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CNN International: Zelenskyy Calls To Congratulate Trump, Says They Agreed To Maintain "Close Dialogue"; Biden: In A Democracy, The Will Of The People Always Prevails; Biden: Harris Ran An Inspiring Campaign, Has Great Character. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired November 07, 2024 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning. I am Rahel Solomon live in New York.
We begin this hour from the Rose Garden at the White House, where any moment President Joe Biden will address the nation for the first time following Donald Trump's election victory on Tuesday. A White House official says that Biden called to congratulate Trump and invite him to the White House. That official says that Biden also called for a smooth transition and emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together. Trump's campaign says that he very much appreciated the call, and planned to meet the President soon.
And the transition to a Trump White House begins right now. A number of high-profile allies are making a push behind the scenes for a spot in the new administration. That group could potentially include billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and former Democratic member of the House, Tulsi Gabbard. Now, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, who reportedly was being considered for a number of roles, says that he will remain in the Senate. That is, according to a source.
And sources tell CNN that the President-elect, in private conversations, has made it clear that he wants to reward those who stood by him over the last couple of years. They also say that Trump will be ready to carry out his agenda on day one of his new term, armed with a slew of executive orders along with the momentum of a decisive and historic election victory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL- ELECT: We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, and it is now clear that we've achieved the most incredible political thing. Look what happened. Is this crazy? But, it's a political victory that our country has never seen before, nothing like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Vice President Kamala Harris says that she is committed to doing something that her opponent would not do four years ago, ensuring a peaceful transfer of power. Harris conceded the race on Wednesday, and while admitting that the election loss was a painful one, she offered this message to her supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D), U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign. Sometimes, the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win. That doesn't mean we won't win. The important thing is, don't ever give up. Don't ever give up. Don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: And Trump's win has left Democrats doing plenty of soul searching, some finger pointing. A senior Harris campaign official tells CNN that President Biden holds, quote, "a lot of blame for Harris' loss."
Let's get more now on the transition and the fallout from CNN Senior White House Reporter Kevin Liptak. So, Kevin, give us a sense of what we can expect to hear from Biden when he speaks really any minute now.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and this will be his first opportunity to acknowledge publicly what has happened over the last 48 hours. And these speeches are always very difficult moments for presidents. I remember standing in the Rose Garden when then-President Obama was acknowledging Trump's win back in 2016, and certainly it was full of a lot of dour faces in President Obama. His job really was to acknowledge that this will be a difficult moment, but that it's time to look forward. And I think we could likely hear something similar from President Biden today.
Certainly, he wants to put the focus on what he has accomplished during his administration, and wants to tell his staff that these were accomplishments that they should be proud of. But, of course, he cannot acknowledge that this is a very hard moment for a lot of them. President Trump is someone who President Biden called a threat to democracy, who said would undermine international norms. He even sort of went as far as calling him a fascist, or at least his supporters did, and Vice President Harris did. So, this is something of a tricky balance for him when he walks out into the Rose Garden in a couple of minutes from now, and tries to assure both his staff and the nation at large that the country will move forward and must move forward.
Now, we know that he did speak to President Trump yesterday and assured him of a smooth transition. They're working on a time for Trump to come to the White House to meet with Biden. That could happen potentially as early as next week. The focus, of course, is ensuring a smooth handoff of power, which I think that the Biden team will be very quick to tell you that Biden was not granted when Trump was leaving office back in 2020. They want to make clear that he is doing it very differently this time around.
What I don't think you'll hear from President Biden today is any acknowledgement or concession that he could have handled some of this differently. That's something that a lot of Democrats are talking about in Washington and around the country. Should he have stepped aside sooner? Should he have not run for a second term at all, potentially, sort of after the midterms in 2022, acknowledging that he was too old for the job? Did he wait too long to sort of boost Harris and put her in a position where she had to run an extraordinarily abbreviated campaign in which voters didn't have time to get to know her? Those are questions that are being asked.
Now, I think you also hear the flip side from Biden confidants and Biden allies, who said that potentially he could have run a better campaign than Harris, given his strengths and some of the places where she did poorly. I don't think we'll ever have an answer to those questions at the end of the day. And in some ways, these are questions that mask bigger questions for Democrats about why exactly they did so poorly among the constituencies that they had traditionally relied upon for election victories.
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So, these are all big questions for Democrats going forward. I think today, for President Biden, it's much more about trying to assure that his departure from office and Trump's entry back into office goes as smoothly as possible.
SOLOMON: Although those questions will likely remain, at least for the near term, although we won't get Biden's response to it, as you point out, likely today. Kevin, we'll see you shortly after we hear from Biden. Stick around, please, and don't go far. Thank you.
I want to digest this all with our panel, and bring in Republican Strategist and former RNC Communications Director, Doug Heye, and Jamarr Brown, who is the Executive Director at Color of Change PAC. Good to see you both.
Jamarr, let me start with you. What does Biden need to say in this moment? We hear from him just moments from now. What does he need to do?
JAMARR BROWN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COLOR OF CHANGE PAC: Well, the thing that you have to be assured of in this moment is that President Biden has to assure that folks that we will have a peaceful transfer of power. But, President Biden also has to make sure that he sends a message to maintain democracy, to make sure that we ensure the rule of law, and all of those pieces are so important in this very moment. And so, I think that that's what you're going to see from President Biden. We've seen that before. Unfortunately, that didn't happen in the 2020 election. And I think this time you're going to see President Biden really show and step up what a peaceful transfer of power begins to look like, and really try to bring the nation together.
SOLOMON: Doug, your thoughts. What do you hope to hear from the President?
DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I'd say exactly that, and I know I'm pretty confident that we'll hear that from President Biden, just as we did yesterday from Kamala Harris. I thought Kamala Harris' remarks were spot on. And look, every concession speech, when candidates concede, includes something of what the Vice President said yesterday. I concede this race, but I'm not going to give up the fight. I'm not conceding the ideas or the ideals. That's what candidates say.
But, obviously it's important following this election, should have been important following the previous election, that that's what we hear from candidates who lose. The President is going to say that. What we see from the incoming Trump administration, I think still remains to be seen.
SOLOMON: Jamarr, Kevin, our reporter just there, was talking a bit about the finger pointing that exists right now in the Democratic Party, about what is to blame, about who is to blame. And Kevin's point was that he does not expect President Biden to sort of get at any of that, that may be part of the blame lies with him. I'm curious if you share that sentiment. And where does the party go from here, after not just losing the White House, but also the Senate and potentially the House as well?
BROWN: Yeah. Well, I don't expect that President Biden will address that in this remark -- in this set of remarks. I think just as I said before, he should really focus on how we bring the country together, how we have a peaceful transfer of power, now that the election has occurred. But, what is important in this moment is Democrats are going to have those conversations. They're going to have to dig deep and do some real soul searching around what happened in this election. I think there are a lot of folks, things to consider, right? There is messaging. There is tactics. There is a Vice President who ran a campaign for 107 days. It's very hard to run a campaign to really build the trust and get folks to engage with you.
And so, those conversations are happening. I've been hearing about them. They're continuing to happen. But, I know that Democrats have to be assured that we have to have real conversations about how we message on issues, how we talk about issues, and how we really connect to communities and reconnect to communities now, looking at the results of the exit poll.
SOLOMON: Yeah. The reconnect part is really interesting when you look sort of under the hood at how people voted.
Doug, let me ask, we just listed a few names there that are being discussed at least publicly, we lost a shot there, we'll get it back for you once we do, but that are being discussed at least publicly to serve in the next administration. Your thought, top line, on some of these names. I mean, do they sound like strong contenders to help run this country, or do they sound like simply loyal followers of Trump?
HEYE: Well, the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Clearly, what presidents do, when they're incoming presidents, is they look at people who are their supporters, and that's who they hire, especially for those most trusted roles. Now, Kamala Harris said one thing that she would do differently than Biden was to bring a Republican into her cabinet. I don't expect that we're going to see a Democrat in Donald Trump's administration, certainly in the cabinet. Maybe we'll see a former Democrat in Tulsi Gabbard. But, what presidents do is they hire people who are loyal to them personally and also to their agenda. That's not a big surprise. Obviously, Donald Trump amps that up when we saw that in his first administration. We'll certainly see that in this one as well. But, he can hire professionals.
And if you look at the team that initially started for Donald Trump when he came in the first time, he hired professionals, Reince Priebus was the RNC Chair, who became the Chief of Staff, Sean Spicer, somebody I've known since 1995, was clearly qualified to be the White House Press Secretary. The challenge is, people who serve at Donald Trump, or serve for Donald Trump, serve at the President's pleasure. That's always true. It's obviously more true and comes with a real risk when you are serving under Donald Trump.
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That may be true in this administration as well.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Jamarr, I want to turn back for just a moment get both of your takes on this. When you look at the election results, is there a single group that underperformed in a way that really surprised you, whether it's black voters, Latino voters, white women? Was there a single group that really made you raise an eyebrow, and what's the lesson for the party moving forward? And the reason why I ask is because you talked about sort of reconnecting with certain groups. Talk to me about that.
BROWN: Right. Absolutely. There are three groups that I'll name, particularly for this segment is, number one, white women. Particularly over the last couple of years, we've been having real conversations in the party, and the party has been messaging and campaigning around abortion rights and reproductive rights. To see over 50 percent of white women still vote for Donald Trump, that's a real conversation that we have to have, especially as white women stood with black voters in particular around the Black Lives Matter movement in those particular pieces. That's important to really take a look at and why that continues to happen, especially with someone who put three Supreme Court justices on the Supreme Court that actually reversed Roe at the end of the day.
