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Democratic Lawmakers, NAACP Accuse Trump, Giuliani Of Conspiring With Far Right Groups In Run-Up To Capitol Insurrection; Biden To Take Questions In Wisconsin Tonight During CNN Town Hall; Sanders Pledges To Fight For $15 Million Wage In COVID Deal; NAACP, Democratic Congressman Files Lawsuit Against Trump, Giuliani Over 6th Capitol Insurrection; Senator Sasse: GOP Has Lost White House, Senate And House Under Trump. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 16, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, again, this is in a dangerous situation that is continuing. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Absolutely. Ed, thank you for the update. Not even near over, yes for the folks there. Thank you all so much for joining us this hour. I'm Kate Bolduan. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello everybody, top of the hour. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us today.

It is an important day for the President Joe Biden. He is hitting the road to Wisconsin for his first official trip as president. You see right there for a CNN Town Hall that will test his salesmanship on his big COVID relief package.

The president today also plans to extend until summer a foreclosure moratorium for struggling homeowners. Also today the Democratic house speaker unveiling a 911 type commission to investigate the capital attack.

And a Democratic lawmaker in the house and the NAACP filing a new lawsuit in federal court accusing former President Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani of conspiring with far right groups ahead of the deadly Capitol insurrection.

If that lawsuit moves forward it could add to the body of evidence about the riot and put private texts, emails, calls from Mr. Trump and others on the official record. The Coronavirus pandemic is challenged number one for the new president.

And today he says the country is on track to pass his top line promise of 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days. Let's be honest that was a fairly modest goal though. And the challenge now is to ramp up vaccinations as the COVID case count drops and drops dramatically from nearly 250,000 new infections per day back in early January to just over 85,000 new infections per day on average right now.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says yes, those numbers are better, a lot better. But he cautions the country cannot let up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Now we're below 100,000. And continuing to go down in a sharp downward trajectory. We've got to continue until we get it so low that it's no longer a threat.

And simultaneous with that downward trajectory on more and more people getting vaccinated. Those two things together I hope we're going get us to the point where we're going to keep going in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: President Biden will echo that keep up the COVID fight message tonight at his CNN Town Hall. Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the venue we all remember the state was a crucial battleground in the 2020 election. And it remains a battleground.

Right now in debates says over wearing a mask and government Coronavirus restrictions. Just let's look at the margins. Remember 20,608 votes separated Joe Biden and Donald Trump. This was one of those blue wall states. Joe Biden flipped back Trump won it in 2016 Biden took it back.

You look at the state the governor consistently in fights with the legislature over mask wearing over other government COVID restrictions also a key Senate race here two years from now in 2022. The Republican incumbent Ron Johnson is on the ballot.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is right there live for us in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ahead of this Town Hall. And Jeff it's a critical night for the new president. His first trip out of town his first official trip out of town to try to sell in the heartland, the biggest initiative of his young presidency.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: John it absolutely is critical and President Biden is going to be coming face to face with those voters here at the Pabst Theater in downtown Milwaukee. As you said Milwaukee, Wisconsin the whole state a key battleground. But now it's a proving ground to see if he can sell his message.

And there is support - there is support out there among people who voted for the president and people who did not for, getting that economic relief, getting that vaccination supply up and running. There has been a period of grace that you give any new president.

Of course there was a distraction with the impeachment. But now this is President Biden's time to sell this planet's he begins the second month of his presidency. We've been talking to voters here talking to you again, voters who did and did not support the president. But this is a tension underway trying to win over the detractors but keep the supporters on board.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLINE QUINLAN, WISCONSIN VOTER: Get the virus under control. Get the economy back on track so people can go back to work back to the office, back to school.

ANGELA LANG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BLACK LEADERS ORGANIZING FOR COMMUNITIES: While President Biden is using the right language and talking about racial equity and prioritizing these things.

We know it takes time for that to trickle down to the community and to everyone to feel those impacts. And we want to make sure that he's not just being able to say the right words, but like the policies are able to be impacted and felt by the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And Caroline Quinlan, the first person you've heard from she voted for Donald Trump, but she wants Joe Biden to succeed. She said she'll be watching him very carefully. His promises for unity. She praised for his success and believes will do well.

