Kamala Hits the Road, Netanyahu Visit Sparks Protests, Trump Outdoor Rallies Questioned
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It's Wednesday, July 24th, right now on CNN This Morning.

Kamala Harris officially on the trail holding her first rally of the 2024 campaign. If you can believe that, in front of a raucous crowd in Milwaukee. Plus, an address to the nation. Tonight, President Biden will speak from the Oval Office to explain why he's not running again.

And a not-so-warm welcome, protesters filling the Capitol Rotunda, and nearly 90 members of Congress saying that they won't attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address tonight. Plus, outdoor rallies could soon be a thing of the past for Donald Trump. The warning from the Secret Service after the attempt on his life.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the White House as we continue to cover one of the most unprecedented campaigns in any of our lifetimes as now Donald Trump battles Kamala Harris.

to get the chance to live there for four years. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Forget the rematch. The new 2024 presidential campaign is joined and the race to introduce Kamala Harris is on. Here she was at her first campaign rally as the presumed Democratic nominee, touting her record as an attorney general and a prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.

So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type. And in this campaign, I promise you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.

The crowd there chanting both Kamala and lock him up at the same time. We'll dig into that in a moment. But first, the last three weeks have taught us anything. It's that 24 hours can be a lifetime in politics. And the reality right now is one even the Trump campaign just can't ignore. Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio wrote this in a memo. He's trying to get ahead of what he dubbed the Harris honeymoon.

Quote, "We will start to see public polling, particularly national public polls, where Harris is gaining on or even leading President Trump." Here it is. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Kamala Harris two points ahead of Donald Trump. That is within the margin of error. So here at CNN, we characterize that as having no clear leader.

but let's compare it to the same poll the reuters ipsos poll conducted on july 16th so that you can see how this poll has moved so look there on the left of your screen it's july 16th days after the assassination attempt against donald trump trump is up by two points of course again no clear leader in that poll

But look at the movement July 22nd, July 23rd, Harris plus two. That's a swing of four points. Now, Fabrizio, the Trump pollster, argues it's going to go away as the Trump campaign works to tie Harris to Joe Biden. But this is a reality shift for former President Trump. Now, he did not have a public event scheduled, but apparently he feels the need to get into this conversation here. This was a rare move from a candidate. He used a press call to try to launch an attack on his new opponent.

As a result of her dangerously extreme immigration policies, the largest invasion in history is now taking place at our southern border, and it's getting worse, not better. All right, joining us now, Jeff Mason, White House correspondent for Reuters. We also have Brad Woodhouse, Democratic strategist, former DNC spokesman, and Scott Jennings, CNN senior political commentator, former special assistant to President Bush. Welcome to all of you. Good morning. Brad and Scott, we were joking that we were sitting next to each other on

And everything we said is now out the window because of what's happened. Look, the reality here-- I mean, Scott, let me give this to you. Fabrizio is saying, look, this is just a honeymoon. This is going to go away. She's going to have all this money, all this excitement. But we're going to ultimately define her and change that game.

But, you know, Trump hasn't been behind. These national polls, you know, do not matter at the end of the day. The swing state polls matter. But they do tell us something about the state of play. Yeah, he's a little ahead in the Marist poll that came out yesterday as well. Look, I would anticipate the polling between the two of them head-to-head is going to be nipped up for the rest of the race. And the reality is a tied race for Donald Trump in the national head-to-head probably means he wins the electoral college. So they don't have to...

have a huge margin of leader victory in the national popular vote but there will be democrats minutes obvious the democrats are like you have like this terrible each in the center of your back and finally someone had to do a back scratch I think you're hearing relief from democrats if they finally shed themselves

I don't know about that image at this time of the morning, but I understand your point. And my personal view is there's a bit of a rational exuberance going on about Harris, who's never proven to be all that skillful of a politician. And so we'll give it seven to ten days and see where we are after her record is exposed. I mean, I really think you're underplaying what we've seen over the last 72 hours and how fundamentally this race has shifted. I mean, your folks were in Milwaukee before.

saying that this was going to be a landslide victory for Donald Trump, that you were going to expand the map. You had New Mexico would be in play, and Colorado would be in play, and Minnesota would be in play. Look, some of that might actually happen. It was true at the time. But there is no landslide talk coming from Donald Trump, coming from his campaign, or coming from the Republican Party. Look,

