Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Senate Republicans Kill January 6th Commission; Microsoft: Russian Hackers Compromised E-mail System Used By U.S.A.I.D; Texas GOP pushes Most Conservative Agenda In Years. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 28, 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]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: It tells you a lot about today's Republican Party because Senator Schumer, again, I know he's a Democrat. So Republicans out there roll their eyes and say he's just a Democrat. But these Republicans are showing fealty to Trump.

Leader McConnell reprimanded said what the President did on January 6th was reprehensible in the immediate aftermath. Then he did the math. Then he saw the support for the President out there and their former president out there in the Republican Party, 50-50 Senate, I want to be Majority Leader again, I don't want to make Donald Trump mad.

Just today I saw a news release from the number two in the House, Steve Scalise, saying, let's have congressional committees have much more aggressive investigations of the origins of the coronavirus, looking into the lab theory. Great, it's good news. It's very important. But why is it so important to investigate everything except the things that might embarrass and hurt the Republicans politically?

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I mean, it's all part of this whitewashing that's slowly, you know, happened since January 6th, every day Republicans becoming more comfortable with what happened and sort of not wanting to talk about it. I mean, I think you saw when this deal was announced two weeks ago, you know, it was sort of telling that in the days right after it was announced, we didn't hear anything from Mitch McConnell. We didn't actually hear anything from Kevin McCarthy for a couple of days.

And I think that was because a lot of Republicans know what they should have done. And, you know, Mitch McConnell came out, you know, a few days after this deal was unveiled. And he said, look, I'm open to it, I'm going to consider it.

And then there was reporting about how behind the scenes, he was very much panning it giving excuses about, you know, we already have investigations, there's ongoing investigations at the FBI, this could cause a problem for them, when really, we know exactly what it was about. And eventually, he just said it. It's about politics. It's about winning in 2022. And because of that, you know, we are potentially never going to know exactly what happened in the White House that day on January 6th. I mean, think about it, the first attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years in American history. And the first time we've ever seen, you know, a separate branch of government leading the attack on, you know, another branch of government. And we still may never get these full answers about what happens just absolutely no way.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: -- on the politics that a lot of critics would say is that for the general public, they may never get these answers.

KING: Never get these answers about these groups, collection of groups that came together on that day and attack the building, threatened to hang the Vice President of the United States, were walking the halls, chanting the name of the Speaker, looking for her. People who are not, the first amendment right is -- are most cherished. You're entitled to believe anything in this country. But if you act on thoughts like that violently, you need to have accountability. The Republicans simply don't want it. It's just a fact of life.

Manu Raju, I thank you for your hustling during the breaking news. Rachael and Catherine are going to stay with us. Up next for us, a pre-summit poke in the eye, word of a new Russian cyber-attack.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:36:40]

KING: A discovery today of an in progress robbery, Russian hackers are inside an e-mail system used by the State Department's international aid agency. Microsoft says it found a Russian linked group had infiltrated the USAID and is now weaponizing that access, sending e- mails lined with malicious code out to human rights groups that are critical of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The attack is an escalation, one that President Biden said he wanted to avoid and the timing well, a major inconvenience to say the least. President Biden heads to Geneva in just three weeks for a summit with the Russian president. Let's get straight to CNN Alex Marquardt. Alex, breakdown how did the Russians carry out this attack and how significant?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, Microsoft says that this is the same group of Russian attackers that carried out the massive SolarWinds attack last year. The intelligence community here in the U.S., says that that was carried out by Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR. They have not yet attributed this attack but Microsoft saying that it is the same group of attackers.

While the SolarWinds attack was very stealthy, this one was a lot more brazen, and brazen, and in some cases, not as intelligent. And I'll show you why in just a second. But 3,000 different e-mail accounts were targeted around 150 different organizations. You mentioned some of them, a quarter of them were international development organizations, ones that focused on human rights, humanitarian issues.

And what Microsoft is saying is that these Russian attackers used a platform used by USAID to send out e-mails that looked authentic. We have an example of one of them from Microsoft. This was sent out this week on Tuesday. You can see the USAID letterhead right there. And then there's a message saying Donald Trump has published new documents on election fraud. So that's an indication right there that this is probably not a link that you should click on.

