Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Conservatives Hold Dueling Events in Maryland and Florida; Trump's Grip on Republican Base Tested at CPAC; California Activates National Guard to Help Rescue People Trapped in Snow. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 03, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, when it came to her speech, she had a very lukewarm response. There was a little bit of tepid applause as well as one point some light booing when she said that she was running for president.

But, of course, this isn't that big of a surprise here. We talked about this yesterday that so many of these attendees are here to see former President Trump. So many of these speakers believe that former President Trump should be president, but he should be running alone in 2024.

So again, not that surprising. But despite this pushback and despite the enthusiasm around Trump, I didn't stop Haley from making a pitch for herself. And while she didn't mention Trump by name, there were times where it seemed pretty clear who she was talking about, especially when she was talking about generational change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you're tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation and if you want to win, not just as a party, but as a country, then stand with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, after the speech, though, it got a little bit ugly in the hallway. We saw Haley taking pictures with some of the attendees and that's when people started heckling around her and hunting around her, Trump, Trump, Trump. Then we saw a number of other people starting to yell her name -- to chant her name over and over again. This is just a microcosm of the party, but it does give you a glimpse into what is expected to be a very ugly Republican primary this cycle.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Yes, and she's not even the one that the former president is trashing now publicly. That seems to be Ron DeSantis. He's sort of welcomed her decision to jump in. Kristen Holmes, thank you.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: We're joined now by two CNN political commentators, Alyssa Farah Griffin a former White House communications director under President Trump and Maria Cardona is a Democratic strategist. Welcome to you both. Alyssa let me start with you. CPAC is the Trump show. The benefit Ambassador Haley to show up today?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I give her credit for trying to make her case to a distinctly Trump audience. I have to imagine her campaign was weighing, does it make more sense to be there and try to, you know -- she's going to lose the straw poll, she obviously had this encounter that Kristen was just reporting on. Is it better to do that or to be in Iowa, to be in an early state making her case?

There's some benefit to her being out early and you know being the second declared candidate after Donald Trump. But this encapsulates the problems in the GOP. It is so hard to take on Donald Trump. So much polling shows that even Ron DeSantis the number two, is still trailing him in most of the polls. So, she's got more she's got to do if she wants to make headway. But credit for showing up.

GOLODRYGA: Maria, what is the Democrat's take thus far. Because earlier we had heard from President Biden saying that he would love to paraphrase another round going against Trump himself. How do Democrats feel? I mean, would they feel competent enough that, once again, President Biden could beat Donald Trump?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there's no question that Joe Biden is the only candidate who has ever beat Donald Trump. So, I think he would be in a very strong position to do so again if Donald Trump ends up being the candidate on the other side, especially with all of the achievements and everything that President Biden will have to show for his first four years in office.

But having said that, we cannot rest on our laurels. I think that we need to be concerned with whoever ends up being the nominee because that's how you win. By understanding that you have to continue to earn the vote, everyone's vote, every single day.

But what I will say is, what CPAC is showing us is that the Republican Party has no idea who it is and for the folks at CPAC, Donald Trump is their guy. And there were a couple of pieces of reporting that came out that said that folks who spoke to the people at CPAC today wanted that -- the hole Republican nomination to be shut down now. Like they don't want anybody else to run.

And what we have seen from the Republican party and what Donald Trump has proven is that he is the only one that knows how to win a very ugly nomination fight and I think what we can all agree on, Democrats and Republicans, is that this is going to be a very ugly nomination fight that is going to double down on extremism, on the MAGA agenda, all of which were roundly defeated in 2020, 2022, 2018, even, and the majority of American voters have said no to that. So that's what Democrats are going to be focusing on.

BLACKWELL: Yes, listen, there is this obvious split and we've been here before, right. We were here after the insurrection and is Trump politically dead then. After the midterms and the election deniers, is the party ready to move on. And now we're seeing the split again. He's leading in the latest polls.

[15:35:00]

It's important to say although, Maria highlights -- she says this is who the party is, that it's hard to beat Trump. Ronna McDaniel's is not at CPAC. The head of the party is not there. Is this moment different than post insurrection, post midterms?

