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Inside Politics

Israeli Military: Bodies of Six Hostages Recovered In Gaza; Harris, Trump Gear Up For Post-Labor Day Campaign Sprint; Trump's Week Marked By Scattered Attacks, Policy Shifts. Harris Campaign Stops This Week; One on One with Dana Bash. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired September 01, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:42]

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): New overnight, Israel recovers the bodies of six hostages, including an Israeli American. We're on the ground with the latest.

And flip flop.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We want more babies, to put it very nicely.

RAJU: Trump scrambles on abortion.

REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Before he's for this, he's for that. You can't trust him.

RAJU: While Harris confronts her past.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My values have not changed.

RAJU: Will voters buy what they're selling?

Plus, home stretch.

TRUMP: I look forward to the debate with her.

RAJU: The race enters its final phase.

We are joined by two of the reporters who know Harris best.

HARRIS: We are running as the underdog, but we like hard work. Hard work is good work.

RAJU: And impact.

Dana Bash joins to discuss the interview of the year and her new book.

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

RAJU (on camera): Good morning. Thanks for joining us for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju.

We begin with the breaking news out of Gaza, where the Israeli military says it has recovered the bodies of six hostages from an underground tunnel, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents just spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month.

Now, the Israeli military said the hostages were brutally murdered by Hamas. And this all comes nearly 11 months since Hamas first attacked Israel, capturing 250 hostages and killing more than 1,200 Israelis. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the authorities there.

Now, CNN's Nic Robertson is following the breaking news from Jerusalem, where there are still 100 hostages still unaccounted for, 35 believed to be dead.

So, Nic, tell us what you're learning.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah. The IDF say that they were on combat operations in Rafah in the south of Gaza overnight, and in a tunnel. They found these six hostages who they say were brutally murdered. And the defense minister says murdered in cold blood shortly before those troops could get to them. And recover them, their bodies were taken out. They were identified, their families informed.

And the nation here told this told about it this morning. It really is a country grieving, but it's a country divided. The family members of the hostage families are blaming the prime minister, by and large. Leader of the opposition, Benny Gantz has called on the prime minister to actually call up some of the hostage families, some of these six, and just listen to them. We've heard from the prime minister's office now saying that he has actually called one of those families and said that he regrets that he was not able to bring him home alive.

But there is a real groundswell here that the -- that the finding of these six young hostages was -- it really shows the deep division in the country about how the prime minister is handling this. Many leaders of opposition parties are calling for people to come out and protest on the streets. One of the communities here in Israel, the mayor there, said that his that his community is going on strike. Community workers, they're going on strike as from Monday.

And, of course, the Hostage Families Forum calling for people to come out and protest about the way that the prime minister, in their view, has sacrificed the lives of these six hostages for his style and his negotiation and refusal. It appears to compromise over elements of their ceasefire and hostage release, negotiation with Hamas.

Hamas, for their part, not surprisingly, blaming Israel for the deaths of the six hostages, Manu.

RAJU: Nic, what can you tell us about the six hostages who were killed?

ROBERTSON: Heartbreaking. Three of them, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, and Carmel Gat were planned, were slated to be released in the first round of hostages that would have been released of a new deal, a humanitarian gesture, particularly in the case of Hersh, American Israeli hostage, born in Berkeley, California.

[08:05:17]

Really, his family described him as a as a free, kind, loving spirit.

And for so many people, not just here in Israel, not just in the United States, but around the world, he really became an emblem for the young people who were taken at the music festival for the brutality of Hamas and for the bravery that he showed during that whole scene outside the music festival where he was trying to defend some of the other people around him, reportedly trying to throw away a grenade. And you see him in the video being bundled into the back of a pickup truck. His left arm is pretty much missing and bloody.

In April this year, Hamas cynically used him in a propaganda video to try to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu to do a deal and get the release of the hostages. And you can see very clearly that he has lost his left arm.

