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Biden Exits 2024 Race, Puts "Full Support" Behind Kamala Harris; Biden Drops Out Of Race: Says He'll Address The Nation Later This Week; Harris Says She's "Honored" To Receive Biden's Endorsement. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired July 21, 2024 - 21:00   ET

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

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Three days after the Republicans wrapped up their nominations for President and Vice President, a stunning move by Democrats. President Biden has withdrawn from the race after dozens of congressional Democrats publicly oppose his candidacy in the weeks after that incredibly poor debate performance, renewed questions about his fitness for office.

JAKE TAPPER, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": President Biden has endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris, quoting President Biden now, quote, "My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President, and it's been the best decision I've made. Today. I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats, it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this." unquote.

COOPER: Also tonight, Harris is rapidly securing endorsements from top Democratic officials, lawmakers, even potential opponents for the nomination. Moments ago, all 50 Democratic Party state chairs signaled their support, as did Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who had warned against a Biden exit just days ago.

We want to start this hour's coverage with Priscilla Alvarez in Delaware, travelling with President Biden this evening. So, what more are you learning about what was behind the President's decision?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, the President had remained defiant really only until the last 48 hours. What we are learning that played out behind the scenes is the President, who while self-isolating at his residence in Delaware, was also reflecting on the last several weeks. The President on Saturday had summoned his senior advisors to his Rehoboth Beach home, where they huddled and assessed the polling and also what Democratic lawmakers had been saying. And it was during that time, were told, that the President was starting to come to the decision that he was going to drop out of the race. He also, we're told, consulted with his family. Of course, they have been influential in almost every decision the President has made over the course of his long political career. And then it was on Sunday, as his top brass on the morning shows were

saying that he was in the race and he wasn't going anywhere, while in the early afternoon hours, the President notifying senior White House and senior campaign teams that he had in fact decided to drop out of the race, and then just minutes after, putting out that letter to -- publicly, saying that he was not going to seek reelection.

Now importantly, shortly after he did so, he also put his entire support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, saying that he is endorsing her to be the Democratic nominee, and urging the party to come together, particularly after a divisive last several weeks. Now, the Vice President herself, sources tell me, did not know until today that this was going to be the President's decision. The two spoke multiple times over the course of the day. And now, it is full steam ahead for the Vice President, who up until this point was fiercely defending the President and completely behind him. Aides told me multiple times that the two, there was no daylight between the two, as she was hitting the campaign trail. But now, today, she was working the phones, trying to get these endorsements, as she tries to secure the Democratic nomination.

So, it has been a pivotal, remarkable day for this campaign. And really, Anderson, it shook White House officials and campaign officials who up until earlier today really thought the President was not -- wasn't going anywhere and that he was going to stay in this presidential race. So, certainly, a lot of people still absorbing this news as they prepare to put Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the party's ticket.

COOPER: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, thanks very much.

Jake.

TAPPER: Thanks, Anderson. Joining us now, Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy. Senator, thanks for joining us. So, earlier today, you said President Biden will go down in history as quote "one of the most consequential presidents in our nation's history." Were you surprised by his decision to exit the race, and did you find out the same way the rest of us did by his posting on social media?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I did. My sense is that there was really no heads up to senators, not likely to governors. This was the first I heard of it. I was not shocked. Obviously, I had the sense that the President was spending time while he convalesced with COVID to make a decision. But, it is still extraordinary. Right? This is a President who has a remarkable record of achievement. I worked most closely with him on the first anti-gun violence bill in 30 years, would have never gotten done without him. He had a path to win, but he judged that Kamala Harris had a better path. And in the end, he decided to put his country first.

You saw this tremendous outpouring of support for Kamala in the weeks -- excuse me, in the minutes and hours after Biden's decision. I think there are cynics out there who might think, well, that was staged. That was all set up. Not true. As I said, all of us learned about the President's decision at the same time. Most of us endorsed Kamala within minutes or hours because we know -- because we just think that ultimately she is the best candidate and she is going to make a remarkable President.

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TAPPER: You say you're enthusiastically supporting your friend Vice President Harris to be the nominee. Why do you think she is the best choice for Democrats to defeat former President Trump? As you know, there are some in the Democratic Party who think it should be some sort of open process, whether it's a meeting, an open convention, or mini primaries or whatever, that there should be some sort of competition, and some people feel like there might be better candidates in terms of their ability to beat President Trump.

MURPHY: Yeah. I don't think there is a better candidate. But, I certainly welcome competition. I think you see right now a lot of both leadership and grassroots support, record amounts of grassroots donations to the Vice President today. I think she is the best candidate for this simple reason. She marries together both past and future. We should run on Joe Biden's record. Right? It's Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's record. It's an economy that's humming, a country that's recovered from COVID. America's reputation has been healed around the world. That's not to say there aren't still challenges, but it's a record we should run and she can do that.

But, she also represents this bridge to the future. She, is the next generation. She is going to be the first woman President, a woman on the ticket in a moment when women's rights are under assault, a prosecutor running against a felon. She can run on the Biden-Harris record. She can be a bridge to the future. She has got a unique contrast with Trump. To many of us, it just made sense that she was the best candidate, and given that we only have four months. Let's get the fight. Let's get to it.

