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The Chris Wallace Show
Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris Receives Favorability Push from Positive Coverage on Social Media; Polls between Kamala Harris and Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Within Margin of Error; Trump Campaign Attempting to Find Methods of Attacking Kamala Harris; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Meets with President Biden and Vice President Harris at White House and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago; Republican Vice Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance Criticized for Comment about Childless Cat Ladies; Southwest Airlines Ends Free-For-All Seating; Boat and Tote Bag Created in 1940s Now Popular Summer Accessory in U.S.; Travis and Jason Kelce Release New Cereal with General Mills Mixing Three Populator Brands. Aired 10-11a ET.
Aired July 27, 2024 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:40]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. I'm Kasie Hunt in for Chris Wallace this week. Let's break down the biggest stories with the smartest people we know. Today we're asking, as Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign heats up and Democrats seem excited, can the so- called Harris honeymoon last until November.
And then the Trump pivot, can the former presidents successfully switch his attention and his attacks to the new Democratic nominee?
And later, cereal killer, the controversial breakfast choice for Travis Kelce, AKA Taylor Swift's boyfriend.
The panel is here, are ready to go. So sit back, relax. Let's talk about it.
Up first, even though it has felt like much, much longer, today marks just one month since the CNN presidential debate. And in just the last week President Biden dropped out, Vice President Harris became the Democrat's new presumptive nominee, and her campaign shot out of a cannon, thanks in part to a social media storm involving coconuts and "Brat."
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are not going back.
(CHEERING)
HUNT: Kamala Harris spending her first week as the Democrat's new presumptive nominee with a singular message. HARRIS: We are focused on the future.
HUNT: The excitement for her candidacy palpable at each of her first rallies, from Wisconsin to Texas. In a new CNN poll, the race tightened to within the margin of error, and Harris saw a five-point improvement over President Biden among young voters. That swing might be fueled by social media users latching onto a story the vice president told last year about her mother.
HARRIS: She would say to us, I don't know what's wrong with young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
HUNT: And combining the phrase with songs from British singer Charli XCX's hit album "Brat."
(MUSIC)
HARRIS: You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.
HUNT: Which led to memes and fan edits flooding the Internet, something that pop star was quick to endorse, even tweeting, "Kamala is brat." The campaign embraced it, making their Twitter header Brat green.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HUNT: All right, here with us today, podcaster and author Kara Swisher, Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute and "National Review" contributing editor, "Washington Post" columnist on international affairs and culture Karen Atia, and conservative pollster and "New York Times columnist Kristen Soltis Anderson. Welcome everyone. It's wonderful to be here with you. Thank you. We miss Chris. He'll be back next week.
But Kara, look, Internet popularity aside, or maybe this is a huge part of it, as a candidate, can Harris beat Trump?
KARA SWISHER, PODCAST HOST, "PIVOT" AND "ON": Certainly, absolutely. It's very close. It's going to be a close race no matter what. And she has had a successful beginning, that's for sure. Pretty much no missteps since she started.
Now, I always, I'm an Internet person, and I think all this stuff is pretty cool and it's interesting, but it doesn't, it's not real life necessarily. And she's going to face a lot of things -- sexism, racism, all the things that you would imagine. But it's not a bad thing to have this much attention brought to so quickly. It does raise attention, especially with young people. But I always think of "Snakes on a Plane." Remember that was going to be a huge hit movie and then it was not.
HUNT: And yet we talked a lot about it.
SWISHER: We did talk a lot.
(LAUGHTER) HUNT: Reihan, what do you think? Can Harris beat Trump?
REIHAN SALAM, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NATIONAL REVIEW": I certainly think she can. It's really striking to see how much her favorables have improved. Now, Donald Trump's favorables have also improved, but it's incredible how steep the ascent has been for Kamala Harris. And a lot of it is this incredible coalescing of folks in media who were just pivoting from being in a pretty decently neutral to favorable towards Joe Biden to being incredibly negative. And then suddenly you have someone new. And I think that that incredible onrush of incredibly positive media coverage will buoy her.
