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Dem Governors Seek Meeting With White House After Biden's Rough Debate; Biden To Propose Nationwide Worker Protections From Heat; Rudy Giuliani Disbarred In NY Over Bogus Election Fraud Claims. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 02, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. CNN has learned some Democratic governors are now seeking a meeting with the White House. They want to talk about their concerns about the president in the aftermath of his poor debate performance. CNN White House Correspondent Arlette Saenz is joining me now with the new reporting. These governors are not happy, to put it mildly, Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, some Democratic governors do want to have a meeting with the White House to talk about some of their concerns after President Biden's debate performance last Thursday. That's according to new reporting from our colleague Jake Tapper. And some of the concerns that these democratic governors had were aired out in a Monday night phone call that was organized by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

That was only governors on this call. No staff was on. But one thing that was expressed in this call, we're told is that there was some frustration concern that President Biden hadn't directly reached out to some of these governors. There was a sentiment that they did believe they needed to hear from President Biden himself following that debate performance.

Now, there are -- also, one point of discussion on this call was the possibility that Vice President Kamala Harris potentially speak to the governors. At the time, there are plans underway for a White House meeting. Though, it's unclear when exactly that could -- or if it will eventually take place.

Now, it comes as some of those governors we're told were concerned about making some of the -- or expressing some of their concerns publicly out of fear that it might cause President Biden to dig in more. We know that President Biden spent the past two days up at Camp David with his family -- with his family encouraging him to stay in this race.

But there have been many questions for the campaign about the path forward for President Biden. The Biden's top campaign officials have been working the phones over the weekend and yesterday and into today to try to quell some of the anxiety amongst Democratic lawmakers but also donors. There was a call last night with top campaign officials including the campaign's chair Jen O'Malley Dillon, where they tried to ease some of the concerns of donors. And defended the president's health and insisted that his candidacy remains on track.

The campaign, of course, has doubled down saying that there are no plans for President Biden to step aside in this race. But they have been facing a lot of pressure for potentially changing course. For instance, there have been allies from the outside who have encouraged the campaign to have President Biden participate in news conferences or town halls, something more informal to show that he is up for the job.

Now, I will note that we are expected to see President Biden in just a few hours. He will receive a briefing relating to the extreme heat in this country and also deliver remarks. So, we will see if that might be an opportunity for the president to face questions from reporting but -- from reporters.

But this new reporting about the concerns of Democratic governors is significant at a time when some are expressing that they want to hear from President Biden himself following that debate performance last Thursday. That could have implications not just on Biden's standing on the ticket, but on the other Democrats who are running in competitive House and Senate races as well.

HILL: Well, and also, Arlette, it is -- so it is this information about the governors and their concerns that being made public but also the fact that more lawmakers. Congressman Quigley was on with our colleague Kasie Hunt earlier today. And when she asked if, you know, where he stood on whether Biden should step aside. I'm paraphrasing here.

He did say that decision needs to be left up to the president. It needs to come from him. But he also said that he didn't think this was a one-off in terms of that performance. And some concerns for Thursday night. He said he wouldn't go any farther. But he did bring that up.

You have Senator Welch, who in an interview out of Vermont, said that this needs to be a discussion that it has to come from the top levels of the Biden campaign, that they have to have a discussion. And he criticized the campaign for its dismissive attitude toward people who were raising questions for discussion. There does not seem to be a real appetite to having that discussion, Arlette.

SAENZ: Yes. And I think that the Biden campaign certainly has seen these calls both publicly and privately for more information. But it does come as the campaign really has doubled down on President Biden remaining in this race. Of course, the Biden campaign and Democrats across the board, one thing that they are waiting for in the coming days is to see the polling and how exactly Biden's reelection bid is impacted.

But also, the polling to look at how these Democrats in competitive House and Senate races will be impacted as well. One longtime Democratic adviser said over the weekend that perhaps one of the only ways that Biden would consider stepping aside in this 2024 race would be if he saw polling that showed substantive movement away from Democrats in these competitive House and Senate races. So, I think that these are all things that the campaign is taken into account in the coming days.

