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Inside Politics
Republicans Likely To Have One Of Smallest House Majorities Ever; Dem Senators Signal Willingness To Consider Some Trump Nominees; Sanders Pushes Trump On His Promise To Lower Credit Card Rates; VP Harris, First Gentleman Visit DC Food Kitchen; Mar-a-Lago Area Turns Into MAGA Universe After Trump's Victory; Tourism Up In Areas Near Trump's Mar-a-Lago Resort Post-Election. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired November 28, 2024 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[12:32:31]
MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: The Republican House majority is shaping up to be the smallest in nearly 100 years. CNN called two more races last night, both decided by less than 1,000 votes. Democrat Derek Tran ousted Republican Congresswoman Michelle Steel in California.
And Republican Congressman Mariannette Miller-Meeks eeked out a win in Iowa. There's one race left that's in California, where Democrat Adam Gray leads incumbent Republican John Duarte by 190 votes. Now, if Gray wins, the House will be divided 220 to 215.
And Republicans are losing three of those seats because of resignations to join the Trump Cabinet. Now that will give House Democrats a lot of leverage if they stick together.
As Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted on X, he said, "There is no mandate to jam far right policies down the throats of the American people". He said, "House Democrats will not let it happen."
My reporters are back. How do we see Democrats because, you know, when we look at the first iteration of Trump, it was resistance fight, tooth and nail. We're not hearing that as much. What's your sense of how they will position themselves in the minority?
W EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, we're not hearing it as much, but that doesn't mean that they're not plotting. Resistance 2.0 is going to look very different. We know that they are going to wage a legal battle when they can, and that Democrats have been quietly and for a long time they did not want to sort of cast doubt on the Democratic ticket when the election was ongoing but have been quietly preparing for this possible outcome.
So that is an area where I suspect that we will see the most. But I think that where they can, they will try to work with the former president because he has shown that he isn't ideologically rigid and that he does respond well to positive public sentiment, to positive press. I'm thinking about the First Step Act on criminal justice reform, for instance, in his first administration. We know from how the former president talks about criminals, ironic because he is a convicted felon himself, but he doesn't necessarily have any sort of kinship there.
But he was willing to move on that policy based on the pressure in that moment and his son in law. And so --
RAJU: Yes.
MCKEND: -- we might see progressives try to leverage that again.
RAJU: And Democrats, you know, they could sit back and watch Republicans, particularly in the House, try to govern because that majority, if it is 220 to 215, or 217 to 215, after those resignations, before the special elections to fill those seats, that's going to be incredibly difficult to put together a governing agenda.
[12:35:09]
DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: I mean, look, I think you can ask any caucus leader privately and they will admit that a majority, this slim is really not a majority. And one thing we've seen and we'll likely continue to see in this new Congress, it's that there are a lot of rank and file Republicans who want to stir things up.
I am still skeptical about how disciplined Democrats will be. But recently, in the past few Congresses, House Republicans have been the one who have been eager to trip themselves up, more so than Democrats.
RAJU: And Burgess, you write in Semafor about how they're handling the Trump nominees in the Senate side, the Democrats. You're writing about -- you write this headline, "Democratic senators veer away from anti Trump resistance to those Cabinet picks".
Nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard, you write, "probably won't get many Democratic votes, according to interviews with a half dozen of the party senators, spanning the party's ideological spectrum. But a repeat of the rage the party channeled in public eight years ago looks unlikely".
What are you hearing?
BURGESS EVERETT, CONGRESSIONAL BUREAU CHIEF, SEMAFOR: Yes, I feel like Democrats are happy to let Republicans handle those three nominees that you just mentioned, and Matt Gaetz before them. And what I mean by that is, they don't need Democratic votes to confirm these folks. The Senate confirmation process means the majority party can confirm without the minority.
And so I would expect, almost just like House Democrats will probably withhold their votes to see if Republicans can put up their votes in the House, I think they'll do the same thing in the Senate. I think it might be a while before you hear Democrats saying much about these nominees at all. RAJU: I mean, we haven't -- Schumer hasn't even said anything about most of these nominees.
EVERETT: No, and I actually tried to ask him last week multiple times about several of these nominees and he just said, you know, there'll be time for that later. So, you know, I think he's happy to have this be a Republican infighting story.
And it's happening, right? Like, you ask Republicans about Tulsi Gabbard, you ask Republicans about RFK Jr.
RAJU: Yes.
EVERETT: You even ask about Hegseth. Like, they have questions that they want answered. I'm not saying all three of these people are going to be derailed by internal Republican infighting. But there's question marks over their confirmation prospects.
