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State of the Union

Interview With Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ); Interview With Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA); Interview With Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA); Interview With Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). Aired 9-10a ET

Aired November 17, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:36]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Round two. President-elect Donald Trump quickly assembles an unconventional Cabinet of loyalists.

AUDIENCE: USA! USA!

TAPPER: With the GOP set to take over Capitol Hill, what will Republicans do with their power? House Speaker Mike Johnson joins me live next.

And enemies list. A firebrand gets the nod for attorney general.

FMR. REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): I may even be a wanted man by the deep state.

TAPPER: Will he follow through on Trump's vow to retaliate against his political opponents?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: It's the enemy from within.

TAPPER: Democratic senator-elect Adam Schiff is here to respond.

Plus: in the wilderness. As Democrats search for a path forward in a new Trump era, two battleground lawmakers join me to give their advice, Senator-elect Ruben Gallego of Arizona on how to win back Latina voters and Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman on how Democrats lost ground with the working class.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, where the state of our union is watching president-elect Trump form a, shall we say, norm- shattering Cabinet.

He's back. This week, president-elect Trump showed Americans what his return to the White House will look like. He's giving every sign that his second term could be just as disruptive and very likely more impactful than his first.

Trump made a triumphant return last night to the cheering crowds at Madison Square Garden, where he hosted a widely scrutinized closing campaign rally just a few weeks ago, while his reception in Washington this week was more mixed after he unveiled a slate of loyal and in some cases highly controversial Cabinet picks, essentially daring Senate Republicans to oppose him.

Trump is determined to see former Congressman Matt Gaetz, his embattled pick for attorney general, be confirmed to that position, despite bipartisan concerns about Gaetz, while we're learning his pick for secretary of defense, FOX News co-host Pete Hegseth, paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a 2020 settlement agreement. Hegseth was not charged, and his lawyer says the encounter was consensual.

But as Trump's nominees are in the spotlight, behind the scenes, his allies and transition officials are laying the groundwork for many of the sweeping changes that president-elect promised in a second term.

My first guest was part of president-elect Trump's eclectic squad at Madison Square Garden last night. There he is in the elevator. See him in the back there on the right? That's House Speaker Mike Johnson, who joins us now.

House Speaker Johnson, so good to see you. Thanks for joining.

You were just unanimously elected as the Republican nominee to be speaker of the House. So I want to start with what you're going to do with your newfound unified Republican control of the House, Senate and White House in what could be an action-packed first 100 days.

Let's start with immigration. The Trump administration is getting ready to enact sweeping changes to immigration policy, mass deportations, mandatory detention of undocumented migrants. It could require new temporary detention centers near the border near major cities.

What's the legislative plan here? Does it include the deportation of every documented immigrant? How might -- how much might that cost?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Well, here's what the plan entails. It's securing the border right out of the gates.

This is what the American people have demanded and what they deserve. They want a secure country. They want a secure border, and we will deliver upon that. That's what the mandate of the election was all about. So we know how to do that. We have legislation that we passed in the previous Congress, in this Congress, H.R.2, that would be the most secure border legislation ever passed.

But President Trump, I suspect, will use his executive authorities beginning on day one. We will come behind with legislation and we will make sure that we have a sovereign, safe and secure nation again. That's what we have to deliver upon.

TAPPER: Do you think that the American people are ready for -- if all, whatever it is, 20 million undocumented immigrants are deported, do you think the American people are ready for not only the tremendous disruption in the work force and the economy -- I think it's like 5 percent of the work force is undocumented -- but also the fact that we're going to be seeing images of families separated, people taken out of the communities they have lived in for years?

Do you think the American people are fully prepared for that?

JOHNSON: I'm not sure that's what's going to happen, Jake.

I think what the president's talking about is beginning with the dangerous persons that we know are here. There are criminals, known criminals. There are known terrorists in the country. There are some who have been apprehended, apprehended for committing violent crimes after they have come across the border illegally.

[09:05:00]

So, you start with that number, you have got, by some counts, as many as three or four million people that fit that category. Begin there and then see how it transpires. This will take a lot of thoughtful work and deliberation. And I think the president is of exactly the right mind.

