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Quest Means Business
Harris And Trump Hone In On The Economy At Campaign Events; Gaza Health Ministry: 40K-Plus Palestinians Killed Since October; Russia Looks To Send More Troops To Belgorod Region; Trump Holds News Conference In New Jersey. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 15, 2024 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Smiles and cheers there over at the New York Stock Exchange and a strong performance on equity markets
buoyed by what can only be described as a resilient, solid US Retail Sales Report. Those are the markets and these are the main events.
This hour, Donald Trump's second press conference in just over a week.
High-stakes negotiations talks restart on a Gaza ceasefire.
And why they knew Starbucks CEO won't be moving to Seattle.
Live from New York, it is Thursday, August 15th, I'm Julia Chatterley, in for Richard Quest and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
And a good evening once more.
Kamala Harris and Joe Biden just made their first joint appearance since she became the Democratic nominee. The topic: Lowering the cost of
prescription drugs, part of a push by the White House to tackle inflation.
Vice President Harris touted the administration's record.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Medicare was prohibited by law from negotiating lower drug prices and those costs then got passed
on to our seniors, but not anymore.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: Harris is set to go into more detail on her economic plans tomorrow. Her opponent meanwhile, Donald Trump is set to hold a news
conference this hour in New Jersey. During a speech yesterday, he blamed the Biden administration for high inflation, and he pledged to try and
lower electricity bills by half.
Stephen Collinson is in Washington for us. Stephen, these efforts by both sides to put the cost of living crisis and providing further support to
voters across America front-and-center in their campaigns. Is the former president going to be successful in defining Kamalanomics as we are now
calling it, as really an extension of what we saw under the Biden administration, and can she separate herself from this criticism that
President Biden has received as a result?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: It is interesting. I have been speaking to some Democrats recently and they believe that although
Kamala Harris is an integral part of the Biden administration, polling shows that she is not necessarily blamed by voters for some of the more
controversial aspects of the administration in terms of the failure to get inflation more under control.
You might wonder, that event today was very interesting. You might wonder why the vice president, a day after she was tied to the Biden
administration and high prices that have angered consumers over the last few years, why she would appear next to the president? Well, the answer is
the substance there. This push to lower prescription drug prices has been going on for years. They finally won. It is a big deal.
A lot of seniors are going to see their drug costs go down substantially and seniors are a very important part of the electorate and one that Kamala
Harris has had less success so far courting than the president.
So she wants to claim a share of the credit for the successes of the Biden administration and I think tomorrow in her big speech in North Carolina,
she will start to move a little bit away from the president. She is going to talk about price gouging that she says is going on by supermarket
owners. So a more populist tone than Biden has adopted so far.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, cherry-picking I think is the answer there.
COLLINSON: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: Where Biden policy is concerned and then far more populist policies. Let's just skip over the part over and how you pay for it.
What about for the former president? The decision to hold another press conference again, and I will repeat, we sort of got an inkling of where he
wants to go and there are things that he can tackle this administration on, be it high prices, be it a cost of living crisis in housing for example,
but he just struggles to stay on script.
COLLINSON: Yes, and in that speech yesterday, he kept saying, well, I am supposed to be here giving a speech on the economy, but we will get to the
more interesting stuff later on. I mean, he just wants to have a rally. He can't help himself.
But buried below the lies and the insults, there was a framework of an attack against Harris, part of that is trying to blame her for the failures
of the Biden administration, for the inflation crisis, which has now mitigated, although a lot of people are really feeling the benefit and he
wants to portray Harris as a far left extreme liberal on economics and a lot of other issues. The question is can he concentrate those attacks?
[16:05:03]
The vice presidential nominee, JD Vance has actually been making a much more concise and pithy case on the economy than Trump has. The problem is,
it needs to come from the former president himself, the Republican nominee.
Trump doesn't have the discipline or even it seems the inclination to make that case. One other issue, of course, is how would he actually do what he
says he is going to do? He says he is going to cut electricity prices by 50 percent, but even though he laid that out in that speech, there was
absolutely no detail of how he could do that. The implications, of course are huge.
Another issue tariffs, he said he is going to raise tariffs on foreign goods to 10 percent or even 20 percent. A lot of economists say that would
really surge inflation. So Trump can say what he is going to do, but he never tells us the details of how he will actually do it.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, the energy one is an interesting one. You can unleash further oil drilling, for example, but the data show that oil and gas
production is near record highs despite the efforts of the Biden administration to push more into renewable energies.
Stephen, I was as mystified as you were. We will see what more we get.
Stephen Collinson, good to have you, sir. Thank you.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
CHATTERLEY: Now, polling consistently shows the economy as a top issue for many voters as we were just discussing. Here is what the data tells us
about it.
People are still spending money. Retail sales surged one percent in July on a monthly basis. It was double what we were expecting.
Shoppers are getting some relief from rising prices, too. Consumer inflation rose just 2.9 percent last month on an annualized basis. That's
actually the smallest increase since 2021.
Catherine Rampell is in New York for us.
