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Harris Talks Convention Plans, Vision For 100-Plus Days To Election; Trump Says He'll Hold Rally In City Where He Was Shot At; Sen. J.D. Vance Adds New Fuel To Childless Cat Ladies Controversy; Harris Joins TikTok Amid Campaign Outreach To Younger Voters; Olympics Underway As Sabotage Cripples French High-Speed Rail; U.S. Operation Nabs Major Mexican Drug Kingpin In Texas. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 26, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:00:29]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news, Vice President Kamala Harris and her team just shared new details about their convention planning and their campaign strategy. Harris nearing the 100-day mark until the election with a new big endorsement from the Obamas.

Also tonight, Donald Trump says he is planning to return to the Pennsylvania city, where a would-be assassin tried to take his life. What we're learning about the rally and the former president's reasons for going back to Butler.

Plus, Trump's running mate is stirring up more controversy. Senator J.D. Vance now accusing Democrats as a whole of being anti-family and anti-child, as he attempts to explain his now viral comment about childless cat ladies.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is on assignment. I'm Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And let's get right to the breaking news, a new window into Kamala Harris fast track presidential campaign, the vice president speaking on a call with donors just a short time ago.

CNN's M.J. Lee has details from the White House. What are you learning about this call, M.J.

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the vice president called into a meeting of her National Finance Committee this afternoon, where she thanked some of the top donors to the party for their support.

I spoke with one donor who was on that call, and they said that the call was really about the vice president and top campaign officials sort of laying out their vision for the 100-plus days that are now left until Election Day. They made clear that when it comes to the vice president's calendar, of course, a key priority is going to be the vice president traveling the battleground states. They also made clear that they are quickly reshuffling her schedule and the events on her calendar had given her new role that is now just five days old.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm ready. Let's go.

We're going to have some fun with this too.

We are not playing around.

LEE (voice over): A whirlwind five days for Kamala Harris who is swiftly marching towards the Democratic nomination for president. Since President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 race, Harris working at breakneck speed to raise a stunning amount of cash, lock in major Democratic endorsements, like this one on Friday.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We called to say, Michelle and I couldn't be prouder to endorse you.

LEE: And hitting the road to court voters who will determine the outcome of the 2024 election.

HARRIS: You helped elect Joe Biden president of the United States and me as the first woman vice president of the United States.

LEE: Harris also turning to weighty matters of foreign policy this week in her first days as a presidential candidate.

HARRIS: Welcome Mr. Prime Minister.

LEE: The vice president meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, as U.S. officials are pushing to try to finalize a ceasefire agreement.

Afterwards, Harris issuing the White House's most forceful comments yet about the Israel-Hamas war.

HARRIS: I also expressed with the prime minister my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza. I will not be silent.

LEE: Those comments clearly unsettling Israeli officials with one telling local media outlets, hopefully the remarks Harris made in her press conference won't be interpreted by Hamas as daylight between the U.S. and Israel, thereby making a deal harder to secure.

As Netanyahu met with former President Donald Trump in Florida on Friday --

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She's actually worse than him.

LEE: -- the prime minister himself also questioning Harris's remarks about the war. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: To the extent that Hamas understands that there's no daylight between Israel and the United States, that expedites the deal. And I would hope that those comments don't change that.

LEE: The vice president's office quickly rejecting that suggestion with an aide to Harris telling CNN in a statement Friday, I don't know what they're talking about. President Biden and Vice President Harris delivered the same message in their private meetings to Prime Minister Netanyahu. It is time to get the ceasefire and hostage deal done.

Meanwhile, the prospects of the next general election debate now up in the air. Harris saying she's eager to face off against Trump in September.

HARRIS: Yes, I'm ready to debate Donald Trump.

LEE: But the Trump campaign refusing to commit until they say the Democratic nominee is confirmed, Harris' top surrogates mocking that move.

[18:05:00]

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): You all see, he's backing out of the debate now. He's afraid to stand toe to toe with our vice president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE (voice over): And tomorrow, the vice president will be delivering virtual remarks at a youth forum. Of course, we're seeing a bunch of different ways in which the campaign is trying to reach out to young voters and really trying to find new and creative ways to do that now that they have a new candidate.

