The Lead with Jake Tapper Aired July 23, 2024 - 17:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:00:49] JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, a shocking revelation about the murder of Sonya Massey, the black woman killed by sheriff's deputies in Illinois after she called 911 to her home for help. Today, her family says new body camera video seen around the world does not show what they had been led to believe about the shooting. We're going to delve inside the investigation. Plus, what happened to all that talk of unity from Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention and beyond? Changed man, all that? New signs today that those days are long gone, if they ever existed at all. And leading this hour, two very different scenes today for the Biden- Harris administration. On one side, there's Biden returning to Washington, D.C. this afternoon as a lame duck president. On the other side, his vice president, Kamala Harris is holding her very first campaign rally as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. CNN's MJ Lee is at the White House. And MJ, what are we hearing from both President Biden and Vice President Harris today? MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, there has been such a seismic shift in the political landscape overnight. And we saw that really on vivid display this afternoon. President Biden returning to the White House for the first time in just over a week after having isolated, recovering from COVID in Delaware. And he made that decision to drop out of the 2024 race, of course, while he was in isolation, has had no public engagements or speeches since. And that all is going to change tomorrow evening when he delivers an Oval Office address to the nation. This is going to be, we expect, the first sort of fulsome explanation of that painful decision from the president to abandon his bid for the 2024 second term and also where he will likely talk about his accomplishments and paint a vision for the future, including the six months that he now has left in his first term in the White House. But speaking of the future, the president is, of course, now also trying to pass the presidential torch to his vice president, Kamala Harris. We saw her hitting the ground in really every way possible, winning the wide support of Democratic elected officials, winning the support of donors, whether it is grassroots and big check donors and energizing the party in a moment when the party had been so deflated. And at her first campaign rally as a presidential candidate this cycle in Milwaukee this afternoon, we saw the vice president, just like the president had been doing for a number of months now, drawing that contrast between herself and former President Donald Trump. But that contrast was very much her own as she drew on her prosecutorial background to make that case. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Before I was elected vice president, before I was elected United States senator, I was elected attorney general of the state of California. And I was a courtroom prosecutor before then. And in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds, predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type. (END VIDEO CLIP) LEE: Look, I wasn't inside that room, but Jake, I think for anybody watching that, you could tell that the room was incredibly energized. And having watched a lot of Biden campaign speeches over the last few months, the delivery of that speech really could not have been more different. And I think given that the Democratic Party has been in such a state of chaos and panic over the last few weeks, it is becoming abundantly clear that the president dropping out of the 2024 race really was a change the party very badly needed. Jake. TAPPER: All right, MJ Lee, thanks so much. Let's discuss this all with Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington State, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. He was on our show back on July 8, one of the first to publicly call for President Biden to drop out of the race. Congressman, thanks for joining us. A new CNN poll shows that 39 percent of American adults, nearly four in ten, regularly worry that they will not have enough income to cover their bills. Now, that is up from 28 percent in December 2021. And this is all happening under the Biden-Harris administration. How can Vice President Harris make the case that she can improve Americans livelihoods given that she's been part of the Biden administration, which, you know, is not particularly popular right now? [17:05:24] REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): Yes. Well, I think, first of all, it's completely wrong to blame those economic circumstances entirely on the Biden administration. We have seen many improvements coming out of COVID. We have seen the passage of the infrastructure bill. We have seen unemployment stay low. We've seen inflation come down recently. Look, coming out of COVID wasn't going to be easy. We passed some bills to help people survive and get through that. That worked. Now you see inflation coming down. And look, the economic plan for the future is a great contrast with Donald Trump. He wants to cut taxes for the rich and the biggest corporations out there while raising tariffs to drive up costs on working families. We want to go back to do the Build Back Better Plan that will raise taxes on the people who have benefited most from the economy to fund programs that help the working class, early childhood education, family care, health care, childcare, that's the word I was looking for, to fund those things that are going to help families be able to make it. So I think the contrast of the plans for the future show that we're going to help working people. Donald Trump's just going to keep helping the rich who have already done just fine. TAPPER: In the last 48 hours, it's been remarkable. We've seen Democratic delegates and Democratic lawmakers such as yourself quickly rallying around Vice President Harris for the nomination. Even though there were several other candidates that I'm sure would have wanted to get into the race, they quickly endorsed her as well. What are you hearing from your constituents about this? Is anyone concerned that there was no primary process, caucus process, allowing voters themselves to have a say on the new Democratic nominee? SMITH: What I'm hearing from my constituents and the Democratic grassroots is enthusiasm, excitement for Kamala Harris. The reason we rallied around her is because she is clearly the strongest candidate. She has the experience as a prosecutor, attorney general, senator, vice president, and she has also become such a compelling speaker on choice, reproductive health, national security, and a host of issues. So what you're hearing is, and you've seen it. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. I mean, I was an early supporter of Barack Obama. There was incredible enthusiasm for his campaign. This goes way beyond that. So what I'm hearing and seeing is an unbelievable amount of enthusiasm for Kamala Harris as our nominee. TAPPER: How will the Democratic Party defend the decision to not have at least some sort of brief truncated primary process if Donald Trump ends up winning? SMITH: Well, I mean, look, we are worried about running the campaign. We're not worried about defending a process. What we're worried about is focusing on the policy issues that you raised earlier. We have a good nominee. We have a good message. We have incredible grassroots enthusiasm to run on that message. And look, we have the specter of Donald Trump, you know, who basically tried to overthrow the government. He's promised to be a dictator on day one. We know about his convictions and his other legal troubles. We've got a good message. And that's what we're focused on. We're not focused on justifying losing at this point. We're focused on winning. TAPPER: Before Biden dropped out of the race, you had criticized the Biden campaign, saying they were sending a message of, quote, "Shut up, fall in line, everything's fine," unquote. Vice President Harris is keeping Biden campaign co-chair Jen O'Malley Dillon to stay on and run the campaign. It was just a few days ago, it was Friday, that Dillon essentially told the campaign staff to ignore everything everyone was saying and the disastrous polls. She said, quote, "When you give me polls, I'm going to give you direct voter contact. The people that the president is hearing from are saying, stay in this race and keep going and keep fighting, and we need you." Are you at all concerned that the same people that were circling the wagons are still in charge of the campaign? SMITH: No, look, I mean, they were working for their candidate and their candidate was Joe Biden, and they were doing the best that they could by him. So, you can't criticize somebody for that. Now they have a different candidate and they're going to do the best that they could do by her. And my point all along and my point on your show two weeks ago was, now we've got a really strong candidate who can go out there and deliver that message. Look, the campaign team that's switching over, they got a ton of experience. Now, the one thing I will say, I hope they learn from this. I hope they think, how can I get better? What did we do wrong? You know, I think that's one of the big concerns in a presidential campaign, is if you get groupthink going on, if everyone's so in love with the candidate that they don't think critically about what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong, so I hope there will be a little bit of examination. OK, how do we need to get better? In order to win, to my mind, you always have to be focused on getting better. I hope they will do that. But look, this is an experienced team that's had a lot of success. They just went through a very difficult process, and I think they're going to come out at the other side even better at what they do. [17:10:08] TAPPER: Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington State, thank you so much. Good to see you again, sir. SMITH: Thanks, Jake. TAPPER: How might Vice President Harris handle this new 2024 race against Trump? One of her former longtime advisors is going to join us next. Plus, the specific political attack on the vice president that a House Republican says his colleagues should steer clear of. That advice is coming from one of only four black House Republicans. What did he say? We'll tell you next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) TAPPER: And we're back with our 2024 lead. A day after Republican Congressman Tim Burchett called Vice President Kamala Harris a "DEI hire," some Republicans are pushing back. Congressman Byron Donald, one of only four black House Republicans, appealed to his Republican colleagues to keep the focus on Vice President Harris's policies. CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill. [17:15:04] Manu, how are members reacting? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's a wide variety of reactions. Democrats who are very offended by those remarks, some of them flatly calling them racist remarks, others saying that this will, if Republicans focus on this, they believe it'll actually help Democratic chances both at the White House and down ticket. Yes, people like Byron Donald and others in the top ranks of House GOP and Senate Republican leadership say this is precisely not what they should be focusing on at this time. But some others on the hard right are aligning themselves with Tim Burchett's remarks as they said to me earlier today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-NV): It's the most offensive thing that I have heard someone say. She is the vice president of the United States. She is the most qualified person to be our nominee. She will beat Donald Trump. REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Does anyone even know what DEI is? If that's all they've got? Well, we're going to win in November. REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): I don't think we need to even say stuff like that. Don't think so. Look, Kamala Harris -- RAJU: Why is that? DONALDS: Because her record is abysmal. REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): We are just repeating what Joe Biden himself said, and I dropped the receipts. (END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: So that last comment coming from Congressman Lauren Boebert, who's one of the hard right members of the House GOP conference, she posted a video on acts of Joe Biden touting his diversified administration and pointing to Kamala Harris as a number two. But of course, Biden did not say that he was going to pick a black woman for his number two when he was running in 2020. He said he would name a woman. So that argument, of course, is undercut by the facts. And I asked the speaker of the House, too, Jake, about whether or not he believes this is the right line of attack, whether it was appropriate for Tim Burchett to say this. He said, we need to focus on policies, not personalities. Jake. TAPPER: All right. And we should note, moments ago, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced, am I reading this right, articles of impeachment against Vice President Harris? RAJU: Yes. TAPPER: What's this about? RAJU: Yes, that's right. This is a long shot effort that virtually has no chance of passing the House. But this member, Andy Ogles, another member of the hard right of the House GOP, offering an impeachment resolution that has two articles of impeachment, one of which calls -- says that she willfully refused to uphold immigration laws and also accusing her of the breach of public trust. But I can tell you, Jake, I'm talking to some moderate, more centrist Republicans who want nothing to do with this. And this is not what's known as a privileged resolution, meaning it