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Ukraine Incursion; Kamala Harris to Deliver Major Economic Address; Trump Talks With Elon Musk. Aired 1-1:30p ET
Aired August 13, 2024 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:00:58]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Former President Donald Trump dubbing at the interview of this century, but some allies are questioning the strategy behind his unscripted and often off-message interview with Elon Musk.
Meantime, Vice President Kamala Harris zeroing in on the most important issue to voters, the economy. We have new details about her first major policy speech.
Plus, one week into Ukraine's incursion into Russia, as President Vladimir Putin is vowing to kick the enemy out, his troops have not made much progress. We're going to take a look at what comes next.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: And this summer is one for the books. The planet just experienced the second hottest July in history. And now we're getting our first look at which American cities are experiencing the most dangerous heat.
We're following these major developing stories and many more. They're all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
SANCHEZ: We begin with Donald Trump's campaign for the White House hitting a bit of a glitch.
To kick things off, the former president's self-promoted interview of this century with Elon Musk on the billionaire's X platform was plagued by technical difficulties. But it's what he said during the conversation that has some of his own allies questioning the campaign's strategy.
Here's part of the reason why.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kamala wouldn't have this conversation. She can't, because she's not smart.
ELON MUSK, OWNER, X: No.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: You know, she's not a smart person, by the way.
But she's getting a free ride.
MUSK: Yes. Yes.
TRUMP: I saw a picture of her on "TIME" magazine today. She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live. I -- it was a drawing.
MUSK: Yes.
TRUMP: And, actually, she looked very much like a great first lady, Melania. She looked...
(LAUGHTER)
MUSK: Yes.
TRUMP: She didn't look -- she didn't look like Camilla (sic). That's right. But, of course, she's a beautiful woman, so we will leave it at that, right?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Meantime, Trump's opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is planning to return to the campaign trail and build on her momentum with a major policy speech.
We're now learning that Harris will roll out her economic plans on Friday with a speech in the battleground state of North Carolina.
CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us now live.
And, Kristen, you have been talking to your sources within the Trump campaign. How did they feel about this conversation with Musk?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it depends on who you're talking to, right? If you're talking to the actual campaign and his advisers, many of whom were in the room with him last night, they say that it went really well, that it did exactly what they wanted it to do, which was to reach a wider audience, a group that is maybe not necessarily going to follow politics in the traditional sense, but does follow Elon Musk.
Now, if you talk to some of his advisers or even outside allies, they are still questioning the strategy of not going to swing states every single day, not pounding the pavement, particularly as you are starting to see this race get closer and closer.
This is no longer Donald Trump running against President Joe Biden. This is a brand-new race, and what they want him to be focusing on are the issues. In fact, I had one ally saying to me, did he get a lot of views? Yes, did he focus on policy issues? Not really, because one of the things they want him to focus on is that he has been talking about immigration, the economy, crime for some time.
They want him to compare that to Kamala Harris. Now, again, these are what his team is saying. This is what polling shows, that he does better in those areas. But, instead, Donald Trump spent this -- much of this two hours attacking not only Kamala Harris, but his former rival as well.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TRUMP: This was a coup.
MUSK: Yes.
TRUMP: This was a coup of a president of the United States. He didn't want to leave, and they said we can do it the nice way, or we can do it the hard way.
MUSK: Yes. Yes. They just took him out back behind the shed and basically shot him.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Oh, what they did with this guy -- and I'm no fan of his, and he was a horrible president, the worst president in history.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, obviously, we still have questions about whether or not this strategy of trying to reach this small group of what they call persuadable voters, people who are first-time voters, again, who don't necessarily engage in politics, is going to work. That's something we're going to be watching for in the polling.
[13:05:01]
But we might not even know until November, but, right now, some of the people who are watching this from the outside and really want Donald Trump to win and be in the White House are questioning what exactly he's doing.
SANCHEZ: Yes, not convinced, to say the least.
HOLMES: Right.
SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for the reporting -- Jessica.
DEAN: Soon, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz will hold his first solo campaign event as he speaks to one of the largest trade unions in the U.S., this as Vice President Harris prepares for her first major policy speech and the upcoming Democratic Convention.
