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Sources Say, Harris Less Than Two Weeks Away From Naming V.P. Pick; Rare Moment In History, Biden Speaks Soon On Ending Campaign; Trump Speaks At First Rally Since Biden's Exit From Race; Trump Attacks Harris: "I'm Not Going Be Nice"; Netanyahu Delivers Defiant Address To Divided U.S. Congress. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired July 24, 2024 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news. CNN has learned that Vice President Kamala Harris is less than two weeks away from naming her running mate as Democrats push toward making her their presidential nominee. This is as we're standing by for President Biden to explain to the nation why he ended his campaign, the White House calling it a rare moment in history.
Also breaking, Donald Trump is returning to the trail tonight. He's about to speak at his first campaign rally since the Democrats' dramatic shakeup. We're standing by to hear how Trump takes on his new opponent in a crucial battleground state.
Plus, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces the U.S. Congress offering a strident defense of the war in Gaza and dismissing anti-war protesters as, quote, useful idiots of the country he sees as the gravest threat, Iran.
Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.
It's a very busy night of breaking news in the presidential race, including new information on the timetable for Vice President Kamala Harris to reveal her vice presidential pick. Our correspondents are standing by covering the Harris and Trump campaigns and the White House.
First, let's go to CNN's Jeff Zeleny. Jeff, tell us what you're learning about the search for Harris' running mate.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we're learning tonight that Vice President Harris is less than two weeks away from picking a vice presidential candidate of her own. This is a very accelerated and truncated process. Of course, she is just on the verge of becoming the nominee herself. There's no opposition to her inside the Democratic Party, but we do know that the vetting has begun. A team of lawyers, we are told, are looking into the finances, the voting records, the public statements, and social media and the like in family histories and backgrounds of several candidates with the idea of having a candidate for the vice president to announce in less than two weeks' time.
The list of contenders, we are told, include North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who has a long relationship with the vice president, they served together as attorney general, also Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Now, both of these two men have been elected statewide in their respective states, Cooper six times, Shapiro three times in Pennsylvania. Of course, both of these are battleground states.
We also believe that Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona is also said to be on the short list. The Democratic lawyers are also looking at his background. Of course, he's a NASA astronaut, has a military career of his own.
The list also includes Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and I'm told Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Of course, Buttigieg has already been vetted and confirmed by the Senate. He's also close to the vice president. And, of course, he ran a presidential campaign of his own. And he's a frequent spar out there on a cable television and other places. He has traveled around the country extensively. So, the vice president is looking at him as well.
But, Wolf, all of this is coming as she is going to reach one of the biggest decisions she will make in her young candidacy. I'm told that pollsters are also sort of sizing up how each of these candidates would work with her in hypothetical matchups in these battleground states. I'm told that Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, is also playing a role as an unofficial adviser, as he does on every big decision.
So, Wolf, taken together, what this means is that she'll be making a phone call almost four years to the day that she received that phone call from Joe Biden. She was asked to be his running mate back on August 11th, 2020. She'll be making that call, I'm told, before August 7th of 2024.
BLITZER: And all this, Jeff, comes as Democrats have now officially approved the rules for a likely Harris nomination. Tell us about that.
ZELENY: Yes, Wolf. She's going to be formally nominated before the Chicago Convention begins. Just earlier today, a few hours ago, the Democratic National Committee, Rules Committee, has voted so that they will begin the virtual roll call nomination process after August 1st. It will be concluded by August 7th.
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What that means is that the 4,000 or so delegates will be voting virtually on who the nominee will be. Of course, she is the only person in contention right now for that. So, she will almost certainly be voted to be the nominee. The question is, will her running mate be announced at that time? It's looking now it will be at least by the end the voting. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right. Jeff, stand by. I want to go to CNN's M.J. Lee. She's over at the White House for us. M.J., President Biden is about, what, two hours or so away from speaking to the nation about his decision to exit the presidential race. What do we know about his remarks?
M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there's no question that this is about to be one of the most defining speeches of President Biden's career. We know that he is going to elaborate on his decision to drop out of the 2024 race and also set forth his agenda for the remaining months of his time in office. This is a speech, Wolf, that the president began drafting while he was still isolating in Rehoboth, and I am told that he has been working on this throughout the day here at the White House with his top advisers and speech writers. And as is expected with many of his major speeches, it is likely that he will be putting the final touches on this speech until the final moments before he begins those remarks from the Oval Office.
But, Wolf, as we tonight see the president beginning the final chapter of his political career, we are also seeing on vivid display Vice President Kamala Harris starting a new chapter. She has, in just a matter of days, with really extraordinary speed, gotten the party to really coalesce behind her candidacy, and earlier today, speaking to an audience full of black women in Indianapolis. She made clear that she sees them as being critical to the outcome of the 2024 election, just as they were back in 2020. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Your leadership continued in 2020 when during the height of a pandemic. You helped elect Joe Biden president of the United States and me as the first woman vice president of the United States. And I thank you.
And now, in this moment, our nation needs your leadership once again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: And, Wolf, as we await the president's remarks, we should note, we certainly expect that the president is going to be spending a good amount of energy thinking about what he would like the Biden legacy to be. But as sources have told us, his decision to drop out of the race was only a few days ago and we are told that those discussions have not yet taken place in earnest. Wolf?
