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Inside Politics

Biden To Host July 4th Concert; Yellen Talks With China's Ambassador Ahead Of Beijing Trip; "No Labels" Considers Running Third- Party Candidate; Possible Third-Party Candidate Raises Dems' 2024 Fears; Federal Court Blocks Florida Election Law; Super PAC Backing RFK Jr. Says It's Raised $10M. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 04, 2023 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:31:33]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Tonight, we hope that you all will be watching us right here on CNN with our show stopping lineup of musical acts and fireworks. That is unless you are among the lucky to be invited to the White House where President Biden is hosting his own July 4 Spectacular.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is on the White House North Lawn right now. Arlette, run us through what the President is doing today and who's going to be there tonight?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, and just a short while, the President is actually addressing the National Education Association's annual meeting along with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, the First Lady, a longtime educator. But then the Fourth of July festivities will begin a little bit later today. The couple will be hosting a barbecue for military families around 5:00.

And then there's the big events in the evening when they gather thousands of military families, veterans survivors all on the South Lawn of the White House to watch those fireworks over Washington, D.C. There's also going to be a host of musical performances including the Brothers Osborne as well as Neo. And this really follows a tradition that we've seen from the Biden's since they've taken office, inviting these military families to the White House for Independence Day. Something that presidents before him have also done.

And I can tell you, they've been grilling hamburgers here at the White House since yesterday. You can smell the sense of them as you walk around the White House ground. But this evening, they are going to take some time to thank those members of the military, their families for their service to their country. And the President is also expected to deliver Independence Day remarks before those fireworks start. One of the best views in Washington as the fireworks go over of the nation's capital.

BASH: Yes, it sure is. Very, very different note here, Arlette. We're getting some new details about the Treasury Secretary's trip to China. What are we learning?

SAENZ: Yes, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to visit China this week, leaving the United States tomorrow. And it's a visit that White House and Treasury officials say they expected to have frank and constructive conversations with Chinese officials while she is over there.

Now before she left yesterday, she met with the Chinese ambassador to the United States, a conversation that was also described as constructive. This all comes at a very tense moment and relations between the US and China. But one thing that the administration and the Treasury Secretary have tried to make clear is that they feel the need to ensure that they are working towards this economic competition with China as the two economies of these global superpowers are deeply intertwined.

Of course, there has been tension in the U.S.-China relations due to that Chinese spy balloon that had been flying over the United States. Also President Biden recently likening Chinese President Xi Jinping to a dictator. But the Treasury Secretary's focus in the coming days will be meeting with economic officials on the Chinese side, as well as some American firms there while she's on the ground in Beijing.

BASH: Arlette, thank you so much for all that reporting. Appreciate it.

And President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join CNN's Erin Burnett to discuss Ukraine's counteroffensive, the armed rebellion in Russia and what's next in Ukraine. This exclusive interview will air tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Erin OutFront, you don't want to miss it -- Erin Burnett OutFront, you don't want to miss it.

And up next, a lot of Democratic operatives think that the group No Labels could be a big problem for Joe Biden if it gained steam and pushing a third party presidential candidate. We're going to talk about that after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:39:36]

BASH: Is there room for a third party candidate on the 2024 ticket on the ballot? No Labels thinks so. So the nonprofit group is considering backing a moderate independent candidate whom they say would represent their values of bipartisanship and centrism. They think Americans want an alternative to frontrunners Donald Trump and Joe Biden. But strategist from both parties warn No Labels could be handing the election to Donald Trump.

[12:40:02]

My panel is back with me. This is such a fascinating discussion that's going on all around Washington in small meetings in big meetings. We'll talk about that in a second. But let's just look at the headlines that we've seen recently from multiple news organizations talking about the reporting of the concerns that strategists have, particularly on the Democratic side, about the notion of this group, No Labels, which is a centrist group, running a candidate for president. JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and the reason why Democrats are concerned about this group is because both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have high negatives, right? They both have high numbers of people who think that they have an unfavorable view of them. And Democrats, what they have going for them is that they believe that Donald Trump is slightly more unpopular, and that those people who just can't stomach to vote for Trump again will hold their nose and vote for Joe Biden.

