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State of the Union

Interview With Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR); Interview With Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA); Interview With Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN). Aired 9- 10a ET

Aired July 28, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:53]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Defining Harris. A week in, Vice President Kamala Harris sparks Democratic enthusiasm.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm ready. Let's go.

TAPPER: But as Republican sees on comments from her past...

(on camera): So for people out there who like their insurance, they don't get to keep it?

HARRIS: Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on.

TAPPER (voice-over): ... can she expand her appeal in the next 100 days?

Senator Elizabeth Warren joins me exclusively next.

And political catnip. As his V.P. pick plays defense...

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have got nothing against cats.

TAPPER: ... Donald Trump tries out new jabs at Harris.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Margaret Thatcher didn't laugh like that.

TAPPER: And Republicans adjust to a whole new contest. Senator Tom Cotton joins me exclusively.

Plus: veep in a week. On a tight time frame, Harris launches her search for a number two, as one Midwestern governor's take on Trump goes viral.

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): We're not afraid of weird people.

TAPPER: Is his stock on the rise? Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is coming up exclusively. (END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, where the state of our union is in a sprint, 100 days out.

We're in -- only one week into the brand-new presidential race, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump just 100 days to readjust to their new reality before Election Day.

Vice President Harris has made strides since President Biden dropped out of the race one week ago today. Several polls show her tightening up the race with Trump, especially in those battleground states. And this morning, the Harris campaign announced she has already raised $200 million in the last week.

But Republicans are beginning to pick apart her record, largely from her time in California and also her time tacking to the left in the 2020 primary campaign. The next few months will be a trial by fire.

Donald Trump, for his part, is trying to find his footing after the big switch. Last night, he was still testing lines of attack against Harris in Minnesota in a joint appearance with his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, who's dealing with controversies of his own, as Trump falsely claimed he won Minnesota in 2020, which he did not, and tried to get a handle on his new opponent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She's a radical left lunatic. She has no clue. She's evil. I want to be nice.

They all say, I think he's changed. I think he's changed since two weeks ago. Something affected him. No, I haven't changed. Maybe I have gotten worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Joining us now to discuss, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Senator, good to see you.

With Democrats falling in line behind Vice President Harris' campaign, Donald Trump has settled on a line of attack for his all but certain new opponent. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Kamala Harris has been the ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe. She's a real liberal. She really is a real liberal. If Kamala Harris gets in, she would be the most radical far left extremist ever to occupy the White House times 10.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, former Bush White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said -- quote -- "If you combine Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, you get Kamala Harris" -- unquote.

Is it not true that a President Harris would be the most progressive president in American history? And, in your view, isn't that a good thing?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Look, what I see is a vice president who is ready to be president, and she's going to do this based on two principal things.

The first one is economic. She's been out there fighting for working families. I first got to know her 14 years ago, when she was the one who was shoulder to shoulder fighting back against the giant banks that were foreclosing against the homeowners that they had tricked and were now going to force them to lose their homes.

And she's stayed with that all the way through now, helping veterans get rid of medical debt they don't owe and getting rid of junk fees. She fights for working families.

The other is, she is the national leader on making sure that we restore Roe v. Wade. We now live in an America, where 30 percent of all women live in states that effectively ban abortion. And if Donald Trump and J.D. Vance get their way, it's going to be 100 percent of women, because they want a nationwide abortion ban.

[09:05:10]

And J.D. Vance, wow. J.D. Vance says no exceptions for either -- for incest or for rape. Kamala Harris, if she can get the right kind of Congress, a Democratic Congress, is going to sign Roe v. Wade into law, so that every woman across this country is fully protected.

Those are going to be the big issues. And she is the right person to lead on them.

TAPPER: When you endorsed Vice President Harris, you said -- quote -- "Who better than a former prosecutor to take on Donald Trump?"

Now, it wasn't that long ago, the 2020 primaries, you were running, she was running. Progressives were criticizing her as Kamala the cop. It's a label she actively tried to distance herself from, including by expressing support for some of the arguments behind the defund police, the police movement, not in favor of defunding the police, but talking about the need to reexamine funding for cops.

