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Inside Politics

Tonight: DNC Kicks Off With Biden, Hillary Clinton Set To Speak; New CNN Poll Of Polls: Harris 50 Percent, Trump 48 Percent; Conservative Former Judge J. Michael Luttig Endorses Harris; Trump To Campaign In 5 Swing States As Dems Gather In Chicago; Ex-Trump Chief Of Staff Slams Trump's Comments On Medal Of Honor; Early Harris Backer On How Harris Earned Her Support. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 19, 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, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash, live from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which kicks off in just a few hours. What we will see in this arena today will be radically different than what was imagined just a month ago as Kamala Harris prepares to formally accept her party's nomination for president, a party that is now reinvigorated and for good reason.

CNN's latest Poll of Polls shows the vice president two points ahead of Donald Trump. A very small lead, yes, but one that President Biden never saw. And since Harris's running mate is a former coach, the Wisconsin and Pennsylvania delegates got a pep talk of sorts this morning from the vice-presidential hopeful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We'll sleep when we're dead, when this is done, but not now, not now, because no one in this room wants to wake up on that next day and have anything except looking at your children, waking up to that sunny November morning and being able to smile and say, my God, we elected a woman president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Our Democrats are keenly aware that none of this would be possible without Joe Biden and his decision that completely upended this election. The president will be treated as a hero when he passes the proverbial torch to his vice president tonight. Jill Biden, Hillary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Raphael Warnock and Andy Beshear are the other big names on the schedule this evening.

Their mission, along with all of the other speakers who will be on the stage that is just behind me, is to introduce Kamala Harris to the American people. Though, she is clearly energizing Democrats, she is still widely unknown to many voters, and that's one of the reasons she said this to reporters yesterday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I very much consider us the underdog. We have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people. That's why we're on this bus tour today, and we're going to be traveling this country as we've been, and talking with folks, listening to folks and hopefully earning their votes over the next 79 days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm very lucky to kick this week off with a fantastic group of CNN reporters. Political Director David Chalian, Political Analyst and Bloomberg Columnist Nia-Malika Henderson, Inside Politics Sunday Anchor Manu Raju, and Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel. Hi. Happy convention week everybody. Nice to be in Chicago. Your hometown. There you go back and your hometown for four years. But we won't get into that.

OK. So, David Chalian, I want to start with you, because I want to talk about this whole underdog thing. And why it is so important strategically for Kamala Harris and her campaign to keep that sort of moniker and keep that label while she comes in.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, it's to guard against any kind of complacency. You want revved up troops. You want everybody to be doing the door knocking and the phone calling and understand that they are in a fight. It also matches reality. It is not just that, right? It is also a proper assessment, I think, of where she is.

Yes, she has momentum. Yes, we saw a couple national polls out this weekend that showed her with a slight lead nationally, but you know, you just heard the Poll of Polls. For a Democrat, given the makeup of the Electoral College, they probably need a national lead of at least four points.

BASH: And while you're talking about, I just want to put up the overall Poll of Polls; Harris 50, Trump 48. Please go ahead.

CHALIAN: That you mentioned at the top. And so, clearly the momentum is with her. She has reenergized this Democratic Party and brought the pieces of the coalition back out into their political position of strength as part of a potential winning Democratic campaign. But when you look at the battle in the Electoral College, I don't think you could say, she's leading. I mean, I think it is -- that is a true toss up, and that is why I don't think it's far-fetched for her to say underdog.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, POLITICS & POLICY COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG: Yeah. I mean, listen, it's also that she is a black woman who is seeking the highest office in the land. America has never elected a black woman governor. Many of us have never had black women bosses, right?

So, she is running against hundreds of years of history, hundreds of years of culture, hundreds of years of stereotypes about what a president of America looks like. So, she is certainly the underdog, even if she goes up four points, even if she goes up four points in every swing state, I would say, she's still the underdog, given the history of this country.

[12:05:00]

BASH: Such an important point.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY: I mean, look, and the reason why things are changing in her direction is that the base is coming back. I mean, that's really what the polls are reflecting. The coalition that Joe Biden struggle with, whether black voters, Hispanic voters, younger voters, they are now moving back in her direction, which is giving her this bump.

