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CNN This Morning

Nikki Haley Runs Ad Criticizing Former President Trump's Comments on Haley's Husband; CNN on the Frontlines of Fight Against the Houthis; Biden Campaign on Suozzi Win: Donald Trump Lost Again; Interview with Rep. Michael Lawler (R-NY). Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 14, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Be the first American made spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of the moon since the end of the Apollo program way back in 1972. And if successful, the company behind this lunar lander, a company called Intuitive Machines, it would become the first private company in history to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon. So two big firsts here. The mission was scrubbed last night, but they're going to try again tonight. So fingers crossed.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: -- Washington, thank you.

CNN THIS MORNING continues now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM SUOZZI, (D) NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN ELECT: We won.

(APPLAUSE)

SUOZZI: Let's send a message to our friends running the Congress these days. Stop running around for Trump and start running the country.

(APPLAUSE)

SUOZZI: The people are watching. They want us to start working together. So our message is very clear -- either get on board or get out of the way.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Morning everyone. So glad you're with us. It is a big morning for Democrats. They flipped the House seat once held by expelled and indicted New York Congressman George Santos. What this victory by Tom Suozzi means for Capitol Hill and for the upcoming presidential election.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And overnight, Ukraine says it destroyed another Russian warship in the Black Sea, but more U.S. military aid looks unlikely, at least for now. We're going to talk to National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby about how the U.S. would support Ukraine if that package fails to move forward.

HARLOW: And a high seas showdown -- we'll go in inside the U.S. military's mission to stop attacks on ships and the Red Sea. This hour of CNN THIS MORNING starts now.

Here's where we start. Republicans grip on the House just got even weaker. Democrats scoring a huge victory and flipping the seat once held by George Santos. The GOP's already razor thin majority is now getting slimmer and dimming their chances of passing anything without some support from Democrats. Tom Suozzi says his win as a clear message that Americans are fed up with Republicans following Donald Trump's orders and refusing to work with Democrats on border security and other pressing issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM SUOZZI, (D) NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN ELECT: It's time to move beyond the petty partisan bickering and the finger-pointing. It's time to focus on how to solve the problems. It's time to get to work on immigration, on Israel, on combating Putin, on helping the middle class.

CROWD: Yes!

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Harry Enten joins us now to break down his takeaways from last night's special election. Look, there's only one takeaway. This means everything. This tells you exactly what's going to happen in November, right?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: That's exactly right. It tells you everything. No, it's just one special election, but I want to put it in sort of some context of what has happened over the last year, which is it's just the latest big win for Democrats or liberal candidates, right? They flipped the Wisconsin Supreme Court last year. They took control of the Virginia general assembly. They had already held the Senate. They held on to it. They won the lower house there. Beshear, Andy Beshear, the Kentucky governor, and now we have this big win in New York three, switching this district.

So this sort of falls in line with this argument that Democrats have been having is, yes, those national polls may be saying one thing, but when voters vote, Democrats win.

And I want to also just sort of put this in a context of why this Suozzi win was far from guaranteed. Yes, a lot of people pointed out that Joe Biden won this district by eight points back in 2020, but Republicans swept it in the 2022 midterms. They won the gubernatorial race. They won the House race, obviously, with George Santos. And Joe Pinion who lost by double digits statewide actually won in this district by about four points over Chuck Schumer. And so this win looks a lot more like 2020 than 2022.

And how, of course, ditched Suozzi do it? I watched these ads. There were a ton of these ads.

MATTINGLY: You had choice if you lived here.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. I mean, I was just trying to watch football and these ads were just coming on and on and on. And he was able to do it actually by leaning into the immigration message, the idea on border security that Republicans didn't want to do anything and he would actually go in and try and tighten the border. And folks had been listened to Trump too much and perhaps trying to vote against things that a lot of folks actually wanted.

MATTINGLY: So it's such a good point, because remember, he told Manu Raja last week. He said something, when Republicans blocked this, it made this a lot easier for me, and I thought, we'll see if that plays out in the numbers. It seems like it has.

To your broader point, though, if you're Joe Biden, you're looking at this, you're saying win after win after win and special in ballot initiatives, governors' races, Virginia, state house races -- what's happening with my numbers? What's the answer there?

