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John Sandweg is Interviewed about Deportations; GOP Prepares to Take Control of Senate; Trump and Allies Prepare to Retake Power; Fire Conditions in California; Trump and Climate Crisis. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 07, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, ICE: And do they go to Congress looking for, I think, two things. One, a massive surge of resources, and, two, would be new legal authorities that allow them to kind of bypass those immigration courts.

Look, I think that, you know, the Biden administration put forward a very aggressive immigration enforcement bill, primarily dealing with the border. But now that he - you know, you have the president, you have the Senate, and if you get the House, it will be very interesting to see whether we see, you know, the first major immigration legislation in 30 years, but being an entirely pro-enforcement one.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: In absence of having details stated publicly by President Trump or his campaign and his advisers, I want to play for you what one of his top allies, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, said yesterday on what he thinks a mass deportation policy means.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Well, first of all, the first mass deportation and the one that's most important is criminals. Yes, if you are a convicted murderer or a killer or some very dangerous individual that has a criminal record in another country, or have committed crimes here, you need to be removed from the country. I don't care where you came from. You're here illegally on top of the fact that you're here to commit crimes, you must be eliminated and removed immediately from the United States of America. That's without a doubt.

Now, beyond that, I do think we have to have immigration laws and they have to be enforced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Does that put any meat on the bones for you?

SANDWEG: No. You know, Kate, listen, this is based on a - really I think the thing we should all be very worried about here with this mass deportation plan. You know, there's this kind of sense out there that on the campaign trail and what Senator Rubio's comments there that we're somehow not enforcing the law against criminal aliens. Individuals have entered this country and are committing crimes.

The truth is, actually, ICE is incredibly good at that. We monitor every state and local jail in the United States, ICE does, monitors every federal prison. If somebody's booked in there who's undocumented or is currently on a visa but is now deportable because of their crime, they're going to be arrested, they're going to be put into removal proceedings, and they're a top priority. There is no shortage or not failing to get criminal aliens.

The problem here is this. When you talk about mass deportations in the millions, there are just not a million criminals who are ready to be deported in a given year.

BOLDUAN: Right.

SANDWEG: You might - you might have a number of people arrested, but they go to prison and you can't get them until they finish their prison sentence. So, what does that mean? Well, what it means, Kate, is, you know, not all immigrants in this country are equal. We have 12 million - 11 to 12 million immigrants in this country, the vast majority of whom have never committed a crime. According to all available data, 4.6 million of these people are in mixed status families, meaning a mother, a father, an undocumented mother or father with U.S. citizen children or a U.S. citizen spouse. So, when you talk about a million people, you can't get there without getting into that population. And now you're talking about ripping families apart.

And so I think we all agree, look, we have to use ICE as a public safety tool and focus on those individuals who are committing crimes in the country. But when you kind of turn it into a numerical game and say we're going to hit a million in a year, you're not talking about just criminals. There aren't a million criminals to get. You're talking about families, and that's the real concern here.

BOLDUAN: John, it's great to have you on and your perspective. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

SANDWEG: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, Republican lawmakers preparing their agenda for a full sweep of Washington power, despite many House seats and the House majority still technically up for grabs.

And could he be the most powerful, unelected person in U.S. history? New details on what Elon Musk's role in a second Trump term will look like.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:37:16]

BERMAN: This morning, we still don't know who will control the House, but Republicans are hoping and planning for a clean sweep after taking the Senate and the White House.

CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is with us in Washington this morning.

What are you hearing from these Republicans as they look at the next few years?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, Republicans are preparing, and not just since yesterday. In fact, we spoke with many Republicans who say that they have actually been strategizing for months about what it could look like if they had control of both the House, the Senate, and the presidency. And what we have learned from conversations with those members is that they believe that they can push through a massive tax package that could include other energy provisions, as well as other border provisions. And they've started that planning in earnest back months ago.