CNN's Eva McKend is joining us now.
Eva, what more are you learning about preparations both for this economic policy rollout and also, as we look ahead to next week, the Democratic National Convention? EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Jess, we're
expecting a worker-oriented pitch that will focus on bringing down costs for middle-class families.
On the campaign trail, if you listen to her, she talks about her career as attorney general in California going after price-fixing schemes. And she's pledging to work to bring down prices. She claims to be focused on big corporations that engage in illegal price- gouging, corporate landlords that raise rents on working families, and capping the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans.
Now, Jess, a lot of these proposals will require working in concert with Congress. And we're waiting for a more detailed plan from the campaign beyond these promises.
As for the DNC, CNN has learned Hillary Clinton and President Biden will speak Monday night, former President Barack Obama will address the convention Tuesday, and former President Bill Clinton will speak Wednesday -- Jess.
DEAN: All right, Eva McKend with the latest, thank you so much.
And we're going to discuss all of this further with two Republicans. Marc Lotter is the former director of strategic communications for the Trump 2020 campaign. He's now the chief communications officer at the America First Policy Institute. And Geoff Duncan is a CNN political commentator and former lieutenant governor of Georgia. He's endorsing the Harris/Walz ticket and will be part of a Republicans for Harris rally that's on Zoom tonight.
Good to have both of you here with us.
Geoff, I want to start first with you.
Voters like you, Republicans who don't support Trump, maybe independent voters may be open to Harris. But pollsters that I have been talking to you say they really want to hear her pitch. They want to know what she's about.
So, knowing that, what are you hoping to hear from her on the economy this week that you think could persuade some of these voters that are outside the Democratic base?
GEOFF DUNCAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think the 10 percent in the middle that includes me and tens of millions of other Republicans are -- we just want to see a steady hand.
I think we just are ready for an adult to show up in the room that can articulate the economy. And I think it's important for her to really break down the current economy that we're sitting in. Inflation is difficult for some, and for others sitting on their high value of their assets and trying to retire with extreme values on their portfolios, it's a relatively good economy.
I think talking through that and understanding that there's nuances to it, I think is important. But at the end of the day, the 10 percent in the middle just want an adult in the room, somebody that shows up different than Donald Trump shows up, including on X with Elon Musk.
SANCHEZ: Marc, there are some polls I want to share with you. They indicate that the former president is losing voters on the question of who can better handle the economy. He does still lead Harris by a bit, but it's a smaller margin.
I'm wondering what you attribute that to. Actually, it seems like we're having a technical issue with Marc.
So, Geoff, I'm wondering, what do you attribute that to?
DUNCAN: Well, once again, I think there's nuances inside the economy and I think it's important that folks just realize that they want an adult in the room.
Look, a mature mind tells us that inflation is a bipartisan problem at this point. Donald Trump printed $8 trillion we didn't have. Joe Biden is going to be on track to print $8 trillion we still don't have. And so inflation is this multi-administration issue that continues to pop up.
We need to have adults in the room that are able to talk about the economy, talk to the middle class, talk about the importance of jobs, not somebody who just tries to throw red meat out to whatever crowd they're sitting in.
DEAN: Geoff, labor is taking center stage in this election, and the vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaking in front of a union later, and Musk and Trump discussing this last night. We can listen to a clip.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TRUMP: You, you're the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, you want to quit?
(LAUGHTER)
MUSK: Yes.
TRUMP: They go on strike. They -- I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that's OK, you're all gone. You're all gone. So every one of you is gone.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
DEAN: So the United Auto Workers union has filed a federal complaint against Musk and Trump for what they say are illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers.
The Harris/Walz ticket has the backing of union leadership. But Geoff, of course, they also have to have the backing of the members of those unions. Do you think this is an opportunity for the Democratic ticket to really cement that support from rank-and-file members?
[13:10:02] DUNCAN: Well, once again, I think it's important for them to understand this modernization of the economy.
Big labor is -- was started many decades ago, a totally different economy. And really understanding those nuanced levels as technology starts to come on board, as this gig economy continues to unpack itself across our country, as our international relationships and trade starts to unpack, I think it is important to really articulate a definitive plan that goes forward.
