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Today: Harris To Lay Out Economic Plan In First Policy Speech; Republicans Accuse Harris Of Copying Vance On Child Tax Credit; Trump Campaign: "Comrade Kamala Goes Full Communist"; Trump Attacks Harris For Flip-Flopping On Medicare For All, Fracking; Democrats Say Harris Is Putting North Carolina Back In Play; 20 Percent Of North Carolina Electorate Is Black, 4 Percent Is Hispanic. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 16, 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, Kamalanomics. The vice president unveils her first economic policy proposals geared to make your life less expensive. Plus, fools' gold or up for grabs. Kamala Harris heads to North Carolina as some Democrats wonder if she will be another Obama like exception to four decades of electoral losses there. And the Biden White House reaches for the stars -- TV stars from a fictional White House. We're going to talk to two of them who have a new book out about the famed TV show.

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

Up first, policy promises. The vice president pitches her country on -- pitches the country rather on her first concrete plans as nominee. You can sum it up this way. It's all about bringing down costs of things she believes are too high; the price of groceries, the price to rent, the price to build a home. But already we are hearing complaints from the right that her plans are more like wishes and could even backfire when it comes to inflation and housing costs.

I want to get straight to CNN's Eva McKend. Eva, give us a sense of what exactly is in this plan.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Dana, she's proposing more than $100 million in tax reliefs, or tax relief that would impact more than 100 million Americans. You know, this addresses the child tax credit in the American rescue plan, a really popular provision passed by Democrats in Congress.

She wants to expand on that, so that would go from $2,000 to $3,600, $6,000 for middle class and low-income families with newborns. This, of course, speaks to the criticism from former President Donald Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, that Democrats are anti-family. She's proposing policies today that speak directly to American families.

There's also in this plan, proposals to address affordable healthcare as well as affordable housing. And ultimately, Dana, she's here at a community college to make this message, essentially arguing that the Democratic ticket is principally concerned about everyday Americans, American workers, and trying to set up a contrast with Trump and Vance, arguing that they just want to advance tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.

Ultimately, though, this is a wish list that includes a lot of policy priorities, long popular with Democrats, but difficult to ultimately pass in Congress when evidently, Dana, they have to work in concert with Republicans. Dana?

BASH: That is normally how things get done, which is why a lot of things haven't gotten done lately. Thank you so much. Eva. Appreciate that. I'm here -- here with me to talk about a lot of what we are hearing from the campaign trail. Great reporters, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Semafor's Kadia Goba, and Michael Warren of The Dispatch.

I sort of joked about the fact that Congress doesn't work. But what is really noteworthy about what we are seeing that Kamala Harris is doing is certainly not turning away from the very real legislation that the Biden administration did pass. Some of it on a party line vote, but most of it in a bipartisan way, like infrastructure, that really did focus on the economy. And it's so focused now in what we're going to hear on populism.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It definitely is. And look, she was the tie breaking vote in the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed just a couple years ago. So, it would be impossible for her to totally separate herself from this. She's embracing it, doing a little bit more. And then my guess is talking to her advisers. Does not want to get mired down in policy discussions for the rest of this short campaign cycle.

But look, I mean, it's important that she is giving this speech. What's remarkable is some similarities we're hearing from both sides. When the J. D. Vance was talking to you just a week or so ago, was talking about the importance of families, obviously, and the child tax credit. So, Republicans have certainly not been speaking with one voice on this, but to me, the similarities that we're hearing are sort of interesting.

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BASH: Yeah. I mean, and on that note, I have to add -- we can put back up some of the specifics that Eva was using. One of the things that struck me right away, adding $6,000 child credit for newborns, a two J. D. Vance. We are -- we are for people who have children.

MICHAEL WARREN, SENIOR EDITOR, THE DISPATCH: And you know, you add that to Kamala Harris embracing the no tax on tips that Donald Trump was complaining about yesterday, that she was cribbing from his own plan. There is a bit of horseshoe politics. Horseshoe theory of politics, where it's populism -- it's economic populism, whether it's a left-wing or a right-wing kind of tint to it.

I think it makes it more difficult for the Trump campaign to make a sustained argument about this. When the two parties really differ on what government's role should be in some of these economic questions. There was a stark debate about those things, and sometimes Republicans win that, sometimes Democrats win that. It's going to be a very interesting debate if it happens over the policy details.

