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Harris Holds First Presidential Campaign Event in Wisconsin; Trump Attacks Harris' Record on Immigration and Crime; Secret Service Director Resigns Amis Security Lapse Scrutiny; Netanyahu to Address U.S. Congress; Kenyan Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesters Trying to Occupy Airport. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired July 24, 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]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week. We're not afraid of hard work, we like hard work, don't we? And we will win this election.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's the same as Biden, but much more radical. She's a radical left person, and this country doesn't want a radical left person to destroy it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not being picky. I'm just, we'll go anywhere in North Carolina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had our two flights canceled and we're on our third one tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hectic, overbooking, lack of communication.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Am I surprised that it's inspired a whole summer trend? I'll bet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lime green is in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Wednesday, July 24th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington.
Where in the hours ahead U.S. President Joe Biden is set to address the nation on his decision to exit the 2024 race.
FOSTER: That decision over the weekend has already brought renewed energy and enthusiasm to Democrats with Kamala Harris, now the party's presumptive presidential nominee, holding her first campaign rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin. Harris looked to draw a sharp contrast with her likely rival in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In this campaign, I promise you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.
I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type.
We have doors to knock on, we have phone calls to make, we have voters to register, and we have an election to win.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Speaking about her record as a prosecutor as well, the crowd briefly chanted, lock him up, in reference to Donald Trump. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up!
We're not going back! We're not going back! We're not going back!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Meantime, Trump has wasted no time in attacking Harris during a call with reporters, the Republican president nominee criticized her record on crime and immigration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a result of her dangerously extreme immigration policies, the largest invasion in history is now taking place at our southern border, and it's getting worse, not better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: According to US Customs and Border Protection, the number of people entering the country illegally has actually fallen by 25 percent since the White House announced asylum restrictions early last month.
FOSTER: So far, new polling shows no clear leader in the race. If a vote between Trump and Harris were held today, the Reuters-Ipsos poll is the first to be conducted since Biden decided to end his re- election campaign. For her part, Harris is trying to keep building momentum, and says she'll spend the coming weeks continuing to unite the Democratic Party.
MACFARLANE: CNN's Kayla Tausche has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Good afternoon, Wisconsin!
KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vice President Kamala Harris taking the reins of President Biden's campaign.
HARRIS: The baton is in our hands.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): Her first rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee in battleground Wisconsin.
HARRIS: The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): Where she put a new twist on a familiar message.
HARRIS: So this campaign is also about two different visions for our nation. One, where we are focused on the future. The other focused on the past.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): And a familiar foe.
HARRIS: We'll stop Donald Trump's extreme abortion bans.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): In just two days since President Biden tapped Harris to replace him on the ticket, Harris has rallied the party at breakneck speed.
[04:05:00]
Raking in more than $100 million from mostly new donors, recruiting 58,000 new volunteers across the country, and racking up critical endorsements from her former staff, foreign policy experts, and prominent leaders of the party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I endorse Kamala Harris 100 percent for this job as president.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Vice President Harris has done a truly impressive job securing the majority of delegates needed to win the Democratic Party's nomination to be our next president of the United States.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Kamala Harris is a commonsense leader who knows how to deliver real results.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): With delegates on board too, the Democratic Party moving forward to make her official in a process that pledges will be open and fair and conclude by August 7th.
In Wilmington, Harris helming a rebranding of Biden headquarters as Biden tells staff she's suited to finish the job. TAUSCHE: President Biden now back at the White House where he is
continuing to work with advisors to craft a Wednesday primetime address where he'll talk about his decision to end a decades-long political career and the work that's left to do.
Kayla Tausche, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well, Hillary Clinton is praising President Biden's decision to bow out of the race and is offering her support to Kamala Harris. Clinton, who faced Trump in the 2016 presidential race, said in a "New York Times" opinion piece that she's excited about Harris.
Writing, quote: She represents a fresh start for American politics. She can offer a hopeful, unifying vision. She is talented, experienced and ready to be president. And I know she can defeat Donald Trump.
FOSTER: Clinton also addressed the challenges she believes Harris will face in this campaign, saying, quote: I know a thing or two about how hard it can be for strong women candidates to fight through the sexism and double standards of American politics. I've been called a witch, a nasty woman, and much worse. I was even burned in effigy.
Meanwhile, Harris is setting herself apart from Donald Trump, saying she knows his type, having dealt with predators, fraudsters and cheaters as a former prosecutor and California attorney general.
