Trump Attacks Kamala, Biden's SCOTUS Reforms, Golan Heights Attack
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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 is Monday, July 29th, right now on CNN This Morning. If a crazy liberal like Kamala Harris gets in, the American dream is dead.

Well, apocalyptic rhetoric there. Donald Trump trying to pin down his new lines of attack on his new rival. Plus, President Biden set to unveil plans to reform the Supreme Court, or at least try to. Plus, a rocket attack killing 12 children in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel vowing retribution. And this. These guys are just weird. That's who they are.

It's getting weird. Kamala Harris and her top allies rolling out new messaging to describe Donald Trump and JD Vance.

It is 6 a.m. here in Washington. Here is a live look at the White House. Good morning, everyone. I'm Jim Sciutto in for Casey Hunt. Good to be with you this morning. 99 days until America votes is all about messaging now. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump testing out new attack lines to see what sticks. Harris and her allies already deploying their new strategy. They're trying to cast the former president and his VP as weird. We're not afraid of weird people. No.

We're a little bit creeped out, but we're not afraid. It's not about her or her opponent, really. It's no matter what kind of weird stuff they keep saying. Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record, and some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it's just plain weird. Trump's messaging is much darker. He's trying to make the case that Harris is dangerous and worse, in his words, than President Biden. He won't be softening the tone anymore.

A lot of talk about that you'll remember anytime soon.

- God, let's bring in Elena Plot-Colabro, staff writer for The Atlantic, Megan Hayes, former special assistant to President Biden, and Matt Gorman, former senior communications advisor to the Tim Scott presidential campaign. Good to have all of you here with me this morning. Hope you had your coffee. Megan, I wanna begin, this weird line of attack is interesting to me because the Biden approach had been Trump is a genuine danger to democracy, right? They're dealing with him in advance with a little bit of a smile and saying, you know what, they're kooky.

as opposed to a danger. One, is that deliberate? And two, do you think that's smart? - I think it is deliberate and I think it is smart. I think that they're trying to appeal to a younger audience, right? You've seen a lot of things go viral in the last week or so. And I think they're just using normal rhetoric and normal tones that everyone talks about. And so it's more conversational, I think. So I think it is a smart tactic for them.

Matt, you hear all the attack lines from Trump there. And again, offense, whatever you want to call it, lunatic, all this kind of stuff. There was all that talk a million years ago, what, like 10 days or two weeks ago, that Trump was going to be softened by his experience of this near assassination attempt. He said it in so many words. First of all, there was no evidence of that. Second of all, he said in so many words he's going to be worse. So he's

That turn, that moderation ain't going to happen. It was a new race, right? He was running against Joe Biden. He had a comfortable lead. He didn't put the pedal to the metal, which he does now, running against Kamala. And the weird stuff is funny in a way because I think it's one of the reasons why you don't let the candidate or candidates or principals kind of do a lot of the messaging. I think it's problematic in two respects. Number one, when it's weird, it reminds me of when candidates I used to work for

in numerous ways, would only rely on their biography. It's like, congratulations, you grew up in indoor plumbing, but then how did, you failed to make the next step. What does weird mean for the voter?

And so that is what they're failing right now at. And the second part is there's a bit of a dissonance. And you saw this with Tim Walz yesterday. They're weird, but then they're also a threat to democracy. And one is trivial and one isn't. So there's a dissonance there. You've got to pick. They have to pick. And so it's fun. It's a little very online right now. We're just having fun with it. If this is going another week or two, that's what would tell me a little bit of a red flag.

Well, let's look at how it's playing. Granted, it's early, but let's look at the favorability ratings post-RNC. Harris has gotten a big jump, a shift of 12 points. She was minus 11 just after the RNC. Now she's plus 1. Trump has gone down. We can put this up on the screen. He's gone down 5 points since then. I imagine Republicans look at that numbers. And again, it's early, and we've got to see how these numbers play out over the next several weeks. But that's not a good week for Republicans.

