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CNN This Morning

GOP Presidential Candidate Doug Burgum joins CNN This Morning; McCarthy Starts To Plot Biden Impeachment Strategy; Rite Aid Stock Plummets After WSJ report On Bankruptcy Preps; Spain's soccer federation To Hold "Extraordinary And Urgent" Meeting Today; Aired 7:30-8:00a ET

Aired August 28, 2023 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:49]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASA HUTCHINSON, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was the only one that right that said very clearly that I would not support him. And so I was surprised at that. That didn't seem to be a difficult question to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: That's former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson referring to this moment at last week's debate when candidates were asked if they would support Donald Trump even if he ended up being convicted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: Please raise your hand if you would.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: There are only two in that stage that did not raise their hand. Chris Christie raised his hand but later gestured with a pointed finger saying that Trump's conduct should not be normalized.

The moment underscoring the former president's grip on the party even as he faces four indictments at this point. Joining us now is one of the Republican contenders on that stage, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota. Thank you so much for being here.

So the obvious question here is, how did you hurt your leg? No, I'm just kidding.

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: We all know, everyone knows he hurt himself during a basketball game and he is somehow up and walking, tore your Achilles, as we understand it. So thank you for making the trip here. Why would you support Donald? GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was going to say you had the weather report on earlier, it was raining threes right before I -- right before I blew my Achilles, so that should be part of the --

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: OK. There was no dunking, but there were three. It was -- OK. Got it.

BURGUM: Yes, starting to pour (ph).

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: Now, to the debate. Why is it that you raised your hand? Why support Donald Trump if he is convicted, especially if he's convicted of trying to overturn an election, which affects democracy?

BURGUM: Well, I just thought this was the goofiest question in the whole night. Everybody on the stage, to get on the stage, signed a thing that said, hey, you're -- we're going to support a Republican candidate in 2024 if it's not you. You're not going to run as an independent, you're going to support a Republican.

So then to ask this question, which is hypothetical, when everybody's on the stage, including myself, I'm pouring my time, my energy, everybody that's supporting us to actually be the nominee. So you know, the question is, are you going to support yourself? Absolutely. I'm supporting myself.

But these hypotheticals -- and it --and it just goes into this whole seven by 24 hour cable news, clickbait thing around all of these indictments, when we're out talking to candidates, which I've been -- I went to New Hampshire for three days. Now, I've been in New York the last 24 hours.

When we're talking to people, they're not -- they're asking about inflation. When I'm talking to a lobsterman in New Hampshire, you know, they're like, hey, I can't -- I'm not making my payments because how much I'm spending on the diesel to run my boat. And then you turn on the TV, and all you hear about is this stuff, but that's not what people are actually concerned about.

Interest rates at a 22-year high. They're like, is the American Dream falling away between inflation -- 700 bucks more a month for the average family? And I grew up, my mom -- you know, my dad died when I was in freshman high school. My mom went back to work raising three kids.

I understand what it's like if you're a working mom to actually put food on the table. And then I was growing up, every job I had, I took a shower at the end of the day, working on the farm, working on the ranch, working as the rain elevator, working as the chimney sweep.

Americans today are actually concerned that, you know, how are they going to make things meet? And all -- that -- all we talk -- they're talking on the stage. And I said it that night, and I'll say it again, if we're going to spend all our time talking about that, you know who loves that? China loves that.

[07:35:06]

We're in a cold war with China. And they got 100-year plan. They're doing everything they can to beat us, and we're just divided. And divisiveness now is a giant commercial business in our country. Divisiveness sells.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Let's talk policy then. The former president, regardless of your views about the indictments, he's, A, the former president, B, plus 30, 35, 40 in most national polling. And when you dig into those early states that you've been visiting, do you agree that a 10 percent tariff kind of across the board should be something a policy that the U.S. should pursue?

BURGUM: I think that the whole tariff thing is just goofy as a standalone question, if you're talking about economic tariffs, because look at we're doing --

MATTINGLY: Standalone question or standalone policy? Because it was the former president who said 10 percent tariff across the board seems to make sense for him.