Given the defund the police movement, given the Black Lives Matter movement, given where your party's base seems to be on these policing issues, is it a risk for her to lean into her prosecutorial background.

WARREN: Not at all.

Kamala is someone who started out as a prosecutor. She put away gang members. She worked very hard for the protection of the people of California. But look where she and the Biden/Harris administration have gone. What's happened in the time during they -- that they have been in

office is that we have surged resources to our first responders, surged resources to make sure that both the police have the resources they need, but, also, when a 911 call comes in, that sometimes it should be answered by a police officer, but sometimes by a social worker or public health official, who needs to deal with a different kind of crisis.

It's been the Democrats who have put money into that. And, by the way, I should say every single Republican voted against that kind of funding to help make us all safer and give better responses for those who are out on the front lines.

TAPPER: President Biden charged Vice President Harris with addressing the root causes of mass migration at the border by going to those Central American countries.

She's consistently defended his handling of the border crisis. I don't know -- I don't need to tell you voters overwhelmingly disapprove of how the Biden/Harris administration has handled the border. By giving the nomination to one of the leaders of the border effort, aren't Democrats doubling down on one of your party's biggest vulnerabilities?

WARREN: Well, let's remember to start with the facts.

And that is that border crossings now are lower than they were in the last year of the Trump administration. But recognize -- and I know that Kamala Harris knows -- this is a problem that ultimately has to be solved by Congress.

We need the tools in order to have more resources at the border, to have more resources in the states and cities that are supporting migrants. And I believe we need to create a pathway to citizenship. All of that is part of what we need to do for comprehensive immigration reform.

Kamala Harris will work with Congress and get that done. Donald Trump, by contrast, recognizes that Democrats and Republicans worked together starting last fall, negotiated a deal. Two days before they were getting ready to vote on that border deal, Donald Trump called on the Republicans who had praised the deal to back away from it because he wanted chaos at the border, because he thought it would help him in this race on November 5.

So it's really a question of, who do you trust on the border? Do you trust someone who has actually been a prosecutor, who has been there in a border state, who works with Congress toward a solution? Or do you trust someone who says, you know, chaos is politically helpful to him, so he's just going to go with that?

TAPPER: She has signaled that she's going to keep in place the new policies from President Biden cracking down on asylum claims at the border if she's elected.

You have criticized this new policy as -- quote -- "a functional ban on asylum," and you have said that -- quote -- "We can and should do better." Do you think her campaign is making a mistake?

WARREN: Look, I think we can do better.

But I really want to underscore, what a president can do all by herself on immigration issues is quite limited, particularly when Congress will not authorize the resources needed. That's what creates real chaos at the border.

[09:10:10]

What we need is comprehensive immigration reform, and that requires working together, Republicans and Democrats and a president that wants to work with Congress, not someone like Donald Trump, who thrives on the chaos and thinks it builds him up as a strongman.

TAPPER: One of the issues President Biden said he would focus on in the remainder of his term is reform of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Among the changes he's reportedly considering are term limits and an enforceable ethics code for justices. Now, you have been working on this issue in the Senate. What realistically do you think you could get through Congress, not what should be, but what do you think you could actually accomplish?

WARREN: Yes, well I think we have got all the Democrats who are ready for meaningful ethics reform to bind the Supreme Court.

And we're working on changes to the Supreme Court. It can be term limits. It could be adding the number of justices, things we can do without having to have a constitutional amendment.

I think what President Biden is doing is, think about this moment. Here is a man who's been a transformative president. He's got an enormous amount done. And yet he has stepped away and he has passed the torch to Kamala Harris.

Why has he done that? He's done it as an act of patriotism for our nation. And he is saying, we not only have to have a president who is here for the nation and who will heal us and bring us together.

We also have to change our Supreme Court, because, right now, we have a Supreme Court that has basically jumped the guardrails and is out there giving power to the president, saying that the president can commit any act that the president wants, saying that Congress cannot authorize agencies to act.

So we have got a Supreme Court that is actively undermining our democracy. And I think what Joe Biden will do over the next six months is, he's going to keep drawing that to the attention of the American people and reminding them, when they vote in November, the Supreme Court is on the ballot.

