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Dem Anger at Biden for not Stepping Aside Sooner Boils Over; Trump Allies Jockeying for High-Powered Administration Posts; GOP Prepares to Take Control of Senate, Back Trump's Agenda; Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) Discusses About Positions in Second Trump Administration; Next Steps for Trump's Criminal & Civil Cases; CNN Projects Winners in Five House Races. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 07, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:21]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Let the finger-pointing begin. Frustrations are boiling over within the Democratic Party over President Biden's decision not to step out of the race sooner. We have details on the blame game playing out behind the scenes.

Meantime, President-elect Donald Trump is in full transition mode with allies maneuvering for his - for positions in his administration. We'll tell you who may be topping the list.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And later, Rudy Giuliani returns to court after the two women he defamed accused him of hiding assets, including this, the Mercedes that he was just spotted in. We're going to tell you what the judge just told him.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: This hour, Democrats are doing some soul-searching while Trump allies are doing searching for jobs. Today, as the Democratic Party tries to regroup and pick up the pieces following Donald Trump's decisive victory on Tuesday, we're learning new details on a growing wave of blame aimed directly at President Biden over his refusal to step aside sooner.

Earlier today, Biden addressed the nation for the first time since Trump's historic win two days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I also hope we can lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair and it is transparent. And it can be trusted, win or lose. I will do my duty as president, I'll fulfill my oath and I'll honor the Constitution. On January 20th, we'll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: As President Biden promises a smooth transition, we're told the President-elect's allies are working frantically behind the scenes to secure jobs in his new administration and that Trump is ready to reward those who stayed loyal to him. Kayla Tausche is live from the White House. Kristen Holmes live for us from West Palm Beach near Mar- a-Lago and we have Manu Raju here with us in studio on where things stand on the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

Kayla, we'll start with you.

What's the White House saying about Democrats blaming Biden for this defeat?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the White House is having none of it. Earlier today, saying that they're going to leave the postmortem to the pundits and continuing to say that President Biden's decision to step aside in July and immediately endorse Vice President Kamala Harris was selfless. Here's the Press Secretary just a few moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: President Biden believes that he made the right decision when he decided to step aside and immediately endorse the Vice President, and you saw the party come behind her, support her and he believed it was the right thing for the American people. He put himself aside. This was not about him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: But the White House also alluding to a few reasons why the President felt empowered to remain in the race and run for reelection as he decided a couple years ago, citing first the results in the 2022 midterms, which had not been the red wave that many had expected, emboldening not only the President but also his inner circle, his top aides, that he could continue in the race, run again and defeat Donald Trump again. And then there's also the fact that Biden aides continue to believe that he is the only person that has and could beat Donald Trump. And even some that I've spoken to in recent days point to 2016, and they point to this election, and they say that remains true.

All that to say, though, the party is doing some serious finger- pointing, suggesting that had Biden announced that he was not seeking reelection, as roughly 80 percent of American voters suggested he should do back in 2023, that there would have been a robust primary process, perhaps someone else, another rising star within the party, could have been picked and could have been a stronger candidate than Vice President Kamala Harris ended up being. All that to say, you know, there's also an acknowledgement that hindsight is 2020, and there's going to be a long road of evaluation of exactly what went wrong. But for now, the White House is saying it's not President Biden's fault.

SANCHEZ: Kayla Tausche live for us from the White House. Thank you so much.

Let's take you out to West Palm Beach now with CNN's Kristen Holmes.

A lot going on there today, Kristen, as Trump and allies prepare to retake power. Take us behind the scenes at Mar-a-Lago as some of these allies try to jockey for position in this new administration.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris and Brianna, it is. The wheels are in motion. They are getting ready for a second Trump administration.

[15:05:02]

Donald Trump has been on the phone nonstop. He met with his transition team yesterday. He's meeting with them again today. All of this trying to get ready for what exactly that administration would look like. Now, two things to keep in mind, there are two paths of what they are doing as part of the transition. One is they are working on the policy, drafting executive orders, talking about how quickly they can implement certain things, what do they actually need congressional approval for, what do they not need congressional approval for.

Donald Trump himself has been talking not just to the transition team, but to a number of allies about what he wants to do first. He feels emboldened, I am told, by people who have spoken to him because of the fact that he won the popular vote, because of the fact that he won in different voting bloc coalitions, particularly among minority voters, indicating to him that he believes that it - that his policies that he had been pushing forward on the campaign trails are ones that the American people want.

