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Inside Politics

Trump Giving Economic Speech In New York; Judge Doesn't Set Trump Trial Date, Says It Would Be An "Exercise In Futility" Because Of Likely Pre-Trial Appeals. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 05, 2024 - 12:30   ET

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

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, I think what he alluding to is the fact that, of course, the economy was adding jobs when Biden came into office in 2021 because the COVID crisis was beginning to fade and eventually the pandemic ended. And so as the economy reopened, of course, jobs were going to be rapidly increasing.

But, again, you know, Trump's critics would argue that the economy wouldn't have lost as many jobs if the COVID crisis, the health crisis itself had been better managed in the first place. So I think that's an important context on trade. So we do expect Trump to reaffirm his plans to impose sweeping tariffs.

He's called for 10 percent to 20 percent tariffs on all $3 trillion of U.S. imports, 60 percent tariffs on China. I've got to tell you, I've been talking to economists for years about policy ideas, and I'm not sure I've ever heard as much across the board concern about a policy idea as I've heard about the Trump tariffs.

That's not to say that he isn't trying to address legitimate concerns, right? We hear from Republicans, we hear from Democrats, we hear from CEOs and others that China is not playing fair on trade and that something has to be done.

But the question is whether or not this fix would actually do more harm than good because a lot of the mainstream economists I talk to, they warn that massive tariffs like this, they would kill jobs. It would actually make inflation worse. It could cause a global trade war.

I talked to J.P. Morgan's David Kelly, and he told me that this is one of those magical economic proposals that can actually cause inflation and put you into a recession at the same time, right? So to be clear, you don't want either of those things to happen. And the fear is that both of them could happen.

I talked to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former McCain and George H. W. Bush adviser, and he told me that this tariff plan is just terrible economic policy. And there's some research out there from the Peterson Institute that warns that everyday Americans are going to pay the price that the typical middle income would have to pay 2,600 more a year because of the Trump tariffs.

And notably, Dana, this does not even factor in the almost definite retaliation we'd have as other countries respond to those Trump tariffs. So there's a lot to break down and to understand about what the real world implications are from some of these policy proposals.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: That was so helpful that you did that. I know it's just skimming the surface because it's so complex and so deep when it comes to the economic questions that this poses politically speaking. When you say I'm going to stop China from taking advantage of American business, that sounds pretty good to a lot of voters, which is completely understandable.

Matt, thank you so much. Don't go anywhere because we are still monitoring Donald Trump's economic speech in New York. And it is also a big day for Trump in court. His lawyers are trying to convince a federal judge to delay his election subversion trial for as long as possible. Is the judge buying their arguments? We'll discuss next.

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[12:37:53]

BASH: Welcome back. I want to go back to New York. President Trump, the former president, candidate to be president again, is now talking about the plans for his economic policies if he were to win again. Let's listen in for a couple minutes.

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's massive. For the same service that you have right now, trillions of dollars is wasted and gone and nobody knows where it went. Further taming inflation and bringing prices way down. The fifth pillar of my plan is to make the Trump tax cuts permanent. They are massive tax cuts, biggest ever, permanent and to cut taxes even more.

And we will have no tax on tips, something which they copied four weeks after I said it. She got up and said, no tax on tips. I said I just said that. She is actually copying a lot of my plan. In fact, we're going to send her a maggot (ph) sometime in the next week. We're having a special one day.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: But we also know she doesn't mean it. She's going to stick with what her whole life has been about. And also, no tax on Social Security benefits. People on Social Security have been wiped out by inflation and now on top of it, we tax their benefits. We're not going to tax their benefits. We have so many different ways of making so much money in this country.

The potential is so incredible. We don't have to take it away from people on social security. We're not going to do that. We're going to save Social Security. She's going to destroy Social Security. Under the Trump administration, we proved that targeted tax cuts do not increase the deficit.

They reduce the deficit by growing the economy and raising revenue. After we gave the massive tax cuts, we took in the following year with a much lower rate, billions and billions of dollars more than we did the previous year with a high rate. Think of that. So with a much lower rate, we took in more money because people were incentivized. Corporate tax revenues are 31 percent higher today than before my tax law was signed. With all of those cuts, 31 percent higher.

