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Inside Politics
Sen. Cassidy Explains Vote To Advance Kennedy Nomination; Senate Panel Approves RFK Jr. Nomination; Floor Vote Next; Sen. Cassidy: Kennedy Will Help Restore Trust In Healthcare System; Trump On Track To Have All Major Nominees Confirmed; Source: Migrant Flight Heads To Guantanamo Bay. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired February 04, 2025 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): As chairman of the Senate committee with oversight authority of his position, I will do my best to make sure that that is what we accomplish. I want Mr. Kennedy to succeed in making American healthy again. His success will be tied to the health of our nation.
He has the opportunity to address the most pertinent issues affecting Americans' health. We also need to reform institutions like FDA and NIH, and those, as has already been indicated, are my priorities as chairman of the Health Committee.
I look forward to his support in accomplishing this. If confirmed, I look forward to working together with Mr. Kennedy to achieve President Trump's mission of improving the health of all Americans. And with that, I yield.
DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: And you have just been watching a really important speech on the floor of the United States Senate that was Senator Bill Cassidy. Dr Bill Cassidy explaining why he just a few hours ago, was the deciding vote in order to get Robert F. Kennedy over the line in the key committee that he voted on to be the next secretary of Health and Human Services.
As I mentioned, he's a medical doctor. He was very concerned, openly concerned, including during the confirmation hearings that he attended and that he questioned Mr. Kennedy during about Kennedy's anti-vaccine rhetoric and history of just to sort of summarize some of what Senator Kennedy just said, peddling in some conspiracy theories from Senator Cassidy's point of view.
Now, just to recap what happened this morning is that the Senate Finance Committee voted to advance Kennedy's nomination. He won by just one vote, which is why Senator Cassidy -- Dr Cassidy, was so critical.
I want to go to CNN's Manu Raju, who was outside that hearing, has been working his sources on this. We're going to talk about some of the -- sort of the medical points that he made, which are all very, very interesting. But what I want to ask you about were the promises that we all just heard that Senator Cassidy say that he got from RFK Jr. about touching base with Congress, not replacing people in these key government agencies without checking with Cassidy and others first, among many other promises.
It's definitely not the same kind of check and balance that we have seen even remotely in the past two weeks, so maybe we should be skeptical, but it is certainly someone like you and me and all of us to make sure to bookmark everything that Senator Cassidy just said.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. It's very noteworthy. I mean, note also saying that the CDC would not remove anything from its website suggesting that vaccines are not linked to autism, childhood autism.
That, of course, had been a flash point during last week's hearing in which RFK Jr. hedged when Bill Cassidy pressed him to just say what the science says that vaccines are not linked to childhood autism. And that's what caused Cassidy to consider voting against this nomination, and that's what led to all these conversations that happened behind the scenes.
And that one assurance saying that that the CDC would not remove any language to throw into question the safety of vaccines, was one reason why Cassidy felt comfortable enough to vote to advance this nomination. And also, he's suggesting that they would have frequent communication throughout his tenure, assuming that RFK Jr. does get confirmed for this post.
But there you heard a Senator who was very much struggling with this nomination. He had extensive conversations with not just RFK Jr., but also people in the White House. The vice president himself, also in part of this, but also the pressure campaign.
Cassidy facing enormous pressure on both sides of the aisle, something he acknowledged right off the top, people wanting him, seeing him as the decisive vote. He had voted no in the committee. That would be it. RFK Jr. nomination would be done. But now he's got a serious chance of being confirmed by his critical vote to advance this to the Senate floor.
So, what happens next? We expect a vote Dana, early next week. The Senate Majority Leader John Thune plans to bring this up early next week. That means he needs to keep Republicans in line. We expect all Democrats to vote against RFK Jr., meaning he can only lose three Republican votes at most on the Senate floor.
What will Lisa Murkowski do? What will Susan Collins do? Two perennial swing votes. What will Mitch McConnell do? A childhood survivor of polio, someone who supports vaccines as well. But are there four Republicans who can vote against him? Right now, it doesn't seem that way, but still several Republicans keeping their cards close to their vest as we head into this critical vote next week, Dana?
