Trump Attacks Harris, Ukraine Attacks Russia, Swing-State Dilemma
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personal and policy attacks from the former president as fellow Republicans urge Donald Trump to stick to the issues. Plus, we are less than a week away from the start of the DNC, where Kamala Harris looks to mark an exclamation point on her platform. Plus, They're the ones that invaded Ukraine, and Ukraine is defending itself against that aggression. This is Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Ukraine seizes hundreds of square miles of Russian territory, pushing Putin's back against a wall. And then certainly when Biden was on the ticket, I was going to vote for Trump. But now it's it's it's a harder call. How voters in a must win swing state are thinking about their choice in November in this reshaped presidential race. All right. 6 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the.

at the Capitol on this Tuesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. With just six days until the Democratic National Convention, Donald Trump is trying once again to draw attention away from Kamala Harris. Last night, the Republican nominee joining tech mogul Elon Musk for a live streamed quote unquote conversation. The owner of the platform formerly known as Twitter, which he renamed X,

saying that the event was aimed at, quote, independent voters trying to make up their mind. We're going to have the largest deportation in history of this country, and we have no choice. One of the things we're going to do is we're going to build an Iron Dome over us. You know, Israel has it. We're going to have the best Iron Dome in the world. I want to close up Department of Education.

The start of the live stream was delayed by about 40 minutes, with Musk originally claiming it was because of a direct attack against the site, later acknowledging some unforced errors on the part of Twitter.

The Harris campaign, taking advantage of the technical issues to repost Trump's own mocking of Ron DeSantis, who experienced similar trouble when he launched his presidential campaign on Twitter last year. At the time, Trump wrote, quote, Watch.

Throughout the livestreamed conversation, Trump seemed to be as focused on the man he's no longer running against as he was on his actual opponent. Biden's close to vegetable stage in my opinion. I looked at him today on the beach and I said, why would anybody allow him? The guy could barely walk. Why would anybody allow him? Does he have a political advisor that thinks this looks good?

Continuing to go after Biden has been a running theme for Donald Trump, and that reality has not gone unnoticed. He's gonna walk into the room and he's gonna say, I want my presidency back. I want another chance to debate Trump. I want another chance. He's not coming back. We have a f***ing camera on him. That's him.

Joining us now to discuss Laura Barone-Lopez, CNN political analyst, White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, Kate Benningfield, CNN political commentator, former Biden White House communications director, and Brad Todd, Republican strategist and a partner with the public strategy firm OnMessage.

Welcome to all of you. Kate Bedingfield, you used to work for Biden. Can you confirm he is not coming back? I can confirm he is not coming back. Donald Trump needs to let his ex go. It's not happening. Brad Todd, listening to this conversation that Trump had last night with Elon Musk, I mean, it does seem like

He doesn't totally know what to do when he can't grab headlines, right? He has been at the center of the conversation for so long. And this sort of shift in attention has been pretty remarkable. He was all over the place in this conversation with Musk last night. Is he doing himself any favors? He was. It was a long format conversation. So it did lend a little bit to a broad waterfront. But he's got to get focused. He has to get focused. And it's not hard, right? People are disenchanted with how the Biden-Harris administration is going. See how I did that? You have to add Harris to the Biden-Harris. I see, I see.

I see what you did there. So it's not hard, right? You know, you saw border encounters, 7.5 million. Like this is easy. Spending disposable income. Americans had a lot more disposable income when he was president than they do now. That's where he has to go with the campaign, the economy and the border. He's got to get focused. We could actually probably add you to this. I want to show what some other Republicans have been advising Donald Trump to do. I think you just kind of added your own voice to that. Let's watch.

You've got to make this race not on personalities. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position. Trump doesn't need feast now. He needs votes. And the current rally formula is simply not sufficiently focused on the very stark policy differences, policy differences between him and Kamala Harris that will swing voters in

in key battleground states. Don't wander off. Don't call her stupid and all kinds of names. Stay on message. The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see. It's fewer insults, more insights, and that policy contrast.

