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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

GOP Takes Control of Senate; McConnell's Political Battles May Continue; Finding Coorperation Between Obama and GOP

Aired November 05, 2014 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And welcome to our special election coverage on LEGAL VIEW.

It is the question of the hour. After a midterm election night that exceeded Republicans' wildest dreams and Democrats' worst nightmares, what is next for the president? President Obama. Believe it or not, I can tell you, the president is holding a news conference at 2:50 p.m. Eastern today, two hours and fifty minutes from right this moment. And, of course, you'll see it live right here on CNN.

In the meantime, CNN's Candy Crowley looks at a whole new political landscape that actually may not be quite so different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It was both quicker and broader than they dared hope, so the grand old party was big-time giddy over their big old victory.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: We are fixing to retake the Senate! And to retire Harry Reid as majority leader!

I heard a rumor that there was a Capitol maintenance man headed to Harry Reid's office now with a screwdriver and a new sign for the door.

CROWLEY: From the great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina --

THOM TILLIS (R), NORTH CAROLINA SENATOR-ELECT: We have swept this nation with a compelling Senate majority.

CROWLEY: To the Rockies in Colorado and the farm fields of Iowa.

JONI ERNST (R), IOWA SENATOR-ELECT: We are heading to Washington. And we are going to make them squeal!

CROWLEY: Republicans not only took control of the Senate, they strengthened their grip in the House. This will change everything. Or this may change nothing.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: I don't expect the president to wake up tomorrow and view the world any differently than he did when he woke up this morning. He knows I won't either. CROWLEY: When Tuesday evening began to take shape, Republicans

suggested maybe now the president will start working with them, to which a White House adviser said the question is whether Republicans will work with the president. If voters were hoping for an adult conversation, this wasn't it.

There's also the matter of interpreting the vote.

DAVID PERDUE (R), GEORGIA SENATOR-ELECT: I think Georgians made it loud and clear tonight, that we want to stop the failed policies of this administration and Harry Reid.

REP. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R), WEST VIRGINIA SENATOR-ELECT: It can be heard loud and clear in the White House, I believe, that this president's agenda just isn't working for West Virginia.

CROWLEY: Though exit polls show an electorate beyond grumpy, the White House, in the initial stages of grief, denied the night was a rejection of the president's policies. And election results are like Rorschach tests for the ears (ph), Republicans heard voters say, stop the president. Democrats heard, work with him.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: They want a Congress that works with the president to solve problems.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: They want to hire folks to go to Washington that can work across party lines.

CROWLEY: So maybe Republicans will spend their time sending an unbending president legislation he will veto, setting up the next election which is already underway.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I think in Kentucky it's really a repudiation of the president's policies, but also of Hillary Clinton.

CROWLEY: Or maybe Republicans will want to show they can lead and the president, in the twilight of his administration, will want to enhance his legacy and they'll work together to meet their dovetailing needs. Tuesday night, the White House announced the president had invited congressional leaders to the White House Friday for a chat. We shall see.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: And joining me now with more on the GOP juggernaut and what it means for the next two years, our CNN political director, David Chalian, and CNN political analyst and "Daily Beast" editor-in-chief John Avlon, and CNN political commentator and GOP consultant Margaret Hoover.

All right, David, first to you, because you're the guy in the know. You spend - I mean this is what you basically cut your teeth on every single day and you're looking forward to a very busy two years. Let me just start with the next two hours. What does the president have to say when he goes on the TV at 2:50 this afternoon?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: That's a great question. I think, Ashleigh, what you're going to see the president say is a two- pronged message. I do think we got a preview of this when Vice President Biden sat down with our Gloria Borger a few days ago. They are going to try to express that they're ready to compromise. But - then there's going to be a but - and I think you're going to hear the president challenge the Republicans. From his point of view, they've been a real opposition party, an obstruction party, a party of no and I think he's going to challenge them to say, OK, guys, now you're in the big driver's seat and you're governing both chambers, let's see how you govern now and I challenge you to do something differently. So I think we're going to hear both aspects of that message from the president today.

