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Climate Change Summit; Student Loan Forgiveness Program on Hold; Republicans in Chaos?; Who Will Control Congress?. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 11, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:25]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello, and happy Friday. Thanks so much for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

They are counting, we're waiting, and lawmakers on the Hill strategizing. Every minute brings us closer to learning who will control Congress. The Senate majority rides on these three states, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. And in those two Southwestern states, we know hundreds of thousands of votes are being counted as we speak.

On the House side, control really comes down to a couple of dozen races that are still too close to call. And for Republicans, it's getting ugly. We have new details about GOP and fighting, a revolt from the right flank seeking to oust both Kevin McCarthy and possibly even Mitch McConnell as the parties' respective leaders in the House and Senate.

But, first, let's take you to Arizona and CNN's Josh Campbell at the Maricopa County Elections Center.

Josh, where do things stand there?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Ana, the counting continues here.

In the state of Arizona, we're still waiting on over half-a-million ballots to be counted, 340,000 of those in this county alone, Maricopa, the most populous county in the state. And it's worth pointing out that, of those 340,000, 290,000 votes could tell us much more about what is to come.

And that is because that is from a tranche of votes that were delivered by residents here to the polling locations, but they were in envelopes. This was the mail-in ballot selection. But for some -- whatever reason, the voters decided to actually hand those to election workers on the day of the election.

The officials here tell us that means that's going to take some additional time to count, because they have to go through the process of checking signatures, of checking voter information, all part of this robust process that's under way. And as we look at that information, that could signal to us where this

election is going, because if it starts leading to more Republicans showing up in those counts, or more Democrats, for that matter, that may signal about what the final result may be, because we know some Republicans actually suggested to the reporters that they used their mail-in ballots to vote on Election Day.

So, a lot we could be learning in the hours to come and throughout the weekend. This is all coming on as election officials here continue to bat down a host of conspiracy theories, particularly from this Republican gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, here, who had suggested that officials here are trying to slow-roll this process, to slow-walk it for political purposes.

Election officials here, including the Republican head of the county election, lashing out and condemning those attacks. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL GATES (R), MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA, SUPERVISOR: Quite frankly, it is offensive for Kari Lake to say that these people behind me are slow-rolling this, when they're working 14 to 18 hours. So I really hope this is the end of that now, we can be patient and respect the results when they come out.

ALLIE BONES, ARIZONA ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: It's ironic to us that people who are calling into question the integrity of this election and want faster results don't understand that those -- it's actually those processes that add the integrity to our election process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: And that is a key point that we're hearing from officials here, that if Republicans were suggesting to their voters that they vote by mail on Election Day, that comes with it this process that's going to take a little bit longer.

So they're urging patience. And, of course, as we look at the numbers for the two key races here, the U.S. Senate race between Senator Mark Kelly and venture capitalist Blake Masters, as of last night, the spread with them was about 100 -- 100 -- excuse me -- 150,000 -- 115,000 votes, rather. A lot of numbers we're throwing at you.

And then on the gubernatorial side, that is about 27,000-vote spread there. So these votes actually matter. Again, hundreds of thousands of votes, we're still waiting to get. And they're counting. We're waiting for those results. We expect to get a new release of ballots this evening.

We got about 80,000 last evening. That shifted the numbers just ever so slightly, particularly in that race with Kelly and Blake Masters, with that 115,000-vote spread. We will see what tonight brings. We will keep watching as the counting continue, Ana. CABRERA: OK, Josh Campbell, thank you for keeping track of it all for

us, because you're right. There are a lot of numbers to get through there.

Let's go next door to Nevada, where we could be getting an update to the vote there any minute.

And CNN's Rosa Flores is that the Clark County Elections Center.

What's the state of play, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, the margins are thin, votes are still being counted. And we're at the mercy of snail mail here.

Let me get to this, because we know of at least 95,000 ballots that are out there, mostly in three counties, the majority of those here in Clark County, where I am, more than 62,000. This is a Democratic stronghold. There's another 7,000 in the Republican stronghold of Douglas County, and then there's 22,000 or more than 22,000 in the swing county of Washoe.

[13:05:00]

Now, one of the things that we have been focusing on and making a point here is that, because of universal mail ballots in the state of Nevada, we don't know how many ballots are in that -- in the mail, in that snail mail, right?