Of course, the campaign knows very well that this population is going to be incredibly critical to the outcome of the November election. Pam?

BROWN: All right. M.J. Lee, thank you so much. And now let's turn to the surprise Trump campaign rally that is apparently in the works in the same city where the former president was targeted by a would-be assassin.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is in Florida covering the Trump campaign. Kristen, what do we know about this Butler rally?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Pamela. We still don't have any details as to what this is actually going to look like. Just moments ago, he posted on Truth Social that he was going to hold another rally honoring both the firefighter who lost his life as well as several of the victims in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Still unclear if it would be at the same location. Just a reminder that we do know Secret Service has urged Donald Trump's team not to do outdoor rallies. They've also been reconsidering the entire security apparatus around Donald Trump. But this is something that now the former president has put in motion.

But I do want to go through just overall, what is happening on the Trump side when it comes to this campaign, because today was a very quiet day for the former president. He sat down with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the first time the two of them have sat down together since Donald Trump left office and since their relationship had soured.

And I will tell you, Pamela, I went into the room briefly. They allowed reporters and ask a few questions. It did not seem as though there was any tension between Netanyahu and Donald Trump. And, in fact, I asked what would happen? How would their working relationship look in the future? If Donald Trump were to be elected in November, and he said there was never any issue. Of course, as we know, that's not true. Trump had soured on Netanyahu after Netanyahu congratulated President Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election, something that Trump viewed as disloyal.

Now, on the other side of that, I also asked about Kamala Harris's remarks after she met with Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu told me that he hoped that didn't impact any of the ceasefire talks, and Donald Trump said he believed that those were insulting, those comments were insulting to Israel.

Now, the other part of the campaign that's kind of an offshoot that's happening right now is a little bit of a cleanup act, and it actually doesn't involve former President Donald Trump, but instead his running mate, J.D. Vance. He has gotten a lot of pushback, I know we've talked about it a lot today, on these comments that he made when he was running for Senate in Ohio back in 2021, essentially saying, referring to several Democratic women, as well as others, leaders, as childless cat ladies. Again, obviously, that has gotten a lot of pushback. Now he is saying that those comments were sarcastic, that they're being taken out of context, that people are focusing on the sarcasm part of them, not the substance, that Democrats are fundamentally, quote/unquote, anti-family.

Take a listen to what he said back in 2021 and what he's saying today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made.

Having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way.

But this is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn't have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, this is just not where the former president or the vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, wants to be right now. He should still be introducing himself to the American people, to Republicans. There's still a lot of Republicans who don't know anything about J.D. Vance. But instead, he is cleaning up these past remarks. Obviously, we'll see how this plays out in the next couple of days, Pamela.

BROWN: All right, we shall. We will be tracking it closely. Thanks so much, Kristen Holmes.

All right, let's break all of this down with CNN Anchor Abby Phillip and CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman.

Abby, I want to kick it off with you. M.J. had this great reporting about this donor call with the Harris team as she was talking to her sources. What stood out to you about the ways that they're reshuffling Harris's calendar and even the DNC?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Vice President Harris is effectively taking over the Democratic Party at this point. She wants to be the nominee, and a big part of that is going to be consolidating the donor base. They're going to need as much money as possible, frankly, to win this race.

And what had happened over the last several weeks since President Biden's debate performance was that a lot of donors took a step back. There were fundraisers that were paused. There were people who simply were not confident in the Democratic Party's chances up and down the ballot. And part of what she's doing right now, in addition to trying to consolidate the voting base, is also trying to reassure and consolidate the donor base.

[18:10:04]

It is almost as critical as they try to recoup time that was lost, frankly, between that last debate and now.

BROWN: There's reshuffling on both sides, right? Maggie Haberman, to bring you in, you have great and insightful reporting about what's going on in the Trump campaign where you write, quote, his message has been, for the moment scrambled as Democrats have replaced an old, frail white man with a younger black woman who is campaigning energetically and giving new life to the Democratic base And they were caught off guard by the speed and ruthless efficiency of the replacement.

