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Trump & Pence in Arizona to Back Competing Gov Candidates; Arizona GOP Primary Could Set Stage for 2024 Trump-Pence Face Off; FCC Cracks Down on "Auto Warranty" Robocalls; Twitter: "Uncertainty" with Elon Musk Is Hurting Business. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 22, 2022 - 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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[13:33:56]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Former President Trump and his former Vice President Mike Pence are in Arizona today. Same state, very different goals.
The former allies will attend events for rival GOP candidates in the race for Arizona governor. Trump will appear for election denier, Kari Lake. Pence will stump for Karrin Taylor Robson. She's backed by much of the GOP establishment.
The Republican primary race in the battleground state is less than two weeks away. And it is seen as a test of GOP priorities. And it could set the stage for 2024 when Trump and Pence could face-off in a run for the White House.
CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein, joins us to discuss this.
Ron, both men are there in Arizona. Do you think it is a coincidence they are there at the same time?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Not the same day, but not a coincidence in that we have seen them on different sides of the primaries. As you point out, the primary is coming up on August 2nd.
It is a very interesting moment. Kari Lake and Robson clearly represent different strands within the Republican coalition.
Robson has much more of an establishment background. She worked for Reagan and Bush, close to Ducey, the governor.
[13:35:06]
But I think it is an interesting moment in that it also shows how much the establishment of the party has conceded in the argument to Trump.
I mean, you don't hear Robson out there saying the evidence of the January 6th hearing, for example, as Liz Cheney has, have disqualified Donald Trump from holding office again. Doug Ducey would not say so on "STATE OF THE UNION" the other day.
And even Mike Pence. I think it's interesting because he is clearly trying to set his own path. But he went to the Reagan Library last month and mostly praised Trump for invigorating the movement, as he said.
So, yes, there's a divide. There are alternate paths. But it is one in which the establishment of the party really conceded a lot to Trump and Trumpism already.
CABRERA: The January 6th hearing did paint former Vice President Pence as a defender of democracy, a man of principle and action.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
CABRERA: And last night, they showed these photos of Pence on that day making calls to get law enforcement assistance at the capitol while the capitol was under attack. And we now know Trump never made the calls.
But here you have Pence, in these pictures, looking like he is in command.
If Pence were to run -- and it certainly sounds like he is leaning that direction -- do you think we will be seeing these pics in his campaign?
BROWNSTEIN: So far, based on everything, the way he handled it, I'd say no.
That is the striking thing. On that day, Mike Pence withstood the pressure from Donald Trump. But he has been conspicuously absent from offering any real criticism of Trump's behavior on that day.
He said he couldn't do what Trump asked him to do. He did not say was Trump asked him to do was wrong or that Trump's other behavior, which we now know inspired a mob that led to the vice president's security detail calling loved ones because they feared they would not make it out of the capitol --
CABRERA: Right.
BROWNSTEIN: -- alive.
When he went to the Reagan Library last month, he was mostly - and this is the posture of almost everyone in the Republican Party.
I mean, you have seen, unlike Watergate, where you had Republican- elected officials in each stage of the process validating the investigation and told their audience these revelations were important.
It is crickets throughout the January 6th hearings from even Republican leaders who were critical of Trump in the aftermath.
And look, they are allowing him through the silence to exert continued influence in the party.
Whatever happens in the governor's race, you have an election denier, Blake Masters, who is the frontrunner in the Senate nomination.
And you have a severe denier, Mark Finchem, who is the frontrunner for secretary of state. And Trump is still polling around 50 percent or more of Republican primary voters.
The choice of those who believe that what he did was wrong within the party, to not confront him means they will have to deal with him longer. And he remains a serious contender to be the leader of the party again in 2024.
CABRERA: I've got to tell you, Ron, I have more questions for you but not enough time. Never enough time, it seems. I am so curious.
Thank you for offering your thoughts and your analysis. I know you are deep into the midterm stuff, too.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
CABRERA: We will have to have you back soon.
Ron Brownstein --
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CABRERA: -- thank you very much.
(LAUGHTER)
Happy Friday.
[13:38:25]
OK. You know that robocall we have been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty for a car maybe you traded in years ago. Yes, I get those, too. Now the federal government is trying to block them for us. More after the break.
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[13:43:29]
CABRERA: Now to an important update about your car's extended warranty. Somebody has been trying to reach you about it.
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ROBOCALLER (voice-over): Hi, this is Mark with an important message about your automobile service contract.
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CABRERA: Don't you regret answering the phone the moment you hear that canned voice? Finally, the FCC says they are cracking down on billions of the robocalls.
And CNN business correspondent, Rahel Solomon, is joining us now.
Rahel, what is the government doing?
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is trying to take one step further in all of our pain with these robocalls. I thought I was the only one that got these calls, by the way.
They are now saying now it is alerting these telephone companies, saying we are giving you a list of names and companies, you are now required -- we are forcing you to block these illegal calls, which are billions every month.
They identified 13 people, six companies, all of whom are responsible for eight billion of the extended warranty calls since 2018.
The chairwoman of the FCC saying, "We are not going to tolerate the robocall scammers or those making scams possible. Consumers are out of patience, and I'm right there with them."
I should say, these extended warranty calls are the number-one complaint for the FCC for these robocalls. So it's a huge problem.
