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Trump Makes Supreme Court Pick with ACA Repeal in Mind; Trump and Biden Face Off in First Presidential Debate Tomorrow; Michigan Leaders Touts Significant Reduction in Racial Disparities. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired September 28, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: Democrats are making health care the defining issue as they oppose to president's nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Democrats do not appear to have the votes to block a pre-election confirmation. Instead, Democrats are hoping to use the Barrett nomination to energize Election Day turnout by warning about the Supreme Court schedule for one week after the election, the high court then scheduled to hear a case that could lead to the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, being declared unconstitutional.

Judge Barrett already is on record criticizing past court decisions that protected the ACA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): What I am concerned about is anyone that President Trump would have appointed was there to undo the Affordable Care Act. That is why he was in such a hurry so he could have someone in place for the oral arguments which begin November 10th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And you might say the president justified that very fear with this tweet. Obamacare will be replaced with a much better and far cheaper alternative if it is terminated in the Supreme Court. Now, the president has made that promise, a better, cheaper health care plan for three-plus years now, but Republicans don't have a plan. And recent executive actions taken by the president are modest at best.

Democrats argue it would be cruel to strip millions of their health protections anyway but especially in the middle of a pandemic.

Let's get straight to CNN Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju. Manu, so the health care is the Democratic battle line. Part of that battle line though is an acknowledgment they may not have the votes to stop this.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it. They believe that they can make an argument against this nominee, put Republicans on the defensive. We have seen Republicans defending their health care record under Democratic attacks in key Senate races across the country, the president himself trying to defray attacks against his health care record.

What Democrats are trying to do is make the focus almost exclusively on the fact the she would be sitting on the Supreme Court to hear those oral arguments to -- and the case dismantle the law and spotlight her 2012 comment or comments after the 2012 ruling that upheld the law, in which she was critical of that ruling. Expect that to be a major focus. Expect also that her views about Roe versus Wade, about whether she would uphold that precedent to be part of the focus.

And Democrats also plan to press her to commit to recusing herself from any election dispute that could emerge after the elections. Of course, the president said he needs nine Supreme Court justices because he believes that any close contested election is going to end up before the Supreme Court. Democrats are telling me that they plan to make it a big part of the hearings to get her to commit to recuse herself. We'll see how she deals with that because the White House says there's no need to do that.

But both sides, John, are scrambling to get ready for this hearing. This is happening at a lightning-fast pace. Typically, for the last two nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh took 48 days and 57 days respectively from the time of the nomination to begin the hearings. Here, it's taking 16 days from the time of the nomination to begin the hearings. And Lindsey Graham, the Judiciary Committee chairman, wants to have this nomination approved out of his committee by October 22nd, setting up a confirmation vote by the end of the month, so roughly one-month time in a process that typically takes at least two to three months.

But a lot, of course, riding on this, the direction of the court, the future of so many Democrats are going to plan to make the case that health care is on the line as well. John?

KING: It is remarkable. We are going to deal with another hugely consequential issue in the middle of a blur, the pandemic, the election and everything else. Manu Raju, I appreciate the important reporting there.

Up next for us, tomorrow is five weeks to Election Day. And guess what, it's debate night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:00]

KING: The first presidential debate is tomorrow night, Trump versus Biden, and in some ways, Trump versus public opinion.

Look here. This is our national poll of polls. Biden leads the national race, as he has for some time. Nearly six in ten Americans think the election winner should pick the next Supreme Court justice. But, of course, President Trump has already nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

And the president is on the wrong side of public opinion on two issues central to the court fight and now the 2020 election. There's a clear majority support both for preserving Obamacare and for preserving legal protections for abortion rights. All those disagreements between the candidates guarantees a feisty debate night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What do you feel like you have to accomplish to be successful on Tuesday? What would you have to do to win the debate?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Just tell the truth.

REPORTER: How many hours would you say you've spent on --

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I mean, a little time. I mean, not a lot.

REPORTER: More or less than six --

TRUMP: I'm out in the country.

[11:40:00]

I don't -- you know, I don't have the luxury.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now, Jonathan Martin, National Political Correspondent for The New York Times. J. Mart, good to see you on the day before the debate.

It is interesting when you go through the issues, it is Trump versus Biden, but in many ways, it is Trump versus majority opinion in the country adding the caveat he won last time by losing the popular vote. He knows he doesn't need the majority in terms of the votes. He just needs the right states.

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. And Americans don't simply vote based on their policy preferences. I mean, we've got years and years of elections that sort of capture the contradictions of the American electorate. So, obviously, that is not always determinative in this country, where voters stand policy issue A, B and C.

