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FISA Reauthorization Blocked By 19 Republicans; Republicans Urge Supporters To Use Mail-In Voting; Tomorrow: Johnson Meets With Trump In Mar-A-Lago. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 11, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. We've got a live look this morning at Charlotte, North Carolina. Good morning to you. Thanks for waking up with us. It is just before 5:30 here on the East Coast. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Just in, FBI director Christopher Wray preparing to tell Congress that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- this is known as FISA -- is "an absolutely indispensable tool" for national security, calling this moment in history crunch time.

A group of Republicans just sank the latest effort to reauthorize the FISA law after -- you guessed it -- Donald Trump told them to kill it.

It was another blow for Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. This is the fourth time in Johnson's tenure that the House has defeated what is known as a rule vote, which is a disaster for any party trying to control the House of the chamber that they are, in theory, in charge of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): We've got seven more months until the presidential election. Let's try to not completely the (bleep) place down. We're dysfunctional -- we are. It's become somewhat embarrassing to me and will bite us in the butt a little bit in November. But my focus is Donald J. Trump now because we can't -- nobody can manage this conference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The rate of public on-camera swearing from House Republicans is at least at the highest in the time I have been covering this body in Washington.

Joining me now to discuss more about it, Associated Press national race and politics reporter, Matt Brown. And Wall Street Journal White House reporter, Catherine Lucey. Welcome to both of you.

Catherine, I suppose that sums it up for them. Rep. Troy Nehls also had this to say about the conference, generally. Listen to him.

All right, it sounds like we may not have that SOT. My apologies.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: No.

HUNT: But, bottom line here on FISA. I mean, this is actually not the first time that I've covered a FISA failure that resulted from a Donald Trump tweet. I mean, there was a time when Paul Ryan was the Speaker of the House and Trump was recently president and they were on a Friday afternoon kind of about to let this thing sail through the House. A tweet comes down and the whole thing falls apart.

Trump is not president at the moment but he is the presumptive Republican nominee. He does the same thing here. Again, it all falls apart over these allegations that he levels that this law was used against his campaign back in 2016. Deja vu all over again.

But Christopher Wray and the national security establishment are saying hey -- like, we need this to fight terrorism.

What is the future for FISA, and what are the consequences if they don't actually do anything about renewing it?

LUCEY: Yeah, Wray is saying this, and this is what the Biden administration has been saying, and folks on the left and the right of this in national security that this is an important tool. That this is a serious moment in the world, as you know, Kasie.

HUNT: Um-hum.

LUCEY: And this is something that is needed to prevent episodes abroad but, potentially, Wray is saying also at home. That the -- that there is -- this is a key sort of tool of protection.

Johnson is saying they are going to try and move forward on this. An expiration date is looming, although it does appear that this could -- the powers of this could extend beyond that expiration date. But still, the goal from the folks who support it is to actually get their authorization.

HUNT: Right. Well, and Wray's comments -- also, he plans to say -- we noted he said it was an absolutely indispensable tool. But he also says this. "Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I would be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once. But that is the case as I sit here today. This is not a point when we can let up."

Matt, where do -- where do the politics of this come from? Can you kind of help us understand why it is that there are so many Republicans who are willing to basically embarrass their own party leader to prevent this from happening?

MATT BROWN, NATIONAL RACE AND POLITICS REPORTER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well look, Kasie, for the better part of over a decade since this provision of FISA has been in effect, there has been a legitimate debate over the scope of how much our intelligence agencies should have the ability to collect information abroad that might implicate the information of Americans who are abroad. We've been having this debate for a long time in this country. That debate does not seem like it's happening though at the moment because of Donald Trump's grievances against a separate part of the FISA Act that implicated a part of his 2016 campaign. Therefore, we are having a bit of an adjacent debate here mixed up with Donald Trump's personal grievances against parts of this law and his frustrations over what he sees as enemies within the national security apparatus.

So that is why you are seeing, really, the loyalty that Republicans have to Donald Trump in this moment colliding up with longstanding frustrations that progressives and hard-right conservatives have had with this bill -- including, I should note, up until very recently, Speaker Mike Johnson.

