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Inside Politics

Biden's Dem Supporters Calculate His Appeal to Moderate Republicans; Who Will Be The Impeachment Managers at a Senate Trial?; The New Campaign Currency: The Selfie. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired December 26, 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]

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: -- everything going on with impeachment but all of the other stuff, the tweeting, what they see as kind of a vulgarity that sometimes come out -- comes out of the White House and him targeting people. And what's interesting is, you know, those people are -- were all hoping for another choice. I have met people who say that they had wished that Mike Pence somehow would have swept in and done it. But they say that, you know, if it gets down to Trump and Biden that they would seriously consider Biden because they see him as someone who is not going to swing the country so far to the left.

On the other hand, you bring up any of the other candidates, particularly Elizabeth Warren, and they say like, over my dead body. You know, I would vote for Trump in that situation. And so it is a huge part of his appeal, even though I think his support is so soft that calculation of maybe he would be able to scoop up some of these Midwest.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And I want to bring Errin on this because Errin you're in the real world right now while we're in Washington. I called this the Ricky Fuller (ph) test. This is a friend of mine from high school who is a moderate Republican in New Jersey who likes to vote Republican is disgusted with Donald Trump but doesn't see anybody besides Joe Biden and maybe Michael Bloomberg who he could potentially vote for on the Democratic side. And, you know, again, this is exactly what this time story is referring to.

Let me actually, before you go, Errin, let me read to you a very sort of telling quote from this New York Times article. "Mr. Biden's appeal to what some might call the reasonable Republican dad vote goes like this. He shuns far-reaching proposals like Medicare for All. He has a history of working with Republicans, his warm, personal style is disarming, and he represents a return to what some moderates view as a more stable era." Particularly that last part, a more stable era.

ERRIN HAINES, NATIONAL WRITER ON RACE AND ETHNICITY, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Yes, I think that's exactly right. You know, we do know that the 2020 is going to be an election that's won on the margins, right? And so every vote counts. And with that in mind, I think that the former vice president does, you know, have the potential to get some Republican-leaning voters who do have, you know, fatigue from President Trump for various reasons and are looking for the message that the vice president pushes about, you know, this being -- this election really being about a battle for the soul of America.

And so I think it's going to be particularly interesting not just for those Republican dads but really for suburban white women to look at what they might do this election. I hear from those voters quite a bit about, you know, how they may be open not only to not voting for President Trump, so does that mean necessarily that they vote for somebody like a former vice president Biden or does that mean that they stay home in 2020 because they don't want to cast another ballot for the president?

BASH: Now that's a great point. Those very voters, the suburban voters but in particular suburban white women who gave the Democrats the majority in the House of Representatives. So here's the yes, but side of this discussion, the president has a lot of support in his party, a lot, almost unprecedented. If you look at these numbers, the latest approval among Republicans, 81 percent, 87 before that, 80, 82, and it goes on and on and on. I mean, you know, other past Republicans would dream of having this kind of support.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: No, he enjoys huge support within his party. I mean, our most recent poll show that, you know, 75 percent of Republicans say they are certain to vote for him. And as we've discussed earlier in the show, the economy is strong and that's a powerful argument to some of the more moderate, you know, members of his party.

So I think a real question here is, again, Errin is absolutely right. In these states like Michigan, like Pennsylvania, like Wisconsin, the margins are going to matter, and so are there enough people in these groups, suburban women, you know, frustrated moderates, that they could lift Biden over Trump. Perhaps, but he is also dealing with -- he also has and brings this Republican enthusiasm, the excitement, and he is working to galvanize even more voters, you know, from the areas that he won big last time.

RESTON: And on the flip side of that, just quickly, if you end up with Biden as the nominee, do all of those -- do a lot of those Warren and Sanders voters stay home? And we know exactly that that was the problem with Hillary Clinton, so.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The only thing I'll add is, look, this is the question, right? This is the question of the Democrat primary. Does this Biden centrist moderate, maybe I can reach out to people who were Republican or lean Republican and bring them onboard. Is that the way to win? Or is it the way if you get your base to come out in a major way because they're excited about big structural change. And luckily, we're going to start getting the answers to those questions.

BASH: We're in a very complicated primary.

MATTINGLY: Right. All I would say is, to your point, I'm not sure that this is a big pool of voters of Republicans, for your friend Ricky in New Jersey. But --

BASH: He's getting a lot of airtime

[12:35:03]

MATTINGLY: But I do think to your point like these are very close races in certain states. And the states that are going to matters are going to tip on 10 to 20,000 votes. And so every little piece matters and so whoever comes out of this is going to have to be targeting people like that, and that is the appeal to the electorate as we now are what four or five, six weeks away from the caucus.

