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Adviser Says Trump Ramping Up Schedule: "Think Trump on Steroids"; New Drama Over September 10 Debate as Campaigns Battle Over Details; Harris Team Wants Mics Live for Entire Sept. 10 Debate; Congressional Lawmakers Visit Site of Trump Rally Shooting. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired August 26, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Is this thing on? That's the question at the center of the latest debate drama over muting mics at the September showdown. Donald Trump now undercutting his own campaign over the issue of muted microphones, while Kamala Harris' campaign is gearing up for a bus tour that will take her to a reliably Republican part of Georgia.

Plus, investigating the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump, a congressional task force holding a fact-finding visit to the scene of the crime scene, starting a four-month probe that could lead to new legislation to make sure that kind of thing never happens again.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And want to unplug from work? Who doesn't? Well, if text messages from your boss on the weekend make you want to throw your phone, there's now a place where you have the legal right to disconnect and just ignore those texts.

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

SANCHEZ: As the race for the White House becomes a final sprint of the November election, the two campaigns are suddenly locked in a stalemate over rules for the upcoming debate. With just over two weeks until the high-stakes face-off, former President Donald Trump is now putting the whole ABC showdown in doubt, posting on Truth Social, "Why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?"

The debate drama comes as both campaigns are launching a blitz of battleground states. The Trump team now promising a campaign on steroids as his team scrambles to cut off Harris' post-DNC momentum. For the past hour, the former president has been speaking at an event in the critical swing state of Michigan. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us at that event in Detroit.

So, Kristen, did Trump offer any clarity given his stance on the mic situation?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: During this event, Boris, no. This event has been mostly focused on talking about the military. He said that if he was re-elected, he would launch a Space National Guard. He was endorsed by Tulsi Gabbard, a once Democratic presidential candidate as well as a representative from Hawaii. She get - took on the stage today. She gave him her endorsement, clearly trying to bounce off of the RFK. Jr. Democrats endorsing Donald Trump, but no mention of the debate.

However, earlier, when he was asked specifically about this sort of impasse that both the Harris and Trump campaign have ended up at, whether or not the mics will be muted while the other candidate is talking, this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're thinking about it. We're thinking about it. They also want to change the rules. You know, the deal was, we keep the same rules. Now, all of a sudden, they want to make a change in the rules.

We agreed to the same rules. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. I'd rather have it probably on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn't like it the last time, but it worked out fine. I mean, ask Biden how it worked out. It was fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, as you noted, Boris, this undercuts, partially, Donald Trump's campaign, who had essentially been arguing that they should still mute the mics. A far cry from what we actually heard when those rules were first set and Donald Trump was to debate against President Joe Biden, they didn't want those mics to be muted, but came to think it was a good thing for Donald Trump.

Now, his team and the former president do believe that that debate went well for Donald Trump, and they would like to mimic those results. Harris' team now saying, no, that is not what we agreed to. It was a different candidate when we agreed to this debate. There are new rules now. We want the mics unmuted.

It's unclear how exactly this is going to play out, but I would believe there's going to be a couple more iterations here of things that they agree and disagree on ahead of that debate. Both sides clearly just wanting what's best for their candidate when they take the stage.

SANCHEZ: As Trump gets raucous applause behind you in Detroit, Kristen Holmes, thanks so much for the update.

Let's bring in CNN's Eva McKend, who's covering the Harris campaign for us.

Eva, what is the Vice President's team saying about this debate dispute?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Boris, the Harris campaign believes the debate issue is resolved following former President Donald Trump's comments that this all doesn't matter to him, and they're needling him a bit, suggesting there must be disagreement between him and his own campaign staff.

But bottom line, they think that with the mics unmuted, Trump will interject, rant, rave and air his own personal grievances. We got a statement earlier today from campaign spokesperson, Brian Fallon, and it reads in part: "Our understanding is that Trump's handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don't think their own candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own."

[15:05:02]

It goes on to say that his staff is too embarrassed to admit they don't think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris, without the benefit of a mute button. So as this - the debate - as this debate over debates continues, Boris, the Vice President, we know, does have more of a pared down schedule than she did previously. She not too long ago finished that battleground blitz with her running mate.

But this week, she's primarily on a bus tour in Georgia, in Savannah and not on the trail as much because she is preparing for this big debate, is what we're learning.

