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Harris to Unveil Economic Plan; Trump Campaign Town Hall in Pennsylvania; Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is Interviewed about the Presidential Race; Ukrainian Foreign Minister Submits Resignation; Fred Trump is Interviewed about his New Book. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 04, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: What this will do, in combination with some of the actions by the Netanyahu government, will continue to put Hamas on notice that their standard of trying to not comply with potential for ceasefires and a peace plan between Israel and Hamas will not go unnoticed by the United States. You know, we have our secretary - or, correction, our CIA director, Bill Burns, Roger Carstens, and Brett McGurk, three of the best negotiators there are in terms of trying to get hostages back, and Hamas is beginning to feel the pressure. This will only increase that pressure and help them to understand that they've got to start negotiating in good faith.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, therein still a great deal of pressure on Netanyahu as well with thousands of people taking to the streets there in Israel demanding that he also go forward with ceasefire deals.

Kim Dozier, General Mark Hertling, thank you both so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New CNN battleground polling out just this morning. How the race has shifted days before a key presidential debate.

Vice President Harris set to announce a new wave of economic proposals today, a tax seduction for small business owners.

And the U.S. Open will actually have an American in the men's final for the first time since 2009. Grab your $23 drink and head to Queens.

I'm John Berman, with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central with John Berman, Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, with John Berman, Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan, we have fresh polling and a whole lot of it as both Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are soon going to be hitting the campaign trail today. The new CNN polling comes out of six key battleground states listed right there for you. Harris with a narrow lead in Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump has an edge in Arizona, Nevada, essentially tied, as well as the two battles grounds that the whole race could now hinge on, Pennsylvania and Georgia, you see right there.

Pennsylvania is where the candidates will be facing off for the first time in the debate, now six days away, and 62 days to Election Day.

Today, as I mentioned, they're hitting the campaign trail. Kamala Harris is heading to New Hampshire to roll out more of her economic agenda.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has much more on this and much, much more.

What do you know about what we're going to hear from Kamala Harris and her economic agenda today, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kate, good morning.

Vice President Harris is going to be in New Hampshire today, rolling out more pieces of her economic policy. Really this has been the central issue of concern for so many voters, what is their bottom line, what is the, you know, the price of food, inflation, et cetera.

But today she is going to be focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurs. She's going to be doing, at least proposing, something pretty significant. She's proposing increasing the small business tax deduction. What that means is the cost of doing business, for starting a small business, from $5,000 to $50,000. That includes salaries, advertising, other costs of starting a small business. That is one piece of her proposal.

She's also going to be talking about cutting red tape, the bureaucracy for starting a small business. The licensing requirements from state to state. She also is setting a goal of starting 25 million new small businesses during her first term in office. That would compare to about 19 million as of right now during the Biden-Harris administration.

So, Kate, all of these proposals, of course, are just laying the groundwork for how she's trying to make the case to voters that she's concerned about the middle class and she's focusing on the economy.

And as you can see from these poll numbers here in our new battleground polls this morning, the economy is a central concern and a bit of a soft spot for her in her battle with the former president there. You can see these numbers. State after state after state, voters are trusting Donald Trump more on the economy. It's one reason the Harris campaign is trying to fill in some more of these blanks here, what she would do for the economy.

Of course, the word Bidenomics not mentioned in this plan, but that is one of the things that hangs over this election. People just wonder if the Biden-Harris administration did enough for the economy. So, we'll see her later today in New Hampshire, Kate.

BOLDUAN: But before that, let's talk about Nebraska. You're in Omaha, Nebraska.

ZELENY: Let's do.

BOLDUAN: A place that - let's do it whenever possible for you especially. A place that is becoming more and more important, potentially, to the - in the race to 270. Explain.

ZELENY: Kate, our poll numbers this morning underscore this point.

[09:05:02]

For all the talk of the blue wall of winning Pennsylvania, winning Michigan, winning Wisconsin, all those are essential for winning the White House, but that leaves you one electoral votes short. If everything else would stay the same and the Harris campaign would win the blue wall states, they still need the blue dot. The blue dot is found right here in Omaha, at least Democrats hope it will be. Nebraska and Maine, the only two states in the country that divide their electoral votes. That means she could win one electoral vote here in the Omaha area and not win the rest of the state and still get that one electoral vote. Joe Biden did in 2020. Barack Obama did in 2008.

