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Laura Coates Live

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Dies At Age 74; President Joe Biden Faces Crisis; Trump Campaign Eyes New Momentum As Democrats Struggle; Laura Coates Interviews Frank Luntz; Massive Tech Outage Creates Disruptions Around The World; CNN Heroes: The "Uniform That Grows" Offers Opportunities To Schoolgirls And Women. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired July 19, 2024 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: On a personal note, aside from the professionalism that she has always shown, she was a woman I long admired and always respected. And in our many conversations on radio, on Sirius XM or television right here, and in life, she was an unapologetic champion for women. And she welcomed the role of mentor and friend with the sincerity that I have to tell you is so unparalleled in a town like this. Whenever I would ask her to come on and extend her mind and insight, she was always gracious, always willing, and always illuminating, and that was long before any of you knew my name. She would answer the call.

We're going to have much more on her and her legacy tonight on "Laura Coates Live."

Well, you know, I've been in Washington D.C. long enough to know what leaked conversations do mean. So, apparently, it means President Biden didn't take someone's hint. He didn't take the private or gentle nudging to perhaps step aside. And so, now, the sharpest of elbows are out swinging in public. And I do mean swinging. Look at this. We are up to what? Thirty-four plus Democrats who want him off the ticket. Twelve alone came out today. To paraphrase the movie "Jaws," we're going to need a bigger graphic if this comes up and keeps up. And by all accounts, it will keep up, which is why this next bit of reporting is very important.

So, Carl Bernstein tonight said that Biden is now recognizing that it is -- quote -- "very unlikely that his candidacy can be sustained" -- unquote. Now, doesn't mean that I've heard something substantial yet. I'm not sure what that really means if it's definitive or not. But it sounds like he sees some kind of writing on a wall but he's either not reading it or to him, it spells out the word "malarkey."

Biden's campaign is saying, and they're saying it is ad nauseam, he's in this race still. He will stay in this race. He is running. He is the nominee, so can you cut it out? But the Democrats who want him out aren't cutting anything out. They're not giving up, and they are plugging their ears and doing the kind of ooh la, la, la, la, la moment. As you can imagine, this has made the president quite upset. I mean, really angry, particularly to people that he thinks are orchestrating this entire pressure campaign. Here's Carl Bernstein. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: He's particularly angry and disappointed at Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader. He's angry and disappointed and feels abandoned by his old friend, Nancy Pelosi. He has trouble at recognizing why they -- these folks would turn their backs on him given what he sees as his accomplishments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, "The New York Times" is adding former President Obama to this Biden mad list, saying -- quote -- "Biden is irritated at Mr. Obama as well, seeing him as the puppet master behind the scenes." Now, I don't know if he's pulling the strings or not. But I do know one thing: No one can tell me what's at the end of this thread that we're talking about. Do the people who are making this push to have him out, is there a plan to see this through if he does step out? Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had those very same questions and says when she brought it up and asked questions about what would come next, she got crickets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): But what I can tell you is that I have stood up in rooms of folks making these decisions, and I have raised these questions, and no one had an answer for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, that's a heck of a cliffhanger, not to have an answer to with 108 and what? Eight days away from a presidential election and now about a month away from a convention.

Well, joining me now, Nicholas Kristof, columnist for "The New York Times," who has known Biden for decades. He was one of the first to actually call on him to drop out after the debate. Nick, thank you for being here this evening.

I want to read back to you something you've said. I'm quoting you here when you've written, "There is a surprising subservience within the Democratic Party over the goals that Democrats say they are committed to achieve. In part, I fear, that's cowardice."

Well, given the number of Democrats that are now coming out, do you sense a kind of a shift?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I do. I think that subservience is fading because I think a lot of Democrats had hoped that President Biden would withdraw, would get the message, and now I think they've been a little more concerned that maybe he isn't getting that message, and so that's why we're seeing more coming out today, including, as you mentioned, you know, a dozen just today

And, you know, every moment, I'm getting more emails from people who have worked with Biden, people who have long histories in the Democratic Party or donors who are trying to get that message through, and I think at some point, they will.

[23:05:00]

COATES: I mean, it sounds like he is hearing the message and saying, noted, and that's where it ends. I mean, people like AOC are saying Democrats are maybe playing with fire given the calendar and not having maybe the next step or the plan. Do you agree with her?

KRISTOF: Are there risks? Absolutely. I mean, are there complexities in transferring the money completely? Is there a risk of Democrats wounding each other in a fight? Absolutely. But the trajectory the Democrats are on right now sure looks as if they will lose the presidency and, you know, very likely lose both houses and Congress. And so, I think that concentrates the minds. And I think the other risks are manageable and the prospect of staying with President Biden as the nominee looks like a bigger risk to me and, I think, most Democrats.

