Transcripts For CNN New Day With Alisyn Camerota and John Be

This. Republican leader Kevin Mccarthy made the claim overnight he doesnt even know what the Conspiracy Group qanon is. He might want to check the tape from january 6th. Some of them invaded his office. Or do a oneminute google search. Meanwhile, liz cheney got an earful from her gop colleagues but she survived an attempt to remove her from leadership because she dared to vote former President Trump for inciting that deadly insurrection. The final vote was 14561. And it was conducted in a Secret Ballot, meaning the republicans who stood behind her can remain anonymous. Joining me now is republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, an outspoken supporter of liz cheney. Outspoken in the suggestion that Marjorie Taylor greene should lose her Committee Posts. Congressman kinzinger, thanks for being with us. You had a heck of a night last night. How would you describe what happened . So, i want to put this up front. I dont reveal details from conference because but what ill tell you last night was liz survived. And heres the interesting thing. They tried at the end to move without having a vote so we could all walk out with some facade of unity. And i think that having the vote was important because people like matt gates and some in the freedom club had this idea that they had the votes to overtake her and she crushed it. She never apologized for her vote. She defended herself but on the Marjorie Taylor greene stuff, look, i obviously, i wont go into a lot of details but she did address the issue, and i didnt hear an apology personally. Maybe she did say it, but the bottom line is, i think until she publicly disavows all her comments from the past and says, you know, everything Going Forward, you know, i dont take it too seriously. How will you vote today On The House Floor about whether to strip her of her posts . I intend to vote for it. The only thing that could change is if today she comes out and publicly shows that she has moved on, contriteness. That takes eating a lot of humble pie and its probably going to hurt her Fundraising Base so im not sure thats going to happen because i think a lot of this kind of boisterousness on her part is to get a bunch of twitter followers and to raise a bunch of money. If she does that publicly today, you know, then i reserve the right to vote against the resolution on the floor. Otherwise, i do intend to vote to remove her from her committees and i think it should have been done by the republicans. There was an ovation in that meeting. Why were people clapping for Marjorie Taylor greene . Look, it was disappointing by factor of a thousand. Like i said, and i know it sounds kind of inside baseball. I dont like to reveal a ton of conference details, but she stood up and kind of gave a bit of contriteness but then it pivoted into, theyre coming after you next. And my obviously, i had a huge problem with all of that. But, you know, the quote unquote they being the democrats, i think if youre not buying into jewish space lasers and false flag operations and qanon stuff, to think theyre just going to come after you next i think is way a bridge too far. Look, i wish this vote on the floor, you know today to remove her committees was something that we didnt have to do because it would have been done by our side, but to see, you know, her come out of there strong position was crazy. You said disappointing by factor of a thousand. What exactly was disappointing to you. I mean, look. At least half the room didnt stand up and applaud her. Thats something, i guess. But you know, to see people at the end of it just be all in on Marjorie Taylor greene. Look, i get it. Shes a republican in your mind and you want to defend her, but my goodness, look at whats been said. And if she came out again today publicly and was very contrite and remorseful, thats very different than doing it just in front of, you know, your colleagues but then going out and tweeting whatever you want because your base shouldnt know what you really said in there. Some of the reporting last night was that you, quote, Unleashed Hell On Kevin Mccarthy. How so . So this is where im not going to confirm or deny anything because i dont want to get into any details. Was i disappointed in the level of defense of her . Absolutely. Liz cheney . Was i whats that . Disappointed in the level of defense for liz cheney . Yeah, it was a significant amount of time talking about Marjorie Taylor greene and a real quick one or two sentences about liz. Liz committed no sin except to vote her conscience. Who is the one that put everybody is our party in an awkward position on impeachment. It wasnt liz cheney. It wasnt me. It was donald trump. And, boy, last night, ill tell you what, the people that claim they had the votes to remove her are embarrassed today. Your matt gates and stuff like tha that. To have stood up and even defended Marjorie Taylor greene, i thought for sure shed lose her commits. Im still bewildered about why there was no change whatsoever. Are we really that broken as a party that we cant even take a stand on Something Like that . I dont know. I understand not wanting to reveal the details about what you said last night. So let me get your take on something mccarthy said after the meeting about qanon. Listen to this from Leader