BLITZER: M.J. Lee, thank you very much. We'll get back to you.
I want to go to CNN's Kristen Holmes right now. She's at the Trump rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kristen, this is the former president's first rally since the latest and biggest jolt in the presidential race. What can we expect?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Wolf, we just got a glimpse of what this rally is going to look like. For the first time in all of the rallies I have been to, they played a video on the Jumbotron behind me featuring Kamala Harris, painting her as a radical liberal, going through things that she said when she was running for president just several years ago, trying to highlight those various policies. Again, this is obviously a brand new video.
And we expect to hear Donald Trump really shaping. His attacks on Kamala Harris tonight, he often uses these rallies to feed off the crowd to try different messaging, and that's what we believe we'll see later.
Now, on social media, he has been ranting against her, calling her things, like dumb as rocks, but on a call with reporters yesterday, Wolf, he was much more tailored in his messaging, trying to paint her as having a very liberal record, going back to her time as a prosecutor in California, talking about the fact that she, as the second in command, was in charge, or at least part in charge of those policies that are unpopular when it comes to President Joe Biden, like immigration, like crime, like inflation. That is what his team wants him to focus on. That is what they want all Republicans to be focused on is her record and tying her to Joe Biden and Joe Biden's policies.
Remember, Wolf, we are really in a race right now to define Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is part of that. They believe there is an education gap that people don't know a lot about Harris and they want to use that void in the next several days, weeks, to fill it with negative information around Kamala Harris to be the ones who define Harris instead of Harris being able to define herself.
BLITZER: Yes, important point. Kristen Holmes, M.J. Lee, Jeff Zeleny, to all of you, thank you very much.
I want to bring in our team of political experts. They are real experts. David Chalian, you're our political director. When we take a look at some of the top potential Democratic vice presidential picks, and we'll put their pictures and names up on the screen, you can see it there, what is Harris weighing in terms of how these potential picks potentially could impact the election?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, it looks like she's weighing a white guy, just looking at the pictures across there, in terms of her counterpart on the ticket, Wolf.
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Listen, I think we spent a lot of time in the press talking about veepstakes and the vice presidential speculation. It's not entirely clear to me that it has that much impact on the final electoral outcome.
She knows, since she's in the role, that nothing matters more than finding someone who, if in the position, could step immediately into the presidency, somebody who can be a governing partner for her. But, obviously, there are political calculations, looking at the Arizona senator, Mark Kelly, and the North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, two states that are in that Sun Belt tier of battleground states that the Harris team would love to put firmly in play because they had sort of drifted away with Joe Biden atop of the ticket. And one of the things that Jen O'Malley Dillon, the campaign chair, said in her memo today was that they believe that Harris has the ability to take some of those battleground states that seem to be sort of moving out of reach for Biden and actually bring them back onto the map in full competitive state.
BLITZER: And we'll see how that works out. Kaitlan Collins is with us. You had a chance to speak with one of the contenders for the vice presidential nomination. We're talking about the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, and he told you he's interested. What stood out to you?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And this is an interview where I should note before you listen to something he said, he wasn't appearing in his capacity as the transportation secretary, that's why he was allowed to kind of delve into politics, which he did in a full- throated way. And I also think, you know, when we've been watching the veepstakes play out anywhere, they're playing out on cable news. We are watching it every morning and every evening, as these candidates and the people that you see there on the screen are appearing on television. And you can tell very clearly that they are kind of making the case of why they would be the best governing partner for her, but also on the campaign trail, how they could effectively prosecute the case, not just against Donald Trump, but also against his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance.
And listen to what Buttigieg said last night when I asked him about something that Vance had said, where he mentioned Pete Buttigieg.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey. He couldn't have known that, but maybe that's why you shouldn't be talking about other people's children. And it's not about his kids or my kids or the vice president's family. It's about your family, people's families whose wellbeing will depend on whether we go into a future led by somebody like Kamala Harris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Now, that was in response to a clip that has resurfaced from 2021 of Senator Vance on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, referring to childless cat ladies who are running the government and essentially arguing that people who don't have children should not be in positions of power because they don't have a vested interest in the stake of the country going forward.
It's a comment that a lot of people, certainly Vance's critics, have resurfaced to show essentially what he has been arguing. Obviously, it was not true of Pete Buttigieg. He has two children, which I noted in that interview.
But I think what that moment also says is what they are looking for, someone who is going to go toe to toe with Senator Vance on that debate stage when that happens, and looking at that aspect of how they're doing this. That's why you're seeing all of these candidates, almost with the exception of hardly anyone, Roy Cooper maybe has been a little quieter going out on T.V. and Josh Shapiro, and kind of making their case for why they should be on the ticket with her. CHALIAN: We should note also, J.D. Vance is not resurfacing those comments right now. He hasn't employed that language as a running mate to Donald Trump obviously, both whoever Kamala Harris picks and JD Vance are going to have everything they've said totally excavated for the purposes of this political election season.
