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Harris Campaign Hopes To Capitalize On Her Debate Performance; Undecided Voters Say They Still Need To Hear More From Harris; North Carolina Lt. Gov. Has History Of Homophobic, Misogynist Posts; House Speaker Johnson Navigates Spending Fight While Trying To Keep Leadership Position. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 12, 2024 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: -- a tie. That's the situation Vice President Harris finds herself in. So how is she going to capitalize on her very good week? Kamala Harris's campaign co-chair, Mitch Landrieu, is here with me now to help try to answer that. Nice to see you. Thank you for coming in.

MITCH LANDRIEU, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN NATIONAL CO-CHAIR: Great to be here.

BASH: I want you to -- I just want to get right to it, and I want you to listen to what an undecided Georgia voter who spoke with my colleague, Randi Kaye, said after the debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMILY AMOS, UNDECIDED GEORGIA VOTER: I want to hear more --

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: More like how she's going to get it done?

AMOS: Right? Exactly. Yes. Specifically, obviously about the small businesses. I want to hear how it's going to get done because I do understand when money gets moved around, the money has to come from somewhere where are you going to pull that money from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: How is she going to persuade voters like that woman in Georgia and others to get off the fence and come her way, particularly when it comes to her plans on the economy?

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, that is a great question. And the thing that when people ask about what they want to know about Kamala Harris, what they already know about Donald Trump is something that they do not like.

So 90 percent of the people know who this guy is and the people who know him best like him the least. And I think that that really is going to be determinative because at the end of the day, they want to know more about her, but they do understand that it's a choice between Donald Trump who's -- want to go backwards and Kamala Harris is going to go forward. And so what you can expect of her.

Since the day that she has gotten to this race, she's won every day. And of course, you win by getting the most votes. You get the most votes if you raise the most money, if you go the furthest and the fastest, if you talk to more people. And of course, that's what we're going to do.

And we also built a campaign for this moment. So right now, as you have seen in the last 45, 50 days, and now you're going to see in the next 60 or so, she is going to be crisscrossing this country, meeting voters where they are, explaining to them who she is, what she's going to do, and the fact that she's going to fight for them.

And I think if that debate didn't show anything else, that when the chips are down, Donald Trump is going to be like on the Titanic, he's the first one in the boat. She's going to be there fighting for people just like that wonderful woman that was asking that question a minute ago.

BASH: Let me just push back on the first thing that you said there, which is that people already know about Donald Trump and they're not going to change their minds. That, I believe, is true. But if you look at the voters who aren't sure who to vote for, and if the crisis of affordability, I call it, is their top concern, what they know about Donald Trump is that they could afford more when he was president up until the pandemic. And they don't know what she will bring.

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, that's what they think, but of course that that is not accurate. The economy when Donald Trump was president was terrible.

BASH: It's not accurate if you look at the numbers, but it's how people feel.

LANDRIEU: Well, that's what campaigns are about, and that's why you have to go out and tell them. That's why she's rolled out her plan. And her first thing is to create an opportunity economy and actually a lower cost for people, and the plans to fight the pharmaceutical industry as she and President Biden did, the plan to help people get into homes, to help people with tax credits for childcare, all of those things going forward are going to address the concerns, but you've got to go out and sell it.

There's nobody --

BASH: How? How is she going to sell it?

LANDRIEU: She's going to go out and talk to them.

BASH: But --

LANDRIEU: She's going to go out and communicate with them --

BASH: Like more rallies or she's going to have town halls?

LANDRIEU: All of the above. You can expect that she will be everywhere talking to everybody and making sure that we put the pedal to the metal based on that incredible debate performance, which did two things. It demonstrated once again why Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency and that we shouldn't put him anywhere near the Oval Office.

And it also demonstrated a very normal, competent, capable, tough leader that who is going to fight for individuals just like that woman in Georgia. And of course, she's in North Carolina today. She's in two different spots and she'll be all over the country between now and Election Day.

