Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

CNN Republican National Convention; CNN Exclusive: U.S. Received Intel Of Iranian Plot To Assassinate Trump; Sen. Menendez Guilty On All 16 Counts In Federal Corruption Trial. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired July 16, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:02]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All of this, of course, as day two of the Republican National Convention is underway right now with some top Republicans expected to be speaking on the big stage tonight that includes Trump's former primary rivals, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. And we're covering all of it live here on CNN.

CNN's coverage of the Republican National Convention continues on THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER, and that starts right now.

(MUSIC)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. Day two of the Republican National Convention. I'm Jake Tapper, live here in Milwaukee, in battleground Wisconsin.

Behind me last night, former President Donald Trump emerged in public for the very first time since that bullet came within an inch of ending his life, the image was striking. Mr. Trump wearing a bandage on his ear, emotion on his face. He is now officially the Republican presidential nominee for the third time.

But this time was unlike any other, as the crowd cheered him with chants of "fight, fight, fight", the words that he mouthed after surviving that shooting. We still do not know how that 20-year-old gunman came so terrifyingly close to killing the former president, especially in light of brand new CNN reporting that the U.S. Secret Service had actually increased security in recent weeks after getting intelligence of an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Trump. We're going to have the latest on that investigation, which leaves many questions still glaringly unanswered.

What we do know now is that Mr. Trump says his brush with death has been impactful. He told ABC last night that it is changed him. He said he rewrote his Thursday convention speech to try and, quote, unite our country.

I'm learning that tonight at the convention, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will directly address those voters who are uncertain about voting for Trump. She, of course, was a Trump ally, then a Trump opponent. Now, again, a Trump ally.

And speaking of former Trump opponents turned allies, Ohio Senator JD Vance is now Trump's running mate. The VP pick came down to the wire. We're told NBC is reporting that Trump's sons, Eric and Don Jr., talked him out of the more establishment pick, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. We'll ask Eric Trump about that reporting in just a second.

Vance had a hill to climb to win the heart of Trump, given that he was once part of the never-Trump camp, once wondered in a private message if Trump was, quote/unquote, America's Hitler. And he told me this in August 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So who are you going to vote for?

(LAUGHTER)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Anyone else that (ph) --

TAPPER: You don't know yet.

VANCE: I don't know who I'm going to vote for. I'm definitely not going to vote for Trump because I think that he's projecting very complex problems onto simple villains.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That was 2016, a big old change from that to this last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016, but President Trump was a great president and he changed my mind.

I bought into the media's lies and distortions. I bought into this idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy. It was a joke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The Republican National Convention theme of tonight is "Make America safe once again". Republicans here will be leaning into the anxiety so many Americans have when it comes to crime and border security and illegal immigration.

My colleague Erin Burnett, has insight on tonight's key messengers, including Trump's former political rivals -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: That's right, Jake. And you were just mentioning Nikki Haley. Of course, we all know just a few days ago, she wasn't even going to be attending the convention. She wasn't invited.

And whether it was directly as a result of Saturday night or not, obviously, things have changed so significantly. Not only is she coming, but as Jake said, she's going to be speaking tonight and that is going to be crucial. So many people are going to want to know what she has to say as in state after state 20 percent of people continued, of Republicans continued to vote for her even after she had gotten out of the race.

That is a significant bloc that obviously President Biden has been trying to win over as well. So, Jake reporting on how she's going to directly address her voters, going to be extremely significant tonight. That is just one of several rivals though.

Senator Marco Rubio is going to speak tonight. Obviously, he was on that final list that in the call just moments before JD Vance, that he would not be the vice presidential nominee. Vivek Ramaswamy will speak tonight. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, obviously, also a former rival of Trump's for this nomination.

So all of them speaking tonight, no doubt they'll hit this theme of safety, but this is really about the former rivals coming into the fold.

And also, Jake, again, I'm sure we will hear we will hear about anxiety and fear and some dark visions. However there are so is another focus tonight and I would say that is to show that Trump has the full backing of the power players in the Republican Party, which he does.

[16:05:05]

You're going to be hearing House leadership speak tonight. Elise Stefanik, some had hoped shed be on that VP list. She is speaking tonight. Steve Scalise is going to speak in and how Speaker Mike Johnson will appear again.

