Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) is Interviewed about the Election; Dow Surges on Vaccine News; States Still Counting Votes; Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) is Interviewed about the Congressional Election. Aired 9:30- 10a
Aired November 09, 2020 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00]
REP. FRANCIS ROONEY (R-FL): In Georgia, but -- so let's get on with the program.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
ROONEY: And I think that the GSA, or GA -- GSA, or whatever it is, should go ahead and certify to start the transition. I read in the paper this morning that unlike President Bush, who -- who told President Obama, gave him the letter at 1:00 in the morning after the election, they still haven't done that.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes. We reported the same this morning.
I want to play a line from Joe Biden's victory speech on Saturday evening because he extended an olive branch. I mean you remember his language. He said, listen, I'll be a president for all Americans. It's not red states or blue states, it's United States.
But listen to this particular point he made and I want to get your reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT ELECT FOR THE U.S.: Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end here and now. Refusal of Democrats and Republicans to cooperate with one another. It's not some mysterious force beyond our control. It's a decision, a choice we make. And if we can decide not to cooperate, then we can decide to cooperate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: What is your hope that that happens here?
ROONEY: Well, that -- that is certainly my hope. I -- and I am thankful to see the vice president make it -- make the case that clearly for a lessening of the partisanship, seeking civility, and the kind of discourse we can agree to disagree, we don't have to hate. SCIUTTO: Yes.
ROONEY: It's been the hallmark of our country.
You know, when I worked in the Senate in college, I worked for a Republican from Oklahoma. His best friend was Hubert Humphrey and they didn't agree on anything but they were best friends.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
Do you believe -- because people do talk about the working friendship between Biden and McConnell, forged over years in the Senate. You know, after every election where you have a divided outcome, I've heard you here, you're like, well, there's this or that that you can find bipartisan agreement on. Everybody always says infrastructure, right? But we know the poison is politics and the negative incentives here, right, because folks get killed in primaries if they compromise under any circumstances.
Do you see potential for a Biden and McConnell maybe to break through on a couple of things?
ROONEY: Yes, I'm going to be optimistic about this. I think they know each other well. They've both been in the same basic career for years and years. And I think there's actually some mutual benefit to a split between the White House and the Senate to help each one of them kind of deal with the extremes on both sides.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
ROONEY: I mean one thing this election ought to be a wake-up call that the extreme left and the extreme right are not what the American people want. They want their major problems solved.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
Final question before I go, because we did speak before the election. You didn't say then who you were voting for. Can you tell us now who you voted for?
ROONEY: Well, I just think I'll let my public comments speak for where I am on all this stuff. But I'm pretty excited to see an opportunity to bring the country together, lessen the partisanship, and end some of the personal adulation and get back on the policy.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
Well, listen, we're grateful to you for your service and we wish you the best in your retirement.
ROONEY: Thank you very much, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Congressman Francis Rooney.
Poppy. POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so take a look at the markets, folks. The Dow is up 1,500 points, 5.5 percent. That is significant and it is largely because of medical news from Pfizer that their vaccine trial shows that they say the vaccine is more than 90 percent effective.
Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans is with us.
Romans, is this all about Pfizer or is it also about knowing who won the election?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's how it started, knowing who won the election. You had Dow futures up, you know, 400 points early, early this morning.
HARLOW: Right.
ROMANS: And then this news dropped and immediately, you know, 1,500- point advance for the Dow Jones Industrial average. That's a 5 percent move. You and I both know, that's a big move for one day.
HARLOW: Yes.
ROMANS: And it shows this enthusiasm, I think, for this idea that we have, right now, a coronavirus running through our families, our schools, our businesses and our country and this is a vote of optimism that there will be vaccine progress on this vaccine and potentially others in the days and months ahead.
So starting to see an economy that can be opened up to its full potential when you have the vaccine and all of these other mitigation efforts that we are doing to try to get this under control.
Poppy, when I look at the stocks that are really flying today, I mean AMC Theaters, Boeing, Disney, Southwest Airlines, think of those names. These are the kinds of companies that need people to be out and about and doing things together with other people, right? And so those companies are seeing big, big answers today.
HARLOW: Yes.
ROMANS: Is the stock market outshooting? It always does on the way up and on the way down.
HARLOW: Yes.
ROMANS: But at least this is sort of telling you there's some optimism that you can see a life after COVID and it involves vaccines.
HARLOW: Amen. To imagine going to a movie again.
ROMANS: I know.
[09:35:00]
HARLOW: Christine Romans, thank you. Thanks. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
Ballots are still being counted in several battleground states this morning. We should note that's normal. They're doing it carefully. They're following the law.
President-elect Joe Biden is leading President Trump in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. Let's see where those numbers stand right now.
HARLOW: We are very glad to have our Mark Preston with us at the magic wall.
Good morning, Mark.
MARK PRESTON: Good morning, Poppy.
HARLOW: Let's start with Arizona, where the race has really tightened. I thought you were going to bring a wall with you, Mark?
PRESTON: Oh, my gosh, the wall is so tired. I mean John King and Phil Mattingly just put the wall to shame.
HARLOW: Is it on vacation.
SCIUTTO: Yes, the wall is tired. The wall is tired. No one mentions that. Yes.
[09:40:00]
PRESTON: I mean doesn't the wall get a break. Can we give the wall a break? Now, let's be fair now.
HARLOW: Someone get the wall a drink.
PRESTON: All right, let's -- and a cigarette.
Let's go into Arizona, 11 electoral votes. Last time Democrats won it was 1996 Bill Clinton.
Look, both candidates received 1.6 million votes each. Joe Biden's lead has decreased by 17,000 votes over the past couple days. There's still 77,000 votes left to count and we expect an update today.
So let's look at where these votes are. The largest county in Arizona right now, Joe Biden has a 46,775-vote lead. That is helping him carry that state. Maricopa County.
So what's remaining? Nearly 18,500 signature verified ballots are left to count, 10,900 ballots are left to verify and 3,700 ballots are left to verify as well.
Look, as far as a recount goes, a candidate cannot ask for a recount but a recount will be triggered if the margin of victory is less than 200 votes or 0.1 of 1 percent Highly unlikely in Arizona. But, still, counting votes, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Yes, it's a very high bar there.
OK, let's talk about Georgia. Georgia's a state where the -- his lead -- Biden's lead, though small, has expanded in the last couple of days.
PRESTON: It sure has. Look, the last time Democrats won Georgia was 1992. Before that, Jimmy Carter won it twice. Georgia has not been that friendly to Democrats. Look, Joe Biden has received more than 2.65 million votes while Donald Trump has trailed him with 2.45 million votes.
Now, Biden's lead, as you noted, has increased by 10,353 votes. The good news is that several counties resolved issues which required ballot counting. This occurred up in Gwinnett County. We can take a look at that where there was a glitch that required 535 absentee ballots, 965 provisional ballots and three military ballots to be reviewed after there was a software glitch.
Just to talk about transparency, talk about putting the numbers out, all the way down to three military ballots.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PRESTON: So for all the talk that there is nefarious things going on, I don't know how they could be any more transparent.
What I should note in Georgia, two things, Jim, is that a candidate may request a recount once the votes are certified. We know the Trump campaign named Doug Collins, the congressman, Georgia congressman, to lead his recount efforts. It looks like it's going to be under 0.5 percent. That will be headed to a recount.
What's interesting, more interesting about this is that we have these two Senate races right now --
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PRESTON: That are likely to head to a runoff in January. And that could decide the fate of the Senate.
HARLOW: All eyes on Georgia, for sure, the next nine weeks or so.
PRESTON: Yes.
HARLOW: Hey, Mark, the votes are still coming in to major counties in Pennsylvania, right? And there's been all of these requests of the Supreme Court here when it comes to Pennsylvania. Where do the actual votes stand there?
PRESTON: Well, a state that has been a battleground back and forth, Democrats have not won it since 2012. But where they are is now Joe Biden's lead has grown to 45,760 votes after an update from Philadelphia this morning. These were the new numbers that came in this morning.
These don't include those mail-in ballots that were postmarked by November 3rd, but needed to arrive by this past Friday. They've been segregated out because of the court case. That does not include that.
Now, the commonwealth of Philadelphia tells us, or Pennsylvania, tells us that 54,304 votes -- mail-in votes still need to be counted at this time. And, really, the largest number of votes, as you see right there on the screen, is out in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, and also in and around the Philadelphia area. These are two Democratic strongholds. So you can only expect that Joe Biden's lead will grow from there.
I should note, too, North Carolina hasn't been called, nor has Alaska. They're still counting votes there. Those are two states that Joe Biden -- or Donald Trump seems to be likely to win.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
HARLOW: Thank you, Mark Preston. We're glad you gave the wall a break, but thanks for showing up for us today.
PRESTON: He's tired. She's tired.
HARLOW: Clearly. Clearly. She's tired.
All right, House Democrats predicted a 2018 repeat, but their blue wave did not happen again. They actually lost seats. We're going to ask a sitting House member, a Democrat, who won his re-election bid, why, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:48:44]
HARLOW: Welcome back.
So, this morning, growing division within the Democratic Party over their message, and their priorities, as House Democrats come to terms with a shrinking majority that they now hold.
With me now is Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio.
Good morning. Congratulations on your win.
REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): Thank you. Thank you.
HARLOW: But you didn't get more seats. In fact, Democrats now have at least seven fewer seats. And let's hone in on why, looking at your district, which includes Mahoney County, that includes Youngstown, Ohio. The president won that county by about 2,200 votes. You won your county by almost 12,000 votes. So, clearly, people split their ticket.
