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White House And Republicans Far Apart On Infrastructure; AZ "Audit" Inspires More GOP Attempts To Overturn 2020 Results; Restrictive TX Voting Bill Could Be Reintroduced In Special Session. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 03, 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]

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Her fellow Republican negotiators, and apparently, you know, there was a discussion about how they could never support $1 trillion in new spending. They also don't like this new idea that Biden has floated about, you know, a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations. They see that as a tax hike, because you know, these corporations can't take deductions. And so look, it's not going anywhere, but nobody wants to be the one to say it's over.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: And so you have liberals now who, you know, Joe Biden is their President, he wants to do this. This is his DNA. They wanted to give them a chance, but they're out of patience. This is just from the group, or revolution. It's a fundraising letter, raising money off disagreements with the Democratic President of the United States. He says essentially, when he's running for President, Joe Biden was great. But it says unfortunately, despite full Democratic control of Congress, he continues to fall short on delivering concrete results and instead continues to hope for bipartisan compromise, even as Republicans continue to sow discord in our democracy. So you're starting to see on the left, give it up, dude.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, yes. And listen, there was always skepticism about this. And Joe Biden obviously campaigned as somebody who could bring Americans together, work across the aisle with his Republican friends. And so now he is trying that, the lessons of the Obama administration, he tried the same thing. Lots of time was passed and then no bipartisanship in the end.

And so I think everyone knows that this will be a plan if it is passed, it is passed by reconciliation. So the votes to be focused on as with all of these plans, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, we can talk about Shelley Moore Capito, all we want, but it's theater.

KING: Is that it, that he's only doing this because he needs to be able to sit down with Manchin and Sinema in the end and say --

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

KING: -- I tried.

BASH: Yes.

KING: They wouldn't come anywhere near far enough. You have to come back --

BASH: Yes, yes. Nail, meet head, that's when you hit the nail on the head, yes, because that is exactly right. I'm not sitting here saying that the President is not trying to find compromise with Republicans. Sure. I mean, it's -- this isn't total theater. But the reality is that never mind the pure numbers, it's the scope.

I mean, it's hard to see them agreeing on -- the Republicans agreeing on expanding behind beyond brick and mortar and saying that they're going to agree to elderly care and childcare, which they have said no way we're going to do. What we're seeing right now in large part is the President showing Joe Manchin showing Kyrsten Sinema, the Democrats he has to have if he has any chance at getting this passed with the simple majority because they have a razor thin one is, I tried.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BASH: I tried. I did what you asked me to do. We tried to get the Congress to work the way it's supposed to. And it didn't. And there's one little thing in the President's proposal that was really interesting, which is trying to find money in the IRS saying that the IRS hasn't done enough to get taxes that are unpaid. That is a number one Joe Manchin issue.

KING: So working the next act as he tries to figure out what's the closing play in this act.

[12:33:07]

We'll be right back in a moment with some important breaking news, the Postmaster General of the United States under investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Breaking News just into CNN, the Department of Justice is investigating campaign contributions made by the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's private sector employees. Let's get straight to CNN's Kristen Holmes for the details. Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. This is a Trump appointed holdover. He's an embattled Postmaster General who we know has really been under fire for quite some time. And now we are learning that Department of Justice is investigating Louis DeJoy.

Now this is what we have from a statement from his spokesperson. He says Mr. DeJoy has learned the Department of Justice is investigating campaign contributions made by employees who worked for him when he was in the private sector. He has always been scrupulous in his adherence to the campaign contribution laws and has never knowingly violated them. Then the same it goes on to say that Mr. DeJoy had fully cooperated with questions posed in Congress about these issues. But obviously here, this is a huge reveal. We had been hearing a lot of reports about this. This has had been out there. And now we know there is a formal investigation into Trump holdover, Louis DeJoy. This is coming at a time in which we still are seeing massive delays in the Postal Service. We have heard so many complaints.

And there is really out there legislation for a complete overhaul of the Postal Service. But really the news here, Department of Justice is in fact investigating Louis DeJoy for these campaign contributions made by his employees when he was in the private sector, John.

KING: Kristen Holmes, appreciate the hustle on the breaking news. We stay on top of that story.

[12:39:12]

And up next for us, Arizona has a new tourist attraction, Republicans visiting to peek at a bogus 2020 election audit with the idea of maybe copying it back home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Facts and math are the best antidote to the big Trump lie about 2020. And so we are lucky to have this to sort the facts from fiction and to better understand the Republican goals whether the issue is trying to sow doubt with bogus audits in places like Arizona and now Georgia, or the efforts we see across the country to rollback voting rights.

As an example, let me just walk through the numbers. The biggest quote unquote audit is out here in Arizona. It's in Maricopa County, Joe Biden won Maricopa County. You see the numbers right there. Yes, it was close. Joe Biden won Arizona, wow, very close, 10,457 votes but he won Arizona. The votes were recounted. People got to sue in court. Now there's a bogus audit.

