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Harris Enters Critical Week In Race To V.P. Pick And Democratic Convention; Democratic V.P. Prospects Hits The Campaign Trail As Harris' Decision Nears; Biden Unveils Supreme Court Reform Plan, No One Is Above The Law; Fears Of Wider Mideast War Grow After Attack In Golan Heights; Texas Show Law Enforcement Believed Would-Be Trump Assassin Left Rally Site Minutes Before The Shooting. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 29, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:00:19]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, Vice President Kamala Harris enters a critical week in the lead up to her V.P. announcement and the Democratic Convention. As the upended race takes shape, both Harris and Donald Trump are now sharpening their lines of attack. She's calling him plain weird and he is labeling her as a crazy liberal.

Also tonight, top contenders to be Harris's ready mate are hitting the campaign trail and the airwaves. We are tracking Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and others as the audition process intensifies.

And breaking news, President Biden just laid out his proposal for sweeping Supreme Court reform with Harris' support. We are breaking down what's in the plan and why the House speaker says it is dead on arrival.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off. I'm Pamela Brown and you're in The Situation Room

In the presidential race tonight, the newly launched Harris campaign is feeling a growing sense of urgency with the Democratic Convention just around the corner and with fewer than 100 days left to win over voters. As CNN's Kayla Tausche reports, the strategies on both sides are evolving and the attacks are flying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With 99 days until Election Day, both parties racing to sharpen their attacks.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Probably the most far left person in American history.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, RESPUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You may have noticed Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record. SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people are never going to elect a wacky, out of touch San Francisco liberal like Kamala Harris.

HARRIS: Some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it's just plain weird.

TAUSCHE: Weird and extreme, the Harris campaign now says, as it warns voters today on Trump's record on abortion rights, as a strict ban on the procedure goes into effect in Iowa.

HARRIS: One in three women of reproductive age in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban.

TAUSCHE: For Harris, a critical stretch ahead, set to clinch the official nomination as soon as this week, and name her running mate by August 7th, contenders auditioning on the stump and across the airwaves.

GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): I think we've seen over the last, well, decades that who you pick as your vice president doesn't determine whether you're going to win a state or not.

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): That is weird behavior. And I don't think you call it anything else. It is simply what we're observing.

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): He's not just afraid to debate her because he knows she's going to kick his (BLEEP) in the debate.

TAUSCHE: Trump says he'll head back to Pennsylvania as the battleground travel heats up, Harris making a renewed push in Georgia with a Tuesday visit and both campaigns holding dueling events in Nevada.

Recent polls show the race tightening. Harris beginning to close the gap with Trump as her favorability rises and the race enters into a high drama home stretch.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAUSCHE (on camera): The Harris campaign says that the vice president raked in $200 million in just the first week of her candidacy. And CNN now learns from its sources that the Harris campaign is also looking to beef up its fundraising staff to try to capitalize on that momentum. Pam?

BROWN: All right. Kayla Tausche, thanks so much. Let's get more on all of this with our political experts. And, David Chalian, it's really interesting to watch how the different messaging strategies are taking shape right now, right? You're hearing V.P. Kamala Harris sort of test drive the weird phrase, right? And that messaging has been embraced by many of her potential running mates. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: These guys are just weird. That's who they are. SHAPIRO: It's the weirdest thing. He'll go in like literally hug an American flag. Now, I love the flag, but, I mean, it's like weird what he does.

PRITZKER: I mean, on the other side, they're just weird. I mean, they really are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: It's funny when you see it kind of matched.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Talking point, exactly.

BROWN: Exactly. I mean, I was, interviewing David Hogg earlier today, and he's, you know, a younger voter, liberal. And he's using it. And he said, no, I'm just picking it up because everyone else is saying it, right? It's really catching fire.

CHALIAN: Yes, Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, I guess, said it earlier last week. By the time we got to Saturday, it made it out of the presumptive nominee's mouth. Kamala Harris had a fundraiser up in Massachusetts. And what I thought was interesting, when Tim Walz was on with Jake Tapper on State of the Union yesterday, he sort of explained, it's not that they're, Maria could speak more to this from her party, but it's not that Democrats are giving up the messaging that we heard from Biden throughout the last year that they believe Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy. It's just that that's not the only thing -- that's not the only note they want to play.

