The Sprint to November
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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 26th. Right now on CNN This Morning, the sprint to November. Donald Trump's campaign taking an aggressive new approach in the race against Kamala Harris and Trump.

I don't want a border czar who makes it more efficient for illegal immigrants to come into this country. One of Trump's main lines of attack against Harris continues to be the border. What Democrats now say she needs to do to try to go on offense and later.

American women are not stupid. Elizabeth Warren not buying J.D. Vance's claim that Trump wouldn't sign a national abortion ban. Plus, a leading election forecaster now classifying North Carolina as a toss-up. Is the South back in play for Democrats?

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the Washington Monument on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. There are 71 days until Election Day. That is just over two months between now and November 5th.

The election entering a critical phase because the first ballots can be cast in just 11 days. That's the start of mail-in voting in North Carolina. And less than a week after that, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are scheduled to face off at what is currently the one and only debate between them on the calendar. The week after that, Trump could face sentencing for his 34 felony convictions in his New York hush money trial. He has requested that that be postponed.

Just a few days later, the first polling sites will open as early voting gets underway in Virginia. And as these days tick by, both campaigns trying to build momentum. So let's get out there. Let's fight for it. Let's get out there.

Let's vote for it. And together... The Harris campaign announcing on Sunday they've raised a staggering $540 million since Biden dropped out of the race. And this week, Harris and her running mate Tim Walz will campaign together in the key state of Georgia.

The former president, meanwhile, still adjusting to this changed election. CNN has learned Trump's campaign is trying to aggressively expand his schedule. A source says that he's likely to hold several events every week, including regularly visiting two states in a day. One advisor telling CNN, quote, I think Trump on steroids. Think Trump on steroids. It'll be all hands on deck. For weeks, Republicans have pressured Trump to focus on policy on the campaign trail. Here's how that landed in Arizona on Friday.

They lied so much. They lied about everything. They really were nasty. And then they say to me, sir, please stick to policy. Don't stick to personality. You should be nice to people, sir. You have to be nice. I have to get personal, don't I? I have to get personal. I have to get personal. They get personal, but I'm going to do my best. So they're allowed to get personal with me, but I'm not allowed to get personal to them.

Okay, panels here. Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst and national politics reporter for Axios. Megan Hayes, former director of message playing for the Biden White House. And Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's president.

presidential campaign. Alex, I should formally welcome you to the CNN team. Thank you so much for being part of it. We're thrilled to have you on board. Let me start with you because, again, I mean, we are entering this critical phase. It's the last week of August. You know, the Labor Day sprint starts a week from today. Early voting, as we noted, really very close, really very close

here. And now you have Trump raising questions about whether or not he's going to participate in the ABC News debate. He posted on Truth Social criticizing Jonathan Karl. One of the interviews he did on Sunday said, why should I do a debate against Kamala Harris on that network?

Do you think this debate's actually going to happen? And what are you looking for as this sprint starts? I mean, it'd be irresponsible for me to predict what Donald Trump will do with regards to this debate. You know, a lot of this is him working the refs, and that's typical of his, just the way he goes about it. Part of the reason, I still remember this one great line from back in 2015, is he says...

I whine, I whine, I whine until I win. And I feel like that's often like his modus operandi. He's trying to build leverage. But at the end of the day, you never know. He could just say, you know, no thanks when we'll try to do it somewhere else. But I do think there is going to be at least one, if not two debates this fall.

I have trouble buying the idea that he's actually going to drop out of this, but... No, he's not. He's not. I mean, he likes the will they or won't they, right? He knows how to work not only the rest, but also the media a little bit. He wants them kind of having a little bit of intrigue around it. And look, to your point, go back to Father's Day, June 16th. The same time from Father's Day to now is from now to the election day. 71 days on either side. Wow. And you think about the number of things that happened.

in that period of time. - In that period of time. So I love, you have to remember, go back and look at your calendar, what you're doing on that day. So you're right, he loves the intrigue around this. And you're right, I've heard that exact same thing from the Trump campaign. They're gonna step up the events. There's gonna be a lot more of them. You're gonna see both J.D. and Trump doing separate events on the road where I think

You know, at least right now, Kamala and Tim Walz tend to do like events together. So that also, as you know, it hampers their ability to go to multiple places in a day. If you're separated, it could be a little bit nimbler since you have all the folks coming in at once. So watch for that as well.

