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Inside Politics

Trump & Harris Fight For Final Votes With Just 2 Days Left; Kamala Harris Makes Appearance On SNL; New Poll: Harris Holds Slight Iowa Lead, With Margin Of Error. Interview with Speaker of the House Re. Mike Johnson (R-LA); When will we Get Election Results?; Bill Clinton: It Would be "Travesty" if Trump's President Again. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired November 03, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:09]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): Final hours.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You need to get out and vote.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you ready to make your voices heard?

RAJU: A frantic finish to an historic campaign.

TRUMP: She'll get overwhelmed, melt down and millions of people will die.

HARRIS: He is someone who is increasingly unstable. He's out for unchecked power.

RAJU: CNN's political director breaks down their potential paths after surprising new polling and Harris stops by "SNL".

MAYA RUDOLPH & HARRIS: And live from New York, it's Saturday night!

RAJU: Plus, house of cards.

We're on the trail with Speaker Johnson.

So if Harris wins, you'd accept the results?

And exclusive, a rare one on one with former President Clinton as he barnstorms the country.

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE) RAJU (on camera): Good morning and welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY.

I'm Manu Raju.

By this time next week, we may know who the next president of the United States is and the next party that will control the House and the Senate, or we may not. More than 71 million Americans have already cast their votes. But in this historically close election, where nearly every poll finds no clear leader, it still could take days if not weeks just to sort out the final results.

And we could see a flurry of lawsuits that bring the courts into play, all as officials braced for unrest, potentially in the U.S.

Now, as we head into this history-making week, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are still barnstorming the pivotal swing states for their final few days of campaigning. And Harris even dropped by New York to appear in the cold open of "Saturday Night Live" last night, where she took a not so subtle swipe at Trump trying to get into a garbage truck earlier in the week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDOLPH: God, I just I wish I could talk to someone who's been in my shoes, you know, a Black South Asian woman running for president, preferably from the Bay Area.

(CHEERING)

HARRIS: It is nice to see you, Kamala. And I'm just here to remind you, you got this because you can do something your opponent cannot do. You can open doors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, in the last few days, the two have been often crisscrossing the exact same states and almost the exact same time as they were in North Carolina yesterday, delivering starkly different messages.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: This is someone who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and the man is out for unchecked power.

TRUMP: She's the worst vice president in history and she broke it. She just broke the whole damn thing. But I will fix it, and I'll fix it fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, at this consequential moment, who's better to have than CNN's political director, David Chalian, who's here with me to dive into each candidate's ideal path to victory.

David, good morning. DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning.

RAJU: So what -- we talk about Vice President Harris first. What is her best path to victory right now as we look at the polls and where she stands?

CHALIAN: I'm going to show you that. But you said, look at the polls. So I just want to show you what you said at the top here about a margin of error race. This is our poll of polls across six of the seven battleground states.

There isn't enough reliable Nevada polling to put an average together right now in the public data. But in the six other states, look at this. No clear leader in any of them. It's just razor thin across the entire battleground.

So you ask about Kamala Harris's most direct path. Her campaign will tell you time and again, they think they have several viable paths, 70 but they think their best path, their most direct path is through the blue wall. And you see here look all the blue states that are shaded in blue get her to 226 right now. The red states 219 for Trump. Seven yellow toss up battleground states.

If Harris were to win Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, she'd be at 270 electoral votes. She'd be the next president of the United States.

But what -- what if what if Donald Trump does win Pennsylvania? She goes down to 251. Where does she go down here to try and find that? So what if North Carolina does actually flip blue this time around? You were just playing some sound. They were both in North Carolina yesterday. Donald Trump keeps going there.

That gets her to 267, Manu. So now she's just knocking on the door and if she were able to repeat Democratic victories in Nevada in recent presidential elections, that would do it without repeating Biden's victories in Arizona and Georgia.

RAJU: And there have been some concerns for her in Arizona in particular. But what about Trump? What is Trumps path to victory here?

CHALIAN: Let's reset the map here. And again seven yellow toss up battleground states his most direct path, first and foremost, North Carolina is the only state of the seven. He actually won in 2020. He needs to hold on to that victory, okay?

[08:05:04]

Now, we know he famously lost Georgia by just fewer than 12,000 votes. So if he were able to flip Georgia back to red and able to win Pennsylvania, that would do it for him. 270 electoral votes and he would be the next president of the United States.