So, bring us into those conversations, how the Trump team is now going to try to shift gears.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So, a couple of things. He did actually manage to, to get into the news cycle today with that meeting with Bibi Netanyahu, and his team was very happy about that. But it has been many days where he has had to cede the spotlight to Kamala Harris and to Democrats, in general. It's the first time that that's really happened in about 15 months, 16 months, since he was first indicted in March of 2023, and it is an unfamiliar feeling for him. We also know that Donald Trump loves attention, whether it's good for him or not, and he often tries to find a way to get back in the headlines. His team seems to have found its footing on what it is going to say about Kamala Harris. They are, as Kristen was saying, distracted by the criticism of J.D. Vance, you know, that most of them think will level out, but it has been an unwanted distraction. They also, I think, are figuring out how they're going to try to attack Kamala Harris. You saw Trump do it in his rally. He's going to describe her as a radical liberal or a dangerous liberal. And I think we will start seeing ads to that effect pretty soon.

BROWN: So, you heard, Abby, Maggie mentioned the J.D. Vance criticism and how that's been distracting for the campaign. Of course, J.D. Vance tried to do damage control, I guess, today with Megyn Kelly. And the question is, did he, or did he just make things worse, especially with women and families?

PHILLIP: Well, you know how the clinch goes. Pam, if you're explaining, you're losing. And I think that that's kind of where they are right now, where Vance went on Megyn Kelly's show to try to explain what he said. He doubled down on it, in a way.

And also, just to be clear, I mean, I think a lot of times when politicians make past statements, and it gets attention, they want to back away from some of the things that they said. One of the things he talked about was women who had to live with their own choices to not have children. And that's been one of the most problematic parts of this, is the sort of deriding of women who may, for whatever reason, choose to not have children. And he didn't back away from that today, even though he tried to say that he was being mischaracterized.

So, I don't think this goes away anytime soon. It's just -- it's not a helpful message in general. I'm not sure that J.D. Vance is really on the ticket to try to win over women necessarily, but for a campaign that is trying to build on momentum from an RNC last week that was very triumphant in a lot of ways, this is incredibly unhelpful to them.

BROWN: And Trump said, for his part, that he is still happy with his choice with Vance even with Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket. Maggie, what do your sources say? Is that true? Is he actually happy? Because, you know, some Republicans have panned Vance as a poor choice strategically. I'm just wondering about in private what they say.

HABERMAN: Yes. I haven't heard any sense that Donald Trump is complaining to people about J.D. Vance, which, as we know, he often complains about people who work for him or with him closely in one way or another. He certainly did a lot as president. There hasn't been that happening. I think he's very focused on Kamala Harris and the change at the top of the ticket for the Democrats.

You know, will he eventually look at the news coverage and start saying something that has historically been the pattern? That is not happening yet. But there are a number of Republicans not in the Trump world who are concerned about the fact that there are so many headlines around this and wish that it did not exist. I think Abby's exactly right that it's just unhelpful when he had had a really successful convention, you know, that had a lot of viewers. And it was a very celebratory atmosphere for Republicans who often have not been that way in the Trump era. And so this is just something they don't want to contend with.

BROWN: And now there's a lot of focus on the debate, right, Abby. Trump is now saying he wants to wait until Harris is the official Democratic nominee before agreeing to any kind of debate. We should note that Biden was not the official Democratic nominee for the first debate, but what's behind all of this?

PHILLIP: Yes, neither of them were at the time. Look, I've heard different versions of what the strategy is around this. You know, there's one way of looking at it as an attempt to sort of change the narrative around just the news cycle, to get in there, and perhaps he successfully did that.

[18:15:04]

But I think on the other hand, I don't think necessarily it's a good look for any candidate to be seen as backing out of a debate, especially for someone like Trump going into the last debate with Biden was very game about it, was like we'll be there, we're going to debate, because he felt like he could have the upper hand, and it turned out that he didn't.

