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Inside Politics

Trump Refuses to Say if He Would Veto National Abortion Ban; Ceremonies Mark 23 Years Since Terror Attacks; White House Condemns Death of American Activist Killed by IDF. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 11, 2024 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:30:30]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': Welcome back, moments ago, we saw President Biden land in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In the next few minutes, he and Vice President Harris will lay a wreath at the memorial for Flight 93 that crashed there on September 11th, that crashing in Pennsylvania saved the lives of countless people here in Washington where that plane was clearly headed. We are going to bring you that event in moments when it happens.

In the meantime, we are going to continue talking about last night, the fiery face-off between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris started with a handshake or should I say a power move. Politico Playbook dubbed it this, "Harris' alpha female debate." The vice president went on offense on key issues like immigration, national security, abortion, pressing the former president on whether or not he would veto a national abortion ban, and he refused to answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (D) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: As far as the abortion ban, no, I'm not in favor of abortion ban, but it doesn't matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states.

LINSEY DAVIS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR, PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE MODERATOR: Your running mate J.D. Vance has said that you would veto if it did come to your desk.

TRUMP: Well, I didn't discuss it with J.D. in all fairness.

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Understand what has been happening under Donald Trump's abortion bans. Couples who prey and dream of having a family are being denied IVF treatments.

TRUMP: It's another lie. I have been a leader on IVF which is fertilization. I have been a leader on fertilization, IVF.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Joining me now, former Senior Adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Karen Finney, and former Senior Aide to Republican Glenn Youngkin, Kristin Davison. Thank you so much for being here, both of you. What did you make of the exchange on abortion and how it's going to play with key voters?

KRISTIN DAVISON, GOP STRATEGIST: Sure. Well, I think you see Kamala Harris was playing to her base on the abortion issue. President Trump has been very clear on this issue, where he stands. I think, back in the primary, we were saying he was too moderate on the issue of abortion. And so, I think they fought it to a draw. It was definitely a base play for her. If you look in the CNN snap poll after, obviously, if you're an abortion voter, a pro-choice voter, you probably already know who you're voting for. You're probably not an undecided voter. You're probably voting for Vice President Harris.

And I think they fought that back-and-forth to a draw. I don't think it is a deciding factor for most swing voters. If you're an undecided voter in northeast Pennsylvania, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or Atlanta, Georgia, abortion is probably not the issue that's going to help you decide. I think we saw 82 percent of the people who watched last night didn't change their vote or didn't think to change their vote. So it was really a base play. And I think we'll see that -- exchanges like that sure will help rile the Democrat base.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So here's the problem with that. And by the way, it's Kamala, eight in 10 Americans support Roe v. Wade. So it's actually not about the base, it's about the majority of Americans. As you know, Dana, I've worked on this issue for over 15 years and we've seen a majority of Americans move to this position where it's not about the number of weeks, it's about women being able to make their decisions based on their own personal bodies, their health situations as the vice president was talking about, and this torrent of horrors that have been unleashed on the countries, in the states.

And by the way, when the president talks about back to the states and state's rights, there's a whole other meaning that, that has for a lot of people, that folks are very uncomfortable with. And sort of saying that, well, it will never happen because it'll never get to my desk, that does not reassure people who say OK, but can I trust you? That's really what this is about. And what voters learned last night in watching this, no, you can't trust him. He's going to say whatever he thinks you want to hear. But at the end of the day, you can't trust them on the issue.

BASH: You're saying because state's rights historically back then, they were Democrats --

FINNEY: Yes, it was.

BASH: Democrats who were saying that the state should decide on civil rights, so that they could --

FINNEY: Correct. It has a historically ugly meaning. BASH: But, I want to look a little bit deeper. It's a flash poll. We have to all take that into account. We are going to get the real data or the more maybe conclusive data I should say, later on, who won the debate. In June 33 percent of debate watchers said Biden won, 67 said Trump won. Last night, 63 said Harris, 37 said Trump won.

[12:35:00]

But on that sort of gender question, which is really interesting, because that is maybe one of the big subplots of this election right now, Harris leads among women 15 points, Trump leads among men 12 points.

