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Erin Burnett Outfront
House Kills Impeachment Resolution, Trump Declares Victory; Rep. Dan Kildee Discuss His Decision To Go Against Speaker Pelosi On Impeachment Proceedings; Trumps Says He's "Winning The Political Fight" Amid His Racist Attack On Minority Congresswomen; Trump Holding 2020 Rally Amid Outrage Over Racist Remarks. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired July 17, 2019 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Congratulations, best wishes for this great new family. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @WOLFBLITZER. Tweet the show @CNNSITROOM. Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Breaking news, more than 40 percent of Democrats going against Pelosi's wishes voting to keep alive a resolution to impeach President Trump and Speaker Pelosi keep her party in check. Plus, President Trump claims he's enjoying the fight over his racist tweets showing no signs of letting up the attacks. So how do his supporters feel tonight? And Bernie Sanders fighting back against this 2020 rivals over healthcare. Does Sanders plan to pay for his Medicare for all proposal add up? Let's go out front.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, the House of Representatives rejecting a bid to launch impeachment proceedings against President Trump and President Trump declaring victory telling reporters seconds ago, quote, we've just received an overwhelming vote against impeachment and that's the end of it. He went on to call it the, quote, most ridiculous project. Fighting high now over how the whole saga over his racist tweets is playing out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think you're winning this political fight?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do think I'm winning the political fight. I think I'm winning get by a lot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And at least by one measure, he is right, because even a majority of Democrats voted against impeachment, Democrat Al Green ending around Speaker Nancy Pelosi to force the vote. His resolution was specifically to move ahead on impeachment because of the President's tweets, not because of obstruction of justice or anything related to the Mueller report. No, the tweets.
And this vote highlighted the growing schism in the Democratic Party. Speaker Nancy Pelosi making it clear she thinks that this was a big waste of time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any concerns that the focus on impeachment today and the votes on the floor related to it could jeopardize Robert Mueller's appearance next week?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): No, I think we'll get rid of all of this right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Pretty dismissive, get rid of all this right now. Well, she did get rid of it, OK. She wants to focus to be on Mueller's upcoming testimony in his 448-page report. She was victorious in the vote. But tonight's vote did show a growing number of Democrats do not like how Pelosi is handling impeachment. They are getting restless and this wing now seems intent on ignoring Speaker Pelosi's commands even though Pelosi insists that going for impeachment is playing into Trump's hands.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: Don't tell anybody I told you this. Trump, I use his name, OK, Trump is goading us to impeach him. That's what he's doing every single day. He's just like taunting, taunting, taunting because he knows that it would be very divisive in the country, but he doesn't really care. He just wants to solidify his base.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: The President up in his incendiary rhetoric tonight against the four Democratic Congresswoman as this continues. Just listen to him before leaving for a rally tonight in North Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: When you look at some of the things they said, they're unthinkable. If somebody else or me or anybody else said things like that, it would be historic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So look, the President doubling down, tripling down and sending more and more Democrats to take on Speaker Pelosi, forcing her to try to stop the impeachment genie back into the bottle. Manu Raju is out front live on Capitol Hill. And Manu, look, this is a vote she didn't want to have happen. It has now put a lot of Democrats in a very tough position tonight.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right and a lot of Democrats did not want to go this route because they wanted to wait for the Mueller hearing to take place first, even supporters opening up an impeachment inquiry were not comfortable and actually did not support ultimately voting for this impeachment, articles of impeachment that was focused on the notion that the President is a racist. Not anything to with the allegations of obstruction of justice laid out in the Mueller probe.
But Al Green who's a Democratic who pushed this measure, defended this effort, told me just moments go, this is the right thing to do. Erin, he also told me that he's not done pushing this measure. I asked him if he's willing to do it again, he said, "I don't want to do it again. I hope someone else will do it. But if no one else does it, then I will."
And under the rules, any member can force a vote despite the wishes of Nancy Pelosi. And Al Green defy the Speaker and pushing forward in this. And Green sees it as a, quote, positive development. He told me. He's not concern that the President is portraying this. This is a big political victory because he says that more and more people are starting to understand the process.
Ninety-five Democrats did vote for this resolution. That is more than the amount of Democrats who voted in 2017 and 2018 for impeachment, articles of impeachment at that time 58 in 2017 and 66 in 2018, Democrats voted to keep alive an impeachment resolution. So the proponents are pushing one way to be forced to the House's hand on articles of impeachment.
