Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) is Interviewed about Democratic Leadership; Charlie Dent is Interviewed about Gaetz; Shifting Standards for Nominees. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 21, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:49]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you or are you not going to run in 2004? Are you going to run?

AL GORE (D), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I've decided not to run. And I -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've decided not to run?

GORE: I've decided that I will not be a candidate for president in 2004.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Throwback. That was Al Gore announcing he would not run for president again in 2004. Prior to Kamala Harris, Gore was the last sitting vice president to lose a general election. Like Gore, Harris could remain a top leader in her party unless she makes a similar decision. But as Democrats search for a path forward in Republican-led Washington, new voices are already emerging.

Take, for example, our next guest, who yesterday was elected leader of the largest moderate Democratic caucus in the House, chosen to lead at a time when some in the party are looking to the center for answers after Democrats' election losses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): If we're going to win more elections, we've got to appeal to voters in the center.

REP. GREG LANDSMAN (D-OH): We like when the center left and the center right work together. That's what we want.

REP. TOM SUOZZI (D-NY): And we can't be afraid to speak our minds because we're going to get lambasted by the far left of our party.

REP. RITCHIE TORRES (D-NY): And the road to a congressional majority runs through the center left, not the far left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining us now, the newly elected chair of the New Dems Coalition, Democratic Congressman Brad Schneider of Illinois.

[06:35:04]

Congressman, thank you very much for being here.

REP. BRAD SCHNEIDER (D-IL): Thank you.

HUNT: Congratulations on your ascension to this post.

What is your diagnosis for what went wrong for Democrats this election cycle, and what is the answer going forward?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think a lot of things went wrong. The - at its core, the Democrats failed to connect with voters across the country to gain the support at - certainly at the top of the ticket, where we had a heartbreaking defeat. At the same time as there, on one level, an ebbing tide, on another level, and you mentioned the New Dems, which I was proud to be selected to lead in the next Congress, we had a tide coming in. We were - our 100 members in the current Congress. We were 42 members when I came here in 2013. In the new Congress we'll be 108. And there's two undecided races. We could be as many as 110 members in the 119th Congress. We are more than half of the Democratic caucus.

So there was a shift towards the center, moderates, and I like to say moderate is a style more than a position. We have a variety, a wide range of positions within our caucus, but we are the ones who are willing to roll up our sleeves, get things done, can communicate at our - in our home districts about growing our economy, meeting the needs of people that they talk about at their kitchen tables. And our candidates did well across the country.

HUNT: Do you think that Kamala Harris, the vice president, Harris, didn't do enough to convince voters that she wasn't the progressive figure that she ran as when she ran for president in 2020 in the primary?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it's clear she didn't do enough because she didn't win the election. But I think the movement between July and what we saw in the election in November, this still, in the end, it was a very close election. I think the popular vote is going to be roughly a 1 percent to 2 percent difference. We need to do better. We need to convince more people that the Democrats are putting the economy first, addressing the needs that everyday families have, and will continue to do that. That's the message we need to take from this election, and that's the message we need to communicate back over the next two years.

HUNT: Some in your party have said that part of the problem was that many Democrats sounded like they came out of faculty lounges in the Ivy League instead of from, you know, factory floors down the street in their neighborhoods. Do you agree with that?

SCHNEIDER: We have to be able to talk to everyone and meet people where they are. So, my district on the northern suburbs of Chicago, I have the full diversity that we see across the country. So, I have some of the wealthiest zip codes in the nation, but I also have communities that are really struggling, and people who work in the c- suites, and we have people who work on the factory floor. We have to be able to hear from all of these people, make sure they understand that not only are we listening to them, but we understand the challenges they face, and we have real workable solutions that address the issues they care about most, not just talking about the things that are perhaps on a - a more esoteric ivory tower level.

HUNT: The former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, still in Congress, has had some critical words for President Biden in the wake of these losses, saying he should have stepped out of the race earlier, among other things. Is there a level of frustration among House Democrats with the former House speaker going forward?

