Renewed Excitement About Presidential Race
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For every life-saving treatment. For every next step. For every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. It's Thursday, August 15th, right now on CNN This Morning. We are really excited. People are excited. Understandably so. And so we're very excited about leading the ticket. A wave of energy as new polls show voters feeling a burst of enthusiasm for this reshaped race. Plus...

We're not going to let this incompetent socialist lunatic keep breaking our economy for four more years. Donald Trump hits the ground to talk about the economy in a swing state, but he could not keep himself from leveling personal attacks. And Kamala Harris is going to be side by side today with President Biden for the first time since becoming the Democratic nominee. And J.D. Vance not quite ready to commit to debating his counterpart as Tim Walz accepts the invitation to meet in October.

All right, it is 6 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the White House on this Thursday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. Donald Trump back on the campaign trail and struggling to stay on message. The Trump campaign billed his rally in North Carolina as focused on his economic policies. Trump himself wasn't so sure.

We're talking about a thing called the economy. They wanted to do a speech on the economy. A lot of people are very devastated by what's happened with inflation and all of the other things. So we're doing this as a intellectual speech. You're all intellectuals today. They say it's the most important subject. I'm not sure it is. I'm not sure it is. Instead, Trump continued personal attacks on that many of his Republican supporters have urged him to stop doing.

For nearly four years, Kamala has crackled as the American economy has burned. What happened to her laugh? I haven't heard that laugh in about a week. That's why they keep her off the stage. That's why she's disappeared. That's the laugh of a crazy person, I will tell you. If you haven't known, it's crazy. She's crazy. This version of Trump has emerged, of course, because he is suddenly faced with a real race against Harris. Naturally, he is fixated again on his poll numbers.

We have some very good polls coming out today, I just heard. Despite all of the fake publicity about this radical left person from San Francisco. How's San Francisco doing? Not like North Carolina. No, we have some very good polls coming out, so that's good.

All right, let's see about those polls. A new Pew poll finds that Trump and Harris are effectively tied at 45 and 46% support, with independent Robert F. Kennedy polling 7% support. A new Monmouth University poll shows a massive shift among registered voters in their enthusiasm about the 2024 race. 85% of Democrats now describe themselves as either very or somewhat enthusiastic about the election.

That is up a staggering 39 points since June, when Joe Biden was still in the race. Republican voters have remained steady throughout the last two months, with 71% enthusiastic about the election. A recent Financial Times poll showed that Harris and Trump are trusted equally on handling the economy, a subject that Trump did eventually touch on at his North Carolina rally.

People go to the grocery store and they have less than half a deal. In fact, I had something here. I did have something. I would show you. Wait a minute. I don't know if you've seen this. I used it once. Oh, I have it. I do have it. Look at this. Look at this. So this is Tic Tacs, right? But that's what happened. This is inflation. This is Tic Tac. This is Tic Tac.

okay joining us now to discuss elliott williams c_n_n_ legal analyst former federal prosecutor my ball senior political correspondent wall street journal brad woodhouse senior advisor to the democratic national committee sure michael singleton republican strategist and c_n_n_ political commentator

You're laughing. It's good times. I mean, an economic speech where he attacks the, you know, attacks the vice president, makes fun of her, makes fun of her laugh and actually says the economy is not the not the number one issue. On the same day that inflation went below three percent for the first time since, you know, 2021. So, you know what? I think he should do more events.

Sure, Michael, do you agree? I mean, yes, but not that type of an event, Casey. I mean, look, the former president still has an advantage by a lot of polls on this particular issue, which is why you saw former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, you saw former Governor Nikki Haley, former, not former, but current Senator Lindsey Graham all saying, stick with the message because we have the advantage. Kenny, I don't know. Yeah.

