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Interview With Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett; Ukraine Continues Attacks Inside Russia; Interview With Fmr. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA); Inflation Slowing; Trump to Deliver Remarks on Economy in North Carolina. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 14, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:39]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Former President Donald Trump taking his fight to battleground North Carolina, zeroing in on a top issue, the economy. But will he actually do something Republicans have been calling on him to do for years, something that he's repeatedly struggled with? Can Donald Trump stay on message?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Speaking of the economy, the kind of inflation report Americans have wanted to see for years, price hikes slowing more than expected. Next up, will we see the rate cut that could help Americans with mortgage rates and credit card bills?

And a Ukrainian commander says Russia is moving troops out of key areas to fight back against Ukraine's cross-border incursion, this as Kyiv says, their troops are pushing even deeper into Russian territory.

We're following these major developing stories and many more are all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We start this afternoon with the economy. It's the issue that could decide the presidential election.

And just hours from now, Donald Trump will take the stage in the swing state of North Carolina to make the case for his economic policies. His rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, will do the same on Friday. After years of high inflation, today, there are new signs that it's notably cooled off. But these new numbers might be of little comfort for Americans tired of high prices, struggling with affordability.

A recent NPR/PBS News poll found that Americans give Trump the edge over Harris on handling the economy. But these numbers are pretty close, 51 to 48.

Let's take you live now to Asheville, North Carolina, with CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes, who's there for us.

Kristen, we're expecting Trump to talk about the economy today, but this speech comes as a lot of Republican allies have come forward calling on the former president to focus on the policies and not the personal. KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, and obviously

the policies specifically when we talk about this economy, crime, and inflation, as well as immigration.

Now, CNN's Kate Sullivan was able to just catch up with Donald Trump in Florida before he left for North Carolina. And he gave a bit of a preview of his speech. He said he was going to focus on the economy, but not only the economy. He's going to talk about crime, again, one of the key issues that his campaign has been urging him to focus on.

And when we talk to these campaign advisers, they say that he could still win this race, particularly because Biden's policies are the same as Harris' policies. But Donald Trump himself, as we have seen, is not focused on policy. Instead, he is focused on those personal attacks and also promoting those conspiracy theories from the fringe part of the Internet.

Now, we talked to a number of allies for a story that we had out last night who said that they were deeply concerned about what they were seeing from the former president, the fact that he was relying on these conspiracies, the fact that he could not stay on policy message, but instead was, for example, at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, attacking Governor Brian Kemp, the Republican governor there who is wildly popular.

And now Georgia is a critical swing state, a state that at one point Republicans thought they had in the bag, but now, with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, they believe very much is still in play.

So what we're looking for today, this is going to be a smaller venue. People are not standing. It is not being billed as a rally. It is a sit-down speech on the economy. But that question remains, can Donald Trump stay on message?

And I'm told this is just the beginning of what they're calling a series of these slightly smaller events that are going to be focused on the issues, focused on policy. But Donald Trump, often as we know, when he is around a crowd of his supporters, he feeds off of them and he tends to go off message.

And even one of his closest allies, Kellyanne Conway, during an interview on FOX, said, stop with the personal attacks. It's all about that policy contrasts. We will see if he listens -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: We shall see.

Kristen Holmes live for us in Asheville, thank you so much -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, let's talk numbers now.

A key inflation gauge shows that inflation for everyday items that shoppers buy is significantly cooling down to its slowest rate in more than three years.

CNN's Matt Egan joining us now.

Matt, a lot of people want to know, what are these numbers saying?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, this is a major milestone for the American economy.

Inflation, the biggest problem for years, it's finally back below 3 percent. We haven't seen that in almost three-and-a-half years. And it's easy to forget, but two years ago, we had 9 percent inflation in America, 9 percent. Of course, that's back when gas prices were going to the moon.

[13:05:17]

Thankfully, we are miles away from that. Now, I do want to stress, this does not mean that life is suddenly cheap again. It's not. And it doesn't mean that prices are back to pre-COVID levels. They're not, and they're not going to be.