No, and it sounds almost banal to put it this way, but I think we can't overestimate the impact of just how

having a Democrat at the top of the ticket who is out there on the ground. We're not talking about 8:00 PM bedtimes anymore, but the sheer visibility of Kamala Harris in the one week since she became the presumptive nominee, I think is just such a stark contrast from Joe Biden that that's huge for voters right now all across the age spectrum. - And the energy level, the communication, the clear communication,

vibrant communication that's that's a marked turn Democrats absolutely Megan is you I'm sure you've been looking at the numbers as all my democratic friends and contacts have on to the public polling clearly shows a shift that the race is at least closer although I've spoken to Democrats who said that if the race for help today Harris still would not win but she's moving positively in the voting groups that she needs to is that is that your read of where it stands yeah I also think she's showing up the coalition and then the base coalition that that the president was you

losing uh... and i think that she's out there and she is providing a new energy she is raising a lot of money and i think that is exciting to democrats i think she's bringing in these independent women voters that we were struggling to get before that trump and vance definitely need to get like we have to still remember the the election to be one in five or six states and ten thousand or twenty thousand votes in each of these places so it's very close in all these battleground states and so shoring up the base and getting some of these independent nikki haley voters to come to the democratic party i think it's like where we

we're gonna be successful here in November. - So Matt, JD Vance, Trump chooses JD Vance at a dramatically different moment in this race a million years ago, 10 days ago, right? A couple weeks ago. - He just like it, yeah.

You might call that a confidence. I'm calling it an overconfident choice. Now you have J.D. Vance, who's had some stumbles, no question. And also you have this, you know, childless cat ladies kind of line, which they're getting a lot of mileage out of here. Was he a mistake for Trump, given the race is fundamentally different now? No, no, because also you can't look in the future too much on that. But what I will say is this, right? We're seeing this a little bit now. We always kind of joked and made fun of the Republicans keeping going on Sunday shows in the VP search process. Now Democrats are with Mayor Pete and others out. But look,

So what was the one thing Vance was better than any other vice presidential kind of aspirant in the process? He was the best communicator. He was the best on mainstream media. So what I would do now is you have to put him back out there. You have to make sure you can't hide him away on kind of right-leaning podcasts. Put him back out there. That was his strength. That's what won him this.

have him go back out there again. But is he the best communicator? If you're not trying to win over Donald Trump Jr., say, and you're trying to win over Nikki Haley voters and others, is J.D. Vance your best bet?

J.D. Vance, to me, and the reason for months going back I always knew he would be the pick for Donald Trump, is that he had a coalition within Trump's orbit that no other candidate did. You might have a couple of individuals, Susie Wiles, someone else who loved Marco Rubio, a scattered few who loved Doug Bergram, but J.D. Vance, again, Don Jr., Eric Trump,

all of the people that work around them have been lobbying for this pick for months. So I think that's what made it settled. I don't know how much it had to do with how great he was as a communicator necessarily.

Let's look briefly before we go, Meghan Hayes, at the numbers. This is a Fox News polling over the weekend. Battleground states, the only states in the world, the only polling that really matters in this race. We'll put it up on the screen. But Michigan, Trump-Harris tied. Pennsylvania tied. Wisconsin, Trump a little bit ahead, but basically a tie statistically. And a larger lead for Harris in Minnesota. These are

different numbers than Biden was polling. How do they, when you look at those, do you see a fundamentally different race? Yeah, absolutely. And I think that the enthusiasm and the excitement that's shown the last week, but I think that Democrats need to be careful. We have this balance because we're enthusiastic about the ticket now. Then we're going into the convention, we'll have a VP pick. But then the

falls, it's going to be a slog. This race was always going to be close. It's always going to be one or two points. The three to six point thing wasn't, I don't think, was realistic. And so I think that we're just, we are leveling out where we were supposed to be. And when we hit after the Democratic convention, it is going to be a slog through the fall. Yeah. Now it's a knife fight, right? Yeah. Matt, Megan, Alenik, thanks so much. Not going to be the last time we talk about this. Coming up, President Biden set to call for term limits and other significant reforms to the Supreme Court. Plus...

Israel vowing that Hezbollah will pay the price for a deadly rocket attack. And Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell, he's going to join me live to talk about the state of the presidential race in his view.

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.

I'm going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy. Supreme Court reform.

