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Trump Picks Ohio Senator J.D. Vance To Be His Running Mate; Verdict Reached In Sen. Bob Menendez's Federal Corruption Trial. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 16, 2024 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:32:48]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: 39-year-old J.D. Vance, a Never Trumper turned Trump acolyte, is now Donald Trump's running mate. Vance's about face on Trump is emblematic of the broader transformation in the GOP over the last eight years. The Republican Party gathering here is unmistakably the party of Donald Trump.

RNC Committee Member and GOP Strategist Henry Barbour is with me here. You have been on the Republican National Committee for almost 20 years. You have seen and been a part of that transformation. First question is, what does the selection of J.D. Vance tell you about where your party is right now?

HENRY BARBOUR, RNC COMMITTEE MEMBER: Well, there's not any question that Donald Trump is leading the party. I mean, the primary voters have made that plane in 1620 and now 24. You know, I find J.D. Vance to be a very compelling story. Here's a guy who grew up in poverty. His mother was an addict. He was raised by his grandparents.

He worked hard in school. He joined the Marines. And he has, you know, he's told his life story through this New York Times bestseller. I think it's a great American story, and it's the kind of story that I think Republicans and Democrats and Independents all will find appealing. And --

BASH: Will it help electorally or will it -- what does it tell you? Two things. One is about just kind of the raw politics and the campaign of it all. And then the other thing about the notion of how the Trump administration, number two, would govern if they win.

BARBOUR: Well, it's going to be -- well, as far as the politics of it, this is Donald Trump versus Joe Biden, all right. And right now it's a referendum on whether the President of the United States, Joe Biden, is up to the job. And I think with Vance, I do think he helps in sort of in rural America.

Think about Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Michigan. I think he can have some small help there, but this is Donald Trump versus Joe Biden.

[12:35:01]

And I think Trump's reaction to the shooting and his gut to say, I want to really focus on unifying the country. Let's bring Americans together. He's not talking about, let's bring MAGA together. He's talking about let's bring America together. So we got to get it back on track, allows us, Dana, to be about issues and ideas and ways that we can get the country back on track when we're talking about the border and crime and inflation, et cetera.

BASH: What do you hope that he does to continue that, and perhaps not revert to some of what we have seen, where it was a very base-focused campaign?

BARBOUR: Yes. Well, Thursday night is a huge opportunity. I think a lot of Americans are tuned into this. You know, you got 82 percent of Americans in a Harvard poll that said they want a new president. And so the big opportunity, not just for Donald Trump, but for the Republican Party overall with the congressional races, governor's races.

And so Donald Trump has this big opportunity Thursday night to talk about how he can bring the country together, talk about ideas, and he needs to focus on what I call the politics of addition and not the politics of division, which sometimes is his natural sort of DNA.

And, you know, bullets whizzing by your head can have a real impact. And so I'm excited about what I'm hearing from President Trump and he's got a big opportunity. And I will say if he does this, we're going to have not just will we win the electoral college, but I think we'll win the popular vote. And we haven't done that since 2004.

BASH: One last question. You have a very familiar last name to Inside Politics viewers. Your uncle was chair of the party in the 90s. You are -- tell me if you would quibble with this, a very traditional Republican and your party has changed right out from under you, under the Donald Trump era.

BARBOUR: Yes, we've become more a party about populism and to some degree a party about personality. You could see that last night on the floor of the convention when the Trump family came out and President Trump came out. Very powerful moment. But you could also see, to some extent, this is about personality.

You know, my belief is, you know, we need to be a party of ideas. We need to be a party of principle. And when we are focused on ideas and we're focused on results, Republicans do much, much better than we start talking about divisive issues that Americans don't frankly care about.

BASH: Henry Barbour, great to see you in person. Happy almost birthday.

BARBOUR: Thank you.

BASH: Thank you. Don't go anywhere because we do have some breaking news coming up. There is a verdict in the corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Stay tuned.

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[12:42:35]

BASH: The breaking news is that there is a verdict in the corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez. CNN's Kara Scannell is live outside the courthouse. Kara?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Dana. Yes. So the jury has now reached a verdict in Senator Bob Menendez's trial. We just learned of this about 15 minutes ago. The parties have assembled in the courtroom. We're waiting for the judge to get on the bench to then bring the jury in and then hear this verdict. But there's certainly a lot at stake in this case. This is coming on the third day of the deliberations.