The other hostages, Eden Yerushalmi, she was a Pilates instructor. She was one of the bartenders at the Nova music festival. We know that Carmel Gat, she was the daughter of a -- that she was visiting her parents at the nearby kibbutz Be'eri when she was, when she was, abducted. And she actually saw her mother being killed in the process. All of them, apart from her, taken from the Nova Music Festival.

RAJU: Nic Robertson, we're grateful for your reporting, live on the ground in Jerusalem. Thank you.

Joining me now to add his insights is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger.

So, David, these ceasefire talks have been touch and go for months. So what does this news overnight mean for what might happen next in these negotiations?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's really hard to tell, Manu. And obviously first this is just a huge human tragedy. We've had now, what, 11 months that they were held in captivity just about 11 months. And they would have some of them would have been, as you just heard from Nic among the first released, which explains the anger in Israel. This huge split in the government.

And you saw it most vividly because the defense minister of Israel, Defense Minister Gallant, took off after this happened, right after Prime Minister Netanyahu, and basically said Israel has to reverse the decision it made last Thursday when it agreed to Netanyahu's additional demand that some troops remain inside Gaza. And so you now have the defense minister, you know, openly at strategic difference with the prime minister about how they handled this. And I'm sure the protests are going to be big.

The difficulty is now of course, that it may make it even harder to get that agreement, an agreement that Secretary of State Blinken told us in July was inside the ten yard line. And had they made it in the past six weeks, I think all six of those would be alive today and three might be free.

RAJU: And as you mentioned about that pressure that he is facing internally, the Prime Minister Netanyahu, how do you think, given that what he's hearing internally, given what's happening on the streets right now, the protests that we are seeing as well, how do you think that he will navigate the aftermath of this?

SANGER: You know, it's amazing that he has survived every form of protest. Remember before the October 7th events, there were those huge protests every weekend about judicial reform as he tried to restrict the ability of the Israeli Supreme Court to overrule the government, now you're seeing these. He's been the incredible survivor and the reason for that is he has been able to hold together the 60 votes he needs in the Knesset to remain in power.

RAJU: Now, President Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu have been at odds throughout these talks. As you know, David, President Biden put out a statement last night saying, quote: Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.

Now, Kamala Harris also put out a statement last night. You've looked at their approaches. What do you make of the way that they have responded to this?

SANGER: Well, it's subtle and you wouldn't want to make too much of it, but it is interesting that the president basically put out a threat here by saying Hamas leaders will pay for their crimes, didn't necessarily indicate that that means that they would pay for it at the hands of Americans.

[08:10:06]

But you have seen American presidents in the past go after terror groups who killed American citizens. And certainly Hersh Goldberg- Polin was one of those.

Vice President Harris, in her statement, said something that he didn't he said that -- she said that the threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel and American citizens in Israel must be eliminated. Hamas cannot control Gaza.

So basically, she was laying out the line that under no circumstance could you have a peace agreement in which Hamas could ever come back to control Gaza. RAJU: All right. We'll be looking at that as it plays out.

David Sanger, thank you so much for your expertise and your analysis. Appreciate it this morning.

SANGER: Thank you, Manu.

RAJU: Coming up for us, Trump twists himself in knots with new policies and attacks as he tries to squash Harris's steady rise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I know what they say, he rambled. That's not rambling. When you have, what you do is you get off a subject to mention another little tidbit. Then you get back onto the subject.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[08:15:38]

RAJU: It's Labor Day weekend, which means we are at the beginning of the final stretch of this hugely consequential campaign season. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are both trying to shake up the deadlocked race, staring down the first debate matchup in just nine days.

But as Trump tries to stop Harris momentum, his methods are growing -- well, a bit more scattered. He spent the past week hurling new policy ideas and fresh insults at Harris to see what might stick. He's drawn criticism for a barrage of controversial and crude social media posts that visit to Arlington National Cemetery. In a series of eyebrows raising shifts on abortion and reproductive rights.

It was all on display at a pair of campaign events on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Our country is being poisoned. Poisoned, and your schools and your children are suffering greatly because they're going into the classrooms. They're taking their seats, and they don't even speak English.