But, look, there is a history, John, of incumbent presidents not doing well in their first debates, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Barrack Obama. And so you heard the sound bite, the president is taking a risk here, I think, in not doing more to get ready for this debate.

KING: Right. Well, as we have seen on everything, he doesn't attend coronavirus task force meetings. We hear from the intelligence people he doesn't like to read the briefs. Either he believes he can do it, he believes he can do it on his own.

The interesting question for me is, obviously, in the polarized politics we live in, priority one is to motivate the support you already have, make sure that they vote especially in these pandemic times, make sure they have a plan if you're going to vote early, if you're going to vote by mail, how are going to do it. But then you do have the idea, can you change minds. And if battleground states are close, tiny percentages can matter.

This is the insight. This is Gary Langer, the ABC polling director. He says there's room for change in preferences, but as in any highly polarized election, not much. Among likely voters who don't back Trump now, 6 percent say they'd consider voting for him. Similarly, 5 percent of those who don't currently support Biden would consider him. That makes a net total of 5 percent of likely voters who can be considered movable, a thin slice, albeit, potentially enough to matter in some states. That's what makes it interesting.

Priority one has to be mobilize what you got, but especially if you're the president. And if you're the president and you're losing in all the battleground states, you have got to find some way to peel off undecided, sort of peel off some from the other guy.

MARTIN: But that's what is so striking about the president's strategy, is that it seems to be focused entirely on mobilization, turning out his base, rather than persuasion, trying to find that 5 percent of undecided, sort of bringing them to your column. All of his actions seem to be oriented toward his conservative, heavily white and sort of rural and ex-urban base instead of trying to win over independents, women, suburbanites, that he needs to be more competitive. And that is what is so striking in this race.

Secondly, John, I would say that he has focused on Vice President Biden's mental acuity, calling him Sleepy Joe, saying he can't complete a sentence. Doing that for months and months and months has made an impact on voters. I've talked to dozens of voters in the last couple of weeks who invariably bring up Joe Biden's mental fitness.

If Joe Biden is standing tomorrow night and is able to convey his message in a way that even kind of B to B+, that, I think, is going to be a challenge for President Trump because of just how far the president has gone to suggest that he is not all there. If he does show that he's all there or even mostly there, John, I think it's going to be upsetting to President Trump and his supporters because they've set this expectation so low for Biden.

KING: And I was reading your reporting from a couple of days ago. You mentioned those you were talking to. One of the states you have been in is North Carolina, which we have -- would say 14 battle ground states. I would say there are six states really that are going to decide who is the next president. And I would tell anybody watching, if you want to pick one or two, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Let's focus on North Carolina. Almost impossible, almost impossible to get the president to 270 electoral votes without North Carolina, and the added wrinkle is the state could decide not only the presidency but could also decide control of the United States Senate.

MARTIN: Yes. I mean, that is sort of ground zero for American politics for a couple of reasons. First, it's just a split state. It's 50/50. It's got the same kind of urban and rural divides that the country at large has between conservatives and more liberal voters. And it's got everything. It's got the presidential race, the Senate race, a competitive governor's race, control of the state leg. So there's lots happening there.

And I think on election night, a lot of people are going to be watching that state, and especially some of the more suburban parts of that state to figure out how this thing is going.

And last point, this is important. North Carolina and Florida are going to be able to count their ballots, they get ahead of time earlier. So we're going to have some clarity of what's happening in those two states on election night itself.

KING: Five weeks from tomorrow, the debate is tomorrow night.

[11:45:01]

Jonathan Martin, I appreciate your insights. We'll continue this conversation.

Coming up for us, what one state is doing importantly to reduce the coronavirus impact on people of color.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: This morning, a new snapshot of the disproportionate toll the coronavirus is taking on African-Americans, and perhaps a little glimmer of progress. Look at numbers first in Michigan, black people make up 15 percent of the state's population yet nearly 30 percent of COVID-19 cases and more than 40 percent of COVID-19 deaths have been among Michigan's black residents.

State health department data though from the past two weeks suggest some progress in closing this gap, says black residents now make up roughly 8 percent of cases and nearly 10 percent of deaths.

[11:50:04]

Let's discuss this now with the lieutenant governor of Michigan, Garlin Gilchrist, who led the state task force -- still leads the state task force on racial disparities.

Governor Gilchrist, good to see you again and thank you for coming back because we have talked about this from the very beginning. And I just want to put this up, I want to put up the charts because rare is the day I get to put up a chart about coronavirus that actually shows progress.