So, all of that heavyweight behind Trump tonight, and some crucial Senate contenders, Jake, Dave McCormick, who's running against Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, was in the front row on Saturday. He's spoken about that. He will be speaking tonight and I'm sure that will be raw emotion from him. Kari Lake speaking tonight and others from the Senate candidates.

So it is going to be a crucial night, really showing that Trump has the entire party, not just the MAGA part of the party, but the entire party behind him.

TAPPER: All right, Erin, I'll check in with you in a little bit. We're going to have more on the Republican convention.

But, first, some breaking news, before Saturday's assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, there was a separate assassination plot, one by Iran, that the U.S. Secret Service and Trump campaign were aware of.

Let's bring in CNN's Evan Perez with this exclusive reporting.

Evan, what more are you learning about this?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, this was important, new and very specific intelligence from a human source. And that's the reason why the U.S. intelligence community and the Secret Service took him so seriously. They increased some of the protection around the former president, we are told.

Now, we should make clear that this plot by the Iranians that was identified by the U.S. intelligence community, that he had nothing to do, at least as far as the investigation is concerned right now, anything to do with the shooter who was on that roof there in western Pennsylvania on Saturday and fired those shots that injured the former president. Nothing to do with that.

And so what we have is a statement from a top national security official. I'll read you just part of what -- what they told us. They said: The National Security Council directly contacted the Secret Service at a senior level to be absolutely sure they continue to track the latest reporting, the Secret Service shared that information with the detail and the Trump campaign was made aware of an evolving threat.

We also heard from the Trump campaign saying that they don't comment on ongoing -- any ongoing threats or their security of the former prime president, the Iranian mission to the United Nations also responded to our reporting saying that these accusations are unsubstantiated and malicious.

But, Jake, as you know, the idea of threats from Iran has been a long- running concern for the U.S. intelligence agencies, for law enforcement here in the United States. You've had people on your air dissidents who have been under threat from the Iranian intelligence services. We also know that they were trying to kill John Bolton, and we also know that Mike Pompeo and other people have been under on their target list all because of the 2020 assassination of the head of the IRGC, Qassam Soleimani.

So that is part of what the picture here is for the former president, and, of course, for all of these officials -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Evan Perez, thank you so much.

Let's talk about this and much, much more --

(AUDIO GAP)

BURNETT: Thanks.

ERIC TRUMP, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: -- after the horrible, horrible incident on Saturday.

Last night at the RNC, he made his first public appearance since the world saw that horrible but also iconic moment with him standing up his fist in the air -- and he seemed emotional.

TRUMP: Yeah.

TAPPER: I mean, that's me judging from a distance. But what was that like for you and what was he going through?

E. TRUMP: I was watching that. I watched the rally on Saturday with my children when this whole thing happened, and you know, he got fallen (ph), he's got blood coming out of his ears and shot him in the ear, had he not turn last minute, his head would have blown off. I mean, literally, it's that close. It was millimeters from taking his life.

And then, all of a sudden, last night, he walks in here, and he walks into the thunderous applause and, you know, chants of "USA, USA". There were people in the audience crying. I was sitting there, you know, "proud to be an American" was the song that was playing at the moment. And I think it will hit home, right? It puts everything in perspective.

My father's, you know, spent eight years fighting the unthinkable, every attack humanly imaginable, you've covered every single one.

(AUDIO GAP)

E. TRUMP: You know, they tried to take his life. That was the final attack. And thank God, it didn't work out.

But then he walks in here to just a sea of love, and as much reporting as you've done from here, I know how much love you've seen in this room.

TAPPER: Yeah.

E. TRUMP: The American flags, the red hats, the people who love America. They're proud to be American. They want America to be number one in everything we do.

They're patriotic. They love our Constitution. They love religion in this country.

I mean, these are great, wholesome people from -- from every state that we have in the nation. And it's a powerful moment. It was, you know, it was almost a moment that didn't happen.

TAPPER: Yeah.

E. TRUMP: Yeah. Because of a mad man that got far too close.

TAPPER: What is your response to this new reporting from Evan Perez and our justice team about this us Secret Service finding, intelligence that there was an Iranian plot to assassinate your father?

[16:10:06]

E. TRUMP: Yeah. That's not new. I'll say that's not new and that -- because my father was the toughest president in history on Iran.

