Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Politics of GOP 2024 Presidential Candidates; House Zeroes in on Manhattan DA; "Love is Blind" Delayed on Netflix; 10 Years Since Boston Marathon Bombing. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired April 17, 2023 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Thought that Biden would have announced officially already.
ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Yes.
HARLOW: And now there's been reporting that it will get pushed off even further. Do you think any of this goes into his calculation? He said he intends to run, but you know with a lot of these GOP, you know, potentials dropping out or not running, a DeSantis/Trump match- up, would any of it changed Biden's calculation?
HERNDON: We're really hearing that be true.
HARLOW: Oh.
HERNDON: When you talk to folks around the White House, there's a real sense of not only is Biden working on his own timeline, and he feels good about that timeline.
HARLOW: Yes.
HERNDON: But there's also a sense that they think that the White House is helped by all the chaos happening on the Republican side.
HARLOW: OK.
HERNDON: And so there's a real sense of comfort that this will be a Biden campaign where he's used to running against - he's already proven himself as someone who can defeat the MAGA wing.
And so, you know, one of the things we did in our podcast, "The Run- Up," was go to Philadelphia for the DNC.
HARLOW: Yes.
HERNDON: And part of what we were hearing from Democrats there was that their confidence in Biden was partially because of his own accomplishments, but was really because they were sure Republicans were, frankly, a worse option. We likened it to blackjack, saying they think they have a good hand but they're really sure that the dealer on the other side that's going to - HARLOW: But the house always wins?
HERNDON: The house is going to bust. That's what they think is going to happen. And, you know, that's the - that's the bet that Democrats are making. Because of that, they're all in on Joe.
LEMON: You got nothing. I got nothing.
HARLOW: No, I was -- finally we have a little bit of time. Interested about Governor Kemp and his stance over the weekend.
HERNDON: Yes.
HARLOW: We can play a clip and get your thoughts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): And I was just laying out the blueprint for I think any candidate to be able to win is to talk about what we're for, focus on the future, not look in the rear view mirror.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Stop being distracted from Trump investigations was his message.
HERNDON: Yes.
LEMON: And 2020.
HERNDON: One hundred percent. And you see Kemp as really the foremost figure who's been able to make this argument. And you see this argument really true for Republican governors.
When you talk to folks close to Kemp or Mike DeWine or folks who - or Republicans who won statewide, they'll try to say you need to look forward. And if the Republicans can do that, they can change the page and win in the general election.
The problem for Kemp is that there was a poll coming out of the University of Georgia last week that showed Donald Trump up 20 percent in -- in the Republican primary against someone like Ron DeSantis. So, while Kemp, that argument worked for him -
HARLOW: Yes. Well, he -
HERNDON: And he had a real base of support there, which I think should not go undercounted, it's not an argument that's necessarily translating to the other people trying to beat Donald Trump. At least at this moment.
HARLOW: That's interesting that his race was different. A huge race in terms of the money pouring in. And a challenging race for them than the national (INAUDIBLE).
HERNDON: Right. LEMON: Is it - is it - when you look at that, Pompeo, I'm not exactly sure why Pompeo is not going to run. And they're saying quick. But this - Donald Trump not only sucks all the oxygen out of the room, but is he also sucking all the money out of the room as well?
HERNDON: Particularly on the small donor side. When that small donor money, after the indictment, is flowing to Donald Trump, it makes it more difficult for people to really gain money in the - gain energy in those early stages. That means they're more reliant on those big donors, which causes their kind of early stages of the race to be a little more complicated.
HARLOW: Yes. Smerconish called it Bernie -
LEMON: Sometimes -
HARLOW: Oh, go ahead.
LEMON: No, I was going to say, sometimes I say out loud the voices in my head as my producer's like quick, quick. Like, wait.
HERNDON: I was like, quick, quick.
HARLOW: They're the voices in the control room.
Thank you very much.
HERNDON: Thank you. I appreciate it.
LEMON: Do this now. Yes, I've got to go to commercial.
Thank you, Astead. Good to see you.
HARLOW: We do have to go to commercial now and then.
LEMON: We do, don't we.