[19:05:07] Nancy Pelosi saying, "Let's do something else. Investigate this president. See what we turn up. Put the brakes on the calls for impeachment." All the while people like Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee Chairman, the Chairman who has privately call for an impeachment inquiry continue to call for that impeachment inquiry. But at the moment, right now, Democrats are continuing to do what Pelosi wants even as the number of Democrats, growing number of Democrats want to open up formal impeachment proceedings, Erin.
BURNETT: Yes. I mean, obviously, she's trying to hold the line here but she's shutting support and you can hear the President celebrating that. Manu, thank you very much and I want to go now to Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee, Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democratic Caucus. And I appreciate your time, Congressman.
REP. DAN KILDEE (D-MI): Thank you.
BABBIT: So look, you voted I understand to go ahead with the impeachment proceedings against what Speaker Pelosi wanted. Why?
KILDEE: Well, first of all, I think the President should be subject to an impeachment inquiry. I will say this, the position that many members took was a little more nuanced than as people might think. Many of the members like me who support an impeachment inquiry did not oppose the tabling motion because they didn't like this particular approach.
And I sort of share that. I think what Mr. Green did --
BURNETT: Meaning, you don't like the going ahead with impeachment for as racism as the reason.
KILDEE: Yes. My view was that this resolution should have been referred to the Judiciary Committee rather than simply table, but I share the view that many of my colleagues share that this is not the approach that we should take. I don't think one member using the privileges of the House should impose a set of impeachment articles on everyone else and ask for a yes or no vote.
But having said that, we don't get to vote with footnotes, we have to vote yes or no, red or green. And my view was, I would have preferred to see this resolution referred to the judiciary committee so that we can commence an impeachment inquiry and then open up to I think much more significant misdeeds by the President, those outlined in the Mueller report.
BURNETT: OK. I understand. So you're saying, OK, because of the Mueller report or obstruction of justice, that's where you see the reason for impeachment. So you vote OK even though you don't support Al Green's reason for impeachment. But I just want to be clear, Congressman Kildee, do you think fundamentally President Trump could be impeached for being racist?
KILDEE: No. I mean, I think we can object to that racism and we took a very strong stand on it yesterday. But I think if we're going down the path of impeachment, which I support, it should be for these very clear violations that we see in the weather report.
BURNETT: OK. So Al Green, as you as you heard, I just spoke to Manu a few moments ago and one of the things he said, Congressman Kildee, was, quote, in my opinion we got 95 votes this time, 66 the last time, so that's a plus. Does he have a point? I mean, Speaker Pelosi wanted this to fail and yet the numbers keep going in the other direction and I know you're saying a lot of people had different reasons for getting there, but a heck of a lot more people are getting there, as in yes on impeachment proceedings, Congressman Kildee than a year ago or before that. So is she losing support?
KILDEE: Well, I don't really see this as being something for against what the Speaker is looking for. We all have to think for ourselves and particularly on a case like this, we have to make our own judgments. But I'll put it this way, support for an impeachment inquiry is clearly growing in support. There are many members who did not vote against the tabling motion who support impeachment.
So the number is growing much more than from just 66 to 95. There I think is really significant support to go down this path.
BURNETT: A lawmaker who was inside the House Democrats meeting today told our Dana Bash that there was a discussion on internal polling among Democrats. And the message was this impeachment thing is not working. There's frustration. There's frustration with the four Democratic Congresswoman who in the meeting was the perception. They're sort of pulling the party in this direction.
But they're saying, "Look, the internal polling shows that that is not what voters overwhelmingly want." They want to focus on infrastructure and other things. Are you concerned? And are you concerned that the squad or others are pulling your party too far down the impeachment hole? KILDEE: Well, I think we actually have to be able to do more than one
thing at a time and this is why I think getting the Judiciary Committee moving on an inquiry would free the committees that have jurisdiction over infrastructure, over health care to really focus on that agenda. I think that concern is legitimate and when we go to the American people during the recess, we have to be able to talk about the issues that affect them at the kitchen table every single day.
But that does not mean we get to ignore our constitutional obligation and I don't think we should pull test the Constitution. I think we have an obligation to follow it. And in this case, I think it is taking us to a place where we have to enforce the Constitution on this president, whether it pulls well or not.
[19:09:59] BURNETT: So as I mentioned, the President is very clear, this is a win for him tonight, the vote, as he sees it and this entire imbroglio with the four Congresswoman is a boon for him. Here's what he said today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I do think I'm winning the political fight. I think I'm winning it by a lot. The Democratic Party is really going in a direction that nobody thought possible. They going so far left, they're going to fall off a cliff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Do you have concern about that?
