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CNN Live Event/Special

Election Results Effect Trump Cases; Markets Surge on News of Trump Victory; Polls on Voters Feelings about the Economy; Economy's Role in the Election; Markets Surge on Trump Victory. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 06, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back.

Winning this election not only returns Donald Trump to the White House, it will also likely deliver him from his numerous legal challenges. "Vanity Fair's" digital cover underscores this, 34 felony counts, one conviction, two cases pending, two impeachments, six bankruptcies, four more years.

Donald Trump has already vowed to get special counsel Jack Smith removed, which would effectively end the federal election subversion case against him. This morning, Senator Lindsay Graham tweeting this, quote, "to Jack Smith and your team, it is time to look forward to a new chapter in your legal careers as these politically motivated charges against President Trump hit a wall. The Supreme Court substantially rejected what you were trying to do and after tonight it's clear the American people are tired of law fair. Bring these cases to an end. The American people deserve a refund."

Our panel is back. And we are joined by CNN's Elie Honig.

Elie, good morning to you.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, guys.

HUNT: I don't know if you similarly have been up all night like the rest of us.

HONIG: Yes, but I was just - I was just watching, honestly. (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: You may have had a couple more hours of rest than the rest of us.

HONIG: Yes.

HUNT: So, can you explain to us what's going to happen here? I mean it seems pretty clear what's going to happen with Jack Smith. But the New York case is obviously a state case. Where does that go from here? HONIG: So, we're going to hear a lot of fascinating, scholarly,

constitutional arguments over the next few weeks about how this goes. Let me just cut to the bottom line. All four of these cases are done effectively.

The two state case - the two - excuse me, the two federal cases, Trump's already said he's going to fire Jack Smith two minutes into his presidency. He almost certainly has the power to do that. There's some argument that the president can't do that. Only the AG can do it. If that's the case, then Trump's AG will do it.

HUNT: Right.

HONIG: Those cases are done.

I think it's worth reflecting, by the way, that that will be a colossal injustice. He will have the power to throw those cases out as president. But the classified documents case, and the January 6th case, the fact that he's just going so, well, I now have the power. I'm going to throw them out. I'll never face a jury. It's worth reflecting on that. OK, that's the federal cases.

The two state cases are more complicated. Three weeks from now, three weeks from yesterday, Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced here in Manhattan on the hush money case, the conviction that he had. It's an interesting dilemma for the judge already. Even - putting aside the fact that Trump is now the president-elect, I think it's about 50/50 whether the judge sends him to prison on that case. The majority of cases like that end up in non-prison time, but prosecutors have been pretty strenuous in arguing that this case is worse than normal. What does the judge do? Do you sentence the president-elect to prison?

Now, let me say this, he's not going to prison, because even if we had the sentence in a few weeks and the judge sentences him to prison, Donald Trump will certainly get what we call bail pending appeal. He has legitimate appeal issues on that case. And in a case like this, he would almost certainly be given the opportunity to play out those appeals to the end before he has to serve any sentence. He will be the sitting president by then. And I've heard people say, well, these state prosecutions can continue while he's in office. No, they can't. Our federalism society will not allow that. And the supremacy clause in the Constitution will not allow that.

And the same analysis goes for the Georgia case. That one was going to sink on its own accord anyway. It was circling the drain and now it's never going to happen while he's president.

So, there's my overview. All four of them are cooked.

HUNT: Got it. So, I mean, let's take a minute and, as you say, I mean reflect on that because I remember watching Mitch McConnell, Scott, who I know you know well, who had, you know, struggled behind the scenes in the wake of January 6th to decide whether to vote to convict Donald Trump in that second - in that second impeachment trial. There were obviously some Republican senators, more Republican senators, who elected to do that in that moment. There would not have been enough, most likely, to actually convict him.

[09:35:03]

But McConnell went down to the floor and he said, we have a criminal justice system for this. Now we don't.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, we do have a political system as well that rides alongside of that. And for all of the legal analysis, let me give you the political analysis. The American people took all of this in over the course of his campaign, whether it was January 6th, or the documents, or this ridiculous garbage prosecution in New York state, and they said, we're going to send Donald Trump back to the White House.

