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Trump To Deliver First Speech Since Assassination; JD Vance Introduces Himself To Voters In RNC Speech; New Pressure On Biden As More Dems Call On Him To Exit Race. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 18, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:37]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: I'm Boris Sanchez live in Milwaukee, at the site of the Republican National Convention. My good friend and co- anchor, Brianna Keilar, is live for us in the nation's capital.

And here at the convention, it is the final day. Tonight, former President Donald Trump will take the stage to formally accept the Republican nomination and deliver his first major speech since nearly being assassinated. Trump's original plans for what he described as a humdinger of a speech getting scrapped. Instead, Trump writing a new speech he says, to meet the moment.

And in a new video, Trump is talking about that terrifying incident last weekend. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER US PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This has been our best campaign and then I got shot, how is that happening? That was an amazing -- horrible thing, amazing thing and in many ways, it changes your attitude, your viewpoint on life. And I think honestly, I think you appreciate God even more. I really do because it's something happened --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That was Trump gets set to speak to what appears to be a unified Republican Party. It's almost the complete opposite on the Democratic side. President Biden is right now isolating at his home in Delaware after testing positive for COVID while facing deepening questions about whether he should exit the race for the White House. Let's get to CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes for the latest.

Kristen, obviously tonight a big moment for Trump. What should we expect from his speech?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, it really depends on what happens when he takes the stage tonight. He is in complete control now. He does have a speech, we are told he is still working on it. This was something that he wanted to write. We've been told by a number of people close to him that he had a different speech, but after Saturday's event wanted to make this about unity. But of course the big question remains, what does unity mean to former President Donald Trump? And I spoke to a number of people who have been briefed on the speech, who have talked to him about the speech. They say that he is going to lean into what happened on Saturday.

He is going to talk about the fact that he feels like he is lucky to be alive, that there was divine intervention. But whether or not he stays on this message, again, we will wait and see Donald Trump is one who gets very invigorated by the crowd around him. We know that they are setting him up in a kind of show style performance. He has Hulk Hogan speaking, there's Dana White of the UFC, introducing Kid Rock, who then will put on a performance and have Donald Trump take the stage. So which version of Donald Trump that you get?

Now, people who are close to him, they insist that he is a changed man, that he had this harrowing experience. This is the first time other than that short clip that you just saw that we're going to see him speaking in public and directly addressing what happened on television. So that's going to tell us a lot about where his mindset is, and where he believes the Republican Party and the country should go.

SANCHEZ: Kristen, I also wanted to get an update on something that JD Vance, Trump's new running mate, said during I believe it was a Faith and Freedom Coalition breakfast. He had a message directly for social conservatives this morning, following some pushback after Republicans soften their stance on abortion on their official platform. What did he say?

HOLMES: This has been a point of contention between evangelicals and Donald Trump, and we should know that the Faith and Freedom Forum is a very conservative group. Ralph Reed runs it, he's close to Donald Trump, but he is somebody who is very, very anti-abortion. So it's not surprising that JD Vance essentially put up a big tent saying that no matter what everybody is still welcome in the party, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JD VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There has been a lot of grumbling in the past few weeks, that the Republican Party of now and the Republican Party of the future is not going to be a place that's welcoming to social conservatives. And really from the bottom of my heart, I want to say that is not true. Social conservatives have a seat at this table and they always will, so long as I have any influence in this party. And President Trump I know agrees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:05:00]

HOLMES: Now that is what he said but obviously what he wasn't saying was anything about any hard line abortion or anti-abortion stances. They didn't mention any of this. And that is because Donald Trump does not want to run on it. Remember, the platform that the RNC put through is one that Donald Trump dictated parts of. He has not wanted to talk about abortion almost at all, other than taking credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Obviously, they do believe, and this is his senior advisors, that the pool party is welcome. They want anyone who is far right or Christian conservative to vote for Donald Trump. But what they do believe is at the end of the day, they can sell to Republicans that this is a binary choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. And if you want someone who is more conservative, you should go with Donald Trump.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for that reporting. We want to discuss further now with Republican Congressman Mike Waltz of Florida. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

REP. MIKE WALTZ (R-FL): Sure.

