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Sen. Graham Defends Reaching Out To Top Election Officials In Key Battleground States; McConnell Opposes Removing U.S. Troops From Afghanistan; Kansas City, Mo Announces New Restrictions To Combat COVID-19; Sen. Chuck Grassley Quarantining After Exposure To COVID-19. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired November 17, 2020 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[12:31:34]
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Some new developments now in a curious story we talked about at the top of the hour, Senator Lindsey Graham, who's the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also a close friend of the President of the United States acknowledges he's made phone calls into several states where the Trump campaign is alleging there were some election improprieties. Now, the Trump campaign has no proof of that. But the President's legal team has been alleging improprieties in Georgia, improprieties in Nevada, improprieties in Arizona.
Senator Graham confirming to reporters a short time ago, yes, he made some phone calls to those states. He says he's doing absolutely nothing wrong.
Let's bring in CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju and Scott Jennings, former campaign adviser to the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Manu, you had some time with Senator Graham just moments ago. What did he say?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's defending this call. He said that there was nothing improper about what he's doing, even though he's the Senate Judiciary chairman. He does not have oversight over these issues. And he's, of course, a senator from South Carolina, certainly not from Georgia. But he said this call was polite. Even though the secretary of state from Georgia believe there was an implicit urging of him to get rid of legally cast ballots that came by mail.
What Lindsey Graham is instead arguing is that he wanted to understand the process. And he revealed something new to me just moments ago, John, he suggested that he wanted to push the Georgia's Secretary of State to toughen voter identification rules to voter signature verification rules for mail-in ballots ahead of the Senate run offs that will determine the majority come January.
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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): That wasn't the purpose of the conversation. The throw up ballots, we're talking about election we currently (ph) had yet which is the Senate races. That was my focus is how do you verify signatures. We've got a new Senate race coming up. Is there anything we can do to make it better?
RAJU: So you're concerned about the Senate races more than what was happening with the President?
GRAHAM: What the whole thing was about -- I mean, they've got a process, you can't change the law retroactively. So, there's just no way to do that whatever system was in place for the presidential election we're going to live. The whole conversation was about the Senate race.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: So, this is also a surprising intervention into Senate races that could, of course, determine the majority. Here is the chairman of a powerful committee reaching out to a top election official, who will administer what could be very close elections to run off races come January to try to ensure that mail-in voting is done, that there's stricter standards for mail-in voting come January. Democrats, of course, succeeded in mail-in voting throughout the country, including in Georgia, Joe Biden is on his way to carrying Georgia.
So, a lot of questions about Lindsey Graham's role. He defends it is perfectly normal. But he also revealed in addition to reaching out to Georgia, he called election officials in Nevada and he also talked to the Governor of Arizona. Of course, there's also are states that Joe Biden is projected to win. So, a President's ally reaching out to these officials across the country raising a lot of concerns about what exactly he is up to here at this critical moment, as the President's team is trying to find evidence of fraud, but so far have not been able to change what looks like the outcome here that Joe Biden will be the President, John.
KING: So, Manu, stay with us. Scott Jennings, you're a loyal Republican, so help me here. Help me here. Forgive me. I'm not a lawyer. But if I were in court on this one right now, Senator Graham says this was about the Senate races. Number one, let's start with this. The Secretary of State in Georgia says no, it wasn't. Listen.
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BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: He asked if the ballots could be matched back to the voters. And then he -- I got the sense it implied that then you can throw those out for any -- if you really would look at the counties with the highest frequent air of signatures.
[12:35:09]
Well, it's just an implication that look hard and see how many ballots you could throw out.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: So the current Republican Secretary of State in Georgia says it seemed to him it was about the ongoing recounted handout, it not about what's going to happen in January, number one. And then to Manu's point, Lindsey Graham also calls the Governor of Arizona, election officials in Nevada, forgive me, if he's so concerned about two Senate run offs in Georgia, why is he calling Arizona and Nevada that is Bill Clinton might say that dog don't hunt?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, a charitable way to look at this would be he was calling up in Georgia, and these two guys had a misunderstanding and there's nothing untoward. The reality is, though, that Republicans have always resisted the federalization of our election system. We don't want the federal government interfering with --
KING: Until they loss.
JENNINGS: -- the way we run elections at state and local. And so, the idea that you'd have U.S. senators from other states, calling into the Secretary of State or some other local elections administrator, in talking to them is a little foreign to our Republican viewpoint.