Now, the other part of the transition is the personnel, as you mentioned. Who is going to go into what job? We are talking about thousands of jobs. Obviously, there are those top-tier jobs like chief of staff, the cabinet heads. We know attorney general is one that he's taking extremely seriously, but there's also lower-level positions, how exactly do they want to go about that.

One way, we know, is that they're likely to tap into Project 2025's personnel database, which was run by John McEntee. We're told that the personnel database will be sending over recommendations because they spent the last two years vetting people that they believe will be loyal to former President Donald Trump and now President-elect Donald Trump, and there are also people who are jockeying for those kind of positions behind the scenes.

But I am told right now, it is really pounding the pavement for the Trump team. They are trying to make sure that the Trump transition team is in the right space, that they have the right people working on each of these different various things like justice, like immigration, like the economy and that also they plan on going to Washington soon to meet with President Joe Biden, possibly as early as next week.

So a lot of things are happening behind the scenes. But just one thing to note, we are looking at a completely different kind of transition and time period right now and Donald Trump, than we saw last time in 2017. How that plays out, obviously remains to be seen.

KEILAR: All right. Kristen Holmes, live for us from West Palm Beach, thank you.

And Manu Raju, Republicans have flipped the Senate. They have a really good chance of hanging onto the House. When are we going to know?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it should be - take a little time because a lot of these votes that are outstanding are in California, a lot of these are mail-in ballots. California historically has taken a bit longer. It took about a week or maybe a little bit over a week for the GOP back in 2022. Similar thing could happen here. For the Democrats to flip the House, things have to go really, really well with these outstanding races.

They're now trailing in races in California and some in Arizona. They need to turn the tide on those races, get ultimately a net of four seats. And at the moment, they're not there yet. So the expectation that both sides have is that Republicans will maintain a narrow majority, but it's not over yet. They have to count the votes and we'll see if something changes.

SANCHEZ: And in the Senate, Manu, we just talked about jockeying for positions in the Trump administration. In the Senate, folks are jockeying for the position of majority leader.

RAJU: Yes, and look, that's obviously a huge position, one of the most powerful positions in Washington. Sets the agenda, decides what bills can come to the floor, decides what nominations to pursue, really instrumental to the party's strategy and messaging. It will be key to trying to hold the Republican majority in the next, future election cycles. And the three candidates who are vying for it, Sen. John Thune, the current number two, Sen. John Cornyn, who used to be the number two, but was a top campaign committee chairman for two cycles, and Sen. Rick Scott, former chairman of the Senate GOP campaign committee, just won his second term last - on Tuesday.

Thune and Cornyn are seen as the two leading candidates for this race that will happen next Wednesday. One of the big questions is, what does Donald Trump do? He has not made his preference known yet. And earlier today, John Thune himself was making the case why Trump should stay out of this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I'm staying in regular contact with him and with his team. And, you know, obviously, if he wants to, he could exert a considerable amount of influence on that. But honestly, I think my preference would be, and I think it's probably in his best interest to stay out of that. These are - Senate secret ballot elections are probably best left to the senators, and, you know, he's got to work with all of us when it's all said and done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: You know, it's unclear if Trump were to endorse and how much of an impact it would have, because Thune is right, it is a secret ballot election. It'll happen next week. Members can vote however they want. But Thune and Trump had a bit of a fraught relationship for some time. Thune had criticized Trump, his efforts to overturn the election. Trump shot back, suggested he should get primaried. Thune has tried to bolster, trying to fix that relation. But perhaps that's one reason why he wants the President-elect to stay out of this race.

KEILAR: Yes, really interesting. Manu Raju, thank you so much.

And joining us now is Republican senator, Bill Hagerty from Tennessee. He was also ambassador to Japan in the first Trump administration.

[15:10:06]

Sir, thank you so much for joining us today. Your name has been floated for a cabinet position. Are you interested?

SEN. BILL HAGERTY (R-TN): Listen, Brianna, I'll leave the speculation to the speculators. I'm just so excited that President Trump has delivered the mandate that he did on Election Day. I'm so pleased that Republicans are now in control of the Senate, and I do believe that we'll hold control of the House.

