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Trump Set to Meet Biden at White House on Wednesday; Trump Says Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo Won't Join New Admin; Trump Weighs More Picks For incoming Cabinet. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired November 09, 2024 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:35]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States. I'm Bianna Golodryga and this is CNN Newsroom.

Well, it's official. Donald Trump won all seven swing states in Tuesday's election. His projected win of Arizona, called earlier tonight, gives the former President 312 electoral votes.

Plus who or what is to blame for Kamala Harris's striking loss in the presidential race. A look at what Democrats are saying days after the stinging defeat.

And world leaders are bracing for a tectonic shift in U.S. Foreign policy when Donald Trump returns to the White House. Ahead, we'll hear how they are preparing for the next four years.

We begin with the final state to be called in Tuesday's presidential election. CNN can project that Donald Trump will win the state of Arizona. Now, that means he has swept the seven battleground states that were the main focus of the campaign for both parties. It puts his total electoral vote at 312 against Kamala Harris's 226. And it comes as the president elect's transition process is in full swing.

We now know at least two major players from Trump's last-term who will not have roles in this new cabinet. Trump says that he is not inviting his former rival Nikki Haley or his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to join his administration.

In the meantime, the President Elect is set to meet President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday. The meeting is a political tradition that projects a peaceful transfer of power. The last one was between Trump and Barack Obama in 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Most of all, I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President Elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT ELECT: I very much look forward to dealing with the President in the future, including counsel. He's explained some of the difficulties, some of the high flying assets and some of the really great things that have been achieved. So, Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you and I look forward to being with you many, many more times in the future.

OBAMA: Thank you (inaudible).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: Here's CNN's Arlette Saenz with more.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden is looking to bring back a White House tradition as he hosts President Elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday morning. Biden extended this invitation to Trump in their phone call on Wednesday when the president congratulated the former President on his victory in the 2024 election.

Biden has said that he directly told Trump that he is committed to a peaceful and orderly transition, which is not something that occurred when Biden beat Trump back in 2020. At the time, Trump put up many roadblocks in the transition process, never conceded the race and did not extend this same invitation to Biden. Now, Trump did come to the White House in 2016, days after he had beaten Hillary Clinton and was hosted by then President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

Now, we're also told that an invitation was extended to First Lady Melania Trump to come to the White House to meet with First Lady Jill Biden. It's unclear if and when that meeting will take place, but this is all part of the Biden White House's efforts to try to show that they will assist in this transition. It could be an interesting meeting between the two men given the fact that one of their last substantive in person engagements was back on that debate stage in June, which really derailed Biden's candidacy and eventually prompted him to drop out.

The two men have spoken since then. Biden had called Trump following the assassination attempts against him, and they were both at the same New York City 9/11 event a bit earlier this fall. But this will be an interesting meeting as the two men are set to meet face to face in the Oval Office. Biden is now facing this reality where the man who preceded him, who he had beat in the 2020 election, will now be returning to the White House in January. Arlette Saenz, CNN, Washington.

GOLODRYGA: Well, CNN has learned that Trump's team has not yet submitted a series of transition agreements with the Biden administration. A source says the holdup revolves in part around the mandatory agreement over ethics issues.

[23:05:03]

Meantime, we're learning more about who may be Trump's next U.S. Attorney General. The list so far includes a Senator, a former Intelligence Official and three State Attorneys General. CNN's Alayna Treene has more. ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: President elect Donald Trump spent his Saturday locked down at Mar-a-Lago meeting with his transition team and going through a series of candidates that he is considering selecting for top cabinet roles as well as White House positions. Now, on Saturday, he did not announce new people that will be serving in his second administration, but he did announce who would not be. He talked about not wanting his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or his former U.N. Ambassador, Nikki Haley, to have any part in his second term.

I'm going to read for you some of what he wrote. He said, quote, "I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to join the Trump administration, which is currently in formation. I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously and would like to thank them for their service to our country. Make America Great Again"

Now, to give you a little bit of context on where some of this is coming from, Mike Pompeo is someone who many people in Donald Trump's inner orbit still are close to and believe that he did a good job as Secretary of State. However, his relationship with Donald Trump has really soured in recent years, particularly because Pompeo had, in many ways distanced himself from the former President after he had left office in January of 2021.

