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Biden Exits 2024 Race, Puts "Full Support" Behind Kamala Harris; VP Kamala Harris Says She Will "Earn And Win" Nomination; Democratic Group "Act Blue" Raised $46.7M Today For VP Harris Run; VP Harris Locking In Delegates, Endorsements, And Donations; Tonight: Thousands Of Black Women Hold Call To Support Harris; Trump And Harris Neck-And-Neck In A CNN "Poll Of Polls": Biden Exits 2024 Race, Puts "Full Support" Behind Kamala Harris; Trump Super PAC Airs Harris Attack Ads In Battleground States. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired July 21, 2024 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:00:42]
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, I'm Laura Coates in Washington, D.C. as we continue covering the breaking news of this very historic day in America. And we are indeed witnessing history. I mean, period, full stop. When we talk about the possibility of it happening, people were tripping over themselves to tell you the world about what was going on behind closed doors, weren't they?
And it wasn't clear whether Democrats wouldn't take yes or no for an answer from Biden. But tonight, it's official. President Joe Biden bowing out of the 2024 race, but he didn't stop there with that announcement or leave any room to wonder whether he truly believed in his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
He immediately gave a ringing endorsement of her to replace him, saying, quote, "Democrats, it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this." And do this, the donors did. The floodgates opening tonight with all the fundraisers. Democrats raising, get this, more than $46 million and counting in small dollar donations in just the hours since the announcement.
I'm going to get right to CNN Correspondent Priscilla Alvarez. She's been in Rehoboth with the President of the United States. Priscilla, what more are you learning about the President's decision and how all of this unfolded today?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Laura, it has been a remarkable day that has now shaken the 2024 presidential election. The President, up until this weekend, was defiant that he was staying in the presidential race, including his top brass taking to the airwaves today to say he wasn't going anywhere.
But as the President was self-isolating in his Delaware residence after his positive COVID diagnosis, he was also reflecting. We're now learning that on Saturday evening, he summoned his top advisers to his Rehoboth Beach home where they huddled and they assessed the polling and what Democratic lawmakers had been saying over the last several weeks as they were calling for him to step aside.
And it was during those moments that the President began to come to the decision that he was going to drop out of the presidential race, then came today. And the President deciding to tell a wider team, the senior White House and campaign team that he had indeed come to that decision that he was going to drop out of the race.
He told them a minute before posting that letter publicly that he was no longer going to seek re-election. So this really was a remarkable moment and one that came together quite quickly after what has been weeks of the campaign trying to face these headwinds from Democratic lawmakers, allies, donors, who said the President just wasn't up to the task to go up against former President Donald Trump.
Now, of course, after the President released that letter, he also said that he was going to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and urge the Democratic Party to come together and support her. Now, sources also tell me that the Vice President did not learn about the President's decision until today.
And over the course of the day, they spoke multiple times. The Vice President then having to work the phones herself. She has been calling members of Congress, civil rights leaders, as well as governors to try to get their endorsements. One of those endorsements being from Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
I'm told she called the chair saying that she wanted to earn the nomination and have their support. And that is indeed what she got today. Now, the first time we're going to see the Vice President since this announcement will be tomorrow when she celebrates the NCAA Championships at the White House.
The President is still self-isolating. The White House doctor says he's doing better but he is still behind closed doors here in Delaware.
COATES: So, we've heard, obviously, and read this really political Dear John letter, Priscilla, when will we actually hear from President Biden? You hearing anything about that?
ALVAREZ: The White House has not yet said when exactly the President is going to address the nation. As you mentioned in that letter, the President makes a note to say that he is going to address the nation. We have been asking for when that speech is expected to happen.
[23:05:08]
It is still unclear. Of course, the President has been recovering from COVID. And while we have been getting routine updates from the White House doctor, that he is starting to feel better and that his symptoms, according to the doctor today, have improved significantly.
It's still very unclear when he's going to return to the White House and when he's going to address the nation. But there is no doubt that there will be a lot of eyeballs on that speech because today, while making a seismic shift in his campaign, we still have not seen or heard from the President directly outside of that letter. Laura?
COATES: Priscilla, thank you so much.
I want to continue the conversation now with CNN Contributor and Author of "Joe Biden: The Life, The Run, and What Matters Now," Evan Osnos, CNN political commentators, Ashley Allison, Bakari Sellers, Maria Cardona, and former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh. A full panel because a really, really big moment.
Evan, let me go to you first because, you know, we've heard a lot about what may have gone into this decision. Certainly, President Biden is not immune to the conversations. He knows what's been going on. We're told he'd been huddling with his two closest advisers early as yesterday, and they showed him that there was no path to victory.
Look, knowing Biden as you do, how excruciating do you think the last three weeks, let alone 48 hours have been for him?
EVAN OSNOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, you have to think about, Laura, what it takes to decide to run for president. You have to believe that you can and not only that, but you must be the president, which is just especially grueling under the last three weeks in which, in effect, his own party, the party to which he's devoted his professional life, was telling him this period is coming to an end.