TAPPER: She says -- Vice President Harris says her intention is to earn and win the Democratic presidential nomination. What does that process look like? The convention is about three weeks away.

MURPHY: I think you'll know whether there is any viable challenge to her in the next 24 to 48 hours. Obviously, this has been a pretty organic outpouring of support for her, as I said, not coordinated because nobody including her knew about the President's decision until this morning or when he made it.

But, listen, if there is a viable challenge to her, well, then let's have the discussion. I'm never an anathema to having an intra-party fight. I think often that will make the candidates stronger. It may not happen here because people seem right now to be pretty enthusiastic for the reasons I stated about Vice President Harris.

TAPPER: Who do you think she should consider for her Vice President? Do you think it'd be -- it's important that it'd be somebody from a battleground state, such as Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, it needed to be somebody who maybe is a little bit perceived, at least a little bit -- as a little bit more moderate, like Governor Cooper from North Carolina, Governor Beshear from Kentucky? What's your thoughts on that?

MURPHY: I have absolutely no advice for her. I think right now she is drinking from a firehose. She is standing up a campaign. She is potentially fighting for the nomination. She is thinking about who might be her vice presidential running mate. All the names you mentioned would be fantastic. I guess my only advice to her is the advice you'd probably give to any person picking a running mate, just choose somebody you're confident, can be President of the United States. I think, really, you're going to have these two incredibly strong figures on top of the ticket, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. I think that 99.7 percent of voters' decisions are going to be based upon those two candidates, not the vice presidential candidates.

TAPPER: One of the big lines of attack we've heard from the Trump campaign just in the last few hours is that Vice President Harris, in their construct, helped enable the cover-up of the condition that President Biden is in, leading to his stepping down. What is the Democratic response to that?

MURPHY: So, I've been in rooms with President Biden. I've talked to him on the phone. I saw a President who is still able to command and lead this country. And my sense is the President is not stepping down because he doesn't think he can do the job. He is stepping down because he has looked at data and he thinks that the most important thing is beating Donald Trump. And rightly or wrongly, he looks at that information and thinks that Kamala Harris is the strongest candidate.

So, I think Republicans are grasping today, right? They have these preset narratives they were going to use against Kamala that she is the immigration czar, that she is part of this alleged cover-up. I think it's all just a little bit of desperation from Republicans today, knowing that there is a ton of growing grassroots enthusiasm that they probably didn't expect for Kamala Harris, as the Republicans were planning or at least hoping that this was going to be a big messy internal fight. Well, it turns out people were pretty excited about Kamala Harris, and it may not end up being a big fight.

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TAPPER: Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, thanks so much, sir. Appreciate it

MURPHY: Thank you.

TAPPER: Anderson.

COOPER: I'm joined again by our team of reporters and White House veterans.

I mean, Van, you heard Senator Murphy talking about his endorsement for Vice President Harris. I mean, do you think it's her nomination to lose? Because the idea of -- there is some concern about a messy, a number of candidates, but there is also those who think that could actually provide some energy and would make if it ends up being Vice President Harris make her an even better nominee. VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There is going to be some

process, and I think that's good. But, right now, it is for us to lose, because first of all, she has got a whip operation, second to none. All this past week, some of the best people in American politics, I want anybody's name out there have been calling people online, talking to delegates, talking to people on air, saying, listen, if this ball goes to Kamala Harris, she deserves a shot. And so, who has a whip operation like that? Nobody. Can you put one together that quickly? Maybe. But, she is definitely in the lead.

I also think Republicans are about to have a little bit of a wake-up call. A lot of times, people get in these kind of circles and these echo chambers. They start believing the stuff that they say. And they think that just because they don't like Kamala Harris and they see her a certain way, the whole world is going to feel that way. But, there is a whole bunch of people who are just now googling Kamala Harris, just now trying to figure out what this is about. There is an opportunity on both sides to shape her.

And so, I think that -- I think Republicans are in trouble, because the little boogie person that they believe it is Kamala Harris is not necessarily what other people are going to see over in a couple of weeks.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: To Van's fans point about the whip operation, I was just texting with a Democratic lawmaker, who came out and said Biden should leave the race. He has already heard from the Vice President today. We'll hear from that person tonight. I think this is a methodical process. They didn't come up with this just on the fly. They've been preparing quietly for what she would have to do if she needed to bring this party together. And we're seeing that in motion tonight.

I think that the other data points that I noted tonight, the Biden- Harris -- formerly Biden-Harris, now Harris Campaign Finance Chair, just tweeted out, he has never seen the kind of love and outpouring of money --

COOPER: Yeah.

PHILLIP: -- that he has seen tonight. That's not just act blue. The campaign is reaping the benefits of energy. They've needed that really desperately.

COOPER: Yeah.

PHILLIP: They are getting that now, and that's not for nothing. There is a lot of work to do in the battleground states. But, the number one job for Joe Biden, just to begin to claw back from the hole that he is in. If you really look at the numbers, it's getting the party back together, just getting most of the people who voted for him last time back on board. The Democrats need to do that in order to be back in the game.

