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Erin Burnett Outfront
Soon: DNC Night Two Features Jill Biden, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D- NY),Bill Clinton and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. Aired on 7-8p ET
Aired August 18, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the President just leaving Arizona where people in the crowd did not social distance, a few wear masks, as Trump is getting medical advice from MyPillow CEO who is now spreading misinformation about a cure saying god has given him a platform.
Plus, former President Bill Clinton about take on President Trump at tonight's DNC. We are learning new details about what is being described as his sharpest speech ever.
And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets 60 seconds to make her case tonight. Smart move? Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, scorn for the virus. The President moments ago speaking in Yuma, Arizona. The County of Yuma has a staggering 18 percent positivity rate for coronavirus right now. More than triple the acceptable rate.
And yet this was the scene at today's event. An airport hangar packed with supporters, absolutely no social distancing, most not wearing masks and the ones who are not wearing them pretty much all of them not wearing them correctly noses out. This as deaths in the United States are up in 19 states with more than 1,000 Americans dead today, 32 states with a positivity rate that is above that recommended 5 percent even as no new cases dip today.
The President continues to act as if the virus isn't killing people, including his own supporters. Allowing and frankly encouraging a lack of social distancing and masks at his own events, right? The guy doesn't wear one himself. And he ignores the advice of his own task force and scientists. Instead, often making decisions based on questionable advice he is getting from questionable sources.
Today, the creator of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, detailing how he got President Trump to look into a totally unproven treatment made from a poisonous plant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE LINDELL, INVENTOR OF MYPILLOW: This guy called me on Easter Sunday and said he had an answer to the virus. And I reached out to my friend, Secretary Carson, who's on the task force and he's a doctor and he looked into it all, got everything from the company and he said this is the real deal. It's been tested by over a thousand people to be saved.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Sir, you said you've seen this test, where is it?
LINDELL: The test are out there. The thousand people, phase one and phase two.
COOPER: Where is the test? Show it to us.
LINDELL: I don't have the test on me.
COOPER: Name where it's from, who did the test, what university, what doctors?
LINDELL: Well, you'd have to talk to - I guess, you'd have to have Dr. Carson and then the company that all of the test ...
COOPER: How are you different than a snake oil salesman?
LINDELL: I think my platform stands by itself. I have a platform that god gave me of integrity and trust.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Just to be clear, there's absolutely no evidence this works. Our medical unit tonight confirms that there is absolutely no evidence that oleandrin has been tested in a thousand people, none whatsoever, only safety studies in a small number of cancer patients, fewer than 100.
But a Trump donor gets a call from a guy who claims he's cured coronavirus and the Trump donor is able to get a meeting with the President and tell him all about it and the President is all ears.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Is it something that people are talking about very strongly? We'll look at it. We'll look at it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: No, people are not talking about it very strongly. It is the latest example of coronavirus quackery that is influencing this president way too often during the worst pandemic in a century. Remember a couple of weeks ago when Trump touted a doctor from Houston, the doctor who among other things, believes that alien DNA is used in medicine. The President called her an important voice in the pandemic, because of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STELLA IMMANUEL, HOUSTON PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN: This virus has a cure. It is called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax. I know you people want to talk about a mask. Hello? You don't need mask. There is a cure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: When the President likes the message, he embraces the messenger. Here is Trump's former doctor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONNY JACKSON, (R) TEXAS CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think wearing a mask is a personal choice, and I don't particularly want my government telling me that I have to wear a mask and so I think that's a choice that I can make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He is a doctor. And the President recently adding a new advisor to his task force, a frequent Fox News guest who paints a rosy picture of the deadly pandemic in which 171,000 Americans have died. A doctor who was attacked Trump's task force locked down recommens, you'll remember the ones that Dr. Birx yesterday said she regretted because they needed to be much tougher because it could have saved 10s of thousands of lives.
[19:05:08]
Well, this doctor says, No, no, no, we should have, I guess, let all those people die and millions more because then we would have had herd immunity and then what we did was a big mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT ATLAS, SENIOR FELLOW AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY'S HOOVER INSTITUTION: You don't eradicate the virus by locking down. This is a temporary issue. So isolating every single person and avoiding all human contact, you have literally prevented the best mechanism to establish population immunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: First of all, a lot of work has been done in herd immunity. No one knows if it exists and at what number. And Dr. Fauci has said that in order for this country to get to herd immunity, if it's there, the death toll would be enormous, millions of dead Americans. And the cost, of course, with that would be in much, much deeper economic depression than the one we are already in.
