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Blame Game Ensues Over Harris' Loss; WAPO: Biden Admin To Let U.S. Military Contractors Deploy To Ukraine; Pentagon Anticipates Major Upheaval in Trump's 2nd Term & Fears of Military Use Domestically; Out-Of-Control Wildfire Tears Through 20K-Plus Acres In Southern CA. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 08, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Now you can imagine a lot of raw emotions right now coursing throughout the Democratic Party, including, as we have been reporting, a lot of anger that is being directed at President Biden as well -- Boris and Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, a lot.

M.J. Lee, thank you so much.

Joining us now CNN political commentator, Shermichael Singleton. He's a Republican strategist, and Tara Setmayer, who is a former GOP congressional communications director and the co-founder of the Seneca Project. She backed Harris for president.

And, Tara, I wonder what you think. You hear from that source saying, stop sh-tting, you know what, on us on the campaign. What blame do they deserve, not deserve, considering this was a pretty historically short time to pull off a campaign. What's your assessment?

TARA SETMAYER, FORMER GOP CONGRESSIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR & CO- FOUNDER, SENECA PROJECT: Well, I mean, whenever you lose, the finger- pointing begins rather quickly.

And for those of us who we're pro-democracy and were extremely concerned about what a second Donald Trump term would look like for the future of our country, it was incredibly disappointing.

But we also have to understand that it was a truncated campaign. They ran -- actually they ran a pretty good campaign under normal standards. But it's difficult when they make certain decisions to do rely on certain groups or consolidate money.

I didn't grow up in -- politically, in the Democratic Party. I come from a Republican world and we did things very differently as far as messaging and how we messaged.

Which is why, from my bipartisan super PAC, we took some of that messaging for women to try to speak very directly, very -- you know, meet people where they are. Not too highfalutin. Sometimes Democrats have a tendency to bring a policy to a political warfare fight. And messaging matters. I think there were missed opportunities. But all things considered, they actually ran a pretty good campaign.

But ultimately, things, messages didn't break through. And I hope, like Republicans did in 2012, that Democrats do a postmortem to assess where they went wrong.

Because the country -- I don't think a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump this time around, because they we're dissatisfied for whatever reasons with the Biden administration, are fully aware of what they have wrought on this country moving forward. I really don't think so. And there, it comes from a failure of certain messaging.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Shermichael, I wonder where you land on this. Whether the question is an issue of messaging or the -- as Tara put it, the situation the Biden administration wrought on so many of the American people when it comes to the economic issues that folks are facing, the costs everyday goods.

And the fact that Harris had to have led this truncated 100-ish day campaign. Was there more she could have done that would have tilted the scales or was this inevitable? How do you see it?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, not necessarily. I know a lot of people have compared this race to 2020 in terms of the vote count.

But 2020, in my opinion, Boris, was a bit unprecedented because you had unprecedented absentee ballots, vote by mail because of the Covid pandemic.

So for my perspective, I've gone all the way back to 2016 to really try to compare numbers. And in that case, Vice President Harris actually received three million more votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Obviously, Donald Trump received 10 million more votes compared to 2016 this time around. I think that's a more accurate place to start if you're going to try to compare how her overall performance was.

I agree with Tara, messaging was certainly a part of the problem. Tara comes from GOP politics and she knows how we message, and we go to war when we're trying to win electoral campaigns. Because the objective is to win.

Also I think there is some policy and ideological positions that Democrats moved way too far on the left. And they need to recenter themselves. Whether that's cultural issues, where a lot of people who are middle of the road are thinking, wait a minute here, this is a bridge too far for me.

You have to be super careful in how you talk about every single issue. I don't think that's how most people live their lives and when they're having regular conversations with friends and with their families. There's obviously some detachment there. And regardless of what people may think or like or dislike about Donald Trump, people do see some authenticity in the way he communicates. And I think that was sorely missing on the other side.

And I think that's going to be a part of that restructuring that Democrats are going to have to do as they move forward for the next two years and the next four years.

