Return to Transcripts main page
The Lead with Jake Tapper
Trump Gives Campaign Speech On Economy; Axios: Harris Campaign's Google Ads Rewrite News Headlines; New Study Highlights Risks Of Artificial Sweeteners. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 14, 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]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Each bottle is about eight bucks and according to the company that fragrance notes include tart lemon, parsley, coffee undertones, musk, creamy vanilla, and what is described as mayonnaise accord.
Like us, you may be thinking, why?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Why?
SANCHEZ: Why?
DEAN: Why? Well, this got some attention when he joked he puts mayo on his coffee last year. Also questions about that.
When his partnership with Hellmann's began, the fragrance is already sold out, I like when he goes shh.
SANCHEZ: It's pretty spot on for some of these ads.
Thanks so much for being with us.
THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now. Enjoy your mayo.
(MUSIC)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: Donald Trump is moments away from another major campaign event.
THE LEAD starts right now.
An economy speech today, then a news conference tomorrow. Can he stay on message? As close allies urged the former president to quit hurdling personal insults and complaining about crowd sizes.
And the political slant in Google searches, the shocking report, revealing news headlines, rewritten by the Harris campaign. Trump asking me if it's legal, what the major search engines are saying about the practice?
Plus, what President Biden told a room full of influencers who tried to poke fun it is upcoming exit from the White House.
(MUSIC)
MATTINGLY: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Phil Mattingly, in for Jake Tapper.
We start with our 2024 lead and that breaking news, with Donald Trump expected to take the stage in just minutes for a rally in Asheville, North Carolina, where he is expected to address the economy. We will bring this to you live once it begins.
Now it comes as both campaigns now are making big plays in the Tar Heel State, with the Trump and Harris teams spending a combined $25 million in ads there, while Republicans have won North Carolina in ten out of the past 11 elections, Democratic strategists see the state as a place Harris could win this November.
The vice president planning to hold an event in North Carolina on Friday, which her campaign says she will detail economic good policy.
This all comes as CNN is reporting the Trump allies are begging the former president to just stay on message after several weeks of Trump obsessing over crowd size, implying the Harris campaign used A.I. to fake her own crowd size, and attacking Harris's race and her intelligence.
Earlier today, before heading to North Carolina, Trump was in Florida casting an early vote in the states primary, where he once again talked crowd size.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: You said Harris' crowd sizes were A.I. and that there weren't people there. There's all kinds of video evidence of people who were there who have proven that false. Can you tell us about why you made that claim?
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I can't say what was there, who was there. I can only tell you about ours. We have the biggest crowds ever in the history of politics. We have crowds that nobody's ever seen before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: We start off our coverage with CNN's Kristen Holmes, who is where Trump is expected to speak in Asheville, North Carolina.
Kristen, do we have any sense right now of what we're going to hear and what's being billed as a policy speech from the president?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, I can tell you, I've received excerpts of the speech and as it is written, it is very much on message. Obviously, I cannot say how it will be delivered, but talking to allies, talking to senior advisers, this speech is written exactly like how they want Donald Trump to talk about Kamala Harris. We have seen him sort of flounder when it comes to how exactly to go
after Harris, but this messaging is clear and it's focused on the economy. I'm going to read you some of the lines here. They're going to be paraphrase. I'm going to leave out all the name calling, but some of the stuff that he's saying is what we've heard from these Republicans the surrogates, from these advisers from these allies, they want him to link Kamala Harris to Joe Biden. They want to talk about the policies of Biden linking them to Harris saying she is just as responsible as Joe Biden, particularly because you look at that polling that we saw month after month, while Joe Biden was still in the race, Donald Trump hold ahead of Joe Biden in a particular set of issues and that included immigration, the economy, and crime.
So we're hearing today is Donald Trump actually, possibly, staying on message about that. He says Kamala Harris wants to talk about the future, but what she needs to explain is the present. He says that her -- she says her plan is going to bring down prices. Then why didn't she do it? Why are you doing it now?
And she goes into or he goes into talking about how she is still part of the current administration. One line in particular says this, says Kamala has declared tackling inflation will be a day one priority for her, but day one for Kamala was three-and-a-half years ago.
So, clearly, he is trying to get at -- she is an extension of Joe Biden because that was the messaging that was working for them when they were running against Joe Biden.
Now you can see behind me, I'm not actually sure if you can see it or not, but there are two signs up on the stage, one says no tax on Social Security, the other says no tax on tips. We are going to hear about those two policies today. Overall, do I think he's going to break down what its going to look like if he's in office?
[16:05:05]
Probably not, but one of the big questions he has is going to ask from these excerpts is were you better off when I was president, that you are now? And if so, you should vote for me.
MATTINGLY: Kristen Holmes for us, live just moments before the former president is expected to take the stage.
Now, he is in North Carolina. There is a reason why. The Trump campaign selected North Carolina for this speech today. There's also a reason why the Vice President Kamala Harris will be in the same battleground state on Friday.
Let's dive into the politics at play here. Really, you can kind of look at the strategy. Well, actually, the former president is taking the stage right now. We'll get into the details of the politics of the pathways and the population in a moment.
But right now, the former president is ready to speak on the economy.