And I -- you know, in the last few days, you heard signs of him digging in, as people said, you know, this was bringing out the Irish in him. But the reality was when he was faced with the cold, hard facts of his political path from the two people who he truly does trust with his political life, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti. It was inescapable.
And -- but I can tell you that really, even today when he was breaking the news on a Zoom call with members of the White House staff, it was stunning for some people. For some, it was felt like a bitter defeat for others. It felt like a relief. And I think for everybody, it felt like the next phase has already begun.
COATES: Do you know when he broke that news on the Zoom call, what was his demeanor like?
OSNOS: It was somber. He read his letter word for word. You know, he really wasn't ready yet to do the pep talk, which he will need to do. I mean, the next step in the process for, is for him to try to bring people together behind Kamala Harris, who he has endorsed.
But that was not the mood he was in today. As somebody said to me who was on the call, you could see that he has been wrestling with this. After all, he's been down with COVID. It's the comedy. It is really a rare moment, Laura. It's one of those rare moments in American politics that comes around only occasionally when you see somebody do the big hard thing, which is putting themselves ultimately behind the country and the party. And I think at a time when it's pretty dispiriting in American politics, that's something to take note of, even as we begin to think about the political calculations.
COATES: I mean, it's been decades, Truman, LBJ, now Biden, who will have his own place in history as somebody who did not seek re-election in this contest.
We bring in Ashley here because, look, you are a Biden-Harris 2020 alum. And I have been dying to know what was your reaction because we've had this conversation about -- you know, everyone's been talking around and about Biden. What was your reaction that he actually bowed out of this race and then a full throated endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris?
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, in full transparency, I was taking a nap when it happened. And my mom came in and said, he's out. But first before I do that, I want to say thank you to Joe Biden. I worked for him to get him re-elected as vice president. I worked for him when he was vice president, and I worked to help get him elected in transition into the White House.
And so when the stories are written about what leadership looks like, Joe Biden's name will be first in line. So thank you for what you have done for America, for black people, and for the world writ large.
So two things happened. You know, Bakari deals with a lot of the elected officials and I work with some more movement groups and organizing groups. First, the text was he's out. And then a couple of minutes later, it was he endorsed Kamala. And my phone went wild. I'm excuse, excuse me, the future president of the United States.
It went wild and people were excited. I'm talking about leaders that run some of the largest grassroots organizations in the moment. And I was in Ohio earlier today celebrating my Aunt Gwynn (ph) 70th birthday. Happy birthday, Aunt Gwynn (ph). And had to rush back here.
And in the moment, I was having a conversation with my mom, and she reminded me when Barack Obama was running in 2008. And as a older black person who was afraid for the first black president of the United States, I said, mom, he can win if people like you support him. And she reminded me.
[23:10:05]
And so for the last couple of weeks post-debate, she's been saying, what do we do? Well, at 10:59 tonight, she texts me for the first time she got on the wind with black women call where 34 black women are organizing for Kamala --
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thousand.
ALLISON: -- 34,000.
SELLERS: I think you forgot the --
ALLISON: I've never been good at math.
SELLERS: That was just -- it's only 34.
ALLISON: I've never been good at math. Don't hold it against me. But no, 34,000 black women are in formation who helped get her elected in 2020, who helped get Ketanji Brown Jackson's seat secured on the Supreme Court, and will help elect the first black president -- female black president in the United States.
So, there are people who read polls. And then there are people who read people. And in a moment like this, the polls are not going to be able to harness what is actually happening in our communities and our culture. And it's not going to be an easy fight, but it's a fight folks are ready to have.
COATES: I mean, Bakari, momentum is on her side in the way that she's describing right now. But there are those who are still naysayers who are going to look at this and, number one, point out the space between he's out and the next text that he endorsed her and collective breaths being held.
The other part what people saying, well, hold on a second. I mean, this is a coronation. This is not a competitive process. What do you say to those people?
SELLERS: Well, it's open primary, that's about over, OK? I mean, and part of that is because of the work that the Kamala Harris was able to do today, the campaign. You know, many of us have been, you know, making sure that people know that we stand with Joe Biden. But if he makes the personal decision that he doesn't want to run, then we have to be able to galvanize behind her pretty quickly. And that was executed pretty flawlessly. So that's first.
Second, we can see that the history that Kamala Harris represents, right? We can see that she will be the first African-American woman and all those other things. What -- and that energy will come. What we have to do, though, is go out and build these coalitions of other voters and bring them into the fold.
COATES: I mean, this 47 -- almost $47 million, we're seeing --
SELLERS: I mean, it's going up from that to, that ain't nothing to shake a stick at. But I think where we were for the past three weeks are talking about issues that was incoming or headwinds and we weren't able to delve into a contrast. And so now, for example, you're going to have Kamala Harris who believes that women should have the right to do with their bodies as they please between a decision of their doctor, whoever they pray to in their family, whereas Donald Trump is somebody who put three justices on the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade.
