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Senate Republicans Set to Choose New Leader; President Biden Hosts Donald Trump at White House. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired November 13, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:13]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: On Capitol Hill, at any moment, Republican senators are expected to cast their first ballots for their new leader.

That person will lead the chamber during Donald Trump's second term.

CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill.

Manu, where do you think stand right now?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we actually expect the voting to actually begin momentarily in this closed-door session that's going on for about two hours now behind closed doors in a consequential vote that will define the Senate Republicans for years to come.

This will be the first time that there's a new Republican leader in 18 years after Mitch McConnell became the longest-serving Senate party leader in history. McConnell decided not to continue on as Republican leader, opening up what has now been a nearly-nine-month campaign that behind the scenes playing out as members try to court votes, try to get enough support, a majority of what -- expected to be 53 Senate Republicans to win this speakership, this leadership race.

Now, there are three candidates who are running right now. Senator John Cornyn, who used to be a Republican whip, a two-time campaign committee chairman, Senator John Thune, who is the current number two, current Republican whip who has served in the Senate since 2005, and the two-term Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott.

He is seen as one of the underdog in the race, someone who's a bit of a longshot candidate, but does have support from some in Trump world, although Trump himself has stayed neutral in this race so far. We do expect Cornyn and Thune to be the front-runners here. Potentially could go either way, but it is complicated to handicap how this will play out because this is a secret ballot election, meaning members can vote however they want.

They may say publicly they will vote one way, vote another way. Many of them are refusing to say altogether how they will vote, which is probably one reason why Trump has decided to stay neutral because it's hard to see which direction this ultimately goes. But after the -- if none of these three gets a majority support in the

first ballot of voting, then it will go to a second ballot until someone gets a majority vote. So this could play out for some time, but any moment now, this voting, we expect to take place behind closed doors.

J.D. Vance, who's still currently a senator before he becomes the vice president of the United States in January, is also here in this room. We expect him to also cast a vote in this race. He would not answer questions on his way in about who he is supporting in this race, but a consequential moment that could define how Republicans deal with legislation on the floor, their political strategy, trying to keep the Senate majority, the person who will lead them in that charge.

They're making that critical decision at this moment. We expect that decision to be announced. It could be within the hour. It could take a little bit longer, but really any moment -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, I know you will be staying on top of it.

Manu Raju, thank you so much.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:37:33]

BROWN: Right now, president-elect Donald Trump is at the White House meeting with President Biden in the Oval Office.

And it comes as Trump moves full speed ahead with his Cabinet picks. He's announced a slew of loyalists for top government jobs in the last 24 hours.

My panel is with me now.

Phil Mattingly, I want to go to you.

You covered, of course, the Biden White House as chief White House correspondent. This is a remarkable moment with Trump and Biden meeting. Of course, it is tradition, but there is so much significance with this meeting today. We heard from the two men earlier talking about the importance of a smooth transition, and there's a lot of irony in that from Trump's side.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's what Trump and his team did not give incoming President Biden and Biden's administration.

I think Jeff mentioned this earlier, that that set them back, and I think it made it difficult, particularly since they were coming in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, where they didn't feel like the government was structured in a way to actually kick what they felt they needed to do into high gear. So there's definitely an irony there. I think what you saw is very

emblematic of President Biden over the course of his career, kind of the Foreign Relations Committee chair, diplomat at his kind of peak, understanding the importance of the moment, understanding the importance of norms and institutions, which he's talked about since his campaign, and you're seeing that play out.

What's going on in his head, to be candid, I can't fathom at this moment. This is a failure. The animating feature of his campaign, from his decision to launch one to begin with, the battle over the soul of the nation, the inflection point the nation and the world we're at, the existential moment that he continually described, sometimes to the ire of his aides, that were like, dude, don't always make it so big, this marks -- history has a long arc.

And the administration, particularly on the legislative side, particularly on the domestic economy side, did a lot of things that people won't necessarily get their heads around for the next five to 10 years, which has been part of the problem.

