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2024 U.S. Election; On a Trip to the West, Biden Claims Trump "Despises Latinos"; Trump Flaunts Relationship with Putin; Following Criticism, Trump Claims "Bloodbath" is a "Commonly Used Phrase"; Democrats are "Very opposed" to Jews, According to Trump; Federal Reserve Will Announce Rate Decision and Economic Predictions Today; New House Development in the U.S. Soars in February; Trump's Argument that He Cannot Afford $464 Bond Should Be Rejected by Appeals Court, According to New York Attorney General. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 20, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Shermichael, how did this happen?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I mean, look to the point that the Latino community cares more about -- or about other issues as much as immigration, I think is a pertinent one. And this message from the president that he can just racialize this only reminds me of his comment of, you ain't black if you don't vote for me. That is not enough to convince people to go to the polls to vote for you over the alternative.

What are you going to do to ensure that the Latino community that maintains an upward ladder economically? What are you going to do to address some of their concerns about education for their children, or that they're living in safe communities?

Again, they care about a whole host of other issues like all voters --

ACOSTA: There's a Republican strategist --

SINGLETON: -- and typically focusing on race, Jim, to me is not enough.

ACOSTA: When he's saying, poisoning the blood of this country --

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR AND SENIOR SPOKESPERSON, 2016 CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Yes.

SINGLETON: Sure.

ACOSTA: -- I mean --

SINGLETON: I don't agree with that language, Jim. You're not going to get me to defend that. I'm -- it's not proper --

ACOSTA: No, no, no. I'm not saying that. But you know, back in 2018, I remember during the run up to the midterms, talking to Republican strategists up on the Hill, aides and Speaker Ryan's office, other offices up on the -- I mean, they were petrified of the backlash that they would get in these swing districts.

SINGLETON: Sure.

ACOSTA: It's toxic --

SINGLETON: Well, it is.

ACOSTA: -- in a lot of these swing districts. I mean, you know that that's the case.

SINGLETON: No, it definitely is. And I don't think you can discard that. Yet, Donald Trump was competitive with the Latino community in 2020. If you look at that poll, and you believe it. Granted. It's very, very early, within the margin of error. He's competitive again.

And so, I think many Latino individuals are worried about the broken immigration system and they want a reformed system that under the Biden administration we have not seen.

FINNEY: Well, because Republicans have blocked it time and time again. Let's be real clear about that.

SINGLETON: But you guys have the first two years --

FINNEY: The other thing I wanted to hear though --

SINGLETON: Why do you even care.

FINNEY: -- we're not --

SINGLETON: You guys have the first two years --

FINNEY: Hold on, Shermichael.

SINGLETON: -- to do something and you did nothing.

FINNEY: We're not --

SINGLETON: You cannot blame that on Republicans.

FINNEY: OK. Are you done now? Can I talk?

SINGLETON: Go ahead.

FINNEY: Great. So, the other thing I would mention, though, when we're talking about racialized language, that's the clips that we play. That's not the whole conversation that -- in fairness to the president, that's not the whole conversation that he's having with the Latino community. He did it. He's talked about a whole range of issues.

And I think your point about this racialized language, poisoning the blood, that actually comes from this country. That is something that the Nazis learned from us because of Jim Crow. I myself have had people say that to me as a mixed-race person.

ACOSTA: That's very true. That's very -- absolutely right.

FINNEY: So, I think it's important to also remember, to your point, you're right, there is going to be a backlash with regard to moderate voters and those voters who are afraid that under Trump we're going to see more chaos. A lot of them came out, frankly, yesterday in those midterms -- in those elections to vote for Nikki Haley who's not even still in the race. Again, those are people that are potentially open to the Biden message.

SINGLETON: Jim, I'm going to push back on that because, again, immigration is now the number two issue in this country right now behind the economy. Most Americans do not believe that Joe Biden can address the issue, Karen. So, to your point, they're --

FINNEY: But that's not what they say --

SINGLETON: -- to your point --

FINNEY: -- to the focus groups.

SINGLETON: -- to your point, let me finish.

FINNEY: Can you just focus --

(CROSSTALK)

SINGLETON: To your point that to your point that these Republicans in the Senate try to do something and those in the House did not attempt to do something, that is correct. Yet voters still don't believe that Joe Biden has handled this issue appropriately. And they do believe that Donald Trump will handle the issue far better. You can't just discard that point.