He thought it was atrocious that we gave them back $150 billion. He thought it was crazy that we're giving them money for prisoner swaps and he ran -- he went around the whole world telling people, hey, you bought by Iranian oil and gas, as they're trying to develop nuclear weapons, right?

This is a country that chants "death to America", just so everybody realizes that they don't have our best interests in mind. They're trying to develop a nuclear weapon, and we were effectively allowing people to trade their oil and gas all over the world.

My father finally went out (ph), and said this is madness. They're going to use that money against the United States. They're going to hurt us in some way, shape, or form.

If you buy oil and gas from Iran, we aren't going to do business. The United States of America will not do business with you.

He effectively put Iran out of business -- you know, out of business. And he also took out some of their nuclear scientists as you know. Soleimani, al-Baghdadi, he took out both of them.

I can only imagine that their feelings are hurt and I can only imagine that they don't like Donald Trump or anybody that wears our last name. So I don't think this is anything new.

There's never been a tougher president on Iran, and it would be a huge mistake if we let them get nuclear capabilities because, believe me, they're out there. They're indoctrinating their children to chant "death to America" every single day.

You better believe that they'll use a weapon, and, you know, you'll have casualties in the U.S., the likes of which we've never seen before.

TAPPER: How much do you or your family want answers from the U.S. Secret Service given obvious failures that day?

E. TRUMP: Yeah.

TAPPER: Do you think that the head of the U.S. Secret Service should resign because of the obvious failures?

E. TRUMP: I've been very outspoken in terms of the people on that stage. I've probably said this ten times now.

The people on that stage love him. They would take a bullet for him.

TAPPER: Obviously, they ran right in front of him.

E. TRUMP: And they demonstrated that.

TAPPER: Yeah.

E. TRUMP: One of the females on the stage, she's with me for three years. I know every thing about her. She would take a bullet for me. She would take a bullet for him.

As courageous as they come, same with everybody else who is around him, the head of his detail was on that stage, believe me, the last thing that they wanted was that to happen and they did all the right things.

Now, take that ecosystem that travels with him. They show up at a rally. They get up on stage. They're were watching for people, making sure they don't run up with a knife or trying to tackle the president, or do something else that's stupid, throw something at him.

They're not watching rooftops 130 yards away, 140 yards away. There was a breakdown with whatever happened there. Is that -- is that -- I don't even want to guess. I don't want to speculate.

But they let somebody with a gun within 130 yards with the former president of the United States and very likely the future president of the United States. And there's got to be accountability for that. There has to be accountability.

Now, one of the things that was kind of devastating to me as I watched Biden last night and he said -- I spoke to him, meaning he's talking about the head of the Secret Service, and he didn't realize that that the head of Secret Service was actually a her, not a -- not a him.

And -- God, we've got to do better than this, Jake. I mean, you know, he's (ph) a pretty well-reasoned human being, but we've got to do better than this. You know, the president just doesn't even know who the person is, and it's pretty disconcerting.

But yes, as a family member, I was enraged. I saw my father's ear with a four-year-old and a six-year-old sitting on my lap and my wife sitting next to me.

TAPPER: Are they okay? Are your kids okay? That must be traumatic seeing their -- seeing -- first of all, just seeing that violent episode must have dramatic for so many Americans, but that was -- that's their grandpa.

E. TRUMP: Yeah. I think it's even more traumatic when they go into camp when they have a little friend that camp say, hey, I heard your grandfather was shot, right? That's even more traumatic for them and that's not nice. It's not nice spot to be in.

But there better be answers. There better be answers as to how that can happen. We'd better make damn sure that can never happen again because, listen, regardless of political affiliation, it's -- could you imagine just consequences on the world stage if a U.S. president getting assassinated on live TV? By the way, you guys were covering the rally.

TAPPER: Yeah.

E. TRUMP: Everybody was covering the rally. Could you -- I mean, that lim -- that image will live on in history. I mean, the current image will live on history, and frankly, his courage of standing up and pumping his fists in the air with blood streaming down his face, that's going to, you know, show a true fighter that he is. I was proud of him in that moment. But this cannot happen in the United States of America. TAPPER: So, let me turn to some -- a more fun subject, and that is

there's an NBC News report that quotes a longtime Republican operative familiar with your father's vice presidential deliberations.

