Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Republicans Grapple With Trump's Role After Impeachment; McConnell Calls Trump's Actions "Disgraceful" Despite Voting To Acquit; GOP Senator: "Shrinking Population" Among Republicans Who View Trump As GOP Leader; Pelosi Sets Goals For The House To Pass Biden's Relief Package By End Of February; United States Sees Positive COVID Trends Amid Debate On Safely Reopening Schools, Worries Over "Homegrown" Variants. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 15, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: "Inside Politics" with John King next on CNN.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Everybody welcome to a special Presidents Day edition of Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing this day with us. The second Trump impeachment is over clearing the way now for the Biden Administration to move forward on a big push for Coronavirus relief.

The timeline there is tricky and the salesmanship for the new president is important. He makes his first official out of town trip tomorrow to Wisconsin where President Biden is participating in a CNN Town Hall. Thursday he heads to Michigan and a Pfizer plant producing the new Coronavirus Vaccine.

The Sunday new COVID case number was 64,000. That's hopeful the lowest single day since October another hopeful marker of a virus. Yes that is slowing down. We'll have more in the relief deal in the pandemic numbers in a few moments first though to the Republican Party and its huge dilemma.

How long to accommodate the twice impeached former president. Remember, Donald Trump lost the House Republicans, lost the Senate Republicans, lost the Oval Office and then brought an insurrection to the United States Capitol after two months of post election lies.

A weekend Senate Acquittal shows most Republicans remain unwilling or unable to move on from Mr. Trump for now anyway. And state party centers of lawmakers who supported punishing Trump show his grip on the grassroots remains quite firm.

We are told now the former president plans to be more active because the Senate trial is over. That likely will animate his base. But it is certain to annoy establishment figures who see the former president as toxic and wish he would just go away and go quiet. Here to share the reporting and their insights with us to begin the

week CNN's Lauren Fox, Julie Pace of the Associated Press and Julie Hirschfeld Davis with the New York Times. And Julie Davis that is the challenge for Republicans.

If you watch the debate play out, seven Republicans in the Senate voted to convict but then others including Leader McConnell they vote to acquit but then they come out. And they savagely attack the former president saying he's morally responsible for what happened to the capital.

How do they figure out that straddle they simply they don't know if they can or if they're willing to quit him?

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CONGRESSIONAL EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES: All right. And it certainly seems like the vast majority of them are not willing to quit him. I mean we did see these interesting two steps from Mitch McConnell, the Senate leader who wanted to make it very clear that he was breaking with and repudiating the president.

But of course he also voted to acquit him. And so there is this big dilemma inside the party. You saw those seven Republicans who were really willing to vote their conscience as the way they described it. And you know if you look at the common thread among them, it's really that for whatever their reasons and they all had slightly different reasons.

They don't fear the retribution from Donald Trump that the rest of the party really does and so you have sort of a critical mass of Republicans who - who are in a real dilemma. They don't want to be seen as tied to the president but they also know that they can't completely divorce themselves from him.

And given that he's saying that he wants to become more involved and more vocal, they know how perilous that could be.

KING: And Julie Pace that is the big question. What does he mean when he says that when he wants to become more involved and become more vocal, The Wall Street Journal among the establishment forces saying, this isn't enough, you need to push them off to the sidelines?

So the Wall Street Journal's editorial board says Mr. Trump may run again. But he won't win another national election. The country is moving past the Trump presidency and the GOP will remain in the wilderness unless it does too.

It's easy to say that and he did lose by 7 million votes but fewer than 50,000 votes in a few states and Donald Trump wins re election in the Electoral College. So we don't really know that he's gone, do we?

JULIE PACE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ASSOCIATED PRESS: We really don't. And the spectrum of things that he can do as he mounts some form of a comeback is pretty wide ranging right now. It's everything from running for office himself to be really active in launching primary challenges against some of these Republicans who moved against him. Or it could simply be being out in public doing interviews, finding

some way to get some of that megaphone that he lost when his Twitter account got suspended back. So it's not really clear what he will do other than people around him say he is itching to get back out there.

And that he is quite angry again about some of these Republicans who have moved against him. But I do think that it's very uncertain how active he will be and for how long right.

KING: Right. And so - but as long as he is around there is a debate about what to do. And Lauren Fox you spend most of your time up on Capitol Hill. Listen here the Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says one thing. One of his rank and file member's pretty senior members Lindsey Graham says something quite different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Former President Trump's actions preceded the riot or a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty to get a load off his chest obviously. But unfortunately he put a load on the back of Republicans. That speech you will see in 2022 campaigns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:05:00]

KING: Senator Graham among those who say we're not going to get power back in the House or the Senate unless we embrace Mr. Trump and try to keep him as a Republican team player. Good luck with that.

