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Inside Politics

Harris: "People Are Ready For A New Way Forward"; Harris Defends Policy Changes: "My Values Have Not Changed"; Harris Hugs Biden Record On Economy, Immigration, Israel; Trump Gives Mixed Signals On Key Abortion Measure; Anti-Abortion Advocates Uneasy With Trump's Latest Rhetoric. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 30, 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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MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, meet the candidates. CNN scored big interviews, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz and J. D. Vance, all within the last 24 hours. We'll bring you the highlights, the fallout and the fact checking this hour.

Plus, campaign cleanup. Team Trump trying to walk back the former president's new comments on abortion. He's trying to alleviate concerns from moderates, but his social conservative base is not so happy.

And some good news for those hitting the road this holiday weekend. Gas prices will be the lowest we've seen on Labor Day in three years. But will it last through November? We're tracking an issue that could have a huge impact on this race.

I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start with the interview dominating the political world. Dana Bash to sit down with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, their first in depth interview since Harris surged to the top of the Democratic ticket. But throughout the 27 minutes, the vice president focused more on big themes over details. She also tried to position herself as a candidate of change over and over again, even though she serves as the vice president in the current administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that people are ready for a new way forward. I think sadly, in the last decade, we have had in the former president someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation.

And I think people are ready to turn the page on that. I believe the American people deserve, which is a new way forward and turn the page on the last decade of what I believe has been contrary to where the spirit of our country really lies.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST & CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: But the last decade, of course, the last three and a half years has been part of your administration?

HARRIS: I'm talking about an era that started about a decade ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, Dana asked Harris about her reversals on issues like immigration and fracking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: How should voters look at some of the changes that you've made that you explained some of here in your policy? Is it because you have more experience now and you've learned more about the information? Is it because you were running for president in a Democratic primary? And should they feel comfortable and confident that what you're saying now is going to be your policy moving forward?

HARRIS: Dana, I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And this morning, we heard from Republican vice-presidential nominee J. D. Vance. He told CNN that if Harris has plans to fix the nation's most pressing issues, well, why hasn't she?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She is the sitting vice president of the United States. If she wants to tackle the affordability crisis, or close down the southern border, she should be doing it now. And I think it takes a lot of shame -- shamelessness, I should say to be able to stare at the American people's eyes and say, I'm going to fix your problems now, when I've already been in power for three and a half years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. We have a great panel of reporters to break this all down with us today. Astead Herndon of The New York Times, Jackie Kucinich of The Boston Globe, and CNN's Phil Mattingly. Great to see you guys. Friday, thankfully it's here. It's been a long week, a very eventful week.

OK. So, let's assess that fallout of this big interview. We waited for some time, for her to sit down for our first formal interview. What is the political impact of what we learned last night from Harris's sit down?

ASTEAD HERNDON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it remains to be seen. I think we get an insight as what the campaign at least views as the story they want to tell. They clearly are leaning into the story of being a change candidate, even though, as you mentioned, she is the sitting vice president. Frankly, running on a lot of the administration's accomplishments hasn't done that much separation for how she views her legislative priorities, different from Biden.

RAJU: Yeah. Really didn't specify that?

HERNDON: Did not specified it at all. But it's saying, you know, I think the American people are ready for a new way forward. And framing again Donald Trump is a thing that needs to have the page turned on them. I think we also saw them respond to their kind of -- number one, kind of controversies in the air, walls on his military record, Harris on the change in positions.

[12:05:00]

But I think overall, my take is that when you see the change from her from 2019 to now, I think it just shows the benefits of being able to run with the party at your back in this general election environment. There was such nitpicky kind of pouring over every answers in 2019. Elizabeth Warren said, like a policy litmus test for all of these issues.

And as the reporter was covering her for the times. At the time, I remember Harris being pushed and pulled between these kind of ideological fronts. With that kind of cast decided when Donald Trump clarified as the opponent, and of course, with the party now unified around her. You get a more confident candidate. I think, a candidate with a clearer message, even if it's not as detailed as I think some would like.

JACKIE KUCINICH, THE BOSTON GLOBE REPORTER: There really was a, intentional shift to the center last night, to your point, away from the Medicare for all, away from some of the more the environmental things that she boosted during that 2019 campaign. And yes, it was vague, but I think that was purposeful in order to associate herself with the -- with the Biden policies. That said that's not without risks, right, particularly on the economy. That's something that Republicans immediately jumped on.

