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Summer Olympics Set to Begin; Kamala Harris Campaigns in Houston. Aired 11:30a-12p ET
Aired July 25, 2024 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:30:00]
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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is good to be in the house of labor.
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HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you all. Thank you so very much. Thank you.
Can we hear it for Brittney (ph) please?
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HARRIS: Thank you. It is so wonderful to be back with everyone here. Thank you. That means so, so much more than I can say.
Randi, thank you for your friendship, your longstanding friendship. As we all know, Randi is a force, and she has been an incredible friend and an adviser to the president and me. And I want to thank you on behalf of the president and me and our country for all that you are.
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HARRIS: And I want to begin by saying a few words about our president, Joe Biden. You know...
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HARRIS: Right? Yes. Yes.
So, last night, our president addressed the nation, and he showed once again what true leadership looks like.
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HARRIS: He really did. His words were poignant. I will speak in a moment about the importance of reminding people of history, teaching America's true history.
He thinks and talks about his work and our country, understanding what it means in terms of what we do now and how that will impact the future. He thinks about our history in the context of the importance of the work we do now.
And over the past three-and-a-half years and over his entire career, Joe has led with grace and strength and bold vision and deep compassion. And, as he said...
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HARRIS: That's right.
And, as he said, in the next six months, he will continue to fight for the American people. And I know we are all deeply, deeply grateful for his continued service to our nation.
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HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you.
And to the members of AFT, I thank you for your service to our nation.
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HARRIS: From the public service workers and higher education faculty to the school bus drivers and the custodians...
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HARRIS: ... to the school nurses and our teachers, you all do God's work educating our children, the whole ecosystem of who are AFT members.
It is you who have taken on the most noble of work, which is to concern yourself with the well-being of the children of America. And I thank you for that. I thank you for that.
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HARRIS: And I thank you also for your support over the years and for being the first union to endorse me this week.
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HARRIS: Thank you. I thank you. I thank you.
And, as you may know, I am a proud product of public education.
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HARRIS: Many of you know that my first grade teacher, Mrs. Frances Wilson, God rest her soul, taught me and educated me and encouraged me and inspired me.
And, years later, when I walked across the stage to receive my law school diploma, Mrs. Frances Wilson was in the audience.
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HARRIS: Yes. And that's who you are. I know who you are. I know who you are.
This work is personal. And it is professional. And it is so critically important. And so it is because of Mrs. Wilson and so many teachers like her that I stand before you as vice president of the United States of America...
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HARRIS: ... and that I am running to become president of the United States of America.
[11:35:00]
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HARRIS: And what I know firsthand is that our teachers and all those who are here, all the members of AFT, I know that, by nature, you are visionaries.
You are focused on the future. The work you do is about a focus on the future. You see the potential in every child. You foster it. You encourage it. And in so doing, you shape the future of our nation, which is why I say we need you so desperately right now.
Today, we face a choice between two very different visions for our nation, one focused on the future and the other focused on the past.
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HARRIS: And we are fighting for the future.
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HARRIS: And in our vision of the future, we see a place where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead, a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every senior can retire with dignity...
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HARRIS: ... and where every worker has the freedom to join a union.
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HARRIS: We see a future with affordable health care, affordable childcare, and paid leave, not for some, but for all.
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HARRIS: We see a future where every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive and a future where no teacher has to struggle with the burden of student loan debt.
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HARRIS: So, as an example, our administration has forgiven student loan debt for nearly five million Americans and twice as much for our public servants, including our teachers.
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HARRIS: Teachers like Tania Cabeza (ph), who I met recently in Philadelphia. Tania was first in her family to go to college, and she had been, like many, paying off her student loans for 20 years. And she told me, she was like: "Look, I at many times wondered would I
have to leave this profession I love to just be able to pay my bills? But I did it -- but I didn't leave, because I love what I do and I understand the importance," but making decisions then about what she could afford in terms of her daily obligations and dealing with these loans.
And after 20 years, she still owed $40,000 in student loans. And we forgave it all.
