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Inside Politics

Sessions Expected to Launch Campaign for His Old Senate Seat; Trump's Name Mentioned Repeatedly In Roger Stone Trial; Sanders Rolls Out Long Awaited Immigration Plan. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 07, 2019 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: -- was just signing the official paperwork for the Trump-Pence campaign to be on the New Hampshire ballot here. And the vice president was asked if he plans to jump in or campaign for his long-time friend Jeff Sessions. He said we will let the people of Alabama decide this race.

But, John, that is very much an open question if President Trump will let the people of Alabama decide this race or if he will put his hand on the scale and try to support another Republican nominee. We are told by Republicans close to the White House that President Trump is still angered by all of this, he does not want Jeff Sessions to run for Senate, so it is hard to imagine him sitting on the sidelines watching all of this play out for him.

But Jeff Sessions wants his old job back. He wants a bit of a resurrection if you will, he liked being a senator. Of course, this was a tough, you know, time as attorney general for him but unclear how this election is going to go. John, a glimpse of this may come when the president travels to Alabama on Saturday. He's going to watch the LSU-Alabama game, the biggest college football game of the week. We'll see if he gives a hint if he will stay out of it or not. I'm guessing he may have some thoughts on it.

John?

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Maybe he'll wear a button or go to a tailgate or something like that. Jeff Zeleny, appreciate the double duty reporting for us live from New Hampshire.

Let me start the conversation with the Washington Post college football reporter Seung Min Kim. She got her credentials from the game. It is, you know, we're making light of it but the president is going down, you have this crowded Republican primary even it wasn't Sessions, even if it was just four or five Republican candidates, they would all be looking for the blessing of the president of the United States although it didn't work out so well in the (INAUDIBLE). But I just want to read from some of your reporting on this to follow up on what Mr. Zeleny teed up.

"The president has discussed attacking Sessions with the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump has repeatedly denigrated Sessions to allies and White House aides in recent days, people familiar with his comments said." Somewhat similar to that in the New York Times, "Mr. Trump sent word to Mr. Sessions through allies that he would publicly attack him if he ran."

And yet, Jeff Sessions thinks I'm going to do it anyway. That's an interesting decision.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think there is a sense there from the former attorney general and the former senator that he doesn't necessarily want his last act of public service to be being fired by the president of the United States in a somewhat humiliating fashion.

But I think with the reaction from Senate Republicans now that we have confirmation that he will run -- he will announce his candidacy later today would be interesting. The sense I'm getting so far is that while there is still a lot of fondness for Jeff Sessions in the Senate, you know, he was a colleague there for 20 years, they want to avoid anything that would make it a messy primary.

Because a messy primary, particularly with a very flag candidate in Roy Moore, was what caused Doug Jones -- was what helped Doug Jones win last time. And for a year since that 2017 loss, Republicans have been banking on at least getting this seatback to make sure they can protect their majority. And any sort of circular firing squad, a messy primary could hamper their way towards that.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: This is just a great -- I mean, this is a great story. It doesn't matter where you are on the partisan spectrum or if you're neutral or just an observer, it's just an amazing epic like Greek tragedy kind of story. Doug Jones has been a sitting duck for all these months. He's like, wow, I guess to better make it count, you know. There's a lot of enthusiasm for his campaign among Democrats' efforts to raise money and stuff. But it would be tough to do it twice.

You know, Roy Moore, wow, what. And so the primary field itself was amazing, right, and then as President Trump knows, when you have a very crowded primary, you can end up with a totally different result. So this could just -- and Jeff Sessions has nothing to lose. President Trump has left Jeff Sessions nowhere to go but here.

KING: It is interesting, though, because Jeff Sessions could -- if you lost a primary, that would be -- even just an -- you know, you're trying to come back from being fired as attorney general then if you lost a primary, that would be embarrassing. And yet, Richard Shelby, the state's other senator is standing by Jeff Sessions, had his work behind the scenes to get Sessions to run who is picking a fight with the president. That's picking a fight, potential fight -- that's -- it's interesting that another Republican sitting senator, most will stay out of this, but that the senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, is willing to stand up.

