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Laura Coates Live

Biden Delivers Historic Address On Decision To Exit Race; Laura Coates Interviews Sen. Peter Welch; Trump Attacks Harris; Laura Coates Interviews Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove; FBI Director Testifies About Trump Assassination Attempt; Protests In D.C. As Israeli Prime Minister Addresses Congress. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired July 24, 2024 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, I just want to make sure that if he's going to be attacking cat ladies, childless dog ladies are in the conversation.

(LAUGHTER)

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Me, too.

NAVARRO: So, Cha-cha demands --

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: The childless dog ladies --

NAVARRO: -- equal treatment here. Right.

ALLISON: So does ZZ.

NAVARRO: Yes.

ALLISON: She wants to be treater fairly. Equity.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIP: There's nothing wrong with childless cat or dog ladies. Everyone --

NAVARRO: (INAUDIBLE) fish --

PHILLIP: Water ladies, everybody. Thank you all so much for watching "NewsNight: State of the Race. "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Well, President Biden's patriotic swan song, tonight on "Laura Coates Live."

So, here's the thing, people who know Joe Biden best, they have long said that there are actually two Joe Bidens. You got Joe Biden, the statesman, and then Joe Biden, the defensive and stubborn politician.

Well, tonight, we saw the statesman. For 11 minutes, President Biden delivered a primetime address that this country has not seen since LBJ back in 1968, talking about an American president announcing a decision not to run for re-election or actually explaining his decision -- we already had that Dear John letter on Sunday -- by the time when he already had earned the delegates. That's history with a capital H. His family was seated just off camera to his left in the Oval Office. His son, Hunter, daughter Ashley and, of course, Dr. Jill Biden, his first lady among them.

But the address, although they were in the room, was actually not to them, was it? It was to you, the American people, his fellow Americans and, frankly, the entire world. And after weeks of pressure, a speculation and punditry about what led Biden to make his decision, well, tonight, we finally heard from him directly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I believe, I reckon, as president. My leadership in the world, my vision for America's future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So, I decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: In a way, the president returned to the same message he used when he ran in 2020. You remember that one? He'd say that America was in the battle for the soul of the nation. Well, he still believes that to be the case, even saying that he had earned a second term. But this time around, it's not him who would lead the charge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I revere this office, but I love my country more. It has been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it's more important than any title. It's not about me. It's about you, your families, your futures. It's about we, the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Now, I called it a swan song. But this was actually not a resignation speech, was it? The president made it crystal clear that he's going to run through the tape. He's going to govern until the end of his term. But avoiding a return of Trump will now fall to his vice president, Kamala Harris, who is, as you know, the de facto nominee. Biden actually thanked her tonight, calling her experienced and tough. Now, he never actually mentioned Trump's name, did he? But he didn't have to. His message was clear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The great thing about America is here. Kings and dictators do not rule. The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith. Keep the faith.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COATES: Well, here to unpack this historic moment, writer Chris Whipple, author of "The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House." Chris, good to see you. I mean, we knew this was forthcoming.

CHRIS WHIPPLE, AUTHOR: Good to be back.

COATES: Thank you. We knew it was coming. We read the letter on Sunday. President Biden tonight saying that the country is more important than anyone's personal ambition. Did he meet the moment tonight?

WHIPPLE: He absolutely did. This was just an amazing moment of grace. You know, it was the most difficult and agonizing decision Joe Biden has ever made in his amazing career, maybe the most difficult of any president since Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

And the thing that struck me as fascinating was the way he framed the decision. He said he was passing the torch because he had to unite the party. Now, if you gave Joe Biden truth serum, he might say that in America, the people rule, but so does Nancy Pelosi.

[23:05:03]

COATES: Hmm.

WHIPPLE: I'm being slightly facetious, but the point is that he had to make, 72 hours ago in his house in Rehoboth Beach, he had to make a cold, hard calculation, and he made it. And that was that there was no path forward with the party leaders abandoning him. And what was obviously a bitter -- he -- he felt betrayed by some of them. So --

COATES: You identify --

WHIPPLE: -- this was a decision he did not want to make. And yet he made it tonight without bitterness, just grace.

