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The Chris Wallace Show

Democratic Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Set to Interview Potential Vice Presidential Running Mates; Kamala Harris's Presidential Campaign Uses "Weird" to Describe Trump Campaign; Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Draws Controversy for Comments about Kamala Harris's Racial Identity; Parts of Florida Under Hurricane Watch; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Rejects Plea Deal for 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed which Does Not Include Death Penalty; U.S. Sends Carrier Strike Group to Middle East in Anticipation of Possible Retaliation against Israel for Assassination of Hamas Leader in Tehran; More High Schools Offering Pickleball as Varsity Sport; Snoop Dogg Draws Accolades as NBC Celebrity Correspondent Covering Paris Olympic Games. Aired 10-11a ET.

Aired August 03, 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]

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, and welcome. It's time to break down the big stories with some smart people.

Today, we're asking, as Kamala Harris prepares to announce running mate, she's also launching a one-word attack on Donald Trump. But is the strategy weird?

Then divide and conquer? We'll break down Trump's gameplan using race and religion to go after the vice president.

And seniors forward, a popular game for grandparents where their high school grandkids can now earn a varsity letter.

The panel is here and ready to go. So sit back, relax, and let's talk about it.

Up first, as the political world waits to see who Kamala Harris picks are running mate, the campaign has a cross-country tour planned for the new Democratic ticket as polls show the race is tightening.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When we fight, we win!

WALLACE: Kamala Harris capitalizing on her momentum.

HARRIS: So as of today I ask you, are you ready to get to work?

(CHEERING) WALLACE: Set to hit the trail next week on a swing state blitz along with her running mate, likely one of these guys, the top contenders just to be Harris's V.P. pick.

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU, (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: If she were to pick Josh Shapiro, let's say, in Pennsylvania. Now Pennsylvania is really in play and that could actually bleed over to Michigan. Those a huge swing states.

WALLACE: According to a recent poll, Harris is closing in on Trump's lead and even beating him in critical battleground states.

LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: The swing states have already gotten tighter than they have been since early this year when Biden was still riding relatively high.

WALLACE: But some are questioning how long Harris's current bump will last.

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: What happens with every sugar, we all crash at the end of it. And they're going to crash once they start dissecting her record.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: Here with me today, podcaster and author Kara Swisher, Reihan Salam, president of the Manhattan Institute and "National Review" contributing editor, "New York Times" journalist and podcast host Lulu Garcia-Navarro, and conservative pollster and "New York Times" opinion writer Kristen Soltis Anderson. Welcome back, everyone.

Kara, who should Harris pick as a running mate? Who will she pick as a running mate?

KARA SWISHER, PODCAST HOST, "PIVOT" AND "ON": Should, I'd love to see it be Tim Walz. I think he's a really -- I think he's been lovely in doing the surrogate stuff.

WALLACE: The Minnesota governor.

SWISHER: Minnesota governor. I suspect she won't. That would be where my heart is. I suspect she will pick Josh Shapiro even though she's going to run to a bit of a buzzsaw with young people, I think, including my own. My sons were both like, wait a minute, there's some issues with him, a wide range of them.

WALLACE: Such as?

SWISHER: Well, I think some of his stances on Gaza have been pretty much much further down the line than her. And then some of the school stuff, the school voucher stuff.

WALLACE: Kristen, who should Harris pick? Who will Harris pick?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, FOUNDING PARTNER, ECHELON INSIGHTS: So I think she will pick Shapiro, and I think she should pick Shapiro. I think the fact that his policies are a little more centrist on things like education or on things like Gaza is a feature, not a bug. And I also find it when I listen to Shapiro talk, I find his rhetoric to be somewhat familiar. He clearly has gone to the Barack Obama school of rhetorical training. And I think that is going to be a big asset on the trail.

WALLACE: You know, it's interesting, because you're, forgive me, not the first person to talk about Shapiro's Obama vibe. So we put those together. Judge for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO, (D) PENNSYLVANIA: You could not have a clear contrast between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. And let me tell you something, he's pretty afraid.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Let me tell you something, Pennsylvania. This I know to be true -- Joe and Kamala will protect your health care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Kristen, is that just interesting, or do you think that could have some appeal for voters, the Obama vibe?