But if you did click on it, it would install a malicious file that would open up a backdoor, allowing the hackers to get inside, allowing it to other hackers to infect other computers. We've also heard from the big cybersecurity firm, FireEye. They said it went beyond this USAID e-mail platform saying that the hackers used a variety of lures as they called it, including diplomatic notes and invitations from embassies.

Now Microsoft does note that many of these efforts were automatically stopped. But John, this is a clear ratcheting up of the tension between the U.S. and Russia. We have just heard from the Democratic Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff.

He says this brazen act of utilizing e-mails associated with the U.S. government demonstrates the Russia remains undeterred, despite sanctions following the SolarWinds attack. Those sanctions gave the administration flexibility to tighten the economic screws further if necessary, it now appears necessary. And John, as you noted this coming barely three weeks before that Biden-Putin summit in Geneva.

KING: It certainly escalates the stakes for that Alex Marquardt, grateful for the reporting. Let's continue the conversation, still with us in studio Rachael Bade and Catherine Lucey. And Catherine just the timing here, you know, look, Putin is a bad actor. That's not a surprise to anybody watching, or anybody in this town. We already know on the agenda for the Biden-Putin summit, discussions about the 2020 election interference, you go back to 2016 if you want but constant Russian election interference.

The Russian troop buildup along the Ukraine border, the SolarWinds hack, now this hack, the poisoning and then the jailing of Alexey Navalny, and so now the President sits down normally you would think, OK, you're a bad actor. You're about to sit down for a summit. You cool it. You're nice for a few weeks in advance to at least set up a summit mood, Putin poking the President in the eye here.

[12:40:05]

LUCEY: That's right. I mean, it's just a long list and it was got longer. And this comes at a very tough time for the president. They're getting ready for the summit. And certainly the White House is not going to disagree with you that he's a bad actor.

But, you know, they are hoping to go into this. They are talking about how it is important to engage in diplomacy, you know, even with, you know, people that you don't always get along with. And so they're trying to move forward with this. But this certainly, you know, adds to the tension is a further escalation and makes this medium more complicated.

KING: Right. And it was complicated to begin with, even just -- even without particular side, if you will, because the Trump relationship with Putin was so interesting, even when the Trump State Department or the Trump Treasury Department tried to stand up to Putin. Trump was always nice to Putin. So the Biden-Putin relationship was going to be a fascinating question anyway.

President Biden says, I think that we can, you know, have some very tough conversations over here and do some cooperation over here. That's his hope. Listen here, the former ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul says you might have to rethink it, Mr. President.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MCFAUL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA: I admire that aspiration, but I think it's quite unrealistic because I don't think Putin himself is interested in a stable and predictable relationship. So I think they have to confront the possibility that it may be a different kind of relationship than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's the former ambassador. But that's pretty much the bipartisan take on Capitol Hill, too. Give it a try, Mr. President. But this guy is a bad actor who is actually get -- seems to be getting worse, not better. So you've -- that might be where we end up.

BADE: Yes, that's not a little bit of a gentle nudge, I'm not sure what is. I mean, it's clear that Biden doesn't want to be involved in any sort of international conflicts right now, right? I mean, withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, you know, he waited several days to sort of weighed in on the Israeli-Palestinian fighting that was happening in Gaza. And now and now this, you know.

He sent this morning a month ago with the escalation and sanctions and kicking diplomats out of the United States from Russia. And hoped, obviously, that, you know, Moscow would back down, but it's clear that's not happening.

And Democrats are basically telling him, look, you're going to have to do more. Right now, it's obvious he wants to focus on his domestic agenda, right? He wants to talk about the success of getting the pandemic under control. He wants to talk about, you know, this big infrastructure bill that he wants to get passed and things that they want to do to help American families. But, you know, clearly his party has other ideas. And Putin is not listening.