Mccarthy. I think it would be helpful if you could hear exactly what she told all of us. Denouncing qanon. I dont know if i say it right. I dont even know what its right. Theres no place for qanon in the Republican Party. I do not support it. The first part of that Congressman Kinzinger was Leader Mccarthy Last Night Saying i dont even know what qanon is. How can any leader of a party claim at this point, after everything the country has been through, that they dont know what qanon is . You cant. He used the same qanon thing in the press conference. We all know its qanon, and by acting like we dont know what it is, its not convincing anybody we dont. Were not saving our own bacon and were not doing a service to the people that deserve to know that were taking this threat seriously. The threat that trampled the u. S. House of representatives and the senate. You know, look, to be here a month later and act like, you know, january 6th wasnt a big deal, qanon wasnt a big deal, none of this stuff really happened, really the big thing is, you know, fighting the executive orders, which, look, we should have battles over political differences but youre not going to gain any followers by pretending a month ago didnt happen. How do you feel about having Kevin Mccarthy as your party leader after what you went through last night . I thought last night was an embarrassment, but it was really vindicating to come out with a massive liz cheney win. I think, you know, look, kevin needs to be very clear that hes going to stand for truth in this party. But its not saying you dont know what qanon is is not true. Thats what im saying. He needs to stand for truth and recognize this party, the future is not going down to maralago and being with donald trump. So hes going to be our leader. Ill support him as leader, but i think if theyre going to go after liz cheney, i think Kevin Mckaecarthy has to think about leadership and how to lead this caucus Going Forward because she goes to defended last night by 145 of us. So 61 voted to remove liz cheney last night. If thats the over under there for the vote today On The House Floor, whether to strip Marjorie Taylor greene from her committee post, do you think fewer than 61 republicans will vote to remove her . How many do you think will vote . I would be surprised if we get ten. I dont know what the number is, but its not going to be very high because last night, you know, it was all about defending liz and defending Marjorie Taylor greene. I defend liz. I dont defend Marjorie Taylor greene. I dont know what that number is but i dont think its going to be super high. Adam kinzinger, thanks for being with us and telling us what you can about what happened last night. Its important to speak to somebody who was in the room. You bet. Take care. All right. So as you just heard from Adam Kinzinger, he thinks the House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy should have prevented the vote thats going to happen today on congresswoman greene. He chose not to. You heard how upset kinzinger was about that. What does mccarthy do next . Today House Lawmakers will take a vote on whether to remove congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene from the education committees after she harassed School Shooting survivors. Joining us now, dana bash. Also jeff zeleny. Great to see both of you guys. Dana, congressman Adam Kinzinger was just on with john. He said he did not hear her apologize last night. Kevin mccarthy wants us to trust him that she apologized. But when shes had a chance in public on radio shows, on social media, to apologize, to step away, recant anything that she said, she has loudly and proudly refused to do that. And, again, Congressman Kinzinger said he didnt hear her apologize last night. Right. And he explained very clearly the reason why, which is never mind the fact that she might actually believe the things that she said, but more importantly now that shes a member of congress, thats how shes raising money and it helps boost her and bolster her power which is incredibly enhanced now after the meeting last night. One of the things that two things that Kevin Mccarthy said last night that are very telling to me. Number one, on this note, he said it would be helpful for her to come out and say what she said in the conference in public. He didnt say i demand it. I didnt say as part of the deal for me not kicking her off the committees myself, she must go out and do that, which is what weve seen leaders do time and time again on both sides of the aisle. That didnt happen. And the second thing which i thought was very interesting was more than once, mccarthy talked about winning the majority back in two years. That is his focus. That is the whole ball game for him and what he thinks is the most important for republicans right now to focus on winning, and he wants to be the speaker at that time. And that, from him, from his point of view, thats what this is all about. Trying to make everybody happy and that means allowing somebody who was told so many dangerous lies pushed bigoted conspiracies to remain unchecked by his by her own party leadership. Hes trying to thread a needle, but its interesting, jeff. He didnt completely successfully thread that needle based on what we heard from Adam Kinzinger. I know kinzinger doesnt lead dozens of House Members but hes part of a group, the ten that voted for impeachment. I dont know if theyll get ten here. Unless she comes out with a fullthroated apology, it will be a bipartisan vote On The House Floor to remove her from committees. In this environment, thats not nothing. Its not nothing. We have a metric. We have something weve not seen yet in the posttrump era. Thats that Secret Ballot vote last night. 