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The Source with Kaitlan Collins
Trump Refuses To Commit To Debates Until Dem Nominee Official; Harris: Dems Want To Ban Assault Weapons, GOP Wants To Ban Books; Trump Pushed Out Of News Cycle As Harris Dominates Coverage; Harris' Top VP Contenders All Have One Thing In Common; Jennifer Aniston Slams J.D. Vance On "Childless Cat Ladies" Comment; Kamala Harris Joins TikTok In Push For Young Voters; Harris Campaign Embracing Social Media, Memes And Blunt Messaging. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired July 25, 2024 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump cease and desist letters after he was using their music. The estate of Tom Petty, after the artist passed away, sent a letter to the Trump campaign saying Tom Petty would never want a song used for a campaign of hate.
The same goes for the artist Prince. He also got a letter from the estate for Prince saying, please stop using the music. And more interesting, Anderson, is what happened in 2018, Pharrell Williams sent a letter to the Trump campaign saying stop using the music because his hit song Happy had been used just hours -- at a campaign event, just hours after nearly twelve people had been gunned down at a Pittsburgh synagogue. So there's a history of this with Donald Trump, Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Randy Kaye. Thanks so much. The news continues. "The Source With Kaitlan Collins" starts now.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Straight from "The Source" tonight, poll position as Vice President Harris is pulling even with Donald Trump. She's got money, momentum, and no time to waste in picking a running mate as Trump's VP pick is facing major backlash tonight for his comments on so called childless cat ladies. I'm Kaitlin Collins and this is "The Source."
Tonight, after one of the wildest stretches that we have ever witnessed in a Presidential campaign, a debate implosion that effectively ended the President's quest for a second term, an assassination attempt on his challenger, the former President, and a new presumptive Democratic nominee, a new opponent for Donald Trump. The race for the White House is once again a tossup.
Brand new polling from the New York Times shows that Vice President Kamala Harris is in a virtual tie with Donald Trump. Harris is quickly making up ground from where President Biden's numbers had actually fallen behind.
And as for Trump and his part in all the polling that we're now seeing, he's actually seeing his favorable numbers increase to the highest point of his campaign. Of course, that comes after what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania. But really, the takeaway when you look at these numbers tonight, and again, it's just a snapshot, is to really make no mistake, this is anyone's race to win.
Now, an unprecedented sprint is underway for Republicans to define the Vice President while she seeks to define herself on the campaign trail. And she says that she is eagerly awaiting a split screen with Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll tell you, I'm ready to debate Donald Trump. I have agreed to the previously, agreed upon September 10th debate. He agreed to that previously. Now it appears he's backpedaling, but I'm ready.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: And a sign of just how quickly things are changing. That was this morning. But just moments before we came on air, a newly released statement from the Trump campaign came out where they are hedging on the debates altogether. Backing out of them for the time being with Trump's spokesperson saying, and I'm quoting now from the new statement, "General election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee."
The Trump campaign implying with no evidence that Democrats could change their mind again on Kamala Harris as the Vice President, even though Biden was not officially the Democratic nominee at the last debate.
We're going to start tonight with our political sources, CNN Political Commentator SE Cupp, former Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin of New York, and also former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Great to have you all here.
And, SE, I just want to start with you on this statement that we just got from the Trump campaign. Are you surprised by this? I mean, what do you make of what they're saying tonight?
SE CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm not, but it is striking the way Kamala Harris has scrambled the very finely tuned Chris LaCivita operation that was being run. I mean, it was being run really well.
Gone is the confidence. Remember Donald Trump sort of goading Biden into a debate. I'm ready for a debate. Let's do it right now, he said months before the actual debate. Gone is the discipline that Chris LaCivita had managed to hold Donald Trump to, you know, basically through the convention. That's all gone.
So what you're seeing now is sort of a desperation, a panic, not really knowing how to handle her new entry into the race. I'm not saying they won't figure it out, but they have not figured it out yet.
COLLINS: I mean, this statement is a lot to unpack, but I don't think we should sanitize it. I think people should know exactly what it's saying. And it says there's a strong sense, and this is from a Trump campaign spokesperson, Stephen Chung. "There's a strong sense by many in the Democrat party, namely Barack Hussein Obama." They used the former President's full name, "that Kamala Harris is a Marxist fraud who cannot beat President Trump, and they are still holding out for someone better."
Obama is on the verge of endorsing Harris. As you know, that's when they're reporting all day. We should get that statement any minute now. But what do you read into why they're putting this out now and saying that they're not going to debate it as of this moment.
LEE ZELDIN, (R) FORMER NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN: I think that there are going to be debates. It's my personal opinion. As far as the details, there were two debates that were agreed to between the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign. Now we're talking about the Trump campaign negotiating a new debate with a new Democratic nominee.
