Trump Struggles to Adapt to New Playbook with Harris as Likely Democratic Candidate
Trump Struggles to Adapt to New Playbook with Harris as Likely Democratic Candidate
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00:00are putting the attacks on her. Trump appeared first at a cryptocurrency conference in Nashville
00:05and slammed Harris as vicious to Bitcoin investors. Then both Trump and Vance headed to a rally in
00:11Minnesota. CNN's Elena Trin joining us now from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Good morning to you,
00:17Elena. Tell us more about, you know, what was said. And of course, you know, Trump is still
00:22trying to define Harris and have more of a streamlined attack line against Harris.
00:30That's exactly right, Amra and Victor. And look, Donald Trump sharply stepped up those attacks
00:35last night in Minnesota. And it's been really interesting to watch because you can see that
00:39he's clearly workshopping new lines of attack to see what sticks best. And many of those attacks
00:45grew increasingly nasty. And we really did see that play out here in Minnesota yesterday. Now,
00:51Donald Trump claimed that Harris is far more radical and liberal and also worse
00:57than President Joe Biden. He also really focused some of his attacks on her positions on immigration,
01:04the border, inflation, all issues I know that Donald Trump's team is telling the former
01:09president to focus on, because those are the issues they believe that Republicans do better
01:14than Democrats. Now, what I found really notable was at one point he actually
01:19said that people in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on his life earlier this
01:23month thought that maybe he would be nicer. He joked that, actually, I think I'm worse,
01:28and then continued to attack her. Now, I want to take a listen to some of those lines and what he said.
01:35We have a new candidate to defeat the most incompetent, unpopular and far left vice
01:41president in American history, probably the most far left person in American history.
01:48As a senator, she was ranked the number one most radical left Democrat in the entire Senate.
01:54They say she made Bernie Sanders look like a moderate.
02:01Now, he also made some personal attacks on her, saying that, you know, going after her laugh when
02:07he was comparing her to perhaps Margaret Thatcher, saying Margaret Thatcher didn't laugh like that.
02:12But I also want you to listen to this moment, because I found this very interesting as well.
02:16I think it shows how Donald Trump is struggling a bit to adapt to the new playbook. Take a look.
02:22Sarcasm doesn't work when you have a crooked press. You know, when I imitated him,
02:28because Biden and I don't want to waste a lot of time because it's over now, right?
02:33He's gone. I told you he would be. I told you he wasn't going to make it.
02:40Victor and I found that really notable, honestly, because I think it exemplifies what I'm hearing
02:44in my conversations with Donald Trump's senior advisers, which is they are still figuring out
02:48the best way to define Harris. And remember, for over a year now, really this entire election cycle,
02:56they had created a playbook and spent millions of dollars on modeling, data, advertising,
03:00all designed to go after Joe Biden, someone who increasingly grew unpopular, an 81-year-old man.
03:06Now they're completely changing gears. And I think you can see some of that
03:10with that moment and other moments. Last night, he continued to attack Joe Biden anyway. I know
03:15from watching, you know, going to the majority of Donald Trump's rally, it's a shtick of his.
03:19And he was really trying to move away from that. And you could see that he was really trying to
03:23try to change and focus his attacks on Harris. But I think he's still getting a bit used to it.
03:29Amra, Victor.
03:30All right, Elena Treen, appreciate you being there. Thank you so much.
03:33And new this morning, the Harris campaign has just announced a huge fundraising haul
03:37since President Biden stepped aside and endorsed her as a Democratic nominee for president.
03:42Two hundred million dollars. That is the figure.
03:46Let's go down to CNN's Camila DeChallis. She's joining us now to bring us
03:50up to date on all the new developments here. What did the campaign memo say?
03:55That's right. Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign announced that they have raised
04:00two hundred million dollars since President Biden dropped out of the race
04:05and formally endorsed her to run for office. And they also emphasize in this memo that 66
04:11percent of these donations came from first time donors. Now, this is just really notable,
04:16considering that since Harris announced that she was running for office, she has now seen
04:21the endorsements of several coalitions, including those voters of color, young voters, and most
04:27recently, the endorsements of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama.
04:33Now, one of the things that they also mentioned in this memo is that she now has over 170,000
04:40volunteers across the country that are knocking on doors, talking to voters and really making
04:45that argument of why these voters should back Harris and what she would do if she
04:50is elected in this upcoming election. And as you just mentioned, we are now
04:55100 days out from this election cycle, and they are saying that they are going full steam ahead
05:00and they're holding more than 2,000 events this weekend to really mark how we're really
05:05close to this election and really to get out there about why Harris is the best candidate out there
05:10and why they should really, these voters, should go out and really back her in this upcoming
05:15election cycle. Camila Tichalis, thanks so much. Let's bring in now former Obama.