COATES: You identify former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Certainly, no one is naive to suggest that although she is a speaker emeritus, she still wields a great deal of power. You think that she's responsible for his decision to step aside?

WHIPPLE: Well, I'll tell you this: I think that if to this moment, Joe Biden believes that he could win this election against Donald Trump --

COATES: Well --

WHIPPLE: -- and I think he probably believes he could serve another four years, I think the calculation here was not that he couldn't win, it was that he saw the party disintegrating around him. There was no path forward with Nancy Pelosi and the other leaders also ready to lower the boom publicly on him this coming week. So, he had no choice. You know, he has fought so many battles, and he has defied the odds time and time again. This was one last battle that he couldn't win. But boy, in the way he left and the way he stepped aside, he won it, I think. COATES: Leave it to you, the author of his book, really, to look at that word, the uniting of the party. I wonder if other people caught that nuance as well. But, Chris, there was something he did not address. He didn't address Trump by name, but he certainly made it very clear that Americans have this choice to make about the direction the United States of America is going to go into. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division. We have to decide, do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice and democracy? In this moment, we can see those we disagree with not as enemies but as fellow Americans. Can we do that? Does character in public life still matter?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I mean, that split screen is not very subtle. The issue of character certainly identifies and points to one opponent.

WHIPPLE: He didn't have to name Trump by name. That line about character said it all, and I think everybody got the message. You know, the thing that surprised Joe Biden, shocked him, really, during his presidency more than anything else, was the lasting power of Trumpism. He thought that Donald Trump would be in the rearview mirror by now. He had this old school idea that he had a mandate of seven million votes and that Trumpism would go away. But it hasn't.

And I think he, among other things, not only was he vintage Joe Biden, he was humble, he was plain spoken, he was eloquent tonight, but he also clearly laid out what he sees as the existential choice that faces the American public this year.

COATES: Hmm. What did Shakespeare say? Out damn spot. Hmm. See, I still remember Shakespeare. Chris Whipple, thank you so much.

WHIPPLE: Great to be with you.

COATES: Joining me now, the first senator who called for President Biden to step aside, Senator Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont. Senator, I'm so glad to have you here this evening. I've been really curious about your position, knowing now that Biden has decided to step aside. What was your reaction to his speech this evening?

REP. PETER WELCH (D-VT): You know, if we step back from the political analytics and just think about this on a human level, it's pretty extraordinary. In my view, very inspiring. I mean, this is a man who, at 29 years old, ran for the U.S. Senate. One, he lost his wife and daughter. Later, he lost another son, and he had another son who suffered from addiction. He had the will to work through that incredible personal tragedy, and he had an enormous number of political setbacks. So, what you know is this man finally achieved the office that he was seeking for all his life, did an enormously good job, had the enormous affection of Democrats. He had that debate, which is a disaster, and he had to reassess. Could he win, and what would it mean to our country? And despite his determination, his willingness to engage in yet another up-mountain battle, his conclusion was it would be better for the country if he stepped aside.

COATES: Hmm.

[23:10:00]

WELCH: There's a lot of humility in that. And it is humility in a man who had shown throughout his career enormous ambition, enormous strength. And I find it inspiring, that his sense of public service that he had when he was 25 and being a local supervisor endured through this moment when he stepped aside from the presidency of the United States. Just think about that. He relinquished power, even though he had already won the nomination of the Democratic Party. So, I find this an extraordinarily inspiring moment.

COATES: I'm glad you talked about the human element of it because it must have been particularly difficult. And you spoke about personal ambition being subordinate to the love of country and the reverence he had for the office as well. And to your point about public service, he says he's going to keep working. He's going to work right until he leaves office. He talked about issues in the economy. He talked about gun violence, Supreme Court reform, just to name a few. What do you think he ought to prioritize in these final months? Because none of these are really lame duck criteria. These are significant things to do.