Well, Clark County officials gave us a sense yesterday when they said that about 626 ballots were received by mail yesterday here in the building that you see behind me. The Clark register said that that's a drop. So that's a lower number. And he does say that, by Saturday, by tomorrow, they're expecting that most of the ballots that they have in the building that you see behind me, so more than 62,000, will be processed, but at that point in time.

So, Ana, again, it just depends how many ballots are coming in. But, according to officials, the number of ballots that they're receiving by mail has dropped -- Ana.

CABRERA: OK, Rosa Flores there in Clark County, Nevada, thank you.

Republicans are inching closer to control of the House, hasn't been called just yet. The fight over who could become speaker is getting uglier. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is facing new attacks as he vies for the job.

Trump ally Congressman Matt Gaetz calling McCarthy a member of the C- team, not even in his top 100 for the speaker role, he says. Gaetz is endorsing Congressman Jim Jordan for the job. And the pro-Trump Freedom Caucus is digging in with some key demands. For McCarthy to get their support, they say they want easier rules to oust a speaker, more say on committees, more time on bills and an impeachment probe.

All this inflaming party tensions. One senior GOP lawmaker telling CNN today, "They," referring to the Freedom Caucus members, "are a bunch of selfish, prima donna A-holes who want attention for themselves. They're trading effectiveness for the warm embrace of their social media followers" -- end quote.

And on the Senate side, while current Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to nab the leadership spot, there's a new sign things might not be so peachy there either. Senators Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley are now calling for next week's leadership vote to be delayed, this until after the Senate run-off race in the Peach State, Georgia, is decided.

More division now, this time within former President Trump's family. CNN is learning not everyone is on board for a potential 2024 run. This is ahead of a special announcement Trump's planning to make next week.

CNN's Kate Bennett joins us with her reporting.

Kate, the family is together right now for a wedding, right? It's Tiffany Trump's weekend in Mar-a-Lago. But love is not the only thing in the air.

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, poor Tiffany had to survive this hurricane going through and her father and the midterms and the special announcement next week.

But, certainly, the Trump family is gathered. But I spoke to a lot of people who said that perhaps next time around, if there is a next time around, President -- former President Trump will not have on his side beside him campaigning or in the White House, should he win, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

Now, of course, Jared and Ivanka were essential to the Trump administration in the West Wing. Jared Kushner was the gatekeeper. He was the person that everything went through, just about, from Middle East peace talks, to COVID-19 response. And Ivanka Trump, one of Donald Trump's most important and closest advisers, obviously, during his time in the White House, now, people tell me that -- close to them tell me that they are not interested at all and have no intention of being involved in either a campaign or perhaps another second run at the White House.

We did not see Ivanka Trump pop up at all during midterm campaigns, even though I hear there were requests for her from others in tight races. She did not want to participate. The people who will be on board, Donald Trump Jr. Expect to see him and Eric Trump and Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle. They will be there should Donald Trump make an announcement that he wants to run again.

CABRERA: OK, there's always drama when it comes to Trump. All right, Kate Bennett, thanks so much.

Let's discuss the state of the GOP right now with former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent and Republican strategist Alice Stewart.

Guys, good to see it. What a week. Are you having fun yet? (LAUGHTER)

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, once the dust has settled and the GOP takes control of the House and the Senate, potentially, then we can rest. We can relax.

CABRERA: But will the dust ever settle, I think, is the big question, given what we're reporting about kind of infighting happening on the Hill right now. It sounds like an uphill climb for McCarthy among the party.

And now we have this new reporting on this perhaps postponed anointment of Mitch McConnell in the Senate as well. Is it going to be an ugly two years?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's kind of brutal two -- I think it's going to be a brutal two years.

In fact, it's going to be a brutal two months. I mean, you think about what's got to happen with this very narrow House majority for the Republicans. It's likely they could have anywhere from 220 to 223 seats. If it's 220, Kevin McCarthy can only lose two votes. If he loses three, he's not the speaker.

They're going to have a vote next week, in all likelihood, where Kevin will get a majority -- an overwhelming majority of his conference. But he won't have 218.

[13:10:02]

CABRERA: Why is it so hard for him to get all of them?

DENT: Because many members of the Freedom Caucus are going to make demands and veiled threats that they want concessions on things like rules changes, impeaching Biden, vacating the chair to remove the speaker with just one person, all sorts of things that would be very difficult.