But what about independent voters? And what will she do to reach out to independent voters. That is still a bit of a soft spot. If you look at the New York Times/Siena polls from this weekend in some of those battleground states. And that's going to be a key question that I have going into this week.

To the extent to which she tries to reach out to the middle of the country, reach out to those independent swing voters who are uncertain about her or throwing meat -- red meat to the base. That's a different question.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: And one campaign source said to me just quickly, this is about four words, get out and vote. They -- these are the battleground states. They want to keep the passion up. And in all campaigns, they want to exceed expectations.

BASH: Yeah. That's the last thing you want to do is to raise expectations high. That's like politics one-on-one. David, the CBS, stand for CBS/YouGov polls that I just want to show people. The question was, do you know what candidates stand for? Yes, Kamala Harris 64 percent, Donald Trump 86 percent. No 36 and 14. You know, two thirds of voters say that they know what she stands for, but that also means one-third do not.

CHALIAN: Yeah. And that 36 percent, that's the number I would circle there --

BASH: Yeah.

CHALIAN: Because that's what the next four days are going to be about. This is an opportunity for Harris campaign, the candidate herself and the party overall to fill in gaps for people, and to have Americans walk away from this convention with a deeper understanding of where she stands on the issues, of what her values are, of what her story is.

Because there is -- you know, on the other side, obviously, a very concerted effort to define her negatively along their terms and to tell the American people what they believe she stands for. And that is -- that is both the opportunity and the risk when you have a chunk of American voters still not quite familiar with you in a really understandable way, and the convention this week is to make it all opportunity and mitigate risk.

HENDERSON: Yeah. And listen, you know, Hillary Clinton is going to speak tonight. I think for women politicians, one of the things we know is likability is a huge factor in how average voters see them. So, for Kamala Harris, she needs to maintain this likability. You see, obviously Donald Trump out there, trying to say that she's, you know, crazy, her laugh is terrible. She's a radical. So, she really has to figure out filling in the blanks with policy, certainly, but also that likability. It's a test that women face unfortunately.

BASH: Yeah. No question about that. Jamie, you have some new reporting on a surprise speaker here.

GANGEL: I don't think he's not speaking, but it is in the --

BASH: Surprise guest.

GANGEL: So, we can announce that retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, who became famous for speaking out in January 6, and his tweet to help persuade Vice President Pence to do the right thing is endorsing Kamala Harris. This is the first time in his life, in any election, he will vote for a Democrat. It doesn't get any more conservative than Judge Luttig.

And he gave us a statement. The whole thing you can read it on cnn.com is five pages, single spaced, once a judge, always a judge. It is a withering indictment of not just Donald Trump, but of the Republican Party. And he says about the endorsement in the presidential election of 2024.

There is only one political party and one candidate for the presidency that can claim the mantle of defender and protector of America's democracy, the constitution and the rule of law. That is Kamala Harris. I actually was texting with the judge this morning. I said, is there anything that you would like to add to your five pages?

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Yes. There it is.

GANGEL: Always, always. And I said, because it's your first time --

BASH: Yeah, sure.

GANGEL: Democrat, he said, Jamie, the first thing all of us are taught is right from wrong. We're not taught right from left. It's really that people (Ph) --

BASH: That's a good sign.

RAJU: It's interesting, because it will be interesting to see how much the Democrats lean into the democracy argument. You know, you expect to hear some former January 6 committee members speak here at the convention. Adam Kinzinger, the Republican -- former Republican congressman being one of them that, of course, that was central to Joe Biden's pitch for the presidency in 2020. [12:10:00]

Harris so far is not yet totally made that a centerpiece of her campaign. Does that change here? How much -- how much of a theme is? Perhaps it is going to be a little bit more with this boost from the judge.

BASH: He didn't endorse Biden when he was running. It was just -- because it was too early.

GANGEL: I just don't think he got me there yet and he was waiting. Judge Luttig walks a line. He wants to be an independent. He's never going to sign a letter. He would not come to the convention, although he does. I will say, send me joke texts about getting into the CNN grill. I think he was waiting for this moment.

