Biden Has Covid Again, Vance Accepts VP Nomination, Trump To Close RNC Tonight
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Voters 50 and over have the power to decide elections. So candidates who want to win need to talk about the issues they care about. Learn more from our latest polling in Pennsylvania at aarp.org slash pa polling. It's Thursday, July 18th. Right now on CNN This Morning, President Biden now off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID. Tough timing as more top Democrats warn him to get out of the race completely. Plus...

From relative unknown to the GOP's vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance puts himself in the race for 2024 and...

Senators chased down the director of the Secret Service at the RNC, insisting on answers over Saturday's assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Then, former President Trump set to deliver his first remarks since Saturday's attempt on his life, as he is set to accept the GOP nomination for president for the third time. ♪♪

5 a.m here in milwaukee wisconsin 6 a.m on the east coast my producers have started writing the times of the morning into my scripts instead of saying x because i keep screwing it up here's a live look outside the fiser forum the host of this year's republican national convention where tonight again donald trump is going to accept the republican nomination for president for the third time running good morning everyone i'm casey hunt it's wonderful to have you with us

We're not going to start here at the RNC. We are going to start with President Biden isolated, quite literally, with COVID, but also isolated politically as pressure mounts on him to bow out of the race for the White House.

That was President Biden arriving in Delaware last night after canceling a campaign event in Las Vegas. Reporters there asking the president to respond to reporting from ABC News that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Biden it would be best if he dropped out. Biden's response inaudible over Air Force One's engines.

Schumer's office declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting, saying he, quote, conveyed the views of his caucus. Those questions came just hours after Adam Schiff became the most prominent Democrat to call on Biden to step aside the California congressman, now the 21st Democratic lawmaker to do so, following waves of defections after Biden's debate performance three weeks ago.

We also learned that President Biden met with mega-donor Jeffrey Katzenberg on Wednesday. According to Semaphore, Katzenberg told the president that he could no longer count on big checks from big donors, not to his campaign, not to the DNC, not even to the super PACs supporting them. In the evening, as Republicans cheered on the floor of the RNC in Milwaukee, our Jeff Zeleny reporting this development from one of his senior Democratic sources.

He's being receptive, not as defiant as he is publicly. Goes on to saying, talking about Vice President Kamala Harris, who initially he wondered how she may fare in a campaign, should it come to that. I'm told now he's asking questions, saying, do you think Kamala can win?

Joe Biden more receptive to these calls. Joe Biden asking, "Do you think Kamala can win?" CNN then reporting that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke privately with Biden, telling him that polling shows he cannot defeat Donald Trump. Pelosi further warned Biden that his presence on the ticket could destroy Democrats' chances of retaking the House in November. A House Democrat telling me last night that Pelosi's, quote, "working on it," and that, quote, "she rarely loses."

The White House declined to comment on details of CNN's reporting, but did say, quote, President Biden is the nominee of the party he plans to win. Our panel's here. Joining me now, Brad Todd, former senior advisor to Rick Scott's Senate campaign. Alex Thompson, national political reporter for Axios. Jason Osborne, former senior advisor to Trump's 2016 campaign. And Karen Finney, former senior advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Welcome to all of you as we cover the RNC in Milwaukee and we talk instead about the president of the United States, Biden.

Karen's already been in the hot seat. So, Alex, let me start with you, because you're there's honestly no one better to talk to in terms of digging into Biden world and exactly what is going on. And what is your latest reporting around where the president's head is? Jeff Zeleny was first last night to report that he's perhaps more receptive to these calls. What do you know?

Well, think about all of these meetings that we're talking about right now with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries. Think to remember, they were all last week. The fact that they're coming out now and Joe Biden has still been publicly defiant shows you a little bit of where his head's at. And the truth is that, you know, you could have almost every Democrat in Congress

basically speak out. But if Joe Biden still at his core believes that he is the most electable Democrat to take on Donald Trump, he is going to stay in this race. There's almost a religious conviction among him and his inner circle. And unless you give him irrefutable polling evidence that the other Democrat would be more electable

I just don't see how he gets out of this race. Now, maybe that evidence exists, but it's also very difficult. How can you pull a hypothetical? Joe Biden does not want to be sitting on his couch on the night of November 5th, having seen Donald Trump win and not having been the nominee. You saw him talk about this in George Stephanopoulos. At the very least,