And the more concessions Kevin makes, the harder it will be for his more pragmatic members who will not want to vote for some of those changes. You vote for the speaker first on swearing-in day. Then you vote on the rules package. He's going to need two votes. Some of the moderate guys might go vote for the rules changes.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Add into the mix here "The Washington Post"'s reporting that about 160 election-denying candidates...

DENT: Yes.

CABRERA: ... are projected to win their races so far. Some of those may be new. Some may be people who are currently serving.

But, I mean, there's going to be a new mix come a couple of months from now. How does that impact the future of the party? What does it mean for the future of the nation, Alice?

STEWART: A lot of people say we need to first off do a postmortem and see how we got to this point and why we didn't do better in this election.

And the question is, are the more vocal voices in the GOP going to be more impactful? And many that I have spoken with and getting calls from, look, Kevin McCarthy raised a tremendous amount of money for a lot of these candidates and has been very supportive of the Republican agenda to get to this point.

And a lot of people owe him a lot for what he's done to help get them across the line. But then you have the Freedom Caucus people. They're influential because they stay together in a block and they move the ball forward on their issues together. So that's going to be impactful.

Then you have people like Matt Gaetz, who is nothing but a rabble- rouser and tweets out this message that says, McConnell, McCarthy, and McDaniel, McFailure, which is not helpful. And you have members of the Congress...

CABRERA: Not helpful, that's a nice way to put it.

STEWART: Right.

And you have members of Congress that are out there to get clicks and to get supporters online. And it doesn't do anything to further the agenda. And what I'm hearing from a lot of GOP members, saying, lead, follow or get out of the way. If you're going to do nothing but fire within the GOP tent, you're not helping, and let's work together and take the message to the Democrats and not within the GOP.

DENT: This is a total McCluster.

(LAUGHTER)

DENT: And I can tell you, when -- having been there in 2015, when Boehner resigned, and McCarthy was unable to ascend to the speaker's role, I saw a group of people who do like to create chaos.

They don't have an alternative in mind. They don't really care. And they are simply going to -- they're going to torment him. And he may get that. I mean, he should get the speaker's gavel, but it is not guaranteed at this point. I said last year, if this is a small majority, he's going to have a big problem.

We're seeing that right now. But these concessions that he's going to be asked to make are going to put a lot of other members in a bind. And I'm serious when I say you got to vote for the speaker on January, whatever the date is, the first vote. Then you vote on the rules package. But if he makes concessions on the rules package, that doesn't bind a lot of these other more moderate members to that deal.

The Freedom Caucus...

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: What becomes the role of the Republican Party, given if they do, in fact, get a slim majority? I guess at this point, that's not even guaranteed.

DENT: No.

CABRERA: But the bottom line is, if that's the case, and the possibility of the Democrats still continuing to have power in the Senate remains, you also have, of course, a Democratic president right now.

So it's not like the GOP would be able to enact its priorities by having a majority in the House, right? And you were in Congress, Congressman Dent, for at least two terms in your 13 years there on the Hill when that was the case, where you had a majority of Republicans in the House, but not the Senate and not in the presidency, right?

So what is the role? What's the point? What do you see happening there?

DENT: Well, it's always a problem of managing expectations.

The speaker will -- he will be under the pressure to pass bills that the right flank will say, we have to pass this, knowing it's going to go nowhere in the Senate. And then, say, take the debt ceiling, or a funding bill for the government. You're going to need 60 votes in the Senate, and you're going to need some Republicans to vote for whatever the compromises are.

And that's the hard part, because I was one of those guys who would vote for the agreements, only to be thrown under the bus by the right flank that says, oh, we're capitulators, we're surrenderers.

It's going to be far worse this time, because there was at least a little bit more of a cushion back then in 2011. They had 242 Republicans. This time, they're going to have maybe 220, 222. So there's no margin for error.

CABRERA: Right.

DENT: And they're just going to be able to do the basics. And they have to -- they will do oversight. They can have committee meetings, and they can -- they can do hearings on the border. They can do hearings on crime. They can do hearings on the Hunter Biden, the laptop. They can do all kinds of things with the gavels.

But at the end of the day, Republicans are going to have to vote for must-pass bills in the House. And the right flank is going to be furious when they do.