But also, it could elicit a backlash from folks who have found it a little North Korean and a little strange that we suddenly so drastically changed our sense of someone we know people thought was kind of flawed, kind of imperfect, maybe not necessarily the best vice president we've ever had. That's going to be interesting to see play out.
HUNT: Kristen, I mean, I take your point, Reihan, but is it just the media? Because we've seen some polls start to come out this week, and it's early. We saw a young voters shift. But Harris also improved over Biden in other key coalition groups. She does eight points better so far among black voters, six points better among Hispanic voters. This is the latest CNN poll.
[14:05:05]
If these numbers hold or improve, I mean, how has her standing changed?
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, FOUNDING PARTNER, ECHELON INSIGHTS: Think about the way that the Republican and Democratic coalitions looked before Trump came on the scene. Republicans were struggling with young voters, voters of color, et cetera. And over the last 10 years in the Trump era, somewhat counterintuitively, those numbers have shifted a little bit. And I think Republicans got very excited thinking, ha-ha, we've got young voters. We're doing better among voters of color. Look at this. This is incredible. But some of it, frankly, was just Joe Biden being uninspiring to, say, younger voters.
Now we have reset back to more conventional coalitions. And the question is going to be for every new young voter that Kamala Harris gets off the couch who was not interested in voting for Biden, are there any voters that she loses relative to Biden because, remember, his Scranton Joe personality did kind of scramble the deck a little bit in 2020.
HUNT: Indeed, it did.
Karen, to you, the president, President Biden, the current president, we heard from him this week in an Oval Office address, and he said this about moving on to a new leader. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That's the best way to unite our nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: She is undeniably a new generation. How much of this is simply that and is something that could fade as people get to know her better than maybe they did before?
KAREN ATTIAH, COLUMNIST, "WASHINGTON POST": I think in some ways, I think some of the criticisms of Harris have been, well, you don't see her. What is she doing? And to an extent that could work in her favor now because now she has a chance to really right an interesting narrative, not least of which being brats and coconut trees. She gives, she gives him wide range of people just even by virtue of her story and her identity, so much to talk like about, whether it's immigrants, so have a lot of people, South Asians of activated. I've seen the Jamaicans going crazy in terms of making jokes about, we know how to win races, right?
(LAUGHTER)
ATTIAH: Right.
HUNT: They pulled a clip from "Cool Runnings."
ATTIAH: Yes. I used for free here.
SWISHER: Olympic season.
HUNT: Exactly.
ATTIAH: Exactly. And so she's giving part of that energy is, it is very rare, I think, to see someone who can sort of connect people on multiple levels. She's got the charisma. She's got the -- we still remember the clips from her as a prosecutor, obviously, and being in her prosecutor mode. Kavanaugh, I think I still have "I'm speaking" mug from when she challenged Pence during the debates before each challenge. I think, yes, will be with the campaign, but will also be to sustain this momentum, particularly, not just among voters, but it's also about the people who are knocking on doors, who are phone- banking, who are getting out the vote to get out there and put bodies on the line to really make this happen.
ANDERSON: And then in some ways there's a real benefit here to the campaign now only having to be for 100 days. You have these unbelievably protracted presidential campaigns nowadays, and in some ways, it's almost like a video game cheat code where you get to skip a bunch of difficult levels. She didn't have to deal with whatever nonsense you'd have to deal with any Democratic primary.
HUNT: Just go straight to fight Bowser.
ANDERSON: You just get to straight to fight Bowser, exactly.
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: So that can be beneficial in terms of not depleting activist energy. You're most closer to the finish line now.
SALAM: But there's also a danger, which is -- a danger for Kamala Harris, that is, which is that, no, she really did have a strikingly liberal record. Right now, Blueprint, a moderate Democratic polling operation, found that Kamala Harris is perceived as more moderate on inflation and the border. However, if you look at her 2020 presidential agenda, it was well to the left of that a Joe Biden, and had she gotten under spending plans through, this would have been a much, much more inflationary few years.