Megan Hayes, I was reading Maureen Dowd's column over the weekend. And as she concluded it, I thought she did a nice job of capturing, you know, Harris has had all the momentum at her back, right? She's coming out of the convention. Trump still is kind of struggling to figure out how to criticize her. But this is how Maureen put it. She says, quote, Kamala came across as tough talking about the military and foreign policy in her speech, but she's not.

But there are many tests yet to come, including vicious Trump attack lines, eventually a difficult interview, and next month's debate. She has to show she has what it takes once she steps away from the teleprompter. Can she manage to get through a minimum of policy stuff with no viral blunders? Kamala holds the hopes of a lot of people in the country who are praying that she doesn't fall on her face in the next 72 days. She can take heart that she's driving Trump crazy.

He's jealous of her looks, her crowd sizes, her star power, and her vivacious, bodacious vibes. Some Maureen words for you. That's a good start. It seemed to me to capture, I mean, there are still potentially some major tests for Harris ahead of us. Yeah, she has to continue doing what she's been doing since she became the top of the ticket. She has to carry that for the next 71 days. The good thing is it's only 71 days, and she has the momentum right now, and she is under Trump's skin. So the more he's out there, the more stuff he's going to say, which will just be more...

for people the contrast of the kind of person he is and the president that he was and will be again versus her. So if she can continue doing what she's doing for the next 71 days, we will be in good shape. One thing to just add to that, some Democrats were surprised that Kamala Harris did not do the traditional barnstorming right after the convention. Usually you finish a successful convention, you do a ton of rallies. She took the weekend off. And I think some Democrats were a bit surprised that why not keep your foot on the gas? Yeah. Alex, what

What is your kind of your latest reporting digging into the Harris and Biden? I mean, we've seen Biden is taking another week of vacation. The Harris team is going to. There's been these kind of rumors floating around that they're setting up to do a major interview. Are they going to do that? Like, are we going to see her out there in that way? Are they thinking they might be able to survive for weeks without it?

I mean, they're definitely going to do an interview. Now, the question is, who is it with? Is it with a much more friendly host? Is it with a more serious, like a serious in-depth interview? How long is it? Is it edited? Is it live? Like all of these questions are, are,

And part of Harris's caution, extraordinary caution when it comes to interviews, is why some Democrats were nervous about making her the nominee. It's why people like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were more in favor of an open process. Because the fact is that almost all of her worst moments as vice president have come in live interviews.

She needs to do an interview. I get it. In a political operative in me, I understand why she's hesitant. However, the other side of this is that, look, I've seen this with candidates after candidate. Debate prep is also media prep. Media prep is debate prep. You hear the lines. You can refine your arguments. You get better. Every candidate I've ever worked with gets better the more they do interviews because they get sharper and they know what really, outside of the bubble, what the people are going to attack them on or question them on.

And it's just a comfort level. You get more comfortable with your own policies. You get more comfortable speaking and having those rapid-fire questions. So where I always don't think she needs to sit down for a major interview, she needs to start, to your point, doing those types of things for debate prep. You can't replicate that debate prep. You really cannot. There's always a—unless you have somebody who's really going to drive you hard, and that's key. Like, Philippe Brains was really good at this. Well, Philippe Brains is apparently playing Trump. Exactly, right? And there are people who are really good at this, and you need to be—

But too often, people will hold punches back in debate prep, even unknowingly. Just right, you're working for the candidate, they sign your paycheck, you pull a few punches, and you do a disservice to the candidate. Megan, I know you've advised candidates on how to handle all of this, how to deal with interviews, when you need to do them, when you don't. And you have said, you know, you often argue that they don't need to do them. Where do you come down on...

whether this is something Harris needs to do and why? Like, what are the pressures on her in this regard? So I think that it's a media story, right? And I think that if you don't take control of it, it will just continue to snowball in the media. And then it becomes more of a high-stakes thing than if you just did the interview. So where now she's passed the convention, she has the momentum, they've raised a ton of money. I think she should probably sit down for an interview. To your point, it depends who. They should be really strategic in that.

that maybe they do go for a morning show, a softer interview at first, and then they keep building. But to your point as well, it is good practice for debate prep. But I did not think she needed to do one leading into the convention. Why even do anything that might blunt the momentum that you had going into that? Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, Alex, there's also this argument that if you do a lot of interviews, then any one potential mistake becomes less of a big deal.

