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Laura Coates Live

Harris Lays Out Economic Agenda In First Major Policy Speech; Trump Ramps Up Immigration Attacks; Black Women Help Drive Kamala Harris Surge; Columbia Students Return To Campus With Interim Leadership In Charge; CNN Hero: Conductor Invites Refugees To Join His Dream Orchestra; CNN Goes On The Hunt For Dangerous And Elusive Pythons. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired August 16, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN HOST AND CORRESPONDENT, PODCAST HOST: Tonight, is Kamala Harris stealing some of Donald Trump's populist thunder? Plus, new numbers could change the political calculus on the other hot topic of the 2024 election. And from the campaign trail to the Everglades, a contest to wrangle as many pythons as possible for the grand prize of $10,000. Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin is here to talk about it.

Welcome to "Laura Coates Live." I'm Audie Cornish, in for Laura tonight. Vice President Harris delivers what has long been promised, an economic policy of her own. And the stakes could not have been higher. Republicans are trying to tie the economic anxiety of Bidenomics to Harris by pinning her to the inflation spike that happened under President Biden's watch.

So, she went to hotly contested North Carolina, she pitched her vision, and many of her proposals sound a lot like Bidenomics. Others appear kind of like a more amped up version geared towards converting the economic frustration people are feeling into populist enthusiasm. So, for example, her plan calls for constructing three million new housing units, a new tax credit for families with newborns, and a federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries.

She made her case by emphasizing her personal story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I grew up in a middle-class household for most of my childhood. We were renters. My mother saved for well over a decade to buy a home. Later in college, I worked at McDonald's to earn spending money. Well, some of the people I worked with were raising families on that paycheck. They worked second or even third jobs to pay rent and buy food. That only gets harder when the cost of living goes up.

When I am elected president, I will make it a top priority to bring down costs and increase economic security for all Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, there are a lot of questions here like, first, how would a Harris administration pay for it? Second, what's the likelihood that this wish list becomes a reality? And lastly, how do the merits of her plan stack up?

Trump tonight seized on Harris's proposals. He claims Harris wants -- quote -- "Soviet-style price controls." But while he knocks her agenda, Trump has yet to release details of his economic plan, despite holding two speeches this week on the economy. He's going to give it another shot on Monday when he counterprograms the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. So, perhaps, the third time is a charm.

Joining me now, congressional reporter for Axios, Juliegrace Brufke, Trump 2020 press communications director, Erin Perrine, and CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. So, thank you all for coming in tonight.

And first, I want to start with our reporter because you have seen some of these proposals before, right? So, it's not as though a new Congress would be like, what, expanding a tax credit for, you know, families. What does it mean for whether or not this is more or less just Biden policies? Does it actually feel new?

JULIEGRACE BRUFKE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS: I think both sides, both Trump and Harris, are kind of leaning into this populist messaging. Some of the things they are talking about, the no tax on tips and things like the $6,000 child tax credit, which is kind of similar to the $5,000 tax credit -- child tax credit that J.D. Vance talked about, which are similar -- but -- I mean, I think you're really going to hear a lot of Republicans kind of hammering home how are they going to pay for some of these proposals like things like the $25,000 first time homebuyer proposal that Harris put out there.

And what she -- I mean, these have been kind of in broad stroke proposals that she has put out there, and whether she'll tackle that if she ends up getting -- getting elected via executive order, whether it'll be legislative, which might be a tougher lift with tight majorities, kind of remains to be seen there.

CORNISH: And we're saying populist in a way I kind of think popular, Maria, right?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yeah.

CORNISH: Like people are mad right now that their rents are high.

CARDONA: Right.

CORNISH: People are -- like these are issues that have been percolating for a time. So, can you talk about how she is trying to distinguish herself?

CARDONA: Absolutely. I think what she has done is incredibly savvy, Audie, because she has been part of the administration, and frankly, it's an administration that has put forward economic proposals that actually pull off the charts. They're incredibly popular. But the frustration from the Biden administration has been that people aren't really feeling it because of inflation, because of the high cost.

[23:05:00]

So, here comes Kamala Harris. She is expanding what the Biden administration has done in terms of expanding opportunities for the middle class. But she's talking in a way where people really feel it, the increased costs at the grocery store.

CORNISH: So, is it the messaging that's different? A lot of it was very like, hey, the numbers are actually great.

