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Biden Vows Commitment to Israel; RNC Claims Massive Fraud; Mark McKinnon is Interviewed about the Biden Campaign; FISA Fight Divides GOP. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 11, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:57]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our commitment to Israel's security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad. Let me say it again, ironclad. We're going to do all we can to protect Israel's security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden vowing ironclad commitment to Israeli security amid threats of a significant retaliatory attack from Iran in response to an Israeli airstrike that killed seven Iranian military officials in Damascus last week. Biden's comments come just a day after he called for a ceasefire in Gaza and criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to the war. Others in the president's party telling CNN, it may be time to say farewell to the Israeli prime minister altogether.

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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Israel must win. But Netanyahu must go.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): I agree that Prime Minister Netanyahu must go. I mean he's not the leader that's going to take Israel forward. He is a failed leader in every respect. He is, in my view, in large part responsible for this massive humanitarian catastrophe that we are seeing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Joining me now is Fareed Zakaria. He is the host of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS." And he also is the author of a new book, "Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash From 1600 to the Present." It's already number two on "The New York Times" bestseller list here in the U.S. and it releases in the U.K. today.

Fareed, good morning. Thank you so much for being here.

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, CNN'S "FAREED AKARIA GPS": My pleasure. Thanks for having me. HUNT: Congratulations on the book.

Let's start with this news here if - if we could.

What do you make of how President Biden is balancing what you heard him articulate their next to the Japanese prime minister, saying his commitment to Israeli security is ironclad, with the criticism that he's leveled at the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu?

ZAKARIA: I think you said the word, he is trying to balance. And it's a very difficult balance to strike because he's - he is articulating unwavering support for the country, and for its security, while at the same time he has - and has had serious reservations about the manner in which the Netanyahu government has gone about this from the start.

And you will recall that we are now many months further along than when Bibi Netanyahu was saying this is going to wrap up in a few weeks. So Israel, under Netanyahu, has gotten itself into a situation where it doesn't feel like this is going to end anytime soon. The - the idea of getting rid of Hamas entirely, you know, in totality, every last fighter (ph) seems a somewhat elusive goal. And more importantly, Israel is racking up extraordinary costs, humanitarian front, the radicalization of the Arab street (ph), the increasing efforts to criticize Israel. Even in places like Germany, (INAUDIBLE) the second largest supporter of Israel after the United States.

So, I think prime - I think President Biden might have to - might find himself having to get tougher and maybe make more public his disagreements with Prime Minister Netanyahu that here has so far kept it private because so far whatever Biden is doing is not working. It is not altering Israeli behavior.

HUNT: What did you make of the Israeli defense minister coming out and saying that they are going to try to rush aid into Gaza. Did - do you not see that as evidenced that what Biden and team are doing is working? Do you not believe him?

ZAKARIA; Well, Cindy McCain says that there's enough food to feed about 1.1 million people for several weeks waiting at trucks outside and yet so far they have not been allowed in. In other words, actions would speak louder than words. Israel is in complete control here. So, it can - it can move those trucks in anytime it wants.

[06:35:04]

And so far, you know, what we've heard is that assurance, but we haven't actually seen the aid go in.

HUNT: Yes, it's a - it's a very - very important point.

Fareed, let's talk about the book. It's called "Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present." And I will say, as someone who specializes in covering American politics, you write about all of the various challenges facing the world and you note that there are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic, but you think that perhaps we shouldn't get that far yet. I guess I'm looking for you to - oh, and we may have lost Fareed. Oh, there he is. He's back.

I'm looking for you to kind of explain to me why pessimism isn't warranted in this age of what feels like a lot of chaos and dysfunction.

ZAKARIA; Well, you know, we are - we are going through probably the biggest backlash in history. And - but it comes because we've had 30 or 40 years of incredible revolutionary change. You know, just think about globalization, the massive expansion of globalization, 3 billion people coming online, if you will, into the global economy, the Indias, the Chinas, the Brazils of the world.

Think about the information revolution, which, I mean, it's difficult to imagine what life was like before we had this complete new digital world we have, and we go around with these phones in our pockets that have more computing power than by far than NASA had when it sent a man to the moon and back. Think about the social identity revolutions we've got through, the status of women fundamentally being transformed in the last 40 years. That's a lot of change and it's all happening simultaneously. So, there is some backlash. There are a lot of people (INAUDIBLE) but today we're (ph) forward.

