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Voters Head to the Polls in Seven States; Freddy Gray is Interviewed about Boris Johnson; Average Gas Price Nears $5 a Gallon. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 07, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JARED MOSKOWITZ (D), FORMER FLORIDA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, I mean, listen, it wasn't some strategy I had, it just felt natural. And, obviously, it was extremely impactful. Everybody who came, Democrat or Republican, but obviously the Republican leadership and the House and Senate, came to the school the next day. They saw what it looks like when there are bullet holes through the windows, when there are backpacks piled up outside, when homework is scattered all over the parking lot, when there is blood in the hallway and outside the door. Everyone was crying, as they should have been. I mean I was there that night when they were telling parents at 12:30 in the morning where their kid was in the building. I didn't hear crying, I heard screaming. It - it haunts me. And I didn't want legislators to stay in their office in Tallahassee and watch this just on the news. They needed to see what it looks like when the school is turned into a battlefield by weapons of war. And I think it was impactful.

So anyone in Texas, don't let the elected leaders, don't let the elected officials that, you know, are in the capital right now looking at this, they need to come see the school. They need to see what it looks like when kids go to school and they don't come home. When parents have empty rooms in their houses, when they have to pick out boxes for their kid. This is not the way it's supposed to be. And so --

HARLOW: Do -- I was just going to say, one of the things that also changed in Florida is red flag laws. That was part of the many changes in that legislation that passed three weeks after the Parkland shooting. And it has been used more than 8,000 times in the state. And Republican, you know, sheriffs there say it has made our state safer.

I wonder what you say to opponents of red flag laws, for example, Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw in Texas, who did an interview right after the Uvalde shooting with our colleague Dana Bash and said, quote, we are essentially trying to do with red flag laws is enforce the law before the law has been broken. He says they don't make sense. What do you say in a state that has them?

MOSKOWITZ: Yes, well, he's wrong. And that's why Republican sheriffs have told him he's wrong. Some of the most Republican sheriffs here in Florida, out of Polk County, where red flag laws have been used a tremendous amount of time have told him he's wrong. I mean, think about it this way, if we're only right in one half of 1

percent of those cases, we have prevented 45 Parklands, 45 Buffalos. I mean isn't that enough to warrant these laws?

So, look, they're effective. It's why law enforcement supports them. It's why they're supported by the majority of Floridians and the majority of Americans.

And, by the way, there are Republicans now in the U.S. Senate, Rick Scott, who was governor of Florida, who signed that bill, he knows it's a good law and he knows he should institute it in the U.S. Senate.

HARLOW: Jared Moskowitz, thank you for your time this morning.

MOSKOWITZ: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Still ahead, primary Tuesday makes its return in seven states. We go to Los Angeles where the mayoral primary, just one of the races to watch, especially for Democrats there.

HARLOW: Markets just opening on Wall Street. Take a look here. The major indices opening a little bit lower today. Investors continuing to weigh how the Federal Reserve will respond to Friday's jobs report. Also in the calculation, continued high inflation.

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[09:38:15]

HARLOW: Today voter head to the polls for primaries in seven more states, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota all choosing candidates in a number of really, Jim, high-profile races.

SCIUTTO: In California, the ballot is a block buster, from the L.A. mayor's office to a number of different congressional districts that could determine control of the U.S. House this November.

CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston joins us now from L.A.

And, Maeve, I mean it seems like a lot of the interesting battles here within the Democratic Party.

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: That's exactly right, Jim. I mean this is a day where we will really start to have a window into how Democratic voters are feeling. There is a lot of malaise out there. There's a lot of anger about gas prices and inflation and we're going to see that unfold in some of these tight House races when we see how many Democrats actually show up.

But, obviously, there are also these fascinating local races, like the L.A. mayor's race and also a potential recall of the San Francisco district attorney that are reflecting the unease throughout the state and the country about rising crime, and then also homelessness in L.A. You have Rick Caruso, who is a shopping mall developer, going up against Karen Bass. He's a former Republican, but there is so much anger here about homelessness and how much money is flowing in this state to house people, when people feel like things are really not getting better, and also a lot of unease about rising crime, car break-ins, burglaries. We're seeing that same story line play out in San Francisco. And so this is going to be a real test for the Democratic Party that shows us how far the pendulum has swung from just a few years ago when criminal justice was at the front of the agenda for the party and how much they're going to pay for that now.

[09:40:01]

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Maeve Reston, thanks so much for your reporting from L.A.

RESTON: Thank you.

HARLOW: Still ahead, Boris Johnson survives a no confidence vote to keep his job as British prime minister. Critics say still not secure in that position, though.

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HARLOW: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will keep his job, for now, right? An important caveat there. He was always expected to survive a no confidence vote in parliament, but just 41 percent of his own party members put on the record that they support his leadership.

[09:45:09]

SCIUTTO: The vote caps off months of severe backlash over the parties Johnson and his staffers held during Covid lockdowns when gatherings like that were banned for everyone else in the country.

Freddy Gray, deputy editor of "The Spectator" magazine joins us now.

