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17-Year-Old Girl Fights Off Bear to Protect Her Dog; Soon: Biden Meets One-on-One with Top GOP Senator on Infrastructure; 100 Plus Scholars: "Our Entire Democracy is Now at Work"; McConnell on Dispelling Election Lies: "I Covered That" Already; CNN Projects Democrat Melanie Stansbury Wins New Mexico Special Election. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired June 02, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: John King picks up now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello everybody and welcome to "Inside Politics". I'm John King in Washington. Russian hackers again accused of targeting key American supply lines this time, meat plants. It's another poke just before President Biden holds his first summit with Vladimir Putin.

Plus new proof of Donald Trump's firm grip on the GOP. The Republican National Committee picks a fight with the Commission on Presidential Debates more than three years before its next event. The goal here quite simple, keep Trump happy.

And a moment of truth today for President Biden a one-on-one meeting with the lead Republican negotiator on infrastructure, with a big choice eminent how - smaller deal with Republicans - tries to go big but with only Democratic votes.

And we begin there with the president's big moment of choosing. Today he meets with Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. Infrastructure is the big issue. But this town's broader political climate is a giant subplot.

Let's get straight to the White House our Chief White House Correspondent, Kaitlan Collins Kaitlan, a big test for the president a one-on-one meeting with a Republican amid some open tension with key Democrats?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is a big test, John. And really it's a breaking point, because the question is just where are they going with this? Is it actually going to amount to a bipartisan infrastructure bill in the end? And right now, there's a lot of doubt, here in Washington.

So that's why so many people are looking to this meeting that's going to be happening today with President Biden and of course, the top Republican Negotiator, Senator Shelley Moore Capito on this. And I think what people are looking at is whether or not they're going to be any big breakthroughs this week? What is that ultimately going to look like? Because at the end of the day, even though you've seen these counter offers, these offers exchange between the White House and Republicans, they're still pretty far apart. I mean, you can look at the numbers here where they are really on this.

And they're basically a trillion dollars apart. When it comes to the spending, you can also see that they don't agree really on what to spend it on or how to fund it? So that is going to be the big question that is facing the White House facing Republicans today.

And if you listen to President Biden yesterday, of course, there was that moment where he took a dig into those moderate Democrats in his own party on what the future of the legislation here could look like?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I hear all the folks on TV saying why doesn't Biden get this done? Well, because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House and a tie in the Senate with two members of the Senate who vote more of my Republican friends. But we're not giving up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, John, he did not name Manchin. He did not name Sinema there at the end. But those are obviously the two Democratic Senators he was talking about. They do not vote in reality, more Republicans than they do with Democrats.

But I think obviously, what everyone realizes here is just how key they will be to any major legislation getting passed here and what that's ultimately going to look like? You know, not just with infrastructure that can even be about voting rights about police reform.

What that's going to look like given Senator Manchin is one of those who has pledged to protect the filibuster, which some Democrats have said that they should get rid of, if they're going to move forward and actually pass anything with just a straight majority.

Of course, we wait to see what the outcome of this sit down with Senator Capito, and President Biden looks like today, John?

KING: Big choice on infrastructure. And then with it, the domino effect on just about everything else. Kaitlan Collins, appreciate the hustle live reporting from the White House. Let's bring it in studio with me to share their reporting and their insights Seung min Kim from "The Washington Post" CNN's Manu Raju "The New York Times'" Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Laura Barron-Lopez from "POLITICO".

So let's start Seung Min with just today's meeting. We have infrastructure week, we have infrastructure decision time, a little bit of Groundhog Day, because the President has been having these conversations for some time, his Energy Secretary this morning listen says president's going to meet again, but-- (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, ENERGY SECRETARY: We cannot just sit and negotiate forever. We have to get to an end. I was just looking at some stats this morning, John. I mean, China invests 10 times as much in infrastructure that the United States does, that's just not tenable for us if we want to lead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So the president has this meeting today and then how quickly before he has to decide? I can cut a deal with Republicans or forget about it. We're going the Democrats.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: I mean that date is coming pretty close. We had talked about Memorial Day as an effective deadline for progress, which the White House never defined.

