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Inside Politics

Harris Campaign Grabs Dems' Enthusiasm, Now Aims To Sustain It; Harris Campaign Embraces "Weird" As Attack Against Donald Trump; New ABC Poll: Harris Favorability Rating Up 8 Points In A Week; Dems, GOP Tickets Sharpen Attacks With Election Now 99 Days Away; Vance Tries To Clean Up "Childless Cat Ladies" Comments; Harris Expected To Name Running Mate Before Aug. 7; Gov. Tim Walz Hits Trump With One-Word Takedown: "Weird"; Gabby Giffords Stumps For Kamala Harris In Michigan. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 29, 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]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: How do you imagine Vice President Harris reacted to the news?

DAVID MANDEL, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & SHOWRUNNER, "VEEP": I think she took it a lot better than that. I think, you know, Selina Meyer is a very petty person and a very power-hungry person. And in some ways, I think, you know, for everybody trying to make comparisons between Selina and Kamala. It's Donald Trump that you should be making your Selina comparisons with. He's petty. He has no sense of humor. He -- you know, he's the Selina, not Kamala, in my opinion.

BROWN: All right, David. Thank you so much. Great to have you on. I'm Pamela Brown with CNN. Inside Politics with Phil Mattingly starts now.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies are rolling out a new way to describe the Republican ticket. They're just playing weird, as former President Donald Trump scrambles for new attack lines against his new opponent who's surging in the polls and raising tons of cash.

Plus, I've got nothing against cats. That's how J. D. Vance is attempting to tamp down the backlash of comments he made about childless cat ladies back in 2021. We'll bring you new reporting on how the drama surrounding Trump's VP pic may impact who Harris, ultimately chooses as her running mate. And supreme demands. Joe Biden is pushing for sweeping changes to the highest court in the land. With the details on something no president has done in nearly one hundred years.

I'm Phil Mattingly in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

It has been 21 years since noted Brooklyn scholar Jay-Z noticed he had 99 problems. The Harris campaign, the Trump campaign got 99 days, which will likely include quite a few problems. Team Trump's issue today, though, how to attack the presumptive Democratic nominee. The former president trying out lots of different options. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She was a bum three weeks ago. She was a bum. A failed vice president and a failed administration. But if radical, liberal Kamala Harris gets in, and by the way, there are numerous ways of saying her name. She made Bernie Sanders look like a moderate. We have a man that can't put two sentences together. And now we're replacing him with worse than he is, a dangerous person who's not smart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: To be clear, there's only one way to say her name. But while the former president workshop's attack lines, Vice President Kamala Harris is hoping to keep her momentum going. Poll show voters are giving her a second look. And so far, they like what they're seeing.

She's raised more than $200 million since President Biden dropped out of the race last Sunday. Total 66 percent of that cash comes from first time donors. The campaign has also attracted more than 170,000 new volunteers

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is live for us in the North Lawn of the White House and leads us off. What I keep hearing Priscilla over and over again is, sugar high, honeymoon period. Democrats who are euphoric, but also want to carry this over into the next 99 days. How did they do it?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There's still a lot of time left. But there is no doubt, Phil, that it has been a momentous week for the now Harris campaign. Now those $200 million that were raised, they include 66 percent of first-time donors. Grassroots fundraising was always a bright spot for the campaign. But more so now, as the campaign uses it as an example of the enthusiasm among the Democratic base, because again, they are first-time donors.

Now as all of this is ongoing, the vice president is trying out new lines of attack. And she did just that in Massachusetts during a fundraiser where she called out former President Donald Trump's wild lies, and also what she called the two-plain weird. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You may have noticed Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record, and some of what he and his running mate are saying, it's just plain weird.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now the campaign of course, is pivoting to a new phase ahead of the Democratic National Convention. And that is importantly picking a running mate, something that the vice president intends to do before August, and they see an opportunity with J. D. Vance. This is someone who they have called the yes man as someone who is not going to challenge former President Donald Trump, and who is under qualified to govern.

If there were some -- if the former president were not able to go for the full four years. Now, the vice president will be on the trail again this week going to Atlanta, and then again to Houston. So busy few days ahead, Phil.

MATTINGLY: All right. So, Priscilla Alvarez for us, thanks so much. We have a great group of reporters here to share their insights, CNN's MJ Lee, CNN's Isaac Dovere, Leigh Ann Caldwell of The Washington Post, and Jackie Kucinich of the Boston Globe. Guys, I want to start with the weird thing because it is a thing. And if you don't believe me, just listen to the surrogates who are blanketing the airwaves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: He is clearly older and stranger than he was when America first got to know him.

