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Gaetz Targets Cheney After McCarthy Calls For Stop To GOP Infighting; GOP Resists Calls To Remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene From Key Committee; General Motors Plans To Be Carbon Neutral By 2040. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 29, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The fact that the FBI and ATF have so little to go on here tells you the level of planning here and also for perhaps that this person was a little more sophisticated than we have initially thought.

The other thing of course, law enforcement thinks that perhaps that these devices were placed there to try and divert law enforcement as they were responding to the insurrection. Again, that would be significant also, because it goes behind the idea that the insurrection was much more planned than certainly law enforcement had initially thought.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Right, you know, pipe bombs the night before for some spontaneous development. Shimon Prokupecz, very important reporting, keep us posted as the investigation goes forward, very much appreciated.

When we come back, Republicans especially in the House having a family feud and Democrats in the Congress say the mood, especially after the insurrection is beyond raw.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:22]

KING: One thing we know today is that a very brief Republican Party experiment to see if it can survive without the former President Donald Trump is over. The Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy officially ended it with this smiling photograph at Mar-a-Lago visit yesterday to repair his relationship with the twice impeached president. McCarthy says Republicans are united and ready to win. No. On the very same day he was down meeting with the former president trying to make peace, a Republican House member Matt Gaetz, a key Trump ally, went to the State of Wyoming to criticize not just Congresswoman Liz Cheney who voted to impeach President Trump but others, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): The private insider club of Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Nancy Pelosi, and Liz Cheney. They want to return our government to its default setting. It's not just red team versus blue team, absolutely not. We got to put America first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining our conversation, our CNN political commentator and former Republican Congresswoman from Utah, Mia Love. Matt Gaetz there, that's a very interesting example of that Republican unity, Leader McCarthy, was speaking of. Well, let's just be candid and honest. He does not have the loyalty of many of his own troops. They are loyal to Trump, not to McCarthy.

MIA LOVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think what Matt Gaetz has done is actually pretty reprehensible also. I mean, you might as well have been Nancy Pelosi or anybody else standing up there. Look, people are able to disagree with you. It's okay to disagree especially members in your own party. I mean --

KING: It's not to them, though. It's not to them. Forgive me for interrupting, Congresswoman, but it's not to them. That's part of the challenge of the moment. Yes, I understand where you come from. You believe you should be able to disagree without being disagreeable. You believe a family should take that into a closed room and close the door and talk it out. That's what you believe. That's not what they believe.

LOVE: No, it's not. And what is happening is that it's further dividing America. So you've got -- they're not trying to bridge the gap, not even within their own party. They're actually making it even more separate. He's taking a playbook from Donald Trump's playbook, which is you agree with me 100 percent of the time or I will throw you under the bus like he did with Mike Pence, instead of the Ronald Reagan that says, look, if you agree with me at least 80 percent of the time, you're 80 percent my friend, which is the Republican Party that I believe in,

KING: But whether he mentored or not, didn't Kevin McCarthy, the Leader, green light that by going down to kiss the ring, by going to Mar-a-Lago, because we know we know despite what Leader McCarthy says about he wants Republicans to cut the crap, he thinks they need to, you know, settle their family differences in a closed room without cameras not going to other fellow Republican's districts, like Matt Gaetz did not just criticize Liz Cheney, but criticize Leader McConnell, criticize your Republican Senator Mitt Romney from Utah.

By going down there, he understands President Trump is about recriminations. He wants revenge against those Republicans. And Kevin McCarthy by elevating the former President, again, didn't he green light all of that?

LOVE: Yes. So Kevin McCarthy, by going to see the President actually is promoting what Representative Gaetz is doing. He's the one that actually said, look, we need to cut it out. And we need to stop fighting each other. And what he should have done is step up and be the Republican leader that we need to start talking about the policies that we believe in instead of promoting the rhetoric and the divisiveness.

So what I'm saying to a friend of mine, who's Kevin McCarthy, is that he should take this opportunity to stand up and say, let's get back to the business of fiscal discipline, lower taxes, limited government, all of the things that we've signed on to.

KING: However, and please tell me if you agree with me, I get what you just said. But I think some Republicans thought they could do that when former President Trump left Washington and went down, it lasted about a week. Kevin McCarthy himself went to the floor and said the President was responsible for what happened at the Capitol. But then he changed his tune. To me this is proof that they see the short term political calculation, a very narrow majority in the House, a 50-50 Senate, then if Republicans want to take power in 2022, they need Trump and they're afraid to walk away from Trump. And so they are unwilling to say 2022 might suck for us. But we're going to push President Trump to the sideline, we're going to be patient and discipline and rebuild the party that way. Isn't that what this is short term math, short term power calculation?

LOVE: What it is, John, you both -- you and I both know what it is. It's about power. It's not about the American people. It's about maintaining or gaining power in the House. And you have to ask yourself at what cost. And I think what is happening is that it's going to cost the Republican Party greatly if they continue to do that.