SANCHEZ: I'm wondering what you think of that reporting that we just heard from Kristen, that folks close to former President Trump say that this shooting changed him. And also I'm curious to get your perspective on what we're going to hear tonight. What do you think?

WALTZ: Well, we have the -- my wife and I had the opportunity to spend some time with President Trump yesterday. And he is very reflective, anybody would be a millimeter away from a headshot. And I told him, I've seen men and women in combat that, you know, fight or flight kicks in, you run and hide, or you stand strong and move to the sound of the guns. And his first instinct was to stand strong and reassure the country that that he's okay.

I think tonight you're going to see a continuation of what he started in Iowa, when he talked about unifying the party. This week, you've seen Nikki Haley, you've seen Ron DeSantis. He's unified the party clearly this week. I think that's indisputable. And now it's about unifying the country.

SANCHEZ: Congressman, I do want to ask you about a powerful moment. You spoke last night just before a video played these Gold Star families. And then eventually, after the video, they came out and spoke as well, sharing the stories of their family members, their loved ones who were killed at Abbey Gate during the withdrawal from Afghanistan because of a suicide bombing.

What did that moment mean to you when their names were being read aloud to the crown?

WALTZ: Well, I was really channeling the frustration of those families who haven't gotten the answers. They don't believe that they deserved really what happened that day, not being able to get calls or meetings with President Biden. And one day I called up President Trump. And him being him, he said, get 'em up here, Michael, we were scheduled to spend an hour with 'em, he ended up clearing a schedule and spending the entire evening. Had 'em laughing, crying, dancing, and two of the moms came up to me afterwards and said it was the best thing that had happened to them since they lost their son.

He was a healer. He was consoler. He was a leader. And I wanted the world to hear that story. And then, they came on stage and told their stories. SANCHEZ: It is a powerful story. It's contrasted with things that we've heard from former servicemembers, high ranking servicemembers and their experience with former President Trump, and his approach to servicemembers. In fact, his former chief of staff, his longest serving chief of staff, John Kelly, went on the record with CNN to say the following.

And I want to be precise with the reporting. He says, "Donald Trump is a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform or shut down are seriously wounded in combat, are spent years being tortured as POWs are all suckers, because there's nothing in it for them." He's using quotation marks there quoting former President Trump. He says, Trump did not want to be seen in the presence of military MPTs because it doesn't look good for me. Who rents that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are losers and wouldn't visit their graves in France.

He says, Trump is a person who has no idea what America stands for, no idea what America is about. John Kelly, we should point out is a Gold Star father himself.

WALTZ: Yes.

SANCHEZ: How do you square those two versions of Donald?

WALTZ: I can just share with you emphatically my experience. I have never seen anything like that. You just saw half dozen Gold Star families saying he truly healed them and they don't trust Joe Biden with their sons who are still in the military. He has I don't even know how many pictures with Congressman Brian Mast, an amputees lost both his legs.

So I wasn't there, I don't know but I could just tell you my experience. And I've never seen a man more compassionate or more caring with our veterans, period, full stop. And just while we're talking that I do want to talk Daniel Dale, the CNN lead fan, who, I mean, directly got on air last night and spoke to my speech where I talked about Biden's military, and his misguided priorities.

SANCHEZ: Let's get to that. So there was a CNN fact checker speech. You mentioned that one point, I want to get this right, you said that Biden was focused on building electric tanks.

[13:10:07]

WALTZ: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Apparently that comes from this army climate strategy that said that they wanted to make tactical vehicles electric.

WALTZ: Wrong. Let me fact check your fact checker.

SANCHEZ: Sure. Go ahead.

WALTZ: I have here Bloomberg reporting, the US Army putting its electric tanks on hold, because they have to further invest in and develop the battery technology. I have testimony with the Secretary of the Army this issue, I have the budget where they're investing in research and development on electric fighting vehicles, in addition to the non-tactical vehicles mentioned in that climate strategy.