CARDONA: Exactly. That's the difference. And frankly, on a macroeconomic level, the numbers are great. But that doesn't really matter to people if they're not going to feel it in their own economies. And so, incredibly savvy for her to do that. It is something that is very relevant to people.

And the contrast with Donald Trump, who through his Project 2025, because he hasn't really talked about anything else, economists have said that if he imposes what he wants to do, it's going to explode inflation, impose massive taxes on the middle class. That's a great contrast for her.

CORNISH: Let me jump in here because, Erin, I think that Republicans have been saying for a long time, you can't just say the economy is good if people aren't feeling --

ERIN PERRINE, FORMER DIRECTOR OF PRESS COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Uh-hmm.

CORNISH: -- that it's good. But checking your -- your tweets, your social media, you're calling this agenda -- you said we've seen this kind of thing tried in lots of other countries before: Venezuela, Argentina, and the Soviet Union. It leads to shortages. I don't want to take you out of context, but where is this line of criticism going for Republicans because we are hearing it?

PERRINE: One, I will say that's a retweet. That's not a direct --

CORNISH: Oh, good.

PERRINE: That was not directly --

CORNISH: Yeah. I mean, retweets aren't --

PERRINE: They aren't endorsements --

CORNISH: Ahh --

PERRINE: -- but it is -- it is --

CORNISH: They're endorsement (INAUDIBLE). PERRINE: But you know what? It is showing what Republicans are trying to say here, which is they've used it before as a messaging tool to say this is communism, this is socialism. You saw Trump talk about that in the 2020 cycle. You saw him use that aggressively as a political message, especially in Florida where there are a lot of immigrants who came from communist and socialist nations.

CORNISH: But does that work beyond the base? You know what I mean? It's kind of like when you hear people say, they're going to be fascist, and then it's like, yeah, there's someone who definitely understands the definition of fascism and is very moved by that, whereas I feel like -- if you feel like the cost of milk is high and then someone says, what, don't do anything about that, you're a communist, it like makes -- it feels like a bigger leap.

PERRINE: There are better ways for Republicans to message the economy than to use verbose over the top language about Venezuela. But this is where the messaging is going, which is why I was highlighting it.

CORNISH: Okay.

PERRINE: But what I will say is the better way to talk about it, and I do agree with you here, is that make it personal. I was listening to NPR the other morning and they had a woman on who was saying that now, because the price has gone up so much, a bag of chips is now a luxury item for her at the grocery store. That's how you message how the Biden economy has failed people. You make it relatable. You make it something that is tangible.

And, yes, there are people and certainly sects of a swing population of votes that Trump is going to want to bring on board where the Venezuela and Russia and communist kind of language will work. That is not the broad strokes we should be brushing with when we are trying to talk about the economic failures that the American people feel under the Biden-Harris administration.

CORNISH: You know, one thing to remember is that people actually have lived through a Trump administration. So, they have lived under his economy and seen some of his policies. Harris was criticizing some of his current proposals. She's talking about his plan to raise tariffs, in particular on imported goods, 10 to 20%, which people will remember a lot of that tariff talk from the Trump -- the Trump years. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: It will mean higher prices on just about every one of your daily needs. A Trump tax on gas, a Trump tax on food, a Trump tax on clothing, a Trump tax on over-the-counter medication.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I haven't heard tariffs called the Trump tax before. I felt like I was hearing the debuting of some new talking points. I don't know who wants to take it, but it was a notable moment. CARDONA: I do think it's effective because people don't really remember the bad things that happen under the Trump economy. And, you know, he likes to tout it. But let's remember what happened. It's rich when Republicans look at Democratic proposals who want to benefit those who need it the most, working class voters, middle class families, and they just scream communism.

Yet when Trump passed billions and billions of dollars in tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires and the biggest corporations, they're like, oh, we don't need to pay for that, that's fine. And it did explode the deficit and it didn't help middle class voters and it actually hurt working class voters. And so that's what she is getting at. That's what she's going to remind people about.

CORNISH: Erin, I want you to jump in here because I do think like language matters. So, when you hear that language, should the Trump campaign worry?

PERRINE: About the Trump tax?

CORNISH: Yeah.

PERRINE: No, I don't think so.

CORNISH: It's easier to say tax than tariffs.

PERRINE: A hundred percent.

CORNISH: You know, it doesn't --

PERRINE: Again, it makes it more relatable.