[12:40:09]

KING: So one other controversy is this new Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was a big promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, she has now said she doesn't subscribe to it anymore. But we've seen social media posts where she talks about it'd be a good thing for Nancy Pelosi to be killed or shot. She mocks some of the victims of parkland. She gave $175,000 to the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, and she got a plum seat on the Education Committee.

Your former colleague, Justin Amash, who was a libertarian, he was a member of the Republican caucus office prior to leadership. But he notes in a tweet, I was once stripped of a committee assignment for voting differently from Paul Ryan on a budget resolution. So, you know, that is less of a transgression than say, saying Speaker Pelosi deserves to die or mocking kids who are survivors of a school shooting? Why is Marjorie Taylor Greene being treated this way by the Republican leadership?

LOVE: Again, it's reprehensible. I don't understand it. It's further dividing the party. And it is -- she's representing exactly what we don't want in the Republican Party. It's divisiveness. What is she there to do? What was she elected to do? What she elected to go to Washington and just fight? Or was she elected to go and fight for the policies that make the people that elected her make their lives better? They have to look at this and say, what is she there to do? Is she actually doing us any favors? KING: I hope fellow Republicans listen to you. This is a time when so many big issues on the table, we should be having some spirited policy debates about these big issues instead, spent a lot of time on other things. And for those out there who say well, we shouldn't watch in the future, the Republican Party is important. Congresswoman, appreciate your time and insights today.

LOVE: Thank you, John.

KING: And up next for us, congressional classes over COVID relief bill, security concerns, and the aftermath, the bad mood, the bad spirits, the raw mood after the Capitol insurrection.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:06]

KING: It is a very raw time here in Washington and it is important to remember that rawness, that anger, in some cases that fear as you hear the new Biden White House voice hope for bipartisanship or as you hear Republicans try to complain that many Democrats must not be listening to their new President.

Many Democrats say watching 139 Republicans vote to challenge Joe Biden's election hours after the violent Capitol insurrection turned in already difficult environment in the House even more toxic. Democrat Dan Kildee of Michigan for example, telling "POLITICO", I've really been struggling with it. I have a hard time interacting with those members right now, especially those with whom I had a closer relationship with. I'm not going to deny the reality that I look at them differently now. They're smaller people to me now.

Here to share the reporting and their insights on this topic, Melanie Zanona, congressional reporter for POLITICO and Jonathan Martin, national political correspondent for The New York Times. Melanie, you and your colleague Sarah Ferris detail this, it's a fascinating article, the rawness, the anger, the distrust, mostly among Democrats at this moment, I highly recommend everybody watching read it. Take us inside what that means. You have Democrats talking about fear. You have Democrats talking about open disdain and disrespect for the Republican colleagues who even after their lives were threatened, voted with Donald Trump and his big lie in the election, what is it done to -- what was already not a great working environment on Capitol Hill?

MELANIE ZANONA, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Yes, I mean, listen, John, I've covered Congress for 10 years now. And I've never seen relationships and morale this low on Capitol Hill. I mean, the anger and the distrust is real. And unlike after 9/11, there was no unifying moment. And House Democrats and even some Republicans say how can there be when 139 of their colleagues voted to overturn the election, they fuelled these lies. One Republican bought brought a gun to the floor. Other Republicans are refusing to wear masks.

So I think the result that we have seen is some Democrats are now refusing to work with their Republican colleagues. You know, there's calls for censure and exposure of some of these members. And even one Democrat just today said they're literally moving their office to be away from Marjorie Taylor Greene, that is just a sign of how toxic things have become. And there's real fears that these feelings are going to linger, and it's going to impact relationships and the ability to get stuff done on Capitol Hill.

KING: And, Jonathan, let's focus on the Senate side for a moment. It's not as personal on the Senate side, the House has always been more political, and especially in recent years more toxic, if you will. It's not as personal but again, you see, and you wrote about this the other day, the majority -- the now Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, after the election, decided he was going to make a clear break with President Trump. It lasted maybe a week or 10 days, because he does the math, and he does the power dynamic.

So you write this, Mr. McConnell had come to view the former president as a dangerous political liability and saw an opening to marginalize Mr. Trump. Still, the always-restrained Kentuckian never mounted a campaign to persuade other Republicans to join him, knowing how difficult it would be for his party to break from someone who polls indicate half of his voters believe should remain their leader. So Mitch McConnell essentially blinked when Rand Paul brought up the motion the other day to try to challenge the constitutionality of the Senate impeachment trial. And all but five Republicans, including Leader McConnell voted for it. So there was a moment but he blinked.

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's hard to lead a parade when nobody else is marching behind you. And I think that that was the case with every day after January 6th, it became harder and harder for McConnell and other Republicans who wanted to make a move away from Trump to do that, because it became clear that a lot of the rank and file of the party did not want to move away from President.

And John, that's really the issue here is that unless President Trump then leaves, the activists who are engaged in the state and county committees in the states of these lawmakers, they're the ones that sort of keep the leash tight, not the President himself. But look, John, a lot of lawmakers are voting with their feet and by that I mean, they're just retiring. If you look at how many GOP lawmakers have retired since 2016, it's a large number.