Yeah, I mean, that's certainly J.D. Vance's strategy. You're seeing him really sit down for tons of interviews and like the questions have been tough. Right. And and the thing is that as she has waited, it's been July 21st when Joe Biden came out. It's been well over a month. That is now like we're now talking about every it is now a story. The stakes of this first media interview are much bigger. Any one mistake she's going to make is going to be like immediately seized upon by Trump and his campaign.

Yeah, well, and some of the J.D. Vance strategy also seems to be setting up a contrast so that he can actually say, oh, hey, look, I did all these interviews. And that was also Trump. If you remember, in 15, 16, Trump was everywhere, everywhere. And so I remember telling these candidates, too, you don't like the headline. Let's make a new one. Let's go on the next show. And now, look, she's winning. I understand you're not going to be calling it three morning shows a day. I'm not saying that. But you're right. There is something to be said for Trump.

That scrutiny in that first interview, as we saw with Joe Biden just like a month and a half ago, everyone picked the first one apart, so they did another one. You have to be very careful of that.

I would just say, one, I don't think we're winning. I think it's all very up in the air and very tight. And the other thing, just like we did in 20, we did a local media strategy, and she should probably start doing local media interviews as well. Because you can intimidate them. Obama would bring in the White House and intimidate them. It's true. That's not where it's going. I know, I know. I mean, the Biden White House did this just a month ago right after the debate. The first two interviews were the black radio stations, and they basically bullshitted.

I want to talk about that. Very effective because you sit down with three network, you sit down with the three major stations in each market that you go to and it drives the story in the markets that you're trying to do. Right. I know. I mean, a local interview is very different.

- It's very impactful. - 100%. - All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, the crisis at the southern border is still very much a focus, definitely for the Trump campaign. Some Democrats worry Kamala Harris not doing enough. We'll dig into this. Plus, Donald Trump is back on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, sending out a flurry of tweets reminiscent of the final days of his presidency and Israel and Hezbollah trade fire as fears of a wider conflict continue to grow there.

We have been concerned about the conflict escalating into an all-out regional war since October 7th. And our hope is that the events of last night do not spill out into an escalation that leads to regional war.

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He was laughing as he fractured my skull. Amanda's attacker was an illegal immigrant drug dealer. If Kamala Harris hadn't let him out, this never would have happened to me. Kamala put violent illegals, convicted felons back on the streets. Lies from Donald Trump. The truth? On Kamala Harris's watch, violent crime went down. Under Donald Trump, a violent crime wave. And Trump ordered MAGA extremists to kill the bipartisan border security bill.

All right. Expect plenty more of that between now and November 5th. Wall to wall political ads focused on immigration and the crisis on the southern border. Democrats are urging Kamala Harris to physically go to the border to try to grab the reins of this conversation. She hasn't been there since 2021. Here was Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, honing in on that to try and criticize her. Watch.

It's millions upon millions of illegal immigrants that have come in just since Kamala Harris became the border czar a few years ago. She was put in charge of the root causes of migration. Well, the root causes of migration, I would say, Kristen, is that Kamala Harris refuses to do her job as border czar.

All right. Panel is back. There's that borders are title again, Alex, from Republicans. But the reality is here that this issue has shifted aggressively in Republicans favor. The Times has a long story on this. You know, they write that the overall message on immigration from the Democratic Party in the past week, as it has been since Harrison Astor Kennedy slept.

Canada's seat last month has been decidedly more hard line than it has been in decades. And it reflects just how much of a political vulnerability the issue remains for Harris. I think the question seems to be like, can the Trump team get on offense on this issue?