CORNISH: Yeah.

PERRINE: But I don't necessarily think that that is going to be the ultimate winning economic message for Kamala Harris going into this election cycle, going through this election cycle.

[23:10:04]

But with the Trump tax cuts, this is something he should be messaging more on to the American people because no matter what, no matter who wins, and Juliegrace knows this, 2025, there's going to have to be some work done on taxes in Congress because the 2017 tax cuts are set to sunset or expire. So, they're going to have to do work on that. There will be a legislative vehicle. And he can say, we doubled the child tax credit, let's do it again, we made sure you took home more of your money and that your paycheck got a little bigger.

There was a 2019 analysis done by "The New York Times "that said the majority of Americans saw a tax cut under the Trump tax cuts. He can tell people, you brought home more money under me because we did these tax cuts. You've seen I've done it once before.

CORNISH: But it means --

PERRINE: We can do it again.

CORNISH: -- he's explaining his record in a way that Biden was thought to be stuck doing, right? Like now, in a way, it's like he's the one having to explain. You know, Juliegrace, I want to talk to you actually a little bit about debate prep because it's hard to believe, but like with this kind of like, you know, heightened, shortened campaign cycle, we already need to be thinking about that. What have you learned about how they're conducting their prep?

BRUFKE: Well, Tulsi Gabbard has kind of been brought on board to help Trump prepare there. We kind of saw her already take on Harris back when she was running on the democratic -- for the democratic nomination. She was kind of able to get under Vice President Harris's skin. I think that the Trump team is kind of looking to harness that.

I mean, that being said, I mean, it's a different climate now. I feel like Trump -- we saw how much Biden had to lose during the last debate. I think it's a whole different climate than what we saw a month ago. So, we know that both sides are definitely heavily prepping there. Well, I guess we'll watch and see how it all pans out and whether he's going to be able to kind of stay on message there.

CORNISH: You know, Maria, there was also like preparation for Hillary Clinton in 2016 with Philippe Reines, I think, who's going to be doing that this time around, reprising his role as Trump in mock sessions. Can you talk about those mock sessions? Like, what's the goal? Right? Is it a pantomime? Is it needling? Is it -- because Democrats don't want to go through what they went through with President Biden.

CARDONA: Sure. And I think that it's a very different situation for all of the obvious reasons, right? But I think in terms of -- of the prep, it's going to be all of those things, Audie, because they're going to practice for every single version of the Trump that could show up.

And what we have seen thus far is that he doesn't know how to run against somebody as qualified and as prepared and as experienced as Kamala Harris, who also represents, in my view, the biggest political kryptonite for Donald Trump, meaning a strong woman, a woman of color, a woman who is Black and of South Asian descent and daughter of immigrants.

CORNISH: But, obviously, Hillary Clinton had a pretty tough experience there. Can you talk about what this means? Donald Trump does have a history of looking like a bully in this kind of environment.

PERRINE: But he did really well in that first debate. And debates, I believe, politically, don't pick winners, but they certainly pick losers. Terry McAuliffe in the last gubernatorial race made the comment about parents not being and needing to be involved in children's education and that the government should do it. Boom. The Young King campaign was immediately up with an ad on it, and that was a big winner for them. They do pick winners. Heck, the debate is why Joe Biden is off the ticket now.

CORNISH: Yeah.

PERRINE: Nobody can argue with that fact. But for Donald Trump here, he does well. He does generally well in debates because he's pretty good. He's quick on his feet. And that kind of thing is really what makes somebody a good debater. But I will say, and I believe Don Jr. tweeted this as well after the first debate versus Biden, that the muted mics and the no audience were really good for Donald Trump. It kept him very focused. It kept him measured. And that was really what made him --

CORNISH: Yeah.

PERRINE: -- very powerful in that debate.

CORNISH: Very, very different opponent this time around.

PERRINE: Very different opponent, but he has debated.

CORNISH: And the preparation is interesting. Preparation is everything. Mom, you were right.

(LAUGHTER)

Stand by, everyone. Just in to CNN, former New York Congressman George Santos is expected to plead guilty to multiple federal charges on Monday. The disgraced Republican was expelled from his House seat last year after being indicted on 23 federal charges, including allegations of fraud related to COVID-19 unemployment benefits, misusing campaign funds, and lying about his personal finances on House disclosure reports. Santos was only the sixth lawmaker in U.S. history to be expelled from the House of Representatives.