If you want to know how freaked out the Republican Party is about Kamala Harris and this change and the fact that they didn't get to run a convention against her, all that money spent in Milwaukee last week was flushed down the toilet. Just look at Donald Trump. Look at Donald Trump. He wants to be reimbursed.

for the money that the Republicans spent running a race against Joe Biden. This race has fundamentally changed. No one on your side is talking landslide anymore. It's a toss-up rate. It's close. But we have about 300 million reasons to be pretty pleased in terms of 150 million has come in

to the super PAC supporting Harris. It was just reported this morning, $126 million has been raised by the Harris campaign since President Biden endorsed her. So you want to sneeze away almost $300 million in 72 hours. I acknowledge it. I mean, she's always been better at getting money than votes. I mean, not a single person's ever voted for her for this. And yet here she has it. So good job. Well, we'll see. Scott,

- God is giving you the spin, okay? That is what they are gonna say, and that's fine. Jeff, let me bring you in here. You've covered the White House and presidential campaigns for a long time. I think we're all, my head is still spinning a little bit because we're gonna hear from President Biden tonight, but I think as much as these two guys are trying to say, look, this is how the race is,

if we've learned anything, it's that we have no idea how these following weeks are gonna play out. We do know it's gonna be a close election because this country is closely divided. And in that Reuters poll, I wanna bring this up just because I think it's really interesting. We don't wanna underestimate the impact of third party candidates

on this race. And so in this instance, you see Harris actually pretty much holding, so she drops from 44 to 42 in this one, but Donald Trump drops from 42 to 38. So he's lost four points to her two points. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. polling at 8%. I think we should note this doesn't include some candidates that might pull from Harris, including Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, Cornel West.

who's also running in this race. But I think that there is a significant amount of uncertainty here now that this has changed so fundamentally. Absolutely. I'm sorry. I just got back from Rehoboth yesterday. I was there for a week on Biden Watch. And so I'm going to warn everyone that I'm-

What a terrible assignment. What a terrible assignment. Watch being like what he was going to do, and we found out what he did on Sunday. But yeah, to your point, Casey, I think it's changed. That's changed everything, and yet there are lots and lots of unknowns. I think it's absolutely right that...

the the polling right now is showing shifts but it's going to be a close election i think it was going to be a close election either way and the the impact of a third-party candidates interesting in that poll uh... there are question marks about whether r_f_k_ junior would take away more from the democratic side to take away more from the republican side uh...

certainly it did make you wonder if that call between our kids union and don trump would have been a different if uh... this kind of point was clear that it may be a was but yeah it's it's lots and lots of questions still i also agree that

Vice President Harris is having a terrific moment, but it's also almost certainly a honeymoon. We'll see how long that lasts. The momentum that's showing in the money is clear, but will that enthusiasm continue in the states that really matter? Yeah. I mean, Scott Jennings, one thing we have seen from Republican candidates, or House members, I should say, a pair of them so far, is this claim that she is a quote-unquote DEI candidate.

And, you know, I had heard from one Republican who is close, who used to be very close to Donald Trump, isn't in the circle anymore. But he talked about how it's going to be hard for Donald Trump to resist some of his baser tendencies here. We've seen him as a candidate attack people based on race and gender. You've got both Mike Johnson and Kevin McCarthy out there saying that is a really bad idea. Don't do that. It is bad politics. How do you see it? Yeah, I don't know what Trump personally is going to do. I don't think the campaign is going to touch it.

because they don't have to. I mean, look, first of all, it's not the Republicans' fault that Joe Biden tagged her with this to some degree in 2020. I mean, it was Joe Biden who laid out the criteria for choosing a vice president and his two principal criteria were race and gender. Wait, I'm sorry. You're saying that Joe Biden made a DEI pick? I'm saying that he unfairly, because she's qualified...

