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Biden's NATO News Conference Gets Mixed Response; Run the Numbers, Biden Dominating Discussion Post-Debate; Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) Meets With Biden. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 12, 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 are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin with President Biden sounding very much like a candidate staying in the race. The president will be back on the campaign trail today, this time in Michigan. It's one of a handful of battleground states key to a November victory. This comes after last night's solo news conference that ended with some mixed reviews for the president. He stumbled in some early moments, confusing his own vice president with his biggest political foe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president, because I think she's not qualified to be president. Let's start there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: But Biden also had some strong moments last night showing sharpness and command, like this condemnation of gun violence in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: More Children are killed by a bullet than any other cause of death, the United States of America. What the hell are we doing? What are we doing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Of course, the president probably wishes he could redo one very awkward moment yesterday when he was trying to introduce the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Take a listen to that. And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin. President Putin, he's going to beat President Putin. President Zelenskyy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: That's where we are this morning. 17 congressional Democrats are calling for the president to abandon his re-election bid, fearful he will lose to Donald Trump.

Let's now go to the White House and CNN's Kayla Tausche. Kayla, I mean, there are some fresh polls out just this morning showing Biden is hanging in this race with Donald Trump, despite that shaky debate performance. We'll see what the reviews are like coming in. After last night's performance, how's the president's team looking at all this?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you referenced some of those polls last night, Jim, when he was asked specifically about his vice president, Kamala Harris, and what he would think about reconsidering his candidacy if polls showed that she could beat Donald Trump. And he said, yes, he'd entertain it, but that he would only entertain it if his team also told him that polls showed that he couldn't win and then he whispered into the microphone and no poll is saying that. So, clearly, the president believes at this point that the data are on his side.

And the White House and the campaign, for their part, when I was in touch with officials in the last 12 hours or so, it's clear they're pleased. They're relieved. They feel like the president hit some of the marks that they had set out for him where he exhibited some personality. He went into substance on foreign policy. And he also hit back at his opponent, Donald Trump, in moments that he failed to highlight on the debate stage two weeks ago.

But they acknowledged that it is not going to end the questions or the conjecture or even some defections from some frontline candidates in the Democratic Party, and they expect that those will continue little by little over the coming days.

But President Biden himself also acknowledged that there remain real questions, legitimate questions about his health, raised by members of his party and members of the public. And he said that he needs to pace himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I think it's important that I lay fears by seeing -- let them see me out there. I just got to just pace myself a little more, pace myself.

I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time at the very end. I'm catching hell for my wife.

I'm surrounded by good docs. If they think there's a problem, I promise you, or even if they don't think there's a problem, they think I should have a neurological exam again, I'll do it.

No matter what I did, no one's going to be satisfied.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: Now, in talking to many senior Democratic strategists, operatives, and members and staff, they say that the president, yes, did better, in one's words, he did great, but they said it's still not enough to stem the mounting pressure.

[10:05:01]

The president's treading water, and he will be for a few days. He just needs to keep his head above, in the words of one, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Kayla, the president's back on the road today. Tell us about that.

TAUSCHE: Well, he's heading to battleground Michigan. He'll be holding a happy hour-esque event in Detroit later this evening. He'll be flanked by some elected officials there. But it's a critical visit for him, Jim, because even his campaign acknowledged yesterday in a memo that he has one path he 270 electoral votes, one path to victory, and that requires him to win Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

That is a very tall order, especially given that, according to CNN polling, Michigan currently leans Republican Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, suggested that it wouldn't hurt for the president to take a cognitive test. And Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, who is running herself, she's one of those swing district candidates, she will not be appearing with President Biden today. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right. Kayla Tausche at the White House, thanks so much.

New CNN reporting reveals private discussions between Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi about the future of the president's re-election campaign. The Democratic heavyweights have expressed concerns, we're told, about the president's chances of beating Donald Trump. Neither is sure what to do about it? CNN spoke to more than a dozen members of Congress and people in touch with Obama and Pelosi. Many of them said the end of Biden's candidacy now feels clear to them. Democrats had wanted the election to be a referendum on Trump. But over the past few weeks, it's been about Biden's political survival. But what did the polls say?