BASH: Yeah. Thank you. He is endorsing.

GANGEL: Endorse, right.

BASH: He will not be in a very important distinction. Great reporting. Jamie. Can we talk about Donald Trump? Because he is going to be out and about. He was certainly out and about this weekend.

Let's just look at the schedule that he and his running mate have. They're going to be in York, Pennsylvania. At least Trump in particular would be in York, Pennsylvania today, Howell, Michigan on Tuesday, Asheboro, North Carolina, Wednesday, Arizona on Thursday, and then he will hit Nevada on Friday.

CHALIAN: We haven't seen that active --

BASH: No. That's what I was thinking.

CHALIAN: This entire time, so he's choosing the time of the Democratic National Convention to do it, which is really interesting because obviously, he's not going to get the lion's share of attention. Most of the media attention is going to be on what's happening here in Chicago this week.

But he doesn't want to give an inch and he's stepping up his campaign activity to help define Harris and try, in whatever ways he can, and Vance can to work themselves into the news cycle and not see the ground. There are 11 weeks left. This is a reshaped race. And I think this schedule indicates how much they understand it's a reshaped (Ph).

HENDERSON: Yeah. And listen, we'll see how he manages to work his way into the conversation, right? Is it more comments about how beautiful he thinks Kamala Harris is, is more along the policy lines. That's certainly what Republicans want him to do. Doesn't seem like that is what Donald Trump wants to do.

We've been covering him for many years. He sort of likes these tangents and riffs and personal attacks, but he knows this is a very changed race. He's got to get out there, these states where he was looking good in like Nevada and Arizona, much tighter race. Some of the polls even show her ahead. So, he's got to get out there and put some points on the board.

RAJU: And you know, for the first time, really since Trump has come on the scene, he has not --

BASH: I just want to interrupt for one second because we do have some activity going on behind us. Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman who hopes to get a promotion to first gentleman, is behind us.

CHALIAN: Would that be first first gentleman?

BASH: First gentleman. He is -- we the people, he's practicing, seeing how it feels. This is quite a moment.

CHALIAN: Yeah. We should make clear to everyone, he's reading --

BASH: No, no, no. She never --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: They do. They read -- they read the constitution, the preamble of the constitution, as a way to not give it away, although we would be happy for him to be reading his actual. I'm sorry for an interrupting you.

RAJU: No, that's OK.

BASH: Manu, Nia was talking about Donald Trump veering off message in lots of ways and lots of instances, one of which was, this weekend in Pennsylvania. I want to play some of that. But then also what, a man you cover every day in the hallways, Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Donald Trump, said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I said, who am I running against? Harris? I said, who the hell is Harris? You know, they do polls on this stuff, and I'm at like 93 percent. I said, so why are we having an election? They didn't have an election. Why are we having an election? I'm a better-looking person than Kamala.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): President Trump can win this election. His policies are good for America. And if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. Donald Trump, the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: If he could come through the screen and grab Trump by the lapels and do this, he would have done that.

RAJU: Look, this has been the story of the Trump era, right? I mean, Republicans wanting to steer Trump in a certain direction. Trump ignoring Republicans when they try to do that. This is really the first time that Trump has just simply not dominated the political narrative, in the media narrative since -- really, he's come on the scene, and he is struggling to break through in some ways, which is remarkable, which explains why he's doing all this campaigning. He's making all these statements. These news conferences and the like, to try to reshape the narrative, but it's something that he's struggled to do so far.

GANGEL: I think we have to remember the difference between when he was running against Joe Biden and today. He was perfectly happy to stay home, play golf, you know, put a post out. To Nia's point, this has been a game changer and he's worried. He knows it's different, and he on the passion of his base to come out on and vote. Now there's a whole new passion on the other side to come out and vote.

