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Harris and Trump Hit Campaign Trail With Less Than 90 Days to Election; Dramatic New Video Shows Moment Police Officer Saw Trump Shooter on Roof; Dow Closes Nearly 700 Points Higher After Better Jobs Report. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 09, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Back on the trail and back to his old playbook. President Trump with a rambling press conference as another historic debate is now set.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a new vantage point of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, body camera footage of police confronting the would-be assassin moments before the shooting began.

And talk about a first day of school surprise, a teacher getting her class ready for the first day back gets a new student who shows up early, a bear charging through. Yes, it's Friday.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner. John Berman is out. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Donald Trump hitting the campaign trail again today. It will be his first rally in six days, his first since re-agreeing to a presidential debate and his first since. The Harris campaign called the news conference he held yesterday a, quote, public meltdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The other side has to agree to the terms. They may or may not agree. I don't know if they're going to agree. She hasn't done an interview. She can't do an interview. She's barely competent and she can't do an interview. But I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: For the record, the other side did agree to a debate, but isn't sure Trump himself will show up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm glad that he's finally agreed to a debate on September 10th. I'm looking forward to it and hope he shows up.

REPORTER: Are you open to more debates?

HARRIS: I am happy to have that conversation about an additional debate for after September 10th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, there you have it. Harrison Trump will debate September 10th, which is, of course, in the final sprint. It falls just 12 days after the DNC and 56 days before the election. And CNN has now learned next week, President Biden will make his first formal appearance with Harris since passing the baton to her.

CNN's Isaac Dovere is leading us off this morning. Isaac, we're now showing the campaign stops happening today and tomorrow. Those are on the screen right beside you. Trump's in Montana tonight, while Harris is going to be in Phoenix. What more can we expect to hear from her in the coming hours after that wild press conference that Donald Trump had yesterday?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, look, Sara, the way that Kamala Harris has tended to deal with what Trump has said about her is to kind of shove it to the side and focus on what she's saying. I think we're going to see more of that. Of course, this week is about the introduction of Tim Walz as the running mate and her first tour of a lot of these battleground states as the president nominee here.

And so we're going to continue to see that introduction of Kamala Harris, that introduction of Tim Walz. Remember, Walz has been her running mate for all of three days now. She has been a presidential candidate for all of, I think, we're up to 18 days. So, that is where it's going to be, talking about who they are and why they think that they have a case to make to Americans about, things like personal freedoms, abortion, economics and what it is that they are offering that's different from Donald Trump.

SIDNER: Yes, the Trump campaign looking into Walz, as is everyone else, as he is sort of the new face of this campaign. Our K-File also looked into Walz in his past. What did they find?

DOVERE: Well, look, these questions about Walz's military record and the reasons why he left the National Guard when he did in 2005 have, we've found, been with him for the entire time that he's been in public life. When he left in 2005, the questions that have come up in this past couple of days since he got in, courtesy of the Trump campaign, have been about whether he left knowing that his unit was going to be deployed to Iraq. His retirement came before the unit was officially notified of being deployed to Iraq, but there was some question of whether he had a sense that that was coming. He was also running for Congress at the time.

But going back to that campaign in 2005, when he was elected in 2006, people in his unit and others were raising questions then of whether it had been a decision to avoid service in Iraq.

[07:05:01] And the K-File reporting that we have says that he had a statement then in 2005 that said, I'm proud of the 24 years I served our country in the Army National Guard. There is a code of honor among those who have served, and normally, that's this type of partisan political attack comes only from one who's never worn a uniform. And he goes on to say, when you dishonor a veteran, you dishonor all soldiers and veterans. You owe an apology to all those who serve honorably.

That should be said is very similar to what he and the campaign, really, the campaign on his behalf, have been saying over the last few days. And, of course, we're looking at this with Senator Vance making the attacks as someone who served as a Marine himself, and Donald Trump who got a deferment from ever serving in Vietnam.

SIDNER: All right. Isaac Dovere, thank you so much for your reporting. Kate, when you start going after people after 24 years in service, things get really complicated and sticky.

BOLDUAN: Just honoring everyone's service. Again, we're going to -- what's old meaning, what we said yesterday, we should say again,

SIDNER: I agree.

BOLDUAN: But let's continue, right? President Trump's return to the campaign trail today comes just after that very classic Donald Trump- esque news conference yesterday, where he was frustrated. He called questions stupid, he ranted, and he went on for over an hour. Here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: We have somebody that, in my opinion, is more incompetent. She couldn't pass her Bar exam. Kamala, who, by the way, is worse than Biden, And she's actually not as smart.

