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Day 3 Of RNC Kicks Off After Ex-Rivals Resoundingly Embrace Trump; GOP Voices Make Case For Trump At RNC; Homeland Security Opens Investigation Into Secret Service; Internal Dem Polls: Biden Losing Ground To Trump In 14 Key States. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 17, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Good morning from day three of the Republican National Convention. I'm Kate Baldwin. We are here in Milwaukee where tonight is "Veep Night". In the coming hours Donald Trump's Vice Presidential Candidate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, he takes center stage to deliver the biggest speech of his political career. Let's be -- let's be frank.

We've just learned introducing him tonight will be his wife Usha. It's been just over 50 hours since both of them first stepped into the convention hall as Donald Trump announced him as running mate. And what Vance says tonight in his first remarks with that new title will be closely watched, of course, by Republicans but also by Democrats.

CNN's Alayna Treene leads us off this hour. Alayna, you have new reporting about what Vance will be saying from that stage tonight. What are you learning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Kate. So I have spoken with someone who has helped work on J.D. Vance's prepared remarks for this evening. And they tell me that it's mainly going to focus on his life story, his biography.

And I think you know Vance has a pretty incredible journey. He grew up in a poor Ohio, Rust Belt town, he struggled. He had a struggling childhood, a pretty -- you know tough childhood. He had a family who struggled with opioid addiction, but he went on to become a Marine.

And then he went to Yale Law School. He was a Venture Capitalists. He was a best-selling author, and then he's only been in the Senate now for a year and a half, when Donald Trump chose him as his running mate. And so all of that by the time that he's at the age of 39, something I know Donald Trump has told him personally he finds very impressive.

I do want to review just a quote I have from a source familiar with how the Trump team is looking at this. I think it sums it up perfectly. They wrote quote, If you want to crack suburban women, get them to watch the screen adaptation of Vance's memoir "Hillbilly Elegy", his life story is so powerful expect a lot of focus on his bio and life story, the source added. And so that's really what we're going to hear from him tonight. And remember, Trump's campaign really does believe that Vance can help them appeal to those crucial voters in the Rust Belt. Those working class voters they see as being necessary to help them win in the fall.

So I expect him to touch on that today. And I do think you mentioned this Kate, but I think it's very notable as well that his wife, Usha Vance is going to be introducing him. She's someone that he had met at Yale Law School. They have been married for several years, but she's never really been in the political spotlight.

So this is really going to be the first time we're seeing the family on a stage quite like this for such a big political moment. And for what is, as you said, a career defining moment for Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.

BALDWIN: Yeah. And Alayna I asked Senator Tom Cotton about J.D. Vance's appeal. It feels kind of like a you get a car like a he's going to feel the heat. He's going to feel the heat. And Tom Cotton confirmed he says he appeals to everyone. So that's the view further from the Republican -- elected Republicans right now.

Last night, former rivals onstage, embracing Donald Trump endorsing Donald Trump. And there are some -- you know pretty big moments from those speeches standing out -- standing out this morning. What do you think?

TREENE: There absolutely are. And I think what Donald Trump and his campaign saw these former political foes do on that stage is exactly what they were hoping for. They wanted them to call for unity. And you heard that from people like Senator Marco Rubio, Former North Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Tim, or excuse me, Ted Cruz, someone who got on this exact same stage back in 2016, and told voters to vote their conscience.

And so remarkable shows of force from all of these different candidates who we know have criticized Donald Trump in the past but I think it's so important to keep in mind, Kate, that a lot of this as well as about political survivability -- you know they have to bend the knee and kiss the ring, because right now, it is clear that the Republican Party is Donald Trump's party.

And so as we're seeing them line up behind them, it's not just as you mentioned earlier, their goodwill that has put them on this stage, but it's also about their own political viability Kate.

BALDWIN: Alayna, thank you so much great reporting. Thank you. And joining us right now is CNN's Senior Political Analyst, Mark Preston for much more on all this. What does VP Vance -- what does he need to deliver onstage for Donald Trump tonight?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well/ let's just set up the last I don't know four or five days where people are -- certainly his friends and supporters are saying that Donald Trump has changed that he had this life altering situation he was almost killed.