As far as when those will take place, what channels they'll take place, will there be one, will there be two, will there be three? You know, I just don't know. And, you know, to SE's point, and we're all, obviously, entitled to our own perception because that's how this works in this country. I mean, I think that they -- there's a new opponent, and when you have a new opponent, maybe some dynamics change, but a lot of the issues are the same.
COLLINS: But that's not what they're saying here.
ZELDIN: The voters is till here.
[21:05:00]
COLLINS: Because September 10th was the general date that they had agreed on. And Trump said the other day that he was willing to debate her multiple times. By September 10th, she will officially be the nominee. The Democratic Convention will have happened by then.
ZELDIN: Yeah, I think we're going to have debates. Again, my personal opinion. But if you ask voters what are your most important issues that hasn't changed? People are still going to talk about the border and the economy and crime or national security, foreign policy.
And substantively, Kamala Harris is so connected to this administration, this White House. I think that substantively, as you're preparing for, what are your top issues, what is your message, what is your platform? I think a lot of that stays the same although your opponent changes.
CUPP: But if they're the same, then why wouldn't he just debate her. He debated Biden. If you're saying it would be like debating, it would just be like debating Biden on the same issues.
ZELDIN: Maybe they have something else in mind.
CUPP: Why wouldn't he just do it?
COLLINS: I hear Mister mayor trying to get in and I want you to listen to what Trump said the other day. Because he talked about these debates two days -- two days ago, yes. I'm trying to make sure what day of the week it is. It's been really crazy.
But Mr. Mayor, listen to what Trump said just on Tuesday about this prospect of debating the Vice President.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN GORKA, SALEM RADIO'S "AMERICA FIRST" HOST: Are you looking forward to debating Kamala Harris?
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sure. I mean, I would like to debate her. I like to debate. But I like to debate for the country, not for myself. And generally speaking, I think, you know, it's a great way of exposing people. It's a great way of finding whether or not -- number one, whether or not they're capable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: When you hear that, Mr. Mayor, when you see the statement tonight, do you think he's trying to back out?
BILL DE BLASIO (D) FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: I think they're scared, Kaitlin. I mean, this is classic. The team that is not ready to debate is the team that's worried. The team that may be losing, in fact.
And look, when they say something like she's a quote unquote "Marxist fraud," that's the extreme extremist language that turns off moderate American voters, particularly women, particularly those suburban women voters we've talked about so much, who will decide this election, period. And to insult the Vice President of the United States with a totally fictitious charge.
You know, I agree with SE. I think the Republicans showed a tremendous amount of discipline through the convention and I think they're back on their heels now. And I really have to give credit to Kamala Harris and her team. We literally -- and I think in our entire American political history, we have never seen a rollout this fast and this total in terms of endorsements, supports -- support, delegates, the money, astounding.
I think the Trump operation is absolutely confused at this point about what to do. And they can read the polling just like you. You're right, this is anybody's ballgame. That was not true a week ago.
COLLINS: Well, I'm glad you brought up that polling because, I mean, just on the debate. So they had said, any time, SE, anywhere, any place on this. And now obviously new polling has come out today. It's not focused on the battleground states, which is obviously what we would like to be able to see. But, but it does say overall, it shows where she is making up in areas where President Biden was weak with nonwhite voters, with younger voters, and it's within the margin of error showing how close they are.
CUPP: Yeah. Yeah. She's getting back to the place that Joe Biden was before he started really, really slipping in the polls behind Trump. But they will have a lot of work to do. Right. This is, as it's been called, a honeymoon period. They're enjoying the rollout, the money, the endorsements. That will fade a bit. And they will need to address all those issues that are still very important to a lot of people that were policy weaknesses for Joe Biden.
His age is one thing that's dispatched now. Now she has the advantage there, but the issues are the same and she will have to lay out an agenda that isn't just Joe Biden's but is hers. What are we voting for? If you're there instead of Joe Biden, it must be for a reason other than the fact that you're 20 something years younger. You must have some different vision. It can be similar. It can be built off of Joe Biden's legacy. But you've got to give us something at some point that tells us who you are and who we would vote for.
COLLINS: And it's not like these numbers are all bad for Trump. When you look at the -- inside, the poll it says that, his favorables are higher than they've ever been. I mean, it comes after the attempted assassination and how the Republican Convention was. You heard the Mayor saying he thought it was really disciplined and well run.
I mean, so why would -- why is he looking at that and thinking, well, I'm not going to debate her until she's officially the nominee, when she will officially be the nominee by the time of the scheduled next debate.
ZELDIN: And the statement is not saying that there's not going to be a debate. We're going to finalize the debate.
COLLINS: I've covered Trump for a long time. This is like -- this is Trump backing out of the debates for now.
(CROSSTALK)
ZELDIN: Well, subsequently, as far as polling goes, I mean, we're talking about a tight race and it's about getting your people out to vote on election day. As far as a substantive debate on the issues for the people who care about the border, Kamala had a very important role inside of this administration with regards to the border policy.
