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Striking Writers and Studio Heads to Meet for Second Day of Contract Negotiations; White House Sending 800 New Active Duty Troops to Southern Border to Help with Immigration Surge; Rudy Giuliani Accused of Groping Trump White House Aide. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 21, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:05]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it's the top of the hour. We're so glad you're with us. Let's start with five things to know for this Thursday, September 21st.

Striking writers and heads of studios expected to be back at the table for the second straight day today. A person familiar with those negotiations tells CNN the talks yesterday left them feeling encouraged.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And any moment now, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will head to Capitol Hill where he will ask Congress for more ammunition and weaponry and aid for the war against Russia.

HARLOW: We are also nine days away from a potential government shutdown. It is still up in the air whether House Speaker Kevin McCarthy can find consensus inside of his conference. Now, House Democrats are weighing a risky strategy whether to save McCarthy to get a deal done.

MATTINGLY: And new and disturbing allegations against Rudy Giuliani. Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson says she was groped on the day of the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

HARLOW: And Ron DeSantis in decline in New Hampshire. A CNN poll shows the Florida governor has dropped 13 points in the state since July, now in a virtual tie for second place with three of his rivals, and falling further behind the frontrunner Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R) FLORIDA: He was born to great wealth. I am a blue-collar kid that had to work minimum wage jobs to get where I was. He did, obviously, a lot young in business. I volunteered serve in Iraq and serve in the military. I could serve two terms. He would be a lame duck on day one.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: All right, we're going to dive into the 2024 race in a moment, but new this morning, some optimism in la-la land, real optimism about maybe this Hollywood writers' strike ending. Writers and the heads of four major studios set to meet for a second day in a row. Last night the two sides put out this joint statement saying they are going to meeting again.

MATTINGLY: Neither side said anything further than that, often a good sign. But both sides have rebuked each other for comments to the media. So the joint statement together signaled a possible sign of progress.

A person familiar told CNN the talks left attendees, quote, feeling encouraged. The current standoff has now stretched for more than 140 days. The longest writers' strike on record lasted 154 days in 1988.

CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy is here with more. Haven't seen a lot of optimism at any point over the course of the last few months. Does this seem real to you in your reporting?

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: It's hard to tell. Yesterday people definitely walked away feeling a lot more optimistic, I think, than they felt as of late. A source told me, as you said, that they felt encouraged by the talks. And they are going to meet today. So the four studio bosses are going to sit down with the writers today. And the fact that they did put out that joint statement says so much, because these two sides have really gone after each other throughout this process, over logistics and small stuff. And the fact that they put out a joint statement and were on the same page there says volumes.

So there is hope Hollywood right now that this could be coming to an end. We will see what happens. Anything can happen because these two sides do have a history of having hard time being on the same page.

HARLOW: Yes. And we are, what, two weeks away from this being the longest one ever and costing some $6 billion.

DARCY: And the problem for the studios, and for the writers, really, is if they don't iron out a deal soon, within the next two, three weeks, the idea of salvaging the season, the shows coming back in the winter in January like they normally would goes out the window. So then even if you have a deal next month, there is going to be no work for a lot of these television rioters because the shows won't be coming back in January. And so there is some pressure because of this looming deadline to get something done.

And we should also note, too, it's not just the writers, it's not just the actors. There is a whole industry in California built around entertainment. And all of these people, there have been major ripple effects across the country that have affected people who just do catering businesses --

HARLOW: All of it.

DARCY: Yes, a ton of businesses. HARLOW: All of it.

MATTINGLY: The pressure points are what often ends up resolving situations like this. You mentioned the calendar pressure. There's clearly financial pressure. What has been the biggest driver to even this just joint statement that didn't infuse a ton of acrimony between the two sides?

DARCY: I think that both sides actually -- the one thing they've agreed on throughout this whole process is this has gone on too long. We need resolution. And now with this looming deadline, both sides have felt extreme pain. Maybe they can get something done now.

MATTINGLY: Hopeful. Hopeful. It's been going on a long time. Oliver Darcy, great reporting. Keep us posted. This seems to be moving, maybe.

HARLOW: Also this. Breaking overnight, the White House is sending 800 new active duty troops to the southern border, this as we see pictures like this. This is in Eagle Pass, Texas. Yesterday, crowds of migrants under a bridge. The mayor there says 2,500 people crossed the border just yesterday alone.

[08:05:05]

Joining us now, CNN anchor and senior political correspondent Abby Philip. Good morning.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY: Hey guys, good morning.

HARLOW: Nice to have you here. This is interesting, because Mayorkas was saying yesterday, I think he did a speech, and he was talking about, like, admitting, yes, things have gotten worse, surging again at the border. The Biden administration is take some action in terms of the temporary protective status to Venezuelans, which you would think would help a situation like here in New York as well as Texas. Where do we stand?