ENTEN: Yes. Essentially, if we were essentially to look right now, you hit it this in the intro, the number of votes that Mike Johnson could lose is shrinking and still have majority. It was three. Now it's down to two. That was part of the reason I think why that Mayorkas impeachment yesterday was rushed through, because they had already lost three votes. They could afford to lose the three. Now, Republicans can only lose two votes.

[08:05:02]

And here's the real thing. This may make the House and the Congress, et cetera -- it's not working, and it may continue not to work to an even greater degree, because look at the bills and resolutions that have become law. It was 39, that was already the lowest compared to 81, which was the prior low in the last 50 years. This 39, this year, we may even see fewer pieces of legislation passed. So Congress isn't working, and it may continue not to work.

MATTINGLY: I've heard that there's a bill that was just sent by the Senate that probably has about 300 votes, which would be enough in the House. They just have to put it on the House floor.

ENTEN: Yes, that's apparently a ton of math.

MATTINGLY: Harry Enten, we appreciate you. Thanks, buddy.

HARLOW: All right, with us now, CNN political commentator, former special adviser to President Obama, Van Jones, and Scott Jennings, our senior political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush. They're both here. Good morning, guys.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning. HARLOW: Van, is the Suozzi when the roadmap for Biden and Democrats

to win in nine months?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is just because the Republicans have managed to shoot themselves in the foot by taking this issue of immigration, weaponizing it. They're putting migrants on buses, driving up to blue states to get them in blue cities, saying the sky is falling, terrorists are coming, we've got to do something.

And then what Democrats say, you know what, you're right, they say, never mind. We don't care. So now it's the Republicans open border, and Democrats can run against Republicans open border, and also still maintain our commitment to being humane, not treat people like footballs and circus animals and all the horrific stuff the Republicans have been doing, but also be tough on the border. So the Republicans have literally turned what was their super issue into an issue that we can win on. And we just showed that last night.

JENNINGS: It's not exactly Biden's roadmap because Suozzi did everything he could to stay away from Joe Biden and ran away, didn't want Biden to come here, ran ads of him on FOX News being an immigration hawk. So it can't be -- it cannot be a roadmap for Biden when congressional candidates in swing districts are doing everything they could do to stay away from the mayor.

JONES: But what's interesting is you don't see Biden jump on social media and then started beating the crap out of anybody in our party. You can have some flexibility. If you want to be close to the president, that's fine. You want to move away in your district, that's fine. We don't march everybody off the same cliff.

With Trump, you've got to march off the same cliff, even if you've been screaming for months about the border, suddenly Trump goes, we don't care about the border until after I'm president, and you have to throw your own issue in the garbage can. So our party can be more flexible and Biden has his own problems, but there's a roadmap on this issue of immigration. Democrats can win on immigration.

MATTINGLY: To that point, Biden will be running against Trump. And clearly Trump motivates an activates a different set of voters that come out in special elections in the Republican Party, but he also activates the hell out of Democrats. And that's consistent over specials as well. And I thought this is why Nikki Haley is obviously still running against Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, had a statement last night that made the point. They lost in 18, they lost the House. In 20, they lost the presidency and the Senate. In 22 they underperform in the red wave and continued to not have the Senate anymore. There's a statement. They lose with Donald Trump, Republicans lose with Donald Trump.

JENNINGS: Yes, except for one time, 2016. And he still didn't get more votes than Hillary Clinton in that election, but he did manage to back into the presidency. Something else about the coalition that has formed for both parties here, and I think you saw this last night. A lot of the former high propensity college-educated voters we used to rely on in districts like this have gravitated towards the Democrats. They show up for elections. Trump, it is true, has actually brought a lot of new people in the Republican Party, but a lot of them are lower propensity voters. They may show up for Donald Trump. They may come out, and I suspect he's going to do better in this district than what happened in the special last night in November.

But when you're talking about special elections, you've got to get your people out, you want people who have a proven track record of voting. And the Democrats right now, these college-educated suburban voters, that's where they're going. And you saw it last night.