President Biden making good on a commitment from last week's Oval Office address. Today, he is set to unveil his plans for Supreme Court reforms. That includes a term limit of 18 years for justices, a binding ethics code, and a constitutional amendment that, if passed, would limit immunity for presidents. Biden's proposal comes after months of increasingly sharp criticism of the court's conservative majority. There's probably going to be two more appointments.

to the court. There's probably two people going to resign or retire. Just imagine if he has two more appointments on that. What that means forever. I think the Supreme Court made a terrible decision. I think the justices he appointed have in fact been the most conservative. And I would argue if you surveyed Constance's scholarship,

They seem out of touch with what the founders intended. The Supreme Court has never been as out of kilter as it is today. Look, the fact of the matter is that this has never been a court that's been this far out of step. My panel is back with me now. Megan, if I could begin with you, because as a practical matter, certainly not going to happen before Biden leaves office. And you know the political hurdles to passing this through Congress and so on. So is this

Is it really a legacy announcement here, or is it about motivating voters in this election to focus attention on a president's power, right, in determining the direction of the court?

I think it's both. I think the president has always been someone who's for the institutions. And I think that this court specifically has gone a little far right. And the ethics or the perceived ethics violations, I think, are disturbing to him and upsetting. So I think that it is a legacy. But I also think it is a court is motivating for voters. I think that Roe v. Wade being overturned was a huge wake up call to Democrats, especially. So, you know, I think it is a little bit of both for him.

Now, let's look at the numbers here, because confidence in the Supreme Court is way down. It's only been going in one direction, down in a recent poll to well below 20%. But this is key, too. When you ask people what Supreme Court justices are driven by,

more likely to provide fair independent checks on other government branches 28 percent seventy percent believe more likely to shape the law to fit their own highly ideologies I mean the truth of the matter is that's a problem for both parties because it gets to the credibility institution which frankly has an enormous amount of power over people's lives arguably to some degree more than Congress more than the elected body yeah I mean I think that tells me is that

the court didn't necessarily get more polarized, but we did in how we view it. It's almost like Congress now where-- - But that's not entirely true. With the end of the filibuster, you can get justices confirmed that have positions that frankly wouldn't have gotten them confirmed in the past. - But we've been having that fight for over 20 years now. Why is it in these last two years, suddenly with these rash of rulings, has that happened? And look, I think the play you're seeing here is

it was almost an inverse of what the Republicans did in 2016, right? Trying to make the Supreme Court an issue, motivating voters in the same way they tried, Republicans have done successfully for years. Look, you're not going to get maybe, maybe, maybe some sort of ethics thing in, maybe, and not anytime soon.

But the rest are going to be non-starters. It's more of a campaign thing more than anything else. Well, Trump himself seems to be aware of the political dangers here, particularly as relates to Dobbs, right? Because he will claim credit for, as he did, Supreme Court justices that he appointed that overturned it, but pulled back from a national ban. And he doesn't advertise it with certain voters. So he sees the dangers here of that particular decision. You know, it's...

I found it so striking at the debate, among the other striking things of that debate, was that you had the Republican candidate whose heart is not really in an abortion ban necessarily. This is not an issue that gets him going ideologically. Contrasted with Biden, who is the same way but on the Democratic side, but still trying to convince their own bases that they are the right pick to sustain that coalition.

And what we saw in 2022, especially with Democratic voters, is that they are motivated to turn out based on the issue of abortion. I think that's why the predicted red wave never crashed as it was supposed to. And I don't think that anybody, especially Republicans, should underestimate the degree to which it can again motivate voters in November.

It's interesting, and I want both your thoughts on that, because there is a school of thought among Republicans that, yes, it drove voters in 2022, but it's a fading issue in 2024. Do you buy that? And then you, Matt, do you buy that? Mm-hmm.