[12:15:00]

BASH: OK, everybody standby. Coming up, Donald Trump's former chief of staff is attacking his ex-boss's comments about American heroes who win the medal of honor, but he insists the former president rather, he insists he did nothing wrong. And later, longtime Biden adviser Anita Dunn, joins me live. I'll get her take on the Democratic ticket shakeup. Plus, she's now helping to lead the top Harris Super PAC. What does their battleground strategy look like? We'll talk about all of that. Coming up.

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[12:20:00]

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BASH: Donald Trump is insulting veterans. Again, the former president sparked near universal criticism last week when he said that The Presidential Medal of Freedom is much better than the Medal of Honor that's given to many service members who make the ultimate sacrifice. But in true Trump fashion, he's defending those comments in a new interview with WBRE in Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When I say better, I would rather in a certain way get it, because people that get the Congressional Medal of Honor, which I've given to many -- are often horribly wounded or dead. They're often dead. They get it posthumously. And when you get the Congressional Medal of Honor. I always considered that to be the ultimate, but it is a painful thing to get it. When you get the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it's usually for other things, like you've achieved great success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Kristen Holmes covers the Trump campaign. Kristen, what are you hearing from your sources inside Trump world about how this line of attack is going.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well look, clearly there Donald Trump, even if he would admit it publicly, he knows that he might have gone a bridge too far. That is Donald Trump's version of trying to walk back the comments to explain himself, not just to defend himself, and not in any way to double down. But you can see him kind of trying to explain how he had come to that conclusion. Again, not to say that that is successful there, but that is what he is doing.

Now, when I talk to his allies, this is just yet another example of the fact that they just don't want him talking about anything right now, except for the issues, particularly inflation, particularly immigration, crime. They don't want him doing anything that's going to distract from his campaign against Kamala Harris.

Now that the race has significantly changed, but now we are hearing directly from Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff John Kelly. He is also a retired Marine, hitting back on those comments, talking to our Jake Tapper. This is what he told Jake. He said, The Medal of Honor is earned and not won by incredibly brave actions on the battlefield under fire, typically by very young men who joined when others did not to defend their country.

To the service members, the oath is sacred and taken with the understanding that one could be seriously wounded, captured or killed in living up to those words, no president, member of Congress, judge or political appointee, and certainly no recipient of the Presidential Medal will ever be asked to give life or limb to protect the Constitution. The two awards cannot be compared in any way, not even close.

And just a reminder, he was Donald Trump's longest serving chief of staff, but the two have long since parted ways. Kelly has confirmed on the record statements that Donald Trump said disparaging service members Donald Trump himself have said that that never happened.

BASH: Thank you so much for that reporting. And thank you to Jake Tapper for getting that statement. Kristen, always good to see you. Coming up. This isn't Kamala Harris's first rodeo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Up next. I'll talk to a U.S. senator who was a top adviser on that short-lived campaign back in 2019. We'll talk about what the vice president needs to do differently this time around. That's next.

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: My next guest has been part of Vice President Harris's inner circle for years. She first endorsed Harris 14 years ago when Harris ran for California attorney general, that is now Senator Laphonza Butler. You see her right there, speaking at a Harris campaign event in 2010. Now, Senator Butler was a labor union leader back then. Now she represents the great state of California. Thank you so much for being here. Nice to see you.

SEN. LAPHONZA BUTLER (D-CA): Thanks for having me.

BASH: So, this is such an interesting story. So, you were head of the homecare workers union when you first endorsed Harris. What about her when she first ran for statewide office, I should say? What have about her led you to say, she's somebody who I want to get behind.

BUTLER: You know, the great thing is that it wasn't my decision. You know, if it was just up to -- a totally, if it was just up to me, there definitely were safer candidates to choose. But because the members actually made the decision on who to endorse, they just believed in her. She was able to convey a vision of how she would execute the office of the state of attorney general in the state of California in a way that that they really had great confidence and she was willing to work a day in their shoes.

BASH: Tell me about that.

BUTLER: Yes. So, she went --

BASH: That is a requirement.

BUTLER: It's a requirement for SEIU endorsement. You had to walk a day in the shoes of our member and -- as our members, and she went to Oakland. It's actually in her book. She talks about spending a day with home care worker Wendy Ko in Oakland, California.