MACFARLANE: CNN's Tom Foreman lays out some of the extreme differences between these two political opponents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right from the get-go, it's easy to see big differences between what Kamala Harris would propose and what Donald Trump would propose.
On the economy, back in 2019, she proposed an estate tax to pay for an increase in teacher salaries, about $13,000 more per average teacher in this country, coast to coast. And she wanted a higher corporate tax rate.
Currently, it's at 21 percent. She wanted to push it up even higher than Joe Biden proposed. All of that, leaning on the rich to pay more to make the economy work.
Donald Trump points to his track record of wages rising faster than inflation in his administration. And once again, he's promising tax cuts and raising tariffs on imported goods, which some economists say actually could cost consumers, but nonetheless, many Republicans think will actually work in a positive way.
On abortion, she supports legislation to protect abortion rights nationally. She's the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion clinic. Donald Trump promised to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2016. And once he got the right players into the Supreme Court, that's exactly what they did. However, he opposes a national abortion ban, perhaps mindful of the fact that most Americans think it should be legal, and he favors leaving it to states to decide.
And on the border, Kamala Harris backed the bipartisan border security deal endorsed by Biden back in the winter. She's worked with countries in Central America to deter illegal immigration and oppose family separation when people are caught at the border. Trump blocked that bipartisan border security deal endorsed by Biden. Remember, the Republicans rose up against it in February and wiped it out.
And he wants to resume building the wall, which he did not complete in his first term, and closing the border and promising mass deportation.
So just a few areas, but areas in which they are substantially different from each other.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now, the head of the U.S. Secret Service has resigned a day after admitting to security lapses in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
MACFARLANE: The announcement by Kimberly Cheatle comes after a combative hearing before the House Oversight Committee where she angered lawmakers by refusing to answer questions about the shooting. Here's what lawmakers had to say during that hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): You answered more questions with an ABC reporter than you have with members of Congress.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): The notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States, irrespective of party, is not acceptable.
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Do you really, genuinely in your heart, believe that you being in this role is what's right for America at this moment?
REP. ANDY BIGGS (R-AZ): You should have come today ready to give us answers. I call upon you to resign today.
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Because I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[04:10:00]
FOSTER: Well, meanwhile, Pennsylvania's state police commissioner revealed new details about the security failures at the Trump rally, which have only raised more questions about what happened. Christopher Paris testified at a House Homeland Security hearing on Tuesday.
MACFARLANE: He said the state police immediately notified Secret Service when they learned about activities of suspicious individual who turned out to be the gunman. But Paris also said two local officers who were stationed inside a building overlooking the roof where the gunman was found, left their post to look for that individual moments before the shooting started.
FOSTER: Conditions across Taiwan getting worse as Typhoon Gaemi gets closer to landfall. The storm is bearing down on the island, bringing heavy rainfall, gusty winds and dangerous storm surge. Top winds are around 135 miles per hour or 220 kilometers per hour, the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane.
MACFARLANE: The island's mountain areas have already reported rainfall of up to 16 inches or more than 400 millimeters. And much more is expected. Businesses and schools are closed across Taiwan.
And as well as in the Philippines, which has also recorded heavy rain and winds, government officials are shut down in Manila and the stock exchange there is also closed. After Taiwan, Gaemi is expected to hit China's Fujian province on Thursday before moving into other parts of southern China.
FOSTER: Breaking news out of Nepal. At least 18 people have been killed after a small plane skidded off the runway in the capital, Kathmandu. Local officials say one person survived the crash of the Suria Airlines plane. All on board were employees of that airline.
MACFARLANE: The crash happened during take-off just a few hours ago. Airport authorities say the plane was headed to a nearby city for maintenance.
FOSTER: Much more to come, including Benjamin Netanyahu's high-stakes visit to the U.S. The Israeli prime minister is set to address a joint meeting of Congress today amid the ongoing Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
MACFARLANE: More than half a million Delta customers have their travel plans upended by delayed or cancelled flights. We'll have details on how long the flight disruptions could last.
FOSTER: Plus, it's a brat girl summer. Don't know what that is? No, actually.
Don't worry, Anna's going to explain coming up.
[04:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Israel's Prime Minister will deliver a high-stakes address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress today, but the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks are looming over his visit to Washington.
