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Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC) Discusses VP Harris Stumping In NC Amid Biden Campaign Crisis & Biden's Shakey Future As Critical News Conference Looms; Texas Gov. Requests Investigation Into Electric Companies In Wake Of Power Outages From Beryl; Trump Claims Not To Know Anyone Behind Project 2025, CNN Finds 140-Plus People Who Worked For Him Are Involved; Study: Nearly Half Of U.S. Adult Cancer Deaths Could Be Prevented. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 11, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: When you announced that decision last year, you said you'd, quote, "be working to elect North Carolina Democrats up and down the ballot in this election year, 2024.

I'm curious if you think President Biden is the best person at the top of the ticket for that?

REP. WILEY NICKEL (D-NC): Jessica, Joe Biden's our Democratic nominee. we're going to do everything we can to make sure we beat Donald Trump.

We've got a really important race for governor as well with Josh Stein taking on MAGA extremist Republican Mark Robinson. A lot on the line in this election.

And my focus is just making the case for why Joe Biden should deserve a second term. And talking about the good things he's done, especially as we contrast that with Donald Trump, who wants to ban abortion with no exceptions, give massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

That's not going to help the folks that I represent.

DEAN: And I know your focus -- as I said, on getting -- on making sure that a Democratic nominee wins the governor's office, that gubernatorial race in North Carolina. And again, that down -- the down ballot.

That's what so many people seem to be concerned about on the Hill, is the impact also on the down-ballot races and control of the House and the Senate.

Does that concern you that Joe Biden at the top of the ticket could drag those other candidates?

NICKEL: You know, the biggest concern I have is how we go out there and beat Donald Trump. And that's the focus here. We've got to do everything we can to push that message out.

This is going to be about turnout. This is going to be a close election. And Joe Biden has just one hurdle he has to overcome. He has to make sure folks understand he's up to the job.

We're going to get to see him in action day in and day out. He's got a big press conference coming up today. We will get to see him in action, up-close. I encouraged that the Biden campaign to get him out there as much as we can.

Because once he clears that bar, it's a very low bar, we're going to be talking again about Donald Trump and why -- especially on days like today here in Washington, where we've got the NATO 75th anniversary summit.

Democracy is literally on the ballot. If we can't -- if Donald Trump gets back to the Oval Office, he will hand Eastern Europe over to his friend and pal, Vladimir Putin. Those are big stakes in this election.

So I hope our focus can be more on really what's at stake. And Joe Biden's the one that needs to put this issue to bed.

DEAN: And so with those stakes in mind, those high stakes you just laid out, you're saying you're confident that the president is the best person at the top of the ticket to make sure that those things don't happen?

NICKEL: Yes, he's beaten Donald Trump before. And I can just tell you, in my race, I won a Republican seat in the last election. We had fair maps in North Carolina.

And we did it because, you know, pro-choice Republicans and pro- democracy Independents made their voices heard? Those are the ones we should be looking at. You know, not a big poll of the nation.

It's really just about states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania and Michigan. They're the states that are going to decide whether or not Joe Biden gets another term in the White House.

DEAN: And we heard from the House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries this afternoon. He told reporters, in part, that conversations about President Biden with House Democrats continue, that they are going to be ongoing.

As someone who supports the president and has talked about what you want -- you're saying you want to be talking about the issues, do you think that Leader Jeffries is taking too much time to conclude this process?

What do you view as the cutoff date when it's when it's like, OK, if he's the nominee, we've got to stop talking about that, or is there one?

NICKEL: I think -- I think, you know, Leader Jeffries is doing an amazing job with a very diverse group of House Democrats. A lot of people have a lot of different opinions.

And his job is to be a voice for everybody. So he's going out there and he's listening to every opinion. And we have very diverse opinions as House Democrats. But we are united in beating Donald Trump. And we're just trying to figure out, especially at the top of our

leadership, what's the best way to do that? And right now, we've got Joe Biden is our nominee. The focus really should be on talking about the good things that the administration has done.

And frankly, I want to hear the White House come out and talk about what they want to accomplish over the next four years. I think that's what the American people really need to hear, not -- not the constant D.C. chatter, but what we're going to do to help improve people's lives.