I'd remind you as well that Pompeo did not endorse Donald Trump until after the Republican primaries this year, something that, as we know, Donald Trump viewed as not being as loyal to him. And in my conversations with senior advisors, they argued that in private conversations over the past few days now, Donald Trump had asked them whether or not Pompeo would be loyal to him or whether he could trust him in a second term.

Now, as for Haley's part, Donald Trump has said that he appreciates that she had gotten up on stage at the Republican National Convention in July, called for unity. And also remember, she had actually been in discussions with the Trump campaign in the final weeks before Election Day about potentially meeting for a joint appearance and helping him campaign. That never materialized. But again, Donald Trump had said he appreciated that on some level.

However, I am told that the President Elect still harbors a lot of animosity toward Haley for the attacks that she had lobbed at him during the Republican primary, but also that she had remained in the primary for so long. Donald Trump has remarked that he believes that she hung on longer than was appropriate. Alayna Treene, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

GOLODRYGA: Joining us now from Washington is our good friend Scott Jennings, the CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush. Scott, thank you so much for staying late on a Saturday night to speak with me. We won't keep you too long. I do want to ask you about this news today from President Elect Trump that he will not be including Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo in his new Cabinet or as advisors in his new administration. Obviously, he is free to appoint whoever he wants to advise him and to work with him in his Cabinet. Obviously, that would likely have to be Senate confirmed.

But is it a mistake, in your view to not include someone like Nikki Haley, who was so popular in the primaries and someone like Mike Pompeo who was so well renowned in his position in his first administration?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I don't think it's a mistake. First of all, Donald Trump just won a mandate from the American people, and that includes appointing whoever you want. I don't think he needs either one of them. Not that I think either are particularly bad people. It's just Trump has a mandate to build the kind of government that he wants to build.

He doesn't really need to put together coalitions here. He won the national popular vote and overwhelmingly in the Electoral College. And so there's plenty of good people who support Donald Trump's agenda that can fill some of the kinds of roles that Haley and Pompeo could have filled. So, no, I don't think it's a mistake.

And from what I've heard, there are plenty of very talented people in the national security and diplomatic space and from a lot of other areas who are really talking to Trump and his team about coming on board in senior roles. So I'm actually very optimistic about what they're doing with the transition.

The fact that he chose a Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, so quickly tells me that he's in a decisive mood. And that building the administration quickly will allow him to get off the ground quickly, which will allow him to pursue the agenda quickly. So I got no concerns about this.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. And a lot of people praise the decision to name Susie Wiles as his Chief of Staff, really the gatekeeper for this administration to the president. He has worked with her as she ran his campaign over this last year and a half. He had four Chiefs of Staff in his previous administration.

[23:10:02]

Are you concerned that her time and tenure may not be that lasting if past is prologue in the second one?

JENNINGS: Well, I think it would be good to look at Susie Wiles arc with Donald Trump. She's been with him for several years. She was with him from soup to nuts in this particular campaign. Remember, he hired Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, another seasoned Republican operative there, he is on the screen now, to co-manage this campaign at the beginning and they were there the whole time. He didn't make any changes at the top of his campaign leadership.

And Susie in particular is credited with running an extraordinarily organized and disciplined operation. And he was obviously very appreciative of her on election night. So, number one, I think she earned this job. Number two, she's proven that she knows how to exist in and around Donald Trump in a way that he believes is a value add and it gives her staying power. Number three, they obviously trust each other and these are the kinds of things you need in the office of Chief of Staff.

