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Inside Politics

Today: GOP Hopefuls In Iowa For Evangelical Summit; CNN: DeSantis Urges Patience For Breakout Moment; Politico: Trump Seeking Interview With Mike Tyson; White House Legislative Affairs Director Stepping Down; Biden Raises $72M Since Reelection Campaign Launch; RNC Chair Stands Firm On Loyalty Pledge; WH, Lawmakers Voice Support For Actors Strike. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 14, 2023 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

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SEN. TIM SCOTT (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Household mired in poverty, who wanted to know, who am I?

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So a lot of the issues that they've been talking about, things like abortion, transgender, those are the issues that keep coming up, Dana. We expect to hear from the bulk of those candidates throughout the day. They haven't spoken just yet.

Governor Ron DeSantis, though, is the one that we're really keeping our eye on in the sense that he is in second place to Donald Trump and he really needs to make a strong showing in Iowa in the six months from now when the caucuses happen.

Interestingly enough, Kim Reynolds has been appearing with him, the governor, at several of his events. Now, she has pledged to remain neutral. That's what made President Trump so angry. But she has pledged to remain neutral, but has said very positive things about him. He's looking to make some big inroads today and throughout the weekend here in Iowa. Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: All right, Jessica, thank you so much for that reporting.

And our reporters are back here at the table as well. David Chalian, what do you make of the fact that, you know, all these candidates are there? They're obviously doing what they do in Iowa. It's six months out which actually isn't that far away, and the absence of Donald Trump. Put all of that into the context of where we are in this field.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: So we should -- well, we should just know, it's the absence of Donald Trump today. He's going to be in Iowa on Tuesday. He's doing a Fox News town hall there. He has -- he was just there about a week and a half ago or so. This is not somebody who has sort of ceded Iowa, even though, remember, he did not win Iowa in 2016.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He barely lost, right?

CHALIAN: He barely lost to Ted Cruz. What you're going to see here -- and by the way, this cattle call today, you have another one in two weeks. The state party's having a dinner. Two weeks after that is the Iowa State Fair.

I mean, all of these candidates are just going to keep going back here because the quest inside the Republican nomination right now is who is going to emerge to be the one, to be the dragon slayer and be the one that emerges to take down Donald Trump if that is to be someone's fate inside this party.

And Iowa, while it may not produce a winner or a president, the track record isn't great on the Republican side for that. It may indeed shrink this field dramatically just six months from now, and somebody may emerge standing as the one that's going to go forward in a battle with Donald Trump.

BASH: And when it comes to DeSantis, Jessica was talking about him and where things stand for his campaign, Steve Contorno, our reporter on this campaign, has a story with the headline, "DeSantis campaign urges patience for breakout moment with eye toward first debate. DeSantis' political team expect his activity in the coming weeks may look subdued compared to other candidates who may need an attention- grabbing moment to attract donors and support to meet the debate requirements".

Meaning, he's on the right on the right --

HENDERSON: Yes.

BASH: -- on the right track, but --

HENDERSON: Yes, he's got plenty of donors. He's got plenty of money in the bank. What he doesn't have is a great track record in terms of poll numbers, right? He's down 30, 40 points to Donald Trump depending on the poll you look at.

It's not clear what his lane is. He's going to try to make a play in Iowa. He's got the six-week abortion ban in Florida. Maybe that will do him some good among evangelicals. But listen, Donald Trump is the favorite of evangelicals because of what he's done around the Supreme Court.

He doesn't really need to go to these cattle calls in Iowa with all of these other candidates who are sort of dwarfs compared to where he is. And listen, I think Ron DeSantis is telling people he's going to be great on the debate stage. We'll see about that. I mean, if you look at his past debate performances, not excellent. And he's going to run into somebody named Chris Christie on that debate stage, and we'll see what happens. BASH: Yes. Got to get this in because this really caught our attention. It's reporting from Politico about how Trump is considering doing even more off brand, maybe off the wall media hits for a politician. "Trump's campaign interest in Mike Tyson" -- Tyson is Mike -- "Tyson's podcast is part of a broader strategic outreach to nontraditional media outlets, specifically those affiliated with male audiences with an interest in contact and combat sports".

I mean -- I thought he was trying to -- I mean, you guys tell me, but he's got a lot of those audiences. Doesn't he need to get beyond that?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: He does. I mean, he's sort of singing to the choir, right? Preaching to the choir right here and trying to just reassert himself. But maybe there's a little bit of a fear, right, that as time goes on, maybe he starts to get some of those voters start to move away from him. And that is part of the strategy here.

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that Donald Trump likes to be well received and going on a podcast and getting feedback from people who make you feel good about yourself. That is what Donald Trump thrives in. That's the environment he likes.

BASH: I'm going to go with all the above.

CHALIAN: Yes. I mean, broadening his appeal inside the Republican nominating electorate, I don't think they see as a massive mandate for them inside the Trump campaign. I think that's more if he's the nominee, how does he broaden his appeal in a general election context?

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BASH: Yes, yes.