So, for all the talk of the blue wall, it doesn't work without the blue dot from right here in Omaha.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: For - Jeff, it's so great to see you. Thank you for that. A perfect encapsulation of just how close the race is. Forget the blue wall, it's down to the dot.

BERMAN: Yes. And just so people can see where, you know, that's where Jeff Zeleny is right now. That is what the Harris campaign hopes to be, the blue - you've got to push way in to see the blue dot.

BOLDUAN: But, JB, don't forget about your many other circles you have to do.

BERMAN: Yes. And we'll get to that in just a second. That's Omaha. That's where Jeff Zeleny is.

I wanted to give people a sense of what today's CNN polls mean in the race to 270 electoral votes. And for now let's keep that blue dot blue. We're also going to keep the red dot in Maine red to show you how each candidate would get to 270.

So, in our new CNN polling, Kamala Harris has a small lead in Wisconsin and in Michigan. Donald Trump has a small lead in Arizona.

Where does that leave things for Harris? Simply put, (INAUDIBLE) on that map is Pennsylvania just (INAUDIBLE) Omaha would (INAUDIBLE) do right there - if Omaha would do right there, if you did not win the blue dot, if you did not win the blue dot then it goes down to 269, and that is not enough. The reason I didn't change it before is because it's a real pain in the neck to get the blue dot on the map there.

OK, so Pennsylvania gets her to 270. If she does not win Pennsylvania, how can she get to 270? She would - you know what? We have to make Alaska red here also. She would need to get two of the remaining three states here, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina. Either of those, if she wins Georgia and Nevada, that gets her over the top. You could also replace out North Carolina for Georgia, and that would get her enough electoral votes.

All right, for Donald Trump, how can Donald Trump get there from where he is based on the polling? Well, if he wins Pennsylvania, it's still not quite enough. He still needs more. He needs these states that are left here. North Carolina, he won that last time. If he wins North Carolina and Nevada, he's there, right? But if he doesn't win Nevada, Nevada goes to Kamala Harris, he wins Georgia instead, you can see, he's also there.

This is why right now inside Trump circles you're hearing a lot about a Pennsylvania and Georgia strategy.

Kate.

Oh, Sara.

SIDNER: Love it when you geek out at the wall, John. Appreciate that.

All right, today, Donald Trump is returning to the campaign trail, traveling to one of the crucial battleground states that could very well decide the race, as you just heard John there. Trump will hold a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, will be speaking in Mesa, Arizona.

It comes as the Trump campaign says they have the momentum in a new campaign memo released overnight.

CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us now.

Tell us more about this memo. It's one thing to say you have the momentum. It's another thing whether or not you have it. But that is what they believe at this time.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. And look, I think what John just laid out with that polling and his magic on the wall - on the magic wall, I should say, is really what - where this memo is stemming from. I mean, look, there is a lot of frustration within the Trump campaign right now. And I think you can literally see it in some of this memo. That a lot of the media and a lot of the enthusiasm around Harris has continued to kind of portray that she has the momentum. But they argue that, look, this race is really close. The new CNN poll out today shows that Donald Trump, you know, even though he has been in the race for much longer, his - the momentum behind him and the strength he has, really the enduring strength he has with Republican and conservative voters across the country, shows that this race has settled.

And I can tell you from my conversations, Sara, with Donald Trump's senior advisors, that they really do believe that the, quote/unquote, honeymoon phase, as they continue to call it in this memo, is over. That really it is a head-on-head race now with Harris. The election is incredibly close. But they do feel like they can kind of turn the tide here and they're looking ahead to the debate next week in Pennsylvania, the critical state, to really see if they can move the needle and have any sort of edge on Harris that they can get too kind of close these margins.

Now, I do want to read for you some of what they wrote in this memo. It's from Donald Trump's co-campaign managers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles.

[09:10:02]

They wrote, quote, "the state of the race is clear, with just nine weeks until the most consequential election in American history, the Trump-Vance campaign has the momentum. Do the Democrats and voters realize this? Or does the mainstream media, in its attempt to manage public opinion and continue the, quote, 'Harris honeymoon,' report a version of reality that is at odds with the facts."

Now, look, I do think part of this is, again, some of that frustration leaking out about how Donald Trump is being portrayed in the media. But a lot of this stems from, Sara, their frustration because, remember, a couple months ago it was Joe Biden who was their opponent and they felt very confident about the state of the race. That has all changed with Harris now at the top of the Democratic ticket. And that's where a lot of this is coming from. You know as well that they have continued to struggle to define Harris. So, that's all kind of percolating behind the scenes. But I think you'll see some of that play out tonight in the town hall, as well as next week on the debate stage.

