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Democratic Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Sits Down for Interview Along with Her Vice Presidential Running Mate Tim Walz; Kamala Harris Says Her Values have Not Changed Since Running for President in 2019 Even If Some of Her Policy Positions Have; Tim Walz Describes His Family's Efforts to Conceive through IVF. Trump's Federal Election Subversion Case Slows to a Crawl, Interview with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired August 30, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Top of the hour. I'm Rahel Solomon with Joe Biden. Sara and Kate are out today.

Breaking overnight, the first major television interview with Kamala Harris is in, and moments from now, Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, will join us to give us his reaction.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with CNN's Dana Bash to answer questions about her run, President Biden, and her rival Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: If you are elected, what would you do on day one in the White House?

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, there are a number of things. I will tell you first and foremost, one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class. When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the ambitions of the American people, I think that people are ready for a new way forward in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by hope and by optimism.

I think, sadly, in the last decade we have had in the former president, someone who is really been pushing an agenda and in an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation. And I think people are ready to turn the page on that.

BASH: So you have been vice president for three-and-a-half years. The steps that you're talking about now, why haven't you done them already.

HARRIS: Well, first of all, we had to recover as an economy, and we have done that. I'm very proud of the work that we have done that has brought inflation down to less than three percent, the work that we have done to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors. Donald Trump said he was going to do a number of things, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Never happened. We did it. BASH: You've had a lot of Republican speakers at the convention. Will

you appoint a Republican to your cabinet?

HARRIS: Yes, I would. Yes, I would.

BASH: Anyone in mind?

HARRIS: No, no one in particular in mind. I've got 68 days to go in this election, so I'm not putting the cart before the horse, but I would. I think it's really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it's important to have people at the table and when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.

BASH: I want to ask you about your opponent, Donald Trump. I was a little bit surprised, people might be surprised to hear that you have never interacted with him, met him face-to-face. That's going to change soon. But what I want to ask you about is what he said last month. He suggested that you happened to turn black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity.

HARRIS: The same old tired playbook. Next question, please.

BASH: That's it?

HARRIS: That's it.

I have served with President Biden for almost four years now, and I'll tell you, it's one of the greatest honors of my career, truly. He cares so deeply about the American people. He is so smart and loyal to the American people. And I have spent hours upon hours with him, being in the Oval Office or the Situation Room. He has the intelligence, the commitment, and the judgment and disposition that I think the American people rightly deserve in their president.

By contrast, the former president has none of that. And so, one, I am so proud to have served as vice president to Joe Biden. And two, I am so proud to be running with Tim Walz for president United States, and to bring America what I believe the American people deserve, which is a new way forward and turn the page on the last decade of what I believe has been contrary to where the spirit of our country really lies.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BERMAN: So Governor Walz was asked about his experience with fertility treatments in this CNN interview. Reproductive rights will be central to the Harris campaign's new bus tour. It kicks off next week. CNN's Eva McKend joins us with the details. What are you learning on this, Eva?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, John, the fight for reproductive justice has always been a core focus of the campaign. The Harris-Walz ticket, they're running under this mantra of freedom. And one of those pillars is reproductive freedom, or specifically the freedom to make decisions about your own body is how they describe it on the campaign trail.

[08:05:03]

But the former president now weighing in here, raising IVF as an acknowledgment that Republicans feel vulnerable in this space. And it's an issue Democrats very much want to run on. Governor Walz, though, did have a discrepancy in how he described a fertility treatment that his family used. Let's take a listen to how he explained this to our colleague, Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) MINNESOTA: The one thing I'll tell you is I wished in this country wouldn't have to do this. I spoke about our infertility issues, because it's hell, and families know this. And I spoke about the treatments that were available to us that had those beautiful children there. That's quite a contrast in folks that are trying to take those rights away from us.

I think most Americans get it if you've been through that. I don't think they're cutting hairs on IVF or IUI. I think what they're cutting hairs on is an abortion ban and the ability to be able to denied families the chance to have a beautiful child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So John, I think that it's telling that they're beginning this reproductive justice bus tour in Florida. Democrats, as you know, have suffered heartbreak in Florida cycle after cycle, but it's clear that they feel confident to compete on this issue in that state. It starts on Tuesday in Palm Beach with Senator Amy Klobuchar and Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, among others. The bus tour is going to make at least 50 stops in key battleground states. And it also seems like it's going to serve as a recruitment tool for them to mobilize volunteers.

BERMAN: All right, Eva McKend for us. Eva, thank you very much. Rahel?

SOLOMON: Alright, John, let's break this down further with Errol Louis, CNN political commentator, "Spectrum News" political anchor, and host of "The Big Deal with Errol Louis." Errol, you've got a lot of titles there. Good to have you. It is the morning after. How do you think Dems are feeling about her performance last night?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They should be feeling good about it, in part because there were no mistakes, and that's, of course, the first threshold you want to cross. But then also she's really kind of indicating how she's going to walk a very narrow path between being an incumbent and part of an administration that has a record that can, in fact, be attacked. And also sort of being a candidate of change. This is a change election. There's no getting around it. Either we change parties by giving controls to the Republicans, or we have a different kind of a change, a generational change. And she's trying to make the case that even as an incumbent member of the current administration, she represents changed. And I think she did that.

