Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Harris Adviser: Harris Will "Schedule" Interview By End Of August; Harris Once Supported Banning Fracking, Passing Medicare For All; RFK Jr. And Tulsi Gabbard Join Trump Transition Team; Israel Announces Rescue Of 52-Year-Old Hostage Kaid Farhan Al-Qadi; Voting Companies, Election Officials Brace For 2024 Election; Special Counsel Appeals Dismissal Of Trump Classified Docs Case. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 27, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, question time. Pressure is building on Kamala Harris to do her first sit down interview since becoming the nominee. As she prepares to return to the campaign trail with a bus tour through Georgia tomorrow.

Plus, free after 326 days. Israel's military says it rescued a hostage held captive in Gaza since the Hamas terror attack on October 7. CNN is live in Tel Aviv with the breaking details. And he'll do anything for Trump. That's why Kash Patel is expected to be a key player in second Trump term. That's also why former Trump officials are worried.

I'm Manu Raju. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start with Kamala Harris's next big test, a major TV interview. The vice president said, it would be quote scheduled before the end of the month, that's of course, four days from now. And this will be a major moment for the vice president, who spent her five-week campaign doing mainly scripted events. And it comes as she prepares for another crucial post-convention moment. The September 10 debate with Donald Trump, which will hopefully remain on the schedule.

CNN's Eva McKend has been talking to the Harris campaign. So, Eva, what are you hearing?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, they are leading into an economy first message. We see that with particular emphasis on lowering housing costs. The vice president says the housing shortage can be addressed by building three million new homes and rentals. That seems to be a way the campaign is trying to thwart the persistent criticism from all corners regarding the lack of a sit- down interview and the absence of aggressive questions from the press.

Ian Sams, a campaign adviser speaking to us earlier this week, and he said that she is in fact, going to sit down for an interview at the end of the month. And then he also noted in their defense, that she is regularly taking questions from reporters on the campaign trail. That isn't sort of a fulsome interview, though, that would answer these big policy questions, like why she has shifted on immigration. And that is something that the press really has a desire to have answers for.

Meanwhile, Manu, the vice president and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, they're going to be launching a bus tour across South Georgia tomorrow, concluding with a Thursday night rally around Savannah. Georgia, of course, remains a critical battleground state, and while there's tremendous focus on voters of color in urban centers. They are also focused on capturing those voters so key to the Democratic coalition in rural communities as well. Manu?

RAJU: All right, Eva McKend, thank you for that report. And joining me now at the table are some fantastic reporters covering all of this, NPR's Tamara Keith, The Wall Street Journal's Catherine Lucey, CNN's Daniel Strauss, and CNN's Kristen Holmes. Nice to see all of you.

Look she could have come out and had some more interviews early on. Of course, the Democrats will defend her position on all this, saying, look, she's just a candidate. She had to prepare for convention. We had to get all the machinery of a campaign in place in a matter of days.

Fine, that's true. But also, to someone who's been on the public scene for some time and can answer questions, has well formulated positions. But by waiting this long, it's really built some pressure on this moment for the vice president.

TAMARA KEITH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Which reminds me of the pressure that was built on President Biden, when he was -- when his campaign was struggling, and everybody was like, well, when is he going to do an interview? When is he going to do an interview? He finally did an interview. It was fine. It didn't really change things much.

But, you know, really Harris, throughout her very short-lived campaign has been having a one-way conversation. It has not been a two-way conversation. She has been able to control the outgoing message and hasn't really had to deal with a lot of incoming. She has done these quick gaggles by the -- by Air Force Two or in the hotel where it's rapid fire questions, rapid fire answers, no time for follow up.

And you know, presidents love to do that. Former President Trump likes to do it. President Biden likes to do it. You know, it's chopper talk. And that puts the candidate or the president in the driver's seat because they are choosing the question they answer.

[12:05:00]

RAJU: And they can walk away, when they walk around --

(Crosstalk)

RAJU: The camera is not rolling

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: We selectivity hear those settings. RAJU: Right.

LUCEY: It's very different. Taking a couple of questions on a tarmac is very different than a full sit-down interview, where there is back and forth, where someone pushes you on past positions. But also, I think this is in some ways an extension of the Biden approach to interviews, which was -- there was a lot of skepticism in his campaign and in his White House about the utility of traditional interviews with traditional outlets like ours.

