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The Situation Room
Soon: Biden Speaks In N.V. As Schiff Calls On Him To Exit Race; Schiff Cites "Serious Concerns" In Call For Biden To Exit Race; Soon: RNC's 3rd Night Begins, V.P. Nominee J.D. Vance To Speak; Sen. Cory Booker (D-NY), Is Interviewed About On Future Of Biden's Candidacy; Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Is Interviewed About Pictures Of Biden, Trump Found On Shooter's Phone; NFL Hall Of Famer Handcuffed On United Flight In Front Of Kids. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired July 17, 2024 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Range finder around the same time that witnesses alerted police that the shooter was crawling on the roof. There are also new images of what was found on the shooters body including a transmitter and a cell phone. All this as investigators are still trying to uncover what was the motive behind the twisted act on Saturday.
I will be back tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern for CNN special coverage of night three of the Republican National Convention. The news continues now with one Mr. Wolf Blitzer, as well as Erin Burnett. They're both in the "Situation Room."
[17:00:46]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We are coming down to one of the most anticipated events of the Republican National Convention here in Milwaukee. J.D. Vance, the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee about to take the stage just hours from now. We're also following important news surrounding President Biden in a major blow, it's been a major blow to his fight to remain on the ticket.
Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. This is a special edition of the Situation Room. We're live here in Milwaukee. I'm Wolf Blitzer.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And I'm Erin Burnett.
And Wolf, we're about to hear from President Biden on the campaign trail in Nevada. This is the second day in a row where he's in state, as one of the most prominent Democrats in Congress is now calling for Biden to drop out of the presidential race. Adam Schiff, once of Nancy Pelosi -- one of Nancy Pelosi's closest allies says it's now time for the President to pass the torch saying he has serious concerns about whether President Biden can defeat Donald Trump in November. Now Schiff is the highest profile House Democrat to part ways with the President so far, Wolf.
BLITZER: And it comes, Erin, as we're learning incredible new details about a contentious meeting between the President and House Democrats, at one point President Biden snapping at Congressman Jason Crow, who told him voters are concerned about his vigor and strength. President Biden saying and I'm quoting him now, "I don't want to hear that crap," close quote.
Kayla Tausche is live in Las Vegas with the President. Kristen Holmes is here in Milwaukee with all of us. Let's start with Kristen. You're here at the Republican National Convention, Kristen. You have been speaking to Republicans there -- here. What do they want to hear from J.D. Vance?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, a majority of Republicans that I've spoken to in the last several hours say they want to know who J.D. Vance is. They don't know much about the junior senator from Ohio. When he takes the stage tonight he will be really within an on the political scene for only about a year and a half. I talked to Republicans who said they want to know what it is that J.D. Vance stands for. What are the values he brings to the ticket?
Remember, Wolf, many of these Republicans all they heard for years when it came to J.D. Vance was what he was saying against former President Donald Trump when he was hitting the airwaves back in 2016 and '17 as a never Trumper. A lot of them, they want to hear this evolution as to how he became such an avid supporter of the former president. But one thing I want to tell you, Wolf, he has a lot to talk about, and he only has about 20 minutes to do it. So, it's going to be a short amount of time to get in his whole life story and speak to all of these Republicans who have questions about the future of the Republican Party.
BLITZER: We're all anticipating a major, major speech from the vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Kristen, thank you very much. We'll, of course, get back to you.
Right now want to go to CNN's Kayla Tausche. She's at Las Vegas with President Biden.
Kayla, Congressman Schiff, urging President Biden to leave the race. The campaign saying President Biden isn't going anywhere. What's the latest?
KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, certainly Congressman Schiff, coming out against President Biden is the boldest name in the Democratic Party so far, but it has long been the case that there was a belief or there has been a belief within the White House in the Biden campaign hat until or unless Democratic leaders like Hakeem Jeffries in the House or Chuck Schumer in the Senate come out themselves against the President, that he is safe and to be assured that Biden campaign's message has been one of staying the course. They believe in their heart that President Biden just needs to stay out there. And that getting him in front of voters will shore up the support with critical constituencies like black voters and Hispanics, which is one reason why he's here in Nevada counterprogramming, the RNC with policy rollouts on the economy and immigration and sitting for interviews with major media outlets and outlets that reach those constituencies specifically. He said that only a medical condition would cause him to reevaluate his candidacy and he called it gain time right now. We're expecting the President to take the stage in just about an hour's time.
We'll bring that to you when it happens. Wolf and Erin.
BLITZER: All right, Kayla, thank you very much. Kayla Tausche reporting for us. Our political experts are joining us right now to discuss all of these very significant developments.