So the opportunity before us is to literally turn our nation back on the right track again. You've got 72 percent of Americans saying that we're on the wrong track. This is a huge opportunity for America, and I look forward to working arm-in-arm with President Trump in whatever role to make certain that we get, you know, our nation, our great nation, back to the potential that we can.

KEILAR: Okay, but let's just say secretary of state or U.S. trade rep, do you have a preference?

HAGERTY: As I said, I'm not going to engage in any speculation. I'll leave that to others. The main focus now is not to create sideshows, but to get - but to be getting ready to deliver for the American people. That's where I'm focused.

KEILAR: Okay. So I do want to ask you, though, about some pressing issues, because you are on the list of those being considered, both President Biden and President-elect Trump publicly opposed the sale of U.S. steel to Japanese company Nippon Steel, which you are very aware of. You, of course, as I mentioned, were Ambassador of Japan during Trump's first term. Do you think the sale of this company to a Japanese company is a National Security risk?

HAGERTY: Well, what I'd say first is this, my job as U.S. Ambassador to Japan was to advance America's interest in Japan and throughout that entire region. That's the way I would look at any transaction here. It has nothing to do with the nationality of the company that's trying to make the acquisition. And it has everything to do with our National Security, with American interests, with American jobs. That's the lens I think that we should apply. The National Security lens is one that will be used.

And there are issues, frankly, with this company from the past of unfair trade practices. We'll have to navigate through that. But it's certainly not anything that I'm advocating for or against based on the nationality of the country. It's based on America's primary interests. KEILAR: So former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is an advisor to Nippon Steel in this deal. And Nippon Steel plans to invest a huge amount in steel production here in the U.S., which would create a lot of jobs in the U.S. And Pompeo has warned that if the deal falls through, it would mean the U.S. has to import more Chinese steel. China, of course, you're very aware of their trade practices.

HAGERTY: Yes.

KEILAR: Is that true, his assessment, that you would have to import more Chinese steel if this deal doesn't go through?

HAGERTY: Well, former Secretary Pompeo obviously is much closer to this if he's working alongside, you know, helping Nippon Steel with this effort. I'll say this, if Nippon Steel hopes to prevail in this effort to make this acquisition successful in the United States, they're going to have to make their case in terms of the investments that they would make, the job, the positive job implications it would have here in America, and the fact that it does support rather than detract from our National Security. I'd have to see that case made and I have not seen it yet.

KEILAR: And as you said, as ambassador to Japan, you were there to advance American interests, but do you worry ...

HAGERTY: Certainly.

KEILAR: ... about alienating a key ally in Asia with China's rising power?

HAGERTY: We have dealt with China's rising power for a great deal of time. Japan's interest and the United States' interest are completely aligned because both of our nations have suffered from the predatory practices of China, whether it's stealing our intellectual property, subsidizing industries to a level that makes it impossible to compete with them, and blocking our access to their markets.

China does not play fair. They don't play by the same set of rules. You think about Japan's perspective, they're even more proximate to the threat of China. And if you look at what China has done in the East China Sea surrounding Japanese islands, the Senkaku Islands there, if you look at what they're doing in the South China Sea, frustrating trade routes, building artificial islands, Japan's interests are very much aligned with ours from an economic standpoint and the National Security standpoint as we look at China. So I don't see any wedge being driven there at all.

KEILAR: CEOs of companies like AutoZone and Columbia Sportswear have already said that if and when President-elect Trump's broad tariff proposals go into effect, that they will simply raise prices and pass those costs on to consumers. Why pursue policies that would raise prices when it's clear from what the voters just said that the main issue they care about is how much things cost?

HAGERTY: I'll put another question to you, why take the word of these executives when what we've seen - these are pre-election threats, I presume - what we've seen in reality is when President Trump imposed the steel tariffs, the aluminum tariffs, everybody predicted there would be massive inflation. You know that President Trump left an economy to Biden and Harris that had only 1.5 percent inflation. It did not materialize. And I don't have any reason to expect that to occur again despite whatever pre-election threats might have been delivered.

I think what the networks need to think about is portraying the reality of President Trump's performance in the first administration.

[15:15:04]

I served in that administration. He delivered a booming economy.

Instead, the last two times I've interviewed on this network talking about President Trump, I've had to defend claims of fascism, Hitlerism. It's amazing. The last time I was here, a firing squad for Liz Cheney. I think it's time for the networks to really focus on what President Trump has done rather than trying to perpetuate some sort of pre-election threats. Let's focus on what the results will be.