BASH: And as much as we (INAUDIBLE) is not one of those things (INAUDIBLE).

All right, we talked about the economy in the first block. We have some breaking news as we go to commercial break from Wall Street. The Nasdaq crossed the 9,000 line for the first time ever. Amazon led the gains, rising three percent after holiday shopping numbers gave them that boost. And again, the tech-heavy Nasdaq topping 9,000 for the first time ever.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:18]

BASH: Topping our political radar today, President Trump is warning countries involved in fighting in Syria to stop killing civilians. This tweet this morning from the president said that "Russia, Syria and Iran are killing or on their way to killing thousands of innocent civilians in I-D-L-I-B, in Idlib Province. Don't do it. Turkey is working hard to stop this carnage."

Volunteers in Syria tell CNN that the Syrian army with Russia's help is intensifying air strikes and artillery fire in that Syrian province.

Next, fighting against Russia if Moscow interferes with the 2020 election. The Washington Post reports that the U.S. military is putting together information warfare tactics to use against senior Russian officials if there is a hack of the American election system. One idea, according to the Post is to let top Russian officials know that their personal information could be exposed if they're connected to any election meddling. In response to the story, the Pentagon said, no comment on anything related to cyberspace operations.

And a brand new ad with no mention of impeachment or the president from Republican Senator Susan Collins. Instead, she tries to sell herself in her blue state of Maine as an independent. And the ad even flashes a dirty word in today's times, bipartisan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The future of Maine depends on educating our kids today. Susan Collins has personally visited more than 200 Maine schools. She worked to strengthen and expand Pell grants with bipartisan support. Susan Collins, making a difference for Maine's future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Up next, we are going to explain the details of impeachment managers, that selection process. Who is up for the job and who isn't? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:23]

BASH: The impeachment process might appear stalled, but plenty of action is happening behind closed doors. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she'll send over the articles and name the impeachment managers just as soon as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lays out his ground rules for the trial.

Now, the managers are those who will play a crucial role in the trial. They're in charge of presenting the Democrats' case for impeachment and responding to the defense, the president's defense. Now, one House Democrat, Steve Cohen, offered some insight into how Pelosi will choose those key players.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): There's a lot of people to choose from, there's a lot of talented folks, and I think Speaker Pelosi is looking at a demographic mix. She's got a lot to consider, and I'm sure she'll have a good team. And if I'm on it, I'm on it. If I'm not on it, I'm going to support the team and I'll have my way to support the effort.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Have you asked though? Do you specifically told her you'd like to be a part of the team?

COHEN: I think Speaker Pelosi likes to make decisions on her own and I don't think she wants to be burdened by people lobbying for the position or necessarily seeking it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Yes, that won't work, Ryan. And so I'm not going to be asking the speaker. That was so classic.

But look, this is a really interesting decision, an important decision that the speaker is going to make, because there are two things going on here. One is you want to have the best -- the people who can argue the case the best, who are as well steeped in the case as possible, but you also want to represent the diversity geographically and every other way of the Democratic caucus. MATTINGLY: Yes. There's a lot that goes into this. Obviously, Adam Schiff, the House Committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman are going to be on the team. That hasn't been said yet but we all know that's happening and they will be leading the team. But to your point, there are a lot of people who could have made name for themselves who are considered very talented who are on the intelligence committee or judiciary committee that Nancy Pelosi has to choose from. And the expectation is she'll mostly pull from those committees.

But I think what's interesting, and Dana, you hit on a key point here. There's the idea of you need to make sure that who's presenting this case to the senators presents the best case you possibly can to be able to try and maybe as we were talking about earlier, pull some Republicans over to your side. But you also need to make sure that the 230-plus members of your caucus are happy with the representation. And so that means not just liberal stall words, not just maybe freshmen, not just people from the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, all of these things have to be considered.

I would say two people to keep an eye on that I pay close attention to during the judiciary committee process. That was Joe Neguse who is a freshman from Colorado who everybody thought was very impressive, and also Val Demings who is a congresswoman from Florida, who are two very talented or considered very talented by the members of their party during this process who might come along and have big roles. That said, I don't know and I do know a lot of people have been (INAUDIBLE) maybe not directly to the speaker but maybe through backchannels to the speaker.

BASH: Here's how Eric Swalwell tried to walk that line. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): I do think we should send over our best. I'm going to continue to do what helps my constituents and helps the Congress hold the president accountable. And Poppy, that's truly the speaker's call, and again, I'll do whatever I'm asked because I really do believe that no one is above the law. I made that case 36 times in a courtroom and I got 36, you know, verdicts that held people accountable when I was a prosecutor. And I feel like I have been part of a team that has effectively made that case in the Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Perfect.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's subtle, so subtle.

MATTINGLY: Perfect.

