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Inside Politics
Drone Strike Hits Two Major Saudi Oil Facilities; Democratic Frontrunners Clash Over Health Care in Heated Debate; GOP Candidate Wins By Two Points in North Carolina Special Election; The Political Divide Between Rural and Suburban America; Democrats Worry about Being Painted as Extreme on Guns. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired September 15, 2019 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:36]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): A big debate clash carries over to the campaign trail.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was not pleased that Vice President Biden distorted what Medicare-for-All is.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you're not candid about what you're going to do, it makes it very difficult.
KING: Plus, this debate play stirs the gun debate.
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.
KING: John Bolton is out in yet another Trump team shakeup.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He made some very big mistakes.
KING: "INSIDE POLITICS," the best stories sourced by the best reporters, now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
KING: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John king. To our viewers in the United States and around the world, thank you for sharing your Sunday.
We begin this Sunday with raw new tensions between the Trump White House and Tehran after a stunning attack on Saudi oil facilities that will cause a major supply disruption in royal global emergency markets. The attack was both simple and staggering. Explosive drones launched at the heart of the kingdom's oil infrastructure. Yemenis Houthi rebels claimed responsibility and boasted of a big hit in the long-running and bloody regional war. But the Trump administration is upping the ante by directly blaming
Iran. This from the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: Tehran is behind 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy, the secretary of state says. He went to say: Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply.
Responding today, Iran's foreign minister accused Secretary Pompeo of, quote, max deceit.
Remember, just days ago, there was talk President Trump might sit down with President Rouhani next week at the United Nations. Now, hawkish voices in Congress are pushing something very different.
It is now time for the United States to put on the table an attack on Iranian oil refineries if they continue their provocations or increase nuclear enrichment. That from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in a Saturday tweet. He went on to say: Iran will not stop their misbehavior until the consequences become more real.
Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is live in Tehran this morning.
Nick, some very, very tense talk here. What next?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, startling to see the escalation in tensions simply this morning as a result of these tweets really. The U.S. secretary of state quite clear who he thinks is to blame, but no evidence in those two simple social media messages.
I should point out that the response went on to refer to how the maximum pressure campaign as the U.S. has been levying against Iran has now turned to max deceit. As you mentioned, he went on to say that the U.S. and its clients are stuck in Yemen because of the illusion that weapon superiority will lead to military victory. He means how the U.S. is backing Saudi Arabia in that long, brutal there, too.
But the big question, John, is about the facts and the evidence here. The Houthis, the Yemenis rebels have said, yes, they were behind this and they launched ten drones, but it's a long distance from their territory to the Saudi facilities that have been quite remarkably heavily damaged.
The U.S. officials briefing on background also without evidence are saying, maybe southern Iraq was where this was launched from. That might logically, geographically make more sense, but there are many analysts, too, saying the Houthi rebels in Yemen have come leaps and bounds in the technology they have. Could these makeshift drones possibly have gotten through Saudi Arabia's multibillion air defenses and hit the their prized position refineries? That's unclear.
But given the escalation here, and given how, frankly, days ago, Secretary Pompeo was talking about maybe diplomacy, given how Donald Trump himself shied away from launching air strikes in retaliation for the drowning of U.S. drones, just a matter of weeks ago, are we closer towards diplomacy today? Far from it. We're on a region which has been on tenterhooks for months, now having possibly one of the worst cases of military confrontation, possibly in front of it, John.
KING: Nick, stay with us.
Also with me in studio to share their reporting and their insights, Margaret Talev of "Axios", and retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, CNN's military and diplomatic analyst.
Admiral, let me start with you in terms of -- there's the details and then there's the bigger picture.
JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Right.
KING: If as some U.S. officials and others familiar with the incident are suggesting, the drones came from Iran, not from Yemen. This is a long-running bloody civil war. It's incredibly complicated. The United States has dirty hands in this war, too. It's our weapons being used in Yemen.
[08:05:01]
But if it has changed, the dynamics on the ground have changed and the attack on Saudi Arabia came not from Yemen, but from Iraq, how does that change things?
KIRBY: So, major escalation because it directly implicates the Iranians' involvement in a much more overt way than it would be if, for instance, they provided the arms to the Houthis. So, dramatic escalation and the -- what I worry about is that, A, there is no clear evidence and this administration doesn't have a reputation for credibility, and B, that as they talk about this, they close down the decision space for the president.
