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Harris-Walz Campaign Releases New Add Targeting Latino Voters; Republican Vice Presidential Nominee J.D. Vance Questions Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Walz's Military Record; Former Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo Claims He was Made into a Scapegoat for Robb Elementary School Shooting and Failed Police Response. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 08, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: And black adults are the most impacted here, Kate. When you look at this age group of 45 to 64, the rate of dying from a stroke was about 133 percent higher among black adults than their white peers. Now, I will say, if you see someone having a stroke, call 911 immediately. The quicker you respond, that's the more potential that there will be a recovery. The signs and symptoms to look out for, sudden numbness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body, facial drooping, confusion, sudden lack of vision. These are all signs and symptoms to look out for.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Always an important reminder of what to look out for and how quickly you need to act. It's good to see you, Jacqueline. Thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, Kamala Harris's campaign releasing a brand-new campaign ad aimed at winning over Latino voters. All while the Trump campaign launching new lines of attack against Tim Walz, questioning his military record.

And new details just in about the thwarted terror plot against Taylor Swift. During her concerts overseas U.S. officials were able to stop all this from happening, but raising the alarm. And now at least three teenagers are being questioned.

And an exclusive interview with the former Uvalde school district police chief. Pete Arredondo speaking out about the botched response to that shooting, saying he has become a scapegoat.

I'm Sara Sidner Kate Bolduan. John Berman is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: Just in, the next layer of the Harris-Walz campaign strategy coming into focus this morning as the duo soon takes their battleground blitz out west. The newly minted Democratic ticket is now turning their attention to Latino voters in a new campaign ad released just this morning. It zeroes in on Harris's childhood, her immigrant parents, and her rise to success. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you're raised by an immigrant mother, you learn what's possible with determination.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And determination is how Kamala Harris --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- went from working at McDonalds to --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prosecutor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: State attorney general.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: U.S. senator, and our vice president in only one generation.

And with that same determination --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She always defended us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So before heading to the next campaign stop, there is at least one more to make in Michigan. And last night already in Michigan, Harris not only took the stage, but also took on some protesters during her rally as they shouted what appeared to be pro- Palestinian messages at her. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He intends to surrender our fight against the climate crisis. And he intends to end the Affordable Care Act.

You know what, if you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The issues that plagued Joe Biden now coming to confront Kamala Harris on the campaign as well. Joining us right now is CNN's Isaac Dovere. Isaac, Harris and Walz have been on the ticket together since Tuesday, right? I mean, so how have you already seen -- you have new reporting on how being together is already changing the campaign.

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Look, for Harris, she is still not very well known to a lot of people. She's been a presidential candidate for all of 17 days now. Tim Walz as her pick is the defining thing for Tim Walz, but it's also defining for her in how she is putting yourself forward and how she's putting this ticket forward for the country. What she wants to do is talk about winning back voters who had drifted away from Trump. That's what the Tim Walz pick is about in part.

And it's also about saying that there is a different kind of energy that they want to be putting forward then what was true of Biden and certainly what's true of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. They are going for this sort of joyous air together. And if you look even on Tuesday night at his debut in Philadelphia, Walz said to Harris, thank you for bringing the joy back. And it's that celebratory aspect of the campaign that they think can help power a lot of good feelings that could help them all the way through November.

BOLDUAN: And it also seems a way that they are trying at least right now to draw a contrast with what you're hearing and seeing from Donald Trump rallies and J.D. Vance rallies as well in terms of, in terms of that. There's what they are talking about and their big focus on turning people out to rallies. But you also have new reporting on how they're trying to reach out to people who are not attending the rallies. What are you learning?

[08:05:00]

DOVERE: Yes, look, the ad that you showed in the beginning there is part of this. Rallies are obviously something campaigns love when they're big and fulsome like those have been over the last few days. But this is about now trying to take this apparatus, which was built for Joe Biden and which has now been pumped full of a lot of money and energy over the last two-and-a-half weeks from Harris's takeover, and build out these operations in states where they think that they can be competitive again. Arizona and Nevada are states that had been almost out of reach for Joe Biden, if not completely out of reach, that now we are seeing there are efforts that are underway to try to capitalize on movement there. We'll see how that continues over the course of the next few weeks absolutely.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Definitely one thing is for sure and undeniable when you talk about the campaign has been pumped with a lot of new cash. There's no question there, that's for sure. It's great to see you, Isaac. Thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, let's bring in national political correspondent for "Politico" Meredith McGraw. Her new book, "Trump in Exile" out right now. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. You just heard about this new ad that is being released, but Trump has been able to siphon off some Latino and black voters. What does this tell you, this new ad tell you from the Harris Walz campaign about how important these voting blocs are and where they are in this race to try and win some of these voters back?