[12:50:08]

Look at the Senate in 2022 alone, Pat Toomey, Rob Portman, Richard Burr, they're all headed for the exits, why? It's just not as satisfying as it used to be. That's not all Trump but that certainly is part of it.

KING: Yes. I think at least Richard Shelby of Alabama will be in a week or two behind them as well.

MARTIN: I do that list too. Yes.

KING: I think there's going to be even more than that. And so, Melanie, what is the impact, and let's focus on the House, because your article again was so compelling. Again, that has been the more partisan environment anyway. But now you have the Democrats have this very narrow majority. And if you're the Republicans, they have a mess right now within their own family. But the math tells you, the math tells you in a first presidential midterm Republicans in a normal midterm anyway should be able to at least be competitive to get the majority back. Now, we don't know. I think this midterm could be very much like after 9/11, the first midterm after the pandemic, and after the insurrection, maybe Joe Biden's party like George W. Bush's party back that actually fares better, we will see, depending on the economy and the pandemic. But how does that impact this toxic environment where Joe Biden says be bipartisan, members of both parties right now say, no.

ZANONA: The reality is, as you alluded to, is that at some point Pelosi is going to need to come to Republicans for votes. I mean, they will have to have near perfect unity to get stuff down on Capitol Hill. And Democrats have their own divisions that they're dealing with between the moderate wing of the party and the more progressive wing of the party. And, you know, just at some point, they are going to need to have bipartisanship, they can't use reconciliation, this budget tool for everything, they can only use it so many times and for certain things.

And so that is one thing that I have heard from Republicans is if you guys go down this path, Democrats, of using reconciliation of trying to expel our members of, you know, just like really coming after us, instead of trying to unify, we're not going to work with you. And there are concerns that it's going to poison the well. But as I said before, you know, Democrats and some Republicans say we can't unify, we can't just move on from this. They literally don't feel safe around some of these Republicans. And so, you know, it's going to be continuing going forward, very, very difficult and heated on Capitol Hill.

KING: And to that point, to add to that point, Melanie speaks of poisoning the well, Jonathan, we're going to have a senate impeachment trial in 10 days.

ZANONA: Right.

MARTIN: Right.

KING: That's not going to make things -- that's not going to bring a lot of Kumbaya.

ZANONA: Exactly.

MARTIN: No. It's going to increase the partisan temperature. It's going to create more of a strain within the Republican Party. If you look at both chambers of Congress right now, the leaders Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell are dealing with some extraordinary internal challenges trying to keep their caucuses satisfied, especially McCarthy, dealing with the threats against Liz Cheney's leadership, as well as what to do with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

It's not going to be easy for him in the days ahead. And I think that these challenges are just going to get more and more intense as the days and weeks go by because I think, John, that the Republican Party is now basically a two in one. You've got the sort of pre-Trump establishment that is still living fitfully with the post Trump party in the same tent. They could pull a little off when they had the majority. I think it's tougher and tougher now when they're out of power.

KING: Yes. It's always tougher out of power to keep the family together. Jonathan Martin, Melanie Zanona, grateful to you both for the important reporting and the insights, the conversation will stay on top.

[12:53:22]

And up next for us, General Motors making a game changing bet on electric vehicles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A bold announcement from General Motors, the automaker says it plans to be carbon neutral by 2040. And have 40 percent of all U.S. models running on batteries within the next five years. More on how they will do it and how the Biden administration wants to help them is our business and political correspondent, Vanessa Yurkevich. Vanessa, this is game changing.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. It's a significant step for the U.S.'s largest automaker to try to move all of their vehicles to clean energy, and to do so to combat climate change. And G.M. is saying that they can get this done in 20 years, here's how they plan to do it. They want to get the majority of their vehicles, turning them into electric vehicles. They also want all of their plants run on renewable energy.

And it's going to cost them though. It's going to cost them about $27 billion to do that. And this is a strong signal really to other automakers essentially challenging them saying, hey, what are you guys going to do to meet clean energy standards? And this is also a signal to the Biden administration that maybe they can be a little bit tougher on climate change as it pertains to big corporations.

Just this week, President Biden signs an executive order relooking at some of those emission targets. And we've seen over the last few years G.M. really move a lot of their plants, turning them into plants that can make electric vehicles. And this is something that has caused some significant job loss. And that's a concern, obviously of the Biden administration. They want any new jobs created for these companies to be U.S. jobs. And this is also a concern of the United Auto Workers Union that represents many of these G.M. workers.

They just responded in a statement to G.M. after this announcement, here's what they had to say about it. They said the important thing is that the Biden, that President Biden agrees with our position that any new jobs replacing combustible engines are union wage and benefit jobs that are created right here in the U.S. And we believe that the Detroit-3 will locate these new products right here in the U.S. And the Detroit-3 is G.M., Ford, and Chrysler. We'll see if those other two companies will continue to meet G.M.'s new standards, John.

[13:00:08]

KING: Fascinating to watch it play out. Vanessa Yurkevich, grateful for the reporting and inside (inaudible). Grateful for your time today. We'll see you back here on Monday. Have a good weekend.

Don't go anywhere though, Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now.