But as that chart shows, it does demonstrate that prices, they're going up at a more gradual pace. And that is good news. And looking at some specific items, it's true some things are still going up rapidly. Electricity, rent, and car insurance is almost 20 percent more expensive than a year ago.

But we have also seen price drops for some things, like new cars, used cars, appliances, and my personal favorite, men's suits 12 percent cheaper. I know that is music to the ears of Boris Sanchez.

(LAUGHTER)

EGAN: Look, I think, when you put all of this together, I think it does seal the deal for an interest rate cut from the Fed in September. The question is, how big of a rate cut are they going to do and how many more after that?

But whatever they end up deciding, it does mean lower borrowing costs for mortgage rates, car loans, credit card debt. And, of course, that is good news for consumers.

DEAN: All right, that is indeed.

Matt Egan, thanks so much.

And joining us now, former senator of California, Barbara Boxer, and CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton.

Great to have both of you here.

Senator, let's start first with you.

We just heard Matt lay it all out, that new sign that inflation is slowing. But a lot of Americans, they still feel the pinch on affordability, on their housing costs, their electricity, food, transportation. The Trump campaign hit Harris today on the inflation report, calling it Kamalanomics and blaming Biden's economic policies on her. How do you think she best communicates to voters that she's more

trustworthy on the economy than Trump and maybe even Biden?

FMR. SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-CA): I think she tells the truth about the economy.

My goodness, let's start with jobs. Under the Biden/Harris administration, we had record-breaking 16 million jobs, and, under Donald Trump, the worst record in history since records that were kept. He left office with fewer jobs than he came in. So we could start with that.

And in terms of inflation, I think the news is better. It's good. It's moving in the right direction. People are focused on the future. I think the Fed will probably lower interest rates. So the timing is good.

I just think Trump's in a lot of trouble, because things are moving in the right direction and she's a really good messenger.

SANCHEZ: Shermichael, I want to get to Kristen Holmes' reporting about aides and allies echoing things that I have heard you say about Donald Trump.

You were here a few weeks ago when he was at the National Association of Black Journalists convention.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What a day.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Yes, and you were wincing as he was making remarks about Kamala Harris and her ethnic identity, and you wanted him to focus on messaging.

I actually want to play a sound bite from Nikki Haley, yet another Republican echoing that sentiment. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R-SC): And the one thing Republicans have to stop doing, quit whining about her. We knew it was going to be her.

But the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes, talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb. It's not -- you can't win on those things. The American people are smart. Treat them like they're smart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: To a degree though, the base is energized when Trump does this. I was at the convention and I saw the response from the crowd when he was going off the teleprompter...

SINGLETON: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... and when he wasn't going on the teleprompter, and they loved it when he went into one of these riffs.

SINGLETON: Yes. No, look, I understand the reasons why, but you have to expand beyond just your base.

I think the former senator from California, who I greatly respect, former Senator Boxer, made some great points on the economy, but I would just push back a little bit. We were in a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. The economies of countries across the globe really struggled. Jobs were lost, not just only in the U.S., but in a whole bunch of other places, developing and nondeveloped nations.

I also think, when you look at some of the data, including that recent "Times"/Siena poll, most Americans still give the former president an advantage on two fundamental issues, the economy and immigration.

Has Vice President Harris increased a margin from where President Biden was? Absolutely, and I'm going to acknowledge that. But, as a strategist, it tells me that there's still an opportunity. Despite the increases and the gains that we're seeing, people aren't going to feel that.

It's going to take several cycles for them to actually feel it. It may be next year by the time they actually fill it in their pockets and their savings accounts. So you can still make that message if you're a Republican, which goes to your question, Boris, about staying on message.

[13:10:05]

SANCHEZ: Yes.

SINGLETON: You have to talk about those things.

SANCHEZ: Yes. You made such a well-reasoned argument. I feel like it's a healthy debate. I don't think that's what we're going to see from Donald Trump today.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: Right, and you did it in about 33 seconds.

SINGLETON: A couple seconds.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Maybe I'm skeptical, but yes.

SINGLETON: But that's you where you have to -- you have to stick on message to those things, right, talking to the American people about the economic plight and the immigration issues, and immigration not to demonize individuals coming into the country.