Of course there'll be a peaceful transfer. And there was last time. And there'll be a peaceful transfer. I just hope we're going to have honest elections.

Nobody was killed on January 6th. But I think that the people of January 6th were treated very unfairly.

You know, with Hillary Clinton, I could have done things to her that would have made your head spin.

I was very protective of her. Nobody would understand that, but I was. I think my people understand it. They used to say, lock her up, lock her up. And I'd say, just relax, please.

If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not, we had more.

I think the abortion issue has been taken down many notches. I don't think it's of -- I don't think it's a big factor anymore, really, because I'm leading by a lot and because I'm letting their convention go through. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: I'm letting their convention go through, okie dokie.

CNN's Daniel Strauss has much more on this. So, Daniel, I was -- to put together a short list of the ways that people are describing in some of the reporting what happened yesterday, is Trump tries to wrestle back attention, Trump looking to seize the spotlight back, Trump tries to shoehorn himself back into the national conversation. What do you make of what went down?

DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN REPORTER: Yes, look, this is classic Trump going back to circa 2016 with the philosophy that all attention is good attention, and that this is a moment where the Trump campaign feels pretty nervous about how the spotlight has shifted over to a new Democratic candidate, a new running mate who is very new to the national spotlight. And this is how Trump operates. He would rather have criticism and have all the attention on him and then shift to a more concerted message that helps him than stand by and allow another campaign to get all that attention.

BOLDUAN: But, Daniel, isn't it also, some of what -- how -- what we heard yesterday from Donald Trump is also what many, let's call them, swing voters, independent voters going from supporting Trump in 2016. What exhausted when they decided to not vote for him, exhausted them when they were going into 2020.

STRAUSS: Yes, and if you talk to Democratic strategists, they will say, truthfully, that is the real liability about Trump among the voters that will decide this election. It is not anything in particular, he says, it is that he is exhausting, as one very high level strategist has told me in the past. And so is a strain of argument here that if Trump is more visible, that actually helps Democrats, but it's a risky move.

BOLDUAN: And not one that's going to change is what my guess is. Great to see you, Daniel, thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. New body camera footage shows the moment a police officer spotted the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out, because he can (BLEEP) come right down on you over there. He's got a book bag. He's got mags (BLEEP) AR laying down. Yes, he's got (BLEEP). He's laying down, proned out, book bag next to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: There's so much more to discuss on that video. We will talk about that ahead.

Also, police have arrested another teenager they say pledged allegiance to ISIS and helped plot the foiled terror attack on a Taylor Swift concert. Plus, a new report credits childhood vaccinations with saving a million lives in the last three decades.

[07:05:02]

We'll discuss, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This morning, a new look and a new vantage point of the moment a Pennsylvania police officers spotted Donald Trump's would-be assassin on a rooftop overlooking the former president's rally.

The footage was taken right before the shooter opened fire. You can see the police officer being hoisted up onto the roof of the building and the officer then sees a shooter and then quickly drops back down.

[07:15:05]

40 seconds later, the shooting begins.

More now from CNN's Danny Freeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's the moment we've heard so much about, seen now for the first time on police body camera, a Butler Township police officer asking for a boost to check the roof of the AGR building outside former President Trump's rally.

There's no audio in this video obtained by CNN. You can see on the timestamp, this is less than one minute before Crooks started shooting. The officer climbs up to the roof, and almost immediately drops down, and the tone changes. You don't see it on the video, but police have said Crooks aimed his rifle right at the officer.

He runs to the other side of the building to look at the roof. And on this officer's dash cam, which was recording audio, you can hear those first three gunshots from Thomas Matthew Crooks at 6:11 P.M.

The officer rushes back to his car to get his rifle. You hear him shout to other law enforcement officers on the dash cam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't pop your head. He's right there.

FREEMAN: Back to the officer's body cam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) this close, bro, then he turned around on me. He's straight up. Who's got eyes on him?

FREEMAN: Chaos ensues. By this point, the gunman, Crooks, has already been killed by Secret Service, but it doesn't appear local law enforcement is aware.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're about to hop up. He's laying down. He's on our next building over, right after the gap. He's got glasses, long hair.

FREEMAN: These videos provide new insight into local law enforcement's movements moments before the shooting and the frantic aftermath. Since that day, there's been finger pointing between U.S. Secret Service and Western Pennsylvania law enforcement, including testimony from the acting director of the Secret Service, asserting local snipers hidden in a building could have spotted crooks.