ANDERSON: I think it's just nice to have someone in public life who is good with words and is able to clearly articulate positions, even if they're positions I don't agree with. I feel like that has been sorely lacking in the Donald Trump era and, frankly, with the Biden- Harris ticket up until this point. So having some more rhetorical flourish would be nice.

WALLACE: Harris has had quite a run these past two weeks.

[10:05:01]

Big crowds, $310 million in campaign contributions in less than two weeks, and as I mentioned, better polls than Biden had when he dropped out. Reihan, how long will they Harris bounce last?

REIHAN SALAM, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NATIONAL REVIEW": I do think there's a bit of a clock right now, because essentially she has been repudiating a number of positions from the past through spokespeople. No one has actually said, well, you used to say that ICE was really bad. You wanted to abolish it, and you compared ICE, the immigration enforcement agency, to the KKK. That's a big deal. You now have a different view. Why is that? Walk me through it. Explain it to me.

When you're looking at fracking, you used to give a really articulate, thoughtful answer as to why you think it ought to be banned. Now, a spokesperson has said, oh, she doesn't think that anymore. She's at some point going to have to explain this. And she might do it really, really well, but she hasn't done it yet. She's been reading from a lot of teleprompters, being very careful, being very stage-managed. I think she has it in her, but that's going to be an interesting new opportunity to shake the kaleidoscope. WALLACE: I think Reihan is right that everything so far, she hasn't

put a foot wrong, Harris, but it's all been scripted. It's all been off the teleprompter. Sooner or later, she's going to have to hold a news conference. She's going to have to do a tough interview. She's, I think, going to have to debate Donald Trump. How long will the Harris bounce last?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, "NEW YORK TIMES" JOURNALIST AND PODCAST HOST: She's going to have to do all that. I'm a journalist, so I would urge her to sit down with a tough interviewer, like anyone here on this side of the --

WALLACE: Well, I was thinking of one person in particular.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes, I'm sure you were. I think that she obviously has to do a press conference. But I actually think that we are in a very tight race here. We've got less than 95 days until the election. It isn't a lot of time. And what everyone's attention has been focused on is Donald Trump and J.D. Vance's missteps. And so that really actually has given her an opportunity to do what the Democrats want her to do, which is to prosecute the case, not be on the defensive, but be on the offensive, because frankly, on the other side of this, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, it's been one misstep after another.

WALLACE: But one would agree that when she gets asked these questions, particularly about a lot of the changes that she has made from a very liberal stance in 2019 when she was running for president, and some of the things he did as a prosecutor, then she will be on the defensive.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: She will be on the defensive, but she already tried to get ahead of this on immigration. It was just this past week. She talked about it. And I think she is going to have to answer these questions. These are legitimate questions. But on the other side of this, when you talk about J.D. Vance, I mean, there was literally an email, he said he hated cops. I mean, you know I'm talking about positions that are problematic for their own party.

WALLACE: And then let me let me just move forward. Then there's the way that Democrats have been going after Trump and J.D. Vance, which is basically one word that has become a thing and was started by the aforementioned Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) MINNESOTA: These guys are just weird. Thats who they are.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: It's not just a weird style that he brings. It's that this leads to weird policies.

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And by the way, don't you find some of their stuff to just be plain weird?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Kara, is weird a weird way to go after Donald Trump?

SWISHER: Weird is working. I think it's really interesting to people. Hillary Clinton did "deplorables." That is not a good word. First of all, many people have to look it up. Secondly, it seems super insulting. "Weird" is like, that's so weird. It's not quite as insulting, but it insulting, if that makes sense. And I think it's working just fine because some of the things are weird.

