Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

CNN: Biden to Announce Presidential Run Thursday; Poll: Sanders Most Likely to Win in General Election; Sen. Warren Touts Her Student Debt Forgiveness Plan in SC; 2020 Dems React to Sen. Warren's Student Loan Plan. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 23, 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] JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Could be a problem for me down the line. I mean, this is sort of one of the dangers, you know, the blessing and a curse of having a big diverse Democratic primary. For Democrats, particularly in an era when, you know, progressives are really the energy behind the party, ideals like this will come up and they all have to decide will they get punished by primary voters for not being on the right side of this.

Voting right is obviously rightly so a very hot button issue for people. It's a fundamental part of civil rights in this country. It's a fundamental part of democracy. And so --

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: It's a -- sorry.

DAVIS: Yes. You just don't want to be in a position where you're sort of throwing out an idea like this if you're a Democrat running -- trying to run against Bernie Sanders. You don't want to get crosswise with the base that wants to hear some of these ideas.

KING: And it's yet another example of Sanders starting a debate that the other candidates then forced to react to. I should just note while we're having this conversation, we're going to talk more about him a bit later. But we have now confirmed that the vice presidential announcement -- Joe Biden's announcement, breaking news, will be on Thursday. There was some talk, it could come Wednesday this week, it will now come Thursday with a video.

Seems like we've been waiting a long time for the official date and now we have it, and we've said it on television. He was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee for a long time. He was involved in Democratic debates on law and order issues for a long time. One of the things he's had to quasi-apologize for at least say I was just representing those times was his tough stance on the 1990s crime bill. We'll have to ask Joe Biden I guess where he stands on should the Boston bomber be allowed to vote.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: His answer on all of these things are going to be fascinating. I was asking an aide of his if he was watching the town hall last night to watch his competition, they didn't answer. But we do know that he's been watching specifically all of the candidates play out. And in fact, he said I am waiting to be the last one in. He won't be quite the last in. Montana Governor Steve Bullock we're told is still likely to jump in, in early May but he will be, you know, certainly fill a void, the question that's been hanging out there. But how he answers specific questions like this is going to be fascinating, because, on one hand, he's going to be defending the Obama record which is going to come under new inspection in a way that it has not yet in a big way, on deportations, on immigration, on the financial crisis.

Elizabeth Warren last night punted on a question, essentially didn't answer it, when she was asked to say what she disagreed with from the Obama administration, but she's talked a lot about -- she does not believe that the bankers and others were punished enough. But how Joe Biden, a, defends what President Obama and he did versus reconciles his long record over really almost four decades is going to be fascinating to watch.

KING: And to this point, the conversation that we're having, is you have Bernie Sanders who is the driving force at the moment of the party moving to the left. He has been for the last several years. You have Joe Biden who has lived the evolution of the Democratic Party and wants to get grace, wants to say I took some positions over the last 30, 40 years that might be out of favor now, but remember what it was like back then. But how he weighs in on this evolution, where he says that's good, that's where we should go and where he says whether it's voting -- whether it's felons or whether it's Medicare for All as opposed to fixing ObamaCare where he says, well, that's too far is going to be interesting because he will be the elder statesman of the party if you will.

MICHAEL SHEAR, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: In an issue like these felons voting from prison thing actually is an opportunity for some of the other candidates as well, right? Because if you're anticipating the Republican attacks of these crazy left Democrats, the ability to maybe position yourself kind of vis-a-vis Sanders, say no, no, no, we're not that crazy, we're sort of over here more in the middle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Only this crazy.

SHEAR: We're only this crazy, and they'll have to figure out as Joe Biden and all of them will have to figure out where is the -- where are the primary voters? Are they really over there with Sanders, or can I position myself in the middle?

KING: To that point where you saw Buttigieg last night saying no, no. You made the point when you say let's have the conversation, is that a punt. Is that a -- let me give this a few weeks and see what the polling says or what I feel as I do six or eight more town halls, and Buttigieg took a firm place quickly saying, no, he thinks -- he's been willing to have those fights.