RONALD ROWE JR., ACTING DIRECTOR, SECRET SERVICE: I'm not saying that they should have neutralized him, but if they'd have just held their post and looked left, maybe, and there's a lot of maybes there, Senator, a lot of maybes but --

FREEMAN: But this new body camera footage also suggests local law enforcement had warned Secret Service they needed to protect the building Crooks used to fire the shots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I (BLEEP) told them they need to post the guys (INAUDIBLE) over here. I told them not to (BLEEP) move, the Secret Service. I told them (BLEEP) Tuesday. I told them the post (BLEEP) guys over here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought you guys were on the roof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we're inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (BLEEP) I told him the (BLEEP) guys over here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't even concerned about it because I thought someone was on the roof. I thought that's how we (INAUDIBLE) lose the guy walking back here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were inside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN (on camera): I should also note that frustration you just saw right there coming just about ten minutes after the shooting took place.

Now, we did get a statement from the Secret Service on Thursday saying that they are reviewing the body camera footage that was released by local law enforcement. And furthermore, they added that they appreciate local law enforcement partners who acted courageously as they worked to locate the shooter that day.

Danny Freeman, CNN, Washington.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much to Danny Freeman. Also ahead for us, coming up, after a wild week on Wall Street, Trump's misreading of the economy now, without evidence, saying that the country is heading toward a depression. What the actual numbers and the actual data says, that's next.

And just this morning, a new suspect has been detained, a fourth person linked to the foiled terror plot against a Taylor Swift concert in Europe.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: New this morning up, down and all around. It's been a roller coaster week on Wall Street and we're climbing up once again. Stocks surged Thursday after new unemployment claim numbers suggested the economy may avoid the downward spiral investors had feared. It comes as Donald Trump is suggesting the U.S. is in danger of heading towards a depression, something economic analysts have not predicted at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have a lot of bad things coming up. You could end up in a depression of the 1929 variety, which would be a devastating thing, took many years, took decades to recover from it. And we're very close to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN Business Anchor Julia Chatterly is here with more. We're very close to a depression like the 1929. Huh?

JULIA CHATTERLY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: Yes, huh? Welcome to the politics of fear, not hope. No is the answer. I can show you some stats. The Great Depression is years of prolonged downturn, unemployment. I've chosen the worst year of the depression just to help the former president out. Unemployment was 25 percent, one in four Americans out of work, we're at 4 percent. Wages were down 40 percent. Excuse me. In the Great Depression, we're rising 4 percent. It's utter nonsense. So, please don't listen to that and fear for what's going on today. It's a joke, quite frankly.

Inflation, he mentioned that there was no inflation. There was. It was positive. It was just low enough not to worry. A year later after he left office, it was much higher. And that is a problem. So, again, I'll help the former president out, a good stat two-question at this moment. Prices are up 20 percent since the pandemic began. That's the cost of living crisis in one statistic. Former president, what's the fix? To Kamala's team, too, what's the fix? The way you fix that is by the central bank hikes interest rates and that's caused more pain for a lot of people. The former president said he'd like to have a say in what the central bank does.

What politician in his right mind is going to jack up interest rates when they need to go up and cause more pain for people?

[07:25:00]

It's why you keep the central bank and the government separate. And if you don't believe me, ask Argentina and ask Turkey because, they know what hyperinflation looks like, and we don't want that here. So, zero out of ten, sorry for his Economics 101 class.

SIDNER: That is an F, I think, is what you're saying.

CHATTERLY: It was so much worse than that.

SIDNER: Let's go ahead and check what is happening in the markets this morning. Obviously, you've got the international markets and, you know, the opening bell will ring in about, what, an hour here.

CHATTERLY: Yes. Okay. Good news, we're higher. Astonishing news, this was the performance yesterday. It was the best day for the financial market since 2022. If that rings a bell, because Monday was the worst day since 2022. So, the roller coaster continues. We talked about that better jobs data, mortgage rates as well hit more than over a one year low. Good news for borrowers out there too.

Again, we said it yesterday, this kind of data shouldn't have that kind of outsized impact, the volatility that we're still with. We're tech-tastic once again. Super micro unchanged. Keep watching that.

Quick session chart, if I can show you very quickly, August 1st was that data. We've gone nowhere fast. The message in this, don't panic when we have down days, because we've literally gone full circle on the week.

SIDNER: It's an amazing ride.

CHATTERLY: TGIF.

SIDNER: Yes. Julia Chatterly, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much.

All right, ahead, Donald Trump throwing everything but the kitchen sink at his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris. He talks about her race, her intelligence, even questions if her nomination is constitutional. Ahead, Harris' campaign responding.

And new this morning, rapper Travis Scott arrested in Paris, why that happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]