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Elon Musk Joined Trump's Call with Zelenskyy After U.S. Election; Clyburn: Maybe the Country Isn't Ready to Elect a Woman as Leader; Interview with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN): Trump Prepares to Retake Power After Decisive Victory; Any Moment: Gov. Waltz Makes Remarks After Election Loss. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 08, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: ... First, there's no question that Musk saved the war for the Ukrainians. He installed a communication system when they didn't have one and no way to get to all their information in the cloud. He also stopped them at one point from being able to attack Russian ships off of Crimea by refusing to extend Starlink's footprint so they could do targeting there.

So in the Biden administration, he tried on the edges to act a little bit as national security advisor. The interesting question this raises is during a Trump administration, will he have actually a direct decisive role? And do you want that role to be in the hands of somebody who is selling goods to the U.S. military, airlift, obviously for satellites, the Starlink system directly to the Ukrainians?

He's got business with the Pentagon. And now the question is, would he be an influencer or a policymaker over military decisions? That's a really unusual role -- Boris.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And just real quickly, before we go here, David, this week, NATO Secretary General notably credited Trump for encouraging member states of NATO to invest at least 2 percent of their GDP in defense. Does that flattery belies some anxiety?

SANGER: It does. I mean, he's obviously worried that when President Trump said he would let Vladimir Putin do whatever the hell he wants to countries that didn't contribute as much he clearly wants to get on his good side. I think President Trump takes some of the credit for getting the Europeans to contribute more.

I think President Biden gets some of the credit because it happened on his watch. And I think Vladimir Putin gets most of the credit because it was the invasion of Ukraine that convinced them they had to do differently.

The question now, though, is we're in a world where the 2 percent that they discussed is nowhere near enough, especially if you believe China and Russia are coming together.

So the problem for the Europeans going forward is they may have to be looking at double that number.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Really a fascinating situation, one to keep monitoring. David Sanger, appreciate the analysis. Thanks for joining us.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

SANCHEZ: So we're waiting on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to speak in Minneapolis after his and Vice President Kamala Harris's loss in the presidential election. We're going to bring that to you live in just moments. Stay with CNN.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Just days after the electoral loss in which Vice President Harris and Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz lost the election to former President Donald Trump, Democrats are doing some soul searching and trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. Just a few moments ago, I spoke with Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, and he shared some perspective with us, his thoughts on the election. Here's some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): So everything was positive and there are pluses, but maybe the country is not yet ready to elect a woman to be its leader.

SANCHEZ: So you consider, Congressman, that misogyny and perhaps racism had a lot to do with her loss, despite that Hillary Clinton received, she won the popular vote, and Barack Obama obviously won not only the presidency, but re-election as well.

CLYBURN: Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Robby Mook is the former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton's 2016 run for president, and he's with us now. Robby, I wonder what you think about what Congressman Clyburn said there, and also just noting that Harris did worse with women overall than Democrats have in the past, worse with Black and Latina women than Hillary Clinton did, though she improved on Democrats past performance with white women with a college degree.

ROBBY MOOK, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, look, I think this is a big picture challenge our party faces, clearly coming out of this election. We need a message that speaks to a broad cross section of the electorate. We need to build a winning coalition, and we need to speak louder and more clearly to more Americans.

So I don't think it's about any one particular group. I think this is a big problem. We need to tackle it in a big and all-encompassing way. And I think in any of these postmortems, which always happen after these elections when they don't go the way we want, it's tempting to get in the weeds and make it about, you know, one or two tactical decisions and that sort of thing. This is much bigger than that. We need to step back, retool, rethink, and speak more clearly and loudly because I know that on the substance, we're right.

We have a much better deal for the American people, but we're clearly something's not breaking through and we need to figure that out.

SANCHEZ: I just want to let our viewers know we're looking at live pictures in Minneapolis where we are expecting former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, the Governor of Minnesota, to speak in just moments. It's actually St. Paul, I believe.

KEILAR: It is St. Paul. It just switched, but really it's St. Paul.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Anyway, as we await his remarks, Robby, I'm curious about something else that I've heard from Democrats today. I asked Congressman Clyburn about it, his response to what Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Emeritus, told the New York Times.