KEILAR: Lots of preparation. Eva McKend, thank you so much for that.

Let's talk more about this now with Lance Trover, Republican strategist and former spokesperson for the Doug Burgum presidential campaign; and Julie Roginsky, Democratic strategist and co-founder of the nonprofit Lift Our Voices.

Okay, Lance, what do you make about this? President Trump, they want Trump's mic muted. They think it worked for him in the first debate. He's sort of saying it doesn't really matter. What - do you think it matters?

LANCE TROVER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It's the debate over the debates, and in the media.

KEILAR: This is a good one though.

TROVER: That's how we know we're in the throes of a campaign. We're having a debate over the debates.

Okay, let's take a step back. Last week, the Harris campaign said this is all settled. There's no more debating about the debates. Now, it seems to me they want to kind of change it up with this whole mic situation. Setting all that aside, Donald Trump now says he's okay with it.

There's going to be a debate. We need a debate, because I think, based on just - as a - from a strategist's viewpoint here, we're going to get - and you guys in the media are going to get very few opportunities to actually get an unscripted, non-teleprompter Kamala Harris over the course of the next 70-some days. It's pretty evident by where they are.

We got this elusive August 31st deadline coming, and an interview that's supposedly coming. It's August 26th, we haven't heard much about it. So, one, I think if you're a voter, you should want a debate, and if you're the Trump campaign, you should want a debate as well, because it's clear to me there are not going to be a lot of opportunities to get questions out of her.

SANCHEZ: Julie, what's your view of this disagreement over the muting of the mics? Who do you think it would benefit more to have an unmuted mic?

Julie ROGINSKY: Oh, a hundred percent it would benefit Kamala Harris more, and I was actually disappointed that the Biden team hadn't negotiated originally to have the muted mic. Because one of the most striking things about Donald Trump that voters need to see is the lack of discipline. And, of course, we know now from the previous debate that when Biden was speaking and the mics were muted, Trump was still speaking and mumbling under his breath, something that the mics would have caught. And I think something that would have probably irritated viewers and voters had they actually seen that.

So, there's no question that, of course, if he continues to behave this way, and he's quite an old man, so I don't see him changing his stripes any time in this belated stage of his life, that the same kind of thing is going to happen. We know that he cannot handle even being on stage with a woman. We saw what happened when he stalked Hillary Clinton back in 2016 across the stage, interrupting her, crowding her, mumbling under his breath when she was speaking.

So, consistently, this is something that is even worse for him when he's debating a woman. And I think that's something that voters need to see for themselves.

SANCHEZ: Lance, I'm curious about some of the sort of conflicting statements that we've seen from the Trump camp, because you have the campaign on one hand saying that this is what we agreed to. And then you have Trump on the other saying that, you know, I'd prefer it if the mics were open.

He also sent a message on social media this morning insinuating that he would totally back out of the debate. What do you make of that kind of messaging? Is that deliberate?

TROVER: Yes. I mean, Donald Trump says a lot of things. You know, if we lived and died by every Truth Social post, I mean, there's no telling where we would be today. I mean, there's going to be a debate.

Again, I think if you're the Trump campaign, you want to debate, because, again, there's very few opportunities. What we know from Kamala Harris right now is she wants some price controls on food. She wants to raise some taxes. And everything else she sent like unnamed aides out there to kind of disavow what she ran for in 2020.

And so, again, I think there's going to be very few opportunities for the media and others to ask her questions. And so if you're the Trump campaign, if you're a voter out there, you should want to debate. There's going to be a debate for sure. KEILAR: And an interview, Julie, because we've heard there's this

deadline. We're waiting to see who does she decide to sit down with for an interview. How much, in your opinion, is riding on that interview?

ROGINSKY: I think it was kind of an unforced error. I don't know why they've made this into such a big deal. Had she been given - giving interviews throughout the course of the last couple of months, over the last six weeks, I think this would not be that big of a deal. So I don't, you know, I don't know what she's (INAUDIBLE) ...

KEILAR: Okay, Julie - okay, wait, Julie, I got to ask you about that, though. Because you know what's going to happen. If she picks local media, which is - local media is great in some regards, because they speak very much to issues in these battleground states.

