot of questions, especially as you have some Democratic doubts within the party about his future in November.

BASH: No question, Arlette. Thank you so much for that reporting. And as Arlette just mentioned, actor and longtime Biden supporter George Clooney is calling for the president to drop out. He co-hosted a major fundraiser for Biden just last month. And in a New York Times op-ed just published within the last hour, Clooney said, he loves Biden.

But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. Clooney writes. None of us can. It's devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe big f-ing deal Biden of 2010. He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate. He goes on to say, Joe Biden is a hero. He saved democracy in 2020. We need him to do it again in 2024.

[12:05:00]

Let's bring in today's great group of reporters, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Laura Barron-Lopez of PBS NewsHour, and Peter Hamby of Puck News and Snapchat, and of course, our former colleague here at CNN. Nice to see you. Welcome back. Wow, this is such a consequential -- I mean, every day we say it's a consequential day. And every day it becomes even more consequential.

I just want to start with the Nancy Pelosi comments. Because I feel like I'm kind of fluent in Pelosi. We all are. I've covered her for more than two decades. And she is so incredibly deliberative with the things that she says.

The Sunday after the debate, she came on State of the Union with me and she was gung-ho, everybody. She didn't say, get in line. But that was effectively the message. And she was trying to make the arguments for Joe Biden's candidacy for him. So different today, Jeff Zeleny?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It's different today. Just when you thought the door seemed to be closing to the idea that the questions were being put to rest, that the wagons were circled, she intentionally reopened them. And A, bought some more time on the other side of the argument saying, let's wait until this week passes. And even since she said that a few hours ago, a lot has changed.

The George Clooney op-ed is not just a celebrity, writing something from the cheap seats. He loves Joe Biden. He was with him recently. He's been a longtime supporter and admirer of him. So, this is more than someone from afar. This is almost from within. But Pelosi clearly making the calculation that it's his decision to make, leaving it still in his court, but raising the specter of, can he win. And urging people to not talk publicly, as Senator Michael Bennet did and others.

But really reopening the conversation again, almost as if to say President Biden, you have one more chance. You have a few more days to make this your decision before it's someone else's. So, it was extraordinary as you sort of looked at every single word in those sentences.

BASH: So, she -- let me just say as we continue this conversation. She released a statement just moments ago, saying that she fully supports whatever President Biden decides to do. We must turn our attention to why this race is so important. Donald Trump would be a disaster for our country and our democracy. Again, the door is not closed there.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWSHOUR: It's not close, because she's saying whatever he decides to do, even though the president in the campaign has made very clear. He's not going anywhere. He's in this race. So, from their view, this is said and done. She's saying no, it's not said and done.

And well, former Speaker Pelosi doesn't say anything by accident. Having covered her also a pretty long time. And this is her essentially saying, even though this week as we're seeing -- a lot of Democrats told me they saw this week as the week they hoped that things would wrap up that they hoped that one way or the other, they would be able to solve this issue. That's not going to happen.

And she even said, let's hold off. And we can have this conversation after NATO, after our allies leave. And she's also essentially giving room. I got texts from lawmakers saying that she's giving room to vulnerable lawmakers, those frontliners to say, OK, maybe I can come out.

BASH: So, before coming on and as you come in here, Peter. I was talking to a frontliner. And who was saying, this is the apex for the Biden campaign, saying it is only going to get worse from here. Not because he's going to have another debate performance like that.

But because the Republicans haven't even started to use what's in their arsenal. They barely started to talk about it. They haven't spent barely a dime on it, except maybe Kari Lake. And that is going to come and it's going to come hard, not just at the president but everybody down ballot.

PETER HAMBY, HOST OF SNAPCHAT'S "GOOD LUCK AMERICA" & PARTNER, PUCK NEWS: That's right. And also in paid media, which you know, the Trump campaign and their allies haven't ramped that up as much as they're going to. I talked to a senior Trump person today, and asked him specifically, where have you guys been?

Because obviously, we've all been talking about how discipline the Trump campaign has been in the last 10 days. And this person just said, we're -- you know, we're letting him roasts like, we don't need to do anything. We are going to continue to talk about our messaging around inflation and immigration, et cetera. The media and Democrats are the ones peeling Joe Biden's skin off right now.