COOPER: And Kaitlan, you have some new reporting on how President Biden came to this decision. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: Well, I mean, I think the two

biggest announcements he made today, one, he is getting out of the race, but getting behind her. That has changed the trajectory of what the last six hours have looked like since he has dropped that letter. And what we were told is that, as of yesterday morning, he was still telling people full steam ahead with the campaign. That started to shift Saturday, as he was meeting with a top advisor, Steve Ricchetti, one of the closest of close advisors that Biden has. He called Mike Donilon, another other close advisor, summoned him to his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, house, and then had a few others on hand. And it was Saturday afternoon, I'm told, that he started to come to the decision that he was going to get out of the 2024 race.

He made a few calls to other -- his chief-of-staff, Jeff Zients, other top advisors of his, and then he had a family meeting, which I think, if you know, Biden, that is exactly what he is going to do, and he is weighing a decision. Certainly, one is critical and is personal as this one. But, I'm told he didn't come to the final decision to leave this race until today, and that was when he phoned Vice President Harris and let her know that it was an official decision.

So, when you talk about what this effort looks like, she hasn't had all that long to really wrap her head around the fact that she is now potentially going to be the Democratic nominee and that people are getting behind her. And so, when we talk about this, it's going really quickly.

DAVID AXELROD, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRES. OBAMA: You could see the trajectory of this thing, and there is no doubt that any of us who have been around politics knows. They have been quietly planning for this exigency for a while. What's impressive is how they've --

COOPER: When you say that, you mean the people around the President or the Vice President?

AXELROD: Around the VP and her supporters, I think. Without being disrespectful for the President, they put things in place so that when this moment came they could move. And the thing that's been impressive in this first six hours, as you say, is the number of people who are touted as prospective opponents who have endorsed her. There is only really one major figure out there, J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois. I'm sure we'll hear from him soon one way or another. But, you have to say, and I wouldn't have said this six hours ago, I mean, this could turn out to be the process.

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Part of the process is, can you marshal support --

COLLINS: Yeah.

AXELROD: -- and she is doing. Now, the bigger project is, can you marshal support among voters and how you present yourself? That is harder to plan for. They haven't had a lot of time to do that and do that kind of planning, and they're going to have to do it on the fly. So, that's going to be a big challenge. But, I think, tonight, you have to say she is well on her way to completing the first task, which is becoming the nominee.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, in the --

JONES: If you want to -- go head.

GRIFFIN: -- the biggest knock-on Kamala Harris as the potential replacement was that she is too left wing and that she couldn't -- she wouldn't really do well with moderates and with independents. And I think that if it ends up being her, this is where the question of a Vice President is going to be so important for her. If she can bring in someone from a swing state, a governor, somebody who has won statewide, like a Josh Shapiro, like a Mark Kelly, that could soften her with some of these voters who are disillusioned with both candidates. They weren't comfortable with Biden. They're certainly not comfortable with Trump. There is a way for her to do this.

And I think that what she brings to this that has so been lacking is the biggest frustration was -- with Biden for Trump opponents was he couldn't litigate the case against Donald Trump, why he is unfit, what his next agenda would look like, and it was very backward-looking. She is going to have to defend her time with Joe Biden, but she can prosecute that case and talk about a forward-looking vision and a next generation.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Donald Trump started out this year, we all started out this year thinking that there were going to be all these trials that were going to happen in the course of the year, and then we'd have him facing these prosecutors in state after state after state, right? And then, he didn't have to face any of those prosecutors, except for the one in New York. Now, he is going to have to face a prosecutor on the largest stage in America, right, and this prosecutor is coming for him, I imagine she is going to be coming for him every single day. And if they do have a debate, Donald Trump sitting across from a prosecutor with 34 felony convictions and then some more pending, I imagine this is going to be a very tough time for this particular President to have to navigate that kind of an environment.

AXELROD: Whoever said this is a chance for each of them to define -- for her to define herself, and they're going to try and define her too, this is the battle right now, who can define Kamala Harris in the short term. And you can see that the Trump campaign, once they're secure that she is going to be the nominee, is going to unload with a lot of paid media.

PHILLIP: They already are.

AXELROD: They are going to get all their surrogates out there, and they're going to try and define her. So, it's important for them to be prepared for that and to push back. And the goal has to always be, yes, to find her but to find her in the context of the contrast with Donald Trump in front of people.

COOPER: One of --

SIMMONS: Well, I'll finish with this. One of the other things that thinking about the vice presidential selection, the person who I've heard people talk about a little bit more is Mark Kelly, one, obviously, when you say Senator Mark Kelly, the next sentence has to be jet fighter pilot, astronaut, but you can kind of stop talking about him, right? They define -- that's a -- those are two words or three words that define him in a way that -- every other one of the candidates, you have to give a little bit more information about, why Shapiro or why the governor of North Carolina? You don't have to do that.

The other part is, obviously, Arizona, you can have a governor who can appoint the replacement. But then, lastly, you get Gabby Giffords as part of the process. And when Gabby Giffords joins that ticket, all of them standing on stage together, I think it's a powerful message. And this moment, we're thinking maybe about political attacks and gun violence. No. She is a way for the Democrats to have a conversation about what this really means through the eyes of somebody who is working to prevent other people from facing those problems versus Donald Trump, who always is focused on himself and the way he is suffering.

JONES: I got this. Gabby was shot. She -- you're talking about Gabby Giffords --

SIMMONS: Right.

