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Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Interviewed about Senate Likely Not Passing Voting Rights Bill and Washington D.C. Statehood; New York City Democratic Primaries to Take Place with Rank Choice Voting; A Different World: Americans Realizing U.S. Has Changed. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 22, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today and yesterday, he's a football player, very good football player. I'm excited to watch him play. Thank you very much for being with us.

NEW DAY continues right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman. On this NEW DAY, battle lines drawn over voting rights in the Senate with a key vote now just hours away. Plus, Donald Trump's money man stuck between a rock and a hard place. But will he make the choice to flip on the former president or face charges himself?

BERMAN: Fewer workers in the office, higher prices at the store -- is this new economic normal as America reopens from the pandemic?

And the wealthy heiress coming clean how the rich get richer and avoid paying taxes. Abigail Disney joins us live.

KEILAR: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. It's Tuesday, June 22nd.

BERMAN: You keep telling me that.

KEILAR: I know. I always need a reminder. I appreciate it.

A Senate showdown is about to unfold, and there is so much at stake -- free and fair elections, democracy itself. When the Senate votes today on advancing the For the People Act, it will be a test of unity for Democrats. Republicans are certain to kill it, but if all 50 Democrats do get behind it, the future of the filibuster, perhaps it is in play. And that is why President Biden met privately Monday with two moderate Democratic senators who can block his legislative goals. West Virginia's Joe Manchin and Arizona's Kyrsten Sinema both support keeping Senate filibuster rules in place. Sinema writing a new op-ed in "The Washington Post" saying if we eliminate the Senate 60-vote threshold, we will lose much more than we gain.

BERMAN: Former President Barack Obama with some stark comments on this. He invoked the Capitol insurrection to advocate for the passage of the voting rights bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The violence that occurred in the U.S. capitol on January 6th, just a few months ago, should remind us that we can't take our democracy for granted. Around the world we've seen once vibrant democracies go in the reverse, locking in power for a small group of powerful autocrats and business interests and blocking out the political process, dissidents and protesters and opposition parties and the voices of ordinary people. It is happening in other places around the world, and these impulses have crept into the United States. We are not immune from some of these efforts to weaken our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining us now is Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser. Mayor, thanks for being with us.

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER, (D) WASHINGTON D.C.: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: So, I know that you will be testifying today on the Hill, but first I want to talk about this voting rights bill that we're going to see on the Hill that we are expecting to go down. This will be a procedural vote. It will need 60 votes, and it is expected ultimately not to fail. I wonder -- or it's expected to fail. I wonder what you think about President Obama saying what he said, warning of a reverse in democracy.

BOWSER: Well, I think as Americans we should all be concerned. We have a duty to protect our democracy. We've seen that it's been threatened and it's been under attack for the last four years. I agree with President Obama and certainly support President Biden's effort to make sure all the senators for today and in history can be on the record for supporting and defending our democracy.

KEILAR: What do you think about, just writ large, what you are seeing across the country? Certainly, I know it's something that you look at as the mayor of a city that has so many voters of color in it. But what do you think about what you're seeing, Republicans expected to be unified in voting no on this voting rights bill as you see laws passed in states across the country, based on a lie about the election, that will have the effect of limiting voting access for voters of color?

BOWSER: I think it's disgraceful. And that's why I'm going to the Congress today. Our democracy, our right as Americans, our right as taxpayers guarantees us the right to the ballot box. And we in the District of Columbia for 200 years have been denied representation in the capital of the United States of America.

[08:05:00]

So, yes, I'm concerned about all the state legislatures that are moving this partisan, obvious legislation to block people of color from voting. But I'm very concerned, as all Americans should be, that 700,000 people here in Washington, D.C., don't have two senators and our congresswoman doesn't have a vote.

KEILAR: I am a Washington, D.C., resident myself. And I will tell you, having lived in a number of other places, it is -- it feels weird to not have a voting member of Congress who represents you or a senator, but I will also say that despite this being the issue that comes up over and over again -- you're going to testify about this today -- it feels like it never changes. And I wonder what you're going to say today about that.

BOWSER: Well, it has changed. We have seen momentum grow supporting statehood. The president of the United States has issued a statement of administration policy. The leader of the Senate, the Speaker of the House all supporting D.C. statehood, more senators than ever supporting D.C. statehood. So it is important that we remember the progress that we've made. But it's not enough. We have to seat two senators from the District of Columbia in the United States Senate. That's the only way that we have equal footing with other Americans who pay taxes like we do. So we are not only reliant on the president and leader Schumer to protect democracy with voting rights, but also with admitting D.C. as the 51st state.

