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Adam Kinzinger to Speak at Democratic National Convention; Interview With Former Chicago, Illinois, Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 20, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But the whole point is to make a whole crowd of people believe something that's not true.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: But, Scott, we had it on video last week.

JENNINGS: So, if you're going to do that, I guess it's fine.

ACOSTA: We had it on video last week. We had the hidden camera footage last week.

We had the hidden camera footage last week, Russ Vought, the former OMB director, talked about as being a future White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, saying on camera, well, Donald Trump is disavowing it for political reasons.

I mean, he has key former Trump officials working on Project 2025. They have all..

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: So, by your logic...

ACOSTA: They have signed it like it's the Declaration of Independence.

JENNINGS: I understand.

So, by your logic, every single thing that Kamala Harris said when she ran for president in 2019, ban fracking, defund the police, the most permissive immigration structure, she cannot be permitted to disown any of that. Do we agree?

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, no. Can I jump -- I know he asked you the question.

ACOSTA: No, this is your role. Yes, absolutely.

(LAUGHTER)

ALLISON: It's not that -- it's not from 2019. It's from this year. They released Project 2025 recently as a forward-looking thing. 2019 is in the past. 2025 is the future. It's when Donald Trump wants to be president.

It's what his agenda wants to be. So we're not saying disassociating.

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: The argument, actually, is that these people that Donald Trump may or may not know, who he's disowned and disavowed, made a book and he has to abide by all that.

But now we're saying Kamala Harris can just get rid of everything she ever said or did or voted on.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: The other broader point for Democrats throughout this convention -- and this is what they were supposed to be doing when Joe Biden was the nominee -- is remind voters who Donald Trump is.

I want to play this SOT from Raphael Warnock, the senator, who talked in pretty stark terms about why democracy has now become freedom. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): The lie and the logic on January 6 is a sickness. It is a kind of cancer that then metastasized into dozens of voter suppression laws all across our country.

Donald Trump's America is the America of January 6. People who have no vision traffic in division. He does not know how to lead us, and so he wants to divide us. America, make no mistake. Donald Trump is a plague on the American conscience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: There is an attempt, Scott, to kind of memory-hole January 6, as if it's just not very important, as if it wasn't a pretty pivotal moment for this country.

It seems fair for this to be something that Trump has to answer for, but does he have an answer for it? Or is he still just doing the same thing he's always done?

JENNINGS: Well, yes. I mean, his answer is to minimize it.

Look, I mean, you all know my views on this. It was a terrible day. It should not have happened. It should not happen again. This is not the way we act in a democracy. It's absolutely terrible. He's got his views on it. They're different than my views, and I think they're different than the views of a lot of Americans.

So, look, I think it is going to be a point they run on. I don't think it is the most important issue in the election.

PHILLIP: But shouldn't it be very important?

JENNINGS: But I understand why Democrats are... (CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: I guess I wonder, don't you think it should be very important, how Trump comported himself at that key moment?

JENNINGS: I -- yes, of course. I think everything -- anybody who's held public office, whether that's Harris or Trump or anyone else, everything you do in public office should be reviewed if you're seeking that office again or if you're seeking a higher office.

So, I think both of them are going to get a fair review of their record. And I guess my point is, if you're going to review everything Donald Trump has done, which is totally fair, you also have to review everything Harris has done.

And I think part of the convention is designed to wash it away and sort of blank-slate Harris as though she just got here and had she's not been at the center of American life. So, if you want to review all the records, I think that's perfectly fine. Both are up for it.

ACOSTA: And, Ashley, I mean, one of the things that we have heard from Donald Trump lately is, he's been trying to accuse Democrats of pulling off a coup in pushing aside Joe Biden, who passed the torch last night voluntarily to Vice President Harris.

Let's listen to a bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, I like Lindsey. I don't care what he says, OK? Lindsey wouldn't have been elected if I didn't endorse him.

QUESTION: Do you need to change up, shake up your campaign?

TRUMP: No, I think when -- no, I don't think so at all. I mean, I'm leading in most of the swing states, if not all.

They took a man who won and they said, get out of here, Joe. This is a coup. This was a coup. This was a coup of the president of the United States.

They did an overthrow or a coup on Joe Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Yes, a lot of coup talk from Donald Trump there in recent days.

ALLISON: This is what Donald Trump does. He takes things that he has done and either tries to project them on other people or he tries to appropriate language from other people.

He talks about -- let's talk about criminal justice. He talks about the criminal justice system being unfair. Yes. But, Donald, you have not even been sentenced because you were the president of the United States. You did, sir, try and have a coup because you could not accept the election results.

[11:35:13]

But now he wants to say, oh, I'm the victim. He is the one who staged coup. And now he's trying to say Democrats -- listen, we have a primary. I think everyone knows that the last six weeks of the Democratic Party have been tough. But we have turned the page. And last night was evident that we are united. Joe Biden is excited to support Kamala Harris.

And how Kamala Harris has become and will become in a few days our presumptive nominee was not a coup.