And that is a good reason to vote for Kamala Harris and to vote for Democrats in both the Senate and the House.

TAPPER: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat from the great commonwealth of Massachusetts, thanks for joining us this morning.

WARREN: Thanks for having me.

TAPPER: He set a trend among Democrats by calling Trump and Vance weird.

Harris V.P. contender Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota joins me ahead.

And Trump tests out a new line of attack against Harris. Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:17]

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

This week, we saw the first foreign policy clash between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris over the Middle East, where new strikes overnight sparked fears of a larger regional conflict.

Joining us now, Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

I do want to ask you. Overnight, the Israeli Defense Forces struck targets inside Lebanon focused on Hezbollah, the terrorist group there, in retaliation for a rocket attack that killed 12 children in a Druze community in the Golan Heights in Israel. Hezbollah does appear responsible for that attack.

What do you know about the Israeli response? And how worried are you that this could escalate into a larger regional conflict involving not just Lebanon and Hezbollah, but maybe even Iran?

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Well, Jake, what I'm worried about is Iranian-backed terrorists continuing to blow up in innocent children in Israel. That's what we saw yesterday in this heinous attack.

Last October, we saw Iranian-backed terrorists kill more than 1,200 Jews in the worst atrocity against Jews since World War II. This week, Kamala Harris, in her very first statement and still to my knowledge only statement on a matter of great public importance, came out after a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and equivocated between Hamas and Israel and effectively blamed Israel for civilian casualties in Gaza or for the lack of food in Gaza that Hamas is diverting from aid stations.

That simply makes it harder to get a peace deal. It makes it harder to have stability in the Middle East. And, frankly, it emboldens Iran and terrorist groups like Hezbollah because they believe that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will continue to put more pressure on Israel than it puts on Iran and its terrorists that are encircling Iran -- Israel with the stated objective to destroy Israel.

What we should do is back Israel to the hilt, not put pressure on Israel, not scramble behind the scenes to try to stop Israel from retaliating appropriately for this heinous attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children.

TAPPER: So she did speak after her meeting with Netanyahu. She did talk about Hamas, though. You described it as equivocating.

I want to just play what she said and then talk about it more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. On October 7, Hamas triggered this war when it massacred 1,200 innocent people, including 44 Americans.

Hamas has committed horrific acts of sexual violence and took 250 hostages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, that's a pretty strong condemnation of Hamas. One can condemn Hamas and also want Israel to wage the war in a different way, no?

COTTON: As is sometimes said, the most important part of a statement comes after the but. We didn't hear the but there, but she said but, and then what followed is continued pressure on Israel, blaming Israel for civilian casualties in Gaza, when, in reality, it's Hamas that is using civilians as human shields and locating its command posts and mortar firing positions at schools or at mosques or at hospitals.

[09:20:17]

And where's the condemnation for this heinous attack by Hezbollah yesterday that blew up 12 children? As we came on the air, Kamala Harris and her campaign has still not said anything to condemn Hezbollah for that attack.

Again, this is only a week into her presidency -- or her presidential campaign. And we see why she is a dangerous liberal. I saw Kamala Harris up close for four years on the Senate Intelligence Committee. What the American people see this week is just a small sampling of what she would do to make America less safe and make the world more chaotic.

Remember, she took credit for a lot of the worst decisions of the Biden administration. She said she was right there when they decided on the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. This is who Kamala Harris always has been. This is who she will be, a San Francisco liberal who cannot keep this country safe.

TAPPER: I want you to take a listen to something former President Trump said Friday night at a gathering of conservative Christians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Let's get out and vote just this time. (CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It'll be fixed. It'll be fine. You won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. Get out. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again. We will have it fixed so good, you're not going to have to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: How did you interpret that remark?

COTTON: I think he's obviously making a joke about how bad things have been under Joe Biden and how good they will be if we send President Trump back to the White House, so we can turn the country around again.

That's what the American people know. For four years, things were good with President Trump. We had stable prices, a growing economy, peace and stability around the world. Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, everything has gone to hell.

And it will be much worse under Kamala Harris. Just look at her record. She wants to ban private health insurance. She wants to ban fossil fuel production. She wants to ban guns. She wants -- even wants to ban plastic straws.

