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Thousands Protest Vaccine Mandates At D.C. Rally; Arizona Dem Party Censures Sen. Sinema For Filibuster Vote. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 24, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Fear has clearly taken over the stock market once again. We see the Dow down about 1,000 points, 2.9 percent. The NASDAQ is down more than 4 percent. It's a big move in one day, especially after a long series of losses. The NASDAQ is now on track for its worst month since 2008. And worst January, ever. So what's going on? I think there's three big factors here.

One, there's inflation and the Federal Reserve's plans to fight inflation by raising interest rates, low interest rates have been great for stocks, there's growing concern about how the market is going to perform under higher interest rates and just how high the Feds going to have to raise interest rates.

Two Russia, Ukraine, tensions are high. We know that. That creates a lot of uncertainty for the market. And we know investors do not like uncertainty. And the other big thing here is corporate report cards have been pretty mixed. Companies are still making a lot of money, but they're not beating expectations like they had been. But some of the market experts that I'm talking to, they're wondering whether or not we're getting close to a moment where this is getting a little bit overdone in the market to the downside and you start to see some investors step in to buy the dip.

We haven't seen that yet. But we might soon. But John, this is clearly another big headwind, and I'm looking for signs on whether or not this spills over into the real economy in terms of lower consumer spending and higher borrowing costs. We need to keep an eye out for that.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Very important things to keep an eye out for as we begin another work week. Matt Egan, appreciate the breaking news update.

Next for us, COVID frustration, some moms tried to get through it by literally screaming, some anti-vaxxers tried to get through it by flying.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:36:14]

KING: COVID exhaustion is something we all share and finding ways to handle and deal with pandemic frustration is a constant challenge for all of us for a group of mothers in Boston, screaming it out as part of the new normal.

The first of those gatherings was last year. Some of the moms who find it helpful site general COVID fatigue, other side pressure at work still others worry they have children too young to be vaccinated. Another side of the COVID frustration you see it right there. That's Washington, here in Washington on Sunday. Several thousand gathered to protest vaccine mandates and speaker after speaker at a rally near the Lincoln Memorial oblige them with misinformation, lies, and conspiracy theories.

With me now discuss their reporting and their insights CNN's Manu Raju, CNN's Eva McKend and Jonathan Martin of The New York Times. Jay, let me start with you. You travel the country you see politics all the time. Normally, you wouldn't think having all the moms in the neighborhood go to the park and scream was a good thing. But this is actually therapeutic. And it's part it's related to linked anyway to a project by the New York Times, which is just if you have to scream to get rid of your frustration, let it go.

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: What a great window onto these times. And John, it's the kind of thing that in 100 years from now, when the history books are written about this pandemic, you can certainly see a page or two about just the frustration setting in as we approach what is going to be year three, which is hard to believe of the pandemic and just what that is doing to civil society, obviously impacting our politics, but even deeper than that, how it's shaping our culture and the lived experience of so many Americans.

KING: And so let's turn that to the rally here in Washington on Sunday. And look hundreds and hundreds of millions of doses now study after study after study about the safety and the efficacy of the vaccines. Everybody there in that crowd is entitled to believe what they believe. But one of the issues here is when you have people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted anti-vaxxer, a longtime anti-vaxxer but he has no facts on his side, so he says things like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., AMERICAN LAWYER: Even in Hitler's Germany, you could cross the Alps in Switzerland, you can hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did. I visited in 1962, East Germany with my father and met people who had climbed the wall and escaped. So it was possible. Many truly thought it was possible. Today the mechanisms are being put in place. I will make it, none of us can run and none of us can hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Even McKend, again, we could have debates about mandates. That's a fair debate at this time in the country. But for A, for misinformation and B, I don't quite get the intellectual pretzel he's trying to give you he's talking about people in Nazi Germany have to hide. He's standing in public at the Lincoln Memorial, making his case in a free country where he can say what he believes, he has no place to hide it's lunacy.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Absolutely. I mean, the beauty of this country is that we do have the right to protest whatever we want. Now even if it is comical displays like what we just saw about his comments though, they are sad, they are desperate and they are a historical. There is nothing that was a kin, that is akin to the Holocaust. So let's just make that clear today and hopefully these false analogies will end.

KING: But Manu, you see this playing out rising distrust in the government rising distrust in the CDC rising distrust in Dr. Fauci, rising distrust in our institution because influential people keep saying things that are simply not true. Again, I have nothing against a good debate, whether it's about mandates whether it's about restrictions. Let's have a debate the pros and cons but it should be based on fact.

