2024 campaign heats up as Harris unveils economic plan

CNN's Wolf Blitzer speaks with CNN reporters and political analysts about Harris' plan and how the Trump campaign is reacting. We begin with issue number one for voters in the U.S the economy. Vice President Kamala Harris just laid out her proposals aimed at helping struggling Amer pay their bills. A pitch she made in the battleground sta of North Carolina. CNN, even the Kennedys on the sc for us. Joining us live from Raleigh right now, Eve, a breakdown in today's what it means. Wolf, this speech was quite sign because this is the first time that we heard the vice president outline her concrete economic policy goa A Harris administration would go after price gouging. A Harris administration would aggressivel increasing the child tax credit from $2000 to $3600 $ for low income families, middle class families. Perhaps the loudest applause lin when she pledged to pursue $25,000 for first time homebuyers. But, Wolf, what was also significant is how she framed this conversation in deeply personal terms, talking about how significant it was in her own life when her mother could finally afford to buy a ho talking about how she understood what it was like, when you have to stretch those dollars in order to buy gr She also recalled working at McD as a young person and seeing her then colleagues try to make that money work to raise families. Take a listen to how she is framing this conversation. If you want to know who someone cares about, look who they fight for. Donald Trump fights for billionaires and large corporations. We I will fight to give money ba to working and middle class Amer And so conservatives already lin to dismiss these policy proposals as socialist. It is worth noting, Wolf, that many of the proposals would require a future President Harris, to work in concert with Congress and that Democrats have in the past offered a lot of these policies but had difficulty ultimately getting them over the finish line. Wolf. Even weekend in North Carolina for us even. Thank you very much for that rep I want to get some more on all o Our panel of political experts is joining us right now. Jeff Zeleny, this was a populist economic message from the vice p even separating herself from President Biden's policies in some ways. Talk a little bit about that. Wolf, it definitely was economic populism But also, it really struck me that this is really the first ti we're seeing her making her case against Donald Trump through the idea of policies. So for all this talk, really the last several months, is this going to be a referendum on the Biden administration or a with the former president? And she is trying to draw a sharp contrast with the policies of a potential new administration for the former president and what she would do now. She embraced the Biden policies to a point, but she also focused much more o trying to bring down the the costs of housing, the cost of food. Now, there weren't a ton of specifics here, but this is a presidential campa She was laying out her vision. She certainly stopped well, short of saying how she would specifically pay for any of this but she really went after the Tr a specific of policies on the ec And he has inflationary policies there's no question about it. So trying to blunt the sort of backlash on the right, and blaming the inflation on the Biden administration and trying to flip the script a little bit. So it was pretty fascinating in terms of drawing that a contr But perhaps more than anything, just weaving in her life stories, working at a McDonald's talking about that American drea when her mother was able to buy their first home. and remembering what that felt l That is what these policy speeches are about. I mean, it's a reminder most Americans still don't know that much about So she's clearly trying to use even speeches like this to fill in some of the blanks. Yeah, that's really important to Hayes is with us. Megan, the vice president didn't release details. New details on how she's going t pay for all these new proposals. Is that a mistake? No, I don't think so. I think that people want to see what her hopes are. And her vision is for moving int a Harris administration. I think that, you know, just lik Jeff was saying, that she's building upon the Biden administration, success that they've had, and then going a little bit furt into housing and to cutting costs for groceri So I think that people just see the vision and are hopeful, and they just want to see how that she's got, that she is thinking of a plan and is going to move that into the future. Matt Gorman, do you think a speech like this steal some of Trump's populist t You know, I don't think it steal I think one of the commonalities is we're hearing both more populous rhetoric from the right and the left nowadays. Certainly with JD Vance now on the ticket as well. I think a couple things. I think, number one, you know, over the last several weeks, Kamala has taken care to try and flip flop and show me the position she took in the 2020 presidential race through kind of anonymous aides moderating those things. But this first policy goes pretty far left. I think that was a notable shift And also, you know, if you were kind of kind of, blacked out last four years, you would think that she was the challenger. She was the incumbent vice president, eight states. You know, there wasn't a lot of talk about, let's face it, a lot of the crises with inflation, housing happened during the Biden-Harris administ And so the memory holing of that I took note of during the speech Kristen Holmes, Vice President Harris also went after Trump's ability to stay on message when he visited North Carolina r Listen and watch this. Two days ago, Donald Trump was here in North Carolina He said he was going to talk abo the economy. I