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Soon: Voters Head to Polls in Michigan Primary; Biden and Trump Both to Visit Border. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 27, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, February 27.

[06:00:58]

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING, President Biden sounding optimistic about a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza as Michigan primary voters head to the polls just an hour from now. We'll explain that ice cream.

Plus former President Trump, hoping that 40 percent of Michigan Republicans don't abandon him, as they have in previous primaries. And Nikki Haley making the case that only she can beat President Biden in November. Can she count on Michigan voters to help keep her campaign alive?

All right. It's just after 6 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at Capitol Hill to start your morning.

Good morning to you. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Voters are voting. Primary voters in Michigan head to the polls just an hour from now. Today is a critical test for President Joe Biden. And it's not because he's at risk of actually losing outright. It's about the state's significant Arab American and Muslim community and how much they are hurting over the war in Gaza. They want to make a statement.

Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is urging her fellow Democrats to choose "uncommitted" instead of backing Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB (D-MI): It is also for it to create a voting bloc, something that is a bullhorn to say enough is enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The president made a stop yesterday for ice cream after he taped an interview for "Late Night with Seth Meyers." While he was trying to polish off this cone, he had this to say about a possible ceasefire in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My national security

adviser tells me that we're close. We're close. It's not done yet. My hope is by next Monday, we'll have a ceasefire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Let's bring in CNN political director David Chalian.

David, I'm so grateful to have you as part of the fabric of the show here.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning. Sure.

HUNT: In Washington.

So the optics of the ice cream cone are -- I mean, it's such a serious topic, it's a little jarring to see.

CHALIAN: It is. And I never want to criticize the president for taking questions from the press. I'm glad -- I'm glad he took the question.

But yes, the optics are a bit odd to talk about a ceasefire while licking an ice-cream cone.

HUNT: Yes. What did you make of kind of -- he also talked about this at length on the show with Seth Meyers. And what's your view of -- I mean, this timing is pretty remarkable. That he's trying to give people hope for a ceasefire as he's facing this protest vote.

CHALIAN: Yes. I mean, I also think the timing of next week's State of the Union is where this ceasefire work is, as well.

HUNT: Absolutely.

CHALIAN: Because I think, much like the border visit coming up later this week, I think you see the Biden team trying to check off a lot of things in advance of what is going to be their biggest platform before we get to his convention speech in the fall.

But I do think the number that I'm going to pay most attention to tonight in Michigan is 15. That's the number of electoral votes Michigan has come November. And there we will learn some lessons tonight through this primary about vulnerabilities exposed here for Biden.

I think we learned on Saturday, Kasie, in South Carolina in the context of Republican primary general election vulnerabilities exposed for Donald Trump.

HUNT: Yes.

CHALIAN: And tonight, I think we're going to see some exposure those for Joe Biden. I think those are helpful clues. I don't know that we can extrapolate vote for vote, if uncommitted gets this many votes, that we're going to know exactly how much trouble he's in in a Michigan. But Michigan is by far, of the three Blue Wall states -- Pennsylvania,

Michigan, Wisconsin -- that Joe Biden needs that he flipped, that helped deliver him the White House. Michigan's the one that right now is a little out of reach for him and that the Biden team is working very hard to bring back in the polls.

HUNT: So I mean, the number that the protest vote, the people that are pushing it, have said is 10,000 votes. Does that number mean anything to you in the context of what you just laid out or not?

CHALIAN: I mean, obviously, I think they have chosen that number because of the margin between Clinton and Trump in 2016 when she lost the state. It's not that that's insignificant. I would imagine that number is probably very achievable, if I had to guess, when the vote -- totals come in.

HUNT: Especially with (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The governor --

CHALIAN: So they're setting it there, as well.

I don't think we're going to be able to do a one vote for one vote of 10,000 in the context of a primary vote uncommitted. We know exactly how many he's going to lose in November.

[06:05:01]

But clearly, this is a closely divided state. It is a critical state for Joe Biden to win in order to win the presidency. And so any fraying of his coalition that is apparent tonight is his to-do list with eight months to go going forward.

