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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Foreign Leaders, Contractors Congregate to Mar-a-Lago; Trump Wants Senate to Bypass Votes for Confirmations; Get on Board Trump Agenda or Face Termination; Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Asks Why Vote for Her and Voter for Trump; Questions About Trump-Putin Relationship. Newly Elected Democratic Congressman Looks Ahead; Blame Game Erupts Inside Dem Party After Harris Loss; President Reagan's Legacy Of Honoring Veterans. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired November 11, 2024 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:55:00]
DENIS RICHARD MCDONOUGH, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: So, you know, the philosophical issue is yeah especially adaptive housing uh we can always invest additional resources. Those resources we get from Congress we're really careful with, where we want to make sure we're doing our part on and we thank our partners like you in making that happen.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, thanks for all you do for veterans. We appreciate it.
MCDONOUGH: Thank you, Jake.
TAPPER: A lawyer working with the Trump transition team issues a chilling warning to career Justice Department prosecutors. We'll tell you what he said, next.
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[16:59:55]
TAPPER: Welcome to "The Lead." I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, a passenger plane that departed from Florida diverted after it was hit by gunfire. There is one person was injured. Now airlines are canceling flights as they try to figure out what exactly happened.
Plus, speaking of what would happen, what went so wrong with the Harris campaign? A new report takes a deep dive behind the scenes explaining how the campaign was seemingly broken from the beginning. Also going into the series of decisions that led to a massive electoral defeat.
And leading this hour, the center of the U.S. political universe is right now in West Palm Beach, Florida. Sources telling CNN that foreign leaders and contractors and people see seeking high powered cabinet posts in the next administration have descended upon Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, filling hotels and rental properties as they try to get FaceTime with the president-elect. The lobbying going so far that club members say they've been offered money to bring people into Mar-a-Lago in hopes they can rub elbows with Trump insiders. CNN's Alayna Treene is down in West Palm Beach, Florida. Alayna, tell us what you're hearing about the meetings happening down there as the second Trump administration starts to take shape.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jake, that island behind me where Mar-a-Lago is and the surrounding areas, you're totally right. The hotels, rental properties, that is currently, really brimming with people who are wanting to get FaceTime with Donald Trump, and it's the epicenter of where his transition is happening.
Now I will say, Mar-a-Lago has always been a place where people have been, you know, really scrambling to get into. They've been -- are asking other members, others how they can get an invitation, but we have seen that really increase over the last week or so now according to our conversations.
I think one really interesting thing about this is it's not just people who are looking to get in -- potentially get in front of Trump so they can be considered for a role in the second administration. A lot of them are just wanting to influence Donald Trump's picks or try to remain close to him and have these conversations with Donald Trump themselves. So we're seeing a lot of this, particularly ramp up in the last couple of days.
Now I think one really important thing to keep in mind is that now that Susie Wiles is his chief of staff, his incoming chief of staff, she really is someone who wants to control the chaos. And one of her big roles, I'm told, over these past several days has been to try and cut off access to some of the more controversial figures who could be entering Mar-a-Lago and meeting with Donald Trump.
A lot of people who work with him and work with her say that she's kind of like the grown up handling all of this. Remember, she was in control of the flight manifest for Donald Trump's private plane when he flew around, state to state for his different rallies. It was a similar role then, trying to make sure that people, who they don't want to be seen with Donald Trump aren't flying with him. It's the same thing now happening at Mar-a-Lago.
TAPPER: And, Alayna, you've got some new reporting about the role that billionaire Elon Musk is playing in the transition.
TREENE: That's right. Elon Musk has essentially been at Mar-a-Lago and with Donald Trump virtually every single day since the election. He was there on election night with Donald Trump. He was on stage during Donald Trump's victory remarks, but he's also been an omnipresent person at Mar-a-Lago over the past several days. He's been in the room when foreign leaders have called up Donald Trump, including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He has been giving some advice, offering his advice to Donald Trump and the team making his opinion known for certain roles. And now I'm also told today that he is also calling lawmakers and lawmakers are calling him as they continue to try and find any sort of influence with Donald Trump.
I think what's particularly notable about this is we saw Elon Musk yesterday, shortly after Donald Trump had called, for whoever the next Senate leader would be to agree to recess appointments. Elon Musk then went out and supported Rick Scott. So I think I'd watch all of these conversations that are happening with a lot of people scrambling to get to know Elon Musk very well noting that his influence on Donald Trump is very great right now.
