Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

New Reaction to Michigan Primaries; Anthony Daniels is Interviewed about the IVF Ruling; Texas Execution Tonight. Aired 9:30- 10a ET

Aired February 28, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:33:41]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new reaction this morning from both Democrats and Republicans following the Michigan primaries and heading into Super Tuesday, now less than a week away.

With me now, CNN political commentator, former Obama White House senior adviser, Ashley Allison. Also, Republican strategist, and former RNC communications director, Doug Heye.

And, Ashley, I want to read you some reporting that we just got from the White House from MJ Lee, who has a quote from one campaign official saying, "any reporting that we're panicked or deeply concerned would be wrong."

Now, when I read that, I immediately thought about the movie "Wag the Dog," where Robert de Niro basically says, I've got no information for you on the B-3 bomber. I mean who's saying that they're panicked here? Why are they saying they're not panicked? What's the concern there

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there's a difference between being panicked and being alert and aware of the current situation that your campaign would be in. We have eight months before this election. And so, I understand, you can't live in a constant state of panic when you don't have the best night that you thought you were going to have.

But I do think that the campaign is aware and is going to be paying attention to this community and Dearborn, which spans beyond just the Arab American and Muslim community, the various voters, young voters, progressive voters, and they're going to be -- continue to build their infrastructure in many battleground states over the next eight months and have intense and thorough and ongoing conversations with these individuals that voted committed and may not be totally aligned or not at all align with where the president is currently on how he's handling the war with Israel and Hamas.

[09:35:22]

But you can't just ignore what happened last night. And I don't think the administration or the campaign is. This is one of the biggest issues that has happened in their administration. I'm referring to the war that's happening in the Middle East right now. And that they know voters care about it and they're going to engage and have this conversation.

BERMAN: So, Doug, you know on the Republican side there's plenty of schadenfreude right now, looking at the Democratic primary results, saying that, look, President Biden, you know, 100,000 people voted uncommitted. Well, Donald Trump had his best primary yet this cycle and he's still dropping 30 percent to Nikki Haley. You know, more than 250,000 people voted against Donald Trump last night. So, how - how should that concern the Trump campaign going forward?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think for both campaigns, John, I - I look at these results, and for the general election, I think of a different move. I think of Kevin Bacon in "Animal House" saying, all is well, be calm, while all hell is breaking loose in the background behind you. Michigan voters, 100,000 of them, Michigan Democrat, sent a message to the Biden campaign. They said, we are not happy with you. That's a problem.

Nikki Haley's results in South Carolina, and in other states, say that Donald Trump has a problem when it comes to the general election. And what we see is, for November, independent voters, and America by and large is saying, we do not want this sequel. This is the movable object against the resistible force. And both of these candidates can lose to each other and they're the only candidates potentially that could lose to each other. That's a problem for both of these campaigns. And it's why there's a lot of angst and handwringing that's still going on within the parties.

BERMAN: Ashley, you brought up the fact that obviously there was a lot of focus on the Arab American community in Michigan because it is one of the largest in the country. But it was also the college counties, like around Ann Arbor, that you had high numbers of people voting uncommitted. What can President Biden do in terms of outreach to younger voters that he hasn't done already? I mean he's already forgiven all the student debt that he can. He's already showing up on Seth Meyers and TikTok. How does he reach the younger crowd?

ALLISON: Well, he has to keep showing up. You can't do -- and I'm not saying this is what the campaign is doing -- you can't do one TikTok and think you've reached all of young Americans. Some aren't on TikTok, some are. But he's going to need to continue to have this conversation with young voters, talking to them about their issues. Young voters, also most voters at this point in our electoral cycle are not single issue voters, so they care about the war that is happening in the Middle East and in Ukraine. They care about student loan debt. But they also care about the environment. And so the president needs to show up, not just on college campuses, but other places -- not every young person goes to college -- and have these conversations with them, listen to them, engage with them, continue to prove all the things that he's done and let them know what he will continue to do if they trust him with four more years.

BERMAN: Doug Heye -- I believe it was a great man, Doug Heye, who said on CNN NEWS CENTRAL at one point, that you're - you know, you're not out until you're out. So Nikki Haley says she's staying in through super Tuesday. Do you think she stays in past that? Do you think she'll stay in until the conventions at this point?