BLITZER: There's videotape of all of those comments, so we'll see what happens.
Bakari Sellers is with us. Which of the top contenders, Bakari, stands out to you as a real potential asset to Harris? Which of the top contenders stands out to you as a real major vote getter?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, well, if I think everybody was correct and I would just want to hone in on something that David Chalian said. At the end of the day, those people who know Kamala Harris and who are in her circle will give her a list of names and she and Dougie will make a decision, that that is the way this is going to work. She's going to choose somebody that she really loves and adores. And I would say that the person who probably fits that category best is Roy Cooper, somebody she has a great relationship with, somebody she's known since he was attorney general.
For me, I actually like Mark Kelly a lot. I think Mark Kelly's just resume, being a fighter pilot, being in the United States Senate, being an astronaut, married to Gabby Giffords, you get a lot of different attributes from Mark Kelly. But I firmly believe that Shapiro, Kelly, Cooper or probably where this race will end up for V.P. And we'll see what happens.
I know Mayor Pete is one of our best communicators. I've been telling people since, you know, Joe Biden was in the race. It feels like months ago or years ago, but it was actually just Sunday, I guess, that Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg were our best communicators.
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I do believe he'll have a role in the campaign, but there are some factors in play in terms of who can bring you a state, who can go out there and debate J.D. Vance, who adds to the ticket. And while I love Pete tremendously, I do think Mark Kelly and Shapiro and Cooper probably do those things slightly better, but we'll see.
I mean, all in all Kamala Harris has the Avengers. If you imagine being able to put Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, Mark Kelly, Josh Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg all out on the campaign trail and deploy them with everything you have, I mean, that is an amazing opportunity for somebody running for president of the United States, something where Donald Trump just has, I don't know, Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan.
BLITZER: Well, we'll see how all that unfolds.
Scott Jennings, do you see any of these potential running mates as being the strongest pick for the Democrats?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think Shapiro would be the right choice, especially today, and I hope whoever she picks shows more leadership as a vice presidential candidate than she showed as the actual vice president today, leaving Washington, abdicating her responsibility to preside over the Senate, while we have terrorist sympathizers running wild in Washington, burning the American flag, hoisting the flag of terrorist organizations that are currently holding Americans hostage.
I'll tell you, she could show me something and show the American people some leadership here by picking Shapiro. I already know there are Democrats that don't want her to pick Shapiro because he's Jewish, let's be honest about it, but he would put Pennsylvania back in play, he would put Pennsylvania back in play, and it would be a signal, it would be a signal to the progressive left in this country, that our political parties are not going to put up with this garbage that we saw on the streets of Washington D.C. today.
BLITZER: David Chalian --
SELLERS: That's not true though.
BLITZER: Let me let Bakari -- go ahead, Bakari.
SELLERS: I just have to -- like I have to call it where it is. That's simply not true. And if anybody looks at Kamala Harris's record, particularly when she was a United States senator and vice president. And, by the way, this is the first time in American history we've had a full-throated, truly Zionist president and Joe Biden when she was --
JENNINGS: Where was she today, Bakari? Where was she? Where was she today?
SELLERS: So. I just -- and she's going to meet with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. And that's not a question. And her loyalty to Israel is not a question.
And so the red meat just has to completely stop. What you're saying is not accurate. There is no space.
JENNINGS: She was not there. It is accurate.
SELLERS: But what I would prefer, what I would prefer, is if Israel did not become this partisan issue. Israel is an American value. And I wish that we got back to the place where Israel was a non-partisan issue. That's the same thing I'm telling Kamala Harris, and Kamala Harris knows that as well.
And, by the way, Scott, every single day she sleeps beside a man who is actually Jewish. And so do not question her loyalty to the state of Israel. That is beyond the pale, and what you're saying is not accurate. And I just have to clarify that.
JENNINGS: She was not there today, Bakari. She was at a sorority thing. She was not doing her job today while this happened. And (INAUDIBLE).
SELLERS: It's not a sorority thing. It's not a sorority thing. Those are black women and this was on the schedule. All right, I would also say, Scott --
BLITZER: Hold on for a moment. The former president is speaking right now. I want to listen in, hear what he has to say.
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- poll and down by a lot so he quit. But, really, what happened was the leaders of the Democrat Party, in a very undemocratic move, the bosses, they said, either you get out or we're going to throw you out using the 25th Amendment. That's what happened. You know that.
So, well, you know that that's what happens. That's what happens. These are nasty people, the Democrats. So, we better beat them or we're not going to have a country left. You're not going to have a country left. So, now we have a new victim to defeat, Lyin' Kamala Harris, Lyin', L-Y-I-N apostrophe, the most incompetent and far left vice president in American history. By the way, they did a poll. She was rated the worst vice president in history. I've never seen that poll before, but that's the poll.
Together, we will win North Carolina in an epic landslide. We're way ahead in the polls. And we will take back that beautiful White House, and we will very simply make America great again.
For three and a half years, Lyin' Kamala Harris has been the ultra liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe. She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets the chance to get into office.
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We're not going to let that happen.