TAPPER: Not all guns, some kinds of guns.

COTTON: She wants to forcibly confiscate guns without even an act of Congress to do so.

Kamala Harris is a dangerous liberal. She makes Joe Biden look competent and moderate by contrast.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about something that Senator Vance said that the Harris campaign is pouncing on.

This is from a podcast in 2022 when he was running for Senate talking about abortion. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

VANCE: Let's say Roe v. Wade is overruled, Ohio bans abortion, and then, every day, George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately black women to get them to go have abortions in California.

QUESTION: That's right.

QUESTION: Yes.

VANCE: Do you need some federal response to prevent it from happening? Because it's really creepy. And I'm pretty sympathetic to that, actually.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: You, like Senator Vance, are also a staunch opponent of abortion.

Do you think there should be a federal response to block women from traveling to other states to get abortions if they want to get them, the way that Senator Vance was suggesting?

COTTON: Well, no, Jake.

And what J.D. is saying -- or what J.D. has said since he became the vice presidential nominee, it's the same thing that President Trump has said. He is pro-life. President Trump appointed three constitutional jurists who reversed the terrible decision in Roe v. Wade, which even liberal legal scholars say was wrongly decided.

That question is now, as it should be in our democracy, in the hands of the people and their elected representatives. Now, just as a practical matter, there's probably not going to be 60 votes any time soon in the United States Senate for any abortion regulations, either the Democrats making it more liberal or Republicans making it slightly more conservative.

President Trump has acknowledged that reality. Now, he's also said he's not going to allow things like the VA clinics to be converted into abortion clinics, taking away care from our great veterans. But he's also acknowledged that states are going to be, by and large, making these decisions.

And, obviously, a state like, say, Alabama or Mississippi is going to have a different viewpoint than, say, a state like California and Oregon. And that's the way things operate in our democracy.

TAPPER: All right, Senator Tom Cotton, Republican from Arkansas, thanks so much for joining us today. Good to see you.

COTTON: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Is my next guest a rising contender on Kamala Harris' V.P. list?

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is going to join me after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:47]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: We're not afraid of weird people. We...

(LAUGHTER)

WALZ: We're a little bit creeped out, but we're not afraid. DOUGLAS EMHOFF, SECOND GENTLEMAN: It's not about her or her opponent

really. It's -- no matter what kind of weird stuff they keep saying.

HARRIS: Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record. And some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it's just plain weird.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The new talking point, weird, which seems to have been started, at least as far as I can tell, by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who is on Kamala Harris' short list to be her vice president.

After he called Donald Trump and J.D. Vance weird, he seemed to set off something of a trend among national Democrats. Walz, if you do not know, is a veteran and a gun owner and a former public schoolteacher with close ties to organized labor.

And he joins us now, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Governor, thanks so much for joining us.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance were in your home state last night. Democratic-funded polling I saw earlier this month showed Minnesota, which has not gone for a Republican president since Nixon, within half-a-percentage point if Biden was the nominee. Now Harris is the nominee and a new FOX poll shows Harris is leading Donald Trump in Minnesota by six points.

[09:30:02]

Why do you think she's so much more competitive in Minnesota than Joe Biden was?

WALZ: Well, look, good morning, Jake. Thanks for having me.

I -- look, there's a burst of energy out here. Joe Biden, we have heard it, he delivered across the board on so many issues. But there's a new burst of energy. I was at a labor rally yesterday, and I have not seen anything like this for 15 years.

And what you saw out in St. Cloud yesterday with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance is the same old nonsense, just talking points and denigrating folks. And I think she's more boosted because she's bringing a positive vision. Look, we care about what happens to your kids. We care about the environment. We care about job creation.

So it's just a whole new vibe to the campaign. And I think these guys, there isn't going to be a pivot because they don't have any new plans. So this is what you're going to see. I think Minnesota, always competitive, but we're certainly going to win.

TAPPER: So you have gotten some attention this week for calling Trump and Vance and Republicans in general weird.

