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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Tonight: Biden Gives First Public Remarks About Exiting 2024 Race; CNN Poll: Harris Improves On Biden's Performance Against Trump; CNN Poll: Harris Does Better Than Biden Among Young Voters, Black Voters, And Female Voters; I.L. Gov. JB Pritzker Responds To VP Speculation; Notable Absences; Harris Campaign Maps Out Race, Possible Paths To Victory; VP Harris Seeks To Capitalize On Social Media Influence In Presidential Bid; Congress Takes A Break. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired July 24, 2024 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: You can be forgiven for forgetting the degree to which House Republicans can sometimes barely govern their way out of a paper bag. They just adjourned until after Labor Day with much unfinished business, and we'll explain what went down.

Plus, the TikTok in the 2024 race, we've seen it already with the Brad and the coconut references in the Harris campaign. Can influencers actually move the needle with young voters in November?

But leading this hour, Donald Trump just minutes away from his very first campaign event since the major shakeup in the 2024 race where his Democratic rival is no longer President Biden. What will Republicans do with all those Let's Go Brandon t-shirts? If your name is Brandon, might be a good time to get some personalized swag.

Price to move, let's go straight to CNN's Kristen Holmes, who is in Charlotte, North Carolina for Trump's rally.

And Kristen, Trump's speech tonight could really give us a glimpse of how he plans to publicly go after Vice President Harris for the rest of the campaign.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake. We expect to see him sort of starting to frame up those attacks against Vice President Harris. All we've seen so far are these kind of rants on social media. At one point, he called her as dumb as rocks. But in a call with reporters yesterday, he actually was much more on message attacking her record, not just as vice president, going back to her time as a California prosecutor.

That is exactly what his team wants him to do, to stay on message and to continue linking her to Biden's policies, particularly when it comes to immigration, inflation, crime. They believe that they can make a case that she is just another arm of Biden when it comes to these unpopular policies. But of course, as we know, Donald Trump tends to go off message. And usually he uses these rallies as an opportunity to test various kinds of messaging to see what the crowd reacts to. And you have to remember, Jake, this is a critical time for Donald Trump because really a race to define Kamala Harris. Harris is hitting the ground running as we know, Trump is going to try all of that he can. It's not just going to be him, it's going to be a social media army, it's going to be his campaign to define who Kamala Harris is in Republican terms, in the terms they want to define her as. They want to fill that void of knowledge that people have about or don't have about Kamala Harris with negative imagery, with, again, links to things that are unpopular about the Biden administration. But time is running out, they're up against the clock.

So we'll see what he does tonight when he takes that stage and really starts to lay out those attacks and that plan for running against Harris.

TAPPER: All right, Kristen Holmes in Charlotte, North Carolina, thanks so much.

Meanwhile, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris spent the day engaging with black women voters Indianapolis, Indiana. This is a brand new CNN poll shows some critical movement in the early days of a Harris Trump race. CNN's Eva McKend has more now on the outline that the Harris presidential campaign believes is their electoral path to victory.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVA MCKEND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kamala Harris pressing forward now that she's the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I am president of the United States --

MCKEND (voice-over): Addressing the historically black sorority Zeta Phi Beta in Indianapolis, focusing on winning over women of color.

HARRIS: With your support, I am fighting for our nation's future.

MCKEND (voice-over): And praising her former running mate, President Joe Biden, as he's set to address the nation tonight on his decision to leave the race.

HARRIS: He cares about the future. He thinks about the future.

MCKEND (voice-over): Attendees here in Indianapolis say Harris is the right choice.

MARTHA JOHNSON, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: She's been tried and tested. She's served as vice president. She's had a political career. She's a senator. She's the attorney general of California.

MCKEND (voice-over): The vice president's outreach today follows a speech to her own Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority convention two weeks ago. More than 1,500 of her sisters are now sending support to the Harris campaign in the amount of 19.08 in honor of the founding year of their sorority.

HARRIS: These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back.