Senator McConnell clearly not willing to break from his membership he knew the majority of his Senate Republicans going to vote to acquit he stayed with them. But then he said that House Democrats prove their case.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And he also make - made a very important point John which is he views Republicans and Trump specifically as trying to use his supporters as what McConnell called a human shield essentially from any criticism. Because the fear is always if you criticize former President Trump, you risk losing his voters.

And they are needed if Republicans have a future in winning presidential elections and trying to take back the house majority in 2022. That is the balance. How do you woo the voters that the president brought into the fold brought into the tent of the Republican Party while moving forward in a way that Trump is not the face of your party?

That's the challenge here that's going to remain to be the challenge for the next several years.

KING: Next several years you mentioned. And what is Julie Davis to you first and especially what is the test? How do we test this we will watch we have seen state party after state party sanctuary those who either in the House voted to impeach or now in the Senate voted to a quick?

The North Carolina State Republican Party going to now go even though Richard Burns retiring from the United States Senate. His was the biggest surprise vote I think to convict in the Senate. The Louisiana Republican Party voted to Senator Bill Cassidy who explained his decision this way.

I think his force wanes is what Bill Cassidy says the Republican Party is more than just one person. He said I made this decision because Americans should not be fed lies about massive election fraud. Police should not be left at the mercy of a mob; mob should not be inflamed to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

And he told your newspaper its still angers me. It just angers the heck out of me that being former President Trump's conduct. How do we know how does this play out? And I guess maybe it plays out different ways in different states?

DAVIS: I think it does. I mean I think it'll we'll see some of it playing out in Congress frankly over the next few months. The way that people vote on certain things and if president - former President Trump is making his voice heard about those things, we'll see if Republicans are willing to break them or not.

But it's important to know that essentially from the state party and you're seeing a lot of that both of the Senators who voted to convict him and also the house the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him, we're seeing a lot of blowback at the state party level and local party level.

But it's important to see what voters do too. I mean a lot of this will play out in primaries. And I think the bet that Mitch McConnell is making the theory that he has is that if you show people a different way and an alternative that's viable to them.

That's appealing to them that there is a sense of possibility that somebody other than a Trump centric candidate, someone who models him or herself in the image of the former president could prevail in one of these primaries or some of these places.

And that in fact that is the only way that Republicans are going to win some of these crucial races. And I think we'll just have to see you know, state by state, district by district, if that plays out.

KING: State by state, district by district because Julie Pace it's just fascinating. Again we just showed Mitch McConnell who votes to acquit and then gives just a blasting speech essentially saying you know Donald Trump is a horrible human being who should not be involved in the party anymore.

It's kind of hard to connect that but that we'll call that a straddle. Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota also voted to acquit. And then he says this to the Hill. He made it pretty difficult to gain support. As you can tell there's some support that will never go away.

But I think it's a shrinking population and probably shrinks a little bit after this week. Are they guessing these Republicans that because of the insurrection, there's no question, a majority of Americans supported conviction. But the question for Republicans is what about your voters in your state? Number one, what do they think? And number two, are you willing to stand up and defy them?

PACE: It is a bit of a guess at this point for Republicans. But I also think they look at a couple of benchmarks to say that their guest is an educated one, they certainly get the 2020 election. You know as you noted John, the race was close in several key states.

But Biden did surpass Trump. And it did appear as though Trump lost some support among Republicans among independents that are more likely to vote for Republicans. And certainly we've seen this shift in the suburbs.

So if you are in a state in a district with a large percentage of suburban voters, you know you are very closely watching what has happened there and seeing that those have moved away from your party. And but we don't really know you know what the impact will be going forward. \

We don't know when Trump gets back out there. If he will be a turn off for some voters or if he will be a motivator for voters particularly in a primary that's when this really becomes a challenge because you are talking about more of the hardened partisan voters.

And that's where some of these Republicans are worried about that real challenges from this Trump wing other party.

KING: Right. And the place we will see it immediately Lauren is where you work up on Capitol Hill. We'll have to wait for the 2022 primaries; we'll have to wait to see if the former president wants to make a comeback in 2024. But every day up on Capitol Hill now and we'll talk more about this later in the program.

But as the Biden agenda goes through you saw the divide among House Republicans. The Pro Trump House Republicans furious at anyone who crossed him. The Senate tends to be a little different.

[12:10:00]

KING: Do we expect recriminations there for the seven or will it be let's just try to move on?

FOX: I think a lot of Republican Senators will want to move on. And you know I talked to Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. He gave pretty illuminating comments to me as well saying that he thought it was going to be harder for even himself to support Trump in the future.

And I think that's really the question to kind of understand what Trump's role is? Many of them know that they can't completely forget Trump, they can't completely move on from what Trump might encourage them to do on policy or how he talks. But there aren't many who are going to be willing to support him as their nominee moving forward. And I think that that is going to be delineation that maybe you see

between some Senate Republicans and some House Republicans who are still sticking very closely with the president. That of course because many of these congressional districts are more gerrymandered, they're more conservative.