So, diplomacy can still be had. There's no reason to let this broaden out into a larger conflict in the region.
KING: And so, you mentioned diplomacy can still be had. I want you to listen -- this is the president of the United States, this is what makes this so stunning, and this region never follows a logical path. It just never does.
KIRBY: Right.
KING: But just days ago, the president of the United States himself saying maybe it's time to sit down and have a conversation with President Rouhani.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Will you meet with Rouhani? Would you meet with Iranian President Rouhani?
TRUMP: It could happen. It could happen, yes. No problem with meeting. Iran should straighten out, because frankly, they're in a very bad position right now and they should straighten it out, because they can straighten it out very easy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We know in the case of North Korea and others, the results are questionable, but he believes in the power of personal diplomacy. The Iranians had said, no, we won't even talk to you unless you ease sanctions. That's not happening.
But we were at this moment where we thought there might be an opening, and then this.
MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Not only that we think there might be an opening, but the fact that there might be an opening was one of the things that we know that President Trump and John Bolton argued about in John Bolton's kind of waning hours there at the White House.
And we know from people close to the former national security adviser that it was his discomfort with the prospect of perhaps dialing back some sanctions in order to pave the way for that sort of a meeting, that was one of his final considerations in his decision to go very promptly.
So, this probably just got a lot harder as a result of this, although I suppose there's a counterintuitive argument for saying it's why President Trump will want to do it more. But politically inside the United States, it just got a lot harder in terms of the signaling that we'll send to the rest of the world.
Also, like let's put the politics and the context of the timing. UNGA, the general assembly meeting, is like a week way. The Israeli elections are Tuesday. There's no national security adviser. We're working with an acting director of national intelligence.
There's a lot of balls up in the air right now in terms of the White House and who is in charge of that policy chain. And this is a very difficult time for the U.S. to be grappling with this, and also Secretary Pompeo for a long time relied on John Bolton to be the guy who said no and anger the president. And Pompeo is going to now have to be the guy who steers the guardrails.
KING: And to that point, back to Nick Paton Walsh, we talk about the confusion here in the United States, the turnover in the Trump administration, the competing voices. We've talked about this and you cover this personally all the time, about does Iran speak with one voice here? Is there a sense in Iran of whether they actually want to sit down with President Trump, where they see a possibility for a fruitful opening, or is that -- do they believe that's just bluster from the White House and they're not interested?
WALSH: I think on the street here, you want Iranians simply to see the sanctions lifted and their life to get easy. As we arrived, most people would say what does the departure of John Bolton mean? Does this mean is a possibility?
That's key in their minds, because pretty into his politically bone (ph), Bolton's main thing has been to opt as much military and diplomatic pressure on Iran as humanly possible. Yes, of course, this government here does not always speak entirely with one voice. There are those hawks certainly that want to see Iran emphasizing its ability to put political pressure around the region.
Remember, before the Trump administration pulled itself out of the deal very unilaterally, Iran was at its peak of military influence across the Middle East. And there are those who staked their career on the diplomacy possibly winning through. Like Mohammed Javed Zarif, foreign minister, who with John Kerry, hatched that nuclear deal, over many months of painstaking technical diplomacy. This took months and years to put together.
So the idea that a sudden flash meeting between Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, and President Trump itself might fix this all back together again, a tough sell frankly at the best of times. And I think many people woke up this morning and saw these accusations over the Saudi oil attacks and thought, oh wow, things have changed again -- John.
KING: And things have changed again.
And, Admiral, I want to close the conversation with just a little more on the complexity of this, for maybe, we have a global audience today. For Americans who maybe don't follow this on the daily basis, this is a long-running civil war. The Saudis have been involved, they their thumb on the scale, if you will, often using American weapons and American intelligence to conduct the operations.
Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut responded to Secretary Pompeo, essentially saying you're way oversimplifying this, sir. This is such an irresponsible simplification and it's how we get in to dumb wars of choice.
The Saudis and Houthis are at war. The Saudis attacked the Houthis, and Houthis attacked back. Iran is backing the Houthis and has been a bad actor, but it's not just as simple as Houthis equal Iran.
[08:10:03]
Does he have a point?
KIRBY: He does have a point, clearly. I mean, this could just be that -- the Houthis could have gotten the capability and done this on their own, this particular attack.
But the Iranians have been back with the Houthis for a long, long time. They've been using the Houthis as a proxy element not just to wage war inside Yemen, and the civil war, but to attack Saudi Arabia.
