Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Former President Trump Announces Support for Congressman Jim Jordan for Next Speaker of the House of Representatives; Former President Trump Reportedly Revealed Nuclear Submarine Secrets to Australian Billionaire. Biden Says Border Wall Doesn't Work as New Construction Moves Forward; Biden Admin to Directly Deport Venezuelans Back to their Country; Late Night Hosts Take Aim at Trump, Biden's Age. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 06, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:00:30]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Let's get started with five things to know for this Friday, October 6th.

The race for House Speaker has taken a surprise turn overnight. After saying he would consider the position himself, that was never real, Donald Trump now throwing his support behind Congressman Jim Jordan.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Former President Trump reportedly revealing nuclear submarine secrets to an Australian billionaire who apparently shared that information with dozens of others.

MATTINGLY: And President Biden dealing with the fallout over the crisis at the border as Texas Governor Greg Abbott continues to send migrants to non-border cities like New York and Chicago. We're going to talk to Denver's mayor and how his city is addressing the 2,400 migrants who have been bused there since May.

HILL: Trump and Biden now running neck-and-neck in a new 2024 poll out this morning. But the former president holds a significant lead when it comes to voters' top issues.

MATTINGLY: And this morning, Hollywood actors are still on strike. So are UAW workers. Will the walkouts impact the September jobs report that comes out just moments from now?

This hour of CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And how are you going to get them in line if you were to become the speaker?

REP. JIM JORDAN, (R-OH) HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I mean, I disagree with what took place, but those guys are friends of mine. And I think that's the message I have been talking to my colleagues about, is who can bring the eight into the -- part of the team, who can unite our team? I think I can do that. If I didn't think I could do that, I wouldn't run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That was Congressman Jim Jordan making his case to be the next House speaker. And he just got a huge boost from the former president. Donald Trump making a surprise endorsement just after midnight. He's throwing his complete and total support behind Jordan as House Republicans scramble to pick a new leader with just weeks left to prevent a government shutdown. Our Manu Raju just spoke to Jordan in a CNN exclusive. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When you're saying you're a uniter, what is different between you and Steve Scalise?

REP. JIM JORDAN, (R-OH) HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I think this race comes down to two questions. I said this yesterday, who can unite the conference. Who can also unite -- I guess maybe three questions. Who can unite the conference, who can unite conservative Republicans in our party around the country, and then who can go tell the country what we're doing and why it's important to them, to their family, to their business, to their community.

And look, I like the job I got now. I never wanted to do this job, but someone has to, who can bring the team together and can go communicate to the country. And that's why I'm running.

RAJU: And what were your conversations like with Trump? You got his endorsement. What do you expect him to do to get you the votes in this race?

JORDAN: I appreciate the president's endorsement. He's a leader of the party. He's going to be our presidential nominee and I think he's going to be our next president, so I appreciate that. But we are focused also on keeping our colleagues, and I am talking with -- we got from Freedom Caucus to people in the middle to committee chairs to Jeff Van Drew, who was a Democrat four years ago. We've got all kinds of across the board support, and we are just going to keep working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And that was Manu Raju just moments ago working early in the morning, and I think underscoring that Jim Jordan is also working early as he tries to figure out his path forward to the 218 or requisite number of votes he needs. That comes after Trump had been floating the idea of being speaker himself, even though he is in the middle of a civil fraud trial and facing four different felony criminal cases. Also, he is running for president.

HILL: So where do we stand now? What comes next? Jim Jordan out there working early. Manu, too, as you pointed out. Manu is never allowed to sleep, by the way. Let's give you a sense of the calendar, the upcoming calendar. So right now set they're set to meet on Monday in this race to replace Kevin McCarthy. They will hear from candidates. They'll hear from Jim Jordan, they'll hear from Steve Scalise during a forum. Then on Tuesday an internal election is expected on Wednesday, and there could be a House vote on that same day if there is a candidate who can unify enough Republicans. But it's not going to be easy here. They need to win support from both moderates and those hard-liners who voted out McCarthy.