He wants to be the guy to take on Trump. And how do you get him to move off of that position? Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are trying, and they tried several days ago, but clearly that has not worked. So, I mean, the reporting from Jeff is that he has gone from asking, from saying Kamala can't win, to saying, can Kamala Harris win? I mean, that's to your point. So you think that's the thing that changes him, numbers that would clearly show someone else doing better? Yes. I think if someone were to unambiguously

absolutely show that someone else had a better chance against Donald Trump, that would be the only thing that can move him. I just don't know if that's possible in polling. I think the other piece of this, though, having been with candidates when you have to make tough decisions, there has to be, and I'm not saying he's getting out, so let me just be clear, there has to be a pathway. You can't mean, because in addition to everything you're saying in terms of the data, there's also the recognition, okay, it's not, if you get to the place where you decide it can't be me,

All this, you know, George Clooney in public sort of saying you shouldn't be in is not the way to actually get him to say, OK, I'm going to do it. Like people have to figure out how do you honor the fact that he has been an excellent president and has, you know, had so many successes?

And the second thing I would say is we're not reporting on it, but he is also hearing from a lot of people who are saying, stay in, stay in, Joe. I mean, I'm part of a group of prominent black female leaders who will be having a letter come out today who are saying he was at the NAACP, he was at Unidos. I mean, we also have Liz Shuler, right? So when you have other big leaders saying, don't get out.

You know, we're talking about the 20 of 200. Yeah. Well, let's go back. This isn't being the desire to be president is an ambition curable only by a pine box. And so Joe Biden is going to. Good way to put it. I've learned that lesson many times in my career. That is the most succinct way to say it. President for as long as possible. And Democrats made this bet. You know, they a lot of people thought he was too old in 2020. And Democrats cleared the field for him, shielded him from a long, grueling primary campaign and installed him as a nominee.

they asked for this. This was a problem a long time in the making. - Well, Jason Osborne on the polling question to what Alex was saying that he needs to see polling that shows other people would do better. The Trump campaign is actually doing that polling. And if my understanding from talking to sources behind the scenes here is correct,

they see very clearly that they would rather run against Joe Biden than Kamala Harris. The race seems to change in certain ways. It's a different campaign. But I guess I'm missing, like Republicans are clearly seeing the polling that I guess Joe Biden is not wanting to see.

Well, I mean, I think the hard part on polling in a situation like this is that the vice president has been untested. I mean, you see this all the time in presidential campaigns and primaries. Before somebody actually gets in the race, their numbers can be very high. But once they become the target...

I mean, I learned this very well with Dr. Carson. We were kind of doing really well for a long time, and then all of a sudden we became the target. But Joe Biden had a problem before the debate. He had a 38% approval rating before the debate. Kamala Harris owns that approval rating, too. And that was a choice as well. Instead of being a bipartisan, centrist administration, they gave the left almost everything they wanted. And so that's where they get in this box. Can I just say that after what happened Saturday, can we please not talk about pine boxes? That seems a little inappropriate.

Sure, fair enough. I think I took what he had to say as the idea that you would eventually pass if natural causes. Joe Biden's going to want to be president till the last day possible for him to be president. That's a fact. Everyone's known that. He's been running since 1987. Karen, I think it's a totally appropriate idiom for it. We are not talking about political violence ending anyone's life. Let's be clear, Alex.

- Well, and speaking of Joe Biden's ambition, if you actually read his memoir before he ran for president in 2008, he admits that one of his old school instructors brought out an essay from when he was literally in elementary school about how he wanted to be president one day. - But was that his essay?

Okay, let's watch briefly, Alex, 'cause I want you to weigh in on this quickly before we go to break. Joe Biden has evolved in saying what would get him out of this presidential race, and we kind of stacked it all together so you can kind of see his evolution from that George Stephanopoulos interview to yesterday. Let's watch.

If the Lord Almighty came out and said, "Joe, get out of the race," I'd get out of the race. The Lord Almighty's not coming down. Unless they came back and said, "There's no way you can win." Unless they get hit by a train, yeah. If there had been some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if the doctors came to me and said, "You got this problem, that problem."

this medical condition that might emerge. What's that? How do you explain that? Why is he saying that? I think he is literally trying to come up with a better answer that unless God tells me to drop out of the race, I'm not going to. I think this is just... The fact is that...