Angela Lang, the second person you heard from. She is a progressive and is a bit worried that the president will stray from some of his progressive promises. So again that's the needle that this new president any new leader must thread here.

But it starts to tonight in Milwaukee first and foremost selling that COVID plan that will set the tone for his administration John.

[12:05:00]

KING: Looking forward to a grateful for the live reporting on the ground in Milwaukee for us. Jeff Zeleny thanks so much. Let's continue the conversation. With me to share their reporting and their insights CNN's Manu Raju and Laura Barron-Lopez of POLITICO.

Lauren let me start with you. Before we get into the specifics, this for me is an interesting challenge. Joe Biden trying to go back to a more traditional presidency. For four years of Trump, we heard from the president in tweets. He was accessible to reporters at the White House constantly.

Joe Biden wants time with the president to be more special, scarcer frankly. You do big events like Town Halls, you go out in the country and you're not trying to drive every minute of the new cycle. The questions are voters open reopen to that again - in a more traditional approach?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well it seems as though voters right now are open to that John. I mean they do as Jeff said, really want to see big stimulus and checks delivered to them as quickly as possible which is why you're seeing the White House move as fast as they are. It's also why they're really pushing ahead with the route of

reconciliation, the budget reconciliation which allows them to pass a big - would allow them to pass this big COVID relief bill just with a simple majority of 51 votes.

So clearly tonight is going to be a balancing act for the president. He's going to have to really make his case in terms of why he wants this big COVID relief bill. But again a lot of the American public so far appears to want exactly what he's pushing.

And he may try to argue the case to these Wisconsin voters that that he is still trying to work with Republicans, despite the fact that it looks like no Republicans are going to be supporting the bill at this point.

KING: It's going to be interesting to watch. And Manu we know from the campaign empathy worked for Joe Biden. It was a big part of the selling point that he understands struggle and he knows people are struggling right now.

We were talking before we came on the air of the house budget committee getting to work on. Laura was just talking the reconciliation bill $1400 direct payments per person cuts off for individuals over 100,000. There's some scaling there income wise increasing the federal weekly boost to $400.

Nutrition assistance, homeowner assistance, expanding the child tax credit funding for k through 12 schools, increasing subsidies for health care under the Affordable Care Act. This is when it gets critical for Democrats. You know there are some disagreements within the family. But they understand this is initiative one for the new president, they have to be disciplined.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes they - absolutely. And right now they are confident that they will get this through because overall the party is generally united behind the details of this bill. There are some things that are still dividing lines such as the $15 minimum federal minimum wage that leads to Senate Democratic centrist Christen Cinema of Arizona.

Joe Manchin of West Virginia has raised concerns about including that in this legislation. There are some concerns about exactly the eligibility of the stimulus checks. But based on what we're hearing, what the Democrats are saying, what I've been hearing and talking to Democrats on the hill, there's a belief that those are issues that they can essentially resolve.

Either they may punt on some of these issues and just essentially deal with say the minimum wage later or just the moderates may have to agree to higher eligibility for more people to get stimulus checks. So there is an overall expectation they can get this through.

The question is going to be what happens after this? Will this be the only package they'll push? How do people deal with these issues down the line? But at the moment there's confidence that this could get potentially get done by March John. KING: And to that point Laura, one of the new president's challenges is going to consistently be managing the family if you will. Nancy Pelosi has four or five votes to spare in the house. There are no votes to spare in the Senate.

Its 50-50 divided with Vice President Harris breaking ties. Manu just mentioned one of the issues. Joe Biden campaigned on a $15 federal minimum wage. Progressives are demanding a $15 minimum wage to centrist Democrats in the Senate. That would be enough right there to lose you the votes, say we don't think it belongs in this package, maybe bring it up separately down the road.

Bernie Sanders remember rival from the campaign working closely with the new president right now says, I need to push for this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): When you are half of the people in this country living paycheck to paycheck, when all over this country are having workers trying to survive a nine or $10 an hour or even less than that. The American people want Republicans, Democrats; independents want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.