That's -- if the focus is on that, it's going to be a great night for Democrats on election night.

DEAN: All right, Congressman Wiley Nickel, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

NICKEL: Thanks so much.

DEAN: This just into us. The governor of Texas requesting an investigation into electric companies in the wake of the power outages from Hurricane Beryl. This, as more than a million customers remain without power, some of them facing triple-digit temperatures.

[14:34:38]

We'll have more on this after the break.

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[14:38:49]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: This just into CNN. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has requested an investigation into the response from electric companies to Hurricane Beryl.

Because right now, nearly 1.3 million homes and businesses in Texas or on day four without power as the heat index is soaring into the triple digits, a combination that could prove deadly.

DEAN: CNN's Stephanie Elam is joining us now with the latest

Stephanie, a lot of people still have no idea when their power is going to be restored. Meantime, they're facing triple-digit heat.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is such a dangerous combination, Jessica and Boris, when you look at this.

And what we are now understanding is that they're about some 500,000 CenterPoint Energy customers, homes and businesses, that may not see their power restored until sometime next week.

Think about it. We talk about the heat index, that's how the body experiences air temperature and humidity. That is a very high number that we're talking about. And 106, I think, today is what that index is standing at. So if you look at this, this is a dangerous number that we're talking about for this long.

They're saying that some people will see their power restored by tomorrow, some 400,000 people, and another 350 thousand restored by Sunday. But that's still a very long time.

[14:40:03]

The company, testifying before the Texas Public Utility Commission, going so far as to say that they've restored about 50 percent of their customers. About 1.2 million have seen their power restored.

But what they're encountering is, as you would expect, after a hurricane, that there are tree limbs that have taken out power lines and they've got to get through that debris. And to do so, they've got to get boots on the ground to get out there, fix those lines, and make it work.

Obviously, the people that you would expect to be hurt the most are the ones who were in that path of Beryl that really did get pounded by that.

But there's another question here that seems to be coming up is, when did CenterPoint Energy start asking for mutual aid? That's when they look to the other communities nearby, say, hey, can you bring in some people, move them in before the storm, preposition.

They said that three days before the storm hit, they requested 3,000 of those troops to come in to help out. And as it became clear that the path of the storm was changing, they upped that number to 10,000.

Still, a lot of questions you hear now from the governor and the lieutenant governor of Texas, saying that they're going to investigate.

But obviously, there are a lot of questions about how prepared the infrastructure is in these states, in these hurricane lines, as we see that the oceans are warming, we're seeing human-induced climate change, making things hotter, that makes these storms even more dangerous.

And they're hitting places that we're not used to this level of intensity of storms. And so what is the plan going forward to protect these people under deadly circumstances when the heat is just this hot?

SANCHEZ: Yes, they badly need help.

Stephanie Elam, thanks so much for the reporting.

Next, former President Donald Trump says he knows nothing about that controversial Project 2025. But CNN found more than a hundred links tying Trump to the plan that could prove otherwise.

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[14:46:08]

DEAN: Donald Trump is once again attempting to distance himself and his campaign from Project 2025. That's the conservative plan to overhaul the federal government.

He posted on Truth Social just after midnight last night, quote, "I have not seen it. I have no idea who is in charge of it."

However, CNN reporting finds the opposite.

SANCHEZ: And CNN's Steve Contorno has been digging in on these claims from the former president and joins us now with that new reporting.

So, Steve, what did you find?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Boris, Donald Trump may say he doesn't know who is behind Project 2025, but he would be very familiar with many of the names who are involved with it.

When you look through the list of authors and contributors and all the conservative groups advising this project, we found more than 200 connections between Donald Trump and Project 2025.

Including 140 people who worked in his administration, who helped write or contributed to Project 2025, the signature work, this 900- page manifesto with their ideas for a second term.

It includes some of the people who reached the highest levels of his government, six cabinet secretaries, including former HUD Secretary Ben Carson, four people who are nominated to be ambassadors.

His former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is closely involved with one of the groups that has been advising this project. Is So Stephen Miller, another longtime adviser to Trump. He's involved with a group that has been advising Project 2025 as well.

Many of the people who were behind the immigration policies that he pushed early in his term, they helped write this thing as well.

