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House Fails to Pass Funding Plan; Stock Market Opens After Rate Cut; Combs Remains Behind Bars; NASA Astronauts Vote from Orbit. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 19, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:50]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is moving on to plan b apparently this morning. One failed vote in the bag and just 12 days to go until the government starts shutting down. And even Republicans are admitting they don't know what Johnson wants to do next.

Add to this now, Donald Trump now saying that if House Republicans don't get their way, they should shut the government down. Here's the tweet or the, whatever, the social media. "If Republicans don't get the Save Act, they should not agree to a continuing resolution in any way, shape, or form."

The House soundly voted down that proposed Republican led bill yesterday. The vote was 202-220.

Joining us now is congressional reporter for "Politico," Olivia Beavers.

Olivia, the thing that I - also stuck out hearing from Mike Johnson was, now we go back to the playbook and draw up another play.

Is it clear what that is?

OLIVIA BEAVERS, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": No, it's not. And I think, Kate, it's actually frustrated senior Republicans who say they've been left in the dark. They've been asking him for a while what the plan b is. And the pushback that he's sort of - they sort of got was, why would we telegraph what plan b is when we're trying to stick to plan a.

But when I talked to Republican, they say that this vote yesterday was basically a kabuki dance. The numbers weren't there. It was clear it was going to fail. But Mike Johnson wanted to show that he was fighting for this legislation with the Save Act for Donald Trump and his right-wing.

The trouble now is, if he goes with a clean CR, which a lot of Republicans think it will ultimately be that, whether it's his plan b or whether the Senate sends him that after they - they tried to pass another bill, whether he gets Democratic or Republican support, he's going to have to answer to Donald Trump and the right flank.

BOLDUAN: Mitch McConnell, a man who is smart when it comes to the politics of The Hill and how things should go, can go, will go, he has said repeatedly that shutdown is bad for Republicans. Republicans will be blamed and it would be bad for them politically if this happens. He does not want to see it happen.

What else are you hearing from the Senate about how this is playing out in the House?

BEAVERS: Well, I think he's right, and Speaker Johnson has said the same thing, but there is a broader sort of member management problem that the speaker might be in, which is, centrist and rank and file members have told me that the speaker has promised that they will not have a shutdown. That doesn't look good for them heading into an election. Some of these vulnerable Republicans have warned that if they do shut down they might not win reelection.

But the conservatives have, at the same time, told me that Mike Johnson has promised to fight, fight, fight in terms of trying to get the Save Act through. And in that - in their mind, and in Donald Trump's mind, that is pushing the party and pushing the Senate into a shutdown.

So, you have two sides with very different expectations of how this is going to go in the next week. And we're only just a couple of days before a shutdown.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Seeing patience is wearing thin with the repeated deja vu of the shutdown right up to the deadline story amongst the electeds.

BEAVERS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: I'm not even saying if any - not even saying anything about the reporters who are covering it, talking about the elected officials involved in it.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: It is always about the reporters covering it.

All right, just moments ago, the opening bell on Wall Street, showing a lot of green. Big, big opening after the Fed announced interest rate cuts for the first time since 2020, a half-point cut.

There's one person I want to talk to about this, CNN business editor at large and anchor Richard Quest.

The market's happy, very happy this morning, Richard.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: Yes, because they believe we're off to the races again. Not only have they got a cut yesterday of half a percentage points, but if you look at the Fed numbers and what the Fed's saying, there'll be probably two more cuts, either two quarters or a half-point before the end of the year. And the rate looking out into next year and beyond is down at 3 percent. So, the market is going to be juiced up, if you will, by what is sees as being easier monetary policy, which will then boost the economic growth and the virtuous cycle begins again, growth leading further to stop market gains, better investor returns.

[09:35:10]

It's not a perfect picture overall, but certainly the United States economy is in very robust shape.

BERMAN: No, the market is juicing. But you don't raise rates - or, sorry, you don't lower rates by half a point unless you think there is some risk to the economy. And that's one reason, in fact, that you do it.

Look, it's also the last time the Fed's going to act before the election. Vice President Harris called it welcome news. This is what Donald Trump had to say.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much. Assuming they're not just playing politics. The economy would be very bad, or they're playing politics, one or the other. But it was a big cut.

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BERMAN: What do you make of his analysis, Richard?

