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Inside Politics

Biden Holds First Cabinet Meeting In Nearly A Year; Today: Harris In Georgia To Talk About Abortion Rights; New Trump Ad: "Kamala Is For They/Them, President Trump Is For You"; Lt. Gov. Robinson Calls Report Of Disturbing Posts "Tabloid Lies"; Harris Campaign Seizes On Trump's Ties To Robinson; Trump Called Robinson "Better Than Martin Luther King"; Republicans Fear Robinson Scandal Could Cost Trump The State. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired September 20, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Good Afternoon. Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm Kasie Hunt in for Dana Bash. We actually have breaking news. At this hour, President Biden is holding the first cabinet meeting of the year, and he has been taking some questions from reporters.

I want to get straight to our senior White House reporter -- CNN's senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak with some details. And Kevin, we are waiting to get the feed of what President Biden has had to say. So, forgive me if I have to interrupt you, but tell us what you've heard so far.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And we did hear that he took some questions about the situation in the Middle East, so we will see exactly what he had to say. But he is convening this cabinet meeting for the first time in almost a year, and it is striking just how different his circumstances are from a year ago.

Of course, he's no longer a candidate for president, and his message in this meeting to his top officials is that he wants them to sprint to the finish line, essentially, that the race isn't over on his presidency. And certainly, the Middle East is part of that. He has been trying to negotiate a ceasefire deal that would include --

HUNT: -- United States, here's President Biden.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The need for Congress to pass a continued resolution is critical. We have 10 days for Congress to pass a short-term funding bill. That gives them more time to deliver on our national defense, veterans, hardworking families.

But we've already appropriated how it's important we get it done and its only path forward as by working across the aisle. We've got to have faith in our leaders to pull this together. It's really important (inaudible) and to fund the government.

And so, this cabinet meeting comes at a time when four months left in the administration and we're going to keep running through the tape because the vice president and I determined to keep making sure that the democracy delivers what the American people are asking for, and what we provided. And we need continuing to implement the historic laws we passed. They've allowed us to invest in America, rebuild our infrastructure and implement our historic laws.

So, we're grateful and Jill is here today. Heard that clapping. It wasn't for me. And here across previous administration, the First Ladies have attended these meetings for specific reasons. It's the first time Jill has joined us, and goes to show how important this year is, which he's about to speak to the both of us.

Today at the top of our meeting, Jill is going to give an update on the House initiative -- White House initiative. We fundamentally change the approach and fund -- how we approach with fund women's health services.

So, I'd like to turn it over to Jill and for any comments she has. It's all yours.

JILL BIDEN, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. You know, sometimes the White House surprises you. When Joe became president, I knew I wanted to keep shining a light on the issues that I've worked on for so many years and supporting military and veteran families, ending cancer as we know it, with the Biden Cancer Moonshot, lifting up educators and promoting free community college as a pathway to good paying careers.

But then last year --

HUNT: All right, we have been listening to the spray at the top of the cabinet meeting, the first cabinet meeting of the year that President Biden is holding. You saw his wife, the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden also attended here to talk about women's health.

But I want to bring back in our Kevin Liptak, who is at the White House. Because the president also took a question about the situation that's been ongoing in the Middle East. Kevin, what did the president say? What did we learn?

LIPTAK: Yeah. Essentially, he said that he would not give up on trying to broker a cease fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, despite the escalating tensions in the region, despite the ongoing situation in Lebanon, which of course, the president and his national security team have been watching very, very closely. And saying, essentially that at this point, it is not unrealistic to think that a ceasefire deal could be reached before he leaves office.

Of course, when you talk to American officials behind the scene, they do say that that is becoming an increasingly dim prospect. They say that they are growing weary of the fact that Hamas doesn't seem to be agreeing to any kind of deal, doesn't seem to be interested in trying to reach a cease fire.

