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Inside Politics
Trump Pushes "The Big Lie" In Arizona Amid 2020 Election Audit; Gaetz Associate Pleads Guilty To Federal Charges; Supreme Court Agrees To Take Up Major Abortion Case Next Term. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired May 17, 2021 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Ryan Randazzo, he's a business reporter with the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Ryan, grateful for your time to get out of Washington to have this conversation with a reporter where this is happening. Number one, I think I know the answer. But when the President -- former president United States says, wow, database deleted, that's not true, correct?
RYAN RANDAZZO, BUSINESS REPORTER, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC & AZCENTRAL.COM: No, that does not appear to be true. Although there have been reports from the audit that some files were deleted. We're waiting for an explanation on what that is today.
KING: And so when you -- you raise a key point from the audit, when you try to raise questions about the audit, Arizona Senate Republicans orchestrated this, it's a private company. We're not even sure where all the money is coming from. And when you ask questions, this is supposed to be about the integrity of an election. But is there any transparency to what's happening?
RANDAZZO: Not very much. We had to fight just to be in the room in the 19th row to watch what's going on with binoculars. But we don't know who's paying for it. So we don't know, you know, if there are connections to the President there. We don't even know who's running the Twitter account. No one wants to take credit for some of the things that have been set on there. So no, I wouldn't say there's a lot of transparency.
KING: And who do we know is behind it? I was reading some of your reporting on this. We know it started from people who despite all of the evidence, and the process in the state keep saying Trump was robbed even though there were plenty of chances to have recounts, to go to court, and all that. Are there responsible people here or is this a breakaway Trumpy piece of the Republican Party there?
RANDAZZO: Well, these are people who without any evidence to show that there was some sort of fraud, continue to believe that there was. And so it was led by the Republican caucus in the State Senate and they hired people who believe in conspiracy theories about the election to run this show. And they in turn, hire people who believe in conspiracy theories to count the ballots. KING: And we're having this play out in Washington. I see from your reporting a very similar dynamic there in the sense that there is a divide in the Republican Party. There are people like the recorder whose tweet we just sent, who is a Republican saying we have to stop this. It's crazy and it's insane and it's bad for the party. It's bad for the state. It's bad for the country. But then there are others. How big is the schism in the Arizona Republican Party over this?
RANDAZZO: Well, it's massive. I mean, the election was run by the county supervisors, four or five of which are Republicans, and they're kind of sick of, you know, having the finger pointed at them that they oversaw something that was fraudulent when they know it wasn't. So it's kind of a bloodbath in the Republican Party here with people who are standing with the President, people who are standing up against those statements. And then some in the Republican Party like the governor who really are just trying to avoid it.
KING: Ryan Randazzo grateful for your reporting. We're going to circle back. It's probably a good thing, high school graduations get to put this on pause for a week, so children can enjoy that. And we'll get back to it when it comes to it. Ryan, thanks for joining us.
And back with me in studio, Laura Barron-Lopez and Catherine Lucey. And so you hear it there from a reporter on the ground. This is a big divide in the Arizona Republican Party. It is here as well. It's the reason Liz Cheney got kicked out of the Republican leadership. If you listen to the woman who replaced her, Elise Stefanik of New York, this is overtime for Republicans to focus on the stuff that matters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY), GOP CONFERENCE CHAIRWOMAN: Republicans are united in exposing the far left radical agenda of President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And voters want to hear the issues that matter to them. So right now we have an economic crisis. We have an energy crisis. We have a border crisis and a national security crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: She, however, has herself repeatedly embraced part of the wackiness, the conspiracy, about what happened in the election. And some of her Republican colleagues say, sorry, we cannot talk about those issues. And we'd love to until we deal with Trump and his lies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): We want to move on. It's hard to do when he keeps bringing it back to a stolen election, which of course wasn't true.
REP. FRED UPTON (R-MI): The president, former president that continues and even yesterday about the big lie, about the election being stolen, we're not going to win unless we're a big tent. And we're not going to win unless we add to our base and not subtract from it.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: What's the next step here? What is the next thing we will know? We know who's winning, if you will, in the math, which is the pro Trump forces --
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
KING: When -- in the House Republican caucus -- conference, this is going to play around the kind of it. But what do you watch for next to see how this plays out?
BARRON-LOPEZ: Whether or not the Cheney wing, the Kinzinger wing, the Fred Upton wing, whether or not they gain any more in numbers because they keep saying Cheney says she's going to fight this out tooth and nail and she's not going anywhere and she's going to be vocal and you see her doing interview after interview, calling out Trump's lies. But are there any more that are going to join their forces or will the vast majority stay with Kevin McCarthy and stay with Elise Stefanik in pledging failed to Trump in not pushing Back on these audits, not pushing back on voter restrictions because it's all tied together, right? It's the audit, the big lie, and in these GOP legislators that are trying to pass voter restrictive laws, because based, they're on based on the big lie.