(MUSIC) MATTINGLY: Well, you see the signs that Kristen Holmes was just referencing in her live shot behind the former president. No tax on Social Security, no tax on tips. Two of the kind of new policies the former president has rolled out, explaining how exactly in practice that would work, particularly on issues that economists and both sides aren't totally supportive of on some level.
It's still very much an open question, but it is certainly two focal points of his economic message. She's seized on over the course of the last couple of weeks. I think what's going to be interesting as we heard from Kristen Holmes and her great reporting, looking at the excerpts of the speech, the planning of these remarks heading into them is whether or not the former president will actually stick to the remarks, stick to the science that's around him.
It is a critical issue that the campaign very clearly believes draws a very important contrast, one in which they had large vintages over President Biden in poll after poll after poll, advantages they've seen winnow in recent polling as well. So the ability to define Harris as being part of the Biden-Harris administration on the economy which people up to this point had not been very supportive of or approved of is a critical part of this and doing it in a battleground state that honestly a few weeks ago, we talked to Democrats and Republicans, they said was mostly out of reach for President Biden now very much seems to be back in play with both campaigns, spending millions of dollars there.
The Trump campaign surprising I think a lot of people at the end of the month dropping their first major ad buy there.
Here is the former president come up to a lectern now.
(CHEERING)
(CROWD CHANTING "USA")
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello to North Carolina. Thank you very much.
It's great to be back in this beautiful state with the proud, hardworking patriots who make our country run, you really do. You built our country, you make our country run.
I want to thank a very good man and he's in there fighting is fighting and we know he's a fighter. The next governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson.
Thanks, Mark. Mrs. Robinson, thank you. They're great, great couple. Thank you, both. Thank you very much. Thank you both.
(CROWD CHANTING "WE LOVE TRUMP")
TRUMP: Thank you very much, what is a very frisky group, I have to say.
(CHEERING) TRUMP: And by the way, we have some very good polls coming out today, I just heard.
Despite all of the fake publicity about this radical left person from San Francisco -- how's San Francisco doing? Not like -- not like North Carolina.
Now, we have some very good polls coming out. So that's good. You know, considering the fact that they -- what they do -- I mean, what they do, what the fake news is able to do. And yet, we're leading and let them have their convention and who knows how that's going to turn out?
Joe Biden is a very angry man.
[16:10:00]
You know that, right? Because they -- they took it away from him. They usurp it. They took it away from him.
Terrible, terrible. And I'm not sure that they pick the right guy at him, but he got 14 million votes. He got 14 million votes. She got no votes.
And you look at what happens. That's not the way it's supposed to happen. They are a threat to democracy, right? As they say. They are a threat to democracy.
But thanks as well to members of Congress, Chuck Edwards and Virginia Foxx, warriors, thank you, wherever you may be. Thank you. Thanks, Chuck. Thank you, Virginia.
State auditor candidate Dave Boliek. He said, I'm only in politics for you, sir. I only -- where is Dave? Anybody that would save -- Dave, you say that and have you -- do you mean that? If you mean that, I'm for you all the way, he has my endorsement. Thank you, Dave.
A man who's doing an incredible job, so good when we won the state and we won it easily, I said, Michael Whatley, you're going to head the RNC with Lara. Where's Lara?
And they're doing an incredible, incredible job.
And also, your North Carolina GOP chairman, Jason Simmons.
Jason, thank you. Are were doing good okay? We're doing good, Jason? Okay, we're way up here.
We got to make sure everyone gets out and votes. But we're way up. So I want to thank you.
We've had tremendous experience here. We want every time we were in, this special place.
Well, my son, you know, he -- he and his wonderful wife, you know, who I'm talking about? Lara. Lara. But Eric and Lara, they named their beautiful daughter, Carolina, okay?
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: I said which one are you talking about? Well, today, I'm going to say, it's North Carolina, right?
No. She was -- she was born here, raised here, and I'm sure it's a big reason we've done so well here. She's great. She's really terrific and he is a great young man. I mean, you know, I'm a little prejudice perhaps because as you said, a little bit, but there are a great couple and thank you very much. We appreciate it.
With the help of everyone in this room, 83 days from now, can you imagine? Eighty-three days. We're almost there. We got to get it.
We're going to defeat super liberal, more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Did you hear that? The most liberal person in the Senate. Can you believe that?
We're going to defeat Kamala Harris. We're going to win back the White House today, historic landslide and we're going to take back our country. We're going to take it back, and I think it's important to say, and I never get corrected. I know its fact because, you know, if I'm slightly off, they do storage headlines. He didn't tell quite the truth.
Well, we are leading the biggest political movement in the history of our country bigger, than any movement ever before. There's never been a movement like this.
Go make America great again, MAGA, make America great again.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: I say to the Democrats when they come out, you know, we've got to try to stop MAGA. Maga is make America great again, what do you want to stop it for? That's what we're doing.
They put it a candidate and we beat him badly. How did he -- how did he do in the debate?
Then they put in another candidate. This is like you have two fighters, one guy's losing who say, come on out, let's put it in another one.