BANFIELD: So I want to bring in John and Margaret on this issue because to the non-politicos, that's me, all I ever hear are the platitudes that there has to be compromise. There will be compromise and then it's usually followed by kumbaya. Why am I to think anything is going to be different or is this, you know, a six-year wake-up call for the president that he really does need to get down and dirty in more than just dinner? How about - I'll start with you, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Ashleigh, first of all, I mean, you heard Mitch McConnell. He promised that if the Republicans were elected, it would mean an end to gridlock. So let's be charitable and take him at his word.

But there's a force behind that promise, which is that the Republicans have seven seats up in the next cycle in states that Obama's won twice. So they need to show that they can govern. Because if it's simply the same old obstruction, they're going to have a real reckoning in two years. Likewise, the president has two more years of his legacy to deal with. So they are going to have to find some degree of common ground. It could be modest, tax reform, infrastructure, trade authority, but it's got to be something because if it's the same old ideological blood sport, nothing gets done, they both look bad and Republicans have a real problem in 2016.

BANFIELD: And the looking bad is really an issue, isn't it? There's so much to the optics of this kind of compromised plan.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There certainly is. Look, I think incentives may have aligned for both sides in this battle, as you said. Look, the Republicans are setting the table for 2016. They know that if they look like the obstructionist party going into 2016, who's going to vote Republican? It's going to look really good for Hillary going into this. Mitch McConnell gets that.

Similarly, the president's got two years left on his legacy. So can each of them give a little bit from their entrenchment to let each other win, both take a win in the last two years of their legacy? And the truth is, they probably have six to nine months because presidential craziness 2016 is going to start in about nine months.

BANFIELD: Yes. HOOVER: So the high watermark for getting something done is right now. And I think the tone the president strikes in his press conference, whether it's conciliatory or if he - it sounds like he's going to double down on partisanship, will have a lot to do with whether he sort of poisons the well at the start. You know, Mitch McConnell and Barack Obama and John Boehner are going to have to sit down. They're going to have to work together if they're going to do something.

BANFIELD: We keep saying that over and over. David Chalian, jump in on this for me because I think Margaret makes a really good point. There are two big reasons to do the right thing. Number one, as Margaret says, there's the president's legacy. Number two, there's 2016 hovering for the Republicans. And if they're obstructionists, we remember this stuff, and it makes for really good campaign ads. So why does it just all feel so wrong? Why does it just - why does that not hang over all of this in that whole kumbaya spirit, David?

CHALIAN: Well, we learned from voters yesterday at the polls, Ashleigh, 65 percent of the country says we're headed on the right track, 78 percent of the country says they're worried the economy's not going to get better within the next year. This is a worried and angry electorate. I wouldn't expect that to be an electorate that expects a lot of progress as much as they would like to see it.

I do want to just add one 2016 caveat there too. President Obama is going to find himself in a position if he finds himself compromising on big ticket items with the new Republican majority in the Senate and the emboldened one in the House, he may start disaffecting his base a little bit. And then if Hillary Clinton is out and about in Iowa and New Hampshire trying to keep that base energized, you're going to start seeing a lot of splits between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama if he's reaching across the aisle to the Republicans on Capitol Hill.

BANFIELD: And it's only fair to put the period at the end of that sentence with, it's all about the base. No trouble. All about the base. Ah. We need a little bit of levity. (INAUDIBLE).

HOOVER: There you go. There you go. Way to go.

BANFIELD: John Avlon, Margaret Hoover, thank you. You're going to come back. David Chalian, thank you for all your very hard work. We are so dependent on you and your team and you've done such a great job. Thank you for that. And thanks for being on the show too.

CHALIAN: Thanks a lot.

BANFIELD: All right. OK. So you know the midterms were yesterday. If you don't, hey, guess what, we just had an election. It's all about 2016 now. So buckle up because the race for president is on. And one of the likely contenders is Chris Christie. And he stopped by "NEW DAY" today and he was asked, so, when exactly is it that you're going to decide whether you're going to do this thing?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Sometime next year. There's no rush in making this kind of decision. And I think there's no reason to rush a decision as important as this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, we're going to have more of the Chris Christie interview and all the straight talk that he had with our team on LEGAL VIEW, next.

And then, up next, the payoff is twice as nice for Kentucky's Mitch McConnell. It's re-election, folks, and a likely promotion, too. But can the future majority leader play nice with the White House?