And, look, the American people want us to restore order and immigration. For four years, we have had a wide-open border. The Biden administration did that intentionally. It's the reason that we had to take the extreme measure of impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of DHS.

And it's the reason, I think, one of the primary reasons, that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden himself, when he was running, had no chance of being reelected, because everywhere I went around the country, Jake -- and I went to over 360 campaign events in 260 cities and 40 states over the last year -- the number one issue everywhere I went was cost of living and border.

They went back and forth. And that was what's on the hearts of the American people, and that's why President Trump is committed to deliver on it.

TAPPER: Now, I take your point when it comes to securing the border and getting rid of criminals that are undocumented immigrants, but the promise wasn't just to get rid of criminals. It was to get rid of all of the undocumented immigrants.

And one of the reasons why their presence in cities is controversial and why Democrats lost ground in the election in places like New York is because of the degree to which these migrants were sapping resources. I can't think of a better term for it. But, like, they were -- caring for them was costing a lot of money and money that cities didn't have.

So, the promise is really to get rid of all of them. I'm not saying my position it one way or the other, but it's more than just the criminals were talking.

JOHNSON: Well, look, I'm not sure what the specific promise is. I know the president said that he wanted to engage in the largest mass

deportation effort probably in history, because that is what is called for. I mean, you admitted yourself there may be as many as 20 million undocumented persons, illegal aliens, in the country. So this is a concern of communities all across America, not just the big cities, but rural areas as well, because they have been sent all over the nation.

We need to send a message to people around the world that the open door is now being closed and that we are going to restore law and order. And I think that's what the American people are very hopeful and expecting that we will deliver upon. And we will. And President Trump's committed to it. He's the leader to do it.

TAPPER: So, when you talk about rural communities, a lot of migrants in rural communities are doing work that Americans don't want to do. And there is a lot of concern that deporting all of these undocumented immigrants will actually have a deleterious effect on the economy.

Is that going to be taken into an account? Will there be a way for individuals who are here, but here peaceably, here as part of the economy, here paying taxes and the rest, is there going to be a way for them to find some sort of legal status? I'm not talking about a path to citizenship, but a legal status so there isn't this tremendous disruption of the economy, to say nothing of the people who have kids in school and the like?

JOHNSON: I won't get ahead of the president, the administration on what the specifics of the policies will be, but I can tell you that there is a real appetite in Congress to solve this problem.

We do need work visas. We need to encourage legal immigration and these work programs that have been very effective. But we need everybody in this country to follow our laws. I don't think that's asking for much. And I think that's what the people want us to get back to.

TAPPER: Let's talk about another top priority for the incoming Trump administration and across the board, 10 percent tariff on all imports and even larger tariffs on all imports from China.

Some experts say that president-elect Trump could enact the China tariffs on his own, but might need legislation for the new universal tariff. Are you going to bring that to the floor of the Congress in the first 100 days, a new 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all imports?

JOHNSON: Well, just like with immigration policy, I'm not going to put the cart before the horse.

The president and I have talked about this as recently as yesterday, the use of tariffs in the economy and how that might be done. It will be a balancing act, as it always is, but he has some ideas, aggressive ideas, to grow this economy again and to reduce the cost of living.

And there are a number of factors that will go into that. We have lots of legislation already planned, and he has action from the White House already planned to bring down the cost of living. How? By, well, incentivizing American companies to invest here again and to grow jobs, create more jobs for more people.

We have to make sure early in this new Congress that we make certain the American people don't experience the highest tax increase in U.S. history when the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would expire. So that will be top of the agenda as well, and then reducing the reckless levels of spending that Biden and Harris perpetuated for four years.

We can turn this around, reduce the size and scope of government, make it work more efficiently and effectively for the American people. I was on a plane last night coming back from the UFC fight with the president and Elon Musk and many others.

[09:10:05]

And Elon and I were talking about ideas to make government work more efficiently. There's exciting things on the table, Jake, and I think the people are going to be very pleased with what comes out.

TAPPER: So you are going to bring up extending the Trump tax cuts in the first 100 days, it sounds like.

What about the president-elect's promise to eliminate taxes on tips for the service industry? How soon might we see a vote on that?