HUNT: Yes. Let's touch briefly on the Republican side of things, because I mean, it's a mess. You know, just trying to explain the fact that there's two people that -- they're claiming to be the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, which is not something I feel like I've seen before.

CHALIAN: That's a new one, yes.

HUNT: Competing conventions, like the way the delegates are awarded. But there is going be, you're -- you've talked a lot about the information that we can learn. What do you think we can learn tonight from the Republican side?

CHALIAN: Well, this is our first real contest, because Nevada was also a bit of a mess, you know, between --

HUNT: It was.

CHALIAN: -- a split primary and caucus system.

To see a primary where it hasn't been a fully engaged battle, right? We've seen Nikki Haley engage, spend a ton of money, her super PAC spending in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, tons of visits. This has not been an engaged battle. So I think we're going to get a more natural sense in the results on

the Republican side tonight, Kasie, about what is Trump's bleeding (ph) of Republicans that he will need to unify going forward, absent a fully engaged Republican opponent. Because it just hasn't been very present that way.

HUNT: Yes, no, it's really interesting, because she, especially in South Carolina, I mean, she campaigned very hard. And you saw that people that were --

CHALIAN: And outspent him 16 to one, and it's her home state. And yes, exactly. We don't have that kind of dynamic in Michigan. So I think we get a more sense of, OK, what -- what does Donald Trump not have unified in a state like Michigan?

HUNT: Really interesting. All right. David is going to stay with us, but we do want to bring in our all-star panel.

Audie Cornish is CNN anchor and host of "THE ASSIGNMENT WITH AUDIE CORNISH." Jonah Goldberg is the co-founder and editor in chief of "The Dispatch." And Ashley Etienne, she's former communications director for Vice President Harris and senior adviser to Nancy Pelosi.

I'm so grateful to have all of you here.

Audie, let's talk a little bit more about the community in Michigan. That as -- and you know, you talked a little bit about this yesterday, about just the sheer emotion that is driving this.

And just to kind of give people a sense, in Michigan, David referenced the 10,000 votes that separated Hillary Clinton from Donald Trump when Donald Trump won Michigan.

It was 150,000 votes that separated Trump and Biden when we -- in the 2020 when Biden won.

There are about 140,000 people who voted in that election who say that they are Muslims. Now that's obviously not all Arab Americans are Muslim. Not all Muslims are Arab American. But this is a really significant community. And Tlaib has been encouraging them to vote as a bloc.

How do you see that playing out?

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I think that's kind of the point of primaries, right? It's -- it's your moment, as she says, to have a bullhorn and say this is the issue that matters to me.

I'd also like to broaden this out, because this is not necessarily an issue -- what's going on in Gaza -- that is affecting Arab Americans only.

HUNT: Right.

CORNISH: Generationally, young people in the Democratic Party view this differently. Michigan has a large student population. Michigan has, as you said, a large Arab American and even black Muslim population.

These are all people who find affinity with what they see as oppression in the region.

And one of the reasons why I think this is an interesting test is having a test of the coalition, meaning your white, blue-collar labor guys; your various affinity groups; your students. This is a different picture than South Carolina, don't you think? Where it was really more like, hey, remember those folks who helped us last time? Are they coming back?

This is like, oh, well, what is the picture of the group of voters who make up Biden, and is this going to happen?

I mean, is that -- am I reading too much into Michigan?

CHALIAN: No. I think you get a little representative in Michigan of each slice of his coalition.

CORNISH: Yes. And they're saying, look, you walked the picket lines for labor. Like, you know, the mayor of Dearborn was upset when they sent campaign people instead of policy people to talk about that Middle East. They're saying, take us seriously.

And I think that's maybe how we can think of it instead of just sort of like which identity group is complaining today?

HUNT: Fair enough. Let's take a look. Jon Stewart actually opened "The Daily Show" with a monologue about Gaza last night. I want to watch a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, COMEDY CENTRAL'S "THE DAILY SHOW": Hey, Israel, take it down a notch. Could you please be more careful with your bombing? It's good advice. But really, could the United States have told Israel that when we gave him all the bombs? They're our bombs. These -- this is like your coke dealer coming in with an eight ball and going, "Don't stay up all night."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Jonah Goldberg, we've talked a lot about where Democrats are on this. And Ashley, you know, weigh in, too.