So there you go. So far, he does not seem to be listening. He's not at all. I mean, I went to one of his rallies in Pennsylvania after Harris had jumped in, after it was very clear she was going to be the Democratic nominee. And it was very much almost the exact same speech he had given when President Biden was in the race.

uh... just with more personal insults directed at kamala harris and it was right after he started questioning her racial identity so he's gone from you know questioning her racial identity to questioning her crowd sizes and whether they're real or not he's not focused at all on the things that you say that he's been other republicans say that he should be focused on what you get on me and

He spent six months being very focused. And so that's it led him to be ahead in the race. He has to get back to that. And there's an old axiom that candidates, when the race is about candidates, voters tune out. When the race is about voters, voters tune in. He has to make the race about the voters and the consequences of Kamala Harris winning. But he's never really been capable of doing that. I mean, we're kind of seeing in some ways we're seeing the reset to, you know, the essence of Donald Trump, right? Like he was running ahead for so long this year that he was sort of able to get away with his Trumpiness and, you know,

uh... you know now that he's kind of in the back in the spotlight the pressures on he's sort of back to the kind of worst elements of himself willing to use the right to emotional right in fact you losing absolutely and we've never really seen him be able to deliver a concentrated focus message that's about the voters

the other thing i think is interesting to from a tactical standpoint about this uh... x uh... twitter town hall he did last night as you know they framed it as a wallets it's aimed at undecided voters there aren't undecided voters for the most part on on x there are to be if you know you had harris and walls out last week in all of essentially all the key battleground states

You had Donald Trump out doing nothing and then sitting for 90 minutes on Twitter last night basically talking to his base. That is not a winning strategy. Brad, why do you think they weren't better prepared, like the campaign wasn't better prepared to run against Harris? I mean, this was looming out there as a possibility even before

Biden's complete debate collapse? Well, Joe Biden said he wasn't getting out, you know, and I think the voters had nominated Joe Biden in every state that they assumed that that would hold. I think the campaign, by the way, the blocking and tackling things the campaign has to do have continued to pace. And if you look at the message that comes out of this campaign office every day, it's exactly what it should be.

The problem is former President Donald Trump has to focus his message when he's in front of the camera. And he's a big, big part of how the campaign communicates. He's got to tighten it up and he's got to focus it on what the voters would get if Kamala Harris wins. Laura, one of the things that we're kind of seeing in the background, and I'm sort of interested in this because there was a poll yesterday from the Financial Times

that showed that Harris may be making some inroads on the economy in particular, because that is something that Donald Trump historically has been given credit for from voters and has been a place where they say they trust him more on that. What do you think she needs to do? Trump on this live stream criticized her for this taxes on tips policy that he in fairness rolled out.

said she supported it in Las Vegas. We haven't seen, we're expecting to see a more fulsome economic plan from her later this week. But how much of a risk is, what's the risk, the benefit calculation for her on economic issues right now? I think on one hand, she's going to clearly run on the stuff that she and President Biden did.

because the thing... I mean, is she, though? I think she is, because the thing, like, you know, capping insulin at $35 and the infrastructure and the jobs that have come with the Infrastructure Act. She is going to run on those things, and Democrats were running on those things, and they saw success. Down-ballot Democrats saw success with that. They always said, the Democrats that were working on campaigns down-ballot always would say to me,

uh... it's the messenger not the message that is the problem and they saw president biden as the issue now they have a new messenger at the top of the ticket with kamala harris who they think is much more effective but she is going to have to differentiate herself in little ways

It's going to be the taxes on tips. We're going to see more some policy platform stuff from her. But she is going to still run on a decent amount of their record together. Does that sound good to you? I think that would be great. We know what Kamala Harris will do as president. She told us when she ran in 2020, she said she would ban fracking. She said she was sympathetic to the defund police movement. She said she'd decriminalize border crossing. There's a lot of things on her record that we know what she would do if she wins. I think one challenge for

for President Trump though is that he always likes to compare leadership styles and leadership characteristics more than the election ideology. Ideology has never really been his thing. He's not an ideologue. But this is now a campaign about ideology if he's going to win. He has to paint her as the most extreme candidate for president ever. That's his path. But I think that's just not going to hold. I mean, to Laura's point, I can tell you from my time at the White House, we saw time and again that the economic policies that Biden was able to implement and

was running on were incredibly popular had bipartisan support in a lot of cases uh... you know his argument we took on pharma like test off the charts i mean people love it so

removing the drag that you know his personal his age and and the interpersonal concerns that people had about him uh... it we know it does open up a huge lane of opportunity for for comal harris to talk about the things she's been able to do uh... you know and talk about it in a way that's about you know supporting the middle class supporting working people i think you're gonna see her continue to do that she has a huge a huge message lane here and i would expect that she she will run in it well we're gonna see a lot of that we're gonna see how they're gonna do it at the the d_n_c_ come up next week right