Catherine, the problem is, as much as those rising prices are slowing, the change in prices is dramatic and people are telling us all the time that
that has been and is incredibly painful.
What gets you the biggest bang for your buck as a potential presidential candidate in this stage? What should they be talking about that could in
fact, have the most impact to help people out there?
CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICS COMMENTATOR: So if we are talking about what will actually work as policy as opposed to what will
poll well, those are two different things.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
RAMPELL: If we are talking about what will work as policy, the number one thing is to keep your hands off of the Federal Reserve, that the Federal
Reserve is in charge of price stability and their half of their dual mandate of course, is maximum employment and in order to function, it needs
to both be politically independent and also be perceived as politically independent. That needs to stay the case.
That was not the case, or at least that was not what Trump tried to do when he was president before. He tried to interfere with the Fed's actions and
called the Fed chair an enemy of the people, among other things. And he has made clear that if he were granted the presidency, again, he would be even
more interventionist, which causes all sorts of problems.
Beyond that, I think there are things here and there that the president can do. They, unfortunately, don't have a dial on their desk that allows them
to turn the price level up or down, but for example, the president could repeal some tariffs. Biden had correctly talked about how Trumps tariffs
back in 2020 were increasing prices for consumers, as well as putting American jobs at risk than when Biden got into office. Of course, he kept
almost all of those tariffs in place.
Trump now wants to escalate those trade wars even further, which would make things worse. But at the very least, you could repeal some of those things
now. Other things like immigration, frankly normalizing immigration and making more legal or relief channels available for people to come here and
legally work here has been helpful. Biden has done it. There has been a lot of attention to the unlawful border crossings, but Biden has also unwound
some of the bureaucratic knots that the Trump administration tied to make it harder for skilled workers or for agricultural workers for that matter,
to come here.
So keeping that going, maybe adding more lawful pathways would also be helpful particularly in industries they are very heavily reliant on
immigrant labor that have had problems in recent years with supply chain issues and prices because of those labor shortages. So, thinking things
like construction, food services, and agriculture.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it is such an important point. If you want to try and push your grocery prices down, then produce more and for that, we need
aquaculture workers and the housing market in particular is a great one as well. I mean, there is over 200,000 job vacancies, openings in the
construction sector that need to be filled in order to produce more housing, which clearly the data that even this week has told us we need.
Catherine, that's a great point.
What about some of the suggestions that Kamala Harris tomorrow is going to talk about rent controls, perhaps price controls.
[16:10:09]
Perhaps looking at whether some of the big retailers are price gouging and there is a going to be a corporate hit. Markets and investors are not going
to like this. They'll certainly not, but it polls well with voters and we see that in the numbers, too. It is sort of a delicate balance, perhaps
that she has got to find here.
RAMPELL: I think all of these ideas are silly, wrong-headed, and potentially likely to backfire, frankly.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
RAMPELL: This would fall into the category of policies that poll well, but will not be effective at addressing any voter or consumer's economic
concerns, financial concerns.
Pretty much every country that has ever tried a form of price controls has found that they do not work in the sense that they lead to shortages. They
lead to pricing uncertainty, they lead to black markets et cetera. We don't really know what Kamala Harris' version of this policy would be. She
doesn't define any of her terms.
She says she would get rid of excessive pricing and excessive corporate profits. Who decides what is excessive? That is to be determined.
The likely template for this policy is a bill that already exists that was introduced by Elizabeth Warren in the Senate, as well as I think seven or
eight other Democratic senators and that Kamala Harris had actually signed onto a version of when she herself was a senator and that essentially says
that the FTC can use whatever metric it wants to, to decide that a company has made too much money, which is really not a great way to have a
functioning free market economy, and to have a dynamic economy.
It would also require companies, public companies, to disclose their pricing strategy, their costs, their internal profit margins on various
goods, things like that in their ten-case, which among other things is actually likely to facilitate collusion.
There has been research on this as well, that when you force companies or when you -- when the government asks companies to publicly explain their
pricing strategies and their internal costs, it makes it easier for them to coordinate and to raise costs more. So that's what I mean when I say this
could potentially backfire and worsen inflation, if any of that comes to pass, which we will see if it does.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and you look at some of the big retailers as well and the margins that they are getting now so razor thin if you compare those to
some of the technology companies for example.
RAMPELL: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: Like the argument that they could make there, to your point, is vast.
Catherine, great to get your wisdom. Thank you. Catherine Rampell there.
RAMPELL: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Now, as efforts to revive Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks get underway, we've got a close-up look at some of the youngest Palestinians
suffering in Gaza.
CNN spent four hours in the besieged territory. What we saw, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:15:33]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back.
As ceasefire and hostage release talks get underway, the war between Israel and Hamas hitting a grim milestone. The Gaza Health Ministry reports more
than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 10 month-old conflict.
Now, it is important to remember, Palestinian authorities do not distinguish between combatants and civilians and CNN cannot independently
verify the casualty numbers. We can confirm though the human suffering in Gaza, especially among children.