tagged her with that in the first place. And it's not the Republicans' fault that Biden did that to her. She is absolutely qualified. She's vice president, she was a senator, she was attorney general. She's absolutely qualified, but being qualified doesn't make you the best choice. And the way to correctly argue the case against her is to let her positions and her record

speak for themselves and there's plenty of tape from her 2019 presidential campaign and there's plenty of record from her vice presidency to run on, you don't have to go down this road. - Well, it's just, let me just say this, it's disgusting, this DEI charge. And it wasn't just the two people that said she's a DEI hire, there's another one said she's only in this position because of her ethnic background. And we had another person at J.D. Vance Riley said, "Well, if they win, we're gonna have a civil war." - We showed that yesterday. - So, you know, it's pretty extraordinary. It's not, you know,

And Donald Trump, will he go there? I mean, almost certainly he will go there. He started trotting out yesterday what he normally does. He's road testing invective and name calling. She's nasty. She's a liar. Which tells me, opposite of what Scott is saying, that they don't know how to run against her on the ground.

on the issues and they don't know how to defend her prosecuting him as a convicted felon, as a rapist, you know, and you go right on down the line. I mean, I think her presentation so far, a contrast with him, the message that she's leveling against him is very effective and all he's come back with is,

She's nasty. There's already an ad on the air in Pennsylvania detailing her record on energy fracking, immigration. The McCormick people over there, they've got it right. Don't worry. They'll find a way. Believe me. I'll just say that, you know, the voters look voters. Voters get to do what they want. And they elected her from one of the biggest states in the country, a senator from California. There's no there's no DEI there. All right. Come on. Coming up next, President Biden preparing for his second address from the Oval in less than two weeks. And this.

That we're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies. Uh-huh. Why this strange take from J.D. Vance three years ago is suddenly back in the conversation this morning. And a whale leaps over a boat, capsizing it. That's one of the five things you have to see this morning.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. What are some of the social service agencies that have supported you and your family growing up? That's Dr. Robert Waldinger. He's a psychiatrist, a professor, and a Zen master. What kind of relationships actually help us maintain happiness? And what should we do in those moments where we have setbacks and things that don't work out? Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, welcome back. Tonight, President Biden set to share more about his decision to drop out of the presidential race. He announced yesterday he plans to address the nation from the Oval Office this evening and will discuss how he plans to finish out the job over the next several months. Biden has been out of the public eye the past few days since announcing his decision to step aside as he has been recovering from a case of COVID. Wow, look at that. Still, he has maintained he is up for the job, for finishing the job that he has as president.

I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be out there in the campaign with her, with Kamala. I'm going to be working like hell, both as a sitting president, getting legislation passed, as well as in campaigning. I want you to know, I won't be on the ticket, but I'm still going to be fully, fully engaged. I've got six months left in my presidency. I'm determined to get as much done as I possibly can, both foreign policy and domestic policy.

So, Jeff Mason, you have been with the president in Delaware for the past bunch of days as all of this was unfolding. Can you sort of bring us all the color and texture behind the scenes that we haven't been able to see as we prepare to listen to what he may have to say tonight? Sure. Well, for starters, when you're a pool or you're in the pool, pool reporter, you normally see the person that you are covering on a

and this is the political group of reporters that goes everywhere that the president goes and you do you see him it in and out of the car and in on off the plane and when you go when he was a good ice cream you're there bingo and normally when he goes to a whole bit from present but it was a role with or wilmington we see him go to church we see him go out for ice cream we seem to go out for something and this last week we didn't see him once

uh... the night the clip that you just played was that of him arriving in dover delaware on wednesday night i was in the motorcade the picked him up we drove back to robert and then we didn't seem again until yesterday

And that's because he was sick and he was sick with COVID and he stayed in and was recovering, but also dealing with, of course, the political crisis that was the Democratic Party just a few days ago. And in terms of Other Color, you know, we didn't have any warning about the decision that was coming on Sunday. All of us were

waiting for something or not waiting for something when it dropped and I think that sort of was emblematic of a lot of people around the country but in we didn't see him much and that's why yesterday's return was actually for many people quite interesting just to see how he's doing how he's looking and I think that's something that people will be watching tonight as well not only what does he have to say but how does he look and how is he dealing with this momentous decision that he's made

Well, because the reality is he's going to have to deal with, you know, Republicans are already saying, well, if you can't run for reelection, how can you continue to do the job as president? Now, he has insisted that that's the case. I mean, what is his imperative tonight as he tries to both explain this decision, but also demonstrate that he's still a commander in chief who has is steering the country correctly?