JOHNSON: Look, I think that's an important promise. I think that it's one of the reasons that the mandate was so large. The president won, of course, the popular vote and the Electoral College in what looks to be a landslide now.

And this is part of the -- one of the promises that he wants to deliver on. We're going to try to make that happen in the Congress. You have got to do the math. You have got to make sure that these new savings from American people can be paid for and make sure the economy is a pro-growth economy.

We know how to do it. We have delivered on that before and we will do it again. And I think that will be part of the equation.

TAPPER: Let's turn now to the fact that one of your now former members, former Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida, has been nominated for U.S. attorney general.

Gaetz, as you know, had been facing a House Ethics Committee investigation over numerous allegations, including one that he had sex with a 17-year-old. We should note that Gaetz denies that allegation.

On Wednesday, you said this about the House Ethics Committee's investigation:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: The speaker of the House is not involved in that, can't be involved in that, so I'm not really the person probably to answer that question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: But, on Friday, you did want something to do with it. You said the House Ethics Committee report should not be released.

In between those two comments, you did speak with president-elect Trump. Did he encourage you to change your position and to squash the House Ethics Committee report from being released?

JOHNSON: No, he did not.

The president and I have literally not discussed one word about the Ethics report, not once. And I have been with him quite a bit this week between Washington and Mar-a-Lago and last night in Madison Square Garden.

But this is what I will tell you about that. What I said is entirely consistent. The speaker of the House is not involved in Ethics Committee work, can't be, shouldn't be, because the speaker can't put a thumb on the scale or have anything to do with that. So I have no idea what the contents of this report would be.

I didn't even know about it, Jake, until the middle of this week, when it was announced in the press. What I have said with regard to the report is that it should not come out. And why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member.

There's a very important protocol and tradition and rule that we maintain that the House Ethics Committee's jurisdiction does not extend to non-members of Congress. I think that would be a Pandora's box. I don't think we want the House Ethics Committee using all of its vast resources and powers to go after private citizens.

And that's what Matt Gaetz is now. He is no longer a member of Congress. So I think that's a really important guardrail for the institution. And that's what I was speaking to in those sound bites.

TAPPER: The House Ethics Committee in the past has released reports of individuals who resigned from Congress, Congressman Boner, Congressman Lukens. The House Ethics Committee, after the resignation of Mark Foley, even began an investigation and then released a report.

So it's not unprecedented. And there are a number of Senate Republicans -- I mean, this report is already done. It's not the question of continuing it. It's finished. There are a number of Senate Republicans who want to see it. They say it's important to their advice-and-consent role. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I think there should not be any limitation the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): And we should have access to it one way or another, based on the way that we do all of these nominations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Don't the American people, and, more importantly, don't the people who are going to be voting on Matt Gaetz's confirmation to be the top law enforcement officer of the United States, don't they have a right to see that report that has been paid for by taxpayer dollars?

JOHNSON: Two important points here, Jake.

Number one, my understanding is that the report is not finished. It's in a rough draft form, was not yet ready to be released. And since Matt Gaetz left the Congress, I don't think it's appropriate to do so. There have been, I understand, I think two exceptions to the rule over the whole history of Congress and the history of the Ethics Committee.

But I don't -- I wasn't the speaker at that time. I'm the speaker now. The speaker does not have the authority to stop the release of a report by the Ethics Committee. But I have just simply said what I believe is an obvious point, that we don't want to go down that road.

I don't think you want the House Ethics Committee investigating Jake Tapper or any other private citizen. You're not a member of the institution. There's a reason that it is limited in its scope and jurisdiction.

The Senate has a role, the advise-and-consent role, under the Constitution, and they will perform it. They will have a rigorous review and vetting process in the Senate, but they don't need to rely upon a report, or a draft report, a rough draft report, that was prepared by the Ethics Committee for its very limited purposes.

[09:15:03]

TAPPER: So, beyond the question of whether or not Congressman Gaetz broke the law -- and, certainly, there's a presumption of innocence for anyone -- a lot of House Republicans, your colleagues, the people you lead, have real issues with Matt Gaetz as somebody to lead the U.S. Justice Department.

I'm sure you have heard them, because I have heard them.

