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Trump Confusion on Stump; Oscar Leeser is Interviewed about Immigrants in El Paso; Polls About New Jersey Politics. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 26, 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]

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Does anything about that. They're washing up onshore. I saw it this weekend. Three of them came up. They wouldn't - you wouldn't see it once a year. Now they're coming up on a weekly basis. The windmills are driving them crazy. They're driving - they're driving the whales, I think, a little batty.

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: That - that is indeed what people are saying.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: How do you feel about windmills, Phil Mattingly?

MATTINGLY: Not nearly as passionately as former President Trump does to say the least.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Natasha Alford, former deputy chief of staff to former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, and who also served on the January 6th Committee, Maura Gillespie, and senior Washington correspondent and - for "Bloomberg," Saleha Mohsin.

Guys, let's start with the idea that I don't think Governor Jeb Bush in Florida launched the invasion of Iraq. The windmills thing has long been a fixation for the former president. Don't really understand where he's going with it. But, like, if Biden had said any of that stuff on the stump, people would have lost their minds. Seventy-seven- year-old Donald Trump says it and it's like, eh.

NATASHA ALFORD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, it's interesting. I think that because Donald Trump has a lot of bluster and energy people sometimes confuse that with being, like, rational and logical.

But all of that aside, what's really fascinating is that he has to sell -- that he is truly about union workers after four years of policies that were actually quite mixed, that didn't actually serve union workers. And so this strategy that he's employing now of sort of sowing division between the union workers and their - their leadership is a really fascinating one and it speaks to him trying to detract from the fact that his policies didn't necessarily serve the laborers.

HARLOW: The White House is trying to push on the policy front, out with a statement this morning saying, look, under Biden, 235,000 auto jobs have been created. That's their claim. And they say that's four times under Trump.

The question is, is it just the union that actually wins out from the two of them being there this week as they continue to point at the CEO pay, continue to point at the hours they work, you know, what AI is going to mean. Does this just help the union just to have both of them there this week?

SALEHA MOHSIN, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "BLOOMBERG": It also helps the whole rust belt. I'm from Ohio. When you have two candidates with that kind of poll coming into Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and across those states, you're getting finally the attention from the country and policymakers on the East Coast in Washington that those people didn't really get. That's why Trump was elected. They were the forgotten man that he shined a spotlight on.

And so now we have a Democratic presidential candidate who is determined to make sure that he also is part of the effort to listen to them, to go and talk to them. So, it's going to draw attention to the union vote itself, but also everyone else in that region, all the other economic sectors that are contributing to the economy and other people who are getting the bite from inflation, who suffered during Covid, and who just want to be heard.

MATTINGLY: You know, Maura, what's interesting to me is that's -- it's a great point. And if you talk to Biden economic officials, as I know you have every day, probably 50 times a day for the last two and a half years, so much of Biden's agenda was - not necessarily, with the exception of emergency -- the immediate rescue plan was long term, right? We want to build things that actually help communities or kind of sit and grow inside communities that have long been forgotten or have long been left in places like Ohio and Michigan and Wisconsin. And yet people don't seem to be feeling that based on kind of the top line economic polls despite the macroeconomic numbers. Why do you think that is?

MAURA GILLESPIE, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR FORMER CONGRESSMAN ADAM KINZINGER: We live in a society now where it's microwave. We need it immediately. And if it's not right before us and in front of us, tangible, can feel it, we don't really pay attention it. So, I mean, think back when Biden recently announced the medications that are now, you know, he announced two medications that he's going to have -- make available and free and things of that -- that's not going to happen till well down the road. He won't get credit for it.

So, it's great to have these policies, it's great to have the infrastructure act. We have seen some projects being built. And you're seeing Republicans tout that even though they didn't vote for it necessarily. But we live in a world where we want to see it right now. And if we don't, then we're distract by something else. And Trump is so good at distracting and pointing out, well, I'm here for you. He's coming in today as a - I'm a champion for union workers. It doesn't matter if that's true or not. He can say it to them and point out that Biden's not looking out for you. He's looking over for EVs. He's sending all the jobs to China. And he can just sit there and be, you know, a savior to them as he presents himself but without getting fact-checked in real time.

HARLOW: Explain the electric vehicle issue that the Biden administration is pushing so hard and why it's concerning to these union auto workers because many of the EVs are not made by union workers, right?

MOHSIN: Yes.

HARLOW: That's the contrast here that Biden's going to have to straddle that tomorrow - today.