COATES: I mean, what do you make of this theory of a circular firing squad that oftentimes Democrats are accused of voluntarily being a part of? If --if this were to play out, right, and Biden were to step aside and maybe there was a contested election or a convention at some point in time, you'd leave a gap in time from the moment it's announced to have not only Democrats but also Republicans try to undermine whoever might be the leading candidate for that, presumably the vice president of the United States. Is that the cost benefit analysis that you think is likely to be successful in the end for Democrats?

KRISTOF: So, in any contested primary, there's always a risk that people are going to be irritated. Their supporters aren't going to line up behind the eventual winner. But it does seem to me that those risks are manageable. It's a compressed period of time. But one can imagine a number of people coming forward, frantically giving interviews, being on your show, uh, and, you know, and making their pitches to donors as well, and then in the run-up to the convention, it's obviously a short period, seeing who thrives, uh, who --

COATES: Uh-hmm.

KRISTOF: -- who seems to do best polling. And I think that Democrats are so eager to actually win the presidency, to win the Congress, um, that there would be strong pressure to then rally around that person who did emerge.

COATES: Really quickly, Nick, as well. You've known him for decades. Is all this the potential to have it backfire and -- and Biden to say, I am staying in no matter what just to beat the odds?

KRISTOF: Boy, that's something I really worry about. I mean, you know, there is some real risk that he stays in the race and then, what I'm writing and what all these members of Congress are saying, ends up undermining his candidacy even further. And, you know, is that a genuine risk? Absolutely. But I do think that right now, we're on a trajectory that is going to lead to potentially a landslide loss, and I think we can do better, and I sure hope Democrats come together. You know, as you know, in every household in the country, families have these difficult conversations with aging parents who think they can still drive and if every family can have that conversation. Surely, the Democratic Party can have that conversation as well in a respectful way.

COATES: Nick, thank you so much. We're going to continue the conversation here because, as you can imagine, some Biden supporters say dropping him from the ticket would subvert the will of the 14 million people who voted him -- for him during the primary. And in favor instead of a donor class, incumbents usually get the party's full support even, of course, if there are challengers.

But this year, the party changed its primary calendar, working with (INAUDIBLE) by leapfrogging New Hampshire and beginning with South Carolina instead. Democrats even threatened to strip delegates from New Hampshire if they still held their primary first before (INAUDIBLE). Remember that?

And then in Florida, the state party canceled the presidential primary, keeping more than four and a half million registered voters, Democrats, from voting. And all that stopped Biden's only real challenger, Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, from actually mounting a serious campaign, whether you thought he had a shot or not.

I want to talk about this now with Laura Barron-Lopez, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour. And also here, Ameshia Cross, a Democratic strategist and former Obama campaign advisor. Glad to have both of you, guys, here. I feel like this is a kind of groundhog's day if you are the Biden-Harris campaign because you wanted to settle long ago, you wanted to go come after this RNC and have a very different discussion about maybe Trump's speech. And instead, you still hear this. I wonder from your perspective, Ameshia, I mean, do Democrats create a mess they cannot get out of now?

AMESHIA CROSS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I don't think that they have. I think that what Democrats have to do is amplify their voters. At the end of the day, we know that what? Fourteen hundred Black women just signed on to a letter a day ago, arguing for Biden to stay in this race. We saw the voters literally telling him not to drop out in Detroit just a few days ago. We heard his speech at the NAACP.

[23:10:00]

We've seen that the BET sit-down conversation. I think that what needs to be focused on is what people actually view on the ground, particularly the embedded Democratic base voters. Those voters are still with the Biden-Harris ticket. What we're hearing is a lot of whispers and a game of telephone between Democratic elites as well as between some of the funder and donor class. But those aren't the people who determined his victory in the primary. Those aren't the people who helped him win in South Carolina. Those aren't the people who brought him to the dance. T hose folks are still solidly supporting Joe Biden.

COATES: I mean, you got to dance with the guy who (INAUDIBLE) you, right? That's the phrase of it all. I'm thinking about this, Laura, before I get into some sort of random country music twang all of a sudden.

