Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703

That was his salute as he left the pentagon for the last time tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. Cnn primetime with abby philip starts right now. In just 48 hours the poisonous politics and School Yard Rhetoric will have real life consequences. The United States government will once again shut down. It comes on an extraordinary day when a president openly accused his predecessor of trying to kill the republic. In a hearing to impeach said president , it backfired on republicans. Good evening everyone. Im abby phillip. Under way right now on capitol hill the house is voting on a series of bills none of which are expected to actually avert a Government Shutdown. Remember those hard liners want drastic cuts to spending including to programs that affect schools. Lets go straight to capitol hill. Reporter hey, abby. Tonight these bills theyll vote on in the house are not expected to pass the senate but to be dead on arrival, but they may not even have the votes to pass among House Republicans. What is the plan Going Forward . Well, Kevin Mccarthy has a few options here. Tomorrow he can proceed with his initial plan, which is to try to vote on a stopgap Spending Bill, another Spending Bill they were hoping that hard Line Republicans would rally around tomorrow after they pass the bills tonight. It is not clear theyll have the votes for that either. If they cant pass these party line Spending Bill votes tonight i dont think theyll have the votes tomorrow. A number of hard line conservatives are really digging in with their opposition. Then there is another Option Mccarthy has. That is to work with democrats to cut a deal with democrats or the senate. The problem, abby, is that could force a vote to remove him as speaker. He is facing threats from hardliners including members like matt gaetz. He still does not want to go that route until he has exhausted all other options. Of course, the final potential path here is for Kevin Mccarthy to simply just do nothing. If the senate sends over a bill he could simply ignore it. That could cause a Government Shutdown. It seems that is the direction we are headed very much seems that is the case tonight. Thank you. Joining me now is republican congressman Dusty Johnson of south dakota. Thanks for being here on a busy night. You bet. Thanks for having me. We are about 48 hours now away from a Government Shutdown. The money is going to run out. Do you think tonights votes will get your republican conference any closer to avoiding a Government Shutdown . I do think these votes are an important part of the process. Government shutdowns are stupid, not the kind of thing we should do. Nobody wins in a Government Shutdown. It doesnt save any money. It costs a lot of money. We are in a position here where republicans are getting our act together. Well pass Appropriations Bills tonight that combined with what we already passed is 73 of the Discretionary Spending for our country. That is not a hundred percent but we are moving in the right direction as we get closer to the deadline. Speaker mccarthy said he has a backup plan, if a stopgap funding bill tomorrow fails. What is the plan . I am the author of a plan, the chairman of the republican main street caucus which are the pragmatic conservatives in the house. Three of us joined with the three leaders of the Freedom Caucus to put forth a plan. A stopgap Funding Measure 30 days but in return for that we secure the border. I think that is critically important whether on the right or the left. I think you acknowledge the border policies we are seeing at the southern border right now are not working. That is why democratic governors are you saying that is the direction Speaker Mccarthy would go next if his plan a fails . When ive talked to Speaker Mccarthy he said he likes our plan. He thinks it could perhaps be improved by adding a debt commission. I agree. When we are talking about Discretionary Spending we are dealing with a fraction of the budget. We really should also be looking at longer term Auto Pallet Programs and figuring out how responsible men and women do our job to make sure we get on the right fiscal path there as well. The speaker today refused to say whether he would try to cut a deal with democrats if all of this fails among republicans. Do you think he should reach across the aisle to avert a shutdown . We have the democrats in control of the senate. The republicans are in control of the house. That means literally there is no other way to Fund Government in the final analysis than a deal that gets votes from both sides. I dont have to like that but that is the cold, hard fact of the situation. I think the speaker is taking the right approach. Phase one is lets make sure we get the republicans on the right all on the same page. Lets make sure, frankly, we should pass my bill that cuts spending, keeps government open, and secures the border. Once we get republicans on the same page on that then we can figure out where the democrats are at. As you point out, any deal has to be bipartisan in order to pass the entire congress, democrat controlled senate. A lot of your colleagues on the far right want it all. They want all of their demands. So at the end of the day do you think if they dont get it all this will end with a motion to vacate, to kick Speaker Mccarthy out of his job, and that that is the end game for some of your colleagues well, i want it all