Sara.

SIDNER: Look, with this tight of a race, the debate is a huge, huge deal. So, we will all, I know, be watching that very closely.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Congressman Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.

I want to start off with kind of a meta question that I've been thinking about.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Good morning, John.

BERMAN: So, there's 62 days to go before Election Day here.

SWALWELL: Oh, boy. Here we go. BERMAN: Is 62 days a lot at this point, or is 62 days a little? If you're - if you want Kamala Harris to win, are you glad there's only 62 days, or you're like, gosh, I wish there were more?

SWALWELL: Well, the reality is, that's not much time. What was happening, you know, just 62 days ago, I think it was around the Fourth of July, right? I mean but that's how fast this is going to go. And so there's a lot of joy and momentum on the Harris campaign among Democrats everywhere. But on November 5, we don't count joy, we count votes. And so, you know, kids are back to school, Labor Days is over, adults are back to work and now Democrats need to do everything we can, everywhere we go, to make the case that this is about the future. That's who Kamala Harris is. And Donald Trump will just take us to the past.

BERMAN: All right, so you're on team not a lot of days, 62.

So, what then needs to be accomplished -

SWALWELL: Not a lot of days.

BERMAN: What needs to be accomplished quickly then for Vice President Harris?

SWALWELL: Well, today she's going to lay out this opportunity economy where if you work hard, you should do better for yourself and dream bigger for your kids. So, it's a startup proposal that she has. She's a startup candidate herself, wanting to add 25 million more businesses to America. But also she's got a plan to put, you know, roofs over the heads of people who worked the hardest, in homes that you own. And, in America, it's hard to have hope if you don't have a home. And so her $25,000 first-time buyer credit would go a long way to make sure that if you do work hard in this economy, it's not going to be so damn hard for you to have a home and provide stability and some equity for you and your family.

BERMAN: So, just so you can see, in Michigan right now, when we asked voters what the most important issues where, they did list the economy. Thirty-eight percent said the economy is the number one issue, protecting democracy is the second - I think we have a graphic of this - at 27 percent, abortion at 10 percent there. You can see how important the economy is.

And, Congressman, what you hear from Republicans, though, is, look, if Vice President Harris wants to propose this for small businesses, why hasn't she done it already? Why hasn't she implemented this over the last three and a half years? Why haven't they done the things she is now promising to do?

SWALWELL: Well, you know, she's been the vice president, and she's been supporting a president who's had 15 million jobs, you know, created under his presidency, more than any president in my lifetime. But that doesn't mean that gas and groceries are as affordable as they need to be, and that doesn't mean enough people who work hard have a home. And so, you know, it's aspirational, and she does believe, you know, that we can build on the successes of the Biden economy. And that's what you're seeing in the rollout today. And that's what you're going to see in the contrast next week.

Look, you don't need an imagination to think about what this is going to look like when Donald Trump and Kamala Harris stand on the same stage. She's going to talk about the future and ideas and how we're going to get there, and he's just going to be stuck in the past and you'll hear zero ideas other than how he's an aggrieved person and this is entirely about him and she understands this is entirely about you.

BERMAN: She - if anyone's the incumbent, though, isn't it - isn't it Vice President Harris? She is the sitting vice president. How much do you think she needs to break from President Biden?

SWALWELL: Well, again, she can build on the Biden success and she also, with this joy and momentum, can deliver the House and the Senate so, you know, we can finish the job.

[09:15:05]

Joe Biden, you know, very selflessly has left her a job to finish. And so finishing the job on background checks so that our kids are protected in their school, finishing the job so that we can, you know, put Roe as the law of the land and protect women's freedom over their body, finishing the job as it relates to voting rights so that when you vote, your vote is counted. There's still a lot of work to do, but a foundation has been laid and enmapped (ph) and a pathway to get there has been given to us by Joe Biden. And she's going to bring it home.

BERMAN: Congressman Eric Swalwell, nice to see you this morning. Thanks so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: A major government shakeup is underway in Ukraine. President Zelenskyy preparing to reshuffle more than half of his cabinet. And this comes as Russia - Russian missiles rained down in a deadly new wave of attacks overnight.