The transgender thing is incredible. Think of it. Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation.

You know, I do the weave. You know what the weave is. I'll talk about, like, nine different things and they all come back brilliantly together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, soon, Trump's criminal cases will be back in the spotlight. A hearing in his federal election subversion case is expected this week. My panel is here to help me break all of this news down. Mike Allen

from "Axios", Jasmine Wright from "NOTUS", "The New York Times" Astead Herndon, and "The Boston Globe's" Jackie Kucinich.

Nice to see you all. Good morning. Good morning.

Okay, so let's talk about all this.

Mike, you and "Axios", there was you guys talked about how what has been really the story of the Trump years about how advisers want him to do one thing Donald Trump wants to do something else. You guys write his off script whims are increasingly throwing mud on his advisers' game plan.

Have they figured out -- if Trump and his campaign figured out what the strategy is against Harris? No.

MIKE ALLEN, CO-FOUNDER, AXIOS: How's that for --

(LAUGHTER)

RAJU: Next question.

ALLEN: Yes. No, let Trump be Trump, which is what they say because they have no choice. Like that's fine, in these sort of out months. But now that we're down to 65 days, they're like, we have a campaign here. And you were just showing some great reporting by my colleague Sophia Cai, who found that time after time, Trump is undermining the Trump campaign.

So in Pennsylvania, they go up with a website to help people vote by mail, which Republicans used to actually be very good at. Trump comes out in Pennsylvania and says, well, we don't like mail voting.

RAJU: Even though a couple of weeks ago he said that we should mail -- vote by mail, and now, he's back to where he was in 2020.

ALLEN: Across the country, they're trying to get volunteers out to get people to vote. And then Trump on the stage talks about election integrity, trying to make it harder to vote.

His campaign is like, let's talk about policies. Let's not be say, things that are going to get you off your track. Trump takes a vote. He says, let's have a free poll here about whether people want personal attacks or whether they want policies. You can guess how that turned out.

RAJU: And I mean, the Harris campaign is more than happy for him to try to make this a race about personality.

JASMINE WRIGHT, 2024 REPORTER, NOTUS: Yeah, they want that. They want it to be a race about personality, because they believe that the vice president's character is much stronger than she presents herself, more presidential, less chaotic than the former president does. So they're happy to talk about personal attacks against the vice president. I mean, obviously, we saw in Dana's interview that she didn't want to

talk about the racial attacks that he's made against her, but she's happy to talk about her own personality versus his, because when they're talking about personality, they are not talking about things that the Harris campaign knows that Harris is vulnerable on. And they're trying to go on the offensive, namely immigration and the economy.

And so they're happy to get into these personal conversations where they're talking about her temperament versus the former president's, because they believe that the American people will see a major contrast, and that is what their campaign strategy is about, showing the contrast not just on policy, but also about personal politics.

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: For a long time in this race, it felt like the Biden campaign was the one not looking at the kind of fundamental electoral issue they had, and now it feels to me like the Trump campaign, since the switch in this race has not been able to see the glaring kind of inability for them to land some of these attacks to cut through the noise.

The fact that they have a candidate who cannot stay focused on substance, cannot execute their strategy, have a vice -- has a running mate that is consistently falling in terms of favorability rating.

[08:20:06]

And I think that it just exposes the -- what has been true for a year or so is that Donald Trump has not been able to grow his vote share among the American public. He's really dealing with the same consolidated group. And now that has been shown, now he has a candidate on the other side that has a higher ceiling. It's looking a lot more flimsy than I think it used to.

And so it's the onus is on Trump coming into this debate to reverse the momentum of this campaign. We are certainly still in a deadlocked race. Yes, no clear leader. But the upside of where Harris is clearly higher from where the trend line of where the Republicans are, and it is up to the candidate to change it.

