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Michael Lawler is Interviewed about His Election; U.S. Inflation Cools More than Expected; Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) is Interviewed about His Election. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 10, 2022 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

MICHAEL LAWLER (R), NEW YORK CONG-ELECT: Look, I think the president is going to make a determination as to what he wants to do with respect to running. I would like to see the party move forward. I think any time you, you know, are focused on the future, you can't so much go to the past. And I think people are really excited about the opportunity to address the challenges that we're facing as a country, and I think more focus needs to be on the issues and the substance of those issues than on personalities for sure.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You want to see the party move forward from Trump.

LAWLER: Yes, I think - I think moving in a different direction as we move forward is a good thing, not a bad thing. But ultimately, look, the voters will decide what they want to do. And the former president will decide what he wants to do.

But I think my objective in going to Congress is to tackle these issues. I didn't run on somebody else's platform. I didn't run to be a rubber stamp or one of. I ran on the issues that are facing the American people and facing the people in the state of New York. And I have offered real solutions. And that's what my objective is as a member of Congress.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: What do you -- President Biden essentially echoed that yesterday saying he thinks the American people want things done when he was asked about potential investigations, potential impeachment proceedings against him or members of his administration. And it sounds like you agree with the president. Are you interested in focusing your time of investigations, potential impeachments of this administration, or not?

LAWLER: Look, I think the top priority is to deal with inflation and the cost of living. That is what I ran on. That is what my focus will be.

Obviously, Congress has oversight authority. And there is responsibility with that. But what I don't want to see is what we saw during the Trump administration, where Democrats just went after the president and the administration incessantly. If there is really reason to look into something, absolutely. That is the obligation of Congress to do that. There is oversight responsibility. But I don't want to just go from one crisis to the next without dealing with the issues that got me elected in the first place. And that's - that's my focus.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You're not saying that there weren't reasons for the - to have oversight during Trump and for some of the - the impeachment?

LAWLER: No, but - but - but it was so -- at times so over the top and so partisan. And it doesn't help the country. I mean this -- we're going from one extreme to the other and back and forth every - every two years. That doesn't help the country move forward. And I think when you're talking about oversight, there needs to be a level of seriousness and there's a responsibility with it. And it can't just be political.

HARLOW: On the - on the other issue, which is a real issue, we just had Christiane Amanpour interviewing President Zelenskyy and the first day of Ukraine, and there's a real question, if Republicans take control of the majority in the House, about what the level of U.S. support of Ukraine is going to be given what McCarthy said a few weeks ago. Marjorie Taylor Green said there -- not another penny will go to Ukraine.

What do you think and are you confident in sustained U.S. support of Ukraine if the Republicans control the House?

LAWLER: So, my wife is from Moldova. Her family lives about 30 miles from the Ukraine border as the crow flies. I have been near Transnistria, which is a Russian-occupied area. I am fully committed to supporting Ukraine.

HARLOW: At the same level?

LAWLER: I -- absolutely. Look, we have an obligation as a country on two fronts. Number one, Vladimir Putin is a vial thug and he needs to be contained. If Ukraine falls, many of those former Soviet satellite states are in real danger.

Number two, when Ukraine gave up its nuclear power, we committed to supporting them and protecting them. And we have an obligation to fulfill that commitment. So, for me, this is personal on a number of levels, you know, and I just think we have a responsibility, both from a national security interest, but also to ensure that Vladimir Putin does not advance any further in his quest to reestablish the former Soviet Union.

LEMON: Before we let you go, are you hearing from Democrats? Because for those of us who live, you know, in New York, not necessarily in the city, I live on Long Island, and I work in the city, I don't think any of us -- a lot of folks in the studio, we were not surprised. We saw the red wave coming, right? If you lived there, you saw the signs. You know, people, you talk, you go out, you go to the diner and restaurants, you felt it. Are you hearing from Democrats who -- about your win? LAWLER: Oh, absolutely. You know, I -- my district has 70,000 more

Democrats than Republicans. So, I wouldn't have won it without the support of many Democrats and independents. And, you know, I think people are excited about the opportunity and really looking for change. And, you know, this district is home to Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, George Soros.

[08:35:01]

So, it's a - it's a very diverse district.

COLLINS: So, you're Hillary Clinton's congressman?