HUNT: All right.

ZAKARIA; You know, don't mistake the - the other - sorry, did you lose me?

HUNT: You're there. Finish your thought and then we'll -

ZAKARIA; Don't mistake the undertone - yes, don't mistake the undertone, you know, for the wave. We are moving forward. There are problems. And we'll make it. I mean I think that what history shows in that 400 year survey I've tried to do is that, you know, there's only one path here, and it's forward. There's no going back.

HUNT: All right, fair enough.

Fareed Zakaria, so grateful to have you on the show this morning. Thank you very much for joining us.

And the book is called "Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present."

OK, now this. Republicans are accusing Democrats of committing massive fraud in the 2020 election. We know that. CNN's K-file reporting now that the RNC is putting out calls to voters with a decided shift in messaging under newly installed co-chair Lara Trump.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'm sure you agree with co-chair Trump that we cannot allow the chaos and questions of the 2020 election to ever happen again. We all know the problems. No photo IDs, unsecured ballot drop boxes, mass mailing of ballots, and voter rolls chock full of deceased people and non-citizens are just a few examples of the massive fraud that took place. If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled out by someone who isn't even an American citizen. Can you support us with a special election security gift of $50 or $35 today?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: OK. The panel is back.

Doug Heye, this is an alarm - like, so, just first of all, I think it's important to note that the - that the Trump campaign, in 2020, litigated all of these claims in courts across the country, and there was no voter fraud found that would have swayed the impact of the election.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Right.

HUNT: This really does feel like fear mongering. Are you surprised to hear Lara Trump say this? I - honestly, I'm not even sure what the question is, but -

HEYE: Oh, so just last week Lara Trump said, oh, we're not focusing on that anymore. That's in the past. Clearly, that's no longer the case because -

HUNT: It's currently the present.

HEYE: It -- well, and, yes. And when you deal with Donald Trump, there's always the - you constantly have to be at his side and loyal every step of the way because Donald Trump doesn't give points, he only takes them away one at a time. And that's true of family members as well.

The problem is, we've already seen - for Republicans, we've already seen this play out. This is voter suppression. It has Republicans suppressing their own votes. We saw it in Georgia with Trump's unsuccessful race there in 2020. And then we saw it with the Senate races, when Donald Trump was out there saying, your vote doesn't matter, it's been taken away from you. Everything that Lara Trump just said there. It's cost Republicans - Mitch McConnell and Republican leadership sure know this.

And, you know, you talked earlier in the show about mail-in ballot. The second race I ever did, I - I would pinpoint are absentee ballot chase program on credit - on the victory.

[06:40:07]

Lauch Faircloth beat Terry Sanford because we had an amazing job of mail-in ballots. We would send absentee ballots to people, and we would literally chase them on the streets until they returned it. It's why we won the race. Republicans have long had an advantage on this. And, unfortunately, in deference to Donald Trump, as always, they're just giving it away.

HUNT: Well, let's remind everyone what Donald Trump has to say about mail-in voting and cheating.

Watch Trump.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you are mail-in voting -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: RNC.

TRUMP: You automatically have fraud.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Zolan, is Doug right?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, it's fascinating. Well, look, I mean, you - I've talked to Republicans in local races, even looking forward to November, that are trying to emphasize mail-in voting. And then you have - and trying to take advantage of it strategically, and then you have comments like that kind of undermining that effort.

We were talking before about how many Republicans want to focus on issues, like the economy, like immigration, pressing day-to-day issues as we look forward to this election. But continue - we continue to see these statements that look to the past, that make falsehoods and misleading statements looking to the past election, right? I remember in the midterms too I talked to so many Republican strategists that were saying - hoping that the former president would just focus on the current White House and these issues facing people today, but - but he can't help himself on this issue. He continues to look back.

HUNT: How many times are we going to say he can't help himself as we cover Donald Trump?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Right. Right. It's "Groundhog Day."

HEYE: Unfortunately, this is also a case of, though,, the Republican Party essentially doing the stop hitting yourself, stop hitting herself (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: Oh, my gosh. I have a four-and-a-half-year-old. Thankfully, we're not at that game yet, but -

HEYE: And that's the RNC these days, a four-and-a-half-year-old.

MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Wow.

HUNT: All right. That's an assessment.

Coming up, third time not the charm. A judge denies Trump's latest attempt to delay his hush money case.

