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Democrats Coalescing around Harris; Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is Interviewed about Harris; Secret Service Chief to Testify on Capitol Hill. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 22, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:28]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Kamala Harris isn't formerly his opponent yet for the presidency, but Donald Trump's campaign not wasting any time and going on the attack, releasing this just hours after President Biden dropped out.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kamala knew Joe couldn't do the job, so she did it. Look what she got done, a border invasion, runaway inflation, the American dream dead. They created this mess. They know Kamala owns this failed record.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The Harris campaign hasn't officially released a new ad, but one that she used for her 2020 campaign went viral again on social media this weekend, likely a preview of what we're going to see in her attacks on Donald Trump.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is owned by the big banks. She's the attorney general who beat the biggest banks in America and forced them to pay homeowners $18 billion. He's tearing us apart. She'll bring us together. This is Trump. And in every possible way, this is the anti- Trump. So, if that's what you're looking for in your next president, there's really only one, Kamala.

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SIDNER: The other attack line we've been seeing this morning from Republicans aimed directly at President Biden. They are calling on him to resign immediately. I am sure he is not listening.

CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox joining me now.

What are you hearing, Lauren, on The Hill today?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, obviously, a stark division between Republicans and Democrats and how they are grappling with this news coming out of yesterday that President Joe Biden is no longer going to be seeking a second term.

What you're seeing from Democrats is them quickly coalescing around the vice president, Kamala Harris, to lead this ticket. That comes after months of internal - or, excuse me, after a month of internal disagreement over whether or not they wanted to stick with Biden. And so many Democrats that I've been talking to over the course of the last 48 hours are just ready for that internal disagreement to end. They are ready to unite. They are ready to get ready to continue working.

And I just want to note that that's obviously in stark distinction from what you're hearing from Republicans who are preparing and readying their attacks against Harris, but also saying that the president is no longer fit to serve. That is what Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is arguing. You also have Nancy Mace, a Republican, saying that she will bring forward a resolution to start the 25th Amendment, saying that Harris should take over now.

I would just note that we still have not heard from the top Democratic leaders in the House or Senate, Chuck Schumer or Leader Hakeem Jeffries in the House, but we are hearing from other leaders, including Pete Aguilar, Catherine Clark, the next two Democrats in leadership in the House of Representatives, and they are saying that they are going to do everything that they can to get behind Kamala Harris, to support her and make her the 47th president of the United States.

Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, just this morning, during our hours, they endorsed Kamala Harris as well. And we expect to see more.

Thank you so much, Lauren Fox for your reporting there on The Hill.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, as you have seen, as Sara was mentioning, these endorsements have been coming in quickly this morning. And we are getting new comments in from people being floated as potential vice presidential picks.

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[09:39:35]

BERMAN: All right, breaking news. Just getting word that Maryland Governor Wes Moore, the young popular Democrat there, he now too has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination. So, he is just one more key endorsement that she has picked up over the last several hours. That includes Kentucky Governor Andy Bashear, and it concludes some key members of the Democratic House leadership, including the Democratic whip, Catherine Clark, and the conference chair, Pete Aguilar. Sort of the two and three in the Democratic House delegation there. [09:40:10]

With me now is a member of the House Democratic Caucus, from California, Eric Swalwell. He was one of the first members of Congress to officially endorsing Kamala Harris yesterday, although it feels like weeks and weeks ago now.

I mentioned Clark and Aguilar officially endorsing. What - what are you hearing from your colleagues and Democratic leadership right now?

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): People are fired up. They're excited. One hundred and six days to go, but we can do it. We've got a candidate who's tough. She's real. She's smart. And, most importantly, ready.

BERMAN: In terms of the contest at this point, it doesn't seem like there will be much of a contest here. How much of a problem do you see that as?

SWALWELL: Well, I know she's ready to earn it. And there's a way for someone to run against her. And if they don't, that probably says a lot about the strength of her candidacy. And if someone's going to challenge her, I know she's going to win it. But that's not up to her. She can't control, you know, who runs against her. But she's ready. And, you know, she is making a case that Donald Trump is the distant past and she's the future. And that's a lot different than, you know, the position we were in just 24 hours ago.

BERMAN: OK, that's really - and we heard it from Senator Tim Kaine. We heard it from strategist Joe Trippi. Now we're hearing it from you. The past versus the future. Is that now deliberate messaging from the, I guess, Harris campaign?