- Yeah, I think that last piece is a really important part of what he'll have to do tonight. Just a little over a week ago, he was talking about what he would wanna do in his first 100 days of his second term. I think now you'll hear him talking about what he wants to do in the last six months of his last term, his current term. So he'll talk about that. He'll talk about why he made the decision that he made,

but he'll also focus on what he has left to get done and what he, I mean, it's a legacy. It's all legacy at this point, right? He's not gonna have a huge runway for getting major legislation passed. That's certainly true. But what other foreign policy, domestic policy imprints can he make? I think you'll hear him focus on that. - You heard him note specifically he wants to do domestic and foreign policy. Of course, we know that he really relishes that particular, that world stage role has been very important to him. All right, coming up next here later today,

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address the US Congress. Plus, in our Five Things, how an old payphone saved a couple from near tragedy. Oh my gosh, this is one of the five things you have to see this morning. All right, 23 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning. Watch.

How lucky is that? Wow.

A Milwaukee couple narrowly avoiding serious injury after a car is sent flipping off-road after a crash. Surveillance video shows the car was knocked off course thanks to an old payphone standing nearby. Guess we should just leave all those up. You never know. Wow. Heavy rain causing severe flooding in Atlanta. Rescue crews with boats had to be brought in to help people evacuate from their homes. Yikes.

And this, have you ever seen so much luggage in your life? Baggage claim backups at airports across the country as airlines, particularly Delta, struggle to recover from Friday's global IT outage. We are told the cancellations at Delta showing signs of slowing down this morning. But yeah, Atlanta, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is currently a hellscape. Good luck to all of you.

Then there was this: A typhoon closing in on Taiwan is sweeping people off their feet, quite literally. The typhoon is packing winds of almost 145 miles per hour, enough to knock several people to the ground. The typhoon also bringing more than 20 inches of rain to some parts of the island. Maybe just stay home. Maybe just don't go outside.

Oh boy. All right, time now for weather. Wildfires continuing to cause plenty of problems out west. Denver's air quality among the worst in the world right now. The blanket of smoke that has blown in from other states is so bad that you can see it from space. Let's get straight to our weatherman, Derek Van Dam. Derek, good morning to you. Pretty remarkable.

Yeah, good morning, Casey. So here's the deal with Denver. Right now we have moderate air quality, but yesterday it actually had the eighth worst air quality in terms of large cities across the entire planet. So really puts it into context how smoky it has been.

And of course, this is all a result of the wildfires that are ongoing, not only from Western Canada, but into the Pacific Northwest, specifically across the state of Oregon. You can see kind of the evolution of the smoke going forward, much of that smoke concentrated across Eastern Oregon. We have poor air quality alerts, including Denver, stretching northward towards the Canadian border.

as nearly 70 active large wildfires continue to burn. Here's our risk areas today. This is where we're concerned about dry lightning that could spark off more fires. This is of course on the backdrop of extreme heat. Quickly along the east coast, we've had a lot of rain from Atlanta all the way to Houston. We have a slight to moderate risk of flash flooding across those regions today. Casey.

All right. Our weatherman Van Damme. Derek, thank you. I really appreciate it. Still to come here on CNN this morning, a shakeup at the Secret Service, finally, after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Plus, a senator resigns from Congress, but it sure is not soon enough for some. I think that he wants the war to continue because he wants to win the war. And it doesn't go together with getting Keith and the hostages out. He needs to stop the war.

and get Keith out. I want to thank Biden. I love him for all what he's doing. He's given me the feeling that he's doing everything he can. And I want to ask him that if Bibi doesn't get Keith out, I want to beg Biden, please, get him out of there.

So emotional. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Congress later today. His goal is to put the focus back on the war in Gaza. Netanyahu's trip to Washington comes as U.S. officials have voiced some optimism about a hostage deal that could potentially end the war.

But not everyone here in the Congress is planning to attend his speech. CNN reporting that Vice President Kamala Harris will not be there. Her team cites a previously scheduled event. The vice president, now presumptive Democratic nominee, will instead meet with Netanyahu individually later this week. The House Speaker, Mike Johnson, criticized Harris for this decision.

