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Tonight: J. D. Vance To Give Prime-Time Speech To GOP Convention; VP Harris: Vance Will Be "Rubber Stamp" For An "Extreme Agenda"; Haley: "Trump Has My Strong Endorsement, Period"; Biden Lashed Out At Moderate Democrats In Tense Call; "Cut That Crap Out": Biden Lashes Out At Rep. Jason Crow In Heated Call. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 17, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash. Live from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where tonight, a new heir to the MAGA movement will step into the spotlight. J. D. Vance will introduce himself to the nation, and frankly, the world on the stage that is right behind me.

We are told Donald Trump's running mate will focus heavily on his personal story, rising up from a poor unstable family that struggled with addiction in rural Ohio to becoming a graduate of Yale Law School, and a marine, a venture capitalist and of course, a best- selling author, and now, a United States Senator. A source tells CNN, the vice-presidential pick will be introduced by his wife, Usha Vance, who he credits as a key part of his success.

I also have new reporting about a very tense call between President Biden and a group of centrist House Democrats on Saturday where President Biden told a Democratic lawmaker to cut that crap out, after the congressman told the president that voters are losing confidence in him. Much more on that ahead.

And there's so much to discuss with our great reporters who are here in Milwaukee, CNN's Phil Mattingly, Nia-Malika Henderson of CNN and Bloomberg, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, and The Washington Post's Leigh Ann Caldwell. Hi, everybody.

So, let's look ahead to tonight, and to the J. D. Vance moment that we are going to see. Jeff Zeleny, what are you hearing from your sources about what to expect and more importantly, the kind of persona and message at the campaign hopes that the American people will see and hear from him?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, most people in the hall, know who Senator J. D. Vance is, even though he was elected less than two years ago, but the country does not. So, this is that opportunity. So, we're going to hear a bit of Hillbilly Elegy, of course, that's his best-selling memoir. But also going to be what I'm watching for is really, how much of that MAGA movement and the Trump brand he extends to him.

He is here now with a new job that is to defend, that is to protect and sort of argue for Donald Trump. So, he's not promoting himself necessarily. So, I think it's always interesting to see a running mate that evolution. I've been watching them in the convention halls. We all have the last couple days. It's another sort of settling into their new role.

They've not known each other very long, and it started off on the wrong foot to put it mildly. So, I think that is something that probably (inaudible) were told, but you mentioned Usha. She is introducing him, but she's also introducing herself. Her story is fascinating. She was a law school graduate with him. She worked for the Chief Justice John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, when he was on the Court of Appeal. So, amazingly accomplished in her own right.

So, this is an introduction of both of them. But it's still about Donald Trump. This is his show. And J. D. Vance is just a key player in it.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CO-AUTHOR, THE WASHINGTON POST "EARLY BRIEF" NEWSLETTER: So, Senator Vance, for the past couple of years in the Senate has been really fascinating figure to watch. He came in there. One of the first actions he did as he tried to get bipartisan legislation was Senator Sherrod Brown, who is now on his own Senate reelection race, about the train derailment in Ohio.

He was quickly shut down by some of his Republicans in his conference because of that first bipartisan push. Now, though, that the reason that is so fascinating is because that was that economic strain of the Republican Party of why he was pushing that, not necessarily because the bipartisanship but he had Democratic allies there on this populist component of what he wanted to accomplish.

So, I'm really looking tonight to see how much of that comes through, if at all, and also the isolationist component of J. D. Vance regarding Ukraine.

BASH: Well, because you brought that up, let's talk about that. Because, in my experience, talking to Republicans here, especially some of the more traditional Republicans, not in the populist Trump strain of the party. There's concern about J. D. Vance, not necessarily being the vice president if Donald Trump wins because it's Donald Trump's foreign policy.

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But if he does, in fact become the next leader of the MAGA movement because he is so incredibly different from traditional Republicans when it comes to national security. Ukraine is the prime example. Let's just listen to J. D. Vance on with Jake Tapper on April 14, talking about Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We cannot possibly support Ukraine and Israel and our own defense needs in the way that these guys demand. So, I think we should focus. I think Israel is a much closer ally, is a much more core American national security interests. And of course, we got to focus on ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mean, feel that. I'm sure you're hearing the same thing that is really upsetting some of the more hawkish Republicans who believe that it is America's role to do just that. It's not just about Ukraine, they say, it's about democracy in general.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: And I think it further underscores, and look, we've been covering this for now, eight, nine, 10 years. At this point, the shift in the Republican Party that is now -- if you're looking for a short term, kind of area of unsettlement for Republicans right now.

