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Secret Service Tightened Security Around Trump After Learning Of Alleged Iranian Assassination Plot; Homeland Security Inspector General To Probe Trump Rally Security; J.D. Vance Will Get His Political Introduction At The RNC; Biden Leaping Left To Keep Candidacy Going. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 17, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:01:42]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington, it will be an afternoon of hard questions coming up on Capitol Hill. The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security told congressional briefings on the Trump assassination attempt. There will be one briefing for all members of the House. Unclassified phone briefing for all senators were told.

A short time ago, we learned that the Department of Homeland Security has opened up an investigation into the Secret Service and the lapse in security at the rally site. In an interview with CNN, the agency's director backed away from earlier claims that appear to blame local police. Here's what she told our Whitney Wild.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY CHEATLE, U.S. SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: Secret Service respects local law enforcement and we could not do our job either investigatively or on our protective mission without them. In Pennsylvania, in fact, on that same day, they were also working the first lady trip and a vice presidential trip. So, I understand the constraints that they're under. And as I said earlier, we couldn't do our job without them.

At that particular site, we divided up areas of responsibility, but this but the Secret Service is solely responsible for the design and the implementation and the execution of the site.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN: Kimberly Cheadle also told CNN that the Secret Service has ramped up security around Trump, after U.S. intelligence learned of a plot by Iran to assassinate him there is no known connection to Saturday's attack, at least not at this point. In just a moment, we'll go live to the crime scene in Pennsylvania.

But first, let's look into the alleged assassination plot by Iran. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in London with the latest reporting, Fred, I mean, there's been so much news we've been drinking from a firehose that I mean, you do have to pause for a moment and consider the magnitude of this, this accusation by U.S. intelligence that Iran was plotting to assassinate a former president of the United States.

How is Iran responding at this point?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, first of all, Jim, you're absolutely right. It is absolutely huge. I think one of the things that was that was quite interesting about this alleged plot is that the U.S. apparently got this U.S. intelligence apparently got this from a human source unclear whether inside Iran or outside Iran, of course, absolutely unclear also, in what sort of stage this plot may have been the Iranians reacting quite angrily. They're calling this a malicious and saying that it's not true.

However, the Iranians are also saying that they believe after the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, that they have every right to go after former President Trump and the others who organized that assassination. However, they say that they want to do that by going through an international legal system or an international court of law. I want to listen into some Iran's current foreign minister had to say in an exclusive interview with their own Fareed Zakaria. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI BAGHERI KANI, IRANIAN ACTING FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The Americans openly said that that they assassinated the senior Iranian military commander, so it is our natural rights in order to follow these issues, and those who are accused in this case, they should be brought to justice in a just court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So there he's saying it's Iran natural rights to go after those who ordered that assassination of Qasem Soleimani. You know, Jim, I was actually on the ground in Iran just a couple of hours after Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in early 2020. And I can tell you the Iranian were extremely angry.

[11:05:00]

We had an interview with the main military advisor to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at that point, and he told us look, you killed one of our top generals with the Americans killed one of our top generals, we're going to strike back and just a couple of days later, there was that airstrike or that missile strike on the Al Assad airbase, which of course, housed some U.S. troops in Iraq.

But the Iranians even back then, Jim, were saying that they reserve the right to go after those who ordered that strike on Qasem Soleimani. They didn't say how they would do it. But they did say back then that for them, it wasn't overdone.

ACOSTA: Yes, Fred. I mean, they're denying it in one sense, but they're attempting to justify it. And another and this is classic doublespeak.

PLEITGEN: Yeah, it certainly is.

ACOSTA: Yes.

PLEITGEN: And I think one of the things that we know about the Iranians is they certainly haven't let that go. And I think one of the things that we need to mention in all that is how important a figure Qasem Soleimani was to the Iranians. He wasn't just as overarching, very important general. Obviously, also extremely important, confronting the U.S. in Iraq, some of the things that happened there.

But at the time of his assassination, he wasn't only the top General of the Quds Force, which is, of course, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. But he was getting more and more involved in regional politics as well, whether it was Iraq, whether it was Syria and other places.

So he was becoming more of an important figure on the political scene in Iran as well, when all of this happens. So as you can imagine, it was a huge blow to the Iranians and certainly to Iran's military leadership, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Fred Pleitgen, thank you very much. And be sure to watch Fareed Zakaria is interview with a Iran's Foreign Minister that's coming up on Fareed Zakaria GPS, this Sunday at 10:00 am.

Let's go out to CNN Danny Freeman. In the meantime, he's in Butler, Pennsylvania, where all of this happened. Danny this morning, we're learning that the Secret Service is facing even more scrutiny from the Department of Homeland Security. Of course, there are still these outstanding questions about the gunman and the motive. What can you tell us? What's the latest out there?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Jim, what we can tell you is that the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General has opened up an investigation specifically to evaluate Secret Services process for securing that event that campaign rally for former President Donald Trump back there on Saturday. This is in addition to the FBI that is also investigating what unfolded at that rally over the weekend.