Jomana Karadsheh has more, and a warning, her report contains graphic video, but it is important to see it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Everything we are about to show you was filmed over the course of four hours in a
single day, a snapshot of 10 months of war for Gaza's children.
Nothing can erase what these little eyes have seen, but they've come here to try to forget, even if just for a little while.
Most of these children were on their way to queue up for water, one of the newfound hardships of this miserable life when they stop for a makeshift
puppet show. Cans, cardboard and string, it's a distraction, but kids have to relate to their make believe friends with stories just like theirs.
(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.
TRANSLATION: When the war happened, everything was bombed and destroyed. We were displaced to the south. Dad was worried about us, and we are searching
for safety.
KARADSHEH (voice over): Twelve-year old Hala (ph) longs for the days when she had a hold in Gaza City.
(HALA speaking in foreign language.)
TRANSLATION: Life is unlivable. I only live for my siblings and parents. Here, I stop thinking about all that's on my mind. I watch the show and
play with kids.
KARADSHEH (voice over): This might seem like a surreal scene, but at times of war, life does go on, as does the horror.
In the same area of Gaza, injured children arrive into one of the last, hardly standing, hospitals. It's a constant stream of casualties from an
Israeli strike nearby.
Among them, a severely injured toddler. He clings on to the stranger who brought him here. There's no room left. They leave him on the floor. His
cries, his pain, drowned out by the chaos.
Outside, another ambulance pulls up with another boy, here for the morgue. "It wasn't the bombs that killed him. He starved to death," his father
says. As they prepare him for burial, his emaciated body lays bare for the world to see what Israel's siege has done to Gaza's most vulnerable.
(JABER ABU KALOUB speaking in foreign language.)
TRANSLATION: Put us somewhere safe and then fight as much as you want. I wish God would take us all and let us follow this child. I'm holding it
together now, but when I leave here, I'll probably collapse. Maybe I'm pretending to be strong. But inside, I can't take it anymore.
KARADSHEH (voice over): The broken father, like, so many parents who helplessly watch their children die in their arms, their suffering has
become a statistic by which the world that watches on measures the awfulness of this war.
His name was Mohamed Abou Kaloub (ph). He was only nine, born with cerebral palsy, he died by a garbage dump where his displaced family was forced to
camp.
Back inside the emergency room, that toddler is still on the floor, barely conscious, surrounded by medics, but no family by his side.
No one knows his name. Thousands of children, like him, have arrived to hospitals injured and alone throughout this war.
We found that toddler days later at another hospital. His name is Abdul Keman Al Aqqad (ph) in intensive care. He hasn't uttered a word since the
attack. The shock is still clear behind his glassy eyes, the dirt still under his fingernails.
It's his aunt who's here with him. His mother was seriously injured.
[16:20:10]
Keman still doesn't know his 14-month old sister is gone.
Days after our cameraman filmed him in the ICU, we received the news that Keman did not survive. He was three.
Just one day, showing how fragile existence is in this place where life, death, and stolen moments of joy meet.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: The suffering of Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostage families is clear, as a ceasefire and hostage release talks are happening
in Qatar.
Relatives of hostages held what they called a Last Chance March in Tel Aviv just a few hours ago. One US official said the talks in Doha got off to a
promising start, but Washington warns an Iranian retaliatory strike on Israel could still come at any time. A Hamas leader was assassinated in
Tehran last month.
Now we understand talks in Doha have ended for the day and will resume Friday. Nic Robertson joins us now from Tel Aviv.
Nic think that report by Jomana laid out the stakes and how high they are at this moment. Can we talk about progress in those talks? What do we know?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think at this stage, if you'd ask people at the beginning of the week, if the diplomats
in the region, that is if, if you'd ask them, will the talks definitely happen? Will they go through so successfully or at least go through so far
on one day that they -- the parties -- intend to continue the next, they would have said, look, that's a long stretch.
And I think one of the sort of better indications, because remembering that this has come about for multiple reasons, not just because of the death and
suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, not just because of the longing of the heartache of all the families of the hostages that are still being held
by Hamas in Gaza, but in part as well because Israel, it is believed and certainly that's the contention of the Iranians, murdered Ismail Haniyeh,
one of the top Hamas negotiators while he was in Tehran and their threat was, and they said they were going to strike back.
So this has all been about Gaza, but it has been about preventing or giving Iran a reason not to retaliate and strike against Israel.
So, this evening, we understand that one of the principal interlocutors, the mediation team inside of Doha, the foreign minister -- well, he is the
prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar has called his Iranian counterpart, the acting foreign minister in Tehran to brief him on the
talks, and I think that gives you a sense that there is something to say, whether or not there are positive things to say, one wouldn't expect him to
call up with a list of the negative.
But clearly, there is a diplomatic dimension to this that has traction tonight. The acid test is going to be what happens tomorrow, and then
whether the mediators then meet with Hamas which there is a very high likelihood they will. And then what Hamas is reaction is, and one of the
other things were hearing from the White House today was don't expect quick answers because Hamas' representative in Doha will then have to reference
back to the leadership in Gaza and that always takes time.
