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New CNN Poll Of Polls: Razor-Thin Margin Between Trump, Biden; Sources: Biden Prepared For Trump To Attack His Family; Biden Team's Debate Prep Ethos: Leave Nothing To Chance. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired June 27, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: They'd changed potentially the 2024 election.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it certainly will set the tone for the remainder of the campaign. Yes, the two candidates are the same, but the issues are so much different. So, this is not a rerun of the last debates we saw four years ago.

Of course, both candidates are significantly different in their own right. President Biden is 81 years old. Donald Trump is 78 years old. They would be the oldest president ever.

But how this could change the rest of the campaign is certainly significant. Voters really have been watching this race with a good degree of reluctance. There's an exhaustion out there in America with the choices they have.

But this debate tonight will frame these choices very succinctly. And Election Day is four and a half months away. The voting will begin in less than four months in some states.

So regardless of all the changes in this campaign, we've seen a war in the Middle East. We've seen guilty convictions for the former president. Nothing has really changed the out -- the trajectory of this race. Tonight's debate, when they come face to face certainly will bring it all into stark relief. And it could have an effect on the next chapter of this race to come, Wolf. it

BLITZER: Yes, it certainly could. Jeff Zeleny here at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta. Jeff, thank you very much.

I want to get to CNN's Sara Sidner right now. She's inside the debate hall where history will unfold later tonight. Set the scene for us, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR & SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is where history will be made tonight. For a couple of reasons, actually. Actually, more than two.

One of them is, as you have noted, that there's president and former president for the first time in American history are going to be debating one another to try to win their seats again. And secondly, this is the earliest that voters have ever seen a presidential debate in U.S. political history. Now, I want to give you some sense of what the debaters, these candidates, are going to be experiencing.

So, I'd like to turn back here you will see there is where our moderators will be who you know very well, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. They'll be sitting there asking the questions. The candidates will be sitting here -- standing here.

They are not allowed to sit. They are not allowed to bring notes with them. They are not allowed to talk to anyone in their campaign, even though another first there will be a couple of commercial breaks for them to sort of stop for a second and try to get their thoughts together.

What they will have is a notepad and a pen, and they will be timed very specifically. And here are their cues. I'm going to have Andy show you where they will be looking.

Those cameras that you see over there will have lights on them. When the light is flashing yellow, it means that they have just 15 seconds to answer the question. It will then flash red, that means five seconds. And then after that, when that red light stays still, they will have their microphones put on mute. They have to stop talking.

I do want to give you some sense, though, of what this room is going to be like. Because as you turn and look at the space here, this grand space, there is one thing you'll notice that you don't see seats. Because there will be no audience for the first time in a very, very, very long time. No audience in the room. Looks to have a real effect.

And lastly, Wolf, and this is important. These two men have not been in the same room with each other. Never mind near each other since 2020 during another debate. They are so close that if they spread their arms out, they could touch one another just eight feet apart. They will definitely be feeling the heat as they stand there listening to one another's answers to the questions and then rebutting them. Wolf?

BLITZER: I mean, I'm going to be curious, Sara, if we actually see these two presidential candidates shaking hands, either before the debate starts, or after the debate ends. I think that will be important if the even shaking. And if they do shake hands, I'm curious who's going to initiate the handshake at this debate if that happened.

Sara Sidner, excellent explanation. Thank you very much.

SIDNER: Yes.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, stay with CNN. It's debate night here in Atlanta. Much more of our special coverage right ahead. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[11:38:43] BLITZER: While the candidates still have hours before they come face to face on the CNN debate stage later tonight, their campaigns are already lobbying searing attacks. This morning, for example, the Democratic National Committee is out in force here in Atlanta with a series of billboards attacking Trump over his criminal record. And take a look at this. Here's a mobile billboard that's on the streets of Atlanta throughout this day.

CNN's Kayla Tausche has all the details on the president's media blitz and final preparations that are underway right now. Kayla, what are you learning?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the Biden campaign is leaving no stone unturned. If you drive up Highway 85, which is the main north-south artery that goes through the heart of Atlanta, you will see a ton of billboards that say Go Joe and then other billboards that are attacking Donald Trump. Clearly, they want to blanket not just the airwaves but the roadsides as well.

There's also a $50 million television ad campaign that's running specifically in battleground states. They're trying to go after what one of the campaign co-chairs Jen O'Malley Dillon says is the sixth and sixth. The six percent of voters who are going to decide the election in the six states that are the most critical.

And you can bet, Wolf, that that is a subset of the electorate that President Biden is going to speak directly to tonight. We've learned that one of the methods that he plans to employ is a tried-and-true tactic of his where he speaks directly to the camera. Attempting to bypass the moderators and his opponent. To step right into the voter's living room.

[11:40:11]

It's a tactic that he employed in 2020. And sources say that his favorability in focus groups in what campaigns called dial testing were off the charts when he did that. And so, a lot of sources expect him to do that early and often in tonight's conversation. Especially to try to reengage an electorate that has been largely tuned out and to a certain extent, disillusioned.

