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CNN Live Event/Special
Biden: Sources: Private Efforts To Nudge Biden To Step Aside Continue; "Bullseye" Comment About Trump Was Mistake; Republican National Convention; Trump Arrives At Site Of Republican National Convention. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired July 15, 2024 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Delivering the same message. And, of course, the leaders are very concerned about what the implications are for their members in the fall. And particularly if Donald Trump wins the presidential election that gives them a greater sense of urgency to try and at least win one of the houses.
But all of this only -- it always comes down to the same thing. First of all, what information is actually reaching the president? Because he has a very insular group around him and they filter the information that gets to him. Does he understand where he really is in this race?
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: And it's gotten more insular.
AXELROD: I'm sorry.
HUNT: It's gotten more insular in this time.
AXELROD: Yes, because I think that people who come with that -- with discouraging information are sort of not invited back.
HUNT: John, do you have any information about whether or not the president has gotten the information?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not directly that information. One of the Democratic lawmaker I spoke throughout this, said that the lawmaker is convinced that at least some of those around the president, again, being very careful not to get into private conversations with the White House. But that some of them get the depth of this was the way it was --
AXELROD: Oh, I have no doubt.
KING: The question -- you raised the question, are they making it to him? Because if you see the president, he's asked about this. Number one, he won't even say if he watched the debate or he couldn't remember if he watched the debate. That seems pretty striking. If you had a horrible performance, you think the first thing you want to do to watch it, to learn from it.
But he keeps saying that's not what the polling says. In his public remarks. Now, again, they're public remarks, and he could just be trying to put a positive spin on it. But if you've watched the president and everything he has said, either at the events he's done or these couple of interviews he's done, since the debate what he says about the public polling is simply not anywhere close to the truth about what it says.
AXELROD: And the private polling, I think, is worse than the public polling. But look, there are a couple of people who are key in this. The guy who he trusts more than anyone on these issues is Mike Donilon, who's been with him for decades. Very, very smart guy, but very much attached to the president. And I don't know what Mike's telling him about this.
KING: I will say that Stan -- you could say Democratic members of Congress, the Democratic pollster. Why do you care about the pollster? One, Stan's history is very good in the party. Number two, they do view him somewhat as a prod. He prodded Biden during the midterms saying Democrats need to change their message on crime or you're going go.
He works closely with James Carville in a group called the Democracy Corps. And Carville has been poked to White House. David has taken brief from the White House when he has spoken candidly about what he says to the president. But Stan does have a very good relationship with Anita Dunn and with Mike Donilon and with Steve Ricchetti, some of the people who are closest to the president. He's worked with them for years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, and my question, too, and actually, Axe, I'd be interested to know kind of your thoughts on it, is. Obviously the thing that everyone has been so careful not to talk about is the political impact of the assassination attempt over the weekend, because --
AXELROD: Yeah
-- everyone has been justifiably very focused on the safety of President Trump.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Let's listen to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): Thank you. Good evening. You all look fantastic. I love the cowboy hats. And a shout out to South Dakota. Hi. I'm Governor Kristi Noem from the great state of South Dakota.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: Leadership has consequences. It matters who's in the White House. Now I've been governor under both President Trump and Joe Biden, and people ask me all the time, what's the biggest difference? And I tell them that President Trump honored the constitution. He let me do my job.
(APPLAUSE) NOEM: And he let me keep my people free. Now, leadership on the state level, it matters, too. It certainly mattered in South Dakota. I am so proud to say that South Dakota's strong economy has been a beacon of freedom for America. Most of you, most of you probably first heard about me during COVID didn't you? Because South Dakota was the only state in the country that stayed open for business.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: We didn't mandate anything. We never ordered a single business or a church to close. I never even defined what an essential business was because I don't believe that the government has the authority to tell you that your business isn't essential.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: When other states were pushing mandates and lockdowns, instead, in South Dakota, we hit the gas, we embraced liberty, we told our story, and we invited people to come and to enjoy our beautiful state. Now, all of the things that conservatives have always talked about, we just did it, and it worked.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: Our economy took off. And since I've been governor, we broke the national record for the lowest unemployment rate in American history at 1.8 percent.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: In South Dakota, everybody works. We paid off state debts and bonds. We fixed dams and bridges. We built roads. We have a fully funded pension plan and AAA credit rating. We broke records for surpluses, and we balance our budget every single year.
[21:05:00]
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: And last year, last year in South Dakota, we passed the largest tax cut in South Dakota history.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: Under my administration, incomes in our state have gone up 36 percent. Women owned businesses are thriving. We also have the highest birth rate in the nation. People are having babies because they're happy.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: And in South Dakota, we love babies. Our mental health challenges have gone down. Our suicide rates are declining, and we are the number one state in the country for a decline in overdoses because people have hope.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: We're growing so fast that we needed more workers to catch up. So we launched the most successful workforce recruitment campaign in the history of South Dakota. And they have come by the thousands to join us and to live with us. Do you guys remember those ads when I was a really lousy plumber and a really terrible electrician? Do you remember those? Well, since we started those ads, we have seen a 78 percent increase in licensed plumbers in the state of South Dakota.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: We've seen a 44 percent increase in electricians in our state. Now, people aren't moving to South Dakota for our beaches or for our beautiful January weather. They are moving to our state for opportunity and for freedom. And all of this happened because our people were bold. We took action, and I was strong.