HUNT: Yeah.

Catherine -- I mean, that touches on an interesting point about Trump and his relationship with the national security apparatus. And one other feature of his -- for his term in office was repeated criticism of the government servants who are in the national security establishment.

[05:35:03]

I mean, how do you see that playing a role here? And it seems like we're probably in for a return to that if Trump gets reelected.

LUCEY: Yeah. Certainly, he's raising this again. And it really does also just speak to his ability to control from afar Republicans in Congress. How easily he is able to scuttle or shift. This isn't -- as you said, this isn't the first time just on FISA but on other issues that we've seen Trump wade into them --

HUNT: (INAUDIBLE).

LUCEY: -- and it doesn't seem like that's going to be stopping anytime soon.

And he gives these folks cover. I mean, people who are already critical -- a lot of cover to them to make these moves.

HUNT: So let's also discuss the major political fallout from the Arizona law going back into effect, Matt.

Here is what Donald Trump had to say yesterday when he was talking about this on an airport tarmac -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Did Arizona go too far? Did Arizona go too far?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah, they did and that will be straightened out. And as you know, it's all about states' rights. That will be straightened out. And I'm sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and that will be taken care of, I think, very quickly. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Matt, he says, I'm sure the governor and everyone else will bring it back into reason. The governor of Arizona, we should note, is a Democrat, not a Republican.

BROWN: Right.

HUNT: What do you -- what do you see in his remarks there?

BROWN: Well, I see that Donald Trump is listening to a lot of voters in this situation, which -- who have shown in not just polling but also referendums across the country that the GOP's current stance on abortion in many states is not -- is not popular outside of the GOP base.

And Donald Trump is willing to frustrate many pro-life voters and activists who I speak with across the country in order to placate what he believes in swing states, like Georgia and Arizona, this is a very unpopular issue.

So I think that is something that Trump is going to continue to run away from on this subject just because he also can read polls, like many outside of the pro-life movement who -- where he's decided this is what he needs to win states like Arizona. And this result looks like it's going to be very, very damaging to Republicans up and down the ballot.

HUNT: Yeah.

Catherine -- I mean, I've seen a lot of Democrats who have wanted to underscore that he might be trying to say this now but his record in office is contradictory to the claims that he is making at the moment.

LUCEY: Yeah. Democrats really want to keep reminding voters that Trump appointed the justices to the Supreme Court that overturned Roe versus Wade. And, of course, Trump has bragged about this himself so it's not like he is necessarily -- but he is trying to both take credit for that while not weigh in on a national ban. And he is walking, perhaps, an impossible line here as this issue keeps coming up in the states.

And what you're really going to see from Democrats and from Biden is continuing to try to tie him to what has happened in the states since Roe was overturned, like this return -- potential return to this law in Arizona.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean, Matt, when you -- when you talk to sources about the thinking around particularly states where this is going to be on the ballot -- I mean, and Arizona is kind of the perfect storm. The perfect example for Democrats here. It's a swing state that could decide the 2024 election at the presidential level. They have, arguably, the most draconian law against abortion on the books and voters -- I mean, that could potentially drive a lot more Democratic voters to the polls that otherwise might not go. BROWN: Yeah. So this is an interesting situation with Arizona because Arizona, in many ways, is a state that on various policies has a bit of a libertarian and independent streak, as we know. The polling there has shown consistently. And when you talk to the strategists both inside and outside of the state, that this is -- that abortion is an issue that doesn't necessarily move voters, shall we say, in a very polarized state like Arizona. But it does activate the wrong voters that Trump does not want in Maricopa County and other liberal parts of the state.

So for that reason, strategists are very concerned that -- they want to basically have the debate be set on any issue that is not going to activate the voters that on the right would be very, very alienated by this issue. And you said it -- very draconian form of this law. Whereas, progressives are very, very focused on having people focus on this particular issue because they see it not just as a question of women's health but also one of freedom and bodily autonomy.

HUNT: Right.