KEILAR: Who - you, of course, are a senator, who are you going to back in the election for majority leader next week?

HAGERTY: Again, we haven't gotten to that point yet. That election will take place next week. We're going to hear from all of the candidates at that point. I'll tell you this, my number one priority is making certain we have a leader that aligns our Senate with the incredible challenge that we've got in the next 100, 200 days of turning our nation back around, of working arm-in-arm with President Trump as he puts executive orders together, as we put a reconciliation package together, hopefully, to make certain that we advance those critical principles that the American public have voted us into office for.

The mandate that we have is clear. We've got to turn our nation around so we see a stronger economy, stronger National Security, a better posture, certainly at our border, deal with crime in our cities, and restore America's reputation around the world.

It will take a majority leader that's going to work arm-in-arm with President Trump to get that to happen. Certainly, no one that's part of the resistance should be in a role like that. We've got to make this happen efficiently and rapidly. It's going to take that type of leadership to bring it all together.

KEILAR: All right, Senator, I heard you register a complaint there about what the media focuses on. I think this was a very substantial interview about the issues, however, and we appreciate you ...

HAGERTY: I appreciate that.

KEILAR: ... taking the time ...

HAGERTY: Thank you.

KEILAR: ... to talk about them. Thank you, Sen. Hagerty.

HAGERTY: Certainly, I look forward to talking again, thank you.

KEILAR: Thank you, sir.

So now that the election is over, Trump's legal problems may soon be over as well. What we know about the 34 felony convictions he's supposed to be sentenced on less than three weeks from now.

Also ahead, attorneys for Rudy Giuliani's defamation victims take him back to court accusing him of emptying the apartment that he was supposed to hand over, including contents from it. CNN was inside the courtroom for the hearing.

SANCHEZ: And later, residents fleeing, schools closing and 10s of thousands are now without power as California battles a fast-moving wildfire being fueled by high winds.

You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just moments.

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[15:21:13]

KEILAR: Donald Trump is now president-elect, but he's also a convicted felon who is awaiting sentencing. Trump's legal team is working to push off a court date set for just over two weeks from now where he's scheduled to be sentenced in the New York hush money case.

SANCHEZ: He's also facing several other state and federal cases, so the open question is what happens to those now that he's been re- elected.

Joining us now to discuss is CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid and CNN Legal Analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams.

Paula, first, the New York hush money case. He was convicted of those counts. He's supposed to be sentenced in a few weeks. Does that just evaporate?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I think it will. The question is, how does it evaporate? Because I know in speaking with a source familiar with this legal strategy, they're going to go to the judge and they're going to say, look, as a president-elect, he is entitled to the same protections as a sitting president. He is constitutionally protected, they will argue, from indictment, from prosecution, and they'll extend that to sentencing, too.

Now, separately, the judge had already - before Trump was re-elected - given himself a deadline of next Tuesday to decide if that immunity case from the Supreme Court applies here and means the conviction should be tossed. If he thinks it is, well, the sentencing gets tossed, too.

But if that doesn't work, they're going to make this constitutional argument. There's also at least one appeal hanging out there, so they could also argue, hey, let's at least delay this. That's always been their request, right? Delay, delay, delay - this time, though, they're not asking for a delay. They're asking to nix the whole thing, and they will likely be successful, if not in getting it canceled, at least getting it delayed until he's in office, and then it's a moot point.

KEILAR: Okay, so those are the various options of legal ...

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

KEILAR: ... evaporation.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

KEILAR: What do you think is most likely?

WILLIAMS: I think most likely is the judge either says, I'm not going to sentence you at all or says, I will sentence you in four years, which is sort of impractical. But look, there's fantasy philosophical lawyer land and there's the real world. In philosophical lawyer land, the judge can say, okay, look, I'm going to sentence you as I normally would in 60 days, which is how and when we sentence people. He's going to be either President of the United States or the President-elect then, and it's just not practical to impose a sentence at that point.

Now, he can say, when you are a free citizen, your obligation is to come back here on January 1st, 2029 or January 21st, 2029 and come in for sentencing. Now, that's also kind of silly to push out the sentencing that far in advance. There just aren't a lot of great options here for the judge because of the reality we live in, where this person has a unique role in American government, and then the courts have to respect that in some way.