But so far, they really have resisted pressure -- or resisted some of these private calls for President Biden to potentially reevaluate his candidacy. They said that he plans to remain in this race, that he plans to debate Donald Trump in September, and that he wants to see this race through, through that November election.

[11:35:08]

HILL: All right. Arlette, really appreciate it. I also want to dig a little deeper. Joining me now. Deputy communications director for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, Bryan Lanza, and former Special Assistant to President Biden Meghan Hays.

Meghan, this new reporting -- and as we just noted, you have lawmakers now being a little bit more public with what they're saying. The fact that information is coming out about this call organized by Governor Walz that these governors are asking for a meeting with the White House. Does that set off alarm bells for you, Meghan?

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: No. I think that these governors are some of the president's biggest surrogates and supporters here. And I think that they are just doing their due diligence. They want to talk to the president.

You know, this is -- they have down-ballot races too in their states. This directly impacts their states. And I think that they want to meet with the president and have those conversations.

So, I don't think it sets off alarm bells in any way, shape, or form that wouldn't -- you know, every -- all these leaders in the party should be meeting with the president and getting to see where his head's at and having those conversations. But the President's been out publicly. You know, since the debate happened, he was out all weekend in -- you know, doing fundraisers in at two events in North Carolina and one at Stonewall.

He was out yesterday giving remarks. He's going to be out again today. So, I -- this doesn't give me the feeling that the president is, you know, hiding in secret and wanting to drop out. I think he's willing to go forth and show the American people that he is up for the task -- the task here at hand.

HILL: I mean, certainly what we're hearing from the messaging from camp Biden, right, is that the president is not -- is not going to drop out. The people around him certainly don't. But there also is a lack of communication.

And there are concerns that the campaign has been very dismissive about the concerns. Whether they come from elected officials, surrogates, donors, or voters. And voters are who they really need to be concerned about.

Is the campaign doing anything to mitigate that? Because this is dominating the conversation for a reason. And it's because it's not being addressed, Meghan. HAYS: Yes -- no, absolutely. And that's a fair criticism. And it's how these meetings leak, right? When people close ranks and circle the wagons here with internal in the campaign and around the president, these are how these meetings leak.

And so, I -- you know, some of these governors have a right to, you know, want to meet with the president. That's totally fair. And the communication should be two ways. But they're leaking this too, for a reason.

So, where -- they're also driving to continue the conversation. They can meet with the president and private and not be leaking the meeting. So, I -- there's a little bit -- you know, that makes me also a little uneasy about their motives here.

But they have a right to meet with the president, as it's everyone. And this is up to the voters. And they have to be strong surrogates for him moving into the election.

Like -- just like you said, their voters and their states depend on them to give a fair and balanced message when they go out for him. So, it's not unreasonable if they want to meet with him.

HILL: Bryan, Meghan noted that the campaign -- and then I've heard this as well, waiting on some of the polling, right? Wants to see -- wants a better snapshot of actually what played out on Thursday night, and how that has trickled down. What I've heard from Republicans is we're just going to sit back and watch this happen. Perhaps not surprisingly.

But even in the early polling, I will say the debate has not shown. And the chaos perhaps that we're seeing among Democrats has not shown a bump for former President Trump. It is not necessarily working in his favor.

BRYAN LANZA, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP 2016 CAMPAIGN: I mean, I'm -- listen, first of all, thank you for having me. I'm just going to disagree with that. New Hampshire, which has gotten Democrat for 24 years at the gubernatorial level is -- and the presidential level is now plus four President Trump.

I mean, New Hampshire is a solidly blue state. And they're responding to the debate performance from President Biden. And that performance was anything beyond a resignable event.

I mean, we are a superpower with nuclear weapons. We have, you know, strong enemies out there that saw this debate. And realized that our current president has a cognitive decline, that he probably doesn't have the mental fitness to execute his charges as president.