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HARRIS: When she learned -- she told me, she said, when she learned that her loans had been forgiven, she said: "Well, me and my children knew our lives had changed and we were just dancing, dancing."
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HARRIS: So there we go.
But we are clear-eyed. As we work to build a brighter future and to move our nation forward, there are those who are really trying to take us backward. And you, I'm sure, have seen their agenda, Project 2025?
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HARRIS: Randi, can you believe they put that thing in writing?
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HARRIS: Nine hundred pages in writing.
So, Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past. Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed trickle-down economic policies.
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HARRIS: Back to union busting.
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HARRIS: Back to tax breaks for billionaires.
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HARRIS: Donald Trump and his allies want to cut Medicare and Social Security.
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HARRIS: To stop student loan forgiveness for teachers and other public servants.
[11:40:02]
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HARRIS: And I say to AFT, they even want to eliminate the Department of Education...
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HARRIS: ... and end Head Start...
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HARRIS: ... which, of course, would take away preschool from hundreds of thousands of our children.
He intends to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and make working families foot the bill. And he intends to end the Affordable Care Act. Now, think about that, to take us back to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with preexisting conditions.
Remember what that was like? Children with asthma? Women who survived breast cancer? Grandparents with diabetes? America has tried these failed economic policies before.
But we are not going back.
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HARRIS: We are not going back.
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HARRIS: No, we will move forward.
And one of the best ways to keep our nation moving forward is to give workers a voice, to protect the freedom to organize, to defend the freedom to collectively bargain, to end union-busting.
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HARRIS: As head of the White House Labor Task Force, I have led our work to eliminate barriers to organizing in both public and private sectors, including for teachers.
But there is more that we must do. President Joe Biden and I promise to sign the PRO Act into law. And I promise you I will keep that promise. (CHEERING)
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HARRIS: Because, when workers join together and demand what is fair, everyone is better off.
Understand -- and I say this everywhere I go. Understand, you may not be a union member, but you should thank unions. And I'm looking to the cameras in the back of the room.
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HARRIS: Not them, but the people who might be watching.
You may not be a union member, but thank unions for the five-day workweek.
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HARRIS: For the eight-hour workday. Thank unions for sick leave and paid family leave and vacation time.
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HARRIS: Because the fact is, unions helped build America's middle class.
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HARRIS: And when unions are strong, America is strong.
So, AFT, ours is a fight for the future, and ours is a fight for freedom. In this moment across our nation, we witness a full-on attack on hard-won, hard-fought freedoms.
While you teach students about democracy and representative government, extremists attack the sacred freedom to vote. While you try to create safe and welcoming places where our children can learn, extremists attack our freedom to live safe from gun violence.
They have the nerve to tell teachers to strap on a gun in the classroom...
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HARRIS: ... while they refuse to pass commonsense gun safety laws.
(APPLAUSE) HARRIS: And while you teach students about our nation's past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation's true and full history, including book bans, book bans in this Year of our Lord 2024.
And on these last two issues, on these last two issues, just think about it. So we want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books. Can you imagine?
All the while, these extremists also attack the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride.
[11:45:07]
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HARRIS: They passed so-called don't say gay laws.
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HARRIS: Now, I have to tell you, so, many of you may know, in 2004, on Valentine's Day weekend, I was one of the first elected officials in the country to perform same-sex marriages.
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HARRIS: So, here's the thing.
It pains me so to think, 20 years later, that there are some young teachers in their 20s who are afraid to put up a photograph of themselves and their partner, for fear they could lose their job.
And what is their job? The most noble of work, teaching other people's children? And God knows we don't pay you enough as it is.
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HARRIS: In this moment, we are in a fight for our most fundamental freedoms.
And to this room of leaders, I say, bring it on.
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HARRIS: Bring it on. Bring it on.
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AUDIENCE: Bring it on! Bring it on! Bring it on!
HARRIS: Bring it on.
AUDIENCE: Bring it on! Bring it on! Bring it on!
HARRIS: That's right, because here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing.