But Trump embraces the most suspect messengers if he likes their message. It all comes as Trump's tonight is taking on Michelle Obama for her call out of his response on her taped speech at last night's DNC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: More than 150,000 people have died and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long. He is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT live outside the White House. Those comments and her speech really got under his skin clearly not happy from those comments from Michelle Obama. But his response to them, Kaitlan, are not really helping him out.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. One of his biggest criticisms of her speech has been that it was pre recorded in advance and you could tell that because she didn't mention Sen. Kamala Harris, of course, the vice presidential pick that was made last week, but also because of the death toll she cited when it came to COVID-19. She talked about the President's respond to what she criticized as a failure and said that it was 150,000 Americans who were dead.
And, of course, now it's at 170,000, something that the President pointed out when I asked him what his response was today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: She taped it and it was not only taped, it was taped a long time ago because she had the wrong deaths.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: So what was unclear was how the President felt that was a worse reflection of Michelle Obama than of his handling of their response given that 20,000 more Americans have died just in the short time since she did take that. But Erin, that wasn't the only thing he criticized her for. He also said that he believed that she was being divisive by giving that speech.
He said it was her husband's policies that propelled him into the Oval Office and Joe Biden's as well. And so he continued to talk about this today. It wasn't just this morning before he left to go to Arizona. He talked about it again in Arizona once again criticizing her for taping it. So clearly definitely got under his skin and so the question is how closely is he watching the rest of the DNC. It looks like it's pretty close.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan.
And OUTFRONT now Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Director of Cardiac Cath Lab at GW who advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.
So Dr. Reiner, I want to start with that event in Yuma. The President just there moments ago on his way back now, the positivity rate there in that county is 18 percent. Eighteen percent, that is nearly four times what is deemed a level anything acceptable. We saw the crowd. There was no social distancing, pretty much completely maskless, few noses hanging out, but - of ones who were wearing them.
Meanwhile, the President, as I just laid out, has continually set up again, and again and again, listen to people who tell him what he wants to hear whether it's about mask or hydroxychloroquine or some kind of a quack cure, amplifying it. You have people here at serious risk at his rally today.
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: What is the purpose of the rally? It means to bring people together to cheer him on for an ego boost. I watched the rally. The President seem to enjoy the crowd. He feeds off the crowd. But what he fails to know or maybe more appropriately fails to care about is that when he brings together dozens or hundreds of people mostly not wearing masks, he's endangering them.
He did that in Tulsa and people died. He did that in Phoenix. He did that at Mount Rushmore. You can't bring people together, particularly in a hot zone like Arizona, particularly now in a hot, hot zone like Yuma without endangering them. But the President doesn't seem to care about that.
What he cares about is his reelection. He should not be doing these events. It's shameful that he's willing to really threaten the safety of the people who adore him.
BURNETT: Sanjay, to this point about who he listens to, we just heard Mike Lindell on CNN earlier with Anderson. He called the plant extract the miracle of all time.
[19:10:07]
And I know you've been looking into this, because he said there was a study. There was no study that I know that you and your team have been able to find, anything that would show this had been tested in any significant manner, even though he says it was and that Ben Carson looked into it and that the FDA is looking into it. What have you found?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, and we called the FDA on top of that just to see if they want to have any comments and we talked to the FDA regularly and they basically said no comment. We don't even want to touch this basically is what the response was.
There haven't been any studies. This has been looked at in previous years as a potential cancer sort of supplement or cancer therapeutic, but those are very early stage studies. Nothing really came to that. There was a monkey kidney coronavirus study. So they actually put some coronavirus in monkey kidney cells in a test tube, put some of this substance in the test tube and they make the claim.
Again, we haven't seen any of this. It's not actually been published. They make the claim that it inhibited viral activity. A lot of things would do that, just to be clear bleach would do that as well. But you wouldn't ingest that. So there are no studies.
I think what is interesting, Eirn, as we dug into this a little bit, this idea that maybe this would try to get sold as a supplement, not even as a drug, but as a supplement, which is a far less regulated industry, obviously, than getting drug approval. And I think for a lot of people supplements they say, look, can't hurt, might help, why not, that's sort of the general attitude.