WALLACE: You think it's good in the sense that it sort of belittles rather than makes the opponents seem --

SWISHER: No, because it doesn't belittle. It goes what's that like? It's that kind of thing. Like, what's with that?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Make them seem strange. They're trying to make them seem like they're not part of the mainstream. They're trying to point out the --

ANDERSON: It's a departure from the Biden campaign's tactic of saying that Donald Trump was this big threat to democracy. It's just a small linguistic change. What's the opposite of weird? Normal. It would have been very conventional for them to have said Donald Trump, this is not normal. But that just sounds like you're talking about this big, the end of democracy kind of thing. By bringing it down to a simpler level, it is a little bit more --

WALLACE: But having said that, Reihan, if you are making the case that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, if you're saying he and J.D. Vance are going to take away women's reproductive rights, is "weird" playing down the stakes of what this election is all about?

SALAM: I think the democracy argument is a little harder to make after the hot swap, and I think they're talking about it much less. I think Kristen's point was really astute.

WALLACE: Hot swapping being Biden --

SALAM: Like you had 14 million folks who voted for Joe Biden and he's no longer the nominee. Talking about democracy all the time is a little awkward in that circumstance.

[10:10:04]

But "weird" I actually do think resonates for this reason. There are a lot of folks who are, frankly, pretty conformist. They look to their left to the right, what does other, someone else saying? That's how cancel culture works. So I think that weird is actually really good for getting out the educated, affluent base to kind of go to Act Blue, contribute, contribute, contribute. They like the -- it's a form of bullying that works for conformist folks. So I think it's going to work a lot. We're going to hear much more of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:13] WALLACE: Donald Trump's attempt to wrestle back the election spotlight this week may have succeeded, but not in the way some of his allies hoped. The former president trying to appeal to religious and black voters seemed to fall back to his default setting of divide and try to conquer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black.

WALLACE: Donald Trump, who has made a concerted effort to reach out to black voters, questioning the vice president's racial identity during an appearance before black journalists.

TRUMP: So I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?

WALLACE: It doesn't seem to have been a mistake. At a rally hours later, the campaign displayed this headline, "Watch Kamala Harris sworn in as first Indian American senator."

TRUMP: Everything about Kamala Harris rollout, it's phony and it's fake.

WALLACE: Earlier in the week, Trump's focus was on religion.

TRUMP: My beautiful Christians, I love you. You've got to get out and vote.

WALLACE: Urging key voting blocs to support him while also attacking Harris.

TRUMP: She doesn't like Jewish people. She doesn't like Israel.

WALLACE: Harris's husband is Jewish, but that didn't stop Trump.

TRUMP: How does a Jewish person vote for a Democrat? How does a Catholic person vote for a Democrat?

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: Kristen, why is Trump questioning Kamala Harris's race? Is there a strategy here?

ANDERSON: I don't know if there's a strategy. We know that Donald Trump is very driven by his impulses. We know that his impulses often lead him to say things that make people want to pull their hair out and go, can you believe this guy was our president, might be our president again? And I'm so used to hearing these things and getting asked, will this affect the race? And I'm used to thinking, no, it probably won't. But in a race that is going to be as close as this one, maybe in a race where it feels like nothing matters, everything matters, and there's a chance that what he's trying to do here is drive the message that she's phony. She's changed her positions on x, y, and z. She tries to be whoever she thinks she needs to be in the moment. But it frankly, with his numbers growing the way they were among black men in particular, to go and be kind of openly weird and hostile about the race issue seems totally counterproductive to me.

WALLACE: You know, whether he has just slipped in this by impulse are intended to do it, after raising the race issue at the reporters' conference, Trump posted an old video of Harris and actress Mindy Kaling cooking together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MINDY KALING, ACTRESS: OK, so what we're going to cook today --

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK.

KALING: -- is an Indian recipe.

HARRIS: Yes.

KALING: Because you are Indian.

HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.

KALING: OK, and I don't know that everybody knows that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now, Trump claimed this proves Harris is a stone cold phony. She uses everybody, including her racial identity. Kara, what's going on here?

SWISHER: You didn't play all of it. In that clip, she also says, I'm half, half of me understands this, when she was talking about being Indian and also black. And so he keeps -- grandpa had a bad week. I don't know what else to say. I don't know why he does this. I don't know why he keeps focusing on race. If he wants to talk about her policy flipflops, he should talk about our policy, and not -- that's where he --

WALLACE: Do you take this argument, she's phony, she's fake, she flips. She was Indian American, now she's black.