So, I think the legal issues are really interesting. And I agree with what Elie said about these things probably not having any future. But the political ride along here is that we heard everything there is to hear about all of these cases or weeks and months and weeks and months on end, and the American people said, you know what, that's not as important to me as getting this man back in office so that he can implement his agenda.

I - to me, I'm not a lawyer, I'm just a political operative. and to me, that means something, and I think that we ought to reflect on how we covered it, and way it was prosecuted, and how the American people reacted to it.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think there's a question here of, does this create - you know, we talked a lot about legal precedent. Does this create a political precedent where we're essentially saying, the president of the United States is above the law, candidate for president is above the law. You know, does - is this only going to - does this only adhere to Donald Trump, who has sort of, you know, a uniquely powerful cult of personality, has been able to, you know, command a very loyal political base for nearly a decade in this country, or are we effectively creating a new political pathway where we no longer feel like our elected officials have to be held to account?

And I don't know the answer to that. I don't know where the politics of this goes. I - you know, I don't dispute Scott's point that the American voters had the opportunity to review this and decided to send Donald Trump back to the White House. But, you know, as an American citizens, it scares me that we are potentially moving to a place where this is - this is the norm.

JENNINGS: Can I ask - can I ask a question too? I think it's an - I think some voters may have looked at all this legal stuff and, a, been a little confused by it, and, b, said, well, if this was really all that bad, why did they take so long to do it? What took so long and why didn't they get around to it. Maybe this isn't as serious as I was led to believe. Do you think that's - I mean does anybody thing that's possible? I do, because -

HONIG: That very question will echo, I think, beyond this election, what on earth took these prosecutors so long. January 6, 2021. It took the Justice Department, all told, over two and a half years to bring that indictment. And there's some debate out there that I think has now settled of, did Merrick Garland take too long or not? Of course he did.

BEDINGFIELD: Well, but -

HUNT: So, I mean, Biden has, you know, there's been reporting here in the final weeks that said, like, this was a big mistake, basically, to appoint Garland.

HONIG: Yes.

BEDINGFIELD: And I - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

HONIG: Go ahead.

BEDINGFIELD: But I do think we have to - we have to think about the countervailing kind of politics here. I mean it's a little - it's - it's a little rich to hear that argument from a Republican when, you know, the argument throughout the course of the two years, you know, post January 6th was basically, you know, the Justice Department is political, they're gunning for Trump, this is all - I mean in some ways - and I'm not necessarily - I'm not necessarily arguing that Garland didn't make a mistake. This will be for debate for - for many, many years.

But, you know, there was a political imperative to demonstrate that the Justice Department was not being used as a political vehicle. And Republicans were vociferously making the case, you know, in an effort to defend and protect Donald Trump, that that's what was happening. So, I think it's - you know, it is easy now to look back and say, well, it was clear that he should have been moved more quickly, and maybe he should have.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, Kasie, I -

BEDINGFIELD: But there was a political imperative to demonstrate that the Justice Department was independent from the political directive of the president of the United States.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that it -

SINGLETON: It - go ahead.

FINNEY: I think they could have done that with - and moved more quickly. I think it can - I think those two things are true.

And I think to your point though about precedent, it does set a precedent. And it will be one that gets challenged. And what concerns me is, who will be the person that challenges it? And what will be the circumstances because they can legitimately say, and we'll go back to that cover, well, wait a second, Donald Trump did it, why can't I?

And, frankly, not just at the federal level when it comes to the presidency. If you're running for Senate, if you're running for governor. I mean, where does it end that we've now said - and this is one of the things that Trump has done, I think, culturally in terms of breaking all the norms that we - you know, I mean, in 2016, every time something would happen, he would say, oh, well, for sure that's going to be a big problem for Donald Trump. And it wasn't. I mean so there are so many ways in which he hasn't broken -

HUNT: Well, here we are. This - this morning feels like the ultimate culmination of -

FINNEY: Yes.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

JENNINGS: You know, but I think - listen -

HUNT: You think it's going to take down Donald Trump. It's not going to.