FINNEY: No, but when you talk to voters, one of the things they also say in focus groups and in the data, that they care very deeply about what kind of immigration reform.

SINGLETON: I never --

FINNEY: They're just --

SINGLETON: -- I never --

FINNEY: Well, that's what --

SINGLETON: -- I never disagree with that.

FINNEY: OK. But just looking at the top line number, that doesn't tell you the whole story underneath, that's my point.

SINGLETON: Well, that's what most polls.

ACOSTA: All right. Guys -- well, we'll keep this discussion going and do it in a civil, professional way, just as you guys did it right there. Thank you so much.

SINGLETON: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: I really appreciate it. We got a long way to go to the election.

In the meantime, though, coming up, Donald Trump doubling down on his extreme rhetoric. Claiming he can go toe to toe with Vladimir Putin. What's that all about? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

ACOSTA: Donald Trump is defending his use of the phrase bloodbath while talking about the auto industry and the country when it comes to the upcoming election. In an interview with a right-wing British broadcaster, Nigel Farage, Trump says, his response to his phrasing -- the response to his phrasing was overblown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All of the people that are complaining about it, they all used it. It's a commonly used phrase when you're getting slaughtered economically. When you're getting slaughtered socially. When you're getting slaughtered. And they use it all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: All right. To discuss, we're joined by Tom Nichols, he's a staff writer at "The Atlantic". And Ruth Ben-Ghiat, she's a professor of history at New York University and the author of "Strongmen: Mussolini to the President". Thank you so much, both of you. It's a terrific conversation we're going to have here.

Tom, let me start with bloodbath. I mean, we don't have to relitigate everything, but on Saturday he did say, for the country. I mean, he did say that. There's no denying that. Why do you think he's now saying slaughtered socially, whatever that means? I mean, he -- he's broadening it out himself.

TOM NICHOLS, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Yes, first of all, he has not earned any benefit of the doubt about what his words mean, considering that he uses terms like, you know, vermin, and other incendiary terms. But the other thing is that whenever he's trapped or backed up against the wall, he just doubles down. And he doubles down in two ways, and you heard them both here. One is, everybody does it. I'm no worse than anybody else. We all talk about bloodbaths. It was a bloodbath at the grocery store. It's a bloodbath at the gas station. You know, no one really talks that way.

But then the second thing he does is to add on to it and pile on and say, well, I only meant economically and socially.

[10:40:00]

And, you know, I'm sorry, but if you're a presidential candidate talking about a social bloodbath, these are things that in a more rational time would have ruled him out of contention for a dog catcher, much less president.

ACOSTA: And he wasn't exactly backed into a corner by Nigel Farage, of all people, I mean.

And, Ruth, I want to play something else Trump said yesterday about Jewish Americans. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think that the Democrats have been very, very opposed to Jewish people, that's true, and to Israel. All you have to do is look at Senator Schumer. What he did with Israel is a disgrace. And I think Israel will probably not forget it very soon. It's a very sad situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And Ruth, this comes after he said that any Jewish person who votes for Democrats hates their religion, hates everything about Israel. Ruth, I mean, he keeps dabbling in these tropes. What's going on here?

RUTH BEN-GHIAT, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: Yes, well, you know, your previous segment was about immigrants. The thing is, everyone, thinks that if they're not X category, they're not going to be touched by an autocrat. Everybody's touched. So, in this case, he's talking about -- he's raising the old antisemitic trope of, you know, Jews not being loyal citizens because their real loyalty is to Israel. And he's done this many times before.

I want to add to something that Tom said, though, about the bloodbath. There's a real intent here, and that is -- and Trump's been doing this. All autocrats do this. If you want to get people riled up enough to either commit violence for you, January 6, or accept your violence, you need to get them into a state of existential fear and dread. And so, on January 6th, he said, if we don't fight like hell, we won't have a country anymore.

With Strongman, it's always me or the abyss. Me or the apocalypse. So, when he's talking about social slaughter, he's telling people that they have to defend themselves. And he's done this many times in his rallies and now in his campaign. This is part of his message to keep people. And when he says, they're not really going for me. They're actually after you and I'm just standing in the way. So, that's what this is about as well.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Tom, he's saying the riot part out loud, it seems.