ZELENY: And sometimes the most instinctive answer is the right one. It isn't always but what I was struck by Senator Harris last night, she has been a prosecutor and attorney general. This is not an issue out of the left field. This is sort of akin to Beto O'Rourke being asked by Jenna Johnson in the Washington Post talk about your immigration plan a couple of months ago and he didn't really have that.

So this is in her wheelhouse. She last night, you know, I think, again had a strong performance but in many respects seemed more, you know, unsure and cautious and calculating even of her answers than she did in January. That is one of those things, you know, she as seen -- she and others are seeing all these third rails out there and not necessarily knowing how to answer it. But we should remind ourselves, debates and other things. Barack Obama 12 years ago had one of the worst debates in April of 2007. He had to apologize for several things he said back in Orangeburg, South Carolina if I recall. So this is a growth process for all of these candidates.

KING: It is spring training to a degree --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For sure.

KING: -- but in a crowded field as you're winding up to the real debates, these town halls are great practice for them but they should learn as we get closer.

When we come back, more on the breaking news that we just have here. The vice president -- former vice president of the United States Joe Biden will announce his campaign on Thursday.

[12:35:00] What does the terrain look like as the former VP jumps in?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: More on this hour's breaking 2020 presidential campaign news. CNN has learned Joe Biden will formally announce his presidential campaign, Thursday with an online video. We're also told his first big public event will be Monday in Pittsburgh. If the former vice president is studying the climate, including the latest polling, well, there's some good news and some not so good news. Let's take a look.

If you look at the national polling, Joe Biden enters the race as your Democratic front-runner or at least as your leader. Brand new Monmouth poll out this morning, 27 percent for the former president, down two points from January but that's pretty stable and static.

[12:40:05] Bernie Sanders second to 20, he's up to four. Pete Buttigieg up eight in this national poll, he's now third or tied with Kamala Harris. So you see the former vice president starts at the top of the national pack. We don't elect presidents by national primaries. We do it state by state.

New Hampshire is second after Iowa on the calendar and here a bit of a warning sign for the former vice president. Did he get hurt by waiting? Bernie Sanders in first in New Hampshire. Sanders is strong in New Hampshire just ask Hillary Clinton from 2016. Bernie Sanders up four points. He's been in the race and he's active.

The vice president has been on the sidelines, he's at 18 percent and second, but he's down four. And look who is sneaking up, the South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg up 13 points since February in this poll. So the vice president has to deal not only with a strong Bernie Sanders but with a rising Pete Buttigieg not to mention the other candidates in the race.

Here's the biggest lesson for all of the candidates. We're focusing on this because we have 20 candidates and they're all out there early but 77 percent of New Hampshire Democrats say still trying to decide, we're not in a hurry, we don't vote until next year. Fourteen percent say they're leaning towards someone, only nine percent of Democrats in the leadoff primary state of New Hampshire say they've definitely decided. So whether you're the vice president or you're someone else like say Cory Booker, you're low in the polls if you're Cory Booker, you welcome Joe Biden to the fray, you say we've got some time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm excited about having a vibrant debate over the coming year. We're still a very long way from the first votes being cast, and I think it's going to be a really wonderful debate, and I'm looking forward to that. But my philosophy has always been from the time I was running track in high school is that you don't look to the left of you or the right of you, you run your race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So Biden steps in, he's a leading candidate. Is he a front- runner? Is Bernie the front-runner? Is that term even useless because we're so far out? But the challenge now is to prove it.

You've run twice before. They're way in the rear view mirror but you've lost both times. A lot of Democrats, talk to them around the country, they love him, they treasure him. They're not sure he can do this.

ZELENY: No question. And those are people as you said they love him. When you talk to people, every voter I've talked, to, Democrats, like him and say, you know, gosh, we wish him well, we think so fondly of him, but. So this is very much going to be -- it's still the shopping season, the shopping phase so he is going to have to prove again to people why he is the strongest nominee. But the underlying question here of all of this campaign is who is the strongest Democrat to stand against Donald Trump?