And certainly, for Harris, she's had a month of largely positive press. They have been pushing their message out. They have just gotten through the DNC. And so, I think there is this sense, at least among some people around her, that -- you know, they are -- they have a lot of forward momentum, you know, without it.

RAJU: Yeah. And that's the thing. Is the incentive to continue on doing this. The polls are looking great. And look, she has been inherently a very cautious politician. I mean, I interviewed many times as a senator, asking her questions and her sidestepping those questions because she doesn't take sometimes assertive positions because she's ready to take a certain position. You're going to get hammered for it. But then, if you're very cautious, you're getting hammered for it as well.

So, do we think that her approach will be different? That was the presidential nominee, and not having -- as not being the running mate, having to serve, you know, the president for?

DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I don't know if there's enough time for her to take a dramatically different approach. And so far, the incentives for her to stay the course have been pretty positive for her. It's not just -- like, I've heard Democrats say, why should we rush to do an interview. We like how the narrative is going right now. We like that. We are on offense. Why change that?

And it's clear that Republicans in this moment want an interview, and want her to trip up, as she has in the past, and then clip that and push that out. And they are really hoping that this burst of enthusiasm for her is just a bubble.

RAJU: Yeah. And of course, that's what the Trump advanced campaign absolutely want because they need to change their narrative, which has been going against them, really since she jumped into the race. But there are things that she has said in the past that she's going to have to answer for. And that she suggested -- her campaign has suggested she has changed her position on the issue of fracking.

For instance, she said that she -- before in the past in 2019 when she was a primary candidate running for the Democratic nominations, she said she was opposed to fracking. She's changed her position on that issue, Medicare for all, single-payer healthcare. She had been open to Medicare for all.

Now, her campaign is saying on background, I mean, not unnecessarily on the record, not from the candidate herself that she is no longer in favor, that those are complicated questions, explain how she reconciles her current views with her past views.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And I was actually thinking about that today, about how different this is, just given the unprecedented nature because she didn't have to go through a primary. Yes, she did back in 2020, but this time around she didn't have that almost immediate recollection of the American voter, of her talking about ending fracking, of her talking about these farther left policies that was now at four years ago.

And we know that the American voters' memory is very short. She has this opportunity to kind of change the narrative, because there is not this instant recollection of something she just said in January of this year.

But again, as you said, there are still questions about how you can go from A to B, particularly make those kinds of tight turns at a time where obviously Pennsylvania might be the most critical state, fracking very important in Pennsylvania to change your opinion on that and then not answer questions. And that's obviously what you're hearing from Republicans.

And the Trump campaign. I'm not sure that the narrative is loud enough from Republicans and the Trump campaign at this point to try and force her to do something. As you said, Democrats are pretty happy with the way things are going right now, but she has now said that she's going to do an interview by the end of the month. We're getting to the end of the month.

RAJU: Pretty close. Meantime, I want to turn to, would you have some new reporting about the Trump transition team and about some of the new people on Trump team, including RFK Jr. who said that, you know, over the weekend, there was no sort of quid pro quo, no deal and the like. But it turns out that both Tulsi Gabbard, former Democrat, who is now endorsing Trump, and the RFK Jr. have a role in at least selecting the next people in the government.

HOLMES: Yeah. They're going to have a big role. I mean this -- the transition team is four people so far. So, adding them to a four- person team, making it six people, that's a pretty substantial amount of weight that they're carrying. And it will tell you, part of this is because they're trying to reach -- they're being the Trump campaign.

The demographic that does support Tulsi Gabbard, that does support RFK, which they believe is a pretty similar kind of demographic. Obviously, both of them, once progressive Democrats, now have shifted conservative RFK -- obvious the most substantial shift being supporting Donald Trump in this election. But they also are trying to make those voters, the Tulsi Gabbard, the RFK voters, voters who don't usually go to the polls, remember, go to the polls in November.

[12:10:00]

And the question is, how do you do that? And part of that's going to be saying, well, they have a role now in the administration. So, it's not just, oh, they like me. They're going to help the people you like. If you elect me, are going to help. Put the other people you like into my administration. So, they're trying to go a step further because they want to drive those independents to vote. Independents again, who they see that 6 percent, they need them to actually show up.