And so, Saudi Arabia, now, this is a significant tack on sovereign state facilities for Saudi Arabia and they have a right to defend themselves. So, it has become a bit of a proxy war across the border. We have been supporting Saudi Arabia and Iran has been supporting the Houthis. What is really important, John, is that this doesn't broaden into a
larger regional conflict and I think that's why I say that even though this is very tense and a major escalation in tensions, that the administration should be looking for options short of military action.
I found Senator Graham's tweet and comment about putting on the table strikes on Iranian facilities completely irresponsible at this time.
KING: But there aren't many other options, because the economic pressure is already high. That's what makes this such a dicey moment, and we'll watch -- we'll watch as we go forward obviously into the week ahead of us.
Next for us, go back to domestic politics. The Democrats debate health care, the biggest policy fight, and efforts to chip into Vice President Joe Biden's lead get personal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Now to the Democratic presidential race that is turning more testy as summer gives way to fall. And as Joe Biden maintains the lead, it is hardly overwhelming yet is proving stubborn.
[08:15:03]
Health care is an important divide. The big debate, how much of the party's past belongs in its future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I know that the senator says she's for Bernie. Well, I'm for Barack. I think the Obamacare worked.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Costs are going to go up for giant corporations. But for hard-working families across this country, costs are going to go down.
SANDERS: We need a health care systems that guarantees health care to all people as every other major country does, not a system which provides $100 billion a year in profit for the drug companies and the insurance companies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The third debate veered from the policy to the personal. Julian Castro questioned Biden's memory right there on stage. Booker used the post-debate interview to question the former vice president's focus or stamina, suggesting he would fumble away any chance of beating President Trump.
Biden laughed it off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Your rivals are increasingly comfortable raising questions about your age, about whether you can carry the ball over the finish line, as Cory booker says.
How do you ultimately overcome this?
BIDEN: Carry the ball over the finish line.
REPORTER: Is it fair for your rivals to play the age card?
BIDEN: Sure, it is. I mean, look, look -- last night was the closest we came to a debate, OK? We actually had an open debate on health care and I felt very good about the debate on health care.
REPOTER: Will you be releasing your medical records to address concerns?
BIDEN: Yes. I don't -- what the hell concerns, man? You want to wrestle?
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Joining our conversation now, CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson, Shawna Thomas of "Vice News", and Julie Hirschfeld Davis of "The New York Times".
The voters will tell us the real answer, but did anything change? This was round three. Biden again at center stage. A health care debate, which is both about the specifics of health care and about the ideological direction of the party, do you go more left, do you go more bold, do you be more pragmatic and stay in the middle? That's going to on until the very end.
But as we sit here Sunday after a Thursday debate, anything different?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: No, I don't think this debate will change anything. I think, you know, Biden probably had his strongest debate. Some of the undercard folks like Cory Booker had a great performance, I think.
In some ways, I think, Warren probably didn't make the best case vis- a-vis Biden in terms of the argument for why she wants to do what she wants to do with health care. Bernie Sanders took a lot of heat I thought in there. And I think Warren --
KING: She kind of let him.
HENDERSON: Yes, yes, I think it's on purpose, right? She doesn't have her own health care plan. Maybe at some point she will. But we'll see.
The age thing I think was surprising. You saw them sort of try to back pedal and clean it up, both Booker as well as Castro. But, listen, this is a fair question. I don't think they necessarily handled it well. I'm reminded of Bill Clinton running against Bob Dole, the whole idea of I don't think you're too old to run for president or to be president. I do question the age of your ideas was Bill Clinton's, you know, framing of the debate against Bob Dole.
It seems like these folks probably need to make more of the generational argument and much more subtly than you're too old.
KING: Hang on of that thought, for a second. Let's come back to health care things for a minute, because Warren was the rising star throughout the summer. A lot of people thought we would get a Biden- Warren clash in the debate. Not really. They did debate health care.
HENDERSON: Yes.
KING: But one of the questions for Senator Warren after was why didn't you answer a direct question, about -- you want Medicare for all like Sanders, if you read the Sanders plan that raises taxes on the middle class. She did not give a direct answer. She was asked about it after.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: You didn't answer the question about the middle class tax hike on your health care plan.
WARREN: Sure, I did. I talked about how we're paying for health care in America.
REPORTER: But will there be a tax hike on the middle class? That was the question.
