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Biden Advisers Reject Calls for Him to Drop Out, No Basis for That; Trump Repeats Lies About 2020 Election During Debate; Today, Trump Hits Campaign Trail in Virginia After Debate. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 28, 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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[10:00:00]

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

We begin this hour with the breaking news. President Biden's advisers are rejecting calls for the presumptive Democratic nominee to drop out after his disastrous debate performance, saying, quote, there's no basis for that. Back in 2020, the president at that time, or former president -- I should say the then-vice president at that time, said he would be a bridge to a new generation of Democratic leaders. That bridge crumbled last night.

Now, the question is whether Biden can rebuild it. The 81-year-old president stumbled and stammered through much of the primetime debate on CNN. All you have to do is read some of these headlines to see how his performance has raised serious new doubts if he can remain the Democrats nominee. Biden is toast, read one, fumbling performance and time to go, Joe, to name a few.

The top Democrat in the House says Biden should not step down and an adviser tells that the president plans to debate again in September. But make no mistake, last night was filled with cringe-worthy moments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: We'd be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do, child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID -- excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with what -- if we finally beat Medicare.

There's a lot of young women to be raped by their in-laws, by their spouses, brothers and sisters, by just -- it's just ridiculous. And they can do nothing about it. And they try to arrest them on the cross state line.

And I'm going to continue to move until we get the total ban on the total initiative relative to what we're going to do with more border patrol and more asylum officers. JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump?

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either.

He's become like a Palestinian, but they don't like him because he's a very bad Palestinian. He's a weak one.

But when he talks about a convicted felon, his son is a convicted felon at a very high level. His son is convicted, going to be convicted probably numerous other times, should have been convicted before.

JOE BIDEN: You have the morals of an alley cat.

TAPPER: Give you a minute, sir.

TRUMP: I didn't have sex with a porn star.

JOE BIDEN: So there's more to be done, considerably more to be done, but we've done a great deal so far, and I'm not letting up and they know it.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: You have 49 seconds left. What do you say to black voters who are disappointed with the progress so far?

JOE BIDEN: I say I don't blame them for being disappointed.

BASH: That voters have about you. Will you pledge tonight that once all legal challenges have been exhausted, that you will accept the results of this election regardless of who wins and you will say right now that political violence in any form is unacceptable?

TRUMP: Well, I shouldn't have to say that, but, of course, I believe that. It's totally unacceptable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: A CNN instant poll found that two out of three people who watched the debate declared Donald Trump the winner. Even more alarming for Democrats, 57 percent of debate viewers said they had no confidence in Biden's ability to lead the country. And yet the debate was also a reminder that the former president is often detached from reality. Trump spent much of the night repeating false claims and debunked lies on issues ranging from January 6th, to abortion, to foreign policy.

And CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now. Priscilla, how is the Biden campaign and surrogates reacting this morning? I mean, they're making it pretty clear, it sounds like he's not dropping out.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: They are absolutely maintaining that he is going to stay in the race. Not only that, but that he is committed to still attending and debating in September. But what they also acknowledge is that it was a lackluster performance by the president at a critical juncture. This is something -- this comes at a time where voters have repeatedly expressed concern about his age and they wanted a forceful performance. He spent days in Camp David preparing for this. But now given, the performance that we saw last night, they are trying to move on and they will be doing so on the campaign trail today.

But in the immediate aftermath, they were really trying to underscore the stark difference between the two candidates here and trying to put the focus specifically on President Biden's record. And the vice president said it quite bluntly. She said it was a slow start, but then she argued it was a strong finish. And that is some of what we're hearing from surrogates this morning, including Campaign co-Chair Mitch Landrieu. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH LANDRIEU, NATIONAL CO-CHAIR, BIDEN CAMPAIGN: The president might have lost the debate on style, but he won it on facts, he won it on decency, and he won it on the ideas that people think are important in the country.

[10:05:02]

I don't think that you can color the debate as a great time for President Biden. I think he had a rough time last night. There's no question about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, Biden advisers say that they are frustrated that they also were put in a fact-checking position and that President Biden had to play that role over the course of the debate, given Trump's multiple falsehoods.