I mean, if you look at all their paid media, and I unfortunately have watched every single TV ad airing on air right now, it is all immigration all the time. From the Trump campaign, it's borders are, borders are, borders are. It is using instances of, you know,

crime committed by undocumented immigrants. And they really believe that they can really paint her as responsible for this problem. And really the problem for Democrats, too, is this is a late offensive push. The Democratic Party, yes, they introduced a border bill. The very first day of his administration basically spent no political capital during the first two years of doing it. Finally, they embraced the border bill in January or February of an election year. How much

credibility are voters going to give them for this sort of late embrace of border security? It's really unclear. I mean,

I mean, that has been my question about this, Matt Gorman, the entire time. I mean, Democrats are correct that Trump killed a bill that would have made dramatic policy changes around the border. However, the reality is that when you have Trump out there as the build-the-wall guy, how do you message on that? Watch their actions, always, right? If Democrats truly thought that attacking that bill

and the breakdown of the bill was a political winner, they wouldn't have then had Biden do the executive orders that tried to kind of short circuit that. They would have just used that as a cudgel. And the same thing also with Republicans. If we felt like there was a little bit of danger to immigration, we wouldn't be going headlong into this right now. Now, look, if I were...

the Harris team, I wouldn't send her to the border because, look, they've had this, you know, revisionist history that's like, well, she really wasn't border czar. She was in charge of this, but not that. Going down there, you are owning it again and you are putting a visual there that I wouldn't want. So I think you, she's walked a line. You're not going to win this issue. Can you get a little bit back? That's the goal, maybe. Megan, you're doing the messaging. What do you think? Well,

I agree with you, and I also think that people need to understand what the route migration, those issues are, and they need to know that the Obama administration put a ton of money into the Northern Triangle. Trump got rid of that money, and Kamala Harris then had to get public-private partnerships to rebuild that. You have to give people a reason to want to stay. They have to... Security, you know...

different issues with the Northern Triangle. So there's like, it's more nuanced than I think people want to know. And it's not as talking pointy as we'd like. I agree with you. She should not go to the border. I think that's a terrible message. But I also think that there are 71 days and it has to be, who is, what issue number one is this for people?

I mean, look, the way I think of this always is there's an issue on the right that we want to push and Democrats really don't want to talk about writ large, right? That's immigration. There's an issue on the left that they want to talk about Democrats, abortion that Republicans want to shy away from. And each has their own actively base of singular voters. Whoever wins that issue, whoever issue wins out among that is going to tell us a lot about November.

I mean, it really is extraordinary how fast the politics of this have shifted, honestly, in Trump's favor, in the Republicans' favor, in that Kamala Harris, when she was running in 2019, raised her hand and said that we should make crossing the border a civil offense, not a criminal offense. Now she's on TV talking about how she's a border state prosecutor, that she's gone after international gangs. Like, the Kamala Harris team knows that this is a huge vulnerability, and that's why you're seeing them move so fast. Yeah. All right. Stallhead here on CNN this morning.

Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with the latest twist this election season. We just made a general commitment that we were going to work together. How RFK's endorsement of Trump might change the race. Plus, monsoon rains turning the Grand Canyon into a deadly raging river. That's one of five things you have to see this morning.

All right, 26 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. The Arizona National Guard rescued more than 100 people out of an area in the Grand Canyon after monsoon storms caused flooding. They rescued both tourists and tribal members from the area after local authorities closed it down.

An Alaskan community is under mandatory evacuations after a deadly landslide on Sunday. One person was killed by the disaster in the coastal city of Ketchikan, and there are fears that a second landslide could be imminent. This dolphin could possibly make the 2028 Olympic gymnastics team? Wow, look at that. The video showing a dolphin off the coast of San Diego jumping 20 feet out of the water. Some are comparing this to a Simone Biles-style jump. That's amazing.

All right, a really scary moment for the home plate umpire in the Yankees-Rockies game on Sunday. A broken bat hit Nick Marley in the neck, sending him to the ground. He sustained a concussion and was carted off the field. He will undergo more testing in the coming days. And this. He gets it down. Oh, it's perfect. And it's all the way. Right there, he's going to win World Series championship.

Hey, that's Florida defeating Chinese Taipei 2-1 to win the 2024 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. An errant throw to first base decided that outcome in extra innings. All right, time now for weather. Hawaii dealing with a glancing blow from a tropical storm bringing heavy rainfall to the islands. The Midwest dealing with a threat from storms and heat. Let's get straight to our weatherman, Van Damme. Our meteorologist, Derek, good morning. Nice to see you. What do you got today?

