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New Details Emerge on Pelosi Attack; New Trump Lawyer E-Mails Revealed; Federal Reserve Set to Raise Interest Rates?; President Biden to Deliver Address on Threats to Democracy. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 02, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:01]

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: But they also wanted to continue to reiterate these claims of fraud that, of course, have been debunked.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: The more you learn, the more bizarre and the more corrupt it gets.

MURRAY: Yes.

KING: Sara Murray, thanks for that important reporting.

On election night, remember to join us, join CNN, for our special coverage. It starts Tuesday, Election Day, November 8 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Learn what's happening. Join us for what's happening in your state around the country.

Thanks for joining us on INSIDE POLITICS today.

Ana Cabrera picks up right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thank you for being with us as we await a critical decision minutes away that could have major fallout from your bank account to the ballot box.

One hour from now, the Federal Reserve is poised to once again raise interest rates to try to tame inflation. This would be the fourth straight big rate hike. And the impacts will certainly be felt at the White House less than a mile away, where we will hear shortly from President Biden, set to discuss his latest efforts to bolster the economy.

And then, tonight, he will make a prime-time address focused on threats to democracy. But it is those pocketbook issues that most voters say are most important as they fill in their ballot. You can see there economy tops the list, with elections now just five days away.

Let's go to CNN's Matt Egan. He's live outside the Federal Reserve in Washington.

Matt, set the scene. Just how much pressure is the Fed facing right now to make the right call here?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Ana, the pressure has just been building and building on the Fed. It's palpable. People are angry about the high cost of living. They're feeling it at the supermarket, at restaurants, their home heating bills, the gas station.

And at the same time, we also have politicians, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who are worried the Fed is actually going too far in this fight against inflation. They are worried about a recession that wipes out millions of jobs.

Now, the Fed does not have a magic wand to make inflation go away. What they do have are interest rate hikes. Essentially, they're raising the cost of borrowing. They're trying to cool off demand to give supply a chance to catch up.

So, in less than an hour, we are expecting the Fed to raise interest rates by 75 basis points. This would be the fourth massive interest rate hike in a row. We haven't seen anything like that since at least the 1980s.

And this is, of course, raising concerns about a recession, because history shows that the Fed tends to underreact to inflation and then overreact, because we have seen that recessions often, but not always, follow these interest rate-hiking campaigns.

We saw that in the early 1990s. We saw it again in the early 2000s and, of course, around 2008. And, Ana, the Fed really faces an almost impossible situation here, because, they don't do enough, inflation stays high and maybe goes even higher. If they do too much, they end up causing a recession.

CABRERA: Right, which means job losses, and we don't want to see that.

Matt, thank you for that reporting.

We don't know exactly when or even if today's move will be enough to tame inflation. But we do know you will feel this rate hike that comes today.

CNN business correspondent Rahel Solomon is here to explain why.

So, borrowing rates are already high, obviously. What happens after today's rate hike?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So practically anything with an interest rate that isn't locked in is probably going to go up, which means if you are borrowing or plan to borrow, those costs are probably going to go up.

And, Ana, we talk a lot about mortgage rates, understandably, because mortgage rates have more than doubled just this year alone. But take a look at the average credit card rate, which right now is sitting at about 18.7 percent. I just got off the phone with Ted Rossman of Bankrate, who says that, in their 30 years of experience crunching the numbers, on average, the highest was about 19 percent for credit cards. That was in 1991, I believe it was. He thinks we're actually going to blow past that next week.

CABRERA: Wow.

SOLOMON: So, for folks at home, you want to prepare for that.

CABRERA: So what do they need to do first? And is there something perhaps they can put on the back burner?

SOLOMON: So, big-ticket purchases, right, you might want to be a bit more careful about taking that out, especially if you have to put that on a credit card.

But what he told me, Ted Rossman, what he said is, if you are carrying a credit card balance, which on average is about 5,200 bucks, you want to first, obviously, if you can afford to pay it off, pay it off, but, understandably, some people can't. So if you can't, think about perhaps a zero rate balance transfer.

If not that, if you have good credit, perhaps you can consider a personal loan. You can get maybe a 6 percent interest rate, but then you spread it out over several years, certainly better than paying 18 percent or 19 percent, right? And then maybe also some nonprofit credit counseling.

But big-ticket purchases, housing and cars, I asked about. He said, look, car prices are very high. Housing prices are also very high. He said, if you were waiting it out in terms of the housing market to see prices crash 20 percent, one, we hope that doesn't happen, but we're not expecting that to happen either.