Ahead, Donald Trump continues to go after Kamala Harris, specifically on immigration. And we're going to look at how the migrant crisis has changed. A report from the ground and what it means for the 2024 election, that's going to be next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:15:00]

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CORNISH: Claims of drug smuggling, chaos, and danger coming from the Trump campaign. They say all these things are happening at the southern border. And they place the blame squarely on Vice President Kamala Harris. But are things on the border as bad as the Trump campaign is making them out to be? Well, CNN's Rosa Flores reports from the border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've spent so much time in El Paso during prior migrant surges that just by driving to certain spots, I can tell that migrant apprehensions are low right now. Just take a look beyond the border fence. (Voice-over): In this hotspot south of the border wall, you see rows of razor wire and piles of fencing, a huge difference from when I was here more than a year ago, when hundreds of migrants in a makeshift camp are waiting to turn themselves into border patrol.

[23:20:04]

During other migrant surges, migrant families with children slept at the airport. And large groups of migrants rushed the international bridge towards El Paso, some of them in tears about the cumbersome asylum process.

This is Segundo Barrio or Second Ward. And one of the biggest indicators that migrant apprehensions are low are the streets around this church. Take a look. You don't see large migrant camps on sidewalks and on the streets.

(Voice-over): But during migrant surges, hundreds of migrant families called the street home.

(SINGING)

Father Rafael Garcia, the priest, has seen the cycles of migration before.

RAFAEL GARCIA, PRIEST: It has become a big political issue.

FLORES (voice-over): Garcia says migrants stopped showing up in large numbers in June when President Joe Biden's executive order barred asylum for those who crossed illegally. And ahead of the election, he doesn't expect the Democrats to let up.

GARCIA: Politically, it's not a good thing to do. It's a humanitarian thing to do, but it's not politically.

The drop in migrant apprehensions is not just happening in El Paso. It's happening all along the U.S. southern border. I wanted to show you this spot because this is one of the illegal crossing hotspots. We're actually in New Mexico, and sometimes when you look beyond the border wall, you can see smugglers on the other side.

I talked to a source familiar with the government data who says that last month, about 57,000 migrants were apprehended at the U.S. southern border. Compare that to 250,000 in December of 2023. Does that mean that the migrant flow has stopped? Absolutely not.

(Voice-over): Rafael Velazquez Garcia from the International Rescue Committee says another reason for the drop in migrant crossings is that more than one million migrants are stuck in Mexico as they wait to enter the U.S. in what he calls a carousel or Mexican authorities busing migrants to southern Mexico over and over again.

UNKNOWN: New, more aggressive policies by the Mexican government.

FLORES (voice-over): CNN has reached out to Mexico's foreign ministry for comment and did not hear back. So, the days when hundreds of migrants were camped outside Sacred Heart Church are a thing of the past, at least for now, take a look at the empty alley around me. But if covering the border has taught me anything, it's that the situation can change very quickly.

(Voice-over): Rosa Flores, CNN, El Paso, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: Excellent reporting from Rosa there. I have my panel back with me. You know, it was actually really striking to see those kinds of before and after images. I also wanted to pull some numbers so that we could talk about what we've seen in terms of the shift, especially from the Trump administration, 2020, also Biden administration. As Rosa mentioned, those numbers going down.

You know, Erin, one thing that's interesting is that there was so much pressure on the Biden administration to do something that I think they did, and the numbers are down. So how do you still talk about it?

PERRINE: You talk about it as an aggregate. You talk about it in totality. You talk about the fact that there was an average of two million illegal immigrants entering the United States every year for the first three years of the Biden administration. But then you humanize the consequences of the open southern border that Republicans have spoken about.

CORNISH: So, is that why we're seeing more emphasis on victims of migrant crime rather than images of caravans?

PERRINE: Well, yes.

CORNISH: Because you can't show a big group of people.

PERRINE: Right. So, there are a lot of people in Mexico, as the reporting said, that are looking to cross in the United States. But the way that they continue to talk about this, Republicans, for political messaging, is to humanize it, like I said, to talk about the consequences, to talk about communities, to talk about victims, to talk about a woman in Boston, a pregnant woman in Boston who was raped by an illegal immigrant. For her, for her family, shutting down -- working to shut down the border, working to bring down the numbers is a day late and a dollar short.