[15:10:01]

And we know that that, obviously, matters very much, right? This really comes down to a handful of states.

But those bigger issues, the familiarity with her record, both in the Senate as a candidate, as vice president, that's not something that a local reporter is going to have a handle on. We've all been local reporters. We've all been political reporters here in Washington, we know the difference.

ROGINSKY: Well, first of all, I disagree with you. I think a good local reporter is very well-versed in national issues. I'm not suggesting that she do those interviews to the exclusion of doing a big sit-down with a network or a big cable news interview. But the point is that I think she all along should have been, and I would urge her to continue to ...

KEILAR: Yes.

ROGINSKY: ... doing those local interviews as well. Because, again, that would be speaking to people in suburban Philadelphia who she needs. It would be speaking to people in Milwaukee who she needs. It would be speaking to people in Detroit who she needs and so on, in Savannah, in Atlanta, about issues that they care about.

And those - look, I live in New York. Frankly, she doesn't care about my vote and neither does Donald Trump. People in California, their votes are not as important, I hate to say this, as they are for people who live in some of these much more blessed states because they're swing states.

And I think both she and Trump should be able to explain to those voters their handle on the issues that matter to them. And again, as much as I would love to interview her and ask her about things that are happening in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, I don't have the handle on those issues that people on the Allentown media market do, for example.

SANCHEZ: We should note, there's plenty of space on our calendar. KEILAR: Yes, we're available.

SANCHEZ: If she wants to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, that'd be great. We could absolutely make room for her on the rundown.

Lance, final question to you. She mentioned some of the swing states, North Carolina is one example. Folks are going to start getting ballots pretty soon. How much time do you think these campaigns actually have to start making an impression on voters if folks are going to be casting ballots next month?

TROVER: The Democrats have had three big moments, right? They switched out their candidate. She chose her vice president. They're through the convention now, so they've kind of had their three points. It's kind of the high watermark, I think, right now.

Voters are going to start really tuning in after this. I don't know where Labor Day came from, but it does. That's when people start really paying attention. I think that's why it is critical. And Julie and I agree on one thing here. I think by not doing the interviews and not being more forthcoming, they've almost built this into a bigger moment for her and so if it doesn't work out well for her, it could be a bigger fall down for her.

So yes, they need to hit the ground running. It looks like Trump is ramping up his campaign right now. It looks like she is as well. I mean, it's a sprint to the finish for sure.

KEILAR: Hard to see how she would have done interviews when there were questions about Biden, though. I mean, can you imagine what all those interviews would have been about? We would have loved to seen them, done them, but at the same time, politically, that would have been tough for her. You would have loved it, though, Lance. Loved it.

TROVER: Indeed.

KEILAR: Lance Trover, Julie Roginsky, thank you so much to both of you. We really appreciate the conversation.

And ahead this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, we're told progress is being made in ceasefire talks and hostage release talks between Israel and Hamas, with negotiators going so far as to discuss the names of prisoners who could be exchanged as part of a potential deal. We're live from the Middle East.

SANCHEZ: We're also on the ground in Pennsylvania as a bipartisan task force investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump visits the site where the attack took place. What they're looking for as they're on the ground.

And a tech pioneer considered Russia's version of Mark Zuckerberg was arrested just outside of Paris. Everything we know about the accusations against the billionaire founder of Telegram.

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[15:17:56]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news into CNN, we want to get you straight to Butler, Pennsylvania where a bipartisan task force of lawmakers is holding a press conference after their visit to the site of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Let's listen in.

REP. LAUREL LEE (R-FL): To do what we did here, to actually walk these grounds, to see this area, to get an understanding of the physical space and where this security shortcoming took place. And I'll tell you, for many of us, it raises more questions than we came here with today because we can see it's not a large place. We can get a sense of the area and just how close these buildings were to that stage where President Trump stood that day.

So for all of us, having an opportunity to see and to walk around and experience this was a really critical step in our investigative process. We go from here to have the opportunity to speak to many of the men and women from law enforcement who were here on that day and have information and facts that they can give to all of us.

We have been working since the day this task force was formed. We have been working on getting answers for the American people. The members of this task force aren't just bipartisan. We come from all around America and bring a background to this process that will help us get the answers the American people deserve.