So that's a much more specific scenario. So you have to do what's best for you. But maybe you want to sit it out until rates cool off at least.

CABRERA: I mean, it's so maddening to think the average American is just getting pummeled from both sides, right, inflation and these interest rates.

[13:05:00]

SOLOMON: Yes.

CABRERA: And yet we have reporting about corporate profits really blooming.

And so I think a lot of people may be wondering, I mean, can't there be another way to tackle this? Aren't there other options?

SOLOMON: Yes, I mean, it's interesting, right, because we heard Jay Powell say in the past -- I think it was the last meeting -- I wish there was a painless way to do this, do this being tame inflation, but there isn't.

The truth of the matter is, in terms of what the Fed can control, interest rates are their primary big tool, right? But you're right that absolutely hurts if you are certainly on the lower end. And you're not only dealing with higher costs, but now you're also dealing with higher borrowing costs.

You're getting hit on both sides of it. And that is the unfortunate reality of taming inflation.

CABRERA: Well, thanks for bringing us all that easier understanding of what's happening here.

SOLOMON: All that good news, yes.

CABRERA: All right, let's go to CNN's Phil Mattingly now at the White House for us.

And, Phil, the president and the vice president will be speaking again today about what their administration is doing to try to help everyday Americans on the economy. But then the president turns to a different topic tonight in prime time with a speech on threats to democracy.

So is this the president trying to shift the focus for voters?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ana, one White House official I was speaking to said, not only can we do both, we have to do both, when it comes to addressing two rather divergent topics, one very top of mind for voters in poll after poll after poll, one that White House officials are keenly aware the primary mandate belongs to the Federal Reserve, where Matt Egan is standing right now.

And yet the president and the vice president will be having corresponding events tied to trying to address outside factors when it comes to inflation, that critical issue for voters just six days out from the midterm election.

The president will be holding an event on what White House officials have worked on intensively behind the scenes, on a public-private agreement to try and expand the work force in critical sectors like construction and broadband, the idea being that there have obviously been significant labor shortages over the course of the last several months.

Those have contributed, in large part, to the inflation that we're seeing right now. And this isn't a near-term fix. Again, it kind of underscores the fact there's very little the executive branch can do to try and address inflation that remains at nearly four-decade highs, but they can put into place longer-term solutions they believe will have an effect.

The vice president, she will be in Boston announcing $4.5 billion to help address soaring energy costs, particularly heating costs, as well as some long-term proposals on that front as well, again, not directly getting at the price increases that we have seen that have been so pervasive and persistent, but trying to address the overall cost of living.

The speech tonight, though, is very much something that's been driven by the president. We have heard him talking about it before. Obviously, he had he had a major prime-time speech in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. But officials tell me he's been talking about this pretty constantly behind the scenes as he's kind of watched things play out over the course of the last several months.

One thing that really kind of set the tone for what you're going to see tonight was the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, the president obviously close with the speaker, knows her husband. That has really resonated inside the White House and helped drive the idea that this is a speech that needs to be made, two very different topics, but two topics that the president and his top advisers believe he can address just six days out from the election.

CABRERA: OK, Phil Mattingly at the White House, thank you.

Let's find out more now about what voters are thinking right now.

CNN political director David Chalian is here to walk us through some new CNN polling.

What does it show, David?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, this is our brand-new poll conducted by SSRS.

This is the overall generic congressional ballot, Ana,so just sort of our -- among likely voters, are you going to vote for the Republican or the Democrat in your congressional district? And you see here, 51 percent, a slim majority, of likely voters say they're going to vote for the Republican,an advantage with -- over the Democrats, 47 percent.

And take a look here over time. What you see is, since the beginning of last month, Republicans have grown plus four, and Democrats went from 50 percent to 47 percent, minus three. So you see that, as we're getting closer to the election, likely voters are getting -- giving more advantage to the Republicans.

I also want to show you a critical sort of dividing line in American politics that we have been tracking for the better part of a decade now, Ana, and that is the sort of education divide. Take a look here among likely voters, white college educated likely voters. You see a slight edge for Republicans; 52 percent of likely white college educated voters in our poll are going to vote for the Republican candidate, 47 percent Democrat.

Why is that critical? Because Joe Biden in 2020 edged out Donald Trump among these voters. In 2018, when the Democrats won 40 seats, they had a big advantage among these voters. Hillary Clinton just lost them to Donald Trump. This has been a group of voters that's been moving to the Democrats in the Trump era.