SCHNEIDER: I think, you know, Democrats remain united. Nancy Pelosi always says our diversity is our strength. Our unity is our power. I think Hakeem Jeffries, succeeding Speaker Emerita Pelosi, showed that in the last - or in this Congress how we have been the ones who, when the Republicans with a very narrow majority wanted to do anything that needed to get done, they had to turn to the Democrats, and the democrats were always united. I think you'll continue to see that unity. You saw it in the re-election of Leader Jeffries, with Clark -

HUNT: So, there's no discontent at all?

SCHNEIDER: There's a lot of discussion and there's a lot of opinions. And we'll have very vibrant and sometimes heated conversations. But I think there's a unity that we need to move forward and do better at connecting with the American voters.

HUNT: I appreciate your diplomatic approach, sir.

SCHNEIDER: Thank you.

HUNT: Congressman Brad Schneider, thank you very much for joining us today. I appreciate it.

SCHNEIDER: Thank you.

HUNT: All right, ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, new overnight, the Department of Justice looking to break off part of Google. Why? The government wants the judge to force the sale of Chrome. That's next in our morning roundup.

Plus, what does it take to disqualify someone in today's political climate when compared to the standards of the past?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN TOWER (R-TX), FORMER SENATOR: I will be recorded as the first cabinet nominee in the history of the republic to be rejected in the first 90 days of a presidency, and perhaps be harshly judged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:43:59]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": What I want to know is, what the hell is it that they don't want us to see, because the stuff we already know is so terrible that if Gaetz ever moves to a new neighborhood he's going to have to introduce himself door to door. Hi, I'm legally required to let you know that I'm the attorney general.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The House Ethics Committee report into Matt Gaetz's alleged sexual misconduct is going to remain under wraps for now. The committee voting along party lines yesterday to block the release of the report. With the committee's next meeting not set until December 5th, the future of the report is uncertain. Some Democrats hoping to force it into the public eye with a vote on the House floor. And if that were to happen, the GOP could only afford to lose three votes. Already, one House Republican says he'd vote to make the report public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DERRICK VAN ORDEN (R-WI): I think it's very important that everybody has as much knowledge as possible so that they can make an informed decision.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That sounds like yes.

VAN ORDEN: That's a yes.

This is not show friends, it's show business. And my personal feelings should have - about Mr. Gaetz should have nothing to do with what's going on here in the country.

[06:45:05]

And that's a big problem in our country is that people are allowing interpersonal conflicts to affect their ability to legislate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Joining us now, former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania. He served as chair of the House Ethics Committee from 2015 to 2017, which is, of course, the most thankless job in Washington.

Congressman, thank you for being here. CHARLIE DENT (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FOR PENNSYLVANIA: Thank

you. Thank you, John Boehner.

HUNT: So, talk to us a little bit about - they do - they have - the Ethics Committee has released these reports in the past after someone has left Congress.

DENT: Yes.

HUNT: What do you think the dynamic is here? I mean, we're also seeing the members of the committee in a much more public way than we usually do. Seeing them on camera yesterday was really remarkable to me.

DENT: Well, yes. Look, there is precedent for releasing reports after a member of Congress has departed. There was a case of a congressman, I think his name was Buz Lukens of Ohio, 1990. There are allegations of him having sex with a 16-year-old. He resigned. The report was released afterwards. There's another case around the same time, in '87, a member report was released after he resigned because of bribery, misuse of campaign funds. That sort of thing. Mark Foley, you may remember that case.

HUNT: I did cover that case, yes.

DENT: You remember that, after, you know, he sent inappropriate tweets to pages. The committee actually deposed sitting members of Congress after Foley resigned. Blake Farenthold. They released a statement after he resigned. That was over sexual harassment and a settlement. So, there's nothing shocking here in terms of what the committee could do.

So, what's unusual about this whole thing is usually when a member of Congress resigns due to scandal, they go away quietly and they go about the business of rebuilding their lives, their relationships and all that sort of thing. They don't get elevated to the attorney general of the United States, top law enforcement officer. That's why this is so different and compelling.