And so in addition to that scary part, you know, try to drum up business that way, there's also this a little bit more quirky, lighthearted notion of being strange or weird.

[18:05:11]

We've seen political combatants try to make their opponents sort of other and outside the norm in lots of different ways, and this is just another example of that.

BROWN: Yes. What do you think about that?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that's right. And, you know, way before this, like starting in 2015, when Donald Trump came down that escalator and was offensive and called immigrants and Mexicans rapists and criminals and all of that. And then stemming from that, I would always get comments from people it was weird, but the underlying part of the weird, which I think this kind of gets to without saying it, is that it's creepy and actually kind of scary, too, just how off-putting it is and how much it really does not resonate with people who want normalcy, who want calm, who don't want chaos.

So, I do think it's working because it does overlay with everything that we got from four years of the Trump administration, which was people would wake up, and they would wake up with heart palpitations, wondering if the republic was still standing.

And so I think this kind of feeds into that, and it does work with the additional expanded message about how much of a threat he is to everything we hold dear as values, as a democracy, as a diverse society, as a society that's trying to bring people together and expand opportunity, as opposed to take rights and freedoms away, which is what he and J.D. Vance would do.

BROWN: I want you to respond to that, but also talk about Trump's line of attack against Harris, right, to frame her as crazy liberal, even more liberal than Joe Biden. How is that playing?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, look, I think we're going to see a lot of this over the next, what, 99 days we have remaining.

BROWN: But who's counting?

SINGLETON: Who's counting, right? Weird obviously animates certain pockets of the Democratic base. But as a strategist, I think the messaging still has to centrally focus on the key issues. It has to focus on addressing cost and rising prices and inflation. It has to address immigration. It has to address the issues going on in the Middle East with Israel and Hamas. It appears that that may get worse over the next couple of weeks. Students will return back to college campuses very soon.

I'm curious to see if we'll see more protests there. What will the Democratic talking points be about that? We're looking at what's going on with Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan. So those are some very consequential issues at play here that I think Republicans and Democrats need to frankly start honing in on those specific messaging, Pamela, versus trying to excite and animate parts of their base.

BROWN: Let's go to the sound from Gretchen Whitmer. She's been on the campaign trail with Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and they disrupted this event there. They lead perhaps the two most important states for Democrats in November, and this is what she just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): J.D. Vance. Yes. He's really made his values clear lately. He does not see women as equals. He does not want everyone to have a seat at the table. He's scared of us, because Democrats, we want everyone to have a seat at the table, I mean, even cat lovers and dog lovers alike.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What did you think about that, David?

CHALIAN: She entertained herself while she was delivering the line, clearly. Listen, J.D. Vance has been playing defense for a week now and needs to find a way to get on offense here. I mean, one of the main things that a vice presidential nominee is supposed to do is sort of be the bulldog in the race, right, which is tough when you're the nominee for Donald Trump, who's not afraid to do that.

I mean, the theory of the case is that the presidential nominee wants to let some of that dirty work go to the second on the ticket. That's not the case with Donald Trump, but still J.D. Vance has not yet been able to turn and pivot to an offensive.

Now, he doesn't have an opponent yet. We're waiting for who Kamala Harris is going to put on her ticket, but, nonetheless, he has just been in this defensive crouch for a week, and he's got to find a way out of that.

BROWN: Yes, and he's been trying to almost explain it away, but it seems like that's not really working.

SINGLETON: Yes, I mean, it's interesting. I went back and looked at some of his old interviews, including when he worked for CNN, talking about his book, talking about many of his experiences growing up. If I were advising J.D. Vance, I would probably pivot more to that version of Vance. I think that connects with a lot of people beyond just white struggling working class people. There are a whole lot of people of color who understand what it's like to struggle economically, to watch family members --

CHALIAN: You mean this never Trump version of Vance?