[12:05:00]

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): We're not afraid of weird people. We were a little bit creeped out but we're not afraid.

DOUGLAS EMHOFF, SECOND GENTLEMAN: It's not about her or her opponent really and it's no matter what kind of weird stuff they keep saying.

GOV. J. B. PRITZKER (D-IL): I mean on the other side, they're just weird. I mean they really are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: MJ, I think what's so striking about this is, we went from, you know, the stakes of the soul of the nation and the inflection point and just how enormous this moment was, man, they're just weird.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, I think this has been a really good reminder that sometimes the best political messaging is not the one that is like pool tested to death audience -- test it to death. It is just one that gives voice to something that a lot of people seem to be thinking already, right.

Tim Walz was on this weekend with Jake. And he was sort of explaining. I think he was the one that actually started this whole weird thing, the messaging. And he said, look, everything that we have been talking about as a party. The threat to democracy, the reproductive rights, all of those things are still true.

But he also just wanted to give voice to something that he thinks a lot of people are just thinking when they watch Donald Trump or J. D. Vance. And that is like, what's up with these guys, right? And I do think it is sticking in a way in part perhaps, because there's also just been so much darkness where we've been talking about a lot of weighty serious things.

And I have wondered -- are a lot of people just looking for a little bit of a reprieve and break from that. They would rather just take a moment to talk about cat ladies than democracy, perhaps.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: But it also speaks to what a difference it makes with the candidates at the top of the ticket, right? Joe Biden got into this year, making a big speech about democracy at Valley Forge. He really want to talk about that as this battle. But look, Kamala Harris, this is who she is. Yes. Tim Walz was the one who injected this word -- this week again.

But in 2018, Harris -- I've reported about this in the past. She had a meeting with her aides about getting into the race that year. And they asked her then, what she would do if she were in a debate with Trump and he stopped behind her on stage, like Trump did with Hillary Clinton in 2016.

And she told them that her response would be that you turn around and say, why are you being so weird, right? This is really about how Kamala Harris is trying to be down in -- on the ground, sort of as a more normal person, and not in the abstract way that politics have gotten to.

MATTINGLY: I think, what is so fascinating is like, everybody understands that in this moment, it's all about who can define the Harris campaign, whether it's Democrats, whether it's Trump and Trump's team. And they're kind of flipping the script a little bit redefining Trump on some level.

At the same time, if you look at favourability numbers, we've got a rash of new polling, which tells us very clearly about the euphoria and sugar high with Democrats. But you know, Harris's favourability in the ABC/Ipsos poll over the weekend, it was 28 percent in July, in 22 and 23rd, now it's at 44 percent.

If you look at the Wall Street Journal poll, about Democrats who are enthusiastic about their candidate. Before Biden dropped out at the end of June, it was 37 percent, now it's 81 percent. There's an opportunity here. It's very clear for Harris and her team. It's not just about how they frame Trump's and windmills and sharks being executed things like that. Tells about her on as well (Ph).

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, THE WASHINGTON POST "EARLY BRIEF" CO-AUTHOR: Absolutely. And it brings us back to before those three weeks between the debate and when Biden dropped out, where there was a lot of skepticism that Harris would be able to win an election. And it came down to what many people cautioned is, it's just so hard to pull a hypothetical because she wasn't doing as well back then.

Now she's in the race. She has proven herself to be a much different candidate than she was in 2020. Much more evolved and experienced as a politician, and as a campaigner, as well. But what's also super fascinating to watch is that Donald Trump, who is a master messenger is struggling in this moment.

The fact that he who is able to pin something on everyone has not been able to pin something on Kamala Harris. He might get there eventually. But it's just been fascinating to watch this person who seems to nail every single messaging thing, and for the past eight years has not been able to do it.

MATTINGLY: It's a great point, because it's fascinating to me. The 2019 campaign for the Harris team because of the way that primary went, which was left -- and left her and left your which in some level is why Joe Biden became the nominee. She was pinned in on a lot of positions. And I think when you talk to Trump advisers, they're saying we will destroy her on X, Y, and Z. We can just roll them out position after position after position. Instead, you have Trump saying things like this over the weekend, at a talking points conference in West Palm Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Christians get out and vote just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what. It'll be fixed. It'll be fine. You won't have to vote anymore. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good, you're not going to have to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:10:00]

MATTINGLY: There's been like 30 explanations for what he actually meant by that. I'm not even going to wander down that rabbit hole. But on some level, it's just this thing where like, everybody's paying attention to what he's saying. And he's not finding her instead everybody's just listening to what he's saying and talking about that.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: And providing these clips for Democrats just to package into an ad, and you know, put on Twitter or wherever. But you're right. It really -- I think at the beginning of last week, we were talking about what a race it was to define Harris and we have seen some attacks.