[12:05:00] BASH: And we cannot overstate how much what we just heard from Senator Cassidy will give those three Republicans. If they are looking for it, political cover to vote for RFK Jr., because they can say, I mean, you can see the statements being written now. I had my doubts, but Dr. Cassidy says that he's going to be kind of in charge of this and make sure that things don't go awry. And so therefore, you know, I support him. You can see that happening.
OK. Manu, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Here at the table are some incredible reporters to continue to talk about this. CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Jasmine Wright of NOTUS, and CNN's Priscilla Alvarez.
Let's talk about some of what Senator Cassidy said, because it's so important and so critical, not the least of which is you have a well- respected doctor, a Republican who's certainly gone sideways with MAGA world, like I don't know, he voted for one of the -- I think it was the second Trump impeachment because of January 6.
But still, when it comes to his credentials as a doctor, I would say they're unimpeachable when you look at the Republicans. What he said was vaccine -- the vaccines do not cause autism. He said that without hesitation, without qualification, he said that is based on several studies that he has seen.
He says the science is good and that it is safe, and that is what led him to get the promise from RFK Jr. that he would, as Manu said, not take that statement off of the CDC website and other measures to make sure that the oversight of RFK Jr. and HHS is real. So now the onus is on Senator Cassidy.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is, and it would be extraordinary to see him not voting yes in the full Senate. So, by this point, to this decision almost certainly means that that RFK Jr. will be confirmed. It might take the vote of Vice President Vance, as it did Hegseth.
But I'm so struck by the parallels with the defense secretary, because you had a subject matter specialist, Joni Ernst, the Senator from Iowa, who was a combat veteran, who had deep, deep concerns about Pete Hegseth's nomination. She had a lot of pressure from the outside. She got around to voting yes. Dr. Cassidy, Senator Cassidy had -- you know, he's a subject matter expert. He got around to voting yes.
The reality here is it is virtually impossibly -- impossible, politically speaking to withstand the opposition, particularly if you're up for a reelection, but even if so. So, I think the question going forward is, how collaborative is Secretary Kennedy should he become confirmed? How collaborative will he be with of the Senate? Or are there going to be some fights between the legislative branch and the executive branch, which we are already seeing every hour of every day here.
But he clearly got to --
BASH: Not the Republican.
ZELENY: Yes, it is. Not from Republican --
BASH: And they're the ones who run --
ZELENY: Yeah, for exactly. I mean, a few of them have raised small concerns, but not really. But I was in the Oval Office yesterday, asking questions of the president, what are you doing to help get the nominees overboard? He said he was making calls, and we know that the vice president specifically has been involved in this. This has been one of his assignments, talking to Senator Cassidy, trying to urge him to go along with this. So, he did, and we'll see how it goes.
BASH: Yeah. OK. So, that was -- that's one side of the sort of the ledger, the pro and con ledger that he clearly was looking at. The other that I don't want to lose sight of, because it is really important for us to underscore this to our viewers, is the fact that Senator Cassidy said that there is a lot of mistrust of the healthcare, the government agencies that are in charge of healthcare, the healthcare industry.
Obviously, we've heard much more about the food industry, and he clearly came to the conclusion that by defeating RFK Jr.'s nomination, and because he has become the poster person, poster child for all of that would help to dis -- to sow that distrust. It would -- and putting Kennedy in there would help to calm things down. That was a big part of the Trump coalition, the sort of MAHA movement, Make America Healthy Again, and RFK Jr. is their guy.
JASMINE WRIGHT, REPORTER, NOTUS: Yeah. I mean, there is a reason why RFK Jr. has so much support across the country. Now, did he have enough support to become president? No. But did he have those people who -- because of COVID and other issues like our food quality and things like that, have a real mistrust of the vaccination system about what it causes or what it doesn't cause, or what transparency that people believe that the pharma industry is giving to Americans, yes.