JONES: And Scott is right on that. That's where Democrats can't get too comfortable, because these are weird elections. You've got a weird dude, Santos, who made this thing strange. It was weird. You were voting in February. The weather is weird. It's like a blizzard and early in springtime at night. So it was a weird election.

And a lot of wealthy, college-educated people came out. That may not be the same in November. In November, everybody is coming out, so Democrats can't get too comfortable because we keep winning these special elections. Once you get to the normal, everyday, here it is, it's November, it's the presidential, it will be a different electorate. It just shows there is a pathway. If we were losing all these specials, we'd be even more concerned. There is a pathway, but it will be different in November.

HARLOW: We look at this video because in his remarks last night, Tom Suozzi was once again, as Biden has been many times, disrupted by pro- Palestinian protesters. I think we have -- can we play the sound, guys? Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Genocide! You support genocide!

CROWD: Suozzi! Suozzi! Suozzi!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:10:08]

HARLOW: He also then made a remark about sort of everyone working together. But Van, I ask you this, not particularly about what happened to him, but what is going to keep happening to Democrats and keep happening to Biden, unless there's a call for a ceasefire from the White House.

JONES: Unless there's, I think, a change in what the IDF is doing -- listen, we've seen this movie before. In 1968, you had an unpopular war, Vietnam, you had an unpopular Democratic president, Johnson, you had a new technology showing a young generation shocking images, color television, and the convention was a disaster in Chicago. Guys --

HARLOW: In Chicago.

JONES: Guys, we've got an unpopular war, an unpopular Democratic president, at least right now, and a new technology TikTok, Instagram, is showing a generation shocking images, and they're reacting. And so you can't pretend that this isn't a dynamic here. And I think if we are still in the summer seeing the same type of images, young people are going to continue to be upset. It's going to be difficult for Biden to give his convention speech if you have this level of energy from the young part of our party.

HARLOW: Can I just ask you? I was really struck this week seeing, first of all, the significance of King Abdullah going to the White House at this moment, saying publicly and those remarks, it has to be a ceasefire. Biden doesn't say ceasefire, but a couple of days prior he says what Israel is doing is over the top. Is something changing?

JONES: But listen, that ceasefire language, unless you're going to say a bilateral ceasefire, that Hamas needs to stop firing rockets. Don't forget, we don't always show it, but Hamas is firing rockets today at Israeli civilians. Thats why there's something called the Iron Dome. So I think the problem is when you just say ceasefire, it sounds like you're saying one side, the Israelis need to stop doing what they're doing. And it seems unfair. So I think that's why there's tension inside of our party. How do you describe the need to deal with that humanitarian crisis differently? I agree. I think Israel has gone too far, but the real focus needs to stay on Hamas and that movement. And that's why we have this rug burn.

JENNINGS: I suspect the person who rushed the stage last night, when they hear "ceasefire," they think, oh, Israel should engage in a ceasefire and we should be able to continue to, or Hamas should be able to continue to do whatever they want to do. And that to me is the push and pull. This district, by the way, one of the biggest Jewish populations in the country. Suozzi, he wasn't conflicted about this. But Biden, he has got other jurisdictions to be deal with.

JONES: We have internal torque on that issue.

MATTINGLY: I would also note, I'd like to thank Mayor Johnson will have a different approach than Mayor Daley, hopefully.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTINGLY: But I do want ask Scott before we let you go, Nikki Haley's super PAC has a new ad out. She's still running. There's still a race. South Carolina is the be-all end-all, and it's next up on the calendar. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump did it again, this time attacking Nikki Haley's husband.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: What happened to her husband? Where is he? He's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That guy is on a military deployment. He's essentially mocking his military service.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a sick pattern, visiting military graves and saying, I don't get it. What was in it for them? Calling dead soldiers suckers and losers.

Donald Trump, sick or clueless --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Its true, it's the thing about her husband is abhorrent, and I have no concept of what the thought process was if there even was one. That's a powerful ad.

JENNINGS: Yes. I mean, look, she has run some ads and said some things that are objectively true that look like they should be useful political tactics. There are no more persuadable Republicans. He's got this thing. Now, I'm sure there are people that don't like it and are going to vote for him anyway. I think what he said about her husband is terrible. It's absolutely terrible. I mean, the man serving our country.