I want you to take a listen to now-Senator, former House member Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma talking to our Manu Raju months ago about Matt Gaetz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): He was accused of sleeping with an underage girl. And there's a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him, because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor that all of us had walked away of the girls that he had slept with.

He'd brag about how he would crush E.D. medicine and chase with an energy drink so he could go all night. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, just to take a step back, because you and I have known each other for a long time, you're a man of faith, you're a man of God, you're a man of family.

With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder, does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? Is that still important to the Republican Party?

JOHNSON: Sure. It's an important issue for anyone in leadership.

This is what I will say about the nominees that the president has put forward, is that they are persons who will shake up the status quo. And I think what the American people have believed and what they have delivered with the mandate in this election is demand that we shake up the status quo. It's not working for the American people.

So you used the term in the opening about how these are disrupters. They are. I think that's by design. Any president has the right to name their own Cabinet, to nominate persons that they think will fulfill their agenda. And the people that are on this list will do that. They will go into the agencies that they're being asked to lead and they will reform them.

These agencies need reform. And I think the vast majority of the American people understand that. You can't have status quo appointments in a moment like this. I'm really excited about the days ahead. I think the America first policies will deliver for the American people.

I think we're going to have a warm embrace of all the new folks who came into the Republican Party in this election cycle, the demographic shifts that we saw that were historic, because we have a chance now to demonstrate for them that our policies, our conservative constitutional policies, commonsense policies are best for them as individuals and families and communities and states and the nation as a whole.

So, exciting days ahead. It is a new day in America. These individuals will help deliver that. And I think the Senate needs to do its job and get them appointed so that the president, President Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance, can begin that administration and run with it on day one.

TAPPER: All right, Speaker Johnson, good to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us.

JOHNSON: Thanks a lot, Jake. Good to see you.

TAPPER: Trump called him an enemy from within. So, what does senator- elect Adam Schiff think about Trump's plan for the U.S. Justice Department? We will ask him next live in studio.

And could his campaign be a model for Democrats going forward? That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:30]

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Jake Tapper.

Donald Trump, the president-elect, has called our next guest -- quote -- "the enemy within," raising questions about whether he might be targeted under a second Trump administration by law enforcement or whatever.

Joining us now exclusively, senator-elect Adam Schiff of California.

Senator-elect, congrats on your win. Did Steve Garvey call you to concede?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), SENATOR-ELECT: He did. He did, yes. He was very gracious about it.

TAPPER: Maybe you can get an autographed ball or something. He's still a Dodger great.

You heard what Speaker Johnson said about Matt Gaetz. What do you think?

SCHIFF: I think he's not only unqualified. He is really disqualified. Are we really going to have an attorney general who there's credible allegations he was involved in child sex trafficking, potential illicit drug use, obstruction of an investigation, who has no experience serving in the Justice Department, only being investigated by it?

But, Jake, I think the whole point with these nominees, several of them, is their unqualification, is their affirmative disqualification. That's Trump's point, because what he wants to do with these nominees is establish that the Congress of the United States will not stand up to him with anything.

If they will confirm Matt Gaetz, they will do anything he wants. I mean, look how the speaker had to tie himself in knots, a couple days ago saying the speaker, effectively, should stay out of this,there are important reasons for that, and then getting involved in this, reversing himself, tying himself into a pretzel to placate Donald Trump.

And if the Senate should decide to confirm without seeing this Ethics report or to allow recess appointments, essentially, the Senate is saying, we're going to abdicate our responsibility for advice and consent.

This is not why people voted for Donald Trump. They voted for him to reduce prices. I talked to people up and down the state of California. The economy was the central issue. They want someone who's going to address the cost of housing and the cost of childcare and the cost of food and gas. They didn't vote for this kind of retribution-destruction tour that

the president seems now engaged in.

TAPPER: During his campaign, president-elect Trump repeatedly called you the enemy from within, you and Speaker Pelosi specifically. And he said this about his enemies from within. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people.

We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the -- and it should be very easily handled by -- if necessary, by National Guard, or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can't let that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:25:07]

TAPPER: Do you think that he was talking about using the military against you? And how concerned are you about retribution?

SCHIFF: Clearly, that's what he was talking about. Would he go to that length? Would the military essentially fulfill some kind of an unconstitutional order?

