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White House Officials Huddle on Infrastructure; NYC Democrat Mayoral Primary Decided by Ranked Choice Voting; Restaurants Struggle to Find Workers. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 23, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:16]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are set to meet with President Biden to talk, what, infrastructure, again. A bipartisan group of senators and administration officials also expected to resume negotiations sometime today.

Poppy, what are we going to see?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: A deal. OK. I think, maybe. If anything is going to get agreed on, it will (ph) be this.

SCIUTTO: We'll see.

HARLOW: But there are big sticking points in how big the pack is going to be, how to pay for it.

Let's bring in our congressional correspondent Lauren Fox, who may tell me that I'm wrong, and Jackie Kucinich, Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast."

Am I wrong, Lauren?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I wouldn't hold your breath that they get a deal today, Poppy.

Look, I think that there's just a lot of sticking points still outstanding.

HARLOW: I didn't say today. I didn't say today.

FOX: I mean, look, I think the bottom line is they met yesterday, this bipartisan group with White House officials. They are trying to iron out some kind of agreement on how to pay for the framework. I'm told they're very close on how to spend the money. That's really never been the issue, though. They are still having issues with how to finance all this and whether to finance all of this. I think those are two separate questions.

Part of the disagreement is, no one in the room can necessarily agree on how much money each of these provisions actually raises, how much money you get out of tax enforcement, for example. Republicans are arguing that it's under $100 billion. Democrats are arguing that it's several hundreds of billions of dollars. And the White House is going even a little further than some Senate Democrats on what that number might be. So that's really underscoring what the holdup is right now.

We are told that yesterday's meeting really didn't yield anything. And they met for upwards of two hours yesterday on and off on Capitol Hill. The White House officials came back to The Hill in the evening. They had another meeting. Still no agreement.

Meanwhile, Democrats are still trying to fast track this infrastructure proposal, moving ahead with reconciliation. You saw the Budget Committee chairman, Bernie Sanders, put out a blueprint, really highlighting all these massive changes that he wants to make, not just related to roads and bridges and tax increases, but also related to changing the immigration system through reconciliation. So very significant developments of what Democrats are eyeing in their go it alone reconciliation package.

Poppy and Jim.

SCIUTTO: Jackie, tell us the timeline for that. You know, if compromise fails again, right, you know, how quickly do Biden and Dems move on and get a bill, right, like, we'll get a law, right, an infrastructure law passed, both houses, signed by the president via reconciliation?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that's still up in the air, Jim. But I think we could be promised a very busy summer, particularly if these negotiations over the current infrastructure package fall apart.

Listen, everyone is getting extremely tired of waiting for -- particularly on the progressive side, they're getting tired of this negotiation because there is a sentiment out there that they don't think Republicans, at the end of the day, are going to agree to anything. And as we've talked about before, the closer we get to 2022, the harder it is to get anything done. And, you know, we're running into things like debt limit, all sorts of other issues that Congress has to deal with as we get closer to the fall.

So Joe Manchin said I believe yesterday that he hopes this doesn't bump into August. But it's the U.S. Senate, and it moves like turning an aircraft carrier. This is -- this is not a speed boat.

HARLOW: That's a great point.

So, Jackie, just on the bigger picture here, following on the collapse of the Democrats' push for SB-1 yesterday and a question mark here on infrastructure, Sen. Mazie Hirono, who's going to be on with our colleague Ana Cabrera later this afternoon said this, quote, if we don't make the changes to the filibuster, then I think we're going to look at losing the House and the Senate anyway.

That's a big -- that's a big call. Is she right? KUCINICH: So that is -- you're hearing that a lot, just the dire

consequence of keeping the filibuster in place from the left because it is true that a lot of Joe Biden's agenda items are stuck because they aren't able to get 60 votes -- you know, Republicans to agree to these proposals.

The problem is, is that you can't -- you have a lot of Democrats, you have people like Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema who are not going to vote to get rid of the filibuster. That it -- so while this voting rights push, they -- on the left they particularly are saying that this creates more pressure and shows these Democrats that are holdouts that -- of what is being blocked.

[09:35:00]

It does seem to have changed the calculus, though. And that hasn't really moved regardless that this, you know, failed yesterday and they're hoping to use this as a political issue, as a way to bludgeon Republicans going into the 2022 midterms.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Cause instead of a law.

Lauren Fox, is there a plan b path for Democrats on voting rights? Do they have one?

FOX: Well, I think at this point they plan to use this as a real election issue. And we're starting to see that with some announcements that Democrats made yesterday. They plan to hold some field hearings to discuss this issue outside of Washington, D.C., where Democrats and Republicans are very, you know, dug in on which side they stand on this issue.