Plus -

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PAUL SIMON (singing): (INAUDIBLE).

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HUNT: Paul Simon at last night's White House state dinner. We'll show you more of the big moments and the big guests ahead.

Speaking of big guests, Mark McKinnon joins us live next. For those of you who are wondering if he would bring his trademark cowboy hat, there you have it.

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[06:46:31]

HUNT: All right, 45 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Donald Trump's hush money trial still on track to start Monday. A judge on Wednesday rejecting the former president's third attempt to delay the criminal trial.

The Biden administration moving to close the so-called gunshot loophole in an effort to combat gun violence. The rule will require people who sell guns online and at gun shows to conduct background checks on their potential customers.

"The New York Times" reports the former interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani in talks to plead guilty after being accused of stealing millions of dollars from Ohtani and gambling with it.

President Biden toasting the close relationship between the U.S. and Japan at a state dinner hosting Japanese Prime Minister Kishida.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We may be divided by distance, but the generations after generation, we've been brought together, the same hopes, the same values, the same commitment to democracy and freedom and the dignity - dignity for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, turning now to this.

Resurgent inflation is threatening to derail President Biden's economic messaging around a key phase of his presidential campaign against Trump. And now Biden's former chief of staff, Ron Klain, dishing out some pretty punchy advice about how the president should be talking about these issues to voters. According to audio obtained by "Politico," Klain said this, quote, "I think the president is out there too much talking about bridges. You go to the grocery store and, you know, eggs and milk are expensive. The fact that there is an f-ing bridge is not - it's an f-ing bridge. Like it's a bridge. Like, how interesting is the bridge? It's a little interesting, but it's not a lot interesting."

Joining me now is Mark McKinnon. He is former adviser to George H.W. Bush and John McCain. He is also the creator of Showtimes, "The Circus."

Mark, it's wonderful to have you. Thank you so much for being here.

MARK MCKINNON, FORMER ADVISER TO GEORGE W. BUSH AND JOHN MCCAIN: Hey, thanks for having me on, Kasie.

Ron Klain's one of the smartest in the biz, and he's absolutely right, voters don't care about what you've done, tell them what you're going to do.

HUNT: Fair enough.

He used some tough words here. I can't imagine they landed well in the White House, I don't know how you might have felt if you would have been advising a president at that time and one of your former folks had gone out and said that. But let's be real, we got the inflation news yesterday. It's not looking good, or as good as many experts had hoped.

Where do you think Biden should be on this?

MCKINNON: Well, speaking of smart strategists, Kasie, you know James Carville.

HUNT: Of course.

MCKINNON: He was the first campaign manager on the first campaign I ever did when he did his first campaign 40 years ago. And after we won that primary, he was such a mad man that we put him in a separate building because he was scaring the interns.

But he said something recently on our show that I think may be the only true thing about this election, which is, the era of strategic certainty is over. So, I mean, conventionally you'd think with these two guys it's a rerun and it would be a really static race and really predictable and yet its - it's not that at all. Just think about the last 24 hours and all the things that have happened to shaken up the race, including and especially Arizona. So, you look at that and you go, oh, my God, well, maybe Biden can win Arizona now. And then you have the inflation news and you go, well, maybe the news isn't so good.

So, I mean, just every news cycle we're getting more and more, you know, sort of washer and dryer treatment in this election. And despite the fact that we have a rerun, it's really unpredictable.

HUNT: No, it's a really, really, really great point. Mark, how do you think - I mean what have you seen in the way that Trump has basically tried to rewrite his own past on abortion as he faces this moment with Arizona?

[06:50:08]

MCKINNON: Well, it's just a reflection of what a cul-de-sac the Republicans find themselves in on this issue. They - I mean the Republicans have caught the car. For years and years and years it was for them a political cudgel to use in elections. But once they had to actually set policy based on these issues, it's become really tricky. And it's a tricky issue. That's why it's been so troublesome for so many years in this country. And there's no easy answer. And that's where Trump and the Republicans find themselves right now is because they're responsible now, and Trump is taking all the credit for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and now suddenly it's coming back in their face and there's just no good answers. And it's really a troublesome issue.

And I think it's really going to shake up that race in Arizona. I think it does put Arizona firmly now in Biden's column. And I think its thanks Kari Lake's boat pretty quickly.

HUNT: It sure seems like that's the case. I mean her reversal on this has been even more stark. I mean she was able to name the exact number of that -

MCKINNON: They have the tapes. They've got the receipts.