MACFARLANE: Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure from families of hostages being held by Hamas to take the deal. And when he met some of them in Washington, he vowed to bring their loved ones home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This is an important visit that will give us an opportunity to bring to the representatives of the American people, as well as the American people, the importance of their support in the efforts we are making, together with them, to bring about the release of all the hostages, both the living and the dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Israel's response to negotiations expected on Friday but may include 11th-hour demands from Netanyahu touching on key sticking points.
MACFARLANE: Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday and meet Vice President Kamala Harris later. The Vice President will not preside over today's joint meeting of Congress, citing scheduled travel.
Dozens of Democrats are expected to skip the Israeli Prime Minister's speech as the party remains divided over his handling of the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu will meet Donald Trump on Friday at his Florida estate. The former U.S. President and Republican nominee announced the meeting on social media.
Writing quote: My peace through strength agenda will demonstrate to the world that these horrible, deadly wars and violent conflicts must end.
FOSTER: Netanyahu is looking to improve relations with Trump in the event that he returns to the White House, a relationship that soured over the 2020 election when Netanyahu congratulated President Biden on his victory, angering Trump.
Nada Bashir following development for us now. I mean, if you look at the Israeli media, it doesn't seem anyone really thinks this visit's a good idea apart from Netanyahu.
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. I mean, the timing is certainly interesting. Netanyahu's facing a huge amount of pressure and backlash back home in Israel.
He's also facing a huge amount of pressure internationally, not least from the United States. And there has been those tensions and fraught relations between Biden and Netanyahu. So the timing certainly is interesting, but that pressure is growing on Netanyahu to strike a deal.
He met with the family members and representatives of hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza on Monday. And he was, again, pretty confident. He said that the Israeli government is still determined to bring back all hostages currently held captive.
But, of course, it's been nearly 10 months now, and there has been growing calls from within Israel for him to do more, to strike a deal, to ensure the safe return of hostages.
But what we are hearing now, as he continues his visit to the United States, is a tone of optimism, not only from the Israeli side, but also from the U.S. side. We've heard from Biden saying that he believes all parties involved are on the verge of striking a deal.
The State Department said that the gaps in this negotiation process are narrowing, that there are still some issues, some sticking points. But there is a certain degree of hope now that that pressure has really reached a boiling point now that there may well be a sign of optimism from the Israeli side when they do come back with their final terms of this deal to be negotiated. So, certainly, some hope there.
But, again, that pressure is mounting. And, of course, he will be addressing Congress. You saw in that footage there, we've seen protesters now occupying a congressional building.
So, you know, there is a huge amount of tension, not only politically, but also just around Washington right now. There are huge protests taking place. This is a hugely divisive issue. And, of course, this is an election year in the U.S., so that will be a hot topic.
MACFARLANE: It will be a week of pressure for him to respond to that.
Separately, Nadia, yesterday we saw a deal signed between Palestinian factions, which included Fatah and Hamas, to end years of division. What does that signify at this time? What are the hopes now for the future and the potential for building a government?
[04:20:00]
BASHIR: Look, this is a significant turning point in the internal relations of these Palestinian groups. Fatah has, of course, dominated the Palestinian Authority, which maintains control over the West Bank. Hamas has maintained control of Gaza since 2007 after winning legislative elections.
We've seen that division, we've seen that division result in violence between the two in the past, but this is a significant indication of where they are both heading politically and diplomatically.
There have been those continued calls for more of a political solution, particularly looking towards a two-state solution in which there would be Palestinian control over both the occupied West Bank and occupied territories, East Jerusalem, and also, of course, the Gaza Strip.
And what we've heard from both groups is that they believe that this is a historic junction for both groups. This is essentially laying the groundwork in their eyes to ensure that they are able to maintain Palestinian control over Gaza in any sort of post-war governance structure.
And that is key because we have heard from Israeli officials suggesting that there might be some sort of Israeli security control presence in Gaza, which has, of course, drawn backlash from many in the region.
However, Hamas's involvement is still deeply problematic. This deal has drawn backlash from Israeli officials, of course, but also in the U.S. The Biden administration has said that Hamas can have no role in any sort of post-war governance structure.
MACFARLANE: All right, Nada Bashir, thank you.
FOSTER: Now to Kenya, where police have used tear gas on protesters trying to occupy the main airport in the capital, Nairobi.
MACFARLANE: It's the sixth week of anti-government demonstrations, which began as protests over plans to raise taxes, but have since evolved into a broader movement against the president, William Ruto. CNN's Larry Madowo has been in the midst of these protests, reporting now here from Nairobi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're just interviewing people and they're still tear-gassing one more time. If you look here, there's an entire row of police officers coming.
