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CNN Live Event/Special

Harris Campaign Chair Tells Staff To Focus On "Protecting America"; Harris To Make Concession Speech At 4PM ET; Latino Men Embraced Trump Despite Vows To Deport Millions; Rep. Brendan Boyle (D- PA) Discusses Trump Winning Blue Wall States Michigan, Wisconsin & Pennsylvania, GOP Takes Senate, House Still Undecided; Dow Surges After Trump Wins Back Presidency; Biden Speaks To Trump, Invites Him To Meet At White House. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 06, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:31:51]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, this just in. CNN has learned that Harris campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dylan, has called on her team to begin the work of, quote, "protecting America from the impacts of a Trump presidency," end quote.

She sent that message to staffers after Vice President Kamala Harris' loss to former President Donald Trump. The vice president has called Trump to concede the race.

Let's get to our panel right now.

M.J., let's talk about what you are hearing from inside the Harris team.

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, first of all, this was a concession phone call that we had expected all day long. We got no indications that the Harris campaign wanted to contest this race in any way.

Importantly, we are told by a senior aide, on this phone call, with the former president, now President-Elect Donald Trump, she talked about the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and the importance of being a president for all Americans.

Which ironically, were some of the themes she actually ran on during her campaign. Now, these are some of the things that I think we suspect she will talk about when she talks in the next hour or two at Howard University.

This is going to be a significant speech. Both for the vice president, in terms of how she talks about this moment, and what tone she uses. As so many millions of Americans were disappointed by the results of last night are tuning in.

And also just for her personally. It goes without saying, this will be a bittersweet speech for her and a tough speech for her, and not the one she hoped to give.

She wanted to be giving a victory speech and says she is having to, in some ways, console a lot of Americans who did not get the outcome that they wanted last night.

BLITZER: She certainly didn't get the outcome she wanted last night. I don't think it's going to be bittersweet. It's going to be bitter --

LEE: Exactly.

BLITZER: -- in her making that concession.

What do you think you will hear from her?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, again, as some people said, she has to be conciliatory. We are certainly -- I shouldn't say -- who knows nowadays.

I do not believe we are going to see her use the same language that Jen O'Malley Dylan used in the note to staff where she said now, you know, the next -- I don't want to put words in her mouth. But basically, the resistance begins.

I think that is really the first sign we have seen from the Democratic Party starting to wake up from this knock-out punch that they have taken. Realizing, you know, that they have got to wake up, come off of that very quickly.

But this comes as the People for American Way, which is the center point for liberalism, has also come out and said they're going to put out a project called Resist Project 2025.

And they are trying to pull together all these liberal entities to come together to try to put a restraint basically, mainly on President Trump's judicial picks and trying to put some kind of reforms into the Supreme Court. Which mind you, they will have a tough time on both of those.

BLITZER: They certainly will.

You know, Manu, there are examples of where so-called down-ticket Democrats actually out-performed Kamala Harris in Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin specifically. What does that say to you?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, especially, in the Trump era, split-ticket voting has become almost non-existent. In fact, just one out of 69 Senate races, while Trump has run for president, have actually gone the way of the other party.

[14:35:06]

You know, if you won a state, the Republican down-ticket would have won. It would rarely be a split-ticket situation. That is different than last night.

And it will be interesting to dig a little bit deeper in the numbers. But a lot of it goes to her weakness atop the ticket.

A lot of Democrats were running ahead of her. Not just in these purple states, as you mentioned, but also these red states, like in Ohio and in Montana, the ones they lost. Sherrod Brown, who lost, ran ahead of Kamala Harris.

John Tester ran ahead of Kamala Harris. The same with Ruben Diago in Arizona and also with (INAUDIBLE) who was leading in Michigan.

Tammy Baldwin is an interesting example, too. She's a longtime incumbent Senator. She had built some inroads in some of the rural communities. And just -- just had just enough support from Trump supporters to barely get over the finish line.

And in the cases of those other two in Arizona and Michigan, they are new candidates. They didn't have the dangers of necessarily being an incumbent coming in, so they had that.

Plus, there were weaknesses in Arizona, the Democratic candidate was facing, Kari Lake, a Republican candidate, very controversial there.

But this is a much different scenario than in the past where it's split among party lines. But the split-ticket voting is why Democrats, the majority, they are the minority. It is not as bad as it could have been.

BLITZER: A good point.

I want to bring Boris Sanchez into this conversation.

Boris, some interesting exit polling was released on the issues that mattered to a huge voting bloc. We're talking about Latino Voters.