I think the question is whether the Trump-Vance ticket is effective and competent enough to really associate Kamala Harris with her really thoughtful, committed belief in some really aggressively progressive policies that are very far from the American mainstream. I don't know if they'll be able to do that, but if they can, that's going to have an effect.
SWISHER: She's modulated. She's been my, she was my district attorney in San Francisco and then the A.G. of California and then the senator from California.
SALAM: Which she narrowly won that first time around.
SWISHER: True, but she's still won.
SALAM: In California.
SWISHER: Nonetheless, she is someone who modulates quite a lot, much more than you think. And I think that's what's powerful about it.
And one of the things you said was the media that's pushing her forward. Look, let me go to another Internet thing. These Zoom calls are crazy. These are real people. This is not the media ginning up 40,000 women, 30,000 men, Asian American --
ATTIAH: Black women. There was a white women call.
[10:10:02]
SWISHER: Yes. This is a real thing, so it's not a media generated excitement. It's a people were bored excitement.
HUNT: Yes. Well, I mean, look, we can show it. Let me just show you part of what where this excitement is coming from, right, which is the difference between what it was like to see President Biden on the campaign trail and what it's like to see Kamala Harris on the campaign trail. Let's just play that back-to-back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know you're saying, Joe, you may not have a Congress. Well, guess what, you all told me I couldn't pass the Inflation Reduction Act. You all told me I couldn't face the -- anyway, we did with your help.
(LAUGHTER)
KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We who believe in reproductive freedom --
(CHEERING)
HARRIS: -- will stop Donald Trump's extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: I mean, Kristen, that seems pretty obvious to me.
ANDERSON: There were a lot of voters out there that were really not excited about a Trump-Biden rematch. Anywhere from a quarter to 40 percent of voters did not like both of those candidates. So now they've got one of the major parties to switched out at the top of their tickets. So if you were one of those double-haters, you may be the most interesting voting bloc to me right now, because what will you do now that you got your wish?
HUNT: Indeed.
All right, then there is the Trump side of the equation. As his campaign pivots to Harris, some Republicans are using an attack line against the V.P. that even Trump isn't saying right now. We'll discuss.
Then VIP visit. Israel's prime minister takes center stage in the presidential election in a way that could help and hurt both candidates.
And later, cool for the summer. No, not the Demi Lovato song. The 80- year-old accessory that's now all the rage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:16:52]
HUNT: After months and months of planning for a rematch with Joe Biden, Donald Trump this week was forced to pivot and hone in on Kamala Harris as his opponent. And with about 100 days until Election Day, the clock is ticking to come up with a brand new playbook.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Lyin' Kamala Harris, lyin', l-y-i-n-apostrophe.
(BOOS)
HUNT: Donald Trump trying out some new attack lines.
TRUMP: She is a radical left lunatic, more liberal than Bernie Sanders.
HUNT: Painting his new opponent as extreme and going after her policies.
TRUMP: Kamala's deadly destruction of America's borders is completely and totally disqualifying.
HUNT: Blaming her in ads for covering for her boss.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kamala was in on it. She covered up Joes obvious mental decline.
HUNT: While others in Trump's party took a different route, focusing on Harris's race and gender, 100 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One-hundred percent she was a DEI hire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's a woman, she's colored, therefore she's got to be good.
HUNT: With Harris's campaign off to an impressive start, Trump's campaign setting expectations, releasing an internal pollster's memo admitting Harris could see a bump in the polls, but, quote, "before long Harris's honeymoon will end." And if it does Trump joking, he may need to face a third opponent.
TRUMP: Kamala, you're fired. Get out here. You're fired.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HUNT: So Karen, Donald Trump and his campaign apparatus was singularly built to take on Joe Biden, who's central problem was how old he was. And now suddenly that entire strategy has been blown up. Do you think they can successfully pivot?