MEREDITH MCGRAW, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": Well, the Hispanic vote is going to be incredibly important in this 2024 election. It's the second largest ethnic group in the country, but they certainly don't vote as a monolithic block, right? And the Trump campaign over the years has been trying to siphon off a lot of Latino votes, in particular in the south and in Texas and in Florida. And this this push by the Harris campaign just shows how important they will be to them in the upcoming election. They're going out to the Midwest, this new ad that they have out. And there has been real concern among Democratic strategists about the

dent that the Trump campaign has been able to put in the Hispanic vote, which has for decades reliably votes Democrat.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about this new attack line that we've heard, first heard from J.D. Vance, who is a veteran himself. He served for years. But he attacked Governor Tim Walz's military record. Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard. What do you make of these attacks and whether or not they will be effective when it comes to the voters, because both of these men are veterans?

MCGRAW: Right, they both served this country. And this is a new attack line from the Trump campaign going after Governor Walz. But I will say it's not entirely new to Walz. He has faced these accusations before when he ran for governor, when he ran for Congress. But it does -- there have been moments that the Trump campaign has highlighted, some Republican allies have highlighted where they claim that Walz has mischaracterized his service, or when he decided to retire from the National Guard right before his unit was deployed to Iraq. And the question is going to be how this registers with voters now.

I will note one of the top people on the Trump campaign right now is Chris LaCivita, who is a longtime Republican strategist who was one of the masterminds behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against John Kerry in 2004. And he's a veteran himself. And he made clear in our story that we published last night that this is going to be something that we're going to continue to see from the Trump campaign, from Republicans, is this questioning of Walz's service, which the Harris campaign has defended and Walz has defended, too.

SIDNER: What's also really interesting, there are other members who served with him who have come out and said he did nothing wrong. I may not like his politics, but he was a good soldier. So it will be interesting to see how this fallout -- and also very interesting to note that you're certainly going to see an attack from the Walz and Harris campaign because Donald Trump avoided serving. So this is going to be a strange and interesting world that we go into as we go forward towards this election, which is in just three months.

Meredith McGraw, thank you so much for your reporting, Appreciate it.

I'm going to go to Kate now.

BOLDUAN: Giving me to get into the studio. Thank you, darling.

SIDNER: You're welcome.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, a CNN exclusive. For the first time in two years the former Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo is speaking publicly. He was just indicted for that botched response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School, and he now says he's a scapegoat.

[08:10:01]

BOLDUAN: And new details on the terror threats that forced the cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts in Europe, and what we are now learning about the role the United States played in stopping the alleged terror plot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: A CNN exclusive this morning. For the first time since he was indicted, former Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo is speaking publicly. Now, you'll remember in 2022, a gunman murdered 19 kids, 19 students, and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, and it took police 77 minutes to actually move in to confront him.

[08:15:00]

A police response that the FBI labelled as cascading failures. And the attorney general of the United States has said that the victims deserved better.

But now, Pete Arredondo tells CNN's Ed Lavandera, they did the best they could with what they had.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE ARREDONDO, INDICTED FORMER UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE CHIEF (body cam footage): Sir, this is Arredondo with the school district police can you please put your firearm down. We don't want anyone else hurt, sir.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For more than two years the families of the 19 children and two teachers who were murdered inside a classroom of Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas have waited to hear from this man, former school district police chief, Pete Arredondo.

LAVANDERA (on camera): What do you say then to those critics and a lot of them are fellow law enforcement officers who said you guys didn't handle the situation properly and many people who, as tough as it might sound, consider you guys cowards with the way you acted that day.

