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Erin Burnett Outfront
Harris Delivers Closing Argument Of 2024 Election. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 29, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:36]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next.
The breaking news, Kamala Harris about to make one of the biggest speeches of her life. The closing arguments one week exactly before Election Day in front of what it looks like, it could be her biggest crowd so far. We're live on the National Mall and we'll bring you Harris live.
Plus, Trump calling his Madison Square Garden rally, a love fest. His honor, he says, to be involved. Of course, that's the same rally where the comedian insulted Latinos in crass and graphic terms and taking on Elon Musk.
The district attorney who is suing Musk for that voter lottery of a million a day, asking a judge to speed up the case. So what could happen?
Let's go OUTFRONT
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, Kamala Harris is about to take the stage for her closing message in this campaign. We have just obtained parts of her speech in which she will say, Donald Trump is unstable Donald Trump has a list of enemies that he plans to put in jail, but she will give those who disagree with her a seat at the table.
And this is a live picture of where Harris will be speaking in just a few moments happening and a historic spot because you can see behind the podium where she'll be standing, which is at the ellipse in Washington, D.C., that she will have the White House behind her.
Now, this spot, this angle is exactly the same one Donald Trump hat on January 6, he -- before some of his crowds marched on the Capitol. But, of course, he had the White House behind him, the power of that day and place.
Harris now choosing for herself off tonight and the crowd tonight, huge. Police say they're expecting upwards of about 52,000 people at Harris's speech, and that number is not just on an absolute basis, huge, it's also relatively much more than the campaign had anticipated. They'd initially applied for a permit of 7,500 people a week ago. Then
they upgraded it to 20,000, and they upped that again to 40,000. Now, police, as I indicated, are expecting many thousands more than that. And as I said, we've gotten parts of Harris's speech.
She spent the day editing it. She plans to say about Trump and I quote from what we've obtained, he has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute and quote, he said, one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 6, and then she will go through specifically providing these adjectives for Trump: unstable, obsessed, with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.
Now, of course, this is a message sure, to satisfy the Democratic base and voters who already dead set on voting for Harris, right? To think this is all about turnout. But the Harris campaign says no, that the goal tonight is actually still to persuade, still to sway undecided voters and that they aim to do that with what they are billing as an optimistic and hopeful message which from the parts of the speech we obtained seemed to come where Harris writes and I quote, I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better.
I'm looking to make progress. I pledge to listen to experts and to people who disagree with me. Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I'll give them a seat at my table.
Again, that's a quote from the speech that we anticipate Harris will be giving and, of course, that's coming up in just a few moments here.
So, first, let's go to Priscilla Alvarez OUTFRONT in Washington at the Harris rally.
And, Priscilla, obviously thousands of people gathering. We're told maybe it could be upwards of 50,000. What are you seeing there now?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, they have amended their permit to reflect that what I have seen over the last several hours is indeed a lot those people filling in the area, you can see some of that behind me, but we can also see to the National Mall where there are people gathered. We can't tell just how many.
But certainly people tuning the into these remarks, which is exactly what the Harris campaign won its senior advisors recognize this may be the last opportunity for her to deliver a major address, both to the audience here at the Capitol, but also to Americans who are tuning in. So far, we have heard from people who have been impacted by multiple policies, be it on small business or health care or reproductive rights, all of the issues that the vice president is expected to touch on tonight.
But, Erin, of course, where we are is notable. It's the ellipse. It's where former President Donald Trump delivered his fiery speech on January 6, 2021, before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Their advisers to the vice president wanted that gravity to come through tonight. When she delivers her remarks, but they also wanted degree in a visual, the White House, of course, is behind her.
[19:05:01]
She's about 500 yards from the Oval Office, the office that she is seeking.
And while she is here, she is expected to draw that stark contrast, essentially paint to voters that he couldn't be the former president who is consumed by revenge, according to the vice president. Or it could be heard, she's going to paint her vision on all of the policy because I mentioned the economy, immigration, reproductive rights. One source describing it to me as a crystallization of her argument, and this argument they hope is going to reach the undecided voters, those voters who are still on the offense.
That may include disaffected Republicans. You'll note, as you entered me, hear that she talks about a seat at the table that is the message her campaign wants tonight, is that she can be a candidate for Republicans, independents, and Democrats. So certainly, the vice president over the last several hours, I'm told, has been revising her speech, making those final edits as she presents her case and leave the fourth on her background as a prosecutor to do exactly that -- Erin.
BURNETT: Right, to make the closing argument is they're saying which, of course, is the appropriate terminology with her professional background.
All right. Priscilla, thank you very much.
And as we await -- the Vice President Kamala Harris is going to be speaking any moment here. We anticipate the ellipse. As I said, we are going to bring that live. It's her closing argument. Everyone's here with me now.