LAWLER: I am now Hillary Clinton's congressman.

LEMON: And George Soros' congressman.

LAWLER: And I look forward to hearing from them about their concerns and their needs.

LEMON: And you're hearing from people about your appearance here on CNN.

LAWLER: Absolutely.

LEMON: Hang on. Can we stop the music, please? Please, stop the music. Stop, stop, stop the music. Thank you.

Are you hearing from people about appearing here on CNN?

LAWLER: Oh, absolutely. I think - look, at the end of the day, I have always believed, in order to win this district, I needed to go everywhere and talk to everyone. And I can't be afraid because maybe there's some tough questions that come. I'm happy to take those on and I'm happy to go anywhere and talk to anyone and, frankly, I think that's why I won.

LEMON: Amen.

COLLINS: Well, we're happy to ask them whenever you want to come on.

Congressman-elect, thank you for spending some time with us this morning.

LEMON: Thank you very much.

LAWLER: Thank you.

LEMON: That's how you do it. Come and take the tough questions. We appreciate it.

COLLINS: You heard the congressman-elect mention inflation. We have key inflation data that is coming in. What it means for you, the American consumer. We'll tell you. That's next.

HARLOW: Also, Hurricane Nicole hitting Florida overnight, now a weaker tropical storm but still very dangerous.

LEMON: To our guests.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:09]

LEMON: So, this just into CNN. We have some key new inflation data that's just been released.

Joining us now, CNN's Rahel Solomon with the numbers.

Good morning to you. What do you have?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning, guys.

So, this is something that I don't get to say a lot these days, but a better-than-expected inflation report.

HARLOW: Wow.

SOLOMON: So, these numbers just crossing within the last ten minutes or so showing that prices did increase 0.4 percent on a monthly basis. But take a look at the annual basis, 7.7 percent. To put that in context, we were expecting closer to 8 percent. Last month that annual number was closer to 8.2 percent.

So, what this means is that this actually came in a lot better than most economists were expecting. Directionally, we're moving in the right direction.

Now, is this something that folks and consumers are home are going to cheer in the streets about? Absolutely not. Inflation is still very high. It's still hovering near 40-year highs. But directionally moving in the right direction.

And take a look at futures. Investors like it because it is starting to feel like, well, maybe the medicine is working. Maybe all of these rate hikes are actually starting to work and you're starting to see a meaningfully cooler inflation report. So --

HARLOW: With a lot of layoffs.

SOLOMON: Well, yes, that -- that too.

LEMON: And that.

SOLOMON: So let's -

HARLOW: Sorry to rain on the parade.

LEMON: Wamp, wamp, wamp, Poppy.

SOLOMON: Yes, no, I mean it's a fair point because we got this report today but then we also got news of pretty significant layoffs at Meta, 11,000. To put that in context, as of September, the company had 87,000 workers. So, right, that's about 12 percent of its workforce. So, this is really happening in the ad space.

And I'm glad you brought it up because we're really starting to see -- even though job growth is still strong, even though unemployment is low, in the tech space, that's a very different story, right? I mean they are really pulling back after growing so much during the pandemic, they're starting to have to pull back some of that growth.

And so, you know, I talked to an analyst a few weeks ago after Meta's earnings report and he said, you know, advertisers know that Meta's ads work. They know that YouTube's ads work. So when you're starting to hear companies like Meta and Alphabet, the owner of YouTube, say they're seeing advertisers pull back, he said it's really saying something.

COLLINS: ell, and we had Sara Fischer on earlier and something she said that -- from "Axios," that stood out to all of us was, she kind of likened this saying it was reminiscent of the dot com bubble, seeing what's happening with these layoffs.

SOLOMON: Yes, I think, look, these are companies that saw explosive growth certainly during the pandemic, but you could even argue over the last 10 years. These are tech companies that for ten years their stocks seemed to go only in one direction, and that was up. And you are seeing -- I think the Nasdaq is still off about 32 percent this year. So, these companies are now having a sort of come back to earth moment.

So, you know, whether it will be as severe as the dot com bubble, I'm not sure about that. But it is certainly something in the tech space that a lot of people are watching very closely to see if this will have effects on other parts of the economy, right? Is this just the beginning of what we might start to see in other - other parts of the economy, or is this very specific to tech? At this point we just don't know.