[21:10:00]
And from day one, the moment that they came into office, they stopped construction of the border wall, they ramped up catch and release. They got rid of Remain in Mexico. They got rid of Title 42 without a replacement. Kamala Harris was the person who was comparing ICE to the KKK. She wanted to defund ICE. She says coming into the country illegally is not a crime. And all of this is her record that she has to own.
And when it's pointed out that, you know, she was the most liberal senator on GovTrack in 2019, and GovTrack gets rid of the website when a reference is made about how she was the border czar, which was all over media, then all of a sudden it gets wiped out. And the same reporter in Axios who wrote the story in 2021 saying that she was the border czar is now writing a story saying that she was never the border czar.
COLLINS: But can I also say -- and I think this is an interesting conversation to have about on immigration and where she runs on this. I mean, she also was criticized by progressives on the Left for saying do not come when she was in Guatemala. So I mean, I think it can go both ways. You're referencing what she said when she was running in 2020.
ZELDIN: Right.
Mr. Mayor, what are your thoughts on that?
DE BLASIO: Look, I've deep respect for Lee, but just disagree entirely on the way he's characterizing the Vice President and what she said and what she believes. But I want to go back to SE's point, which I think unites all this. It's a chance now for Kamala Harris to have her own vision, not Joe Biden's vision. She can build off it, I agree. But her own vision.
You know what, whatever role in the administration, she now gets to say what she thinks needs to happen with the border, with immigration, with the tough issues that we're facing. And I think it's a golden moment, actually, because she has this amazing momentum.
Look, if she can talk about the things that Democrats have always been strong on, health care, that the interests and needs of working people, labor unions, the things that, by the way, in that blue wall set of states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, talk about labor unions and the support that she has had for them, which Donald Trump cannot claim. There is so much here to work with.
But I agree with SE's point. If the Vice President talks only about the problems with Donald Trump, that's not enough. She has a chance to do what Joe Biden honestly didn't do enough of, except for during the State of the Union, which is provide a positive, proactive vision of how she's going to change America and I think that will elevate her campaign. Trump can't go there. She can.
COLLINS: And can she run away, though, from -- how does she separate herself from the Biden record on immigration and what that has looked like, SE.
CUPP: It's tough because she can't run away from the fact that she was appointed. Whatever you want to call it, she was appointed to address the migrant crisis on the border in ways. She shouldn't run away from that because one of her arguments is all the experience she got as a Vice President. It's what makes her, in part, qualified for this job.
So she should own the fact that she was, she was put in charge of part of this. She can say, listen, it's a complicated political issue. Everyone knows that. Congress needs to do its job and that's what I will work on with Congress if I'm elected President. But she has to first agree it's a real problem, not a Republican invention. She has to agree that it's a crisis that took the President and Democrats a very long time to admit. She's got to meet some of these issues head on. Crime is real. The economy is not as good as they are saying it is. The immigration crisis is real. Accept all of that and tell us what you do. People are desperate to hear policy solutions to real problems.
COLLINS: We got a preview of her on the campaign trail and what she's going to say today. Obviously, we're watching every speech she does even closer than before. And she was in Houston earlier speaking to a teachers union. This is what she said as she was criticizing Republicans for their views on gun control and public education.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Just think about it. So we want to ban assault weapons and they want to ban books --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Congressman, I mean, what does that look like when she's saying that out on the trail repeatedly, talking about, you know, book banning and these culture wars that we've seen Republicans be engaged in versus, you know, what Democrats want to see when it comes to guns.
ZELDIN: Well, as far as competing for the vote of that parent who cares about their kids' education, what's most important for whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, whether you're running for President, you're running for Congress, it doesn't matter, is talking about improving the quality of education.
Parents are concerned about parental rights. They want to send their kid off to school and not relinquish that right to the school or the government. There are public -- I went through public school. My daughters went to the same public school that I went through. I am proud of the public school education that I got. We have poor performing public schools.
We have kids trapped in multigenerational poverty. Stuck in those poor performing public schools and they want access to a quality education. And maybe they have a half mile down the road, a charter school or some other type of education that they want their kids to have access to. They don't want to see advanced academics eliminated in the name of equity. They want merit based entry into specialty schools. When you talk about school choice and how their tax -- how tax dollars are spent, this is the substantive conversation that matters.
[21:15:00]
One last thing. In New York, for example, we spend two and a half times more per pupil than Mississippi and Florida. Yet fourth grade black students, Latino students, low income students, they're performing better on their fourth grade English Language, arts and math, even though we spend two and a half times more. So the money has to be spent efficiently. That's the kind of debate that both of these candidates and the both parties should be engaging in.
COLLINS: It would be great to see that in a debate. And so we'll see if we actually get them. Thank you all for being here. We're out of time. Don't worry, Mr. Mayor. We'll get you back when you're back here on set. Thank you all for being here.
Coming up, we have new reporting about Donald Trump when it comes to headlines and the fact that he's not at the top of them right now. At this moment, his former White House communications director will join me.