CHATTERLEY: And is the assumption, Nic, while we wait for that and as you said, it is a sequenced, delicate process, as those talks continue. Iran
will stand pat and not retaliate despite the preparations and the expectations.
ROBERTSON: I think the fact that they or being directly engaged by the host of the mediation right now is an indication that they are willing to be
engaged, that they are willing to listen, that they are watching this process to see how it proceeds.
So it would seem unlikely that they would do something before the talks concluded whenever they conclude, maybe they will go even another day. I
think that is perhaps a stretch too far given how difficult it has been to get to this moment.
But look, in diplomatic terms, people are talking it was Churchill who said jaw-jaw is better than war-war. Well, right now, were in the midst of jaw-
jaw.
So, I think it would be a surprise if the Iranians, they are summing tonight, but nothing has been taken off the table and as you said before,
the White House assessment is that Iran absolutely still could and maybe will strike back at Israel. The question is, at what scale? At what level?
At what target?
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and for now the jaw-jaw continues Friday. We will see.
Nic, good to have you. Thank you. Nic Robertson there.
[16:25:10]
Now Ukraine says it now controls more than 1,100 square kilometers of Russian territory. That's more than 400 square miles.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is praising his military for carrying out what he calls precise, timely, and effective strikes.
In response to Ukraine's advances, the Russian government is declaring a federal emergency in Kursk's neighboring region of Belgorod.
Nick Paton Walsh went to the border.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This is where Russia begins. It is startling to see that steady flow of military
vehicles, that's probably an ambulance and armor just passing through the Russian border point here.
That is the border post that clearly got heavily hit when Ukraine moved in hard over a week ago. Russia's borders here completely undefended.
It is also remarkable, the freedom with which the Ukrainian military are moving around here. They simply aren't afraid of the drones that have
hampered their every move for the past months.
That says the border service, the FSB, the Russian security services of Russia. There is a bullet hole above -- the rules and bullet holes in the
rules themselves.
Now, this is what is so startling about this offensive. We have got a volume of western supplied armor that we are seeing passing back and forth,
their passage through here up into Russia unimpeded entirely.
That Roshel from Canada, I should note.
(UNIDENTIFIED MALES speaking in foreign language.)
TRANSLATION/UNIDENTIFIED MALE #1: Did you expect it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE #2: No, we didn't expect this (operation).
There is a task, we're doing it, no more no less. The final result? No one speaks about that now.
WALSH: Just saying about how frequently they have been going back and forth over the last week or so.
And you've got a real sense of the euphoria, but ultimately too the enduring question is, what is all this for? What is the endgame?
Yes, it is a huge embarrassment for Vladimir Putin, but they are sending some of their best equipment deep into Russia and I am sure in the back of
the minds of these troops is the question, what ultimately are we going to achieve? And we just don't know the answer to that?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: Thanks to Nick Paton Walsh there.
Now coming up for us, Donald Trump set to speak any moment now. You can see he has got, well, he has got a bunch of groceries set up. You would have to
imagine he will use them to discuss inflation.
That's coming up next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:31:07]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back.
Republican nominee Donald Trump due to begin his news conference any moment now. It's his second one in as many weeks as he tries to wrestle back the
spotlight from Kamala Harris. Some of his allies are urging him to stay on message and avoid making personal attacks against his opponent.
Alayna Treene is in Bedminster, New Jersey, where the former president is due to speak, and we can see the stage. And he's going to be surrounded by
groceries. So I think we can guess what the subject of conversation is, at least going to try and be.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Julia. This speech, he's supposed to right off the top of this before he starts taking
questions from the press is to focus on the economy, and specifically trying to tie Vice President Kamala Harris to Joe Biden's policies,
particularly economic policies and specifically hammer her, I'm told, on the high grocery prices as well as gas prices, and really the strain that a
lot of Americans are feeling on their wallets.
And look, that has been the goal for the Trump campaign this entire week. They are really trying to make this week about the economy. Last night
Donald Trump held a rally in Asheville, North Carolina. That was the theme of that speech as well. And look, for Donald Trump he actually stayed
pretty focused. He was speaking to a smaller crowd at a smaller venue, and he did really, you know, stay on message for a lot of that speech.
Of course, he did go off script at times. He did attack Kamala Harris. He went after her laugh. He belittled her. So not entirely, you know, just
sticking to the issues as many of his allies are urging him to do. But I think, you know, clearly what these props that they have laid out today,
that is their goal as well here on this Thursday.
Now, Julia, I also just want to point your attention to some news we got today about some shake-ups at the Trump campaign. He's actually added a
series of new Trump loyalists, including Corey Lewandowsky, his former campaign manager. He actually joined the Trump campaign in the lead up to
2016, in June of 2015. And they also hired a ton of other people as well. So I'm sure there will be some questions about that today. And we'll see if
Donald Trump can stay on message during that back-and-forth with the press -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, we'll certainly see. Thank you for now for that.