145 members to 61 voted. That is as good as you get. As dana well knows, weve covered these closeddoor conference meetings so many times over the years. Thats an extraordinary number. And that is the best sort of gut feeling of what republicans are thinking. And that is a lot of republicans who voted to support liz cheney. And y its a slightly different thing than Marjorie Taylor greene, but these are basically the same pots of people. But one thing that Leader Mccarthy did last night without question, he accepted full ownership of anything that congresswoman Taylor Greene does from this point forward. He basically was giving her the benefit of the doubt saying, oh, she said all these things before she came to washington. The fact is thats not true. You saw the drum beat from The Other Side of the u. S. Capitol, which rarely happens. You rarely see senators getting involved in the Lower Chambers business. Thats exactly what was going on with Mitch Mcconnell opening the flood gates and so many senators came forward. Im not sure i can recall anything like that in 20 years of covering that building. Dana, i think would agree. That was extraordinary. What we have today is this. How is the georgia freshman congresswoman going to conduct herself . Is she going to turn the page or is she going to double down . Or mix of both . Weve already seen shes fundraising over this. Well see if she is bragging about any more conversations with the former president. But my biggest takeaway from really the last 12 to 24 hours is that this is no longer Donald Trumps Republican Party in whole, in mass. He has a sliver of them but not entirely. Last night was the first vote to break the party away from that. Boy, Kevin Mccarthy owns all of that. Well see if he can hold that big tent up. Precarious for him. Marjorie Taylor Greene is not going away. I predict this is not going to end well for Kevin Mccarthy because, dana, again, just two days ago, she was given an opportunity to apologize. She said, i dont think i have anything to apologize for. That doesnt sound like somebody who has come to her senses. And the interesting thing, theres the politics of this and then theres just the human side of this. You know, Donie Osullivan talked to a Qanon Adherrent and she said, had donald trump ever said, this isnt real. I dont believe in qanon, it would have broken the spell for her. It would have broken the spell for these cult followers. Similarly, Marjorie Taylor greene has their attention. She can break the spell. Shes choosing not to. Right. Exactly. And thats why what john was asking Adam Kinzinger about. Leader mccarthy Last Night Saying, i dont even know what qanon is. Never mind the fact that we know he knows what it is, instead of saying that, you know if you want to break the spell when you are a leader you say, i know what it is, a la Mitch Mcconnell, and it is not what our party stands for. Our party stands for lower taxes, smaller government, so on and so forth. It doesnt stand for, you know, wacky ideas that are based in bigotry in many senses. So that is number one. The other thing is, the other point i want to make on just the raw politics of this, kinzinger saying that he doesnt think many more than ten of Marjorie Taylor greenes fellow republicans will vote to remove her in this vote were going to see today. That is the reason democrats are holding this vote, politically. Obviously, the main reason theyre holding it is because they dont think she belongs on those committees, the principle of it, the morale of it. Sec secondarily, the democrats want to be able to run against every one of the republicans who are in even remotely vulnerable seats and say, oh, you know, congressman x, look at what he or she did. He or she didnt vote voted with Marjorie Taylor greene. So that could box in Kevin Mccarthy or box out Kevin Mccarthy from being the speaker which is one of the main reasons he has not stood up to Marjorie Taylor greene. And so that is one of the most fascinating kind of political ramifications that im going to be watching about this, never mind the way and the direction of the party and whether or not liz cheney is going to use the capital that she now has according to a source i spoke to close to her in order to help steer the party in a way that mccarthy is not. Do you have to know, dana, how liz cheney is going to vote on Marjorie Taylor greene today . I dont. But it would surprise me if she didnt vote to remove her. I agree, for sure. For sure. You agree, jeff . For sure. She cant go down this road and not do it. This is a fork in the road. She certainly owes Kevin Mccarthy. He did stand up for her in the conference so that is no small thing but the Democratic National Campaign Committee already doing ads for vulnerable republicans calling them members of q district. Thats so fascinating here. Thats why that vote today will be remembered for, you know, the next almost two years before election day 2022. Guys,