HUNT: I know, of that old law back from when Dobbs was first enacted.

Mark, one of the things I'm really interested to talk to you about because, you know, you experienced this, you know, the H.W. Bush team experienced this when a third party candidate had a major impact on the 1992 election. And we're seeing that play out this year. There was a staffer for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign, since fired, who said this. She was caught on tape. And it's what resulted in the firing. But listen to it.

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RITA PALMA, FORMER KENNEDY CAMPAIGN NY STAFFER: The Kennedy voter and the Trump voter, the enemy - our mutual enemy is Biden.

If you don't get to 270, if nobody gets to 270, then Congress picks the president.

Who are they going to pick? Who are they going to pick? If it's a Republican Congress? They'll pick Trump. So, we're rid of Biden either way.

I have more Trump t-shirts than I do Bobby Kennedy t-shirts.

I'm going to vote for Bobby. However, if Trump - if I wake up November 6th and Trump wins, I'm not going to be overly upset. But if Biden wins, we're all going to be terribly upset. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, there you have it, pretty straightforward there.

What is the impact on what RFK Jr.'s doing?

MCKINNON: Well, its potentially huge. I mean think about it. In '16 Jill Stein arguably - or in '20 you - well, you have two candidates, Jill Stein on the Democratic side taking votes away from Biden, and then you had Joe Jorgensen in '20 taking votes away from Donald Trump. In either case, the margins were - that Trump and Biden won by were the same margins that those third-party candidates won by.

So, in this race, Robert Kennedy is already pulling at anywhere from 15 to 20 percent. That's going to diminish certainly. But let's just say it's 5 percent. In a race this close, it's - it's going to make a huge difference. And you can argue it either way. I mean Robert Kennedy is an enigma and a mystery in many ways, but because he's, to some voters, he's an anti-vax kind of Trumpian candidate, to other voter he's an environmental activists and very progressive. So, you can kind of argue how the impact will be either way. But there's no question, at the end of the day, it's going to have an impact. And it could swing the race and almost certainly will. So, that's why there's so much focus.

And, by the way, the Democrats are doing a laser-like job knowing like - understanding what happened with Jill Stein before and in the past with third-party voters. And they're really taking on these third- party candidates and trying to blow them up before they - before - trying to kill them at the cradle.

HUNT: Do you get the sense that - you know, I've been sort of digging into some of the things that Steve Bannon, for example, has said about RFK, Jr., and there's been some reporting that he was involved in pressuring him to get into the race. Do you think that's part of the story here with him?

MCKINNON: Well, yes, I think that there's a lot of - I think people have a lot of questions about why he's in the race and what - what's really his rationale? Its - it just seems odd that this - you know, this guy from this, you know, legacy family would be running and what's the end game?

So, I think people have a lot of questions about what the motivation is. I think it's unclear. So, you know, the tape that you just showed is really, I think, problematic. And if stories like the Bannon story are true, then I think that's, again, problematic.

But again, you know, unless he's out of the race, I think that no matter what kind of oppo research comes up on him, he's going to be two or three or four or five percent. And again, in a race this close, that could make the margin - it could be the difference.

HUNT: It could be all of the difference.

Mark McKinnon, so grateful to have you this morning. I hope you'll come back. Definitely bring the hat if you do.

MCKINNON: You bet.

[06:55:00]

Kick it, Kasie. Thanks for having me.

HUNT: All right. Thanks. See you soon.

All right, now this. Later today FBI Director Christopher Wray is expected to tell Congress that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, referred to as FISA, is absolutely indispensable. But a group of Republicans are rebelling against House Speaker Mike Johnson, and they just tanked the latest effort to reauthorize FISA after Donald Trump told them to, quote, "kill it." It is just the latest problem for a speaker who is fighting to fend off threats of ouster from within his own party. There are Republicans in his conference who are perplexed.

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REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): It's like you prevented yourselves from voting on the amendment that you wanted that we're all very concerned about. So I don't know what they - I don't know what the issue is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do I find it frustrating? I find it illogical.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And not pass - not being able to pass the rule in essence means that we're turning over the floor to the opposition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody can manage his conference. The Lord Jesus himself could not manage this conference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: OK. The panel is back.

Doug Heye, this one's for you.

HEYE: That figures.

HUNT: Could the Lord Jesus manage this conference?