So every Republican that I know is very excited that Wiles is coming in. If she runs the same kind of organized, disciplined White House that she did in the campaign, Trump is going to have no trouble staffing this administration and getting his policy agenda off the ground quickly. So I think it was a good pick and really getting it done fast. I mean, he picked her just in a couple of days after he won. That allows everything else to move forward. So Trump is obviously not letting any moss grow on this stone as he gets ready to take over.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. And per all of our reporting, she had set some parameters too, that she wanted to maintain that discipline in this new role and that she, to quote her, "I would keep the clown car from getting close to Donald Trump in the Oval Office."

You mentioned the mandate that Donald Trump won. And we announced today it is official, he won all seven battleground states. I want to read to you some sound we just heard in the last hour on Real Time with Bill Maher from Sarah Isgur, who was a former Trump spokesperson at the Justice Department. And she gave this warning to Republicans. She said Republicans have a risk of overreading what this election was. The first question is Trump -- did Trump win or did Harris lose? The party in power in every Western democracy lost support over this past year. It wasn't his campaign strategy. It was the American people who voted for Biden four years ago because they were promised normalcy and competency. And they didn't get that over the course of these past four years. Do you think that there's some sense in what she is saying here?

JENNINGS: Well, look, I think that Donald Trump did win a mandate. I think the American people looked at two very different paths for our future, the Biden, Harris path and the Trump path. And they said, we want to do the Trump path. And the reason they were able to so easily make that decision is because they had experienced it before.

Before the election, you know, the retrospective polls on Donald Trump's job approval from when he first was in office. He had gotten over 505, and Biden had trouble cracking 40%. So the American people had a chance to compare in real time two visions for the presidency, Trump and what Biden and Harris were doing. And they wanted to go back to Trump.

And so I actually do believe he has a mandate. It extended to the Senate. The Republicans are going to wind up with, I think, 53 Senate seats. And I do believe they're going to ultimately hold onto a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

So I think the American people voted. They want the Republican Party, with Trump at the top of it, to have a chance to implement the program on which they ran. And then we'll judge that in the midterms two years from now, and then the party will stand in judgment four years from now. So I think that he does have a mandate.

I don't think Harris ran a particularly great campaign. I do think Biden was unpopular, but obviously, Trump is getting better. He's never been more popular, he's never been more powerful. And he didn't win the popular vote in two previous tries, but he did in this one. That tells me there are people gravitating towards Trump, and you can see it in the numbers. It's working class Americans, it's Hispanics, it's African-American men. Trump put together a true multiracial working class coalition to win this election. He needs to act on their behalf, and he has a mandate to do it.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, no doubt. He expanded his base. I think that he saw positive gains in nearly every single county in this country. No doubt.

When you and I spoke earlier this week, Scott, you were really highlighting the point that the country, and specifically Democrats, need to let this man breathe and to give him space in his first few months in office. What can we expect to see in terms of any sort of policy enacted in his first few months in office?

JENNINGS: Well, right out of the gate, he has to build a government. So you're going to have a slew of nominations that have to go up and be acted on in the Senate. And with a Senate majority, that shouldn't be too much of a trouble. They're going to have to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts. That's coming up pretty soon. So there's some economic policy that has to be dealt with.

And I would think on immigration, the Republicans are going to want to do something in getting the border under control. Trump has obviously expressed an interest in deportations, getting people out of the country who are here illegally.

[23:15:01]

There are millions of people who are -- over a million people who are here that have already been ordered to leave the country, you could start there. There are other people in the country that country that committed offenses. I mean, there's easy places to start on the agenda that he laid out. The good news for Trump is with Republicans in charge of both chambers, he shouldn't have any trouble dictating to them, you know, what he wants to do and when he wants to do it. And so it's really a good chance to hit the ground running. He's not going to have to haggle too much with the Democrats to get rolling on his top agenda item. So I would think the economy and immigration, Bianna, right out of the gate is going to be where he's headed.

GOLODRYGA: And the chaos, the chaos that we saw in sue in the first term, I'm not just talking about pushback that he got from Democrats. I'm talking about self-inflicted chaos. Do you expect to see that, especially on an issue as controversial and as heated as mass deportations?