Yeah, good morning, Casey. Listen, if you're in Chicago, you need to prepare yourself for this heat that is coming today, peaking for the day tomorrow. So there's about 55 million people under heat alerts, and this stretches from Minneapolis just outside of Indianapolis. So Chicago, you have an excessive heat warning for the day today. But again, tomorrow will be the hottest day. Look at the mercury in the thermometer, 95%.

But heat indices ranging from 95 to 105 today and then from tomorrow it could feel like up to 115 degrees in some of those outer suburbs away from Lake Michigan. So this is the NOAA extreme heat risk map and I want you to show the advancement of the

This is for the day on Tuesday. Anywhere you see that shading of purple, that's where we expect the extreme heat wave conditions to be felt. And of course, when it gets this hot in the summertime, something is bound to give, right? Well, severe weather will be the result of the heat today just north of Chicago. Minneapolis to Milwaukee, damaging winds and a large hail threat for the afternoon as we get those daytime heatings from the sun.

And I want to take you to Hawaii really quickly because this was the scene from what is now Tropical Storm Hone moving away from the Hawaiian Islands, causing some flooding, still flash flood warnings. But the good news is that the system is pulling away from the Hawaiian Islands as we speak.

Casey. All right. Sounds good. Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Coming up after the break, Donald Trump's latest campaign promise, this time a focus on abortion policy. Plus, the latest Southern state that could be up for grabs this election. Larry Sabato joins us live. It's the new Ghost Burger from Carl's Jr. It's a juicy char-boiled Angus beef burger. Yeah.

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All right, welcome back. Former President Donald Trump is facing criticism from some in his conservative base over his position on abortion. He posted on Truth Social on Friday. He declared this, that his administration would, quote, protect reproductive rights, end quote. Running mate J.D. Vance also told NBC News that Trump would veto a national abortion ban.

If such a piece of legislation landed on Donald Trump's desk, would he veto it? I think it would be very clear he would not support it. I mean, he said that explicitly. But would he veto it? Yeah, I mean, if you're not supporting it as the President of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it. So he would veto a federal abortion ban? I think he would. He said that explicitly.

Anti-abortion activists now calling out the campaign. The leader of Students for Life of America organization said in response to Vance's interview, quote, it's like they're giving a class on how to lose a presidential election, end quote. Another activist went even further on her podcast. Trump is trying to somehow, I guess, ingratiate himself with those that are pro-abortion. When you say you support abortion, right?

All that J.D. Vance and Trump are doing when they say, we support abortion pills, but when they've said this, they're just alienating their base. Why are you doing this? Trump campaign, if you're listening, we're saying loud and clear, if you want to have a shot at winning, you've got to fix this.

Panel's back. Alex, clearly Trump has said very explicitly the opposite in terms of winning elections than what Lila Rose, who's a, you know, followed abortion, anti-abortion activist, said there. But clearly they're not pleased about this. What are the dynamics at play?

-You know, in some ways, it's similar to immigration with the Democrats that we're talking about, is that Trump is right in between the base and the center of America, which he's trying to go to. But by every single time he goes to the center, he's gonna get more and more fire from his base. And similar to the immigration issue,

you know donald trump can say he's going to protect reproductive rights but will voters really believe that the guy that appointed the justice responsible for the repeal roe v wade is really going to defend abortion rights in a serious way the donald trump also still hasn't even answered the question about how he's going to vote in the florida referendum that is on abortion rights this november so donald trump

basically has no good political answer here and if this race is much more about abortion rights than immigration or other issues he's probably gonna lose. Matt, did you think, I mean J.D. Vance seems to have gotten out ahead of the president a little bit. A little bit. I mean I think the way we always answer that in the primary is that you just kind of dismiss the hypothetical but like I don't think that being said I think it's a bad thing that he said that. I think I wouldn't, I would expect if Trump gets that question at the next press conference he'd probably follow right along.

Look, what I'd be interested in is some of the bigger organizations on the pro-life side, whether it's Susan B. Anthony's List, Marjorie Dannenfelser, who's the head of that organization, is a really influential voice, especially in the primary with a lot of these folks. She was notably silent. I'd be interested to see what she thinks about that.