I would hope the military would have more independence than that. Historically, the military has stood up to civilian authority where civilian authority has suggested, as in his first administration, unconstitutional acts.

Look, I'm not going to be intimidated by anything he says, by anything he does. If I was, I wouldn't be on your show. I'm going to do my responsibility in this Senate. Californians are expecting me, first and foremost, to try to work and get things done, work across the aisle. Where the president wants to fight prices, I will work with him.

But where the president wants to engage in unconstitutional abuses of power, just as he did in the first administration, I will defend our state, I will defend the rights and freedom of the American people. So, yes, that's what he said. That's what he may try to do, but I'm not going to be intimidated.

TAPPER: I'm looking at these nominees, Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, possibly Kash Patel to be head of the FBI, Gaetz at DOJ, RFK Jr. at HHS, and others.

And, obviously, he is bringing a group of people to disrupt. I mean, that is what Speaker Johnson said. And I'm wondering about how much anybody in Washington is being introspective at all about why there is this kind of opening for disrupters, if not necessarily these individuals. You were censured in the House last year for, in their view, holding

positions of power during the Trump presidency as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and, according to them -- quote -- "abusing this trust" by saying there was evidence of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

And I wonder if you are feeling at all introspective at all about -- that was, according to your -- according to the Mueller report and according to your Republican colleagues, an overstatement. And I wonder if you think in any way you helped set the table for these disrupters?

SCHIFF: You know, first of all, it wasn't an overstatement. There is evidence of collusion. The Trump campaign manager was meeting with Russian intelligence and giving them internal polling data, just to give you one example. And the Mueller report sets all this out.

TAPPER: It does say -- quote -- "The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities," which doesn't mean that he didn't -- that there weren't meetings, but they didn't find evidence of it.

SCHIFF: Mueller says that too. He says the fact that we didn't find proof beyond a reasonable doubt doesn't mean there wasn't evidence of conspiracy or coordination.

TAPPER: Right.

SCHIFF: So -- but, look, that's not what people were voting on. People were voting on, is this guy going to improve the economy? Is he going to address inflation?

And we didn't persuade the American people that we had a better answer to that question, that we had a better program, agenda, plan. And, more than that, I think we failed to persuade the American people that, in the voters' point of view, hey, that party, that candidate understands people like me. They're fighting for people like me.

And that's on us. We're going to have to figure that out. I think that's what people were voting on, more than anything else. And, yes, we're going to have to do the introspection to say, how do we meet this challenge?

And, more broadly, Jake, and, frankly, I think one of the reasons I was successful in California is, I was out there talking about the economy. I was out there talking about what we need to do to bring down the cost of housing and bring down the cost of childcare, and going to places in the Central Valley, elsewhere, red parts of the state, being present, making the case, hey, I'm going to fight for you. I'm going to fight for you like any other part of California.

We need to make that case all over rural America that we understand what people are facing, that we respect them, that we're going to deliver for them. I think that's been missing. In my own campaign, that's what I tried to do, I think with some success, is go to places they weren't expecting to see me.

And, when they did, because so many of them only know me from the kind of FOX News attacks like the one you started out with and mentioned, they are surprised...

TAPPER: Yes.

SCHIFF: ... when, actually, you can relate to people like them and have so much in common and are going to fight for them. I think that's what we have to do.

TAPPER: So do you think Democrats in this second Trump term, I'm not saying that anybody should acquiesce to any abuses of power, but do you think there need to be more focus on the public than on Trump tweet of day kind of thing?

SCHIFF: Well, I think we have to address, frankly, a structural problem with the economy that we have not significantly delivered on enough.

And that is that it's just not working for millions of people.

TAPPER: Yes.

[09:30:00]

SCHIFF: And the problem is that not that they're not working. Unemployment is low. The problem today is that people are working, and they still can't get by.

TAPPER: Some of them two or three jobs, yes.

SCHIFF: Exactly.

And I think, when people see the quality of life their parents had and say, you know, that's better than what I have, and the future for my kids is even more in doubt, all too many will entertain any demagogue who comes along promising that they alone can fix it.

So we're going to have to address these structural economic problems, if we're going to not only become a majority again, but the kind of a durable majority, which is what I want to see happen.