- Elliot Williams, one of the things that the New York Times wrote about how Trump goes with his instincts over strategy, right? They say this, "Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist, "warned that Trump's attacks on Harris "threaten the permission structure "that he's been building for Republicans

outside his base of support to support him. Quote, you have this very strange victimhood and grievance, which can, when channeled well by Trump, be effective. Right now, it's actually actively harming him because he's marinating in that rather than trying to actually drive a campaign message and define Harris. Yeah, I guess the question is, is anybody shocked by any of this at this point? And, you know, just to Michael's point, people have

People around Donald Trump have for years been saying, stay on message, stay on that, like Star Wars, stay on target, stay on target. Stay on target. Stay on target, stay on target. Yet somehow after four years in the presidency, three plus years in the Biden administration, it has not caught on. And no one should be shocked at all here. The fact is he's now got an opponent that doesn't even need to capitalize on it, can in effect

sit there and wait and let Donald Trump implode as a candidate. It's, I just, I guess I push back a little bit, not to you, Sir Michael, but on this idea that there is somehow something remarkable about the fact that Donald Trump can't stay on. A new Trump. A new Trump.

- Then we're gonna get a new Trump, right? - Yeah, I mean, and even in some, you know, there was certainly, there was tragedy confronting the campaign some time ago, and that was going to be the moment that Donald Trump changed. Then there was, you know, getting a new candidate that could, you know, revivify the Trump campaign, and that didn't work. It's not going to change. It's just a question now for people as to what they want when they go to the polls in November.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's exactly right. He's always the same person and he's a famously undisciplined candidate and his frustration, you know, the bad mood that he's in because he's in a different situation campaign wise only causes him to be more undisciplined and to make more of these zany personal attacks. He's never been someone, and for a

lot of his followers, this is a plus, right? That he is always the same. He's not like those phony politicians who stick their finger in the wind and say whatever different messages on their teleprompter from one day to the next. He's up there arguing with the teleprompter and saying, well, it says here I should talk about the economy, but I think that's kind of boring. And it is kind of funny, but obviously the campaign has a theory of the case that if this is an election about the issues, he wins.

If this is an election about this administration's policies, the Biden-Harris administration and how it has handled particularly the economy and the border, then they believe that Donald Trump wins that contrast. But if instead it's about the

You know, what race is Kamala Harris? Or these or, you know, were the crowds real or were they AI or all of these other insane things that, again, are constantly coming out of Donald Trump's mouth. This is not new. This has been his entire decade in politics. But if the campaign is about Trump, basically, that is a much more difficult election for him to win.

You know, Casey, in the last hour, you ran that classic clip of Reagan saying, are you better off today than you were four years ago? And ultimately, that's the question in any presidential election. And somehow people seem to have forgotten what they got with Donald Trump as president. It was a lot of this in a time that's, you know, even and we can talk about inflation later in the program with a different economy and so on. But

you had a president who was out there every day, particularly during the middle of a major crisis, speaking like this. And somehow that's gotten out of people's heads. Now, obviously, they're really like- Well, when it was Biden, it was a different situation, right? I mean, Biden couldn't stand up against what Trump was offering. Well, it was a different situation. But to your point, when Trump lost in 2020, one of the reasons were people were tired of this shtick. They were tired of the chaos. They were tired of the tweet.

You know, of course, you know, I think it was also COVID. It was kind of the inject bleach. Yeah, inject bleach. And it was and now we're back to, you know, one thing about Trump is he's in he's into instant gratification. Like he can't give an economic speech because people aren't going to go wild. You know, he couldn't stay on script at the Republican National Convention. Well,

When he gave that speech, the first 30 minutes were very heartfelt, very emotional. But the crowd wasn't reacting to it the way that they react to red meat. So he went on 60 minutes of a complete diatribe. I think, you know, we were talking, Shremichael and I were talking in the green room about this is a professional campaign. And I mean, Chris Leviticus particularly has been around for a long time. The problem they have is at the top of the ticket.

and the lack of discipline. And in a world where they were running against Joe Biden, the campaign was a little bit free to just do its thing, run its race, stay ahead, and they didn't have to worry about it as much. Well, and I think the emergence of this new ticket has just freaked Donald Trump out. I mean, the fact that he has spent as much time trying to push back on crowd size as he is talking about the economy or the border or crime, it's just an indication of

who Donald Trump is, and he's easily baited. - I mean, Casey, I get all of those points, but the race is still very close. - Yes. - In 2016 and 2020, the former president was underestimated by nine points, five points. If you were to factor those numbers in this time around based on the current national polling,

That gives the former president still a point or two ahead of the vice president. There are still some issues that the vice president is struggling on, some demographics she's still struggling with. She's still behind where she needs to be for a Democrat with Latino voters. She's still behind where she needs to be with black voters.