Coming up here on CNN This Morning, the probe into the attempted hacking of Donald Trump's campaign and one of his operatives as the former president points the finger at Iran. We're going to speak with former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Plus, Donald Trump's comparison of Kamala Harris' Time magazine cover.

to his wife Melania. Yes, that's an actual tease. And the countdown to the DNC begins where Kamala Harris will formally accept the Democratic nomination. Will we see future stars seizing a moment on the party's biggest stage? The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states. Red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats. But I've got news for them too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states.

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But I believe that the times require imagination and courage and perseverance. Hope is back in America. We are on the right track to the 21st century. If fighting for affordable child care and paid family leave is playing the woman card, then deal me in.

All right, next week, Kamala Harris is going to get to make her own speech, just like those at the Democratic National Convention. As her party's nominee, Harris expected to speak on Thursday. The tentative speaker schedule, according to NBC News, will include remarks from President Biden, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and former President Obama.

Chicago is, of course, the Harris-Wallace ticket's biggest opportunity to define their platform before a national audience and contrast Harris with Donald Trump. A contrast that, back at the 2020 convention, sounded like this. I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one.

It's actually really interesting to watch that, Kate, because it really shows how she has evolved and grown as a candidate from when she was delivering that speech. What do you expect? I mean, I know Republicans are priming everyone for even more polling bumps after the Democratic National Convention because, you know, it's going to be a week of celebrating Democrats. But as we've learned from the Republican convention, you know, these things, they were riding high then and look what's happened since. So it can kind of fade in the end.

Yeah, well, I mean, races are always fluid. I mean, I think if we've learned anything over the last month, it's that things change and races are fluid. No question about it. But she does have a really terrific opportunity here. She's coming off of this incredible couple of weeks stretch where she has been really out barnstorming. We've seen her kind of delivering what I think is going to be the guts of her stump speech for the next year.

uh... three months in the in these battleground states now she has an opportunity to do that on a big you know national t_v_ platform uh... before big national audience so you know i think i would expect that the democrats will use this opportunity to keep defining the contrast on trump of course is that is a key piece of their strategy here to remind people how

unpalatable Trump is, which Trump is helping them do over these last few weeks in particular. But this is really a moment also for her to be affirmative, to put this joy and energy on display that she's been doing so effectively in the swing state. So I would expect that Democrats will come out of this week feeling encouraged, feeling emboldened.

and then the task coming out of the campaign is that sliver of undecided voters for the last three months of this race sliver indeed laura i mean one one thing that is going to be harder to control i mean democrats can obviously control most of what goes on on the stage

But what's going on outside, if we think back to, and this convention was in Chicago in 1968. We can show a little bit of that, like what went on outside of the 1968 convention and the protests that marked that. Obviously it was a different time in American history, a very volatile one. But this was kind of what defined that.

I think had Biden still been the nominee, it's likely that the protests we are likely to see outside this year's Chicago convention would have been very much the central focus because we do anticipate thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters outside. It's something they've been very concerned about. How do you think that plays with Harris on the stage? And do you think that their campaign is prepared for... I've sort of started to ask this question, you know, of the new kind of Harris folks that have come in, like...

This is something that they can't control. They're going to have to deal with it. They're going to be asked questions about it in Chicago next week. Are they ready? I don't know if they're ready. I mean, we saw recently when there were protesters at one of her events that the uncommitted movement didn't exactly like her response, which was to say that if you want Donald Trump to win, then just say it. That was her response to them when they were heckling about and protesting about Gaza. And what I will say is that leaders of the uncommitted movement have said that

Generally, they think that Harris has taken a much more empathetic tone and that they feel as though she has been much more willing to talk to them and engage with them. That being said, she's not really trying to make herself entirely different from President Biden. She is still trying to help him come to a ceasefire deal and still standing with him when you talk about his core position when it comes to Israel-Hamas war.