So, David, does this sound like from just the excerpts that we have and they're just excerpts we anticipate it's going to be a little bit longer than the stump speech that she has been given, which has been running sort of 18 to 22 minutes and very consistent, this is going to be a little longer. We anticipate over half an hour.
Does it sound like the closing argument she needs to make?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, the excerpts were very much focused on her critique of Trump I think that if that's all she does, know, I don't think it's the closing argument. She needs to make, but clearly, they're planning to do more.
I thought Erin last week when she said that he's going to come with an enemies list. I'm going to come with a to-do list was a very effective frame. Now she has to fill in that to-do list, and she has to make the case that these things are not going to happen with a president who's consumed by his own self-interest and by demonizing all of the people he has to work with. I will work with people to get these things done and that will touch people's lives.
If that's the message, I think it's the right message.
BURNETT: So, Astead, I see people there. Now this is just one angle that we're looking at but they have USA that's been handed out, right? As opposed to Harris-Walz, right? That's the point she's trying to make, but she is for everyone. I mean, I'm just reading into the signs that I see that that's what the campaign wanted to hand out.
What about the turnout though they start with 7,500, then they up at 20 than they up at 40. Now police are saying more than 50,000. What are you learning about? Just sort of, you know, metastasizing of that number?
ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it reflects the growing confidence that is we see in this Harris campaign, they feel like they're landing their argument. They're talking about the issues they want to, and they're doing so on the terms, because Donald Trump has frankly gifted them after the rally in Madison Square Garden. They want to be to have a message that can appeal to independents, Republicans, and they have made this ideological pivot pretty clear.
Her campaigning with Liz Cheney, I think was the clear indication that they see their more direct path is recreating the type of anti-Trump coalitions that have come out for Democrats consistently -- consistently in the last midterm and the last presidential election.
But, you know, to David's point, it won't just be anti-Trump. And I think that's a lesson Democrats have learned from 2016. They want to make this a referendum on the other guy, but they want to also say that -- that his distractions, his grievances stop him from providing for American people. And that's the thing that she will do most clearly.
So it's a pivot -- it is an anti-Trump message for the one that's coupled with delivering for people. And that's the way that I don't think they were doing for us.
BURNETT: And she's trying to that point and what they are. The part that they say is going to be the hopeful, optimistic, part, and again, we'll see how much I just in there, but that they put out unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me or the enemy he wants to put them in jail. I'll give them a seat at my table. That's what we have here from these excerpts that we've obtained.
Do you think lines like that? Is there anybody left, Alyssa, that is persuaded or moved by hearing that now?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's a very small number, but they do exist. Here's the reality on another network, just an hour ago, Nikki Haley was interviewed and she said she hasn't spoken to Donald Trump since June. She critique the Madison Square Garden rally that he did by saying there was no effort to even reach out to women, never -- never mind Nikki Haley, maybe never Trump type Republican voters. So the seat at the table, I know she's going to appear with some
Republicans tonight who've endorsed her, showing that she wants to be a president for all people, showing that she's willing to compromise and is going to be a more bipartisan president than I think a lot of people perhaps have seen her as in the past when she run previously, I think that's important.
And I also think twofold optics here. Of course, reminding people of January 6 and that rally on the ellipse, but also showing her a woman men in front of the White House and telling Americans, we've never done it, but it's okay. I fit in here. I can stand here and I have a place here.
BURNETT: So, Erin, you know, primetime, the White House is behind her, speech full of lines about Trump, the unstable that he's obsessed with unchecked power. You know, you know better than anyone -- Trump knows marketing.
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He knows and innuendo, he knows the power of a place and, of course, the echo of this place to January 6 itself. So how does he see a speech like this?
ERIN PERRINE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, AXIOM STRATEGIES: I think they see it two ways. One, I think they think they see it as contrast, right? It is a woman standing in front of the White House. It is Kamala Harris delivering her closing message, but also nodding to January 6.
She will talk about it. I'm sure there will be not even overtures, but direct conversation about it. And it's about chaos and the chaos in this is she needling Donald Trump as much as she is making her closing argument. She is at the place that is one of his weakest spots personally, I think -- I think it's a sore spot for her to stand there. And not only deliver the contrasting message and vision and fill out her to do list to your point. But also, it's about trying to get him to focus on January 6. This is bait.
AXELROD: Yeah. I think the contrast, Astead, mentioned this, but the contrasts that they hoped to strike is pretty stark. What they need to do in the next seven days is, used. Donald Trump's negative energy against him in a kind of political jujitsu he is modeling for people the thing that concerns them, that he's so consumed by rage with his political opponents that nothing will ever constructive will ever get done for people.
I will say to Alyssa's point, I just want to reiterate, a lot of the voters who are hanging out there to the extent there are voters hanging out, there are working class people. They aren't particularly tuned into all the elements of the campaign, but they're very self- interested because their lives are -- are -- they're scuffling to get along out there and their thing has been Donald Trump may be not my cup of tea, but I did better when he was there.