You're going to be able to talk about Project 2025 in the fact that Kamala Harris is running against now, who is the oldest person to ever seek the office of president of the United States. And so, you know, Donald Trump is a vessel for white grievance. And he looks in the past often. Joe Biden actually had a nostalgia for the past. And so he oftentimes looked in the past too. Now you have a campaign and you have Kamala Harris who I'm echoing to anyone who will listen, you don't really have to mention Donald Trump's name that often because we can see the contrast. But you have to be able to articulate a vision for the future. And I think she'll be able to do that clearly.
And their first ad, Trump's first ad tonight was about what did she know? When did she know? What about yesterday and Joe Biden? It wasn't even about a future under Donald Trump. We have to focus and tell people what America will look like under Kamala Harris.
And then she has to get outside of D.C., something she's been doing, and she has to go to these suburbs, these excerpts and someplace that Democrats don't like to go, which bothers me. They got to go to rural America and talk to these rural voters, and they got to tell them what they can do for them.
COATES: You know, on that point, that is what Former President Trump thinks that J.D. Vance can do for him, to talk about the Rust Belt in rural America. There was a lot of talk about this split screen before about J.D. Vance and Vice President Kamala Harris. Now we're seeing it's a very different split screen to Bakari's point.
But by him bowing out right now, does this really propel Vice President Kamala Harris? I know the delegates are coming in saying that they're going to be behind her. Is he putting her now in the best position to win?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think absolutely he is. And we've talked so much about what President Biden's legacy will be and everyone who was trying to get him to bow out kept focusing on his legacy and that it's so historic and everything he's done for the country. I think this will be one of them.
He certainly, you know, put the Black woman, first black woman on the Supreme Court. We always talk about that. Obviously chose the first black woman to be VP. And now he is going to be part of the reason why she becomes president of the United States. That's not to take away anything from what she has done herself, because her road to here has also been incredibly historic.
And so, yes, I think he has absolutely put her in a position to do that. But I want to mention sort of on the same track of where Ashley and Bakari were going about what this means, what she means, to the people of this country.
[23:15:04]
The night that Donald Trump gave his speech, it was so dark and so offensive to so many communities, Latino communities, immigrant communities. I got texts from a lot of my immigrant friends saying, Donald Trump just put a target on my family's back because of all of the lies that he was telling about immigrants.
Kamala Harris, the next president of the United States, will be able to take that target and turn it around and use it as a shield. Because she has been part and parcel of what President Biden and she have put in place to expand legal pathways for mixed families to become citizens. So many immigrants that have been here for years without papers. She has been part of that.
She was also part of reuniting families that Donald Trump had made orphans and had ripped apart. She was a part of that. So much of what she has done and will continue to do will be part and parcel of why so many families in this country will be supporting her.
COATES: I do wonder whether they will lead with immigration because that's been the Achilles heel of so many successive and consecutive presidential candidates going back decades at this point in time. And she was heavily criticized at the beginning of her own administration about this very point.
But I hear your point --
CARDONA: She can turn this around.
COATES: She -- well that's the point.
CARDONA: She can absolutely turn this around because of all the reasons I told you. And, by the way, people should know that today, illegal crossings are lower than they were when Donald Trump left office. And that has got to be something that we repeat over and over and over again. So this really horrendous lie that they're going to use as attacking her as the borders are, is just not going to work.
COATES: You know, I am curious, because one thing I keep seeing online and everywhere, when this news of her getting this endorsement and now officially, likely being the Democratic nominee saved something drastic from happening is this idea of a debate between Trump and Kamala Harris, the prosecutor against the convicted felon.
The idea -- many people remember then Senator Kamala Harris when she would be this unbelievable firecracker who would stick it to everyone, who would come into her hearing, who dared not to answer the questions that she laid before them. And you have to wonder about how this will play up.
And actually Joe, she was asked once about what it would be like to debate Donald Trump, who, by the way, right now, is saying that there might not -- this isn't fair to even debate her. Listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's very important that anyone who presents themselves as a leader and wants to be a leader will speak like a leader, and that means speaking with integrity. It means speaking truth. It means speaking --
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: -- and speaking in a way that expresses and indicates some level of interest and concern in people other than oneself. And --
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And so right there we will see a great contrast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: That was 2019 obviously, when she was first running for president. How do you think that matchup will look now?
FORMER REP. JOE WALSH (R), ILLINOIS: I don't know that there'll be a matchup because I don't know that Trump will want to debate her.
COATES: You think he might not?
WALSH: Oh, I absolutely think he might not. This needs to be said, though, to what Ashley said. Joe Biden did something today that Donald Trump is humanly incapable of doing. He put his country first. I don't think -- Laura, I don't think the Trump campaign is going to know how to deal with Kamala Harris. I really don't.