FINNEY: And it's not.

JENNINGS: I will -

SINGLETON: But I do think people -

JENNINGS: Go ahead.

SINGLETON: I do think that people expect for Donald Trump to have the ability to govern. We've talked a whole lot about this being a mandate. And I do not think the American people who voted for the former president, now's president-elect, would like to see another four years of constant legal battles over and over and over again.

[09:40:05]

Democrats had an opportunity to move as quickly as they possibly could. I mean if they made a mistake by appointing Merrick Garland, it's a little too late to try to, you know, correct that. That ship has already sailed. So, at this point, you've got to give the guy an opportunity to govern the country.

JENNINGS: I'll tell you, going back to the New York prosecution, I - we talked about this at the time.

HONIG: I'd be critical of it. You know that.

JENNINGS: I mean - I mean it took the wind out of the sails of this entire legal argument against -

HONIG: Yes.

JENNINGS: This at large political argument against Trump because of how absolutely ridiculous it was. And everybody knew it was ridiculous when it happened. Even liberal legal experts said that it was ridiculous. But the fact that it became a centerpiece of the Democratic campaign, I - it was always so crazy to me.

We took something that everybody basically thought was ridiculous and said, here's a reason. And so I think for a lot of voters, it was like, well, wait a minute, the only thing they ever really got him on was this made up paperwork case. It - to me, that was the dumbest thing that happened and probably helped him get elected.

SINGLETON: And look at the skepticism from the appeals court.

HUNT: Well, I - I will say that when Alvin Bragg did that, there was a lot of chatter among my Democratic sources that that was going to be a problem.

JENNINGS: Totally.

FINNEY: Absolutely.

HUNT: And that that was going to contribute perhaps to what we saw.

JENNINGS: It helped him win.

HONIG: I remember sitting - I remember sitting right here, right in this seat the day -

BEDINGFIELD: (INAUDIBLE) not raised it as a centerpiece of their messaging.

HONIG: The -

JENNINGS: Harris did.

HONIG: The date that that indictment came down, sitting right here, and there were Democratic political folks on the panel who said, this is a problem, because this is the weakest of the four cases.

HUNT: Yes.

HONIG: This is the biggest stretch. This is a case the Justice Department passed on. This is the case of the FEC, not even a criminal entity passed on. And, by the way, Alvin Bragg, and I should - I'll say, former colleague and a friend of mine, he took two and a half plus years to indict - well, the DA's office. Alvin came in as the DA partway through. But the DA's office took two and a half years to bring their case as well.

And I think the fact that not only was it the first case indicted, it's the only one that went to trial. It's the only one that will go to trial on a paperwork case from 2016 undermining the seriousness of everything that follows. I mean if you have - if you're making an argument and you have one weak argument and three good ones and you lead with the weak one, people aren't going to listen to the three good ones.

SINGLETON: I mean there's a lot of skepticism, especially when you saw Democrats campaign on the issue. Even Alvin Bragg himself sent out an email attempting to raise money on it. So, from the perspective of a lot of Republicans, they'll look at that case and they say, well, wait a minute, this is all politics. It's in New York, a the place that absolutely wouldn't give Donald Trump the possibility of a fair trial, so why should we believe this. And when you add all of the other cases, that skepticism continues to flow up.

HUNT: Elie Honig, thank you.

HONIG: Thanks, guys.

HUNT: Always appreciate your analysis.

Alright, it's a cliche for a reasonable, it's the economy, stupid. The markets just opened. The Dow is soaring on news of Trump's victory. Much more of CNN's special live coverage just ahead.

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[09:46:43]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, this morning, Donald Trump is not just president-elect again, he just became $1 billion richer, at least on paper. His social media stock, DJT, surging ahead of the opening bell. And, just moments ago, you can see, that's not all that's up. The Dow now up nearly 1,300 points.