[12:40:05]

To further support the revival of American manufacturing, my plan calls for expanded R&D tax credits, 100 percent bonus depreciation, expensing for new manufacturing investments, and a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent solely for companies that make their product in America,

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: You have to make your product in America. If you outsource, offshore, or replace American workers, you are not eligible for any of these benefits. In fact, you will pay a very substantial tariff when a product comes in from another country, that's made in another country and comes in. There'll be a big tariff on that product because we want to make our goods in America, and most of them we can.

My message is simple, make your product here in America. And only in America, we are not going to be taken advantage of anymore just as we made great inroads and progress four years ago. We made tremendous inroads on this subject.

We're not going to watch our wealth and jobs get ripped away from us and sent to foreign countries, which is what's been happening for many, many decades with us. China was built on doing exactly what we're going to be doing and what I started doing four years ago.

What we're putting forward is the most pro-American manufacturing and jobs policy in modern history for any country. This plan will bring jobs and growth into our country at levels never seen before. Every business on earth will flock to America from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and all over the world.

By contrast, comrade Kamala Harris wants to sacrifice our wealth, kill the economy, and drive jobs overseas to punish businesses more. Businesses will leave. They'll leave America. They're international companies.

They report to their shareholders. And they will leave America if her plan, even in a small form, comes to the fore. Her tax plan, which includes the promise to end the Trump tax cuts, which again, by itself, would be a massive tax increase, would increase taxes by over $5 trillion, a record many times over.

It would result in the largest small business tax hike in history, massively raising taxes on 25 million small business people and raising small business tax rates to 43 percent and higher. In other words, 20 percent higher than communist China. Kamala is also vowing to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. We're bringing it down to 15 percent.

But she really is looking to raise it to 40 percent, 45 percent, or even 50 percent. You know that. All you have to do is follow her past path. Radically raise the capital gains tax rate, which she wants to do, and they don't even want to give a number. And for the first time ever imposed a 25 percent tax on unrealized capital gains.

So, if you happen to have a lot of wealth, but no cash, you're a lot of trouble. This will lead America into a 1929 depression. And it will be a depression and a territory that we have not seen for a long time. There's a gentleman that happens to believe that, Scott.

These policies, especially the tax on unrealized capital gains would decimate the U.S. economy, companies, and innovation would flee from America to other countries. Venture capital markets would disappear, the stock market would be annihilated, and investors assess the tax liabilities of large --

BASH: In his speech, actually talking about some of the plans that his campaign previewed at the beginning of the day.

Our panel is back. Alayna, you were part of the reporting team that talked before he did about what his new policy proposals are. We heard a little bit of it making the tax cuts permanent, which is a very, very big part of his economic plan. Talk about a couple of the other things that his campaign really wants to hit home, particularly with those persuadable voters.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. Well, one thing that he did say, and he did get to it actually was that he wants to lower the corporate rate. We know that he was going to do this, but this is the first time we said that he wanted it to be 15 percent for companies that make a product in the U.S. which is notable. It's lower than what he had done when he was in office.

[12:45:10]

One thing that we know that he's expected to say if he hasn't already touched on it is he wants to create a commission for government efficiency. This is actually something that Elon Musk had first suggested to him in that conversation they had on X a couple weeks ago, and he said, I would love to be a part of this. I would love to run it.

Donald Trump had said, I love it. Well, you know what? He loves it so much that he's announcing he wants to make it and that he wants Musk to be a part of that team. His campaign is saying that they are in talks with Musk about this.

It's very unclear who is going to run it at this point, but that's something, you know, really looking at lowering government spending to see if there's any waste of that sort of thing. Some other things we talked about already, tariffs, a huge deal. I'll let Matt Egan handle that. I know we heard him talk about it. He's much more informed on some of the policy and the weed stuff on that than I am.

Some other things, he actually mentioned that he wants to have gas go below --

BASH: Yes. TREENE: -- $2 per gallon. I think there's some questions of whether --

BASH: So do I?

TREENE: Yes, I think everyone would love that. I mean, look, of course so much of these, Dana, is that these are all things that he -- he's, saying things that he knows a lot of people want to hear --

BASH: Of course.