Again, the way you -- the way you move a message in politics is you have to humanize it. You have to feel what I feel. I have to be able to sell you that this is, that this is really a crisis and that this is so hard for every American, because as much as Americans hate negative advertising and they tell pollsters and they say it all the time, negative advertising is what gets people to -- it gets people activated.

CORNISH: Yeah. And Maria, to her point, when I think about the criminalization of abortion, it's the stories of women who have been affected that have been so effective for Democrats in swing states. But can you -- I want you to actually listen to how J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate, has been talking about this. He weighed in in an unexpected way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Has anybody ever seen the movie "Gangs of New York?" That's what I'm talking about. We know that when you have these massive ethnic enclaves forming in our country, it can sometimes lead to higher crime rates. What we want is an American immigration policy that promotes assimilation, that no matter where you come from, you can become an American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:25:04]

CORNISH: So, I'll let you both tackle this. But I thought it was interesting because you're literally pulling from like the 1830s to talk about this. But, to you --

(LAUGHTER)

CARDONA: Yeah.

CORNISH: -- is there an opportunity there, again, for Democrats who have really gone after Vance for a lot of things he has said?

CARDONA: Absolutely, there is an opportunity to, frankly, tell the truth. And as an immigrant, the whole way Republicans talk about this makes my skin crawl. And I think that it is not something that is going to resonate with the vast majority of Americans, and I'll tell you why.

They used -- Trump used fear-mongering, xenophobia as a political weapon in 2016. It worked for him. I think a lot of people didn't really understand what he was going to do with it. And then came family separation. Then came Trump imposing a policy that literally ripped babies from the arms of their mothers.

CORNISH: I can hear the competing stories here of the last couple of years.

CARDONA: And he has said -- and he has said that he will do that again through Project 2025, through the mass deportations. That is not a solution. Americans want solutions. And Democrats are focused on solutions, which is a common-sense, balanced approach of strong border security, and we're already seeing it work --

CORNISH: Yeah. Let me repeat the other --

CARDONA: -- as well as expanding legal pathways for people who want to come here.

CORNISH: Because, Juliegrace, famously, there was an immigration bill. And this is another line of messaging I'm hearing from Democrats, which is, look, there was a bill. Republicans were on board. I think Senator Lankford was in "The New York Times" -- BRUFKE: Uh-hmm.

CORNISH: -- telling the will-be-gone story of this bill. But immigration, it still kind of remains a live-wire, congressional red meat issue. So, how are they up and down the ballot talking about it?

BRUFKE: This has traditionally just been a very difficult topic for both parties to kind of come around and be able to pass anything on. That being said, I've talked to a number of Republican operatives and lawmakers, and border policy is going to be a key thing that they're going to continue hitting Democrats on.

I think you're going to kind of hear a lot of the line of attack of -- we've heard Vice President Harris talk about how she's going to be harder on the border, but I think they're kind of going to point to her role in kind of helping with that policy and say that, you know, kind of point to the executive order in June and say if they'd kept those Trump policies in place that maybe things would have panned out differently.

CORNISH: Yeah. Erin --

CARDONA: You see, that's going to fall flat. If they are the ones who said -- who said no, Trump said don't pass this, they're the ones who negotiated it, so if they really believe that border security was so important, you clearly see the hypocritical nature of this issue for them. They don't want to solve it. Democrats are the ones that are really focused on solving it.

CORNISH: Well, having covered Congress for a long time, I've seen a lot of bipartisan deals come and go, and so both parties have struggled tremendously. I'm sure we're going to hear this criticism you're bringing up, certainly at the convention next week.

CARDONA: Absolutely, you will.

COATES: I want to thank you all so much for coming tonight and spending time with me. I appreciate it.

Next, we're going to talk about Black women who have been a key demographic for Democrats. The numbers show it is Black women who are playing a critical role in driving Kamala Harris's surge. We're going to talk about that, next.

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[23:30:00]

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CORNISH: Elections come down to numbers, and when you look at it, Black women, it's clear who they support. Since 2000, the Democratic nominee for president has received at least 90% of the vote from Black women, according to exit polls. But they often only play a supporting role in the party infrastructure, until now. With a woman of Black and Indian descent leading the ticket, Black women are lining up to support the vice president. The first Zoom fundraising call for Kamala Harris was organized by Black women, and hours after ascent to the top of the ticket, raising a million and a half dollars.