MOHSIN: Poppy, that just gets to the heart of it.

[08:35:02]

What the union workers see is that we have a president right now who wants to support electric vehicle production. That means less workers in factories on assembly lines, less humans who are helping build those. Also, China has a lot of EV production. So, Trump can come with his old adage of jobs being shipped to China. What the UAW workers and union workers need to hear from Biden is that, I will find a way to protect your jobs, even though I support the EV push.

HARLOW: But can he do that?

MOHSIN: It's a fine line. I don't even think his half a century in Congress is going to help him with that. But let's see. We're going to see him on the picket line.

GILLESPIE: We still need - we still need cars. We still need gas cars, right? We don't have the infrastructure right now to even have -- if everyone were to get an EV, we don't have the infrastructure to do it. I mean we don't have enough generating stations in the country to sustain that. So, I think that's also an issue where he --

MATTINGLY: But that's the point of the subsidies.

ALFORD: Yes.

GILLESPIE: And he could talk about that, right?

MATTINGLY: Right.

GILLESPIE: He could point out, OK, we need more generating stations. And I know people get all nervous about nuclear, but we do need more nuclear generating stations in this country to be able to facilitate the energy needed for EVs.

ALFORD: And what these workers need is not false promises, right? Look at Lordstown, Ohio, where Donald Trump said, you know, don't sell your houses, right? I will -- excuse me, I will protect your jobs. And what happened was the factory didn't come back. HARLOW: The factory closed.

ALFORD: So, again, a lot of bluster. But if you don't have the policy to back it up, what's the difference for people on the ground.

MATTINGLY: Which is like the most amazing thing. Like, no one remembers that. He literally was promising people to their faces that he was going to save everything in Lordstown and it shut down like three months later.

I do want to ask, Maura, as a respected political communicator, the idea of -- people are saying, much like the windmills, the idea that Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis will be holding a debate, which was just announced yesterday -- I know the Biden team looks at Governor Newsom as a good surrogate, an effective surrogate. Why is this happening?

GILLESPIE: Ron DeSantis needs to have something of a jumpstart to his campaign. He's seen numbers kind of slope down. And this is an opportunity -- because a lot of people on the right think that Gavin Newsom will run for president. People have been kind of speculating, will President Biden actually go through with running for president even in 2024 given his most recent polling numbers are really pretty abysmal.

So, this is an opportunity for Ron DeSantis to go head-to-head with who he thinks will be running for president and position himself as the number one candidate over Donald Trump. This is really an opportunity for Ron DeSantis to kind of show what he's made of because he has not done well thus far in the first debate. We'll see what happens tonight.

MATTINGLY: Do you think it's a good venue for him?

GILLESPIE: I don't. Just being honest.

HARLOW: Just being candid from a Republican strategist.

MATTINGLY: (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: Appreciate it.

GILLESPIE: Just being honest.

HARLOW: Maura, Natasha and Saleha, thanks.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, guys.

HARLOW: New developments following that fentanyl death of a one-year- old at the daycare in Bronx. Prosecutors just released new images of a suspect leaving the building before emergency responders arrived. The latest on that probe ahead.

MATTINGLY: And the city of El Paso grappling with the surge of migrants. Officials are warning that the influx isn't stopping anytime soon and shelter capacity is running out. Oscar Leeser is the mayor of El Paso and says his border city is at a breaking point. He's going to join us, next.

Stay with us.

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[08:42:18]

HARLOW: Welcome back.

So, cities along the U.S./Mexico border are trying action. They're trying to respond quickly to these rising numbers of migrants arriving. Just yesterday the El Paso City Council voted to buy a middle school and turn it into an emergency migrant shelter. Before the vote, El Paso's mayor told councilmembers the city found accommodations for more than 7,000 migrants and prepared more than 16,000 meals in just ten days. Despite the efforts, Mayor Oscar Leeser says that his border city is at a breaking point. And he joins us this morning.

We really appreciate you having - you being with us given all that 'u are going through. I want to begin with what one of the directors of the existing shelters there told our colleague Rosa Flores yesterday, that about 300 migrants slept in the street last night. And as I ask you this, I want to show images -- I believe we have of last December and last May, what you guys were going through then. Are you preparing for that again now?

MAYOR OSCAR LEESER (D), EL PASO, TEXAS: Yes, we're preparing for making sure that we have roving teams. And the roving teams go through El Pason and offer them shelter. And some of these people you see that are out there that select to sleep outside because they - they want to be able to go on a -- when people come by and they're looking for day workers (INAUDIBLE) day workers. Or some of them will sleep outside Sacred Heart Church because their kids, their wives are in there.