WELCH: Well, two things. Number one, his priority is preserving our democracy. And I think his decision liberates him. Can you imagine, you are president of the United States, you're also having another job where you're the candidate for reelection in a fierce campaign with -- it's going to be negative. We all know that. So, now --

COATES: It already is.

WELCH: It already is. He can concentrate on being above all of that and ask fundamental questions, where when he does, like Supreme Court reform, we've got a really bad Supreme Court, but it gets partisan. He's not in the situation of a candidate for reelection. He's in the position of a president who has relinquished power, but who's saying for the sake of our democracy, we've got to have Supreme Court reform.

So, on that issue and on democratic issues like access to voting, like on the importance of securing the right of women to make their own decisions about their body, I think he has liberated to be a statesman who's not seen as somebody who's just in the hurly-burly of a campaign.

COATES: What's fascinating to me, though, is that this is a kind of a Rorschach test. For example, you have this view, and then Senator J.D. Vance viewed his decision to not run for reelection as a threat to democracy and its core. Listen to what he said, actually.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Really, what happened was the leaders of the Democrat Party, in a very undemocratic move, the bosses, they said, either you get out or we're going to throw you out.

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is not how it works. That is a threat to democracy, not the Republican Party, which is fighting for democracy every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: It's quite a split screen. Do you think this is a threat to democracy or anti-democratic in any way?

WELCH: You know what's inspiring to me about this? Not just the president, but he had a bad debate.

COATES: Uh-hmm.

WELCH: And every day, I come from Vermont, where he got the highest margin of victory, and people who love Joe Biden said to me, Peter, we've got to do something, this isn't going to work. So instead of ignoring the reality of what we saw, a lot of people mobilized and acted, and the president responded.

You take the Republican Party, so many of my colleagues that are in the Senate privately say what we all know. Trump is kind of nuts, but they won't do anything about it. We acted, and it was a situation where we were putting our obligation to the best -- to do the best we can, to have a candidate who has got a good shot at beating President Trump. We acted. And the Republicans are accommodating a guy who has destroyed the Republican Party.

COATES: You have to think about candidates, though. The complete ticket would include a vice presidential running mate for Kamala Harris. Who do you think that ought to be?

WELCH: All of the people who have been mentioned are good with me. Here's what we have to do: You know, our campaign has to be about the future, and we've got to speak to folks who are feeling that the Democratic Party is a little out of touch. We've got to convince them that we have a vision that includes making housing affordable, having kids -- that they have real security that they can have the American dream, that things can be better, that we focus on common needs that are true for folks, whether they're in a red state or a blue state, we've got to have affordability, we've got to have a health care system that works.

So, there's going to be a lot of talk by our presidential candidate about the failings of Trump, but I also think you're going to hear Kamala Harris talking about our commitment to meeting the common needs of folks, whether they're in a red state or a blue state, whether they voted for Trump in the past or not. We have to have common solutions for the common challenges that all of us face in America.

[23:15:00]

COATES: Well, Senator Welch, we'll see how the voters feel about it. Thank you so much.

WELCH: Thank you.

COATES: Well, former President Trump holding his first rally since President Biden dropped out of the race, testing out his lines of attack against his brand-new opponent, Kamala Harris. And let me be clear, they were not pretty. We'll bring them to you next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you don't mind, I'm not going to be nice. Is that okay?

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Well, tonight, Donald Trump headlining his first rally since Kamala Harris' presumptive rise to the top of the democratic ticket. And if this rally was any indication, it's going to be a long and bitter campaign.

[23:20:02]

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If Kamala Harris gets in, she would be the most radical far left extremist ever to occupy the White House times 10. There has never been a lunatic like this in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Hmm. Her name, first of all, is Kamala, not Kamla. Oh, wait, no, it's the way otherwise. It's Kamala, not Kamala. You get that, right? She has been the vice president of the United States for almost four years. And something tells me he knows exactly how to pronounce her name.