They also have questions about how serious the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is towards reaching this agreement that would end the war in Gaza. But when you heard the president speak here, he essentially said that he is not giving up. And I don't think that's necessarily an unexpected sentiment from the president.

This is something, now that he is no longer running for reelection, that he has been focused on almost exclusively. He has been on the phone with leaders from Egypt and Qatar. Those are the mediators with Hamas. He has been trying to negotiate this deal, and certainly, he doesn't appear as if he's going to give up, despite what seem to be growing dim prospects.

[12:05:00]

HUNT: All right, Kevin Liptak, for us at the White House. Kevin, thank you so much for that reporting. We're going to turn now to another big political story. Kamala Harris is on her way to Atlanta for a speech focused on abortion rights. Her trip comes on the heels of a frightening report about two pregnant women in Georgia whose deaths are linked to the state's abortion ban.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is reporting that as soon as Harris saw that story, she told her team to set up the trip. And Priscilla joins us now from Atlanta. Priscilla, what more do you know at this hour?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a trip that is a callback to what the vice president had been doing over the course of the last year, which is quickly deploying to cities and states where there was issues of consequence or news of day. Remember, she went to Tennessee, she went to Florida, and earlier this year, she went to Arizona, where she also had remarks on abortion and coined the term Trump abortion bans.

And so, the vice president doing much of the same today. Telling her team this week that she wanted to be here a detour to her trip to Wisconsin later today to keep this issue front of mind for voters. The issue, of course, being reproductive rights.

And it comes on the heels of that report that you just mentioned, which details the devastating stories of two women. One of whom died from a treatable infection due to delays in medical care, stemming from that Georgia abortion restriction.

Now the family of that woman was at the event that the vice president was at yesterday with Oprah, and it led to one of the more powerful exchanges of that event. Take a listen?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANETTE THURMAN, MOTHER OF AMBER THURMAN: Amber was not a statistic. She was loved by a family, a strong family. And we would have done whatever to get my baby, our baby, the help that she needed.

CJ THURMAN, SISTER OF AMBER THURMAN: We had no idea. We trusted them to take care of her, you know, and they just let her die because of some stupid abortion ban.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm just so sorry. This story is a story that is, sadly, not the only story of what has been happening since these bans have taken place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: It's a really difficult story indeed. Priscilla Alvarez, for us this morning -- this afternoon. Excuse me, Priscilla. Thank you very much. And I'm joined here at the table by some fantastic reporters, Bloomberg and CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson, CNN's Phil Mattingly and CNN's Alayna Treene. Welcome to all of you.

Alayna, you covered the Trump campaign day in and day out, and you did see this emotional moment. This is going to be the first presidential election we've had since the Dobbs decision, since Roe fell. Obviously, you are seeing how Democrats are leaning into it. What is the view from the Trump campaign about how to deal with these just incredibly devastating stories.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: I mean, look, there's no question that any rhetoric around abortion has been a huge struggle for the Trump campaign. They have really been trying to figure out how to best message on this.

We know that so far, they've really tried to just lean in to Donald Trump's decision, or even non decision, to say that this is -- that he wants to leave abortion up to the states. But they have repeatedly now been presented with these personal stories of people who are really struggling and being affected by this.

And look, when I talk to Trump's campaign advisers, they recognize how difficult of an issue this is. You hear Donald Trump often when he goes to these different events, and he actually talks about abortion, which is not frequently. But when he does, he says, you know, this is an issue that is tough.

He says he believes in exceptions for some of these cases, like complications, the life of the mother, rape, incest, et cetera. But a lot of people still blame him for what is happening and for these things. You're going to hear Harris today as Priscilla laid out, blame Donald Trump for the death of these two Georgia mothers.

And so, it continues to be an issue that I really don't think they know how to handle and how to talk about without just going back to what Trump always says, which is this needs to go to the states, and also that you need to win elections, which is something he also says almost every time he talk about --

HUNT: Right, which actually kind of shows how he is not necessarily of the movement that led to the fall of Roe. And Phil, this was how the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, who is a very popular governor who outperformed, you know, Donald Trump in the state of Georgia, is more of a classic Republican conservative.