think you all watched. You know what I'm about to say. But he offered no serious plans to reduce costs for middle class families, no pl to expand access to housing or health care. And that actually, I think for m was not surprising. Kristen, how is the Trump campai reacting to these comments and the populist economic agenda Vice President Harris is now lay well, they're obviously attackin They've said that she's gone full blown communist. At one point they said she has a Soviet style price control scheme. But one thing was clear in their attacking of her, and it's what we're going to see And actually, Matt kind of made the point for because we're hearing this in Re talking points as well as from the administration, is that they are essentially laying this out as if this is her policy, then why isn't she starting on i Their entire goal is to try. And Paynter as an incumbent whose policies are unpopular. We obviously know from polling that we saw for months when President Joe Biden was at the top of the ticket, that Donald Trump pulls ahead of Kamala Harris on the economy. Excuse me, ahead of Joe Biden on the econom They believe that she can also p of Kamala Harris if he continues this messaging. Now she is right. There were not a lot of policy d in his speech, but the one thing that he has continued to double down and what they hope gets through is this idea of, were you better off under my administration when inflation was lower, when y when interest rates were lower? And that's what he's really trying to hamme Now, if people start requesting more details, we obviously have asked for more details on how exactly he would try and get inflation b but if he puts that out, we'll keep an eye on it. But right now the policy really messaging has been again, I did Weren't you happier than not particularly detail foc Interesting that Jeff as Kristen is reporting the Trump campaign says Harris went and I'm quoting now full communi with her agenda. How are attacks like this likely to land with voters out t Well, look, I think it depends which voters. I mean, for the Republican base, it definitely will be music to t and fire them up. But those aren't necessarily the voters that matter the most. They're the independent voters in the middle. And now there definitely is a new presidential race upon us And she's walking a very fine line by trying to embrace some of the Harris record, and also trying to draw a contrast with what the former president is proposin So what independent voters are looking for is perhap Almost every election, Wolf, is a change election. And suddenly change is also on the side of the Democ It certainly wasn't with Preside at the top of the ticket. So she owns the the record of the administration but she also has the unique abil to present something forward, presents something new. So that is what voters are going to have to sort out here. But I think the contrast was ver very stark. And this is something we've not seen actuall in about 24 years or so, when al Gore, of course, was run you know, embraced some elements of the the Clinton administration but also tried to move on and pi Since then, we've not seen a vice president running while the president is still in office So it's going to be a fascinating exercise to see how voters sort through all of this. But the specific things of of a communism, I'm not sure those land very well with voters in the middle of this who simply want, something to be done by Washingt So a very interesting speech that just began on putting some on these policy bones. CNN's Phil Mattingly speaks with CNN economics and political commentator Catherine Rampell and Heritage Foundation distinguished fellow Stephen Moore about how Trump and Harris are approaching the economy. In our morning lead this week, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris showered us with very big about how they will help the eco Even if this sort of goes on, de how and whether those promises will actually work. So we've asked a pair of experts to debate what both presidential candidates are actually promising. Steve Moore, when you ask the former presiden or his team about his inflation they talk about energy prices. Drill, baby, drill to steal the parlance of goodnes maybe 2010 Republicans, even leaving climate change asid which is ignoring a lot. I guess my question with this al the U.S. is already a top gas producer and oil producer. they don't drive global oil pric in isolation. what do they mean here? Is that. Is that for me? Yes. Steve, plea Okay, sure. so, look, we were, completely energy indep when Trump was president. We were really proud of the fact you know, we had achieved something that we hadn't achieved in 50 ye We weren't dependent on Russia. We, depended on OPEC, in fact, O We didn't even talk about OPEC. Which president. Now you're right. We are producing a record amount of oil today. But guess what. That's because the price of oil is about 40% more expensive than when Trump was president. So our our analysis shows we'd be produ about 3 or 4 million more barrel with a pro drilling policy that builds the pipelines and the, infrastructur the leasing that we need. So we could be energy dominant a And I do agree with Trump, if we stuck with that policy, I don't think you'd see Russia and tanks and and Ukraine But Catherine, the vice president, a focal point of what you. Oh, no. No, please. Yeah. Sorry. Can I just amend that? Yes. because a lot of it's wrong. we are energy independent today. If you are measuring energy independence by, the fact that we are exporting m than we are importing, in fact, we've been such for over two years, the longest stretch in American history. And that was the metric by which Trump seemed to refer T And supporters like Stephen Moor refer to energy independence. When Trump was in