But still, the image was quite grim, according to Democrats. The panic has set in. I was texting with allies last night that even on immigration, they knew former President Donald Trump was going to slam President Biden on that, he still couldn't give that tight message that they were really hoping that he would be able to deliver.

ACOSTA: Yes, I was hearing much of the same from my Democratic sources last night. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much for that. Let's get more on all of this with CNN Political Commentator and Democratic Strategist Paul Begala. He helped prepare Bill Clinton and Al Gore for their debates. Paul, I spoke with two Democratic members of the House after the debate. One privately told me that the president quote, got destroyed. The other said there is donor pressure coming for the president. Do you think that's an overreaction to what was on stage last night in terms of the president's performance? How bad is this for the president? What do you think?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I'm sorry to smile and it's not funny, but it's an understatement, Jim. You got to see what they're saying to me. It was a catastrophe for Joe Biden. And I'm for him, okay, but I don't work for him. I work for CNN and I owe you the truth. And the truth is, it was a catastrophe. And so what do you do? I've been there. Not like this. We've never seen a performance this bad. The one close was when Ronald Reagan in 1984 sort of lost his train of thought and literally started wandering up the Pacific Coast Highway, talking about a trip up there. He recovered in the next debate. The Republicans hung very strong with him. Is this like that? Is this like -- look, Trump, by the way, lost the first debate against Hillary by even more than Joe lost last night, even more. And it was a one point race Trump wound up winning. So, that's sort of the positive scenario.

But this is what they've got to do. The first thing you've got to do is what the military calls a bomb damage assessment, right? It was a bomb. How badly is the president damaged? How badly is the -- I mean, seriously, how's his first lady? How's the vice president? But then you've got to do a threat assessment. And here's what to look for. It'll start with columnists. Tom Friedman of The New York Times is already saying that, that President Biden should step aside and let someone else run. Then look at donors, as you note. The president's doing a bunch of fundraisers. He's got one coming up in the Hamptons. There are a lot of rich liberals there. Are they going to stick by him or are they going to come with pitchforks?

But then, the red state Democrats, their butts are on the line as much as Joe Biden's. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Jon Tester, Senator Tester from Montana, Senator Casey from Pennsylvania, Elissa Slotkin, a congresswoman from Michigan running for the Senate there, Ruben Gallego, Democratic congressman from Arizona. They've got as much at stake in their own careers as Joe Biden does. So, I'm going to look at all of those folks and see where they are.

ACOSTA: Yes. And what do you think? I mean, should party leaders be having discussions with the vice president, with Gavin Newsom of California, with Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, about having some kind of an open convention? And do you think the president should consider stepping aside?

BEGALA: I think he's got to listen to all those people. He really does. I mean, it doesn't matter what I think. Parties exist to win. That's why they exist. They're not a family. They're not a religion. They exist for one reason, to win. And if those red state Democrats don't believe that Biden can help them win, they're going to speak up. Now, nobody wants to. It certainly hasn't happened yet, but that's what you look for.

And that's why this, I think, is very different. You know, 2012, I was with a super PAC, but I was helping the Obama re-election. And, oh my gosh, Mitt Romney destroyed him in that first debate in Denver, just destroyed him. Nobody, nobody said, gee, Barack's not up to it. I mean, even to utter the sentence is preposterous, right? Everybody knows Barack Obama. It's like superhuman talent. He had a bad night. He recovered.

And I think that's kind of what the Biden people are going to be saying. It's like, look, everybody loses their first debate, half in a Reagan, half in a Barack, we're going to be fine. But you can tell Democrats think this is something more existential. ACOSTA: And Paul I want to show you and our viewers how the president and his allies responded to last night's performance. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Mr. President, how do you think you performed tonight?

JOE BIDEN: I think I did well.

REPORTER: Do you have any concerns about your performance?

JOE BIDEN: No. I think it's hard to debate a liar.

JILL BIDEN, U.S. FIRST LADY: You did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish.

On substance, on policy, on performance, Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong. And that cannot be debated.

[10:10:00]

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I will never turn my back on President Biden, never turn my back on President Biden. And I don't know a Democrat in my party that would do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Paul, I mean, obviously on a, after a bad debate performance Democrats like the vice president, Governor Newsom, they're going to rally behind the president. They're not going to throw him under the bus right away. But I do wonder, Paul, as folks process what we saw last night and absorb it, do you think we will see some Democratic lawmakers, governors coming forward, or is the president going to have his way here and stay in this race?