BASH: And are there going to be additional plans that come out on the economy or is she going to just try to sell and to explain some of what she has talked about and what you call the --

LANDRIEU: My expectation is she'll do both. And she'll continue to point out that Donald Trump who demonstrated this aptly the other night that he's unfit for office. When you talk about people eating dogs and the kind of things that came out of this man's mouth, many people ought to look at that and say, he's got a real challenge and we don't want to put him anywhere near the oval office.

I know, by the way, I'm a really great alternative. Here's who I am. I was a district attorney. I was an attorney general. I was a senator. I was the vice president of the United States. And I have got plans that are going to make your life better. And she's going to go tell that story. That's what elections are about.

BASH: There's a Democratic research group called Blueprint, and it released a post-debate report and found that, "Notably, Harris's 'I'm not Joe Biden,' remark tests the best with overall voters -- suggesting it was an effective moment where she distanced herself from the past and gained an upper hand on being perceived as a change candidate."

Right after the debate, I sort of took note of that moment and thought it was even more of a triangulation moment because it was distancing herself rhetorically, at least from Joe Biden and also, of course, from the man on the stage with her. Is that what she needs to do more of, distance herself from the guy who is effectively her boss?

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, she didn't do it rhetorically. She looked at Donald Trump in the eye and she said, you must be confused. I am not Joe Biden. In other words, she's saying --

BASH: Well, what I mean is like --

LANDRIEU: No, I want to try to explain.

BASH: Please, yes.

[12:35:07]

LANDRIEU: I think Joe Biden is going to go down in history as being one of the most consequential presidents in the history of America. And she was his vice president and she helped him do all the things that were were done in the Biden time that she was there, and I think that she's proud of that. But nobody should be unclear of the fact that she is her own person. That is the point that she was trying to make to Donald Trump.

For people who didn't like Joe Biden, one of the reasons they didn't like him was not because of his policies. One of the reasons was they thought that he was too old and they said that over and over again. And, by the way, they think that about Donald Trump as well.

And so what Kamala Harris is doing by her very presence and by her skills is telling people this is time for a new way forward. And I think that there's a sense in America amongst Republicans, Democrats and Independents that was so tired of the old song that Donald Trump sings about how bad America is, how terrible everything is, having to wake up every day when he was president thinking, what the hell did that guy do today?

And what's he going to do to hurt us tomorrow that they want to turn the page? And I think they're painting a broad brush with Donald Trump and Joe Biden, obviously, on that issue. But there are many policies that Joe Biden supported that we've talked about many that were very, very, very favorable in the public.

The most important of which is being lowering people's cost on prescription drugs, fighting big pharma, really fighting against a lot of the big companies who in, many people's views, we're kind of taking liberty with prices that they set and making sure that she's going to fight to go after them just like she did when she was the attorney general.

BASH: Mitch Landrieu, Harris campaign co-chair, always good to see you. Thanks for coming.

LANDRIEU: Great. Thanks for having me.

BASH: And up next, the presidential race is tighter than ever, pretty much everywhere, but that includes North Carolina. So the question is, why is there such a big gap in MAGA versus Democrat, not just at the top of the ticket, but in the governor's race? We're going to dig into that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:26]

BASH: Vice President Harris is in North Carolina today. She is hoping to turn that state blue for the first time since 2008. That is the presidential race. The state also has a really big race for governor, which as of now looks to be a little bit less of a nail biter.

CNN's Arit John is here with new reporting on that race and how it is going there. And I just want to read for our viewers the headline, "In purple North Carolina, Democrats hope to defeat a MAGA candidate for governor even as the presidential race remains close."

And this candidate, Robinson, he has to say that he has said and done some controversial things as the understatement of the year. And we're just putting some examples up on the screen. He mocked school shooting survivors, once justified shooting protesters.