You know, I was talking with one Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, who said that they've been having regular meetings in these small working groups to have discussions about what is working from Trump's signature tax cuts and jobs act that passed in 2017. There's a lot of those provisions that are going to run out at the end of 2025. And Republicans have been trying to think about, what are ways to improve that legislation, what are the provisions they can't live without, and then what are some ways that they may want to roll back some of Joe Biden's signature legislation, including the Inflation Reduction Act.

So, John, that just gives you a reality check that Republicans want to hit the ground running in January.

What they don't want to see is a repeat of their attempts to try to repeal and replace Obamacare back in 2017, where a lot of them felt like they were surprised that Trump won and they were caught flatfooted when it came to trying to get Republicans on the same page.

Now, I will note, that if Republicans take the House, if they maintain their majority, it's going to be a really narrow majority. And obviously, that makes it very difficult to get any legislation through, to get every Republican bought in on whatever this massive passage might look like.

BERMAN: Yes, we should be - it does look good for the Republicans to maintain the majority. And on the leadership battles, I mean that would be a good case for Speaker Johnson to make as he tries to hold on to his job.

On the Senate side, there's a race to be Republican leader there as well. What's the latest?

FOX: Yes. I mean, two really important leadership battles that are going to shape up in the days ahead. In the Senate, you have this race tween John Cornyn, John Thune, and Rick Scott. You know, a lot of people think that this race is really wide open between John Cornyn and John Thune. And both of them really spent the campaign cycle crisscrossing the country, trying to make inroads with both new members who are coming in, and have conversations with their colleagues about what they imagine could be the days ahead in the Republican, now majority, in the United States Senate.

[08:40:07]

I mean it's going to a big deal to replace McConnell. He has been there for 18 years, the longest-serving leader in the United States Senate of either party. And, you know, both John Thune, John Cornyn, Rick Scott, they're all having conversations with their colleagues. We expect that that leadership race is going to take place next week. A huge wild card, does Donald Trump get involved in this race?

John.

BERMAN: Yes, that will be fascinating to see because the third guy, Rick Scott, is the one who's trying to tie himself most closely to Donald Trump there.

Lauren Fox, nice to see you.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to keep this discussion going. Joining me now, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director, Doug Heye, and CNN political commentator and former Biden White House communications director, Kate Bedingfield.

Thank you both for being here this morning.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning.

SIDNER: I want to go first to this.

We heard from avid Trump voters about what they wanted to happen on day one. And I want you to take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On day one, well, we've got to close the border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first thing I want them to do is pardon every single January 6th protester.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immigration, trade and jobs, and endless wars, ending the endless wars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Doug, Trump does have a mandate here. He has won the Senate. He could win the House. Republicans could win the House as well. He said he would not as a dictator, except on day one. What does that look like?

HEYE: Well, I don't think we know yet. And I would say to, you know, the folks who are leading this transition, as this is just starting, this is an opportunity for Donald Trump. And clearly one of the mandates that he has, and it is a mandate, is on the border.

Now, I don't expect that we're going to see mass deportations, in part because the logistics of doing that are ridiculously hard. But we're going to see Trump do measures that tighten up the border. And what we're going to see from Donald Trump, and it's one of the things that Trump did very effectively, and Biden sort of learned from this, Donald Trump would sign an executive order, and we would see him sign it, because he would sign it and he would hold it up and say, look at what I just did. And what was on the paper was less important than him holding up the paper and saying, look at what I just did.

The border's going to be first and foremost. I'm very concerned about what he may do with, you know, pardons for people on January 6th. It's a very personal day to me, for a lot of people who have worked in the Capitol. I'll be the first to criticize him if he - if he does that. But moves on the border are what his voters, and it's a majority of voter, right? He didn't just get a plurality of votes. It looks like he's gotten a majority of votes. It's what they want to see action on. And that's where Donald Trump can demonstrate action, regardless of what the actual actions may be.