And this report says your dad was on the verge, he hadn't yet, but he was on the verge of picking North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as his VP, but then you and your brother, Donald Jr., stepped in. The source says, quote, Don Jr. and Eric went bat shit crazy, that -- I'm quoting.

Why would you do something so stupid? He offers us nothing. They were basically all like "JD, JD, JD."

E. TRUMP: Yeah.

TAPPER: Is that -- is that true?

E. TRUMP: No, I don't make my father's decisions. I -- in fact --

TAPPER: But did you -- of course not, but like did you -- did you want J.D. Vance and make the argument?

E. TRUMP: I think the governor's an amazing guy. We got to know him very well. And -- brilliant, articulate, knows energy as well as anyone, would make a great pick.

I know Rubio for years and he is an amazing guy who's also incredibly articulate and perfect and we know, obviously, J.D. Vance incredibly well.

[16:15:02]

Same thing -- incredibly successful, incredibly articulate, has risen through, obviously, the governmental system incredibly quickly, did well in the private sector, military, everything, right?

I mean -- and I can make the case for any one of those three people. I happen to love J.D. and I also see the chemistry between J.D. and my father.

But no, I've never been that person. Also, Jake, I run -- I run a great company and I'm very proud of the company I run.

And I will sit there and I'll fight by my father's side every single day. But at the end of the day, the person he chooses as a vice president, make no mistake about it, that's Donald Trump's decision. That's not my decision.

And I might have opinions in this world, and sometimes I chose not even voiced them, right, because I stay in my lane, but no, that was -- that was 100 percent -- that was 100 percent Donald Trump's decision. And I think he made the right one, but that was his decision to make.

TAPPER: Eric Trump, thank you so much. I'm so sorry, what guys went through. E. TRUMP: Thank you.

TAPPER: But I'm glad he was ultimately okay, and good luck with your kids. That's -- that's traumatic and I'm sure upsetting for them, not to mention for you and your whole family.

E. TRUMP: Thank you.

TAPPER: Thanks again.

E. TRUMP: Appreciate.

TAPPER: Enjoy the convention. Really appreciate it.

Coming up, she was Donald Trump's last rival in the Republican primary. And now, Nikki Haley will have a primetime speaking slot at the Republican national convention tonight. We're going to take a closer look at the argument she's going to be making to Trump skeptics out there.

Plus, we're also standing by to hear from President Biden, who is due to address the NAACP convention in Las Vegas this hour.

Plus, New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez found guilty on all counts in his bribery and corruption trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): I have never been anything but a patriot of my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The punishment he faces and the calls for him to immediately resign from the U.S. Senate. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:48]

TAPPER: Welcome back.

We're live in Milwaukee, in battleground Wisconsin. Day two of the 2024 Republican national convention. There is quite a bit to cover. Let's go straight to the political panel to discuss all of it.

David Chalian, we just heard from Eric Trump. Your reaction?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yeah. I mean, first of all, just from a human perspective, it's harrowing to listen to him talk about sitting with his kids and watching this -- his kids encountering at camp, somebody saying, I heard your grandfather got you. I mean, that -- it's like a whole different experience from everybody else.

TAPPER: These are four and six, they're little. Can you imagine watching that with your kids?

CHALIAN: That's just like unbelievably painful to hear that they went through that.

TAPPER: Yeah.

CHALIAN: His demand for accountability on this, and from the Secret Service is interesting to hear as was his pushback on some notion that the agents weren't doing their job in the protective detail.

TAPPER: Right. He was -- he was he defended the agents.

CHALIAN: Exactly.

TAPPER: But there he said, obviously some larger issue was there.

CHALIAN: And clearly, President Biden feels the same way. I mean, then -- you've heard the call for the independent review and to be separate and apart from the department, so that we can get a thorough understanding. There's -- as Mayorkas said, there were clearly was a failure here.

TAPPER: Yeah.

And, Nia-Malika Henderson, Nikki Haley was not initially invited to speak at the Republican convention, but tonight she will address the convention. There's this big question about whether the support -- her supporters, the people who continue to vote for her even months after she dropped out can come back to the Republican fold, a source with knowledge of Haley's please speech tells me that she is going to make the case directly to those voters tonight.