He attacked the civil rights movement. So many freedoms were lost. There is video that surfaced of the candidate we're talking about, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, calling homosexuality filth. He supported banning abortions without exceptions, and now he even just avoids completely talking about abortion, at least in public.

ARIT JOHN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. And yet this is a race where we're seeing polls right now showing Attorney General Josh Stein, the democratic nominee up maybe like eight, nine percentage points, but that's going to narrow. Both Democrats and Republicans point to historic trends, seeing Democratic gubernatorial candidates leading.

And then as you get closer, you see Roy Cooper winning by less than a point in both of his bids. And that's what's going to happen here. I think the issue is that for a lot of voters, they are willing to overlook that. There is -- we're seeing a lot -- I've talked to a lot of Republicans in North Carolina who said, yes, maybe he said some things, maybe it's a little brash. Maybe he said some things I don't agree with, but I like his policies, which will sound familiar to anyone who's been covering Donald Trump.

BASH: Yes. I mean, he's -- I mean, he's even said things that probably Donald Trump wouldn't say out loud, at least. Only men should be leaders, for example.

Just on the -- just to sort of drill down on one of the examples, he has said that he would love stricter abortion restrictions. Well, a Democratic opposition group that works with the DGA released some audio of him talking about abortion that he didn't mean to go public. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON (R), NORTH CAROLINA: That 12 weeks, exception for rape and incest. I'm not going to say it's reasonable of the right to hear sex test. I'm not going to say it's reasonable. But my faith allows me to live with that because that's where the consensus is.

Do I want to continue to lower it? You better know it. I would love to get down to six weeks. And I'd like to get down to zero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Jeff, you've spent a lot of time in North Carolina reporting for us, talking to voters there. How much is the abortion issue going to sort of this kind of discrepancy going to help the Democrat not just in the governor's race, but of course Kamala Harris?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, this is the first presidential election since the Dobbs decision, so we will find out. We've seen the impact in midterm elections. It's been very, very clear while we've seen the state referendums in red states and blue states alike.

So, look, it is going to have a big impact. The Trump campaign is worried about the suburbs of Charlotte, the suburbs of Raleigh and abortion they believe is a driving issue. And that ad that Vice President Harris is running from her exchange at the debate is Exhibit A for that.

[12:45:07]

So we will see, but it definitely is a motivating factor. And what is so fascinating about North Carolina is its population change. It's part of the Sun Belt. This is going to be a realignment presidential election, just some respects, because people moved around during the pandemic.

So, yes, younger people are moving to the suburbs, but also some Republicans from New Jersey and New York and elsewhere also have moved down to North Carolina. So I like to think of North Carolina as the United States of North Carolina. It sounds obvious, but it goes from Appalachia all the way to the coast, and there is a lot of variety in North Carolina.

But abortion and the suburbs, the fast growing suburbs, is a huge opportunity for the Harris campaign.

BASH: And Gretchen, the -- I just mentioned some of the outrageous things that this lieutenant governor who wants to be governor has said. Also some very anti-Semitic remarks. Hitler disarming millions of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash and it goes on and on. So, you know, in any other pre-MAGA time, I think it's fair to say it would be very hard for someone like this to get the nomination.

GRETCHEN CARLSON, CO-FOUNDER, LIFT OUR VOICES: With one of those statements, right? With any of those statements.

BASH: With any of those statements.

CARLSON: But look, he does not have the endorsement of Senator Pat Tillis (ph), Republican. He does not have the endorsement of the former Republican Governor Pat McCrory --

BASH: But he's on the ticket with Trump?

CARLSON: Yes, he's on, but North Carolina has a history of ticket splitting.

BASH: Yes.

CARLSON: And so you have Governor Roy Cooper winning as a Democrat when Trump beat Biden in the most narrow of margins of any state, by the way, in the last election. So we do have this history of tickets playing.