RAJU: Yes, interesting strategy. I'd ask Schumer also. If you have concerns about Trump firing Christopher Wray, the FBI director, he declined to comment about that. I think in the past iteration, you probably would have gotten a much more fiery response.
One of the ways is that some of the Democratic senators are trying to suggest an open mind, including over RFK Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Administration. I asked John Fetterman and Cory Booker about their handling of these nominees.
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SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Willing to work with anyone that has some -- at least some kind of shared values and goals. I mean, that's why we're here.
RAJU: What do you feel about RFK Jr.?
FETTERMAN: Well, you know, that's a little more -- there's more nuance there.
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: I'm skeptical of Donald Trump. I have concerns about the nominee. But I tell you, when he speaks about the issues I was just speaking about, we're talking out of the same playbook.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
TAPPER: And there are Cory Booker talking about RFK Jr. He said that he agrees with him on the issue of food safety, he said, but not necessarily on the issue of vaccines. So you are, you know, as Burgess was saying, you're not seeing this immediate opposition from a lot of Democratic senators, at least right now.
MCKEND: Well, on Kennedy in particular, I covered his campaign, you know, he was once running as a Democrat. There are a lot of people that were showing up to his rallies that supported President Biden in 2020. So if there is anyone that Democrats at least will listen to, it is maybe him, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to vote to confirm him.
RAJU: And it's also Democrats are looking at trying to hold Trump to some of those populist campaign messages on the campaign trail. This is what Bernie Sanders said about one idea about capping credit card payments. He said, "I look forward to working with the Trump administration on fulfilling his promise to cap credit card interest rates at 10%".
Interesting, because there are a lot of people in the Republican Party who would not like that idea, but that's part of the calculation here. Alright, Trump said all these things, whether it's getting rid of taxes on tips, OK, what about doing that? A lot of Democrats may be good with that idea, but a lot of Republicans may not be.
STRAUSS: Yes. And I think what is going to happen, what we're already seeing, is the rumblings of a scrambled dynamic among Republicans and Democrats. The clips you just played just underscore that on some issues with this prospective Cabinet, Democrats are showing some openness, but on others, they are lockstep in opposition, and it's the same with Republicans.
RAJU: Yes.
STRAUSS: And that's why I'm a little more skeptical about the confirmation of some of Trump's more controversial Picks because Republicans in the end might not be the ones to help.
RAJU: And we're still two years away from the midterms, but Democrats are very confident about taking back the house already.
STRAUSS: Yes.
RAJU: We'll see about the Senate. That's much more difficult, and they may be the minority for some time to come.
All right guys, great discussion.
Next, rain or snow. What you need to know if you're headed outdoors, hitting the highways or heading to the airport. A quick Thanksgiving forecast that's coming up.
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[12:44:37]
RAJU: Vice President Kamala Harris and first gentleman Doug Emhoff spent part of their Thanksgiving Day at the D.C. Central Food Kitchen, helping out with the food prep for today's dinner with turkey and all the trimmings. And when asked about her future, the outgoing V.P. wasn't looking too far ahead just moments ago.
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KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm making sweet potatoes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're healthy.
[12:45:00]
HARRIS: You're healthy. Yes, we're all working together on that. I made my cranberry sauce already. I'm making scalloped potatoes. And string beans, and Brussels sprouts. And a salad, just to have something fresh.
DOUG EMHOFF, FIRST GENTLEMAN: Yes, raisin (ph) for bread.
HARRIS: I did take the cornbread with my cornbread. Oh, and dinner rolls. I'm making dinner rolls. Lots of carbs.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
RAJU: A little later, the second couple will also be making calls to members of the military to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and thank them for their service.
Now a check on the holiday forecast. Americans in the Northeast well may not be feeling so thankful for today's weather, rain, snow, maybe even an arctic blast. CNN's Meteorologist Elisa Raffa is joins us now from the Weather Center. Alyssa, tell us what you're monitoring and how bad could it be for us in the Northeast?
ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we're looking at a lot of cold and soggy turkeys out there today. Cold air plunging into the U.S. And we've got rain and snow up in New England as this front continues to move east. So we're looking at temperatures in the 20s in Minneapolis today, 40 degrees in St. Louis.
You've got a cold rain, 49 degrees in New York City with that rain and snow again up in New England. The front in the southeast is moving offshore, but we still have all of this rain and snow up in interior New England, several inches of snow coming down for parts of upstate New York, New Hampshire, Vermont.
And then you have all of that rain. It's soggy from Boston down to New York and then down the I 95 corridor as well. Winter storm warnings in effect for 6 to 10 inches of snow for parts of Maine, 3 to 8 inches of snow for upstate New York. So again, several inches that you'll need to shovel on this turkey day.