KEILAR: I want to ask you about something you did this weekend that was pretty fascinating, the response you got. You spent Juneteenth out knocking on doors in Washington, D.C., with Anthony Fauci, who was greeted, along with you, as a bit of a celebrity. And you were targeting the Anacostia neighborhood, which is a particularly disadvantaged neighborhood in Washington, D.C., as you were trying to encourage people to get vaccinated. And I thought looking at the responses that you got, it was pretty interesting. Tell us -- there was some disinformation that you came up against as you were talking to people trying to encourage them to get vaccinated.

BOWSER: Sure. Well, actually, Anacostia is a particularly historic neighborhood with great, hardworking people, wonderful education facilities, and a growing commercial corridor. And we were at the high school. They happened to be celebrating their graduation, kicking off a wonderful raffle and incentive program and going door to door with Dr. Fauci.

And you're absolutely right. A neighbor stopped us and said, where's Dr. Fauci, because I trust you. And it's so important that people have the ability to get their questions answered and go get vaccinated. So we're doing everything that we can to bring vaccine closer to people, and we have a fun raffle where we're going to be raffling off a brand- new Jeep Wrangler. The chances of winning are fantastic, so we encourage Washingtonians to go to Anacostia High School, the RISE Center at St. Elizabeth's, or Ron Brown High School to get their first shot and enter to win the new jeep.

KEILAR: You did have someone according to "The Washington Post," who said something akin to, you know the shot does other things, which we know it doesn't. We know some people have side effects to varying degrees. I had none, having my shot. My husband had a few. But we're very glad to be vaccinated. How do you combat that in your community, people who have ideas about the vaccine that just aren't true? BOWSER: Well, we know that's the case. It's the case here in

Washington. It's the case in states all over the United States. And I think that we made some progress just knocking on people's doors and talking to them face to face. The same gentleman who gave us every possible reason not to get vaccinated also shared a story. He said that he, his mom, and his sister vowed not to get vaccinated because of a lot of the myths that are circulating out there on social media and other places. And then he said, but my mom and my sister, they got vaccinated anyway.

So I hear story after story like that, people who weren't ready to get vaccinated a couple of months ago are now ready to get vaccinated. They see the city opening up. They're going back to work. Their kids are going back to school. And they recognize that they don't want to be unprotected. Open D.C. and an open United States of America, a person really puts himself or their family at risk if they don't have the vaccine.

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And we want to remind families that kids 12 years old and older should get the vaccine, too. Everybody wants kids to be back in school full time, five days a week, in-person. D.C. schools are going to be open full time, five days a week, in-person. And we think all of our teachers and kids should be protected.

KEILAR: I'm looking forward to the full time school. I will tell you that, as a parent.

There was a judge, Mayor, who dismissed lawsuits from Black Lives Matter demonstrators. These were lawsuits against Donald Trump and his administration for the clearing of protesters at Lafayette Square last year. They say that there is little evidence of a conspiracy. And I wonder how you react to that.

BOWSER: I actually haven't read that decision or heard something about it. I think you know how I feel about federal law enforcement and the United States military being used for a photo op at Lafayette Square. I thought that was a disgraceful act of presidential power that should never happen in the United States of America.

KEILAR: Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., thank you so much for being with us this morning.

BOWSER: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, it is Election Day here in New York City, where for the first time rank choice voting is underway in today's mayoral primary. So, what and how will that play in? What are some of the other biggest issues in this election? I'm joined now by CNN senior political writer and analyst Harry Enten. Nice to see you, sir.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: I've been looking forward to this day, let me tell you.

BERMAN: It's a big race. Rank choice getting a lot of coverage here, but there are other things that are important here, namely this is a Democratic primary, and Democrats have a choice here that the nation is looking at in terms of will they perhaps go more progressive or more moderate.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. We've seen this across primaries. So far the moderate mainstream candidates in 2021 have been winning most of those primaries. Obviously, Joe Biden won last year in the Democratic primary in 2020. This time around, look, Maya Wiley, Scott Stringer, Dianne Morales represent sort of this left wing. The moderate mainstream, Eric Adams, Kathryn Garcia, Andrew Yang, those tend to be the top candidates on the moderate mainstream. It's going to be very interesting to see whether or not New York City follows the pattern of the rest of the nation in going with the more moderate mainstream candidate. We just don't know at this point.

BERMAN: That's right. It's one of the big things we're looking for over the next few days.

All right, the rank choice voting system, how does this work?

ENTEN: Let's go to school, OK. You can see we have all this font here. Look at this. This is how it works. Voters can rank up to five choices. The candidate with the lowest vote total after a round is eliminated, the voter choices are allocated to the next highest preference. If their current choice is, in fact, eliminated in a round. And this process goes on and on until a candidate wins when they have 50 percent plus one of the vote.

