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FBI Investigating Apparent Second Assassination Attempt On Trump; Suspect In Apparent Trump Assassination Attempt Charged; Today: Harris Meets With Teamsters In Effort To Win Endorsement; Trump Lashes Out At Taylor Swift After Harris Endorsement; Kamala Harris Lags With White Male Voters In Key Swing States. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired September 16, 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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[12:30:18]
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: More now on our top story. President Biden is now calling on Congress to give the Secret Service additional resources following the second apparent assassination attempt of his predecessor former President Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank God, the president is OK. The one thing I want to make clear is Service needs more help. And I think the Congress should respond to their needs if they in fact need more Service people. So that's what we're going to be talking about.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
BASH: Republican Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida joins me now. He is a member of the task force on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, which was formed in July. He's also a close ally of the former president. Thank you so much for being here.
REP. MIKE WALTZ (R), MEMBER, TASK FORCE INVESTIGATING TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: Sure, Dana.
BASH: You told me that you played this course before, not with --
WALTZ: Yes.
BASH: -- Donald Trump, but you played this course before. Given that and the calls that you've been on with the Secret Service and other officials, what can you tell us about what you're learning?
WALTZ: Well, one of the reasons I think the shooter chose that location was that it's a known place for photographers, for Paparazzi and for others to go to that fifth hole. It's kind of, you know, button hold into a tight space right there near the road. I don't know for sure, but I've had other agents tell me that I've been on golf course details that they always clear that tree line in the bubble ahead of the president. It looks like that's what the agent heroically did. And good on him for taking decisive action and taking the shooter down. I also want to praise both the Florida sheriffs and the Secret Service, the acting director, for immediately going to a press conference.
I think this is a tell the public what you know, as you know it immediately, given that we're in the heat of the campaign, and given this is two assassination attempts in just two months. It's really mind blowing. And then thirdly, the FBI is taking a different posture. The FBI is, you know, they're drawing a line between the Secret Service and the FBI.
The Service is looking at their internal failures as it led up to Butler, and now we'll be looking at any failures as it led up to yesterday. But the FBI is looking at the background of the shooters, the encrypted accounts, the motives, and they're taking a -- it's under investigation. We can't talk about it posture.
I think that's unacceptable. They need to be more forthcoming. And when you layer on top of that, that we have foreign threats, that we have an adversary of the United States, Iran, openly talking about killing a leading political candidate. You want to talk about election interference. And I just have to say, we've heard nothing from the administration.
I'm glad President Biden called for more resources, but we need consequences for Iran for its ongoing plots to kill the presidents as well. And we've heard nothing from Biden or Harris in terms of consequences and deterrence to get Iran to stop.
BASH: So we need to hear more from them is what you're saying. I want to go back to the FBI point that you made --
WALTZ: Yes.
BASH: -- just to play devil's advocate. Like if I'm -- if I would have asked that question to the FBI, my sense is that what they will say is we don't want to threaten the investigation. We're trying to figure out exactly what the backstory is. And we want to make sure that we have the most sort of the tightest case against him.
WALTZ: Yes.
BASH: And also the information that we need. Perhaps, there's no evidence of this now, but I'm just saying, like --
WALTZ: Yes.
BASH: -- for example, if this guy was not working alone or if there are other elements that they just don't know about.
WALTZ: Yes. Well, remember, the Secret Service director Cheatle kind of took that approach. I can't talk about it. And that was totally unacceptable to Congress and to the American people. I think this is such a unique moment in American history and so dangerous. We talk a lot about threats to democracy. If President Trump had had his head blown off on national television just before the Republican National Convention with no candidate --
BASH: Top of it.
WALTZ: -- and I just can't even imagine the society and the fabric of America --
BASH: Yes.
WALTZ: -- coming unglued. And when you have potential foreign actors involved here, look, in an information vacuum, others are going to fill the space on. And I think this is a moment. Break your established protocols and tell the American people what you know or what you don't know even if you have to go back and correct it later, more information is better.