But I agree with Jeff. I don't think the Harris campaign really wants to get into too many details. I don't think the Trump campaign wants too either. So, we're just going to have a lot of wish list type stuff from both sides, and the rest of it will all be vibes.

KADIA GOBA, POLITICAL REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yeah. Both campaigns might not want to get mired down and, you know, policy issues, but when I talk to people on the ground, when I talk to members of Congress who are talking to their constituents. They want to know what each candidate wants to do for them, and they so far, had not heard that.

So, when I talk to people recently, they're very excited about, you know, catch phrases, about $25,000 to build something, or, you know, $6,000 for a child tax credit that those are things are really important or no tax on tips. There's a reason why she, you know, mimicked Vance or Trump on that.

BASH: Both of them.

GOBA: Yeah.

BASH: Yeah. And speaking of mimicking, you have mentioned J. D. Vance. I just want to read what he said on social media. Kamala Harris will soon propose that we finish the border wall and make America great again, sarcasm. No one should be fooled by the fake campaign copying President Trump's vision. The difference is Trump actually lowered prices as President Harris is in power now and does nothing.

You know, maybe flattery is the best for -- invitation is the best form of flattery. I'm not so sure, but I do think it speaks to what you were saying, Michael, that this is where politics are right now. People understand that the voters are hurting in very real pocketbook ways. One of the keyways that people are hurting is housing costs.

And I just want to break down a little bit of what Kamala Harris is going to propose specifically in this housing plan. Build three million new housing units in four years. Tax incentives for home builders to build homes for first time buyers. $25,000 in down payment support for first time buyers, measures to limit rent hikes.

ZELENY: Look, I mean, if you think of the Biden administration record as the job creation one coming out of the pandemic, an entirely different moment now in terms of trying to bring down a cost or proposing policies that look like you're trying to bring down costs. The reality here is the president is not in charge of gas prices. The president can do very little immediately with high prices, but they do pay the price for it politically, pardon the pun.

So, I think that that is what she is trying to focus on here. But the inflation has cooled, prices remain high. But one of the most popular things that the White House has done, at least in terms of responses, talking about high credit card fees and price gouging and things like that.

So, look for her to do more things like that. But it was striking watching President Biden and Vice President Harris yesterday when they were having a joint appearance. Politically, it was interesting, but she was embracing, you know, the record of bringing down a drug prices. That is something that seniors care about and seniors vote, so it's important.

WARREN: And you know, Harris has the ability here to pick and choose the things that she wants to run on from the Biden administration's record, she can. And the things she wants to say, she said it way back at her first big event in Atlanta. You know, prices are too high.

She has the ability because, yes, she is in power, but she's the vice president, she's not the president. She has that sort of superpower, and I don't think the Republicans have quite figured out how to pin her down on a lot (Ph).

BASH: Well, on that note, so I just read what J. D. Vance said in a tweet, which is basically saying Kamala Harris is doing what Donald Trump has already done. Very different message that we just saw from Donald Trump himself. He put on social media that comrade Kamala goes full communist.

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So, I'm guessing he doesn't see himself that way. So, is it that she is a shape shifter, as they're saying on the one hand? Or is it that she is, you know, a radical leftist, which is what that social media post suggests?

GOBA: I think this is an issue that's been going on since 2020, how Republicans do not know how to message against Kamala Harris. I saw competing issues or contrast in 2020 also, whether or not she was an aggressive cop or she was like a stone called progressive.

This is also a nod to the campaign, just kind of being on a different page than actually Donald Trump is when he -- when they're talking about policy and trying to hit on, you know, actual kitchen table issues, and he's going for the jugular on -- you know, some of the flashier attacks.

BASH: Now, it is true that Kamala Harris has changed her position. Some of the things that she changed happened within her brief 2020 run. Some of it has happened since she became a candidate at the top of the ticket just almost four weeks ago. Let's listen to some of that and Trump's criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The idea is that everyone gets access to medical care. And you don't have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require. Who of us has not had that situation where you got to wait for approval and the doctor says, well, I don't know if your insurance company is going to cover this. Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She co-sponsored legislation to abolish very popular private health insurance. She wants to take away your private healthcare.

HARRIS: There's no question, I'm in favor of banning fracking.

