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Tonight: Trump Delivers Speech Accepting GOP Nomination; Sources: Pelosi Told Biden Polls Show He Can't Win; New Memo Fuels Concerns About Biden Hurting Down-Ballot Dems; House Democrat To CNN: "The Walls Are Closing In" On Biden; Senior Dem Adviser: Biden "Being Receptive" In Talks About Future; AP Poll: 65 Percent Of Democrats Want Biden To Withdraw; Vance Rails Against Wall Street, Corporate Interests. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 18, 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]

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash. Live from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where hours from now Donald Trump will accept his party's nomination for the third time in a row. It will happen before delegates who are energized and united behind their candidate like almost never before after he was nearly assassinated just five days ago.

Now, in normal times, this would obviously be our lead here today on Inside Politics, but these are anything but normal times. So, we are going to start on the other side of the aisle because Joe Biden, the sitting president of the United States has never been closer to being pushed out of the race.

While Republicans were celebrating here in Milwaukee. This was Joe Biden getting on Air Force One last night. He of course had to leave where he was in Nevada because he was diagnosed with COVID. It is a split screen that terrifies Democrats and has convinced more and more of them that Joe Biden cannot win.

We're seeing what appears to be -- appears to be a carefully choreographed push by party leaders to show Biden that Democrats could be destroyed in November with him at the top of the ticket. One House Democrat told me last night quote, the walls are closing in.

CNN's MJ Lee and Jeff Zeleny have both been at the forefront of critical reporting on this historic and very dramatic time about what is going on inside the Democratic Party and inside the White House and the Biden campaign. I want to start MJ with you at the White House. MJ?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, what we know is that some of the most important conversations about President Biden's future are still happening behind closed doors. We are learning about a conversation between former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Biden that took place as recently as in the last week or so. Where Nancy Pelosi told the president that polling shows that he cannot defeat Donald Trump in November, and that he could take down the House with him if he continues seeking a second term.

And what our sources have told us is that the president responded with defensiveness and essentially saying to Pelosi, I have seen polls that show that I can in fact win and really just push back. And at one point in the conversation we are told Pelosi, asked that Mike Donilon, the president's senior adviser get on the phone so that they can all have a discussion about the data.

None of our sources, Dana, importantly said whether Pelosi in this private conversation told the president explicitly that she believes that he needs to drop out of the race. And I will also say this marks the second known conversation between the president and Pelosi since the debate. We know that they also spoke in early July.

And as for how the two camps are responding officially, the White House wouldn't comment on this conversation. But they did put out a statement saying, President Biden is the nominee of the party, and he plans to win. Pelosi's spokesperson interestingly said, Pelosi has been in California since Friday, and she has not spoken to Biden since.

Now, one thing that is really clear from this reporting, Dana, that I think is worth highlighting is how the president has appeared really dug in when it comes to the pulling of the data. You know, we've heard him saying in public, look, I think I'm doing OK still in the polls. And it's clear that he genuinely does believe this in private settings as well.

And, you know, you know better than anyone, Dana, how important of a force Nancy Pelosi is inside the party. She has such incredible sway. She understands exactly where the caucus is on any political issue. And she did sort of leave open the door recently, when she said in an interview, it's up to the president to decide if he's going to run.

And I think the huge question right now is, will she get to the point at some point where she says in public that yes, it's up to him, but she believes that he needs to step aside.

BASH: OK. MJ, thank you so much for that important reporting. And Jeff Zeleny, I want to turn now to you. You obtained a memo sent to Democratic officials that down ballot Democrats can't afford politically to defend Biden's fitness for office. Jeff, tell us more about that?

[12:05:00]

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Dana, as these calls for President Biden to reconsider his candidacy really intensive by both behind and the scenes and in public. We're getting a better sense of why that is and why these leaders are making the argument.

In that memo that you talked about there from a Blue Research, a Democratic research firm really shared widely throughout the party. It talks about the damage this is having for Democrats down ballot. I'm told that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reads this polling very carefully, as of course do many other leaders. And as we've looked through this, yes, it talks about the expanding presidential battleground map, but it also talks about the potential damage that's been inflicted on individual Democratic candidates. And take a look at this really poignant sentence here inside the memo. It says defending Biden's fitness for office is an untenable position for down ballot Democrats.