Dr. O'Connor, Joe Biden's longtime doctor, has cleared him for duty, is also very, very personally close to Joe Biden, has been with him for a long, long time, sees him regularly, also helped treat his son, Beau Biden. I think this is not, I think some Democrats are trying to see, oh, Joe Biden's like opening the door a little bit with these answers. That is not what's happening.

Joe Biden is just trying to come up with a better answer than, well, if God tells me, I might do it. He's not, because if he acknowledged, if he says I'm not fit for duty, then he's not fit to serve till the end of the term. I mean, if you're not good enough to run, you're not good enough to stay. And so that's the problem. He's not creating an answer here where he's going to acknowledge that he's not up to this. But I would just acknowledge he's been doing an excellent job. This is a man who literally helped negotiate to get the first round of hostages out of Gaza. Yeah.

And I've been to Israel, and that is what Israelis to a person would tell you. So we can't, let's not say this man is not up to the job or doing the job. I'm with you. Let's keep him in the race. 100%. Yes, the Republicans are unified here. Karen, I think, but for different reasons. Anyway, we got a lot more to get to here on CNN this morning.

We're bringing you the highlights of J.D. Vance as he officially became the Republican vice presidential nominee last night. Plus, cleanup continues after a string of damaging storms. We'll bring you the weather and this. A wild scene. It's kind of a reversal. Senators chase the Secret Service director through the halls of the Republican National Convention. That's exactly what we were doing today. Stonewalling.

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

President Trump represents America's last best hope to restore what, if lost, may never be found again. A country where a working class boy born far from the halls of power can stand on this stage as the next Vice President of the United States of America.

Ohio Senator J.D. Vance leaning hard on his humble roots as he accepted the GOP's vice presidential nomination. His RNC speech focused on those Rust Belt roots, a look into his life's journey that's taken him from Appalachia to the Marine Corps, to Yale Law School, and now the U.S. Senate. Vance highlighted in the night's keynote address how he feels Washington has failed families like his. And then there was this moment. Mamaw raised me as my mother struggled with addiction.

And I'm proud to say that tonight my mom is here, ten years clean and sober. I love you, mom. Really touching moment quite honestly. Brad Todd, what did you make of JD Vance's speech?

You know, I thought it was a pretty big moment for the Republican Party in general beyond this election. Realignment happens among voters organically, but parties have to choose it. And I think last night, J.D. Vance added a lot of purpose to Trump's populism. And he did something else that Trump has not been able to do for himself, and that's sort of allow room for disagreement. Many times during his speech, he talked about ways we might disagree, ways he might disagree with other people, how the party was a big tent. That's a very new key of music.

for a Donald Trump campaign. We also pulled together his, he of course grew up in Ohio, but has these family ties in Appalachia. He talked about the Rust Belt states repeatedly that Donald Trump is gonna obviously need to win if he wants to be president of the United States. President Biden would need to win to hold the Oval Office. Here's a little bit more of a taste of his speech and how he talked about that. OHIO, you guys, we got it.

We're gonna chill with the Ohio love. We gotta win Michigan too here, so. It's about the auto worker in Michigan. It's about the factory worker in Wisconsin. It's about the energy worker in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The factories of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and every corner of our nation.

So as a Michigan fan myself, I'm skeptical from anyone. I have anyone from Ohio, but Jason Osborne, his point, I mean, his point's very obvious. A hundred percent. I mean, and this isn't something that,

that JD Vance hasn't talked about previously, right? I mean, this isn't just a token appeal to the parts of America. But most Americans haven't heard it before, right? They haven't. And I think you've seen over the last couple of days, some of that message resonating through. We had the Teamsters guy's speech was really impactful. I mean, this is my ninth convention and I don't think I've seen this kind of energy

Two days before the president speaks or the nominee speaks, and then one day when the vice president speaks. The energy last night was amazing, and his speech really resonated with a lot of folks. And I think you saw that in some of the organic chants that were coming out and his message about his struggle growing up with his grandmother raising him and his mother. That really, you could see tears in a lot of people's eyes when they saw that.

And I think what we're seeing now is you've seen a toning down of J.D. Vance's speak, and he's really kind of addressing what happened in his life. All right. Well, coming up next here on CNN this morning, we have lost my teleprompter, so I'm going to try to figure out what our tease is. Coming up next, we're assessing the damage. We can rebuild all this.