But if a third party candidate presents themselves as an option here, that takes away what is effectively Democrats insurance policy here in election against Trump, and that is ultimately the concern. And that's why you're seeing some of these Democratic strategists starting to take this seriously.

BASH: And they say they've already qualified for the ballot in Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Utah. Arizona, Democrats are suing to try to get them off the ballot. That's how concerned they are.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. I mean, I think this is a huge threat that Democrats see. And we know -- I don't know if you were going to be sharing this soon, but a bunch of former Biden administration officials, former senators, the Lincoln Project, all got together and met about this behind closed doors.

People like former White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, Cedric Richmond, who's now at the DNC, Stephanie Cutter, former Obama administration official, and I think them just meeting on this shows how much of a threat they see a potential third party candidate and what it could be to President Biden.

BASH: No question. They very much do. On Sunday, Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland, was on State of the Union. And he's one of the names that is being floated as a potential candidate for that third party run. I want you to listen to what he said. And then what Karen Finney, Democratic strategist who was also at that meeting, said directly to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY HOGAN (R), FORMER MARYLAND GOVERNOR: It's not something that I'm considering or pursuing at all, but I totally understand the frustrations that lead to this kind of discussion. At this point in our country, 70 percent of the people in America do not want Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be president.

And if they're going to be the nominees, which is appears that they are, you know, you have choice A that no one wants and choice B that no one wants. There may have to be --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't want to be choice C?

HOGAN: I may have to be choice C.

KAREN FINNEY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Labels is going to have the effect of electing Donald Trump again, period, for staff (ph) -- (END VIDEO CLIP)

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, I think it's interesting because at the end of the day, we have to talk about the math. And number one, there have been third party and multiple party candidates on the ballot. It's always a Republican or Democrat in modern history, who's been elected president in America.

So when you talk about third party candidates, they usually benefit either the Republican or the Democrat. You know, we saw Ross Perot being a spoiler on the other side. So when you think about 70 percent of Americans might say, I don't like Trump or Biden, but that doesn't mean that 70 percent won't vote for either Trump or Biden, if it comes down to a general election. And those are the two candidates on the ballot.

It would be very hard. No Labels, I think, also, just logistically, they don't talk about who their donors are. They're not public, they don't have a candidate. So they're running this No Labels campaign without a name attached. So people really know what's at stake.

BASH: And that's one of the many questions and concerns that a lot of people who are working on these campaigns, particularly on the Democratic side, on the Biden side, are saying, like who's really funding this? Is it somebody who's more on the Republican side trying to stir up trouble for Joe Biden to take votes away from him if he's running against Donald Trump.

But I just want to go back to the point that Larry Hogan was making, which is that polls show that many Americans, most Americans are not super excited about the frontrunners on both sides of the aisle. Joe Biden, unfavorables, 56 percent, Donald Trump's unfavorables 59 percent.

DIAMOND: Yes. And like I was saying before those unfavorables are the reason why Democrats are concerned. They're also the reason why people are clamoring for a third party candidate, right? So those two dynamics are kind of colliding. But I think if you look back at some other elections, including Obama, Romney, I mean, the there were also a lot of dissatisfied Democrats who didn't want Obama to run at this point in the campaign.

So this is historically something that American politics deals with. It's why so many people are frustrated with our two party system. But I think the reality is that unless you have a third party candidate with a huge, huge name ideally, the most famous person that you could think of in America who has high favorability ratings, there is no way in which it doesn't hurt Joe Biden more than Donald Trump.

[12:45:13]

BASH: Yes. And we should note that this isn't the only potential third party. There's actually a real third party candidate Cornel West who's running on the Green Party ticket, which is on the ballot in most states. I should also add that what -- no labels is saying is that if Donald Trump is not the Republican nominee, they'll pull back --

TREENE: Right.

BASH: -- because they think that Donald Trump is a problem.

OK, guys, I want to do a very sharp turn and say that it is a holiday, so we want to have a little fun. And what is more fun than a tweet from Chuck Grassley, the almost 90 year old senator, senior senator from Iowa. Here's what he said. "Hurry, there is actual history on the history channel. U.S. colonial history next is ancient aliens boo".