QUEST: That is a classic, heads, you win, tails, I lose. You can't have it both ways, Jay Powell, is what Donald Trump is saying. You've either cut by a half, which was more than expected because things are so bad, or you are giving Kamala Harris a political win. I don't think it's necessarily either of those things. I think it's much more likely what - no, we know because Powell told us yesterday, the economy is slowing. Unemployment and employment growth is the key issue now for the Fed, more so than in inflation. They have this jewel (ph) mandate that they're constantly balancing one way and the other.

So, overall, the Fed is now saying, employment is our focus, the inflation job is nearly done. And as for Donald Trump, well, he has a point. Half a percentage cut does suggest things are maybe weaker than he'd like to admit, Jay Powell. But it, by no means, when Donald Trump said the other week at the economic club in New York that the economy, the U.S. economy, was a catastrophe and a disaster, I do not know one serious senior economist on Wall Street that would agree with that assessment

BERMAN: And what we're seeing, all that green again this morning.

Kate. BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Sean "Diddy" Combs is waking up in federal custody once again after he was once again denied bail. So, what's next in now the case against the music mogul.

And an incredible rescue in the middle of traffic. And deputy jumping out of a moving cruiser to help a driver who was suffering a medical emergency.

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[09:42:15]

BERMAN: So, an incredible rescue out of Michigan this morning. A sheriff's deputy northeast of Detroit climbed from her moving cruiser into a pickup truck to save a driver. Look at this. I mean we see this in the movies, but this is real life. They thought the driver was having a medical emergency. He'd been driving erratically. And the driver did not respond to lights and sirens.

CNN affiliate WXYZ spoke with the deputy who did this.

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DEPUTY NICOLE MIRON, MACOMB COUNTY POLICE*CG N: I just was trying to think of any way possible to stop the vehicle and try to get his attention. Nothing we were really doing was working.

Once I get in, I realized the park's right at the steering wheel. I put it in the park immediately as soon as I got in the vehicle, checked on him. He was just in a daze. He wasn't sure what was really going on.

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BERMAN: I mean this definitely goes into the don't try this at home category. But what bravery there. The 63-year-old driver was taken to the hospital. The sheriff says the deputy's selfless actions ended what could have been a tragic situation.

BOLDUAN: I often think about, if there's a medical emergency, like how you would act in the car if it was someone you were with.

BERMAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: You often play out those scenario. This is remarkable.

BERMAN: It really was.

BOLDUAN: Wow.

BERMAN: All right, so, today, Sean "Diddy" Combs is still behind bars in federal detention after he was denied bail a second time. Yesterday a judge denied the hip-hop mogul's appeal for bail. The judge saying there was not enough evidence that Combs would not tamper with witnesses, obstruct justice or try to flee. Combs is accused of manipulating, threatening, and drugging women for decades, a period of time they allege that he was the boss of a criminal sex trafficking enterprise. Sean Combs has denied all charges.

Joining us right now is entertainment attorney and former litigator Lisa Bonner.

Thanks for coming in.

LISA BONNER, ENTERTAINMENT ATTORNEY AND FORMER LITIGATOR: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, prosecutors opposed releasing Diddy on any grounds. Why is this - it's in - it's a deal because they - he really, obviously, wanted to get out on bail. Why is this such a huge win for - for prosecutors?

BONNER: Well, it's important to remember that in a sex trafficking case, there is a presumption against giving the defendant bail. And that's something that's not talked about enough, that there is a situation where there is nothing that the - that the prosecution can offer that would overcome the presumption that he would not return to - for trial.

And so, aside from them being a flight risk and a danger to society, there is that heightened issue with the presumption against granting him bail from the beginning.

BERMAN: These attorneys, and it seems Sean Combs, had been working for weeks to keep this from happening, keep it from him being detained until trial. They brought - they've bragged about the fact they brought him to New York so he could be arrested here.

BOLDUAN: Right.

[09:45:01]

BERMAN: Is there anything, you think, they could have done to keep him out of federal jail, or was this inevitable given the nature of the charges and given what he had done with the witnesses prior to this?

BONNER: Well, the evidence and the deck was actually stacked against Diddy in this instance. There was so much evidence from video surveillance to a digital footprint. They have - they have thumb drives. They have hard drives. They have guns. They have weapons. They have 1,000 bottles of lubricant. They have - there's - and baby oil. There's so much evidence that was stacked against him that no matter what his - his defense team argued, that there was nothing that really could overcome this presumption that the charges are so detailed and so graphic and so horrific that once they came out for trial that there was a presumption that any defendant would flee.