Joining me now, former Trump White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, reporter for "Politico," Alex Isenstadt, and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign manager, Robby Mook. I'm emphasizing everyone's name right now, just to prove the point that everyone's name was quite clear to everyone listening today, right?

Let me bring you in here, Sarah, though, because Trump said it himself tonight that everyone seemed to expect a change in his tone following a tragic and devastating to the nation near assassination attempt. But that's not what he delivered tonight. It seemed to be a reversion back to the earlier days. SARAH MATTHEWS, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: No, it was pretty funny watching him say that everyone wanted him to be nice, and he says, I'm not going to be nice. And that goes against exactly what his campaign told us, the tone was going to be moving forward in his campaign. We were told that he was going to be softer, more unifying.

And then we all saw that RNC convention acceptance speech. And that wasn't the Trump that he delivered. And then in this speech tonight, we saw him say things like that the Democrats stole the election, that it was rigged, and moving forward with this divisive rhetoric.

I think it just goes to show that he hasn't changed at all whatsoever. So not even an attempt on his life will do that. He's always going to be Trump. And so, no matter how much wish casting the Trump campaign tries to compel him to be this unifier, that's just not who he is.

COATES: And by the way, the crowd seemed to love it. I mean, they were feeding off of him saying, I'm not going to be nice tonight. They were roaring with applause. And he's somebody to feed off the crowd.

There's also this mispronunciation thing, Robby. And, of course, I jokingly called you Robby, but obviously it's Robby. But, you know, you're a 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign alum. Did you pick up on just how many times he had actually mispronounced Harris's name? I mean, our producer counted, what? Forty-one times during his speech tonight. I mean, how should she counter him? Did you even try to address it?

ROBBY MOOK, CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR HILLARY CLINTON'S 2016 CAMPAIGN: Yeah, I think this is best left to others. You know, this is a trap he wants to set with her. And it's interesting because he wants her to start to make this about her. And she needs to make it about the voters, right? What's in it for them? That's really important for her in this introductory period.

It's incumbent on her to, first of all, introduce herself and tell her story, but then explain what's in it for people. We know prices are high. You know, there's a lot of uncertainty about the economy and the world. So, she's got to explain what's in it for them. And I would not take the bait on this. And I know this team really well. I don't think they're going to.

COATES: It would be taking the bait. Let me turn to Alex on this because I'm sure he wants to get into a discussion on name-calling and kind of a tit-for-tat rolling in the mud, so to speak, which can distract you from the mission and purpose. But he did eventually pivot his way back to the teleprompter. And in those moments, he did talk about the policy issues. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Kamala has been more unhinged than her wild pursuit of open borders. She cast the tie-breaking votes that created the worst inflation in a half a century. If you want socialist health care, nation-wrecking inflation, the death of American energy, and a lying radical-left liberal San Francisco extremist as your commander in chief, then Kamala Harris is your candidate. She's the one for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I mean, that sentence was chock-full of so many different policy positions and talking points. I do wonder, the name-calling aside, and that's one thing that he's trying to do, but is this the policy issue where you think the rubber might meet the road?

ALEX ISENSTADT, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well, he's trying to attack her on any number of policy issues. He's trying to take Joe Biden, who clearly was less popular, clearly at this point less popular than Kamala Harris. He's trying to attach her to him on any number of issues that are part of the Biden administration. So, he's trying to take immigration, and really, he's trying to hone in on that. He had a call with reporters yesterday. We talked specifically about immigration. So that's clearly sort of a focal point.

But there is also -- what you also saw in that clip was a real lack of focus. It's not totally clear, to me at least, how he's trying to go after Harris at this point. There's no real clear argument. So, you're seeing some of immigration, you're seeing some other issues being thrown there. He's saying she's soft on crime.

[23:25:00]

But it doesn't feel like they've really found the sharp message that they found when they were running against Biden, which was that he lost his mental acuity, he lost his step, and he had been ineffective. It doesn't feel like they've quite found that message to use against her yet.