PHILLIP: This problem continues to get worse. And what's interesting is that every time the Biden administration seems to take a step that is aimed at encouraging migrants to seek asylum in other ways or seek some kind of status in other ways other than taking journey up to the United States, there's a lull, and then we're back to where we are. So this flow is really unrelenting at this point. And you are seeing the ripple effects. That move on the Venezuelans that was announced yesterday is a huge deal. It's half a --

HARLOW: People.

PHILLIP: Yes, it's a lot of people. And it was aimed at trying to help New York. I spoke to the governor last -- of New York last night.

HARLOW: Yes, we saw.

PHILLIP: And they begged for this because they need people who are here to have work status. But she said something interesting, that it only applies to people who arrived at a certain point, not beyond a certain point, because the Biden administration is really concerned about not incentivizing people by offering some kind of work status or legal status on the other side if you come now.

MATTINGLY: It's been a huge reason for the hesitation up until yesterday as the governor and mayors, local officials, House of Representatives have been calling for that, and it was finally delivered on.

We see President Zelenskyy heading to Capitol Hill today, and I was struck by another interview you had with the Congressman Tim Burchett and his position on the overall funding debate, but also Ukraine funding and where things stand. How do you think this ends? And does it include Ukraine funding?

PHILLIP: Look, it's not going to end clearly. I think, look, McCarthy, as you know, wants to say we have this all tied up in a bow. We are going to vote today. We're going to get this done by the weekend. It doesn't sound like that is going to happen. There are still at least a handful of Republicans like Ted Burchett who are opposed to this, and they're opposed to it on very broad grounds. It's not a question of, is the dollar amount slightly less than the one before it. They don't want Ukraine funding. They don't want C.R.s at all, meaning continuing resolutions. They want budgets, actual full budgets. Now, everybody wants that, but the question is, how long are they going to push it, and what are McCarthy's options going to be?

It is not going to be acceptable to the Senate, Republicans or Democrats, to have a bill that doesn't have funding for Ukraine, to have a bill that cuts funding for the Defense Department. So the ball really is now still in McCarthy's court. How long does he try to play ball with the far right? He only has about a week left. And at what point does he decide we have got to get something done, and that something is going to be a bipartisan compromise with Democrats in the House as well?

HARLOW: And then does that cost him his speakership?

PHILLIP: It's a good question. But I think there might be a separate question. How many Republicans are opposed to these continuing resolutions, and how many are willing to vacate McCarthy from the speakership? They may not be the same group, because I think a lot of people recognize that, what's the alternative? They don't have one. They don't have one that can get the votes that are needed to elect a new speaker.

So I think you might start to see some cracks there when it comes to the motion to vacate. And certainly, the moderates, and even some people who were kind of tepidly on McCarthy's side, look at those people to see how they handle this brinksmanship again, because this is, obviously, not the first time we have seen this. This has become a pattern, and some people on Hill are getting frustrated.

MATTINGLY: The allegations laid out by Cassidy Hutchinson directed at Rudy Giuliani. It's coming from her new book. There are serious allegations. I want to play some sound from Alyssa Farrah, who worked with Cassidy Hutchinson at the White House. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I trust her implicitly. I remember two years ago her alluding to something, and I don't want to misrepresent the words, either -- he was creepy or handsy with me. But to put it into bigger context, those of us who were working the West Wing at that time knew that Rudy Giuliani was a wild card. He was unpredictable. Being careful in how I say this, there were concerns. I don't know if they are true that he would come to the White House campus inebriated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Giuliani's camp has pushed back on the allegations and said it's just tied to her book and that they are lies.

[08:10:02]

That is a little bit of what we would call a second source in the business, not direct, but having some implication of the conversation. What was your takeaway after talking to Alyssa?

PHILLIP: Yes, my takeaway from Alyssa is the environment around Giuliani at the White House was one where a lot of staffers were basically told sort of beware. And whether it moved into actual sexual assault, Alyssa believes Cassidy here. She alluded to something like this in the past, sort of independent of all of this.

Now, the allegation from the Giuliani camp is that she is just doing this to make money. Look, I think that the perspective of people who know here, like Alyssa, is she doesn't want to be doing any of this, right? She doesn't want to be going up against the former president of the United States, going up against his allies, going up against Rudy Giuliani. So the idea that she would put this on the table just to create more chaos for herself, people who know her don't think that that is credible.

And so there is a willingness to say she would not say this if it were not real. And on top of that, we've talked about Giuliani before. There have been allegations against him that on the election fight he was overly inebriated. So this is not the first time we have heard of allegations about his behavior, about him not being in control of himself, which is how Alyssa put it. And we'll see what happens, we'll see if Cassidy decides to do anything more with it, seek legal action, which probably is on the table for her. But this is a very serious allegation. We will hear from her more next week when her book does come out.