He says he will endorse Sessions, he's promised him in recent weeks I'm told I will help you raise money. I will help you clear the clutter. He's going to try to get some of these other Republicans to drop out. We'll see if he's successful at that but that's interesting. One -- another interesting thing is that Jeff Sessions is going to go on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News. Now, a lot of the Fox News hosts were very critical of Jeff Sessions when he was the attorney general and they thought he wasn't doing enough to protect the president from the Mueller investigation. Not Tucker Carlson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: For God's sake, lay off Jeff Sessions. He's your friend. One of the very few you have in Washington.

While everyone else is obsessed over dossiers and FISA warrants, Sessions worried about the mission he was hired to do.

Jeff Sessions, who made the mistake of becoming attorney general and was totally attacked and discredited mostly not entirely, mostly unfairly, I thought. It sort of obscured the fact that Sessions was Trump long before Trump. Sessions was the single most impressive member of the Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Will the president -- you know, it's a soft landing, if you will. You go to a friendly, familiar face on a network that's important to Republican voters and important to the Republican president of the United States.

[12:35:03] Will the president listen and say maybe I should back off here and just let it play out or?

OLIVIER KNOX, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SIRIUSXM: If you're a Sessions primary rival you don't need new material from the president. You can go back to two years worth of presidential attacks on the former attorney general. You don't need him to weigh in again.

Now, if it gets to the point where it's him versus Doug Jones, I think that's an easy call, they all rally together. But until then, you know, if you're leading the pack and Jeff Sessions is coming in, gosh, you can write the ads pretty easily. Just show Donald Trump attacking his former attorney general.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: To your point, John, I mean, maybe that's a -- maybe that's behind Sessions' reasoning of deciding to go onto Fox News which is potentially the president will be watching this, maybe I can get in his ear and Carlson will be favorable to me. Back to Seung Min's point real quickly about the Senate Republicans, the NRSC chair there, the Senate Republicans' campaign arm saying, look, I think the primary will sort itself out so we don't see any of them rushing to back Sessions ahead of his announcement.

KING: Enjoy the game. Let us know how the president handles this one if he touches (INAUDIBLE) in Alabama. Looking forward to it.

All right, next to witness, it's getting more interesting by the minute. Not in the impeachment but at the Roger Stone trial. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:09] KING: Topping our political radar today, the president of France raising eyebrows across Europe saying NATO allies can no longer rely on America to defend them. Emmanuel Macron's jarring assessment came in an interview with the Economist. He says NATO is experiencing, quote, brain death because of President Trump and America's indifference to the European alliance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel quick to disagree, however, calling Macron's views, quote, rather drastic saying such as sweeping judgment in her view is inappropriate.

And it's day three in the Roger Stone trial here in Washington. So far in today's testimony, federal prosecutors detailing phone records showing Stone's frequent contacts with the Trump campaign including then-candidate Trump. And a detailed explanation of the godfather part two.

Shimon Prokupecz has been watching the trial for us. Shimon, take us inside the courtroom and maybe had a movie review.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, it's been a very colorful morning here in court where we had an FBI agent, a former FBI agent who was the case agent for Roger Stone really detailing, going over the different ways in which Roger Stone was trying to intimidate a witness who was about to go and talk to members of Congress.

You remember that witness, it's Randy Credico, a comedian and radio host from New York. And it's been a very colorful morning, a lot of languages that we probably can't say on television, but certainly, there's been a reference to Roger Stone telling Randy Credico about Frankie Five Fingers, it's a reference to the movie "The Godfather". And then we've had other references to Nixon here where Roger Stone tells Credico anything to save the plan, Stonewall, a reference to Richard Nixon, of course.