But what if -- what if Kamala Harris does win Pennsylvania? Where does Donald Trump go in the remaining states to make up the difference, to get to 19? If he were to win both states out west, let's say in Nevada and in Arizona where he has a little bit of an edge, he's still vote shy?

So if she were to block him in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump would most likely still need to win one of the other blue wall states, let's say Michigan, to get over the threshold and become president -- Manu.

RAJU: All right. David Chalian, thank you. You're going to be joining me back here on set, and the rest of my great panel to talk with this morning, as well.

Jim VandeHei of "Axios", "USA Today's" Susan Page, and Laura Barron- Lopez of PBS NewsHour.

Good morning to you guys. Thank you for being here.

Two days, can you believe it? Two days.

So, as David was just showing you there, I mean, this is every single race, seven states so tight, no clear leader in any of these states. In the final hours here, what are you looking at most closely? And is there a campaign you'd rather be sitting in right now heading into Election Day?

JIM VANDEHEI, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, AXIOS: Listen, I felt the same way two years ago, two months ago, two hours ago. And I feel the same way in two days. Nobody has a clue.

Anybody who says they know who's going to win is full of it, or is on drugs, right? It is.

RAJU: Or maybe both.

VANDEHEI: And it's been 50/50. And you look at the polls that you guys show that David had up there. It has been within the margin of error in those seven states, literally for two years. Almost nothing has moved the needle collectively in those seven states or individually in any one of those single states.

Then you have to look back at the last two presidential elections and you have to understand the country. We have been a 50/50 country since 2000. The last two elections, if you moved a couple hundred thousand votes in three states, you have a different outcome in a country of 330 million people.

And so, you're not -- I don't think you're going to know control of the House, maybe not the Senate, or the White House on Election Day. And that doesn't mean that there's election malfeasance. I think the thing that viewers should do is tell their friends that we have a federal system the way we count votes in each one of those seven states is different, it might take four or five, six days to know what's happening in Pennsylvania. That doesn't mean there's fraud. It doesn't mean there's malfeasance. It just means that the system is working the way that it should.

And so, you know, we're back here next Sunday, I'll tell you who won.

RAJU: Yes. And you know were going to talk a little bit more later in the show about how things could play out. But one thing that polls do show is that, look, this people want change people. They are concerned about the direction of the country. Each of these candidates is trying to represent themselves as a change agent.

So you, the who's making that case more effectively? The incumbent vice president or the guy who was president for four years?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: Well, Donald Trump has been making that case more effectively up to this point. I think that Kamala Harris has done a better job lately in trying to distinguish herself from Joe Biden. The unpopularity of the administration, of which she's a part, is perhaps the biggest challenge she faces, and one that's been -- been very tricky for her to address.

RAJU: Yeah and, you know, while this is all those polls we are dissecting, I want to talk about one that got a lot of attention over the last night. Now, we don't usually like to focus on one poll. Oftentimes polls are outliers in this one, very well could be. There was an Iowa poll out of Iowa, "The Des Moines Register" poll.

Iowa not a state we have been talking about at all now, but this has generated a lot of attention, of course, in the political world. So let's dive in here. Kamala Harris up 47-44 within the margin of error. No clear leader according to this poll.

This is the thing that perhaps was also interesting diving a little deeper, according to this poll, Trump is winning among men as we would expect in other states, but getting trounced among women 20 points. And then women, people 55 and older, Harris is winning, leading according to this particular poll.

What is your takeaway from that?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think that matches what I've been hearing when I go to the swing states, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada, all of them which is that women by and large are much more behind. Vice President Harris than they are Trump. I mean, she's leading double digits, whether it's young women or older women.

And what's also striking there is her number with those seniors, with people over the age of 55. Its not necessarily the Selzer poll is not necessarily an outlier because there have been other polls up to this point that have shown that she may be very well matching Biden's 2020 numbers with seniors and if she's able to do that and not lose as much of black and brown men, that could be the ballgame for her.

PAGE: You know, if Iowa were to go for Kamala Harris, we would not have the kind of election night you just envisioned for us, right? That would be a sign of a different kind of election night. And it would be a surprise.

But two things to note: Ann Selzer, an excellent pollster, a terrific track record.