15 bucks an hour it is popular is what the people want. I believe that we will succeed in including the minimum wage and the reconciliation bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And the question that is for the president tonight at a Town Hall when he could get asked this question by you know, hard working a real American, not a reporter here in Washington, not that we don't work hard but that somebody out there in the country.

What is the answer to the will you pick up the phone to Senator Cinema, Senator Manchin and try to work them twist some arms or do you just let this go and see what happens?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well that's the big question John. And the president has kind of sent a bit of mixed signals on this. On one hand the White House is saying that they're still very committed to a $15 minimum wage hike. But the president himself said that he thinks that this could end up happening in a separate negotiation, meaning not in this first big COVID release package.

[12:10:00]

BARRON-LOPEZ: And a lot of progressives are not going to be happy with that. They consider this $15 minimum wage hike included in this first big package, one of a big test for the Biden administration. And as you heard there Senator Sanders is not letting down.

He's trying to build the case with it with research from the congressional budget office to make the argument that raising the minimum wage in this bill that it's germane, that it's pertinent that it actually has an impact on the federal budget. Because that's the threshold here is whether or not it would have a substantial impact.

And so if our research is showing that it would. And so progressives really want to see Biden go all in and they want him to make the case to the set. Centrist holdouts like Manchin and Cinema, they want to see him leave on their Democratic colleagues to try to get it done.

KING: Right, just a little peek. I mentioned Governor Evers in the Republican legislature been in battles over mask mandates and other federal - I mean other government COVID restrictions in a long time. Just want to show you some of the local news.

It's going to meet the new president today wage hike questions raise, that's about the minimum wage. That's right. There are the daily citizens, one of the local newspapers and up here at panel to investigate Capitol right we'll get to that story later.

But you see down here community spread grows in county. So the new president priority number one, whether he's here in Washington or out in the states is COVID. Lauren and Manu were going to stay with us. We'll continue the conversation in just a moment.

And just a reminder President Joe Biden will join CNN's Anderson Cooper tonight live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin an exclusive presidential Town Hall starts tonight 9 pm eastern only right here on CNN. Up next for us the Democratic congressman the NAACP files a federal lawsuit demanding new details about what the president knew. And what Rudy Giuliani knew before the Capitol insurrection.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: The NAACP and Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson in Mississippi today filing a federal lawsuit against former President Donald Trump accusing him of conspiracy to incite the January 6 insurrection. Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is also named in that lawsuit.

It claims the two men conspired with far right extremist groups ahead of the Capitol riot. Congressman Thompson seeking an unspecified amount of money directly from the former president. CNN Justice Correspondent Jessica Schneider joins us now with the details. Jess?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well John, this is a notable and really unprecedented lawsuit here. A top Democrat in congress backed by the NAACP accusing former President Trump and Rudy Giuliani of working with these far right groups to incite this insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

And to make this conspiracy claim this lawsuit in about 30 pages it traces Trump's words and actions in really the months leading up to the insurrection. It details how Trump and Giuliani spouted allegedly misinformation, angry rhetoric for weeks before and after the election.

And in one part of this lawsuit, it actually accuses Trump of delaying his speech on January 6 on the ellipse. So members of the proud boys could actually advance to the Capitol and better plot their attack. Now this is the claim that is not backed up by any evidence in the lawsuit, but its part of this broader conspiracy claim throughout.

Now this entire lawsuit is significant not only because it's seeking these monetary damages from Trump and Giuliani. But notably if this case moves forward, it could subject the president and others to depositions. And the disclosure of other information that could expose some more details about what Trump knew about this attack.

Now this is a high bar to meet Congressman Thompson. He's represented by the NAACP in this case also attorney Joseph Sellers of Cohen Milstein. And they are adamant here that they can be successful with this suit. Even though the statute they're suing under is rarely used, but they argue that fact just adds more credibility to the suit because of the scamp precedent.

It really shows how serious this series of events was. Now at this point this afternoon, we are hearing from Trump's spokesman Jason miller, who just released a statement to us saying this. He said President Trump has been acquitted in the Democrats latest impeachment witch hunt and the facts are irrefutable.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser must answer questions as to why they rejected additional security and National Guard assistance in the run-up to Jan. 6th.

