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Trump's Standing Slips Among White Women Without A College Degree; Pulse of the People: PA Voters In Swing Districts Speak Out On Impeachment; New Book Pays Tribute To People Who Didn't Get Proper Send-Off. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired November 06, 2019 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): That we've heard so far.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: But can they call them? Do you think that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden will be called as part of this Senate trial?
COONS: I certainly hope not, but I think that may very well happen. The Republican majority, rather than working with us in the Democratic caucus and coming up with widely agreed-upon bipartisan rules for how to proceed with the impeachment are -- at least according to that report you just shared -- looking for ways to further juice the partisan aspects of this ongoing inquiry.
CAMEROTA: Sen. Chris Coons, thank you very much for being on NEW DAY.
COONS: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right.
So we all see it nearly every day how Fox News and some right-wing media outlets act as megaphones for the president. The question is just how much.
Let's get a reality check. Our friend, John Avlon, here with that -- John.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, guys.
So look, you live bipartisan media, you may bipartisan media. That's at least one of the lessons emerging from the Ukraine impeachment inquiry because right-wing media played a major role in pumping up two discredited narratives about Ukraine that Donald Trump just couldn't quit.
First, the CrowdStrike conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that hacked the DNC. And second, the idea that the U.S. ambassador was blocking the real corruption investigations in Ukraine into the Bidens. And these ideas stuck in the president's cranium, not because they
were backed by our intelligence agencies but because they were confirmation biased conspiracy theories. They validated what Trump and a few of his closest cronies wanted to be true.
And they're fanning the flames and often providing evidence it was hyperpartisan media. Everything from right-wing blogs to a specific columnist at "The Hill" to Fox opinion host and Trump Svengali Sean Hannity.
Congratulations, everybody. This is the first time that a president's belief in a conspiracy theory led to an impeachment inquiry. It's a sign of our times.
Now, we know from the newly-released Mueller investigation notes that Paul Manafort, longtime Ukrainian operative for pro-Putin forces, was one of the first folks to seed the CrowdStrike conspiracy theory in Donald Trump's head.
We also now know that Sean Hannity was actively advising Trump on matters of strategy and messaging -- so much so that his show might be considered an in-kind contribution.
"The Washington Post's" Erik Wemple chronicled Hannity's many mentions in campaign e-mails and called him king Trump's, quote, "Chief Propagandist" looped in on all their talking points, their deflections, and their innumerable attacks. Now, perhaps coincidentally, he's also been a staunch defender of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in the Trump era.
And when Ambassador Yovanovitch was coming under fire, she was told the Secretary of State would call Sean Hannity to find out what was really going on behind the scenes at the White House and why she was being hounded.
Rudy Giuliani may sincerely believe he was fighting corruption and defending his client with a sideline Ukrainian investigation, but he was doing so with two now-indicted Soviet-born Florida men with a trail of lawsuits and a new venture that was literally called "Fraud Guarantee."
Sources tell CNN at least one of them was taking cash from the pro- Putin Ukrainian oligarch, Dmytro Firtash. And the results of their investigation were being funneled to conservative journalist John Solomon, whose column in "The Hill" was being cited as justification for the investigation, while Sean Hannity amplified it all.
It's a closed loop. Somebody was benefitting from all of this but not the American people.
Former special envoy Kurt Volker testified that he warned Giuliani that the source of those theories was not credible and that, quote, "Biden was executing U.S. policy at the time in what was widely understood internationally to be the right policy."
Look, hyperpartisan media exists in an agitated ecosystem of true believers addicted to anger, anxiety, and resentment. It's a paradise for disinformation.
But now we see those impulses weaponized with the power of the presidency. And the result is an off-the-rails administration facing something you don't often see with conspiracy theories. It's called consequences.
And that's your reality check.
CAMEROTA: Great job, John. Thank you very much for all of that reality this morning.
So, the impeachment investigation is ramping up and we wanted to see how it may affect the 2020 election and how key swing voters in two key swing districts feel about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Are you comfortable -- show of hands -- with asking a foreign entity for help with dirt on a political opponent?
(No hands raised)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: We get the pulse of the people, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:38:37]
BERMAN: This morning, a political setback for President Trump.
Democrats declaring victory in the governor's race in Kentucky and flipping both legislative chambers in Virginia. The cause, a huge shift in the suburbs and that might be important in 2020. But also important, white women without a college degree. They voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2016.
So where do things stand now?
CNN senior politics writer and analyst Harry Enten is here with that.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: Hello, John. Hello, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Hello, Harry.
ENTEN: Good morning. It's not like I saw you earlier this morning.