But big labor is interesting. I'm a conservative, but I'm voting for Kamala Harris because I cannot stand Donald Trump, and I can't imagine him ever spending any time back in the Oval Office making a single decision for this country.
But I do think it's going to be important for them to continue to once again, even to big labor, be a steady hand. This country needs a consistent, smooth style of leadership that doesn't swing far left, that doesn't swing far right, that just plays the great part of being an American, not necessarily a far left or far right candidate.
SANCHEZ: Geoff, zooming out and studying what we heard from Kristen Holmes was that the thought, the strategy behind this Twitter Spaces session with former President Trump, do you think it would be an effective vehicle to reaching those nontraditional voters that the campaign believes it will, those either first-time or not highly active voters?
DUNCAN: Well, it doesn't if it doesn't work. And it seems like, once again, we have seen this play out.
Elon Musk is -- claims to be the greatest technologist in the world, but his own technology doesn't seem to work. But, look, Donald Trump doubled down on deranged with the best person out there, and that's Elon Musk. They just continue to unpack.
And, look, it felt scripted. It felt like this was going to be some sort of just -- just one rabbit trail after another. I don't think those voters are necessarily dialed in to Twitter or X or whatever we're calling it these days to really figure out who they're voting for.
This election is going to be determined by the 10 percent in the middle. That 10 percent is paying attention to the details. They're paying attention to how they feel about the leadership style of the next president. And, to me, that's the difference. Kamala Harris has got a straight-up trajectory going. Whether or not she can keep it or not for the next three months will to be determined.
Donald Trump's trajectory is headed in the absolute wrong direction.
DEAN: And I believe we have Marc back with us now.
Marc, I just want to ask you, how do you think last night went for the former president? Do you think that was effective use of his time? And do you think that he was able to try to get to some of these voters that they're trying to target?
MARC LOTTER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Absolutely.
Within 24 hours, it's already been viewed about 240 million times. There's been one billion interactions and comments on Twitter, or X, I should say.
And so this was a great opportunity to have an actual real conversation, not telepromptered, not scripted, authentic between the richest man in the world and one of the most successful rich men in the world, talking about lowering prices, talking about dealing with the cost of gas, securing our southern border, things that Kamala Harris can't do, won't do, and is actually the reason why we have a problem in the first place.
SANCHEZ: Marc, I want to get back to the question that I was asking you a moment ago before we had that technical glitch. And it was about polls that have been showing that confidence in Trump to guide the economy, his numbers there have been slipping a bit, and it seems like it's a lot closer with Kamala Harris now at the top of the Democratic ticket.
What do you attribute that slippage to?
LOTTER: Well, I think there's obviously a lot of interest.
You had a major upheaval in the Democrat Party, and you have a new candidate there. But I think once the honeymoon period ends, they're going to realize Kamala Harris is nothing more than the same failed policies of Joe Biden, and the reason why two-thirds of the American people think our country is headed on the wrong track.
She's not going to suddenly come out and say, drill, baby, drill. She's not going to deal with the southern border. She was the border czar for three-and-a-half years, let it get out of control. She's campaigned against fracking. She's campaigned against American energy.
And so if you're sitting in one of those swing states or anywhere in America and you want lower prices, Kamala Harris is just not the answer. She's just more of the same.
DEAN: Marc, I just want to point out she has now said she's not for banning fracking, and she also wasn't technically the border czar.
(CROSSTALK)
LOTTER: So, was she lying then or is she lying now?
DEAN: Well, I think you get to ask that question. The voters get to decide.
My question to you is, we are seeing her evolve on some of her policies, to your point. And that's a place where Republicans have been trying to go after her, where they feel like they can really target her on her record. Would you like to see the president doing more of that stark contrast,
like you just did?
LOTTER: I think that's where this election will come down to here in the next 80-plus days is more of the same, which you don't like, or going back to those policies that worked under Donald Trump.
And so the more that people start to make that connection, the more that she starts getting defined -- I mean, she's going to come out and say whatever she's going to say in all of her policy rollouts. But as your earlier report suggested, she's going after the same policies that Biden was campaigning on, corporate greed, rent control, and prescription drugs.
