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U.S. Government Shutdown Imminent With No Deal In Sight; DOJ Pushes For Gag Order After Trump's Attack On Milley; Historic Rains, Flooding Put Parts Of New York Underwater; San Francisco Mayor London Breed Talks About The Contributions Of The Late Senator Dianne Feinstein; Suspect Arrested In The Tupac Shakur Murder Case; Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett Puts Republican Colleagues On Blast During An Impeachment Hearing Against President Biden. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired September 29, 2023 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And the storm finally passes tomorrow. Several months', yes, months' worth of rain will have fallen in just 24 hours. Streets turned into rivers. This is what it looks like in Brooklyn today. At LaGuardia Airport, some travelers were forced to wrap plastic bags around their feet just to get through the standing water that had filled the airport. Elsewhere, they had to bring in heavy machinery for water rescues.

In New Jersey, this police officer carried a man on his shoulders after he was trapped in his car. There was so much rain, a sea lion at the Central Park Zoo managed to escape her pool when it flooded. The zoo says that she rubbed around for a bit, but she was eventually returned safely to her exhibit tonight.

Thank you so much for joining me on this Friday night. CNN PRIMETIME with Abby Phillips starts right now.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: This is America's debt, more than $33 trillion, and the first time that clock has reached that grim milestone. That is more than a quarter million dollars per taxpayer. Tax cuts, stimulus programs, defense spending, pandemic unemployment, all of them to blame.

And any fair person would agree that that is unsustainable. So, the Republican mission to lower that number makes some sense. The problem is their method of drawing attention to it is about to shut the American economy down, the government down, and negatively impact Americans who don't have the time or frankly the money for the poison of today's politics.

Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip. And in just 24 hours, the clock will run out. Hardliners in the Congress are demanding drastic cuts to spending. They don't want to spend another dime on Ukraine. They want to spend it on the border instead, they say.

It's a fair debate, but here is what is at stake here. On Saturday night, if there is a shutdown, while all of this plays out, it is a reminder of the real life consequences of what happens if there is no deal. Your flights will be delayed. Thousands of airport workers will go without pay. More than 1 million active duty troops won't get paid. Border agents won't get paid either. The White House says that the U.S. is left vulnerable.

If Pentagon workers are furloughed, small businesses won't get new loans, food inspections, they won't happen either, museums and national parks, forests, all of that closed. Student loans will be disrupted and so is the money that goes to school districts. Children won't have access to head start programs, food stamps may be disrupted. And all of that depends on the shutdown's length. Food banks won't be able to place new orders. Major research programs involving everything, from cancer to the environment, will pause.

That's a lot. And it's a lot to discuss with our next guest, Republican Congressman Cory Mills of Florida, who is in the thick of it right now over on Capitol Hill.

First of all, Congressman, thank you for being here, but can you give us a sense now, 24 hours almost away from this shutdown, what's the path out of this to avoid a shutdown? What are you hearing from your leadership about what we might see in the next 24 hours?

REP. CORY MILLS (R-FL): Well, first, let me just go ahead and comment on some of these items that you're talking about were shut down. Social Security payments do not stop. Medicare and Medicaid does not stop. V.A. benefits do not stop. Post offices do not stop. Our military is paid on the 30th, which means that we do have time to get our 12 appropriation bills across within the actual specified timeline.

So, there are actual things that are being moved. And I'm flabbergasted that we're continuing to try and talk about what we need to do to try and cut our way to prosperity when the reality is that we need to come up with an actual economic growth strategy that gets our GDP to national debt ratio under control.

Look, simple math, we have to spend less and make more. And we don't have a plan for that, haven't. And our $33 trillion has been driven not under just Democrat and Republican, but both alike as leadership. So, it's killing our middle class and that's why we have to get a grip on it.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, I think that a lot of people would certainly agree with that. The issue is the timing. I think you would agree. I mean, we're just at the brink here.

Can I just ask you about some of the scenarios that my understanding is that some of these were things that were laid out in the conference meeting this afternoon by the speaker? Some of them are other things that our reporters are picking up. Would you be in favor of a clean Senate bill that does not fund Ukraine? Yes or no?

MILLS: Well, the bottom line is I wouldn't be responsible to make a decision and say, yes, I am --

PHILLIP: Would you vote for it?

MILLS: -- as a conference. I would not vote for a clean C.R.

PHILLIP: What about --

MILLS: But I also want to just say, look, if we're talking about timeline though, why aren't we talking about the fact that Joe Biden, for six months, wouldn't even have a debt ceiling discussion? Why aren't we talking about that? That pushed the timescale to the right automatically.

PHILLIP: That's fair. I just wanted to --

MILLS: And so when FRA came about, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, that didn't happen until June, July. That could have happened a lot earlier if Joe Biden and everyone else was willing to come to the table.