men in general. She's having a lot of issues there, particularly with young men of color. So there are still some opportunities for the former president to make his case to potentially return back to the White House. Well, and this is why his behavior matters so much, right? It doesn't matter as much in a race that is not close, but he could either...

he could lose it for himself by continuing to do this. All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, President Biden, Kamala Harris together again. They're gonna be in Maryland today, their first trip together since the president's exit from the race. Plus, Tim Walz locks in a commitment to debate. JD Vance so far stopping short of doing the same. And Donald Trump makes that visit to North Carolina ahead of his opponent's trip to the same battleground state. We're gonna dig in to the economy.

Does anyone here feel richer under Kamala Harris than Crooked Joe, than you were during the Trump administration?

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When Kamala lays out her fake economic plan this week, probably will be a copy of my plan because basically that's what she does. Both campaigns making economic pitches to voters this week. Donald Trump was up first in North Carolina last night. This was a pledge he made to seniors.

To help seniors on fixed incomes who are suffering the ravages of inflation, there will be no tax on Social Security. We're going to stop it. It only came into existence in 1984, and at that time, it only affected a very small number of recipients. But now, nearly half of all seniors are forced to pay income tax on Social Security. And thanks to inflation under Harris — she is horrible — this tax hits more seniors every year.

Vice President Harris is next. An economic policy speech set for Friday. According to new reporting here at CNN, Harris expected to call for a federal ban on price gouging aimed at lowering grocery store prices. The plan would give the Federal Trade Commission more authorization to go after price gougers. The focus on the economy is, of course...

here's why voters have consistently said it is the top issue in the campaign the recent npr pbs marist poll shows likely voters giving trump a 51 to 48 edge over harris handling on the economy that is within the margin of error and it's closer molly ball than it was when biden was at the top of the ticket when that was 54 45 it does seem like there is an open

opening here for Harris. There's also reporting from Axios that says that she wants to be different from Joe Biden on this. She wants to make distinctions. Do you think there's an opening with voters for her to do that?

There clearly seems to be, and it's a little bit ironic considering that she is literally in the White House right now, that nonetheless, the majority of voters in some of this polling say that she's the candidate who represents change in this race. She's the candidate who represents a new generation, turning the page, going forward into the future. And you hear her making this case in her speeches, talking about the future versus the past,

And, you know, in a race where so many voters previously were annoyed that they were facing the same two candidates as last time, and so many candidates were sorry, so many voters were tired of this this Trump versus Biden race. She's really managed to break out and be seen as offering something different. And as a result, even though she's been part of this administration, voters don't seem to be

hanging all of its policies that they don't like on her to the degree that they were Biden. And she does seem to have an opening to define herself in a different way. And a lot of that is going, it seems like, is going to be just talking about the same policies in a different way, talking about this push against corporations by invoking her past as a prosecutor is one example. So when she talks about, you know, this

price gouging effort she can say I've gone after big corporations it's what I did you know as Attorney General and so by invoking her experience I think there's a hope that she can cast some of these initiatives in a different light even if there are a lot of the same initiative. Yeah, Frank Luntz the Republican pollster was on CNBC yesterday talking about the economy and kind of what Harris needs to do and he said it's pretty simple let's watch what he said briefly.

If that plan of action, those details, are things that the public wants, they will ignore the criticism and these soft voters will become intense voters. She's talking about the number one issue facing the country, and Donald Trump is talking about crowd size.

I mean, look. Frank Luntz just nailed it right on the head. I mean, look, if you look, there's at least one poll that shows that she slightly had her tie on the economy. The poll you just showed showed it's within the margin of error. And remember, Donald Trump led on people who thought he could do better on the economy over Joe Biden when Joe Biden won in 2020. So,

Just making it closer, I think, is critically important for the vice president. But, you know, I think she's got a plan. I mean, you know, people, I keep hearing, well, where's her plan? Where's her details? Well, here we got one today, you know, the price gouging plan. Well, I mean, sure, I will also say that this headline in The Times is, vagueness is a strategy as Harris prepares her economic message. Like, they're kind of doing it on purpose, it seems. Well, I'm not convinced that the...

that the New York Times knows what's going to be in her speech tomorrow or what the details are going to be. Well, they say Ms. Harris will outline a sort of reboot of the economic agenda, according to four people familiar with Harris's plan. She will lay out an approach relatively light on details, they said. Well, we'll see. I mean, you know, but I think what you see on the economy, though, is that the Republican argument against the Biden-Harris administration is evaporating.