You know, I was supposed to be nice. They say something happened to me when I got shot. I became nice. And when you're dealing with these people, they're very dangerous people, when you're dealing with them, you can't be too nice. You really can't be. So, if you don't mind, I'm not going to be nice. Is that okay? I'm not. I'm not going to be nice.
Thank you.
Kamala Harris is the most liberal elected politician in American history. Did you know that? She's an ultra liberal politician. She's absolutely terrible. She's, as you know, more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Can you believe it? She's rated far more liberal than Bernie Sanders. And she's now trying to get rid of her record, but she can't. She's going out and saying things that she doesn't believe. And if she ever got in, she'd destroy this country so fast.
So, she was the border czar, but she never went to the border, right? She never -- she was appointed by this horrible president, this horrible guy. How this guy got to be president in his basement? He stayed in his basement. And we did a lot better the second time that we did the first how this guy got to be president, what they've done to this country in three and a half years and we're going to turn it around. But what they've done to our country is unthinkable. As border czar, Kamala threw open our borders and allowed 20 million illegal aliens to stampede into our country from all over the world. As vice president, she cast the tie breaking votes that created the worst inflation in a half a century, decimating middle class families and hurting very badly, as you know, all people in North Carolina.
And, by the way, Lara says, hello, Lara. Do we love Lara? How good is Lara? She has done a tremendous job. You know, I'm saying it now because if I forget it later on, they'll say he's cognitively challenged. I don't want to be cognitively -- no, but I want to thank her because she's unbelievable. She loves it. I'll introduce Michael in a couple of minutes, but I want to remember to introduce Lara.
She's been a fantastic daughter-in-law and wife to Eric. And she happened to name her one beautiful daughter, you know what, Carolina. I said, which one? Which Carolina? And she said, well, North, of course. No. Let's call them both. Do you mind if I call them both? They've both been great, frankly.
And when Kamala Harris was sent to Europe to deter Russia, what a joke that was, from attacking Ukraine, how did that work out? Russia answered by launching the invasion just five days after she left. Putin laughed at her like she was nothing. She is nothing. She's so bad for us.
Everything Kamala touches turns into a total disaster. She's destroyed San Francisco with the policies. Check out San Francisco. 20 years ago, it was the greatest city in our country. Today, it's not a livable city. She'll destroy our country if she's elected. So, we won't let her be elected. We can't let that happen.
Unbelievably, despite all of the damage she's caused, radical liberal Kamala Harris now wants -- she wants a promotion to deliver four more years of chaos. We've had the worst four years. You know, I say about Biden, if you took the ten worst presidents in the history of our country, added them up, they won't have done the damage that Crooked Joe Biden has done.
But this November, the American people are going to tell her, no, thanks, Kamala. You've done a terrible job. You've been terrible at everything you've done. You're ultra liberal, that we don't want you here. We don't want you anywhere. Kamala, you're fired. Get out of here. You're fired.
[18:25:00]
And yet the fake news, which a month ago said she was incompetent, said she was a stiff, just a dopey stiff, the worst, nobody talked to her, she was firing her staff, left and right, the staff hates her. Oh, wait until you see the stories that are going to come out about her staff. If that were me, they'd be all over the place. But the fake news tries to cover her up. But wait until you see, she was the worst with the staff of anybody.
But the fake news is talking about Lyin' Kamala as if she's the savior of our country, that she's so brave -- I've never seen a turnaround like this. Three weeks ago, four weeks ago, she was the worst politician in America. Now, they say, isn't it amazing? Look at her. She's so beautiful. She's so magnificent. She has a crowd of 1,000 people the other day. And the fake news, and they worked hard to get that crowd, we have crowds of 25, 30, 40, 60, 70,000 people.
And the fake news said, oh, her crowd was amazing. It was amazing. You see it? The other day, she had maybe a thousand people, I doubt it. They worked their asses off to get those people to go, and I wonder what they gave up. They said, oh, this is such a big crowd. She's got such momentum. I don't think she's going to have a lot of momentum after this speech because I'm telling you about her, right? We're telling you the facts. I'm just giving you the facts. But they said it was such a big crowd, such a beautiful crowd, they never mention our crowds, like this crowd. Look at this crowd.
You can multiply her crowds times 20 and 30 and she wouldn't get what we get, 107,000 people recently in New Jersey. We might win New Jersey. We're up in New Jersey. 82,000 in South Carolina, 82. And, by the way, we would have had a number here that would have been through the roof, but, you know, we are confined as beautiful as this arena is. I just met the owner. He said, it's an all-time record because you know, they have basketball hockey, but with basketball, hockey, you can't fill up the floors, right? So, we set the all-time record. And he's a very nice gentleman, great family. We set the all-time record. And if this thing were twice as large, it would be filled up with the people outside.
68,000 people in the great state of Alabama, 68, 000. And then we did one in the South Bronx and that can be a rough place. But we did one and it was like a love fest. This was an amazing thing. We had 25,000 people in the South Bronx, amazing.
And if I ever had a crowd like Kamala, assuming she had 2,000 people, assuming, which I don't think she did, but if I ever had a crowd, they'd do headline stories, Trump is over. It's all over. It's not working for him anymore. They never mentioned the crowd. I tell those -- look at all those cameras back there. Look. And I always say, but they never do it. Turn the cameras around to show them the crowd, but they never do it. They never do it. They never want to do it. They just don't want to.