TRUMP: She wants no fracking. Now she may go and change that. I think she's already changed it, but she wants to have no fracking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: I mean, without question, in 2019 she was running to the left because she was trying to win a Democratic primary, very unsuccessfully, because she didn't even make it through that whole year. But look, I mean, Donald Trump also was saying this week that he will not replace Obamacare. So, they both have, you know, some issues that they are adjusting to in the moment. I mean, that was the anthem of his 2016 campaign as I remember it.

BASH: It was.

ZELENY: Repeal and replace Obamacare. It didn't happen because that is now more popular more than a decade on. So, look, but she has changed her views on things. You can say in 2019 was that her real view, or was she adapting to that campaign? Is she adapting to this campaign? Who knows? She has to own all of that. That's one of the reasons debates are important. Interviews are important. And she will have to explain why she is changing her view.

WARREN: As a reporter, I want her to sit down for interviews. I want her to answer these kinds of questions, and it would be good for the body politic that she does resolve these things. As a political matter, though, again, I think it's causing a problem for the Trump campaign to attack her on these things.

Because are they trying to make the point that she's a communist, a socialist, a radical, or that she's a flip flopper. Because what she's flip-flopping to is a more centrist general election oriented almost Trumpian position on these things, that makes it really hard for them to sustain an actual attack.

BASH: I want to get to something that Donald Trump said yesterday, which is important to show, and this is his discussion about the difference between giving somebody the Presidential Medal of Freedom or the Congressional Medal of Honor.

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TRUMP: We gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's the highest award you can get as a civilian. It's the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor. But civilian version, it's actually much better, because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor that soldiers. They're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they're dead. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Michael?

WARREN: I mean, look, this is the kind of thing that another candidate says something like this. And we're --

BASH: It's game over.

WARREN: And we're talking about, you know, from one end of the hour to the other. This is just kind of the way he speaks. I do think it's important for -- there are a lot of Americans who will not really be clueing into the election until after Labor Day. Who don't -- either remember or realize that these are the kind of things he says all the time. This is what the heads up at the campaign are worried about that. Just focus on -- on calling Kamala a communist. You know, don't go on these -- on these tangents and they can't control one.

BASH: Just a real quick.

GOBA: Yeah. Just a weird tangent. And I don't think the American people know -- probably might not be focused on the difference between the congressional like, honestly --

BASH: It's more about what he said about the military.

(CROSSTALK)

GOBA: Yeah.

ZELENY: The military and very reminiscent of what he said about John McCain in the summer of 2015, politically, that didn't hurt him. But people veterans certainly listening to those words from anyone else, it would be a big deal.

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BASH: All right, everybody standby, because up next. Kamala Harris is staging that economic speech in a state that's mostly gone red for four decades. So, is North Carolina really in play this fall? Jeff Zeleny was there. We'll tell you what he found.

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BASH: It's not a big surprise that Vice President Harris chose North Carolina for her big economic policy pitch today. The Harris campaign insists that that state is in play this year. Though, we've been hearing that from Democrats for years. It went twice for Donald Trump, who made his own economic pitch in the Tar Hill State on Wednesday.

I want to talk to Jeff Zeleny, who was there talking to voters. First, I want you -- our viewers to hear what voters said to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GRAYSON BARNETTE, NORTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATIC VOTER: I think a lot of people are, they're tired of them. They really want somebody else. And the Democrats are offering that this year. They're offering somebody new. They're offering somebody that has a lot of energy around them.

ZELENY: How's the excitement level been since then?

GENA SINGLETON, BURKE COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR: Incredible. I mean, by the next morning we were having the phone was ringing off the hook with people wanting to volunteer to do anything.

GABRIELLA CRUZ, NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN VOTER: I think easier, if I'm being honest, yeah, I think it's easier.

ZELENY: Why?

CRUZ: I don't think she has a leg to stand on. That's just my honest opinion, and I don't think he has anything to be concerned about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Look, there's no doubt that North Carolina is in play more so than it was a month ago. How do we know that? Look at what the Trump campaign is doing. The former president went to Asheville on Wednesday. He was just in North Carolina about a week and a half ago. He's going back next week with J. D. Vance.

So, the two rules are, look where they're spending money, and look where they're going. And he's doing both there. They're spending millions of dollars in ads, trying to define Vice President Harris. And look North Carolina, we're basically picking up where we left off in 2020. It was the narrowest margin of victory for any trump state.