No, I don't buy it at all. I mean, look what happened in Arizona. I just don't think that's a fading issue. I think that it is very important for women. I think you see it's polling really well for women. It also polls for independent women, which is, again, where we need to win in the election. So I don't think it's a fading issue for Democrats. There's no way for a Republican candidate to play that issue. Women voters are not going to be snowed

by wishy-washy positions on this topic. So how does it trump? How does it advance handling? What I think it comes down to is, right, abortion is one of those issues as a Republican that puts a lot of our party on our heels. And I think what I'm convinced this election is going to come down to is you have certainly abortion, rightly so, has the historical precedent to have kind of a good election motivator. You also have immigration now as what are those single-issue voters?

going to go on, right? In the past, 2022, who is calling over broken glass to vote? People who are voting on abortion. So what you have is abortion on the left, where left loves to talk about it, right not so much. Abortion is vice versa. The right loves to talk about it, the left's not so much. And with those going to be doing battle, I think, for salience and with the economy floating above all, whoever wins that abortion versus immigration battle is going to tell us a lot of who's going to win this election.

All right, stay with us. More to discuss just ahead. Four puppies and their mother saved after spending days trapped in the California Park fire. Check out those pictures there. You got to see this this morning. Plus, highlights from the Paris Olympics as Team USA brings in its first gold medals over the weekend.

Well, Team USA is off to a hot start at this year's Summer Olympics, winning three gold medals during the opening days of the competition this weekend. That's good for third so far. Their 12 medals overall are more than any other country. But the biggest news is who may or may not be going for gold. Amanda Davies joins us now from Paris. So tell us what you're following.

Morning, Jim. Never before has anybody in gymnastics brought a crowd of the likes of Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise, Anna Wintour, Ariana Grande. That is the Simone Biles effect making her Olympic return. And while she gave people a scare with a heavily taped ankle and calf, with some of the images of her sitting on the sidelines speaking to the team U.S. doctor,

pretty scarily reminiscent of what we saw in Tokyo. Thankfully, she was able to perform in style. It didn't stop her helping Team USA qualify top as well as posting the highest score in the individual all around. And she says she's doing as well as she can ahead of Tuesday's final. But from Team USA's oldest female gymnast in over 50 years to the pool,

and the oldest u.s swimmer since at least 1904 to win their first olympic medal congratulations 31 year old electrical engineer nick fink grabbing silver by the tips of his fingernails in a really tight 100 meter breaststroke final but as far as the home support was concerned the knight belonged to 22 year old leon marchand

a student of Arizona State University who's got his sights on emulating the success of Michael Phelps. He's been working with Phelps coach Bob Bowman and last night claimed France's first Olympic swimming gold since London 2012, winning the 400 IM in Olympic record time. He added a gold medal to the gold goggles he wears and pretty worryingly for his rivals, he's got three more events to go.

And we don't know how many more times we're going to be seeing two legends of tennis on course as they approach the end of their careers. But in some epic scenes, Britain's Andy Murray fought back from the brink in his doubles match with partner Dan Evans to make sure his retirement's postponed for at least one more day. And 14 time French Open winner Rafael Nadal has secured himself an epic

if tough, second round singles match on the court that's been the scene of so many of his most iconic moments in Paris. He's up against none other than 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. Incredibly, Novak still looking for his first Olympic gold. It's going to be a great day. Yeah, Amanda, what an exciting weekend there. So do we think Simone Biles is going to be okay going forward?

Well, from what we saw yesterday and from what she said to the media, yes. There was a little jig as she finished her performances. It was a thumbs up. Definitely strapped. She was definitely not feeling 100 percent, but she looks like she's good to go. Fantastic. Boy, this French swimmer seems to be like swimming on an entirely different level. Amanda Davis, thanks so much for joining. All right. Twenty seven minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning.

Take a look at a hot air balloon landing right in the middle of a neighborhood near Tacoma, Washington. According to Seattle Ballooning, winds pushed the balloon off course, forcing the pilot to land safely in the street with a little help from the neighbors. John in Vegas had a run-in with the law on his way to winning the PGA TOUR's 3M Open on Sunday. Take a look at his tee shot on 12. It landed on a police officer's arm.

Vegas got a free drop, barred the hole and went to capture his fourth career win. He did not hit off the police officer's arm. Parents competing in the Olympics now have something never before offered at the games. Amazing this has never been the case. A nursery in the Olympic Village. It includes private spaces for nursing mothers and play areas in a family lounge.