[17:05:04]
And David Chalian, let me start with you Adam Schiff. Clearly the most high profile Democrat yet to publicly call on the President of the United States not to seek reelection. How big of a deal is this?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Here's one reason why I think it's a very big deal. And I know Manu reported that there was no orchestration here with the Pelosi people. But you cannot separate out how close Adam Schiff is with the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who holds a lot of cards in this scenario. She is somebody with a ton of authority representing the caucus, the party, those running down ballot and can get in Joe Biden's ear. And so the fact that one of her closest political allies in the Democratic Party comes out and says, I just can't separate their relationship from that and the effect that that they have.
BLITZER: Let me get Manu to weigh in. Manu, you're our chief congressional correspondent, let me read to you a line from what Adam Schiff is saying. This is a quote from Adam Schiff, "A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy. And I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November."
As we just heard from David, he's a very close ally of Nancy Pelosi, would he have done this without consulting with her?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, we would -- I would assume that she would have some insight into what he was thinking. Remember yesterday, her -- his private comments at a fundraiser were leaked to the "New York Times." And essentially this led for him to come out publicly and say this. But what he is saying really echoes what Democrats to say privately. The only 20 have come out publicly to call for him to step aside, that's a small fraction of the overall House and Senate Democratic Caucus.
And the Biden team will say, look, we have all these other members who haven't call for him to step aside. But they didn't want to say that publicly, even though many of them agree with Adam Schiff. They're seeing polling in their districts, we're seeing what's happening in the swing states, and they believe the Biden himself just simply doesn't get how serious of trouble that he is in, now he could take down the whole party with them. So which makes the next two weeks incredibly critical here before the DNC officially makes Biden the nominee and what the leaders do. They have to make some sort of public statement.
Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, where do they ultimately come down, despite what they've been saying so far was not been -- not a whole lot. They're getting pressure to do a lot more.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: And we'll have to add to that, if you want to take it out of the Capitol for voters, you're hearing all this conflicting messaging. And it is a real risk, I think, for lawmakers to come out and spend a bunch of weeks saying, please step aside, you're going to lose, you're not good for variety of reasons. And if he doesn't, they got to turn around to those same voters and say, well, I mean, he's probably fine. It could work out but vote for -- like it's it is a real mess of messaging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know heading into the --
BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, Audie, I want to get your reaction, and then we'll move on. The President was asked if there was anything that could convince him to drop out of the race right now. Here's what he said in an interview with BET. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I had some medical condition that emerged. If somebody have -- doctors came to me and said, you got this problem, that problem. But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: As you know, in that ABC News interview, he said the only way he would get out if the Lord Almighty, his words, if the Lord Almighty told him to get out. But now he's saying, if I had some medical condition that emerged, he might consider getting out of the race.
CORNISH: Right. So for people who want him to step aside, maybe they feel like this is move in the right direction, because it's going from God Himself to just like basic illness. I mean, I think it's interesting that the President just feels as though he is just going to ride this out. Right? He's just going to keep saying no, no, no, until finally someone listens.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I think it's -- there's enough evidence now that there -- we've seen a very different response from President Biden, Wolf. You mentioned the Lord Almighty, but the week after that at the NATO press conference, he was asked by a Scripps news reporter, if he was presented with information, if he would get out polling information. And he left the door open to that, he said those polls don't exist. Well, now he is potentially learning that they do. So if you take all the conversations together, I keep going back to last Saturday, I think that's going to be a critical day when we look back at all this.
Yes, the assassination attempt happened, the horrible assassination attempt, but right before that, President Biden was on the phone with House Democrats, he got an earful. People expressed directly how dire this is, and then he had an in person meeting with Senator Chuck Schumer. We've gotten very little information out of that, except I'm told it was candid and blunt and clear eyed. And Chuck Schumer does not visit the President. The President does take visitors on Saturday in Rehoboth when he's there for his weekend unless it's sort of serious.
So, I think there has been movement actually, as we hit the third week tomorrow.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: And in many ways, the fact that Chuck Schumer and other leaders in the Democratic Party haven't really weighed in that sort of tells you everything you need to know. I think the last thing that Nancy Pelosi said that was Biden is still making up his mind about whether or not to leave the race. This was after he has insisted on many occasions that he is staying in the race. Maybe she doesn't like the answer that he's giving. And that's why she's saying, oh, he hasn't really decided yet.
