Trump Goes on Offense, Vance Changes His Mind, Biden on Dropping Out
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Introducing the new Sleep Number Climate Cool Smart Bed, the only smart bed in the world that actively cools and effortlessly adjusts for both of you. Find Sleep Number Smart Beds at every price point, only at a Sleep Number store or sleepnumber.com. It's Monday, August 12th. Right now on CNN This Morning, new polls show Kamala Harris making significant gains on Trump in critical battleground states. And no tax on tips. Do we like that?

Donald Trump trying to go on offense against Harris, accusing her of stealing one of his critical policy positions. Plus... If you want to be the people's vice president or president, you should have to stand before an interviewer and say, "This is why it changed my mind." J.D. Vance making interview rounds as he tries to turn the tables on the campaign trail. And this... I thought of myself as being a transition president. I can't even say how old I am. It's hard for me to get out of my mouth. President Biden's first sit-down conversation since he left the 2024 race.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the White House on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. There are 84 days until Election Day, just one week until the start of the Democratic National Convention. Kamala Harris painting the choice facing voters this November in stark terms. This is not 2016. This is not 2020.

This time around, the stakes are even higher. Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand by the seal of President's State!

Coming off a week-long swing state tour, the Harris campaign seeing yet another sign momentum continues to be on their side. This new poll from the New York Times and Siena College finding Harris as a four-point lead over Trump among likely voters across the blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All states Trump carried in 2016 that Biden flipped blue in 2020.

And Trump just doesn't seem to be handling any of this very well. The former president posting on social media last night, quote, "I'm doing really well in the presidential race, leading in almost all of the real polls," and insisting, quote, "This 2024 is thus far my best campaign, the most enthusiasm and spirit."

Those comments come after a blockbuster piece in the New York Times over the weekend where Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan report that Trump is quote, "A candidate knocked off his bearings, disoriented by his new contest with Kamala Harris and unsure of how to take her on." They write that Trump has no regrets about questioning Harris' black identity, telling Donors Friday quote, "I was right.

that he's sent angry text messages to a top donor, Miriam Adelson, potentially risking millions of dollars in support. And they report that Trump has repeatedly called Harris the B-word in private. The Trump campaign disputes that, telling the Times, quote, "That is not language that President Trump has used to describe Kamala." It all paints a portrait of an angry man struggling to run against a woman whose campaign, at least so far, is embracing joy.

We are here together because we love our country. We love our country. So look, and I love you back. So look, we are together. We are running this campaign on behalf of all Americans. So let's contrast that with how Trump presents this race. Watch.

If Comrade Waltz and Comrade Harris win this November, the people cheering will be the pink-haired Marxists, the looters, the perverts, the flag burners, Hamas supporters, drug dealers, gun grabbers, and human traffickers.

Okay, joining me now to discuss David Frum, staff writer for The Atlantic, Megan Hayes, former Biden White House Director of Message Planning and a consultant for the DNC, and Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's 2024 presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you on this Monday, a week before the Democratic National Convention. David Frum, the kind of swirl around Donald Trump this weekend, that Truth Social post

He ranted against leakers as well. He clearly seems very rattled by the Times piece, by the polling. What do you see here? I mean, these two campaigns are now so starkly different. What I see here is a story we've been living with for a decade.

In 2016, Donald Trump got a smaller share of the vote than Al Gore, than John Kerry, than Mitt Romney. In fact, he finished, of the 12 people who have run for president in the six elections from 2000 to 2020, he finished second from the bottom. And in 2020, Donald Trump got less, a smaller share of the vote than John Kerry and Mitt Romney and Al Gore, and he finished this time third from the bottom of those 12 people.