All right, everybody, thank you so much. Stand by because up next, she has been a critical part of President Biden's inner circle, dating back to his Senate days. Up next, someone her younger colleagues call a woman who helps women. She's leaving the White House. We'll talk about that after quick break.

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BASH: A staple of President Biden's senior White House team is leaving. I'm told by White House sources that White House Legislative Affairs Director Louisa Terrell will stepdown at the end of this month. Terrell has worked for President Biden since she graduated from law school and joined his staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee more than 20 years ago.

The President said in a statement provided to CNN that he wanted Terrell to be his top liaison with Congress because he has so much reverence for that institution and for her. Here's what he said. "When I was elected President, I knew that no one understood that better -- or would be a better partner to my decades-long friends and former colleagues -- than Louisa Terrell".

She's been central in shepherding President Biden's agenda through a narrowly divided Congress, from COVID relief to bipartisan infrastructure, judicial nominations. Here's what Terrell told me when she sat down with me for her first ever TV interview at the end of last year.

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LOUISA TERRELL, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS: There's about 200 bipartisan bills that we've moved through over the past two years. They may not be the things that capture a headline, but they're solving a problem. And to some set of members on the House and the Senate side, that is years of work.

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BASH: So my panel is back with me. You know, you probably see her walking around --

FOX: All the time.

BASH: -- the Hill all the time. You have these figures who you cover in politics over the years, and you get a sense of who really is beloved. And I couldn't stop my phone from ringing from top White House official saying, but I want to talk about her. But I want to talk about her.

Steve Ricchetti, who of course, is a very long time top Biden official said to me, "She was indispensable. She was at the center of everything that we did on legislative wins, nominations, confirmations, legislative strategy, every part of what we have done in two and a half years that involve Congress. She has been at the heart of".

She also really seems to be somebody who knew what it was like as a young mom.

FOX: Yes.

BASH: And having it all, having one job and then having a whole second job when she got home. And younger women who work there say that she really takes that into account.

FOX: Yes. And you just have to remember the pressure that a job like this entails and the pressure that it takes to get to a position like this. All the decisions you have to make, all the sacrifices you have to make. And it really does help when women see other women moving through every single step in both their personal lives and also in their professional lives.

And I think she really embodies that for not just people who work for her, but also for other women that she works with on Capitol Hill, because that is a growing number now, right? And that is something that's important because in these negotiations for a long time, you had men. BASH: Yes.

FOX: Only men in the room.

BASH: That's right.

FOX: And she's obviously a very different voice, has a different perspective.

BASH: And it is still a lot of men.

FOX: It is a lot of men.

BASH: Around Joe Biden in particular and she, you know, stands out as one of the senior women, of course, along with Anita Dunn. But it's also a reminder that there have been people around Joe Biden for a really long time.

HENDERSON: Oh, that's right. I mean, Joe Biden is somebody obviously been in politics a long time and has commanded, I think, a real loyalty among people who have seen him go from senator to vice president and now president. There'll, obviously, be some turnover as he seeks a second term. Maybe he gets a second term.

But listen, I think seeing women like this who are balancing motherhood and jobs as we all are --

BASH: Yes.

HENDERSON: -- at this table --

BASH: And fatherhood.

HENDERSON: -- and fatherhood, as hard as it is, it's always good, and we're always sort of looking for pointers about how to do it.

BASH: OK, so let's switch gears and talk about money. And that is the money that the Biden campaign says that it raised since the April campaign launch -- $72 million. It's not a bad haul. David Chalian, put it in context.

CHALIAN: Well, it's certainly not a bad haul, and we should just say, I don't think anybody in politics. I've spoken to a lot of folks about these numbers is concerned that Joe Biden is not going to be properly funded for his reelection campaign. That's not the concern here.

You look at that and you say, is this showing the level of enthusiasm and engagement at the outset out of the gate of the reelection that Democrats want to see? And there are some Democrats who are concerned that it doesn't.

The Biden campaign, I spoke with a Biden campaign source this morning, they are very proud of their cash on hand numbers. So that was how much is raised. They love to point to the fact that 77 million is in the bank, cash on hand, the most any Democrat ever at this point in a presidential election has had, because it shows that they're husbanding -- archaic term -- their resources, and not spending so much right now and they think that's a good sign.

I would just note, the combined Obama campaign and DNC Hall for the first quarter of the Obama reelect 12 years ago was 86 million, and it had lower donation thresholds than are allowed now as well. So this is not that the Biden folks will say, hey, it's not exactly the same time frame we got in a couple of weeks later.

[12:45:04]

I do think you hear from some Democrats concerns that this operation is not up and running and firing in all cylinders that they would like to see. The campaign says, wait your time. We're doing this strategically differently.

BASH: Yes, which speaks to that great Isaac Dovere report.

CHALIAN: Exactly.

BASH: You could still find on CNN.com.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BASH: Thank you so much for that discussion.

Coming up, on the record. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel makes no exception for Donald Trump as she doubles down on her party's loyalty pledge.

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RONNA MCDANIEL, RNC CHAIR: Everybody has to sign the Beat Biden pledge. Everybody.

