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Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) is Interviewed about the Elections; Democrats Sift Through Election Day Losses; Trump on Track to Win Popular Vote. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 08, 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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[06:33:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): The House has been the only firewall in Washington standing between Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, and the American people. And we played defense, we blocked their woke America last agenda.

We also had the smallest Republican majority in U.S. history. But you know what the good news is? We're about to grow that majority. That's what's going to happen on November 5th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: That was House Speaker Mike Johnson's prediction nearly two weeks ago. It seems increasingly likely to come true. Republicans are feeling more bullish about their chances to expand their admittedly very narrow majority in the House.

With the presidency and the Senate already set to be in GOP hands, House control would amount to a stunning clean sweep by Republicans. House Democrats insisting they still have a path to the majority through outstanding races out west, and promising to stand unified if Republicans do, in fact, win the chamber.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Whether or not we would be upgrading from the minority or a majority, or whichever position, we must be a loyal opposition to this president.

And get ready to take the House back in two years.

And I do believe that we lost these districts on people's feelings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us to discuss, Democratic Congressman Greg Landsman of Ohio. He won re-election Tuesday in a battleground district. Congressman, good morning. Thank you for being here.

[06:35:00]

REP. GREG LANDSMAN (D-OH): Good morning. How are you?

HUNT: So, let me start with why, what happened? You won your race in a battleground district. Kamala Harris, obviously, lost the presidential race in a very sweeping way. What message do you take from voters? Why did they send you a different message than they sent to Kamala Harris?

LANDSMAN: Yes, a lot of us overperformed the top of the ticket. And I think, in large part, at least for us, it was that, you know, we got a lot done in our first term. We made things happen. We brought tens of millions of dollars back. And we were, you know, normal. You know, we've always led in the - I've always led in a very normal, pragmatic, bipartisan way. And I do think that's what most voters want. They - they're tired of the far right and the far left.

And, yes, they just elected Donald Trump, but I don't think they want the chaos, or extremism, or cruelty that sometimes comes along with him and his rhetoric. I do think, you know, they obviously chose him, but I think they - they, Republicans, in the House and the Senate, and Trump have to be very mindful of the fact that most people really just want us to get to work. They want us to solve problems and they want us to do it in a really pragmatic, bipartisan way. I honestly believe that.

HUNT: Sir, how much do you think culture has to do with this? And I want to read you something that one of your colleagues, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, told "The New York Times." He says this, quote, "Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face." Quote, "I have two little girls. I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formally male athlete. But as a Democrat, I'm supposed to be afraid to say that."

Is this a reflection of what you're - you're calling people looking for normal? Do you agree with what Congressman Moulton says there?

LANDSMAN: I think anytime that voters choose somebody else, oftentimes or that they're sending a message, like you're not listening to us, or we don't feel included. And so, yes, I do think that - I - look, this happens for - on both sides. There are - there are folks on the far right who alienate a ton of people. There are folks on the far left who alienate a ton of people. This is a moment, I think, for the center left and the center right to work together because, in the end, you know, we want to get past this moment where folks are being alienated.

Take the issue of, you know, trans rights. Nobody in this country wants people bullying trans kids. Kids that are struggling with gender identity, identity issues at all. They don't want them, you know, bullied and messed with. And at the same time, they don't want government telling people what to do. So, you know, we go to a place where we have local control and people

make the decisions on who plays what locally and the rest of us focus on, you know, the economy and, you know, a bipartisan border fix and all of those things. But no one - no one wants Congress to start - or a politician to start bullying trans kids. And I think the far right has to stop. And I think the far left have to leave these kids alone too.

HUNT: Sir, you, obviously, are - were vocal on issues around Israel, in particular. And we saw a number of Jewish voters that vote Republican this time. There now is this kind of back-and-forth in the Democratic Party. Some progressives say, well, Kamala Harris didn't go far enough on the war in Gaza, on condemning Israel over that. There are others who say, no, the opposite story is true, part of why some more moderate, perhaps, people in America rejected the Democrats this time is because there was too much anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic rhetoric.

What, for you, is the lesson for the Democratic Party around how they should be talking about Israel?

LANDSMAN: So, in terms of the election, I don't know. I mean the data suggests that this - the issue is hugely important to a lot of people, but it wasn't what drove their - their decision.

And, yes, I'm - I've been very pro-Israel and will continue to be. I also believe in a sustainable peace and Palestinian self- determination. So, you can be both.

And so I - you know, I not - and I won across the board here in our district and picked up a ground I think in every - almost every corner of the district.

So, I think it's really more about being strong and having convictions. And, you know, I do think the party, or some on the far left, you know, made things more complicated.

[06:40:03]

And, you know, I don't think that helped her. But I don't think that's why she - that's why she lost. I think their - I think the economy, obviously, it's just - it just hurts those that are perceived to be incumbents or are actually incumbents.

And so, you know, the moment for Democrats I think now is for those of us in the center left to work with the folks on the far left and say, look, you know, let's come to some understanding about how we're going to talk and work together because we don't want to end up like, you know, my Republican colleagues, that they are so frustrated with the far right. And a lot of them are worried that when they get back to Washington, it's going to be the far right driving the agenda, which will not be good for the American people or the Republican Party.

HUNT: All right, Congressman Greg Landsman for us this morning.

Sir, thanks very much for your time. I really appreciate you being here.

LANDSMAN: Thank you. Yes.

HUNT: All right, what went wrong, as we were just discussing, has been the big question for Democrats. The party is on track to lose the popular vote in a presidential election for the first time in 20 years, and now members are scrabbling for answers as Republican sweep back into power in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): I think we do need to reconnect with working-class voters. We haven't done enough for them. We haven't spoken to their concerns. And by definition, we're out of touch because they clearly don't support us at the polls.

I'm grateful for the advocacy and the ideas that the far left brings to our party, but we can't be branded by that. We can't be defined by the far left.

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): Donald Trump and a lot of his allies did say racist things and did make racist jokes that did offend a lot of people, including myself. But at the end of the day, we also have to do a better job of not just saying what we're against, but what we're for.

REP. DEAN PHILLIPS (D-MN): And if we want to win, we have got to listen to voters. And, boy did they tell us loud and clear what they thought of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, the panel is back now.

This was, I mean, Philippe, I understand what you have been saying all morning, you know, don't overread. But this was sweeping in -

PHILIPPE REINES, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes.

HUNT: You know, the popular vote, it's the biggest indicator.

REINES: No, I'm not - I'm not saying don't overread, I'm saying, try to narrow the factors and in some, you know, orderly way unpack what happened. So, let's just say I'm wrong about what I said earlier, that inflation could have been hunky-dory and we would have lost without these things.

Either way, here's the problem, I'm not concerned right now with what the right thinks about the Democratic Party, I'm concerned about what I think about the Democratic Party. I don't like to echo the congressman, all three of them. I don't like the fact that a small portion of our party is pretty much dictating where we are. That they are pretty much - we are being branded as the most extreme of us. It is not only politically problematic, as we just saw, because none of this stuff helped the other day. Without a doubt it's a problem. But we need to take stock of why we are being held hostage to the far left. No one should be and wants to be kowtowing to the extremes of their own parties that just shouldn't - to the extent that majorities should rule. The majority of Democrats don't agree with the things that we are being tagged with. Now how that works -

HUNT: Tick through a couple of those things.

REINES: I think Democrats believe in common sense stuff more than you'd realize. I mean it's - it's not like any of us sit at home and don't talk to anyone. Most Democrats I know think there's a huge problem at the border. Most Democrats I know think, frankly, that males at birth shouldn't play in women's sports and vice versa.

Now, you can have a healthy conversation within a party and you have to have a room within a party for all this. But, at the end of the day, if you have some of these issues that are 80-20 across the country, you've really got to figure out why they are - they are being so tagged with one.

And, on one hand, it's easy, because it's politically sexy. There's a reason why $40 million in ads on this topic were thrown at the vice president. But how we go forward from here, first it comes from us. Yes, we have to listen to everybody. But people - Republicans don't get to tell us because they won, like you said, for the first time in 20 years and only the second time in 36 years the popular vote, what everybody wants. This is still a 50-50 country. For us to go forward and be representative of the Democratic Party, all, whatever, tens of millions, half a million, you know, half the county, whatever you want to - however you want to describe it, we have to reorient it towards -

And, you know, the congressman made the point that he's, up until today, afraid to say it. And God knows what will happen on my Twitter when I get home, but it starts with that kind of thing.

HUNT: Yes, that afraid to say it.

REINES: Yes.

HUNT: Do you think that that really fundamentally tells the story of why Democrats were broadly rejected here?

[06:45:06]

I mean insert whatever issue into that rubric, afraid to say things about the border, about trans rights, about some of these other cultural things.

REINES: Well, I mean, the border is not fair, because the border is a wicket problem with legitimate differences of opinion and, frankly, no one's had a particularly good answer to it. And I don't think Donald Trump, in his second try, is going to have a good one.

On the other cultural stuff, and I don't even know how to refer to it without saying something - again, I'm afraid to say something wrong. But the woke stuff, the PC police stuff. You'll see Republicans who say they are afraid to say x. I'm afraid to say x. These congressmen are afraid to say x. Why? Why are you afraid to say x? You shouldn't be afraid if it's something stupid and hateful and make someone feel that they don't belong. But saying I don't agree with you or saying that's not representative of the bulk of us, that's like Medicare for all is not something that the bulk of the party - of the Democratic Party believes in. But yet we spend tons of time on it.