And that was probably one of the only things they could jump on from that interview, because I don't really think it did any harm. I think she really got through it and the buildup is actually the most curious thing. Why didn't they just do --

RAJU: That's a great question. You know, but of course, she explained why she flip flopped on some of these key issues. She talked about her values being the way that they have not changed, even if there's views may have changed. So, we try to square that circle. But this is how the Wall Street Journal viewed it.

The conservative editorial page put it writing this this morning. My values have not changed. She said more than once in a practiced answer that can be read any way you want. We take it as a studied wink to her left flank that she's on their side but can't say so clearly until she's elected. PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I mean, I will confirm that the word values was said with frequency.

RAJU: That seemed to be planned.

MATTINGLY: I think the difficult part with that is either she's a flip flopper who will do whatever is politically expedient, or she's a San Francisco crazy liberal who's just trying to wear sheep's clothing right now to win an election, but in fact, she's actually that. She has no core, or she's a San Francisco communist. And it can't be both.

I don't think. I know people are trying to make it both on the Republican side. I have found often in terms of when you talk to people, and instead, who covered the campaign and has written so often about her probably know better than me.

When you talk to people who worked with her on policy issues. When you talk to people who worked with her throughout the course of her career, they don't peg her as being some flamingly left, progressive, liberal type of individual that tend to be more pragmatic, more trying to figure out, right? How do we get a solution?

The '19 campaign being kind of the one example of couldn't quite figure out where she needed to be when. And to Jackie's point, having this administration, having their policies, and having the opportunity of having the entire party behind her, I think has shifted how she views her moment in this time compared to '19.

HERNDON: Yeah. I think that's a great point, because I think the Harris has gained a little bit of grace on this farm, partially because people see 2019 as the aberration, rather than -- this moment where she seems more kind of an authentic center, which is where she's been. I mean, think back to her signature criminal justice philosophy, smart on crime.

That isn't a -- that isn't an ideological core. That is basically saying, I hear both the progressive and moderate sides of this issue. And I think with the evidence in front of me, I'll make a decision that doesn't fit into either of those boxes. That's where she's been, both politically and personally for a long time.

What we had in 2019 was her trying to fit into a really rigid box, which we should say, it's worth remembering that the only people to make it through that ideological purity test of that primary kind of unscathed were Biden and Sanders, people who had years of dividing themselves on that front. She was not the only person who was really kind of marred by those type of set.

RAJU: No question. She, of course, had to answer for some of those things. She also had to answer for the issue of immigration. Of course, she played this role in the Biden administration to try to deal with Central American countries, the root causes of immigration. Republicans call her the border czar. They've tried to tag all the immigration problems that have occurred at the border to Kamala Harris. It's clear the reason why she had to address some of these questions, because voters clearly see Trump beating her on the issue of immigration. 57-41 that's Trump versus Harris in a new Fox News poll, registered voters in battleground states, in the sunbelt states. So, key states that could determine the next president. So how did she deal with the question of immigration when Dana asked her last night?

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Why did the Biden, Harris administration wait three and a half years to implement sweeping asylum restrictions?

HARRIS: The number of immigrants coming from that region has actually reduced since we began that work. But I will say this that Joe Biden and I, and our administration worked with members of the United States Congress on an immigration issue that is very significant to the American people and to our security, which is the border.

And Donald Trump got word of this bill that would have contributed to securing our border, and because he believes that it would not have helped him politically, he told his folks in Congress, don't put it forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Similar to the argument we've been hearing for some time, but enough to cut into that Trump margin by making that argument.

KUCINICH: Nuance is hard.

RAJU: Yeah. Especially, the arguing process, legislative process.

KUCINICH: Well, and you saw -- she saw -- she actually said this some weeks back that she agreed with that that bipartisan border bill. Again, associating yourself something that happened during the Biden administration. And it was put out in bullet points like a week -- like a week ago, and Republicans seized on it that she was flip flopping.

No, this is something that she's been saying for, you know, since that bill went through. So, I don't think it's going to quell any of her critics, and it will likely continue to be something that the Republicans jump on throughout this process because they really do believe that they have the upper hand here.

MATTINGLY: There has long been frustration with Senate Democrats who you've talked to far more than any of us mercifully. And they didn't think President Biden made this case well enough of Trump killed this one solution, which by the way, Democrats went super far right based on where they used to be on immigration.

We should make that the way that we try and at least mollify this as a political issue. Kamala Harris is never going to win on immigration and polling with the former president based on everything we've seen over the course of the last three and a half years. I don't think that's a goal. The goal is to try and minimize just how wide that spread is. If they can do that, that is a very, very big deal for them.

