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Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) Discusses Biden Touting Bidenomics, GA Indictment Of Trump, 18 Co-Conspirators, Special Counsel Named In Hunter Biden Case; Fani Willis' Rise To Fulton County District Attorney; Poll: Nearly 1/3 Of U.S. Adults Have Link To An Opioid Addiction. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 15, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:34:10]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Happening now, President Biden touts Bidenomics. He is in the battleground state of Wisconsin talking up the high-paying clean energy jobs created during his administration.

The White House says President Biden's policies are helping America to, quote, "grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not top down."

The president clearly trying to put his economic agenda at the forefront of his re-election campaign.

But, Jessica, of course, the former president's fourth indictment dominating headlines for now. We'll see, what are the deciding factors as we get into the 2024 election cycle.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: It does suck up a lot of oxygen, Jim.

And that is the question. Is this the right strategy for Democrats as they inch closer to the 2024 election?

And joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. She also served as a Trump impeachment manager.

[14:35:01]

Congresswoman, great to have you on. Thanks so much for being here.

I just want to ask you, first, we know the president is there in that battleground state of Wisconsin talking about his achievements, talking about the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act and the jobs he's trying to create.

What do you think about the challenge of him and Democrats like yourself trying to break through to voters in this election cycle when we, you know -- when the news coverage is so dominated right now by former President Trump?

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Well, Jessica, good to be with you. Good to be with another Dean.

(LAUGHTER)

M. DEAN: I did listen to some of the remarks of the president. And I had the pleasure of working on the regional leadership council alongside the White House to showcase exactly what we did over the course of the last Congress, Congress and a half.

From the American Rescue Plan, the infrastructure bill, CHIPS and Science Act, Safer Communities Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

These are transformational bills with billions and billions of dollars coming into every single community across this country to make their community stronger and safer.

So we'll keep touting that message. We'll keep talking about it, the difference that it is making.

And you don't have to look much farther than our own economy. Inflation down to 3 percent, 13 million jobs created, 800,000 jobs in manufacturing. And so many more things to talk about.

And if you look at us as compared with other countries around the world who are trying to recover after Covid and a global shutdown, our inflation rate is far lower than everyone else.

The United Kingdom, for example, struggling at over 8 percent inflation. We'll continue to talk about that message.

As some of my friends say, we can walk and chew gum at the same time as we make sure that this country pursues, not a strategy against the former president, pursues the law against the former president both criminal and civil. He must be held to account.

And so I hope your viewers know that it's not normal for us to wake up to a fourth indictment of a former president of the United States. We must not become numb to this.

And yet, the president must be held -- former president must be held to account.

DEAN: And I want to talk just a little bit more before we move on to the next subject about 2024 and the president's re-election campaign.

Because the special counsel was just named in the Hunter Biden case. His advisers are accepting the fact that that's probably going to hang around as a talking point as we head into 2024.

And so many of your Republican colleagues had called for that. Now that they have it, it doesn't seem to be enough for them.

What do you make of the attorney general naming the special counsel? Do you think it was the right move? And how do you hope that Biden and his campaign address this moving into the election?

M. DEAN: I can't judge whether it was the right move because, certainly, we don't have the evidence.

But I will judge the fact that this is not at all equivalent to what we're talking about with Donald Trump.

Take a look at this indictment. I remember, Jessica, I stood on the floor of the Senate when we were involved in the trial for impeachment number two.

And I remember part of my presentation was around that now famous phone call that the president made with Mark Meadows to Brad Raffensperger in Georgia saying he just wanted to find 11,780 votes.

At the time that I said that, and we played the audio from that exchange, that phone call the president called the perfect phone call, I heard a gasp from the Republican side of the Senate. Someone whispered, "Oh, my gosh. He will be held to account for that."

It struck me in two ways. Number one, that some of these Senators did not know the evidence against the president, maybe hadn't even heard of that phone call.

And number two, they recognized the grievousness of that kind of a phone call. The corruption and criminality that it reveals.

So I think we did what we could with the evidence we had with our impeachment. And a lot of that evidence was then flushed out even greater by the January 6th committee.

And I remember the phone call, to me, felt like the tip of the iceberg. And now as I read this indictment, this 98-page indictment, we see what was underneath that tip of the iceberg.

More than 40, 50 people working day and night hour after hour day after day flying across the country to lie and to try to steal the election.

DEAN: And I did want to ask you about that because you make a good point, which is you all were working with more limited information. And now this indictment has revealed -- with each indictment, we get more information, we get more -- a timeline or details.

What has struck -- what has struck you about this latest indictment out of Georgia?

[14:39:58]

M. DEAN: The number of people busily working to lie, knowing that they were wrong, creating false slates of electors, falsifying documents, encouraging others to lie.

You read in here the knock on the door of Ruby Freeman. How chilling is that? What people were put through as a result of Trump's narcissistic need for authority, for power, for money.

And in this case, now just to plain old stay out of prison. It was extraordinary. Even one of the quotes by John Eastman is, "I just want you to do one

more slightly wrong thing" -- I'm not paraphrasing it perfectly. They knew what they were involved in was a criminal conspiracy to try to hold on to the election.

When is it that the Republican leadership is going to part company with this president who came in the door with a pattern of corruption?

You remember, days before he was elected, he paid off a former mistress in order that the electorate would not know it and then had others falsify documents.