The jury has been deliberating for about 13 hours since they got the case late Friday afternoon. They only asked two questions that had to do with the specific elements of the charges, but nothing about the testimony or about any evidence. So we expect to have the jury be brought back into the courtroom shortly, where we will learn what this verdict is.

The senator has been charged with 16 counts in this vast conspiracy of bribery allegations. Prosecutors have charged him with bribery, with extortion, with wire fraud, with acting as a foreign agent for the government of Egypt, with obstruction of justice, and with multiple counts of conspiracy.

Prosecutors say that Menendez had obtained and form of bribes, gold bars, nearly half $1 million in cash, Mercedes Benz convertible. And in exchange, he took steps to pressure two law enforcement agencies in New Jersey about criminal investigations involving one of the co- defendants in this case, and associates of another member of this alleged conspiracy.

Also, he allegedly took steps to help the government of Egypt while he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Now, Menendez's lawyers urged the jury for an acquittal, saying that he took steps that were normal, that were routine for the job of a senator, that he is advocating for his constituents.

So we're waiting to hear now what the jury's verdict is in this case. If Menendez is convicted of the most serious charges, he could face as much as 20 years in prison. Dana?

BASH: OK, Kara, we will of course get back to you as soon as we get that verdict. Thank you so much for that reporting.

Now back here at the convention, last night Sean O'Brien became the first Teamsters president to speak at a Republican convention. While he didn't endorse Donald Trump, he gave a very fiery primetime speech that has Democrats who rely on union support on edge.

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SEAN O'BRIEN, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS: At the end of the day, the Teamsters are not interested if you have a D, R, or an I next to your name. We want to know one thing. What are you doing to help American workers?

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[12:45:11]

BASH: And Sean O'Brien is here with me now. Thank you so much for coming in. Wow, that was quite a stem winder.

O'BRIEN: Absolutely.

BASH: Let me just start with the records of each candidates. You talked about their records and not party affiliation. Joe Biden, as you well know, has a decades long record of being one of the most pro- union politicians in America, the first president to walk a picket line with striking workers.

You were there when he announced a $36 billion rescue plan for pensions for 350,000 Teamsters. And yet you are the first major union to -- or the last major union to endorse and you haven't endorsed him. Why is he not automatically your pick?

O'BRIEN: Well, because, look, I mean, he is definitely the most pro- labor president we've ever had, we've ever seen. And you're correct, he did fund -- he did fix pensions nationwide not just the Teamsters with $100 billion. So he has done a lot of work on behalf of the Teamsters union and we're very proud of the work that he did.

But the reality of it is I represent 1.3 million members very diverse membership. We've got a lot of Republicans, we've got a lot of Democrats, we've got some Independents, so we have an obligation to do our due diligence and just not serve one part of our membership. We've got to hear from all of our membership.

And you know, historically, I think we've been very clear that we have not endorsed a presidential candidate until both respective conventions have been concluded. And that's why we asked to speak at both the Republican and Democratic National Convention.

BASH: Are you going to be speaking at the DNC?

O'BRIEN: I have not been invited yet.

BASH: So you asked to speak here.

O'BRIEN: We asked to speak at both conventions, at the both the Republic and Democratic because we think it's important that, you know, the partisanship is not working. We need bipartisan support. We need bipartisan cooperation. In my speech last night, you know, truly to effectuate change, you know, we need to collaborate everybody. BASH: And just to be clear, if the Democrats invited you to their convention next month, you would be there to speak.

O'BRIEN: I would definitely be there.

BASH: OK. On Joe Biden, before I move on to Donald Trump, is it his record? Is it the membership? Is it something more about the president's capabilities?

O'BRIEN: Well, I mean, first and foremost, we've done a process that's never been done in the team's union. We brought every single candidate in, had a round table discussion with rank and file members, ask them all the same questions, obviously, various answers on a lot of our issues.

But, you know, the reality of it is, look, what you've done in the past doesn't dictate what's going to happen in the future and often two times, you know -- and I'm not suggesting this with President Biden or President Trump, you know, what we've been promising what's been delivered have been two different things and we want to make certain that we respect everything that's been done in the past. But everything I've done in the past doesn't make me a shoe in for anything in the future.

