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Sen. Cruz Says He Regrets Going To Cancun As Texans Suffer; Sen. Graham Heading To Florida To Meet With Trump This Weekend; GA GOP Files New Bill To Limit Early & Absentee Voting. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 19, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:32:04]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: President Biden last hour saying he hopes to visit Texas next week if that trip would not add to the already giant burden of the twin crises facing the state.

The lights are slowly coming back on in Texas. But millions of Texans still having trouble accessing the basics like water. The acting head of FEMA says he's meeting with the President today to find ways to give more help to people of Texas. At last check more than 181,000 customers still without power, 13.5 million Texans are struggling to access water due to broken pipes or orders that they should boil their water for safety.

Across seven states more than 480,000 customers still without power including Texas, and at least 38 people have died, no relief overnight, more than 20 million people across the south spent the night under a hard freeze warning. CNN's Omar Jimenez is live in Austin, Texas for us in a heartbeat neighborhood. Omar, what do you seeing?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, for starters, the energy emergency that people have been going through over the past four or five days or so here in Texas, is now over. Operations have returned to at least being stable, according to the Energy Reliability Council of Texas here, they control the power.

But what they've gone through over the past week can't be lost. And this downed power line is a symbol of what they have had to go through. Obviously, this is part of what created so many issues on the front end. It caused people to literally have to burn furniture in their own living room just to keep warm in these freezing temperatures.

And encouraging sign though, is that when you look at the trees, you actually see water dripping. When you look at the roads, you are seeing water flowing, not just ice frozen, indicating that temperatures are going up a little bit, a welcome sign for people here but the leaders of -- the officials that control the energy here, are not calling this a success story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAGNESS, PRESIDENT & CEO, ELECTRIC RELIABILITY COUNCIL OF TEXAS: No, this is not a success story. I think that we understand we're in the electric business. We know that electricity is essential to civilization. And it's awful for us in the business to see systems that can't make electricity available to everyone. So no I think we're going to have to look at this very carefully and understand how we can manage the events better as an entire industry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And so while things seem to be getting better on the energy front, there are still a lot of hurdles to go before people here see any semblance of normalcy. One we are expecting to see freezing temperatures again tonight. So some of this water flowing could turn into ice. And secondly, people still don't have water. We are under a citywide boil order here and at least the city of Austin and we were just visiting with a resident moments ago, you turn on that faucet, nothing comes out. And so people here are being told to think in terms of days, not just hours before that very crucial part of civilization comes back anytime soon. John?

KING: Omar Jimenez, grateful to have you and the rest of our CNN team on the ground in the middle of this crisis. Appreciate that live reporting there.

Let's move on to something political aspects of this now, Senator Ted Cruz says he knows his Mexico getaway was a big mistake. The Texas Republican and his family flew off to a Cancun resort on Wednesday as millions, millions of his constituents were without power and water. It took a while for the Senator to settle on contrition.

[12:35:16]

At first his office would not even confirm he was south of the border. Then Cruz said he was helping his wife and daughters escape the crisis and always planned to head straight back to Texas. But then he had to acknowledge he initially planned to stay the weekend and decided to head back after just one night only after he realized the political fallout.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were you thinking?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Well, look, my kids, all of us this week, this has been a hell of a week for Texas. I don't like this being used as a distraction from the real issues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you regret going because of the firestorm where because you left when people were here struggling?

CRUZ Look, look, look, both. Many of the people who were upset with me or upset with me before we started, you can work remotely that was my intention, but even so, I needed to be here and so it was a mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Yes, it was mistake. CNN's Abby Phillip is still with us and Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune joins the conversation as well. Abby Livingston, it's good to see you my friend. I want to start first, I want to come back to the politics and what is just frankly stupid decision by Ted Cruz here. But I want to follow up on what Omar Jimenez was just telling us about the difficulties on the ground. I'm reading a tweet you sent last night. Austinite texting me now about busted pipes, getting a plumber is going to be harder than getting a COVID vaccine and I'm not even kidding. What are you and your colleagues at the Texas Trib hearing about, you know, Omar was saying things are better but?

