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CNN This Morning

Writers and Studios Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike; Government Shutdown Grows More Likely Amid House GOP Chaos; Growing Calls for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to Resign Over Bribery Charges. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 25, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Were seen getting into his car.

[07:00:01]

And here's a thing. You guys know, you talked about the era, if she's in her red era. Well, we do know the 1989 era was a huge era for Taylor Swift and really when she became a superstar, a lot of her fans loved that era and the outfit that Travis Kelce had on after the game was a print called the 1989 bedroom painting. So, whatever that is.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: This is just -- she feels so coordinated. I'm just a Jason Kelce guy and a Travis Kelce. We're all going to show. Thank you guys, as always. We appreciate it.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right. CNN This Morning continues now.

MATTINGLY: Well, good morning everyone. A lot of big news to get to this morning. Let's get things started with five things to know for this Monday, September 25th.

Breaking overnight, there is a tentative deal in the Hollywood writers' strike after 146 days and countless picket lines.

HARLOW: There is no deal in Washington, D.C., though, where a government shutdown is looking increasingly likely. The government runs out of money in five days and the Republican Party split is very evident.

MATTINGLY: And bad news for President Joe Biden. In a pair of new polls, 56 percent of Americans disapprove of how he's doing the job.

Also, the mayor of El Paso says his city is at a, quote, breaking point without enough resources to deal with a surge of migrants, as Mexico makes an agreement with the U.S. to deport people to their home countries.

HARLOW: And historic delivery for NASA, a capsule carrying parts of an asteroid just touched down on Earth. We'll get into it.

CNN This Morning starts now.

Good morning, everyone. I'm so glad you're with us. Are you more excited about Taylor and Travis or this asteroid? Or probably -- you're probably more into the --

MATTINGLY: Usher.

HARLOW: Usher?

MATTINGLY: No, it's Usher is a -- yes, Usher.

HARLOW: Usher and the Super Bowl. Oh yes, and Washington still has to figure it out.

But the other coast has figured half of it out.

MATTINGLY: There is a tentative. deal and a good sign for the first time in 140-plus days.

HARLOW: Yes.

MATTINGLY: New this morning, the Hollywood writers' strike could be coming to an end after studios reached that tentative deal with the Writers Guild.

Now, that is video of writers celebrating in Los Angeles after the agreement was announced. Guild members still need to vote and decide whether to accept the deal and Hollywood remains shut down. Actors, of course, are still on strike with no end in sight.

HARLOW: And the impact on the economy has been huge. Economists say that strike has led to more than $5 billion in losses, not only in L.A., but in other big T.V. and film production areas, like right here in New York, also in Georgia.

Our colleague, Camila Bernal, following all of it in Los Angeles. We don't have the deal yet, right? They got to vote on it. We don't have all the details. But notable that the union, the Writers Guild, called it exceptional. Does that mean they got a lot of what they wanted?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's what a lot of these writers think. This is huge. They've been fighting for so long now that a lot of them just -- you saw the celebration. They're excited. They're thankful. They say they want to get back to work.

But the guild also saying, you got to wait, we're still on strike. You can't go out and work just yet. Because what they're saying is, first, they got to get through some of the details. They're calling it dotting the Is. They have to figure out the language in the contract.

Then what happens is the leadership will take a few votes and that's likely going to happen tomorrow. After that vote happens, then the deal will be made public and we'll be able to see exactly what these two sides agreed on. And then the members will have to vote to ratify.

Once that is ratified, you're going to start seeing some changes, maybe not a lot, but you're starting to see late night shows, talk shows. Those will likely be the first to come on air after this strike, after all of it is settled. And the big question, though, is still what's going to happen to the rest of the year in terms of T.V. and next year, summer movies. The question here is what's going to happen to the writers. They've also been -- or the actors, excuse me. They've also been on strikes since July.

And so these two strikes together really have paralyzed Hollywood and the economy here. It's sort of a domino effect because it's not just this industry. It's so many others that have been impacted by this.