COATES: I find that so surprising for so many reasons, Sarah, not because I think there are the laundry list of reasons to attack her, but because they had been asking or saying that Biden should not be running any longer. If you just were to follow that thread a centimeter, the next conclusion would be that she possibly would be the presumptive nominee. Did they really not think that there had to be a message or a strategy as it relates to the vice president?

MATTHEWS: Yeah, I mean, you would think that they'd be better prepared for this moment. And kudos to them because clearly, their messaging about Biden worked. The voters believed it. They thought that Joe Biden was too old to do the job and continue for another four years and seek a second term. And so, you would think then that the Trump campaign would have been prepared to take her on as a candidate.

And they kind of kept saying in their messaging before Biden dropped out, I think in the months leading up to this, they were saying, oh, well, you're really voting for --

COATES: Uh-hmm.

MATTHEWS: -- Kamala Harris. And so, then you would think that they would have their lines of attack ready to go or commercials or more poll testing on what the message is that is best used against her because, as Alex noted, it just kind of seems like they're throwing whatever at the wall and seeing what sticks right now.

COATES: And again, trying to, you know, rev up the base in a campaign rally different than trying to rev up a base in a general election and what might actually resonate with them. But, Robby, let me ask you, because there was this illuminating policy moment of sorts where Trump revealed where he stands today, today on abortion. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I happen to support the three exceptions, rape, incest, and the life of the mother. I think that's the way.

(APPLAUSE)

But follow your heart. But you also have to remember, you have to get elected. You have to remember because we have elections and elections are about a lot of other things, too, that are very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Remember, follow your heart. I don't follow that particular logic. Was he trying to undermine his own statement? I mean, we know that just at the last week's RNC, reproductive rights was not even talked about all that much. He knows, though, that this issue is not a winning one, particularly for him. Could you decipher the code that he was trying to say?

MOOK: Yeah, well, he's trying to have it both ways. Look, he gave the extreme right wing what they wanted, which is they wanted to get rid of Roe v. Wade. States now can pass whatever laws they want, not according to the limitations he just laid out. They don't have to have exceptions. So, he's undermining his own policy right there. And he's doing it because he knows how unpopular it is.

And, you know, it's interesting, you were talking about him mentioning policy. I think this election is going to be about culture. It's going to be about, you know, some big lies, big myths. There's not going to be a lot of policy details. I think this is one place where policy is really going to matter. And these sorts of details leave him very vulnerable. This is a critical issue in this election.

I think one of the many things we gain by having Kamala Harris now as our candidate is someone who can really speak to this issue even more powerfully than Joe Biden could. And you just heard it right there. Trump is scared. So, he's trying to roll it back. He's trying to spackle it over. But the facts speak for themselves.

COATES: I wonder if hedging in politics will work in this campaign. Thank you all, Robby Mook, Sarah Matthews, Alex Isenstadt. I pronounced all your names correctly. The point has been made. Thank you.

Ahead, the FBI director says the Trump rally shooter was actually Googling JFK's assassination. And the particular question that he searched for and what it might reveal about his motive, I'll tell you next. And next, Vice President Harris tells the backbone of the Democratic Party, that she's counting on them. Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove was there, and now she's here after this. Hello.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back. We are not going back.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:33:47]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And we know, when we organize, mountains move.

(APPLAUSE)

When we mobilize, nations change.

(APPLAUSE)

And when we vote, we make history.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Kamala Harris mobilizing the Black sorority families from her staunchest supporters as she looks to them for help come November. Her rally today follows a Zoom call on Sunday with, remember, 44,000 Black women that raised $1.5 million for Harris and her campaign.

Joining me now, Democratic Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove. She joined the vice president on her trip to Indianapolis earlier today. I'm glad that you are with us right now. We have heard so much about the enthusiasm gap and now this extraordinary amount of momentum that is here right now. You were actually in the room where it was happening. What was the energy like in the response to her now being the nominee?

REP. SYDNEY KAI KAMLAGER-DOVE (D-CA): It was jubilant excitement. There are women who had been lined up since 4:00 in the morning to make sure that they would get into that convention center. So, I was just happy to be able to hitch a ride with her as a member of Zeta Phi Beta. She is AKA.