Plus, you have the United States Senate sitting out there saying, hey, we have an official record we'd like to put together as part of this confirmation process.

And so, we still have time. By the way, you just saw Congressman Van Orden talking about how they're going to go about, you know, releasing this report. Somebody's going to go to the House floor and move, you know, a privileged motion to have this thing released. Then there will be a motion to table. And that'll be the procedural vote.

But there are plenty of House Republicans who are going to want to vote for this. We all know that they - this - have great disdain for Matt Gaetz. So, I wouldn't be at all shocked if this is released one way or the other, either at the committee meeting on December 5th or a motion on the floor or a leak.

HUNT: Yes. So, Congressman, you have - I mean as the chair of ethics, right, you've seen a lot right? DENT: Yes.

HUNT: You understand kind of the depths that people can go to. What - how would you kind of stack what Matt Gaetz did as a sitting member of Congress? I mean what these lawyers are alleging are that these two women - there's a lawyer that's been out there publicly for two women who spoke to the House Ethics Committee who say that there were sex parties over the course of a number of years while he was a sitting member of Congress that they were paid to attend. One of them says that she witnessed him having sex with her friend, who was 17 years old at the time. What does - how does this type of behavior fit into the pantheon of other bad behavior?

DENT: Well, I can assure you that that - that committee is composed of ten members, evenly split, Republican and Democrat. I am certain that they looked at this case, they reviewed it, they deposed all these various people, and I suspect that report is pretty nasty. And I suspect they all want - were going to vote for it prior to his resignation.

So, I think there's a lot in there. I'm sure that the report recommends sanctions of some sort, reprimand, censure, expulsion in the worst case, although that's moot now that he resigned. So, that's what they're - they're looking at. And they're also, by the way, if they - if the committee uncovers potential criminal wrongdoing, they can refer the matter to the Justice Department. I was involved with a few of those cases. That happens. I don't know what's in this report, but this is really messy.

And Matt Gaetz did not resign because this report was going to be clean. So, I suspect they did their job professionally and thoroughly, the committee, bipartisan basis. Now they're caught up over this issue of a post resignation release. And that's unfortunate. But I do think they'll get to it.

And, by the way, I don't think Speaker Johnson did anybody any favors by running his mouth and saying this shouldn't go public. You know, when I - when I got appointed this committee, the only thing John Boehner ever asked me to do is just make sure the committee functions. That's it. Never - and Speaker Pyan -

HUNT: He probably never wanted to hear from you, frankly.

DENT: That's true. And the same with Ryan and Pelosi. She was speaker too while I was on the committee. I never was involved with any of them ever trying to interfere with any type of an investigation or how we should go about it.

HUNT: All right, Congressman - former Congressman Charlie Dent, former chair of the Ethics Committee. Sir, always great to see you.

DENT: Thank you.

HUNT: Thank you for - for being here in these times that we live in now.

All right, it is 49 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

The House speaker, Mike Johnson, announcing Wednesday the single sex bathrooms on Capitol Hill are reserved for, quote, "individuals of that biological sex," end quote.

[06:50:00]

This issue first raised earlier this week targeting Congress' first transgender member, Sarah McBride, who was elected earlier this month. McBride wrote in a statement, "I'm not here to fight about bathrooms." Going on to say, "I will follow the rules outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them." It is unclear how this will be enforced.

The Department of Justice wants Google to break up with Chrome. They are asking a judge to force the company to sell the browser in order to keep Google from shutting out other search engines. This summer, a judge ruling the tech giant holds a monopoly in the search market.

The Biden administration is racing to finalize a deal between seven western states over the usage of Colorado - the Colorado River. The deal would protect drinking water for tens of millions of Americans, but getting all seven states to agree before Donald Trump takes office could be an impossible task.

The Alec Baldwin film "Rust" held its world premiere in Poland three years after a cinematographer was accidentally killed on set. A moment of silence was held for Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin not at the premiere. He was charged in the shooting, but the case was later dismissed.

