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V.P. Kamala Harris to Officially Accept Democratic Presidential Nomination; Trump Visits Southern Border Amid Tour of Critical Swing States; Oprah Makes Case for Harris and Walz to Independents, Undecided Voters. Aired 7-7:30a ET
Aired August 22, 2024 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[07:00:00]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Berman with Sarah Seidner in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. Kate Bolduan is in New York.
And this is it. We have heard from three presidents, two former first ladies, Oprah, a new vice presidential nominee, his crying son. But none of it, none, will be as important as when Kamala Harris takes the stage tonight and we are getting new reporting on what she will say.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: You forgot Stevie Wonder as well.
BERMAN: Stevie Wonder, John Legend. John Legend. Not James Taylor. That's another thing.
SIDNER: Yes. Maybe we'll hear from him at the very end.
Okay. America has been never heard a woman of color give a speech like the one that we are about to hear tonight. America has also never heard a vice presidential candidate quite like Coach Tim Walz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's the fourth quarter. We're down a field goal, but we're on offense and we've got the ball. We're driving down the field. And, boy, do we have the right team. Kamala Harris is top. Kamala Harris is experienced and Kamala Harris is ready.
Our job for everyone watching is to get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling one inch at a time, one yard at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a time, one $5 donation at a time.
There'll be time to sleep when you're dead. We're going to leave it on the field. That's how we'll keep moving forward. That's how we'll turn the page on Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: So, the speech was only about 16 minutes. That was a significant chunk of it. It was very short. And it wasn't what was said on the stage, it was what was said, or kind of mouthed, in a way.
SIDNER: Yes, and felt.
BERMAN: And felt from the audience, not by him, but by his son, that has people talking this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALZ: If you've never experienced the hell that is infertility, I guarantee you, you know somebody who has. And I can remember praying each night for a phone call. The pit in your stomach when the phone had rang and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn't worked. It took Gwen and I years. But we had access to fertility treatments. And when our daughter was born, we named her Hope.
Hope, Gus, and Gwen, you are my entire world. And I love you.
I'm letting you in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: You see, his son, Gus, saying, that's my dad, that's my dad. And any parent, anybody watching that, it was hard to hold back tears.
So, look, there was also a big surprise, Oprah Winfrey.
BERMAN: You're doing what she did.
SIDNER: Yes. It was like Oprah Winfrey. She delivered remarks that ended in true Oprah fashion.
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OPRAH WINFREY, MEDIA MOGUL: Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024, and just plain common sense. Common sense tells you that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can give us decency and respect.
We won't go back. We won't be set back, pushed back, bullied back, kicked back, we're not going back.
[07:05:00]
Together, let's all choose Kamala Harris. Thank you, Chicago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: That's her signature, like this, and like this. I tried, but I'm not good at it.
BERMAN: Everyone in the audience got a car, too, right after that.
Okay, that was then, this is now. It really all comes down to what Vice President Harris says on that stage tonight, and we are getting some new reporting on what the plans are.
With us, CNN National Politics Correspondent Eva McKend. Eva, what are you hearing?
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: You know, John and Sara, this is going to be a historic night, John, advisers telling us that this will be the vice president's opportunity to introduce herself to America in her own voice. She will also, though, make a forceful case against former President Donald Trump. She will present a new path forward as well.
We heard Governor Walz make this case against Trump last night. Take a listen to what she might say as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALZ: When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they're going to use it.
They'll start jacking up the costs on the middle class. They'll repeal the Affordable Care Act. They'll gut Social Security and Medicare. And they will ban abortion across this country, with or without Congress.
Here's the thing. It's an agenda nobody asked for. Is it weird? Absolutely. Absolutely. But it's also wrong and it's dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKEND: John and Sara, the vice president, also, really, the battle cry of her campaign has become freedom. We expect her to hit on those notes as well and lean into her personal biography when she tries to make this larger case that a defining goal of the Harris presidency would be uplifting the middle class.
Another key takeaway is just how much they are leaning into this notion of joy and how they want to make this broader argument that the former president is principally concerned about himself while the Harris-Walz ticket is concerned about all of you. So, I expect that those will be the themes that she will hit tonight.
SIDNER: And we know there's going to be a lot of music trying to bring the joy and bring the energy up, although I'm not sure it can get much higher, but we'll see tonight what happens. Eva McKend, thank you so much for your reporting. I appreciate you. Kate?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, you guys listed it out. You had John Legend last night doing a classic Prince cover.
SIDNER: Sheila E.
BOLDUAN: Oh, that was unbelievable.
