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Biden Under New Pressure From Top Dems To Stand Aside; Interview With Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA); Biden Faces More Calls To Exit Race. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 18, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:32:08]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: This morning, some of the biggest names in the Democratic Party are ramping up the pressure for President Biden to stand beside. Sources tell CNN Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently spoke with the president, telling him he cannot win. One of Pelosi's top allies, Congressman Adam Schiff, who's running for the Senate in California, just became the 23rd Democrat to call on Biden to exit the race. And ABC is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with the president in telling him he should end his re-election campaign.

Let's discuss more now with CNN Political Commentator Maria Cardona and Former Trump campaign adviser, Jason Osborne.

Jason, good to see you again. I know you're out there in Milwaukee. I'm going to go to Maria first. She's on set with me. Maria, you know this pressure is really building inside the Democratic Party. And, you know, obviously there's going to be -- there are going to be moments that add fuel to the fire. One of them might be this interview the president just did with BET, where he appeared to stumble over the name of his defense secretary, Lloyd Austin. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's all about treating people with dignity. And it's about making sure that -- well, coming, for example, look at the heat I'm getting because I named a -- the secretary of defense for a black mayor (ph), I named Ketanji Brown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Yes. So, Maria, I mean, the president, he keeps having these moments, and it does not exactly instill confidence in a lot of folks in the party. What -- where are you right now? What do you think they should be thinking inside the campaign?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, right now is where the campaign has said they are, for the last three weeks, post-debate, right? The president has said in a letter to Congress that he is the nominee. He is running and that he feels like he can beat Donald Trump. My understanding is that what he has told Nancy Pelosi privately is what he has said publicly. He is the nominee. He had 14 million votes. He has the delegates. He is running. He is going to beat Trump.

Here's where I am. Democrats need to take this damn telenovela off the air. We need to focus on the issues at hand. The issue contrast has not changed, and in fact, it's probably become even more urgent given what we have seen on the stage in Milwaukee these last three days and what I am sure we're going to see tonight, which is this is not a Republican Convention, it is an ultra MAGA extremist convention.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CARDONA: Last night, J. D. Vance showed it all. He lied. He lied. He lied. Our own fact-checker said it was a doozy of fact-checking that he had to go through, Daniel Dale. And what was so concerning to me as a Latina, Jim, is that everywhere across the floor you saw signs mass deportation now. OK.

[10:35:00]

And if they're running on that, I actually think that's great. That is part of Project 2025 that Donald Trump has tried to run away from. We're not going to let him do that. They want to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants, you know, rip babies from the arms of their mother. That's not what Americans want.

ACOSTA: Just -- and I want to get out to you, Jason, in just a second. Don't think I'm ignoring you, but I'm doing a follow up with Maria. When the former house speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who is beloved inside the Democratic Party, she's seen as an icon among progressives.

CARDONA: Absolutely.

ACOSTA: When even she is going to the president and warning him, you're in trouble. You know, I mean, as the expression might go, when you've lost Nancy Pelosi, should the president be giving this serious consideration?

CARDONA: Again, if that is what she told him, then I am sure he has given it serious consideration, is giving it serious consideration. But until something changes, Jim, until she actually says this publicly and until Joe Biden says something different publicly, he is the nominee.

And from here on out, frankly, from the debate until now, moving forward, the more that Democrats come out and publicly criticize President Biden and say that he should step aside, they're helping one person. And that's person's name is Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: It's hard to win when everybody's rowing in different directions.

CARDONA: Exactly.

ACOSTA: Yes, yes, yes. CARDONA: And what I'll say is we should follow Crosby, Stills, and Nash in their song. If you can't vote for the one you love, then love the one who's on the freaking ballot.

ACOSTA: Yes. Well, I mean, we're at various stages of love right now. On that note, I'll go to Jason Osborne in Milwaukee. You know, the shoe was on the other foot not so long ago inside the Republican Party, very different convention right now. But I was just talking to Olivia Troye, who was a. The top adviser to Vice President Mike Pence during the Trump administration, she was just saying a few moments ago on this program that she thinks Kamala Harris could beat Donald Trump.

Do they worry about that inside Trump world, that Biden could step aside, Kamala could get in there -- Kamala Harris, I should say, could get in there and beat the former president?

JASON OSBORNE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Look, I mean, I think the reality is on that point is the unknown is really kind of unknown, right? And so, for months -- well, for a few years, probably, the Republicans have been looking forward to going up against Joe Biden.

The vice president's name, her approval ratings are worse than Joe Biden's, but she hasn't been tested. She hasn't been, you know, put on every microscope --

ACOSTA: Not on every poll. Yes.

OSBORNE: -- of actually being true, but -- true. But she has not been under the microscope of being a presidential candidate in terms of being the sole presidential candidate for Democrats. But I think there is a certain irony in some of this in the sense that, you know, Joe Biden, that the initial Democrats that came out, the electeds, and some of the others are the more far-left progressive part of the party.

