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CNN This Morning
Today, Trump, Haley and DeSantis All Campaigning in Iowa; Texas Governor Signs Controversial Law Allowing Arrests of Migrants; Now, Secretary Austin in Qatar Amidst Renewed Hostage Talks. Aired 7-7:30a ET
Aired December 19, 2023 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:00:00]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Okay.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: You were talking about it all morning long.
HARLOW: Which Ohio?
MATTINGLY: Oh, come on.
HARLOW: Thanks, Carolyn.
MATTINGLY: Carolyn, thanks so much.
HARLOW: CNN This Morning continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In one month from now, the first votes will be cast, the 2024 race to be president.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think there's a real risk that she would send American troops to Ukraine to fight.
NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to lie about me. I'm going to tell the truth about him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A legal setback for Mark Meadows.
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This opinion is meticulous. It's airtight. You could almost just replace Meadows for Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Rudy Giuliani, who's getting sued again.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss want Rudy Giuliani not just to pay them but to stop lying about them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Texas governor signing a bill that makes entering Texas illegally a state crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do we have to carry our passports around? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor Abbott said, quote, we also welcome a Supreme Court decision that would overturn the precedent set in the Arizona case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Massive volcano erupting on Iceland's Reykjanis peninsula. It's a haze of fire.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It does seem now that the lava flows are changing direction away from the town of Grindavik.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Well, wood morning, everyone. I'm Phil Matting with Poppy Harlow in New York.
It is a big day ahead on the campaign trail in Iowa. Donald Trump and his top rivals for the GOP presidential nomination all hitting the campaign trail there today.
HARLOW: Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis about to kick off a busy day of campaign events across the state. And Trump is set to speak there at a rally tonight.
The big push in Iowa comes less than four weeks before the caucuses.
MATTINGLY: And tonight, we'll see if Trump keeps amping up that dark anti-immigrant rhetoric we've heard during his campaign rallies over the course of the last several days, language that has consistently been drawing comparisons to Adolf Hitler.
DeSantis is now saying Trump made a, quote, tactical mistake when he said immigrants were poisoning the blood of our country.
HARLOW: Also brand new this morning, Trump's super PAC launching an attack ad against Nikki Haley for the first time in the crucial early voting state of New Hampshire. This comes after a new poll showed her gaining quite a bit of ground on Trump. Here's a clip of that ad that just came out moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right, High Tax Haley broke her promise.
HALEY: Let's increase the gas tax.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Repeatedly backing higher taxes hurts families. New Hampshire can't afford Nikki High Tax Haley.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Steve Contorno tracking all of it for us. Good morning.
Let's start with DeSantis and Haley that have been busy campaigning in Iowa ahead of the Trump rally tonight. And Nikki Haley saying, well, that just shows that Trump is scared of the gains we're making in New Hampshire, but now to Iowa. STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: That's right, to Iowa, where there is so much focus on this early nominating state. DeSantis and Haley have been spending the last few days here. They will continue to campaign in Iowa after Trump leaves today.
However, if you look at how they are spending their time and their money, it is more so on each other than on the frontrunner in this race.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CONTORNO (voice over): Former President Donald Trump returning to Iowa tonight with just weeks until the January 15th caucuses.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Hello, Iowa.
CONTORNO: His rivals storming the state as well, trying to cut into Trump's commanding lead there, but mostly attacking each other.
DESANTIS: So, Nikki, I think there's a real risk that she would send American troops to Ukraine to fight.
HALEY: Today, he said that I want our troops to be in Ukraine. I've never even said anything like that, nowhere near it.
CONTORNO: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the middle of a six-day swing through Iowa, fighting from behind as a CBS News poll shows him trailing Trump by 36 points in the Hawkeye State.
Former South Carolina Governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley is further behind DeSantis, though faring much better in New Hampshire.
HALEY: I've done well over 120-something, 140 town halls, and I never talk about my opponents. But today, I am.
CONTORNO: Haley on Monday taking on her top rival to challenge Trump.
HALEY: If you punch me, I punch back.