MCKEND (voice-over): The Harris campaign also outlining their strategy in a memo today, sharing what they see as their electoral path to victory over Donald Trump.

HARRIS: The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin.

MCKEND (voice-over): Saying they will, quote, "play offense" in the blue wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that Biden was able to flip in 2020, and the sunbelt states of North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, where the campaign argues the vice president's advantages with young voters, black voters and Latino voters offer multiple pathways to 270 electoral votes.

HARRIS: We have an election to win.

MCKEND (voice-over): A new CNN survey of previous poll respondents shows Harris improving on Biden's performance among crucial voting blocs seen as trouble spots for the President, including women, younger voters, black voters and Hispanic voters, those groups critical to Biden's victory in 2020 and now Harris's chances in November.

[17:05:18]

HARRIS: When we organize mountains move, when we mobilize nations change, and when we vote, we make history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKEND (on camera): And Jake, the vice president not only running a race defined by opposition to Trump, but also touting the administration's record, speaking today about capping the cost of insulin at $35, passing the child tax credit, addressing student loans among other policy issues. Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Eva McKend in Indianapolis, thanks so much.

Let's bring in former Democratic presidential candidate and former DNC chair and former Vermont governor, Howard Dean.

Governor, good to see you. I first want to ask you about President Biden and his address to the nation this evening. What do you expect him to say about leaving the 2024 presidential race and about Vice President Harris' presidential run?

HOWARD DEAN, (D) FORMER GOVERNOR OF VERMONT: I expect him to explain what his thinking is, which I think is fairly clear. And I expect him to thank the American people. And I expect him to explain why Vice President Kamala Harris is the right person for the job. And I think that's pretty straightforward.

TAPPER: The Democratic National Convention is less than a month away. Do you think President Biden will give a primetime speech?

DEAN: I suspect so, but I have no inside knowledge of that at all. But don't remember -- don't forget that we're going to nominate Kamala Harris probably sometime in the next 10 days because of the chicanery that's going on in Ohio, insisting that we have the nomination settled by August 7 or it doesn't get on the ballot. So I think this is going to get wrapped up pretty quickly. She already has the delegates to win.

TAPPER: You ran a real grassroots campaign in 2004. Given that and given your time as the chairman of the DNC, what do you say to the Democratic voters out there who voted for Biden in the primary and are disappointed that the party is picking the nominee through delegates and not through direct votes?

DEAN: Well, as far as I've seen, there's almost no disappointment whatsoever. Our delegation here in Vermont, which is a pretty liberal state, voted unanimously in favor of Kamala Harris after the President withdrew. So if there's disappointment, I haven't heard any of it except this stuff that Trump says and who obviously doesn't care about democracy anyway.

TAPPER: A new CNN poll gives an early glimpse into a likely Harris- Trump race. There's no clear winner between them. He's up a few points, but it's within the margin of error, 49 for Trump, 46 for Harris. That's closer than it was in a poll last month between Biden and Trump when Biden was behind Trump by six percentage points outside the margin of error. When a Harris Trump race is broken down by political party in this new poll, Independents 43 percent for Harris, 46 percent for Trump, she needs to improve those numbers significantly among Independent voters. How do you think she can do so, already there's a lot of criticism of her record saying that she's a San Francisco progressive out of touch with the American voter?

DEAN: Well, that sounds like Republican talking points. I don't think anybody gives a damn what the Republicans say.

The real key to this, your reporters previously were pretty clear about, is young voters. Joe was not able to rally young voters. He should, he had a great record. Kamala Harris is -- the excitement of Kamala Harris for young people is extraordinary. I would predict now that third party candidate, RFK Jr., is going to actually take more in this atmosphere, is going to take more votes away from Trump than -- which is probably why they're talking about RFK endorsing Trump and him getting a job. I think that's unlikely.

But I think this changes everything. It now gives Democrats a real alternative, and Trump becomes the old codger who probably has some cognitive issues.

TAPPER: Trump has cognitive issues, you're saying?

DEAN: Yes, I mean, it's pretty clear. You get up and make a speech and lie 73 times in 10 minutes, you got some problems there.