SWISHER: But she wasn't.

WALLACE: I understand, but to make that argument.

SWISHER: No, I don't think it's a good argument. I think it's a good argument if you want to argue about fracking or if you want to argue about immigration or anything else. But this makes no sense. I don't even understand it.

WALLACE: As Kristen mentioned, Trump has been making a major push to win black voters, especially young black males. In a recent poll, Harris leads among black voters 78 percent of 15, but that's still closer than how Trump ran against Biden back in 2020. Lulu, does questioning Harris's race kill Trump's outreach to black voters?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It is ridiculous. And not only is it ridiculous, but he seems to not understand the concept of being biracial. And frankly, it is the largest growing group among young people in this country. America understands what it means to be biracial. The fact that Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand this makes him look incredibly out of touch, not only offensive and not only racially insensitive.

WALLACE: Reihan?

SALAM: So I don't think this is necessarily a good thing, but what I will say is that for a lot of Americans, particularly a lot of black Americans, there is some sense of discomfort about the fact that when you look at high profile, high status, successful black Americans, many of them are themselves multi-racial, first or second generation Americans, immigrants or kids of immigrants, or they're themselves intermarried.

[10:20:02]

There are some folks, there's a group called the American Descendants of Slaves, ADOS, a kind of emerging movement that you see in some spaces where people say, hey, wait a second. You have folks who are not part of this multigenerational, long black American story who are claiming this mantle. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing, Lulu. I'm saying that this is --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'm shocked that this is an argument that you are putting forward.

SALAM: This is something I'm talking about as an analyst to describe the fact that the black community is not a monolith. There are a lot of complicated, conflicted feelings. More than twice as many black Americans oppose intermarriage as white Americans.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- that your skin color it black, you're black. It is a completely ridiculous argument to be made in a country where you --

SALAM: I agree.

WALLACE: Let Lulu talk.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- where you had the one drop rule where you were actually penalized legally in this country if you had a single drop of black blood to now say that this woman, who is clearly black, is somehow suspicious and is wearing a mantle and trying to assume some kind of --

SALAM: Lulu, I'm describing public opinion. I'm describing the fact that this current does exist. And I think that when we're trying to understand the electorate --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's a minor current.

WALLACE: Let Reihan talk.

SALAM: I think it's important to understand that this is one of those cleavages. I do not think that it was a good thing for Donald Trump to use this line of attack. I agree with Kara, stick to policies. But it is a fact --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is not what Donald Trump, this is not what Donald Trump was doing. You are trying to explain something -- if you ask Donald Trump --

SALAM: I'm trying to explain the fact that --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: If you ask Donald Trump, if you ask Donald Trump, what were you up to Mr. Trump? He's not going to be like, you know that there's this current in the African American community that talks about the descendants of slavery. Do you think that that is what he was up to? He would going there in order to do what he always does, which is to throw as much as he can against the wall and to see what sticks.

SALAM: I'm afraid part of what I'm trying to do is actually try to give some insight into the fact that public opinion is changing, it's divided, and there is a big conversation about this. I don't think that this is the best angle to pursue, but I do think that when you're talking about the black community, he is not looking to win 90 percent of the black vote. He's looking at what are interest cleavages and divides within that population, and this is one of them.

WALLACE: And in addition to all that, there was the very explicit comments that Donald Trump made in his outreach to Christians and Jews. Kristen, is, Trump's, and I put this in quotes, "religious war" working?

ANDERSON: Well, Donald Trump has always made religious style rhetoric a part of what he does. When I was in Milwaukee for the convention, and when you looked at the footage of the convention, it felt very much like a tent revival. I mean, the talking about faith, even though Donald Trump is not necessarily a person, he himself I think does not have a very credible faith story, he's somebody who, through selling $60 bibles, has always tried to make the case, I think poorly, but it has been successful at least in terms of polls, to voters of faith that he's the one that's going to defend their ability to practice their religion.

SWISHER: I think that works. The religion stuff works well for him. They're not going to go anywhere else. And they've shown the willingness to take him, because he is such a sinner. They kind of even are attracted to that.

