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Investigators Search For Motive in Trump Rally Shooting; Interview With Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO); Trump to Address Republican National Convention Tonight; Biden Facing Growing Calls to Exit Race. Aired 11-11:30a ET
Aired July 18, 2024 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:41]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
We begin the hour with Donald Trump seizing the spotlight at the Republican Convention, while President Biden is grappling with calls to exit the race for the White House.
Right now, the president is isolating at his House in Delaware after his COVID diagnosis. Pressure is mounting on him this morning to step aside in favor of another Democratic candidate to face Trump in November.
A senior Biden official told me things are looking bleak inside the campaign after reports surfaced that top Democratic lawmakers are leaning on the president to get out of the race. A separate source close to the president told me Biden is -- quote -- "listening," but the source added that the president feels like he is legally the nominee of the party after winning the Democratic primary.
Still another top DNC official said it seems more and more like a change could happen on the ticket.
Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, the GOP is uniting at the Republican National Convention. Hours from now, the former president will deliver his first public speech since the assassination attempt on Saturday. Trump says he has changed the focus of that speech to one of unity. We will see how that pans out later tonight.
And angry Republican senators confronted the head of the Secret Service at the convention. They demanded to know how security failed so miserably at that rally in Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly what you were doing today on the call, stonewalling.
SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): This was an assassination attempt. You owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: All right, CNN White House correspondent Priscilla Alvarez is in Delaware, where the president is recovering.
Priscilla, there's also -- besides the COVID diagnosis, there are concerns about another diagnosis for his campaign, which has not been very good lately from some top Democrats, including the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jim, there's no doubt that it has been a critical 24 hours for President Biden, who is sidelined off of the campaign trail because he had tested positive for COVID, all of this as CNN is learning that recently the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the president had a private conversation in which the House speaker showed him polling that he couldn't defeat former President Donald Trump and that he could destroy the chances of Democrats running in House races.
Now, in that conversation, according to sources, the president was defensive, pointing to his own polling that he could still take on former President Donald Trump. And at one point in the conversation, the House speaker asked to get Mike Donilon, the president's senior adviser, on the phone to walk through the data.
Now, when presented with this reporting, the White House has maintained that President Biden is the nominee and saying that he can win, and the former House speaker's office saying that she has been in California since Friday and they haven't spoken since then.
But this is the second known conversation between the two since that June presidential debate that sparked so much concern and anxiety within the Democratic Party. And while some of those calls for him to step aside were on pause after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, they have certainly come back and come back in full force, because, just yesterday, also, Representative Adam Schiff calling for the president to drop out of the race.
So, certainly, these are all questions and concerns of the president and his campaign are grappling with, one senior Democratic adviser telling CNN that the president is receptive to this and asking questions like, can Kamala win, his vice president?
But, still, no decision appears to have been made yet, and certainly a lot of questions before the president and his campaign, including today, as he is behind closed doors trying to recover from COVID.
ACOSTA: Yes, and what is the White House saying about his diagnosis? Is he doing OK?
ALVAREZ: Just yesterday, the White House, after they had announced that he tested positive, said that he had mild symptoms and had been given his first dose of Paxlovid.
I have reached out to the White House this morning for an update on his symptoms, but this is not his first bout with COVID. He also had it in 2022. He also received Paxlovid, later had a rebound case. But the president is self-isolating. He has a residence here in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
That is where he remains today. We do not expect to see him, so certainly waiting for additional updates from the White House. But as of now, and certainly since they last gave us an update, his symptoms had been mild.
ACOSTA: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Joining me now is Larry Sabato, the founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
[11:05:03]
Larry, a senior Biden official told me that things are looking bleak inside the campaign. I mean, I was talking about this with Maria Cardona in the previous hour. When the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to the president, I mean, she -- this is not some backbencher in Congress -- and is going to the president and saying, the polls don't look good, Mr. President, you could not only lose the White House, but cost us the House and the Senate, I have to think that the president is seriously considering that.
What do you think, Larry?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Oh, I think he's considering it. As your reporter suggested, he's receptive.
ACOSTA: Right.
SABATO: That's the word everybody is using, receptive.
Well, being receptive and actually doing it are two very different things. And, look, from Biden's perspective and his family's, but particularly Biden's perspective, he has spent his entire adult life trying to win the presidency. He finally did it.