And of course this is something we've heard repeatedly from the Trump team showed sort of shifting this blame to speaker Pelosi and DC's mayor.

At this point though I am told John that house speaker Nancy Pelosi she has been briefed on this lawsuit even though it's been brought in the personal capacity of congressman Bennie Thompson. And at this point other members of congress are expected to join in the coming days here. John?

KING: It'll be fascinating to watch as it plays out in courts. Its unprecedented ground right there. Jessica Snyder thanks so much to you. Let me bring back Manu Raju quickly for some reaction. On the one hand, you see the Jason Miller statement a deflecting to the mayor Nancy Pelosi.

That's the question has nothing to do with the president's conduct is the former president's conduct that's an issue here, but Bennie Thompson deciding to do this. He's a chairman. He's a prominent Democrat, but he's not someone who runs to the cameras every day. Is this a - you know is this a - this is smart politics for a Democrat?

Or is this a - let's try this out and see if we can get on the record some of these the evidence of some of these unanswered questions, who are they texting? Who are they emailing with? What did the president do in the days beforehand?

RAJU: Yes I think it's the latter because as we saw during the impeachment trial that was one of the big unanswered questions. What did Donald Trump do in the run up to January 6, what did he do actually, when the riot happened and what was his immediate reaction?

What were the interactions is that happen at that time? And what is his level of interaction with any of the folks who were on the ground on January 6, those kinds of questions. If you recall during the impeachment trial, his attorneys deflected virtually all of those.

They instead attacked House Democrats for not investigating it themselves. So if it does go forward perhaps if he is actually deposed Donald Trump is, then perhaps we could learn a lot more information about what he did on that day and what he did in the run up to that day. But we'll have to see if the courts agreed allow this to go forward.

[12:20:00]

KING: And we'll follow it as it does go forward now to some insurrection fallout of a different sort. The Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell taking issue with those who see hypocrisy. And his decision to vote to acquit Trump at the Senate impeachment trial.

But then moments later give a speech in which he eviscerated the former president's conduct and said that house managers prove their case. The Wall Street Journal today explores McConnell strategy to win back the Senate majority in the 2022 midterms.

McConnell telling the newspaper his number one goal is to feel the strongest candidates. And if that in some cases means opposing candidates backed by Trump, then McConnell says so be it. He also penned an op-ed essay in the journal today defending his vote to acquit on grounds he does not believe the Senate can try a former president.

There is no question former President Trump bears more responsibility. McConnell wrote our job was to defend the constitution and respect its limits. That is what our acquittal delivered. Impeachment choices remain an emotional GOP flashpoint, a state and local Republican groups now condemn Trump's critics.

Seven Republican Senators voted to convict joining 10 Republican house members who voted to impeach. You see some of the faces there those among the many already facing censure and other backlash from Republican organizations back home.

Laura Barron-Lopez is still with us as well. As --Laura, this is a fascinating, I'm going to call it a balancing act.

I'm not sure what the right term is for McConnell who says I'm trying to move on from Trump, but I don't want to pick fights with Trump every day. But if Trump starts backing candidates in these key Senate races that I think are losers that I'm going to fight them.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes it's a bit of having your cake and eating it too John which is that, you know, McConnell's calculation with impeachment with acquittal. There are clearly political aspects to that. I mean, he's clearly thinking about the politics when he did that.

He could have called back the Senate if he had wanted to, to ensure that Trump was the trial was going on when Trump was still in office.

And then when he was majority leader who decided not to do that. That being said you know, what he is telling people is that he may get involved if he sees someone in the mold of Kelli Ward run in Arizona for a Senate race that someone who is a big Trump loyalists used to be far right fringe.

And now is much more mainstream within the Republican Party and McConnell would likely support someone who opposes her. And the same goes in North Carolina for the open seat there. If Laura Trump, the daughter in law of the former president decides to run you could potentially see if McConnell decides that she isn't able to win that seat him back someone against her.

So in some areas he may try to stay close to the president and in other areas go against the former president if he thinks that it may cost him winning back the majority.