Firefighters are still struggling to contain an enormous fire in California. The Park Fire has already burned an area greater than the size of Los Angeles. It is only 12% contained by firefighters. An evacuation warning has been issued for the town of Paradise, which was incinerated, you may remember, by the deadly Camp Fire back in 2018.

A helicopter rescue team saving a Rottweiler and her four puppies who were stranded in the park fire, check them out there, after the owner was forced to evacuate. Cute little ones. While the West could see a bit of relief from record heat earlier this week, parts of the Central and Southeastern U.S., they face more triple-digit temperatures. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam tracking all this for us. Gosh, when I look at your map, all I see is red, so tell us where the worst of it is.

Yeah, good morning, Jim. So this is the 30 million Americans that are under the risk of excessive heat this week. So Omaha to St. Louis, Oklahoma City to Dallas. This is an area that's going to see the potential at least for triple digits, if not upper 90s above average temperatures for many. So if it's not over the west, it's over the central and eastern parts of the country, right? Even Atlanta is starting to see an increase in temperatures well above average, and there's a lot of humidity associated with this as well.

Heads up today, we have the potential for some stronger storms across the upper Midwest and across even the Tennessee River Valley so we'll keep an eye on that with the potential of a flood threat. The reason we have a diminishing wildfire threat across the Pacific Northwest is because of a cold front that's kind of the catalyst to cool things down throughout the Pacific Northwest. That'll be short-lived because the heat builds in for the second half of the week. You can already see our red flag warnings and watches in place for portions

of the West. I want to give you a quick heads up because the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a disturbance that is well offshore from the Windward Islands, but this could potentially develop. It's about a 50% chance and this is about seven days from now, so something we'll monitor here across the tropics. Jim.

Derek Van Dam, thanks so much. Ahead on CNN this morning, new concerns in the Middle East about the possibility of a widening regional war, plus how the U.S. election could shape Israel's war with Hamas heading into the year. Lebanon is warning Israel about the threat of a broader regional war in the Mideast after Israel's retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah overnight deepened.

Inside Lebanon, the Israelis blame the militant group for a deadly rocket attack that killed 12 children on a soccer field in the Golan Heights occupied by Israel. This was on Saturday. Hezbollah is denying responsibility. The U.S. is trying to calm growing fears of a wider war. One of the reasons that we're continuing to work so hard for a ceasefire in Gaza is not just for Gaza, but also so that we can really unlock an opportunity

to bring calm, lasting calm, across the blue line between Israel and Lebanon. Ben Wiedemann is live for us in Beirut. Ben, the read going back to just after October 7th has been that

As far as a broader regional war, the players don't really want it. Hezbollah doesn't want it. They fear the reaction of the Lebanese population. Israel focusing its military attention on Gaza for now. I wonder, do you see this as a spark that could disrupt that?

Certainly, this, Jim, is the biggest spark so far. Definitely, the jitters in Beirut and across Lebanon are more intense than I've seen in quite some time. We've seen, for instance, that Lufthansa, the German airline, has canceled all flights to Lebanon until the 5th of August, that Air France is suspending flights for today and tomorrow into Beirut.

But what we've seen on the ground, actually, has been pretty much within sort of the boundaries of the routine. Now, there was an Israeli drone, double drone strike in the south that killed at least two people, wounding three, including a one child. Now, Hezbollah has conceded that one of their fighters was killed today, but didn't go into the details of whether he was part of that attack.

he was a victim of that Israeli drone attack. But certainly what we're seeing is that rising concern that this time we are getting very close to what could possibly

deteriorate into something much more serious. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to speak with Lebanon's caretaker, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abu Habib, who definitely is concerned about the possibility of a regional war. You know, not because of conviction, but because of any attack on our country, we support Hezbollah in this regard.

But it's not going to be Hezbollah alone, as I mentioned. Iran, foreign minister said it yesterday. It won't be Hezbollah alone. And you have the Houthis, you have the Iraqi militias, you have militias in Syria who are not serious. Pakistani, Afghani militias.