SIDNER: I'm trying to drum. I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know why I did that.
BERMAN: What was that exactly that just happened? SIDNER: It was like Little Drummer Boy, and I really should not.
BOLDUAN: Is that what just happened? Is that what you said, John?
BERMAN: Rump a pump, Kate Bolduan.
BOLDUAN: Sheila E., when she's in it, she's in it with her entire body, so let's --
SIDNER: Her whole body.
BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, I know you're mic'd up, and I have beat up and everything, but next time just a little more flair, Sara.
SIDNER: A little more? Okay.
BOLDUAN: All right. We've got much more ahead, as you can tell. And in just a few hours, President Trump will be at the southern border in Arizona, turning his counterprogramming focus to border security and immigration, and also why he is now attacking Pennsylvania's governor. We have much more on that.
Plus RFK Jr.'s campaign is speaking out with all of the reporting swirling that he's ending his campaign this week, potentially, and also potentially, then endorsing Donald Trump. What impact that could have.
And the stars were out, as we were talking about, last night at the Democratic Convention. New details this morning on who's now set to perform for Kamala Harris' big night tonight.
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GEOFF DUNCAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: If Republicans are being intellectually honest with ourselves, our party is not civil or conservative. It's chaotic and crazy. And the only thing left to do is dump Trump.
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SIDNER: It should be noted that was former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan on stage. We saw a lot of Republicans last night and the night before.
BERMAN: I think he'll be -- if his alarm goes off, he will be here with us in a little bit.
SIDNER: As well as Kinzinger. He is also coming.
BERMAN: If his alarm goes off as well.
SIDNER: Correct. I'm going to try calling them just in case to make sure they're here.
Speaking of Republicans Donald Trump working to talk to voters and pull some attention from the star studded programming of the DNC. And as Republicans who have come over to this side, in just a few hours He heads to the southern border in Cochise County, Arizona. It's his latest stop on his tour of critical swing states this week during the Democratic Convention. Listen.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They mentioned my name, I think, 271 times. They mentioned the economy, like, 12 times. They mentioned the border, maybe none. They don't talk about the border. Our great border czar doesn't talk about the border. But they mentioned me more than any other category. I'm now a category. They had me down today as a category. That's all they talk about, Trump. We've driven them crazy. They have Trump derangement syndrome.
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SIDNER: CNN's Alayna Treene joining us now.
[07:15:00]
Alayna. We also heard Vance respond to some of that criticism. What's he saying?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. And, really, just to be clear, I mean, J.D. Vance has really been tapped by the Trump campaign to be the attack dog, to be the one who kind of lobs the criticisms back at the Democrats. Of course, Donald Trump is still doing that, as you just heard, but they want him to focus on the issues, whereas Vance really has been given the mandate to be the one to go hard after Democrats this week in particular.
Now, we did hear Vance. He spoke to our own Jake Tapper last night, and he was asked about what Congressman Jamie Raskin. Remember, he was a key leader on the House committee regarding January 6th. on the Capitol attack. He brought that up during his speech at the DNC last night, where he said kind of give a warning, honestly, to Vance saying, look at what happened to your potential predecessor. Look at what happened to Mike Pence on January 6th. But Vance said, look, I have no reservations about that. Take a listen.
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SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I can't help but laugh at what Jamie Raskin said. These are people who somehow always make themselves the victims. I have no reservations about taking this job because I know that if we make Donald J. Trump president of the United States, he's going to deliver rising wages, lower prices, and a secure border. That is all worth it for me, whatever the media or Jamie Raskin says about me.
(END VIDEO CLIP) TREENE: So, John and Sara, this is kind of the line we've been hearing from Vance. And he's kind of mirroring as well what Donald Trump has said, which is that they're not talking about the border. They're not talking about the issues as much as they should be. Instead, they're focusing on going after Donald Trump. I think you're going to hear a lot of those same attacks today when both of them are at the border. Trump is in Arizona, of course, but Vance as well will be at the border in Georgia.
BERMAN: So, Trump is in Arizona, as you say. Robert Kennedy Jr. is going to be in Arizona today in a speech where everyone's expecting him to, I guess, endorse Donald Trump.
TREENE: Right. So, we did hear -- well, we know that he's going to be making this big announcement, RFK Jr., tomorrow in Phoenix, which is interesting, actually, because Donald Trump will also be in Arizona tomorrow. Not in the same place. He's going to be in Glendale later in the day.
But we do have some new reporting. One is that we have heard and learned that he is expected to end his campaign and that he is in talks with the Trump campaign for a potential endorsement.