JENNINGS: Well, I think it will be treated controversially by some people. But if you look at the polling on it all throughout the election, it was a very popular idea, even among Hispanic Americans. They supported the idea of deporting people who were here illegally. And again, there are populations here that have already received deportation orders or that are here and that have committed violent offenses. I think most people would agree that's where we should start. I don't think he's going to get much pushback on that. So while I think it will be treated controversially among the American people, I don't really think it's all that controversial. And obviously, it was a big part of the campaign and he did win the national popular vote. So he's the president and I do think Democrats ought to give him the space to execute because it's what the American people just voted for.

GOLODRYGA: Scott Jennings, always good to see you, my friend. Thank you.

JENNINGS: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Well, with the economy one of the most pressing issues in the election, Donald Trump articulated an agenda of tariffs and tax cuts. Cuts include extending some that are due to expire, as Scott just noted, and removing federal tax from sources of income, including tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. He also wants to cut the corporate rate, but experts estimate his proposed tariffs could cost a typical American household about $2,600 a year. Now, this would interfere with his other goals of cutting costs and making life more affordable generally.

Meanwhile, U.S. Stocks closed at record highs on Friday. Analysts say investors were responding to the clarity provided by Trump's swift victory, which they hope avoids uncertainty.

Our next Adam -- I'm joined now by Adam Posen, President at Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Adam, welcome to the program. So we now know that one of the base -- the biggest factors for voter dissatisfaction in this year's election was inflation. The current annual inflation rate is at 2.4%. That's a steep decline from the 9.1% that we saw at the high in June of 2022. Still not something that voters are comfortable with. Your analysis suggests that Trump's policies could, in fact, raise inflation in 2026 by 4% to 7%. What explains that?

ADAM POSEN, PRESIDENT, PETERSON INST. FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS: Thank you for having me, Bianna. And that analysis is a solid one, using a very standard economics model that was established well before the campaign. But it is the scenario in which Trump administration, President Elect Trump fulfills everything he said he was going to do on the campaign trail, except for the crazy stuff the last few weeks.

So deporting a million migrant workers, putting tariffs across the board on most of the world's economies and potentially threatening the Federal Reserve with pressure. If they do all of that, you get 4% to 7%. People on the campaign, people likely to be officials in the Trump administration, say these are just threats or these are negotiating tactics. He won't really have to do all that.

So if you take a portion of it, you get less. But that still is going to raise inflation 2%, 3% over the next couple of years. Additionally, if this isn't talking about tax cuts, if you do the kind of large tax cuts he's proposing, initially, you'll get some money back from the tariffs. But the whole point of tariffs is to switch out of those things so that revenue will go away. And meanwhile, the tax cuts cut revenue and raise inflation, too.

GOLODRYGA: And we know there's no love loss between Donald Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Earlier this week, Jerome Powell was asked point blank if he would resign if then President Trump, incoming President Trump, would ask him to. And he said no, that he doesn't have to, and that he is planning to stay until his tenure ends in 2026. Do you think that Trump would actually pose a threat to the stability and independence of the Federal Reserve? How do you view this relationship going forward?

POSEN: Well, I mean, there is a long history of presidents of various stripes, notably Richard Nixon, who Donald Trump seems to model himself on in various ways, putting a lot of pressure on Fed chairs.

[23:20:08]

There's never been a Fed chair forced to resign in that way. And I'm very confident Chair Powell, if his health allows and he seems perfectly fine, will serve out his term. But it's same as with a politician. You have a fixed-term and so he has to leave by I believe it's May of 2026. So then you start in forward looking financial markets trying to figure in what would the new appointee by a Trump administration do? You could also do some things that probably wouldn't be that effective, but at the margin would put pressure on the Fed.

Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager who's been named as a potential Treasury Secretary in the Trump administration, floated an idea a few weeks ago of creating a shadow FOMC, meaning a not official Fed person, but somebody who would sit in the White House and say what they think the FOMC should be doing. Again, that's not likely to change the mind of current Federal Market Committee voters, but it might change the mind of markets looking forward.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. To that point, it does appear from everything we're hearing from sources close to Trump and the transition team is that, he's more open to bringing on the business types and financial leaders as opposed to economists that we've traditionally seen as advisors and some of the people who hold the top positions in terms of economic advisers in his White House. Do you think that could benefit perhaps the economy or does that cause more concern for you to have less economic experts and more sort of business friendly, Wall Street savvy people?