How do you explain that and is there a message to your party from that? RYAN: Well, you've got to keep these races local and you've -- I think
you've got to talk about unifying messages, which we've talked about for a while, around jobs and the economy, health care, bread and butter issues, pensions.
And that's what I talked about a lot, you know, and my numbers were significantly down, too, but we had to get out of that defund the police, the green new deal. I have a lot of building and construction trade workers who support me, who work in the natural gas industry, for example, of which I support, of obviously regulating it, but the idea of abandoning fracking, for example, would be a death nail.
[09:50:10]
And I think Joe Biden and his campaign did an impeccable job really of threading that needle around, you know, being for the working class, advocating for the working class, and I think that's why you see him as the next president, because he was able to do that.
HARLOW: Well, you can do two -- I mean the two things can be true at the same time. You can be working class and also support a green new deal or support a defund the police movement.
I wonder what you think, though, your fellow Democrat, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, said in no uncertain terms, we should never, ever use the word socialists or socialism ever again.
And I want to be clear, that wasn't the overriding message from Democrats, but she clearly saw it as -- to the detriment of the party this time around. And then listen to what former Ohio Governor John Kasich said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KASICH (R), FORMER OHIO GOVERNOR: The far left can push him as hard as they want. And, frankly, the Democrats have to make it clear to the far left that they almost cost him this election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Is he right? Did the far left of your party almost cost Biden the election?
RYAN: Well, this is going to be -- this is going to be an electoral landslide. This is going to be a blowout at the end of the day. I mean we're talking about winning Georgia, winning Arizona, rebuilding the blue wall. So this election wasn't even close at the end of the day.
But the issue is, it was because of Joe Biden. It was because of his 40-year brand as a working class person. It was because of his skill to be able to navigate some of these issues. But if you -- if you're going to get into the defund the police, if you're going to get into a green new deal where you're going to tell hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who work in industries like natural gas, that's going to devastate you in western Pennsylvania, that's going to disconnect you from those union workers that came around in larger ways for Joe Biden.
HARLOW: OK, except you've also got a counter point to that, not on the green new deal, but on Medicare for all, which you eventually came around to when you were running for president. Your colleague in Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, told Jake Tapper yesterday, quote, every single swing seat member that co-sponsored Medicare for all won their re-election. And you can point to a few, like Debbie Marcusal- Powell in Florida, or Kendra Horn in Oklahoma, who didn't support it and lost re-election. So the counterpoint she's pointing to as well, that moderates lost their seats, not progressives.
RYAN: Well -- well, we had a lot of moderates who were in red seats. Moderates who won in districts that President Trump won. And the reality of it is, look, we -- we -- I think we are going to agree on 90 percent, and that's what Joe Biden -- it has helped to have a president like Joe Biden who spent a lifetime building these kind of coalitions. And he's going to be able to do that with us.
And hopefully we win the Senate. But if we don't, he's worked with Mitch McConnell for a long time. So drop Medicare to 60, Poppy. Let's have a public option where people can buy in. Those are the progressive steps that we need to take.
HARLOW: Can I ask you for your reaction. I'm sure you've read the editorial in "The Trib (ph) Today," one of your Ohio local newspapers, about you and the mandate they think you now have given what we saw in the election. They said -- they said, taking the liberal speak and walking the far left line is likely not the way to get things accomplished in your now right-leaning home district. And they said you need to be cognizant that liberal talks points by Nancy Pelosi are no longer the way forward.
What's your answer to that?
RYAN: Well, kudos to you and your team for researching "The Warren (ph) Tribune" in northeast Ohio, Poppy. So, nice job there. You -- you always do a great job.
Look, I think it's -- you do have to watch how you present things to people. You know, I mean, on the issues of law enforcement, on the issues of criminal justice, on the issues of the new economy, you know, look, there's a way to get to where we need to be.
We have a new electric truck company coming in, in my congressional district, Lordstown Motors. We have a new battery plant, General Motors and LG Cam (ph), a South Korean company, going to be 1,100 jobs. Thousands of jobs in the new economy that are moving us to reduced carbon --
HARLOW: Right.
RYAN: That are creating middle class jobs. So that's how you talk about it because that's how you get home and that's how you build coalitions and that's what I think the vice president's going to be able to do for us.
HARLOW: All right. Well, you clearly don't think the op-ed is totally wrong. Kudos to my producer Nora. She's the brain who found it.
Congressman Tim Ryan --
RYAN: Great job. Thank you.
HARLOW: It's really good to have you. Thanks. See you later.
RYAN: Thanks. Thank you.
HARLOW: Jim.
SCIUTTO: Good research, that's what we do on this program.
Well, the drug maker Pfizer says it has developed a coronavirus vaccine that is more than 90 percent effective.
[09:55:03]
That's high. That's good. What does that mean for you and your family and me and our family? Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he's going to answer all our questions, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