BEGALA: I literally have no idea, Jim. I really don't. Here's the risk. Okay, if any of them called me, I'd say, look, the first politician, the first Democratic politician to call on Biden to step down, it's going to end their career, right? They may be right in the eyes of a lot of Democrats, but if you're the first one through the door, you're going to get shot.

And I think they all know that. I mean, look, there's a dozen governors in my party. I think it could be very strong candidates, maybe not a dozen, maybe half a dozen, at least. None of them are going to say, hey, let me step forward and knife Julius Caesar, right. It's just like not -- Biden is a beloved man in the Democratic Party. He spent his whole life in there. He delivered us from Donald Trump. He's beloved. So, it's a really, really difficult move for anybody who thinks they might want to replace him.

And, by the way, millions and millions of Democrats have already voted. They voted for Joe to be their nominee. So, it's just a hell of a conundrum. It really is.

ACOSTA: And, Paul, I mean, a lot of Democrats are alarmed this morning that Trump was able to get away with so many lies last night. He said his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6th are, quote, so innocent. And here's how he attempted to frame the insurrection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you say to voters who believe that you violated that oath through your actions and inaction on January 6th and worry that you'll do it again?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think too many believe that. And let me tell you about January 6th. On January 6th, we had a great border, nobody coming through, very few.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: President Biden also made some misleading claims last night, not nearly as many as Donald Trump. That's just the way the fact-check analysis came down. But, Paul, the president clearly missed opportunity after opportunity to fact-check the record and correct Donald Trump on his lies. There were some there were some moments, no question about it, but he missed a lot of opportunities as well.

BEGALA: You know, if I were coaching him, I would have told him, don't be the fact-checker, because the voters you need don't care. But what he needed to do and failed to do is much more important is tell the audience, I'm in this for you, he's in this for himself. To me, that's the defining distinction of this race. Is it Trump? And, again, I'm not for him. I don't like him. So, maybe I'm not being fair, but he strikes me as somewhat self-absorbed, Jim.

So, you could tell a lot of people, people in the middle, this guy's in it for himself, I'm in it for you. Biden did not do that. The only good news for Biden in this is that Trump really was terrible. He lied. He was defensive. He couldn't close the deal. Like when you have your opponent like melting down the way Biden did, Trump should have been, he can't do this. He's not capable. It's like me saying I should run the 100-meter dash in the Olympics, but he should have been distinguished. He should have been a statesman-like, he should have been calm and truthful, and he'd be ten points ahead this morning.

ACOSTA: Was he over prepared? Was that a mistake to have him hold up at Camp David and pump them full of talking points and so on? And, I mean, he came out -- my recollection from last night watching is that he was trying to rattle off statistics. He was trying to rattle off talking points. And it almost seemed as though he was trying to do too much.

BEGALA: Yes, they always do that to presidents in their first debates. Again, that's what happened to Barack Obama. I talked to somebody who prepared Obama for those debates last night. And he said, not only did we have all the facts, but Obama was so offended that Romney was lying because presidents aren't treated like that. So, that's a risk. Bill Clinton, I'm sorry to brag on my boss, he's the only incumbent president who won his first debate. Why? When we prepped him, and I was there, we didn't fill his head with too many facts. God knows he already had all the facts. We tried to prepare him for the pummeling Bob Dole was going to get. Bob Dole was a great debater. So, we got George Mitchell, the Democratic leader of the Senate, who knew Dole better than anybody. And Mitchell, Jim Mitchell shredded Bill Clinton. And Clinton's talented. He shredded and he destroyed him. Finally, Clinton was yelling at him. That's what they needed to do.

I don't blame the prep. I think I think the president wasn't feeling well. I think you're probably right that he had a cold, but his voice was shot and his manner was meandering and it was a catastrophe.

ACOSTA: Paul Begala, thanks so much. I appreciate the time.

We're also breaking -- following breaking news from the Supreme Court. The court is issuing opinions right now. We're watching and waiting for two major decisions on Donald Trump's immunity claims and on the January 6th obstruction charges that are also at issue.