it there was not a day in his presidency when according to any reputable poll uh... donald trump had the support of even half the american people the story of that trump era has been how do you lever forty six percent of the vote into sixty percent of the political power worked in twenty sixteen it didn't work in twenty twenty and what's going on in twenty twenty four is the anti-trump majority which is always been bigger than the

the pro-Trump minority is, but has always been less cohesive, is reassembling and re-energizing itself to stop the man who tried to make a coup d'etat from returning to the presidency. Matt Gorman, there are a lot of Republicans around Donald Trump who are trying to get him to do things a certain way, and he does not seem to be listening to them. I mean, what has stood out to you over the last... A couple things, right? A month ago, we were all in Milwaukee, and it was remarkable kind of the discipline that he had, but again, it was easy to have the discipline when you're up

you know, two to five points. - Winning is easy. - Exactly, right? And so I think-- - Winning is very straightforward. - And there's an Axios piece that came out, talking, kind of alluding to that same sentiment that the Times talked about, and you had J.D. Vance and the Sunday shows really effectively levering some strong and probably the best

I assume, polling messaging against Kamala. At least it certainly was when Joe Biden ran against her, that chameleon type attack. And then Axios piece published just talking about how Trump is kind of very fuming and angry. And then he posts about Kamala and the rally in AI. And so what you have, I think, is Vance trying to have that traditional messaging, the one that follows where the Trump

ads are and then you know we end up kind of Trump kinda careens into a whole different set of things we end up in in Trump old right you're referring to they accused Harris s a putting out an AI photo of her crowd at a recent that we're gonna talk about that in our in our next block Megan he's I one other things that were obviously tracking is I

is this going to last? And also, as we're starting to see these new polls, what is it that's driving voters? And Frank Luntz conducted a focus group with undecideds. Some of these voters were previously voting for Trump. And here's how they explained to him how they've started to change how they look at the race. Let's watch.

It's more of an issue with Donald Trump and the options that are now available. When he chose J.D. Vance, it kind of pushed me over to having an open mind. I switched to voting for Karis because she's younger, she's vibrant. I switched because J.D. Vance scares the heck out of me and that Joe is just a little bit too old. She looks presidential. Even if I don't agree with all her policies, I trust that she'll have good judgment.

really interesting and JD Vance kept popping up there yeah I think you know people say that the vice presidential pick doesn't matter but I think that the McCain campaign would probably disagree with that going you know if we look back in history but I do think you know I think that the Harris campaign has offered this new enthusiastic new energy that went into the Democratic Party when you have these double haters that didn't want to vote for Biden didn't want to vote for Trump now the Harris campaign is giving people a place to go and also JD Vance's

the childless cat comment, or the-- - Childless cat ladies? - Yeah, comment. That really turned a lot of people off, and those are the independent voters that they need to win. So I just think the Harris campaign is working on their enthusiasm, or working that enthusiasm piece and really pushing forward, and I think it's really beneficial, and if they can keep it going into November, I think they're in a good spot. - The Trump campaign has this weird problem. If your mainline attack on Kamala Harris is that she slightly shifted her opinions at various points in her career,

Who are we going to put this message in the hands of? Who's going to deliver it? The biggest flip-flopper ever on a presidential ticket. I mean, many of us, J.D. Vance used to publish on my website, there's a Hollywood joke, do you know Doris Day? Why, I knew her before she was a virgin. I knew J.D. Vance when he was a moderate Republican who supported the Iraq War, supported free trade, and that was not when he was in his 20s. That was as a person of

making his way in politics. As late as 2016, he was publishing articles in The Atlantic, our magazine, denouncing Trump as a fascist, a Nazi, a threat to everything good and decent. And then he is the man you're going to select to deliver the, she's shifted from like this point on the center left to this slightly different point on the center left. This guy? Incredible. Because he's the one sitting for interviews, right? He's had to answer that. Right now, the Kamala Harris kind of tack

tactic is she does an anonymous aid sends out which essentially the anonymous aid disowns everything she said she talked about from 2019 to 2020 so you haven't had that opportunity in whatsoever so she's had really a total 180 from when she ran in 2019 and 2020 and we don't know why yeah I mean David do you think Harris is going to have to sit down for these interviews I mean she hasn't she hasn't yet and it has not been her strongest Forum in the course of her career

I imagine she will. I don't know. But the way you communicate presidential campaigns is also a little different in the TikTok era from the way it was in the network television. Megan is nodding. She doesn't think candidates have to do these interviews at all. And you also sit down with different kinds of people in the TikTok era from what you did.