But when you talk to people like Senator Manchin, he says, look, I'm going to keep talking to my Republican colleagues. The problem with that approach is that if you talk to many Republicans, most of them would argue there was nothing in that massive voting rights bill, even if you broke pieces of it apart, that they would support a stand-alone legislation. That's why it make that path forward on a bipartisan approach really difficult and hard to imagine how they get those 10 Republicans. At this point, I think they have to use this as a messaging discussion in the midterms to say, this is why we need more Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

SCIUTTO: It's Washington today, man, lots of messaging, not a lot of legislation.

Lauren Fox, Jackie Kucinich, thanks very much.

The votes still being counted in the New York City mayoral primary. There is definitely a leader, though. And there's also someone who bowed out. When will we know the actual winner? We'll lay it all out, next.

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[09:41:00] HARLOW: CNN is projecting that the winner of New York City's Democratic mayoral primary will be -- not going to give you a name, but will be decided by ranked choice vote counting. So, Eric Adams, a retired NYPD captain, has jumped out to an early lead, but did not secure the outright majority needed to outright win. For the first time, New York City voters ranked their top five choices in order of preference rather than just selecting one candidate.

SCIUTTO: Yes, the those second and third choices, they matter. The winner will be determined by a process of eliminating the candidate with the least support, redistributing then their votes to the candidate ranked second choice each -- on each respective ballot. The counting will begin next week, but it's not expected to wrap up until mid-July. Why? The winner will be heavily favored in the general election in November. That Democratic win -- Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate.

Joining me now, Katie Glueck, chief metro political correspondent at "The New York Times."

Katie, you know what struck me about this race, we don't know the outcome yet, is to some this was going to be a big progressive moment for the city. That AOC's endorsement, for instance, would be a deciding factor here. But, instead, you have a more moderate candidate, at least with the lead for now. How much of the issue is rising crime fundamentally change the dynamic in the race because that was part of Eric Adams' appeal, right, former cop, someone who knows crime, someone who's promising to address it.

KATIE GLUECK, CHIEF METRO POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, great to be with you. And, of course, as you noted, we do not yet know the final results of the race.

SCIUTTO: For sure.

GLUECK: It's going to be a couple of weeks at least, absolutely, until we see that.

But certainly to the question of how central was public safety in this race, it was the dominate issue, which is really striking. As you noted, of course New York is perceived by much of the rest of the country as this, you know, deeply progressive bastion. Of course, it's the nation's largest city. In fact, it is quite ideologically diverse, including among Democrats.

But what has been striking is a year after the rise of the defund the police movement, which was quite influential in New York City, we saw consistently in polling throughout the New York City mayoral primary that crime, public safety, the top issue for Democratic voters. We saw a lot of support for proposals like adding more police to patrol.

And Eric Adams was perceived by some voters as having some real credibility on a fairly urgent issue to a lot of Democrats. He is someone who had a pretty complicated relationship with the police. He was a long-time police captain, but also sought to challenge misconduct from within the department. And so you're talking with a lot of voters, he was seen as someone who could speak with some real credibility on this issue.

HARLOW: It's also really fascinating to compare what happened in New York City and the top choices here with what just happened in Buffalo, New York, and the very -- much to the surprise of the incumbent there, India Walton, a self-proclaimed socialist, a political newcomer with just a remarkable, personal story. CNN has not called the race, but appears to be on her way to winning the primary there.

Now, I think it's important to note also, she has not embraced the defund the police movement. But she is, you know, a self-proclaimed socialist. How do you juxtapose and square the two?

GLUECK: Certainly the results of last night in both cities -- and, of course, again, still counting for sure in the New York City mayor's race, so this may end up being a different discussion in a couple weeks.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Right.

GLUECK: But certainly we have pretty sharply divergent views of the direction of the party on display in two important cities in New York. And, of course, this comes at a time of national debates over which the Democratic Party should head at a time when, of course, President Biden is in power or even as we see an ascendant, younger left win making real gains, you know, at the local level and in some places across the country as well (INAUDIBLE).

[09:45:07]

HARLOW: You're going to remain busy for at least a few more weeks to come on this race.

Come back soon, Katie Glueck. Thank you.

GLUECK: Thank you.

HARLOW: Restaurant owners and restaurants across the country have opened their doors again to customers. But one restaurant owner says she has had to start closing hours early every day. Why? Because she cannot find enough workers. She'll join us next.

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HARLOW: Welcome back.

Well, as states lift dining restrictions, more people get vaccinated, restaurants are seeing a welcome influx of customers.