Now, South Dakota proved that freedom will make America wealthy again.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: And with President Trump in the White House, with Senator J. D. Vance by his side, we will prove it across America.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: Listen. Two days ago, the whole world changed. Evil displayed itself in the very worst way, through a cowardly act. An innocent American lost his life. And we will continue to lift his family up in our prayers every single day. Prior to this week, we already knew that President Donald Trump was a fighter. He is the toughest man that I have ever met. Nobody has endured more than what he has gone through. They've attacked his reputation, they impeached him, they tried to bankrupt him, and they unjustly prosecuted him.
But even in the most perilous moment this week, his instinct was to stand and to fight.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: Donald J. Trump is our man in the arena. He will never stop fighting for us. He will never stop. And now he is bringing all of us together. Now, I know that many of you are angry, but now is the time to unite, and we have to get to work. We have to win the hearts and minds of every single American. Wake them up with truth and with wisdom. We need to listen to them. You can't win people over by arguing with them. Visit with your neighbors, at your job, at your church, at the gas station, or even at the grocery store.
Listen. There are moments in our history, often after great hardship and tragedy, when true leaders unite our country. At one time, President Lincoln, he united our country. He delivered my favorite presidential address of all time. In fact, it's the only speech or poem or song that I ever made my kids memorize when they were young, when they were little. It was the Gettysburg Address, and it was delivered during our nation's bloodiest conflict. That speech so inspired people that they continue to fight for years and they lost loved ones in order to preserve this union we call the United States of America.
[21:10:00]
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: Now at that time, President Lincoln encouraged us to take increased devotion that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that a government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: Like Lincoln in the midst of our pain and division, Donald Trump is calling us to be touched by the better angels of our nature. As Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. We must not be afraid.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: Even in our darkest days, we have never once given up hope. So don't quit on America. If we lose this country, where else will we go that provides more freedom and opportunity for our kids and our grandkids? And I've got three grandkids, and I'm counting on a whole lot more. And, yes, democracy can be messy, but there is a great invisible strength to a people's union.
We have shown the world that we can endure sacrifice and that we can still unite. We should still aspire to be worthy of this union, America. President Donald J. Trump is the leader we need for such a time as this.
(APPLAUSE)
NOEM: So now I need you to get to work. Get out there. Go do it. Don't quit. Keep fighting. Keep uniting. Keep talking to people. Win the hearts and minds, and may God bless you. And may god continue to bless the great United States of America. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota, the first female governor of South Dakota reelected in 2022 as that state's governor. Back with the panel here.
Before she began speaking, John King, reported that, efforts are still underway behind the scenes to try to convince, President Biden to step aside. He talked about, Stanley Greenberg, a pollster among, Democrats who's been sending a very damaging polls to the White House. questions about whether or not it's actually being seen by president.
The president spoke to Lester Holt. I want to play, an extended, some piece of sound from that -- from that interview we shared earlier. Let's play this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LESTER HOLT, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Well, let's talk about the conversation this has started, and it's really about language, what we say out loud and the consequences of those. You called your opponent an existential threat, on a call a week ago. You said it's time to put Trump in the bull's eye. There's some dispute about the context, but I think you appreciate that word --
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't say crosshairs. I was talking about focus on it. Look, the truth of the matter was, what I guess I was talking about at the time was there was very little focus on Trump's agenda.
HOLT: Yeah, the term was bull's eye.
BIDEN: It was a mistake to use the word. I didn't say crosshairs. I meant bull's eye. I meant focus on him, focus on what he's doing, focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate, focus on -- I mean, there's a whole range of things that -- look, I'm not the guy that said, I want to be a dictator on day one.
I'm not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election. I'm not the guy who said that one would accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can't only love your country when you win. And so the focus was on what he's saying and, I mean, the idea.
HOLT: But have you taken a step back and done a little soul searching on things that you may have said that could incite people who are not balanced?
BIDEN: Well, I don't think -- look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody? Look, I have not engaged in that rhetoric.
Now, my opponent is engaged in that rhetoric. He talks about there'll be a bloodbath if he loses, talking about how he's going to forgive all those -- actually, I guess, suspend the sentences of all those who were arrested and sentenced to go to jail because of what happened in the Capitol. I'm not out there making fun of -- like, remember the picture of Donald Trump when Nancy Pelosi's husband was hit with a hammer, talking about -- joking about it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's President Biden to Lester Holt. We'll be getting more clips from that interview. Scott Jennings, you're shaking your head.