Look, this is television. I don't want to say anything disrespectful of television. But if we were on radio in 1950 wondering when is the candidate going to sit next to his or her next interview on the mutual broadcasting system, they'd say, well, there's this thing called television that has come along, and it may be changing politics. And TikTok has done the same thing.

Really interesting. All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, Donald Trump's interest in crowd size enters a new arena. The former president spreading false conspiracy theories about the size of a Harris campaign rally. Plus, Donald Trump points the finger at Kamala Harris for mirroring one of his policies. And President Biden speaks out about his historic departure from this campaign. A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate

was taught that I was gonna hurt them in the races. And I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic.

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Reporting live from under my blanket, I'm Susan Curtis with Dunkin' at Home. Breaking news, pumpkin spice iced and hot coffees are back. I'll pass it to Mr. Curtis with his blanket for the full story. That is so right, Susan. You know, it's never too early to get in a spicy mood. I'm talking cinnamony goodness that's so tasty, people don't want to leave their blankets either. Back to you. No, back to you. All you. The home with Dunkin' Pumpkin Spice is where you want to be.

I've spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more. And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people.

Size matters to Donald Trump. So much so that, of course, he is now making false claims about Kamala Harris's crowd sizes. He insists nobody attended her rally in Michigan last week, demanding that she be disqualified from the race for using a fake crowd picture, again, with no evidence. As you can see, again, we were there. Thousands of real people actually packed an airport hangar near Detroit to see the vice president at this rally.

Trump not letting these facts get in the way, posting these photos on his Truth Social platform, alleging Harris used AI technology to fake the photos. Again, of course, the issue here that there were plenty of actual reporters there to document what is going on at these events. David Plouffe said this, these are not conspiratorial rantings from the deepest recesses of the internet. The author could have the nuclear codes.

and be responsible for decisions that will affect us all for decades. What's up with this? Well, we often casually use the word narcissism to mean someone who's self-involved, but that clinical narcissism is different. The clinical narcissist is struggling with deep inner feelings of worthlessness, and he constructs or she constructs a giant ideology of self-assertion to

to cope with their inner feelings of worthlessness. When anything threatens to puncture those fantasies, those fictions, the person can spiral into all kinds of mental collapse, into aggression, into violence, into self-hatred. But that's the Donald Trump story.

down there is seething worthlessness and self-hatred. He's constructed this fantasy of his life, and now it's being contradicted, and he cannot cope. - I will just say, none of us are actually card-carrying psychologists, so we'll leave that there. I take your point. - Some of us have known narcissists. We're in media and politics. We know a lot of them.

But Matt, I mean, this is like, I mean, come on. No, I mean, look, and I took, I approached him, as I said in the first block, from a communications point of view, right? You have lining it up, Vance, and you have this kind of progression with your messaging, and then it gets thrown away.

kind of a way. And that was, again, that was what we didn't see a month ago as much as Democrats kind of when we were talking in Milwaukee. Democrats are begging for things like this to intrude, to kind of distract from the Joe Biden is old, Joe Biden might drop out narrative. And, you know, we're having out in spades now. And I think that's the tough part, because, again, I think a lot of Republicans I talked to are very frustrated because there's really potent attacks

on Kamala and Tim Walz right now. There's a lot of them. And Vance is giving, as we saw on the Sunday shows, a pretty good articulation of them. But when you have the top of the ticket veering off into this stuff, this is why you spend eight minutes talking about this stuff. And people want to know how they're going to make their lives better, how each of these people are going to make their lives better, and how their economic policies and what their vision is for the future. And when you are not talking about the issues and talking about this nonsense, it is a distraction and you lose perspective.

voter yeah we talked about yeah we had the same problem with Joe Biden you're only talking about like Joe Biden at during that whole month that was what you distracted from in Trump was remarkable message with us I mean sort of irony here David is that it just serves to highlight the crowd she's getting that he's doing this

And also, look, the basic grammar, the basic math of the Trump era has never changed. 46% of the country either likes him or will put up with him, and a majority of the country dislikes, disrespects, fears him. And what we are watching is the anti-Trump majority, which has always been there. This is not new. We're not seeing momentum. We're not seeing shifting. We are seeing the coalition of the decent coming to life.