(LAUGHTER)

Let me ask you this because some of the strongest defenders of Biden are from the progressive caucus in Congress. We've heard from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talking about, well, where's the meat? Where's the beef? You haven't given me a plan. What's the next step? Listen to what she had to say just recently.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OCASIO-CORTEZ: If you think that's going to be an easy transition, I'm here to tell you that a huge amount of the donor class and a huge amount of these elites and a huge amount of these folks in these rooms that I see, that are pushing for President Biden to not be the nominee, also are not interested in seeing the vice president being the nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I mean, that's a huge risk and gamble to take if Democrats believe that Black women truly are the backbone of their party to get elected.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That is. And, uh, the donors that I've talked to and the advisors to donors that I've talked to, it tracks with what the congresswoman is saying, which is that they aren't necessarily supportive of Harris. And that's a big fear.

I was talking to Congresswoman Veronica Escobar today and other Democrats like her that still support Biden, that think that he should stay in the race, and they say that their biggest fear is that there is no real plan B because the plan B should be or the alternative should be Kamala Harris, and they're worried that the party is not going to coalesce around her if Biden were to step aside, and then that the party would just chaos, would ensue, and that, again, the continued infighting would cause problems with actually ultimately winning in November.

I also talked to Jared Huffman today who's one of the lawmakers that came out, uh, saying that he thinks President Biden should step aside, from California, and he was saying that he thinks that those concerns aren't really valid, that it -- that the -- that the lawmakers that may not want Harris are outliers and that ultimately, he thinks that the party would rally behind her if Biden were to step aside, and that -- that that shouldn't be a reason not to move on and to find someone else that he thinks would be more effective at carrying this campaign to the finish line.

COATES: I mean, Ameshia, Politico is reporting of the former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who, I mean, certainly, I think I heard someone yesterday say that she was the godmother of all Democratic strategists and certainly somebody who knows quite well about every single syllable she's saying and the impact it would have in Washington D.C., but that Politico is reporting that she supports an open primary to avoid some perception of a coronation of Vice President Kamala Harris. Is that the right path to do this?

CROSS: I absolutely respect Nancy Pelosi but I think, in this instance, she's dead wrong. Um, there are already very confused voters out here because they're watching what's happening unraveling, and they don't like it, quite frankly.

And I think that at this point, to throw in candidates, some of whom have, well, all of whom aside from Vice President Harris, who have not been tested, who have not set at the right hand of power, who have not, you know, liaised with foreign leaders, who have not been a part of an administration that has the strongest history and record of achievement of any first-term administration other than FDR, I think that that would be a huge mistake.

Also, again, we've already had a primary and millions of votes were already cast. To upset that process and to pull in these names because we've all heard them, you know, Governor Whitmer, um, the governor of California, um, the governor of Illinois, any -- you know, any conglomerate you want to throw together and leapfrogging a sitting vice president, I think, is a problem.

And to a point you made earlier, a lot of people are wanting to, or at least in this instance, we're seeing people move towards wanting to not see Joe Biden at the top of that ticket, but none of those people who are trying to not see him have actually come out and endorse Kamala Harris. That's a real problem.

COATES: You know, there are not that many women in Congress, Black women in Congress, and we've lost one tonight. Somebody who is -- was an extraordinary member and a servant of the public and her constituents. And I think her loss will be deeply felt. Sheila Jackson Lee gone at just the age of 74. I know both of you know Washington D.C. very well. I wonder if you can speak a little bit about the loss of somebody like Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee given her background, her professionalism, and what she has meant to her own party.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, I mean, it's huge. I was just already texting with the -- the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, uh, Congressman Horsford, who said that -- that, you know, this is a devastating loss for not just the caucus, not just the Black lawmakers in -- in Congress but all of Congress, for the democratic caucus, for all of her colleagues.

[23:15:00]

And I interacted and interviewed with Sheila Jackson Lee plenty of times when I covered the Hill.

COATES: Uh-hmm.

BARRON-LOPEZ: She was always willing to -- to speak to, you know, any reporter and to really engage you on the policy and on the substance, and she never shied away from -- from, you know, difficult interviews. So, I always thought that that was something that -- I respected her because there are, uh, plenty of politicians on Capitol Hill, plenty of lawmakers that will try to run the other way, and she wasn't -- wasn't one of the ones that would do that.

CROSS: Agreed, and I knew her on a personal level. I went through the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. I was a fellow. She was one of the people who literally took me under her wing. I've worked with her on several pieces of policy specifically, and I guess most recently on the CROWN Act, in addition to the, you know, the push -- the school push out models, particularly because of all the suspensions, expulsions in the school to prison pipeline across the state of Texas.

COATES: Uh-hmm.

CROSS: So, when we talk about criminal justice reform, she was on the forefront of that. When we talk about the abuses, particularly targeted towards Black and brown people, she was on the forefront of that, be it whether it was immigration reform or whether it was protecting people who were targeted by police -- policing entities at multiple levels. She was someone who really believed the work. She breathed into that work.

