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CNN International: President Biden Calls For Major Supreme Court Reforms; Harris Endorses Biden Supreme Court Reform Plan; Two Children Dead, Nine Others Injured In UK Knife Attack; Fears Escalate Of Wider Mideast Conflict After Golan Heights Attack; Venezuela's Maduro And Opposition Both Claim Election Win; Trump Courts Crypto Giants At Bitcoin Conference. Aired 3-3:45p ET

Aired July 29, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:34]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: It's 8:00 p.m. in London, 10:00 p.m. in Beirut, 12:00 p.m. in San Francisco, 3:00 p.m. here in Washington.

I'm Jim Sciutto. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM and let's get right to the news.

We begin with President Biden's call for seismic changes to the U.S. Supreme Court. The president calling for a constitutional amendment stripping the president of immunity for crimes committed while in office. Also for term limits for Supreme Court justices who currently serve for life -- life and a binding code of conduct for the high court.

The announcement to come in a speech next hour in Texas. Large majorities of the American public support reforms to the Supreme Court but the political obstacles are enormous.

Joan Biskupic covers the Supreme Court for CNN.

Joan, this makes Biden the first sitting president in generations to back changes to the way the court operates. Do you have a sense of why he is making this push right now?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Well, you know, Jim, it is a political issue. We are in the final months of an election year and you know the last time there was pressure on president, then candidate Joe Biden to put forth some reforms, was back in 2020, and he pulled back. He resisted. He said, I don't want to talk about term limits, but I will set up a commission, and the commission delivered some recommendations that never went really anywhere.

But now, he's picking it up again and I think it's because of pressure from his base. That's one reason, but then the other reason that I think cannot be denied is that we have had a series of really striking Supreme Court rulings have delivered a real shock to the nation. And I would say most notably is the justice's decision giving broad immunity to the former president for any from any kind of criminal prosecution. So that's why, as you noted there, Jim, the leading reform issue that President Biden is mentioning is to have a constitutional amendment that would say that presidents cannot be shielded from criminal prosecution for actions while in office.

So, you know, this is -- this is an important issue that, you know, gets new life during election years, but it's always been lingering there in terms for people who've been watching the Supreme Court.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, listen, to get a constitutional amendment passed, you need two thirds of both houses of Congress and three-quarters of state legislatures. I mean, that would require a seismic political change of its own.

BISKUPIC: Right.

SCIUTTO: Another story, of course, the court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 is one of the issues that is according, of course, led to a drop in its confidence or confidence in the institution among many Americans, you have new reporting on a compromise in the court on Idaho's extremely restrictive abortion bans this year, what do -- what have you learned?

BISKUPIC: This -- this is one situation where the conservatives lost their upper hand, Jim, earlier this year in January, the justices led Idaho's ban on abortion in all situations except for to prevent the death of the month -- the woman take effect, and that was -- the court allowed that to take effect before there were had been lower court hearings on this and over the objections of the Biden administration that said that this law conflicts with federal protections for women who would be in a situation with pregnancy complications and potentially needed an emergency abortion not to save the life, but to actually protect reproductive health.

Anyway, what we did was we traced just what happened behind the scenes in that case, two, when the justices essentially said, never mind, were going to dismiss it. But as I say, it came only after a compromise between justices, Amy Coney Barrett, chief justice John Roberts, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, with two of the liberals who had unusual leverage here, just because the right wing of the court had fractured so much on this issue, and they said we will join you to dismiss this case only if you lift that order from January that left this Idaho ban take effect, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Interesting. So sometimes, there's still compromise up there.

BISKUPIC: Yeah.

SCIUTTO: Remarkable.

Joan Biskupic, thanks so much for joining.

BISKUPIC: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, Vice President Kamala Harris off the campaign trail today. Quickly endorsed Biden's court reform plan, writing in a statement, quote: There was a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court in our democracy, no one should be above the law. So we must also ensure that no former president has immunity for crimes committed while in the White House.

[15:05:12]

Let's go to Kayla Tausche at the White House for more.

Kayla, you know, Harris has been the administration's most vocal messenger for abortion access following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. Do we expect her to lean into court reform now as well?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, she's going to be have -- she's going to have to be vocal on a wide spectrum of policies that the party is promoting.

Of course, her portfolio had been centralized on reproductive the rights as well as the immigration situation at the Southern Border and diplomacy with Central American countries. But now that is going to have to expand. She did put out that statement as you mentioned about her support of what the president is backing today. But when White House officials were asked how involved Harris was in helping President Biden craft some of those reforms, they declined to comment on exactly what her role was.