Let's bring in Ron Brownstein, he's senior editor at "The Atlantic." And well keep an eye on that door that was open there just to wait and see when
the former president arrives and starts his speech.
Ron, are you there and can you hear me?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I can. Hi.
CHATTERLEY: Great. Fantastic. I was just checking because I could hear you were listening there.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: The question I think is, and we can already see by the stage setting there that this is going to be another economy-focused discussion.
The cost of living crisis. The former president was animated I think in talking about the impact of inflation on American voters yesterday. He also
talked about credit card debt being at record highs, that he understands that that is for lower-income families across America, a real sign of
struggle. Then he tended to slope off from fact to fiction in many respects. How does he keep on track and on message?
BROWNSTEIN: No, it's Donald Trump. That's not going to happen. But he -- you know, he's not going to stay on track and on message and he is going to
deviate from the message that the campaign drives. But there is that whole other track. You know, the campaign will be driving this message as well as
the message on climate, immigration relentlessly, and offensively in the swing states. Just trying to grind her down day by day as someone, you
know, who'll pursue policies that won't keep you safe and won't make you prosperous.
I mean, the question really for Harris, I think, is, can you pivot from assessing the record of the last four years to who will do better going
forward? Even in that FT-University of Michigan poll that got so much attention because Harris was equal for the first time with Trump on who can
handle the economy, half of Americans in that poll said they were worse off since Biden took office.
[16:35:04]
And what that says to me is that they have not -- is not that they are suddenly getting more sunny about the economy, it's that Harris' overall
presentation, the energy, the kind of momentum associated with her gives them more faith in her than in Biden and maybe even more than in Trump
going forward to make things better.
That's the pivot. Trump wants to look back. Harris wants to look forward. And you're going to see him today I'm sure talking about the cumulative 20
percent increase in grocery prices since Biden took office.
CHATTERLEY: And that's a critical point, though. I mean, she obviously needs to in some way cherry pick and take the good from what we've seen.
But overall we know that things like grocery prices up 20 percent over the course of this administration.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
CHATTERLEY: So how does she promote policies perhaps to tackle that without carrying the baggage with her, Ron? Because I think that is the critical
point here. And obviously what the former president needs to try and attach it to that Kamalanomics is exactly the same as Bidennomics, just under a
different name.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, ordinarily, you know, the party out of the White House would be favored when an outgoing president has a disapproval rating
of 55 percent to 60 percent.
CHATTERLEY: Right.
BROWNSTEIN: Which was what Biden has and consistently in polling somewhere between 55 percent and 60 percent say they believe they are worse off
because of the policies that Biden pursued. But individual elements within that agenda are popular including the one that they're highlighting today,
negotiating lower prices for prescription drugs through Medicare, caps on out-of-pocket spending for seniors, and Harris and Biden are both proposing
to extend that for drugs, for all Americans.
Harris just by who she is embodies change to voters. Voters are not inclined in their initial blush to see her as simply an extension of Biden.
Biden is an 80-year-old white guy who was having trouble finishing sentences in the last few weeks as the nominee. And she does not project
any of that. So obviously the challenge for Republicans is tying her to the things people didn't like about the Biden administration.
But I think it's important that the initial first reaction of voters is -- most voters is not to do that, which means they're going to have to do it,
you know, voter by voter through that relentless kind of grinding wheel of negative ads that are headed toward a swing state near you.
CHATTERLEY: Is some populist policies, and we've started to hear some mention of them, rent controls in housing, for example, some kind of price
controls perhaps on food -- I was talking about this earlier on in the show. Things that have economists groaning because of their distortionary
effects even for both of these campaigns. No taxes on tips is another example. Never mind how you pay for it. Never mind about the distortionary
effects.
Is sticking to those in keeping the details light perhaps the best plan for Kamala Harris?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, so, you know, Harris as a former attorney general, I was just listening to Celinda Lake on domestic CNN, the
Democratic pollster, pointing out that, you know, because she's a former attorney general, she has a lot of credibility and idea of going after
corporations that are gouging consumers.
Now, you know, whether that is a central factor in why inflation spiked so much in the U.S. and spike so much around the world, you know, after the
pandemic is another question, but certainly I think she's going to lean into that identity, get it today, and the statements about negotiating
lower prices with drug companies, tied it to a work in California, certainly she's going to do it tomorrow in her economic speech talking
about consolidation in the meatpacking industry and the effect on prices, you know, people feel it at the grocery store.
But it's also worth noting that in the analysis that has been done, economists, again, this question of looking back or looking forward,
economists have consistently said such as Mark Zandi of Moody's that Trump's agenda going forward is more inflationary than anything that Biden
or Harris is proposing at this point.
The combination of mass deportation and across-the-board, 10 percent tariffs, which this week he floated with Elon Musk, he might raise to 20
percent across-the-board tariffs plus massive tax cuts and threatening the independence of the Fed, you know, Moody's has calculated that that would
add a full point of inflation more to the forecast than what you could expect under the Biden policies.