So it's been that kind of a morning and, of course, a lot more serious business as well. The agent that's on the stand is testifying about the contacts that Roger Stone had, the numerous ways in which he was communicating with members of the Trump campaign about his information, about his access to WikiLeaks and what he was trying to do. And, of course, we're all waiting for one of the big witnesses here, Steve Bannon, who prosecutors have identified to jurors as someone who is the CEO of the Trump campaign, and talked about e-mails between him and Roger Stone talking about WikiLeaks.

So all of that is yet to come. We don't know when Steve Bannon is going to appear here. He's not coming voluntarily we're told. He has been subpoenaed.

KING: Shimon Prokupecz outside the federal courthouse, appreciate that reporting. And we'll keep track of this trial which oddly is running parallel to the impeachment inquiry. I don't know if that's odd or not but.

Up next for us, 2020 politics. Bernie Sanders plungers into the immigration debate and tries to push it to the left.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:48:31] KING: Senator Bernie Sanders today rolling out a long- awaited immigration plan with a message aimed squarely at the incumbent president, quote, we're going to overturn everything Trump has done to demonize immigrants, Senator Sanders says in a tweet today. Among his proposals, a temporary halt on deportations, ending family separation and ICE raids, and decriminalizing border crossings. Senator Sanders would also eliminate ICE and CBP outrise (ph), a position even most -- his most progressive 2020 rivals have not fully embraced.

An important issue, not as high as healthcare when you're talking to Democrats, but you've done some reporting on Sanders making progress among Latino voters. His standing in Nevada has been pretty strong. Is that what we're seeing here, him trying to capitalize? He's very competitive in Iowa, very competitive in Nevada, two of the first early states. He's competitive in New Hampshire. Is that where the display is?

BARRON-LOPEZ: It's a big piece of display. So we know that heading into 2020, Trump is going to make immigration a big piece of his re- election as well, he did it in 2016. And so Democrats, whoever the nominee is, need to have a strong stance on that and need to totally layout where they are at on that. And, of course, also Sanders is including -- or he's trying to make a big play for Latinos. He knows that he lost them in key states in Nevada and California to Clinton the last cycle but in Nevada, it was by narrow margins. And so he's trying to make up there because that state is key to his potential pathway to the nomination.

[12:50:00] KING: And it's another conversation similar to Medicare for All where you see candidates trying to win the votes of a more liberal Democratic base with positions that raise the questions, can you sell that in a general election if you're trying to. Maybe you have a different map but if you're trying to retake Pennsylvania, retake Wisconsin, and retake Michigan, can you sell an immigration plan that decriminalizes border crossings, eliminates ICE, eliminates CBP? I'm sure that, you know, you reconstruct other agencies but the headline of that seems to me to play into a Trump ad.

KIM: I mean, you mentioned earlier that while healthcare -- this hasn't been as prominent as a dividing point as healthcare, it certainly could be. And we've seen that in the number of the debates where there have been (INAUDIBLE) disagreements over the concept, for example, decriminalizing border crossings.

I mean, Julian Castro has been one of the candidates out there very much endorsing this option but, you know, Obama's former DHS secretary Jeh Johnson has written and talked about how, if you do this, and a lot of people in the Democratic Party agree with him, that this is effectively saying we have open borders to the rest of the world. And that is something that has clearly divided the Democrats in the field because of abolishing ICE has also been very divisive not just in the field but on the Democratic Party writ large. The abolishing or eliminating CBP is a relatively new some and that's not something that a lot of candidates have talked about at this point. So, as the immigration debate kind of heats up a little bit, this certainly could be as divisive as Medicare for All.

KING: And just a quick point about Senator Sanders who's got forgotten at times I think, you have, you know, the rise Warren over the summer which is a big story. Can Biden hold his lead or at least stay in the top-tier has been a big story. Buttigieg now rising in some places. That's dominated the discussion.