But there's a reason why the president has been where he is this entire time on this issue, which is that still, despite the pressure from progressives, a lot of the country is with him on Israel.

JONAH GOLDBERG, CO-EDITOR, FOUNDER, "THE DISPATCH": Yes, that's sort of my problem with the way the media generally talks about the Michigan issue and all that, is you know, there's nothing wrong with the squeaky wheel getting attention. That's how politics, that's how democracy works. People who organize and protest get attention.

[06:10:07] At the same time, it's sort of assumed that, if he would just switch positions to what the sort of the Rashida Tlaibs want, that would solve his political problems. And it would not.

You know, David's right about Michigan being on the teetering point for Biden. If he went whole hog the other way, he'd probably lose Pennsylvania.

And he might -- and it's not obvious to me when you look at the numbers that -- that switching positions would gain him more votes than would lose him, even in Michigan.

This all goes to the bit -- and I think this is part of Audie's point, is like it's more the generational thing that is a real threat to Biden than the Arab American or Muslim vote in Michigan.

And it just goes to the fact that his coalition is much bigger than Donald Trump's. And therefore, you're going to have people on different sides of issues in the same coalition.

FDR had straight-up Klansman and communists, Jews, and blacks in his coalition. Weird things happen in --

HUNT: Taking us back to that.

GOLDBERG: It was a big tent party back then. And so I think that that -- he's just in a bad position where he is kind of in a no-win political situation no matter what.

ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR FOR VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: Yes. No, the president and the administration's been walking incredibly fine line for months now since October, in fact.

But you know, I think the announcement that we're close to a ceasefire is a game changer, especially going into Michigan tonight and especially going into the State of the Union.

So I am hearing a sense from the administration that they're sort of breathing a sigh of relief, to some degree, that there could be some pressure being let out the valve here.

And we'll -- but we'll see, to everyone's point, tonight how this plays out. But I don't think that there's any sort of hair on fire concern because again, I think they think that this whole thing will be wrapped up, and we still have eight more months.

HUNT: Very interesting, I will say Max Foster earlier in the show was saying the Israelis are kind of throwing some cold water on what Biden had to say last night.

ETIENNE: Oh, yes.

HUNT: So I'm interested to see how that dynamic plays out.

David Chalian, our political director, always happy to have you.

CHALIAN: Sure.

HUNT: Especially on primary day.

And much more with the rest of our panel after the break. And we'll be talking to Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow later on in the hour about all of this.

And up next, Taylor Swift's father is facing an assault complaint in Australia. We're going to tell you what the singer's team is saying now. Plus senator Amy Klobuchar, live on CNN THIS MORNING, with her take on

the border crisis.

Plus, the political calculation behind President Biden's appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": Can you confirm or deny that there is an active conspiracy between you and Ms. Swift?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Where are you getting this information? It's classified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Biden sitting down with Seth Meyers in a surprise late night appearance last night. The president was in New York for a campaign stop, and he cracked jokes with Meyers as he prepares to make his second visit to the border on Thursday.

Guess who's also going to be there? Donald Trump. This split-screen, dueling visits are going to create a pretty significant moment. It really does underscore immigration's central importance to the 2024 race.

Our panel is back with us: Audie Cornish, Jonah Goldberg, and Ashley Etienne.

Ashley, this clearly, I mean, there's a lot of pressure on Biden on this issue. I was really surprised to see him doing this visit after, I mean, Donald Trump is going, right? So he's -- they're literally trying to set up this head-to-head clash. Why?

ETIENNE: Well, I mean, I think it's -- the president has to box the Republicans on this issue. I mean, that's -- that -- the pressure has to be put on Republicans, House Republicans.

And so I think the president's laying the foundation again, going into the State of the Union, to box in Republicans on this issue.