I mean, to be sure President Biden established a commission on the Supreme Court the United States, shortly after taking office that commission spent about six or seven months working on a nearly 300 page report that included some very detailed thoughts on things like term limits and ethics codes for justices, that sound a shelf for a while, but did help to inform the way that President Biden thought about this.

And certainly now, as he is in the twilight of his presidency, Jim, it has become clear that he wants this to be something that he has put his mark on at the end of his term, even though when he was on the trail back in 2020, he was very cautious and said, the second, did any party begins making changes are suggesting changes to the Supreme Court? That creates a precedent for another party to do the same a short while later, Jim.

SCIUTTO: No question. Well, Trump is already attacking Harris on this on Friday before we saw the official announcement from Biden. Let's remind folks what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She will try as hard as she can to add as many justices as possible to the U.S. Supreme Court. We don't want that to happen, do we? We want we like our nine justices the way they are. We don't want to have 17. I've heard numbers 21. Twenty-one sounds like a great number.

In other words, she wants to pack the court, which is their number one agenda, and we can't let that happen. We're not going to have anybody added. We're going to do it the way we've done it for many, many years. That's really a stopper. It's a stopper, the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Not sure where he got that 21 number, but what's the Harris campaign? How is it responding to that?

TAUSCHE: Well, the Harris campaign has not responded directly to that quote, certainly court packing is president described it -- the former president described it is something that is not included in the Party's platform or in its official agenda. And it was the addition shin of justices that was the focal point of President Biden's criticism when he was a candidate. Those were some of the most specific changes that he felt could be replicated by another party down the line. And essentially make the Supreme Court be unrecognizable to what the founding fathers intended -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Kayla Tausche, thanks so much.

Well, in lightning fast speed of politics lately was only ten days ago that Vice President Kamala Harris was President Joe Biden's running mate. Now, she has to choose a running mate of her own. And there's not much time.

We are 99 days from Election Day today. And by the way, early voting starts in just a few weeks in a number of places.

Democratic pollster Margie Omero joins me now to discuss this new race and what the latest polls tell us about Harris's candidacy.

Lots of questions for you. Margie, thanks so much for joining.

MARGIE OMERO, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: First, I want to touch on the court reform proposal from the president. Harris, of course, quickly endorsed the plan. Listen, the polls show quite clearly that a majority of the country they want to see court reform, 78 percent support 18-year term limits, 81 percent support a mandatory retirement age. Do you believe Harris should lean into this message and can we read this to some degree, Biden's announcement as more of an effort to move voters this election cycle rather than a genuine legislative push?

OMERO: I wouldn't say that this is political rather than, you know, a policy policy-related platform because this is -- these are things that -- I mean, these are one and the same, right there, things that voters want that will also enable to have a court that is reflective of where voters are. And if you have the favorability toward the court has dropped, its been consistently low and underwater, as we say, what more unfavorable than favorable is to Dobbs decision.

[15:10:07]

On top of it, you have ethics challenges and ethics questions that people recall and bring up on their own. And there's been now a whole series of them and it really shows and reveals for a lot of folks and we've seen this in our navigator workup polling that we do regularly. And the work that you just cited where people feel that the court has gone too far, that people feel that the court needs some tweaking, especially when it may not be the issue that gets everybody up in the morning, not all voters think about what's going on at the Supreme Court for sure. But when its explained that there is no binding ethics rule and that there are people who on the court have been taking, you know, taking private jets and gifts and things from -- without disclosing that information or having political ties that really calling a question their impartiality, that's problematic for a lot of people, even Republicans, we heard in some focus groups that we just released today.

SCIUTTO: Notable. Yeah, I mean, when you look at those majorities clearly -- clearly, it's Democrats and Republicans who want to see reforms.

OK. So to the horse race, we are starting to get horse race polling on the race between Harris and Trump. Let's look at some of the latest numbers. This is from a FOX News poll going to some of those big blue wall Midwestern swing states there. And you see it quite close.

Overall, is this picture better for Harris than it was for Biden? And if better, I think I know the answer to that question is better. Is it better but as she's still behind in your view?

OMERO: Well, it's certainly better and there's a huge surge of excitement and motivation and it's happening organically. But this isn't something that -- I say this as a political consultant, you can easily plan, like press a button and have people just, you know, send that means and TikTok and all that stuff organically that like this.