Look, this, I think, is a very key group. You know, I've been looking at the polling data seeing where perhaps there has been some shifts and to me, it seems clear that there's been a shift among white voters -- white women without a college degree.
Look, here was the 2016 vote choice according to a Pew Research Center 2016 study among validated voters. Trump won this group by 23 percentage points, 56 to 33.
But then I took a look at our CNN poll since April of 2019 and what did I see there? I looked at Trump's approval rating among the same group, white women without a college degree. Trump's approval rating with them, only 50 percent, people -- 50 percent. His disapproval, all the way up to 47 percent.
So basically, we've seen him go from a net margin of 23 here to a net margin of only three here. That is, by far, the largest movement that we've seen among any of the groups that I've looked at and were crossed (ph).
CAMEROTA: I know that you've also looked specifically at Pennsylvania.
ENTEN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Why is that important?
ENTEN: This is important because take a look here.
So, Erie County and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania -- these are what I would consider swing counties. Twenty sixteen -- or 2012, excuse me, they both voted for Barack Obama. Twenty sixteen president, both voted for Donald Trump. And in 2018, they both voted for the Democratic candidate for governor, Tom Wolf.
[07:40:16]
And so, if I'm looking forward to 2020 and I'm trying to get an understanding of how different groups potentially are moving, these two particular groups have a lot of white voters without college degrees -- specifically, white women without college degrees. Let's see how these groups vote because how they vote in 2020 may give you a pretty good indication of how the nation's going to vote.
CAMEROTA: OK, I have an answer for you.
ENTEN: Ah, see -- I led you right into it.
CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for that.
So, Pennsylvania will again, of course, be this key battleground in 2020, as will that important voting bloc of white women that Harry just described. So how do those voters feel about the impeachment inquiry? How will that affect their vote?
We sat down with a group of six swing voters, women from those two swing counties, to ask them.
And just one editorial note for you. You're going to hear some rather long, pregnant pauses in this segment. We did not tighten those up in the edit room so that you can hear some of their struggle with mixed feelings.
Here's our Pulse of the People. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: How many of you -- show of hands -- support the impeachment investigation that is beginning?
(Four hands raised)
CAMEROTA: Four of you support that?
Gaylynn?
GAYLYNN BLASKI, PENNSYLVANIA SWING VOTER: Well, for the simple fact it's never, ever, ever going to pass through the Senate. Congress isn't doing anything but inquiries and hearings and inquiries and hearings.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
CAMEROTA: What they would say is that there's new information and that's the Ukraine call.
ALISON GREEN, PENNSYLVANIA SWING VOTER: Oh yes, there's consistently evolving information.
ANDREA CAPWILL, PENNSYLVANIA SWING VOTER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: And so how many of you are comfortable with what President Trump asked for in terms of withholding military aid for an investigation of the Bidens?
MARIAN TAYLOR, PENNSYLVANIA SWING VOTER: Well, as a business owner, I wouldn't give up that kind of money if I thought something was going on. He -- I think he had every right to ask that.
BLASKI: Because it was a new president.
Why are we giving Ukraine so much money anyway when we have homeless veterans on the streets? Like, really? Go to San Diego, go to Los Angeles and you'll see them and it's pitiful. Those people are --
CRYSTAL ARLINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA SWING VOTER: That's where Congress should be working.
BLASKI: Exactly.
ARLINGTON: That's where they should be working.
BLASKI: Yes, thank you.
CAMEROTA: Just so I'm clear on that, so you're comfortable with withholding military aid to Ukraine -- they're fighting Russia -- because you don't like the idea that those -- that that money goes there anyway.
BLASKI: Well, I don't know why it's going there. But I'm saying if they have money to keep giving to everybody, why not help our own people first?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.
CAMEROTA: Are you comfortable -- show of hands -- with asking a foreign entity for help with dirt on a political opponent?
(No hands raised)
CAMEROTA: Nobody is comfortable with that?
BLASKI: No.
ARLINGTON: I am.
CAMEROTA: You are comfortable with it, Crystal? Why are you -- why do you think it's OK to ask a foreign power?
ARLINGTON: He's the President of the United States. He should be allowed to ask for military information.
CAMEROTA: Well, this is political information.
ARLINGTON: Oh, even political information.
CAMEROTA: Does that bother you?
ARLINGTON: Didn't every other president do it?
CAMEROTA: I can't speak for any other president, but I know that --
ARLINGTON: They all do it.
CAMEROTA: I don't know that to be true.
ARLINGTON: I don't know that to be true, either.
CAMEROTA: So why are you resting -- hanging your hat on it?