SOLOMON: She also tried to make the case that while some of her policies may have changed, her values haven't. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed. You mentioned the Green New Deal. I have always believed, and I have worked on it, that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time. We did that with the Inflation Reduction Act. We have set goals for the United States of America, and by extension, the globe, around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as an example.

That value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border, that value has not changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Errol, as you know, I mean, this is one of the issues that the GOP loves to sort of attack her on. Do you think that response was enough to address the concerns that some may have about where her policies stand?

LOUIS: Well, people who want to attack are going to attacker. I think you could take four months in 2019 when she was a candidate for president and say, why did you change from that? Or you could look at the four years that she's been in, basically part of the administration, that 80 million people voted for her to do certain things, and she was part of an administration that began to do those things.

Going back to the moments in 2019, even the primary voters weren't interested in that, and so she adjusted. It's interesting, if you want to, to ask her to sort of trace her evolution from where she was to where she is now. But I think it's much more relevant what she actually, the votes that she cast when she was vice president, the tie-breaking votes, the policies that she signed onto, the ribbons that shed cut for E.V. manufacturing plants and other kind of tax cuts. I mean, I think we have a pretty good sense of where she stands at this point.

SOLOMON: One thing she didn't choose to weigh in on is Trump's comment a few weeks ago at NABJ, more than a month ago now, at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, that she had suddenly turned black all of a sudden. And Dana asked her, we played the clip a little bit earlier, and she said something to the effect, same old, same old playbook, next question, moving right along. Thoughts about that response?

LOUIS: Well, look, I think it's right on brand, because when she says we have to turn the corner on the last decade, what she's really talking about is the nine years of the age of Trump. And what she's talking about doing is both dismissing and moving beyond the vulgarity, the obscenity, the childish nicknames, the unpresidential conduct. She's just not going to engage in it.

[08:10:08]

And so I think she's modeling the behavior that she's hoping the voters will follow and say, look, let's just put that behind us. That's not what this country is about.

SOLOMON: You know, it's interesting, one strategist told me a short time ago, this was an interview that she had to get it over with. She sort of did what she needed to do. She understood the assignment is how it was described to me. Looking ahead, how much more important now and does the debate become? And also, does she do more interviews now that she has gotten this one under her belt?

LOUIS: The debate is hugely important. There was a recent poll that suggested that something like 90 percent of the poll respondents said that they're going to be watching the debate. Everybody is going to be watching the debate. It will be very, very big.

But beyond that, I think there's a really interesting set of questions. There's a lot of proposals that are out there. There's already what's on the website, because the Biden-Harris website is still up and all of the issues and promises are still there. And then you have to sort of ask her, are you going to keep those promises? Are you going in a different direction? Theres a big 92-page party platform that was just approved at the Democratic National Convention. It includes really interesting stuff like an infrastructure bank and high-speed rail. Well, which of those are going to be important to you? Those are really important questions, not just from the media, not just even from the voting public, but from within the various interest groups in the United States. People want to know what she's planning to do, and they want to try and influence her to go ahead and do those things. Universal school lunches, whatever it's going to be. And so we all have an interest in finding out what she's thinking and where she might want to go.

SOLOMON: Any missed opportunities that you watched last night as a political observer thinking, she could have used this platform to address this, to say that? Any dropped balls?

LOUIS: I wouldn't call it a drop ball, but as always, because we really are in the thick of it, we're coming down to the last few weeks. I would have expected her to say things that were specifically directed at Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or Arizona, or some of the other battleground states. I didn't really hear that too clearly.

I also don't think she took that much about reproductive rights. Obviously, she's saving that for the current news cycle. So she's going to do this bus tour, but I was expecting to hear a little bit more about that.

SOLOMON: Yes, we, did have that news this morning about the bus tour. So perhaps that was part of the strategy. Errol Louis, always good to see you. Thank you.

LOUIS: Thanks. SOLOMON: John?

BERMAN: All right, in just a couple of minutes, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance joins us live. What he has to say about this exclusive interview with Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.

The Trump legal team launching a new push to delay his sentencing past Election Day.

And police say they cracked cold 40-year-old murder case with some help from some cigarette -- excuse me -- with some help from a cigarette. Easy for me to say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:17]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: New overnight, Donald Trump's legal team filed a petition to delay his criminal sentencing in New York, set to begin September 18. Then he wants to move the case to a federal court as we head closer to the presidential election.

Let's bring in CNN's Zach Cohen, who joins us now. So, Zach what does this mean for the case?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Rahel.

Donald Trump is trying to create another pathway to overturn that felony conviction in the New York hush-money case and he is also looking to indefinitely delay sentencing in that case. He's asking a federal court to take the case away from the state level trial court.

He's also asking the federal court to confirm that while that issue is being litigated, he can't be sentenced. Ultimately trying to push that sentencing beyond the 2024 election into a date TBD.

I want to read a little bit of this because Donald Trump is arguing that this case should be moved to federal court because the prosecutors in this case presented evidence that falls under official acts that he committed that are protected under the Supreme Court's new immunity ruling.