TAPPER: Senator-elect Schiff, thanks again. And congratulations again on your race, a rare bright spot for Democrats in a difficult cycle.

He always said Pennsylvania would be close. Senator John Fetterman joins us for his first TV interview since the election.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Jake Tapper.

As Democrats do more soul-searching about the election results, one question that they are confronting, how much to oppose Trump in his second term.

Joining me now for his first TV interview since the election, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman,

Senator, always good to see you.

You have said that Democrats shouldn't be -- quote -- "freaking out" over every single thing Trump does. Are you freaking out at all about any of these Cabinet picks, I wonder?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Well, I mean, there's some that I would absolutely be excited to vote for, like my colleague from Florida or the representative from New York, of course.

And then there's others that are just absolute trolls, just like Gaetz and those things. And that's why Democrats -- like, Trump gets the kind of thing -- I mean, he gets the kind of thing that he wanted, like the freak-out and all of those things. And he hasn't even been -- it's still not even not even Thanksgiving yet.

[09:35:00]

And if we're having meltdowns every tweet or every appointment or all those things, I mean, it's going to be four years. And just the last time, I think -- the last time I was on your network, I was warning about the jackpot.

And I use that metaphor of the slot machine, 777. And if Trump wins, then likely that's going to happen. He's going to get the House, we're going to have the Senate and the presidency, and the real jackpot is the Supreme Court. And that's been very clear that that's a strong conservative slant.

So they can run the table right now. And at least for the next two years, those are the things, if you really want to be concerned about that, that they have the absolute ability to run the table, at least for the next two years. And that's what I think we should all be concerned on, not small tweets or random kinds of appointments.

TAPPER: Just before the election, you predicted on this show that the results would be close, but that Kamala Harris and the Democrats would ultimately carry Pennsylvania. They -- that obviously did not happen.

You won in Pennsylvania by appealing to not only people in the urban centers like Philly or Pittsburgh, but appealing to blue-collar workers in red counties who voted for Trump this time around. Is the Democratic Party still the party of the working class?

FETTERMAN: Well, of course.

But I described the situation, and now I have already claimed that it's going to be incredibly close. And I have also claimed that Trump is the strongest that he's been in the three cycles there. And now things that were really unique that happened, the assassination attempt, that was in Butler. That's 45 minutes from where we're sitting right now, and then Musk. Musk is not just a typical kind of a surrogate. We're all in that

situation. We're all in that business. We have surrogates. We have endorsements. And many of them often don't really matter much, but now Musk made himself really active, and he was described as moving to Pennsylvania.

And I do believe that helped move the needle in that too. So Trump came in, in the strongest position, and he carried Pennsylvania and carried all of the swing states. So that's what -- that's what's reflected, that he came in a strong position, that -- there's going to be a lot of hot takes. There were a lot of hot takes before this election.

But it's undeniable here we are now because of a lot of the decisions that were made before the election.

TAPPER: Your colleague Senator Bob Casey, who was up for reelection, there's a commonwealth-mandated recount going on right now because it was so close. He's trailing by 18,000 votes behind Dave McCormick.

Democratic officials in at least one key county, Bucks County, voted to count about 115 provisional ballots that miss -- that are missing a signature, despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Court previously ruling that those are invalid.

I want you to take a listen to how one Democratic Bucks County commissioner justified her actions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn't matter anymore in this country and people violate laws any time they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it's because I want a court to pay attention to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So "The Washington Post" editorial board called that -- quote -- "corrosive to democracy" unquote -- and said -- quote -- "County officials do not get to decide whether a legal requirement is material and must be followed. Courts do and they have spoken clearly" -- unquote.

What's your take, what's your response to that Democratic official deliberately announcing that they're going to defy court orders and count these provisional ballots?

FETTERMAN: Well, again, I'm not going to chase every kinds of quotes, things like that, because I think you just pointed out that it refers to about 115 ballots, and that's not going to have an impact on this race at this point.

So what's -- where we are now, it's very, very close. And I guarantee you, if Dave McCormick were in the opposite situation, where he was down 15,000 to 17,000 votes, he would absolutely want to have every last vote counted as well too. And Bob Casey has never claimed fraud. And I think it's really interesting now all of the Republicans and the

conservative people on Twitter aren't talking about, oh, they're cheating, they're having all kinds of a thing, after Trump won. No one's claiming that there's any kinds of actual cheating on our side.