[21:15:00]
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I -- this man's opponent just got his ear shot off. OK? And his instinct was to try to do some wordplay with the crosshairs bull's eye thing and then turned right around and uttered the lie about the dictator, which is a complete and total lie, and the lie about the bloodbath, which is a complete and total lie.
I find this to be pathetic and small and partisan. I need the president to have an ounce of humility and introspection here. He is our leader. He's our leader, and he needs to simply say, I want to lower the temperature. I'll take responsibility for my part. We should all do that together, and he cannot do it. And he can't do it.
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I understand you how upset you are, but I think if we try to do a split screen with all the time that Donald Trump has taken responsibility or apologized or -- for the things he said, we have a blank screen. I think we have a leadership crisis in this country. But if you're going to be mad about the cross here's comment, which is the main comment that -- there's a hundred of them on your side.
And so, I agree with you. I wish he had done better. But I think for -- I think for Democrats, when we hear it, this is somebody who at least will have the conversation. I haven't heard Trump yet have the conversation. I think when -- if Trump comes out and meets your standard and says, I made the heat -- temperature too high and I'm going to take a step back, then I think you're going to be standing on strong ground. But until he does that, I don't know if you are.
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And, look, you heard -- you also heard Biden say it was a mistake to use the word bull's eye. Not sure I've ever heard Donald Trump say it was a mistake to say anything that he said. And I think that -- you know, listen, I hear your outreach -- outrage. I think we are in a very fraught moment in this country, but I also wonder where this outrage was when Donald Trump was making fun of Paul Pelosi after somebody broke into his house with a hammer and tried to kill him.
So I just think what you saw from Biden was an acknowledgment that that language does have an impact. He said it was a mistake to use bull's eye. And then I thought he went to what I think we're going to be grappling with for the rest of this campaign, which is this question of how can you talk about things that are -- that do pose a real fundamental threat to our democracy without using language that incites people? And I think if we don't -- hang on.
JENNINGS: Yeah. Yeah.
BEDINGFIELD: And I think if we can't have an honest conversation about that for the next three and a half months, then we're going to wake up in November in a country we don't recognize.
JENNINGS: One way we can have an honest conversation about it by having an honest conversation about it. Because the bloodbath, the dictator, so much of what the Biden campaign says about Donald Trump is just not true.
BEDINGFIELD: Those are all things he said. I mean, those are --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: These are cheap fakes. BEDINGFIELD: Those are --
JENNINGS: It's not real.
BEDINGFIELD: Those are -- let's play the tape. I mean, those are his own words that have come out of his mouth.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Jones, I'm going to split the baby on this. I -- the idea that Donald Trump hasn't said provocative and incendiary things that according to the standards that are being held against Joe Biden, don't also violate it. I just don't think is remotely defensible.
2 weeks before this -- 2 weeks ago, he was retweeting or retruthing stuff about putting his political opponents on -- in to military tribunals. He's encouraged mobs to be violent in his crowds. The thing is, I find most of this -- I think the crosshairs debate, which I think he's not very effective on at all, misses the point.
I have flashbacks to the Gabby Giffords stuff where, Joe Biden called Republicans in the House and the Senate -- and this is 2011, terrorists. You had them called hostage takers. You had the Tea Party people from leading pundits and intellectuals and elected Democratic politicians saying that these people are all inciting violence. That Sarah Palin was responsible for Gabby Giffords being killed because she had crosshairs on a on a map, and it was nonsense. There was no proof of it. There's no proof that this guy was incited by anything the Democrats said.
And so I think there's this this weird standard now where the Left is buying -- the Right is buying into the arguments that I thought were garbage when the Left made them in 2011. There's no evidence that this guy was -- Jared Loughner, the guy who killed Gabby Giffords, it turned out that his core issue was that he was hearing voices that were telling him that we were abandoning our commitment to grammar.
COOPER: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: It had nothing to do with any of --
COOPER: And obviously, we don't know anything about the motivation of this shooter. Kate, just in terms of John King's reporting on, you know, Stanley Greenberg, a pollster, sending information to people within the inner circle. John raising questions about is that information and others raising question, is that information getting to the president? Is it possible that it's not getting to the president?
BEDINGFIELD: Well, I -- look. I think is it possible that information is being filtered in a way to better favor the situation for Joe Biden? It's possible. I -- you know, I'm not --
COOPER: By the way --
BEDINGFIELD: I'm not --
COOPER: I just want to correct. You said Gabby Giffords died. She obviously did not --
[21:20:00]
GOLDBERG: I'm sorry. Got shot. I apologize.
COOPER: Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: You know, I'm not there. Is it possible? Sure. I think, the Joe Biden I saw and the team around him were provided him information, told him things he didn't want to hear. I -- obviously, again, I can't vouch for the conversations that are happening right now. I can speak to what it was like when I worked for him, which is to say we often had conversations with that he didn't like.
COOPER: What do you make of, though, of the of this reporting that after -- that it's gone quiet because there's belief among some Democrats that it's not constructive to have a public discussion while the Republican convention is in session. But that if there's not movement, that it will become public again after the convention.