TAPPER: All right. Alayna Treene in West Palm Beach. Thanks so much. President-elect Trump is wasting no time naming names for big jobs in his administration. He's also talking about possibly going around the usual Senate confirmation process for some of his picks. He wants the next Senate majority leader to be okay with that. And given the speed with which some of the candidates tweeted that they agree, it might not be an issue.
Trump writing on Truth Social, quote, "Any Republican senator seeking the coveted leadership position in the United States Senate must agree to recess appointments in the Senate, without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. We need positions filled immediately." CNN's Manu Raju -- I'm sorry. That's just what -- that's what I do -- that's what I do when it's all caps. I'm just trying to -- for the people at home.
CNN's Manu Raju is joining me now. Manu, this would be a seismic shift for the Senate to just willfully say, okay, we're gonna go into recess. Go ahead and appoint whoever you want.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And, Jake, this is typically something senators would not want to do, to defer power to the executive branch to the White House, but this is very much Donald Trump's Republican Party and a Republican Senate in which the Republican leaders are hoping to either win his support or have him stay out of this critical majority leader contest come Wednesday.
[17:05:06]
So they all quickly fell in line, said they are okay with this idea that essentially would short circuit the Senate confirmation process. Remember, typically, the process is that they nominate -- the person gets nominated to the position and there's a background check, then they meet with the committees of jurisdiction, then the committees have hearings, and there are votes in the committees, and there's a vote in the full Senate. Typical advice and consent process could take up to about a few months.
And on top of that, Donald Trump has up to 53 senators in the United States senate. Right now, 52, likely to get 53. We'll see how Pennsylvania turns out. That means he could lose up to four Republican votes at most, four Republican votes in order to get his nominees confirmed. But Donald Trump says forget about all of that. Let's just go ahead and have the Senate and go into extended recesses so I can install my nominees directly.
Now this has -- during the past about 17 years or so since Harry Reid was a majority leader and denied George W. Bush his nominees, majority leaders have tried to deny the recess appointments by taking procedural moves. He's asking the next majority leader to not do that anymore. And as you heard from both John Thune, John Cornyn, also Rick Scott, the three leaders, people vying for that position, they're saying, okay, President Trump, we'll do what you say.
TAPPER: Yeah. I have to say, in Washington, D.C., people usually don't willingly give up power, but I guess it's kind of par for the course in Trump's Washington these days. What about Senate leadership? I mean, Elon Musk and others specifically endorsing Florida governor I mean, Florida Senator, rather, Rick Scott, as, Alayna just referred to.
Just weeks ago, it seemed like Scott was a long shot. We haven't heard any word from Trump yet on Scott for this time that he's running for majority leader. I think he endorsed him when he ran against Mitch McConnell, but he got clobbered. How is this gonna play out?
RAJU: Yeah. Look, Scott is still very much a long shot, Jake. Even though the MAGA influencers, the Elon Musk's of the world have come out in support of Rick Scott, this is very much an inside game, one that is built on relationships, on fundraising, on promises that are made for committee assignments and the like, which means that senators vote often on their own self-interest.
And on top of that, there's a secret ballot leadership election, meaning that Donald Trump may say one thing or maybe perhaps some of these people close to Donald Trump may say support Rick Scott, but these members don't have to make their no votes known publicly. They can just do it privately; vote however they want. And this is why Senate insiders really believe that Rick Scott really has a very, very -- he's the underdog of underdogs right now.
And its really John Cornyn and John Thune to lose. They are probably -- it's unclear who is the favorite between the two of them. But Wednesday, we'll know who holds this critical position in Washington, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Manu Raju, thanks so much. It's not just the U.S. Senate that could be radically remade under a second Trump administration.
In response to a political story about Justice Department lawyers expressing concern about serving under Trump again, Mark Paoletta, a longtime conservative lawyer involved in the Trump transition posted, quote, "If these career DOJ employees won't implement President Trump's program in good faith, they should leave. Those employees who engaged in so called resistance against the duly elected president's lawful agenda would be subverting American democracy. Finally, those that take such actions would be subject to disciplinary measures, including termination," unquote.
A lot of sources say, it has also been floated from multiple positions in a second Trump administration, including being pitched directly to Trump as a potential U.S. attorney general. Here to discuss CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez and former Justice Department official under President Obama, Elliot Williams. So, Evan, what exactly is Paoletta telling Justice Department officials to get on board with? Just whatever Trump wants?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, he made a list. It was a very long post that he put out on social media, but I mean, he's talking about these immigration executive orders. He's talking about taking on cities that are refusing to turn over illegal immigrants to ICE, as you know.
TAPPER: Sanctuary cities.