And so there is this sort of feeling that maybe this deal will motivate or pressure or even speed up the process with the actors, but we'll have to wait and see what happens with SAG-AFTRA, because productions really are not going to be able to go back to normal if the actors haven't made a deal, and so both of these things have to come together.

But already leaders here in California reacting and saying this is essentially going to continue to help the economy here. Governor Gavin Newsom saying this is a major piece of California's economy going back to work. And the mayor here in Los Angeles also saying, you know, people are going to be able to get back on their feet.

[07:05:01]

It's been really, really difficult over the last couple of months, and this is really a sigh of relief for a lot of people in this industry, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. And we'll see what it means for the actors still on strike. Camila, thanks very much. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Well, from one place where there is a tentative deal to one place where we're not sure what on Earth is going to happen, and they only have under six days to figure it out. Obviously, this is the Capitol building and a shutdown at this point is looming.

Where is all the pressure at this point? Well, there's just one person you need to pay attention to. That's Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It is within his conference, the intraparty warfare that has been playing out not just for the entirety of Kevin McCarthy's time as speaker, but also in a very acute manner over the course of the last several weeks.

So, where do things stand right now? Again, this is the Capitol building. Here's what you need to know. This is the United States Senate over here. The U.S. Senate has been waiting for House Republicans to act so far. They haven't, and so the U.S. Senate on Tuesday is going to start, in a bipartisan way, moving its own short- term bill, a short-term bill that would have bipartisan support, and would need bipartisan support in the House, which is over here.

And where are they? Well, they worked throughout the course of the weekend, and we don't actually know where they are at this point in time. They are still trying to find a path forward because while the Senate is operating in a bipartisan way, the House, at least at this point in time, is not, Speaker Kevin McCarthy very aware of the threat to his job if he brings Democrats in.

So, what is McCarthy's tentative plan at this point in time? Over the weekend, working through the idea of passing full-year spending bills, at least a package of them initially, that would have steep cuts to where the current baseline is, and in the middle of all that, pass his short-term stopgap bill and add border security to it.

Let's be abundantly clear about this. None of this has any pathway forward in a Democratic-led Senate or with a Democrat in the White House. They're just trying to do something to get into negotiations. Again, they only have less than six days.

Here's something to step back and keep in mind here. There was a deal that was supposed to make this process a lot easier, the debt limit vote that happened back in May. This passed with significant bipartisan support. It's supposed to set the baseline for the appropriations negotiations.

And what I want you to focus on here is this breakdown of the actual vote itself. These are Republican votes in favor of the deal. 149 Republicans voted in favor for the deal that set the groundwork for all of the appropriations process going forward.

About two weeks later, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, with pressure from conservatives, walked away from that baseline. Here's the problem. Senators were still operating on that baseline. Democrats say that's the deal. Stick to that baseline. The White House does as well.

Apparently, Republicans do not. And that is because hardliners, House Freedom Caucus members have asked for steeper cuts, saying that was the reason that they allowed Speaker McCarthy to become Speaker on the 15th vote back in January in the first place. So, they've walked away from a deal that existed entirely.

Here's the other problem McCarthy has. While he's getting pressure from conservatives and hardliners, a handful of members won't even vote to move forward on procedural process. These are 18 members of the House Republican Conference that come from districts that President Biden won by a sizable margin. Of these 18 members, all but one, George Santos, supported that debt limit vote. All but one basically supported right now a structure that House Republicans have walked away from.

Those are the members that gave Kevin McCarthy the speakership and the majority. Those are the members he needs to protect. One thing to keep a very close eye on as this week goes forward, that's the moderates right here, Don Bacon, Brian Fitzpatrick, Dusty Johnson, David Valadao. There's a couple more as well, members of the bipartisan group, the Problem Solvers, they are working to find some type of pathway forward.

But as it currently stands, no pathway forward for McCarthy if he wants to go Republican only. He's going to need Democrats eventually. The question right now is, when is he going to come to that conclusion? Poppy?