But now we may see them swinging back, and that's something to watch for next Tuesday night.

CABRERA: So, what specifically is behind this growing support for Republicans?

CHALIAN: Well, the mood of the country is not good, Ana.

[13:10:00]

Take a look here. Three-quarters of Americans in our poll say things are going pretty or very badly in America. Only 26 percent think things are going very or fairly well in the country. So, that spells for a change election.

The issue that is driving this election, as you were just talking about with Phil, is the economy and inflation overwhelmingly; 51 percent of likely voters in our poll say the economy and inflation is issue number one. And take a look by party here.

I think this really tells the story and why you see two different messages coming out of the White House tonight, right? So, among Democrats, abortion is actually the top one; 29 percent of Democrats say abortion is the number one issue; 27 percent say economy and inflation. Then 15 percent say voting rights.

Look on the Republican side. It's near unanimity. Seven in 10 Republicans say economy is issue number one. Nothing else even comes close. And, by the way, among voters who say that the economy is the most important vote, the most important issue, look how they split here on the ballot; 71 percent of likely economy voters are going to vote for the Republican, they say, 26 percent for the Democrat.

So Republicans clearly have an advantage when it comes to the issue environment as well.

CABRERA: Among likely voters here, but none of this matters if those likely voters don't become actual voters.

CHALIAN: That's true.

CABRERA: So who has the edge as far as voter enthusiasm?

CHALIAN: Well, we learned the Republicans have that as well.

So these results are among those that tell us they are extremely enthusiastic, the most enthusiastic you can be on our scale, to vote in the midterm elections. Right now, 38 percent of the extremely enthusiastic voters are going to vote Republican, 24 percent are going to vote Democrat. That's a 14 percentage point advantage for the Republicans, which mirrors nearer what we saw in October 2010, when Republicans won 63 seats in the House that year.

CABRERA: OK, this is just a snapshot, but it gives us an idea of where voters are right now.

David Chalian, thank you so much.

CHALIAN: Thank you.

CABRERA: A stunning e-mail revealing new details on Donald Trump's effort to steal the 2020 election, one of Trump's lawyers describing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as key to delaying Biden's win. Why would the lawyer think that?

Plus, North Korea is at it again, launching a record number of missiles in a single day, as the U.S. accuses the secretive regime of supplying Russia with heavy artillery.

And a chilling cry for help. Hear the heartbreaking voice of a little girl who called 911 from her Uvalde classroom as a gunman unleashed terror just steps away.

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CABRERA: We're just getting stunning new details about former President Trump and his lawyers' effort to delay the certification of the 2020 election.

An e-mail turned over to the January 6 Select Committee indicates one of Trump's lawyers thought Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas would be key to their plans.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz helped break this story.

Katelyn, fill us in.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, here we have in writing now these e-mails where Donald Trump's lawyers were discussing what to do whenever they were filing cases after the election to overturn the result of that election.

And these e-mails, we are now seeing them in writing. This is exactly what was said that convinced a federal judge in recent months that they may have been engaged in planning a crime, specifically obstructing Congress or defrauding the United States after that election.

So I want to read some of these e-mails, because we knew about them before. That federal Judge David O. Carter had described them in court, but now we're actually seeing them because they were provided in a link in a court filing last night very early in the morning.

So one of them is from attorney Ken Chesebro. He was working for Donald Trump to challenge the election. He wrote to other attorneys on December 31, 2020: "If we can just get this case pending before the Supreme Court by January 5, ideally with something positive written by a judge or justice, hopefully Thomas, I think it's our best shot at holding up the count of a state in Congress."

So there's Chesebro specifically saying they want to get this before a favorable judge. They want to challenge the election in court, not because they wanted to litigate it, but because they wanted a reason for Congress not to assert Joe Biden as the president and instead keep the possibility alive that Donald Trump could continue challenging the election.

Chesebro also wrote in another e-mail on December 31, New Year's Eve, 2020: "Possibly, Thomas would end up being the key here. Circuit justice, right? We want to frame things so that Thomas could be the one to issue some sort of stay or other circuit justice opinion, saying Georgia is in legitimate challenge -- legitimate doubt."

So this was a legal challenge that they were bringing in Georgia in federal court, that Donald Trump was attesting to the truth of facts in a case, and Justice Thomas would have been the person to receive that challenge. Of course, he also has been under a political furor because of some of his wife's comments about wanting to challenge the election as well -- back to you.