To Jeff's point, abortion always polls low. When you say, what's the most important thing to you going into vote for your presidential candidate or any state referendum? I believe that that is inaccurate in this election. I believe abortion is on the front center of most women going into the ballot box. And I think that that will prove to be true in North Carolina and elsewhere.

BASH: And just to sort of pick up on what you were saying about ticket splitting, because it is so true. It doesn't always happen, especially these days when it's shirts and skins and it's very hard to get people to look at the individuals rather than the party.

If you look at where people stand right now, North Carolina, likely voters, Harris 49, Trump 46. Choice for Governor, Stein, again, 51, Robinson, 41. And you are right, last time around in 2020, Roy Cooper won, and so did Donald Trump. Roy Cooper is a Democrat.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Very real enthusiasm for Josh Stein that I saw in person. The day after the debate that was a disaster for President Biden at the North Carolina fairgrounds where he held that rally, Governor Cooper and Attorney General Stein both appeared before President Biden did, and they were met with uproarious applause.

We could not even hear ourselves think in that space during their appearances. Then when President Biden came out, there were volunteers from the campaign who are almost serving as cheerleaders to try to get people to yell and to scream and to sort of meet the enthusiasm that they had had for those down ballot politicians, even just before the president of the United States.

So comparing those things, I mean, the Biden campaign was optimistic about North Carolina because of those diversifying demographics, because of how college educated the state as a whole is that because Harris has seen her poll numbers shift so much because of that enthusiasm, they feel even more optimistic now. But, of course, there's a lot that can happen in the next 50 plus days.

BASH: That is true. No truer words have been said. Thanks guys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

BASH: Appreciate it. Thank you for that great reporting.

And up next, can he keep the government running and keep his job? The House Speaker is walking a political tight rope again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:53:14]

BASH: Mike Johnson is facing a familiar challenge as a Republican speaker, and that is to keep the government open and not lose his job. CNN's Lauren Fox joins me now. Lauren, just a few weeks left to pass a spending bill, I mean, here we go again. How is he going to do it?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Dana. Right now, he's still pursuing this strategy to try to pacify his right flank. That, of course, is passing a six-month spending bill that would go into March, give potentially a new administration an opportunity to set their own priorities. And it includes what is known as the SAVE Act.

That is something that's been really important to conservatives. It would bar non-citizens from from voting in U.S. elections. It is already illegal to do that, but they say it strengthens provisions on the books. And. Dana, I would just note that right now, he doesn't have the vote for that plan and so he faces this really tough question that we've seen time and time again.

Eventually, he's going to have to work with Democrats, but deciding when to make that play call deciding how long of a spending fight to have, that still remains to be seen. And here's why that pressure is looming. It could affect whether or not he keeps his job after the November election. Here's some of that tension.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Do you think potentially he's in trouble in terms of his leadership future for the House?

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R), GEORGIA: Yes, absolutely. I mean I wouldn't have done a motion to vacate back in May if I supported his speakership. And there's a, you know, there's a lot of those feelings in the conference right now.

REP. LISA MCCLAIN (R), MICHIGAN: I don't think he thinks about his speakership first. I think he thinks about the good of the country first. But, let's be honest with everybody, it's a very difficult needle to thread.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And Dana, I want to go back to that timeline because that is such an important component here.

[12:55:00]

Right now, Johnson is fighting for a six-month spending bill in part because that gets him beyond a January speaker's race if they win the House, if they keep the House in November. What you could see playing out, potentially, if they have to do a huge spending bill in December, which is what Democrats want to do, is him having to cut a deal with Democrats and then turn around and get the votes, cobble the votes together to become the next speaker.

That is why this six-month deadline is so important for him, but it's also why perhaps Democrats want to push the issue into December. Dana?

BASH: Always tricky these days when it comes to being a Republican leader and trying to get a spending bill through. Never ends.

Thank you so much. Appreciate that, Lauren.

And thank you so much for watching Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after the break.