So we'll see how hard Harris pushes back, but mostly I think she wants to kind of shift again this debate forward to what will she do, and economists
may say, you know, tackling corporations is a prominent part problem --
CHATTERLEY: Ron, you raised some great points and the former president is now just taking to the stand so I'm going to hand off to him and we'll
listen in. Thank you, sir.
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So we'll take our time. We have plenty of time. I think you have plenty of
time. I hope you like the weather. It's very nice. A nice place. Nice location.
[16:40:04]
And I do thank you for being here. And we don't have very much heat. So say it's perfect weather for this where the rain is not imminent based on the
fact that there are no clouds. So it's really nice. It's really nice. And let's go over some big facts and some very substantial truths about where
we stand as a country because we are a failing nation because of the way it's been run for the last three and a half years.
We're a failing nation. People are coming into our country by the millions and millions and millions. We have no idea who they are, where they come
from, but we're also a failing economy. Kamala Harris is a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border, and broke the
world frankly. Very destructive to the entire world because as we go oftentimes the world goes. She destroys everything she touches and if she
wins your finances and your country will never recover.
You're never going to recover. A radical left person wants to put price controls all over the place, which will end up driving up your prices, not
down your prices. Harris has just declared that tackling inflation will be a day one priority for her. It's going to be day one. But day one really
for Kamala was three and a half years ago. Where has she been? And why hasn't she done it? Why hasn't she done it?
I hear her complaining all the time. She was the border czar, but she didn't do anything. The worst border czar in history. There's never been a
border czar so bad. She's been unbelievable in terms of her badness to some of our allies, some of our great allies, you know who I'm talking about.
Here is the record of economic calamity that Kamala is desperate for voters to ignore. She cast the tie-breaking votes that caused record inflation.
She cast the votes. She's trying to blame Biden, as you know. So it was Biden, but I'm going to do a better job. But it was her and if she wants to
do a better job, she's still got five months left, right? But she can't do a better job because she doesn't know how to. And she's of a -- she's of a
place in life where she wouldn't know what a better job is. Going to destroy our country and as a result of Kamala's inflation price hikes,
they've caused the typical household a total of $28,000.
These are numbers coming from government. They're not coming for me. $28,000 she's cost the typical household. Kamala's relation nightmare
continues to cost the average American family $1,100 every single month. $1,100. Again, government numbers. You're paying $148 more a month on food.
It's every month, average family, because Kamala and her ideas and Joe Biden, too, I mentioned him, but he's sort of gonzo.
It all started with the debate. I should have been a little bit easy. Somebody said your debate performance was horrible. I said why? Because you
forced them out of government. But I believe she'll be just as bad. I believe she's maybe in many ways going to be worse because he wasn't really
a radical left but she is. She's real. He wasn't real. So I think she's going to be in many ways easier to beat than Joe Biden.
What they did to him was disgraceful, by the way. And it really is a threat to democracy. It was a coup by people that wanted him out. And they didn't
do the way -- not the way they're supposed to do it.
$129 more on energy and $241 more. This is all per month on rents. So you have that $148, $129, $241 and then many other increases. You add it all
up. It's thousands and thousands of dollars that she and he have cost people. The cost of a typical monthly mortgage has doubled since I left
office and that number was about three months old from government and now it's tripled.
We had mortgage rates at around 2 percent, close to 2 percent, and they're now at 10 percent. And you can't get a mortgage. So that means it's a lot
higher than 10 percent, I guess it is whatever, whatever they want to give over the money and that's a lot more than 10 percent. So when you think
about double, they've actually quadrupled or more than that. Think of that. Quadrupled, which really kills the American dream for young people.
Young people are being devastated by what they've done to our country. Grocery prices have skyrocketed. Cereals are up 26 percent. Bread is up 24
percent. Butter is up 37 percent.
[16:45:02]
Baby formula is up 30 percent. Flowers up 38 percent and eggs are up 46 percent. And many items are up at much higher rates than that.
Now Kamala is reportedly proposing communist price controls. She wants price controls and if they worked, I'd go along with it, too, but they
don't work. They actually have the exact opposite impact and effect. But it leads to food shortages, rationing, hunger, dramatically more inflation.
Their Inflation Reduction Act, by the way, was a disaster. It's what caused the inflation. They're Inflation Reduction Act was a con job.
They actually admitted that it wasn't really for inflation that they did it. They don't know why they did it, but they named it the Inflation
Reduction Act, which was a very nice name. Got approved based on that. Unfortunately people didn't understand it. I understood that. I said that's
going to cause tremendous inflation and it did, among other things, like energy. She's running on the Maduro plan.
We call it the Maduro plan, like something straight out of Venezuela with the Soviet Union. This announcement is an admission that her economic
policies have totally failed and caused really a catastrophe for our country and beyond that a catastrophe in the world. A little bit unrelated,
but not totally unrelated. We have wars breaking out in the Middle East. We have the horrible war going on with Ukraine and Russia.