And I think we have a lot of evidence now to be skeptical of. Is this the same Donald Trump of four years ago, of eight years ago? We haven't seen him put that together.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And, just when you think the gender gap can't possibly get worse with the former president, J.D. Vance raises his hand and keeps saying things that further alienates women. You have Donald -- you mentioned the Donald Trump abortion politics of last week, that also can't possibly help what's going on. He's trying he's trying to mitigate some of the damage that has happened throughout the year. And yet he's finding a way still to make it worse.

RAJU: Yeah. Let's talk about the abortion policies before you jump in, Mike, just about how he has gone from, you know, he's appointed three Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. Then there are questions about he, as a Florida resident, how will you vote on affirming abortion rights as part of a ballot referendum in November?

And he's been a little bit, shall we say, all over the map.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Would you veto a federal abortion ban?

TRUMP: I'm not going to have to think about it because it's working out so well right now. The states are doing it.

I think the six weeks is too short. It has to be more time.

At the same time, the Democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation. So I'll be voting no for that reason.

Under the Trump administration, your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And just, you know, just to make clear about the issue of abortion at nine months or after nine months, abortions moments after birth or after birth are illegal in the United States, despite the suggestions there to the contrary, and that abortions at nine months, as Trump was saying, they're also very rare. Typically in cases where the mother's life is at risk or the fetus's life is at risk.

So that's a -- that's -- that's one point of fact that is important to point out. But nevertheless, all of this really underscores Trump's how, two years after the Dobbs decision, Trump is still trying to figure out a way to message this and knows that this is a political vulnerability for him.

ALLEN: He is. And Democrats look at this and say he's trying to call vice president Harris a flip flopper. He within a sentence doesn't always stay consistent. "The Times" -- Erick Erickson called it improvisational politics.

A very important data point that came out this week in "The Times"/Siena College swing state polling young women. Abortion is now in more important issue than the economy. Now, what Trump people will say is no one is voting for Trump because of consistency.

People know who he is. Nobody's voting for him because of policy. That's not his base. So that's how they hope to get out of this. But he has not found one comfortable thing that he can stick with.

RAJU: Yeah. Go ahead.

HERNDON: I would also posit that the issue for Republicans is even much bigger than just finding a messaging lane here. There are fundamentally torn between a piece of their base who sees this as a human rights issue, who will not budge a single inch, who will pressure each of the politicians on this front to not only just be embracing a federal abortion ban or find a weeks, but to go further and further to the right, even if they're consistently out of the place of where public opinion is.

And so when we ask Republicans about what they do on this issue from the local level all the way up to Donald Trump, if you create any distance between yourself and that wing, you're going to find yourself in some trouble. Even though the public has clearly stated that they're on the opposite side of this issue.

So I guess that the problem is shown most clearly through Donald Trump, because he hasn't been able to find a message on this. I remember talking to Republicans last year who, frankly, were just wishing that the issue would go away by the next election. I remember Byron Donalds telling me, well, I think people won't be as motivated on Republicans on abortion come the general election next year.

That's just been completely ridiculous. And I think just shows the larger pickle the party is in. They're on the wrong side.

RAJU: And just before you jump in, Jasmine, the Florida amendment that Trump plans to vote against would essentially keep in law, keep the current law in place, banning abortion after six weeks. If you voted yes, that would ensure abortion access until about 24 to 28 weeks.

So he is trying to distance himself from that six week abortion ban in Florida, criticized Ron DeSantis for this during the primary, but now he's essentially going to have to own it.

WRIGHT: Yeah, I think he's going to have to own it. And I think it just shows just how he has really tried to position himself closer to the center on the issue of abortion.

[08:25:05]

I think he's actually been the one person in his party who has understood just how powerful the issue of abortion has ever since the 2022 elections, midterm elections, that he's tried to be more moderate than the rest of his party. But I also think that this IVF rollout is a clear indication that they believe that regardless of whatever policies that the former president puts out, that the Republicans are going to come home at the end of the day in November.

And so this is a real doubling down of their idea to say, hey, look, it doesn't matter what we say, because it matters what he's going to do in office. And you've seen him act in office in a way that emboldens people who are against abortion.