ARREDONDO: I strongly disagree and again, opinions vary, sir, and they're going to. But I can tell you that probably a hundred percent of those people hadn't been in a situation like that before.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Do you feel like you guys are being singled out, scapegoated?

ARREDONDO: By all means, since the very beginning, sir. I've been scapegoated from the very beginning.

LAVANDERA (voice over): Nearly 400 law enforcement agents responded to the Robb Elementary shooting scene on may 24, 2022. Arredondo has now been charged criminally for his actions that day, facing multiple felony counts of child endangerment. He and his lawyer, Paul Looney, sat down with CNN and spoke for more than an hour about the shooting.

LAVANDERA (on camera): I keep thing thinking about what are the questions that the victim's families would want to ask you. And I think ultimately it all boils down to, it's like, how come officers didn't go into that room sooner?

ARREDONDO: Right.

LAVANDERA (on camera): What do you say to those families?

ARREDONDO: If you look at the body cam footage, there was no hesitation in myself and the first handful of officers that went in there and went straight towards the hot zone, as you may call it and took fire and then at that point, we worked with what we had.

LAVANDERA (on camera): The protocols of, as I understand it, of active shooter training is you go after the gunman then you focus on the gunman until he or she is taken out. That didn't happen in this case. Why not?

ARREDONDO: We couldn't -- again, you can't see what's on the other side of a wall at that point --

LAVANDERA (on camera): But you're supposed to get through that wall.

ARREDONDO: Right. You can't see through it, first of all. So, when we were shot at and we backed off. I think, okay, now, we know where he's at because we didn't know where he was at.

That's when we took fire and backed out and realized, okay, now, we need to come up with a plan to get back up there.

LAVANDERA (on camera): If I show you a couple of video clips, would you mind, I'd love just to -- as we watch them, I'd love to get your perspective on what you see.

ARREDONDO: I'm sorry, but I'd rather not look at video clips, sir. I just don't. I just don't. I've kept myself from that. It's difficult for me to see that. These are my children too, and people understand that.

We went down the hallways every day and stressed about keeping doors locked, stressed about being vigilant and the less I see of those, sir, I don't have to, the better for me.

LAVANDERA (voice over): What the body cam video clips that Arredondo refused to watch show, is that on that a day in the hallway, at 12:09 PM he said he knew there were likely victims in the room with the gunman.

ARREDONDO: As soon as they clear this room, I'm going to verify what's been vacated. Guys, before we do any kind of breaching. Time is on our side right now. I know we probably have kids in there, but we've got to save the lives of the other ones.

LAVANDERA (on camera): In that moment when lives were at stake, why did you think time was on your side?

ARREDONDO: I don't recall making that statement. I'm sorry, there's some things that you don't recall what you're in the hallway.

LAVANDERA (on camera): As we've watched body cam footage of what happened and how those 77 minutes unfolded inside Robb Elementary, you're on those tapes constantly giving orders to other officers.

ARREDONDO: We're going to clear out before we do any breaching, We're going to clear out these kid's class.

LAVANDERA (on camera): The sense was is that those officers were deferring to you as the lead officer. So why shouldn't you bear the brunt of the responsibility of how all that unfolded?

ARREDONDO: Sure, and it's just natural for me to give direction with what information you have while you're in there. Again, limited information was there on the inside.

ZAMORA: No entry until the chief of police gives you permission there.

LAVANDERA (voice over): Arredondo now claims there were State Police officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety who arrived after him, who should have set up an incident command post and taken control of the scene.

ARREDONDO: The guidebook tells you the incident commander does not stand in the hallway and get shot at. Incident commander is someone that's not in the hot zone and is in another location.

ZAMORA: Get ready for friendlies.

ARREDONDO: Tell them to f**cking wait.

ZAMORA: Nobody enter.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Do you think you made any mistakes that day?

ARREDONDO: Again, it's a hindsight statement. You can think all day and second guess yourself. I know we did the best we could with what we had and by running into that building and not leaving there and doing what we could or doing what I could and what the other officers could. It was the best we could with the situation we had and information we had.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:20:09]

LAVANDERA: And Kate, Arredondo also feels like the officers who cleared out the surrounding classrooms of students, that those actions saved lives that afternoon inside of Robb Elementary.