I think it's the most important thing about the convention next week, and it's a big opportunity for Vice President Harris to take if she will. The thing swing voters fear about her like they feared about Biden is that they'd go to she'd go too far left. She would not put any brakes on her her progressivism. She needs to take a flatbed trailer and a bullhorn and go straight up to those protests and say get on board with the president.

and me and Israel or get out of our party. She needs to be very strong and she needs to dare those protesters to leave because it would be a moment of strength for her and it would communicate that in fact she is willing to stand up to the far left. I don't know if she's got the guts to do it, but that's the most important thing she could do. I don't think she needs to say get out of our party. I mean, the point here is try to build as broad a coalition as possible. But I think you did see in her initial reaction to those protesters that Laura was talking about,

uh you saw a real confidence i mean you saw her saying you know i'm speaking and if you want donald trump to win then just say that i mean she had no problem being very direct i don't think i don't think the expectation should be and i don't think it would be smart for her to spend her time at the convention attacking these people who fundamentally broadly speaking share her goal by the way people start getting symbols outside the convention the way they did outside union station here it took her a day to respond to that

Well, remember, but I would just say, I mean, remember, this was as, this was, I think, maybe what, the day after or two days after she had assumed the mantle. So, you know, there was a lot going on. But I don't think, I mean, to be fair, there was a lot happening. And she did very forcefully. When it came out, it was very forceful. Decry that.

J.D. Vance got up in his speech and basically declared war on Wall Street, something you don't see Republicans do at conventions. I think she needs to get up and declare war on the anti-war protesters. It would send a stronger signal that she can push back on the far left than anything else she could do. Yes, we'll see. All right, still ahead here on CNN this morning, firefighters in Greece are battling a huge wildfire. We're going to bring you the latest on that deadly blaze, Fire Cruise.

have gained an upper hand. Plus, voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania weigh in on the new state of the race with Kamala Harris atop the Democratic ticket. All right, 26 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning. Caught on camera, a shark seen following a kayaker in California. Oh my God, this is terrifying. You can see it peeking out from the water. It's like Jaws in miniature. The man who shot this video said he was just kayaking with a friend when he noticed

This visitor, again. Oh my god, I just, I can't. Okay. Now this. You are looking, now you are looking at nearly 2,400 pounds of meth. Yikes. This is the largest meth bust on record. DEA agents in Atlanta found $3 million worth of drugs smuggled into Georgia by a Mexican drug cartel. The drugs were hidden in a load of celery at a state farmer's market.

No idea we had to be on the lookout for large quantities of drugs at our farmers markets. Okay, golfer Matt Kuchar was all by himself Monday morning. He was the last player on the course for the Wyndham Championship in South Carolina. He ended up playing less than one hole all by himself after walking off on Sunday night because of poor light on the 18th hole as the rest of the field decided to play through.

But his bet paid off. He got a par on the final hole, doubling his prize money for finishing in 12th place. This explains to me and Andy Scholz, who were confused about why he might do this. There's the answer.

- Right, the show must go on. - We have a bit of an earthquake here in Los Angeles. So we're just going to make sure that our studio lights, everything stays safe, everything's shaking. - The show must go on. A 4.4 magnitude earthquake in Los Angeles caught live on ESPN during a broadcast. I have to say I was very impressed with her composure in this moment. There were no reports of injuries or structural damage.

The situation in Greece is improving after a wildfire scorched more than 150 square miles outside of Athens. At least one person has died. All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, Donald Trump blaming Iran for attempting to hack his campaign this summer. As the investigation into the attempted hacking unfolds, we're going to talk with Mark Esper, the former defense secretary.

And now that Kamala Harris is on the ticket, will Pennsylvania voters turn away from Trump? I know President Xi. I know Kim Jong-un of North Korea. I know every one of them. And let me tell you, people will say, "Oh, this is terrible." He said, "I'm not saying anything good or bad. They're at the top of their game. They're tough. They're smart. They're vicious. And they're going to protect their country. Whether they love their country, they probably do. It's just a different form of love, but they're going to protect their country.

