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Biden Insists He's Staying In Race As Pressure Builds To Get Out; Biden Campaign Chief: "Absolutely The President's In This Race"; Liber Super PAC Ad Urges Biden To "Pass The Torch"; Biden Aide: "There's A Growing Sense That It's Game Over"; Trump Goes Off Script, Attacks Biden And Dems In RNC Speech; Trump Starts With Calls For Unity, Then Repeats Old Grievances. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 19, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics I'm Dana Bash, at what was the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Behind me, you can see the leftovers of a wild week that hit a crescendo last night. Donald Trump strode onto the convention stage, Trump style to the bright white lights, illuminating his own name.

The former president promised a different tone. He gave it in pieces, bookending what was effectively a classic Trump rally speech, disjointed and at times divisive. With an appeal to unity, he promised after a gunman attempted to take his life.

More on that, in a few moments. But first, there is reading the tea leaves and then there's trying to break the code coming out of the White House at this very moment. Everyone wants to know, the big question -- the answer to the big question is, what is Joe Biden going to do. And you can cherry pick, perhaps whatever answer you like this morning.

The number of congressional Democrats publicly telling Biden to step aside is growing. It seems by the minute. Donors continue to withhold cash, instead of going about the business of doing the things they need to do to win elections. senior aides are despairing, and morale were told is pretty underground, which is understandable.

Headline after headline alleges Biden is still searching his soul, that he's becoming more and more willing by the hour to accept what he's being told that he cannot win. But that is absolutely not what Biden's campaign chief said in a new interview this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN O'MALLEY DILLON, BIDEN-HARRIS CAMPAIGN CHAIR: Absolutely, the president's in this race. You've heard him say that time and time again. And I think we saw on display last night exactly why, because Donald Trump is not going to offer anything new to the American people. Joe Biden is more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump. And we believe on this campaign, we are built for the close election that we're in, and we see the path forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: We start our coverage live at the White House with CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. Priscilla, what we heard from Jen O'Malley Dillon is something that I was hearing late into the evening yesterday, as I'm sure you were as well. Yes, the president is getting data. Yes, the president is watching cable news and other -- getting information from other outlets with people trying to go through the public to get him to back down.

But he still sees the data that he believes shows him, he has a path. The obvious question is how long is that going to last with the -- maybe it's too soon to say the dam is breaking but the cracks are getting wider and thicker.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, and his aides feel some of the same in terms of the polling and pointing to the numbers that show that he can still defeat former President Donald Trump, despite the concerns that are held within the Democratic Party. With one source telling me, we just can't catch a break.

And on that very note, the congressman that came out only moments ago and called for the president to step aside. I want to point to one of them. Representative Mark Pocan, who only two weeks ago after the CNN presidential debate, joined President Biden at his Madison rally. So, this just gives you a sense of how quickly all of this is developing. A lawmaker who was standing by the president at one of his rallies, now calling for him to step aside.

Now, of course, the campaign remaining adamant this morning. The president isn't going anywhere that he's staying in the race. But in that same interview, the campaign chair also acknowledging the concerns that are held within the party, and that in some polls, the president does appear to be slipping in a head-to-head against former President Donald Trump.

And some of the top officials are really starting to see this as wholly untenable for the president. Some noting that the president has dug in, while others noting that the quote, walls are closing in. Now the president is here in Rehoboth, Delaware where I am, and he is self-isolating, while he tries to get better from his positive COVID diagnosis.

And he's also deliberating with some of those in his inner circle -- inner circle that has grown even tighter by the day. Now of course, the campaign said, he's heading back to the campaign show next week, but we'll have to wait to see how he recovers. Dana?

[12:05:00]

BASH: Priscilla, thank you so much for that reporting. Also new this morning a new Liberal Super PAC, called pass the torch is buying ads on cable TV practically, begging the president to do just that.

(PLAYING VIDEO) BASH: Joining me now here in Milwaukee, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, CNN's Alayna Treene, and Bloomberg's Mario Parker. Hello. We're here along with the wonderful people who are taking apart this convention. And we're glad that they let us stay here.

Jeff Zeleny, you have been on the forefront of this reporting, which is changing really by the minute. What are you hearing at this moment?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It's not changing fast enough for a lot of people in the party. But you're right. I mean, this is a very dynamic situation. And this is what we do know. We do know that the president -- as we reported is receptive and aware of the predicament and the situation. They don't necessarily agree on the numbers, doesn't necessarily agree that it is as dire as some Democrats suggest.