BURGUM: Well, I don't think it makes sense across the board. I mean, we have to be strategic about it. And we take a look at whether it's the former the current president.

You take a look at Biden. You know, first of all, Putin doesn't even invade Ukraine if we don't have all the Western Europe dependent on Russian energy. I mean, the first thing we should do is sell energy to our friends and allies, stop buying it from our adversaries.

But then when Putin does invade, what did it take us? How many months, six months before we had sanctions on oil and gas? And then when, you know -- in the meantime, Russia makes a bunch of money, then we put sanctions on. Now Russian oil is 20 percent off, and now China is getting oil and gas at 20 percent off, and American farmers are paying full price.

MATTINGLY: So you believe that the sanctions should apply across the board cutting off European allies to their accessing -- just completely shutting down Russian energy?

BURGUM: No, I'm saying -- so I'm saying if you want to not have wars, if you want to not have world war three, we're in this cold war with China, which I was the only one on stage that actually mentioned that -- and that's actually the is the existential threat to our country -- is that you've got to have a coordinated effort with your allies to get together.

If a few countries put sanctions on Russian oil, it doesn't do anything other than turn Russia into the discount gas station for China, which helps the country that we're in this, you know, head-on battle with. So in the White House, you've got to have somebody who understands the economy. I built a business from scratch. It was operating, we had customers in 132 countries. And this idea that we're going to somehow, you know, try to run our country when you've got someone there now who's never worked in the private sector, hasn't worked -- hasn't made payroll, like I have for all these different -- you know, all these years, you know, someone who took a pay cut to make sure their team members could get paid.

The economy is so globally interconnected. And every job in every industry is changing with technology right now. And we've never had anybody in the White House that even understands that. I mean, two million federal -- two million federal employees. You want to reduce the cost of the federal government? Well, then digitize it like every other business like this business has, and get some efficiencies going in the federal government --

MATTINGLY: Would you -- as president, would you completely try and cut off ties, economic ties with China? Decouple or completely cut off?

BURGUM: You can't -- you can't decouple with the world's second- largest economy. You can be strategic about it. But, you know, the way you win a cold war is you get your economy sprinting, as opposed to crawling like it is right now. And you start cutting red tape like we have in North Dakota. We passed 51 red tape reduction bills this last year. We got the highest GDP of any Republican --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: Strategically -- what you're saying in terms of doing it strategically, because of the interconnected nature of the global economy, and also the U.S. and China being the two largest economies, isn't that essentially what this administration is doing, to some degree?

BURGUM: This administration had Blinken, Yellen, and Kerry go over there this summer, and none of them talked about energy with China. China imports 10 million barrels of oil every day. They're the largest importer in the world. We have an opportunity to be energy-dominant in the United States. If you're going to have a negotiation with China, the first thing on the table is energy.

And instead, we've got an energy policy in this country that I think was written by China, because we're trying to kill the U.S. energy industry, moved all EVs, and then buy all our batteries from China. Are -- if we're trying to strategically decouple, then why do we have an energy policy -- which is not good for the environment, because China's making those batteries by tearing up the whole planet in the Congo, in Indonesia, and then they're building them in factories that are powered by coal, because they're opening a coal plant every two weeks in China.

SIDNER: Those are some of the really important issues. But let me just lastly, ask you, if Donald Trump is -- and right now, he has the highest polling numbers -- if he does become the nominee, would you be his vice president? BURGUM: No. I would not. And happy to do lots of other things. I had (ph) fabulous 30 years in the private sector. A lot of opportunities there.

SIDNER: His cabinet?

BURGUM: I'm not running for a cabinet position. I mean, I'm not -- I'm not selling a book, I'm not running a cabinet. All I've ever done -- CEO, entrepreneur, build businesses, attract talent, be successful, understand how the globe works, and lead stuff like the remarkable job, the miracle story -- success story in North Dakota. We have the highest GDP of any Republican-led state in the nation.