[12:10:00]
And so that's his base, and that's something that was also, you know, kind of fighting against Bill Cassidy. But I think that what he described was a lot of promises, and it's unclear whether or not those promises will be kept, particularly on this issue of vaccine and autism. Even Trump posted this morning, basically saying that -- I'll read it to you really quickly. He said that 20 years ago --
BASH: Yeah. Put it up on the screen while you do it.
WRIGHT: Because 20 years ago, autism in children was one in 10,000. Now it's one in 34. Wow! Something's really wrong, we need Bobby. Thank you. Now he's not exactly linking that to vaccines, but clearly this is the conversation that's happening right now in the site guys.
And so there are a lot of people, not just the MAHA movement, not just moms, who are concerned about red dye and different foods and things like this, but that have real concerns about vaccines. And so, I think that that is what Bill Cassidy is acknowledging. I think the last thing I want to say is that, you know, so much of this confirmation fight that we're talking about right now stems from Matt Gaetz. People within the Republican community, MAGA Republicans saw Matt Gaetz fall. They felt that it was unfair that he did not get his day in the confirmation hearings, and so they created this really robust outside network to push these senators.
So yes, Bill Cassidy saying that, you know, he got enough consolidation from RFK. He feels like they can work together, but he's also facing a very tough primary, and that network of people that were engaged after Matt Gaetz fell knew that and press on that point.
BASH: Yeah. I'm glad you brought up the sort of bigger picture because I do want to talk about that. What we're going to see later today is a vote for Tulsi Gabbard. Susan Collins said yesterday afternoon that she's going to support Tulsi Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence.
It looks like unless we have a big surprise, she's also somebody who looks likely to get through. So, Matt Gaetz aside, if you look at the big picture of the cabinet, what Donald Trump wants, Donald Trump is getting from the Republicans in the United States Senate.
ALVAREZ: You don't say no to Donald Trump is essentially the message that is resonating across the halls of Congress. There are other examples of this before these votes. There's the freeze on federal funding, and the sort of tepid response said, even though we know that Republicans were getting multiple calls from constituents about how this was playing out in their districts.
And the many questions they had, the firing of the watchdogs, the inspector generals, and again, senators who have defended that and are big on oversight, including there in that speech by Bill Cassidy, when he talks about the oversight of Congress, again, another move done with not much outrage from Republicans.
This is another example of that. When you look at the 30,000-foot view here, it is that it is increasingly difficult, if very difficult, to say no to the president and his agenda. The big question that I think Jeff was hitting at here, and what Bill Cassidy was almost hinging his vote on, was the participation if RFK is to get confirmed, that there is going to be discussions with Congress.
He said, for example, that he would rebuff any attempt if he were to pull vaccines, and he would want to see, quote, ironclad scientific evidence. But that is on the basis that there's going to be that correspondence. And what we have seen over the course of only this week is that the executive has been making decision after decision, and Congress follows.
BASH: It is a big, big leap of faith, particularly for an administration that has Elon Musk, who didn't get any votes and has no cabinet or congressional nomination, is now very much doing what he wants to do, which we'll talk about later in the show.
All right, everybody standby. Coming up. President Trump, is he really going to fire hundreds, if not thousands of FBI agents who worked on January 6 cases? We could find out this afternoon. We'll talk about that next.
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BASH: Moments ago, the deadline for the FBI to turn over the names of all agents who were part of the criminal cases against Donald Trump or January 6 rioters passed. Now Trump's handpicked acting deputy attorney general, who also happens to be the lawyer, who defended President Trump in those criminal cases, ordered the bureau to give them a list of the names by noon today. The question is, will the new president order the firing of everyone on it?
CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez is in Washington, in the newsroom in New York. CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller is here, who also was a former FBI assistant director.
Evan, I want to start with you. What are you hearing about? First of all, the questionnaire, and second of all, who's on the list?
[12:20:00]
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the questionnaire was due yesterday afternoon, at 3 pm. All indications are that the agents complied with what was required of them, which was to provide information about what they did, what actions they took, what cases they were working on.
