All Eyes on Dems as DNC Begins
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For every life-saving treatment. For every next step. For every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. It's Monday, August 19th, right now on CNN This Morning. The Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago, where Kamala Harris will accept her party's nomination for president. We are still the party of hope. If only we dare hope.

President Biden set to attend his 13th DNC tonight, where he will pass the torch to Kamala Harris. And Hollywood buzz at the DNC as a list of celebrities are set to rally around Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. And then... She's a truly radical left lunatic. Donald Trump continuing to attack Kamala Harris as the vice president sees a boost in the polls. ♪

All right. 5 a.m. here in Chicago, 6 a.m. on the East Coast, a live look at the United Center. It's home to the Democratic National Convention throughout this week. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us in just hours. The Democratic National Convention begins on this stage right behind me. You can really feel the enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris already building in this town. You could see it in O'Hare when people were landing here at the airport. Democrats,

basically here to party. Harris herself, though, wrapping up a bus tour heading into the convention with a message to her party. Watch. Poll shows that you're three points up nationally. What's your response to this? Do you still consider yourself the underdog here? I very much consider us the underdog. We have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people. That's why we're on this bus tour today.

Don't forget to work for it, she says. National polling continuing to trend in Harris's direction. A new survey from CBS News showing Harris beating Trump by three points nationally, the two in a dead even tie in the battleground states that will decide the election.

Tonight, Harris will watch from inside the arena as President Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, address the delegates, his historic decision to leave the race, giving Harris this chance and upending the race in a way that has clearly thrown Donald Trump, who's still struggling with how to take her on. Time magazine doesn't have a picture of her. They have this unbelievable artist drawing her. But I say that I am much better looking than her. I think I'm much better looking than her.

I'm a better looking person than Kamala. They said, no, her biggest advantage is that she's a beautiful woman. I'm going, huh? I never thought of that. I'm better looking than she is.

Joining us now to discuss Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director, Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator, former South Carolina Democratic state representative, Shermichael Singleton, Republican strategist, CNN political commentator, and Mark McKinnon, former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain, and of course, the creator of The Circus on Showtime. Welcome to all of you. Thank you guys for being here on this first day. Mark,

Mark McKinnon, I've got to start with you because, of course, what Trump was reacting to there, it's a very specific example in a broader universe of just how people are dealing with Kamala Harris right now. The excitement here, he was technically responding to a Peggy Noonan column that was at

the beginning of August where Noonan says she is beautiful. You can't take a bad picture of her, her beauty, plus the social warmth that all who have known her over the years speak of combines to produce radiance. And it's foolish to believe that this doesn't matter, but it really kind of puts the, the,

this race into sharp relief. It's the greatest and latest example of just how unprepared he is to deal with Kamala Harris. Peggy Noonan, by the way, who's Reagan's speechwriter and a terrific columnist, had another great line about what's happening here. And when she said that it's not so much that Kamala Harris created a movement as a movement created her. To me, I think that really captures what's going on, which is there's this burst of pent-up enthusiasm that's been going on for the last decade

Eight years, really, since Trump came on the scene. And by the way, I think this is going to be a night when or a week when Kamala Harris is standing not only on your old boss's shoulders, but also on Hillary Clinton's shoulders. And again, that's part of that pent up. All those Hillary people who thought they're going to win eight years ago are going to be just blowing up. Well, and to that point, Kate, I mean, we are going to see Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden on stage tonight in a real show. It's another contrast quite clearly.

candidly with Republicans. Yeah, absolutely. And I agree with Mark, but I also think you have to be the person who's ready to absorb and take it on and take on the mantle. And I wouldn't take that away from Kamala Harris because I think she has risen to this moment in a way that has been

maybe historically successful. So, and yeah, I mean, tonight you're going to see some of the elder statesmen, the kind of pillars of the Democratic Party, a dramatic contrast with where the Republican Party is right now, which is, you know, the majority of people who have served under Donald Trump not willing to endorse him. I mean, you have a Republican

Party that is fractured, that is reeling. You have Donald Trump making an argument about who's more attractive, because if there's one thing that a swing voter in Pennsylvania really cares about, it's, you know, is Donald Trump more attractive than Kamala Harris? That's what that's like keeping them up at night while they're while they're grappling with who to vote for. Well, it does. It does. I mean, Peggy Noonan goes on to say it does matter. So many in this male dominated profession have taken to Botox fillers, dermabrasion, facelifts and all the cosmetic things. This is what she wrote.