The idea that now he is trying to find reasons why this debate shouldn't happen at the prescribed time, it seems to indicate some degree of hesitancy or a desire to delay it that reads to the public like he's nervous. And I think that is helpful to the Harris campaign.

BROWN: Maggie, I want to get your take on that, but also your perspective on Trump's announcement that he will be returning to Butler, Pennsylvania, for another rally soon. You have to wonder, given how he's been feeling, like you point out in your reporting, is this another way for him to try to get back in the news cycle and get attention?

HABERMAN: Sure. Working backwards, I do think that in terms of returning to Butler, I do think that the assassination attempt has been on his mind quite a bit, as it has been for his whole team. But that was a moment that came at the end of a month where his popularity had increased, and it started increasing after the debate against President Biden. So, I think some of that is, you know, level setting for him but, you know, I, I also do think that he has a fascination with what happened.

In terms of the debate, you know, I think that he is finding himself a little less than surefooted as this race has changed, and it seems as if he is buying time. You know, there aren't very many big moments left that we can predict in this race, right? I mean, there are known unknowns, we have no idea some of the things that will happen in the fall. But a debate between these two nominees, Kamala Harris is not yet the nominee, but she is on track to be, that would be a big moment. And so I think he is just playing for time at this point. BROWN: All right. Maggie Haberman, Abby Philip, thank you for sharing your insights on this Friday night. We appreciate it.

Abby will be back at 10:00 P.M. Eastern for a special edition of News Night. Her roundtable will break down all of the campaign's biggest stories, and of course, we will be watching that tonight.

And just ahead, I'll ask the national co-chair of the Harris campaign about a past comment by the vice president that may be coming back to haunt her. Mitch Landrieu is standing by for us.

And then later, we're going to go live to Paris for an update on the act of sabotage that crippled train travel, just as the Olympics were getting underway.

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[18:21:42]

BROWN: We are following breaking news on the Harris presidential campaign. The vice president speaking to donors a short while ago, laying out a vision for the very limited time until Election Day.

And joining us now, the national co-chair of the Harris campaign, Mitch Landrieu. Thanks for joining us, Mitch.

I want to start off at this endorsement. Go ahead, you know, about from Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, this phone call and the video that was released today. We know that she said on the call, she'll be hitting the battleground states. What is the campaign's path to victory? Is it an Obama-style coalition of voters? What swing states are your top targets?

MITCH LANDRIEU, NATIONAL CO-CHAIR, HARRIS CAMPAIGN: Well, first of all, it was a great endorsement. I thought the video was wonderful and you could see the wonderful relationship between him, Michelle Obama and, of course, the vice president have known each other for a long time. It caps a week of almost unrelenting optimism from the Harris campaign when on Sunday we started off, of course, with President Biden saying that he was going to pass the torch to a new generation. And in a very short period of time, almost a perfect 48 hours, the vice president managed to consolidate all of the Democrats that were feeling really, really uneasy about President Biden's chances.

And, of course, throughout the entire week, you have seen all of the coalitions of the Democratic Party come together. And now today, with the announcement of the endorsement of President Obama, we are really one team, one fight, and ready to go. So, you're going to see 100 and, you know, a couple of days sprint, one that you've never seen before. I think most of us at political junkies have never seen what we're in right now. So, we're making history together.

But this week has been a great week for the vice president. It showed her organizational skills. Of course, you saw her on the world stage with Bibi Netanyahu. And, of course, you've seen her now raise more money than anybody's raised in this short a period of time and gather as many volunteers as has ever been gathered in the history of politics in the country.

So, we're off to a big start, but this is going to be a close election. It was always going to be a close election. Everybody's got to show up, got to do the work. And based on the vice president's speech today, we have a pathway to get it done.

BROWN: So, tell us about the pathway. What are the swing states that you are focused on?

LANDRIEU: Well, you can recall, I think I mean, last Sunday, it was however many hours, 96 or so hours ago, when everybody was starting to shrink the map. The map has now been blown open again. And I think that all of the swing states that were there before, the debate performance are still back in play. They're actually more in play than they were before. And we are going to make sure that we hit all of those.