Let's bring in CNN senior data reporter Harry entered. I mean, Harry, you know, we just sort of tick through all of the -- going on inside the Democratic Party right now. But, I mean, if you -- out in the last couple of days. There's a new one out this morning from NPR and Marist shows the president ahead. So, I mean, I have to think people are wondering like what the heck is going on here.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: This will be the longest general election campaign in history if we pick out each individual poll and make it out to be something that was sent down from the high mountain top. That's why it's important to look at the average of polling.

Look, this is a close race. This but, yes, you point out that Marist College poll that had Biden up by two, although no clear leader on that, but the average of national polls since the debate do have Donald Trump ahead by three points. That's not 10 points. It's not 20 points. It's 3 points, but it's still something to be noted, right? He's still up by three percentage points at this particular time.

And I think there are a lot of Democrats, Jim, a lot of Democrats are saying, can we do something better if we pick Kamala Harris, right? Can we do something better? And you saw that graphic on the screen, if we can put it back up there. So, what you see here is essentially, you see that Harris versus Trump is a tie. Now, that's not significantly different from three points, but you know this. We've spoken about this over and over and over and over again.

ACOSTA: Let's do it again anyway.

ENTEN: Yes, let's do it again anyway. Elections in this country are won by the smallest of margins. So, if you could pick another candidate who could potentially do slightly better, I could see why a lot of Democratic donors and a lot of Democratic politicians might be willing to roll the dice and say maybe we should pass the torch on to the vice president.

ACOSTA: Yes. But, Harry, based on all of the -- I mean, the Biden campaign is calling it a freak out, but based on some of the hysteria that we've seen in Washington over the last couple of weeks, since the president's debate performance, one would think that Trump would be way out in front in these polls. And he's just not. He's just not.

ENTEN: He isn't. He isn't. He's not nationally. But I think the real question, Mr. Acosta, is this. We have received very limited data from those swing states. You know, it was mentioned a few minutes ago. We're talking Wisconsin. We're talking Pennsylvania. We're talking Michigan, which the Biden campaign acknowledges is really their only real path at this particular point.

And we know pre-debate, we know pre-debate that those states were leaning a little bit more Republican than the nation as a whole. Now that we've had some post-debate data that has shown that we've seen slight movement towards Trump nationally, does that funnel down to the swing states? If it does, don't be surprised if we see some of those key battleground state polls actually showing Trump up four or five in states that Joe Biden needs to win.

Of course, you can forget the Sun Belt, which Joe Biden won last time around Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, where Donald Trump was ahead by five, six points pre-debate.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Harry, you're absolutely right. If the swing state polls come back and show Trump out in front, that is going to start a fresh round of handwringing. There's no question about it. And what about Kamala Harris? You were just showing a panel a few moments ago that showed she's tied with Donald Trump and she's being floated as a possible replacement for President Biden. Do we know what the battleground show there? Do we have any sense of that?

ENTEN: We really don't at this particular point, but I think the real question and a lot of Democrats are asking themselves, politicians, is, is she acceptable to the Democratic electorate large? And what we know from recent polling is that most Democrats would be more than satisfied for her to be the nominee if in fact Biden dropped out of the race.

[10:10:04]

Look at that 77 percent, she's a broadly acceptable alternative.

So, I think there's this whole like fanciful idea, we'll have this crazy five week primary, you know, where all these different people will put their hats forward. Let's be real with our audience here, Mr. Acosta. If Joe Biden drops out of the race, it is very difficult to see anyone but Harris be the Democratic nominee.

ACOSTA: Fascinating. All right, Harry, we'll check back with you. We'll do this all over again and again and again.

ENTEN: Of course. Why the heck not? I love doing that.

ACOSTA: Why not? All right, thanks, Harry. I appreciate it.