They built the entire campaign to go after Biden. Trump struggles with women, strong women. He's going to have a hard time with Kamala Harris. And I would be very surprised if Trump got up on a debate stage with her.
SELLERS: Can I --
COATES: Evan -- oh --
SELLERS: Oh I'm sorry.
COATES: I have one question with --
SELLERS: Oh I forgot we had Evan. Hi, Evan.
COATES: I know. I don't want to -- Evan, we don't -- we want to bring you in, that's -- and I'm going to go to Bakari.
SELLERS: Sipping on Camel milk (ph).
COATES: He's probably at this point in time. Evan, let me ask you, how often you think we're going to see Biden on this campaign trail now?
OSNOS: Yes, well, that's the thing about this. You know, it's -- you now have this interesting situation where you have more principles available on the Democratic side than you have on the Republican side. You have Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, eventually her running mate, Barack Obama, perhaps Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
You have a huge number of people who are, in a sense, now putting a shoulder to the wheel. It's a very different situation than -- if you can remember the lineup on the Republican side in the night of the actual nomination when you had -- let's face it, not exactly, Hulk Hogan with a distinguished record in office. So look, this is going to become a much -- as Joe was saying, I think it's going to be a much harder case for the Trump campaign to improvise, figure out how it is that they're going to change the entire message that they've been running on. And, look, this is a fact that Joe Biden just did something that Americans on some basic level, whether they agree with his policies or not, they will admire the fact that he put himself behind the interests of the country, behind the interests of even his party. And, you know, it's worth pausing and recognizing that.
[23:20:04]
COATES: Got the lawyer in me has to play devil's advocate, Bakari. Because I'm seeing a lot of people who are on the other side of the aisle from Joe Biden suggesting that it wasn't magnanimous. But this is some part of a coup or cover up. What do you say to them?
SELLERS: First of all, my advice would be something my mom always says, which is that the devil don't need no advocates. He's been doing just fine, OK? You know, I think that people will see the process. And one of the things Kamala Harris said in her statements was that she wanted to earn it.
And she's been making more phone calls today than she's probably made as vice president in her tenure. I mean, just dialing, dialing, talking to people, whether or not it's thank you. I want to earn your support. But Evan actually brought up a really good point. And this is something that I'm going to hone in on for the next 3.5 months because we can talk about the history of Kamala Harris.
But there has to be something -- it has to be a plus, a value added to win this election. And one of the things I've been thinking about is that the Tucker Carlson's of the world, many of our colleagues on Fox News, they've been sowing fear since January of 2009 when Barack Obama got elected.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
SELLERS: And this type of fear has been palpable, and it's very divisive. And so when you see a convention where you have -- I think the biggest dichotomy is that you have like Amber Rose and a bunch of black elected officials from the Republican Party on Monday, and then on Thursday, you have Hulk Hogan who got fired from WWE for saying the word nigger. And all in between, it is nothing but fear and cultivating that fear.
Kamala Harris, one of the things she has to do when she's talking about Donald Trump, particularly when you're going into not just my kids and not just our communities, but to these white folk.
COATES: Yes.
SELLERS: You got to be able to talk to these white folk and say, look, I am a candidate of hope. Now we don't have to go hope and change all Barack Obama, although if we could do it, if it works, do it again. But she has to envelop her message in that the future under me as a white person who farms corn, or a white person who is on the labor lines in Michigan, or is somebody who was in Arizona who is on Medicaid trying to make ends meet, this election is about hope.
You don't have to be scared every day of somebody who looks like Maria, right? You don't have to be scared of somebody whose last name is Cardona, right? Bakari Sellers is not a threat to you.
COATES: That's right.
SELLERS: Right? But what we can do is if we find some unifying bond together, then we can build this country on hope, not fear. And that's the difference. We don't have to talk about the rapist and the felon and all this other stuff. We know who Donald Trump is. Kamala Harris has to define herself as the candidate of hope.
ALLISON: She can do that. She can absolutely do that. It is not us against them.
SELLERS: Correct.
ALLISON: It is America against Donald Trump that quite honestly. And --
WALSH: Which you're right, Bakari. She has to say we're better than what what --
ALLISON: Yes.
WALSH: We're better that and that.
ALLISON: Yes. We can turn the page in our country --
WALSH: Yes.
ALLISON: -- to a brighter day --
WALSH: Yes, we're better.
ALLISON: -- and that is not under Donald Trump.
COATES: I'll be so curious to see what message is conveyed the way it is and the timeline we're talking about seems like it's pretty short to be able to convince -- convey and demonstrate one's identity.
Everyone stay with me right here. I'm going to take a short break. But when I come back, I'll be joined by a Democratic Congresswoman, Barbara Lee. What does she think of her fellow Californian leading the top of the ticket? And does she think America is ready to do what it has never done before? Put a woman in the White House.
We'll talk about it next on this Sunday night. Well, you're in the CNN Newsroom.
