Transcripts For CNNW Smerconish 20240703 : vimarsana.com

CNNW Smerconish July 3, 2024

This is cnn Breaking News. Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. This very busy saturday. Im fredricka whitfield. Breaking news this hours, just moments ago, you watched it live right here on cnn, the house voted to pass a shortterm funding bill that will keep the u. S. Government open for 45 days. The bill includes Natural Disaster aid, but does not include funding for ukraine or the border. The lastminute hail mary from House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy seems to have worked in the house, but the shutdown has not yet been averted. It is now up to the u. S. Senate to pass this proposal. Lets get right to cnns manu raju on capitol hill. What is the latest . Youre positioned to talk to anybody who comes and goes. Whats being said . Reporter look, this is a frantic day that a Government Shutdown could be averted after republicans reversed course. Speaker mccarthy capitulated after indicating for some time that he would not move forward with a bill if it did not cut spending and include funding for Border Security measures. He was forced to do so, even though this passed with a significant amount of republican opposition, the final vote of the 335 voting yes, 91 voting no. 90 of those were republicans who voted no, one democrat, mike quigley of illinois who voted against it because it did not have Ukraine Funding. One of the things that lawmakers were saying i appreciate it. Trying to interrupt my live shot here. Theres been a lot of opposition from some of those conservative hard liners who warned against cutting a deal and working with democrats. Thats what they were saying to Speaker Mccarthy. Dont cut a deal with democrats and rely on democratic votes. Thats exactly what happened on the house floor. That is one reason why theres concern among mccarthys allies that there could be a vote in a matter of days to try to oust him from the speakership. I had a chance to catch up with some members of whether they would push for an ouster. Many are not saying, even as they expressed satisfaction with the speaker over his handling of the spending talks. I have confidence in the way this place is supposed to operate. And thats what we should have pushed for. 12 individual Spending Bills, this bipartisan Muscle Memory of governing by continuing resolutions and omnibus bills needs to come to an end. It shows the party is alive and well and there are so many members who are comfortable doing things the way theyve been done since the mid90s and thats why we have 33 trillion in debt and constituents who are frustrated because they cant afford gas in their car and the high cost of living, the mortgage rates, where theyre at, because of this inflation, and the reckless spending that comes right here from washington, d. C. So this is something that we have got to get under control. We should have forced the senate to take up the four Appropriations Bills that the house has passed. That should have been our play, to fund more than 70 of the federal government, to keep our Military Personnel paid, to keep our brave men and women on our Border Patrol paid. We should have forced them to come to the Negotiating Table and come to conference and hash out our differences with these four Appropriations Bills before there was another payday that was at risk of being missed. You would vote to oust the speaker . That isnt what were talking about right now. Matt gaetz has said that he relies on democratic votes, hell no longer be speaker. I represent colorados Third District and my focus is getting the federal government funded as we ought to, with 12 individual Spending Bills like we promised everyone in january. Unfortunately, now were 45 days of the same bipartisan Muscle Memory of just a straight upanddown vote and whatever is in it is good with us. Reporter frustration there, but not saying whether she would join with the likes of congressman matt gaetz to try to push out the speaker. We expect that vote to happen in the coming days. He would need five republicans to do that if there was an unprecedented vote on the floor, something that has never happened before in American History. That is an issue for days ahead. The speaker said hes willing to have that fight on the floor if it comes to that, which is expected. Now, the next thing to avoid a Government Shutdown is the senate. The bill will go to the senate side. There needs to be an agreement of all 100 senators to keep the Government Open for another 45 days. As you can see, in 45 days we could be right back to where we were, this frantic effort to avoid a shutdown. And you pressed her on it, but Congresswoman Boebert says its really not about the ouster of mccarthy, from her colleagues it has been stated that if he gets democratic votes in order to pass something, thats like the kiss of death. But this Stopgap Measure wouldnt have made it, wouldnt have received any passing had it not received democratic votes. So which is it . Do you want the government to keep functioning, but do so without democratic support, otherwise hell be punished . Its a little confusing, like a lot confusing. Reporter yeah, because the speaker tried to pass a shortterm funding bill that had a lot of conservative