[17:10:22]
Listen, I think Biden has gone into this sort of post-debate period, thinking that he would be able to quiet down all his critics, the folks who want him to stand aside by his performance, by a press conference, by an interview with Lester Holt, interviews with BET, he's clearly are relying on African Americans in particular, to sort of pull him back from the brink. But it isn't working. The calls are still coming.
BLITZER: As you know, Jeff, and you mentioned poll numbers, these latest poll numbers for the president are pretty awful, 65 percent in this AP poll, 65 percent of Democrats say President Biden should drop out. Nearly half don't think he has the mental capacity to do the job.
ZELENY: Look, it's incredibly damaging. I mean, he was viewed as lucky president by escaping and avoiding a Democratic primary. History will show that that's always a very risky thing when a incumbent president has a primary, but he escaped a serious primary. But now what is happening, I would argue is even more serious because we are a month away from the Democratic Convention, about three and a half months away from Election Day here. So nevermind, all these decisions.
What we don't know is the President himself and First Lady Jill Biden, have they been swayed by any of these in treaties. That is the missing piece of the puzzle here. But say they have been, then what? The question now is going to be with this very short window of time here, what do people do? So Vice President Harris is -- she was on the road today, has been literally waiting in the wings, sort of a historic holding pattern, you know, doing her day job.
But that's the underlying question, all of this. Say he does step aside, then what?
HENDERSON: What happens next? Yeah.
RAJU: Biden -- you know, Biden's theory of the case has been to make this race about Trump, but is no longer about Trump. It is now about Biden, and that is the real risk as we head into November and Democrats see it. And how does he shift the conversation back to Trump and get the focus away from him? It's hard to see how he does that in this moment when everyone's watching everything that he's doing. HENDERSON: And listen, they've been saying that for a while, right? The campaign hasn't really started yet. Once they go up on the air, the polls will change. But the polls have been fairly consistent.
ZELENY: They've spent millions and millions of dollars.
HENDERSON: Millions and millions of dollars in swing state ads. The debate was supposed to be another moment, right? They'll build the momentum their way. We see what happened with that debate. Another point was, oh, we'll go out and we'll do these interviews, things will change.
And it hasn't happened yet.
CHALIAN: And they acknowledge -- the Biden campaign acknowledges that these last three weeks --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CHALIAN: -- have blotted out the sun in a way that they are totally not able to make this what they want to make it about the stakes and about the clear choice with Donald Trump. That is not getting to voters right now. And they understand that that is a huge part of the problem.
BLITZER: Excellent perspective. Everybody stand by. We have a lot more coming up, including President Biden about to speak in Nevada trying to shore up Latino support after another major defection. Democratic Senator Cory Booker is our guest. That's coming up.
Plus, Ohio senator and bestselling author J.D. Vance about to make the biggest speech of his life as he tries to prove he's the right man for the job. Stay with us. You're in the Situation Room.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:17:37]
BURNETT: A breaking news, Republican VP nominee J.D. Vance speaking just hours before he'll address the RNC formally tonight as Donald Trump's running mate. Vance sharing what his first thoughts were after Trump survived Saturday's assassination attempt and saying why he thinks Trump's response so as why he should be president again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I was pissed. I was as soon as I knew he was OK I felt relief. And then I was like, I cannot believe an assassin tried to take down the president United States. I was mad about it.
Was he mad and angry? He called for national unity. He called for calm. He showed leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: All right, so that was just a little bit ago this afternoon. And obviously he's going to be in just a few hours addressing the RNC, the country, the world, everyone's going to see him, Shermichael.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.
BURNETT: I would assume he'll be a little bit more energetic than we saw there. It'll be a big -- much bigger room. I don't take critically, I mean, it's just going to be a very different vibe.
SINGLETON: Yes, it needs to be like Democrats are already painting him in a very, very negative light, Kate.
BURNETT: Why are -- OK. Yes.
SINGLETON: And I understand why. Look, he needs to use this moment to introduce himself to the American people. He has an incredible story. For the past few days, we've seen the party really tried to focus on outreach to people of color. I would love to see J.D. take his personal story and translate those racial lines, that can be very powerful.
I also think he has an opportunity to talk about what the possibilities of the future are for so many people. We've talked about this for several days now, Erin. The future looks bleak. J.D. can say I am an example of what's possible. And if you vote for Trump, you vote for myself. We can make the possibility common for everybody.
BURNETT: Well, it was Pence last time around, and you are for Pence. So you know him and you understand, you know, in these moments, Trump and Vance and what's really actually happening, because Vance, his confidence is going to come from that relationship.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, absolutely. By the way, I'm just -- it's still jarring to see they just subbed out two letters on the side --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
GRIFFIN: -- you went from Pence to Vance and kept everything else.