This Quinnipiac poll in Iowa, Warren, Buttigieg, Sanders, Biden essentially a cluster with Warren ahead there as I mentioned. So Sanders strong and competitive in Iowa, strong and competitive in Nevada, he won New Hampshire last time, he's competitive there and just launched a million-dollar TV ad campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hardworking people betrayed by Trump. A healthcare system that makes enormous profits for drug and insurance companies. In this moment we need a fighter, Bernie Sanders. We know he'll fight for us as president because he always has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's interesting, and we'll talk about other candidates another day as we're focusing on Senator Sanders at the moment here. It's just interesting -- we're inside a hundred days now. So when you see new plans, new spending, even the travel schedule now, everything they do tells you something about the strategy, it matters a whole lot more than it did a month or two ago.

KNOX: And the number you didn't give us from the poll, I don't know what it is, is the number of undecided Democrats. And pulling those undecided Democrats off the sidelines and lining them up behind you before they actually caucus, before they actually go to the primary, before they actually vote. I think it's a big part if he's trying to convince people.

Right now, one of the biggest dynamics is Democrats saying, basically like put up whatever you want. I will vote for a CNN coffee cup. But I think they're trying to pull -- they're going to pull these undecided off the fence before the caucus, get them committed early, get them sort of donate, get them in the habit of supporting one candidate.

TALEV: But also, don't forget, Bernie (INAUDIBLE).

KING: They're not 35-years-old, they're not qualified.

TALEV: Oh great.

KIM: Some might be 30.

KNOX: Oh I don't know. TALEV: But Bernie Sanders has got already well enough money to go all the way to the convention, and Bernie Sanders is a man whose political career has always been based on his fearlessness to speak out about his ideas and about his plans and doesn't care if he angers either party. He's a candidate in one -- for party's nomination right now but that's never stopped him before and won't now and he's here as long as he wants to be.

KING: The calendar makes everything that happens more and more interesting by the day.

Up next, a little bit of a lightning round, Bill Gates has some questions for Elizabeth Warren about, guess what, the wealth tax.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:58:21] KING: All right, let's end the show, a quick lightning round. Other stories of the political news of note. One of America's richest men, Bill Gates, in a bit of a dust-up with Elizabeth Warren over her proposal for a wealth tax. Bill Gates saying this in the -- it was in the New York Times from a conference on Wednesday. "If I had to pay $20 billion, that's fine. But when you say I should pay 100 billion, OK, then I'm starting to do a little math about what I have leftover."

Elizabeth Warren tweeting in response, I'm always happy to meet with people even if we have different views. At Bill Gates, if we get the chance, I'd love to explain exactly how much you'd pay under my wealth tax. I promise it's not $100 billion."

Bill Gates tweeting back, "I greatly respect your commitment to finding ways to address wealth inequality and poverty at home. I'm always willing to talk about creative solutions to these problems."

It gets Elizabeth Warren and her wealth tax in the news, does it matter elsewhere?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, I mean, Warren, this whole narrative of her back and forth with billionaires appears to help her. And she doesn't run away from it. She uses it, she re-tweets billionaires when they attack her, she goes after them whether it's Zuckerberg or others. And Gates' initial comments weren't accurate, it wouldn't have taken a hundred billion of his billions, and he would have had six billion or so leftover if it even did take a hundred billion.

KING: OK, is this true, a Daily Beast headline. Trump and "Apprentice" creator Mark Burnett discussing their next TV show. The president misses reality TV, an "Apprentice" White House edition. Really?

KNOX: This is one of those, you know, Trump muses about x which doesn't -- we can't attach any level of, you know, how serious he is to this stuff. He muses about a lot of things, he muses about using nuclear weapons on hurricanes, he muses about reality TV. And I just can't tell whether it's, you know, more than amusing. KING: I don't think I'm fired but I know I'm out of time. Thanks for joining us in the INSIDE POLITICS today. We'll see you back here this time tomorrow. Check out our podcast to answer some Twitter questions.

Dana Bash in today for Brianna Keilar --

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