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Freed Americans Back On U.S. Soil After Historic Prisoner Swap; Trump Lashes Out At Biden Over Release Of American Prisoners; Biden, Harris Hail Importance Of Allies In Prisoner Swap Deal; Harris Responds Carefully To Trump's Attacks On Her Race; Harris Will Meet With VP Finalists Over Next 72 Hours; Tuesday: Harris To Hold First Rally With New Running Mate. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 02, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, home at last. The nightmare is finally over for three Americans now back on U.S. soil after the biggest prisoner exchange since the Cold War. We have new details on the painstaking negotiations that led to this historic homecoming.

Plus, where your schedule? Top vice-presidential hopefuls are canceling their Saturday and Sunday plans. Why? Because Kamala Harris wants to meet with them one-on-one this weekend. And what a difference two weeks makes. I'll talk to a top Trump pollster about how the campaign has transformed since we last talked at the Republican convention. He was supremely confident then. Is he still?

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

These are the images we've been waiting for. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich finally hugging his mother. Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva running to her daughters and husband. And that's former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan embracing his sister Elizabeth who spent years meeting with White House officials, trying to secure his release.

They were all greeted by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at Joint Base Andrews just before midnight eastern time. You can see here what a moment. The president taking an American flag pin from his own lapel and pinning it on Paul Whelan, who spent five years seven months and five days as a Russian prisoner.

Earlier in the day as the freed Americans made their way home, the president gathered with their families in the Oval Office, so they could talk to their loved ones.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I want to say how overwhelmed we are. You've been wrongfully detained for a long time and we're glad you're home. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I miss you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Paul, it's incredible. Absolutely incredible this moment. And I just want you to know the whole family is standing by.

VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, RUSSIAN-BRITISH JOURNALIST (voiceover): No word is strong enough for this. I was sure I'm going to die in prison because I don't believe what's happening. I still think it's a -- I still think I'm sleeping in my prison cell in Oraks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Incredible, really incredible. CNN's Kayla Tausche joins me now from Washington. Kayla?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Dana, it was a momentous day years in the making from start to finish as President Biden was briefed on the situation as those planes coordinated their arrival on that tarmac in Ankara. He gathered the families first in the Roosevelt Room, then in the Oval Office as they learned the news. And then 12 hours later as they greeted their loved ones on the tarmac for the first time for many of them in years.

Now, President Biden we now know was aware that this deal was imminent. When he made his address to the nation on July 24, where he announced some of the rationale for stepping aside from the Democratic ticket. And he said in that speech that he would continue working to get Americans who are wrongfully detained home.

And he knew in that moment, according to two senior administration officials that this deal was just days away. He had convened a call with the leader of Slovenia just days earlier. That I'm told was the last leader level call that needed to happen before the more logistical work of those planes and trains and automobiles and the whereabouts of these individuals was discussed.

[12:05:00]

But he knew in that moment, and this is going to be definitely part of Biden's legacy. But also, something that Kamala Harris, the Vice President and now present Democratic nominee is going to be referencing quite often. When she talks about the importance of allies and the alliances that the administration has strengthened. When she was speaking on the tarmac last night, just after that moment she used -- she used this situation to harness a pitch to voters. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's so much of stake right now in our country and this upcoming election, including who has approach to understanding America's strength. This is an example of the strength of American leadership --

(END VIDEO CLIP) TAUSCHE: And here the candidate has a few critical days ahead as she selects her running mate then hits a swing of battleground states beginning on Tuesday. On Monday, she is set to secure the official nomination from the Democratic Party. And then of course, the work happens, Dana, to refine her policy positions and continue crafting that pitch to the American people. Dana?

BASH: Kayla, thank you so much for that excellent reporting. You turn the corner there from the official to the campaign. Let's stay on that topic because the vice president's campaign announced that it raised a whopping $310 million in July alone, that more than doubled the Trump campaigns fundraising hall for the month.

I want to bring in some of our terrific reporters, CNN's David Chalian, Amy Walter from The Cook Political Report, and Seung Min Kim from the Associated Press. Hello, everybody. Happy Friday. We have a very long weekend ahead of us, though. A lot of drama.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Unlike the previous weekends. Yeah.