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BANFIELD: You're looking at a live picture of the White House. It's the morning/afternoon after the night before. And we're going to be hearing from some big voices. Mitch McConnell to speak at 2:00 p.m., and the president to speak at 2:50 p.m. It will all be carried live right here. All of this following "America's Choice 2014." It may not have been your choice, but it was the majority choice. And so big shifts on Capitol Hill and right across the country, in fact.

Mitch McConnell may have held onto his Senate seat after a bruising campaign, but the political battles for him may not necessarily be over. His presumptive role as the next majority leader could be in doubt, at least in the minds of some. Some Republicans. Just listen to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas last night when asked about it by our own Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Will you support Mitch McConnell as your leader in the United States Senate?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Well, that will be a decision for the conference to make. And that will be decided next week. But I'll tell you, tonight was a terrific night for Republicans. It was a powerful repudiation of the Obama agenda, the Obama economy, which isn't working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, that's nebulous. Our senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, joins me now from Lexington, Kentucky.

So, Joe, is McConnell's leadership in doubt?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: You know what, this is what Ted Cruz does. Ted Cruz is one of the Tea Partiers in the United States Congress and he is a thorn in the side, really, of the Republican leadership. So it's not surprising. He's made it pretty clear that he's not going to challenge Mitch McConnell for the post of majority leader, but he does throw stones from time to time because Mitch McConnell, in that job, is a person who tries to make a deal. And Tea Partiers in Congress, frankly, are not fans of "let's make a deal" in Congress, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, Joe Johns live for us. Thank you for that.

I want to bring in CNN's political analyst again, John Avlon, who's the editor in chief of "The Daily Beast." And also with us from "The Daily Beast" is Eleanor Clift, also well-known for being from just about everywhere else as well. She's one of those legendary voices in politics.

It's great to have you with us, Eleanor. My gosh, I've watched you for so long on the McLaughlin Group, so this is a treat.

ELEANOR CLIFT, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "THE DAILY BEAST": Right. Right. Thank you.

BANFIELD: OK, so first question - and I'll give you the first question, Eleanor, how about that. You know, I love the fact that Mitch McConnell is one of those breeds that we don't see as often anymore. He's the old-school guy who does the backroom dealing, who does the conciliatory stuff. He works behind the scenes and makes concessions. That's not so much the new order these days it seems. As more folks come in on The Hill, less of that seems to happen. But does it work anymore?

CLIFT: Oh, I think it worked a couple of times during the Obama administration where he really saved us from a longer government shutdown, a debt ceiling crisis. He stepped in quietly, did his negotiating, mostly with Vice President Biden, who, again, is also from the old school.

But McConnell was in Washington for, what, two decades before Barack Obama even showed up. And he'll be here long after barrack Obama is gone. So he's a very wily negotiator. And if he can't stand up to Ted Cruz, now that he's gotten a six-year endorsement and really a huge vote from his home state of Kentucky, I mean I think that Mitch McConnell wants to show that the Republican Party knows what it's doing, that they're not crazy, that they understand how to govern. So I think he's someone that the White House can do business with to use kind of a classic formulation of those words.

BANFIELD: Well, and hopefully that's something the White House is thinking as well, doing business, getting the actual business done.

John Avlon, how about this notion -- I like that Eleanor just said, if he can't stand up to Ted Cruz -- well, John Boehner's had a really tough time wrangling folks like the Tea Party influence within the House. Is there any notion that suggests that same kind of dynamic could start playing out in the Senate?

AVLON: Well, I mean, you know, Boehner's really had to deal with his crazy caucus and his sane caucus. And it's been a difficult navigation. In the Senate, the dynamics are pretty different. Cruz has a lot of sway over a group of House folks, Tea Partiers. But in the Senate, is he going to be able to block McConnell's, you know, nomination as majority leader? No.

What Cruz is doing is playing to a 2016 base. Ted Cruz is going to run for president in all likelihood and he's trying to position himself somewhere between, you know, the John McCains and the Rand Pauls of the world. But one thing he's going to do is try to really get the Tea Party rallying behind him as a guy who will speaks truth to power and take on the establishment of his own team and he will always try to undercut a deal. When McConnell and Boehner were saying, there's going to be no shutdown, Ted Cruz was saying, oh, there's going to be a shutdown. And, guess what, there was a shutdown. It took McConnell and bidden to get us out of it.