HEYE: Well, I - sure. Yes. Yes.

HUNT: He could.

HEYE: I have confidence that the Lord Jesus could. Anybody else, I don't know if that's possible. And it's why it makes it very hard to predict what's going to happen on this. I don't know what's going to happen because the House Republican conference doesn't. And, you know, what we saw is, what often happens, there's a very small margin of error. Yesterday there was zero margin for error. They couldn't lose one vote. And members go in, and when they vote, there are four panels that shows everybody's name with a green light or a red light. And quite often people are looking and seeing what their pals, their buddies are doing, and they're going to vote with their pals. And that's what we saw yesterday.

HUNT: Yes.

HEYE: And that's been the problem, you know, for the past two years now.

HUNT: Yes, no, when people compare Congress to like a high school cafeteria, it's that vibe.

HEYE: That's exactly it.

HUNT: It's exactly like, what is the peer pressure, (INAUDIBLE).

HAYS: But if they - but if they - they're voting with their pals or are they voting how Donald Trump tells them to do? Like, is he the puppet master here? Because it seems like -

HEYE: Not mutually. Not mutually exclusive. But when you - when you cannot lose one vote and the whip says, I don't know if we have the votes are not, that suggests there's a problem. And you usually don't bring that vote - you don't bring that vote up because you don't want to lose that on the floor.

KANNO-YOUNGS: You do have to wonder just how many times, though, to your point, we are going to see headlines of, former president sinks this bill. I mean for somebody who is out of office, is not in government, you know, this is just the latest example of seeing the influence that Trump has over legislative matters in Congress. You can go back to that bipartisan border bill, you know, that got sunk by via Trump's social media post. You can go to this example. My - it's - I mean, you have to think of Trump as well. When Mike Johnson talks about changing Ukraine aid to be in some sort of loan, which we know is also a nod to the former president.

So, we are seeing - I mean, look, there is also a policy debate with this package as well. And I think it's worth saying that. You - not just among Republicans -

HUNT: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: But also among progressive Dems that are, you know, wanting more assurances of requirements to ensure that any sort of surveillance of non-citizens that might be - non-citizens abroad that might be communicating with Americans in the country, that there is a warrant in those matters. We know that concerns national security officials. But the politics as well has to be mentioned here and the influence of the former president.

HEYE: And when things go wrong in House Republican conference politics, Patrick McHenry often quotes the talking heads. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. He sings that song a lot these days.

HUNT: Right.

Meghan, what are the implications here for Democrats? Is there, do you think, a world where Hakeem Jeffries decides that Ukraine aid and getting money out the door to them is more important than letting Republicans do this to themselves? I mean, obviously, there's political damage that they're going to continue to do. It's likely to accrue to Democrats' advantage.

On the other hand, there's this massive worldwide challenge around Ukraine aid. Like, should Democrats help Johnson if they can?

HAYES: I think it's extremely important to get Ukraine the aid that they need. I think that democracy is at stake. I think that the - Putin's number one friend is Donald Trump. And I think that everyone knows that. And I think that Trump knows that. That he, you know, its beneficial - these two people are beneficial to each other. So, I do think that Democrats are going to have to probably do some things that they're not going to be super excited about to be helpful here. But I also think that having another speakers race and going into turmoil again is not good for anybody and it's not good for Democrats or Republicans. And so I think that they need to figure out how to work together and I - just like they did to keep the government funded.

HUNT: Yes, it does seem just simply bad for America if we don't have a functioning piece of a major branch of our government.

HAYES: Yes.

HUNT: OK, so on that cheery note, I am going to leave you with something much more cheerful. There was a cuteness overload at the Masters. Before the famous golf tournament gets underway, there is always the annual par three contests where families join players on the court. You can see - on the course. You can see the pros accompanied by their kids wearing those Masters white caddie jumpsuits. But no one shined like Bubble Watson's nine-year-old daughter, Dakota.

[07:00:03]

She knocked down, not one, not two, but three long putts.

Watch this.

If you've ever played golf, you know just how hard it is to sink a putt like that one.

Look at her. Oh my gosh.

Also this. that's also adorable.

Not quite as successful as those long putts, but clearly following in her dad's footsteps. I'd love to see what she does, if she has a golf career. Maybe she could.

All right, thanks to our panel for joining us. And thanks to all of you for being with us this morning.

I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEW CENTRAL" starts right now.

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