BURNETT: I did. That was an early conspiracy theory that I did enjoy.
GRIFFIN: But listen, his job tonight is to introduce himself to the country but also not to take too much of the spotlight from Donald Trump. Expect to hear him effusively praise the President. I think he should take head on his former criticisms and talk of the former -- of the President and talk about why he's a convert. Donald Trump loves a convert. There's this notion that like once you're out you can never get back in, so I think you should lean into that.
And I think a lot of us feel like we know him of "Hillbilly Elegy" fame. There are going to be so many people in this convention whole who really don't know much about him and millions of people watching. And he has this pull yourself up by the bootstraps story that Donald Trump always wanted something like that for himself. He's tried to even kind of like lean into having like, look what I did, with a very different upbringing. So I expect him to lean into his personal bio and praising the president.
[17:20:16]
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, I think he probably -- he's going to tell the story of pulling himself up by his bootstraps. But the history, the recent history has been that he doesn't really believe that for everyone else. When I met him, I only met him once, I met him in 2016, and I was a fan because of the book. And I thought, wow, as somebody who grew up in Michigan in a black community that was very similar to the community he grew up in that was a white community, I felt like, this is amazing. Here's somebody who's talking about the white working class, the struggling the white working class, but he's not pointing fingers at the black people who live on the other side of town.
He's not pointing fingers at the immigrants who are coming, everyone says they're taking their jobs. He's saying, we've got to talk about what's happening inside this community and there's space for everybody else. But the new J.D. Vance isn't somebody who's not pointing fingers. He's somebody who's got the eliminating di act, and he wants to get rid of diversity inclusion in federal programming. And the reality is the reason why we have had so much progress on race and gender inclusion is because we've been trying to make progress.
And when we stop trying to make progress, we're going to stop making progress. And that's what makes me worried about J.D. Vance. And you just can't trust what flip flop is going to come out of him next from where he was before.
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, I think the other thing that is going to be interesting to see, I know, I believe his wife is introducing him tonight and to this point about, you know, him sort of introducing himself to the world, there's one of the places where the, you know, there's a significant disparity in this race is the gender gap. There -- you know, Trump -- the Trump ticket has problems with women, suburban women. So, I would expect that we'll see, you know, his wife do some of what she's done already and sort of trying to, you know, humanize him and talk about him. But I think an important issue here is going to be -- or an issue that's going to dog him here is going to be his stance on abortion. I mean, he supports, you know, no exceptions for rape or incest.
He obviously was an opponent of the ballot initiative in Ohio that wind up passing. And when it passed, you know, he said it was a disappointment. You know, that is certainly a place where Democrats are going to, you know, try to define his position.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: And so it will be interesting to see the work that they tried to do tonight to reach out to women knowing that that is something that's going to be coming.
BURNETT: Of course they're coming with such confidence, right? They think and Democrats think that Trump's going to win. All right? So that's what everybody seems to think.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BURNETT: Now, I just want -- I put this question in the context, you know, Adam Schiff comes out against Biden today. We don't know what's going to happen. And yet, you wright today, I think it's a little too early to go all in on the election is over Trump landslide confirmed.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We've got a long way to go. Even though it feels like November is speeding for us rapidly --
BURNETT: Yes.
ANDERSON: -- there are a lot of things that could happen. It feels like President Biden is not in good shape and it could get worse. And there's a chance that Democrats will stick with him, despite all of this noise and what I think is a pretty strong and growing coalition of Democrats saying we have to move on or else this is the Titanic and it is going down, let's all get on the lifeboats. But at the same time, there are risks for alternatives. There are risks for throwing Biden over and going with someone new.
I don't think the election is over though, because there's still the reality that a lot of voters are not crazy about Donald Trump. They really don't think the last four years have gone well. They don't think that Joe Biden has lived up to the promises that he made to try to unify this country, et cetera. It has created an opening for someone who's favorable or as low as Donald Trump's are to nevertheless come out and say what Lara Trump said last night, which was you don't have to imagine what the next four years would be like, just remember what it was like. That is going to be Trump's message.
SIMMONS: Well, Erin, you know, this election already has had three sort of mind bending things that have occurred. We have a presidential candidate who has been convicted of 34 felonies, right? We all thought that was going to matter a lot.
BURNETT: That was history making, yes.
SIMMONS: It was history making, right? And we weren't even talking about it anymore. We had, you know, the debate. The debate is already starting to fade in people's memories from where it was, and obviously the tragedy of Last Saturday. I'm not sure a month from now, how we feel today about what happened last week is going to be how we feel a month from now.