Ron DeSantis has lied in every one of his commercials.
CONTORNO: Super PACs supporting Haley and DeSantis have spent millions on television ads, trying to tear down the other and emerge as the leading Trump alternative.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't believe a thing Nikki Haley says. She doesn't.
CONTORNO: But very little targeting the frontrunner.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What a phony, Ron DeSantis, too lame to lead, too weak to win.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't trust Tricky Nikki.
CONTORNO: Trump is receiving some criticism from one of his rivals over his anti-immigrant rhetoric this weekend when he said immigrants are, quote, poisoning the blood of our country. DeSantis on Monday not directly rebuking Trump, telling Iowans that his remarks simply distracted from the problems at the U.S.-Mexico border.
DESANTIS: Give them an ability, the opposition an ability to try to make it about something else with some of those comments, I just think it's just a tactical mistake.
[07:05:07]
CONTORNO: While Haley latched on to Trump's favorable quoting of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
HALEY: The part that bothers me is our national security is at risk. And what's he doing? He's praising dictators.
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CONTORNO (on camera): DeSantis and Haley and their supportive super PACs have spent about $380,000 so far on television advertisements attacking Donald Trump. To put that in perspective, that is actually less than New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has spent going after Trump on the airwaves.
Meanwhile, super PACs aligned with Donald Trump has spent about $12 million attacking Governor DeSantis so far, but now they are shifting focus to Nikki Haley. As you mentioned, Poppy, there's that new ad coming out of a super PAC for supporting Trump in New Hampshire that is hitting the South Carolina governor over her time leading that state.
HARLOW: Steve, thanks so much for the reporting for us.
MATTINGLY: Well, immigration has been a top issue on the campaign trail. Now it's about to be at the heart of a battle between the federal government and the state government. That comes after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed one of the nation's strictest immigration policies into law yesterday.
At the heart of it, police will now be allowed to arrest migrants who are suspected of crossing illegally into the state. The move is the latest test in how far a state can go to protect its border.
CNN's Rosa Flores is live for us in Brownsville, Texas. Rosa, walk us through what this law actually does.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Phil, there is a lot of concern here in the state of Texas about this law because the language is vague. It does not appropriate money to train police officers. Counties are concerned that this is going to fill their jails and that they don't have enough judges. And it doesn't have guardrails against racial profiling.
Now, about racial profiling, I just talked to a Hispanic woman yesterday who said that she and everybody she knows are going to start carrying their passports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): Inaction has decimated America.
FLORES (voice over): With the stroke of a pen, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law what the ACLU dubs one of the most radical anti-immigrant bills ever passed by any state.
ABBOTT: Senate Bill 4 is now law in the state of Texas.
FLORES: SB-4 creates a new state crime for illegal entry into Texas, gives local police the power to arrest and judges the power to remove violators.
ABBOTT: But the problem is far more than just numbers.
FLORES: After multiple attempts, the controversial measure passed the Republican-led legislature.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's un-American.
FLORES: But not without a fight by the Democratic minority that erupted into this on the House floor.
STATE REP. ARMANDO WALLE (D-TX): You all don't understand the shit that you all are doing. It hurts our community.
FLORES: After Republicans cut debate short.
WALLE: And you all don't understand that. You all don't live in our (BLEEP) skin (ph).
FLORES: That is Texas State Representative Armando Walle from Houston. An American with Mexican roots, he says he fears SB-4 will lead to the racial profiling of Latinos across Texas.
WALLE: Why do we, and those of us that look like me, why do we have to carry our passports around?
FLORES: So, you think that U.S. citizens could be arrested under SB- 4?
WALLE: Yes.
FLORES: The Republican authors of the bill said there was no need to safeguard the measure against racial profiling.
STATE REP. DAVID SPILLER (R-TX): Racial profiling is against the law anyway.
FLORES: Texas has not determined the cost of SB-4. Some county governments fear it's an unfunded mandate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't agree with the cost that had been shifted over to our local?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't agree.
FLORES: 30 former immigration judges issued a statement saying the measure is not lawful because immigration is plainly a federal function.
