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Biden Exits 2024 Race, Endorses Kamala Harris; Democrats Honor Biden's Legacy as They Praise His Withdrawal. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 22, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers join us from around the world, I'm Max Foster with --

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Christina Macfarlane.

FOSTER: Welcome.

MACFARLANE: Happy to be here Max. Thanks very much on this busy news day. It's Monday, July 22nd, 9 a.m. here in London and 4 a.m. in Washington where a seismic shift is shaping up the race for the White House after President Joe Biden's stunning decision to end his campaign and endorse Kamala Harris.

FOSTER: Already the U.S. Vice President is seeing a surge of support as she moves to secure the Democratic presidential nomination with a growing number of key Democrats backing her bid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JARED POLIS, (D) COLORADO GOVERNOR: I personally am backing Kamala Harris. She's the best candidate for our future to save people money with a forward-looking vision for our country. What a contrast with Trump's regressive terror policies that would cost American families $2,000 to $3,000, the instability he would create in the world, not to mention that he lacks the moral fiber to lead our nation.

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): I do think she's the best candidate, best prepared candidate at this particular juncture. I think that American people will see that in her and they will compare her to the alternative. Just as Joe Biden often asks people to do with him and Donald Trump, she gets that opportunity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, President Biden said he's giving Harris his full support and in a letter posted on X.

He also said, quote: It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. He went on to say he believed it is in the best interests of his party and the country for him to stand down in the race.

FOSTER: In her own statement, Harris said she was honored to have Biden's endorsement, and it was her intention to, quote, earn and win the nomination.

MACFARLANE: Well, CNN's Eva McKend is following all the developments from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVA MCKEND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Harris will deliver remarks Monday honoring NCAA championship teams at the White House. Now, this is the first time you will see Harris since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed the vice president to succeed him. There is fierce support for her among key Democratic coalitions.

These are voices that I've been listening to most closely for the last couple of weeks. Groups like Black Voters Matter, Higher Heights and other organizers. They are so core to the get out the vote strategy and have a true pulse of how voters are feeling on the ground.

And they've been quietly organizing to ensure that if President Biden stepped aside, Harris will be well positioned to lead the ticket now without appearing as if they or, by extension, her were angling to force Biden out. Now they say they expect the full Democratic apparatus to get behind her or they will lose the election. Very little appetite from these organizers for a contested convention, because in their view, that would prolong the chaos.

Eva McKend, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, Donald Trump is slamming Joe Biden on social media. He posted this on Sunday.

Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president and is certainly not fit to serve and never was. He only attained the position of president by lies, fake news and not leaving his basement.

Trump goes on to say, quote: All those around him, including his doctor and the media, knew that he wasn't capable of being president. And he wasn't.

MACFARLANE: Well, publicly, Donald Trump's team has said they hope Harris is the Democratic nominee. But privately, they're said to be concerned about facing her or any other potential candidate. Trump's co-campaign managers issued this statement on Sunday.

FOSTER: Kamala Harris is just as much of a joke as Biden is. Harris will be even worse for the people of our nation than Joe Biden. Harris has been the enabler in chief of Crooked Joe this entire time. They own each other's records and there's no distance between the two. Harris must defend the failed Biden administration and a liberal week on crime record in California.

Meanwhile, President Biden is winning praise from his fellow Democrats for stepping aside. Former President Barack Obama hasn't endorsed Kamala Harris as of yet, but he and his wife, Michelle, did release a statement of support for Joe Biden, calling him a patriot at the highest order.

MACFARLANE: Well, in part, it says: We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead, but I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.

[04:05:00]

FOSTER: Former President Bill Clinton and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton thanked Joe Biden for standing up for America. Both say they are honored to join the president in endorsing Kamala Harris.

MACFARLANE: Well Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was also quick to support Harris and to praise the President Biden for exiting the race. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Today is about what Joe Biden did. He gave America a lesson in patriotism. Donald Trump thinks that to be a leader, it's all about himself and preening in front of the cameras and everyone has to bow down to him.