HARLOW: The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee holding a field hearing here in New York City, taking a swipe at Manhattan's District Attorney Alvin Bragg. And, guess what, our colleague and friend, Laura Coates, just spoke to him on her radio show. We'll tell you what he said ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:37:37]
LEMON: So, minutes from now, the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Trump congressional ally Jim Jordans, will be holding a field hearing here in New York City targeting District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Now, according to the committee, today's hearing will zero in on how Bragg's, quote, pro-crime, anti-victim policies have led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents. Congressman Jim Jordan spoke to our very own Laura Coates for her Sirius XM show just moments ago. Here's what he had to say about the hearings. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA COATES, HOST, "THE LAURA COATES SHOW" ON SIRIUS XM: It's about the crime?
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): This is about coming -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK, so we have a technical issue with the sound. But the question that Laura asked was, is it about the crime or is this about Alvin Bragg? And then he responded. Let's see what he said. Is it about Alvin Bragg?
OK, so, listen, I just want to tell you, though, that the hearing comes just over two weeks after the former president was indicted in connection to Bragg's investigation into Trump's alleged role in the hush money payment scheme involving adult film star Stormy Daniels. Now Jordan's was asked why he is issuing subpoenas on this issue, even while he himself refused to comply with a subpoena from the January 6th committee.
Let's listen to this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I never once said I wouldn't testify. I was - I was corresponding back and forth with the committee. That's a little different. Than January 6th committee, which was completely partisan. In spite of all that, I still didn't tell the committee that I wouldn't testify when they asked me. We'd sent letters to them, and they just -- they just jumped right to the subpoena, jumped right to the whole thing. So, I think that's a completely different -- different situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So Laura also asked the congressman about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his undisclosed financial ties to a Republican MEGA donor. Here's that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA COATES, HOST, "THE LAURA COATES SHOW" ON SIRIUS XM: As part of the Judiciary Committee, are you intending to investigate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas?
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): We are not. We are - we are not. I know the left has been out to get Justice Thomas for a long time. They had hearings on this in the last Congress under then Chairman Nadler when Democrats were in control. And they've been out to get president - or, excuse me, Justice Thomas for - for a long, long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[08:40:02] HARLOW: Let's bring in our CNN political correspondent Sara Murray and CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox.
Guys, this is really interesting. Of course, Laura did a brilliant interview that everyone can listen to a little bit later if they weren't listening to her radio show.
LEMON: Can I explain the first quote since -
HARLOW: Yes, of course.
LEMON: Yes, since - and then you can ask the question. The one that we had a technical issue with, and then Poppy can get her question in. Laura said, is this about Bragg or is this about crime? And Jordan said, a huge percentage of New Yorkers want to leave because of this crime factor. And when you have left-leaning DA's more focused on politics than crime, it turns out when you don't put bad guys in jail, there's more crime. Imagine that.
HARLOW: Yes.
Point of fact, crime, violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, all down this year in 2023. Look, there was a spike prior, that is also a fact, last year.
Sara, talk to us about what's going to happen because this committee is going to have people that they label, quote, victims of Alvin Bragg's policies speaking today, right, after Mayor Adams was just in there talking.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean Republicans are going to try to focus on Bragg's record, try to focus on crime here. You know, they're going to have this bodega clerk that was, you know, sort of a mark on Bragg's record. He brought second degree murder charges against him and later dropped the charges amid this sort of public outcry from people who believe that this bodega clerk was just defending himself when he was attacked. That's what Republicans want to talk about.
But also, this is about providing cover for Donald Trump. You know, we know after the indictment Trump was trying to shore up his support with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Republicans on this committee have already said, you know, they're investigating Alvin Bragg and his investigation into Donald Trump here. And so Democrats are going to try to bring this back. And this is what we heard from Jerry Nadler, from Mayor Adams this morning, saying essentially, if Republicans really cared about crime, they would, one, be focused on gun violence, and, two, be focused on other cities beyond New York.
And beyond that they're going to bring this back to, you know, this is Republicans acting as essentially defense attorneys for Donald Trump. That's what we heard from Jerry Nadler this morning.
LEMON: Lauren, what are Democrats saying this morning?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, just to add to some of that reporting from Sara. One of the things that we are hearing from Jerry Nadler this morning is that there is a belief that this is really a side show, that this is nothing more than an effort to protect former President Donald Trump. Nadler saying, quote, Jim Jordan engages in a lot of political theater in Washington, but he should know better than to take his tired act to Broadway. Kind of a classic New Yorker versus New Yorker quote there.
But one thing that you are also going to hear from Democrats today is that they believe that this was politically motivated and the evidence that they have for that is that there was a request for information before an indictment was even announced.