I mean, we've got our economy rolling there. We -- and we've done it, and we're doing it and all the things that people would want. We're the only state that said, we're going to be carbon neutral by 2030, and we're a huge energy state. Well, how do you do that? You do it with innovation as opposed to regulation.

[07:40:06]

Our nation has always won with innovation. Go back to the Wright brothers, go back to -- as far back as you want. The way we win is with innovation. And right now, we're killing innovation in this country. We're not funding innovation in this country. We're funding a bunch of ideology that it doesn't even do the thing that it's supposed to do, like save the environment. We -- like I said, we do it better here than anywhere else in the world.

MATTINGLY: Governor Doug Burgum, you want to talk policy, man, I'm here -- we will do that. I like talking policy.

(LAUGHTER)

BURGUM: Well, I do too.

MATTINGLY: And on an unequivocal note (ph) on the vice president --

(CROSSTALK)

BURGUM: We should have more of that on the debate, because these are the things that matter to every American. We're running because we know if we get those things right, it'll improve the life of every American.

MATTINGLY: Appreciate your time, sir.

BURGUM: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Good luck with the Achilles.

BURGUM: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: White House Republicans are strategizing about how to initiate an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, we're going to have new reporting on that, coming up next. SIDNER: And Rite Aid stock plummeting Friday after the Wall Street Journal reporting the drugstore is preparing to file for bankruptcy. The reason for that potential filing just to ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: We've got some new reporting this morning. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other top Republicans beginning to strategize how to move forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Biden this fall.

But skeptical GOP lawmakers, no evidence and government funding that's set to expire, all critical factors that could complicate their timelines.

CNN's Melanie Zanona joins us now with her new reporting. Mel, I think the initial question is, we'll try and figure out how to get to 218. They may not actually need 218 votes. It's just the most interesting part of your piece among many interesting parts. Walk us through.

[07:45:02]

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Yes, that's exactly right, Phil. So just to walk viewers through the process, Republicans want to open an impeachment inquiry, which would be the first formal step towards impeachment proceedings. But there is no constitutional requirement that they actually need to have a floor vote.

And because, as you mentioned, Kevin McCarthy doesn't actually have the votes right now, amongst this conference. There's a lot of moderates and vulnerable Republicans who are still skeptical of this whole idea.

They are contemplating just skipping that floor vote altogether. And that would spare moderates from having to take a tough vote, while allowing them to start to get the ball rolling on the impeachment process, and hopefully, in their minds, give them more time to actually get some evidence for these allegations that they have yet to prove about President Joe Biden and his son's foreign business dealings.

And not to mention, Phil, McCarthy is under enormous pressure from his right flank and from Donald Trump to show that he is taking action here and that he is moving forward on this process. And so I'm told he has spent some of the August recess telling former Republican -- current Republicans that he is really serious about an impeachment inquiry and strategizing about how to do that this fall, Phil.

MATTINGLY: As soon as next month. It's great reporting. You can read the piece on cnn.com Melanie Zanona, as always, thank you.

SIDNER: All right. Now to your money this morning, Rite Aid stock nosedived more than 50 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported the retail pharmacy giant is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it faces mounting costs linked to opioid lawsuits. The chain could also shutter about 400 stores nationwide. CNN's Julia Chatterley is joining us now. All right. Let us know how this happened. Break this down for us that Rite Aid is in big trouble financially.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: They're totally embattled even just as the business, they're losing money, they've got high debts, over $3 billion worth of debts. A lot of that comes due in the next couple of years.

So just as a business, they were already struggling. Then I think a lot of that's outweighed by the sheer extent of liabilities that they could face tied to the opioid crisis.

According to the Wall Street Journal's reporting, we're talking about 1,000 plus federal lawsuits that have all been consolidated in Ohio. They've got a somber -- a similar number of state based lawsuits and then a civil case that the Department of Justice hit them with just this year.

What chapter 11 bankruptcy allows them to do is buy breathing room. It allows the pharmacies continue to run as a business, but that they can consolidate the debts and that includes debts that they don't even know they have yet, aka potential legal costs and opioid lawsuits, battle them all out together, find some kind of resolution.