PHILLIP: But Congressman, there was a --

MILLS: But that pushed everything to the right (ph).

PHILLIP: There was a deal made. There was a deal made. And now this is an effort by some Republicans to change the deal.

[22:05:02]

So, let's put that to the side for just a second because I do want to just get to some of those scenarios just so people understand where you stand. What about a continuing resolution? That's a short -term bill that would fund the government through November 17th, maybe include disaster aid, but no aid for Ukraine, no aid for the border. Yes or no? Is that something you could support?

MILLS: I'm not on board for any C.R., but I am open to at least listening to certain negotiations on a funding act that could actually come forward.

PHILLIP: But what about just a two-week proposal that just literally gives you more time to do what you're asking for, which is to come up with a more robust plan for government spending?

MILLS: Well, but let's face the fact. We have four appropriation bills that just pass off the floor. The Senate passes those appropriation bills alone. That funds 70 percent of our overall government. Why are we not putting the pressure on the Senate to pass the four appropriation bills?

And by the way, they've had Con V.A. (ph) VA for months now.

PHILLIP: I think the issue here is --

MILLS: So, they're also not doing their job while we're doing ours to fulfill our obligations.

PHILLIP: I think the issue here is, obviously, I think you would agree, time. There's just not the time. I mean, your conference this week has spent a lot of time trying to get these bills through. Some of them have been successful, some have not. So, it's not as if you all have been just hammering them out. You've been struggling on this.

So, I think that the issue is, why not just have a little bit more time to hammer out some of the details that you want to hammer out that I think you would agree is not something that you can just snap your fingers and do overnight?

MILLS: Well, but I think that if you look at what we've done, just in the last 72 hours, and I'm a brand new freshman in Congress, but I will say this, Congress is very unique. You can either do three days worth of work in three months or three months worth of work in three days.

We've proven over just the last 72 hours that we're able to pass multiple appropriation bills with only two more remaining in committee and rules that need to come out. So, I do believe if you look at our military as an example who got paid on the 30th and the first, their next paycheck comes up on the 15th. I think within that timeframe, you should have enough, but even if not, we pass the DOD appropriation bill. We passed no Con V.A. (ph), we passed our state and foreign ops. So, we can support our embassies, our military, our veterans, and get back to work.

PHILLIP: There's still a lot more to do. Can I get you to respond to what your colleague, Dan Crenshaw, said earlier today? Just take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): It shows people that when you don't play as a team and you don't make your demands clear ahead of time like we wanted to do with the border, you're just going to lose. And so they made us lose. It's like they wanted us to lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: He's essentially saying that at the end of the day, all of this sort of -- this effort that you and your colleagues are making to stop some of these C.R.s will result in a more liberal bill at the end of the day.

MILLS: Well, look, I respect my colleagues. I've never been kind of one of those to say anything negative. But I can tell you right now, we passed an actual border policy bill called HR-2 Secure the Border Act that had everything we need to include E-Verify. And the Senate has refused to take that bill up.

Again, I look at the actual facts here. We've passed in the last six months, we've passed HR-1 to actually get a Low-Cost Energy Act. We've passed HR-2, Secure the Border Act, HR-5 Parental Bill of Rights. We passed HR-21 to stop the president from selling our petroleum reserves and limit Save Grow (ph), which even the president himself said that he would not actually get to include the D.C. crime bill he threatened to veto. We have done more in the actual House than the Senate has been willing to do. What the Senate is trying to do is jam us by trying not to do their jobs.

PHILLIP: It's two chambers. You both have to work together.

I want to ask you about one last thing. And I just want to remind our audience, you are a veteran, so I want to play this for you. This is from the departing Joint Chiefs chairman, Mark Milley, speaking today. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARK MILLEY, FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We don't take an oath to a country. We don't take an oath to a tribe. We don't take an oath to a religion. We don't take an oath to a king or a queen or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don't take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: A lot of people interpreted that as a swipe at former President Donald Trump, who I should note, suggested that he should be executed recently.

MILLS: Well, I didn't take that as a direct swipe at the president or the former president. Look, it's absolutely a fact. When I served in the military, we serve our nation and we serve to protect and basically defend our Constitution of the United States. We don't serve political agendas.

I sit on the Armed Services Committee. I sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee. One of the things I looked at was to bring back meritocracy, stop DEI and all the other things that was watering down and diluting our recruitment strategies. But I can tell you right now, what our men and women in uniform who I respect more than anything need to be doing, is serving our nation, not serving a political agenda.

PHILLIP: Did Trump cross the line with that attack against Milley?

MILLS: I don't think that I speak on behalf of the president, but I can tell you right now, Mark Milley --

PHILLIP: And as a former military service member yourself?