BASH: What you've been promised by whom and it hasn't --

O'BRIEN: Just in the past. We've, you know, the teams have historically, you know, given money to Democratic candidates, whether it's Senate or Congress, and promise hopes and dreams and never delivered all.

BASH: I want to ask you about Trump's record, because as president, he appointed Supreme Court justices and NLRB officials who undercut labor rights. He implemented rules making it easier to fire unionized government workers. During the UAW strike, he visited a non-union plant and urged them not to pay union dues. Why is -- he's somebody you're even considering endorsing given that record.

O'BRIEN: Well, I don't think we're considering endorsing anybody at this point in time, but I will say this, if we're not having the discussions, how can we change people's opinions? Look, there is no doubt he has made some decisions that is not favorable to labor, it's not favorable with me.

However, if we're not having discussions and pointing out how important it is to make certain we have the right people at the NLRB, make sure we have the ability to organize without threats of retribution and retaliation, then we're not doing our jobs.

If you can't have conversations -- I mean, look, we've had conversations with Josh Hawley. Josh Hawley changed his opinion on national right to work. Josh Hawley went out and walked picket lines with the UAW and the Teamsters. And that's someone who, you know, if we didn't have that conversation --

BASH: Yes. O'BRIEN: -- we may not have been able to change his mind.

BASH: You said that you might not endorse. Is that -- talk about your sort of feeling right now. And you said that you are talking to your members.

O'BRIEN: So what we're doing, just so you know, is we did straw polls and we're not concluded yet. 331 locals in the United States had town hall meetings. They had debate, dialogue, and then cast a vote. It's very close. Next month, or the end of this month, I should say, we send a publication out to 1.6 million active and retiring -- retired members with a QR code that they're going to be able to vote.

So we're doing our due diligence to make the best decision.

BASH: So the decision on whether or not to endorse will be based on a membership vote?

[12:50:01]

O'BRIEN: It'll be a membership survey.

BASH: Survey. OK. OK. Thank you so much.

O'BRIEN: Thank you.

BASH: Appreciate you coming in.

O'BRIEN: Appreciate you, too.

BASH: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you.

BASH: And coming up, as we said, there is a verdict in the Bob Menendez trial. It's a criminal trial, and we are going to bring you the latest from the court after a very quick break. Don't go anywhere.

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BASH: Breaking news, there is a verdict in the corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey. CNN's Kara Scannell is live outside the courthouse. Kara?

SCANNELL: Dana, the jury has just entered the courtroom. The judge has asked for the jury verdict form so he can inspect it to make sure it is filled out properly. Any moment now, we'll learn what the verdict is in Senator Bob Menendez's bribery case. Again, he's facing 16 criminal counts of bribery, extortion, honest services, wire fraud, acting as a foreign agent for the government of Egypt, as well as conspiracy charges.

Now, the senator has maintained his innocence throughout. But now is the moment. We have the verdict beginning to come in. We're just waiting for my colleague Lauren del Valle, who's inside listening to the verdict. We will learn the information shortly. But this was part of what prosecutors say was a grand scheme of corruption. They say the senator sold the power of his office in exchange for bribe, multiple gold bars, nearly half a million dollars in cash, that the FBI found at his wife's home.

We're -- the first count is in the conspiracy to commit bribery. The senator was found guilty. His two co-defendants in this were also found guilty. So this first count of bribery is encompassing of the entire conspiracy that the senator has been charged with.

[12:55:05]

There are still 17 counts to be read. But this first count, this conspiracy count includes all of the alleged schemes in this case. So that is both the senator being found guilty of trying to bribe the government, to accept bribes in order to help the government of Egypt, that he's also been found guilty of a conspiracy to help interfere with the criminal investigations to aid two people, including one of his co-defendants. That's also guilty.

We've seen count two, the conspiracy to commit honest services, wire fraud. On that count, the senator is found guilty. Now that count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. You know, this will take some time to go through the charges learning count three. That's the conspiracy to commit extortion. The senator is found guilty of that charge as well.

So, so far, three for three. Senator Bob Menendez is found guilty of what prosecutors say was this vast scheme of corruption on a grand scale, on a massive scale involving multiple threats. Also, conspiracies commit obstruction of justice count four, he is found guilty of that count. That count relates to him interfering in the prosecution of one of his co-defendants in this case, a New Jersey businessman.