Freddy, you know, it's interesting here, you know, Johnson made a name for himself really since Russia's invasion of Ukraine by leading the way, sometimes even ahead of the U.S., on providing support to Ukraine in defense of Ukraine. But - and, by the way, Zelenskyy praised him and welcomed his surviving this vote yesterday, but does this show what British voters really care about here, and that's the pandemic response?

FREDDY GRAY, DEPUTY EDITOR, "THE SPECTATOR": I think it probably does in a way, Jim. And as you suggest, he survived, but only for now. There is blood in the water. And the reason why is that Tory MPs were very worried about the way they're looking at polls. Another election could be a long way off, but it's looking like a possible disaster for the party.

And the Torys (ph) are rather good at destroying their own leaders. They're the original nasty party. I think they could teach the Republicans and Democrats some tricks about (INAUDIBLE) destruction. So, I think it's looking as through the Tory -- Tory MPs, Tory representatives, are looking at the public, looking at how angry they are, not just about parties in lockdown, which is sort of a silly story that's just dragged on and on, but more about the cost of living crisis and inflation, which is as bad here as it is in America. So, they're worried about that and they're thinking maybe it's time to kill the man who gave them a substantial majority.

HARLOW: Your piece in "The Spectator" this week was great. I mean and this line really struck me. You said, lady luck turns out to be the cruelest mistress Boris ever had. She built him up to tear him down. "The New Yorker" this week called him a political escape artist.

Talk about those things in this moment. Does it cripple him forever long-term?

GRAY: Well, yes, Boris knows a lot about mistresses. And as I said, lady luck has turned out to be very cruel to him because he seemed to have this amazingly gilded life. He's a man of great privilege. Everything he touched turned to gold. He used to be editor of my magazine, "The Spectator," and it was generally regard as a golden period for the magazine. Things have gotten better, obviously, I should add.

But he has sort of since he won that very thumping majority in 2019, the general election, the pandemic came and, of course, the pandemic has been very cruel on a lot of political leaders, but I think it's tortured him in particularly unique ways, not least because he very nearly died from the virus himself and he's never really recovered. He enjoyed some popular support after surviving an attack of Covid. But he -- his politics has started to disintegrate from there. And certainly, when it comes to the economy, there's a widespread sense that his government doesn't have a grip on the situation.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean it's a remarkable fall when you think because after that 2019 election, to think it was -- the conservative majority was so strong, it was almost bulletproof.

Freddy Gray, good to have you on. Thanks so much.

GRAY: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, the average gas price in this country jumped another 5 cents overnight. It's on track to hit $5 a gallon on average soon. How broader inflation is compounding this issue for American consumers. That's coming up.

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[09:53:09]

SCIUTTO: The nation woke up to see that gas prices surged another five cents just overnight. Now the national average edging closer to $5. Right now it sits at $4.92 a gallon.

HARLOW: Wow, a lot more expensive than that in some cities. It's 30 cents higher than last week and more than 60 cents higher than a month ago.

Let's get a reality check here from our very own Harry Enten.

I mean they've, you know, pulled all these levers, and it still keeps going up.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes. I'm glad I don't own a car. I'm glad I don't even have a license.

But, look, I think what we should point out here is that, you know, if you actually look at the real gas prices, that is taking into account inflation, this is not the highest that gas has ever been, right?

So if you, for instance, go back to 2008, what you see is gas prices were actually about 50 cents higher back then per gallon than they are right now. They're still very high right now, but they were even higher back in 2008. And the other thing to keep in mind is that we've got a lot more miles per gallon than we used to get. So, if we take into account that fuel efficiency, if you go about $100 miles on average, right now it's $19. Back in 2008, it was $26. So, it's not as bad as it was back then, although it's still quite bad.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean it's interesting because the Trump administration fought those fuel efficiency standards. Car makers went ahead.

But, politically, and that's all that matters if you're running for office this fall, inflation. That's broader inflation is a real problem here, and that hits the party in power.

ENTEN: I think that's exactly right, Jim. I mean, you know, if you take into account inflation, but that's - that's the problem.

HARLOW: Right.

ENTEN: And if you look right now at midterm cycles and you essentially look at the inflation year over year, right now 8.3 percent, that's way higher than at any point in the last 24 years. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1974 at this point in the midterm cycle to get an inflation number that's even higher than this.

[09:55:04]

And if you look and you essentially say, OK, if you say the economy is the most important issue to your midterm vote, what wins, inflation or gas prices? Right now, inflation is overwhelmingly winning. Forty- three percent who list the economy as their top issue in their vote for Congress say inflation is the reason. Gas prices, it's just at 16 percent. So, inflation, inflation, inflation.

You know what, we can take into account a lot of things, but, at the end of the day, people are not liking this economy. And I think that's bad news for Democrats going into the fall.

SCIUTTO: Yes. HARLOW: And what you say usually happens.

Harry Enten, so, thank you.

You really don't have a license?

ENTEN: No. I was afraid of failing my driving test.

HARLOW: I'll give you some -

ENTEN: My girlfriend is going to work on that with me. I have a lot of self-improvement that needs to happen.

HARLOW: We'll be watching. Thank you, Harry Enten.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Ahead, on a very different note, a very somber note, a teacher who was shot and survived the deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, is now talking about how he pretended to be dead for 77 minutes, praying the whole time. His message to the parents of the 11 students. His entire class killed that day.

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