They're not going to say it publicly very supportive of J. D. Vance. He talked to senators who -- they don't like J. D. Vance a whole lot back in Washington, not because they have personal issues with them. But just because they disagree vehemently on certain policy issues. They will tell you, they're very excited. And I think this is a really great idea.

On the near term, I think on a national security level. When you talk to Republicans, it is the issue of Ukraine. Is the issue of what has long been GOP orthodoxy in terms of the United States role in the world. And they will point directly to Ronald Reagan, and much further back as to why kind of closing your shores (Ph) and closing the doors to your country is hugely problematic, and they don't feel like Vance is in any way matching that strain.

And it's not that he's going to take over the administration's foreign policy. The concern is based on the fact that they know Trump vacillates on this. They know there are camps within Trump's national security kind of infrastructure or apparatus around him that have wars over this very terrific.

And so, what his voice does now being added to that inside the situation room, inside the Oval Office, there have been conversations. I think that concerns people longer term. I think this has been a recognition that for anybody who is still grasping onto a thread that the Republican Party would go back to Reagan or back to Bush or back to Romney in terms of where they are on not just on security policy, but also economic policy.

Vance is making clear, that's not going to happen. It's just going down this path and those folks, the Mitch McConnell's of the world, the Dan Sullivan's of the world, they're not in that lane anymore.

BASH: Nia, I want you to listen and our viewers to listen to what Kamala Harris had to say this morning about the man that she will likely debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES: Trump look for someone he knew would be a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda and make no mistake. J. D. Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country. Vance said he would have carried out Trump's plan to overturn the 2020 election. He supports a national abortion ban and voted against protecting IVF.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That's a debate that I'm really -- this is going to a very smart lawyers and politician.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: POLITICS & POLICY COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG & CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's going to be a much watch debate. And tonight, J. D. Vance is going to have to answer some of these charges that Democrats are happy to level at him that he's a radical, that he's an extremist. I think the job tonight he's obviously speaking to Americans who don't really know much about him.

The fact that his wife is introducing him. I think it gives them a chance to soften him right, to humanize him, to talk about his, you know, from -- you know, from Appalachia to the Senate. A story which is compelling to a lot of folks.

You know, I think if you're Republicans, you do see some room for him to grow, perhaps among suburban women, certainly among working class white voters, right, this sort of economic populism message that he will bring. You know, he's certainly going to be trying to do that tonight. We saw some of that, obviously, already with Donald Trump and trying to soften him last night. I think that's going to be the goal tonight with J. D. Vance.

BASH: OK. So, there are two -- I'm glad you brought that up. Gosh, it's like you guys are know exactly where we're going with this conversation. There are two points I want to make about expanding who is going to vote for Donald Trump and about the softening that we saw last night. Let's start with Nikki Haley. And what she said when she came out on the stage behind us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R) FORMER GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA: My message to them is simple. You don't have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him. Take it from me. I haven't always agreed with President Trump. But we agree more often than we disagree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: OK. So, that was her message to the people who voted for her, including the tens of thousands of people who voted for her after she dropped out of the race. And I want to just give an example of the swing state where we're sitting right now Wisconsin.

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Nikki Haley got 76,841 votes in that primary. What she said last night was please voters go and support Donald Trump. Just look at how important that message is. If you look at 2020 and 2016, Biden's margin of victory here in Wisconsin was a little more than 20,000 votes. Trump's in 2016 was 22,000 votes.

And you see also on the left side of your screen, Pennsylvania, she got even more 158,000 and change. And the margin of victory was much less than half of that in 2020 and even narrower in 2016. So that kind of message if people who voted for her are listening is crucial for Donald Trump in these states.

ZELENY: Without question and we could drive just a few miles from here. The wild counties right around Milwaukee County, Washington, Waukesha and Ozaukee, those are the three counties where the margins really matter. So, I was actually talking with the Nikki Haley admirer, who lives in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, just about 30 miles from here last night. We were texting.

She loves Nikki Haley. She wishes she would have been the choice, but she's voting for Donald Trump because that's what topology she believed in. But I think the bigger point here that message there is going to be -- it didn't necessarily ring out in the hall as much. That is going to be in ads that Super PACs and others placed to suburban voters to try and get them to come along.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. Could I just jump off there, real quick.

BASH: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: First off, the Ozaukee comes in the middle. Jeff --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: This impressive recall, I want them in order. The reason we know a lot about kind of where Haley voters are in the state is because of the great reporting just been doing here on the ground. And he makes a really great point. I was on the floor during the speech. And the delegates themselves were like kind of ambivalent. There were some boos. A lot of them weren't really sure what to do with it.

