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Inside Politics

Schultz Steals Attention from Bloomberg's Campaign Test Drive; Foxconn Wisconsin Plant May Nix Plan For Factory; Medicare-for-all Emerges As Early Litmus Test For 2020 Dems; Trade Talks Begin With Top U.S. and Chinese Officials. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 30, 2019 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: He says he's not Donald Trump. He says the President is not qualified, but there is a Trumpian flavor to the Schultz beginning if that's what we're going to call it.

MATT VISER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes. And I think his gamble here is to show us some viability and get to like a 15 percent threshold that Democrats are already freaking out but then they would really freak out. That's what he would need to get on the debate stage.

So I think Schultz is using this sort of roll out to try and show some strength early on and I don' think he minds the criticism he's getting from Democrat, I think because he's trying to sort of chart.

ELIANA JOHNSON, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO: Good for him.

VISER: It's a different path, yes.

KING: And he's trying to sell books in the process. The question is -- and he is, that's part of this. He's trying to sell books. But the other part of this is, yes, he's going to show up no matter what is the Republicans are already grabbing. What he says about Medicare for all, what he says about the Elizabeth Warren tax plan, what he says about other, you know, Democratic spending proposals?

They're already grabbing on to that and they see him as a gift. The President Trump twitting earlier on the week, get in. Get in trying to go at him.

JOHNSON: I think that the Democratic response to him as well as Trump's response are the best. They're the greatest thing and Howard Schultz could have asked for because in the same way that, I mean, Trump is elevating him by giving him attention and so are the Democrats rather than writing him off, as the would-be candidate.

And I think Schultz poses a far greater threat to Democrats by running as an independent than he would running in the primary and that's why you hear Democrats pushing him to run in the primary.

He seems to be somebody who would pull him to the center and that's seems to be what they don't want. The comments about Medicare-for-all and all of that, because he could be a real threat running as an independent -- somebody saying, these guys are way too far to the left. What you need is somebody like me, an independent and he could really be a threat if he stays out of that primary, but is still to the left of Trump.

KING: And timing is everything in politics. It's an old cliche, it happens to be true.

This roll out by Schultz coming as Michael Bloomberg plan his first big trip to New Hampshire. Bloomberg is not happy about this. He thought about running as an independent. He says, "You can't win" but he also is running a campaign which he has a lot of the same themes as Howard Schultz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, CEO, BLOOMBER L.P.: Free college tuition would be a nice thing to do. It is just totally impractical to replace the entire private system where companies provide health care for their employees would bankrupt us for a very long time. I think you could never afford that. You're talking about trillions of dollars.

Number one, I think the constitution let's you impose income taxes only. So it's probably unconstitutional. Number two, I don't know of any country that has done that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is the week Michael Bloomberg wanted us to be talking about him as a potential Democratic candidate trying to pull the party back to the center instead Howard Schultz is taking a lot of his oxygen.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Not only that, but I mean, what's interesting about these two billionaires trying to gain some national attention is that a lot of people are, like, do we need more billionaires? I mean, is this what the moment is really calling for?

It does strike me that in some ways while they do share business as a common factor with Trump, what they don't share with Trump is actually what I think Democrats are trying to take from Trump which is the idea that these things in politics that used to seem like third rails maybe are not. Maybe when you put something out there for the American public that a lot of people told them they couldn't have and that may be they gravitate toward that.

Trump ran in a really unconventional way. He ran on things that Republicans didn't want to touch with a ten-foot pole and that's why I think you see a lot of Democrats finally talking about the things that Democrats, established Democrats so they didn't want to talk about for a long time. Bloomberg and Schultz are trying to run conventional campaigns after Trump proves that the unconventional might be the thing that works with the American people. KING: But my question was what about the billionaire thing? Because people slapped that on Trump, even Republicans tried to slap that on Trump. He said what's wrong with getting rich in America.

PHILLIP: Yes.