That's the thing that Trump people have been pushing. She needs to talk to those people and she needs to talk to them about their lives and what she wants to do to help improve their lives. Yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
HERNDON: I'm just saying -- just saying, yeah, the concrete example to the undecided voter point. I think about this one guy I met, his name was Jake in Minnesota. We actually watched the VP debate together. He's torn between the two candidates, says he agrees with Donald Trump on economy and immigration, but he agrees with Kamala Harris on abortion rights and he didn't like January 6, the kind of classic undecided.
You see it. I ask them, how are you going to make cure decision? And his answer was whichever one of those matters most to me on Election Day. And I think this is another --
BURNETT: He's basically putting it off.
HERNDON: Yeah. He said whichever one of those things matters most may come today.
And I think that's another effort of this here is to put worst qualities about Donald Trump, the worst day of Donald Trump back in peoples heads as they're heading --
BURNETT: The psychological strategy of recent --
HERNDON: Absolutely. So beyond the ideology, just the timing of it, too, puts them on better footing particularly with those type of undecideds.
PERRINE: I think for those type of undecideds, they are looking at which policy am I feeling in my gut? What -- what is the emotion that is driving me that day? Is it the economy? Did I spend more at the grocery store at the gas station? Or is it or is it something more?
But I also believe that tonight, if there are Republicans who are undecided, that it's policy versus personality. If there are Republicans who are sitting there saying, I don't know if I'm going to vote for Donald Trump, does Kamala Harris bring out a Republican that's unexpected, yes. On people understand about Liz Cheney and those who have already spoken, is there somebody else that can come?
But also for them, they are saying, man, I really liked the policies and the way my life was, but I'm just having a hard time with Donald Trump if I walk into the election, if I walk into the polling booth, Kamala Harris tonight needs to be there.
GRIFFIN: And I also wouldn't discount progressives who have been on the fence. They're angry over Gaza. There are some things they don't like about the Biden administration. But when you up the fear factor of Donald Trump and remind them tomorrow or within a couple of weeks, we could be having President-elect Donald Trump, remember all the things we didn't like, this also energizes them. She's reaching a number of constituencies, but to David's point, it's not either/or, it's and. She -- AXELROD: I just think this is so much -- you know, we talked so much
about change and who represents change? I think change -- there's two different kinds of change at play here. One is changed linear change, change from the Biden agenda and the Trump campaign has tried to make the point that she would be an extension of them. She's talked about where she wants to go.
But the other changes can page from Trump's style, change from Trump's politics that is -- that is so disruptive and in some ways destructive would hence the setting that our priority is will never be heard. And that's really the change that she's offering, a turning of the page on a style the politics that has that has us at each others throats in a way that makes progress.
BURNETT: You're always at a point, Astead, where it's -- you know, we're at the end. All right. I mean, in lock, anything can happen in a few days and I know a lot of people have already voted, but still things can still happen. Still though, you know, choosing to do something like this at this moment because she feels that it is sort of her closing argument right.
The ads are out of control. That and I can imagine in the swing-state, you know, people talk about it.
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But Trump's outspending Harris in Pennsylvania, but that's it. Overall in the seven swing state, she spent nearly $1 billion.
AXELROD: Yeah. Let me just say a billion on the kinds of ads that were all --
(CROSSTALK)
PERRINE: That doesn't include Senate ads, or House ads, or anything down ballot.
AXELROD: And you know what says to me? I got out of the business too early.
(LAUGHTER)
BURNETT: There's that.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: But, Astead, how much more impact does a primetime speech that she's about to give have versus as anyone watching the World Series is literally going to go, are you kidding? I got to watch that one again.
HERNDON: I think it's about the ads --
BURNETT: You're tired of seeing Charlamagne.
HERNDON: I think it's about the aggregate really. I mean, I think that sometimes these are primetime speeches, two point media direction and introduce things into voters' ads that may not have been there to the point about timing going into election day. But honestly, I think Donald Trump did they biggest thing that is on the -- on the timing front two days ago in terms of reminding voters of the seriousness of this race. That cut through to the type of people who don't really follow politics that closely in a year in which people have intentionally put this election off for as long as possible.
If there has been a consistent thing of our travels to the last couple of years. It's not even a bit about one candidate or the other -- it's been about an electorate who has tried to put this election off for as long as possible.
BURNETT: I guess --
(CROSSTALK)
HERNDON: -- more than the Harris campaign --
AXELROD: I know you've got to go. We should make one point this is Kamala Harris's event. This is her venue, the Napa setting, but the style she we saw it at the convention. We've seen it throughout.
She makes these big speeches very, very well. And I think that's another reason they wanted to do this.
