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Melania, Ivanka Trump Expected At RNC Finale For Trump's Speech; Interview With Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA): New Pressure On Biden As More Dems Call On Him To Exit Race; Interview With Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND): Trump To Deliver First Speech Since Assassination Attempt. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 18, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

MOLLY BALL, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: She wants nothing to do with it, but she issued that very long and heartfelt statement on Sunday after the shooting. It was really uncharacteristic and very fulsome, talking about, you know, humanity and the need to come together. I think more than anything, he really needs her in this moment, right, at a time when he is trying to project an image that is human.

The theme of this whole convention has been about trying to win over former skeptics of the former president, has been about trying to reintroduce him and recast him away from his old, divisive, polarizing image as a more unifying figure. We'll see what he says tonight and how he tries to approach that theme. But I think he really needs her to be with him in this moment. She's clearly reluctant to be too out front, but she will be there when he needs her.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Alayna, I want to focus on Usha Vance. She actually introduced the Republican vice presidential nominee for president last night, J.D. Vance. What did you make of her speech?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: You know, I thought she did very well, particularly someone, I think it was clear she was a little nervous. She's not someone, obviously, who is used to the political stage. I mean, J.D. Vance has only been in the Senate for a year and a half. That was her first foray. His campaign for Senate in Ohio was really her first foray into politics.

But I think, to Molly's point, it was a similar message. It was a humanizing message. It was talking about personal stories of their family, how they met. And that has been the goal, not just for Donald Trump, as Molly pointed out, but also for J.D. Vance. We saw that throughout Vance's speech himself, you know, talking about his childhood, his autobiography. And I think she really drove that point home.

And just one thing I wanted to add to what Molly said as well, what's been interesting about this week is Donald Trump is not someone who likes to be vulnerable, but we are seeing a lot of that vulnerability come out this week.

But I am told, I mean, this entire campaign has really been a contrast between strength versus weakness. That is what they're trying to portray. And I do think that is going to continue moving forward.

This is just an interesting kind of departure from what we're used to seeing, whether it be with J.D. Vance and his family or Donald Trump and his family, like we'll see tonight.

SANCHEZ: Molly, there was a contrast that struck me as Usha Vance was speaking, in part because she told the story of not only her union with J.D., but how he has embraced her family, a family of immigrants. That story being told as there were literally signs being passed around that said mass deportations. She could be an asset to this campaign to sort of try to humanize the Trump view of immigration. Right?

BALL: Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think if you were to ask J.D. Vance and the things that he said about immigration, he would tell you that it's not about hating immigrants. It's about the citizens of this country, you know, as he said in his speech, deciding who we do and don't let in.

But absolutely, it reinforces that message for him to be connected to this immigrant family and to say that this too is the American story. This too is the American dream that he embodies and that she embodies. And that that is, you know, what he's going for, not any kind of, you know, racist type of paradigm.

So and I agree with you. I had the same thought watching her, that it was endearing that she seemed a little nervous because you could tell that she hasn't been a public person. She hasn't been a part of something like this. And I think for the people want to know these candidates, people want to know him because he's new on the scene. And she really did humanize him in that way.

SANCHEZ: Molly Ball, Alayna Treene, thanks so much for the conversation. Appreciate it.

BALL: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Stay with CNN. We're back in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:15]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Biden is off the campaign trail, but the pressure is not going away from inside his own party. New reporting from "The Washington Post" that former President Obama is telling allies that Biden needs to reconsider the viability of his candidacy for reelection. And CNN has learned that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Biden privately that polling shows he cannot defeat Trump and might hurt Democrats' chances in the House.

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith from Washington state. He was one of the first Democrats to urge the president to step aside. Sir, thank you so much for spending part of your afternoon with us.

Do you think that Biden is going to step aside or is getting closer to it?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): I mean, it seems to be moving in that direction. I think there are still conversations being had. But look, the big change that happened just in the last 24 hours is I think everybody is now getting the impression that the president around him are taking the concerns very seriously and looking at the challenges going forward.