Joe Biden reminded us that true patriotism, true leadership is putting the people of the United States of America first, and that's what this president has done. I admire that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Along with the outpouring of praise for President Biden has come support for Harris from Democratic governors to lawmakers in both the Senate and the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): I am throwing my support behind Vice President Harris because she is the leader that we need to move us forward. I'm excited about her candidacy. I know her leadership.

I know what she has done in the past and I know her vision for the future. And you see a lot of Democrats very excited, very energized by her candidacy. We can win with Vice President Harris and we will win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, Harris has been reaching out to lawmakers and donors since launching her campaign as she vows to earn and win the nomination. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris receiving support from across the Democratic Party for her to replace President Biden on the Democratic ticket. In the wake of that bombshell announcement on Sunday, the vice president moving quickly, reaching out to senators, other lawmakers, state officials as well, asking them for her support. Now, she said in a statement that she intends to fight for this nomination.

It certainly is not a done deal. However, the breadth of governors and senators and House members, including some governors who could be on her shortlist for a running mate, like potentially Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. The list goes on all through their names to support her candidacy, as did California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Of course, he is a longtime potential rival of hers, but he certainly said he supports Harris. So, state delegations also weighing in from Tennessee, from South Carolina. So, time is running short for her to choose a running mate.

It's a compressed primary schedule, if you will. The voting for her, if she becomes the nominee and a running mate, would be between August 1st and August 7th, so around two weeks or so to get this worked out. Now, there is no question there is still a bit of time for some Democrat to step forward in challenging her.

But on Sunday evening, there is no question that Democrats are rallying behind her. This has been a contingency plan in the works, and she set it into motion with President Biden's decision.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Recent polls have shown President Biden's support slipping in a rematch with Donald Trump, and it's believed those numbers were a big factor in the president's decision to exit the race.

MACFARLANE: But Democrats believe Kamala Harris could swing the polls in their favor, especially in those critical battleground states. CNN's John Berman breaks down the numbers for us now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: These are the results from 2020. President Biden, Joe Biden, beat Donald Trump by about four and a half points in the popular vote. In the latest CNN Poll of Polls, Joe Biden was trailing Donald Trump by four points.

That's a big swing. He won by four and a half, trailing by four. As for Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris only trailing Donald Trump by one point.

So better than Joe Biden. Not quite good enough, not yet. Now, of course, our presidential elections are not national popularity contests.

It's the electoral college broken down into states. So what are the state comparisons right now? Let's look at Pennsylvania right now. That's a state that President Biden won by just over a point in 2020. Well, right now, in the latest Poll of Polls, he's trailing by four points, a big swing, trailing Trump by four. As for Kamala Harris, she is trailing as well, but just by two points. So better than Biden, but not quite better enough, not yet.

Now, another state that's been getting a lot of attention lately is the state of Virginia. More attention, by the way, than Democrats would like. Why? Because Virginia is a state that Democrats have won since Barack Obama in 2008, a state that Joe Biden won by 10. In the latest poll, "The New York Times" poll out of Virginia, he was only up by two over Donald Trump, one by 10, only up by two.

As for Kamala Harris, the vice president is up by four.

[04:10:00]

So you can see that Harris does better than President Biden, mostly, but not yet better enough to perhaps swing the election, not yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well joining us now to discuss all the developments, Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex. Thank you so much for joining us.

Obviously, we all know Kamala Harris. She's a very famous figure, but we don't know exactly what her position is going to be. She's going to have to assert herself. So that's the point now, isn't it? We need a better sense of who she's going to represent and how.

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Right. Well, we already see, as the report mentioned, that she does better than Biden does. She is going to bring a lot of energy to the campaign.

We saw that on Sunday, there was 50 million that came in for the Democrats. They're energized by the fact that they have come up with someone who has experience because she's been vice president for the last three and a half years.

But she's also been someone who's fought for reproductive rights. She's fought for the expansion of health care for millions more Americans to access health care, to have access to cheaper prescription drugs. She supported Biden through the investment in infrastructure and trying to increase wages. So she has that record to rely on.

And also, I think she's going to try to draw a very different contrast, a huge contrast between herself as a prosecutor, as someone who has stood up for the rule of law, who has gone after those that break the law, with Trump, who's a convicted felon.