KEILAR: Shermichael, what do you think the Trump mandate is? And what do you think he needs to be careful of sort of overplaying his hand on considering he does have potentially a lot of power here if he ends up with the House as well?

SINGLETON: Well, there is a mandate. And I'm looking at three things in particular, Brianna. People are worried about costs and the economy. The former president needs to figure out a way to address that. And incentivizing corporations, that's one perspective.

[13:35:03]

Immigration is also another big issue that he dominated throughout the process. How do you address it? One of my biggest concerns with immigration is, from an economic perspective and how low-skilled workers force American low-skill workers to compete. I think that is a very real issue we have to figure out.

And then finally, I would say foreign policy is a big concern. Many Americans are wondering if we're going to engage in these foreign conflicts whether that's sending dollars and arms.

How much money are we going to send and for how long? I think there needs to be some type of a, I guess, a finish line, if you will, to that.

Also I'm wondering about China. If China invades Taiwan, will the U.S. actually get involved by sending troops or are we going to do what we're doing in Ukraine?

I think that's something we are going to have to watch. China has made significant aggressions. And it appears to me that is their objective. And that at some point, soon, the U.S. needs to be prepared for that.

I think a lot of voters don't want to send their sons and daughters to such a conflict.

So with that mandate, if Trump can figure out a way to balance and level those things off within the first 90 days, the economy, immigration and, within the first two years, figure a way to have a better relationship with China to avoid a potential conflict in the South China Sea and also with Taiwan, but I think that's a victory.

SANCHEZ: Tara, I do have a question for you about something that I've heard pointed to repeatedly as a factor in Harris performing the way she did on Tuesday, and in Trump winning.

And that is the accusation that so many voters out there are misogynist or racist. I wonder how you respond to that? How much of a factor do you think sexism and racism may have played in Harris loss?

SETMAYER: Well, first, I want to be clear, when I said voters are unaware what they brought on the country by voting, I meant by voting for Donald Trump and ushering in another administration with him given the chaos we saw and lived through in 20 -- after 2017.

This time around, he has no guardrails. And he has worse people around him. And so his extremism, a lot of what he said he was going to do and implement, I don't know that people are fully aware of what that's going to mean and what the consequences are.

And to Shermichael's point about crime and immigration, the economy and our standing in the world, those are all things that are interestingly not traditional Republican perspectives.

Yes, people are -- we should be concerned about what's happens and pay attention to what's going on, whether we leave NATO, we leave Ukraine hanging out to dry and cozying up to Vladimir Putin.

Elon Musk is now apparently involved in foreign policy decisions. As reported today, he was on call that with Donald Trump and Zelenskyy. And these are all things people really have no idea about.

Do I think that there was sexism and racism involved in some of the reasoning behind why people didn't vote for Kamala Harris? Sure. Yes. I mean I'm a woman of color. I live it every day. I see it here, the vitriol and the comments.

And we saw what came out of Donald Trump's world, what MAGA world thought of women. You see it online. You see it by the people he's surrounded with what they think of women.

Which is partially why we thought for sure that there would be enough women, particularly white women, who would vote their interests and vote against what Donald Trump and what MAGA plans to do for women, and yet white women overwhelmingly still voted for Donald Trump.

Now, women overall voted for Kamala Harris. But suburban white women made different decisions here. And we shall see what that looked like. How when you lose a right, it does -- it's very difficult to start getting those back.

And perhaps the implications and the lives lost and the women who have lost their fertility and the horror stories we've heard about the practical implication of taking away reproductive rights from women hasn't been fully felt yet across the country. But we will. We will see.

SINGLETON: Hey, Boris, if I could, I want to add a different perspective to what Tara just said.

Our Harry Enten was on earlier today and he revealed some numbers I thought were really, really fascinating from a conservative perspective.

So Donald Trump performed incredibly well with voters aged 18 to 29, better than any Republican in 20 years. He performed better with Latino voters than any Republican I believe in either 52 or 54 years. And he performed better with black voters, writ large, than any Republican in about 40 years.

So those are unprecedented numbers when you think about calling a significant percent of the country -- I'm not saying Tara, but I've seen others on the Democratic side making this case of misogynists or Latino men are racist against black people.