SINGLETON: You know, David, if you want to articulate it that way. I do think it's a more palatable version to that 4 percent of swing voters in the middle in some of those crucial battleground states, like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, that the Trump campaign needs to pull over to his side in order to win in November.

[18:10:09]

CARDONA: See, this is why I believe and so many people believe that the Trump campaign is having buyer's remorse for choosing J.D. Vance, because this -- that choice, the J.D. Vance today, because this J.D. Vance that you talked about no longer exists, and the J.D. Vance of today does nothing to play addition, to bring in additional voters that he needs, the suburban women.

Governor Whitmer is absolutely right. His stances, you know, the childless cat ladies is kind of funny, offensive to many, but, you know, sort of quirky, weird, if you will. But it actually goes to the heart of what so many women find offensive about Donald Trump, MAGA, taking away abortion rights, thinking that women are second class citizens, not thinking that we're good enough to make decisions about our own bodies. That's exactly what J.D. Vance's words go to.

And he's not trying to explain them away or apologize. In fact, in a recent interview, he doubled down on those words, saying that people who don't have children are less than people who do.

CHALIAN: I mean, he's trying to make the case, he says, that what he was trying to advocate for are pro-family policies, policies that the government could put into place to incentivize sort of a traditional nuclear family. CARDONA: Traditional nuclear family, that's right.

SINGLETON: Which I think that's very important points. While Republicans are struggling with women However, vice president Harris is struggling with men.

BROWN: I mean the polls show and there's a wide gender gap.

SINGLETON: Absolutely. I mean, you look at 2016 and Donald Trump had an 11 point-advantage over Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden was able to close that gap. It was almost evenly split. Where does the vice president fall with men headed into November? You're looking at Latino men, cohort of younger black men without college degrees. The former president has continued to improve his standing with that group. There's some real work for Democrats.

BROWN: Let me ask you on that note, David Chalian. I know a V.P. pick typically doesn't move the needle not much in terms of like getting voters out on Election Day, but we are waiting for Kamala Harris to make her V.P. pick. I'm told just through a source familiar just today that there's still a wide pool of potential candidates, that there's -- they haven't whittled it down yet. We know by August 7th, that's their date that they want to have it by.

But as she goes through this process, I mean, how much should that be a factor pulling in? I mean, obviously they are all men on our list because Gretchen Whitmer took herself out of the vetting process. But tell us about that and how important that is.

CHALIAN: Well, it is -- yes, they're still looking broadly at a broad group, but I think they're looking specifically at -- yes, and it's going to narrow real fast because they want to get this piece of business done.

You know, the campaign says, and the vice president has said, what she's looking for first above everything else is a governing partner and somebody who could step into the role as president at a moment's notice if need be. Obviously, political considerations go into this as well.

I think you see that, as you noted, she's looking at a bunch of white guys, right? And so there will be some that may be like a Josh Shapiro that is specifically very popular in a critical battleground state. Others like Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, the Fox poll out on Friday shows Kamala Harris six points up over Trump there, and yet they think that maybe he could have brought appeal in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin is coming from the Midwest, seeing if you could put sort of the southern tier in play a little bit more, the Sun Belt, Arizona, looking at Mark Kelly. So, we'll see. When we learn the pick, we'll learn some of the political calculations that go in.

CARDONA: But can we also talk about what the underlying sentiment is here? And you're right, Vice President Kamala Harris does have some work to do with men. But at the end of the day, why is that? Because this is still a very sexist, misogynist, and, frankly, when it comes to the V.P., racist. So, she is going to do all of the work that's needed to reach out to them, and with all of the issues that we know are important to Americans in this country. But at the end of the day, that is still something that she's going to have to contend with.

SINGLETON: And that is a part of the process. Republicans are going to have to do it. Democrats are also going to have to do it as well.

BROWN: All right. Everyone stand by. We have more to discuss.

Just ahead, a new snapshot of how Vice President Kamala Harris is faring against Donald Trump in the crucial battleground state of Michigan. A key House member from Michigan, Representative Debbie Dingell, is standing by to talk with us.