So, this is a dangerous situation. I think it's troubling that the Biden campaign is trying to be dismissive and say it's a one-off event. Remember, we had the special prosecutor who also interviewed President Biden, and he said this thing's -- this the exact same situation. He was forgetful. He did understand his record. Didn't know why he was there. These are dangerous things when you're talking about a superpower and we're talking about our strong enemies.

And we shouldn't be gaslighting America and say everything's fine. It was a one-off. Joe Biden's cognitive fitness is in severe decline. We've all seen it.

The White House has covered it up. That should -- that my feeling is a crime. And we need to be very careful going forward.

I actually think Kamala Harris should be elevated to the presidential level. And Joe Biden should resign. We cannot have this uncertainty at the presidential level during these dangerous times.

HILL: So, you know, we're hearing the message there from the other side, Meghan. What do you think is the best response? You know, if the president has been out there more, there's talk about the need for more unscripted events. Not just campaign events, but perhaps a big interview, perhaps more news conferences, more town halls, more unscripted events. How far do you think that would go in answering some of these concerns?

HAYS: Sure. I -- you know, when I worked there, I was a big believer and doing these interviews and local stops and letting the president be the president out. When he is with voters, that is when Joe Biden is at his best. So, I am fully -- you know, fully supportive of him being out there and doing things and meeting with voters and meeting with actual people.

And I think that's where this needs to be taken to. This is -- this is -- the president needs a space to decide what he's going to do. He has given every indication that he's going to stay in this race. And then -- you know, then it's up to the voters in November to decide if he -- if he is up for the job, and they want him to continue to do the job that he's doing.

So, I just -- you know, I just think that some of this is up to the voters. And I -- and again, I support him being out there and letting Joe Biden be Joe Biden.

[11:40:18]

HILL: we are out of time, but it will not be the last discussion that we have. Nice to see you both this morning. Meghan and Bryan, thank you.

LANZA: Thank you.

HILL: Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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HILL: Happening today. President Biden is set to speak about the White House's plan to handle the extreme weather creeping the nation. Among that, he's set to announce a first-of-its-kind rule that would protect millions of workers in this brutal heat. Right now, more than 60 million people are under heat alerts across the country. Some cities reaching triple digits.

CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir joins me now. So, Bill, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, heat-related deaths, perhaps not surprisingly, given what we're all experiencing are rising year after year. Walk us through this current heat wave and where it sits right now. How long it -- how long it lasts and the concerns?

[11:45:12]

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the bottom line is that, Erica, has now we pretty much lived in a permanent heatwave relative to 40 -- 50 years ago. The heatwave season has expanded by over 40 days since the late 60s there. And so, there's no telling. This is going to be another summer of record-shattering weather events, climate events, as a result of, you know, a century and a half of fossil fuel pollution that's holding in all that -- all that heat right now.

The president is expected to really draw distinctions between himself and his opponents who doesn't really want to even acknowledge the issue of the climate crisis. And by local governments in Florida and Texas, which have recently stopped active heat protection for workers, shade breaks, water breaks at a certain temperature. Only three states in the country, including California -- and I'm sorry, my phone's going off.

Three states in the count -- in the country, California, Oregon, and Minnesota, protect workers who work indoors in the heat, which can be just as relentless. And worker productivity goes down when these heat waves extend for days at a time. So, this is a new era.

The president is expected to announce both mitigation to try to stop the climate pollution problem, but also adaptation to the heat that is already here. If you look at the heat-related deaths now, 2300 last year. But experts say this particular crisis is vastly underreported. Maybe up to a factor of five because it preys on older folks and older homes. There's a lag and data as it comes through. There's other -- you know people may blame a health issue when it is the heat in some cases.

But this is a staggering stat, Erica, I just read on Monday. Meteorologists are predicting Death Valley will hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit --

HILL: Wow.

WEIR: Which would be a new record -- or tie the record all-time temperature on Earth. That is also the temperature of a medium rare stick.

HILL: Oh, my goodness.