I mean, this has happened because people have been excited about her, excited about her candidacy in a way that's new and fast moving. What that means for the final vote, and we don't know yet, is this a bump or is this the new calibration of the race reflecting an energy that voters have over and also against Trump.

And obviously, it's all moving very quickly as people get to get reintroduced to her, as people kind of dial into what Trump and Vance are about and are offering, it's been a really -- it could really change, continue to change the race, doesn't have to be just a temporary bump. It could be the beginning of a surge that's going to lead to a new normal where Harris has the advantage until the end, but it was -- we don't know.

SCIUTTO: OK, as a pollster, of course, there's a lot of focus now on Harris, who's vice presidential choice. And you look at some of the names that are on the list. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, it's not by accident that several of those are swing state -- swing state governors centered in the case of Mark Kelly.

Historically, I've been told repeatedly, in reality, vice presidents don't actually, when their home state for the campaign but they are more likely to reflect on the decision-making of the candidate at the top of the ticket in terms of positive or negative. In that case, when you look at these vice presidential candidates, is there one that you think is more likely to help Paris, the most at the top of the ticket. OMERO: I think its hard to really put a number on that because we don't have any polling that shows how the different VP picks compare. And also, it's not just their state how -- what impact they'd have on other states. And we can see from lots of public polling that, you know, some of these people are still getting introduce to voters across the board.

And also, I should note swing voters, the folks who don't always turn out that people who maybe weren't interested in voting a couple of months ago who now maybe are more interested in voting, they're not necessarily like sifting through the background of the VP picks per se. That's usually not the primary vote driver for folks and we did something in 2016 to kind of capture all the different potential VP picks Trump could have. And all of them really fair, the same.

There was one that really made a difference in the negative and that was Ivanka, which was being circulated at the time, maybe you remember.

So, for the most part, there is one VP pick, even if folks who watch these things know the differences that have been observing the candidates for a while, that all of a sudden changes upends the race. Now, that's not to say a VP pick can't hurt a candidate, you've seen J.D. Vance be underwater and unfavorable as folks are getting to know him. But the folks on the shortlist for being vetted for Harris are people who are popular, who have been elected statewide, and the whole list is really who are, you know, who have been successful and popular in their states.

[15:15:01]

SCIUTTO: Yeah, I mean, sometimes have you think of Palin for McCain seems to have impacted negatively. Dan Quayle for George H.W. Bush impacted negatively, but he still won the election. So it's -- listen, it's hard to tell. I think we can -- we can grant that.

Margie Omero, thanks so much for joining.

OMERO: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, deadly drone strikes in Israel and Lebanon. What these attacks mean for the possibility of a wider Middle East conflict, and the ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Are they getting anywhere?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

We are following some breaking news in northern England. Police there say two children have died after a knife attack, nine other children injured, six in critical condition. The rampage happened in the town of Southport near Liverpool. Police have arrested the 17-year-old a boy, seized a knife as well.

An emergency officials spoke a short time ago about the attack. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My firefighters, many of whom live in this community, will get pulled by this act. They will be back on the streets of Southport tomorrow to provide reassurance, calm and support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: What a story. The British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says, the United Kingdom is deeply shocked by the attack. We will continue to follow the story, bring you updates as we get them.

Now to the Middle East where Israel is vowing that Hezbollah will pay the price for a Golan Heights attack Saturday which Israel blames on the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah denies it was behind the strike which killed 12 children.

This is Lebanese state media reports two people, including a child were killed in a double drone strike in southern Lebanon Sunday.

Let's bring in CNN's Ben Wedeman who joins us now live from Beirut.

Ben, so often, were seeing a for tat cycle of retaliations here. What are the expectations where you are? Do they fear that this is going to escalate further?

[15:20:04]

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There definitely is a fear that this -- this time after more than nine months of fire on the border that it could spread.

The fear is that Israel could strike Beirut, could strike the airport. Now, today, I spoke by phone with the Lebanese caretaker for caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, who told me that through diplomatic channels Lebanon had received assurance it says that the Israeli strike would be limited and he said that Lebanon's interpretation of those assurances was that Beirut, the airport, and specifically the southern suburbs of Beirut where many of his butlers leaders are based would not be struck, because we know in the past that Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has said that if Beirut airport is struck, Tel Aviv Airport will be struck. If Beirut is struck, Tel Aviv will be struck.