KING: For having a tough meeting with Putin doesn't necessarily hurt Biden, in the sense that Donald Trump has done so well. He told me he didn't interfere in the election. I believe him. You know, Trump stood there and, you know, for whatever Putin said, Trump nodded. If Biden comes out and says we had a very tough meeting, and it's going to be difficult relationship, that doesn't necessarily hurt Biden, politically, it makes the relationship complicated, but. LUCEY: No, it could have benefited him. He's clear, he was tough. He was tough on these issues. And there's also an expectation that we will actually find out what happened in the meeting, which would be a change in administrations obviously, as well.

KING: Transparency. It's an interesting theme in a democracy. Yes, you're right. I shouldn't even make a joke about that because the Trump administration hit so much about these meetings. It's not funny. So it is a big change. Catherine, Rachael, thank you very much.

[12:42:58]

Some important history today, the Vice President Harris, if you can believe this, the first woman to give the commencement address at the U.S. Naval Academy, welcome to the 21st century to the Naval Academy. This important reminder also of Memorial Day's true meaning, the sacred ground you see it there of Arlington National Cemetery as we honor those who gave their lives while serving in the military.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Republicans are serving notice they remain very much in power in Texas as this year's legislative session winds down just a few headlines here of some big conservative agenda items. Texas lawmakers sent permit free gun carrying legislation to governor's desk. In "The Texas Tribune" Governor Greg Abbott signs into law one of the nation's strictest abortion measures banning procedures as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. "CNBC" Texas Governor Abbott threatens to fine cities and local officials if they impose mask mandates.

"The Economist" sums it up, in Texas, the most conservative legislative session in a generation is wrapping up. The Republican grip on statewide power does come as Democrats are making gains in fast growing suburbs around the big cities like Houston and Dallas. So CNN's Ed Lavandera asked the state Republican Party chairman if the party might be leaning too far right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN WEST, TEXAS REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIR: No, I don't worry.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Did you worry that sessions like this --

WEST: No.

LAVANDERA: -- end up driving away, maybe middle of the road voters?

WEST: And you know what my dad taught me, I grew up in Georgia, he said the only thing in the middle of the road is road kill and I don't want to be road kill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Ed Lavandera is with us from Dallas, Texas Tribune, Washington bureau chief Abby Livingston is with us as well. Ed, I don't want to accuse Mr. West of plagiarism there. But Jim Hightower, a great Texas progressive used to say, what you find in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillo. So I guess maybe it's just a twist on an old phrase.

But to the point there, the Republicans are going right in this legislative session, a number of important conservative agenda items. Are they convinced they can sell this in those suburbs that down the line could come back to haunt them?

LAVANDERA: I think they're convinced of that for now. Any Republican you talked to, a lot of Republican strategist you talked to, you know, are worried about the long term trends. But what we've seen in Texas is a lot of talk of a blue wave, a blue wave that's supposed to be coming and it never materializes.

And then in the 2020 election, Republicans didn't suffer any defeats. They didn't lose congressional seats. They kept all of their state houses seats. And that's why you hear so many people saying they just feel emboldened right now.

[12:50:06]

KING: Feel emboldened right now. Abby Livingston, pardon me. Look, these are legitimate items on the conservative agenda when it comes to things like abortion, things like gun rights. That is just a simple fact. But the fact that they're being so aggressive in this session, also, if you take the politics into mind convinces me some of this is the conservatives like the Governor saying, look over here and things you like. And don't remember these headlines.

If you go back in time, at times during the COVID crisis, as in many states, the headlines have been not so favorable to the Governor and his lieutenant governor. If you go back just a couple of months ago, to the energy issue there, the freeze, if you will, the Texas blackout, the story of a disaster foretold, the Texas enabled the worst carbon monoxide poisoning catastrophe in recent history. How much of this has changed the subject and how much of this is let's exercise our power while we have it?

ABBY LIVINGSTON, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE: I think it's absolutely both. And I think Ed really hit a good point. Two years ago, the legislative session was what my editor calls the bread and butter session.