So I would just suggest that Daniel Dale sit down with the chairman of the Readiness Committee, who reviews and approves these budgets, and has the testimony and has the actual facts, before he questioned someone's credibility on national television.

SANCHEZ: I'm sure that he would be more than happy to sit down --

WALTZ: Well, he should do that before he publicly puts it. I mean, it's forever on the internet. He set it on air. And when we talk about misleading, he's misleading the public. And so, if he's misleading on, I have all the facts if he's misleading on that, what else is he misleading on the top of it?

SANCHEZ: I think you're getting an opportunity to respond to them now. And as you know, congressman, getting to the truth is a process. It's not as cut and dry as it may seem some time.

WALTZ: Like literally minutes after my speech, he's telling the world I'm misleading. There's no way he could review the Army's budget, the research and development, the testimony that I personally received under oath, or how about just Google and get the facts.

SANCHEZ: As I said, it's a process I'm sure he did. Somebody saw it. I would love to have you both on to discuss it at the same time.

WALTZ: Let's go into this afternoon, where --

SANCHEZ: Possibly, possibly. I don't know where he is but possibly. The other --

WALTZ: We're also putting Chinese made solar panels on the Pentagon if we want to go down kind of the wrong priorities in terms of Biden's military.

SANCHEZ: We can get to that but I did want to get to the other question about --

WALTZ: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: It's all good. We can get to the other question about your speech because you asked something about Chinese spy balloons. You asked the crowd, you didn't see any Chinese spy balloons under Trump, did you? And there were not any reported spy balloons during the Trump administration.

Yet, there were indications that CNN got from top ranking administration officials that there were these unknown objects that passed over US airspace, continental US airspace during the Trump administration. And later, I mean, this is reporting from --

WALTZ: Yes -- no, I know, I know.

SANCHEZ: -- who later said that they suspect that those were actually Chinese spy bar.

WALTZ: So we really got to make this comparison. Number one, we have multiple Trump intelligence officials saying they weren't aware nor did they brief the president. But we had, I mean, for the entire world to see, a spy balloon hovering over our nuclear weapons site, our strategic bomber site, the command and control site, literally for days, and Biden refused to do anything about it.

I think that is night and day different than apparently some old intelligence reporting that may have skimmed the US, and we had no idea what it was back then. It was indisputable. It was actually a journalist and the public who saw it first.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

WALTZ: And now unpacking it, our command did see it coming and elevated the White House, and he deliberately made the decision not to shoot it down. And what is (inaudible) response, another demonstration of America's weakness.

SANCHEZ: I think part of the reason for the response is that they were concerned about where it might land. Nevertheless, I do have a China question for you because as we saw the vice president speaking, or vice presidential nominee, I should say, speaking last night, JD Vance. There are a lot of questions about his stance on foreign policy. He favors a more sort of isolationist America first view that isn't the traditional Republican or at least Reagan orthodoxy when it comes to America leading in the world.

When it comes to Taiwan specifically, Donald Trump made some comments yesterday about the assurances that the United States has made Taiwan from a security standpoint, being something of an insurance policy. And he made it sound like it was a very sort of transactional arrangement. How confident are you that the United States would intervene in Taiwan to aid the Taiwanese if China were to invade under a potential second --

WALTZ: Well, first, let me push back on the premise of the question a little bit. It's your characterization of isolationist. I think Senator Vance was very clear that when we punch, we're going to punch hard. What we're likely did taking out Baghdadi, like President Trump did and taking out Soleimani, like he did and sending cruise missiles into Syria, and actually honoring a red line when a dictator use chemical weapons on its own people, like arming Ukraine which happened under President Trump, not under President Obama.

But at the same time again, I'm chairman of the Military Readiness Committee, we can no longer afford to subsidize European security. I think it's abysmal that they've only gone to 30 percent to 50 percent of the bear minimum in terms of NATO contributing to its defense despite a land war on its own soil.

[13:15:06]

So I think it's just taking a much harder look at what's in America's interest, what commitments are we making, what can we afford to do given 35 trillion in debt, and all of the threats that we're facing. And oh, by the way, we have cartels controlling our own southern border. We just rolled up eight ISIS terrorists that were plotting an attack on the eve of Pulse -- or on the anniversary of Pulse nightclub. So I really think it's taking a much harder look.