KING: In his case, everyone say, well you got a lot of money from your dad to get you started. Howard Schultz did grow up in the Housing projects. Michael Bloomberg did start his own his own company. He didn't start as poor as Howard Schultz but he did start his own company and made his life and say isn't that what we're supposed to do in America?

But this is Elizabeth Warren, billionaires like Howard Schultz and Michael Bloomberg want to keep rig system in place that benefits only them and their buddies. And they plan to spend gobs of cash to try and buy the presidency to keep it that way, not on my watch. She's going after him there. This is Sherrod Brown who's on a tour now, trying to decide -- senator from Ohio, progressive, trying to decide if he should run for President. Pretty much the same point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: When I think about a billionaire running as an independent, we tried a billionaire in the last election and the billionaire won and look, where we are. If I want a choice between Trump and a progressive Democrats, we're going have that and I think we've got to win the industrial Midwest, the heartland, the great lakes states and the state that you grew up in, Chris, and the state that I represent and we change the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The focus people who work with their hands, industrial Midwest size get completely after Trump turns red to blue and blue to red in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

But the billionaire thing, it's an easy reflex. Is the right reflex?

[12:35:00] VISER: Well, part of me wonders what's in Joe Biden's head right now. Because he sees himself I think as the bridge between this progressive energy and his more centrist philosophy. And so I think as he weighs whether to get in, Schultz, I think his pathway is impacted by if a nominee is in Joe Biden or if a nominee is in Elizabeth Warren or somebody who's seen as much more left. So I think that's the question, in my mind.

JOHNSON: And Schultz will certainly pull, I think the Democratic primary towards the Joe Biden rather than in Elizabeth Warren.

KING: That's a good -- that's a great point. It does that happen in the sense that he's going to tour for three months and he clearly at least in the beginning is getting attention. The question would be the impact as we go on to break. It's a good place holder. We'll come back and check on that one. Up next for us here, a Republican governor toward (ph) Congress while offering the secret to his success in his state. Republican, thinking 2020 maybe?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:18] KING: Topping our political radar today. Well, it looks like bad news for President Trump focused on job creation. Foxconn a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin says it's changing its plan. The company now says, the plans to create a technology hub which is a far cry from the factory full of blue collar jobs that it promised the President.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins, live at the White House. Kaitlan this was a huge initiative from the President. He thought this is big bragging rights. What's the White House saying now?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they haven't responded to our requests for comment yet. But you can bet that President Trump is not going to pleased because John, not only did he hold a huge event here in the East Room, the White House for this company when they announced this.

He also traveled to Wisconsin for the ground breaking. And while he was there he said this was evidence this plant alone that this manufacturing jobs were coming back to the United States, something that he promised time and time again on the campaign trail.

Now the company says it's still going to build this $10 billion plan. It's still planning on hiring 13,000 workers, but its going look a lot different, John. Essentially it's a reversal of what they promised this is going to look like, that it was going to be all these manufacturing jobs and now they want to make a technology hub and hire researchers, developers, engineers instead of those blue collar jobs that they promised.

They say now that three-fourths of the job would likely be the research and development ones and only a fourth will be manufacturing jobs.

That's not all. They still say, they're going to hire those 13,000 people, but now they can't say when and the hiring pace is slow compared to what they had projected with a certain amount of people they wanted to hire by the end of 2020. Now they say the number is going to drop significantly.

And John, they were initially supposed to focus on building LCD screen at this plant in Wisconsin. Now they say sliding costs and means cheaper as in play to make them elsewhere. They're going to make them overseas. Then they're going to ship the final product back to the United States which seems to go against exactly what President Trump has been touting about this company when he was doing so just as recently as last summer, John.

Now we've reached out to the White House about this. What is the President's response to this company completely reversing what it said that they were going to do and what the President was so proud of, but John, they haven't gotten back to us yet.

KING: I'll wait for that response. Obviously we showed the pictures at the top, the President at the ground breaking could be quite embarrassing. Kaitlan Collins, thanks. Let's bring in to the room.