PERRINE: Her closing a convention was when she you could see it in her eyes when she nailed about the next great American chapter, you could see that she knew she nailed it. She delivers something like that with the contrast tonight and a vision. But -- I mean, it's so -- it's so close the persuadable margins are all there.
BURNETT: All right. Well, we of course are going to be there for that as we anticipate it's going to be giving beginning here in just the next few moments, right there again, on that stage marked USA, that she's trying to make this about everyone, not just about Harris/Walz.
We do have breaking news here on those live pictures of the National Mall. Tens of thousands right now, we do anticipate more than 50,000.
And also, quote, do no harm. The Harris campaign sidelining Biden after a series of 11th hour gaps. But is that the right call?
Plus, Trump about to speak in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. As I said, the one state where the Trump campaign is currently outspending Democrats, an area he is speaking in tonight where more than half the population is Hispanic. So, a lot is at stake given those racist jokes at the Madison Square Garden rally by that comedian as they've said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Irritated. It was -- it was a hateful thing to say and they're mad.
(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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BURNETT: All right. These are live pictures out of Washington, D.C., the ellipse, the backdrop of the White House. That's where Vice President Harris will be speaking just moments from now.
Our Priscilla Alvarez was saying about 500 yards away from the Oval Office. That will be the backdrop for her primetime speech to the country tonight, where she will make her case against Donald Trump, speaking from the exact same place where Trump spoke on January 6 and before some of his supporters stormed the Capitol, and we're going to bring you her speech live.
But it does come in the context of new polling, and obviously, we don't know what's going to happen. So pollings all we've got right now. This is a critical battleground states of Nevada and Arizona still really -- I mean, look at that, 48-47, 47-48, dead heat.
Harris though, has been making some gains compared to the last CNN poll holes in the Sun Belt states. So on those -- that's been an improvement for her.
Harry Enten is here now.
And, Harry, you know, what do you see now versus in those prior polls? And does it show a real Sun Belt path open for Harris separate from what happens in the upper Midwest?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yeah. I'll tell you this much. All we have is the polls right now, I guess the polls and each other, Erin. And, look, I think the bottom line is this the Kamala Harris campaign, I believe knows that their best path moves through the Great Lakes. You know, we've been talking about it, right? You get Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, that gets her 270 electoral votes.
But let's say that pass starts to fall apart a little bit, right? Let's say we take away the Wolverine State, right? And that drops are down to 255. But if she wins in Nevada and wins in Arizona, then she can still get to 272 electoral votes.
So winning Arizona, Nevada leaves that for her, but also lets just say we turn Pennsylvania red and Wisconsin red, well then Trump still short at 263 because he loses in Nevada and Arizona. And then, of course, there's Georgia and North Carolina. If those go blue as well in the Sun belt that would get Kamala Harris to over 270 electoral votes.
So the bottom line is this Erin, because Nevada and Arizona are competitive, when you can combine that with Georgia, North Carolina, at leaves a completely alternate path Kamala Harris isn't just relying on the Great Lakes states.
BURNETT: Right. I mean, she has multiple paths as you point out, and even more so, when you suddenly look at states like North Carolina, possibly being in play.
Now, the Hispanic vote, obviously, there's a lot of talk about that Harry, and it's impossible to just tell from any kind of polling at this instant what the impact of that is. But obviously the comedian making a joke about Puerto Rico calling it a floating island of garbage and insulting Latinos in a very graphic sexual context that I have chosen not to play here. But these polls were taken before the rally.
So, can you look in there and see any possible ways in which something like those comedians comments could impact it?
ENTEN: Yeah, I think so because the bottom line is this, Donald Trump has been doing quite well -- quite well among Hispanic voters.
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Kamala Harris has been underperforming with them, especially in though Southwest states.
So, this is Donald Trump -- this is Donald Trump versus the Democrat among Hispanic voters that took an average of Arizona, Nevada. Last time around, Joe Biden won Hispanic voters in those states by an average of 24 points.
Now, Kamala Harris is only up by ten points amongst them, so the bottom line is Kamala Harris has been doing quite well in Arizona and Nevada despite doing poorly among Latino voters. If any of those Latino movers were moved by those comments from the rally this past weekend, it can only come up Kamala Harris even more.
So this is something that Donald Trump really doesn't want to occur because bottom line, he's been -- he's been making inroads with Hispanic voters and any among them could put Arizona in Nevada, in a Harris has column.
BURNETT: So, Astead was talking about voters who have just been praying to God they didn't have to deal with the day of voting.
ENTEN: Yeah.
BURNETT: And now the day has come, whether the voting early next week we just are putting it off to see how they feel on that day. He was talking about Jake in Minnesota. How is it going to feel on that day? So there are undecided voters out there as impossible as that may be for some people who are watching to comprehend, they are out there. What are they looking for, Harry?