[09:05:00]

It would have been centimeters, and it would have been a whole different situation. And we're led to believe that he is this calmer, quieter, less combative person. Well, if that's not going to be Donald Trump, then it's got to be J.D. Vance, because J.D. Vance really is cut from the same MAGA cloth or certainly he has decided to be cut from the same MAGA cloth as Donald Trump.

So if we expect, although I think this is a big expectation that Donald Trump is going to temper things down, then it's going to be J.D. Vance, who's going to be the attack dog. And we've already seen it so far. He's pretty good at it.

BALDWIN: Yeah. And one thing we've also seen throughout the days, here is one thing that they have figured out here at this convention and amongst Republicans being unified around one person.

PRESTON: Right.

BALDWOM: That is very clear, especially when you can contrast it with what Democrats are dealing with right now. But there was -- there was a reminder of the not everything is so perfect, that have been on the convention floor last night. And Kaitlin Collins is interviewing Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. And then Matt Gaetz just really wanted to get a little bit in there. Let's watch this together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): One who's not coming back and then -- and then the other part that you have, and the other part you have is one person who raised the issue. He's got an ethics complaint about paying sleeping with a 17 year old. So, that's the way they would go. So that's the biggest challenge we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There's so much that's going on between the dynamic between those two men that started in the House of Representatives and has now led to today thoughts.

PRESTON: Well, OK. First of all, the Republican Party is unified in the idea that they want to take back the White House. They're unified that Donald Trump is going to be their standard bearer. They're certainly like any family. They are not unified as a family.

And Matt Gaetz sometimes likes to prod Kevin McCarthy, and we know what their relationship was in the House of Representatives. Gaetz basically helped lead the charge that ran McCarthy out. Now Kevin McCarthy's from California, I'm from Boston. Matt Gaetz did that to me. And I'm Kevin McCarthy, and then I probably would have knocked him out on the floor.

And I'm kind of surprised that Kevin McCarthy didn't give him credit for that. But it just shows you for all the talk about the healing and coming together in the Republican Party. There are riffs all throughout the floor, just like they're on the Democratic Party. BALDWIN: I will say though, and I didn't see every moment of the

former president's box but I do know I saw Matt Gaetz in that box sitting next to Marjorie Taylor Greene. I have not seen I don't think Kevin McCarthy yet sitting back. I could be wrong.

PRESTON: My Kevin though. Remember, he's my Kevin to Donald Trump. So I -- there's a place for Kevin in MAGA world.

BALDWIN: You are my mark. So I will -- I will concede that. There's something else I have picked up on from the stage, especially last night. But I wanted to play this together -- this focus from the speakers on going after and criticizing they -- let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARA TRUMP, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR: They'll try to sell you on some outrageous narrative about the terrible things that Donald Trump will do if he becomes president.

BEN CARSON, FORMER HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: First, they tried to ruin his reputation. And then last weekend, they tried to kill them. And there is over there alive and well.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): They have unleashed progressive prosecutors across our nation. They use the unelected bureaucracy to impose their will on us without our consent, and they weaponized political power to target their political opponents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And that's just a little bit of it. The day it seems obvious in some respect, is they're trying to say Democrats sometimes the -- you know, the media that they do -- that they disagree with. And sometimes the day is something else. I mean, Ben Carson saying now they've tried to kill him. If he's talking -- if he's talking about -- if he's trying to point the finger at Democrats, he's completely going against Donald Trump and the tone the down rhetoric.

I mean, one thing that shows me is that the -- that it seems that the expiration date has come and now passed on the tone down the rhetoric. But what is this about?

PRESTON: I told let me -- let me take the rabbit hole that they have started digging about they and just go a little bit deeper, because they could be the deep state and that's kind of what they're talking about. The idea that there is this faceless or in some cases -- you know there's a face to their opponents.

This idea that this is -- this cabal that there's this deep state that is out to take down Donald Trump I mean, let me just tell everybody out there in TV land, Washington is not that organized to be able to have a deep state that can take out Donald Trump that just doesn't exist.

BALDWIN: Right.

PRESTON: But it's an -- it's a way politically to try to take down your opponent.

BALDWIN: But it to me that speak that goes right against the -- we need to tone it down. We need to be -- we need to talk to people as people because this idea is what spurs the conspiracy theories that have -- that have wound people up into such dangerous places.

PRESTON: It was a good 24 hours of unity.

