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CNNW CNN July 3, 2024

You are live in the cnn newsroom. Im jim acosta in washington. Good afternoon. A major new deadline hangs over washington and the heads of federal employees across country. Just one week from today the federal government face as midnight shutdown and unless a funding bill can be passed and signed by the president. With every passing hour that looks more unlikely. House speaker Kevin Mccarthy sent lawmakers home for a long weekend after federal agencies becoming a formal process preparing for a shutdown of Military Personnel. Their paychecks could be delayed for weeks as a crisis grows at the Southern Board Perp federal officials sending more resources to help with this weeks surge of migrants crossing into the u. S. Today House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy conceded he has to win over republicans hardliners but hopeful theyll fall in line to pass a Stopgap Spending Measure and prevent a shutdown. Finally agree on this, and shutting down i dont see and cnn chief Congress Correspondent manu raju is here. Great to see you instudio with us. Tell us. Where do things stand . Heading towards a shutdown jan. A good chance. Well see. A week to go. Two sides on totally opposite pages. Not the two we talk about. Is republican on republican. Today in the house the speaker had a Conference Call with its members. This was the message, to his members. Avoid a Government Shutdown. Pass a stopgap spending bill. Keep the governmenting for returning some time negotiating a larger year longe bill. Problem, doesnt have the votes and trying to pass this along party lines. They want a republican position coming out of the house negotiate with senate on it and come up with a compromised plan, but there are a group of hardliners that are simply not there. Probably about seven or so oppose any sort of shortterm measure. And he can only afford to lose four votes. Therein lines the challenge. Republicans came out today. Spoke to some of mccarthys top allies making a case for members. They believe a shutdown theyll get the worse solution. Jammed by the senate. Exactly what chuck schumer, Senate Majority leader told me earlier in the week. What would happen, cut a deal, theyll try to jam the house. May have to go first. Yes. Yes, i do. Given the house. Leader mccullough and i are talking and have a great deal on many parts of this. Its never easy to get a Big Bill A Cr bill done but i am very, very optimistic mccarthy and i can find a way and get a large number of votes both republican and democrat in the senate. A real challenge for mccarthy. 70, to 80 votes, how do you say no to that . And democrat support on the floor means potential challenge to speakership. Very real right now, and really part. Dynamic that is driving things for the speaker, pushes the Ba Lon On One Side comes out in the other. Kevin mccarthy is in a jam. See how it plays out. Pivot to democratic senator from new jersey, bob menendez. This really came across like an earthquake up on capitol hill. The new jersey democrat accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for his help on certain things. W his wife faces corruption charges. Images of gold bars, mercedesbenzs and jackets full of cash and so on. Youre starting to see some members on the democratic side call for menendez to step down but hes Standing Firm . At this point he is. Made clear. Im not going anywhere. Interesting to see John Fetterman become the first democratic senator to come out and say that he should resign. And Senate Majority leader, schumer, he said yesterday entitled to innocence and fight this out in court. But he lost his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and interesting development. Andy kemp in the house of new jersey. Announce Add Primary Challenge against bob menendez up for reelection next year. A real concern for democrats if he continues to run could, this may the primary, could be a seat potentially could flip in a very difficult map. They already face to hold on to the senate. The last thing spend money in a state like new jersey. Thats the fear if he continues to run. At the moment menendez seems to be digging in. Democrats dont want to spend time worrying about new jersey. Plenty to worry elsewhere. Tomorrow a new era begins for you and here at cnn. You officially take reins of inside politics sunday. What do we see tomorrow . Appreciate it. Thank you for the plug. Yeah. This is a, excited for the show. Still covering capitol hill, which gives me direct access to these members and bring new interviews in, about key issues that happened over the past week. Whats happening in the coming week. Whether theres a shutdown, bob menendez or about whats happening on the campaign trail. Interviews from top leaders of congress. Mccarthy allies more from chuck surer as well and potential primary challenge Lindsey Graham may face when up for reelection. A lot of people who care about politics, that follow politics hopefully youll tune in and hopefully learn a lot. Nobody knows it better than m manu raju. Tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. Eastern, 11 00 a. M. Eastern only on cnn. Joining me with more on those stories democratic Congressman Eric Swallow watching manus show perform. Congressman, great to see you. Quickly get into this. What is your take where things stand on