So they're -- they've made it clear that Hezbollah will meet escalation with escalation. Now, yesterday, we had to sit down interview with the foreign minister who told us that as far as Hezbollah goes, the Lebanese government is essentially helpless, that they are in contact with the group, but the group acts independently and his concern is that if Israel launches a full scale war on Hezbollah, that others, including Iran, the Houthis, the militias in Syria, and Iraq, will join the fray.

So the concern is even though at the moment the conflict in Lebanon is specifically between Hezbollah and its local allies and Israel that it could be a much broader war. Now as a result of these tensions, what we have seen is that several countries, Germany and Italy, among them, have advised them air nationals to leave Lebanon as soon as possible.

Other countries have reiterated their advisories for people to leave. And we heard the U.S. assistant secretary of state for consular affairs put out a video posted on X or Twitter saying that people U.S. nationals in Lebanon should leave before the crisis begins. One might argue the crisis has already begun. And those who decide to stay should be prepared to shell altar in place she said for a very long time -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Listen, when each side is promising escalation in response to each of each attack that only leaves in one direction. Ben Wedeman in Beirut, thanks so much.

For more now, I'm joined by journalist Elliott Gotkine, who covers the region.

Elliott, it's good to have you on.

The U.S. reads since the early days after October 7, is that none of the parties actually want a broader war and that includes Hezbollah. Even perhaps Iran and Israel to some extent as it continues operations in Gaza.

In your view, as you watch this closely, does this series of attacks change that dynamic.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN JOURNALIST: But I think it changes the dynamic, Jim, but none of the parties involved ready want a war and it's not just the U.S. assessment. We've heard that repeatedly from Israel, from Hezbollah and others that they don't want a war, but that doesn't necessarily mean that one isn't going to happen. And you only have to listen to the words of Amos Hochstein, President Biden's point man for trying to keep a lid on tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, who said in May, if -- if, who said in May, war have started historically around the world, even when leaders didn't want them because they had no choice.

And that is the real concern right now, but Israel may feel that it doesn't have a choice. Be other than to go in hard. Indeed, we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a visit to Majdal Shams, the village in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, saying, today, these children are our children. They are the children of us all. The state of Israel will not and cannot ignore this, our response will come and it will be severe.

Now, just how severe that will be, of course, will determine what response to that there is from Hezbollah beyond the daily tit for tat strikes that we've seen and whether that escalates into an all-out war between the two. This war kind of have been simmering, but hasn't boiled over just yet, and whether that sucks in other players as well.

But one other thing to note, I think, Jim, which is important is that over the last 9, 10 months of fighting, there been many occasions when we thought that the two sides are on the brink of war. In January when Israel took out a senior Hamas leader in Beirut in April, when Israel took out a senior IRGC commander in a consulate in an Iranian continent compound, we had that unprecedented barrage from Iran on Israel as well, that didn't lead to all out war. And perhaps that's why John Kirby, the national security spokesman for the White House, says that these concerns of all out war are exaggerated -- Jim.

[15:25:08]

SCIUTTO: What are Netanyahu's interests here? I mean, he's been accused by Benny Gantz, of course, a former member of his own war cabinet of scuttling a Gaza ceasefire deal for his own political interests. Could he, in a way, want a war with Lebanon, or with Hezbollah in Lebanon for similar reasons?

GOTKINE: Look, I think a lot of his critics would say that the war against Hamas in Gaza is being prolonged because of his own personal interest, because he knows that once the war is over, there will be an inquiry and there will be pressure to have elections and also, of course, because the far-right members of his governing coalition have said, look, if you do a deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip to get a ceasefire, then they have threatened to bolt the coalition. Likewise, people may see it to be in his interest to keep some kind of war going.

He certainly has always maintained that he is doing what he feels is in the state of Israel's interests. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure that any government, whether it was led by Prime Minister Netanyahu or any of his opponents, if they were in charge right now, I think that there would still be a severe response and I still think that and I think also that they would not be seeking an all-out war.

But as we've seen in the past --

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

GOTKINE: -- the miscalculation can lead to that. So it'll depend on, I suppose the calibration of Israel's response to what it says was Hezbollah strike on Majdal Shams on Saturday that killed those 12 children -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, depends on each side's reading of the other sides red lines.

Elliott Gotkine, thanks so much.