I mean, you know, we have for the first time since 2021, we have a two on the number of inflation instead of a three or four or a five. We have low unemployment. We have great growth. And almost every analyst out there and, you know, the big you know, the big folks on Wall Street are saying no recession. And look, it's a political horse race. And your opponent is imploding and shooting himself in the foot. And why?

go further than you need to when you have Donald Trump out there not taking what's been handed to him. On that inflation point, inflation hasn't been below 3% since I think 2021. The one sentence is, guess who wasn't president anymore in 2021? Me. The last time you had this kind of, the economy doing as well as

as it is, I was president. He can't say those words because he's a disastrously poor candidate and she is riding a wave of enthusiasm. It's almost let the other guy do his work for you and hope you make it to November 5th. - I mean, look, stand on message obviously matters. There is definitely an opportunity for the former president to make a case against Vice President Harris. I get the point of when she was a prosecutor, she went after corporations.

for price gouging, but she's been the vice president for three and a half years now. And Biden's positions on the economy, generally speaking, is also Kamala Harris's problem on the economy, generally speaking. And there is a reason why I would argue the vice president is sort of

lacking on detail is because they haven't figured out what's the message or the plan under a Harris-Walls administration to decrease inflation further, to increase wages for the average voter. If you were to look at Governor Walz, for example, high taxes in his state are having more people leave the state versus coming in. And so I think there's a strong case for Republicans to make on that front. I'm sorry, Brad, we got to go. But I mean, look,

Again, this is reason 705 why this short, short, short campaign really works to Harris's advantage. All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, Harris returning to the role of just vice president for the day. She's joining President Biden in Maryland, their first joint trip since he dropped out. Plus, Hurricane Ernesto dumping nearly a foot of rain on parts of Puerto Rico. A look at where the storm is headed next. All right, 27 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Watch.

Lava and ash spewing from Mount Etna in Italy, forcing officials to shut down a nearby airport. An eruption last week caused mass travel disruptions in Sicily. A train derailed following a deadly collision with a semi truck in Wisconsin. The truck was carrying, get this, 5,000 gallons of manure and it crossed the tracks and struck a train. It's very sad. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

And... Heroic video released by Texas police shows a young boy flagging down an officer to help his mom get out of a sinking car. The boy says that his mom had a seizure. The police were able to get her out, and she's recovering at the hospital. And...

Yankee slugger Aaron Judge belting his 300th career home run last night, a three-run shot against the White Sox. He reached the milestone in just 955 games. No one has ever done it that fast, not even Babe Ruth. Thanks to my Yankees-loving producer for making me read that. All right, here you can see cars partially submerged as Hurricane Ernesto causes flooding in the British Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico also hit by the storm, and nearly half the island lost power.

And with that, it is time for weather. Hurricane Ernesto dumping 6 to 10 inches of rain on parts of southeastern Puerto Rico. The storm now moving into open waters and a hurricane warning in effect in Bermuda. Let's get to Derek Van Dam with more on this. Derek, good morning.

Good morning, Casey. So here's the result of that 6 to 10 inches of rain. This is footage coming out of the northern side of Puerto Rico yesterday afternoon. And you can see some of the flooded roadways across this region. But what's also interesting to note is how much this impacted the electrical grid in Puerto Rico. We know from previous hurricanes how susceptible the power grid is in Puerto Rico and Puerto

A storm, which was a tropical storm as it moved through Puerto Rico yesterday, was capable of knocking out power for nearly a half a million customers. So that's really saying something. It's going to take some time for them to recover and get the lights turned back on. And of course, the buildings cooled down because, of course, temperatures will start to warm being that.

