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Trump Halts Stimulus Negotiations Only To Reverse Course Hours Later; CNN Poll: Amy Coney Barrett Remains A Deeply Divisive Court Pick; GOP's McSally Dodges Question On Support Of Trump. Aired 12:30- 1p ET

Aired October 07, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: There's a lot of the old normal in Washington today. And by that, I mean finger pointing. President Trump blew up stimulus talks with a tweet yesterday, but he blames the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The House Speaker in turn says no, it was the President's Twitter tantrum that blew things up.

Well, here's what a leader of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says with all this in limbo. Washington's failure to enact additional COVID relief will be felt on main streets and at kitchen tables across the United States. Those are the words of Neil Bradley of the Chamber of Commerce. Neil joins me now.

So Neil, one thing the Chamber has is great antenna up on Capitol Hill. We're in what I call an old normal, finger pointing here in Washington. The President says now he backtracked a little bit and said now I'll take small deals. Let's send stimulus checks to people, let's maybe do an airline industry help. What is your -- what is the morning after pick up the pieces today? Is this dead till after the election?

NEIL BRADLEY, EXEC., VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF POLICY OFFICER, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Well, We sure hope not, John, because as we said yesterday, mainstream American families have been waiting longer. This should have been done months ago. There was an opportunity for a deal months ago. And there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides. What we hope is that rather than finger pointing and a blame game, which is what we normally see often, too often in Washington, and election seasons, that they can come together quickly.

[12:35:14]

One of the things that we've identified a quick path forward is a bipartisan proposal that came out of a group in the House called the problem solvers caucus, that doesn't give everyone everything they want, but will provide the relief that we know the economy needs, and that in particular small businesses needs. It's on a shelf. It can be picked up. They could come together in a deal -- with a deal in a week, if simply there were the will to do so. KING: Well, you can get a phone call returned by the White House Chief of Staff, any indications they would accept that? The President's tweets today's sure seem to suggest, no.

BRADLEY: Well, you know, everyone is looking for alternative paths. The truth is, is that it's very difficult to see how single issue bills will make it through the process. And truth be told, airlines need assistance, small businesses and restaurants need assistance, nonprofits, of families with one employee. One in five Americans who worked in the leisure and hospitality industry in February, are unemployed today.

We're not going to piecemeal this together. We need to pull it all together. We need to package that supports the economy, it's doable. We just got to stop the trading barbs back and forth, and get people around the table and get ink on paper.

KING: Well, it is a glaring example of how, as I like to say, Washington is not America, and America needs help right now. This is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics about the impact right now of COVID on the economy. We're still missing 10.7 million jobs that were there in February and got wiped out. Some have come back, but we're still almost 11 million short, 80 percent of jobs related you mentioned to the service industry loss -- of the jobs lost related to the service. And 4 million small businesses have exhausted their PPP funds, 78 percent of small business owners say this economy is average or poor.

People need the help but we're 27 days, Neil, from the election. And again, if you listen to the speaker, listen to the Chief of Staff, the White House this morning, it appears this is going to be left to the American people to litigate at the ballot box. Do you have any hope that can be changed?

BRADLEY: Well, our message to Speaker Pelosi and to the administration and anyone on Capitol Hill who are listening is this, the politics of getting a deal done that addresses the problems, John, that you just outlined is good for everyone. And so there's plenty of other things for our elected officials to fight about and to campaign on. It would be good for everyone and more importantly, just good for their constituents to get this agreement done.

I'm not saying I'm holding out hope, the trend lines don't look good. But gosh, you sure hope that reason and common sense will come into play here.

KING: Reason and common sense are hard to find in this town right now as you know full well. But we shall see. Neil Bradley, appreciate your time today, Sir. Thank you.

BRADLEY: Thank you.

KING: Coming up for us, a brand new CNN poll just released tells us how Americans view the President's picked for the Supreme Court and how they view the big issue before the court Obamacare.

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[12:42:32]

KING: Some fascinating new poll numbers to share with Senate Republicans now press ahead with the confirmation of President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Initial reactions to Barrett are among the worst if you look back at historical CNN and Gallup polling on 12 potential justices dating back to the Robert Bork battle.

Here's a look at how Americans are very divided, 42 percent of Americans say Barrett should be confirmed, 46 percent say no she should not, 13 percent are unsure. But look at the partisan breakdown here. Republicans favor Barrett's confirmation. You see 83 percent of them there. Republicans say, yes, only 42 percent of independents, so they're split an 8 and 10. It's a mirror image 8 in 10, Democrats say no.

Let's discuss this now with our CNN Supreme Court analyst, Joan Biskupic. You know, Joan, it's interesting A, to look at the partisan divide. I guess everything in America creates a big partisan divide. But the justices are not supposed to be political. They're not supposed to be swayed by polls. Yes, you're shaking your head already. That's good.

One of the first issues Justice Barrett would face if confirmed, is Obamacare. And it's really fascinating when you look at our numbers because we asked, should the Supreme Court overturn Obamacare? Thirty- two percent of Americans said yes, 61 percent said no, 61 percent again, there's a big partisan divide, 73 percent of Republicans want Obamacare tossed out. But more than 6 in 10 independence and 96 percent of Democrats, 96 percent of Democrats say don't do that. We know she was skeptical of a John Roberts ruling that kept Obamacare alive. This is going to be a huge first test for her if she's confirmed, or at least an early test.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: That's exactly right, John. And I'm reminded of a question you asked me on camera right after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. And you said this must mean the end of Obamacare, right? And I said, oh, just hold on, John. You know, there are so many ways that the Supreme Court could go on this.