And I think that you're the one that set this tone. And there's this shift. The Harris campaign seems to be following your lead, echoing this language. Why do you think weird is a more effective attack line against Trump than what Democrats have been -- done previously, which is argue that he's an existential threat to democracy?

WALZ: Yes, and it's an observation this.

And being a schoolteacher, I see a lot of things. But my point on this was, is, people kept talking about, look, Donald Trump is going to put women's lives at risk. That's 100 percent true. Donald Trump is potentially going to end constitutional liberties that we have, end voting. I do believe all those things are a real possibility.

But it gives him way too much power. Listen to the guy. He's talking about Hannibal Lecter, and shocking sharks, and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind. And I thought we just give him way too much credit. And I think one of the things is, is, when you just ratchet down some of the scariness or whatever and just name it what it is, I got to tell you, my observation this is, 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. And I don't think you call it anything else. It's simply what we're observing.

TAPPER: We are in this unprecedented situation right now because Democratic voters had a deep lack of confidence in President Biden's ability to serve another term.

And this is a point that your fellow Minnesota Democrat Congressman Dean Phillips was trying to make when he challenged Biden in the primary. You belittled his effort. You called it a political sideshow. You called it a crazy thing.

But wasn't Dean Phillips actually right? Wasn't he bringing up an issue that was correct and you were on the wrong side of that?

WALZ: Well, look, what I said was, is, President Biden was delivering. I was the governor of a state that watched Donald Trump tell people to drink bleach. When the Mayo Clinic was giving U.S. good advice, Joe Biden followed that advice and saved people's lives.

And I was watching Joe Biden deliver on every front. And I knew this man deeply. And the voters were there with him. They were saying he was there. And aging isn't a conspiracy. It simply happens.

And, last night, I'm sitting in the nook eating a Jucy Lucy, and who calls? Joe Biden, to say, "Thanks, Tim, for standing with me."

That's the type of guy he is. And that's how I knew him. So, look, I wasn't belittling Dean personally. I just thought, look, he's in the middle of dealing with these -- crisis, and we're out here saying, he's too old, he's doing this. He was doing the work.

The day before the debate, he was on the phone with me for 20 minutes talking about the flooding up the Blue Earth River, where you saw the dam on television looking like it was going to break. That was the difference there.

And, look, I applaud Joe Biden. I think he made the right decision in terms of where he's at and the ability to prosecute this case against Donald Trump's weirdness and our policies that are making a difference.

So it's where we're at. I'm excited about it. I think we eventually needed to get here.

TAPPER: You just heard Republican Senator Cotton, a fellow veteran, criticize Vice President Harris over the Afghanistan withdrawal. She has said that she was the last person in the room when President Biden decided to pull out of Afghanistan.

You served. For people who don't know, you served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, including in Afghanistan. You were the highest- ranking enlisted man in Congress. What was your reaction to the way the Biden/Harris administration executed that withdrawal, both with the disaster at Abbey Gate and the thousands of Afghan allies left behind?

WALZ: Yes, I served in Europe in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Jake.

TAPPER: OK.

WALZ: But the point -- yes, no, the point being on this was, is, it was a messy situation, the situation with the Taliban and the things that Donald Trump led up to it.

Exiting a conflict is never going to be good. That situation was horrific. There were Minnesotans on the ground that were providing aid to that. I think the biggest thing was, is an understanding that the way that that was prosecuted, the way that we tried to bring stability, was simply going to be incredibly difficult.

So, I -- yes, I served with Senator Cotton. I also know that a lot of his positions have been overly aggressive in terms of how the United States prosecutes a peaceful resolution.

[09:35:07]

So, look, the Afghan withdrawal was tragic, but it was a longstanding situation that rolled over many, many months and over both terms of presidents.

TAPPER: Trump is trying to paint Vice President Harris as an ultra- liberal.

Of all her potential running mates, you might have the most progressive record as governor. I know you were more of a moderate when you were in the House, but you have legalized recreational marijuana. You passed universal background checks on guns. You expanded LGBTQ protections. You implemented tuition-free college for low-income Minnesotans. There's free breakfast and lunch for schoolkids. Do you think your

record is an asset to the ticket, or would it risk fueling Trump's attacks as you being a big government liberal?