MATTINGLY: Let's get some insight from two former Republican congressmen who voted to impeach Trump, also voted in a few speaker elections as well, Fred Upton and Adam Kinzinger. Guys, thanks so much for joining us this morning. Congressman Upton, I want to start with you, because I have been trying to map out the pathway to 218 or 217, whatever the requisite number is right now, given the dynamics of this conference, which has changed dramatically since you first got there.

[08:05:03]

Do you see a pathway for either Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan at this point?

FRED UPTON, (R) FORMER MICHIGAN CONGRESSMAN, VOTED TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT TRUMP: It's going to be really hard, obviously. And Adam and I have been chatting for a long, long time, and we both expected Trump to come out in support of Jordan. So that really was not a surprise. In fact, there is, I think Trump is coming up to the Hill next week to address the conference to try and get people together. But it clearly puts Jordan in the catbird seat at least for the first round.

But you've got to get 218. And the questions among the moderates, the Republican governing council, the old Tuesday group that I helped found, main street partnership, are there going to be 10 or 15 Republicans that say, no, this is not where we need to go? There's 18 Republicans that won in districts that Biden won. They are not going to be very happy with a Jim Jordan speakership. He opposed the 21st century CARES Act, he opposed the CHIPS Act. He has been actually with those eight, I'll call them renegades, and their votes virtually all year long.

So there never was a problem for him corralling them and bringing them on to the team. The question will be, where are the moderates going to be? Are there going to be enough to say no? And in that case, then it probably -- you look at McHenry or maybe Tom Cole as a successor.

HILL: So Congressman, Kinzinger, as we look at this in that exchange that we just played with Jim Jordan and Manu, he talked about united the conference. He believes he is the guy, right. He keeps saying he is the guy. What also stood out to me is he said he is basically the communicator here, that he -- the other reason he believes he is the right job for this job, that he can get this done and bring people together is because he can tell the country, in his words, what we are doing and why it's so important.

How important is that communication part of it? If he is out there on TV more, if he is speaking more to voters, is there the chance, is that the hope that then he also will take some of that, that they will take, rather, some of that back to their representatives and he'll hear from voters?

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, yes, I mean, look, communication is really important for a speaker. I am kind of old school. I still think the speaker's job should be just to be the speaker of the House and not to be the leader of a certain party. But it is important.

Now, Jim Jordan is not a great communicator. He is great on FOX News because he throws out all kinds of bombs, right? I don't think he would be good with a crowd that, frankly, is in a middle unless they don't wear suit jackets also and he can relate to them on that level. And so that is going to be an interesting thing.

The reason I think that Jim Jordan can unite the caucus better is not because he's any better. I think he is far worse. It's because the incentive structure is such that these eight renegades that threw out the current speaker, Kevin McCarthy, are probably going to get their way, because they are willing to go to the edge of the earth, they are willing to withhold their votes to get rid of Kevin McCarthy. The question is, are there 10 on the other side willing to play that same game, to say hell no will I ever vote for Jim Jordan. If there are, Jim Jordan will never be speaker. And we may actually get to a consensus speaker, which would be better for the country. But unless that happened, I am not convinced there are those numbers.

Look at Nancy Mace. By the way, she'll be on CNN, I am sure, at some point today. She voted against Kevin McCarthy because she said he was not pro-women enough. She has to immediately today, I would assume, come out against Jim Jordan and say no chance will she ever vote for Jim Jordan. She was just on Bannon's podcast, so I doubt that happens. But this will be interesting to watch.

MATTINGLY: Congressman Upton, to Congressman Kinzinger's point, this has always been the case inside the conference, particularly over the course of the last four or five years. The moderate members, the Problem Solvers group members, the Main Street Caucus group members always had the numbers to do the same exact things that we saw from Gaetz and his crew, and they have never done it. So why would this time be any different?

UPTON: Well, it's crunch time now. I mean, it really is. So it's either make a statement now and say, you know, maybe do it as, as Adam said, you look at a coalition, although that's a bunch of ballots down the line. That's next week, or actually, two weeks down the line if there is a real gridlock here. But we will see. We will just see. We will know.