It is summer. Now, this is the current path of Hurricane Ernesto. There's a lot of dry air starting to wrap into this system, so it's having trouble really coming to get that eye wall like we would see with a strengthening storm. Nonetheless, it is anticipated to strengthen going forward. There are hurricane warnings in Bermuda. Worst time frame for weather for Bermuda?

late Friday into Saturday. That is when we could see impacts from a category two or three hurricane, depending on the exact strength. Now, impacts along the east coast, rip tides and large swells will impact the entire eastern seaboard from this system. Casey, this is going to be an impactful storm for Bermuda. Remember, it's a popular tourist destination. Thousands of visitors visit this area frequently. All right. Derek Van Dam first this morning. Derek, thanks for that update.

All right, still ahead here on CNN this morning, President Biden and Vice President Harris making their first public appearance together since he left the race. How that new dynamic might play out now that she's leading the ticket. Plus, could we soon have an official date for a vice presidential debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz?

For

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Let's talk about the maverick John McCain is. And again, I love him. He's been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people's lives. It's been done a couple of times. It has never been done before. Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates, increased growth. Ronald Reagan. Oh, now you're Jack Kennedy. Ronald Reagan. In 1864. Well, I'd like you to answer the question. Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking.

We may have another vice presidential debate on the calendar soon. Harris' running mate, Tim Walz, accepted an invitation from CBS to debate his Republican counterpart, J.D. Vance. Walz, posting on social media, quotes, See you on October 1st, J.D. And while Vance had previously said he would debate Walz, the Ohio senator stopped short of committing to this yesterday.

I strongly suspect we're going to be there on October the 1st, but we're not going to do one of these fake debates, Laura, where they don't actually have an audience there, where they don't actually set the parameters in a right way, where you can have a good exchange of ideas. In other words, we're not going to walk into a fake news media garbage debate. We're going to do a real debate, and if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we'll do it.

- All right, our panel is back. We gonna see this happen, do we think? And does it really matter, the undercard debate? - Well, I would be very excited to see it, and I think Governor Walz has accepted it. I think it would be a good thing to have. I think it would be entertaining. And look, I think it'd be great to see

Governor Walz and J.D. Vance discuss ideas, but also J.D. Vance defend some of what's come out since he was selected. I mean, I wondered after you saw Childless Cat Ladies and this new menopause, post-menopausal women and

All the string of things that he said over the years was he vetted? Well, Molly Ball, I mean, it's likely to be a relative form of strength for Vance. I mean, this is the kind of thing that he would typically tend to be better at, but it will be an opportunity for the Democrats to try to pin him down on some of that stuff.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think there is certainly a feeling on the Democratic side and among some Republicans that Vance has become something of a liability for the ticket. And that becomes more important in a situation where it's now Donald Trump, who is the oldest candidate in history running to be the oldest president in history. And, you know, that was a contrast that I think would have been magnified if it was Vance versus Harris.

And you had these, the two old candidates. But I think, look, Vance is someone who is quite quick on his feet. Walls, I know a little bit less about sort of his debating style and his rhetorical style. He came to them and said, I'm bad at debates. That was reported during the vetting process, along with not using a teleprompter, like he's bad at debates.

So I guess we'll find out. So I guess we'll find out. I think it's going to be, it's very interesting. It's a very interesting contrast between these two men. And I think these vice presidential debates are always revealing in part because they're not the presidential debates. So there's a little bit more latitude for, you know, the undercard candidates to both define themselves and try to define the top of the ticket, you know, traditionally the attack dog role. So I hope it happens.

All right, so today Kamala Harris is going to be joined by President Biden at a public event. This is going to be the first time they appear together since he left the race and she became the Democratic nominee. They're going to appear together at an event in Upper Marlboro, Maryland for a passing of the torch moment. This is a very delicate balancing act for Harris. She's obviously trying to carve out her own path and distance herself from the president on some issues like the economy, despite the fact that her boss thinks the current path is the right one.