KILDEE: Look, no, I don't. We have an agenda that's very clear around health care, around growing wages, around cleaning up government that we continue to pursue. That's what the American people want. But if there's anyone that I'm going to take political advice from, it's a very long list, and at the very end of that list is Donald Trump.
Look, he's just not a credible observer of what's happening in American politics. It's kind of a strange thing to say about the President of the United States but I just don't listen to what he says that often anymore.
BURNETT: All right. Congressman Kildee, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much, sir.
KILDEE: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, President Trump about to speak at that rally in North Carolina. It is must win state for him and he's putting time in. Will this give him the edge in 2020. Plus the battle lines drawn over healthcare, Bernie Sanders taking on his critics unafraid. Do voters though really want what Sanders is selling? And Van Jones tonight goes to the crucial state of Pennsylvania to find out what voters think about Trump's racist tweets. And what van has found the past day is going to surprise you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:14:58] BURNETT: Looking at live pictures out of North Carolina, President Trump about to speak at a campaign rally for his 2020 reelection bid. You see the vice president there speaking. Trump about to take that podium as he continues to defend his attacks on four Democratic Congresswoman of color, but denies relishing the entire feud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm not relishing the fight. I'm enjoying it because I have to get the word out to the American people. And you have to enjoy what you do. I enjoy what I do. That's not where our country wants to be. We're not going to go and we're not going to be a socialist country. It's not going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I guess enjoying and relishing or perhaps not exact synonyms. Kaitlan Collins is out front at the rally in Greenville. Kaitlan, look, you've spent some time today talking to the people, the people who are there who waited in line to hear this president, his supporters, how do they feel about his attacks on the Democratic Congresswomen?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Erin, we spoke to about 10 or so of the President supporters here in the arena tonight. People have been waiting hours for the President and you really saw what a divide there is between Washington and here and over that reaction to the President's tweets on Sunday where he told t this four Democratic Congresswoman to go back where they came from, even though most of them were born in the United States.
And frankly, a lot of the President's supporters that we spoke with said they did not see those attacks as racist at all. Instead actually they agree with the President and his sentiment that if you don't love the United States, you should go home, even when they were faced with what those women had said in that interview that they did love the country. They were just trying to make changes.
But what you essentially saw was them saying actually, no, they think it's those Congresswomen who were the racist, not President Trump. And they made very clear that they support how he came out of all of that. But Erin, of course, we should note that these are supporters of the President and there was a big divide in Washington between Democrats and Republicans and the White House over the reaction to the President's comments.
But the real question and what the campaign is going to be looking for is how those more moderate or undecided voters react to the President's comments.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan Collins. There, of course, as you can hear the President taking the stage. Out right now Scott Jennings, who was a special assistant to President George W. Bush and former Senior Spokesperson for Hillary for America, Karen Finney.
So Karen, you heard Kaitlan. Look, people who go to his rallies are going to support what he says, sure. But if the President's strategy was to use these attacks, not just because they're going to agree with him, but energize them to get them ready to go turn out and vote for him, it clearly appears to be working.
KAREN FINNEY, FORMER SENIOR SPOKESWOMAN, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Well, absolutely and we knew all along that this was going to be his strategy for 2020. It's exactly what he did in 2016 where he mainstream the alt right from the beginning which is part of this sort of very far right dangerous kind of hyperbolic rhetoric. And the thing is, though, these four women represent change in America.
They represent very different communities, different parts of our country, like myself, we are just as American is anybody else but we have different types of American stories, but we're all part of the American story. That's not the vision that Trump is putting forward. His vision says, "Those people you should be afraid of because they're going to take away everything you love. They're going to take away jobs. They're violent. They're murderers and what have you."
And so, of course, it is in his interest to stoke that back up, stoke up that hate, stoke up that rage. And I got to tell you on some of this, I'm not surprised, because a number of the Trump supporters, it's kind of already baked in. They don't know what it's like to be a black person in America and get told to your face as a six-year-old, go back to Africa.
So he knew what he exactly what he was doing. He took the political opportunity and here we are.
BURNETT: Scott, I mean, whether it works or not and clearly if the goal is to motivate his base, at least right now, in this short time frame it is working, are you comfortable with him telling people of color, brown and black, to go back where they came from, to the country they came from when they're born here in the United States of America?
SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: What I think the President is doing is trying to take the attention off of the presidential candidates and put the attention on people in the Democratic Party that he thinks are going to give him the brightest line between his message and what he wants to run against.