All of these things would have never happened if I was president, would have never ever happened, and they didn't happen. Since Harris took office
car insurance is up 55 percent and they just announced it's going to be substantially higher than that within the next week. They expect big
increases in car insurance. It's out of control. And insurance generally.
Thanks to Kamala's war on American energy electricity prices are up 32 percent, gasoline prices are up 50 percent, and going higher. Meanwhile,
real incomes are down by over $2,000 a year. So there the incomes for people are down 2,000 on average a year. Government numbers. The typical
American has seen a 4 percent pay cut under Kamala and Biden, Crooked Joe, Crooked Joe Biden.
Credit card debt has exploded by 50 percent under Harris to a record high. It's now at a record high. Have never been anywhere close since March. And
by the way, people are going to have to start paying that and it's not going to be a pretty sight for the next period of time. It could be a
substantial time. Since March of 2022, the average middle-class household has lost $33,000 in wealth. How about that? $33,000. Thats average.
In July alone, 350,000 people were added to the unemployment rolls. It's a lot of people, 350,000 people added to the unemployment rolls. And think of
that, that's in one month, that's in July. Virtually 100 percent of the net job creation in the last year has gotten to migrants. You know that? Most
of the job creation has gone to migrants. In fact, I've heard that substantially more than beyond -- actually beyond the number of 100 percent
is a much higher number than that.
But the government hasn't caught up with that yet, but virtually right now as of the time they did this, virtually 100 percent of the net job creation
in the last year has gone to migrants. Harris gave work permits and Social Security numbers to more than three million illegal immigrants to steal
jobs from Americans. So think of that, and you know, they're having a lot of problems with Social Security. I'm going to be the one to save Social
Security, but they're having a lot of problems with Social Security because under their system of putting all of these people into it, it's going to
blow up and fail.
If she's elected Social Security will fail. It will be a blow up like you've never seen before. It'll be the bankruptcy of the entire system
probably the nation itself. You don't have to imagine what a Kamala Harris presidency would be because you are living through that nightmare right now
and it is a nightmare. It's a nightmare. And you're going to stop inflation, but we're going to have a crash and we're going to have a crash
like a 1929 crash if she gets in.
You saw a gentleman yesterday who got up one of the top analysts in the world frankly, and said that if Trump isn't elected, he predicts, and he's
predicting you have a stock market crash like 1929. He also said the only time and the only reason the stock market has gone up even though it had
some bad moments recently -- but I think will take, I think will take a substantially, you saw the polls coming out today, we're leading in most of
the polls. But you have --
(APPLAUSE)
[16:50:03]
TRUMP: I have a lot of friends over there. That's nice. I don't think they're reporters, however, are they? This was supposed to be for
reporters. Thank you very much.
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: Thank you very much. When I left office, I handed Kamala and Crooked Joe Biden a surging economy with no inflation. The 30-year mortgage rate
was around 2 percent. Gasoline had reached $1.87 a gallon. We actually had many months where it was lower than that. But we hit $1.87, which was a
perfect place and absolutely beautiful number. Real income surged by more than $4,200 a year when I was president.
Harris and Biden blew it all up. If Kamala wins the election the worst is yet to come. You'll have a real problem in the future because people don't
respect her in the world. People don't respect her in the economy. Economists are laughing, they can't even believe this is happening to our
country. And she wants to change a free enterprise type country into a communist country. That's what she knows.
She's considered far more radical than Bernie Sanders. That's all you have to know. Far more radical. And she picked somebody that's far more radical
than Bernie Sanders. He approved a bill recently, tampons in boys' bathrooms. He wants tampons in boys' bathrooms. It's terrible. It's
terrible. But that's the person that she picked. Surprising pick to me. I was shocked. He's also got one of the worst run states. Many people are
leaving the state, sixth the most.
And from her state this -- just goes she destroyed as the attorney general, she destroyed California along with Gavin Newscum and she, San Francisco,
you know, was a great city 15 years ago, now it's considered almost unlivable. You can't live there. And what they've done to that great state
with a beautiful weather like this, where they have this weather all the time and they have the ocean, they have the sun, they have everything good.
But what they've done to it is a shame and she's going to do the same thing to our country. It was the policies. They had a recent article and I didn't
know this. But you're allowed to rob a store as long as it's not more than $950. Has everyone ever heard of that? You can rob a store and you have
these thieves going into stores with calculators, calculating how much it is, because if it's less than $950, they can rob it and not get charged.
That was her that did that.
Harris is campaigning on the largest tax increase in American history including ending the Trump tax cuts. One of the largest tax cuts ever in
our country's history. And working with families that gigantic capital gains tax hike. They want a new wealth confiscation tax. It's called wealth
confiscation tax which is going to make all of her supporters, you know, she's got some supporters that are wealthy people because they're stupid
people, but they're wealthy people.