WALLACE: I can understand the Christian evangelical part of it, but explain to me the idea of him saying Kamala Harris hates Jews, especially when her husband is Jewish?

SWISHER: I just think he just puts it up there. He's throwing -- again, I think you you're talking about, he's throwing up a lot of things to find out what will work. And that to me would work a little better than the black thing. The black thing seems like -- the black thing seems like --

WALLACE: To what degree, Kara, do you think --

SWISHER: He seems like the uncle at Thanksgiving who you literally want to not say that to.

WALLACE: To what degree do you think this was Donald Trump, Kamala Harris has had the spotlight, has had all the attention for two weeks, and it was driving them out of his mind?

SWISHER: That is 100 percent. If this guy doesn't get love, I mean, he needs hugs all day long. And he didn't get them.

WALLACE: Don't we all?

SWISHER: Yes. No, not like him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:28:22]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hello, thanks so much for joining me. I'm Jim Sciutto. We're going to get you back to "The Chris Wallace Show" in just a moment.

Here is a check of our top stories. Florida on alert with parts of the state now under a hurricane watch. An intensifying tropical system is heading for the Florida straits and likely to develop into a tropical storm. Debby today could reach hurricane status by tomorrow. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the latest from the CNN Weather Center. Allison, is it going to be a bad one?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It could be, especially in terms of the flooding component. Now, the wind component not going to be quite as serious and widespread. Flooding is really going to be the main concern with this system.

Right now, just on the southern side of Cuba, sustained winds of 30 miles per hour. The concern is, where does it go from there? And in terms of this particular storm, if we put that into play, you'll notice did it will eventually start to head its way up towards Florida. You can see we've already got a lot of tropical storm warnings. And yes, even this pink area here is a hurricane watch because the National Hurricane Center saying it's going to get to about 70, 75 miles per hour right there on that verge of category one strength very, very early Monday morning.

Now, from there it's then expected to come back out over open water on the Atlantic side and really skirt along much of the Carolina coast, bringing them some very heavy rainfall as well, because overall this system is going to move incredibly slowly.

Now, the flooding component is to different parts. You've got the storm surge. You can see two to four feet here for much of the Big Bend area all the way down through Fort Myers and Naples, but also the rain. You're talking widespread four to six inches of rain. Some areas could end up picking up over a foot of rain by the time this system finally exits.

SCIUTTO: It's going to be a busy hurricane season. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

[10:30:02]

Well, overseas the U.S. is sending a carrier strike group, warships and fighter squadron, to the Mideast, bracing for a potential escalation of hostilities as Iran is vowing retaliation over the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Tehran earlier this week. It is blaming Israel for the attack. Israel has not commented either way. Growing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah are also prompting a new warning for Lebanon. The U.S. embassy in Beirut is warning Americans who want to get out of the country to book any ticket available. This as airlines are beginning to cancel flights in and out of the country.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh following these developments for us. Jomana, we're hearing more from Iran this morning about the killing of Haniyeh. What exactly are they saying?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, in the last few hours, the -- Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, releasing a statement saying that the results of its investigation into the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran early hours on Wednesday, they say it was -- the blast that killed him was the results a short range projectile that was fired from outside that guest house where he was staying. They say that that projectile was carrying a warhead that weighed about seven kilograms. That's about 15 pounds.

And they accused not only Israel, but also the United States of being behind this. They say that this was planned and executed by the Zionist regime, referring to Israel, of course, with the support of the American quote, "criminal government."

And of course, Jim, this is coming after what was first reported by "The New York Times," also reporting by our colleague Jeremy Diamond, who was told by a source familiar with the matter so that Haniyeh was killed by what that source said was a bomb, an explosive device that was covertly hidden in the guest house in northern Iran where Ismail Haniyeh was known to stay while visiting Tehran, and that that bomb had been there for about two months.