office, which we briefly had and we've now had for longer und I don't think either. President, to be clear, you know, controls the energy, the oil spigot. But we have had we are now producing more oil today in this country than any other country on earth has ever produced. Not only that, we also have record production of natural gas, of solar, of win record battery production, storage capacity. So the idea that there's some sort of war on American energy is just bogus all of those things have been go under Biden. In fact, he's approved more drilling permits on federal lands than Trump did. So there's this narrative out th that is just completely false, that that Biden is. Okay, well, spigot, that's what happened. Then explain why it is that gasoline is 45% more expensive today at the gas That's what Americans care about We should be producing. We should be producing. We could be producing to get gas prices down. Do you know a good way to get ga Just have a global pandemic and have everybody stay at home. That is why prices plummet. But no, but that is a happened. That's why, you know, briefly in 2020 we had nothing D Yeah. After and even before the pandemic the price of gas was about 40% c than it is today. You know, look, I don't and and also the overall CPI has inc Go ahead. Have you heard me? Hold on. Can you have you told all your green friends that we're producing record amounts of oil and gas? I thought the idea for Kamala Ha and Joe Biden was net zero and not having a population repr which I don't, I know, I say no, I know you're wrong, Donald Trum I know you're a surrogate for Donald Trump. I, I do a candidate I have written I know what record oil guys hang saying one second of what I'm saying, thoug is that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are talking out of two sides of their mouth. They're telling all their environmental friends, we're going to, eliminate fossil And then on the other hand, they're saying, oh, we're producing record amounts of it. You can't have it both ways. No, it has been a complicated balanc with the max. yeah. No, I do want to ask you, though, Katherine, you make a go You have been sharply critical of the Biden administra and some of the Harris proposals When you feel like it's merited, one of them, being what has been a focal point of w they've been talking about this which is a quote unquote, federal ban on price gouging. Donald Trump has called it communists as prices will come down quickly if he's, elected. I think I'm trying to think in economic history, which you both know far better t But, you know, I think yesterday was the 53rd anniversary of President Nixon announcing federal wage and price controls didn't work. Katherine, the kind of, validity of this pr is it something that could work? I mean, it. I don't exactly know what she's even proposing with this anti price gouging, id Nobody can define price gouging. it's like porn. I know it when I see it. As the famous line goes, which is part of the problem her so we don't really know what she's proposing. The fact sheet that the, the excuse me, that the campaign put out a few had a lot of things that were that I found quite dis that indicated the template for this proposal would be something like the legislation Kamala Harris sponsored in 2020 with Elizabeth Warren that Elizabeth Warren has since reintroduced this year in a slightly different form. that would essentially look like price controls if you listen to what Kamala Harris said today in her speech, it was actually, frankly, much more restrained and much more toned down than wh the campaign had put out a few d which gives me hope that maybe they're not going to go do very bad and silly path in which, as you point out, has has been, very harmful in other countries that that implemented price cont But we don't know what this is going to look like. I would love to see more details, content, campaign, if you're willing to share that, see if you can ask on this issue of grocery prices, we saw the former president was flanked by groceri yesterday. His team thinks that this is a r winning contrast message for the What's his plan? Is there a plan, to bring down grocery prices? Well, yeah. I mean, we just do what Trump did in his first t Let let's not forget, Bill, that if you look at Trump's, record on inflation, you know, when he left office, the inflation rate was 1.5%. And then 18 months later, after Biden and Harris spent $5 trillion, we had a 9% inflation rate. And so, it's obvious that if you care about inflation bringing prices down, Trump has a much better record. In fact, the average inflation rate under Trump in his four years in office was 1.9%, which is actually below what the fed wants as a target. Meanwhile, under, Harris and Biden, you've had an average operation rate of 6.5%. And the reason that's important, by the way, I think the reason that Harris is fighting back on this is because the average Amer has lost $2,000 of income since, Biden came into office. That's a big loss. This is something I honestly, we should block a full hour off for you guys to go back and fort Yeah, I know, I could see Kather MacArthur is ready to rock and roll about, supply chain iss the spending from the Trump administration. And also Donald Trump actually has proposed on prices, which would cause them to go up. We're going to have to do this. I'm here. I'm pitching this to everyone at this point. Katherine and Stephen always love justice. Potter Stewart Friday references Thank you guys. It's lovely to b We're getting new reaction now to the economic speech delivered today by Vice CNN's Wolf Blitzer talks with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who attended Harris' speech in the state. President Kamala Harris. From someone who was there. The Democratic governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, the