-The US beat inflation, Mr. President. -Yes, yes, yes. I told you we're gonna have a soft landing. We're gonna have a soft landing. My policies are working. Start writing that way, okay? -Not happy to be left out of the spotlight for too long, Donald Trump has announced he'll hold a press conference at his Bedminster Club following the Biden-Harris event. Brad Woodhouse, I actually have to say, I question why it is that Harris is doing this with Biden. I mean, this -- I mean, it feels uncomfortable.

straight up at the outset. Now maybe it's not going to be, maybe they're going to, you know, it's, but why do this if you're her? Well look, I don't think it will be uncomfortable at all. And remember that this event is announcing one of the seminal successes of this administration, which is driving down drug prices. Today, HHS is announcing

CMS is announcing the 10 drugs that they've negotiated. This was a 40-year effort of Democrats to pass legislation to require Medicare to lower drug prices. And so she's getting ready to be part of an announcement that is historic. And it's an important part of the argument about the economy and lower prices. I get that. It'll be an important part of her remarks and rally tomorrow. I get that. But she's got to play number two with him in a world where, like, you really want to look like an

look like number one. I think the way, look, I think Joe Biden will make this completely work for her. It'll be completely comfortable. And I'll tell you who will love this scene are core base Democrats. Love Joe Biden, who were concerned about him running, appreciate that he passed the torch to her. It's going to be a great event and I'm going to be there. He's still

He's still president of the United States, though, and she's the vice president. And it's all in the stagecraft, how they manage to establish that even when standing next to the president of the United States, this is the future. And that, like you said, Brett, it's a very delicate balance. Look, we're going to see that again next week.

at the Democratic National Convention, where not only for the first time in our memory do you have a bunch of former presidents coming up to speak, but the current sitting president of the United States. How do you craft that in such a manner that doesn't step on the nominee? And that could be challenging. - Look, in one vein, the vice president is saying, "I am my own person with my own policy positions. "I will do well in improving the economy."

Yet she's still going to be with the sitting president who most Americans do not believe is doing well on the issue of the economy. Except this policy. Some weird duality here. This policy.

has 90 percent support with the American people. The drug stuff. The drug stuff. And Donald Trump has vowed to repeal it. Project 2025 would repeal it. Would raise prices on, you know, on seniors. And here's the other reality is that Donald Trump is going to do a press conference right afterwards. So, you know, if he wanted to let whatever, if this is awkward, you know, he

he's gonna step on it I look I think one thing that Kamala Harris still needs to do in this campaign according to a lot of polls is just convince voters that she is ready to be president that she is ready to lead that despite all of her qualifications voters still are not

completely convinced that they can see her in that office being the person in charge. So events like this help remind people of her qualifications, the fact that she's been vice president. That may not be entirely a negative for her, although it does tie her to the unpopular policies of this administration. Another thing that a lot of Democrats have found in polls is that when you ask about the policies without Joe Biden's name attached to them, they are much more popular.

And we've seen Joe Biden's approval rating has gone up since he decided not to be a candidate any longer. So it is possible that a lot of the unpopularity around this stuff was just about Biden, people's disapproval of his choice to run for reelection, people's concerns about his age and his capabilities. Now that he's not the candidate, I think there is a hope that she can sell these policies in a new way, to Brad's point, and make them more appealing to voters who are more open to these policies when they're not Biden policies.

All right, Molly Ball, thank you so much for joining us this morning. I really appreciate it. The rest of the panel is going to stick around. Coming up here on CNN this morning, RFK Jr. looking past the 2024 election, the deal he is trying to offer to Kamala Harris and to Donald Trump. Plus, how badly rattled is Trump by President Biden's departure from this race?

Joe Biden is a very angry man, you know that, right? Because they took it away from him. They usurped it. They took it away from him. Terrible, terrible. All right, 48 minutes past the hour, here's the morning roundup. This just in to CNN. The latest death toll in Gaza and a grim milestone. 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war 10 months ago. At least 10,000 people are also considered missing.

Ceasefire talks are set to resume in Qatar today. Columbia University's president, Manoush Shafiq, resigning after months of backlash over her handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. She is the third leader of an Ivy League university to resign following appearances before Congress over anti-Semitism on college campuses.

A man suing Disney for the wrongful death of his wife is facing a new legal challenge. His wife had a reaction to severe food allergies at a Disney World restaurant and she died. Now the company is trying to get the suit tossed because the man signed up for a one month trial of Disney Plus five years ago. Elliott Williams, can they do this? Like what? It's buried in the fine print that anybody who

sued any Disney property would have to submit to arbitration. Now that's absurd. You hear about reading the fine print, but this stretches the limits of fine print. And I think a judge will probably throw that portion out. - So basically they're saying because he agreed to the terms of use of Disney Plus, he waived his right to sue Disney. - And the Disney Plus contract says that

per any dispute you have with any Disney property, you have to go to arbitration. Now that's ridiculous. That's like saying if you choke on a quinoa salad at Whole Foods that you can't sue the Washington Post because they're owned by the same parent company. That makes no sense whatsoever.