It goes on to say that the honesty and the trustworthiness of these Democratic candidates in the House will be questioned. And voters will start to have second thoughts about them if they keep defending President Biden. Of course, this is reflected also in the new Associated Press poll yesterday, showing just an overwhelming majority of people are questioning his fitness for Office.

So, Dana, we know the calls are coming. But this is one of the senses of why that is, even as the conversation begins to look forward to what could happen next. Right now, at least, we should point out this is still President Biden's decision to make and he's in Delaware. Dana?

BASH: Absolutely, Jeff, thank you so much. Appreciate it. I want to bring in a group of very smart and very well sourced reporters here to get their take, and more importantly, the information they're hearing about all of this. CNN's Kaitlan Collins, David Chalian, Kristen Holmes, and Alex Thompson of Axios.

David Chalian, I want our viewers to be able to hear what you tell us in the morning, as we prepare for our day. Because as per usual, you framed the stakes for tonight and the stakes more broadly. Let's look at what it means for President Biden. And as they relate to one another.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, it is kind of an amazing thing to watch both of these things happening in real time side by side. I mean, the complete disintegration of the Biden candidacy at the moment, you know, in a split screen with the most unified Republican Party around Donald Trump in the nine years that he's been a figure at the top of the party. So, it's just an astonishing thing happening side by side.

But I will say this about the Biden situation. I think we have to be clear what this is in this moment. The Biden candidacy is over as we know it, whether he steps down or not. So, if indeed, he doesn't step down, he moves forward in an entirely different kind of candidacy than the one that has existed to date. And so, as we have currently seen it, I just think this 2024 race is already irrevocably changed, even if Biden chooses, which again, the choice is up to him not to step aside and get into all this pressure.

BASH: And Kaitlan, as I bring you in here. I just want to say, I had a conversation with a Democratic elected official this morning, who's been out campaigning, talking to voters, being approached by voters in key battleground districts and states. And said, you can't untie the two things, not just this convention, but what happened on Saturday.

The imagery and the reality of the Joe -- of Donald Trump almost getting assassinated. And the sort of powerful way that people are understandably rallying around him versus the despair that Democrats have about the state of Joe Biden's race and his ability or inability to win.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: They had hoped. And they're being the White House and Democrats that this week would put the focus all on Donald Trump and his policies, and what Trump advanced administration was going to look like. Instead, it's really drawn a contrast.

I mean, we saw it last night when the primetime speakers were on stage. And we had a small box showing Donald Trump's reaction and then a small box showing Joe Biden descending the stairs of Air Force One after he was -- had tested positive for COVID and was returning to prohibit to go self-isolate.

And I've spoken to a lot of prominent Democratic senators. I was texting with them last night. Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi are all very strategic people. They don't really let information get out there, unless they have a key role in making sure it gets out there.

When it was reported last night that Chuck Schumer had gone to Joe Biden and said, that he could not win this race and that he did not think that it would -- he was essentially viable as a candidate anymore. They did not deny it. They just said it was idle speculation, but there was no denial from Schumer's team.

Pelosi is the same way. When you see Adam Schiff coming out. That is one of her biggest mentees. And to for him to come out and say that, obviously, that doesn't happen without the permission of Nancy Pelosi. The same with Hakeem Jeffries. He did not correct statements about him also going to President Biden. I think that says a lot if you're reading between the lines.

[12:10:00]

BASH: Well, that's exactly right. I'm so glad you said that because part of what we want to do here is continued to pull back the curtain and explain what people are seeing. And you just did that so well. And just go back in time just to give that analysis even more of.

It wasn't that long ago, like, I don't know, two days ago, that we were calling our sources and saying, what did Pelosi say to the president? It's a private conversation. What did Schumer say to the president. He was blunt, private conversation. Same thing with Hakeem Jeffries.

And suddenly, the information was allowed to be reported. And that came after we got more reporting about a very tense call between centrist House Democrats and the president, which happened right before the shooting of former President Trump on Saturday.

As Kaitlan said, Adam Schiff coming out. And nobody looked at that and thought anything other than the sort of three-dimensional chess of Nancy Pelosi, and then, of course, the reporting that our team and others did last night.