ENTEN: Yeah, I can't believe there are still undecided voters out there, but the polling tells us that there are. And what do they need to learn more about?
Well, they say, clearly the plurality here, 48 percent say they need to learn more about Kamala Harris compared to just 36 percent who say they need to learn more about Donald Trump. So I think it's up to Harris to win over those undecided voters. They've mostly made up their minds about Donald Trump.
The question is, can Harris actually convert them and put them in her column? And I think a speech like tonight could go a long way in doing so.
BURNETT: All right. Harry, thank you very much.
And I want to go now to Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford of Nevada, ahead of Harris's speech because he is co-chair for campaign and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus live from where Harris will be speaking in Washington on that ellipse and just a couple of moments.
So, Congressman Horsford, in these final moments before she began speaking, when you hear Harry talk about the voters of whom 48 percent say they still need to learn more about Harris as opposed to 36 percent who say the same about Trump, is there anything at this point that you think Harris can say knew that would swing those people or is it just really a matter of, you know, emotion and the, quote-unquote, feels that they may have on election day?
REP. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-NV): Well, thank you for having me on, Erin.
Look, I know polls are about margin of error, but this election will be won based on a margin of effort. And Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are putting in a full court effort and all well, the battlegrounds, including my home state of Nevada.
And you can feel it here today with the energy and the fact that she's going to talk about a vision for him America, how we bring Americans together by building coalitions, she has a to-do list while Donald Trump has an enemies list. Her to do list includes passing an opportunity economy that will lift up all of Americans, creating economic opportunity to afford to buy a home, to take on corporate gouging, to reduce cost of groceries and childcare and to protect a woman's fundamental right to make decisions about her body.
Those are the messages that I believe we will hear from the Vice President Kamala Harris, the White House is directly behind her.
BURNETT: Yeah.
HORSFORD: And in seven days, the American people get to decide who gets to sit behind the resolute desk at the White House.
BURNETT: So, Congressman, you know, you hail from Nevada and that was a Trump a state that had seemed more solidly in Trump territory. Now a total toss according to our latest poll, and Kamala Harris has made progress there.
Do you believe she can win Nevada? I mean, do you really believe that that she can win it or that she's got it?
HORSFORD: We're going to win Nevada, because we have a ground game. We have hundreds of volunteers, thousands. In fact, every day on the doors, on the phones volunteers who are making the effort to make sure that every single vote gets counted. Every vote turns out.
And Kamala Harris tonight is reaching out to demurred the crowds, to Republicans, to nonpartisans. A third of the electorate in Nevada are nonpartisans and they will determine the outcome and I believe Kamala Harris will, in fact, win Nevada and a number of the key battleground states in seven days.
BURNETT: So I want to ask you because you are obviously co-chair of her campaign, but you are so chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus about how Harris has dismissed concerns that Black men are not supporting her campaign strongly enough, concerns that, of course, President Barack Obama has voiced.
She was on the "Breakfast Club Radio Show" earlier this morning, Congressman. Here is what she said about it.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The black men in particular who are at the rallies have recently been saying to me, don't you listen to that? And they got to stop with all that noise, we support you.
[19:30:04]
So I'm glad you raised the topic so we could actually deal with the reality of it versus what some of the media is trying to create a narrative.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURENTT: Now, just to be directed and frank here, it's not a media narrative. I mean, Barack Obama has been talking about it. We've seen it in polls.
What do you think?
HORSFORD: Well, it's not enough to just talk about Black men or talk down the Black men. It's important to listen to Black men.
And that's exactly what Vice President Kamala Harris has been doing, not just recently, but really throughout her entire career, as vice president as United States senator, as attorney general. And that is why after listening to them, she's introduced an agenda that centers the issues that matter to Black men. The national health equity initiative to take on sickle-cell diabetes and prostate cancer, providing forgivable couple loans for 1 million black entrepreneurs to start and grow a business, to help more Black homeowners buy a home to build equity and wealth.
These so the things that black Americans care about, and that's why she's going to win the black male vote, and she's going to win this election in seven days.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Congressman Horsford, I appreciate your time. I know you need to go. Ad she's obviously about to come out on that stage. You can see the -- the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff there, in the audience, as he saw coming now, Astead, obviously -- she's we anticipate her walking out here any second here on that stage, but her husband is already there.
HERNDON: Oh, yeah. An important speech for I think it reframes the debate on terms that she wants to do. And I think this is what the campaign has been premised on from the beginning, even backward this was the Biden campaign.
The reason they were dismissive of polls, dismissive of questions about age just because they believed that come the end of this race, Donald Trump would do the work for them , record then we will remind America about the kind the way he is outside of the kind of norms of the electorate that would drive support to them the way he drove supported Democrats down ballot. Now, I think Biden's age was probably complicating question on that. Harris is the right vessel for it to be able to channel that message.
And we're going to see them tried to land that tonight.