Well, that's not the case here. This can hurt. This particular plant from which it comes from can be a cardiotoxic agent, Dr. Reiner knows more about this than I do, but it's called a cardiac glycoside and it can actually cause heart damage like foxglove, the plant. So you don't want to be taking this stuff and I feel like we have to say that because last time something like this came up with the bleach, I thought there's no way we actually have to say that but we do have to say it, because people apparently believe it. Don't take this stuff.
BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, cardiotoxic?
REINER: Yes. It acts in the same way as an old drug called digitalis does. And we use that in sort of very controlled ways. But the drug has real effects on the heart, don't take it. There's no data to support this. Don't get your medical advice from a pillow salesman.
BURNETT: So Sanjay, I want to ask you about a new study out today about the virus spread and this was about it possibly spreading on a plane, which I know is of great focus for a lot of people. What have you found?
GUPTA: Well, this was a study from some time ago, Erin. This was from March. It was a study that actually was out of Germany. And what they found in this particular study was on a flight, just under a five hour flight, there were seven people who were subsequently known to have coronavirus, and when they did their tracing they found that two people got infected. They sat across the aisle from the infected passengers.
It was tough as we dug into the study a little bit to know for certain that those passengers were infected on the plane. They were sitting across from infected people, so I think that heightened the suspicion. But I should point out, Erin, that this was back in March. There weren't a lot of mitigation measures at that point. I mean, people weren't wearing masks on planes. They didn't have the extra space, all that sort of stuff.
So I wouldn't read into this. As we've looked into plane travel overall, we haven't seen significant outbreaks come from airline travel. They've obviously been flying a lot less, but still, I think, the concern is not great at least at this point.
BURNETT: So I want to ask you one of the thing, Sanjay, before we go because I know you just have this some breaking news on the Moderna vaccine tonight. What is that?
GUPTA: Well, one of the big things they're trying to do is they're trying to recruit enough people for this trial and they want to get into the 10s of thousands of people. One of the things we're now learning according to an investigator's call is that they want to try and shoot for 50 percent of participants being above the age of 65, and 20 percent to 25 percent being minorities.
So you're getting a clearer idea now of what they want in order to actually look at getting a broad enough cross section of the population. Obviously, we know older people are more at risk, people with pre existing conditions more risk. They've got to include those people in the trials and that was made clear on a call today, if you just have young, healthy people, it becomes harder to read into that data.
BURNETT: All right. And, of course, if it works on them, you then can't give it to the populations at greatest risk till it's tested on them.
GUPTA: That's right.
BURNETT: Thank you both so very much as always.
And next breaking news, CNN learning that former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell will make an appearance at the DNC, just the latest Republican who comes to the DNC to speak for Joe Biden. What he will be saying?
And Democrats highlighting one of Biden's unlikely friendships.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a friendship that shouldn't have worked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Jill Biden, hoping to push her husband across the finish line as she prepares to give her primetime speech tonight.
[19:15:01]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL BIDEN, FORMER SECOND LADY: I know his values and I think he's in such direct contrast to what we have now with President Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:19:16]
BURNETT: Breaking news, night two of the Democratic National Convention about to kick off and the Biden campaign just releasing a clip of former Secretary of State Colin Powell making the case for Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, FMR. SECRETARY OF STATE: The values I learned growing up in the South Bronx and serving in uniform were the same values that Joe Biden's parents instilled in him in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I support Joe Biden for the presidency of the United States, because those values still define him and we need to restore those values to the White House. Our country needs a commander-in-chief who takes care of our troops in
the same way he would his own family. For Joe Biden, that doesn't need teaching. It comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families, sending his beloved son off to war and praying to god he would come home safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:20:07]
BURNETT: Arlette Saenz is OUTFRONT Wilmington, Delaware where Biden is tonight. And Arlette, look, Colin Powell continuing the theme of Republicans, top Republicans coming out and speaking on behalf of Biden at this convention trying to appeal to GOP voters, those voters in the middle to support Biden over Trump.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right, Erin. Part of this convention is focusing on those Republicans who are rallying behind Joe Biden's candidacy. And as we saw play out in that video, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who'd served in the Republican administration making the case for Joe Biden saying that he has the values needed to lead the country.
Tonight's focus is also leadership matters. And we're also going to hear from former Secretary of State John Kerry talking about his time working alongside Joe Biden within the administration. And so you have these two former Secretaries of State, one a Republican, one a Democrat who are talking about the urgent need for a Joe Biden as president as they are looking at that National Security spectrum and having him restore what they argue would restore leadership back on the world stage and hearing directly from a Republican.