SIDNER: Kate, I do want to ask you about some of the things that Republicans did before, which is sending migrants to democratically held cities, democratically won cities. Do you think that was the key in all of this? And then going forward, what do you tell people who - 4.4 million children have one parent that is here in the country undocumented?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I do think it had an impact. I do. I think over time it served to push the issue to the front of mind for people who are not necessarily living lives that are consumed by what's happened at the border. People who live very, very far at the border felt like this issue was becoming very personal to them. You also saw both Republican and Democratic leadership in these cities and states, you know, start to really drive the idea that this was an issue. And I - you know, in many ways it was for them So I'm not, you know, discounting that - the substance of that. But certainly I think that that did play a part.

You know, I think Doug is absolutely right that the practicality, the logistics, the idea of mass deportation, you know, if Donald Trump comes out of the gate trying to execute on this, first of all, I think he is actually going to meet an enormous amount of political resistance. Absolutely true that he got a mandate in this election from voters, particularly on this issue. I absolutely don't dispute that.

I think, you know, some of the work that was done last year to put together a bipartisan bill that could get Democratic support and moderate Republican support would be a great starting place. I have to imagine that that is not how Donald Trump is thinking about this, but, you know, realistically, politically, that would be a good starting point.

I think if he comes out of the gate trying to execute on mass deportation, he's actually going to meet more political resistance that he might anticipate. So, we'll see. This is a moment, as Doug said rightly, this is a moment for him to decide how he wants to position on this and kind of what he wants the tenor of the first few months of his administration to look like.

SIDNER: Kate, the race was not tight. The polls were wrong on that particular issue. Plus, as we just mentioned, Democrats lost the Senate. What are the conversations happening among Democrats today?

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, look, there's a lot of soul searching. There's a lot of discussion of what was off the mark here, what in the messaging was off the mark. We have - you know, and this is not unique to this past campaign.

[08:45:01]

We have over the course of, you know, the last 10, 15 years, we - Democrats have really lost a connection with a group that used to be a foundation of the Democratic Party, working class voters. Certainly, white working class voters, but working class voters of color. And we saw erosion and attrition in that group on Tuesday night in a way that is deeply problematic for the Democratic Party. So, there's a lot of discussion of how - how do we think about reorienting how - what we prioritize, how we talk about what we prioritize.

And then I will say, there are also separately conversations about tactical issues. You know, how do we re-think campaigning on a national level, you know? How do we rethink what a field - w hat a successful field program looks like? How do we rethink what a successful media program looks like? That landscape has changed so much. And I think the Harris campaign - I give them credit. I think they did a lot to do kind of non - you know, what we would call nontraditional media outreach. But the way campaigns at the national level are being run have changed and Democrats are talking about, how do we rethink how we do this.

SIDNER: Doug, I want to ask you about some of the slate of people who may be joining the Trump administration. One of whom is Elon Musk, who would be the richest person in the world to sort of join an administration. He has a ton of power. And "Axios" sort of put it this way. And I just kind of wanted to read this because I thought it was really interesting. They said, "behind the curtain, the most powerful, unelected man ever." And it goes on to say, "the most influential backer of President-elect Trump, thanks to his money, time, and X factor," mentioning X, the social media component, "now sits at the pinnacle of power in business, government influence, and global information and misinformation flow."

Donald Trump has said that he wanted - if he was going to bring Musk on, that he wanted to slash the federal government like he slashed workers at Twitter. What do you expect from this new slate of people who might be joining the administration?

HEYE: Well, first, I don't expect that Elon Musk will go into the administration. Quite often in politics, after there's an election, I think Kate would probably agree with this, quite often we say, the person who doesn't go in, when we look at them and say, oh, that's a smart move. They stay on the outside where they might have more influence. And if they're boxed in, in some role, whether it's, you know, the office of personnel management or a secretary of this or that, being on the outside gives you more influence. And with Elon Musk, certainly that's a part of it. And in part because, when you go inside, you limit your income. And that's a very real thing that Elon Musk will - you know, will have to deal with, or others like him.