Because they're in a cosmetic profession, that's it. OK, that's fair. And absolutely, it is. It is a it is a performance focused industry platform. And Kamala Harris is beautiful. She is beautiful. But, you know, I just think it goes to the fact that Donald Trump has not found a way, a substantive way to get at her. He's on his back foot. Republicans are on their back foot. And you're going to see a really united Democratic Party this week. On the substance point, Bakari, or to the extent that that is that is something that

his campaign is trying to push their, their reaction to her economic plan on Friday. And this was an area where I will say, uh,

people I have talked to on both sides of the aisle have acknowledged, like, there are some questions here. She did that economic speech. Now, the way that Republicans attacked her on that was to call her a communist. They put up this graphic, which I think we can show, which should underscore it's AI-generated. It's not real. Kamala Harris does not identify as a communist. And that's what Trump was out calling her also in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday. Let's take a look at that, and then we'll talk to Bakari about it. We are going to defeat...

A communist known as Kamala Harris. Kamala went full communist. You heard that? She went full communist. She wants to destroy our country. Her father, a Marxist. He was a Marxist. It's what her father taught her from a young girl growing up.

So, of course, this is the Trump version of I mean, if if Trump were to be listening to Republicans in his party who say he should attack her on policy, I suppose this is a version of it. Do you think it gets any traction?

I'm not sure there's any Republican that actually has good common sense that is saying that is the way to attack Kamala Harris. I think that if you have Chris LaCivita and Susie Wills and Jason and all of the other people around her who kept him very disciplined for the first four or five months of this race, they would probably say tie her as close to Joe Biden as you possibly can, talk about the same policies, etc.,

This isn't it. You know, Comrade Kamala is not a name that is going to stick. It seems as if he's trying to just throw whatever against the wall. But Donald Trump has this unique inability to dial in whenever he's...

in the face of a black woman. It's almost weird to see whether or not it's Abby Phillip or whether or not it's April Ryan or whether or not it's Kamala Harris. He short circuits and it's, and it's fascinating when you watch it. And one of the things that he's having a lot of trouble with is figuring out

any way to attack Kamala Harris, any way whatsoever, because what we're seeing is that this is not going to work. Next week is going to be something else. Next week is going to be something else. And September 10th is going to come soon enough when they have to stand toe to toe on a debate stage. Sure, Michael, can you weigh in on what

His point here. I mean, look, I think there are some ways to distinguish the conservative message and the former president's record from the vice president. And that is on the economic front. I mean, if you look at the polling data, if you are to believe the numbers that we have, many Americans would say that at least during the first two years of Trump's presidency, they did feel more financially secure.

There are still some issues, I would argue, within the Democratic Party, which is why you're seeing so many protesters here protesting, calling for a ceasefire. What occurs, Casey, if that doesn't happen, particularly in a state like Michigan, where there's a strong Muslim population, where there are a lot of young Democratic voters, where this is a principal concern for them, at least in the top five or top 10 issues?

And so while I would like the former president to get back to the message of the economy, foreign policy, immigration, I do think Republicans writ large are going to look at this and say there are areas where most people would say they're not happy with the past three and a half years. Vice President Harris has been with Joe Biden along the step. Nothing has improved. That should be the message to the American people. So speaking of Biden.

the Democratic divisions or fissures. Mark, Maureen Dowd over the weekend kind of said out loud, what... Democrats ain't listening to Maureen Dowd. What?

Okay, fine. I'll take it to you then, but let's look at what she said. Okay, so this is what Maureen Dowd writes. We head to Chicago on a wave of euphoria, exuberance, exultation, excitement, and even you might say ecstasy. It's going to be a glorious coronation, except that everybody's mad at each other. Top Democrats are bristling with resentments, even as they are about to try to put on a united front at the United Center in the Windy City. A coterie of

powerful Democrats maneuvered behind the scenes to push an incumbent president out of the race. And it is true that there is some real anger in the Joe Biden camp that is currently being suppressed

But it's there, and he's going to be here tonight on this stage. I mean, I just love the plethora of adjectives. The quartery, I felt like I was studying for the SAT. Mrs. Dowd, I don't know. Look, the fact is, that's not accurate. I think what you're going to see tonight are a lot of thank you Joes. We're going to see his staff feel very warm about the fact that this man gave

40, 50, 60 years of his life. And he's going to get a coronation tonight on this stage. He's going to have the woman who he loves the most beside him and Dr. Jill. And he's going to have somebody who he has a great deal of respect for. And what,

Mrs. Dowd misses is if she actually spoke to any of us or had an inroad to anybody who knows what's going on is that he looks at Kamala Harris with this great love and admiration because of Kamala Harris's love, respect in relationship with Beau Biden. And a lot of what he sees in Kamala, he sees through the prism of Beau.

And so we're going to see that tonight. And I just think that it's going to be so much euphoria. And I think I think whatever dissension people may believe exists is going to be tampered. I mean, I totally agree with this. And I will tell you, somebody somebody worked for Joe Biden for a long time. If there is one thing that he puts above all else, well, first, it's family.