LEMON: Interesting when you -- I mean, what else would it be? Why would they come to New York and do this if it wasn't in some way for - as cover for the former president?
I want to ask you, Sara, the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, is going to be delivering remarks at the New York Stock Exchange today. Do you have any details about - Lauren, sorry. Do you have any details about that?
FOX: Yes, I mean, this is all part of an effort this week to intensify pressure on the White House to come to the negotiating table on the debt ceiling. House Republicans had a call yesterday where Kevin McCarthy walked them through the details of that plan. They are hoping to put it on the floor in the next several weeks. They're hoping, potentially, to even have legislative texts for their own debt ceiling increase coming in the upcoming days.
One thing to keep an eye out for is this plan intends to include major spending cuts as part of a one-year increase for the debt ceiling. Expect that Kevin McCarthy is really going to make that the centerpiece of why he is talking to the New York Stock Exchange.
This is all about a public relations campaign to try to ramp up pressure to get Joe Biden to the negotiating table.
HARLOW: Thank you both very much.
LEMON: Are there protesters behind Sara? Sara, are there protesters out there?
MURRAY: We -- you know, there's a couple people here and there. It's not like a big crowd.
LEMON: Not a -
MURRAY: There was a much bigger crowd earlier just waiting to get in line to the federal building for other business.
HARLOW: Got it. Got it. Got it. We'll be watching. Thank you, Sara. Thank you. Lauren. Appreciate it.
HARLOW: The countdown is on. Soon, the Starship rocket is expected to lift off from a SpaceX launch pad in southern Texas. The company says this is a test launch for a ship that could eventually bring people to earth's orbit, the moon and someday to Mars. The company is targeting 9:00 a.m. Eastern for liftoff, but they say that rocket has the ability to take off anytime between 9:00 am and 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time ahead of this launch. SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk said there's a good chance it gets postponed. This is SpaceX's first attempt to launch a fully assembled Starship vehicle after a year's long testing campaign. Can't wait to see that.
LEMON: Can't wait to see it.
[08:45:01]
HARLOW: Something I don't watch, but apparently a ton of people do, "Love is Blind." You cannot hurry love. We all know this. And you can't hurry the show, either, apparently. Netflix is now apologizing after the much anticipated live reunion episode was delayed. Harry Enten has more on the number this morning.
LEMON: You can rush, hurry -- Harry.
Harry, oh, my gosh.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK LACHEY, HOST, "LOVE IS BLIND": We actually have no idea what's going to go down at this reunion.
VANESSA LACHEY, HOST, "LOVE IS BLIND": You know why? Because we're doing it live.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK, well, they did it live, kind of. Love is patient, shock, discipline. Fans of Netflix reality dating show "Love is Blind" still waiting this morning for the highly anticipated reunion episode that was set to air live last night, but more than an hour long platform crash forced Netflix to switch gears and take the episode for release later today.
[08:50:00]
Netflix apologized too eager fans in a tweet saying, quote, to everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon, we are incredibly sorry that the "Love is Blind" live reunion did not turn out as we planned.
So, our senior data reporter, Mr. Harry Enten, is here. And I guess "Love is Blind" has something to do with this morning's number.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: It does. And I'll just say, love will keep us together, as my uncle would say.
LEMON: Love.
ENTEN: Love. LEMON: Love will keep us together.
ENTEN: There you go.
This morning's number is 90, 90 minutes, because last night's "Love is Blind" delay was 90 minutes before being taped and then hopefully will air later today. So, 90 minutes was the mornings number.
Here's why people are so upset. Look at Netflix shows by hours viewing in the last week. Look at this, "Love is Blind" is number two. "The Night Agent" was number one. "Love is Blind" just ahead of "Beef."
If you're like me -
LEMON: I just started watching "Beef" last night.
ENTEN: I -
LEMON: It's good.
ENTEN: Is it good?
LEMON: It's good.
ENTEN: That might be -
HARLOW: I'm not - I don't even know any of these shows.
ENTEN: Neither do I.
HARLOW: What is wrong with me?
ENTEN: We're step by step in all of this, right? I actually have heard of "The Blacklist," although that's number five on this list. But you get an idea here, right, that "Love is Blind" is really quite the popular program.
LEMON: Yes.
