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Tonight, Biden and Trump Square Off in Historic CNN Debate; Biden Campaign Launching Media Blitz Ahead of Historic Debate; Bank of America Says, Housing Market Stuck Until at Least 2026. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 28, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

GEOFF DUNCAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Capitol, and he didn't until it was too late.

[07:00:02]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: This is the second time someone has used a word that should be bleeped on this show in the last like seven days. I think I'm going to end up on a seven-second delay.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's the Trump America.

HUNT: Your point is very well taken. Kristen, final thought.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We keep trying to divide this into style versus substance or do voters care about character versus issues. These things are all connected. The style is the substance when it came to last night. Voters want somebody who's going to be a capable commander-in-chief. This is not, oh, they don't like his style because it's a beauty pageant and they don't like what tie he picked. He did not convey that he has what it takes to be the president. That's a massive problem for the country.

HUNT: All right, well, it's a good way to end this hour as we head in to what is distinctly a new phase of this presidential campaign. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The debate explosion, President Biden waking up to calls to drop out of the race. One columnist writes, Mr. President, one way you can serve your country in 2024 is by announcing your retirement and calling on delegates to replace you. We have brand new reporting on how the president is receiving this.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the first criminal charges have now been filed over the horrific, failed police response to the Uvalde school massacre. What the former police chief is now facing and how the families of those 19 children and two teachers are responding to this long awaited move.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And the separation of church and state blurred in Oklahoma, the state's education chief now requiring public schools to teach the Bible and Ten Commandments effective immediately.

I'm Sarah Sidner here with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: And happening right now, an extraordinary morning after CNN's historic debate, and for many Democrats, a full on debate hangover. Democrats so alarmed over Biden's performance last night, there's more and more of them asking this, should President Biden drop out of the race now? Right now, Biden is facing an avalanche of bad headlines and rough reviews, and how he did on that debate stage.

And while most of the panic this morning is coming from Democrats' unnamed sources not ready to publicly put their name on it, there is one notable exception so far. Tom Friedman, The New York Times columnist who is also a close friend of Joe Biden, he wrote -- he put out a new piece just this morning saying this. I watched the Biden- Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime, precisely because of what it revealed. Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.

CNN's Kayla Tausche is now in North Carolina, where President Biden is traveling today for a campaign event. Kayla, what are you hearing from them today?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Biden's actions, Kate, are conveying something of a course correction. In the immediate wake of the debate, he visited a waffle house, greeted supporters. And then when he arrived here in Raleigh around 2:00 A.M., he spent half an hour gregariously greeting supporters, flashing them thumbs up, and signaling that he felt good about the debate. And earlier in the evening, when he was asked by a pool reporter whether he had any concerns about his performance, here's how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Mr. President, how have you been doing tonight?

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I forgot I ordered here something.

JILL BIDEN, U.S. FIRST LADY: We got an order for Biden.

REPORTER: Do you have any concerns about your performance?

JOE BIDEN: No, it's hard to debate a liar. New York Times pointed out he made a lie 26 times, big lies.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

JOE BIDEN: (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: That was a common frustration that emerged among Biden advisers during and after the debate, this dynamic where Trump's falsehoods repeatedly thrust President Biden into a fact-checking role and put him on the defensive for much of the debate. Even so, he missed many of the opportunities to correct the record, especially on issues like the Charlottesville White nationalist rally or January 6th that are central to the messaging of his re-election campaign. Democrats far and wide have panned his performance last night, saying that, at best, he was unprepared, at worst, he's unfit for another term, many as you mentioned doing so privately.

But as that cavalcade of feedback starts coming in, the Biden campaign is going to have to respond to that directly. And today we're going to see the first appearance of President Biden actually speaking and delivering a message to his supporters here on the ground in Raleigh.

[07:05:03]

We'll see what the turnout looks like following last night's debate and how he decides to encapsulate what happened on stage last night.

BOLDUAN: Yes, what his first commentary is after all of the commentary and the avalanche that we've been seeing coming in overnight. Kayla, thank you so much.

SIDNER: Okay, we're going to take a quick look back at CNN's historic night. Jeff Zeleny has a recap of the highs and the lows that everyone is talking about this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A former president --

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This place, the whole world is blowing up under him.

ZELENY: -- confronting the sitting president.

JOE BIDEN: I never heard so much malarkey in my whole life.

ZELENY: But Joe Biden setting off alarm across the Democratic Party after a shaky performance against Donald Trump at the CNN debate.

TRUMP: Joe, our country is being destroyed as you and I sit up here and waste a lot of time on this debate.

ZELENY: In their first face-to-face encounter in four years, Trump struck a far different tone than he often does at rallies, rarely raising his voice.