At the DNC in Chicago next week, Black women will also play a prominent role. One of those voices joins me now, Bishop Leah Daughtry, who was CEO of the DNC in 2008 and 2016. And Bishop, it's important to note that you were there for those years because you are like so many of those women who have been part of the backbone of the party infrastructure. Does it feel like there's a shift?

LEAH DAUGHTRY, CEO OF DNC IN 2008 AND 2016: Good evening, Audie. Thank you for having me. It feels to me less of a shift than an ascent, a continuation of the work that we've been doing for a very long time. You mentioned that I was the CEO of 2008 and 2016, but before me, in 1992, was Alexis Herman, who was actually the first Black person to run a convention.

So, it's a continuing arc of history that we're glad to be a part of, but really, it's not because someone has given it to us, but because Black women have earned their seat at the table. We put in the work, we turn out the vote, we show up, and we've been loyal to this party. It is an investment that we've made over years, and it's paying off.

CORNISH: You know, polls are also showing this growing gender gap in this election, and that dovetails with Harris's gains, right, where she has a lot of support coming from women. Meanwhile, there are a lot of men who are supporting Trump, including, it has been made much of, Black men. Can you talk about how the party balances those interests, right, supporting these women who are all in versus trying to maintain a connection with men who may feel like they're no longer the focus?

[23:35:00]

DAUGHTRY: Yeah, and you know, it has been an ongoing problem within the electorate. Black women tend to vote 10% higher than Black men. And the challenges are many. I think Black men don't feel the same kind of investment and don't see the point of engagement in the electoral process, period.

What the party has to do, and so grateful that the work is happening now, is talk directly to these men and understand what their particular concerns are and not see us as a monolith. The issues of Black women are not necessarily the issues of Black men and vice versa.

Understand the impact of the voter, the issues of the voter, talk directly to them, then come up with policies and procedures, and get out the vote strategy that meets men where they are to gain their vote. You've got to gain the trust of the voter in order for the voter to show up for you.

CORNISH: What can we expect at the convention next week? Will there be a kind of framing around the legacy of women like you, like Kamala Harris, in the Democratic Party?

DAUGHTRY: Well, you will see on display next week the full diversity of the Democratic Party. You know, we've seen it in what Kamala Harris's supporters have done, from White Dudes for Kamala, the Karens for Kamala, the Black women for Kamala. We've seen the diversity of the party on display. You'll see that next week in the speakers, in the music, in the presentation. You'll see who the Democratic Party is.

And we'll talk about the arc of history, from Fannie Lou Hamer, who in 1964 was denied a seat at the Democratic Convention, right through Jesse Jackson, who in 1984 -- whose 1984 campaign opened the door, really, for so many of the gains and brought so many of us women to the table, including me, Maxine Waters, you name it.

And so now here we are, all these years later, seeing the fruit that was born out of the seeds of Fannie Lou Hamer, of Shirley Chisholm, and of Jesse Jackson's campaign.

CORNISH: You know, I'm so glad you mentioned Fannie Lou Hamer who, of course, was blocked from being a delegate. We actually have a moment from that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FANNIE LOU HAMER, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: If the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: It's incredible to hear oratory from that time. What do you think this moment means for women in the party, Black women in the Democratic Party?

DAUGHTRY: You know, we stand on the shoulders of Fannie Lou Hamer, who gave us the example of challenging this party, of pushing this party while we champion it. And so, it's quite a different party than it was in 1964. But look where we are today. And we continue in that legacy to push the party, to challenge the party, while we champion the party. That's our role, that's the legacy we stand on, and that's what we will continue to do.

CORNISH: Bishop Daughtry, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

DAUGHTRY: Thank you, Audie. Have a good evening.

CORNISH: Next, students at Columbia University return to a very different college months after protests over the Israel-Gaza War. But they could be going back to just as much turmoil as they left.

Plus, do you have what it takes to wrangle snakes inside Florida's Python Challenge, where hunters are competing to cut down the invasive species?

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[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: Students at Columbia University are returning to campus this week with new leadership at the top. Embattled President Minouche Shafik stepped down this week months after protests over the Israel- Hamas War gripped the campus. Katrina Armstrong now takes over as interim president. She'll be dealing with a returning and fractured student body. And a change in leadership does not guarantee the university will avoid similar protests to the ones we saw in the spring.

