Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Marc Caputo is Interviewed about Senate Majority Leader Vote; Trump Energy Policies; Trump Picks Border Czar; New York Split Vote. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired November 12, 2024 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:34:23]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT (April 16, 2011): Rick Scott. I was there at the beginning for Rick. He's doing a good job. It's not easy, I will tell you, and he's doing a hell of a job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: That was Donald Trump in 2011, praising Florida Senator Rick Scott, who is one of the three men now running to replace Mitch McConnell as the Senate majority leader. Although Trump and Scott's relationship precedes the president-elect's time in politics, Trump has yet to publicly endorse anyone for the role, even as Scott has earned the support of several high-profile Trum allies.
Our next guest reports this, quote, "one nagging question has held Trump back from endorsing the senator publicly. Can Rick win? Winning is one of the most important things for Trump, but loyalty is not far behind, nor is the appetite for revenge against perceived adversaries. Scott checks those later two boxes with bright MAGA-red X's."
[06:35:11]
Soctt making his commitment to Trump clear ahead of tomorrow's secret ballot vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): I want the Donald Trump agenda implemented. I want his nominees confirmed as quickly as we can get those nominees confirmed so we can get to work.
I believe I'm going to win because I represent exactly what the Trump team wants, and what Trump wants, and what the American public wants. I am all on board.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Joining us now, national political reporter for "The Bulwark," Marc Caputo.
Marc, good morning.
That, of course was your reporting there about Rick Scott. I have to say, look, I've covered The Hill for a long time. Typically, this kind of outside pressure is not received terribly warmly by senators who like to do their own thing, don't like to be told what to do. And quite candidly, Rick Scott is not terribly well liked with a lot his colleagues.
What else are you hearing?
MARC CAPUTO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE BULWARK": That's about right. When you campaign, govern, act in a senatorial capacity, as the anti-establishment outsider, well, the insiders don't like you. And that's probably the biggest problem that Rick Scott has for - on a personal basis, and then sort of more broadly to your point, senators don't like being told what to do. As one person whom I spoke with for the story told me, they basically all think they're a little president and there's a little bit of resistance to having Donald Trump be their sort of boss in everything and calling all of the shots. They probably want a little bit of independence.
It is a secret ballot, so that makes it really difficult for Trump to be able to sort of single out senators and put pressure on them to get them to vote his way.
HUNT: So, Marc, we saw what Rick Scott is out there saying now about where he stands, what he would do. I think to sort of underscore why Trump world seems to like him right now as opposed to John Cornyn and John Thune, the other two top candidates, we can look back at some of the things that Cornyn and Thune had to say in the midst of the Republican primary campaign, the presidential primary in 2023.
Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): You have to appeal to a broader segment of the population in a general election. And President Trump seems to have a - have a loyal support in the primary, but not so much in a general election.
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I think people in this country are ready for generational change, and I think change in tone in our politics.
There's an exhaustion factor, there's a fatigue factor with the American people and always a lot of drama around the former president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, I think we can, of course, say sitting here today that both of those assessments were wrong. But it may be part of why the Trump - the Trump team is nervous about these two, no?
CAPUTO: Right. They don't like the fact that these guys are MAGA. And MAGA's kind of a - a big ideological tent - or maybe I should say a big Republican tent. And there are a number of different people from different walks of life in it. And Rick Scott's one of them. He has been with Donald Trump almost since day one. Rick Scott has had a no endorsement policy, or used to have one in a Republican primary. And when he was governor in 2016, he basically broke it by issuing a non- endorsement endorsement of Donald Trump in January of 2016 in an op-ed in "USA Today." And he made it pretty clear he was on President Trump's, or then candidate Trump's, side. And he's been by his side the entire time.
So, yes, what they want in MAGA-ville, in Trump world, is someone who's really going to sign off on President Trump's agenda. And these two other guys, more than likely, if past is prologue, and if their prior words mean anything, just aren't fully sold on it. It is kind of striking that these two senators, at that point, this late in the game, had still underestimated Donald Trump because the reality is, is those who are truly with him thought he was going to win all along. Now, maybe they were just being hopeful. But it turned out that they were right.