And then later, the politics surrounding President Biden's just announced plan for sweeping reform of the U.S. Supreme Court.

You're in The Situation Room.

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[18:18:43]

BROWN: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on the campaign trail for Vice President and Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris tonight, as a new poll shows Harris improving on President Biden's performance in Whitmer's home state.

The Fox News poll finds the race between Harris and Donald Trump is now a dead heat in Michigan, widely seen as a must win battleground for Democrats and part of their blue wall in the Midwest.

We are joined now by a high profile Michigan Democrat, Representative Debbie Dingell. Thanks for your time today.

So, seeing that poll, what I just discussed, are Democrats in Michigan now playing offense or defense, in your view?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): You know, I'm going to be a realist here this weekend. I was working hard many places, farmer markets, union halls, veterans' organizations, and I did a number of canvas kickoffs and Democratic events and I was joined by Dana Nessel, our A.G., and I called myself Debbie Downer and she was Dancing Dana and that's because I know the hard work. I mean, there is a new energy. We had double the amount of volunteers we've seen at events. No question, our base is energized in a way that quite frankly weren't a few weeks ago.

On the other hand, I was in those union halls.

[18:20:00]

I was in those veterans, and a lot of the veterans know how much Joe Biden's done for them, but we got work to do. And when I tell those union members that Donald Trump and Project 2025 wants to take away overtime, they stop and listen. We got a lot of educating to do. We got a lot of work to do. We got to roll up our sleeves and Michigan's going to be purple until November. I know it and I'm not going to stop.

BROWN: So, then what do you think Kamala Harris needs to do to keep up the momentum that she has right now?

DINGELL: You know, first of all, I love Donna Brazile's words of, everybody's on a sugar high right now. And it's great to see people happy, and it's great to see that momentum and the energy, because the base is energized.

But we have to educate voters. We've got to do the contrast. J.D. Vance is, without fail, helping us right now, reminding women about the importance of voting and the fact that they do have the right to make their own health care decisions. There might have been -- it was on the ballot two years ago, there might have been a sense of, okay, we don't have to worry. They now are being reminded and know, just because of the statements that the vice presidential candidate has made, that they need to be energized, that their vote can't -- does matter, and they've got to get out.

We have to remind people we have education to do, the contrast to do, and we got to do that voter to voter, door to door, phone call to phone call, contact to contact, or to make sure people do vote in November.

BROWN: I want to ask you again about Michigan, since it's such an important state in this race. The economy dominates voters' concerns in Michigan, but those voters favored Trump on the issue by 31 points, according to this pull up on the screen. Is Harris doing enough to drive her economic message home, in your view?

DINGELL: So, I want to be really clear. I've said to everybody, as do many of my colleagues, that we have to talk about the economy from now until November. But I like to remind people that Donald Trump wants to give his billionaire friends tax cuts and let corporations locate overseas and give them tax breaks and doesn't really care about giving working families a tax break or helping them.

We've come out of a tremendous, turbulent time in our country in COVID. People are seeing now increases in their cell (ph) or in their wages. But now we've got to go after price gouging. There are a lot of factors going into the economy, and we've got to talk about trade.

Look, I'll be blunt. Democrats did a terrible job of talking about trade in 2016. We will talk about it, and we will tell workers that we've got to make sure that China doesn't take advantage of the USMCA, which is the new NAFTA, and locate plants in Mexico and then try to take advantage of trade laws in the United States.

I'm not going to stop talking about these real issues that impact our folks' jobs, people's sense of confidence from now until November.

BROWN: Well, then do you think -- I mean obviously there's been a lot of -- we were just talking about how the Harris campaign and her supporters are using the word, weird, as sort of a messaging strategy to talk about Trump and his V.P. running mate, J.D. Vance. Do you think that there needs to be more of a focus on like what you just said, about the economy and the messaging?

