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Tonight: Biden & Trump Square Off In Historic CNN Debate. Aired 1-1:30p ET
Aired June 27, 2024 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:00:53]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside Boris Sanchez in Atlanta, Georgia, and we are hours away from CNN's historic presidential debate, and what's shaping up to be the most pivotal moment yet of this unprecedented rematch.
Right now, President Biden is on his way to Atlanta after a full week of extensive debate prep. People close to Biden expecting him to frame the January 6th insurrection as a seismic era defining moment, which should be a pivot point away from the Trump era.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Meantime, former President Trump is expected to arrive here at the debate site in a few hours. But before leaving his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, he lashed out on social media, attacking President Biden as a, quote, "threat to the survival and existence of our country."
And just hours before tonight's big showdown, the Supreme Court issuing a major ruling on abortion that could have huge implications on the 2024 race. We're live from the CNN debate hall, the spin room and from the magic wall following all the important data leading up to tonight.
Let's start with CNN's MJ Lee, our Senior White House Correspondent. And MJ, we're told that President Biden was planning to target Trump on reproductive rights and his role in overturning Roe versus Wade even before this new Supreme Court ruling. What more can you tell us about the strategy?
MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right, Boris. Even if we had not gotten this Supreme Court ruling today, reproductive rights was always going to be one of the biggest areas of focus for President Biden heading into tonight.
It is one of the three domestic issues that the campaign has made clear that they see as being most politically salient. And areas where they can really stand to draw the sharpest contrast against Donald Trump. That is the economy, the issue of democracy, and this abortion and reproductive rights.
And just to give you a sense of how much the Biden campaign is really going all in on this issue, we are told that this ad that the campaign just released was actually all prepped and already ready to go for whenever this specific Supreme Court ruling was going to come down.
And this ad features a testimonial from a high risk OB doctor from Idaho who says she actually physically left the state because she feared criminal persecution after the treatment that she gave some of her patients. Take a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two years ago, Trump overturned Roe v. Wade. Because of the abortion bans across the country, women's lives are at risk. Physicians could be tried with a felony for saving that woman's life too early. The penalties are so severe. Felony, imprisonment, loss of license. Those are terrifying things.
These laws are truly barbaric. They are putting us back decades, if not centuries. Donald Trump did this. He put women's lives in danger.
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LEE: Now this kind of impassioned testimony from a doctor like this, that's a familiar move from the Biden campaign. They've really leaned into the strategy of highlighting individual stories coming from women and families of medical professionals because they would like to highlight and really paint a picture of all of the real world consequences of Roe being overturned.
And just to drive home this point even more, the fact that this ad was created before the Supreme Court ruling and of course, nobody could have known exactly what the ruling would be, it goes to show that the Biden campaign's broader message on this issue is going to be the same regardless of sort of the individual legal rulings and decisions that may come down.
And that message is really that fundamental rights and freedoms were taken away under Donald Trump. The past few years have obviously been chaotic and traumatic for a lot of people on this front and they want to try to make the point heading into tonight, but the next four years could be even worse, really, if Donald Trump were to get another second term.
KEILAR: All right, MJ Lee, thank you for that.
Let's get to CNN's Kristen Holmes, who is live for us from the CNN spin room. Kristen, are you hearing anything from the Trump camp about the Supreme Court's abortion ruling?
[13:05:02]
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, they do not want Donald Trump to linger on abortion tonight. They have obviously prepped him extensively for how to talk about abortion when those questions are inevitably asked. He's going to say this is a state's decision.
But when it comes to actually going to detail, they do not want him lingering on abortion because they don't believe it is a politically winning issue for them. They have been coaching him extensively, or having conversations on how to pivot from topics like abortion, like democracy, like his role in January 6, to topics like the economy and inflation, immigration and crime.
And that's because of recent polling that they have seen where Donald Trump does better with American voters on those issues. Now, one of the things I will point out is that despite the fact that they are asking Donald Trump extensively to stay on message, they are putting out new ads that go after Joe Biden.