And we also know that the US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs is in Lebanon at the moment. She put out a video message on X or Twitter, basically telling people to be vigilant,

to leave Lebanon before there is a crisis. She went on to say that for those U.S. nationals who decide to stay in Lebanon, they should be prepared, she said, to shelter in place

for a long period of time. Now, the summer is a period when many Lebanese from the diaspora, many of them Americans, have come to spend the summer, catch up with relatives, enjoy the beautiful scenery and the nightlife here. So there are many U.S. nationals in the country at the time. Now, I arrived in Beirut yesterday. At the airport, there was a very long line of people

at passport control, many of them with American passports. Jim? Ben Wiedemann in Beirut, thanks so much. Well, here at home, Vice President Harris and Donald Trump are coming off high-profile meetings with the Israeli prime minister. Listen to the former president offering up this doomsday prediction if Harris wins in November.

If we win, it'll be very simple. It's all going to work out, and very quickly. If we don't, you're going to end up with major wars in the Middle East and maybe a Third World War. You are closer to a Third World War right now than at any time since the Second World War.

Matt, what does Donald Trump base that statement on? How all the wars are going to disappear if he's elected president? I mean, it's the same sort of puffery we see when suddenly democracy is going to end if he's reelected president. I think it's this kind of like overheated hyperbolic rhetoric. Look, I think he has... Except he did try to overturn election, but...

That's four years ago. But democracy is really going to end if he's elected president. Come on. But I think the other thing is, I do think there's the fact that we are engaged in a lot of conflicts and we're at the precipice of things. No matter who's president, what the world looks like is at a very dangerous point, whether it's the Middle East, China, and Taiwan. The next president's going to come.

have to face a lot of crises. And it's obviously a lot that we don't know. And it's not unheard of that we're engaged in maybe not a world war, hopefully not, but my gosh, some intense global conflicts in the next four years. Yeah, I mean, this is the largest war in Europe still underway, largest war in Europe since World War II. I want to play, Elena, what both Harris and Trump said about a ceasefire deal in Israel. Because despite their differences, when I listen to these two statements, they sound quite similar. Have a listen.

As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done. So to everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you.

I want them to finish up and get it done quickly. You got to get it done quickly because they are getting decimated with this publicity. And, you know, Israel is not very good at public relations. I'll tell you that Israel, for whatever reason, you have Jewish people out there wearing yarmulkes.

and they're, you know, pro-Palestine. You've never seen anything. People have never seen anything like this. Their public relations are not good, and they've got to get this done fast. Both Trump and Harris are saying Israel needs to get a ceasefire deal. That's notable.

Maybe the motivations would seem to be a bit different based on what we just heard. But I also think that-- so for Trump in particular, this does not feel especially new to me in terms of his posture toward foreign entanglements from the outset of his presidential campaign in 2016. What I think is interesting in following Vice President Harris right now, now that she's the nominee, she is in this really delicate position

of trying to balance her loyalty to the Biden-Harris administration, the posture they've evinced, versus ways in which maybe she can stake out a bit more of an independent identity on this issue and hopefully bring back in some of those voters that Biden himself may have alienated. - So, Megan, I mean, and we heard some of that following the meeting where Harris

focused more than you might have heard from Biden, although Biden did criticize Israel for the number of civilian casualties. She pushed a little bit more in that direction, which a lot of Democrats do want to hear. It's a tough balance, though, to strike. So how is she going to manage that?

I think she can continue to push the envelope here and to get that balance. But I do think she is saying the same thing that the president was saying. She's actually saying the same thing Trump was saying. I think the tactics are just different in how they want to do it. But I don't think anyone in this country disagrees that we need to have a ceasefire and bring the rest of the hostages home. So I just, I don't think she's saying anything abnormal. But I do think she's able to go further because we are in a different spot politically than we were three, four weeks ago and what the president was going to say. No question. Well, we'll continue to watch it. Thanks so much, guys. Coming up next, the U.S.

raising serious concerns now about Venezuela's presidential election results. Plus, Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell, he's going to join me live to talk about the state of the race for the White House, where it's going from here. 48 minutes past the hour, and here is your morning roundup. After a year tied up in the courts, Iowa's heartbeat abortion bill goes into effect today. The law bans most abortions after cardiac activity is detected. That's usually just

about six weeks into a pregnancy. Mark Meadows is now appealing to the Supreme Court to get his Georgia election interference charges moved to federal court. The former Trump White House chief of staff claims the recent presidential immunity ruling by the Supreme Court means his case should be thrown out entirely. And this: We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.