GRIFFIN: Well, I think we should overstate the significance or the importance of CPAP. Maybe ten years it was the premiere conservative event to show up at, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, John McCain. It has descended into something that's much more representative of the fringe in the party and probably the ultra MAGA -- if you call them that -- base.

I don't know that it's reflective of a ton. It does underscore the challenge of course in the primary of trying to, you know, gain some ground if you're someone like a Nikki Haley running on next- generational change. But I just remind folks, it's apples and oranges when you're dealing with Trump. But this time ahead of 2016, this time in 2015, Jeb Bush was the front-runner. Things can still change in someone else's favor. And Donald Trump -- this is his biggest parade back into the national stage -- his speech this weekend that CPAP.

Let's see how it goes. I don't think it's impossible that somebody could emerge -- you know, Ron DeSantis is traveling to Iowa. He's not even announced candidate but he's regularly polling as number two. There's still a chance we could see someone other than a Trump as the head of the party.

GOLODRYGA: DeSantis hasn't announced yet but we see the former president continuing to attack him on Truth Social and any chance he gets. But it's interesting to see in CPAP some of the interviews that we've conducted, people there aren't trashing DeSantis. There saying maybe it's not his term. But they seem to like him. Is this a situation where as soon as he does announce, they're going to have to support one or the other and they'll probably go for Trump?

GRIFFIN: It's hard to say. I think DeSantis is the most palatable alternative to the ultra-MAGA, ultra-Trump candidates. There's someone they see as sort of a mini version of him. The struggle that I anticipate with a DeSantis, is you do lose some of the more mainstream Republicans who want to see more of a traditional conservative approach rather than a nationalist populist approach. I think it's going to be a rich primary. I actually think there's going to be a number of names that still declare. I think that we're going to hash these battles out and I do think whichever party runs somebody other than who they did in 2020, it's going to be the favored winner.

BLACKWELL: Maria, before we go, reconcile the president's position of being for D.C. statehood and believing in home rule with overruling the decision of the local government on crime.

CARDONA: I think that's a tough one, Victor. And as a longtime D.C. resident, I am very disappointed about what's going on in Congress right now and I hope that Democrats find the backbone to reject this resolution that not only goes against home rule and goes against people's votes counting and people's voices counting in the capital of the United States of America.

But it also proves to me that Democrats are running scared on crime and that is a dangerous position for us to be in because whenever we seed the ground on Republican talking points, we lose and we have a great story to tell, even with the crime bill that the council passed in D.C. that actually ups penalties for serious crimes and has higher penalties than most states in the union, including Delaware, including Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, including Ohio, Jim Jordan, including Arizona, Paul Gosar. So clearly there's a lot of hypocrisy at stake and I hope Republicans -- I hope Democrats do not fall for Republican talking points on this.

BLACKWELL: The bill also eliminates a lot of mandatory sentences and reduces penalties for things like carjacking and others, adding that context to this. Alyssa Farah Griffin, Maria Cardona --

CARDONA: But I think carjacking -- I have to make this point. Carjacking, the penalties that are in there now, Victor, are higher than they are higher than they are in Arizona, Georgia and Ohio.

BLACKWELL: Sure, but the shift is in the legislation. Thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: Thanks, guys.

In California, the National Guard has been activated to help residents still trapped in s San Bernardino after a feet of snow blanketed the area. We'll have a live report on those rescue efforts up next.

[15:40:00

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: People in the mountains of southern California are still buried under several feet of snow after a mammoth store.

GOLODRYGA: With many residents running out of food, medicine and gas, the that is now being called in to help. CNN's Camila Bernal is in San Bernardino, California. So, what are you hearing from residents? This has been days now.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and people are frustrated because they have been stuck inside of their homes for days now. They are getting to the point where they're telling me I am scared because it is going to take a lot longer for them to be able to come out of the mountain. Authorities saying it could take up to a week to get to some of the most impacted areas.