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[23:28:11] COATES: Well, you know, since Biden's decision not to seek re- election, we're talking hours ago at this point, there has been a significant push for Democrats to rally around Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's nominee. But the big question everyone's asking in the days to come is, will the Democrats fall in line behind her?
Well Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California joins us now. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us this evening. I am dying to know what you make of President Joe Biden's decision not to seek re-election any longer.
REP. BARBARA LEE (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, thanks so much for having me this evening. First of all, I think, you know, President Biden put country over self. And I think it's -- we need to take a moment today, especially to thank him, owe him a debt of gratitude for what he has done in throughout his life as the 30, 40, 50-year public servant in the elected office, but also as president and vice president.
I mean, he is a transformational president. Not everyone agreed with everything he did, but I could tell you one thing, life is much better for so many people. I mean, just think $35 capping insulin, 15 million jobs, the largest and boldest climate policy ever. And he focused on racial equity and economic equity and justice, reproductive freedom.
I mean, there was so many initiatives and the policies that he championed that may or may not have been popular. But I can tell you one thing, he worked for the people. And we really need to take this moment and say, thank you, Mr. President, we owe you a debt of gratitude.
COATES: He certainly will be defined as the public servant that I know that he hopes to be and is and has remained. And this is a moment of such significance.
[23:30:00]
Congresswoman, to think that he now falls behind two prior presidents not seeking re-election, just likes of Truman and LBJ, obviously for very different reasons. But he not only said he was not going to seek re-election, he gave a full-throated endorsement of his vice president, Kamala Harris. Are you going to endorse her?
REP. BARBARA LEE (D), CALIFORNIA: I already endorsed her, Laura. I endorsed her when she ran for president, actually, the first time. I think I was the first member of Congress to endorse her then. And she's ready. She's experienced. She's been in the White House three and a half years. And she knows what she's doing, and she cares about people.
She cares about young people. She cares about people who haven't been seen. She cares about the middle class. You know, she cares about making sure that our democracy is protected. Here we have a convicted felon who's trying to destroy our democracy. Vice President Kamala Harris is a prosecutor.
I mean, look at the comparison there. Here you have someone who's trying to establish a dictatorship, who's a pathological liar. Here we have a woman of integrity, someone who is experienced, someone who's ready, someone who can hit the ground running, and someone that I hope the party -- and I believe that the party will unify around and move forward and make sure we connect with voters and make sure that we win.
It's not going to be easy. We all have to do our part.
COATES: Excuse me, I didn't want to talk over you, Congresswoman. My apologies.
LEE: That's OK.
COATES: But, you know, the numbers, the donations that are coming in, I mean, the -- since the announcement, you've got the progressive fundraising group, ActBlue, said that they have raised $46.7 million. And these are just in the hours since Joe Biden withdrew. They are saying this is the largest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle.
This says a lot about enthusiasm where there has been a gap before. But then there are some who are using the word coronation. They're saying, is this the way to do this? Should there be a contested convention? People are certainly rallying around her in the donation, and certainly delegates seem to be attempting to commit their own delegates to her. Do you think that there will be the unification around her in the days going forward to avoid a contested convention?
LEE: First of all, Laura, I'm a member of the DNC, and we have a process and we have rules. And I can guarantee you, we are following the processes and the rules. And we are, look, naturally counting delegates. There are those of us who've endorsed her who want her to be the nominee.
She's ready. She's prepared. But we have to do the work. And I tell you, people are excited about her becoming the nominee and the DNC, and the processes will be adhered to -- there's no coronation going on. I mean, come on. We have a short amount of time to do this. We have to connect with the voters, and we have to make sure that we beat Donald Trump. And so, as a member of the DNC, I know all of us are adhering to the rules and the processes and will move forward accordingly.
COATES: You know, many black women across this country, dare I say globe, have seen a similar pattern play out, where somebody has earned their position and earned the seat that they are in, even if they had to drag a chair to that particular table. And then there are those who will question whether they ought to be there.
She is in, frankly, going to be in line for a number of very extraordinary vitriol. A woman in politics you well know, a black woman in politics you know even better. How do you think the electorate, and frankly, her opponent now, Donald Trump, is going to approach her?
LEE: Laura, you know I know.
COATES: I know you do.
LEE: I've been in the elected office 26 years in Congress, seven and a half in the legislature, worked for a member of Congress as its top staff person for 11 years. And so, the challenges are there. But quite frankly, I know that, as Dr. Maya Angelou said, and still we rise. This is about unifying everyone. It's about connecting with the voters.
No one is going into this looking at it through rose-colored glasses. Vice President Kamala Harris is prepared and she's ready. And she's a woman of color. She's a black woman. She's a Southeast Asian woman whose mother was from India, who's raised in a multicultural environment, who understands people of other cultures, who understands the world in which we live, who understands foreign policy and national security issues.
She's ready. She's prepared. And people have to, you know, understanding the barriers and challenges that black women constantly face. We have to fight through those. We have to push through those. And those of us, and I hope everyone, is ready to do this. And I was on the call for a while, 34,000 35,000 black women tonight. I mean, people are ready.