Now, tonight's convention, Colin Powell, just continues on from those themes we heard last night from former Ohio Governor, John Kasich. As tonight, and yesterday and throughout the convention, they're trying to make the case that Biden can appeal to all Americans of both parties, Democrat and Republican.
BURNETT: So you talked about former Secretaries of State, also former presidents, tomorrow Barack Obama, tonight Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and we're hearing that Bill Clinton will give his sharpest rebuke ever tonight. What more can you tell us?
SAENZ: Yes, Erin. Bill Clinton is expected to go hard after President Trump specifically calling out his handling of the coronavirus and other issues in the past four years of his presidency. Now, according to some of the experts that we've received, the former president will say Donald Trump says we're leading the world. Well, we are the only major industrial economy to have its unemployment rate triple. At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command center. Instead, it's a storm center.
Bill Clinton will say, "There's only chaos. Just one thing never changes - his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there." Now, Bill Clinton and former President Barack Obama who's slated to speak tomorrow have this unique perspective and that they have served in the White House. They understand what it takes to be president and to lead in the times of crises and tonight we're going to hear Bill Clinton and his sharpest rebuke of President Trump also make the case for why Joe Biden needs to be elected.
BURNETT: All right. Arlette, thank you very much. And I want to go now to John King, our Chief National Correspondent, also the host of INSIDE POLITICS.
So John, Arlette just talking there about Bill Clinton. We have seen former presidents and first ladies speak before, but what we are going to hear just from that excerpt she just shared from Bill Clinton, it's nasty. It's very direct. It's very personal. How much does this break with tradition? What we're going to see from Bill Clinton, what we saw from Michelle Obama being so direct about the sitting president?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Trump presidency has put everything on steroids, Erin. Let's be honest, if you go back to the last convention, Hillary Clinton was the candidate herself, a former first lady, she tore into Donald Trump pretty good. Barack Obama was the former president, he spoke at the convention in 2016, he tore into Donald Trump then the candidate, the businessman, pretty good, but not in such personal terms. Not in such character terms; a liar, a fraud, a cheat, someone who's in over his head.
It is much more personal because of the polarization of the Trump years, the presidency, not the candidacy, now the presidency, and just the pandemic experience in which these Democrats are trying to make the case as Michelle Obama did last night and as Bill Clinton will tonight that this man is a fraud. He told you that he was ready for the job. He was Mr. Art of the Deal, he was Mr. Bipartisan, he was Mr. Disruptive, he would get things done. They're trying to make the case he was none of those things. And you're right, they're doing it in highly personal, deeply characters attack terms.
BURNETT: So I just mentioned the breaking news about Colin Powell. He's going to be speaking as a Republican, John Kasich as a Republican who ran for President spoke last night. You have three other Republicans speak and now you're going to have this video about Joe Biden's friendship with John McCain. That across the aisle friendship, narrated by Cindy McCain.
So all of these Republican voices, I mean, they have clearly made this a focal point, one of a major focal point. What will the impact of this be?
KING: I think that is a fantastic question, because four years ago, Donald Trump used this to his advantage. He was the outsider. Hillary Clinton was the epitome of the political establishment. Donald Trump ran against both parties. Washington is out to get you. The system is rigged. I will drain the swamp.
Four years later, we have a Trump presidency to look at. He has not drained the swamp. He has not been bipartisan, he has not made the government work.
[19:25:02]
So are there other voters sitting out there in the places that matter most, the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, the suburbs of Cleveland, the suburbs of Philadelphia, the suburbs outside Phoenix and John McCain's home state of Arizona? Are they sitting there with a checkbox, where is John McCain, where is Cindy McCain, whereas Colin Powell?
No. No, that's not how real people think. They don't view things like we do here in Washington, where's the establishment, where's the power struggle. But part of the Biden effort here, you saw Bill Clinton use that word chaos. David Axelrod often says we pick presidents, we pick the opposite or we pick something different when we change presidents.
The Trump presidency has been chaos. Joe Biden is trying to sell calm, coherent, bipartisan, even a little boring leadership the way it used to be, normal, the challenges can you sell normal.
BURNETT: And we're going to hear tomorrow from another former president, Barack Obama. So you've got the three living former Democratic presidents speaking for Biden, George W. Bush did not speak for Trump in 2016, not expected to this time either. Does this matter? Not only that you have Republican speaking here, but you have the former president not speaking for Trump or does he sort of revel in that, does that help him?