President Biden is also expected to highlight in a big way, the January 6 riot at the Capitol and to frame it as an era-defining moment. Not unlike 911 or the 2008 financial crisis, that he is expected to argue that voters will have to make a very clear decision, a galvanizing moment, a watershed moment. And that's one of the key messages we expect to hear from the president tonight, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. Kayla Tausche, here with us at CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

Also, today the Trump campaign is launching ads taking direct aim at President Biden's mental fitness and his record. CNN's Alayna Treene is live in the CNN debate spin room for us. So, Alayna, what is the Trump campaign telling you about the debate rules, for example, later tonight? ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, look, it's actually been really interesting, Wolf. Because at first, they were a little bit wary about the new debate rules and the formatting. We know that they had taken issue at first with the idea that the microphones could be shut off when the candidates a lot of time was up, and also that there is no live audience.

However, it's been really interesting because, in recent days, they're changing their tune a little bit and arguing that it actually may be more beneficial to have the mics be able to be turned off and have no audience into that studio. That's because if you look back at 2020 during the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Trump was very aggressive. He repeatedly interrupted Joe Biden. He at times didn't let him get a word in. And that actually led him to fall in the polls after that.

It's something Trump himself acknowledged in a rather candid interview earlier this week. And so, his advisors have been telling me, look, perhaps having the mic shut off and also no audience so that he can't feed off the crowd. We know that Trump loves to take cues from the audience. Given that they won't have that either, they do believe that he'll be able to stay on message more.

Now. I also want to just turn your attention to that ad that you mentioned. What I find really notable about this is we haven't seen the Trump campaign really put out any ads themselves on TV yet or really, since Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee. I do want you to just take a listen to what one of these ads had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you think about the Joe Biden you saw on the debate, ask yourself a question. Do you think the guy who was defeated by the stairs, got taken down by his bike, lost a fight with his jacket, and regularly gets lost makes it four more years on the White House? And you know who's waiting behind it, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Wolf, what I do find interesting about this ad is it's actually quite different on messaging than what the Trump campaign has actually been trying to do for the last week or so. They've actually been trying to argue that they think Biden will be a strong debater tonight, that he will potentially come in jacked up, as Donald Trump has been saying, something that is alluded to, and has no evidence of Donald -- of Biden taking performance-enhancing drugs.

However, this ad clearly kind of sticking more with the rhetoric they've used over the past year or so trying to paint the president as senile. So, I think it'd be interesting to see Donald Trump's own language on that this evening. Wolf?

BLITZER: Alayna Treene in the spin room here at the CNN world headquarters. That's where the two campaign surrogates are going to be showing up after tonight's debate to tell the media how great their respective candidate did during the course of the debate. We'll be watching all of that unfold. Thank you very much, Alayna, for that.

Be sure to tune in later tonight for this truly historic presidential debate. 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN and on Max. And we'll be right back.

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[11:49:37]

BLITZER: In just a few hours, the current and former president will face off for the first time in nearly four years right here in Atlanta. Both candidates certainly have a lot to gain and potentially a lot to lose from tonight's historic showdown.

Let's discuss what's going on with CNN Political Commentators, Scott Jennings and Ashley Allison. To both of you, thanks very much for joining us. What do you think this is a huge moment right now?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's the biggest moment of the campaign. I think it's the biggest moment really in campaigns in the last maybe two or three decades, which is why everybody really ought to watch tonight. These two guys, you know, as Muhammad Ali once said, they don't get along. So, they're going to get it on. They don't like each other.

And right now, the campaign in my opinion for Joe Biden is teetering in the balance. The Gallup poll, he's got major problems. New York Times last night, major problems. Swing state polls, major problems.

The pressure is on the president to change the trajectory of this race. Can he do it? We'll find out.

BLITZER: What do you think?

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I agree. It's a big night for both candidates. Whether or not Joe Biden is able to show up and talk directly to the American people is the task before him. Whether Donald Trump can remain controlled, composed, history has not proven to be that.

That's a fact that might happen but tonight will be a surprise. We'll see. But I think tonight could be the trajectory -- the night that changes the trajectory of the campaign for some folks. Many people haven't even really been paying attention.

[11:50:02]

There wasn't a Democratic primary this year. So, Democratic voters have been watching the president's performance but not engaged in the electorate. Tonight is really when the campaign starts.

And maybe Donald Trump will break some news with the vice-presidential candidate, maybe not. But either way, what they say tonight will start to engage voters.

BLITZER: Do you think it's smart as there's been a lot of speculation that Trump may go after Biden's family, especially his son Hunter Biden during the course of the debate tonight?

JENNINGS: I don't --

BLITZER: Is that smart, do you think?

JENNINGS: I don't think it's a mover for voters. But if part of your tactic was to try to rile your opponent, get him off his game, get Joe Biden in an emotional state, I could see that. I mean, it could be a retort to when Joe Biden goes after him, you know, on his own legal issues. He could come back at him on Hunter.