[23:35:00]

We were able to talk about the importance of these organizations rooted in community justice and economic development and sisterhood and service. And then to hear her talk to these women, many of whom have lived through, you know, generations or times when they were not able to vote, they did not have access to quality health care or housing, they had employment discrimination that they had to deal with, and they're listening to this Black woman who is running to be the next president of the United States, share with them all of the accomplishments that have happened under the Biden-Harris administration and her vision for the future, it was electric.

COATES: You know, even with all of that, I think there are so many people who are excited. And yet there is a level of nervousness given the history of America and the way in which women and particularly Black women have been cast aside except for when it comes to elections. And there were those who were talking even in the room, I understand, where one person who was an attendant said that she is going to have a hard time. "I'm just being honest. She's a woman and she's Black. So, she's not going to win."

But they said, if you had your eyes closed and you just go based on her qualifications versus Trump's qualifications, yes, she definitely would win. That speaks volumes about, I think, a level of anxiety in addition to the enthusiasm about the prospects of a Black woman in America in 2024 being successful at the presidential election.

KAMLAGER-DOVE: Well, we are always nervous when one of our own ascends into spaces where we know people don't want us to be. We get very nervous and also very protective. So, I think that's what she was saying. I remember my grandmother was incredibly nervous about Barack Obama running to be president. But she shared this bold vision for a future, right? The fact that we have to be protecting these freedoms, we have to be fighting for economic justice, social justice, reproductive justice.

And all of those things are on the chopping block with Project 2025. We have seen through this manifesto that he wants to erode protections really that Black folks fought for to make sure that we would have basic federal protections, right? To make sure that the water you drink is clean, that you don't have poison in your food, you know, that you have access to school lunches, that you can vote, that you have access to the National Weather Service, that you have Medicaid and Medicare, all of these things he wants to erode, and then fire four million federal workers and then replace them with his loyalists.

And she's saying, no, let's be bold. You know, let's talk about climate change, let's talk about greater infrastructure, let's elevate the cries that we're hearing from our Gen Zs, and let's celebrate our seniors who continue to need inhalers and insulin at $35 a month, right? Who need that medical debt taken off their credit report.

So, there was so much excitement. And I told them, I said, do you all understand the assignment?

COATES: Hmm.

KAMLAGER-DOVE: And all of the women said yes. And we know exactly what that assignment is. It's getting her elected. COATES: Well, there's also innuendo and dog whistling that is happening. I don't know if it's a dog whistle or a horn blowing because there has been those who have labeled her, in spite of her qualifications and last four years as the vice president of the United States, relegating her to a DEI hire.

And one of the people speaking about that was Congressman Tim Burchett, who came on my SiriusXM show this morning. I asked him about what the response had been to that statement. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN) (voice-over): Do I wish I had said it? No, but it was the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: It's not the truth, first of all. But why do you think people believe this to be an effective vehicle to undermine her?

KAMLAGER-DOVE: Well, it is a dog whistle. They also have nothing else to talk about.

COATES: Hmm.

KAMLAGER-DOVE: You know, Chip Roy said it the best. We don't have a platform to run on. We haven't done anything in Congress that we can take home and share with our district constituents. So, of course, they're going to fall back on these very tired tropes. You know, she is the most qualified candidate running for president. I actually wish they would talk about J.D. Vance, who really is a DEI hire. I mean, he has absolutely no qualifications. And the guy running against her is equally unqualified.

So, let's spend some time unraveling the incompetence that was the last four years of the Trump administration and then compare it to what she and Joe Biden have been able to do in just three and a half years.

COATES: Hmm. An inconvenient truth you may be describing. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining me today.

KAMLAGER-DOVE: Thank you.

