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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Nevada Race; Interview With Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Supreme Court Battle Set to Begin. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired September 21, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:31:08]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We have some breaking news for you now.

President Trump just spoke about the Supreme Court vacancy moments ago at the White House. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would say on Friday or Saturday, I will be announcing the pick.

It's -- five women are being looked at and vetted very carefully, five. And we will make a decision probably Saturday, but Friday or Saturday.

QUESTION: Do you plan to meet with any of them in person? Do you plan to meet with any of them in person before you make your decision?

TRUMP: Yes, I will.

QUESTION: When do you plan to do that?

TRUMP: During this period of time?

QUESTION: Do you think all five?

TRUMP: I don't know. I doubt it. I doubt it.

QUESTION: But in person?

TRUMP: But we will meet with a few, probably.

QUESTION: Have you talked to any of them yet?

TRUMP: Say it?

QUESTION: Have you talked to any of them yet?

TRUMP: I have.

QUESTION: Today?

TRUMP: I have, today and yesterday, day before.

QUESTION: Is it better to have a vote on your nominee before the election or after?

TRUMP: Well, I'd much rather have a vote before the election, because there's a lot of work to be done.

And I'd much rather have it. We have plenty of time to do it. I mean, there's really a lot of time.

So, let's say I make the announcement on Saturday. There's a great deal of time before the election. That will be up to Mitch in the Senate. But I'd certainly much rather have the vote.

I think it sends a good signal. And it's solidarity and lots of other things. And I'm just doing my constitutional obligation. I have an obligation to do this.

So, I would rather see it before the election.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) senators, Republican senators who may be a little reluctant?

TRUMP: Well, we will have to see.

I would think that that would be very bad for them. I think their -- their voters, the people that voted them put them there because of a certain ideology or a certain feel. And they don't want to have somebody do that.

I think it's very bad if they do that.

QUESTION: What would be your concern...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: All right, President Trump there saying that he has an obligation to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. He wants to do it before the election.

The announcement will come either Friday or Saturday, he says. One of the five women being vetted will be picked.

Now all eyes are on Senators Chuck Grassley and Mitt Romney and Cory Gardner, who have not yet set -- said if the Supreme Court confirmation process should be put on hold.

It will take just two additional Republican senators to block any effort to confirm a justice before the presidential election, as CNN's Manu Raju reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Our nation is mourning.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing for a quick confirmation vote for President Trump's nominee with the election just 43 days away, despite taking the opposite position in 2016.

MCCONNELL: President Trump's nominee for this vacancy will receive a vote on the floor of the Senate. When voters have not chosen divided government, when the American people have elected a Senate majority to work closely with the sitting president...

RAJU: Four years ago, McConnell and his party emphasized that it should be up to the voters to decide who gets to pick the next Supreme Court justice, after Justice Antonin Scalia died during a presidential election year.

And that was eight months before the election.

MCCONNELL: This decision to be made by the next president.

RAJU: McConnell and Trump can only afford to lose four Republican votes to get the nominee confirmed before or soon after the elections.

And, already, two of them, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, have called on a confirmation vote to wait until after November 3, prompting Trump to attack the senators, including Collins, who is facing the most difficult reelection of her career.

TRUMP: I think Susan Collins is very badly hurt by her statement yesterday. People aren't going to take this.

[16:35:05]

RAJU: There are several other Republicans who have not yet said how they will come down, including endangered Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, who, over the weekend, would not reveal if he stood by his 2016 remarks, when he said ;"The American people deserve a role in this process."

Instead, Gardner sidestepped questions about the matter. And his office did not respond to an inquiry from CNN on Monday.

SEN. CORY GARDNER (R-CO): There is time for debate. There is time for politics. But the time for now is to pray for the family.

RAJU: The focus is also on Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who said this in 2016, when he refused, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to hold hearings on Obama nominee Merrick Garland.

SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IA): Let the people have a voice in this.

RAJU: And this July, when asked about a possible vacancy, he told CNN:

GRASSLEY: If I were chairman of the committee, I couldn't move forward with it.