DAVISON: Sure. Well, there is a gender gap and I don't think anything last night helped reverse it. Harris is doing better with women. Trump has been better with men. I don't think Harris convinced an undecided moderate male voter to vote for her. And I don't know necessarily if Trump convinced a moderate undecided female voter. The gender gap is there, it is probably going to take a cycle or two for it to shake out. I don't necessarily know if that means that it will determine the election one way or the other.

One thing on the abortion side, just the back-and-forth that we had right now, Harris put so many scare tactics forward on this abortion issue. It's meant to rile up a female voter who -- this is an important issue. There are no -- you know, the anecdotes that she gave are not happening. It's what the left uses.

FINNEY: That's actually not true. It is happening. Women are literally having to prove if they had a miscarriage in certain states in this country. They have to prove it. Otherwise, they are facing charges. You have -- literally have doctors who are saying don't come until after your first trimester because I'm not going to be able to do anything if -- it's happening. I mean, are you saying to the women, for example, who have been coming forward and telling their stories, the young woman who came forward in Kentucky, the women in Texas who have been -- are you telling -- you're saying they are lying about it?

DAVISON: I'm saying that Trump doesn't want to do anything to hurt them. I'm saying that right now --

(CROSSTALK)

FINNEY: But he is. (Inaudible) three supreme court justices that overturned Roe v. Wade, and bragging about it. He absolutely did. And by the way, he said he wouldn't --

(CROSSTALK)

FINNEY: -- on the issue.

DAVISON: He said he wouldn't support a national ban. Republicans down ticket are --

FINNEY: No, he didn't actually say that.

DAVISON: Yes, he did. He said it multiple times.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: I want to change the subject to something else that was really a moment last night, and that is when Trump took the false meme that's going around and he put it right on the debate stage for millions and millions of people. I want you to listen to what he said and what one of the undecided voters in CNN's focus group said about that.

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TRUMP: They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they are eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What really bothers me about it is what I -- the underneath message I get from that. As a pastor, I hear kind of the dismissing the other, keeping other away, giving bad impressions about other people. And I just -- I don't buy that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What do you make of that? I mean, would you as a Republican strategist, like for him and J.D. Vance to stop doubling, tripling down on this and just move on, I would imagine?

DAVISON: Yeah. Well, I saw at least two different mash-ups on my way here of putting music to that freeze back-and-forth. So it's taken a life of its own on the internet for sure. No, it wouldn't be a line that I would recommend in debate prep to use. That said, I learned a long time ago that Trump has a gift that no other politician frankly does. And so, something that we are sitting here talking about maybe he shouldn't have said actually might resonate in some of these states.

If they might read it and say what does that mean, they're now going to go Google it and try to see what Trump was talking about, that will then lead them to the Biden-Harris record on immigration and the fact that they have failed over the last three to four years. That's really what Trump -- it helped him win in 2016. It very well may help him do in 2024. Was it a line I'd recommend? No, but as we've learned, Trump is the master at this time of thing.

FINNEY: Here's the problem with what Trump did last night. He was unhinged almost from the moment she shook his hand and he just continued to unravel. And what we saw on the stage last night, I mean debates are about can you show up and present yourself as someone who could be the leader of the country. When you have a grown man talking about eating cats and dogs, that's not the person you want negotiating prescription drug costs lower. That's not somebody you want anywhere near the nuclear codes.

Vice President Harris was clear. She was concise. She was focused. She took it seriously. He seemed to think he could come in and just wing it, and that's not -- this is not a job where you can wing it. And so bottom line, she was a president, showed up ready to do the job. He showed people he cannot be trusted with a second term.

BASH: And I have to leave it there. Thank you both for coming in. Appreciate it. Nice to talk to you. And we are going to go back to Shanksville, show you pictures, what is happening now in Pennsylvania. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris are honoring the passengers and crew of Flight 93 that crashed into that very field 23 years ago. Today, we are going to have more on that ahead.