SANCHEZ: Paula, what about the federal cases being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith?

REID: Well, I've learned from my sources that Smith is currently in conversations with top Justice Department leaders, including the Attorney General, about how to wind down those cases. It's a surprise to some people. They say, well, why don't they just at least work up until inauguration?

Well, they know that internally, there's a memo from the Office of Legal Counsel inside DOJ that says you can't indict, you can't prosecute a sitting president. They're working out how that applies to a president-elect, but they know these cases aren't going to trial, and I'm told that Smith wants to do what is correct according to Justice Department policy, but it's complicated. It's not just about dropping the case against Trump. He also has co-defendants. It's about the entire Special Counsel office. It's complicated in terms of the mechanics of winding this down.

But everyone should remember, Smith is required to submit a report to the Attorney General. He is expected to make that public. I'm told not to expect a lot of news out of that, but as we've seen with all the other Special Counsels, Rob Hur, Robert Mueller, Durham, once they submit their report, usually they receive a request or a subpoena to appear on Capitol Hill, and that could be some fireworks.

KEILAR: Yay, they get to be on TV, but not in a good way. I don't think that's the (INAUDIBLE) ...

REID: I don't think (INAUDIBLE) likes being on TV, I will say that.

SANCHEZ: No.

KEILAR: That they ever enjoy, no. Okay, so he also has a lot of co- defendants in this Georgia case, and I wonder what happens to them. But also, as he has these abilities, once he is president on the federal cases, he doesn't on the Georgia case.

[15:25:03]

So what happens for him there?

WILLIAMS: Well, what happens for him there is some of the same things that Paul was talking about, which is that by being president - and I don't think any court is going to find that a president can even sit for prosecution in a state case. Now, that I think affects Donald Trump as a defendant in Georgia. It's just not practical under the law, no matter how much people want it. Just - that's what the law says, right?

Now, all those other defendants, none of them are subject to the same prohibitions as the President of the United States under the Constitution or existing law, and there's no reason that case should come back and be resurrected from its zombie form now.

KEILAR: But is there stuff that, because he's president, that now is off limits, that gets in the way of their cases?

WILLIAMS: For the - this is where the litigation's going to come. Against him, he - it could be argued that he is evidence about him in the presidency can't come in against him, but who's to say that it couldn't come in against another defendant who's not a president of the United States?

Now, it's a legal minefield, and it's got to end up in federal court at some point. But there's no reason that any of these people can't still be prosecuted.

REID: You make such a good point, because people focus on the immunity decision about actions that you take.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

REID: But it's really evidence. If you're trying to support a crime, and you're trying to use acts that they took in their official capacity as evidence, it's going to be very difficult to prove that. So I think we've all really underestimated the extent to which the Supreme Court's immunity decision is perhaps going to embolden President-elect Trump and future leaders. It's really going to have an enormous impact on the guardrails that once existed. They're now gone.

WILLIAMS: It's a really interesting question. The case came down to him as president, but I think smart defendants in that case will say, wait a second, this also might apply to us, given how our proximity to him, we worked in the White House and so on, so it's just a tricky minefield we're going to have to look at.

SANCHEZ: Well, we'll see how it goes. Elliot, Paula, thank you both so much. Appreciate it.

We have some breaking news into CNN, five projections to bring you now in House races. These are just in to CNN. We are projecting that former Congressman Cleo Fields, a Democrat, will represent Louisiana 6th. This is a seat drawn after a federal court mandated the state have another majority black district. This seat, a pickup for Democrats.

Meantime, in Nevada, Democrat Dina Titus has won re-election in Nevada's 1st House district. Titus is a fixture in Nevada politics, previously serving in the state Senate.

Also, in Nevada's fourth district, Democrat Steven Horsford has won re-election in the fourth district there. He's perhaps best known as the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

KEILAR: And Democratic congressman, Don Davis, has won a second term in North Carolina. Davis is an Air Force veteran, was one of just six Democrats to vote for a resolution that condemned Vice President Harris' handling of the border.

And Montana's 1st district will send Republican Ryan Zinke back to Washington. Zinke, of course, served as Interior Secretary during the first Trump administration.

Now, we should note that none of these races is seen as an upset, but they do move us closer to finding out who will be in the majority in the House in the next Congress. So stay with CNN, we'll be right back with more.

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