ABBY LIVINGSTON, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE: Well, I'm in Washington, D.C., but my colleagues aren't just hearing things. They're living this. This has been a very difficult logistical week for us because my colleagues, my family, my friends, everyone I know in the state of Texas has been hindered in some way. The question is just the scale. And this is something that's going to go on for a very long time. If your home is flooded, there are not enough plumbers in the state to solve this problem quickly and so, just taking a basic shower and getting a drink of water is a major issue in the daily lives of many, many Texans right now.

KING: And that's why Abby Philip, the political dysfunction is so crazy because I'm going to show you this headline. This is today's "Galveston Daily News," a slow, slow Texas thaw. This is today's "Dallas Morning News," paying a high price. They think the damage here will be higher than the Hurricane Harvey. You see grid was minutes away from collapse. The headlines have been like this all week. And yet Ted Cruz thought it was OK to get on a plane with his daughters and his wife to go to Cancun.

"The New York Times" actually has some texts from his wife, Heidi Cruz, saying, their house was freezing as Ms. Cruz put it, and she proposed a getaway until Sunday. Ms. Cruz invited others to join them at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun, where they had stayed many times, noting the room price this week and it's good security. I don't begrudge Mrs. Cruz at all or the Cruz daughters at all. How could the Senator think it was smart to go to Mexico in the middle of this especially, anyway, anyway, but especially since he had criticized others for doing this in the past, for taking off during crisis?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it makes no sense. And I still can't get over that he continues to blame his kids for a decision that their parent, he and his wife made. But, you know, beyond that he made the point you can work remotely. That is probably true. He's a United States Senator, you know, he's not a mayor. But at the same time, you see other federal lawmakers trying to bridge the gap between individual people, constituents who need help, and the services that they need, the help that they need. And there is a role there.

I know that because you see others doing it at the -- from the top to bottom. So, you know, it was politically stupid and probably a selfish decision on his part. He has the means to fly off to Cancun. He probably had the means to get a hotel somewhere nearby his house where they could warm up. But clearly not -- someone thinking that his actions don't have consequences and then realizing at the end of the day that Texans are so pissed off about this, whether they're Republican or Democrat. It's not a good look.

KING: Right. You're a senator. So you can't turn the heat back on. No. But you can do everything you can to push the President on disaster declaration, which President Biden is done. You can show up at a shelter and just put your hand on somebody's shoulder.

PHILLIP: You can pass that water. You can pass that food.

KING: Right. You can show empathy in the situation. But Abby Livingston back to that point, there's -- here's another piece of what I'm going to call political dysfunction in the great state of Texas. Listen here. This is the Mayor Sylvester Turner of the largest city, hard hit city, the city of Houston, Texas has been in a crisis for much of the week now you would assume the Mayor of the largest city and the Governor would have had a word or two, but.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER (D), HOUSTON: I have not talked to the governor at any time during this crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're the Mayor of Houston. The Governor of your state hasn't reached out to you since this began?

TURNER: I have not talked to the Governor. But we are pushing forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:40:05]

KING: I had very similar conversation with the same Mayor back early on in the COVID crisis when, you know, the cities were riling. It's a Republican Governor. You have Democratic mayors, Texas, as you know better than anyone else in the conversation is changing politically as we go here. But why not, even just last night, Governor Abbott speaks to President Biden, the White House puts out a statement saying the two talked, the President is trying to help. He'll do whatever he can for the Republican Governor. The Governor has not acknowledged the conversation with the Democratic President of United States. Why?

LIVINGSTON: I think this is a symptom of just how polarized the state is and how lethal politically interacting with the President could be in a primary. I mean, I think back to Chris Christie, and hugging President Obama, and just the peril of that politically, that said, there are two things about Senator Cruz that I wanted to touch on just one is that Cruz, the job of a Senator is very informal in the middle of this crisis. They've got to work with FEMA and they've -- in the back end, they've got to get funds back to the state.

But there is a symbolic moral leadership and the morale of Texas is very low. People I talked to are in tears. And the other thing is, is I think we have to think about the role of politicians. And I just think so much of politics is now geared toward Twitter wars, rather than focusing on the issues at hand. And this is -- there's no more important job right now than coordinating the state of Texas.