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Yeah. I mean, you also have to remember, all these conversations did happen a week ago. And they were giving Joe Biden some space. Joe Biden has is a very proud man. And they were worried that if they came out publicly and said all these things, he would dig in further. But what was clear over the weekend, is that Joe Biden was going to be dug in anyway.

So now this information is out there. And one detail that MJ reported that I thought was really key was that Nancy Pelosi asked to get Mike Donilon on the line. Because there is incredible concern not just among Democrats, but among Biden aides to that the people closest to Joe Biden are telling him what he wants to hear.

And it's not out of sort of -- it's not of a conspiracy, it's because of great affection firm. They are not known for giving the president hard news. And that's Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti and Bruce Reed. They are friends with the president, in addition to being his closest advisers --

BASH: Almost family.

THOMPSON: Yes. And that is why Nancy Pelosi was getting Mike Donilon on the phone, want to hear the numbers that he's telling you.

BASH: Yeah, exactly. Because the frustration, I mean -- I think we've all been told at this point that the former speaker was feeling is that even -- nevermind the president, even Donilon wasn't really sort of believing her numbers versus the ones that he said he was seeing. Just as again, because I just think this pattern and the big picture of what has happened and where we are is important.

Just to show you some of the headlines we're talking about just in the last 12 hours. Pelosi -- CNN's great reporting, Pelosi privately told Biden polls show, he can't win and will take down the House. Biden responded with defensiveness. ABC's reporting Schumer privately urged Biden to step aside. And then Semafor donors, cash is drying up. Katzenberg warns Biden in a private meeting, which he apparently is denying.

But all of that, and then culminated last night with Jeff Zeleny, another piece of really interesting and telling reporting, that suddenly there was somebody saying, well, the president is sort of softening and becoming a bit more receptive, not that he's made a decision not even close, but he's opening the door crack.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And I think anyone who you talked to who has covered Joe Biden, or who knows Joe Biden will tell you, he's one of the most stubborn people that they have ever met. So even a softening might not necessarily mean that he is going to change his mind completely.

But I do want to go back to two things that you said. One, now this race has fundamentally changed, no matter what he decides to do. And I think touching on the headlines you just read, they are going to have to run a very different campaign now than they were against Donald Trump.

And one example of that, is the fact that one of their biggest arguments was your own people don't support you. They don't show up for you. How is that going to continue to be an argument for Joe Biden, when we have reporting that Nancy Pelosi is telling him that this could be a problem. When his own people are saying that. They are going to have to run a very much more defensive race and change some of their messaging.

BASH: So, Quentin Fulks, who is the deputy campaign manager for President Biden just gave a press conference of sorts. I want you to listen to what he just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUENTIN FULKS, BIDEN-HARRIS DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Vice president is a part of the Biden-Harris ticket. Our campaign is now working through any scenarios where President Biden is not the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What do you make of that?

CHALIAN: I make of that that's an impossible position to be in. If you're the campaign staff, where you just have to state the reality that is because it's moving all around you. So, just stating yes, correct. Joe Biden is the nominee right now. That is a correct statement. And that's pretty much all he can say.

And, you know, I think that the reality is we see how much is moved here. You said, Democratic member told you the walls are closing. The question is, does Joe Biden -- even if the walls closing all around him. Does he remain defiant and just allow that to be crushed around him or press on? Or does it actually infect his thinking and change his thinking to actually get out of that box.

[12:15:00]

COLLINS: And one thing I think is also a big part of this is this COVID diagnosis because he has been out there on the campaign trail constantly. He's been doing a lot of interviews. They've been trying to get them out there, which is what Democrats said, right after he said it was just one bad debate. Three weeks ago, this has been the prevailing storyline.

And now he's at home. And he's not around the audiences and the crowd who are chanting for him to stay in the race like they were in Detroit, Michigan last Friday or North Carolina the week before that. He's been surrounded by a lot of people who do believe he should stay in the race when it comes to supporters.

Now he's at home. He's going to be looking at these numbers. He's going to be seeing the coverage. He's self-isolating in Delaware. I do think that there's a question of whether or not that changes how he is doing it because obviously, that's all that matters. BASH: And as we go to break. I just want to sneak one graphic in because Jeff Zeleny mentioned this in his report at the top of the show. But I want people to see it. This is an Associated Press poll that just came out. This is among Democrats and Democratic leaning voters.