JONES: -- someone who'd survived being shot, and said the gun violence issue is an important issue.

COOPER: How much for her -- for -- if it is Harris to vice presidential selection, I mean, how much is it about a swing state play, and how much is it about reaching out to moderates to the --

AXELROD: Well, those two things are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I think they're very much related. When you think of the people who are at the top of that list, Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania is a absolute must -- the must-win state, he also is a very, very articulate and moderate who has had great reach into some of these small towns and rural communities that Democrats have had a hard time reaching. Mark Kelly is a moderate, who has a strong profile on border issues --

COOPER: Right.

AXELROD: -- coming from that state, and is also an expert on national security issues.

COOPER: Congressman Clyburn had said, just in passing, possibly a business person as well, I should have followed up with him on that. But, I mean, who --

PHILLIP: Well --

COOPER: -- is there somebody out there?

PHILLIP: -- I'm not sure about the business profile, although that's an interesting idea, and I think it could be a smart one. But, I will say, I mean, the two names that I hear the most from people around Vice President Harris and Democrats who know what they're talking about are Roy Cooper and Mark Kelly. Those are the two that I think that -- even though there is a lot of chatter about Josh Shapiro, I think, by -- far and away, Roy Cooper in North Carolina who is a term- limited governor.

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He has a profile I think that kind of balances her out. And also, Mark Kelly, who she has a personal relationship with. Those two rise to the top of the list. I'm usually a skeptic about vice presidential nominee, partners, even making a difference at all. But, I think in this case, it actually might have played a huge role --

COLLINS: Yeah.

PHILLIP: -- in how she is perceived.

COLLINS: And just to note, we have just confirmed from a source that Governor Whitmer was on a "Harris for President" campaign call in her state already today, speaking of the dynamics that they are going to be watching him what's at play in these very powerful figures in their party.

SIMMONS: And if there is any risk -- last, if there is any risk of her losing men, which I think there are people in the campaign worried about, first woman President, a woman of color, sending somebody like Mark Kelly, who is a fighter pilot and an astronaut, is a way to go after some of these men, black, Latino and white. That might be worthwhile.

COOPER: Jake, back to you.

TAPPER: Thanks, Anderson.

I'm joined now by former presidential candidate and Democratic National Committee Chairman, Howard Dean, also CNN contributor Elaine Kamarck, a DNC Rules Committee Member who literally wrote the book on the presidential nominating process. It's called "Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates." Let's send that puppy up there on the Amazon rankings.

Governor Dean, as the former DNC chair, what's going to happen next, and what's the path of least resistance for Democrats?

HOWARD DEAN, (D) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, & FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: It's already happening much to my astonishment. Apparently, this afternoon, this evening, all 50 state chairs endorsed Kamala Harris. So, I mean, this idea that there is going to be a mini primary is just not going to happen. And there is a lot of reasons it might make you feel better if it happened. But all -- as you all pointed out, all the principal players have already decided they're going to support Kamala Harris.

So, at this point, I'm going to defer to Elaine, because she knows far more about the rules than I do, and they've probably changed a bit in 20 years. But, at this point, from a political point of view, it hasn't even been 24 hours, and I think this thing is getting pretty close to being locked up.

TAPPER: Yeah, it's interesting. A few hours ago, I was reporting that the other possible candidates were kind of keeping their powder dry to see how much the Democratic Party coalesced around Harris. And since then, they've almost all, to a person, almost all of them have coalesced, joined the coalescing.

Elaine, I want to get you reaction to something Congressman Dean Phillips said on CNN tonight. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEAN PHILLIPS (D-MN): We should host four town halls around the country, do a straw poll now of the 4,000 convention delegates, Democratic delegates. Vice President Harris should be automatically invited, and then three of the other top vote-getters to do a series of four town halls, introduce themselves to our delegates, to the country. It will legitimize her candidacy. It will energize the base of Democrats in this whole country and will also, in the words of Jim Clyburn, afford the opportunity to vet a likely vice presidential candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, let's assume that other potential nominees include Senator Joe Manchin, who re-registers as a Democrat, and Congressman Phillips, and maybe one or two others, do you think that would theoretically work?

ELAINE KAMARCK, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No. No. It's not going to work. Look, this is a decision that is in the hand of 4,000 and some odd delegates. And in all of the discussion that's taken place in the last three weeks since the debate, everybody seems to have forgotten that they're the deciders. OK? There is -- obviously, President Obama has to say and the senators etc. They're the deciders.

And one thing to realize about them, they're all chosen for the fact that they were loyal -- very loyal to Joe Biden. I bet you that most of them or a large proportion of them have actually met Kamala Harris, because let's face it, one of the things vice presidents do is they go out and they tend to the party faithful. This notion that somehow somebody is going to pick out of the sky some people to run against somebody else, when none of the major candidates talked about for 2028 and talked about for Vice President, none of them are running. So, just to have a sort of mix of candidates for the sake of having a mix of candidates doesn't do anybody any good, including Harris.