RAJU: And give them something to talk about them and their down ticket to candidates. One of the things that was also a lot of interesting things, but about the issue of race. This is, of course, Trump had said at the National Association of Black Journalists a few weeks ago that Harris, who is South Asian and American, also African American, she said, perhaps, was that she turned black. That's what Trump had said about Kamala Harris. And then when she was asked about that by Dana, she decided not to respond. Listen?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He suggested that you happened to turn black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity.

HARRIS: Any same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.

BASH: That's it?

HARRIS: That's it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: What do you make of the fact that she is not engaging, and she also, later in the interview too, she did not want to really address the issue that this is -- she's a historic candidate, so she doesn't want to really talk about that.

HERNDON: I find it interesting. I mean, in some ways, I think that I understand it politically. Donald Trump is trying to pull Democrats into the mud. And frankly, in doing so, he makes his political problems worse. I was in the room at NABJ in that moment, and you could feel the sense of kind of shock. And even he would say that were specifically to that audience. I think for a lot of voters, it actually brings them back around to Kamala Harris when he's making those type of personal attacks.

So, I understand the kind of political calculus here. I also understand that personally, she's never been someone who's talked about this in that way. And I think that we've seen this, of course, with the growth of kind of women and people of color in these positions.

Sometimes when there was only a couple of them in the room, there was such an onus on them to answer everything about what your position here brings. Her kind of viewpoint on that throughout her whole career has been, I'm going to show you through actions. I'm going to show you through example. But that's not something I need to name and kind of make a frontal part of my political pitch.

So, I think it's consistent to kind of where she's been. But I would also say, I don't think the owner should only be on Harris to kind of answer those type of things. We need to pose those questions also to Donald Trump, who's been the one who's traffic and race and identity kind of mess for a lot longer. And as part of his political pitch too.

RAJU: Yeah. We will see how, whether she talks about it more, or whether she continues to keep it as something that other people can talk about. All right, coming up next. Trump speaks out on Florida's referendum to overturn the state's six-week abortion ban. And why his campaign says, Trump isn't saying what it sounds like he's saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think the six-week is too short. It has to be more time. And so that's -- and I've told them that I want more weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[12:15:00]

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RAJU: It's been 798 days since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And with 67 days until the next presidential election, that decision and its aftermath remain a dominant issue. Donald Trump knows his party is on the wrong side of public opinion. That's probably why he said this yesterday about how he'll vote on a Florida referendum that will reverse the state's strict six-week abortion ban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It has to be more time. And so that's -- and I've told them that I want more weeks.

DASHA BURNS, NBC CORRESPONDENT: So, you'll vote in favor of the amendment?

TRUMP: I'm voting that -- I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:20:00]

RAJU: OK. So, the Trump campaign then quickly put out a statement that the former president did not say, what it seemed like he said. And his running mate J. D. Vance spoke to CNN about all of this this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: The president is simply saying, he doesn't like six weeks. He obviously has said, he doesn't like late term abortion. And I think he will make an announcement on what he actually wants to do on the Florida law in particular.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: You'll make an announcement. He was asked also a few weeks ago. I think Kristen Holmes asked him the question about how we would vote on this? And he sidestepped it then as well on this Florida representative. But it really just shows you where we are.

KUCINICH: He said, leave it up to the states, and they just leaving it up to the state.

RAJU: And he lives in one of those states.

KUCINICH: He lives in one of those states. It's very clear that Trump views this through the lens of politics. And he has said after the 2022 election, he blamed abortion policies -- for abortion politics for some of their candidates losing much to the dismay of the anti- abortion activist community, which he also needs to vote for him.

So, he has been trying to thread this needle. And so far, he keeps on just running into these other complications, because it's a really complicated issue, and voters are voting across the country on these referendums. Right now, I think they still have a perfect record, the referendums and to codify abortion in several states. This is a tough issue for him.

RAJU: Yeah. It's amazing, two years in, at least, they still have not figured out how to message this issue. But perhaps this is one reason why Trump is sidestepping this and not quite explaining how he would vote on that referendum. Look at the poll from the Quinnipiac, just put out a poll about, asking about the gender gap as well as who would handle abortion better on the gender gap.

Harris is beating Trump by 21 points with women. Trump beating by significant margins, civil margin with men. But obviously women in the suburbs, they're decisive in some of these battleground states.

MATTINGLY: You make an interesting point. It's been two and a half years or 798 days, shout out to whoever on your team did that count. Maybe it's not the message, right? Like, how can you not find a message in that. Maybe it's just that this is a bad issue for the period end of story. And you give credit to where it's due, in terms of Trump knows that, sees that, feels that has said that to people behind closed doors that he doesn't want any part of this. Here's the difficulty.