They were just tear-gassing people in a residential neighborhood, essentially, and they got dispersed.
(GUNSHOTS)
This is a lot of explosions for a residential neighborhood. Flashbangs, tear gas, and what sounds like either rubber bullets or empty rounds.
HARRISON MWANZIA, NAIROBI RESIDENT: This is a residential area whereby you can't fire a live bullet like this one, and we have kids around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People should have humanity. And also people should have common sense.
MADOWO: These people are already in their homes. They're in the balconies. They can't go any further. They're off the streets and in this cul-de-sac, and police are still here. So I'm not sure how much further they could possibly go.
CROWD: Ruto must go! Ruto must go!
MADOWO: These began six weeks ago as protests against the finance bill. When President Ruto did drop that, he was forced to fire his entire cabinet, now escalated into protests about President Ruto's own legitimacy, about corruption in his own government, about the high cost of living, and especially more recently, about the more than 50 people that have been killed in protests since they began.
MADOWO: Do you support the young people who are protesting?
SARAH, NAIROBI RESIDENT: Yes, I support them because they're helping us. Those people who cannot talk like us, we cannot speak. MADOWO: The protesters didn't achieve that total shutdown they planned on. They didn't occupy the airport either, but they did keep parts of the city to a standstill. President William Ruto has expressed frustration with how long these protests have gone on.
He has declared, enough is enough. But the response from the protesters appears to be, they will determine when the college quits.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Coming up, Donald Trump and his campaign are working on a new attack plan against an opponent who's energizing young voters.
MACFARLANE: And from gin and juice to wine and baguettes, the one and only Snoop Dogg has the honor of being the Olympic torchbearer head of the Paris Games. Details on that.
FOSTER: What have baguettes got to do with it?
MACFARLANE: Stay tuned.
[04:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of today's top stories.
The U.S. President will explain why he decided to end his presidential campaign in a speech tonight from the Oval Office. Joe Biden is also expected to lay out his plans for the rest of his term. The President returned to the White House Tuesday after isolating due to COVID.
CNN has learned that U.S. Senator Bob Menendez will resign from the Senate on August 20th. Earlier this month, he was convicted on 16 counts including bribery, extortion, and wire fraud. Menendez still insists he never violated a public oath of office.
And in Southern Ethiopia, at least 200 people are reported dead after two landslides. Most victims were buried in the first landslide caused by heavy rain. The second landslide on Monday killed rescuers who had gone to help digging with shovels and their bare hands.
FOSTER: With Kamala Harris poised to become the Democratic nominee for the U.S. President, it's a whole new election campaign. And that means Donald Trump needs a new strategy. His team is wasting no time trying to discredit Harris.
CNN's Kristen Holmes explains how his campaign is turning its attacks away from Biden and towards the Vice President.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former President Donald Trump and his campaign are still figuring out how exactly they're going to go after Vice President Kamala Harris as this race has taken a huge turn. Now, they argue that they are ready for this, that they have been preparing for there to be an alternate candidate to President Joe Biden for months and been focused on the fact that it would be Harris. They have prepared opposition research.
However, there are still allies that are close to Donald Trump who acknowledge the race has fundamentally changed. Now, we saw a little bit of a highlight of what these attacks on Harris are going to look like earlier today when Donald Trump spoke to reporters.
Take a listen.
TRUMP: She's the same as Biden, but much more radical. She's a radical left person, and this country doesn't want a radical left person to destroy it. She's far more radical than he is. She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants.
[04:30:00]
HOLMES: Now, the big thing that Trump's campaign advisors argue is that Kamala Harris might have name ID, but she doesn't have what they call name education, meaning that most people don't know anything about Harris.
You hear Donald Trump there talking about her time in California. We are expecting that to come up a lot. They are going to try to use this education gap to fill the void with negative information.
We know right now it is a race between Donald Trump and his team and Kamala Harris to define her in this race.
Now, the other interesting thing that Trump said in this call with reporters that he wanted to debate Kamala Harris, but that he never agreed to it or he hadn't agreed to it yet, saying he'd only agreed to debate President Joe Biden.
So clearly he's saying he wants to do it, but leaving the door open there for him to not actually take Harris on.
One thing is clear. We are now in uncharted territory, and everyone is trying to figure out what this race looks like ahead of November.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