I think the best ground to fight on for Trump is obviously the economy, inflation, and immigration. So, when given the choice, I think most Republicans would rather see him retreat to that ground all night long. If he does, he's going to have a good night.

BLITZER: Is it smart for Biden to go after Trump on the issue of all of the criminal charges that -- and the convictions?

ALLISON: Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's the fact that he has committed a crime and a jury of his peers have found him guilty. And it needs -- the American people need to constantly be reminded of that.

I agree. I don't think that Hunter Biden, if Donald Trump goes after Joe Biden is going to move voters. But that would give a spark in the current president to say, wait a minute, don't talk about my son.

And every time he's on an opportunity to reflect on his relationship with his son, it does move Americans. It's something that people can relate to. I have heard, though from the campaign to your point, Scott, about immigration is that they're not going to run from that issue. They're going to lay out the facts.

The reality is, is that border crossings are down lower now than they have been before the president took office because of the executive action that he took. And Donald -- called Donald Trump out on that stage. Say, you were the one that tanked the bill for politics. So, do you really want a solution, or you just want to play with the country again?

BLITZER: You know, we're all here in Atlanta. We've seen the DNC billboards --

JENNINGS: Yes.

BLITZER: You know, are up right now taking direct aim of Trump's criminal convictions. How's he -- how do you think Trump is going to react to that?

JENNINGS: I don't know. I don't think he gets here until like 5:30, I heard. And I don't know what he's actually going to see.

But I believe they know, and that the former president knows he's got the tiger by the tail. It's his race to lose right now. I doubt it billboards going to knock him off his game. BLITZER: You know, he did address the issue of his convictions yesterday's you know, Ashley, suggesting that black American voters can relate to him because he accuses the government of falsely going after him. And he says that black people can identify with that.

ALLISON: As the great Kendrick Lamar says, they're not like us. Donald Trump is not one of us. He -- we do not look at Donald Trump because of his criminal convictions and say, oh, that's why I like Donald Trump.

It's offensive to say that the reason why Black Americans may like Donald Trump is because of his criminal record. It paints us in a form of criminality. And I just -- I -- it's not going to happen. That's not why black voters will go for Donald Trump.

And I know, Scott, we talked about this all the time. I don't believe the polls. I talk to black people all the time. I'm not --

JENNINGS: Why is it -- why is it you always know what I'm going to say? In the New York Times poll, Donald Trump sitting this morning at 26 percent among African American voters. If he gets anywhere near that, this race is over. I mean, honestly, right?

ALLSION: He's not going to get near that.

JENNINGS: OK. We'll see.

BLITZER: Trump's surrogates are also suggesting, as you know. And Trump himself is suggesting that Biden's going to be on some sort of drug tonight to keep himself going. Is that a smart strategy for them to be making an accusation like that?

JENNINGS: I think it's all in jest. It's all part of the hype and entertainment leading up to the debate. I don't think anybody really believes that.

It's been -- it's kind of been a running joke on the right since the State of the Union when Joe Biden came out and was all animated in yelling at Congress. So, Republicans have been joking about this, but I don't think it's anything more than that.

ALLISON: But that's the problem, is that jokes often on the Republican's side somehow seem to become fact. And so -- and then they're misconstrued or they're clipped in misinformation -- in disinformation is pushed out. So, I mean, the president is not going to be on drugs.

He was not on drugs during the State of the Union. And it's unfair. And I just think it's just beneath the office, but that's Donald Trump for you.

BLITZER: Trump made similar charges against Hillary Clinton back in 2016 as you remember.

JENNINGS: Yes. I think it'd be part of the showmanship and the rhetoric around it all does go to something about the frame of the campaign, which is that Joe Biden, and in that case, Hillary Clinton maybe is not fit or could not hold the office for four more years. You saw the ad earlier. They're already foreshadowing that a vote for Biden is really just a vote for Kamala Harris.

I think they're trying to implant in people's minds. Do you really think he can make it and what are you really voting for? It's part of the -- part of the tactics.

ALLISON: You know, the one thing I'll say about that is that Republicans often pretend like they have the better policy solutions. But that's not what the Republicans -- but you don't. But that's not what the Republicans are actually arguing.

They're trying to go after Joe Biden and his age or his mental acuity. It's like, if you're so good on policy, speak about it, talk about it, but you all don't. You talk -- you do these underlying jabs at Kamala Harris like OK, so what if she is -- (INAUDIBLE)

BLITZER: All right.

JENNINGS: Yes.

[11:55:08]

BLITZER: We'll see if policy is the big issue tonight.

ALLISON: Yes.

BLITZER: We'll all be watching. Ashley and Scott. Guys, thank you very, very much.

And to our viewers. Thanks very much for joining us here in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Atlanta. I'll be back later today. 4:00 p.m. Eastern -- 4:00 p.m. Eastern as we count down to tonight's historic debate.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS" today with John King starts right after a short break.

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