And so, I think as you look at it, there's a -- probably a very significant concern among many on that side of the aisle that that means that the -- whoever ends up taking Biden's place is going to be on the far-left, which is great for Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: And, Jason, very quickly, to a point that Maria brought up a few moments ago, these signs that were being waved at the convention last night, mass deportations now, are you comfortable with that? Is that a new tone? Is that unity?

OSBORNE: I think you have to look at the entire list of speakers that were up there. I take, you know, a certain amount of, you know, offense to the fact of what Maria was saying and that there were just lies and ultra MAGA on the stage there. I mean, tell that to them -- to the gold star families that bled out their heart and their experiences and a number of other folks that have gotten up there to talk about what their America is like right now, including the Teamsters.

I mean, this is pretty significant, and I haven't seen this kind of energy, and I've done nine of these -- nine conventions, I have not seen this kind of energy this early in a convention in my entire time of doing conventions since '88.

ACOSTA: All right. Maria and Jason, guys, thank you very much, appreciate it.

CARDONA: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Coming up, we'll head back out to Milwaukee, where former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is going to join our Manu Raju. That's coming up.

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[10:43:44]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. Welcome back here to the site of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where I'm now joined by the former Republican speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for sitting down with me.

KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), FORMER U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: Thanks for having me.

RAJU: Really appreciate it.

MCCARTHY: Appreciate you coming here.

RAJU: Yes, of course. It's great to be back in Wisconsin. So, I got to ask you about this viral moment. OK. This happened on the convention floor just earlier in the week. You were speaking to our colleague Kaitlan Collins and Matt Gaetz, who is, of course, led the push for your ouster in this speakership, taunted you. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCARTHY: One who's not coming back.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): What night are you speaking?

MCCARTHY: And then the other part that you have -- and the other part that you have is -- one person who raised the issue, he's got an ethics complaint about paying, sleeping with a 17-year-old.

GAETZ: Hey, you're not -- if you took that stage, you'd get booed off of it. You would get booed off the stage.

MCCARTHY: So, that's the way they would go. So, that's the biggest challenge we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: He said you would get booed off the stage. What's your response to him?

MCCARTHY: Well, you know, he looks very unhinged. I mean, a lot of people have concerns about him. And I'm not sure if he's on something, but I do hope he gets the help that he needs. But more importantly, I hope the young women get the justice they deserve when it comes to him.

RAJU: I mean, you're referring to the House Ethics Committee investigation that is ongoing --

MCCARTHY: Yes, with his partner in jail because they paid underage women for sex and drugs. Yes, that's what I'm referring to.

RAJU: So, he is denied all of that. I'm wondering, doesn't he deserve the presumption of innocence here?

[10:45:00]

MCCARTHY: Well, people are in jail. The women have confirmed it. He came to me -- if I still wanted to be speaker, I could have done something illegal and stopped the Ethics Committee investigation that started four years before.

RAJU: He told you to stop the Ethics investigation?

MCCARTHY: Yes, that's what the whole motion to vacate was about. He wanted me to engage and thought somehow I started this investigation. It started long before I was ever speaker. And as you know at Congress, I don't get involved in ethics. It's an equal number. They could investigate me. It's -- it has to be its own arm and branch. And so, he wanted to leverage me to try to do that. And if I didn't, he wanted to do a motion to vacate.

RAJU: And he's denied that, of course, that he urged you to stop the investigation.

MCCARTHY: No, I had other members come to me. He came to me. I had other people who --

RAJU: Your drug conversation about him?

MCCARTHY: -- he talked to. Yes, yes. So, no, there's no denying it.

RAJU: So, he was on this stage just last night speaking. There's a photo of him here -- some video of him from speaking on the stage. I'm wondering, you -- he did speak. The fact that he spoke and there he is. There he is, he's speaking right now. The fact that he spoke, what do you make about that?

You know, he also, sat with Trump in the box. Are you concerned that he is getting the platform here, even though you have concerns about him being in the party?

MCCARTHY: Well, no, I have him as concerned his action with young women. It doesn't matter which party you're in, but if you take those types of actions, I just don't think that's safe. I don't think that's right. If you see his behavior, and you see him in Congress, do you think anybody else wants to be around him? Do you think people want to associate? So, I mean, no. Everybody knows his challenges.

RAJU: But should he have given -- the RNC, given him the speaking spot?

MCCARTHY: RNC doesn't pick that.

RAJU: Well, the Trump campaign?

MCCARTHY: Yes.

RAJU: Should they have given him the speaking spot?

MCCARTHY: That's up to their decision.

RAJU: Yes. OK. And just before we button up the case conversation, he's a primary later this summer. How hard are you going to work to try to defeat him?

MCCARTHY: I don't know. Look, I just believe those young women deserve the justice that they've deserved all the way through.