He tweeted this. Democrats and their allies in the left-wing media continue to spread falsehoods and misinformation about Georgia's life act. Read the facts here. He linked to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece. We should note, abortion are banned after six weeks in Georgia, which is often before many women know that they're pregnant. But this is as Alayna was talking about a very difficult thing for Republicans to deal with.

[12:10:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Right. And the frame of this story being that there was so much confusion and concern about what the law meant or what doctors could do, and that's what led to these two deaths. The specifics of that law itself has been kind of disputed by some conservatives here, and I think that's what the governor was talking about. But the overarching message slots very well into what you've seen from Democrats over the course of the last several months.

Just take the last month. I think Democrats, the Harris campaign, aligned group, spent $289 million on air. Over the course of the last month, $84 million of that mentioned abortion. They know this is a winning issue. And if you need an example of it, you look at the debate where it was by far the strongest moment for the vice president. And that's not just an opinion.

I was watching a focus group of voters who had not decided how they were going to vote. It was not a Democratic group or a Democratic leaning group by any means that in their minds, almost universally, was the strongest moment for her. It resonates. It connects. And the campaign really trying to elevate.

HUNT: Yeah. It was really -- I mean, it was really interesting. You did a wonderful job. With that, it was fascinating to watch those voters. And Nia-Malika, to Phil's point, 35 percent of Democratic ad spending since July 22 has been on abortion. Now for the Republicans, it's 63 percent on immigration. But that tells you where they -- where they feel like they stand.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, that's right. I mean, you know, if you're Donald Trump, you essentially want to say to American women that they shouldn't care about the one-third of American women who live in these states with fairly extreme abortion bans. And in the Harris campaign, she is bringing the stories of these women to light.

It was not only powerful in the debate, it's also powerful at the Democratic National Convention. It was powerful last night with the story of Amber Thurman's family. You know, they let her die. I mean, that was her sister's words about this 28-year-old woman who died. Her last words to her mother were, please take care of my son.

And so, you know, if you're -- if you're Donald Trump, you sort of want to make it seem like it was just this legislative sort of clerical move, and it's all good. I think in the debate, he said something like, this is what people wanted. And the refrain, of course, from Kamala Harris was no, this was not what people wanted. This is not what Amber Thurman's parents wanted.

HUNT: So, this is a different way of looking at the culture war. But another thing that's new out today is this ad from the Trump campaign, Alayna, and I'm hoping you can help shed some light. We don't yet know how much money is behind this ad or the extent of where it's airing, but let's watch. It's about Kamala Harris's record around transgender prisoners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Surgery --

HUNT: Or prisoners?

HARRIS: For prisoners, every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access. Every transgender inmate would have access.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Alayna, again, we don't know where this is -- how much money they're putting behind this message, but they did cut this ad. What are they doing?

TREENE: They did. I mean, Donald Trump has been -- he said it on the debate stage. He's been talking about this in events, really trying to zero in on this issue. Look, this is all falling into what Donald Trump is trying to instill in the minds of his voters, which is, she is -- you know, and the Democratic Party as a whole are trying and in support of these transgender surgeries.

You know, they referenced as well in a lot of their opposition research on this, how Kamala Harris and we had reported this. Filled out a questionnaire several years ago saying, that she would approve some of these surgeries in jails. But at the same time, it's way out of context.

And the goal from the Trump campaign on this is to try and really put fears in the minds of voters. A lot of people who are worried about, you know, whether minors are getting transgender surgeries, whether this is something that would continue if a Democrat were to take over office. It's all about really trying to go back to scaring them.

I think it's a lot of the tactics we saw on in 2016 and 2020. You hear Donald Trump on the trail often say, will take men out of women's sports. He tries to refer to the Tim Walz saying, he's tampon Tim about putting tampons in men's bathrooms.

