Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

GOP Convention Begins Today After Trump Assassination Attempt; Trump Says He's Rewriting Convention Speech To Focus On "Unity"; Biden Changes Campaign Strategy After Assassination Attempt Against Trump; Trump To Announce Running Mate Pick This Afternoon. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 15, 2024 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:34:36]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to Inside Politics. We are live from Milwaukee. I'm here with the former governor of this state, the great state of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, and former senior adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod.

Hello. Nice to see you both.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hello.

BASH: I do want to start with some unusually similar messaging that we've heard the last 24 hours from the current President, Joe Biden, and the man who wants to be president again, Donald Trump. First, let's listen to some of President Biden's Oval Office address last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:35:13]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let's remember here in America, our unity is the most elusive of all goals right now. Nothing is more important for us now than standing together. We can do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, Donald Trump to the New York Post, "I want to try to unite our country. But I don't know if that's possible. People are very divided." Scott Walker?

SCOTT WALKER (R), FORMER WISCONSIN GOVERNOR: I hope he does. I mean, I think Nikki Haley being here. Obviously, Ron DeSantis is already going to be here. I think Melania Trump, the former first lady's comments were definitely on point on unity.

You know, it's one of these moments I've -- I remembered the other night when the president nearly faced the bullet of an assassin. I thought back to my time as a kid when Ronald Reagan was shot and how the nation came together and how he viewed that as part of the divine plan and took off from there.

I hope that's the kind of moment that Donald Trump has, not just in the campaign, but should he be president. He looks at that as one of those turning points in his time in public life.

AXELROD: It pains me that Scott Walker was a kid when they did that shot, but we can move on from that. Listen, I think that they're both saying the right thing. The question is whether the president and this convention reflect that message, because it's not been his message.

I mean, let's be honest about it. He has -- you know, we think of January 6th, we think of the Pelosi incident and so on. He has not been an apostle of peace and love and politics throughout. So this is a new message for him.

Scott Walker dominated the politics of this state for a decade and he did it because he understood how to win those suburban areas around Milwaukee. And those are the voters who have in some measure drifted away from Donald Trump and drifted away from the Republican Party.

If this convention wants to win those votes and this state, then he will echo that message and the other speakers will echo that message. If they go to the classic MAGA messaging, then this becomes a more competitive situation.

BASH: So Governor, on that note, if the former president handed you his pen and gave you his legal pad and said, write down what I should say, what would it be?

WALKER: Well, I think he needs to -- clearly he's a fighter. He won in '16 because people viewed him as a fighter for them. In 2020, I think to your point, David, some of those folks moved away because they thought he was fighting for the sake of fighting. He shows he's fighting for a greater America, fighting to bring people back together, fighting to make life more affordable, more secure, more safe.

Those are things that definitely are a uniting message. And so I think it's not -- he doesn't have to make a major shift. But I think to your point, David, he has to focus on those things and not on some of the other things. It's the red meat that delegates want to hear, but rather the people in Brookfield and Ozaki and other places across this state and other states like this that will sway those voters who are up for grabs.

BASH: You as a politician and you as somebody who advised politicians, imagery --

WALKER: Yes.

BASH: -- iconic imagery in particular is hard to come by. And we want to just put this picture up taken by, I believe that's the one taken by my friend Doug Mills of the New York Times. You mentioned fight. And I said this the night of the shooting, the fact that he fought his Secret Service and with the microphone still on, stood up and with the blood on his -- WALKER: Yes.

BASH: -- face, said, fight, fight, fight, understanding innately the imagery here.

WALKER: Yes.

BASH: Peggy Noonan, who worked for Ronald Reagan --

WALKER: Ronald Reagan, yes.

BASH: -- went to the Michael Deaver School of Imagery. Folks out there who don't know who that is, Google it. You need to. She said, "It was epic. Whatever you feel about him, whatever you stand, grant him one of the great gangsta moves of American political history."

WALKER: It was like that moment when George W. Bush threw the first pitch out during the World Series --

AXELROD: Yes.

WALKER: -- and nailed a fastball. And I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican, I still get chills talking about it. America was like, yes, we're back.

AXELROD: Yes.

WALKER: We're on top of things. And that was definitely those moments.

BASH: I want you to come in, but I want to give credit where credit is due.

AXELROD: It wasn't Doug Mills.

BASH: That was that -- yes.

AXELROD: Yes.

BASH: He took a lot of fantastic --

AXELROD: Yes.

BASH: That was Evan Vucci.

AXELROD: He caught the bullet, but he didn't --

WALKER: Yes.

BASH: Yes.

AXELROD: Listen, I have deep, deep, profound concerns about Donald Trump, and I've expressed them again and again. What you cannot take away from him is that he is a world class genius at marketing. And the fact that the two things that he had to think about in that moment was, am I breathing, and where is the hero shot, is really reflective of who he is. BASH: 100 percent.

AXELROD: He is a brilliant, brilliant marketer, particularly of himself.

[12:40:02]

But that photo will obviously live forever, and it will be the, you know, I'm sure it's on every t-shirt that's being sold here now.

WALKER: He's a fighter. And just his instinct, the raw instinct was to get up and fight back literally in this time when he was under attack, figuratively most of the time. But I think again, the key coming out of this convention is we have to show as Republicans that he is a fighter for everyday Americans, for the people who are forgotten by the politicians in Washington. If that's the imagery, he wins, much like as you mentioned we had to do in Wisconsin to make the case we're fighting for you.

AXELROD: He -- look, his message for two years is, I'm strong, Biden is weak. Look, that photo is everything he wants to communicate in one picture.