But I think they would recognize as the speech kind of rolled out. She was setting up lines, where she would say something like, why, I haven't always supported him or agreed to him. People kind of chuckle and be a little bit awkward, and then kind of drives home the point of like.

But this is why we have to -- this is why we have to come together. This is why Republicans have to unite. This is why the party has to get bigger. It was less a message for the people that were on the floor who really didn't know what to do with it. And more a message for both the audience last night and also those ads that will be cut.

BASH: I want to go back to what you were saying earlier, Nia, about the speeches that we heard last night from women -- young women, who in one case worked for him and is now the governor of a state, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and his daughter in law. And it was very clearly aimed at -- you said, softening the edges, presenting a different perspective of Donald Trump specifically when it comes to how he treats women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS (R-AR): But our president pulled me aside, looked me in the eye and said, Sarah, you're smart. You're beautiful. You're tough, and they attack you because you're good at your job.

LARA TRUMP, RNC CO-CHAIR: I come to you as a mom and as a citizen of this country. For those of you watching who have never voted for Donald Trump. I am proud to know Donald Trump, to campaign for him, to vote for him and to raise his grandchildren.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENDERSON: Yeah, listen. I thought Lara Trump went on for a very long time. It was like a 20-minute speech. But it was effective, right? And this is about women. This is about softening. I thought Sarah Huckabee Sanders was much more effective. You know, she was the southern storyteller up there. There was some sugar in it. And there was, you know, some spice and some heat as well.

In the story she was telling, you know, it was very specific to her, right? People made fun of her specifically because of how she looked. And her, you know, getting that affirmation from Donald Trump was important to her personally. I will say this, though, Donald Trump has said terrible things about women publicly, he may be very nice to the people who are on his payroll and who he is the boss of -- but that doesn't really matter, right?

He is a public servant. So, his behavior and treatment of women publicly I think is much more impactful and meaningful for women. And also his policy, right? You know, you can be nice to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But if you're taking the rights of women away, all across the country and states like Mississippi and Arkansas because of what the Supreme Court did. That's what suburban women really care about, not that he's a great grandpa.

BASH: Yeah. Well, we'll see. Obviously, as you said, it's trying to give another perspective, based on the fact that a lot of women have heard some of the things that he said. The issues, that's a whole different question. They don't agree on those issues either. Coming up. Cut that crap out. That is what Joe Biden told a House Democrat who gave him a blunt assessment of voters' concerns. It's part of my new reporting, which will bring you next.

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BASH: We have new reporting into CNN this hour, showing just how tense things have gotten between a defiant Joe Biden and key members of his party. Sources tell me that the president lashed out at Congressman Jason Crow in a Saturday call with House Democrats.

[12:20:00] That happened after the Colorado moderate relayed voters' concerns about the president's vigor and strength, especially when it comes to the world stage. Biden, I'm told got so upset with Crow's blunt assessment that at one point he said quote, cut that crap out. And told Crow, he could walk away if he wants.

With my friends and colleagues are back here. I just going to give you a little bit more of information from this call. Some of it had been previously been reported, but I'm getting new details.

Leigh Ann, what Jason Crow said to the president in this call was, Americans want a commander in chief who can project strength, vigor and inspire confidence at home and abroad. They need to feel that you have the helm when they go to bed each night. Despite your many successes -- your many successes and the dangers of Trump.

We are seeing overwhelming evidence in our districts that many voters are losing confidence. You can do this in a second term. It's not fair, but it's true. Very, very blunt and very direct. And here is what I'm told happened after that.

I'm told, the president responded to Crow, an Army Ranger we should note who served two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq that he knows Crow is a bronze star recipient like Biden son Beau, but that he didn't rebuild NATO, meaning Crow.

According to two sources familiar with the call, the exchange got even more contentious when Crow pushed back on the president, who also argued that NATO leaders are supportive of him. Now Crow told the president that he needs to understand that voters aren't seeing him that way. At one point Biden told Crow to cut that crap out. And that if Crow wants to walk away from him, then he can walk away.

CALDWELL: Yeah. So that call happened Saturday, as you mentioned. So, with a new democratic coalition, where many of those members are frontline members, those are the ones who represent swing states. They call themselves the majority makers of the Democratic Party. And the readout I got of that call is that it was intense that Biden quote, screamed at Crow.

And that it was absolutely a disaster that these members had been extremely concerned that President Biden is not hearing what he needs to hear that his small circle of people are keeping him so separated from what the Democratic Party, elected officials, donors, and voters think, that this was their opportunity to tell the president that directly.