BURNETT: His whole socialism thing.
JENNINGS: Yes. He wants to run against the socialist, the radical change, the policies that the four women represent. He thinks this gives him the best chance to not just hold his base together. We talked a lot about the base, but for the people who maybe are a little bit center right, maybe they stuck with him last time, maybe they didn't, but maybe they're not comfortable with such a radical economic change in the country.
I think making them - and look what's happened this week, where's Kamala Harris? Where's Joe Biden? Where's Mayor Pete? They're not on TV. The people who were on TV this week are the squad and Nancy Pelosi who's trying to hold them back and so I think that he's winning the technical battle.
BURNETT: So that's an interesting point. OK, that's an interesting point. And Karen to that point that he's trying to say they're going so far left, they're going off a cliff and trying to define the party by those four Congresswomen as opposed to by the people who are running for President. Here is one of them, one of the four women, Ayanna Pressley, this morning talking about President Trump, here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[19:20:16] REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): We can talk about and spin out about hateful words, which are predictable prompt by the occupant of this White House. And I call him that, not because I don't have respect for the Oval Office.
GAYLE KING, CBS NEWS HOST: But it sounds like you don't have respect for the Oval Office when you call the President of the United States the occupant.
PRESSLEY: No, because he is only occupying the space. He does not embody the principles, the responsibility, the grace, the integrity of a true president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So Karen, is that a problem, you have someone saying I won't even call President Trump the president?
FINNEY: No, not at all. Frankly, a lot of Americans have done that from day one, frankly. And unfortunately, time and time again, this President has shown a real lack of understanding of grace, of appreciation and respect for the Office of the President.
BURNETT: But do you think Democrats want to be defined by people who hold public office who refuse to call the President the president? Is that who they want to be defined by?
FINNEY: But that's not who we're defined by? That is a media narrative. That's not who we're defined by. I mean, the President doesn't get to decide who defines the Democratic Party. I mean Dan Kildee who you just had on is part of the Democratic Party. John Lewis is part of the Democratic Party. I mean these four women represent a part of the party and I think also remember what he's doing.
Remember that Ilhan Omar when she didn't realize that what she had said was a racist trope, an anti-semitic trope, when she realized that, she apologize. We've never heard that from President Trump. And the other issues that these women are working on, gun safety measures, helping people with credit card issues.
My point is you can't just cherry pick who they are and what they're about and say, "That's what the party is about."
BURNETT: OK, I hear you. I hear you, but I have to say if you're going to come out and say you won't call the president, the President, you can say a whole lot of really substantive thoughtful things and people are going to hear that louder than anything else. They just are. We all know that.
And Scott, you smile because that is mana to the republican ear, certainly to this President's ears.
JENNINGS: Absolutely. Look, when Barack Obama was President, I call him President Obama. I'll call Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Pelosi. Call me old fashioned, but I tend to respect people who've won elections and who had been bestowed these responsibilities.
But if you want to roll that beautiful bean footage and let them fight over whether we're going to call Donald Trump the president or not, that's fine, because that's not going to sound reasonable to the average American voter in Middle America. And remember, all Donald Trump has to do is win the states he won last time and can even lose a couple of them to retain the White House.
BURNETT: OK, on that point I want to ask both of you about this because he is focusing like a laser on states he won but barely so, right, Karen?
FINNEY: Yes.
BURNETT: I mean the ones that are just so close. He's name dropping these swing states every single time he can to say, "Look, I care about them." Campaign rallies like the one he's at right now. He is making sure everybody knows what he's focused on.
FINNEY: Right. Look, and here's the problem, Trump has not in any way shape or form grown his electric, grown his base. The way you win elections in this country, you have to figure out who are your voters, and then you got to usually grow that electorate. If anything and you talked about this with Kaitlan, he's probably shrinking because we know those Independents and those Republicans who last time were kind of 5050 not sure. Now they know.
Kellyanne Conway likes to say, "What offends me is not what affects me." And that was their strategy around some of the offensive things that Trump would say. I think the difference this time is that people understand that it does affect you if the President creates a divisive climate in this country or is at war with NATO and our friends.
BURNETT: Yes.
FINNEY: So I think it's going to be different this time.
BURNETT: Scott, let me just play him because I want everyone to hear it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Michigan and Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida.
Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio.
Ohio to Pennsylvania to North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and what's the name of this special place? It's called Wisconsin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's where he's going to spend all this time, Scott, literally just keep saying again and again and do those states.