We believe in our country. We believe in its promise of freedom. And the American people believe in the promise of freedom. So we are in the fight. We who believe in the freedom to vote will pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.
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HARRIS: We who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence will pass an assault weapons ban.
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HARRIS: We who believe that every American should be free from bigotry and hate will fight to protect our teachers and our students from discrimination...
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HARRIS: ... and make sure every student can learn America's history.
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HARRIS: And we who believe in reproductive freedom will restore the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body...
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HARRIS: ... and not have her government telling her what to do.
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HARRIS: So, AFT -- that's right, bring it on.
(LAUGHTER) HARRIS: So, ultimately, in this moment, I know we all know, we each in our country face a question, that question being, what kind of country do we want to live in, a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law or a country of chaos, fear and hate?
The beauty of our democracy is that we each have the power to answer that question when we vote. And when we vote, we make our voices heard.
So, today, I ask you AFT, are you ready to make your voices heard?
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HARRIS: Do we believe in freedom?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
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HARRIS: Do we believe in opportunity?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
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HARRIS: Do we believe in the promise of America?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
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HARRIS: And are we ready to fight for it?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
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HARRIS: And when we fight, we win!
God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
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[11:50:02] JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: All right, that was Vice President Kamala Harris addressing the American Federation of Teachers down in Houston, a very important constituency of the Democratic Party.
And I'm back with Maria Cardona, Doug Heye, and Jamal Simmons. They're all here with us.
You heard the vice president just a few moments ago saying, "Bring it on." That was a very feisty Kamala Harris, Maria. I mean, what do you think is going through Trump's mind right now as he's watching this?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I think Trump is going through a mental meltdown, because he doesn't know how to run against somebody like Kamala Harris, not just that she is incredibly accomplished as DA, A.G., senator, V.P., but the fact that she is also very attractive.
I mean, I have to say it. And that is -- that combination -- and, in addition to that, she's not only a woman. She's a woman of African- American, Asian descent, daughter of immigrants, Jamaican descent. I mean, it's this sort of cauldron of all of the things that Trump has nightmares about every single night.
And so that's why you're seeing, I think, on the other side everyone around him trying to go to these attacks that they think are going to work, but, in fact, they're all going to backfire, because her theme, I think, is right on, fighting for families. We're not going to go back. She's fighting for us.
He is in it for himself. And I think the other thing that is really making his head explode is that she's getting all of the headlines, and he's not.
ACOSTA: Doug, what do you think?
DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Those have been the headlines for several days. And everything we heard is, oh, my God, Kamala Harris is the greatest thing ever. She's the greatest cook that we have ever had near the Oval Office. She knows more about wine than anybody other than maybe Thomas Jefferson. Everything she does is amazing.
ACOSTA: Or Doug Heye, for that matter.
HEYE: So we should -- yes, absolutely.
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HEYE: So we should just cancel the election, because clearly she's going to win by 25 points.
The reality is, I'm not going to get in Donald Trump's head, don't want to be there, don't know what's in there. But he sees the same polling that we do. Kamala Harris is marginally less unpopular than Joe Biden. She's not winning in the polls. Maybe that changes in a week or two or six or eight. But, at this point, Donald Trump is still winning, despite this
barrage of nothing but positive press for Kamala Harris.
CARDONA: It's been three days, Doug.
HEYE: And it has been marinated in the public's mind over and over again on everything, on everything.
CARDONA: That's the thing. I disagree...
(CROSSTALK)
CARDONA: Not yet, no.
HEYE: On every -- every newspaper is tripping over themselves for how they can not only praise Kamala, but expunge her past record. You can't call her the border czar because Axios says so. Republicans are going to do so more of that.
ACOSTA: And the Trump camp...
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HEYE: You can't call her the most liberal senator anymore because a government watchdog site says, we used to call her that. We can't do that anymore.
Republicans are going to do that.
ACOSTA: Can I get a quick thought from Jamal?
Because, I mean, the Trump campaign did say there's going to be a sort of Harris honeymoon in the initial rollout here, and she's going to have a fight on her hands. And she showed some of that fight down in Houston.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: She's going to have a fight on her hands, and there's nobody better equipped for it.