And I think that is a very welcome development. So it seems to be heading in that direction, yes.

KEILAR: Do you think they weren't before?

SMITH: I do not. Certainly in the first week or so after the debate, you know, it seemed like the very clear message was nothing to see here. We're fine. We're moving forward.

And then, frankly, that was frustrating to me because I think at a minimum, given where we were at, given the questions that were being raised about the president's health, raised not by me, by the way, by the country and certainly by the press pool at the White House press briefings. I think they should have taken it more seriously back then. But now I think they are, yes.

[15:40:00]

KEILAR: So we hear this reporting from "The Washington Post" about President Obama. We have reporting on what Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are saying privately to Biden. Do they need to come out and say it publicly?

SMITH: Yes, I think they're looking at quite well. Look, the whole point of this is we want to have a discussion about the issues. I was on a show a little while ago and I was listening to Mike Johnson, you know, to talk about how they care about the deficit.

You know, when Donald Trump raised the debt and the deficit more than by any president in any one term in history. You know, we just heard the conversation before I came on here talking about immigration, that the point isn't to denigrate immigrants.

Donald Trump does nothing but denigrate immigrants. He's called them rapists and murderers. He said that countries send us their worst. He's more than once, you know, wondered aloud why we don't get more immigrants from Norway.

Look, we've got to have that fight. We've got to go back at the messaging here. And that's where we need to get to. And as I've said, the very start, when I came out and said the president should step aside. The reason I'm doing that is I think that debate showed that at this point, President Biden is not the best messenger for our message. It's a good message. Got to get it out.

And second, we're going to be dogged by questions about his health. It seems and I have not seen the polling, but it seems like the data is reflecting that. So however those conversations happen, they need to happen.

KEILAR: So how would this even work? I know I've heard concerns that Republicans might make some legal challenges if there's a ballot change, and it seems like all of these things would need to be figured out before Biden would actually decide to step aside. And yet the process of actually figuring that out likely would become public. And that could obviously be problematic if there are some legal problems with him stepping aside. How does it work?

SMITH: Yes, I don't think it's hard at all. I mean, he -- Joe Biden is not the nominee of the Democratic Party. He is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.

So how it would work is when our convention happens, what is it, three weeks from now, four weeks from now, we would pick a different nominee and he would be nominated that way. You're on the ballot across the country. The Democratic Party is on the ballot.

So we can pick our candidate at our convention as we plan to do. Yes, you got to move a little money around. There's some different things that have to go into it, but it's really not that difficult.

And I'll tell you, you know, the country three years now has been asking for a new face for something different. If we respond to that, I think we would get an incredible boost from that. It would energize the ticket.

KEILAR: I want to ask you, because you said here and here in a few weeks or three or four weeks, August 1st is sort of I wonder how you see that as a bit of a deadline, because there is this -- there's a planning call tomorrow for the virtual nomination of Biden ahead of the convention. And right now, it seems like that could happen as soon as August 1st. It's -- I've sort of been likening this to legally getting married before the wedding. Right. But that's still obviously a very important date. Is that then actually the deadline as you see it, if Biden is considering dropping out?

SMITH: Not as, you know, not as not as I see it. We did get that pushed back. They were talking about doing it this weekend and now pushed it back to August 1st, which I guess is what, 13 days away. So there's plenty of time in there.

Also, from what I can tell, there's no necessity of doing this virtually before the convention. Now we get into some legal niceties that I confess I haven't examined.

But from what I've heard, Ohio, which was the whole reason for doing the virtual thing in the first place, has changed their rules so that we would be able to be on the ballot in Ohio, even if we did it at our convention. I'm not 100 percent certain of that, but that's my understanding. So I don't think there's a necessity of doing it.

KEILAR: So then let me ask you that. So should it be scrapped then, Congressman?