Now again, a President can't control what a company does, a President can't control market forces, a President can't control globalization but a President can't control what he or she says about a specific company or what he or she says about a specific day in the stock market. This is the risk you take.

CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, I saw someone tweeted this morning, "Foxcon", one "n". And this would say political thing that Governor Scott Walker was pushing there and Republicans in that state. This is a really a potential debacle for the Republicans in Wisconsin. They invested a lot in this. Walker still sort of maintains some political hopes for the future. People just feel like they got snowed.

JOHNSON: Yes.

HULSE: And that this is not, that was of a huge giveaway. It was controversial and you're right, I mean, the White House probably should have taken a close look at this, but they were in this mode. We have to show manufacturing is coming back.

PHILIP: Yes, I mean, the President is -- he can be credited for what has really been a manufacturing renaissance in some aspects of the economy, but at the same time he never wants to talk about the trends that are actually happening in the economy. A move toward skilled labor, a move toward less labor and more machine manufacturing in this country.

He doesn't want to talk about those trends that are actually happening that are going to change whether or not the Midwest, certain places like Pennsylvania will have the same type of jobs that they had in the past. There is not going to be much Trump can do to reverse those things that are just a result of globalization and advances in technology.

KING: And then the old politics his local department, Wisconsin. Remember, one of the states he flipped to become President. This will be an issue in 2020 without a doubt.

[12:44:09] Next, the 2020 question that could define Democrats. Can the country really afford free health care?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Well, fascinating and potentially difficult 2020 conversation today for Democrats. How far left is too far left? The early litmus test triggered by Senator Kamala Harris, CNN Town Hall commitment to Medicare for all and her acknowledgement in that Town Hall that such a program could essentially wipe out the private health insurance industry. Harris early marker earned rebukes for moderates and prompted what sounds like a bit of a retreat. A Harris adviser telling CNN the candidate, "Would also be open to the more moderate health reform plans, which would preserve the industry being floated by other Congressional Democrats". Excuse me?

PHILLIP: It is so interesting. I mean, it's so interesting how early this is happening. And I think two years ago, three years ago during the 2016 campaign that something like this would have been a major, major, major misstep on a Presidential candidate.

Now it's not entirely clear where it leaves her. In some ways it could endear her to the left, but the fact that they're trying to make it clearer that she holds two positions simultaneously which is a plan that would either eliminate private health insurance or a plan that wouldn't.

I mean, that kind of is trying to have it both ways here, but it's necessary considering that she has to both appeal to the left in the Democratic primary that is moving very far to the left on this issue and she has to maintain her options for a potential general in which inevitably the Democratic candidate is going to have to appeal to the Senate.

KING: And we have seen this in past Democratic primaries in 2007 and 2008, Hillary Clinton, Obama and Edwards. Is it universal coverage? Is that the aspiration? Is it universal access for universal coverage? So it's a familiarity to it.

[12:50:08] But she said in this debate, "I'm for Medicare-for-all". She acknowledged. Jake Tapper pressed her. She acknowledged, yes, could end up, you know, wiping out the private health -- pretty much the private health insurance industry.

Here's what his spokesman told CNN Politics, "Medicare-for-all is the plan that she believes will solve the problem and get all Americans covered, period. She has co-sponsored other pieces of legislation that she sees a path to getting us there, but this is the plan she is running on". Which is it then?

VISER: It is putting her in it in a pretty difficult situation, trying to explain. A plan that I think people generally support the concept of Medicare-for-all, but once she start talking about the details and that it actually could eliminate private health care industry then it gets more complicated and she was crystal clear during the Town Hall so it's only in the aftermath of the blowback that she was starting to get that she walked away.