But I think it's more directed at people who are supporting Harris. I think of the Dave McCormick ad against a Bob Casey right after Harris came forward. That's the only one that I've personally seen that has sought to define her in a more cogent way, than the sort of scattershot that we've seen from Republicans over the past week. Because this is the first time, I think in the course of this election, that you've seen Democrats on offense, and this is what that looks like.

MATTINGLY: How sustainable is that, MJ?

LEE: To which part?

MATTINGLY: The standalone --

LEE: Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, the events of the last week have taken place at such speed. I think all of our heads are still spinning. If the last week has not been, you know, the best lesson for all of us that there is no inevitability in politics.

I don't know what is. I mean, for the Trump campaign, they really did have sort of their act and their messaging and their playbook when it comes to Joe Biden, the president are really down. And now they are trying to figure out what is the messaging, the nicknames perhaps that will really stick.

I do think it's interesting that they haven't yet gone down the DEI candidate route yet, because we have heard some Republicans going there. I am curious whether Donald Trump eventually will. You could imagine him going down that route. But obviously, there has been some advising coming from the outside that that would be a terrible idea. Again, I don't think we can rule it out. But that is -- that is an idea that is out there that I think a lot of people think would be a terrible route for him to go down. We just don't know yet.

DOVERE: Yeah. And the nickname is obviously, potentially dangerous territory there. And say, how eight years, nine years with Donald Trump making up nicknames, going after people the schoolyard bully thing. A lot of the things that he might come up with could end up being at least seen as if not actually gendered or racialized. And that is a whole hornet's nest in itself and will create a level of backlash among Democratic voters and maybe beyond Democratic voters that could be a problem for him.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. I do want to kind of second, MJ. But humility, there's nothing wrong with it in this moment in time. We have literally no idea what's going to happen next. We're about to talk about the vice-presidential selection. It's a huge moment for the Harris team. What's happening today, may not be happening tomorrow, certainly may not be happening 99 days from now. But at least you guys are here to hang out and explain it to me --

DOVERE: Because you're trying to figure it all out again every day.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. That's exactly -- that's good ties. Look at you, front guy with the TV (inaudible). We got a lot more to get to. As I noted up next, the nine lines of the childless cat lady's comment, J. D. Vance fighting the fallout as Vice President Harris narrows her search for her number two. And later, rare, behind the scenes reporting about how the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority fracture over new abortion decisions. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: J. D. Vance is firmly in damage control mode as the backlash intensifies over comments he made back in 2021, about poor childless cat ladies. Here's what he said over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), 2024 VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I've got nothing against cats. There are a whole host of people who don't have children for a whole host of reasons. And they certainly are great people who can participate fully in the life of this country. And that's not what I said, Trey. If you look at what the left has done, they have radically taken this out of context, and in fact, aggressively lied about what I've said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Very reassuring marks -- remarks for cats and hats. But it wasn't just that one childless cat lady comment on Fox News. Here he is, in 2021, saying that parents should have more political power than non-parents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: People don't have children through no fault or choice of their own. But it's something else to build a political movement, invested theoretically in the future of this country, when not a single one of them actually has any physical commitment to the future of this country. When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power. You should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our Democratic republic than people who don't have kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I'm lucky these smart and very well sourced reporters are back with us. They were probably a poor focus group, because we all have kids and we all had somebody talk about -- during the breaks. But I think the resonance of this attack and the inability to kind of put it to bed very quickly has -- we're talking about it, it's a little bit surprising to me at this point. Why do you think that is?

KUCINICH: Because there's so many other things that he said. It's not just this one errant comment. There's a whole, you know, tale of the tape with J. D. Vance. And it really is trying to, you know, otherwise a very large group of people. And whenever you're doing that, you're having to explain that you're doubling down in some cases. That's not -- that's not what you want.

And not to mention, you know, when you're a candidate, if you're Donald Trump and women are not necessarily your strongest suit when it comes to demographic. You don't want your VP to be talking about this for as long as he has.