RAJU: He has yet to comment on he stands by that position. And there's Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who has been mum so far.

But Republicans aren't the only ones taking the opposite approach. Back in 2016, Democrats demanded Obama's pick be confirmed in an election year.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Every day that goes by without a ninth justice is another day the Americans people's business is not getting done.

RAJU: But now he's calling on Republicans to honor what they said in 2016.

SCHUMER: And to try and decide this at this last time, at this late moment is despicable and wrong and against democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: And, Jake, behind the scenes, Republican senators are making their case to the White House, one of them Josh Hawley of Missouri, saying that his support will be contingent on a nominee who believes that Roe vs. Wade is wrongly decided.

And he told me just moments ago that Amy Coney Barrett, who's a leading contender for that position, he says that she would meet that standard.

And, Jake, I also just caught up with John Cornyn, a member of the Republican leadership team. And I asked him, would Republicans confirm a nominee in the lame-duck session if President Trump loses in November? And he said to me -- quote -- "Of course" -- Jake.

TAPPER: OK, all right, Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.

We now have some idea of the plans to honor the life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She will lie in repose outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, she will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol, a rare honor for a justice.

CNN's Jessica Schneider joins me from outside the Supreme Court.

And, Jessica, this is a change based on normal protocols because of coronavirus, right?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is, Jake.

Typically, the public is allowed inside the Great Hall as the justice lies in repose. But because of COVID, the public will only be allowed outside. So it will unfold like this. On Wednesday morning, there will be a ceremony inside the court, but that will only be for family, close friends, and justices.

Then Justice Ginsburg's casket will be moved up to the Portico at the top of the steps here at the Supreme Court. That's when there will be this public viewing until 10:00 p.m. both nights on Wednesday and Thursday.

And, in the meantime, we're hearing about two top contenders for Justice Ginsburg seat, Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa. Now, conservative legal circles are really pushing for Amy Coney Barrett, really because she's a known entity. She was the runner-up to Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. And she's really

gained some somewhat of rock star status, because of her response to Senator Dianne Feinstein when Senator Feinstein seemed to question her Catholic beliefs and how they play into her role as a judge.

Coney Barrett has pushed back, saying that her religion does not play any role in her judicial opinions. But, of course, Jake, conservatives are counting on Coney Barrett to be that vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Then there's Barbara Lagoa. She's a Cuban American judge in Florida, of course, a crucial battleground state. That could play well for the president politically if she was picked.

However, Barbara Lagoa really hasn't had the extreme vetting that Amy Coney Barrett has had. And, Jake, on this tight timeline that we're on, that really could work against Barbara Lagoa here -- Jake.

TAPPER: It could, although President Trump really wants to win Florida and he really wants to win the Latino vote. So who knows?

SCHNEIDER: True.

TAPPER: Jessica Schneider, outside the court, thank you so much.

Democrats are hinting they will try to block President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, but what's realistic? I will ask a senior Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:43:40]

TAPPER: And we're back with our politics lead today.

With just 43 days until the presidential election, Democrats are looking for a way to block President Trump's eventual nominee to the Supreme Court, slamming Republicans as hypocrites for stopping President Obama's choice for the bench eight months before the 2016 election.

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. He's a member and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT): Thank you.

TAPPER: So, Democrats need four Republican senators to join with you to block a vote in the Senate on any nominee.

Right now, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins have suggested that they think the vote should take place after there's a new president or a reelection of the current president. Have you spoken to any other Republicans who might join them and you? And, if so, who?

LEAHY: I have talked with some. And I will leave it private if they want to talk about it, but some who made it very clear that Mitch McConnell was right in blocking Barack Obama hundreds of days before the election for his consensus nominee.

And I say, now you're talking about somebody who will be just a matter of days, and they will try to ramp through. I'm hoping they will stick to what they have said back then.