[10:15:05]

We'll get into developments to you as they come in.

But, first, back to our top story. While the president stumbled, the former president lied over and over again. We're fact-checking the falsehoods next.

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ACOSTA: Off the debate stage and back on the campaign trail, Donald Trump set to hold a rally today with his supporters in Virginia. The Republican governor there, Glenn Youngkin, is also expected to be on hand.

And CNN's Alayna Treene is in Sterling, Virginia, where the former president is staying at his golf club. Alayna what's the reaction and how is the Trump campaign going to try to keep this momentum going?

[10:20:00]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, part of the way they're going to try to keep it going is with that rally later today. It's actually a few hours from where we are now. Donald Trump is currently in this club behind me, but then he will travel to Chesapeake, Virginia, later today for a 3:00 P.M. rally. And, look, when I talked to Donald Trump's campaign advisers, they said you can absolutely expect him to take a victory lap tonight.

We've also seen them fundraising heavily off of last night's debate and Trump's performance. And, really, this is reflective of how Donald Trump's team is feeling. They are very happy with how the debate went, including with Trump's performance.

And there's a few things I want to break down for you about that, Jim. One is that they weren't entirely sure of how last night would go. I know walking into the debate and entering Atlanta yesterday, they were nervous about a couple things. One, they had anticipated that Joe Biden would be a much stronger debater than what they saw last night.

They also weren't sure if Donald Trump would actually take their advice, which was to stay more reserved, to try to come off presidential, to not delve too heavily into personal attacks. They were concerned that maybe he would go rogue and go on one of his rants that we've seen him give many times on the campaign trail. But he didn't do that. For the most part, he did stay pretty reserved, especially I know you and I have both covered Donald Trump for many years. I thought it was a notable difference in how he held himself last night.

The other thing that they have been relishing really is the Democratic reaction to Joe Biden's performance. They have been watching very closely how people in Joe Biden's own party have been responding on social media, on the news, and they've been -- Trump's team has been sharing that reaction as well.

And then the third part about this that I found really interesting is that some of the reporting I had before the debate yesterday was that Donald Trump's team, more than substance, really, was prioritizing the optics, prioritizing how Donald Trump appeared the facial expressions that he would be giving, and they thought he did very well with that as well. And so I think, again, they're just very happy on this.

I do want to point out though, of course, if you do look at the substance, Donald Trump lied repeatedly during the debate. He lied about his role on January 6th. He lied about immigration. And so I think those are all things that we have to kind of wait and see how voters actually respond to that, how that debate is resonating with them a week or so from now. Because this is definitely, as we've all been saying, going to be a very important footnote as we look ahead to November.

ACOSTA: All right. Alayna Treene in Sterling, Virginia, thanks so much.

At least one lie for every three minutes, according to a CNN analysis, Donald Trump made more than 30 false claims during last night's 90- minute debate. To name just a few, Democrats, he said, are killing babies after birth. There was no terror during his administration, he said. His tax cuts, he added, were the largest in history. And Nancy Pelosi, he also claimed, was in charge of January 6th's Capitol security. Those are all blatant lies. And as often he does, Trump pushed perhaps the largest, most egregious lie of all, that there was massive voter fraud in the 2020 election. We should note CNN has calculated nine false or misleading claims for President Biden, obviously outweighed by the former president.

Let's discuss with Bryan Lanza. He was deputy communications director for Trump's 2016 campaign. And, Brian, I mean, the president sort of let Donald Trump off the hook last night with a shaky performance because Trump, over and over again, he was lying, he was pushing these widely debunked conspiracy theories. Why does he keep doing that? BRYAN LANZA, FORMER SENIOR TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE: Listen, I wouldn't say Joe Biden let Donald Trump off the hook at all last night. I think what we saw last night was the mental deterioration of Joe Biden. And we can talk about, you know, Donald Trump said this, we can talk about, you know, Joe Biden's lie here. But what the American public saw was a president who just doesn't have the cognitive fitness to be president. And we'll have a conversation in next month, you know, whether the 25th amendment is exercised, where the Democratic Party tries to find a new candidate.