Texas Republican Senator Brian Birdwell voted against the measure, saying it's unconstitutional.
STATE SEN. BRIAN BIRDWELL (R-TX): we are setting a terrible precedent for the future by invalidating our obedience and faithfulness to our Constitution.
SPILLER: I believe SB-4 is completely constitutional.
FLORES: For Americans outside of Texas, Walle warns SB-4 could be used to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Arizona's 2012 so- called show your papers law, which upheld that immigration is a federal function.
WALLE: This is their roadmap now that they have a much favorable Supreme Court.
SPILLER: It's not in conflict with the precedent set in Arizona versus the U.S.
WALLE: He always judge a Mexican restaurant by their tortillas.
FLORES: As for Walle, who lost the fight against the law, but was one of the strongest voices against it --
WALLE: It fills me with pride because I've had elderly people today tell me that they were proud that somebody stood up for them, stood up for somebody who didn't have a voice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLORES (on camera): Now, Democrats on the Hill led by U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro are calling on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to assert his federal authority and sue the state of Texas to stop SB-4 from going into effect.
[07:10:02]
And, Phil, it goes into effect in March. And if this does happen, as you know, this wouldn't be the first lawsuit between the United States and the state of Texas. We've covered all of them here on your show. Phil?
MATTINGLY: Yes, a long running battle gets a new element. Rosa, thank you.
HARLOW: Let's bring in our Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, Elie, good Morning to you.
The letter that Rosa was talking about that Joaquin Castro and other Democrats wrote to the attorney general says, SB-4 is clearly preempted by federal law, and when it goes into effect, will likely result in racial profiling. The federal law they're talking about also is upheld by the Supreme Court that said a decade-plus ago, you can't do this, states. You have to defer to the federal government on immigration.
HONIG: This law by Texas is a stunt. I'll try to put it straightforwardly. It is a bedrock principle of our system that immigration, foreign policy are the province of the federal government, not the states. We'd have chaos if all the states were enforcing their own immigration laws. And there's a Supreme Court case from 2012 exactly on point, Arizona versus the United States, one of the legislators referred to it there. He said, well, this is different, but he didn't explain how it's not different. This is going to be put on pause by the federal courts and ultimately struck down by the federal court.
HARLOW: Can I just push back on that though, because Phil and I were talking earlier about the fact that, I mean, part of the intent here may also be to get it to go to the Supreme Court. It's likely going to end up in the Supreme Court. That was a different court than now.
And Scalia wrote in his dissent in that opinion, this quote, must Arizona's ability to protect its borders yield to the reality that Congress has provided inadequate funding for federal enforcement or, even worse, to the executives unwise targeting of that funding.
This is a court with new Trump justices on it. Are you sure that this court would view it the same?
HONIG: I'm confident, and I'll tell you why. If you look at the 2012 court to now, you had Justice Roberts joining with the liberals back then. So, that's right there. If you take the three Liberals now, that's four. You have Justice Barrett, Justice Kavanaugh is new, you have Justice Gorsuch as new since then. I'm confident, look, they are conservatives, but they don't always go with whatever Republicans do. They've all crossed over at various points. I'm confident that the law and the Constitution is clear enough here that it will be struck down if it goes to the Supreme Court.
HARLOW: Elie, thank you very much. Stick around. We got more for you coming up.
MATTINGLY: Well, the Israeli government says it will gradually transition to the next phase of its war and allow displaced Palestinians to return home. The latest from the region.
HARLOW: Also, a new report details how China, Russia, and Cuba tried to interfere in last year's midterm elections. We'll tell you what you need to know according to this intelligence, ahead.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LLOY AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: All countries have the right to move freely and lawfully in international waters. But that foundational global right is under new threat today from the totally unacceptable attacks on merchant vessels by the Houthis in Yemen.
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HARLOW: That was Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin continuing his trip in the Middle East this morning after those key meetings yesterday in Israel.
MATTINGLY: Secretary Austin met with troops that the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain to condemn the Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AUSTIN: And these reckless Houthi attacks are a serious international problem and they demand a firm international response.