To your point, it's never going to go away. And on this particular issue of the Florida referendum, like it's a binary choice. It's a yes or no issue. You don't get to write in more than six weeks on the ballot and have an effect, like this is something you should be able to weigh in on. And in particular, when they're trying to make light of their opponent, who is a consistent flip flopper on everything. There is no consistency on this issue whatsoever.

And my biggest question has been, at what point do the pro-life kind of cornerstone elements of the Republican Party start to say, all right, like, we've let you have enough here. You're starting to go too far. And the other element about abortion they talked about yesterday was the one thing where I started thinking, OK, like we're reaching that point right now. And that's the idea of this.

RAJU: Yeah. And we'll get to that in a second. But just about what you were talking about the activists. I've said about this, as Erick Erickson is a conservative, talk show host in Georgia, tweeting. If Donald Trump loses, today is the day he lost. The committed pro-life community could turn a blind eye in part, to national abortion issues. But for Trump to weigh in on Florida as he did will be a bridge too far, too many.

Is he overstating it? Or is this a real risk for him on the right?

HERNDON: Yeah. Donald Trump has been pretty clear with kind of anti- abortion activists that he has saw them as the reason, the 2022 midterms went the wrong direction. He has blamed them for electoral problems. And frankly, I think he is daring them to do something about it. He -- as he consistently moves towards the center, I think this week is even a bigger example of that.

On the issue, he is frankly, challenging them to hold him electorally responsible. And I don't think we have a lot of evidence to say that they will. Over the last several years, Donald Trump has put distance. Evangelicals have come back to him every single time under their premise of a binary choice, lesser than two even. Some of the conversation we often hearing having on the left with Democrats.

I mean, I remember talking to Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony pro-life group. And she was saying, if Donald Trump didn't embrace a national abortion ban, that her kind of community would not go actively vote for him, not organized from in the primary. I mean, he -- we're so many steps past that they're still having that kind of open question.

So, I think, frankly, Donald Trump is saying, I'm going to move where the politics are. And if you're going to hold me accountable to it, I need to see it. And they haven't done it.

RAJU: Yeah. And we haven't seen the evidence of that. Phil mentioned about Trump on IVF, making a pretty remarkable policy declaration, speaking yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Through the Trump administration, your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment, fertilization for women, because we want more babies to put it very nicely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:25:00]

RAJU: OK. So, they're going to pay for a new government program. He mandates that.

MATTINGLY: He mandates. It sounds like a mandate on healthcare --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: Taxpayers would have to pay for, and insurers would have to cover --

KUCINICH: Do Republicans like to pay --

MATTINGLY: -- policy people to pay more money in the insurance. That's interesting for those of us who're covered healthcare policy.

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: Yeah. That's right.

MATTINGLY: Mr. Manu Raju. Look, I have tried to get my head around the idea of this dramatic shift. We talk about how he just understands the raw politics or this, or has, like a gut sense of things. They know IVF is -- I mean, if abortion is a 55-45 issue, or a 58-48 issue. IVF is like an 80-20 issue, and clearly trying to proactively get on the right side of this issue.

The reality is, though, conservatives not just on mandates and healthcare in general and forcing insurers to pay for things on IVF. It is a complicated issue with inside the Republican Party that is at times contentious, and he's just going the other way here.

RAJU: Raju.

KUCINICH: And I know Phil is absolutely right. This is -- he's looking to appeal to the voters that were turned off by what happened in the wake of that Alabama ruling. And --

RAJU: And Alabama had to quickly clean it up as --

MATTINGLY: Yeah.

KUCINICH: Exactly, and but it was still out there. I mean, the NRSC putting out that statement saying, you know, we are for this, please don't -- don't go any further on this. But I don't know there's so little known about this policy, question mark, other than this speech, it's hard to say that this will move.

HERNDON: I would also relate it back to our previous conversation about immigration. One thing that Democrats can do, even if they can't close the gap on people's trust with them on the other issue, it's just raise a different one to become a higher priority.

Abortion rights, if it is top of mind in Arizona, in Florida, in places where it's most tangible, even if she is not as trusted on the economy or on immigration, that is a clear path to victory. And so, they have not only an offensive issue, but something that can really consolidate across ideological base of voters, and Republicans are still floundering.

RAJU: Yeah. Two years in, well, they're still looking for an answer. All right, coming up. Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, will join me live. We'll talk IVF, immigration, the continued fallout from Dana's interview. That's after a short break.

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