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Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) Announce Presidential Bid; Joe Biden Holds Fundraiser for Presidential Campaign; Joe Biden Apologizes to Anita Hill. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 26, 2019 - 08:00   ET

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


ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Now some of Biden's Democratic rivals are pouncing on his record. CNN has learned that President Trump is, quote, irked that the Democratic field seems to be stealing the spotlight.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: People are talking about folks other than President Trump, which is typically something he doesn't like so much.

CAMEROTA: Yes, and it's different than the past two years.

BERMAN: It is different. And we could see more of it over the coming years.

Joe Biden with the big roll out over the last 24 hours with a dramatic video. There have been some vulnerabilities that are now at the forefront. His campaign did reveal that the former vice president called Anita Hill. We are told he expressed regret for, quote, what she endured when he chaired the Clarence Thomas hearings, whom Anita Hill accused of sexual harassment. Hill says Biden still does not understand the damage he caused.

Joining us now is Arlette Saenz, CNN political reporter who is covering the Biden campaign, David Gregory, CNN political analyst, and Nia-Malika Henderson, CNN senior political reporter. We're mid rollout, Arlette. You're in New York because Joe Biden, whom you cover very closely, is about to be on "The View" in a few hours. So yesterday he had the campaign video, he had the fundraiser last night, he's not "The View" today. That's the planned rollout. Those are the positives the Biden team wanted to get out there. Then there's the Anita Hill phone call. And I don't know whether they wanted that information out there yesterday or not.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. And our colleague Brianna Keilar was the one who asked Kate Bedingfield, the deputy campaign manager, whether Biden had, in fact, spoken with Anita Hill since those hearings back in 1991. She reveals that they did.

This is a question that the Biden team knew they were going to face at some point. Maybe they didn't think it was going to be on day one, but they have been preparing for this. And there are going to continue to be more questions. You laid out the ways that Biden has expressed regret, but Anita Hill has said that's not enough. And just simply saying I'm sorry for what happened to you is not enough. So Biden will continue to have to answer these guess going forward.

We'll see if later today if he's potentially asked about it. "The View" of course is a little bit of a friendly audience for Biden, but that could be an opportunity for him to talk about this further.

CAMEROTA: One more question because you were there last night at the fundraiser. We had former governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell on. He was there as well, as you know. And he said that it exceeded expectations. His estimate, we haven't heard direct numbers, unless you have them, they had hoped for half-a million dollars at the fundraiser. And he says that he thinks they got three-quarters-of-a- million dollars. We'll see when they put out the direct numbers. But that would be strong out of the gate.

SAENZ: And the Biden team knows they are going to have to raise a large amount of money. Biden even before this all started held a conference call with donors and supporters, telling them that we need a strong showing right out of the gate. I saw an email that they sent out at 8:30 last night telling me we need 5,500 more donors by midnight to post a big number. We'll see what that figure is today. Biden has not been a prolific fundraiser and he certainly is not a small donor grassroots powerhouse in the way that Bernie Sanders and others are. So those numbers will be watched very closely.

BERMAN: Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont, raised nearly $6 million right away when he entered the race. And let's talk about Bernie Sanders, since he's coming up here. Bernie Sanders known to occasionally, his supporters behind-the-scenes throw sharp elbows at other candidates, and not so behind-the-scenes, Nia. The Sanders campaign put out a press release based on Biden's fundraiser last night with the Comcast executive. This is what it said. "It's a big day in the democratic primary and we're hoping to end it strong, not with a fundraiser in the home of a corporate lobbyist, but with an overwhelming number of individual donations in response to today's news." I did think it was interesting not even 24 hours in that the Sanders campaign officially decided to throw a bit of a haymaker there.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: It's always classic Bernie Sanders, always on message. He's a bit of a fighter as well. And this is one of his issues, right, that the millionaires and the billionaires control too much of politics. So he certainly wants to highlight what he thinks is a direction that the Democratic Party shouldn't go in, being cozy in this case with someone who is with a corporation as Biden did.

But listen, this is the way that Biden is going to raise money. As Arlette said, he doesn't have the sort of strong online social media presence as somebody like Bernie Sanders has, and it is going to be a dividing line. It's going to be a dividing line between Bernie Sanders and Biden. It's going to be a dividing line between Elizabeth Warren as well and a lot of other folks in this who want to say that the Democratic Party shouldn't be in the pockets of big corporations. And Biden is going to have to contend with that.

Some voters don't care. Biden, at least for now, is sitting on about 30 percent of the Democratic voting public, at least according to polls. We'll see if that changes. But he's going to have to contend.

[08:05:06] And we've seen this already, obviously from Sanders. Warren was also poking at Biden's past, being cozy with bankruptcy bill that he was a sponsor of or supported. So yes, this is a preview I think of what we're going to see.