So then they put it in another candidate and we're doing very well considering the fact that she has the greatest press. She went from being a totally disrespected person six weeks ago, nobody thought she had a chance. Nobody -- and I don't think you can possibly win if she does, our country is finished. You want to know the truth.
But she was totally disrespected, the most unpopular vice president in the history of our country. And then they decided to get politically correct. We have to put her in. They put her in, and now they are putting her on the covers of "Time" magazine with an artist's sketch. They don't use a picture. They don't use the picture. They use an artist's sketch. I want to use that artist. I want to find that artists I like him very much.
But we're going to beat her also, and they may then get a third candidate, who knows? This is a little bit different than was supposed to be doing. You're supposed to have a candidate, you know, we spent probably $100 million on beating him, that we had a very good debate and we beat him and they said, well, instead of letting it go.
[16:15:04]
Who knows what happens, right? It's the world of politics. They say, we want him out. Joe, you get out now, Joe, well, I don't want to get out, I have 14 -- you get out now, Joe, we can do it the nice way, or we can do it the hard way, and he's getting out. He's getting out.
In fact, they're not even giving him a good spot to speak. You know when he's speaking on Monday. Monday is not that -- it's worst day but that's what they do and its their own form of -- it's just another I guess relatively, it's a minor form of cheating by comparison to what they really do, right?
Everything Kamala Harris touches turns bad. It all turns bad. San Francisco was a great city. Now, it's unlivable. California was a great state. Now, it's unbelievable.
She breaks everything just like she broke the border, broke our economy. But soon, we are going to fix every single problem Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have created and we are going to save our country. We are going to save America. We're going to save America.
Now, this is a little bit different day because this isn't around -- this is -- we're talking about a thing called the economy. They wanted to do a speech on the economy. A lot of people are very devastated by what's happened with inflation and all of the other things. So we're doing this as an intellectual speech. You're all intellectuals today.
Today, we're doing it and were doing it right now. And it's very important. They say it's the most important subject.
I think crime is right there. I think the border is right there for personally. We have a lot of important subjects because our country has become a third world nation. We literally are a third world nation. We're a banana republic in so many ways, and we're not going to let that happen because we're starting a freefall.
But from today and from the day I take the oath of office, we will rapidly drive prices down and make America affordable again. We're going to make it affordable again.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Under Kamala Harris and crooked Joe Biden, the American dream is dead. You don't hear about the American dream anymore. It's dead. A radical liberal policies, of course, horrific inflation decimated
the middle class and gutted the finances of millions and millions of American families, real incomes are down by over $2,000 a year per family. I mean, that's a lot of money. They're down by that and it's actually much more of your figured a certain way of you add some other categories and it's much more than that.
But down by $2,000 since she took office and it was just announced that real earnings were down once again at a record rate. The Harris price hikes have cost the typical household $28,000. Congratulations, hope everyone is happy.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: Credit card debt has exploded and it's exploded to the highest it's ever been and the cost of a typical monthly mortgage has tripled, tripled, and probably more than that, if you think about it. We were at about 2.4 percent and now you're up to 10 percent and even 11 percent, but you're really not there because you can't get the money even if you want to pay it.
In July alone, 350,000 people were added to the unemployment rolls. Kamala Harris wants to talk about her fantasies and they are fan -- everything she says, if I say something, she said that's what she's good to do, too. I say, why do you do it?
But she wants to talk for the future about these fantasies, but really what she needs to explain is the present suffering that she's caused along with Joe Biden. And by the way, they're a team. You know, she's trying to throw him overboard. She doesn't want to know who he is anymore. She hasn't wanted to talk about him anymore.
She says, let's not bring this guy in. Let's not bring him in. No, no, they were team. He appointed her as border czar and she did the worst job in the history of borders. I will tell you.
Does anyone here feel richer under Kamala Harris and crooked Joe than you were during the Trump administration?
CROWD: No!
TRUMP: Is anything less expensive under Kamala Harris and crooked Joe?
CROWD: No!
TRUMP: And we had inflation that -- I don't believe we've ever had inflation like that. You can go back a long way.
Are you better off now with Harris and Biden than you were with a person named President Donald J. Trump?
CROWD: No!
TRUMP: You know him. He's a nice gentle -- nice gentleman. With four more years of Harris, your finances will never recover.
They're never going to recover. Our country will never recover frankly, more importantly, it will be unrecoverable.
Vote Trump and your incomes will soar. Your savings will grow.
[16:20:01]
Young people will be able to afford a home. And we well bring back the American dream bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.
Thank you. Thank you.
(CROWD CHANTING "TRUMP")
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Look at this -- we have a lot of front row Joes here. Wow. I love -- what a great group of patriots they are. I don't know, they've gone to -- I think 219 or 220 and these -- this isn't a rally, but this is a different kind of a thing. Today, we're going to talk about one subject and they will start going back to the other because we sort of loved that, don't we?
But it's an important -- no, it's an important. They say it's the most important subject. I'm not sure it is, but they say it's the most important. So, inflation is the most important, but that's part of the economy.
Kamala Harris wants to be in charge of the entire U.S. economy, but neither she nor her running mate, he's a beauty, isn't he? He signed a bill. He wants tampons in boys' bathrooms. I don't think so. Tampons.
