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CNN This Morning
Nikki Haley Continues to Campaign Ahead of South Carolina Primary; South Carolina Voters Consider Options between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley for Republican Presidential Nominee; Clinics in Alabama Pause IVF Services after Alabama Supreme Court Ruling; White House Announces Major Sanctions Against Russia; Tomorrow: Two Years Since Russia Invaded Ukraine; US Ambassador to UN on Israel-Hamas War. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired February 23, 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]
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Recently started working in the hospital's orthopedic department.
PEACHY BUHAIN HAIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF NURSING, CEDARS-SINAI: I think it was meant to be.
BERNAL: For Peachy, that help came naturally.
HAIN: When you're from another country, you need a few resources to help you, to guide you. And lo and behold, she made it.
BERNAL: As you found it?
HAIN: Yes.
BERNAL: Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And here's where we start. Donald Trump and Nikki Haley getting ready to blitz South Carolina on the final day before the state's pivotal primary. This could be the final blow for Haley's campaign with Trump dominating the polls in our home state. But Haley is adamant she is staying in this race until the end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I know you're all here because you want to see America turn in a different direction. The only way we can do that is if we win a general election. And the problem is Donald Trump can't win a general election.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Now, as for the Republican frontrunner and former president, he's getting a little bit agitated over Haley's refusal to drop out. I think that's fair to say. Here's what he told a radio session in South Carolina yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I guess she's got an ego or something. I'm not a big fan of hers. She's doing very bad things for the Republican Party. I don't care at this point if she stays in. She's getting very few votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Jeff Zeleny starts us off live in lovely Charleston, South Carolina. Jeff, I feel like I said this at every state you're in, but you have some really solid expertise and reporting in the state of South Carolina. What are you watching for here given where the polls are heading into tomorrow?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Phil, good morning. I mean, Nikki Haley certainly is hoping for a stronger than expected showing. And what that means, basically, is trying to close the gap that really exists in these polls. In some polls, it's by 30 points or so. Her metric back in New Hampshire when she won 43 percent of the vote was to improve state-by-state. That could be a tall order here in South Carolina, but she is thinking long-term, try and get some Republicans to think about that general election matchup. But even as she vows to stay in the race here, perhaps a better question is what her supporters may do if she doesn't.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
NIKKI HALEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am not going anywhere.
(APPLAUSE)
ZELENY: For supporters of Nikki Haley, her defiant pledge is music to their ears.
SHEREE RICHNOW, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: I think she should stay in until the very last seconds. I really do. I do not think that we should acquiesce.
ZELENY: Sheree Richnow sees Haley as not merely the best choice, but perhaps the only choice in the race for the White House.
If she's not the Republican nominee, what do you do?
RICHNOW: I may not vote.
ZELENY: You may not vote for president?
RICHNOW: I may not vote, right. Because I don't think either choice is good at that point. ZELENY: The sun is setting on the Republican primary and on Haley's
chances of catching Donald Trump before the early state delegate contests becomes a nationwide sprint.
HALEY: Don't complain about what happens in a general election if you don't go out and vote in this primary. It matters.
ZELENY: Should she not deliver a South Carolina surprise on Saturday, her supporters face a decision many would prefer not to discuss aloud.
ANN HUPKA, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: We need a president that's going to protect our democracy, not one that's going to give it away to the Russian.
ZELENY: Ann and Marty Hupka are pulling for Haley, but bracing for the general election ahead.
Come November, what do you guys do?
(LAUGHTER)
HUPKA: We move to Canada.
MARTY HUPKA, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: You're down at two choices, you take the lesser of the two. It's got to be Biden. If it's Trump, then it's got to be Biden.
ZELENY: South Carolina has long been Trump country.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We've never lost here. We've never lost here.
ZELENY: On the final day of early voting here, Porter and Linda Baldwin proudly cast their ballots for the former president.
PORTER BALDWIN, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: We're Trump people.