All right, still ahead here on CNN this morning, a controversial finish on the racetrack. The final lap that led to an improbable victory, crushing defeat and some really hard feelings. Plus, a catastrophic explosion in a Maryland neighborhood. That's 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. Video on social media showing Ukrainian soldiers taking down Russian flags in the Kursk region and replacing them with Ukrainian flags. Right now, hundreds of Ukrainian troops are advancing into Russian territory in a mission that's caught the Kremlin off guard. This morning, a pilot is dead after a helicopter crashed onto the roof of a seaside hotel in Australia. Guests inside the hotel were immediately evacuated as the building went up in flames.

New video in Maryland shows the aftermath of a house explosion that we now know killed two people. The Sunday morning explosion believed to be caused by a gas leak, leaving 12 families displaced.

Two NASCAR drivers upset at this aggressive finish to a race Sunday. Austin Dillon was in the number three. His car spun out one driver and crash into another before crossing the finish line. The victory secures Dillon a spot in the playoffs, but critics say he was reckless. The black box from the Brazilian flight that went down Friday has now been extracted. Authorities are looking to the data to determine what caused the crash, which killed all 62 people on board.

All right, time now for weather. What was Hurricane Debbie is done, but now parts of the southeast dealing with heat and a lingering flood risk. Another tropical system could be taking shape in the Atlantic. Let's get to meteorologist Elisa Rafa with the latest. Elisa, good morning.

Yeah, good morning. We're watching potential tropical cyclone 5 could become a depression later on today, a storm by tomorrow, and the name would be Ernesto. That's the next one on the list. It's got winds at 30 miles per hour, still trying to find its center of circulation, sitting more than 600 miles east and southeast of Antigua. We've got tropical storm watches in effect for the Leeward Islands and Paranormal.

Puerto Rico as it heads that way. Tropical storm of course conditions could start as soon as Tuesday and then it makes this turn into the Atlantic where it could become a hurricane as it heads towards Bermuda. Looking at some four to six inches of rain possible across parts of Puerto Rico, but up to 10 inches possible in some of those higher elevations and that could cause flash flooding and mudslides.

So here's a look again at the steering, kind of where it goes. It makes this turn because in the eastern U.S. we have this area of high pressure and a stalled front along the east coast and that's what's going to keep Ernesto out to sea. What it's also doing though is not really making the situation of all the rain that we got from Debbie over the last five days any better for anyone in the Carolinas. We still have some flood watches in effect and we still have all of these flood warnings along the rivers.

because they're still reacting to the 10 to 20 inches of rain that they got from Debbie. So you can see still some river rises in the forecast, still up to major flood stage for the Cape Fear River. Again, could get up to 16 feet and still, again, rising at the Tar River as well. So we'll continue to see some river conditions that could potentially get worse over the next couple of days. Casey. All right, Elisa Rafa for us this morning. Elisa, thank you very much.

All right, coming up next after the break, Kamala Harris embracing a new economic policy, why it might sound familiar to Donald Trump and Republicans. Plus, vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance sat down with CNN's Dana Bash. She joins us next with the highlights from her interview.

For

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The Karras campaign has frankly lied about what I actually said. I'm pro-family. I want us to have more families and obviously sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes for medical reasons, sometimes because you don't meet the right person. But the point is that our country has become anti-family in its public policy.

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance trying to reframe the debate about his now infamous childless cat ladies comment. In a series of television interviews yesterday, Vance tried to paint Democrats as the anti-child party, and he defended Trump's position of leaving abortion policy to the states.

I criticized Kamala Harris for being part of a set of ideas that exists in American leadership that is anti-family. I never, Dan, I criticized people for not having kids. I criticized people for being anti-child.

And joining me now is CNN's chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, who hosts CNN's Inside Politics and co-hosts CNN's State of the Union. Dana, good morning. Good morning. Thank you so much for being up early with us today. This was a great interview. J.D. Vance clearly felt like he needed to, I mean, this was a significant kind of push he made doing these interviews, probably trying to contrast with the Harris campaign simply by doing such sit-downs. He explicitly said that, too.