New York's governor tours a city upstate that was hit by a tornado. Plus, days after the assassination attempt on his life, Donald Trump is set to take the stage at the RNC tonight. You cannot imagine the impact of seeing from the sky how vast the destruction is. New York Governor Kathy Hochul standing in front of a church in the city of Rome that had its roof ripped off. The National Weather Service says a tornado touched down there on Tuesday. Let's get to our meteorologist, Alison Chinchar, with our weather for today. Alison, good morning.

And good morning. Yeah, it was very significant damage for this community. And quite late into the season, you know, we think of springtime as the time when we usually have these type of events. Now, this particular tornado here was rated an EF2, but I want to emphasize that's as high as you can get for an EF2 because the estimated wind speeds 135 had been 136.

it would have been an EF3, so pretty significant damage there. And that tornado was just one of 23 total tornado reports we've had across the country just since Sunday. Over 1,100 damaging wind reports and over 90 hail reports, some of those tennis ball size or even larger. We have more severe weather in the forecast for today, mainly focused across the Carolinas.

and Virginia. A lot of those storms will fire up late this afternoon, continue through the evening and overnight. But also notice too, this front is going to be stationary. It's not really going to move that much. That means you're going to have a lot of time to dump a tremendous amount of rain. So there's also a flooding threat from the Carolinas back through Texas. The big thing as we head into the weekend is going to be the change of temperatures starting to go back up again, once again across much of the west.

Oh, boy. OK, Alison Chinchar for us. Alison, thank you very much. All right. Still ahead here on CNN this morning, former Republican Congressman Rodney Davis joins us as we talk about what to expect from Donald Trump on stage tonight. Plus, the latest private calls for Biden to resign, sending shockwaves through the Democratic Party.

This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton. Death, destruction, terrorism and weakness. For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses.

Those past RNC speeches you saw there, Donald Trump has not shied away from going after his opponents in pretty classic Trump fashion. But after his brush with death on Saturday, sources tell CNN the speech he plans to give at the RNC is vastly different than the one that he initially drafted. And they say it will focus on a message of unity. Trump 2024 advisor Jason Miller told me this yesterday.

Well, when somebody tries to kill you, you have an assassination attempt, of course it's going to change your life. It's going to change your outlook. And I think that's even what you're going to see with the president's speech tomorrow. I think he's going to talk about his firsthand experience, but also how this applies to what's going on in society today. President Trump, I think, is going to have a very powerful message.

Joining us now, former Republican Congressman from Illinois, Rodney Davis. Congressman, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. So listen, we saw a little bit of what Donald Trump was like. We all know what he is usually like. And I think the question that we have all been asking is, how much has this really changed him in a way that is going to carry through? Because we've seen some of the, there were signs last night, for example, on the floor of the convention saying, you know, mass deportations now, et cetera. I mean, some of the more divisive rhetoric is still on display, but

But bottom line, this is a man who had a brush with death and it does really, I mean, I've hesitated to make this comparison. I had a brain tumor myself and sort of wrestled as I was going in for surgery. What was this going to mean for my life? It changed me. And this situation was so much more dramatic. I can only imagine that he must really be different, at least physically.

for right now? - Well, looking at the aftermath of not just the assassination attempt, I think Donald Trump changed the way he campaigned after that first debate too. He has been a more calm, more of a candidate who wants to talk about how he can help unify the country. But that was nuclearized after the assassination attempt. And Casey, you know, you were there the morning that me and my friends had to run from bullets on a baseball field. And I can tell you from personal experience,

It does change who you are. It does change you for the rest of your life. There's not a day that I go by that I don't wake up and think about that morning, that terrifying experience. And I think as you've seen the convention go on,

the talk of unity, many of us would have thought maybe that would have waned a little bit for a partisan convention. It hasn't. That's why this convention has been such a success. - Yeah, and we're showing people a little bit from that day back in 2017. And I do remember getting calls and running in the direction of what had happened to all of you and then covering the game, of course, afterward. We should note your colleague Steve Scully is gravely injured in this shooting.

What do you think is incumbent on the former president tonight on stage?

Well, I think what Jason Miller said is going to hold true. He's going to be that different Donald Trump. How? I mean, I don't think anybody in America, and especially here in the media complex, would have ever thought that Donald Trump, former president, could be more humanized. But that's exactly what this convention has done. I think it showed a different side of Donald Trump. It's a side that I witnessed when I served with him while in Congress.