as well. Ive been married 23 years to a delightful woman. I never get everything i want. Ive been on Nonprofit Boards and a Business Executive and i never in any deal got everything i want. I do think my republican colleagues almost without exception understand the final deal is going to look a little different than the republican deal. Some of them will be able to support that in the end analysis. Others wont. But i would tell you responsible members like me are going to be ecstatic to support any deal that cuts spending, keeps the government open, and secures the border. I think we are getting closer. In the meantime, okay. That is the end stage. In the meantime what is the point of all of this . Can you explain this to people who are at home trying to understand . What is the point of taking it to the brink of a Government Shutdown if at the end of the day everyone understands it is going to have to be a bipartisan bill where republicans dont get everything they want. You do need to have the process work. I admit the house and senate should have done their home work earlier but it is kind of the human conditions, human nature to wait until the last few days before the end of the College Semester to get that final report written. But this is congress. This is not college i get it. I will tell you the Appropriations Committee, the republicans Appropriations Committee finished their work on 10 of the 12 bills months ago. Admittedly weve had a hard time getting to 218 votes in the house. When we cut spending too much we gain a few votes on the right but we lose a few votes in the center. When we increase spending the reverse happens. It has been really hard to calibrate this package so it gets the votes needed for passage. Earlier today Congressman Gaetz and Speaker Mccarthy apparently got into a Testy Exchange in a closed door house meeting today. Can you tell us what happened there . I dont talk about what happens in the republican conference meetings. They are supposed to be off the record. I will tell you it got a little spicy. But i think that is okay. What weve heard in the reporting, back and forth about whether Speaker Mccarthy was responsible for people attacking matt gaetz on social media. We are talking about a Government Shutdown in 48 hours. Is that really what these meetings should spend time on . You are exactly right the meeting should not be focused on a Personality Dispute between matt gaetz and Speaker Mccarthy. But the meeting really wasnt. I was there for perhaps 50 minutes of the meeting and approximately 90 seconds was focused on the topic you described. I get it that is the spicy part and what grabs the headlines but the rest of the meeting was focused on the boring blocking and tackling meat and potatoes of government. It might not lead cable news but that is what we were talking about. You know what, congressman . Your calm optimism is maybe what we need tonight. Well see how your votes go today and tomorrow. We appreciate you joining us. If everyone would just listen to me things would go a lot faster around here. All right. Thanks, congressman. Thanks much for having me. Coming up next, in a major speech President Biden warns americas democracy is at risk and maga is to blame. Plus bidens challenger from the left cornell west will join me live. Why he is upset with his Picket Line Appearance this week. Plus the first Impeachment Hearing for republicans did not go exactly as they planned. They want to act like theyre blind. They dont know what this is. These are our national secrets. Think about this. In the last decade alone americans have seen two impeachments and they are flirting with a third. Theyve seen an insurrection at the steps of the United States capitol and four indictments of a former president. Theyve seen multiple Government Shutdowns. Now they are facing another. Now the very man who ran on restoring the soul of the republic is openly accusing his opponent of trying to kill it. America is facing the growing likelihood the next years election will feature a rematch between joe biden and donald trump. One thing that all sides seem to agree on is that for Different Reasons democracy is in trouble. Tonight the president of the United States is laying out his reasons why. There an Extremist Movement that does not share the basics of our democracy. The maga movement. There is no doubt Todays Republican Party is driven and intimidated by Maga Extremists. Trump said the constitution, quote, gives him the right to do whatever he wants as President End of quote. I never heard a President Say that in jest. The question is, which candidate will americans leave the sidelines for . And for what reasons . Will it be the 81yearold incumbent or the 77yearold defendant . Joining me now to discuss this is Amanda Carpenter the former Communications Director for senator ted cruz the writer and editor at Project Democracy A Nonprofit Dedicated To Fighting Authoritarianism and strengthening Democratic Institutions and also with us the former Senior Adviser to Hillary Clinton. Amanda, this is not the first time President Biden has said this and made this kind of statement about where our democracy is. But he is doing it right now at this particular moment. Is it a sign that he feels like this is heading in One Direction only with trump as the republican nominee . I think we should take note this isnt the first speech he has given on protecting democracy. It is one in a series. What i thought made this