[16:45:05]

This whole thing is so weird and beneath what our country should stand for. Look at what happened. Justice Ginsburg, who has accomplished more in her life than anybody here in the Senate, and certainly more than Donald Trump has accomplished, within minutes of her dying, Mitch McConnell goes out and says, I'm going to ram through, words to that effect, ram through whoever Donald Trump tells me to ran through the Senate, precedent, tradition, everything else, throw it out the wall.

And that goes beyond political. The lasting effect means, we're going to so politicize the Supreme Court that nobody will feel they can look at the court and think it's going to be impartial.

That is going to cause more damage than anybody possibly could.

TAPPER: If you are not able to get two more Republicans to join with you and Collins and Murkowski, will Senate Democrats take any other actions to try to prevent this vote from happening?

I have heard a lot of different ideas being bandied about by Democratic lawmakers.

LEAHY: Well, I'm the dean of the Senate. I have been here the longest. I can't think of anything we can do.

If they're willing to break rules, if they're willing to break precedent, and if they're willing to just go back on their word and say, in effect, oh, yes, we lied when it was Obama, there's very little you can do.

I came here at a time when you assumed senators would keep their word, that senators would actually believe let's do what's best for the country.

This is not only something that is going to harm -- or even if they came up with the best candidate in the world, doing it in this political fashion will harm the Supreme Court for decades to come.

And it certainly so demeans what the U.S. Senate should be. The Senate should be the conscience of the nation. I have never seen a conscience being handled in such a flimflam fashion.

Your colleague Senator Markey said on Twitter -- quote -- "We must make it absolutely clear that, if McConnell attempts to fill this seat, we will abolish the filibuster and expand the court when we retake the Senate" -- unquote.

Are you on board? I mean, to be frank, one of the reasons that we're here...

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Let me just finish, if I could.

So, one of the reasons we were here now is because Democrats changed the 60-vote threshold back when Democrats had control. It's not the only reason.

LEAHY: No.

TAPPER: But it's one of the reasons.

LEAHY: No, we did not change it for the Supreme Court.

TAPPER: No, I know, but you changed it for other judges.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: I know, but you changed it for non-Supreme Court judges.

We -- yes, but we didn't change it for the Supreme Court, and because everybody felt the Supreme Court should be handled in a way with a -- somebody can get votes from both Democrats and Republicans, so that you have some faith in the Supreme Court.

And Mitch McConnell came in and -- incidentally, what Mitch McConnell wanted at that time, the second he got in the majority, he just threw that out. He had a Republican president. And he did the unprecedented thing of blocking Merrick Garland when Barack Obama nominated him, saying that we don't have confirmations of a justice in an election year.

And, of course, we have had many, many times, certainly since I have been here. Last time, it was with a Republican president, a Democratic-controlled Senate. And we passed the person almost unanimously.

This is going to so -- I mean, we can talk about, oh, here's what we will do if we get back in the majority. We're not in the majority.

And they are relying on the fact that they're in the majority, that they are saying, we have no responsibility to Americans who don't believe exactly the way we do. We do not want a Senate that can reflect all Americans. We want a Senate that will only reflect what Donald Trump orders it to do.

In all my years here, I have never seen any Republican leader or Democratic leader act that way.

TAPPER: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday would not rule out the idea that's been floated by some liberal activists, progressive activists, to impeach Attorney General Bill Barr, or President Trump again, which would theoretically forced the Senate into a trial situation, delaying a confirmation vote on the Supreme Court nominee.

[16:50:00]

What do you make of that idea?

LEAHY: Well, I can't speak for the -- what the House might do.

I am terribly disappointed with Attorney General Barr, when he takes orders from the White House, when he's trying to drop cases against people who have admitted to felonies, but, because they're friends of the president, he tries to get the cases dropped.

I have never seen anything like this, or even taking a legitimate case brought against the president of the United States and moving to have it go into a federal court and have the taxpayers pay for the president's defense.

I would like somebody to go back in history and tell me any time any attorney general has shown such craven obeisance to the president of the United States.

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, thank you so much for joining us today. We appreciate it, sir.