We took this information to the Trump campaign and they said, look, yes, these people did work for Donald Trump, but they don't speak for him now. They may never work for him again.

If you want to know what Donald Trump believes, they said, you should look at his Web site. He has this entire agenda put up there. He supports the Republican Party platform, but he is not involved with Project 2025.

But I want to point you to a clip from earlier this year. This is in February, where Donald will Trump spoke at an event, as well as the Heritage Foundation president, which is the group behind Project 2025.

And he had some interesting words to say about Kevin Roberts, the president of Heritage Foundation. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Heritage Foundation president, somebody else doing an unbelievable job. He's bringing it back to levels it's never seen, Dr. Kevin Roberts.

DR. KEVIN ROBERTS, PRESIDENT, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Our Project 2025 has developed a comprehensive policy agenda, but even more importantly, recruiting people, 20,000 people, to go into the next administration hopefully to help take back this country for you and for your audiences.

We want no credit. We want the American people, if President Trump is elected again, President Trump and the administration to take credit for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, I was actually at that event. And also speaking was Paul Dans. He is a former high-level Trump official who has been the director of Project 2025.

And at this event, he actually said he intends or would like to work for Donald Trump again if he wins in November.

DEAN: Right. So, Steve, you kind of read between all those tea leaves and all things can be true, right? He may not know exactly about it, but it seems like he's very linked to it. And yet, they're trying to distance themselves from it now.

CONTORNO: They are. And that is because Democrats have been making this a campaign issue. And we have seen both the Biden campaign, the Democratic National Party put out a lot of messaging tying Donald Trump to some of the more unsavory or controversial elements of Project 2025.

And so that's why you're seeing Trump try to keep it at arm's length. Obviously, that's complicated by all these ties to it.

SANCHEZ: Steve Contorno with the latest. Thanks so much, Steve.

[14:49:48]

DEAN: A new study finds many cancer deaths are actually preventable. We're going to talk about the lifestyle changes that could help lower your risk. That's next.

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[14:54:08]

SANCHEZ: Today, a stunning development in the fight against cancer. A new study finds that nearly half of the cancer deaths in the United States could have been prevented.

DEAN: That is incredible. CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, is joining us now.

Meg, what did researchers find?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a study by the American Cancer Society and it really gives a little bit of hope for people to think it's not inevitable that folks will encounter cancer.

There are things that people can do to reduce risks, although perhaps not completely.

They found that, among adults aged 30 and older, 40 percent of cancer cases and 44 percent of cancer deaths are attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors.

Now, what are those? No surprise, the leading one is smoking cigarettes. That contributed to the most cases of cancer and deaths from cancer. But also excess body weight, alcohol consumption, exposure to U.V. radiation through sunlight without protection are also up there.

[14:55:05]

Including, as well, things like diet, not eating enough fruits and vegetables, eating too much red meat or processed meat. And certain cancer-causing viruses.

Now the cancers that are most connected to these modifiable risk factors are lung cancer, of course, because of smoking. Also female breast cancer, melanoma for skin cancer and colorectal cancer.

But, guys, there are a lot of cancers they looked at here that do have some risk factors that it could potentially be modified to reduce folk's risks.

SANCHEZ: And, meg, what are the recommendations for people to reduce their risk?

TIRRELL: Yes, so a lot of this can be on a personal basis, but a lot of this is also societal and systemic and there could be policy changes as well.

But on a personal basis, avoiding smoking, clearly, maintaining a healthy body weight, cutting or stopping drinking alcohol, exercising and using sun protection, avoiding excess sun exposure.

But on a policy level, the researchers in this study really focused on things that communities can do. They focused in on smoking, for example. One of the most effective ways of reducing smoking rates is to make it more expensive through excise taxes.

And they've pointed out that a pack of cigarettes in Missouri is about half as expensive as a pack of cigarettes in New York State. And if you look at the rates of lung cancer in those states, they are dramatically different. So there really can be societal things that can be done on top of

reminding ourselves, protect ourselves in the sun, maintain a healthy weight. All the things we know, we already should be doing -- guys?

SANCHEZ: Meg Tirrell, thanks so much for walking us through the research.

Still ahead, reports that some of the president's advisors are now discussing how to convince him to drop out of the presidential race. We'll be right back.

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