(BOOS)
TRUMP: But they've never held a private sector job in their entire professional careers and it's no wonder they're both socialists. They're actually beyond socialists. I think they skipped over socialists.
That's why I think when people find out because you don't know who these people are, I think when people find out who they are, I personally don't think they could do well in the election. They've destroyed this country.
What they've done -- when you look at San Francisco, what happens? He was the one that started it years ago. She was district attorney, then she was the attorney general of the state of California.
California is a disaster now, Gavin Newscom hasn't helped very much, but it's a disaster. She was the one.
This November, voters are going to give radical liberal Kamala Harris the opportunity to try something new, a real job in the private sector for the first time in her life. It's nice.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Kamala has declared that tackling inflation will be a day one priority. Think of it, for her, but day one for Kamala was three-and- a-half years ago. Why hasn't she done it?
You know, I keep saying, ah, she's one of these complainers, you know, like a critic. I remember growing up, I see plays on Broadway and id go to different things and you always have critics. They criticize.
But I'd see and they were critical, critical, but they never did it themselves, you know? She's a critic, that's all she is. She never did anything.
Nothing that she ever did work. When Kamala lays -- and she got lucky with this, she was the first one out. She was 22 people, I guess, I hear.
I just asked, I said that many? A lot of people, she never made it to Iowa, the great state of Iowa. She was the first one out. She had a lack of skill and people didn't like her and now she's running for president, that she'd never got one vote. Think about that.
When Kamala lays out her fake economic plan this week, probably will be a copy of my plan because basically that's what she does. Just remember, she goes to work every morning in the West Wing, her desk is ten steps from the Oval Office, she cast the tie-breaking votes, they gave us record inflation and for nearly four years, Kamala has crackled as the American economy has burned.
What happened to her laugh? I haven't heard that laugh at about a week. That's why they keep her off the stage. That's why she's disappeared.
That's the laugh of a crazy person. I will tell you. If you haven't heard it (ph). It's a crazy. She's crazy.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: They told her, don't laugh, don't laugh. No, it's -- her -- no, her laugh is career threatening. They said, don't laugh. She hasn't laughed. She doesn't laugh anymore.
It's smart, but some days, it's going to come out. That's a laugh of a person with some big problems.
She says her plan is going to be and bring down prices. She thinks she's going to bring down prices, and why -- here's a simple little few words. Why didn't you do it, Kamala? Why didn't you do it? You've been there three-and-a-half years? Why aren't you doing it now? You could do it right now.
I can say that with everything, why hasn't she secured the border? You know, she was the border czar, right? She was the border czar. It was a big deal.
She says now she wasn't the border czar. That's okay. She was in charge of the border, call it whatever you want, but she was in charge and it's -- it was the worst -- this was the worst border in history. There's never been a border in the world like this.
[16:25:01]
Why hasn't she brought back the jobs? Why? She talks about jobs. We're going to come up with a new plan. She's been there for three-and-a- half years with a man who frankly, she defrauded, the public because she didn't tell you about that, man.
I exposed him during the debate. Thank you very much. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: And now, the bombs are starting to drop in the Middle East. You see what's going on there, right? That would have never happened. Israel would have never happened. Ukraine would have never happened with Russia,
You wouldn't have ever had an embarrassment like that Afghanistan disaster, what, worst -- most embarrassing day in our country's history. Inflation would've never happened. We would have never had -- it was caused by a very stupid energy policy. Then he went back to my policy because prices were going up so much.
But it'll end, if they won this election on day one, all of that would end, and yet, this country will go through hell, and it can never come back. Once it goes, it's pretty far down already.
I'm going to have to work very hard. It's pretty far down when you let -- when you let 20 million people come into our country from places unknown and from prison and from mental institutions and terrorists.
Kamala Harris won't end the economic crisis. She will only make it worse. And why hasn't she done it?
She talks about it. She's doing a plan. You know, she's going to announce it this week. Maybe.
She's waiting for me to announce it so she can copy it.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Like, remember a couple of days ago, and we will have no tax on tips. I said that was my plan. Not only didn't she -- I mean, they came up with a plan to go after all these people violently then one day, she just utter that sound, but she'll copy a lot of other things, too.
But she'll never do 'em, she'll never do 'em. She'll say 'em for the election, but she'd never do 'em. She can't solve the problem because she is the problem. She really is, people like her.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: When I left office, I handed Kamala and crooked Joe Biden, a surging economy with no inflation. The 30-year mortgage rate was 2.4 percent. Gasoline had reached one $1.87 a gallon, and for periods of time was even lower than that.
The African American poverty rate was down 7 percent, the Hispanic American poverty rate was down 8 percent, the biggest drops, the greatest drops that you've ever seen in this country.
They've never had it so well, nobody -- nobody has. Every group, every group, men, women, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks, everybody was down at a level that nobody's ever seen. We had the -- we had some of the greatest periods of economic growth and health that any country has ever seen. I think probably more than any country has ever seen.
In four short years under President Trump, we passed the largest tax cuts in history, the largest regulation cuts in history. We unleash American energy and real income surged by more than $4,200 in just a short number of months. I mean, we -- it was -- nobody you'd never had it so good. Now you're not doing so well and hated (ph) it.