SWALWELL: Well, look, it's Donald Trump's messaging, right? He wanted to make age an issue in this campaign. OK, Mr. Trump, we'll not just make your age as the oldest person to be president an issue, but there's an even higher number, 91. That's the number of felonies you're facing and you've been convicted by about a third of them, and you're going up against a tough former prosecutor. And so he's got a much different opponent now, and he has every reason, you know, to be obsessed now with process rather than about the case he should be making for the American people.

BERMAN: How effective do you think the age issue could be for Democrats now, if at all? I mean it's a pretty big shift to go from being concerned about your candidate's age to being on the offense about age?

SWALWELL: Yes. Yes. I promise you, you're never going to hear Donald Trump ask his opponent to take a cognitive test again. And we've probably heard the last of that.

BERMAN: So, you think -

SWALWELL: Yes.

BERMAN: But do you think that Democrats can be on offense on age? SWALWELL: Oh, yes. Not just age, but, you know, the future. And somebody who understands, you know, the issues that are right in front of us and where we need to go, especially on reproductive rights. You know, Kamala Harris has been the champion for women's rights over the last four years. And she's been on this college campus tour. And it hasn't been talked about enough. But she draws thousands of young students when she goes to these campuses and fires them up about their rights and how they vanished like that under Donald Trump, and how she'll be the one who can defend them and bring them back.

BERMAN: So, you passed through the same prosecutor's office as Harris did. You have a lot of connections and ties with her. What is it that you think will make her a uniquely effective candidate?

SWALWELL: Well, she and I worked in the same office, in the same courtrooms. Earl Warren was the district attorney in the office that she worked under, which means that is steep in ethics. And every young lawyer is always nervous, you know, the first couple times you appear in court because you stand before a judge and they say, counsel, state your appearance. And you say, Kamala Harris for the people. And that was her case when she ran for president in 2020. And she made that case in the courtroom. And now she's making it across the country. She's running for the people on the issues they care about.

And, by the way, John, Donald Trump has been going around saying he's going to easily beat Kamala Harris. Well, she's heard this before from other sexual predators and rapists when she was prosecutor Harris. And if he wants to know how this movie ends, he won't have to look too far, but he's going to have to go to a prison to find out because she put away a lot of bad guys and she's ready to make the next case for the country.

BERMAN: You mentioned the 2020 campaign and I'm not sure you love it when I mention this, but you did run in that campaign for a second yourself. She didn't win. In fact, you know, she dropped out before Iowa. What went wrong for her in 2020, really 2019 for her, that she can or should learn from going forward?

SWALWELL: Well, she was picked as vice president, right? So, a lot went right for her. And, you know, to kind of continue the prosecutor's analogy, I guess, she's been second chair under, you know, one of the most consequential presidents ever, second chair, you know, to the infrastructure legislation, second chair to the chips manufacturing bills, second chair to the gun safety legislation. So, you know, my kids will drive on roads that the Biden-Harris administration built. They'll use phones powered by chips that they manufactured. And they'll feed their families with jobs, 16 million of them, that they created.

[09:45:00]

BERMAN: But - but to be fair, my question was, what didn't work? Why didn't it work? Why didn't it take in 2020?

SWALWELL: Yes. Look, I think it took in that she's vice president. And - and I saw as many saw when we were out there, you know, for the moment we were in, Joe Biden was the right person. The seasoned hand that we needed to beat Donald Trump. And now the country is asking us to look toward the future. And she's the right one to take us there.

BERMAN: All right, so, float some names for running mate.

SWALWELL: Yes.

BERMAN: Assuming it will not be you, because you're from California and you'd have that whole in-state issue. So, I'm sorry for you about that. I'm sorry for your loss.

SWALWELL: No. No. No, it's my children's gain.

But we have a - we have a deep, deep bench. Obviously you saw it in the 2020 field. But you see across the country, you know, many of the governors who are leading our state.

BERMAN: Name names.

SWALWELL: So, you know, give me the problem that we have to make a lot of people disappointed because we're going to have that problem, but we've got a lot of great names.

BERMAN: Who do you think?

SWALWELL: Got a lot of great names.

BERMAN: What type of person do you - should she pick a state?

SWALWELL: Yes.

BERMAN: Should she pick someone young? Go out of her way if you want this to be about the future. Does it have to be someone below a certain age?

SWALWELL: No, she's got a lot of time to think this through and -

BERMAN: She has a lot of time? She's gotten like four - the shortness amount of time in the history of modern elections.

SWALWELL: She's got - she's got - she's got a lot of time and she's got a deep bench of talent. And that's - that's going to be fine. And the country, as I said, if you're not picked as the vice president, you've got this team of avengers around her who will be out there helping make the case for the future.