BURNETT: I mean, I know you obviously had grave concerns about Biden remaining. You didn't think that he should, but do you think that her --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: But yeah, go ahead.
BURNETT: Why does sometimes, I'm thinking about other things I've said on air, not going to remind anyone over the years, just this kind of mistakes. But not using Biden in these final days.
AXELROD: Yeah. Look, the truth is what she is battling here is a right track number in this country, people saying the country's -- 28 percent, some jaundice about the economy. Biden's numbers are relatively low. She is trying to chart a path forward and talk about where she would lead and the Trump campaign is trying to assign all of the burdens of Biden to her.
And so it's understandable why she wants -- she wants to take center stage. She doesn't necessarily believe that having the president out there would be helpful because it a bets the case that Trump wants to make. So it's uncomfortable. People have affection. People within her campaign and the Democratic Party have affection for the president. But I think that they are focused on winning an election.
BURNETT: Well, it is one of the strongest arguments that the Republicans have had, right? Which is that she is the sitting vice president who was involved in the very policy decisions that many Americans --
PERRINE: Last person in the room, right? That's what you've heard from the vice president, and that's what the Trump campaign is trying to put on her, right, is that people are unhappy with the direction of the country. They're unhappy with you the economy, they're unhappy with the policies that have led to millions of illegal immigrants entering the United States.
And so, the American people are saying, were on having the Trump team is trying very hard to say, hey, remember who was the last person in the room? They said it themselves. Is that going to be compelling enough argument? I don't know because while people understand that they are unhappy with Joe Biden, do they put it at Kamala Harris? I mean, honestly, there's so many variable factors. Is it going to be the young Latino voters, is going to be the young Black vote, is it going to be the young female vote?
Is it going to be voters who say that Kamala Harris was the problem with Joe Biden? These are all the questions that every political analysts is going to be asking themselves come election day, which group did we not hit enough on the turnout because this is the critical question right now.
GRIFFIN: Well, the reality if I may quickly is Kamala Harris does not want for surrogates. She has tons. She's had Governor Shapiro out in Pennsylvania. She's had Obama in Michigan. She's got folks in Georgia.
BURNETT: She's got Michelle Obama.
GRIFFIN: She's not -- she's not lacking for people who can go to the right constituencies and sell her message. I actually think a challenge that the Trump team, if they lose might walk away is realize they never really had that bench that they developed if people who can show up in his place. J.D. Vance, to some degree, has never pulled the crowds or anything near what Donald Trump can the way that some of these Democratic heavyweights have showed up for her. And that's a huge factor.
[19:35:00]
AXELROD: Well, because there's one of the premises of Trump and the whole Trump gestalt is there is no unlike him, he's the show.
GRIFFIN: I alone can fix it.
AXELROD: No one no one can take his place. So I mean it is very much about him. He wants it to be about him and he made and he may defeat himself.
GRIFFIN: Well, and one 78-year-old man can only make it so many places in a certain amount of time.
HERNDON: I think that's the important point to go back to Nikki Haley. I mean, that was the obvious person who was speaking to a different side of the constituency.
BURNETT: And as Alyssa said, to remind anyone who wasn't watching exactly, Nikki Haley earlier tonight says she hasn't spoken to Trump since June.
HERNDON: June, and that she's still waiting for him to be deployed on the trail. I mean, since the Democrats --
AXELROD: I fill in my calendar, if I were her, I don't think -- an open invitation.
(CROSSTALK)
HERNDON: Since the Democrats made the candidate switch, I think there was basically two ways this race could have guard they could have laid out a new path forward, use it as a chance to break with the administration more. And I think they haven't really taken that path. She's made some kind of gestures at that there's been some plan in policy, but they've not taken the biggest chances and swings at times she has made a creation of -- made a break from Biden.
I think honestly, the war in Gaza would have been her biggest opportunity to do that. And her willingness to do that, I think has basically tied them together on the administration front. Without that -- without doing that, they have made this a kind of anti-coalition -- anti-Trump coalition referendum style race. And she is a better vessel than Biden for that, for the points about energy, for the points about I think like being able to get parts of the Democratic base that could not see past age.
And so I think yes, Donald Trump has become the place where this race lives and dies, the main character here. But that's not bad for Democrats because since the beginning, they've recognized it repels more folks than embraced it.
AXELROD: On your point though -- I mean, if she doesn't win this race, a lot of people haven't go back to the withering examination you guys gave around "The View" where she was asked if she could --
GRIFFIN: Was not a tough question --
AXELROD: She was where she would differ --
GRIFFIN: And the infamous --
AXELROD: She's clearly as uncomfortable doing that and I don't think it's because she doesn't have differences with him, but because she thinks its unseemly to say it, and that could be a costly thing.
