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Lab Test Confirms Cocaine Found At WH; Trump At Home As GOP Candidates' Campaign On July 4; Pence: Need "Leadership On Day One"; Pence, DeSantis Focus On Early States On July 4th; Trump Spends July 4 Sharing Memes Online; Judge Rejects Biden Effort To Curb Conspiracies Online. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 05, 2023 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on Inside Politics, red, white and blue political theater. Republicans pound the pavement put on their best every man polos and look for votes between burgers, dogs and fireworks. July 4 provides a 2024 test. One, Donald Trump vets, he is fine just skipping.

Plus, a First Amendment victory or a green light to conspiracy theorists. A judge calls a Biden effort to stop disinformation from running wild Orwellian, while telling top Biden officials to cut off contact with social media companies. And just in, cocaine at the White House. A positive lab test prompts an obvious question for the Secret Service. Whose was it?

I am Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

Up first, a White House crime scene of source just confirmed to CNN that cocaine was discovered inside the West Wing. I want to go straight to the White House and CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. Priscilla, what are you hearing from your sources on this?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Dana, source familiar tells our colleague Kevin Liptak, that lab tests have confirmed that that powdery substance found at the White House on Sunday is cocaine. Now initially, officials had described this as a powdery substance left in a zip lock bag in the West Wing in a common area. So not an office, and also an area accessible to group tours. In fact, it's a place where guests are asked to leave their cell phones as they take their tours.

And so, now lab tests are confirming that it is cocaine. It was unclear as of earlier today, whether that would be the case field tests up to now had determined that it could possibly be cocaine. We now know from these tests that it is.

But Dana, as you mentioned, this raises a lot of questions of how this could have entered the White House to begin with and who is the person responsible for it? Those are two questions that have not been answered yet. The Secret Service up until now, has said that this is an ongoing investigation, and that they themselves are trying to sort out how this happened. But when it did on Sunday evening, when there was this discovery, it led to a temporary evacuation because they just did not know what it is. So, this is an incident that the White House has taken seriously and one that the Secret Service is still getting many, many questions on. Dana?

BASH: I am sure many unanswered questions. Cocaine at the White House was definitely not on anyone's 2024 campaign cycle bingo card. Thank you so much Priscilla. Appreciate that. Now let's go to the campaign trail where Republican presidential candidates spent the July 4 holiday shaking hands and kissing babies.

Noticeably missing, Donald Trump, the former president spent his day sharing digs at his predecessor and praise for himself online. But his opponents were in the states that have the first chance to choose the party's nominee, hoping to kickstart momentum. They need to overtake Trump, who of course is the clear frontrunner according to almost every -- not almost every single poll. CNN's Kyung Lah is in Le Mars, Iowa. Kyung, what are you seeing and hearing from the Republican candidates on the trail today?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm smelling delicious, fresh ice cream cones. This is Le Mars, Iowa, which according to the city's website, makes it the ice cream capital of the world, producing more ice cream than anywhere else in the world. And the reason why the former vice president is here is because he knows, and this is his way of trying to connect with Republican caucus goers.

What you're seeing right now is the Mr. Pence has just arrived here inside this room and he is making his way around the room, shaking hands, taking pictures. He's joined by his wife. And what you're seeing Dana, is a 99-county strategy. It is about making these caucus goers actually know who he is.

Just these one-on-one conversations. It's talking to this young man about what his plan is for conservative America. And then the hope is that this man who potentially could support him in the caucuses, bring other friends with them to the caucus and then he wins this county.

So, that is the hope. That is the plan. And it is about trying to project that entire idea to the people in this county and they knock off county by county. And one of the big messages from Mr. Pence is, is that he has the credentials, a very serious credentials on day one. Take a look?

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think this is no ordinary time. It's no time for on-the-job training, be honest. I've met the enemies of freedom around the world. I've met President (Inaudible). And I understand the challenges facing our economy. We've got to have leadership on day one, cannot really win an election. We'll also assemble a team, assembled a team that can guard the country back from it and it's always been a strong and prosperous country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: And the gentleman who's with him is with Congressman Randy Feenstra. This is a devout, very religious section of Iowa, and the former vice president who is a devout Christian and evangelical is also going to be meeting them, not just over ice cream, but also talking about religious ideals and how he sees that working into potential Mike Pence administration. Dana?