[09:50:05]

But even those businesses that survived the pandemic are facing a new struggle, hiring back enough employees.

My next guest says, as of last month, she had to start closing her doors four and a half hours early every day because of a staffing shortage. Sandra Weise is the owner of Finish Bistro in St. Paul, Minnesota.

And we should show this photo because you also had the opportunity to serve former President Obama. That was 2014. You call that one of the best days of your life.

It's good to have you. Thanks for joining me.

SANDRA WEISE, BUSINESS OWNER WHO CAN'T FIND ENOUGH WORKERS: Thank you so much for having me.

HARLOW: You're actually in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul. I was -- I lived the first year of my life on Summit Avenue, so I'm a big -- big St. Paul fan, even from a Minneapolis girl. So thank you for being here.

And I wish it was on better news, but this is a real struggle for you. Is this still happening?

WEISE: It is. I -- I have to tell you, like my (INAUDIBLE) come as one (INAUDIBLE) for 10,000. (INAUDIBLE) restaurant owner. Our -- our current (INAUDIBLE) overwhelmed (INAUDIBLE) going on and I can't manage the surge (INAUDIBLE) but it's very difficult to manage the surge of people (INAUDIBLE) really excited to get out (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: I'm so sorry, we're only hearing every other word for you. So we're going to take a quick break, try to fix it.

We'll be right back.

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[09:55:45]

HARLOW: All right, we fixed the audio and we're back with Sandra Weise, the owner of the Finish Bistro in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Sandra, it's good to have you.

I was just asking you, has their -- has the labor shortage that you're facing in your restaurant gotten any better?

WEISE: It's gotten better. It's gotten better. I think the publicity about the fact that there actually is a shortage is helpful. My story is not unique. But my staff are absolutely overwhelmed and completely maxed. And it's really difficult. They're spread so thin and there's just many issues that go along with surviving COVID for 16 months. Most restaurant owners like me haven't had a day off in 16 months. And so it's a --

HARLOW: You've said -- you've said rain, sleet, snow, even COVID didn't close my business, but now you are having to close, sometimes four and a half hours early because of a lack of staff, not enough people to wash dishes, using paper plates, et cetera. I guess the fundamental question is, why? WEISE: Well, I think it's really popular to want to go straight to

unemployment or the federal supplement. And I think that probably is partly true. But I do think that that will be an incomplete narrative if we're to tell the whole picture.

Right now there are so many things in the just chain of events from COVID that have affecting this. The supply chain just is -- it's very inconsistent right now. People are squared, exhausted. We're five miles from the George Floyd incident last year. There's a different level of social unrest in the twin cities than a lot of places. Everyone is just maxed.

HARLOW: There is an interesting proposal that I wonder what you think about from the legislature there. There's a -- there's a Minnesota bill that is proposing a $2,000 signing bonus for people that go back to work before July and stay in that job for 90 days. This would be in place of -- it would replace the extension of $300 weekly supplemental federal uninsurance aid that Minnesota is still participating in.

Do you think a bonus like that, basically a signing bonus, could help?

WEISE: I am for unemployment as a wonderful tool. We needed it. But that just confuses me. It confuses me. I'm not sure. I don't know if that's the answer. But people are out and about. People are not wearing masks. People are vaccinated, over 70 percent in Minnesota. We followed the science to wear masks to keep us safe, now the science says we can take them off and be safe and follow those guidelines. And I think people should come back to work.

HARLOW: What about paying people more? Now, I understand with tips you said your average salary is between 28 -- $22 to $28 a year (ph). You had a barista last year who made $67,000. But there was this another restaurant owner on with my colleague, Ana Cabrera, yesterday who interestingly doubled his hourly wage before tips from $7.25 to $15 an hour. And, look, my father-in-law is a small business owner. I understand the challenges you face on that front. But that worked for this owner. I wonder if you've thought about that.

WEISE: It's different for every business. I'm a part of a leadership group in the twin cities for restaurants. And some of us are doing service charges and going to a different service charge model. Some of us are thinking, you know, the $15 minimum wage is coming anyway. We're trying to predict how to maintain healthy businesses and still stay afloat. It's a lot coming at us in our industry all at one time. And we definitely need the RRF refunded -- or additionally funded. But I think that we need something. We need to have more solutions on the table, especially about wage. It's different for every business, whether they're tipped or whether it's a service model, it's very dicey right now. No one has the answers. I didn't know how to handle a pandemic, that's for sure.

[10:00:02]

I did, though.

HARLOW: Who did? Who did? But you made it. You made it through. WEISE: Yes.

HARLOW: And I have a strong feeling you will make it through this.

Sandra Weise, thank you for coming