LEAHY: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: With 43 days left until the election, the Trump campaign is way ahead in one key area that could make a big difference. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:56:05]

TAPPER: In the 2020 lead: Joe Biden has a huge cash advantage over President Trump, a $141 million edge, according to campaign filings.

But, in the ground game, Biden may be falling behind. The Trump campaign says its volunteers are knocking in more than three million doors in 17 competitive states.

CNN's Kyung Lah went to Nevada, where Democratic activists worry that a lack of face-to-face interaction could hurt the Democratic nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): from a bustling Trump campaign field office in Las Vegas, where phone banking is in full effect...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vote in-person or by mail.

LAH: ... to the door-to-door campaigning in the suburbs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How you doing? My name is Candy. I'm a volunteer with the Republican Party.

LAH: For team Trump in Nevada, it's the in-person race to Election Day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who would you likely support for the president?

SCOTT SCHEID, TRUMP CAMPAIGN NEVADA SENIOR ADVISER: E-mail is OK to persuade voters, phone calls a little better, but nothing beats face to face.

LAH: That's political reality, says the Trump campaign in Nevada, even with the pandemic. With masks and social distancing at the door, Trump campaign volunteers have been doing this since June.

The president lost Nevada in 2016 by about 2.5 points. In 2020, he's campaigned here in-person, holding a large indoor rally, a violation of the state's coronavirus guidelines. The state party says it has more staffers in state now than 2016.

SCHEID: When you're out there knocking, you don't see the other side like you would in years past. You couldn't get away from them back then.

LAH: That's true, says Democratic activist Annette Magnus with Battle Born Progress.

ANNETTE MAGNUS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BATTLE BORN PROGRESS: We are not playing by the same rules. The Republicans don't have rules. I think that's the biggest thing.

Magnus has moved her campaigning for Democrats completely online because of COVID. The Biden campaign remains almost completely virtual in Nevada, with the exception of an in-person visit by running mate Kamala Harris.

Outside of Nevada, some down-ballot Democrats, like Senate candidate Sara Gideon in Maine and Steve Bullock in Montana, have taken a different strategy, asking volunteers to help knock on voters' doors.

Back in Nevada, a few outside groups are just now starting to move in- person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I get you registered to vote?

LAH: Among them, Faith Organizing Alliance, which targets voter registration among people of color.

(on camera): As far as the in-person stuff, though, you guys didn't operate for a good portion of the year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For a good, what, six months...

LAH: Nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No paper registration.

LAH (voice-over): But the only Democratic group canvassing in-person this year is the Culinary Union, Nevada's largest Democratic get-out- the-vote machine. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here's a flyer with more information.

LAH: Two hundred members have been knocking on doors since August. They do so cautiously.

We carry masks with us. We have these little tongs to hand them, so we're not handling them directly with our hands.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before we start speaking, would you mind putting a mask on?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I step back several feet to get myself distance from them.

LAH: Magnus warns, given COVID's impact on ground game and funding, she worries about Nevada in November.

MAGNUS: I fear, if we are not careful and we don't do everything we can, 2016 could happen here like it did in Wisconsin and Michigan. And that's why I have been sounding the alarm.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: A little perspective on what you're seeing from the Culinary Union as they're going door to door, some 400 more than, 400 of them have been hospitalized, union members and family, because of the virus; 49 of them have died.

Jake, despite those numbers, they say they're going to take those precautions and continue knocking door to door -- Jake.

TAPPER: And, Kyung, Nevada is usually very competitive. What's the state of the race in Nevada right now between Biden and Trump?

LAH: Yes, despite how it's gone the last couple of cycles, if you look at the latest "New York Times"/Siena College poll -- this is a poll taken before the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- Joe Biden is at 46 percent, Donald Trump is at 42 percent.

Given the margin of error, there is no clear leader in Nevada -- Jake.

TAPPER: Neither candidate in the high 40s or 50, which is where they need to be to have a win.

Kyung Lah, thank you so much.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now.