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MATTINGLY: The secretary is now in Doha where he'll meet with the Qatari officials as they attempt to restart hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
Joining us now is Dan Senor. He's a former foreign policy advisor to the George W. Bush administration and to Mitt Romney. He's also the co-author of the book, The Genius of Israel. Dan, we appreciate you coming in, always enjoy our conversations.
Right now, when you look at Bill Burns, the CIA director, meeting with his counterpart in Qatar, the Israeli -- his counterpart in Israel, also having meetings as well, what do you think the odds are that a pause in hostage swaps comes back onto the table?
DAN SENIOR, CO-AUTHOR, THE GENIUS OF ISRAEL: Look, it seems that Hamas wants it. It seems that Israel wants it. Certainly, the international community wants it. Obviously getting from all the parties wanting it to executing it is always a bit of a challenge.
I think the real time to have done it where you could have made real progress on this front was adding days to the long pause that occurred at the end of November. That's when you had a big pause and then you were just adding incremental days.
Now, they've gone back in pretty heavy with the war fighting. They're making a lot of progress. The IDF is making a lot of progress, which is why Hamas is eager to get a pause again because Israel is really moving in and making a lot of progress in the south.
So, I think all the parties want it, but getting to the pause that will be acceptable to all the parties is going to be a challenge.
HARLOW: Do you think Netanyahu is making it more difficult with statements like what he made Saturday after Israel accidentally killed three of its own hostages? He was criticized for being late to talking about that and lamenting that. And then he went on to say, quote, I'm proud that I prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state.
SENOR: So, first of all, his statement that he issued initially, I think it was during Shabbat, it was during the Sabbath, so it wasn't -- it's not that unprecedented for a prime minister to wait a little bit until after the Sabbath.
I do think the prime minister is, Prime Minister Netanyahu is in this, he's got this paradoxical situation. He's running a war and he's gearing up to try to hang on to political office. And so these tensions, so he's injecting political points.
I don't accept the, you know, the comparison to heading off the Oslo Peace Process, a two-state solution for three decades. First of all, while he was prime minister in the 90s, he implemented some of the advancement of the path to a two-state solution. I don't criticize him for that, but I do think there's some politics being mixed in here.
And I think there's a movement in Israel right now of these families of the hostages. And there's a little bit of a split within the movement. Some of the families are saying, just get all the hostages out now, period, full stop, do whatever you got to do.
And there are other families that are saying, wait, this is how we got into this mess last time, when we rushed to negotiate, meaning in previous hostage exchanges for many years ago, and then people like Yahya Sinwar, who was the architect of October 7th, got out of prison, returned to Gaza in a prisoner exchange.
[07:20:10]
MATTINGLY: Let me follow up on Poppy's question, because I'm trying to piece together how this all ends, and I'm probably not the person to be doing that for a number of different reasons. But on the idea of the two-state solution, which the Biden administration has been explicit about, they have raised the Palestinian Authority. Obviously, Netanyahu has rejected both the two-state solution and the Palestinian Authority.
The regional allies that are necessary to have an endgame here aren't saying anything publicly, but certainly wouldn't go in without a two- state solution to help. Netanyahu says, absolutely not, not on the table. I don't understand how you thread this needle.
SENOR There's two pieces to it. One, in principle, could there be a two-state solution? And I think all the parties, the leaders in the gulf and the broader Arab world, Israel -- sorry, the U.S., are all open to a two-state solution. The question is who is the leadership in that Palestinian state. Nobody has confidence in the current Palestinian Authority that operates in the West bank. The Israeli government doesn't have confidence. The U.S. doesn't really have confidence. The Gulf States and the Arab world do not.
I've spoken to Arab leaders who say that Palestinian authority in the West Bank is corrupt and it is inept. The idea that we're going to take them from barely hanging on in the West Bank and plop them into Gaza on the back of an Israeli tank and expect them to run it is crazy.