But I do think, Boris, that you can make the argument, when you have an increased number of people coming into the country, going into urban areas, where the resources are already limited, where people are struggling for housing, they're struggling for food benefits, they're struggling for benefits for health care, childcare, et cetera, how much room do we have financially if you're in a large city like New York City or a smaller city like my hometown of New Orleans to expand and move those dollars around for new individuals?

One can make the argument that, hey, the dollars just aren't free- flowing. The money's coming from somewhere. And so we do need an orderly process. Again, you have the opportunity to make that argument to voters. I think a lot of Republicans, even former Speaker McCarthy said a couple of days ago, they want the former president to stick to that message, because most Republicans would argue it's one that they can win on.

DEAN: Senator, let's go back out to you.

Democrats are pouring money into North Carolina. They're spending, what, more than double what the GOP is spending. North Carolina has been just out of grasp for Democrats for a few cycles now. But it's now one of the top six states where they're having this major ad spending.

What do you think the chances are there of Democrats being able to flip that state? And how much did the downballot races, including that gubernatorial race, factor in here, do you think?

BOXER: I think Kamala Harris has an incredible opportunity to bring this state home. And their gubernatorial candidate is outrageous, outrageous, even saying women shouldn't have the right to vote.

But I have to push back. Bring on immigration. Who stopped the bipartisan immigration bill, which would have really gone a very far way to solve our problem by getting resources to the border and handling all of this mess? Who stopped it? Donald Trump stopped it.

So bring on that issue. Bring on the economy. You can talk about the pandemic as an excuse. Joe Biden had a huge amount of the pandemic on his watch, and yet 15 to 16 million new jobs. I think we're in a great place. I think we see organically a great campaign.

I never saw since I was a kid during JFK's time when people were so excited about the future.

SANCHEZ: Shermichael, I'm curious to get your perspective on something that the senator mentioned, and I saw you nodding.

This lieutenant governor in North Carolina, Mark Robinson, now running for governor....

SINGLETON: Yes. Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... has said some very controversial things, antisemitic things, things about women's rights.

You were nodding because you were agreeing with her, I assume.

SINGLETON: Yes. Yes. No, I think Senator Boxer raised a good point. I mean, candidate

quality matters, right, having the best candidates. We're looking at another state on the Republican side of Arizona, where Kari Lake is running. And a lot of Republicans had hoped it would have been someone else.

Now, with reproductive rights being on the ballot there statewide, that's going to be another issue to gin up turnout for Democrats, particularly among women, where Republicans have struggled, based on two years worth of electoral data that we have.

And so if you're looking at these hotly contested states, you have to beg the question, objectively speaking, let's remove the partisanship, do you potentially diminish groups that you previously could have done well with because you have a candidate that turns off said groups who may agree with you on, let's say, three out of the five points, but two pivotal points, they said, hell, no, I can't vote for this person, I'm either going to vote for the alternative or I'm going to potentially stay home?

That is just not beneficial. We saw that during the midterms, where you had Senate candidates from Georgia to Pennsylvania who were not the best candidates in races where Republicans absolutely could have won.

DEAN: And so I'm curious too, now that we know that abortion is going to be on the ballot in Arizona, that's a state that had kind of gone back into play with Kamala Harris getting in this race.

Do you think that adds wind at her back in that state?

SINGLETON: Oh, I mean, look, it does. And I think it's why you have seen the former president, smartly, I would add, attempting to moderate his stance.

Now, I know Senator Boxer would disagree. She'd probably say, well, Shermichael, he did appoint the justices that overturn Roe v. Wade. I understand that argument, that counterpoint that the senator would make.

But I would say bringing it back to the states and allowing voters in those states -- and I think it's important to have that distinction, allowing voters to vote on the issue. We have seen, when given the choice, most voters, not just Democrats, even Republicans, have said, hey, maybe I don't necessarily believe in this, but, as a conservative, I'm of the mind-set that the government shouldn't utilize compulsory force to dictate what someone does with their body.

[13:15:13]

I think most conservatives because that's a pretty logical position. And so I think Trump perhaps should move a little bit further and say, allow voters in states to vote on the issue. I did a focus group several months ago with evangelicals in Georgia on this point.