WARREN: What matters -- what matters is how people pay and how much they're paying. Middle class families are going to pay less.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, what matters, as you know, if a Medicare-for-All supporter is nominated, the Republicans are going to say they would raise middle class taxes. They would.
The question is, is she just trying to be cute there and not be on camera, saving, yes, middle class tax would go up, or is she shaving some flexibility for down the road, because right now, go to her website and you see a plan on everything. She does not have a unique Warren health care plan. She says, I'm with Bernie.
Is she saving herself room to move?
SHAWNA THOMAS, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, VICE NEWS: I mean, I think that would be smart if she is saving herself room to move. My instinct, and this is the cynicism in me, goes, she does not want to be on camera saying I'm going to cause middle class taxes to go up because that is a ready-made ad for any Republican, for RNC or President Trump or anyone else. So, I think that's it.
I will say I agree with Nia that that debate, me and all of my editors, basically, we're looking around after the debate and it was like, what was the headline from that? And it was that nothing really changed. I think the thing we always have to remember about this is that a lot
of people tuned into that debate and that was the first debate they tuned into. Post-Labor Day, ABC, both Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris used it to basically reintroduce themselves.
[08:20:03]
The health care debate they've had is a health care debate we've seen between these people before, though not all on stage together. And it was -- it was very reminiscent of everything else that I've heard. But we have to remember, this is new to some people, they're all reintroducing themselves and that it is still just September, and the Iowa caucus is not until February.
KING: Right, it is 140 days away. Some of us count. Some of us count.
HENDERSON: Twenty --
KING: Twenty weeks, which if you think about back to school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, it will be here before you think because we're about to enter the blur (ph). But 20 weeks, they're still on (INAUDIBLE).
To your point and to what Julian Castro or Cory Booker were trying to do, were they trying to plant seeds, even though there's backlash against them, they both are treated pretty quickly.
HENDERSON: Yes.
KING: Were they trying to plant seeds to voters out there? Is it about age? Is it about your ideas are out of step?
There was an answer, the former vice president asked about race and he kind of went, A, all over the map, and, B, back in time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Triple the amount of money we spend from $15 to $45 billion a year. Give every single teacher a raise.
We have one school psychologist for every 1,500 kids in America today. It's crazy.
They don't know quite what to do. Play the radio, make sure the television -- excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night. Make sure that kids hear words.
By the way, in Venezuela, we should be allowing people to come here from Venezuela. I know Maduro. I've confronted Maduro.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now, his team said after he was frustrated and talked more foreign policy. That's why he tried to sneak that in. Record player -- HENDERSON: Do you have a record player?
KING: I've owned one. I don't at the moment but I have owned one.
It's just -- but his team says that's just Joe Biden, and yes, he is 70-something years old. They -- that's just who he is.
JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, I also had a record player in my home at one time. You know, it is in some ways -- the answer was all over the place really and worse than that, I think for some people, it smacked of some racial stereotyping that was very damaging.
I mean, he was talking about poor families and uneducated kids and how to, you know, sort of rebuild from that in a way that was clearly about race but he wasn't actually saying that. And the question was about slavery and the legacy of slavery. So, there are some problems there.
But I do think that Castro and Booker were sort of -- this was the moment. If you're going to bring this up in a frontal way, I think they both felt like this was the time. And it's not clear that Biden has a great answer or approach to come back at that. But I think he can get there.
And the fact that they pulled back so quickly after having raised it, tells me that they don't actually -- they haven't settled yet on what is the best way to bring this up in a way that's going to matter to voters, because that's the key thing. I mean, clearly, he is a lot older than the rest of the field, but is it going to matter to people? Can that be the prime issue that takes him down in the field?
And I'm not sure it can be and I'm not sure that they've figured out how to -- how to make --
(CROSSTALK)
TALEV: But we're looking now at three leading Democratic candidates and the president who is running for election all being in their 70s. And like, is there a difference between young Elizabeth Warren at 70 or the older statesman Bernie Sanders at 78? It's all a major paradigm shift in American politics. It all represents something different.
And the fact that Biden is willing to do a medical records release early, at least, suggests to me that he thinks he's going to come out OK in that exam. If he does, they all will have to, and that will maybe become part of our politics now as we have older people running for office later and staying in politics longer.
KING: Warren and Sanders both also saying with the former vice president, they will release their medical records and we'll see in what depth. But they all said they would release pretty comprehensive records before Iowa votes again in 140 days (INAUDIBLE)
(LAUGHTER) KING: Next for us, now, a Republican win in North Carolina and what it tells us about the 2020 landscape.