Turning now to Venezuela where the results of this past weekend's presidential election are in question. The government controlled national electoral council declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner, but the opposition is claiming victory as well for its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

CNN's Stefano Pozzebon is in Caracas.

Stefano, the U.S., multiple nations, they are questioning the results here. What does the evidence and were there monitors of this election who can help answer that question? STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. Jim, well, the evidence is

that just to give you a little bit of context, here in Venezuela, you don't have a transparent vote counts that leads up to, for example, when we have the proclamation of a precedent, either in the United States or in other countries that the electoral authorities presents and shares, how the votes are being counted minute after minute, if not hour after hour.

Here in Venezuela, the announcement came just in the middle of the night. It was just a simple statement from these electoral body that is heavily controlled by the Maduro government, who handed the victory to Nicolas Maduro. However, many exit polls and polls before the election gave the opposition a considerable advantage.

The opposition for example, are saying that they've only had access to 40 percent central roughly 40 percent of the ballot reports and they're demanding to see the other 60 percent to contest these election. And it's not just the U.S. that are calling -- causing scrutiny over these results. And many other countries in Latin America, from Chile to Argentina, to Brazil, and Uruguay are asking to see a full audit of these results.

Meanwhile, here in Caracas, in the last few hours, we have seen the first -- the first dissent coming up from the streets that people have been banging their pots in some areas of Caracas, you have had people taking to the streets, blockading roads are to express their anger. But this is what the attorney general had to say on national television to everyone who they are there to express their dissent in a more forceful way.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TAREK SAAB, VENEZUELAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: Acts of violence and calls to ignore the official results can be framed in the crimes of public instigation, obstruction of public roads, resistance to authorities, and incitement to hatred with a sentence of 10 to 20 years.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

POZZEBON: Jim, I don't think you can have a better proof that a country is going through very, very tense hours than having the attorney general going on on national television threatening with 10 or 20 years of prison to everybody who is the expressing dissent about those results of those election. And the words that you've seen on the screen where the penalties that he is proposing to hand out as the chief prosecutor of Venezuela -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, that's how strong men regimes operate. Lots of history to look at.

Stefano Pozzebon, thanks so much.

Coming up there are new details in the investigation into the assassination attempt of former President Trump. We'll bring you an update after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:33:52]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

New details, some of them alarming, are emerging in the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Thomas Matthew Crooks was a loner both online and in person, according to FBI investigators, also revealing that Trumps would-be assassin used encrypted email accounts and aliases in order to purchase firearms. This, as we learned today as well, the former president has agreed to a victim interview with the FBI.

We should point out that victim interviews are a routine point of criminal investigations and are voluntary.

CNN's Josh Campbell is following all of this.

Josh, tell us about what we've learned, not just about the shooters potential motive if we've moved any closer to that, but also his radicalization.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No, it's interesting. I mean, the one frustrating aspect of this entire case is what we still don't know. The FBI says. They told us today in a call that they've interviewed over 450 witnesses. They've served search warrants and subpoenas on over 80 different accounts that have been associated with the shooter and they still don't have that so-called smoking guns, some actual indication about why he did what he did.

[15:35:05]

What is interesting is that the FBI's renowned profiler, which I think most people are familiar with. Did a deep dive on this person, looked at the interview statements, talk to those who knew him and what they discovered, as you mentioned there at the top, is that he is essentially a loner.

Have a listen here at what the FBI said moments ago.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

KEVIN ROJEK, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: We have learned the subject was highly intelligent, attended college, and maintain steady employment. His primary social circle appears to be limited to his immediate family.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: And that's important because we've seen in past shooting incidents that oftentimes shooter will talk to friends and associates, sometimes telegraph about what they are about to do here that does not appear to be the case because he didn't appear to actually have a large network. So the FBI continues to dig in to try to get to that motive. We are learning as this all happens, a new timeline of events here, particularly as it relates to that failed law enforcement response at the end. We know as we've reported on, that, they were bystanders there who were pointing at the person who was up on the roof, screaming to cops that there's a man up there with a gun, where were learning there was a group of local officers who spoke with our colleague like I said, ABC News. And what they said is that they were never in communication with the Secret Service.

And so, you had these various sniper teams that were out there. You had various law enforcement agencies who were responsible for identifying threats and alerting that to the presidents team. Those agents that actually surround him were told that they couldn't even talk to each other, Jim, which is obviously going to be a key point of ridicule here as these multiple investigations into the after action continue.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, that lack of ability to share information in the moment is just remarkable in retrospect.