TAPPER: Governor Dean, you told my colleague Abby Phillip last Thursday that you would theoretically support a ticket with Vice President Harris and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. Cooper just endorsed her. Do you still feel as though that is the Democrats' best shot to keep the White House as of right now? DEAN: I think all three of the people that you all have discussed are

very, very good candidates for all of the reasons that you've discussed. My thinking is that we're a little behind in Pennsylvania. North Carolina is winnable. Obama was the last one to win it. But, I think it's the next swing state, and of all the people who could do that, Roy Cooper has been a terrifically popular governor in a state that's had a pretty corrupt Republican legislature.

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So, he knows how to play the game. He is incredibly popular in a state that elects Republicans. And they haven't have a governor's race where there is a right-wing lunatic running for governor against their attorney general, Josh Stein. So, right, this should be a very good year for Democrats in North Carolina. I would -- obviously, Pennsylvania has four more electoral votes than North Carolina does. But, if you have to make that trade, you only lose four votes.

Look, all three of these candidates are terrific for all the reasons you've said. And this is not up to me. I'm still in shock over Biden resigning. I'm sorry, he did. I think it had to happen. This is an honorable guy. And I have said long before he resigned that I believe that he has the best domestic policy record of any President since Lyndon Johnson in his first term. I mean, what he has accomplished is absolutely unbelievable, especially in the face of a hostile Congress because of his long history in Congress.

So, I -- this is the right thing to do. I feel terribly sorry for the Bidens because I can't imagine -- having lost one of these races myself, I can't have -- imagine having lost it, having served a term as President for a completely undeserved matter -- manner. But, here we are. It's going to be Kamala, and let's just get it over as painlessly as possible. I'm perfectly willing to listen to crackpot ideas that Dean filled Saturday. He was so smart. He never would have got -- he would have gotten more than 62 votes in New Hampshire or whatever he got.

But, let's -- the dice are rolled already. If you got all 50 state shares, not all of whom agree with each other backing this, this election is over.

TAPPER: Elaine --

DEAN: And now we've got to focus on the real enemy, the party of hate and anger, which is the Republicans, and I think Kamala Harris is going to do a really good job on that.

TAPPER: -- Elaine, what do you foresee as the biggest obstacle for Democrats in the coming days and weeks?

KAMARCK: I think they've got to get their act together behind Kamala Harris, pure and simple. Look, what has happened here is literally we've run out of time. Maybe way back in maybe April, if this had happened in April, maybe we could have had a mini primary. Maybe some other candidates would have gotten in. We are less than a month away from the Democratic convention. And remember that Kamala Harris has happened -- has done one thing

that none of the others have. She has been vetted on a national stage. We know everything there is to know about Kamala Harris. There is no surprises. Not only does she know the issues, because she has been serving in the White House, she can talk to you about what our arms situation is in the Ukrainian battlefield. OK? None of the other candidates can do that. They're all smart. I'm sure they could read a briefing book. But, she is ready.

And again, if this -- if there were a couple months, maybe we could have had a bunch of other people in the field. There is no time. We have run out of time.

TAPPER: Elaine --

KAMARCK: And I think it's time to get behind Kamala.

DEAN: One of the possibilities, if they have already endorsed Harris, who can run?

KAMARCK: Yeah. Nobody is going to run. Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Elaine Kamarck and Howard Dean, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, the former President's reaction to the current President dropping out of the 2024 race and what he is saying about the next plan debate. Plus, John Berman is going to take a look at how voters view potential non-Biden matchups. That's coming up.

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COOPER: We are learning some new information. A source tells CNN, a potential vice presidential candidate for the Democrats, and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper spoke briefly with Vice President Harris. The source says, quote, "The governor expressed his support for her to be the nominee." The call comes as we're also seeing Republican attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris. They came almost immediately after President Biden announced his exit from the presidential race and his endorsement of her candidacy. The RNC said in a statement, I quote, "Not only would Harris be a disaster in the White House, but she also helped Biden cover up his declining health while in office, which destroys her credibility."

John Berman joins us now for more on a potential Harris-Trump matchup. So, how does Harris compare to Biden in pulling against Trump?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Better, better? The question is, is it good enough? Anderson, up here, we have the 2020 election results, the popular vote. Joe Biden won by about four and a half points. The latest CNN Poll of Polls, which is the average of all the polling over the last few weeks, Biden trailed Trump by four points. That's a big swing, from up four and a half to down four. As for Kamala Harris, the Vice President is actually only trailing Donald Trump by one point right now, so, better than President Biden is doing, not obviously as good as Biden did in 2020.

And in case you're wondering how Harris compares to some other possible candidates who have been mentioned really before tonight because many people have taken their names out, this is that. There are poll -- our CNN poll about three weeks ago, which was a long time now, lots happened, Biden trailed Trump by six, Harris trailed Trump by two. But, you can see, her number, 45, better than either Biden's or some of the other people we tested like Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsom, or Gretchen Whitmer.

Now, obviously, elections are not national popularity contests. It's state by state. And when you dig into the states, it tells a little bit of an interesting story. I want to look at Virginia. Now, Virginia, you might say hasn't been a swing state in a while since before Barack Obama. Joe Biden won it by 10 points here. But lately, things have been pretty close. If you look at the latest poll out of Virginia, the New York Times/Siena poll, no clear leader. Biden up by two. That's nowhere near the 10 points he won by. It tested Kamala Harris also in Virginia, the Times did. She was leading Donald Trump by four, no clear leader, but you can see, doing better than Donald Trump.