HEYE: Well, I'm hoping to see her. I'll be in North Carolina this weekend. I hope to see her at one of her events in Raleigh to see firsthand whether or not she does. She's certainly making an argument that general election voters want to hear. And it's -- and it's a strong one. The reality is, that's not where the Republican Party is. She's conceding some of that. Whether she stays in past Super Tuesday I think depends potentially on some of these results. But, yes, she's not going to say, I may get out after Super Tuesday, because at that point you might as well get out before Super Tuesday. So, she's going to continue to say the things that she's been saying and say them loudly and frequently because there is an audience that wants that. It's a small audience within the Republican Party, but it's there. And if you're an independent voter, you like that messaging a whole lot.

BERMAN: Ashley Allison, Doug Heye, great to see you both this morning. Thank you so much.

HEYE: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Moments from now hundreds of people are expected to be attending a rally outside the Alabama state capital as families are protesting the state supreme court's decision impacting IVF.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:44:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Next hour IVF families and activists, supporters, are set to rally outside the Alabama state legislature. State lawmakers started - are right now starting to make moves to counter what the fallout really has been from the state supreme court ruling with regard to IVF treatments. The moves include trying to protect IVF patients and providers. And Democrats have introduced a bill that would move to clarify this. Let me read you a portion. "Any fertilized human egg or human embryo that exists outside of a human uterus is not considered an unborn child or human being for any purpose under state law."

Joining us right now is Democratic State Representative Anthony Daniels. He's a state house minority leader who sponsored that bill that I was just describing a portion of it.

Minority Leader, thank you for coming on this morning.

Your bill, and especially what I just read there, is trying to directly counter the state supreme court ruling that said an embryo is considered child under state law.

[09:45:01]

State Republican lawmakers, they're filing similar yet different measures. What is the status of your bill? How soon could you see a vote?

ANTHONY DANIELS (D), MINORITY LEADER, ALABAMA STATE HOUSE: Well, we can see a vote on my bill as early as Tuesday. Right now the committees are meeting today. My bill is not on the agenda. They did assign my bill to the Judiciary Committee, instead of the Health Committee. But they assigned another bill to the health committee, which further does more damage and more unintended consequences. And so they're not correcting the problem, they're actually making it worse.

BOLDUAN: So you're saying -- and I assume you're talking about one of the bills that Republicans have sponsored, that Republicans have come up with?

DANIELS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: So, what's happening here? I mean take - take - take us in -

DANIELS: Absolutely. Republican senators -

BOLDUAN: Take us inside the state legislature. From your view, what is happening? Do you think your bill is going to get a vote eventually?

DANIELS: I think that my bill has an -- has a chance. I think that once people see the difference between my bill -- the stark difference between my bill and the bill that the Republican's introduced. My bill actually addresses the problem and addresses the court ruling. Their bill just further protects -- gives immunity with no regard to a fertilized embryo not being a child.

So, there's no -- their bill doesn't actually address the issue that the courts have - have ruled on.

BOLDUAN: What those bills - what you're getting at, just to kind of bring people up to speed -

DANIELS: And so for -

BOLDUAN: And - and if I'm summarizing and paraphrasing correctly, is offering protections from liability to patients and providers that offer these treatments. I think I am paraphrasing that correctly.

I have to say, it is hard to find bipartisan agreement on anything anywhere when it comes to any legislature kind of across the country this moment.

Do you think kind of broadly, everyone in terms of state lawmakers, Democrat and Republican, are on board with trying to do something to counter what the state supreme court ruling did?

DANIELS: I will say that 100 percent of the Democrats are on board with trying to address this. There are some Republicans that may fit into the more moderate category, that's also interested in solving this issue. But you have those that are on the far right that are still thinking -- they're still applauding the supreme court decision instead of trying to address this issue head on. And so there is a coalition that can be assembled to address this

issue head-on. But I think that the shortsightedness of the senator's bill does not address the issue. And so as -- from a Democratic standpoint, we're not necessarily on board. We're not - we're not endorsing the senator's bill. We're still in support of my bill that clearly defines a fertilized embryo of not being a child.

BOLDUAN: Democrats in Congress, they are also trying to take action on the federal level with regard to this today. A -- kind of a bid to enshrine protections for IVF into federal law. But Senate Republicans are signaling they want to block that effort because they say that IVF is a state's rights issue. They think it's something that the states should be handling, not the federal government.