We had the strongest economy in history, has never been a country that had an economy like us. I gave Harris and Biden an economic miracle and they quickly turned it into an economic nightmare, where they nation wrecking agenda ripped straight out of Kamala's San Francisco liberal playbook, what they've done to poor San Francisco. Well, we're going to -- we're going to try and bring that back, too.
Harris and Biden waged war on American energy, threw opened our borders, flooded the country with low wage migrant workers, passed the green news scam, racked up almost 10 trillion in debt and buried our workers in job-killing regulations, costing $10,000 per family. That's a lot of money.
You don't have to imagine what a Harris presidency would look like. You're living through the misery right now, except it will get worse and you're paying the price -- a price like nobody's ever paid.
And we're disrespected all over the world as a country. We were respected before. Putin respected us. President Xi of China respected us. Kim Jong Un of North Korea respected us. We were respected by everybody in the world.
Today, we're being laughed at. Today, we're being laughed at all over the world.
You're paying the price for Kamala's liberal extremism at the gas pump, at the grocery counter, and on your mortgage bill and everything else.
[16:30:08]
How about your car insurance? How's that doing? Not too good, right?
I saw today, it's up like at 82 percent. We're not going to let this incompetent socialist lunatic keep breaking our economy for four more years. It'll destroy our country. On Election Day, we're going to tell her that we've had enough, that we can't take it anymore, Kamala. You're doing a horrible job. You're a terrible attorney general. You were terrible district attorney. You're the worst vice president in history.
Kamala, your fired! Get out of here! Go! Get out of here! Right?
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Get out!
Thank you. Thank you.
(CROWD CHANTING "FIGHT")
MATTINGLY: You've been listening to former President Trump speaking in Asheville, North Carolina, a speech billed about policy issues, talking about the economy. We certainly saw the president and I think you could tell when he was reading what was in the prompter, a script related to the economy, talking about his first term in office, a contrast that when you talk to Trump campaign advisers, they feel like is a winning message for them and up until the last couple of days, pulling seem to bear that out particularly against President Biden.
A couple of things off the top before I bring the panel in. It was true there was significant growth during the Trump administration. There's also been significant growth during the Biden administration. So, there's been no jobs, losing jobs with the Biden administration, that created over 15 million jobs.
He continues to say it the largest tax cut in history. It was certainly a significant legislative achievement for the former president and Republicans in the House and the Senate. It was nowhere near the largest tax cut in history.
But more than anything else, he underscored that there are very clear differences in terms of the economic priorities, the economic policies, and the economic messages from the two candidates here.
We should hear more from Kamala Harris, vice president when she speaks in North Carolina about the economy on Friday.
I do want to bring my panel in.
And, Mark, I want start with you. You were in that -- well, actually, we're going to start with Daniel Dale. Daniel, he's with me to fact check some of what we heard. There was definitely policy. There was also stuff about laughing.
What stood out to you, Daniel?
DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Yeah. You did some of the fact checking yourself and I appreciate that. Everything you said was right.
There are a bunch of claims that I think a lot of people would question, but that are subjective or uncheckable. He claimed California where a whole lot of people happily live is unlivable. He claimed that we're a banana republic and a third world country, I think a lot of people who dispute that.
But also a whole bunch of claims, Phil, filled that were just flat-out false. He again said that Kamala Harris was made the border czar, put by President Biden in charge of the border. That didn't happen. In reality, she was given a much more limited immigration-related assignment tasked with dealing with the so-called root causes of migration in certain Central American countries.
He repeated his claim that she's allowed 20 million people into the country. Aside from the question of her own role and responsibility, the total number of border so-called encounters under Biden and Harris is 10 million and far from all of those people were actually allowed in, that includes the people who are expelled from the country upon arriving at the border.
He boasted of how good African American poverty, the poverty level was during his administration, he didn't mention, its actually fallen to a low lower level. A new record beating the Trump era record under Biden and Harris, he called switching candidates and the Democratic primary, a minor form of cheating.
It's not a form of cheating at all. It's allowed completely within the law and the rules. And he spoke of how the Inflation Reduction Act, he said, gave us record inflation.
The U.S. has never had record inflation under Biden and Harris, even the Biden/Harris peak of 9.1 percent was about a 40-year high, nowhere near the all-time high of about 23.7 percent. And that 9.1 percent number has come way down since then. It's now 2.9 percent. So, whatever peak reached before so were near it now.
And finally, he spoke of so-called very good polls for him coming out right now and claimed we're leading. He might be seeing private numbers we're not seeing, but in the national averages of public polling, he is not leading. He's now trailing -- Phil.
MATTINGLY: All right. Daniel Dale, I apologize for stepping on you. I'm glad --
(CROSTALK)
MATTINGLY: I always appreciate your expertise. Daniel Dale for us.
I want to bring in CNN anchor Julia Chatterley.
Julia, we heard the elements of the economic message that you want -- the campaign advisors certainly want the foreign president to be talking about. What did you make in terms of the policy that we heard about?