And I asked them at the time, if the president, former president, moved that far, would you be OK with it if it meant increasing his electoral odds? Every last one of those evangelicals from south rural Georgia said yes.

SANCHEZ: Senator, we quickly want to give you the last word.

BOXER: Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

BOXER: This is the gift that keeps on giving, because -- because the fact is, most of Americans believe that the government should stay out of our private lives.

And Donald Trump, he takes credit everywhere he goes for getting rid of that national right. We had a national right. Now we have women literally dying in states because the doctors are so fearful of these horrific state laws.

So, as far as I'm concerned, things are moving in the Kamala Harris direction. And I love to hear a conservative say that he trusts people to make their own choices. And that's what being pro-choice is about. So this election is about mainstream versus extreme. And Democrats are mainstream. Republicans, MAGAs are extreme.

I think we're on the right track to have a victory. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be close, but we're on track.

SANCHEZ: Former Senator Barbara Boxer, Shermichael Singleton, that was a great conversation.

SINGLETON: It was. It was.

SANCHEZ: Let's do it again. Appreciate it.

SINGLETON: Thank you, guys.

SANCHEZ: Still to come: Ukraine conducting its biggest attack on Russian airfields since the war started. What Russia is now doing to blunt the cross-border incursion.

DEAN: Plus, we are hours away from the most consequential round of cease-fire talks yet in the Israel-Hamas war, mediators making a last- ditch effort to revive stalled negotiations, but Iran saying that meeting will not deter its threats of an attack on Israel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:21:46]

DEAN: Ukrainian forces are on the move, pushing even deeper into Russian territory, as Kyiv's surprise cross-border assault enters its second week.

Ukraine now bracing for a possible counterattack, building a defense wall near Russia's Kursk region. New video into CNN appears to show Ukrainian drones conducting what a security source calls -- quote -- "the biggest attack on Russian airfields since the war began."

Russia claiming it shot down more than 100 drones and four missiles launched from Ukraine.

CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is joining us now with the latest developments.

And, Fred, Russia is scrambling to contain this attack. What are you hearing about what's going on, on the ground?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are they definitely are scrambling to try and contain the attack.

And, so far, it seems as though they're only marginally successful at actually doing that. It's been quite interesting throughout the course of the day. We are, of course, in day eight now of this Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory, and the Ukrainians still do appear to be advancing.

That's certainly something that's remarkable, given that their force isn't actually that big. And, of course, the Russian army, for its part, is actually very big. But they simply don't seem to have enough forces in that area to hold the Ukrainians up.

At about the halfway mark of this day, the Ukrainians came out and said that their forces had already advanced another about, say, a mile-and-a-half or maybe two miles into Russian territory, and they'd already at that point in time -- this was around midday -- taken 100 Russians as prisoners of war.

The Ukrainians, of course, want to exchange those Russian prisoners that they take for Ukrainians that they want to get out of Russian custody. Now, what we have managed to do is, we managed to speak to a commander who's the commander of a drone unit that helps the infantry for the Ukrainians inside Russia.

And he says that the Russians are indeed trying to gather forces to hold the Ukrainians up. I want to listen into some of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMYTRO KHOLOD, UKRAINIAN BATTALION COMMANDER (through translator): The Russians are now trying to stop our advance. They have pulled in reserves, which has benefited our defense forces in other areas because it's become easier to work there.

We have information that reserves were pulled from the Zaporizhzhia, Crimea and Kharkiv regions to stop our advance. Of course, it will be harder for us to advance further, but we will still advance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So, there you can see that commander there also saying that this counteroffensive by the Ukrainians, of course, serves the purpose also of trying to bind some of those Russian forces that are pressuring the Ukrainians elsewhere and draw them away from those areas.

The Ukrainians also said today -- they came out pretty clearly and said what they want to create there inside Russia is essentially a buffer zone to prevent the Russian military from attacking Ukrainian areas in the future, Jessica.

DEAN: And, Fred, Russia's Belgorod region has now declared a state of emergency after these Ukrainian advances.