TAPPER: This new CNN poll also shows Vice President Harris doing better than President Biden when it comes to these key groups. As you note, 47 percent with ages 18 to 34, that's up four points from Biden, 50 percent with female voters, also up four points, 78 percent with black voters, it's up seven points. What do you make of the shift among these groups? And are you concerned about the shifts that might be going in the other direction among Independents or moderates, white working class voters, et cetera?

[17:10:21]

DEAN: Look, I don't think that Kamala is going to lose any votes that we hadn't already lost. I mean, the great thing about her candidacy is she's a fresh face and she's almost 20 years younger than Trump. That makes it -- I mean, this election is about a generation shifting. And the problem is neither party shifted generations because of what Joe Biden did. We have now started that generational shift.

And I do think that it's going to cause enormous flocking towards Harris in key states. Remember, as you well know, these national poll readings are relatively meaningless because it really only matters in six or seven swing states. And Harris is doing well, much better, I think, in all of them.

TAPPER: All right, former DNC chair and former Vermont governor Howard Brush Dean III, thank you so much for joining us, sir. Appreciate it.

Ahead, President Biden's address to the nation, that's tonight. Join us for special coverage along with Anderson Cooper starting at 08:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Anderson and I will be co-anchoring that.

But first, one of the names once considered a potential VP candidate for the VP, Kamala Harris.

Plus, graffiti sprayed across landmarks here in Washington. Here's one that says Hamas is coming. That's a terrorist group, Hamas. They kill innocent civilians. The scene just as the Israeli prime minister addressed Congress just a few hours ago.

This high stakes political moment as Israel's war continues against Hamas in Gaza. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:57]

TAPPER: Staying in our politics lead, as vice president, Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. She's quickly securing support among delegates, sparking a spike in fundraising. One of the big questions left right now is who will be her running mate. One name being discussed is Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. He joins us now.

Governor Pritzker, have you been asked by the Harris campaign to submit any paperwork to be vetted as vice president?

GOV. JB PRITZKER (D-IL): Well, I'm not going to talk about any private conversations that I've had. But as you know, I've been traveling the country advocating for Kamala Harris, for the democratic ticket and making sure that were beating Donald Trump everywhere we can.

TAPPER: If asked, would you accept an invitation to be her running mate?

PRITZKER: Well, I think, you know, I love being governor of Illinois. The people of Illinois have graced me with that title for the last two elections. And, you know, I'd be reluctant to make a change, but it'd be hard to resist a call and consideration if the nominee called me to ask to be considered for vice president.

TAPPER: How has President Biden stepping out of the race, how has that changed the electoral landscape for Democrats, do you think?

PRITZKER: Well, I think that the palpable excitement and honestly, I've had, I don't know, hundreds of calls in the last three days. People are really genuinely psyched and ready to go. And so that's very different. There was a lot of uncertainty in the last month or two, a lot of attacks that were, you know, feeling, I think the pressure of, and now we've got Kamala Harris who just brings this kind of, I don't know, get up and go sort of energy. Young people really excited.

I can tell you about two young people who I talked to a couple of weeks ago who basically said they're not sure they were going to vote. Now they're volunteering for Kamala Harris's campaign. So it's a big difference.

TAPPER: Of course, the cliche is does it play in Peoria? And since you represent Peoria, I guess my question would be, how do you think Vice President Harris appeals to white working class voters that have been eluding President Biden and Democrats? How does she appeal to suburban Chicago voters who maybe were starting to slip away from the Democrats with President Biden at the top of the ticket?

PRITZKER: Well, let's talk about exactly those two demographics. First of all, she's been an advocate for workers rights, making sure that working families have what they need to thrive. She's been fighting for that her whole career. And so that's not a demographic that's slipping away. That's a demographic that's solidifying around the democratic nominee because of her views on workers' rights and raising wages for middle class Americans.