He went out the door stealing classified secrets. In between, of course, he incited and attempted a coup to take over. And by the way killing police officers, maiming police officers, sending every one of us running for our lives, including his own vice president, as he sat back and watched for hours.

When will, for example, Mr. McConnell part ways with this president? It is time.

DEAN: All right. Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, we're going to leave it there.

Thanks again. It's nice to see you.

Jim?

M. DEAN: Good to see you.

SCIUTTO: Still to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, we are taking a closer look at the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney leading the case against Donald Trump and his allies. That's coming up.

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[14:46:08]

SCIUTTO: Donald Trump is publicly criticizing the latest indictment in Georgia, also repeating some of the same campaign lies and election lies about Georgia.

This morning, he made it personal. He attacked Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis calling her, quote, "out of control and corrupt." Willis says she is just doing her job.

She spearheaded this two-year-long investigation and Fulton County's first female D.A. has not been shy about taking on high-profile cases.

CNN's Randi Kaye shows us how Willis arrived at this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY, GA, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It doesn't matter if you're rich, poor, black, white, Democrat or Republican, if you violated the law, you're going to be charged. RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis talking about her investigation into Donald Trump's alleged attempt to influence Georgia's 2020 election.

At the center of it all, a phone call Trump had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the election.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (voice-over): I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more that we have because we won the state.

WILLIS: Very thankful that you are here.

KAYE: When that call was made, Willis had only been in office for one day. Ever since, she's been leading the charge on the investigation.

WILLIS: Been working for two and a half years. We're ready to go.

KAYE: Ready to go. And in the process, ruffling Trump's feathers.

TRUMP (on camera): In Georgia, the racist district attorney goes after me for a perfect phone call.

And this woman is not a capable woman.

She's a racist, and this is a person that wants to indict me.

KAYE: Those accusations of racism unfounded.

Team Trump also included Willis in this ad called the Fraud Squad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD ANNOUNCER: And Biden's newest lackey, Atlanta D.A. Fani Willis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Despite it all, Willis hardly seems rattled by Trump's continued attacks.

WILLIS: It's ridiculous in nature, but I support his right to be protected by the First Amendment and say what he likes.

KAYE: Since investigating Trump, Willis says she's been subjected to racist taunts.

WILLIS: I've never been called the "N" word so much in my life.

KAYE: Willis, a Democrat, was elected Fulton County's first female district attorney after ousting a six-term incumbent in a primary.

She'd built a name for herself as a leading prosecutor in the Atlanta public school cheating scandal, securing convictions for 11 of the 12 defendants.

TRUMP: Fake machines, yes. KAYE: In her first two years in office, Willis has juggled investigating Trump and subpoenaing some of his top allies, while also going after gangs like Drug Rich.

She's also handed down Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations indictments to popular rappers, including Young Thug and Gunna.

(SINGING)

KAYE: Willis has cited the rapper's song lyrics as evidence in the indictments against them, something her critics say infringes on First Amendment rights.

WILLIS: I have some legal advice, don't confess to crimes on rap lyrics if you do not want them used, or at least get out of my county.

KAYE (on camera): Willis was born in California. Her name, Fani, is Swahili, and it means prosperous.

After her parents' divorce, she was raised primarily by her father. He was a criminal defense attorney and member of the Black Panther Party.

(voice-over): After attending Howard University, she graduated from Emory University School of Law in 1996. She worked in the private sector for a time, then joined the Fulton County Prosecutor's Office in 2001.

According to "The New York Times," a spokesperson says that since Willis became D.A., her office's conviction rate has stood at close to 90 percent.

WILLIS: I truly believe God personally selected me here for this moment in time, and I'm going to do the job that I'm blessed to be able to do.

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:50:01]

DEAN: Coming up, grim new statistics on drug addiction in the United States. The number of deadly overdoses broke a record last year. Plus, a new poll on opioid use equally troubling, when we come back.

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DEAN: A new indication today showing how the opioid crisis ravaging American families. In a new poll, three out of 10 adults say they or someone in the family has been addicted to opioids or illegal drugs like heroin.

CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, is tracking this for us.

Meg, what else did this poll reveal? These are stunning statistics.

[14:55:03]

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They are. One of the most sort of stunning ones of all of them is that 9 percent of U.S. adults in this poll said that a family member had died from an overdose. That is almost one in 10 adults in the United States.

And opioids, in particular, were a major concern. About 32 percent of people in this poll said that they were worried someone in their family will overdose on opioids.

And 39 percent said they're specifically worried someone in their family will unintentionally consume fentanyl. That was particularly strong finding in rural areas.

The poll also looked at alcohol use. We know that use of alcohol surged during the Covid pandemic. It found that 54 percent of people in this poll reported that a family member had ever been addicted to alcohol. And 13 percent, almost one in eight, said they had experienced alcohol addiction.

One of the concerning things about this, even as staggering as these numbers are, less than half of the people who said they experienced some addiction or their family members have said they got treatment for it.

This really backs up other findings we found that treatment for addiction in the U.S. is really not reaching the people who need it the most.

Back over to you.

DEAN: So many people out there who need it.

All right, Meg Tirrell, thanks so much.

Jim?

SCIUTTO: Those numbers are stunning.

Coming up, former President Donald Trump indicted again. He has 10 days to surrender to authorities now. What is next for Trump and his team? Just ahead.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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