But the facts are the facts and the math is the math. Joe Biden won Georgia, again, very close, decisive, flip this state, normally a red state like Arizona, Joe Biden won. Now there's an effort to have another so called audit here in Fulton County, so called because the official state procedures have all been exhausted. Joe Biden won and Donald Trump lost. Not an audit in Texas but Texas is one of the states we're watching because of Republican efforts to rollback voting rights from how people were able to vote in 2020 to make it harder in 2022 and beyond.

[12:45:12]

One of the big areas of concerns for Texas Republicans, the major growth here in Harris County, so they're trying to roll back things like drop boxes, things like mail-in voting, things that help the Democrats do very well here, even though Donald Trump and Republicans still won easily in the statewide races. And what's fascinating about this, as it plays out is even a place like Pennsylvania, again, one of the close ones, right? Joe Biden, one Pennsylvania, Trump supporting Republicans from Pennsylvania have traveled to Arizona to get a peek at the so called audit to see maybe we should try that here.

Listen here to Al Schmidt. He's a Philadelphia City Commissioner, who says please, no.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL SCHMIDT (R), PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONER: I hope every county across the Commonwealth is watching this closely and what some of our legislators are trying to bring our way. I don't know why you would want to repeat what's going on in Arizona, any place across the country. No one should have any faith in the outcome of whatever findings they have in Arizona.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With me now to discuss CNN's Kyung Lah, she's in Phoenix, Jeremy Wallace, a political writer for the Houston Chronicle, and Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent for The Atlanta Journal- Constitution. Kyung, I want to start with you because you just heard Al Schmidt in Philadelphia there saying, please don't do this. But you're reporting on this, again, quote unquote, audit, I'm going to call it, includes trying to talk to some Pennsylvania State officials who are out there taking a look at this to see if they might want to copy it.

This is Doug Mastriano, a Pennsylvania State Senator to a pool reporter out there. I'm not about overturning anything. I'm just trying to find out what went right, what went wrong. And how do we have better elections in the future. Let's pick a few counties and put people's minds at rest if there's nothing to hide, great. That's how they spin the idea that even though we've exhausted every state and local and county process, even though everyone's had months to go to court, let's do it again.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And remember, the results here in Arizona, just like in Pennsylvania, the results have already been certified. They're here in Maricopa County have already been two audits led by a Republican recorder for Maricopa County. So this has already been done. The process is complete. And so the fact that this audit is happening, and it's, you know, again, air quotes, audit. What we've seen just with our bare eyes is this process has been riddled with problems.

And it's from, you know, election observers across the country saying, who are these guys doing this? The Cyber Ninjas that has a very thin resume publicly available on his website that says they've never done this before. And, you know, the observers who have been brought in, nonpartisan observers who have watched the Cyber Ninjas at work had been very critical, because there have been a number of security lapses cited by these observers. And again, nonpartisan and saying this is all over. Why is this being done?

And what you will hear from election observers is that they believe that this isn't being done to look at election results at all, what -- why this is being driven is as a fundraising scheme for politicians, John.

KING: And, you know, because Trump and Trump-like politicians around the country want to continue to push this idea, even though again, they've -- every legal avenue to contest have been exhausted. Tia Mitchell in Georgia that includes the Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, who has induced the ire of the former president finally giving in even though he thinks this is bogus, there's got to be a quote unquote, audit now in Fulton County.

He says, well, let's follow this rabbit trail, and get the answers, and then we'll get the answers that will be very similar to what we had back when the election was carried out and we did the audit process. And we can put to rest this and we can move forward. So he's essentially saying this is a waste of time, but he's not willing to fight it anymore, because frankly, he's exhausted and he wants to win reelection.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Right. That's the thing to keep in mind that Brad Raffensperger is running for reelection again. And he has an opponent in U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, who's Conservative, who has Trump's endorsement already, and who has pushed some of the election misinformation about the 2020 general election.

So even though Brad Raffensperger has said all along, we've counted the ballots already multiple times, we've confirmed the outcome of the election, multiple times. Secretary Raffensperger is also saying, hey, if people who are concerned need another review and that'll help them feel more secure about the election result, let's do it. But the concern as you've mentioned is this review still will confirm the results of the election but won't quiet those critics. They'll still be asking for more. They still won't trust the outcome of the election.

[12:50:01]

KING: And Jeremy Wallace to Texas now, to the best of my knowledge, there's no such audit, quote unquote, audit there. Donald Trump won. There's no reason to recount the votes I guess, because he won. That's how he looks at it anyway. But you do have this effort that Democrats have dramatically walk off the Texas House floor and stall a Republican bill from passing. But stall is the word, the Governor is expected to call a special session, this will come back. And again, this idea that there was widespread fraud, even though no one has proven it is part of this effort to rollback voting rights, correct?