And among Latino voters, 66 percent of Trump supporters said the economy was the number-one issue.

Did the Harris camp just miss this economic message to this very important voting bloc.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: I think, Wolf, that the proof is in the data. I think when the Harris campaign came out with their economic vision for Latino voters a few weeks ago, one of the things that struck me was it seemed like it was copied and pasted from their plan, their economic plan targeting African-American voters.

And when I talk to Democratic operatives about this, they dismissed that. They essentially said that this was a strong plan. They touted everything that was in it. A promise for new small businesses and loans and et cetera.

But when I spoke with friends of mine across the country, Latino men specifically, they didn't know that it even existed. And that is despite it getting substantial coverage on this network and others.

Contrast that with what you are seeing from Donald Trump and the prosperity that a lot of those working-class folks felt when he was in office.

The lower prices that they paid for everyday goods, plus, obviously, the persona he built for himself as this successful entrepreneur, whether it is merited or not, who exaggerates his wealth, who exaggerates his exploits.

And it's something that resonates with these working-class communities when you compare that to a message that doesn't really get across, when there is no real compelling counterargument, you get what you saw last night.

BLITZER: Yes, you know to follow up, Boris, it seems as if those ugly comments made at that Trump Madison Square Garden rally in New York had no impact on the Latino voting community. Why do you think that is?

SANCHEZ: Well, I think part of that goes back to this sort of working- class sensibility that was I was describing.

And talking to a number of Republican operatives, presenting them with the comments made at the Madison Square Garden rally, they argued, well, among Latinos, we use a crude sense of humor with each other. They we're skeptical this was going to cause a serious disruption in votes.

And you see it in the numbers. I want to show you some numbers from three different counties across the country with large Latino populations, predominately Puerto Rican populations.

In Lehigh County, this in the area of Allentown, 54 percent Latino. Harris did win there by 2.5, 2.4 points. But look at what Joe Biden won by in 2020, 8 points.

So Donald Trump closed the margin there. He won in Burks County, in the Redding area, another largely predominantly Puerto Rican area by a larger margin than he did in 2020.

And then the one that speaks to this point more than any other, I think, is in Osceola County in Florida. This is in the Orlando area. A majority Latino community, largely Puerto Rican.

Look at the margin that Joe Biden won it by in 2020, 14 points. This time around, Donald Trump flipped it, winning by a point-and-a-half -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Very interesting, indeed.

Boris, the Harris campaign worked hard to get a bunch of Latino celebrities out there on the campaign trail. Apparently, it didn't make much of a dent. Is that a miscalculation from the Harris camp?

SANCHEZ: I think it may be something for politicians across the board to consider moving forward, especially in light of the populist appeal Donald Trump has.

I think that for a lot of these folks, seeing these celebrities up there with Harris reinforced the idea that there are elites that are out of touch for them and that look down on them and talk down to them.

So I don't think that necessarily helped her where she hoped that it would -- Wolf?

[14:40:00]

BLITZER: Interesting point.

Boris, thanks very, very much.

And to the whole panel, thanks very much.

I want to focus right now on Pennsylvania, the state we were told would ultimately decide this election, and apparently it did. President-Elect Trump didn't just win there, he won it substantially.

The Harris campaign was counting on a massive turnout in the state's urban areas, like Philadelphia, where Kamala Harris held her final rally Monday night. That turnout didn't materialize.

We are joined now by Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania. His district includes part - part of Philadelphia.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Congratulations to you on your reelection last night.

I want to get your reaction to not just Trump's overperformance in Pennsylvania but the fact that Harris underperformed. What did your country -- what did your party, I should say, miss?

REP. BRENDAN BOYLE (D-PA): Well, first, it was a systemic loss here in Pennsylvania. It was about four- to five-point swing to the right in Philadelphia.

BLITZER: Congressman, I'm going to interrupt you for a second. We've got a little technical issue with your audio. We will clean that up. We will continue this conversation right after a quick break.

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[14:45:08]

BLITZER: All right, we are back now with Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania.

Congressman, we've fixed that audio issue. Good to have you back.

Some in the White House, as you know, are blaming Speaker Emeritus Pelosi for pushing Biden out, pointing out that President Biden's support in the Rust Belt back in 2020 was so impressive.

Do you think President Biden would have fared better than Kamala Harris has?

BOYLE: Well, good to be with you, Wolf.

But one thing I don't think is constructive is to get into the blame game, blaming certain individuals for things that should have been done or could have been done or would have been done. None of that will help us rebuild for 2026 and 2028.