BASH: So for the public, not just private briefings for people like you.
WALTZ: Absolutely.
BASH: OK.
WALTZ: And I received a briefing from the Secret Service director Thursday and I immediately told the, you know, the American people and media --
BASH: About the last assassination.
WALTZ: -- last -- about the last assassination what I knew when I knew it.
[12:35:00]
BASH: I want to play for you -- you talked about the police who did a superb job down in Florida -- I want to play for you something that Sheriff Bradshaw said about the way that the Secret Service protects Donald Trump.
WALTZ: Right.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
SHERIFF RIC BRADSHAW, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: At this level that he is at right now, he's not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course around it. Well, because he's not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible. The Secret Service did exactly what they should have done.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
BASH: Does that need to change, the fact that beginning of what he said, that if he were a sitting president, the course would have been surrounded? I mean, it's Donald Trump. WALTZ: Yes.
BASH: The threats are, I'm sure, much more vast than we even know about.
WALTZ: Two things here. One, the Secret Service director briefed the task force last week that they had increased the level of protection for both Trump and Harris to the same level as Biden. Yet we're hearing that disconnect from the Palm Beach County Sheriff. So that doesn't make sense and we've asked for clarification to come brief us this week.
And then number two, look, I think both the Secret Service and the FBI have to get out of this paradigm of you get this when you're the current president and you get this when you're a former. I mean, I think that makes sense if maybe you're Jimmy Carter or W. Bush that, you know, is painting and living a retired life, but it needs to match the threat.
And if the threat is clearly greater than a sitting president or vice president or anything with the Iranian threats plus these domestic threats, then you need to get the president whatever protection he needs, period, to match the threat, not these established protocols.
And what agents are telling me is that it's a budget issue. That DHS and Mayorkas set the budget and they don't want to blow up the budget, you know, by -- because President Trump has multiple residences, plays golf and is an active campaigner. That's nonsense. They need to give him every protection and everything he needs and come to Congress if he need more.
BASH: Well, and you just heard President Biden say that the Secret Service needs more help and Congress should respond. So it sounds like there is a brief blip of bipartisanship on this, which is incredibly important.
Thank you so much for sharing that. And the fact that there was a disconnect is news and obviously something that we're also sure --
WALTZ: Sure.
BASH: -- follow up on just as you are. Thanks, Congressman.
WALTZ: Yes, ma'am. All right.
BASH: I appreciate it. We'll be right back.
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[12:42:13]
BASH: Today, there is a lot of suspense around Kamala Harris's high stakes meeting with the Teamsters. The Vice President is courting a last-minute endorsement from the powerful union, one that has more than 1 million members. Now, uncertainty in this -- at this time in the race is a bit unorthodox, but the union typically does back the Democratic nominee after the party conventions.
My panel is back to discuss. And Jeff Zeleny, I just got a note from Sean O'Brien who runs the Teamsters saying of course they are meeting not just him, but the executive board will meet with her. Then they're going to have some internal discussions, look at some of the polling, look at some of the internal information, get -- try to get a consensus. And we might have a decision on whether they're going to endorse anybody, and if that person will be Kamala Harris this week.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And if they do, if it matters. I mean, we saw Sean O'Brien at the Republican convention, which was very unusual to see the Teamsters' president there. So this is something that both campaigns are fighting for. Obviously both sides would love to have it, or would love them to stay in neutral.
But I think increasingly, the rank and file does not follow the leadership of the union. So for the Harris campaign, they absolutely want this. And this will be a, if she gets this endorsement, I think it's a big sign of the electoral effects of it. Who knows? We don't know the answer to that, but it would be one more sort of confidence boosting exercise for her.
BASH: Yes --
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Is it too late to have any real major impact as well, because as you noted, typically this happens earlier in the cycle. There's -- there -- they can organize perhaps earlier --
BASH: I mean, that's the key.
RAJU: -- right. And that's really what they're looking for.