And this was coming off of major Democratic gains in 2018. And the legislature focused on school finance, property taxes, and now it is all full blown culture wars. And this is an example of elections have consequences. And it's not just the policy consequences, but it's also in the here and now maybe not eight years from now. But right now, Republicans are more afraid of their primaries than their general elections, especially because we don't have maps yet from redistricting.

KING: I think that's a great point. And it's always, look, politicians are always focused on the next election. Those of us who study politics, sometimes look at the demographics and think worst this going to be, two years, four years, eight years down the line.

Ed, you live there, you know the state better than I do. If you look at the demographics back in 2000, Texas was 53 percent white. It is 41 percent white now by census estimates. And you see giant growth in the Latino population, a little bit of growth in the black population, significant growth in the Asian population.

Those communities of color tend to vote Democratic, so Republicans still have that strong grip statewide. Now, Democrats insist that they've been overly optimistic that that blue wave is coming. But they are making progress when you get to the suburbs of Dallas. Look at the congressional delegations, the suburbs of Houston. Look at change in the congressional delegation. The question is when.

LAVANDERA: And I think the story of Texas right now, John is an incredible divide more so than we've ever seen in this state where you have Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, maybe Fort Worth to a certain extent, that have become just Democratic strongholds. That used to be just Austin, right?

And now the rural parts of the state redder than ever, so that rural urban divide is really strong. And one of the interesting things to point out as well is if you look at South Texas, in 17 counties that Hillary Clinton won back in 2016 in South Texas, Trump took six of those away from Hillary Clinton. So there's an interesting kind of dynamic, though, as Republicans kind of gain seats in these urban -- suburban areas. Trump and Republicans are making inroads elsewhere. So maybe in the end, it all balances out.

KING: And to the Republican Party point, Ed, just made, Abby, no further proof of that, than the next generation Bush who happens to live in Texas, is a Trumpy. You know, Trump has had scorn for the Bush family. But the young Bush in Texas says I need to be with President Trump because the party in the state right now is his.

LIVINGSTON: Absolutely early in the Trump era when he was running for president the first time, there really was a visceral divide in the Republican political class, former Bush people and then the emerging Trump class. But this is absolutely I mean, the Trump, I mean, the Bush dynasty there was a Bush cousin who ran for Congress this past year and he didn't even make the runoff. So it's a different era for the Bush's in Texas.

KING: Different era for everyone in Republican politics around the country. Abby Livingston, Ed Lavandera, grateful for your time. We continue to watch this fascinating state. We'll stay on top of it.

[12:53:50]

Up next for us, Biden's budget blueprint, the price tag and the priorities that already have Republicans up in arms.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Topping our Political Radar today, soon President Biden will unveil his $6 trillion budget plan, a level of spending not seen in 50 years that of course, is not likely to fly with Republicans. The Biden budget we're expecting to increase spending by $8.2 trillion by 2031. It includes deficits of $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years. Take a peek here. It's how the "New York Post" played it up Hog Wild. Watch that one play out.

Election out of fever gaining new ground in the Midwest, the top Republican in Wisconsin State Assembly telling the Milwaukee Journal sent that he'll hire several retired police officers and a lawyer to investigate the 2020 election, the already over 2020 election. The taxpayer funded group will have subpoena power as an expected to produce the results of its findings this fall.

Wisconsin now joining Georgia and Arizona is the latest battleground state where pro Trump Republicans are trying to relitigate November's election results. And more evidence Trump's big lie is fueling aggressive Republican attempts to restrict voting rights. New data from the Brennan Center for Justice finds lawmakers in 48 states have introduced 389 measures designed to restrict voting. Since the start of this year, at least 14 states, you see them there have enacted 22 new restrictive voting laws.

We've just learned that at least 450 people now have been charged in the Capitol insurrection. That's according to the Justice Department. And this is important, a CNN review found one in 10 people charged in that riot are veterans or current service members. Our review also found a quarter of those with military ties at the Capitol Riot are also connected to right wing extremist groups.

[13:00:01]

Just ahead more of our breaking news this hour Senate Republicans vote down the January 6th commission. Our Ana Cabrera picks up that coverage, right now. Have a great, safe Memorial Day weekend.