CNN THIS MORNING INTERVIEW WITH MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYER AND NATIONAL BIDEN CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR
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TRANSCRIPT June 28, 2024 NEWS PROGRAM MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYOR AND NATIONAL BIDEN CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR CNN THIS MORNING INTERVIEW WITH MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYER AND NATIONAL BIDEN CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. 20 East Thomas Road, Suite 2200 Phoenix, AZ 85012 asc.info@viqsolutions.com Copyright 2024. Provided under license from VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and/or license from VIQ Media Transcription, Inc., and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of VIQ Media Transcription, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. CNN THIS MORNING INTERVIEW WITH MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYER AND NATIONAL BIDEN CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR JUNE 28, 2024 SPEAKERS: MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYER AND NATIONAL BIDEN CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR
HUNT: All right, joining me now to discuss is Mitch Landrieu. He is the National Biden Campaign Co-Chair, and of course, the former Mayor of New Orleans.
Mr. Mayor, good morning to you. I want to start with what --
LANDRIEU: Hey, how are you. Nice to see you.
HUNT: I want to start with what those voters had to say. What do you say to them this morning?
LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, the president started off slow last night. There's no question about that. And with the two clips that you showed taken out of context, when Joe Biden said, watch me, he said, watch my performance.
And nothing that happened last night has changed the fact that Joe Biden passed four the biggest pieces of legislation that was seen that created 15 million jobs, the lowest unemployment rate, high wages and an economy that's off the charts and the way that he's going to attack bringing costs down.
You will spend the whole day with all of your colleagues talking about the style of the debate last night. But one of the things that is really clear is that last night when Donald Trump was talking, basically everything that he said was a lie and they were malevolent lies.
And I think there were two people on that stage last night. My best bet is in a couple of days, we're going to find out that when the public watches that debate and the media fact checks with Donald Trump said, if he wasn't lying, he was doubling down on the most incredible policies that he has. Like, for example, he doubled down on election denial. He doubled down on how happy he was to reverse Roe versus Wade --
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Sir, with all due respect --
LANDRIEU: Let me finish. Let me finish --
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Why didn't President Biden say these things on stage last night? That's my question.
LANDRIEU: Let me -- well, I think he tried to do that. But again, as we -- as we sit here and talk about the dog race, about who won the debate and who didn't, Donald, -- the president might have lost the debate on style, but he won it on facts. He won it on decency. And he won it on the ideas that people think are important in the country.
I don't think that you can call the debate as a great time for President Biden. I think he had a rough time last night. There's no question about it.
But throughout the debate, trying to listen to Donald Trump talk was painful for me because there was no fact checking that went on. And literally, he doubled down on everything that made people think that he was a terrible president the first time he was in office.
HUNT: Sir, do you feel at all misled by Democrats very close to President Biden who have insisted that there has been no change in this man over the course of the last two years that would impact his ability to serve another four years?
LANDRIEU: No, not at all. As a matter of fact, I served with President Biden for two years and I saw him on a regular basis. And the Joe Biden that I saw, the Joe Biden that I work with and the Joe Biden that is still with us today is a guy that gets up every day thinking about how to help other people.
He's 81 years old. Donald Trump is 77. So you had a guy last night that was 81 that had a difficult time and you had a guy that was 77 that lied in his -- and when he spoke the truth, he was speaking malevolent truth. That's the choice that the country has.
And so, you know, you can -- you can -- you can judge the debate on style, if you want. I think when people get a little bit clearer from this, they're going to see that Donald Trump last night actually was unhinged as he's indicated that he's going to be and he's going to double down on the policies he had when he was president four years ago, which were not good for the country.
HUNT: Sir, do you think Democrats should consider replacing Joe Biden at the top of the presidential ticket? I've had several raised the possibility privately in conversations.
LANDRIEU: Well, this is a conversation that's been going on for the past two and a half years. It's not likely to happen again. I think as the dust clears on this thing, this campaign still got four months to go.
And I think that Joe Biden is going to be the nominee. And I think Donald Trump's going to be the nominee. And the choice is going to be between a guy that fights for people and tries to lift people up and another guy that wants to rip this country apart and pull it up from its roots.
HUNT: Do you think that there should be people around President Biden trying to have candid conversations with him? Because it does seem from all of our reporting that it's him and also Jill Biden who have said, we're not going to back away from this. You know, we played what he had to say in 2022, those midterm wins.
Well, at least the lack of a sweeping red wave in the midterm elections did give Joe Biden a boost. It quieted a lot of this chatter, but it has just exploded. I mean, what does the president need to do to quiet it down?
LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, he's going to be in North Carolina today. He's going to be campaigning, as you know, and you guys have watched him. He's been campaigning in all of the swing states, and he's going to be out there today.
So when the President says to watch me, what the president says is watch me perform. One of the things the President did say last night that you may have missed was that 40 of Donald Trump's cabinet secretaries and people that have worked for him are now not endorsing Donald Trump, and they're begging the country not to support him again.
The other thing he said that you might have missed is that Donald Trump is a convicted felon. He's also been found liable for sexual abuse. He's also gone bankrupt six times, leaving all of his small business owners holding the bag. I don't know if you guys heard that, but the president, in fact, did say it.
And so I would I just encourage you guys, while you're worrying about style today, to fact-check everything Donald Trump said and to measure that against what the truth is and whether those things are good for the country, and then we'll see how this thing shakes out.
HUNT: Yeah, so here's the thing, I understand what you're saying about style versus substance, but all of those substantive points that you raised are a big part of the reason why so many Democrats are concerned. If Joe Biden loses this election to Donald Trump, so many in your party see this as an existential fight over democracy, will he be to blame for a second Trump term?
LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, to be to blame for the second Trump term is the way Donald Trump acts and the positions that he's taken. I am sure to answer your question that you asked before, there's always a truth-telling session when these things happen. Joe Biden is not averse to hearing things that are bad.
He has to make the decision about whether he's going to be a candidate or not. He has done that, and he's going to be the nominee.
So again, he started off slow last night. I thought he had some really good points during the debate. Concentrate on the fact that Donald Trump did not tell the truth the entire night. When he did tell the truth, his truths are going to hurt this country in a way that we can't recover from.
HUNT: All right. Mitch Landrieu, very much appreciate you being willing to come on this morning.
LANDRIEU: Thank you. Good being with you.
HUNT: Thank you very much for your time.
LANDRIEU: Take care. Thanks so much.
HUNT: You too.
END