It is outrageous to me and inexcusable that, as the leader mentioned, that Kamala Harris is boycotting this joint session. This is an historic moment. The gravity of the situation cannot be overstated. And yet Kamala Harris will abandon her seat. As you all know, as the vice president and as serving as the president of the Senate, she is supposed to be seated next to me at the rostrum. She will not be there because she refuses to attend.

All right, joining me now, host of the Call Me Back podcast and the co-author of The Genius of Israel, Dan Senor. Dan, very grateful to have you. And I'm really interested in your perspective on the way this speech fits in to what's going on globally in terms of trying to get this hostage deal and also what Netanyahu is dealing with at home politically in Israel. You heard that emotional response.

testimony basically there from a woman who was held hostage. Her husband is still being held hostage in Israel, or excuse me, in Gaza after being taken from Israel on October 7th. What does this moment mean for those hostage families? What is Netanyahu doing here?

so first of all i a week doesn't go by casey that i don't speak to uh hostage family members and it's about the most excruciating emotionally experienced one could imagine so and and the the sentiments and emotions about what israel should do right now range from within the community of hostage families i don't i don't um pretend to speak for them uh what i think the israeli government specifically prime minister netanyahu is trying to do

is a Israel's at the negotiating table. They've they have in the past accepted previous proposals, including the one President Biden laid out in May and that Hamas has repeatedly rejected. In fact, the administration specifically, Secretary Blinken has repeatedly said that Hamas keeps rejecting the deal. What Israel has learned. I mean, this is just the reality. What Israel has learned in these nine plus months of warfighting

is that Hamas's willingness to actually come to the table and actually negotiate tends to occur when two things are in place. One, Israel's putting immense military pressure on Hamas, which it has been doing over the last few weeks. And two, when the U.S. and Israel seem standing shoulder to shoulder, and there's an impression that the U.S. has Israel's backs,

When Yehia Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, these two factors, that is when he's been willing to negotiate. Now, Israel, as I said, is having extraordinary success over the last few weeks. After a few really bad months, somewhere between January and March, Israel really slowed down the military pressure. I think it's not surprising that Hamas was not willing to really come to the table at that time. And at the same time, the Biden administration was putting enormous pressure on Israel.

So there was a sense, including withholding some munitions, as CNN has reported extensively. In fact, I think that story was broken on CNN.

The impression from Hamas's leadership is, wait a minute, there's a breach. There's some space between the U.S. and Israel. This is the time for us to stand back and not negotiate. So I think Netanyahu, being in Washington, standing before the Congress, thanking the United States, which he's going to do. He's going to thank the United States for all it has done for Israel since October 7th and make the case for Israel's position in this war.

Given what you're saying about that, that Hamas pays close attention to the American posture, I mean, how do you see President Biden's decision to step aside and Kamala Harris stepping in here, especially since she isn't going to attend the speech? How does that factor into all of this?

I have heard from senior intelligence officials in Israel and very senior intelligence officials here in the United States that they believe that Yehia Sinwar, one of the two architects of October 7th, the other one, Mohammad Def, is now presumed dead, follows events here extremely closely, right down to when there were campus protests in the spring and the encampments, they were following those protests and assumed that that reflected U.S. public opinion. I think they were wrong.

I have been told by senior officials in some of the non-Israeli or non-US mediating teams, meaning the Arab governments that are involved in mediations, that they have conveyed to Hamas

that politics are changing in the United States and to the extent that they think they've gotten a softer ride Hamas with the Biden administration they need to be prepared for the possibility that a the administration is their attention is going to shift they're going to be distracted because of the

the circus-like political cycle we're in right now, including the one over the last 10 days or so, and the possibility that Donald Trump will succeed President Biden and Kamala Harris, and that if Trump succeeds Biden and Harris, Hamas is in a whole new world. That is what the Arab governments are conveying through channels to Hamas' leadership. So if you have an opportunity to negotiate, do it now because things could very much change.

Very interesting. And how do you think, I mean, we're expecting Netanyahu to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, which is certainly an interesting turn of events. What is the motivation there? I mean, Trump has talked extensively about being unhappy with Netanyahu over the course of the Soleimani situation. Is there repair work that needs to be done here?