priorities, Spending Cuts, Border Security measures. Those same members voted against it because they had demanded that Congress Pass annual funding bills. Congress rarely meets the deadline and typically needs a stopgap to avoid a shutdown. It left Kevin Mccarthy with very little room to maneuver. He needed democratic votes in order to keep the Government Open and that is where he ultimately made the decision. Let the democrats help carry this across the finish line. Manu raju, thank you so much there on capitol hill. Lets go to the white house. Kayla is there. So, kayla, is the white house behind the senate possibly passing this after the house has . What is the feeling there . Fred, i just spoke to a white house official who tells cnn that it would likely support that compromise continuing resolution that would keep the Government Open for 45 days for a few reasons. Number one, it would keep the Government Open and it does include Disaster Relief funding and authorization for the federal aviation authority. Number two, this official says that it does not include the 30 acrosstheboard Spending Cuts that many republicans were pushing to be included in previous shortterm bills. Number three, theres a belief within the white house that Kevin Mccarthy as House Speaker has previously stated his support for funding ukraines defenses, and they believe that he will make good on that in separate measures, even though it is not included in that shortterm bill that just passed the house. Now, worth noting, the white house had previously lent its support to a senate brokered deal earlier in the week that did include 6. 2 billion in funding for ukraine, but officials are acknowledging that without a path forward for that deal in the house, that their priority is keeping the lights on in the government, their priority is compromise and averting a Government Shutdown at all costs. They believe this relatively clean shortterm bill that would have bipartisan support would likely have support within the administration, and certainly its seen as a welcome development, one that was relatively unexpected just a few hours ago. Yeah. Lots of surprises today. I was just looking at the calendar. 45 days from now, november 17th. Is that another saturday . Are we going to repeat this . No, its on a friday. Either way, lets see what happens over the next 45 days, if indeed it passes in the senate. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Joining me right now to talk more about all of this is congressman jared moskowitz, a democrat from florida. Congressman, good to see you. So how are you feeling here . Are you as exhausted as we are, those of us who have been watching all of this . Are you hopeful, are you feeling defeated . Thanks for having me on. No, im not tired. This is what were supposed to be doing. It took longer, we didnt need to get to this point to avert a Government Shutdown because we could have done this days or weeks ago. This is what the people have sent us to do, so im glad we passed this on a bipartisan basis out of the house. I think the senate will pass it and it will get to the president s desk and get signed. The timing of which i dont know because i dont control the senate. What i do think is we are clearly trying to do what we can to avert a Government Shutdown and im glad the house passed this bill on a bipartisan basis. When i spoke with virginia senator warner earlier, he said he was perplexed, he was speaking mostly to the senate saying, you know, the great majority of republicans were on board with ukrainian aid, and he also spoke to a great majority of republicans in the house on board with ukraine aid. Is this a great disappointment that that has been removed from this package, even if it means keeping government working for another 45 days . No, because i dont believe that the Ukraine Funding is over. I cant shut the government dawn because we dont get Ukraine Funding. Ive got to fund the government first before i can provide foreign aid to other countries. So this was step one, keeping the Government Open so that we can then solve the ukraine issue. I support Ukraine Funding, i support the white houses request for Ukraine Funding. This was a vote to keep the Government Open and im not going to shut the government down over foreign aid. That sounds like what senator rand paul said. You are still taking the position that over time, maybe within the 45 days, if indeed it passes in the senate, you do believe that somewhere in that 45day period you will resume conversations about trying to you think theres great support for resuming conversations about trying to include ukraine aid in the package . I do. And i support the funding and i think were delaying the inevitable, so i do agree that we could have done it today, and i think were delaying the inevitable. I will vote for support of Ukraine Funding. But this kept the Government Open, gave us the 16 billion of disaster aid, being from florida, in hurricane season, being a former director of emergency management, that disaster aid was critical. Fema needed those resources to help communities, cities, counties, states, that have been affected by hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, fires. This was 90 of what i would have liked to see. So im not going to let perfect be the