HARLOW: Five days in counting, Phil, thank you for that.

Well, this morning, New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is facing calls to resign, by the way, from some Democrats as well, after being indicted on federal corruption charges. Prosecutors are accusing Menendez and his wife of accepting thousands of dollars in bribes, including cash, gold, lavish gifts, you see him on the screen, in exchange for using his office to aid Egypt's government. Now, a growing number of lawmakers from his own party think he should step down.

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REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): In this indictment are extremely serious. They involve the nature of not just his, but all of our seats in Congress.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): This is a very serious charge. There's no question about it.

In terms of resignation, that's a decision to be made by Senator Menendez and the people of New Jersey.

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Well, these are serious and shocking charges, bribery, corruption.

I've never seen anything like this. I think Senator Menendez is going to have to think long and hard about the cloud that's going to hang over his service in the United States Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania John Fetterman has called on him to resign.

Menendez has denied the charges. He says, quote, I'm not going anywhere.

Kara Scannell has our reporting on this and joins us this morning. They're so serious that if convicted, he could face prison time.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, these charges have a maximum of sentence of 20 years of prison. That doesn't normally happen for someone, especially a first-time offender, but they are serious charges.

[07:10:04]

And the eyes now are on Menendez and what's going to happen this week.

And so we are expecting he may give a press conference today. Newjersey.com is reporting that, citing someone familiar with his plans. So, we're waiting to see if he does. But he has been defiant. So, there's no belief that he's going to change his mind and resign at this point.

He is due in court on Wednesday. There is a summons for him, his wife and the three-code defendants to appear. It's possible he will be reined on those charges then. He has made it very clear he's going to fight this. I mean, he's saying he's not going anywhere. He's not stepping down.

And this is the second time in a decade that Menendez is in this same position. He didn't resign then. He's very clear he's not going to resign now.

But as you were saying, I mean, these charges, he's facing three counts. They all relate to receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from these three New Jersey businessmen in taking steps to potentially aid Egypt and to try to interfere with some criminal investigations affecting these men.

HARLOW: Or to get people into positions of power in his state that would benefit him.

SCANNELL: Right, and benefit these businessmen who were funneling the money to him and funneling it in a way that, according to prosecutors, envelopes stuffed with cash in jackets bearing Menendez's name with the DNA of one of the businessmen on the envelopes, and then also gold bars that they also allegedly got as part of this bribery scheme.

HARLOW: And what people just saw on their screen, those are photos from the actual indictment. I think that was so stunning to see on Friday when it came out. Thank you very much, Kara.

MATTINGLY: Well, we've broken down all the power dynamics on Capitol Hill, but what will a government shutdown mean for everyday Americans? We're going to tell you what's at stake.

HARLOW: The mayor of New Orleans declaring a state of emergency as the federal government tries to delay or avoid a climate disaster that would threaten the area's drinking water.

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[07:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: A shutdown would include, just in the transportation side alone, shutting down air traffic control training at the exact moment when the country recognizes the need for more, not less, ATC staffing. And when we finally got cancellations back at or below normal rates, and air traffic controllers who would be working in the towers, they wouldn't get paid. They're under enough stress as it is doing that job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That was Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warning of air travel disruptions if Congress fails to pass a bill to fund the government before the September 30th deadline. That, of course, is five days away.

Federal agencies have already started the formal process of preparing for a shutdown, which could have an enormous impact on all Americans.

Let's take a look at some of the actual consequences to this debate on Capitol Hill. First, air travel. During the 2019 shutdown, hundreds of TSA officers called out of work, many of them, to find other ways to make money. The White House now warning there could be potentially a significant delay and longer wait times.

What about public health and safety? The White House says the FDA, quote, could be forced to delay food safety inspections. There could also be risks to drinking water, as the EPA rolls back most of its inspection activity at facilities.

Also food assistance, the Department of Agriculture says people enrolled in SNAP, as food stamps are formally known, will receive benefits through October. But what happens after that? Very unknown.