But as we head into the weekend here now, as we speak, the Democratic convention rules committee is meeting. Normally this would be something that's very arcane, no one's paying attention to, actually people are now because they are discussing the process of the virtual roll call vote.

Why does that matter? Because that is the process in which the Democratic nominee will be formally nominated. And that matters because the Chicago convention opens a month from today. So that is the narrow window here. The voting is likely to begin after August 1st -- between August 1st and August 7th. So, there is a short window of time here.

The contingent of people that want to see President Biden step aside believe that this is the window to make their case and to really start a contingency plan. The campaign, I'm told is not part of this, but there are Democratic Party officials and democratic elders, spending a lot of time talking about what comes next. Of course, Vice President Kamala Harris is at the front of every conversation. The question, would she automatically become the nominee. There's a lot of resistance to that idea.

The other issues here are this. If the president would step aside, still a very big if his decision to make what of his presidency? Several Republicans have already made the case that how can you stay as president if he can't be a candidate. So, these are things they're working through. So, if he is going to step aside still enough, they have to figure out a contingency plan and sort of the argument for why he can still be president and not a candidate.

But again, the campaign insists that they are going forward. And we heard Jen O'Malley Dillon make that case this morning. Let's take them at their word. If that is the case, the race they're going forward to is much more difficult than it was just three weeks ago. You can start that here in Wisconsin and go across the blue wall into other states as well. So, a precarious moment for them for a party still in a paralysis.

BASH: And Mario, I mean, just this morning, we've had -- if there are four Democrats, as Priscilla said, in the House, who signed a joint letter. We had another member of the Senate, Martin Heinrich, come out. And yet, we heard a little bit at the top of the show of Jen O'Malley Dillon, who we should note she didn't just go out on TV. She went out on MSNBC on Morning Joe, which is a show that the president watches and that donors -- Democratic donors tend to watch.

I think it's fair to say that the elite that Joe Biden is now talking about, not in a very positive way, trying to get a message to them. Let's hear a little bit more of what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DILLON: So, we go out and we're door knocking just this week. So, this isn't in the past. This is this week. Did about 100,000 door knocks. 76 percent of those people, we knocked on doors and we talked to are with Joe Biden. And about 16 percent or so that's undecided. They have questions.

Of course, we're looking at the full picture. But when you get to the bottom and the heart of what we are doing every day from the campaign, and we are dealing with the voters that are in battleground states. They have questions, but they are staying with Joe Biden. And our numbers are showing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What are you hearing?

MARIO PARKER, NATIONAL POLITICS TEAM LEADER, BLOOMBERG: And no sooner than she wrapped that that interview. There was another report that the family was approaching the president or prepare to approach the president with an exit strategy. That seems to be true based off the reporting that we've had over the last 48 hours or so that the realization has set in.

Regardless of what's happening at the campaign where they have to try to keep morale high. Dig in and just to give the president a little bit more grace, option, save face, et cetera. That the realization of that inner circle, that tight inner circle is that. Yes, it is time. It's heartbreaking. It had been heartbreaking with the June 27 debate.

[12:10:00]

The next image that really broke the camel's (Ph) back, essentially was the image of him struggling to get up the Air Force One stairs. That's when the realization was at least -- excuse me, based on our reporting that someone has to go down -- go sit down whether that's Jill Biden First Lady, Valerie his sister, Hunter, et cetera, just to give him a graceful exit. Mr. President, you saved democracy before. This is how you can do it again.

BASH: And again, we just wrapped up four days here. You cover the Trump campaign. My understanding is there is sort of mixed feelings because they feel that they are in the catbird seat right now with Joe Biden on the ticket. They would be just happy to just fine with continuing the race against him. But there is some conversation about the what if. ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Oh, absolutely. I mean, the Trump campaign is, of course, monitoring this just as closely as all of we are. And the thing that I keep hearing is, what they're concerned about, maybe concerned is too strong of a word. But they do not want some sort of change to throw their own campaign into chaos. And if Joe Biden were to step aside, that is exactly what would happen.