MILLS: Well, I didn't take offense to it personally, no.

PHILLIP: When Trump said that he should be executed, you didn't take offense to that?

MILLS: Well, I've heard a lot of things going back and forth. I mean, you're talking about the same guy, Mark Milley, who said that we should be reading more on white rage than we should be on actually military defense. [22:10:01]

I mean, look, they can continue to have their back and forth and I disagree when any time the same way I disagree with my Republican colleagues make comments at Democrats. I hate that Democrats make, you know -- we don't need any of this back and forth because all it does is sow in division. I think that at the end of the day dangerous rhetoric by anyone who is an officer out of office only --

PHILLIP: How is it dangerous rhetoric for Mark Milley to make a statement that I maybe disagree with it but is about policy versus Trump saying that he thinks he should have been executed?

MILLS: Well, but you also have Mark Milley who made comments as well towards the president.

PHILLIP: About what? What has he said about Trump that has suggested that Trump, I mean, should be executed or anything, even close to that?

MILLS: Well, he actually made cute comments about the president saying that if I would have known you know that the president was going to go across the street and hold up the Bible, I never would have walked beside him. I mean you're making these comments.

PHILLIP: How is that close to a --

MILLS: Well, no, it's not necessarily that I'm trying to make a one - for -one extension. What I'm trying to explain this is that a lot of them have taken shots at each other for personal reasons, the same thing that we see within our conference or within the House as well. But at the end of the day, all it does is sow in division.

And our job should be as elected representatives or anyone who's serving government is to be able to bring our nation together not continue to try and make these types of comments.

PHILLIP: Congressman, with all due respect I think you would agree that Mark Milley making statements that you disagree with on a political --

MILLS: I don't think anyone should make any comments about executing or any of these types of things.

PHILLIP: Him even saying I shouldn't have done something that I did. It's not the same thing as Trump saying the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military officer in this country --

MILLS: Well, I certainly wouldn't have made that comment. I'll just put it that way.

PHILLIP: Can't you just say it's across the line?

MILLS: Well, no, I think it is.

PHILLIP: I mean, I don't understand why that's so hard to say. MILLS: Well, it's not that's hard to say but I actually don't know the full context because I didn't hear it. This is the first time hearing it myself. But my whole thing is I don't think that you should actually wish violence on anyone for any reason. I mean, that's just my stance on everything. I would have to look at the context of what he said it in or what you know the actual background was.

But the bottom line is is that I think you're seeing where everyone is taking shots. Everyone is frustrated. Everyone is furious about what's happening in the government. Everyone is unhappy about cost of living. Everyone is unhappy about what's going on across the country. And so it's sewing in a lot of frustration and division. And I think that's something we have to address.

PHILLIP: I think that one of the things that I hope that you go and read what the former president said.

MILLS: I haven't actually.

PHILLIP: But there is a difference between disagreement, right, and threats. And I think that that's what this is really about at the end of the day.

MILLS: Well, I also think a lot of the Democrat threats as well, where they said we protest and get in the face of those who actually are there. We should basically riot on the streets.

PHILLIP: If you condemn, it should be an easy call to condemn.

MILLS: But the bottom line is is that I condemn any type of threat or violence.

PHILLIP: Yes. It should -- I think that should be an easy call. I agree with you on that one.

MILLS: I agree.

PHILLIP: Congressman Cory Mills, thank you very much.

MILLS: Thank you.

PHILLIP: And speaking of Mark Milley, we do have some breaking news tonight. Special Counsel Jack Smith is now asking a judge in Donald Trump's election interference case to impose a limited gag order on the former president. The prosecutors are citing a truth Social Post by Trump that publicly attacked Milley, who is a witness in the case. And tonight, on camera, Trump did the same thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: General Milley, what he did is really treasonous. If you look at what he said to China, he's either stupid or it's treason. But what he said to China should never be allowed. That can never be allowed in our country.

REPORTER: Did you suggest attacking China? TRUMP: And you know what, General Milley, General Milley, who I know, he's a lazy guy, and left billions and billions of dollars worth of equipment for the Taliban. General Milley is a lazy guy who's not very smart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Let's discuss this with Lawyer Marcus Childress. He serves as an investigative counsel for the House January 6th committee.

Marcus, you're seeing here the special counsel moving very quickly to take some of this stuff and use it as evidence to push the judge for a limited gag order. How successful do you think they'll end up being?

MARCUS CHILDRESS, FORMER JAN. 6 COMMITTEE INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL: I think what the special counsel is trying to do is trying to stop what happened on Jan. 6th, right? So, the former president was making comments about Vice President Pence at the time, and then it led to rioters saying, hang Mike Pence, on the steps of the Capitol, inside the Capitol.