But we, in our lives, sign contracts all the time with arbitration provisions and things that we didn't negotiate. Think about any time you go to a baseball game, all the rights you waive that are on the back of that ticket. And so there's a lesson here for all of us. Read the fine print if you can, but sometimes you're going to win. I mean, it's basically a situation where it's like the fine print basically says you can't participate in society. It's ridiculous. No, it is.

Even as a lawyer that is very quick to say, oh no, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine, it'll work out. No, this is stretching the limits of rights and fine print beyond what is rational at all. And I think a smart judge will probably cut it out. Fingers crossed. All right, let's turn back now to the 2024 campaign.

Former Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said that former President Trump needs to make a serious shift and quote, quit whining about Vice President Kamala Harris. And Trump must have listened because now he's whining about Nikki Haley. Despite warnings from several of his allies to stick to policy, Donald Trump once again veering into personal attacks against Kamala Harris at that campaign rally yesterday as he continues to struggle with how to take on his new opponent.

Our next guest puts it this way. Quote, Biden's abrupt departure deeply unsettled Trump. His entire campaign was built to defeat Biden. Trump survived an assassination attempt, then met a rapturous reception at the Republican National Convention and concluded that the race was won. And it was...

until Biden stepped aside and Harris stepped up. Trump, enraged and rattled, is reverting to his feral ways. And joining our panel now is Peter Wehner. He is former speechwriter for George W. Bush, now a contributing writer for The Atlantic and The New York Times. Peter, I'm so grateful to have you on the program. Thanks for being here. I think the most evocative piece of this story that you have

describes who Trump is now. You say this, "The rise of Harris instantly cast Trump in a new light. He formerly seemed more ominous and threatening, which, whatever its political drawback, signaled strength. Now he seems not just old, but low energy, stale, even pathetic. He has become the political version of Fat Elvis."

- Yeah. - Brad's trying to keep it together over there. - Yeah, for a certain generation, they remember Fat Elvis. There was something when Biden dropped out and Harris got in, in the blink of an eye, that the whole lighting and landscape of this campaign changed. And Trump's show, which has been getting old, seemed to have crossed a threshold of a certain kind. Even some of his allies, Megyn Kelly, Joe Rogan, are saying the same thing. They're saying he's boring. And that's one line of criticism.

for Donald Trump that'll drive him crazy. - Well, and isn't boring in many ways kind of a political death sentence for Donald Trump? - It is for Donald Trump. I mean, it's not good for anybody, but particularly for him, and I'd say in part it's because of his psychology. The central thing to understand about Donald Trump, and I thought this even in early 2016, was that he's a psychologically unwell man. He's a broken person.

narcissistic personality disorder. And people of that psychology, there are certain lines of attack, certain things that happen to them that really do rattle them, that knock them off stride. And there's several things for Trump. One of them is mockery. Another is the sense that he might be a loser. And I think once Harris got in the race and eliminated the deficit, he got so rattled by that that he's never gotten on track again. His campaign can't get him there.

Question for you. Can I stay on Fat Elvis for a moment? Yeah, sure. Well, but only because when you talk about narcissism and so on, was there ever actually a jailhouse rock Trump or a blue Hawaii Trump? Like, this is sort of what Trump has been all along. Blue Hawaii Trump. That's going to stick with me. Continually.

- Well, it's a good question. For a lot of Americans, no, but for some Americans, yes. I mean, obviously with the base of the Republican Party, he has been a rock star. I mean, witness to the fact that he lost in 2020 and they brought him back where most candidates would have been, you know, exit the stage. So there are two groups to think about.

One is the base of his party, which is still with him, but it's beginning to shake a little. But the swing voters who are going to decide this election, who voted for him in 2016, left him in 2020. That's the group that he has to get. And when you become not only, you know, this fat Elvis version, boring, but also psychotic, that is just pushing them away. And we're seeing that in the polls.

very interesting I'm speaking about where that was that was just use at the end about sentence there independent presidential candidate RFK junior has been hedging his bets and doing some job hunting on the side sources tell CNN Kennedy's campaign reached out to Kamala Harris's team last week to try to arrange a meeting about a possible role in the Harris administration if RFK junior were to drop out of the race and endorse her

Funny. Her suddenly being ahead and Trump, this switch of Trump from a sure winner to a possible loser is...