one especially important were the people and the place that surrounded it. I mean, he gave the speech not just to give it this abstract remarks about these ideals that we all share. He was giving a tribute to john mccain to establish a library in his honor. What was really special was cindy mccain spoke at the beginning talking about how thankful she was for his friendship and how she was happy to Work Together with President Biden to nurture the flame of democracy. That is what we need to see a lot more of especially in a place like arizona. That is not special just because of john mccain. It was a hot bed for Conspiracy Theories and dangerous actors in the aftermath of the 2020 election. There are a lot of republicans there that suffered the brunt of that. Local election workers that lived in fear. Arizona is still a hot bed. Yes. Of extremism in many ways. That is definitely not in the past at all even all these years later even after senator mccains passing. The president talked about the maga threat today. He is trying to make this distinction between republicans and what he calls maga republicans. The question always is does that distinction really exist in anyones minds but in the minds of the people crafting this message in the white house . That is a better question for amanda because amanda is a republican but not a maga republican. But from a messaging perspective. This isnt about messaging with him. This is about genuinely being scared. He has said today, he has said previously and hopefully will say it over and over again this is a central part of his presidency is to fight this back. Whether i use the term Maga Extremist i dont know but, yes. He wants to make the point that the bulk of the Republican Party you can disagree with but they are thoughtful. They are patriots. They are not out to undermine democracy for the sake of their god donald trump. And you have to be able to find a way to bifurcate that group from the people who are running up the steps of the capitol with, you know, sticks and breaking in and making havoc and the people who cheer them on and the people who think they were just tourists taking a nice little walk that day. I think this is a really interesting conversation because as a republican, worked for ted cruz and someone who opposed trump from a conservative viewpoint for the entire duration, i get a lot of blow back from other republicans saying, you know, how can you think about working with democrats on these issues . It is like, what i tell them is we have basic obligations as american citizens. Things to uphold democracy require things like three simple things political scientists will tell us. You accept election results. You disavow violence. When it comes to extremist actors in your own party you have to reject that. It is very important to police the dangerous wing of your party and say we dont stand for na. If people in both parties do those three things our democracy is much stronger. That doesnt require a lot. Right . I dont have to sacrifice what i feel about the size and scope of government to say you know what . I can do those three things. That is a basic benchmark for anyone in elected office. First of all, what you are saying makes total sense. But it is not happening, right . And, also, on top of that the partisan environment that we are in. This is what im trying to get at with this speech, listening to it. He goes after trump, which he has to do directly. In this partisan environment, it feels almost like people cant hear the message about democracy outside of a partisan lens which seems to undermine what biden is trying to do here which is to say this is bigger than me. I think we should give the American People more credit than we often do in the sense that donald trump lost in 2020 because of a lot of these shenanigans, a lot of just dismissing the norms and particularly making light of covid, mishandling covid. I think it is very possible that 2024 his court cases, his criminal activity and him being in front of a judge every week or so is going to be the equivalent of 2020 where people just dont want the noise. So the same way you are saying dont people tune it out, hard to break through people also dont want to hear about it every day from their president. They had to every day for four years hear this guy yelling in their ear. Whether you liked him or not it wore thin. I do think people are hearing it but also maybe not hearing it isnt the worst thing. That is why joe biden won. It was a return to somewhat normalcy. And a sane person who cared about america. I have a feeling the next couple months arent going to be as quiet. Things are about to pick up. Thank you all very much. Up next, President Biden. Youre probably not easily persuaded to switch mobile providers for your business. But what if we told you its possible that comcast Business Mobile can save you up to 75 a year on your wireless bill versus the big three carriers . Its true. Plus, when you buy your first line of mobile, you get a second line free. There are no Term Contracts or line activation fees. And you can bring your own device. Oh, and all on the most reliable 5g Mobile Network nationwide. Wireless that works for you. Its not just possible. Its happening. Lets talk about some of those. People are a little suspicious of these symbolic gestures. Lets talk about some of the concrete things to you agreemen Major Construction plans and appointed folks to the National Labor Relations