He feels he has run a successful administration, and many outside observers agree with him. And now, because of a bad debate and the obvious effects of aging, being in one's 80s, he's being forced to give up what he has already won. He's won the nomination.
I'm not saying that's the decision he should make. I'm simply saying this is not something anybody would do overnight or even a week. You need to think about it.
ACOSTA: Yes.
SABATO: There's a real deadline. There's a mental deadline. And I don't think we're there yet.
ACOSTA: Yes.
And I do want to ask you, because one of the things that's also been reported is, apparently, the president has been asking advisers, well, could Vice President Harris win this race? Could she perform well against Donald Trump?
And, Larry, what does the polling show us overall? I mean, the conventional wisdom was -- and maybe this was part of the reason why the president was reluctant to pass the torch to Kamala Harris during the primary process. Back then, she didn't look as good in the polls.
But it seems to me that that has changed somewhat. And what's your perspective on that, Larry? Could she beat Donald Trump?
SABATO: Yes. And I spend entirely too much of my day looking at polling numbers and data.
ACOSTA: Yes.
SABATO: I would say that you divide the polls that I have seen recently, recently being the last couple of weeks, into two.
One shows that Kamala Harris actually does a point or two better than Joe Biden in some key states. Forget about the national numbers, because we don't care. We don't vote that way through the Electoral College. But the other half suggests that she's not doing any better than Joe Biden.
After all, she is tied to the Biden/Harris administration and she will be held accountable for whatever the Republicans are going to use against Joe Biden. So this is what makes it such a difficult decision for Democrats.
Jim, there are no good options. There's no obvious solution that solves the basic problem or all of the problems that Democrats are making. They can solve them, but it's going to take some time. It will also take some good luck.
They have had very little of it. And the other candidate has had a ton of it.
ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, what do you make of this reversal of fortunes for Donald Trump? I mean, he became a convicted felon earlier this year, but he has an entire Republican Convention rallying behind him.
And add to that there's sort of this religiosity that's in the air in Milwaukee, where folks are essentially saying he's walking on water these days because he survived this assassination attempt last weekend. It is kind of incredible the way things have changed.
Do you see Donald Trump as unstoppable heading into the fall campaign? It seems to me that, I mean, like everything in politics these days, things can evaporate pretty quickly.
SABATO: Absolutely. Things can change. It's mid-July. Over the years, I have seen people make rash statements in mid-July that so-and-so is elected and so-and-so has blown it. And often, not always, but often it's proven wrong.
The one flaw in what I have heard so far is apparently it's the line among senior Republicans to say that Donald Trump is now a changed man, he has been irrevocably changed in his outlook on life by the assassination attempt.
Maybe it's had some effect on him, but if you believe that, at 78, Donald Trump, who has, let's just say, a very strong personality, is going to be transformed by this event or any event, I have got a beautiful Jeffersonian rotunda to sell you cheap. Make me an offer, Jim. Make me an offer.
ACOSTA: I'm a JMU guy, not a UVA guy, so I won't be buying that, but you know that, Larry, all too well.
SABATO: But cheap, Jim.
ACOSTA: Yes. Yes.
SABATO: I said cheap.
ACOSTA: Well, we will talk after the show.
[11:10:00]
Let me ask you this, though. One of the things that is happening on the Democratic side is that, I mean, you do seem to have the sense that it's becoming a death of 1,000 cuts.
And I want to play part of this interview that aired last night on BET. President Biden was talking about his position with the African- American community, putting them in top positions in his administration. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's all about treating people with dignity. And it's about making sure that, look -- I mean, for example, look at the heat I'm getting because I named a -- the secretary of defense, the black man. I named Ketanji Brown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Larry, I mean, the president did this last week at the NATO Summit. He keeps messing up these names.
I mean, what does that do? It can't instill confidence inside the party right now?
SABATO: Well, it sure doesn't help.
ACOSTA: Yes.
SABATO: And combine those mental lapses with the video we keep getting in various circumstances like yesterday, going up the stairs of the plane and down the stairs of the plane. He was pretty rickety.
And I'm not trying to be critical. Those of us who are older know exactly what he's going through. But the combination of the visual and the verbal gaffes really gives the picture of a guy who may be ending that long period of high productivity. And, Jim, you know what's interesting? A lot of people have said to
me, and I will bet they said to you, we're not just thinking about how Joe Biden is today. We're projecting four years in the future, because there's going to be additional deterioration, as there is for us all. Father Time does that to us.