Also, Senator J.D. Vance's sister and Ann are coming out in defense of him after comments that he made in 2021 about the country being run by childless cat ladies resurfaced.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:20:54]
COLLINS: Donald Trump finds himself in unfamiliar territory tonight, fighting for attention. For four days now, President Biden's historic decision to step out of the 2024 race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris has all but raised Trump's dominance over the news cycle or, as political campaigns see it, his dominance over free media.
It's an advantage that the Harris campaign has been using until they are up and running with ads of their own. And it's an advantage that is the New York Times points out tonight, Trump is long enjoyed.
My source on this tonight is Trump's former White House Communications Director who knows all too well about his plays in the headlines, Anthony Scaramucci, who's also the author of "From Wall street to the White House and Back." And Scaramucci, it's great to have you here tonight.
I want to talk to you about, you know, Trump being pushed out of the headlines of the news cycle. But I do want to get your state -- your response first on Trump's statement tonight backing out of the general election debates until after the Democratic nominee is official, even though the DNC is before the next scheduled debate.
Vice President Harris just responded to the campaign statement saying, quote, "What happened to anytime, anyplace?" That's, of course, a reference to Chris LaCivita, who is one of the co-chairs of Trump's campaign, who had on business cards printed out anytime, anywhere, anyplace when it talked about debating President Biden. Do you think he's trying to back out totally?
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: No, but I think it's apropos to this segment. I mean, he wants attention. So he knows if he puts that out there, the mainstream media is going to talk about it and they're going to be throwing, maybe he's going to pull out of the debate.
There's no possible way he could pull out of the debate. OK. Half of his base are misogynist and how is he going to pull out of the debate? Is that going to be able to say to them, hey, jeez, I'm really sorry I couldn't debate the first woman, African American, Indian Presidential candidate. There's just no possible way he's going to be able to do that.
So he'll debate her. But he is searching for how to combat her. He hasn't been able to figure that out yet. He's also trying to figure out how to get his name back in the news and on the top half of the broadsheet newspaper.
COLLINS: So you think this is just him trying to get media attention?
SCARAMUCCI: Yeah, he's struggling right now? Yeah. No, question. Yeah, there's 100 percent, take it to the bank. He will debate her. Will it end up on ABC News? I'm not sure. Could they pick a more neutral venue in his mind? It probably won't be on Fox News. It may not be on ABC News. But 100 percent, those two campaigns are going to agree on a venue, and they're going to have at least one debate, possibly two.
COLLINS: So when I hear -- you know, I talked to Pete Buttigieg the other night, he was, you know, not appearing as Transportation Secretary, but just as a member of the Democratic Party. And he said that he thinks Trump is actually scared to debate Harris and that it wouldn't ultimately potentially come to fruition because he wouldn't know, you know, really how to combat her on the debate stage.
And he has struggled with that on the campaign trail. I mean, you saw him in Charlotte, North Carolina, yesterday, kind of trying out different nicknames for her, different lines of attack, but nothing really one sustained message like he's been successful with, with his opponents in the past.
SCARAMUCCI: So I would say that Secretary Buttigieg is right. He's probably afraid to debate her, but that's not going to stop him from debating her. He knows his electorate, his base, as well as anybody. He knows he will never be able to survive the attacks that he wasn't capable of debating her. And there's no excuse that he can come up with that can prevent that from happening.
But where Pete Buttigieg is correct, and I think this is true about the whole situation, is that the entire demography of the country has changed. And so President Trump, I mean, he can call her nasty, I guess, he can say things like, she's dumb as a rock. All that's going to do is cause the women of this generation and very frustrated angry men, to line up and vote against them.
This is not 2016, Kaitlin. 20.2 million Baby Boomers have died since that election. 40 million Generation Xers have arrived ready to vote, and 63 percent of those are Democrats. His team knows that. They know the data. He's sitting there trying to figure out how to attack her. But he's never going to get away with the attacks that he put on Secretary Clinton eight years ago. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
COLLINS: Yeah.
SCARAMUCCI: But he is in the Bermuda Triangle right now of inattention, and it's really bothering him. But I'm sure he's happy that you and I are talking about him tonight and the possibility that he may or may not debate Vice President Harris, which, of course, he's going to.
[21:25:00]
COLLINS: Well, I think you make a good point about what's changed in going up against a woman in a Presidential election, and in 8 years and how that landscape may look different.
You know, one thing that Trump seems bewildered by is not only how Biden came out and endorsed her, and how quickly all of this has happened, which I think has surprised Trump and his team, from what I've heard. They thought there would kind of be more infighting in the Democratic Party. There'd be a lot more chaos for them to kind of have a moment to deal with.