I mean, their position, I find incredible in some respects. You know, this -- it'll become -- continue to become untenable as we get closer to the summer, because border crossings only increase as the months get warmer.

So I just think that, on this particular issue, the president has an advantage. My advice to him would be don't move forward with any executive order, at least until you position Republicans as being responsible for saying no to the bipartisan bill to close down the border.

CORNISH: Are you referring to the order that might kind of more or less shut down the border?

ETIENNE: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. So my advice is like hold off on moving forward with any executive order until he puts pressure on Republicans. Because they need to be holding the bag on this issue.

If he moves forward with an E.O., it takes the issue off, the pressure off of them. It takes the issue off the table and now they're in a position to blame him for whatever is happening going into the summer.

HUNT: Jonah, you look skeptical.

GOLDBERG: Yes, I'm not sure I completely agree with that. I mean, first of all, saying that you've got to put the pressure on Republicans is another way of saying got to take the pressure off Joe Biden. Because I think the pressure on the immigration issue has been on Joe Biden for the last few years.

And the executive order thing is a very fraught thing, because on the one hand, Republicans have been saying, largely wrongly, right? Because saying that the president can close the border unilaterally on his own, right? If that were true, why didn't Donald Trump do that? He doesn't. The president actually doesn't have the authority under law to do that.

But now that he's going to close down the border unilaterally, it said -- the Republicans will say, see, you could have done this three years ago. And that changes the politics a lot on this.

I think -- I think -- I think the Republicans screwed up not passing the border stuff. It would be very smart -- I agree with that -- to shift the blame to the Republicans on it. But it feels like a lot of catch-up. And I don't know. I mean, it's very hard to know what the persuadable voter looks like (ph).

CORNISH: Although for all of us, it's catch-up, right? I mean, all people have been hearing about this for the last couple of weeks and months is like there's a bill, there's not a bill. I want something. I don't want really want something.

[06:20:07]

GOLDBERG: They've seen video of people crossing the border. For years.

CORNISH: They have. They have. But they've not been seeing active solutions happen. And they blame more than Biden for that. You know, Adrienne [SIC], I had another question for you, which is like, yes, there's pressure for Republicans, but over time, does this pressure from mayors, Democratic mayors, become a problem for him, too? Like, does Eric Adam [SIC] needling him, or the Denver mayor or L.A. or et cetera, does that sort of like frustrate whatever they're trying to do?

ETIENNE: Well, you know, the president and even the vice president have been meeting most recently with governors, mayors, and having these conversations with them.

And you know -- and the way that they position this issue is we sat down, we negotiated a deal with Republicans on the Senate side. We -- it was a wish list for conservatives. We've given them everything that they want, but they keep giving us a no in return.

So that's how they're going to continue to position this. And I --

HUNT: Can you put that in a 30-second ad, right? Like, how do you drill that? Because I feel like --

CORNISH: Not just an ad. I'm kind of like, how do you get them to stop complaining so loudly? I'm not putting you on the spot. You know what I mean? Like, what's that meeting like?

ETIENNE: Well, I think -- no, no, no, I think you start the conversation by saying, hey, these guys are to blame.

CORNISH: Yes.

ETIENNE: We've given them a bill. They've said no. So now I need you to turn your ire on them, right?

CORNISH: Yes.

ETIENNE: And so that's going to be the pressure is like, OK, now we need to all, like, especially post-State of the Union.

CORNISH: Right.

ETIENNE: Right. Because, you know, he's -- Biden's incredibly adept at putting the Republicans on -- on the defensive, especially in the big platform of the State of the Union.

CORNISH: Or at least did last year, right? So they're hoping for a repeat.

ETIENNE: Yes. So anyway, so I anticipate he'll do the same. And then, you know, you sort of -- you leverage the entirety of the party to pressure Republicans to do something on this particular issue.

HUNT: I mean, I think the challenge, I mean the latest NBC poll we can throw up here, the person -- you know, voters say Trump is better at securing the border: 57 percent to 22 percent, right? I mean, that means that a lot of Democrats are willing to say Donald Trump is better at this. GOLDBERG: Yes, I think at the end of the day, it's another one of

these situations where Biden's the victim of having a broader coalition and has more pressure from different sides on him, while Trump can be clear, right? Its fox and hedgehog stuff.