KING: And we are -- Manu, we're at this interesting moment. I want to change the subject a bit, because we're at this interesting moment where, you know, Mitch McConnell, for example, the leader, Scott knows very well, you know, very well from reporting. has tried to say, look, the President has every opportunity to pursue his legal avenues here. Mitch McConnell knows the math. He doesn't want to talk about it publicly.
But we are seeing some effort by Republicans, including Leader McConnell to say be careful, Mr. President, you're in office for two more months. But make wise decisions, including listening Leader McConnell here says do not pull our troops out of Afghanistan at this delicate moment.
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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: The rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight, delight the people who wish us harm. The consequences of a premature American exit would likely be even worse than President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq back in 2011, which fueled, fueled the rise of ISIS and a new round of global terrorism.
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KING: The leader also went to the floor after the President fired Secretary Esper and made clear he didn't think that was a good idea. Does he think the President's going to listen, Manu?
RAJU: It's unclear because in that carefully worded floor speech, while he was very critical of the policy here, John, he did not actually called President Trump out by name. In fact, he praised some of Trumps pressed past decisions, but did not criticize Trump for moving ahead with troop withdraws from Afghanistan instead just raised concerns about the consequences of the of this action. And while McConnell, of course, has a very powerful voice, the Republicans are not all on the same page here.
Jim Inhofe, who's a Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman told me that he spoke with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Miller yesterday and said that Miller was in favor of this and said he is inclined to support this idea going ahead. So with this division within the Republican Party, President Trump seems like he's going full steam ahead and that could, of course, hamstring the new administration on their Afghanistan policy when they take over come January, John.
KING: Manu Raju, Scott Jennings grateful for your time today, gentlemen. It's an interesting time as we move forward here.
And still ahead for us, as COVID hospitalizations reached an all-time high, more states deciding to announce new restrictions.
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KING: The surging coronavirus pandemic now forcing cities and states across the country to impose new restrictions. Here just a few of the states that announced new restrictions on Monday, Ohio, New Jersey, Iowa, Oklahoma, California and Mississippi. The city of Philadelphia also revealing a safer at home plan on Monday that includes prohibiting all indoor gatherings beginning this coming Friday. Missouri's high positivity right and a rise in hospitalizations also now spurring Kansas City to join the growing list of cities and communities imposing new restrictions.
With us now is the Kansas City Mayor, Quinton Lucas. Mr. Mayor, it is good to see you. I wish we were speaking under better circumstances. In your city, you have now decided you need indoor gatherings now restricted limited to 10 people, 10:00 p.m. closing time for restaurants and bars and a 50 percent maximum capacity in gyms and masks are required. How dire is the situation? And do you need to do more if the metrics don't change soon?
MAYOR QUINTON LUCAS (D), KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: Short answer is that yes, we need to do more if the measures aren't successful, and the situation is very dire. Many of us here in the Midwest looked at what happened in the northeast in the spring, had concerns. We did a stay at home order, we had full shutdowns. I think it's fair to say many of us don't ever opened up too quickly. We are dealing with the repercussions of that now, high death rates, infections, et cetera, that have created more concerns in this area and the things that continue to get worse, as the weather has gotten colder, as people are inside more, and as certainly we're getting closer to the Thanksgiving holiday.
KING: And we've watched this now for eight months, different states, different cities, different mayors to try to do things. Sometimes it's successful, sometimes they're limited in their effectiveness because you have neighbors. And so, in your case, you have neighbors in another state and then you also have the rest of the state -- to the east of you, the rest of Missouri.
The hospital association, Herb Kuhn is the President and the CEO of the Missouri Hospital Association, he wrote to your Governor, Governor Parson, wrote this, "The wolf is at the door. Missouri's hospitals urge you to issue a statewide masking mandate. A mask mandate may be unappealing to some, but it has become necessary". Do you believe that your state needs a mask mandate that what you can do in the city is limited without statewide help?
LUCAS: Absolutely, yes. I mean, I'll never shirk my responsibility, but there is a significant challenge for those of us who are trying to make a difference in our states, but we are surrounded, bordered in many situations by counties that are not only not issuing mask mandates but where the seriousness of COVID-19 isn't really there. And it is -- it's frustrating, it's distressing.
[12:45:17]
In Kansas City, we're dealing with a lot of folks that are coming from rural Missouri hospitals, who are seeking treatment will continue to provide that treatment in the city. But there has to be something that gives and that is both reductions and capacities that we're seeing, a seriousness about masks. There are solutions to limit this spread, but right now on too many of our states, including Missouri and Kansas, I think it's fair to say we're not doing enough.