But we go in there. We have roving teams. And we offer them all shelter. As a matter of fact, we've gone from four hotels to nine hotels and we house that everybody had a bed, we had over 1,000 people last night. So, it's an ongoing crisis, as we've talked about. We know that the immigration process is broken. Until it's fixed, we need to continue to work together really on the other side, on the south side, to be able to fix what's going on today.

So, our main responsibility is the safety of our community, but also to make sure that our visitors are safe and we help them to get to their next destination. Only 1 percent of people are coming to El Paso, they're actually coming to the United States.

MATTINGLY: You mentioned the ongoing crisis. You've said the city is at a breaking point right now. I'm interested, how long can you go on like this, particularly as surges continue cyclically?

LEESER: You know, and the team here in El Paso has done an incredible job. The city, the county, we all work together to make sure that we provide a bed and a warm meal for everyone. And it -- but we are at a breaking point. We were - we're running out of hotels. We're running out of space. And when I talked to Chief Owens from the Border Patrol, he told us to prepare for about 2,000 crossings a day. So, that's something that we're preparing for.

You talked at the middle of the show, we actually went out and bought a school that had been closed for about three, four years and we're going to prepare that for an emergency shelter.

[08:45:08]

We're actually -- that school is on 19 acres. And we're going to sit there and half of it will be completely apart, will be an emergency sheltering service. And the other half will be an animal services where there will be -- and we'll have an animal park out there and they'll be able to come walk a dog, sit there and play with a dog so it helps them with mental health, or they can do none of the above because there will be two separate facilities that they can merge with because we know that mental health is one of the largest things that we need to help and work with.

HARLOW: Given that many migrants, Mayor, do not have money for transportation out of your city and other cities on the border, are Texas Governor Greg Abbott's buses, where he's having them taken to other cities like here in New York City, are those helping?

LEESER: Well, who we worked with was the Office of Emergency Management for the state of Texas. And the Office of Emergency Management of El Paso work together with it. And we want to make sure that everybody that gets on a bus signs a letter knowing that -- where they're going and make sure we know where those buses are going. We need to make sure that no one is sent to somewhere where they don't want to go. We want to make sure that we work with them. And - and that's -- so far that's how we're working. We have said that we will work with them as long as it goes to where the destination of the asylum seeker but also make sure that we communicate with the city where it's going, have a manifesto so they know they can prepared for them.

MATTINGLY: On the federal level, do you feel like the administration has been responsive to the scale of your needs?

LEESER: Well, the city of El Paso couldn't do it on their own. It's an impossibility that we'd be able to fund these kinds of millions and millions of dollars. So, we've been very thankful for Secretary Mayorkas, the FEMA, that's actually given us the funding to move forward. But we do understand that funding may end. And it would be an impossible for a city like El Paso to be able to do that and make sure that people are not on the street and we continue to protect the safety of our community and also our visitors.

So, it's important that we continue to be partners with the federal government to help us fund an immigration system that's totally broken, that really needs a lot of help moving forward. Didn't break yesterday. Didn't break a year ago. It's been broken for quite a long time. And we need to move forward on a non-partisan way of fixing the immigration system.

MATTINGLY: All right. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, we know you're very busy. We appreciate your time, sir. Thank you.

LEESER: Thank you. You all have a wonderful day.

HARLOW: You too.

MATTINGLY: Well, new images just released following the fentanyl death of a one-year-old child at a Bronx daycare center. They appear to show a suspect leaving before emergency responders arrived. You can see him there. Authorities say he entered empty handed and - from where he and his wife lived next door. And two minutes later he hurried out the back door through the bushes with shopping bags they believe contained fentanyl. His wife owns the daycare and is facing federal and state charges. Also, we should note, a third person has been arrested in connection with the child's death.

HARLOW: California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a pair of new laws that really strike at the heart of America's culture wars. One of them requires gender-neutral baths in schools by the summer of 2026. The second law prohibits school districts from banning books and other school materials based on race, gender, and sexuality. This comes after Newsom fought with the school board in southern California over its opposition to textbooks that included gay rights icon Harvey Milk.

MATTINGLY: Well, Senator Bob Menendez refusing to resign as he faces federal bribery charges despite some fellow Democrats calling for him to step down. How are New Jersey voters responding? Harry Enten is here to break it all down, coming up next.