BURNETT: Right.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. So, I mean --
SIMMONS: Change trajectory.
GOLDBERG: Yes. I largely agree with the basic points. I also think Biden's not going to get better, right? The Biden we've seen the last two weeks is the Biden we're going to see till November. That's just the nature --
BURNETT: Well, that's the Biden you saw before the debate. Some great days, some not great days, right? That's what it was.
ANDERSON: But that's best case scenario.
GOLDBERG: Yes. But that's best case scenario, right. If he has another -- I particularly loved in the Lester Holt interview when Lester Holt said, well, what if you have another episode, like you had a debate? And Joe Biden says, well, I'm not planning on doing that. Did you plan on the last one?
I mean, but on the J.D. Vance thing, I agree entirely with Alyssa about the Trump loves a conversion because it shows his strength, right, it shows that I've forced someone to bend to my will and all that kind of stuff. I think they're going to use this conversion in a slightly different way though.
[17:25:08]
What they are trying to do, sort of like what they did with Amber Rose is they're trying to give people who don't like Trump. Because remember, a majority of Americans don't like Trump. This is the second election in eight years where we have two presidential candidates so unpopular, they have a chance of losing to the other one. And what they're trying to do is give people permission to vote for someone they don't like, someone they have deep reservations for. And I think what he's going to try to do is take his personal conversion, and create a permission structure for voters to have a conversion as well about Trump.
That's what a lot of last night stuff was about. It was like, he's a good father, he's a nice man. Here's how he treats women in private, he's a knight -- not -- their versions of how he treats women in private, right? And that's what they're going to try and do is tell people I understand you have problems with some of the stuff Trump says and does, but it's OK.
GRIFFIN: But there's a question of authenticity, because I think some people are going to watch Vance and be like, I have a really hard time believing that you thought he might be America's Hitler. And then he governed, he said, anti-Democratic things January 6 happened and you're like, actually, no, this is not the guy. He's much better than I thought he was.
SIMMONS: And like a debate. We've seen some of these things with our own eyes.
BURNETT: All right.
SIMMONS: Better than Hitler.
BURNETT: He's hard to convert of that.
Next, more on the numerous headlines around Democrats today as President Biden is facing a new defection and an important one from a leading member of his own party. We're going to talk about it all with the New Jersey Senator Cory Booker with us live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:31:00]
BURNETT: Welcome back to a special edition of the Situation Room. As President Biden continues to bleed support, the Trump campaign is piling on saying they can't commit to the VP debate because the actual proposed debate from "CBS" would be quote unfair to Kamala Harris to whoever Kamala Harris picks us her running mate, because it would be before the convention.
Joining me now Democratic Senator Cory Booker. So, you know, Senator for a -- for a few days, this quieted down after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. And now we're starting to hear the drumbeat again, Adam Schiff today, the congressman, becoming the most high profile Democrat to call for President Biden to step aside in the election, of course, he's a close confidant of Nancy Pelosi. So do you think this is building again? Do you think that this is going to change the outcome?
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I think the President has shown extraordinary leadership over his 50-year career and he's facing a real question of what is best for the country. And I think he'll make that decision. A lot of us are doing everything we can behind the scenes to really talk openly and honestly, with the President, with his team about the best way forward. We've had private meetings in D.C. all last week.
I don't want to have this conversation in public. I'm just -- I just think that that's not wise right now that the Republicans are having their convention. I want to get everybody to refocus on what we have done over the last four years, congressional Democrats have lowered the cost of insulin and health care, congressional Democrats, along with President Biden have passed extraordinary infrastructure bills, things that made a real difference in the lives of folks.
So I know that Donald Trump and his team want to try to pit Democrat against Democrat. I think this is a time where we should be L telling a common story about what we have done together as a party with Joe Biden as our leader with incredible congressional Democrats.
BURNETT: So and -- and obviously, Joe Biden is saying the same thing you're saying. But the only thing that you just said there, which actually harkens back to Nancy Pelosi, as you said, a decision to be made. He's made a decision. He tell us every day he's made a decision, yet, we keep hearing from senior members of a party like yourself, that he'll make a decision. So, look, I understand that this is a bit of rhetoric, but it seems like you and others want him to get out.
BOOKER: Look, we have a great party with good party rules. Right now, he is our presumptive nominee, there is a process going forward, when he will be the nominee. That process gives him a lot of chance to evaluate things, to look at facts and make the decisions about what's best for the country. And there are a lot of people talking to him, I trust this man, he has been such a solid leader, he will make the right decision because he knows that he has a solid legacy in American history as the most productive president of my lifetime.