He seemed to agree with her that there should have been a primary process, that perhaps that could have made a difference either in strengthening Kamala Harris as a candidate or in there being a process of elimination by which perhaps even a stronger candidate than Harris could have emerged. I'm wondering what your perspective on that is.

MOOK: You know, I honestly could argue this either way. I honestly think that the short timeline for the campaign was a gift in a way. They got to move quickly. They got to move swiftly. I can't tell you how exhausting these campaigns become.

[15:40:00]

When I did the Clinton campaign, that was a two-year campaign. We had the entire primary process and then had to go into the general. But I also can completely understand how 90, 100 days is not much time to get a campaign organized.

But I'll tell you what I know for sure, which is for the next presidential campaign for 2028, there will be a primary. And the Democratic primary electorate will have, I'm sure, a full suite of excellent candidates to choose from. And so, you know, we should get excited about that.

That gives us four years, really two years until the primary starts to think about our messaging and to figure out how to better break through.

KEILAR: Yes, it should be robust, you would expect. And Robby, I wonder what you thought about how reproductive rights ended up playing in this election versus how Democrats thought it might in light of the 2022 midterms.

MOOK: Yes, it's an interesting question. I mean, I know that you were talking about misinformation earlier in the program. I think there was a lot of misinformation on that issue.

You know, we have some evidence to believe some voters were going to the polls thinking that somehow Donald Trump was the one who was going to defend a woman's right to choose. And we know that's not the case. I think it remains an important issue. I think women's reproductive freedom is, you know, bodily freedom. What could be more important than that?

But I think what we need to figure out is how to balance that with some other challenges that we know people are facing, like the rising cost of groceries, of housing, and many other things.

So definitely an important part of the postmortem to figure out how we're heard on a variety of issues, not just that one. But it's absolutely an important and driving issue. And I think as soon as Republicans in Congress and Trump, when he's in the White House, inevitably make moves to take away more rights from women, you know, we're going to need to speak out against that. And I think that will motivate voters in the midterms.

KEILAR: All right, Robby, thank you so much for being with us. We do appreciate it.

MOOK: Thanks.

KEILAR: While Democrats are doing some soul-searching, President-elect Trump and his party are gearing up for their return to power. And they've actually been doing this in Congress for months now. So let's discuss with Republican Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee.

And Congressman, first, you're on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. So I do want to ask you about our breaking news, which is these arrests in this latest plot against President-elect Trump's life by Iran. What's your reaction to this? And do you see this increasing chances for more conflict between the U.S. and Iran or its proxies during this Trump presidency?

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): Yes, I do. I think you've seen it in the past. And with President Biden, I think he kind of just gave them a pass.

Israel, when they said they were going to bomb their nuclear facilities, when they came back and said, told the world, oh, these aren't for nuclear bombs, these are for nuclear energy. When we know, in fact, they're sitting on the largest energy supplies in the world, they have no reason to get into nuclear energy for energy's sake. They're doing it for nuclear bombs.

And I think we're going to tell Israel to take the gloves off. And I think they will. And I think you'll see regime change, which is what Netanyahu hinted at weeks ago in one of his speeches.

KEILAR: You've been a vocal supporter of President Trump. Would you welcome serving in his administration?

BURCHETT: Ma'am, I'm the 435th most powerful member of Congress. I've probably made more enemies than friends and probably as conservative as I am, I've made more enemies on my side of the aisle than I have across the aisle. So I would I would doubt that.

I appreciate that. I'm sure you just heard that collective noise in the background is half of Washington, D.C. laughing right now. So I doubt that.

I'm enjoying being a congressman. I wouldn't want to spend any more time in Washington than I'd have to. Anybody -- any congressman that tells you he loves his job and he loves being in Washington, I would submit to you, ma'am, you need to get a new congressman.

KEILAR: You love being in Knoxville, which is a great place. Former Trump administration official John Bolton says that Trump came close to pulling the U.S. out of NATO in 2018. Do you think that's a possibility in his second term?

BURCHETT: I do. When you see other members of NATO not pulling their weight, it's really a financial situation. You're supposed to invest a certain amount in your national defense.

And a lot of the other a lot more of them are because Trump got a threat in him with that. And I think that was a valid threat. And you're exactly right.

Yes. Do what?