(COMMECIAL BREAK)
[08:22:48]
KING: Republicans won a narrow victory Tuesday night in a special House election that offers both parties some clues about the 2020 terrain.
Let's look at the race. The Republican Dan Bishop won but just barely, a 2-point race in a district President Trump carried by 12 points. In a district that's been in Republican hands since 1963. That's 56 years.
So, the Republican should have won bigger. So, what have we learned when you look at the map?
Number one, I want to show you Mecklenburg County, that's over here. Charlotte and into the suburbs to the southeast of Charlotte, right? Look what happened in this race. Back in the 2016 campaign, President Trump carried that part of this district by a little more than three points. Last year, Dan McCready was on the ballot again, the race was never certified because of some fraud issues. Dan McCready won it by 10. The other day, he won it by more than 12.
Democrats are increasingly strong in the suburbs, there's suburban revolt against this president. Democrats benefit from that.
But as Democrats celebrate that, even in defeat saying, we'll carry that over into 2020, look at Bladen County. This is a more rural county in this district. The president won it by 20 in 2018, the Republican won it by 17, boom, a match-up right there. Republicans are holding their ground in more rural areas. That's a problem for Democrats if you want to compete in a state like North Carolina in 2020.
Here's another example, Robison County, next door. The Democratic candidate back in the 2015 election won it by 15 points. Democrats view that as progress. Again, the election was never certified. The rerun this week, the Democrat won it but just barely.
Again, the president won it in 2016, Republican support in rural areas still very, very strong.
This is fascinating when you look at it and think about 2020. North Carolina one example of this. In the big city the president struggles, one-third approval rating. In the suburbs and smaller urban areas, again, 37 percent approval rating.
But then you start moving away from the populated areas, small towns, the president is at 50 percent, rural America 54 percent. Not the strongest numbers, mind you, for an incumbent president, but this tells the president, as you look to 2020, make it about the base.
[08:29:48]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But we also need to prepare for the coming fight because the traditions and beliefs that have made the American dream possible are under attack like never before.
With the grim specter of socialism descending on the Democrat Party, it's up to all of us to ensure the survival of American liberty.
We're fighting for this country. We're fighting for what we grew up with, what -- the values that we want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: As want to put as we continue this conversation, because if you look at this North Carolina race and you just start thinking about 2020, with 2016 in mind and what happened in 2016, look at this -- look at this poll match-up here. Trump versus Clinton in 2016, the President won the suburbs by 4 points, just barely but Republicans if you go back in time, the suburbs used to be critical to the Republican coalition.
He won rural areas by 27. Look at him in these match-ups. Biden crushes him in the suburbs. President Trump holds an advantage, not as big but holds an advantage in rural areas.
Trump versus Sanders, same dynamic. Trump versus warren, Trump versus Harris, Trump versus Buttigieg. Biden is the strongest but all the Democrats run stronger -- much stronger than Trump's 2016 performance in the suburbs where half of America lives -- more than half an America with .
And the President -- so if you're the President whether you're looking at immigration, whether you're looking at guns, whether you're looking at anything, aren't you thinking at this point I can't move the suburbs therefore I'm sticking with my people?
JULIE HIRSCHFELD-DAVIS, CONGRESSIONAL EDITOR, "NEW YORK TIMES": Yes, and I think that, you know, that's what we saw. That's the formula that we saw be successful for Republicans in this district in North Carolina where I was a couple of days before this election. And it's the formula that we see driving a lot of what President Trump is doing.
I mean you do not see him trying to pivot toward the middle. Or you do not seem him trying to dial back the rhetoric on immigration or any of these other things. We see it now in the debate over guns. He's not pivoting and it's because he is afraid of losing that base in the rural areas, the conservative base that is sort of the key to his coalition.
Democrats are actually getting stronger and stronger in the suburbs and we saw that in this race as well. But they have not been doing a good enough job in elections like this in turning out their -- pieces of their base.
There was a huge push in this district by the Democrats to get African-American voters and native American voters. There's a large population of them in some of those counties further to the East to come out and vote. They didn't get them out.
Now, it's a special election, it's a limited sort of prism to look at to sort of project into other races, but that does not bode well for them if they want to try to counter what the strategy --
(CROSSTALKING)
HIRSCHFELD-DAVIS: -- who is going to be on the Republican side.
