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Speakers slam Trump During DNC; DNC Speakers Warning on Reproductive Rights; Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) is Interviewed about the DNC; Israel Agrees to Bridging Proposal. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 20, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: It's actually kind of scary. University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers, he told me the best way to get deflation would be a recession. And he said, "this is extremely dangerous and feeds on itself. The Fed would be terrified. It's very hard to get out of a deflationary spiral.

Now, deflation freaks out the Fed because it can really stall the economy in its tracks. I mean, think about it, if you knew you could buy something cheaper next month, then you would never buy it right now. And if that spreads throughout the economy, that would cause prices to go even further, which would delay people from buying things. It can really become a doom loop.

So, what you really want is for the economy to grow into the current level of prices, meaning, paychecks would keep going up, prices kind of stay in check, and people are finally able to catch up.

Now, the ironic part here is that some economists are raising questions about the Trump plan. Remember his economic agenda includes massive new tariffs. One report says that this would cost the average American family at least $1,700 a year. He's calling for a massive immigration crackdown. That could cause a shortage of workers, lift wages and prices. And he's argued that the president should have a say, some sort of way to influence Fed policy. Of course, there's a good reason that politicians don't get to say where mortgage rates go because they'd obviously like to keep everything low to please voters, even if rates needs to be high to get inflation down.

So, the ironic part here is, there are some concerns that the Trump plan won't just solve inflation, that it could actually make matters worse.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Matt, thank you so much for that.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so, what will the big surprises be on the convention floor tonight? We've got our best people digging for close. But I do have to say, if we tell you the surprises, it won't be a surprise anymore.

And then breaking overnight, the Israeli military says it recovered the bodies of six hostages from inside southern Gaza. What we know about the military operation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:37:12]

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): And I, for one, am tired about - of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed trampling on our way of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: That, of course, was Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, as she's known, one of the members of the so- called progressive squad, electrifying the crowd with an attack on Donald Trump and his agenda.

CNN political commentators Alyssa Farah Griffin and Paul Begala now joining us to discuss all that happened last night. We'll be here for ten hours.

BERMAN: Minute by minute.

SIDNER: Hey, look -

BERMAN: Until 2036.

SIDNER: I mean, I do want to ask - I didn't want to start here, but I'm going to. It was a really long night. And - and I know people don't watch television, you know, just sit there all the time and watch the whole thing, but there's a lot of different people that they're trying to get. Of course, the crowd in here, a number one, but you have television, you have others.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.

SIDNER: Was it too long?

BEGALA: Yes.

SIDNER: OK.

BEGALA: But that's the nature of being a Democrat. It's like - not only does everything have to be said, but everyone has to say it.

SIDNER: Fair.

BEGALA: But it does show you, like the span of my party. Last night we saw AOC and Andy Beshear, right? Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where they hurt us down with dogs, OK. He's a Democrat who wins in one of the reddest states, and AOC, who's, you know, on the progressive movement wing, coming into the mainstream establishment to endorse Kamala Harris. So, I - as a strategist, I couldn't be happier.

It's hard to hold a diverse coalition together. Contrast with the Republicans. From Trump to like Trump's daughter-in-law, right? I mean it's just like - it's not a very broad coalition, honestly. And it's why - you know, Trump didn't have Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan or President Bush or Vice President Cheney, or any of the heroes of his party's recent past the way the Democrats are doing here. And that limits his coalition.

SIDNER: And you have - basically it's all here (ph). I mean all the former presidents, former first lady. I mean so many people are here.

BEGALA: Oh, in fact, Millard Fillmore is the surprise speaker tonight, in prime time, at about 4:00 a.m.

No, but I - that's an embarrassment of riches. Though, as a Democrat, I - but also as a strategist, I'd rather have this broad coalition than to have the very, very narrow one where you've got to dig up - like, did you know Kid Rock is still a thing?

SIDNER: Wow. Wow.

BEGALA: Yes, he had a hit like in '74.