[08:10:03] Nobody knows Iowa like she does. So you want to take her seriously. Secondly, does -- does this -- the Iowa -- that her strength and unexpected strength in Iowa, does it tell us that she has unexpected strength in the neighborhood, like in Wisconsin and in Michigan and Pennsylvania?

RAJU: What do you think, David? I mean --

CHALIAN: Well, I -- Susan's last point is something that I was thinking about in reading that poll, which is sort of like looking at our Wisconsin numbers last week and which had Harris with a slight edge outside the margin of error. If there was something going on in the neighborhood, no doubt in Ann Selzer poll, we saw Harris dramatically close the gap with the change of the ticket, right? She was just four points behind Trump back in September.

And now overtaking the lead again I do. It is fascinating to me because as you noted, its not that nobody was just talking about Iowa. No dollars are being spent in Iowa in the presidential level. There are some competitive house races that no visits are going to there's nothing -- there's no active, engaged presidential campaign going on in Iowa the way there are in these seven other states.

And so I just wonder what this says about the absence of an active presidential campaign. And if this is what the result turns out to be, I do think it may show us that it will be a different kind of election night. We'll know soon enough. We'll see if this is accurate. It is within the margin of error. It's one poll.

It is not part of either um, battleground pathway to 270. So -- I mean, it's part of Donald Trumps belief of what he will have in his corner to get to 270. So we'll have to see where this shakes out.

RAJU: Maybe she's being underestimated, but maybe he's also being underestimated in these polls, too. "The New York Times"/Siena poll that was out this morning, suggested that Republican voters, male Republican voters are less likely to respond to the pollster than Democratic voters, white males in particular. So polls have underestimated Trump time and again, as we've seen in 2016 and even 2020, Biden had a bigger lead in the polls, and he barely won.

VANDEHEI: I think that's why none of us have a clue, right? You sit beneath. There's been a gender gap in this country for a long time. Women have always been better voters than men. That usually works to the benefit of the Democratic Party.

Underneath that, there's been a tectonic shift. The Republican Party has moved from the party of big business and rich people to a fundamentally a working class populist party. And what that's meant is you have seen some movement, especially among men, among Hispanics and black men, to the Republican Party. And you've seen a lot more educated people moving to the Democratic Party.

What all of us are going to look for on Tuesday is, are there a lot of women, more women than we are picking up in polling who are so hacked off about the abortion ruling, who don't like Donald Trumps language who are showing up in numbers that no one is expecting. That's on one side.

The other is -- I just talked to, I was just visiting my sons in college. They said they've never seen their friends, regardless of what campus they're on. Men actively involved in the campaign, watching Joe Rogan hanging out on X, they have now strong feelings.

Does that mean that they turn out? We have no clue. But if they do, that would be a fundamental shift in politics.

And so I think we get really hopped up on the day to day polling or the outrage of the moment. But there's some very interesting things happening beneath the surface of this campaign that I think will last for many years to come.

CHALIAN: And that's all happening in a country, and this goes back to your change argument earlier, or Biden's standing that's all happening in a country where three quarters of Americans are disappointed with the direction that the country is on, believe we are on the wrong track or seven out of ten Americans feel that way, and with an incumbent Democratic president at just historically low approval ratings for the party to be successful.

So it's like that that answers the question of why is Harris not running away with this race -- why is Harris not running away with this race? But Donald Trump, his, as you said, like his behavior, his words, his rhetoric -- that is keeping him competitive in a race that otherwise he should be winning.

VANDEHEI: And 10 percent of Republicans who are saying that they're not going to vote for him. If you just anecdotally think about your friend said and people, you know, there's a lot of Republicans who, if it were Nikki Haley, would be voting for him.

If you even look at the shifts on these issues every things moved, right. It's not debatable. Look at the immigration debate. It's moved conservative. Look at the energy debate, moved conservative. Look at the health care debate, starting to even move a little more conservative --

RAJU: It's him and personality and character. And you just I want to just give a taste of for viewers about the -- some of the rhetoric from Trump over the last day, which is perhaps why Kamala Harris is in this race where maybe she shouldn't be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She'll get overwhelmed, melt down, and millions of people will die. You're going to die.

You wouldn't put Kamala Harris in charge of even a kindergarten class.

I'm like the father -- I consider myself to be the father of fertilization, remember?

She never worked there.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: She worked on a corner.