He argues, "The impending election cannot be redone. The currently unaddressed harm to the presidency resulting from this improper prosecution will adversely impact the operations of the federal government for generations", he goes on to argue, "sentencing is currently scheduled to occur on September 18, 2024, which could result in President Trump's immediate unconstitutional incarceration and prevent him from continuing his groundbreaking campaign."

You may remember that the state-level court judge, Judge Merchan, who was the trial court judge in this case is already weighing a separate request from Trump's legal team to both overturn the conviction in that case. There's 34 felony counts and to delay anything until after the 2024 election. Prosecutors have deferred that decision to Judge Merchan. They didn't oppose it.

He was scheduled to weigh in on that on September 18th, the same day as sentencing, but now Trump opening this second avenue to try to delay sentencing in that New York hush-money case.

SOLOMON: Yes, it sounds like things are really picking up again.

Zach, talk to us a little bit about Jack Smith's office and Trump's lawyers filing a joint status report today in Trump's federal election subversion case. This is as prosecutors are apparently trying to get more methodical with the case, that's according to some CNN sources.

What appears to be the strategy here?

COHEN: Yes, Rahel, it has been interesting because for months and months and months, we saw Jack Smith really working as quickly as he possibly could to try to bring this case to trial. But ever since that Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, that pace has really slowed down according to our sources.

We saw that in the way that his team spent eight weeks after the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity going through the indictment line by line and trying to pare down and cut out the parts that maybe did not apply and were protected under that immunity ruling.

And now we're hearing that he's not going to move quickly to put on what some people had proposed as a mini trial, right, to potentially put witnesses like former Vice President Mike Pence and former chief- of-staff, Mark Meadows, on the stand to testify to sort of try to present that evidence before the 2024 election.

[08:20:04]

We're told that he does not appear that any sort of a hurry to do that. He may ultimately have to show his hand a little bit in what was called an evidentiary hearing as he tries to convince the judge that the remaining charges and the remaining conduct in that indictment do qualify as crimes.

But as of now, Jack Smith is moving slowly and is sort of acknowledging that there will not be a trial in this case before the 2024 election. But he wants to preserve that evidence and preserve that case, keep it intact in case there could be a trial at some point in the future.

SOLOMON: Yes, whenever that might be.

Zach Cohen, live for us in Washington. Zach, thank you.

And in just minutes, Republican Vice Presidential candidate, J.D. Vance joins us live. What he has to say about CNN's exclusive interview of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:09]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, this morning, some confusion over former President Donald Trump's position on an amendment on the ballot in Florida that would effectively overturn the states six-week abortion ban. He is a Florida resident and he was asked about this overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think the six-week is too short. It has to be more time and so -- and I've told them that I want more weeks.

REPORTER: So, you'll vote in favor of the amendment?

TRUMP: I'm voting that -- I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So the campaign then put out a statement that said, Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida.

With me now is former President Trump's running mate, Republican vice presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance.

Senator, great to have you with us.

You can help us clear this up. How can you vote for more than six weeks without voting for the amendment?

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think all the president is saying -- and, of course, he's going to make his own announcement on how he's going to vote on the Florida bill, is that he thinks that there should be more than six weeks and he's been very consistent in that. He says he doesn't like just six weeks. He obviously doesn't like late term abortion.

I think like a lot of Americans, the president is sort of somewhere else on this issue, and he's also said that he wants abortion policy to be made by the states themselves individually and not by the national government. I think that's the most important thing here is that he's of course opining on this as a Florida resident.

But when it comes to national policy, John, President Trump has been extremely consistent that he wants abortion policy to be made by the states -- Florida, California, Ohio, they're going to have different approaches. That's okay.

What he wants is to focus on eliminating inflation, bringing down the cost of groceries and housing, and closing down that southern border that Kamala Harris opened up. That's where he's focused and that's where we'll continue to focus for the remainder of the campaign.

BERMAN: He said he was going to vote for more than six weeks. So what's your understanding of how he will do that? VANCE: Well, I think what he's saying is that he doesn't like doing it

at just six weeks. Obviously, he's going to make his own judgment on how he ultimately votes on the amendment.

I think he's probably making an argument about how he feels about the issue. He's not making some proclamation about how he's going to vote on the amendment. And, of course, they clarified afterwards that he wasn't making an explicit determination of how he's going to vote or announcing anything.

Look, the president, I'm sure, will tell the American people how he's going to vote on it eventually, but he wasn't making an announcement last night.

BERMAN: So it was a grammar thing?

VANCE: Sorry? Could you repeat that, John?

BERMAN: It was a grammar thing. It was a speech thing. It was -- it was somehow some confusion in the words that he chose?

Senator Vance, can you hear me?

VANCE: Super staticky.

BERMAN: Senator Vance, I may be super staticky.

You may not be hearing the loud baritone of my voice here. Senator, can you hear me?

All right, Senator Vance --

VANCE: -- a little bit, but it's -- sorry, could you -- could you -- could you just repeat --

BERMAN: All right, Senator.

We're going to take a quick break, figure it out. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]