CAMEROTA: Let's play that, David, because I think that her point is that this isn't a new fight that she's having with Joe Biden. She's been having this conflict with him for years. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: At a time when the biggest financial institutions in this country tried to put the squeeze of millions of hardworking families who were in bankruptcy, there was nobody to stand up for them. I got in that fight because they didn't have anyone. And Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, David, so give us the big picture of everything that's happened in the past 24 hours.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We're starting to see the contours of a changed race, as we've been saying. I do think it's Joe Biden and everyone else. It could end up being two lanes with Bernie Sanders and what he represents of the new progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and Joe Biden who is a bridge to an older Democratic Party, even though he hopes to have a halo of being Barack Obama's vice president.

But this is really a choice for Democrats around do you go with who is most electable, who can beat Trump, who can bring the kind of restorative power to politics that many will believe Biden can, or ideological purity to say it's time for the party to go in a new direction on a series of issues, and including reckoning with big social forces like Me Too.

And I think, Alisyn, to your earlier point this morning, on "The View" this morning, I look for Biden to actually have a coherent response, not just to the Anita Hill hearings, but to what the country has gone through in the past couple of years around Me Too. Is he ready to really explain that, to reckon with it in a way that's going to resonate with particularly younger voters in a Democratic Party? But I think that's the big picture. That's the fight that will immediately take shape is which side of the divide in the Democratic Party are you on?

BERMAN: It's a real test. This interview will be a real test, David, for exactly the reason that you're laying out there, which is that he has had time. They delayed this announcement until now. He has had time to think about what he wants to say in this first interview. So how will he address these issues?

CAMEROTA: If you base it on the phone call as related by Anita Hill, he hasn't thought enough about it. He hasn't given enough thoughtful kind of depth to this, because, Nia, just to bring everybody up to speed. They had different interpretations. She felt that he said I'm sorry for what you endured, which is very different than I'm sorry what I put you through.

HENDERSON: And this has been Biden's most consistent message on Anita Hill. He's never acknowledged his own role in what some see as his own failures to really bring corroborating witnesses, to control some of the questioning from Republicans. But it was classic Biden back in the day. He was all about bipartisanship. He was all about both sides feeling that they were heard, and that's the kind of hearing that ended up happening. Democrats, obviously, in retrospect and at the time, many of those folks weren't happy. But listen, Biden has always essentially said she's an owed an apology. It sounds like he's still on that sort of half apology, not acknowledging his own role.

GREGORY: I agree with that. And can I just say, my slightly different view is that I think he doesn't want to apologize. I don't think he feels he has to apologize. And here's the question I'd ask on "The View" is, given his approach to Anita Hill, would he be that much different when he thinks about the Kavanaugh hearing or is he going to declare that somehow Kavanaugh was wrong and that even the committee approach to him was wrong in a way that he wasn't with Anita Hill? That will be interesting to see.

But I think in the broader scheme, I think he doesn't feel he has to apologize. And I think there are those around him who say don't go down this apology tour about the '90s, because it won't be good for you.

BERMAN: Arlette, again, covering this fundraiser last night, he talked about the notion of apologies, yes?

SAENZ: Yes. So he actually, at the end of the fundraiser, he was talking about how excited he is to be in this race. And then he made this comment. This is good and bad, but I am always going to tell you what I'm thinking. And at the end of that he said, he's talking about like, oh, he has this joke, like I'm going to tell you exactly what I think. I'm going to be completely honest with you. As the old joke goes, no one ever doubts that I mean what I say, and sometimes I say all that I mean, but I make no apologies. He was talking about the fact that he always shares his mind at all time.

[08:10:00] But that is something that you do see kind of this theme at times with Biden is that he's not necessarily apologizing for things that he has done in his past because he may not think they were relevant.

BERMAN: And that's what I'm watching for. I am watching for what language he chooses to use, because I think we'll have the answer to Dave's question. We'll know whether he wants to give a bigger, more potent apology.

GREGORY: But does he back track? That's the question. That's an old McCain line, which is you may not agree with me but I'll always tell the truth. Is he really going to stake that ground or is he going to start to give a little bit, and if not totally apologize, backtrack. That will be something to watch.

BERMAN: I do want to show one other thing that makes it so interesting that he's going on "The View." Obviously the former vice president has a relationship with Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Senator John McCain, and Biden went on "The View" before and had a very emotional moment over the illness at that point of Senator McCain. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And one of the things that gave Beau courage, my word, was John. Your dad, you may remember when you were a little kid, your dad took care of my Beau. Your dad when he was working with me, became friends with Beau. And Beau talked about your dad's courage, not about illness, but about his courage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I think people look at that as the vice president's superpower, which is unquestioned empathy.