I think members will be coming out with statements pretty soon whether they can accept Jim Jordan, assuming that he does have the nod, that things don't collapse over the weekend. And Steve Scalise, he had a magnificent challenge, but it's pretty hard to get above 100 votes and he needs 113. It's a real divided conference, that's for sure.

HILL: Yes. Before we let you both go, Congressman Kinzinger, I do want to get your take on reporting overnight, of ABC reporting that former President Trump in April of 2021 when he was out of office at Mar-a-Lago told this Australian billionaire, discussed very sensitive information about U.S. nuclear subs, how close they could to Russia get without being detected.

[08:10:11]

Andy McCabe was just putting in context for us earlier this morning about the level of sensitivity of this information in particular and why it could be so damaging. From your perspective, where is your head at this morning when you hear this latest reporting?

KINZINGER: Yes, this is really traitorous activity. This is a complete betrayal of the trust the United States of America puts in a U.S. president. Let's think about the fact that Fred and I in Congress allocated billions of dollars into these programs to save American lives and ensure that we could operate the seas and control the freedom of navigation in the way that American people expect. For Donald Trump to go say these secrets, he is literally -- he is putting American lives in jeopardy. He is putting American defense strategy in jeopardy, and he's wasting billions of dollars because now we will have to change those secrets, obviously, if they get out. This is unforgiveable. But this is just par for the course for Donald Trump. And anybody that supports him and defends him in this cannot call themselves a China hawk in the same breath.

HILL: Former Congressman Fred Upton, Adam Kinzinger, always good to have you both with us. Thank you.

In major policy shift, the Biden administration says it will now begin deporting Venezuelans back to their country, part of efforts to curb the record influx of crossings at the border ahead. New CNN reporting is just ahead.

MATTINGLY: And it's not just New York and Chicago. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is also busing migrants to Denver. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston joins us next on how he is addressing this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:00]

MATTINGLY: President Biden is explaining why his administration is moving to build more barriers at the US. Mexico border. After explicitly campaigning against it, he says he also still believes that a wall won't work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Border wall. The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money. They didn't, they wouldn't. And the meantime, there's nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what is appropriate.

I can't stop that.

REPORTER: Do you believe the border wall works? BIDEN: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Top U.S. Officials were in Mexico this week for annual security talks. As Mexico's president says the U.S., "Is acting irresponsibly for building a new wall." Meanwhile, in a major policy shift, the Biden administration says it will restart directly deporting Venezuelans back to their homeland in an effort to curb the record influx of southern border crossings.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is live in Washington D.C with more. The scale of the policy changes, they seem like they're one offs. They're not. They're all coming together, but do they actually create a potential solution here?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, they're all coming together in an attempt to deter migrants from continuing to come to the U.S.-Mexico border. So, to your point, for years, the U.S. has been unable or hasn't been carrying out regular deportations to Venezuela. That changes this week, and here's why that's important.

Venezuelans make up a larger share of border crossers than they have in previous years. If you look at the numbers, just in August, for example, there was over 30,000 migrants from Venezuela who were encountered by border authorities. Now, what often happens is that they are processed by authorities and then they're released into the U.S. as they go through their immigration court proceedings. That was really one of the few options that the administration had.

And in some cases, they do send them back to Mexico, and the reason is because there are over seven million people who have fled Venezuela because of economic and political turmoil there. Just to give you a bit of context on that, Phil, that outpaces the number of people who have fled Ukraine where there is an active war.

So, this is a regional issue and one the administration has been grappling with at the border. And now they're making the decision that they're going to have to send some back to Venezuela or try to over the next weeks to try to make a dent in those numbers at the U.S. Southern Border.

And just yesterday, we heard from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who tried to describe a little bit more about this announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're charged with taking coordinated actions to try to stabilize flows, to expand regular pathways, to humanely manage all of our borders. Repatriations are a key piece to this balanced approach.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We are a nation of immigrants, and we are a nation of loss.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: The resounding message being they're going to levy consequences against migrants and then also try to provide lawful pathways where they can.