PERRINE: So I think there are two things there, right? I think the easy answer is Joe Biden did X but I don't think it went far enough, right? Like that's like my weakness is actually a big strength and here is why and --
BURNETT: And here she is. She is walking out right now and the crowd has been chanting "USA, USA" in line with those backwards, which as we said, had been handed out cant tell you exactly how many people, but we do know the permanent was up to 40,000 and Capitol police had said they anticipated as many as 10,000 to 12,000 more. It's unclear exactly how many, but she is -- there is there is a feeding off of a crowd like this, Alyssa, just as we did -- she's experiencing it she is.
Are you about to say crowd size matters?
GRIFFIN: Crowd size matters, and as we know that this is -- there something to this. If it's a show of force, the show of strength, that's also about triggering Donald Trump. You know, he had his big Madison Square Garden rally and we saw some folks were leaving. It also just didn't go well for the folks that stayed.
So, she can pull off a seamless forward looking message in front of this kind of a crowd. Freedom, embracing what are traditionally maybe more Republican messaging, "USA" signs. It's smart optics.
PERRINE: So, just one thing on the optics real quick. They do great build out. This is probably one of their weakest event billed doubts I've seen. Its just not as striking as I would have hoped for now.
BURNETT: All right. Let's listen to her. She is speaking out, the vice president.
HARRIS: Good evening, everyone. Good evening. And thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives.
(CHANTING)
HARRIS: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.
So, listen, one week from today, you will have the chance to make a decision that directly impacts your life, the life of your family and the future of this country we love.
And it will probably be the most important vote you ever cast and this election is more than just a choice between two parties and two different candidates. It is a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American or ruled by chaos and division.
Many of you watching have probably already cast your ballots. But I know many others are still considering who to vote for or whether you'll vote at all.
[19:40:02]
So tonight I will speak to everyone about the choice and the stakes in this election. Look, we know who Donald Trump is. He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election. An election that he knew he lost.
Americans died as a result of that attack, 140 law enforcement officers were injured because of that attack. And while Donald Trump sat in the White House watching as the violence unfolded on television, he was told by his staff that the mob wanted to kill his own vice president and Donald Trump responded with two words, "So what?"
America that's who Donald Trump is and that's who is asking you to give him another four years in the Oval Office. Not to focus on your problems but to focus on his and Donald Trump has told us his priorities for a second term. He has an enemies list of people he intends to prosecute.
He says that one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who insulted those law enforcement officers on January 6th.
Donald Trump intends to use the United States military against American citizens who simply disagree with him people he calls, quote, the enemy from within.
America, this is not a candidate for president who is thinking about how to make your life better. This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power.
Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That is who he is, but, America, I am here tonight to say that is not who we are. That is not who we are. That is not who we are.
You see what Donald Trump has never understood is that e pluribus unum, out of many one, isn't just a phrase on a dollar bill. It is a living truth about the heart of our nation. Our democracy doesn't -- it doesn't require us to agree on everything. In fact, we like good arguments from time to time, just think of your own family, right?
It's not the American way to not have disagreements. We don't shy away from robust debate -- robust debate. In fact, we like a good debate, don't we? We like a good debate.
And the fact that someone disagrees with us does not make them the enemy within. They are family, neighbors, classmates, co-workers. They are fellow Americans. And as Americans we rise and fall together.
America, for too long we have been consumed with too much division chaos and mutual distrust, and it can be easy then to forget a simple truth, it doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way. It is time to stop pointing figures. We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms.
It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict, the fear and division. It is time for a new generation of leadership in America.
[19:45:09]
And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: Now, look, let me say -- let me say I recognize this has not been a typical campaign. Even though I've had the honor of serving as your vice president for the last four years, I know -- but I know that many of you are still getting to know who I am.
Well, let me tell you I am someone who has spent most of my career outside of Washington, D.C. So I know that not all the good ideas come from here. I am not afraid of tough fights against bad actors and powerful interests, because for decades, as a prosecutor and a top law enforcement officer of our biggest state, I won fights against big banks that ripped off homeowners, against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students, against predators who abused women and children and cartels that trafficked in guns, drugs and human beings.
And I did this work because for as long as I can remember, I have always had an instinct to protect. There's something about people being treated unfairly or overlooked that frankly just gets to me. I don't like it.
It's what my mother instilled in me, a drive to hold accountable those who use their wealth or power to take advantage of other people, the drive to protect hardworking Americans who aren't always seen or heard and deserve a voice. And I will tell you that is the kind of president I will be.
And look, I'll be honest with you. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes but here's what I promise you -- I will always listen to you, even -- even if you don't vote for me. I will always tell you the truth, even if it is difficult to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done. And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.
So look in less than 90 days, either Donald Trump or I will be in the Oval Office, okay? On day one, on day one --
(CHANTING)
And on day one if elected, on day one if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemy's list. When elected, I will walk in with a to-do list, full of priorities of what I will get done for the American people.