COATES: Ahead, the chilling JFK Google search by the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump. The questions it's now raising about his mindset and also the motive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:44:11]

COATES: FBI Director Christopher Wray testifying on Capitol Hill today and telling lawmakers the would-be Trump assassin researched details -- get this -- about Lee Harvey Oswald and the JFK assassination. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, DIRECTOR, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: Analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6th, he did a Google search for -- quote -- how far away was Oswald from Kennedy? And so that's a search that obviously is significant in terms of his state of mind. That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:45:02]

COATES: But, you know, that's not all, because Wray also said that the shooter flew a drone, a drone 200 yards from the stage where Trump was going to speak, just hours before the former president took to the podium. And then there's the gun that was used by the shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WRAY: The weapon had a collapsible stock, which could explain why it might have been less easy for people to observe, you know, because one of the things that we're finding is people have observed him, the first people to observe him with the weapon were -- when he was already on the roof, and we haven't yet found anybody with firsthand observation of him with the weapon walking around beforehand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: There were also, apparently, two explosives that were found in the shooter's car. And Wray said that those explosives, they could have been detonated remotely. That is, if the remote receiver had actually been turned on. But it was in the off position. And then there's the question that everybody wants to know. Why? Why did this 20-year-old attempt to assassinate a former president?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRAY: I think it's fair to say that we do not yet have a clear picture of his motive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, joining me now, Casey Jordan. She's a criminologist and behavioral analyst. Casey, this has so many unanswered questions. Now, according to Wray, on July 5th, the would-be assassin actually traveled to the rally site at one point in time. And the next day, he searched for how far away was Oswald from Kennedy. That same day, he registered for the rally. So, what can you discern from this timeline from what a person like this was thinking?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST: I think it's pretty obvious to all of us, Laura, that it was planned. It's just not the act of somebody who was being impulsive, who just had a bad day and decided to do this randomly. He had been thinking about it for a while. But the question is why. And one of the reports I've read, but it's unconfirmed, is that he had done a search on his phone about symptoms for depression. And that would help explain why he may have been on a downward spiral.

But why that really wraps this up, especially now that we know that he did a search on Lee Harvey Oswald and, again, the trajectory, is that everyone knows the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. He wanted to live in infamy. He wanted to be notorious, if you will.

When we kind of back up and look about the fact that he was a loner, but nothing about his political affiliation, I mean, yes, he was a registered Republican, but he wasn't an extremist or active in politics, it really just indicates that he wanted to be famous. And we call this the Travis Bickle effect, if you remember the movie "Taxi Driver" --

COATES: Hmm.

JORDAN: -- that inspired John Hinckley in his failed assassination attempt of President Reagan. And really it just comes down to you. When you shoot at a president or a presidential candidate, you will be famous forever.

COATES: I mean, just thinking about the many people in the world who are battling mental health and depression don't engage in this type of behavior. And the way you describe it, I mean, a 20-year-old male, a seemingly good student, as you mentioned, unclear about what his political beliefs really are, is there a profile that you think the FBI or investigators are trying to map out in an attempt to either understand what happened here or to find a copycat or prevent this from happening again?

JORDAN: Well, we don't like the word copycat so much as it does inspire other people with like-minded fantasies of being famous. But the bottom line with this particular shooting is that you have to keep in mind he has no diagnosed mental illness, not like John Hinckley, who had had a lot of psychiatric treatment before he attempted to kill Reagan. And what we do know is that it was a legally purchased gun, that politics doesn't seem to play a role, but infamy does.

When people get on their downward spirals, and we do believe that he had actually failed to make the rifle team of his high school, that has been reported repeatedly, there are people who say conflicting reports, but if that's true, then think about the pseudo-commandos, and that's a typology of mass murder that we see with snipers like the D.C. sniper or your 2017 Las Vegas massacre. So many times, you see people trying to prove their worth in marksmanship.

And if he was really feeling like he was undervalued for his marksmanship in high school, this could be a chip on his shoulder that he carried around for a few years until he did that Google search, wanted to know how many yards from Lee Harvey Oswald to President Kennedy, and decided to replicate that moment in history so that he would go down in history himself.

[23:50:01]

COATES: Casey Jordan, this is as troubling as it is fascinating. Thank you. JORDAN: Good to be here.