But to what Laura said, the White House on Monday wanted this to be settled. They sent the letter to Congress. They had, you know, members come out from the CBC, from labor, from the squad. I'm not sure they're on the level here, but they said, this is settled. That was always silly. It was always obtuse. And for people like us who have covered many campaigns.

[12:10:00]

It was frankly offensive, because we all know after the debate it was going to take 10 to 12 days before the polling to set in. And that's what Pelosi is hearing from her members. That's what Michael Bennet is hearing. That's why Sherrod Brown in Ohio is coming out, and not voicing support for the president.

Anyone thinking that this was going to be settled before we saw more internal polling and public polling, showing possibly a Trump landslide in the electoral college. I mean, that's basically where we're at now. And Pelosi is extending this conversation till after NATO now. It's just not going anywhere, especially when the problem was not a scandal. It's not a gaffe, it is the candidate himself.

BASH: And on that, Ritchie Torres, Democrat from New York, sent a tweet out, talking about the fact that there's -- the conversation that needs to be had. He said to me in a quote, if we are going on a political suicide mission, then we should at least be honest about it. And that is, at this moment in time where most of the Democrats are, most of them are not saying, step aside. Mr. President, it's time.

Most of them are saying, don't tell us to back down. Don't tell us that we're bed wetters. This is so critical. We have to have these public conversations. Actually, let me just reframe that. Many of them are saying, it's better to have them in private, but they have to have the conversations and the intra party debate.

ZELENY: And it's been sort of Trumpian in the minds of a lot of Democrats. How the White House has tried to sort of force this into being. You know, there's no doubt that the White House has done as we sit here on Wednesday at lunchtime in the east. They've done a good job in terms of showing progress, winning this war that he can stay in.

The question is, what kind of a race is he staying in for? As this has all been going on in Washington, as the president has been winning the CBC support and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus support. The battleground has gotten wider. It has gotten more complicated. And that is why the concern is rising up from the ranks of Democrats.

So, you know, we look at our map. It is changed already. And before the debate, quite frankly, the former president was a significantly -- he had some advantages in the states. Now the Biden map, should he be in a week from now, two weeks from now. It's a whole different picture than it was at the beginning of the summer.

BASH: And as you come in, let's just show what The Cook Political Report, which does ratings at a lot of people paying attention to where these states are. It illustrates exactly what you just said, Jeff. The map widening and looking more favorable to Donald Trump.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Not just to Donald Trump. I mean, before the debate, the down ballot Democrats were already pulling ahead of President Joe Biden. In the end, they were running on his record, and they liked running it on his record. Since the debate now, they're very concerned that it's not just the presidency, that they could lose their concern, that they could lose the House and the Senate.

Senate was always going to be tough. Now it's tougher. And they thought that they could maybe very well win the House back. Now, they're concerned, they're not going to. And so that's what I'm hearing from a lot of the campaign staffers on those, like vulnerable -- in those vulnerable districts. They're worried about what this means for them, especially as Democrats are also still trying to make the argument that they're deadly concerned about democracy being at stake. And so, if they're so concerned, why have so few of them come out publicly about Joe Biden.

HAMBY: I was just going to say, I mean, I mentioned naivete earlier. Some Democrats I talked to after the debate, we're talking about the idea of ticket splitters, you know, maybe in holding out some hope. Maybe Joe Biden will go down, but we'll be OK. We'll keep our jobs. I forget the member of Congress who wrote an op-ed saying, like, I'll be fine if Trump is president, as long as he can keep his job.

Laura is exactly right. Like we live in an era of historic partisanship. The idea of -- maybe there'll be a Trump (inaudible) voter or a few in Arizona. But the ticket is going to shift one direction or the other. The idea that there's going to be ticket splitters and these down ballot members are going to be safe. If Joe Biden is at the top of the ticket, I think that's lunacy.

BASH: They have to have a very strong brand name ID to succeed. And what you were just talking about, are all of our sources telling us concern about down ballot. And most importantly, I think everybody concerned that Joe Biden is going to lose.

I was told that yesterday that was expressed by not only Michael Bennet, but also Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester. Two of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats expressed in a private lunch to their colleagues. Michael Bennet went on with Kaitlan Collins last night and went public with his concerns about Democrats across the board.