RAJU: I want to turn to Joe Biden. Because you were -- there's obviously a lot of discussion about Joe Biden and what's going to happen to him here at the top of the ticket. You were quoted in a Wall Street Journal story in June saying, I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I'd go to his House. He's not the same person. You're referring to the deterioration of Joe Biden in your view. What specifically did you notice about him that suggested that he had some slippage?

MCCARTHY: Well, a couple things. So, when he became president, and I was minority leader, he kind of shut us out from even communication. And I thought that was odd. But then when we won the majority and I went down before our speaker, I soon learned the reason why. He has to speak from cards. And when he speaks from the cards and you want to debate what he said from the card to negotiate, he can't go there. He shuts up the conversation.

So, I saw a real decline early on. And with each meeting I would have with him, it's almost I saw a different Joe Biden. I remember one time being down there where I didn't think he quite knew what was transpiring. And he took us on a like a wild tour down to the swimming pool that made no sense in winter time.

And I remember Jill being on the other side of the table saying, no, no, they don't want to go outside. And then he took us into -- he's created this little office just outside -- just down from the Oval Office, that's his little private office. And walked us into it and, you know, there's only a few people that can fit in it. Trump had it as a gift shop type thing.

And, in there, he has a valet with a blue dress shirt all wrinkled sitting in there. And I'm thinking, why he's taking his shirt off in there? It just -- every time, I walked out actually depressed as an American. I didn't tell anybody about that story, but -- because he was going off to a G7 meeting.

RAJU: Should you have been public about that at the time? MCCARTHY: You know, this was before I was even speaker, So, I'm thinking, I didn't have new interactions. I have started being public, as you saw, probably the first one out, and I was criticized many times about it. But what I learned is, when he would meet with me, he'd always talk from a card. And I learned from a negotiation tactic to disrupt him, and he couldn't carry on.

RAJU: I'm going to have to -- we're going to have to pause on that for a second. We're going to talk more after a quick break. We'll be back.

MCCARTHY: We've got to make some money.

RAJU: We've got to be back --

MCCARTHY: Capitalism.

RAJU: That's right. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, he's going to stay with us. We'll continue the conversation in a short break.

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[10:53:48]

RAJU: All right. We're back with Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy live on the convention floor here in Milwaukee. Mr. Speaker, so, you know, I've been struck here about how united the Republican Party is behind Trump despite all this controversy. He's been convicted on 34 felonies, he tried to overturn the elections, he's been found liable for sexual abuse. Is the party just ignoring all those controversies here? One -- question one.

And two, if you're in a tough race, in a swing district, do you tie yourself tightly to the top of the ticket on the Republican side?

MCCARTHY: I mean, I think if you look at the outside, and don't take a Republican or Democrat, let's take like a PBS only polling independents, where they ask the question, who's the greatest threat to democracy? You know what that comes back at? More than 53 percent? Joe Biden.

And I think the country views it -- all those things you said about Trump that you went after, you're doing it because you're trying to deny him the right to run. Every time the Democrats would indict him, his poll numbers would go up. He'd have his biggest fundraising when you go and take it to the most --

RAJU: The federal grand jury?

MCCARTHY: Yes. I mean, you could spin however you want, I'm just telling you what the American public is saying and what they're thinking. And so, what you see is where the Democrats keep going crazy. I've been to five of these. I've never seen us more united. And I've never seen the Democrats more divided.

[10:55:00] I mean, both parties would always look at the other. They all stick together, and the other doesn't. You can't even decide who your nominee is this far out. But the Democrats actually changed -- they changed their primary system so Joe Biden could win and others couldn't run.

RAJU: If you're in a tough race, do you think you should tie yourself to Donald Trump?

MCCARTHY: Yes. Look --

RAJU: You do?

MCCARTHY: Well, do you think the Democrats would be -- all the Democrats who are in tight races are saying we don't want Joe Biden on the ticket?

RAJU: Well, that's -- I mean, the Democrats have their own issues.

MCCARTHY: OK.

RAJU: I'm talking about the Republicans.

MCCARTHY: But I've -- look, I've seen the polling and Democrat polling on districts that Biden won by 13, that Trump is now leading by 13 is. I think I see Democrats in Maine in a tight race tying themselves to Donald Trump. Not the question, would they tie himself to Biden? They're trying to cling on to Trump just so they could hold onto their seat.

RAJU: Are you going to -- is there any chance you would take a position in the Trump administration?

MCCARTHY: Look, that -- I don't think that's where I'm going.

RAJU: OK.

MCCARTHY: Look, my degree, I have a master's in business. I think I could do a lot of business.

RAJU: OK. All right. We will see what happens. Mr. Speaker, thanks for joining me here. It was a great discussion.

MCCARTHY: Always enjoy it.

RAJU: All right. Thank you So, much. All right. Jim, back to you in Washington.

ACOSTA: All right. Thanks, Manu. We'll have a short break and more news ads. Stay with us.

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