MATTINGLY: Abby Phillip, thanks for coming in. It's great to see you.

PHILLIP: Really great to see you guys.

HARLOW: Great show last night.

PHILLIP: Thank you. HARLOW: See you tonight.

MATTINGLY: The show, watch it. It's great interviews. But it's always great interviews. Nice to have her in. It's a tough turnaround, so we appreciate it.

PHILLIP: Anything for you guys.

HARLOW: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy trying to avoid a government shutdown. We were just talking about that. Some members of his conference seem to be losing faith in him, though.

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REP. MATT GAETZ, (R-FL): If Speaker McCarthy relies on Democrats to pass a continuing resolution, I would call the Capitol moving truck to his office pretty soon, because my expectation would be he would be out of the Speaker's office quite promptly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: As we were just talking about, are Democrats McCarthy's only hope to stave off a shutdown, and by the way, to keep his job? House Democratic Whip Congresswoman Katherine Clark joins us next.

MATTINGLY: And coming up, New York City has started enforcing new rules cracking down on short-term rentals. It's making Airbnb's a lot harder to find. Airbnb CEO and cofounder Brian Chesky will join us to discuss. Stay with us.

[08:15:00]

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MATTINGLY: Welcome back, and we have some new CNN reporting. As you look at that clock behind me just nine days to cut a spending deal, still no Republican consensus in sight. Speaker Kevin McCarthy may have to rely on Democratic support, but some members of McCarthy's party, like Congressman Matt Gaetz, are warning that teaming up with Democrats would be akin to signing his, quote, "Own political death warrant."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): If Speaker McCarthy relies on Democrats to pass a continuing resolution, I would call the Capitol moving truck to his office pretty soon, because my expectation would be he'd be out of the Speaker's office quite promptly.

MATTINGLY: Would the Speaker's job be imperiled if he relies on Democrats?

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): It wouldn't be a good move.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Now House Democrats, according to CNN reporting, have begun internal discussions about the possibility of saving McCarthy's job as speaker should Republicans move to oust him. Quote, "While no decisions have been made, some of the party's moderates are privately signaling they'd be willing to cut a deal to help McCarthy stave off a right-wing revolt as long as the speaker meets their demands." That's in our CNN story from our Capitol Hill team.

Joining us now is House Democratic Whip Congresswoman Katherine Clark of Massachusetts. Congresswoman, I want to get to that in a minute, but to kind of start in terms of we've had the clock up. You guys know the shutdown clock because we've been doing it seemingly on an annual basis for the last decade or so.

You have seen, I think, probably the outlines that have been reported about what Republicans are considering this morning, the latest iteration of what might be able to get them to and through the House floor. Is there anything in that proposal in terms of the spending levels dropping significantly, the fiscal commission, and the border security legislation that you think would ever get to the President's desk?

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): Let me tell you my perspective on this. We have made no progress here under Kevin McCarthy, and the roots of this are back in January when he sold out the American people's interests to gain a speakership from the most extreme members of his party.

Kevin McCarthy has already made a bipartisan deal that was done in June and his long pastime, he lives up to that. What we're seeing is, as he tries to protect his own job, he is forgetting about the needs of the people who sent him here to govern. So, when people call my office, they are concerned about Social Security and veteran benefits.

They are concerned about the high cost of living. Kevin McCarthy and the extremists are concerned about keeping Kevin in office.

MATTINGLY: I think what I'm trying to get at is what you heard from Matt Gaetz or Chip Roy or others threatening a motion to vacate, trying to remove the speaker from his job if he goes to Democrats for votes on a Stop Gap bill. Is there any scenario where he doesn't have to come to Democrats for votes on a Stop Gap bill to actually prevent a shutdown?

CLARK: He already came to Democrats. That is the deal we set in June. So, all of this is complete nonsense, but it's a dangerous game. Back in June, he made a deal with the President of the United States after taking the economy hostage, catering to these extremists and their agenda of burning government down.

And what he did then was totally roll it back. We had 314 bipartisan votes in the House of Representatives for that deal. The answer is right in front of him. But what he is choosing is his own power. And what he is doing to get there is catering to an extreme agenda. It doesn't have to be this way. When Democrats were in charge, we made investments in infrastructure

and manufacturing and reducing the cost of insulin and health care. We did it with a slim majority. It is time for the Republicans in the GOP to put the people they serve first.

MATTINGLY: I think you get at a critical point.

[08:20:00]

The reason he walked away from the deal that he made within ten days was because of where his conference is. The reason that he is not signing on with Democrats right now on a Stop Gap Bill because of where his conference is. Which begs the question tied to the CNN reporting, can you assure him that if there was an attempt to oust him that Democrats would help him so long as they came to the table on a stopgap that you guys would agree with?