TRUMP: But I did. I did a little bit.

This place is amazing.

Just remember, it's other people saying it. It's not me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Other people saying it. She worked on a corner.

[08:15:02]

But to Jim's point -- I mean, that's -- and David's point. That's perhaps why this race could go either way. And Trump -- the numbers should favor him on the issues but --

PAGE: I don't people even hear when Donald Trump says outrageous things anymore, the thing --

RAJU: It's all baked in.

PAGE: It's all baked in. If you hate him, you think he's saying outrageous things. And if you love him, you think, oh, he's saying outrageous things.

You know whose words mattered? It was a comic in Madison Square Garden who made a slur on Puerto Rico at a Trump rally, and that has had an effect that Trumps own words have not had. And it's put in play. I think the idea that there is that the Latino vote is going to be incredibly powerful this time and by the way, in future elections.

RAJU: And we're going to talk a little bit more about that up in the next segment. Much more on the 2024 race, and my exclusive with Speaker Mike Johnson. The frantic push to save the razor thin House Majority.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:20]

RAJU: With a polarized electorate and a race that is tight, do verbal slip-ups or out of bounds rhetoric make any difference at this late stage?

Take the comic in last week's Trump rally who called Puerto Rico garbage? Who the Harris campaign was quick to cut an ad attack ad about, and then President Biden responding to that by suggesting Trump supporters are garbage before later trying to clarify that remark.

And then Trump hopping in that garbage truck to seize on Biden's comments and just a few days ago, Trump said of Liz Cheney, quote, lets put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. But what does it all mean?

My panel is back. I mean, look polls, of course, show that the economy as a cycle after

cycle is the biggest issue, one from the Pennsylvania poll, from "The Washington Post" came out perhaps a little better news for Harris that she's down by five points on the economy to Trump, and 10 on immigration, another top tier issue.

But are things like this that happen over the last week this is all those things happened in the last five days. Does that make a difference in this race or at the end of the day, is this going to be still the bread and butter issues?

BARRON-LOPEZ: I think Trump's rhetoric does make a little bit with what Susan said before the break, which is that when I've talked to voters in these swing states, they hear what he says. They pay attention to what he says. And that's partially why these disenchanted Republicans these independent voters, these Nikki Haley type voters have moved away from him and they're moving towards Harris.

I was talking to a swing voter in Arizona two time Trump voter, a woman who said that just the past week of everything that she's heard from him, including the Madison square garden rally, has solidified for her that she wants to support Harris. Abortion is clearly key to a lot of these women's votes, but that rhetoric adds to it.

So I think the slip up with well, the racist joke on Puerto Rico from the comedian mixed with the violent rhetoric that Trump used against Liz Cheney are hurting him with these people who are deciding in the last week or so how they're going to vote.

PAGE: We do know the Harris campaign believes that this issue of democracy is a very powerful one for her. There's some division about that. Should she be talking more about her plans for the economy and peoples lives and less about the idea that Trumps reelection would be a big threat to democracy?

But I think they do fine with their voters that it will motivate them to go to the polls. Just like immigration does with Trump voters. That democracy, the preservation of democracy may be that kind of issue for Harris voters.

RAJU: I want to turn a little bit about early voting numbers that we have seen so far, to get a sense on what the millions of people, 71 million people have voted early already. Republicans have changed their approach this election cycle compared to the last. They're actually encouraging their people to vote to come out early Trump, of course, as we know in the last cycle said mail-in voting is fraud rife with fraud. No evidence of that, but that perhaps depress some turnout early on.

Right now, just on the numbers about the battleground states, the gender gap, 11 percent more women than men voted in 2020, about the same now as 2024, more women than men.

But in a place like Nevada, Republicans are holding a 50,000 ballot lead over Democrats after end of early voting. Now, again, we voted. We don't know if these people were going to come out on Election Day wouldn't make a difference.

David, you go through these numbers a lot. What is your takeaway from that?

CHALIAN: Well, just the Nevada numbers that you ended there. We had a poll out of Nevada last week, CNN did, and we in that poll of likely voters was a segment of the people who said they tell us they already voted and Trump was winning those voters who had already voted in that poll in Nevada.

We've seen the early vote there. You're right. Republican participation is up, no doubt. You know, the Trump campaign will point to across all of these states, they see more men, more white voters, more rural voters early.