BASH: Because it's been like so easy. It's been, you know, very slow news cycle fair point. David Chalian, talk about the moment that we're in right now.

CHALIAN: Well, I mean, it's certainly those dramatic images last night and the vice president moving immediately to sort of standby Joe Biden side, play her official role, credit the president with that. But obviously, want to also bask in the very positive news is no doubt a way she wanted to turn into this weekend.

Remember, she's been the candidate now for 12 days. In 12 days, we've seen this astounding fundraising, this coalescing of the whole party behind her. And now she faces this weekend, you know, one of her biggest decisions as a nominee, and that is going to be to pick her vice-presidential running mate.

She wants to then use that for momentum for more fundraising, more energy among the grassroots of the party throughout all next week. And then roll into the Chicago convention to utilize that for more fundraising and more energizing of the grassroots before getting into the reality, as she says, she's the underdog in this race. And there's going to be a very tough competitive campaign across these battleground states in earnest after Labor Day.

BASH: And Amy Walter, the former president, her competitor for the White House, again, is trying to still find his footing on how to deal with her, that was painfully obvious this week. But I want to just stay on with the way he reacted to the prisoner swap. And he was on this morning with Fox host Maria Bartiromo. Let's watch.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As usual, it was a win for Putin or any other country that deals with us. But we got somebody back. So, I'm never going to be challenging that. It wouldn't have happened with us. We would have gotten him back. We wouldn't have had to pay anything. We wouldn't have had to let some of the great killers of the world go, because that's what's happened as you know. And the deal is very complex because it just came out. So, nobody understands the deal yet, and they make it complex, so you can't understand how bad the deal is for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So, Amy, never mind that the notion that he wouldn't pay anything isn't necessarily true, maybe it is with regard to cold hard cash. But it's not as if when he got people out of harm's way when he was president that didn't give something up for that. And I can encourage people to look on cnn.com for that fact check. But talk about this from a political point of view, Amy.

AMY WALTER, PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, COOK POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. I mean, I think David's point is a really important one, which is first, just how quickly the Democratic Party coalesced behind Harris. This was not a given. All of us have talked to her sources, whether on the Democratic side or the Republican side who thought this can be really messy, really painful.

Even just the rollout of the campaign itself. Who was going to stay on staff. It's not to say that it may not get bumpy down the road. But it's incredible how quickly the party, the establishment, the campaign itself and those on the campaign, and voters rallied behind her.

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The second is, it's been a long time since Democrats have had good news. I mean, it was really all the way through the convention. It really was weeks up just good news for Republicans, all the brakes going Donald Trump's way or Republicans way.

This is really the first time that Republicans have been on their heels that Donald Trump has been on his heels. And what we know historically from watching Donald Trump as a candidate all of these years and as the president, is that this is when he gets the most undisciplined. We saw that, obviously, at the Association of Black Journalists this week.

But his desire to get back into the news cycle, something Democrats had been really desperately trying to get him back into focus, make the focus, Donald Trump and his liabilities been really hard to do. Now, he's giving them some help, in part because I think he feels like he is -- as you said, kind of on his back foot or unsettled.

BASH: Seung Min, you were at the White House yesterday for some of the drama that was playing out. Talk about that.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, it was really a historic and emotional day. And I think that it was really interesting how obviously, the president wanted to -- President Biden wanted to talk about the -- what it took to get these four Americans home, the impact on the family, just the emotions of that day.

But he also really made it a point to bring in -- bring into context for the public, for voters, for Americans, why this matters in the context of the campaign. And obviously, this wasn't -- he didn't make political remarks by any means at the White House yesterday.

But when I was in that room yesterday, one of the most forceful deliveries that he had was the fact that alliances matter, that you cannot coordinate this complex seven country swap of prisoners, if you don't have good relationships with our allies abroad.

And that is -- has certainly been this, you know, occurring message of -- you know, when President Biden was still the candidate. That was certainly a message that he had against Donald Trump and his message that Kamala Harris is continuing as well, as noted by her comments on the tarmac last night.