And she's going to do well with the demographics that Biden has been struggling with, whether it be minority voters or younger voters. So the hope from the Democratic side is that she's going to be able to campaign much more vigorously than Biden would be.

He's president. He doesn't have the same amount of time and energy to have campaigned. As vice president, she doesn't have quite the same responsibilities, and that she will be much more effective in debating Donald Trump.

MACFARLANE: And Natasha, it does seem that the party is coming together behind Kamala Harris, even though it is not there yet in its entirety. But that doesn't mean that there aren't a deep bench of Democrats who could step up to run for the nominee or for the nomination. How likely is it, do you think, that others will challenge her for this nomination, given that the Democrats are really going to want to avoid a messy open convention in, you know, less than a month's time?

LINDSTAEDT: So I thought that immediately after Biden would step down that it would be messier, that we'd be hearing more names, possible people throwing their hat into the ring. But so far, we haven't really heard that. In fact, we've only really heard from Democrats endorsing her or being silent, or basically congratulating Biden on what he's done.

And so we haven't heard yet of someone that's going to actively compete against her. And if that doesn't happen, then she's just going to have to earn the delegates. But it would be a much smoother process. We wouldn't have the chaos of what could be an open convention.

And I think the Democrats are really concerned with the contrast of what happened at the Republican convention, where they were completely united and galvanized and mobilized in their support of Trump with what was happening on the Democratic side. And there's all kinds of things going behind the scenes.

What it looks like is she's going to get the nominee. And as Nancy Pelosi has mentioned, former House Speaker, she hasn't publicly endorsed her yet. But she said that we just need the process to be open, because that will give legitimacy to Harris's candidacy.

And Harris herself has mentioned that she does want to earn and win the nomination.

FOSTER: President Obama didn't endorse her either, and probably for the same reason, having that open competition. But it doesn't really help, does it, when they're trying to speed up the process and effectively crown Kamala Harris as the next nominee. They're actually opening it up to people to challenge her and cause some chaos, aren't they?

LINDSTAEDT: Possibly. But Obama hesitated before endorsing Biden as well in 2020. I think he tends to wait until there's certainty about who the candidate is, and then he'll get behind Kamala Harris if she ends up being the candidate and will probably campaign for her tirelessly as he did for Biden before in 2020.

There isn't a lot of time, as you mentioned. There's just 100 days and only really weeks before the Democratic convention. But it would be really an uphill battle for someone else to come in there. She has access to the campaign funds of over 90 million. She has access to the campaign network, the structure. Biden's campaign staffers have agreed to stay on with her.

So I think really it's a foregone conclusion that she will be the nominee. And really the bigger choice is who does she pick as her vice president?

MACFARLANE: Yes, that is the outstanding question. Important too to remember, Max, that this would be an historic appointment.

[04:15:00]

She would become the first Black, the first South Asian woman to run for the presidency.

For now, Natasha, thanks so much for your thoughts. We appreciate it.

And our breaking news coverage continues after the break. We'll have more on how leaders around the world are reacting to President Joe Biden's exit from the 2024 race.

FOSTER: And it's been nearly six decades since the U.S. president pulled out of the race for the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYNDON B. JOHNSON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: And I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, ahead, a look at what happened in 1968 and how things could go differently this November.

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FOSTER: Really is history in the making, isn't it? 56 years since the U.S. president dropped out of a re-election race. That was Lyndon Johnson. The year was 1968.

[04:20:00]

The country was embroiled in the Vietnam war and only one state primary had taken place.

MACFARLANE: But this time the democratic primaries are over. Election day is less than four months away and an African-American woman could be at the top of the ticket. Alexis Coe is a presidential historian and author of "You Never Forget Your First," a biography of George Washington. And she joins us now. Alexis, great to have you with us.

As Max was just saying there, Alexis, Lyndon Johnson was the last president-elect to drop out of the race. In fact, it's happened twice before, I believe. I think Harry Truman in 1952. But never this late in a campaign and obviously under very different circumstances. So just put into context for us how unprecedented this is.