We also asked him if he had spoken to any of the victims' families since May of 2022, he said he had not, but his cousin's wife was one of the teachers that was killed. We should also note that we have reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety and State Troopers for reaction to his comments, we have not heard back from them -- Kate. BOLDUAN: Ed, thank you for your reporting and staying on top of this.

It's hard to hear a lot of it. Thank you very much.

We have new details coming up on the terror plot to target Taylor Swift concerts. How the United States helped uncover and stopped an attack.

And America needs a normal guy that is what one former Republican is now saying as he is speaking out to say Tim Walz would be a good VP, pushing back against the new criticisms coming fast and furious from the Trump campaign now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:32]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, two veterans now buying for vice president and the scrutiny over their military records is just heating up.

Vance stepping up his attacks against Harris' running mate, accusing Walz of strategically leaving the National Guard before his Army National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq.

Here are the facts: Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years before retiring in 2005 to launch a campaign for Congress, months before his unit announced a potential deployment to Iraq. His unit was deployed two months after he retired.

Vance served four years in the Marine Corp as an enlisted combat correspondent though he says he did not see combat and deployed to Iraq for roughly six months, according to his military record. He left service in September 2007 as a corporal.

For more insight on Walz's record, I want to bring in Charles Djou who served with Tim Walz in Congress and is now endorsing him. And it should be noted, you're a Republican and you are now endorsing Tim Walz, a Democrat.

You are a veteran, what do you think of JD Vance's attack on Tim Walz?

CHARLES DJOU (R), FORMER US REPRESENTATIVE: Well, good morning. Thanks for having me on.

Let me get begin by just saying, as an Afghanistan war veteran myself, I think Tim Walz gave 24 years of honorable service to our nation. That's something to be commended, as is Senator Vance's years of service in the Marine Corps when less than one percent of Americans are stepping up and taking the oath of office to serve on our nation's military.

I think what Tim Walz has done was honorable and good and something that should be rewarded and recognized, and not criticized for.

SIDNER: You, as I mentioned, a Republican who served with Tim Walz in Congress. Republicans are lambasting him for some of his policies, saying that he's a radical liberal. How would you describe your time serving with him?

DJOU: You know, I think the thing about Tim Walz that I want people to know and understand is whatever differences I or Republicans may have had with Tim. He's generally, a genuine nice guy.

He's a normal man, and I never knew him to be anything other than somebody who had a friendly smile, a warm handshake, and even if you disagreed with him, he was someone who was always very affable and friendly and heaven knows, in American politics today, we have more than enough showboats who are spitting out constant hyper-partisan vitriol right now in American politics and endless streams of social media tweets.

Tim Walz, I think is a refreshing just nice, normal guy. And right now, I think American politics desperately needs nice and normal, and that's Tim Walz and wherever the politics maybe and whether I agreed or disagreed with him, that's I think the salient point, that he is a genuine, kind man. That's something -- I think that's something that's good, commendable, and what our country needs.

SIDNER: Policy-wise, did he reach across the aisle? Was he someone that could be worked with, you know, a kind smile and a happy handshake, if you will, is one thing, but getting the business done is another. How was he when it came to policy?

DJOU: Yes, absolutely. You know, there are lots in Congress they come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Tim was/is the type of individual who works with all people. He's interested in making sure things get done for the American people.

Now I might not have always agreed with him necessarily, but I do and did find it refreshing and rewarding that he was always comfortable working with Republicans as well as with Democrats. That for him, what was important was getting things done for the American people, not getting things done for his political party.

And once again, that's something that's in very short supply in American politics here today and that's why I'm very excited to see Tim Walz selected as Vice President Harris' running mate for this coming election.

SIDNER: You recently reconnected with him, I think for a D-Day commemoration, what was that meeting like?

DJOU: Yes.

SIDNER: What did you discuss? It was the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. What is your takeaway?

DJOU: Yes. you know, for Tim and myself, I mean, I've been out of elective politics now for a few years and Tim, at the time, there was no consideration of him being a running mate at the time President Biden was still the Democratic nominee, and still very much in the race, so there was no discussion about him joining a national ticket.

It was a nice, friendly, affable conversation. It was very typical, Tim Walz, very, very friendly, jovial individual who recognized me.

[08:30:37]