SAENZ: Yes, and that's what him and his team points to is that ability to emote, to connect with people. And I recently sat down with one of Biden's closest friends, former Senator Ted Kaufman. He was the chief of staff for nearly two decades in the Senate. And he pointed out to me that Biden has a lot of character. He says that that's because of moments of difficulty that he has gone through his life, pointing to the death of his wife and daughter when he was just 29 years old, just elected to the Senate, and then in 2015 of his son Beau Biden. And Ted Kaufman told me that he is someone that is comfortable in his skin, and not all political candidates are like that, and that that's an attribute that people with they had. I think this appearance on "The View" maybe they are hoping could maybe remind people of that human being that is Joe Biden.

CAMEROTA: Arlette, Nia, David, things are getting very interesting. Thank you very much for giving us your take.

BERMAN: Repent, that's the message from one of President Trump's most vocal evangelical supporters to the nation's first gay presidential candidate. We'll discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:03] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joe Biden is kicking off his presidential campaign in the state where he was born, Pennsylvania, which is a key, maybe the key battleground state that Democrats hope to retake after President Trump turned it red in 2016. A source tells CNN that the state is at the root of the president's concerns about Joe Biden's candidacy.

We want to bring in Rick Santorum, former Republican senator from the state of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He's also a former presidential candidate and a CNN senior political commentator.

Senator, thanks for being with us right now. Why do you think or why do you -- what should the concern that President Trump has over Joe Biden and Pennsylvania be?

RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, Joe Biden, at least he's trying to stake out a position of being a more centrist Democrat. That's the kind of Democrat that can do very well in Pennsylvania. And, you know, if you look at even my own race, when I lost re-election, I mean, the guy that defeated me ran as someone who was very much a moderate Democrat and, you know, as a Republican you've got to pull Democratic votes if you're going to win in Pennsylvania. And the Democratic votes you pull are more conservative or moderate Democrats.

And they will vote Republican. They did for President Trump. They did for me on a couple of occasions. But they are still Democrats. And if they have someone that they feel is more -- you know, more aligned with them from the standpoint of -- you know, of some of these issues that are -- that Joe Biden is trying to attach to, sort of the blue-collar conservative type of issues, they are going to stay home and that's what Donald Trump has to worry about with Biden.

BERMAN: I got to tell you, I spoke with a strategist left, right and center in Pennsylvania over the last couple of weeks and they say the president might be in a little bit of trouble there. That he certainly has increased disposition there since the last election and maybe slipped a little bit and that's in particular why Joe Biden could be such a threat. Do you see that?

SANTORUM: You know, look. I think it's way too early to determine, you know, how -- what the strength of the president is. I think his numbers have overall been down since the election. Ad so I don't doubt that they're down in Pennsylvania right now. But they are down because the opponent hasn't been identified.

BERMAN: Right.

SANTORUM: And, you know, Donald Trump won Pennsylvania because of the message that he had. Also because he was running against Hillary Clinton. And so you have to wait and see who the Democrats put up. And if they put up someone like, you know, a Bernie Sanders or, you know, a Kamala Harris, I think that's going to be very different than if they put up someone like a Joe Biden.

BERMAN: But just a simple yes or no question, yes or not, should the president be scared of Joe Biden in Pennsylvania?

SANTORUM: I think of the candidates that are out there right now, from the standpoint of just looking at them and the policies that they hold, yes, he's probably the one that's the most disconcerting. However, and I've said this repeatedly, Joe Biden is his own worst enemy when it comes to his campaign. There's a reason Joe Biden has never gotten out of the Democratic primary. And so it's not just the positions you hold and the approach that you take, it's how you hold up under the scrutiny. And so far he hasn't done a very good job over that.

BERMAN: And we will watch him very closely, as we will with all the candidates over the next year and a half or so. And, Senator, Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is

running for president, and he's gay and he's married. This is something that Franklin Graham, the evangelist, son of evangelist Billy Graham, has started talking about because Pete Buttigieg also talks about his faith a great deal. And this is what Franklin Graham said. "Mayor Pete Buttigieg says he's a gay Christian. As a Christian I believe the bible which defines homosexuality as sin. Something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized."

What do you make of Franklin Graham's statement? Is it appropriate for him to weigh in like that?

SANTORUM: Well, I mean, look, he's a religious leader. He's not a politician. He's someone who like his father is out there, you know, leading a congregation or a religious movement. So he's talking biblically. And that's his right to do so.

[08:20:03] And I -- and this is really the interesting dynamic we have here on this whole issue of religious liberty and the ability for Christians to be able to speak in the public square about what their faith dictates. I -- you know, you can say well, I don't agree with Reverend Graham but he has the right to put forth what his faith is instructing him to do.