All right, Matt Brown, Catherine Lucey. Thank you guys both very much for being with us this morning. I really appreciate it.

Let's go to this now. Republican leaders urging supporters to embrace mail-in voting in order to neutralize what has become a major Democratic advantage in recent years. The push comes even as the GOP pursues lawsuits and new laws in several states that would make it harder for mail-in ballots to count.

Complicating matters, Donald Trump's repeated false claims about voting by mail.

[05:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you have mail-in voting, you automatically have fraud.

Anytime you have mail-in ballots -- anytime you have mail-out or mail- in -- they call them different names -- anytime the mail is involved you're going to have cheating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now is CNN senior writer Fredreka Schouten. Fredreka, good morning to you. Thank you so much for being here.

You've done extensive reporting now on Republican efforts to try to attack these methods of voting. What have you learned?

FREDREKA SCHOUTEN, CNN SENIOR WRITER: Well, you're seeing a number of lawsuits. For instance, in the state of Mississippi for -- the Republican National Committee and the state party have sued, saying that the state should not accept mail-in ballots five business days after the election. Now, this is something that was enacted during the pandemic to try to make sure that votes could count.

You're seeing in North Carolina where the Republican lawmakers have also said that votes that arrive after Election Day -- votes by mail should not count.

And as we know, sort of, elections are really close. They're decided by --

HUNT: Yes.

SCHOUTEN: -- a few thousand votes.

In North Carolina, in the midterms, there were 8,600 votes that came in after Election Day that were still counted.

So we have this real battle underway about how to treat mail-in voting. And as you know -- as we just listened to, Donald Trump is highly suspicious of it.

So, sort of, the Republican leaders are in this difficult situation trying to pursue litigation to keep him happy and to keep the base happy. But at the same time, try to encourage voters to use this method that they keep hearing criticized.

HUNT: Yeah. Well, there does seem to be a divide between former President Donald Trump and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. I mean, we've seen Lara Trump on camera as part of her role at the Republican National Committee, say to people just vote. Republicans need to vote. However it is that you can do that -- by mail, by whatever to use it.

But then, they do seem to have to toe the line of the actual guy at the top of the ticket. It does seem to send significant mixed messages.

SCHOUTEN: Yeah -- no. I do -- I think that this is a big conundrum for them. And one of the things that GOP officials are saying is that they are working very hard right now with this range of litigation that they're pursuing -- because it's not just mail-in voting -- to sort of make sure that the most fair rules are in place for this election and then persuade their voters to play by those rules.

But again, mixed messages. If you're going to have lots of conversation about election integrity and problems with mail fraud -- which, again, baseless in terms of mail-in voting -- it's hard for -- it's hard for the voters to change their minds, I think, once they've sort of committed to a stance. You know, I only vote on Election Day.

HUNT: Right.

Well -- and I think that that's really important to underscore, right, that even when votes start rolling in on election night there is likely to be this phenomenon, at least in most states, where the Election Day vote is going to lean for the Republican and the votes --

SCHOUTEN: Yeah.

HUNT: -- that come in later.

And just one quick clarifying point. Historically, it's the postmark date that usually matters for your ballot.

SCHOUTEN: Exactly.

HUNT: Yeah.

SCHOUTEN: Exactly. Because you turned it in -- you know, you dropped it in the mail that day. And so, that's historically what has mattered in a lot of states.

And, I mean, one point that I want to make to sort of --

HUNT: Right.

SCHOUTEN: -- underscore this. Because Pew Research Center did some polling about this and you can see how much Republicans have soured on this issue. In 2018, 49 percent of Republican and GOP-leaning Americans supported allowing anyone who wanted to vote by mail to vote by mail.

HUNT: Um-hum.

SCHOUTEN: That has plummeted to 28 percent this year.

Meanwhile, for Democrats, it's still pretty high -- 84 percent.

HUNT: Really remarkable.

All right, Fredreka Schouten. Thank you very much for this important reporting. It's going to matter a lot this election season, so thank you.