And then, to your point about suburban voters, I've seen this in Illinois and in Illinois elections. Standing up strongly for reproductive rights makes a big difference. People want to make sure that the agenda of Project 2025 that Donald Trump is 100 percent foursquare in favor of but is seemingly running away from it because he realizes he's going to lose votes. Those views of the Republicans are driving suburban voters away, and they're driving them toward the Democratic Party. But it's our views on standing up for freedoms for, you know, against book bans, for banning book bans, making sure that we're standing up for reproductive rights and, of course, standing up for voting rights and civil rights. These are things that suburban voters care deeply about. And it's why they're drifting toward the Democratic Party. And especially, I think, they've been enlivened by Kamala Harris' candidacy.

TAPPER: It seems as though Senator JD Vance from Ohio, I mean, he mentioned Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, I think, four or five times in his acceptance speech, it seems like he was picked, I'm sure, for any number of reasons, including he does seem the heir to MAGAism or whatever. But beyond that, the fact that he's from the Midwest, from the states, you know, Minnesota to Pennsylvania, et cetera, that that is one of the reasons. Do you think that Vice President Harris, whoever she picks, should consider somebody from that region specifically to keep that blue wall intact?

[17:20:21]

PRITZKER: Well, the blue wall is very important, no doubt, to Democrats. And so, you know, when JD Vance, frankly, attacks women, hides the fact that he is opposed to reproductive rights, even in cases of rape or incest, you know, he's the Donald Trump mini me. Donald Trump has done terribly in Illinois. And across the Midwest, there is a growing sense that JD Vance just doesn't stand where most Illinoisans and most Midwesterners stand. So, you know, it's a question.

Donald Trump seems to be drifting away from his own nominee because he's had so many weird views that he's expressed. I mean, he's had the worst launch since Sarah Palin. So, I'm not sure if Donald Trump is going to frankly throw him off the ticket and pick somebody else because he's been just terrible on the stump.

TAPPER: So Chicago is going to host the Democratic National Convention in August, given the assassination attempt on former President Trump, given all the protests, the anti-Israel protests that we've seen as recently as today with somebody spray painting Hamas is coming one of the statues outside Union Station here in Washington, D.C. How have the security preparations changed?

PRITZKER: Well, let me remind you that we had a terrific convention in 1996. There are protests at every convention. I think I've been to everyone since I was able to vote. Always our protests.

Here in Chicago, you know, we take this very seriously. We've hosted the NATO summit before. We've hosted conventions. We've hosted more conventions than any other city in the United States. So we're prepared. We've got every level of law enforcement from secret service and FBI, all the way to the sheriffs, as well as, of course, Chicago Police Department and surrounding police departments from states next to ours.

So, we're ready. We also think it's going to be a convention where people are going to express themselves. There's no doubt about that. But the convention itself is a palpably exciting event now. And I think inside the hall, you're going to see Democrats coming together and supporting the person I think is going to be our nominee, and that's Kamala Harris. TAPPER: All those, the description of all the law enforcement converging on Chicago just brought back the images of that last scene in "The Blues Brothers." Anyway, Governor Pritzker, thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Good to see you.

PRITZKER: Thanks so much, Jake.

TAPPER: In her constitutional role as president of the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris was one of the notable absences today as the Israeli prime minister addressed Congress. And as a sitting senator, Donald Trump's VP pick, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, was also absent. Despite their reasons why, will voters remember? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:27:32]

TAPPER: New video shows an anti-Israel protester right here in the nation's capital writing the phrase Hamas is coming on the Columbus Circle statue in Washington, D.C. Hamas, of course, recognized terrorist group by the government of the United States. This moment's after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress in which he called such protesters useful idiots for Iran. CNN's Miguel Marquez is near the capital for us.

Miguel, Capitol police say they arrested people. They deployed flashbangs, pepper spray. What did you witness?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we saw all of that. Flashbangs, pepper spray, four or five people detained along the afternoon, protesters started on the west front of the Capitol. They marched around and then ended up here at Union Station, the main train station for Washington, D.C. You can see the capital in the distance. And then that is the Columbus memorial that they have spray painted.