Should Biden withdraw? 65 percent. These are Democrats. These are the president's supporters, many of whom -- and that is true of all of these leaders and other members of Congress that we're talking to, love the president. They love the president, and they don't want him to be hurt more than then he is.

All right, everybody standby. From outcast to nominate Donald Trump's speech tonight will highlight his remarkable political resurrection.

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[12:20:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This has been our best campaign and then I got shot. How does that happen? That was an amazing, horrible thing. Amazing thing, and in many ways it changes your attitude, your viewpoint towards life. And I think honestly -- I think you appreciate God even more -- because there's something -- something happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That was Donald Trump speaking for the first time about surviving an assassination attempt on Saturday. We're told the former president's near-death experience has transformed. What we'll hear from him tonight as he accepts the Republican nomination for president for the third time in a row. It marks a really stunning political comeback, following a failed bid to steal the 2020 election, an insurrection and ultimately leaving Washington in disgrace.

Not to mention, the four criminal indictments. But most of that was either not discussed here or used as fodder alleging that Trump is a victim. Instead, the goal with speaker after speaker was mostly to try to soften Donald Trump for the campaign that continues ahead.

My great group of reporters is back. And Kristen you are -- are and have been on the Trump trail for quite some time. I would imagine that this is not the night or the kind of speech that you would have thought, nevermind that they would have thought that he was going to give. And the question is, what kind of speech you really think he's going to give?

HOLMES: Exactly. So, we are told that he has written this speech that he has had a huge chant in it, that it was changed from something more aggressive to Joe Biden to one more message of unity. He actually told people in a private meeting, that he was going to mention the fact that he believed that this was divine intervention. Talk about God and his speech, obviously, all things that Donald Trump is not known for doing.

The one question, of course, is whether or not he stays on script. I mean, we're looking at a performance tonight. Tonight is not just a convention. It is Hulk Hogan. You have Dana White, introducing Kid Rock who is going to put on a show for Donald Trump.

BASH: That's actually -- while you're saying that let's we have a graphic with the people who are going to speak because you mentioned that.

HOLMES: It is a Donald Trump show. So, whether or not he comes out after all of that, and then says the message of unity or he hears the crowd cheering and chanting and wants to go off script and go back to Donald Trump. That remains to be seen. I will tell you that people who have spoken to him in recent days, they say that he is more subdued, but that at the end of the day, he still feels like Donald Trump.

COLLINS: Well, and I think it's a question of what unity means to Donald Trump. I think we say, oh, it's going to look -- it's going to be this message of unity. That doesn't mean the same thing to everybody, certainly not the Trump inner circle. And so, I think that's a question. Their interpretation may be different than most people who are sitting at home and watching.

So, I think you kind of have to just wait and see what it looks like when it's all put together. You know, they described what the J. D. Vance speech would be, and it wasn't fully that when we watched it last night. But I think the other thing about Donald Trump and him coming out speaking tonight, it'll be his first time in a lectern since Saturday, since that attempted assassination of him.

You saw him speaking briefly this morning. But other than that, he has not done any interviews on camera or anything publicly. I was told by Lara Trump last night when I was interviewing her, Dana, the floor that that's on purpose. It's essentially letting the anticipation built for him to come out. And this is going to be his reemergence for the first time since then. And when you do talk to people, they say that it has changed him. I'll be really interested to see what that looks like and how it translates into his speech tonight.

CHALIAN: And I think we will be really interesting to see is, are Americans going to change their perceptions of Donald Trump, they may have changed him. But he is so ingrained as a person and a figure in the minds of voters across this country. I think it's an extraordinarily difficult task, even with the softening of the edges, even if he has changed from this and comes in with a different tone.

[12:25:00]

All of that I think is still -- it is still a very tall order, given the night years of information that the public has about him, given how polarized the country is politically for him to alter a ton of perception.

BASH: I totally -- I totally agree with you, but they're trying.

CHALIAN: No doubt.

BASH: And they're trying really hard.

THOMPSON: It was last night, they had his granddaughter speak, and it's like, grandpa. And then J. D. Vance told the story about how he kissed, you know, Don Jr. and Eric on the cheek, and they were -- you know, they were trying to soften his image.