RAJU: But that could give Harris something to --

KEITH: Certainly, I mean, the OPPO file on both Gabbard and RFK Jr. is massive. The other question about the transition is, as you might remember, the Trump campaign had a robust transition plan in 2016, put together by Chris Christie. It was thrown out, and it turned -- you know, the Partnership for Public Service did a call yesterday. They described the 2016 transition as one of the worst transitions ever, in part because the transition was thrown out.

So, this is a great honorific that is being bestowed on these people right now. Will they actually be selecting the government? Or are they making an imaginary document that won't go anywhere? I guess we'll find out.

RAJU: Or just to keep them out --

(CROSSTALK)

KEITH: Exactly.

RAJU: Right.

LUCEY: A big part of it is showing -- showing, right?

RAJU: Does RFK Jr. in the Trump camp have any impact on this race?

LUCEY: I mean, I think to the point about vote, there are voters out there who are interested in RFK. There are independent voters. They're trying to pull in. We saw in polls that there was an RFK vote, right? So, the question is, kind of, where do those folks go? How many of them are going to show up? I mean, I think a lot of those things are unclear, and I think we need to see more polling, probably.

But certainly, at certain points in this campaign, he was pulling a decent amount in polls. You know, so I think there were -- but that also -- some of that was a universe where people were unhappy with both Biden and unhappy with Trump. So, the plates have shifted some.

RAJU: Yeah. OK. All right. Well, we'll see if will happen there. We'll see if there's going to be a debate on September 10. There is still debate over the debate, of course, as well. All right, next. The new CNN reporting about the drastic measures elected election officials are taking to avoid a repeat of the smears and threats that surrounded 2020.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: The Israeli military says it has rescued a hostage from Gaza held there since Hamas' deadly attack on October 7. Kaid Farhan al- Qadi, a 52-year-old, father of 11, is now being reunited with his family. You can see him here in the hospital today with his brother.

CNN international correspondent Jeremy Diamond joins us live from Tel Aviv. So, Jeremy, what more do we know about the man rescued and the mission to get him?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, for 326 days, this man, a 52-year-old father of 11, was being held hostage by Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. And today, in a very successful rescue operation, the Israeli military rescuing him from an underground tunnel in southern Gaza.

We don't have a ton of details about the nature of this operation. This is only the fourth time that the Israeli military has successfully rescued hostages alive from Gaza, but it is the first time that we have seen them do so in an underground operation. And all of the other cases, the hostages were rescued from above ground locations in homes and buildings in the Gaza Strip.

Now, once he was rescued from that tunnel, we then saw video of him with Israeli soldiers in what appears to be a home or a building in the Gaza Strip. And then he was taken by helicopter to Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel, where doctors there evaluated him to be in good medical condition. That's also where he was finally reunited with his loved ones, including several of his brothers, who said that they had started to lose hope that their brother might even return from Gaza alive.

And then suddenly today, they got the phone call that they had been waiting for, for nearly 11 months. Telling them to go to Soroka Medical Center, where they were finally able to embrace their brother. We're told that he asked about his other family members. He was told that everyone is doing well. And now he will be recovering at that hospital for a couple of days, most likely, and then finally returning home with his family. Manu?

RAJU: All right, Jeremy Diamond, from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much. And new CNN reporting this morning shows the extent to which election officials and companies have had to overall their approach to November's election, following the avalanche of disinformation over the outcome of the 2020 race.

Our Marshall Cohen is out today with this, scarred by 2020 smears voting companies and election officials embrace for November. Marshall joins us now. He's right here. Marshall, thanks for joining me this afternoon. It's great to see you. This has been really well reported out story. Tou talked to roughly a dozen or so election officials. What are you learning? What's your big takeaway about what is happening now that could be different?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Manu, after 2020 nothing will ever be the same for election workers and the voting companies that do the hard work of administering our elections, where millions and millions of people just take for granted that the stuff goes on behind the scenes. These were largely anonymous companies. Nobody knew these companies or knew their secretary of state, but after 2020 with the disinformation from Donald Trump and his allies, they were all catapulted to the forefront of the disinformation wars and the political battle. So, they're trying to have a better outcome this time around, Manu.

[12:20:00]

And you know, we've heard so much about the defamation cases that Dominion Voting Systems and other companies have brought against Fox News. And Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies, they could get a big payday off that, but they're also hoping to send a deterrent message. If you lie this time around, we may come after you again. You'll have -- there might be hell to pay.