So come with us now. Come on this journey, because we need to win in November. Now, whether or not that sticks, I think it's plain to see. But obviously they're case in point here is that Republicans are going to come home. They're going to double down because they want to win in November.

(CROSSTALK)

HERNDON: This has been the history, and this is where the Vance pick is a huge tell for me, because I feel like if there was really an attempt to expand out the conversation, to bring in people who are different on this issue, you wouldn't pick someone who highlights those inconsistencies as clearly whether the Trump campaign knew it or not, the Vance pick has really solidified them into, I think, a tough corner, particularly with young women, particularly with people in the electorate, that he has not made an attempt to really get closer to.

There was opportunity for the Trump campaign to expand its kind of aperture. It chose not to.

WRIGHT: And now --

KUCINICH: But perhaps, but perhaps, perhaps for a different race.

HERNDON: Yeah.

KUCINICH: This is before he was running against Vice President Harris and he was running against Joe Biden.

RAJU: Yeah. In the meantime, there was something that broke out over the weekend, this fight between over this Trump visit to Arlington National Cemetery this past week. Of course, he went there to spotlight what happened in 2021, that terrorist attack that happened in the Kabul airport and the aftermath of that chaotic bombing, a chaotic withdrawal of Afghanistan.

The Trump campaign was rebuked by the army for its filming in an off site air burial site in Arlington National Cemetery. Kamala Harris put out a statement over the weekend criticizing the Trump campaign for doing that.

And then Trump's campaign -- Trump posted a number of videos, eight videos from Gold Star families over the weekend, late last night, actually attacking Harris for all of this, it's pretty clear that the Trump campaign you would think that in other campaigns would say, maybe we did something wrong. Let's maybe apologize for this. We shouldn't have filmed in this area.

They want this fight because they want to spotlight what happened in Afghanistan.

ALLEN: A hundred percent. And they know that it's going to be an issue in the debate nine days from now. And that was quite a flex with the Gold Star family.

So the vice president herself had been pretty quiet about this, but she went full bore yesterday, as my grandmother would say. And then Trump posting these videos very harsh, very personal in what they're saying about the vice president defending him for being there.

And of course, there's two questions like one is apparently they got permission from the Gold Star families to be there. The Gold Star families aren't able to give permission to Arlington National Cemetery. And second, if you're getting in a fight with an official at Arlington National Cemetery, you're doing it wrong.

RAJU: Yeah, it's interesting to see their response, and we'll see how it continues to play out. I suspect we'll hear more about this in the days ahead.

All right. Coming up, why is Vice President Harris heading to Donald Trump's backyard?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:38]

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST: Despite sitting for her first big interview last week and delivering a national address during the party's convention, Kamala Harris is still confronting this reality.

There are many voters who do not know where she will take the country and polls showing she has yet to close the deal with a chunk of the electorate.

Now, in the Sun Belt, the polls indicate that Harris is closing the gap with Trump, though there is no clear leader. And this week, the Rust Belt is on Harris' mind starting her Labor Day in Michigan before heading to Pennsylvania where she will join President Biden on the stump.

But needling Trump will also be part of their strategy as the campaign kicks off a bus tour, highlighting abortion rights and plans to do that Tuesday in Palm Beach, Florida. Of course, that is not far from Mar-a-Lago.

My panel is back. So Jasmine, you've been covering Harris for many years now.

JASMINE WRIGHT, REPORTER, NOTUS 2024: Many years.

RAJU: Many years now. But first, let's just talk about where -- how they view this moment in the campaign. Because as you can see, it's a deadlock race 45-45 is the Quinnipiac poll. That is consistent with pretty much every poll that we've seen in the aftermath of the Democrat National Convention.

But a "Wall Street Journal" poll says 15 percent of voters still need to know more. Now that may seem like a small amount, but it's significant in a -- in a closely fought race.

WRIGHT: Yes. And I think that everything that she's done to now, has shown this idea that they recognize that the American public needs to know more about what she would actually do in office. Even if you're not getting those point-by-point policy positions, they are trying to really firm up the broad strokes of what she wanted to do in office.