But I think the White House wanted some flexibility to figure out if they wanted to continue the negotiations further and see how productive they were? And clearly they realized there was something there that's why they continued to have the talks, especially with the scheduled meeting with Senator Capito later today.

But you do hear a lot of urgency coming from the administration in those comments from Secretary Granholm. You've Secretary Buttigieg over the weekend, really looking at next week as a timeline.

[12:05:00]

KIM: Sources told me that the White House President Biden is really looking at June 9th as a critical date because that's when the key House Committee will take up some parts of transportation legislation that's important to Biden's overall infrastructure agenda.

So time is running out for the White House to figure out how much they can really engage in these bipartisan talks?

KING: And so with the pressure Manu interesting insights from the president, who has been very careful. He's been navigating his own party, which is quite interesting, you know, from the liberals in the House to the more moderates in the Senate to take a public shot at Democratic Senators. And there's no question that he was talking about there, tells you something what?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, he tells us that he wants to put pressure on them to change their position on moving along straight party lines. But I'm not convinced. It's going to really do a whole lot either, you know, in some ways it can actually help Joe Manchin in West Virginia.

Hey, yes, he does vote more with Republicans. That's good for him politically, because it is a state that overwhelmingly went to Donald Trump. Although the fact is that he does vote more with Democrats and Republicans. Just for the record, the president was flat wrong on that. Nevertheless, the question ultimately will be here for the White House, as Seung Min was saying whether or not to go it alone, and they will need Joe Manchin. They will need Kyrsten Sinema to agree to that strategy, let alone the policy, but just the strategy of moving alone, moving ahead on their own while keeping the left at bay.

That's a very difficult balancing act, which is why the White House really wants to get a bipartisan deal first, because it alleviates that pressure from keeping their entire caucus in line. But the question will be how long will they let this go forward because at the moment neither side wants to be blamed for pulling the plug on these byproducts?

KING: And what impact - this have? A big decision roads, bridges, highways, infrastructure, broadband, if the president gets his way what called human infrastructure, money for childcare and money for senior care at home. That's one big issue the infrastructure however you define it.

And then what does it do to the climate in this town, which is already more than polarized? The president yesterday, we were talking about on the show yesterday that will the president get more active in this big debate over voting rights, especially after Texas Democrats say we can install the bill in this state but only for so long Mr. President. He did get involved yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: This sacred rate is under assault with incredible intensity like I've never seen. It's simply an American. It's not however, sadly unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And in addition out of that he not only raises the issue, he says the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris is now going to be his point person on voting rights. Welcome to an already crowded portfolio.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Exactly. Already had some difficult tasks, you know, in her portfolio with, you know, Manu trying to also been tasked with bolstering the Central American region and trying to deter irregular migration.

And now, you know, being tasked with not only trying to work with Congress to try and pass some of this legislation around voting rights, but also you have all on the local level, all of these different Republican legislators that are moving forward with these different voting restrictions.

You know, just yesterday in Texas, you have Governor Greg Abbott also basically saying that he may even withdraw some of the funding for local lawmakers there if they do not pass voter restrictions legislation that would restrict some ability to vote as well.

So, you know another difficult task for the vice president here, who already has a pretty vast portfolio.

KING: And the president has tried and this comes with an - it's the nature of the job for any president. But he has tried to do one thing at a time vaccine rollout, COVID relief, then a bigger economic package.

Now he's at this point where he's got to make decisions on infrastructure. It's going to have - what am I going to do on voting rights? What am I going to do on other issues a 100 plus scholars talking about that dynamic as Zolan was talking about all these states passing restrictions?