So I'm told he's going to go directly at that from the very beginning, but he's not going to be able to avoid all these land mines that are, you know, very much underway in the Democratic primary field. I'm also told after the Pittsburgh stop he's going to go to early states like Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire. South Carolina could be the most important state for Joe Biden. He has strong support there, he was speaking at a Fritz Hollings funeral there just last week. African-American leaders there support him there but that will be a central testing ground because he has so much competition in the race here.

So, how he evolves and grows and modernizes, if you will, as a candidate. We don't know the answer to that, but that will be central to his success or failure.

KING: And he thought this through, and we're very early, so he may, well, be right that I can wait. I have the gravitas in the party, I can go laid if not last, we're still waiting as you said for the former Montana governor who might get into the race. But the question of electability was this, you've asked Democrats and polling, that's number one for them, can you beat Trump.

Biden used to lead in all of those polls, this is just New Hampshire but New Hampshire is important. If you're Joe Biden you don't want to lose, South Carolina is important but you don't want to lose Iowa and lose New Hampshire. It's hard as a former vice president to sustain that.

You do see here by staying on the sidelines, Sanders is viewed in New Hampshire, again, a strong state for the Vermont neighbor. Thirty percent of New Hampshire Democrats say Sanders is the most electable, 25 percent say Biden. You see Bernie is up, Biden down, just in the sense that again, he's been on the sidelines, he's not out there every day, he's not on TV every day. So you pay a price for that, doesn't mean you can't fix it once you get in but it's a challenge.

DAVIS: It's a challenge, and he also enters with a challenge that maybe no other candidate with the exception of Sanders has had which is he is so high up in the polls. He is viewed as, you know, having done nothing official to sort of jump in and sort of brand himself and say what his argument would be, he's at the top. So he has to sustain that now, and if he starts to slip you showed all those plusses and minuses. You know, Buttigieg is up -- was it 13 or 15 percent in New Hampshire.

If Joe Biden gets into the race at this late date and starts to fall or doesn't start to -- or doesn't continue to rise, that's going to be a challenge for him. His expectations, his bar is much higher than some of these other candidates.

KING: And because he's a known entity, because he was eight years vice president, 35, 36 years in the United States Senate, he's going to get in some ways more scrutiny than some of the fresher faces, some of it may be fair, some of it not but just look at some of these headlines just in the past week as he gets close to entering the race. "Joe Biden's Toughest 2020 Opponent is Joe Biden", "The Big Money Challenge Awaiting Joe Biden in 2020", "GOP Banks on Biden Failing in Primary", Sanders tops Biden in New Hampshire Poll as Buttigieg Surges", "No one knows what Joe Biden thinks about healthcare."

[12:45:04] SHEAR: One just really quick I think the counter thought which is that he also may have the opportunity to suck up oxygen in the race. And when you have 20 people, the people who aren't getting the attention are the ones that literally drop off your list that was up there. You know, the names -- Beto wasn't even on that first list because you only had the top five or six, and so if Joe Biden can suck up all the oxygen whether it's good or bad that probably helps kind of with the rest of the campaign.

KING: It's an interesting point, it could affect the dynamics further down in the race no matter what happens in the end. In the meantime, as it goes out, we'll see. We'll see if he's willing to do town halls, we'll see how much he's willing to campaign, we'll see how it goes.

And before we go to break, let's switch to Republican politics, Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland in New Hampshire this morning teasing a potential primary challenge against the president. Says he can handle the president's trademark Twitter bashing, no problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When is the last time you spoke to President Trump?

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): February. I was at the White House for a dinner with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any of this come up since --

HOGAN: No. He was very nice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How concerned would you be about the wrath of Trump in the campaign?

HOGAN: You know, I'm -- it's probably not the most pleasant thing to go through, I'm sure, but, you know, I battled cancer for 18 months, so I can probably take it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:24] KING: Topping our political radar today, President Trump will finally make that long talked about state visit to the United Kingdom just six weeks from now. He'll be in Britain the first week in June for three days according to Buckingham Palace. Besides visiting the queen, the president will also hold talks with the Prime Minister Theresa May and attend a ceremony marking 75 days -- 75 years, excuse me since the D-Day invasion. He'll then head to France for commemorations at Normandy.