KEILAR: Well, also, Putin waged a war that has scared the hell out of them. So they're coughing up more money, too.

BURCHETT: Well, some of them are, yes.

[15:45:00]

But again, we're over $200 billion in that war with no end in sight as far as we can see currently.

KEILAR: So you are on the Transportation Infrastructure Committee. Do you think that Trump should keep the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed under the Biden administration in place?

BURCHETT: Well, the actual reality of that bill was, ma'am, we passed a bill which I voted against, but you would probably have been decent. But then the final bill that was passed, if you remember, it went back into the speaker's office and they rewrote it with the help of some K Street lobbyists and others. And about 85 percent of that bill has nothing to do with traditional infrastructure. And if we had passed all that money for traditional infrastructure, we would have fixed every road, bridge, train, and --

KEILAR: Should he get rid of it?

BURCHETT: -- airport probably in the country at this point.

I would suggest that'd be a start. But I know that's not going to happen because everybody's got their fingers in it. Let's just be honest, man. Washington, D.C. is a corrupt town. Both parties need to really hang their heads in shame. And that's why I hope this bloodletting, if you will, that's going on right now or cleansing, I guess, would be a better terminology. I hope it does some good. And I hope people start paying attention more to what's going on in Washington, not just what their leaders tell them.

KEILAR: I mean, if we pay attention to Tennessee, Tennessee has its fingers in it, right? It's expected to receive $8 billion in funding through 2026 through the bill for highways, bridge replacement, repairs, broadband, Internet access, water infrastructure improvement. In your district, Knoxville, receiving over $40 million in grant money from DOT this year.

Do you want to get rid of that?

BURCHETT: Yes, ma'am. No, but that is just a small portion of it, as I stated. Only about 15 percent of it went to things like that.

So you can imagine the enormous nature of it and things that had absolutely nothing to do with transportation. I think we need to go back to single issue spending bills. That's why all that pork won't show. You won't be able to pass it because you'll have to stand on the floor and defend every dadgum bit of it. And that's why neither party wants that, because the wink and the nod and all this is we're going to pass our style of pork and largesse under our administration. You all are going to do it under yours.

And hopefully now the apple cart's been turned over and everybody's seeing what's going on sort of behind the curtain, so to speak. And the shenanigans will stop is what I'm hoping.

KEILAR: Oh, we have both been in Washington long enough to know that it would be something to see some of those shenanigans stop. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

BURCHETT: Ma'am, it's always a pleasure. And thank you so much.

KEILAR: Thank you.

And so we are, as you're looking at the screen here, this is a picture coming to us from St. Paul, Minnesota. We are waiting on remarks from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz after his and Vice President Kamala Harris's loss in the presidential election. We are going to bring you his comments live. Stay with CNN.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We're following breaking news right now into CNN. We are watching the First Lady of Minnesota, Gwen Walz, introducing her husband, the governor, Tim Walz, who was a vice presidential candidate, obviously alongside Vice President Kamala Harris. After their loss on Tuesday, we've seen Democrats do some soul-searching, and there has been finger-pointing behind the scenes trying to figure out the cause of the loss, what could be done differently in future campaigns.

We heard from the vice president earlier this week. We've yet to hear directly from Governor Walz, her running mate, and we're anticipating that some of his remarks might echo what we heard from the vice president.

KEILAR: That's right. I think what is remarkable as we are watching his wife is how kind of pained she is. You can see in her face, she's fighting tears as she is speaking here.

And it's just a very interesting moment, as certainly, of course, she wanted a very different outcome, and she was saying there that Vice President Harris would make a very good president. But I think this is obviously a difficult moment, so let's listen in to what she's saying.

GWEN WALZ, MINNESOTA FIRST LADY: And this belief has been the driving force of Tim's public service, and mine too. We've all worked so hard to build a Minnesota that all of us can call home, where everyone can live with safety and dignity and opportunity and, yes, freedom.

(APPLAUSE)

G. WALZ: So now, more than ever, that important work continues. Because we have a responsibility to keep this haven, this special place, Minnesota, safe and inclusive and strong.