ZELENY: Haley was a fine governor, they said, but her pointed criticism of Trump has soured their view.
BALDWIN: It's a waste of time and money, and I think they're using her. She's being used.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think she needs to step down.
ZELENY: Senator Tim Scott, who cast his early vote for Trump, told us a prolonged Haley candidacy was not good for the party or country.
SEN. TIM SCOTT, (R-SC): The one person that stands in the way of having a conversation between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is Nikki Haley. And so getting out of the way is incredibly important.
ZELENY: Don Lassey, a Marine veteran, sees it differently.
DON LASSEY, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: Any vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Putin. ZELENY: He's a lifelong Republican --
LASSEY: I voted for Richard Nixon. I voted for Ronald Reagan. I voted for John McCain. I voted for Mitt Romney. I voted for George H. Bush.
[08:05:03]
I like Republicans, but I like mostly honest Republicans.
ZELENY: -- and believes Trump will become more vulnerable as the campaign goes on given his legal and foreign policy challenges. If Haley doesn't prevail, he's already weighing his options.
LASSEY: Lesser of two evils is either Kennedy or Biden. I would like to pick Kennedy, but I'm not sure he will beat Trump, so I will go with Biden.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
ZELENY (on camera): So Haley as an aggressive campaign schedule today on the eve of the primary, Donald Trump, as well, holding a rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina, before going to Columbia. Nikki Haley will be here in the Charleston area.
Phil and Poppy, one of the things that Nikki Haley's advisers tell me that she really is trying to do is plant seeds of doubt in the minds of Republicans, not just here in South Carolina, but as the race goes on from here. Michigan is next week. Then of course, Super Tuesday is the first Tuesday in March, March 5th. That is the date by which she will have a decision to make here. But of course, it all depends on the outcome morrow. Her fundraising certainly will depend upon that final margin in her home state here of South Carolina. Phil and Poppy?
MATTINGLY: It's a great point about the money. Jeff, based on what's behind you, just be careful on your hardship assignment in Charleston, South Carolina. Big primary, we can add Jeff Zeleny, as always do you embody, thank you.
ZELENY: We do what we can.
MATTINGLY: Joining us, strategic communications expert and former Republican strategist and pollster Lee Carter, CNN political commentator and former special adviser to President Obama, Van Jones, and CNN senior political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings.
All right, Scott Jennings --
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I just want to note, the only person you called an expert at this table --
(LAUGHTER)
JENNINGS: You're an expert. You could have just called me like random redneck or whatever.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTINGLY: I would not do that. I would just say that no omission is unintentional.
HARLOW: There you go.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTINGLY: Jeff makes a great point. I think everybody knows, and if they didn't, Lee will tell you very bluntly how this is going to end tomorrow night in terms of this primary, this race in South Carolina. The question for me is Jeff's great point at the end, which is how much does the money continue in order to sustain what Nikki Haley says is going to be until the last one voter votes.
JENNINGS: Yes, I don't know how much money she actually needs to sustain the campaign or the space that she's occupying. I mean, she's essentially running to be president of "I told you so," which is to say a world where he gets the nomination. She is now openly predicting that he will lose to Joe Biden, and then she comes out, I think in her mind, on the other side says I told you so, and we're going to rebuild from here. I don't know if that's going to happen or not, but that's what she is thinking.
How much money do you need to sustain that? Because no TV ads are going to be needed. I mean, you heard from that one voter there, how locked in he is. I think people are very set in what they want to do. And so if she could continue on in a zombielike status here, I don't know how much money you need to collect that portion of the vote that essentially sees the world the way she sees it. It's not a majority of Republicans, but it's a sizable percentage.
LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Expertly.
(LAUGHTER)
CARTER: I think that's exactly right, and we were just talking about this earlier where I think she's currently running for 2028. So whether it's -- or beyond. Or beyond.
HARLOW: She's young.