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR: It's a good question. The good news is we're not getting into a Great Depression this week. So he has changed that tune on that, but we're also not a third world nation. We have the largest economy in the world. We're in the top ten in terms of growth per person. So, we'd just debunk -- debunk that.
He talked a lot about real income shifts and drops. It depends on the data.
[16:35:00]
What is true, of course, is that overall, in aggregate, we know that prices have risen 20 percent since 2020. So, that has been huge real income hit to American workers.
And talking about trying to tackle inflation is an important one, but we didn't get much detail on how he's going to do that, even if he said by day one, it would be sort of a priority and fixed it.
At this stage, he talked about energy policy. He's long complained that the Biden administration would destroy, quote, the oil and gas sector. Yet, if you look at the data, actually our oil and gas production, they're near records.
So, even if it does increase under a future President Trump administration, it's not been harmed by what we've seen by Biden, even if it does improve going forward.
One of the things he did say which was true, he talked about credit card debt being at record highs. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says that U.S. consumers are now carrying more debt than ever before. It's just over $1.1 trillion for the second quarter.
Fifty percent of U.S. credit cardholders are carrying a balance that was 44 percent. If you go back to John and that's actually a rate not seen since before the pandemic. Delinquencies are also at the highest point since 2011. But where was the policy to tackle any of these things? He has changed his tune in terms of pointing out some of the weaknesses. I think for the Biden administration.
But again, tacking them himself, still lacking details.
MATTINGLY: Julia Chatterley, as always, my friend, thanks so much.
The panel is here. We obviously there's a lot of advice urging the former president stay away from personal all insults to try and stay on message. Give him like a C, I guess on that point.
We got a lot to get to with three -- to prove from the president, intellectuals talking about intellectual things. We'll talk about it more in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:40:38]
MATTINGLY: And we're back with our 2024 lead. We just heard from the former President Donald Trump and his economic policy speech, billed as such just moments ago.
My panel joins me now. There is a lot here to cover.
Marc, there was a mix. You could tell when the former president, as is often the case, you can tell when he's reading from prompter and a message that I think is very clear and a contrast his advisers certainly want him to lay out. You can tell when he decides he would like to go another direction, not some level.
There's been a lot of calls, either publicly or certainly privately, to please get on message. Please stop talking about things that have nothing to do with those contrasts. How do you feel about what we heard?
MARC LOTTER, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, AMERICA FIRST POLICY INSTITUTE: I liked the part that we heard. He was blending, he -- look, he's always going to be Donald Trump. You're going to get some of those off -- off prompter riffs. You're going to get some of that.
But he talked about directly tying the higher prices that are crushing Americans pocketbooks, their household budgets to Kamala Harris through Joe Biden and thankfully, Senator Chris Coons earlier today, Karine Jean-Pierre at the White House said, it's the Biden/Harris administration. So she owns all of it.
So thank you both for that. And well keep tying her to it.
But you've got to make that case. And so he talked about gas prices, he talked about mortgages, he talked about the grocery prices that are so much higher that people are struggling and are in as long as he keeps doing that, I think that's the number one issue that face the American voters.
MATTINGLY: Honestly, one of the most fascinating lines. I don't know if you guys can pick up on it, when he riffing looked at the crowd and said, you guys don't really know who these people are yet, talking about Tim Walz and the Vice President Kamala Harris.
That's the game on some level right now, right? Like defining Kamala Harris is what both sides are desperately racing to do. And was the genesis of the speech from Trump's advisors?
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. Sure. And that's a piece of what he's trying to do here, although I would say Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have been out over the course of this last week. They've been in almost every battleground state.
I mean, if were talking about who's putting more miles on the tires to define themselves, they are doing a lot more work to define themselves and Donald Trump has been doing to define them, especially because most of the time when he's out, he's talking about himself. He's complaining -- he's talking about Joe Biden, is the nominee anymore. He's not really making this targeted case on the economy.
I think, you know, what we heard today, I think has -- has two problems for him. One is, first of all inflation today under 3 percent, back down to where it was essentially when Joe Biden took office, prices continue to fall, wages continue to rise faster than inflation, which has been true for many, many months.
So, people's economic situation is getting better. There also substantive things that Kamala Harris can talk about that she helped achieve in the White House, things like capping the cost of insulin, junk fees -- junk fee regulation. I mean, there are tangible things she can point to, but had made a difference in people's lives.
That's -- so that's one issue. The facts don't exactly line up with where his argument is. I think the other messaging problem he has is that speech was 85 percent an attack on her. There wasn't anything about what he's going to do, where there wasn't much about what he's going to do if he takes office, there wasn't a vision.
You know, people need to feel like there's something to vote for. And that was railing against her and not, you know, putting forward a message where people can say, that's what I want to support, that's what I want to --
LOTTER: I don't want to take Daniel Dale's role, but inflation was 1.4 percent on January 20th, 2021, even 3 percent is still twice as high as it was --
BEDINGFIELD: But in April, in April of 2021 --
(CROSSTALK)
BEDINGFIELD: And in April of 2021, it was under 3 percent. So --
MATTINGLY: Can I ask you, before you, Tia, isn't his vision how do you feel compared to how you felt on some level?
BEDINGFIELD: That's a message. Absolutely. That's the message. And if he can stick to that message and that's one that he will continue to drive.