Take a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you think about the Joe Biden you saw in the debate, ask yourself a question. Do you think the guy who was defeated by the stairs, got taken down by his bike, lost a fight with his jacket, and regularly gets lost, makes it four more years in the White House? And you know who's waiting behind it, right?
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HOLMES: Now, one thing I'll point out there is that Trump's allies and donors that I have spoken to have really said that they hope that he stays away from intense, aggressive personal attacks. They say that it's unlikely he can do that for the entire time, but they really want him to stay on message with the issues.
And the campaign did put out another ad talking about inflation. This is really a new, unique situation for the Trump campaign, because remember, they actually haven't been flooding the airwaves. But they put out these two ads on debate day which will air in various battleground states as well as Washington D.C.
Now, one thing I want to note about Donald Trump's day today as Boris mentioned, we have seen a lot of posts on social media, a lot of commentary about Fox News and Cable News. So clearly he is spending his day in the lead up to coming here to Atlanta, which we expect to see him around 5:30 watching TV.
And as we've said extensively, he is not going to do any kind of what they call, quote unquote, "prep." But we do know that he has had very in-depth policy sessions, conversations and talking to a lot of people around him about what to expect and how to act tonight.
KEILAR: All right, we'll be waiting to see how that plays out.
Kristen Holmes, thank you for that.
And history tells us that debates, they can really make or break candidates. Joining us now, we have Harry Enten with some of the past defining moments, how they impacted the race. So let's do this. Let's get in the DeLorean.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes.
KEILAR: Let's accelerate to the necessary 88 miles per hour --
ENTEN: Very good.
KEILAR: -- and go back not to 1985, but to 1976 Carter versus Ford.
ENTEN: Let's do it. Let's get in that DeLorean.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.
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ENTEN: OK. So this is the 1976 campaign. That was the second debate. Before the second debate, Jimmy Carter had a two-point lead. After that moment from Gerald Ford in which he denied the obvious that was Soviet domination over Eastern Europe, look at what happened.
Carter's lead went up to five points. What's so important here was that Jerry Ford, the incumbent president at the time, had been shipping away at Carter's lead after the first debate, this being the second debate. He seemed to have some real momentum.
And then that debate moment combined with the rest of that second debate, halted that momentum. Carter jumped out to a five-point lead, and he was able to hold on and win the general election come November.
KEILAR: We also have a now iconic moment from the Reagan-Carter debate. Let's look at that.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself. Are you better off than you were four years ago?
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ENTEN: I mean, that probably is one of the most iconic debate moments in history. You know, I love watching these old debates. I'm looking forward to tonight and this one really sealed the deal for Ronald Reagan in 1980. So this is Carter versus Reagan. Carter going for reelection.
Pre-debate, Reagan had a lead. But it was just two points in the average of polls. This jumped up to a six-point lead. He ended up winning by 10 points. There were some real questions. Despite Jimmy Carter's low approval rating, could Ronald Reagan step in? Was he that extreme?
He came from the conservative end of the Republican Party. And the fact was, that debate performance and that closing statement really just sort of encapsulated that Reagan was ready for the moment. He was presidential. He wasn't too extreme. And Jimmy Carter just didn't know how to deal with the nation's ills. KEILAR: Yes, really captures the momentum. You see that in the numbers there. And it's not just about flubs and great one liners, right? Audio cues could impact a race here. So let's look at then Vice President Gore versus George W. Bush in the 2000 debate.
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GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD U.S. PRESIDENT: I've had a record of appointing judges in the state of Texas. That's what a governor gets to do.
[13:10:03]
Man's practicing fuzzy math again. There's differences. Let me give you one example. The Strunk family in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I campaigned with them the other day. They make $51,000 combined income.