STEWART: And the most important thing is, we have to work across the aisle to get anything done.

So whether it's Kevin McCarthy or whoever it is, they do have an agenda of issues they want to focus on, but we need to stop fighting within our ranks and realize that the only the way to get anything done is we have to work with Democrats for our initiatives to get done, as well as Democrats.

[13:15:07]

And McCarthy has made it clear his priorities are immigration and the border and also crime. Jim Jordan, head of Judiciary, has made it clear that oversight is our responsibility that he wants to make sure that he is able to implement if he's in charge.

CABRERA: Oversight being a bunch of investigations into the Biden administration, as is discussed.

I do want to fast-forward real quick to the special announcement expected on Tuesday from the former president in Mar-a-Lago. And I'm wondering, Alice, what do you make of how he's handled the results of this election and this reporting about divisions even within his own family?

STEWART: It's not surprising. He's blaming everyone except looking in the mirror.

And I am a firm believer in his involvement in a lot of these races and his handpicked candidates and his support for election deniers and conspiracy theorists cost us many, many seats. I hope that he -- if he has a decision, that he waits until after the special election in December.

I was on the ground in the last special election in Georgia and his involvement cost us two Senate seats. So I think it would be nice if he decided this is not about Donald Trump, this is about the future of the Republican Party, and wait and let the special elections and the races that are still out there play out without his input on this.

CABRERA: Well, right now, he's been on a tear on social media, going after Ron DeSantis, other Republican leaders, and even conservative media. We will see if he stays hands-off in Georgia.

Thank you both so much, Alice Stewart and former Congressman Charlie Dent. Great to see you guys. Happy Friday.

STEWART: Thanks.

DENT: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Much more election coverage just ahead.

Plus, President Biden is touting U.S. action on climate change today, but we just learned global fossil fuel emissions are about to hit record highs this year.

Plus, a big blow to millions of Americans banking on Biden's student debt relief program. A federal judge just blocked it. How the Department of Justice is trying to save it.

And a new twist in the Elon Musk catastrophe at Twitter right now. The company is again pumping the brakes on their plan to give blue check marks to anyone with eight bucks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:21:35]

CABRERA: President Biden's student loan forgiveness program has hit yet another roadblock. A federal judge in Texas has now ruled that the program is illegal.

The Justice Department says it plans to appeal. Now, according to the White House, 26 million borrowers have already applied for debt relief. The court ruling leaves them in limbo. And those who want to apply can't, at least not right now.

A message on the Web site says, student loan debt relief is blocked.

CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider joins us with more details.

So, what's the basis of this judge's ruling, Jessica?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, Ana, this is a federal judge out of Texas. He was appointed by President Trump. And he's now saying that President Biden just does not have the power to forgive these student loans by executive order.

Instead, President Biden would really need clear congressional authorization to forgive these loans. And he would also need to go through more of a process, rather than just simply issuing an executive order.

However, we will see an appeal of this decision. The Justice Department has already noticed that they will appeal this. And, ultimately, this is something that could be decided by the Supreme Court. It could take several months, though, for that decision to come down.

Of course, President Biden issued this executive order in August. It's estimated ultimately that it could cost about $400 billion. But the whole program is now in doubt because of this court ruling out of Texas yesterday. It's also been on hold for the past month because of another court decision out of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that put this loan forgiveness rollout on hold while all the legal challenges play out here.

So, Ana, a lot of these student borrowers who are counting on at least $10,000 in debt to be wiped out potentially soon. Well, they're not able to really take advantage just yet, because these appeals are playing out here and it could take some time.

CABRERA: So what happens to those people who've already applied for the debt relief while this legal process plays out?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, so we know 26 million borrowers have applied for this. The government already has approved 16 million of those applications. The thing is, though, no debt at all will be canceled for the

foreseeable future here because of this Texas judge's decision, previously the Eighth Circuit that put all of this movement from this program on hold until the legal challenges are decided. This could mean months more of uncertainty.

The White House press secretary, however, did say yesterday the Department of Education is going to keep on hold all of this information of all of the applicants, so it could be processed quickly if this program is ultimately given the green light in court. But, Ana, given the court challenges that we have already seen in the last few weeks, this will likely take a while to get decided.

