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Biden and Trump Making Final Preparations for CNN Showdown; Two Years Since Supreme Court Overturned Roe V. Wade; Back-to-Back Hearings Underway in Trump Classified Documents Case. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 24, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin the hour with presidential campaigns nearing a critical moment. Just three days and counting until Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off in a primetime debate right here on CNN, the earliest showdown of its kind in modern history.

President Biden and his team will remain hunkered down at Camp David, where he's been the last few days in debate prep. Meanwhile, over the weekend, Donald Trump road tested potential debate strategies at a rally in Philadelphia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How should I handle him? Should I be tough and nasty? Or should I be -- she's saying, no. Should I be tough and nasty and just say you're the worst president in history? Or Should I be nice and calm and let him speak? 50-50, be tough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So how are the two campaigns spending these final days before the debate? Joining me now are CNN's Alayna Treene and Kevin Liptak.

Kevin, you have some new reporting about how the president is preparing to take on Trump. He's been at Camp David for a little while now.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, we're on day four of debate camp out in the mountains. You know, I don't think it's any secret why President Biden is spending the better part of a week preparing for this debate. His campaign really thinks this is a critical moment. And they know they can't afford an underwhelming debate performance. You know, any moment, any verbal slip, any mental slip, it's just going to be magnified under the lights of the debate stage. I think one of the real questions for anyone going into a debate with Donald Trump is what version of Trump is going to appear on that debate stage. Is it the pugilistic, interrupting, yelling Donald Trump? Or is it a more restrained, more presidential Donald Trump? And what we have been hearing from Biden advisers today is that they're essentially preparing for both versions of that. They want to be ready for whatever version of Trump shows up on the debate stage.

The way we understand this prep going, it's going to start informally. They have these binders, you know, potential questions, potential answers. They're going to go through those, try and sort of hone the zingers, hone the comebacks. Eventually, it'll culminate in a mock debate later this week. We did get kind of a glimpse, the campaign put out this pretty lengthy memo this week, sort of outlining their strategy.

I think it's clear that there are three very specific issues that Joe Biden wants to talk about in this debate. One is abortion. Obviously, Democrats think this is the most galvanizing issue for them, and that's something that Biden's going to hammer away on. One is this idea of a threat to democracy and the potential for political violence. That's been the underpinning, essentially, of the entire Biden campaign, so that's no surprise that he's going to bring that up.

The third is the economy. This is the number one issue for voters. It's something that Joe Biden has been relatively weak on. A lot of Americans don't necessarily feel the economic recovery, but it's obviously not something he's going to be able to avoid. So, all of these things, I think, that as President Biden is out at Camp David, he's really kind of crystallizing, sharpening what he's going to say on all these issues.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Alayna, I mean, tell us which Donald Trump is going to show up. I mean, that's the big question. And how are they trying to manage expectations at this point?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: You've covered Donald Trump just as much as I have. You never know with him who's going to show up. But I will say they are addressing that issue in his -- you know, behind the scenes. They're dubbing them policy discussions, but in his own version of debate prep, I know that his advisers and others have been encouraging him to rein in his rhetoric.

Remember, in 2020, in that first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Donald Trump was very aggressive. He barely let Joe Biden get a word in, and we saw Trump's poll numbers fall after that. A lot of people argued that Trump lost that debate. And so that is definitely weighing on their minds.

Now, as for what Kevin just ran through with the top three topics that they are discussing in the Biden camp, those are the same things I'm hearing Donald Trump's team and in these policy discussions that they're working through as well, the economy, abortion, his handling of January 6th, and the attack on the Capitol, all things they are walking through behind the scenes. Now, one thing that I think is really interesting is also how we're seeing the campaign try to manage expectations. I want you to listen to some pretty vulgar language and rhetoric that Donald Trump used at his Philadelphia rally. Take a listen to what he said.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Right now, Crooked Joe has gone to a log cabin to study, prepare. No, he didn't -- he's sleeping now, because they want to get him good and strong. So, a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the ass. And that's -- they want to strengthen him up.

He'll come out. Okay, I say he'll come out all jacked up, right, all jacked up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, clearly this is Donald Trump's version of trying to raise expectations, although we should just be clear, I mean, there is no -- and you know this as well, there is no evidence that Joe Biden has ever taken a performance enhancing drug that he is planning to, but this is how Donald Trump is playing off his crowd and whatnot.