ACOSTA: And I will say one thing that we should all agree on, and that is you never want to follow Raphael Warnock when he gives a speech at the Democratic Convention.

PHILLIP: That's true.

ALLISON: No.

JENNINGS: Oh, yes, this Christian nationalism that broke out here, I got to tell you, when the Democrats get into Christian nationalism, I'm for it now all of a sudden. I know it was bad...

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Yes. I thought I saw you standing up and cheering last night.

JENNINGS: I know. I know. It was bad at the RNC. It's good here, though.

PHILLIP: A little bit of church in here last night.

ALLISON: Who will heal the land, is the question.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIP: All right, Ashley and Scott, thank you both very much.

ACOSTA: Thanks a lot.

PHILLIP: We will be right back.

ACOSTA: We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:37]

PHILLIP: Welcome back to this special edition of CNN NEWSROOM live from the Democratic National Convention here in the great city of Chicago. I'm Abby Phillip.

The Windy City is taking center stage this week. And its path back to the spotlight started under my next guest's watch.

With us is former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Thank you for joining us, Mayor.

It's nice to see your beautiful city. And we actually got great weather, so thank you for that.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIP: This city has had conventions in the past. It's kind of hung over Chicago. People are talking about the 1968 convention and the chaos of the protests.

But what we have seen, I think, has not quite been like that. How do you think the city has done under all of that pressure, the last- minute changes to what this convention was supposed to be...

LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), FORMER MAYOR OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Yes.

PHILLIP: ... and the narrative that I think needed to be broken.

LIGHTFOOT: Well, look, people skip over '96, which I think most people regard as a very successful convention with Bill Clinton.

This is something that we have been planning as we started thinking about this bid. We understood what was going to be necessary to put all the component pieces together.

We're here at the United Center. Many of the people that are running this convention were here in '96.

PHILLIP: Yes.

LIGHTFOOT: And so they have that experience.

Plus, they put on large-scale events on a regular basis. So we knew we could pull this off. And then the folks in the city to make sure that the trains run on time, so to speak, that the trash is picked up, that transportation works, our hotels, our restaurants, our Convention Center where the delegates meet during the day, these folks are pros.

And they knew exactly what the task was. And they jumped into it with gusto. So I'm not surprised that things are going well so far.

PHILLIP: I wonder what you think about the message from the Democratic Party right now going into this election.

You know well Chicago is the boogeyman of politics when it comes to issues of crime and poverty and even racial disparities. How is the Democratic Party talking about those issues, and are they addressing the way that it can be weaponized against them?

LIGHTFOOT: Well, look, I think, first and foremost, the party has to come together and be unified. And you're seeing that in the waves of enthusiasm from the delegates

that are here in this building. A month ago, right, there was a lot of hand-wringing, a lot of cancer nation. People weren't sure which direction they were doing.

I think what the vice president and now with her new running mate, Governor Walz, have been able to do, is really tap into that energy and to get people, frankly, off the sidelines, recognizing the importance of this election and what's at stake.

So that really was mission one, which -- build the unity. And now, going forward, we have got to articulate a vision for the country. It can't just be about the past. It can't just be about recriminations related to Donald Trump and what he intends to do if he's reelected to a second term.

We have got to offer people that are sitting around their kitchen tables, that are in their workplaces what we are going to do to make life better for them. And I think you're seeing that from speaker after speaker.

PHILLIP: What about this issue, for example, of immigration and the migrants who were sent to your city when you were mayor here and are still...

LIGHTFOOT: Yes.

PHILLIP: It's still something that the city is grappling with.

Is the Biden/Harris administration and now the Harris/Walz campaign adequately addressing that very real concern for communities about the people who are just showing up here with no resources, no ability to work, nothing?

LIGHTFOOT: Yes.

Well, to be clear, they're not just showing up here. They're being bused by Greg Abbott from the border, who's telling them, you can't stay here, we don't want you, and your only ticket out is to get on a bus to go to Chicago, to D.C., to New York.

So this is a forced migration without any regard, frankly, for their personal health, safety or welfare. But I think President Biden really addressed that last night in his speech. The number of border dropping since he was compelled to take unilateral executive action has decreased precipitously.

And, frankly, the thing I feared was that Abbott was going to send even more buses to Chicago...

PHILLIP: This week.

LIGHTFOOT: ... knock on Plexiglas -- this week.

PHILLIP: Yes. LIGHTFOOT: Hasn't materialized. And I think in part it's because of

the necessary and tough action that Joe Biden took through executive order.

PHILLIP: But does -- but is this a political problem for Vice President Harris? I mean, Republicans are running ads right now...

[11:45:01]

LIGHTFOOT: Yes, of course.

PHILLIP: ... saying that she is to blame.

LIGHTFOOT: Well, it's hard to actually say that with any level of credibility when the Trump and the Republicans in the Senate killed the first bipartisan immigration action that could have taken place that, frankly, could have addressed many of the issues.

President Biden made a number of concessions that, frankly, caused a little bit of unease in his party but he did that in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration. And Donald Trump said, this is too good of a deal. It's going to hurt me. It's going to help him. Don't pass it.