TRUMP: I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either.

ZELENY: One of Biden's chief goals was to project an air of strength. On that score, he struggled.

JOE BIDEN: Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the with the COVID -- excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with.

ZELENY: After a week of debate practice, he arrived on stage with a hoarse voice and often looked down or away. And on key policy issues for Democrats, like abortion --

JOE BIDEN: If I'm elected, I'm going to restore Roe v. Wade.

TRUMP: He's willing to, as we say, rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby.

JOE BIDEN: That is simply not true. We are not for late term abortion, period, period, period.

ZELENY: -- it was Trump who tried catering to the middle.

TRUMP: Like Ronald Reagan, I believe in the exceptions. I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. I think it's very important. Some people don't. Follow your heart. But you have to get elected also.

ZELENY: But Biden did go after Trump on his treatment of veterans.

JOE BIDEN: My son was not a loser, was not a sucker. You're the sucker. You're the loser.

TRUMP: He made up the suckers and losers, so he should apologize to me right now.

JOE BIDEN: A four-star general stand your side, it was on your staff who said you said it, period. That's number one. And number two, the idea that I have to apologize to you for anything along the line, we've done more for veterans than any president has in American history.

ZELENY: And on Trump's recent felony convictions in New York --

JOE BIDEN: The only person in this stage is a convicted felon is the man I'm looking at right now.

ZELENY: -- causing Trump to fire back.

TRUMP: When he talks about a convicted felon, his son is a convicted felon at a very high level. But he could be a convicted felon as soon as he gets out of office. Joe could be a convicted felon.

JOE BIDEN: The idea that I did anything wrong relative to what you're talking about is outrageous. The crimes that you are still charged with, and think of all the civil penalties you have. How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public, for doing a whole range of things, of having sex with a porn star on the night while your wife was pregnant? I mean, what are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat.

TRUMP: I didn't have sex with a porn star, number one.

ZELENY: And on one of the biggest questions facing voters, the candidates' age.

JOE BIDEN: This guy's three years younger and a lot less competent.

TRUMP: He challenged me to a golf match. He can't hit a ball 50 yards. I think I'm in very good shape. I feel that I'm as in good a shape as I was 25, 30 years ago. Actually, I'm probably a little bit lighter. But I'm in as good a shape as I was years ago. I feel very good. I feel the same.

ZELENY: The argument devolved into taunts.

JOE BIDEN: I told you before I'm happy to play golf if you carry your own bag.

TRUMP: Let's not act like children.

JOE BIDEN: You are, Trump.

ZELENY: Trump continuing to downplay his role in the January 6th insurrection.

TRUMP: I said, peacefully and patriotically. They asked me to go make a speech. I could see what was happening. Everybody was saying they're going to be there on January 6th. And I said, they ought to have some National Guard or whatever.

JOE BIDEN: He did do a damn thing. And now he says if he loses again, such a whiner that he is, that he could be a bloodbath.

ZELENY: And only answering if he would accept the 2024 election results after being pressed by CNN's Dana Bash three times.

TRUMP: If it's a fair, and legal, and good election, absolutely. I would have much rather accepted these, but the fraud.

JOE BIDEN: But you continue to provoke this lie about somehow there's all this misrepresentation, all this stealing. There's no evidence of that at all. And I tell you what, I doubt whether you'll accept it because you're such a whiner.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (on camera): In the moments after the debate, California Governor Gavin Newsom came into the spin room and told reporters that I will always stand by President Biden. We have his back.

[07:10:00]

But the question this morning is what Democrats do going forward here. It will take some time to assess the performance. It will take some time to assess the next step. A lot of Democrats are, you know, throwing out names like you know, the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and others. But the reality is Vice President Kamala Harris, who was on our air last night, is right next to President Biden.

So let's see what advisers and family members say to President Biden what he says in North Carolina, but this is a moment where he wanted to shake things up in this race, and he may have done that in ways he did not intend to do.

SIDNER: Jeff. What is the early polling tell you? CNN's got new polling out right after this as to how people responded to this, the voters themselves.

ZELENY: A snapshot of that early polling shows, and we can take a look at this, they thought that Donald Trump performed better, perhaps no surprise. 67 percent of viewers, people who watched the debate, that said that Donald Trump won, Joe Biden 33 percent. But, interestingly, in terms of if it changes minds or not, take a look at these numbers. 81 percent, eight and ten said it had no effect. So, this is perhaps something that Democrats may hold on to that. It had no effect.

But the reality here is talking to voters here in Georgia, a key battleground state for the last several days, there are voters in the middle who were looking to see signs of strength, Democrats, or looking to see President Biden come out in a strong way. He did not do that. There's no charitably way to explain it beyond that. So, the ball is in his court to see what he says. And we'll hear from him today in North Carolina.