Now, on immigration, there are people who do believe, and I think I buy into it, that part of the problem we've had as Democrats is that we have gotten pulled to the left so far that we cannot make common sense decisions. And look at 20 - look, I worked for Hillary and she had to contend with Bernie. Bernie, you know, went after Biden - I shouldn't say went after - he entered the primary. There's no evidence had the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party has met with any success or represents this party. Yet, we're going to go ahead and we're going to continue every time someone on the hard left says, oh, you can't do that. We're all going to - we're all going to paralyze. I mean I don't know what the answer is, but the answer is for people to start saying what they say on, you know, WhatsApp and Twitter and whatever it is, that this is - this is enough already. People can't - the PC police doesn't just apply to Republicans. It applies to, I don't know what I'd call myself. I'd just call myself a Democrat. I am not a progressive. I'm not a lefty. I think I'm to the right of some Republicans on some topics. But, you know, this general thing, especially parents, you know, with kids in school, they're really bothered by this. And I get it. I get it.

HUNT: All right, Philippe Reines, we'll be watching your Twitter all day. Thank you for that.

REINES: I will not. Tell me -

MATT GORMAN, FORMER TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Go off.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, it's going to be lit this afternoon.

HUNT: But it's fascinating perspective (INAUDIBLE).

REINES: I'm going to pull a David Plouffe, close my account.

HUNT: It's a really fascinating perspective.

All right, still coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, it's Friday, so Michael Smerconish is here, joining us live with his take on Trump's victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Help our country here. We have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:51:53]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": President Biden addressed the nation for the first time since Trump won the election. Democrats are like, well, I guess at this point we can let him speak again. Let him talk. What's going to happen?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Joe Biden promising a smooth transfer of power this January to the man that robbed him of that same right nearly four years ago. Declaring that he has a unprecedented mandate for a second term, Trump is now hoping to roll back a number of Biden's policies and fulfill his campaign promises.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On day one I will launch the largest deportation program in American history.

And if these companies don't make their products here, then they will be paying a stiff tariff.

I will end the war in Ukraine.

We're stuck in that war unless I'm president. I'll get it done. I'll get it negotiated. I'll get out.

And I will stop the chaos in the Middle East.

When I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips.

I will terminate the green new scam, one of the great scams in history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, it is Friday, which means it's time for Michael Smerconish, CNN political commentator, host of CNN's "SMERCONISH," who joins us now.

Michael, wonderful to see you.

I have been honestly dying to know all week, what do you think happened on Tuesday?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to see you as well.

For me, the biggest surprise in a night full of surprises is that he broke 50 percent. He obviously didn't break 50 percent of the popular vote in 2016 or 2020. Kasie, you can fact check me on this. I don't think he has ever been, President Trump, above water in the polls, and yet he was able to do it in this election, and he was able to do it in a campaign where every day seemed as if it was a greatest hits real of something else that occurred that would have ended the campaign of anyone other than Donald Trump. Eating cats and dogs, the Madison Square Garden comedian, the shooting through the media and on and on and on. And yet it seems to have emboldened the people who voted for him.

The more that you told people why they shouldn't vote for Donald Trump, the less they wanted to be told how they should cast their ballot. That's my takeaway.

HUNT: Yes, it's really fascinating. And you know what, it's - it's a great point about the 15 - 50 percent as well because that was one of the assumptions baked into our coverage was that Donald Trump had a ceiling that he couldn't get past, and it was baked into the way the Harris campaign looked at the map and what they needed to do. It's really just a great point.

Michael, can I get your take also - the way you just framed that, that people didn't want to be told who to vote for or that Donald Trump was an acceptable - unacceptable choice for them. We were just talking here at the table about how being afraid to say what you really think was part of the problem for Democrats, that according to Philippe Reines, who's sitting here, as part of our conversation. Do you agree with what he had to say there?

SMERCONISH: Totally. When I think about the last full week of the campaign, that Madison Square Garden event, that, by the way, was perfectly staged, and I'm not ignoring the comedian. I want to talk about the comedian.

[06:55:02]

But it was - it was - I'm a former advance man. I did advance work for Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush.

HUNT: I'm not sure I knew that. That's awesome.

SMERCONISH: And so I admire - so I admire the structuring, Republican, Democrat, doesn't matter. I just like to see well-produced live events. That was a very well-produced live event.

But, of course, all of the oxygen for the next three days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, was all about one joke not told by Donald Trump, and it was admittedly an appalling joke. He should have come out and he should have immediately denounced it and then moved forward.