JENNINGS: Yes, absolutely. Look, all he has to do is win what he won and he can even lose a couple of them and still hold the White House. I don't necessarily agree that he's actually has a shrunken base from last time. If you look at some of the polling that's come out recently, he had his highest number ever in the ABC News-Washington Post poll just a few days ago.
So I actually think he's right to strategize on focusing on the coalition of states that delivered him in the White House. And again it's on Democrats to take the states away and he can lose a couple and still win. He may lose one or two of them, but that won't take the White House away. I would expect him to campaign in these close states.
Look, North Carolina is going to be a close state and I'm glad he's there tonight.
[19:25:05] BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much. And then Bernie Sanders saying his health care plan could end up costing $40 trillion, so you got to give the guy credit. He's putting a massive number out there. But the big question is, how is he going to pay for it. Plus, Van Jones traveling to Pennsylvania and he's talking with Americans who say they're standing by Trump despite the racist attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN JONES, FORMER SPECIAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: You're like a young black dude with tattoos and stuff, why do you support Donald Trump given some of his racially inflammatory rhetoric?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:29:59] BURNETT: Tonight, the FIGHT FOR 2020. Bernie Sanders firing back against Democratic candidates criticizing his Medicare for all plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I hear over and over again from political opponents rom the industry, it can't be done. Please do not tell me that 55 years later, with all of the technology
that we have, that we cannot simply over a four-year period expand a successful program that is 55 years old.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, the senior adviser to the Bernie Sanders campaign. Jeff Weaver.
Jeff, good to talk to you again.
JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: Hi, Erin.
BURNETT: Look, you know, Bernie Sanders, I give him credit, because he comes out with a big idea, and he comes out with big price tag. And he is not afraid or trying to obfuscate or beat around the bush about it, OK? So, you guys have acknowledged this is going to cost a lot of money. Sanders told "The Washington Post" that it's going to cost up to $40 trillion, which is double the size of the entire American economy.
So, Joe Biden's plan is, I don't even know, $750 billion over a decade. We are -- two totally different things.
So --
WEAVER: This plan is over a decade too. Let's be clear. Let's be clear.
BURNETT: OK. How do you sell voters on this?
WEAVER: Well, how you sell voters on this, Erin, is we are going do away -- we already paid. The money we are talking about for this program, we already pay. You pay for it in your taxes for public employees and for Medicare. You pay it in premiums, you pay it copayments. We pay for it on lost wages because your employer is paying some of the health care costs.
We're aggregating that money and when do that, that allows a few things. First of all, you can drive down the cost of the prescription drugs by 50 percent in this country by pricing the way they are praised in other countries for the same product from the same factories.
You can also eliminate all of bureaucracy and waste of millions of dollars in CEO compensation packages at private health insurers, all the bureaucracy that's created to keep you from getting from the healthcare you pay for. You aggregate that money and you can provide healthcare to this country, comprehensive health care, for less than we spend now.
We are saying $2 trillion to $5 trillion. The question is not, how can you afford this? How can you afford what we're going to have otherwise? And every other candidate, whether it's Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or everybody else, they just wanted to throw more money into this problem without dealing with the structural dysfunction in the health care system.
BURNETT: I just -- you know, look, I understand what you are saying and you got to think big. But you just take companies one little thing you said there, Jeff, right? They just got a big tax cut we were told that was going into wages. And it didn't.
So, now, it's saying, oh, they are saving money on health care and that's going to go to higher wages. Call me dubious.
WEAVER: Well, there are ways to do that. Let's be clear, right? But that's your interest.
The truth of the matter is the Republican tax bill was a give away to big corporations and to wealthy people. Trump has really no interest in working class people getting a wage increase. Let's be clear about that.
BURNETT: All right. So, Kamala Harris has said that as part of her Medicare-for-All plan, there is no middle class tax hike. I understand you're saying, OK, there might be but you're saving money in other ways, it's not really that. But she's saying absolutely not.
She spoke exclusively last night to our Kyung Lah on this show and here is what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senator Sanders says that that is impossible to achieve without a middle class tax hike.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not prepared to engage in a middle class tax hike. The rules have been written against middle class and working families for far too long and it's not necessary they be taxed even more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What do you say to Kamala Harris?
WEAVER: Well, I will say to Kamala Harris is, the average American family is going to be saving $3,000 a year in total health care expenditures. You know, Erin, if you paid $200 for your electric bill and I can provide it to you for $150, am I taxing you $150 when you saved you $50?
BURNETT: So, you're saying the tax increase is going to be less than the savings?