She also took a lot of advocates under her wing, people who D.C. probably will never know the name of because a lot of them were community leaders from various cities across the country, but that was who she was and that was who she believed in.

And as somebody who also lost my mom to that type of cancer, it is really hurtful to know that it happens, unfortunately, in many cases at higher rates for African-American women in particular, and I think that this not only puts a pinpoint to the health disparities that we face as a population, but also a loss of a giant, not only as a Black woman in Congress, but as someone who really spoke truth to power, as someone who lived and breathed the work, and as someone who was never going to stop fighting for people who are underserved.

COATES: So well said, both of you. Thank you so much. if you know anything about Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee, she would have probably told you that her assignment was done. I want to thank all of you so much.

Well, Republicans are riding high off the RNC while Democrats bicker over who should be at the top of their ticket. The whole nation on edge to see what's going to come next. And the reporter with insight into the Trump campaign joins me next.

Also, Stephen A. Smith will give his always candid thoughts right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:21:17]

COATES: Well, tomorrow, the Trump-Vance ticket holds its very first rally together in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It'll also be the first rally for Trump since a gunman tried to take his life, and ever since Trump has vowed to strike a more unifying tone. But as Trump proved last night at the RNC, maybe he can't help but fall back on his greatest hits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only terror we had was Nancy Pelosi.

Every week, they get another subpoena from the Democrats, crazy Nancy Pelosi.

The late great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner.

The late great Hannibal Lecter.

(LAUGHTER)

He'd love to have you for dinner.

World War III. We're going to be in World War III soon.

Our planet is teetering on the edge of World War III.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Maybe this was the acoustic album instead. It seems pretty much like the old Trump, right?

I want to bring in national political reporter for Time magazine, Eric Cortellessa. He released a new piece titled "Tt's Trump's Race to Lose." Eric, thanks for joining us tonight.

I mean, look, the spin from the campaign before the speech was that Trump was a new man after an assassination attempt. He would be a uniter, that he had had a kind of epiphany of sorts politically. Did his performance undermine that perception?

ERIC CORTELLESSA, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, TIME: Well, to a certain extent, yes, it did. You know, there was a central contradiction in the speech. On the one hand, he wanted to ride the wave of momentum that he has had ever since the assassination attempt and try to be a unifier and expand his realm of support. On the other hand, he wanted to rev up, uh, his MAGA followers who are with him when times were tough.

And you really saw this discrepancy play out when he stuck with the script and read off the teleprompter. He was mostly on message and faithful to that attempt to -- to call for national unity. And when he started to improvise is when he reverted back to his sort of standard fare at MAGA rallies and whatnot, turning what was supposed to be, as his advisors say, an unconventional convention speech into, uh, another, uh, MAGA rallying cry.

COATES: I mean, it was 90 minutes long, and he was certainly preaching to a kind of choir because the audience was all in, quite invested, perhaps not the best focus group if you're talking about a more -- broader Republican electorate. But Trump, he was embraced by people like Hulk Hogan who came on the stage. You had Amber Rose. You had others. I talked to Dennis Quaid just last night who also backs Trump. There had been a kind of stigma when it comes to publicly supporting Trump. Is that starting to fade for people?

CORTELLESSA: Well, I think, you know, if you talk to people close to President Trump and his advisors, they will say that they are seeing a social stigma dissipate that was once, you know, really pervasive throughout Trump's career.

In 2016, people would come up to them and say, I'm really supporting Trump. And now, they're much more open about it. And you're seeing that especially with a lot of these celebrities that they're bringing on to the stage and emphasizing who support Trump like Amber Rose, like 50 Cent who didn't make it to the convention but there were others, to really hammer that point home and make more people feel comfortable supporting Trump who might not otherwise.

COATES: You know, your reporting says that Trump called his family about an hour or so after the attempt -- attempted assassination from the hospital. What did you learn about that phone call?

CORTELLESSA: Yeah, I mean, you know, Eric, for one, was at his home in Westchester, New York, uh, as the scene unfolded. Uh, afterwards, tried frantically to reach his father. Took about an hour before Trump was in a hospital room, was able to call Eric and have him conferencing the rest of his children.

[23:25:01]

And they really felt comforted, uh, that fairly early into the conversation, he -- he -- he started to make jokes. He shifted to a tone of levity. Uh, you know, Don, Jr. and Eric joked that he would have something in common with Evander Holyfield, the heavyweight boxing champion who had part of his ear, uh, bit off by Mike Tyson, and Trump quipped, you know, you want to be like one of the greats.