And then finally, it's holding the Pentagon accountable. Everything they produce takes twice as long, cost twice as much, delivers half as much as it should system after system, despite the largest defense budget in the world. And I think that accountability and that tough look is what we need right now.

SANCHEZ: There are a couple of things in there that we could --

WALTZ: But on Taiwan, to answer your question, we have a long standing --

SANCHEZ: -- Taiwanese folks as terrorism, question of weather (inaudible).

WALTZ: We have a long policy of strategic ambiguity on Taiwan.

SANCHEZ: Correct.

WALTZ: And I don't hear anything along the changing along those lines.

SANCHEZ: Well, it was the first time since 1980, I believe, that Taiwan wasn't included in the Republican platform. So that sort of raised some eyebrows.

WALTZ: But we took it from 82 pages to 12, the President was clear. I was co-chair of the party platform. The President wanted to make it much more digestible, understandable, and really something people can wrap their minds around. And I think we -- I think we achieved that.

SANCHEZ: Perhaps putting the ambivalence in strategic ambivalence. Congressman, always a pleasure to chat with you. Appreciate it

WALTZ: Same.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much.

WALTZ: Thanks a lot.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still more to come on News Central, the contrast could not be more stark in this moment in the race, Donald Trump is set for a triumphant night in the spotlight as President Biden is fighting for his political future. Sources telling CNN that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told Biden that polls show he cannot win and may bring down other Democrats in the process.

We want to get details on that conversation now with CNN correspondent Priscilla Alvarez. She's actually in roll with traveling with President Biden as he's isolating after he tested positive for COVID. Priscilla, walk us through what we're learning about how the President responded in these conversations. PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The President is facing growing pressure from those within his party, including top Democrats like house speaker or former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over his candidacy. What we're learning from this private conversation that happened recently was that the former House Speaker presented the President with polling that shows that he can't defeat former president Donald Trump, and that he could destroy the chances of Democrats running in House races.

The President, according to sources, responded defensively pointing to his own polling. And at one point in that conversation, the former house speaker asking to get his senior adviser, Mike Donilon, on the phone to walk through the data. It is this type of private conversation that really captures the tension within the Democratic Party, as there have been so many questions circling this campaign over the viability of President Biden as a Democratic candidate.

Now, I've reached out to the White House about this, they said -- and they maintain that the President is the nominee and that he can win. The former house speaker's office saying that she is in California since Friday and has not talked to the President since that time. But certainly a lot of Democratic lawmakers have been raising these questions about President Biden.

In fact, also yesterday, Representative Adam Schiff calling for President Biden to drop out of the race. And privately, the President has also fielded and received these direct appeals. And the Biden campaign for their part maintains that there is no plan B. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUENTIN FULKS, PRINCIPAL DUPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER, BIDEN-HARRIS 2024: The vice president is a part of the Biden-Harris ticket. Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee. I think when it comes to if he's open or being receptive to any of that. Look, the President has said it several times, he's staying in this race. I talked to the President every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, senior democratic advisor has told CNN that the President is receptive in the -- to these conversations, of course, whether that leads to any change in terms of whether he continues to run in this election very much unclear. The President of course, again, is self isolating here in his residence, or hoping the Rehoboth Beach, Delaware where he is around his closest inner circle, which has always played a key influence and whether he runs for any seat, including for a second term.

SANCHEZ: Well, we obviously hope the President's health improves. Priscilla Alvarez live from Rehoboth Beach, thank you so much.

I had much more on this deepening crisis for Democrats. We have new fresh reaction from Capitol Hill, plus a strange twist investigators combing through evidence in Saturday's assassination attempt to former President Trump now believe an account in the shooters name is fake. We're going to take you live to Pennsylvania as officials dig for answers. Stay with CNN News Central, we're back in moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:24:35]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi raising red flags privately but the evidence is out in the public for all to see. A new AP poll showing 65 percent of Democrats want Joe Biden to withdraw from the race for the White House. It also found a majority of Americans overall do not believe that either Biden or Trump have the mental capability to run the country.