There was a very tight deadline that they were ordered to do from an email over the weekend. And then today, was a deadline for the acting leadership of the FBI to turn over the names of thousands of employees, agents, analysts, supervisors who worked on cases related to January 6, as well as a Hamas related prosecution that also occurred in the last administration.
Now, all indications were this morning was that the FBI leaders were going to comply with that deadline of noon. And so, we expect that the names are now in the hands of Emily Loeb who is the acting -- deputy attorney general at the Justice Department. And you know, keep in mind that he is the one that initiated this with a memo on Friday that was subject line, terminations, right? And he ordered the termination of eight senior officials at the FBI.
And keep in mind, Dana, that on Friday, we were headed towards a much broader purge at the FBI that actually seemed to have come to a halt, or at least a pause, in part because the groups representing former and current agents pointed out that Kash Patel on Thursday had promised that there wouldn't be retribution for agents, just simply because of the cases that they work, that they had no choice on what to work. And also -- he also testified that there would be a process. So, it appears that that is the process now in place as we wait for Pam Bondi to come in as acting -- as the attorney general as soon as tomorrow.
BASH: So, John Miller, so he made that promise -- Kash Patel made that promise. But what we're seeing maybe it's more narrow than it would have been. What we're seeing is the beginning of the retribution that Donald Trump said over and over and over he would be part of so much so that his own personal attorneys for these cases against him are now in charge of the Department of Justice.
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: And I'm being told by multiple sources that the real push on this is coming from the White House to the acting deputy attorney general. Parentheses, as you pointed out, Donald Trump's former criminal attorney to put pressure on Brian Driscoll, the acting director of the FBI.
So, with Kash Patel testifying under oath in his confirmation hearing that no agent will be disciplined for doing the actual work they were assigned to do in a proper way by the FBI, things have shifted in a most interesting way for the politics of it.
You've got the White House pushing for this enemies list from within the FBI. You've got the Department of Justice driving it, and you have Kash Patel, who -- three weeks ago, most agents in the FBI were saying, you know, what are we going to do if this guy becomes director, it could be a disaster.
And now, you've got a lot of those agents saying, let's get this guy in here, because he has promised we will not be retaliated against. And this shouldn't be carried out by a bunch of officials in acting capacities. Before there's a confirmed attorney general, before there's a confirmed FBI director, by surrogates who are trying to the political analysis would be get the dirty work done before their appointees show up.
BASH: We have a lot of faith in that testimony under oath, but it is an interesting turn, nonetheless. Thank you to both of you for your excellent reporting. Always appreciate having you on.
Up next. As soon as today, the Trump administration may start moving migrants get detained to Guantanamo Bay. We've got exclusive new CNN reporting by Priscilla Alvarez. We'll bring it to you next.
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BASH: Today, a military flight carrying migrants is expected to head to Guantanamo Bay. President Trump has demanded the U.S. military base in Cuba housed as many as 30,000 migrants awaiting deportation. One of the many questions is, is this even legal? CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is part of the team behind this reporting. First of all, I think that's the question we can ask about pretty much anything that we're talking about, that they're doing, is this even legal. But with your reporting, I want you to explain what the specific plans are?
ALVAREZ: Well, and the question that DHS, Department of Homeland Security lawyers and Pentagon lawyers were reviewing over the last several days is, can they take someone who has arrived on U.S. soil, pluck them out of the United States and take them to Guantanamo Bay for them to be repatriated to another country.
We have never done that before. What we have done is interdicted them at sea, taken them to a migrant operation center that has been there for years before repatriating them. So, this next phase of how they are opening up Guantanamo Bay and the migrant center in particular is different. It's unprecedented, and it is what lawyers have been assessing over the last several days, according to sources.
Now, planning is well underway. What they are doing here is essentially building up tent facilities. This would be in the migrant operations center area of Guantanamo Bay. We have used, and by we, I mean the United States has used 10 facilities along the U.S. southern border before, when there have been surges.
It has been for a very short amount of time before they can process them out. 10 facilities are exactly what you would imagine.