All right, let's turn now to this. From a lack of experience in the core competencies, to allegations of sexual misconduct, many of Donald Trump's picks for his next administration have come under intense scrutiny, as we have discussed. Today, he is, of course, still pressing forward.

The scandals that plagued Trump's picks for major cabinet positions makes some offenses that were once considered disqualifying seem frivolous. So, what changed since accidentally failing to pay your taxes on a car, or smoking marijuana in college was enough to tank your nomination?

Our panel is back.

I mean we were just talking about this with the congressman, Lulu. I mean, like, when I think about the way that these scandals have - like, what used to constitute as scandal, compared to what constitutes a scandal now, it just - it kind of blows your mind.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: So, I actually think, if you remember the scandal about - I mean I hate to even use the word scandal because now it does seem sort of quaint, but when the illegal nanny sort of thing. Remember that. I think that actually might sink a nominee now because of where the Republican Party places its emphasis. Whereas, actually sexual assault - credible sexual assault and rape allegations seem to be just fine. I think this has got to do precisely with where Donald Trump puts his

emphasis. I mean, he is someone who has also been found liable for sexual assault. And so that, for him, is not disqualifying. Whereas, you know, immigration is an issue where it is.

So, it just goes to show you where, you know, someone like this puts the weight.

HUNT: Is -

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: If -

HUNT: No, go ahead.

THOMPSON: I was just going to say, politicians may, you know, say they're principled, but most of them just follow the voters.

Donald Trump was able to overcome all of these things. Voters still elected him anyway. And that's why you're -

GARICA-NAVARRO: Twice.

THOMPSON: Yes, twice. And that's why he's electing people with some of these same liabilities.

Do you think the rules apply, Maya, to some of these people? I mean, we have - we have also found in politics that Donald Trump does seem to have a set of rules that apply only to him, right? There are others who have tried to do Trumpian like things, and they have not been allowed to get away with them by voters, by others. Do you think, in this case, because Trump is say - is so aggressively backing Matt Gaetz, for example, that - and part of this difference, it seems to me, may be MAGA and the peculiarities of, you know, how - how they think about things like this, is that going to be enough to protect him, Donald Trump, or not?

MAYA WILEY, AUTHOR, "REMEMBER, YOU ARE A WILEY," PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: I just have to start with 26 women. It was 26 women who lodged allegations about Donald Trump and sexual misconduct of some form or another. And I do think the fact that elections did not produce a consequence for that is a significant problem for society and for what we're now seeing, in positions like Matt Gaetz's, where he would have legal responsibility for sex trafficking. I mean that - this is actually part of the job of being an attorney general.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: With a minor. With a minor, a 17 year old, high school - high school student.

WILEY: With a minor. In other words - in other words, being accused and investigated for - for both ethics and criminally for the very things that the agency is responsible for.

I think one of the things that is happening here, and to your point, is, there is - we've almost got to a place in society where we're not actually talking about the thing - reality of whether or not these things are real. It's like being able to appoint someone who does not agree with science to run a health agency that relies on science.

And there's - some of this - and I say this because I don't think we're acknowledging this enough. There are a lot of people out here, anecdotally, saying, oh, but he's not really going to do that, or, oh, that's not really going to happen. And I think what's going to start to happen here, if we start to - and continue to see people who are not only unqualified in some instances may work against the very responsibilities that they have.

[06:55:08]

That's a question, but it's a possibility.

When real people's lives are impacted, it is going to have a change in some of the political conversations.

HUNT: Well, the only thing I might raise is that voters, I think in some cases, may have actually voted to dismantle some of the places - some of these agencies, right?

WILEY: No, no, some - some -

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yes. Yes. I mean we're forgetting that.

WILEY: But - but - but not dismantle - but not dismantling, protection. I don't think voters voted to dismantle protection. I think there is a - so, there's a big difference between we don't trust government versus what we feel about government when it doesn't protect us when it should or do its job, whether it's vaccines and public health, or the rule of law and whether we're protected from crime.