The U.S. and other nations are questioning the reelection of Venezuela's strongman President Nicolás Maduro. The opposition is demanding election authorities present all the voting tallies to verify the results.

The alleged co-founders of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel are now under arrest in El Paso, Texas. Ismael El Mayo Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of El Chapo, face multiple criminal charges now. Lawyer for Zambada claims his client was duped and kidnapped.

Turning back now to the 2024 race and the early polling showing Vice President Kamala Harris making inroads with her new campaign. Harris's net favorability is now up to plus one. That's a 12-point jump from just a little over a week ago. Things are moving fast. Trump is actually down there. The race is essentially tied in a number of key battleground states. On the campaign trail this weekend, Harris cast herself as the scrappy underdog while acknowledging the work she will have to do in the next three months.

Let us be clear-eyed. We have a fight ahead of us. We've got a fight ahead of us. And we are the underdogs in this race, okay? Level set. We're the underdogs in this race. But this is a people power campaign. And we have momentum. Joining me now, Democratic Congressman from California, Eric Swalwell. Good to have you on. Thanks for waking up early with us.

Of course. My pleasure. So I'm sure you've been following the polling numbers as closely as us, probably even more closely. I mean, the favorability numbers have moved really well for Harris just in the last week and a half or so. Certainly the state by state races are tighter than they were with Biden as the candidate and also at the national level. Is she winning the race today, do you think, or does she still have ground to make up?

She's on a momentum run right now. It doesn't surprise me, though. I mean, if you look at the contrast you have in Donald Trump, someone who represents the past and not just because he's nearly 80, but because his policies are so creepy. They're so weird. They take us back in time, especially as it relates to women. I mean, 24 karat crime.

creep-like ideas of forced marriage and bans on IVF and bans on abortion. Who wants to go back to that? So she represents the future. And also, she's tough. And you see there's challenges in the world. You just set it up with, you know, election issues in Venezuela, what's happening in Israel, so she can lead the country. And Jim, she's also just fun. I've known her for

20 years we come from the same prosecutor's office in Oakland and you can see she's fun and I think it's refreshing to see somebody unlike Donald Trump who knows how to smile and who knows how to be serious but not take themselves so seriously. Do you have a favorite vice presidential pick for her or vice president presidential pick among the several names being discussed that you think would be the smartest pick for the Democrats?

You know, when it comes to the vice presidential sweepstakes, there's one name that I keep focusing on, J.D. Vance. He absolutely cannot be the vice president of the United States. And so anyone she picks will be eminently more qualified than a guy who thinks that if you're a single, hardworking woman in America, you should have to pay more in taxes. Again, this is just bizarre.

bizarre doesn't make any sense. And by the way, if you are single and you meet someone and you want to start a family, J.D. Vance doesn't support you using IVF to start that family. And say, unfortunately, you start a family and your spouse becomes violent. He has said that he thinks that you should be forced to stay in a violent marriage. So I don't think Kamala Harris is going to pick anyone as weird and creepy as J.D. Vance. She has

uh... yeah blessing of talented candidates uh... to choose from act before the hearing from that uh... selection committees in i want to talk about young voters 'cause the wash of the wall street journal has some interesting polling uh... this weekend at which it which has been discussed before but the numbers seem to back it here about how among young voters typically a strength for democrats that you have a gender split here with with with men uh... skewing republican women skewing democrat uh...

you know, women have for some time, but in effect, danger for Democrats among young male voters. One, do you see that? And what is the Democratic solution for that problem?

Well, freedom, you know, freedom on the horizon for your financial freedom, you know, bringing down the cost of college, health care, but freedom from violence. And this is a former prosecutor, someone who started in Oakland and then worked in San Francisco. She made it her priority to make sure that children under the age

age of 25. So young people, 25, then of course children, you know, would die at lower rates from gun violence. And I think she, both candidates have to answer what a substitute teacher told me a couple weeks ago. And this woman told me she teaches middle schools. She fills in when the teacher's sick or on a vacation. She said the first question she's asked when she walks into a classroom to start the week is, do you know where to put me?