KING: Forgive me -- you say it's a special election, but you're right because the Trump people were quite happy. He went in and did a rally. He (INAUDIBLE) on those phone numbers. He used the text messages to turn people out. It was a laboratory for turning people out. It might be a special elections but it was a test of both parties.
To your point about how does this affect the President's thinking. He's the incumbent president, there's a lot of policy decisions to make as he thinks about the campaign.
He said quite clearly after some of these mass shootings I'm for expanded background checks. Now we have seen a bit of a retreat.
This from CNN's Jeff Zeleny of Saturday night. "During high level calls between the Justice Department and Capitol Hill Friday evening, Attorney General Bill Barr sent a signal that talks have come to a grinding halt and prospects for presidential support for expanding background checks appear to be dimming as the week draws to a close."
Again, there is a preside whose first instinct was do something and his political team is telling him you cannot do anything that might possibly annoy your base and suppress turnout because we need every single one of our people to come out or the math doesn't work.
SHAWNA THOMAS, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, VICE NEWS: Exactly. The rural -- as you've shown in that -- the rural base, many of them like their guns, do not mess with that. Beto O'Rourke kind of played into that in the debate this past week.
I think the suburban thing, you're seeing all these Texas Republicans also decide, I don't want to run. A lot of those people are from suburban districts. That is because 2018, suburban districts started to turn blue in Texas.
They don't see a way for them to go forward in 2020, and so they're saying this isn't worth it. And I think the Trump team also sees that and they say ok, then I've got to focus all of my attention on rural districts and get people out as much as possible.
NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. I mean and if you think about who lives in rural districts. You talk about folks who like their guns, who like to hunt, also white evangelicals. And white evangelicals are among the host hawkish on immigration, right. We sort of don't necessarily think about that group in that sense, but that's one of the reasons -- I mean, he's obviously an immigration hawk himself, but that certainly very much energizes that base.
And you saw him when he went to Fayetteville in the runup to this Tuesday election. He essentially told those folks Democrats want to change your way of life.
KING: Right.
HENDERSON: And he said that he's the only person standing in the way of Democrats taking your way of life from you. It's a very overt sort of identity politics play and it works. I mean it very much energizes this group and it makes them have an emotional attachment to this president. And it's very powerful.
KING: Which is why you saw him celebrating the Supreme Court ruling that allows him to go forward with the asylum policy, which is why you see the administration promoting these numbers, southwest border apprehensions have dropped, largely border enforcement.
But on the other side, help from Mexican government has driven the number down and the signal that you can get asylum here and why the President is doing everything he can with military construction projects, for example. Take that money and put it in the wall. He wants some new wall built so that he can film a campaign ad.
MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So that they can say that the he did something with the wall.
KING: Right.
[08:34:57] TALEV: But that is on the affirmative side what he can do to try to amp up the base vote. On the suburban Republican side, there're really two issues and even then it's not clear how much he can maximize them. It's the economy, if he can keep the economy going. And if he can't obviously it could be a big problem.
And it's health care, because those divisions that we saw in that debate the other night about preserving private insurance versus, you know, a revolutionary change that would give everyone coverage but could raise taxes or could undermine or begin to unravel the private insurance system.
That's something that makes a lot of suburban voters, not just Republicans, you know, Independents, Democrats, very uncomfortable. They have insurance coverage and even if it's expensive or they don't love it, like they have it, they know what it is.
The President wants to try to exploit that and make it so that there are people who maybe don't really want to see him for another term, but they would rather vote for him than support (ph) the great unknown. And that's where the Democratic primary politics really come into play. It's kind of a Hail Mary for them. KING: And to that point -- we'll come back to that point. How the Democratic primary politics play. You have the President's strategy then you have the questions for the Democrats as well especially in these rural areas.
Up next for us though, to the campaign trail. Town halls sometimes mean tough questions and sometimes they remind us some challenges are much more personal.
[08:36:12]
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KING: Let's turn now to some "Sunday Trail Mix" for a taste of the 2020 campaign. An emotional town hall moment in Nevada for Senator Bernie Sanders. A veteran burdened by $14,000 in medical debt makes a desperate plea.
[08:40:01]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How are you going to pay off --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't. I can't. I'm going to kill myself.
SANDERS: Hold it -- John. Stop it. You're not going to kill yourself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't deal with this. I have Huntington's disease. Do you know how hard that is? No, you probably don't, do you? I can't drive. I can barely take care of myself.