And now you see the special counsel taking the recent statements from the former president, putting it in his reply brief, and letting the court know, like we don't want to see rioters or people coming to the courthouse threatening our witnesses.

PHILLIP: And, by the way, Mark Milley is a witness.

CHILDRESS: He is a witness.

PHILLIP: So, this is incredibly pertinent.

CHIDLRESS: It's incredibly pertinent. And that was one of the more effective parts of this filing, was that the special counsel took these statements that have been made since the last motion a couple of weeks ago about current witnesses, such as Vice President Pence and General Mark Milley, and said the court has a chance to come in here and try to stop a harm from happening, or even bias a jury pool from having certain opinions about these witnesses that are going to be called during the trial.

PHILLIP: One of the other developments today in the Georgia election interference case is that one of the defendants, Scott Hall, took a plea deal. And he's cooperating now with witnesses.

He is a critical figure in a lot of this. He helped someone like Sidney Powell get access to those voter machines. The prosecutors actually alleged that he held a lengthy phone call with another of the defendants in this case.

[22:15:03]

What do you think is the significance of all of this? And does it suggest that early on in this process, we could see a lot more of this? CHILDRESS: I think we've been all waiting to see who's going to flip first, who's going to cooperate. And everyone has been kind of thinking that someone's going to do it. And now we're seeing this start to happen.

This is incredibly fast, right? This indictment was filed in August 14th. That's just six weeks ago. So, within six weeks, we now have an individual who is now cooperating. I think it should be noted that his charges were reduced down to a misdemeanor. He's only going to be serving probation. He's going to be cooperating. So, that looks good if you're one of the other defendants' team but also flipping.

But let's take a step back and look at the reason --

PHILLIP: Does that tell us anything about how much cooperation they think they can get from him that they really reduced any penalties for him?

CHILDRESS: I think you can look at it that way. But also it's just kind of how these prosecutions go, right? When I was prosecuting cases, if someone was going to cooperate and help me on early out, early on in the investigation, you're probably going to get better terms because you want people who have been charged and then come back and testify against others.

I think what makes it special about Scott Hall is that this is a RICO enterprise and someone is at the top and someone is at the bottom giving orders. And I kind of put him at more of the bottom taking orders, since now you have someone at the bottom who might be testifying about what he was told from middlemen or even people at the top. And I think you have to have to be a little scared if you're at the top of that chain as you move towards trial.

PHILLIP: Yes, things moving really quickly. Marcus Childress, thank you so much again for joining us.

And tonight, parts of New York City are underwater and its mayor is facing some big time criticism.

Plus, one of the rumored candidates to fail the late Dianne Feinstein seat joins me next.

And 27 years later, there is finally an arrest tonight in the unsolved murder of Tupac Shakur. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:20:00]

PHILLIP: Tonight, parts of New York City are, as you can see there, under water. Torrential rains unleashed historic floods in the city. Streets, subway stations, schools, even the city's airports all flooded. And, incredibly, a full month's worth of rain fell in Brooklyn in just three hours today.

But tonight, the mayor, Eric Adams, is pushing back on criticism that he didn't do enough to prepare for this ferocious storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): I put out a clear order to all of the men and women of my team that you must lead. If the mayor is the only one that can communicate to the public, we're in trouble. I have to run a city. NYSIM communicated around 2:45, 2:50 yesterday, communicated to New Yorkers. We have something called our NYC notifications that we sent out that went out early yesterday as well, and in the news media. You have to be living under a rock if you didn't know this storm was coming because the news media did an amazing job. We used social media. We did exactly what was needed. And you see the results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And joining me now is Jessica Ramos, a Democratic member of the New York State Senate. Mayor Adams there strongly defending his response to the weather. What's your take?

STATE SEN. JESSICA RAMOS (D-NY): Well, it's been a really tough day for New Yorkers, to be honest. It has been really reminiscent of our experiences when Hurricane Ida happened two years ago. And that's why we feel so frustrated that it doesn't seem like any plans were put in place to properly prepare New Yorkers for what took place today for the rainfall that we're expecting also tonight and tomorrow.

And, quite frankly, you know, we want to see a lot less playing defense on behalf of the mayor to protect himself and much more often fighting climate change. There's money sitting on the table from the Inflation Reduction Act that can be used towards upgrading our sewage infrastructure, which is really what we need here in New York in order to accommodate our growing population. And, unfortunately, our system is just too old.

PHILLIP: Senator, his response to some of this is that there were no serious injuries or deaths reported today in New York. He's citing that as evidence that the information got where it needed to go, and while we see a lot of flooding that people ultimately were able to survive it at the end of the day.