BASH: Kyung, this just like yesterday, such amazing live shots, amazing windows into what is happening. As we speak on the campaign trail, where the real drama is happening, because as we saw, we see right now still, because your amazing team is showing us. The former vice president, literally plus pressing the flesh, trying to do what you're supposed to do in Iowa, get people to come on your side, one vote at a time. Thank you so much for this really, really insightful reporting.

And joining me now at the table, CNN's David Chalian, Jackie Kucinich of The Boston Globe, and Cleve Wootson of The Washington Post. You are so in your happy place.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It's just what you said, you know, normally I think most Americans who probably are not dialed into the fact that we are actually in an election cycle already. That kind of stuff that you just see is normally what we call B roll, like in a piece reported. But you know, it's nice to see a candidate live in the room doing this.

This is what when we talk about that hard work that candidates have to do on the campaign trail, this is it, you are seeing it right here. And obviously Mike Pence has an uphill climb, and he needs to touch as many voters as possible.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: When he needs to the trump up ended the retail politic kind of metric that we came to know and love from (crosstalk) cycles -- for himself. Exactly. And so, the fact that, you know, is he not marching in these braids? No, because he doesn't need to. That said, you have seen him in a diner or too this cycle. And so, perhaps you'll see more of that down the line. But certainly, he's not going to be part of the crowd at this point.

BASH: To that point, you remember Fergus Cullen who was the Republican Party chair in New Hampshire? He said the following. He said, can you imagine Trump walking in the Wolfeboro 4th July parade? I don't think so.

Now, I don't want to keep this off -- make this all about Trump because he was not there. But it is noteworthy that everybody else is campaigning in a very traditional way, for the most part in a very traditional way, like we just saw live in Iowa.

CLEVE WOOTSON, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, it's 100 percent, you know, retail politics, right. But I -- but one of the -- I follow Joe Biden. I crossed paths with you, with Joe Biden in 2019. We were in, you know, in Iowa. I was at the parade. And one of the things you know, that didn't really work out for Joe Biden in the end.

I don't think there's an automatic necessity to do -- that doing the retail politics at doing it 100 percent. That if you're the frontrunner here means that you're going to be, you know, the frontrunner at the end, Biden got fourth place in Iowa.

You know, what also matters is what they're doing away from the cameras, whether they're building an organization, whether they have a ground game going on. You know, this matters, but it's also, you know, it's part of the theater.

CHALIAN: And the flip side of what you're saying is that Iowa can be a successful point for candidates, not like Joe Biden. On the Republican side, it could be a point of success for a Mike Huckabee or a Ted Cruz or Rick Santorum. Why none of those folks have the word president before their name when we talk about them. And so, they weren't even the nominee. So yes, for some candidates, this is the path to any kind of success, but it is no guaranteed path to the nomination.

KUCINICH: And it could be a path to exactly what you're talking about, to more money, to more organization, to down the line, if they are successful. Or they just get the sticker that says, I went to Iowa's 99 counties, and I am not the president of the United States.

BASH: And all I got was this t-shirt.

KUCINICH: Exactly.

BASH: Mike Pence is not the only one on the campaign trail. Ron DeSantis was in the first in the nation primary state on Tuesday. That was yesterday. OK. He was in Wolfeboro. Let's listen to his message there.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These generations got to step up and be a custodian of freedom. I think right now is our generations time to do that because I think freedom has been under assault in this country. Yes, by the Biden and by the bureaucracy, but also with corporate America, the education system, all of these things. And we need people to stand up and fight back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: OK. I'm struck not just by the content of what he was saying. But the choreography and stagecraft of what he was doing, holding a child, holding his child. And this is a big push. In fact, yesterday, we were talking about this flair that the super PAC, Ron DeSantis' super PAC sent up, saying a lot of things, but one of them is, you've got to define Ron DeSantis, as you know, who he is. This is DeSantis saying, I am a human being. I am a father. CHALIAN: And it's coinciding with Casey DeSantis's wife going on the campaign trail for her first big solo event this week and starting to be, I mean, she's been by his side on the trail. But now we're going to start to form her own identity on the trail as a window into a different facet of Ron DeSantis than Americans see, day to day.