This also I think it's interesting that it indicates the grip that Bernie Sanders like to had on the party and the direction that he's taken it, 2016 --

KING: Just going to say. The Democrats won in 2018, after losing in 2010 and 2014 on health care. They won in 2018 potentially on Obamacare. Now they have this debate about since they're blowing out Obamacare. To your point, the Kaiser Family Foundation, do you favor or oppose a single government plan? Fifty-six percent favor, 42 percent oppose.

So looks like, OK, we can do Medicare-for-all, but do you favor delays in treatment or oppose them? Do you favor paying more in taxes or oppose them? Do you favor eliminating private insurance or oppose them? When you look at the particulars it gets a lot more dicey.

JOHNSON: Yes. The specifics of this are obviously where the problems arise, but what's so interesting to me is that Donald Trump didn't exactly run to the right on social issues and on entitlements. He ran to the left on them and no he wanted to repeal Obamacare, that was a colossal failure.

So it does seem to me that there is an enormous opening on these issues on the left for some Democrats who has specific ideas and a plan and, yet, now Democrat -- what's happening on the right -- what happened on the right to Republicans where they had a lot of talk, but then couldn't flush out the details, appears to be happening on the left here at least Kamala Harris is an example of that.

KING: And in the crowded Democratic primary though, you want debates right?

HULSE: Well, that comment really jumped out at me. When she said that I said immediately, this is going to be a big problem because people like private health insurance. They want people to have access to healthcare but they don't want to get rid of private health insurance.

The reason that Obamacare is the way Obamacare is, is because that debate sort of got settled. There was a debate for single payer, it failed on the Democratic side no matter what the Republicans did calling it government-run health insurance. It's really not.

KING: Early test in the Democratic primary. It's going to be a great contest of ideas and they should be on policies up and play up.

Next for us here, the United States and China kick off critical trade talks. Can they reach a deal or will the trade war escalate?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:32] KING: U.S. and Chinese negotiators back at the table today with this number hanging over their head, just 30 days to reach a deal. And if they don't, American tariffs on hundred of billions worth of Chinese goods automatically jump from 10 percent to 25 percent those tariffs cover a giant range of exports.

Industrial goods like automobile parts, medical equipment to consumer products like LED screens. China of course has responded in kind with tariffs on American exports, pork, soybeans and bourbon.

Team Trump says the goal is making up progress to bring in closers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: The President is going to be involved in those talks at the conclusion. We've been updating him.

MARIA BARTIMORO, FOX BUSINESS NEWS ANCHOR: Is the President willing to drop all tariffs should you get a deal that's acceptable?

MNUCHIN: I think everything is on the table.

LARRY KUDLOW, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: He and President Xi will probably be the ultimate negotiators, OK. And the work being done tomorrow and Thursday is vitally important to lay out options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Our Christine Romans has more on the issues and the stakes.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: John, there is a lot of work to do over the next two days and a critical deadline before the U.S. jacks up tariffs on Chinese goods in March 2nd. No opening remarks says the principal level meetings begin this morning.

Just last week, the commerce secretary said the U.S. was, "Miles and miles away from a trade deal with China". Now, the list of U.S. complaints against Chinese business practices, it's long. The Americans want China to stop the forced transfer of American technology to Chinese companies.

They want to stop intellectual property theft and non-tariff barriers that punish non-Chinese companies and they want to put an end to cyber espionage. That's something that zaps billions and billions from American companies every year. Now recently the Chinese have shown willingness to buy more U.S. soybeans and egg products which could shrink the deficit that's a good sign.

But, administration official like Wilbur Ross the commerce secretary, they have worried aloud about China keeping its promises and China hawks in the administration, they want structural changes in how China uses its state-owned enterprises to advance its national goals like Smartphone maker Huawei, for example, its China's crown jewel.

China wants Huawei to dominate 5G wireless technology, something that the Americans have said is a national security threat. Add in the arrest in Canada at the U.S. request of Huawei's CFO and an indictment unsealed against the company this week, certainly, John, the stakes in this negotiation are very high.

KING: See you back here tomorrow. Brianna Keilar stars right now.