Yeah, look, I think Prime Minister Netanyahu believes and he has said that no president has done more for the U.S.-Israel relationship than the Trump administration between the Abraham Accords, between moving and moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. And I can go on and on and on. Things clearly got rough between Trump and Netanyahu specifically because

the manner in which, according to the Trump people, Netanyahu congratulated Biden after the election so quickly. And then obviously Trump has this narrative about the Soleimani operation and Israel's role in it.

They have already begun the repair process. They have been in touch already. And I think an in-person meeting was inevitable. I think any leader coming over, any national leader, any government of any any leader of any national government coming to the U.S. now at this point.

given the kind of uncertainty in American politics, would be wise to meet with the nominees of both parties. You just don't know if you're the leader of a foreign government. It's in your interest to have a relationship with both leaders, both nominees. And so I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is doing that. All right. Dan Cienor for us this morning. Dan, very grateful to have you. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks, Casey. All right. Still ahead here on CNN this morning, we're going to talk to Congressman Pat Ryan ahead of President Biden's historic address tonight.

And the controversy around the resurfaced video of JD Vance calling Kamala Harris and others, I think, a childless cat lady. That's a head. And from cats to the D-O-double-G, they wrote that for me, okay? I'm just saying that. Snoop Dogg taking on the Olympics.

Accordingly, I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

Tonight, Americans set to hear something they haven't heard since 1968. What you saw just there, a sitting president turning down the opportunity to seek reelection. After finishing his COVID isolation, President Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office tonight to explain his decision to bow out of the 2024 race and make the case for a legacy that is now Kamala Harris's to defend. Joe's legacy of accomplishment over his entire career

and over the past three and a half years is unmatched in modern history. In one term, think about it, in one term as president, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who served two terms in office.

All right, joining me now is Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan of New York. He was one of the first lawmakers to call on President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 campaign. Congressman, thank you so much for being here. Good to be here. Let me start with this decision that the president made to step aside. One of the big reasons why there was so much pressure is that Democrats were really concerned they were going to lose the House of Representatives, including in seats like the one that you hold, swing seats. Does it make it easier for you to win your race with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket?

What she is able to do, and we've seen this to great effect in the last 48 hours, is draw such a sharp, clear, and energizing contrast and remind people of

the choice, the stakes, the consequences, the existential nature of the choice. So in a seat like mine, in seats across the country, and at the top of the ticket, we are now, I think she is really taking command of the campaign, of the race, in a way that I think scares the heck out of

her opponent. I appreciate your politeness. It's early, it's early. Some people are willing to go farther than you are in the 6 a.m. hour. Look, the race is on to define Kamala Harris. I actually interviewed her back in 2018, and it was in that interview when she expressed openness to abolishing ICE.

The border is one of these issues that the Trump campaign is going to seize on to criticize her. And I know it's an issue in races like yours. She has since walked that back. But do you have any concerns about how she handled border policy during the Biden administration?

Well, you know, I always start listening to my constituents. What's happening at the border, which is a crisis, and I've been saying this since day one that I've been in Congress, has to be addressed. I called out President Biden aggressively in a way that, you know, very few of my Democratic colleagues did, and we pushed him to take action. And I want to see, you know, the vice president

Should she hopefully take take take the reins soon continue to push on that and we've seen by the way in the last month Illegal border crossings. We have a lot more work to do lower now the last month than they were at the end of the the Trump presidency at the same same month So we are making progress But we have to restore order at the border and I think the VP gets that I

Do you think it was a failure on the part of the Biden administration not to take the actions that he took that may have led to some of that earlier in his term? We should have. The president was in charge, is in charge.

including securing our border, which is a foundational responsibility of a nation state, and fail to act quickly enough. And that is something that I think shouldn't even be political. That's just the facts on the ground. And I'm the kind of person, right or wrong, that I think right, but calls that out when I see it, regardless of who's in charge. And that's what the American people really want right now.

Let's talk briefly about the address that we're anticipating to Congress from Benjamin Netanyahu. You plan to attend? Yes. Can you sort of give me a sense of how you feel about the fact that, I mean, Kamala Harris is not planning to attend. She has a pre-scheduled event. Do you think she should be in attendance today?