Now, when I talked to some senior Trump advisers as well as sources familiar with his plans, they told me that there's a couple of reasons of how they've gotten here. One is that a Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump's son, has been really pushing for this behind the scenes. He's been talking to the RFK Jr.'s campaign, trying to see how they could get him to end his campaign and back Donald Trump. Two other people who have been crucial in these talks, I'm told, our former Fox News Host Tucker Carlson as well as Omeed Malik. He was someone who was donated to RFK Jr.'s campaign in the past, but is also a Trump donor. So, they have been key in these talks.
And, really, I was told that the change of how they viewed an endorsement from RFK Jr. was when Biden ended his campaign and Harris became the likely person to replace Biden. They said that they weren't sure whether or not to bringing on RFK Jr. on to, you know, having him as a Trump surrogate having his endorsement would benefit them. But they really believed after Harris was the one to top the Democratic ticket that it would work in their favor. And so stay tuned for that announcement tomorrow.
BERMAN: We'll be watching. Alayna Treene, great to see it, thank you so much.
So, who could possibly be bigger than Oprah? Well, maybe we'll find out what celebrities could be in store for this fourth night of the Democratic National Convention. And then not related, I don't think, Taylor Swift speaking out for the first time since the terror threat that canceled some of the shows on her tour.
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WINFREY: I'm calling on all you independents and all you undecideds, you know this is true, that decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.
Common Sense tells you that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can give us decency and respect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: One of the most influential women in the world took the stage last night to lend her voice Kamala Harris in support of Kamala Harris. Oprah Winfrey in a rare speech from her, Oprah made a surprise appearance. She wasn't on the schedule at the convention last night. And with her signature style and flair in parts of the speech, she reached out, as you saw right there, to independent voters, undecided voters, swing voters.
CNN's Lisa France has more. She's joining us now. Lisa, what is the Oprah impact? What did we see last night?
LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Good morning, Kate. Well, we saw a reminder as to why she was so incredibly effective in helping to get Barack Obama elected back in 2008.
Oprah's secret sauce is that she meets people where they are, and she's able to tap into those vital and important national conversations. And she did that with something that J.D. Vance has now famously said last night. Let's take a listen.
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WINFREY: When a house is on fire, we don't ask about the homeowner's race or religion. We don't wonder who their partner is or how they voted. No. We just try to do the best we can to save them. And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out too.
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FRANCE: Yes, that childless cat lady thing, that landed, as you could hear and see, with the audience.
[07:25:02]
BOLDUAN: For sure, secret sauce. You know what? I'm going to live on that all day. And I'm going to work on what is my secret sauce, but I digress. What are you hearing about tonight's special appearances that could be coming tonight?
FRANCE: Well, one performer that we're going to have tonight is Pink. And it is rare that we see Pink be involved this way politically. Now, she's very outspoken when it comes to women's reproductive rights and the LGBTQ-plus community. And people will remember that her song, Irrelevant, from 2022 had a lot of those themes. It focused on women's power, it focused on racism, it focused on even trolling. And so people are very excited to see her tonight because that's a pretty big endorsement.
BOLDUAN: Yes. And Pink is also known -- as you saw in the video, she is also known for like high flying acts in her concerts. TBD, if we're going to -- that's what we're going to see tonight.
FRANCE: Yes, we'll be watching for that.
BOLDUAN: That's how you top Stevie Wonder and John Legend. You have pink flying in. There you go.
FRANCE: I think you have set her up perfectly. I would love to see that.
BOLDUAN: It's great to see you Lisa. Thank you so much.
FRANCE: Thanks, Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right, so a reminder to never give up hope from a dog named Winston. Look at that cutie. He's a King Charles Cavalier. He went missing after he got out of the Burchfield family home in Franklin, Tennessee, and he appeared to have just vanished. WZTV report that the family not only put up posters, they tracked lost dog Facebook groups for help. They even got an assist from a drone operator to take a look and hired a bloodhound to try to track him down. No luck.
Three years later, that all changed. Three years, a Nashville rescue organization called the family to say they had found a dog that had escaped eight times from its foster family.
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MARK BURCHFIELD, REUNITED WITH LOST DOG, WINSTON: This is Winston. It's actually him. And he came up kind of wagging his tail, you know, real slow and looking at us like, hey guys, where have you been?
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BOLDUAN: Where have you guys been? All is now forgiven. Winston is back home, very clearly acting as if he never left.
Coming up for us still this morning, the Walz family still in the show as Tim Walz delivers the biggest speech of his political career.
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