And some of the country's most beloved treasures, such as museums and national parks, they could be affected or closed. Those are just some of the ripple effects of a potential shutdown.

HARLOW: But the first field of pinch, almost all of the country's 3.5 million federal workers, they're going to go without pay, including active duty military, much of federal law enforcement. For many of them, a shutdown would strain their finances, as it did during the record 35-day funding lapse just a few years ago. The largest federal employee union recently noted that during that shutdown, quote, members struggled to pay bills and to feed their families. They drove for rideshares, went to food banks and were forced to take out loans that caused some employees years of hardship.

With us now as the president of that union, Everett Kelley. His union, the American Federation of Government Employees has 750,000 members, making it the largest federal union in the country. Appreciate you being with us, Everett, good morning.

EVERETT KELLEY, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: Good morning.

HARLWO: You detailed to CNN recently just a couple of weeks ago that a number of the people that work under your union really live paycheck to paycheck. Can you explain what even a week or two of a government shutdown would mean for them?

KELLEY: I mean, let me say, Poppy, first of all, that, you know, my -- the people that work for America, people that we represent in American Federation and Government Employees, they're no different from America's workforce in general.

60 percent of the American workforce live from paycheck to paycheck. The people that I represent are no different. One week without a paycheck could be devastating. I mean, because people struggle. I mean, people struggle to pay their bills. People struggle to pay house note, car note, and those types of things. This is the issue that we will face in event of a shutdown.

HARLOW: Are your workers that you've heard from betting the government is going to shut down? Are they preparing for that right now?

KELLEY: Yes, we are encouraging our members to prepare for a shutdown. It seemed to be inevitable that it's probably going to happen. And so we're encouraging our members to prepare for a shutdown.

HARLOW: Wow, inevitable. You know, there are some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, by the way, who are responsible for voting on this in the House who think it's not a big deal. Let me read you what Congressman Andy Biggs, a Republican of Arizona, said, quote, don't let the D.C. Uniparty scare you into thinking a government shutdown is end of the world. A so-called shutdown is really just a pause in non- essential federal spending.

I want to give you a chance to respond to that.

KELLEY: You know, the GOP want to make across the board cuts to vital programs such, as the Social Security, such as our food safety, air quality, all these type of things that's vital to America.

[07:20:03]

You know, when a person doesn't get their Social Security check on time, that creates a problem for all of America.

You know, it is not just federal employees that's going to be affected by these issues. It's the entire community. It is the entire world. Only 15 percent of federal workers live in the D.C. area. The other 85 percent is throughout America. And so America is going to be affected.

HARLOW: One thing that's interesting to me is this is not -- yes, your union workers are facing this immediate threat of a government shutdown, but there's also increasing calls from prominent Republicans running for president to slash the federal workforce.

I want you to listen to this from Vivek Ramaswamy. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIVEK RAMASWAMY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I think we really need is a true shutdown of the administrative state. And so what I've said is as U.S. president, I would lay off 75 percent of the federal employee headcount, shut down government agencies from the FBI to the Department of Education.

That's how you solve the national debt crisis. That's how you grow the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Governor, President Candidate Ron DeSantis last month said, as president he would, quote, start slitting throats in the federal bureaucracy. What's your response when you hear that?

KELLEY: I think it's absurd. It is -- you know, it's impossible to think that a person could think that way. You know, for me though, it's political theater, okay? America depends on the federal worker. The federal worker depends on America. We work for America. And to have people running for these positions, you know, to make those kind of statements tell you exactly what kind of person we will be working for.

It's unimaginable that we could even elect a person for president that think that way about the federal workers that they represent. Slitting the throats of federal workers, I mean, you know, that's absurd.

HARLOW: He said in the federal bureaucracy, he wasn't being literal, but you get the point.

KELLEY: Well, I get the point, absolutely. You know, but even cutting 90 percent of the agencies, you know, is absurd. I mean, America has to work and it's time for Congress to fund America so that America work for the people.