And I will work with everyone, Democrats, Republicans and independents to help Americans who are working hard and still struggling to get ahead. I have been honored to serve as Joe Biden's vice president. But I will bring my own experiences and ideas to the oval office, my presidency will be different because the challenges we face are different. Our top priority as a nation four years ago was to end the pandemic and rescue the economy. Now our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic and that are still too high.
I get it. I still remember our mother sitting at that yellow Formica table late at night, cup of tea in hand, a pile of bills in front of her, trying to make it all work. And I've heard from so many of you who are facing even greater financial pressures.
[19:50:04]
Donald Trump's answer to you is the same as it was the last time, another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations and this time, he will pay for it with a 20 percent national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported. Think about it, clothes, food, toys, cell phones -- a Trump sales tax that would cost the average family nearly $4,000 more a year.
And on top of that, you will pay even more if Donald Trump finally gets his way and repeals the Affordable Care Act, which would throw millions of Americans off their health insurance and take us back to an insurance companies had the power to deny people with pre-existing conditions.
Well, we are not going back. We are not going back.
(CHANTING)
HARRIS: We are not going back because we also know Donald Trump would deliver tax cuts to his billionaire donors. I will deliver tax cuts to working people and the middle class.
I will make sure you have a chance not just to get by, but to get ahead, because I believe in honoring the dignity of work. I will enact the first ever federal ban on price gouging on groceries, cap the price of insulin and limit out-of-pocket prescription cost for all Americans.
I will fight to make sure that hardworking Americans can actually afford a place to live. I'll never forget how our mother saved up and how excited she was when she could finally afford to buy our first home. I remember how excited she was, and I know that owning a home is not only a measure of financial security, it's about the pride of your hard work.
And as president I will fight to help first time home buyers with your down payment take on the companies that are jacking up rents and build millions of new homes. For years, we have heard excuses about why America can't build enough housing, enough with the excuses, I'm going to cut the red tape and work with the private sector and local governments to speed up building and get it done.
And the cost of housing isn't the only financial pressure on middle class families. I've met so many young people who have a natural desire to parent their children well but not always the resources to do it. So I'll fight for a child tax credit to save them some money, which will also lift American children out of poverty.
Our work to lower the cost of child care which is out of reach for too many working families today and for too many people in the sandwich generation who are raising young children and taking care of a parent, juggling all of it is extremely difficult.
You know, I took care of my mother when she got sick cooking foods that food that she had a taste for finding clothes that would not irritate her skin and understand, as I do that caregiving is about dignity. It is about dignity and currently if you need home care and you don't have some money to hire someone, you and your family need to deplete your savings to qualify for help, that's just not right.
So we're going to change the approach and allow Medicare to cover the cost of home care, so seniors can get the help and care they need in their own homes. Now, Donald Trump has a different approach. He tried to cut Medicare
and Social Security every year he was president.
[19:55:07]
Look, I believe that when people have worked hard their entire life they deserve to retire with the benefits they have earned. And I believe in the fundamental freedom of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies and not have their government tell them what to do.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand selected Supreme Court justices took away from the women of America, that today one in three women in America -- think about it -- one in three women in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions even for rape and incest. The idea that a woman who survives a crime of a violation to her body should not have the authority to make a decision about what happens to her body next, that is immoral that is immoral and Trump's not done. He would ban abortion nationwide, restrict access to birth control and put IVF treatments at risk and force states to monitor women's pregnancies.
Just Google Project 2025, and read the plans for yourself and look, I think we all know, one does not have to abandon in their faith or deeply held beliefs to simply agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body.
Not the government.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law, proudly.
And look, on another subject, politicians have got to stop treating immigration as an issue to scare up votes in an election, and instead treat it as the serious challenge that it is that we must finally come together to solve.
I will work with Democrats and Republicans to sign into law the border security bill that Donald Trump killed, when I was attorney general of a border state I saw the chaos and violence caused by transnational criminal organizations that I took on. And when I am president we will quickly remove those who arrive here unlawfully prosecute the cartels and give border patrol the support they so desperately need.
At the same time, we must acknowledge we are a nation of immigrants, and I will work with Congress to pass immigration reform, including an earned path to citizenship for hardworking immigrants like farm workers and our dreamers. As commander-in-chief, I will make sure America has the strongest most lethal fighting force in the world.
Donald Trump on the other hand has shown his contempt for our nation's heroes, calls them suckers and losers, called a four-star marine general a, quote, low life. I will always honor never denigrate the service and sacrifice of our troops and their families and fulfill our sacred obligation to care for them.
I will strengthen not surrender America's global leadership, and I will stand with our friends because I know that our alliances keep American people safe and make America stronger and more secure.
Look, world leaders think that Donald Trump is an easy mark -- easy to manipulate with flattery or favor.