[12:20:00]

MATTINGLY: Yeah. It's been interesting trying to figure out what the defense is on some level. We saw this from Senator Lindsey Graham over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): You should never say anything to hurt anybody's feelings, but when you look at all these interviews by J. D., he was talking about how the Democratic Party has abandoned the traditional family. This idea of trying to marginalize J. D. and make him some kind of bad person is not going to work because he's not a bad person. He's a good person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Why you're smiling?

CALDWELL: I'm smiling as -- because Lindsey Graham and J. D. Vance are not very close. They are also in diabolical opposites on foreign policy. My colleagues reported that Lindsey Graham was in Donald Trump's ear, the 48 hours before he chose J. D. Vance, asking him to choose Marco Rubio.

So, it's just kind of funny to see Lindsey Graham's not completely full-throated endorsement of J. D. Vance there. But this has not gone away. And it hasn't gone away in large part because J. D. Vance has not -- as we said, put this to bed at all. He has a -- he has defended cats. He has not yet defended and spoke out for childless women.

MATTINGLY: And I think what's interesting is, and it's funny that Graham, to your point is well, given the defense of -- there is a legitimate, I think, debate and conversation about families and the importance of families and Republicans moving in that direction. And Vance, kind of very online-nish ness (Ph) of trying to describe it, hits at a very small segment of society that is very online. That most normal people who have normal lives, including those families aren't actually paying attention to him on some level.

DOVERE: Yeah. And by the way, Lindsey Graham doesn't have children, right. And so, this is a question of what's breaking through. And last week, Jennifer Aniston went and did a social media post about this. They caught on fire on the internet, right? If Jennifer Aniston who is not political is getting involved and reaching people who are not thinking about getting political news on this and making him seem unqualified or just someone that they should not consider. That is a problem for Vance, and therefore, for Trump.

MATTINGLY: And I think the big -- like the rumblings inside the Republican Party are like, how long is Trump going to put up with this on some level. And his campaign has been very clear that he's happy with the choice that he believes Vance is being unfairly attacked. But I think, a lot of the questions you hear from Republicans are about aren't like, what's his point here on this ticket.

Because it's a new poll to Fox -- latest Fox News poll on his, where he stands in Midwest states? Presumably if you're going to help a campaign, the Ohio senator is supposed to help them here. Michigan favorable 36 percent, Minnesota favorable 37 percent, Pennsylvania favorable 38 percent, Wisconsin favorable 39 percent. What is the value add here for J. D. Vance?

LEE: Yeah. Well, and also, you know, when we were covering the Veepstakes for Donald Trump this time around, there were a lot of questions about the value of choosing something who has been more tested on the political stage, who has had a longer career. And you know, all of the dirty laundry or whatever you want to call it has been really fully aired out.

I don't have a great sense of whether the Trump campaign was really fully aware of how often he had talked about this issue and how invested he has been on this -- about this issue over the years. But I will say just the one thing that I think Donald Trump probably would not be OK with is acknowledging that this was a mistake.

I mean, this is one of the biggest decisions that you make as a presidential candidate. And it's really hard to imagine him saying just days later, I mean -- and, you know, put aside sort of the machinations of how that would work and all of that. I don't know. It's really difficult to imagine Donald Trump saying, yeah, that was a bad call in my part.

KUCINICH: But was this a candidate chosen for a different race? That I mean -- and I don't think --

LEE: He was.

KUCINICH: He was, right. He definitely was, right. It was a different race. He wanted to -- you know, juice the number of, you know, the Republicans turning out in advance was thought to really energize them. And now, you have a guy who seems as Trump himself is trying to pivot. Vance himself is also, you know, not really able to do that.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. And it also -- I think, is a good window into Harris has a huge decision to make. On some level, we always say the VP is the most important thing in the world until they're chosen and then we kind of move away from it. It seems like a matter is quite a bit.

You said something on an internal call that I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about publicly, but basically like this is going to be a good kind of what she does in this selection will be a good kind of read on where she's going to go, where her campaign is going to go. Explain me, what you meant, by that?

DOVERE: Yeah. Well, I think also where she sees her vulnerabilities and weaknesses, politically, what they need to solve for, essentially in a campaign that has come together very quickly does she go -- if she goes to Mark Kelly, that will show that she thinks that she could make Arizona happen, right?

If she goes to Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania. If she feels like, she needs strength with military that could be Kelly, that could be Buttigieg, that could be Tim Walz. All these things and we could go through the list and every permutation.