And, you know, what -- what they really came out of that conversation with was a plan going forward. Trump said, we're going to the convention, we're going to Milwaukee, nothing changes. And so, I think he realized pretty quickly on not only how lucky he got, uh, by surviving this assassination attempt, but that he has an opportunity to, uh, hold history in his hands and reshape the election, and that his -- his return to the white house is more within grasp now than it ever has been.

COATES: I mean, the -- the newly-minted Trump-Vance ticket which, by the way, was the name on the, uh, tank top that you saw Hulk Hogan rip one shirt away from to reveal, they're going to hold a rally tomorrow in Michigan, and this is the first since that shooting. Is this going to also be a test not only of maybe security measures but Vance's appeal in a place like Michigan which most agree they've got to win?

CORTELLESSA: Yeah. I mean, this was a central reason why Trump chose J.D. Vance. You know, he -- as he chronicled in his best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, he comes from Ohio. He spent a lot of time in his childhood in Appalachia. He was surrounded by societal and economic decline. They think he can appeal to Rust Belt voters in the three key swing states that Biden essentially has to win: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

I think they're having the rally immediately after. The convention is another show of defiance and strength that -- that Trump wants to project, that he's going to go back out into the crowds after someone -- would-be assassin made attempt on his life. And you're also going to see this attempt to portray J.D. Vance as the future of the America First movement.

I think after the shooting, Trump told people close to him that J.D. Vance's youth, he really saw as an asset, because he's someone who can carry the torch of this brand of right-wing populist nationalism into the future and keep it as a dominant force in American politics, uh, you know, for much longer, beyond than what -- than Trump will be around.

COATES: Well, that would be a first to hear, about the youth of someone in this election cycle. We always hear about the age. He is, I think, the third youngest V.P. candidate. We'll have to see if the American voters also see him as the future not only of MAGA but also somebody who could convert people from being undecided into their fold. Eric, thank you so much.

CORTELLESSA: Thank you. Good to be with you.

COATES: Let's continue this conversation now with Stephen A. Smith. He is the host of ESPN's "First Take" and, of course, "The Stephen A. Smith Show" on YouTube. Stephen, so good to see you this Friday. How are you doing?

STEPHEN A. SMITH, ESPN HOST: Nice to see you, Laura.

COATES: You know --

SMITH: I'm doing all right, Laura. How are you? I mean, I'm awake now. I struggled last night listening to that speech. It was pretty hard to stay awake. But I'm awake now.

COATES: I mean, it was 90 minutes and ended, I think, at midnight.

SMITH: It's long.

COATES: And then I had -- but I made myself a sundae, and I kept myself up. So, that's true story on that. Listen, Republicans, though, they were pretty thrilled by how their convention went, I would assume. Um, I do wonder what your assessment is of this race after all that has happened just since last Saturday.

SMITH: Well, first of all, I think that you have to give the Republican National Convention major kudos in terms of how the week went in and of itself. You're talking about make America wealthy again, make America safe again, make America strong again, and then, obviously, make America great once again. And I thought that from start to finish, they did an exceptional job from a production standpoint, from making sure that their conference was compelling from showing that this is not the same old grand old party. Indeed, things have changed. It's about Trump. Make no mistake about it.

COATES: Uh-hmm.

SMITH: But in terms of Amber Rose's participation along with various others, Marco Rubio and others speaking, and what have you, his family members, I thought that it went picture perfect right up until the moment Trump showed up on stage.

Last night, I thought that the first 15 minutes or so, when he was detailing the attempted assassination, I thought that was riveting and interesting. And then from that point forward, I don't know what happened. He just went off kilter, off message. He looked completely lost, he was just mumbling, and it was a very, very bad experience to watch. So, in the end, what it comes down to is that he's the guy, you're looking at him right now being ahead in most polls, you've got questions about Biden that haven't faded one inch --

COATES: Uh-hmm.

SMITH: -- and as a result, he's lucky in that regard. But I thought he missed an opportunity to bring the country together because he preached about ripping up his speech, writing a whole new speech, saying that he was going to be about bringing the country together and being about unity, and that clearly was not what he did last night.

[23:30:05]

And I thought he missed an opportunity. Maybe he didn't hurt himself that much, but he certainly missed an opportunity to really, really, uh, you know, make more of a significant impact feeding off the attempted assassination.