BERMAN: What's Chicago going to be like?

SWALWELL: It's going to be energetic. And so many constituents and supporters across the country have been texting me saying, what state can I go to, to knock on doors? What is the link to contribute? And she has shattered records in the last 24 hours in the money she's raised from small donors. It's energetic, and it's because people are fired up to win.

BERMAN: Congressman Eric Swalwell, thank you so much for coming in. Great to see you here in person.

SWALWELL: My pleasure.

BERMAN: Really appreciate it.

SWALWELL: Thanks, John.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. Secret Service called up to Capitol Hill this morning. The agency's director about to face lawmakers for what promises to be hours of tough questions about security failures leading up to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. The director is prepared to say, we failed. Is that going to be enough?

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[09:51:33]

SIDNER: All right, this is happening right now. House Speaker Mike Johnson taking questions, talking about where he is going to go next, which is going to be that very, very big hearing you see right now. The head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, walking up and going to go into that hearing where she will be grilled no doubt on the failures of securing the area where former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, where another man was killed, two others injured.

Let's go ahead and bring in Jonathan Wackrow, who's here to talk with us about it.

I just want to keep this up so we can see - set the scene here. Mike Johnson still speaking there. He has talked a bit about Kamala Harris as the vice president who now hopes to ascend to the presidency, and he is about to grill the head of the Secret Service.

Let's go ahead and go to Jonathan Wackrow, who can talk us through this.

She's got some prepared opening remarks. Director Cheatle is expected to acknowledge the agency did fail when former President Donald Trump took to the stage. They - they failed in their preparation. They failed in their execution.

What are you expecting? What else would you expect to hear from her? Because if you start at that point, you know, it's going to devolve from there when the members get a chance to question her.

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. Well, good morning, Sara.

And, listen, you know, with the Vice President Harris now entering the presidential race, the pressure on the Secret Service just got higher. It's going to further stretch an already resource-constrained agency. And I think you're going to see that theme come out today. It's going to set up for a really, you know, pressure-filled, you know, congressional hearing were a lot of things need to be answered. There are two key things that I actually want to hear today that come from the Secret Service. And it's really transparency and accountability. On the transparency side, we really need to understand, in the post-incident management of the shooting, you know, what happened. You know, what went wrong. What have they identified to date that they can share that won't impact any criminal investigation? And what are they doing to rectify that?

And when it comes to accountability, I want to hear it again. I want it reinforce that the director of the Secret Service is taking full accountability for those security lapses and not shifting any type of blame on local resources, other government agencies that were involved into the security plan on that day. The buck stops with the director of the Secret Service, and you're going to see some really tough questioning coming out of that.

SIDNER: We are watching her walk into the chamber now and waiting for everyone to take their seats. And you'll be hearing some of this live on CNN.

I do want to ask you about these calls from people on both sides of the aisle, and people who have been doing this a long time, former members, for example, of the Secret Service coming out and saying, she's got to step down. What are your thoughts on that?

WACKROW: Listen, you have one mission. It is to ensure that our political leaders are safe. That mission failed on that Saturday when the former president had an assassination attempt against him. We have to understand from the director today as she's still in the seat what type of operational decisions and resource management constraints potentially lead to that moment happening, right? And from there - and it's going to be only from that line of questioning and the transparent answers given by the director, that we're going to be able to answer two things, was this an isolated incident where, you know, security failures occurred but are not systemic to the Secret Service, or do we have a much larger problem.

[09:55:11]

The director has to be able to tell members of Congress, as well as the general public, that the election is safe. Now that we have a net new candidate entering into the race, the pressure is on the director and the Secret Service as a whole. And what I'll see - you know, we'll see as this hearing continues, really the direction that this Secret Service is going to take. Are they going to be defiant? Are they going to be defensive? Or are they going to have that transparent and accountable narrative moving forward?

But to your question, Sara, I think the director's, you know, time is limited, and I think you'll see multiple calls today from different members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, that will be calling for her resignation.

SIDNER: Jonathan Wackrow, thank you so much for that. That is about to start in just a second here.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. So much happening today.

SIDNER: (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: Where do we even begin and end?

BERMAN: Well, look, I think what we've seen is we've seen leaders coalescing around Kamala Harris.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: We've also seen this message, this clear message from members where they're now saying, this election isn't about the past, it's about the future.

BOLDUAN: Future.

SIDNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: And they've looking forward to that contrast now with a candidate Trump.

SIDNER: There's a lot of excitement for sure.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. CNN NEWSROOM up next.

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