But yeah, I mean, look, this was always at play in the primary. This was one of the few issues my old boss, Tim Scott, criticized Trump on. And this was one of the ways you could find white space with the president, the former president on because he was kind of aware of both sides of this.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that he nobody's going to believe after he takes it. He's taken responsibility for the Dobbs decision so many times over and over again. No one's going to believe that all of a sudden now he's going to change. But I do think it's a matter of how they continue to message it and how their base reacts to it, because if you can lose votes from your base, if that's our single issue, just like Democrats can for immigration.

When Matt's right, you know, I still remember during the primary, Trump really was already aware of the political vulnerability here and really kept Susan B. Anthony and some of those other groups at arm's length. He brought them down to Mar-a-Lago, tried to court them, but did not embrace the 20 and 15 week ban that they thought should have been the standard for all the candidates.

All right, let's turn out of this. RFK Jr. is out of the presidential race. He has put his support behind Donald Trump. CNN now reporting Donald Trump advisors see a potential opening with some of Kennedy's supporters. Kennedy says he is going to continue to be out on the campaign trail. I'm going to be campaigning actively, I think.

President Trump is going to make a series of announcements about other Democrats who are joining his campaign. And, you know, I want to make America healthy again, and so does President Trump. So Kennedy is officially suspending, not ending, his campaign. But he is withdrawing his name from appearing on the ballot in key swing states. He told Fox News there wasn't a realistic path to the White House.

It became clear to me that I did not have a path to victory. 16 months of censorship, of not being able to get on any network really except for Fox. He invited me to form a unity government. We agreed that we'd be able to continue to criticize each other on issues on which we don't agree. All right, panel is back. I have to say, Matt Gorman,

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his campaign has kind of given us a very long list of, quite frankly, disturbing fodder. I mean, there was, we know about the bear in Central Park. Then now, Kit Kennedy, who is the daughter of Bobby Kennedy Jr., spoke with Town and Country, and she said this, when she was six, word got out that a dead whale,

had washed up on Squaw Island in Hyannisport. Bobby, who likes to study animal skulls and skeletons, ran down to the beach with a chainsaw

Cut off the whale's head and then bungee corded it to the roof of the family minivan for the five-hour haul back to Mount Kisco, New York. Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car and it was the rankest thing on the planet, Kick recalls. We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day-to-day stuff for us.

So this has become apparently normal. I mean, this is a guy who was, you know, polling up at, you know, 12% in some polls at one point. Yeah, that's a very weird story. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of the whole Mitt Romney with a dog on the roof of his car. That was told by his son in an anecdote. I think tag didn't mean any harm, but I thought it'd be a funny thing. The kids bringing out stuff with animals and the...

the presidential candidates always kind of gets into trouble. I mean, Seamus, the dog, I have to say, like, was it, it's very different. No, very different. That was a whale with a chainsaw. I was just only talking about the offspring telling stories. No, look, I was, yeah, I will say this. I have no idea what the heck is going on with that. He's a very odd individual that the family has a lot of oddities and issues to begin with. And he is certainly chief among them. Um,

Yeah, I also think, too, my other reaction stepping back from this, too, is you had this big, long tweet from a bunch of Kennedy, a lot of his siblings, talking about betraying family values. It was a little hogwash if you ask me. I think I

I just find it very distasteful also that the family equates supporting another person politically with a betrayal of dead relatives and betrayal of core family values. I think no matter who that is, what family it is, I find it extremely distasteful. That's my other hot take on the Kennedys right now. What impact do you think it actually has on the race, Alex? Well, he is going to very much struggle with the PETA vote, I think. And, you know, I do think...

You know, at the end of the day, RFK Jr., the Democrats did a very effective job here, both in terms of this sort of legal war that they had encountered in trying to kick him off ballots. And it really drained his resources to the point when he didn't think there was really any path forward. Now, that being said, now they've driven out of the race. You know, he probably is only going to have a marginal impact. But if it's a marginal race, he could matter. And, you know, the other thing, it's an interesting point.

You see both candidates now trying to define themselves as the change candidate. Kamala Harris and the candidate of the future, I'm trying to turn the page. RFK Jr. also has a change message of sorts in which he's basically like, the whole system is corrupt, the whole thing is influenced by big corporations, big pharma, and they are trying to double down on that sort of message. So it's going to be maybe help Trump on the margins, but we don't know yet. All right, straight ahead here on CNN This Morning.