WALZ: What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn, and women are making their own health care decisions. And we're a top five business state, and we also rank in the top three of happiness.

Look, they're going to label whatever they're going to label. He's going to roll it out, mispronounce names to try and make the case. The fact of the matter is, where you see the policies that Vice President Harris was a part of making, Democratic governors across the country executed those policies, and quality of life is higher, the economies are better, all of those things.

Educational attainment is better. So, yes, my kids are going to eat here, and you're going to have a chance to go to college, and you're going to have an opportunity to live where we're working on reducing carbon emissions. Oh, and, by the way, you're going to have personal incomes that are higher, and you're going to have health insurance.

So, if that's where they want to label me, I'm more than happy to take the label.

TAPPER: Have you received vetting materials from the Harris campaign?

WALZ: Well, I'm not speaking on anything personal on this. I think being -- being mentioned is certainly an honor. My job is to make sure that -- and I trust that -- Vice President Harris' judgment. She will make the best choice she's going to.

But one way or another, she is going to win in November, and that's going to benefit everyone. And I say this, Jake. A lot of those folks who were out in St. Cloud with the president, my job is to represent them. My job is to make sure that their kids get meals. My job is to make sure that they have clean environment. My job is to make sure they have jobs out there.

So, either way, it's going to be a win. So I'm just excited for the next 100 days.

TAPPER: You would serve, though, if asked?

WALZ: I would do what is in the best interests of the country.

TAPPER: Would that include you being a vice president?

WALZ: We will cross paths when we get there.

TAPPER: All right, I guess I'm not going to get a direct answer on that one.

Governor Walz, good to see you.

WALZ: I usually do direct answer. (LAUGHTER)

WALZ: Good to be with you.

TAPPER: Yes, well, not on that.

But thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Good to see you, sir.

WALZ: Yes.

TAPPER: Starting or at least continuing a feud with beloved Jennifer Aniston, that was not on my bingo card.

My panel on all the latest in the presidential race next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:26]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So now we have a new candidate to defeat, the most incompetent, unpopular and far left vice president in American history.

HARRIS: Let us be clear-eyed. We have a fight ahead of us. We're the underdogs in this race. But this is a people power campaign. And we have momentum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION 100 days until Election Day.

My panel joins me now.

First of all, Jamal, can I just say, like, what's with the microphones of Vice President Harris? Like, have people not figured out that there needs to be, like, a good volume control on the -- I know...

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it's an event built for a room, not built for television. They just let television cameras in.

TAPPER: Is that right? OK.

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: So...

SIMMONS: That was my understanding of the event.

TAPPER: Where are we right now, 100 days?

SIMMONS: Yes. We're 100 days out.

Listen, the campaign has got a lot to do.

TAPPER: She says she's the underdog. Is she?

SIMMONS: I do -- of course she's the underdog. First of all, she's -- Donald Trump is still polling a couple of points ahead of her in most polls. He's in the 48, 49 range. She's in the 47, 48 range.

The campaign is literally building. Someone said this earlier. They're still using JoeBiden.com e-mail addresses over there, right? They're still figuring out how to get the talking points with the right language. So they have got, like, a lot of work to do to make this whole thing come together.

But the plane is already in the air. And the good news is that the people are sort of powering this thing. So you see 44,000 black women come out, and then you see 170,000, almost, white women come out on another phone call. Then you see African-American men and Latino men.

Like, this thing is growing in a kind of organic way. But I don't think many of us who are watching it expected that kind of energy.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They're still using JoeBiden.com e-mails because they're still using JoeBiden.com policies over there; 65 percent of the American people disapprove of these policies.

She's never going to be able to shake off JoeBiden.com, whether they have the e-mails or not. And the only thing you're celebrating this week is some amount of base consolidation. But if you look at where Donald Trump is today versus where he was in 2020, underdog, yes, that's one way to look at it.

SIMMONS: Well, you think people are against the American Safer plan, which is $30 billion in...

JENNINGS: Wah, wah, wah.

SIMMONS: ... in crime prevention and crime investments? So you're coming at her about a question where she's got a very serious answer to.