[12:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO): Donald Trump is on track, I think to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House. And so, for me this isn't a question of polling. It's not a question about politics. It's a moral question about the future of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Senator Bennet there is saying what some of his endangered colleagues cannot. I'm thinking Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, the open race in Michigan. Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin. He is calling out saying, think about the rest of the ticket here. It would be very, very difficult for a senator who is up for reelection this time to say. What he said, but that doesn't mean that they don't think what he thought.

And Dana, as you first reported from that luncheon yesterday, that was a worry that ran through the course of lunch. And Senator Bennet, they're not a flame thrower at all. His words carry significant weight inside his caucus.

HAMBY I was going to say that Mikie Sherrill in House, flip that seat in 2018. She knows how to read a poll. She is a national security, moderate, the kind of person who normally is all in on Joe Biden in New Jersey. She's coming out and saying -- and again, maybe not reading the poll. And Sherrod Brown also jumped out at me too, not just because he's in a comatose state. He is Joe Biden's coalition, older black voters, labour, suburbs.

BASH: And on that note, I think you might have called this Pat Ryan, a moderate Democrat from New York. According to The New York Times, he just came out and said explicitly that he believes that Joe Biden should step aside and not be the party's nominee. I think he's the eighth to publicly say that, nevermind what's going on behind the scenes.

Everybody standby, because of course, we have been talking about this crisis among Democrats. On the Republican side, former President Trump has added some new lines about the vice president to his stump speech. More on that. And what else he said in Miami about what he would do in a second Trump term.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back. We are looking at live -- a live event right now here in Washington at the NATO summit. President Biden along with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. They are both welcoming world leaders officially to this NATO Summit on the 75th anniversary of the NATO Alliance. We will monitor that as it continues.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump was back on the campaign trail last night with the Republican National Convention just five days away after he's been laying low. Not so much. Last night, he held a rally at one of his Miami golf resorts, and he didn't waste any time poking fun at the disarray in the Democratic Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The radical left Democrat Party is divided in chaos and having a full scale break down all because they can't decide which of their candidates is more unfit to be president. Sleepy, crooked Joe Biden or laughing Kamala.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Notably, Trump was joined by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, one of the men he might select as his running mate. But instead of making an announcement, he continues to build suspense. My panel is back with me now. That is maybe the most traditional thing that he's doing is to build suspense. Because every nominee does that when they are sort of dangling, little breadcrumbs and easter eggs, I should say about who they're -- who their running mate will be.

So, you mentioned the fact that the Republicans and the Trump campaign, they're holding off with paid media. But he can't help himself to jump in and to sort of stir the pot when it comes to what's going on with Joe Biden.

HAMBY: Yeah. I mean, my conversation with aforementioned senior Trump person earlier. This person kind of chuckled, when I was like, well, you guys have been pretty disciplined lately. Is that going to continue? I mean, he's like, you know, probably not. It's Donald Trump.

They said, when it comes to the convention next week, for example, they have these themes of the economy of immigration, of national security every night, you know, every convention has a theme every different night. They settled on that a month ago. This person said before. Biden sort of self-emulated on that debate stage.

But on the Kamala Harris question, he's -- you know, Trump is going to go after her heart and relish it. No matter what. I mean, but he's just happy to, I think let them twist in the wind a little bit. Yeah.

BASH: Well, on that note, I want to play a little bit specifically of what former President Trump said about Kamala Harris last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You have to give him credit for one brilliant decision, probably the smartest decision he's ever made. He picked Kamala Harris as his vice president. I was brilliant. Because it was an insurance policy, maybe the best insurance policy I've ever seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: First of all, it's Kamala, not Camala. I mean, we can ask at some point if he's doing that on purpose.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: OK, fair, or Dungeon Mobs (ph) kids. But just on -- I'm just sticking with you for a minute. Peter, you have talked to the vice president. You talked to her a few months ago. And you recently wrote a piece for puck about how she is doing. And you said, she lashed Trump and made the campaign's case to black voters simply by doing what the ageing Democratic nominee cannot do, talk in complete sentences.

Thanks to Biden's dismal debate performance and the apocalyptic panel, it's unleashed among Democrats, a universe of people who considered Harris an afterthought have joined the KHive. That said, the Republicans are relishing going after her.