And a spending battle is brewing on Capitol Hill once again as lawmakers head back to work next week. We have new reporting on how the House speaker is planning to try and avoid another government shutdown.

For the first time since 2006, the United States will be in the finals for sure of the U.S. Open men's singles tournament. The history in the making as the men approach the semifinal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:38] BOLDUAN: And breaking news overnight, Ukraine's foreign minister submitted his resignation ahead of an expected major reshuffling of President Zelenskyy's cabinet. The foreign minister is the latest high profile member of the cabinet to say he's stepping aside.

And this is happening at a critical moment. Russia launched a new missile attack overnight on the western city of Lviv.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Kyiv with much more on this one.

What are you hearing about this shuffling, Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a pretty large reshuffling of the Ukrainian government. It's actually something that we had been expecting, that the Ukrainian sort of had been telegraphing over the past couple of days, that more than 50 percent of the cabinet would be replaced or reshuffled. But certainly the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is the most prominent name of those who have actually tendered their resignation. In total, though, it's another three ministers, two deputy prime ministers, and the head of Ukraine's property fund.

Now, one of the things about all this, Kate, is that all these resignations still need to be accepted by Ukraine's parliament. Some of that was debated today. They've not yet debated about the foreign minister resigning. However, there were, for instance, one deputy prime minister and the head of the property fund where the parliament did not accept their resignation, and so they will remain in power for now.

But you are absolutely right, this does come at a critical time for the Ukrainians as not only, of course, they're facing that Russian onslaught, but they also want to move on and want to get more assistance from the United States.

I want to listen in to what the president of this country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had to say about that shake-up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): The autumn will be extremely important for Ukraine. And our state institutions must be set up so that Ukraine achieves all the results we need, all of us. To do this, we need to strengthen some areas of the government. And we have prepared personnel decisions. There will also be changes in the office. I'm also counting on a slightly different wait for certain areas of our foreign and domestic policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So that was Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, speaking just there.

And, of course, we are expecting that Zelenskyy is going to travel to the United States towards the end of September for the U.N. General Assembly, and then possibly also meet President Biden at that time as well. And Ukraine's president has said that he then wants to present the U.S. president with what he calls a plan to try and force Russia to the negotiating table. Ukraine's offensive, that's currently going on inside Russian territory, part of that, but he's also set to ask for a substantial new weapons package.

Guys.

BOLDUAN: Fred, thank you so much for your reporting, as always, on the ground in Kyiv for us.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, new polls out this morning showing a dead heat race in the most crucial battleground state, just 62 days out from Election Day.

And all in the family. Why Donald Trump's nephew says he will not be voting for his uncle in November. Fred Trump breaks his decades-long silence and joins us here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:05]

SIDNER: Donald Trump's nephew, Fred Trump, is breaking his decades- long silence in a brand-new memoir that casts new light on the Trump family. He says, in part, quote, "Up until now, I have stayed stubbornly quiet, even as those around me took their potshots. But silence is golden only when there is nothing that needs to be said."

Fred Trump is now saying many things about his uncle, including that Donald Trump uses people based on their race to his advantage. The Trump camp, of course, responding to this, saying, quote, "This is completely fabricated and total fake news of the highest order. It is appalling,' they say, 'a lie so blatantly disgusting that it can be printed in media. Anyone who knows President Trump knows he would never use such language, and false stories like this, and they have been thoroughly debunked. This is nothing more than a cheap shot to sell copies of a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section."

So you've heard all that. Fred Trump is joining me now. You have heard some of these insults slung at you before, I am sure. Your new book, titled, "All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way."

You've talked about the silence of yours. Why now? What is left to say? Because a lot has been said about your uncle.

FRED TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S NEPHEW: Oh, sure. Through the decades. I was in the rough-and-tumble real estate world for 35 years, but I always tried to keep a low profile. I just wanted to do my job. I have a wife and three great kids. The youngest, William, has complex disabilities.

When Donald started running in 2015, we had dead animals thrown on our lawn, reporters coming up to our door unannounced, cars in the driveway, et cetera. A couple of years ago, William moved into a group home close by, but not in our house. The other two, Andrea and Christopher, live in the city.

So with that safety factor in place, it was time for me to speak up. And the other inspiration for it, if you will, was January 6th, inspiring in a bad way.

[09:30:02]

And Donald had a big role to play in that.

So while the book's genesis is to honor,