COATES: I mean, Stephen, you talk about the words -- I hear we lost, mumbling. These are the criticisms that have sparked and launched a thousand ships of talk of Biden stepping down. That's not what's happening for Trump. And democrats, as you well know, I mean, even though President Biden is insisting again and again and again, and we could go on for 90-minute worth of the speech of all the times Biden is saying he is not stepping down, that is still continuing to have the momentum, and Democrats doing so and talking about it. How do you see Democrats getting out of this if he continues saying he's staying in and they're saying behind closed doors purportedly you should go?

SMITH: Well, first of all, a couple of things. We have to show deference and respect to the president of the United States for the job that he has done in the eyes of a lot of liberals and progressives, whether it's the American rescue plan, whether it's the infrastructure bipartisan infrastructure bill, whether it's Ketanji Brown Jackson being appointed to the Supreme Court, trying to give -- to provide student loan relief, although that hasn't been that successful as of yet. The bottom line is the attempts have been there and you have to give respect where respect is due. But you can show respect, you can show a deference, you can show appreciation and still say, sir, 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president, four years as the president of the United States, it is time for you to go. And on far too many occasions, the Democrats have dropped the ball. I've been lamenting this situation over the last years. I can't even express to you how disgusted I am with the Democrats. There is no excuse for what they have allowed to happen over the last year. So, you didn't see slippage or anything from Biden just now. There has been evidence that has been out there for quite some time. You have a ball pin.

You have a vice president of the United States of America. Yes, she might not have done well in the primaries when she had to deal with other Democratic candidates, but her up against Trump, I'd like to see that. I think Kamala Harris would do an outstanding job going head to head, toe to toe against Donald Trump. I'd like to see that. You know what role she has to play. It's not just about giving speeches and all of this other stuff. She's the vice president of the United States. So, you know what she can do.

Gavin Newsom is giving speeches. Wes Moore is the governor of Maryland. We know what he's capable of. Hakeem Jeffries, uh, is in the House. We know what he's capable of. Schumer has spoken out against him. Pelosi has spoken out against him. Adam Schiff has spoken out against him. I'm sorry, not her, him. And in terms of all of these prominent Democrats who've obviously supported our president, lock stock and barrel all of this time, now, they've swayed. So, clearly, they're seeing what a lot of us have been seeing, and they acknowledge it, and even Barack Obama himself.

This is not the time to be quiet. This is not the time to be overly concerned about the legacy of Joe Biden. Okay, you can appreciate him and respect him and thank him for the job that he has done while still saying, hey, it's time for somebody else right now because you have lost a step.

And last but not least, the president himself to be 81 years of age after 48 years of service to our government, okay, 48 years, 81 years going on 82 years old, to look into the camera talking to George Stephanopoulos a couple of weeks ago with a straight face and to say at the age of 81, with clear slippage having kicked in, that you are the best person for the job, knowing the bullpen that you have in the Democratic Party, in my estimation, is a slap in the face to the other Democrats there and especially Vice President Kamala Harris who we all know is highly intelligent, can be feisty, and is capable of going toe-to-toe with Donald Trump. She has just been muzzled and held back by the administration.

COATES: Stephen A. Smith, quite the mic drop, and I'll leave it there. Thank you so much.

SMITH: All right. No problem. You take care, Laura.

COATES: You, too. Back to our breaking news this evening. Tributes are pouring in tonight for none other than Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. She is the longest serving Democratic congresswoman. She has passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Joining me now on the phone is Congressman Al Green, Democratic congressman from Texas. Congressman, thank you for joining on this very difficult evening. What did Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee mean to you?

REP. AL GREEN (D-TX) (via telephone): Well, thank you for allowing me to give expressions. Please, first allow me to give my condolences to her family, and that would be her immediate family as well as her extended family which would include people in her congressional district, and I would dare say across the globe because she had friendships, relationships that were meaningful across the planet.

[23:35:00]

With reference to your question, what does she mean to me? Um, she was someone in Congress that was always, always working to bring about a just resolution to any problem. She had a work ethic that all who knew her admired. You could not help but admire her work ethic. She appeared to be ubiquitous. She was always going to have an opinion about things of importance. And while I'm not sure I improved her as a congressperson, she did help me to become a better congressperson. I hope that we helped each other.

COATES: Congressman Green, thank you so much.

GREEN: Thank you.

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[23:40:11]

COATES: Well, moments ago, veteran pollster Frank Luntz sat down with a group of 17 voters who were undecided before last month's consequential debate between Biden and Trump. And a lot has happened since, admittedly. Are there -- I wonder, are there any closer to making up their minds about who should lead the democratic ticket?

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UNKNOWN: -- step aside which, I think, is his choice, when Harris is next in line. I would hate to see that process circumvented.

UNKNOWN: I think we hear Kamala Harris. I don't know that she can win, though, which is sad.