But that's not -- that's not a vision. I mean, that is essentially, again, an attack on her, that's an attack on, you know, what she was able to accomplish in these last four years, that isn't laying out for people, here's what I'm going to do to make your life better.
He's got to -- there is the second piece of that message. There's -- you know, were you better off four years ago? I mean, I would argue no, and I think frankly a lot of the country would argue no, based on what we're seeing particularly in the polling since Kamala Harris became the nominee.
But there's a second piece of that which is, here's what I'm going to do to make your life better. And he's not doing that.
MATTINGLY: There are two policy issues that he has kind of laid out that is detailed.
[16:45:01] It talks about a lot. They were literally on signage right behind him in case you haven't heard him talking about it, including one that the vice president has since taken up as well. Take us a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He's waiting for me to announce her so she can copy it. Remember, a couple of days ago, and we will have no taxes on tips. I said that was my plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Tia, I mean, it's okay. I mean -- yeah, you know, frankly, it should be a compliment like she is co-opting your policy. That means you've maybe have a good policy.
This issue though, no tax on tips, particularly in a swing state like Nevada, that -- it's resonated.
TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: It's resonated and I think that's why Vice President Harris decided it was something and she can get behind, too.
And quite frankly, I would love to hear both of them talk more about how they want to in taxation on tips and what that would actually look like. How they would address any other consequences of changing the tax policy, the impact on the deficit, for example, the impact on people who aren't currently tipped employees who might like to take advantage of a new tax or new elimination of taxes on tips.
So I think this is why -- this is why journalists have been saying Kamala Harris needs to answer more questions about what she would like to do, but this is also wide journalists need to be asking more of Donald Trump. He gave a great stump speech today.
Relatively speaking for Donald Trump, this was a pretty good one from what we heard. He didn't go too far off -- off the rails, but he's still very light on details, even about the ending taxation on Social Security wages, pretty populist.
If you want to talk about stealing, that's a bill that Democrats in Congress have already filed to stop taxation on Social Security wages. But again, it's okay if he agrees with them, but I'd love to hear more about what that would look like.
MATTINGLY: I am very here for tax cuts and jobs act debate reauthorization. We should do that.
Matter of fact, when she has come back, we'll do it, maybe next panel and probably talk about some other things as well, not magazine covers though. That -- that is his (INAUDIBLE).
Stay with me, guys.
Before his speech today in North Carolina, Donald Trump calling out the Harris campaign after a new report today, revealed her team is rewriting news headlines that pop up in online searches. What's this all about? We're going to dive into it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:52:01]
MATTINGLY: An "Axios' review found the Kamala Harris campaign has been editing news headlines within Google search ads, making it appear as if major news outlets on some level, on her side.
For example, a Harris campaign ad featuring a link to an NPR story reads, Harris will lower health costs.
Now, in reality, there's no NPR headline or even align in the NPR story that says this, Google says other political campaigns have done this and it does not violate their policy because the ads are labeled as sponsored, but the ads mimic real new search results, so closely it's caught multiple news outlets off guard.
CNN says it was unaware of the brand was being featured should this way and has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Let's bring back the panel.
We're trying to figure this out during the break in terms of is this something that's normal? Is this something that campaigns have been using? How do you defend kind of the --
BEDINGFIELD: Yeah. Well, this is -- this is part of paid advertising and I mean, if you are somebody who's reading news outlet on your phone, you'll see embedded it adds come up sometimes in those stories that for on first glance, look like a story by the outlet you're reading. But if you don't, you know, if you look at it more closely, it says sponsored content.
I mean, this is something that the search engines do. It's part of the way they generate ad revenue. So there's nothing about it that is -- you know, violates their terms or isn't any way the ethical. I mean, this is -- this is part of the way that paid advertising works and, you know, you'll see it -- it's certainly not just political campaigns who do it. I mean, just as I am reading things online, sometimes I'll double -- you know, I'll sort of like double look at something because it seems -- it feels like it's an authentic piece of content. And then you see it's paid.
So, it is incumbent on the viewer, the reader, the consumer, to have a discerning eye, not just on political consciousness, but on other advertisers.
LOTTER: This is something -- probably something, Kate, I mean, as tacticians, and this is not partisan. We both -- I mean media have been complaining to us for decades about use of sound bites or clips, our logo in your paid ads.
BEDINGFIELD: Yeah.
LOTTER: If we're going to take your clip from the show, use it to our advantage, or the headline that we ripped from "The New York Times" or whatever. The problem is going to be is what does the media do about it? Because we, as professional political operatives, we're going to do everything we can to put our best face forward on our issues. If the media gets together and starts -- I mean, a lot of has been a blur logos that way you couldn't -- that way you couldn't come against us.
They're going to have to come together and figure out how to approach this to basically challenge political operations on both sides.
BEDINGFIELD: Or to challenge -- to challenge Google. I mean, to challenge is urgent, right?
MITCHELL: I'll say as the journalists on the panel, it's not great to me and I get that everyone doesn't -- this isn't just the Harris campaign thing. We have to be transparent about that. But I think that changing the headline is what's problematic. You know, we've seen campaigns take the headline and put it in their ad with the logo, but changing the headline.