ATTIAH: They're trying the best, bless their hearts. I mean, this line about Kamala being too, or Harris being too radical. We've actually heard this before, right? We actually have heard, and we've heard this for so many black women politicians, honestly, whether it was it's even Michelle Obama in her capacity as first lady that particularly black women in politics are painted automatically as radical and to the left. It just feels like he's really trying out his sort of Dr. Seuss poetry alliteration lines.
That being said, I mean, they're right to think about a honeymoon sort of bubble. If anything, it's actually interesting that Harris's record with law and order, given Trump's now felony conviction, her being a prosecutor, sets up this sort of kind of a courtroom showdown sort of thing that I actually think will look -- the only way Trump can really do this as if he looks like the unfairly persecuted victim. And that's a contradiction to his alpha male -- HUNT: Except that he has basically messaged that the entire time he's
been on trial. He's set himself up as the --
ATTIAH: Yes, but how do you campaign for president from a victim platform?
HUNT: Because it's -- I mean, the argument that I'm making is that this is a system that is attacking you.
SWISHER: It's Kama-Law and Order.
ATTIAH: Perfect.
SWISHER: Wah-wah.
(LAUGHTER)
[10:20:01]
HUNT: So one thing that we have seen here, and I think it's important to underscore we have not seen it yet, Kristen, from Trump himself on the trail, but Republican leaders have warned members of Congress and some others who have said this not to engage in quote-unquote -- well, not to make racist and sexist attacks that they use the phrase DEI. Trump does have a history of making racist and sexist attacks. Here are a couple, not against -- I'm not saying that against Kamala Harris now, but here are a couple from his past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think the only card she has is the woman's card. She's got nothing else going.
I've been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall. OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Is he going to be able to resist this for 100 days?
ANDERSON: I am stunned at how the campaign seems to have been so caught off guard by this change. So you take a look at what I think this week was the most effective messaging against Kamala Harris, and it came from a Senate campaign in Pennsylvania. It went through a variety of statements she made in the 2019, 2020 campaign for president that are to the left, outside the mainstream point of view on things like climate, on things like whether Americans should eat meat. What have you.
The Trump campaign doesn't seem to have been as prepared. And that's why you're seeing this weird kind of spiraling of different surrogates for the campaign all choosing their own message, some of which are very unhelpful. It is baffling to me that they weren't more prepared for what to me one month ago seemed like the inevitable place this was going to end up.
HUNT: Yes. I mean, I have to say I was also surprised. Reihan what do you see here?
SALAM: What I see here are some pretty serious vulnerabilities. There are a number of really visible, highly successful black Democratic politicians who have staked up moderate ground. If you look at Val Demings who was considered for Biden's V.P. slot way back in 2020, she's a great example. Colin Allred in Texas running a really competitive race because he is seen as being a moderate candidate.
Kamala Harris really went out of her way to distinguish herself, differentiate herself from the Democratic field as being very much on the left of the party. She talked about the idea of, and the wisdom of defunding law enforcement. She is someone who celebrated the idea of Medicare for all and thought the idea of banning private health insurance coverage was a really good idea. These are things she said explicitly.
When it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, she explicitly said -- there is a transcript of this, go to WhiteHouse.gov, said that folks are trying to make "DEI" a bad word. They're trying to do what they did to "woke," making it a bad, negative term. She believes in it. She celebrates it. She champions it. And throughout her career in the Senate, she was a big champion of --
ATTIAH: That's distinct from being a DEI candidate.
SALAM: You're right, but talking about July, it's very much a part of her agenda.
SWISHER: Reihan, Reihan, as I've said before, the opposite of diversity, equity, inclusion is lack of diversity, or homogeneity, unfairness, and exclusion. She was discussing it as an issue.
SALAM: Then run away from it.
SWISHER: She's not running away from it. She talks about it all the time -- getting, she talks about it all the time. I think what's effective when she's doing, and I think they're going to have a hard time is that she's modulating towards the center. That is absolutely true.