NICHOLS: Of course, and he's been doing it for a while. He's been, I think, preparing his followers for violence. He's been preparing them not to accept any electoral result that isn't in his favor or in favor of anybody he wants. He does this -- and Ruth's point is really important here. He gets us used to these words that they become second nature. That the kind of level of violence in that language and the dread in that language just gets woven into your daily life. So that after a while you just start to accept that violence and, you know, bloodbaths, and it's just part of the way we talk, which, you know, is not the way we have conducted political debate in America until now.

But, you know, this is all about trying to motivate people to fight for him because we have to remember that for him this is not a political campaign. He is running as hard as he can to get into the Oval Office to try to escape accountability and justice.

ACOSTA: Yes, and I did want to talk to both of you about Trump and Putin. I mean, he's -- Trump is putting himself on par with Putin. Saying, he can go toe to toe with a dictator. Come out on top. I mean, this seems to be a recurring theme, in addition to how he shows affection for dictators.

And, Ruth, in an opinion piece for CNN, you wrote about Trump doing this. And he -- you wrote, Trump uses his rallies and other public occasions to sell strongman rule to his followers so Americans begin to see autocrats as positive and glamorous figures. It's aspirational on Trump's part. When does it -- I mean, in your view, when does it become a threat to democracy, a threat to the country? Perhaps it already is.

BEN-GHIAT: It's already a threat to the country. Even before January 6th, it was a threat to the country. So, it's easy to laugh at, you know, these -- this and think it's bluster when he says, oh, I fell in love with, you know, Kim Jong Un. This seems ridiculous. But he's both holding these people up. These are murderous dictators. He's holding them up as positive models so that if he does even something similar on that line that it will be seen as normal. So, this is Tom's point about normalization.

But his other target, it's very important, is the American public. He's been conditioning Americans. I mean, this is a guy who's a marketer. He's a propagandist. He's superb at both of these things.

ACOSTA: Yes.

BEN-GHIAT: And he's been conditioning Americans to think that democracy doesn't work, and it's corrupt, and it's anarchy and that authoritarianism and strongman leadership is superior.

[10:45:00]

That's why he's saying about Viktor Orban and whoever it is of the day he's praising, including Putin. So, this -- there's an -- again, there's an intent there. There's always an intent with Trump even though he can jumble his words and act confused. The -- there's big themes there that it repeats over and over, and that's what you need for success and propaganda.

ACOSTA: Yes, and Tom, the scary thing is, is that we just saw a so- called election in Russia. And there was no credible opposition allowed. You know, they were talking about 87 percent support for Vladimir Putin. I mean, that -- that's laughable. You have people like Alexei Navalny killed in prison. This -- I mean, how can you even pretend that that's a democracy going on in Russia? And if Putin -- if Trump is continuing to speak with admiration and putting himself on an even keel with the likes of Vladimir Putin, I mean, that should be disturbing to a lot of folks out there.

NICHOLS: It is disturbing. And the -- you know, the idea that he's gone toe to toe with dictators, he is absolutely in awe of these people. And as we saw in their first meeting years ago in Helsinki, he isn't going toe to toe with them. He is kissing their ring. I mean, he is a very -- a lot of what Trump does, I think, it projects fear and insecurity, which, you know, makes sense in an authoritarian bully.

But the idea that somehow, you know, Putin is to be emulated. I mean, it's almost inconceivable to have an American president and an American presidential candidate again talking about how much he admires someone who just had, I have to do the air quotes, "An election", you know, at 87 percent. But that's -- Trump wants to be -- you know, we were just talking about the aspirational nature of this.

This is Trump's aspiration. To be someone who has unchallengeable power, huge amounts of wealth, and could do anything he wants. And still recollections to get 87 percent, I mean, that's -- you know, that's Trump's dream world, to be the richest man in the world, which Putin is one of the richest and to be unaccountable.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, great discussion. We'll have to keep the conversation going. In the meantime, though, Ruth and Tom, thanks so much. I really appreciate the insights this morning. Good to talk to both of you.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

ACOSTA: Hours from now, the Federal Reserve will announce whether it will lower interest rates or stay in a holding pattern. For now, Americans who have been sidelined by high interest rates are watching to see if they can expect their borrowing costs to go down anytime soon.