BASH: David, I love having you on the show for a million reasons, more than a million reasons. But one of the -- one of the main reasons is that I can have our viewers get a sense of the kinds of conversations we have in your office or behind the scenes.

And one of them is a point that you so smartly make about the way that Kamala Harris and her campaign have approached this campaign in general, but particularly their responses to Donald Trump differently. And it's the less is more sort of approach. And I want to give an example, and this happened in Houston on Wednesday, and it was the vice president's response to the comments that Trump made about her ethnicity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. And it was the same old show. The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: David?

CHALIAN: You know, it's just an amazing thing to watch in that moment, because that event that Kamala Harris was speaking at was a black sorority event, right? So, there couldn't have been like a more designed place for her to be in the aftermath of Trump's comments at NABJ.

And yet, she did not clearly want to make all of her remarks about that, knowing that it would be just adoration from this crowd on anything. She was saying this, no. She stuck to two sentences to make the point that she made, call it disrespectful, but also the same old show and not trying to be distracted from it.

Doug Emhoff, her husband was at a fundraiser in Maine. He said, this is an attempt to distract. So, while -- when Trump says sort of outrageous things the way he said when he falsely claimed that she wasn't black at the NABJ. There is the ability for that to just move into an outrage cycle, and no doubt, get donations going and play to the base.

But that's not what Harris chose to do here. What the candidate chose to do here was actually keep her reaction to it pretty limited and move on to try and keep the focus on what she thinks will actually serve her purpose in winning this election.

BASH: Amy?

WALTER: Yeah. I think that's an excellent point. Because the reality now for the Harris campaign going forward is, you know, we don't have a lot of data. It's starting to come in, but really where she sits with those kinds of swing voters that we know are going to be critical coming into the fall as we've already highlighted. The enthusiasm from the base is there.

[12:15:00]

Now the question is, who are the swing voters? Who are the people who still aren't either sold on Harris? Or maybe they're not sold on Donald Trump either? Are there people that she needs to get out and get motivated? Are there voters that were once thinking about a third- party candidate, but now are -- maybe leaning towards voting for her.

What are the issues that really motivate them? And I think it's really important than to look at what the campaign is actually saying. Not just in this moment as the candidate, but the ads that they're running right now, almost all of it is focused on the economy.

And I think that is the piece where the campaign realizes that, yep, you can get a whole bunch of those voters as anti-Trump voters back and build that coalition. But to win, you've got to be able to make a positive case on the economy. Trump still has an advantage. The Wall Street Journal poll out this last week, he still has a 12-point advantage over her on the economy.

BASH: Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. We're going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Don't go anywhere. We're going to sneak in a quick break. And coming up, Vice President Harris has a very big busy weekend schedule. She's going to meet one-on-one with at least six finalists to be her running mate. We'll talk about that. Who might she pick? Don't go anywhere.

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[12:20:00]

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BASH: Happy birthday J. D. Vance. The first millennial on a presidential ticket is celebrating the big 40 today. And while the Republican VP candidate blows out birthday candles on the Democratic side. That pic is still up for grabs.

But sources tell CNN's Jamie Gangel that Kamala Harris will meet with top finalists over the weekend. That includes Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. And Jamie has also told these face-to-face meetings will play a critical role in Harris's decision.

Seung Min, I want to start with you on this. One of the interesting parts of the new poll from AP where you work, says that these VP contenders are largely unknown to Americans.

KIM: Right, right. I mean, they're -- you know, once she picks a vice presidential -- once she thinks of running mate, this running mate is going to have a lot of introductions to do to voters across the country and to the Democratic Party.

Now, it's interesting, who is a little bit more well known. It's actually Mark Kelly, a Senator who actually hasn't been a lot -- senator for a very long time, but he had won two very contentious campaigns in Arizona's Senate. So, he is a battle tested campaigner.

But if you look kind of regionally, Josh Shapiro is more well known and well liked, especially in that Northeast Region. But obviously, you know, people like, you know, Governor Andy Beshear, Governor Tim Walz, they will have a lot to do to make themselves known to voters and they're already doing that now.