[13:15:16]
That's no different than Joe Biden 2.0, which is one of the reasons why Joe Biden was the most unpopular president in 70 years.
SANCHEZ: Marc Lotter, Geoff Duncan...
DUNCAN: Marc, remind me what Donald Trump is campaigning on, because I'm clueless as to what Donald Trump is actually campaigning on.
LOTTER: He's campaigning on getting America back to the America first policies that worked.
DUNCAN: Yes, well, we will see.
SANCHEZ: Geoff, Marc, unfortunately, we have to leave the conversation there. Would have loved to not have any technical issues, so we could have started earlier.
(CROSSTALK)
LOTTER: You put personality over policy, Geoff. We're not going to do that.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Thank you both for joining us. Appreciate it.
Still ahead: Russian President Vladimir Putin vowing to respond, as Ukrainian forces seize dozens of Russian villages during their surprise cross-border incursion. What Putin is now threatening -- when we come back.
DEAN: And sources telling CNN the FBI believes foreign state actors were able to breach the e-mail of longtime Trump ally Roger Stone. We will have new details on the coordinated attack on the Trump campaign.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:20:38]
DEAN: We have new details from the front lines of Ukraine's invasion into Russia.
This afternoon, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy saying his forces now control 74 settlements in the Kursk region. The incursion started just a week ago, but Ukraine says it's already taken as much ground there as Russia in Ukraine over the last year.
Today, Russian officials ordered new evacuations for citizens. Tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes so far.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is monitoring the developments live from Berlin.
And, Fred, today, Vladimir Putin promised a strong response, in his words, to Ukraine's actions. What more are you learning about all of this as we watch it unfold?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely.
And I think one of the things that's really remarkable and must be really troubling for the Russians, Jessica, is that the Ukrainians still seem to be moving forward at a pretty fast pace. I was also listening to that update from Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where he says that they now control 74 settlements inside the Kursk region of Russia.
We have to keep in mind that yesterday at this time it was only 28, so the Ukrainians clearly at least saying that they're making a headway. Also, the top Ukrainian general coming out and saying that today they managed to gain dozens of square kilometers, dozens of square miles of territory once again.
It was also quite interesting to hear Volodymyr Zelenskyy say that right now they are trying to stabilize that area, which could mean that they're trying to fortify it and might, at least for a period of time, try to hold that area and that they are preparing what he called -- quote -- "next steps."
He didn't elaborate on that. But, certainly, right now, the Ukrainians are saying that they want to continue their offensive operations. They also said, by the way, that hundreds of Russians have already surrendered. But you are absolutely right, the Russian president vowing a massive response to all this and vowing to kick the Ukrainian forces out of Russian territory.
I want to listen into some of what Vladimir Putin said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The main task is certainly before the Ministry of Defense to squeeze out, knock out to the enemy from our territories, and together with the border guard service, ensure reliable protection of the state border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Now, Jessica, aside from the Russians actually pulling troops into that region right now, the Ukrainians also fear that there could be massive missile and rocket attacks by the Russians on Ukrainian cities even bigger than we have in the past.
And one Ukrainian official said they believe that this would be a big strain on their air defense systems, but the Ukrainians also believe that they could withstand such an onslaught, Jessica.
DEAN: Wow, it is a remarkable turn of events there.
Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much for that reporting.
And we have a lot to discuss here. Joining us now, retired Army Major Mike Lyons and CNN national security analyst Beth Sanner.
Nice to see both of you.
Major, let's start first with you. What do you make -- we were just hearing Fred describe all of this -- of how quickly Ukraine has been able to take over this area? And is this a front they can actually sustain?
MAJ. MIKE LYONS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: You know, well, Ukraine has brought classic blitzkrieg maneuver back to the battle set here.
And who would have thought that would have been able to do this because of the transparency that exists on this battlefield? Everybody knows what's going on. There's satellites everywhere. They were able to keep operational security, combined arms with armor infantry on the ground, using drones, signal support.
They have got a POW plan. They are taking refugees. It's pretty amazing for what they showed to do. And they go after an area that obviously wasn't well-defended and doesn't look like there was going to be a big fight over, but they have claimed a clear propaganda and a psychological victory.