PEREZ: Sanctuary cities, right. Exactly. Taking on companies that have diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, DEI policies, which is obviously something that the Trump administration in the first term actually was in favor of and now is against. And, you see, talking --
TAPPER: Can they -- can they do that? Can they tell private companies not to have DEI officials?
PEREZ: They can try to certainly sue companies that have these policies.
ELLIOTT WILLIAMS, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS, DOJ: Commission funding.
PEREZ: Right.
WILLIAMS: Grant funding for (inaudible).
PEREZ: They can do -- there's a lot of power that you have on this. And one of the other things he mentions is pardons for some of the January 6, rioters. People who, according to Trump World, were political prisoners. Now that -- we don't know whether that includes people who attacked police officers and Capitol police on that day, which was a violent attack, by the way, but we'll see. Right?
And one of these -- it's interesting that he does say in this post, Jake, he says, of course, no one will push them to implement flagrantly illegal actions, right?
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Flagrantly illegal actions, so maybe little illegal, we don't know where -- where this line will be crossed, but Paoletta is actually, you know, obviously he's a very important figure in MAGA legal world. He's someone who is going to land somewhere in the administration almost certainly. The question is whether he will be leading the Justice Department, we will see.
TAPPER: So most people in the U.S. Justice Department, as I don't need to tell you, Elliot, most of them are career employees.
WILLIAMS: Yeah.
TAPPER: And they're just defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, whatever. I mean, like, all sorts of things WILLIAMS: Yeah.
TAPPER: Offering their best advice. What kind of impact does this have?
WILLIAMS: It could have a profound impact. And look, you know, I serve under both Republican and Democratic administrations, and there's a shift from administration to administration in tone and focus and priorities. It happens, and quite frankly, that's a good thing. You want government -- different governments to come in and have a shift here.
What we're seeing though in statements like this is almost a contempt or a disdain for the people who work there. And like you said, Jake, of the 115,000 people, most of them served under Obama and Bush and Clinton or whatever else and are there for some time serving with distinction. This is a real morale problem that they could have brewing.
TAPPER: Could he fire, every single DOJ employee that doesn't abide by what he wants to do or are there protections?
WILLIAMS: There are protections. Number one, in law, literally, it's a -- you know, you have a contract for employment. You can't just fire somebody without cause, number one. Number two, you have workplace guidelines in the Justice Department. Some of these people are unionized. There's all kinds of reasons why you could not just come in and just start firing people on the basis of, at least, according to that statement, being a, quote, unquote, "deep state mole" or whatever else.
TAPPER: But it is also true that Trump clearly, admittedly, proudly, perceives as the U.S. attorney general in a very different way than other presidents have talked about the role.
WILLIAMS: Right. I mean, they've made clear that they view this job as probably the most important cabinet position. J.D. Vance says that it is the most important position other than president. He said that in an interview recently. And so they are approaching it that way. I mean, you can see the people that they are choosing, but here's the thing, Jake. I mean, we -- you know, we just published a story on cnn.com about just frankly, his casting call for the -- what everyone, I think, would call the worst job in Washington.
Certainly, the worst cabinet position because you come in as a loyalist. Jeff Sessions came in as a loyalist believing all of the things that Donald Trump is talking about. Bill Barr came in with the express reason to try to defend Trump from what he thought was unfair treatment.
TAPPER: Yeah, during the Mueller investigations.
WILLIAMS: Right. All of them ended up crossways with Donald Trump because there was a line where they would not cross, and those lines are whether you want to launch investigations of its political enemies. TAPPER: Right.
WILLIAMS: And that's where they always ended up on the wrong side.
PEREZ: And that in any administration, Democratic or Republican, is the importance of a non-political, nonpartisan career body of officials to work, and traverse these different administrations. It's a good thing to have folks who aren't political.
TAPPER: Wild times. Evan Perez, Elliot Williams, thanks to both of you.
Congresswoman Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez of New York has a question for split ticket voters. How could someone support her, vote for her, and also support Donald Trump and vote for Donald Trump? What are the reactions that she got for that question? That's next.
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TAPPER: In our "Politics Lead," president-elect Donald Trump is looking to further solidify his control of the Republican Party and exert his control over the U.S. House and Senate. Democrats are trying to understand what happened and what they do now. Our panel is back. Something really interesting, guys.
Kevin, let me start with you. So Congresswoman Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, very progressive New Yorker. She went on Instagram to ask people, looking at the polls and realizing, like, hey, there are hundreds, if not thousands of people that voted for me in my district and also voted for Donald Trump. Why? And but, like, she asked in a nice way to explain. And some of the response -- she's posting the responses.