A lot to discuss with my next guest, Democratic Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands. She joins us now. Congresswoman, I mean, the White House, the Biden campaign, they like what they saw last night. Obviously, they feel like the president may have righted the ship a little bit, but we do have 17 congressional Democrats coming out calling for him to step aside. The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jim Himes, has come out and said that the president should step aside. Your thoughts on the president's performance last night. What do you think? Do you think he has managed to live to fight another day?

REP. STACEY PLASKETT (D-VI): Well, I think what we saw last night was the Joe Biden that many of us see, which is an individual who can answer complex questions. You showed the gaffes but there were real substantive questions that the president answered in a manner that Trump could never answer. He could never speak with that complexity, and he could never speak with that truthfulness.

And while you are showing the defections that are occurring within the Democratic Party, remember, there are over 200 Democrats in Congress. And people are asking what's happening with the Congressional Black Caucus. Why does the Congressional Black Caucus support the president? And I can tell you why they've been supporting the president, and why we continue to support President Biden. It's because he has delivered on the promises that he said he was going to do.

He is the person who has done for our communities, for communities that have been forgotten, the things that he said he was going to do, whether it's reducing the wealth gap in black communities, giving $16 billion to HBCUs, increasing health care to black Americans in ways that Trump has not. And that's the pivotal issue that the media is not talking about.

ACOSTA: And I did want to ask you, Congresswoman, you were an impeachment manager after Trump's actions surrounding January 6th. I mean, we were talking to you a whole lot back in those days. You absolutely know the stakes in this upcoming election. You referenced the former president just a few moments ago. Do you believe you are taking a risk and sticking with President Biden when the polls show he does have a tough path to victory?

PLASKETT: Well, I don't think we're taking everything is a risk in life. Being a political individual is a risky game. You're putting yourself out for people. I think that we are with President Biden because he believes that he is up to the task. He's shown us that yesterday. And we know what the alternative is. Trump's Project 2025 is a detriment to all Americans, whether it's women related to their bodies, whether it's African-Americans related to history, repealing of healthcare, all of the things that are within Trump's Project 2025, the fact that the president, in his four years in office, lied 30, 000 times. And we see that that's accelerating. The first year he had six lies a day. His last year in office, it was 30 lies a day. And then at the debate, it was 30 lies (INAUDIBLE).

So, we believe that Americans, when they see the issues, they see what's at hand, they're going to vote for the Democratic candidate. And right now, that is Joe Biden and that is who we are going to be with.

ACOSTA: And I get that there's a lot of affection in the Democratic Party for the president, but there are folks in the party who are asking, why not Kamala Harris? Why not give the vice president a chance to be at the top of the ticket? You heard our data reporter, Harry Enten, showing a few moments ago that 77 percent of Democrats would be comfortable as the nominee. Why not give the vice president a chance?

PLASKETT: Well, because right now, our presidential nominee is Joseph R. Biden. And I have to say something about this. Black people are pragmatic. This constant notion of it's the affection we have for President Biden, I am worried about my future, the future of my five children, the future of this country, and I need to be pragmatic. And I know that Joseph have done the things that are necessary to make sure that there is a future for us all. And if the Democrats then decide, because President Biden himself decides to step down, that we will rally behind Kamala Harris, I'm going to do that.

But I have to say to those Democrats that are floating her name now, many of them are the same people who were saying several months ago that Kamala should be removed from the ticket because she's a drag on President Biden.

[10:15:10]

They need to buck up and do the work to make sure that Democrats pull all of us across the finish line in November.

ACOSTA: All right. Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, thanks very much for your time. We really appreciate it.

PLASKETT: Thank you. ACOSTA: All right. Let's discuss this more now with former Democratic Congressman Max Rose of New York and Georgia's former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan. Guys, thanks very much for, for being on.

GEOFF, let me start with you first. I mean, you recently endorsed the president. What about last night's press conference? Are you still on board with the president? Where do you stand right now?

FMR. GOV. GEOFF DUNCAN (R-GA): Well, you've got to give Joe Biden some credit. He's fighting hard. It took me back last night when I was watching that press conference to the tail end of my baseball career. Every time I got to go out to spring training, I was trying to prove something. And the truth was, I lost some of my fastball and one day I got called in the office and released and because I ran out of talent.