After that exits, we'll have cold air coming over the warm lakes. Lake effect snow will continue to pump through the holiday weekend. So if you're trying to do some traveling around the great lakes, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, you'll have problems and delays because we're looking at some heavy snow there.
We have lake effect snow warnings that are posted right off of Lakes Erie in Ontario because we have the cold air coming across the warmer lakes. And that again is going to pump several feet of snow that could cause some problems if you're doing traveling in that area. Manu?
RAJU: Brutal. Feels too early for snow. Maybe that's just me.
Elisa Raffa, thank you so much from the Weather Center. Appreciate that.
And up next, how Palm Beach, Florida, home to Mar-a-Lago transformed from a Democratic stronghold to the center of the MAGA universe.
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[12:51:52]
RAJU: Following President-elect Donald Trump's victory a little bit this month, Palm Beach, the home of his Mar-a-Lago resort, is seeing a surge of tourists to the area, with some MAGA Republicans looking to make the region their new home.
CNN's Randi Kaye has the details.
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BRUCE HELANDER, ARTIST, LONGTIME PALM BEACH RESIDENT: This is the magnet where everybody who wants to see Trump has got to come to Palm Beach.
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Artist Bruce Helander first came to Palm Beach in 1983 to open an art gallery on the exclusive Worth Avenue. A lot has changed since then, and with Donald Trump once again the president-elect, Palm Beach, which leans Democratic, is again the center of the MAGA universe.
VINCE MAROTTA, ILLUSTRATED PROPERTIES: We've definitely seen a major Trump bump. I've got my phone ringing nonstop. So there's definitely been an increase in traffic.
KAYE (voice over): Vince Marotta is a top selling real estate agent here. He says some people meeting with Trump are now also looking to put down roots in the area.
KAYE: Did your phone start ringing right after the election?
MAROTTA: They did. In fact, just a few days after I got a call from a major broker who said to me she's working with somebody in the Trump brain trust, and they're looking to find something somewhere close to Mar-a-Lago in the $10 million to $15 million range.
KAYE (voice over): Mar-a-Lago, the 58 bedroom estate that Trump calls home, is where the president-elect has been conducting job interviews to fill his Cabinet and holding key meetings during the transition period.
In Palm Beach and neighboring West Palm Beach, just across the water from Mar-a-Lago, there has been a steady stream of limousines ferrying prominent Republicans, world leaders, and others around the area.
BERNARDO NETO, GENERAL MANAGER, THE BEN HOTEL: We've seen the president of Argentina was in the city. We've seen, you know, NATO dignitaries. We've seen Fortune 500 CEOs.
KAYE (voice over): Bernardo Neto is the general manager at The Ben Hotel, which sits just about 2 miles from Mar-a-Lago. These days it's a popular spot for media, dignitaries and anyone hoping to get access to Trump or a job with the new administration.
NETO: I think having any president-elect 2 miles away, but absolutely since the election we've seen a big uptake of reservations. But we've seen an increase, at least 15 percent.
HELANDER: The airports are filled. The hotels are filled. The restaurants, impossible to get a reservation. It's a very exciting time.
KAYE (voice over): Exciting for some, but stressful too. Security around Palm Beach is tighter than ever, especially along what's known as Billionaires Row. That's the area of South Ocean Boulevard, where Mar-a-Lago is located. It's now closed to traffic, which has turned into a nightmare.
ELDA TARRAGO, PALM BEACH RESIDENT: Nobody likes the traffic because, you know, what used to take 15 minutes to get somewhere, now you're taking 40 minutes to an hour, you know. So traffic is always an issue but, you know, that's what happens when a city grows.
KAYE: Would you like to see them put the helipad back at Mar-a-Lago?
TARRAGO: I would say, why not? Yes, why not? It'll be fun to watch.
KAYE (voice over): Palm Beach may be at the epicenter of it all, but business just over the bridge in West Palm Beach is also booming.
Billionaire Jeff Greene is building a 1.5 million square foot office, hotel and apartment complex. Vanderbilt University has plans to build a $520 million graduate campus.
[12:55:09]
And companies like Goldman Sachs are moving in, helping to transform West Palm Beach into the Wall Street of the south. Longtime Palm Beach resident Suebelle Whitworth Robbins came here 50 years ago and loves all the attention on their tiny enclave and surrounding areas.
SUEBELLE WHITWORTH ROBBINS, "INSTAQUEEN OF PALM BEACH": Oh, it's magical. I think it's sort of exciting. It was always fun to be around important people.
KAYE (voice over): Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach Florida.
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RAJU: All right, our thanks to Randi Kaye.
And thanks for spending part of your Thanksgiving holiday with us in Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break. Have a great holiday. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