Board that made it easier for unions to overcome illegal intimidation and employee firings. Those are concrete things. I think you would agree President Biden before he was president spoke quite a lot about his support for unions. He spoke a lot but if you actually look at his record youll see i did list those and what you just noted, those are relative to what was in place. He replaced members on the National Relations labor board. You are right the Infrastructure Bill was better than trumps but he stripped elements of that bill that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and others were trying to push through so that he still ended up limping through and just because he doesnt have his metra in it. I would hope he doesnt have his heart in it. I would hope he would show up on police brutality. I want to see a fundamental commitment of biden and the Democratic Party to poor and woshing people and my hunch is they are not capable of it because the same people supporting biden happen to be the ceos of the companies that are crushing these precious workers. The same donors who support biden and the Democratic Party are crushing the workers. The symbolic gesture, okay. That is fine. Think about this, though. Can you imagine the first president to actually march on a picket line for workers, do you think how many strikes and picket lines there have been in the History Of America . We finally get a president i take your point that president i take your point President Biden is certainly not going as far as you and perhaps many others would like. I want to ask you about your president ial run right now. President bidens Approval Ratings remain low. When we look at this match up between him and trump it is a very tight race and some polls it is even. Maybe trump has a slight lead. How is your run not making it easier for trump to be victorious in 2024 . I mean, one, were making decisions in real time. There is a good chance neither biden or trump will be the ultimate candidate. Biden may run out of gas trump may end up in jail. We dont know. History is unpredictable. I am here to bear witness and speak on behalf of poor people, reshaping fundamentally the mass incarceration system, homelessness, curtailing military abroad to make sure we dont have a world war 3 against china or russia. In that vein would you consider dropping out before the actual november election if you felt like your presence in this campaign would have an effect on the outcome . I plan to bear witness until the end. I support you and your show and so forth i must say but, no. This is a matter of bearing witness and in fact consider the possibility that given the unpredictable factors i may win this thing. Lets have a public debate and stand on the stage and articulate our visions, analysis, our connections to whose legacy we come out. Legacy of Martin Luther king what is your legacy, democrat . Can i talk to you last night on the debate stage the republican president ial candidate tim scott went after his opponent ron desantis about the issue of slavery but also said this. Take a listen. Black families survived slavery. We survived poll taxes and literacy tests. We survived discrimination being woven into the laws of our country. What was hard to survive . Was Johnsons Great Society where they decided to take the black father out of the household to get a check in the mail and you can now measure that in unemployment, in crime, in devastation. Youre a scholar, dr. West. What do you make of that response . Well, i mean, you know, tim scott is a, i guess he is my brother but he is just so wrong on so many issues. The black family survived under slavery . We had Love Networks in which we were able to sustain the care but the family itself underwent tremendous, massive damage. We bounced back after slavery. The first thing the slaves did was Walk Hundreds and hundreds of miles to join their loved ones and in the 1960s what were we talking about . Rural folk trying to move into the urban centers, the Industrial Centers to become part of an industrial Working Class and had tremendous difficulties in making that transition. I was just in detroit yesterday. Black families were strong in detroit in the 1950s and 1960s when they had jobs with a living wage and some control over their own community. It is not just when you think of the shattering of the black family, so much of it has to do with the unbelievable unemployment, under employment, and then the Market Driven forces reshaping our people relate how people relate to each other, reshaping how black people relate to each other with the flow of guns and drugs from outside of the black community. So that i must say you can imagine it takes it to clarify all of this. Brother tim is giving right wing talking points to try to keep his campaign alive. All right. Cornel west we appreciate you joining us tonight. Thank you. Thank you so very much. You are very kind. And i want to start with the comments he made about President Biden and his union record. He said his heart is not in it. What do you say . It looked like his heart was in it. You made the point that this is a step in a long series of things that joe biden has done over his career. I would understand what dr. West was saying if Joe Biden Parachuted in Out Of Nowhere and had never done anything for American Workers or labor or for average americans. Whatever you want to call it. He is showing up after decades of doing that and will do it for the