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ENTEN: Well, that didn't really work out for Al Gore. There were real questions going into that first debate, whether or not George W. Bush was presidential. Was he smart enough to actually take on the job? Remember, Al Gore is a Harvard guy. Everyone expected him to crush in that debate. He crushed in the vice presidential debates in 1992 and 1996.
But in this one, he screwed up. He screwed up. He was seen as somebody who was rude. And look at what happened pre-debate, Al Gore was up by a point. Post that first debate, look at this, George W. Bush jumps out to a four-point lead. He was seen as presidential. People really liked him.
Al Gore even had such a poor debate. SNL mocked him and then going to the second debate, tried to do completely different things and tried to be, you know, more energetic. And it was just this completely crazy thing. George W. Bush won that debate and then went on to win the presidency by just 537 votes. Thanks to Florida.
We'll see if we have that close of an election this time around. But you know what? Debates are magical moments. And tonight, hopefully we'll get one of these moments that maybe changes the race for good for one candidate, for bad for the other.
KEILAR: Yes. No one loves an audible sigh. Do they?
ENTEN: No.
KEILAR: No, thank you.
ENTEN: I didn't --
KEILAR: Thank you.
ENTEN: I didn't have one during this segment and thank you for the DeLorean ride.
KEILAR: I appreciate that. Thank you, Harry Enten. Now, Boris has made his way down to the debate hall. Give us a little tour there, Boris.
SANCHEZ: Brianna, this stage is just about set. CNN teams are literally here right now putting the finishing touches on what will be a historic night. At 9:00 p.m. tonight, President Joe Biden is going to walk out through that side of the stage and former President Donald Trump will walk out through that side of the stage.
The two of them will take their podiums. They're set exactly 8 feet apart. Let's give you a look at what's actually up here. The debate rules state that they can only have three items with them. Paper, a pen, and a cup of water right there on the back of the podium. The most important part of this podium, not just the mic, but also this light.
Remember, candidate's mics are going to be cut off. They're going to be muted when their time has expired. So when their mics are on, that light is going to be green. When they are done, it is red. How are the questions actually going to work? This is the view from the candidates of our moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
Basically, when it starts, they're going to ask an overarching question to one of the candidates. The candidates will have two minutes to respond to their question. Then the opponent has a minute for a rebuttal. After that, the first candidate gets an additional minute to respond to that rebuttal. And, keep in mind, the moderators have an extra minute if they want to ask a follow.
That's a lot of time queues. How are the candidates going to know how much time they have left? That's where we're -- be careful with camera equipment in a studio -- that's where these lights above the cameras come in handy. That's going to turn green when the candidates have 15 seconds left to speak. They'll turn red, a flashing red when they have five seconds left to speak, and a full red light will shine off the top of that camera when their time has expired.
The big question tonight is, how will these candidates handle the rules? And one of the key questions when the mics are muted, are we going to be able to hear if another candidate continues speaking? Again, they're only 8 feet apart.
So while we at home may have trouble making out what these candidates are saying to each other, the other candidate will undoubtedly be able to hear what's going on. A lot to anticipate tonight. Again, it's going to be historic. Brianna?
KEILAR: Yes. What a fascinating look, Boris. And also so interesting. They cannot ignore that red light. That thing is going to be telling them to wrap it up.
All right, Boris. Make your --
SANCHEZ: Yes, that's going to be huge, and --
KEILAR: All right. It is, right? SANCHEZ: I was just going to say that's going to be huge. And obviously, the question of aggressiveness, just how much do these candidates want to go after each other. How much do they want to interrupt each other? We know that factored into the first debate in 2020. Something that the former President Donald Trump, has said. He may try to avoid and perhaps interrupt fewer times this time around.
KEILAR: Yes. We'll have to see how it turns out tonight. It's going to be so fascinating.
Boris, all right, thanks. Make your way on back to the studio. And as Boris does that, we are now just hours away from an unprecedented presidential debate.