[23:35:01]
You know, black women lead. And we know how to form alliances because we know that Vice President Kamala Harris fights for everyone. She sees those who are poor. You know, I work on issues around poverty. Poverty is endemic in so many communities and low-income and poor white communities and disproportionately impacted in communities of color.
Lifting people out of poverty, child tax credit, children's poverty, hunger, all those issues cross -- cut across lines. So I think she can speak to constituencies all across the country, especially in those states where she has to win because she connects with people, she cares about people, and she sees people. And we have to just fight hard. We don't have a lot of time, but we're going to do it.
COATES: Well, there's less than, what, a month in the DNC, about 107 days until the election. There's a lot of time that can pass. I'll be very curious to see how she is reintroduced to the electorate now as possibly top of that ticket.
LEE: Remember Shirley Chisholm. Remember Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for president in 1972. That's how I got involved in politics. That's why I registered to vote. And she went to that convention, and she was a major, major player at that convention and paved the way for this day. And so we cannot let the legacy of Shirley Chisholm be disappointed in this moment.
And so we've got a lot of work to do, but we're going to do it.
COATES: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and to all the women who've had to drag a chair to their own table, thank you so much.
LEE: Thank you so much. Nice being with you.
COATES: Well, a CNN poll of polls average finds that Kamala Harris is, in fact, neck and neck with Donald Trump, within the margin of error, I should add, in a hypothetical matchup between the two. I mean, it's only been a few hours since there was actually the announcement that she would possibly be the person to do that.
And there are these six polls connected by CNN in June. It includes a CBS/YouGov poll taken after the assassination attempt on Trump.
Well, joining us now is Pollster and Communications Strategist Frank Luntz. Thank you for being here. Frank, I mean, listen, we were talking like two days ago about the potential of whether Biden would stay in the race or not. Now here we are, just like 48 hours later, and the entire landscape has changed.
But voters have been saying that they did not want a 2020 rematch, right? Well, they're not going to get one this time. How does this decision impact it?
FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIST: First off, landscape, you even changed sets.
COATES: I did.
LUNTZ: So I'm looking behind you. One minute we're looking at these colorful dots, and now we're looking at the White House.
COATES: Every now and then I got to change it up, you know?
LUNTZ: This does open it up. We have only 4 percent who are undecided between Trump and Biden. Now, as you look at those numbers, the undecideds have increased. The states that matter are still the same states -- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan. The voter equation to actually get to that -- to those states, has changed.
Republicans are still doing surprisingly well among working class voters. People who live paycheck to paycheck. But clearly the African- American vote is going to increase. The female votes can increase. For Harris, if I were advising her, I'd say focus on women 18 to 34. That Biden was not doing well among them because he didn't relate to them. And they couldn't relate to him.
They can absolutely relate to her. That's her advantage. Her disadvantage is being in charge of immigration. And you're going to hear that the Democrats are going to say that's an unfair charge. But it was her responsibility.
COATES: Well, it's an unfair charge. Obviously, just to make the point fine, successive presidential administrations have not been able to, quote, unquote, "solve" the problem of immigration. But voters see things very differently at times.
LUNTZ: And that's what's key. And I recognize the congresswoman's passion and intensity. And that's something that did not exist during the Biden campaign. And we're going to see a lot of that. But in the end, it's not their passion. It's what voters learn. So the question then becomes, can you name a specific success of this vice president?
And she does care. I agree with that. I understand that. But her caring is different than the voters knowing that she cares. In the end, it's not what she says. It's what they hear that matters. And she's got a way to go to defeat Donald Trump.
He's got a very high negative. So does she. He's got a lot of people that will not consider voting for him. So does she. In the end, it's going to be the double haters once again, who don't like Donald Trump's persona, who question whether she's ready for the job. And both of them are relevant and legitimate.
And it's going to be important for people like me not to put my finger on the scale, but to acknowledge what's really there. With him, it's his persona and some of his policies. With her, it's some of her policies rather than her persona. And you know what Trump's going to do.
[23:40:05]
All these ads of her laughing at interviews or her not knowing her brief. And for her, she's going to show Trump at his most anti-female responses and his most angry responses. I believe this will be the most negative campaign that we've ever witnessed.
And I am convinced that we're going to have a different turnout ratio than we would have had under Joe Biden. She's a better candidate, and Donald Trump needs to take her seriously. But she's still got a way to go to prove that she's ready for this job.
COATES: Let me ask you. First of all, I always kind of chuckle for some reason. There is something so offensive about a powerful woman laughing. I'll never quite understand why, but it offends so many people compared to a man.
But then you've got this idea before today. You and I, you were talking about different people who possibly would be a contender against Trump. And some of the names included New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, Maryland's Governor Wes Moore, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. It is an endorsement by Biden, though, for his vice president, Kamala Harris. Are any of these people now, in terms of a partnership of running mates, would that elevate her opportunities and chances?