How important are those voters to Trump?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Very, very important. I mean, they're, you know, 10, 20, 30 percent maybe of the party. They continue to vote for Nikki Haley even after she dropped out.

I've been in touch with these folks. They, for instance, until the very end were holding out hope that she would even be his vice president. They didn't really like the Vance pick, but they respect her, they respect her ideas, they respect her sort of establishment approach to politics, her more moderate stances on any number of issues.

She really went after Donald Trump in very personal ways, basically saying he is too old to be president. He was unfit to be president, and those are the things that these voters believe. They think he -- his character is flawed. So she I think has a lot of work to do in trying to change these people's minds.

But I think it is good that she is there. I think obviously some of these people are reachable. Some of the ones I talk to you say, you know, they might write her in. They're sort of wavering in terms of Biden and maybe they could be persuaded to get back in the Trump camp. So, I think she's going to be a real pivotal person in trying to convince them to unify and get behind Donald Trump.

TAPPER: I do wonder, Audie, if all the talk of Joe Biden and his lack of support within the Democratic Party, both voters, according to polls and Democratic officials, we know who were publicly calling and privately calling for him to step down from the top of the ticket, I wonder if that makes Haley's job easier to convince those voters and also just rhetorically because she was out there saying while she was still a candidate, Joe Biden's not going to be president if he gets reelected, it's going to be Kamala Harris. He's not going to be able to serve all four years.

I remember but one anchor gave her some pushback and she had a little fun with that anchor after the bad debate performance.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't think that Nikki Haley is going to be onstage to do an actual convincing job to the voters. In a way, she's part of a narrative we're seeing over the couple of days which is the narrative of conversion.

So if you're not completely rah-rah Trump, you've been on the stage as a Teamster, as Amber Rose, hip hop royalty to various degrees, and you're there to say, I was once lost and now I'm found. I didn't like Trump, but now I do. Here's how I made it through that transition, and you can, too, people at home.

And I think that's a little bit of what Nikki Haley will be there to do, to say, even I who said this, this, that and the other have come to see X, because Joe Biden is Y. And each night, there'll be someone on stage who kind of plays that role.

TAPPER: Yeah. Amber Rose from Wiz Khalifa to Donald Trump.

[16:25:02]

Manu, Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, was asked to explain his previous views on Donald Trump, which were really, really harsh with his now pairing up with him for the presidency and vice presidency.

Here's what he said on Fox last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016, but President Trump was a great president and he changed my mind.

I think I can make a good case to the American people, people who may have been skeptical of the president back in 2016, who can be skeptical now that we've seen the results?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, it also helped fact that it was Donald Trump who essentially got him his Senate seat. If it were not for Trump essentially to intervening in 2022 Senate primary, he would not have won that race. He was stuck essentially towards the bottom of the pack.

But really his evolution marks, of course, the transformation of the whole Republican Party and among another tick -- candidates down ticket.

It will be interesting also tonight, Jake, is that there are a number of Senate Republican candidates who are speaking tonight in swing states from Wisconsin, from Pennsylvania, from the even --

HENDERSON: Michigan, right?

RAJU: Yeah, there are lots. And this typically in a difficult election environment, those candidates are running away from polarizing candidates at the top of the ticket. This is a much different Republican Party and it will be very evident tonight when these candidates speak.

TAPPER: And, Jeff Zeleny, CNN's reported on some of the fraudulent electors and election deniers picked to be delegates to represent their states here at the RNC. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHELBY BUSCH, ARIZONA RNC DELEGATION CHAIR: This entire delegation cast their 43 delegates to Donald J. Trump!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So that's Arizona's delegation chair Shelby Busch, who said this just last month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSCH: If Stephen Richer walked in this room, I would lynch him. I don't unify with people who don't believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Stephen Richer, who she said, if he walked into this room, I would lynch him. He's a Republican whose offense was that he spoke out against Trump's election lies.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Obviously, that came before the unity memo went across in the wake of the assassination attempt. I mean, we joke, but the reality here is, I think we're already seeing day by day by day, we're only three days on since Saturday, you almost feel this crescendo starting to build to returning to a place where we were before.