DINGELL: So, we're in this sugar high period, as some people have labeled it. And, I mean, look, you can't believe the statements that people are finding that Senator Vance has made. But between now and November, we're going to have to talk nitty-gritty. Right now, every stakeholder group, be it the union halls, to the veterans, to the farmer markets, the farmers, women, we've got to tell people what Donald Trump has said, what Trump Project 2025 says, draw the contrast between what happened when he was president and what happened while Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were president and vice president, and never lose track, that the economy matters to working men and women across this country, and understand.

BROWN: Very quickly, do you have any plans in the works of her visiting your state?

DINGELL: You see her going to the other battleground states, you -- we will both use logic. We know she's going to visit Michigan soon.

BROWN: But you don't know when? Or you do know, but you're not telling us?

DINGELL: It's just it's the campaigns to talk about.

BROWN: Okay. All right, Representative Debbie Dingell, thank you so much.

DINGELL: Thank you.

BROWN: Coming up, we have some breaking news. President Biden is seeking to overhaul the U.S. Supreme Court. The White House says it's an effort to get politics out of the judiciary, while opponents say it will do the opposite.

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[18:29:10]

BROWN: Breaking news tonight, President Biden just unveiled a sweeping plan to reform the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the pinnacle of America's judicial system is mirrored in a crisis of ethics.

CNN's Paula Reid has more on Biden's proposal and the reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tonight, President Biden calling for major reforms to the Supreme Court.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: The court is being used to weaponize an extreme and unchecked agenda.

REID: Speaking at an event in Austin, Texas, he laid out his plan, which would allow a president to select a justice every two years and limit those justices to 18 year terms.

BIDEN: That would make timing for the course nomination more predictable and less arbitrary, reduce the chance than a single president imposes, undo influence in generations to come.

[18:30:01]

REID: And implement a binding code of conduct, requiring disclosure of gifts, no public political activity and recusal from cases where justice's family has a stake. The court's current code is voluntary and has no enforcement mechanism.

BIDEN: The court is not self-policing. The court is not dealing with the obvious conflicts of interest. We need a mandatory code of ethics for the Supreme Court and we need it now.

REID: He also called for a constitutional amendment that would make it clear there is no immunity for crimes a former president commits while in office. He previously criticized the court for its recent decision and Donald Trump's claim of immunity.

BIDEN: This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America. Each of us is equal before the law.

REID: The call for action comes as approval ratings for the court hover at historic lows. A recent poll in May found that 61 percent of Americans disapprove of the job the court is doing.

But Biden's plan would require congressional action on a highly partisan issue. Today, Republican leaders in both chambers promising it's going nowhere fast, with Speaker Mike Johnson saying it's dead on arrival in the House and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell calling the proposal an attack on the court.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): An all out campaign against the court's legitimacy and ultimately against its very existence.

REID: And on the 2024 campaign trail, the Supreme Court remains a hot button issue.

TRUMP: She will try as hard as she can to add as many justices as possible to the U.S. Supreme Court. We don't want that to happen, do we?

Leonard Leo, who helped Trump install a conservative supermajority on the high court, issued a rare statement rebuking Biden's plan. If Democrats want to adopt an across the board ethics ban for all branches, I am in favor of that. Until they support that, let's all be honest about what this is, a campaign to destroy a court that they disagree with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID (on camera): The White House revealed that Vice President Harris was closely consulted on this proposal, which she endorsed earlier today, but the White House stopped short of claiming that this was realistic. Instead, said that they would give it the old quote, team try. Pamela, the Supreme Court has not responded to Biden's proposal.

BROWN: The old team try, Paula Reid, thanks so much.

Our political experts are back to break down all of this. All right, David Chalian, beyond the merits of this, the bottom line is this is a proposal to add a constitutional amendment and take something out of the Constitution, which is a lifetime appointment of a Supreme Court justice. I mean, the Biden administration knows this won't happen. So, why come out with this proposal?

CHALIAN: Well, because it energizes the base and he's trying to -- I mean, he even was proposing this before he left the race, but injecting this into the homestretch of the campaign is something to be concerned with.

You know, for decades in our politics, the court was an animating feature for the right. It was a big motivating factor for Republicans. Since Dobbs, the court has become a big animating factor for the left, the right also, but still he's feeding into that.