Fair enough. He was not hiding it. So walk us through what you learned from him. What stood out to you about what he had to say? First of all, he is very eager to, we were talking beforehand, as you said, try to

steer back the conversation as much as he can, perhaps from the man at the top of the ticket to issues. You heard him talking a lot about some of the policies that the Trump campaign wants to push. He says that the Harris campaign hasn't fully developed yet, which is not wrong. They're three and a half week old campaign. We're going to hear more of them this coming week. But

The whole question of, well, let's just focus on what you just played, the family and the childless cat lady and so on and so forth. One of the things that was interesting to me was I asked him specifically, because he called out by name Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, about whether or not he considers them parts of families, because in the case of Kamala Harris, she is a stepmom. She has two stepchildren.

He said, yes, she is part of a family. And Pete Buttigieg, he even said, yes. I later in the program talked to Buttigieg, and he said, well, I wonder if that means that he's going to change his position on same-sex marriage, which

from the perspective of someone like Pete Buttigieg and others who are in his position who are able to get married to somebody of the same sex, if J.D. Vance's, I guess, former position or who knows, you know, if the Republican, many Republicans' position stays in effect, he wouldn't have that family. So, go ahead. You want to play part of the, let's play part of the Buttigieg answer on this. Let's watch.

The other part just is troubling, right? Which is saying that anybody who disagrees with him is anti-child. And it's part of just who he is, right? He seems incapable of talking about a vision for this country in terms of lifting people up or building people up or helping people out. It's always disparagement.

It does seem to actually play into, I mean, the negative framing of this is by itself a contrast between Trump vance and Harris-Walls right now. No, it absolutely is. The other thing that was striking to me was on Tim Walz's military record. He was not

He was not backing down on it. They clearly believe that they are onto something here. We had a pretty extended conversation about it, and I was giving him some of the facts, including

the Harris campaign saying that Tim Walz misspoke in the one time that I have seen where he said back in 2018 that he used a weapon of war in war, which he did not do because he was not in an actual war zone, even though he did serve for 24 years. The fact that he continues to seize on that is I'm not sure if it means that they see something that we don't or it's just like the thing as people to just

Pete Buttigieg said, it's the exception that sort of defines the rule. That he is kind of hard to attack on a lot of other issues. - Yeah, so one of the other places where Vance has tried to, well he's been criticized by the Harris and Walz ticket as weird, right? There was some conversation back and forth about this in your interview with him.

And there was a moment about a handshake. I just want to show it and then you can kind of explain it. Tim Waltz gives this big speech. He's been announced as the VP nominee. And I remember when I had just been announced as the VP nominee, I gave my big speech and I saw my wife and I gave her a big hug and a kiss because I love my wife. And I think that's what a normal person does. Tim Waltz gave his wife a nice firm Midwestern handshake and then tried to sort of awkwardly correct for it.

- What? - Well, that's what I said. I said, "I don't really understand what you're saying," and then he continued to sort of explain it. I can't believe we're having this conversation, but we went-- but we-- in fact, Jeff Zeleny, who was there, sent me a photo of the two of them hugging. I mean, when Tim Walz did go to his wife, it almost looked like he was turning around to-- with his hand out, not knowing who was there, and he was like, "Oh, it's you," and then pulled her in. - Right. - But I guess-- look, the point is, is that

He's not afraid to play in this sandbox. And that is why the Tim Walls actually came up with this term weird because Democrats for so long have brought a

a knife to a gunfight when it comes to the rhetoric of Donald Trump and they're trying to be more in that space. Also, look, J.D. Vance spends way too much time online and spends way too much time with people who are online. So a lot of what he says is going to be incomprehensible to you unless you participate in or have some acquaintance with this strange underworld that he comes from. So when he

The point to the, I'm going to say this, because it's not nice, it's not true, but what he's trying to suggest is that Tim Walz is a sexual deviant of some kind. What? What are you talking about? That's what he's trying to imply. That's ridiculous, David. Of course I... No. No, that's ridiculous. Look at Donald Trump. A sexual deviant. No, first of all, Tim Walz started this whole weird line attack. Look at Donald Trump. We could spend three months on birth and three weeks on Bratz summer, and you're going to sexual deviant? That is ridiculous.