But I'm not going to be as cautious as I was to you that day, because the new nominee is someone who has expressed skepticism about the law and who's aligned herself seriously with Justice Scalia, who was a very strong dissenter goals times that the Supreme Court upheld it in 2012 and 2015. You rightly just referred to her criticism after the Chief Justice voted in a way that saved Obamacare in 2012 when she was skeptical of that. But she also said in 2015, that she thought the dissenters had the better argument.

So I can see why Democrats are really going to pound away weigh on this when the hearings begin. She's -- but here's here are the things that viewers should remember, twice before under serious attacks the Supreme Court did uphold it. Now, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in the majority to uphold it. But you've got two presidents sitting out there that rejected these sweeping challenges.

[12:45:19]

And this challenge backed by the Trump administration would get rid of the entire thing. It wouldn't just get rid of the individual insurance mandate that has since been zeroed out, it would get rid of the very popular provision that protects individuals with preexisting health conditions like cancer and diabetes from being dropped from coverage.

So a lot is at stake, John. And the other thing I would mention is just what you did, look at that strange partisan symmetry there, 83 percent for 83 percent against, but the number that intrigues me slightly more is the popularity of the law. Look at what we were at in 2012 compared to now. Many more people support it.

KING: Right. If you stretch that out, we can put it up on the screen back in May 2012 was 43 percent, now it is 57 percent.

BISKUPIC: Yes.

KING: So it has grown more popular over time. Again, we'll see if the justices fall the arguments in the court or whether as just as we know, Chief Justice Roberts in the past does view overturning public opinion as a little bit of a dangerous ground. We will watch Joan as this place out, Joan Biskupic, grateful for the reporting and insights there.

Up next for us, the high stakes legal battles. These also could end up with the Supreme Court on absentee voting, several swing states just weeks ahead of the election.

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[12:51:19]

KING: One of the fascinating challenges in the final 27 days of this campaign for us and for the campaigns and political parties keeping track of the many state challenges now to efforts to expand mail-in voting, to expand absentee voting. Many of these challenges pushed by Republicans who want to restrict state plans to expand these votings as we head into this pandemic election.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins me now. Kristen, the Trump campaign is pushing a lot of these cases with a lot of help from state Republican parties. What are the latest big ones that we know about?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, we just had some breaking news overnight regarding New Jersey and Montana. In New Jersey, a federal judge actually ruled in opposition to the Trump campaign. They were trying to stop all of those new mail-in ballot rulings, rules that were passed, and one of them being that you could count ballots after Election Day, even if they didn't have a postmark.

Now we also know that Republicans voters in Montana, they went to the courts as well. They're asking the Supreme Court to stop the governor from allowing counties to send mail in ballots to anyone in any county that is a registered voter. And one thing that you need to keep in mind here is that litigation is a key part of the Trump campaign strategy and as these cases start to work their way through the system, Republican officials feel more and more confident. The reason being the makeup of the court as we know President Trump, Senate Republicans, they have confirmed 200 plus judges, and many of those vacancies that they filled, those were on appeals courts.

But as we get closer and closer to the election, you are starting to see some of these state officials really pushed back, they're asking for these cases to be dismissed. Take a listen today to the Pennsylvania Secretary of State.

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KATHY BOOCKVAR, PENNSYLVANIA SECRETARY OF STATE: The private and state filed a motion for summary judgment in the case brought by the Trump campaign and others in federal court. And we're advocating that all their claims be dismissed. We also filed an opposition to the Republican Party's request to the United States Supreme Court to stay the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision allowing mail ballots to be accepted if postmarked on Election Day and received by three days afterwards. So we've asked the Supreme -- the U.S. Supreme Court to deny that stay.

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HOLMES: And so just a couple of things to note here one, of course, we'll keep our eye on that. See what exactly happens here after that request was made. But two, we are in act one, of what is likely a three act play. This is just the beginning. The litigation strategy is one that continues on Election Day and after Election Day. We know that the Trump campaign is training poll watchers to be able to talk to lawyers on the ground so they can file litigation the day of and that includes possibly injunctions on ballot counting, John.

KING: And we have a fascinating three plus weeks ahead, and maybe a couple weeks after that, as these things make their way through the courts. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for staying on top of it for us.

[12:54:16]

When we come back, there's a big Senate race in Arizona, a Republican incumbent in trouble in a debate last night, this is a tough question. What do you think of President Trump?

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KING: A big Senate debate in Arizona last night and it got feisty quickly. Former astronaut, Mark Kelly, is the Democratic challenger Martha McSally, the Republican incumbent. The question she had a hard time answering, are you proud to be in the President's corner?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you proud of your support for President Trump? SEN. MARTHA MCSALLY (R-AZ): Well, I'm proud that I'm fighting for Arizona and done things like cutting your taxes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, the question was, are you proud of your support for President Trump?

MCSALLY: I'm proud to be fighting for Arizona every single day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a yes or no for President Trump?

MCSALLY: Putting legislation on President Trump's desk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's a dodge. The two you might recall competing for the seat once held by the late Senator John McCain. Kelly accusing McSally of not defending McCain when President Trump attacked him, this is McSally's answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCSALLY: I've publicly and privately repeatedly talked to President Trump and asked him to stop attacking John McCain. Quite frankly, it pisses me off when he does it. I repeatedly said stop doing that.

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[13:00:03]

KING: Kelly leading at the moment, one of the big Senate races we'll keep an eye on. Thanks for joining us today. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow.