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What Trump's Return Could Mean for the Economy; Latino Voting Margins Shift Towards Trump; 3 People Face Preliminary Charges in Liam Payne's Death; Resentencing for Menendez Brothers in Jeopardy. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired November 08, 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]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Has held up these tariffs as a magical fix to almost any problems, he has insisted also that his trade agenda will not be inflationary noting that price increases were modest during his administration even as he lobbed massive tariffs on China.

Does he have a point?

JASON FURMAN, PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL: No. If he did the tariffs this time around, the scale would be vastly, vastly bigger. Sorry, if he did the tariffs he says he's going to do, vastly, vastly bigger than what he did in his first term. He's promised tariffs on every country in the world. He's promised much higher tariffs on China. This would cost a typical family about $2,000.

He thinks that would be paid by countries overseas, that's totally wrong. It would be paid by American consumers. So again, I don't know if he's going to do these tariffs. But if he does, the next day, when you go to Walmart, you're going to see, you know, everything you buys, not everything but a lot of what you buy will go up in price.

BROWN: Trump has also vowed to extend the business friendly tax cuts that he introduced in 2017 and are set to expire next year. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Trump's policies would add an extra $7.75 trillion in government debt over the next decade.

I mean, as you know, the deficits are already blooming. What is your response to that?

FURMAN: That's part of why the part of the market that is betting on what happens to inflation, because you can basically in financial markets bet on inflation, is betting on more inflation. That's also why interest rates have gone up because when you have larger budget deficits, it drives up interest rates.

I don't think Congress will pass all $7.75 trillion of what he's proposed, but my guess is it passes maybe more than $5 trillion of it, somewhere between $5 trillion and $7.75 trillion. And yes, ordinary families will pay the cost in terms of higher mortgages, higher inflation. It looks good upfront, but when you look at the full set of effects, they are a problem. BROWN: All right. We'll have to see in practical effect what happens.

Jason Furman, thank you so much.

And coming up, as Democrats begin dissecting what went wrong, CNN is speaking to some of the voters who handed President-elect Trump his victory, Latino men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think more Democrats are pushing Latinos to Trump. To tell you the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:36:16]

BROWN: As a divided nation prepares for Donald Trump's return to the White House, we're getting a clear picture of the voters who brought him back in large part.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has our report from Phoenix, Arizona.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2016, this happened at a Donald Trump rally in Arizona.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL-ELECT: Look at that sign, Latinos support Trump. I love you. I love you.

LAVANDERA: Next thing Betty Rivas knew she was on stage with the future president.

TRUMP: I love her. I've fallen in love. Melania, I fallen in love with her.

LAVANDERA: Eight years later, Rivas remains fully enamored with the president-elect. Betty Rivas told us she felt a connection with Trump on that stage when they looked into each other's eyes.

Betty and her husband Jorge owned Sammy's Mexican Grill near Tucson. In this temple to Trump, they serve tacos and enchiladas and the popular MAGA burger.

If someone were to come up to you and say, you're a Latino immigrant, how can you support Donald Trump?

JORGE RIVAS, RESTAURANT OWNER: I will tell him that the man loved this country.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): He says. Trump speaks about the things he cares about faith, family and the economy. RIVAS: I know he's not perfect. I know he's not like the Pope. We

believe in, you know, teaching our kids about God, our Christian values, family values. And the Democratic Party is embracing all the woke, left-leaning ideas that it doesn't go with our values.

LAVANDERA: I think there's going to be a lot of people who have a hard time hearing you say, I like Trump because of family values.

RIVAS: I don't go by his lifestyle. I don't go by what he has done.

LAVANDERA: Do you think it's the Democrats pushing Latinos to Trump, or is it Trump bringing in Latinos?

RIVAS: I think more Democrats are pushing Latinos to Trump.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Tony Arias and Idelfonso Armenta are the host of a radio show called "Los Chavorrucos," which loosely translates to young geezers. On La Campesina radio network, which airs in five states, they take dozens of calls a day on a radio station founded by the iconic labor organizer Cesar Chavez. And they've sensed Trump winning over Latinos in the last few years.

Democrats do not impress people, said the caller. Donald Trump spoke well and stole their hearts. Another caller said I fought with my oldest son. He told me Trump is better than Kamala. I said, I cannot accept that.

Are you seeing that it's a generational divide?

TONY ARIAS, RADIO HOST: I see a lot of young people voting for Trump because they're thinking about the economy.

RAQUEL TERAN, FORMER DEMOCRATIC LEADER IN THE ARIZONA SENATE: We need to do a better job of engaging our communities.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Raquel Teran is a former Democratic legislator in Arizona. She recently ran for Congress and spent months knocking on doors trying to turn out Latino voters.

TERAN: What they're hearing from Trump is that there's going to be a better economy under his administration.

LAVANDERA: The night after Donald Trump won reelection, Jorge Rivas told us about their path to becoming U.S. citizens. He was born in El Salvador, granted asylum in the U.S. at age 17. Betty immigrated from Mexico. Now she thinks many migrants are lying and trying to take advantage of the asylum process. They want the immigration crisis fixed.