Now, what has been happening over the last four, five, six, seven months, an organization that the vice president helped build and is going to inherit, is we have thousands of offices on the ground in those swing states, and now they're bursting at the seams and they are ready to go.

And so we will execute the plan as it was designed. Of course, the vice president will change it as she sees fit. So, you unite the party, you raise a lot of money, you put the team on your field, you knock on doors, you get votes out, and you get more than the other folks and you win. That's the plan.

BROWN: So, where is the search right now for Harris running mate?

LANDRIEU: Say that one more time.

BROWN: Tell us about the search for her running mate.

LANDRIEU: Well, you know, again, I just would refer people to a couple of years ago who said, you know, the Democrats don't have a bench. Joe Biden said, if you elect me, I'm going to help build a bridge to the future. Well, he's literally building bridge to the future with Vice President Harris, 14,000 of them, but he also has helped create a Democratic bench that is second to none.

[18:25:01]

And the vice president has a large group of really wonderful people to pick from. She's going to go through them. They're going to do the vetting process, which they're in the midst of right now. You know who all the candidates are. And in a reasonably short period of time, she will pick the running mate that she thinks will help guide her to victory and help her govern the country and build that bridge to the future that they talked about so much.

BROWN: Are you on that list?

LANDRIEU: I am not on that list.

BROWN: So, you are not being vetted? Okay.

LANDRIEU: Not yet vetted.

BROWN: Who's on your short list?

LANDRIEU: Listen. I know all of them, and they're all great.

BROWN: So, who is it? Who's on the actual short list right now?

LANDRIEU: Well, I actually don't know who's on the short list. That is in the vice president's heart and in her mind. They're going through that process right now. And I'm sure that she's thinking through it very carefully. And she's going to make a great judgment about that. And then they're going to win together. Because, I heard you show before you were talking about J.D. --

BROWN: But when? Go ahead.

LANDRIEU: Well, I'm not, I'm not sure when. I mean, I think we're on a short timetable. The convention is not too far away and it's got to be done before the convention. So, I think we're on a short leash right now.

BROWN: All right. I want to ask you about this. CNN's K-File found that just a couple of months before joining Biden's campaign as his running mate in June 2020, Harris praised the defund the police movement. Let's take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Defund the police. The issue behind it is that we need to re- imagine how we are creating safety. And when you have many cities that have one third of their entire city budget focused on policing, we know that is not the smart way and the best way or the right way to achieve safety.

This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities. For too long, the status quo thinking has been you get more safety by putting more cops on the street. Well, that's wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Is that no longer Harris's position?

LANDRIEU: No, I don't think so. I think, again, as she would tell you with a funny story, you have to consider everything in context. The fact of the matter is that the vice president started off, as you know, as a prosecutor, prosecuting criminals in San Francisco. She went after the bad guys. She put sexual abusers in jail. She put business frauds in jail. When she was the attorney general of California, she ran literally the largest law firm in the country and, in many instances, the world.

And what I think she was trying to say there, and I think that many criminal justice experts would say this is true, that you can both be tough and smart on crime, that police officers are critically important. And if you look at her record along with the president, they have actually funded the police. They are the ones that put money not only into the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, the U.S. Marshal's office and U.S. attorneys, but they funded police departments with real cash and put real cops on the streets. So, she believes in police officers and she understands that sacrifice.

But I think it is also true that when you're dealing with criminal justice, you have to make sure that you can decide whether somebody is bad or good, not by the color of their skin, but by their behavior. And that when you're dealing with mental health, when you're dealing with substance abuse, when you try to find alternatives for offenders that are not serious offenders, you can actually create a safer system. It's not just about police officers.

And I think as a matter of fact, the proof is in the pudding, we have had crime actually go down really a lot during the Biden-Harris administration. And, of course, it was really high during the Trump administration. And so when you put them both together and you're tough on crime and you're smart on crime, you can accomplish both things and make the streets safe.

BROWN: You said you did not believe that that was still her position on what we just played. But you laid out her position now, Mitch. Okay, go ahead. So, that is still her position. She wants to move money from police departments, potentially, right? She thinks those are still the same.