BERMAN: Basically, the bottom person keeps on getting knocked off round after round after round until someone gets above 50. There have been rank choice elections in other places. What do we know in terms of the outcomes after the first round? If someone is leading after the first round, how often do they win?

ENTEN: They usually do, in fact, win -- 96 percent of the time the same leader in the first round and the final round. But there is this four percent of the time where it does have a different leader, where the person who is leading after the first round doesn't necessarily win. This has happened in Oakland mayoral elections, for example. So it is a real possibility, even if it's low, that we could have somebody who leads in the first round but doesn't necessarily lead in the final round. And with the polls being generally close as they are, I wouldn't be shocked if we end up in this four percent camp.

BERMAN: What's the margin you think the leader would need to lead by tonight in order to feel relative safe?

ENTEN: I think probably double digits. If we're looking at like a five point race or a six point race, we really could be in this four percent of the camp. So it's not just who is leading after tonight in the first round, it's a matter of how much they're leading by. And that should give us a clue whether or not the first round leader and the final round leader may, in fact, differ.

BERMAN: What do we know about turnouts so far in the New York City election? ENTEN: It's not actually been that horrible, OK. This is historic

turnout this century in Democratic primaries, nonincumbents. Look at this, in 2021, already voted, about 275,000. We're easily going to be 2009. It was just 331,000. The real question is are we going to get up to the 2001, 2013, somewhere between 700,000 and 800,000. It's a possibility.

I will say if you ask the campaigns, there's some massive disagreement on how many people are actually going to turnout. And that could make a big difference on whether or not the polls are accurate. Look, this is a primary. This is unusual. There's early voting. We really haven't had that before in New York City. It's an unusual slate of candidates, rank choice voting. So I'm just not really sure. And this just throws another wild card into the equation.

BERMAN: I will say, there was a sense that maybe turnout was low, but I think we're seeing it may not have been as low as people think, and it may end up being on the higher end. We'll see.

ENTEN: We will see.

BERMAN: By the end of today, Harry. Thank you very much for that. We're not going to know the winner for a long time.

ENTEN: That's exactly right.

BERMAN: We'll have you back. We'll have a chance to talk about that.

[08:15:00]

Up next, the former president's financial chief under pressure. Will Trump's CEO flip on his boss?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a different America is emerging from the pandemic, why U.S. workers are among the first to feel the difference.

Plus, an heir to the Disney fortune spilling secrets on how the wealthy beat the system and pay next to nothing in taxes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, about 45 percent of the country is fully vaccinated. The country really is opening up, but as that's happening, it is revealing a nation that's different, very different than it was pre-pandemic. People's lives are different, the economy is different and the challenges are different.

We want to start with the challenges here. A surge in crime and gun violence. Last night in St. Louis, seven people were shot and three killed in a shooting.

Over the weekend, ten mass shootings with seven people killed and at least 45 injured in the country.

KEILAR: There have been nearly 300 mass shooters so far this year. That is according to the gun violence archive. That is a 39 percent increase compared to the same time period in 2020, and here in New York City murders, shootings, hate crimes are up when compared to the same time last year, according to the NYPD and it's not just violent crime.

BERMAN: Last week there was this daytime shoplifting incident captured on video at a Walgreens in San Francisco.

[08:20:01]

It highlighted what local officials say has become a consistent problem there particularly for chain drugstores in that city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON POLICE: As we are trying to determine what are the ramifications of coming out of a pandemic, what are the frustrations that Americans are dealing, how are dealing with mental health? How are we dealing with some of the stressors related to unemployment?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So what else has transformed since February of 2020? Well, the economy, which it's barely recognizable from 16 months ago, including the leverage that American workers now hold.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Instead of workers competing with each other for jobs that are scarce, the companies compete to attract workers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That's become a reality. "The Wall Street Journal" report reports a tight labor market plus shrinking labor force, quote, giving low-wage workers perks previously reserved for white collar employees. So, we're talking bonuses, bigger raises, competing offers. And "The Journal" also reported that, quote, pay for those with only high school diploma is rising faster than for those with college graduates.

Another big change here, working from home, it's more possible than ever. The McKinsey Global Institute predicts nearly a quarter of workers are likely to work at least a day or two from home each week, and also changing how we shop these daily necessities that we buy online.

BERMAN: Online grocery sales grew 54 percent in 2020. And then the surge in home prices, median sale -- median price for a home hit a record of $341,000 in April. That's the highest since 1999. Single- family home price soared by 20 percent from last year, and it's not just homes we're talking about here. The economy is reopening fully and soaring demand together with supply chain issues and material shortages pushing prices higher.

Key question now is how long will it all last?