JASMIN WRIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, NOTUS: I mean, it would have been better if this interview happened two weeks ago, right, directly after the convention. But, of course, there were some sore feelings after he was at the Republican convention, particularly with Biden and his aides. And maybe some of that lingered over to the Harris campaign.
But Harris is really working for this because this is not what she is known for. She's not Union Joe, right? She's not known to be the ally of union members, no matter the fact that she chaired a task force on unions for her three years at the vice -- as vice president that she did work with the SCIU back in California, but this is not what she's known as.
So this would be a huge get for the Vice President no matter what time it's happening. And they're really working hard to try to achieve it.
BASH: And not for nothing. Unions are now much more diverse than they used to be. But if you look at the demographic that she is struggling with, it's white men, big time. I mean, white -- from the latest Pew poll, white men without a college -- white people without a college degree. She trails 35 to 64, Donald Trump, white men in particular, 39 to 59. RAJU: Yes. And look, overall too, the men versus women, there's a significant gender gap. I mean, Harris is doing much better with women voters, but the campaign knows that they have to close that margin with male voters, not just white working class voters, not just people who don't have a college degree, but overall.
[12:45:08]
So what is their strategy? Perhaps it's making -- make a difference, but as Jeff says, maybe not much difference in that.
ZELENY: But, boy, it's certainly that's something --
BASH: But isn't it like better late than never when you -- even when you look at the nuts and bolts of organizing and door knocking. And, I mean, if the leadership is on board, doesn't that tend to help?
ZELENY: For sure, because, I mean, I think to monitor this point for organizing it would have been helpful earlier. But you can bet direct mail will be coming directly at the time when people are beginning to early vote and other things.
So without a doubt, better late than never. But there still may not be endorsement. And even if there is, we don't know the actual impact of it. But it'll be fascinating to see. I think for Harris, if she gets it, that is just one more sign --
BASH: Yes.
WRIGHT: Yes.
ZELENY: -- of a momentum for her. But the output (ph), the actual effect, who knows?
WRIGHT: I think for a campaign that recognizes that this win, if they do win, comes down to the margins, they're really trying to scrape any place that they can, turn over every stone. And I think that these are -- this is one of the important zones, particularly when you talk about white men and white people in general --
BASH: Yes.
WRIGHT: -- something that the Vice President doesn't automatically connect with.
BASH: No. And I think it's important what you underscored. It is possible that the Teamsters just will not endorse.
ZELENY: Right.
BASH: We'll know soon. Thanks, everybody.
Now over the weekend, Donald Trump posted on social media how he really feels about Taylor Swift, but is saying it in a tweet a cop out?
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[12:50:47]
BASH: ?Donald Trump is making it very clear how he feels about the most famous star in the world. He posted quote, "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!" exclamation point. All caps. This of course came after Swift endorsed Kamala Harris on debate night. Talk about some bad blood.
Two talented pollsters are here to discuss. Kristen Soltis Anderson and Anna Greenberg. Kristen, I will start with you. What in your polling as a world renowned Republican pollster tells you that this kind of post is great for a Republican candidate for president?
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I regret to inform you that I do not have that kind of data. It is extremely off message.
BASH: Because it doesn't exist?
ANDERSON: Swing voters across the country are not looking for someone to weigh in on whether they like Donald, or pardon me, Taylor Swift or not. They're certainly not looking for somebody who says, I hate Taylor Swift. The reality is her endorsement of Harris was not particularly surprising. She has endorsed Democratic politicians before.
She made a documentary about how she as a pop star was finding her voice on issues that mattered to her. So nothing about this should have been surprising. And I think the effect of it is likely to be somewhat limited. There's some data that suggests there's a big uptick in voter registrations in the wake of her statement.
I think ABC News' poll this weekend found only 6 percent of voters said that it made them more likely to vote for her. That's not nothing in a close race, but this didn't have a huge effect. It didn't require Donald Trump putting more of a spotlight on it.
BASH: Yes. It's about the broader discussion, I think --
ANDERSON: Yes.