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[12:50:16]

BASH: The Republican debate stage is starting to take shape, but the party's loyalty pledge is driving a wedge in the race for the 2024 GOP nomination. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel says the pledge is nonnegotiable and that it's a requirement for all the candidates, even the front runner, former President Donald Trump.

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CHRIS WALLACE, CNN HOST, WHO'S TALKING TO CHRIS WALLACE?: Are you standing firm on this? If you want to participate in the Republican presidential debates, you have to sign this loyalty pledge.

MCDANIEL: It's the Beat Biden pledge. And what we're saying, and the debate committee has met for over two years, people from Alaska to Illinois to Tennessee, is if you're going to stand on the Republican National Committee debate stage, you should be able to support the nominee and beat Biden.

WALLACE: Are you saying even Donald Trump? MCDANIEL: Everybody has to sign the Beat Biden pledge. Everybody. It's across the board. The rules aren't changing. We've been very vocal with them.

WALLACE: If the front runner, who at this point is far ahead of the rest of the field, decides to skip the debates, isn't that going to really cut into the credibility and then the importance of these debates?

MCDANIEL: I think these debates are critical. I hope he joins the debate stage. I think he'll be on the debate stage. I know his consultants, some of them are saying, just skip it. I think anytime we can get in front of the American people is good for our party and presidential candidates.

WALLACE: And what if he skips it?

MCDANIEL: Then he skips it. That's his choice.

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BASH: Chris Wallace is here with me. You really grilled McDaniel on that. That was really interesting. I've never heard her say that publicly, that her understanding is that Donald Trump, some of his consultants are urging him to skip the debate.

My understanding, and I'm sure it's yours, too, is that there is a conflict within the campaign of what Donald Trump should do. It's obviously going to be up to Donald Trump whether he wants it.

WALLACE: Yes, it'll be up to the former president. But she's very serious about this debate pledge. In fact, I even asked her about Chris Christie, who has kind of said, look, I'll sign the pledge, but I'll be as serious about it as Donald Trump was in 2016, meaning not serious at all.

And she said, we're going to take -- it's not just your name on the piece of paper, it's your intent. So if you're openly saying, yes, I'll sign the pledge, but I don't really mean it, she said, you won't be on the debate stage.

BASH: Do you remember this -- before 2016, I mean, this whole notion of a loyalty pledge became an issue because of Donald Trump. I remember I was in Trump Tower when Reince Priebus came up and said, you know, Donald Trump signed it, and he's going to promise to support every nominee. I mean, that didn't become an issue because he was a nominee. But have you ever seen this kind of thing pre-Trump?

WALLACE: No, because I think --

BASH: It hasn't necessary.

WALLACE: -- prior to this, there was always a feeling, well, whoever wins it will be acceptable. This time, it's not so much from Trump that you're seeing it because, among other things, he's ahead by 30 points. But it's all these other people like Will Hurd and Chris Christie, who are saying, I can't support him.

So a lot of this is because of Trump. They're not worried about Trump in terms of whether or not he would sign the pledge because he fully thinks he's going to be the nominee.

BASH: Exactly.

WALLACE: It's the other folks.

BASH: No, it's very true. And when you kind of look at -- excuse me -- the RNC chair and what she has to deal with, you've covered a lot of issues that deal with Republican Party dynamics. She's got a wide range of characters.

WALLACE: I want the tough job. I mean, this is the most -- he's the huge frontrunner, Donald Trump, and he's probably the most divisive frontrunner ever. One of the things we talked about a lot is 2020, because in a recent interview on Fox, former President Trump was asked, what do you say to that independent suburban voter who wasn't for you in 2020? His first answer was, I won in 2020.

BASH: That's right.

WALLACE: And he says, we can't be talking about 2020. We got to talk about conditions in '24.

BASH: Desperate to move on.

Chris, can't wait to see the show. Can't wait to see that interview. In fact, you can see it the full interview with RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.

Plus, I'm really excited for this one. Goldie Hawn, her career and her role as a mental health advocate. "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace" airs tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And Hollywood is halted right now. And for the foreseeable future, movie and TV actors join writers on the picket lines coast to coast. What the White House is saying about the ongoing negotiations.

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[12:59:18]

BASH: Right now, a union representing 160,000 Hollywood actors is on strike. It's the first time its members have stopped work on TV and movie production since 1980. They joined the 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America who've been on strike since May, and both the White House and Democratic lawmakers are voicing their support.

A White House spokeswoman tells CNN, "The President believes all workers, including actors, deserve fair pay and benefits. The President supports workers' rights to strike and hopes the parties can reach a mutually beneficial agreement".

Both Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Katie Porter say they stand with those striking. And Congressman Adam Schiff says he will be joining those on strike.

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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: So I'm going to be out there in the picket lines by your side. I'll be yelling through that bullhorn. I'll be supporting you until you get the deal that you have earned with good pay and good working conditions.

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BASH: Join Jake Tapper on Sunday on State of the Union. He's going to talk to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Democratic Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, plus, former New Jersey governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie. Be sure to tune in.

And thank you so much for watching Inside Politics today. CNN News Central starts right now.