BANFIELD: So, Eleanor Clift, look, there's a lot of talk about the president now with this very strong veto power and then there's a lot of talk about the endless headaches that the Republicans in control of two houses could create for him, like endless hearings on issues that drive the Democrats nuts, and then also holding up important appointments. Which one of those stories or are both of them going to play out for the next two years?

CLIFT: Oh, I think, well, two or three of the scenarios you just put out there. I think the Republicans will block almost all of his executive appointments. They won't want any more Obama-appointed judges. So I think any of those appointments the president has to push for in the lame duck session, including a new attorney general.

The Republicans can go ahead and have all those hearings on the Senate side, just like they did in the House, on Benghazi, on and on. I think that makes them look bad. They look like they're overreaching. And I think the president has only used his veto pen twice. There's no shame in using the veto pen, especially as you go into 2016. The veto will show each party what they stand for. And bright lines have to be drawn for both parties before you go into 2016.

I think there's opportunity here for both the Republicans and the Democrats. It's a total new table setting. And I think Democrats felt a little morose after last night. But they're quickly, you know, I think getting in gear and it's going to be fascinating to see how these politicians maneuver around each other.

BANFIELD: Rick back up on the horse.

Eleanor, great to see you. Thanks so much for doing the show. Appreciate it.

CLIFT: Thank you.

BANFIELD: And, John Avlon, you're not off the hook yet. You're going to stick around for the next segment.

Thank you to both of you.

You know, the smoke hasn't even cleared from the midterms, but you know something, that is not stopping anyone from having even more fun and looking ahead to 2016. It was just so much fun last night, right? So why don't we just do this for the next two years. The race for the White House could play a big, big part in how Congress, particularly the Senate, does business in the next two years. And we're going to look into that coming up.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Tonight, we begin to rebuild America by freeing up American ingenuity, freeing up all forms of energy. Tonight we say to the president, yes, we did build that! We say to Hillary Clinton, yes, businesses do create jobs!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Senator Rand Paul wasting no time making last night's GOP victories about the 2016 presidential election. And as CNN's Tom Foreman shows us, those White House ambitions could make leading the Senate a pretty tough task for Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the majority leader, Democratic Harry Reid enjoyed a certain advantage in the Senate because his party also held the White House. That tends to tamp down the presidential ambitions of other people in the party. But Mitch McConnell, if he indeed becomes the majority leader, will not have that advantage. He will look out on an ocean of people with big presidential ambitions.

Right across the chamber, he'll see his own fellow Kentucky senator, Rand Paul. Just last year it was not clear at all that Rand Paul would even back McConnell for re-election. So there could be hard feelings about that. In the corner, Ted Cruz is back there. He gets a lot of headlines that Republicans have trouble managing. And he didn't even want to jump on board saying that he thinks McConnell should be the majority leader right now. Marco Rubio, back there from Florida, also has presidential ambitions.

From outside of the chamber, there are people like Paul Ryan from the U.S. House of Representatives. A lot of ideas about the economy and how to run the country. And what about all those governors and former governors, people like Bobby Jindal and Jeb Bush and Chris Christie and even Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee? Put them all together and what Mitch McConnell is facing is a lot of people who have a lot of ideas about what ought to be done with all this newfound Republican power. And all those ideas may have a lot more to do with their 2016 ambitions than they do with what McConnell would like to do here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Joining me now to talk about how last night's Republican tidal wave could impact the race for 2016, CNN political analyst John Avlon is back with us and CNN political commentator and Republican consultant Margaret Hoover. Also the best married couple on television. I'm just going to say it. I'm just going to say it.

HOOVER: Ah.

AVLON: Oh, thank you.

BANFIELD: All right, guys, so here's the thing. This morning, I was watching Senator Rand Paul talking on our morning show here on CNN, on "New Day." And the first -- it wasn't but five and a half seconds, the first thing out of his mouth was, last night was a repudiation of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second. That seemed - well, now I get it. But, I mean, is that - is that what this is going to be all about the next two years? Is this what we're going to hear constantly? Margaret, I'll start with you.