Josh Campbell, thanks so much.

CAMPBELL: You bet. Well, J.D. Vance, Trump's vice presidential pick was raised in small town, Ohio with roots in Appalachia. But today, he's returning to another place, key to his political rise, Silicon Valley, it was venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who first introduced Vance to Donald Trump, and Thiel donated more than $10 million to elect him as Ohio senator, just a couple of years ago.

Tonight, Vance hosts a Trump campaign fundraiser in Palo Alto as part of the campaign's appeal to Silicon Valley, which also happens to be Kamala Harris's backyard.

With me to discuss how Silicon Valley is approaching the presidential race and how both campaigns are courting their support, I'm joined by Mike Isaac. He's a tech correspondent for "The New York Times", and of course, he's based in San Francisco as it would be.

Mike, thanks for joining.

MIKE ISAAC, TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Thanks, Jim. Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: So, this is Vance's first trip to Silicon Valley since he was chosen as the vice presidential candidate. Tell us more about his ties to big tech and how he in particular, won over big donors like Peter Thiel for instance?

ISAAC: Totally. So, you know, he actually, I believe met Thiel long time ago when he was giving a speech at school when J.D. Vance was in college and made a wrong impression on him and made started forming a friendship then to the point where Vance ended up coming out to Silicon Valley, taking a job in biotech, supposedly at the request of Thiel sort of giving a favorite to a friend and parlayed that job into different sort of Silicon Valley mainstays like venture capital, ending up at different firms. But really, I think the befriended a number of the VCs in the valley

that have not been the type of what you would think of is like classically progressive or liberal folks of the Bay Area, and really more libertarian and even right-leaning than you would imagine. I think those ties have kept him around for awhile, at least.

SCIUTTO: Of course, Kamala Harris has her own big tech backers. You think of Netflix's Reed Hastings or LinkedIn co-founder Reed Hoffman. I mean, is it -- is it actual, actually a split in Silicon Valley or is it weighted in one particular direction, Democrat or Republican?

ISAAC: So it's a great sort of question. For a while, I believe before President Biden dropped out for the current campaign for '24, there was a sort of feeling in the valley, I would say among tech CEOs who thought a Trump reelection would be and inevitability. And you started seeing for Musk sort of coming out in full support of Trump to even Mark Zuckerberg not endorsing him, but sort saying he did a really cool thing when he did the fist pump after the assassination attempt.

And I felt like that was kind of a vibe this is probably inevitable thing. And it has shifted in the past few -- in the past week alone, basically, which feels like a month. You've seen Reed Hastings of Netflix gives 7 million to Kamala. It's definitely a vibe shift out here.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

[15:40:00]

I mean, everybody likes a winner. They want to cozy up to the winner.

I want to talk about but Bitcoin for a moment here, because over the weekend, Trump attended a Bitcoin conference. We should note as president, Trump declared Bitcoin not money, criticized it as highly volatile based on thin air.

Now, he's championing it. I want to play some comments from him over the weekend. Have a listen, get your thoughts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It will be the policy of my administration, United States of America, to keep 100 percent of all the Bitcoin, the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future. We'll keep 100 percent. I hope you do well, please.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Forgive me for guessing that there's a political motive here. But is this -- is this Trump going after Bitcoin users? I mean, you have a big kind of tech bro -- I mean, whole bunch of folks in Bitcoin, but is that a play for that part of the kind of bitcoin base, if you want to call it that?

ISAAC: No, totally, I think that there is a ton of money in the cryptocurrency sort of area. There are people who became overnight millionaires, if not billionaires, and those people have been donating to his campaign.

And then there's also a real opportunity among folks who, A, want a sort of deregulated pro-business approach in that community, younger generation who has more right-leaning attitudes tend to be sort of crypto adjacent in a lot of these communities. And were starting to see even Vice President Harris kind of court that idea of maybe he I should not take the sort of hostile approaches, Gensler, you know, the SEC was doing and at least talk to some of the bitcoin and crypto communities going forward because she may have to rely on that base as well.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. Harder position to take after FTX fell apart, I imagine, but now, memories are short.

ISAAC: Absolutely.

SCIUTTO: Mike Isaac, thanks so much for joining.

ISAAC: Thanks, Jim, thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: We are going to take a short break. For our international viewers, "LIVING GOLF" is next. And if you're streaming us on Max, we will be back with more news right after this short break.