But now what do they do? Could you imagine Russia now attacking its own citizens back to try to get the Ukraine forces out? They claim they're going to go into Ukraine, let's say, with those rockets, but they're going to have to do something tactically. So it's a pretty impressive doctrinal display of their competence in a time and in an area where Russia was really asleep at the switch.
SANCHEZ: Beth, to Major Lyons point, this is a huge psychological victory for Ukraine. What does it do to Vladimir Putin to see Ukraine in his own territory?
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It -- Boris, it's absolutely both a humiliation and a complete failure, right?
So it is bringing the war to Russia, exactly what Zelenskyy wanted to do to change the narrative and the sense of the direction of this war. And now Putin has to really deal with this issue. He's been downplaying it, trying to call it like a terrorist operation, trying not to have accurate numbers about real losses.
[13:25:14] But there is no way for him to hide. Now, we might be reaching 200,000 people being evacuated in a very chaotic way, blaming the state. So this is not a good look for him. And he's going to have to go hard. And this is what Mike is talking about. This is where we are today. It could change very quickly. We don't know.
DEAN: And, Beth, to that point, I'm curious what you make of the U.S. involvement here, because, obviously, all of that aid now starting to make its way into Ukraine that finally got out of Congress.
Do you think the U.S. was aware that this was the plan? How involved are they?
SANNER: I don't think the U.S. or any allies were informed of this. This was a very, very closely held plan, from all reporting that I have seen, just a handful of people, with soldiers not being notified until the last minute as well.
So I don't think the United States knew. So far, the United States is supportive and says it doesn't violate any of the rules of using U.S. equipment. But U.S. equipment has been absolutely essential to this operation.
In a way, I feel that Zelenskyy and some of the statements coming out of Kyiv is making the point, look, if you would let us use long-range strike into Russia, we wouldn't have to do this kind of ground operation and putting U.S. soldiers -- or putting Ukrainian soldiers at risk. So we could be much more effective.
So it's kind of this pressure campaign, I think, of jamming the Biden administration a little bit to show what they can do and say, let us do more.
SANCHEZ: Major, I think I saw you nodding when Beth was making the point that if Ukraine was allowed to use long-range missiles, they wouldn't be in this situation. It seems like you agree.
LYONS: Yes, no question.
So, you're a soldier on the ground in a tank battalion in Ukraine, this is what you want. You want to go on the offensive. And if you had those long-range fires, you would feel a lot better knowing that, over the horizon, that that threat was -- would be taken care of. So it doesn't appear that those red lines have been crossed by yet.
But, again, protection of the force now is going to be important because they have got the momentum and they have got -- they have been moving in a way and taking ground that they probably didn't expect. They have got to now protect their force and recognize and not give up the momentum -- recognize that they're going to be at risk and do what they can, because, again, you're the soldier in that tank, in the Stryker brigade or wherever you are, you want to stay alive.
But you want to also go out and hit Russian targets and continue this offensive operation.
DEAN: Yes. Yes.
And, Beth, just going back to Putin for a second and kind of his mind- set, we know he's increasingly isolated. We know that he is trying to look like the strong guy here. But in terms of his mind-set, what does this do to him looking forward? I know you said he's going to want to respond. But does it run the risk of him responding in an overly aggressive manner?
SANNER: Yes.
But I'm not sure in overly aggressive manner in terms of seizing, reseizing Russian territory is counter to his whole big man, great leader persona. I think he has to do that. He's got to try to hit them hard. What is interesting is, in about a month, September 8, there are going to be regional elections across Russia, including for the governor of this particular province region, Kursk.
And so that might be the first sign we see of just kind of what the public view will be. But, clearly, we saw yesterday a very seething Putin, who was quite upset at his subordinates for allowing this to happen and mounting right now a pretty disorganized response.
DEAN: All right, more to come on this.
Beth Sanner and Major Mike Lyons, thanks to both of you.
Still ahead: President Biden is about to hold his first major event since dropping out of the presidential race, and it's one that's close to his heart. We're going to break down his administration's Moonshot initiative to fight cancer.
SANCHEZ: Plus, stocks enjoying these new inflation numbers, raising expectations for a Fed rate cut coming in September.
What all this means for your wallet -- when we come back.
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