That was Donald Trump last night sharing his view of some of the world's most dangerous dictators. That was with Elon Musk on X. Any of those leaders, of course, could be trying to interfere with the U.S. election. The former president's team is blaming Iran for hacking their campaign in June. According to multiple sources, the hackers compromised the personal email account of longtime Trump operative Roger Stone, stealing sensitive documents from the campaign.

A source telling CNN overnight that in June, the FBI briefed the then-Biden-Harris campaign on Iranian efforts to hack them as well. Let's bring in CNN political commentator, former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for being here. Good morning, Casey.

Can you talk to us a little bit about this hacking attempt? I mean, we know that it was successful in the case of the Trump situation. It seems as though it was not in the case of Biden-Harris. But clearly there are adversaries out there who are trying to influence our elections. Do you buy this explanation that it was the Iranians? What are you looking for here?

yeah look i think it's very possible that it is the iranians if you step back a little bit we look at over the years multiple briefings for example by the intelligence community to congress where they said there's been foreign state attempts to either a interfere or b influence u.s elections and it's more often the latter how they try and influence

cause social discord, et cetera, in our elections. And the principal players have been Russia, number one, this year, secondly, Iran, and then a distant third, China. And then there are others. North Korea is in there. A lot of other countries trying to sow discord or influence our elections.

It's completely feasible that it is Iran behind this. Iran does not want Trump to get back into office. They had a very bad experience with him during that time. Of course, it was the ending of the nuclear accord. And then finally, at the end of the administration, the killing of Qasem Soleimani. So they do not want Trump back in office. That's for sure. So it's it could be it could be him. But we, again, know that others are trying to sow discord as well.

So I take your point on Iran. If you look across the map at other potential nefarious actors in this, I mean, there's obviously been a lot of conversations about the Russians and their potential involvement. There almost seems to be an inclination toward Trump from the Russians. Do you think that still holds? I mean, how do you look at them and some of the other dictators that Trump praised there last night with Elon Musk?

Yeah, the Russians are probably the biggest player out there. They have the largest operation. It's more agile, more adept than the Iranians are. And they have been trying to sow discord going all the way back to elections, right?

you know it's it gets a little bit less clear but one might argue that yes they'd be more inclined to have uh for sure trump in office because trump has said that he was does not support ukraine that he has challenged nato and other things so one might say that they favor him more than than the other uh xi jinping in china again a little bit more unclear although trump has promised a levy across the board tariffs and upwards of a 65 tariff on chinese goods coming into the country so um

Again, these are probably the three principal actors. North Korea is in there as well. And all these are trying to, again, not interfere as much. It's very hard to interfere in the United States elections, but influence them by sowing discord through misinformation, disinformation, just stirring things up is what they're aiming to do.

Sir, while I have you, I also want to ask you about what's going on in Israel, also with Iran, because we've been sort of waiting with bated breath for a response to the killing of the Hamas political leader, and it still has not come. And we did learn that Hamas is going to go back to the negotiating table around a ceasefire and a hostage deal.

in Gaza as we're still waiting here and we've sent a nuclear submarine to the region. Of course, very rare that we would announce that we are doing that. Why do you think it has stretched this long and what are you looking for next?

yeah i'm a little surprised it's last as long as well iran likes to strike back within a matter of days um i'm still convinced they will strike back at some point so it's not a question of whether it's it's more when and how but clearly what's happening here too is you have these negotiations number one number two we know iran and hezbollah do not want a wider regional war and i suspect that iran is trying to figure out what is the right tactic

to respond to the killing of Ishmael Haniyeh in late July in Tehran? How did they respond so that they maintain their credibility with their proxies and also retaliate against the embarrassment? I think we've all believed that it will be a massive type of drone and missile attack, but again, that risks a wider war.

