Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Klobuchar Touts "Surge Of Support" In Recent Days; Trump's 2020 Budget Slashes Foreign Aid, Safety-Net Programs; Trump Holds First Post-Impeachment Rally Tonight In N.H.; CNN Poll: President Trump Leads New Hampshire At 90 Percent; Weld: Being The Only GOP Challenger Makes Me Run Harder. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 10, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And that's where people can start sorting things out. And I'm looking forward to doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: It's always interesting. There's no doubt her crowds are bigger, she's moving in our poll over the weekend. But, another fifth or fourth isn't enough, right?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, what does that -- look, if she does better than expectations, there's always an expectations game. She can claim that she's got some momentum going in, but that same poll, it shows that she's really nowhere with younger voters, which is really what she needs to improve in if she were to build a coalition that could really power her through this nominating contest. That poll had zero percent of voters under 45 are supporting her, 11 percent over 45.

So, all of her supporters are from beyond so she needs to get tap into some of that coalition from Bernie Sanders and the like to have some viability.

KING: You know, that tells you a decent amount of her support, at least the events we were at, or people who at least at one point were thinking about Biden or were for Biden. He tends to get the older voters. And that used to be Biden's lane, the debate thing -- it did click for her.

You see it again, how successful will it be? I covered a lot of campaigns. I remember Michael Dukakis in the final weekend saying he's slipping and sliding, we're rocking and rolling, he lost in 40 states. So you have to be careful of candidates who are claiming momentum.

But there -- you see there's some momentum on the ground, the question is, can they keep building into the primary. But the, I'll fight for you, I'm on your side, that's a proven message in Democratic politics, and it used to be the vice president's lane. JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. And I think, you know, that one of the things that she's trying to do, and she would need, I think, ahead of expectations to finish in New Hampshire to continue to do this, but is to stick around for long enough for some of those people to come to her. I mean, I do think that this, I'm here, I understand, I know you, it's very much a contrast message with the president, with Donald Trump.

She wants people to look at the way that he approaches things and say, I want something totally different from that, and at the same time sort of bill herself as a fresh kind of a person on the political scene who is maybe older than Pete Buttigieg but somebody, you know, that would bring something that we're not now seeing in our politics. And so, if she can hang on long enough, that could be a winning message, but that's a big if.

KING: Right, it's a big if, because again, she's moving up some but she still has Biden and Buttigieg among the centrists in her way. There's two women left in the race, Warren and Klobuchar, we'll see if one of them can catch fire in a party that, you know, has 60 percent -- that when we start moving on, 60 percent plus of the voters are going to be women as we move through.

To the empathy point, you know, Biden has been inconsistent. That's just a fair statement about his performance on the campaign trail. In an event yesterday, one of those powerful moments that he hopes helps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Katherine Nester (?). My dad and I would like to thank you for the Affordable Care Act and for the mortgage lending because that saved our house and it saved my life multiple times, so thank you so much.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: God love you. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I owe you my life multiple times over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You see these at the events. He tells stories and sometimes voters tell stories and sometimes they're very poignant. But it's back to the point you're making earlier, what he fails to do, or at least consistently, is connect it to a governing philosophy about here's where I want to take the party, here's where I want to take country. It could be very powerful sometimes, don't get me wrong, but it's not a -- you know, if you have a Warren especially over the summer, Buttigieg now, Sanders without a doubt in the revolution go, you know much more about where they're going.

OLIVIER KNOX, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SIRIUSXM: Right. It's empathy -- it's very empathetic, but it lessen the service of an argument about the governing philosophy. You know, when you said it used to be the vice president's, the reason I look at you like enduring the headlight is I thought about Gore. And I thought a little more than Klobuchar has both slogans from 2000. I will fight for you which is Gore, and I'm going to restore honor and integrity at the White House which was Bush. Kind of (INAUDIBLE).

But to the --

KING: So (INAUDIBLE) is what you count.

(CROSSTALK)

KNOX: -- no forecast, no prediction. But I do think it's interesting for Biden. I also think it's interesting that Klobuchar is going to Nevada and not somewhere else. And I'm kind of wondering what advantage she sees to going there rather than, you know, anywhere else.

KING: Part of that is qualifying for the debate stage which again you try to find a breakthrough moment. The question is you got the calendar against you and you have Bloomberg waiting in these other states. Her point about being on a Sunday show and so watching all these Bloomberg.

I was getting texts from friends yesterday about Bloomberg radio ads. They say he can't find any more space on TV, he's now trying -- now he's taking over the radio. We'll see if it works.

Up next, the president's budget comes out today. What it tells us about his 2020 campaign plan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:38:44]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not touching Medicare. We want to keep Medicare. We're not touching social security. We're making our country strong again. We're not decreasing Medicaid.

We're going to have a very good budget with a very powerful military budget because we have no choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's President Trump a short time ago over at the White House. Today is White House budget day. You see the big document right here being rolled over to Congress this morning. It will not become law. But read it instead as a window into how the president views his re- election and it can be somewhat clarifying.