We have former military officers, intelligence officers, prosecutors and judges. And between us, we understand how to conduct an investigation. And we are committed, all of us, to ensuring that we understand what happened on this day and that the Secret Service and their law enforcement partners are providing that transparency so we can ensure that any protectee, both of our presidential candidates and any protectee out on the trail, is kept safe. Thank you.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Lou Correa from California.

REP. LOU CORREA (D-CA): I also want to thank the chairman, the Ranking Member, for putting this great team together. Congressman Correa from Orange County, California.

I just want to say that this was about democracy, about American democracy.

[15:20:00]

We have a campaign and election for president and for other elected offices throughout the country. We want our candidates to speak their minds, to make their opinions, their thoughts known to the American public, to the voters. We don't want them to be afraid to speak their minds.

We want to make sure we get to the bottom of this, make sure that it does not repeat itself again, that our candidates are safe so that our democracy is safe. Thank you very much.

REP. MIKE KELLY (R-PA): Thanks, Lou. Representative David Joyce from Ohio.

REP. DAVID JOYCE (R-OH): Thank you, Chairman Kelly and Ranking Member Crow and all my colleagues here. I look forward to working with all of them, using their background and their expertise to get - establish the facts so we can make judgments based upon those facts and deliver to the American people the answers that they deserve. Thank you.

CROW: Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan from Pennsylvania.

REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN (D-PA): Thank you, again, to the chairman and to the Ranking Member. My name is Chrissy Houlahan. I come from the other side of Pennsylvania, from the Philadelphia area, Philadelphia suburbs, and where I serve in representative is roughly speaking 40 percent Dem, 40 percent Republican and 20 percent independent.

My community looks a lot like the Commonwealth, looks a lot like the country. And my community wants to make sure that we can work together, that we can work together to get the answers that we deserve, because there is no - no time when political violence is acceptable, and it certainly is not acceptable that anybody who's a candidate or seeking elected office should be vulnerable in this way and that the people who are gathered to hear them and their opinions should be vulnerable in this way, too.

By my background, I'm a military officer, Air Force, but also an engineer and an operator. I spent most of my life in operations. And so what I'm going to be spending my time on is trying to understand what happened in terms of procedures and protocols to make sure that we understand that, and specifically also we'll be focusing on some new technologies such as the drone that was involved in this particular situation.

I very much look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues, many of whom are my dear friends and all are my friends. I look forward to serving the American people in this way.

CROW: Glenn Ivey from Maryland.

REP. GLENN IVEY (D-MD): Thank you, Congressman. My name is Glenn Ivey. I'm a congressman who represents part of Maryland, former federal prosecutor, had a chance to do some of these types of investigations when I worked as a staffer in the Senate and in the House.

But I want to say that I really appreciate the bipartisan nature and approach that we've taken so far with this task force. As Congressman Crow stated, we had a 416 to 0 vote, and I thought it was the right way to get started, and I think it sent the right message to the American people that we weren't going to let politics get in the middle of this, that we were going to work together to get this done in a very quick and expeditious way.

Because it's so important, as the Congressman said before, to make sure everybody understands whether they're candidates or voters alike, that the Democratic process will not be undermined by violence. We're going to make sure we protect all candidates and voters up, because we had someone who came to the rally who died that day too. So we need to make sure that they're protected as well.

So I thank my colleagues here for the outstanding job we've been doing so far to get this thing started quickly and the bipartisan approach we've taken so far. Thank you.

CROW: Madeleine Dean from Pennsylvania.

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Thank you. Hello, I'm Madeleine Dean. I represent suburban Philadelphia, Montgomery and Berks County, the fourth congressional district.

It's an honor to be serving with this task force. We are charged with a very clear mission, to get to the truth, to get to the facts, to find the gaps and report that out. And we have a very short time frame to do it. You see here a number of people who are just serious about this in a nonpartisan way. So I'm honored to be a part of it.

I want to thank Chairman Kelly for welcoming us here and making sure we got to see what we can see here. Because as you can see, what's impressive to me is the proximity of everything here, particularly the position of the shooter and the position of the president.

So glad to be here. I thank the Ranking Member Crow. I got phone calls from both of you, and they both had the exact same idea of what we were to do to get to the truth, to say there is no place for political violence, not just for candidates, but for those who want to be civically engaged, for those who came here excited to be a part of something bigger than themselves, they need to be free from violence. Happy to be here with you.