MATTINGLY: One of the questions I have after this announcement is relations with Venezuela. The ability to actually repatriate that had long been a significant hurdle. Is that solved now? And how?

ALVAREZ: So senior administration officials would not go into detail into what exactly Venezuela agreed to that would allow them to do this, what, if anything, they asked for, for example. But it is a major breakthrough for them to be able to do this. I think the outstanding question, though, here is how many flights are they willing to take?

They said they're going to accept their nationalities, but how many are they going to take in a week or a month? And will that make a difference moving forward?

MATTINGLY: All right. It's a big question. Priscilla Alvarez, great reporting, thank you.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: One of the cities facing a surge in migrants right now is Denver. Part of the influx in migrants there can be attributed to Texas Governor Greg Abbot's busing program that's transferred more than 45,000 migrants to major cities since May. Of those that, more than 2400 were bused to Denver specifically, city officials have asked for help from the National Guard to help with the surge.

They're also shortening the length of time that individuals can stay in temporary shelters in Denver, single people, it was 21 days. Now it's 14 for families with children, the amount of time in shelters actually increased by about a week. When we're looking at where we stand at this point, the city has hundreds of migrants currently in shelters. If we take a look here, you can see the increase in just the past month.

The surge we should point out here is also impacting a number of other areas throughout the city, including public schools. Officials are working to help hundreds of migrant families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESTHER RIVERA, DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOL'S HOMELESS EDUCATION NETWORK: We, on a daily basis, are having to hear from families. I have nowhere to go. I'll be sleeping on the streets with my child or my children tonight. We've heard in the past couple of weeks from families, just, my student cannot take a shower. We're living on the street.

When you're at a shelter for only 30 days and then you have to leave that shelter, you might get housing or you might end up on the streets in the complete opposite side of town.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PALACIOS: Joining us now is Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Mr. Mayor, good to have you with us this morning. You were just telling me in the break you're still getting between seven and nine buses a day, some 350 to 400 people a day. Where are they all going? How many are staying in Denver?

MIKE JOHNSTON, DEMOCRAT MAYOR OF DENVER: Yes, right now we are obviously sheltering folks when they arrive.

[08:20:00]

And so we have been expanding our capacity dramatically to try to serve people humanely as we can. And what we find is a lot of people do have networks of support in the United States, but they were not ever intending to come to Denver. So, they got put on a bus and they were trying to get to California or Chicago or to Boston because they have family there.

And so, people that are trying to reconnect with families or networks, we help them arrive to those places. People that are trying to make a life here in Denver, we help get settled in and connect to services. I'd say the single biggest challenge we face, really is I was just with one of the shelters yesterday talking to migrants, and the very first thing everyone will ask me is, "How can I work? Where can I get a job?"

They're not asking for help. They're not asking for charity. What they want is just a chance that everyone else wants to chase the American dream and be able to work. And our biggest challenges, we have employers, CEOs, who will also call me every day and say, hey, see, some migrants have arrived, can I hire them? We have people here who want to work.

We have employers who want to hire them. We have a congress who stood in the way of their ability to do that. I think that's the biggest challenge we see right now.

PALACIOS: So that's one of the things I know you're asking for. You've talked about maybe being able to put together a local work permitting program. As you're waiting on that, you were on a call, as I understand it, with the White House and also with the governor of Illinois on Sunday to specifically address this crisis.

Coming out of that, J. B. Pritzker actually sent a letter to President Biden talking about this, saying that it was unsustainable at this point and that they're at a breaking point. You didn't sign that letter. I know you were aware of it. Do you agree with his assessments? Would you apply those to the city of Denver?

JOHNSTON: I have not talked with Governor Pritzker. I have talked with the White House and leaders there. I've talked with Secretary Mayorkas, and we were grateful for their actions two weeks ago. We had pushed them, Governor Polis and I, together, on the notion that more work authorization was going to make a big difference.