UNKNOWN: I wish I could give you a name as well. I don't know.

UNKNOWN: Maybe Gavin Newsome. Maybe.

UNKNOWN: I think their best chance on that would be Andy Beshear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Joining me now, Frank Luntz. This is not very good news if you are the Biden-Harris ticket, that they are not just undecided, they don't want anyone.

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER, COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: And you're correct that it is Biden and Harris. And they basically want a new beginning. They want a new start. This session was very hostile to Donald Trump in his personal behavior, the things that he says and how he says it. But they were very disappointed in Joe Biden. They were shocked. That debate is going to go down in history as being the most consequential moment since the debate between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960. It really did change minds. They were not hostile to Joe Biden going in, but they became hostile when it came out. And Harris hasn't done anything to prove that she should be the heir apparent.

COATES: What do they think of the Trump speech last night? Because, obviously, they didn't harbor ill will before. Did they find that speech unifying enough to say, well, if this is the ticket, I'll go the other way?

LUNTZ: So, I always want to get it right, and I want to acknowledge I got it wrong last night, that I didn't realize how hostile they were to how long Trump went, to the language that he used. His teleprompter speech, wonderful. What he actually delivered, all the impromptu, was not so positive.

COATES: I want to hear what they told you. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUNTZ: Show of hands, how many of you would give Donald Trump speech an A? One. How many give him a B? One, two, three. How many of you give him a C? And that's where we get everyone. Who would give him a D? One, two, three of you, four of you. And who would give him an F? So, nobody flunks him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: That surprised you?

LUNTZ: It surprised me because that's not what I thought, that's not what I saw, because I was in the convention hall, and we have to be very careful who we surround ourselves with to give us an accurate impression.

The core of what he said, bring the country together, focus on the future, get things done, the core is perfect. But the added stuff, the Trump stuff, the anger and the name calling simply doesn't sit well with them. And these are the people that Trump and Biden need to win. It's the last 4% of America. If they all swing one way or the other, they determine the election outcome. They were very disappointed with last night.

COATES: Have they given some sense of a ticket that they would support?

LUNTZ: No, and that's the problem, is that normally, if I bring you a problem, I have a solution. I can tell you, they don't have a solution. They want to start fresh, and they emphasize that. They don't like the politics of today. They don't like the yelling and screaming. They're looking for unity. They're looking for -- for what Donald Trump promised but failed to deliver last night. And I do acknowledge that I didn't hear it, but I hear it now.

COATES: Do they ever react to the idea of the Democrats wavering on who should be at the top of their ticket?

LUNTZ: They think that the wavering is correct. That debate destroyed their impression of Joe Biden. I know him. I know the man. I've known him for 20, 30 years. Taught his son. So, it gives me no pleasure to say that they want him to move on. They watched that debate. It was painful for them. They didn't think that Trump behaved presidentially, but they believe that Joe Biden is no longer presidential.

COATES: The idea of where this is all coming out certainly is not good news for the Biden-Harris, but not necessarily for the Trump Vance one either in America if they want to do over. Frank Luntz, thank you so much.

LUNTZ: Thank you.

COATES: Well, you know there was chaos at airports and banks and hospitals. Thanks to a massive global tech outage. I was at what? Two different airports today asking the same question as all of you. How did this happen? I'll talk to an expert after this.

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[23:49:03]

COATES: A simple software update has taken much of the entire world offline in what appears to be the largest IT outage in history. And you know what? It is still going tonight. The dreaded blue screen of death popped up everywhere after a software update for Microsoft Windows systems issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. It malfunctioned. I've been talking about airports around the world. They were crippled. More than 3,000 flights across America cancelled. Even yours truly was impacted by it.

The outage, it touched every part of our lives. I mean, it caused traffic jams like this one at the U.S.-Canada border in Detroit, stopping customs agents from processing vehicles. And hoping to buy something? Too bad because your checkout kiosk crashed, and stores and also businesses, even billboards in Times Square went dark. DMVs, hospitals, even 9-1-1 call centers were impacted as well. And tonight, CrowdStrike says a fix has been deployed and it's promising -- quote -- "full transparency."