Calling and counting every vote -- and that's where we're at. And that's the law. And when it's finished, and if Bob Casey comes up short, I can almost guarantee that he's going to do the right thing and concede. So that's the thing.

[09:40:09]

But my point, no one's making an argument that there's any kinds of cheating or thing on our side. It's like, hey, let's -- we're going to count every last vote.

TAPPER: Senator Fetterman, always good to see you, sir. Thank you so much for joining us.

FETTERMAN: All right, thank you.

TAPPER: My next guest outperformed Kamala Harris and has a message for his fellow Democrats about how they can move forward.

Senator-elect Ruben Gallego of Arizona is right here next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:01]

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Jake Tapper.

One of the surprises for Democrats this election cycle was just how many Latinos swung their support to Donald Trump.

My next guest is a Democrat who bucked that trend and outperformed among Latinos in Arizona. Joining us now with some advice for his party, senator-elect Ruben Gallego of Arizona.

You're still a member of the House, though, right? I mean...

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ), SENATOR-ELECT: Yes, unfortunately.

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: Is it OK if I call you congressman?

GALLEGO: You can call me Ruben.

TAPPER: Or do you demand that I call you senator-elect?

GALLEGO: Just call me Ruben. It's fine.

TAPPER: So, you won in Arizona. The top of the ticket did not. What did you do right and they did wrong? GALLEGO: Well, look, from the get-go, we understood that we were

already behind the eight ball. There are 300,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. You need to vote -- we needed to just talk to everybody as often as possible and build trust, because we knew it was a very hard environment.

People were hurting. When I say people were hurting, people were -- really felt the pain of the economy, of not being able to buy what they wanted, not being able to buy a house, even get apartments.

And what we needed to do is make sure people understood that I felt what they had felt, because I grew up poor. I understood what they were feeling. So we went everywhere, everywhere in Arizona. We spoke to everybody, Democrats, Republicans, independents.

We went to the reddest parts of the state. We went to some of the bluest parts of the state that also never get visited. And we explained to people, like, what is happening right now is bad. And also, by the way, it's not your fault. But we're going to work to fix it.

I have heard...

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Go ahead. I'm sorry.

GALLEGO: No, and I think that's the thing that we did for 23 months that made the biggest difference.

TAPPER: I have heard Democrats complaining -- and this is not Kamala Harris specifically -- but I have heard Democrats complaining that too often Democrats think that they can say, oh, don't worry about your pain. Look at this chart.

GALLEGO: Yes, that's true.

TAPPER: And do you think that that was something that...

GALLEGO: Absolutely.

A lot of people were saying that. And I heard that. Like, we will talk to them how good the economy is. The problem is, you can have all the graphs you want. If you open up your checking account and you see that you're making less and there's not enough coming in, it doesn't matter what the GDP growth is, right?

If you go to the grocery store -- and I live in a fairly working-class area -- and you start noticing that the brand names are not being bought and generics are, it doesn't matter what unemployment is. And a lot of people got through this inflation, rising inflation, by also taking out credit card debt.

And this is what I think people forgot the whole time, is that even though, yes, wages were going -- were getting higher, yes, costs were going down, people were still paying down credit card debt that they used basically to survive this whole time.

And so one of the things that we were very clear about in this campaign is, we said, yes, let's see what we can do. Like, let's figure out what we can do to make your life a little easier, so you can breathe easier, right? And just being able to recognize that, hey, this is a problem, and not just trying to gloss over it, I think, was a big, big difference.

TAPPER: Yes.

Let's talk about the Latino vote, because, obviously, that's a place that you did well. It's -- Donald Trump didn't win the Latino vote, but he did better than any Republican presidential candidate in history. And according to CNN's exit poll, 55 percent of Latino men voted for him. That's a 19-point swing from four years ago.

You say that Democrats need to -- quote -- "go touch grass and meet real Latinos."

GALLEGO: Yes.

TAPPER: What do you mean by that?

GALLEGO: I think Democrats a lot of times surround ourselves with people that will affirm what we already believe or people from our same backgrounds, right?