If you want to understand this, just as a point of analytic understanding, look at Donald Trump Jr.'s Twitter feed to understand what the underworld, the lava coming up from the ugliest parts of American life are and what they're trying to suggest. The point to J.D. Vance,

when he says, "I want to talk about policy." He's a candidate who's trying to say, "When I said that the unemployed are a bunch of lazy louts swilling beer on the couch at 9:00 a.m., what I meant to say is this country needs to do a better job of creating work for people."

that everything is couched as a personal attack of the most vicious kind. And that's what he's doing with Tim Walz. That's why people think he's weird, because he's so brilliant. He's so capable. So why is he so filled with rage and contempt for others? You're saying that J.D. Vance is brilliant. You're giving

you're giving yes he's brilliant I I'm you're very I don't know why is he so filled with rage and contempt I appreciate Matt you being you pushing back on that I wanna kinda bring it back to Dan is interview because I you also spoke with him about and the the the president's the former president Donald Trump's comments at NABJ I and the these these questions that you know he said Kamala Harris quote happened to turn black I question her racial identity let's watch this

I believe that Kamala Harris is whatever she says she is, but I believe importantly that President Trump is right that she's a chameleon. She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience. She pretends to be something different in front of another audience. Look, Dana, she's not running a political campaign. She's running a movie. She only speaks to voters behind a teleprompter. Everything is scripted.

So, I mean, this is what the campaign would like Donald Trump to be focused on, right? Like this messaging around calling Kamala Harris a chameleon. That's not what Trump is doing, even though Vance is out there doing it. And what happened right after that in the interview is I said something along the lines of, with respect, if you want to talk about people changing your positions, you changed one of the biggest, which is that you were very anti-Donald Trump. And now you're not. And

and then he explained, as he has done before, why he thought that he was wrong about Donald Trump before. - I just don't think we should be in the business of questioning people's race. I just think it's a weird place to be. They need to stick to issues, and I think that he was trying to do that there, but again, Donald Trump's not gonna do that.

When you start having these conversations about race, you are turning off people who are these independent voters who don't, it just is weird to them, sorry to overuse, but it's just like a-- - I'm coming for the campaign. - It's just like an interesting place to be. Again, we need to focus on issues and the economy and how you're gonna make people's lives better and the vision for the future. And leave all this personal stuff behind.

I just think it's turning off people in these battleground states. All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, Democrats say that they are spreading a message of joy. They want to ride positive momentum to the White House. We're going to dig into that. Plus, Team USA appealing a decision to strip the bronze medal from American gymnast Jordan Childs.

All right, 46 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. The fight for Jordan Childs to keep her individual bronze medal continues. USA Gymnastics formally submitted video evidence to show the team's head coach request to file an inquiry on Childs' score was submitted 47 seconds after the judging. That is within the one minute deadline required. This has all happened because they were told that they missed that deadline.

Former foes Elon Musk and Donald Trump sitting down for a one-on-one interview on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Tonight, Musk has already endorsed Trump for his 2024 candidacy. He promises the conversation tonight will be, quote, highly entertaining, end quote.

Imagine trying to get around Los Angeles without a car. That's what Mayor Karen Bass says she is aiming for when the Olympics head to LA in four years. She said she wants the games to be car free. This is part of a plan that includes expanding the city's public transportation. Just say I will believe it when I see it. Call me skeptical, but hey, I suppose it's an admirable goal. All right, let's turn back to the 2024 race.

They're trying to steal the joy from this country. They try and steal the joy. In this fight, we are joyful warriors. She has brought compassion and decency and humor and joy to our politics. Good work is good work, and we will do it with joy. She has brought out the joy in our politics.

Okay, so now we're stating the obvious. The Harris-Walls campaign has centered their campaign around joy. Its message is one that our next guest says could be decisive in November in his latest piece for Variety magazine. Mark McKinnon writes this, quote, eight years of MAGA gloom with a global pandemic in the midst of it has enveloped the country in a dark cloak.

When Biden initially handed the reins to Harris and voters responded so enthusiastically, they were evidently starving for a break from the drumbeat, seeking a more optimistic message.