Now why do we say this? It's because Chuck Grassley has a fascinating Twitter feed. And he, as I mentioned, he is almost 90, you know, this. He does all of his own tweeting, and it's just sometimes pure gold. Earlier this week, I believe it was that he tweeted himself where else if you're an Iowa Senator, and you are Iowa, in front of a cornfield, there you go. There's Chuck Grassley. It's just -- it's a political happy place for so many people because he has fun. And not a lot of people have fun on Twitter.

TREENE: No, it's so -- I love Chuck Grassley's Twitter feed. I mean, and I think anyone politics aside, appreciate it because there is a lot of golden and needs offers and often tweeting about Dairy Queen and know where you can get your free Dairy Queen once a year in Iowa. And he does, he does all his own tweets, and he doesn't let his staffers take over for him, which is, I mean, there's people way younger than him in the Senate --

BASH: Younger than 90?

TREENE: Yes, OK. But I have to say who are, like, I don't want to touch Twitter. I'm going to let the young staffers deal with this. And Chuck Grassley is like, nope, I am doing this. I'm taking that one.

DIAMOND: I just hope to be as excited about anything as Chuck Grassley is about history on History Channel.

BASH: Yes.

DIAMOND: That's my goal for today. I'm going to set that bar low and and hope just that.

MITCHELL: It just makes me lament the changes to Twitter recently that it just made the overall experience not as fun. A lot of people are starting to abandon the platform.

BASH: Yes.

MITCHELL: And it's really a community. It's really brought a lot of joy and like real world benefits to people.

BASH: There you go.

MITCHELL: And it's that that's going away.

BASH: Well, thank you to Chuck Grassley, the History Channel and corn. Quote, "Florida is not free to exceed the bounds of the Constitution". A federal judge slams the Sunshine State while blocking a restrictive election law. We're going to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:24]

BASH: A blistering decision by a U.S. district judge to block a controversial new Florida election law backed by Governor Ron DeSantis. The law put new limits on voter registration and get out the vote efforts. The judge calling the law the latest assault on the right to vote.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is here with us. Dianne, walk us through this rolling

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Dana, definitely a scathing ruling here from U.S. Chief District Court Judge Mark Walker. He put a block on two parts of this law that went into effect on July 1st. The first was a ban on anyone who's not a U.S. citizen from handling or collecting voter registration applications slapping a $50,000 fines against groups for each non-citizen who does that.

The second part would make it a felony for these voter registration group workers to retain any personal information from voters. Now, look, the groups who are fighting the law said that this makes it even more difficult for them to do, get out to vote and registration efforts, especially in marginalized communities.

But Republicans, especially those who wrote the bill say, it's just about election security. Well, Judge Walker disagreed, saying the state did not prove its case. And in that blistering ruling had passages like this one, quote, "Florida may, of course, regulate elections, including the voter registration process. Here, however, the challenge provisions exemplify something Florida has struggled with in recent years, namely, governing within the bounds set by the United States Constitution.

When state government power threatens to spread beyond constitutional bounds and reduce individual rights to ashes, the Federal Judiciary stands as a firewall. The Free State of Florida is simply not free to exceed the bounds of the United States Constitution".

Now that last bit there could be a dig at Governor Ron DeSantis, and his off use Free State of Florida phrase. We have reached out to the governor's office about this. Dana, we don't know what they're going to do. But I can tell you that in the past, the state does have a pattern of appealing Judge Walker's rulings. The Court of Appeals did overturn a ruling by Judge Walker on the 2021 election overhaul bill that Florida passed dealing with drop boxes.

BASH: Dianne, thank you so much for that reporting. Appreciate it.

And coming up on the heels of the Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling, advocacy groups are now taking aim at legacy admissions at Harvard.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:59:50]

BASH: Topping our political radar is Super PAC supporting Robert Kennedy Jr. says it raised more than $10 million for his presidential bid. American Values 2024 said donations for the Democratic challenger have come from both sides of the aisle. Three Black and Latino groups are suing Harvard over donor-related and legacy admissions.

The lawsuit alleges that gives preferential treatment to white students and violates the civil rights of Black and Latino applicants. This suit comes less than a week after the Supreme Court ruled colleges can no longer use affirmative action in admissions.

CNN's July 4th special is returning tonight with an all-star lineup. I will be there. I hope you will be, too, to watch CNN's Fourth in America. It starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

Thanks so much for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.