Remember, they have spent months and millions of dollars on modeling, on ads, on all of these things that are geared directly toward Joe Biden. And so, they do not know what a race would look like, if it was somebody else at the top of the ticket. They also believe, you know, even though you hear Donald Trump and his campaign repeatedly attack someone like Kamala Harris, they really do not know what a fight against her with a Donald Trump versus Harris would look like. And so that is the conversation happening behind closed doors.

BASH: I want to just be sure to give a more fulsome picture of what's going on, which is hard, because so much of this -- because so many Democrats have been frustrated that their appeals to the president in private have not been successful. That's why you see so much happening in public, sometimes on the record, sometimes not.

But the divide that we saw almost immediately after the debate within the Democratic Party, where you had a lot of constituencies of color, particularly black Democrats saying, whoa, do not push him out. We want him to stay in. The Biden campaign disseminated a letter from black female supporters and allies standing firmly. They said it was 1300 black women standing firmly and resolutely for President Joseph Biden's presidential nomination.

ZELENY: There is no question. The CBC, the Congressional Black Caucus, the CHC, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus came out this morning with another level of support and endorsement. So, you're right. I mean, he has support from progressives as well, AOC. She said she supported him. Senator Bernie Sanders still supports him.

So, the idea that there is a -- there is a large faction, but it is not the core of the Democratic Party. I mean, so this is what the president is holding on to. But as we sit here in the hall, it is so striking the unity of Republicans -- the president, you know, he did not -- the former president, excuse me -- he did not extend that all of branch as much as they previewed. But the party is unified. There's no doubt about it. And Democrats are in disarray and paralysis, and it's worrisome to them.

BASH: We have to sneak a break in. But I want you to weigh in on this. And you said the -- certainly the backbone of the party -- of the Democratic Party is in large part, people of color still. The argument that I hear politically is, many of them in the House are in safe districts. And that's why we have seen a different dynamic. With the people coming out, they're the ones who could lose their seats.

PARKER: Yeah. And Dana, subtext here is -- there's a tone of things from the sources. I've spoken to on the Hill, a bit of a fence, right, because not only is there a push to do away with a President Joe Biden, but the entire ticket. And what does that say to the black constituency, particularly black women.

That's what you see a few weeks ago, Jim Clyburn started to speak up much more forcefully. From what I understand that was a deliberate play because he was somewhat offended that these conversations had an included Vice President Kamala Harris.

BASH: Interesting. OK. Everybody standby because up next. New Donald Trump meet old Donald Trump, meet new and old kind of altogether, while the former president paid lip service to unity and then dove headfirst into a familiar list of grievances. We'll talk about that next.

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BASH: Tomorrow Donald Trump and J. D. Vance will be in Michigan to headline their first joint campaign rally. And it will be Trump's first rally since last weekend's assassination attempt. Trump began his speech here at the convention last night by recounting what happened along with a new call for national unity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together or we fall apart. I am running to be president for all of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That sort of talk made up the first 30 minutes or so of the speech. The rest sounded more like this.

[12:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They should drop these partisan witch hunts -- to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country. They used COVID to cheat. We'll never get it let happen again. We have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections.

If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it, the 10 worst, added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done. For the rest of the world, which is laughing at us. They think we're stupid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Our panel is back here. And Alayna, you have gone to many a Trump rally. And for people who don't normally see a Trump rally, that was the second part or the middle part, the chunk of this speech was off script and was largely a Trump rally, although a subdued version of it.

TREENE: No, that's exactly right. It wasn't -- you know, he wasn't as high energy, I would argue. As he normally is that those Trump rallies, but the rhetoric was exactly the same. It was really striking. It really was a tale of two Trumps. And I will argue.

I mean, the start of his speech, I don't think I have ever seen Donald Trump be so vulnerable in a way. I mean, it was striking to sit here and hear how quiet he was in this arena. And Donald Trump is someone who hates vulnerability. He thinks it's a sign of weakness. So, it was very striking to hear that from him.

However, of course, you know, 30 minutes and as soon as he pivoted away from his personal experience of what had happened last weekend to his agenda. You heard exactly the same type of rhetoric, throwing red meat to the base. He was rambling. He went off script. He was airing his grievances. All of the things as you said, that we are so accustomed to hearing.