We're seeing them all across their airwaves. They're basically auditioning for this vice-presidential slot in front of our very eyes, on television, our morning TV shows. And so, they're doing it that way. They're certainly making themselves known to the Democratic base. But it'll be -- so it'll be interesting, you know, once they go on lockdown this weekend, have their own meetings with a Vice President Harris, who emerges after that.

BASH: Yeah. And the Republican candidates did the same thing. They were definitely auditioning for Donald Trump. Amy, on that note, I want you to listen to something that J. B. Pritzker, the 1Illinois Governor said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. J. B. PRITZKER (D-IL): Lollapalooza is happening this weekend here in Chicago, and my kids and I mean, tens of thousands of others are going to be there. You know, I've heard other governors talk about how they've canceled their weekend plans. I was going to perform of course with Blink-182 on Sunday, but I cancelled in order to clear my schedule.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Hashtag priorities, Amy.

WALTER: I mean, come on. We got to get -- get real with Lollapalooza. I -- just to show you my age, I didn't know a Lollapalooza was still going on. And I was there at the beginning at this -- when this all started. But I do think, you know, it seems clear to me that so much attention right now is on one person, and that's the Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for a number of reasons.

But the most important is that Pennsylvania is everything in this election. You know, from the very beginning of this campaign, the Trump campaign would tell you, look, to get to 270, we have a really easy path. We just need Pennsylvania and Georgia, and we're done. We don't need to win any other states.

Now, they weren't saying we're not going to try to win other states. But it just goes to show how critical Pennsylvania is, and the fact that Shapiro comes in with a 61 percent approval rating in his home state. Again, it doesn't mean that the race in Pennsylvania is that becomes a blowout for Democrats by no means. But what it does do is give, I think the Harris campaign a bump in a an absolutely -- just critically important state.

[12:25:00]

The fact that he happens to be not just popular, but more moderate in his governing. I think he also sends the message because as you know the Trump folks are working very hard to define her as someone who's liberal and the most recent ad, they call her dangerously liberal. So, putting someone who's more moderate on the ticket, I think is an opportunity for her to maybe, you know -- yeah, go and soften that edge.

BASH: And Amy, before I get to David, and David will appreciate this. I just want people to take note of what is over your -- I guess it's your left shoulder, a picture of the late great Gwen Ifill, and to see her smiling there. I know, gosh, could you imagine if she were around now. I would love to hear her --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Reporting and analysis on what's going on.

CHALIAN: Dana, I took a picture of Amy during the commercial break when I saw that and sent her an email, while we were in commercial break, saying that it gives me a huge smile to see Gwen over her shoulder.

WALTER: I know.

CHALIAN: Yeah.

WALTER: And that's her -- that's here stamp.

BASH: Her stamp, postage stamp. Yeah.

CHALIAN: Well, she would love this.

BASH: Literally. David Chalian, you can channel yourself or when I followed you have the last word on the BBC.

CHALIAN: Listen, I'm one of those people. I'm really dubious about how much Veepstakes really matters to the ultimate outcome. I'm kind of -- I agree with Donald Trump's political analysis on this, that this is largely going to be a contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. And I understand that it can have some impact at the margins.

But I do think, and I know this is just pure pablum usually coming from the campaigns, but I think it's critically important for Harris to pick someone that she could potentially govern with that she has a good feeling and relationship with.

That to me is monumental, because this is -- I know, she's been vice president for three and a half years. But getting this pick right and this working, that's like the first presidential level decision making that voters get to observe in her in this campaign. And that's where I think it does matter where it reflects on the presidential candidate as a decision maker.

BASH: Yeah. And the fact that she just went through this process on the other side four years ago. It was really interesting. Nice to see you all. Thank you so much. Up next, running against Biden versus running against Harris. Well, just two weeks ago, I spoke to the Trump campaigns pollster, and he was very optimistic about Donald Trump's chances.

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JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, TRUMP-VANCE CAMPAIGN POLLSTER: We're leading. We're leading in the battleground states. We're leading in the national polls. We never saw that in 2016.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Because he still feels that way. I'll ask him when we come back. Don't go anyway.

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