Well, I think the more important piece, rather than who's there and who's not, is are we going to hear from Netanyahu a plan to bring home hostages, to bring both immediate peace and cessation of the hostilities and the ceasefire, but also lasting peace to the region? And are we going to hear some appreciation for our sticking with him, as I think the alliance between the U.S. is critical, even more critical now,

But I have been very critical of President Netanyahu and the way he is, not only his rhetoric, but some of the actions they've taken. So I hope we hear some

What I really hope we hear from him is speaking on behalf of all the Israeli people, not himself and his own sort of political and personal calculations, which is what I think a lot of us worry is driving some of his actions. Interesting way to think about it. All right. So very briefly, as we wrap up, Kamala Harris has to pick a vice presidential running mate, it seems, very quickly here. Who would you like to see her pick? I've heard Mark Kelly and Josh Shapiro possibly at the top of the list now.

I am and have forever been a Pete Buttigieg fan. I think he has just knocked it out of the park in delivering on infrastructure, calling out airlines when they failed. He's currently very mad at Delta. As are millions of Americans, having recently flown myself. And he has just shown an ability to actually unify people.

the country when that is just what people are desperately looking for. So I'd love to see him. All right. You're going to stick around for our panel, which you'll see in a second. You're a very good sport for doing so. Thank you, Congressman. I really appreciate your time.

Alright, 50 minutes past the hour, here is your morning roundup. New body camera video showing investigators and local law enforcement on the roof where the man who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump was killed. The short clip posted to social media by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley shows officers grappling with the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Very chilling stuff.

The Secret Service is asking the Trump campaign to stop scheduling rallies at large outdoor venues following that assassination attempt. That's according to The Washington Post. This is just one day after Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle announced her resignation. Multiple lawmakers telling CNN that Senator Bob Menendez should have resigned immediately. He's instead staying in Congress for another month despite being found guilty on 16 counts in a federal bribery and corruption trial. And this story.

My wife.

Snoop Dogg, rapper, businessman, now Olympic torchbearer. He will carry the flame just ahead of the opening ceremonies for the Games in Paris on Friday. And unofficially, the Olympics start today. Preliminary events in soccer and rugby. Just minutes ago, the International Olympic Committee announced that Salt Lake City, Utah will host the 2034 Games. They last hosted the Winter Games back in 2002. Somebody called Mitt Romney about that.

all right turning back now to the 2024 race and this recently resurfaced video of republican vice presidential candidate jd vance it has re-stirred an uproar and is raising questions about how sexism will play into the campaign now that kamala harris is leading the democratic ticket this was vance speaking to fox news in 2021.

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. And so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it's just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.

Childless cat ladies. Harris does, in fact, have two stepchildren. We should note Buttigieg welcomed twins weeks after that interview was whatever, after that interview aired. Let's just remind everyone, who else is a very powerful childless cat lady, quote unquote, because the internet really likes Taylor Swift in this particular moment. There she is with her cat. Hasn't endorsed a presidential candidate yet.

I'm the only woman at this table. This was clearly a mistake. Yes, please ask all the white men what we think. Would you like to defend your vice presidential nominee? No. Well, first of all, he didn't say it as vice presidential nominee. No. Clip that. That's all right. He's a Senate candidate for Ohio. No. I mean, I think that...

There's no, this is not part of the campaign's messaging, number one. We're going to make it part of it. And number two, if I may pivot, I think the old videos, if you want to play the game of resurfacing old videos of people who are now thrust onto tickets, I suspect you're going to see plenty of Kamala Harris videos that are going to be far more politically damaging than going after J.D. Vance today. That's my view.

I mean, what it speaks to, though, is the values and the disregard for a huge number of people that he brings at a moment when, in my district and across the country, people feel like politicians are not caring about them, are not listening. And I can also say, as the husband of a

cat lady with children, she's pissed. And people are rightly, it just hits as true because he's so vile in so much of his rhetoric. And I think it will be and should be soundly rejected. Well, look, I will say I'm glad that you sort of brought it back to the serious questions here, because the reality is it's such a personal thing for people as well. I mean, and you're writing off

There are many reasons why any person may or may not have children in their lives, and this is something for women and men. And in fact, Pete Buttigieg, who we were just talking about earlier, he and his husband Chasten adopted twins. But he was asked about this on CNN on Tuesday, and he had this to say. Let's watch.