But, but he's been saying, you know, not only that Biden endorsed her, but, but that he picked her as his Vice President, given Harris's attacks on Biden during the primary. Listen to what Trump said about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: She was the meanest person up there. You know, she was meaner to him than anybody else. She accused him of being a racist with the buses. Then when he chose her, I said, how do you do that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: I wonder what you make of that, given Trump has just picked someone to be his running mate who once called him, you know, a moral disaster, reprehensible, question if he was America's Hitler, which Vance says his mind has changed on. But he did at one point say some incredibly critical things of Donald Trump.
SCARAMUCCI: Kaitlin, maybe Trump liked those things. Maybe he thought those were compliments, you know? You know, listen, he didn't go with Nikki Haley. When he loses the election and they do the post obituary of the election and they're in the morgue looking at the body of the lost election, they'll say, wow, that was a terrible mistake not to go Nikki Haley.
He could have appealed to a broader base of people, to women, to more independents, but he didn't. He went hard MAGA. He went with a strange guy that's very dull on stage. And, you know, Trump hates that. You covered them in the White House. I worked with him in the White House. There's nothing that Trump hates more than dull people. And J.D., I think, stands for just dull.
And so he is not doing well on the stump for Donald Trump. He's hurting him. The memes on social media are killing him. The net negatives are terrible for the Vice President. The Vice President in a Trump campaign is supposed to get out of the way, and he has become an issue for Donald Trump. So he could have picked Nikki Haley or he could have picked somebody.
But Trump is such a narcissist. He didn't want anybody taking credit for his electoral success. He didn't want somebody on CNN saying, yeah, he won that and Nikki Haley helped him. So he picked J.D. Vance and now he's got to live, at least for now, with this millstone on his neck. I mean, he may or may not make it to November 5, J.D. Vance.
COLLINS: You think Trump could maybe replace him?
SCARAMUCCI: I do. Yes, I mean, he's -- that's what the apprentice is all about, Kaitlin. Of course, I've had that experience with Donald Trump. I do think he could. It's just a question of how many Scaramuccis J.D. is going to last. Well, we've got the shot clock on right now.
COLLINS: Well, I think he technically counts as being at one at the moment. I think today may be day 11. Well, Anthony Scaramucci, thank you very much.
SCARAMUCCI: We'll keep track of it, Kaitlin.
COLLINS: Thank you very much. Coming up, you heard Mr. Scaramucci there referring to Nikki Haley on those Republican attacks on Vice President Harris. They've been claiming she's a DEI hire. Hear what Haley has to say about that.
Plus, we have new comments from those who are vying to be Vice President Harris's running mate, which all seem to have one thing in common.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:33:15]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D) PENNSYLVANIA: She kicked butt, and she earned the support, and she earned the nomination, and I'm proud to support her.
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): I'm going to work as hard as I can to make sure Kamala Harris is elected President because this is about the future of our country.
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): I am honored, to be considered. And regardless of what comes next, I'll do everything I can between now and election day to elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Almost immediately after it became clear that Vice President Harris was locking down support to become the next Democratic nominee, all eyes turned to who she would select as her running mate.
You just heard from 3 of those potential contenders. And nearly to a tee, almost every candidate who started appearing on the shortlist, that you're looking at now, had the same qualifications. They served in elected office, they had Midwest appeal, and they were also a white man. With the cold political calculations of experienced political strategist, a lot of our sources believe that this is what the history making Democratic nominee would need to help her win come November.
The Internet memes likened it to a collection of wines best paired with fish, lobster, maybe a light pasta dish, or this array of trustworthy paint shades for a bathroom or kitchen remodeling.
The "Daily Show" even reused Vice President Harris' 2020, "We did it, Joe," phone call that she had with then, Candidate Biden with a caption, "Is this the Midwest white guy emporium?"
Joining me tonight, Democratic Congressman Jim Himes, who I should note, is not on that short list, Congressman, but thank you, for being here. I wonder, do you agree, though -- I mean, when you look at this, people are making fun of it, and you can see why. But do you agree with the conventional political wisdom that if Harris wants to win, her running mate does need to be someone who is a moderate white man?
REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Yeah. I don't know if I agree with that, Kaitlin. And, how do you know I'm not on the list, by the way? You know, apparently, I qualify. But, no, I'm not, just to be clear.
No. Look, I don't know, I don't know. We haven't seen polling on precise racial and identity characteristics around a team. What you do know, and pretty much people have seen this for a generation, is that on the ticket, you do try for some balance, synchronicity, maybe.
[21:35:00]
You know, this is why you paired Barack Obama, you know, a young, relatively unknown person with Joe Biden, you know, who'd been in Washington at the time for a long time. Joe Biden, when he runs in 2020, gets paired with a much younger, African-American woman.
So, you know, it -- there's obviously a real logic to having, the kind of diversity on the ticket. We'll do precisely what this ticket is doing right now, which is galvanizing young people, galvanizing African Americans. And so you think, you know, it is part of the Vice Presidential pick to think to yourself, you know, what else? What else will excite more groups of people?