Well, that's the same thing as saying you're seeing more Republican participation in these early numbers. So you would see those demographics. The Harris campaign is clearly pleased with what they're seeing, that the female advantage in the early vote is close to what it was in 2024. I'm sure they would like it to be more.

But the problem with early vote, Manu, that I find in discussing it is it is a piece of the puzzle and you don't even understand the shape of the rest of the puzzle because it all depends on what happens on Tuesday with the election day vote to properly understand and contextualize the early vote.

So I think the tea leaf reading on early vote is a very tricky game because it's a very fuzzy picture until you can also see the composite of the Election Day electorate.

And as we talk about the Election Day electorate, the Trump campaign, of course, is banking on male voters. They're banking on RFK, Jr. supporters as well. RFK, Jr., of course, is supporting the Trump campaign after running for president.

[08:25:01]

He said something that got a lot of attention yesterday. He, of course is has anti-vaccine views. And he said in a tweet last night on January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride, he said, was an industrial waste. He goes on to criticize fluoride.

Of course, fluoride is in water has been known to keep your teeth healthy, prevent cavities. And vaccines, of course, have been shown to be safe and effective.

Now, Trump has campaign put out a statement not pushing back on this, saying that there are a lot of people who have lots of ideas. But Trump did say on Friday about RFK, Jr. will be talking about a lot of things, but he's going to have a big role in health care. He's talking about RFK Jr., a very big role.

What impact does this have? VANDEHEI: Listen, I think RFK, Jr. has had a net positive impact on

Trump for sure. There is a small segment of the population that likes his views on health care, even if they're outside of the mainstream, on things like vaccine. But people are attracted to it.

It also goes to how people get their information which I don't think people are paying enough attention to. What RFK and Trump have been able to take advantage of are like two different parts of the media matrix. One is kind of the longevity industrial complex. Your Peter Attias, your Hubermans, people have huge podcast followings who talk about topics about health and tend to be pretty sympathetic to RFK.

And then you have what I would call kind of the tech bro industrial complex. You're all in podcast, your Joe Rogan, a lot of it plays out on X. It would be the reason that you're seeing younger men getting pulled into elections.

And so I think both campaigns would agree that if its 1 or 2 points that RFK can bring over to the Trump camp that helps him.

That doesn't mean he should be in charge of health care or will be in charge of health care. I think it's been interesting --

RAJU: Can you confirm that to --

VANDEHEI: Well, they've talked about different roles for him. He claims he's going to get this massive portfolio where he's bringing all these agencies together. Color me deeply skeptical. I think that -- I don't think he's going to get necessarily that portfolio.

Will he have a voice? He will have a voice.

RAJU: And he's on the ballot in some of these states, you know, he's not running --

CHALIAN: Which I was saying, that's one place he might be a net negative. I agree with everything you said, but in Michigan and Wisconsin, RFK, Jr.'s name is still actually on the ballot. And that could apply some downward pressure on Trump's number if some of these folks go vote for him.

VANDEHEI: And he's having to do speeches saying please don't vote for me. My names on there, please vote for the other guy.

RAJU: And Jill Stein's also on the ballot in some of these states and these states, too. So, a lot to dissect when this very, very close race.

All right. Still ahead, Bill Clintons been barnstorming the country and gave his only interview the campaign cycle to CNN.

But first, we caught up exclusively with Speaker Mike Johnson on the trail as he fights to keep the House majority and his job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: The last two years, of course, has been a rather chaotic two years for your Republican majority. You've had difficult times passing legislation and the like. So why do you guys deserve another two years in power?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:16]

RAJU: One of the most unpredictable storylines on Tuesday will be the United States House. The Republicans currently has just a four-seat margin with so few swing seats truly at play meaning the majority can go either.

So Speaker Mike Johnson has been on a frenetic cross-country campaign often spending time in battleground districts in California and New York where the next majority will be determined.

I traveled to Long Island this past week where I caught up with him exclusively.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The office of Speaker of the House declared vacant.

RAJU: It's been a chaotic two years in the GOP-led House.

An ousted speaker and rampant infighting. Now Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to do what once seemed improbably, hang on to power and even grow their razor-thin majority.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, I'm here in New York.