So these guilty verdicts are coming and hitting most of the alleged schemes. One count that we'll be waiting for will have to do with whether the senator is found guilty of acting as a foreign agent. That is later in this verdict sheet, so we don't have that information just yet.

But we do find that a bribery -- another bribery charge, count five, that is bribery involving accepting bribes to help the government of Egypt and help one of the co-defendants maintain a monopoly on a certification of halal meat, found guilty. Count six, that's bribery to benefit the same man, also found guilty.

So so far, six counts. So far, the senators found guilty of these counts. And they all are pretty serious charges. Some of them carry up to 20 years in prison. But they're still going through the counts count seven. That's another wire fraud charge. Also to benefit the government of Egypt, the senators found guilty of that as well as his two co-defendants in this case.

Now during this trial, we are on the 10th week of this trial. The jury has heard a lot of evidence. They've been deliberating for about 13 hours and now this verdict is coming in. We're still waiting for more. We're on up to count seven, count eight extortion. That was also to aid one of his co-defendants and aid the government of Egypt.

That count seven, Menendez found guilty. Count eight, extortion, also relating to the alleged bribery scheme in Egypt. Menendez is found guilty. Now one of these other schemes in this case, which has to do with this is another wire fraud charge to benefit.

One of the men in this case who pleaded guilty and testified at this trial, his name is Jose Uribe, he allegedly had given -- he testified that he gave the senator's wife, a card. In exchange, had the senator make calls to pressure a top New Jersey law enforcement official to interfere in an investigation involving one of his associates. The senator found guilty of that charge.

So that's a second scheme where we're seeing more guilty charges. And on these substantive counts that go beyond the conspiracy, count 11, bribery. This having to do with the help of the other co-defendant in this case -- a different New Jersey businessman, and also where he was charged with interfering in a separate investigation involving this New Jersey businessman.

In exchange, prosecutors said Menendez received gold bars, including envelopes of cash, some of which had the senator's fingerprints on the envelopes. Found guilty of that count, bribery count 11. Count 12, also bribery, a different count, his co-defendant found guilty of that charge as well.

So this appearing to be a sweep of all of the conspiracies and all of the bribery schemes that the senator was alleged to be involved in. The jury returning his verdicts of guilty. Another charge on his services, wire fraud, senator found guilty. That also relates to interfering in the prosecution of one of his co-defendants.

And also to help the government of Qatar. That was one of the allegations in this case. Count 14, extortion, also involving his co- defendant who had that prosecution in New Jersey and the government of Qatar. Also guilty. So 14 counts so far, the senator and his co- defendants found guilty of. There are still four more accounts to go.

But a lot of these counts do carry maximum terms of imprisonment of up to 20 years. That will be up to the judge. Ultimately, this account that we've been waiting for a conspiracy of a public official acting as a foreign agent for the government of Egypt. The jury says that the senator is guilty of that charge as well, and acting as both the conspiracy count and the substance and count, count 16, acting as a public official, acting as a foreign agent, the jury found Senator Bob Menendez guilty of that.

That was the actions that the senator took while he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Count 17, conspiracy to obstruct judges. That was actually charged with interfering in this investigation.

Menendez was accused of having his lawyers try to mislead the prosecutors in a pre-indictment meeting, found guilty of that charge. And then also count 18, the last one, obstruction of justice, the senator was found guilty. So both Senator Bob Menendez and his co- defendants were found guilty across the board in all of these charges.

Now we'll be waiting for the senator to leave the courtroom. He usually walks out on his own, even without his attorneys, and often speaks to the cameras behind me. So we'll be waiting for the senator to make his way out.

There will be a few things left that the judge will do, including sentencing -- set a sentencing date. But we'll be standing by to hear what the senator has to say after he's been found guilty on all these charges. Dana?

BASH: Kara, absolutely extraordinary that we have this United States senator, senior senator who has a lot -- has had a lot of power now being found guilty, as you said, on 18 counts of corruption using that position that he has elected by the people of New Jersey, according to this jury, to sell his office to foreign powers and also to corrupt business people. Really remarkable.

Brianna Keilar is going to pick up our coverage now. Stay with us.