enemy of good. I will fight for the Ukraine Funding, but im happy were keeping the Government Open for all those federal employees and americans so we dont crash our economy. How much of a surprise did it come to you that senator Mitch Mcconnell led the bypassing of a procedural vote, saying lets see if this passes in the house. He got his Republican Caucus reportedly on board that they would vote for the Stopgap Measure. How surprising is that for you to see that the sequence of events changed abruptly today in just really a matter of hours . Look, it doesnt surprised me that people talk around capitol hill. So im sure the Speakers Office and the Senate Minority office were in Constant Contact on what they each could get their members to vote for. Look, were in a divided government, the house is controlled by republicans, the senate by democrats. And so as a democrat who got 90 of what he would have liked to have seen, i voted for it. So did every other democratic except one democratic, and thats because we understand the catastrophic failure it would have been to close the government. Remember, we didnt have to get here. This is the same crew that almost took us off the cliff with the debt ceiling, took us right to the brink of defaulting on our debt and took us to the brink of closing the government. We could have been doing this weeks ago to avert this crisis. Im glad the house passed this on a bipartisan basis. Among democrats earlier today, among the arguments being made about this newest measure, you werent given enough time to thoroughly digest it and read through the 72 pages, we saw Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries take advantage of the magic minutes. Was that time in which that led to you being able to pore through all the details, read it thoroughly, talk among your colleagues about likes, dislikes, in the package . What happened in that lapse of time . Listen, im a pretty quick read. It was clear to me that it was an almost perfectly clean cr with disaster aid. As soon as i made the conclusion that it was a clean cr, fulfilling the white houses request on disaster aid, i came out and said i was a yes vote. I think it was a mistake for republicans to try to push this through and give people 20 minutes to read the bill. Thats not what they promised to do. They promised to give people time to read bills around here. Oftentimes this place passes thousandpage bills with very little time to read them. Im glad the leader, jeffries, did that, so Members Around here could read it. But it was very easy for me to read it, see it was a clean cr with disaster aid, and get on board. Thats whey 99. 9 of democrats voted for the bill. Florida congressman, jared moskowitz, thank you for your time. And of course this Breaking News continues. Well hear from both the House Speaker and the House Minority leader in a matter of minutes. Well bring it to you live. Stay with us. We continue with this Breaking News, just moments ago the house passed a 45day shortterm Spending Bill to avert a u. S. Government shutdown. The bill how goes to the u. S. Senate and we have already heard from Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell that he and his Republican Caucus are largely on board with that measure. But, again, the vote has yet to happen in the senate. Im joined by alex burns, the head of news at politico, and a cnn political analyst. Also joining me, errol louis. Good to see both of you. And it all happened right here on Live Television in cnn. Alex, all eyes are now on the u. S. Senate. Within a matter of an hour and a half, you go from House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy talking about how he was not fearful of losing his job, it was all about i want to keep the u. S. Government open, to the next thing you know, there was a it looks like hes speaking. House speaker Kevin Mccarthy right now. I had some members in our own conference that wouldnt vote for that. If you have members in your conference that wont let you vote for appropriation bills, doesnt want an omnibus and wont vote for a Stopgap Measure, so the only answer is to shut down and not pay our troops, i dont want to be a part of that team. I want to be a part of a conservative group that wants to get things done. Yes, sir. [ Inaudible Question ] im never giving up on American People, im going to focus on america first. Im going to solve those problems. I believe at the end of the day well get them back on board. Yes, maam. [ Inaudible Question ] look, i think its very important, if were worried about ukraines border, we should worry about americas border, too. I think an opportunity to solve the border along america is now one of the biggest issues in new york. The governor of massachusetts has declared a state of emergency, the governor of new york tells people to go somewhere else, the mayor of new york city says its destroying, which many in this country believe is one of the greatest cities america has. We have a president that has only been to the border one time in 50 years, but went to cafe milano twice with Hunter Bidens Business Partners and got 3 million, and his son got a new porsche. You know what . I will do whatever it takes to get the president to come down to the border. Br

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