BERMAN: Alyssa, you know, you were a - came on and self-admitted a - a double hater. We don't like the word hated -- double disliker when it was Trump and Biden in the race. Was this a convention - has it been a convention so far that speaks to you, speaks to those people out there who were still on the fence?

[08:40:01]

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, some pros and cons. It was too long and I actually really did not like that Andy Beshear was shortchanged. For sort of a suburban woman, Erie, Pennsylvania, who's like, I don't know where to be, that's a guy you resonate, a gun-toting Kentucky Democrat who understands the working, you know, people of this country.

It was a great moment to celebrate the Democratic Party, but there wasn't a ton there for folks who might be independents, moderates, or never Trumpers on the fence.

But abortion was handled excellently last night. The biggest mistake Democrats could have made is making it all abortion all the time. Instead they had these personal impact stories that are talking about the exceptions, rape, incest, life of the mother, protecting women's future fertility with that husband and wife. I thought that was a very powerful moment on an issue that Republicans essentially hid from at our convention. We were not talking about abortion because it is not a winning issue.

So, some pros and cons. The biggest thing I want to see in the days ahead is like where are the appeals to moderates.

SIDNER: I do want to play a moment from what happened with these personal stories on abortion because it was extremely emotional. I mean everyone that was here and everyone that was watching an all the people that have sort of responded to me. This is Hadley Duvall, who was raped by her stepfather. Here's what she said to the crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HADLEY DUVALL: Two emergency rooms -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: OK, we are having technical problems. But she comes out and she tells the crowd her story about what happened to her. And, you know, she said, you know, the first time I took a pregnancy test I was 12th and I - I am so glad that I had a choice because she was raped by her stepfather. Their - the response to that was pretty strong.

Is this an issue, even though it's not polling as a top issue, is this an issue that can really get at the heart of particularly the female vote?

BEGALA: Absolutely. On the day that the Dobbs decision came down, I called my friend Cecile Richards, long time president of Planned Parenthood, and I said, what do I need to understand about this? And she said this, this will not age well. And I said, what do you mean? She said, well, the gay rights decision aged well. Every day people got more comfortable with that. People are not going to get more comfortable with this. And she was right. The American Medical Association says, as of January, eight months ago they did a study. In the 14 states that have banned abortion -

SIDNER: Yes.

BEGALA: Without the exceptions that Alyssa talks about, no exception even for rape and incest and - in those states, 65,000 women had become pregnant by rape in those 14 states. And that's as of January.

Now, God help us, the rape hasn't stopped, they - just the study did. So, every day this is happening in the real world to someone or someone's sister or someone's mom. And so, it's a real-world - this is why the Republicans can't get away from it because every single day it's a tragedy that then they have politicized.

BERMAN: I have to say, just take the politics out of it, the strength of that young girl to go on the stage and speak to the entire room here, to speak to the country. Everyone should go on cnn.com to look at the video -

SIDNER: Agree.

BERMAN: Because it was - I think everyone was moved no matter where they are on this position.

Alyssa, I do want to talk about President Biden, who did speak last night, 52 minutes. A long speech. A lot of energy. So, did it give him what the party needed, you know, to move forward? And how much of an impact do you think it will have going forward? Is it one of these things that people - it has resonance this morning, but by tomorrow people are just going to forget that - that it ever happened?

GRIFFIN: Listen, I thought it was powerful. It was his swan song. He said what he wanted to say. I think we all expected he was going to lean into his record. Also, you know, tee it up to say he wanted - behind this historic decision to support Kamala Harris. But also kind of talking about the soul of the nation. This has been his theme. The, you know, the arguments that we need to stand up for democracy. It was powerful. It will resonate.

But I will say this, I was struck by Jamie Raskin's speech. I think very highly of the congressman. It - I was not in the room. It didn't seem all that well-received. And I'm not - I don't want to make too much of an assumption, but I think that voters - I am someone who cares about January 6th. They wanted to hang my former boss that day. But I think voters have found the democracy message to just not be as strong as some of the kitchen table issues.