ENTEN: Now, I want to point out that this sort of problem that Netflix has had with "Love is Blind" comes on top of problems that they've had growing their subscriber base, right? So, we do see that in 2022 their subscriber base did grow by 4 percent. But, look at this, what we essentially see is the growth is decelerating right back in 2020. It was 22 percent, 9 percent in 2021, just 4 percent this year. So, I think there's some question, right? Will this type of event makes people less likely to want to watch Netflix?
And here's the other thing I'll note. You know, regularly live streaming, right? Amazon has NFL games. Apple has MLB games. Netflix, this is really only the second major event that they've live streamed, right? The other one was the Chris Rock stand up special, which I think a lot of people enjoyed. So, I think there's this real question over whether Netflix is actually in the game to actually be able to do live stream and do it successfully. LEMON: It's interesting because, you know, everything is supposedly
streaming now. But when you do these live things, it's just -- it's the same as linear -
HARLOW: People get excited. It's like TV.
LEMON: But it's the same as linear television. It's like, oh, TV, regular TV all over again.
ENTEN: Yes. And it really is just regular TV all over again.
I will point out that we have had disasters before in sort of broadcast television, right? "Love is Blind" isn't "Heidi." This was a big one. In 1968, AFL Jets/Raiders broadcast was cut off by NBC in the east, so "Heidi" could start at 7:00 p.m. Fans missed an epic Raiders comeback. So, the fact is, we've always had problems in terms of live streaming or live putting on of events. This is not the first time and it won't be the last time.
LEMON: I went to that game. I was in high school.
HARLOW: Did you really?
LEMON: No, 1968, no.
ENTEN: Were you one?
LEMON: Just kidding. No, I'm joking. Did not go. By the way, "Beef" starts with Ali Wong, the comedian.
HARLOW: What's it about?
LEMON: And it starts with a road rage incident. It's fun. You should watch it.
HARLOW: OK.
LEMON: Thanks, Harry.
ENTEN: Thank you.
HARLOW: Thank you, Harry.
ENTEN: Love will keep us together, guys.
HARLOW: Right now -- it's a really big day. In Boston, obviously, a significant year, marking 10 years since the horrible bombings at the Boston Marathon.
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: Polo Sandoval joins us here.
Good morning, Polo.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, guys, good morning. That's right, some of Boston's finest behind me putting the finishing
touches as they get ready to close off the course as nearly 30,000 runners getting ready to start pounding the pavement for the marathon. It is certainly a celebratory day but also a very solemn one. We're going to break it all down for you coming up. You're watching CNN THIS MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:58:03]
HARLOW: Well, this morning, runners are getting ready to take their marks in the Boston Marathon. But today also marks 10 years since the bombing that left three people dead and injured nearly 300 at the marathon.
We all remember him, right? We'll never forget that face. That is eight-year-old Martin Richard. He was killed that day. And today his father, his brother and three of his former third grade classmates will reportedly run the marathon together.
Our Polo Sandoval joins us live in Boston.
Good morning, Polo.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some of those great stories, Poppy, that we expect to see firsthand leader today. In fact, that first wave of runners is going to be getting started in a little bit over half an hour. Some of Boston's finest already roping off the course where this particular part here, Poppy, those runners, some 30,000 of them are going to turn the corner. By the time they get to this point, they will have about four miles left before they reach that iconic finish line on Boylston Street.
Like we mentioned, about 30,000 runners from 121 countries. And among them will be the family and friends of little Martin Richard. Just eight years old. His family, particularly his sister, now 17. Her name is Jane. Telling "The Boston Globe" about what the last 10 years have been like for her, even tattooing the word "peace" and her little brother's hand on her wrists in her little brother's handwriting. It really does speak to just the lasting memory that so many of the people that were affected by that day 10 years ago, they still cling on to those memories.
But also something that was really pointed and powerful coming from Jane in her conversation with "The Boston Globe," as she told the reporters that that loss, it will always be a part of her. She will never stop grieving, but she is ready to start her own story. So, those are just the remarkable stories of those people who were left behind, many of them still struggling with their the wounds. Over 200 people injured that day.
[09:00:00]
Today it is a mix of both, though, Poppy. You certainly have that solemn mood, especially after this weekend when the series of events commemorating the victims, those who were lost that day, but there's also a sense of celebration here. A lot of people excited about what today will bring.
Poppy.
HARLOW: Yes. Polo, thank you. We're very, very glad that you're there.
LEMON: Thank you.
SANDOVAL: Yes.
LEMON: We wish everyone a very safe and successful race there.
Our thanks to Polo.
We thank you for watching. We'll see you tomorrow.
"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.