The second group that we have to look at is the Latino community. Particularly, we have been standing with the Latino community, particularly when Donald Trump was attacking their community around child separation and family separation. He has been very clear that he will deport folks on day one, and that's really harmful to their community. So, we have to take a look at that.
And then the third conversation that's important is there has been this conversation happening around black men. And yes, while some of the numbers may have gone down just a little bit with black men, collectively, over 86 percent of black voters still stood with Kamala Harris in this election. And black men, out of any community and constituency of other men, black, especially white or brown men, stood with the Vice President at the end of the day, even leading up to the conversations that were happening before the election. And so, I think those three particular groups, where we saw some
shifting in movement, the party has to look at, how do we reconnect with folks? How do we get back in communities and really talk about issues on the kitchen table? And that's important for us to think about moving forward.
SOLOMON: Doug, same question to you. Yeah. I read something in one of your notes to one of the other shows that got my attention, and you said that in some ways, blue New Jersey is more interesting than what happened in red North Carolina. Talk to me about that.
HEYE: Yeah. Look, we focus so much on the six or seven key states, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and so forth. What we saw was a dramatic movement throughout the country. Donald Trump improved pretty much everywhere in the country, and we saw that in New Jersey. We saw that not just in New York State, but New York City, where Kamala Harris performed the worst since any Democrat since 1992. So, it tells us that these movements are national.
And one thing I would tell Democrats is voters are complicated. You can't just go to white women and say abortion. You can't just go to Hispanic voters and say immigration. They care about a multiple -- multitude of issues. And that's what they were saying very clearly to this administration and in this race.
And so, part of what happened on Tuesday night shouldn't be surprising. The Vice President of an unpopular President lost in this campaign. And why? Because Joe Biden was on the wrong side, which means Kamala Harris was on the wrong side, of several issues that voters were saying very clearly, and that's what Democrats have to absorb as they're moving forward to see what did we do wrong and what can we do better in the future?
SOLOMON: Yeah. Really interesting. Doug Heye, thank you. Jamarr Brown, good to see you as well. Thank you both for being here.
BROWN: Thank you.
HEYE: Thank you.
SOLOMON: And as I said, we expect President Biden to make remarks from the White House any moment now. He will speak to the nation following Donald Trump's election win. We are standing by. We will bring it to you just as soon as it begins.
And still to come for us, what Trump's second term could mean for the future of Ukraine and the U.S. commitment to support its fight against Russia? Plus, how Trump's second presidency could impact Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon?
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. World leaders are scrambling to congratulate Donald Trump on his election win, as they brace for the possibility that he will shake up the current world order. China's Xi Jinping says that he hopes both countries can find a way to get along in the new era. In his first term, Trump slapped tariffs on Chinese imports, and he is promising to do more of the same.
Japan's Prime Minister also called to congratulate Trump. Sources say that he is hoping to meet with the President-elect this month, as he travels to the G20 summit in Brazil.
French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke by phone with Trump yesterday. A French official describing the conversation as warm and building on the two leaders' pre-existing relationship.
And the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia sent his best wishes as well, reiterating what he called the historic relationship between his country and the United States.
And one expected focus of Trump's foreign policy, the wars in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump, calling his win "history's greatest comeback". In his last term, Trump made several major moves benefiting Israel, like relocating the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. More recently on the campaign trail, he has urged Israel to get the wars in Gaza over fast.
CNN's Matthew Chance has more.
OK. We'll bring you that story just as soon as we can.
In the meantime, I actually want to turn to Ukraine, where the President there, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called to congratulate Trump, and says that they agreed to maintain close dialog and advance our cooperation. But, there is reason for deep concern in Kyiv. Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on continued U.S. commitments to Ukraine's fight against Russia. He also said, quote, that "Zelenskyy should have never let that war start." He also vowed to encourage Russia to do, quote, "whatever the hell it wants to any NATO member that doesn't meet defense spending guidelines." Today, President Zelenskyy said that it would be suicidal for Europe to offer the Kremlin concessions to halt its invasion of Ukraine.
Frederik Pleitgen is following the story from Berlin. So, Fred, as we said on the surface, they're calling to congratulate, but under the surface, there has to be real concern from the Ukrainians about what this win means for them on the battlefield.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I would say concern and anxiety on the part of the Ukrainians, and you can feel that, obviously, within a lot of people in the Ukrainian population, but then also in the Ukrainian leadership as well. And I think that you're absolutely right there to point out that it appears as though Volodymyr Zelenskyy is putting a brave face on things, but at the same time, behind the scenes, he is quite concerned about what might happen to Ukraine and its efforts to obviously fend off that Russian invasion.