And, in their view, there is a price for being wrong, and they hope to exact that. But again, as now it doesn't look like the numbers are there for Rick Scott anymore.
HUNT: Yes. Well, we're going to find out tomorrow.
Marc - "The Bulwark's" Marc Caputo. Always enjoy your reporting, sir. Thank you so much for being here.
CAPUTO: Thanks, Kasie.
HUNT: All right, let's turn now to this.
The former New York congressman, Lee Zeldin, is President Trump's pick to head up the EPA. Zeldin's first task expected to be overturning several Biden administration initiatives, like tail pipe regulations for vehicles and pollution guidelines for power plants and oil and gas producers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE ZELDIN, FORMER REPUBLICAN U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: So, day one, and the first 100 days, we have the opportunity to roll back regulations that are forcing businesses to be able to struggle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: At the COP 29 climate summit this week, there has been growing concern that President-elect Trump will once again pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreements after hearing this kind of rhetoric on the campaign trail.
[06:40:10]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT (October 29, 2024): I will end Kamala's war on Pennsylvania energy. And we will frack, frack, frack, and drill, baby, drill. We're going to drill, baby, drill.
TRUMP (November 4, 2024): I will cut all of your energy prices, all of your energy, gasoline, for the house, air conditioning, heating, everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, our panel is back now.
Doug Heye, Lee Zeldin for EPA. What? What is the big difference that he could make? I mean I'm thinking of the EV regulations that the Biden administration put into place that caused no small amount of consternation.
DOUG HEYE, FORMER REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: All of that aside, what was our previous conversation? Loyalty. Lee Zeldin has been a big Trump backer, essentially since - since - if not day one, month one. And so people like that are going to be rewarded.
Now, you know, we'll have to look what is his real environmental background. Doesn't seem to be a whole deep history there other than, you know, any member of Congress has voted on every issue under the sun. But this comes down to, he's a Trump backer. There you go.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: But I - you know, it's a couple things. One, if - because there is a strong sense among many people in the Republican Party that regulating the environment is really about business, the goal here was to put somebody in who's pro-business, not with an environmental background, right?
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. And it's (INAUDIBLE).
WILLIAMS: And that's - that's -
HEYE: Well, and anybody would have been -
WILLIAMS: Right, and anybody - yes, anybody would have been.
I mean I also think, you know, if you fundamentally disagree with the mission of the agency, and also as the former president - or the next president seems to sort of have a contempt for government, you can put anybody in, it's just a management role. And I don't say that dismissively. You know, he's even said as much, as long as somebody's a good business man he can go and -
BEDINGFIELD: Yes, it's a manageable (ph) and a (INAUDIBLE).
ANNIE LINSKEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": He's also somebody - he's also somebody who - I mean he did come within a couple of points of winning the governor's race in New York. BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
LINSKEY: Like, blue, blue New York. So, for - you know, this is not somebody who is like really truly from the MAGA wing of the party. So, I found that to be interesting. And also just, you know, kind of going back to New York, this is the second New Yorker that Donald Trump, a New Yorker, is putting into his cabinet, which I found to be, you know, it's always a common - a common background that they have.
HEYE: Florida and New York are like the two polls (ph) for Donald Trump when it's coming to these - to these picks.
And, you know, Zeldin's a former congressman. But one of the challenges that - that Trump has here, a lot of people that he's picking are coming from the House of Representatives, current members.
HUNT: Yes.
HEYE: That could create problems as Republicans will have a majority, but a slim one. If we have vacancies, various tight votes could be problematic.
HUNT: Yes. All right.
Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. The key positions he's naming for his second term. How they might carry out promises of mass deportations.