But this thing is on lockdown for him right now. And I don't know how long she's going to keep it going. But there are no ears lift that are listening to this. They think this primary is over and they also think he's going to beat -- Republicans think he's going to beat Joe Biden and they're just tired of being told otherwise.

MATTINGLY: Last word?

JONES: I think Nikki Haley is doing a great source to the country. There are two people standing between Donald Trump and the White House, one is Joe Biden and the other Nikki Haley, and I hope that she continues to do what she's doing.

MATTINGLY: It's interesting to watch, particularly if she has to consider endorsing. We've seen this path before. A number of Republicans, and I feel like this --

JONES: It's a pretzel-shaped path, and we know where it ends up.

MATTINGLY: This past week might have been a bridge too far. We'll see. Scott, Van, thanks guys, as always.

Also this morning, we're going inside the fight against attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. We go aboard a U.S. warship to see how the Navy is trying to stop the Houthi rebels.

HARLOW: Also this morning, people up and down the eastern seaboard digging out of what was the biggest snowstorm in years for some cities, snarling traffic, knocking out power in some places in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. About 15 inches of snow in New York City. Central Park got just about three inches, but that's the highest we've seen in two years.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back. This morning, we are getting an up close look at how the US Navy is

trying to stop attacks against ships in the Red Sea. Our Natasha Bertrand went on aboard a US warship on the frontlines of this fight against Iran-backed militants capturing how quickly the crews on these ships need to react in order to successfully shoot down an incoming missile mostly fired by Houthi militants in Yemen.

The US has launched dozens of airstrikes and retaliation, but the Houthis have continued to attack these ships forcing vessels to go around Southern Africa in the Cape of Good Hope and adding a lot of costs to what it takes to ship this stuff and what you could pay.

Just this morning, the second largest shipping company in the world told CNBC, it does not expect to use the Red Sea route again anytime soon.

Our national security correspondent, Natasha Bertrand joins us from Bahrain with a lot more.

Just remarkable that you were on board. We've been reporting so much on this. Tell us what you saw.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Poppy, we were really on the frontlines of the US Navy's fight against the Houthis inside Yemen. They are backed by Iran and they have been launching dozens of missiles and drones into the Red Sea targeting commercial vessels, as well as directly targeting, we are told, US and coalition forces who have been stationed in the Red Sea to try to protect the freedom of navigation there.

Now, it is really hard to overstate just how intense the environment is on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier where we were stationed for two days and we watched dozens of planes take off every single day to circle the skies over at the Red Sea, and of course, to carry out strikes inside of Yemen itself to try to prevent the Houthis from launching these missiles and interrupting commercial vessels and of course prevent them from actually hitting these ships, which they have managed to do several times in the past.

[08:20:26]

Now, we also had the opportunity to go on board a US destroyer, which is really the tip of the spear when it comes to this fight against the Houthis. These are the destroyers that shoot down the incoming missiles, really on a regular basis, and we went inside the command center of this destroyer to get a look at just how quickly the crew of the ship needs to respond when they sense an incoming missile.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is air new track, 8-0-3-0-6 ISS is anti-ship cruise missile inbound. Gravely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kill track 8-0-3-0-6 with missiles. Visit screen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Break MSS co-track 8-0-3-0-6 MSSI. Missiles away. 8-0-3-0-6.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strike 8-0-3-0-6.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: Now the radars on that warship, they can quickly detect when the Houthis launch a missile from inside Yemen and they can respond to it again. They only have a couple of seconds, at the most, a couple of minutes to do so.

But those systems don't always work, those missile systems onboard these destroyers. And in fact, just a couple of weeks ago, this destroyer that we were on, the USS Gravely, it had a very close call with a Houthi missile that was launched in their direction. They had to use one of their last lines of defenses onboard the ship called the PHALANX system in order to successfully shoot that down. That just gives you a sense here of how these sailors are really directly in harm's way every single day.

HARLOW: They are, and did you get a sense from them in terms of how long they can sustain trying to repel these attacks?