Some of them, quote, "it's really simple. Trump and you care for the working class." Quote, "I feel that you are both outsiders compared to the rest of D.C. and less establishment." Quote, "I support you and did this. Felt like I didn't have much of a choice after Biden's administration." What do you think?
KEVIN WALLING, FORMER 2020 BIDEN CAMPAIGN SURROGATE: Well, and some of those notes also struck a chord when it comes to authenticity, right? They talked about being authentic candidates for office. Listen, Donald Trump increased his share in that New York City district, AOC's district, by double digits.
So, you're seeing, and I think you're gonna see a lot more of this analysis go on, especially, in the states where you saw a high level of ticket splitting, whether it be Democratic senators holding their own in Wisconsin, electing, obviously, a Democratic, governor in North Carolina, while losing the state, to Donald Trump.
You're gonna see these Democrats, I think, now reassess what messaging, you know, kind of broke through and what Donald Trump was able to capture, the energy on the ground.
TAPPER: The ticket splitting's so interesting, I think. KADIA GOBA, POLITICAL REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yeah. I thought it was
interesting. I talked to Jamaal Bowman the other day, outgoing, member, also up there in the Bronx, and he said the same thing. He said, you know, a lot of people who went for Donald Trump actually voted for me in the primary. Isn't that interesting that the campaign didn't use me on the stump? You know, kind of taking shots.
But I think he, you know, attributed it to him being just more relatable than the other -- than his opponent. And I thought that was also an interesting dynamic when you see, you know, a lot of Latino voters changing their vote recently, going from Democrats to Republicans.
MARC LOTTER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Yeah. I think it's really -- I mean, obviously, this is the billionaire who the working class identify with in Donald Trump.
[17:19:59]
And I think the part where they said they're both outsiders really struck with me because, A, I think it was the economy, and both AOC and Donald Trump fight for it. Different ways, different policy prescriptions, but they talk about it.
And then that ability to connect with people, especially for AOC being very close to the district, but Donald Trump obviously projecting it via social media during -- the national media because, you know, he did spend some time in in that area, but not a lot.
TAPPER: Senator-elect Andy Kim of New Jersey, he used to represent this congressional district that was a Trump district. And I remember talking to him, and I forget if this was on air or off air, but I said something like, do you know who these 50,000 people are who vote for you and vote for Donald Trump? And He knew. He knew who they were and he knew why they voted for both of them, and it's just an interesting thing and it's obviously something that Democrats need to be doing more of.
WALLING: And to your point, Jake, Senator-elect Kim, after those results came in, went on a listening tour of that congressional district in New Jersey to figure out what was powering the thought behind, you know, supporting him as a member of Congress and Donald Trump at the top of the ticket and that spillover.
And we saw in 2016 where you had a good number of Bernie Sanders supporters, to Kadia's point, jump over and support Donald Trump in the general election when he went down. Same with Jamaal Bowman losing in that primary. You saw some of those folks probably go over to the other side and support Donald Trump. It's interesting, these changing dynamics, demographics, things on the ground.
TAPPER: So can we talk about the Senate majority leader race right now between John Thune, John Cornyn, and Rick Scott? And it is so interesting. Trump wants recess appointments. I don't know how many he wants. Like, I don't know if this is just, I just want these two because we need to get off and running or if he wants all of them recess appointments.
But if it were to happen willingly, it would be the only time that I can remember of senators just giving up power in Washington even if for a short term. What do you make of it?
LOTTER: I think it's probably more appropriate on a cabinet level than it would be for a judicial level because, obviously, the resets appointment only lasts for a couple of years, and he wants those young judges confirmed so they're there for a lifetime.
TAPPER: Right.
LOTTER: So I have a feeling you'll probably see a combination of both. The vast majority of those appointments will sail through the Senate and there might be a couple that might be a little more outsider that he might go as a recess appointment because they're just not gonna get confirmed or the Senate doesn't want to have to vote for it.
GOBA: My colleague, Burgess Everett, just wrote something about this thing. It's ironic because there are a lot of hurdles that you have to go through to create this, and at the same time, it actually delays the process even further. So if he wants to put forth this 100-day agenda, it's kind of flies in the face of that.
TAPPER: What -- I remember early on in the first Trump administration, I was in the Senate dining room having lunch with somebody and a very conservative Republican told me that Rudy Giuliani, who wanted to be Secretary of State, he's not getting Secretary of State. There's just way too much in his background, this and that. And it was a stop gap on not -- they weren't trying to stop Trump. They thought that Rudy Giuliani had too many conflicts of interest. There's a reason for the advice and consent.