And as you reported, Dana, it did not go over very well. And we see that the president is still entrenched and sticking in. And so, as the campaign is behind him and his team, but there's still -- this is not going away. A lot of the tension is on this Republican convention. And there's still so much frustration and nervousness among Democrats.

BASH: And that's really the key. Things did quiet down publicly because of the tragedy that happened on Saturday. I don't think it was that long after this call happened. CALDWELL: Yeah.

ZELENY: Right.

BASH: But it is still festering in a very big way. One other example, Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. She used to be a frontliner. Her seat is a little bit safer now, but she represents Bucks County. One of those critical collar counties around Philadelphia.

And I'm told that she told the president that he is not doing well in Bucks County. And he needs Bucks County in order to win Pennsylvania. He pushed back on her polling. And he said that he would get his staff to give her some talking points about how much he's done for Pennsylvania.

ZELENY: And members of Congress, Democrats in these districts don't want talking points. They want the president to understand the position that they see him and the party in, and there's this strain of consistency. Tomorrow is the third week of this, which is extraordinary.

Is he getting the message that has been one central concern, as I talked to Senators, members of Congress. So, they're speaking out directly to him because they're afraid that he's in an information bubble. That he's not sort of seeing these polls. I'm sure -- I'm told that Speaker Pelosi has had similar conversations with him.

But as you report on Saturday, what also happened Saturday, which sort of got overtaken by that horrific shooting was Senator Chuck Schumer, who rarely leaves Brooklyn on Saturdays. He went to a Rehoboth where the president was for the weekend and had a very candid and frank conversation with him. And then the president went to mass and the shooting happened.

So that is still sort of yet to play out. So, the time is running out a little bit. But the DNC has also now pledged to not start roll call voting until at least August 1. So, there are probably a couple more weeks, but boy, that would be a messy process as well.

MATTINGLY: Dana, just back to the core of your reporting. We know who Jason Crow is. We've all covered him since he came to Congress. He's a frontliner in Colorado in the 2018 class that were the majority makers. I think people need to understand that he is not a hyperbolic show horse type.

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In fact, the day after the debate, I interviewed Jason Crow on CNN and he aggressively defended President Biden over and over and over again, and got fairly frustrated with the questions, which is not his usual way of doing things. The fact, this is him. The fact that it's happening behind the scenes. The fact that within the Democratic caucus, he is a leader and he's looked towards particularly after his actions on January 6, and he's a leader of a core group inside that caucus. Yes, new Dems, but kind of a broader group of younger members. His willingness to do this, say this and have this back and forth, should send massive alarm bells inside the White House. I don't think he minds having a back-and-forth President Biden. I guarantee you he didn't take any offense to it. But it was the tone that he was taking, and how he was approaching this after what he'd done publicly. And because of where he stands in the caucus that I think underscores that, not only is this not going away, it seems to be growing as a problem.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, he's -- and I should say, just to give a little bit more information. Crow is a former Army Ranger. He served two tours in Afghanistan, one in Iraq. He was a frontliner. Again, he has --

MATTINGLY: That much anymore because he just deeply respected in the caucus.

BASH: A very much so, very much so. And my understanding is that the comment about Crow's bronze star was not taken -- was taken as kind of maligning of his service, which I'm sure that's not what President Biden intended, but that, apparently --

HENDERSON: I mean, this is getting really personal. And, you know, obviously, we've covered the president. He can be -- he can have a bit of a temper, and it certainly flashed in that conversation. The problem with Biden has, is that he has gone out for the last three weeks to try to turn the narrative around, to say that the debate was just a one off that he is, in fact strong and vigorous and was just having a bad night. He just had a cold, and he was tired.

The problem is his appearances so far since then have been hit or miss. There have been some relatively strong appearances. The news conference was fine, even though he had some gaffes. But still, he's making gaffes. He's still talking in a low voice. He still seems kind of infirm, in fact, when he walks and greets voters.

I think he was out in Las Vegas greeting some voters after that very strong NAACP speech up, and that's what voters are seeing. And that is what they're telling folks in their districts. These Congress, folks who are complaining to the president, some complaining to Nancy Pelosi as well. So, it's not going away because a lot of what we see of Biden still just affirms what folks saw in that debate.

BASH: Yeah. And so, you mentioned this. I think you all have mentioned that this does speak to one of the very big frustrations and one of the reasons why these members wanted a direct line to the president is that these members whose jobs are on the line, and the majority is on the line and the Democratic policies are on the line are that the president is maybe not getting the message.

OK. Everybody standby. We are coming up, going to return the conversation to right where we are here in Milwaukee. Republicans say, they are going to win big time. Well, let's dig in more into that question. I'm going to talk to Donald Trump's pollster about what he sees that's making his party so confident. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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