But then secondly, it's service and it's the idea of service. And if he's feeling any frustration about what happened over the last month, I can tell you that is something he will keep private, that he will talk to his own family about, that he will not in any way allow to roll out and infect and disrupt this moment where Democrats have

come together in a really unprecedented way. And that's going to dissipate completely tonight. I mean, this will be the gold watch moment. I mean, his legacy could have been one of two things. It was possibly that the guy that beat Trump reelected Trump.

or that he is the guy responsible for handing off the baton to the next generation of leadership in the Democratic Party and possibly win the election. So it's going to be a coronation for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It's a real legacy moment in many ways for him. I mean, I will say, sure, Michael, I mean, I've talked to

to people, people are willing to say out loud that if Harris goes on to lose the election to Trump, that also is going to reflect poorly on Joe Biden. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think some Democrats would probably say, man, we probably should have kept Joe in despite his issues. Well, I mean, look, I would say this again. I'll go back to the issue of men. Yes, women are energized because of the reproductive issue.

But you cannot win this election with just women only. Yeah, the vice president has increased her margins with Hispanic voters writ large. She's still behind, I think, about seven points. She's around 77 percent with black voters. She needs to be at 90 or above in order to win as a Democrat. Democrats, in order to win the Electoral College, need, I believe, two to three million more votes.

I mean, these are real numbers despite this energy that we're seeing. I congratulate, again, my Democratic friends. I congratulate Vice President Harris. But the numbers are what the numbers will be, and those things haven't necessarily changed.

No, I mean, the blessing is that you're running against Donald Trump and Donald Trump forever has a very high floor and a low ceiling. I mean, he's a 46% candidate. I mean, the reason Donald Trump got elected in 2016 is because of a young lady named Jill Stein. I mean, we all know that. And so I agree with Kamala and

I mean, excuse me, I agree with you, Michael. And I think that one of the things that comes, I know. Thank you. I'm up here saying all black people look alike. The beauty that Michael is exuding right now has me off kilter.

But what I was saying is I agree with Shermichael and I agree with Kamala because I want people to understand what you just said. Democrats, she's still an underdog. Absolutely. Like, I don't know what. You said that off the top. Yeah. I mean, we're still underdogs in this race. I mean, you're still running against somebody who has won a national election before. And Kamala Harris has not had success on this level before. So she's still an underdog. We just have the wind at our sails. Is it going to be enough November 5th? I'm

I'm not sure. Here's a really interesting quote. This is from about a month ago. And it is the following. I don't think Joe Biden has a ton of advantages, but I do think Democrats do. You know who that was? You. I do. Susie Wiles. In the Atlantic. Before that. So she's admitting that the Democrats have a lot of inherent vulnerabilities.

built-in advantages that Joe Biden didn't have because of his age primarily. Well, and we're seeing that in just the lineup here, right? That so many, all of the former presidents are here. That is not something that happened at Trump's Republican convention, as euphoric as it was for Republicans. Say for one, one is not here.

I mean, I wish we could have had George W. Bush. That would have been great, Mark, to see the former president there. I mean, I know that that's unlikely. Why wasn't Mike Pence there? I forget. We know why Mike Pence is not there, guys. I mean, come on. I mean, look, Casey, I will say quickly, I do expect this to be a great week for Democrats. And I do expect potentially for them, for the vice president, to see another maybe four or five percent bump.

after this. And so I do think Republicans have to take this very serious. She's a different candidate. This has superseded policies in some ways. It's a cultural thing. It's a movement. And it is difficult to message against something like that. And I think that's why you're sort of seeing the former president struggle a little bit. She's also receiving the blessing of circumstance. Because what's happening right now is inflation is easing. Border crossing numbers are going down. Violent crime is going down.

And so like it's it's the timing of it could not happen at a better time. I mean, you'd rather be on the downslope of those numbers than those numbers rising. Now, I know Michael is about to dive in and say, are people feeling it X, Y, Z? Well, we're in Chicago where crime is still a problem. We're in Chicago where the migrant issue has cost the city one billion. But Casey, but the point is.

But the point that I'm trying to make here, if I'm a conservative and Democrats are to make this lofty argument that their policy and their ideas are going to work, generally speaking, well, here's a great city that we're in. And some of those policies are not working very well. And these are certainly not the policies that I would like to see all across America.

I think the compressed schedule, if Kamala wins, we're going to look back and say, what a huge advantage that's turned out to be. Because look what's happening just in a few weeks. I've always said that in a presidential campaign, the three really big times when you can move the dial are your announcement, your VP pick in the convention and the debates. And she's doing that all within like a four week period. So, I mean. And she's, I think, I also think with this freedom message. So yes, absolutely. A lot of the economic circumstances are in this moment moving in her direction, but

She has also tapped into, remember, this kind of this fear and this anxiety that people have about Trump and the Republicans in a post-Dobbs world in particular. Obviously, reproductive rights is kind of the most illustrative example of that. Salient. Salient. Yes. Thank you. But but.