WALLING: Exactly. They took their role of advice and consent very seriously. And what are these individuals that can't get in a 53 GOP Senate? This is the largest Senate, you know, leadership, gap that we've seen in a long time. Who are these individuals that he thinks can't clear 50, 51, 52, 53 votes, and lead a cabinet department? That I think speaks volumes.
But as you rightly said, within an hour, two and a half hours, each of these three leading candidates have all acquiesced to what Donald Trump wants for the upper chamber.
TAPPER: I saw on a different cable channel, Kash Patel as CIA director. Have you seen that? I don't know if that's real or if that's being floated. But, like, you're asking what -- who can't get through a 53 Republican --
WALLING: Kash Patel, certainly.
TAPPER: Maybe Kash Patel. I don't know. Maybe he can, but that would certainly be an edgy pick, right?
LOTTER: And be out there, yeah. TAPPER: Thanks to all. He sounded the alarm ahead of Trump's first
impeachment and was just elected to Congress. So what does Congressman-elect Eugene Vindman think about the Trump-Putin relationship and what we're going to see after the president-elect takes office? I'll ask him next.
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TAPPER: We're back with our "World Lead" and serious questions about how president-elect Donald Trump is going to handle Russian president Vladimir Putin and Putin's war in Ukraine once he returns to the office. It's unclear whether the two men have spoken since Tuesday's election, but legendary journalist Bob Woodward reported that Trump and Putin spoke as many as seven times since Trump left the White House in 2021. Trump has, we know, however, spoken with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy.
Let's bring in congressman-elect Eugene Vindman. He's a democrat from Virginia. He's also a retired Army officer, which we want to acknowledge on this Veterans Day. Vindman, also a former White House National Security Council ethics official and the twin brother of Alexander Vindman, whose testimony was key in Donald Trump's first impeachment.
First of all, congressman-elect, congratulations on your win. We'll talk politics in a few, minutes. But first, given what you know of Donald Trump and given your concern about Ukraine, what do you think the Trump-Putin relationship looks like over the next four years, and what do you think is going to happen in Ukraine?
EUGENE VINDMAN, VIRGINIA REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: Well, first of all, Jake, thanks for having me back, and, it's been quite a whirlwind week. Look, as it relates to Russia, Ukraine, the U.S., the relationship is quite fraught. And I think, that the -- once in the former and future president quickly realized that his offer to settle this war within 24 hours is probably, unlikely, very unlikely, I would say.
[17:30:05]
In fact, you know, there is no interest. I -- I -- I don't suspect there is much interest from Vladimir Putin to -- to settle this war on any terms that would be remotely acceptable to the Ukrainians, to the Europeans. And we'll see whether they're acceptable to the U.S. and -- and the new administration. But it's a zero sum game for -- for the Russians. Their interests are right now to make sure they win in Ukraine and get as much territory in Ukraine as possible.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: What concerns do you have, if any, about Elon Musk joining those conversations between President-elect Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy? We know that Ukraine has really relied heavily on Musk's Starlink satellite system for communication. VINDMAN: Look, you know, what we saw in the previous administration and what we can anticipate in the -- in -- in the future administration is that things are not going to go as people expect. The -- the norms that we see in -- in a Biden-type administration, we're not going to see.
And so, we got to get used to some -- some level of chaos, some level of unpredictability from the -- the future Trump administration and includes having people like Elon Musk on -- on the phone talking to Zelenskyy in Ukraine. You know, it -- it's concerning. Obviously, the conflicts are -- are enormous for -- for -- he has Starlink that's operating in Ukraine. He has enormous U.S. government contracts.
And so, you know, I'm -- I'm concerned about it. Elon Musk at one point had his own plan for peace and a -- a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia. I don't know what that looks like, but it's concerning.
TAPPER: Turning to domestic politics, you won a -- a tight and very expensive contest in a swing district, the congressional seat given up by Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, who's going to run for governor next year. What do you make of the election results? In general, Republicans ran much more strong -- Republicans ran much more strongly than many people expected.
VINDMAN: Well, I'd say that's true certainly in the presidential race. But, you know, maybe not so true in -- in congressional races. Congressional races are intensely local races. I ran on a -- a very local platform, safe, high quality public schools, preserving access to women's reproductive healthcare, fighting back against things like Project 2025 and this plan to politicize and, or eliminate tens of thousands of federal government jobs.