LEMON: Thank you, Rahel, we appreciate it this morning.

HARLOW: Yes, thank you.

LEMON: More politics now.

President Joe Biden made just one congratulatory call to a Republican after the vote. And he is Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. We're going to ask him what the president said when he joins us next.

HARLOW: That was great. Thank you.

COLLINS: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:47:27]

LEMON: Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine, winning re-election this week by a wide margin, defeating Democrat Nan Whaley. Now, President Biden called DeWine to congratulate him. It is noteworthy because former President Trump endorsed DeWine. On Monday, DeWine spoke at Trump's rally in Ohio and received some boos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Please, (INAUDIBLE). You guys, say a couple of words.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Mr. President, thank you very much.

You know, in Ohio, Mr. President, we fund the police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Governor DeWine joins me now.

Governor, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Good morning to you.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Thank you.

LEMON: So didn't let you - that didn't stop you from speaking. Why not?

DEWINE: Well, I've been booed before. That's -- you know, that's the way life goes.

But, look, I was there to support JD Vance. I'm glad he got elected. He's going to be a great -- excellent United States senator, a strong, conservative voice for Ohio.

LEMON: Yes. What did you and the president, the current president, talk about because he made a congratulatory call to you.

DEWINE: Well, I shouldn't get into that, I don't think. That's a personal call. But I appreciated certainly the call. You know, the president and I served together 12 years on the Judiciary Committee. You know, I know him pretty well and have had, you know, that relationship that goes back to the time that I was in the United States Senate.

LEMON: Over the last day or so there's been, you know, a lot of sort of hand wringing over what happened. There was supposed to be a red wave, a Republican wave. It doesn't seem like it, you know -- well, it did not happen, which we're still trying to see where the balance of power lies in both chambers. What do you think the lesson is from Tuesday night for Republicans moving forward? Is it a Republican Party without Trump at the helm?

DEWINE: Well, I think people can look to Ohio. I mean we're a center right state, but it's still a state that Democrats can get elected in. And I think people, you know, supported what we have been doing. We're focused on jobs. We're focused on job training. We're focused on education, early childhood development, dealing with the mental health problems. These are practical things that I think people expect us to deal with. We won with 63 percent of the vote. You know, we won 85 out of 88 counties. So, it was a - it was a very, very good victory. I'm very, very grateful for that. I think if you look across the country, particularly governors who did

well are governors who, you know, are strong advocates for their state, who are making the tough decisions, who are leaders and who are solving problems.

[08:50:11]

I think that's really the lesson from, you know, Tuesday night. People want people to fix problems. And, you know, we're -- for example, in Ohio, we're a great manufacturing state. We're attracting new business coming in. we've got a good business climate. I think people like that. They want their kids to be able to grow up in Ohio, have jobs here, have good jobs, have good job training, good education, basic things that the public expects.

HARLOW: You just said you're glad -- you campaigned with JD Vance for Senate. You just talked about being glad that he won. He also, you know, just a few months ago, in March, said again that he thought the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. That's something you have never said.

DEWINE: No.

HARLOW: And I wonder if you want him to stop talking about that now that he's going to be a senator representing your state.

DEWINE: Well, I'm not - look, I'm not going to tell JD what to talk about or not talk about. I think that, you know, he is now the -- going to be the United States senator from the state of Ohio. He's got big responsibilities. He's got big shoes to fill. Rob Portman did a phenomenal job and continues, actually, to do a phenomenal job for us. And I just look forward to working with voice and he's got a big portfolio now that -- of things that he's - he's got to deal with every day.

COLLINS: Governor DeWine, thanks so much for being here this morning.

My question for you is, as we're reflecting on what Tuesday means going forward for the GOP, in your estimation, who is the current leader of the Republican Party?

DEWINE: Well, look, I mean, we do this every time we have an election. And before the votes are even counted, we're thinking about the next election. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's going to - that's going to play out. I don't think it's time to, you know, weigh in on that. We'll see how that works.

Again, I think people expect us to govern. I think people expect us to get things done and to focus on real problems. I mean we have mental health problems. We're doing some things in Ohio that are new, that are innovative. We're moving forward in that area. We've got - we have drug addiction problems. Things that keep people behind.