Even if many may not have realized it at the time, they were primed for the positive. And while there will be battles royale during the next three months over ideology, policy, and personal biographies, I believe this election will fundamentally boil down to a contest between the future and the past, between joy and anger. Joining me now is Mark McKinnon, former advisor to George W. Bush, John McCain, one of the creators of Paramount's The Circus. Mark, good morning. It's always wonderful to see you.

Good morning. Good morning. So I really enjoyed your piece. And you really compare this, this new attitude from the Harris campaign to some of the most successful campaigns of the past, regardless of party. And we pulled together, you write about them in your piece. We thought it'd be fun to show them on TV. You're citing, again, these are little pieces that you put together to kind of show how this kind of a message can help somebody win. Let's watch this.

It's morning again in America and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger and better. I mean, the contrast could not be more clear, right? I mean, that first one was, of course, JFK's campaign song.

Yeah, that great series of clips there, Casey. You know, the other campaign I didn't even mention, but of course I'm closest to, was George W. Bush and his compassionate conservatism. I just heard Walt in your clip talk about compassion. We've been missing compassion, we've been missing joy, and I just think there's this pent-up hunger for optimism, joy, and I think that goes a long way toward explaining what's happening, because something

unique and different is happening. And I think a lot of it just has to do with people just embracing the joy of this campaign. And how weird is it that one of the first things the Trump campaign did was attack Kamala Harris's laughter, for God's sake. And then I thought about it, I thought, you know what's really weird? You never hear Donald Trump laugh. I mean, have you? And if you have, please roll the tape.

I'll have them go looking for it. But this, I mean, that's come up, we've seen that come up before, right? This note that Donald Trump very rarely laughs. I mean, sometimes humor is part of his rallies, but it was much more that way in 2016. I mean, that really seems to be one of the really striking differences between that campaign that he won, what we saw in 2020, and what we're seeing this time around. I mean, even if you're not a fan of Donald Trump,

if you look at it, Mark, I'm really interested in your take on what we saw from the former president over the weekend. Because there was this big report in the New York Times where they said he had called Kamala Harris the B word. He was reportedly angry and brooding and demanding updates from his campaign advisors about what is the latest polling. His mood seems to match the darkness of his campaign right now.

What impact is that having? - A ton, I mean, think about it. This is something that George Bush used to say. People don't say, "I'm really pissed off, follow me." If they do, nobody does. And to your point, it's so dark and Trump-filled right now. And by the way, the crazy tweet that he did that you also mentioned on the program,

It's just, I mean, we think we've seen the total crazy of Trump and then he does something like this. And, you know, I mean, questioning the 2020 election, I mean, is sinister, but this is like another level because think about it. If he were president again and he's fantasizing about his enemies like China and he thinks that they're using AI to create whatever, like crowds for like Harris,

how's he going to respond as president if he's actually thinking these things are true about his opponents? Mark, the sort of overall question, and I'm sure that when you come back, we'll kind of continue to talk about this as this goes on, but

This has been such a period of highs for the Harris campaign. How would you evaluate how they're dealing with the speed bumps that are coming their way? There was this military service question around walls. Obviously, we're going to head into the convention. That's likely to be another kind of upper for them. But surely, the rubber is going to meet the road at some point. How do you evaluate them so far? And what do you see in that regard in the future?

Great point, great point, Casey, because they are, and that's the real test of a campaign. But when we look back on this campaign in the future, if Harris wins, I think this compressed time schedule will really have worked to her advantage. Because think about it, she's had three and a half weeks of great press. If she can get through this week with good press, you know she's going to get great press during the convention. That'll be more than a month of solid, positive press and then rolling into September 2020.