[21:35:00]

Why? I mean, why was she doing better than Biden against Trump? Well, it might be an issue of gender here. Joe Biden, you can see, leading among women in Virginia by 16 points. Democrats need to beat Republicans by a lot among women. Kamala Harris in that same poll, leading Donald Trump among women by 26 points -- or 23 points. That's a bigger gap. She is able to expand that lead among women, and the men sort of split about the same, Trump leaning Biden by 14 here, 16 among men there, Anderson. You can see maybe reason for hope among Democrats that Kamala Harris could do well among women.

COOPER: What impact could some of the potential running mates possibly have on the electoral map?

BERMAN: It's really interesting. Let me clear out the screen here. And we talk about the possible names being mentioned right now. Our Jamie Gangel and others have reported that some of the leading candidates right now include Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Roy Cooper, governor of North Carolina, Mark Kelly, Senator in Arizona, and Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania.

I'm going to move them down here, because what's interesting about these folks is many of them live in pretty interesting places, if you're trying to build an electoral map victory. Josh Shapiro, the popular governor of Pennsylvania, look at Pennsylvania. That's a state Joe Biden won by just over a point last time. Can be Josh Shapiro help expand that lead? That's something that could be exciting for Democrats. Same story for Mark Kelly in Arizona here, a state that Biden won by less than a point last time, maybe Kelly on the ticket makes Arizona easier for a potential presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Now, North Carolina is interesting. North Carolina is -- was the closest state that Joe Biden lost to Donald Trump. Would Roy Cooper, the retiring governor in North Carolina, let Democrats go on offense in a state that Republicans had been winning? That might be attractive. Now, one face on this list right here, not like the others, and that's Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky. Kentucky is the state that Donald Trump just crushed Joe Biden last time, 25 points. So, if you're picking Andy Beshear in Kentucky, you're not doing it for electoral math. You're doing it for other reasons there.

COOPER: John Berman, thanks so much.

Jake, back to you.

TAPPER: All right. Let's discuss with my panel. And Dana, we're getting some brand new reporting about the hours before President Biden made his decision and the data that his top aides showed him. Tell us more about that.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: So interesting. This is from our colleague, Phil Mattingly, who is reporting that the two closest allies and aides, almost like family to Joe Biden, you probably agree, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, were with the President in -- on Saturday, and gave him information that basically showed that there was no path to winning presidency.

TAPPER: Like not -- not just an error on zero.

BASH: Like non-existent --

TAPPER: Yeah.

BASH: -- is the word, basically non-existent. That's the quote from Phil's reporting here. And he says that it wasn't just a single poll number, but that it was the overall sort of collapsing of support, not just among the Democratic members, governors, House members, senators that were coming in one after another after another, but the underlying support also with the voters, which is what makes the most sense.

First of all, this was the straw that broke the camel's back, obviously. But, it's also interesting if you put it up against the reporting that we had just a day or two earlier, which was, despite the fact that you had all of this incoming to these two individuals but also to others in the Biden orbit about all kinds of data showing that the House will be gone. No chance of taking it back. The Senate will be gone. And it's almost impossible for President Biden to win the White House. The President himself, I was told explicitly, did not believe that data. Something changed on Saturday when he had, according to Phil's reporting, when he had different data presented to him, and he believed it.

TAPPER: Bakari Sellers, you've been working the phones as a proud Democrat. What are you hearing about the coalescing around Vice President Harris? Is this race basically over?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know if it's over, but we're doing the work necessary, which means that the first thing before you're coronated or crowned the nominee as you have to with these delegates, and you saw what happened in Tennessee. You're seeing what's happened in Louisiana, South Carolina, etc.

TAPPER: No. Tell us what is happening?

SELLERS: So, what happens is, I mean, like, earlier today, I was on the phone with Chokwe Lumumba, who is the mayor of Mississippi -- with Frank Scott -- who is the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, Frank Scott, who is the mayor of Little Rock, Randall Woodfin, mayor of Birmingham. I mean, you get all of these people together and you're like, look, we need to go out and get these delegates. Helena Moreno, the City Council person down in New Orleans, or Nikki Fried, who is the state party chair in Florida.

[21:40:00]

And so, anyone who wants to challenge Kamala Harris is going to have to have an infrastructure in place to be able to whip these delegates and go do that.

And on a broader scheme, just to kind of piggyback on what -- on the statement that you just mentioned, I think that you can see what Kamala Harris represents in terms of the historical nature. What we have to do now is sell her as someone who is battle-worn and battle- tested and won those battles. We have to be able to articulate that she was a DA, an attorney general, where there is a question about crime in communities today.

We have to talk about her leadership on bringing us out of COVID and all the things and develop her in Joe Biden's agenda and successes. And I think she is someone who can actually energize his base and bring those things out. And our job is to kind of make sure that we bring that energy, because as David probably will tell you, there is going to be a question about things like, what happens with white voters? Joe Biden overperformed with white voters compared to other Democrats. How do we pick that up? And Kamala and the team are now thinking about what that looks like.