There's been some reporting that maybe they will try to pursue an intelligence operation, which means maybe they try to kill an Israeli official somewhere outside of the region or attack an embassy or something like that. But I think it now at this point pivots on these upcoming talks in two days on Thursday.

between Hamas and Israel, and can they get a deal? Can they being really Hamas get a deal that satisfies the demands of, at this point in time, the new both military leader, I'm sorry, the new leader of Gaza and the new political leader who replaced

which is Yahya Sinwar, who's very tough. He's a hardened warrior who wants to keep this fight going on. But he's close to Iran. So will he want to pursue this or will he try and strike a deal? And of course, the question is, does Bibi Netanyahu want to strike a deal as well? Right. All right. Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper for us this morning. Sir, very grateful for your time. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Casey. All right, let's turn back now to the presidential race. The road to 1600 Pennsylvania will more than likely, in fact, it definitely goes through Pennsylvania. It is a must-win state, a critical piece of the blue wall if you're a Democrat. CNN's John King went to talk to suburban voters there to see how the really historic events of the last few weeks have impacted what they're thinking about. Here's a little taste of what he learned.

I'm not excited about voting for Kamala Harris, but it's better than the alternative. Senator Vance, are you going to tell Ann Calder or Condoleezza Rice or Elizabeth Dole they're miserable cat ladies? I don't think so. When Biden was on the ticket, I was going to vote for Trump. But now it's a harder call just because I am not a fan of Donald Trump. What are your goals for this job if you get the job? And that's what I want to hear from Kamala Harris.

So first of all, interesting that she pronounced Kamala's name the way Donald Trump pronounces Kamala's name, which is incorrectly Kamala. Anyway, Brad Todd, can you, I always love hearing directly from these voters. I'm actually from the suburban Philadelphia area. It's a place I know really well. I know you're working on the Senate race there. I mean, what do you know? What have you learned about how the switch at the top of the Democratic ticket has changed the state of play there?

I think actually Kamala Harris is a weaker candidate than Joe Biden was in Pennsylvania. Joe Biden always bragged about being Pennsylvania's third senator. He was from Scranton. Being from Wilmington, Delaware, he was always on TV in Philadelphia. He visited there all the time as president. I think she's actually worse. Well, I take your point if it's a younger Joe Biden, but the difference between Joe Biden as voters were seeing him and Kamala Harris, I mean, I don't know.

I don't quite like it. A group of older voters that Biden persistently held on to that he wasn't holding on to in other states, though. And it was just due to pure familiarity. I think, though, Donald Trump does have to prosecute the campaign in Pennsylvania. And it comes down to farming, fracking, and crime. You know, Philadelphia is the most dangerous major city in the country. There are 330,000 people in Pennsylvania whose jobs depend on fracking. He has to go after those issues, and Painter is an extremist on those issues to win.

It is true that Biden was able to do better with white working class voters, the more rural white voters in Pennsylvania than other Democrats have. That's certainly true. And he, as Brad said, he certainly had that connection. But he also ultimately won Pennsylvania in part with margins in Philadelphia, with margins with voters of color, black voters.

uh... in philly and obviously i think comal harris has a message that uh... thus far we see is resonating as we watch as we see some of this polling over the last week and just in the c_n_n_ sienna poll you see black voters starting to come home and in uh... some of these swing states where uh... you know by the had been struggling so

I think there's definitely a path for her here to rebuild that winning coalition. But no question, Pennsylvania is going to be absolutely huge. I would expect to see her there a lot making the case. And it's absolutely going to be probably decisive at the end of the day. You know, one more thing is Pennsylvania is moving right slowly. It has been moving right for 20 years. The registration difference between Republicans and Democrats is down to almost 300,000 people. It was 600,000 four years ago in the last race.

the state's creeping ever rightward. So it's a little tougher hill for a couple of years. Yeah, I mean, when Romney was running, it was kind of a pipe dream. But it's also, but as you listen to these voters, right, they don't view Donald Trump as an acceptable standard bearer of conservatism. I mean, that's the big issue, right? I think that's the thing. I think a lot of the, you know, these more double haters or middle-of-the-road voters who maybe weren't totally sold on Biden are now more...

moving over to Kamala Harris because they see someone that's younger. They didn't like the fact that it was the same two candidates running against each other. We heard that time and time again whenever I sat in on focus groups or talked to voters. And now they see something different. And they also like the VP candidate that she picked.