I think yesterday's performance was much better than the debate, but still fell way short of what America's expectations are, what a president should do and say, and how they should be able to be physically and mentally capable. It was hard to watch. And it is what it is.

I endorsed Joe Biden because I want -- the ends justify the means. I want to beat Donald Trump any possible way I can to get my Republican Party back. But I no longer think Joe Biden is able to beat Donald Trump. And I think Democrats are sitting in a moment in time where they can either do something normal and run the play they've got or they can do something special that history will be kind of them by electing somebody that can win the middle, win the left and beat Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: And just to follow up on that. I mean, is that Kamala Harris?

DUNCAN: To be determined, right? I'm not a Democrat, and I certainly don't get calls or text messages asking my opinion on what Democratic strategy is. If it is, they need to hurry up and get support behind her.

But I think everyone keeps talking about money, right? I'm not a campaign expert, but what I will tell you is I don't think money is going to be what beats somebody in this race. Name I.D. is going to be through the roof. Earned media is going to be through the roof. I think if they can go back to the well and find somebody that's willing to work hard and be honest about the border, be honest about inflation, be honest about national security, I think they've got a chance to win the hearts and minds of people like me who don't want to see Donald Trump train wreck this country, not only domestically, but internationally.

ACOSTA: Max, what do you think? I mean, a lot of folks were watching this news conference last night, and yet the president stumbled out of the gate. There's no question about it. He mixed up Putin and Zelenskyy, he shouldn't have done that. But then he went on for an hour and seemed to handle a lot of complicated foreign policy questions fairly well. Where are you on all of this? FMR. REP. MAX ROSE (D-NY): Yes, look, there's no doubt in my mind. Like Donald Trump could never have Pulled off Joe Biden's press conference yesterday. And it seems at this point, and this is particularly true amongst some Democrats, seems like they've already made up their mind, right? And they're saying, I can't unsee the debate. So, they're subjecting Joe Biden, to some ridiculous standard, that, quite frankly, I'm not sure who could meet on a consistent basis. And to those Democrats, I'd say, look, just pull the band aid off. Stop with this drip, drip, drip of one announcement one day, another announcement another day. It's malicious, and it doesn't do anything good for the party.

This is an opportunity. Yes, we talk about uniting. We say Joe Biden is the nominee. All of those are true. But it's also clear as day that Joe Biden's performance over the past few days has been worthy of him being the nominee. I think we all need to send a very clear message to his staff that there shouldn't be any type of cocoon placed around him. The guy has the capability to perform and we should let him do that.

ACOSTA: And, Geoff, I mean, Biden did compare his schedule these past couple of weeks with Donald Trump's. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: If you look at my schedule since I made that stupid mistake in the campaign, in the debate, I mean, my schedule has been full bore. I've done -- where's Trump been? Riding around in his golf cart, filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball? I mean, look, he's done virtually nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I mean, Geoff, if only the president had maybe used that line at the debate a couple of weeks ago you know, maybe he might be in a different place right now and had not had that gaffe that he was talking about, or all of those moments that he had in that debate. Is there a double standard in comparing these two?

DUNCAN: Well, the debate was the great reckoning, right? It just completely created a divide, and everybody keeps saying that this, you can't unsee or unhear what we saw during the debate.

[10:20:05]

And going back to my first point, I give Joe Biden a ton of credit. He's fighting hard. But I think all of us, at some point in our life have dealt with folks in these later stage issues that are going on, and they ebb and flow. They come and go. There's certain, there's better parts of the day than others.

The Joe Biden that I endorsed a few weeks ago, the Joe Biden that I talked to on the phone was not the Joe Biden that I saw show up at the debate. And I think that's really what America is coming to. And this is an impossible scenario for him. He has to keep proving himself, literally every reporter question, every press conference, every outing is going to be compared to, is it, is he okay?