SALAM: Some think of modulating as lying.
SWISHER: Well --
HUNT: It's a time honored tradition of presidential campaigns on both sides of the aisle, I would just say.
(CROSS TALK)
ATTIAH: The GOP convention, even in Trump's speech when he wasn't rambling, they were trying, they are trying to be a party of diversity. Yes, talking about inclusion, talking about unity, an obvious play inviting black men, especially, even Dallas mayor Eric Johnson and all that, they're making an obvious play --
SALAM: That makes sense. Republican should do it.
ATTIAH: Amber Rose. Yes --
SWISHER: They're taking that, it's not diversity, when Democrats do it it's diversity.
SALAM: They actually are DEI and having a diverse political party, they are different things. DEI policies that are race-conscious, policies about hiring --
SWISHER: She was discussing them, which is --
SALAM: No, these were legislative proposals, Kara. They're published.
HUNT: We could talk about this all week. I do, before we stop this conversation on Trump, I want to talk about something that everyone has been talking about this week, and this was the cat lady comment from J.D. Vance. Let's just play it and remind everybody about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWISHER: What a bad --
HUNT: Is there buyer's remorse?
SWISHER: I have no idea. I don't -- of course, there must be. But this this comment is ridiculous.
ATTIAH: I heard that the whole "Hillbilly Elegy" liberal fan fest that originally pushed J.D. Vance into the -- like, we all repent. We're story.
ANDERSON: J.D. Vance had an opportunity to be someone who is an advocate for policies that are going to be good for families. And there are things that he has done or tried to do in the Senate that went that direction. Before he was getting vetted for V.P., he had been working on a bill with a Democratic senator on reducing the costs you have to pay to actually give birth in the United States. These are good things. And they are now being totally drowned out by these comments that, for me, you know that phrase, you don't remember what somebody said, but you remember how it made you feel?
[10:25:03]
Like, I remember how I felt the first time I heard J.D. Vance say that in 2021, because I had been going through struggles to start my family at the time. And now he's tried to walk it back and say, well, that's not really what I meant. I wasn't talking about people who can't have children, et cetera. But when you're explaining, you're losing. And that was just an unbelievable unforced error. And I think the apology he's attempted so far is one of those I'm sorry you were offended type things, which isn't enough.
HUNT: Yes. He said, I've got nothing against cats, I've got nothing against dogs. That was part of his apology.
OK, Trump, Biden, and Harris all had a very important visitor this week. It came with political pluses and minuses. We'll dig in.
Also ahead, unseating tradition, the Southwest Airlines move that could cost you more to fly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:30:34]
HUNT: Washington hosted a controversial visitor this week, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. ally came to town amid growing tension regarding Israel's handling of the war in Gaza. Netanyahu addressed that issue, tried to gain support when he spoke before a joint session of Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: America and Israel must stand together.
(APPLAUSE)
NETANYAHU: Because when we stand together, something very simple happens -- we win, they lose.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Outside the capitol, massive anti-war protests which in some cases turned violent and resulted in pro Hamas messages being spray painted on D.C. landmarks. The president -- the prime minister then met separately with President Biden and Vice President Harris at the White House before a one-on-one with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Harris surprised many when she made remarks after her meeting and delivered this forceful message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As I just told prime minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done. Let's get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war. Let's bring the hostages home, and let's provide much needed relief to the Palestinian people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Netanyahu responded, saying he hopes Hamas won't interpret Harris's comments as they're being, quote, daylight between the U.S. and Israel that could damage the deal officials say is close to being done. Karen, do you think Harris's comments hurt the prospects for a ceasefire and hostage release deal?
ATTIAH: I think Netanyahu for a long time has hurt prospects for a ceasefire deal, which is why Israelis' families of hostages have been in the streets for weeks, if not months, urging for a diplomatic solution to the situation.