PHILLIP: All right, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, great to see you. Thank you for joining us on the show today.

The stage belongs to Democrats this week, but they are sharing it with some Republicans, including former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger. He is set to speak at the DNC later this week. And he's going to join us right on the show coming up next.

But, first, here's a look at who's coming up on "INSIDE POLITICS" at noon with Dana Bash, anchor Tony Goldwyn. You want to stay here for that.

We will be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:12]

ACOSTA: Welcome back.

Some of the Democratic Party's biggest names have yet to take the stage this week. And this year, they will be sharing it with some unlikely names, prominent Republicans, ranging from former Trump officials to mayors in key battleground states. You can see some of the officials on the screen right there, former White House press secretary for Donald Trump Stephanie Grisham, Olivia Troye, Geoff Duncan.

And one of those speakers will be former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who joins me now.

Adam, good to see you. Is it going to be a little weird talking to a room full of Democrats?

What do you think?

(LAUGHTER)

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, it'll be a little weird. It's not necessarily something that a year ago or two years ago would have been on my bingo card.

ACOSTA: Yes.

KINZINGER: But, look, this is a battle for the heart of our democracy. And so it doesn't feel weird from the perspective of, look, we're going to talk about the importance of preserving this system for our kids, for the future and everything else.

So I'm excited about it.

ACOSTA: And I know you can't give away the whole speech, but what do you plan on saying? I mean, in a nutshell, what's your message?

KINZINGER: Well, the big thing is speaking to Republicans as a conservative.

So, like, here's the thing. My views on most issues, you grow up and mature with some views, but, for the most part, they have stayed the same. But the Republican Party hasn't. And it actually sheds its conservative principles under Donald Trump.

And so it's basically bringing that to a significant amount of Republicans out there that are thinking for themselves like, look, I just feel uncomfortable in this party. It doesn't seem to be what I grew up with. And it's letting these folks know, look, there is permission this time to go vote Democratic.

It's all right. It'll feel OK. And this is about fighting this target that's very near us, which is a real threat to our democracy and standing up for truth.

ACOSTA: You know, and Adam, I have to ask you this. We talked about this earlier on in the program. We were playing some sound from former President Donald Trump. He was accusing the Democrats of trying to -- of pulling off a coup and getting President Biden to step aside in favor of the Vice President Kamala Harris.

You served on the January 6 Committee. I assume you have a response to the former president when it comes to that.

KINZINGER: Yes, I mean, the only person in that equation that ever attempted a coup was Donald Trump.

I mean, a coup, by definition, is trying to overthrow the outcome of a government, put a different government in place. That's exactly what he did. Look, if they'd have just -- if the Democrats would have just said, OK, all of a sudden we're picking this person nobody's ever heard of and putting them there, then you would have a -- maybe the ability to say there was a coup within the party, right?

I think it's very different to say within the party than a coup. But what happened is, every one of these voters that voted for Joe Biden in the primary also voted for Kamala Harris. So the idea that there is some coup under way is just -- it goes to show to me, Jim, just a real desperation by Donald Trump and how he's trying to get his footing.

He can't find his footing and he's flailing for anything he can think of. And I think that's very obvious between what you're hearing from him and what you're seeing in last night's convention and probably for the rest of the week in the Democrats, which is a really unified message.

ACOSTA: Yes.

And, Adam, I mean, I have to ask you, just on a personal note, are you no longer a Republican? Do you want to continue to be a Republican? What would make you enthusiastic about being a Republican again? Does Donald Trump have to go by the wayside, Trumpism have to go by the wayside? What are your thoughts on that?

KINZINGER: Yes, I mean, either Donald Trump has to go away or find like real super Jesus and change everything he believes and everything he says.

The Republican Party needs to adopt conservatism again, just this idea of a smaller government, strong national defense. That's it, right? They don't believe that. They would basically gamble away Ukraine to Russia. They're scared of every one of America's adversaries around the world, scared to death. All they talk about is, World War III is coming, it's on the horizon. They have been saying that for six years now.

And a smaller government. All they want to do is expand it and divide the country and step on people. And Donald Trump constantly punches down and not across or up. He's just constantly a small man pretending to be big.

And so I think the party would have to change. I'm going to hold on to the title. I'm not letting them kick me out of the party, but I will also say that this can't go on forever. If this party continues to embrace nationalism, continues to embrace division and anger and hate and the past, then there might be a day when I finally say, OK, I'm gone.

But, no, I spent 12 years as a Republican congressman. They're not going to win that easily.

ACOSTA: All right, former Congressman Adam Kinzinger.

I know it's also good to be back in your home state of Illinois. We drag you back to D.C. all the time. So I'm sure it's good to be back in town.

Adam, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

KINZINGER: It is.

ACOSTA: We appreciate it.

KINZINGER: You bet.

ACOSTA: All right. And good luck with your speech. We appreciate it.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. We're here in Chicago all week. You're not getting rid of us that fast.

But, in the meantime, "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a quick break.

[11:55:04]

Have a great day, everybody.