ACOSTA: Well, I mean, Max, I mean, that's a question. I mean, he seems to be sort of doing that since the debate. And if you -- I mean, I want to put this back up on screen and ask you about it one more time, Max, this new poll that just came out this morning and, yes, polls change by day and you have to look at the average of polls and show them, but if we can show that new NPR/Marist poll, Max, I mean, it shows the president leading Donald Trump right now by a couple of percentage points. If you add the third party candidates and it's a little bit more of a mixed bag for the president. He's slightly behind. But in the average, Donald Trump is slightly head. You would think after that debate performance that Trump will be 10, 15 points ahead. It's just not the case. Biden is hanging in there.

ROSE: No, it's not. And, look, these polls are also lagging indicators. I suspect in a week you will see the polls tighten even more because they'll be illustrative of Joe Biden's far improved performance over the prior week. But you also have to applaud the president's resiliency. I mean, shoot, I wouldn't want George Clooney saying bad things about me, but the guy keeps on standing up and fighting. And I think that it's important to connect that to type of resiliency and fight he brings to the American people to irrespective of their party affiliation or where they live fighting on their behalf. That's what the guy has done for more than a half century. And I'm pretty confident that that's what he intends on to continue doing.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, Max and Geoff, great to talk to both of you. I really appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

DUNCAN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And still to come this hour, Donald Trump has yet to announce his pick for vice president. Oh, yes, there is that subplot going on as well, the RNC kickoff just days away. We'll talk about that in a few moments.

And if you're an AT&T cell phone customer, this is about you. Pay attention. A major data breach means your calls and texts may have been exposed. What you need to know. We'll talk about that ahead as well.

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[10:25:00]

ACOSTA: All right. Welcome back. We want to go out to Kayla Tausche over at the White House. A little bit of breaking news. Apparently the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, did meet with President Biden last night. And during that meeting, it sounds like, Kayla, the minority leader did express some of the concerns coming in from the Democratic caucus to the president. Tell us more.

TAUSCHE: Well, we heard about this meeting first from sources, Jim, and then from a dear colleague letter that speaker that Minority Leader Jeffries issued to his entire caucus, saying that meeting occurred yesterday evening. In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the caucus has shared in our recent time together, without saying exactly what that end conclusion has been.

Jeffries holding his cards fairly close to the vest throughout the course of this week and issuing some public support, reiterating that the day after the debate, he came out and supported Biden, he reiterated that support again this week. But when it came to members of his caucus and how he felt about them stepping out of line and choosing to defect against the president, who is at the top of the ticket, he was very mum after a series of meetings with his members throughout the course of this week.

And some of their concerns were that the information wasn't getting directly to the president, that his aides and others around him were shielding him from exactly what they were hearing from voters in their districts and staffers on their teams about exactly how some of these concerns were playing out at home. What this means for the president's own political future remains to be seen. We're, of course, going to be reporting out exactly what was shared in this meeting and how it impacts the president's thinking, because as of last night, he was unapologetic in his ambition to keep running, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes, absolutely. All right, well, that's a very important update. Kayla Tausche, thank you very much.

In the meantime, final preparations are underway for the Republican National Convention next week in Milwaukee. We're now learning who will take the stage, including Donald Trump's one-time rival turned ally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But the convention is already stirring controversy after CNN reported that seven battleground states are sending so-called fake electors who worked to overturn the 2020 election results. They'll be serving as national committee members, delegates and alternatives, and will officially proclaim Trump as their 2024 nominee.

Let's discuss with Brian Schimming. He's the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican party. Mr. Chairman thanks very much for joining us. How's the convention looking next week?

BRIAN SCHIMMING, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN PARTY OF WISCONSIN: Jim, thanks for having me. Looking good, we'll be welcoming 50,000 people here to Milwaukee in Wisconsin, about 16,000 of your colleagues from the media as well. And so it's looking very, very well, the preparation. We had RNC meetings, as you know, Jim here in Milwaukee this week. And so it's been a very, very positive experience.

And one thing I know, and especially listening to your last story a week from now, we'll have a nominee and the Democrats may not.

[10:30:00]

So, I think we're really in the catbird seat because while Donald Trump will be our nominee, the Democrats are in crisis.