And I think that campaign right now is of two minds (ph). The vice president and her top advisers, they are working towards the debate. That is where their mind is no matter where you may see her today or the next two days. She is focused on the debate.

But everybody else is focused on that path to 270. And so that's why they're going places, not just Democratic strongholds. Obviously, you'll see her in Michigan today, Pittsburgh later on today.

But you're also seeing them go into places like savannah, you're going to see them go into Florida, Trump's backyard because they recognize that it's not just about winning over Democrats, but it's about inching up the numbers in places that Democrats don't normally go, trying to get the Trump campaign to spend not just more money, but spend more candidate time in places that he would likely have or he had a fair chance of winning if Biden was still on the ticket, really trying to (INAUDIBLE) that split there.

[08:34:53]

RAJU: Astead, has she effectively been able to convince voters that her politics are not too liberal. I mean we've seen polls in the aftermath of the DNC that -- even before the DNC that there was a view that, in some of these swing states, that she did have too liberal politics to a number of voters.

Do they believe as you talk to the campaign, they have done anything to put a dent in that?

ASTEAD HERNDON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "NEW YORK TIMES": I think that they view the interview, they view the story they told at the DNC as kind of tacit responses to that. As an introduction of someone who is basically at the midpoint of where the Democratic Party is. In the same way that kind of Biden, I think by the end of his kind of term, found himself at the middle of where the party is.

I think the difference between Harris and Biden are even Harris and kind of folks she was running up against in 2019, is that they had a brand to the public. They had a story that they already knew about Joe Biden. The country kind of understood him to be a moderate dealmaker looking for things to get done in Washington.

There's not a clear story that I think has been told consistently over a period of time about her. And I think that's where that 15 percent is coming from because for as much as she can say that her values have not changed, the expression of those values is policy. The expression of those values is how you talk about yourself.

And we have not seen the kind of consistent story between presidential campaigns and now. And I think that we can't just gloss over that initial introduction to the public.

That's how a lot of people came to really understand her and the vice- presidential role is one that is inherently in the background.

And so in this moment right now, I think the campaign is torn between two positions, frankly putting meat on the bones to answer folks' questions, to define herself, to give a kind of story to latch onto, and the fact that a lot of this unity is because she's a kind of generic, vague vessel.

A lot of this unity is being driven because a lot of people can come to her and kind of project different things. And so there's a tension between those two things right now, because one thing is serving them electorally, even though it's a challenge with some of the lack of --

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, BOSTON GLOBE: But they're also trying to use that. "My values haven't changed."

HERNDON: Yes.

KUCINICH: What does that mean?

RAJU: What are her values?

(CROSSTALKING)

KUCINICH: Well exactly. It could mean whatever, you know, whatever whoever is watching things -- and this is why going back to the last segment, Trump's inability to focus on policy and ability to have a cogent attack against her. It's kind of an in-kind gift to the Harris campaign because it is allowing them to have a lot more --

(CROSSTALKING)

KUCINICH: Exactly.

RAJU: You know, what's interesting too, is we talked about the gender gap, there is a gender gap. Harris, of course, is leading Trump over women by a significant margin.

But what about men? And the question about how Trump is doing versus Harris? He's got -- he's got about a 20-point lead himself with men.

And this has been a real clear strategy by the Trump campaign. He's been having -- doing podcast interviews, different interviews targeting that segment of male voters, young male voters.

This is how "The New York Times" reports it in a story out this weekend. "The Trump campaign has been aggressively courting what might be called the bro vote, the frat boy flank. It's a slice of 18 to 29- year-olds that has been long regarded as unreliable and unreachable. But that Republicans believe may just swing the election this year."

The Harris campaign needs to do a better job of trying to court those voters who potentially could swing an election.