HARLOW: Everett Kelley, thank you for being with us. We'll keep in close touches the week proceeds. I appreciate it.

KELLEY: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thanks. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Former President Trump turning down this week's debate invite instead, will be in Michigan to deliver a speech to striking auto workers. How that discussion could impact his campaign, that's next.

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[07:25:00]

MATTINGLY: Republican Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel confirming that that GOP frontrunner Donald Trump won't be attending Wednesday night's debate and that she doesn't know if he'll attend any GOP debate at all. Instead the former president is expected to be speaking to auto workers in Detroit amid its ongoing strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump will be in Detroit. That was announced over the weekend. President Biden will be there on Tuesday. He'll be there Wednesday. Will he attend any of your primary debates?

RONNA MCDANIEL, CHAIR REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, you know I want him to attend a debate and he knows that, everybody knows. I think the other candidates also want him to attend a debate. I hope that before January that he comes to a debate and participates in that process, but everybody is doing their own strategy.

So, the RNC's role is to create a fair, transparent process and everyone can play their strategy as candidates as how they think they're best going to garner that nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Joining us now at the table to discuss Political Reporter for Politico Emily Ngo, National Correspondent for the Washington Post Phillip Bump and CNN Political Commentator and Political Anchor at Spectrum News Errol Louis. Guys, welcome. Thanks for being here. Congrats on the Buckeyes this weekend. It's great on our part. Why?

HARLOW: All morning.

MATTINGLY: All morning, you have to. I'll get to the debates in a second. But the auto worker element, the UAW strike, the kind of back and forth between Trump, Trump's team, Biden and Biden's team. Emily, Biden deciding to go, physically go on Tuesday, go to the picket lines, I want to be pretty clear about this, there's no real precedent that I could find in terms of a sitting president joining one side of one of these negotiations physically there. What do you think that means?

EMILY NGO, POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO NEW YORK: Something like the first time in about a century that someone in his position would come out and do that, but he was elected as a champion of the working men with his blue collar background. And he had to choose a side almost to speak on behalf of those working so hard and standing up to those CEOs that would make so much money.

But when it comes to him and Donald Trump, we go back fundamentally to a clash of the populace who can speak to those in flyover country who might have been overlooked. And they go about it in very different ways. They're very different messages. They're very different men, different politicians, but they are for the everyday person.

HARLOW: Given two people at this table from flyover country, we don't call us that, right, Phil?

MATTINGLY: That's okay. Just don't call it the rust belt.

HARLOW: Fully joking.

MATTINGLY: That's what rust belts --

HARLOW: Fully joking.

To Emily's point, I think, Phil, it's so interesting that they are on the same side of this, that Trump and Biden are going there one day after each other on the same side of it.

PHILLIP BUMP, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Sort of. And I think the key distinction here is that Biden is on the side of the institutional power of the labor movement. Donald Trump is on the side of the white working class workers who are affected, not all white obviously, but that's -- you know, that tends to be his base.

The difference being that Joe Biden is establishing and bolstering the power of the union itself, the collective power of this group of people. That is the institution. That's the institution that has been so beneficial to Democrats over the course of the past, you know, century, right?

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is trying to play to the appeal of just the workers themselves. So, Biden is making a statement about who he wants to help, who he wants to bolster, which is this collective group that is organizing on behalf of the workers, as opposed to Trump is who's appealing to the workers.

And, of course, Trump, it's fascinating, you know, it ties into the debate. Obviously, he's just -- he's playing general election game, right? This is a general election play to go to Michigan and do this and appeal to those same workers who Biden was able to peel off.

HARLOW: Any risk in that, in playing the general election?

BUMP: He doesn't seem to be. I mean, he's up by like 150 points in the polls, right?

HARLOW: That's a very accurate number.

BUMP: Yes, exactly.

MATTINGLY: Errol, but I think Phillip makes such a great point here. Because if you look at the Trump administration over the --

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[07:30:00]