RAMOS: And we got very lucky today but Hurricane Ida did not -- we didn't fare as well in Hurricane Ida or on Ray or certainly Super Storm Sandy. So, actually the history of these storms with flash floods with heavy rainfall has been quite tragic. We've lost neighbors in the past and, of course, we are now beginning to assess the millions of dollars in damage to homeowners, a lot of seniors who lived on fixed income and have now lost their boiler just a few months ahead of winter.

This is putting New Yorkers really in dire straits when we all know that we've been feeling the squeeze already.

PHILLIP: I have to ask you here before you go, progressives, of course, have floated your name as a potential primary challenger to the mayor in the next election in 2025. Are you considering running against him? Do you think that he uh is not up to the job?

RAMOS: You know I'm very flattered. You know, to me it's really a vote of confidence in what I do and my work ethic. I think right now I'm really focused on pointing out where there are -- where there's room for improvement in the administration of the city and I am committed to making sure that we have a mayor that is actually going to take the public safety of New Yorkers seriously, whether that's going to be me or someone else.

For me the priority is really getting New Yorkers out of this war against climate change that we're not taking seriously enough so that we can keep everyone safe.

PHILLIP: Well, State Senator Jessica Ramos thank you very much for joining us.

RAMOS: Thank you.

PHILLIP: And as the nation mourns the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, one of her possible replacements will join me on whether she'd be up fulfilling her seat.

Plus, RFK Jr. is now teasing a major announcement amid speculation that he'll make an independent run for the presidency.

[22:25:00]

What it may mean for the 2024 race, that's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIP: President Biden ordering American flags to be flown at half staff in honor of Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the longest serving female member of the Senate who died last night at the age of 90. She worked up to the very last minute, ending just yesterday by casting a vote in the chamber where she served for more than 30 years. She was a trailblazer, a fixture in California politics, and then in Washington for decades.

Here is just one moment from the Senate floor back in 1993 that sums her up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R-ID): So, the gentlelady from California needs to become a little more familiar with firearms and their deadly characteristics. And I say that because it is --

FMR. SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-CA): -- a point of a personal privilege for a moment, please?

CRAIG: Yes, certainly.

FEINSTEIN: I am quite familiar with firearms. I became mayor as a product of assassination.

CRAIG: I'm aware of that.

FEINSTEIN: I found my assassinated colleague and put a finger through a bullet hole trying to get -- I proposed gun control legislation in San Francisco.

[22:30:01]

I went to a recall on the basis of it. I was trained in the shooting of a firearm when I had terrorist attacks with a bomb at my house when my husband was dying, when I had windows shot out. Senator, I know something about what firearms can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Tough as nails. And now, Governor Gavin Newsom has to appoint a lawmaker to serve out the rest of her term. My next guest has been rumored to be on that short list. She is San Francisco Mayor London Breed and she joins me now. Mayor, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

LONDON BREED, SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR: Of course.

PHILLIP: I want to start by asking you about your relationship with Senator Feinstein. You, as mayor of San Francisco, are just the second female mayor of that city and she was the first. What was that relationship like? I know you wrote today, she called you early on to offer her support.

BREED: Well, sadly, I became the second woman mayor because of a tragedy, as well. We lost our mayor, Ed Lee, who died in office, and I was President of the Board of Supervisors, just like she was.

And one of the first calls that I received when word got out that the mayor had passed was from our Senator, Dianne Feinstein, offering me words of support, of encouragement, and really taking me through those moments when she took on the same role during the tragedy, and to stay the course, stay focused, to lead the city, to make sure that I am doing everything I can to give people comfort in a time of tragedy.

PHILLIP: And this is an important moment for the state of California, as well. As we mentioned a little earlier, your name has been floated as a potential replacement. Is that job something that you would be willing and ready to take on if the governor asked?

BREED: Well, right now I am mayor of San Francisco. I am running to be mayor of San Francisco for next year. And I want to continue to be mayor of San Francisco. I'll just note that that's not a no.

But I do want to ask you more broadly, though, because this is a very important issue, especially for African-Americans in the State of California that used to have a black senator.

And Governor Newsom has said he wants to appoint a caretaker to this role. Do you think that it is fair to appoint a black woman only as a caretaker in this role, something that people like Congresswoman Barbara Lee have taken offense to? BREED: Well, I think it would be, I hope that whomever he appoints,

which I know that the governor made a commitment to appoint an African American woman to serve in that role, my hope is that that person decides to run for office. I don't support the idea of a caretaker.

I do think that we need someone in that role who understands what it means to be courageous, similar to Dianne Feinstein, I think Barbara Lee, is an extraordinary Congresswoman and she knows what it means to be courageous. And my hope is, you know, I'm a big supporter of hers and my hope is to see her in that seat.

PHILLIP: So, you mentioned this courage that you just mentioned a second ago. One of the things just in the last couple of days, you've talked about is requiring drug testing for welfare recipients in your city. As San Francisco battles a fentanyl epidemic, also battling some serious crime issues.