They don't know what those liabilities, the scale of those are going to be. But this suggestion in this report is that they're going to be treated as unsecured debt. So the hope is that in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, these people eventually if they do settle, will be able to get some of their money and the business will be able to continue to go as an ongoing concern.

The company at this stage not confirmed anything so it's an open guest. But when you look at the financials of the business, it figures.

SIDNER: Julius Chatterley, always lovely to see. Thank you for coming.

MATTINGLY: Over just a week ago when Spain won its first title, the Women's World Cup, but the controversy over the kiss from the president of the country soccer federation with a star player has since overshadowed that historic moment. How that organization in the world are responding? That's next.

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[07:50:33]

MATTINGLY: Spain's soccer federation is holding a quote extraordinary and urgent meeting today after its president, Luis Rubiales, was provisionally suspended by FIFA following a kiss with star player Jennifer Hermoso.

Hermoso says she did not consent to being kissed by Rubiales, while Rubiales says the kiss was consensual. The Federation has threatened to sue Hermosa is claiming she lied.

Joining us now to discuss is Meg Linehan, a senior writer for The Athletic where she covers women's soccer. She also hosts the weekly podcast, full time, with Meg Linehan.

Let's contextualize this first up top. This is following a World Cup victory. This is the moment of all moments for the Spain's -- Spanish women's soccer team, that they should be celebrating and celebrated. And yet we're at this point.

MEG LINEHAN, SENIOR WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: We have man has hijacked this. Right? Right. And I think it is, unfortunately both the blessing and the curse of women's soccer that these big moments allow us to have these bigger conversations, but this should be the pinnacle of these players career.

And instead, we are talking about basically the entire Spanish Federation melting down in real time. And we're not talking about the soccer, we're not talking about their accomplishment. We're also not really fundamentally talking about the protests that these players came in with into the World Cup because that was one of the major storylines of how is Spain going to function with players protested, sat out the World Cup, some players didn't get called up.

And we're not actually really talking about the fundamental issues that the players had, we're talking about a non-consensual kiss on stage. We're talking about this Federation's the president's behavior. We're talking about the fact that he won't resign.

SIDNER: You've reported on abuse across many different places, including the National Women's Soccer League. What do you think about the response that, that is being put out there by FIFA and by other governing bodies?

LINEHAN: Yes. I think the governing bodies have not stepped up, where's the adult in the room, right? That is kind of the fundamental question.

We've seen FIFA now do think the bare minimum and that they have suspended him for 90 days. They've also banned contact between the Federation and Hermoso, which is kind of -- we've never really seen anything quite like that.

But UEFA completely silent. Spain also wants to host the Men's World Cup in 2030. So there is this big political --

MATTINGLY: I'm going to going to ask. Is that the dynamic here? Because I feel like I must be missing a bunch of different thing.

LINEHAN: It has to be playing a role, but I think there is also just, you get the sense of these governing bodies worry what accountability opens up, right, and I think we've seen that here in the U.S. where we have gone through this reckoning and we have had a massive investigation into behavior and conduct across the professional league, but also, you know, that bleeds into the national team.

[07:55:20]

So we've had that conversation, we're starting it at least. There's still a lot of work to be done. But this is what we've seen in.

And what I think a lot of us are struggling within the sport is that, women have to win in order to be heard. So what about Haiti? What about Zambia? All of these other teams that came into a World Cup with struggles against their federations, against their coaches, who are not being heard, but because this happened on the world's biggest stage, and it has been hijacked, we're having this conversation.

SIDNER: It's really unbelievable, because these women should be -- everyone should be just celebrating them and being excited in the country --

MATTINGLY: Great soccer. Amazing victory.

LINEHAN: Yes.

SIDNER: And here we are.

LINEHAN: Yes. It's frustrating to say the least.

SIDNER: Right. Meg Linehan, thank you so much.

LINEHAN: Thank you. In just hours, two crucial court hearings, involving two of the four cases against former President Donald Trump; one in Washington D.C., and one of course in Fulton County in Atlanta. We are live outside of both of those courthouses with details, next.

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