And she's taken aback by it. And the kid says, no, do you know where to put me if there's a shooting in our classroom? Because our regular teacher knows, and I want to make sure that you know. That's what kids are asking right now is, are we safe in our classroom? Who's going to protect them? I know Kamala Harris is tough and has led policies that can protect kids. And every parent in America right now is wondering who's going to protect their kids. So it won't surprise me at all that she's going to do a lot better with young people in America because she will protect them.

I hear that same question from my own kids. But before we go, you're on the Judiciary Committee, President Biden announcing new proposed reforms, including term limits for justices and ethics code. Is this realistic at all? You know, the legislative barriers to making reforms such as this in the near term or even, I mean, even arguably in the long term?

I support fixing the court. For too long, we've counted on the court to police and fix itself. And most recently, we saw two justices who had spouses, one who flew a pro-insurrection flag and the other who went to Donald Trump's insurrection rally. And those justices did not

recuse themselves. One justice has millions and millions of dollars of undisclosed gifts, and people are starting to wonder, you know, is our court truly independent? And so if they're not going to do it themselves, then we're going to have to do it for them. And I support, you know, efforts to fix the court to make our democracy much, much stronger. Congressman Eric Swalwell of California, thanks so much for joining us this morning. My pleasure.

Well, Kamala Harris' search for a running mate is picking up steam. Former Attorney General Eric Holder is leading the Harris campaign team, scouring the battlegrounds of potential picks, including North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. Others include Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, giving us a look at how they might perform on the campaign trail through multiple TV appearances.

Listen to the guy. He's talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind. And I thought we just gave him way too much credit. And I think one of the things is, is when you just ratchet down some of the, you know, the scariness or whatever and just name it what it is. I got to tell you, my observation on this is, have you ever seen the guy laugh?

That seems very weird to me that that an adult can go through six and a half years of being in the public eye. If he has left, it's at someone, not with someone that that is weird behavior. And I I don't think you call it anything else. The weird attack continues. My panel is back. So, Elena, what factor do you think will be decisive in Harris's vice presidential pick?

So she has already come out with statements or rather her spokespeople have saying that what she is considering is somebody who has had experience governing at the highest level, which my response was, well, why not? Why not Joe Biden? Anyway, I think so. It's not at all surprising that you're seeing governors kind of at the forefront of who she's looking at, governors in swing states in particular. But

The approach she's taking seems to be quite pragmatic. She's not looking for somebody who can gin up the base in the way that Donald Trump was trying to do with J.D. Vance. She's looking for somebody to actually round out that ticket. And I think anybody among that list could certainly help get her there. Megan, historically, vice presidential picks do not bring new states, despite all the talk of picking someone who's from a swing state. They more reflect...

give an impression of how a presidential candidate decides, right? And if you look back to say the Sarah Palin pick, you know, you could argue that seriously damaged McCain. So given that kind of framing, do you have a favorite? - You know, I like all the people that are out there. I think all of them will be really helpful. I think that she's probably looking for someone who's gonna treat, that she wants to treat equally as a partner. I know that, you know, it's just like President Biden and President Obama had such a great relationship, and her and the President have a great relationship. So I think that is super important for them as she's looking to see who she's gonna pick.

Matt, do you have a vice presidential pick on the Democratic side that would make you the most nervous? I mean, the most nervous, but I've been banging the Mark Kelly drum for a little while, right? I think he's not a governor, so that might have some points against him, but at least he's running some top tier Senate races. He obviously brings the kind of the Gabby Giffords angle, so we could talk about, you know, guns, which obviously Swalwell wanted to do there.

Military background. Military background, right? Like, there's a little, like, the tough part is being from, I did this a little bit on the Romney side, there's a small window to vet. So somebody who is an astronaut and has run two tough Senate races, the vetting cliff is a little bit less steep. Matt, Megan, Elena, great to have you with me this morning. Thanks so much to all of you. And thanks so much to all of you for joining us. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. CNN News Central starts right now.

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