And I think the world's starting to see it. And that's why I think you're seeing Donald Trump become the clear front runner in this race. So, Brad, I mean, what is your, would you be surprised, for example, if we saw a speech from Donald Trump where Joe Biden's name was never mentioned? Oh, I think Joe Biden's name will be mentioned, but I think you're going to see a very different tone from Donald Trump tonight. You know, and these two men, they're old war horses, right? And the public knows a lot about them, have very detailed opinions.

And the key voters in this election are not happy with either one. And what that means, the tiebreaker will be which one of these guys can show a second act. It's very hard for a seasoned elected official to show a second act. I think tonight you're going to see a second act from Donald Trump. I think you're going to see a more reflective, more unifying Donald Trump. That might be the thing he needs to focus this election on the future. And that's always the challenge. Presidential elections in America are won on the future, not on the past.

When you have very two incumbents, it's very tempting to run on the past. I think tonight's his best chance to move this to the future. Alex Thompson, one thing, honestly, we haven't heard yet from Donald Trump on camera is his sort of reflections or experience, explaining of his experience of what happened on Saturday. We have heard, you know, he's done, he did some interviews. He called Selena Zito, who was at the rally and very close to everything, saying,

that happened. He talked to the New York Post. You know, we have a little bit of that, but we haven't heard him actually say it. We saw, you know, his face on Monday night when he first came to the crowd was a remarkably different one. I'm listening, honestly,

for his recollections of the day. I mean, are you watching for that? And what else are you looking for? Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, there's a real question of how authentic this really is. I mean, we're in a presidential campaign. How much is this is tactical versus genuine? I mean, I feel like I've been hearing about the coming Trump pivot now for 10 years, but also an assassination attempt is a traumatic event.

thing that can really uh you know affect someone and the thing is the the Trump campaign has been very strategic about making little tweaks around him throughout this convention the fact that he had his granddaughter speak last night and referred to him as a grandpa um you know Trump who is often really tried to make this alpha male strength versus not versus a weakness you know the the fact that they are letting him soften his image

at all, which is something he has resisted, clearly is a strategic decision. It's interesting. I mean, it stuck out to me when J.D. Vance last night on stage talked about Donald Trump giving his sons kisses on the cheek. Part of me was a little bit like, oh, that feels a little bit awkward, but it does underscore your sort of humanizing point.

All right, let's turn back now to President Biden. He is off the campaign trail following a COVID diagnosis. Biden facing growing pressure to leave the race for the White House, and that has been coming privately from Democratic leaders, including the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And according to ABC, from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Pelosi and Schumer, it seems, have been convinced by Biden's

by bad polling. The New York Times reports that according to a poll from Blue Rose Research, a firm that formed from but no longer affiliated with Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Mr. Biden, just 18% of voters and only 36% of people who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 believe he's mentally fit and up to the job of being president. Mr. Schumer, according to the Democrat close to him, was also given data from a leading Democratic super PAC

showing Mr. Biden's deficit growing to five percentage points or more in the must-win states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and his deficit in three other key states, Nevada, Georgia, and Arizona, outside the margin of sampling error. Congressman Davis, these, I mean...

These numbers are devastating for him, and yet he is still digging in. Yeah, he certainly is. And I think it's indicative of who Joe Biden is. Joe Biden's always been a fighter. I don't see him exiting this race. I mean, as a Republican, I would love to see the Democrats open up the process and have an open convention. I would just sit back with Pop

and be ready to watch what happens. We did this on a smaller scale in 2004 with some unknown state Senator running for US Senate, Barack Obama, when we had a great candidate in Jack Ryan, but the geniuses of the Illinois Republican party thought, no, we can find better. And then the party leaders at the time got all this attention and they decided no one in Illinois was good enough. They chose Alan Keyes from Maryland to come take on then state Senator Barack Obama. I hope they open this process.