BEDINGFIELD: That seems to be the case. I think there is enough discussion. I think there's enough anxiety about polls that continue to emerge, that people are having these conversations. I think there is clearly agreement across the party, particularly after the horrific actions of this weekend that this is not a moment to, you know, to publicly, look, to be undermining the president of the United States.
JONES: Yes.
BEDINGFIELD: But, yes, I mean, are these conversations happening in private? They very clearly are. And look, here's the thing. One way or the other, Democrats are going to run out of runway on this. And so there is going to have to be a reckoning. I personally believe that Joe Biden can make a case for why he should have a second term.
I think if ultimately the information, the data shows that that is not possible, you've heard from the president himself, that if he believes it's not possible, he will look to step down. But one way or the other, Democrats are going to have to come to an agreement on this and start making the case against Donald Trump rather than against themselves.
JONES: I just -- I do agree with you on that, and that that's true. Right now, the party's just frozen. There's kind of a paralysis that set in. We were -- like, the whole country terrified when you saw Donald Trump fall down. And everybody took a big step back because that that that could have been the start of a natural civil war and also political violence in this country like we've never seen, in our lifetime. So that was a big moment of being frozen.
And then now you've got the Republicans putting on their best case against us. And so in in both situations, you're going to see, quiet and some unity. But that disquiet is there behind the scenes, and I think it will reemerge.
I do hope Democrats are watching this convention because the one thing that I think will get us to get our act together is to look at the agenda that's being put forward here, which is an agenda that I find, you know, very troubling. They're trying to split, black from brown. A lot of the African-American commentary was deliberately trying to turn us into an anti-immigrant block, which we have not been for the past 30 years.
There's a lot of bad stuff happening in this convention that, we need to be able to talk about. And I agree with you. We don't know how to talk about it now, because we don't want to add to the vitriol that might lead to violence, but we also don't want to be silent in the face of an agenda we're afraid of.
COOPER: I want to check-in with our Jeff Zeleny who has some more reporting, about President Biden. Jeff?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: These two and a half weeks now have continued, privately as John King was reporting earlier, publicly they have cooled. But talking to several officials, this is what they're adding on to that.
The battleground map, quite frankly, has expanded. There are new worries with officials I'm talking to in campaigns that Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, even Virginia could possibly be at play. But right here, Anderson, in Wisconsin, talking to Wisconsin officials, they too are concerned about the standing in the state of president Biden's candidacy.
Why Wisconsin? Why does that matter? Because there is no path to the White House. There is no reelection for President Biden without Wisconsin. It's the blue wall that he talks about so often, of course. Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania. Even if he won those three, he would still need to win that one electoral vote in Nebraska if he did not win the other states.
So the reason the math matters, the reason the battlegrounds matter, they are, concerned that there's an increasingly narrow path. But talking to a Wisconsin official, they are sounding the alarm here and wondering, if there should be more public conversation.
But ironically, here in this hall, as we've been listening to, the Republican criticism of President Biden is extraordinary, but they want him to stay on the ticket. They think he's the easiest to beat. Anderson?
COOPER: Jeff Zeleny, thanks very much. Alyssa, is that what you're hearing as well among Republicans wanting Biden to stand?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Very much so. The Trump campaign has planned it around running against Joe Biden. He -- Donald Trump is beating him outside of the margin of error in key swing states. They are preparing for, if it's Vice President Harris, I think that they realize that that's an option that they would be prepared for, but she now is performing better head to head against Donald Trump than Joe Biden is.
COOPER: By the way, that that -- where I was watching president Biden on their runway in, Las Vegas.
[21:25:00]
GRIFFIN: And I think that fundamentally -- honestly, I think the fact that J.D. Vance was chosen as the vice presidential pick, signals a strength and a confidence in the Trump campaign. If they thought this was going to be a squeaker. They would put somebody who they thought was going to get them more votes that they needed. But they're feeling so confident they went with a legacy pick who's going to keep his policies in place.
JENNINGS: Based on what I am seeing from the rest of this Holt interview that's now coming in while we're sitting here. I'm starting to become convinced that the people around Joe Biden who want him to move on are the ones who are advocating like, oh, we got to do more. Let's do more. Let's do more.
All of these appearances, his appearances before the country -- he's spoken to the country 3 times, now 4 times if you count Lester Holt since the shooting. The interview with Stephanopoulos -- I mean, remember, he won this election in 2020 by never leaving his basement. And now you've got all these people saying, let's go out, let's go out, let's go out. He's hurting himself every time.
Now this question about whether he should stay in the race or not, I agree with Alyssa. I mean, Republicans are desperate to keep Biden in the race because they think he's the weakest, but also because you can sense it in the hall. They sense vindication is at hand. This is why they love Trump in the primary despite all the arguments made against him.
They want the satisfaction of Donald Trump beating Joe Biden in the national popular vote in November, and they -- that they think they he can do it, and then he is on his way to do it.