So that's something that is opening up some voters for her. She's also bringing home the base in a way that Biden wasn't. And so that could very well boost her, as you mentioned, the voters in Philadelphia in a state like Pennsylvania. The most interesting thing I heard in that voter mash was the woman who said, well, I don't like Trump, but obviously I was going to vote for him if it was against Biden. Right. That she, Kamala Harris, has an opening with those people that Biden that was closed.

to Joe Biden. All right, more to come here on CNN This Morning. Can a vice presidential candidate make or break a presidential ticket? We're going to talk with presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Plus, Donald Trump spent much of his time talking to Elon Musk, bashing his opponent. But there was one comment about Time magazine's latest cover that caught some people off guard.

Kamala wouldn't have this conversation. She can't because she's not smart. You know, she's not a smart person. And Biden, we don't even have to talk about it. I mean, he couldn't have this conversation.

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All right, 49 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Donald Trump demanding $100 million in damages from the Department of Justice for the FBI's Mar-a-Lago documents search. Trump's team claims the search was inappropriate and hurt Trump's reputation. The search was approved by a federal judge after months of negotiations with Trump's legal team.

A New York judge ruling against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s attempts to get on the ballot in that state. In a ruling Monday, the judge found RFK Jr. used a sham New York address on a ballot access petition. The independent presidential nominee lives in California. Kennedy's campaign plans to appeal the ruling.

Arizona will have the chance to vote on abortion access this November. The proposed constitutional amendment would establish a fundamental right to abortion up to 22 to 24 weeks by ability. The state currently has a 15-week limit. All right, turning back now to this. I come today with a Texan and a son of Massachusetts running on the ticket of the oldest party, but in a sense the youngest party. We ask your help in this campaign.

that was jfk in 1960 the only time in history where most people agree that a vice presidential pick mattered enough to propel a president to the white house next week minnesota governor tim walsh will make his major national debut at the convention as kamala harris's vp pick and his first

solo campaign event is today. While both Walls and Trump's VP pick, J.D. Vance, have been generating plenty of headlines, historians dispute how influential these VP picks actually are. When they do make a difference, it is sometimes when they do harm. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.

All right, joining me now is presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller, An Unfinished Love Story, A Personal History of the 60s. Doris, I am so grateful to have you here. Thank you so much for being here. How does history typically view these vice presidential selections? Obviously, some of them go on to become president, and that historically makes history.

a big difference. But again, we kind of had to go back to 1960 to find an example where it really mattered. You know, you're so right, Casey. I mean, most of history, I think they were viewed as non-important. I mean, John Adams, good old John Adams said it was the most insignificant office in the history of man. But it becomes significant, just as you suggest. That's not a great

resume for a vice president, right? But 15 of the 45, 46 presidents have become president, either by the resignation or the death or they win the election in their own right. So that's almost one-third. So that makes it really important. But in the old days when the political bosses were choosing the candidates and the vice presidents because we didn't have the primary system, they really were just choosing them to balance the ticket so the candidate they wanted for the nomination for the president would have somebody

that he needed to win another state. So for example, when Rutherford B. Hayes from Ohio was chosen as the nominee, they chose William Wheeler of New York to balance him. And he said, "I'm ashamed to say, I don't even know who William Wheeler is." So that just showed how insignificant it seemed to be in that kind.

And then when Teddy Roosevelt was made to be vice president because they wanted him out of New York, because he was too progressive in New York and he felt he couldn't turn it down because he would look like he was too snobby, he hated every minute of it. He said, "I'm so bored, I'm going back to law school. I need something meaningful to do." And even old Lyndon Johnson felt it was the most miserable time of his life that he had been such a powerful majority leader and now he was shriveling up day by day.

It was really not until good old Carter brought Mondale in and gave him an office in the West Wing. As you can imagine, Casey, that matters everything. You're in the West Wing. You're right in the center of power. You can

hobnob with the people there. You're not over in the East Wing. You're not over in the executive office building. And then that changed. And Mondale became an important vice president. Gore was an important vice president. Cheney was an important vice president. And now I suspect that it's not only that Walsh might help her win, but that he's going to be a person who will have real responsibilities once he gets in there.

Well, I was going to say with both Biden and Harris, we have two people that understand kind of the unique challenges and frustrations of that job, as you just outlined. I mean, how do you think that impacts things?