So a huge which embarrassment for the Iranians, the fact that this took place on Iranian soil. And as you would expect, and as we've heard from the Iranians, they have vowed a response. But many as well in the region, Jim, seeing this as a provocation. That means almost certainly that we are going to see some sort of an Iranian response. The question was, what, how, when, the scope and the scale of this Iranian retaliation. And in that same statement from the IRGC, Jim, they do say that this is going to be a response that will be at the time and place of their choosing, and the manner of their choosing, but it's going to be a decisive response to Israel, they say.

SCIUTTO: Caught in yet another cycle of retaliation followed by retaliation. Jomana Karadsheh in London, thanks so much. Well, the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked a plea deal

for the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and two of his alleged accomplices. That agreement, which involved the three men pleading guilty to all charges, including the murder of nearly 3,000 people, would have then taken the death penalty off the table. CNN's Oren Liebermann has the latest from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: In a surprise move quietly announced on Friday evening, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote in a memo that he was revoking the plea deals that have been reached in the case of the alleged mastermind of 9/11 and two of his alleged coconspirators. The memo was incredibly short and abrupt, only three lines long. Take a look. You can see the entirety of it on your screen right now. In it Austin wrote that it was his authority alone to enter into a plea agreement like this, and that he had revoked the plea agreements announced only two days earlier, as well as relieving of authority the person in charge of reaching those agreements.

The agreement themselves had been in the works for at least two-and-a- half years. So it can't have been a surprise to the Pentagon and the White House that these discussions were ongoing. We reported on it as well as other media outlets that there was an effort to reach the plea deal. And the deal itself was viewed as a bit of a victory in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, or more commonly known as KSM, and two of his alleged coconspirators. And that's because the cases against them were so long and complex, delayed over more than a decade. And there were significant legal questions about whether evidence could be admitted that had been obtained from KSM under torture. That made these incredibly difficult and complicated cases.

In the plea deals, KSM and his two alleged coconspirators agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges as well as all of the other charges they faced in exchange for a life sentence. The death penalty had been taken off the table. And that is why it receives significant bipartisan backlash, as well as ferocious backlash from the families of the victims here.

Now the question is, where does this go from here? Austin wrote in that memo view authority is his alone, so it's now up to the military prosecutors who had been looking at this case for so long who had seen delayed so long where this goes from here in what promised to have been a very lengthy and complicated case.

[10:35:12]

Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SCIUTTO: Quite a sudden reversal.

Well, a consequential weekend on the campaign trail as both major party candidates look to build momentum in the race for the White House. In just a few hours, former president Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, his selection for vice president, will hold a rally in Atlanta. Their event comes just days after the vice president, Kamala Harris, held her own campaign stop in the key battleground state of Georgia with a big turnout. But this weekend, Harris has no scheduled public events and said she is preparing to make her final decision on who will become her running mate.

CNN White House reporter Camila DeChalus is in Wilmington, Delaware, where the president is spending his weekend as well. Camila, how close is Harris to making a decision? Could it come this weekend?

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to make an announcement any day now. We know at this point in time that she's expected and make this announcement before she hits the campaign trail, going to key battleground states. Now, Jim, at this time we know that she has three top contenders and she's holding interviews this weekend just to do more of a vetting process. And these three contenders are Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Now, we know that that usually Democratic nominees get months to make this decision about who is going to be there V.P. pick, and Harris only has a few days. So this is not a decisions she is taking lightly, but there is a lot at stake here, and we're told that there is real deliberations and real talks behind the scenes, that she's really going to be taking these conversations she's having this weekend with some of these contenders very seriously while she's doing this thorough vetting process. And she's really going to be seeing whether they're a great pair for her she goes on the campaign trail. There's less than 100 days until the election cycle, and this is something that she's thinking very hard on.

So this is something that in upcoming days she's expected to make this announcement and really hit the campaign trail, really making this case to voters about why they should throw her support behind her.

Jim, back to you.

SCIUTTO: Camila, thanks so much.

I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. I'll be back at the top of the hour. "The Chris Wallace Show" continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:08]

WALLACE: Once again, it's time to get our groups yea or nay on some big talkers. Up first, high school seniors taking on a sport popular with actual seniors. Coming this fall, Montgomery County in Maryland, just outside D.C., is going to start offering varsity pickleball at all of its public high schools. It tried it last year at a few schools that are now expanding, which makes sense since pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in recent years.