So overall, actually, I think the House is -- I -- if there's -- if there's a loss, it -- it will be very narrow. Whoever has the House will control it by one or two less than a -- a handful of votes. And so, you know, my race here in -- in the suburbs of -- of Washington, D.C. Actually, I've heard from a number of people talk about it as -- as a one bright spot in really a -- a -- a dark -- a -- on a dark night. And it's one of those suburban districts that's always a toss up. So, we present frankly a good model on how we need to interact with voters whether you're Independent, Democrat or Republican in this District.
TAPPER: You -- you -- if you end up being in the minority, you're going to be the most, you know, one of the most powerless people in Washington, no offense. But you'll be a freshman in the minority. What's your plan for getting things done for your district aside from on the constituent services level? Are you going to find a Republican and team up with Republicans so you can get bipartisan legislation through?
VINDMAN: Look, I'm not interested in being some sort of resistance fighter. I want to -- I -- I was elected by 51 percent of people in this district. And also the 49 percent that didn't vote for me, they expect me to be effective and to work on their behalf. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to look for opportunities to -- to operate in a bipartisan manner on things like education or infrastructure and on national security issues.
I think there's going to be a lot of interest in that regard with absent maybe areas like Ukraine. But, you know, as -- as far as, look, pushing back on -- on China and looking for opportunities to -- to get peace in the Middle East. We can work on those in a bipartisan manner. But I'm going to continue to work hard on behalf of the people in this district and continue to go out to places like the Culpeper Rodeo or NASCAR events or mosques and churches and synagogues.
And I want to talk to voters where they're located and about the issues that they care about. That's what's critical. I think that's what we need to do as a party as we look into the future rather than looking back in the past. And that's where I'm focused.
[17:35:02]
TAPPER: Well, you represent some lakes now and I have a term for you if you haven't heard it before. It's called algae blooms. I'll be talking to you about that offline. Congressman-elect Eugene Vindman, thank you so much. Congratulations. We'll see you here in Washington.
VINDMAN: Thank you, Jake.
TAPPER: Was the Harris campaign broken from the beginning? That's what some new reporting suggests with never before told details about what exactly was happening behind the scenes. The reporter behind those details joins us live, next.
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TAPPER: We're getting a new insights from inside the campaign for Kamala Harris as Democrats continue their infighting over her defeat in the presidential election. New reporting from NOTUS, N-O-T-U-S, a great website, suggests that there's finger pointing and blame gaming at all levels of the Harris campaign over the campaign strategy or lack thereof, decision making or lack thereof, mismanagement or management of funds.
Let's bring in Jasmine Wright, who's covering this story for NOTUS. Also with us, CNN's chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny. So Jasmine, per ushe, great reporting. You have this great story describing the Harris campaign as a disorganized operation that was more reflective of Joe Biden than of Kamala Harris. She was unable to capitalize on that initial voter enthusiasm. She was unable to make a clear distinction between herself and Joe Biden. Tell us more about that.
[17:40:11]
JASMINE WRIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, NOTUS: Yes, I mean, we got a lot of examples into this piece about how the initial campaign under Joe Biden was put together. The fact that it was based off of the fact that, you know, they may not have a lot of voter enthusiasm, not a lot of volunteers, maybe even not a lot of donor money. And so, they were kind of scrappy. But that meant that it was difficult for people, once Harris replaced Biden, to scale up and really capture that enthusiasm and capture all that money.
We know when Biden was on the ticket, it was difficult for them to staff up. People didn't want to work for Joe Biden. People didn't want to move to Wilmington. And so that left in people's minds that we talked to people in these really key senior roles, potentially four or eight years to junior for that very specific role.
And so, when it came to the Vice President being on top, they were having problems fundraising. We reported that they missed a fundraising deadline in September after revising that a couple times based off of the projections that they made when she made a lot of money coming into it. But also some of the problems with the culture, particularly around folks.
One person said that they kind of had a gallows, humor, a 9:00 to 5:00 work mentality. And that they were very hesitant to take advice from Harris aides that the Vice President brought in once she topped the ticket. And of course, there was just a lot of criticism over the campaign leadership and what the data and analytics team were doing and what research that they were actually looking at to form their analysis of the race.
TAPPER: So a lot of the aides you spoke to blamed the campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, who wanted to own all decision making, they say, for the campaign. At Biden's request, you write, Harris largely kept his preexisting campaign infrastructure, as you just noted, including keeping O'Malley Dillon --
WRIGHT: Yes.
TAPPER: -- instead of bringing in her -- her own campaign manager. And aides that you spoke with said she created a bottleneck, resisted advice, even withheld key polling information. Is there unanimity that it's her fault per se?