BERTRAND: Well, according to the officials that we spoke to you on board, both these ships, the Gravely and the Eisenhower, they say that they can sustain this mission really for as long as it takes to defeat the Houthis.

It is not an easy task because the US doesn't know exactly how much of the Houthis capabilities actually remains despite the fact that they've been striking inside their territory, but here is what the commander of Carrier Strike Group 2 told me about just how long the US can sustain this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR. ADMIRAL MARC MIGUEZ, COMMANDER, CARRIER STRIKE GROUP 2: The sustainability, we can go for a long time. We've got our logistics train already mapped out to stay here as long as the president needs us to stay here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: So the US confident obviously that they can outlast the Houthis. It remains to be seen though just how long they're going to have to remain stationed there in the Red Sea.

The Houthis are going to be tough to defeat according to many of the officials we spoke to.

HARLOW: Just amazing that you got on board all of that. It is fascinating. Thank you, Natasha.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Democrats flipped the House seat George Santos used to hold. We will talk to Republican Congressman Mike Lawler next about that, the politics of New York and what's happened on the House floor. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:24] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM SUOZZI (D-NY), CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: Let's send a message to our friends running the Congress these days. Stop running around for Trump and start running the country.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That was Democrat Tom Suozzi after winning the special election in New York to replace expelled and indicted Congressman George Santos.

President Biden's campaign also using the win to attack Trump saying, "When Republicans run on Trump's extreme agenda, even in a Republican- held seat, voters reject them."

Suozzi's win offers Democrats a potential playbook in November as they try and win key suburban districts around the country and this victory tightens the already very narrow majority of Republicans have in the House to 219 to 213.

Joining us now to discuss, Republican Congressman Michael Lawler of New York. He's one of the most outspoken Republicans who pushed to expel George Santos.

I just want to say this up top, so my mother-in-law is not concerned. I will get to mass today for Ash Wednesday as well. The morning sure makes it a little difficult to do it in the morning before work. I will do it after work. But I know she will appreciate that you've already done that, Congressman.

I want to start with last night when you were on CNN, I was watching. You said this is going to be a referendum on Democratic leadership. People are upset both at the state level, the federal level that the Democrats won. So what do you think that tells you about how people are feeling about Democratic leadership?

REP. MICHAEL LAWLER (R-NY): Well, obviously, as you alluded to, this is ashes on my forehead, not crow. But you know, look, I congratulate Tom Suozzi on a well-fought campaign.

You know, this is a Democratic district that the president won by eight points. And, you know, you look at the fact that he has been in public office for nearly 30 years, representing most of this district, including representing it in Congress for six years and they spent $25 million on this race.

Obviously, I think we all anticipated it would be a lot closer than it was. But I think when you look at all of the polling in the race, the top three issues were the border, affordability, and crime and I don't think that's changed.

I think Tom ran a good campaign, and in a special election, you know, it really is about turnout and Democrats came out to vote.

MATTINGLY: You know, those are the top three issues, and Suozzi won and ran a good campaign, name I.D. obviously a huge part of the spending as well. But doesn't that provide a roadmap then for other Democrats who have similar districts, Biden-won districts -- you're in a Biden-won district from 2020 -- to use in November?

LAWLER: Look, I think each race is obviously different. When you look at a district like mine, which Joe Biden won by 10 points, I'm doing very well in my district, and in part, because I show up in every community, people know where I stand on the issues, they know who I am.

And, you know, at the end of the day, when you look at any campaign, it really comes down to the choice between the candidates. And so, I think certainly Democrats, you know, can look at this race and see a pathway forward in some of these districts, but it comes down to the candidate.

My opponent, Mondaire Jones was the third most progressive member of Congress. While he was here, he called for defunding the police. That doesn't play well in my district. If you note, Tom Suozzi ran away from President Biden, didn't want President Biden to come campaign for him.

MATTINGLY: Right.

LAWLER: And you know really, frankly, went after the president on the border.

So, obviously, yes, Democrats can learn something from the fact that you know, even their candidate here repudiated the policies that have been enacted by the Biden administration, but you had a candidate that had been in office for nearly 30 years and $25 million was spent to prop him up.

[08:30:30]