That's a different dynamic than when you're dealing with an entire state population that you have to win reelection and correct.

KING: Correct. Well, here's a short term challenge for all of them. Senator Cramer along them goes home to your state say that he lied to you for months. He lied to you, those of you who supported him for months. And we should have stood up to those lies sooner that would be one immediate test they could do if they wanted to.

I will continue the conversation about the Biden agenda. Just a minute for us Julie Davis thanks for joining us. Julie Pace and Lauren are going to stay with us. Up next President Biden looks to get as COVID relief plan through the Congress. Now that that predecessors trial not sucking up so much oxygen here in Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: This is day 27 of the Biden presidency. And he hopes a new beginning of sorts the impeachment trial of his predecessor Donald Trump is now over. So team Biden says there are no more obstacles to speedy action on the administration's nearly $2 trillion Coronavirus relief package.

Republicans in congress are complaining the price tag is too big. But the White House says it is confident most of the country sees things its way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CEDRIC RICHMOND, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: We have many Republican mayor's, we have Republican governors. We have more than 50 percent of Republicans in this country. 46 percent of Trump supporters, we're going to keep moving on in a bipartisan manner. But we are not going to fail the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The president will be in the role of you might say travel salesman this week. He joins a big CNN Town Hall tomorrow night in Milwaukee. Then he visits Michigan on Thursday to tour Pfizer plant. There's also a virtual meeting Friday with other global leaders.

Back with me Lauren Fox, our CNN Congressional Correspondent, Julie Pace, the Washington Bureau Chief from the Associated Press. So Julie Pace, here's the test now. The impeachment trial is over. And the new president essentially has about a two week window to try to get this done this week. House committees are working on the bill. House Democrats could vote

on a COVID relief bill by February 22. March, the week of March 2 is when the Senate brings it up. And you see the big deadline by the end.

They need to get this done before March 14 where pandemic unemployment benefits are set to expire. But they need to really get it done several days before that to help the states with all the implementation. This is why Joe Biden ran. He said I'm the guy who knows how to make Washington work. Here's your test.

PACE: Absolutely. This is the kind of moment that Joe Biden envisioned when he was running for president that he wanted Americans to envision him in this role. He thinks he can get this done will almost certainly be doing it with only democratic votes.

Maybe they get a few Republicans to get on board here. But this is going to be a party line process. But he feels like the public is with him on that. He feels like more than anything. Americans want to see a big package. They want to see money going to vaccine distribution to schools, to state and local governments.

And less about exactly how he gets that done and more about the fact that he does get it done. So I don't think you're going to see the what the Biden White House wasting a lot of time do bipartisan negotiations at this point, in part because they do have those deadlines looming.

And they know that Biden's ability to get something through and get money flowing from Washington is going to be much of what he is judged on in these opening weeks of his presidency.

KING: And yet and yet Lauren Fox you write about this on CNN politics.com to get that through without counting on Republican votes requires remarkable democratic discipline which they have had so far. This is from your piece.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a five vote margin on this bill. This isn't the spring of 2020 when the economy was catering and the uncertainty of the virus was so paralyzing for the country that lawmakers came together in a matter of weeks to pass the largest stimulus bill in history with unity.

The scrutiny on this package even by some Democrats is more intense. So they need to convince competing factions within the Democratic Party. We're doing this. You can't get your little piece, you can't get your little piece we're doing this.

FOX: That's exactly right. And Pelosi has about a five vote margin in the house. Schumer has no room for air; he cannot lose a single Democrat on this package assuming that not any Republican is willing to vote for it. That is tough because you have already had someone like Senator Christen Cinema come out and say she will not support a package that includes the $15 minimum wage.

That is going to be a sticking point for a lot of progressives. Especially if the house passes a bill that includes that minimum wage, then it moves over to the Senate. And they vote either not to have it in there or perhaps the parliamentarian takes it out because it doesn't fit the set of rules needed for this process.

But I mean, that's going to be a big problem and it's going to be a problem for their progressives. And I think that that is going to be the challenge for Democrats moving forward. And you know Joe Biden is campaigned on being a unifier. The question is can you unify his own party?

KING: Right. And part of the chat part of the way to do that Julie Pace you know this from your years covering the White House is for president hit the road. And say the country is with me. So I need you to swallow your pride Democrats and he just while your policy, a little bit on some issues Democrats because this is what we need to do.

It will be interesting to see this is day 27. We think of this 100 day window as the most important for any new president, a big Town Hall in Wisconsin. And then a pharmaceutical plant of vaccine plant in Michigan not coincidence that he's picking those states.