LANDRIEU: That's not, that's not what I said. What I said was you have to consider those comments in context.

BROWN: I asked if is this no longer Harris' position, and you said, no, I don't think so. So let's just -- I want to make clear what your -- is that still her position or not?

LANDRIEU: What I'm saying to you is that statement that you just played was played out of context. Her position has always been that you can both be tough and smart on crime. And it requires funding police, but it also requires funding rehabilitation and things that make the criminal justice system safer. You can do both.

BROWN: But just for clarity's sake, does she want to take money from police departments and potentially put them into community services, because that was what was part of that discussion?

LANDRIEU: And what I said was, if you looked at her record as the vice president, that she actually gave more funding with President Biden to the police. So, her actions indicate that she wants to fund the police, but she wants to do the other things as well, because both of them together will create safety on the streets of America.

BROWN: All right. Mitch Landrieu, thank you so much for your time.

LANDRIEU: Sure enough, thank you.

BROWN: And coming up, was Donald Trump hit by a bullet or by shrapnel? Trump slamming the FBI director for saying that's still an open question. We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:34:23]

BROWN: Former President Donald Trump is blasting the head of the FBI for suggesting there was still some question as to whether Trump was hit by a bullet or by shrapnel during the assassination attempt. Trump saying on Truth Social, quote, perhaps FBI Director Christopher Wray will notice there is no shrapnel or one glass flying through the air, only a bloodstained bullet.

Let's go straight to CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. All right, John, help us make sense of all this. Take us inside what this dispute is all about.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So, what this dispute is all about is two people talking past each other. With the FBI director, Christopher Wray, his testimony was about the investigation, about what they know scientifically about what they can prove forensically, which is no projectile was recovered from the president's wound.

[18:35:13]

So, whatever it was, it passed by. That would be a graze wound from a bullet that kept going. It could be a piece of a bullet fragment from a bullet that struck something else and also caused that laceration to his head and kept going.

The FBI's reconstruction team, shooting reconstruction team, part of the FBI's lab, is working with everything from laser beams to precise measurements to what bullet fragments and bullets they have recovered to see if they can determine which one or what part of what one may have hit the former president.

The former president isn't talking about science or forensic. He's talking about politics and attacking the FBI, which, as you know, is an agency that has put together two of the investigations against him, whether it's on the classified documents case or the January 6th case. So, there's some politics in play there. What the director was talking about was the facts as they know him.

And he did release a statement after that saying, to be clear, Donald Trump was wounded as a result of gunfire from an assassination attempt.

BROWN: Right, it's notable. And also from my reporting, I know Donald Trump, his ire toward Christopher Ray goes back years and years, so this is --

MILLER: And he appointed him.

BROWN: And he appointed him, exactly. John Miller, thank you so much.

MILLER: Thanks, Pam. BROWN: Well, let's discuss now with Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, who called on the head of the Secret Service to resign over her handling of the assassination attempt, which she did.

All right, Congressman, do you want to see Donald Trump sit down with the FBI to go over what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the day of the shooting?

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well, I'm certain they'll interview him. I mean, he's obviously a critical witness. I don't see any reason he wouldn't do that. And the House of Representatives has voted to establish a task force, a bipartisan task force. I think we've got seven Republicans, six Democrats, but all the Democrats voted for it along with the Republicans, unlike what happened with the January 6th committee, where, unfortunately, our GOP colleagues did not vote to support that. But we all want to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. And, you know, whether it was a direct bullet shot or teleprompter shrapnel, there's no doubt that Donald Trump was injured because of gunfire, as the FBI director said. But that's something that could be further examined as part of the work of the task force.

BROWN: So, Trump, as you pointed out, we've been talking about, Trump is going after FBI Director Christopher Wray over just that, right, because he told Congress there is still some question about whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit Trump. Congressman Ronny Jackson, for his part, Trump's former White House physician, released this statement saying, quote, based on my direct observation of the injury, I completely concur with the initial assessment and treatment provided by the doctors and nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital on the day of the shooting. There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet.