BASH: Can I just add one thing, because what we're seeing happened so fast is what you're talking about, effectively the grassroots, the delegates, the people who matter, who are going to not only vote for her for the nomination, but also do the work for her. That's happening, thanks to people like you and others who have been longtime supporters of Kamala Harris. And in the meantime, yes, we're seeing a lot of House members, governors, senators coming out very, very quickly, saying that they support her for the nomination.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, the -- Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic Leader, are intentionally pulling back, not that they don't want her, but they're intentionally pulling back because they don't want it to look like a coronation. They want it to look like a groundswell from the grassroots, and they feel that if they put their thumb on the scale right now, it will be maybe overkill.

TAPPER: So, Kate Bedingfield, this is from the leading pro-Trump super PAC. They've already announced plans to run their first attack ad against Vice President Harris in battleground states. Here is some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kamala was in on it. She covered up Joe's obvious mental decline.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our President is in good shape and good health, tireless, vibrant, and I have no doubt about the strength of the work that we have got.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But, Kamala knew Joe couldn't do the job. So, she did it. Look what she got done. A border invasion, runaway inflation, the American dream dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think this is more of a bank-shot argument if Joe Biden is not the nominee. I mean, I think, look, signaled they're going to do this. There is no question, and we saw on some of the polling that presumably was moving members over the last week that voters were saying, I don't know if I trust you when you vouch that Joe Biden is healthy. So, I think, no question they're going to go at this line of attack. I think it's -- it becomes a bank shot when Joe Biden is not the nominee.

I also think we have to remember, we have to get back to the fundamentals of this race. Donald Trump himself is also an incredibly unpopular nominee. And by potentially Vice President Harris becoming the nominee, you remove the single biggest challenge that Democrats had in taking Trump on directly, which was this notion that voters thought that Biden was too old, and you've kind of -- you take that off the table. The Republicans can continue to argue this on the margins. But, in Kamala Harris, you're going to have somebody who is going to be able to take the case directly to Trump, and remind people what the swing voters were going to determine the outcome of this election, what they don't like about Donald Trump.

So, I think, look, they're going to keep making this argument. To me, it is not as powerful with Joe Biden not at the top of the ticket.

TAPPER: Shermichael, do you think -- I've heard a lot of Democrats say that this decision changes the focus and puts it back on Donald Trump, Joe Biden stepping down, Kamala Harris becoming the nominee, presumably, and Donald Trump is now the oldest presidential --

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, & CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. Sure.

TAPPER: -- candidate -- nominee in the history of the United States. And though, certainly people not asking the same questions about him that they were asking about President Biden, he also is not who he was 10 years ago, 15 years ago.

SINGLETON: I mean, that's an interesting question. I mean, I'm a strategist. So, I look at the data. I look at the numbers. In 2020, Donald Trump won suburban voters by four points. However, 55 percent of Joe Biden's coalition were suburban voters. However, it was younger voters, African American voters, Latino voters that really helped push him over the threshold. So, if I'm looking at that underperformance by Trump with Biden, but the likelihood that Harris will potentially underperform unlike Biden with suburban voters, I see potential for Donald Trump there. I also beg the question of how well will Kamala Harris perform with younger men, particularly younger men of color? I think that's going to be a real question for Democrats. If I'm Trump, I'm strategically focused on that group as well.

[21:45:00]

So, I do think quantitatively speaking here, Jake, there are some groups that as a strategist I would absolutely put all of my focus on in terms of penetrating to move where I think there is real movement potentially for Donald Trump.

SELLERS: Can I just respond to that briefly? Because I do think that people are going to come and do punditry and question Kamala Harris's ability to woo black men and Hispanic men to her coalition. And what you're seeing her do is put black men at the forefront of whatever campaign may be. There is a call going on right now with over 1,000 black men on zoom, over 3,000 black women. And what she is trying to do is say, I hear you.

But, even more importantly, that ad that you just showed, Jake, and one of the reasons that that ad is not going to resonate is it's a problem that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden had together, which is that they both tended to look backwards. That ad is talking about Joe Biden's age, Joe Biden's failures, the things that Joe Biden was unable to do. One of the things Kamala Harris has to do when you go big in a campaign like this is make sure that you're forward looking and saying, look, it's not about what this country was or what it is, but it's about what this country can be. Donald Trump cannot do that because he is a prisoner of his age. Kamala Harris can.

(CROSSTALK)

BEDINGFIELD: Can I just say quickly, it's not just messaging. The Trump campaign now has to pivot presumably all of their modeling, their data. I mean, there are other elements to campaigning. It's not just messaging. They were planning to run against Joe Biden. Now, it's a different ballgame.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: We're out of time. But, I don't know what our plans are for the next hour, but I'm not going anywhere. Thanks, everyone.

Coming up next, Biden's decision to not run for reelection feels unprecedented. But, Doris Kearns Goodwin is going to join us next to explain how Lyndon Johnson faced a similar-ish decision in 1968, and what the historical consequences of LBJ not running for reelection were. Stay with us.

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[21:50:00]

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COOPER: And our breaking news, President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race, endorsing his Vice President Kamala Harris. Here is how the historic moment is being captured on the new cover of Time magazine. It shows her literally stepping into frame as President Biden steps out.

We're going to get some perspective now from Pulitzer prize-winning presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Her latest book is "An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s." So, Doris, as always, on remarkable days, we turn to you. What went through your mind when you heard about President Biden's announcement?