will not actually force the House Republican leadership to put this on the floor of the chamber. So -- but GOP leadership can simply ignore it. But it just shows you how Republicans are now scrambling to figure out how to go after Kamala Harris, this being one effort, one longshot effort to try to impeach her. Jake. TAPPER: Long shots, one word for it. All right, Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thanks so much. Let's try to get a deeper understanding of who exactly Vice President Kamala Harris is from two people with different but unique perspectives, Rohini Kosoglu had various roles working for Kamala Harris in the Senate, in the White House, and during her 2020 campaign. And Shira Stein is a Washington correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle and has long covered Vice President Harris' political career. I will start with you, Shira, as the journalist here, why don't you tell me, Harris, of course, was a prosecutor. She was a district attorney of San Francisco, then she was the attorney general of the state of California before she was elected to the Senate in 2016. Walk us through her record as a prosecutor and what might be controversial. SHIRA STEIN, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Thanks so much, Jake. We're going to see a lot of different things being brought up as they've been brought up time and time again. I think especially we're going to see people bringing up a controversial death penalty case where someone shot a police officer. That one caused controversy within even San Francisco political circles. Also her threats to jail the parents of children who are true into school. So there are some things like that. The bottom line is, when it comes to Harris' record is she's been in political life for quite a long time. Most of these things from back when she was in California are not going to be new. We might also hear some things about some of her staff from when she was attorney general. But again, this was all brought up in the Senate race. It was all brought up when she ran for president the last time. TAPPER: And just the thing about the cop killer, the controversy, is that she did not seek the death penalty. She instead sought life imprisonment. Is that right? STEIN: That's correct. And there was some critique of folks like the late Senator Feinstein, who I also covered, who were not happy with that decision by the vice president. TAPPER: And then, you know, how do you think she's going to handle scrutiny of her record? Because, yes, you're right she faced the scrutiny when she ran for attorney general, when she ran for U.S. Senate, when she ran for vice -- president in that brief period of time, and then vice president. But this is the NFL, right? I mean, she's going to have scrutiny in T.V. ads and a whole level of attention and nastiness that no one has ever really prepared for. How do you think she's going to handle it? [17:20:00] STEIN: I think she's going to handle it pretty well. You know, she's struggled in the past with campaigning. I think she struggled in the past in being a little bit too guarded, but she has gotten better in the last few years. I think that's, you can say that with any sense of objectivity. She's improved in her abilities as vice president. And just today, watching her in Milwaukee, I have not seen a Kamala Harris like that I think before when she's been campaigning. She was just really excited and fired up and was getting to campaign where she stands best, which is fighting back against somebody. TAPPER: And Rohini, some even fans of her, some even former staffers of Vice President Harris, say that one of her biggest flaws is how much of an attorney she is. And she really, in her deliberative process and also in her answers, sometimes she's too guarded, cautious, full of caveats for her answers. Can you see that criticism? Do you think she's improved at all? Do you reject it altogether? ROHINI KOSOGLU, FORMER DOMESTIC POLICY ADVISER TO VP HARRIS: Well, I think you saw today the excitement that all of America is tuning into, which is to listen to the contrast and the vision that she's putting forward on behalf of a successful administration with really historic numbers in terms of what they've been doing for jobs and the economy. And then you also look at what she was talking about today, which she introduced herself, she talked about her record, how she's viewed fighting for the American people at every step of her career. And then you also look at what she talked about in terms of a forward vision for the future. She talked about protecting Medicare and Social Security, protecting the Affordable Care Act, and protecting our democracy and people's right to, you know, have autonomy and freedom over their own body. So, I think those are a number of the issues that she'll be continuing to talk about. And as she continues to talk about her career and what has led her to this place where she's ready to be at the next level. TAPPER: So you prepared her for past debates, presumably even one that I moderated, I believe, right, in Detroit, wasn't she -- yes, she was there. What was that process like? Because she might -- you know, who knows what's going to happen? President Trump is pulled out of the ABC debate. Who knows what's going to happen? What was it like preparing her for a debate? KOSOGLU: Well, you know, President Trump obviously has to decide what he wants to think about in terms of whether he's backpedaling or not. But what I would say is that Vice President Harris has made it very clear that she is ready to move forward with the debate. There's a successful track record that President Biden and Vice President Harris have to run on, and she's ready to make that case with the American people to bring forward all the different issues as we contrast them amidst the record and the discussion that we're having today about whether we should have rights over our own body, whether people should have an economy that gives more tax cuts to the middle class and how do we do that and lower costs for everyday Americans. So I think those are the issues that she focuses on. And she thinks about what is the best way to make sure that Americans are tuning in, that they, when they start watching that debate, whether it's in the past and currently, even as you see on the campaign trail, what is that contrast to make sure that people know what choices are in front of them for November. TAPPER: All right, Rohini and Shira, thanks for both of you. We'll have you back. It's going to be a quick campaign, but we've got a lot of Kamala Harris to cover. So thanks so much for being here. Great job to both of you. On the other side of this race, the meet and greet that Donald Trump's oldest son, Don Jr., has planned is raising some eyebrows. Plus, Trump's VP nominee, J.D. Vance, the cat lady comment he once said about Vice President Kamala Harris. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) …