The Liberty Bell, the mock-up of the Liberty Bell has also been spray painted. And then over in this direction, they burned two American flags, one right over here. There was also an effigy of Benjamin Netanyahu that they burned right there, an American flag there. These giant flag poles in front of Union Station, there were American flags there, they tore them down and then they raised Palestinian flags.

There are still police out in front of Union Station. It is open now. Protesters, there were so many out here at one point. They shut down the station essentially, but police have now sort of established order. They're starting to clean up some of the streets and there's a small knot of protesters over in that direction.

But tonight they are promising to go to the Watergate hotel where Benjamin Netanyahu is staying. But that is a fortress as well. So it's not clear how much they're going to be able to do or if he would even hear them if they are chanting outside. Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Miguel Marquez, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Let's discuss this and all of the news on our panel. Alex, let me start with you. Big speech from the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Capitol Hill. Notably absent, citing official events that they had scheduled previously, Trump's vice presidential pick, Senator JD Vance and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the president of the Senate. Israel and the war against Hamas and Gaza has been an issue that threatened Biden's candidacy in many, many ways.

Where does Vice President Kamala Harris, the candidate, take her campaign?

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Well, it still threatens her candidacy, too, because she is still tied to Joe Biden's candidacy. Now she has made winks and nods that she sort of disagrees. In fact, sometimes she is really angered and upset parts of Biden's national security team because she has just given them a little bit of a heads up before she has sort of declared solidarity with the Palestinian people, or at least like has criticized Netanyahu's moves and how he has conducted this war.

[17:30:22]

Now, she's going to try to thread this needle because she is facing the same problem that Joe Biden is that, like even if you were to completely embrace the Palestinian cause, it actually could lose you as many votes in the center as it would gain you on the left. And that's what she's going to continue to try to do this next four months.

NEWTON: And, Jeff, you have new reporting on the timeline for Vice President Harris to make her running mate decision and those whom she's considering. Tell us.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, it's an accelerated, truncated process. I am told that she's less than two weeks away from naming her running mate, perhaps as much as or as little as 10 days away. The reason for that is the roll call vote, of course, is going to take place between August 1st and August 7th, so the window is going to before August 7th, I'm told.

And we still know that the vetting is underway aggressively now, looking at the financial documents, voting records, public statements. Now, most of these people are in the public eye. Most of the contenders who are governors, one senator, a cabinet secretary --

TAPPER: (Inaudible).

ZELENY: Yes, because and some people are wondering about Pete Buttigieg. But talking to a couple people today, they say, one, he's already been thoroughly vetted and Senate confirmed. He has a very close relationship with Vice President Harris, and he's pretty good out there on the campaign trail.

Still, there are obviously questions about her asking him to join. But I'm told that pollsters are also looking at hypothetical matchups in some key battleground states. Would Josh Shapiro, for example, help considerably in Pennsylvania? Would Roy Cooper put North Carolina more in play?

Again, these are hypothetical matchups, but this is the kind of testing that's going on. So what is going to happen almost four years to the day that Senator Harris received a phone call, four years ago, August 11, 2020, she'll be making that phone call to someone else so a bit of poetry here in terms of --

TAPPER: Yes, talk about an expedited process. And, Jasmine, speaking of vetting, you've covered Harris for years.

JASMINE WRIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, NOTUS: Yes.

TAPPER: Back in 2021, you reported on dysfunction in her staff, the vice presidential staff. You wrote that few insiders believed she was being well-prepared for the possibility of launching a presidential campaign of her own. At that point, it was unknown when that might be.

WRIGHT: Yes.

TAPPER: Do you think that's changed? I mean, that was 2021, this is three years later, do you think that's changed?

WRIGHT: I mean, I think what has changed is her ability to hone a message. And that was largely changed by the fall of Roe in 2022. Obviously, when I think about her vice presidency, I break it up into that pre-Roe, post-Roe, because after 2022, it allowed her to focus. It allowed her team to focus.