JONES: Ben, you know, Tom Friedman wrote a very powerful piece about this, and he said, if you ask what your worst enemy wants you to do, you should probably do the opposite. Biden's worst enemies want him to stay in the race. That might be a reason we're going to think about doing that.
COOPER: This convention crowd likely get revved up very soon as we expect Donald Trump to come to the arena. And coming up on stage, entertainer and actress Amber Rose. You're watching the Republican National Convention live on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:31:28]
DAVID SACKS, VENTURE CAPITALIST: I'm David. Good evening, America. I'm David Sacks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Sacks is speaking right now of the -- he's founder and CEO of the social media site Yammer. Born in South Africa. Podcaster. Let's listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SACKS: -- same opportunities won't be there for future generations. As I look out at this convention, I see a party that is strong and unified behind President Donald J. Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
SACKS: And his pick for vice president, Senator J.D. Vance.
(APPLAUSE)
SACKS: And what about the Democrats? They're in disarray. After shielding President Biden from a vigorous primary and gaslighting the entire country about his fitness to serve. We still don't know which puppet Democrat party bosses will install as their nominee, but we know what their agenda will be. Four more years of chaos and failure, both at home and abroad.
In my hometown of San Francisco, Democrat rule has turned the streets of our beautiful city into a cesspool of crime, homeless encampments, and open drug use. Democrats led by border czar Kamala Harris have allowed millions of illegal migrants to invade our country. They tasked Homeland Security not with stopping the illegal aliens, but with busing them all over our country.
Democrats have recklessly spent trillions of dollars of wasteful and unnecessary government programs, setting off the worst inflation since Jimmy Carter. But worst of all, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken a world that was at peace under President Trump, and they lit it on fire.
First, President Biden botched the Afghanistan withdrawal, displaying incompetence and weakness for the whole world to see. Then he provoked, yes, provoked the Russians to invade Ukraine with talk of NATO expansion. Afterward, he rejected every opportunity for peace in Ukraine, including a deal to end the war just two months after it broke out.
Now the war is deep into its third year with no end in sight. Hundreds of thousands of people are dead. Hundreds of billions of our taxpayer dollars have gone up in smoke. President Biden's told us this new forever war by promising it would weaken Russia and strengthen America. Well, how does that look today?
Russia's military is bigger than before, while our own stockpiles are dangerously depleted. Every day there are new calls for escalation, and the world looks on in horror as Joe Biden's demented policy takes us to the brink of World War III.
In the Middle East, America is now losing a war with the Houthis, and the administration's policy towards Gaza has been so increasingly incoherent that the only thing that pro-Israel and pro Palestine protesters agree on is the chants F. Joe Biden.
[21:35:00]
(APPLAUSE)
SACKS: Rather than bolstering confidence in American leadership, as he promised, President Biden has become the symbol of an America in decline. This may be our president, but it does not have to be our future.
(APPLAUSE)
SACKS: We can replace the Biden-Harris cabal with a president who is strong and smart rather than sleepy and senile.
(APPLAUSE)
SACKS: Or in her case, clueless and embarrassing. A president who understands that you build the most powerful military in the world to keep America safe, not to play the world's policeman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: All right, that's David Sacks, the Founder and CEO of Yammer, giving a message focused a lot on foreign policy. Kasie Hunt, some interesting language in that speech, senile, sleepy --
HUNT: Sleepy -
TAPPER: demented reference to chants of F. Joe Biden, certainly not in keeping with the unity -- American unity theme, we were told. In any case, we have a new clip of President Biden's interview with Lester Holt earlier tonight, in which he was asked about the polling suggesting what John and David and others have been discussing earlier about the less -- how to say this, the unlikelihood of his reelection, according to polls.
Let's just run that clip, and then I want to get your reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: If you look at all the polling data, the polling data shows a lot of different things, but there's no wide gap between us. It's essentially a toss-up race. And I think one of the arguments that get made, you have the most successful presidency of any president in modern history, maybe since Franklin Roosevelt. Passed more major legislation no one thought you could get done. Were able to put together a consensus. Were able to unite NATO. Were able to deal in foreign policy. Why don't you just decide to rest on that -- on those laurels? And the answer is because the job's not finished.
HOLT: Do you feel like you've weathered the storm on this issue of whether you should be on the ticket or not?
BIDEN: Look, 14 million people voted for me to be the nominee in the Democratic Party, OK? I listen to them.
(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: So it does not sound as though he is getting the message that
Democratic pollsters have been delivering. If he thinks this is still a toss-up race.
HUNT: No. And that frame is the one that you've heard him use a couple of times here, where he talks about the voters as opposed to the elites is what he was trying to say in a previous interview, to be pushed out. And he says there, while the polls show this as a tight race, if you read national polling, it is true that the movement is rather slight. But in the battleground states where this election is going to be decided, it is not.
I mean, Chris was saying earlier that the -- and this is true from the Democrats. I'm talking to -- they're looking at states that have no business being on the map under normal circumstances, including Minnesota, Virginia, New Hampshire is one that has really been bellwether and they're tasked.