What do you think? I mean, should that put some of the questions to rest?

RASKIN: Well, look, the Oversight Committee, which unanimously called for the resignation of the Secret Service director because she was all secrets and no service and didn't answer our questions, did not receive a medical report. I don't know the public has seen any medical report, so there's no reason for us to start pronouncing on specific elements of evidence related to what happened without looking at the evidence. And that's why we're setting up a task force.

And, you know, to my mind, I mean, I think this is a rather silly conversation, whether it was a bullet or it was glass shrapnel or teleprompter shrapnel, whatever it is. It was all because somebody tried to shoot at the president and ended up killing another American citizen and wounding others. This was a mass shooting. It was one of three mass shootings, by the way, on July the 13th. It was not even the worst mass shooting by an AR-15. There was one at 11:00 P.M. that took place in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four Americans and wounded ten others.

BROWN: And I know, obviously, gun control is a passionate area of focus for you. But just to go back, I mean, there -- RASKIN: Well, we're talking about the AR-15 and assault weapons.

BROWN: 100 percent, right. And it's certainly relevant to that discussion. But do you have any question whether it was a bullet or, or, or blast or shrapnel? Do you have any question as you sit here?

RASKIN: The FBI director, I think, just made the point that there's been no physical evidence that's been made public and no medical report and so on. So, who knows?

[18:40:00]

That's why we set up a task force. But I don't even see why people are making a big deal out of that. Why is that an issue?

BROWN: Well, because there's a lot of people who are conspiratorial. And when you leave a vacuum like this, that's what happens.

RASKIN: Yes. And that was why we called for the Secret Service director to resign. The major question on the minds of Americans is, how is it possible that there was an unmanned roof of a structure 150 yards away from a presidential candidate podium? It just makes no sense. And nobody has answered that. Nobody's explained how that happened and who was responsible for that decision.

BROWN: Right. And that's notable because rallies are continuing to happen and so forth. And we still don't have those critical answers.

Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, thank you so much.

And just ahead, Kamala Harris is racking up views just hours after making her debut on TikTok. How her brief post fits into her broader campaign strategy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:45:10]

BROWN: Well, tonight, Kamala Harris is taking her new presidential campaign to somewhere she hasn't been before, TikTok.

CNN's Brian Todd has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a video lasting less than eight seconds, the vice president takes another important swing at connecting with younger voters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madam Vice President, are you on TikTok?

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I've heard that recently I've been on the "for you" page, so I thought I'd get on here myself.

TODD: Kamala Harris is now officially on TikTok, launching her own account on the social media platform. Within six hours, that first post had racked up nearly 6 million views, and Harris had accumulated more than a million followers.

SARA FISCHER, AXIOS MEDIA REPORTER: She's a little far behind. You've had President Trump on TikTok for a long time. And so she needed to get on TikTok quickly, build an audience, build a following.

TODD: Former President Donald Trump launched his TikTok account on June 1st.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president is now on TikTok.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's my honor.

TODD: The number of Trump's followers so far dwarfs Harris's, but she's just starting on a platform that analysts say both candidates need to use to reach voters who don't consume traditional media.

AYESHA RASCOE, NPR HOST, "WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY" AND "UP FIRST" PODCAST: They want to try to reach out to those younger voters those that Gen Z, millennials voter, who will be out there, and especially those low information voters.

FISCHER: Viral political videos are always blazing on TikTok, but ahead of the election, they're gaining a lot of steam. If you want to run for office these days, it's nearly impossible not to have a TikTok.

TODD: But since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee, just a few days ago, Kamala Harris has utilized all sorts of pop culture platforms. She's just appeared on the reality show, RuPaul's Drag Race all stars with a message about the importance of voting.

HARRIS: We are all in this together and your vote is your power. So please make sure your voices heard this November.

TODD: The Harris campaign account on X now sports a brat green color, embracing the recent post by British pop star Charli XCX that quote kamala is brat. Brat is the title of Charli XCX's latest album, but also a trend where the word is used as an adjective to describe unapologetic it girls and icons.