KING: He used to revel in that. And again, back to that same point, that was part of the Trump calling card four years ago. I'm going to go into Washington and I'm going to break all the glass. You don't think it works. I don't think it works either. Send me in there. I am literally going to go in and break all the glass and make it work.
The question is now everybody is anxious. Everybody is scared. Pick your word. Pick your word in the middle of this pandemic. Can I send my kids to school? Is my job coming back? Is it safe? Can I go out in a crowd? Can I go to a restaurant? Just pick your issue. Largely parents right now, Erin. In the school debate, at this anxious time, I do think people look to people they trust and Barack Obama, Republicans might not trust him, but a lot of suburban Americans trust him.
They remember the no drama Obama years, maybe in 2012 or at the end of 2016, they wanted a change, they wanted something different. Now, you've had Donald Trump is the incumbent now. It's a very different psychology. Barack Obama trying to say a little bit of you miss me, don't you, and Joe Biden hopes that rubs off.
BURNETT: All right. John King, thank you, as always.
KING: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, we are just getting a video excerpt from the Democrats who will be the keynote speakers, rising stars in the party, you can see some of them here.
And the story of Joe Biden and John McCain's friendship. We just got the tape and it's a big part of Joe Biden's sell that he's gonna work across the aisle and try to heal the divide. Cindy McCain narrates this tape. Will it change any voters' minds?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:31:23]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Night two of the Democratic National Convention kicking off in just a few moments. We're getting an early look at what is usually one of the biggest moments in the convention, which is the keynote address. That was the moment that launched President Obama on to the national stage in 2004.
And so, you know, there's usually a person, a rising star, they pick this person, this person gets to speak. This year is totally different. There are going to be 17 people filling that slot together sharing the address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get real. There's a lot riding on this election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we're facing the biggest economic and health crisis in generations, because our president didn't and still doesn't have a plan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When doctors, nurses, and home health care aides in Philadelphia have to risk their own lives to protect others because there's not enough protected equipment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, David Chalian, our political director, Karen Finney, former communications director at the DNC, also senor spokesperson for Hillary Clinton in 2016, former Republican governor of Ohio, John Kasich, who spoke last night at the DNC, and Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats.
OK. Thanks to all.
So, David, you've been covering these conventions obviously for many cycles. Why do you think the Democrats made this decision to -- you know, because there's some criticism about it? Hey, everyone only gets a minute, but to split the address among 17 people instead of selecting one.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, you have to remember the convention program itself is condensed this cycle because of the virtual nature. So, the DNC is only programming two hours a night. Obviously, there are a lot of mouths to feed of people who want to speak at the Democratic convention. So, that's one reason, Erin.
But the other is can you really take -- you used the Barack Obama 2004 example, which is one of the most famous keynote speeches in convention history, can you take a single rising star in this virtual format and catapult them or would that fall flat, and you would sort of diminish that rising star?
So, what you have here are a whole bunch of rising stars. And I think it's also sort of in line with what Joe Biden himself has been saying that he sees himself as a transitional figure to the next generation of leadership in the party. And I think that's what this 17-person keynote address will display.
BURNETT: So, Karen, one of them is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, delivering the nominating speech for Bernie Sanders who struck a much more unifying tone last night than he did in 2016, you know, when he endorsed Hillary Clinton, right, that was just days before the convention. As one who worked on the Clinton campaign, when you see how everyone is handling this, does it feel different in terms of the embrace of Joe Biden?
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, it's very different and my first convention was 1992. So, this was completely different.
I think it was great to see Senator Sanders last night. He really delivered the criticism, the policy critique on Trump quite well. One of the things I like about what we'll see tonight with these different leaders is it gives us an opportunity to highlight a range of voices and face. And I hope we get to see broad diversity of up and coming talent. You know, there's always this sort of navel gazing in the party from time to time about oh, my gosh, who do you have?
Well, here you go. We're going to see some of our best and brightest talent tonight on the stage -- or the screen, really.
BURNETT: So, Alexandra, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has only one minute to speak tonight. That's how they divided it up. Some are frustrated. They say, look, she's only one of three Latino voices who have a primetime speaking slot.
[19:35:00]
The former presidential candidate Julian Castro is not getting to speak at all. He's warning this could be a problem for Democrats.