Plus, at first glance Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Donald Trump could not be more different, but they aligned more than you think in the minds of some voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're both disrupters. And there's a massive appetite right now in our country to disrupt a political system that increasing numbers of Americans are really disgusted by it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:47:27]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MILLER, FORMER TRUMP WHTIE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: Who's going to stand up and say, the cartels are gone, the criminal makers (ph) are gone, the gangs are gone, America is for Americans and Americans only?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That's Stephen Miller, the man expected to be Donald Trump's choice for deputy chief of staff for policy in the new administration. Miller has long been a hawk on restricting immigration, dating back to his time as an aide and speechwriter in the first Trump administration. In his new role, Miller is planning to carry out Trump's calls for mass deportations starting on day one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: When will the deportations begin?
STEPHEN MILLER, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER I: As president Trump said, they begin on Inauguration Day. As soon as he takes the oath of office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Along with Miller, Trump also announcing on Truth Social that Tm Homan, the former acting director of ICE, will join his administration as the, quote, "border czar." The president-elect also noting Homan will be in charge of, quote, "all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin." Homan is now warning Democrat governors about standing in the way of Trump's plans for a second term.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM MOMAN, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: I've seen these - some of these Democratic governors say they're going to stand in the way - they're going to - they're going to make it hard for us. Well, I - you know, a suggestion. If you're not going to help us, get the hell out of the way because we're going to do it.
(INAUDIBLE). It's a - no one - sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals.
So, you know, if sanctuary cities don't want to help us, then get the hell out of the way because we're coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, Elliot Williams, you worked with that man shown there.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: What can you tell us about him and how this is all going to play out?
WILLIAMS: I don't know how it's all going to play out, and here's why. You can talk a big game about removing a million people from the country, but we should just talk through what that actually means. When I was there, so the four years I was working with Tom at ICE, every day we were removing about 400,000 people a year, which was unprecedented at that point. It's a lot. In order -
HUNT: Was that under the Obama administration?
WILLIAMS: That's under the Obama administration.
HUNT: OK. WILLIAMS: And if you were to get to a million people, like you're - they're talking about, number one, you - you know, you get - you very quickly get from guys in cartel to granny when you're talking about that number. There - you - there are just simply not the volume of the dangerous folks that you're going to wish - so, number one, as a practical matter, it's not going to happen.
Number two, money, staffing, resources, bed space in jails and facilities simply do not exist. So somehow between now and Inauguration Day you're going to have to spend literally tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to construct new space, hire new people, bring new bodies on.
HUNT: Well, they can't do that between now and Inauguration Day. They have to wait until Inauguration Day.
[06:50:00]
WILLIAMS: That's what I'm saying. It's just - it is - it is - it is literally - it is - it is a fiction that, you know, that any of that can really happen in the time they're talking about.
Now, I want to be clear, and I said this earlier in the show, it is important to recognize that there's going to be a shift from administration to administration, including on the border, including on removals and deportations that, yes, you get a new president, they have a different vision, and that's OK, but they're sort of using these, you know, thuggish, bully talking points that aren't actually able to be put into practice.
LINSKEY: And also just to step back for a minute. I mean Donald Trump won the election on two issues, immigration and inflation. The president of the United States really can't do that much about inflation, but he can on immigration.
WILLIAMS: right.
LINSKEY: So, it makes a lot of sense that he's going to come right out of the box and focus on the area that he does actually have quite a bit of control over.
HUNT: Well, and we're seeing some Democratic governors, and that was kind of what he was focusing on, saying, we're going to stand in the way of these plans.
I mean, Kate, is that the right message for them to have received?
BEDINGFIELD: I don't think so.
WILLIAMS: No.
BEDINGFIELD: I do not think so. I think - look, I think - I have to imagine what the Trump administration is going to do. They're going to come out of the gate, you know, in the first week, on day one, with a number of executive orders that are going to have - they're going to have a lot of muscular language. You know, I think Elliot's right, the reality of the cost, the
logistics of doing truly mass deportation, I think they're going to run up against a wall here. But, no question, they are going to message on this aggressively coming out of the gate.
And no, I think it is - I think for Democratic governors to knee-jerk take a position of, you know, we're going to fight this is - is not smart. I do think - I think Democratic governors need to be responsive to what people said on Tuesday. That does not mean they need to whole heartedly embrace family separation and mass deportation.