And the internet is now awash with coconut memes, a reference to Harris poking fund at something her mother said to her when she was younger.

HARRIS: I don't know what's wrong with you, young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?

TODD: All of this analysts say could give a critical early boost to the vice president's campaign.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Kamala Harris's allies have been preparing for this small moment for a while now. And now that it has happened, you are seeing them really turn up the energy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Kamala Harris's launch of a TikTok account could lead to accusations of hypocrisy since she is still part of an administration that signed a law in April that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless it finds a new owner, TikTok is taking legal action now to prevent that from happening -- Pamela.

BROWN: Thanks, Brian.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:52:13]

BROWN: The Olympics are officially underway in Paris after a sabotage attack on the French rail system caused massive disruption and delays.

CNN's Melissa Bell has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The organizers of the Paris Olympics believed that they were ready for anything.

But it was early this morning, just hours from the opening ceremony that is French authorities put it coordinated sabotage and arson, cause chaos with three of the nation's high-speed rail line.

PATRICE VERGRIETE, FRENCH DEPUTY TRANSPORT MINISTER (through translator): Today, all the information we have clearly shows that it was deliberate to simultaneous nature everything happening at the same time. Everything now points to the fact that these arson attacks, particularly the timing, which is more than suspicious.

BELL: Security in Paris is tight with authorities keen to make sure that things go smoothly. But this was one attack carried out simultaneously across the country that was impossible to imagine.

Intelligence services say this tactic has been used before by far-left groups.

AMELIE OUDEA-CASTERA, FRENCH SPORTS MINISTER (through translator): Playing against the games is playing against France. It's playing against your camp. It's playing against your country.

BELL: These are exactly the kinds of images that the organizers of Paris 2024 to avoid with French authorities warning that it is 250,000 travelers likely to be impacted this Friday, 800,000 over the course of the weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I was supposed to go to the Olympics this morning, they told us it would be three hours and 20 minutes late and in the end, the train was canceled. So we had to take a bus to Paris really tough issue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I wanted to get to Paris for the Olympics. So I have no idea what I'm going to do because they told us there won't be any trains until this afternoon. And they don't know when it will start again.

BELL: It wasn't just spectators affected with one official telling reporters that only two of the four trains carrying athletes are able to run as repairs get underway, the national railway companies, regional directors said it could take a day or more before lines start functioning again. The latest drama likely to dampen the spirits of the French, many of them heading off on family holidays even as Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo believed that enthusiasm for the games had finally grip the country.

MAYOR ANNE HIDALGO, PARIS (through translator): I felt that the enthusiasm arrived a little before during the passage of the flame in Paris on July 14 and 15th. The Olympic flame was paraded in Paris, and there were people everywhere, children, elderly people, all social classes. Everyone was really happy. And I said to myself that its the magic of the games working.

BELL: With the Olympics now, firmly underway, organizers will be hoping that this will be a short-lived memory.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And our thanks to Melissa Bell.

[18:55:01]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A major Mexican drug kingpin is in us custody tonight after he was lured across the border into Texas.

CNN's Polo Sandoval joins us.

So, how was the suspect captured, Polo?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Pamela, in 2010, Mayo Zambadia, while still hiding out, told the Mexican journalist and one of his greatest fears was to be captured. Well, tonight he is behind bars on this side of the border after pleading not guilty to helping lead a massive criminal enterprise responsible for a majority of the fentanyl in the U.S. and now, what we've heard from multiple sources paints a picture really of betrayal according to one source telling our colleague, Evan Perez, a law enforcement official that is reviewed this investigation and is actually seeing the way this all played out, it seems that Mayo was told that he would be boarding a plane yesterday to actually go see your property to potentially purchase it here.

However, according to what we now know that it was in fact one of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman's own sons that likely cooperated with investors.

Both of these men behind bars right now, and ultimately, Pamela, we'll have to see is what are the repercussions that will see south of the border? Clear, this leaves a massive power vacuum that needs to be filled -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Polo Sandoval. Thank you so much.

I'm Pamela Brown in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.