Here's what he just said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIAN CASTRO (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We could win in November, but you see a potential slide of Latino support for Democrats. And so, it's incumbent on the Biden campaign to make sure that they are doing everything they can to reach out to a community that already has one of the lowest rates of voting that needs to be brought into the fold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Alexandra, do you share this concern, and are you concerned that there are only three Latinos among this group?
ALEXANDRA ROJAS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I absolutely share that concern, and I also share concern of, you know, not just thinking about how do we defeat Donald Trump in November but also how do we defeat every Donald Trump that's going to come after him because this is not going to be the last time unfortunately, that we see this politics of hate and close to fascism enter our political system. So, I think it's really, really critical that we not only engage voters that are more moderate or, you know, Republicans that don't feel like they have a home in their party right now. It's also critically important that we don't forget about young Latinos, young black voters who are not identifying -- don't want to identify with the Democratic.
And AOC is one of the most effective communicators regardless of your politics in American politics. And so, just from a -- it's a huge missed opportunity by not showcasing or using the opportunity to show case what I think is clear with someone like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just really representing the next generation of voters that increasingly think and look a lot more like her than Joe Biden.
BURNETT: Governor Kasich, we just played a clip a moment ago because we just found out that Colin Powell is going to be speaking, right, Republican secretary of state under George W. Bush. He is going to speak for Joe Biden.
This comes after you and three other Republicans spoke at the DNC last night. And now, we have this video, right, that Cindy McCain's narrated of the cross aisle friendship between John McCain and Joe Biden.
So, what do you make of this strategy, to show case so many Republicans like yourself?
JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Because I think there's a suspicion that there's a number of Republicans that really don't like Donald Trump and they want to be comfortable and being able to cross over.
It's interesting. You talk about John McCain and Joe Biden. I was at the University of Delaware with Joe. I don't know, it was about maybe a year and a half ago. And I got back and I called John McCain because John was sick, and I wanted to see how he was doing. And he said what have you been doing? I said, well, I was with Joe Biden.
And I tell you, it was the most fun conversation with John talking about Joe and how they get along and how they travelled. And I think it's very smart that they're doing this.
And they're trying to touch every base. And maybe not touching them all the way they should. I think the comment that Alexandria made is very legitimate about are there enough Latinos involved with all that. It's just hard to get it all right. But touch every base as I think they're trying to do.
And they're trying to reassure Republicans. And now this is foreign policy with Colin Powell that it is okay to be for Joe Biden. You don't have to just not like Trump and write in your mother-in-law, but it's okay to cross over and to vote for a Democrat because of the situation we find ourselves in. BURNETT: David, quickly to circle back to you on AOC, do you think
there's a feeling among the Biden camp that it was a missed opportunity?
CHALIAN: I don't get that sense. AOC obviously was a big Bernie Sanders supporter, and we are going to see the roll call vote happen, another sort of unity play today where both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are put into the nomination. The roll call moves forward. We expect to see Bernie Sanders, you know, accumulate his delegates.
And that is a good role for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be a part of that. It brings that wing of the party into the unity piece of this.
But I do think broader than just AOC, Erin, I do think this notion that Governor Kasich is talking about touch every base, as the campaign is emphasizing the outreach to Republicans and permission for Republicans to come on over with validators like Kasich or Colin Powell, the John McCain video, progressives in the party are starting to look up and wonder, hey, is this the Democratic National Convention I'm coming to here?
And, of course, in politics it's not either/or. It's a both/and equation here. And Joe Biden and his campaign understand they need to keep an energized base and they need to be reaching out to the middle and beyond if they're going to be successful.
[19:40:04]
BURNETT: I love it. Not, neither/or but a both/and. True. Grammarians everywhere will appreciate that well executed comparison.
All right. All please stay with me.
Cindy McCain in that video highlighting Biden's unlikely friendship with John McCain, is the campaign overplaying Biden's ties to Republicans?
Plus, Jill Biden about to take the stage to talk about the man that obviously she knows better than anyone else.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: And breaking news, we're learning new details about the closing moments of tonight's convention. It's going to be an eight- minute video, and it will highlight Joe Biden's friendship with John McCain.
So, Cindy McCain is narrating this and is intended to frame Biden's character and his leadership and draw reaction from President Trump and we now have a clip in from it. So, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORMER U.S. SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ): I was a Navy Senate liaison and used to carry your bags on overseas trips. JOHN BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The son of a gun
never carried my bags. He was supposed to carry my bags, but he never carried my bags.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Everyone's back with me.