And one of the things that he is doing today, he is actually in Budapest in Hungary, where he spoke at that European Leaders Forum, and he did say, as you rightly pointed out, that he had that call with President Trump -- or President-elect Trump, and congratulated him on the win in the election, but then also said that it's unclear what President -- what the President-elect is going to do next. He said the call was constructive, but it's unclear what's going to happen next.
And I think that uncertainty is one of the things that is really concerning for the Ukrainians, where, on the one hand, of course, we've heard some of the remarks from Donald Trump as he was on the campaign trail, where he was saying that Zelenskyy is a really great salesman, that he gets $100 billion every time he gets to Congress, that he essentially insinuated that he might drop Ukraine aid, the U.S.'s Ukraine aid to -- military aid altogether, or at least substantially cut that aid to Ukraine. That certainly is something that has a lot of people deeply worried in Kyiv and in other places as well. So, those are the feelings within Ukraine.
On the other hand, they also believe that it could be that it could be that he might continue with that support. So, those are the things that the people there are speaking about in Kyiv. Those are things that many of them are concerned about at the same time. Of course, the Ukrainians have said that all they can do is continue to try and fight the war and fend off that Russian invasion. So, that is definitely something that has been on the mind of the Ukrainians.
[11:20:00]
And I think one of the other things that is also deeply concerning to the Ukrainians, but also in Europe as well, is that if the U.S. does substantially cut its military aid or cut it all together, what will European countries then do? Are they going to continue to stand by Ukraine? One of the things that we've heard from places like Berlin, like Paris, like London as well, is that them saying that they are going to continue to support Ukraine, as they put it, for as long as that takes. Well, is that still something that is going to stand, that's going to hold if the U.S. pulls out of that very similar commitment?
That's certainly something where, I think, they believe that that's very much up in the air, and they certainly want to see what is going to happen next once Donald Trump takes office, once his administration is in place, and of course, also once Donald Trump then defines the relationship that he is going to have with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which has been very rocky in the past, but also the relationship that he is going to have with Vladimir Putin.
Of course, one of the things that Donald Trump has said on the campaign trail is that he wants to end the war as fast as possible. And you recall, at the UN General Assembly, where he had that meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines, he said that he has very good relations with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but also has very good relations with Vladimir Putin as well. So, how that is going to play out? I think there is a great deal of uncertainty to that from the Ukrainians. Of course, all this as the situation for them also on the battlefield, very difficult, Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Fred, you make such an interesting point about, one, the direct impacts of a Trump term, but also the indirect impacts in terms of the message it sends to European allies. We wait to see.
Fred Pleitgen, good to see you. Thank you.
And a state minister in India has congratulated Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, and his wife Usha Vance, who has roots in South India. The Minister sent his, quote, "Heartfelt congratulations to the Vice President-elect" in a post on X. Usha Vance, the child of Indian immigrants, grew up in the suburbs of San Diego, and her family is Hindu. J.D. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019.
All right. We are still awaiting President Biden to make those remarks from the White House any moment now. We will bring it to you just as soon as it begins.
Stay with us.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Let's take you to the White House, where President Biden is speaking for the first time since Trump's victory on Tuesday. Let's listen together.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Thank you. Please. Thank you. Good to see this cabinet and staff together. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah. It's good to see you all, particularly good to see my granddaughter sitting in the front row here. Hi Finn. How are you, honey?
For over 200 years, America has carried on the greatest experiment in self-government in the history of the world.
[11:25:00]
And that's not hyperbole. That's a fact. We're the people. The people vote and choose their own leaders, and they do it peacefully. And where in a democracy, the will of the people always prevails.
Yesterday, I spoke with President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory, and I assured him that I direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That's what the American people deserve.
Yesterday, I also spoke with Vice President Harris. She has been a partner and a public servant. She ran an inspiring campaign, and everyone got to see something that I learned early on to respect so much, her character. She has a backbone like a ramrod. She has great character, true character. She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran.
The struggle for the soul of America since our very founding has always been an ongoing debate and still vital today. I know for some people, it's a time for victory, to state the obvious. For others, it's a time of loss. Campaigns or contests of competing visions, the country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I've said many times, you can't love your country only when you win. You can't love your neighbor only when you agree. Something I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans. Bring down the temperature. I also hope we can later rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted, win or lose.
I also hope we can restore the respect for all our election workers who busted their necks and took risks at the outset. We should thank them, thank them for staffing voting sites, counting the votes, protecting the very integrity of the election. Many of them are volunteers who do it simply out of love for their country. And as they did, as they did their duty as citizens, I will do my duty as President. I'll fulfill my oath, and I will honor the Constitution.