You mentioned at the top of the show, I guess that some of these candidates chose to wear the polo. He did not go with the poll. He just went with the kid on the hip, to make him as regular and approachable.

KUCINICH: No, his dad shirts, it's got lots of pockets.

CHALIAN: Exactly.

BASH: Wait till we get to the fall, then we'll have the best. What do you think about DeSantis strategy, as he's trying to kind of reorient a campaign that has been a bit rocky?

WOOTSON: Yes. I think that when I talk to voters about DeSantis, they feel like he has the bonafides, he has the guts, the intelligence, the intellect, the war on the left, right? The question is the personability, right? You have to go to individual Iowa voters, New Hampshire voters and get them to like you, right?

And I think that's where he may be of any of the candidates on the Republican side has the sort of biggest uphill battle. So, we'll just see how he interacts one on one, particularly when he's challenged on policies or when there are questions about that going forward.

BASH: Yes. So, we did talk about, and I do think it's important to question why Donald Trump decided on July 4, he was going to, I assume he was in Bedminster or wherever he was, he was true thing. He did things like, he put a picture up of himself as George Washington. I believe that we have that we can show that. That was his way of saying, happy birthday America. I think, I think that was pretty much it.

Having said that, he has done more retail, as you mentioned, Jackie, than certainly I saw on the campaign trail with him in 2016. Let's see a little flavor of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH U.S. PRESIDENT: That's a nice, beautiful looking group of people. So, I know this menu better than you do. This one's even nicer. It's more expensive I can tell you. This is triple the price of that one, right. Food for everyone! Food for everyone! Does anybody want a piece that I've eaten?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Can you imagine him eating a piece of pizza that somebody else ate, but people were pun intended eating it up? You know, that is the kind of thing that he understands that his supporters absolutely, just clamor for. But he doesn't -- - he's not introducing himself to voters, as even Mike Pence, who was a vice president and Ron DeSantis, and others are. He's the cake is baked. People know who he is.

KUCINICH: Yes. And they do like him, or they don't. They're either open to voting for one of these guys who are asking for their vote, or they're not. And the biggest challenge I mean, the onus really is on these other candidates to take it from him at this point to find a moment, to find a whatever it is a gimmick to put themselves ahead of Trump and a lot of these voters because there are -- we are seeing in polling. There are Republican voters that are open to someone else. But can someone else fill that void for them? That is the open question.

BASH: I know there too many someone else's to split the vote. Everybody standby. Up next, the federal judge restricts the Biden administration from communicating with social media companies. Some call it a win for the First Amendment, others call it dangerous. We'll discuss next.

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BASH: Don't speak. That's the message from a federal judge to top Biden officials. Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee out of Louisiana's western district ruled that administration contact with social media companies is mostly off limit. Conservatives call it a First Amendment victory that combats censorship. Other observers warned that it's now open season for all manner of disinformation.

Let's go to New York and CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich. Vanessa, walk us through this ruling.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: This is a federal judge essentially saying that Biden administration officials and agencies can no longer communicate with social media companies. They include everyone from the FBI, the CDC, the state department, the Justice Department, even pointing out key individuals like the White House press secretary and the U.S. surgeon general. They can no longer communicate with a social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WeChat, except if it concerns national security issues, or if it concerns any illegal activity.

But the judge saying that there isn't enough evidence that they were communicating in a way that was breaking up First Amendment law. And the judge in this injunction going on to say, "during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth."