Of course, she brought new people on from that first year where there was a lot of infighting and dysfunction, but it allowed her to focus her message, travel the country, talk to people about abortion, and really get her name out and make herself the lead messenger on that. Something that, at first, she was kind of reticent to do because she didn't want to be pigeonholed, but she really leaned into that, and it allowed her to really talk on these loud stages and give her something to combat, give her an ability to bring back that prosecutorial message that she has leaned on so much in her career.

And so, I think that there is a market difference between the vice president that you're seeing now and the vice president that you are seeing in 2021. But the tension point is going to be for her over these next three years to make sure that infighting does not come back, particularly as she tries to join the Biden campaign now with her own, or the post-Biden campaign now with her own campaign. That tension is still going to be there as she really races into November.

TAPPER: She's leaning into this prosecutor thing. She was the district attorney of San Francisco, then the attorney general of California. She's leaning into it in a way that she definitely did not when she was running for president in 2019. I don't think she even got to 2020, right?

WRIGHT: Yes.

TAPPER: She dropped out December of 20 --

WRIGHT: December 2nd, 2019, I remember well.

TAPPER: Now, this was, in fairness to her, this was the Black Lives Matter era and then 2020, I think was George Floyd, the murder of George Floyd. So I understand why maybe that wouldn't have played with the Democratic base, but this is who she is.

THOMPSON: Yes. I mean, there's two things. One is she used the rhetoric of prosecuting the case against Donald Trump while she's running for president. I think Jasmine remembers that very well. But you're completely right in that she definitely stayed away from her prosecution record. The whole meme among left wing activists of Kamala as a cop, really did make her very defensive about --

TAPPER: As if being a cop is a bad thing.

THOMPSON: Yes. And it made her defensive about that record. And she would only basically say, yes, I want to prosecute Trump but then sort of stay outside of that realm otherwise.

[17:35:02]

ZELENY: It cuts so much differently now, though. I mean, prosecuting Donald Trump, obviously, but just the whole record. So the general election, you can see so far she's much more comfortable with talking about that part of her life. But look, we will see.

I mean, it's all about the race to define her. And the right is also trying to find ways to define her.

WRIGHT: But I also think --

ZELENY: The prosecutor thing is more helpful now, but they will exploit the differences.

WRIGHT: I also think that the voter base that she's talking to is completely different.

ZELENY: Sure.

WRIGHT: Like they -- particularly black people have moved closer to the right when we're talking about crime, when we're talking about being more conservative on issues that feed well into her being a prosecutor. And so, I think that the vice president does best when she has a rival. And right now, she has the most rival, of a rival in former President Donald Trump who has been really the person that Democrats have tried to defeat for the last almost ten years.

And so, I think that you're going to see her leaning into that really strong forcefulness that it is her or him as she gets to November.

TAPPER: All right, thanks to one and all. Appreciate it. Coming up next, the impact of social media in the 2024 race, can influencers actually influence young voters as millions become eligible to vote for the very first time in 2024? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:40:29]

TAPPER: It's a crossover in our Pop and Politics Lead. Vice President Harris is seeing a boost in support from Gen Z influencers and celebrities. According to a CNN poll released today, Harris is slightly outperforming former President Trump among voters 18 to 34. She's also taken the lead among millennial voters. Those voters are also more excited to vote for Harris than they were to vote for her boss, President Biden.

Voters turning 18 by Election Day could actually end up being a critical voting bloc for Harris. According to new estimates by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, about 8 million young people are going to be old enough to vote by Election Day.

And there's a lot of online buzz for Harris coming from left wing TikTokers pledging their support in myriad ways, including via TikTok and Instagram influencer Harry Daniels, if you know who that is. He serenaded the vice president with Beyonce's song "Farmacia." Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

HARRY DANIELS, INFLUENCER: Yes.

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: Hi.

DANIELS: Hi. It's nice to meet you.

HARRIS: Very nice to meet you.

DANIELS: Well, yes.