I think if anything, this week was really a potential do weak spot even for Harris. Look, there are a lot of Americans, particularly among the Democratic place, particularly among young voters who have been horrified by the images that they've seen coming out of Gaza for the last 10 months, who have been, it's really threatened, I think, a lot of the coalition in many ways. And so a lot of people have been looking for Harris to signal any sort of change.
HUNT: You're saying it's a weakness for her from the left side of the equation?
ATTIAH: I think it's a weakness -- correct. I think there are a lot of -- we have seen some polls that have shown that there have been voters who are saying, and we've seen the uncommitted movement, voters who are saying that they would not support Biden simply because of this issue. So I think her comments after meeting with Netanyahu actually gave people a bit of hope. Again, these are speeches. This is not signaling actual policy yet. We still have to --
HUNT: She's not president yet.
ATTIAH: She's not president yet. But that being said, just even her mentioning the Palestinian people and acknowledging that she's not going to be silent seemed revolutionary.
HUNT: Let's listen to that, because that's the tone shift in particular that I think stuck out to a lot of people. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Reihan, how do you look at this from your perspective in terms of whether this is a weakness for Harris, because, of course, juxtaposed with those comments, Netanyahu's speech, we showed some of those protests. There was an American flag that was burned. Bugs, maggots were released at Netanyahu's hotel here in Washington. And Harris did put out a statement the morning after these protests saying that they were despicable acts from unpatriotic protestors. This is clearly an issue that has risk for her, as Karen described it, but also in other ways from the other side.
SALAM: It's really important for folks to recall that there were 32 Americans were killed on October 7th. There are eight American hostages being held by Hamas. And as "The Wall Street Journal" reported in a really brilliant and important report, Hamas's leadership is aware. We have explicit statements, they are aware that civilian deaths are helping them make their case against Israel and its legitimacy and its right to defend its people.
[10:5:10]
Kamala Harris really needs to demonstrate that there is no daylight between her and our most important ally in the Middle East. And right now what you see from those protesters is an attempt to exercise a veto over her vice presidential selection and a veto over American foreign policy. It did not send a very good signal. When President Biden, when the Biden administration changed U.S. policy towards Israel after you had a series of unruly, violent, often antisemitic protests on elite U.S. college campuses, that did not send a good and reassuring signal to Israel and to our allies. And I hope that Kamala Harris learns from that dire mistake.
SWISHER: I think she was trying to go right up the middle, and it's very difficult topic to go right up the middle in here in pushing various things. I think the difficulty is Bibi Netanyahu, Israel necessarily, is supporting Israel, supporting him, because he's such a controversial figure, as Karen said, in Israel, absolutely. And so the question is, is there a way to support Israel without necessarily agreeing with his methods of what he's doing there?
HUNT: Kristen, Bibi Netanyahu also went down to Mar-a-Lago, met with Donald Trump. Donald Trump has actually been remarkably, I thought, outspoken in terms of saying that Israel has a P.R. problem around this war. And he and Netanyahu clearly seemed to have a couple of things to work out among themselves, for other reasons. What did you make of this meeting, this sort of show? We saw them posing together. And who has the upper hand here?
ANDERSON: Right now, I think what Donald Trump is trying to do is send, give people memories of, look, I'm still somebody that you can trust to go talk to a foreign leader. Since he's been out of the White House, we've mostly been seeing him at rallies or in courtrooms.
HUNT: Or golfing.
ANDERSON: Or golfing.
HUNT: He just met with Viktor Orban.
ANDERSON: This is an example of him meeting with one of our -- a leader of an allied country. And so I think that is a good moment for him in that sense. And this is an issue that much more divides the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. When you saw those protesters take a tear down the American flag, right, "Hamas is coming for you" in graffiti on Union Station, it was a bunch of Republican congressmen who immediately went over to Union Station to put the American flag back up.
Now, Harris, to her credit the next day put out a statement saying these protests are wrong. We absolutely don't stand for this, et cetera. But it was a little bit slower. And I think it spoke to the fact that for Republicans, it's not hard for them to message on this issue. For Democrats, they have a much tougher needle to thread.