MIKE ALLEN, CO-FOUNDER, AXIOS: One thing they're doing this week to reach out to all of voters. She teased last week that she was going to have a small business tax cut. This week -- they're going to talk about this week. And in my conversations with this campaign, they see this as a very important moment in reaching all voters that small businesses, the front door to the economy for a lot of people -- dry cleaner, a HVAC guy, like the pest control guy, gas company.

And getting to Astead's point, you -- it's going to be harder to call her a lefty liberal if she's out there talking about a tax cut for small business.

So in this boys versus girls election as we've called it, this is place she's hoping to reach some boys.

WRIGHT: But I also think that the men problem was not just Harris. It was -- it was something that Harris inherited from Biden.

We did a story back in June. We went to a focus group in North Carolina and it was all men in between ages of 18 and 50, and they were all talking about just how bad the economy is and how -- how much the economy has soured them on Biden.

So it's not just a Harris problem. Now, I think Harris has a unique challenge which that it is a lot of times difficult for female candidates to reach male voters, particularly a black woman.

That may be an issue for them. So that's of course, where Tim Walz is going to come in, her running mate trying to reach those folks in the Rust Belt, trying to potentially reach out to those frat boys.

But it's also going to be where they're positioning the vice president. Are they putting her in front of the people who may not be the most direct person to support her, but still they're an important part of the electorate.

HERNDON: Also if -- if the Trump campaign has consolidated 18 to 29- year-old men and the Harris campaign consolidates what -- young women, suburban women.

If that's the gender gap that they take, that's one that wins them the election, right?

[08:39:48]

HERNDON: So I'm saying the problems with Trump on his gender gap I think are much more important, but we do see that the Trump campaign is making a very concerted effort.

I sometimes think we don't talk about like white identity politics or male identity politics in the same way. And the Trump campaign is very clearly making the outreach to try to link this group together and actualize them.

Aiden Ross (ph), streamers, TikTokers -- it's been a concerted effort and one that Vance has spoken to, he's just done so as he has been making a whole bunch of people more important than the electorate even more upset.

RAJU: Yes. I mean, that's the question, right? And whether or not that's still going to be enough to offset Harris' margin with women voters.

KUCINICH: I mean, going after very low propensity voters is always a risk and I mean, take, take a look at his convention. The convention was I mean, they had Dana White. Yes. So, yes.

(CROSSTALKING)

KUCINICH: Exactly. So it was very clear, very tale of two conventions when you look at the dynamics.

RAJU: Yes. And what their strategy was, it's fascinating to see.

All right. Thanks guys for that.

And up next for us, a very familiar face joins me at the INSIDE POLITICS desk. Yes. That's CNN's dana bash, who's here to talk about her brand-new book and her headline grabbing interview this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: If you are elected.

What would you do on day one in the White House?

KAMAL HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, there are a number of things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:41:08]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: It was an election rife with controversy, drama and violence. Two stubborn candidates at the center, chaos and violence erupting in the city streets and a stark divide among -- forming among voters, all inflamed by newspapers reshaping the information landscape.

Sound familiar? I'm not talking about 2020 or even the 21st century. It was a race that unfolded over 150 years ago. Similarly, upending the way American democracy works. And what it means to protect it.

You might recognize my next guest who literally wrote the book on this unique moment in history. "America's Deadliest Election" from Dana Bash and her co-author, David Fisher. And it's out this Tuesday.

Dana is here with me to talk about all of this.

BASH: I'm on it.

RAJU: For your first interview ahead of this much awaited --

BASH: Thank you.

RAJU: The table has turned. I get to interview you.

(CROSSTALKING)

BASH: I like being in this seat. It's nice.

RAJU: Yes.

BASH: And you in that chair.

RAJU: Exactly, exactly.

Well, this is fascinating. I'm curious about you know, the 1872 Louisiana governor's race. What drew you to this really remarkable -- I'd never heard of it until you brought this issue.

BASH: That makes me feel better because I didn't neither. As I started learning more and more about it as somebody who loves politics, like you love history, like you.

I thought, how do I not know this? Because it was so consequential.