[23:50:00]

Joining me now, John Hammond, principal security manager for the cybersecurity firm Huntress. You know he is legit with that background, my friend. Good to see you, John. I have to ask you, look, how in the world did this happen? This is one company. This is one software update. And the entire world is upended? JOHN HAMMOND, PRINCIPAL SECURITY MANAGER, HUNTRESS: Well, hi there, Laura. Thank you so much for letting me join you. And absolutely, you're right. Uh, just about last night, I around 10 p.m. Pacific, there was some chatter on one online forum where users were saying, hey, is anyone else seeing this sort of blue screen of death outage, across all their computers, their workstations and their servers, and then like floodgates. You had folks chiming in saying, yes, our organization with, hey, hundreds of thousands or 50,000 endpoints is affected. And just as you mentioned, we're seeing airlines down, banks, schools, uh, of course, hey, whatever, government, municipalities, all in the mix. Uh, quite a wildfire here.

COATES: I mean, we understand that this is affecting computers all the way from like employee laptops to critical servers. I mean, this has been going on, as you mentioned, since last night. People hurt to hear about it. I mean, this could not have been a quicker fix?

HAMMOND: Yeah, it's, uh, a bit of a problem because the issue is that, hey, these changes that have been pushed down are making changes to a very core and root level, sort of layer of a lot of computer systems, what nerds and geeks tend to call the kernel. And stuff gets really fragile there. It's especially sensitive. If there's any sort of mistake or misconfiguration, well, that will crash that whole computer. And trying to push out fix or a solution or something to correct that isn't easily as done because you don't have thing really turned on in a full healthy state to deploy that fix and make those changes.

So, unfortunately, technicians and engineers are running around today and throughout the weekend, I'm going to guess, and maybe weeks. It's hard to tell the time to recovery here, but doing a lot of this manually across everything that needs to be brought back to life.

COATES: There are people in airports right now who are crying when you mention the word weeks. Okay? I just wonder as well, I mean, could hackers, could foreign adversaries be taking advantage right now of what has happened? Is there a risk for some other arena?

HAMMOND: It's an interesting conversation because CrowdStrike has made it very clear, and I think we're all in agreement, that this issue is not a vulnerability or exploit. This was not a hack as it came to be. It is just an unfortunate accident and mistake.

But to your point, hey, you'll see adversaries and threat actors that will really capitalize on this and take advantage of a lot of the chaos and uncertainty, hey, sending those phishing links and emails, making phone calls, trying to act and masquerade as CrowdStrike. That could lead to whatever scam or deception. So, we all really tend to have to be on our toes here.

COATES: Tell me about this company. I mean, many people have probably never heard of this company, CrowdStrike, although, now, we all have. And I wonder how it could have affected so many people. It's not just a domestic issue. This is global.

HAMMOND: Yes. CrowdStrike is, I'll admit, one of the top docs for a lot of this antivirus and endpoint detection response, EDR capabilities, that offer cybersecurity protection against malware and hackers. And oftentimes, that means that, hey, they've got some really locked in access to get detection capabilities and prevention opportunities on your computer. It's funny, you know, you hear that saying, with great power comes great responsibility, because if something were to go wrong in this case, and we've seen that go egregiously wrong, well, it's quite a bad day or week or however long it takes.

COATES: How do you stop them from happening again?

HAMMOND: Oh, super good question. And I'll admit, this is a little bit of a balancing act. Because normally, we hear the story where, hey, it's system administrators or business owners that, uh, carry the conversation of should we allow automatic updates or patches being pushed down that might and potentially break stuff. But in this case, it was really not even the business owners or system administrators themselves. It was the vendor. It was the provider.

This took all of us by surprise, but if I may say, I think the best we can do is try to have some of that strategic planning. Think about this stuff before it hits the fan. What else could we? I don't know. Get our documentation in a row. What can we do for checklists? What can we do for procedures, and how can we try to get ahead of this even when we don't see it coming?

COATES: Prevention is better than cure. John Hammond, thank you so much.

HAMMOND: Thank you.

COATES: Hey, thank you all for watching. Before we go, I want you, though, to meet this week's CNN hero. Payton McGriff's non-profit provides uniforms and more to 1,500 girls every year. A real necessity considering nearly 130 million girls worldwide are not in school today with a major reason being they're unable to afford the cost of a mandatory uniform.

[23:55:02]

Here's Payton.

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PAYTON MCGRIFF, CNN HERO: When a girl enters our program, she not only receives a new school uniform, but she receives a full tuition scholarship, full year of school supplies, a reusable menstrual kit, and a year-round tutoring from our local staff.

After we provided our first round of uniforms, we realized our students were outgrowing them very quickly. So that was where the uniform that grows was born. It grows six sizes and up to 12 inches in length. It adjusts in various parts of the body to provide a well- tailored fit. To put their uniform on for the first time, that's one of the most joyous experiences that we see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: To see more of Payton's innovations and nominate someone you think should be a hero, go to cnnheroes.com. "Anderson Cooper 360" is next.

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