Essentially, the FCC saying to the phone companies, we're putting you on notice, here are the names and the companies, do not allow these calls to go through. If you do, you will be held liable.
Of course, there has been quite a bit of concern and skepticism about whether the enforcement of the FCC has been strong enough though.
[13:45:02]
CABRERA: Yes, because we get them over and over again at our house.
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SOLOMON: I don't have a car.
CABRERA: I know, yes. That was like a car we owned before we even moved to New York.
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CABRERA: That kind of thing.
Let's switch gears. Let's talk about Twitter. The company missed earning expectations explaining the man that may one day own the company.
SOLOMON Yes. Twitter reported earnings this morning. It wasn't a great quarter. Revenues missed. Earnings missed.
They blamed two things. They blamed larger challenges in the advertising business but also Elon Musk. Elon Musk weighing in on Twitter, saying, "I am rubber, you are glue,"
when someone pointed out, hey, by the way, Twitter is saying you are responsible for their bad quarter.
They are saying that all of the drama and the uncertainty about who will own Twitter, whether it will be Elon Musk or not, has created a lot of uncertainty for the business model. And it is headed to court in October.
But say, yes, Elon Musk is a big part of it.
When you look at the year-to-date performance of Twitter, you can see. It was already sliding, the shares, before Elon Musk's announcement about April. But that spiked its price and it has been plummeting since.
So it's been a mess for the company.
CABRERA: "I'm rubber, they're glue" comeback. So original.
(LAUGHTER)
SOLOMON: Haven't heard that in a long time.
(LAUGHTER)
CABRERA: Maybe it is to come. I have kids.
Thank you, Rahel Solomon.
All right. Back in Washington now, five Republican Senators are now on board to support a bill to codify same-sex and interracial marriage. We will have an update when we come back. Stay right there.
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CABRERA: Back with a live look at Capitol Hill where Republican support in the Senate to protect same-sex and interracial marriage is building. Senator Ron Johnson has now joined four of his colleagues who are voicing support for the bill, which has already passed the House.
Bottom line, the effort still needs five more Republicans, because 10 GOP Senators are needed to join all 50 Democrats to pass the bill and send it to President Biden.
They say everything is bigger in Texas. That includes money, influence and power.
Texas is one of only 10 states with no limitations on individual campaign donations to candidates. And because of that, two oil tycoons have been able to have a major impact on the legislature.
Here is a clip from the upcoming CNN special report. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Your voting record is just as conservative as many of the people who might be supported by these west Texas billionaires.
And you voted for the abortion bill, you voted for the no permit gun carry bill, and the bill that limits the discussion of race and gender in classrooms. You voted for that as well.
So why haven't the Tim Dunns (ph) and Farris Brooks (ph) supported you? It seems like you're doing something they would agree with.
STATE SEN. KEL SELIGER (R-TX): My voting record is very conservative. Is it 100 percent conservative? No. They're one-hundred percenters, and you're either owned or not owned.
LAVANDERA: So the way you describe this is, it almost sounds like Senator Joe Smith -- to make up a name -- if they've got a ton of money that's coming from these west Texas billionaires, those billionaires are really the elected official.
SELIGER: It is a Russian-style oligarchy, pure and simple. Really wealthy people, who are willing to spend a lot of money to get policy made the way they want it, and they get it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Ed Lavandera joins us now.
Ed, can you give us an example of how much power these men have over lawmakers there?
LAVANDERA: Well, we have plenty of examples. And we get into a lot of that, about how these two west Texas billionaires have wielded their power over the last years.
And it really is fascinating to see how they have operated. And very smartly. They have focused mainly on legislative, local legislative races where their millions of dollars can go a very long way.
And so in a state, Ana, where you hear over and over again how Texas is a state on the verge of turning blue, you would think conventional political wisdom would tell you that perhaps they would have more moderate Republican candidates.
But we haven't seen that happen in the last year. And these guys, these west Texas billionaires, Tim Dunn (ph) and Farris Brooks (ph), are responsible for a lot of that, in large part.
And they are not household names. You can walk up and down the street in Texas here and the vast majority of people will tell you they have no idea who they are.
CABRERA: What about the candidates they donate to? Anyone who is a big household name with national recognition? LAVANDERA: Well, that's the question, whether or not they have
national aspirations.
What we've seen mostly over the last decade or so is they focus mostly on house legislative races, Senate races, where their money can have the biggest impact.
And we have seen a lot of this talk in the last few months where you've heard from far-right-wing groups saying that they're going to focus on these smaller races, school board seats, city council seats, and all those types of positions.
And those are the things that they're kind of focusing on. But the question is, do they want to take their brand of politics to a broader national level? That's the outstanding question, I think.
CABRERA: Ed Lavandera, thank you.
And you can watch Ed's special report this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.
This just in, the U.N. and Turkey have helped broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine. The agreement will allow Ukraine to export tons of grain that has been stuck since Russia invaded in February.
Ukraine is a major supplier. The blocked exports have fueled big fears of a global food crisis.
[13:55:01]
Ukraine has stressed that it signed today's deal with the U.N. and Turkey, not with Russia. And the head of the United Nations called today the most important day of his tenure as secretary-general.
Thank you so much for being here. That does it for us today. Hope you enjoy your weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday, same time, same place. As always, you can always join me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.
The news continues right after this with Alisyn and Victor.
Have a wonderful weekend.
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