KING: Wondering at this delicate moment, President Trump has refused to open transition cooperation with the Biden administration, including on this pandemic, which is reprehensible and reckless. But I'm wondering, is there any outreach from team Biden to mayors either directly, individually or through the association of mayors to try to compare some notes so that when they take office in 60 days, they're ready to help you on day one?
LUCAS: So there is some. A lot of the communication came shortly after the election. I think we need to probably do more communicating as time goes on. But I understand actually the President-elect and their team's frustration. There is lots of information that does come out of the White House. Sometimes mayors have asked for more of that information about spikes in our areas. I was on a call months ago asking for some more information there, we didn't necessarily receive it.
What I would encourage is given the challenges we have now to share whatever information we can have possible, including vaccine details, what rollout will look like over time, and some further information on how further shutdowns might be needed. We have a moment of crisis here and everybody is kind of in a disjointed pattern for how we respond. As a mayor, I will continue to step up and do all I can to keep the people here safe. But a lot of that requires greater coordination among many states, among an entire country. And I think we're lacking significantly from that now, and that is leading to more public health harm in our communities.
KING: Mayor Quinton Lucas of the great city, Kansas City, sir, thank you for your time. Best of luck in the challenging days ahead. We'll circle back and see how you're doing.
LUCAS: Thank you.
KING: Thank you, sir.
Up next for us, Joe Biden adds to his senior White House team.
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KING: President-elect Biden is filling top White House roles with top campaign allies including a rising star among House Democrats. Congressman Cedric Richmond served as the national co-chair of the Biden Presidential campaign. He discussed his plans to shift to a new White House role this morning.
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REP. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D-LA): This new row will allow me to offer advice to the President when he wants it, maybe sometimes when he doesn't want it. We'll also be an office in the West Wing. And when you talk about the needs of Louisiana, you want someone in the West Wing.
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KING: Richmond is joining a senior White House team. You see some of the faces there that will include longtime Biden adviser Ron Klain as the Chief of Staff, plus Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon, as Deputy Chief of Staff.
Our Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny is tracking these developments for us. Jeff, inexperienced team, the Biden team trying to build a diverse team, put all the pieces together and what's your biggest estimate?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it's a bit of both right there and really not a surprise so far. The top people who are going to be surrounding the President-elect in the West Wing are the people who brought him to this dance or the people who were the leaders of this campaign. Jen O'Malley Dillon, of course, was the campaign manager, the first woman to run a winning Democratic presidential campaign. She will be a Deputy Chief of Staff, it's announced this morning. That's a very important job in charge of the operations and other matters.
But also his -- you know, some of the two of his longest standing advisors, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti have been with him for a very long time, they will be just steps away from the Oval Office. And Cedric Richmond, very important there. He will be a bridge to the House of Representatives and other external groups that is going to be essential for any progress this President hopes to make.
You know, in the House majority, a shrinking one on the Democratic side. So, he will be critical to that. And you can just see the diverse line-up there of other folks as General Counsel as well, as well as advisers to Dr. Jill Biden.
So, certainly, this is the beginning of the West Wing advisers, certainly not the end. We will wait and see who becomes the press secretary, the communications director, but those Cabinet announcements, John, are even more important. I'm told those will not come until after Thanksgiving.
KING: Right. And as you know full well, every time you fill a job, the competition for the remaining jobs gets even more intense. So that's what happens in the days ahead.
ZELENY: Yes.
KING: Jeff Zeleny, appreciate the important reporting there.
And still ahead for us, 87-year-old Republican Senator Chuck Grassley now quarantining after a coronavirus exposure.
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KING: Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley now in quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19. In a statement, the Republican Senator said he learned of the exposure this morning. Grassley says he is now waiting on test results and that he is not currently experiencing any symptoms.
The 87-year-old senator serves as the President pro tem in the Senate, that makes him third in the line of presidential succession after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. Grassley was at the Senate yesterday in the proceedings talking with members down on the floor. There's a big vote today, a vote today and if he can't make it, it will be Senator Grassley's first missed vote since 1993.
We certainly wish Senator Grassley well as he goes through this and it would be a shame if that streak had to come to an end. Thanks for spending your time with us today. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good afternoon.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar, and I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world. We have entered the disaster zone of the coronavirus pandemic.
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