BERMAN: It seems like there is some relativism in his faith, though, because he's calling on Pete Buttigieg to repent for being gay, yet he's an ardent if not one of the most ardent supporters of the thrice- married President Trump.

SANTORUM: Yes, I would say that you have every right to call him out on that because if he's going to say that about Pete Buttigieg then he needs to -- when Donald Trump's accusations come up about marital infidelity and other things that is equally as sinful and making a comment about that, and I don't know. He may have done that. And so I don't want to, you know, castigate Reverend Graham because he may have made those comments during these kinds of discussions when Trump's infidelity has come up. But he should. He should also be equal and vociferous in calling out a similar sin.

BERMAN: Infidelity, you're saying, is a similar sin as being gay?

SANTORUM: Well, that's what the Christian religion teaches that this is, you know, both are violations of the traditional and sacred bonds of marriage that -- you know, outside of marriage is sinful behavior, yes.

BERMAN: All right. I mean, but people are going to look at that, Senator, you know, and say infidelity, adultery is a choice but people are born gay.

SANTORUM: Again, I'm just talking about what the church teaches. I'm not making a comment as to what, you know, people think or not. I'm telling you the church and what Reverend Graham is articulating is what his church and most Christian churches hold that biblical view.

BERMAN: Do you think people are born gay?

SANTORUM: You know, I'm not an expert in this area. I don't know. I mean, the answer is, you know, we have to be loving and tolerant of everybody. Everybody is due respect and love and should be treated with dignity and respect, and whether they choose it or not, I don't know. I don't really care. You know, I treat people with dignity and respect no matter who they are.

BERMAN: Let me play you Pete Buttigieg talking about his faith because it is something he talks about a lot. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It can be challenging to be a person of faith who is also part of the LGBTQ community. And yet to me the core of faith is regard for one another and part of how God's love is experienced according to my faith's tradition is in the way that we support one another and in particular support the least among us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I know your faith is very important to you. In listening to Mayor Pete Buttigieg it's clearly very important to him as well. What do you make of the way he talks about it?

SANTORUM: I think that's -- you know, he's talking about something that is clearly a core tenet of Christian teaching which is to love your neighbor and to care for them, and to love them one another as I have loved you. I mean, that's very much a core Christian teaching and I respect that. You know, I have differences, you know, there are different faith traditions. My tradition, you know, aligns -- you know, the Catholic Church is very clear in teaching on all sorts of, you know, sexual issues. And that's where I hold.

Having said that the Catholic Church also teaches that, you know, we're to love and respect everyone. We are all sinners. And, you know, we're all loved by God and forgiven. So that's, you know, for our transgression.

BERMAN: Do you think homosexuality is a sin?

SANTORUM: That's what the church teaches. So, you know, I'm a Catholic. And the Catholic Church teaches that and I subscribe to the Catholic Church's teaching. You know, that's -- and that's really an important issue here that, you know, are we allowed to believe what our church teaches us and articulate that or is that considered hate speech? And I don't think it is. I mean, you know, I consider myself and know myself to be a sinner, and everybody has their faults and, you know, we all have to atone for that. But he has every right to go out there and articulate his Christian beliefs and I think he did so actually rather articulately.

BERMAN: OK. Again, but you're not saying homosexuality is a fault. You're saying we all have our faults there. You're saying being gay is a fault? SANTORUM: Look, you know, we keep coming back to --

BERMAN: I'm not trying to catch you on a bind here. I just want to be clear on what you're saying and not saying.

SANTORUM: I'm -- look, I'm a Catholic and I adhere to the Catholic teaching on sexuality. And so yes, I would say that, you know, when you divert away from what the church's teaching, what the role and the unique role of sexuality is within the church's teachings, that's a departure that you can call a sin.

[08:25:13] You can call a fault, whatever you want to call it. It's not what the church's teachings as the right way to engaging in sexual activity and that's the position I take.

BERMAN: Senator Rick Santorum, thanks --

SANTORUM: As a Catholic.

BERMAN: Thanks for being with us this morning.

SANTORUM: You bet. Thank you.

BERMAN: Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joe Biden making Charlottesville and President Trump's response to the violence there a focal point of his campaign video. So how does the mother of the woman killed in those protests feel about that? She joins us live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Joe Biden taking a direct shot at President Trump condemning the president's claim that there were, quote, "very fine people" on both sides of the deadly protests between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville. Here's a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, they're met by a courageous group of Americans, and a violent clash ensued. And a brave young woman lost her life. And that's when we heard the words of the president of the United States that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right, joining us now is Susan Bro.