COLLINS: Well -- and given, you know, her diversity, she's faced a lot of attacks from Republicans on Capitol Hill, the body that you serve in. And Nikki Haley sat down with Jake Tapper earlier, and he asked her about these attacks on Harris as a DEI hire. And listen to what Haley had to say about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: We've heard members of congress call her, DEI hire, suggesting that, you know, she's an affirmative action pick. How do you respond to that?
NIKKI HALEY (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not helpful. It's not helpful. Look, I mean, we're talking about a liberal senator who literally has not accomplished very much. And what she was given, she didn't do much with. You don't need to talk about what she looks like or what gender she is to talk about that. The American people are smarter than that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: I don't have to tell you, Congressman, that she was a District Attorney, the Attorney General of California, a U.S. Senator, and has been Vice President for 4 years. But what is your response to how Haley thought of those attacks?
HIMES: Well, it makes me imagine what the situation would look like right now if Donald Trump had had the foresight and confidence to nominate Nikki Haley. What did she just do? Right? She condemned the racism. And let's face it. When people who don't know Kamala Harris very well call her a DEI hire. Let's just, you know, let's be very clear about what that is. That is a racist statement, not even a dog whistle.
But she dismissed the racism even as she took a shot at the Vice President. Not a not a terribly fair shot, but it does tell you something about, you know, Nikki Haley's level of sophistication as compared to, you know, J.D. Vance.
But, again, you know, the American people are going to have the chance to get to know the Vice President, which is traditionally not a role that you know, puts you by definition front and center.
And, look, early returns, I was chuckling about that Donald Trump statement about, you know, the chaos inside the Democratic party. I spent 4 days straight in Washington, D.C. I will tell you that every single one of my Democratic colleagues, it was as though a 100 pound weight had been taken off their shoulders.
And, you know, instead of, you know, worrying about, President Biden's next news conference, open your social media. You can't escape, you know, what young people, are seeing in Kamala Harris. You can't escape comments about couches and sofas with the Vice President.
And I'd just highlight that to say young people, for the first time, you know, in many, many months are actually engaged and excited about this election.
COLLINS: Well, you are one of the voices. And the last time you and I spoke was before Biden had dropped out, and you had real genuine concerns about not only his ability to win, but what it was going to mean for who had majority of the House come November, and also even we heard concerns about the Senate.
Now that it's Harris at the top of the ticket, one, I'm assuming you believe that that means that she could avert a second Trump presidency. But also, do you think the Democrats can win the House with Harris at the top of the ticket?
HIMES: I absolutely do. And, again, you know, it's been too soon for polling to really validate that. And you'll remember that when we talked, I really referred to the polls. You know, and the fact that President Biden was down in all of the swing states. Here's where we are today.
You know, the early polls aren't going to tell you much, because people don't have a good sense of, Kamala Harris yet. But in contrast to President Biden, who was extremely well known, no one was going to wake up one day and say, oh my goodness, I just learned something new about President Biden. They are going to experience that with Kamala Harris.
And I and, again, I'll just say this. I'm already starting to see this with African American women in my district. It's a feeling and an energy and a commitment, that I haven't seen since Barack Obama was President. Again, what I said about young people.
Young people hated the choice that they had 4 weeks ago. And now all of a sudden, again, just open a social media account, you will see how engaged and how excited they are about this. And what is the Trump campaign doing? They are doing the racism of DEI hire. And if they think that that's valuable, they ought to see what African American women are saying when they hear, you know, Kamala Harris called the DEI candidate.
COLLINS: Congressman Jim Himes, great to talk to you. We'll see how much has changed for the next time you're on. Thank you for joining us tonight.
HIMES: Thanks, Kaitlin.
COLLINS: Up next, Jennifer Aniston is even weighing in on those resurfaced comments coming from Senator Vance that about childless cat ladies running the government.
The Trump team and the VP pick's aunt and sister are all in cleanup mode. We'll tell you what they're saying.
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[21:44:36]
COLLINS: He has been Donald Trump's running mate officially for all of 10 days now, and already Senator Vance is at the center of a firestorm. Women across the country responding to a comment that he made on Fox News in 2021.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.
And it's just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: That comment has generated quite the response in political circles, but even from a very famous name today, that of Jennifer Aniston, who weighed in on what Senator Vance was saying there in a statement on Instagram saying, "I truly can't believe this is coming from a potential Vice President of the United States. All I can say is, Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day."
[21:45:00]
Those are rare public comments that come after she told her story in that Allure Cover Magazine 2 years ago where Aniston described how she struggled with fertility and IVF.
I'm joined tonight by Liz Plank, who is the author of "For the Love of Men," and Olivia Nuzzi, Washington Correspondent for New York Magazine. And it's great to have you both here.
I just wonder, what did you make of, you know, this stretched beyond just hearing from Dem surrogates and people for the Vice President too. I mean, Jennifer Aniston doesn't often, from what I've said, get involved in politics, and even she was responding today.