And I've talked to a lot of residents who have shared very similar concerns. They say they're worried about food for themselves, formula for the babies, food for their pets, they cannot get medicine, they're worried about any medical emergencies and that's just some of the concerns that they tell me about. They say they're so tired of cleaning up the snow and not seeing a lot of progress. So just a lot of concern from a lot of these residents. I talked to Derek Hayes, here is how he's describing his situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK HAYES, STRANDED IN SNOW: There's nowhere to put the snow. There's no way to walk around. It's up to my neck in a lot of places. And you take a step, you sink all the way down. You have to crawl yourself back out of the snow to try to get on top of it, even move around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:45:03]

BERNAL: Now, authorities have told us that they have crews, there are members of the National Guard that are already up in the mountain. Their priority is to clear some of these roads. They're still conducting evacuations for people that have emergencies. They're flying in food for people who are running out of food. So, there is some progress.

But authorities today apologizing saying that it is going to take time and asking people to be patient because this is going to be a long and difficult process for everyone involved. And what they're saying is that they will take a couple of days to get to some of the most impacted people. They say that they are working on it and that they are going to do everything they can. But they cannot guarantee that everyone will get out over the next couple of hours.

They're putting even more roadblocks as we speak. There's a line of cars trying to get in and they are not going to be able to do so. So that is essentially what we're hearing from authorities, that they were not prepared for this in the sense they were not expecting so much snow so quickly and now this is what they're having to deal with and a lot of people are just very frustrated -- Bianna, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Those pictures are stunning, to see people trying to build these pathways through so much snow. Camila, thank you.

Ukraine says there is intense fighting in and around the eastern city of Bakhmut. Will take you inside the battle for the city as Ukrainian forces continue to dig in against increased Russian aggression. That's ahead.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The new CNN film "GLITCH, THE RISE AND FALL OF HQ TRIVIA," reveals the crazy story behind the revolutionary game show app that went viral and then crashed. Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.

SCOTT ROGOWSKY, HOST HQ TRIVIA: This is HQ, I'm Scott the host. HQ Trivia was everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could actually win real money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just got so popular. The app is now ready to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it crashed.

ROGOWSKY: The next one the cracks started showing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Less an Collin were total opposites.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a jealousy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It leads to chaos.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: Wow. Joining us now is the original host of HQ Trivia, Scott Rogowsky. So, Scott, wow.

[15:52:10]

(INAUDIBLE)

(VIDEO AND AUDIO NOT AVAILABLE)

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: We're kicking off this year's CNN heroes campaign with nurse Theresa Gray. The honoree jumped into action when the devastating earthquake hit Turkey and Syria. CNN's Anderson Cooper has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TERESA GRAY, MOBILE MEDICS: I need 10cc syringes.

GRAY (voice-over): It's pretty frantic leading up to a mission.

GRAY: OK, so this bag is ready to go.

GRAY: Making sure we have the right equipment, the right medication.

GRAY: We have enough for hundreds of patients.

GRAY (voice-over): We're going to be sleeping in a tent, eating MREs. This is not going to be a good time.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Three days after the earthquake, Theresa landed in Turkey. She and her team soon headed to Hatay Province. GRAY: I'm here on the streets of Samandag, we're doing mobile clinics

and all the people are living here in these tents now. Because the buildings have either falling down or about to fall down. So, we go street to street to street and we stop at these tent cities. We're seeing earthquake injury, lacerations. We saw a child who had been trapped in the rubble for well over 12 hours. We're seeing coughs, colds, flus from living together. Whatever they need us to look at, we will. Then we go back, sleep in our car, get up the next morning and do it again.

COOPER (voice-over): They're treating hundreds of people and one family adopted Theresa's group as their own.

[15:60:00]

GRAY: This is my new Turkish mama. And these people have taken us in and they've allowed us to stay on their property and they've given us tea.

Tell her that we are so grateful to her.

COOPER (voice-over): Another reminder that even in desperate times, humanity can shine through.

GRAY: I know. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Such important work. To nominate your own CNN hero, go to CNNheroes.com.

And "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts now.