Do you think that your party, the Democratic Party, has been too lenient on this issue of crime? And are you trying to show some courage here by pushing back on what some in your party might think is the right approach to dealing with these issues?

BREED: Well, I would say that many of the decisions that I make as mayor aren't really about my party. They're more about my personal experiences as well as my desire to see my city safe. Some people know that I, unfortunately, lost a sister to a drug overdose.

I grew up in the crack epidemic in public housing where, you know, drug use and the addiction was all around me and losing friends and loved ones to drugs and to the criminal justice system was a normal part of my life.

And part of my recommendation is really coming from people who were formerly incarcerated and who continue to call themselves former addicts from the work that they're doing and just the challenges they experienced in their life in the past and the need for us as a city.

And I can only speak to San Francisco and my relationships there, but as a city, how we have been far too lenient, how we need to make sure that people are held accountable. And to be clear, my goal in this is to require not sobriety.

[22:35:00]

It's to require that you are a part of a treatment program, which we can do under California state law. And I think that whatever we have available to us, we need to use it. Fentanyl and what it's doing in terms of the number of deaths, we had more deaths from fentanyl overdoses than we did during the COVID pandemic. And we shut the entire world down to deal with that.

And this fentanyl crisis, which is not just happening in San Francisco, it's happening all over the country, we have to start taking really aggressive steps. It's not a Democratic issue, it's not a Republican issue. It's really the desire to do everything we can to try and address substance use disorder in this city and in this country.

PHILLIP: And real quick before you go. As you know, Target has decided to close a number of stores in the city of San Francisco. What's your reaction to that?

BREED: Well, I would just say that I understand that there's a challenge with what is happening around retail and retail theft, not just here in California, but all over the country and especially a lot of major cities. But unfortunately, the highlight of this happens to be mostly with San Francisco. Things are changing.

San Francisco is still an amazing city. It's a beautiful city. It's a place that people visit from all over the world. But also it's a changing city. And people don't necessarily shop in the same ways that they did before. We have a lot of companies here. We're the A.I., Artificial Intelligence capital of the world.

We're starting to see the industry grow significantly, how people shop, how people move around the city and drive autonomous vehicles, you name it. It's happening here in San Francisco and it requires us to make some significant adjustments in how we use our retail establishments, as well.

So, I think it's, you know, the retail theft is definitely a problem that we need to address, but it's a problem that's also happening in other places all over the country, as well.

PHILLIP: Yeah, and as you note, it could be other factors, as well. Mayor London Breed, good to talk to you on this day and my condolences to you and all those who were close to Senator Feinstein. Thank you.

BREED: Thank you very much.

PHILLIP: And with me now to break down all of that is Brian Fallon, the Executive Director of Demand Justice and the former Press Secretary for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. He's got a lot of titles, but we're going to give him that one.

Alencia Johnson is also with us, former Senior Advisor to President Biden in his 2020 campaign. So, Brian, what do you make of what you just heard from London Breed? She didn't knock it down, but she did say she supports Barbara Lee.

BRIAN FALLON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DEMAND JUSTICE: Yeah. Barbara Lee, this is a very spirited contest for the Senate seat that was already taking place before the news of Dianne Feinstein's passing.

Newsom's in a bit of a tricky situation right now. He has said that he's not going to pick anybody that's running. And so, that makes people like Mayor Breed a contender. I think that that's probably the right decision. There's a lot of pressure on him to maybe go for Barbara Lee, even though she's running.

But if you look at what's happened in the past traditionally, when there's been an active race going or candidates that are putting their names out there already for a seat that was coming up and then an incumbent Senator died, you usually do see a placeholder type pick put in there.

PHILLIP: He didn't do that the last time and this is what is getting people upset especially black women in California.

ALENCIA JOHNSON, SENIOR ADVISER ON BIDEN'S 2020 CAMPAIGN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I understand the sentiment of you know wanting to not get in the middle of that race but it just seems as though a black woman had in a position to lead is going to be set up with conditions. And that is unfair, right?

To take a black woman, there are tons of black women in California that are extremely qualified for this position, but to take them out of their current position, whatever they may be in the state, if they're a mayor, whatever it may be.

And to put these conditions that they can't run again is very problematic, especially when we see what black women have done for the Democratic Party, this deficit in the Senate right now with no black woman. And so, it is frustrating as a black woman political strategist to see these conditions and these parameters.

PHILLIP: Do you do you agree? I mean that he's kind of boxed himself in here.