POSEN: Well, I think as you imply me, there's two aspects. There's one which is how business friendly as opposed to friendly to the national interest, the appointees are, those are not always the same. Sometimes they are, but not always. And then just how aware they are of how economies work. Now, economists, some of whom served in big government positions, I have not. You know, sometimes they're good and sometimes don't understand markets.

So there is room to have people who understand markets. But if you go ahead and have people who are either serving a business interest at the expense of the national interest, or you have people who don't understand that the evidence is you can't tax cut and deregulate yourself to growth when the U.S. is already a relatively low tax, low regulation country. If you're France in 1986, yes, you can tax cut and deregulate yourself to growth. In fact, if you're the U.S. in 1976. You probably can, but not today.

GOLODRYGA: All right, thanks to Adam Posen, President of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Well, Trump will kick off his second term at a turbulent time in the Middle East. When we come back, we'll look into his potential policies and what they could mean for Israel and other countries in the region.

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[23:27:45]

GOLODRYGA: Qatar is pressing a pause button on its effort to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza. The kingdom has reportedly concluded that neither Hamas nor Israel are serious about talks anymore. One diplomat says Qatar has also decided to close the Hamas office there, but it could be reopened if talks start again. Earlier, U.S. and Qatari sources told CNN that Qatar is kicking Hamas out after a request from the U.S. which Hamas denied. Sources did not give a timeline for when they believed Hamas officials would actually depart.

Well, the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon is raging just as the U.S. prepares to usher in a new administration. As CNN's Matthew Chance reports, the second Trump term will meet with high expectations in Israel, but concerns elsewhere.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: History's greatest comeback. That's how the Israeli Prime Minister described Donald Trump's win. His first presidency is remembered here for a series of policies favorable to Israel, like moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

From a second Trump term, Israelis are expecting full throated support for military action in Gaza, in Lebanon, and of course, in Iran. President Elect Trump says he wants peace in the Middle East, but across much of the region, there's trepidation at what his presidency will bring.

In Iran, firmer U.S. support for Israel is likely to be a major concern. And meanwhile, amidst the rubble of Gaza, where more than 100 hostages are still being held. Some Palestinians have expressed hope that Trump will help bring the conflict to a close, while many others doubt the next U.S. President will do much to make their lives any better.

GOLODRYGA: For more analysis, we're joined by Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the nonprofit foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He's speaking with us from Washington. Mark, welcome to the program.

One of the most pressing questions when it comes to Middle East policy is the question of the U.S. Approach to Iran. We haven't heard a specific Iran policy from President elect Trump yet. But Brian Hook, who was a special envoy for Iran and the first Trump administration who is expected to lead the transition team now at the State Department, said in an interview with CNN earlier this week that Trump has pledged, quote, "to isolate Iran diplomatically and weaken them economically so they can't fund all of the violence perpetrated by its proxies."

[23:30:06]

Walk us through some of those potential options on the table.

MARK DUBOWITZ, CEO, FOUNDATION FOR THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: So, Bianna, I think you're going to see a return to the Trump administration's campaign of maximum pressure against the regime, which we saw during the first Trump administration, severe economic sanctions, going after the resources that the regime has now as a result of four years of significant sanctions relief and access to hundreds of billions of dollars with which to fund their regional aggression and their internal repression. So I think return to maximum pressure.

I also think you're going to see something that we haven't seen from any administration, which is maximum support for the Iranian people, the majority of whom despise this regime and have been on the streets repeatedly really, since 2009. So maximum pressure on the regime, maximum support for the people. I don't think Ayatollah Khamenei is welcoming the idea of another Trump administration.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah. Though Brian Hook also said the regime change is not on the table for the Trump administration at this point. This maximum pressure policy is something that the Wall Street Journal had been reporting on as well, including potentially choking off Iran's oil income, including going after foreign ports and traders who handle Iranian oil. Even going as far as saying they would support an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear and energy facilities. We recall that is something that President Biden really urged Israel not to do in their recent strike.