But he also knows that Donald Trump is an existential threat to his legacy. And so we all know, this is the man that wants to tear down the Affordable Care Act. We know this is the man that has already presided over the ripping down of Roe v. Wade. But he now just chose the vice president that wants to pass a national abortion ban. There are real issues that are bigger than any of us. And I know that Joe Biden is going to make his decisions.
But right now, we as a party have to begin in a chorus of conviction, talking to the American public about the existential threat of what Donald Trump represents, because the biggest reason he chose J.D. Vance who's going to speak tonight, you know this, the reason why Michael Pence is not on -- Mike Pence is not on the ballot is because he stood up and did the noble thing of certifying an election that judges and his Trump's top election official all said, was a free fair election, that now he has somebody that said in the same places as Michael Pence. I would not have certified that election.
And that is a real threat to our democracy. So I want this conversation to be about what the Republicans are saying at their convention. They're telling us through Project 2025 what they want to do to Social Security Medicaid and Medicare. We need to start letting folks focus on that and not what Joe Biden and others are working through leaning into our convention, where we will nominate a president and vice president, and whoever that ticket is, I'm going to get behind them and fight as hard as I possibly can.
[17:35:19]
BURNETT: I know, I struggled there. But again, whoever that ticket is, I mean, you know, I -- I -- I understand that. But of course, you know, 14 million Democrats voted for that to be Joe Biden, until the debate, there was no question of anything else. And I understand just keeps being raised as if it's a question, which I realize it is because senior members of your party want to have this conversation.
I want to ask you about New Jersey, though, where of course, your fellow Senator Bob Menendez is now a convicted felon, federal corruption charges, the gold bars that -- that story. And -- and you've been very clear on this, senator, you've said you'll lead the charge to expel him, if he doesn't resign? The question is, should the Senate vote next week to expel him when you are back in session?
BOOKER: So let's just be clear that this is something that has shaken my state. There are people that have a history of working with Bob Menendez for decades. And I just want to let folks understand that for a lot of us, him being convicted by a jury that was sworn to objectivity that had the highest criminal standard to meet, which is beyond a reasonable doubt that this is something that is should really shake all of us.
And so there's some space now before we come back in which I hope Bob Menendez will do the right thing, should he not do the right thing? I've been talking to Chuck Schumer and other colleagues, I know, and I'm confident that we will work for an expulsion. I don't want to talk about the details of that. Because again, I -- I think that these coming days before we're back in session, on Monday or Tuesday, he should use this time to come before the American people and do the right thing.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Senator Booker, I appreciate your time. As always, thanks so much.
BOOKER: I appreciate you. And, you know, this is a time where I think journalists really have a responsibility. We've seen an assassination attempt. We've seen a lot of pain that's challenging our country. The reason why our democracy is so great is we have the free press. And now more than ever trusted voices like yours are critical. We got to heal. We got to come together as a country. We got to remind ourselves it's not left or right. It's about moving forward. So thanks for being somebody standing in the breach in this tough time.
BURNETT: All right. Well, we all -- we all take that and -- and thank you very much, Senator Booker.
And we do have alarming details just emerging now about Trump's would be assassin, as we are learning more about what happened. And North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer, he was just briefed on the shooting. He's going to join Wolf live from Milwaukee in the Situation Room.
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[17:41:59]
BLITZER: Breaking news we're following right now, more alarming details emerging tonight about Donald Trump's would-be assassin. Sources now telling CNN that Thomas Matthew Crooks had pictures of both President Biden and former President Trump on his phone. And we're also learning he visited the site of Trump's rally twice after the event was announced. This news comes as the House and Senate were just briefed by the U.S. Secret Service on the shooting.
Republican Senator Kevin Cramer from North Dakota is joining us right now. Senator, thanks very much for coming in. You listened in to this briefing on this from the Secret Service?
SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): I did.
BLITZER: What can you tell us? What did you learn?
CRAMER: Well, interestingly, Wolf, the -- the details, the timeline details, which we've all been pretty fascinated with, we've probably got a little more detail than has been out in the public to this point. None of it, of course, is classified. And so we -- I think we have a pretty good picture of what happened, when it happened. What we don't have, you know, a clear idea of is, why did it happen? Why wasn't the response better?
The -- the FBI was also part of the briefing. So they dug in a little deeper on, you know, the young man's social media, which there wasn't a lot of, other ways of communication -- communicating these pictures that you obviously already know about is what it's painting is a picture of a disturbed young man, in my view, but still not one that seems to have a clear motive that we can, at least at this point, understand.