COATES: There were pretty tense protests in Washington, D.C. today as the prime minister of Israel addressed Congress. Now, it'll be Biden and Harris' turn to hear from him directly. And the big question is, did his speech give us any clues about how those conversations might go?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu probably not getting the public welcome that he wanted at the Capitol today.

[23:55:00]

Hundreds of people there to protest his speech to Congress. Police at one point using pepper spray against the demonstrators and more clashes with police. Outside Union Station in D.C., protesters there taking down American flags and burning them, replacing them with Palestinian flags. Also, an effigy of the Israeli prime minister burned, a statute spray painted with "Hamas is coming," And then in the halls of Congress, 80 Democrats sitting out the speech with one Democrat, the only Palestinian member of Congress, Rashida Tlaib, holding up a sign saying, "war criminal."

Netanyahu responding to the protests in his speech today. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers. You have officially become Iran's useful idiots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Joining me now, David Sanger, a CNN political and national security analyst. He's also the White House and national security correspondent for "The New York Times." He's the author of "The Perfect Weapon." He joins us now -- and "New Cold Wars."

David, Netanyahu was lashing out at the protesters, college presidents, by the way, the International Criminal Court, just to name a few, while all the while giving a full-throated defense of the war in Gaza. What was your big takeaway from the speech?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL: Laura, what's really fascinating about the speech is both what he said and what he failed to say. First of all, it was delivered in sort of Ronald Reagan style. He had up in the galley IDF, Israeli Defense Force heroes who had limbs blown off but kept fighting Hamas, who responded on October 7th to the terrorist attack, one of whom had run eight miles to the site of the attack because he didn't have a car. So, it was quite the theater.

What he failed to do was acknowledge in any way the more than 30,000, nearly 40,000, by Palestinian estimates, civilian casualties. Now, some of those obviously are militants, the Israelis, say upwards of 14,000 or 15,000. But he never sorts of came to grapple with the question of whether Israel overreacted and killed civilians indiscriminately on the way to taking out terrorists. And so, he didn't really get to the core issue. He did, however, make a very full-throated defense of continuing the war and very little discussion of what he'd do the day after.

COATES: There were -- as you mentioned, there were mentions of the hostages, not much on a potential deal to release them, which the White House says is close. But then there was this moment when he was pressing the United States to deliver weapons more quickly, essentially saying if you deliver them more quickly, this war will be over all the faster. Listen to what he had to say. Actually, tonight, Senator Peter Welch was reacting to that very point, as to what this would look like. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WELCH: It was empty and it was tired. There has been enormous loss of life in Gaza. There has been suffering and division in Israel. I was hoping, I listened to his speech in my office, that I would hear a pathway forward. I didn't hear that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Did you hear that, and do you think that Netanyahu gained any support for like coming to Congress in furtherance of that mission?

SANGER: Well, I think Senator Welch is right. You did not hear any elements of the plan for how you get out of this. And you have to remember that that in part is because Prime Minister Netanyahu was speaking not only to an American audience but to an Israeli one. In fact, by having this speech take place at 2 p.m. in Washington, he was hitting sort of prime time in Israel. And he knew that he's got to hold together his coalition, which includes some of the most right- wing parties that have ever seen power in Israel.

That said, it would have been helpful, I think, for him to acknowledge what parts of the plan that President Biden announced at the end of May and said was Mr. Netanyahu's plan. He really meant to go pursue. It would have been good if he could have described who would take control of security in Gaza when the Israelis leave because the U.S. has said it's unacceptable for either Hamas or Israeli forces to be providing that security.

[00:00:06]

He didn't do that. It was more of a speech for the heartstrings. But he wasn't as divisive as he was in 2015 when he came to oppose the Iran nuclear deal.

COATES: David Sanger, we look forward to hearing what the conversations with Harris, Biden, and Trump will look like as well. Thank you so much for joining us. And his new book, by the way, is "New Cold Wars." Thank you for joining us.

And thank you all for watching. Our coverage continues.