[12:35:15]
KING: In the cancer of this so called audit, it's a private company. There are -- you can get an audit of an election through the process. And the party that says they have a constitutional rule of law party should go through those process. They did go through their process in Arizona, and they lost, which is why they're bringing in a private company, the state has given up custody of the ballots, it's nuts, which the Democratic Secretary of State in Arizona says it's not just Arizona, this can spread be a problem elsewhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATIE HOBBS (D), ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: The way that they're handling things, the way that they're aggregating results is just prime for cooking the books. They're continuing to make money off of this. And so the longer it extends out, the better it is for that bottom line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: The issue, and I wish more Republicans would think about this or support these things as a long term impact is that it's just the attack on democracy that if you don't like the results, you've asked for a recount. You asked for another recount, you go to court. And if you lose all of that, you can hire a private company and still say you were cheated. When the profit -- you've run out of the process you've lost.
CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: That's right. And that's the argument you're hearing from Liz Cheney. Is that does this undermine the process? Does this undermine our democracy? And that could have grave consequences, you know, for future elections. I think also in terms of what we're looking at next, I think one thing to think about is what we're hearing from voters. Obviously, there are a lot of Republicans who are sympathetic to what the President and Republicans who were sort of backing his false statements are saying.
But if they want to retake the House, if they want to retake the Senate, you're going to need voters who weren't maybe with you last time. You saw one of the groups that the President struggled with in the 18 midterms and in 2020, you know, was suburban voters, women in the suburbs, a lot of those women turned against him. Does this kind of rhetoric bring any of those voters back?
KING: It's a great questions. It's a great questions. But you're building up, if you stick with him, you're building a foundation that's built on a lie. That's where it is.
Up next for us, a plea deal and a promise and associate of Congressman Matt Gaetz says he'll tell the feds everything he knows.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:41:38]
KING: Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz likely paying very careful attention to a Florida courtroom drama this morning. Joel Greenberg, the former Florida tax collector and Gaetz associate entered guilty pleas to six federal charges including soliciting a minor for sex. Greenberg's plea deal also comes with a promise to cooperate with federal investigators. Let's get more details now from our CNN senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid. Paula, what did we learn in court today?
PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, in court today, John, we heard Greenberg admit that he solicited a minor and paid her for sex. He pleaded guilty to charges of sex trafficking, stalking various counts of fraud, and identity theft. Now Greenberg has been in jail and he will remain in jail. He'll have sentencing hearing later this summer. But the judge noted that his ultimate sentence will be influenced by his continued cooperation with the federal government.
So the big question is, what does all this mean for his longtime associate congressman Matt Gaetz? Well, in this plea agreement, something that Greenberg actually admitted to today in court, not only does he admit to having sex with a minor at least seven times, he also admits they introduced that minor to other men who also paid her for sex. And the question is, who were those other men?
Now Congressman Gaetz has not mentioned at all in the plea agreement, he has not been charged. And his team has been attacking Joel Greenberg's credibility. They point out rightfully, that Greenberg has admitted in this plea agreement to falsely accusing someone else, a teacher of having sex with a child. They say he's not a credible witness. But we know from our sources, that as prosecutors assess whether they can charge the Congressman, they're not just relying on Joel Greenberg. They have hundreds of records and documents and they have other witnesses that they're talking to, as they gather evidence. But we've learned that for the most part, their investigation to the Congressman is pretty much wrapped up except for a couple witnesses. And then this decision will likely go to the highest levels of the Justice Department as they assess whether they have enough to charge Congressman Gaetz.
KING: Paula Reid, grateful for those insights, a very important day in court for Mr. Greenberg. We will see as this one goes up the chain in what happens next. Paula Reid, thank you so much.
[12:43:39]
Up next for us, the top White House economic adviser details a new push to expand childcare benefits and how the President will assess the new republican infrastructure offer due tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: President Biden now just moments away from an event highlighting the COVID vaccine rollout and the urgent White House effort to get those who have questions or doubts about the vaccines to schedule their shots. Also today, a new piece of the White House COVID relief push. The administration says the first payments under an enhanced child tax credit will start going out to families July 15th. The credit is part of Biden's $1.9 trillion dollar American rescue package. It runs through December and some 39 million households should benefit.
Families will receive $300 a month for each child under six years old. And up to $250 a month for children aged six to 17. Qualifying families include single parents earning up to $75,000 a year, and households earning less than $150,000 a year. Heather Boushey, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers joins me now to discuss. Heather, grateful for your time.
Let's start with this childcare, new expanded childcare credit. Many would see a vital economic benefit on a political timeline in the sense that it expires in December heading into the midterm election year, when I assume the President and the Democrats will say to the Republicans, we need to extend this and ask them to make that choice, shall we say in the midterm election year. Is that a fair way to look at it?