But did it really warrant all that attention? And, my God, you've been talking about it. We've all been talked about the Hispanic vote. The Hispanic male. It seems like the people who everyone thought would be most horrified about the joke were fine with it and, you know, rolled with it. So, I think that's an example of being told, you should be offended by this, but it didn't resonate. It didn't - it didn't hit that way with the people when they voted.

HUNT: Yes, Michael, what do you think the lesson is that Democrats should take away from this? I mean what is the way forward for them? SMERCONISH: I think that they've got to reestablish connection with

working-class people. You know, the - the individuals whose parents would have voted for the Democrat in a bygone era in the election voted for the Republican. And, you know, the billionaire is oddly the everyman. I mean that's really what he's become.

Carlos Lozada wrote a great piece in "The New York Times" saying, like it or not, Donald Trump is us. I mean think about the embodiment of the '80s, Wall Street, greed, Gordon Gekko. Think about the '90s and sex scandal, the intern scandal. Think about the social media era in which we're living now. Think about the reality television era that we went through a decade ago. He's every one of those things. So, the more that people want to say like he's aberrant, he might be the norm. I know that's going to send shivers down the spine of half the audience or more who are watching, but - but think about that.

HUNT: It - I mean it's - it's a remarkable point and I will say it does really seem, I mean look at the vote in Queens, right -

SMERCONISH: Right.

HUNT: That people really identified with him as the outsider who succeeded, not because the elite in Manhattan wanted to let him succeed, but because he ran over them to do it. And it seems like they saw more of themselves in that than they did in those, you know, folks in Manhattan.

SMERCONISH: Yes.

HUNT: Michael Smerconish, always love having you. Thank you so much.

SMERCONISH: Thank you, Kasie.

HUNT: Have a great weekend.

SMERCONISH: You too. You too.

HUNT: We'll be watching your show, "SMERCONISH," tomorrow morning, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

All right, it has been quite a week. Let's just go around. We've got two, two and a half minutes left here. Final thoughts on what we learned about the country this week and where we go from here.

WILLIAMS: I'm not that surprised by Queens, to be perfectly honest, having grown up in New Jersey, the state that only went five percent -

HUNT: We didn't call New Jersey until I was on the air after 4:00 in the morning on - on Wednesday night - Wednesday morning.

WILLIAMS: Right. I'm not that surprised by Queens that created both "Archie Bunker" and Donald Trump. It's a - it's a fascinating hodgepodge of people, but also a strong, working class white community. Not that shocked by it. But it is time to rethink everything. I mean, again, New Jersey being the biggest one. This was a bloodbath and a moment for Democrats to really think about where they're going next.

HUNT: Molly.

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, I mean, Queens is working class but it's not white.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Yes.

BALL: And that's the whole - that the thing about this election is that Democrats need to figure out how to speak to working class people across races. And a lot of that is going to be thinking beyond identity politics. Thinking about something other than a message that just says, you know, you ought to be offended by this joke, or because you, you know, look a certain way or come from a certain place, that ought to dictate your politics. And I think that's got to be part of the conversation the Democrats are going to have.

REINES: Well, I would say first we're conflating jokes at an MSG rally with saying things like a former congresswoman should have guns pointed at her face. So, it's not something as, I can't say what I want. There are things he says that aren't funny, shouldn't be said and shouldn't be excused by his own people.

And what drives me crazy is that they elected him in 2015 says he says what he thinks, he thinks what he says, we love that. And then every time he says something it's, oh, he didn't say it, he didn't mean it, it was a joke, the news took it out of context. Like you never here, yes, he meant it.

The second thing is a little more high-minded. I've now worked for both women nominees in our history, and just because it wasn't a daily discussion as it was in 2016, we really need to take a look at the role of, not sexism as much, I wouldn't call it that, or maybe it should be called that, but can a woman meet the criteria? And I very much believe they do. But someone light Donald Trump, when you see these word clouds about him, it's strength. He's strong.

HUNT: Right.

REINES: Can we see a woman that's strong? And I think you look at these two debates of Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, these are strong women who kicked his -

[07:00:02]

GORMAN: In an era where - television ads really don't break through a lot. One did. And it kind of goes to a lot what we're talking about, it was the Kamalas for they, them and Trump is for us. It played on Sundays during football. But it wasn't geared towards white men to the point we're all talking about right now. The images in there, "The Breakfast Club," it was geared towards men of color, Hispanic men, African American men. And the popular vote victory was based in places like Illinois, New Jersey and New York City.

HUNT: All right, well, the good news is, at least for me, the weekend starts right now. So, we survived the week. We've got a lot ahead of us as a county.

Thanks to you guys for being here. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I hope you also get some rest this weekend. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.