He's back. Donald Trump making a return to Twitter. Can't seem to stop posting. Plus, an eight-day mission turning into an eight-month ordeal for two stranded astronauts. The decision to keep Butch and Sonny aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety. All right, 48 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Israel launching so-called preemptive strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon as the militant group said it launched its own set of attacks in response to the killing of a top commander. Those strikes, some of the most serious yet, raising concerns about a wider regional conflict.

A statue honoring the late civil rights hero and U.S. Congressman John Lewis unveiled outside of Atlanta replaces a Confederate monument that stood on that spot for more than a century. And this: NASA has decided that Butch and Sonny will return with Crew 9 next February.

It was supposed to be an eight-day mission to the International Space Station, but it will now last until 2025. Astronauts Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore will not return to Earth on Boeing's Starliner capsule. Instead, SpaceX will step in to help get the astronauts home.

A jersey worn by the baseball legend Babe Ruth when he belted his called home run shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, selling for an astounding $24.1 million at auction. That is a record for the most expensive sports collectible ever.

Makes sense, I guess, right? What else is going to be worth more? Collecting the sports. All right, let's turn out back to the 2024 campaign. The elections forecaster Larry Sabato's crystal ball now rates North Carolina as a toss up in November, making it the second southern state in addition to Georgia that might be in reach for Democrats.

Fresh off the DNC, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are going to focus their efforts on the Peach State this week with a bus tour through Georgia, giving the vice president another chance to address voters who had some concerns about her before these were recorded, just before she became the Democratic nominee a little bit, a little over a month ago.

I feel as though Kamala, the only thing I know her for is we did it, Joe. I don't know her for really anything else. She hasn't proven it's been four years and I haven't seen anything. I haven't seen her bring it, not in a campaign, not in any initiatives, just really stepping up. Kamala has done her best, but I just haven't seen a lot of strong leadership from her.

All right. Joining me now to discuss is Larry Sabato, creator of Sabato's Crystal Ball, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and the author of A Return to Normalcy, the 2020 election that almost broke America. Larry, wonderful to have you. Thank you very much for being here. Let's talk about North Carolina, why you decided to move it here and how much do you think that has to do with the governor's race, where Republicans have a candidate who candidly has said a lot of things that are out of step with Republicans.

uh... more moderate voters certainly with even many conservative republicans a lot of things the people say it just downright offensive

Yes, the Republican nominee, Mark Robinson, is pretty much at war with the spirit of the age, but he fits Republicans in North Carolina and, frankly, many other states quite well. The problem is that North Carolina is a very divided state. It's closely divided. It has leaned Republican and voted Republican fairly consistently, 2008 for Obama being the major exception, and governors. They'll elect Democratic governors.

But this particular Republican candidate has said so many outrageous things, and I don't want to get into the specifics. That'll take the rest of your time. But it has alienated not just Democrats and independents, but also a slice of the Republicans. As a result...

You actually have a situation that we often call reverse coattails. We think of coattails as coming from the top down, that a presidential candidate can provide an extra point or two for the members of his party on the ticket below the presidential race. Well, occasionally, a lower-level race becomes so hot, so controversial,

that it results in lower turnout for one party, higher turnout for the other, and it has a kind of reverse coattail effect. It can reduce the support for a presidential candidate of the party of the very controversial gubernatorial nominee. That may or may not happen here, but the elements are sure in place for it to happen.

Larry, I also want to ask you about Virginia since, you know, your home state. You spend a lot of time there. You understand it well. It seems as though since Harris, you know, this is the top of the ticket, the Democratic ticket was flipped. Harris has, you know, there's not the kind of level of concern among Democrats that might have been brewing when Biden was still at the top of the ticket. But I am curious, Larry,

to just kind of get your sort of understanding of why this state seems to be closer than it has been in past years and what was going on. Was it just Biden? Is it some other set of forces that we should be keeping an eye on?

It was primarily Biden, with all due respect to the president. But he had become very unpopular in Virginia. In fact, he's been unpopular consistently since Afghanistan in his first year in office and damaged, for example, Terry McAuliffe's campaign for governor, which he lost in 2021.