He won by 1.3 percentage points. That's 74,000 votes, give or take, out of 5.4 million cast, 74,000 votes. Look at what has changed population wise in North Carolina in the last four years. Independent voters now there are 2.7 million. That was 2.3 million four years ago. So, 400,000 potentially new voters, just independents, about a million potentially overall.

So, look, it is a different landscape. It's a different electorate. We also talked to a Republican voter who moved down to North Carolina from Long Island. So, she sorts of reminded us that not all new voters are young Democratic voters, but in the cities of Charlotte and Raleigh, the fast-growing suburbs are just really a fertile territory for the Harris campaign.

So, she is giving her economic message in Raleigh for a reason. So, it is in play. There's no doubt. And for all the talk of the blue wall states, which obviously are important, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina. 16 electoral votes also fit into the equation. It's an insurance policy for more like Trump race in Michigan, well known.

BASH: Maybe more like Georgia and Arizona, when it comes to changing demographics -- ZELENY: She is changing now.

BASH: Yeah. You mentioned what happened in 2020. Let's look at more broadly, the presidential results. You can see, as Jeff just mentioned that it was pretty close. Donald Trump won by 1.3 percent. But if you look back in time, it was only Obama in his first race that he won barely, barely, and then he lost for in his re-election bid in 2012.

Let's look at 2020. You had the governor statewide, was a Democrat, still the Governor Roy Cooper. Donald Trump, as we mentioned, won for president, and in the Senate, you had Thom Tillis won. So, it is possible for a Democrat to win statewide because it has happened and there is a Democratic governor.

WARREN: Yeah. North Carolina is one of the states that is consistently Republican, but not very Republican, and that's -- it's those margins where it matters. It is whiter than Georgia, for instance, if we're going to compare it to a state --

BASH: Can we do that actually? I'm sorry to interrupt you. We actually -- miraculously, we have those numbers. We're totally vibing, as they say. We can put up the North Carolina voter registration versus Georgia. And you can see there is a big difference.

WARREN: Right. And so, that was a big advantage for Biden of campaigning in Georgia in 2020 that in North Carolina. But you have -- so you have a slightly smaller black population, but they were extremely important in winning for Obama in 2008 North Carolina. Are they -- what is that, population group more energized now with Kamala Harris, potentially the first black woman to be president. That's a sort of ace in the hole, perhaps for Harris in North Carolina.

The question for me is educated voters. There are a lot of them in North Carolina, like there are in Georgia, in those metro areas. Where do they go? Is Harris opening up for them, voting democratic, where they had closed themselves off for Biden?

They were maybe double haters. Those people who didn't like Trump or Biden, now they have another option. That's where you have to look at -- at the end of the day, though, it's also a very rural state and white, and that's why Republicans can keep waiting there.

GOBA: I think this is a big indication of how much of a shift. I mean, I'm old enough to remember three months ago when the Republicans were pitching there. They were talking about New Jersey was in play, right? And kind of neglecting North Carolina. Trump might be going there now.

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But I think this is -- this was his third time. Democrats, I think this is like Kamala Harris's eight time to the state. I think we saw a little posturing, also with Governor Cooper -- Cooper, however, re- pronounce his name, in play for a vice-presidential pick, which was an indication that, you know, Democrats were taking this seriously. So, I think, it will definitely -- 1.3 points is not a big deal. And that's what he won in 2020. I think that, yeah, this is a state that is very much in play.

BASH: You know, you say you're old enough to remember three months ago. I would say, you're young enough to remember three months ago.

ZELENY: I mean, look, it's the United States of North Carolina. It has a bit of everything, but it is going to be a state where both campaigns have a lot to of ground that they can cover. But the Biden, Harris campaign, and I say that for a reason, we're at a phone banking headquarters for Democrats. There were still Biden, Harris signs all over. But talking to a couple volunteers, they said the excitement is just -- it's just changed dramatically.

So, look, this is not a guarantee of a Harris victory by any means, because her candidacy has fired up Republicans as well, but it is going to be competitive until the very end. There is no doubt about it. And people were saying Democrats are like it does remind them of Barack Obama. It's an entirely different time with Donald Trump and the population there has changed extraordinarily.

BASH: All right, everybody. Thank you so much. Don't go anywhere. Is Chicago secure? Days away from the DNC. The windy city goes into overdrive to make sure it is safe. We're going to go there live. Next?

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