WEAVER: Absolutely, 100 percent.
BURNETT: And it's cash to cash?
WEAVER: Absolutely. And the reason for that is that we're wringing out all of this fraud and waste and abuse that is driven by the fact that you have a health care financing system -- and we're not talking about -- this is a health care insurance program, national health care insurance program.
BURNETT: Yes.
WEAVER: This program is going to do away with the bureaucracy and all of the overpayment of to doctor -- not doctors -- but to health executives and to pharmaceutical company executives. That's what we've got to written out of this system. Actually, we'll pay health care providers better basically.
BURNETT: All right. So, Emory University chair of health policy, Kenneth Thorpe, says that tax hikes are going to be enormous. He's saying you're going to have sales tax increases to get to your $30 trillion to $40 trillion. People on Medicare and Medicaid are going to pay more in taxes than the current premiums. Small business owners who are currently not paying premiums are going to start paying more, and the list went on and on.
WEAVER: Right, even a conservative think tank who's analyzed Medicare-for-All says the country spends less under Medicare-for-All than we don't go in that direction. So, the economics of this are quite clear. The question is, do people have --
BURNETT: Why do you say there is a cost of $40 trillion? I'm just trying to get it around it even politically, right? If you're saying we're going to save money, why is the number you're acknowledging is going to cost $40 trillion? You should be putting out, it's going to save $5 trillion.
WEAVER: Well, we do put that number out. You know, that's not the number the folks chose to highlight, our opponents.
[19:35:01] What they want to say is this is a increase in spending.
BURNETT: Right. I mean, I'm just saying, Sanders did tell "The Washington Post" it costs up $40 trillion. I'm saying, he himself said this.
WEAVER: Of course, as a federal expenditure, but in terms of national expenditure on health care, it will be less than what we will spend otherwise. It's a savings for the economy.
BURNETT: Jeff, before we go, our new CNN poll of New Hampshire shows Joe Biden at 24 percent, Warren and Bernie Sanders both at 19 percent. So, they are within the margin of error for Joe Biden.
Can Biden win this race by trying to divide and conquer between your candidate and Senator Warren?
WEAVER: No, I don't think that he can frankly, and I'll tell you why. You know, when you look at -- when you analyze all the public polling and obviously a bunch of us have private apology as well, what you see is that Bernie Sanders coalition of voters is much more diverse than Elizabeth Warren is, much more working class. And he can put together that type of coalition which is unique. We are going to bring in a lot more of voters this time that are not
being screened out the in the polls the way we did last time when we brought out an additional 55,000 people in Iowa over what was expected by the pollsters. So, you know, Bernie Sanders appeals to a lot of folks who aren't usually counted. They are usually counted out and left out. And that's what this campaign is doing on the ground in New Hampshire and Iowa and other places.
BURNETT: Jeff Weaver, I appreciate your time. Thanks.
WEAVER: Thank you. Glad to be here.
BURNETT: And next, Van Jones travels to the key state of Pennsylvania talking to voters, voters who voted for Trump. And what now? Could what he found spell trouble for Trump, or not?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of my friends that are black conservatives, a lot of them have jumped off the Trump train.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, we now know who is in and out when it comes to CNN's upcoming Democratic debate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:40:16] BURNETT: Tonight, the battle for Pennsylvania. So, it's a must win, right? President Trump won by less than a percentage point last time around. And look, you got to pull it off this time pretty much almost for sure.
So, how do voters there feel about him right now and those racist tweets?
Van Jones was just there today, this morning, and he found out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Show of hands -- who voted for Donald Trump in 2016? Raise your hand.
Two.
So let me focus on you two. Are you planning to vote for Donald Trump in 2020?
KURT ZUHLKE, OBAMA - TRUMP VOTER: Well, I haven't made up my mind whether I was going to vote for him or not. I am leaning more towards him than the other candidates right now. The economic situation for me and my business is going very well. Economics is a big important issue here.
JONES: Gotcha.
What about you?
KEVIN MARTIN, VOTED FOR TRUMP: Yes, I am. All this kind of this far left talking is kind of scaring me when it comes to the border.
JONES: So let's address the elephant in the room. You're a young black dude with tattoos and stuff, why do you support Donald Trump, given some of his, you know, racially inflammatory rhetoric?
MARTIN: You know, I think -- look, I mean, I was raised in a conservative family. And I'm in business. I'm in business consultant. I mean, business is great. I don't want to lose that.
You know, when I know a lot of the rhetoric that comes out of the White House off Twitter is concerning. But putting personal feelings aside, I think that we're having a great economic boom. I mean, people are risking their lives to come here.