They don't want to do it. I don't know why. Even the semi-friendly camera, they don't turn. You know, I used to think it was a physical thing with the camera, you know, the steel, you can't turn, you can't turn. And in 2015, it started right from the beginning, these big crowds. But now I'd have to tell you, there's more spirit now. We won in 2016. We did much better in 2020, but it was rigged. It was rigged.
[18:30:00]
But this is bigger than 2020. This is bigger than 2016. And I think the reason is you like me a lot, but you know what you really like? When you look at the incompetent administration that we have with inflation, with the Afghanistan, with all of the things they've done wrong, everything, the border, the border czar, the border czar, when you look at how bad they are, you say, you know, I like Trump, but now I really like Trump because we don't want to go back. front row Joes, front row Joes.
You know, front row Joes, they've been to 201. I hate to tell you that, North Carolina. They beat you 201 and they were to a rough one last week. That was a rough one. I saw them. They were sitting in the front row and things were happening that weren't too nice, right? Amazing, right? But they were there. They were there and they didn't move. You know, amazing, nobody moved. When a bullet goes off, this freak thing, but a bullet goes off, crowds always run. They run. They call it a stampede. Nobody ran. And we had 55,000 people. Nobody ran.
You could see the small group we had behind. And no, you could see the group behind because the camera was on. We had a tremendous, you know, like hundreds of people from the press. We had cameras going on. And you could see behind me. They weren't -- there was -- they were like this. How about the guy right behind me in the black with the green hat, that he's looking like this. That guy was -- I want to meet him, but they had a lot of guys like that back there. But did you see him?
They've only played that clip about 5,000 times. They see it every day. It's over and over. But you see how brave, normally when something like that happens, everybody but Richard will leave, Richard will stay. He's a tough cookie. But, no, everybody scrambles, they run, nobody ran. Same thing with the group out front, the group out front was the big group. Thousands and thousands of people, nobody left. They just stood there watching, because they saw that I was in trouble.
Either I was in trouble or something was happening because I had a lot of blood on my hand. I checked out. I said, Oh, yes. What's this? But, no, they saw that. And when I went down, they saw that and nobody left. It was like the whole thing is like a big love fest. Let's face it. It's a whole big. It's amazing. We love you, man. We love you. We love you. We love you. That was a horrible thing. That was a rough thing.
And say what you want, the Secret Service, the ones on the day, as these guys right here, the tough cookies, they ran. Bullets were flying. Bullets were flying and they were running right at me. And it was a rough horrible, horrible time. And they said, sir, we have a stretcher for you. I said, you're not putting me -- I'm not getting on a stretcher. They had a stretcher. I said, that's not going to look very good if I get carried out on a stretcher. Hello, everybody. Thank you, everybody. I said I'm not getting -- where are my shoes? My shoes got knocked off. They tackled me so damn hard.
But it was a terrible thing in so many ways. And, as you know, we lost somebody who is fantastic, Corey, fantastic. His family is fantastic. And two other great people, these are great people, I got to know their families a little bit. And, you know, the public has really been generous to them, too. They opened up their hearts to -- I won't even tell you, the numbers are so incredible. But they opened up their hearts to the three of them. And these two were hurt very badly, but they're both now in pretty good shape. They'll soon be in very good shape.
But I just looked down here at front row Joes and it just reminded me of that incident a week-and-a-half ago, right? You were right there watching it. You saw it. And you guys, by the way, weren't moving either. I saw you, you didn't move. You were just -- they were standing just like they're standing right now. They were standing. They're great. They're great. And sad -- such a distressed, sick world, but, you know, it could be caused when they call you a threat to democracy. You never know what causes it. I'm a threat to them. They're a threat to democracy. They're a threat to our country, period.
[18:35:00]
But that was some time we had. That was some -- that was some rough time. But it was incredible. The people I got to know through that, I got to know some unbelievable and really brave people. But the next time they show that clip, which will be as soon as you get home, they'll show it about 30 times, they show it every day over and over. But watch the people behind. They always stampede. If a bullet goes off or something happens at a soccer stadium or a stadium, and we had more people than most of those stadiums would have, everyone runs. Nobody ran. They stayed. And you have to look, the one guy, it just was so -- he just was so angry. He's looking. I got to meet him. There's something about brave people that I love, right, people that love our country. He's out there.
No, they're great people. And we had a great convention. We had a great convention. We had a convention that broke all television ratings. How good was the Hulkster, right, Hulk? And Kid Rock called. He wanted to be a part. He was fantastic.
BLITZER: All right, the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, speaking in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is his first public campaign event since President Biden decided to leave the 2024 presidential race, and his first since Vice President Kamala Harris has become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
We're back with our political experts who are joining us. David Chalian and Kaitlan Collins are here with us.
This was vintage Trump, I think it's fair to say, David, don't you think? And he said specifically near the top, I'm not going to be nice anymore, as if he were ever nice, but I'm not going to be nice, and he wasn't nice in this speech.