Coming up next here, House Speaker Mike Johnson heading to Mar-a-Lago as he tries to save his job. Plus, a tradition unlike any other. The Masters tees off in just a few hours. We'll give you a preview.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:48:32]

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

With his job as House Speaker hanging in the balance, Mike Johnson is preparing to visit Mar-a-Lago tomorrow for a meeting with Donald Trump where he is expected to participate in a joint news conference on election integrity.

CNN has learned that Johnson's allies have asked Trump to publicly support the speaker, or at least to stay out of his way when it comes to conflicts with House Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Yesterday, Johnson dodged questions about whether he expects a Trump endorsement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Have you spoken to Donald Trump about this and have you asked him for his support for you to stay in the job?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Uh, I'm not going to comment on private conversations with President Trump. I talk to him frequently. But I'm not going to comment on that here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now to discuss, Republican strategist T.W. Arrighi. T.W., thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.

T.W. ARRIGHI, VICE PRESIDENT, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, PUSH DIGITAL GROUP, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS AIDE TO LINDSEY GRAHAM AND MIKE POMPEO, FORMER NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY, NRSC: Thank you for having me.

HUNT: So this is a very high-stakes moment --

ARRIGHI: Indeed.

HUNT: -- for the House Speaker.

ARRIGHI: Um-hum.

HUNT: And we have seen Donald Trump try to navigate the politics of the House in different ways. He and Kevin McCarthy obviously had a little bit of a back-and-forth relationship.

But what do you expect from Johnson in this scenario? And what do you think appearing with Trump -- what effect could that have on the situation in the House, especially with Marjorie Taylor Greene being a very vocal Trump supporter but a Johnson antagonist?

[05:50:00]

ARRIGHI: Yeah. You know, Trump, a thousand times in the past, has bemoaned the fact that Republicans can't get anything done in Congress. That we can't act as a team like the Democrats do. He just can't help himself in the moment.

I understand he has a gripe with FISA. I understand during his time as the president -- as president, he listened to some of his better angels, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or John Ratcliffe.

But what I expect to happen is a little tough love at that Mar-a-Lago meeting behind closed doors. They're going to have some words exchanged. I do not know where it's going to come out on top. I'm sure Trump will address it during their press conference on election integrity.

But the fact of the matter is the conference can't move forward without Trump behind it. With a one-seat majority, we should be a ground-and-pound operation. Get some -- gain some ground and then keep moving forward. Unfortunately, when we have a circular firing squad it can't get done.

HUNT: So, speaking of the firing squad, Mike Johnson sat down with Christian Broadcasting Network yesterday and talked about the implications of what Marjorie Taylor Greene is doing -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: Pulling a motion to vacate or removing the Speaker right now is exactly the opposite of what we need to show the country. We can't close the Congress down because that's what will happen.

DAVID BRODY, CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST, CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK: Sure.

JOHNSON: They will blame us, right? And so, it won't hurt our chances of growing the majority of our party, or President Trump's chances for his election because all of our fates, in some sense, are tied together. So it's really a very dangerous thing to be waving around a motion to vacate right now when we've got to demonstrate that we can keep this country moving forward.

BRODY: Um-hum.

JOHNSON: And I hope that she'll realize that in the end, and I think others are trying to make that case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So he says it would be dangerous for the country for them to have a motion to vacate right now.

Is there any cost to Trump to backing Mike Johnson?

ARRIGHI: Any cost to Trump, not particularly. They see the --

HUNT: Is there a cost to crossing Marjorie Taylor Greene for Trump?

ARRIGHI: Uh, not particularly. I think that the reverse would be -- would be true.

God bless Mike Johnson for taking it that calmly. I kind of -- pardon me -- when she first brought it up for a vote, he just called her bluff and brought it to the floor.

The fact is we've got a ton to do in the next month or two and we need a full conference. We have a one-seat majority, like I said before and as he reiterated. And the fact of the matter is people are heading for the exits, in large part because of this dysfunction. And there's been rumblings that it could get worse. We could go to a tie and, God forbid, something happens and we break their leg.