Lulu, are you yea or nay on Friday night lights at high schools for pickleball? GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'm a hard yea. My daughter loves it. She plays it at

her school. It's fun. It's compact. I mean, why not? It's friendly. It's also family friendly. You can play it with different generations.

WALLACE: You play it?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No.

(LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: It's not that family friendly.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: My daughter plays it. I would play it with her at some point. I mean, you know, it's cool. Why not?

WALLACE: OK, Reihan, there are, it turns out, almost 50 million pickleball players in the U.S. now. I mean, it really is growing, burgeoning, spiking, whatever you want to call it. Should it be a varsity high school sport?

SALAM: I will say nay, unless high school students are paired with retirement homes, because of those 50 million, 49.5 million of them are over 70. And I think this would be a great opportunity to bring the generations together.

WALLACE: Is that true or are you just making that up?

SALAM: I'm just making that up. I'm sorry, Chris, that is fake news from me.

(LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: I was going to say, you said it very convincingly.

SALAM: But I think it would be a beautiful way to bring the retirees and the kids who are not as spry as the tennis players together. Let's do it.

WALLACE: Mixed doubles, a high school kid and a retiree.

WALLACE: Exactly. Bridge the generation divide.

WALLACE: Next, it may be August, but it's already time to get ready to trick or treat. Halloween merchandise on sale, part of a trend called summer-ween, where stores like Home Depot, Lowes, and Michael's hoped to entice Halloween fans and bank sales three months early. And there are plenty of fans -- 73 percent of Americans participated in Halloween activities last year, and sales hit a record high, $12.2 billion. That's up 15 percent from the year before. Reihan, are you yea or nay on shopping for Halloween in the summer?

SALAM: I hate to be a party pooper, but I'm a nay on this, because I think it's really extra fun when families make the costumes themselves. My wife made by younger daughter an amazing costume. She dressed her up as broccoli, my favorite vegetable.

SWISHER: Oh, my lord.

SALAM: And I think it's fun for the kids to make their costumes, too. Why not? Get in the mix.

WALLACE: I know that we asked you to bring a picture. Did you not bring a picture?

SALAM: You know what, you would be so blinded by the cuteness that I felt that it would be dangerous. The FCC would get the show banned. So I didn't do it.

WALLACE: So mom said no. No pictures of the little kids.

Kristen, will you be shopping for Halloween costumes and decorations in mid-August?

[10:45:04]

ANDERSON: Absolutely not. And not because I'm opposed to commerce around holidays, but because I am opposed to holiday creep, because now if you begin shopping for Halloween in mid-August, by the time you actually get to mid-October the Christmas decorations are already out. Thanksgiving is completely forgotten. We have a Thanksgiving eraser problem in this country, I will say. We have got -- it is a big problem that all of our holidays you have to buy the stuff in the stores now two months ahead of time. It is ridiculous.

WALLACE: I am nominating Kristen Soltis Anderson as America's holiday czar.

(LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: Finally, no offense to the athletes, but America's brightest Olympic star may be D-o-g-g. Snoop Dogg has taken the Paris Games by storm as a celebrity correspondent for NBC. So far, he's run in the torch relay ahead of the opening ceremonies. He has cheered on Team USA in events ranging from badminton to beach volleyball. He's tried the pole vault while hanging out with the track and field team. And he has gone viral with this bug-eyed reaction to the U.S. women's gymnastics team that won team gold. He is also the unofficial king of Olympic pin trading. Snoop has his own, featuring him blowing Olympics smoke rings, and it's all the rage.

Kara, are you giving Snoop a gold, a silver, a bronze, or nothing?

SWISHER: Every gold, all the golds, including Simone Biles fantastic gold last night. I think he's a great. I love -- the idea of Snoop Dogg doing this is entertaining. It's fun. He's doing a great job. I love his pairing with Martha Stewart. It's a couple I never knew I loved so much. So everything about Snoop Dogg during the Olympics has been delightful.