SANDERS: All right. Let's talk later at the end of the meeting, ok?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you -- sir.
SANDERS: Ok.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The candidate kept that promise. Had a long conversation with that veteran after the event. Also said he is now in touch with Nevada's senators to make sure they keep in contact with the man.
Sanders says if elected, he would wipe out all such medical debt. Now, if you know a veteran in crisis, please have them reach out to Veteran's Crisis Line, 1-800-273-8255. Or you can text to 838-255.
We'll be right back.
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[08:45:03] KING: Beto O'Rourke needed to make a debate splash Thursday night and he did. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In Odessa I met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an AR-15 and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that ar-15 in Odessa, in Midland -- there weren't enough ambulances to get to them in time.
Hell, yes -- we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. we're not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans any more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Now many Democrats were not happy one of their presidential candidates used the national stage to push a mandatory gun buyback. Republicans were thrilled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR CHRIS COONS (D), DELAWARE: That clip will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations that try to scare people by saying Democrats are coming for your guns.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You had leading candidates for the highest office in the land talking about taking firearms away from law-abiding citizens. Well, the American people deserve to know this president, this vice president and these House Republicans will always stand for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It's a fascinating conversation -- to the vice president's point there. It was one candidate on the debate stage and he's a struggling candidate -- Beto O'Rourke. Some of the others though have said in the campaign trail that they're open to the idea of mandatory buybacks. Some have.
The question is, when you listen to the congressman's passion, Beto O'Rourke's passion this happened in his home town. It is genuine. It is a flip from his position back just in the Senate race just a year ago about a mandatory buyback.
Can the Democrats sell it or would it be much safer ground to push for an assault weapons ban, a voluntary take back if you want to turn them in, we'll take them. But not this mandatory we're going to take your guns.
HENDERSON: Yes, I think the safe position is how you outline it there. You saw weapons ban, voluntary buybacks. But I think no matter who the Democratic nominee is you're going to have Donald Trump essentially say that the Democrats wanted to confiscate your guns.
I think that's why if you're Beto O'Rourke, if you're (INAUDIBLE) candidate, this obviously happens in your home town, it's almost like, you know, if they're going to paint Democrats as gun grabbers anyway, you might as well sort of go for it.
KING: The Texas Republican party making your point, if you look at their tweet, they have a Beto T-shirt about come and take it. There was another Twitter back and forth between a state representative essentially saying come forward, which sounded like a threat to Beto O'Rourke.
If you look at the polling -- mandatory assault weapons buyback. 69 percent of Democrats support it, only 36 percent of Independents support it and the number among Republicans is even smaller. It is risky business, even if you think it's right, you're trying to win a general election, the electoral college. It is risky business.
THOMAS: Well, but he's not trying to win a general election. He's trying to actually pledge on a primary right now and he was in his home state of Texas where this happened. The only reason -- I mean no offense to Beto O'Rourke -- the only reason he's getting some attention now is because of the passion he showed after El Paso. It felt like the guy everyone saw in that 2018 senate race.
There's nothing else he has right now to run on to try to compete with the people at the top. So he's going to go for the sort of, you know, be darned the rest of the party.
But as we saw and as you said, if they're going to paint you with this brush anyway, he can go for it. The other Democrats can let him do that, keep the conversation about guns going and then let's see if anything actually happens in Congress.
But Beto O'Rourke has his issue, might as well shoot the moon.
KING: And another of the Democrats on stage -- all of them applauded his passion -- but another one, Amy Klobuchar essentially saying you have left, you have right, and you have me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you feel stuck in the middle, the extremes in our politics and you are tired of the noise and the nonsense, you've got a home with me. Because I don't want to be the President for half of America. I want to be the President for all of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It distinguishes her, but to your point, it's a primary campaign. Can you sell pragmatism, centrism in a primary which is almost always and maybe she can look at Trump's win? You know, Trump was not an ideological Republican and he blew up the party. Can you do that in a Democratic primary?
HIRSCHFELD-DAVIS: I think it's difficult to do. I mean she's clearly trying to stake out that territory and part of the message I think is, you know, you have to pick someone who is going to be able to go up against Trump and go up against Republicans ultimately. But if you want the energy and the sort of enthusiasm that you need to get to the top of the Democratic primary, that message would seem to be less the path to get there.
But it is interesting because on this guns issue I mean what you see happening in Congress is very different than what you saw happening on that debate stage. The Democrats in Congress are very much trying to unite around much more universally popular ideas like universal background checks and things that are less divisive and that poll much higher than things like a mandatory buyback or even an assault weapons ban.