JONES: How do you size up this whole thing where he -- where President Trump comes out and says to the women, go back to your whatever country you came from?
FRANK BEHUM, DEMOCRATIC VOTER: It's a man in desperation. He's desperate.
JONES: Desperate for what?
BEHUM: To be president. The only person he cares about is himself. He rode in on the coattails of Obama. If you think it was any other thing, you know, you believe in Easter Bunny and Santa Clause. That's the way I see it.
ZUHLKE: I don't believe in the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause.
VANESSA WILLIAMS, DEMOCRATIC VOTER: Almost everyone has a story of being told go back to your country. And I think that it's kind of like one of the oldest, you know tricks in the book when it comes to phraseology, maybe outside of the N-word that comes to mind when talking about racist language.
ZUHLKE: I've had people when I moved to Pennsylvania said, oh, you're a New Yorker, why don't you go back to New York where you belong? Well, you know, those are just human emotion remarks and people are frustrated. And they are frustrated.
He is frustrated from the very beginning. They have attacked him, his family, his wife, his kids. It's disgusting, it really is.
PHYLLIS ALEXANDER, DEMOCRATIC VOTER: I just go back to values. I value treating people with dignity and if there is anything that is incongruent with those values, then I'm not for that. And so, I'm not going to put profit over my values.
JONES: You put your profits over your values?
ALEXANDER: That would be a yes.
MARTIN: Look, I think --
ALEXANDER: That would be a yes.
MARTIN: I think that this -- go back comment hit -- hit a lot of us that support him- it hit a lot of us in the gut. I think that the president is putting a lot of us in a very precarious situation. I think the president has a base. And he has a far right-wing base and there's a lot of white nationalists, a lot of racists, a lot of anti- Semites in that base.
So, what I am going to do is I am going to have a PR strategy to rile up the base. And so, I feel like, a lot of us feel like, wow, do we fit in anymore? Are we welcome in this movement? Are people of color still welcome?
So, a lot of us are still reeling from that comment. And I'm going to tell you, a lot of my friends that are black conservatives, a lot of them have jumped off the Trump train. They've gone over to Kamala Harris' side. They've gotten involved in her campaign and also Joe Biden, certainly here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: That was an incredible conversation.
JONES: Yes, yes.
BURNETT: So, he's saying a lot of his friends have gotten off just not just conservative -- not just off the Trump train but onto someone else's train.
JONES: Other things.
BURNETT: But amazing he is saying I'm not sure if I'm welcome here, and if anyone of color is welcome. But he votes for him as of now.
JONES: Yes, listen, I don't thinks I understood until I got there the way this thing landed like a bomb, the for those kinds of Trump voters. Trump voters who say I'm a business guy. My business is going great. I don't want to change I'm scared.
BURNETT: Economic voters, what he is saying.
JONES: I'm economic guy. But I'm African-American. And this last round has pushed some of his fellow black conservatives away.
[19:45:01] And so I think we got a lot going on here in the swing states. I want to go back.
BURNETT: I really do too, especially that other guy who said, I was told, go back to New York, which I just doesn't understand.
All right. Thank you very much, Van.
And you can see the conversation on "THE VAN JONES SHOW" Saturday at 7:00. And next, Senator Kamala Harris surging in her home state of
California. So, could this spell trouble for Joe Biden?
Plus, Jeanne Moos on Trump's go-to line when it comes to at least a few of his favorite things.
Plus tonight, it's a very special night in our nation and, frankly, much bigger than that, the entire world history. Fifty years ago today, during this hour, the astronauts who are soon to be the first people to walk on surface of the moon began their first color telecast from space. Here is hour how it's captured in our film "APOLLO 11".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are receiving TV from the space craft.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello sports fans. Buzz is doing the camera work. Neil is standing on his head again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see the do have a happy home. There is plenty of room for the three of us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apollo 11 is presently 131,000 nautical miles from earth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spacecraft slowly rotates to maintain thermal balance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like we got a good PTC going. It's good night from the white team, over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, see you tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Apollo 11.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Houston. Apollo 11.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:50:32] BURNETT: The CNN debates are just two weeks away, and now we know who made the cut. The DNC confirming, just read it really, really fast, people. There is 20 of them still taking the debate stage.
The new face that was Montana Governor Steve Bullock who will take Eric Swalwell's spot because Swalwell got out of the race.
OUTFRONT now, Patrick Healy, "New York Times" politics editor and CNN political analyst.