KING: And they're looking at this. They're looking at this. The president's approval rating is in the mid-30s, a high of 38, low of 36 in recent polls. We can go back 10 presidents to Dwight Eisenhower. OK? Here are the other presidents that had about that in their approval rating this point of their reelection term. Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump. What are those three have in common? One term president?
AXELROD: One term president.
HUNT: One term president.
AXELROD: Yeah.
KING: David.
AXELROD: Yeah. Look, first of all, let's just reality check here. If a Democrat is a couple of points behind on election day, they're losing all the battleground states. Democrats have to have a significant lead.
Remember, Joe Biden won by almost four points in 2020, 7 million nationally, and it ended up being decided by 45,000 votes in the battleground states. He's just not connecting with the reality of the situation. And, you know, look, the president wants recognition for what I think has been a lot of really great accomplishments. He wants to -- his place in history, but this isn't about that.
And when you say, well, people are worried about the future and how you'll perform in the future, he says, well, look at the last three and a half years. And I keep saying the same thing. And I think I said this to you. You know, Tom Brady won a Super Bowl three years ago. He's not in football anymore. Why? Because age is an immutable force and he can't play the way he played before. Doesn't mean he wasn't a great quarterback.
[21:40:00] There's so much of the president just has to come to grips with here because, you know, right now the high likelihood, and Chris, I think you referred to this before. The high likelihood -- the higher likelihood, much higher is that he will lose by a landslide than that he will win 270 electoral votes. That is the reality.
HUNT: And also --
TAPPER: Kasie I want to come to you. Right. But I want to show one other clip, because the truth of the matter is that this was -- these were concerns that voters had about President Biden long before the debate, 3 weeks and -- no, not even three weeks ago. 2 weeks and 2 weeks ago --
HUNT: It's been a year in the last, however --
TAPPER: In any case. But the polls over and over suggested that voters, including Democrats, thought that President Biden was too old and not able to do the job. It was only because of his performance at the debate that the elites woke up to it. This is not an elite --
HUNT: Voters were ahead.
TAPPER: This is not an elite driven discussion. The voters were there and the elites were late to the Democratic officials. President Biden was asked about debates and whether or not he would form in another debate. Let's take a listen to that clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I'm going to debate him when we agreed to debate. And I agreed to debate him in September.
HOLT: But if the opportunity came up to do one between now and then? Is there a sense of wanting to get back on the horse?
BIDEN: I'm on the horse. Where have you been? I've done 22 major events, met thousands of people, overwhelming crowds. A lot's happening. I'm on the horse. What I'm doing is going out and demonstrating to the American people that I have command of all my faculties, that I don't need notes. I don't need teleprom. I can go out and answer any questions at all. And I stood there when NATO was in town. I stood there for an hour and answered questions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Kasie?
HUNT: There -- you can see there some of the flashes of anger and defensiveness that are frequently reported to be much more amplified than that in private. And that, I think, kind of underscore the conundrum that many Democrats are in because you have a president who is so dug in.
And when you layer the events of the last 48 hours that it's been since this unfolded, the Democrats that I am talking to, both who work for Democrats who've committed their lives to trying to get Democrats elected, but also sort of rank and file people in my own life or my sort of expanded circles, there is a sense of despair setting in right now among people that Democrats really need to work extremely hard for the president if they want to win and to get out and vote.
And they looked at what happened on Saturday, and they are saying between the debate stage and the rally around Trump that has, you know, justifiably followed that attempt, that there is very little hope for them right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For all the talk about -- and there seems to be a bash Biden session going on here, I hold the Democratic Party much more responsible than Joe Biden. Yes, Biden is stuck in his and digging in. But having said that, you know, I go back to 1968 and when the Democratic Party turned down Lyndon Johnson and really pushed him and almost forced him to get out. And on March 31 of 1968, he did get out as the running for reelection.
You know, if the Democratic Party really wanted to put the wood to Joe Biden, they could do it. Hakeem Jeffries, I know people say, well, you know, you don't do it in public. If it doesn't work in private, do it in public. Hakeem Jeffries hasn't called for him to leave. Chuck Schumer hasn't called for him to leave. Last thing I heard, he said, I'm with Joe. Nancy Pelosi said --
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: In public.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- well, that's not a final decision. The party could be going much harder at Joe Biden than they are.
BASH: I just finished your history lesson, and I think this is where you were going. 1968, March of that year, LBJ got out and the Democratic convention in Chicago was a mess. And who won the presidency?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, but this is in --
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Not the Democrats. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to interrupt. I just want to interrupt for one second, because Charlie Kirk is speaking right now. He's the head of a Right Wing student group called Turning Points. And I just want to point it out because this is something that the Republican Party has an issue with, and they do not reckon with it.
The Democratic Party has its own issue, and that is Charlie Kirk in Turning Point USA has been accused credibly by other conservatives of having an anti-Semitism problem within its ranks. Erick Erickson wrote in a Post that Turning Point USA was looking like not just a drifting operation, but an anti-Semitic drifting operation.
