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Maligning of Experts: Rubio's Cynical Attack on Biden Picks; Pandemic Inauguration May Cut Choir, Parties, Some Usual Guests; Trumps Expected to Move to Mar-a-Lago in January; Qantas to Require Proof of Vaccination for International Flights. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired November 25, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:31:11]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Republican Senator Marco Rubio posts a Bible verse on Twitter most every day. Recent ones include messages about respect, humility, loving your enemies. These are important themes, especially in the moment that we're in.
But Rubio's daily devotions are often one-two punches accompanied by judgments or attacks.
On Tuesday, just before he quoted Proverbs and urged folks not to rejoice when your enemies fall, he went after President-Elect Joe Biden's first nominees.
He said, quote, "Biden's cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences, and will be polite and orderly caretakers of America's decline. I support American greatness and I have no interest in returning to the normal that left us dependent on China."
Now, there's a debate to be had between Republicans and Democrats on some very key issues that they are facing at this point in time. Right? This includes ideologies that guide each party on policy, and that would include U.S. and China relations.
But Rubio is also going after Biden's picks for being educated and qualified and networking with people who know about the fields they are now leading in. This is what they're now doing, what they're in charge of.
It's a rejection of experience and expertise that permeated the Republican Party even before President Trump.
And for someone cynically poking at Ivy League educations, Rubio fails to note that Biden will become the first president in four decades without one, without an Ivy League education.
And Kamala Harris earning the first winning vice-presidential ticket in 44 years without Ivy League stripes.
So let's look at President Trump's administration, which, for four years, has been at the helm of the American greatness that Rubio champions.
It's full of people who went to Ivy League schools, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth.
Trump himself attended UPenn.
Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, whose portfolio constantly eclipses his expertise, went to Harvard.
"In the Price of Admission," Daniel Golden's book of how, quote, "The rich buy the underachieving children's way into elite universities with massive tax-deductible donations," it was revealed that Kushner's attendance at Harvard followed his father donating $2.5 million to the school.
The Kushner family denies there was any connection between the cash and his acceptance.
Rubio's chief of staff went to Stanford Business School. Not Ivy League, but it's the closest thing we west coasters have to it. And it's arguably as difficult to get into as Harvard's Business School.
Rubio's former campaign manager taught at George Washington University and, on his bio page, he touts himself as a featured speaker at Harvard.
The president himself, who we mentioned, for four years, has helmed the American greatness that Rubio talks about in the tweet. He considers his matriculation from the business school at UPenn among his greatest accomplishment, even 50 years after graduation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, I went to the Wharton School of Finance. Nice. You know, Ivy League school. Great. The best business school I think. It's one of the hardest schools to -- even in my day.
I went to an Ivy League college. I was a night student. I did very well. I'm a very intelligent person.
You know, I'm an Ivy League -- I went to an Ivy League college. I went to the Wharton School of Finance, which is the best business school in the world. I'm like a smart person.
We have people running this country who are stupid. They're stupid.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: I went to an Ivy League school. I'm very highly educated.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Rubio's dig at Ivy League schools is actually an attack on elitism, which is a conversation that can be had.
But this is where education standing is a punching bag.
[13:35:02]
It's a safe bet only about one-third of Americans have a four-year college education, according to the most recent census figures.
White Democrats are considerably more likely to be college educated than white Republican voters.
And as Democrats have struggle to bridge that divide for years in a very real way, Republicans, even Ivy League-educated ones, have tried to exploit it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): We have a president who I think is a nice guy but he spent too much time at Harvard perhaps.
I didn't read about the economy reading about it or reading about it in the faculty lounge at Harvard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Ironically, Mitt Romney spent more time at Harvard than Obama did. He was a businessman.
But he earned two Harvard graduate degrees to Obama's one. And of the 1,300 students in Romney's class, only 15 earned the joint degree in business and law that Romney did. Three of Romney's sons also went to Harvard.
Among the Republican political elite, it is not real, this outrage about being educated. It is often just cynically feigned to score political points at the expense of the good of the country.