But as for the election deniers -- I mean, talking to delegates and talking to Republican officials, I mean, this is Donald Trump's Republican Party. There are many people who are not in favor of early voting. There are many people who think Democrats are trying to steal the election. So we shouldn't be surprised that sort of the entire breadth of this GOP is here.

But as for those specific comments about lynching, someone, let's hope for the next 111 days, those don't happen, but we are going to return to campaign mode and it is a heated campaign.

TAPPER: Indeed, thanks to all of you.

How will J.D. Vance, the senator from Ohio reconcile his past opposition to Trump, as well as his harsh stance on abortion that Trump is trying to get the GOP to shy away from one? One of Vance's closest allies in the U.S. Senate will join me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:32:52]

TAPPER: And we're back live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for day two of the 2024 Republican National Convention.

U.S. Senator J.D. Vance from Ohio, a once pointed critic of former President Trump, has now turned protege and is now his running mate.

I want to bring in a close colleague of the Republican vice presidential nominee. With us right now, Republican Senator Eric Schmitt of the great state of Missouri.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

What did -- what did Senator Vance tell you after he was chosen?

SEN. ERIC SCHMITT (R-MO): I mean, he was excited. I called them and we've been talking throughout this process, and it's a pretty unique life experience. We were at a dinner just a couple of weeks ago and just sort of talking about that. We've got a freshman class that's pretty close.

But I just said, I'm happy for you. I'm happy for the country. And, you know, he didn't know, for sure, right, that this was all going to play out until --

TAPPER: Like 20 minutes or something, right?

SCHMITT: Right, right. So I talked to him before that and then I talked to him right after that. And he was excited.

TAPPER: So -- I mean, also, it's something of a -- I wouldn't call it a risky pick, but he's 39. He's only been in the Senate for a year- and-a-half. He doesn't have the background like you. I mean, you were a state attorney general first.

It is -- in a way, it's conventional because he is probably the Trumpiest of those guys, of the finalists, but also in another way, it is a little risky. I mean, he's --

SCHMITT: I don't know. I think it sends a strong signal of who were fighting for as a party, which is I believe -- and I'm glad because I grew up in a -- in a blue-collar family, in a working class neighborhood that we are there for working class Americans.

So I think that put an exclamation point on what, you know, President Trump has sort of been known for, is that -- and that -- and I -- so I viewed it as a big positive. I think it accentuates J.D.'s background and he can speak on those issues with a lot of credibility. When you talk about the challenges that -- whether it's of addiction or -- or just, you know, jobs being shipped overseas. I mean, J.D.'s lived that life --

TAPPER: Yeah.

SCHMITT: -- and he came out on the other side and I think he's a great spokesman for it.

TAPPER: How did he -- how was he able to surmount the fact that he had been such a vocal critic of Donald Trump in 2016? I get that that's a long time ago. But he said harsher things than a lot of MSNBC anchors. I mean, like, how did he -- how did he do that?

SCHMITT: I mean, I think if you take his answer right, he basically said, look, I was wrong and he went through that endorsement process in 2022, and then he's getting close with President Trump and been a staunch ally.

[16:35:08]

And so, I think that's what matters most, right, is where are you going to be out on the issues? And I think he's a very effective spokesman. Like I said, he's a great messenger which I think is why it's another reason it's a great pick.

TAPPER: One of the issues that Democrats think is going to matter a lot in November is abortion, and abortion rights. Obviously, since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, they're pretty much has been a romp by the pro-abortion rights forces when it comes to referenda on the issue whether it's -- whether it's an Ohio or Montana, or Kentucky.

I want you to take a listen to what Senator Vance had to say about this issue last night on Fox.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party and his views on abortion are going to be the views that dominate this party and drive this party forward.

You have to believe in reasonable exceptions because that's where the American people are. And you've got to let individual states make this decision.

(EN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So where the American people are, just according to polling, 63 percent of American adults say abortion should be legal in all, or most cases, 36 percent say it should be illegal -- illegal in all or most cases. So how does that compute when it comes to J.D. Vance and his position

on abortion, which is pretty much 100 percent pro-life in his -- in his words?

SCHMITT: Well, I think, look, what conservatives have fought for all along for those number years was to get this issue back into the states, right? This was a political discussion that nine justices took away, right, with one fell swoop.

So, normally, in our society, we grapple with these things, right, through the electoral process, through our democracy, through our constitutional republic. That was taken away when Roe v. Wade was decided.