John Stockton, NBA Hall of Famer, someone I admired until this weekend, thank you very much, he's an anti-vaxxer. He lost his season tickets to his college Gonzaga because he won't wear a mask. So the school took his season tickets away from him, at least temporarily. And he says this about the vaccines. I think it's highly recorded now, there's 150 I believe now, over 100 professional athletes, dead professional athletes, the prime of their lives dropping dead that are vaccinated right on the pitch right on the field, right on the court, right in Fantasyland. There is zero evidence to back that up, but people listen to people they admire.

[12:40:32]

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's that's totally made up where he came up with that, who knows. But there's not based in reality. What is remarkable also about the time that we're in now is there's so much that resembles what happened in 2010, in the midterms there, this feels a lot like the Tea Party movement that did rise over a distrust of government that did rise over concerns over the rise in federal spending and the bigger government.

And Republicans at that time tapped in to that and successfully took back the House in the midterms, almost took back the Senate in the midterms. Here, you're seeing Republicans also trying to tap into similar energy against vaccine mandates against, COVID overreach in their view. The challenge, though, the concern too, is that we of course, are still in a public health crisis. There are measures that need to be taken. There are -- this is balancing act about encouraging people to take the vaccines, but not going as far as mandating them. That's a message that they'll have to finesse.

And also having to align themselves to the extent that they will with noted anti-vaxxers, then people saying outrageous things like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., so there are a lot of things that they have to balance here. But John, this is where a lot of the energy is, at the moment over what many people are frustrated about everything that has happened with COVID. And the fact that it's still ongoing. And Republicans clearly see this as a way to galvanize their base, and you can tap into that headed in the midterms.

MARTIN: And even beyond their base, Manu. I mean obviously, this is an issue where you can find even some more centrist voters. I think the reason Glenn Youngkin is the governor today of Virginia is because he was able to get just enough moderate Virginians who were frustrated with the ongoing pandemic and the concurrent school restrictions and shutdowns, and was able to tap into that frustration. And I think that's the kind of thing that you're going to see all the Republicans trying to do in this year's midterm.

KING: I think we're going to watch this play out throughout the year. You mentioned Virginia, seven school districts in Virginia suing the governor today. The governor wants parents to make the decisions about mask in schools. Those school districts say no, we should make the decision about safety in our schools so that guarantees you right there, legally and politically it will play out throughout the midterm. Everybody stand by.

Up next for us, payback time, Arizona Democrats sanction one of their U.S. senators, are helping to sink voting rights legislation.

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[12:47:31]

KING: Senator Kyrsten Sinema taking some heat back home. The Arizona Democratic Party censured Senator Sinema on Saturday because she refused to support changing the Senate rules so that Democrats could pass voting rights legislation. The state party statement said while we take no pleasure in this announcement, the ADP Executive Board has decided to formally censure Senator Sinema as a result of her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy.

Great reporters back with me to discuss this and Eva McKend, the senator's office said, Kyrsten has always promised Arizona and she would be an independent voice for the state, not for either political party she has delivered, has always been honest about where she stands. So she's trying to take this with I'm good in the middle. But this is fight is going to continue in Arizona.

MCKEND: Listen, this is no surprise that this is coming from the Democratic Party because even though this is how she brands herself now, you know, the evolution of her politics has been dramatic. This is not who Senator Sinema has always been. If you think about the communities in Arizona, undocumented immigrants in Arizona, they thought that by championing her by getting her elected to the Senate, they had an advocate, but they are realizing that there are limits to her advocacy, and it's very, very crushing for those communities. So this censure vote is an illustration of what the base feels in that state.

MARTIN: Yes, it's also a reflection of the times that we're in John, and there's just not in both parties sort of appetite for, you know, deviating from party orthodoxy any longer. You see a lot of Republicans being punished because, you know, they don't pledge fealty to Trump. And if you don't tow the line on what is the Democratic agenda today.

And by the way, you know, a couple of years ago last as Manu knows, a lot more Democratic senators supported the filibuster. The fact that it's not down to two right now tells you a lot about where the party is. And the fact that she was censured for basically sticking with her position and not evolving, tells you the same thing.

MCKEND: But I think that this is different, though. This is not on the right where there is allegiance to one man in the former president.

MARTIN: You know, it's policy, yes, right, policy and personality, sure.

MCKEND: There are real principle, there are lives at stake, you know, there are undocumented immigrants, for instance, something about that community specifically, who, you know, really thought that this was their best chance for immigration reform who now can't get that because of Senator Sinema's position. So I think it's different.

KING: Well, it's --

MARTIN: One policy, one personality.