Would you save Kevin McCarthy?

CLARK: This is a parlor game in DC about speculating over a motion to vacate, a motion to---

MATTINGLY: How is it a parlor game? Lawmakers are saying it out loud.

CLARK: because that is not what is really at stake here. This is not about Kevin McCarthy's job. It is about his leadership. And right now, there is a void of leadership. There is a bipartisan deal. Senate Republicans understand that. Senate Democrats, the White House and House Democrats. There is one small group in the House GOP.

This is what happens and we saw the seeds of this back in January with 15 rounds of votes, right. He has turned the gavel over to extremists. They control him.

The way out of this is to live up to his word. The bipartisan deal he already signed. Talk about whether Democrats would save his job is frankly irrelevant. Let's move forward on the deal we have.

Let's get to work for the American people who are looking at this and they don't see themselves in anything that the House GOP is putting out a dangerous one.

MATTINGLY: But do you understand that if the connection to going back to the original deal that he signed I'm not trying to frustrate you. I know how cognizant you are of the dynamics on Capitol Hill. I think what I'm just trying to figure out is if the outcome is he loses his job if he sticks to the deal because he doesn't have the votes within his conference.

And there are discussions among some of your moderates about, all right, do we need to have his back here? When does that filter up to the leadership level?

CLARK: Well, this is what I can say to you. We're going to continue to center what people need. Everywhere I travel in this country, people are worried about the highest cost of living. They're worried that these extremists are coming for their reproductive freedoms.

They are worried. They're coming for Social Security and Medicare. And what we are going to do is say, we have been here. We're here with a deal and we expect Kevin McCarthy to keep his word.

We have a bipartisan agreement. And what flows from that is going to be good for the American people, good for the economy, and ultimately good for Kevin McCarthy. But what we're seeing is a leader who refuses to lead, who is only concerned with his own power.

MATTINGLY: Congresswoman Katherine Clark. It's a busy time on Capitol Hill. I appreciate your time. I know you also have a meeting, closed door meeting with President Zelensky shortly. Ukraine aid is a part of this as well. So, we don't want to keep you away from that. We appreciate your time and thanks for laying out the dynamics.

CLARK: Thank you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Great interview, Phil. All right ahead, the CEO and the cofounder of Airbnb says we're living through, quote, the loneliest time in human history. What does he mean and how is he working to overcome his own struggle with it? Brian Chesky here in the studio with more.

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[08:25:00]

HARLOW: So, you may have noticed it's a lot harder to find an Airbnb in one of the world's top tourist destinations. That's right here in New York City, where officials started enforcing new rules, cracking down on all short-term rentals. And the rules mean a lot of listings on sites like Airbnb are no longer available unless property owners have registered with the city and done a whole lot of changes.

The requirements for approval are strict. No more than two guests at a time. The host must be present during the rental. A city council member here explained why they're cracking down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSWALD FELIZ, NYC COUNCIL MEMBER: We were concerned about individuals turning rent stabilized apartments into turning them basically into hotels, which would have had a very negative effect on our affordable housing prices.

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HARLOW: Regulations in Santo City, New York, you've got cities and towns across the country, from Palm Springs to Portland to Maine all doing this. They're big changes. Joining us now, we talked about this and a lot more. Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky. It's good to have you at the show.

BRIAN CHESKY, AIRBNB CEO AND CO-FOUNDER: Thank you very much for having me today. HARLOW: A lot of experts and those folks I know you guys don't like these changes. They say you take away homes that people should be able to rent to live in, and you make it unaffordable.

CHESKY: Well, we want to make neighborhoods stronger. In fact, I started Airbnb because my roommate and I couldn't afford to pay rent. And one of the things we do is we work with cities all over the world. Airbnb is in 100,000 cities. Thousands of cities have figured this out, from London to Paris to even San Francisco. And there's very simple systems. Like we can have a registration system.

We can limit people to rent if they live in the city. And one of the things we found is that some of the top professions of New York coast were healthcare workers, social workers, nurses, students. These are primarily everyday people.

And when you take these Airbnb's down, I don't think the housing prices are going to go down, but I do think hotel prices are going to go up. HARLOW: I think this moment for you guys is really interesting. And you've sort of been open about this reckoning your company is having and trying to get back to sort of some of the basics of when you started it.

I do want to play a complaint for you. This is just one of many people, this is their issue with Airbnb right now. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIKTOK USER: If you are Airbnb, I'm going to tell you in real-time why no one wants to book with you anymore. And here's why. Okay, here we go. We're going for two nights, $73 a night. Perfect. Within our budget. So, it should be around 150, no, 275 after taxes and all of the fees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Okay? You went on Twitter and you asked people, what do we need to change? Because you're hearing this, Brian.

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