And, you know, Sara, I would tell you, as someone who's always been very skeptical of Donald Trump, look, I learned a lot on Tuesday, as I think a lot of voters did. You know, I'm tempering my skepticism with also hope. And I'm trying to be optimistic as much as I can. And so I hear various names being talked about. Some of which I think are terrible. Don't hire that person. Other times I hear, I got a call last night.

What about Mike Conaway, the former Intel chair, the former Ag chair, being the secretary of agriculture. These are the kind of professionals that we need in government, whether it's a Republican administration or a Democratic administration. These are the kind of professionals who are going to do that good work. And that's where I'm focusing my attention on. Who can Donald Trump, that's going to be a force of good. Mike Conaway's a great example.

And, you know, we think of agriculture as being not one of the really important cabinet posts, unless you eat food, right? And as Kate knows, every position that is - that this administration is going to bring people on for is very critical for what the American people are facing in their, you know, in their lives. And so that's where I think we need focus our efforts on, who is going to come in here. Are they going to be a force of good or a force of bad?

Robert . Kennedy Jr., bad. Don't go in this administration. Other people, good.

SIDNER: Doug and Kate, like - you're both agreeing. I see head nodding. So, we're going to leave it there because it's nice to see that, you know what I mean?

HEYE: Democrats should listen to Kate!

BEDINGFIELD: It is possible.

HEYE: Listen to what Kate said!

BEDINGFIELD: Oh, well, everyone should listen to what Doug's saying!

HEYE: Democrats should listen to her.

SIDNER: Wow. This is - this is unprecedented.

Thank you both so much, Doug Heye and Kate Bedingfield.

HEYE: She didn't say that a week ago.

BEDINGFIELD: That is true.

SIDNER: Really do appreciate you both coming on.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, a new warning from the makers of Ozempic after copies of those popular weigh loss drugs are now leading to at least ten deaths.

And the world's richest people got a lot richer after Donald Trump's re-election. What about his win gave them an extra $64 billion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:53:20]

BERMAN: All right, new concerns this morning about knockoff drugs in the sphere of popular weight loss drugs like Ozempic. Due to the surge in popularity, unapproved versions of the drug are being sold to meet demand. The CEO of Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, says an ingredient in those variants is not FDA approved and has been associated with at least 100 hospitalizations and ten deaths. The FDA says these reports of adverse effects are not yet verified. They are looking into it.

This morning, Hurricane Rafael is in the Gulf of Mexico after hitting Cuba as a category three storm. It knocked out Cuba's electrical grid. Rafael now forecast to hover over the gulf for the next few days.

New this morning, the world's ten richest people got a record $64 billion richer after Donald Trump's election. That is according to the Bloomberg Billionaire's Index. That does include two Trump supporters. Elon Musk's wealth grew by more than $26 billion. Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison gained more than $5 billion. Also on the list, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett. Nice to see all those people getting a break finally.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Right now, 27 million people in California are facing dangerous fire conditions. Strong winds continuing to fuel the wildfires there. A red flag warning is in effect. More than 14,000 people have been ordered to evacuate, and still some stayed behind to try and save their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All three of these houses would be gone if we weren't here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did you guys do to save these homes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shovels and garden hoses, believe it or not. We had no pressure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my goodness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it was enough to give us - to stop the fire from - well, it's so windy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't keep your hat on.

[08:55:02]

But - and it's blowing the - blowing the fire like crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean you could see the winds there.

CNN's Derek Van Dam tracking this one for us.

Derek, the word is, is conditions are actually going to get worse as the sun's coming up today?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, no, that is exactly correct. We have the next couple of hours, which are absolutely critical because of this down-sloping effect of the winds that come off of the mountainsides and actually pick up in the overnight hours and just past sunrise, which is about a half an hour ago along the west coast.