What I'm going to be watching for is which version of Donald Trump we see tomorrow in Michigan when he is there with J. D. Vance. Because his team has said repeatedly, this is the new Trump. He has been -- you know, he's been very spiritual, even though he's not a religious man. He's been very spiritual following, the shooting. He wants to keep this unifying message up. I have a hard time believing that we're going to see a much more unifying Donald Trump moving forward, but I think--

BASH: Because you know your history -- the last eight years. Well, so. I mean, I'm setting my ways and I'm not 78. So, I'm guessing -- I'm guessing that that's part of it. I want to read a little part of the way that the New York Times described it this morning.

Even this speech designed to debut the new message, underscored Mr. Trump's challenge with discipline. Mr. Trump's ultimate success will depend on whether, for his final 15 weeks of the campaign, he can contain his self-destructive tendencies and temper his preference for vengeance and unpopular hard-right policies.

PARKER: Yeah. Aside from that first 20 minutes or so, which was harrowing with -- and his recounting of the assassination attempt. The rest of it was, if you were in a time machine or coma, you woke up from 2016 or 2020. It was all the same notes that we've heard time and time again. The problem, as you mentioned, Dana, is that most Americans haven't had a Trump's rally in a while. They didn't know that they were going to be in for 90 minutes of a meandering wandering speech.

Here's the other part of it. In August of 2016, or July of 2016 -- in July, or August of 2020. Trump was always losing. This is the first time that he's the front runner in a race. And you saw some of that vulnerability slipping a little bit later on in the speech to where he said, I'm up a whole lot. Now, I just have to make sure I don't blow it.

BASH: Yeah. And he was also talking about not blowing this convention, which was going extremely well. I do want to play a little bit more of the speech because it was 90 minutes, and it went until after midnight. So, if you were sleeping, we have a little bit more of what we're discussing here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And they came in. They said, Dana won't be able to do it because he was my first, second and third choice. I said, well, you know, that's too bad. Now, North Korea is acting up again. But when we get back, I get along with him. He'd like to see me back too. I think he misses me.

Please do me one favor. It won't make any difference. Please don't use any foul language. I was a little embarrassed. I said -- he said, it won't make any difference -- actually, it does. The story is not quite as good, but I've been very good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mean, Jeff, that last part is, you know, he injects humor. But the rest of it is like, you know, again, kind of classic Trump. This is not a venue for that traditionally, because you're trying to reach the entire country and even the entire world.

We just got a statement from President Biden, who is now reacting to the speech here last night. Where he says that the former president focused on his own grievances, with no plan to unite us and no plan to make life better for working people.

[12:25:00]

ZELENY: It's interesting that President Biden in his own words is releasing a statement right now. 12 hours after this speech ended. I was looking for one last night. His campaign did release a statement last evening that largely says the same thing. But in his own words, he called it a dark vision. So again, trying to draw the contrast here.

And staying with the former president for a second, I think that is the one question or one of the questions that's hanging over the rest of this campaign. His campaign now is unlike 2016 or 2020. It is a disciplined operation of professional campaign. He's not a discipline candidate. We saw that last night he can be at times.

But there is one Donald Trump. There are different components of him. But there is one Donald Trump. So, the idea that, you know, when Nikki Haley stood in the hall earlier this week, and said, even though you don't like, you know, somethings about him, you can still vote for him. I run into voters like that all the time, who -- you know, I don't like his tweets, but they liked the policy.

So, I'm not sure that this convention speech is going to matter all that much, actually, of course, the harrowing words. It was incredible to be in the hall. As you said, it was just like, I've never seen anything like it. People were just falling on every word, but the discipline here. But one quick thing about J. D. Vance, they're going to Grand Rapids, Michigan, that's Kent County. One of the counties that they need to win in the fall. He won it in '16. He lost it in '20.

I was just there a couple weeks ago and talking to voters. There's an opening and a hunger for a different Donald Trump. There's a dissatisfaction with inflation, with Biden and other things. So, the ability for him to reach out to people who don't love everything he says, that's still one of his biggest challenges. We'll see. I mean, we don't know how he'll react to the coverage.

He read all those headlines that you were just reading there. So, we shall see how this goes. But -- and the partnership between Vance and Trump fascinating always to watch them come together and see how that works.

BASH: For the first time. OK. Thanks guys.

ZELENY: Thanks Dana.

BASH: Don't go anywhere. Airlines, banks, grocery stores, hospitals, even Times Square, a giant global outage scrambles pretty much anything connected to a computer. What it means for your life. We'll get to that next.

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