I think it probably made a big difference for Kamala Harris because whatever frustrations or pleasure she had in the vice presidency, she knew that she was right there and she knows what the role is, what she hopes it was for herself, and she can make it such, I think, for Tim Walz. And I think she realized she wanted somebody she could work with.

the presidency is a huge function we wonder why it is that all the president's get gray by the end they look much older than they were in the beginning it's such an impossible job if you have somebody who can really be your partner I know the first rule is win choose the guy or the woman is gonna help you win and that's true if you don't win then what's the point of having then you can't have some great partner there that you can be happy with day by day and I think

in a certain sense what walsh was able to do was it's not so much that he's bringing the blue state of minnesota but those rural counties in those small towns from which he comes they're all over the midwest and so if he can really appeal to them as a football coach in a and somebody who was a high school teacher a social studies teacher after after all good old history comes in there and then he was a military veteran armies got a different

He's not an Eastern elite kind of person. In fact, neither one of them are Ivy League people. And that somehow we've had that for such a long period of time that maybe people will feel this is more of a of a ticket that has a working class background to it. And that's the people that they need to win over. Yeah, especially, quite frankly, in places like Western Pennsylvania, which is going to be the whole ballgame. Doris Kearns Goodwin, I'm so grateful to have you. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. I hope you'll come back soon. I would gladly so. Thank you, Casey. See you soon.

All right, let's turn out of this. More from Donald Trump's conversation with Elon Musk. At one point, Trump decided to weigh in on this. Time magazine's recent feature, and specifically the cover artwork that pictured his opponent, Kamala Harris. She is terrible. She's terrible. But she's getting a free ride. I saw a picture of her on Time magazine today. She looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live. It was a drawing.

And actually, she looked very much like our great first lady, Melania. She didn't look like Camilla, that's right, but of course she's a beautiful woman, so we'll leave it at that, right? Okay, that's another pronunciation of her name, Camilla. Guys, what, like, what?

There it is. This is Kamala Harris, beautifully drawn on the cover of Time magazine. It looks like her. It looks like Kamala Harris. Does it look like Melania Trump? I think he was trying to say they were both beautiful. And he's wasting time, though. But he does have a fair point that Vice President Harris is getting the greatest media honeymoon ever known to presidential politics. And I think that was his core complaint there with that cover.

I mean, look, I'm afraid to try to psychoanalyze what Donald Trump is doing here. Who knows? I don't know. I mean, I think it does kind of seem like he was trying to say it was like an overly flattering drawing of her. I don't know, but...

One thing it is not going to do is help him win suburban voters, swing voters. I mean, he's, to Brad's point here, there are only so many days left in this election and he's spending them, you know, sort of rambling nonsense rather than making a case. So if that's what he wants to do. Well, we know he's obsessed with Time Magazine as well from the 80s. That is true. You asked earlier, Casey, like, what?

why they weren't prepared. I think one thing was that they, Republicans that I talked to expected Democrats to fight, to have a big fight about who the person to replace Biden would be. And they did not think that people would coalesce around Harris as much as they did. And so you're seeing that he's just struggling with trying to find his footing against her because they didn't expect to be facing someone who had all of the support of the party behind her. All right, on that note, let's turn to this. I'll leave you with this. This ain't tactics.

Beyonce, just one of the many names breaking through on former President Obama's annual summer playlist. The 44th president dropped his list this week, listing 44 songs, naturally. Another name on the lineup, Charli XCX.

You could argue both of those names are also on the playlist of current Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Harris getting basically an endorsement from Charlie XCX when the pop star tweeted out, Kamala is brat. She also made Beyonce's song Freedom a centerpiece of her campaign, going back to her first appearance at the campaign headquarters in Delaware.

Trump also of course has his own unique playlists as well. The music, you know, I mean I like Obama's lists, right? He does music, he does books every year. I usually try to go through and find one or the other to look at. You guys have any reading recommendations for the summer or song? I mean, maybe let's not do playlists, let's do books. Anyone read anything good lately? I'm reading Cormac McCarthy's "The Passenger."

Ooh, that's a good one. I read The Ministry of Time on Obama's list. I have to say, I wouldn't, I, it wasn't my favorite. Yeah, but I read The Beasting and it was captivating. Captivating. Not comforting, but captivating. All right. Sounds good. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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