Now, I should say, Jim, you noted this at the top this all comes as we are now hearing more from the director of the Secret Service. CNN's Whitney Wild spoke to her yesterday last evening, and the director of the Secret Service said that their agency is solely responsible for the implementation and execution of security at this site behind me.

So as you alluded to, perhaps turning the temperature down when it came to that blame game that started towards the beginning of this week.

But Jim, I also want to note that we're learning a little bit more about what was happening in the lead up really to this shooting that happened on Saturday. First, we know when we reported yesterday that there was a local counter sniper team that was inside one of the buildings in this complex behind me they were looking out of second story windows towards the campaign event.

But then the other thing, Jim is we've also learned a little bit more information about the movements of Thomas Matthew Crooks. CNN's John Miller confirming through law enforcement sources that Thomas Crooks gained access to the roof by climbing hoisting himself up on an air conditioning unit, I believe you're looking at pictures, where you can see amongst this sprawling AGR complex where that air conditioning unit might be. And that's how Thomas Crooks was able to get up on top of that roof and get to his perch where he ultimately opened fire at former President Donald Trump.

So again, still questions that we have about why that roof specifically was not secured. But we're getting at least a little more information as to how he got to that spot, Jim.

ACOSTA: And Danny, we're also hearing from an administrator of the shooters for high school. What can you tell us about that?

FREEMAN: Yes, I mean, Jim, listen, the biggest question aside from how did this happen and what went wrong security wise here was what was the motivation behind the shooting? What drove Thomas Crooks to that rooftop. The FBI and law enforcement agencies that we've been speaking with still do not have a clear idea, even after coming through a number of witnesses, interviews, his phone, his search history, but we're trying to piece together a little bit of what could have caused this motivation.

One of our affiliates WPXI here in Pittsburgh, or just say just south of here in Pittsburgh, they were able to speak with a former guidance counselor, who worked with Crooks. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM KNAPP, GUNMAN'S HIGH SCHOOL GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: At first, it didn't register until I saw the picture. And once I saw his picture, it was you know, I recognize this face right away. Here in Thomas's name just sent chills down my spine.

UNIDETIFIED FEMALE: If you think back to when you knew Thomas, how would you describe him?

KNAPP: Quiet, very quiet, young man. He was a type of person where, you know, you pretty much knew he would wanted to be by himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:10:00]

FREEMAN: So again, Jim, this is another addition to a theme that we've been hearing about Thomas Crooks including with some classmates that I've spoken to over the past couple of days. This element of he was quiet, he kept to himself. He was perhaps a bit of an outcast in his high school, at least, but still, none of that really giving any clarity to what the motivation was behind actually pulling a gun out and firing at the former president of United States. Jim. ACOSTA: All right. Danny Freeman. Thank you very much.

And tonight, Senator J.D. Vance will take the stage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and introduce himself to the American people for the first time as Donald Trump's running mate. Sources tell CNN that his speech will focus on his life story the rags to riches memoir that he wrote documented in the memoir Hillbilly Elegy, it's a story the Trump campaign thinks could win over a key demographic.

One source telling CNN quote, If you want to crack suburban women get them to watch Hillbilly Elegy his life story is so powerful, at least that's their take on all of this.

Let's bring in CNN's Abby Phillip, she's on site at the RNC. Abbey, we're going to have to watch the speech unfold tonight. Because I mean, for all of the talk of let's unify the country and so on in the aftermath of the events last weekend. You and I both have seen the rhetoric coming out of the Republican National Convention and hasn't exactly always been unifying.

And then Donald Trump's selection of J.D. Vance suggests that we are going to be getting back to some pretty hyper partisan, bitter personal attacks in the next several weeks of this campaign when you have J.D. Vance blaming Democrats for what took place this past weekend. Unpack it all for us. What do you think?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, I mean, look in the run up to this convention. They were in the middle of the veepstakes, and it seemed that J.D. Vance was trying to bring attention to his allegiance to Donald Trump by ramping up the rhetoric.

Now, in the aftermath of this assassination attempt, does all of that change? He's going to have a massive audience tonight to address the American public to introduce himself. Does he take a different tone? Is this going to be an attempt to present J.D. Vance as the face of MAGA in a way that is perhaps more palatable than Donald Trump given, frankly, the baggage that Trump comes with?

Jim, I have with me here, the Director of Strategic Communications for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, Marc Lotter. Marc also, we should say, has been in the position that J.D. Vance's staff is in right at this very moment. He's been with the Republican nominee for the vice presidency, Mike Pence, back in 2016, when he was in this role.