But I do find it fascinating, because, we know for months now, Donald Trump himself, but also his team have been painting Joe Biden as this weak and feeble candidate, arguing he's senile, that he can barely stand on the debate stage for the 90 minutes that is allotted on Thursday, but now they're recognizing that's actually not working in their favor because the bar will be too low for Joe Biden.

So, we're seeing them try to raise expectations. And I think I know throughout this week, they're going to have a lot of Donald Trump surrogates and advisers on the airwaves trying to do exactly that.

ACOSTA: All right, yes. They have to pick one. Is it senile? Is it jacked up? It's one or the other at this point. All right, guys, thank you very much.

Let's discuss now with the Democratic strategist, Chuck Rocha, and CNN Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings.

Chuck, I mean, what do you make of all this and also the rhetoric that Trump is using heading into this debate? I mean, it almost sounds like he's road testing a new birther lie with this jacked up business. You know, it's just, people will say, oh, he's just joking, but, I mean, they're saying it over and over again. Nobody has ever made this kind of allegation about Joe Biden, his entire political career, even though he's been in Washington for, you know, 50-plus years.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It's why it makes it so hard to prepare for him, and I think that's why Joe Biden has taken so much time to prepare. I've done debate prep before. You look at all the statements and things that somebody does. And normally as a campaign, they have a professional team around them and they stay on a certain message. You never know what you're going to get out of Donald Trump. So you have to prepare for everything to the point the two folks were just talking about which one of the Donald Trump's actually show up. And then how do you actually debate prep against somebody that spews so much misinformation or disinformation? I think that's the biggest challenge for Joe Biden.

ACOSTA: Yes. Scott, I mean, what's with all this jacked up business?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, this is a running commentary on the right since the State of the Union when Biden came out rather aggressively yelling at the Congress that night. So, I think Trump is riffing off of that joke that's been going around in Republican circles. I think Chuck, by the way, is exactly right. And if you go back to about how to prepare, because you go back to 2020, there were two debates. Trump 1 and Trump 2 were two totally different versions. He cratered his campaign in the first one, but in the second one, he did fine. He was subdued.

By the way, in that one, there was one similar rule, muted microphones. And I think Trump actually won the second debate by just showing up and just kind of looking like, you know, what you would expect the president to look like.

But I guess we'll have to see how they play it on Thursday night. Surely they must be cognizant of how badly the first debate performance played back in '20 and you wouldn't want to repeat that on this one.

ACOSTA: Well, yes. I mean, and Trump has been out there and the allies with this jacked up business. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: They're going to need to goose him and juice him for him to even be able to stand there for 90 minutes.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY, FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDNETIAL CANDIDATE: I do think a drug test is fair game. The American people deserve transparency. There was cocaine found in the White House earlier this year after all.

REP. RONNY JACKSON (R-TX): I'm going to be demanding on behalf of many millions of concerned Americans right now that he submit to a drug test before and after this debate, specifically looking for performance enhancing drugs. He's going to be at Camp David for a full week before the debate. Part of that is probably experimenting with, you know, just getting the doses just right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I mean, you know, Scott's laughing, but I, you know, I find this to be a lot like the birther lie. And it just was done over and over again. And, you know, for a while there, the Obama folks would laugh it off or not take it seriously. But, I mean, it is -- they're kind of doing it with a straight face over there on Fox. ROCHA: I've said this on this program before. There's a no saying in East Texas. If you lie long enough about having a horse, eventually somebody will buy you a saddle. And that's what they're kind of guaranteed. Wait, no, is they think that if you talk about it enough, enough people will believe it, enough, undecided voters will be like, oh my God, he did so well, and he was so full of energy, and they've said that he's old and that he's weak and blah, blah, blah, that way that they can kind of cut him at his knees if he does a good job.

But, I mean, Thursday is going to be about sound bites.

ACOSTA: It sounds like they're anticipating Biden to come out swinging.

ROCHA: Right.

JENNINGS: Of course they are. I mean, look, the last time we saw him on a big stage was the State of the Union. He came out swinging at the State of the Union. He came out in an aggressive stance. My assumption is --

ACOSTA: It wasn't such a smart idea for weeks and weeks to talk about how Biden is stumbling around and --

JENNINGS: Well, I sort of dispute that it's the Trump campaign or the Republicans that are setting low expectations. It's Biden's own appearance that's setting low expectations. I mean --

ACOSTA: Right. But why would you then have to go out and say he's jacked up over and over and have all these surrogates saying, I mean, obviously they're getting the talking points saying this sort of thing?