They write collectively, these Republican initiatives are transforming several states into political systems that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections. Hence, our entire democracy is now at risk. The most effective remedy for these anti Democratic laws at the state level is federal action.

History will judge what we do at this moment. Is the president prepared to not just talk about it? He talked about it on Memorial Day. He talked about it again yesterday. Now he says Vice President Harris is his point person, again, he has to referee differences within the Democratic Party.

He has to try to get Republican votes. Is he willing now to say this is going to be part of the daily portfolio? Not mentioned it every now and then?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's the big question John which is that the president talks about voting rights and talks about infrastructure in similar terms to what those legal scholars did, which is that democracy is at risk.

So I'm trying to make moves to make us competitive with China. I'm trying to push back against these voting election laws that are being passed. And I'm trying to, you know, make sure that we stand against what happened on January 6th, and talk about white supremacy and talk about the history in a way that the country hasn't before.

And so he talks about the risk to democracy, but the big question is, is he going to prioritize it with Congress or is that going to get pushed down the road because so much of the oxygen is taken up by infrastructure is taken up by his priority to get the care economy elements pass to get traditional infrastructure pass?

[12:10:00]

BARRON-LOPEZ: And how long are these negotiations going to go on with Republicans? Because does it push back his other priorities? Senator Schumer has said that he's going to bring one of the voting election bills to the floor by the end of the month.

So that'll be a big test and likely fail and show that there aren't enough Democrats that support it. So what political capital is Biden is going to expand on this is a question that a lot of progressives have? KING: What political capital we expand and are the glass half empty or half full? If you're the vice president, I just want to push. She's now been tasked with voting rights, diplomacy, immigration related in the Northern Triangle, National Space Council expanding broad speed small businesses.

That's one way to look at like, wow! The president trusts her. She's a great partner. Here's some right wing takes on this "The Daily Caller" Biden taps Harris to lead administration voting rights efforts, as Democratic hopes fizzle. Flop sweat, Kamala Harris runs from the border and so on. If you're in the VP's office, you're thinking this is great, or this is a lot of quicksand?

KIM: Well, it's maybe a little bit - because if you can get something done, then you're going to get all the credit for you know easing - the situation at the border, especially with her trip to Central America later this month and whatnot?

But it is a tough portfolio for sure for Vice President Kamala Harris, especially on voting rights, because that is so much. If you look at it that's so much dealing with the Senators themselves. And the tricky issue of the filibuster.

If you look at I mean, it's President Biden, who has the legislative experience the more than three dozen or the more - the three decades on Capitol Hill building relationships. Kamala Harris while she was a recent Senator hadn't been there for that long so how she can persuade the likes of Joe Manchin? Remember when she did that West Virginia interview Joe Manchin was not happy.

RAJU: Didn't go so well.

KIM: Mostly how that works?

KING: Time for a makeover - time for makeup or makeover. We'll keep an eye on everyone's going to stay with us. Up next, the "Trump Petty Fight Club", he lashes out at critics and the Republican National Committee threatens the Commission on Presidential Debates.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: Donald Trump's politics are a reflection of Donald Trump's grievances, and he demands loyalty. If the Republican National Committee wants to use his name in fundraising for example, it must do his bidding. So now three plus years before the next presidential election gets anywhere close to the final stretch. The RNC is picking a public fight with the Commission on Presidential Debates.

This letter you see it here from the Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel channel's Trump's view that the Commission is biased against him and threatens a 2024 boycott. McDaniel writing, our sincere hope is that the CPD accepts this criticism and works to correct its mistakes. If not, the RNC will have no choice but to advise future Republican candidates against participating in CPD hosted debates.

Panel is back with me live now. Help me out here. So the debate would be three and a half years from now or three years plus from now anyway, before you would have one. This is about keeping Trump happy because he's still mad at the commission. No nominee listens to the Republican National Committee about whether or not to get into debates or not? This is a fake fight.