Actually, I'm thinking about the last segment. I got to tell you, as somebody who also is a brain tumor survivor who now has a paralyzed left vocal cord and had to change my whole life thinking, I do hope that the president in his speech tonight, the former president, I hope we do hear that pivot. But I also hope it's not just about tonight. It's about what happens in the coming months. And so I certainly hope, regardless of what happens with President Biden, that if that if Donald Trump has sincerely faced a change, I hope it's real and I hope it's

I hope it maintains itself. And I hope we see that. We did hear even J.D. Vance last night attack Joe Biden in some pretty harsh ways. So I hope we don't hear that tonight. I hope we hear, again, a conversation about real differences on the issues. Karen, one of the things that I, you know, it's a very difficult conversation to have, of course, in the wake of an assassination attempt. But there certainly were private conversations about how, if in fact this change is real and after what happened played out,

that it made it even more likely that Donald Trump becomes president in November. If he does manage to show people, convince people, shall I say, that he has changed by this, do

Do you think that makes it that much more likely that he'll win in the fall? Well, I certainly think it makes it easier for him to make an argument to those double haters and to those moderates and independents, particularly suburban women who have said consistently they do not like his tone. They have not liked the meanness. They have not liked the attacks. I think those voters are still very concerned when it comes to reproductive freedom. But at the same time, it may create an opening for him, honestly.

Very interesting. All right. Coming up next here, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace joins me to discuss the latest in the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Plus, special counsel Jack Smith appealing the dismissal of Donald Trump's classified documents case. We'll have more on that in our morning roundup.

Do you think the U.S. Secret Service director should resign? I'm going to call for a resignation as well. Look, I think it's inexcusable, just beyond the classified parts, the things that we all understand. Her explanation to the media that there was a slant on the roof, so there was safety concerns. There was a slant for the shooter, too. Come on. I mean, it doesn't wash. And I think she's shown what her priorities are.

Secret Service Director Kim Cheadle facing louder calls this morning for her to resign after the security lapses that allowed 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to climb up a nearby building and shoot at former President Donald Trump on Saturday. Cheadle has so far said that she has no plans to resign, infuriating lawmakers who confronted her in the halls of the Republican National Convention last night.

This is exactly what we were doing today on the call. Stonewalling. This was an assassination attempt. You owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers.

Joining me now, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina. She is a member of the House Oversight Committee, which of course has some jurisdiction and interest in pursuing this matter. Congresswoman, thank you very much for being here. Good morning. Would you join calls for the Secret Service director to resign after Saturday? Absolutely. And I'm also urging the Oversight Committee Chairman Jamie Comer to subpoena the director of the Secret Service, whether she's still the director. I believe he has. That was supposed to happen yesterday. Um,

And I fully support that. She should resign. And she ought to show up. We had a briefing yesterday. We didn't hear from her on the brief time I was on the call with members of Congress. We did not hear from her. And she was here and said she should be in D.C. getting to the bottom of this. Everyone running for president should be protected. And Americans want answers. I mean, I will say the conventions are...

they have a special classification as national security events. And typically the director is expected. I think Comer has asked for her to be, to appear in DC on Monday, which there was some back and forth about, because she initially said she couldn't do that. It lasted perhaps, I think it was about half an hour before she had reversed course and said, well, actually her schedule will accommodate her showing up on Monday. What's your first question for her in the event that actually unfolds?

Well, I'm going to get a readout from the briefing yesterday. I'm going to reserve figuring out what questions I want to ask until I know more information. I don't want to speculate. I want to make sure I have all the information and listen to questions from both sides of the aisle, because this is something that both sides should care about. In fact, just a month ago, Oversight Committee was investigating an issue with the Secret Service under Kamala Harris. There was an outbreak or a meltdown, and it delayed her schedule by over an hour. And so I'm

This should be a nonpartisan thing. Democrats and Republicans should be coming together to get to the bottom of it and make sure that that whether there are morale issues, protocol issues, hiring issues, figuring out what it is. We know that the building wasn't swept. The guy had a ladder. How do you climb up on it? There were local rally goers that were there telling and informing law enforcement. There was someone on the roof with a rifle, no one doing anything. You know, I'd like to hear from all the law enforcement agencies that were on site and how this how this happened.

Congresswoman, you are the first female graduate of the Citadel. There are some Republican lawmakers on the right who have suggested that part of the reason we saw what happened on Saturday was because of too many women

in the Secret Service agency. You can see a number of women in the frame as they rush Donald Trump once these shots start to be fired. And I think it's important to understand. I mean, certainly I found it important to underscore as much as we're talking about the failures at the top of the agency, that there was clear heroism from the agents that were on the scene there. I'm wondering, do you think

Do you share concerns that some are voicing about these women agents and their willingness to step in? One of them had apparently protected Eric Trump, who had to speak out publicly and say that he had faith in her.