So, it is also important to remember, Ghislaine Maxwell did not get bail, Jeffrey Epstein did not get bail, and these are the same cases that were tried in the same court, which is the Southern District of New York, which has a very good track record in prosecuting these types of cases.

BOLDUAN: There's a lot that is detailed in the indictment that was revealed. The -

BONNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Obviously, they - prosecutors will hope to bring up in court and at trial.

One thing that continue - that kept coming up and has continued to come up is that really horrible video from 2016 showing - that hotel video of Diddy beating, kicking his then girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. What role do you think that plays in the case going forward? I mean what - and what happens when prosecutors play that video in the trial?

BONNER: Well, there - this is - Cassie's case is a state case. And they tried to litigate that case between the two of them privately, right? They tried to get a settlement for that case. And that was open during the one-year window of the adult survivors act that New York had opened and - and - which allowed survivors of sexual assault to come forward and make their case.

Now, they had tried to settle the case between them. That did not happen. So, once that happened, Cassie filed a state case. Immediately, the next day, remember, that Sean Combs settled, which to most of us look like some admission of guilt. However, they said that there was no admission of guilt and the evidence and all of what had happened between them was sealed.

However, that opened the door for other people to come forward. So, it looked a lot less like a spat between lovers, a spat between ex's that had occurred, and really demonstrated that Diddy had a pattern of behavior that really perpetuated for long periods of time. So with that - with Cassie's case, although it's not directly related, because it is a state case and this is a federal case, there was a nexus between the two because of the fact that other people came forward and then they started to say, hmm, there's probably some meat on the bones here. And so they started looking, people started to come forward and then at that point the SDNY opened a case.

BOLDUAN: Lisa Bonner, thank you so much for coming in and laying it out for us.

BONNER: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, not on earth on Election Day. No problem. How astronauts stuck in space will be able to cast their ballots in this election.

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[09:52:55]

BERMAN: So as of this morning, all mail ballots in Wisconsin have been sent to voters. Millions of Americans will vote in person or by mail in this presidential election. But two votes will be cast some 200 miles above earth.

CNN space and defense correspondent Kristin Fisher explains why. I don't think they planned to vote from space this time, Kristin.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: They didn't, John, but there's actually a precedent. They call it vote while you float. And you know NASA, they love backup plans, contingency plans. And so there was actually a plan already in place in case a situation like this happened. And back in 1997 the Texas legislature passed a law allowing NASA astronauts to vote if they are floating in space. And so, later that year, the first NASA astronaut became the first person to vote from space. And now Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the crew of Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft, are going to follow in that astronauts' footsteps.

Listen to what they said at their big press conference last week from the International Space Station.

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BUTCH WILMORE, ASTRONAUT VOTING FROM SPACE: I sent down my request for a ballot today, as a matter of fact, and they should get it to us in a couple of weeks.

And absolutely, yes, that's a very important role that we all play as citizens is to be included in those elections. And NASA makes it very easy for us to do that. So, we're excited about that opportunity.

SUNI WILLIAMS, ASTRONAUT VOTING FROM SPACE: It's a very important duty that we have as citizens. And looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool.

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FISHER: So, in case you're wondering exactly how this works, it starts with the Harris County clerk in Texas sending the astronauts an encrypted ballot. Butch and Suni then fill it out on the International Space Station, upload an encrypted document to the station's internal computers, and then from there it pretty much follows the same way that any data is transferred from the International Space Station to the ground. It goes to a NASA satellite, then it is received by an antenna on the ground at NASA's White Sands ground terminal.

[09:55:08]

From there, John, it goes to NASA mission control in Houston, Texas. And from there it is transmitted to the Harris County clerk.

I spoke with her yesterday, and she says they are preparing to transmit the ballots to the International Space Station this Saturday. And they worked closely with the - with NASA astronauts to make sure that they can vote while they float, guys.

BERMAN: Yes, vote while you float. No, Harris County, Texas. Because my wise-ass question was, how many electoral votes does space have? But the answer is, it's not space they're voting in. They're voting in Texas, sort of, just kind of above it a lot.

BOLDUAN: So funny. You're so funny. He's so funny.

FISHER: Yes, think of it as an absentee vote, right? Just like anybody in the military does, only they're voting from up there.

BERMAN: As one does.

Kristin Fisher, thank you so much. Great to see you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL with the John and the Kate today. Sara will be back very soon.

"CNN NEWSROOM," up next.

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