ALEXIS COE, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: 50 years ago, this was the norm. Americans who feel like the election year is endless will be happy to know that it usually started at the convention. And often before that, candidates didn't even visit it.

But what's really interesting about this time now is we are so very late. You mentioned the only two examples we have. One of them, Lyndon Johnson, he declared that he would be stepping aside a year before.

And so we're really late in the game. There are some advantages Harris has. But we live in unprecedented times.

FOSTER: When you look back on those two previous cases, what do you worry about what could go wrong this time around?

COE: It is always worrying when any president from either party is what we call primaried, meaning they get to the convention. There's anything like an open convention, or they're the incumbent, which Harris by, you know, all means is, that they are challenged in some way. They might suffer through a convention and come out with the ticket, but they will not fare as well as they would have.

And so it's really disconcerting to see that she hasn't had just a complete Democratic endorsement from the entire party, including past presidents. Obama was not explicit in his endorsement.

MACFARLANE: How rare is it, Alexis, to have an open convention? I mean, how often has this happened in the past?

COE: It hasn't happened very often. And it's because it is chaotic. And it distracts from the message.

We are looking at a DNC that should be a glorified retirement party, it should be a celebration of what Biden has accomplished, because that is also Harris's legacy. That is what she's running on as the incumbent, who is always stronger as a candidate.

FOSTER: The other obviously big piece of history is that she's the first woman of color to be in this position, isn't she? And that speaks for itself. But what will be the challenges for her around that based on, you know, previous experience?

COE: Well, it's interesting. Obviously, there are certain disadvantages with Trump's base, but I think that it's really good to see what the general public feels. And I think they'll feel quite strongly.

We have someone who is a complete foil now to the Republican ticket. And of course, we don't know who her vice president is. But presumably, they won't align with the views of J.D. Vance, who wants to greatly curtail women's rights. What we do know as far as the advantages for Kamala Harris is that she's much younger, she's vibrant. We now have Donald Trump taking Biden's place. He was only three years younger. So now he is the oldest candidate. And it shows, especially when he goes off teleprompter, which is often, and we saw that at the RNC.

MACFARLANE: It's interesting, isn't it, that there's now this kind of reversal in the age debate, right, with Kamala Harris coming in decidedly the younger of the two potential candidates. Just to go back and reflect a bit on Biden himself and what led to these steps of him, you know, stepping away, stepping down. I mean, have there ever been any circumstances in history before where a president's cognitive function, you know, his physical ability to do the job has ever been called into question in this way?

COE: Absolutely. We saw something very similar happen with Ronald Reagan, who at the time was the oldest candidate. He, during his first debate, was quite forgetful. He mixed up facts and figures. And it was clear that he was a lot slower than his challenger, who I think the age difference was actually quite similar between Harris and Trump.

And what's interesting, though, is that he recovered. The second time he certainly recovered. We have other presidents who have checked out for whatever reason. But we -- Calvin Coolidge, he's known as, you know, a "Silent Cal".

[04:25:00]

He was, we now understand, probably clinically depressed from the loss of his young son, his teenage son.

But what we really need from our leaders and also our parties is to make sure that they put country before party. And that's what we've seen here. And we actually don't really know the extent of what's going on. I do think it's interesting that Biden released, you know, an announcement via the internet, a letter, rather than coming in person.

He does have COVID. And so we have to be concerned about that.

MACFARLANE: Yes, we do have to remember the circumstances. And it does appear that this isn't going to damage his legacy in any great way. The manner in which he's stepped apart is now getting a lot of praise for that.

Alexis Coe, we appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.

FOSTER: Yes, Vladimir Zelenskyy knows the next U.S. president should have a big impact on the war in Ukraine. After the break, we'll have more on what the Ukrainian president is saying. Now that President Biden is exiting the race.

MACFARLANE: And Donald Trump reacts to President Biden's exit from the 2024 race. Ahead, a look at how his campaign are preparing for whoever may end up on the top of the Democratic ticket.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of today's top stories.

Kamala Harris will deliver remarks later today at the White House to honor the NCAA championship teams. This will be the vice president's first public appearance in a while ...

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