And in the lead up to a moment like this, Marc, what is happening in J.D. Vance's world, he's got to give a speech. He's only known for about two days now that he's the nominee. So how are they making that speech something that he can really deliver convincingly before this crowd?

MARC LOTTER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020: Well, as someone who works with a lot of speech writers, thank God, he wrote a memoir, you can just take his own words for that.

But you know, most likely I don't know for sure. But going back to 2016, the campaign has already engaged a speech writer to begin work on that speech, they will give it to Senator Vance's team for review, and then it's up to the senator and his team to take a look at it, rework it, put it into his own words, add his own personal touches to it.

But the challenge for any vice presidential nominee when you join the ticket is that at the same time, you're being announced suddenly, and then your record, all of everything that has been built over the course of your public life is now going to be used by the opposition, and who are trying to attack you for it. So you have to defend yourself against those attacks.

You're also now, you know, everything you do at this convention is under a microscope, you now have a Secret Service protection bubble around you. You're meeting new staff for the first time --

PHILLIP: Yes.

LOTTER: -- and you have to work on a speech that you've just now seen with maybe 48 hours notice --

PHILLIP: Yes.

LOTTER: -- that you're going to give to the thousands of people here in the millions of people watching on TV.

PHILLIP: This speech is going to be the best case scenario for J.D. Vance. He's going to be able to present exactly what he wants to say millions are going to be watching but they're also going to be in the days ahead interviews there are going to be -- there's going to be a lot of scrutiny to your point on his position.

The Trump campaign is now saying, well, Trump's position is J.D. Vance's position, but that dog I don't think is going to hunt because he does have strong positions of his own or on his Senate website up until just this week. It said end abortion. He has said he's in favor of a national abortion ban. So how's he going to explain that away in these interviews?

LOTTER: Well, I think, you know, as you go through the veepstakes, as we like to refer to it, you're preparing for that, should you get that notice. I'm sure his convention or his congressional staff, his political team were thinking OK, should the call come? What are they going to attack us on and then prepare your response. But I even remembered why --

PHILLIP: Could I backtrack on it after all?

[11:15:00]

LOTTER: I don't think he should backtrack on it. I mean what I would say if I was his advisor and I'm not his advisor is I would say I have been very strong in my support for pro-life movement. But I also agree that Donald Trump is saying that no side is going to get a law through Congress. It's just not possible with the rules of Congress, the 60- vote threshold in the Senate. And that's why we have long said, let's get this dealt with in the States, let the state's decide the people's elected representatives.

So while I may always be a champion for life, we've also got to read -- we've also got to reflect reality of the way things are done on Capitol Hill.

PHILLIP: To Jim's point was that tweet from this weekend, a hot headed moment a mistake, ultimately, given that the Republican ticket wants this convention to at least -- they want to say that it's about unity. And that tweet, blaming Biden without any evidence at all for this shooters motivations, that completely flies in the face of that. Was that a mistake?

LOTTER: Well, I think everybody was reacting in real time. And I think it's obviously given the heated rhetoric that we have seen. The first reaction is one that you're constantly going to have taken aback by the those shocking moments on Saturday night.

I think as we move forward, what you've seen on the convention stage, what you will probably see tonight, obviously in the senator speech, what you see tomorrow night, and President Trump's speech, is going to be talking about unity, it's going to be talking about the fact that we have problems, whether it's the economy, whether it's inflation, the border, the wars, all of those things, and we need to come together as a country to do it. That was a tragic moment.

I know a lot of people obviously had their initial takes on both sides of it. And we've got to learn to give it a moment, give ourselves a moment to breathe to pause. Let's get the facts. And now we're going to move forward together.

PHILLIP: On later this week the two of former President Trump, J.D. Vance are going to head to Michigan, to suburban county. And, you know, as that Republican adviser was saying, in the quote, the idea that J.D. Vance is going to be the key to unlocking suburban women.

Explain that to me, because really, when you look at his actual -- when you look at his policies, they're not -- they're the same as Donald Trump's. So on abortion, that is going to be an issue in the suburban counties. Like, how does suddenly J.D. Vance just having a different personality unlock the suburb?

LOTTER: Well, I think the one thing about J.D. Vance that he brings to the campaign is that he was critical. He had questions if you go back to 2015-2016. Obviously, he was not fully on board with then-candidate Trump or, or President Trump early in that administration. And he said so and now he has come over, he's actually looked at the policies, look at the records of President Biden, President Trump, their plans for the future. And I think being able to go into the swing states talk to undecided voters and say, look, I was one of you. I had my concerns.

But when I look at these things, the records the policy, the vision for the future, I decided that the American first movement, the America first agenda, was the right way to go. And now I'm proud to be standing here. But I'm also telling you, it's OK for you to come on board now to. It's almost a validation for an undecided voter. Look, there are people who are single issue voters on both sides,

especially on the abortion issue that are -- that that is their issue, I think, for a broad majority of folks in the suburbs. So they're also concerned about inflation. They're concerned about illegal immigration. They're concerned about the wars that are raging around the world right now. And so, making it a broader case and not just a case about a single issue I think it's going to be key for everyone.