CNN's Julia Vargas-Jones was on campus that night students barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are right outside Hamilton Hall. I'm going to step away so you can have a better sense of the scene. This is the building that protesters have been occupying for almost 20 hours now. Honestly, all of these students will be in a corner once police come in. There's nowhere for them to go. They're moving protesters out of the way. They're moving students out of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Julia Vargas Jones joins us now. Thanks so much. I want to talk to you about this incoming freshman class because I can't imagine what it was like for them this spring, watching all of this play out, watching the school be the center of this national dialogue. Have you spoken to them? And if so, what are you hearing?

VARGAS JONES: I have, Audie, and I have throughout the summer. What we're hearing is that, basically, they were holding their breath watching that, knowing already at the time these protests were happening, people had already made their decisions to come to Columbia or not, right?

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So, they were preparing themselves for this. And some had very mixed feelings watching the way that the university behaved, watching the way that, honestly, the president was behaving. It gave them pause. Some people that I met for the first time were asking me immediately, tell me about the protests. What was it like? What was it like for you as a student?

And we had a pretty tumultuous summer. You know, it wasn't only Minouche Shafik stepping down. We had the other three deans stepping down after allegations of text messages that were touching on antisemitic tropes from the administration. It has been tumultuous ever since. Summer wasn't really a break for Columbia. And I think they will be picking up right where we left off in May.

I want to just bring to you an excerpt from an op-ed on the Columbia Spectator that really puts it, I think, really well. They're saying, we can't commit ourselves to Columbia unless the administration renews its commitment to its student body, in particular the Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black and Brown students left to fend for themselves.

It is a very divided community. It's so fragmented. I think the parts don't really trust each other anymore. That's what the new president will be facing as she steps in, Audie.

CORNISH: I want to come back to this in a second. But have there been any initiatives, changes, when it comes to student security, for example, or anything around the conversation of a safer environment on campus?

VARGAS JONES: Well, one of the school's biggest concerns from last term was outsiders on campus. I think we remember those kinds of conversations. It's not just students. They said there were a lot of people that were arrested who weren't members of the Columbia student body, at least.

So, they are, again, putting in those measures to allow only students on campus or people who have been pre-registered. A lot of the entrances, the iconic Columbia gates will be, again, shuttered. There will be people looking at your ID before you go into campus.

And some of the reaction from new students to that, they said, you know, it feels like a lockdown. Another student said to me, you know, there haven't been a lot of statements to us from the school directly on how this is going to operate. I think it's also very new. And it speaks to that timing of Shafik stepping down. It's only about, you know, two, three weeks before classes are in full swing. There's a lot to be worked out with the student body now, including these safety measures.

CORNISH: You know, I was surprised to hear you say all of these other people who left as well in the college leadership. I understand that pro-Palestinian student groups at Columbia were happy to see President Shafiq go. But where does this movement, at least on campus, go now? What are their current demands?

VARGAS JONES: Well, I'll say there are also Jewish groups who are happy to see her go, who think that she didn't do enough to make sure that students were feeling safe on campus. A lot of these groups, they were calling for her resignation. There are videos of the moment that they heard about it where people are just celebrating.

But they're also saying that Shafik's resignation is not the end, it's not time to celebrate, because what they're asking for is for the school to look at its investment in financial and academic ties to Israel.

They say that being part -- actually working with Israel is being part and complicit with the war on Gaza. They don't want police on campus. They want amnesty for students who were not expelled, but that were put on probation during those protests. Basically, their message to the new president is that if she doesn't listen to these demands, she will also be forced to step down.

CORNISH: It's a lot to unpack before the first school bell rings. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you.

Next, Florida tries to get rid of its Python problem by calling in snake hunters. We're going to have a wildlife expert, Jeff Corwin, to talk about this serpent showdown that can net you 10,000 grand.

But first, I want to introduce you to this week's CNN hero. He's a Venezuelan violinist and conductor. He moved to Sweden in 2015 because he wanted to help when he saw crowds of refugees arriving in that country. And he created his Dream Orchestra. That orchestra has grown to nearly 300 refugees, immigrants, and native Swedes of all ages.

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RON DAVIS ALVAREZ, CNN HERO: One, two, and three, and four.

Dream Orchestra is open for anyone who wants to learn an instrument, especially families who are arriving to Sweden.