Another company that's even bigger than Dominion, called ES&S. I learned that they actually imposed background checks on their own employees, forcing everybody to undergo social media scrubbing. They wanted to make sure that nobody had any social media posts that were overtly political or endorsing candidates because they don't want that stuff to be weaponized in the future.

They even had a training session for their employees, Manu. When you go back home, thanksgiving dinner, when you around the dinner table with your family. Here's what you say to your friends and family members when they pepper you with questions about 2020.

RAJU: Right, interesting. And you also said you heard from one official in Michigan who said that the 2020 election deniers were actually still looking at for voter fraud from 2020. What did you learn from that episode?

COHEN: They're still looking four years later --

RAJU: I haven't found it yet.

COHEN: No, because there's nothing to find. The election wasn't rigged. I talked to Barb Byrum. She is the election official, top election official in Lansing, Michigan. And she said that her office has just been inundated with public records requests, FOIA requests, from what she believes are people being ramped up from right wing disinformation that think that, yeah, we can just find the fraud.

So, it has taken her office a lot of time to go through these requests because by law you have to answer. She told me that they're pulling time away from the actual election administration. They get her on the phone. They have a million conspiracies they want to talk about. They have to send the staff to go pull all these records. It's a wild goose chase when they actually have a real job to do.

RAJU: Diverting resources. That's interesting. And Marshall, you write about Dominion Voting Systems, which of course, went after Fox News. And that led to the historic, including $787 million defamation settlement. Fox News had to settle with Dominion over those false election claims. But there was threats of physical violence that threats that occurred there for Dominion, but it's also part of a larger issue about personal safety for some of these election officials, right?

COHEN: Yeah. And there has been an exodus of election workers that just did not want to put up. If you abuse this time around, but for the people that are still working the critical part of our democracy, so we should be grateful to them. They have beefed up their physical security at their offices. They've invested more than ever on the security.

I spoke to one company that said that it's selling 1500 wearable panic buttons to election officials like Life Alert. You press the button, it calls 901 that election officials and election workers at the polls can wear. When the polls are open, in case anybody tries to cause any trouble or starts a scene there.

And some of these companies, Manu, have even brought in DHS to come look at their own internal cyber protections, because they know everyone's going to be coming after them if they don't like the results in November.

RAJU: Let's hope it doesn't happen. Interesting reporting. Thank you very much for bringing it, Marshall. And coming up for us. Can special Cohen counsel Jack Smith revive Trump's classified documents case? We've got all the latest on Trump's criminal cases. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Special counsel Jack Smith fighting back after judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the criminal classified documents case against Donald Trump in a forceful new filing. He's asking an appeals court to overrule her decision. And that Cannon's quote, novel conclusions lack merit. That's just one of several significant legal developments involving the former president that we're watching this week.

Joining me now to break this all down, CNN's senior crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz and CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig. Nice to see you both.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Legal news is back. We're back with it.

RAJU: Yes. I appreciate that. OK. So, let's start with the new filing here. So, tell us a little bit about what Jack Smith's argument he is here? And do you think you'll have any merit with the appeals court?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, the topline, Manu, is they want to revive the criminal case against Donald Trump around classified documents. They want that to go to trial, still, even though the judge dismissed it. So, they're at the appeals court now --

RAJU: The judges said that the Special Counsel lacks constitutionality they brought together. POLANTZ: Dismissed closed the case. The appeals court will now look at whether that reasoning was right. But what they have to do here, and what they're doing in a very lengthy and pretty forceful filing with a lot of history, a lot of law to back them up, is to say, hey, let us do our thing. We've been doing it for decades, even back to after the Civil War. And what we want to do is be able to use special investigators, special prosecutors.

One of the things that they're arguing is that if this decision from Aileen Cannon stands at appeals courts, endorsed her thinking that it's not constitutional to have a special counsel, then that could cut out all kinds of abilities of the people in power to appoint people.

A quote. If the attorney general lacks the power to appoint inferior officers, that conclusion would invalidate the appointment of every member of the Department of Justice who exercises significant authority and occupies a continuing office. So big ideas here that the appeals court is going to have to look at months from now.

RAJU: And do you think that has merit, Elie. Also, if the Appeals Court sides to Jack Smith, how quickly with this go to trial.

HONIG: So, I do think Jack Smith ultimately going to win here. As of this moment, as we sit here, the case is dead.