Are there horrible people within every group? Absolutely. But to make those blanket statements I certainly do not believe will serve Democrat interest if they're trying, to Tara's as point, figure out a way to look at their party respectfully to figure out what went wrong.

[13:40:00]

Dismissing people, attacking them for voting in a way that you disagree with is not going to help.

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: But pointing out, though -- quickly, pointing out, Shermichael, pointing out the misogyny and the racism that Donald Trump and MAGA pushes, we can't just cast it aside. When you vote for Donald Trump and MAGA, you don't get to pick and choose.

Well, I like the tax cuts, but I don't like the fact they are going to mass deport people or call women, you know, second-class citizens or think woman shouldn't have a right to vote or should get back into the kitchen, or that Haitians are eating dogs. You don't get to pick and choose. You own all of it.

So I think, by acknowledging that, that is important to be intellectually dishonest and say that you don't own all, everything that comes with MAGA, pointing out those things.

And a lot of people can rationalize in their own minds that they voted because of the economy or the cost of eggs, but they really need to take a look at why it was OK for them to accept voting for a fascist felon over decency and democracy because of the cost of eggs?

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: The long-term implications of that are going to be pretty significant.

SINGLTON: I hear your point, Tara, and I take your point. But again, I don't think that's why the vice president lost. And again, this goes back to a values thing.

I think the Democratic Party needs to re-assess where their values are as it pertains to addressing the plight of a whole lot of people in this country, including working-class people of color, who appeared in some pretty significant waves in some individual states, decided to vote for a Republican over a Democrat despite their traditional trends. SANCHEZ: We ran out of time, a while ago.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: But I was enjoying the conversation so much that we just let it go.

SINGLETON: I love Sara -- I love Tara. She's a brilliant thinker. I've known her a long time, Boris. So it's always fun to have this engagement.

SANCHEZ: We love her, too.

Tara Setmayer, Shermichael Singlton, we hope to have you both back and continue the conversation. Thank you so much.

SINGLETON: Thanks, guys.

SANCHEZ: So this just in. The Biden administration has lifted a de facto ban on American military contractors deploying to Ukraine. What this could mean for the conflict there, next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:45:52]

SANCHEZ: We have breaking news into CNN. The Biden administration will allow American military contractors to deploy to Ukraine.

KEILAR: This is the first time it's actually been allowed since Russia invaded and could represent an escalation of the conflict as Biden is preparing to leave office.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is with us now. She has the latest on this.

What do we know?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, this is a pretty significant shift by the Biden administration to allow the Department of Defense to now solicit bids for contractors to actually travel inside Ukraine and help the Ukrainians repair really key systems that require specialized expertise in maintenance and repair.

Including F-16 fighters jets and Patriot systems to better give the Ukrainians an upper hand against the Russians, because these systems, they break and they break fairly easily.

And the people, the number of people who know how to fix them quickly and effectively is fairly small.

So now the administration is hoping that by allowing these contractors to go inside Ukraine, this will be a big shift and allow the Ukrainians to fix things faster than they we're able to over the last two years when things had to actually be shipped out of Ukraine to places like Poland and Romania to be repaired. So this is, hopefully, going to give Ukraine that advantage. But of

course, it all remains to be seen whether the policy will remain in place under a Trump administration.

Trump, of course, has been deeply skeptical of the war in Ukraine. He has said that he wants to hold peace talks and get this all solved within 24 hours of taking office.

So whether or not he allows American military contractors to actually remain in the country there and keep operating on these DOD contracts, it really remains to be seen at this point.

SANCHEZ: Yes, many questions for a new Trump administration.

Natasha Bertrand, live from the Pentagon, thank you so much.

We have some new reporting from the "Washington Post" indicating that the Pentagon is bracing for drastic changes and anxiety following Donald Trump's victory.

KEILAR: Yes, according to "The Post," the Pentagon anticipates major upheaval. And also there are fears that the once and future commander- in-chief will follow through on vows to deploy the military domestically against American citizens, among other things.