The president outlining record spending on defense, step cuts, and things he has long wanted to slash, like foreign aid. But also includes proposed cuts to safety-net programs other work requirements to Medicaid, and food stamps assistance. And yes, there are cuts to Medicare despite what the president said. The budget labels them as, quote, reforms and cost-saving proposals.

The president earlier today and this weekend on Twitter promising he would leave Medicare untouched but carefully choosing his words. So pay close attention to the White House spin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSS VOUGHT, ACTING DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: The president has been completely frank with the American people. There will be no cuts to social security and Medicare beneficiaries. There are changes to mandatory programs that achieve savings that are good government reforms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:40:04]

KING: Translation?

RAJU: There are cuts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

RAJU: I mean, it's budget (INAUDIBLE). There are ways to make it sound like they're not cuts or by measuring --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Calling them reforms, yes.

RAJU: Calling them reforms and the like. But really what this is, is a campaign document. And what it does is it sets up a contrast with Democrats as they head into the election about what the priorities are for each side. And look, the president also is not talking a lot about reducing the federal deficit. If you look at the deficit projections from this past year, we're looking at trillion-dollar deficits for the first time since 2012. And we're not even talking about the debt which is the accumulation of the debt.

KING: But candidate Trump said he would wipe that out in eight years.

RAJU: In eight years, and, of course, he's going nowhere near that. So, it will be interesting to see if he gets any criticism from Democrats who've been pretty silent on that topic.

MELANIE ZANONA, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Or Republicans (INAUDIBLE), you know. The CBO just came out with a new report two weeks ago saying that we're on track for a trillion dollar deficit, that national debt is going to hit record levels. And you haven't really heard a peep from Republicans, the same Republicans who just in 2016 wouldn't even let Obama's budget chief come testify on Capitol Hill because the budget didn't balance in 10 years.

KING: Take, for example, former Republican conference chairman Mike Pence when he was in the House, now vice president of the United States. Deficits were critical when he was a House member. Now, not so much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've sharpened our pencils on our budgets, and we'll continue to do that. And in the second term, we'll continue to look at those issues. But President Trump really believes that the real long-term solution to the fiscal challenges in Washington, D.C. is making sure the budget of every American is growing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Emphasis on growth, not deficits. But the key point in that as we translate budget speak is President Trump really believes. In other words, President Trump has changed our party and I'm changing with him.

KNOX: Right. I mean, one of the things that made him stand out in 2016 was saying, won't touch the social security, won't touch Medicare, won't touch Medicaid. Now, that hasn't been true, but that was one of the breaks with Republican orthodoxy that made him stand out so much.

Pause. Federal budget is not a household budget, we all know this, but just to make it clear this is not how we actually fund government. This actually is a campaign document that's a press release.

DAVIS: Right. But it also does as Manu said lay out the priorities. And not only does it cut out Medicare and Medicaid, it also doesn't say anything about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act which we've heard -- we heard Republicans go so hard at for at the first couple of years of his administration. This administration is going to after the Affordable Care Act in court and yet, it's not in the budget because at some point he's going to have to message to voters about what he's going to do about health care. He's going to have the whole Democratic field saying this president wants to take away the ACA, and he's going to need to point to something that says well, that's not actually the case.

So I think there is going to be a lot of hiding of the ball in terms of what he's actually trying to achieve with his budget plan even if it never does become law.

KING: Right. They have asked the Supreme Court to wait until after the election to deal with that question. Look at the 2018 election results, you could figure out why they asked for the delay.

I'm not sure this budget would pass even if -- or he'd come close to passing even if you saw the Republicans. But the Democrats run the House so it's dead on arrival. And now there's -- as you said, there's going to be a debate, but just as to the cuts, the Commerce Department, 37 percent, the Environmental Protection Agency, 26 percent, foreign aid, 21 percent, Housing and Urban Development, 15 percent. The Centers for Disease Control, at a time we're dealing with the coronavirus and the like, proposed cuts of nine percent.

Again, those are the president's priorities. They will not become law.

RAJU: Yes. And the Democrats have been eager to see this document, I think. Listen to the president talk about his plans for a second term if he were to get one, he doesn't provide much detail about what he would actually do. So this provides perhaps the most detail about what he would do. So, you heard -- you've heard from Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer already going after the president's budget. And actually I tried to ask Nancy Pelosi about the impeachment trial last week as we're getting into the final vote. She transitioned quickly to talk about the president's budget because that's (INAUDIBLE) the message the Democrats want to focus on in the months ahead.

KING: She wants to turn to page two.

RAJU: Yes.

KING: Up next for us, New Hampshire has a history of being pivotal for incumbent presidents in the New Hampshire primary. We speak with President Trump's last remaining GOP challenger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL WELD (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People ask me to this day, well, why, why are you running, referring to the fact that the president has a hold -- a strange hold over a number of people. And lately I've taken to saying, because I'm the best candidate in the Republican primary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:49:06]

KING: Tonight, President Trump gives his first post-impeachment rally speech. It will be in New Hampshire. Remember, that's the state that gave him his first win four years ago. It narrowly went for Hillary Clinton in the general election.