Trump can be absolutely clear. People know where Trump comes down on this. And so the more -- the persuadable voters, which is something we always forget to talk about, is like this election is going to come down to a handful of voters who don't like both Biden and Trump.

The more they think the issue is immigration, the more that helps Trump.

CORNISH: Wait, one more thing. To your point, what if he goes to the border and says the things that he wants to do in his next term? What if he goes to the border and says, So I want to build a mass detention camp. So I want to mobilize the military to ferry people out of the country.

HUNT: You're talking about Trump.

CORNISH: Trump, yes.

HUNT: If he goes to the border.

CORNISH: Like what if I want you to not --

ETIENNE: Hopefully, it's not like that wall that fell apart.

CORNISH: Yes. But the wall, like that was just a wall. What we're talking about is mass deportation; mobilization of state and federal forces; possibly diverting military funds to do it. And it's -- and caps it off with the language of criminals. They're bad; they're trouble.

What if we see the demagogue version of that? Do your persuadables enjoy that split screen?

GOLDBERG: I think -- look, like Trump has a really great gift. He's like the salesman who says, Sure, we're losing money on every sale, but we'll make up for it in volume. Right?

CORNISH: But I mean, media-wise, are we going to --

GOLDBERG: He -- he --

CORNISH: -- tell the story around that, or are we just -- is he going to win on clips and images?

GOLDBERG: Well, that's the question. If -- if the election boils down to some real lizard-brain thing of strength versus weakness, I think that's much more to Donald Trump's advantage. I'm not a Trump guy, but I think that just does.

And so --

CORNISH: Or as you said the other night, command.

GOLDBERG: Yes. Right. And so I think the -- the best thing Biden can do on immigration is figure out a way to make it not an issue anymore. Because if it remains an issue that people are worried about, I just think that that would --

HUNT: So that would argue for actually putting the executive order forward and trying to do something it.

ETIENNE: This will always be an issue.

CORNISH: Yes.

ETIENNE: I mean, you're not going to --

GOLDBERG: But turn down the temperature on it.

ETIENNE: Yes. And I think the only way you do that is you -- you leave the Republicans holding the bag. And, you know, the question, though, is whether or not Biden has the capacity and capability of actually doing that.

GOLDBERG: Right.

ETIENNE: You know, you're up against --

GOLDBERG: That's -- It's a complicated political move.

ETIENNE: Sure.

GOLDBERG: Yes.

ETIENNE: He's got to make it, though.

HUNT: All right. Thanks to our panel for this excellent conversation. Really appreciate it. They're going to be back with us later.

All right. It is 23 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Donald Trump paying $392,000 to The New York Times." It covers the legal costs from Trump's failed lawsuit against the paper over a 2018 probe into his finances that included tax records.

North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley announcing his bid to lead the Republican National Committee just hours after Ronna McDaniel said she'd be stepping down from the post early next month.

Trump recommended Whately several weeks ago.

And Australian police are investigating a complaint against Taylor Swift's father after a photographer said that Scott Swift allegedly punched him in the face as the singer was leaving a party.

[06:25:08] Taylor's team says two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel, and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water.

All right. Up in our next half an hour, Michigan voters head to the polls in their state's primary. We're joined next by Senator Debbie Stabenow to talk about that race and her political future.

And later, Senator Amy Klobuchar joins us live. We've got so much to discuss. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right, a live look at the White House.

Sun's coming up here in Washington. Good morning. I appreciate you waking up with us. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Michigan voters head to the polls in half an hour, and by tonight, President Biden is going to find out how much his support for Israel in its war with Hamas has hurt him politically in his own party.

The only Palestinian American in Congress, Rashida Tlaib, who represents the most significant Arab American population in the United States, has led a charge to get her community to vote "uncommitted" rather than for Biden in the Democratic primary.

[06:30:00]