RAJU: As he barnstormed more than 20 states in October alone, Johnson is hoping to turn out the MAGA base even in Democratic-leaning districts and making a pitch for a unified GOP-control of Washington.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Everybody in the world is watching what happens on Long Island and in the state of New York. That's not an exaggeration.

RAJU: To keep power in the house, Republicans have to defend 16 seats in districts Joe Biden won including in California and New York as they target five Democratic districts that Trump carried in 2020. That means the next House majority will likely be narrow once again and another recipe for grid lock.

Why do you deserve another two years in power?

JOHNSON: Well, we did pass a lot of legislation. It died on Chuck Schumer's desk.

RAJU: You had several passed in your own legislation at the House too.

JOHNSON: On occasion but we also had some big landmark legislation sent over there and it died because the Democrats control the Senate.

RAJU: But you have a narrow majority no matter what. You had a difficult time with this last narrow majority.

JOHNSON: Well, I had the most narrow majority in U.S. history. I'm convince we're going to have a larger majority this time.

And then if we have a unified government, I think everybody on my side is going to be in a much better mood and I think they want to be part of the reform agenda and not the speed bump in a way.

RAJU: The race for the House poised to be the most expensive ever with Democrats spending over $476 million on the air, outpacing the GOP by more than $100 million. The money in part spent to help save five freshman New York Republicans whose fate could determine the majority, now vowing to improve on their track record from this conference.

JOHNSON: We'll have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda because frankly, we've got to fix everything.

[08:34:51]

RAJU: But the Speaker gave fodder to Kamala Harris this week when he said --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Obamacare?

JOHNSON: No more Obamacare.

RAJU: Now Johnson says killing the health care law is not in the cards despite the years' long GOP effort to do so.

Does that include repealing the ACA?

JOHNSON: No. Look --

RAJU: You're not repealing ACA?

JOHNSON: No. This has been ascribed (ph) to me. That is not what I said.

Look, we are laser-focused on improving healthcare as we are every are overall.

RAJU: Should we have another plan from many years --

JOHNSON: Well no, we didn't have plans.

RAJU: One Trump-Johnson plan has gotten attention.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He and I have a secret. We'll tell you what it is when the race is over.

RAJU: But Johnson now says that's simply meant getting out the vote even as Democrats fear he and Trump will try to block a Harris victory. I know you said that you will get out the vote out.

JOHNSON: Yes.

RAJU: But have you and him talked about not accepting the election results if Harris wins?

JOHNSON: Of course not. I have taken an oath to uphold the constitution. We're going to do our job. This shouldn't even be a question or a controversy.

RAJU: So if Harris wins you will accept the results.

JOHNSON: Yes. Look, I'm going to qualify this and this is going to make everybody freak out gain. If it's a free and fair election. I am saying the exact same thing that Jamie Raskin has said.

RAJU: But it's Trump who once again is pushing unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

Trump is already sowing doubts about the election, about Pennsylvania. Does that concern you?

JOHNSON: Trump is not sowing doubts. What he and all of us are trying to do is have accountability to ensure that we don't have doesn't have high-jinx (ph) and irregularities.

RAJU: And if Trump wins, critics fear Johnson's GOP will do little to check his power.

TRUMP: It's the enemy from within. All the scum that we have to deal.

RAJU: If he wins, he has talked about going after his enemies. Would you dissuade him from doing that?

JOHNSON: He is not going to go after his enemies.

ROBERTSON: He said it repeatedly.

JOHNSON: Listen, the Democrats have engaged in lawsuits. So all this hyperbole trying to scare people, it's nonsense. That's not going to happen. We're going to follow the law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: All right. My panel is back.

Interesting. Johnson has been in almost (ph) this impossible position in this narrow majority but he has decided that you know, Trump is going to be the person who helps save him in a lot of ways. Some of the folks on the right want him out of the job.

JIM VANDEHEI, CO-FOUNDER/CEO, AXIOS: I mean it's the best job to say you have and it's probably the crappiest (ph) one to actually have. It's almost impossible. You have 10 or 12 members who don't really care about being on a

congressional committee, don't care about governing. And they just want to have a big following on social media and it makes the job almost impossible.

We don't spend a lot of time praising politicians. I think it's been impressive like how he has grown into the job and how Hakeem Jeffries has grown into the job.

And I think it's interesting that the two of them both publicly and private talk about they get along pretty well for all of the polarization, you know, the two leaders who do talk and are pretty --

(CROSSTALKING)

RAJU: Much different than McCarthy and Pelosi.