SIDNER: Yes, with such razor sharp margins here, they were looking to try to win over some people. And that polling tells you he absolutely did not.

ZELENY: It's a reality check for Democrats and for President Biden.

BERMAN: And, look, one of the things Jeff said right there that we're watching for right now, a lot of the comments have been from columnists. A lot of the comments have been on background. Will a prominent elected Democrat come forward over the next few hours, next few minutes, next few days, and say it is time for President Biden to drop out? We're watching that. We're also waiting to see Donald Trump in the campaign trail for the first time today.

Stand by. Our special live coverage continues

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: All right. Again, the big questions this morning are the what now, particularly on the Democratic side. You're hearing whispers behind the scenes from Democrats saying that President Biden should consider dropping out of the race, this after the debate performance last night. Columnists calling on this, but we are standing by to see if anyone says it publicly.

On the other side, there are plenty of people who say that Donald Trump's debate performance, it was full of lies, it was full of bluster, it was full of election denialism, but that is being overshadowed largely by what President Biden did. Nevertheless, Trump is waking up in Virginia. That is where Alayna Treene is this morning. Alayna, what are you hearing from the Trump team?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, look, John, Donald Trump's team was celebrating last night. They believe that Donald Trump did very well and delivered the type of performance that they hoped he would.

Now, there's a couple of things I do want to point out now. First of all, going in to last night, they were a bit worried and nervous about how the debate would go. They were not sure which type of Joe Biden would show up on the debate stage. Would he -- well, actually, I should say he they thought he would be a much stronger performer on the debate stage. They had been planning and expecting that he would deliver a speech similar to the State of the Union, where he was largely applauded by members of his party. That was not the Joe Biden that they saw last night. So, that was one part of it.

The other part is that they had extensively prepped Donald Trump on trying to keep him on message, hoping that he wouldn't go rogue, to stay away from personal attacks. And for the most part, Joe Biden did that -- or excuse me, Donald Trump did that. And so they were very happy with his performance. They've also been very closely monitoring Democrats' responses on social media, their comments on television, seeing the panic that has set in and they've been relishing that as well.

I do want you to take a listen to what Tim Scott, one of Donald Trump's top surrogates, said about the debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Number one, the most dominant performance we've ever seen. The contrast could not be more clear, Donald Trump is ready for four more years. Number two, the issues that the American people care the most about, the border and the economy. Donald Trump dialed it in and told the story of four years of unbelievable success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, John, I will add that even though Donald Trump's team, even before the debate had ended, had put out statements claiming that Trump had won the debate.

I would caution our audience to take a week. Let's see how this actually plays out. But Donald Trump's team is very happy with how this went. He's going to be giving a rally later today in Chesapeake, Virginia, and you can expect him to take a very large victory lap at that rally as well. John?

BERMAN: Alayna Treene In Virginia, where it will happen, Alayna, great to see you this morning. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Much more coming up for us on the panic amongst Democrats right now. Biden's campaign co-chair, Mitch Landrieu, on just last hour saying, admitting he had a rough time last night, also saying about conversations if Biden should get out.

[07:20:01]

This is a conversation that's been going on for the last two and a half years and not likely to happen. A new reporting coming out this morning. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. This morning, we are waiting to see what happens next in the aftermath of this historic CNN presidential debate. Democrats are very, very nervous this morning about President Biden's performance. There have been prominent liberal columnists who have come out and called for him to drop out. And already this morning, key figures in the Biden campaign are responding to this.

I want you to listen to former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who was one of the national chairs for the Biden campaign, how he addressed that moments ago on CNN.

[07:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH LANDRIEU (D), BIDEN CAMPAIGN SURROGATE: Well, this is a conversation that's been going on for the past two and a half years. It's not likely to happen again. I think as the dust clears on this thing, this campaign has still got four months to go. And I think that Joe Biden is going to be the nominee and I think Donald Trump is going to be the nominee. And the choice is going to be between a guy that fights for people and tries to lift people up and another guy that wants to rip this country apart and pull it up from its roots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. With me now, CNN Senior Political Commentator David Urban and CNN Political Commentator and former Democratic State Representative from South Carolina Bakari Sellers.

Let's just address that right there, Bakari, because what I heard was likely from Mitch Landrieu. What I didn't hear was Joe Biden is definitely the candidate of the Democratic Party. What I heard from Mitch Landrieu is that's not likely to happen him dropping out.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, he's not dropping out. And nobody's hyperventilating, and nobody is -- well, I'm not. You probably got the wrong Democrat if you want somebody up here hyperventilating and just reflecting on last night, pearl clutching and bed wetting, like a lot of my Democratic colleagues are. The fact is Joe Biden is the nominee. He's going to be the nominee in November.