What I would like to focus on specifically is that we have to be honest as Democrats. We do have a problem connecting with working- class voters. This started to emerge about a decade ago. And it was focused on white working-class areas. That has now spread.

It is not just white working-class voters. It is black working-class voters and Latino working-class voters.

And unless we Democrats address that issue from heavily working-class parts of Philadelphia, to heavily working-class parts of northeastern Pennsylvania to working-class parts all across the country, then we will not be able to win as many elections as we want to and we need to.

BLITZER: Yes, that's an important point.

Democrats, as you know, Congressman, they lost control of the Senate. What do you expect the balance of power will be in the House of Representatives when all of this ends?

BOYLE: Well, at this moment, there are still contested and yet-to-be- called seats literally from New York State through Iowa to California, and to many different states in between. I think we are talking more than 40.

So at this point, it's impossible to tell at the moment which party will control the House. I'm still hopeful and optimistic.

Either way, though, it will be yet another term in which, whatever party controls the House, will not have a very large majority. But I'm confident that whether we're slightly in the majority or slightly in the minority, House Democrats will be able to respond to the needs of the American people.

We have a track record on this. Trump was president once before. We served in the minority for two years and then in the majority for two years. I think that we are up to the battle.

BLITZER: Congressman Brendan Boyle, of Pennsylvania, thank you so much for joining us.

BOYLE: Thank you.

BLITZER: And, Erin, back to you.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, Wolf, so you know, we mentioned we are following the markets which surged after Donald Trump won reelection. And gone up a little bit more in the past couple of hours since we have been sitting here. The Dow is now up more than 1,400 points, an all-time record. I want to bring in our Julia Chatterley, an anchor who has been

covering this in and out.

So, you know, we've seen surging markets before.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BURNETT: And I know there were a few individuals who were heavily responsible for that. And I don't know whether we should say they should get credit or not.

But they were right.

CHATTERLEY: Yes.

BURNETT: And the market is having this huge surge. Even though we have all seen economic analysis after economic analysis saying that Trump's policies would be worse for the economy than Harris'. That is not how the market sees it.

CHATTERLEY: This is a palatable sigh of relief and some partying. A decisive swift election result compared to the alternative, which is what people we're talking about, weeks of delays, counting, potential protests.

BURNETT: Yes.

CHATTERLEY: We didn't get that. And what you are seeing is a positive reaction to that ultimately. It is positive for the economy. It's positive for the financial markets. And that's what we are seeing today.

Early days, will be my first point to make on that. But then it comes down to policies. And it's more that's expected. Taxation, deregulation, potential tariffs acceleration.

There is today a palpable sense of business optimism that there will be a lighter government touch. You can see that. I can show you some of the bank stock performance today. They are soaring.

Energy stocks, oil and gas players, there are also the huge beneficiaries today as well. The difference on the downside, renewable energy stocks. Solar having an appalling day. Because they are pricing in less government support in a Trump versus a Harris administration.

Bucking that entire trend, of course, renewable energy stock, Tesla. Elon Musk is one of the biggest winners of the day. Powerfully richer, powerfully more powerful as a result.

What we cannot price is the tariffs.

BURNETT: Yes, I want to ask you about tariffs. But can I just mention Elon Musk?

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CHATTERLEY: Yes.

BURNETT: Elon Musk says he will take a role in the government. He's going to be the head of the Department of Governmental Efficiency or I think that's what DOGE stands for, DOGE.

And we'll see what happens and how that plays out. But do people in the markets that you are speaking to believe that Elon Musk will come in and have a palpable influence? I mean, he's actually going to come in and be able to rip back all of these regulations. I mean, this is a much more easily said than done thing.

[14:50:07]

CHATTERLEY: I think there is a hope that there will be some moderating force on the former president as far as business is concerned. He is a businessman. He understands the impact of massive tariffs.

Do I believe Elon Musk will be quietly saying to the former president, the president-elect now? That probably wouldn't be a good idea. But the threat is really palpable. Do the threat, bark, not bike? Yes, I do.

All I can say is good luck with that.

BURNETT: Yes, well, a reference on drunken sailors on the spending.

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BURNETT: So let me ask you, then, about the tariffs. Because you mentioned them. And this has been -- everybody says tariffs are bad. They are just like a straight tax.

And it can depend whether you're running a deficit or not. Things can be more complicated than we made them out perhaps.

But does the market believe that Trump is actually going to do the tariffs or are they simply betting this is just a negotiating strategy with China and it won't actually happen, so don't worry about it?