rest of his life. It is not symbolic in the sense it is Out Of Nowhere. Symbolism is important. Im sure to the workers on the picket line they appreciate it. The thing about the symbolism is he did it after trump said he would go and actually a week ago i had her on the show and i asked her and she said we have no plans at the moment. A couple days later they announced plans. I dont think it is tit for tat. When you look at joe biden talking to that crowd that is joe biden. Thats joe biden in his element, you know, average joe, worker joe. You know, i have to take issue with a couple things dr. West said. He was involved in a pretty symbolic event at the white house during the obama administration. He thought there was value to that and there was. There is often value to showing up. It is why whatever the saying is, 90 of life is showing up. Im sure those workers appreciate it. But more importantly, dr. West will not be president of the United States. He might prevent joe biden from being president of the United States the same way ralph nader presented al gore and jill stein prevented Hillary Clinton and no coincidence joe biden did not face any meaningful third Party Challenge in 2020. You asked him ten different ways and he is not answering. It doesnt matter what i think. He is not going to drop people out. He is also whipping people up. They are not going to work for biden, donate to biden, not get out the vote. If it is just massachusetts thats not bad. I feel pretty good about it. But tam pleasing down enthusiasm or attacking the nominee of our own party no good comes from that. I cant believe he would want donald trump to emerge from that but he has to realize as a student of history and for bearing witness as he said all these years to what happens, he has to know that he is walking a very dangerous path. Well see if he does. Thank you for staying around. Thank you for having me. Up next the first Impeachment Hearing of President Biden not going how republicans wanted including testimony from witnesses saying there is no evidence yet to prove the gop allegations. Plus anxiety is gripping top donors after the Republican Debate last night as new reporting suggests some of them are now looking to, get this, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to step in. When we Start Talking about things that look like evidence they want to tact like theyre blind. They dont know what this is. These are our national secrets. Looks like in the to me. An exasperated democrat at the House Republicans Impeachment Hearings against President Biden. Even one senior republican aide calling it, quote, an unmitigated disaster. Republicans presenting no evidence of wrongdoing by biden but lobbying a series of false allegations instead. We already know the president took bribes from burisma. Danieldale is here to fact check all of this. Lets start right there where you just heard nancy mace. She says, President Biden, she said, definitively, we know, President Biden has taken bribes from burs ma. What is the truth . We absolutely do not know this. This is a completely uncorroborated allegation. All we know is there is an internal fbi document from 2020 that says that year an informant someone they deemed highly credible had told them that four years prior the ceo of the Ukrainian Country Burisma claimed he had given 5 million to one biden and 5 million to another. The document contained no corroboration and it said the informant cannot offer an opinion on the veracity of the claim. We still have no proof of it. A witness called by republicans law professor Jonathan Turley cautioned this is he said a second hand account and you can only take an allegation like this so far. He also said he doesnt support or think the evidence they have supports an actual impeachment. The other thing is that House Republicans set this hearing up and said they would have the receipts. Here is what chairman comer said in opening remarks today. Just this week we uncovered two additional wires to Hunter Biden Originating in beijing from chinese nationals. This happened when joe biden was running for president of the United States and joe bidens home is listed as the Beneficiary Address. Seems to me there are some things missing here. Some very important things are missing. These wire transfers did happen in 2019. What chairman comer though did not mention was that there is a quite plausible and benign possible explanation for why President Bidens wilmington, delaware home was listed as the socalled Beneficiary Address and that is hunter biden his son had lived at that house and listed that address on his drivers license. We know this. And his lawyer abby lowell told cnn in a statement the reason his address was listed was because he had opened a bank account with that same address and the lawyer said that is because it was his only permanent address at the time. The fact that address was there is not evidence whatsoever that joe biden got the money and in fact there are pretty obvious explanations. This was more purported evidence presented in the hearing but it was actually congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who Accused Republicans of fabricating parts of it or omitting key parts of the evidence. Kind of like a democratic attempt at a fact check. Why dont we listen to this exchange. It was Florida Republican congressman Byron Donalds made a claim. This is about four months before joe biden launched his campaign for president