Is there concern that going after their oil infrastructures could see a spike in oil prices at a time when Donald Trump is promising stability around the world as his second administration term begins?

DUBOWITZ: So, Bianna, if you remember that under the Trump administration, the sanctions had driven Iran's oil exports from about 2.5 million barrels a day to under about 100,000. They've spiked back up to about 2 million. But most of that 2 million goes to China. So it's almost clandestine and covert barrels that are not even part of the world market.

And I think what the Trump administration did really well, and actually President Obama did this very well back in his first and second term, is that working with the Saudis to flood the markets with extra barrels kept oil prices down. I imagine in Riyadh, they're very happy that Donald Trump's coming back in and I think would be willing to play oil ball again. GOLODRYGA: And quickly, Mark, I know that you were concerned particularly about what could happen in the lame duck and between the Biden administration, perhaps even at the UN a repeat of what you said happened before Donald Trump began his first term in office, when it was President Obama who was leaving office. Why the concern?

DUBOWITZ: I have two concerns. One is on the Iranian side. I worry that Ayatollah Khamenei will use the lame DAC to break out to a nuclear weapon. It's obviously very close. Most of that nuclear expansion has occurred since Joe Biden's election. I'm also worried because the Biden administration in February put in place an executive order that essentially creates a sanctions regime to sanction Israelis.

It's the first time the United States has ever done that against an ally, and they've started those designations. I worry there'll be more designations against Israel and there'll be another UN Security Council resolution, the way President Obama did in 2016, that actually enshrines this economic and financial war against Israelis as part of a U.N. Security Council resolution, making it much more difficult for President Trump to revoke or to rescind.

GOLODRYGA: We'll be watching in the weeks to come. Mark Dubowitz, thank you so much for the time for staying late for us. We appreciate it.

DUBOWITZ: Thanks, Bianna. We'll be right back.

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[23:38:05]

GOLODRYGA: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Biden should have withdrawn sooner so that Democrats could have had a competitive primary. Pelosi suggested that it was a factor that hampered Democrats ability to beat Trump in an interview with the New York Times podcast. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY PELOSI, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Had the President gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. The anticipation was that if the President were to step aside that there would be an open primary. And as I say, Kamala may have -- I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward.

But we don't know that, that didn't happen. We live with what happened. And because the President endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: Joining us now from Los Angeles is Peter Savodnik. He is senior editor for The Free Press. Peter, just want to get your reaction to what we heard there from the former Speaker. There had been some criticism early on after Joe Biden quickly endorsed Kamala Harris for the nomination that there should have been an open primary.

And then others said that there was just no time for that. Do you think that we would have seen a radically different outcome if that had been the case perhaps six months, even a year ago? I know starting this interview on a counterfactual is probably not ideal, but just putting it out there.

PETER SAVODNIK, SENIOR EDITOR, THE FREE PRESS: No, no, of course, had there been a robust primary with lots and lots of competition, voices, people from all across the political spectrum weighing in, you would have had, I think, a much stronger nominee. Ultimately, there's almost no chance that it would have been Kamala Harris and this person would have been tested and would have been much better prepared to respond to whatever Trump and then Vance through their way.

And of course that's not what happened because that's not what the Democratic Party is. I don't think there was ever going to be that kind of process. And that's unfortunate for the Democrats and for America. But yes, you know, the former Speaker is correct. Had there been a primary, I think you would have had a competitive process and Democrats would have had a much, much better chance.

GOLODRYGA: You wrote a provocative piece for The Free Press shortly after Kamala Harris lost, titled We Blew It, Joe, in a play on her words following their win four years ago when she said on a phone call to the President Elect Biden, we did it, Joe. And let me read from this piece. You said the Democrats didn't lose because they didn't spend enough money. They didn't lose because they failed to trot out enough celebrity influencers.