RAJU: Yes, look.

BARRON-LOPEZ: I was just going to say the key word there is advise them to not debate but is a candidate really going to say that they're not going to go on stage and get this airtime against the Democratic nominee? I really doubt that.

RAJU: Yes. And remember the second debate this past year. I mean, that's we didn't have a second debate because Donald Trump got COVID. And then that led to - that happening and what happened?

Donald Trump didn't become president. So not having a debate does not necessarily help your case. In fact, it probably hurts you at the end of the day. And it's also important to remember, come whenever there's a nominee, that person effectively controls, the RNC controls that position. If Donald Trump's a nominee, perhaps that's going to be completely different.

KING: But Republicans continue to line up behind him in part because of this polling. If you look at this Quinnipiac Poll here, should Donald Trump run for president in 2024? 66 percent of Republicans say yes. The Trump effect do you prefer candidates who agree or disagree with Donald Trump? 85 percent want their candidates to be.

So the party is afraid of Trump voters and the Trump base as much as they are about him. However, he continues to just be a spout of grievances. You'd have the RNC going after the Presidential Debates Commission at a time it's just simply to keep them happy.

And you have this statement last night he's watching television clearly in Mar-a-Lago going after Former Congressman Barbara Comstock. She's been on a number of TV shows lately and other Rhino losers like Mitt Romney, little Ben Sasse. He goes on and on criticizes, but Barbara Comstock and Karl Rove, who have done television appearances critical of him. This is the world of Donald Trump. Get your grievances air them.

KIM: Yes. And it's festive as being aired through press releases that are sounding more like tweets that he can't send out lately, because his Twitter account has been revoked. But you're right.

You know this shows the polling that you laid out just shows that this is still very much Donald Trump's party and that even if he - they may not necessarily want the man himself that the idea of Trumpism still reigns large in the Republican Party, which is why Republican leaders are having - are finding themselves in such difficult situations, as we reported extensively on recently such as the January 6th Commission that was killed largely because Trump did not want it. This would have investigated Trump's actions, his thinking during that

insurrection, and you're going to see that tension between Trump and other Republican leaders so often in the future. I'm thinking just the relationship for you know the fight for the Senate Majority in 2022. You're going to have Mitch McConnell who doesn't want to talk about Trump and then Rick Scott who hugs Trump every chance that he get the Leader of the NRA.

KING: You mentioned McConnell doesn't want to talk about Trump. He's at home in Kentucky guess what? Question about Trump and January 6th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I covered that thoroughly on January 6th and again on February 13th. With regard to the future we're going to arrest hopefully convict everybody involved in the insurrection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:20:00]

KING: It doesn't get to the Trump question. It doesn't get to the independent commission to have a historical record of all the foundations of the insurrection. It's just a - can we stop talking about this because I want to be Majority Leader again.

RAJU: Yes. Look and Mitch McConnell made perfectly clear politically why he did not want to investigate what happened on January 6th, because he believes it brings up the Trump question and brings back the question about Donald Trump lying about the election?

That brings back the question about some Senate Republicans and House Republicans efforts to push that lie and try to overturn the election in Congress. That is none of the questions that they want to investigate, which is why he said, let's move on. Let's not investigate this. And the Democrats want to do it then they can paint that in their view as partisan.

KING: And it gets to this question. You have Dan Eberhart, Republican Donor. We don't know the answer to this. So we're going to talk about a Democratic race in a minute. We don't know the answer that what the impact this is going to have on voters on real people out in the country?

But they're never had a Republican Donor says we have 50 - 50 car pileup in the Pennsylvania and Ohio Senate Republican Primaries, with people trying to out-mega each other for an endorsement and it could end up losing us 2.5 points we need to win in the end.