HARLOW: Yes.

DEWINE: I think, you know, the voters expect us to focus on those things.

So, I'll leave for somebody else the speculation of, you know, who's going to be the nominee in two years. That's -- we've got plenty of time to work on that.

COLLINS: And can I ask you a question, since you were on the campaign trail obviously just for the last few months with Nan Whaley - or against Nan Whaley, your opponent. How much did you hear from voters about abortion? Because you and Nan Whaley had very different positions on that. And a big question for us was, how much voters cared about that in addition to the economy. What did you hear from your voters about that?

DEWINE: Well, look, I - you know, I do a lot of retail politics. I'm out talking directly to people, listening to them. And certainly there were people who came up to me and said, Mike, I like what you're doing. I think you've been good on education. You were - you were good during the pandemic. You protected us. You did this. But I can't vote for you because of abortion. So, we certainly did have that.

We also, though, had a lot of people who came up to me and who - who said, look, I don't usually vote for Republicans, but I like what you've done in regard to job training, or I like what you've done in regard to mental health and I'm going to vote for you. So, you know, we got a number of those voters who don't agree with me in regard to abortion, but there certainly were others who that was a defining issue and they simply would not vote for me because of the fact that they disagreed with me on the issue.

LEMON: Governor, we love that you woke up with us. You took the time to come on the program. We appreciate it. Come back early and often, will you?

DEWINE: Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you.

DEWINE: I appreciate it.

HARLOW: Thanks, Governor.

DEWINE: Good to talk with you.

LEMON: You as well.

And notice he didn't say yes, but that's OK.

HARLOW: He will. He always - it's a good - always a good conversation.

LEMON: Hurricane Nicole hitting Florida overnight. A weaker tropical storm right now but still dangerous. We're live on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:58:25] LEMON: So, it's not very, you know, often you get the chance to speak to a Hollywood legend and "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg, but I did, sitting down with me for CNN THIS MORNING, and interview. She is weighing in on the midterms and how people feel about President Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Tuesday, you know, everyone said, well, Joe Biden, he's too old and people - he's -- his approval rating. What -- do you - what do you believe? Because it looks to me like he's winning.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": Well, I think the people, they may not like everything he's done, but they like a lot of what he's done. They like that he's trying to get it done. They see what he's trying to do. That's the beauty of all of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, Whoopi has a lot more to say about politics. She has a lot more to say about civility and quitting and the reason -

HARLOW: Quitting - quitting -- not quitting "The View," quitting Twitter.

LEMON: Yes, quitting Twitter. Yes, quitting Twitter. Sorry. I need to get that in. She was like, what, quitting what?

HARLOW: Just trying to save you.

LEMON: The big -- Poppy Harlow saving me. Whoopi's going to go call me and say, what are you talking about.

COLLINS: Don's creating headlines.

LEMON: The reason she sat down and did the interview with me is because she has this movie that she has been trying to do for over a decade and it's "Till" it's about Emmett Till's -

HARLOW: Oh, yes.

LEMON: The death of Emmett Till and the -- his family's journey and really about his mother, Mamie, and her journey and how she became, you know, she started fighting for civil rights after her son was murdered in Money, Mississippi in 1955.

HARLOW: So we get to - yes.

COLLINS: And she played a big role in this movie and what did she say about the -

LEMON: She's not only executive produced the movie, she plays Emmett Till's grandmother in the movie as well. And so she talks about that and the issue surrounding race, discrimination.

[09:00:03]

But she talks about a whole lot more. You know, there's a reason she's on "The View" because she likes to give her view.

HARLOW: Tomorrow, right?

COLLINS: We get to watch it.

HARLOW: We get to see it tomorrow?

LEMON: Yes. So, we get to see it tomorrow. And she also talked about us coming in to co-host "The View," all three of us. It's like -

COLLINS: Interesting idea.

LEMON: Hey, listen, we're a little punch drunk from, you know, the election and working those long hours overnight, but we're back and tomorrow we'll have more sleep and we'll be even better then.

HARLOW: We'll be here for you.

LEMON: We're great today. We'll be greater tomorrow.

Thanks for watching.

What happens now.

HARLOW: "NEWSROOM" starts now.

LEMON: It's Poppy's old shift.