And so, when we project four years into the future, it gets a little bit grimmer, maybe more than a little bit.
ACOSTA: All right, Larry Sabato, thanks as always. Appreciate it.
SABATO: Thank you, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right.
And let's bring in CNN's Abby Phillip. She's on site at the Republican National Convention.
And, Abby, it is a remarkable convention week because, I mean, for all of the talk that Donald Trump had all these vulnerabilities going into this Republican Convention, here we are having -- I mean, the top story in every newscast is what's happening with President Biden.
And, I mean, you could not have written a better script for Donald Trump during this convention week. Obviously, a lot of campaign left, but things are heading his way this week.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: Yes, Jim, I mean, that conversation you were just having with Larry is really actually exactly what is going to be on display tonight at the RNC here in Milwaukee.
The issue that they are going to drive home is that visual contrast between President Biden and Donald Trump. I mean, this is an arena every single night this week that has treated Donald Trump like a conquering hero, like a superman, by somebody who is shielded literally by divine intervention.
And I think we can look tonight, Jim, for the RNC to double down on that theme, double down on this idea of strength and masculinity, frankly. And for the Democrats, as they're watching this, this is the image that voters are going to have this whole week, almost unfiltered, and then there's going to be another month before their own convention.
ACOSTA: Right.
PHILLIP: So that's what is causing so much consternation and angst in the Democratic Party right now, Jim.
But tonight is the big night for Republicans. And I'm here in Milwaukee with Kristen Holmes last night. He watched his new running mate, Donald Trump watched his new running mate, J.D. Vance, make a pitch to working-class voters. Vance leaned in on his own life story.
He came from a tough childhood with a drug-addicted mother to Yale Law School, then onto the Senate. And now he's standing on that stage as the vice presidential nominee for the Republican Party.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I promise you one more thing. To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: But this is going to be Donald Trump's night.
He will accept the presidential nomination for the third time, but the Republican Party that he leads now has really changed dramatically over the last eight years.
Kristen Holmes is here with me. Kristen's been covering this whole convention.
It's going to be very different this time around.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. This is Donald Trump's party now. This is the MAGA party.
Remember, back in 2016, he hadn't really won over the Republican Party. They were still having after-action on what exactly happened during that primary. He really had to stick to the script of the issues that he believed got him where he was up on that stage.
[11:15:06]
This is what his speech sounded like then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration...
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: ... to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities!
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We are going to appoint justices of the United States Supreme Court who will uphold our laws and our Constitution.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, I do want to know one thing about that. That talking about the justices of the Supreme Court obviously ended up happening, but, two, a lot of that was about Roe v. Wade.
PHILLIP: Right.
HOLMES: A lot of that was overturning Roe v. Wade.
There was a big focus on Donald Trump's first campaign on being pro- life and overturning that. That is not the case now, because it's not something that Donald Trump really cares about. That's not where his focus is.
PHILLIP: And, frankly, because it's already happened.
HOLMES: It has happened.
PHILLIP: And it was used as a tool then to unify the Republican Party. Now he doesn't really need that.
HOLMES: No, because it's already unified around him.
Now I want to play you some sound from 2020, which was a very different convention. At that point, it was COVID, and he was very dark. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will defeat the virus and the pandemic and emerge stronger than ever before.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: If the left gains power, they will demolish the suburbs, confiscate your guns, and appoint justices who will wipe away your Second Amendment and other constitutional freedoms.
Biden is a Trojan horse for socialism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: So that convention was all about trying to hold on for dear life to his presidency. He was obviously already starting to flounder in the polls and it didn't look good for him, and there weren't that many people there. There wasn't a lot of excitement around Donald Trump.
We are in a very different time now. And, tonight, as you said, there's going to be a lot of big show about strength, masculinity, but it's also going to be a performance. Hulk Hogan is on the stage.
PHILLIP: Yes.
HOLMES: Kid Rock is going to perform before he comes to speak.
He wants a show, and that's what he will get tonight.
PHILLIP: Yes, they're doubling down on the showmanship. They're doubling -- I mean, they're doubling down on professional wrestling.
I mean, that...
HOLMES: And those intros of him walking in are not -- if you see that side-by-side...