But look, the other thing that's going on here, and I have a story up on our site now about this is that Vance was someone when Harris was preparing to be the running mate in this campaign. She was going to blow past whoever Trump picked and just focus on Trump.

[12:25:00]

But now because she's making the pick and because of the trouble that Vance has been having, you see a lot of focus from her campaign, advisers and also the prospects on Vance. And saying that he's not qualified for the job, that he is not prepared to step into the presidency if that's what would happen. That's a knock-on Vance. That's a knock-on Trump. Pete Buttigieg, obviously hoping to get picked himself, said to me that there has not been -- not since -- if since FDR has -- there been someone that there should be this much focus on and given Trump's age and his medical condition. And he said, and J. D. Vance is now Harry Truman. Obviously, Buttigieg doing a little bit of his own auditioning there.

Notably, though, FDR, we didn't know how sick he was or not we -- none of us were around, but they didn't know how sick he was. And he was 62 when he died -- when he ran in 1940. Donald Trump is now the oldest major party nominee ever. And you see the Democrats, all of a sudden, discovering that age is an issue --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: All right. You mentioned, it's an office. You mentioned the auditions. We've seen -- not just going after Vance, but going after Trump including, Tim Walz, the Minnesota Governor. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: Listen to the guy. He's talking about Hannibal Lecter, and you shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind. And I thought we just gave him way too much credit. Have you ever seen the guy laugh? That seems very weird to me that an adult can go through six and a half years of being in the public eye. If he has laughed, it's at someone, not with someone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: There's been like a lot of introspective moments. I think for people from Washington says, Walz (inaudible). Wait a minute. How do you -- like, Walz is kind of on a burst right now because he's talked about the things we were talking about last block that he's weird, all this sort of stuff. Where do things stand right now as these auditions play out?

CALDWELL: Well, you can see what's happening by watching television and see which candidates are on the news. And this is kind of a tryout to comes on CNN and other networks to see how they perform. And what is being looked at is not people who can talk about their own record. As one person told me, it's how they could prosecute a case against Donald Trump and on behalf of Kamala Harris.

So, I think that Tim Walz, who was someone that was probably not in the top rung a couple of weeks ago or a week ago, it has now moved up because of his performance and how he's been able to message. I do know, I'm told by members of Congress though that Tim Walz is some of the Democrats favorites. They served with him, and they are on team --

MATTINGLY: Yeah. House guys --

CALDWELL: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: Look, Tim Walz. Whether you're House guys --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: House guys are your barometer. It's also interesting because you're trying to look at how everybody presents here on some level. And Mark Kelly is not just Mark Kelly with a great bio. He also has this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABBY GIFFORDS, (D) FORMER ARIZONA CONGRESSWOMAN: Our life can change so quickly. Minded when I was shot, but I never gave up hope. I chose to make the new start, to move ahead, to not look back. I'm relearning so many things, how to walk, how to talk. And I'm fighting to make the country safer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That obviously, Gabby Giffords, the former Congresswoman who was shot at a campaign event. He's the wife of Mark Kelly. I'll just say, from a personal perspective, it's wonderful to see her continuing. She just is getting better over the time. I can't imagine what she's been through.

How much does that matter is everybody kind of looks into this because that's an issue that Kamala Harris wants to talk about in terms of gun control, gun restrictions, things like that.

KUCINICH: And you are -- would be hard pressed to find someone who communicates as effectively about it as Gabby Giffords. And the fact, I mean their story about where he was on that day, and just the thinking she was dead thinking -- realizing she was alive and her comeback. Very powerful story, no matter where you are in the political spectrum. And she tells it in her -- in the fact that she's recovered to this extent. Again, you just be hard pressed to find anyone who tells about her.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. Just real quick.

LEE: Quicky say, I also don't think we should underestimate. Just the experience like Kamala Harris has obviously had in three and a half years as being vice president. I've been thinking a lot about the last few weeks that she has had, where she has been really tested as the party really came out against President Biden.

And you know, if there's some secret reporting out there that's just not been uncovered yet about her angling or really criticizing him behind closed doors. I guess it could be out there. It just isn't out there yet. But by all accounts, she really did stand as a loyal soldier for President Biden as he was going through this moment.

And I have to assume that that must have been a really formative experience for her like, yes, the politics and who's going to strengthen the ticket, all of that is going to be really important. But also just personal chemistry and her knowing that she wants to have a partner who's going to stand by her and, you know, be loyal, be trustworthy. I assume that those are going to be really, really important.