So, Karen, we're learning -- you know, how do you think Democratic voters will react to this image to Biden, you know, as a -- as a Democrat that Republicans like?
[19:45:10]
How will Democratic voters watching tonight react to that?
FINNEY: Well, I think they're all -- we're all, myself included, looking with an ear towards where are we making -- where are those touch points where we are making the progressive case for our values as Democrats, our ideas as Democrats, to lead this country? Yes, it's important to be reaching out to Republicans. It is important to say, hey, we may not agree on all the issues, but we can agree on a future and a way forward with some common goals and values in addition to wanting to get rid of Trump.
But I'll certainly be listening for it. I have great respect for John McCain, but I'm listening for -- Bill Clinton is going to make the economic case which I think is going to be so important. I'm listening for the progressive ideals of some of these young leaders that we were just talking about.
BURNETT: So, Alexander, I know you share that same focus. Do you think that something like this video, does it add -- does it add for Democrats and for those who want to hear the progressive message, or does it detract?
ROJAS: Well, I think there's a huge focus of this convention that is on Republican voters, to be quite frank, you know. And there are some instance where there's definitely efforts to lean in to a more progressive message. And I think that diversity and representation is hugely important.
But Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamal Bowman, some of these other rising leaders that just got elected to Congress represent the protests to politics movement that is happening in the backdrop of this convention. I think it's hugely critical for us to pay attention to that, for Joe Biden to pay attention to that. And as Democrats for those young people, Latinos, folks that have felt really left out of politics, aren't Republican or Democrat, they just feel like they've been left behind.
They want a political home that's around a vision of what the future can be if we stop saying "no, we can't", and we start saying we actually are going to do what we have to do to meet this moment. And, you know, it's pretty clear to folks whether you look at health care that employer insurance tied to your employer doesn't make sense when you have 40 million people unemployed in the midst of this.
So, it feels a little off. I recognize the importance of it. I just hope they don't have another missed opportunity to bring in voters under 45 with the progressive message.
BURNETT: So, Governor Kasich, the image of you was trending last night. There you were giving your speech. One of my favorites comments was actually dispute as to whether that was a cross roads or a fork in the road, definition of what those were. What kind of reaction are you getting from people today?
KASICH: I'm getting personally very much reaction because people are saying not so much what I said but you had the courage to stand up and do this. A lot of people are saying you put into words the things that I really care about. Your words reflected by feelings.
And remember, a number of these things that we're hearing tonight are not just about appeal to Republicans but also independents. These independent voters are really, really critical. And, you know, they can lean either way.
So, the ability to reassure them -- I think the John McCain/Joe Biden is not just about that relationship. I think it's also about those who believe that America has a role in the world, that it's a very special place in the world.
And what were McCain and Kerry doing? They were traveling to important parts of the world trying to bring our allies together to ensure the peace to keep the coalition together after World War II that has kept the peace and that underlies the fact that, you know, it's been withering and it needs to be restored. That's sort of another subtle message in this.
BURNETT: And I think to your point on independence, I think we use the word Republicans, and I think it's important you say what you said. People identify, a quarter as Republicans, 30, 33 percent as Democrats. The big lions share were defined as independents. It's fair to raise the point you're raising.
As you look ahead, David, what do you -- what do you think is the most important thing they are trying to accomplish, you know, given these two things they were doing, given what Alexandra and Karen were just saying about the progressive message?
CHALIAN: Yeah, I think you saw it last night and tonight. It's whiplash to the progressive message and next generation of leadership and the Republican outreach, Colin Powell, John McCain.
But listen the two high profile speeches tonight are Bill Clinton and Jill Biden. You're going to have a former president take on the sitting president in the most aggressive way he's done since Trump has been president.
[19:50:00]
And you're going to have Jill Biden really tell the story of Joe Biden in a way we haven't before.
BURNETT: All right. And we will hear that, all of that coming up. And I appreciate all for you. Thank you so much for your time.
And I do want make sure everyone knows, of course. Today is a day to commemorate. A hundred years ago today, the 19th Amendment in this nation was ratify which finally granted some women the right to vote. That accomplishment was decades in the making, decades they fought for that for some women.
The amendment did not go far enough. It was, though, the first big step in the right direction and just reminded today of what women were up against at the time, the argument that, quote, women possess neither the intellectual capacity to make reasonable decisions. I mean, can you even imagine that?