BLITZER: So you were told of the pictures of both Biden and Trump on his phone?
CRAMER: We were.
BLITZER: And how did they explain that?
CRAMER: Just sort of matter of fact, like that, that there were pictures of -- of both presidents that now obviously, there were a lot more pictures of the -- of the venue in -- in Pennsylvania, you know, before the act and whatnot. But clearly, it -- it's just not -- it's not clear that he's got a political philosophy that was driving whatever it is, you know, that he did, or what -- what motivated him to do what he did.
BLITZER: The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, he today called on the head of the U.S. Secret Service to resign, do you think that would be appropriate?
CRAMER: Well, I'm surprised she hasn't to be honest. I don't know what, you know, she could have done differently, that'll take time to figure out, but it's hard not -- it's not hard not to look at the Secret Service response to this and not question that at the very least at the very top leadership just as an example. My question that did not get through in time for -- for us to hear it was, OK, we know this timeline. We know these 20 minutes to however long it was but at least 20 minutes where the threat was identified. OK. You didn't know how to get to them. The, you know, the -- whether it was state cops or local cops that were responsible, sheriffs, whatever.
The -- with the Secret Service what -- what's unclear to me is why did the President remain on the stage for all of these minutes knowing that there was a threat of some sort on the rooftop close by. I just -- I can't understand why -- why he was kept in harm's way like that.
BLITZER: Because some of -- some of your Republican colleagues are suggesting the Secret Service may have been more concerned about diversity amongst its ranks than about security in this particular.
CRAMER: Well, I --
[17:45:00]
BLITZER: You've heard those?
CRAMER: I've heard those things. And -- and if -- if that's true and -- and we certainly know that there's a strong emphasis on that sort of thing in the current administration and then certain corporations and whatnot. I don't know that that's the issue today. I don't know that that's an issue we certainly should deal with. But I don't know that that's the issue today or that that's the issue that lit -- led specifically to this, you know, very sad incident on Saturday.
BLITZER: Let -- let's get to what's about to happen tonight.
CRAMER: Sure.
BLITZER: We're all going to be hearing from the vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance. Senator Vance is being described by President Biden as a clone of Trump. Do you agree?
CRAMER: I don't agree. I know J.D. fairly well. I mean, you know, I've served with him now for a year and a half for almost two years. He's been -- yes, he's -- he's been -- I've been in the Senate with him. And -- and J.D. is similar in basic -- in basic philosophy, Wolf. But -- but J.D. is -- he's a very intellectual. He's very eloquent on -- on -- he -- I call them oftentimes the conscience of the populist wing of the Republican Party.
Whereas President Trump, you know, has this broad philosophy, a -- a populist philosophy. But he's also -- he's much, you know, he projects strength in a way that where J.D. I think, projects more of an intellectual approach to populism. I think he's a -- he's -- he's a certainly a safe, you know, safe pick for the President in terms of somebody he'll work with well. He'll get along with well. He'll probably take good counsel from.
But I also think, you know, Donald Trump doesn't answer to the Vice President and I -- I think he'll -- they'll be good partners, but I don't think he's a clone.
BLITZER: Senator, thanks very much for coming in.
CRAMER: My pleasure.
BLITZER: Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, appreciate it very much.
Coming up, Erin Burnett speaks exclusively to NFL legend, Terrell Davis, about being handcuffed on a plane all because he says he asked for a cup of ice for his son.
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[17:51:00]
BURNETT: All right. Welcome back. We have so much on the Republican convention to talk about tonight. There's also other important news we're following including growing questions about why NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Davis was removed from United Airlines flight in handcuffs, right next to his children and wife.
The two times Super Bowl champion says the incident began after he lightly tapped a flight attendant on the arm to ask for a cup of ice. United Airlines apologizing saying we've reached out to Mr. Davis's team to apologize. We removed the flight attendant from duty. Well, earlier, I spoke with Davis and his wife, Tamiko, and I asked him exactly what happened. Here's part of what they told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TERRELL DAVIS, NFL HALL OF FAMER: This happened, the gentleman leans over, he has a big FBI on his shirt -- on his jacket. And he leans over and he's got handcuffs, and I'm looking at looking at -- looking at him and he says, don't fight it, don't fight it. And he puts the cuffs on me.
BURNETT: And your boys are there?
TERRELL DAVIS: And my boys are there. And my daughter's there. My wife is there. And it's like, I felt so like I was stripped of my dignity, you know, I was powerless. I had -- I couldn't do anything. I'm wondering what's going on? They didn't ask me any questions. It wasn't -- I'd had no chance to even.