So, this issue is going back to the states. So that might be a national poll but again, I think it's important. What might, you know, pass in Missouri, maybe very different, Idaho may be different in New York, and I think that's what conserves been fighting for, and that's what we're going to get.

So, I think when you hear like, where are people going to weigh in, they're going to wrestle with this. It's going to be on the ballot probably in Missouri, it's going to be on the ballot in Florida, and those outcomes are going to be very different.

And, by the way, it may not end there, right? You're going to have different ballot initiatives. It may take a decade for this thing to ultimately play itself out, but, you know, I've always advocated that are the people to actually weigh in on this. That was taken away for very long time.

TAPPER: All right. Senator Schmitt, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it.

With so much attention here in Milwaukee, the discomfort among Democrats raising serious questions about President Biden at the top of their ticket continues. More on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:01]

TAPPER: At any moment, we're expecting President Biden to make his latest pitch in the battleground state of Nevada, addressing the NAACP, it's a major gathering of Black voters and activists. The public calls for Biden to step aside have quelled in recent days. CNN sources say that private efforts are still very much alive.

"The Washington Post" also reporting that some Democratic lawmakers and campaign staff worry that some of Biden's top aides might not be giving him the full picture on the state of the race, allowing him to feel more optimistic than he should.

Some House Democrats are even circulating a letter to delay Biden's official nomination. They're now in a potentially messy collision course with Biden allies who are working to solidify Biden atop the ticket by moving up his nomination vote to as early as next week.

Let's toss it over to Erin Burnett, who's with a group of political experts who have been following the story closely -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Jake.

So, Jamal, you know, obviously is a longtime Democratic strategist.

It is incredible to see what were watching here with these machinations behind the scene and what seems to be a willingness by some of the Democratic Party to sort of throw out the rules if it's in their interest to remove the top of the ticket.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There are embers that are still around of people who are saying whether or not Joe Biden to stay at the top of the ticket, but I don't detect any flames. Now those embers could always spark and something could happen. But over the last few days, particularly since Saturday, things have calmed down very much more than they were last week.

The president has done a good job I think managing this crisis after the assassination attempt. And I think that, too, has made people feel like he's on top of this crisis in a way that, that gives some comfort to people who are watching this.

BURNETT: Important analogy. Embers versus -- versus flames.

All right. What do the polls show? What do the polls show? When you look at the battleground states, I mean, I know the general -- national polls post that debate didn't really show much of a move. I know this comes down to a few states. How do you see it?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, there wasn't really that much of a move and even if you watched the debate, you thought you were witnessing a political earthquake, it has registered only as a modest tremor, and we may well see the same thing come in the aftermath of Saturday's tragic near assassination of Donald Trump, that it felt like an earthquake, may only show up in the polls as a tremor.

The problem Joe Biden has is the fundamentals are really against him. His job approval is low. And he's struggling with key parts of the Democratic coalition, including Black men in particular. So that's why this speech that Biden is about to give is really interesting because this is a piece of the Democratic coalition where there has been some real and sustained attrition of his support that he needs to regain if he wants to have a shot at beating Donald Trump.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, look, a president, a Democratic president cannot win with the numbers that Joe Biden currently has with Black voters, specifically younger Black voters, and a lot of young Black men, maybe 16, 17, 18 percent nationally, I think may potentially vote for Donald Trump.

This idea that Joe Biden can lead the country for another four years, Erin, is naive to me. I don't think there's a single person in the United States of America who believes Joe Biden, if he were to win, could continue on. I think that's why you're seeing this mathematical deficit, not all with Democratic voters, but also independent voters who's saying, give us somebody else or we're sitting on the couch. I think a lot of people will be on the couch.

[16:45:08]

BURNETT: All right. But the polls on Black voters obviously is about to address the NAACP in this context. That attrition, that Shermichael's talking about is not new?

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. I mean, look, we've been -- we're all living in the shadow of the disintegration of the FDR coalition, which has been coming apart for almost so century now. And little bits and pieces of mood as the Republican coalition or moved into the gettable realm of independence. The problem is that the Democratic Party really does need massive turnout of African Americans to sustain them, given how much, of, how much of the white working class that they've lost.