And so you have a lot of Ivy League candidates that hire Ivy League Latinos that don't actually come from a working-class background. And most Latinos are actually working-class. And sometimes we don't want to hear what they're saying.

And I had the benefit of growing up in a working-class family. Like, my mom's a secretary. My father was a carpenter. I grew up -- and still even my whole family, Latino family, is working-class. So I actually have -- it's a big Latino family too. I actually have a really good pulse on what's happening there.

And we don't want to hear the bad news. And I think a lot of times we knew that something was bad with Latino community when it comes to their opinion of the economy...

TAPPER: Yes.

GALLEGO: ... because I'm very much connected to it. I think a lot of politicians didn't want to hear what was actually happening out there.

And the reason we were successful, because we heard about it and we moved early on it. My first campaign commercial was about the economy in Spanish and also on the border. We were the -- our first commercial was about immigration and more border security in Spanish, because we heard about it earlier.

I think there's a lot of people in D.C. that didn't want to hear what was happening out there because it would go against some of their -- some of the stuff they had learned in the past. TAPPER: You're a veteran. And I wanted to ask you.

Trump has -- president-elect Trump has nominated FOX News co-host and Army National Guard veteran Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon. He has said that women should not serve in combat roles and that the Joint Chiefs chairman should be fired for being too -- quote -- "woke."

You deployed to Iraq with the Marines. Are you going to vote for Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense? What's your position?

GALLEGO: Well, I'm going to give him an opportunity to, number one, explain himself. And I will give that to all these Cabinet members.

[09:50:03]

The most important things that I'm going to use for all the metrics of everybody that is running is, number one, are you going to protect and serve the Constitution of the United States? Number two, is this going to be beneficial to Arizona? And are you, where relevant, going to help us bring down the costs of everything that's in Arizona and the country in general?

So, I'm not going to jump ahead and say yes or no. I will give him his opportunity as part of my constitutional duties, but I think he has to answer for a lot of what he has said in the past.

TAPPER: You, as a veteran, also, I want to ask you, is one of the ways Donald Trump won was by kind of painting himself as, I will keep us out of wars, and Democrats and their allies, like Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney, they will take you into wars.

What did you make of that argument? Did that resonate with people?

GALLEGO: I'm not sure.

Look, I think really the economy is what resonated with people. And that's what I heard in Arizona a lot. People were worried about the cost of everything. And I think some of the frustration was that we were spending money, but not necessarily helping people. And that's also...

TAPPER: Spending money like in Ukraine, you mean?

GALLEGO: Yes, exactly.

TAPPER: OK.

GALLEGO: And part of my frustration was, we would love nothing more to help you up, but also we don't have the votes from Republicans.

But even getting to that discussion starts going down a long conversation. The biggest lesson we have to learn here is, when people are hurting economically, they're going to take care of themselves first. And that's what we have seen for the last -- change elections for the last 20 years. And I think it's important for Democrats to remember that from now on.

You have to take care of people at the bottom line. You have to give them some level of economic security, especially Latino men. Latino men believe they can work themselves out of any problem.

Like, I remember growing up, when I didn't have enough money to travel back home for Christmas, I just went and worked extra hours.

TAPPER: When you were a Marine?

GALLEGO: When I was at school.

And so I would -- I literally went to a convention center and threw on a costume and handed out leaflets, right? That's the mentality of Latino men. This election -- I'm sorry -- this time is the first time I'd ever heard many of them say, I just don't feel like I'm doing anything to provide for my family. I don't feel like I'm bringing them security.

Until we actually focus on that and understand that, we're going to have problems really bringing them back into the Democratic fold.

TAPPER: Senator-elect Ruben Gallego, congratulations again.

GALLEGO: Thank you.

TAPPER: And please come back a lot. We'd love to have you. We love hearing from you.

GALLEGO: Appreciate it.

TAPPER: We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:56:04]

TAPPER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at how the new weight loss medications are transforming lives. Tune in tonight, when "DR. SANJAY GUPTA REPORTS: Is Ozempic Right For You?" It premieres at 8:00 p.m. only here on CNN.

Thanks for spending your Sunday morning with us.

"FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" starts next.