[12:20:00]

PACE: No, no coincidence at all. When you look at the ways that Joe Biden won the White House, this is going to be very traditional. This is what we expect from presidents in these moments hitting the road, trying to really rally public support and trying to put pressure on lawmakers by saying hey, I'm out here pitching for this.

And I have Americans with me here. And this is again what Joe Biden believes he is in office to do right now to try to rally a majority of the country, not all of the country but a majority of the country behind his proposals and then work it through the halls of congress.

And he feels at this moment that at least on this package that he can see the way forward. I do think it's a big question of when we get through this, what else in his agenda, he will have running room to accomplish. But in this moment the Biden White House is feeling pretty confident about their ability to see that bill on his desk by the middle of March.

KING: And I think you just raised a critical point. I think there's no doubt the Democrats will stick together on the first big challenge of the Biden presidency. They might not be happy about every piece of it but they'll stick together in the end.

But to Julie Pace's point Lauren Fox, after the Coronavirus release package there's an infrastructure bill this room for bipartisanship. They're all that we'll see about the price tag. But the president issued a statement yesterday on gun reforms. He has an immigration plan.

Or the Obamacare debate could come back up with a Supreme Court case a climate change, criminal justice reform, voting rights. In the Senate for most of those things he would need some Republican support. And those are issues most of those issues have been in the inaction been for 25 years now.

FOX: Well that's exactly right. I mean, I'm thinking clearly about this gun proposal and he wasn't very specific in what he laid out. But getting rid of assault weapons, universal background checks, these are ideas that had been popular in the past but getting Republicans on board.

We just haven't seen any proof of that, right. I mean, the parties have really polarized on those issues specifically. And I think immigration is another one where Trump really changed the playbook on how Republicans have talked about that issue.

And you see people like Senator Marco Rubio who supported a bipartisan bill just a few years ago really distancing themselves from anything where you would see the legalization of millions of Americans or millions of immigrants who are already in this country right now.

KING: There's a Republican Senator on the ballot in 2022 who's thinking about one word primary. That's what that one's about right there. Lauren Fox, Julie Pace grateful for the reporting and the insights. As programming note that Town Hall with President Joe Biden would be tomorrow night right here on CNN live from Milwaukee.

CNN's Anderson Cooper moderating an exclusive CNN Town Hall 9 pm eastern only right here on CNN. Coming up for us the COVID case count is down and the new Biden plan for getting kids back to school already generating some controversy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: The big picture COVID outlook here in the United States is improving but there do remain some big worries including the spread of several new Coronavirus mutations. And the Biden plan to get children back into classrooms. ASAP is off to you might say a bumpy start.

Let's go through some of the numbers. And again the numbers at the moment are encouraging from a horrible place but moving in the right direction. You see 39 states in green. 39 states reporting fewer new COVID infections now compared to a week ago, that's the direction you want to be heading.

Eight states holding steady only three South Dakota, Nebraska and Alaska reporting more new infections now compared to a week ago. If you look up here, here are the two graphs that matter. You see how much this is down might be hard to see all the numbers but 64,938 new COVID infections reported on yesterday. That's the lowest number since back in October.

You see some days up around 300,000 moving down below 100,000. If it can stay there, sometimes the weekends are low and it pops back up. But you see the trend line heading down that's where you want to keep it.

Cases are down hospitalizations as well 67,000 Americans in the hospital on Sunday. Remember the peak was about twice that was a little over 130,000. So this coming down to first time we're below 70,000 since back in the middle of November that is encouraging.

Again you're coming down from a horrific spot but at least you're coming down. Here's one of the worries right now. We've talked about the UK variant, the South African variant well, there are seven variants believed to be home grown here in the United States.

They're giving them bird names Robin One in 30 states, predominately the Midwest, Robin Two in 20 states predominantly in the southeast. And then there's a pelican variant that's been discovered in 13 states plus in Australia, Denmark, Switzerland and India.

Again as the virus mutates that's concerns doctors which is why they want to shove the case count down and get vaccines in people arms. That progress is being made when Biden became president. Just shy of 900,000 infections - vaccinations a day excuse me on average. Now they're up to 1.6 million vaccinations a day on average trying to push that number up.

And as you get more supply, one of the concerns is how do we get teachers back into schools teaching kids? Well teachers say vaccines would help. 28 states now plus the district of Colombia have made it eligible for at least some of their teachers to get a vaccine.

28 states plus the District of Columbia it's not universal, but in those jurisdictions at least some teachers can get a vaccine. The new head of the CDC says this would be great getting teachers vaccinated. But listen here, she says it is not priority one for reopening schools.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: We really need to do the hard work to make sure that there's universal masking there's strict six feet of distancing between that there's co-hoarding or potting so that there's a restriction of disease if it were to be transmitted, by I'm a strong advocate of teachers receiving their vaccinations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:30:00]