FALLON: It's a tough spot. I don't envy I don't envy him. I think that he would probably be getting more blowback though If he reached into this primary and picked one of these three candidates right now, so, it's -- but it's not an enviable spot to be --

PHILLIP: Yeah, it sounds like so he understands. He's got to do this really quickly I want to get your take though. RFK, Jr. is expected to announce on October 9th that he's going to go into the presidential race now as an independent, not a Democrat, and run against Joe Biden. Does it help hurt? Some people have actually suggested this could hurt Trump.

Well, so first of all, this is a sign of weakness that RFK is having to resort to this. When he first got into the race, he was running against Joe Biden in a Democratic primary, and he had the benefit of the doubt as a result of the Kennedy name. I think at the beginning, when he first got in, you saw him polling as high as like 15, 20 percent.

[22:40:00]

And his numbers have since nosedive because every media appearance, he spouts conspiracy theories, made anti-Semitic comments about the spread of COVID a couple months back, and now he's in a place of irrelevance. And so, this is clearly a desperate bid to make himself relevant again.

The last polling I saw showed that he was more popular with Republican voters at this point than with Democratic voters. He's underwater with Democratic voters. So, I think you could make an argument that he could theoretically pull more votes from Trump than Biden. PHILLIP: We also, last night we spoke to Dr. Cornell West, he's also

running against Biden. Just generally speaking, I mean, how worried should the White House be about these third-party bids, about these challengers in the primary, anything like that could throw a curve ball into this race?

JOHNSON: You know, listen, third-party candidates really aren't helpful for Democrats, to be honest. And I think the reality here is, there are a lot of people who are frustrated with our politics as usual, and I understand wanting a multi-party system. We are literally not there. And my frustration is actually with the Cornel West and the RFKs of the world.

If you want to make Joe Biden better, running against him is actually not the way to do it. There are ways to push and challenge him and ensure that the policies that he is going to enact in his second term are more inclusive. But this is actually handing over an election to someone who has 91 charges against him, right?

And the other piece here, too. A friend of mine was telling me that there was some focus grouping around some black men and roughly 25 percent of black men are right now supporting Donald Trump. And so, I think the Biden campaign is paying attention to all of this, right? We're still a year and a half out, but of course they are paying attention and we'll see how this race shapes up.

PHILLIP: Yeah, that last point continues to be an issue. It was last cycle and it will be again, Brian and Alencia, thank you both for coming in on a Friday night. I hope you have a great weekend. And coming up next for us -- ahead of us, the moment from the impeachment that overshadowed all the talking points that Republicans wanted to make. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASMINE CROCKETT, (D) TEXAS REPRESENTATIVE: When we started talking about things that look like evidence, they want to act like they blind. They don't know what this is. These are our national secrets, looks like in the shitter (ph) to me.

PHILLIP: That was Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, and she joins me live on her viral rebuke, plus an arrest over the murder of Tupac Shakur, nearly three decades after his killing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIP: Okay, this really may be a first. The word shitter has now been entered into the congressional record.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROCKETT: When we start talking about things that look like evidence, they want to act like they blind. They don't know what this is. These are our national secrets. Looks like in the shitter to me.

PHILLIP: That was Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett putting her Republican colleagues on blast during an impeachment hearing against President Biden, accusing them of willfully ignoring Donald Trump's mishandling of classified documents.

[22:45:00]

And that Congresswoman is here with us now. That was quite a moment. I don't know if that went exactly as you planned, but why did you go there?

CROCKETT: OK, so let me break this down. To be clear, Nancy Mace continued to cuss in this hearing. And my attitude is, I will match your energy or exceed it. And I felt like I was going to use a better, you know, way of using the word when I used it. So, I did, and that was that.

PHILLIP: What do you say though to people who, just look at all of this. I mean, you mentioned Nancy Mace. We've seen some other things, Lauren Boebert and others, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, privately, publicly using profanity.

CROCKETT: Oh yeah.

PHILLIP: Matching energy with energy. Is that always the right strategy? What do you say to people who say it's not?

CROCKETT: I say that they don't understand what's going on in Congress, and they don't understand what's going on in our country. Right now, I think historically, and I applaud those that have come before me. Democrats have always wanted to be the ones to say, this is how we are supposed to conduct ourselves. And they think that just by maintaining that type of decorum, that MAGAs and others will respond and do the same, but they don't.

And so, sometimes, you got to make sure that they know that you can bring it as well, as well as push back. And that's what you're seeing right now. The younger generation is pushing back quite vigorously. And I think a lot of the American people, not just young people, but I've got constituencies of all ages, and they tell me, thank you so much, because they're tired of us kind of sitting back quietly.

And this is a very emotional thing. In that moment, I was very emotional for a lot of reasons. Number one, as an attorney, it was an affront to me that we are going through this sham impeachment where there is no evidence and you didn't even try to bring one witness that could bring any evidence.

There was no fact witnesses, on top of the fact that right now our government is about to shut down. The one thing we are supposed to be able to do is pass a budget and they weren't doing that.