the shutdown . You heard manu say a few minutes ago looks like we are heading towards a shutdown barring some unforeseen compromise out of the Republican Party. Do you in the democrat party, in the house, feel like youre on the sidelines watches from the bleachers at this point . What do you think . When it comes to a shutdown, jim, democrats are working for working people. In the Senate Republicans and democrats came together to fund the government, take care of our troops, take care of our police, take care of our Border Agents and take care of the American People. The president stands ready to sign that legislation. House democrats stand ready to pass it. But weve seen complete failure by house republicans. Theyve failed to govern. Theyve failed to fund, and by doing that they have failed to protect the American People. Do you think mccarthys speakership is in jeopardy right now . Might have congressman, hang on a second. Lost your audio. Hold on. Congressman, Stand By Just oh. Did he come back . Congressman, still there . Yeah. I can hear you. Okay. Sorry about that. We lost your audiofor a second. Just wondering if you thought, if this is real you know, concern inside the house now . Maybe not on the democratic side, but that Kevin Mccarthys speakership is in jeopardy. Do you think its in jeopardy right now . Jim, as i said, when it comes to the shutdown democrats are working for working people and see republicans have failed the American People. They have failed to govern and have failed to fund. By failing to govern and fund theyve failed to protect the American People. They are the failures. Talking about Kevin Mccarthys job, if thats what Kevin Mccarthy is worried about then hes not worried about the millions of people affected if the government shuts down. Federal workers who wont be paid. Fbi agents, Border Agents, troops wont get paid. Air Traffic Controllers wont get paid. We need them to move americans around so our economy can keep humming along. This isnt about one persons job. If Kevin Mccarthy put the country ahead of his job, i promise you two things will happen. Well fund the government. Have votes on the democratic side to do it and actually the clowns to his right, they dont have the votes to replace him. Theres no alternative and dont want an alternative. If he could not be afraid of a shadow and not a spectator speaker the right results will come out. And this week Attorney General Merrick Garland went before the House Oversight committee. You had a moment a lot of people talked about. Lets take a look at that. Mr. Attorney general, my colleague just said you should be held in contempt of congress, and that is quite rich, because the guy whos leading the hearing room right now, mr. Jordan, is about 500 days into evading his subpoena. About 500 days. So if were going to talk about contempt of congress, lets get real. Yeah. Congressman, why did you decide to do that . Why decide to call out congressman there . Well, the American People want the Department Of Justice to work for them, and to hear jim jordan make these baseless attacks on Merrick Garland, i thought folks should know that jordan has no credibility. Funny enough, soon as i started speaking he starting running away as if i had a congressional subpoena in my hand. You have to discredit maga republicans every time they try and land any of their points, because these are pro insurrectionists. They rooted for the insurrection, part of inciting it, acquitted it voting on impeachment and get comfort going to jis it the january 6th defendants. They dont have credibility. Then we have to pivot to debunking any of the false claims put forward and let the American People know if we were given the keys again to govern in congress that well focus and deliver on what they want. So discredit, dedefend and deliver. Three ds the best way to deal with these guys. And that sort of leads to my next question. Asks about stunning revelations facing new jersey senator bob menendez. We saw pictures earlier talking ta manu, gold bars, fancy cars, cash. Heard a few moments ago Pennsylvania Democratic senator fetterman, John Fetterman is calling on menendez to step down. Do you think he needs to step down at this point . It doesnt look good, jim. Ill say right now im waiting to see what my new jersey colleagues do. Some in the delegation have spoken up. This is their delegation in the other chamber and it does look good. The American People should see from this the independent Attorney General who was accused this week favoring democrats just indicted a democratic chairman on the Foreign Relations committee. Should put to bed any idea a that Merrick Garland is going favors, or has fear of being independent. I hope that makes people feel better how hes Making Decisions with the former president and how hes Making Decisions regarding the current president s son. You think thats having impact . Heard from any republican colleagues on the hill now that theyindicted menendez, perhaps there isnt much to this theyll find a crazy intermission of this to further justify why they need to continue to impeach joe biden. I want viewers to know impeachment of joe biden, by the way, Working Farmly for a shutdown holding the first hearing on impeachment is a continuation of the insurrection. Theyve never accepted joe biden as a legitimate president. Tried to insurrect their way back to the white house. That didnt work. They are now trying to impeach him. Just a continuation of their failed efforts to overthrow joe biden. Its not going to work. The American People will reject crazy and chaos and want community and confidence. All right. Congressman Eric Swalwell. Thanks for your time. Might have to check back in and see how thing, going with shutdown talks. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks. Continue this conversation. Joining us now Ron Bronstein senior cnn political analyst and Senior Editor forary the atlantic. Ron, a lot to chew on after both of those conversations, both manu and the congressman. Start with a threat of a Government Shutdown. Were only about a week away from this midnight deadline. I suspect next Saturday Night will be a painful one for a lot of us here in washington. What do you think . Is Kevin Mccarthy, sounds like hes in paickle . In a bind, such a slim majority at this point and has maga hardline republicans in his caucus who just dont want to compromise and doesnt have the votes to push through a Stopgap Spending Measure at this point. Whats your sense of it . As far as i think in many ways compounded his own problem, because strategy throughout the speakership has been in the end to give his critics ons right most, almost all of what they want and expect the members in more moderate districts, more competitive districts to fall in line ultimately and in fact, thats what happened multiple times. So its not unreasonable for those pressuring him to think hes ultimately going to fold. Again, i guess i felt this point, this day, was almost inevitable from the moment apainted default on the federal debt if not the moment he took 15 ballots or so to get approved as speaker. There is a portion of the republican caucus. John boehner deceit with it, paul ryan dealt with it, seen as imposing a maximum disruption on the system on using every possible tool to take the fight to the libs, and to advance their and gagenda. Once mccarthy moved out of the u. S. Debt felt almost certainly have to let that impulse play out on the Government Shutdown, which is damaging and disruptive but nearly as so a a default of the government. Menendez is facing calls to resign. Heard from John Fetterman, democrat from pennsylvania calling on him to step down. Asked Eric Swalwell about this a few minutes ago. He was being a bit more cautious, wanted to wait and see if more fellow democrats in the house in new jersey will go down this road and call on menendez to resign but he made the point, how can you go about it on the republican side accusing the Biden Administration, justice department, of weaponizing the judicial system if they just indicted bob menendez . Yeah. Look, also look, in the trump era politicians both of us know are now trying to tough out things that they never would have before. Right . Donald trump is under 91 felony indictments. By the way, not hearing calls from the republican members of congress for him to drop out of the president ial race. I think Bob Menendezs instincts tough it out is very much reflecting that shift in the belief among politicians in both parties you can survive things that didnt seem to be survivable by putting your head down. Changes in the dynamic, manu noted, hes up for reelection next year and has to face a primary in june at a moment democrats have to face really eight seats theyre defending not at all guaranteed to hold. The idea they would have a wounded incumbent in new jersey i think really changes the circumstance, and there will be, i think you saw already, i wonder others, andy, and many in the Democratic Party represented new jersey, a national star, we thought, could change the equation here and put much more pressure on him than if he was up for reelection, for example, in 2026. If youre a democrat, doesnt it sound more consistent to call for menendez to resign, if youre out there calling on trump to get out of the race or that hes not qualified to run for president and so on . Well, you know, thats kind of actually a mixed bag, i think. Theres a lot of regret in democratic circles about pressure that al franken faced to resign. There were a lot of democrats who feel that republicans rally around their own. Basically just tell the other side to stiff it. You know . And hold on. I dont know if that its. I think its really more if he was not up for reelection it might play out differently. The fact he is up for reelection in 2024 whatever democrats say, whether he ultimately resigns or not we know hell have at least one challenger and may have more challengers, if he doesnt step down voters, democratic voters of new jersey will have to decide whether he is their best 125 standard bearer going into the 20 2024 election. Down at the border, a strain of federal resources testing the policies of the administration. Whats your sense of it now in terms how big of a problem is this for President Biden . In his chances for reelection . If this continues unabated . Yeah. Im down in texas myself, Texas Tribune festival. A lot of democrats and other talking about this here. Look, the president took a, President Biden and the administration took a very bold step this week to resolve, try to respond to the immediate most immediate most pressing political problem he had, which was the mayors of large cities, democrat

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