President Joe Biden and former President Trump facing off right here on CNN and in this critical battleground state of Georgia. What they need to do, what they need to avoid, and who they need to win over. All of that coming up this hour on CNN News Central.
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[13:19:11]
KEILAR: We are just hours away now from the first presidential debate of the 2024 race, and it is happening right here on CNN.
SANCHEZ: President Biden and Donald Trump are going to take the stage here in Atlanta tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
Our panel of experts joins us now. Jamal Simmons, we'd like to go to you first. Give us a sense of the stakes tonight.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, the stakes are high. These debates are always tough. People pay a lot of attention to them. I prepared candidates for Senate and president before who were trying to do these debates.
The biggest trick for the person on stage to remember is they're not actually talking to the moderator. They're talking to a lot of people who are at home who are paying attention to this. So you can't get too wrapped up in what's happening inside the studio to the point where the people at home think you're just being weird.
KEILAR: Brad Todd, I mean, we just had Harry Enten take us through past debates that really made a difference that arguably were these inflection points in campaigns in election cycles. Could this be one?
[13:20:06]
BRAD TODD, GOP MEDIA CONSULTANT & STRATEGIST: I think it's possibly the most important debate since 1960. It's no question the most important day in this campaign. The trick for these two guys is, they're both very well known, and they both have a lot of doubters.
They have to do something that gets outside the box people see them in. That's a really big challenge when you're this well known, and it's a really tough challenge for guys their age as well.
SANCHEZ: Moly, your thoughts on the stage being set for tonight?
MOLLY BALL, SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, WSJ: No, I think Brad's exactly right. The stakes are always high, as Jamal said, but higher than usual this time because this is a campaign that's been stuck in neutral for a year. It's been essentially tied. It's at a stalemate and the polls are tied.
And I think that's why we're having this debate so early in the cycle because both candidates recognize a need to shake something up. They both feel like without some kind of mechanism to speak to the American public, to get their opponent off his talking points or what have you, they're not going to break out of that stalemate because the people do know and dislike both of these candidates.
KEILAR: What are you anticipating tonight, Gloria?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's really hard to know. Look, I think they -- both of these candidates have to try and appeal to people who don't like them. Right? I mean, you know, we call them the double haters or whatever, but the Nikki Haley voters, they have to appeal to people who have doubts about them because that's where the election is going to be won or lost.
And so, if you're Donald Trump, maybe you do try and cool it a little bit, if that's possible. Maybe if you're Joe Biden, you are exceptionally vibrant and talk directly into the camera, which they think is a really good trick for him. I think what we're going to hear a lot from Biden is trying to disqualify Donald Trump in voters' eyes, saying this man does not deserve to be president.
He should not be president, and he is disqualified from being president, not only because of the legal issues that he has, because of how he behaves. And I think that Biden's going to try and shove it to him, every opportunity he gets, to try and get a rise out of him. And, you know, Donald Trump isn't used to that.
So we'll have to see how he reacts to that, whether he can stay calm, cool and collected, which put me on the record for being doubtful, so.
SANCHEZ: Jamal, I'm curious to get your thoughts on what Gloria pointed out would be a line of attack from President Biden because Donald Trump, as we've seen so often before, he's mirroring that line about democracy. He actually posted a Truth Social earlier today, saying that President Biden is a threat to democracy.
Given the issues that Trump has had legally, he keeps pointing to the White House as the source of his 90 plus indictments and now 34 plus -- or 34 convictions, I should say. What are your thoughts on how Biden should handle this attack?
SIMMONS: Well, you just reminded me President Trump also today tweeted about Fox News having my friend Michael Tyler on, the communications director from the campaign, having him on. You would think that Donald Trump would be prepping for the campaign -- prepping for the debate, not tweeting about what he's watching on television.
It's important for the president, for President Biden, to make sure he's making the contrast very clear from his perspective about what he sees. And I think when you talk to the Democrats in the campaign and some of the other Democrats who are working on this, they think this is a very clear judgment choice between somebody who's going to protect your freedom and your right to make choices and somebody who wants to take control and take your freedom and your right to take choices away.