WRIGHT: Well, I think ultimately what I talked to is that people blame Joe Biden. They blame Joe Biden for staying on the ticket too long. They blame Joe Biden in his initial campaign for being unable to recognize just how deeply upset Americans were about the economy, about immigration, and about some of these other larger issues. But they say that these issues under the hood at the campaign, right. It's kind of like death by a thousand cuts. They may have not lost the race for them but they certainly did not help. And they feel very, very seriously that it did not put the Vice President in the best position to win when she changed over in July.
TAPPER: Certainly not. You only have 107 days to run for president. Jeff, House Speaker, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi certainly sounds like she is blaming a lot of -- a lot of this on -- on Joe Biden for not getting out of the race back in 2022, 2023. When he -- he could have like allowed a thriving Democratic process, a strong primary caucus process, somebody who could separate themselves from Joe Biden.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, this was always going to be difficult given the inflation headwinds. But many people agree with Speaker Pelosi. If you look back to the midterms of 2022, that is something that emboldened President Biden, that he thought the message from the midterms where Democrats did not get blown out, that they thought that was a -- a sign that there was some sort of need or market for him. So that was one thing.
That -- you know, there's no question, the timing and his decisions really affected everything. Also, an overreliance on abortion rights. That was also a lesson mislearned. A variety of people we've talked to said because it was so successful in 2022, they thought that this was, you know, the thing that would really overtake inflation in the economy. It simply didn't. But with young voters in particular, that remains kind of a mystery to this. Just 1 percent in each of the three blue wall states, if you will, in some of these college towns would have made a difference --
TAPPER: Yes.
ZELENY: -- and did not appeal to young voters. So look, this failure has 1,000 fathers.
WRIGHT: Yes.
ZELENY: There's no doubt. You have to give some of the blame to Vice President Harris, but certainly much more to President Biden.
TAPPER: But -- but you -- you also note Jasmine writes in her reporting, some of the -- some of the aides say Harris was unable to capture and channel voters' anger. And it's the same point that Bernie Sanders raised. He -- he was on with Dana Bash yesterday. He says working class voters have been abandoned by the Democratic Party. Now, Nancy Pelosi doesn't buy that, but what -- what are you hearing about that, and -- and Harris's inability to capture voters' anger?
ZELENY: It's the anger and also just understanding the economic realities of high housing costs. She talked about that. But, you know, appearing with the celebrities and others didn't necessarily reflect that.
WRIGHT: -- in a really piecemeal way. Not recognizing the fact that people's rents are so much higher than they were four years ago.
ZELENY: For sure. But very difficult to distance yourself from it. There's no doubt anger is part of it. But the celebrity culture --
WRIGHT: Yes.
ZELENY: -- it didn't end up playing so well.
TAPPER: All right. Jasmine Wright and Jeff Zeleny, the Stallion, we call him Jeff -- Jeff.
ZELENY: I want a nickname.
[17:45:00]
TAPPER: Thanks to both of you. He ran and won on fighting inflation. Would Ronald Reagan look at this moment as mourning in America? I'll speak to his son Michael next. Stay right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for and democracy is worth dying for because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: That was then-President Ronald Reagan at a D Day commemoration in 1984, addressing veterans of the Normandy invasion and obviously praising democracy. 1984 was exactly 40 years after D Day and now it is 40 years since Ronald Reagan gave that speech. With us is the late president's son, Michael Reagan, who's also the founder of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. That line about democracy from your father's speech, our exit polling shows that democracy was one of voters' top concerns when they went to the polls last week. What -- what do you think your father would -- would think about the state of U.S. Democracy right now?
[17:49:57]
MICHAEL REAGAN, RONALD REAGAN'S SON: I would think he would think it was good shape. That in fact voters went out and they voted. They're conscious. They voted how they wanted to vote and the votes were counted. I think that's very important. That's how he looked at democracy and so he would give a thumbs up to, in fact, what happened, no matter who won on Tuesday, he would look at it and say, listen, this is what our democracy is all about. Every four years, we get a chance to make choices, who is going to be the President of the United States and lead our country forward. So, yes, he would have -- been thumbs up for democracy. And what happened on Tuesday.
TAPPER: What do you think he would think about the state of -- of the world? Obviously, he was a -- a -- a cold warrior who believed in alliances with our European allies and -- and others. I'm sure he would be no fan of Vladimir Putin. What do you think he would -- he would make of the state of global affairs?
REAGAN: Well, he would look at global affairs much the way many of us look at that this world is in turmoil right now because the United States needs leadership. And the world looks to the United States for leadership. Remember, he walked away from Reykjavik, you know, back in the 1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev wanted him to give up SDI or Star Wars, he said no, I'm walking away.