But the Democrats put forward a very aggressive border bill, by the way, in the last year that any Democratic governor would be smart, I think, to embrace. And so I think - you know, I understand the - because of the most kind of callus and hateful language that the Stephen Millers of the world use, I understand why Democratic governors sort of feel, you know, on a - on a moral level that it's their obligation to oppose it. That I get. But I think having a - just a knee-jerk reaction that we're going to be seen as the people who are standing in the way of taking more aggressive steps on immigration is not the place to be for the Democrats.
HEYE: And Kate - Kate's right to bring up the executive orders. And if we look back at Donald Trump's presidency, one of the things that he did as a show that was very effective for him, he would sign language, and regardless of what the language said, he would say, look at what I just did.
BEDINGFIELD: Absolutely.
HEYE: So, he signs executive orders on specific issues around the border, around immigration, and he holds up pictures. We just removed this thug, we just removed this drug dealer, we just removed this murderer. As he does that, some on the left may cry Willie Horton, but the American public are saying, it's a good thing that that person is gone. It's going to be a brilliant tactical move by Trump.
HUNT: All right, let's turn to this story now.
In last week's election, some New Yorkers voted for two people who, on the surface, seem to have nothing in common.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: Socialist Bernie Sanders, AOC, all these people, liberal lawmakers are pushing a government takeover.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We know that Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Some voters in New Yorks 14th District splitting their tickets, voting for progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and for Donald Trump. Curious how she outperformed Harris by a significant margin. Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram yesterday to ask her constituents why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): If you voted for Donald Trump and me, or if you voted for Donald Trump and voted Democratic down ballot, I would really love to hear from you.
I actually want to learn from you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Fascinating. Among the answer she received, quote, "it's real simple, Trump and you are for the working class." Quote, "I feel like Trump and you are both real." And, quote, "you signified change. Trump signified change."
Really fascinating, Kate Bedingfield.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Extremely fascinating. So smart of her to do this. I mean just so - just such a smart use of her connection that she has with voters via social media. And, yes, I mean this - I think this - this common thread in a lot of these answers about how both she and Trump are real, you know, is very telling. I mean people feel like most politicians are talking pointed to death, they're fake, they're, you know, they're not real. And she and Trump can espouse, you know, wildly different policy positions but still both give a sense to people that there are actual real people who are saying what they think.
HEYE: (INAUDIBLE).
BEDINGFIELD: And that authenticity is - is extremely powerful.
HUNT: It's priceless. Yes.
HEYE: When I worked for Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, in 2012 we realized going through the election result, 8 percent of our voters also voted for Barack Obama.
[06:55:01]
And Cantor was sort of viewed as, you know, enemy - public enemy number one for the Obama administration. And we thought, who in the hell are those voters? This is really smart of her to try and figure this out. It may mean she has some opportunities, very narrow ones maybe, to work with the administration and really bolster her credentials.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HUNT: Well, and Donald Trump, I mean to - I'm not sure if this is a game - recognized as game moment or what, but this is what Donald Trump had to say about AOC over the summer.
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: She's got a thing going. It's a good thing. She's - a good thing for her. But there's a certain something she's got. She's got a spark that's pretty amazing, actually. She's got a good spark. I give her credit. But she's got a lot of - she's got a lot of sizzle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Spark. Sizzle.
WILLIAMS: I'm not going to touch that, (INAUDIBLE) and talking about spark and sizzle. But the authenticity is huge that, you know, people see an authenticity in the two of them.
And, you know - and, you know, Doug, you know New York too with a background there. We talked about this on the show on Friday about Queens in particular. And I think people see these urban areas as monoliths. Queens is as working class an area, the most diverse county in the United States and -
HUNT: She's got parts of the Bronx too. Yes.
WILLIAMS: She's got - and parts of the Bronx too. It does not surprise me in the least that on economic issues at least and some other political messaging is going to resonate across parties. And I think people take that for granted seeing black and brown New York and thinking it's all just this Democratic stronghold.