HARRIS: Who is that guy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Who is that guy, indeed. Here to explain CNN Entertainment Correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister. First of all, who is that guy? Second of all, although, by the way, I'm sure he's like hugely more famous than anybody I've ever heard of. But we're seeing these content creators energized around Kamala Harris' campaign. What has them so excited about her and her, especially in relationship to their lack of excitement for Biden?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jake, first, I have to say, you've had quite the education on Gen Z lingo this week, haven't you? I mean, after that brat discussion, I think everyone is all in, and a shout out to your daughter there for educating you.

But, you know, here's the first thing, which is obvious, it's age, right? President Biden is over 20 years older than Vice President Kamala Harris and Gen Z, that is the generation between the age of 12 and 27. So someone like Biden, who is 81 years old, is older than their grandparents.

I spoke to a democratic strategist who was working with many celebrities in Hollywood, and this is what they had to tell me, Jake. They said that Kamala has a really good chance to break through with Gen Z. She's closer to their parent's age, which is more relatable.

There they are saying, you know, of course, more relatable than the age of President Biden. And part of her relatable nature is these young voters. They like seeing her smile, they like seeing her dance, and they're making memes about her, and they're eating it up.

TAPPER: And I guess the question is, is this real? Is the campaign seeing a real impact in voter support from Gen Z and the millennials, and from other social media users, especially among these first time voters? It's going to be 8 million of these people who turned 18 before November 5th.

WAGMEISTER: You know, according to the poll that you showed there up top, there does seem to be some movement. And from my sources that I'm speaking to, both in Hollywood with the young celebrity support and sources close to the Harris campaign, they are thrilled by this enthusiasm for the vice president.

They have seen that she has become this pop culture phenomenon ever since Biden stepped aside and endorsed her on Sunday. So, look, Jake, if memes were an indication for who would be winning this race, Kamala Harris would win in a landslide. Of course, it remains to be seen if those memes in this heightened awareness will translate into votes.

TAPPER: OK. I didn't just fall out of a coconut tree, so I know what it means when Gen Z and millennials use the coconut and palm tree emojis in support for Kamala Harris. But please explain for our viewers who don't.

WAGMEISTER: OK. So for our viewers who don't, back in the spring of 2023, Kamala Harris made a now infamous speech, and she shared some advice that her mother gave to her. So let's take a look at that clip, Jake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: My mother used to -- she would give us a hard time sometimes. And she would say to us, I don't know what's wrong with young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree. You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:45:19]

WAGMEISTER: So, look, critics of Harris have used that speech to poke fun at her, but admirers of Harris are eating it up. It has become a calling card on social media that you are endorsing Harris if you post a palm tree emoji along with a coconut emoji, so much so that there's even merch, Jake.

TAPPER: And we should know, live by the algorithm, die by the algorithm. It's possibly, you know, this could all flip. Right wing social media influencers could come out in droves to support Trump, likely they will. Is there any indication that Donald Trump is receiving important support from online conservative influencers against Harris?

WAGMEISTER: Absolutely. And many of the sources that I was speaking to, certainly before Biden stepped aside, said that there was huge concern for how much Donald Trump has permeated Gen Z. Donald Trump joined TikTok back in June. He got 3 million followers, Jake, just in one day.

If you look at this comparison that we're seeing here, Donald Trump has 9.1 million followers on TikTok and Kamala's HQ has 1.2 million followers. So obviously, he has a huge jump for her there in terms of following. But if you look at the likes, it does show that Kamala Harris has more engagement, which could be more significant.

TAPPER: Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Couldn't we all use time off work until after Labor Day? Your elected leader in Congress is about to get that. They're going to take a six week recess, six weeks critical work period in which a lot of critical work is not getting done. Stay with us.

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[17:51:08]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, it is July 24th and on Capitol Hill that means the month plus August recess is just around the corner. The problem here ultimately for all of us is that, lawmakers are about to leave town without passing the necessary spending bills to keep the US government running past September.

CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill for us. Manu, are we looking at yet another government shutdown crisis? Is this what's going to happen yet again?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Congress, of course, Jake, as you know, finds its way to stumble its way into one crisis after another. And what's more likely to happen in the fall is they're going to come back and really kick the can down the road for a little while longer, maybe later into the fall, maybe early winter, maybe into next year, to essentially extend the government funding so they can worry about finishing this year's business next year.

Because what's happening here is that, Congress has been unable to pass 12 annual spending bills to keep the government open. They need to do all that by the end of this current fiscal year, September 30th. But what's happened in the narrowly divided House Republican Conference is that they have been found -- Republicans have found themselves at odds with one another. Democrats have been unhappy with some of the provisions that they put

into these spending bills. As a result, they've been unable to pass several of these must pass measures, even though the Republican leadership had intended on doing so.

As a result, Jake, they have decided, the Republican leadership, to leave town early. They were going to leave town next week and then head home for August, come back September 9th. Now the session next week is completely gone. They will leave tomorrow morning after the votes in the House and then come back after Labor Day.

And talking to Republican senators and Democratic senators, and House members on both sides of the aisle, they made clear that they know this does not look particularly well on Congress among their voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): This is what divided government is. One side wants to get one thing done, the other wants to get the other thing done. And when you can't come to an agreement, there's not a whole lot of point in keeping us here because you run out of things to do.

We got to do the appropriation bills, but the House and the Senate are quite a ways apart, and it's a political year on top of that, right?

RAJU: When you talk to voters back home, how do they view what you guys are doing up here?

MULLIN: It's frustrating. It's frustrating for us that's here, because as a country we got to be moving forward. We need to be making substantive changes.

RAJU: But what's happened in this Congress in particular, that those substantial changes have been few and far between. Remember all the near fiscal crises that have happened over the past year, a potential debt default that was narrowly averted, government shutdowns narrowly averted.

They did pass a big, major spending bill earlier this year. That was last year's business to keep the government open until the end of September, which is why they're running up into that problem yet again. There is one possibility of bipartisan legislation passing the Senate next week, though, Jake. And a kid's online safety bill that has been supported by both sides of the aisle, that could pass the Senate. One rare feat of bipartisan accomplishment in this bitterly divided Congress.

TAPPER: You know, the rest of us, if we don't do our jobs, we don't get paid. Just -- I'm just saying in a Tapper administration that might be something we would consider. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thank you so much. We're back with the Last Leads, next.

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[17:58:39] TAPPER: We're back now with our Last Lead, starting with the national lead, Delta Airlines appears to have stabilized after a turbulent few days sparked by the sweeping cyber outage. Delta and its regional airlines canceled more than 7,000 flights today. Delta only canceled 52 flights, or 1 percent of the Delta schedule.

But this could be too little too late for the company that is already facing an investigation by the Department of Transportation, and too late for the passengers who have been stuck for hours or days on end.

In our World Lead Last Lead, North Korea has sent an additional 3,000 trash balloons to South Korea, floating garbage bags filled with cigarette butts and dead batteries, and even manure. Those trash balloons have been crossing the border since May.

This time the (inaudible) traveled all the way to the South Korean presidential office compound. South Korea has responded in kind, blasting propaganda and k-pop songs from border loudspeakers.

In our Earth Matters Lead, yesterday I told you Sunday was the hottest day in recorded history. Well, that record has been broken. Monday was even hotter at 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit. That was the average for the entire planet Earth from the sunny beaches of Miami to the polar ice caps. Climate scientists say the jump in temperature from Sunday to Monday was greater than anticipated.

Join CNN for our special coverage this evening of President Biden's address to the nation. I will be back for that along with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Coverage starts right before 8:00 Eastern, around 7:55 PM.

Tomorrow here on "The Lead," I got a big get here, speaking one on one with former Republican presidential candidate and governor, and US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. That's tomorrow only on "The Lead." You can follow the show on X, @theleadCNN as well as other social media venues. If you ever miss an episode of "The Lead," you can listen to the show once you get your podcast, all two hours just sitting there.

The news continues on CNN. I will see you in about two hours.