TREENE: -- and things that aren't going to worry economists. That's --

BASH: Which is --

TREENE: -- really the goal of this week.

BASH: Which is one of the few areas where he is a regular politician --

TREENE: Exactly.

BASH: -- telling people what they want to hear, particularly on the economy, which, David Chalian is, as we've said so many times, it is the driving factor. Nothing else really comes close. In the poll that you released yesterday --

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: In terms of issues, yes.

BASH: In terms of issues, particularly among those who are still open to either candidate.

CHALIAN: Yes, which we saw across the battleground states. It's sort of average of 15 percent of voters say they're movable in this. I think the portions that we just heard there about the tariffs and about committing to extending his tax cuts and actually going further in his taxes, those are precisely the things that I think the Harris campaign are going to seize on in this speech.

Not only because it gets to your question earlier of like, how are you going to pay for that, but those 2017 tax cuts have not proven broadly popular --

BASH: No.

CHALIAN: -- with American people.

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, no, and I also think that the Vice President is consistently trying to tie the former president to only caring about the ultra-rich, only caring about corporations and making sure that they are benefiting from the tax credit -- our tax credits, our tax proposals, not necessarily the middle classes.

She has really tried to wrap her arms around and make herself the new candidate of the middle class, something that we have formerly associated with President Biden. And so that this speech actually really weighs heavily into that plan.

I think also one thing that we heard or didn't hear from the portions that we were listening to was how he would pay for some of these things. I think that's something that the Vice President has outlined that she would pay for even her smaller policy proposals. She would pay by taxing the ultra-rich, by taxing corporations, even though she broke away from Biden on investment gains.

BASH: Yes.

WRIGHT: That's something that we didn't necessarily hear from the --

BASH: And it's so important.

WRIGHT: -- former president who -- which the Harris campaign will again, try to jump on.

BASH: Yes, this is so important.

Thank you all rock and roll today.

Up next, we are going to talk about this really important hearing at this morning in federal court having to do with those charges against Donald Trump for allegedly trying to overturn the election the last time he ran. Don't go anywhere.

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[12:53:03]

BASH: "This court is not concerned with the electoral schedule." That is a quote from Judge Tanya Chutkan today, two months before the presidential election, during a key hearing in Donald Trump's federal election interference case.

CNN's Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid is at the courthouse. Paula?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So Dana, this was the first hearing in this case since the Supreme Court issued its opinion back in July, limiting what prosecutors can charge former President Trump with and what evidence that they can use.

And this was actually an unexpectedly pretty contentious hearing, particularly the exchanges between the judge and defense counsel. Judge Tanya Chutkan outright rejecting a suggestion from defense attorneys to just toss the indictment against their client. It's clear that is not going to happen.

The judge also made it clear she is not taking into consideration the election. The timing of that election, she has said over the last year, has no bearing on the decisions that she makes in this case. Now, the one area of agreement across all the parties was the fact that they need to resolve this question of immunity and how it applies to this case before they can move on to other issues. So the judge needs to take the Supreme Court's decision, apply it to this case before they can litigate other issues. The defense signaled they're going to try to challenge the legitimacy of the special counsel, something the judge made it clear is unlikely to be successful in her courtroom. They're also likely going to litigate questions about obstruction of justice related to January 6th in the wake of another Supreme Court decision related to that question.

And there's also discovery questions to be resolved. So this is going to take a long time, Dana, and that's why the one thing we did not get today was a trial date. There's just too much work to be done before the judge can really talk about when a trial would happen.

So right now, we are watching and we are waiting for the judge to release her scheduling order, and that will reveal to us how this case will proceed. I was told before this hearing that the number one goal for the Trump team today was to just try to delay anything substantial until after the November election.

[12:55:07]

BASH: Which doesn't seem to have been a successful goal or a goal reached yet. But as you said, very important we haven't heard exactly what the judge will decide.

Appreciate that, Paula. Thank you for that reporting.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. And if you haven't yet exhausted your political appetite for the day, I have one more story to share with you. Actually, lots of stories. Not current events. It is a really important time in history. It's my new book, "America's Deadliest Election." It is out now. You can find it wherever you buy your books.

CNN News Central starts after the break.

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