BASH: Well, exactly. The great Adam Nagourney wrote a -- typical great Adam Gurney analysis in the New York Times this morning, which reads Republicans put Trump in soft focus, editing out years of rancor.

And in it, he writes. But the work in Milwaukee has been more surgical, focusing on those segments of voters that have resisted Mr. Trump's candidacy, moderates, women, and to some extent, black voters. Many of these voters supported Mr. Biden in 2020, when he defeated Mr. Trump. The president cannot afford to lose many of them if he wants to win a second term.

And I'll just add -- that David Chalian would add young voters to that list that they're trying to get.

THOMPSON: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is trying to expand the tent, and Donald Trump has been a bass first politician for his entire career. Now, again, this question of is, you know, you can stage managed Donald Trump for only so long. I mean, they're making all these projections. But what happens when, you know, two or three weeks from now and Donald Trump gets upset.

I mean, we've been talking about the upcoming Donald Trump pivot for eight years. I've been Kaitlan's been covering it forever, that it's just going to come next week. And he can --

BASH: Just around the corner, Kaitlan.

THOMPSON: He can have discipline for a while, but how long does it last?

COLLINS: Can I also just say one thing about -- as we've -- I'm on the floor, starting with the speeches begin, until the end. And one thing that I've noticed is a lot of the people who are the more inflammatory speakers, who are not really uniting around this unity message, they're airing earlier in the evening, and they're not always necessarily taken live on TV.

So, I'm curious what people at home and how they're seeing this convention. And you know, at night in Primetime, it is Donald Trump's granddaughter Kai coming out and introducing him. It's then his son. And then you see Senator J. D. Vance coming out speaking. The Kari Lake and the Marjorie Taylor Greene of the world are speaking much earlier in the evening. So, you're not always seeing that message translated, even though it's very much happening.

BASH: And Peter Navarro, straight out of prison, blaming that they -- even though we don't really know who they are. Because I have the benefit of having you here. I just -- I want to play a little bit of what J. D. Vance said last night. Because it was so striking to those of us who have covered the Republican Party for a very long time. How different the message was from him about who he was reaching out to. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're done. Ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street, we'll commit to the working man. We're done importing foreign labor. We're going to fight for American citizens and their good jobs and their good wages. Wall Street Barron's crashed the economy and American builders went out of business. As tradesmen scrambled for jobs, houses stopped being built. The lack of good jobs, of course, led to stagnant wages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: We were texting back and forth that I was like, I feel like I'm at the DNC circa 1984. There was not one thing about tax cut.

CHALIAN: And when you said that on the air last night, though, when you said there was no mention of tax cuts --

BASH: Can you imagine.

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: It's just -- when you are watching the realignment inside the makeup of the Republican Party in real time. I mean, that he represents this new version of the Republican Party, which is obviously the Trump version of the party. But when you look demographically, it has shifted. There's no doubt.

It's not just because -- I mean, Donald Trump has been the face of this, but it's not just because Donald Trump, that we say it's not Mitt Romney's party anymore. The party has moved. Donald Trump has brought them on economic policy, on foreign policy, that more populace, that more isolation is kind of appeal, that's the dominant thread. And that just was unheard of 12 years ago with the convention (Ph).

HOLMES: It's actually been kind of interesting to see and talk to his senior advisers about this version of the Republican Party. Because when you watch the evolution of Donald Trump since 2016, this is really the first time the party has been completely surrounded. I mean, the platform is now Donald Trump's platform.

And when you ask about, are they concerned about fiscal responsibility or talking about abortion or any of that. They say no, because the party is going to fall in line behind Donald Trump because it's a binary choice. And their thing is, when it came to Marjorie Dannenfelser.

When you interviewed her and talking about these pro-life groups, was that at the end of the day, they are going to get on board with whatever we put out because it's a binary choice. So, we're going to do what we want to do with Donald Trump likes, and what he believes the party -- where the party should be, and then the rest of the party look more on that.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, there was -- you're talking about some of the leading anti-abortion groups, and they were not happy that the platform was changed to not include a national abortion ban. Now he's saying, leave it up to the states. The concern among some of them was about enthusiasm.