CARTER: She's young, and she's thinking that she's the future of the party, and she knows that Americans want a fighter, and she's going to be the one that's sort of fought the good fight when nobody else would. And I think that's really what she's banking on. And I don't see her going anywhere.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's well said. She's not going anywhere. And that cuts both ways. Her campaign is not going anywhere. But I think it's good to have a Republican not just sticking up to Donald Trump, but sticking up for some principles. You got Ukrainians who are fighting and dying and now losing. Navalny is dead. Democracy is on the ropes. And you need somebody in that party with a national platform to keep that candle alive of just basic American commitment to democracy and freedom around the world. That shouldn't be so weird. But apparently now it is.
And so I don't know that she's doing south much good in terms of future for the party. She may be branded as somebody who tripped up Donald Trump at the finish line. Who knows what her future is? I'm telling you the future for democracy is on the line this year, and she's become a champion for that. I think it's good.
HARLOW: And can I stick with you and turn to the issue of IVF and this debate that is so beyond Alabama. I mean, it's like what everyone in this country is talking about, and the through line from the Roe versus Wade decision, the president pointing to Trump saying you sort of started this with your Supreme Court appointments, to if this is actually what Democrats need politically to really push forward on this issue.
JONES: Look politically, the Republicans are kind of a self-beating machine on this. I don't know why they think that the country is going to be with them on this. We talked about freedom. The freedom to be a mom, the freedom to be a dad, the freedom to be grandparents, the freedom to grow your family, to have that taken away by a party that just seems to be completely tone deaf to what this type --
[08:10:07]
HARLOW: I don't think it's the whole, it's not the whole Republican Party.
JONES: It's not the whole Republican Party, but I'm going to tell you right now, you put your foot on that banana peel of Roe v Wade, and you got to write that thing all the way, all the way down the escalator. And that's where they are.
JENNINGS: I disagree. I mean, as someone who considers himself to be a strongly pro-life Republican, this is not the position of the Republican Party. And the vast majority of Republicans believe in the miracle that is this technology that allows people to have families. And so I don't know any Republicans that are out running around saying my priorities are getting rid of all these people who want to try to start families. We're a pro-family party. We need to act like it. No Republican needs to support this. And I don't think you're going to hear too many supporting it.
And the mission for local policymakers, be they an Alabama or anywhere else, go ahead and get ahead of this now, protect people who want to start families. You want to be a pro-family party, here's a good chance.
MATTINGLY: So I think what's interesting about that is that we haven't seen a rush of Republicans making that -- Matt Gaetz, Nancy Mace, I know those are the individuals. You follow religiously in terms of ideology -- I'm kidding. But, it has been interesting that you haven't seen leaders come out in a major way. In fact, one of the people you have seen is Tommy Tuberville, and I'm not totally sure he was helping the party's case. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE, (R-AL): I was all for it. We need to have more kids. We need have an opportunity to do that. And I thought this was the right thing to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But IVF is used to have more children, and right now, IVF services are paused at some of the clinics in Alabama. Aren't you concerned that this could impact people who are trying to have kids?
TUBERVILLE: Well, that's for another conversation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: It was a journey, and there was even more of it than that. Now, his office has since clarified, in no way was he supporting the reaction from various medical facilities to cancel IVF procedures in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling. That ruling, of course, why those clinics are canceling the procedure.
JONES: The self-beating machine goes on.
MATTINGLY: But the numbers, both, I think are important for people to know in terms of where people are on this issue, but also underscore a point Scott's making about where the party needs to go.
CARTER: This is a big loser, this issue here. We've got 86 percent of Americans support IDF, including 78 percent of pro-life Republicans ,and 83 percent of evangelicals. This is a very, very slippery slope. And if Republicans don't get on the right side of this, they're going to be framed as anti-family just as you just so easily did. And there's got to be symbolic gesture. There's got to be a moment. We can't stand for this. This cannot be.
JONES: And you've been louder and you've been louder than the whole party has been over the past 24 hours.
MATTINGLY: Why, though. Why is that?
JONES: I just think -- but I think that you have a party that has put its foot on a banana peel here. And I don't, I don't -- look, the passion you just spoke for families. When I start hearing the big people in the party sounding as good as you on it, I'll be worried about it as a Democrat and I'll be happy about it as a human being. But right now, you have a party that can't even stand up to complete, stupid lunacy coming down from about from a Republican controlled state court.
CARTER: And the fact that Donald Trump didn't even address it, and when he was speaking last night to the Christian broadcasters, to me his silence is deafening in that.
JENNINGS: There is no way Donald Trump is not going to wind up coming out against it. Look what he's already doing on abortion, 16 weeks. He's for the exceptions, the Reagan position. I mean, he already understands where the political center is on this for mainstream political thought. There's no possible way he's going to be running a campaign in support of this ruling.
My suspicion is you're going to see the party pretty forcefully say, we strongly support families who were trying to have babies, and we're not in any way, shape, or form going to enable people that want to stop them.
JONES: We'll see. We'll see.
HARLOW: And we'll wait. Guys, thank you very much.
MATTINGLY: Thanks, guys, appreciate it.
HARLOW: Moments ago, President Biden did announce new details in the sanctions targeting Russia over the death of Alexei Navalny, and of course, marking two years is weekend since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We're going to be joined to talk about all of it with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, there she is. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:17:47]
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well just in, President Biden announcing new details about the sanctions that he says will target -- will include hundreds of targets in Russia's "war machine."
The White House is saying the sanctions will go after people connected to the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny, one of Vladimir Putin's top critics. Navalny died in prison a week ago today.
Now, the president met with Navalny's widow and daughter in San Francisco yesterday expressing his condolences and admiration for Navalny's fight.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: These sanctions also target Russia's financial sector and the defense industrial base there. This is almost two years to the day since Putin invaded Ukraine.
Just hours ago, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer arrived in the western city of Lviv with a handful of Democratic senators to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
US aid, as you well know, has stalled on Capitol Hill. Ukraine faces critical shortages on the battlefield, and President Zelenskyy is warning of the cost of congressional inaction here as Russia's war stretches into year three.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Will Ukrainians survive without Congress support? Of course, but not all of us.
Putin will never stay -- will never stop. He will go through Eastern Europe because he wants it, because this is his goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Joining us now is the US Ambassador to the United Nations,
Linda Thomas-Greenfield. We appreciate your time, Madam Ambassador.
I want to start, we see another round of sanctions. This is already the most I think, significant sanctions regime that's ever been implemented, particularly given the scale in the Alliance that's put them into place.
But it also seems it comes at the same time where Russia has made gains on the battlefield and it feels like the momentum has started to shift somewhat. How concerned is the administration about the trajectory of this war?
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, US AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Look, the administration has been working diligently to get the assistance to the Ukrainian effort, including pressing Congress to provide needed funding.
But the Ukrainians' resilience can't be played down here. They have taken back 50 percent of the territory that Russia stole from them and they will keep fighting. They are not asking us to fight for them, they're asking us to assist them, to give them the tools that they need to continue the fight and we're working to try to get that to them.
[08:20:14]
HARLOW: Madam Ambassador, I wonder what you make of this from the former Ukrainian First Lady, Kateryna Yushchenko. Here's what she told us yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATERYNA YUSHCHENKO, FORMER UKRAINIAN FIRST LADY: The delay in arms is costing us thousands of people every day and if we had the aid, when the threats had first started, if we had gotten the aid when the new escalation had first started, it would be over, but we have been fighting with a very limited capacity.
And, you know, I think that it is very important for the US and Europe to understand that withdrawing assistance will not make the war shorter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Her assessment that had this aid gotten there earlier, the war would be over and she means with Ukraine as a victor, I wonder if you agree with that assessment.