Right. No, I first of all, thank our law enforcement on the ground who are really willing to cover President Trump with their bodies, put their own lives in danger. Number one, we have police and law enforcement all across the country that put their lives in danger every single day. And we want to thank them. But when it comes to hiring practice,

practices, one of the things that I have heard, and again, I want to fact check it and make sure that's right, that there are quotas within the Secret Service about hiring certain types of people, male, female, et cetera. I want to make sure that we're hiring the best qualified people, regardless of gender. That should be the case in everything, especially when you're dealing with national security, law enforcement, or even our military. So there will likely be questions related to hiring practices, I would imagine, on Monday.

Congressman, the president tonight expected to take a different tone. His advisors have told us that he ripped up his old speech after what happened on Saturday, that we are likely to hear a more unifying tone. You have criticized Donald Trump in the past at times. Do you feel Americans will be convinced that

by him taking a tone such as that after having experienced what it was like in his administration and now his campaign in recent years or not?

He literally took a bullet for our country on Saturday. I think any kind of moment like that changes a man. I think he was built for this moment. I looked at what he was saying over the weekend. Him and Melania had a very unifying message. Speaker Mike Johnson conveyed that message from President Trump that he wants our party to have a unifying message everywhere we go and talk about it. I'll tell you, I come from a purple

District. And last weekend, people were literally pulling their cars over on the side of the road, stopping traffic. Blacks, whites, Republicans, Democrats, independents, everyone had something to say. It was all very positive. People want to see us come together for the betterment of our communities, our states and our country. And

He's gonna do that tonight. He's gonna unify a nation. And this is a moment, it's a historic moment. And I support him obviously. And he had us on stage last night. We're deeply appreciative. I understand the gravity of this moment. I believe he does too.

Also on politics, President Biden obviously facing more pressure from inside his party to step aside at the top of the ticket. If President Biden stays at the top of the Democratic ticket, do you do Republican leaders believe you will hold on to the House of Representatives in the fall? I do. I think we could have a super majority. Now, the question is, you know, do we if and when we win in November, I want to make sure that we put our what?

money where our mouth is that we make good on our campaign promises. I've been working really hard for three years. And one of the reasons I got into this thing to begin with is I was tired of politicians saying one thing and then doing another. Inflation is very high. Going to the grocery store is expensive. Gas is almost $4 a gallon in South Carolina. We've got women's issues that we want to address. I talked about that a little bit in my speech last night. There are a lot of things that we need to do to make our communities more

better across the country and I want to make sure that we do that. All right, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, thanks very much for your time this morning. Thank you. I really appreciate you being here. All right, 52 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup. Special Counsel Jack Smith appealing the dismissal of Donald Trump's classified documents case. The formal appeal comes just days after Judge Eileen Cannon threw out the case against Trump. The appeal will be reviewed by judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

French officials say the Seine is clean enough to swim in for the Olympics, and they are trying to prove it. The Paris mayor and Hidalgo dove in Wednesday to show efforts to clean the river of E. coli are paying off. CNN's Melissa Bell, also playing the hero, dove in and offered her own assessment. Actually, really, not as smelly as I thought it would be.

and feels not quite clean, but certainly swimmable. Oh my God. All right, then there's this. Paraguay carrying out the largest cocaine bust in the country's history. Four tons were found inside a sugar shipment to Europe. This is for the video. That is a lot of cocaine indeed. Jack Black's comedy rock band Tenacious D has canceled its remaining tour dates after band member Kyle Gass made an onstage joke about the assassination attempt on former President Trump.

Both Black and Gas have since apologized. Can we talk about the Seine for a second? Like, would you swim in the Seine? Zero chance. I think we have radical agreement on that, actually. I'd be fine doing it. You would? I wouldn't want to do it every day, but I'd be fine doing it.

Just to say you did it. CNN just reported it's swimmable. Okay, but you started with it's not as smelly as I thought it would be. I'm sorry, but if that's where you start, really? Even for a gold medal, no thanks. I know, I know. My gosh. Okay. Anyway, let's take a moment to talk about something that I think struck a lot of us who were in the hall last night for the RNC, and that was Gold Star Families, who addressed the

the crowd. They remembered their loved ones and they also harshly criticized President Biden. Our son, Corporal Hunter Lopez, whose name Joe Biden has refused to say out loud, was killed on August 26, 2021. He died during Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. And during last month's debate, he claimed no service members have died during his administration. None. None.