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[12:44:30]

BASH: A moment of silence for the moment, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. This morning, in New York city, the annual remembrance ceremony marked 23 years since the September 11th terror attacks. At the Pentagon, a ceremony was held for the 184 people who died there.

[12:45:00]

And in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, just moments ago, President Biden and Vice President Harris laid a wreath to honor the more than 40 passengers and crew who died on United Flight 93.

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BASH: It is hard to believe that was 23 years ago. My panel is back here. Just remembering that and thinking I was at the Capitol that day, 23 years ago, and those people who did the most brave selfless thing in the world, and they took down the plane. These passengers, when they realized what was going on, saved a lot of lives we believe now in the Capitol.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Without a doubt, I mean, and such a different time that was in the very beginning of the Bush presidency. And it went on to change the next couple of decades of American life, led to America's longest wars. Probably led to the election of Barack Obama, led (inaudible) Donald Trump. So not to talk politics, but election does have consequences. But thinking back to that moment, such a different time. But I'm thinking of September 12th, the unity that was on the steps of the Capitol that morning. Will that happen today?

BASH: Well, it's funny that you said that because I want to go back to an image or a moment that we played at the very beginning of the show, which is -- it was just hours after Kamala Harris and former President Trump sort of faced off and here you can see them shaking hands just hours after meeting for the first time on last night's debate stage. So, the answer is yes, maybe it was fleeting, but it happened for a second.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. And brought together there by Michael Bloomberg. And you know, we were all New Yorkers then. I remember that day, I was in New York. I was actually in a subway headed to work after the first plane hit and, as I'm going to work, I was at "The New York Times", the second tower fell and the subway filled with the debris of that tower, and we were evacuated. And so, I was there in just the heaviness of the grief, the wanted and lost posters that filled that area during that time.

I mean, you just, you know, it's still a shock, right. To see what happened to this country, see what happened to those folks on that day and everything that came after.

CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: So indelible, right? For us in Washington, we all experienced it in different ways that day, but I think you're right. I think the Capitol, generally speaking, now is considered to have been the other target and to think of what that would have been like, and not only just destroying the real representation of democracy in this country. I mean, all credit to those brave people on that plane and it's one of these things we can't let it be forgotten, right? And I talked to younger kids now and sometimes they're just not familiar with that much what it was. So, it's good that we have these remembrances every year.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWS HOUR: You are right that the younger generation, Gen Z or younger is maybe not as familiar. But to your point earlier, Jeff, the impact that it had on so many generations, including mine. I was in school when it happened. I remember vividly the conversations that were going on in the classroom, seeing those images. I was on the West Coast and my generation, millennials, it was a formidable experience for us and then to grow up in the aftermath of that, of Afghanistan and (inaudible).

So, it's something that has impacted Americans for generations and is still something that the country is grappling with, which we heard last night in the debate.

ZELENY: I mean, just think of all the members of the Congress who served in those longest wars and sadly, the thousands and thousands who didn't come home from all across the country. So to your point, Carl, we should absolutely always remember it and that is one thing I think that I like about 9/11 because we do remember it every day and visit New York City, if you're there, to look at this incredible memorial or in Shanksville or at the Pentagon as well.

BASH: All right, everybody. Thank you for being here to commemorate this day at this time. And up next, we are going to look at the very angry response from the White House over the death of an American activist in the West Bank, stay with us.

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BASH: President Biden said today, he is outraged and saddened over the death of an American activist who was shot by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. Aysenur Eygi, a recent graduate of the University of Washington, was with a group protesting against Israeli settlements on Friday when IDF soldiers fired at the crowd. They claimed the protests had turned violent, but activists dispute that. President Biden told Eygi's killing -- said of Eygi's killing totally unacceptable. That's what he called it and he insisted Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.

[12:55:00]

The statement came just hours after Eygi's partner, Hamid Ali, criticized the White House for failing to offer condolences to the family or give them any updates on the investigation. You see there that Vice President Harris also weighed in with a statement critical of Israel saying, no one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest. The shooting raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank.

Thank you so much for joining "Inside Politics." "CNN News Central" starts after the break.

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