Take coronavirus, where scientists say that wearing masks and living temporarily with common-sense restrictions will help keep our fellow Americans alive.
We get this from the Republican governor of South Dakota where there are no restrictions in place and where 43 percent of the tests came back positive last week according to Johns Hopkins.
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GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): We are not and will not be the subjects of an elite class of so-called experts. We, the people, are the government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Remember this as Governor Noem feigns the disdain of spending one's life devote to learning about something. She doggedly pursued her own college education years after it was
interrupted in her 20s when her dad passed away and she had to take over the family business.
She reportedly received intern credits for serving as a member of Congress after she was elected in 2010 , which is perhaps the best internship ever.
And she spoke at a South Dakota State University commencement even before she graduated from the school in 2011. Her education meant a lot to her.
There used to be an intellectual center on the right espousing principles, which you may not agree with, individual responsibility and limited government.
And it was the basis for an actual debate in the country on how to govern America, on what America can achieve with its influence.
Increasingly, Republicans in power have banished their own principles and, instead, they're focused on what? Tearing things down, like education, expertise, science, facts that will keep Americans safe.
How can America have a reasoned policy debate when some members of one party, many members of one party have said coronavirus is a hoax, when they won't acknowledge reality?
Like Senator Rubio, who has not yet acknowledged that Joe Biden won the election.
Rubio attended a fine four-year institution himself, the University of Florida.
And he takes a cheap shot at people who have a very important job, too, who are only now receiving their first transition briefings in the last day, because President Trump and most Republicans haven't acknowledged that they won the election.
Unless you plan to do that, Senator Rubio.
I want to talk with CNN political commentator, S.E. Cupp, who is joining me.
And full disclosure, S.E., you are a graduate of Cornell University, an Ivy League school.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & CNN HOST, "S.E. CUPP UNFILTERED": I apologize. I apologize.
KEILAR: Congratulations.
What is your reaction to this? Because, on one hand, there's a conversation to be had about elitism. But this tweet really appears to be taking aim at expertise and education as well.
CUPP: It's just so dumb. As you point out, Marco Rubio is reliably good for a self-own, as he was in this tweet.
But the more important point I think that you allude to is this anti- intellectualism, anti-expertise, anti-experience project that's been cloaked in conservative populism over decades, has I think become hackneyed and kind of lazy but also demonstrably dangerous, especially right now during a pandemic.
We have seen what a lack of expertise means in real lives.
So I think now's exactly the time that you'd want people who know what they're doing.
That does not have to mean they come from great educational backgrounds. It has to mean you have the right people in the right jobs.
Ben Carson, a very smart guy, has done very little in Housing and Urban Development because, presumably, he has very little experience in housing and urban development.
Rex Tillerson, a very smart guy, an engineer by trade, was probably not the right guy for secretary of state.
[13:40:03]
So it's about finding the right people. And I think that's what Joe Biden is committed to, regardless of Marco Rubio's dumb swipes.
KEILAR: And maybe understanding what average Americans are going through. Right? What are working-class Americans dealing with?
This is something that the Democrats need to grapple with.
CUPP: Sure.
KEILAR: They did cede some of that territory in -- when Hillary Clinton lost.
And I mean, can you speak to that a little bit? Because this is an important debate to have about being out of touch or understanding what people are going through.
CUPP: Sure. And that can happen regardless of your education.
KEILAR: Yes.
CUPP: We saw some of that in the Obama administration, talking over people, talking down to people.
Barack Obama was very famously accused of that when he said, during his campaign, of people in the middle of the country who cling to their guns and religion. That didn't go over well.
So that's real. But it has nothing to do with someone's background or education. And slamming someone for having gone to an Ivy League school just as
an ad hominin attack is really -- again, there's not a better word for it. I know I went to an Ivy League school. It's dumb. It really is just dumb.
KEILAR: That's a -- you know, a simple Ivy League word.
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: Simple can be the best ones.
KEILAR: They are.
Real quick, before I let you go, this talk about whether a Republican would serve on Joe Biden's cabinet, what is your thought on that? Who might this be? What do you think would be a good fit or a good candidate?