CROW: Jared Moskowitz from Florida.

REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): Thank you, Ranking Member. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for bringing us here today as Democrats and Republicans, as members of the task force and as Americans.

[15:24:59]

Being here and seeing the proximity of the buildings, it reminds me, quite frankly, how outrageous it was that the former director of Secret Service did not come here to get a sense of what this look like. And so we are working in a bipartisan nature.

As a former director of emergency management for the state of Florida, I look forward to getting the facts of what failed that day. We were inches away from an American catastrophe. And then figuring out what steps we can take to make sure something like this never happens again, so thank you.

KEILAR: All right. We're listening to this bipartisan task force that is investigating that failed assassination attempt of former President Trump. They're there on the ground in Butler at the site of the Trump rally. Let's go to CNN's Danny Freeman. He is tracking this from Butler as well.

This is an important visit for them to get the lay of the land to see exactly what happened as they're going to try to get to the bottom of things and also make recommendations, Danny.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, that's right. And Congressman Jason Crow, one of the two congressmen who's kind of been leading this particular task force, he's on the Democratic side. He said to CNN earlier that really there is no substitute for being on site. And you're listening to those remarks just a moment ago from a lot of these congressmen and women who have come out here.

And I think that's what you're hearing quite a lot of, just the awe and a lot of them, frankly, stunned by their words, the proximity of how close the AGR building where that shooter perched and took shots at former President Donald Trump, how close that actually was to that rally stage.

And again, a bit of - it's a sobering moment for them. And I'll just say personally, I was also here the night after that shooting here in Butler. This is my first time back. And this is the closest that I've been also able to get there. And the more that you see just how close these two locations are, I mean, it really is stunning to see.

But then the other thing, Brianna, that's really important about this particular task force and their being here on the ground, and you heard it from, again, these representatives, is this is a bipartisan task force. There are a little less than a dozen, both Republicans and Democrats, a group of them, both Republicans and Democrats here. They spent the better part of the last hour plus time walking the area from where former President Trump was standing over to the AGR building. I believe we have video. We also showed a lot of these representatives climbing on top of the AGR building themselves to, again, get that perspective.

And you heard it from, again, some of the representatives who were just speaking. The main goal of this particular task force and coming out here is to identify what in the world went wrong here and to try and work towards preventing that. Part of that and part of this visit has been speaking with local law enforcement officers.

You heard them mention the Pennsylvania State Police, also the Butler Township Police. That's some of the folks that they've been meeting with on the ground to better understand their perspective on that day, because so many of those local officers were the ones on the outside of the perimeter, as we've been talking about for the better part of six weeks, who ultimately first saw Thomas Matthew Crooks and then who ultimately tried to get attention before he pulled off those shots against the former president and, of course, fatally killing one man in the crowd. So that's really what this particular day is about.

The other thing, Brianna, is that you heard it from these representatives. They're really making the point here that they're taking this investigation seriously. Mind you, this is just one of a number of investigations that are occurring into what happened and what went wrong. But this group wants to say that it is important to have Congress on the record in a bipartisan fashion to try and figure out, again, what happened, but also find a solution so that something like this never happens again, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Danny Freeman, thank you so much for that.

We have CNN Law Enforcement Analyst and former Secret Service agent, Jonathan Wackrow, with us.

Jonathan, just tell us what they can learn being on the ground in Butler, what they should be taking a look at as they, you know, ultimately they're going to make recommendations, so how does this help?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, listen, I mean, you know, being on site, you can't do a desk review of this of this incident. You have to be on site. And we heard multiple members of the task force stating that just the sheer proximity that, you know, 130 yards away, how close that actually is.

And it's leaving them a little bit stunned as to how could this event have even occurred. But that's what they have to get to. They have to really understand what that site dynamics were on that day and then start delving into some of these unresolved issues. Namely, what was that breakdown between the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement, whether it was in communications, roles and responsibilities, and then any type of, you know, precipitating events or actions that took place that - where this suspect could have been, you know, stopped on his chain of attack.

[15:30:00]

We want to know where those breakdowns were as well. So there's a lot to do in a very short amount of time, but I do appreciate the bipartisan nature and the tone ...