It could move all the way to the Supreme Court, which would take a while. And, for now, these borrowers who are hoping for relief are really out of luck for the time being -- Ana.

CABRERA: Jessica Schneider reporting, thank you.

President Biden is in Egypt right now with a slew of world leaders talking about the climate crisis. During an address today, he told other countries to step up their game and says the U.S. is doing its part.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, finally, thanks to the actions we have taken. I can stand here as president of the United States of America and say with confidence the United States of America will meet our emissions targets by 2030.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So, this is what the president had pledged to do by 2030, reduce emissions by 50 to 52 percent from 2005 levels.

[13:25:00]

CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir joins us now.

So, Bill, at this same summit, we just learned global fossil fuel emissions are expected to reach record highs this year.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

CABRERA: Not encouraging. Is the U.S. on track? How likely is it for the U.S. to reach its goal?

WEIR: Well, a current policy, he says he's shooting for 50 percent. Current policy would get us to 35 percent. The Inflation Reduction Act would get us to maybe 45 percent, so close, not all the way there.

But whether the pledge meets reality depends on really a couple of people, President Xi of China, whose cheap solar production is a reason that renewable energy is so affordable right now. That relationship is breaking down. And whoever is the next speaker of the House, if it's Kevin McCarthy, and the Republican base wants to hang on to fossil fuels as long as we can, and can use the -- Putin's war in Ukraine as an excuse to keep doing that, that's going to make that pledge much, much harder to keep.

CABRERA: And, of course, right now we're seeing the impacts. And we just got another report out today, in fact, that really paints a dire picture of what's happening in the U.S., as the climate crisis accelerates.

WEIR: Yes.

CABRERA: It says, in the findings here, the U.S. is warming faster than the global average. It says climate disasters are getting worse. The crisis is hitting the most vulnerable, the hardest, and it's threatening our, homes, health, public services, and the economy.

What's your reaction to these findings?

WEIR: This is the National Climate Assessment. So this is everyone from the Pentagon to NASA kicking in the best they know.

And every one of these we get, they come out around these COPs, are more dire. It finds that, since the '80s -- back in the '80s, actually, we would get a $1 billion weather event every four months. Right now, there's one every three weeks.

CABRERA: Wow.

WEIR: And all of these intense extreme events, the prolonged megadroughts, the long-term changes -- quote -- "make it harder to maintain safe homes, healthy families, reliable public services, a sustainable economy, thriving ecosystems, and strong communities."

The things Americans value most are at risk. And, unfortunately, this is a timed test. Things are happening faster than the science even predicted before.

CABRERA: And so much of this is irreversible.

WEIR: And it is. Once you reach past certain tipping points, that a lot of the talk right now is keep 1.5 degrees alive. That's 1-point degree Celsius warming above preindustrial levels. We're right now at about 1.2.

You hit 2, and there's really no more coral reefs left on Earth.

CABRERA: Wow.

WEIR: There's vast belts that are uninhabitable in the low-lying areas of Bangladesh and the global South. And there's things we haven't even thought of that will come up as a result of that planet that we have never sort of lived on before.

And so the challenges of the times are, we have seen this video from Daytona Beach. There was already an insurance crisis happening after Hurricane Ian and even before Hurricane Ian in the state of Florida. The challenge is to both adapt to what we're seeing in front of us, because those building codes right there does not match the -- what the -- the climate of 2022 and beyond.

CABRERA: This was just this week with the big Tropical Storm Nicole that...

WEIR: Hurricane Nicole, exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: ... down on Florida.

WEIR: So it's adaptation to this. It's mitigation, stopping the problem, getting off of fossil fuels.

And there are some talking about intervention, which is sort of mimicking a volcano, spraying the sky to sort of deflect enough sunlight to buy us time.

CABRERA: Wow.

WEIR: That's the next part of this conversation. That's how dire things are.

CABRERA: Solutions can't come soon enough.

Thank you so much, Bill.

WEIR: You bet.

CABRERA: All right, fans and fellow music stars are gathered in Atlanta right now to remember the rapper known as Takeoff, packing into State Farm Arena to pay tribute to the artist who was shot and killed outside a bowling alley in Houston.

Takeoff was a member of the hip-hop group Migos and is the cousin of fellow member Quavo. Among those expected to perform during the service include Alicia Keys and Justin Bieber .

We will be right back.

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