WALLACE: Kristen, you are our public opinion expert. I mean, Snoop Dogg back in the 90s was a hardcore rapper. He was actually, which I didn't realize until I looked it up, at one time was on trial for murder. He was acquitted. Now he's Americas sweetheart. How do you explain it?

ANDERSON: It's a truly American story. I mean, the funniest thing that I saw was somebody who is roughly my age saying my mom texted me and said, I'm so excited about Snoop Dogg, and I had to remind her that she grounded me in middle school for buying Snoop Dogg's C.D. So it's an incredible journey.

WALLACE: Everyone has their turn.

The panel is back with their takes on hot stories or what will be in the news before its news. That's right after the break.

Did you see him swimming with Michael Phelps?

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:52:08]

WALLACE: It's time for our panel's special takes on what's happening or predictions of what we should be looking out for. So Reihan, hit me with your best shot.

SALAM: Chris, you know I'm a patriot. You know how much I love him America, and I love Team USA basketball. Team US basketball has been dominant for a generation. But now there is a sneaky threat coming from the north. Team Canada could very well win a gold medal in Paris. They are incredible because they're anchored by Shai Gilgeous- Alexander, who's jumper is so beautiful, he's now known on the streets as Shai "Gorgeous" Alexander. Team Canada is going a long, long way.

WALLACE: You know what I call that? An air ball.

(LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: Kara, you are focused on Congress actually trying to do something about big tech.

SWISHER: Yes. Actually, Congress has passed almost no legislation around tech, almost zero. But they recently this week there's been a lot of activity around several different bills, one of which is called the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act. It really trips off the tongue. It's actually the NO FAKES Act, which protects people's -- that say Chris Wallace A.I. cannot happen without Chris Wallace's permission. And so it's really --

WALLACE: In either video or audio?

SWISHER: Anything without your permission, that you own Chris Wallace and you continue to own him.

WALLACE: Nobody else wants him. So the question is, can this actually pass Congress?

SWISHER: I don't know about if any of it is going to pass. There's a bunch of acts. There's a defiance act, there's a bunch. There all around A.I. right now, and some of them around privacy. We'll see.

WALLACE: Kristen, best shot.

ANDERSON: Well, first, I loved that this is called the NO FAKES Act because Congress's ability to come up with fun acronyms is undefeated. But for those young staffers, they'll have more time to come up with those cool acronyms because they won't be able to use TikTok. This month Congress's ban on using TikTok on House of Representatives official devices is going into effect. So all of those congressional offices, if you thought your member of congress was going to do cute dances and TikTok videos for you, that is getting shut down as --

WALLACE: Is it just for members of Congress and for their staff?

ANDERSON: Yes, any House of Representatives owned device. Now, their campaigns are separate. Campaigns have their own devices. They can still use these platforms. But official House offices --

WALLACE: And how do the House offices feel about this development?

ANDERSON: I would assume that this is more of a problem on the Democratic side than the Republican side where there was already taboo around using TikTok because of its affiliation with China.

WALLACE: Lulu, you are also looking into the connection between politics and social media.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I am. After Donald Trump's rather remarkable performance at the NABJ --

WALLACE: The Black Journalists.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The Black Journalists convention, he and talked about Kamala Harris turning black, black Twitter had a good time. And the black comedian Roy Wood Jr. started a thread.

[10:55:00]

We can see it here, and he said, "We now know Kamala's brave story. When did the rest of you turn black? How old were you? Where were you when the blackness finally took over your body? Share your stories. This is a safe space, hashtag "When I turned black." Well, there were a lot of responses to that. They were all pretty, pretty hilarious. One of them was really pretty, pretty funny. I'm going to give you an example here. "Once I was at a party, and before I knew it, I was taken over by the spirit of dance struck not by cupid's arrow, but rather his shuffle. Then I knew I'm a black."

(LAUGHTER)

WALLACE: I have to say there's been a lot of interesting reactions. Simone Biles, after she won the all-around championship for gymnastics, she put up this after she won the gold medal, "I love my black jobs." So throwing some shade at Donald Trump.

Gang, thank you all for being here, and thank you for spending part of your day with us. We'll see you right back here next week.

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