That either you're going to trust Joe Biden, people generally like even if they don't necessarily like some of his policies, they generally like him. Or you're going to trust this guy who's a 34 convicted felon who also, you know, has been impeached twice and really ruined the COVID experience. So, I think that is the case that the Biden folks are going to make.
KEILAR: The COVID experience. You make it sound like a theme park ride.
SIMMONS: Oh yes.
KEILAR: Oh my goodness.
SIMMONS: And remembering how bad it was is part of the experiment here.
KEILAR: Yes, maybe it will come up. I wonder, Brad, how you think Trump's best path forward is for pushing back on those attack lines. That he is undemocratic, that he is unfit, that he's unhinged, that we think Biden is going to pursue.
TODD: You know, I think this is a trap for both candidates. It's a trap for Donald Trump because his instincts going to be to take time of possession, right? He likes to run the show. He likes to be in charge. And what he needs to do here is let Joe Biden have the ball. Because the more Biden talks about what's in the past, the more you realize that he can't talk about where we are in the present, he doesn't have an agenda for the future.
I think he needs to let Joe Biden talk as much as he can, try to let him wear himself out, and try to give Biden the incentive to keep talking about something that's in the rearview mirror. Voters in elections look at the future. They're worried about the next four years, not about something that happened three years, four years, or five years ago. So far, Biden has been unable to escape that trap.
BORGER: But, you know, Donald Trump also talks about the past all the time and he can't help himself. And, you know, the question of the 2020 election is obviously going to be -- going to come up and how does he handle that.
[13:25:03]
And when he's accused of something, remember in the debate with Hillary Clinton, where she said that he was, or something to the effect of you're a puppet, a Putin puppet and he said, no, no, you're the puppet, right? That's his instinct is to sort of charge back and say, no, no, no, you're the one who can't be trusted with democracy. I can be trusted with democracy. And we'll have to see if he can rein himself in a little bit and take the discussion to the future.
BALL: Well, you make -- you raise the point that not being able to interrupt may actually be a bit of a gift to Trump in that way, right? Because his instinct is always to interrupt.
BORGER: Right.
BALL: And he was such an interrupter in all of the debates that he's been in so far.
BORGER: The king of interruptions.
BALL: You could say he is the king of interruptions. And so if he's not able to do that, you know, as Brad's saying, he definitely benefits from seeming more collected, seeming to respect the rules. People -- viewers really don't like it when the candidates don't respect the rules, when they're always cutting in and things like that.
So not having the opportunity to do that may actually serve to make him look like he's more in control than he actually is.
BORGER: There's always the possibility that he complains about the rules during the middle of the debate --
SIMMONS: Yes.
BORGER: -- and says that they're unfair and, you know, that's something you have to consider.
SIMMONS: You know, Brianna, Boris, one thing that is -- occurs to me is there's a lot going on tonight. So people who are regular folks out in America who aren't following the stuff every day like we do, you know, the NBA draft is tonight. Bedtime is coming for people with little kids.
They got to get those kids back, bathe and in bed. So the first 30 minutes or so of this debate are going to be the most important. It's probably when you're going to get the most people watching. And so that's when, if you look at the last two debates, that's when Trump and Biden had their fiercest exchange when Joe Biden said, will you just shut up, man?
And in the second debate is when Joe Biden went after Trump and said that he turned COVID from a crisis into a tragedy, right? That was a very key line for him in that second debate. I think expect the biggest punches to land in that first 30 minutes.
SANCHEZ: Everyone, please stand by. There is a lot to break down and go through. We're going to have the panel back in just moments.
And, of course, tonight's big debate is happening at a critical state in this presidential election. And CNN heard from Georgia voters to get their thoughts ahead of this historic moment. Stay with us. We're back after a quick break.
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