CHALIAN: Well, it was really clear that what Donald Trump wanted to do in North Carolina tonight was to seize back the narrative. He understands that he has not been controlling the state of play for the last several days. You had the historic announcement from Joe Biden on Sunday that he was stepping down, his endorsement of Harris, Harris coalescing the Democratic Party around her bid for the presidency, and that just was consuming all the oxygen. We know Donald Trump is not a big fan when other people are consuming the oxygen because it means he's not dictating the state of play.
So, the goal here, and I think he just tipped his hand off the top, was to get that back and start laying out how he plans to run against Harris, certainly by looking at her record of policy proposals from back in the day, but also obviously, as he and his allies have indicated her assignment by President Biden in this administration to be involved with some of the root causes of the immigration problem is clearly going to be something they keep going at her with front and center, given how important the immigration issue is.
And I just thought when you said vintage Trump, I mean, he was actually referencing his lines from 2015. That's how it was vintage Trump because he was like, remember, I used to say all the time about the cameras in the back of the room and they don't turn around and show the crowd, he was ticking through his crowd size. I mean, that is vintage Donald Trump wanting to focus on things that are not pertinent necessarily to the run, but make him feel better and try and give this sense of, don't be buying into that Harris momentum. We've got the crowds here. That was his mission tonight.
COLLINS: Two things that stood out to me, one, he's trying out his lines of attack on Harris. What the next 105 days or so are going to look like for his campaign. And as he's shifting to a new challenger, and he had had everything prepared against President Biden, he kind of had it memorized in his sleep, essentially. This is new ground for him.
And this is what actually how Donald Trump typically goes through, you know, what he's going to use against someone, he did it in the 2016 primary, he did it in the 2016 election in 2020, is he'll try out lines at the crowd at his rallies and see what gets the most audience reaction and appeal and applause. And that is something that he'll adopt. And you'll start to see more of. He's been going crazy on social media against Harris ever since it was very clear that she is going to be the one challenging him this November. So, expect to see more of that.
Also, he's mispronouncing her name multiple times. That is something we've seen a lot of Republicans do who do know how to pronounce the vice president's name.
The other thing that stood out to me, though, Wolf, was I don't think that we have seen Donald Trump connect his attempted assassination, which he was just recounting right there, to when people and Democrats and his political opponents often say he's a threat to democracy. Now, he himself has said that about President Biden, trying to turn the tables around on him. We've seen his allies connected to that. I think this is the first time that we have seen Donald Trump try to draw a line between that rhetoric and his attempted assassination, even though, I should note, the FBI itself has not done that.
BLITZER: Yes, it's an important point.
CHALIAN: And we should also just note that at the convention, he talked about how painful the attempted assassination event was, and that this would be the last time that he would tell this story, because it was too painful to tell.
[18:40:05]
So, he walked through that whole top of the convention speech about the assassination attempt, and yet here he is at a rally, revisiting the moment, not in the exact same storytelling of just what happened to him, but talking about what the crowd was doing and what the people behind him on stage were doing.
So, it doesn't seem that he's walling that off as something beyond the convention that he'll be talking about going forward.
BLITZER: And he referred to Kamala Harris as the most liberal vice president in American history, ultra liberal, at one point, he said, and then when he said, I'm not going to be nice, he called her a radical left fanatic or lunatic, trying to read my handwriting over here, but she's Lyin' Kamala Harris. That's what he kept saying, Lyin' Kamala Harris.
Daniel Dale, our fact checker, is with us as well. You were listening very closely, as you always do, Daniel. What in Trump's remarks stood out to you?
DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: So there are a bunch of subjective claims. I can't fact check claims that, you know, she's liberal or extreme or so on, but there were a few claims that were flat out wrong.
So, he said, she was the border czar, but she never went to the border. First of all, she did go to the border. She went to the border in Texas in mid-2021. Republicans before that had complained that she had not gone, but Trump has just continued to say she never went, even though she did go. And second, and more substantially, she was never actually border czar. She got an assignment from President Biden to help lead the -- sorry, to lead the diplomatic efforts related to the so-called root causes of migration in three countries, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Now, some on the right get angry at fact checks like this because they say, look at all these media articles from back then in 2021 that said she was put in charge of the border or she was border czar. Well, those articles did not get it right, frankly, and her assignment was much more limited.
Former President Trump also said that Harris let in 20 million illegal immigrants across the border, aside from the fact that, again, she was not in charge of border security itself. That number is way too high. The number of so-called border encounters under Biden is about 10 million. Not all those people actually entered. Many of them were expelled. And even if you add so called gotaways, people who evaded border authorities, maybe a couple million more, that doesn't get you close to 20 million.
And then third of all, much less importantly, but Classic Donald Trump, crowd size. He said Harris may have had a crowd of 1,000, I doubt it. Then he said maybe it was 2,000. At this rally in Wisconsin yesterday, she had a capacity crowd of more than 3,000. So, he perpetually inflates his own and I guess deflates his opponent's crowds as well.
BLITZER: Yes, he wants to make sure that he has the biggest crowds ever. He keeps saying that, indeed.