TALEV: And we're going to see all of this play out --
HENDERSON: Yes.
HIRSCHFELD-DAVIS: And we're going to see this play out.
TALEV: -- this week in terms of what everyone expects to happen, which is probably not cool.
KING: The Republicans aren't going to budge unless they get specifics, consistent specifics from the President and this hasn't happened in the past. I'm not saying don't bet on it happening now, but if you look at the North Carolina results, you look at the Attorney General's calls up to the Hill. It seems like the President's pulling back. We shall see in the week ahead.
[08:50:06] Our reporters share from their notebooks next, including whether the Democrats have an actual plan
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KING: Let's head one last time around the INSIDE POLITICS table ask our great reporters to share a little something from their notebooks to help get you out ahead of the big political news just around the corner.
Margaret.
TALEV: You know, what I'm looking forward to this week is a state dinner which might sound like a really unfamiliar term to you because the President has only had only since he took office. Three years, one state dinner. This will be number two. It is with Australia.
And there are so many interesting to things to look at. One is like imagine you couldn't have done this two years ago when he took office. Remember the leaked cables about he didn't want to take the refugees. But there is a new prime minister, a different relationship and a lot of common interest. Everything from dealing with Iran to China which is really important, Huawei and joint military exercises. A lot of talk on trade and maybe even space.
So from the pomp and circumstances of a state dinner to like sort of the nitty-gritty, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this plays out. KING: You're a bit of a geek but that's ok.
But I'm with you, especially on the China stuff.
Nia.
HENDERSON: Stacey Abrams who won't run for Senate in Georgia much to the dismay of many Democrats but she does want Democrats to focus on Georgia as a swing state in 2020. It's got 16 electoral votes.
And she sees her race in 2018 as a kind of playbook. She lost the race by about 50,000 votes but she got more votes of any Democrat in history of Georgia elections.
[08:55:03] She sees that Democrats should focus on unlikely voters. They typically focus on swing voters that are easier to get but she wants to focus on unlikely voters as well as African-American voters. That state has a third of African-American voters so she's making a play to say listen Democrats pay attention to Georgia if you want to expand that map. That's one way to do it.
KING: Interesting challenge to both the Democrats and Republicans. Which states do you pick to try to change your expanse of the map?
Shawna.
THOMAS: North Carolina is in the process of redistricting yet again. The state court said that there are districts that were unconstitutional. But the big thing about this is that they are being transparent about this. They are broadcasting it live as they go through this process. So it will be interesting to see what happens and they have to deliver those maps by September 18th.
KING: Census decisions, redistricting. I love the idea of transparency, open and live hearings.
Julie.
HIRSCHFELD-DAVIS: Get ready to hear more about the word "emoluments". This is obviously the (INAUDIBLE) of the constitution that makes it -- that says that the President cannot profit off of the presidency. We've heard a lot from the Democrats as they look toward whether they should impeach President Trump or not, about the Mueller report and Russia.
But the emoluments issue is something that's much more politically palatable to a lot of them. It is about corruption. It's about self- dealing and they think that, you know, this is also a very rich vein because there is a new example every day of something that might not be quite appropriate, whether it's having the G-7 at his own resort or having foreign leaders or his own administration stay at Trump properties when they travel.
So look for the Congress to be much more engaged in investigating that issue in the days to come.
KING: I'm looking for the next national spelling bee -- emolument.
I'll close with this. President Trump offered yet another pre- election assist to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this weekend saying he hopes to negotiate a joint defense agreement with his friend after Tuesday's vote.
That is another Trump effort to sway a close election. And Netanyahu was quick to tweet thanks. But the White House has been silent on another bigger Netanyahu pre-election gambit. An announcement he plans to annex the West Bank and more Palestinian territory if he wins reelection.
Netanyahu has hinted he has White House support but key U.S. allies are making clear, they view such a move as unacceptable -- France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom warning in a very blunt joint statement that Netanyahu's plan is, quote, "a serious breach of international law". They are waiting to see if President Trump ignores that and them. Again, the election is Tuesday.
That's it for INSIDE POLITICS. You can catch us on week days as well. We're here at noon Eastern.
Don't go anywhere, a very busy "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper up next. His guests include the presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang. Plus Republican Senator Rand Paul.
Thanks for sharing your Sunday with us. Have a great day.
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