PHILLIP: That imagery is not by accident.
HOLMES: Yes, exactly.
PHILLIP: Yes.
HOLMES: If you have seen -- that's the same look.
PHILLIP: Yes.
All right, Kristen Holmes, thank you very much for all of that reporting.
And still ahead for us: CNN has learned so much more about Trump's would-be assassin. We will take you live to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:22:02]
ACOSTA: Nineteen minutes, that's how long Thomas Crooks evaded law enforcement at Saturday's Trump rally before he was spotted on a roof nearby.
Now, as investigators follow his trail for a motive, we're learning more about his movements that day.
CNN senior national correspondent Kyung Lah is in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, where the shooter lived.
Kyung, what's the latest? What can you tell us?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We do know from law enforcement sources that he did visit the rally site at least twice.
The timing on that is a little unclear, but they do believe that he was there twice. And, Jim, we're getting for the very first time some of the earliest video of a man who appears to be Thomas Crooks walking outside the perimeter. He was caught in the background of this video.
And you can see this man just wandering around. And this is someone who does appear to be him about an hour before the shooting. Cell phone data, according to law enforcement sources, estimate that he was on the premises of the rally site up to 70 minutes before. And law enforcement sources say that he was also spotted as being
suspicious. Then, several minutes later, minutes later, 19 minutes after he was spotted as being suspicious, they lost sight of him. And the next time they saw him, he was on that roof.
And we are also learning that the -- they were able to gain access to his cell phone and there were images of former President Trump, as well as President Biden and other politicians, both Democrats and Republicans.
The question, though, Jim -- and this is something that this community is really hoping to learn -- is what the motive was. It's very unclear still. Despite all of these movements that we're learning here and there, they still don't know exactly why. And that is something that the numerous friends and people who went to school with him want to know, including people we spoke to at the gun range -- Jim.
ACOSTA: All right, Kyung Lah, lots of questions remaining in all of this, in Pennsylvania for us.
Kyung, thank you so much.
The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, to appear before that panel on Monday as they investigate the security breakdown that apparently made the shooting possible over the past weekend.
Republican Congressman Mark Alford of Missouri joins me now.
Congressman, thank you very much for joining us.
I guess, first of all, we know that law enforcement officials briefed members of Congress yesterday about some of the details of that assassination attempt over the weekend. What did you hear from that briefing regarding the shooting that stood out to you?
REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): Well, Jim, thanks for having me on.
Yes, I was on that briefing call. It was an off-the-record call, so there's not a lot that I can share with you.
I will tell you, in generalities, though, Director Cheatle and Director Wray did acknowledge that this was a failure in security, and I believe that Mike Johnson, our speaker, was the one to say that this was the biggest security failure for the Secret Service since Ronald Reagan was shot.
They gave us a timeline, a very detailed timeline, of what went on, but no real answers. And they said: At this point, we're really not ruling anything out, that we have to continue the investigation and let the facts lead us where they may.
[11:25:14]
ACOSTA: And investigators indicated in this briefing, according to sources who spoke with CNN, that the shooter was searching for information on his devices on both President Biden and former President Trump, including details about the upcoming Democratic Convention.
Does that mean that some of these accusations that Democratic rhetoric had somehow caused the shooting were off base?
ALFORD: Well, look, I think it is too early to try to determine why this young man was motivated in such an evil way and who also might be behind this.
Again, we don't know if there were any accomplices. We don't know if there were any state actors or not behind this. I do know one thing, though, Jim. There are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around. There's a lot of blame being put on different agencies and different people.
We have got to find out the facts, and we have got to get that information out as soon as possible, so that trust can be rebuilt for the Secret Service and the FBI.
ACOSTA: And do you think the Secret Service director should step down?
ALFORD: I do.
Look, she acknowledged that this is a failure. She -- as the head of the Secret Service, she is basically responsible for this failure, the greatest security failure for the Secret Service since Ronald Reagan was shot.
We have got to make sure that our former presidents, our current president and future presidents are protected.
ACOSTA: All right, Congressman Mark Alford, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.
ALFORD: Thank you, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right, still ahead this hour: Donald Trump said he's lucky he survived the shooting with only a minor ear injury. Nevertheless, my next guest says it is bizarre that the American people haven't gotten more medical information about the former president's condition.
We will talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:30:00]