TAMIKO DAVIS, TERRELL DAVIS'S WIFE: Explain.
TERRELL DAVIS: Explain what happened, if anything happened.
TAMIKO DAVIS: Or asked.
BURNETT: So but -- but I mean, when they say we just don't deal with handcuffs.
TERRELL DAVIS: Handcuffs.
BURNETT: Your boys are right there, right?
TERRELL DAVIS: My boys were right there.
BURNETT: -- three in a row coach?
TERRELL DAVIS: Yes.
BURNETT: And you -- did you -- are you thinking why?
TERRELL DAVIS: I am confused.
TAMIKO DAVIS: But you're calm. And I think --
TERRELL DAVIS: I'm calm, yes.
BURNETT: Yes, you're calm.
TAMIKO DAVIS: Terrell, Terrell --
TERRELL DAVIS: Yes.
TAMIKO DAVIS: He had no choice but to comply?
BURNETT: Yes.
TAMIKO DAVIS: And that's a whole another level to this. You know, I -- I think he -- he's not given an opportunity to ask questions or to challenge or to say, wait, what's happening because the FBI agent came right to him. Not asking his name, not giving any type of explanation. The first words that the FBI agent told him was, don't make a scene. Don't fight it. So what can he do? Terrell knows better.
Unfortunately, historically, in these situations, interaction with law enforcement -- law enforcement as a black man, you can't fight, you can't resist, you can't act and not everyone is a fight, you can't ask. So thank God, my husband has the wherewithal, the class, the understanding, to know in that moment, all he could do was sit there and comply and be humiliated in front of his sons, and the 200, whatever, how many people were on that plane? He hadn't -- they didn't give him any other options.
BURNETT: And you're -- you're talking about being humiliated? Did you feel in that moment, you talk about historically being but did -- did you feel your blackness in that moment?
TERRELL DAVIS: Feel -- that's, you know what, that's a perfect word to use in this case, because it's not what you think, it's -- it's how people make you feel. And I certainly felt like, that wouldn't have happened if I were a person of -- of -- of not have, you know, if I was a white person, right? It wouldn't have happened.
TAMIKO DAVIS: Right.
TERRELL DAVIS: That's what I felt. Now, whether that's true or not, that's a different conversation, but, yes, you felt like that it was no degree of respect or --
TAMIKO DAVIS: Courtesy.
TERRELL DAVIS: Courtesy or anything about it.
TAMIKO DAVIS: Regard.
TERRELL DAVIS: You know.
BURNETT: Well, I mean, I -- when I saw this story, OK, I had just flown back. And I also have three kids. So we do the same thing. We do two and one. And all I could think of and -- and I know you don't know exactly what happened or what the motive was or what someone was feeling, but I could just think to myself that I don't think that would have happened to me or my husband.
TERRELL DAVIS: Right, right. And they're right, and that's what we talked about. And here's -- here's the other thing, too. Not only do I have my -- my kids there, I'm always trying to tell them how to, you know, be -- be the model, right? Try to be an example to my kids and do the right things. And then you know what, you don't have to worry about anything, but we did the right thing, right? We didn't do anything. But yet I found myself with handcuffs, being printed off of a claim and being treated like a -- like a -- like a -- like a convict, right? And -- and then this kind of you're guilty until you're proven innocent applied in that -- in that -- in that situation.
[17:55:11]
TAMIKO DAVIS: But the damage had already been done. TERRELL DAVIS: The damage was done already.
BURNETT: So did your kids, did you get to say anything to them as you get out on the plane?
TERRELL DAVIS: So I -- so -- so I -- so the other heartbreaking part that I still just it -- it loops in my head is when they took me down the -- the -- the hallway they take me out to the jetway, they don't take me through the regular terminal. And at least the FBI agent, you know, had the wherewithal to say, listen, man, he brought my family out, my wife and kids came out and he asked for like a sweater or something to put on my handcuffs so nobody will see me.
And I -- the look on my family's face when they saw me in handcuffs, and I was going -- I was going out the back door and they were going out the -- the guess the, you know, the jet bridge.
TAMIKO DAVIS: Yes.
TERRELL DAVIS: I can see the look on their faces and it broke my heart because my kids are looking at their, their eyes are watery. They don't know what's happening to their dad. He's got the handcuffs on, nobody explained to them what -- what was going on, and I was powerless. I couldn't do anything about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: My thanks to Terrell and Tamiko Davis who -- who chose to -- to cut off their vacation to talk about this because they want -- want people to understand what happened. Please stay with us. Wolf and I will be back as our coverage of the RNC continues next with a special edition of the Situation Room.
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