LUNTZ: And I'd be looking at someone. I think the most likely vice presidential nominee is the governor of Pennsylvania.
COATES: Josh Shapiro, really?
LUNTZ: Yes, because he's -- this is a different situation. If she's the nominee, he makes perfect sense.
COATES: Why?
LUNTZ: Because that brings Pennsylvania. Josh Shapiro is popular in this state. That's one of the three states. And he understands the industrial Midwest, just as J.D. --
COATES: Vance.
LUNTZ: -- J.D. Vance, thank you. And that's what's going to matter most. These three states, working class voters, people with paycheck to paycheck, people who feel ignored, forgotten and left behind. And it's going to be which one, either Trump or Harris, can better connect themselves personally to the struggles that these people are having.
And it's real. 25 percent of them do live paycheck to paycheck. And it's unclear. I can't tell you as a pollster who's going to win this. I could have told you this three days ago, two days ago. I'm now as befuddled as everyone else, but I can promise you that the person who wins those three states is the person who is absolutely elected. And that working class paycheck to paycheck voter is the one who's going to make the difference.
COATES: I had to tell you something very energizing about the idea of not being able to predict the results in a democracy. That's certainly what it's supposed to be about.
Frank Luntz, thank you so much.
More of this unprecedented evening in American history when we come back.
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[23:47:22]
COATES: I am back here with my panel. Look, we just heard from Frank Luntz, who told us that polling for the undecided vote has increased today, making Trump no longer the clear leader. So, Bakari, I wonder, do you think it's going to be addressed by the Trump campaign?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. And I think they'll throw everything against the wall, whether it is the underbelly of what this country is or whether or not it's trying to hang immigration around her neck. It can be a number of those things.
And again, I mean, we win -- Democrats win on issues, right? We lose culture wars repeatedly, like that is just something we don't do. It's not our thing. You know, our former first lady said when they go low, we go high.
I'm from South Carolina. That means when they go low, we go to hell. But everybody doesn't necessarily like take that mantra, right? And so what we have to do and I believe what the Vice President will do is be able to do some of the -- like tomorrow, for example, it's a simple thing. One of the most popular person in the country is going to be the head coach of Florida State women's soccer team, right?
Because that's going to be her first act as -- while the President is recovering from COVID and people are going to want to see what she looks like behind that podium, et cetera, et cetera, she has to accept that and then again, meet voters where they are. COATES: Can she do that in a -- I mean, you know this is going to be brutal. We're not going to pull any punches here. You heard Frank Luntz saying this could be the most and the ugliest political race of our times, which is saying a lot. We've seen a lot of ugly in the days -- in the past. Can -- what should she be doing to get ahead of it, around it or through it?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that she expects it. I think this is nothing new to her. As an A.G. and as a senator, the races that she -- not just the races that she had to go through to get there, but the issues that she dealt with as AG, those are not pretty. The issues that AGs deal with every single day, those are not pretty.
So she knows what the underbelly of this country is and she knows that it is going to rear its ugly head. So she's very prepared for that. And the other thing is meeting voters where they are, she already has done that. Let's remember the 2022 red wave. A big reason why it didn't happen is because Vice President Kamala Harris went out and met voters where they are.
She went to black universities, Latino universities, white universities, talked to all these communities about the reproductive issue. That is why Roe v. Wade was the one reason, a huge reason why Democrats did so well in 2022.
COATES: I mean, Shermichael, Donald Trump's campaign is going to have to thread a kind of needle.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, yes.
[23:50:03]
COATES: There is a real risk of alienating people the harder you go in a campaign. And I know that's probably what they're accustomed to and trying to hit below a political belt. Does it pose a different risk for them now that it's Kamala potentially?
SINGLETON: I think it does. She's a woman of color. She's going to be the first woman of color to be the nominee of a major party. There's just no way around that.
COATES: And she's a qualified incumbent. It's formidable, right?
SINGLETON: I would be lying if I tried to ignore that fact. I think from the Republican perspective, you're going to hit hard on the economic front. You're going to talk a lot about inflation and say, look, Joe Biden's inflation is Kamala Harris's inflation. Joe Biden immigration failures or Kamala Harris immigration failures.
You're going to look at the foreign policy issues, you're going to say those are also at Kamala Harris's doorstep as well because she was with the President rather along the way. I hope we stick to that message and focus on swing voters, focus on suburbanites with that targeting.
Will there be some who may go beyond that? Probably. But I hope we just stay away from some of the points that Bakari was alluding to in terms of some of the worst instincts of our past because that doesn't benefit anybody. I think it's a great thing that there is now going to be a competitive person on the Democratic side. Republicans have an opportunity to continue to run a competitive campaign and make the case for why Trump should be reelected.
COATES: Evan, let me get to you here, because there's a lot of talk now. Before it was who was going to be the running mate of Donald Trump. Now it's who will be the running mate potentially of Kamala Harris. What names are you hearing? Because we're hearing names like Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro, Kentucky Governor Beshear. Who do you think?