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[08:52:42]

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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): And the charges are formidable.

And it probably would be a good idea if he did resign.

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MATTINGLY: Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, the latest prominent Democrat to call on Senator Bob Menendez to resign. Menendez, however, says he will not stop down and is denying the bribery charges against him.

One New Jersey Democrat, Congressman Andy Kim, has already said he'll challenge Menendez in the Democratic primary.

Joining us now with more on the political dynamics at play here, CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten.

OK, explain to me why Menendez is not willing to step down at this point.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, so I think the number one thing you have to keep in mind is the last time a Republican won a Senate race in the state of New Jersey was 51 years ago. It was all the way back in 1972. This is a state that's voted Democratic on the presidential election every single election since 1992. So, the idea that Menendez would lose a general election seems farfetched to me.

And more than that, he has won elections before when even as New Jersey voters said he lacked high ethical standards. In 2018, 68 percent of New Jersey voters said Menendez lacked high ethical standards. Back in 2006, 62 percent of them said he lacked high ethical standards. So, the idea that, oh my God we're going to present new information to New Jersey voters who would say therefore Menendez didn't have the standards to be in the Senate. The fact is, they've already felt that way. And they not only elected him initially back in 2006, but they re-elected him back in 2018 with that math.

HARLOW: What about the primary?

ENTEN: OK. So, if you can't beat him in a primary - or can't beat him in the general, how about in a primary, right? So, let's take a look. Before Menendez was indicted his standing with New Jersey Democrats, 58 percent approved him. That's the majority, right? Just 23 percent disapproved. You had that 19 percent that didn't know. Not too surprising for a senator. It's not like a president. So, it's not shocking that you had that didn't know.

But here's the question. With these new corruptions - with these new corruption, these indictments, would that necessarily change the math?

So, I want you to keep an eye here. Pre-indictment, New Jersey Democrats, a New Jersey politician's corruption level. Forty-nine percent of New Jersey Democrats said that New Jersey politicians were either very or somewhat corrupt. They already believe that they're corrupt.

HARLOW: Just like in general?

ENTEN: Just in general they believe that they're corrupt.

MATTINGLY: Love that faith in the system.

ENTEN: It's New Jersey for goodness sake. So, the idea --

MATTINGLY: It's not an excuse, Harry.

[08:55:00]

ENTEN: Not necessarily an excuse. I'm just trying to explain where the voters might be.

So, the fact is, will these new charges make a difference? We'll wait and see. But Menendez has reason to be at least a little skeptical.

MATTINGLY: All right. All right.

HARLOW: OK. Thank you, friend.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, buddy, as always. ENTEN: The math is the math.

MATTINGLY: I got it. I got it. Thanks, buddy.

ENTEN: Thanks.

Well, if you needed any more proof that Taylor Swift's appearance at a Chiefs game Sunday was resonating with people other than just poppy Harlow, people appear to be putting their money literally on the rumored couple.

HARLOW: It is not my story.

ENTEN: According to Fanatics, Travis Kelce was in the top five of jersey sales this weekend, surging more than 400 percent. It was likely driven almost exclusively by Swifties. One surprising Swift fan, the only Swift fan that matters, weighed in yesterday.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where do you fall on that? Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift, power couple of the NFL?

BILL BELICHICK, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS COACH: Travis Kelce's had a lot of big catches in his career. This would be the biggest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Yes, that's Patriots' Coach Bill Belichick, and he's actually responding to a reporter's question, which is notable in and of itself. He went to Taylor Swift's concert at Gillette Stadium earlier this year. After that performance he called Swift tough and impressive.

It's impressive to have Bill Belichick be a fan of you.

HARLOW: Now we know the way to Belichick's heart.

MATTINGLY: Taylor Swift.

HARLOW: If you want to get him to smile, loosen him up, then ask a difficult questions.

ENTEN: Also dogs. He loves dogs. So, Taylor Swift and small dogs. He has a small, little dog.

HARLOW: Start with - so you're telling me Belichick has soft spots?

ENTEN: He has a soft spot.

HARLOW: Wow.

ENTEN: We all have soft spots. You just got to find the way in.

HARLOW: OK. All right. Fair. And we just did.

ENTEN: We just did.

HARLOW: Thank you, Harry.

MATTINGLY: (INAUDIBLE).

ENTEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thanks for being with us. Have a great day. We'll leave you with this. And we will see you back here tomorrow.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" is after this.

Is that how you think she dances?

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