Daniel Dale, our fact checker, always good to hear from you after these Trump speeches.
I want to get some other breaking news right now. The White House just released. President Biden's Oval Office address later tonight, where he'll speak directly to the American people and indeed to the world about his decision to end his re election campaign.
I want to go to our Senior White House Correspondent, M.J. Lee. So what are you learning, M.J.?
LEE: Yes, Wolf, we have just received the first excerpts of the president's speech that we expect to hear at 8:00 tonight, so I'll just get right to it. The president will clearly try to make clear that his decision to drop out of the 2024 race was about thinking about the country by saying this, the defense of democracy is more important than any title.
I draw strength from that. And find joy in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me. It's about you, your families, your futures. It's about we, the people. And also, Wolf, the president, who you'll recall back in 2020, had run promising to be the bridge candidate, the transition candidate, will also say this tonight. I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That is the best way to unite our nation.
And based on additional excerpts that we have seen, and as we have been reporting, Wolf, the president is going to talk about his agenda for the coming months that he has left of his first term, talking about the economy, talking about reproductive rights and civil rights. And we know, Wolf, as we've talked about so much, that the president does see Donald Trump as an existential threat to the country, and that he sees this moment that we are currently in as an inflection point that he will say to that point that in America, kings and dictators do not rule, the people do, and he'll tell the American people history is in your hands. Wolf?
BLITZER: M.J. Lee reporting from the White House for us with those excerpts from the speech later tonight. We'll of course have live coverage of that coming up later tonight. M.J. Lee, thank you very much.
And we'll be right back with more news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:48:42]
BLITZER: All right. Let's get reaction to the breaking news in the presidential race, Donald Trump giving us a taste tonight of his attack strategy against his new opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Joining us now from Atlanta, the former Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who's now a senior adviser to the Harris campaign.
Mayor, thank you so much for joining us.
Trump, as you heard, just held his first rally since President Biden stepped aside. I want to play at least part of what he said about Vice President Kamala Harris. Watch and listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kamala Harris is the most liberal elected politician in American history. Did you know that? She's an ultra liberal politician. She's absolutely terrible.
She's, as you know, more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Can you believe it? She's rated far more liberal than Bernie Sanders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: This is clearly, Mayor, a key part of the race where Vice President Harris needs to define herself. Does she need to go further and not let Trump do this for herself?
KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS, SENIOR ADVISER TO HARRIS CAMPAIGN: You know, Wolf, the vice president has an incredible record to stand on, she has been a part of an administration that really will go down in history as one of the most successful administrations in America.
[18:50:01]
When you look at what we've been able to accomplish, whether it's capping insulin cost, record low unemployment.
Also, the money that's flowed into communities through the Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the list goes on.
So, there's a very strong record to stand on, but also even before becoming vice president, we know who Kamala Harris is and was. She was a senator with an incredible amount of foreign policy experience as vice president. She was the attorney general of California, a district attorney. So this is a woman who's very accomplished and all of these personal insults from J.D. Vance and from Donald Trump, or really the best that they have to give.
And I know that as the American people continue to focus on the issues and what's really important to people, these insults will continue to be as childish as they are. And people will really see the difference in the candidates and what we had to choose from in November.
BLITZER: In our new CNN poll that was released today, Harris's numbers have improved with many of the key demographic groups, compare to the numbers that Biden had. But she's still down with many of them compared to Biden's margins in the 2020 exit polls. Can she win without dramatically further improving these numbers? BOTTOMS: We are going to have to continue to improve in every single area, that's not a surprise. The vice president had said that she's not taking anything for granted. She wants to earn this nomination, which she has, and it will be, of course, confirmed very soon that she is our nominee.
And then she will continue to take her case that directly to the American people. What we know is that in all of the polls that we're seeing, there's a couple of points difference within the margin of error of at least from most of the polls than I have seen.
And we've not even had our convention yet. So, we know there's going to be a significant bump in the convention once we get to Chicago and as she continues to go out and show people who she is as a nominee, as our nominee, then I know that more and more people will come out with they are support in terms of what you'll see in this polling.
BLITZER: The former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, thanks very much for joining us.
BOTTOMS: Thank you for having me.
BLITZER: And we're back with our political experts right now.
Bakari Sellers, first to you, President Biden will address the nation just over an hour or so from now. Here's part of what he will say and I'm quoting now from the speech that the -- excerpt from speech that was released by the White House. The defense of democracy is more important than any title. I draw strength and find joy in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me. It's about you, your families, your futures. It's about "We The People".
What's your reaction, Bakari?
SELLERS: You know, one of the things that Democrats weren't able to do for a long period of time was center the voter, one, and center the future.
And I think by Joe Biden doing this extremely patriotic act of stepping aside that is what he's doing. He centering, and listen, I think even Scott or the most robust MAGA voter would tell you that there's not much centering of anyone else outside of Donald Trump to Donald Trump, but in this particular case, Joe Biden is showing the difference, and Kamala Harris is showing the difference, because you don't have to resort to mispronouncing someone's name, just tweeted and actually texted Jason Miller to explain to him how to pronounce Kamala.