CUPP: I think you'll definitely get one or two. I think John Kasich is a good bet. Jeff Flake might end up in there.
Senator Cindy McCain, who is the widow of Biden's closet friends, John McCain, I think is a good bet. I would look past her. They have a great relationship. So that could be a really interesting one.
KEILAR: All right. We'll be watching.
S.E. Cupp, great to see you. Thank you so much.
CUPP: Thank you.
KEILAR: And happy Thanksgiving. All right.
CUPP: You, too.
KEILAR: Just in, new CNN reporting on preparation for Biden's inauguration, including what the president can hear every day outside of his bedroom window.
Plus, one of Biden's COVID advisers will join me live on why experts are warning people they'll feel sick after getting the vaccine.
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[13:47:01]
KEILAR: This just in. New CNN reporting on the pandemic-era preparations being arrange for President-Elect Joe Biden's inauguration, which is just eight weeks away.
Apparently, President Trump can ever hear sounds of construction for Biden's inauguration from his White House bedroom window.
But this will not be a typical inauguration. There are plenty of pandemic-style tweaks being made with an eye to public health and safety. And joining me now to talk about this, we have CNN White House correspondent, Kate Bennett.
Kate, hello.
Tell us how the presidential inauguration pomp and circumstance is going to be different this time around.
KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's going to be incredibly different. The irony of having the stage, the main platform in front of the White House being built the past few weeks in earshot of President Trump, is sort of a crazy scenario to think about.
But on the Hill, my colleague, Lauren Fox, is reporting that things are going to be different. That iconic platform where there are typically hundreds of VIPs and cabinet members as the new president is sworn in is probably not going to happen.
There may not be a flier. The annual luncheon in Statutory Hall will probably not happen as well. We're trying to figure it out all across the country, this COVID.
But the Biden team is especially tasked with having this moment in history feel as reverent and important as should while still abiding by the science of preventing COVID spread.
And 1.8 million people turned up in Washington when Obama was first sworn in on Inauguration Day. Crowd control, doing things virtually, these are all being considered as we approach inauguration in the era of COVID.
KEILAR: Yes. No, it has to be different. There's parts of the process that happen indoors. How do they safeguard those parts of the procession?
I know you have some reporting on this, Kate. But after Biden takes power in January, President Trump is expected to relocate to Mar-a- Lago, which is his Florida resort home. There are renovations planned to accommodate his post-presidency needs. Tell us about this.
BENNETT: Things are under way for Mar-a-Lago. Unlike Obama, who moved to a residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., and things had to be constructed to accommodate the security apparatus that comes with him, Mar-a-Lago is fairly well already established.
There are plenty of rooms. They've already been practicing as the president has been down there for his winter White House.
But certainly, they will be living there more often, Melania Trump, Barron Trump. This will be their residence.
So there are things taking place right now in terms of decoration, in terms of updating, getting prepared to welcome the former first family back to Florida and set up what will be obviously his home base for the next few years.
KEILAR: All right. Kate, thank you so much. Great reporting.
Moments from now, President-Elect Biden will deliver a Thanksgiving message, live, as coronavirus rages across the country.
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Plus, one airline is going to require passengers to be vaccinated before getting on flights.
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KEILAR: Australia's national airline carrier, Qantas, will require future international travelers to prove they have been vaccinated against coronavirus before flying.
CNN's Richard Quest has more on this new policy.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE & CNN HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Brianna, what Qantas is suggesting, and other airlines are going to follow, that you will need a vaccination certificate that can be accessed by the airlines and governments easily before they let you travel overseas.
They're already doing something similar with a piece of paper for typhoid and yellow fever with a vaccination certificate.
[13:55:02]
The goal with the COVID vaccination will be to make it digitally secured. So it can't be forged. It can't be interrupted. There's integrity of information.
Once they have done that, then everyone will be vaccinated before they travel.
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KEILAR: All right. Richard, thank you so much for that.
We do expect to hear from President-Elect Joe Biden any minute now as he gives what his team is calling a Thanksgiving address. He's expected to weigh in on the holiday season, the pandemic, and what comes next. And we will bring that to you live.
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