I would just note, it's fascinating, you know, Harris, as Paula noted, you know, joining this, that this was a shared proposal. But Harris, when she was running for the presidency back in 2019, she actually was open to the notion of expanding the court, something Joe Biden was not open to. So I think we'll have to learn and ask, you know, yes, you stand by this proposal, but what is your court reform, Vice President Harris? What are you pledging to do? And do you stand by this and going to fight for it as president? Is this a top priority or not? So, I think we have to learn where this falls for her and her priorities.

BROWN: It's so important in this truncated period before the election to learn where she stands on these key issues. But I do wonder, as David noted, how it can really, the Supreme Court can be sort of a galvanizing force for the left or the right, depending on where we are. How much does today's proposal sort of increase the salience of the Supreme Court as an issue in this campaign?

CARDONA: So, David's absolutely right, and this has become an issue of discussion among Democrats and progressives and, frankly, independents who were really unhappy with Roe v. Wade, right, the court currently getting rid of Roe v. Wade. And a lot of people say, Democrats, when you had the chance, you never made this an election issue the way that Republicans did, the way that the right did. And they didn't just do this. They have been working on this for 50 years.

And so this is just beginning for us. This is an evolution. I think Roe was a wakeup call for Democrats in terms of making the argument that who you vote for president matters in terms of the Supreme Court. And for so many people, especially in communities of color, for so many people, the courts are like the final arbiter of justice.

[18:35:00]

And so for Democrats, I think this proposal allows for Democrats to be able to make the issue a political one, as the right has been able to do it for the last 50 years. And it's interesting, the White House says that this is to take politics out of the Supreme Court. I think it's smart because it's injecting the Supreme Court into politics, which is what we should have done ages ago.

BROWN: And I want to put this in perspective too, right? I mean, part of the reason why President Biden is proposing this is because of the Supreme Court decision granting Trump immunity for many of his actions of trying to overturn the 2020 election. And we are already seeing Trump laying the groundwork to potentially do that again. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If they don't cheat, we win this state easily, okay? They cheat. They have no shame. They cheat. Do you understand that, you crooked people? They're the most crooked. They cheat, they cheated in the last election, and they're going to cheat in this election, but we're going to get them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: I just -- I want to take a moment. I mean, I know we often say, oh, Trump, you know, he says these things, but he said this before, and we need to take him at his word that he's going to continue this drumbeat if he loses this election. I mean, we saw what happened January 6th, right? Do you find that, as a Republican, that language dangerous?

SINGLETON: I think Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has been so spot on when asked about this question. If the nominee of the party is talking about the past, you're going to have a darn tough time winning this election in November.

People want to know the solutions for their problems today. They want a forward thinking message, talking about the election being stolen. We know what the data showcases on this. A plethora of Americans, even a sizable percent of Republicans, don't actually agree with that. It's a small cohort of the Republican base that supports former president that have that position.

And so, from my perspective, strategically thinking, I'm looking at numbers. I'm a numbers guy. And the numbers showcase that this is a message that does not resonate with enough voters to get him to that 270, that magic number that he would need to return to the White House.

So, I would say, take a step back. Don't focus on this. Focus on the things where he has some advantages, such as the economic front, immigration, et cetera. But the more he talks about this, I think it turns off a lot of that 4 or 5 percent of persuadable voters in the middle. He's not just talking about the past here. He's saying, if he doesn't win Minnesota this time around, it's because of cheating.

And we know that that's just an absurd statement. He didn't win Minnesota against Hillary Clinton. He didn't win Minnesota. No Republican has won the state of Minnesota going back to 1972. So, that is not true, that if he doesn't win Minnesota, it's going to be because of cheating. That's not looking back. That's actually looking forward to this election, which again shows us that he's not willing to stand by legitimate election results, and that is a concern.

SINGLETON: And, again, it goes back to my point, David, if that is going to become the position and the argument that we're looking in the past, and we're looking at potential states that Republicans haven't won, to your point with accuracy, what, 30, 40 years ago, that is not a palatable message that will bring in new voters that you will need to get to 270 in November. And that is my position. We need to have a message that broadly appeals, that doesn't broadly appeal.