I think Joe Biden should be on the ballot through November. I don't think they shouldn't be allowed to switch candidates at this point. They voted. They want him there. We're running. We spent resources. It feels cheating to try to change it at this point.

ACOSTA: Well, you don't want that to happen because you want your candidate to win, obviously. But, I mean, let me ask you about --

LANZA: I want the American public to be in a better position tomorrow than they are today.

ACOSTA: But let me ask you about some of these -- let me ask you, why does Trump keep saying that Democrats want to execute babies after birth? That's a lie. It's not true.

LANZA: I think what you have to do is you have to sort of have the conversation with the campaign to see where they lie. I think the most important thing that I walked away from the abortion conversation last night was that President Trump was proud of nominating Supreme Court justices who did overturn Roe v. Wade and returned it to the states, which is where the American public has wanted it for a significant amount of time.

Now, sure, CNN can sort of cover, or MSNBC and Atlas can try to sort of focus on the lies.

ACOSTA: Don't go -- don't talk about the press. Come on. He's lying over and over again. No, Bryan, he said that January 6th defendants are, quote, so innocent.

LANZA: Correct.

ACOSTA: These are people who are criminals.

LANZA: And what did voters decide on that?

ACOSTA: They stormed the Capitol.

[10:25:00]

They broke the law. That would have never happened had Donald Trump just accepted the results of the 2020 election, and you know that.

LANZA: Sure. But what if voters decided on that? The voters decided that is not their priority when they're voting this election. They're deciding -- ACOSTA: Republican voters decide it.

LANZA: Sure. And he's winning independent voters and he's winning the general election in these swing states. So, all voters at this particular point made a decision that January 6th is not relevant to their lives. They're saying inflation is relevant to their lives. They're saying immigration is relevant to their lives. They're saying two wars are relevant to their lives with a third one about to start.

I get it that the media wants to give cover to Joe Biden and focus about the past, but the future is green.

ACOSTA: The media wants to give cover to Joe Biden? Everybody is reporting, we just went through all the headlines and all the major newspapers, all the networks are all saying that the president had a shaky debate performance last night.

LANZA: And you want to focus on January 6th. The voters aren't focusing on January 6th.

ACOSTA: We're focusing on what Donald Trump said last night because he lied repeatedly over and over again. And the president went after Trump at one point on his character. Let's listen to that because I think that's an important part of this too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN: How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for molesting a woman in public, for doing a whole range of things, of having sex with a porn star on the night while your wife was pregnant? I mean, what are you talking about? You have the morals of an alley cat.

TAPPER: I give you a minute, sir.

TRUMP: I didn't have sex with a porn star.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Does anybody believe that?

LANZA: Listen, what everybody believes is that the economy today, inflation is ruining their lives. And so sort of focusing -- I think that's the problem that Joe Biden and his campaign have, is they can't focus on their accomplishments of the past that address immigration, that address inflation, that address the wars. They have to focus on these other things.

And so going forward, Jim, you tell me what's better for the country? Having a conversation about January 6th or having a conversation about immigration and inflation? The voters are making that choice.

ACOSTA: Well, I mean, accepting election results is awfully important.

LANZA: Listen, I encourage Joe Biden to keep talking -- ACOSTA: I mean, and the former president last night did not accept the election results.

LANZA: (INAUDIBLE) under a second President Trump term, and we both know it today.

ACOSTA: But let me ask you this, if Joe Biden is somehow not on the ticket, the Trump campaign is worried.

LANZA: Joe Biden.

ACOSTA: They're worried if there's another candidate that rises up and becomes the Democratic nominee?

LANZA: No. listen, if Joe Biden were to step down, it's clearly going to be Kamala Harris. We're not worried about Kamala Harris. In fact, that's what the voters need to understand. This performance last --

ACOSTA: Can Trump beat Gavin Newsom? Gavin Newsom's not the candidate. He's in a -- it's not about Gavin. The next candidate, if Joe Biden were to drop out, is going to be Kamala Harris. And the voters have made the decision that they trust President Trump far more than Kamala Harris.

ACOSTA: All right. Bryan Lanza, thanks for coming in. I appreciate it.

Coming up, voters weigh in on both candidates' performance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, I'm tired of both of them because they just keep going back and forth, back and forth. We just need to get some younger people in there.

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