So he walked away from Russian leaders. And -- and he knew he had to build a coalition also to bring down the Berlin Wall, Maggie Thatcher, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Helmut Kohl, Pope John Paul II. He had to build that coalition, and he ultimately did and brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989. So, he would look at what's going on in the world today as it really needs leadership in America. Like he once said, there have been four wars during my lifetime, none of which were started because America was too strong.
TAPPER: You're the founder of the Reagan Legacy Foundation, which advocates for the recognition and care of veterans, which is why we have you here on this Veterans Day. Tell us more about what your foundation is doing.
REAGAN: Well, Reagan Legacy Foundation really started back when the USS Ronald Reagan, who gave me his jacket by the way, was commissioned and christened back in 2001. And my family, Colleen and Ashley and Cameron and I said, what can we do to help the kids on the ship? And so, we started a scholarship program for the USS Ronald Reagan, the kids that live on the ship.
But one more, we said, what about those family members at home? They're trying to better their education, better their lives. So we provide scholarships also to family members left at home while their loved ones are on the ship, wherever they might be, in fact, in the world.
And later on what we did is we started a brick project, made a deal with Sainte-Mere-Eglise Normandy, France, first town freed by America on D Day. I'm sure you've been there. And we started a walkway to victory where people could go online to our website, ReaganLegacyFoundation.org, purchase a brick. It's $250 tax deductible. We're a 501(c)(3). Put the name of a loved one on it, someone you knew who served in the armed services in the European theater during World War II.
And get their name on a brick. We'll put it in the ground and you can see it when you go visit Normandy or visit Sainte-Mere-Eglise in fact, in the future. If you don't know anybody, send us a check for 250 bucks in the memo. Just put brick project and we will do it. And I'm telling you this in urgency because the area that were given by Sainte-Mere-Eglise to do the brick project, we've actually done a good job.
And so, we're going to have to stop. It ended on December 31st of this year. So whatever orders we get in between now and December 31st will be in the ground in 2025 and people go visit. And let me tell you, when -- when somebody who served in -- in the European theater walks into Sainte-Mere-Eglise, goes to that museum and sees their name on a brick, tears come to their eyes. Because what they see is people care. People support me. I did the right thing. And that is so very important.
TAPPER: All right, well, I'm going to order two bricks. One for my grandfather who served in the Navy during World War II, and the other one for my great uncle who we lost in the Air Force fighting against the Nazis in World War II. Michael Reagan, thank you so much for what you do. Appreciate it. Happy Veterans Day to you and your family.
REAGAN: Thank you. And also to you. Thank you for your service.
[17:54:01]
TAPPER: A passenger plane that departed from Florida was diverted today after it was hit by gunfire, the details next.
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TAPPER: In our World Lead, a Spirit Airlines plane was hit by gunfire today over Haiti's capital city Port-au-Prince, prompting Spirit and several other airlines to cancel flights to and from Haiti. A flight attendant suffered minor injuries. The Spirit plane which took off from Fort Lauderdale was diverted to the Dominican Republic.
In our Pop Culture Lead, not so good news in the land of Oz. Popular toy manufacturer Mattel has apologized after accidentally printing the web address of an adult website on the packaging of their newly launched "Wicked" dolls. The URL was meant to direct customers to the official site for the new "Wicked" movie. Instead, it went to a porn site. Mattel says it's taking immediate action to remedy the error.
In our Out of this World lead, get your wishes ready because tonight everyone has a chance to see shooting stars. The Northern Taurids have been lighting up the sky since mid-October, but will peak a little after midnight tonight depending on your location.
This note in honor of Veterans Day this week, today we begin the 8th Annual Homes for Our Troops Veterans Day Auction. You can bid on any number of items, dozens of them. And the money, all proceeds will go to building specially adapted homes for wounded veterans via the top- rated charity Homes for Our Troops.
A few items for auc -- auction this year. You can get four tickets and lounge passes to see Dave Matthews Band in New York City. We have a set visit and meet and greet with Will Ferrell. You can play around at golf with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. For my fellow Eagles fans, a football signed by running back Saquon Barkley and much, much, much more. Sec -- check it out at ebay.com/HFOT, Homes for Our Troops, ebay.com/HFOT. The auctions open for the next 10 days.
[18:00:17]
You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, formerly known as Twitter, and on the TikTok at JakeTapper. You can follow the show on X at TheLeadCNN. The news continues on CNN with Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room. I'll see you tomorrow.