SMITH: Oh, yes, I mean, there were a number of us in the House who were getting ready to send a letter when they were putting, putting -- well, I'm sorry. When you say scrapped, I want to make sure I'm talking about it. I, you know, I think we ought to go ahead and nominate our nominee at the convention like we're supposed to. So but, you know, if there's lawyers who have a different interpretation, I guess. But it doesn't seem like that to me. I don't see the necessity of speeding up the process here.

KEILAR: Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. Congressman Adam Smith.

SMITH: Thanks, Brianna. Appreciate the chance.

KEILAR: And ahead, we'll go back to Milwaukee, North Dakota. Governor Doug Burgum was once on the very short list for former President Trump's VP and could find a place in his cabinet if Trump wins in November. Boris will be speaking with him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:49:19]

SANCHEZ: Two days after being tapped as Donald Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance introduced himself to voters in a speech that highlighted the more populous direction the two aim to take the Republican Party and the nation. That could be seen as the preamble to the event that we're going to watch tonight as former president Donald Trump speaks to the nation for the first time in a major broadcast speech following his assassination attempt.

Let's discuss with Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota. He was on Trump's shortlist for vice presidential nominee. Governor, great to be with you. Chris Rock, or rather not Chris Rock, Kid Rock --

GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): Kid Rock.

SANCHEZ: -- was on the stage a short time ago rehearsing for later tonight. He's going to be introducing former President Trump. I think you're a huge Kid Rock fan. Is that right?

[15:50:03]

BURGUM: Well, Catherine and I are country western fans and Kid Rock has crosses over sometimes and I see he's got his cowboy boots on and he's got a cowboy tune that's been modified for tonight. So fun. It's the first time I've been on a national TV hit where we've been serenaded by Kid Rock in the background.

SANCHEZ: I'm wondering what you make of the fact that tonight Trump isn't being introduced by a Republican governor, a former Republican president or any lawmakers. It's Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock, Dana White.

BURGUM: Well, I think it's pretty clear to me, which is President Trump, who's in charge of this show and this is accumulation of a great week of party unity. But this guy is a marketer. He's a salesman. In addition to being a great business leader and a tremendous track record, you know, from an economic standpoint, a world peace standpoint as a president. So he's like unlike any figure we've had in modern history where he kind of crosses over and does all this thing. I mean, it's like -- I mean, think if he had an athlete that was also a movie star that was also, you know, a singer on Broadway.

I mean, President Trump's got such a range of what he's been able to do. And so what's he staging tonight is to show what he really is, which is he's a fighter. I mean, and of course, he's you go back to his years at Atlantic City.

He loved -- he knew all the fight promoters. And now with UFC, he's friends with the guys from UFC. He loves going to those events. And it's who he is.

I mean, when someone takes literally takes a bullet and then gets up and tells the whole country, I'm ready to go again right now, that's, you know, that's just a contrast. So I think it's brilliant what he's doing. I think it's fantastic. I think it's going to broaden the audience. It's going to increase the reach.

And I think you're going to see, again, the voters that are voting for the Republican Party. The platform has simplified 20 point platform. We've never had a platform like that in 50 years that the average American can read like in a minute and understand it.

And it all makes sense. It's all common sense. And so the party has become the party of common sense. The party is the party of the working family, someone who's working for a paycheck. Because the policies of President Trump help whether you're an independent, you're a Democrat or Republican. They help everybody. This isn't about special interest groups. This is about raising the tide for everyone.

SANCHEZ: Governor, I want to ask you about what I think has been, at least to me, having watched it up close, the most emotional moment of the convention thus far. And that is Gold Star families coming out, sharing the story of their loved ones who were killed at the Abigail suicide bombing during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. I know that you have spent some time with Gold Star families as well. What did that moment mean to you?

BURGUM: Well, it's a -- I've got a personal connection because -- and I've got a personal set of, you know, frustration, anger, whatever, about this completely not from a political standpoint, but from the completely botched, humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Now, some viewer might say, oh, he's just saying that as a politician, as a governor, we were heading into the a very serious 20th anniversary in North Dakota. You're the commander in chief of the North Dakota National Guard.