That hurt us all deeply. He went on to name the 13 service members who were killed in a suicide bombing during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Alex Thompson, can you...

Help us understand, I mean, my heart goes out to all of these people who have lost their family members. Obviously, it was also very political in that they had this message against President Biden. I remember this withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as being a turning point for the president in terms of public sentiment. It happened in the late summer of 2021, not that long into the beginning of his term. How does the Biden team explain what's going on?

what these families were there to try to say that they don't feel the president has acknowledged their sacrifices. I mean, you're right that his polling has never, ever recovered. If you look at his approval, disapproval rating, it crosses. And at that time, the Ganshin withdrawal has never recovered. In terms of what happened last night, this is a completely self-inflicted error on the president's part. And the reason has nothing to do with his advisors. This goes to the president himself. The president is incredibly defensive about

about his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and the criticism that came after. And the fact is that Joe Biden, who is known and has plenty of evidence of having...

you know, have great empathy for people in grief. It was clear at the moment that that happened that he did not meet the moment. He looked at his watch while people came off, like while the bodies came off that plane. Afterward, the families complained that he was talking too much about his own son, not about their sons. And in response to the criticism from those families, he did not reach back out.

And Donald Trump took quick advantage. Starting in September of 2021, Donald Trump was on the phone with these families, meeting with them, spending time with them. And that's why they were on that stage last night is because Joe Biden, who is supposed to be, this is supposed to be the thing he is greatest at.

was too defensive to reach out to those families. And that's why this is now a political problem for us for the election. Well, can I just say on one point of view that you made that Donald Trump took advantage of this situation?

This is a side of Donald Trump that a lot of people don't see and that this wasn't in his eyes taking advantage of a situation. This is how he is. And there's a lot of instances, and you've heard it a couple times over the last few days, where he has reached out not wanting the attention of

of him reaching out and taking care of people. He wanted to do this, and that's what these families wanted. They just wanted acknowledgement that their sacrifice and that their family's sacrifices meant something to the people that they're serving. I mean, look, I think it is worth noting that

Former President Trump did denigrate John McCain's POW service. It's reported that he called people Americans who died in World War II suckers and losers. He has his own vulnerabilities in terms of needing to demonstrate that

what was demonstrated last night and I think Brad Todd the this there have been a number of moments they've been labeling people like this everyday Americans right they've been bringing them into the convention and there have been a number of strong moments around this but mean the way that they did this at the convention

last night was honestly very, it was powerful. It was a powerful move to make. It was. Conventions are contrived. And I don't say that in a bad way. It's important to convey what you want the public to see. And the public needs to see what you want them to see. That's news and it's important. But this was not contrived. These were real people and it was raw emotion and

And it was authentic. And to see an authentic moment like that, it's something as scripted as a convention, I think it was moving to everyone. And I think it goes to Joe Biden's very real problem. He's why he's never recovered from Afghanistan. Most Americans agreed with him that if we should get out of Afghanistan, but they felt he did it incompetently. And then he treated these families as if their sacrifice was acceptable collateral damage. That's a real problem. Well, and just one last point on that, Brad, from my side, but is that

last night when that, uh, the father read the names, it was not in the script for him to pause and have the audience read the names and to a person, they read the names out loud and you could see the emotion on the family's faces, the tears coming down, the, the, the lips quivering. It was pretty impactful. Mary. Well, I, I, I appreciate the point that, uh,

President Biden has made a mistake when it comes to these families. Obviously, Casey, as you mentioned, former President Trump has had his own. One thing I would say, I mean, as Brad says, conventions are about storytelling. And certainly both whether it's a Republican convention or Democratic convention, moments when we honor the sacrifice of people who have lost their loved ones, particularly these Gold Star families, which, again, you'll see that at the Democratic convention,

I hope it's a moment that brings us together as Americans to recognize that there are people who are out there fighting for us who make that ultimate sacrifice. It's part of why I wanted to make sure we touched on it today on the show, I have to say. All right. Thank you all for being here this morning. I really appreciate it. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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