BALDWIN: It felt good for a second. It's good to see you Mark. Sarah?

[09:10:00]

SARAH SCHNEIDER, CNN ANCHOR: That's the line of the day.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I also like --

SCHNEIDER: -- 24 hours in unity.

BERMAN: -- in TV land like you know, just a warning to everyone out there in TV land. That's us. Thanks for the warning Mark.

SCHNEIDER: All right, coming up, the Secret Service Director now saying her agency was solely responsible for security at the Trump rally. New details from her one-on-one interview with our Whitney Wild plus, a new warning from the FBI and DHS election related targets are under a heightened threat now.

We will discuss why coming up. And just moments ago Former Trump White House Adviser Peter Navarro, released from prison after serving four months. One of his first stops as a free man, you guessed it the Republican National Convention Stage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:41]

BERMAN: By breaking just moments ago, we just learned the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General has opened an investigation into how the Secret Service secured the campaign rally where there was an attempt on Donald Trump's life the FBI also investigating the incident scene.

CNN also has an exclusive interview with the Secret Service Director. CNN's Whitney Wild is going on top of all of this joins us now. Good morning Whitney.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. This is a notable development and what will be a long list of investigations as a secret service answering more questions today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: When you said that local law enforcement was responsible for that building, what did you mean by that? KIMBERLY CHEATLE, SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: So Secret Service respects local law enforcement and we could not do our job either investigatively or on our protective mission without them. In Pennsylvania in fact, on that same day, they were also working the First Lady trip and a Vice Presidential trip.

So I understand the constraints that they're under. And as I said earlier, we couldn't do our job without them. At that particular site we divided up areas of responsibility, but this -- but the Secret Service is solely responsible for the design and the implementation and the execution of the site. And that's what I was trying to stress was that we just divided up areas of responsibility, and they provided support to those areas of responsibility.

WILD: And you mentioned the First Lady's also been in Pittsburgh. You guys have a lot of areas to cover. Were any assets diverted from the former president's rally to her detail?

CHEATLE: No, there were no assets from the Secret Service that were diverted at all.

WILD: OK, so no one swapped out any of the posts --

CHEATLE: No.

WILD: OK.

WILD: CNN, of course, has reporting that the Secret Service increased security for Former President Trump because of a credible threat from Iran. You know, I've spoken with several people who look at the perimeter, hearing that news, look at the perimeter and say, how knowing that there was a credible threat against the former president, how could that perimeter be so small that it excluded a building just 150 yards away from the podium?

CHEATLE: I can't get into the specifics of any threats. But obviously, with all of our -- we're constantly monitoring the threats that are out there. And we design our security plans based on that. Also, depending on the venue and the environment that we're in, and on that particular day, a full advance had been completed.

But this is also why we are doing an internal review. And we look forward to the external review, as well. And obviously, if you know there are things that we need to change about our policies or procedures or methods, we are certainly going to do so.

WILD: Was that perimeter too small?

CHEATLE: The perimeter encompassed the area that we needed to secure for the event that we had on that day. What happened is a terrible incident and should never happen. And we are obviously going to make sure that moving forward, we take whatever lessons we -- that come out of this and adjust accordingly.

WILD: Was every element, every part of his from the intelligence to the counter assault team, to detail agents, the shift agents, I mean, every element top to bottom of the advance in the operation was every element increased after you learned at this credible threat.

CHEATLE: What we increased was what we felt was appropriate for the former president and for that particular event on that day. We have been increasing the assets and the resources and the staffing that we've been providing to the former president since he was a presidential candidate, and then the presumptive nominee. That's what I can tell you.

WILD: That sounds like a no.

CHEATLE: I'm not saying no at all I'm saying that we have continued to increase the resources that we've been providing to the former president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Director Cheatle told us that she did speak with the agents and officers who responded and telling them that in what would be the most difficult moment for any secret service agent or officers career in that moment. Those men and women who were there on scene did their job flawlessly, back to you.

BERMAN: Yeah, we'll find out with this inspector general report and the number of investigations that now seem to be ongoing. Whitney Wild great reporting thank you very much. Sarah?

SCHNEIDER: Again, we are following this breaking news where the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General has opened an investigation into how the Secret Service secured the Trump campaign rally. But we're also learning of more threats.