But, you know, she let's let's also give her and her campaign some credit that they have kind of, I think, kind of put their finger on the zeitgeist of what people are anxious about, about Trump. And so she's been able to sort of harness this energy in a way that I think, you know, she could have misstepped.

But the race is still incredibly close despite all of those things. 30 days of incredible coverage. And despite Donald Trump sort of meandering all over the place on some issues, there is still obviously some strength of the former president. We're an equally divided country. Yes, yes. Partisanship is so calcified. And yes, you could not, you cannot look at the head-to-head in battleground states and say this is not a coin toss race. It is. But you also...

to what we've been discussing. You also can't look under the hood at where some of the key constituencies that need to rally for Kamala Harris are and say, there isn't a little bit more work to do and this is a very close race. - I think what's amazing is that over the last year, Trump was indicted, convicted, there was assassination attempt and now he's grumpy.

Fair enough. All right. Coming up next here on CNN this morning, Kamala Harris rolls out her pitch on the economy to try to tame inflation, drawing praise from Democrats and some ridicule from the GOP. Plus, Hillary Clinton, the first woman to win a major party presidential nomination, takes the stage tonight to voice her support for fellow trailblazer

Kamala Harris. Plus, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance hit the trail this week in critical swing states to try to counter-program the DNC and continue their offense against the Harris campaign. Under Kamala Harris and Crooker Joe Biden, the American dream was dead, and it is dead. It's dead as a doornail. They'll never bring it back unless we win. If we win, we're going to have the American dream.

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair? Done well. Kitchen sink install? Done well. Deck upgrades? Done well. Electrical upgrade? Done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well. Hire high-quality, certified pros at Angie.com.

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Tonight we've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union. The first time that a major party has nominated a woman for president. After all, when there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit.

Eight years after that moment, Hillary Clinton takes the DNC stage again tonight. A person familiar with her thinking telling CNN, quote, she'll talk about how many cracks have been put in the glass ceiling, but she'll also talk about what she sees once the glass is shattered, once Harris dies.

does it? Our panel's back. I want to kind of spin through quickly as we wrap things up here. What are you expecting, hoping to see tonight, Kate? I think what we're going to see is a harnessing of this energy that is so palpable in the Democratic Party right now. I think Hillary Clinton is somebody who Democrats have enormous respect for. I think, you know, I also think that, you know, there's the audience in the convention hall,

who's going to be, I think, absolutely crazy for her. And then there's also the audience at home. And I think that now that we've seen four years of Donald Trump in office, we've seen that chaos. We see what that looks like. I think there are a lot of swing voters who say, man, we might have made the wrong choice in 2016. And I think she's going to help sort of remind people of that.

I would love to hear from some of the strategists to my left, but one of the things that I believe Hillary Clinton is going to be able to do that Kamala Harris won't do is lean into identity. One of the things Kamala Harris hasn't done since she's been running is talk about the fact that she is a black woman or lean into just being a woman or

being a woman of color. I think Hillary Clinton is going to be able to do that tonight. One of the things that we always say about Kamala Harris is the same thing we said about the reason Barack Obama didn't necessarily lean into that either is because you can see the history, their walking history. I expect Hillary to be able to tackle some of that.

Look, she's ran against the former president before. I think she understands what it takes to potentially get that close to beating him. I expect and I'm very impressed by Hillary Clinton, just broadly speaking, as a politician. I really expect her to send a case to not only older white women, but younger white women about the importance of them rallying behind Kamala Harris. That's a good that's a great point. I'm thinking about my daughter who and my youngest daughter who in 2016, I couldn't get out of bed for three days. She's out of bed right now.

And she's thanking Hillary Clinton for making it all possible. Very interesting. All right. Thank you all for being here with us. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central next from right here in Chicago. We know that there's a great return on investment. When we increase homeownership in America, what that means in terms of increasing the tax base, not to mention property tax base, what that does to fund schools, again, return on investment.

Vice President Harris rolling out specifics of her economic agenda, something the Trump campaign is now criticizing. The former president and his running mate set for a blitz of swing states this week to try to counter the DNC. They'll start with two events in Pennsylvania today. Trump also starting to hone in on the details that Harris outlined in her economic agenda. Her plan is very dangerous because it may sound good politically, and that's the problem. And we have to be very careful.

Because when somebody gets up and says, we're going to give you everything, $25,000 for a house, we're going to give you all sorts of little goodies, free health care, we're going to give you everything, universal health care, sounds so beautiful.