[12:25:00]

HAMBY: I think Kamala Harris has improved as a politician since the last time I saw her. That was my takeaway March when I met up with her in Arizona for my Snapchat show, Good Luck America. We talked for good 20 minutes. I saw her, talked about the record, et cetera. She has improved. She's met with 150 world leaders. She's in the media glare. When you're vice president, you're going to get batting practice and you're naturally going to improve.

The argument from the Democrats, Democrats in the never Trump people who want to dump Biden is that Kamala Harris would at least be a reset button and could carry forward a coherent message about abortion, about anything. She can talk very cleanly. And she has been good in recent days.

The question is, Joe Biden, despite thinking right now, has a pretty impressive coalition that no other potential Democratic nominee has. Sure, maybe Kamala Harris choices your support among young people, among people of color. Does she lose Biden's relative support among older voters in the upper Midwest? Does she lose support among white voters? And I think the Trump campaign, if Kamala somehow becomes the nominee would certainly try to spook the electorate. That's for sure.

BARRON-LOPEZ: I think he was talking to some Republican voters in Arizona recently, I checked in with him after the debate. These are voters that switched to -- they basically vote Democratic now because of the fact that they feel like they don't have a home in their party. They can't vote for Trump.

I asked them, I said, whether or not they thought President Biden should step aside. They said, yes. They think President Biden should step aside. These are older white male voters. And then I said, but would you vote for Vice President Harris if she were the nominee? And they said, well, at the end of the day, yes.

And I was surprised because, you know, months prior, when I had spoken to these voters, they had said that Harris scared them as the potential for a nominee. They wouldn't have necessarily supported Harris. But when voters are confronted with the choice of Trump or a Democrat, they appear even very conservative. Some of them are Mormon voters saying, I would have to choose here.

BASH: That is so interesting.

HAMBY: The race is currently a referendum on Joe Biden's page and removing him from the race, would get back about Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: OK. Thank you for setting this up. Because I want to play some of what Donald Trump said in his rally last night specifically about the issues. What he is running on and what he is promising to implement if he gets back into the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We will shut down deadly sanctuary cities. I will shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement. We will close up our border. And on day one, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of our country. I will repeal every disastrous Biden regulation of which there are many. Can so crooked Joe's insane electric vehicle mandate. And remember, what I'm going to do is something that nobody's ever even thought about doing, no tax on tips. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Look, most of the things that former President Donald Trump has been laying out, you can kind of chart it geographically. No tax on tips highlighted for Nevada, talking about EVs, Michigan. It's a little more nuanced than that.

But look, the reality here is there's not been much focus on the Trump second term agenda, because Democrats, at least of late have been busy talking about themselves. And this is something that President Biden did not prosecute in the debate at all. He didn't talk about Project 2025, which is not the Trump campaigns, but to people who are supportive of him, their vision. He didn't talk about that.

So, the question is, I think this campaign will get back to an agenda discussion. But back to Kamala Harris for one second, the vice president. The people I have been speaking with all week-long since all this has been talking. And I wrote last week, she's in a historic holding pattern. She -- her hands are tied. Here her decision is not her own. She does have to wait to see what President Biden does.

But the biggest question about her, should she become the backup plan, if that's even necessary, is what is the handoff look like? Does President Biden fully endorse her, which most people think yes, he would. How fast would people fall into line? So, she is starting this if it happens, it's still a big if at this hour.

This is still President Biden's decision to make. And he is at NATO as we saw, he may not be aware of the George Clooney thing, the Rob Reiner thing, or any of us. Again, important to point out, he is not budging until maybe nudged or make some --

BASH: I am glad -- OK, we're going to go to break. I'm glad you mentioned Rob Reiner because he's obviously a longtime Democratic supporter. He tweeted over the weekend. I believe that he is -- thinks it's time for Biden to go. He got a lot of push back. And now he's saying, what he said to George Clooney. I already learned so much from all of you. Thank you. Great to see you here.

Don't go anywhere. Coming up. President Biden's message to naysayers, watch me. Well, he's facing a big test. Today, you see it there. It's a major gathering of world leaders right here in Washington. We're going to take you there live. And one of the co-hosts of Pod Save America, Jon Favreau, joins me along with our very own David Axelrod. Stay tuned.