The president promising new trade retaliation, that after seeing Harley-Davidson's disappointing first-quarter earning numbers. The motorcycle (INAUDIBLE) profits were down 27 percent and cited tariffs between the United States, the European Union, and China is part of the reason for its weak performance. The president acknowledging the company's pain on Twitter saying, "The retaliatory tariffs that Harley is facing are unfair, and I quote, we'll reciprocate.

And President Trump now being honored for going above and beyond for Israel. It's controversial though. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now promising to name a settlement in the Golan Heights after President Trump following the president's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over that territory, something no other country has done. Netanyahu says he'll take that proposal honoring the president to the Israeli parliament. Next, she may be struggling in the early 2020 Democratic polls but watch the Democratic campaign and you see this, the Warren effect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I put out a proposal yesterday to not back student loan debt, to cancel student loan debt for about 95 percent of students with student loan debt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's Senator Elizabeth Warren in South Carolina a bit earlier today taking her plan to cancel student loan debt to a historically black university, and emphasizing her plan to also establish a minimum of $50 billion for historically black colleges and minority-serving institutions. Senator Warren's proposal to eliminate student loan debts for millions of Americans and to make public colleges free became a central policy discussion in last night's CNN town hall at Saint Anselm College. Every candidate participating faced a question about Senator Warren's proposal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I still want to do some math around it. I find it pretty appealing.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I support anything that is about reducing the debt of student loans. And I think that's an important conversation to have.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everybody, four years ago, oh Bernie is a little bit crazy talking about making public colleges and universities tuition-free. Ain't such a crazy idea today.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would target the loan forgiveness and those that -- for instance, I brought up people that went into public service in-demand locations and in-demand jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's interesting to watch in the sense that she has had a hard time getting traction in some of the early polls, but she is without a doubt, she has more specific policy proposals out there on a wider range of issues than any Democratic candidate. New proposals in this campaign and she's driving the conversation about the policy to a considerable degree.

ZELENY: Without question. Every bit like the professor that she was for a long time. She's leading the intellectual debate I think in this presidential campaign. The question here is, is she going to get credit for her in the end? Or if everyone is sort of joining with her, will that help? She's also talking about impeachment. You also wonder if that is as well thought out as some of these policy ideas but this student loan thing is one of many things, her aides believe it can bring her back into the front ranks of this race. We'll see.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And certainly she is driving the idea's conversation, but it's also how long can that last when, if you look at the campaign finance number, she had a high burn rate. Could she keep ahead? Would she have the resources to keep that conversation going through the caucuses and through the primary?

KING: Or at least get to the debate stage and try to have your breakthrough moment there. I think the debates are going winnow this field a little bit. She says she can pay for it with taxes on the rich. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: If we put that two-cent wealth tax in place on the 75 largest fortunes in this country, two cents, we can do universal childcare for every babies zero to five, universal pre-K, universal college and knock back the student loan debt burden for 59 percent of our students and still have nearly a trillion dollars left over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Again, the country should have a debate. Do you want to raise the taxes on the rich? Is it the proper role of government do all the things she talks about there? But to her credit at least she says, here's my idea, and she's not just saying, we'll talk about how to pay for it, she's giving you how to pay for it.

SHEAR: But the one danger in that is that when you get out this early with something so specific, it makes you the target for people to, you know, poke holes in it, find the consequences that maybe you didn't intend for it to have and, you know, so it is your plan that becomes picked apart by both the Republicans and also the Democrats in the race.

DAVIS: That's true, but it also -- you know, it's clear that these are very well thought out proposals. This is how she has chosen to spend her time, and, you know, to some degree it sets the predicate for all the other candidates like you said, it forces them to respond and saying, well, if this doesn't look good to you, well, what's your plan. And so in some ways, it's smart of her because she is sort of defining the terrain that the other candidates are going to have to.

KING: A real debate about substance is a good thing to have in any campaign.

Thanks for joining us in the INSIDE POLITICS. See you back here this time tomorrow. Don't go anywhere. It's a busy day.

[13:00:00]