All right. The panel is back. Kate, yeah, go ahead. Can I just say when your opponent is saying your policy platform sounds really politically great and is sort of like sarcastically touting the things that you're doing, you're probably starting from a position of strength. Let's just call it what it is. So, you know, I think that there's going to be a really interesting needle that I imagine that Kamala Harris is going to try to thread on the economy. I know there's been a lot of discussion of is she going to distance herself from Biden? I think that's going to be a really interesting needle that I imagine that Kamala Harris is going to try to thread on the economy.

I think what's interesting here is if you look at some of the key things that the Biden administration was able to get done on the economy, we always go to capping insulin because that's a very tangible capping the cost of insulin, I should say, because that's a very tangible thing that makes a difference in people's lives.

Those are really popular policies. And so I think the thing that Kamala Harris can do here, the opportunity she has, is to take some of these policies that were that have broad bipartisan support that are kind of populist aimed at, you know, making people's lives better and and and talk about them in her voice. Put her, you know, put her framing on it. And so, you know, to me, it's less about politics.

sprinting away from some of the economic policy proposals of the Biden administration or accomplishments, I should say, of the Biden administration and more about her using this moment to do this in her voice, which I think is what we've seen so far. I think it's what we saw on Friday. And I would imagine it's what we'll see more of this week. So to me, the question is not quite, is she going to sprint away from the things she was able to do in the White House? And more a question of, you know, how is she going to talk about some of these things without the angst

anchor, we'll just call it that, of Joe Biden's personal unpopularity as a result of his age,

kind of around her now. Where do you think that separation is? Well, two things. One is I loved it when Donald Trump criticized Harris saying, elect Harrison, everyone's going to get health care. Exactly. This is what I'm saying. But the other thing, you know, part of her proposal that came out was, you know, the Republican response has been, ah, price controls Nixon. And I thought, well, maybe this is an opening. But then I also just saw some data. Again, to your point, the political power of her argument, using antitrust

to enforce laws against price gouging and price fixing. That's a plus 42. Totally. And it's like Republican AGs have pursued these kinds of suits too. But I think that, I think it starts from a different premise, which is something that,

I appreciate and it's subtle, but I think voters recognize it as well, which is that although we've had successes with the Inflation Reduction Act, people still feel the pain. And Kamala Harris is saying, look, I know that we didn't do everything for you. Like you still are hurting. Prices are still high. So this is what I want to do to do that. And it's boxing Trump in in a very unique way because Republicans have this really strong

very tangible history of saying we don't like something and then failing to identify how they would replace it. Right. You could talk about health care. The Affordable Care Act is the most glaring example for seven, eight, nine, 10 years. They've been saying we're going to repeal Obama. Just last week, Trump was like, I'm not doing that. And we're like, with what? And then you combine that with the fact that they have a really hard time articulating an economic message, which is really rare for the Reagan Republican Party to be able to not articulate an economic message.

But you also have a diminished candidate. Like Donald Trump is not Donald Trump of eight years ago. He cannot. Did you see the Tic Tac thing the other day? The little Tic Tac. Not the first time he's done that. And nobody knows what the hell he was talking about. Well, I think he was talking about inflation, right? The money buys the little Tic Tac, not the big Tic Tac. Oh, that's what he was saying? I think so. I mean, I don't know. It's relatively clear. It might have been.

gimmick, but it like it. I don't know. It was clearly I was wondering what I mean. Casey, look, I understand my Democratic friends point. But I think honestly here, you've had three and a half years to address inflation. Why should Vice President Harris be given an opportunity to do something that Biden Harris administration have yet to be able to do? During her speech, Vice President Harris said the loaf of bread is up 50 percent since the pandemic. Yeah, she's right.

It is. Two years before the pandemic, people could afford a loaf of bread. They could afford to put food on the table. They could afford to put gas in the car. They could afford to go on those extended vacations if they so chose. They can't do that under the Biden-Harris administration. So I think Republicans have to continue to hit Vice President Harris on those issues. Let me just fact check for one second, because you said a word in there that matters a lot. It's called pandemic. Right. And so we went through a global pandemic. Right.

which caused global inflation. And what you want to see is that actually the Biden-Harris administration has helped ease inflation at rates faster than any other country around the globe. Yes. And so like we're doing this better than absolutely anyone. And you're right. But we have to remember that. And the reason I wanted to just interrupt you is because you made it seem like Biden and Harris collided

caused inflation and they didn't. If we want to talk about real numbers, the fact that... Well, economic analysts will say that the Inflation Reduction Act had the opposite effect, that it piled on the spending...

I just, there was a lot of pandemic spending that Donald Trump infused into the economy. Then there was more spending from Biden. I'm just, I'm just offering you the counterpoint. I'm letting you say, I don't know. I don't push back and say, I have to go to this contributor. Now I am not an economic expert.