CNN National Security Analyst and Former Director of the National Intelligence James Clapper is joining me right now. Thank you, sir, for joining us this morning. Mr. Clapper what are the things that law enforcement is learning that would trigger this kind of warning that there is a much more heightened threat during these very volatile campaign times?

JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, to begin with is the of course the Iranian threat.

[09:20:00]

Although we don't know any details about the vintage, the reliability validity of the human source in question was a corroborated? I think now the concern is, will there be copycat attempts in sort of retaliation against the attempt against Former President Trump?

So this would in I think, infer a heightened -- potential heightened threat to the president and others in the administration, as you have copycats, or those who feel that they have to retaliate for the attempt against President Trump so this by however you measure it is represents a growing threat.

SCHNEIDER: I am curious to see if that is ginned up by what we are seeing online with the blaming of Democrats, which there's no evidence at all of that the person who did this attempted assassination was a registered Republican. But you're hearing on the stage as well, from some of the Republican Leaders using the word they cannot take him out. They tried to kill him, inferring that it's the Democrats.

Is this something that would create an even more heightened threat because of what leaders are also saying?

CLAPPER: Well, yes, it would. That's why it would really be good if everyone would abide by the appeals made by both President Biden and Former President Trump to tone down the rhetoric to cool it. And so given the nature of polarization, this country and the wild conspiracies on social media, that sort of rhetoric just feeds that.

And I think heightens the intensity of resentment on the part of some to retaliate because of blaming the Democrats, for example, which right now is not helpful.

SCHNEIDER: You know, over the years, there have been so many assassination attempts and assassinations in our past political history. Especially in the 60s, you had -- you know, President Kennedy, Dr. King, Bobby Kennedy, when you look at what happens during a volatile campaign, do you always see these threats go up?

CLAPPER: Well, not like this case. So we've certainly had unfortunately a very checkered history with political violence in this country. When they had the incident that happened Saturday, it certainly brought back very vivid memories of mine when President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

I was a young lieutenant then, in the Air Force in Texas, not far from Dallas. And I had many of the same feelings and emotions that came up when I witnessed what happened Saturday. The difference though, Sarah, is we were united completely in grief in 1963. And that is not the case now.

And of course, there have been other instances since then of political violence. George Wallace, Bobby Kennedy, and others -- and other similar incidents involving violence and that's why today because of the polarization in this country and intense feelings that people have, why this is a particularly vulnerable situation.

SCHNEIDER: James Clapper, it is a pleasure to have you on thank you so much for walking through us. Appreciate it. John.

CLAPPER: Thanks.

BERMAN: Right, J.D. Vance set to take the stage tonight and introduce himself to voters as Donald Trump's running mate. But which brand events will we see? We had new polling this morning that has Democrats worry really worried. President Biden losing ground in major swing states and a lot of states that aren't supposed to be so swinging.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:40] BERMAN: All right, this morning, a new set of polling is circulating among Democrats that has the Biden campaign worried. Numbers from Blue Labs Analytics shows that the president is losing ground in 14 states since the debate. And look, a lot of these states are even considered major swing states. States like Colorado you see there, New Hampshire, Maine these are states that need to be solidly in the Democratic camp.

With us now CNN Political Commentators Kristin Soltis Anderson and SE Cupp Kristin numbers are your business here? What do you see when you see these numbers from blue labs?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: As a pollster, you are often in the business of giving people bad news telling them things they don't want to hear. And I do not envy the folks at Blue Labs who have had to deliver this message to Democrats.

The reality is that Joe Biden did not have a good debate and was already not in a good position for the 2024 election before that debate. Now when we look at polling that showing Democrats losing right now, a lot of Democrats have resigned themselves to the idea that there's no way they can win in November. I think that's foolish.

I remember Republicans feeling resigned that there was no way they'd ever win in 2016. And then they did. So anything can happen in politics. But the real worry for Democrats is one that Joe Biden will lose but two that he will take the rest of his candidates down with him.

There are a lot of Democrats running for office for things like the U.S. Senate in states that Trump is expected to win. If Trump wins those states by three or four points yeah, you can still elect a Democratic Senator; there might be enough split ticket voters in those states.

But if Donald Trump is winning by 10, 15 points in some of these red states that makes it very hard for somebody like Senator Jon Tester of Montana or Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio to get --