RESTON: I think that, you know, obviously the senators are the most important audience. But I also don't think that we can lose sight of the fact that public opinion on impeachment has stagnated.

[12:50:04]

And so, so much of Pelosi's choice in this is, you know, really important in who can craft the case that actually does get people to start paying attention again to impeachment, and potentially persuade some of those voters in the middle of that that this really is a stain on his presidency, that might, you know, make them think twice before they vote for him. And on the other side, just as important in, you know, making this into a sham trial, as he would -- as President Trump would like it to be.

BASH: Well, we just heard from a couple of members of the committees. Let's listen to what a pair of female Democrats said about potentially being managers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KIM SCHRIER (D-WA): I'm not on either of the investigating committees, and that is not a job that I as a freshman congresswoman would want. There are so many qualified people who I think would do an excellent job.

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): I have no desire to be one of the managers. I think there are people far more qualified that were on the intelligence, the judiciary committees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But this is r the first female speaker's Democratic caucus and you can bet she has a lot of women to choose from who were on those committees. We can put just their names up on the screen right now. I mean, that the list is pretty long, it's even longer than that.

We were just looking at the managers from the Clinton trial, the Republican managers. All men, of course.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

LUCEY: We're at a different moment in the Democratic -- diverse Democratic caucus. Pelosi is absolutely aware that she needs to reflect the diversity of her caucus. I think she's showing that in all kinds of ways since she's taken this role. But she's also well- aware of the politics of individual members in their districts heading into an election year. And so I think that's also something she's going to be balancing as she figure out who wants to be doing these jobs, who's going to be taking these on, and how these arguments are going to play in those districts.

HAINES: I think that's also a good point though and get -- in terms of getting people to tune in to these having impeachment managers who are reflective of the party. You've got, obviously, African-Americans being the base of the Democratic Party and women being the majority of the electorate. And so, having both of those groups factored into this is probably going to be a big part of the speaker's decision.

BASH: It will. And Errin, I have -- we have something that I definitely want you to weigh in on after the break because you're out on the campaign trail. And that is rule number one, if you're running for president these days, make sure your selfie game is on point.

Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:57:16]

BASH: This is the selfie generation, and the men and women running for president have definitely become selfie experts, and why not? They're the perfect things to connect with voters, and they're all over social media and they're free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love that you have a tattoo. Let's do a selfie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a critical stop on Senator Elizabeth Warren's campaign trail, her selfie line. Hundreds of thousands of informal photos with her supporters.

WARREN: Then we get to the most important part of democracy and that is selfies!

I'm moving in on 100,000 selfies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her selfie status update on the debate stage was enough to get the attention of a top opponent.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're not the only one who does selfies, Senator. I've done thousands of them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Candidates' selfies are the new campaign currency, more memorable than an autograph and a key way for candidates to connect with voters who then build buzz on social media. And it's not just Democrats.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a woman (INAUDIBLE) Mr. Trump in the rain for four hours, could I have a selfie. And my people said, no, no, and I said, absolutely you can. Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One sticking point is over the word "selfie" itself. An a parent parity Twitter account of former Senator Orrin Hatch points out, a selfie is when you're holding the camera as well as posing for the picture. Writing, "There is an entire industry of fact-checkers who are letting Elizabeth Warren get away with calling these selfies and I won't stand for it."

Classic selfie or not, these snaps are here to stay.

WARREN: I'm going to keep doing town halls like this and selfie lines like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Well, we have fact-checkers right here who are watching this saying, it is so true.

RESTON: It's not a selfie.

BASH: It's classic selfies but the line is not. It's a photo line.

RESTON: A photo line that is so serious, as you saw there, Dana, where, you know, I was interviewing voters in Iowa as they were waiting in a selfie line and someone comes and takes their coat, then the next person comes and takes the phone, and then they're escorted up on the stage. And I was admonished as a reporter to clear the area, to go to the other side of the selfie stage so I wouldn't interfere with this process.

So, you know, I think Warren's campaign is sometimes a little more formal about it because that line moves fast. I mean, she just blows through hundreds in a short period of time.

BASH: Let's be Medicare. Let's take a selfie. Ready? That's a selfie. But in all seriousness, it's an important thing to do and it really does help them connect with voters no matter who's taking the photos.

It also isn't a new -- I'm old enough to remember a candidate from Philadelphia who had what we called a Polaroid posse and guys who travel around with him and take Polaroids with voters. So, doing photos with voters is a connecting thing but candidates have been doing it for a long time.

MATTINGLY: (INAUDIBLE) to making somebody feel like they're part of the process, and a selfie does that, whether it's a real selfie or fake one.

[13:00:06]

BASH: All right, we got to because Brianna is going to come over and take my -