CHATTERLEY: Separate China from the rest of the world. China's stocks fell overnight. I think the general perception is that the bark is worse than the bite.

Goldman Sachs is a great example. He will not go big but he will do 20 percent tariffs on China, not 60. Inflation will continue to come down. It won't change the tact of the Fed.

I expect a lot of bark over the next 12 months. I expect less bite than he was talking about.

Remember, this is a president who loves the stock market rise. He loves a strong economy.

BURNETT: He loves to talk about that.

CHATTERLEY: He's not going to do anything that risks those things. BURNETT: All right. So, I like --

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BURNETT: -- tariffs are not 60 percent. They are 20 percent. Talk about relative value. You know.

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CHATTERLEY: It could be a lot worse.

BURNETT: So what about the housing market that was such a central part of this campaign? Kamala Harris with a specific plan for that. Trump not with one, but saying trust me.

What are you seeing in terms of what ultimately drives the housing market, first and foremost, which will be rates, interest rates?

CHATTERLEY: It is a great point. Not only is the stock market going up today. The cost of government's longer-term borrowing is rising today. And it has been happening for a number of weeks.

BURNETT: Yes.

CHATTERLEY: Some parts of that is stronger growth. Great. Some other parts of that is the prospect of the risk of higher inflation. It's also the risk perhaps of high spending.

He has promised $7.5 trillion worth of spending over the next 10 years. The problem is mortgage rates are more sensitive to that than they are to the Federal Reserve bringing rates down.

I think, irrespective of what the Fed does, unless we get it from the president-elect, mortgage costs are, unfortunately, going to stay high.

Credit cards are an interesting one. He has promised a 10-percentage point credit card rate. That is less than half of what we have today. He will need Congress to do it but the banks won't be acting like this.

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BURNETT: That is not something set by the government at least now. So, so much for a lack of regulation as far as the credit card rate.

Julia, thank you so much. This shows you the complexity of all this and how important.

We have some breaking news just coming in right now. We have learned that President Joe Biden has spoken with President-Elect Donald Trump and congratulated him on his victory.

Imagine the emotions of that. Biden is thinking, whoa, what if I hadn't gotten off the ticket? Who knows what's going through his mind?

But he has also invited Trump to the White House. And Biden is planning to address the nation tomorrow.

So our Arlette Saenz is breaking all of these details and has more for us.

So, Arlette, tell us everything you know.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, a very significant call this afternoon as the White House is saying that President Biden did, in fact, speak with President-Elect Donald Trump. And has invited him here to the White House.

I want to read to you what a White House official had to say. They said, "President Biden expressed his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition and emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together."

The officials said that staff would be coordinating for a date for Biden to visit -- for Trump to visit the White House in the near future.

Now this comes -- when you think back to 2020, it is a pretty remarkable turn of events when former President Donald Trump did not concede the race to Joe Biden and put up many roadblocks in Joe Biden's transition process as he was preparing to come here to the White House.

President Biden has made clear that is not something he plans to repeat with Trump as he is preparing to host him here at the White House.

The transition teams with the White House and the GSA have been in contact over the course of the past few weeks, with the potential transition teams for each of their candidates.

Now a lot of work will begin to try to make those transition processes move smoothly.

Now, President Biden we are told also spoke today with Vice President Kamala Harris and congratulated her on her victory. This is the first known conversation that we know between the two of them.

And it comes as Harris is getting ready to speak to her supporters in the coming hours.

Now, for President Biden's part, the White House says he will address the nation tomorrow regarding these election results as well as that transition process.

It comes at a time when there's been a lot of Democrats grappling with why exactly they lost this election to Donald Trump just yesterday.

[14:54:59]

And much of that finger pointing and blame game has been directed toward President Joe Biden, who had sought election for a second term for well over a year. And then pulled out of the race, abandoned those plans after that faltering and halting debate performance against Trump in June.

So there's going to be a lot of questions for President Biden about how exactly Democrats got here, what exactly his role has been in this process.

But the White House is trying to make clear that President Biden does intend to try to work with Trump to ensure this is a smooth transition, unlike what we saw play out in 2020.

BURNETT: All right, Arlette, thank you very much.

And stay with us. Our special coverage of Election Day in America continues right after this short break.

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BLITZER: Hello, I am Wolf Blitzer, alongside Erin Burnett. I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

[14:59:47]

BURNETT: All right, Wolf, we have breaking news. In the next hour, we're going to hear from Vice President Harris. She will be delivering her concession speech after losing the race to 270 electoral votes to now President-Elect Donald Trump.

This is CNN's special coverage of Election Day in America, continued.