TAPPER: Let me just ask, is this race a toss-up, essentially? Do you do -- would you be surprised if either Trump or Harris won at this point?

Because I know, a month ago -- believe it or not, the debate was one month and one day ago -- I think we would all have probably agreed that Donald Trump was likely going to win. I don' -- what do you think now?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think this is a very close race that, for a long time, you had the distortion of Joe Biden's age just drawing away from the Democratic side.

[09:45:03]

And now, with him out of the race, we have snapped back to a very closely divided race.

TAPPER: A normal -- a normal race.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: A -- quote, unquote -- "normal race."

TAPPER: Yes.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: The issue that I think Harris is going to have is that, on the one hand, she's gotten a bit of a gift. I have joked that this is a little bit like using a cheat code in a video game where you get to just jump to the end of the game and fight the big boss.

She has avoided all of the drama that you would have had to experience going through an actual Democratic primary to become the nominee. So, this time around, she has not had to do and say the sorts of things necessary to get through a primary, where you have got to go pander to your more liberal base.

The problem for her, she did it in 2019 and 2020. You have already seen, in Pennsylvania, for instance, Senate candidate Dave McCormick, his campaign has run an ad excerpting all of the things she said during that campaign about wanting to have new government guidelines around red meat, banning fracking, the sorts of things that people are going to go, either that's weird or that hurts my bottom line.

And that's -- she's still going to have to deal with that past record as well.

TAPPER: And what's the best way for her to do it? Is it for her to say, I'm now the vice president and I see things differently? I mean, Donald Trump has flip-flopped on a million things, right?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

TAPPER: I mean, should she do that?

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, I think so.

TAPPER: OK.

BEDINGFIELD: I think she should. I think she should lean into her four years as vice president, obviously her time in the Senate and as a prosecutor. I think she has a very credible path here to say, I was running in 2019. I have actually now been in the White House for almost four years. Here's where I am. Look at my record.

I mean, look, we're in a world where J.D. Vance said in 2016 that Trump might be America's Hitler, and now he's running on the ticket with him. So, I actually don't think that, in this political environment, she's going to be held responsible for things that she said in 2019, when she has a record on these issues that she can point to.

But I think she's got to do it -- she has to do it with her full throat. I mean, I think she's got to really lean in.

TAPPER: And ticktock, right? Ticktock.

SIMMONS: Right.

BEDINGFIELD: And she's got to really lean in.

But this is also where I think the 100 days, having just kind of the short runway here, helps her, because she also has room to grow. I mean, that's what has kind of fundamentally changed in the race by swapping Biden out. Harris has room to grow with some of these key constituencies.

We're obviously seeing all this organic energy right out of the gate. But she has an opportunity here to present herself, to win over some of those voters who were really hesitant about Joe Biden, but also don't like Donald Trump. But this is the moment to do it.

TAPPER: So, Scott...

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Well, go -- well, I want to switch to the veepstakes, because I know that everybody has an opinion on that.

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: We just heard an audition from Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.

Some of the other possibilities -- we hear she's going to pick a running mate by August 7, which is pretty soon. Sources say that her list includes Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Governor Josh Shapiro of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and, of course, Minnesota Governor Walz, who you would agree is -- all things being equal, it's a pretty decent pick maybe.

JENNINGS: Yes, he was pretty agile this morning on the interview with you.

I have also thought Shapiro is a pretty talented guy. I know you know him. I wonder if she's able to choose him because of the politics in the Democratic Party around Israel, and given Shapiro's views on that right now.

TAPPER: Although nobody -- I don't know anybody more critical of Netanyahu as a governor than Shapiro. But, for some reason, people keep attacking him.

JENNINGS: Well, he -- I mean, he is who he is, and the Democrats are who they are. And so...

TAPPER: Yes.

JENNINGS: But, look, she's got some interesting choices.

I -- before all this, I thought these things were marginal. I still think they're basically marginal. I think Vance is a marginal impact on the ticket. Whoever she chooses is probably marginal. But Walz, Shapiro, Kelly, I'd read that vet report, if I were them, pretty close. We will see.

TAPPER: Anybody you like?