LIZ PLANK, AUTHOR: Yeah, this was very personal for a lot of women. It was very personal for Jennifer Aniston. And let's be clear, right? You do not have to give birth to biological children in order to have value. And if anyone's unclear about that, we should just ask any President we've ever had. Right? We don't question the contribution of men in our society because they don't give birth. And so we shouldn't be doing that for women either.
And speaking of childless cat ladies, it's kind of, you know -- obviously this comment was from two years ago. But it's -- you know, there's a lot of them doing great things in the world. I think about Taylor Swift, who carried single handedly the us economy on her back last summer, made $5 billion for the U.S. economy in less than five months, helped stimulate local economies.
And so, yeah, American women come in all shapes and sizes. They come from all kinds of different family configurations. So for J.D. Vance to denigrate an entire group of women based on an arbitrary skill that he doesn't even have is really embarrassing. And it's not embarrassing for women. It's embarrassing for him.
COLLINS: Well, and Harris, you know, I should even -- though the focus of this has been that she is a stepmother to children. And, you know, we even saw Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, his ex-wife came out and talked about how she's a co-parent with the two of them. And I think Ashley Parker --
OLIVIA NUZZI, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Ella Emhoff.
COLLINS: Ella Emhoff made a statement --
(CROSSTALK)
NUZZI: -- also coming out.
COLLINS: Ashley Parker of The Washington Post tweeted, you know, that's the biggest endorsement you can get is from your now partner's ex-partner, saying that you are a good co-parent here.
NUZZI: Yeah. I think to take a step back and look at the politics of this, I think there's a certain irony in the fact that the qualities that made J.D. Vance a celebrity on the sort of MAGA rights.
His sort of shitposting and getting involved in debates like this about culture wars and saying very fiery things on Tucker Carlson's Show. Those are the same qualities that now maybe -- are making people question him as a potential vice presidential candidate.
COLLINS: Yeah, that's a good point because the landscape essentially is different. I mean, his position --
NUZZI: -- cultural warrior, is a very different thing than seeming like a potential statesman, even if it is in a Donald Trump administration.
COLLINS: It's also been a lot of -- it's been very quiet coming from the Trump world as we've seen the backlash continue to grow. It hasn't really quieted down. A spokesperson for the campaign was out tonight, Liz, I want you to listen to what she had to say about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, TRUMP 2024 NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY: The senator's words are being taken out of contents -- context, by talking heads in the mainstream media, liberal pundits who do this for a living. They are trying to portray Senator Vance as someone who he is not. I'll tell you who he is. He is a father. He is a husband. He is a great man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: I should note they're not being taken out of context. We played the full -- the context around that remark there.
PLANK: Yeah. And at a certain point, you know, you can't hide the Republican agenda anymore. I think that's, you know, part of why Trump is clearly -- there's a lot of reports of him regretting, right, going with J.D. Vance. And I think we can actually maybe expect him to drop him. I don't think that's out of range for what's possible over the next few days or few weeks.
You know, at this point, the Republican ticket is sort of like a walking billboard for men who don't go to therapy or men who need therapy. Right. And this is not just embarrassing for women who are watching. There are men who are collectively, like, rolling their eyes right now, because that's not their vision for a healthy, positive masculinity. That's not their vision for what a man says. And they have to speak, you know, after -- and they have to live in a world where men are saying stuff like that.
COLLINS: Yeah. And we're hearing from, from his family members. His sister said in a statement that, "He's a testament to the women in his life, the attacks from the media and Democrats that assume anything otherwise are vile." His aunt, who helped raise him said, "Women have been forefront throughout J.D.'s life."
And I just wonder, you know, in the context of how he is a relative newcomer to the spotlight in this kind of a sense.
NUZZI: Interesting he -- I'm going back and rereading Hillbilly Elegy now, and the way that he writes about the women in his life is admirable. It's nuanced. It's not what you heard from him in more recent years as he was cynically, I think becoming this type of Donald Trump influenced Right Wing celebrity.
And I think if I may cynically talk about the politics of this, in a near evenly divided electorate where you have a very close election and part of that is going to hinge on voters in the suburbs and women voters, this is probably not particularly helpful.
[21:50:00]
COLLINS: Yeah. We'll see what he says about it. He hasn't commented on it yet. Olivia Nuzzi, Liz, it's great to have you both here. Thank you.
PLANK: Thank you.
NUZZI: Thank you.
COLLINS: Up next, the Harris campaign is now making TikTok official. The question is, what does this online presence look like? The embrace of social media memes messaging. Does it appeal to young voters? Does it work in November? We have a hint from new numbers that we're looking at.
And also we'll be joined by a Gen Z influencer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: With her presidential run only days old at this point, Vice President Kamala Harris has already joined TikTok.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madam Vice President, are you on TikTok?
HARRIS: Well, I've heard that recently I've been on the 'for you' page, so I thought I'd get on here myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: This is the latest move from a campaign that is targeting a key subgroup of 2024 voters, Generation Z. Joining me tonight, CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten, who's been looking at the numbers, and also digital culture commentator and Gen Z media influencer Jules Terpak.