That is a worry a serious worry. And again, they're guessing at this point, but they're guessing based on polling in all of these states that they get Trump so involved in the primaries, everyone trying to out-Trump Trump; do you get the right candidates in swing states?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Look, as we've been discussing here, all of these actions, I mean, this isn't just about, you know, setting the rules for Presidential Debate. I mean, this is all in line with the trend, the January 6th Commission, you know, this letter as well, the trips to Mar-a-Lago as well.

It's prioritizing what could be a political liability for Trump and thus the Republican Party, as opposed to any sort of necessity, including a security necessity in the case of the January 6th Commission.

KING: And apologies to Leader McConnell, but he keeps issuing statements. You're right. He can't tweet; the more the former president does so McConnell is going to keep getting the question. Up next for us, CSI New Mexico, a Democrat wins big in a special election both parties now searching for any early clues to the 2022 midterm mood.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: Democrats are celebrating a win today and hoping it is a clue about the coming midterm election climate an issue a Special Congressional Election here in New Mexico. The Democrat Melanie Stansbury is the projected winner by a wide margin over Republican Mark Moores.

This was a seat once held by the now Interior Secretary Deb Holland so it restores one more vote in the still very narrow Democratic House Majority. Again, let's take a closer look. This is the district right here in the Albuquerque area, Democratic district. So a Democratic wins.

You might think no big news here, but all of these special elections going up to next year are going to be studied by the parties to see does it tell us anything? If you look back at 2020 Joe Biden, of course won quite well, but you see the red here in some of the area, that Congressional District there are Republicans in this district here.

And if you look at it from the House level, Deb Holland won her district re election with 58 percent. She's now the Interior Secretary. So the Democratic area Democrats were expected to win what everybody was worried about is the margin. And would this attack from the Republican on the Democratic candidate on the issue of crime, which Republicans hope to use next year, would it work?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Melanie Stansbury's plan supporting legislation that defends the police. Stansbury even advocates taking guns away from local police.

MELANIE STANSBURY, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: We need to pass the Breathe Act in Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Melanie Stansbury supports the most dangerous legislation in America. Stop the madness. Stop Melanie Stansbury before it's too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Panel is back with me in studio. It is one race, it's a Democratic seat. You shouldn't over blow it. But if you go back and look, every midterm cycle, there are special elections, then you have - we'll get through some of the races that come in 20 - odd numbered year after Democrats who are happy not so much for the win, which they expected but the margin.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes, they're very happy by how much Stansbury beat the Republican and that they felt as though her focusing on Biden's agenda, on Biden's economic issues, as opposed to engaging on the Republican attacks around defund the police.

They think that that was the smart way for her to go. She also put out an ad, with some police officer backing her to try to counter that Republican attack. But of course, this was the two parties playing out their different messaging to test out whether or not it'll work in 2022?

And even though Republicans lost they expected to there wasn't much money in the race, they are still going to use that issue heading into 2022.

KING: Right. And so that's what happens in these elections. Now the special elections for House are to test things. You just - you test ads, you test themes, and then you focus group them, especially in places we can say this district here in New Mexico, where can we find voters like that elsewhere in the country. Here are the other ones people will look at as we walk through this year.

The Virginia Governor's race, always a bellwether of the climate in the even numbered years this is the odd numbered election years. New Jersey Governor's race, not much of a race this year but you watch it just in case. You see if there are surprises. That's how you find out and there are two special elections in Ohio.

One is the safe Democratic seat one is expected to be a safe Republican seat. But again, you're looking not necessarily for the winner. But what issues work and what motivates in a midterm election year? It's all about turnout. What gets people to show up?

KANNO-YOUNGS: And if it does seem like the real indicator of the test here was how effective is the strategy by the GOP of attaching the defund police slogan to Democrats going to be right? We've seen that Republicans are going to do that.

They've even done it with you know, then President-Elect Joe Biden even though he didn't want it to fund the police, right? And that wasn't part of his agenda. And here, he really saw that in this race. And if you're the Democrats, it is just an indicator.

[12:30:00]