We're joined now by Dan Lamothe. He's one of "The Post" reporters who wrote the article.

Talk to us what people you're speaking to are most worried about.

DAN LAMOTHE, PENTAGON REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes, I think the concern about how the military is used at home is a significant one. There are legal ways to do it. There are ways that would maybe at least get questioned in court.

But then you just have the optics of American uniforms on American streets and how are they are being asked to deploy and what are they asked to do. You know, that's all an open question at this point.

SANCHEZ: How about the leadership? What are you hearing about who might take on key posts?

LAMOTHE: Yes. I mean, you know, the secretary of defense job, you know, Pompeo's name has been thrown around, Mike Walters' (ph) name has been thrown around.

You know, there are, I think fair questions about who would be willing to take the job and be able to navigate working with an impulsive president and yet also have the ear and the respect of the institution.

It will be a challenging job for sure.

KEILAR: There's also this issue of politicization of the military, which happened a lot during the first Trump administration. You had -- Biden wasn't perfect on it either but he came in during his first month and tried to make a point of saying I'm not going politicize things at the Pentagon.

You talk a lot about that, these sort of civil-military relations, which is kind of a lofty idea but I think it's also something that makes America special. What do you -- you expecting with that?

LAMOTHE: Yes. The idea is that this is all of our military, and it should not represent one party over another. It should be willing to adhere to the ideas of the commander-in-chief that are legal.

But I think we're all watching carefully to see how they navigate that. When you get an order from the president that maybe is legal, maybe is not, how do you vet those? How do you make sure the orders are legal.

And if not, how do you deal with it? Do you resign in protest? Do you throw up roadblocks?

I mean, we all saw the narrative during the first Trump years. I think there's just a lot of anxiety right now at the moment.

[13:50:05]

SANCHEZ: Dan Lamothe, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

LAMOTHE: Thank you.

KEILAR: So we are right now watching Wall Street, the post-Election Day streak going on here. The Dow just hit 44,000 for the first time. It's a record intraday high for the index. The S&P, meantime, briefly topping 6,000.

Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

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KEILAR: There is a wildfire emergency happening right now in southern California. This is called the Mountain Fire. It has exploded in size here in the last 48 hours, over 200 structures destroyed or damaged, many more at risk.

SANCHEZ: Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate as firefighters race to battle the flames.

CNN correspondent, Camila Bernal, is in the fire zone in Ventura County.

Camila, what's the latest there?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Boris and Brianna. We are seeing some improvement and more is expected throughout the day.

This morning, containment was at 5 percent. It is now at 7 percent. And CalFire telling me, even though just 2 percent, that is significant.

So they have two priorities. Getting to the fire in the rugged very steep terrain and also getting people back into the neighborhoods.

[13:55:04]

Unfortunately, for some people, it is going to be a difficult process, because they're going to come back to this. There's not much interest in this property.

All you can see left standing is two chimneys, what's left of a car, the washer and dryer and the barbecue. That's really everything they're going to come back to. So it's going to be difficult for those people.

On the street that I'm on right now, every single home is burned, except for three. I spoke to the homeowner of one of the homes that's still standing, and this is what he told me. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I just feel so sorry for all the neighbors that lost their homes. And it's just a real ordeal. It's just unimaginable about what it will take for them to get their lives together and, you know, find places to live. You know, some are probably going to rebuild.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And a lot of people here telling me that they have survivors remorse. People coming back into these neighborhoods who say it's so, so difficult to drive and see the destruction.

Now, fire officials saying that this weekend it is going to be a critical time for them, because we no longer have red flag warnings. The winds have died down. This is the moment they have to get a handle on the flames.

Starting next week, there is another red flag warning in the forecast so they're trying to get as much as they can done before that red flag warning comes into play next week.

So again, they're very focused on the air attack, the ground attack to try to get as much as they can done over the next couple days -- Boris, Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Yes, really a critical time.

Camila Bernal, from southern California, thank you so much.

We're continuing to follow the breaking news. The Department of Justice has announced criminal charges against three people in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill President-Elect Trump before the election. New details in just moments.

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