This is all the rhetoric that they want Americans to be focusing on, and it really is part of the cultural wars that we continue to see, not just Donald Trump, but many other Republicans really try to heighten and emphasize in this election.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next year, a swing state scandal with details too explicit for TV. Could Trump's choice for North Carolina governor ultimately cost him in a key battleground? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: A striking political scandal, involving a Trump protege is unfolding in the key battleground state of North Carolina. Tomorrow, Donald Trump is set to campaign there, while the embattled Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson vows to weather a porn site controversy and stay in his race. CNN's national correspondent Dianne Gallagher joins us now with the latest from Charlotte, North Carolina. Dianne, good to see you. What is the latest?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kasie, the deadline for him to withdraw from the race was midnight. The absentee ballots have already now gone out to the military and overseas voters of North Carolina. So, Mark Robinson is the Republican candidate for governor, and will continue to be. That shipper trying to get him to drop out has sailed.

[12:20:00]

Now, Robinson categorically denies that he made these posts. He called it salacious, tabloid trash. And at least publicly, the state party is sticking with him. The NC GOP issuing a statement last night that said in part, the left is trying to demonize him via personal attacks.

I will tell you privately, though many Republicans have been reaching out to me since yesterday morning, before the story even published, concerned about the down ballot effect of this type of scandal.

After a KFile investigation found that Robinson between 2008 and 2012 posted on a pornographic site's message board, dozens of these salacious pornographic sites, these inflammatory posts referring to himself as a black Nazi, expressing support for reinstating slavery, among other gratuitous and lewd comments, there's anti Muslim, antisemitic, homophobic slurs as well as graphic sexual descriptions and claims.

Now, CNN didn't even publish all of the graphic nature of these things. Robinson again denies it's him, but KFiles says, it used multiple investigative tools, including web archives. The posts were made under a username that CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching with a litany of biographical details and shared email addresses across multiple platforms.

Robinson listed his full name on the profile, as well as the email address that he used again numerous sites online for decades. Like, this is no me, by no means the first report associated with Robinson. But I will tell you that the concern again also goes to the up ballot, looking at how close this state is between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.

This was Trump's slimmest victory in 2020. The only state on the battleground map for this year that he won back then. They are concerned about the down ballot races as well, of course, Kasie, but they are wondering what this will mean for not just Robinson and North Carolina, but if this will affect him in a state that is virtually tied between Harris and Trump right now.

HUNT: All right, Dianne Gallagher, on the ground for us. Dianne, thank you very much. Our panel returns and speaking of up ballot. Alayna Treene, and you have exclusively obtained this new ad that the Harris campaign obviously cut rather quickly, and we're going to show it to everybody for the first time. Let's watch. We'll talk about it.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

HUNT: This is a bit of a continuation of conversation we were having before the break. But clearly the Harris campaign sees a massive opportunity here.

TREENE: Absolutely. And I think there's no question they were going to do some sort of advertising campaign, trying to tie Donald Trump to Mark Robinson. Now, what I found interesting about this is that they actually focused on Robinson's antiabortion rhetoric. And as you saw him having said in his own words, that he would support a statewide ban on abortions with no exceptions, and then obviously, interspersing that with Donald Trump's past praise of Robinson.

Look, part of what I was told about this advertising campaign is the reason they're focusing on antiabortion is because Harris is heading to Georgia today, as we discussed, to talk about Donald Trump's role in the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, but also the death of those Georgia women. They're using this issue in particular, of course, because they see it as one of their best issues against Trump ahead of the election.

But I do want to just turn briefly to what I'm hearing from the Trump side about all of this Robinson drama. Because, I mean, first of all, it's remarkable timing that Donald Trump is actually going to be in North Carolina tomorrow. And remember, all of his recent events in North Carolina, he has had Robinson there.