KING: Amen, amen. OK. And there's no -- if you -- just go home, if there's a crisis in your home area, and you can be there to help, no matter what you're doing, be home and help. That's the leadership. Abby Livingston, Abby, Phillip, grateful to both of you for the reporting and insights.

Up next for us, the Republican crossroads, embrace Trump, or ignore him. Well, Lindsey Graham is packing his golf clubs, so probably helps you understand his choice.

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[12:46:15]

KING: This just in from today's White House COVID response briefing. There's new research on the efficacy of Pfizer's vaccine after just one shot. That research fueling some new debate over whether you should hold back second shots to allow for more people to get a first dose. Both Dr. Anthony Fauci and the White House Adviser Andy Slavitt, reiterate this research. Yes, worth keeping an eye on. But they say, no changes are coming yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SLAVITT, SR. ADVISER TO WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: I think it's important that, you know, people understand that we're not going to be persuaded by one study that happens to grab headlines. We here at the White House will of course listen to whatever the scientists have to say and adjust accordingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Translation is two doses for now, that's the White House policy. Keep it right there. Back to politics now where Senator Lindsey Graham is planning a trip to Mar-a-Lago, meaning his choice of how to handle the GOP Trump dilemma now quite clear. Consistency is not a Graham strong suit. Immediately after the Capitol insurrection, you might remember Senator Graham said he was done with Trump.

But now CNN has learned the South Carolina Republican quote, plans to spend his time on the golf course with Trump, ideally convincing the former president that regaining congressional majorities for Republicans will help bolster his own presidential legacy. That visit will make Graham the third prominent Republican to travel to Palm Beach in the last month. Former South Carolina governor U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley also wanted a Mar-a-Lago meeting. But Mr. Trump refused after she said his post-election conduct was wrong and the Republicans should have been more forceful in challenging it.

CNN's Michael Warren is here with more on this crossroads moment for the GOP. And Michael, you've been doing some great reporting on this essentially, people like Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican Leader, word is, he'd be happy if he never spoke to Trump again, Lindsey Graham, shining up the golf clubs and after Mar-a-Lago.

MICHAEL WARREN, CNN REPORTER: That's right, John. CNN is told that Lindsey Graham wants to make this a constructive trip to Mar-a-Lago to really try to mend this rift that's developed between the former president and Mitch McConnell, and really focused on the 2022 midterms. We have seen how Mitch McConnell has really tried to move beyond President Trump and believes really that the party to win in the future needs to do that.

Lindsey Graham has a different view. He's much more aligned with what Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Leader in the House wants to do, which is to embrace Trump, trying to keep him in the fold. Here's what Lindsey Graham said earlier this week on "Fox," really disagreeing with McConnell's strategy of, you know, keeping Trump at a distance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I'm more worried about 2022 than I've ever been. I don't want to eat our own. President Trump is the most consequential Republican in the party. If Mitch McConnell doesn't understand that, he's missing a lot. Kevin McCarthy is the leader of the House Republicans. He's taken different approach to President Trump. I would advise Senator McConnell to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: John, this is really about the 2022 primaries, the Republican primaries. If you remember the statement from Donald Trump earlier this week, criticizing Mitch McConnell, calling dour and sullen, there was one line that really stuck out to Republicans in Washington, which was this pledge you're making some may consider it a veiled threat that Trump will back primary challenges in the Republican Senate primaries, possibly giving Republicans candidates that can win a primary with a Donald Trump endorsement, but can't win in the general election in a lot of these swing states, purple states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona.

This is something, you know, that we've been reporting that if they don't figure this out soon, this kind of divide within the party, GOP leaders fear that there could be a major crash ahead as something that presents the greatest risk for McConnell, who, despite his power in the Senate isn't nearly as popular as Trump is with Republican voters across the country. That's really what this is all about.

[12:50:08]

There is a disparity there. Trump remains popular with Republican voters. McConnell trying to keep him at a distance and Graham recognizing, if they want to win, he believes they need to keep Trump in the fault. John?

KING: I'm trying to ride the bullet, if you will. We'll see if it works. Michael Warren, appreciate the reporting. As you mentioned, potential major crash ahead if the two factions, if there are two, you might say they're three factions in the Republican Party, and figure out how to heal this one. Michael, appreciate it. Thanks for joining us today.