If you listen to the language that Jake Sullivan used, he did an interview with Yonit Levi of Channel 12 when he was in Israel, he called -- he said the Palestinian Authority could come into Gaza in a revamped and reformed way. So, I think that's the administration's way of saying, in principle, we're okay with the Palestinian Authority. It's just going to look a lot different than it does now, which means it's probably not going to happen.
HARLOW: Dan Senor, thank you. It's always good to have you at the table.
MATTINGLY: We're going to show you live images this morning of a large volcanic eruption, look at them right there, in Southwestern Iceland, incredible video. It shows lava bursting high into the air and flowing in all directions. Officials say the fissure is about 2.5 miles long and growing quickly.
This eruption, not unexpected, but it was larger than predicted. And it comes after the region had been experiencing weeks of intense earthquake activity since late October, promoting officials to evacuate -- prompting officials to evacuate about 4,000 people from a nearby fishing town earlier this month.
Glow from the volcano is lighting up the sky so much that it can be seen from the capital of Reykjavik, which is about 30 miles away.
No injuries have been reported up to this point. Police are warning people not to get too close. But certainly look at the pictures on T.V. That's wild right now.
HARLOW: They're just remarkable.
Also this morning, there's some really interesting new reporting from Axios that suggests President Biden doesn't realize how old he comes across to some voters. This is reportedly causing some tension across his team.
MATTINGLY: And happening right now in China, rescue crews are working to reach earthquake survivors in sub zero temperatures. At least 113 people have been killed, hundreds more injured after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the mountainous northwest region late Monday night.
HARLOW: And officials say that earthquake was followed by nine aftershocks at magnitude three and above. There's new video overnight that shows just how it was rocking. Look at that. That's a gas station there. It cut off water and electricity in some areas, complicating rescue efforts. This is China's deadliest earthquake in nearly a decade.
Back in a moment.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: I'll just say it, Biden is too old and Congress is the most exclusive nursing home in America. Washington keeps failing because politicians from yesterday can't lead us into tomorrow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: That's a new campaign ad from Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley. It is not subtle taking a shot at President Biden's age.
The president's age has been one of his greatest campaign liabilities as he seeks to extend his time in the White House, if he wins re- election, to the age of 86.
A new Axios reporting just out suggests he doesn't actually realize how old he comes across at times saying, quote, President Biden's reluctance to acknowledge his physical limitations at age 81 has caused some tension on his team.
Joining us now is national political correspondent for Axios, Alex Thompson. Alex, I'm fascinated by the reporting. When you talk about tension on the team, what does that lead to internally in the West Wing?
ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: You know, it really leads to a clash over the schedule in particular, because this is sort of where they think that things can go awry.
Essentially, a lot of aides that I've talked to have been struck that Biden behind closed doors repeatedly says, I feel so much younger than my age. And he says it so often and with such real sincerity that there has become this tension where he ends up overextending himself, that basically aides feel that he does not know his own physical limitations and that he tries to do too much. And that has this adverse effect where he ends up wearing himself out.
So, even though he is doing more events, he actually presents as more tired, which is then how you get these poll numbers that show that over 70 percent of voters have serious concerns about him doing a second term.
HARLOW: You also write about the first lady's role in all of this. Joe Biden, you talk about how she and her team are so deeply involved in the president's day to day schedule, and you quote her saying Joe is working too hard, that she would tell his then-chief of staff, Steve Ricchetti. Joe Biden recalled in his memoir, promise me dad, quote, he's exhausted. He's not sleeping. It's going to kill him. You raise that now. Why?
THOMPSON: Well, there are a few different things. So, Joe Biden has an extraordinary amount of influence over the president's schedule.
Now, it's usual for first ladies to keep an eye on the schedule. It is not so normal for a first lady to be crafting the presidential schedule. And part of it is because her role is really that of a protector. And she recognizes that the president, going back to that moment in that memoir, can overextend himself.
Now, when Joe Biden wrote that, he was in his early 70s. Now, at this point, she is very involved in making sure that he gets enough rest. She's also been pushing him on his diet, trying to get him to eat more fish and salmon and a little bit less junk food.
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