[10:10:06]

The other thing I wanted to get into is this weekend, Trump suggested that the UFC should start a migrant fight club. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Dana, I have an idea for you to make a lot of money. You're going to go and start a new migrant fight league, migrants, only migrants. And then at the end of the year, the champion migrant is going to fight your champion. And I hate to tell you, Dana, I think the migrant might win. That's how tough they are.

They're just getting comfortable now. They're going to start hitting us very hard. These people are bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: This is ugly stuff. I find it really disgusting. You know, my grandparents were immigrants. Everybody's parents came here, or grandparents as immigrants at some point. And he just keeps throwing so much red bait to the base of his party. I know what he's doing. Anybody who's done campaigns for more than 30 seconds knows what he's doing.

But at a certain point, you know, it just crosses the line over and over again. And I see it in focus group after focus group about folks just thinking that he's good and crazy, and this weekend just reinforced that.

ACOSTA: Scott?

JENNINGS: Well in a way only Donald Trump can, he is drawing attention to the violent activity that we have seen in places all over this country.

ACOSTA: Has he seen too many gladiator movies?

JENNINGS: Listen, I mean, you can worry about it, the rhetoric, or you can worry about the murders, the rapes, the kidnappings that we've seen in a lot of these different stories. This is a big part of their campaign.

ACOSTA: It's dehumanizing rhetoric, Scott.

JENNINGS: Would you say it is more or less dehumanizing than murdering and raping?

ACOSTA: Well, Scott, I mean, honestly, there's been this influx of the border and crime has been coming down in a pretty major way.

JENNINGS: Are you denying that we have had a number of incidents in this country recently?

ACOSTA: Are you denying that crime is coming down in this country? Are you denying that crime is coming down as there is this influx at the border? Are you denying that?

JENNINGS: I'm not denying statistics, but I'm also here to say that there are important stories.

ACOSTA: Do non-migrant people commit crimes, Scott?

JENNINGS: Of course.

ACOSTA: Okay.

JENNINGS: Of course they do.

ACOSTA: What do we do about that?

JENNINGS: I think all violent criminals should be cracked down on. But are you saying that immigration and the impacts of this illegal immigration should not be part of this campaign?

ACOSTA: No, I'm just saying, you know, why in the hell is one of the two presidential candidates talking about putting migrants into gladiator fight like experiences? Why is that even going on?

ROCHA: I think he has to create a fear. I think that what you see is there has to be a fear. There has to be a fear part of this. And when you see a group of folks that they're really worried about on the other side of the outlets, take just, for example, moderate voters in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He's going to lose those women because of Dobbs and choice, but he has to figure out a way strategically to get them back and creating this fear factor about what's going on at our southern border is just one of the ways that they'll do that.

JENNINGS: He's not creating the fear. The fear is being created by the circumstances. We do have a crisis at the southern border. People have been murdered. They have been raped. They have been kidnapped. And so the fear comes from the actual news. If Donald Trump wants to talk -- I mean, if you were running a campaign against an incumbent who was overseeing this crisis, you'd do the same thing.

ACOSTA: Nobody is denying there's a problem at the border. The question is, after, you know, family separations and everything else we've seen during the Trump presidency, the Trump experience, they're talking about deportation camps in this country, fight clubs. I mean, come on? At what point does your side say enough is enough on that kind of rhetoric? It's dehumanizing.

JENNINGS: At what point are the Republicans going to stop drawing attention to what they think is Joe Biden's biggest failure?

ACOSTA: So, you're, you're okay with this? You're all right with it, migrant fight clubs?

JENNINGS: This is not a serious -- he's clearly joking at these rallies, but he's drawing attention to something that's no laughing matter, and that's the violence being committed against a number of people.

ROCHA: I think he's supposed to bring, a solution, right, instead of talking about a fight club or something that is so degrading like that, let's talk about a solution. Figure out what's going on at the border, like Joe Biden has done, is saying, if so many immigrants are coming in per day, we will shut the border down. That's what Joe Biden said. But he also said that we can help -- just last week, he said, if you're married, I'm going to make it to a U.S. citizens. Let's make you a citizen. These are solutions. People won't answer to solutions, not rhetoric of fight clubs. What are we going to do?

ACOSTA: All right, guys. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Thank you.

We're just three days away from the first presidential debate of the year hosted by CNN. Don't miss President Joe Biden for President Donald Trump going head to head this Thursday, June 27th at 9:00 P.M. right here on CNN.

Coming up reproductive rights as a rallying cry, the nationwide push from the Biden campaign to today, exactly two years after Roe versus Wade was overturned. That's next.