VANDEHEI: That's true.

RAJU: But he also made some mistakes on the campaign trail. Earlier this week -- late last week he was asked by a reporter about repealing the CHIPS and Science law, the Biden law.

First he said yes, I suspect that will part of the agenda. We want to get through the election first and then there was backlash because one of the Republicans he's campaigning with does not want that repealed.

LAURA BARRON LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. That Republican voted for the CHIPS and Science Act in a district where it's incredibly important.

No. And also in his comments about him saying he doesn't support repealing the ACA, I mean look, Donald Trump has repeatedly said this campaign cycle that he wants to repeal and replace it. Only recently did he say I have never thought about doing that despite the fact that they --

(CROSSTALKING)

RAJU: They tried it for two years.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Right. Despite the fact that they tried when he was president.

Also his comments about Donald Trump isn't sowing doubt about the election, Donald Trump has repeatedly said that if -- the only way Democrats win is if they cheat.

RAJU: Yes. All right.

We're going to discuss more in the blocks (ph) ahead when we will find -- when we'll we find out who won the White House and Congress. And where could those hold ups be?

Plus, CNN's exclusive interview with Bill Clinton on the campaign bus as he stumps for Kamala Harris. [08:38:44]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: In 2020, it took days to find out who won the White House. Even longer to learn about Congress. So you might be wondering when we'll get the results this time around.

Our panel is back with me to discuss.

So David, you're going through all the different scenarios here. A lot of these swing states have made their fastest exit (ph) past the timing of the projections.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I am also wondering when we're going to --

(CROSSTALKING)

RAJU: When you'll sleep again.

CHALIAN: Some of the battleground states have changed some of their rules around counting and posting (ph) the ballots, some have not. But I will say if you look at states like Pennsylvania, which cannot process ballots until election day itself.

That means they can't open the envelop, flatten it out, do anything to prepare to start counting. And there's still going to be not as much mail balloting as in 2020 Manu but a significant amount.

But look here, Wisconsin also can't process until election day. And then go to the bottom of that list, Nevada and Arizona, there are tons (ph) of mail ballots that do not even get counted on election night.

So I will say, the two states that are not on there, Georgia and North Carolina, we're hoping for some quick counts early in the evening. See what the state of play is there but Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, we're going to wait a while.

SUSAN PAGE, U.S.A. TODAY, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Georgia and North Carolina, they have a history of fast counts. And it also is safe (ph) to say both look good for Harris, that is a big sign that she's going to have a good night. But if the votes are good for Trump, it means she is really dependent on getting Pennsylvania.

And you know, even though --

CHALIAN: But it doesn't necessarily mean it will be a bad night, it just means it's going to be a long wait.

PAGE: That's right. It will be a long night.

(CROSSTALKING)

RAJU: Yes, exactly.

[08:44:48]

PAGE: You know, it is true that it took until Saturday last time to declare a winner with the results finally coming through in Pennsylvania but in 2016 also a very close election, we knew Wednesday morning who had won that race.

RAJU: Even though Trump said this on election night, even though the race had not been called had been trending in Joe Biden's direction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is a fraud On the American public.

This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I think you can bet Trump is going to do the exact same thing in this round (ph).

VANDEHEI: I think that the chances that he would accept the result are relatively low now mainly because he and his staff believe it's over. They believe that they've won.

And so I think it would be an authentic shock to him if he does not win the presidency. And there's been a lot of rhetoric out there already calling into question things that are happening in Georgia, things that are happening in Pennsylvania.

That's why we try to write a lot about trying to get people just to stay calm and understand what David was just talking about that it takes a while to count these votes. Like the last thing the country needs when people don't trust institutions is now for people to not even trust the election process and be seeing the lies in that.

And that's just not a good thing for democracy.

RAJU: So very quickly, how will the Harris campaign respond if Trump does that?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, they're prepared. I mean they have lawyers at the ready because they do expect Donald Trump to say -- declare that he won the way he did in 2020.

I mean he's already saying that illegal ballots were cast in Pennsylvania which were not. They're reviewing whether ineligible voters are on a registration list. That doesn't mean that illegal ballots were cast.

So he's already laying the groundwork to contest the results.