governor is joining us right Governor, thanks so much for joi This is some of what Vice President Harris proposed today, a ban on price gouging for groce and food. A $25,000 subsidy for first time homebuyers and expanding the chi tax credit. Governor, is it a wise move from the Harris camp to embrace the sort of economic populism ideas? And do you worry about the unintended consequences? It's absolutely a good idea. And in fact, Wolf, the vice president deserves some credit for the fac the United States has the strongest economy in the Unemployment is low. The stock market is high. Record job growth. Inflation is now cooling. She also gets credit for the generational investments that this administration has made to connect people to high speed internet and to repair our infrastructure and to lower prescription drug p But she is well aware that every day families are paying too much for groceries and for housing, and that they're frustrating. They're frustrated with the cost of living. I think this is her effort to move forward with the plan he And instead of Donald Trump's ta for corporations and the wealthy, we're going to provide some tax bringing back the very popular c tax credit, because diapers cost money and food cost money. And I think this price gouging i for the fact that it can serve as a real determined deterrent, for high prices, we've seen pric gouging laws work, during disast She and I both served as attorney general. We find that when we have these laws in place companies are afraid to charge excessively high prices. So you can be a capitalist, and still work to prevent people from getting ripped off. I think those were commonsense proposals that she made today. The Trump campaign immediately reacted, saying that Vice Presid Harris went, and I'm quoting the now, full communist with this economic agenda. The, economic columnist Catherine Rampell, writing in an op ed for the Washington Post, this and I'm quoting, if your opponent claims you're a communist, maybe don't start with an econom that can accurately be labeled as federal price controls. We already have plenty of econom gibberish coming from the Republican presidential ticket. Do we really need more from the other side to end quote How do you respond to that, gove Back. JD Vance complained that Kamala Harris was copying Donald Trump Look, this is about being fair to working people. They have concentrated so much on trying to help the we What Kamala Harris is trying to is to pull it back to the center Those are ridiculous charges. She believes in developing busin Look at the job growth. Look, it's the companies that are expanding all across this country creating American j What she's tried to do is to to to make things more fair for everyday working people. I think these are commonsense pr Obviously, when you work through Congress, you make compromises here and th You can end up with a good produ If you go in strong with something like this. And I believe that when she beco president of the United States, she could do that. One political question. I'm just curious, you actually pulled out of consi to become a Kamala Harris vice presidential running mate before she made her selection? Here's the question why wouldn't you have given Democrats a better chance to win North Car if you were on the ticket? Tim Walz is the perfect vice presidential nominee for Kamala Harris and for this c He's a smart, strong leader. He says what he thinks. People like to be around him. He has helped generate a lot of excitement for this tic look, it just wasn't the right time fo or my state, but I am full 100% in for Kamala Already the polls are very tight in North Carolina. I said earlier today, I have that 2008 feeling and people in North Carolina know what that means. That's the last time we voted for a Democratic presidential no Barack Obama. I have that same feeling now. I'm getting that vibe from voter that they want to make history a So we're excited here in North C to be able to give her those 16 electoral votes. if if Kamala Harris wins North Carolina, she is the next president of the United States. And I believe we have everything where we can make that happen. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have never stood CNN's Sara Sidner is joined by CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod and former Mitt Romney presidential campaign chief strategist Stuart Stevens about how the two candidates are preparing to debate. face to face in the same room. The debate expected to change th It might be the first time that and it is promising to be a batt because we are learning new deta about the preparations for their big showdown. Several sources confirming to CNN that the Harris campaign has ask longtime Hillary Clinton aide Felipe Reyes to help Harris get The New York Times reporting he was seen attending a mock deb prep session this week dressed as Donald Trum It's something he also did to he Clinton prepare in 2016, a role he's talked about playing I went to my tailor and I said, I need to actually look like Donald Trump. He gave me a suit, too baggy. The sleeves were too long. I bought 3.25in lifts in my shoe because, you know, he's like six, six, six, seven. I didn't wear a wig because it was not SNL. This was my process. I wanted to it was method acting It was. I wanted to be him. All righty then. OutFront now, two men who know all about preparing for big deba David Axelrod and Stuart Stevens They were on opposite sides in 2 with the Obama and Romney campai Thank you, gentlemen, for being here tonight. David, what does Harris turning to Philly bring us? tell you about how she is approaching this huge debate. Well, if it's method acting, I hope there's a madness to his because, that would make the thi more authentic. Look, the idea of the, of