THOMAS-GREENFIELD: You know, I'm not a military strategist, so I can't say that, but I can say that the president has been clear that Ukraine needs this assistance to continue to fight this war. They're on the frontlines of fighting for democracy and that's why it is so important that we get this aid and this assistance to them as quickly as we possibly can. And I know that they are frustrated, I know the president is
frustrated, and we're all frustrated. We want to see them get the support that they need, so that they can continue to defend themselves and to defend democracy.
MATTINGLY: The president has been unequivocal about the desire to have that happen. Obviously, Congress would need to actually come back to Washington to get that done.
I want to shift over to the war in Gaza, if we could because the US veto to a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This has been a back and forth and a ton of work, I'm told behind-the-scenes, intensively to try and shape things to try and reach some kind of outcome on your side, the US side, ally side as well.
I think my question is, particularly since we saw the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lay out kind of his longer term proposal last night for the first time. Do you feel like what Netanyahu laid out is viable? And do you feel like the Israelis are holding up their end of the bargain given the US willingness to assist them both militarily, but also in places like the UN?
THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Look, we have been clear in the UN, and particularly, in my role in the UN that we have to do everything possible to find a path to getting hostages out, to getting more assistance in and ending this conflict.
We thought that the resolution that was presented by the Algerians actually hurt those efforts. We have people on the ground working this around the clock. They're working around the clock to get humanitarian assistance in and they're working around the clock to come to a negotiated agreement that will get hostages out, bring this conflict to an end, initially a pause so that we can get humanitarian assistance in and then have that pause extended for a longer term and eventually have it extended permanently.
This is really hard work. The negotiations are hard work. We worked very, very closely with the Algerians to try to help them tailor their resolution so that it would impact, would not have a negative impact on the situation on the ground, but would have a positive impact on the negotiations.
We cannot support a ceasefire that only gives an advantage to Hamas so that Hamas can continue its attacks on Israel, but also continue to hold the Palestinian people hostage.
HARLOW: Earlier this week, Israel submitted a report that you obviously know very well, the detailed Hamas' systematic and widespread acts of sexual violence on October 7th, then UN experts have called for an investigation into what they are describing as "credible allegations of egregious human rights violations against women and girls in Gaza."
How concerned are you at the reports of weaponization of sexual assault in this conflict? I mean, you know, you have got now 29,000 plus people killed in Gaza, you still have Israeli hostages being killed there.
THOMAS-GREENFIELD: We're very concerned about these reports. This is something that we have stood strongly against, not just in this situation in Israel and the situation in Gaza.
[08:25:04]
We have made very, very clear our strong opposition to the use of sexual violence against women as a tool of war, and it is clear that that occurred on October 7th. And we appreciate the investigation that -- investigations that are taking place right now that will document that so that in the future, we can hold people accountable.
HARLOW: And it just took so -- I wonder if you could weigh in before we move on, it just took so long for the UN, for important bodies to vocalize that. I mean, Israel has now submitted this report. It's in writing about all of those atrocities of sexual violence on October 7th.
THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Again, this is something that we're extraordinarily concerned about. I know -- I've met with the UN special envoy on sexual violence. I know that she visited Israel a few weeks ago, and I know that she is concerned about this report as well and we will continue to address this issue.
We held the what is called an Arria-formula Meeting in the UN to talk about these issues. We support it. We've supported the Israelis in making sure that this information gets out.
MATTINGLY: US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, we always appreciate your time. Thanks so much.
Well, the ex-FBI informant charged with lying about President Biden's family is arrested again. We're going to break down why agents made this rather unusual move. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Welcome back.
So the former FBI informant indicted for lying about President Biden's family is in jail. On Tuesday, Alexander Smirnov was released by a magistrate judge in Nevada under several conditions. Those included GPS monitoring and a surrender of his passports.
[08:30:17]