We know someone can give us an answer to that question. The anchor of "CNN NEWSROOM" at 9:00 a.m., Poppy Harlow, joins us.

Now, great to see you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Great to be on the big show. Good morning, guys.

BERMAN: When we talk about the leverage that workers have, why do they have it right now and how long do you think it's going to last?

HARLOW: Isn't it amazing?

KEILAR: It really is.

HARLOW: I think it's so significant, I'm fascinated by this story. I don't have the answer to that question of how long it will last, nor does the Federal Reserve and we'll get to that in a moment. But it's a convergence of factors.

So, the pandemic made us all assess our lives, what's the value of our time, right. And then there's the stimulus and then there is the extended unemployment benefits that have helped some, some states have stopped the extension of it.

But that remains for a lot of people. And then there's about 3 1/2 million people fewer in the workforce, people that retired early. So what does that mean? It means a tighter labor force and exactly what Joe Biden wanted. That was a month ago in Cleveland when Biden said that and now it's true.

I mean, you have Amazon giving thousand dollars-plus bonuses to some people. McDonald's raising wages, having drive up fares to hire people. You have Taco Bell giving paid parental leave as all companies should, but they're doing it for their store managers. So, it is now a complete reversal of power and I think it's fascinating.

KEILAR: So that allows, look, a lot of people have enjoyed working from home. Are they like the flexibility of it, they want to be able to do it part time --

HARLOW: Or they have to.

KEILAR: Or they have to?

HARLOW: Or they have to, right, or they have no child care. These things don't turn on a dime just because things reopen. There was an adjustment period.

How does that affect their desire to say, look at least in the near term, I want to do this, or even long term. I want to be a home owner to this.

KEILAR: It's so interesting because you've seen what the banks have done. You guys covered that last week. Banks are saying, come back to work in September. James Gorman of Morgan Stanley, if you can go out to dinner, you can come to work, and he's right. They generally pay a lot, and so, people may be more incentivized to not leave those jobs.

But there are a lot of other companies that are saying, work from home if you can do the work as well as you could in the office. I think General Motors is taking an interesting approach. Mary Barr is saying work appropriately, right? Get the work done.

What I would say is this group that studies it, Workplace Intelligence and WeWork, said 75 percent of employees are willing to give up a big perk for benefit to be able to choose. That's a huge number. And if you're competing for talent in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street, are you willing to lose those people because they don't want to come into the office?

BERMAN: You know, you discuss it in a really interesting way. When you talk about economics, economists always want numbers in data, but it's hard to get some of the data now on some of the phenomena that may be out there where people feel differently about their lives now.

HARLOW: Yes. Shouldn't they?

BERMAN: Yes.

HARLOW: The people they love around them, some of them died from COVID. We all got a lot more time with our children. I know that's affected all of us. And I think we're reassessing what's the value of our time and what's the value of our life.

[08:25:01]

And you're so right because I think it was last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell came out and basically said, we don't do know. And the Fed doesn't do a lot, right?

He was asked about sort of, what does the data show long term? Like, where is this going to take our economy. And he said this is an extraordinary and unusual time and we don't really have a template or any experience in a situation like this.

So we'll see. But they have to deal with the near term, which is inflation.

BERMAN: Sure.

HARLOW: And if wages are going up at all these companies and stimulus remains, and a tight labor force, that is a recipe for higher inflation.

We hope the White House is right, that it's transitory or temporary. But they might not be, right? So, you've got all that on the Feds.

BERMAN: Lumber prices are going down.

HARLOW: They are.

BERMAN: They are --

HARLOW: Like $1,700 to now $600.

BERMAN: A thousand.

HARLOW: I think it hit -- maybe a thousand or $600. It's going down. But that brings up housing.

How expensive are houses? It's so weird with so many people who struggled economically during this crisis and still are. Yet houses are at these record prices.

So people are talking about a rental crisis maybe being next.

KEILAR: It is insane, the housing prices, I will say, especially in D.C. as I'm watching.

HARLOW: I can imagine.

Can I end on one thing? I think this is a moment where maybe we'll actually see the economy work for more people. We talk about -- it's a talking point, when is that going to happen. I actually think this might be the moment when that can happen. And can we as an economy and as a country come together in a way that it does work for more people. Maybe.

BERMAN: You're not saying it didn't come at a cost.

HARLOW: Huge cost.

BERMAN: We're here where we are now. It may make a turn for the better.

Great to see you. We'll see you again in about 34 minutes.

HARLOW: I might show up. It's a nice show.

KEILAR: I hope so. Top of the hour with Poppy Harlow.

Up next, the looming decision for Donald Trump's money man. Will he cooperate with prosecutors who are investigating his boss?

BERMAN: And how the former president literally wanted to make a federal case out of rerun television.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)