So that's tough to beat. Now, yes, the Waltz military record, I think they did the right thing with

with the statement about he misspoke. So that was good on that point. She did do a little presser at the airport, as you saw, which of course Trump thinks is AI now. So they know that they've got to do that. They know they've got to face some press and some tough questionings. But they can kind of fade this, and they're rolling with it just right, and they roll it up through the convention. That gives her more confidence so that when they do face these speed bumps, they can do it with a whole shield of armor. Final point I'll make is that, you know,

Democrats are always accused of bringing a knife to a gunfight. Well, this positive campaign is like bringing biscuits to a gunfight. And I think the Republicans are going, what? All right, fair enough. Mark McKinnon for us this morning. Mark, always grateful to have you. Thank you. Hope you'll come back soon. Take it, Casey. Thanks. All right, let's turn now. Let's turn now to this. Once more, you won't enjoy it.

This was the slow dance at my middle school dances. Donald Trump opened his Montana rally this weekend. I'm sure you can recognize it. Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." If you've been living under a rock for all this time, you may remember this is a romantic ballad that served as the theme to James Cameron's "Titanic."

And now it was at a Trump rally. Dion took issue with Trump's use of the song and then posted, "In no way is this use authorized. Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use." The singer also posed this question. Tell me you weren't thinking it. Really? That song?

First of all, I love that song. Yeah, it's a great song. A little renaissance of Celine Dion right now by the Olympics. I know, you love to see it. It's funny, right, because if you've been to a Trump rally, like the soundtrack is quite good actually beforehand. It is. And it's like really like the adult contemporary station that your parents would listen to while you're in the backseat of the car. It's like Celine Dion. Queen. Easy listening Rolling Stones in there. It's actually a pretty good like mix.

But yeah, that's always the tough part with Republicans and finding those songs and we always would get dinged on this a couple times every election. Rodney did a bunch too. Artists tend not to be on our side of the aisle. - Right, usually the celebrities are more on the other end. But I mean, it's sort of telling David Frum that they allowed this to happen.

Playing a song from a movie that hit a giant ship that hit an iceberg and sank. Yes. Killing almost all those aboard. Donald Trump plays strange songs. I want to put in a special word here that not only is Celine Dion Canadian, but so is James Cameron. We need to have a little Canadian on here. Our resident Canadian here. Megan, you want to weigh in on this one? I mean, I think that...

I think the Harris campaign got a lot of credit for Beyonce saying she could do her song. I think there was something over the weekend with Tim Walz, or with Governor Walz. So I just think that it's incredible that, like your point, the Democrats always seem to get the good music. But this is like an advanced fail 101. The very first thing you do is make sure the music is vetted, make sure you have permission to use it. I remember having a very in-depth conversation about what song Jeb Bush would got to via CPAC. But the Trump campaign doesn't pay for its venues, so why would they pay for its music?

- Well, yeah, it is, one of the things about the Trump soundtrack that I always thought was interesting is that it really deviated from sort of the country music heavy way that other campaigns would do things. - Yeah, again, when you're on the road and you're hearing this for a year straight, it's nice to have some better songs. - A little variety. - Yeah. - So Celine Dion. - Oh, absolutely, in my opinion, yes. Just my personal opinion, personal. - All right, so speaking of musical acts, we'll get to it, I'm gonna leave you with this.

Tom Cruise giving the Olympics a Hollywood send-off during the closing ceremonies in Paris. He ziplined into the stadium, grabbed the Olympic flag from Simone Biles, and then set off on his motorcycle. And then there was this prepared package.

The US takeover the closing ceremony then took us to a beachside concert in LA with a red hot chili peppers and the mascot of the 2024 Olympics took the stage Snoop Dogg.

Now, LA is on the clock as the US hosts the world at the next Summer Olympics in 2028. First of all, I hope Snoop is coming back, right? He has to, right? Yes. Absolutely.

They have a high bar, LA, but Paris did such a great job. - It's amazing. - Paris did a great job. David Frum, would you make a Tom Cruise? They changed the Hollywood sign. They put the Olympic rings up there. - LA has been a great center of Olympics. 1984, I think, was the one Olympics that didn't lose money. And of course, the whole shape of modern Los Angeles is owing to their first Olympics.

and the Olympic Avenue and the whole shift of the city from the center to the west. They owe to the Olympics of almost a century ago. So I don't disbelieve the mayor that the Olympics could be transformational for the new Los Angeles of the 21st century. All right, all right, fair enough. All right, thanks guys. I really appreciate you joining me today. Thanks to all of you for being here. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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