PHILLIP: All right. We'll see if they're able to do that. Marc Lotter, thank you very much.

LOTTER: Thank you.

PHILLIP: Back to you, Jim.

ACOSTA: Abby, thanks so much. Still ahead this hour, the Democratic National Committee moving ahead with a virtual nomination for President Biden calling it quote, the wisest approach but not everybody. And the party agrees with that. That's next.

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[11:23:22]

ACOSTA: Turning to the divisions now among Democrats over whether President Biden should remain his party's nominee. Axios reporting this morning quote since his disastrous debate last month, President Biden has embraced a laundry list of left wing policy proposals, strong-armed the party's nomination process and still trying to limit spontaneous unscripted moments, end quote.

Joining us now to share his new reporting Axios congressional reporter Andrew Solender. Andrew, obviously the Biden folks would probably sharply disagree with some of those characterizations there. But I mean, it is true. Your latest reporting indicates that Biden is considering some pretty progressive policies in order to keep top Democrats at bay and keep that criticism sort of at a low boil. We saw some of the, I guess, comments that he's made privately about reshaping the Supreme Court. How much of this is going to hold though?

ANDREW SOLENDER, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS: I mean, I think it's, you know, an answer, certainly to where his base is in Congress right now and progressives, you know, specifically members of the squad. AOC, Bernie Sanders are some of his staunchest supporters, which is obviously a reversal from what we saw just a few months ago when the war in Gaza was creating a very tense dynamic between him and his progressive wing.

But certainly, I mean, it's also an answer to this long standing concern that even some frontline members had some battleground district members had, this feeling that the Biden campaign wasn't putting forward enough of a proactive agenda beyond defeating Trump.

[11:25:03]

And, you know, I talked to a pretty moderate frontline member about the Supreme Court proposal, the rent cap, forgiving medical debt, and they were actually, I would say, somewhat excited to see that the Biden campaign was putting out a sort of strategic policy vision beyond just defeating Trump.

And so I think this is, you know, sort of a two-prong strategy where you're trying to, to some extent reward the members who have stepped with them, as Biden always says, you know, dance with the one who brung you. And at the same time, he's trying to show people that he can actually put forward a positive second term vision and, you know, the same frontline members said, I'm concerned, obviously, that he's going to go too far left and that he's going to alienate Never Trump voters.

But at the same time what you're really seeing right now, before you can even talk about we need to win swing voters, let alone like Nikki Haley type Republicans is we need to energize the base, we need to energize the party. And on his call with the new dean -- on the call and his call with the Progressive Caucus, he was laying some of this out to excite them, on his call with the more center left new Democrats, it was all about strategy. It was all about how he's going to excite people and win the election.

And so he's sort of trying to appease one side with policy and try to appease another side with this is my strategic vision for winning this election.

ACOSTA: Well, and CNN is reporting, this email from the DNC sent to members saying it plans to move ahead with Friday's virtual roll call meeting to begin the nominating process for President Biden. I mean, this is obviously, depending on what the timetable ultimately is. This is happening faster than just doing it at the convention.

What more do you know about this? How do you think it's going to go down? And I mean, again, I suppose it's going to leave a lot of those more centrist Democrats kind of bristling at what's going on right now.

SOLENDER: Yes, and I mean, you're seeing, you know, members obviously starting to put together this letter to push back on that. Now, this email that you referenced is actually sort of a punt, on what had been earlier reported, which is that they could move forward with this as soon as next week.

Now, they're saying the conversation about the virtual roll call won't happen until next week, and the virtual roll call itself won't happen earlier than August.

But what I'm hearing from my sources is the letter among House members is still going forward. Because the idea of a virtual roll call, it feels anathema to Democrats, this idea of just shutting down this conversation before the convention happens, you know, my sources are telling me that letter could actually come this new reporting for you could come as soon as end of business today.

And so it's not it's not yet addressing the concerns that members have about this procedural question of will the Democratic Party try to walk in Biden before people actually have a chance to meet in Chicago and so the wheels are still turning on that.

ACOSTA: Yes.

SOLENDER: Certainly members don't want to be in this position. I heard from somebody after Biden's so, so NATO press conference that everybody agreed was going to sort of help him hang on and what they told me you know about the mood of the caucus at that moment was hard.

ACOSTA: Yes.

SOLENDER: One word answer was just hard. So this is not a position that that House Democrats want to be in but at the same time, they don't want to see the party to shut down this conversation before they feel they've had a say a chance to say their piece.

ACOSTA: All right, Andrew Solender. Thanks so much. We'll be right back.

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