BASH: -- of young voters, whether they're going to go out, but also the gender gap, which is extremely wide. And I just want to show one example of likely voters in Pennsylvania, which is must win for Kamala Harris and for Donald Trump. Kamala Harris, 55 percent with women, 43 percent with men. And Donald Trump, 44 percent with women, 56 percent support from men.
ANNA GREENBERG, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Yes, I think that -- I mean, a Taylor Swift thing is sort of interesting because, one, it highlights his inability to focus on things that actually might win him some votes, like if you talked about inflation or immigration, right, you know, he sort of focuses on.
The second thing, which is kind of misogyny, right, and sort of attacking women and the way he attacks Kamala Harris. And it just reinforces a sense that women voters have that this is a guy, and a ticket, frankly, if you add J.D. Vance to it, that has some issues with women, and women who are successful, and women who are accomplished, women who have their own voice so to speak. It's -- and you can see it in the gender gap, which may be as big as we've ever seen it.
BASH: Really, as big as you've ever seen it?
GREENBERG: Absolutely, because it's -- one of the things that -- one of the interesting dynamics this year, and really in the last five or six years is that senior citizens are actually becoming more democratic, particularly senior women.
BASH: Which is unusual.
GREENBERG: Well, because senior --
BASH: It looks like a more conservative --
GREENBERG: Exactly, but senior women are boomers, right? A seven-year- old woman, you know, came of age during Roe v. Wade and the birth control pill and the women's movement and women going to college and divorce. And so the group of seniors these days, the women, are actually much more democratic. And they certainly, when they look at kind of the clock being rolled back, it's very disturbing to them.
ANDERSON: And I've been sounding the alarm about Republicans struggling with young voters for a while. What you see is as millennials, for instance, have gotten older, they haven't shifted dramatically to the right. And when you look at Gen Z, while Gen Z men are actually a pretty available group to Republicans, Gen Z young women are more likely to identify as progressive or liberal than young women ever more 20 years ago.
I mean, this is a group that has gone very far to the left, both in terms of ideology labels and the policies that they support. And it does not seem to me that Republicans have a great strategy to win them back, especially if it involves saying, I hate Taylor Swift.
BASH: Let's talk about Kamala Harris challenge with white male voters. You can see it across the board CNN's latest battleground polling, Wisconsin 43 percent, Michigan 38 percent, Pennsylvania 34 percent, and it goes on down. Are you seeing that as well?
ANDERSON: Certainly. I mean, we are seeing in this election the demographic shifts that look a little bit more like the Obama-Romney race than really the Trump-Biden race. You know, the Trump-Biden race was, frankly, two old white guys up against one another.
And so you saw some of the demographic realignment happening there, kind of getting undone. And Harris beginning to perform much better among young voters than Trump had, but also Trump sort of regaining an advantage among other groups.
[12:55:06]
BASH: Anna, what are you seeing in your data about this, and specifically what would help Kamala Harris?
GREENBERG: So I think you have to disaggregate men. And one of the things that happened after Trump was elected is that college educated men, white college men moved more democratic. And particularly in states that have big suburban populations, like a Georgia, like a Pennsylvania, around Philly, like in Arizona and Maricopa County, you actually have college educated men splitting or even leaning democratic. And so it's really white, blue collar men that remain the problem, who turned against Democrats when Obama was elected and have never come back.
BASH: I mean, are they just gone?
GREENBERG: I think so. I don't really see what set of issues given the polarization of our politics and media consumption and the way those voters consume media, it's hard to see how a Democrat even communicates a message to them.
BASH: Wow. Fascinating.
ANDERSON: This is why, for instance, things like having the head of the Teamsters speak at the RNC was so important. That that kind of union voter is one that, a big piece of the Democratic coalition for a while that Republicans feel is very available to them.
BASH: I learned so much from both of you. Come back soon.
GREENBERG: Absolutely. Thank you.
BASH: And thank you for joining us on Inside Politics today. CNN News Central starts after the break.
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