ARLINGTON: I'm just saying -- I'm just saying. I mean --
CAMEROTA: But you're comfortable with it because that's how you think it works?
ARLINGTON: I --
TAYLOR: As a business owner.
ARLINGTON: As a business owner, yes, it's --
CAMEROTA: So you just see this as a business transaction.
ARLINGTON: It is.
GREEN: His business is this country, so getting dirt to benefit him does not benefit this country. That benefits him.
CAPWILL: Yes.
GREEN: He's not a business leader.
LISA MARIE HALECKY, PENNSYLVANIA SWING VOTER: Yes, there's no accountability. And no matter what business you're in or what you're doing, you need accountability. You just --
BLASKI: Yes.
HALECKY: It's bad practice.
CAMEROTA: Show of hands -- how many would like the identity of the whistleblower to be revealed and think it should be?
(Three hands raised)
GREEN: That's not how it's supposed to work. The whole point is it's supposed to be one of those checks and balances where you can come forward and say this is going on and people don't know and it's wrong.
BLASKI: It's like going to your human resources department. That's supposed to be confidential.
GREEN: Exactly. That's what it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be a confidential thing.
CAMEROTA: What's your response, Andrea?
CAPWILL: I don't think that it should be revealed right now. I think that for, like, historical purposes that yes, it would be nice for the American people to know what happened. Who saw this? Like --
CAMEROTA: You're curious?
CAPWILL: Yes.
CAMEROTA: You're saying you're curious.
BLASKI: Yes, but that could get that person shot.
CAMEROTA: The point of the whistleblower is anonymity, so are you uncomfortable that President Trump calls for their identity to be unmasked?
TAYLOR: I don't think it should be unmasked publicly.
CAMEROTA: But what if President Trump knows about it?
BLASKI: Then it would be public.
GREEN: That's wrong.
BLASKI: It'll be public. I mean, it'll be on Twitter, I assume, like in five minutes.
CAMEROTA: How many people think the impeachment process will hurt President Trump?
(One hand raised)
GREEN: I think it's going to hurt everyone.
CAMEROTA: OK, so you think it will hurt President Trump. Is that to say that the other five of you think it will hurt the Democrats?
GREEN: I think it's going to hurt everyone.
HALECKY: Yes.
BLASKI: Yes.
GREEN: I think when you splash mud it hits everyone.
BLASKI: Yes. And again, they're not going to get nothing done because they're doing all this -- worried about these hearings and impeachment.
CAMEROTA: To be fair, 490 bills have been passed by the House.
BLASKI: And, Senate?
CAMEROTA: Sixty-five pieces of legislation.
BLASKI: How many are sitting in the Senate?
GREEN: Sixty-five.
[07:45:00]
CAMEROTA: So, 65 pieces of legislation have come --
GREEN: I say (ph) because a lot of things are coming out of the House and then dying in the Senate.
CAMEROTA: Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
BLASKI: Because they won't work together.
GREEN: There's literally no compromising.
BLAKSI: Yes.
TAYLOR: Right.
CAMEROTA: Do you guys want compromise?
EVERYONE: Yes.
GREEN: No one's supposed to win all the time.
BLASKI: Right. GREEN: Everyone -- from a business perspective, you compromise. You don't walk away every time.
TAYLOR: Why --
TAYLOR: Most of us are mothers and we want everyone to work together.
GREEN: Yes.
BLASKI: Yes.
ARLINGTON: Yes.
GREEN: Absolutely.
CAMEROTA: You're tired of the divisiveness.
ARLINGTON: We are.
BLAKSI: Yes, absolutely.
ARLINGTON: We are.
TAYLOR: I think most people in the country are.
BLASKI: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Do you think that President Trump plays any role in that divisiveness?
HALECKY: No.
ARLINGTON: No.
GREEN: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Do you think he's being helpful?
ARLINGTON: I think he's being helpful, yes.
CAMEROTA: How? How is he bringing the country together?
(Silence)
ARLINGTON: I'm not sure how he's bringing the Democrats and Republicans together. However, I do think he's trying to get stuff done.
CAMEROTA: Let's go around and one word for these past three years -- how you would describe the Trump presidency.
Go ahead, Alison.
GREEN: Uh, divisive. BLASKI: Entertaining. You never know what you're going to get every day.
HALECKY: One long one -- one of a kind. One of a kind, definitely.
TAYLOR: I believe he's for the people.
CAMEROTA: So you believe the Trump presidency -- for the people means selfless?
TAYLOR: No.
CAMEROTA: Just for the people.
TAYLOR: He's making a change.
CAPWILL: Embarrassing.