Did I leave it up long enough for everyone to read every name?
OK. Look, there are still a lot of people on the debate and it's going to start pretty soon after that, I'm going to bet, to thin out a little bit.
OK. So who are you watching the closest for this one?
PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's definitely going to be Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I mean, I think they created the big change dynamic in the last debate. Biden because he didn't seem to know or sort of grapple with how to respond to Kamala Harris, and Harris because the reality is she had a one very scripted, well-rehearsed moment that gave her, what, $3 million in fundraising, poll breakthrough.
The question is, can she capitalize it? Because you know some of the moderates, they're going to be pressing her on details about what she actually stands for.
And also the question is, you know, can she come into a debate and create another moment for herself that isn't simply a scripted windup moment?
BURNETT: Right, and that of course is the big challenge.
Look, she's getting some good news in here home state of California. So, we got a new poll, 23 percent statistically -- I mean, she's ahead. Statistically it's a dead heat because of the margin of error. But back in April, Biden was ahead in California.
Now, you can say, oh, it's her state, she should be doing well or you can say, oh, he was winning and now she seems to be rising? What's the way to look at it?
HEALY: Yes, it's a definitely a mixed bag for Biden. This poll matches some of the others that have brought him down since the debate, since that wobbly debate performance. But the interesting thing is Biden is far away of the rest of the field in terms of who do you think can beat President Trump in the general election? That still goes to name ID, but that also still goes to a general sense of Democrats, yes, comfort and also, not sure what Warren or Harris, how they can really --
BURNETT: Quickly before we go. We got the sound byte from the president's rally. It used to be "lock her up" and now, there is new rallying cry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: Send her back! Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Send her back obviously referring to the congresswoman.
HEALY: Yes, President Trump's racist --
BURNETT: With an American citizen.
HEALY: Right, the racist tweets have clearly broken through to the biggest true believers in the Trump base who are ready to come out and, you know, come up with a chant that just goes deeper and deeper into how politics have so changed, that racism is expressed, that someone whose a United States citizen can become a rallying cry at a rally. It's very disturbing.
BURNETT: All right.
And next, Jeanne Moos on President Trump making his feelings known on everything from Biden to bit coin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not a fan. I was not a fan of his. I'm not a fan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:53] BURNETT: Tonight, Trump is a fan of some things but there are some exceptions.
Here is Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is the opposite of a fan boy, obsessively not being a fan. The other day, it was Guatemala and Honduras.
TRUMP: I'm not a fan.
MOOS: Before that, it was Jeffrey Epstein.
TRUMP: I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.
MOOS: And before that, it was the British ambassador who called President Trump inept and weak cables.
TRUMP: We're not big fans of that man.
MOOS: From Joe Biden --
TRUMP: So, I'm not a fan.
MOOS: -- to bit coin.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump he's not a fan of bit coin.
MOOS: It doesn't bother him a bit to use the word "fan" to distance himself even from the Vietnam War.
TRUMP: Well, I was never a fan of that war. I'll be honest with you.
MOOS (on camera): And the president isn't shy about saying he's not a fan to the face of the person he's not a fan of.
(voice-over): For instance, when NBC's Peter Alexander stood up for CNN's Jim Acosta.
TRUMP: I'm not a big fan of yours, either.
MOOS: When designer Tom Ford said he wouldn't be dressing Melania.
TOM FORD, DESIGNER: She's not necessarily my image.
MOOS: He got unfanned.
TRUMP: I'm not a fan of Tom Ford, never have been.
I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be.
MOOS: Though one of McCain's good friends fanned the flames tweeting, OK, you aren't a fan. One more in a long list of things you are not -- honest, brave, smart, et cetera.
And while it's usually humans like Samuel L. Jackson that get not a fan, first wife Ivana Trump wrote that Donald was not a dog fan.
TRUMP: How would I look walking a dog on a White House lawn? Would that be --
MOOS (on camera): But there are a few things President Trump is a fan of.
TRUMP: I'm a big fan of Winston Churchill.
MOOS (voice-over): He's a big fan of the American women's soccer team if not Megan Rapinoe.
He's a big fan of history?
TRUMP: I am a big fan of Hindu and I am a big fan of India. Big, big fan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are a few of my favorite things --
MOOS: Though they seem vastly outnumbered by non-favorites.
TRUMP: I'm not a fan.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --
TRUMP: I was not a fan of his and I never will be.
MOOS: -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: I'm a fan of Hindu?
Thanks for joining us. Anderson starts now.
[20:00:00]