No, I'm going to go to the fact, which means I'm going to search on Twitter in a minute and see if that's true. But the Inflation Reduction Act didn't cause inflation in Europe. It didn't cause inflation in Asia. I, to be clear, am not arguing that it did or it didn't. I am just saying that the political argument... But I think the other problem... Can I just say, I think the other problem with where Republicans are on this in trying to attack the price gouging proposal, for example, is government setting prices. So if you strip that argument down to its studs,

You have Democrats saying of Kamala Harris saying, I'm going to take action to further bring prices down. And you have Republicans saying, no, we're not going to. And no, you shouldn't. That's not that is not that is. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not Kate. No, that is not what Republicans are saying. Republicans are simply saying is how in the world can the federal government decide the cost of a good today compared to tomorrow? That's simple, simple supply demand economics.

That's also not what the proposal is, though. And Republicans are also saying if you're going to control cost of goods, does the federal government all of a sudden determines how much of that good should be in the marketplace? I mean, this is really disruptive to economic principles in general, and that's what Republicans are warning against. Let's say we give you that argument, which we don't, but for the purposes of— But it's a factual argument, though, McCarvey. Not to get into economic theory here, but that's a factual argument.

But for the purpose of people eating breakfast right now. Right. So let's say I give you that argument. Sure. So what is what? And the problem that I have is what has Donald Trump articulated as his view or policy point to rein in inflation?

That's a fair point. And I can, that's a fair point. And I can give you what I think Republicans generally speaking should be on that. I can tell you where Sir Michael should be on that issue. Okay. Mark,

let me kind of bring you in here because I will say on Harris's economic plan, the Washington Post editorial board wrote this, quote, the Times demands serious economic ideas. Harris supplies gimmicks. Now, you note that what she is saying there is a very overwhelmingly popular idea. Do you think that what she did on Friday helped advance her case or did she do damage to her campaign? Well, I'm a shallow media guy. I love gimmicks. laughter

Like I said, it's political. It's a campaign. It's a plus 42. Yes, it works. But to the point, I mean, if you have the Washington Post criticizing your economic proposal, you've got a potential problem there. And it's an opening. And to your point, I mean, what Trump and Republicans have to do is keep focus on the economy, inflation, and the border. Those three, period. End of story.

Fair enough. All right. Still to come here on CNN this morning. Tonight, President Biden passing the torch to Kamala Harris. His former chief of staff, Ron Klain, joins us live here in just a few minutes. Plus. I'm not leaving. POTUS is leaving. He's not going to run for a second term. I'm going to run. Oh, Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus is just one of the many celebrities set to be in attendance at the DNC this week.

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Oh, boy. Democratic National Convention will be buzzing this week with celebrities performing and speaking in support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. The A-listers include Kerry Washington, Mindy Kaling, Ana Navarro, dozens more stars in attendance new to this year's DNC. However, will be remarks from social media influencers invited to speak each night to try to appeal to young voters. More.

Mark McKinnon. Yeah, I got something to say on this. Yeah. I had the worst job in the world, which was I was responsible for entertainment for two Republican conventions. And I made a thousand phone calls because they were all like, get Bono, get 50 Cent. And at the end of the day, every time it was Lee Greenwood, the Oak Ridge Boys and Wayne Newton. Did you book Clint Eastwood? I don't think you did. No, that's Stuart and Russ. I remember one of them throwing up in a trash can after that happened. But I

I mean, in seriousness, this is something where Democrats tend to have a lot more options than Republicans. How much do you think it matters? I think there is a margin where it's a cultural sense that this ticket is in tune with where the culture is. I think it's just a cultural sort of signal.

I, you know, I think you can overplay the Hollywood card for sure. And that's how Republicans work against it to say, oh, it's just the Hollywood elites. But if you've got everybody in cultural, you know, big cultural people like Taylor, you know, I just think it's about the message. I'm sorry. I think it's about the messenger too, because we live in such non-traditional times now that, you

you know, voters don't necessarily listen to the five of us as much as we would wish they would, right? Or believe they do when we wake up in the shower. I'm going to go out here and move public opinion today, right? So I do think though that, you know, when you have these kind of non, the streamers, for example, that I don't,

really even know how that works, but there is an entire generation of people who watch streamers and want to hear what they say. Swifties are, I mean, look, Taylor Swift has practically destroyed ISIS, right? They made the mistake of trying to attack Taylor Swift and she's like taking them out. And so if Taylor Swift or Beyonce or John Legend or Katy Perry or Kerry Washington, the list goes on and on and on. They are able to communicate to people in ways that