KEILAR: All right, we are listening here to Gwen Walz, the first lady of Minnesota, as she is going to be introducing her husband. And what's a very difficult speech, clearly, Jeff Zeleny, for her to give. And you were just noting to us just how involved she was on the trail. She was very invested in this.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely invested. Gwen Walz was campaign everywhere since the moment that Governor Walz was selected. She would do probably more events than any of the other principals' wives or spouses.

So she is someone who is also a schoolteacher. That's where she met Governor Walz, when they were both the schoolteachers in Nebraska, actually, and they moved to her home state of Minnesota.

[15:55:00]

She has been very active on the campaign trail in talking about education and families and things. And you can see what a -- she was obviously expecting a different outcome, what was appraising Vice President Harris there, talking about her almost historic role. But she's been a driving force in Minnesota and obviously expect to be one as the second lady.

SANCHEZ: Jeff, you were there for Vice President Harris's concession speech this week, obviously a very somber crowd receiving that message. A lot of folks very emotional, including Governor Walz, as we await his appearance on stage. I wonder how you contrast that and the reception that Harris got there with some of the reporting behind the scenes, some of the debate about what happened, what could have been done differently, and the call that was had behind the scenes with some campaign folks in which they asked people to stop questioning their strategy during the campaign publicly.

ZELENY: Look, I mean, this failure obviously has a thousand fathers. There are many, many reasons why Vice President Harris was not successful. Some were of her doing, I would say most were not.

The campaign that they were handed, given President Biden's decision to run again, sort of 107 days. But inside the campaign, there was a call last night that Vice President Harris had with staff members, sort of to buck them up. But on that conference call, some aides told people not to talk about the shortcomings.

We've covered a lot of failed campaigns. I'm thinking back to 2016 when we covered the Clinton campaign. There's enough finger-pointing to go around, soul-searching, and there were mistakes made, of course.

So I'm not that surprised. I don't want people talking about it, but it's going to get out. But the reality is this was not just a seven- battleground state collapse. It was a collapse of the Democratic Party's message across the country. Look at those maps that show just the entire Republican swing really in virtually every state in the country.

So this was not just a decision to not travel to Wisconsin or to not go to Michigan. This was much bigger than that.

KEILAR: And I was watching you on election night at Howard, and it was so evocative of that evening at Javits Center in 2016 on the Hillary campaign, which we covered together. But what was different was the expectation. This was such a tight race going into it.

No one really knew who had it sewn up. No one did. And so there did seem to be a little difference in that, in that the outcome was a possibility compared to the giant surprise that happened in 2016.

I wonder if that means a little less soul-searching within the campaign and maybe more of a broad look overall at the party.

ZELENY: I think it does. I mean, it was not simply the failure of a couple operatives or the candidate. It was a broader sort of Democratic brand issue.

But, Brianna, you're right. I mean, there was shock and dismay and disbelief back when Hillary Clinton was learning that Donald Trump was winning. But differently, it was different this time.

But one other reason that actually made it sting even a little bit harder is because people are more familiar with Donald Trump's record now and his convictions and other things. And back then, no one was quite sure which Donald Trump would be president. He was a New York businessman.

He'd given to Democrats more than he had Republicans. Now it is very clear which Donald Trump will be president. So that was perhaps even more painful that he was elected in spite of that. SANCHEZ: Jeff, you've covered a lot of different administrations. You obviously covered the campaign with Brianna. We covered the White House together.

ZELENY: We did.

SANCHEZ: And especially early on in the Trump administration, there was a tremendous amount of chaos.

Actually, let's pause for a moment because we believe that Governor Tim Walz is set to take the stage at any moment, being received warmly by the crowd after hearing from his wife, the first lady of Minnesota, Gwen Walz. And there is the governor.

You could kind of see him through the crowd there. We anticipate that his remarks will echo what we heard from Kamala Harris.

ZELENY: And this is a small town, the anthem that was played at every one of his rallies that he would arrive in. He was indeed born in a small town in Nebraska, but chosen as the running mate here. So they have a very close relationship who we saw at the convention and on the campaign trail. This, of course, is an emotional time for the Walz.

KEILAR: Let's listen in.

(CHEERING)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): Thank you. Wow. You've been here.

CROWD CHANTING: Waltz, Waltz, Waltz!

T. WALTZ: Wow, wow. Well, thank you, Minnesota. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I don't know about you, but I've had a week, so that's it ...

END