Ben Domenech, a Co-Founder of The Federalist wrote, if Charlie Kirk remains the head of TPUSA, the right has an anti-Semite problem, that will follow them into the coming elections. Now, obviously, there have been a lot of issues with anti-Semitism on the Left that we've seen explode since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. This is the second speaker this evening who has said things that are blatantly anti-Semitic. The lieutenant governor of North Carolina was the first. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. Marjorie Taylor Greene there have been three.
[21:45:00]
And this is a problem in party politics. We're going to do this again if the Democrats put up people like this in August. But this is a problem. And I think that it's beholden on us to call it out and point it out.
BASH: Yeah, it's anti-Semitism and it's more broadly just, he swims in oceans of conspiracies. And it really is noteworthy that at quarter to 10 prime time --
TAPPER: Yeah, this is prime time spot.
BASH: Prime time on the first night of this convention that he is getting this kind of platform. And it does speak -- and David Urban, I mean, you can talk about this. But it does speak to the fact that the Republican Party isn't just -- this isn't just about being enveloped by Donald Trump. The Republican Party has to deal with people like Charlie Kirk, who have giant megaphones and very, very big followings, especially among young people.
I mean, that is what he's trying to do. He's trying to get young people, and he's doing it with a lot of tropes and a lot of things that are just flat wrong.
TAPPER: And again, I'm quoting two conservatives who -- because I'm quite certain that the response will be CNN is blah, blah, blah. It is Erick Erickson and Ben Domenech who accused Charlie Kirk of anti- Semitism. And I'm just saying this is an issue. Again, the Democrats have their own issue, too, with this, but this is an issue on the Right.
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, I'm not familiar with the exact issue with the anti-Semitism that Charlie Kirk has espoused. But I can assure you, right, that Donald Trump with Jewish grandchildren, if he was made aware of it, would kind of swat it down.
You know, I can assure you that Donald Trump adores his kids, grandchildren more than he adores down Charlie Kirk, whatever anti- Semitic remarks that he has made or may have made in the past, I don't know.
And listen, why they condemn it. We could do better. I think that you're talking about prime time. We should have somebody better on perhaps than Charlie Kirk. I'm sure there are people that you could address younger -- you know, younger crowd, and Charlie Kirk -- Turning Point USA started out really robustly and I think may have made -- AXELROD: Principal promoter of J.D. Vance.
URBAN: Charlie Kirk?
AXELROD: Yes.
HUNT: And you see Trump in front of a lot of Turning Point USA pipe and drape because they host events and Trump shows up.
URBAN: Well, again, I'm not trying, I'm not making an exception. I'm not trying to make take over, make an excuse for Charlie Kirk of anti- Semitism. They do turn out a lot of kids, and I'm not sure what the remarks are, but I would vote.
TAPPER: There's a New York Times story I'll send to you in one second. It just published a few hours ago.
Kaitlan Collins is on the floor with news. Kaitlan?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Jake. Yes. I am now a little bit higher off the floor right now, and I can tell you that we are told that former president Donald Trump is now in the building here in Milwaukee.
Of course, this is the first time that he has been over here on the day one of the Republican convention. He got here last night. He had dinner with donors. And then, of course, today, we saw him make that vice presidential pick in J.D. Vance, the Senator from Ohio.
We do expect to see the two of them together, which will be the first time that we have seen them. That is the family box that you're looking at right now. House Speaker Mike Johnson is in it. Congressman Byron Donalds. We do expect other VIPs to be in there, Senator Katie Brit, her husband, up in the top left of that box. We do expect to see all of them in that box coming in.
We expect the entire family to come in together. There's a ring of supporters waiting for them to come in, and it will be the first moment that we see the two of them together since Trump announced his pick. A pick, of course, Jake, that he was waffling over even as of this morning, weighing the pros and cons.
And, of course, Jake, the other thing to think about, based on what you were just talking about, Charlie Kirk getting a prime time speaking spot here, looking at the other speakers, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kristi Noem, not always people that you would expect to see in these prime time spots at a party's convention.
It just shows you this really is Donald Trump's party now. I know we know that, but we haven't really seen it on display at a Republican convention ever, because in 2016, that floor was quite contested. There were a lot of cruise delegates down there and people who wanted someone else at the top of the ticket.
In 2020, we were the South Lawn of the White House doing that convention. This is the first time we've seen a convention truly in the mold of Donald Trump.
TAPPER: That's right, Kaitlin. Let's throw it over to Anderson. Anderson?
COOPER: Jake, thanks very much. As we continue to watch, the convention. What do you anticipate the Donald Trump -- he's not going to be speaking tonight, obviously. This is just sort of him appearing to build up excitement.
JENNINGS: Absolutely. I mean, I think -- I mean, let's look at the way he rolled out the VP today. I mean, this whole thing has the touches of Donald Trump, the showman. Right? And the platform has the touches of Donald Trump's agenda. The speakers have the touches of Donald Trump's remade Republican party.