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[10:15:00] ACOSTA: Today marks two years since the conservatives on the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade. The topic of abortion remains a key issue in the nation's political debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not unexpected, but it's terrifying. It is devastating and heartbreaking, and it makes me scared to be a woman in this world, especially as I'm coming of age.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no reason, good reason for abortion. It kills my people, and it's ready for it to be over. It's so old fashioned and human sacrifice, killing our babies, it just needs to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Biden campaign holding nationwide rallies today on the two- year anniversary of the landmark decision and releasing a new abortion rights ad. Here's part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was right around 11 weeks when I had a miscarriage. The pain that I was feeling was excruciating. I was turned away from two emergency rooms. That was a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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ACOSTA: According to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute, 16 states have total or near total of bans on abortion.

Now, CNN's Arlette Saenz is live at the White House for us. Arlette, what's the Biden campaign saying about all this?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the Biden campaign is engaging in a full court press today to try to warn about how abortion rights remains under attack in this country. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to speak in Maryland and Arizona a bit later today, with that first event coming in just about two hours.

And we've just received some excerpts from her expected remarks, where she will blame former President Donald Trump for the repeal of Roe versus Wade. She will say in these remarks, quote, In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty.

Harris also talked about the stakes of this upcoming election when it pertains to abortion rights in an interview that aired earlier today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Everything is at stake. And fundamentally on this issue, it's about freedom. And every person of whatever gender should understand that if such a fundamental freedom such as the right to make decisions about your own body can be taken, be aware of what other freedoms may be at stake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now the campaign is also trying to use this an organizing moment. They've hosted, they're hosting around 50 events specifically tied to the two-year anniversary of that Supreme Court ruling, which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. Now, it all comes as Biden's advisers have long argued that they believe abortion rights can be a galvanizing issue for voters heading into November's election, and that is the contrast that President Biden is hoping to drive in his debate against Trump as the two men prepare to face off for the first time since 2020 on Thursday.

ACOSTA: Arlette Saenz, thank you very much, live at the White House for us.

Coming up, Donald Trump staring down another potential gag order this time in the classified documents case, but will prosecutors get their way?

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ACOSTA: Right now in South Florida, the first of two back-to-back hearings is underway in Donald Trump's classified documents case. Judge Aileen Cannon is hearing the Trump team's request to toss the case as his lawyers continue to go after Special Counsel Jack Smith. In the meantime, prosecutors are asking for a gag order for Trump, arguing his rhetoric could endanger the lives of the FBI agents working on this case.

CNN's Evan Perez is outside the courthouse this morning. Evan, what are some of the -- I guess some of the examples that prosecutors are pointing to, where do things stand?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, right now, we have the second part of this hearing that began on Friday, really, the special counsel and whether the special counsel was lawfully appointed. That was part one. And now part two is an effort by Trump and his lawyers to say that Jack Smith, the special counsel, that the funding for it was not legally authorized. And so those are two long shot efforts to try to get this case dismissed by attacking the legality of the special counsel.

Mind you, as you and I have spoken about, you know, a lot of defendants have tried this to try to claim that special counsels are not lawfully appointed or illegally funded and they've all fallen flat on their face, but Judge Cannon has given this a lot, a lot more airing than certainly other judges have done. And so we expect, though, that this is going to roll into this afternoon and some of the comments that the former president has been making, which the special counsel says warrant a change in his release orders, essentially that, you know, the judge should impose a gag order on him and what he can say about that search of Mar-a-Lago back in 2022. They say that some of the rhetoric (ph) language, including stuff that that they say that he points out that he was his life was in danger on the day of that search, he wasn't even here that day, that that kind of thing really goes against having a proper trial.

And so we'll see Judge Cannon will convene that this afternoon, Jim. And then tomorrow, we have another hearing on them trying to toss some of the evidence.

ACOSTA: Yes. I was going to say, Evan, what what's in store for tomorrow?

PEREZ: So, tomorrow, they are seeking to have some of the evidence that was collected under the search to be tossed out. And that includes, they say, some of the things that have since been part of this investigation, including comments from the former president's own lawyers. They also say there's attorney-client privilege material that was collected as part of that search. All of that, they say, needs to be tossed. That's going to go all day tomorrow, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Evan Perez in Florida for us, Evan, thank you so much.

Coming up four years after their first face off, how Joe Biden and Donald Trump might handle critical questions on national security and foreign policy. That's coming up.

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