KING: And so we'll be watching candidate recruitment from now until those primaries in 2022. That's one place we're going to learn how this gets litigated the future of the party and Trump's role on at the 2022 primaries.

And Manu Raju to that point, Ron Johnson is on the ballot. Ron Johnson is on the ballot in 2022 in Wisconsin. Listen to him here at a local interview back home. He says what leader McConnell says is simply not helpful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): You got Leader McConnell voting not guilty, not to convict, but then just providing a scathing speech on the floor of the Senate that does not reflect I think the majority of our conference. You got - our leader out there, really representing him and that's his right to do. But at the same time he has to realize as our leader, he - what he says reflects on us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So there's one side of it. The more pro Trump lawmakers in the Senate saying McConnell you've betrayed us or McConnell don't say that I don't share that view yet. You're our leader. And then Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska one of the seven who voted to convict saying on NPR today no, we need to fight this every day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): It's important to give a frank assessment of where the party of Lincoln and Reagan is right now. And in just one term the Republican Party has lost the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate. That hasn't happened since Herbert Hoover got shellacked in 1932.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So this just the impeachment trial is over. But this debate in some ways is just beginning as we ramp up into 2022.

RAJU: Yes it's what the roadmap of this party post Trump is. And Mitch McConnell is trying to steer this party away from the incendiary politics of Donald Trump. And moving into the more establishment right of center conservative ideology that really is defined the Republican Party for the last generation up until Donald Trump came and rewrote the way the Republican Party appears right now.

The problem is there are a significant number of voices within the Republican conference particularly in the house side that represent Donald Trump.

I don't believe that Ron Johnson is exactly right when he says a majority of the Senate Republican conference agrees with him that Trump is not responsible. A majority of Republican conference was hiding from the notion that - about whether Donald Trump had any responsibility at all, they did not want to defend his conduct.

[12:25:00]

RAJU: So Ron Johnson is one of the few that is out there defending Donald Trump's conduct. But he's also a bit Mitch McConnell critic. He told me he would not support Mitch McConnell as leader if you were to vote to convict this other Republican's voice that as well.

So that's why one reason why Mitch McConnell playing both sides here trying to you know, say with Donald Trump, he did something wrong. But you're acquitted.

KING: On truth Sara, the majority of the Republican conference to say they want President Trump to go away. They just want somebody else to do it for them. They don't want to have to stand up does it publicly. Laura who gets to the point, state parties don't have the power they used to.

But you see the state parties now moving in many places to censure. The house members who voted to impeach the Senate Republicans who voted to convict. You see some headlines here from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Louisiana and Nebraska.

That's Senators to me, Burr, Cassidy and Sass. But then you have I want you to listen here. There's a bit of a divide. There's - this is the North Carolina state chairman and the Utah state chairman. The Utah state chairman says disagreement is American. The North Carolina state chairman says not if it involves Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL WHATLEY, NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIRMAN: I had conversations with over 100 leaders across North Carolina over the three days following Senator Burrs vote and there was universal disapproval of the vote itself.

DEREK BROWN, UTAH REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIRMAN: We have two Senators who experienced effectively the same set of facts and came to different conclusions and that's OK, that's normal. That's healthy. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's normal and healthy in Utah where President Trump does not control the state party. But in most of the state parties again, they don't have the power they used to have 25 years ago before campaign finance laws changed and everything. But they are a voice of the party at the local level. And in most states, they're pro Trump.

BARRON-LOPEZ: That's right. In most states, the GOP parties across these very Republican states have decided to be full Trump loyalists. You've seen the former president's takeover of a lot of the local apparatus in that way. But one thing that also stood out was Senator Richard Burrs who's an outgoing Senator, his response to his center for by the state GOP.

He was saying that he was very disappointed because it shows that these state parties have decided to be pledged total frailty to one man rather than to the country or rather than to democracy or political discourse. And so I think that that really gets to the heart of what the Republican Party is going through right now.

KING: Going through right now and going through at least for the next election cycle. Laura Barron-Lopez, Manu Raju, appreciate the reporting and the insights today. Up next for us we shipped a COVID and some COVID Q&A answers to your questions on vaccines, getting kids back into classrooms and more.

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