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. And these these voters may have a trust with them. Yeah. I take your point about culture, but Taylor Swift still seems to me like in a category by herself. If we're talking about I mean, she could literally get tens of thousands of people to vote. Have you heard of Beyonce? I have. Those categories are in rarefied air together. Yes, that's fine. We can add Beyonce up there. Let's put the two of them there. I'm just trying to keep you out of trouble. Fine. Fair enough. But I

But I mean, Kate, I mean, there is this kind of fragmentation and that's kind of what this speaks to. Yeah. So first of all, I agree. Taylor, Beyonce in their own, if either of them are listening, we would love your endorsement. But at a time...

at a tactical level, I mean, this kind of goes to what Bakari is saying, but I mean, these are people who have followings of people who aren't tuned into politics. I mean, that's, you know, and in a marginal race and a race, it's going to be very, very close. If you have a following on Instagram or Tik TOK of people, you know, young women, young men who aren't, you know, watching cable news or even paying attention to politics, uh,

That's a way to get to low information. Right. You're trying to flood the zone. And it is a way to reach low information voters who just aren't otherwise dialed in. You've even seen Trump talking with a lot of guys who are streamers. You've seen that because they recognize, at least from the Republican perspective, that there are there are these disengaged, low propensity voters, specifically men who don't vote. They're not really calculated in the numbers that we

currently have to say, hey, maybe some of these guys can help us reach those demographics to help them turn out. Democrats have always recognized that. And they, I would argue, have been fairly well or have done fairly well, I would say, for a couple of years now of getting those younger voters to turn out. We saw it in 2020. President Biden's coalition, I think 26 percent were younger voters, individuals who had never voted before. And I think you're going to see that replicated again.

Yeah, I mean, it is a contrast, Mark, with like we saw Hulk Hogan at the RNC this time. That was the you can see kind of the messaging and the cultural differences, the things they are choosing to highlight. Yeah, but I mean, that's a really good example of how Republicans are trying to reach out to cultural messengers. And, you know, that's how you get it. You get it through one to one now instead of, you know, broadcast. Yeah, there he is. Hulk Hogan. Yeah, that's also where you can see the gender gap in this race. Big time. 100 percent. All right. Let's turn now to this.

I'm not at all offended that none of you have any idea who I am. It's time to elect John Kerry. I accept your nomination to run and serve with Barack Obama. With great honor and pleasure, I accept. We own the finish line. I accept this nomination for President.

All right, 52 years after attending his first Democratic National Convention, President Biden will take the stage in Chicago tonight to speak to his party this time, not as a senator or vice president, but as the occupant of that office that he has worked so hard to seek.

as president of the United States of America. And tonight he'll pass the torch to Kamala Harris, representing a new generation of democratic leaders. As he ascends the convention stage at the conclusion of his political time in the spotlight, Biden's speech is an opportunity to lay out the legacy that he set out in his first DNC address back in 1980. - The essential spirit of our party and our country was best summed up in a less noted passage

for President Kennedy's inaugural address, which if anything is more relevant today than it was 20 years ago. President Kennedy said then, "With a good conscience our only reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth and lead the land we love."

Joining me now is President Biden's former chief of staff, Ron Klain. Ron, good morning. I'm so grateful to have you on the show. Interesting to hear how his cadence seemed to echo John Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's cadence then. We've obviously seen him evolve on the stage. I was just hoping to start with your reflections on tonight because ultimately this is going to be about President Biden's legacy. Clearly there are some hard feelings about how this all played out, but

Kamala Harris winning this election would make a huge difference to Biden's legacy in the long term, no?

Well, yeah, I think it goes way beyond his legacy. Look, the president and the vice president worked together very hard these four years to bring the country back from the pandemic, to get our economy growing again, to fight climate change, to address problems here at home and around the world. They've made a lot of progress, but there's a lot of work left to do. And the president's side of the person to lead that work is Vice President Harris and her running mate, Governor Walz. And you're going to hear him tonight not so much talk about his legacy, but talk about the future.

what America can be under Harris-Walls and his enthusiasm about our future as a country, his optimism about the kind of country we can be if we choose wisely in November. He's very enthusiastic about going to Chicago tonight. I talked to him last night. He's very enthusiastic about it, enthusiastic about his chance to make the case for the path forward for these next four years under Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.

What else can you tell us, Ron, about what to expect if you've spoken to him recently? I know one thing we've reported here is that he's going to focus on the threat to democracy that Donald Trump represents. That's clearly something that's been personally animating for him, even if it's kind of a darker way of looking at it than perhaps Kamala Harris has presented in her run.