BLASKI: Oh, that's a good one.
GREEN: That is a good one.
ARLINGTON: Fantabulous.
CAMEROTA: And so, Crystal, is there anything that he could do or anything that could happen that would make you not vote for him?
ARLINGTON: No.
CAMEROTA: If he shot someone on Fifth Avenue would you vote for him?
HALECKY: Well, you'd have to know why he shot them.
ARLINGTON: Yes, why did he shoot 'em?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: OK. And tomorrow, we will hear from that same group of swing voters of which candidates they're paying closest attention to, who they may be leaning towards, and which issues are really going to help them decide on Election Day.
BERMAN: Look, Crystal, at the end there, saying it depends on why the president shot someone -- I think that will get the headlines from this interview. But I actually think there was a lot of deeply- nuanced interesting stuff there.
He needs 100 percent of these voters and he needs 100 percent of 100 percent from these voters. And there was some conflict internally there on the impeachment inquiry that I wasn't expecting based on what you had told me you had heard from them, where five of six of them actually said they did not approve of the president asking a foreign country to investigate a political opponent.
Which tells me that a lot depends on how this is framed going forward and how Democrats and Republicans frame this discussion going forward. And the people are listening very carefully.
CAMEROTA: I appreciate that.
One more point is that these are women who told me universally that they vote for the person, not the party. They have all voted for Democrats and all voted for Republicans. They go back and forth based on their lives and based on the candidate.
So they actually don't know yet --
BERMAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: -- who they are going to like. And you'll hear about that tomorrow.
BERMAN: I can't wait.
All right, breaking news. Authorities in Mexico have announced the first arrest in the deadly ambush of a U.S. family. We're going to speak with a relative of the victims, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:52:57]
CAMEROTA: It's time for "CNN Business Now." A major merger could be in the works in the tech world.
CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here with the details. Tell us everything.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Good morning.
A big potential deal in the headlines. "The Wall Street Journal" reports Xerox is considering a takeover of computer and printer maker HP -- a cash and stock deal above HP's market value of about $27 billion.
Now, these are 20th-century brand names. The "Journal" calls them fading stars of technology. Both companies are cutting costs and a deal could help that. The "Journal" cites that people familiar with the matter saying Xerox has received an informal funding commitment from a major bank.
HP just installed a new CEO last week. It is more than three times the size of Xerox.
No guarantees Xerox will follow through with an offer or that one would succeed.
Also, you guys, in merger news this morning, the FCC approved the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, America's third- and fourth- largest wireless carriers. Consumer groups and a dozen state attorneys general had opposed this deal, fearing it would drive up your cell phone bill. But the merger could transform the wireless industry. T-Mobile and Sprint have led the charge in ending early termination fees and reintroducing unlimited data plans.
A coalition of states have sued to block this merger in federal court, though. That case is expected to go to trial next month, John.
BERMAN: All right, Romans. Thank you very, very much.
So, Thomas Paine, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Carter, the station wagon. A new book celebrates people and things who died -- they all died --
CAMEROTA: Yes, that's what they have in common.
BERMAN: -- that's what they have in common -- without getting a proper send-off.
Joining us now, "CBS Sunday Morning" correspondent and my friend of about three decades, Mo Rocca. He is the author of "Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving." And, Mo, I couldn't put this down. I had a million things I needed to be doing over the last few days but I found myself wanting to read one more, one more, one more.
Why did you decide to sort of commemorate the not-sufficiently commemorated?
MO ROCCA, CORRESPONDENT, "CBS SUNDAY MORNING", AUTHOR, "MOBITUARIES: GREAT LIVES WORTH RELIVING": Well, first of all, I'm now imagining the most awesome road trip of Farrah Fawcett, Billy Carter, and Thomas Paine in a station wagon going to the Grand Canyon.
No, I love obituaries. I got the love of obituaries from my father when I was growing up. He always said he loved them, and my father was not a morbid person. It's because a good obituary is about the life of somebody, not the death.
[07:55:10]
And there were people that didn't get the send-off they deserved for different reasons.
Like, Farrah Fawcett died on the same day as Michael Jackson --
CAMEROTA: Michael Jackson.
ROCCA: -- so we didn't give her the love she deserved.
CAMEROTA: And so what would we have said? I mean, she did get gypped. A lot of people felt that way. But when you looked into it what did you feel she deserved?
ROCCA: I think that Farrah Fawcett was -- I think that when someone is in the public eye long enough you can figure out who they are, right? The public is smart.
And we loved Farrah long after the poster days, right, for different reasons.