And then when you particularly look at the battleground states, talking about the national polls overlooks the fact that the Electoral College, you need about three more points for the Democrat at this point to surmount the lead that Republicans have in those battleground states.

What we see right now with Joe Biden -- I mean, I agree with Shermichael on this, what you see with Joe Biden, he's not really campaigning for president right now. He's campaigning to stay president and that's just a very different vibe.

SIMMONS: I will tell you, I was in Detroit over the weekend with my African American family and a lot of friends and I kept asking --

BURNETT: Well, he gave a very rousing rally on Friday.

SIMMONS: He did have a great rally. It was at my rival high school, so I didn't particularly want to go there. But --

(LAUGHTER)

SIMMONS: But what we did see, though, is I talked to a lot of people. I'll tell you, people were very sober about it. They got the idea that Joe Biden might be struggling, but they said, anybody but Donald Trump. And I think they're willing to go along with him.

So this crowd that I think he's going to talk to in Las Vegas, which will be older, which will be probably a little bit more educated, a little bit more were activists, they are going to rally behind Joe Biden. I think you expect to see them do very well.

It won't be a crowd like the one Shermichael talking about this younger, that maybe has a little bit -- have few more questions.

SINGLETON: Yeah, but that's the problem, right? He needs more than just those older, more affluent educated, African American. SIMMONS: But those people vote.

SINGLETON: They do. You also need a coalition of Latino voters. You need a coalition of suburban white voters, where there's continued deficit for the president, which again is why I think many Democratic lawmakers are looking at the realities of these polls and said, look, you can't win my state of Michigan, you can't win in Arizona, you can't win in Wisconsin. We need someone else.

ANDERSON: I do think though that this is also an issue of -- is this about Trump versus Biden or is this about the Democratic Party struggling with this group?

I did a focus group for "The New York Times" of 11 Black men who were voting for Donald Trump. Their concerns were not just about Biden specifically, but what they felt was an approach from the Democratic Party that did not speak to that.

BURNETT: So, it's not you swap for fill in the blank, right? Your favorite candidate in the day and all of a sudden they feel differently.

ANDERSON: Correct.

BURNETT: All right. All stay with us as our rolling coverage continues.

Now, meantime, on the Democratic Party, gold bars, stacks of cash, a luxury car -- you may know who we're talking about. Now, a guilty verdict today. The latest in the criminal saga of a senator that is like a "Sopranos" episode, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:52:20]

TAPPER: Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty -- guilty on all charges. Just hours ago, a jury convicted New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez in an all 16 counts, including bribery and extortion and wire fraud and obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent in his federal corruption trial.

CNN's Kara Scannell is live in New York, outside the courthouse.

And, Kara, what did Senator Menendez say about the verdict as he left court today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, as those first jury guilty verdict was read in court, the senator shook his head from side to side. He came outside to speak to cameras. He was defiant and pledged to appeal.

Here's more of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MENENDEZ: Obviously, I'm deeply, deeply disappointed by the jury's decision. I have every faith that the law and the facts did not sustain that decision, and that we will be successful upon appeal. I have never violated my public oath. I have never been anything but a patriot up my country and for my country. I have never, ever been a foreign agent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCANNELL: You know, Jake, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, also came out to speak to the cameras. He said this was a shocking level of corruption that was brought to an end by this conviction. Prosecutors say that Menendez sold the power of his office in exchange for gold bars, nearly half a million in cash, and acted as an agent for government of Egypt while he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

There are growing calls for his resignation, including tonight from Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, as well as New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. Now, a conviction is no automatic expulsion from Congress. So it would require a two-thirds vote by the Senate -- Jake.

TAPPER: Kara Scannell, thank so much.

A video of a phone call between Donald Trump and RFK Jr. What we see is not causing a stir yet what you hear is sparking alarm. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:59:20]

TAPPER: Former President Donald Trump continues to espouse false conspiracy theories about childhood vaccines. A leaked video by Robert Kennedy Jr.'s son shows Trump calling RFK Jr. and making these false claims about vaccines during that phone.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines and it looks like it's been for a horse. Not a, you know, 10 pound or 20 pound baby.

And then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically. I've seen it too many times. And then you hear that it doesn't have an impact, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: This conspiracy theory about the dangers of childhood vaccines is flat out wrong. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, severe allergic --