HUNT: It was slower than the White House, honestly. The White House put out a statement that I was able to cover it early in the morning, and there still was nothing from Harris at that point.
ATTIAH: So this is where, again, back to honeymoon. We're, what, in the end of July. This is where I'm looking at as campuses open up, as this conflict is still going on, as the images, again, out of Gaza are still leaking out. When students go back, this is where, at least for me, there's the issue of the conflict itself, and then there's the issue of protest in America and what that looks like, in particularly, in general, as we're going into a season where we're seeing -- I mean, next month is the anniversary of Gerguson. She has to get the messaging on the democratic right to protest and purchase peacefully correct as these young voters are going back to school.
HUNT: All right, up next here, a totally surprising trend where a World War II era invention now this summer's must have item. I have several.
Plus Taylor Swift's boyfriend, football superstar Travis Kelce, replacing the blank space in his cereal bowl with a peculiar mix. We'll find out who on the panel can shake it off up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:44:08]
HUNT: All right, once again, it's time to get our groups yea or nay on some big talkers. Up first, closing the door on open seating. This week Southwest Airlines shocked the travel world when it announced they're getting rid of the longstanding sit wherever you want policy. The airline says it's due to flyers being unhappy with assigned seats, and then it allows Southwest to charge for premium seating with extra leg room. There's no word yet on when this goes into effect. Kristen, are you a yea or nay on Southwest ending free for all seats.
ANDERSON: I'm a yea. I avoid Southwest when I can because I can't deal with the anxiety of, wait a minute, am I standing in the right place for the boarding? But that's actually not the worst part. It's getting on the plane. Someone has saved a seat, and you're like, but you're not allowed to do that. But then there's just too much awkwardness. Pass.
HUNT: Trying to prevent somebody from sitting down in the middle seat next to you. Karen, yea or nay?
[14:45:00]
ATTIAH: I'm from Dallas, so Southwest is close to my heart. Literally leftfield. I'm cool with it. Whatever Southwest does, I don't care. I love Southwest. As far as like waiting in line, I make friends in the line because we're all awkward. It's all weird. I love the flight attendants that are going to practice their stand-up comedy jokes with us. As long as they keep it fun and keep the tone of it all, it's cool. Southwest, I'm a loyal --
HUNT: I have to say, the flight attendants are spectacular.
ATTIAH: Yes.
HUNT: All right, so next, I never thought I would say this, but an 80-year-old is the hot new thing this summer, and we are talking about the classic L.L.Bean boat and tote bag which was created in the 1940s to haul blocks of ice. It is now having a moment as the must-have summer accessory. Prices range from $30 to $100. The creative monograms also hot on social media, sassy sayings inspiring the Instagram account "Ironic Boat and Tote."
I think I'm going to have to start with Kristin on this one because she is --
ANDERSON: I brought props.
HUNT: -- cradling her mini -- is that the mini or the small?
ANDERSON: This is the small. This is the extra-large.
HUNT: Love it.
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: I love that these are something that you described as being a World War II era invention because you could drive a tank over this and it would be fine.
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: There are durable. They're a great investment. I love this trend.
HUNT: And if you get the credit card, you can get it monogramed for free. I think we're just going to stick with Kristen on this one and myself. I'm also an aggressive yea. I probably own eight of these.
But finally, we really don't want to miss this one. Just in time for your Saturday morning breakfast football brothers Travis and Jason Kelce are shaking up the cereal aisle. General Mills and the pair teamed up to create the Kelce cereal mix, which combines three of the brothers favorite cereals in a single box. You can get Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, and Reese's Puffs. This comes after the Kelces talked cereal on their popular podcast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one -- Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs. It's undefeated, dude.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so freaking good. It's candy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the best.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just candy in cereal form.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could eat a whole box right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
HUNT: Candy in cereal form. The limited edition cereal mix hits shelves in September. Reihan, yea or nay?