The change several weeks ago to allow Venezuelans who arrived before July 31 to be able to apply for expedited work authorization is a big impact for us. Same with individuals who came through the CBP One app, which is an online app, to be able to work.

So that's what we've been advocating for. We know if people are here without work authorization, we are going to need more federal support to support them. But our focus is really trying to get them access to work. We think if you bring someone into the country and tell them they can't work, there's no choice but to either encourage them to break the law or to make them survive on public subsidy.

And we think neither of those are good options.

PALACIOS: Housing is a key issue in your city, not just for migrants, but for Denver residents as it were. The number of unhoused people is growing as winter is approaching. This is even more of a concern. What are the biggest needs right now? Is it simply shelter or does it go beyond that?

JOHNSTON: Yeah, we are facing a crisis around homelessness. I declared an emergency on that when I came in as mayor just two months ago. And we're working hard to get 1000 people off the streets and into shelter who were unhoused before.

We know we have that same need around housing and shelter for migrants. And we know as winter comes that becomes an even bigger crisis. And so, we are trying to find additional places for them to stay. We can work on shelter and we can work on nonprofits who are doing a great job connecting them to services.

We just know if we get someone into housing but they don't have any stream of income to pay the rent, it's just going to be a matter of time before they're facing the same crisis. So, we'll get services, get them connected to housing. What we need is a stream of income for them to be able to support that housing long term.

And that's where the importance of work becomes primary.

PALACIOS: Denver Mayor Mike Johnston continue to keep an eye on the situation. Thank you.

JOHNSTON: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sharpening his attacks on Donald Trump at a campaign event, saying the former president has, quote, "Lost the zip on his fastball." And, CNN's David Culver takes us with him on what is probably one of the hardest assignments he ever received. The boot on his foot will tell you that running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. You don't want to miss this.

Stay with us.

(COMMCERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, LATE NIGHT HOST: There's actually a lot of interesting new data about the election. Really? Peachick this out. First up, when asked who is your ideal candidate,5% of people said someone who shares my morals. 5% said someone who has experience. And 90% said someone who isn't old enough to be on the golden ballot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: As is often the case with comedy, it's funny because it's true. The most likely to be the nominees in 2024 presidential election would definitely qualify for the golden bachelor if they were bachelors. But one candidate who wouldn't is what?

PALACIOS: Minor detail.

MATTINGLY: Is that how that works?

PALACIOS: Yeah, totally.

MATTINGLY: Watch the show one who wouldn't. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He's now escalating his attacks on former president Trump on Thursday with direct shots at Trump's age and stamina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DESANTIS, FLORIDA REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR: We need a president that's got energy. We need a president that's going to be full throttle for eight years. We don't need any more presidents that have lost the zip on their fastball.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I mean, I've heard more cutting attacks, but it's a progression.

PALACIOS: It is definitely a progression.

MATTINGLY: As for the other GOP rivals, after a couple of strong debate performances, Nikki Haley has seen a jolt in the polls, causing Trump to turn more attention to his former cabinet member. He's given her the name, "Bird Brain." Nikki Haley. For what reason? Literally, nobody knows. And this weekend, Haley tweeted this picture from outside her hotel room where a birdcage was waiting.

Signed from, quote, the Trump campaign. Here to discuss all of this, CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny. I like that you're already grinning, Jeff, because you appreciate the absurdity of several things, just like I do, the one thing that I've been trying to figure out for the entirety of this primary, but I need your insight on it because you're actually on the ground.

The progression of attacks, the ramping up of attacks, they're still not seeming to be full throttle, and nothing has moved the former president and his I mean, nothing has moved him. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: You're right. I

mean, one of the reasons that some of these candidates, all the Republican candidates, are reluctant to really go hard after Donald Trump's because of his popularity in the race. So, they're trying to work around the edges, if you will. But the comments from the Florida governor there, who's 45, so he does not qualify to be on The Golden Bachelor. But look, those comments get to, something that he --

[08:30:00]