Also impacted RFK Jr. I wonder what he's really interested in. The latest polls show Kennedy an independent with roughly 7% of the vote. One of his campaign officials tells CNN he is open to dropping out if he believes he can serve the country in a better way. I mean, this is like extraordinarily transparent here.

from a guy whose most recent claim to fame was acknowledging that he picked up a bear cub that was roadkill and put it in Central Park and was going to put it in his freezer, which apparently he has a freezer of roadkill, and put his mouth in the hand of this bear. I mean, like, what the what? I don't even think Donald Trump

would put RFK Jr. in his cabinet. I can guarantee you that Kamala Harris is not going to put RFK Jr. in his cabinet. It's just stunning. I mean, look at that. Look at that.

So he had to come clean with this because the New Yorker obtained this photograph. So the fact that they obtained this photograph means that he took this photograph and he sent it to somebody that would then go on to send it to the New Yorker. I mean, look, maybe you wouldn't appoint him to a position, but if you get the endorsement, you get 7 percent nationally. If you shave off 4 percent of those numbers, that could certainly benefit Donald Trump in this very close race. I also want to touch on something that Peter mentioned about Donald Trump being psychotic.

the race is close for a reason there are some swing voters who are still on the fence who are still open-minded to voting for the former president and so whatever delusions of grandeur one may have about Donald Trump personally speaking there are a lot of people out there who still believe the guy's a more effective leader on a whole host of very important issues yeah and it's a very very close race I'm glad I'm glad that you raised that sure Michael I will say also on this RFK question and Brad this may be for you about Peter Wayne if you want to but

The third party candidates did derail Hillary Clinton in 2016. Is there a potential upside to Harris doing some sort of deal with Kennedy and getting him out of the race? Or is she better off if he stays in? I think a lot of the polling recently has shown that he's drawing more attention

from Trump than he is drawing from Harris. Also, a lot of people had parked their votes in some of these third party candidates, particularly in him because of his name recognition and his family's history. And that has really started to fall. - Now they have another Democrat that they're excited about. - Yeah, now they have somebody else to go to.

Yeah, I'd say two things. First, your point is it's obviously a legitimate one. I mean, this is to some extent a toss-up race, but you can still be psychotic and in the race. That's actually the problem, which is in America, a man who is so psychologically unwell may win the presidency. That underscores the problem. In terms of RFK Jr., he's almost the only person in American life that can make J.D. Vance look partially normal.

He's a freak and we see that in so many ways from the vaccine crusade that he did, which really cost kids, a lot of kids lives that he's been on. And now this latest thing with the bear cup. There's something sad about him sort of shopping himself around, knocking on doors, whether it's Harris or Trump and basically no one is letting him

And so he's dropping, and Harris does better with him in the race than not, so I can't imagine she'd give him any kind of cabinet position in advance. Sure, Michael, how do you, feel free to respond to that as well. I just think there's a better way to articulate one's differences from a candidate without insulting them.

80 million people voted for the former president and when they listen to rhetoric like that it not only enrages them but it also excites them even folks in the middle who may say you know I don't agree with the former president but can you not articulate a better version of your differences from him policy wise instead of attacking him because that will be viewed by many as an attack against people who support

who I don't believe are crazy and psychotic people. - Yeah, I'd say a couple things. I'm not saying that people are crazy or psychotic. I'm saying Donald Trump is. I think that's self-evident if you've seen how he's acted. - But nonetheless, you've got 30 seconds, Gus. - I've talked to psychologists. You don't really have to be a psychologist. If there is smoke coming out of my car and there's oil that's spilling, I don't have to be a mechanic to know that there's a problem with the car, that I'm leaking oil.

And I'm not saying Harris has to make this point. I'm not on her campaign. I'm just saying as an observer and someone who has talked to psychologists and psychiatrists, he's not psychologically well. We have to go. Okay. Sure, Michael, thank you very much for weighing in on this. I really appreciate it. All right. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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