debate prep is to anticipate everything that might happen to how you're going to handle it. and to come in there with a strategy for what you want to communicate a narrative, a story that you want to tell through th that you hope will prevail. and, so prep is all about anticipating circumstances and giving the candidate a sense of what they are going t on that stage. oftentimes. And this was true in the before the final, but in our debate prep, I don't know how Stewart handled but we did create a kind of mock that looked exactly like the one that they were going to debate o and so on. So you want to create those circumstances, and you want the candidate to hear the kind of attacks and the kind of, thrusts that they may hear on that debat so that you can work off of them and work through your answers. S Just jumping off of that, I mean, what do you think the top goals should be for Kama in these sessions? She's going to have to be quick, with comebacks, which is something that I'm sure is practiced, on in those mock d Look, if I was, in debate prep, Vice President Harris, I would tell her to prosecute Donald Trump. That's her strong suit. He's a c She's a prosecutor. Those are the facts. This has never happened before in American history. That a guy who was an actual cri is standing up as a major, as the nominee of a major party. So I wouldn't worry about any of this stuff, about being likable, about being relatable. I would just prosecute Donald Tr and I think he won't be able to deal with it. He doesn't like women. He particularly doesn't like powerful black women. And I think that's the way to, put him on the defensive from the very first. David, we have heard previews of how Trump may attack to say Harris, as the current VP, is to blame for any of the bad policies of the last three and a half years. It is an attack that was used ag then President Obama, as you well remember in a debate He even admits that he lost. Take a listen. My view, the president should have grabbed it. If you wanted to make some adjus to it, take it, go to Congress, fight f That's what we've done. Made some adjustments to it, and we're putting it forward before Congress right now, a $4 trillion plan. You've been president for years. You've been president for years. You said you cut the deficit in It's now four years later, we still have trillion dollar de All right. So how should Harris answer a line of attack like that from Donald Trump? Well, first of all, let me give, Stuart plaudits because, they di win that first debate. And partly they won that first d because presidents always tend to want to be more defensive. Want to explain, and partly because Romney, wisel sort of changed his tenor and tone from the guy we saw in the primaries. And, we honestly didn't prep, adequately for the Romney who ap on the stage, who was, I think, very comfortable with what he was saying. It was much more like the guy that I've come to know, a more center, right, moderate, Republican. But here, back to your question. Listen, it is they're doing what they I think strategically, it's probably the right thing to try and make her the incumbent. I heard Kristen say that at the That's absolutely right. They want to make her Joe Biden in this race and make, and make the burden of some of the things that people associated with Biden and policy that they don't like, or in the results that they don' Here's the problem. I mean, we don't talk about the policies of the pence administration. Donald Trump was not assigning his, policies to Mike pence when Mike pence was running agai in the, in the primary campaign. and I think it's a hard sell to tell people she was actually making all of these decisions, by the way, at the same time tha telling people that she's dumb, she doesn't know what she's doin and so on, but that that is what they have The question I have is, can Donald Trump stick to a He seems completely undone, righ Yesterday, he was going out to do a part of what they want to do in this debate around the econom And when it went, when it got to questions, he just went off like a Roman ca complaining about these loss, about these trials and about these indictments and injustice of it all. And, I would be really worried about that if I w if I were his team. I disagree with Stuart, by the w I don't think she needs to prose as her prime task, because I think a lot of the cas against Trump is clear to people What they want to know is that there is an acceptable alternative. They don't know Kamala Harris. They don't know most vice presidents very well. They don't know Kamala Harris. This is an opportunity for her to talk to the American people. And yes, they'll be some, back and forth with Trump. But there is a real imperative h which is to, really connect with the American people around where she wants to take the country in the futur because she wants to be the turn the page candidate, and this is her chance to show h So we saw what happened, that when Donald Trump was pressed, on very tough questions. Do you worried, should Republicans be worried about her pressing his buttons and getting him to go off like a Roman candle, as we just described here? Yeah, of course they ought to be They ought to be panic. you know, as as Hillary Clinton a guy who can be baited by a tweet shouldn't be president. he was president and he was a di so look at it, Donald Trump, they just filed a cease and desi letter. The campaign did, I guess, an ad the Lincoln Project was running in Moore Lago. I mean, that's the level that th He's the most predictable guy you can imagine. He's the person you can bait. He chases every dog that chases every car. And I think that, the guy is jus doesn't have any idea of why he wants to be president, except he wants to be president. And I don't think he's going to well in this debate.