Coming up for us, George's latest bill that attempts to limit voting access, what it details. That's next.

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[12:55:21]

KING: Georgia Republicans now joining a national GOP trend. Get this, look for ways to make it harder for you to vote. It's a striking development. Remember, turnout was up significantly in last year's pandemic election. But Republicans lost the presidency and then they lost their Senate Majority when Democrats won the two Georgia runoff elections. One would think we would celebrate higher turnout in a democracy but Republicans coast to coast now trying to roll back access to voting.

According to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice, that report says 28 states now considering new legislation to limit how and who can vote by mail, including imposing new photo I.D. requirements. The bill unveiled by House Republicans in Georgia is quite transparent in its goal. Georgia Public Broadcasting reports that bill calls for limiting absentee voting ballot request window and access to ballot drop boxes. That bill also would prohibit early voting on other days, including Sunday, Sunday, of course, a high early voting turnout day for African Americans in part because of efforts organized by black churches.

Stephen Fowler is a political reporter for Georgia Public Broadcasting, wrote a fantastic report on this, joins us now live. Stephen, I read your report and I looked at pieces of legislation, it seems pretty transparent here that their House Republican proposal is designed to make it harder or to restrict turnout by black Georgians. Is there any other way to read it?

STEPHEN FOWLER, POLITICAL REPORTER, GEORGIA PUBLIC BROADCASTING: Well, it's easy to see that because the sponsor of the bill said that is to make things uniform. Now, Georgia has 159 counties, many of them smaller, wider, more Republican and rural. And it seems to be catered towards voting for those populations. And some of the changes like limiting access to drop boxes and limiting early voting access sites would predominantly impact the counties that are larger, more diverse, and tend to vote Democrat. So yes, many of these proposals would end up making it harder for more Democrats to vote.

KING: And again, reading through it, there are some proposals in there where you'd say, good. It talks about having, you know, more polling locations or more machines or more poll workers in places that have been crowded that we've seen evidence of credit. So you read those provisions. You say, good. That's wise. But these other provisions that would restrict voting, I guess, I'll put it this way, how popular are they, you have this proposal? Is it likely to become law?

FOWLER: Well, it's an omnibus voting bill that is 48 pages long and touches on a number of things. And so it's a little bit harder to separate out some of those proposals in favor of some of the things that are more popular. But this is introduced into a special committee on election integrity that the State House has. We've seen a number of voting bills introduced, and this so far is the biggest one in that chamber. But it does seem likely that it will have some sort of traction considering the House is controlled by Republicans.

KING: But we can also look at the dynamics. And, again, this is having 28 States since the November election. We see efforts to roll back some of the, you know, new access that was granted during the pandemic more early voting, more mail-in voting, different ways for people to vote, which again across the country led to higher turnout. In your state, of course, because President Trump lost and then insisted he did not and asked the Secretary of State to find votes. And then because Democrats came in and won those runoffs, there's, you know, bruised feelings, I'm going to put it politely, among Republicans there.

How much of that is being driven by that? And how much it is a divide still there among Republicans, there are the establishment Republicans who say Trump lost. We lost both Senate races. And there are other more, I'll call them Trumpy Republicans, who are still complaining about November.

FOWLER: Well, some of the measures in this big voting bill seem to be simply retaliatory for complaints that Republicans had about the November election. For example, there's a line in there that would try to get rid of mobile voting buses, which is something that Fulton County, which is where Atlanta is used for early voting sites to have these 10 to 12 machine buses show up to early voting sites to cut down on lines. And there's no evidence of fraud. It's just the same as any other early voting site. But you've got that language in the bill that seems to purely target something that Democrats use more.

But then there are some reforms. You mentioned, there are a record number of absentee ballots because of the pandemic. And that led to county elections offices being overwhelmed and questions about security and people requesting things. So there are measures that Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has supported, including adding a photo I.D. requirement to ballots. And what that would look like is people putting their driver's license number or state I.D. number on the forms when they apply for ballots. And in this case, this bill in the House would also recommend that voters put their driver's license number on the actual ballot envelope when they return it.

[13:00:04]

KING: Absolutely critical conversation in your state and nationwide. We'll continue to stay on top of it.