BASH: Yes. Well, and he has said in one of the interviews that he has given since that he remembered in that moment the images of people being moved out as the Secret Service understandably wants to do.

WALKER: Right.

BASH: And he thought that that looked weak and he didn't want that to be the lasting image.

Thank you so much.

WALKER: Good to be with you, Dana.

BASH: Thanks for being for --

WALKER: Yes.

BASH: -- for welcoming us here to your home state.

WALKER: We're glad to have you all here.

BASH: We'll talk later.

AXELROD: See you later, yes.

WALKER: Even David, we're glad to have your some questioning.

AXELROD: I appreciate that.

BASH: Coming up, a changed race, new reporting on how the Biden campaign will move forward in the coming weeks. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:45:54]

BASH: We're getting new details today about how some Democrats are hoping that the horrific events over the weekend might shake things up for the Biden campaign. Biden is appealing for unity rather than for leveling new attacks. The campaign has paused TV ads and the President postponed a trip to Texas today.

CNN's MJ Lee joins us live from the White House with new reporting. I mean, MJ, it's a very delicate thing to even suggest that an assassination attempt might be helpful politically. How are they threading that needle at the White House and in the campaign?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, Dana, just think about the fact that even as of Saturday afternoon, the President was certainly bracing for a really tough political week ahead. There was no question that there was going to be more Democratic dissent coming his way.

There were some advisers we're told that were worried that there might be some prominent members of the Democratic Party coming out on the Sunday shows yesterday to publicly call on him to drop out of the race. Today, he was going to have this TV interview with NBC's Lester Holt, where the focus was surely going to be about questions of his age, his fitness to serve, and again, the moment of political peril that he is in.

And the moment that those gunshots rang out in Butler, Pennsylvania, so much, of course, was upended for the Biden campaign's part. You know, they appropriately put a pause on their political work, including pausing, as you mentioned, TV ads outgoing political communications. And we also know that the White House had to postpone the President's trip to Texas. One of the stops was going to be a fundraiser.

But notably what we have also seen is a pause on the Democratic dissent coming the President's way, which until Saturday had really been growing by the day. I mean, keep in mind that even in the hours leading up to that Donald Trump rally, the President was working the phones and having some really tense and tough conversations with Democratic lawmakers that were really questioning the viability of his candidacy.

And we have spoken with some Biden allies that are quietly feeling hopeful that perhaps this could be sort of a turning of the page moment for President Biden and the Democratic Party. And the idea is basically that Democrats will see this moment as being so urgently, you know, a moment for the party to really come together that they see this as being even more urgent now, as they are seeing Republicans really rallying around former President Donald Trump.

But of course, it's really not even been 48 hours yet, Dana, so we'll have to see what kind of tone comes out of the RNC. But, again, this is sort of the private and quiet hopes coming out of Democrats that they're hoping that the dissent that we have been seeing come out in such full force that perhaps that could be quieted because of what happened over the weekend, Dana.

BASH: MJ, thank you so much for that reporting.

And up next, we are going to come back to you live where we are, the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. And there's a big question hanging out there. Who will be Donald Trump's running mate? The decision could come at any moment now. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:53:38]

BASH: Welcome back. We could be just moments away from learning who Donald Trump is picking as his running mate. We believe the three finalists are North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.

CNN Political Director David Chalian is still here. I say we believe because who knows? All we know is that the former president did say today is the day.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Which makes sense since the actual party business that is going to take place on the floor this afternoon is the nomination first for former President Trump to become the Republican nominee officially. And then they need to say a name to place its nomination for the vice presidential nominee who is slated to address this convention on Wednesday night --

BASH: And by the way, that -- the roll call is for former President Trump is going to start like in an hour.

CHALIAN: Exactly. So I would imagine we -- since former President Trump reportedly did say this is going to be revealed today, and we know that there's this roll call this afternoon, we are within the window of the next hour or so that this name will be revealed. And you know we've had a team of reporters staking out these finalists.

Our reporter, Aaron Pellish in Cincinnati today was watching J.D. Vance leave his house to go to the airport, to come to Milwaukee. Rubio and Burgum already in Milwaukee. And so, we have had eyes on these folks. What we don't have is any reporting that --

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: -- the job has actually been offered and accepted.

[12:55:04]

BASH: Not yet. And, look, I mean, historically, when there aren't, you know, bonkers, other news stories happening in and around a candidate, this is the thing that, you know, gets them into the headlines that sort of gives them a boost of energy. I just -- I have to wonder whether or not the events of Saturday had any bearing on Donald Trump's decision.

CHALIAN: He has told us for a long time that his mind was kind of made up on this. I don't know. It was so made up, obviously. He's not like he offered it to someone, Dana. So I don't know if -- I'd be doubtful --

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: -- that Saturdays and things like that. Remember also, unlike other candidates, Donald Trump is a former president. Usually we get some insight into their decision making ability when they pick their running mate. That is not the case for this one. We've seen four years of him already as president. So it's a different kind of vice presidential pit.

BASH: And -- well, on that note, such a different decision making process than eight years ago when I was on the lawn of the governor's mansion in Indiana and he picked Mike Pence, such different dynamic, obviously. He was trying to appeal to a base that now he has solidified --

CHALIAN: Without a doubt.

BASH: -- intensely behind him. Thank you, David.

CHALIAN: Yes, sure.

BASH: We're not going anywhere. We'll be back in a little under an hour for that roll call.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. In the meantime, don't go anywhere. CNN News Central picks it up after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)