RIVAS: If they let in hundreds or thousands of people who already have criminal records, if deporting them creates a mass deportation, I'm all for it.

LAVANDERA: But what if rounded up and all of that are people who work on a farm? They're doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do. Does that worry you? RIVAS: That wouldn't be fair of course. You know, they need to make

sure that they don't throw away, they don't kick out, they don't deport people that are family-oriented.

[11:40:00]

LAVANDERA (on-camera): The question that persists is why is why Donald Trump's history of offensive comments hasn't fully turned off Latino voters. Some pointed out to us that younger Latino voters in particular don't know much about Donald Trump, that they simply see him as a celebrity businessman. And others also pointed out that many Latino immigrants come from countries with truly dangerous and evil political leaders, and they view Trump as much more harmless.

Ed Lavandera CNN, Phoenix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And Victor Martinez joins us now. He is the president and CEO of VP Broadcasting. That is a Spanish language radio station based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Thank you for coming on. So as we just saw in that report laid out, Latino men really delivered for Donald Trump this election. You say that sexism is to blame. Can you expand on that?

VICTOR MARTINEZ, PRESIDENT AND CEO, VP BROADCASTING: Well, I can only base that on the calls that I got on my morning show. We have about five radio stations in the state of Pennsylvania. We reached about 250,000 Latinos, and leading up to the election, I was asking Latino men why would they vote for Kamala Harris and I was getting phone calls. I got the audios of them saying she's a woman, I don't think she'll be respected, I don't think she'll be able to represent us with leaders of other countries.

And I challenge that to the audience, and I specifically told them, wait a minute, we've had women leaders, we've had Argentina, Costa Rica, Germany, England, and a lot of them pushed back with, it's not the same, the U.S. is different, we need a man. So, I mean, there are a lot of reasons why, the economy and other reasons, but until you based on the phone calls that I got, that a lot of male voters were just voting for Trump because she was a woman.

BROWN: Latino men favored Hillary Clinton over Trump by over 31 percent in 2016. So then how does that square with this idea that sexism is the driving force here among Latinos?

MARTINEZ: Because when you were talking about those Latinos then, they said she had Bill Clinton. They saw them as a package. Plus they also saw her with a bigger resume or with more experience than Kamala Harris. So all of those things played into this. Not only that, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton had a history with the Latino community. She was a senator from New York. She knew the Puerto Rican community very well. Bill Clinton had a history not only with African-Americans, but also with the Latino community. So it is really different to compare the two because Kamala Harris

doesn't have that relationship with the Latino community. She wasn't seen as a person with the same resume as Hillary Clinton and she didn't have Bill Clinton.

BROWN: Can you foresee a time when Latino men would vote in a way that would be make a meaningful difference for a female president in the United States?

MARTINEZ: I sure hope so, I mean, I supported Kamala Harris. I take the commercial for her endorsing her. I was out there talking to my community to try to get them behind Kamala Harris. So I sure hope so. I have a daughter, I have a granddaughter, so I hope that they get to grow up in a country where a woman can be president of the United States.

BROWN: Latino women still favored Kamala Harris but by smaller margins than they supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Do you think Democrats did enough to win their support?

MARTINEZ: I mean, I think that the Democratic Party could absolutely do better and do more. With my experience here in Pennsylvania, I do believe that the Kamala Harris campaign could have done more to reach out to the Latino community.

BROWN: How so?

MARTINEZ: I sure was -- well, you know, one of things that we were trying to do for example was to get Kamala Harris to come to the Lehigh Valley. The Lehigh Valley has 55 -- has a 55 percent Latino population, majority Puerto Rican. Reading, Pennsylvania, has 69 percent Latino population, about 60 percent, 70 percent Puerto Rican. And we were trying to get her to come to do a rally so our community could see her.

And it wasn't until the last day, the last hour that we were able to get her to come in a smaller venue. And in Reading, she went to a Puerto Rican restaurant at 7:00 at night the day before the election.

BROWN: Yes.

MARTINEZ: So I think if the community would have seen her, they would have had a chance to hear directly her message from her, I think it would have made a difference. Now that being said, we also have to realize she only had a five-month campaign. There's so much a human being can do in such a big country in five months. So I think if she would've had more time, if she would had a year, two years, I think the community would have got to know her better. She would probably would have been able to establish a relationship with the community, and maybe it would have been different.

[11:45:09]

BROWN: It's interesting because when that infamous rally now in Madison Square Garden for Trump has been held, it was that same day, I believe, that Kamala Harris was laying out a plan for Puerto Rico, and of course during that event at Madison Square Garden, that comedian referred to Puerto Rico as a floating island of garbage. And you yourself, you said that those comments were a, quote, "gift from the gods" that would drive Puerto Ricans to the polls.

Are you shocked those comments did not lose Trump more voters?