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And it's an orchestra where the main language is music.

I need one more chair.

We have more than 300 people. Kids, parents, youth, more than 20 languages, and more than 25 nationalities, and kids who were born here. We all need to learn from each other.

This orchestra offers more than just notes. This orchestra offers something for your soul.

Music connects us. Dream Orchestra is a dream, but it's a dream who come true.

(APPLAUSE)

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CORNISH: Now, a challenge that screams only in Florida slithers to an end this weekend. Florida's annual 10-day Python Challenge aims to wrangle Burmese pythons from the Florida Everglades, and it wraps up Sunday. The hunter who can capture the most snakes can win $10,000, and CNN's Carlos Suarez rode along with some python hunters this week.

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CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the humid, sweltering summer deep in the Florida Everglades, the hunt is on for the Burmese python.

So, we're looking at about 30 pounds and about 9 feet?

UNKNOWN: Sounds about right.

SUAREZ: One of the larger ones?

UNKNOWN: I'd say this is on average of what you're going to find out there.

SUAREZ (voice-over): Experts we spoke to have seen snakes as long as 19 feet, weighing 125 pounds. The invasive species of snakes have few natural predators and are known to consume prey as large as alligators.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Not today.

UNKNOWN: I still get the rush, though, every time you see it. You know, you're like, oh, a python, nice. You know, I finally get another one out of here because, you know, that's the mission, essentially, is to get them out of here.

SUAREZ (voice-over): Quinton is a professional python hunter. We joined him at night deep in the Florida Everglades. But there were no snakes in sight. Hunters can go days without spotting a Burmese python.

UNKNOWN: If you cross paths with a hundred pythons, you might just see one to five of them.

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CORNISH: Joining me now, a man who has handled these snakes before, Jeff Corwin, wildlife and conservation expert and host of "Wildlife Nation Expedition Florida." Jeff, you've actually taken part in this yourself. We saw in the images there of people using gloves and sticks, but what's it like hunting down these pythons?

JEFF CORWIN, WILDLIFE AND CONSERVATION EXPERT: Well, first of all, Audie, you have to try to imagine life in the Everglades. It's sticky. It's steamy. There are bugs. You're wet. You're getting scratched by the sawgrass. And you're looking for a creature that that can be upwards to 15 feet in length and armed with hundreds of razor-sharp teeth, and makes a living by squeezing other creatures to death.

So, it's kind of thrilling. You're a little nervous and you're hoping for that ultimate payback of catching one of these invasive pythons and removing them from this ecosystem to try to stop the devastation that they've caused on the Everglades ecosystem.

CORNISH: Can you talk about that devastation? How exactly are they destabilizing the ecosystem there? CORWIN: Great question. So, they've not been here long. It's not like predator that has evolved over millions of years in this ecosystem. They've only been here since around Hurricane Andrew. Some of them may have been negligently released into the environment or they escaped during the hurricane. But in just a few short decades, we now estimate there are hundreds of thousands, if not a million of these pythons. And incredibly, the sobering stat is this: They have consumed 90% of all the mammal wildlife living in the Everglades.

We were there doing a documentary on this program with the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians. This indigenous community depends upon the Everglades for the survival of their culture. And these pythons are literally squeezing them out from the resources that they need to survive as a community.

CORNISH: What do you do with a python carcass?

CORWIN: Well, there isn't much you can do with a python. So, there have been attempts to make leather out of the skins, use the meat to create everything from dog food. But these animals are living in an environment where they're often scarred up. They have lots of parasites. This is an area with a lot of heavy metals like mercury, which exists in the Everglades. So, what you end up doing is just really euthanizing them.

It's not really because of the snake. It's not the snake's fault. These are creatures that are just trying to eke out a living. But here they find this incredible frontier, this new ecosystem where they come in as a pioneer that has no native predators. So, they are literally eating wildlife to extinction because all the other creatures around them have not adapted for such an overwhelming challenge as these pythons.

CORNISH: Well, Jeff Corwin, I hope you've been careful out there. And thank you for your work with this ecosystem and good luck next year.

CORWIN: Thank you very much.

CORNISH: And thank you all for watching. Stay with us because "Anderson Cooper 360" is next.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tonight on "360," after Donald Trump says that civilian award is better than a military one because civilians are unwounded and alive to receive it, well, look, it is history of comments about troops who have wounded or captured.

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