of the United States. This is december 2018. The highlight is a text message between jim biden and hunter biden. Hunter biden was in a bad way by the way really strung out. If you saw a text message like this between the president s brother and president s son wouldnt you be concerned about them trying to give plausible deniability for the president of the United States to not have any knowledge of said Business Dealings . What was brought out from that fabricated image excluded critical context that changed the underlying meaning and allegation that was presented up on that screen. So the congresswoman is right. Congressman donalds did leave out critical context. What were they talking about . This week yesterday House Republicans released this text ek change between hunter biden and his Uncle James Biden and the actual context shows that hunter biden was saying he basically has run out of money and cant pay his kids school tuition, cant pay for gas and food, cant pay alimony without help from his father. James biden responds kind of vague language that basically they can work on this. That he can work with his father alone. He can be a safe harbor. The context is hunter biden saying he doesnt have money for personal experiences his uncle saying yeah i can help work with your dad on that. There is no indication in the exchange that this was about Business Dealings let alone the foreign Business Dealings House Republicans have been focused on but congressman donalds did not release the hunter biden text message that preceded his uncles response so he didnt allow people to understand this was about alimony, personal expenses, rather than foreign Business Dealings. Thank you. Well see if there are more of these hearings. Youll be pretty busy i will. Thank you so much. After a chaotic second debate are gop donors looking for Greener Pastures . New reporting says some are eyeing Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to enter the race. Plus Britney Spears gets a Wellness Check after posting this video showing her dancing with butcher knives. For the republicans who dont want donald trump to be their nominee it is apparent they are getting anxious today. One day after the messy president ial debate the Washington Post is now reporting that some big donors are preparing to draft another candidate. Incredible leader and he would be a great president but based on todays facts absent a political earthquake donald trump is going to be the republican nominee next year. It is trumps race and things can change but i think that is the way it clearly looks right now. With all due respect to Governor Youngkin i dont think he will beat trump in a republican primary or caucus contest. This seems like a fantasy of the donor and consultant class in washington. You know this well. You dropped out pretty early in August Of 2012 in the president ial race. Given what you just laid out shouldnt some of the candidates right now be having a come to jesus moment and thinking i should get out . Well, theyve run for a variety of motives. Not all of them think they are going to win. They have other motives potentially involved Vice President or other appointments and the like. If anyone is going to beat donald trump the field has to consolidate see will require people to realize if the goal is to put a real competitor to donald trump this field has to win. It is hard for candidates to drop out. The reality is they drop out when they run out of money. They need to stop giving money t put up on the screen the latest polling its a commanding leave, that is gonna take an existential event that we dont even see the change that. But do you think oneonone race would give them a shot at getting closer to trump . A better shot, at least somebody would be in position, somebody would be showcased, somebody would get most of the nontrump attention. And that would help. So thats gonna happen at all, i dont believe it is, but if its gonna happen at all, you have to optimize your chances and the way to you that is dramatically when in this field and narrowed down to one or two competitors. Look, theres a real possibility here. Trump is facing dozens and dozens of criminal charges. There is a real possibility that he can be convicted during this next election. It is not an Existentially Threat . To me it is, for sure. That would be a political earthquake by any normal or historical standards. But with president trump, hes like godzilla in the old movies. Missile comes in against stronger, he just bats the stuff away and keeps going. Maybe a Felony Connection and maybe jail time would do it, but im not sure we are gonna get there first of all, and second of all im not even sure he would drop out then. Look in our business we like to say its early, its almost october in just a couple of days. But its not feeling that way. Its starting to feel like this thing is not as fluid as i think some of the candidates in this field would like. Yeah cohead. I think a lot of people in the Republican Party, even folks who are skeptical of our are anti trump are coming to that realization, that reality. Governor plenty, thanks very much for joining us. Youre, welcome have a great night. And up next, the social media video this marked a Wellness Check for popstar Britney Spears. This is the video that Britney Spears posted to social media. She is there dancing isnt as you can see shes got large to large chefs noise. That prompted please and Southern California to knock o