BROWN: You know, we get so caught up in the horse race of it and the messaging. But we have to also think about what happened again on January 6th with messaging like that.

CARDONA: And this is that believers -- a portion of his believers believe that. Words matter. That's why January 6th happened. That's why the insurrectionists did what they did. They took Donald Trump's words seriously.

The Minnesota thing is just the beginning. He's laying the groundwork for the whole election. He thinks -- I think he's afraid of losing, so he's laying the groundwork. For when he does, he's going to call on his supporters to do exactly the same thing.

BROWN: And to be clear, he had been making those comments even before Biden stepped aside. But I think it's worth paying attention to how much he continues with that.

All right, thank you all, I appreciate it.

Just ahead, new insight into one V.P. contender and why their association with the term weird is being seen as a good thing by Democrats.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:43:19]

BROWN: Well, one of the Democrats vice presidential contenders has significantly raised his profile by promoting a one-word takedown of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, weird.

Brian Todd has more on Governor Tim Walz and the attack line he coined. So, how does Walz figure in to veep stakes right now?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, all of a sudden, Tim Walz figures very prominently into the contest to be Kamala Harris's running mate. He's from a state that the Democrats may now need more than they thought they would, and he's figured out how to go after Donald Trump in a way that likely makes the former president live it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): I give you our Burley High School teacher from Mankato. TODD (voice over): Tim Walz has come up with an attack line against Donald Trump and J.D. Vance that's taken off.

WALZ: We're not afraid of weird people. We a little bit creeped out, but we're not afraid.

TODD: Walz not only doubled down on the line, but expanded on it when describing Trump on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday.

WALZ: Have you ever seen the guy laugh? That seems very weird to me that an adult can go through six and a half years of being in the public eye. If he has laughed, it's at someone, not with someone. That is weird behavior.

TODD: Walz has been characterizing the former president as weird for months, observers say, and now Kamala Harris and other top Democrats have run with it.

HARRIS: And some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it's just plain weird.

TODD: It's one characteristic that's catapulted the 60-year-old governor of Minnesota into contention as a possible running mate for Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket.

BRIANA BIERSCHBACH, MINNESOTA POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT REPORTER, STAR TRIBUNE: I think he just skyrocketed onto the national scene.

I really think that he has taken on a new level in terms of his national profile in the hunt for a new V.P.

TODD: Tim Walz, a former six-term Congressman who's in his second term as Minnesota's governor, served for more than 20 years in the Army National Guard and was a high school geography teacher and football coach in rural Mankato.

[18:45:10]

Analysts saying he enjoys a good popularity rating in the liberal leaning state, having pursued several progressive initiatives, including tighter gun control laws.

One local reporter says even he comes from a Republican-leaning district, he speaks a language all Minnesotans can relate to.

BRIANA BERSCHBACH, MINNESOTA POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT REPORTER, STAR TRIBUNE: He's very folksy. He kind of has this Midwestern dad vibe. He really knows how to kind of jump into a conversation with a stranger and then make them feel like he's listening to them.

TODD: His state was front and center during the 2020 riots and damage in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer there.

BERSCHBACH: That is something that Republicans have been very critical about for years and use that against Walz. TODD: So can Walz help Harris in a state that Trump is hoping to turn

into a battleground?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: He is possibly a bulwark against there being a real challenge in Minnesota for the Democratic ticket. Minnesota is a state in 2016 and in 2020 again and Donald Trump said that he wanted to win and he thought he could.

TODD: Walz joins a slate of potential Harris running mates that includes Governors Josh Shapiro and Roy Cooper, Senator Mark Kelly, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and others, some of whom have been making the talk show rounds recently as a kind of audition. We see this effort to define themselves, to show off a little bit how they go after J.D. Vance, how they go after Donald Trump.