Like you don't have to go to the depths of hell and disrespect with individuals to talk about what this country should be.
And I think this speech tonight is going to be about the simple fact that Joe Biden did not believe it was in the best interest of democracy for him to lead. And so whether or not you're Democrat or Republican, whether or not you agree or disagree, you have to believe that he was putting someone else first. He was putting this country first, and that's what he believes. He's putting the future first. And that's what he believes. So tonight should be a special night for the country.
BLITZER: Scott Jennings, this will be a historic moment in American history. And from your perspective, how could what we hear from the president later tonight in his Oval Office address to the nation impact Kamala Harris.
JENNINGS: Well, I think two things. One, we need to hear him describe exactly why he left the race. I see some of the excerpts coming out, but it wasn't really clear over the weekend why he was departing. I think he needs to tell the American people that he's well enough to continue in his job and perform the duties of commander in chief for the remainder of his term.
Number two, I'd like to hear him describe how exactly it is he succumbed to this pressure campaign over the weekend to get rid of them. He did when 14 million votes. And I want to hear him describe how it was that, you know, he was steadfastly saying he was going to stay in the race and then, all of a sudden, this pressure campaign organized by the elites and the rich people convinced him otherwise.
[18:55:06]
How this affects Kamala Harris? Well, obviously he's endorsing her and he's going to continue to do that but how he describes his own administration, what they've done, and, you know, how they've performed, which is not really held in high esteem by the American people right now, could have an impact on her.
All these Democrats keeps saying he's had the most successful administration of all time when 65 percent of the American people think they've failed. I think how he continues to describe that want to put his imprint on this campaign could actually drag her down.
BLITZER: Bakari, do you think what we here at a later tonight from President Biden could bring Americans together?
SELLERS: Wolf, you always ask the best questions. I would have to say, I hope so. I recall a moment when this country was able to come together over just common decency and I'm not sure were at that point now.
Just ten days ago, I believe or so we had a president of the United States or former president, we had the leading contender or the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, have an attempted assassination. And so, you know, my heart breaks for Trump, my heart breaks for his family, my heart breaks for just him having to go through that level of trauma and all of those individuals that were there.
I'm not sure though, Wolf, with a good question you asked and we've actually learned the lesson and that's my fear. That's my heart palpitations, because I believe that as much as we want to bring ourselves together, hopefully tonight will do that. But I don't have much faith that's going to be the case.
BLITZER: Let's see how it unfolds. Bakari Sellers, Scott Jennings, thanks to both of you.
Meanwhile, here in Washington, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just gave a fiery speech in front of the U.S. Congress deeply divided over the war in Gaza. That speech earlier today.
Our chief national security correspondent, Alex Marquardt, is joining us right now.
Alex, as you know, there was a lot of speculation about how partisan this speech would be like his speech back in 2015 at Congress.
What happened today?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, and that's because that speech nine years ago was quite bombastic and the Obama-Biden administration was furious afterwards. This time it was not nearly as partisan. There's a lot of thanks for the U.S. for their support of Israel, particularly during this war in Gaza. There was a lot of thanks for both President Biden and President Trump.
He spent a lot of time Netanyahu did speaking about the hostages and bringing them home. Critics of Netanyahu said that he's not doing nearly enough to bring them home. In fact, that he's delaying it.
I have just learned, Wolf, from a source that there are talks about getting negotiations, backup the running early next week with the top mediators, including the CIA Director Bill Burns.
Now as Netanyahu was speaking, protests were raging on the streets of Washington seeing these anti-Israel protests for months. Netanyahu painted these anti-Israel protesters as supporters of Hamas and pawns of Iran. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers. You have officially become Iran's useful idiots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: Useful idiots. That's going to be one of the frame raises remembered from this speech. Now he is referencing newly released U.S. intelligence that says that Iran has been fomenting and financing some of these anti-Israel protests here in the U.S. but that intelligence, notably, Wolf, goes on to say that American to participate in these protests are in good faith, expressing their views on the conflict in Gaza.
Now, Netanyahu also pushed back on the civilian death toll and the lack of aid for Palestinians in Gaza. Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NETANYAHU: Despite, all the lies you've heard, the war in Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatants to non-combatants casualties in the history of urban warfare.
If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren't getting enough food, it's not because Israel is blocking it. It's because Hamas is stealing it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: Now, Wolf, a bit of a fact check there. The death toll in Gaza is believed to be close to 40,000, even if we take out the number of Hamas militants, Israel has argued that they have killed some 14,000. The civilian death toll is still more than 1 percent of the overall population of Gaza, likely higher. That is shockingly high, Wolf.
As far as the aid goes, U.S. officials continue to argue that it is Israel's military operation that makes it very difficult for the aid to be distributed and has caused a breakdown in the security in the Gaza Strip -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Yeah, we're going to see what happens tomorrow. The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, will be meeting with President Biden on Friday. He is going to invite it to go down to Mar-a-Lago and meet with former President Trump. We'll see what happens.
And in his speech today, he was effusive in his praise for both President Biden and he thanked former President Trump, but for the Abraham accords, for what he did for Israel when he was president of the United States.
Alex, thank you very much.
And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