On January 20th, we'll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America. To all our incredible staff, supporters, cabinet members, all the people who've been hanging out with me for the last four years, God love you, as my mother would say, thank you so much. You put so much into it the past four years. I know it's a difficult time. You're hurting. I hear you and I see you. But, don't forget, don't forget all that we accomplished.
I spent a historic presidency, not because I'm President, because what we've done, what you've done, a presidency for all Americans. Much of the work we've done is already being felt by the American people, with the vast majority of it will not be felt we felt over the next 10 years. We have legislation we passed. That's just only now just really kicking in. We're going to see over a trillion dollars' worth of infrastructure work done, changing people's lives in rural communities and communities that are in real difficulty, because it takes time to get it done, And so much more. It's going to take time, but it's there. The road ahead is clear, assuming we sustain it. There is so much, so much we can get done, and will get done based the way the legislation was passed, and it's truly historic.
We're leaving behind the strongest economy in the world. I know people are still hurting, but things are changing rapidly. Together, we've changed America for the better. Now we have 74 days to finish the term, our term. Let's make every day count. That's the responsibility we have to the American people. Look, folks, you all know it in your lives. Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. We all get knocked down, but the measure of our character, as my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up.
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Remember, a defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up. That's the story of America for over 240 years and counting. It's a story for all of us, not just some of us. The American experiment endures. We're going to be OK, but we need to stay engaged. We need to keep going, and above all, we need to keep the faith. So proud to have worked with all of you. I really mean it. I sincerely mean it. God bless you all. God bless America, and may God protect our troops. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
SOLOMON: All right. We've just been listening to current U.S. President Joe Biden speaking there at the White House. He spoke for about five minutes, and in those remarks, the first time he is addressing the nation since Donald Trump won the election on Tuesday, he said a few things. He first and foremost ensured that there will be a peaceful transfer of power come Inauguration Day. He praised his Vice President. He praised Kamala Harris. He said that she has great character, true character. She and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran.
And then he addressed the nation, saying that, this may be a time for some to celebrate. And I think he used the words go figure. Of course, half the country is celebrating. But, he also said for those who are feeling defeated, he said being defeated does not mean that you are -- a defeat does not mean that you are defeated. We have to get back up. He said setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable.
Let me bring back in Kevin Liptak to sort of help us sort of piece together what else we heard. Kevin, what else did you hear besides what I just said there?
LIPTAK: Yeah. One of the interesting things was taught -- was when President Biden said that this should officially put to rest any questions about election integrity in the United States, sort of making the point that Donald Trump and his allies had been alleging falsely that the 2020 election was marred by voter fraud for the last four years. This, now that they have won, and now that they have accepted their victory, this should put an end to those questions. So, that was an interesting point from the President.
He also, in that speech, tried to burnish his own legacy, talking about the accomplishments that he had achieved while in office, and saying that they potentially might not be seen until 10 years from now, that they are just going into effect, and that items like the infrastructure bill won't necessarily be felt by Americans until they're implemented, and that could potentially take up until a decade.
And you can almost hear Democrats kind of gritting their teeth when the President said that, because, of course, if the President was to hope to be re-elected, Americans needed to feel good about what he was doing now, trying to build an agenda that isn't necessarily going to be felt by Americans. It might be good policy, but it isn't necessarily good politics, particularly when a lot of Democrats don't think that President Biden made a good enough case for himself and a good enough case for what he was doing, particularly on the economy. And that's part of why Americans felt so sour, and that's part of why Kamala Harris may have left -- or may have lost. And I think in those Democrats' minds, President Biden's legacy is now
wholly tied up in the fact that Donald Trump will be returning to office. When you think about the entire sort of objective of President Biden's political project, it was to ensure that Trump won, was defeated in 2020, but also that his ideas and that he himself weren't able to return to power in America, and of course, that has failed. And so, certainly, President Biden wants to talk about his policy agenda and all of the items that he was able to do, but he certainly left out a lot of what I think Democrats are trying to grapple with today.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's an interesting point, Kevin. He said the vast majority of what we've done will be felt over the next 10 years. That is only now starting to kick in. And I'm curious, when I heard that, I wondered, was that message for all of those who have worked in his administration the last four years to sort of rally the troops and make them feel good about the last four years, or was that a message to the country to sort of, as you pointed out, cement his legacy and remind people of, I would imagine, some of the things that he is really proud of?
LIPTAK: Yeah. I think it's probably a message to both. And I think there could be potentially a third group of people that he was trying to relay that to, which is the incoming Trump administration, trying to point out that these are items that could potentially help them as well, particularly when you think about infrastructure that might not have been built yet and that money is still going out the door.