They lost because they were consumed by their own self-flattery, their own sense of self-importance. They should have spent the past eight years learning from the Republicans very honest, if flawed conversation about the plight of America. But they insisted on talking to themselves about the things that made them feel morally superior. I'm wondering how you came to this conclusion so quickly after the results of the election?

SAVODNIK: Look, I think that was apparent for a long time. The Democrats are not talking about the things that Americans want to talk about. What is happening to the country, American decline, the American hinterland, American manufacturing, our status in the world, the opioid crisis, the southern border, inflation. You can go on and on.

And if they had spent any time at the Republican convention and really listened to delegates instead of just trying to caricature and try to impose their own assumptions on them, they would have heard the same story. It's a variation on a theme over and over, which is what is happening to us and why is no one in Washington apparently doing anything to reverse that?

GOLODRYGA: I remember this summer listening to a podcast interview with you on The Free Press where you talked about your time at the Republican convention and played some sound from interviews that you conducted there. And I have to say, the people you spoke with were saying things that I wasn't hearing much in other interviews and conversations. And I thought that it was quite interesting and striking some of the conversations that you had.

That being said, you also said that there's no mandate for a particular Republican agenda, that what we saw in this election was voters basically saying to the Democratic Party, we hate you. So how do Republicans start with their mandate? How does the Trump administration start with a mandate that they've received from the majority of the country now to work off of a, okay, we are the opposite of the hated, but we don't really have a mandate either?

SAVODNIK: Yeah, I think that the danger that Republicans are facing now is they have been running on a series of angers, furies, you know, kind of this bundle of emotions that can make up America. First, the economic policies that are bandied about are still very inchoate and not in my mind terribly thought through.

The same can be said of their foreign policy, the ideas they have there, right? So you can't support, in my mind, it's impossible to support wholeheartedly Israel's effort in wiping out Hamas. At the same time, be opposed to Ukraine resisting Russian aggression, Russia's invasion of Ukraine. So there's a lot of contradiction baked into that.

The point being that this is not a party right now that really has a very clearly etched or defined idea of, you know, exactly what it wants to do. It knows, you know, what ails it, or I should say what ails America. It's this all-consuming idea of, you know, decline. But I don't think the policies really work through.

GOLODRYGA: Well, we'll see. We'll see what these specific policies will be in the weeks and obviously months to come. Peter Savodnik, thank you so much. Really thoughtful piece. Would love to have you back on more.

SAVODNIK: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Still to come for us, several states put the issue of abortion care directly on their ballots this year. We'll tell you what comes next for those states.

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[23:49:11]

GOLODRYGA: Well, there's a strong showing of support for Reproductive rights in 10 states where abortion protections were on the ballots this week. So what does that mean overall for abortion access in the U.S. under the new Trump administration? CNN's Jacqueline Howard has the details.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: These are the states that voted this week to protect abortion rights. Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York. But in most of those states, five total Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New York, and those states, abortion is already legal and the ballot measures maintain access under the state's constitution.

Voters in only two states, Arizona and Missouri, approved measures to expand abortion access. And keep in mind, even if the ballot measures in Arizona and Missouri improve access in those states, about 40% of women of reproductive age will still be living in states where abortion is either banned or restricted.

[23:50:07]

Now, it's not clear what the new Trump administration's strategy will be around abortion. We know Trump's campaign has said he would veto a federal abortion ban if elected, but we also have seen his position on the issue shift many times over the years. Back to you.

GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Jacqueline Howard for that report.

Straight ahead, how Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami squad fell short in the MLS playoffs.

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[23:55:14]

GOLODRYGA: Well, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are out of the MLS playoffs after a stunning loss to Ninth-seeded Atlanta United. Though Messi and Miami had a record breaking regular season, they lost 3-2 on Saturday night, ending their hopes in the best of three series. Atlanta United moves on to face number Four-seed Orlando City in the Eastern Conference semifinal.

Well, thanks so much for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianna Golodryga. Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back with more news after a quick break.