EVAN OSNOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, there's also Roy Cooper of North Carolina in the mix. You know what's a notable fact about all of those people is that they do represent a new generation of politics. And one of the things you heard Frank Luntz say a moment ago was that it's about partly, about voters between 18 and 34 who, let's face it, all of us have had the experience over the last couple of months of talking to young voters who are completely checked out.
At the end of today or the last 24 hours, they're not checked out anymore. They're going to decide whether they ultimately are going to be inspired by Kamala Harris and who she runs with. But they are checked in at the moment.
And, you know, depending on how you measure it, there's about 5 million Gen Z and millennial voters in the cities in swing states who are tremendously important. And all of a sudden, they were in a race they didn't care about. They're going to care about this race now.
COATES: So what do you think, Ashley? I mean, the lean in, J.D. -- it was going to be a J.D. Vance-Kamala Harris debate. That's no more. Do you think that Trump is likely to debate Kamala Harris, number one, or will he do a kind of proxy campaign ad to try to minimize her instead?
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: OK, so it was supposed to be a J.D. Vance and Kamala Harris debate, but J.D. Vance had yet to accept the invitation. We have an urban dictionary word called shooketh. And I believe Donald Trump is shooketh to debate.
SELLERS: You got to explain it.
ALLISON: Google. We all got Google. Google means he's scared. He ain't ready. You kept saying she was an AG, and all I kept hearing is she a G. Like, Kamala Harris will go and --
COATES: Yes.
ALLISON: -- go toe to toe, 10 toes down with Donald Trump.
COATES: Yes.
ALLISON: She will prosecute the case just like she did against Brett Kavanaugh in his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. And I think that is what young people. When I think about building the coalition that we built in 2020, that was my job.
And when she -- when the Vice President got tapped in that moment, then senator, man, she was on the phone every day almost with me. Like, what are we doing for young people? What are we doing for Latinos? What are we doing for AAPI? What are we doing for rural voters?
She understands the people where they are, and she wants to go and communicate. She doesn't want to be in her ivory tower. But Donald Trump is shooketh.
SELLERS: I want to point out something, particularly about the three women who are on this panel tonight, because regardless of how good of a lawyer you are or the experience you have or the fact that you've been around politics and know the ins and outs of it, people always look at you three and ask, do you belong here? Right?
It doesn't matter what you're doing. As a woman in this country, do you belong here? And so one of the first questions Kamala Harris is going to have to answer, and I want to be very sensitive to what Shermichael said because it is a legitimate point. When you talk about the polling and all of those things, people should hear his point, is that voters want to believe, not the ones we're talking about, not the ones who are on the calls we're talking about tonight, but the voters who don't feel their heart palpitate when you say Kamala Harris' name.
She's been caricatured so much. She's Vice President, so inherently you don't know her task. She has to be able to show that she can do the job. Now, is that fair? No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
SELLERS: But we know that going into it.
COATES: Yes.
SELLERS: Right? And so --
CARDONA: And so does she.
SELLERS: And so for all of those in the -- all those individuals who are like apostles of hope, like that's what you have to be when you work.
ALLISON: That's right.
SELLERS: Yes. You've got to go out and be an apostle of hope. For all those individuals who are apostles of hope in trying to answer those questions, you can't start with the history because we all know that. You've got to start with the fact that she is battle scarred, battle tested.
[23:55:07]
She knows the job of president. She can do the job of president. She's the only person who's been there, done that -- ALLISON: Right.
SELLERS: -- and she can do it.
ALLISON: Can I add one more thing, though? Yes. I think this will excite the base, and you need that. You need your base to be with you to get you to a winning point. But in 2020, we also had Republicans for Biden. Today, there was a tweet we need to verify, but that the Nikki Haley pack endorsed --
COATES: Yes, I saw that.
ALLISON: -- the double haters.
CARDONA: Yes.
ALLISON: I'm talking to Never Trumpers. I talked to Never Trumpers after the debate, and I said, so what are we going to do? And they're like, LFG, and I'm not going to say that on --
SELLERS: They don't get fired tonight --
ALLISON: Google LFG. But that's the text that I'm getting.
SELLERS: All right, Laura, go to commercial.
COATES: I'm just going to say this --
ALLISON: I said the acronym.
COATES: OK, I'm just going to say this. Impostor syndrome does not live at this table.
SELLERS: That's true.
COATES: You belong --
ALLISON: That's the word.
COATES: -- you belong, you belong, you belong --
CARDONA: Yes.
COATES: -- and I know I do.
SELLERS: Yes.
COATES: Evan, Ashley, Bakari, Maria, Shermichael, who all belong, thank you so much.
Look, it's nearly Monday morning on the East Coast of the United States, and the presidential race here has been turned on its head.
Another hour of our breaking news right after this short break. Don't be shooketh. Stay with us.
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