[11:35:00]
He is trying to stress that those are not items that the new administration should scrap right away, that this could help make Americans lives better, and could, in the end, help bolster their own popularity, if Americans are sort of not quite aware of where that money came from in the first place. And so, I think as the President concludes his term, he said he has 74 days left, part of what he is trying to do is to ensure that all of these items are in a place that will make it hard for the new administration to reverse, that money is one of those things, but also, when you think about foreign policy, items like Ukraine, the Middle East, all trying to find places where he can have wins before he leaves office in January.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Really interesting. Kevin Liptak, thanks for sticking around and helping us break it down. Thank you.
All right. Let's bring in CNN Politics Senior Reporter Stephen Collinson, who joins me now from Washington. Stephen, I want to get to your piece in just a moment, because I really enjoyed it, but I just wanted to get your first take on what we heard from Biden there. Anything stand out to you?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I was thinking back to a similar press conference in 2016 that was given by former President Obama after Trump won his first term. And again, it is a repudiation of the Democratic Party that we're talking about, and that is reflected in this press conference. Had Biden perhaps chosen to step down, allow a full contest for his successor, we could have been maybe talking about a different press conference that the President was giving today.
So, for a lot of Democrats, I think there is anger towards the President as much as there is anger towards Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign for losing to Trump, and there is just a feeling of a massive change that is going to come to Washington, the first time you could argue Trump was elected by accident. This time, the American people knew exactly who he was. They'd seen him in action, and they've elected him with a much wider margin. So, this is a turning point in American politics.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And let's get into that now. So, in your newest piece, you examine whether there will be constraints to Trump's power, whether the guardrails that were in place in his first term, including the fact that many Americans perhaps didn't fully understand what they were getting, whether those guardrails will be in place this term. What did you find?
COLLINSON: Well, Trump has worked in the Oval Office and even outside the Oval Office with his legal cases to expand the powers of the presidency. The way it constrains the president, ultimately, is impeachment. Trump has been impeached twice. Republicans chose not to convict him in a Senate trial. So, even if the Democrats did win control of the House and decided to impeach Trump for a third time, you know that it's not going to be very effective, because it's not going to eject him from office. So, Trump has that assurance.
He is also armed with a new Supreme Court ruling that emerged out of his federal election meddling case, and the Supreme Court said that there is wide immunity for actions, official actions that the President conducts while he is in office. That gives Trump a shield that all of the things that he is going to do, even if they perhaps would seem to transgress the law, that he is not going to pay a price for down the road when he is eventually out of office. So, that's two big things.
He has a Republican Senate. He may have a Republican House. He has got a very conservative Supreme Court. He has defied all of the attempts to bring him to justice, to account for his attempt to overturn the election in 2020. The law and politics and government institutions have been unable to prevent Trump returning to office, and I think they're going to be unable to constrain him if he is as willing to push against those restraints, as he was in his first term.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Really interesting. Stephen Collinson, we will leave it here. Thank you.
And as we head to a break, it is obviously a big day in Washington, but it is also another big day in Washington on the economy, because the Federal Reserve expected to make its next Fed rate cut decision in about two and a half, three hours. We'll get into it after this short break.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. It is Fed decision day in the U.S., and market watchers expect the Federal Reserve to give Donald Trump a post- election rate cut. It would be the U.S. Central Bank's second cut this year. The President-elect has pledged to send the U.S. economy in a new direction. During Trump's campaign, he repeatedly promised to attack inflation. He also promised to implement mass tariffs on imported goods and tax cuts. But, some economists say that some of those promises could actually make inflation worse.
For more on this, let's bring in CNN Business Anchor Julia Chatterley. So, Julia, we know the expectation is a quarter of one percentage rate cut. Obviously, the elephant in the room is the election. I imagine Powell won't say much. It doesn't mean he is not going to be asked about it. What are you watching, Julia?
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: We'd certainly be asking today is about do's and don'ts, I think, for Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve. On the do side, of course, he wants to talk about what he is seeing in the economy. He wants to talk about the fact that we know inflation continues to slow, that they've managed to engineer what we call a soft landing. So, rate hikes without the recession. What he doesn't want to talk about, exactly to your point, Rahel, is Donald Trump. Good luck with that.
The challenge that he is going to face now is all the questions are going to be asking, what his response is to potential tax cuts, to mass tariffs, to limits on immigration as well, and he is going to have to be careful. He can't act, and the Federal Reserve can't act preemptively. They have to react to what they actually see and what the government's policies start to look like. So, we're in this sort of gray period.
What is clear is that I think there is a consensus that if we do see mass immigration limits, if we do see the blanket tariffs around the world on imported goods, it will likely slow growth, it will likely raise prices, and that could slow the Federal Reserve down, but it's just too tough to judge. He has got his work cut out today, Rahel. The good news, though, for borrowers, we are expected to see them cut by a quarter of a percentage point. The future, less clear today than it was.