Do you see Congress -- do you want to see Congress stepping in to take action on this, or do you want issues surrounding IVF to be left to state lawmakers like yourself?

DANIELS: Well, I what -- I would like Congress to address this issue. As we've seen from the debate of Roe v. Wade being overturned, and the law that Alabama has is one of the worst in the country, most restrictive abortion ban in the country. And so we've - states have given -- been given an opportunity to address many important issues that deals with women's reproductive rights, but the state of Alabama have chosen to - to put in the most restrictive law. And so we can't depend on the state of Alabama to solve this problem at the level that we need for families.

BOLDUAN: A rally is going to be happening very soon today at the state capital of IVF families and advocates who are pushing for protections for IVF treatments. And it sounds like there may be progress amongst state lawmakers, but kind of unclear what you're all -- what the path forward is to get to the governor's desk. We'll have to check back again.

Minority Leader Daniels, thank you for joining us.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we are standing by in Washington. Behind me you see a lot of expectant cameras and reporters waiting for the arrival of Hunter Biden, who will testify behind closed doors. Let's wait and see if he is, in fact, arriving and we can see him behind these very tall people. In any case, Hunter Biden is set to arrive. He will testify shortly in the impeachment inquiry into his father. The testimony itself will be behind closed doors with no cameras. The transcripts of the deposition will be released to both Democrats and Republicans at the same time.

We're going to keep our eye on this over the next few minutes. We will let you know when he has arrived.

[09:50:00]

Also, the fate of a death row inmate who insists he is innocent is now in the hands of the Texas governor. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, just in, Hunter Biden has arrived on Capitol Hill. You are looking at pictures from just moments ago. He is there for a closed-door deposition in the impeachment inquiry into his father. As you saw right there, he did not respond to reporter questions. So, said nothing to little as he arrived. And he will head behind closed doors. There will be no video cameras in there, but he will be there for several hours answering questions in this deposition.

[09:55:04]

We will give you more information as it becomes available there.

Now, time is running out for a Texas inmate on death row set to be executed tonight. Ivan Cantu says he is innocent and has evidence showing he deserves a new trial. He was convicted of double murder and 2001. An appeals panel unanimously rejected his request for a stay or a new trial. Now, hope for any delay rests in the governor's hands of Texas.

CNN's senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera is outside the prison in Huntsville, Texas, this morning.

Ed, bring us up to speed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ivan Cantu is simply running out of legal options at this point. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his efforts to block this execution. We heard yesterday from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and a federal appeals court as well that rejected claims to get Ivan Cantu more time. And his supporters say that he needs more time so that the evidence they say that has emerged in just the last few years, which includes what they believe is false testimony from one of the key witnesses, one of the other key witnesses who has recanted the testimony, and that testimony was that Ivan Cantu had confessed to the murders of his cousin, James Mosqueda, and his fiance, Amy Kitchen, back in November of 2000. Despite all of that, all of the courts rejecting all of these last-minute appeals.

We sat down yesterday with Ivan Cantu's mother, who is here in the Huntsville area. In fact, right now she is in her final meeting with her son at the prison were death row inmates are kept. And this is what she told us here in the hours ahead of this execution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVIA CANTU, MOTHER OF DEATH ROW INMATE IVAN CANTU: I'm still waiting for a stay of execution. And until I hear that, I'm still going full forward in believing that he's going to be spared, that somebody's going to get their senses about them and stop this and push the pause button and allow his -- his voice to be heard.

LAVANDERA: Do you ever stop and think of your life without your son in it?

CANTU: No. Not one time. I'm hoping that I die before my children.

If I would have it different, I'd trade my life for Ivan's. Take me, not him. He deserves to live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And the last-minute push to try to spare Ivan Cantu's life continues. He is -- his spiritual advisor will be Sister Helen Prejean, who wrote the book, "Dead Man Walking." There's also the support of Kim Kardashian and others from around the world. They're trying to get Governor Greg Abbott to offer a one-time 30-day reprieve so that more of this evidence can be fleshed out. But at this point, time is running out.

Ivan Cantu is scheduled to be executed some time after 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

John.

BERMAN: It is in Governor Greg Abbott's hands.

All right, Ed Lavandera in Texas. Thank you so much, Ed.

BOLDUAN: And thank you all so much for joining us today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Jim Acosta is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)