[21:55:00]
It's great to have you both. And Jules, great to have you here because, you know, we are, are seeing just a total crush of Harris presence on social media. Now she's on TikTok. We had already been seeing all the memes and social media that have been happening when she joined the campaign. I think the question is, does it make a difference? What does that strategy -- you know, what are you seeing and how it looks different from how it did when it was Biden?
JULES TERPAK, DIGITAL CULTURE COMMENTATOR: Yeah. So over the past 72 hours, there has been wild growth within the Democratic Party in terms of support amongst young voters. So within the polls, it's showing that those 18 through 34 are already more in support of Kamala than they were of Biden.
On TikTok for Kamala HQ, they've gained more than 1 million followers in the past 72 hours. And before they were sitting around 400,000. They've had that account for months. It really wasn't resonating. So this is a huge jump. And then you see the record breaking numbers in terms of money raised.
And also in the past 48 hours, according to Vote.org, there are 40,000 new registered voters and 83 percent of those are people 18 through 34. So there's been this big jump. And I would think undeniably that the social media movement has played a big role. You see that in the TikTok comment section, for sure.
COLLINS: And you were saying it was kind of dormant before and how it's changed now to over 100 million followers, I believe you said?
TERPAK: No. So 1 million in the past 72 hours.
COLLINS: A million. But how they're using it is so different than how, like the Biden campaign -- when it was Biden at the top of the tail was using it.
TERPAK: Yes. So Biden, he's not super clippable. You know, his speeches, a lot of the times are very even keel, you know. With these clips of Kamala, they're very joyous, humorous, and people are really resonating with those. And so they're able to uplift Kamala's personality and also her policies a lot more.
Before, the account was basically, it almost looked like a Trump fan page. It was just clips of Trump constantly -- negative clips of him. Now they're uplifting, again, Kamala's personality and her policies. And that is resonating way more with people.
COLLINS: That's interesting. So it's more focused on her and less on just the Trump aspect of it. Harry, when you look at the numbers, I mean, what do they look like so far? HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yeah, I mean, this has been one of the more interesting turnarounds. You just look at Generation Z, and that can be defined as either born, being born in 1995 or being born in 1997, depending on who you listen to. We'll call it '95 and we'll call it the 18 to 29 year old age bracket.
And what do we see? We see Harris with an advantage and a double digit advantage. You can see it right there on your screen. An average of polls, 50 percent to 39 percent. Now, that's actually lower than you might expect given the normal amount of support that a Democrat has among voters 18 to 29.
But what's notable, and what you were pointing out, Jules, is that essentially the Joe Biden campaign was at historic lows for 18 to 29 year olds, we're talking single digits. A lot of the polls actually had Trump up among 18 to 29 year olds. So we're really seeing this big switcheroo where we're seeing movement towards Kamala Harris compared to Joe Biden among voters under the age of 30.
But there is still ground to make up, and we'll see if she's able to do that, least compared to the Biden 2020 performance.
COLLINS: And also, the tone has been so Biden when it comes to the Harris campaign. I mean, today they were putting out a statement after Trump was on Fox News, and they said, "Statement on a 78 year old criminals Fox News appearance." And then on marking IVF Day, they said, "Happy World IVF Day to everyone except J.D. Vance."
I mean, the tone is also -- it seems to be trying to connect to the younger audience who will you, if they agree with the politics, will find that funny.
TERPAK: Yeah. And I think Kamala's team is doing a great job jumping on this trending movement around her. But also we're seeing this broader thing within media, that there's the democratization of media within people's hands.
It's different from the 2016 election, as you pointed to earlier, because, for example, screen recording was added to iPhones in 2017. So this makes clips like the average user on social media able to post clips and share them at a much more frequent rate.
The downloadability on social media platforms, the like ability to download other people's videos, as well as the rise of Capcut, which is owned by ByteDance, the same company as TikTok. This is integrated into TikTok. It has again, democratized video editing. Really complex edits. There are now these templates that people can easily press and add in their clips.
And these are what are really blowing up on social media. They're edits, fan cams, and it's basically like modern day political ads made by everyday voters that go crazy viral overnight.
COLLINS: And I mean, how game changing, though, can -- I mean, if these younger voters come out and actually do vote, the margins could be pretty notable. ENTEN: That's going to be the big question, whether or not these folks come out and vote. Because what we see is they only make up about 16 percent of registered voters, 13 percent of likely voters. Why do we see that shrinkage from likely voters to register voters?
Because look at this, the number of young folks, Generation Z, who say that they're almost certain to come out and vote. What we see is that number is significantly lower than the percentages overall for the overall public. So the question is, can they motivate them? We'll have to wait and see.
COLLINS: We will, Harry Enten. Jules Terpak, great to have you for the first time on the show. Thank you for being here. Thank you all so much for joining us. "CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip" starts right now.
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