WEIR: So, we're entering -- the planet is entering this sort of temperature zone that is just uncharted territory --

HILL: Yes.

WEIR: For Homo sapiens.

HILL: Uncharted. And as we see that massive jump in deaths just from 2022 to 2023, we see the impact that it can have. But it's also -- it impacts the extreme weather we're seeing too, Bill.

WEIR: Totally. The Hurricane Beryl right now, this is the earliest we've ever seen. A Category Five because heat is a hurricane engine. It feeds off warm water. And right now, the water in the Atlantic and the Caribbean are as warm as it would be in September, at the end of all that summer built up heat now. And that's as a result, we've gotten this devastating storm, it's going to probably graze Jamaica on Wednesday. Who knows what happens to it once it goes into the Gulf of Mexico?

But it's faster, bigger, wetter hurricanes. It's longer, more intense droughts. It's water whiplash. We get these atmospheric rivers after you know decades of drought, and the water just has nowhere to go and just runs off and floods people's homes and lives.

So, all of this is the result of an overheated planet. And there could not be a more -- a starker choice in this election between one man who believes in the crisis and the science around it and the other who rejects it outright and is vowing to undo all the climate action to date.

HILL: (INAUDIBLE) Bill, appreciate it as always, my friend. Thank you.

WEIR: You bet.

HILL: Still to come here. Once known as America's mayor. Today, Rudy Giuliani disbarred in the state of New York. His stunning fall from grace. Those breaking developments just ahead.

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[11:52:57]

HILL: We're continuing to follow the breaking news out of New York. Rudy Giuliani, the man once known as America's Mayor celebrated for his actions in the aftermath of 911 now disbarred in the state of New York after a court found he repeatedly lied about Donald Trump's 2020 election loss. Joining me now Andrew Kirtzman, he's the author of "Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor."

You literally wrote the book twice, I believe, on Rudy Giuliani. The fact that we have now arrived at this point. The Giuliani of 2024 -- really 2020 versus the 2001 Rudy Giuliani, does any of this surprise you?

ANDREW KIRTZMAN, AUTHOR, "GIULIANI: THE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF AMERICA'S MAYOR": Well, it doesn't surprise me in that the -- that the wheels of this disbarment cycle have been turning for a great long time. But in a larger sense, this is a pretty extraordinary development and that kind of arc of Rudy Giuliani's fall, right?

And I think -- you know, he's been indicted now in Atlanta. He's been indicted in Arizona. He's bankrupt, right? He's facing a potential jail.

But in a way, I think that this might hurt Rudy Giuliani more than almost anything else. He -- you know, the law is ingrained in him he. Once called the law the love of my life. He almost became a priest and then decided to become an attorney because that was just as much as a calling to him. And to be disbarred -- especially in New York where he served as this trailblazing prosecutor in the 1980s, probably the most famous prosecutor in the world at the time in the 1980s, a beloved figure in many quarters, now to be disbarred in the same state, is it just incredibly humiliation which must really strike at the heart of kind of who he is.

HILL: It strike -- it's really at the heart of who he is. It is also -- it is just remarkable that there seem to have been so many instances over the last several years where it seems like people were trying to maybe rein him in a little bit, right? And the resistance was there.

[11:55:13]

KIRTZMAN: I mean, he's -- look, I mean, Giuliani was kind of on top of the world going into the presidential race in 2008. He was the front- runner for a year. He had just made about I think, $10 million as a -- as a consultant after 911.

But after he kind of bombed out of that race in 2008, his career just went way downhill.

HILL: Yes.

KIRTZMAN: And it was only Donald Trump in 2016 who kind of brought him back to relevance.

HILL: And now we see where that has ultimately led in terms of reigniting that partnership. Andrew, great to have you here today. Thank you.

Thanks to all of you for joining me here in the CNN NEWSROOM on a busy Tuesday. I'm Erica Hill. Stay tuned. Much more to come right here on CNN. "INSIDE POLITICS" with Dana Bash starts after a quick break.

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