We lost soldiers in the war on terror between 2001 attack on, you know, on America on 9-11 and then 2021. We're getting ready for this very serious thing to honor the Gold Star families. Joe Biden pulls out of Afghanistan because he wants to hit a deadline. And we go ahead with our celebration and in memory of these lost soldiers. And I had to spend time with Gold Star mothers in North Dakota who were like, hey, does this mean our son died for nothing? Because Joe Biden was just saying we can pull out and we don't even need to be there.

I thought we've spent our lifetime mourning our son who died a decade ago because he gave this life for something that mattered to this country. Now, apparently it doesn't.

And so I think that there's been some, you know, some irreparable rips between Joe Biden and Gold Star family, whether they're the whether they're ones that died earlier in the war on terror in Afghanistan or the ones that were a part of the botched withdrawal.

SANCHEZ: I have to ask you, Governor, in light of that, I think these families were trying to show the personal connection that they have with former President Trump and how he's alleviated some of their very personal stories that they shared.

There is a marked difference between that Donald Trump and the Donald Trump that's been described by some of the former military officials that worked for him, his former chief of staff, John Kelly, a Gold Star father himself, a four star general and a group of others that Trump has criticized who have come out and said that he has said things to them personally -- and they've said this on the record. That have described our service members as suckers and losers, saying that he didn't want to go to a cemetery in France, that he didn't want to be seen with amputees.

How do you square this description from John Kelly of President Trump with what you heard from those Gold Star families?

BURGUM: Well, I think one of the things that's frustrating for me is I've also seen the you know, that there was 19 people that were with President Trump on his staff, including other military people that said he never said that. So we can keep trying to litigate.

[15:55:00]

He said she said kind of stuff. Or we can just look at the person. And I've never been in an event with President Trump, doesn't matter whether it's a rally or a fundraiser where he's not taking time to get a picture with those people in uniform, whether it's law enforcement, local responders, whether it's the military.

I think, you know, the support that he has from the military, I think speaks for itself from law enforcement speaks for itself. This is a person that cares about the people that are willing to put their lives on the line. And I think he's, and even, you know, and even about talking about his own Secret Service that were there to surround him last Saturday.

I mean, this is a man that respects people that have the courage to put themselves out in the arena.

SANCHEZ: Governor, I have to ask you one more question. How does Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, sound to you?

BURGUM: I think all the secretary speculation, I think we're now up to like eight different cabinets that have been suggested. There are some big issues in all of them, certainly in Interior. Bureau of Indian Affairs, there's things that are going on there that are atrocities that are not talked about, but whether it's, you know, Bureau of Indian Education, Indian Health Services, there's things that, you know, that really need to be fixed for those over 500 tribal nations who are suffering in poverty and addiction, and being held back by a federal system.

But then, you know, Bureau of Land Management is one of the folks that's not following the law and not holding leases. That's one of the agencies under the Bureau Department of Interior. We've got a balance sheet in America, which is huge, and we've got all these natural resources, but we're not developing.

We're buying our oil and gas from overseas. We're not sending our resources that we can develop cleanly here to our allies in Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines. That's what's part of what's destabilizing the world.

So there's a lot of things there, but none of those agencies, it doesn't matter, pick any cabinet agency, President Trump doesn't get to fill them unless he wins. And there's going to be a battle between now and November. These things can tend to, you know, it might feel, it might get closer in the fall, but I think the focus right now isn't about any particular position.

I was never supporting him because I was looking for one. I got a great job right now as governor of North Dakota, and the key here is getting President Trump elected.

SANCHEZ: Governor, we appreciate you sharing your perspective and enduring some of the sounds behind us while we're trying to have a conversation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:0:18]

KEILAR: Just in, a legend of television, Bob Newhart has died. He played the lead part in two iconic sitcoms, The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart. Newhart also played Papa Elf in the Christmas classic, Elf.

He won three Grammy Awards, an Emmy, and a Golden Globe. Newhart was 94.

And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.