SALAM: This is an abomination.
(LAUGHTER)
SALAM: This is deeply objectionable at so many levels. Eat protein in the morning, it would be so much better for you. Do it fresh. You will die, don't do it.
(CROSS TALK)
SWISHER: I don't know what you have against the boyfriend of a childless cat lady. But it is fantastic. And these guys are having the time of their lives.
SALAM: I want them to live.
SWISHER: And they're doing great. I feel like the Kelce brothers are having a great time.
HUNT: They seem pretty health.
SWISHER: They seem pretty health. They can also pick you up and throw you across the room easily any day of the week.
(LAUGHTER)
SALAM: That is true. You got me there.
HUNT: All right, the panel is back and up next with their takes on hot stories or what will be in the news before it's news. That's right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:52:42]
HUNT: All right, it's time for our panel's special takes on what's happening or predictions of what we should be looking out for this week. So Kara, hit me with your best shot.
SWISHER: So last week I said that Kamala Harris was going to start getting tech money, and she certainly did. Reed Hastings, one of the founders of Netflix, put together $7 million in a pack. I think Trump, who had been attracting some tech money, including from Elon Musk, is going to get much less of it because Kamala Harris is well-regarded in the tech industry. So you're going to see a lot of people who are sort of on the fence move toward her, because in this area, she's quite moderate and has been sort of in the middle and for tech innovation, even though she's done some things around privacy, and they like her quite a bit there.
HUNT: Really interesting. Karen, you're focused on a huge story this week that's gotten overshadowed by some of the campaign politics.
ATTIAH: Yes, I've been watching, of course, the case is Sonya Massey. This is the woman who called 911. Police came to her house. She ended up being shot in the head. And this is generating a lot of widespread anger and social media concern. Kamala Harris actually has called the family. And so I'm looking, especially as we're getting towards the 10th anniversary of Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, issues of police. And again, I see being a Harris and a campaign issue possibly.
HUNT: Very interesting. Kristen, what's your best shot this week?
ANDERSON: So mine is something that's happy and animal focused. So with all due respect to the cat ladies out there, I'm a dog lady. I've probably got dog hair on my hands right now. And my golden retriever is from Turkey. You can see a picture oh, watching "The Chris Wallace Show." That's a very "Inception" like dream within a dream kind of thing.
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: The CDC this week announced that they are suspending potential new regulations that would have prevented the adoption of dogs from overseas and would have prevented families moving to the U.S., military families from being able to bring their pets from overseas. It was about concerns about bringing rabies into the U.S. But these concerns, I think, were a bit overblown. We have great rabies vaccination here in the U.S. The CDC has thankfully paused this. You can still adopt golden retrievers from Turkey.
ANDERSON: Oh, I love that. All right, Reihan, bring us home, on a lighter note.
SALAM: You know that America is divided right now. There is one blockbuster summer movie that's going to bring us all together, whether you from the heartland are the coast.
[10:55:00]
SALAM: It's "Twisters", directed by the genius director Lee Isaac Chung. It's taking theaters by storm. And we all can unite against tornadoes. Let's do it.
HUNT: I mean, I have to say the original "Twister" was like, I don't know if we have a millennial -- a single twister, just one twister, right? Is that the difference?
SALAM: One twister, whatever. Twisters, that's another matter entirely.
HUNT: This was like a defining movie in my sort of teenage years. Are you going to see it?
ANDERSON: Yes. And I like Glen Powell.
SWISHER: And I thought he was going to say "Wolverine Deadpool," which again, the childless cat ladies recommend on her social media feeds.
ATTIAH: And as a Texan we're always fighting twisters and tornadoes.
HUNT: I'm very excited about this, although figuring out how to get to the movie theater is another thing with two small children at home, as many of you are sitting here know.
All right, gang, thank you all for being here today, and thanks to you for spending part of your day with us. Chris will be back right here with you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