President Trump's only teaser so far is a tweet that he wants to, quote, shake up the Dems a bit.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is there in Manchester, New Hampshire. Kaitlan, I understand you've been checking out the crowd before the event. What are you learning?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We've got long lines, John, hours before the doors even open for the rally, waiting in the rain and the snow. All of these supporters, and John, some of the ones we spoke with, it's their first rally tonight where they've ever seen this president in this arena where he's, of course, surrounded by his supporters and typically his most emboldened and sources we've speaking with say he's only going to be more so tonight. Because this is his first rally since he's been acquitted so they are saying to look for this to essentially be that jumping point for his campaign.

They say it's going to likely look a lot like that event in the East Room the other day where the president was airing his grievances about being acquitted.

[12:50:04]

And, of course, this also comes as the president is still facing criticism over firing two of the most prominent impeachment witnesses, which I've been told by sources today some people went to the president and said, look, Gordon Sondland and Alex Vindman are planning their own exits. Just let them go quietly, they're likely going to leave soon because their jobs have been diminished, anyway, since they testified which was under subpoena.

But the president didn't want them to go quietly, he wanted to step in that is why you saw the president fire them. He actually waited a little bit longer than most people thought he would by waiting two days after he was acquitted.

So really, we are looking for that tonight to be a big focus point of the president's speech. And it will be interesting to see just how emboldened he is when he's on stage in a crowd full of his supporters, not just a small even like what was in the East Room the other day as he is going to be talking about this. Of course, back in New Hampshire where famously several years ago he caught out with Ted Cruz from on that stage. He'll be back on that same stage tonight.

KING: Timing is everything in politics. Kaitlan Collins, enjoy the rally. We'll check in with you tomorrow.

A part of New Hampshire's great political history are surprises for incumbent presidents. A loss in 1952 led President Harry Truman to drop out. And New Hampshire sounded an early alarm to the last two times the United States had a one-term president. Both Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush faced primary challengers in New Hampshire who took 37 percent of the vote. Both incumbents then went on to lose re-election.

President Trump appears to have no such worries, getting 90 percent support from Republicans in our final pre-primary New Hampshire poll. His lone challenger, the former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld has seven percent support.

To stop by a Weld event is to hear a candidate who asks how conservatives can support trillion-dollar deficits. But he also is beyond an odd fit in Trump's GOP. He supports abortion rights, same- sex marriage, and demands action on climate change. Governor Weld knows the poll numbers but he shrugs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WELD: What I think it is important for people to plant a flag and try to expose the guy for the complete phony that he is. I mean, he has no relevant background for being president of the United States, and it shows, painfully, in the international arena where he thinks everything is a zero-sum game. That shows a complete lack of understanding of how the international economy works. And things like ripping up the Iran treaty, so now we have another nuclear program on our hands. And he thought that they would be scared of him.

What did you expect to, you know, step two is going to be? I don't understand it.

KING: You call him a phony. He just got 97 percent, Congressman Walsh got out and said the Republican Party under Trump is a cult. Do you -- as you do this, do you think sometimes maybe you're tilting at windmills and why is it important?

WELD: No. You're not tilting at a windmill if you have the objective of trying to -- you know, not having someone who is completely unacceptable as president of the United States, bent on dismantling our very democratic institutions, ignorant to the constitution to the point of wanting to rip it up also.

No, I jump out of bed into both pant legs at the same time. You know, I've always been a happy warrior in political campaigns and maybe even happier with this one. Particularly that I'm by myself. That just makes me run harder, not less harder.

KING: Do you worry at all that if he has another night like Iowa here in New Hampshire and he gets 90-plus percent of the vote that in an odd way your campaign against him strengthens him?

WELD: No. He's going to get the votes he's going to get, and the fact that I'm running against him and getting some of his votes away from him, I'm not going to have a guilty conscience about that one little bit.

KING: If he is the nominee, do you think that like-minded Republicans need to try to form a new party? Or is it just continue the fight from within even though you have to wait four more years?

WELD: I think it could happen. I do think the Republicans are going to lose the Senate after their performance on the removal vote, you know, on the basis of no evidence, for starters. And no, if Mr. Trump is not re-elected, then that will be a real bloodbath, a washout for the Republicans. And you might see finger-pointing in the lifeboat. And you might see a new party formed out of the remnants of the former Republican Party and remnants of the Libertarian Party and good- spirited citizens.

You know, a number of my Democratic friends say we wish, you know, we had a party that had the social welcoming views that you do, but also would be at least a modicum of economic conservatism instead of, you know, acting like the people in Washington do, like they think it's their money and they can spend an unlimited amount of it. So maybe some of those Democrats come into that party. And I don't think it would be called either the Republican Party or the Libertarian Party, I think it would be called something new like the unity party, maybe the liberty party.

[12:55:00]

I think that might be a good thing for the United States, because I do think the duopoly of Rs and Ds who hate each other and are locked in a death spiral embrace because they need each other to raise money but otherwise they hate each other, that's not a healthy thing for the democracy, and I would not mourn its passing. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We'll count the votes tomorrow and see how Governor Weld does. Thanks for joining us today in INSIDE POLITICS. Brianna Keilar starts after a quick break. Have a good afternoon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)