Well, I think he will talk about the challenge we face as a democracy right now here at home and around the world. And it's been a signature of his presidency, signature of why he ran for president in 2020 and why he won and why we did so well in the midterms in 2022. And he'll make that case again tonight. As he said, when he addressed the country from the Oval Office, when he announced his departure from the race,

You know, democracy is on the line this year. And Vice President Harris is the right person to save our democracy here at home and around the world and make our country a better place. And he's very excited about it. I think Democrats are very enthusiastic about this ticket, very enthusiastic about where we're headed. And I think you'll see Democrats in Chicago, H-O-T-T-O-G-O, hot to go for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Fair enough, Ron. Can I ask you about Dr. Jill Biden, who we're also expected to hear from tonight? She, of course, is someone who was standing by her husband when he was staying in this presidential race. How hard are the feelings there and what should we expect from her tonight?

There are no hard feelings at all. There's just a lot of the president and the first lady are just giant fans and friends of Vice President Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff. The two families are very close. She's very enthusiastic about the vice president's candidacy.

I know one of her big concerns when the president left the race was making sure that the party would unite behind the vice president, as it has. And she's very enthusiastic about that. You'll hear her make her own strong case for Vice President Harris and the leadership she can provide our country on things like women's rights and reproductive freedom. The vice president's been a leader since the Dobb decisions came down on trying to protect women's rights in this country. And that's very important to Dr. Biden. And, you know, I think you'll hear her make the case for Vice President Harris tonight as well.

Ron, why in your view is Donald Trump attacking Kamala Harris the way that he has been? Well, I think he's a little perplexed about what to do. I think he has only one playbook. It's a combination of misogyny and racism. It's been his playbook. It was, you know, the misogyny part of it was his playbook in 2016 when he ran against Secretary Clinton. He's trying to recycle those old tired arguments. But I think the country is ready for Vice President Harris to lead our country. She's done a superb job as vice president.

She's been in the room on key decisions. She's represented our country overseas at the Munich Security Conference. She sat down face to face with world leaders on behalf of the U.S., including President of Ukraine and other leaders. And so I think he really doesn't know what to say about her. So he's just throwing old garbage at her. All right. Ron Klain, thanks for being here. Very grateful for your time this morning. I appreciate it.

Thanks for having me. I'd still head here, of course, on CNN this morning. We are just hours away from the start of the Democratic National Convention. A lineup leads things off with heavy hitters from the party. Plus, we're going to hear from President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. And 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton will talk to our panel about what they expect from those Democratic leaders coming up. Tonight, we've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union.

The first time that a major party has nominated a woman for president. After all, when there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit. Eight years after that moment, Hillary Clinton takes the DNC stage again tonight. A person familiar with her thinking telling CNN, quote, she'll talk about how many cracks have been put in the glass ceiling, but she'll also talk about what she sees once the glass is shattered, once Harris dies.

does it? Our panel's back. I want to kind of spin through quickly as we wrap things up here. What are you expecting, hoping to see tonight, Kate? I think what we're going to see is a harnessing of this energy that is so palpable in the Democratic Party right now. I think Hillary Clinton is somebody who Democrats have enormous respect for. I think, you know, I also think that, you know, there's the audience in the convention hall,

who's gonna be, I think, absolutely crazy for her. And then there's also the audience at home. And I think that now that we've seen four years of Donald Trump in office, we've seen that chaos, we see what that looks like. I think there are a lot of swing voters who say, "Man, we might've made the wrong choice in 2016." And I think she's gonna help sort of remind people of that.

I would love to hear from some of the strategists to my left, but one of the things that I believe Hillary Clinton is going to be able to do that Kamala Harris won't do is lean into identity. One of the things Kamala Harris hasn't done since she's been running is talk about the fact that she is a black woman or lean into just being a woman or,

being a woman of color. I think Hillary Clinton is going to be able to do that tonight. One of the things that we always say about Kamala Harris is the same thing we said about the reason Barack Obama didn't necessarily lean into that either is because you can see the history, their walking history. I expect Hillary to be able to tackle some of that.

Look, she's ran against the former president before. I think she understands what it takes to potentially get that close to beating him. I expect and I'm very impressed by Hillary Clinton, just broadly speaking, as a politician. I really expect her to send a case to not only older white women, but younger white women about the importance of them rallying behind Kamala Harris. That's a good that's a great point. I'm thinking about my daughter who and my youngest daughter who in 2016, I couldn't get out of bed for three days. She's out of bed right now.

And she's thanking Hillary Clinton for making it all possible. Very interesting. All right. Thank you all for being here with us. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central next from right here in Chicago. From all over the world, people turn to Cleveland Clinic for our expertise and our compassionate care. As leaders in heart, neurology and cancer, the future of specialty care is happening right now at Cleveland Clinic.

For every life-saving treatment. For every next step. For every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. Don't let CNN's John King have all the fun. Experience the CNN Magic Wall on your mobile device. Get live results, expert insights, and an immersive election experience. Find it at cnn.com slash magic wall or the CNN app today.