BERMAN: Now, when you say the three of us at this table all loved Farrah for different reasons.
ROCCA: Absolutely.
CAMEROTA: Sort of.
ROCCA: Yes. And at the end of her life they -- what she did for people suffering with cancer, struggling as she was. There was something about her. You just loved her.
And the seventies were kind of -- sort of a sluggish time and she was so fresh and exciting, and the hair, and the teeth, and the poster.
CAMEROTA: Yes, we all did love her for that.
BERMAN: Don't trash the seventies. Alisyn and I have both listened to Casey's Top 40 and seventies on Sirius nonstop.
CAMEROTA: It's fantastic.
BERMAN: It's fantastic.
CAMEROTA: One more thing. You also said that dead people are easier to deal with than other people.
ROCCA: Oh, they're so much easier. Well, they don't have publicists. I mean, dead people are so easy to deal with and, you know --
But, no. I mean, obviously, you have perspective on them and I -- look, I mean, some people are still remembered -- like Farrah, like Marlene Dietrich, like a lot of the people in this book -- like Thomas Paine -- but they're not remembered how they should be remembered.
BERMAN: Sticking on the seventies for a second, you write about Billy Carter.
ROCCA: Yes.
BERMAN: And I love obituaries because I always learn something. I always learn something new. It's like reading a mini-biography there.
ROCCA: Yes.
BERMAN: And, Billy Carter -- we all have this notion of who he was and what he stood for, and Billy Beer. But I didn't know until I read here -- you know, he went into A.A. and was -- totally changed his life after his brother's presidency.
ROCCA: Yes. The last chapter of his life is really his proudest.
And I went and I talked to President Jimmy Carter, I talked to Billy's widow, Sybil, and their wonderful six kids, and they described a man that was funny, that was smart, that was really hardworking. And that in the last chapter of his life he went around the country talking to people -- a lot of blue-collar people that were -- that could relate to him, who were struggling with alcoholism.
Look, he was in his late thirties with six kids when the international press descended on the tiny town of Plains, Georgia. I couldn't have handled that.
And he wasn't able to run his business. It went into a blind trust because the president, you know, was in office --
BERMAN: Imagine that. Imagine if it was in -- that never happens.
ROCCA: -- was in office, and so his profession became being Billy Carter. There was nothing else he could do at that point.
CAMEROTA: That is a really interesting addendum.
You brought up Thomas Paine. Here what you write about it.
"Thomas Paine doesn't get nearly as much love as bona fide founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin or the post-musical Alexander Hamilton."
ROCCA: Right.
CAMEROTA: "But make no mistake, Payne was the intellectual engine that powered the American Revolution."
ROCCA: Yes, and no Paine, no gain of independence. He wrote -- he wrote "Common Sense" which -- you know, based on the population of the time is the biggest-selling publication in American history. It is really what marshaled the colonists to ban together and see themselves as Americans, not as Marylanders, Virginians, and New Yorkers, and rebel against the crown.
He didn't have a great personality. I think the biggest problem that Thomas Paine had is he was a revolutionary that didn't know how to turn into a statesman. He was -- he's the guy at dinner who only wants to talk about the issues. When you're like can we just talk about something else, he only wanted to talk about the issues.
BERMAN: He came out against George Washington and against Jesus --
ROCCA: Yes, you just don't do that.
BERMAN: -- which is tough.
ROCCA: Know your audience.
BERMAN: And his brainstem was preserved? That was my takeaway from this.
ROCCA: Well, he does -- he has a lot of fans and so his body was dug up from its grave in New Rochelle and his bones are scattered all around the world. And there's a big market for them on the Internet.
BERMAN: I'm so relieved that --
CAMEROTA: Wow.
BERMAN: -- someone knows this and has written about it, Mo. So, thank you very much for this work.
CAMEROTA: Great to have you.
BERMAN: The book is "Mobituaries" by Mo Rocca, available now. Go get it. Great to see you, Mo.
ROCCA: Thank you, guys.
CAMEROTA: And thanks to our international viewers for watching. For you, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Max Foster is next.
For our U.S. viewers, Democrats riding a blue wave. The results of last night's election and what it all means. NEW DAY continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andy Beshear is declaring victory in a state Donald Trump won by a ton. The Democrats have reason to be happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the first time that Democrats will control the governor's mansion and both parts of the State Legislature for complete control in Virginia.
SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): He won on the maps that the Republicans drew back in 2011 -- on their maps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the president's top envoys changing his testimony.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ambassador Sondland explicitly admitted that a quid pro quo most certainly did occur.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any linkage that has been alleged is based on, many times, second or third-hand information.
END