She said that a 70 percent to 80 percent tax rate is, quote, "a bold idea" that should be discussed and studied. 70 percent to 80 percent. She co-
sponsored legislation to abolish very popular private health insurance, which 150 Americans rely on dumping everyone onto inferior socialist
government run healthcare systems with rationing and deadly wait times. Well, massively raising new taxes.
She wants to take away your private health care. There are many people in this country who spent a lot of money on private health care. It's the best
health care in the world, by the way. But they want to do it. They worked hard to make money and they want to do it. Under her, you're not going to
have private health care plans anymore. And you can be a wealthy person or a middle-income person and you want to spend on a really good plan better
than a government plan could be, far better, and you're not going to be allowed.
You're all going to be thrown into a communist system. It's a communist system. You're going to be thrown into a system where everybody gets health
care. You wait for your doctor like 10 months, 12 months, 11 months, you're going to see some of these plans, how they work in other countries, it's
disgraceful. So private health care has gone. She wants it out. Now she could change on that and she might change in that.
She's changed on everything. But I said why are you changing? I actually was asking somebody that knows her. Why is she changing? She had these
policies and ideas for years and years and years, and very solid on. All you have to do is go back and look at your tapes, which many have been
discarded because they don't want -- discarded by the fake news because they don't want people to see what she said just a year ago and two years
ago.
[16:55:07]
I've never seen anything like it, even my statement on waiters, waitresses, caddies. A lot of great people, people that drive cars. No tax on tips. All
of a sudden, out of the blue, she comes out, that was months ago I said that. And she came out and she said no tax on tips. She could have at least
said, you know, President Trump had some great ideas, but one of the ideas was no tax on tips. I think it would have been nice and people would have
accepted that.
But she just came out like it was hers and she never had, in fact, just the opposite. The IRS is all set up to really go after people that make tips,
and they pass legislation and signed executive orders making it really hard on waiters, waitresses, and that was very recently. That was just before I
made the proposal. They were really going after people, so they're lying when they say that, you know, this is what they want to do because their
legislation which everyone knows, and their executive orders were extremely tough.
They also put 88,000 new IRS agents in that can go and harass everybody. She wants to close dozens of existing power plants, causing rollbacks of
power in our country. You could have brownouts, blackouts, the likes of which you've never seen. And plunging millions and millions of people into
poverty. That's going to put them into poverty. And they're not going to have heat. They're not going to have air conditioning.
She wants to close dozens of existing power plants, or maybe she'll change that, too. But she's got a lot to change. Almost everything she's ever said
she's going to change. Nobody has ever seen and that's why we're here. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. She wants to abolish coal, oil, and
natural gas. 84 percent of U.S. energy supply. And it's the coal and the natural gas, clean coal, I call it, and oil, natural gas that create
electricity.
And by the way, I'm a big fan of electricity. If we're going to go with the AI, if we're going to do that, I don't know if you know, but we need twice
the amount of electricity currently supplied for everything to the entire United States of America. So to be competitive on AI, I was talking to Elon
Musk, we had a great discussion the other night.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I agree, and he said a big problem is getting the approvals to create all of that energy, all of that electricity, specifically
electricity, and you're going to need that for other forms of modern business, too. And I'll get it done but other people aren't going to be get
it done. You're going to -- they're not going to be able to get it done.
As border czar, and she was the border czar. She was -- I don't know if she was proudly called border czar, but that's what Crooked Joe Biden called
her. She's the border czar. Everybody said it. And then about two weeks ago, she didn't want to be called the border czar anymore. She said oh, I
was never the border czar. It doesn't matter. She was the person responsible for the border and she never went there.
She went to a certain location once, but I would have gotten there and taken my family to dinner there. That was not a place that is going to the
border. A place with no problem. As border czar, she allowed 20 million people, and I believe it's higher than that. People say 13, 14, 12, 10. But
now they're all up to around 12, 13, 14. They have no idea because you have millions and millions of what they called got-aways. The got-aways. Got-
aways are people that pour into our country. We have no idea who they are. That's the worst of all.
But she allowed at least 20 million people to invade our country and she wants to give them all citizenship and free government health care, and let
them raid Medicare and Social Security, which will again she will destroy Medicare. She will destroy Social Security. And frankly, there's nothing
she can do about it. Once this happens, there's nothing she can do about it.
She called for abolishing ICE. These are great patriots who are tough, tougher than anybody. This audience, some of those people I know them over
there, some of those men and couple other women, to be honest. They're tough is hell, but they don't want to fight MS-13. I've seen it. They go
into Long Island, has a lot of -- had a lot. We got them out. But now they're coming back because of weak policy and because of things that she
wants to do like defund the police.
You know, she wants to defund the police. Now, she has since said, no, no, I don't want to do that anymore. The one thing I see with politicians, they
always go back to where they were. She wanted to defund the police and she wanted to abolish ICE. I was going to say that these ICE people are
incredible patriots. Tough as hell. And they go into a pack of MS-13 gang members, the toughest in the world, probably the toughest gangs in the
world.
They come from -- they come from different parts of South America and they want to come in in Long Island not too recently but recently.
END