Let me just tell you, she's a tough politician. I worked for her. I can tell you.
I think there's going to be a lot of attention on the vice president when it comes to these issues of her background and dragging up things that she may have done in the past as a legislator or as an attorney general. I think she's ready to fight and win on that.
She said: I will put my record against that guy, who has been convicted of 34 crimes and had sexual assault liability and fraud and all that stuff. I will put my record against that guy any day of the week.
But for Doug's comment that we just talked about, think about this. Kamala Harris is basically tied with Donald Trump after Donald Trump had a horrible shooting attempt against him, he went through four days of a Republican National Convention, and they have been advertising on his behalf for a year.
Nobody's been advertising on Kamala Harris' behalf until this week.
CARDONA: Yes.
SIMMONS: And we haven't even had a Democratic Convention yet. So we haven't even had the lovefest that's coming in Chicago.
CARDONA: Right.
SIMMONS: So, I think that the Trump campaign knows that they're up for a really -- they're in for a really tough fall with this particular candidate.
(CROSSTALK)
HEYE: So I agree with Jamal.
This is going to be a tough race. It's going to be a close race; 25 percent of voters say we don't like either one of these two. That's a problem for Trump. It's also a problem for Harris.
ACOSTA: Yes, but I will be anxious to see what the polls show with those so-called double haters. If some of them drift in Kamala Harris' direction, that is going to be an early warning sign for Donald Trump.
CARDONA: Well, if you look at the immediate polls, they actually do go to Harris' point, so..
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: Yes. All right, I got to go.
CARDONA: Yes, yes.
ACOSTA: We could do this all day.
We will do it during the commercial break, which we will take now and be right back.
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[11:57:19]
ACOSTA: We're getting closer and closer, the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympics about to get under way.
One issue hovering over this year's games is the ongoing Chinese swimmer doping scandal. In April, "The New York Times" reported that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for banned substances and were still allowed to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
And we're just hours now from all of that getting started again here over there in Paris. Let's go to Christine Brennan. She obviously has done a lot of
reporting on all of this.
And I'm sure the athletes are just thinking about this right now, Christine. They're lining up to dive into the pool and they're wondering, is the athlete next to him or her doping? What can you tell us?
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Yes, Jim.
In fact, Katie Ledecky actually said that in her press conference yesterday, that you're going to swim against the person in the lane next to you, and you certainly hope that they are clean. But it is an issue that has, of course, came up in the spring.
This is 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics. No one knew about it until the spring, more than three years later, Jim. And 11 of those 23 are going to be here competing in Paris starting on Saturday, including a multiple medalist, Zhang Yufei, the 100 butterflier, a woman, and, as I said, 10 others.
And so this will be an issue that is going to carry over right into the pool, as it should, because now we can focus. We now know all these generations of Olympians from other countries, the U.S. and others, that were robbed of medals because of cheating by East Germany and Russia and China.
At least now the issue is out in the open and can be discussed, and the swimmers can have some sense of an idea of what is going on in the competition next to them.
ACOSTA: And, Christine, there's also been this warning to Ukrainian athletes about their Russian counterparts. What about that?
BRENNAN: Yes, well, what's happened, of course, is, there have been concerns of threats potentially with the Russians.
There's just a few athletes here competing individually, Russia, no teams. The Russians are not happy about that, Jim, the fact that they have been banned from this Olympics, not because of doping, which is -- should have been a lifetime achievement award for the Russians, but because of the Ukraine war.
And, yes, these Ukrainian athletes here are concerned about potentially something that could happen. The security here is extraordinary. Perhaps you can hear the police sirens below me. I think the Ukrainians will be fine, but there certainly are threats out there. And it is a very concerning time for those very brave and courageous athletes from Ukraine who are competing here at the Paris Olympics.
ACOSTA: Yes, we were just showing a graphic a few moments ago what the Ukrainians are saying and warning their own athletes about all of this. Mind your every handshake with Olympic athletes from Russia.
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