BEDINGFIELD: So I have actually been a Walz champion for a couple weeks here because I was at the DCCC in 2006 when Tim Walz was a candidate for Congress and was one of our freshmen who won in 2006.

TAPPER: He stole a Republican district.

BEDINGFIELD: And he's -- yes.

TAPPER: I shouldn't say stole. Sorry. He won a Republican...

(LAUGHTER)

BEDINGFIELD: He won fair and square.

JENNINGS: No, stole is right.

BEDINGFIELD: He won fair and square a Republican district.

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: Yes. Yes. you know what I meant.

BEDINGFIELD: But, yes -- yes, I do. Point...

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: It's normally a Republican district.

(CROSSTALK)

BEDINGFIELD: It's normally a Republican district. He won it as a Democrat.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: And then held it, and now a Republican has it again.

BEDINGFIELD: And -- exactly.

And he's been a really effective governor. Obviously, we heard him this morning parrying attacks really effectively. And, look, they're -- having been on both sides of the V.P. presidential relationship and having worked for Joe Biden when he was choosing Kamala Harris, the most important thing is that this is a person that Harris trusts, has a good connection with, could be -- would be a governing partner, but also can be out on the campaign trail for the next 100 days giving it his all.

And the Harris campaign can feel 100 percent confident that, when he's out there, they're going to like what he has to say. And Walz, I think, is certainly showing that. But there are great people on this list.

TAPPER: What do you think?

SOLTIS ANDERSON: Yes, I think Shapiro and Walz would be the best, in the sense that they are quite talented and they seem to be able to speak bipartisan.

I was on to the show with you two weeks ago as we were reeling from the aftermath of Donald Trump almost being assassinated, which is a story that is massive...

TAPPER: Yes.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: ... and I feel like has in some ways gotten completely subsumed by the...

TAPPER: That was 17 years ago.

[09:50:02]

SOLTIS ANDERSON: Right? This is insane.

SIMMONS: Yes.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: But Shapiro -- I was very complimentary of Shapiro's remarks that day afterwards, where he...

TAPPER: He was very bipartisan, yes.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: ... gave a talk that was very bipartisan. You could not have told what party he was in. I think that is a skill that will be useful on the trail.

TAPPER: What do you think?

SIMMONS: Donald Trump also had 34 felony convictions, and that's something that we don't really talk about as much anymore either. That was a big deal.

Here's what I think. I think Tim Walz was very -- very great. He reminds me a lot of the Democrats I grew up with in Michigan, one of these big labor guys hands, bigger than yours, all that kind of stuff. He's got a military record. I think he's a great choice.

I think also Cooper seems like -- the governor of North Carolina, somebody the vice president, I think, has a relationship with that goes back their time being attorney general together.

TAPPER: Yes, they're very close, yes.

SIMMONS: So, that matters a lot. It's a state, obviously, that people care about.

But then also Mark Kelly, to me, is somebody who I would then say, gosh, you could just -- you could say this so quickly, jet fighter pilot and astronaut. I have to tell my 6-year-old kid that I'm going to take him to meet an astronaut who flew the space shuttle, I think he wants to go.

I don't know if he wants to go meet the senator from Arizona, but he certainly wants to go meet an astronaut.

TAPPER: Yes.

SIMMONS: And I think the 6-year-old boy inside of a lot of us might care about going to do that.

And this last thing I will tell you about the timing...

TAPPER: Yes.

SIMMONS: ... so we come out of this, we have got -- the Olympics are happening right now, people sort of figuring out about that.

She will pick a candidate, maybe by the 7th, be going to the Democratic nomination and the convention fight by the 19th. So that's another week. So you take to the end of that week. So we start thinking about this 100 days, time starts ticking down, and the Democrats have yet to even fire their big guns in terms of the communications war.

TAPPER: Yes.

SIMMONS: So I think we're going to have a lot of pro-Democratic weeks in front of us.

TAPPER: We will see.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:56:14]

TAPPER: Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign is only about a week old. How did we get here?

Well, tune into Kamala Harris making history and Joe Biden passes the torch tonight on "THE WHOLE STORY" at 8:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

Thanks for spending your Sunday morning with us.

"FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" is next.