MARTINEZ: Well, I can tell you that the Puerto Rican people went for Kamala Harris. I mean, the Puerto Ricans here in the Lehigh Valley, the Puerto Ricans in Reading went for her. I mean, she won the city of Allentown. If you look at the numbers, Latino voted for her. And even in Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico can't vote for the president of the United States but they were having elections, and they decided to put in the presidential elections on the ballot, even though it wouldn't have meant anything, and Kamala Harris won with 70 percent of the vote of the Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico. So I definitely think that within the Puerto Rican community, it had an impact, unfortunately it wasn't enough.

BROWN: Victor Martinez, thank you for your time.

And still ahead this hour, new details in the Liam Payne investigation. Three people now facing charges related to singer's death and we have a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:28]

BROWN: New developments this morning in the Liam Payne investigation. The British popstar died last month after he fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now three people are facing preliminary charges.

Journalist Stefano Pozzebon is following this for us.

Stefano, what can you tell us?

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Yes, Pamela. Well, these three people are facing preliminary charges for abandonment of a person before a death and for supplying and facilitating narcotics to Liam Payne. One of them is an employee at the CasaSur Hotel in Central Buenos Aires where British popstar died fatefully on the 16th of October last month.

And just like you said, here we're talking, Pamela, and it's important to note, these are preliminary charges. It means that the prosecutors have advanced the investigation and they found enough substance to go in front of a judge and say that they are investigating on these three people.

Now the ball falls into the judge and he will have to rule whether these people are indeed -- there is enough substance to move ahead with applying formal charges, which is what we in the United States judiciary system would call simply charges, or if to dismiss. It's too early to say whether these charges are substantiated. However, it's not early to say that the investigation is proceeding. The prosecutor's office say that they have reviewed over 800 hours, Pamela, of CCTV footage from both inside and outside the hotel.

And perhaps once the final results of the investigation are published and revealed, perhaps these can also bring some closure and some solace to the family of Liam Payne who only last week were able to bring the body back to the United Kingdom -- Pamela.

BROWN: Tell us a little bit more about that. The key details that have emerged about the hours leading up to Payne's death.

POZZEBON: Yes, exactly, Pamela. Yesterday, the prosecutor's office published the preliminary toxicology report saying that Liam Payne had in his body a mixt of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescribed antidepressant. This analysis led to the prosecutors to believe that Payne fell in a state of unconsciousness when he fell from the third floor of that hotel. And they also ruled out the participation perhaps of a third person.

There were at least two people with Payne in that hotel room when that happened. Both of them were two 25-year-old escorts. They were interviewed by the police and they said that they didn't see Payne taking substance in the hours that they were spending with him but they admitted that there was some alcohol involved.

Of course Payne did share in the past his struggle with abuse substance and has been in and out of rehab for a few times before the fateful day down in Buenos Aires -- Pamela.

BROWN: Stefano Pozzebon, thank you so much.

And another big story we're following this morning, Tuesday's election results could have a major impact on one of the most closely watched cases in the country, the fate of Erik and Lyle Menendez. Suddenly uncertain. And here's why. Los Angeles Cunty district attorney George Gascon is the one who pushed for the brothers to be re-sentenced for murdering their parents and then possibly released from prison. But he lost his reelection bid this week. So now what?

Well, CNN just spoke to the incoming D.A. in a brand-new lengthy interview and here's some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHAN HOCHMAN, NEWLY ELECTED LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: For George Gascon, you know, it was a politically motivated decision. At least the timing of it was. I don't know about the substance at this point but I can absolutely comment on the timing because he got the resentencing request eight months ago. He got the habeas petition 16 months ago. And anytime in the last eight to 16 months, he could have made that decision but waited 12 days before a November 5th election when he was 30 points down and had no money because he needed some media attention and he got a lot of media attention.

But again, if you thought that the Menendezes should have gotten out, he's waited eight to 16 months to even begin that process, and if he didn't want to politicize it, he could have made the request on November 6th, 7th or 8th right after the election since he will be the D.A. until December 1st even though he lost the election.

So, again, what his -- putting that decision in the middle of a political campaign has done is it's cast in a cloud of credibility over the decision.

[11:55:00]

In other words, is the decision just or is the decision just a political ploy? We'll never know from George Gascon because of the timing of his decision.

I can work quickly. I'll work thoroughly but I'll work as efficiently as possible. And if I asked for a delay, it won't be a delay to delay's sake, because I think the Menendez brothers, the victim family members, the public deserve to have a decision done as soon as it can be done in a thorough manner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And we will continue to monitor developments in this case that has gotten so much national attention.

Coming up next, the bells toll again at Notre Dame Cathedral more than five years after that devastating fire.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Listen to that. Notre Dame Cathedral's bells back in business, ringing out for the first time in five years. A welcome sound in the city of lights.

Back in 2019 the world watched in shock as a catastrophic blaze engulfed the iconic 850-year-old cathedral destroying its famed spire but not Parisian spirits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think it will be a great --

(END)