CABRERA: And, of course, just a reminder to our viewers that it was eventually the Supreme Court, as a whole entity, rejected any of these cases related to election fraud lawsuits that the Trump team and his allies brought. And that was even after the insurrection, so they didn't even take up the cases, ultimately.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much.

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen is joining us now.

Norm, what's so stunning about this, though, is the why. Would they think that Clarence Thomas would support that? If you're on the January 6 Committee, are you digging deeper into that now?

[13:20:03]

NORMAN EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Ana, definitely.

We know that Clarence Thomas had a completely alternative view of the law and the universe. He said that it was befuddling and inexplicable that the Supreme Court did not intervene to investigate these completely bogus legally and factually unfounded claims. So they saw correctly that he was an ally.

And then, of course, there are the questions about his conflicts involving his wife, Ginni Thomas.

CABRERA: Right, and all the text messages that she exchanged with people who were part of the efforts to try to stop the legal transfer of power, the certification of the election on a state level and beyond.

Norm, justices, we know, are supposed to recuse even if there's an appearance of conflict of interest, right? So, does this fit the bill here?

EISEN: Ana, in any other court in the country, under federal law, a judge who had a spouse who had been advocating and positioned in this completely illegitimate attack on the election, which has been characterized by another court, federal court in California, as an attempted coup that is likely criminal, any other judge would have to recuse.

In the Supreme Court, you know who makes that decision? Clarence Thomas. That doesn't make sense in a democracy. As somebody who's practiced ethic for more than three decades, who's advised President Obama and other public officials on this, he should not have heard that case. And he should not be hearing anything relating to January 6 today.

CABRERA: Norm Eisen, as always, I appreciate your insights. Thanks for joining us.

EISEN: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Members of the Pelosi family soon we will see police bodycam footage and hear the 911 call from the night Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked with a hammer.

New details about last week's attack on the House speaker's husband are also emerging here, the suspect telling San Francisco police that he was on a suicide mission.

CNN Veronica Miracle is following the developments in this story for us.

Veronica, what are Pelosi's family members expected to see and hear exactly? And any word on when this could be released to the public?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, we just continue to receive more disturbing details, the San Francisco police chief yesterday saying that the 911 call was about three minutes' long.

The Pelosi family is going to be able to hear that. And you can hear Mr. Pelosi subtly trying to describe to the dispatcher that he is in danger. The chief of police actually here in San Francisco credits that dispatcher with saving Paul Pelosi's life.

In terms of the body camera video, we are expecting that the Pelosi family will see a savage attack. It is described -- the chief of police, rather, has described that Mr. Pelosi was seen on body camera video being hit at least once with a hammer. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM SCOTT, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE CHIEF: What is crystal clear to me is, he tried to kill Mr. Pelosi. Now, what was going on in his mind as to why he did that, I can't speak to that.

But what is very clear to me from viewing that body-worn camera is, he tried to kill Mr. Pelosi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIRACLE: Now, in terms of seeing that video, in terms of that being released to the public and that 911 call, the district attorney has reiterated they are trying to keep as much evidence close to the investigation as possible.

And if the public were to see that, it would have to come out in court proceedings. But we have learned a lot of details in that motion to detain. It was filed by the district attorney. And it argues why David DePape should be continued to be held in custody. It just describes DePape voluntarily -- quoted voluntarily telling the medics and police on scene why he was there and what his intentions were at the Pelosi residence.

He's quoted as asking Mr. Pelosi: "Well, she's number two in line for the presidency, right?" And when he agreed, he said: "We have got to take them all out. I'm sick of the insane effing level of lies coming out of Washington, D.C."

The San Francisco district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, says this was absolutely a politically motivated attack. The motion to detain also says that DePape described and talked about other targets that he had, including a local professor, as well as other federal and state officials, including their family members.

He also said to officers on the scene that DePape -- about DePape -- about Mr. Pelosi, rather, that he didn't want to hurt him, rather, that he would go through him if he had to -- Ana.

CABRERA: Well, the more we learn, the more and more concerning and disturbing this case becomes.

[13:25:03]

Thank you, Veronica Miracle, for that reporting.

First on CNN, U.S. officials now accuse North Korea of secretly sending ammunition to Russia for its war on Ukraine. Plus, alarming new reporting on conversations between Russian military leaders about nuclear weapons.

Details on those discussions just ahead.

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