HOOVER: Look, I think Rand can't help himself. He's clearly going to run for president. He's been to Iowa something like 19 times in the last two months or so. I mean not that quite extreme.

BANFIELD: Is that legitimate to say it's a repudiation of Hillary Clinton last night?

HOOVER: Well, look -

BANFIELD: She wasn't running for anything.

HOOVER: Well, it's a point that's been made a couple of times by people because she stumped for so many of the candidates who lost. So --

BANFIELD: OK. Good point.

HOOVER: So why wasn't she able to carry them all over the line if she's going to take the White House in two years? Well, let's be very clear, this wasn't math. It was cut out for Republicans.

BANFIELD: He actually used the statistic. He said, she stumped -- for 50 percent of the incumbents that she stumped for, they did not make it. But we have this incredible crack team here at CNN politics, John Avlon, I bet you already know this, that over the years, crunching the research and the data, it has proven out that endorsements don't really have any effect anyway. So isn't that just an empty thing to say? John, go ahead.

AVLON: Yes, I mean, it is. But the Republican field is going to be training its sights entirely on Hillary Clinton. Starting today it is on. They are going to try to weaken her because she is the presumptive front-runner for the Democratic nomination and there isn't even a close second, while the Republicans are very much in war lord territory. So this is on and the Rand Paul comment today is just a sign of things to come.

HOOVER: And to be clear - to be clear, I mean Hillary Clinton knew for a fact that most of those candidates weren't going to end up making it cross the lines. She wasn't going to make the difference. She was doing it for herself, too. Because even if they don't win, they have fund-raising bases, they have endorsements, they have political futures and they have political support that they can afford to her and offer her. Frankly, they owe her now.

BANFIELD: So I'm going to ask the both of you, as quickly as you can, to answer this question. I'll start with you, John Avlon. Who in his or her right mind is going to jump into a primary race against Hillary Clinton and, you know, start duking it out? Anybody? Can you think of anyone?

HOOVER: Joe Biden.

BANFIELD: You're not supposed to start.

HOOVER: Go ahead, John.

AVLON: I mean Martin O'Malley's (ph) start (ph) making the ground game.

BANFIELD: What? Say it again.

AVLON: Martin O'Malley's certainly been making noises. Bernie Sanders is going to go on some quicksodic (ph) quest. But Hillary Clinton's basically frozen the field for herself.

BANFIELD: OK. Do you think that -

HOOVER: It's just that -

BANFIELD: Do you think all of these incredible Republican candidates that are going to, you know, be in that field in the primaries are going to be able to keep the blood off themselves in their sport while she just sails through without nary a wound?

HOOVER: Yes. No, I actually don't think that.

BANFIELD: You don't?

HOOVER: I think there's a progressive left that is ascendant in the Democratic Party that wants to give Hillary a run for it because they're worried she's not going to represent them. And it may not be Elizabeth Warren, but there may be some out there. I mean there's rumbling that Brian Schweitzer from Montana, former governor from Montana, and, by the way -

BANFIELD: You said Joe Biden. What about Joe Biden?

HOOVER: Joe Biden has made it very clear that he has not taken himself out of this race.

BANFIELD: Right.

AVLON: And -

HOOVER: So for us to say, no, Hillary's going to go unscathed into the presidency is --

BANFIELD: Quick, last comment, John.

AVLON: Yes, look, just keep in mind that there's a danger in over interpreting results like today. And Democrats feel down and they should because they've got their butts kicked. But there's a totally different segment of the electorate that turns out in presidential elections and it's less old, less white and it benefits Democrats, let alone the Senate side of the pie. So, you know, Democrats should be feeling good, but no one's ever had the commanding kind of lead that Hillary Clinton has looking ahead to the Democratic nomination. It's unprecedented.

HOOVER: Absolutely right.

BANFIELD: John Avlon, Margaret Hoover, you're the best.

HOOVER: Thanks, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I said it. I'll say it often. I'll say it early and often. Thank you to both of you. Appreciate your work.

AVLON: Thanks, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So, it will be very interesting to hear what the president has to say about this big Republican sweep. He is scheduled for a news conference later this afternoon. We're going to look into that right ahead.

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