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He also goes on in this injunction to "our founding fathers." But the White House is saying that any communication that they had with these social media companies was in the best interest of the American people. Especially, during the pandemic, trying to combat misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines and mask. The White House also saying that they believe that social media companies need to be aware of the content that is on their platforms. But it is up to the social media companies to decide what to do with it.

Now, this judge, Judge Doughty, who is a Trump appointee has yet to rule on this case, Dana. But this injunction is a big win for these states. And these two attorney generals who initially brought this lawsuit, who had these concerns about the Biden administration's communication, especially during the pandemic, Dana, with the social media companies.

BASH: OK. Thank you so much for that report. Joining me around the table, CNN's David Chalian, and former federal prosecutor Shan Wu. This is such a fascinating legal and political discussion. Let's just start with the legal, Shan.

And I want to read more of what the judge said. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country. The evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario.

I mean, it is understandable that, you know, we as a society want to be careful in limiting free speech. It's also understandable that we as a society want to be careful about allowing conspiracies to just grow and metastasize and really hurt American culture.

SHAN WU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Absolutely. This is a very silly ruling in terms of legalities. The First Amendment already does what he is doing, which is it protects free speech. He's like a bootstrapping legal argument. He says, they can't try to influence any content that's protected First Amendment speech. Well, that's the whole question is, is it protected First Amendment speech or not?

He also really gives himself away when he says that targets conservative viewpoints. If you're really going to talk about the government trying to influence social media, you wouldn't limit it to just conservative or liberal that gives away his viewpoint.

I think it makes it very difficult to follow his order for the government to know when they're stepping over that line. And lastly, from a strictly technical standpoint, this is a preliminary injunction. You need to show irreparable harm. Where's the urgency? He engaged in months of discovery very helpful to conservative cause. And now he says, you need to preliminarily enjoined us. There's no reason why he needs a preliminary injunction.

CHALIAN: I mean, politically, you know, obviously, this is going to be a moment for Republicans to rally around. This is an argument they have been making for quite some time here. And the overreach of the Biden administration when it came, especially when it was coming to the COVID. Here is something that I think, you're going to hear on the campaign trail, not just during the course of the Republican nomination race, Dana. But in the general election, this is going to be one of the pieces of the political argument against Biden's management as president overall. I just have one question for you that I don't fully understand it, the ruling that I hope you can explain. Ever since the advent of social media, governments, Republican Democratic administrations are in communication with these platforms, because there's a lot of information.

They're putting out there as our news organizations, by the way, in conversation with these platforms. I don't understand. Can you see something in there that explains the rules of the road, like no communication whatsoever between the White House press secretary and these platforms that seems unworkable?

WU: Well, news media is next. But the details are ruling aren't so much for what the White House press secretary office as much as they're saying things like health and human services, the FBI, HHS, you know, encompassing a whole bunch of agencies. So, it's really trying -- it's very interesting. It tries to go right at the substance of where they have disagreements in terms of wanting more COVID.

In my disinformation, to the spread, perhaps the pressing issues about January 6. At the same time, those are exactly the two agencies that it's most pressing, that they can communicate, because it's health, and it's law enforcement.

BASH: Well, let's give an example of what the judge might be getting at. And that is something that President Biden said back in July of 2021.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, 46TH U.S. PRESIDENT: They're killing people. I mean, they're really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: There being people who he argued that took to social media, went online and put information out there that was not science and fact based.

CHALIAN: Yes. And I think his critique was probably also to the platforms allowing for that to be on there. So, there's no doubt. The president and his team at that time, they were trying to get these social media companies to crack down on misinformation from their perspective in the goal of protecting the health of Americans.

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BASH: Yes. And then there's a whole broader conversation beyond COVID and the agencies about the government's role in social media companies and getting involved in stopping conspiracy theories from getting out there, which has to be done, I think by the United States Congress, the people's representatives as opposed to a judge. Thank you so much. Thank you for that insight. Appreciate it. Today, trucks filled with petitions bearing hundreds of thousands of signatures were delivered to the Ohio secretary of state. The latest dramatic chapter in the state-by-state abortion battle. We're live in Ohio, next.

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