Now, with Kamala Harris, it's just like it is everywhere else, at least in the swing states or the kind of in-between states like Virginia. The fact that she is as dynamic and enthusiastic as she is and her supporters feel the same way,

It has reinforced Democratic hopes, and I think the likelihood that Virginia will vote by some substantial margin. I can't put a number on it yet, but there were a number of polls that had it tied between Biden and Trump, which is incredible because Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by five points in Virginia and 10 points in 2020 to Biden. I don't think we're going to hit 10 points, but this is not going to be especially close either.

All right, Larry Sabato, thank you very much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it. See you soon. All right, a new debate this morning about the debate. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris had both agreed to a debate on ABC News on September 10th. That's just two weeks away. But now Trump is giving an impression he may have changed his mind in a post on Truth Social on Sunday. Trump attacked ABC News for a segment he didn't like and asked, quote, why would I do the debate against Kamala Harris on that network?

And now there is new uncertainty behind the scenes too. In a statement this morning, Brian Fallon with Kamala Harris tells me this, quote, "We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates' microphones should be live throughout the full broadcast. Our understanding is that Trump's handlers

prefer the muted microphone because they don't think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump's team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit that they don't think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button. Now, of course, let's remember that Harris has used hot microphones to her own advantage in debates past. Watch.

Susan, this is important. And I want to add, Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I have to weigh in. I'm speaking. Peel the Trump tax cuts. Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking. If you don't mind letting me finish, we can then have a conversation. Okay? Please. Okay.

And that, of course, Alex, became a sort of iconic moment for her. Like it was plastered on T-shirts, et cetera. But very interesting back and forth here in the final. I mean, that that felon statement is clearly written to get a rise out of Donald Trump himself. Right. Yeah. I mean, after this summer, let no one ever say again that debates do not matter.

which is why you are having this fight over these small details. And what's also really interesting is not just that she's used the hot mic to great effect in the past, but also you have to remember Joe Biden wanted the mute button for the first debate. They set those rules for that first debate. And

because they were, because they didn't want a repeat of the first debate from 2020 when Trump just sort of ranted and raved. So this was the, the Joe Biden's idea. The problem was that then the Trump campaign was like, okay, we're actually going to like make him as, as found in, uh,

indicated disciplined and actually made him seem more sober than he often comes across yeah what do you think I mean look when a comma took over the ticket though they were trying to turn it both ways member when come to the ticket they told Trump and we've already agreed to the ABC debate on September 10th and they were sick with saying well we can get renegotiate a little bit with the debate is now they're flipping it and saying well just because you agree to the debate didn't doesn't mean we agree to the rules

Look, she wants the hot mic moment because what she's had, if you remember the first debate with Joe Biden, the I'm speaking, she loves to create these little memeable moments that, you know, are based off stock lines that she's practiced and kind of her team is prepared for. They already have the T-shirts printed up. So she's trying to draw out Trump with some of this stuff. Yeah.

At the end of the day, though, does this really matter? When they go to debate, that's what, I mean, the American people deserve a debate. They deserve to hear the issues being fought, to have a discussion. So I don't think at the end of the day this matters. I think it's just more political insider baseball stuff. It's fun to talk about all the things. Exactly, we have to get through three weeks. Yeah, that's what we're going to talk about in the next week. But at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. I think the important thing is to have a debate and to have them have a discussion about the issues. All right, I guess we'll see. All right, I'll leave you with this.

Nothing beats a dog's love. You saw it all right there. And that is why there is a National Dog Day, which is today. It was created to get people to think actually about adopting dogs. So here's an excuse for you to all see Radar.

He is a miniature labradoodle. He's about to turn seven. He is, I don't know what I would do without him. Apparently that makes me one of 65 million Americans who have a dog, making, of course, dogs the country's most popular pet. Let's play Show Us Your Dog. Matt Gorman.

We have Matt Gorman's dog, Molly. No, it doesn't look like me right now because this is from 1996. Winner of the cutest dog competition in Torrington, Connecticut. I'll have you know. But yeah, 1996. Oh, what kind of dog? That's a golden retriever. Little puppy. Yeah. All right, Alex, we have a picture of your dog, too, I think.

Tell us about your dog. There he is. So that is Miley, who sadly is not with us, but she is very, very well loved. And my sister, she has two golden retrievers. They had puppies, Charlie, Mozzie, Sage, and they had puppies. And my brother ended up getting one of the puppies. And so there is a whole family of goldies. Well, happy National Dog Day to all of them and to you. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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