Biden did address both of those, but that is something that I think Kamala Harris has actually done much better than him is, sure, we want to protect democracy, but here's the issues that every day are impacting voters.

BERMAN: Alyssa Farah Griffin, Paul Begala, great to see both you. Come back. We're here all week, as they say.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, coming up for us, while Democrats are celebrating Kamala Harris inside the United Center in Chicago, protesters outside the convention center are demanding - demanding, their voices be heard and demanding an end to the war in Gaza. President Biden's message last night to the thousands of people marching those streets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:49:18]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, Vice President, and now Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris set the tone with a surprise appearance on stage last night, cheering on and thanking President Biden, who chose her to be his running mate four years ago.

Up tonight, Barack and Michelle Obama, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and Illinois Governor Pritzker,

Here to discuss, Massachusetts Congresswoman Katherine Clark.

[08:50:00]

You know, it was such an emotional night. You saw two things that I think really stood out. Hillary Clinton's speech and the responses it got was perhaps, and, John, you - you may know better. You might have been in the room when this happened. It seemed like that was even bigger of a response than when she was the nominee. And then you had Joe Biden - here she is there. Then you had Joe Biden. So emotional. Very powerful in his speaking.

What did you take away when you saw the juxtaposition of all of this?

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): You know, it was a - it was a wonderful night for Democrats, for the country. And I think what we are seeing in this convention is a coming together, not just of the Democratic Party and the base and the delegates who are here, who are so energized, but of people around this country who are looking to politics and want to see themselves reflected back. And so we have these two visions. As President Biden said, the best is yet to come.

And what we are seeing from the GOP is continuing to paint our country as something that is blighted and divisive and broken. And what we are seeing here in this hall is a vision of the future where we can meet the needs of working people and the challenges they're facing, lower their costs, grow the middle class, protect our freedoms. And those messages resonated last night.

BERMAN: You are the House minority whip. I'm sure you'd like to be the House -

SIDNER: Majority.

BERMAN: Majority leader soon. I am curious, in a question of sort of parochial interest to you. Having Vice President Harris as the nominee, and all the momentum that seems to have gone to the campaign the last four weeks, and I think we've settled on two days, three days?

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: How many more seats do you think are in play now than were six weeks ago?

CLARK: You know, we have our eye firmly on 218. That is the majority. But I can tell you, this energy, this kind of momentum, we are going to take it out of this hall and turn it into action, and continue talking to voters. And that's what our House Democratic candidates are doing and doing so well.

And all these races, you know, we know that Kamala Harris, even with all this momentum, is still the underdog. And we're going to continue to make the case, not just to the base, but to people who don't see themselves in the extremism of the GOP. So -

BERMAN: More - more seats in play today than there were four and a half weeks ago?

CLARK: Absolutely. Absolutely. And we're going to continue to build on that.

One of the really telling signs to us is not only sort of the momentum, the crowd size that the vice president is gathering, but the number of volunteers that are increasing in our House races, and the small dollar donations. People are looking to House members to say, we see what the GOP has delivered, or not delivered, since they are a do- nothing congress, and we reject it.

I mean just yesterday we had Donald Trump doubling down on saying he has no regrets about being the architect of undoing Roe v. Wade and reproductive freedom in this country. Yesterday he underscored that. People around this country understand that their freedoms are at risk, and that - an economy that is centered around them is also very much at risk.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about the womanness (ph) of all of this. A lot of female speakers last night. You heard Hillary Clinton, again, talking about glass ceiling. You're not hearing that from Kamala Harris on the stump. It seems she's been very careful to craft a different sort of message. Why do you think that is?

CLARK: I think that's who she is. I think Kamala Harris, throughout her career, has said, I am going to do what I believe is right. She has been someone who's always concerned about the security of families, their safety, and their economic security as well. And those are the messages that she's projecting.