SOLOMON: And here is hoping that that actually trickles down to actual costs that we pay, because we saw mortgage rates actually tick up yesterday. So, for those of us who are looking for a house, it was not what we wanted to see, Julia.
Julia Chatterley, we will leave it here. Thank you.
All right. Joining me now is CNN Global Economic Analyst Rana Foroohar. Rana is also the Global Business Columnist and Associate Editor at the Financial Times. Rana, great to see you. So, as I was just talking about --
RANA FOROOHAR, GLOBAL BUSINESS COLUMNIST AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR, FINANCIAL TIMES, & CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Good to see you.
SOLOMON: -- with Julia -- yeah. Great to have you. As Julia and I were just talking about the Fed, obviously it tries to stay out of politics, but it's hard to avoid when the decision falls the day after or two days after the election. What are you going to be listening for when Chairman Powell speaks in just a few hours?
FOROOHAR: Well, look, I actually think that despite the election, Jay Powell is going to be very data-driven. I think it's going to be steady as she goes. I would not be surprised to see a quarter percentage point cut. This is what you would expect, given the data.
But, going forward, in the next few months, in the next few years, it is going to be a very, very uncertain landscape for the Fed, because Donald Trump has promised a certain economic platform that would be very, very different than what came before. The bond markets are already worrying that it may be inflationary. Stocks are going up. The dollar is up, which, interestingly, is the opposite of what you would see if Trump's policies were actually -- or his proposed policies, let's say, were actually enacted. We'd be looking at higher tariffs on imported goods, but you would want a weak dollar in order to help the U.S. export markets become more competitive.
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That's not what we're seeing in the market right now. The market is betting that Trump's economic policies are not going to be implemented. It's also betting that we may see more debt and inflation in the future. So, it's a very, very complicated picture right now.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And it's interesting, because obviously, Rana, the Fed was designed to be independent of politics, but monetary policy isn't blind to fiscal policy. So, for those who are wondering, at what point does the Fed sort of jump in here, and Julia sort of started to touch on it there, but do they try to get in front of some of these proposals if they think that they're inflationary, or do they kind of have to wait until they're enacted and then respond to them?
FOROOHAR: I think the latter. I mean, look, let's be honest. Whether you like Donald Trump or whether you don't, it's hard to be consistent in doing anything that he said he would. I mean, he says a lot of things. He doesn't always do them. So, if I were Jay Powell, I certainly wouldn't be looking at what Donald Trump has said he may or may not do.
One thing, though, that I think we will see, and this is new and interesting, I think we're going to see Trump using the U.S. consumer market as a bargaining tool. I think that in some ways that's what the tariff threat is all about. It's about saying, we have the richest, deepest consumer market in the world, and we're no longer giving it away for free. And that's interesting, because that's something that folks on both the right and the left have been arguing should be the case. How that affects the market? What that means for the real economy? We shall see. But, I think from a foreign policy standpoint, it's going to mean a lot more complex economic negotiations with both adversaries and allies. SOLOMON: Yeah. That was sort of my next question, Rana, sort of play that out for me a bit further. And so, using the American consumer -- the American voters as a bargaining chip to sort of swing in any deals they may be having in terms of geopolitics, with Mexico, with Canada, with China --
FOROOHAR: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- for example, walk me through what that might look like.
FOROOHAR: Well, think about who Donald Trump is, right? He is a deal maker. He is much more a deal maker than an actual business person that has grown something real. I mean, this guy doesn't make real products. He makes deals. And so, he is all about the negotiations, the art of the deal, right? Going back to that book about Trump from years ago. So, let's say that you're talking about the auto market in Germany, for example, German auto tariffs on U.S. goods are higher than U.S. tariffs on German goods. I would expect that to become a conversation, a much harder conversation in the future. I think that you're going to start to see a lot of areas that had not been in play in terms of U.S. access to foreign markets and reciprocity. They're going to be in play now.
SOLOMON: Yeah. That's really interesting. And then you sort of have to wonder, I mean, what industries do they intervene in, and sort of how does that sort of impact, sort of the larger ecosystem of the free markets?
Rana, I want to ask you one final question on just sort of the broad view of the economy, because -- and perhaps you and I have even spoken about it in the last few months. We have had these sort of divergent signals. On the one hand, you have this weakening in the labor market on the margins, but still weakening. On the other hand, you have --
FOROOHAR: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- consumer spending that is still pretty solid. And so, having both of those things happening in conjunction, what does Jay Powell say about that? And then you think about the last employment report, which was extremely hard to make sense of, because of all of the hurricanes and the strikes. I mean, how do they sort of provide clarity there?