The Trump campaign has said, even before the CNN story dropped, they had not invited Robinson to this event tomorrow, and he's -- obviously that decision is going to hold. You can read between the lines there. Part of that is, I'm told that some people in Trump's inner orbit had been given a heads up and had been like -- had learned that a controversial story on him was dropping.

HUNT: Oh, I got calls yesterday from sources saying to CNN --

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: When this story is out, of course, only -- I mean, Andrew was in charge. Great work by the KFile. I mean, Phil Mattingly, you've been at rallies with Trump where Robinson was in attendance. It's interesting -- this ad that the Harris campaign is putting out. These are some of his older comments. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it's the sexual nature of the allegations, the porn site, all of this that really has North Carolina politicos thinking he is truly sunk.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. And I think the context here is important, which was, he wasn't in great shape before this moment. He was being outspent three to one. He was -- the funniest thing and we all got the calls yesterday, as if I somehow have reporting on what KFile is working on.

[12:25:00] And a lot of what I heard was what possibly can be worse than what he's already said. He was already an unvetted candidate. He was already a candidate that national Republicans knew was problematic and were hoping wouldn't drag down to the Trump.

HENDERSON: But he was putting him on the stage --

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: And I think this is an important point, that is a personal relationship between the two of them. You could talk to people on the land knows this better than me. But you could talk to people around Trump who are kind of smart politicos who were concerned about this and have been for a long period of time. And just wanted to keep them, all right, fine, if you want to hang out at a rally, that's great.

At the Astro rally that I was at last month, he wasn't given a speaking role. Trump called him up on stage and called him a very good man, but it seemed like they were trying to separate them a little bit. The reality is, he's on the ticket, as Dianne was just reporting.

And Trump has said what he said about him, and you're going to see it repeatedly, threading it together, though, with abortion, because North Carolina is such a critical state and really the only flip opportunity. It's going to be really interesting to see if they can actually pull it off.

HUNT: Right. Well, Nia-Malika, of course, this is really the big picture conversation, right? How is this going to affect the presidential race? So, I spoke this morning with Congressman Jeff Jackson. He's really interesting, particularly because he is running for attorney general. So, he is sharing a statewide ballot with Mark Robinson. Here was his kind of evaluation of how this might affect both down and up ballot races. Watch?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JEFF JACKSON (D-NC): Normally someone running for governor, even if they turned out to underperform, wouldn't be someone who would impact the rest of the ticket, but this isn't normal. We're seeing an implosion by this candidate, the likes of which we've never seen in North Carolina, frankly.

And given that most of the statewide races are basically 50-50 races. My race is a 50-50 race. We have a dozen statewide races in North Carolina. If he affects it by half a percent, which he certainly could, he could swing a whole bunch of elections, including the presidential election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENDERSON: Yeah, listen. That's certainly what the Kamala Harris team is hoping. Their internals have her up by three in that state. Donald Trump's internals also have him up by three in that state. It isn't hard to try to tie Donald Trump to Mark Robinson. This is his handpicked candidate for this race. He has some weird obsession with him. He is drawn to him. He has called him Martin Luther King on steroids. I guess it's because they're both African American. Maybe I don't know what the other tie is. But, you know, I mean, this will be a race that could determine the presidency 16 electoral votes. We'll see what happens. It's going to be a barn burner.

HUNT: Well, bottom line is, without North Carolina, it is very hard for Trump.

TREENE: I will say too. The Trump campaign declined to weigh in on the specifics of this KFile investigation. However, they did send me a statement from Trump campaign spokesperson Caroline, leave it. In light of the CNN reporting, where she said, we recognize how vital North Carolina is to Donald Trump's strategy. And that's, I think, the bottom line here. The stakes, maybe they weren't as high for Robinson because he wasn't doing so well in that race already, but they are very high for Donald Trump.

HUNT: Very, very high. All right. Coming up, next here. Election officials in Georgia are meeting right now about new rules that could impact how and when those crucial swing state votes are counted. We're going to have the details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)