He had a poor debate performance last night. He didn't look good. I wish the campaign would have told us that he was sick so I could at least lay a little groundwork throughout the day. You know, when we're on the air, that this is to everybody on the campaign, let us know if the man has a cough, you know that before he walks on stage, so we can actually relay that to the public and message appropriately. But the choice is clear, where do you want four more years of chaos in Donald Trump, or do you want some stability in an old man? I mean, that's what we have.

And so it's not going to be Gretchen. It's not going to be Raphael Warnock. It's not going to be Wes Moore. It's not going to be all of these other -- Gavin Newsom.

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He didn't say Josh Shapiro.

SELLERS: It's not going to be Josh Shapiro. I like Josh Shapiro.

BERMAN: Josh Shapiro is going to be on our air. Okay.

SELLERS: Well, you should ask him in 34 minutes.

BERMAN: I'm going to ask him.

SELLERS: And he will tell you, and say, Bakari Sellers said you're not going to be the nominee, and Josh Shapiro will tell you.

BERMAN: Are you happy about that, Bakari? Are you happy about that this morning? Is that your happiest state? Are you as happy as you could be at this moment about who the Democratic nominee is?

SELLERS: This is a participatory democracy, and this is an electoral process, and the last thing that needs to happen is Bakari Sellers be happy. You know what I am going to do? I'm going to organize and vote. I'm going to organize my ass off and I'm going to vote and I'm going to make sure that other people do that. The choice is extremely clear.

BERMAN: Is that easier or harder this morning than it was yesterday morning?

SELLERS: I don't think it's any easier or harder. The reason being is because we're in June. I've never seen a presidential election in the history of the United States be won in June. I've never seen a presidential election won or lost from the first debate. I don't know if there's going to be a second debate. That's a decision that's made by people who get paid more than I. But look, I mean, it's it, it is what it is. The man got beaten in the debate last night.

BERMAN: It's June. Is he going to be younger in August or September?

SELLERS: Well, I don't know about that. I mean, maybe you can give him some water and some of the tanning beds that Trump used. I don't know. I mean, he looked a little pale last night. I don't know.

BERMAN: All right, David, obviously, again, if you are a Republican right now, a Trump supporter, you'd be as quiet as you possibly can be. You've been very restrained here because I'm not sure the issue either.

URBAN: So, I'm using the Trump strategy, right? Like, just be quiet and let the other guy talk, right, last night. That's it. So, Mitch Landrieu, to start with Mitch, great guy, right? He's the governor of New Orleans during Katrina, so he is used to cleaning up disasters, right? Excuse me, I'm sorry. He's the mayor. He was the mayor of New Orleans. So, he is used to clean up after natural disasters, which last night was a natural disaster. Let's not make any puns about it.

Bakari, if Joe Biden had a cold and was really concerned about his cold, he went to the waffle house and just infected like a whole bunch of people, wasn't wearing a mask. So, I'm not so sure the cold thing, anybody's buying the cold thing, right? Look, it was, it was just a terrible performance by the guy.

But the big question now is that, is he not just fit to run for president for next term, is he fit to serve the balance of his term? Because the one thing that I know is true, that Xi Jinping was watching last night, that Vladimir Putin was watching last night, that all the bad guys around the world were watching, and they're thinking right now, it might be a good time to test America.

BERMAN: Let me ask one question about last night. But, honestly, I think we've moved beyond last night. I want to focus on the now and going forward. But about last night and Donald Trump's performance, which I think you were generally happy with, but, and but, you know, after if he was more measured at the beginning, toward the end, he went off into outer space on a whole bunch of things. You know, the second half was when there was a lot more just outright dishonesty, election denialism, all those things. That was there. If you're a middle of the road voter inclined not to like that aspect of Donald Trump, you saw it last night.

URBAN: John, if anybody's watching that at that point, this was performative, this debate, right? I don't think anyone's going away talking about like -- so Joe Biden -- the biggest issue for Democrats and Joe Biden is choice, right? So, abortion is a giant issue coming up in this election. When Joe Biden was pitched a softball, right, he whiffed it. He couldn't answer. He gave this convoluted answer about the three trimesters, and it was terrible. It was terrible. His closing statement was about taxes, right? So, nobody's going to remember anything Donald Trump said because Joe Biden whiffed it so bad.

And just want one other quick thing to say.

[07:30:00]

What isn't the story this morning is our network. It was that the moderators were basically -- they were invisible. Dana and Jake did an incredible job of moderating.