DUBKE: Just quickly on this point. I don't think it's a trust issue, I think it's a broken issue. Government is broken. That is what millions of Americans were saying with the election of Donald Trump. And we need to do something about a broken system. That's what disruption is about.

Now, whether or not these people are meteors that are going to break up agencies or just speed bumps that are going to slow down some of the things that agencies do, this system - America does not have faith in its institutions the way that it used to.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But that's why he's - but that's why he's asking and putting in place people who are communicators.

DUBKE: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We are in a polluted information system. And many of the people that he is putting in place are part of the pollution of the information system.

DUBKE: We're in a changing communication system. I wouldn't necessarily say polluted. GARCIA-NAVARRO: But also - but also a polluted - well, it is a polluted because you are seeing people taking information that is simply not true. We are not being given facts. People do not understand basic issues. And so when you have and you are putting people there that are saying things that are factually incorrect, starting with that the election in 2020 was not stolen, and moving on from there, what he is putting in place there are people who have the biggest megaphones, who will be able to amplify that even more. And so our already polluted information system is going to be even more polluted.

DUBKE: We are talking about quaint scandals from years ago. One of the reasons that the quaint scandals then became scandals that derailed nominations was because there for years where scandals were never covered. There was a collusion between the elected officials and the media about - about sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill, whatever. And then that situation changed.

There's now a - now - now we have these other scandals that are coming out. It is a - it is a changing system. We are - we are really, for the last eight, ten years, we are going through a communications revolution that is - whether it is making people not trust government, think that it's broken, whatever the case may be, that is what we're trying to navigate through here. And that's probably part of the reason Donald Trump won.

WILEY: Can I just say one thing here? We literally had a black Asian woman with significant - doesn't matter what you think of her political views or whether you wanted to vote for her, no question about her qualification for office, completely denigrated on qualification for office in this political debate despite that. And now we're watching all these cabinet nominees that literally in some instances - let's take McMahon, at literally Department of Education, where apparently the qualification is, you went to school.

We are not having an actual conversation about what it means to have an effective working government, at the same time we're seeing picks for key positions that are clearly - and Donald Trump has said this publicly - often about whether or not they will be loyal. That is not fixing government, that is breaking it.

HUNT: All right. Obviously, a very charged conversation here, but so - I do want to leave you with this today.

President-elect Donald Trump may be busy picking his cabinet, but he still apparently has time for a side gig, hawking merch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": You know what Trump's up to right now? He's selling guitars. That's right. A man who does not play the guitar is selling limited edition guitars. There he is, Stevie Ray Vaughan with his - for only $10,000, you can own the worlds ugliest autographed guitar. The guy who says we can't afford apples is selling $10,000 guitars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Guitars, the latest venture in the long list of Trump approved goods. For just $10,000, as you heard there, an American flag guitar with his signature could be yours. This is just the latest in a long line of products that the president-elect has thrown his weight behind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: We are announcing the launch of Trump coins. They're called Trump Digital Trading Cards.

I've wanted to do this for a long time. I have some incredible people that work with me on things.

My new Trump watches. That's a lot of diamonds. I love gold, I love diamonds.

This Bible is the King James version and also includes our founding father documents. Yes, the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:00:05]

HUNT: I seem to remember when I covered his announcement at Trump Tower that there was Trump - I remember it being cologne at the time.

THOMPSON: I think Trump water, Trump steaks.

DUBKE: Success. Success by Donald Trump, if you really want to know.

HUNT: The cologne. It was the name of the cologne?

THOMPSON: That was the (INAUDIBLE).

DUBKE: That was the cologne. That was the name of the cologne.

HUNT: Hey -

DUBKE: Let's just be factual here.

HUNT: OK, I had forgotten that.

DUBKE: Somebody can fact check that on CNN.

HUNT: Thank you for restoring that - that fact in my brain, Mike.

DUBKE: Yes. Success.

HUNT: Thanks to all of you for being here. I appreciate it. Thanks to all of you at home for joining us as well. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

[07:00:00]