All right, let's go over and talk to our friend Harry Enten, not looking at his 401k here -

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: No.

BERMAN: But looking at where and how the economy played in this election.

ENTEN: Yes, I wish I was $1 billion richer.

Look, James Carville said it best, it's the economy, stupid. And take a look at the - how folks felt about the condition of the nation's economy, 67 percent of voters said not good or poor. Awfully difficult to win when it's that 67 percent. And how did those 67 percent of voters vote in this election? We see, look at this large gap.

BERMAN: Oh, yes.

ENTEN: Yes, you can't win. I mean, look at that, Donald Trump, what is that, that's a 40-point margin among those who said that the economy was not good or poor. And that was the vast majority of voters.

Now, I want to dig in a little bit deeper. I want to look at Latino voters and what they said was the most important issue for them. Look at this, 40 percent of Latino voters said the economy was their number one issue. And how did they vote? Those who said the economy was the top issue, we can see that they overwhelmingly - overwhelmingly by a 2-1 margin, chose Donald Trump. We know from the exit polls that Latino voters, there was less support for Kamala Harris than any Democratic nominee on record since we started conducting exit polls in the early '70s. And I think the economy had a lot to do with it.

BERMAN: Just those two numbers at the beginning, how people rated the economy and how people who rated the economy voted. If you only knew that - ENTEN: You -

BERMAN: You probably could have predicted the outcome of the election.

ENTEN: It turns out it is the economy, stupid.

BERMAN: All right, Harry, thank you very much.

Let's go over to Phil Mattingly now at the magic wall to find out how and where these sentiments on the economy played the most.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: What's so fascinating about this, you, I, we've all heard Democrats very frustrating because when you look at the top line macroeconomic numbers, there's every reason for somebody to feel good about the economy. Why aren't people feeling it you would hear over and over again. For months I've been staring at Pennsylvania because, despite those good top line numbers, I want to pull up the - every county here where you see darker counties, that is where cost of living is - or the wages and wage growth has not kept up with cost of living. The darker the county, the more difficult it has been for the people that live in that county.

Now, I see you smiling. You see what I'm doing here -

BERMAN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Because when you overlap the results from last night, counties that Donald Trump did very well in, counties that Donald Trump flipped, you will be very surprised to learn that right here and right here and right here in particular, but also right here, and now we're going to show you - this was a county that, in 2020, was a Joe Biden county. In 2024, Donald Trump flipped the county and flipped it by a sizeable margin.

What about Erie? This was a county that was a Joe Biden county. Back in 2020, won it narrowly. In 2024, he flipped it back into Trump's category.

[09:50:00]

This was a county that was, in 2020, a Joe Biden county, by a pretty substantial margin, more than six points. In 2024, it was flipped to Donald Trump's column. This is interesting based on what Harry was just talking about. This is Burks County. We'll move over here, into Lehigh County. These are two counties where the highest level of Hispanic vote within the state, 20-25 percent in both of these counties. While Democrats were able to hang on to Lehigh County, this margin right here, in Burks County, 55 percent to 43.3 percent, it was part of that kind of string of counties in the blue collar center of the state, outside of the collar counties, where Donald Trump improved his margin in every single one of these economies.

And again, I just want to show this real quick, one more time, because it's wild to look at when you get a sense of, if people in Pennsylvania are frustrated about the economy, it turns out, when you tack where their wages were versus where the cost of living was, and you look at where the darker counties are, much of which, not only Donald Trump improved on, but flipped those counties entirely, you understand not everyone was feeling - not everyone was feeling it in various parts around the country, but particular in what both campaigns acknowledge was the most important state in this election, and a state where Donald Trump has, by all accounts, done better than he has in either of the prior two elections and flipped several counties that either Joe Biden rested (ph) back control of back in 2020 or flipped, like Monroe County, the county entirely.

John.

BERMAN: All right, such a good demonstration of how the economy mattered in the places that mattered most in this election. Let's no look at the right camera and also bring in our panel of experts here, starting with Matt Egan because, I've got to say, investors like something this morning.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, absolutely, John.