How did I get to the place where I was a part of this? Well, David Fisher, who is my co-author, approached me about it because it was political and thought will you be a good person since you cover politics to do it?

Dan Abrams, who -- with whom he had co-authored several books brought the story to him. So that was sort of the genesis -- genesis of this.

But the key is, and you just did a great job setting it up. That this 1872 gubernatorial election, the chaos around it, the violence around it was so consequential beyond Louisiana because it was during this, excuse me, it was after the civil war and during reconstruction.

And Manu, at the time of course black men, freed men were finally able to vote. And so the story around it was those who -- forces who wanted to help the African-Americans vote and those mostly Democrats in the South at the time, who did not.

And the violence around all of that can -- there's a through-line from that -- through the end of reconstruction, which was just a few years after that. And then about a century of Jim Crow laws. It all stemmed from this election and 1872.

RAJU: Well, that is remarkable. There's the deadly violence and led to racial violence. And there was a coup. There were coup attempts --

BASH: Yes. Literally.

RAJU: -- as well. The book introduces us right away to Louisiana Governor Henry Warmoth and how he set the stage for this divided, deadly election.

I want to just read an excerpt from the book. You guys write, "By painting the bleakest possible picture of this state when he entered office, there was almost nothing he could do that would make things worse. While he would receive credit for any progress to save the state, he made clear he needed far more power than traditionally given to the governor."

So what can you tell us about how the story unfolds?

BASH: He was a carpetbagger from the North and went to Louisiana and got involved in politics right away as a Republican. He was part of literally Lincoln's Republican Party. He knew Abraham Lincoln.

His character traits might sound familiar to you, Manu. He eventually left the Republican Party -- maybe not formally, but ran on another party in order to maintain his power. He believed that the law was whatever he said it was and he changed the construct of the Louisiana government several times in order to retain and maintain power.

He encouraged violence when things didn't go his way. He understood the media environment and played it very well. People loved to love him and loved to hate him. And his -- excuse me -- he had insatiable hunger for power.

[08:49:38]

And that is what set in motion so much of the violence, including the Colfax Massacre, which was brutal and 150 -- at least 150 black men were killed in Grant Parish, named for President Grant.

And it was all about them trying to hold on to the notion of the election being stolen from them because black men were not allowed to vote the way that they should have been constitutionally already.

RAJU: Wow, just fascinating. And I want -- I want to get you before we wrap about how your last week has been. You've been a little busy --

BASH: A little.

RAJU: -- not only -- not only writing books, but also moderating debates. And hey, there's they're right there on your screen, you can see the big interview that took place.

What did you -- when you when you look back at it -- what surprised you the most from what came out of that interview? And what was your general takeaway?

BASH: Takeaway was that they knew that they had to do this -- an interview. I'm grateful that it was with me because it had been so long that it becomes --

RAJU: Well-deserved, by the way. And excellent interview.

BASH: Well, thank you.

But honestly, one of the biggest takeaways was that moment when I asked about Donald Trump's attacks on her racial identity. And the fact that she shut it down and said "next question".

To me that seemed to be something that she was planning to do. And it's those few words spoke so many volumes and represents the way that she has been dealing with these attacks on her since she became the nominee.

And I think that probably is a preview of what we might see in the debate.

RAJU: Yes. It was a really (INAUDIBLE) interview and that's a fantastic book, Dana.

BASH: Thank you.

RAJU: Thank you so much for joining me. This is great. You all should read it. Congratulations again to Dana.

BASH: Thank you.

RAJU: Be sure to pre-order Dana's book "America's Deadliest Election". That is out this Tuesday.

So stay tuned for more INSIDE POLITICS as we follow the breaking news out of the Middle East.

[08:51:35]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: And we're back following the breaking news out of Israel and Gaza. And for more on that, stay tuned to "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Dana's guests include Congressman Adam Schiff and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

And that's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X @mkraju, follow the show INSIDE POLITICS.

If you missed this episode or any episode, you can catch up wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for INSIDE POLITICS.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. See you next time.

[08:56:23]

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