KING: Yes. And the policy piece of it comes down, Manu, to the note -- there's no margin, five votes despair, four votes despair in the House, no votes despair in the Senate. So you can't have we all go back to days where you can have three four or five sometimes 10 or 12 members of the House or senators that I can't vote for that, or I'll give you my vote if you absolutely needed, but I prefer not to vote for that. We live in a different age now. And so listen to Bernie Sanders who says, yes, we live in a different age. And yes, it is right to hold people accountable.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[12:50:20]

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Absolutely, it was on that particular vote that she and Manchin cast, we were trying to address the reality that you got 19 step -- Republican states all over this country, who are undermining the foundations of American democracy, trying to make it harder for people of color, young people, people with disabilities to vote. So I think what the Arizona Democrats did was exactly right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The question, Manu, in a year where Democrats have, you know, all the wins in their face. Does this anger and frustration within the family fade with time? Or does this recrimination and internal fights last through the year?

RAJU: Well, it depends on the Democratic leaders deal with it. I mean, one of the real questions that emerged over Chuck Schumer's decision along with the White House's decision to make voting rights, a central issue at the beginning of the year, is that the party was not on the same page. They very clearly knew where Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin were for months, they did not have the votes to gut the filibuster. Sinema and Manchin could not have been clearer, both publicly and privately. But Chuck Schumer decided this was what they wanted to do press ahead with a vote both to try to pass the bill would did not have 60 to overcome a Republican filibuster than to change the rules which did not have the votes because of Manchin and Sinema. And because of that they have gotten devolved into this bitter acrimony within the party.

Now, the question too, will be what do they do on the bigger agenda too, John. Does, John, do they decide to try to move forward with the Build Back Better bill, which Bernie Sanders wants Chuck Schumer to put that bill on the floor, elements of it, and essentially dare Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to vote no. But just going down that path, once again, open up this party to a divisive internal debate, when in an election year, you want to be on the same page in the party and taking it to the other team to show contrast between your side and the other.

So this is a question about strategy. And what it really comes down to over the next several months depends on whether the Democrats shift course in any way and can get on the same page.

KING: And the other party has its issues too, as we previously discussed, most of them around one man but listen right here. This is Matt Gaetz today on the Steve Bannon podcast. Listen closely. When he talks about power, there's one name missing. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Newt's right. We are going to take power. And when we do, it's not going to be the days of Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy where the Republicans go limp-wristed, where they lose their backbone, and they fail to send a single subpoena. No, it's going to be the days of Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. And you know what, we're going to get answers, real answers about what happened in the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I didn't hear Kevin, did anybody hear Kevin McCarthy?

RAJU: He's not a huge Kevin McCarthy fan. But this is exactly the message that Democrats want to hear. They want Matt Gaetz out there saying things like that because they believe their best hope at keeping power start to paint the Republicans as extremists coming in who would do all sorts of things they wield the gavel and would have unilateral subpoena power in the House. So the other Democratic campaign committee, you're happy to hear Matt Gaetz saying that.

MARTIN: And John, it's also why Kevin McCarthy is hoping and praying for a big sweep in the fall because he wants the biggest majority possible to dilute the power of figures like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene. And the more new freshmen he has who owe their elections to him, at least in his mind, the more juice and leverage he has in trying to keep down the more shall we say marginal figures and the conference.

KING: And a great reminder as we wind down January, we have a fascinating midterm election year ahead of us, a lot of policy, a lot of personality.

MARTIN: I can't wait.

MCKEND: A lot can happen.

KING: A lot can happen.

[12:53:54]

Up next for us, Sarah Palin and COVID disruption, the former Alaska Governor is suing "The New York Times" the trial was to begin today. But the judge says Palin tested positive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Topping our political radar today, Sarah Palin's defamation case against "The New York Times" now delayed February 3rd that after the former vice presidential nominee tested positive for COVID. Jury selection in that trial was supposed to begin this morning in Manhattan, that before the providing judge, Jed Rakoff revealed, the Alaska Republicans diagnosis. Reuters reports Judge Rakoff who first learned Palin tested positive last night remark to the courtroom. She is of course, unvaccinated.

Also back in court today, Michael Avenatti. It's the third criminal case against the disgraced attorney. This case fits Avenatti against Stormy Daniels, his former client. He's accused of stealing nearly $300,000 from the adult film actress in connection with her 2018 tell- all book "Full Disclosure." That book of course detailing her alleged affair with Donald Trump. Avenatti now faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison if convicted.

The Supreme Court says it will reconsider race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The justices today announced they will hear challenges to policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, policies that use race among other criteria to decide who gets to attend. Those cases will be heard in the term that begins in October.

New Mexico's Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham not just running the state, she also just might be your child's substitute math teacher. Governor Grisham answering her own call to become a licensed substitute teacher because schools in New Mexico like many states facing a dire staffing shortage due to the Omicron variant, the Democrat launched an initiative last week urging state employees and National Guard members to step up.

[13:00:10]

Thanks for joining us in Inside Politics today. Remember, you can also listen to our podcast INSIDE POLITICS. Download it wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you tomorrow. Ana Cabrera picks up right now.