PHILLIP: Do you think that we will see more of these impeachment hearings? Your colleague Jamie Raskin seemed to suggest that perhaps we won't because this one really didn't go the way Republicans planned.

CROCKETT: If they know what's good for them, they will let it go. I mean, listen, we have an all-star cast. You saw that clip. I was surprised that my clip was a clip that ended up going viral. Every single member on the House Democratic side was extra strong. And so, you know, most people can't sit around and watch hearings all day.

They're working and trying to make sure that they can keep a roof over their heads. But if they know what's good for them, this hearing didn't go well. It's a bad day for the Republicans when even Fox News can't spin it.

PHILLIP: We've done multiple fact checks on that hearing, and at best, there was just a lot of information that was omitted. I do want to talk about the government shutdown. You just mentioned it. Here's Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of your colleagues, what she had to say about Democrats and all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, (R) GEORGIA REPRESENTATIVE: Democrats are clearly, they're fine with shutdowns. They shut down the whole country over COVID for far too long and the American people suffered. I promise you, most Americans aren't too worried about the government shutting down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Most Americans aren't too worried about the government shutting down. What's your response to that?

CROCKETT: She's clueless and she's out of touch, you know. And maybe she doesn't understand fully how much we do in the government, that's part of the problem.

And so, she doesn't recognize, number one, in talking to -- I come from a district that has a ton of aviation. Air traffic controllers were the ones that saved us last time, and honestly I'm hoping that they save us again and save us a little bit quicker.

You're talking about shutting down business travel, as well as those that are traveling for pleasure, but beyond that when we talk about our supply chain issues that we're still trying to get over, you're talking about affecting our supply chains.

This is a lot bigger than just the government, not to mention the government contractors, not to mention those people that really need some sort of childcare in this country. And we know that Head Start most likely is not going to have the funding that they need.

We know that the Republicans continue to say that they love making sure that they're taking care of the border, but they're not going to pay for border patrol. I have talked to those agents. I can guarantee you that they haven't.

PHILLIP: So, your Congressman, Matt Gaetz, has said he may work with Democrats to oust Speaker McCarthy. Is that something that you think you or even your colleagues would be interested in? CROCKETT: Listen, you know, McCarthy needs to grow a spine. Here's

the reality. What he needs to do is tell them, listen, there is no one that has the votes. He barely had the votes in the first place. We had to go through 15 rounds. There is no one else that has the votes. So, either it's McCarthy or as far as I'm concerned, we can go ahead and bring on Hakeem Jeffries, who is a real leader, who definitely has his delegation together.

[22:50:00]

But there's no one else in the Republican caucus. So, they need to go ahead and either come up with an alternative or go ahead and work with the speaker that they have.

PHILLIP: We'll see what they end up doing. Twenty-four hours until a government shutdown. Congressman Jasmine Crockett, thank you very much for being with us.

CROCKETT: Thank you so much.

PHILLIP: And it's one of America's most notoriously unsolved mysteries, but now there is an arrest in the murder of Tupac Shakur.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: This has been a story that has largely gone nowhere for 27 years, but now there's a lot that is changing in the case that is loomed over the rap and music at large for all that time. Now police in Las Vegas, Nevada are making an arrest now in connection to the murder of Tupac Shakur. He was shot and killed while he was leaving a boxing match in the Vegas Strip back in 1996. His murder supercharged the rivalry between East and West Coast rappers.

[22:55:00]

The man who was indicted in his killing is Dwayne Keith Davis, known as Keefe D. Authorities say that he was the ringmaster of the plot against Shakur in retaliation after an attack on his nephew.

Now, Davis has long placed himself right there at the scene of the crime, saying that he was in the front seat of the Cadillac that came up to Shakur's car when shots were fired from the backseat.

Now, it has also been the summer of F-bombs in American politics, and it's now looking like they might keep rolling into the fall.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILIP: And before we go, there has been a lot of choice language in American politics this week. We've heard scumbag, F off, stuck on stupid.

[23:00:00] We just talked at length about shitter being used in a congressional hearing. Well, tonight, the former president of the United States decided to top them all off with the quite the addition to the swear jar tonight, just a warning. Seriously, this is not safe for kids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: If somebody's beating you by 10, 15, or 20 points, like we're doing with Crooked Joe Biden, let's indict the mother fucker (ph). Let's indict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And on that note, I will turn it over to you, Pam Brown in CNN tonight.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: That's quite the turnover there, Abby.

PHILLIP: Sorry, it really happened. I had to do it. Thanks, Pam.

BROWN: Yeah, I understand. You got to -- you can't flip it out. He's the leading Republican presidential candidate. Totally get it. Thanks, Abby. Have a great weekend.

PHILLIP: You too.