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN, & AUTHOR, "AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE 1960S": I think the first thing that went through my mind is having lived with presidents for the last half century, I know that this is one of the hardest decisions they could possibly make. I mean, every President wants their administration to be endorsed. They want to finish the job. It's what Abraham Lincoln said in 1864, it mattered even more to him, he said, to win the second election than the first because it would show that people cared about what he had done. And like Biden said over and over again, I want to finish the job.

But, I guess what also went through my head was the thought that he was particularly hard for President Biden, because he has always come back from these tough situations before. We've seen it time and time again. And he must have believed in these last three weeks for part of that time, I've done it before, I can do it again, until what I guess will come out more and more in these days ahead. My guess is that the reports that came in from the congressman who talked about what their constituents were feeling in the field, that the perception of age and health is something you can't come back with by will, by hard work, and by your whole history of resilience. It's just there. And once that became part of it, then he was able to make the decision that it was better to concentrate on the presidency, as he said, and then focus on that, and allow the campaign to go forward.

And I would guess, if anything, he is feeling a great sense of relief tonight. The tensions must have been enormous. As I know, they were for LBJ. And when that decision is finally made, then the anger, the sense of betrayal, what am I going to do, it's over, and then you're going to get accolades, as I suspect we're already seeing for him, and he can bask in that and rightly in these days ahead.

COOPER: You worked with LBJ. I mean, you knew him well, obviously. Talk about the decision that he made and the impact that it had on him.

GOODWIN: I think it was the hardest decision he ever had to make. I mean, he was a man, like Biden, whose entire life had been in politics. It was said that his decision to withdraw was almost like political suicide for somebody for whom that was their whole life. But, he felt he had to do so. In his case what it was, was the Tet Offensive had occurred at the end of January and it really taken away the notion that the war could be won by more and more troops going away. So, he knew that he had to somehow wind the war down. But, the only way that could be believed is if you were not a candidate for President.

And also, unlike Biden, he was still running for election, but he was in a contest, and with McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy, and he was not doing well in that contest. Anyway, he comes to the speech performance that night and thunderstruck was the nation because they were not expecting this. He started talking about winding down the war. He started talking about going to the peace table. And then he said, with our sons in faraway fields and the challenges at home, I don't want to devote a single day of my life to other than the presidential duties, the same thing that President Biden talked about in his letter.

And then what happened is, the next day, he goes out on the field. People are clapping for him. The anger that they had felt to him was dissipated. Every review, every editorial said he had put principle about politics, that he had been selfless. In his 37 years, he'd never done anything like this. And he said three days later, when the North Vietnamese agreed to come to the bargaining table, that it was the happiest he had ever been. So, it all seemed great.

But then what happens is that fate intervened. He was ready to go to Hawaii to talk to the generals over there and begin the peace talks, negotiations. And then he gets a message the night he was prepared to go, the whole White House plane is filled with aides (ph), etc., that Martin Luther King had been shot. And then everything seemed to change after that, riots in the cities. Bobby Kennedy killed two months later, the war continuing on, and then that crazy Democratic Convention in 1968. But, I think this echoes for President Biden and what he is going to receive in these next days ahead, relief and accolades.

COOPER: Lyndon Johnson's popularity soared after he made that announcement.

GOODWIN: Exactly. So, in fact, his support was only like 36 percent, 35 percent at the time before the announcement, much like President Biden's. It went up from 56 percent disapproval to 56 percent approval in several matters of days.

[21:55:00]

So, it showed that the people were longing for a change. They were longing for somebody to be a leader and take control of the situation and seemingly moving forward for the benefit of the country. And I suspect we're going to see that in these days ahead as well.

COOPER: What do you think President Biden's legacy will be as opposed to what it might have been if he had stayed in the race and lost?

GOODWIN: I think if he had stayed in the race and lost a lot of that legacy, even though it's concrete, would have been hurt, because people would have felt that he was doing it for his own reasons rather than for the country, even if he believed that he was the best person that could win the race. But now, as it is, even though fate may intervene again, we have no idea whether or not whoever comes forward, if it is Vice President Harris, who she may lose in their own right, but at least it won't be him who loses it.

And the interesting thing for, I think, President Biden is some of his legacy is already being talked about. I mean, historians, they start talking about it right away. In the last presidential poll this year, they brought him up to number 14, which is like one third of the President -- the top one third of the presidents. So, he knows that. I mean, other presidents don't know that until much later, when President Carter lost that reelection campaign. He was so sad about the fact that, I can't finish what I was trying to do. Same with Bush 41. He said he was afraid he'd be an asterick in history because he couldn't finish what he had wanted to do. And he worried that he'd let down his supporters. Both of them thankfully lived long enough to see that they were held in great esteem by their countrymen.

Biden already knows that. So, I think he'll be able to go to sleep tonight knowing that and knowing the relief that I think Lyndon Johnson felt.

COOPER: Doris Kearns Goodwin, thank you so much.

GOODWIN: Thank you.

COOPER: It's great to have you on.

Ahead, two big factors that forced the President's decision, endorsements and donations, and now President Biden dropping out and getting behind Kamala Harris is now changing both, when our special coverage continues.

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