Regardless, we have had multiple structures that have burned in Ventura County. We have had a mandatory evacuation of the National Weather Service because of intense smoke in the Los Angeles bureau there. There's also been multiple instances of these fires just spreading rapidly and out of control.

In fact, a PDS, which is known as a particularly dangerous situation, rarely issued from the National Weather Service for a red flag warning has been extended through 9:00 a.m. Eastern - or 9:00 a.m. local and 12:00 a.m. - or 12:00 p.m. Eastern, right along this area, western Los Angeles County and into Ventura County. And that is because the winds here are still gusting over 50 miles per hour, especially in some of those higher elevations.

We get the sun to warm things up. We relax the winds through the afternoon. But it is, again, the next couple of hours that are so critical in this firefighting effort.

But this is not good. I don't like to see relative humidity values bouncing between 10 and 20 percent. That means it is bone dry outside.

And what we've also noticed, once we see the winds relax from this Santa Ana wind event, we're going to see the winds change directions for tomorrow and bring the smoke that's been blowing offshore, inland. And then that means it's going to suffocate much of this area. In fact, there is a dense smoke advisory in effect. Anywhere you see this shading of gray, including the greater Los Angeles area. And just check out these apocalyptic scenes already noted in some coastal communities across southwestern California. The orange hue to the sky reminds me of what happened in New York City last season when the wildfire smoke blew in from Canada.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, that is crazy to see.

VAN DAM: Right.

BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Derek. Thank you so much for that.

Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you.

These wildfires are just the latest in a slew of unprecedented, severe weather events, including, as you remember, back-to-back hurricanes, extreme heat. President-elect Donald Trump is a known climate denier, vowing to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord a second time. His election comes on the heels of startling new data showing the worsening effects of delaying action against climate change.

CNN's Bill Weir is joining us now.

What could a second Trump, you know, administration mean for the planet, which is a huge question?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It is a very big question, at such a vital time. Science says these next five years are everything when it comes to winding down the fuels that burn, replacing them with the abundant clean energy of the sun in the sky. But he wants to roll it all back. If the first term was any indication, he will gut all environmental regulations, give oil and gas producers sort of carte blanche, as he promised there as well.

It will be interesting to see how much he can claw back of the Inflation Reduction Act, because a lot of that money is going into Republican districts, over 75 percent of it right now.

By this is really the crux of it. Take a look at this temperature chart, Sara. This year, 2024, according to Copernicus, the European space unit, will shatter all records, being the warmest ever.

SIDNER: Wow.

WEIR: And it's the first year where we've blown past the 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 3 degrees Fahrenheit limit of the Paris Climate Accords. Every country in the world says we're going to try to hold the line at 1.5. And now we are here, just as maybe the most notorious climate denier in history takes power once again.

SIDNER: It is concerning to a lot of people. Young people have talked about this quite a bit.

What does this tell us about what we will see? I mean temperatures hottest ever this year?

WEIR: Right. Right. And it's all the knockoff effects. There's a new report out that insurance losses in the last decade, 50 percent higher in the decade before. It's changes property values and building codes and immigrant streams and supply chains. All of this is happening in real time. So, you have to adapt to the pain that's already built in while trying to mitigate the price of it right now.

And then there's disaster response, which we saw the very different approaches under the Trump and Biden administration as to who gets the aid. Sometimes it's a political favor under Trump. So, all of this has folks in the climate and environmental space very, very worried.

And it also has a lot of brave faces. You've got folks from California saying, we will continue to lead. The state of Washington passed a sweeping climate bond bill there, and laws to sort of protect that. Californians passed that bond bill. So, what you might see is sort of a balkanization of states like Minnesota, Michigan, California, that are going to lead the way on this clean technologies.

But at the end of the day, these cleaner alternatives now are the cheapest in human history.

SIDNER: Right.

[09:00:04]

WEIR: So, Texas leads the nation in green energy right now. So, we'll see.