[21:50:00]
So to me, it's just sort of, putting, an imprint on the story here, which is this party has been remade in Donald Trump's image from top to bottom, and, and he's enjoying it. And he's building a -- you know, he's building an entire week around that theory.
JONES: I think there are two things happening. One is, you know, he's certainly a great showman. He's also alive.
JENNINGS: Yeah.
JONES: He's also alive, and that's a big deal. I think that's a very big deal. I think when he comes out, even people who don't like Donald Trump very much, even people who hope that he never gets near the White House again are going to feel some emotions. They're going to be surprised by, because he's alive.
And I hope that people will open their hearts a little bit to understand, I don't want him in the White House, but I don't want him in the hospital either. I don't want him in the White House. I don't want him in a cemetery. I want him to be defeated the right way and sent back to Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the back to --
JONES: oh, and for the country.
GRIFFIN: The timing's interesting to me. I mean, it's going to be a huge moment. The room is going to be on its feet. You're going to feel the energy, and I think people watching at home are going to be glad to see him, to your point, alive and well.
I'm curious to see who's going to be on stage because he's not going to give remarks. It seems like he's going to most likely be in the box. He may be up there when Amber Rose, this entrepreneur, entertainer kind of figure is there. It's an interesting moment. I probably would have sequenced it with an elected official praising him up there, but these are the details that --
Listen, all the focus in the room is going to be on Donald Trump, his family --
JONES: And maybe J.D. Vance.
GOLDBERG: I don't quite get this timing of it either insofar as he was still getting a lot of goodwill. He was freezing the Democrats like tears in the headlights. And he did that did the VP announcement tonight, which kind of took the issue away from Trump, and he could have this night all to his own. I mean, maybe there's some logistical or legal reason that you had to get the VP thing out there.
But you would've had two surprises over two nights if he had, like, die day one, I'm alive. They can't kill me.
GRIFFIN: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: Day 2 --
GRIFFIN: Yeah.
COOPER: Do you think it was a mistake to have Charlie Kirk to speak, to Jake's point?
GOLDBERG: I think it's a mistake to have Charlie Kirk speak anywhere at any time.
COOPER: Woah.
GOLDBERG: I think talking to Charlie Kirk, and listening to him is the one of the fastest ways to burn off IQ points. I think Charlie Kirk is a grifter and a fraud. I the anti-Semitism stuff is a fair accusation against him. But the bigger problem with Charlie Kirk is he's profoundly dumb.
And when you don't know anything about how the world works, you think everything is a conspiracy theory. Anti-Semitism is the oldest conspiracy theory out there. It's why they used to call it the Socialism of fools. But he's also the guy who cofounded the Falkirk Center for Jesus stuff at Liberty University with a guy who had some interesting relations with his, pool boy (ph).
He is -- he's gotten very, very rich off of a lot of gullible parents who want their kids to be like what they think Charlie Kirk is like, and he's been incredibly damaging to conservative movement in the Republican Party.
COOPER: We expect that we expect Donald Trump to enter the hall at any time. Our coverage continues after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:57:49]
COOPER: This is CNN's Special live coverage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Donald Trump in the building, expect you to enter the hall at any moment. I want to go to Phil Mattingly, who's standing by. Phil, what are you -- what can you tell us?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Well, all eyes have been on the stage for most of the night. Right now, they're turning to the back of the room in the VIP section where we have started to see Trump family members start to walk in, including Don Junior, his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle.
They have joined J.D. Vance, who is already standing there with the Speaker Mike Johnson, Mike Johnson's wife Kelly, Byron Donalds another house member as well. Tiffany Trump has also walked in. You see the family, friends, close advisers, including Dan Scavino from the Trump team, Alina Habba. Trump's lawyer, is also here as well.
There's Eric Trump sitting with his wife, Laura Trump, who's now, heading the Republican National Convention. Also know Tucker Carlson, walked into the VIP section just a short while ago, really kind of setting stage for what we expect.
In short order, it would be the former president himself walking in, really the first time other than taking -- coming off of a airplane. We have seen him since the assassination attempt. And you can hear the crowd now. Everybody paying very close attention, Anderson, to this VIP section.
And now you can see the former president on the jumbotron, as the anticipation is starting to mount. There was no explicit guarantee he was going to be here tonight. You see the bandage on his ear. We're waiting for him to walk out for a major entrance on the day that he named his potential vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance. The unification of the Republican party not even in question before this, certainly the case now, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. We're seeing the VIP section of President Trump's box, fill up, and we just saw a clip of President Trump, obviously there behind the scenes ready to come out of. President Trump with a big bandage on his right ear, which was obviously -- he was obviously wounded in the assassination attempt.
The crowd cheering. You can see the images of him on the jumbotron, with the bandage on his ear, from that horrible event in Butler, Pennsylvania. But the crowd really excited. People standing up. People -- everybody's phone is out to film it. Though I'm sure there will be better video they can get at home.