And Moody's Analytics Chief Economist, Mark Zandi, joins us now. Mark, great to see you. As always, thanks so much. I mean, by all accounts, the Fed is going to leave rates unchanged. What does that mean for Americans out there?

MARK ZANDI, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MOODY'S ANALYTICS: Well, they're going to still be paying the same rates, as they have been for the past -- almost a year now, that's kept rates high for much of the past year. But I think the Fed's also going to indicate that they will be cutting rates later this year. You know, they do this dot plot where each dot represents the views of each of the members of the committee that makes the decision. And I think those dot plots would suggest three rate cuts later this year, a quarter point each time. And that will provide some relief. If you have a credit card, if you have a consumer finance loan, if you have a home equity line of credit, you should see some relief on those interest rates pretty quickly. Even if you have an auto loan, you know, maybe even an adjustable-rate mortgage and you're out buying, that could be helpful. So, I would expect some relief later in the year.

ACOSTA: I mean, Mark, it's, it's kind of extraordinary how well the economy has done despite these interest rates being this high. I mean, Goldman Sachs, top economist says, the U.S. economy is nowhere near a recession. That economist told CNN, we haven't seen a recession. We haven't been close to a recession. Your thoughts.

ZANDI: Yes, the economy has been amazing resilient. I mean, a lot of economists a year ago thought we would be in recession by now because of the higher rates, but, you know, that did not happen. I think one of the reasons is that many Americans did a really good job locking in the record low interest rates that prevailed during the teeth of the pandemic.

You remember back, Jim, in the pandemic, some folks could get mortgages at two and a half, three percent.

ACOSTA: Oh, yes.

ZANDI: They refinanced down. And that -- those were long term mortgages, right? They're -- the interest rates have been changed on those. So, people are still paying those very low rates, and that's been very helpful in insulating them from the higher rates.

By the way, that's a big difference between the United States and every -- almost every other country on the planet. Everywhere else in the world, most households have to start paying those higher rates relatively quickly. Not here in the U.S., and that's really helped insulate things. There are other reasons for the resilience, but I think that's one of the key reasons.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, the home buying market, I mean, aspect of all this is fascinating to me. I mean, even with the mortgage rates the way they are right now, U.S. home construction surge last month, people are still buying houses. They're grumbling about these interest rates.

ZANDI: Yes.

ACOSTA: Your sense of -- I mean, I guess, there was also this little wrinkle in the news the other day that things might be happening with the rates, the fees that real estate brokers charge to their clients. And so -- I mean, that -- it's just amazing how resilient that market has been as well.

ZANDI: Yes, the underlying demand for homes is extraordinary. I mean, we have a real shortage of homes, both for home ownership and for rental, particularly on the affordable side of those markets. And so, the demand is, you know, just insatiable for anything that comes up.

[10:55:00]

And I do think, you know, builders have done a really good job of providing discounts and so-called interest rate buy downs to bring down the interest rate in the first few years of the mortgage to try to make it more attractive. And that's really kept the single-family home building market alive.

And you mentioned the change in realtor commissions that's coming up here in the next few months. That should also be a plus. I -- there's a lot of adjustment that needs to go on there. It's not clear how this is all going to shake out for the buyer, and the seller, and the realtor. But I think at the end of the day, it's a good thing because, you know, it's just introducing more competition into a market which will bring down the cost for the -- for home buyers and I think that's really important.

ACOSTA: All right. Very interesting. All right. Mark Zandi, thank you so much. Thanks for breaking it all down for us. Really appreciate it.

ZANDI: Sure thing.

ACOSTA: All right. This just in to CNN, some breaking news right now. The New York attorney general just responded to Donald Trump's claim that it's impossible to get a $464 million bond as his appeal plays out. The New York attorney general telling the appeals court they should ignore that argument. So, the twists and turns in terms of Trump being able to pay that very high, almost half billion-dollar bond. All of that continuing. We'll follow all those developments as the day goes on.

But in the meantime, thank you very much for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. CNN's coverage of this breaking news will continue in the next hour of "Newsroom" with Wolf Blitzer. That's right after a short break. Have a great day.

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