The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey. He couldn't have known that, but maybe that's why you shouldn't be talking about other people's children. And it's not about his kids or my kids or the vice president's family. It's about your family, people's families whose well-being will depend on whether we go into a future led by somebody like Kamala Harris.

And Jeff, I will just say also this really underscores how different this race is. But go ahead. It does. I was just going to say I wrote a story on Sunday about sexism and racism being a part of this race because of the challenges that Vice President Harris has faced her entire career and will now face at the top of the ticket.

There's a lot of room for policy debate, and there will no doubt be a big, robust discussion about that. But racism and sexism and the United States' history of never having elected a woman, only having elected a black person who wants the presidency, is absolutely one of the things that she will have to face. And I think you're seeing that in comments there. Yeah. Let's talk about J.D. Vance a little bit more broadly as well. And Scott, because we've gotten a glimpse into his...

early campaign style. I'm asking my team to see if they can dig up the diet Mountain Dew moment from yesterday. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to get it before the end of the show. But this is what the New York Times wrote. Mike Bender, who is a longtime campaign

who was on the plane with Vance, right? And he writes this, briefly uncertain how to start, he, Vance, furred his brow and looked from side to side. He has, in this account, walked to the back of the campaign plane to talk to the reporters. We always ride in the back, the candidates ride up front. His, Vance's unease was understandable. The utilitarian design of airplane seating does not exactly facilitate group discussion, but it was also revealing a more seasoned politician might have leaned against a seat.

Mr. Vance, in his initial confusion, I'm sorry, yeah, in his initial confusion, hinted at the inexperience of a 39-year-old embarking on his maiden national campaign because when a flight attendant approached and urged everyone to fasten their seatbelts before landing, Mr. Vance plopped into an empty seat in the press cabin and quickly buckled up as if he were just another passenger and not the only one inside the plane with his name on the outside of it, too.

What is it? What is it a problem that he follows safety protocols on an airplane? I'm glad. I'm not saying it was a problem. I'm just saying. You know, look, let me say something. I think you've already heard, you've already seen rumors. Tim Alberta's reported. There's some buyer's remorse here. I mean, you know, Donald Trump picked a mini-me.

He picked a MAGA mini-me, somebody that, you know, he didn't need help in Ohio. He didn't need help with MAGA, but he, you know, somebody that would do what Mike Pence didn't do. That was probably the major criteria. I don't think J.D. Vance is adding anything to Trump's coalition.

Are we going to raise the dialogue in this country or are we going to lower it? And unfortunately, I think we've seen in that choice that Trump wants to lower it with Vance. And I think Kamala Harris will continue to elevate and inspire and give hope and give optimism. And that will win the day.

Well, we're all about to find out. Okay, I'm going to leave you with this. This is one of my favorite sort of ongoing things that we here at CNN have been enjoying as well. With President Biden set to address the nation tonight, do you remember where you were when the news broke that he was ending his re-election bid? The country thinks that Wolf Blitzer does. Wolf Blitzer.

posted this photo of himself enjoying a Wolf spritzer cocktail. He posted this just hours before Biden dropped the bombshell news that he was exiting the presidential race. This, of course, prompted Wolf to race to the D.C. Bureau and this very anchor desk that we are sitting at now. Since then, social media has had a field day. One ex-user joking, never check your work email on a day off. Another post born to dilly dally forced to lock in. The

The cocktail getting so much attention, this ex-user anticipating the bar rush at El Presidente. That is where the Wolf Spritzer is being served. Cheers to you, Wolf. I will say, apparently, we did learn he wasn't actually at brunch before the coverage. This was from dinner the night before. Wait to burst the bubble for everyone. But I think it's very fun. Apparently, my team had a few ideas for Casey Hunt-themed drinks yesterday.

This is-- I'm taking a risk here. I've not seen any of these ideas until right now.

Casey Gurria? I don't think so, guys. Whiskey Manhattan? Or a Casey Sour? How about a Casey Breeze in the summer? Let's have a party. I'll bring a few cases of beer. Guys, we need to work on this. Okay. On that note, thanks to our panel. It's going to be a very long day. I'm going to be on our special coverage tonight starting right ahead of the president's speech. So don't miss that. Thanks to you for joining us now. I am Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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