RAJU: Yes. And that mean this could go to the court. It could take some time to play out, huge week of course ahead. All right. Up next our exclusive interview with one of Kamala Harris' biggest surrogates on the campaign trail, former President Bill Clinton.

[08:46:41]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Former President Bill Clinton has been barnstorming the country on Kamala Harris' behalf. But he has said little to the media, until CNN's Isaac Dovere snagged the only interview he's given since he hit the trail.

And Clinton got candid about Democrat fears the America might not quote, "survive four years of Trump".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think you have to look at what the definition of "survive" is. You can put me on a breathing tube tonight, but it wouldn't be like surviving like I'm surviving now.

And the same thing's true in politics. I don't know if we can survive or not. I think it would be a travesty if he became president again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And Isaac Dovere joins me now to talk more about his exclusive interview with the former president. He really talked about a lot with you in this article.

So you were sitting on his campaign bus with him in Michigan. Give us a sense on your takeaway from this and just the unique way that this campaign is deploying him right now.

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: He talks a lot about the vantage point that he has as the only person on the planet who has done the job of being president and knows both of the candidates running.

And he says to people I'm the trail and that it should be said he's been out there -- we did an almost 11-hour day on Wednesday. He's been doing that almost every day for the last three weeks. A more active schedule than Kamala Harris or Donald Trump or anybody else, Tim Walz, J.D. Vance, Joe Biden, Barack Obama.

RAJU: What's he like on the trail?

DOVERE: He is quieter than he was. There's no roaring oratory but there is this sort of one-way conversation or one-way chat that he's had with people and they are hanging on it.

But he mean -- from the beginning he said I want to go to places where presidents haven't gone before. And so there was one -- one of the stuff (ph) we did on Wednesday was in a place called South Haven (ph), Michigan where he was standing on the porch of somebody's house, right.

The former president of the United States talking to maybe 200 people on this little unassuming street in Michigan trying to find those Democrats, those people who are maybe undecided still or even Republican who are not so into what Donald Trump has been saying maybe have concerns about the economy and speaking to them and saying look, look at her plans and this is why you should believe in her and this is the kind of country you should believe.

RAJU: Let's talk about a little bit more about he told you. He said, I'm quoting the quote, he's concerned about Trump's long-term impacts that Trump wins or loses, he said this to you. He said a lot of people just can't believe how many voters in America

agree that he doesn't make sense, agree that he's advocating for things that would be Trump, according to Trump.

But somehow thinks that if the experience was good for them back then, it was magically his doing and everything was fine.

DOVERE: Yes and this is the beginning of that quote. He said, this is maybe what happened in the 1930s when fascism was spreading.

So this is Bill Clinton saying he likes Kamala Harris. He thinks that she should be elected but he is worried about what happens no matter what year. There is a problem in our politics he says that is deeper and it's going to be with us for a while and it's Donald Trump's fault, he says.

RAJU: And you also talked to him about a former president -- another former president, George W. Bush.

DOVERE: Yes.

RAJU: -- who they've maintained a close relationship with over the years with both. But Bush we have not heard from publicly. What did he tell you about Bush?

DOVERE: He said he was ok with it. He said Bush doesn't get enough credit for speaking out in favor of immigration and he sort of implied that he knew where Bush was on this but he said Bush doesn't want to betray the Republican Party that he's been with his whole life.

[08:54:51]

RAJU: Because that would -- his brother Jeb Bush and he told you this about Colin Allred, he's running against Ted Cruz in Texas. He said, he'll tell anybody that he's a good guy, referring to Colin Allred, but he wouldn't say who he was voting for.

DOVERE: Yes. And I should say that I talked to Bush's -- somebody close to Bush about this. I read the comments from Clinton and the person said he's not going to get involved in presidential politics but he is helping out on the Senate. What, is that helping out include Ted Cruz, and the person wouldn't comment on that.

RAJU: No comment. There you go which says perhaps a lot. Isaac, great reporting. You can read more about on CNN.com as well.

And be sure to tune in to CNN on "ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA". Live coverage starts Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X @MKRaju. Follow the show @INSIDEPOLITCS and follow me on Instagram @Manu_Raju.

If you ever miss an episode, catch up where you get your podcast. Just search for INSIDE POLITICS.

Up next "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Dana's guests include Senators John Fetterman and Tim Scott.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us and we will see you next week.

[08:55:52]

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