FOROOHAR: Boy, it's -- the -- you've hit the nail on the head. There are so many cross currents, let's say, right now in the economy, which, by the way, is normal when you have a seismic event like a pandemic, for example. If you go back decades, hundreds of years in history, when you see pandemics, when you see wars, when you see major, major geopolitical events like that, you tend to get -- it's almost as though the global economy is a chessboard, and all the pieces have been thrown up and you don't quite know where they're going to land.
But, let me try and offer some clarity. I think that you can see the Fed's moves in a number of ways. You can see the Fed looking at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder in the U.S., and you can see them saying that part of the labor market is weakening. There are certain loans that are starting to go bad. Consumers with less money in their pocket that have been harder hit by inflation, they're starting to pull back.
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On the other hand, you have an asset wealthy class in America that has never had more money than they do now. Those folks are still spending. And so, they are driving about 60 percent of consumer spending in the U.S. The richer folks that have money in the markets maybe own a house, and they're not letting up yet. So, there is a lot of different layers to what's happening. And the Fed, with their cuts, may be saying, Hey, I'm responding to that lower end. But, they may also be saying, we don't want the market to fall because that could actually impact tax revenues. So, the upper asset portion of the market is something they're thinking about too. It is a extremely complicated picture, and it's going to make for a lot of interesting segments --
SOLOMON: Yeah.
FOROOHAR: -- on your show numbers going forward, I would imagine.
SOLOMON: I mean, it just sort of remains a delicate dance, and one that they've been sort of -- they've been sort of doing this fine line for the last few years, trying to pull off the soft landing, and sort of as soon as they've achieved that, at least most people have conceded that they have achieved that, now it's on to the next thing --
FOROOHAR: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- sort of just trying to keep everything in balance.
Rana Foroohar, we'll have to leave it here.
FOROOHAR: And they've done well.
SOLOMON: Good to see you. Thank you.
FOROOHAR: Thanks.
SOLOMON: All right. 2024 is set to break records when it comes to global temperatures, and with Donald Trump returning to the presidency, there are growing concerns about U.S. leadership in the fight against climate change. We'll discuss it when we come back.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. There is alarming new climate data confirming that 2024 will be the hottest year on record. Not only that, it will also be the first calendar year to exceed the threshold of the important Paris Agreement. President-elect Donald Trump is a noted climate denier who pulled the U.S. out of that agreement during his first term, and has promised to do it again. Scientists, meantime, are sounding the alarm bell, saying that time is running short to take urgent action. Let's bring in CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir, who joins us
from New York. Bill, always great to have you on these stories.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Hi Rahel.
SOLOMON: I think there has been a lot of focus on the potential economic impact of a second Trump presidency, at least in my world, less so on the impact of the environment and the planet. Talk to me about sort of what we could expect. I mean, we said that Trump would likely pull the U.S. out of the Paris Accord again, though. What impact does that have, and also, what message does that send to other nations around the world?
WEIR: Well, it's whiplash. This in/out in/out from the richest, most powerful, and historically the biggest polluter ever does not help. It makes the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced that much harder. Obviously, just in the diplomacy. COP29 is next week in Baku, Azerbaijan, and a lot -- we're getting hints that some countries may not even send representatives now, because the U.S. doesn't seem interested in financing these developing countries, trying to help them brace. But, domestically, Bill Gates told me this was leaving trillions in profits on the table, because other countries now have just much more attractive to start-ups, new technologies, battery companies, for example, that will probably end up in Asia or Europe if the U.S. just can't make up its mind.
What's interesting is the Inflation Reduction Act under Joe Biden, which is close to $400 billion plan over 10 years. We're two years into it. 80 percent of that money is being spent in Republican districts. So, you've got MAGA-type congressmen who are big fans of EVs suddenly because they have a battery factory in their district and there is water infrastructure being out west.
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So, it's going to be a lot harder politically to claw that back. He has Elon Musk as an ally, who you would think would be helping convince him of the wisdom of electric vehicles, but that's very squarely the messaging there.
But, really, Rahel, I think the most damaging thing is it gives the impression that the United States of America gave a mandate, elected the most notorious climate denier in history, not just somebody who wants to argue about policy, but who has just scornful disdain for his own scientists at NASA, at NOAA, and the Pentagon and the Department of Agriculture, that -- at a time when humanity really needs to be rolling in the same direction urgently in these five years. So, folks who are working in this space are shell-shocked, as you can imagine. But then you're also hearing, well, it will be like the first administration when big city mayors, Californias of the world, will still be fighting the fight, and may be drawing a lot of that investment.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Really interesting. As you say, Bill Gates said that there is a lot of profit on the table, which just sort of -- as you try to understand, sort of the incentives here, it's just a lot to make sense of.
But, Bill, we're so glad that we have you to help us make sense of it. Thank you.
WEIR: You're welcome.
SOLOMON: And thank you for spending some time with me today. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is coming up next.
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