HEATHER BOUSHEY, MEMBER, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Well, the President included this as a part of the American rescue package that was passed earlier this year, you know, and designed to help us recover from the COVID crisis and get the economy back on track. And he's also included extending it in the American families plan that he announced during that congressional speech he did a couple of weeks ago. So he has a plan to make this permanent or to at least extend it for the next few years. And it's an important piece of our economic policy. You know, this will go a long way towards pulling millions of children out of poverty.
[12:50:12]
KING: Part of the President's plan is to put more money into the economy. The child tax credit is one way -- childcare tax rose one way there's other, there's other credits as well. As you know, there's been a debate about this of late because of the most recent jobs data and some inflation date. I just want to show inflation in April. For cars, it went up. For furniture and bedding, it went up. For fresh fruit, it went up. For meats, it went up. For cable and satellite T.V., it went up. A fellow Democrat, former treasury secretary, former White House Adviser Larry Summers says what the President was doing was great. But he says it's time to stop. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE SUMMERS, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION: Our challenge right now is no longer insufficient spending. Look, I -- it was right 10 years -- 10 months ago, to be supporting people who couldn't work because of COVID. It was an important and right thing to be doing. But right now, we've got labor shortages in so many places.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It's Larry Summers, right? Is the President willing to dial back some of the additional new spending he wants to do in the jobs plan and family plan you just talked about it? Or does he think Larry Summers is wrong?
BOUSHEY: Listen, the rescue plan was designed to help us work our way through this pandemic. And we see the benefits of what we have done, right? We've seen three months of job gains over 500,000 a month, which is far more than the 60,000 jobs gained per month in the three months previously. So there is a lot of, you know, evidence that the trends are moving in the right direction.
Now, the jobs plan and the families plan, the big agenda that the President has laid out since we passed the rescue plan, these are about the long term. They're about like making sure that we are not just building back. But in the President's world -- words, we're building back better. And we're focusing in growing an economy from the middle out. And something like the child tax credit is an important piece of this puzzle.
It goes to any family that has children under the age of 18. So, you know, as you noted, it's a little bit more for families -- for children that are under the age of six, and that 250 a month, up to 250 a month for families for children, ages six to 17. That is an important support for families that they need in order to make ends meet. We all know that it costs more money to have kids. So I think we need to separate out the emergency of the COVID from the long term needs we know that American families have.
KING: Heather Boushey, grateful for your time today. That's a conversation obviously we tried to get that through Congress. I'm sure there are a lot of Republicans going to be quoting Larry Summers. We'll watch as this one plays out. And that'll put him in an interesting spot. Grateful for your time and we'll continue this as we go forward.
When we come back, the Supreme Court agrees to hear a major abortion case, what it means could mean for Roe v. Wade. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:57:31]
KING: Big news topping our Political Radar today, word the Supreme Court will take up a major abortion case next term. The case concerns a restrictive law in Mississippi and sets up a potential challenge to Roe v. Wade heard by a now majority of conservative justices CNN's Ariane de Vogue, is following this important case for us. Ariane, this is a big deal.
ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Yes, this is a big deal. This is the biggest abortion case this Supreme Court has taken up since 1992. In regards a Mississippi law that bars most abortion after 15 weeks. There are some exceptions but not for rape or incest. The exceptions are for severe fetal abnormality.
Critics here say that this is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. And what's important here, John, is the lower court that blocked this law and it is blocked, agreed and said that this violated our Roe v. Wade. What's important is this is the biggest indicator we've seen so far about where and how fast this new conservative court is going.
I remember last term it was Chief Justice John Roberts. He sided with the liberals to block a Louisiana law. But now we have Justice Amy Coney Barrett on this court. We have Justice Thomas who's already said that he thinks that Roe should be reconsidered. And so that's what they're going to be grappling with.
Supporters of abortion rights have already said that this sounds alarm bells. But conservatives here are thrilled that this particular court is taking it up. It comes as states across the country are passing a very restrictive laws. And so now we are going to get a real glimpse here of where this court is going on abortion next term and it comes with Donald Trump's three Supreme Court nominees, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
KING: Fascinating case. Ariane de Vogue, grateful to tee it up, we'll stay in touch as this one plays its way through the court.
Also on our Radar today, Republican Trump ally joining the race for governor of Pennsylvania, Lou Barletta is a former member of Congress who lost a senate run, run 2018 despite the backing of the then president. In his announcement this morning, Barletta says Pennsylvania is need to, quote, take back our election from career politicians of both parties. And he hits the current governor, the Democrat Tom Wolf over his response to the pandemic and the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LOU BARLETTA, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: The Pennsylvania we all grew up with, the one we all knew just a few years ago, it's slipping away from us. We need to take back our Commonwealth. We need to take back our livelihoods from the insiders in Harrisburg that have no idea that harm their locked have done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[13:00:02]
KING: Thanks for joining us today in Inside Politics. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage as President Biden is expected to speak any minute now. Stay with us. Have a good day.