Wall Street is starting this next Trump era with a bang. We see the Dow up more than 1,200 points. That's about 3 percent on track for the best day on a percentage basis in two years. I think part of what we are seeing is a relief rally. Investors around the world are relieved that someone has emerged here as the clearcut winner. There were fears among CEOs and investors that this could drag on for weeks or longer, that there could be social unrest. And that, obviously, would have created enormous uncertainty.

But there's also an element of this that is relief that it is Trump that is the winner, because there are elements of the Trump agenda that are pro-business. Think about tax cuts, cutting red tape. That's why we've seen big bank stocks surging because they're betting that Trump will cut regulation. That's why we're seeing crypto go straight up. And crypto and bitcoin go straight up because of the red tape element.

But market veteran Art Hogan, he told me this morning that he thinks that some of this enthusiasm could actually be short-lived because there are also elements of the Trump agenda that are not pro-business, such as getting into fights with CEOs, massive tariffs, massive deportations and a skyrocketing deficit.

For now, though, investors are not paying any attention to those negatives or they're betting that those campaign promises are not going to become a reality. Right now the focus is on the positives.

BERMAN: So, I'm not saying that investors are that Art Hogan aren't real people, because they are, by definition they're all people. But, Professor, I am curious, if you're waking up today in one of these swing states, or anywhere in this country, wondering, gosh, you know, what's going to change for me economically now that Donald Trump is going back to the White House? What should you be thinking?

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: So, the first thing I would be thinking about is the agenda on tariffs. That is the number one issue that I think most Americans that has the wide - the most opportunity to affect the most widespread of an American audience. And I say tariffs because, you know, these questions about deregulation, about cutting taxes, cutting corporate taxes and cutting taxes for the wealthy affect a very small percentage of the population just off - off run (ph). The tariffs, right, we actually have numbers about how that would affect everyday Americans. I think "The Economist," "The Wall Street Journal," estimated about $4,000 addition per year that you would be paying due to these tariffs.

So, if I'm an American and I'm an average everyday American, I want to know what these tariffs are going to look like, when they're going to go into effect, how they are going to affect my bottom line and really be worrying about that.

So, the real question is, will Trump actually be able to push that through, or is that something that say the Republican Party decides they want to hold him on and not allow him to do?

BERMAN: You know, Mark, it's interesting, you know, prices aren't going to go down.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No.

BERMAN: I mean inflation may be stable at 2 percent, which is a good number for inflation, but prices aren't going to drop, and, frankly, people shouldn't want prices to go down on things because then you get into a deflationary cycle, and Matt can go on for hours about how that's not great for an economy either.

But will there come a point in the next six months where some of these economic trend that have been positive over the last few months begin to sink in and then who gets credit? Will it be Donald Trump because he's the guy there?

PRESTON: Well, he'll certainly take credit for it, as he's took credit for all the economic successes during the Biden administration.

[09:55:03]

But, I mean, look, this is what I think we have to - to really think about. We discussed the word mandate. We talk a lot about it. We're going to hear a lot about it when it comes to economic policies over the next six to eight months.

BERMAN: Yes.

PRESTON: But this is the reality, 75 percent of Americans thought, or at least told us that they faced either some kind of moderate or severe hardship because of inflation. Three quarters of Americans. You know, how does Kamala Harris go up against those winds? Those are headwinds that are impossible to break through.

But this is what is really interesting in it all. Going into the election last night, Kamala Harris had a better favorability - favorability rating than Donald Trump. So, keep that in mind. Donald Trump's favorability rating was 44 percent. Kamala Harris' was 48 percent, and he still won and won so decisively. Again, why? Because people are feeling it in their pocketbooks.

BERMAN: Yes. And the question they want to know is, when's that going to change for me and will Donald Trump change it quickly?

All right, stand by all.

The presidency and power. Donald Trump will return to the Oval Office with what he says is a mandate from the American people. Much more. CNN's special live coverage continues right after this.

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