I'm sure my mother, my mother would have had a lot to say about that. You know, she took me as a little girl with her to vote. Our voting location was the firehouse in Maryland, a small town of about 400 people where I grew up. Now, it was a very exciting thing for me. The firehouse was very different on those days but it was very serious. That was very clear.
And I now take my children to vote, there they are last election day, hoping that they will remember the transformation of a school and community center because I want to teach them the power of voting the way my mother taught me and they proudly, as you can see, wear their "I voted" stickers.
The right to vote for all women took a long time and a lot still needs to be done for equality. This evolution is the special -- the subject, I'm sorry, of my special report that follows the complex history of the suffrage movement. I'm going to talk to women including Melinda Gates, Jessica Alva and Ambassador Carol Moseley-Braun. Just hear her story about how wearing pants, you know, in our lifetime was actually controversial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: So I came to work one morning. I had on a pantsuit. I thought I was looking cute. I get there and come to find out, it was this great hullaballoo behind the scenes about me having on pants.
ANNOUNCER: Let's welcome Senator Carol Moseley Braun.
MOSELEY BRAUN: That's what started it.
SUBTITLE: After becoming the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate, Carol Moseley Braun broke an unspoken Senate rule -- by wearing pants on the floor of the Senate. The year was 1993.
BURNETT: Do you ever think, wow, I'm a trailblazer and it's about wearing pants, right? I mean, you know, you never thought that would have been a place you had to blaze a trail.
MOSELEY BRAUN: Right, right.
When I showed up at the Senate, the guard didn't want to let me in the door until somebody told him that's the senator for Illinois. He's never seen a black woman coming in the door of the Senate as a member.
It's a new day in America.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: "Women Represented: The 100-Year Battle for Equality" airs this Saturday at 10:00. And I do hope you'll join us.
Next, Jill Biden, she's going to speak tonight and she's been by her husband's side every step of the campaign as she prepares to make the case for her husband.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:59]
BURNETT: Jill Biden moments away from delivering a very personal speech about her husband. The wife of the presumptive Democratic nominee speaking from her old classroom in Brandywine High School in Delaware. If Joe Biden wins in November, she is vowed to keep teaching as first lady.
Kate Bennett is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Jill Biden makes her primetime speech tonight, it will be the latest on a long line of remarks from a seasoned political spouse, only this time for Biden, the stakes are even higher.
JILL BIDEN, WIFE OF FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I've never felt this kind of urgency before. People have been coming up to me for months and saying Joe's got to win, Joe's got to win.
BENNETT: After four decades of marriage, the Bidens present a united front.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: My name is Joe Biden, I'm Jill Biden's husband.
BENNETT: Jill Jacobs married then Senator Joe Biden in 1977, five years after his first wife and baby daughter were tragically killed in a car accident.
JILL BIDEN: We dated two years actually with Beau and Hunter, we went on dates together. We ate dinner together. We went on vacations together, and we actually all got married together and Beau and Hunt were on the altar.
BENNETT: The couple had a daughter together, Ashley, now 39. Biden credits Jill for giving him a new chance at family, something Biden's late son Beau once said.
BEAU BIDEN, SON OF FORMER VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: It's not just my dad that rebuilt our family, it's my mother.
(APPPLAUSE)
BEAU BIDEN: Because they together truly rebuilt our family.
BENNETT: But Jill Biden has a tough side, as well. It was she who jumped up to protect her husband after two women tried to rush the stage at an event in March.
An advocate for education, women's health and military families, Biden worked closely with her friend and former First Lady Michelle Obama on those issues during the years she served as second lady while keeping her day job teaching and Biden recently announced she intends to keep that job if she becomes first lady, working at a community college near Washington D.C. which would be another first of its own.
JILL BIDEN: I guess I hope they will see that I have a sense of independence from my husband when I do (INAUDIBLE) and I'm out there working.
BENNETT: She certainly is out there working for him as one of his most vocal supporters.
JILL BIDEN: This is how we've always done things. I campaigned in every election. I take one, you know, I go one way, he goes the other so we can cover more ground and talk to more people and it's, you know, he's always supported my career.
BENNETT: Friends and colleagues say Jill Biden is supportive, loyal and has a fun streak. And no doubt she will continue to push to the finish line this November.
JILL BIDEN: I know where his heart is and his values and I think he's in such direct contrast to what we have now with President Trump.
BENNETT: Kate Bennett, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And CNN's special coverage of the Democratic National Convention continues now.