JEREMY WALLACE, POLITICAL WRITER, HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Yes, absolutely. And we're seeing it in Harris County, like you mentioned earlier in the show, you know, Houston has swung so much in favor of Democrats. It was a place in 2014. You know, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General all won. But because of Harris County now going completely blue, they all lost that badly.

And there -- in general election results were very small, and their margins are much smaller than they're used to. And so now they're raising questions while not an audit, they are trying to put more control in the state hands to oversee what's happening in Harris County, with this almost kind of feel that there's something wrong going on the ground, when all it really is maybe is that a lot of voters in a very diverse city are voting more frequently.

KING: And so let's look at the flip side. How does this affect Republican politics going forward? Kyung Lah, to you, back to you in Phoenix, number one, Katie Hobbs, the Democratic Secretary of State who stood up to Trump and who said no, our election was fair and free and recounted and you lost her. She's now running for Governor. She hopes this is a springboard in the Governor's race.

Dan Eberhart, who's a former Trump donor says this of the former president. He's going to spray friendly fire on other Republicans and settle scores under the auspices of endorsing people in Republican primaries in 2022. He goes on to say, you know, essentially the Trump won't let this go. So it's going to impact Republicans. How do you see that playing out in battleground Arizona?

LAH: What you're seeing is a division between the Republicans like the ones in Maricopa County versus the Trump Republicans. And what they are saying is that this is a battle here in Arizona between fact and fiction. And you have the Republicans lining up behind fact, and the Republicans lining up behind fiction. And so that's the division. And Republicans here, you know, there are third here who are Independent, one-third Democrat, one-third Republican, one-third Independent, which side are they going to vote for?

KING: Kyung Lah, Jeremy Wallace, Tia Mitchell, grateful for the conversation today. And hopefully, you'll come back and continue this conversation because this one is with us for the next year or so maybe even more. Thanks so much for your time.

When we come back, a major campaign announcement from George P. Bush or as Donald Trump calls him, the Bush who got it right.

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[12:57:10]

KING: Topping our political radar today, Happy Birthday to the First Lady of the United States Jill Biden. She and the President celebrating Mrs. Biden's 70th birthday at their vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. It's a rare weekend getaway for him. It's said to be Mrs. Biden's favorite place.

A new twist in the family feud between the Trump's and the Bush's, a member of the Bush family, you might say taking Trump's side. George P. Bush is running for Texas Attorney General as a Trump supporting Republican. He's even got campaign swag that includes the Trump quote, this is the only Bush that likes me. George P. is the son of the former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Trump famously mocked Governor Bush back during the 2016 primaries and once tweeted, the last thing we need is another Bush. But George P. just brushes off those personal attacks calling politics a contact sport. Well, here's a reminder, more than just a few mean tweets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Jeb Bush is a low energy person for him to get things done his heart. He's very low energy. Jeb Bush, very weak on immigration, wants to let people come in. You know what's happening to Jeb's crowd as you know, right down the street? They're sleeping. Everybody works, everybody tries but the World Trade Center came down, a lot of bad things happen. So Jeff can't say that that didn't happen. And by the way, there were no weapons of mass destruction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is pretty remarkable. You want to win in Texas. I guess you want to win in Texas --

BASH: Yes.

KING: -- with the Trump on your side. But the Bush family, its tradition, its history, its cohesiveness, never mind.

BASH: Generations, generations --

KING: Yes.

BASH: -- of what the Bush family stands for, never mind that Jeb Bush is a P's father. And I was on the campaign trail. And that reminded that debate, but I watched what happened with Jeb Bush. And this is politics, my understanding is that this was brokered and negotiated and there were calls from the Trump camp to Jeb Bush, the father, to try to ease this as much as possible. But this has to be the most bitter pill to swallow.

HENDERSON: I mean, yes, it's so awkward. I think it's actually pretty pathetic on P's part to kiss Donald Trump's ring in this way, and there is no into it, right? There's no bottom to the kind of loyalty he'll have to show to get Donald Trump's approval continuous.

KING: There is precedence in Texas however, I give you Senator Cruz.

BADE: Oh, yes, I mean, Cruz is going to kiss the ring after Trump went after his wife, I mean --

HENDERSON: In father.

KING: And his father.

HENDERSON: And his father.

BADE: Yes. I mean with this, it's so desperate, it's gross. But it also probably won't make a difference. I mean, Trump always goes back to his gut and he hates the Bush family so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't trust them. But I mean P. should know blood is thicker than water, right, but not in this case, it's all about Trump. KING: In this case, ambition apparently Trump's family but we will see. We will see all pun intended. We will see how this one goes. Thanks for spending your time with us today. We'll see you back here. We hope this time tomorrow.

[13:00:05]

Don't go anywhere busy Newsday. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.