Seventy percent were not confident in Biden, 51 percent we're not confident in Trump. Joining me now is Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. Sir, thanks for taking the time to be with us today Do you still think thatWe're not confident in Trump. Joining me now is Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. Sir, thanks for taking the time to be with us today.

Do you still think that Joe Biden should be the Democratic nominee?

[13:25:11]

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Well, you've been reporting on a lot of these conversations that we as members have had with him. And he's actually been very receptive to our very serious input. And I -- I respect his privacy right now to make a decision. I think he ultimately knows the stakes of what's kind of the decision that the American people have.

As a ranking member of the China committee, I'll just point one thing that Donald Trump said the other day which is, he thinks that effectively Taiwan should be given up to China for instance. And so, this is like weighing on all of us right now and the -- I think the American people ultimately will have a stark decision to make between the two parties.

KEILAR: It sounds like you're shifting a bit in your assessment. You're giving him the space to make a decision. But earlier this week, when my former colleague Chris Cuomo asked you if you thought there was a less than 30 percent chance that your party would get a nominee other than Biden, you said you thought so Has that changed? Do you think that it's greater than 30 percent now?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Not necessarily. But I do think that there are just more conversations right now happening. You know, I was part of a couple of them and I can say that he was very receptive to the various concerns that people had on all sides. It was kind of a no holds barred type of conversation, quite frankly, which is good, that type of candor. So, again, I think that he's weighing all the options, and I respect that.

KEILAR: So one of the calls you're talking about was one that he had with some Democratic lawmakers over the weekend just before this assassination attempt on former President Trump. And according to Puck's Julia Ioffe, who viewed a recording of this Zoom call. Biden was telling these Democrats that they need to be out defending him, even as some said, hey, we have polling to show that you're in danger and that you're a danger to House members.

But according to a memo from a well-respected democratic polling firm that CNN has reviewed, defending Biden's fitness for office is an untenable position for down ballot Democrats. Is Biden in touch with reality, in your opinion, on what down valid Dems are facing?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think actually, in that call, what he was really talking about was defending his record with regard to the Inflation Reduction Act, the $35 month insulin benefit, for instance, or the bipartisan infrastructure deal, or the CHIPS and Science deal, which has brought tremendous manufacturing back to America.

He asked for all of us to talk about our accomplishments and make them connected to people's everyday lives. And so, I think that's the takeaway that I have and I agree with that.

KEILAR: Biden told Chrissy Houlahan, according to our reporting and to what has been seen on the Zoom call, that he would send her talking points when she said polls support voters concerns about his viability, isn't that right?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't recall that but I do remember Chrissy bringing up the notion of Pennsylvania being so important. She's obviously a representative from Pennsylvania, and the polling and the current state of the race being, you know, in a place where we would like it to see his standing and Democrats standing improved. And so, I think that's what we have to continue to do and I think President Biden agreed, being a son of Pennsylvania.

KEILAR: Turning to the assassination attempt on former President Trump, what questions did the briefing that you received yesterday raised for you on that?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, my biggest questions are this. Why was this shooter identified as a potential dangerous person before the rally began, and yet the Secret Service allowed for the rally to actually begin, instead of apprehending him first? A second question that I have is, how could it be possible that someone could be perched on a rooftop outside the perimeter within sight of the podium, and that rooftop not be guarded when the Secret Service knew that local resources were insufficient to do so? Those are a couple of the questions that I have.

KEILAR: So I wonder if investigators addressed that, that was a 90 minute gap between identifying the would be assassin is suspicious, and then him taking a shot at the president. Did they talk about that at all?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: This is something that is a big mystery to me. It remains a mystery and I think that this is going to be brought up next week. There's going to be a Monday hearing on this attempted assassination. There might be a second hearing the following week.

Suffice it to say, I wasn't anticipating that I would be participating in these types of probes but that's where we are, and we have to approach these in a bipartisan fashion at this point.