That being said, there are a lot of things that lawmakers could do to make advertising more transparent when it comes to campaigning and political ads. And hopefully they do it.
LOTTER: You're asking politicians to limit that their use of ads on their behalf?
MITCHELL: Yeah, for transparency.
BEDINGFIELD: I think but the onus here is on the search engines, not on the political campaign because this is part of what they do. It's part of what they allow companies, political campaigns, brands to pay for.
So, you know, it's on the search engines to decide if it seems --
LOTTER: As a former journalist, I agree with you.
MATTINGLY: I actually think that policy, it's going to go hand in hand with the term limits the Congress is also going to pass.
MITCHELL: Right, for themselves, absolutely.
MATTINGLY: The only thing I would say and we're going to go but media literacy is important. And I think its been severely lacking and I think everybody's got a role in the perverse incentives that have driven the polarized world to where it is at this moment in time this doesn't help and I understand political tacticians as you say, are looking for the edge, as they should.
But there are long game effects here, and it's -- I'm not just targeting you guys political tacticians because we are after all, intellectuals, talking about tax policy guys.
Thanks so much for coming in. Appreciate you all very much.
In our health lead, a warning for those who consume artificial sweeteners. A study now links the common sugar substitute erythritol to hire a higher risk of blood clots and heart disease.
CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is on call this week on the science behind the sweeteners.
Sanjay, tell us about the latest study. Start with what is erythritol and how is it related to heart health.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDNET: Yeah. I mean, there's so much confusion about these -- these artificial sweeteners, these substitutes. People understandably take them, I think in the pursuit of good health but they don't always get that. It's a bit complicated.
And the headlines, as you mentioned, Phil, are around erythritol. So this is one of those sugar substitutes. It's specifically a sugar alcohol. It naturally occurs in certain fruits and vegetables. But what we're talking about here is the mass production of it, the synthetic production of it in law large numbers.
It looks like sugar, Phil. It tastes like sugar, and it's generally recognized as safe by the FDA. But the problem is that within the last couple of years, there's been some studies that have come out saying, hey, look, this does seem to be linked to a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, which by the way, a lot of people are taking these sugar substitutes to avoid that. And that's what they\re getting instead.
What this latest study really was trying to figure out what is going on here, what's the mechanism? So it's really interesting, Phil, they had 20 people, so they had 10 people who took 30 grams of erythritol and they had ten people who just took glucose, sugar and they fed them this and then basically measured all these things in their blood afterwards.
And what they found as you just saw on the screen, there, was that the risk of clotting specifically was two times higher in the group that took the erythritol. So the people who took they're just regular sugar. They did knock that increase in overall clotting.
So look, these sugar substitutes again, I want to be careful here because they can be really helpful for people, for example, who are diabetic. But we're seeing this concern about heart disease, about stroke, and now clotting.
MATTINGLY: Well, that's was going to ask you because there's been a lot of -- I feel like there's been a lot of research in this space. Are there other concerns behind these types of sugar substitutes?
GUPTA: Yeah, I -- one of the big things with these sugar substitutes is this idea that are you sort of tricking the brain. The brain is getting all the sweetness, but they're not getting the calories. So as a result, sometimes people will go out and forage for the calories later on. It's the story of someone drinking a bunch of diet soda during the day and then eating ice cream at night. I mean, that would be a problem. And what they find over the long term if you're trying to use these sugar substitutes to lose weight, they're not really effective for that. Again, they can be helpful for diabetics specifically. And, you know, we talked to the industry as well about this and they say, look, he beat be a little cautious with interpreting these studies. I want to read this for you.
They say: Consumers should interpret the results of the pilot with extreme caution because the limited the number of participants, a total of ten, were given excessive amounts of erythritol and that exceeded the maximum amount approved in any single beverage in the United States.
That's true, Phil. So just to put it in perspective, 30 grams of erythritol is what the study consisted of. A diet soda would have about somewhere around seven grams of erythritol. But people drink more than one. You may have three or four during the day. And I think that's what's got people sort of particularly concerned.
But I think there's enough cause for concern where people should say, look, it's not, we shouldn't just have as much of this stuff as we want.
MATTINGLY: Yeah, moderation seems to be good.
GUPTA: Moderation.
MATTINGLY: On just about everything we deal with these days.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta --
GUPTA: Everything in moderation, except moderation.
MATTINGLY: Except moderation.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, appreciate the time as always, my friend. Thanks so much.
GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.
MATTINGLY: Well, if you're like me and still have questions, you can ask using the QR code on the screen. Dr. Gupta will join me again to mark to answer some of those questions.
But you can join CNN for the Democratic national convention live from Chicago. The lineup so far, President Biden will speak on Monday night, along with Hillary Clinton. Tuesday, former President Barack Obama takes the stage. Wednesdays featured speaker as former President Bill Clinton, and Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept the nomination. Jake Tapper will help lead the coverage starting Monday night at 7:00 eastern again, right here on CNN.
And of course, if you ever miss an episode of THE LEAD, you can listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
The news continues on CNN with Wolf Blitzer reporting live from Tel Aviv in "THE SITUATION ROOM".