But we've lost Gallagher. We've lost Buck. We don't need this and we keep bleeding votes because of the dysfunction.

Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to hold this anvil over the Speaker's head. It's not good for business.

HUNT: The understatement.

ARRIGHI: Yes.

HUNT: OK.

T.W., thank you very much for being here.

ARRIGHI: Thank you for having me.

HUNT: I really appreciate your time.

ARRIGHI: Good morning.

HUNT: All right, time now for sports.

The 88th Masters golf tournament tees off later today. All eyes on Tiger Wood (sic) and -- Tiger Woods and on the skies.

Andy Scholes is in Augusta, Georgia with this morning's Bleacher Report.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah.

HUNT: Andy, good morning.

SCHOLES: Yeah, good morning, Kasie.

So, the weather not great out here in Augusta right now. It's very rainy. And the Masters sent out an update just a little while ago saying they're going to delay the opening of the gates and the tournament is not going to start until at least 9:00 a.m. this morning. So we're only on about an hour delay as of right now.

But yesterday, it looked like it could rain all the way until the afternoon. But we could get lucky. This storm system -- it's moving east and Augusta National -- it's sitting right there on the edge. By 10:00 a.m. all of this rain could be gone and that would be great.

Now, once the rain does clear, the weather -- it's just going to be awesome here in Augusta. And that's something that Tiger Woods is really looking forward to. He withdrew last year due to injury before a cold and rainy third round. And Tiger says if everything comes together he still thinks he can win, but it certainly won't be easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS, 15-TIME MAJOR CHAMPION: I ache every day and I prefer it warm and humid and hot. And I know we're getting some thunderstorms but at least it will be hot. It won't be like last year. Every shot -- knock on a tee box -- is -- it's a challenge. So, yeah, once we start the holes it's going to be challenging.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, Tiger has a late tee time at some point today. He's trying to set a record and make his 24th-straight cut at the Masters.

Now, your favorite this year is world number one Scottie Scheffler -- and he's a huge favorite, according to the oddsmakers. No one has been favored by this much since Tiger back in 2013. Scheffler won his first green jacket two years ago and has been just playing incredible golf leading up to this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER, 2022 MASTERS CHAMPION: I'm excited about how I've been playing to begin this year. You know, I had two nice wins, which was obviously a bunch of fun. And then, I was close in my last start as well.

I'm an extremely competitive person and I like competing out here. And hopefully, I'll be out here competing for a long, long time. But life throws crazy stuff at you sometimes so we'll see how long it happens. But hopefully, it's going to be a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:55:06]

SCHOLES: Yeah, and Scheffler is paired in a star-studded trio in rounds one and two with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele.

Now, yesterday, here in Augusta, it was the annual par 3 contest. And Kasie, I'll tell you what. It was cuteness overload. All of the players --

HUNT: Aww.

SCHOLES: -- with their kids and their Master's white caddy jumpsuits. But I'll tell you what. No kid shined like Bubba Watson's 9-year-old daughter Dakota. Look what she does. She knocked down not one, not two, but three long putts, Kasie. And this was in front of thousands of people watching, making golfers --

HUNT: What?

SCHOLES: -- around the world jealous of her putting prowess. I mean, just incredible composure and putts from Dakota there. I was impressed. I've never hit a putt that long in my life and here she is out there at the Masters just crushing it.

HUNT: I was going to say, if you've ever tried to make a putt like that you know it is not easy at all. My gosh, that's awesome.

SCHOLES: Right.

HUNT: I hope she goes on -- she should try it. She should have a golf career, too.

All right, Andy. Like I said yesterday --

SCHOLES: Yeah. HUNT: -- I'm jealous of you. Have a great time at the Masters and we'll see you tomorrow.

Coming up next, the Biden White House watching inflation with another key report on prices due in just a few hours. Former Bush and McCain adviser Mark McKinnon joins us to talk about the politics of that and more.

Plus, our Fareed Zakaria weighs in on President Biden's commitment to Israeli security as the war in Gaza continues amid threats from Iran.

(COMMERCIAL)