Would you categorize this as a turning point in the war or maybe let's wait and see if it becomes a turning point in the war?

PLEITGEN: Well, I think it could possibly be.

I think, first of all, wait and see is probably the best order of the day right now anyway. But I also think that this offensive so far by the Ukrainians has been a lot more successful than anybody would have thought. It's almost unheard of that, eight days into this, that they would still be able to advance in the way that they do.

[13:25:01]

And you mentioned the governor there of Belgorod declaring that emergency in that region. The Belgorod region is actually an area that is south of where that main push by the Ukrainians is happening. So that's already showing that that is already spilling over into another Russian region.

It's also a border area. It's one where there is a lot of drone attacks. But, certainly, it seems as though a lot of evacuations that are happening in the Kursk area are happening in the Belgorod area as well.

And one final thing, Jessica, and I think this is important, it also shows how complex this Ukrainian operation is, where you have the Ukrainians advancing on the ground, but then also that massive drone attack that they conducted on Russian air bases shows that this is a really big and complex operation, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Fred Pleitgen with the related reporting, thank you so much for that -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Now to the Middle East, where high-level negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a potential Gaza cease-fire deal are set to resume tomorrow, but a diplomatic source is telling CNN that Hamas will not be part of those talks in Qatar.

The source adding that the group is willing to meet with mediators after talks if there are developments from Israel. Right now, U.S. officials are in the region making a last-ditch effort to try to secure a deal. CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to join them tomorrow for talks in Doha.

Meantime, Israel remains on edge as it prepares for a potential Iranian attack. Iran has vowed to retaliate for the assassination of a Hamas political leader in Tehran, an attack it is blaming on Israel. Let's discuss further with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali

Bennett.

Sir, thank you so much for being with us.

Hamas not participating in tomorrow's talks, accusing Netanyahu of adding new conditions to what was agreed upon, his office denying that, calling them clarifications. I'm wondering how serious you think each side is about cutting a deal.

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I think Israel wants to achieve the destruction of Hamas and releasing the hostages. And that's the outline of the deal, is that we are allowed to continue fighting and removing Hamas and they release hostages.

And, in return, they get a cease-fire and a release of Hamas terrorists. That's the outline of the deal. The Israeli government supports that deal. And, unfortunately, Hamas is saying no. They're not only murderers. They also don't want a deal.

SANCHEZ: I'm wondering what you make of their allegation that Netanyahu is now asking for additional conditions, additional changes to stuff that had already been decided previously.

BENNETT: Well, the outline was a release of some of the hostages in return for some of the terrorists in Israeli jail and a temporary cease-fire.

I, by the way, think the deal should be different. I think the deal ought to be, we are willing to not kill all of you if you lay down your arms, release the hostages. And, instead of killing you, all these murderers in Hamas, we will just deport you from Gaza.

SANCHEZ: I'm also curious about how you think the talks might have changed since Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader, was assassinated.

Their new political leader is Yahya Sinwar. How do you think that changes things?

BENNETT: I want to clarify, Ismail Haniyeh is called the political leader, so-called. He's a mass murderer as well. He's the mastermind behind Hamas. He's killed hundreds of civilians.

So this is a mass murderer that likes to call himself the political leader, but yet he still is a murderer. I don't think the parting of this mass murderer changes anything fundamentally.

SANCHEZ: I'm wondering if you think Israel has achieved enough objectives 10 months into this war with Hamas to cut a deal now, especially as a potential war with Iran is looming.

BENNETT: No, I think we have not achieved the two objectives that we have set upon achieving, which is bringing home all the hostages and removing the Nazi regime of Hamas from our border. We have a genocidal regime on our border. We need them to get out of

there. We can't continue living side by side next to a regime that murdered out of the blue 1,200 Israelis and says it's going to do it again and again.

SANCHEZ: You recently told "The New York Times" on the subject of Iran that you believe that Netanyahu missed an opportunity to keep Tehran from making Iran a nuclear state and possessing a deployable nuclear weapon.

You have said that you believe the only policy that can reverse that is toppling the Iranian regime. There was a lot of instability that we saw come after regime change in Iraq.