And I think what is so powerful about her candidacy is so many of us see ourselves in her. But the power of her is that she really sees us. And she sees the American family. And so that those two things come together in one package in Kamala Harris is so powerful for this moment in our history where we are really at a crossroads. But she's going to continue to lead with putting the American people, the solutions they need, at the forefront. And the rest of us, you know, can celebrate and - and be so proud of the - the barriers she's breaking.

[08:55:01]

But that's not her focus. Her focus is on the voter and the people of this country.

BERMAN: House Democratic whip Katherine Clark from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Great to see you this morning.

CLARK: Good to see you.

BERMAN: Who grabbed some Dunkin (ph) on the way in.

SIDNER: I can feel she's hyped up.

BERMAN: Kate.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, guys. Secretary of State Tony Blinken is in Egypt today, where his mission

is to continue pushing for a ceasefire and hostage deal with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar. Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday after Blinken - afterward, Blinken said the prime minister confirmed his support for the Biden administration proposal to bridge some of the remaining differences with Hamas on a ceasefire deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accept the bridging proposal, that he supports it. It's now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now, CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier and retired Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt.

Thanks, guys, for being here.

General, the secretary of state also said, you know, the next important step is for Hamas to say yes or Hamas to get to yes. Hearing that from Blinken tells you what after this is dragged on and gone on for so long, and says what about whether the next stage of this road to a ceasefire deal will be any easier?

BRIGADIER GENERAL MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, first of all, I'm always reminded at times like this of the old saying, they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. When Hamas sends out an agreement, the Israelis back down. When Israel sends out an agreement, Hamas backs down. So, I hope that this is an agreement that both sides can come to, but I'm not optimistic that that will happen.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

And, Kim, I mean, any deal would have to be accepted by Benjamin Netanyahu and Yahya Sinwar, who helped mastermind of the October 7th attack, who's hiding in the Hamas tunnels underneath of Gaza, and who became their overall leader after their political leader was killed. Is it clear how much the negotiating dynamic has changed since the killing of the political leader in Tehran?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: So far Hamas seems to be very hard line, which actually doesn't differ that much from the past. But one of the problems is, you know, the Americans, Qataris and Egyptians broke down the hard parts of this deal into this second phase.

The things they're supposed to negotiate in the second phase include how long the ceasefire is supposed to last. And what you have though is Israel's agreed to the first phase, but both Israel and Hamas have said what they would do in a second phase out loud, and that's what's slowing things down. Israel has said in the second phase, no permanent ceasefire, and Hamas has said that when you get to the second phase they're not moving ahead without a permanent ceasefire. And that is what is holding up this first part, which is supposed to

include an exchange of at least 30 of the 60 some odd hostages who are thought to be still alive, and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

So, at this point, is Hamas posturing or will it say yes to that first phase? It's all up to the Qatari and Egyptian negotiators to talk to them behind closed doors and get them to say, yes, otherwise we likely see that Iranian attack that has been held in abeyance in hopes for a ceasefire if nothing moves ahead.

BOLDUAN: And, General, some of - there was important reporting I wanted to ask about from last week in "The New York Times" that still matters and applies to today, exactly what we're talking about. And here's the - how they led the piece, which is, "Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza, according to senior American officials, who say continued bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished."

Now, the Biden administration response is, it hasn't gone as far to say that or accept that was said and won't do it publicly, but is that what you see in the ongoing operations in Gaza?

KIMMITT: Well, it may be the case with the fighters. They're probably a small number of fighters remaining, perhaps 10 percent, 20 percent of what started the fight. But one of the goals of Benjamin Netanyahu has been to destroy the infrastructure of Hamas. And I think the more that we see what is still remaining in terms of the tunnels, in terms of their supplies, in terms of their rocket supplies, I disagree with "The New York Times." I think militarily to destroy the Hamas infrastructure, Israel still has a long way to go.

BOLDUAN: As we know, the tunnel structure, vast, and a lot to go there.

General Kimmitt, it's great to see you, as always. Kim, thank you as well. Thank you both.

[08:59:57]

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.