And to our viewers, if you watch that top chart, these are cases, new cases in Michigan. The blue line on the top left of the screen is how disproportionate the toll was on black residents of Michigan. Look at March, look at April into May. Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist, when you move to September, every coronavirus case is horrible but the rate of coronavirus among African-Americans is about the same.

The lower chart, the purple, is Hispanic or Latinos. And you look at April and you look at May and into June, well above. And you get to September and it is still above, but it is coming closer, coming closer to the average with everybody else. How? How did you get these numbers down?

LT. GOV. GARLIN GILCHRIST (D-MI): Well, John, thank you for having me back on to discuss this and I appreciate your attention on this issue.

The how starts with focusing and prioritization. So, Governor Whitmer and I made a priority to focus on racial disparities since beginning of the pandemic, since before we even had a confirmed case of COVID- 19.

And thanks to the work of the task force, these 26 people, and the people of the state of Michigan, especially people of color who have taken this seriously the whole time, we've been able to put in place interventions, whether it was testing protocol expansion, workplace protocol recommendations to make sure for people could be safe at work, those people of color all represent those essential jobs, masks and conferring to the mask mandates that we've put in place in the state, connecting people with doctors and getting more people tested quickly with pop-ups and mobile testing and drive through testing. We've been able to get ahead of this because of that focus as a state.

And we really think that every state and the entire country should be focusing on this because when you solve for racial disparities, when you flatten this curve, you actually improve the overall response to keep everyone safer and that's why we made it a priority here in Michigan.

KING: And so I want put up some of the steps you've taken, distributing masks in large quantities, strategic communications, social media efforts, collaborating with regional task forces that have been dealing with the racial disparity questions, increasing access to testing.

Of those pieces of your puzzle, pieces of the solution here, is there any one that you believe is most important or is it the combination and the coordination that have led you to this progress, success?

GILCHRIST: It's the combination. It is the sum total of the action. But it really starts again with the choice to focus on this, and that starts with representation. We have the most diverse leadership team in the country focusing and leading our COVID-19 response. And so we focus on these as a priority. And I think that's where people need to take note and follow suit.

The truth is that old management axiom applies. What gets measured gets managed. And the fact that we prioritize tracking these disparities from day one is why we have been able to now show this progress and we need it to hold. And so people are going to need to continue to remain vigilant. But when we do so, we will continue to strengthen our overall response and have our most vulnerable communities be a little less vulnerable.

KING: Let's look at your data when it comes to deaths in Michigan, the coronavirus. And, again, you see, if you look at the top of the two charts here, deaths among African-Americans, black residents of Michigan, you see that's the blue on the left, you look at June, you look at into July, well higher than the rest of the population, now down with the rest of the population.

The lower chart is Hispanic and Latinos, and it shows more of an erratic pattern there. Latino deaths come down, then they jump up, come down, jump up. Is there something particular about that that the task force is continuing to look at? It's not -- you don't get a pattern to that, the erratic nature of it? Why is that?

GILCHRIST: Well, we have been tracking this number closely as well. And one of the things that we're tracking is making sure that for all the places where Latino population is present in the state of Michigan, particularly in our more rural communities where we have farmers and other migrant workers, make sure that we have testing and isolation infrastructure there. So we've gotten that up to speed. You have been able to see the overall trend start to decrease.

But we're still focusing on this. It has been a priority for the task force and a priority for the state. And, again, I am confident that the state of Michigan, when we focus on a problem, we can make progress on it.

And we need the federal government to do the same. We called for the federal administration, the Trump administration, to focus on, to consistently release demographic data on race and ethnicity. They have refused to do so. But if they did, it would help our overall national response.

KING: Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, sir, I appreciate you coming back with us today and we will continue this conversation. I salute your progress and I also know that there's a lot of work ahead in the weeks and months ahead. So we'll circle back and stay up on it. Thank you, sir.

GILCHRIST: Thank you, John. I appreciate you.

KING: Up next for us, another judge steps in telling the Postal Service, protect election mail.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:55:00]

KING: President Trump's former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, taken to a hospital last night following reports of a suicide scare at his Florida home. Police say Parscale's wife called them and said her husband was threatening to harm himself and that he had access to multiple firearms. After arriving at the home, police say they convinced Parscale to come out and he was taken to a local hospital.

Parscale was demoted from his position as campaign manager this summer after the president's controversial and poorly attended rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has maintained a senior position at the campaign but has rarely been seen at campaign headquarters in recent days and weeks.

Nebraska becomes the latest state to send out absentee ballots, joining more than two dozen others already ballots in the mail, including from Florida, Michigan and North Carolina.

[12:00:07]

Meanwhile, another judge stepping in to block.