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TODD (on camera): Analysts say there's a good reason that some of Kamala Harris' potential running mates are in effect campaigning for the job so enthusiastically right now is because basically they have very little time to do it. Harris is expected to make her selection for a running mate by August 7th -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Brian Todd, thanks so much for that.

And coming up CNN live on the ground as Israel strikes deep inside Lebanon following a deadly attack on a soccer field, and now rising fears of a wider war.

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BROWN: We're following new concerns of a wider war in the Middle East as Israel vows retaliation for a deadly rocket attack in the occupied up, Golan Heights that killed 12 children.

CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond joins us live.

So, Jeremy, you went to the scene of this deadly strike. Tell us what you saw and what this could mean for the already explosive tensions in the Middle East.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, a soccer field where dozens of children and were playing was suddenly turned into a scene of absolute carnage this weekend as 12 children were killed when a rocket struck this soccer field, Israel says Hezbollah was the responsible. Hezbollah is denying responsibility.

But regardless, what is clear is that there is going to be a major retaliation coming from Israel. These really prime minister himself vowing today is he visited the scene of this strike that there will be a severe response.

Already, we have seen the cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah that has continued since October 8, when Hezbollah began firing rockets at northern Israel. It has continued, but we're still waiting for the actual response from Israel, which we are told will indeed be significant. What is clear for now is that the community of Majdal Shams as all of this is happening, absolutely devastated by this and still trying to process their grief.

I spoke with the father of 11-year-old Alma. Here's how he told me he found out that his daughter was dead.

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AYMAN FAKHR AL-DIN, DAUGHTER KILLED IN GOLAN HEIGHTS STRIKE: I reached the stadium and in the corner, I saw dead bodies, and body parts. When I got closer to one of them, I saw a bracelet. I knew it was Alma.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And Alma's father was one of the grieving families who met with the Israeli prime minister today. He told me that he believes that Hezbollah was responsible. He wants to see a response.

But what is really interesting is that that is not the universal sentiments in this community. And part of that is because this is a Syrian Druze community in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. They mostly do not consider themselves Israeli. The overwhelming majority of this community do not have Israeli citizenship and today as the Israeli prime minister arrived to their community, he was heckled by many of the community members telling him that they did not want him there.

However, even within those folks who do not consider themselves Israeli. They do believe that these really government should respond to no question about it. This is a community that is very close to the Lebanese border that could be impacted by an intensification of the cross-border fire and one that is bracing for what could comes to come next -- Pam.

BROWN: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for that.

And coming up, news from right here in D.C., just coming in. What newly released text messages show in relation to the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

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[18:58:26]

BROWN: Right now, we are getting some breaking news on the investigation of the Trump assassination attempt.

CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez has the details.

What are you learning, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, we are obtaining these new text messages that were released by Senator Chuck Grassley. And what they show is that some of the law enforcement at the scene of the Butler rally where this shooter took aim but the former president, they essentially saw him more than 90 minutes before the shots rang out, but then they lost track of him. And they also at one point thought that he was moving away from the site of the rally.

I'll read you just a part of one of these text messages -- one -- this was the first sighting of him. One officer saying, kid leaning around the building, we are in. I did see him with a rangefinder looking towards the stage. FYI, if you want to notify secret service snipers to look out, I lost -- I lost sight of him.

What this sort of crystallizes, Pamela, is that you have this group of law enforcement from the local area who are text messaging and some of that messaging appears to be there were some at least -- at least some lag in that information getting to the Secret Service. We also heard an update from the FBI as part of their investigation. One of the things we learned today is that the former president is going to be sitting with the FBI for a victim interview. It's a standard part of this of this investigation.

We also learned that the shooter used encrypted apps and an email to buy dozens of transactions essentially pay for dozens of transactions, buying chemicals for those improvised bombs that he made, as well as firearms purchases.

All of this, of course, it's going to be the focus of another hearing tomorrow, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service answering some questions from a Senate committee -- Pamela.

BROWN: I know we'll be watching that closely for sure. Evan Perez, thank you so much.

I'm Pamela Brown in THE SITUATION ROOM. I'll be back here tomorrow with you.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.