LINSKEY: She also - she also did something here that every politician, from both parties, say that they do, and I have actually never seen it before, which is like actually listen to - ask - she genuinely is asking, I'm confused by this. This is surprising to me. I'm not going to pretend like I know the answer. I want to listen to you. And I've heard so many politicians say, oh, we're doing a listening tour. Well, you know what happens on those listening tours is they do a lot of talking. And she did. So.
BEDINGFIELD: Not all listening.
WILLIAMS: Friendly audiences (INAUDIBLE).
HEYE: Don't give away our secrets.
WILLIAMS: It's a listening tour to supporters, to people that were actually attending.
LINSKEY: Yes. She's actually saying very earnestly, I want to know the answer here. And I just - I really - I think that's rare to see in politics. I don't know if you guys have seen it, but I don't see it often.
HUNT: I mean I - I think that's a wonderful point. I mean I have covered listening tours.
LINSKEY: Right. HUNT: And you are completely correct about how they typically go.
I mean, Kate, what are the -
BEDINGFIELD: But she is also - OK, to be fair, she is also asking people to tell her why she's great, right? I mean she's not - like, she's not like going on and saying, like, tell me why you didn't vote for me. So, let's, you know -
(CROSS TALK)
WILLIAMS: Hey, it's a beautiful Venn diagram. Why Republicans (INAUDIBLE) -
BEDINGFIELD: Right.
WILLIAMS: Why I am amazing and why you're running in the middle.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes. And so that's like - let - you know, it's super smart and great, but let's, like, be clear here.
HUNT: But, I think, Kate, my question here is that, you know, I mean we have focused so much on how the distinction here is class based.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
HUNT: And that the Republican Party has clearly moved in a more working class direction. I'm not trying to dispute that, but this does seem to suggest that that's - that's changeable. That it - that her -
BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
HUNT: You know, the place that she has to go on that may also be - you know, that Democrats could take up that space.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes.
HUNT: And I'm curious what you think about what message it sends on the cultural stuff in the Democratic Party.
BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Well, I mean, I think she's - she's clearly signaling, she's clearly saying, you know, tell me if there's a - tell me if there's a different path here. I think it - I think it is very clear that Democrats have kind of lost the thread on the cultural piece. I think a lot of what people associate with the Democratic Party on the cultural front feels out of touch with their day to day lives.
I think the other smart thing about what she was doing here is saying, you know, how can I learn from this, how can the - which, you know, how can the Democratic Party learn from this. I think there's absolutely space for Democrats to reclaim some of that. I think the Democratic agenda and the Democratic, you know, building blocks on policy are all designed to help working people and middle class people. And so, I think, there is space for that. It is clear that the party
has to have a reckoning on where they are in the culture wars because they've lost touch with a lot of the country.
HUNT: Fascinating.
All right, well, I don't want to lose this - this kicker we sometimes call it because we, as a county, could use some more moments of coming together. I'm going to leave you with this.
The legendary musical duo mending a fractured relationship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON AND GARFUNKEL, MUSICIANS (singing): Within the sound of silence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The silence has been broken between Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. They patched things up over lunch a few weeks back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON AND GARFUNKEL (singing): And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Garfunkel telling "The New York Times" he was a fool for his role in their estrangement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON AND GARFUNKEL (singing): Like a bridge over troubled water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Simon and Garfunkel had a falling out in 1970 after the release of that smash hit "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
[07:00:02]
They reunited briefly several times over the years, but it never stuck.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON AND GARFUNKEL (singing): And we walked off to look for America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Art Garfunkel's son says his dad now realizes Simon is family, they're in a wonderful place, and he's not ruling out a possible collaboration. And like this song, there's a lesson a lot of Americans could perhaps heed in this point in time.
HEYE: Hall and Oates, figure it out. We need you back. WILLIAMS: Paul and Ringo.
HUNT: I personally am thrilled to see this from Simon and Garfunkel, one of my favorite bands, thanks to my parents who grew up in the '70s.
Thanks to our panel. Thanks to you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.