However, in this moment, it's hard to see this as anything but an indictment of the central theory of the case that President Biden and his team brought to the White House, given where they stand, given who's sitting next to him, and given the fact that Trump is coming back more empowered than he was in 2017, and certainly than he was when he left on January 20 of 2021.

BROWN: Yes, certainly.

And our Dana Bash said earlier, President Biden would rather be eating glass, right, in many ways.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: But, I mean, look, they are clearly very cordial. We see the picture here of shaking hands, very nice, exchanging pleasantries.

[11:40:03]

But I mean, the awkwardness as well cannot be understated.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: For sure.

I mean, it just -- there is nothing really in our modern history that draws a parallel to this. I mean, and to Phil's point, as we covered the Joe Biden who eight years ago at this point was just about to leave office as the vice president and was likely not to run for president, and he ran for president because of that man in the Oval Office.

And he's leaving to essentially hand power over to him. But, look, I mean, this is something that President Biden believes is very important. That handshake, he believes, is very important to the country.

And if we think back, I mean, history offers a broader look. We can't see it right now, but it is -- the decisions that Donald Trump made four years ago to delegitimize the presidency of Joe Biden that I think hung over most everything that happened, at least at the beginning of that term.

And it also was one of the reasons that Joe Biden ran again. He thought he alone could defeat Donald Trump. That ended up obviously not to be the case. But going forward here, we do not know exactly what specific threats they will be talking about, but Donald Trump is facing an entirely different sort of set of challenges than when he left the Oval Office, the Middle East obviously in an entirely different place, Ukraine as well, China certainly.

So I think that presidential campaigns are not generally a good test for the challenges that presidents actually will face in office. So my guess is, after the pleasantries, after the photographers are out of the room, which they are now, they are talking about real things.

And President Trump is certainly consuming those now in a much different way than he did eight years ago, because he knows the threats. So I think that's probably the value of this meeting as well.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Can we also add a perspective?

So, in 1992, one of my jobs was literally the Bush administration allowed a small team of Clinton people to come in as part of the transition and literally walk in the halls, figuring out whose office was going to go where. And so part of why this is so important, to all of the negatives we all have talked about, is that it is important for the continuity of the United States of America.

Because, on January 22, the same people will be calling the White House with the same problems that they're calling today about. That was the thing that struck me on the day of the Clinton inauguration. People were calling with their questions and their concerns and they didn't care to some degree if you were there yesterday or not, right?

And so the continuity of -- and this was part of why it was so unfortunate that President Trump made a different decision last time, particularly given that we were in the midst of a pandemic -- to be able to make sure that from day -- the 19th to the 20th to the 21st, the American people are served by someone and a team that is up to speed on not just where their desks are and what their phone number is, but also where all sorts of issues, not just in foreign policy, domestic issues as well, where things stand.

You have even heard Susie Wiles talk about they want to be able to go in and make big changes real quick. Part of the way they're going to be able to do that is by understanding what it is they're walking into.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And, look, transitions are important.

I'm looking at the political irony here. They spent several months calling the guy a fascist, Hitler, and everything you can think of. And yet you're now sitting next to the guy who you said democracy would be under threat or at risk if he were to win.

Well, the American people made it clear they didn't want his vice president. They wanted to go back to the former president because they remember things being significantly better at the time.

Now, in terms of continuity, I think it's a good thing that this was moving forward the way it is. I think the former president, having had some experience, will look to do things differently this time around. We have several critical issues in terms of international policy that they're going to have to immediately address, Israel and Iran, Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan.

There's also a litany of domestic issues that the American people expect him to address from the economy and cost of living, to immigration and influx of migrants and economic dislocation that a lot of men have sort of begged for some change.

And so, I mean, this is a good thing, but I cannot help but think of the irony.

MATTINGLY: Can I just add, though, on that? I mean, I think that is emblematic of Biden and his team on some level and a stark contrast to 2021, in the sense of they believed all the things that he said on the campaign trail.

Again, that was the central operating theory of their administration and the campaign that they ran in 2020. And yet, in Biden's view, which this is very much in line with how Biden operates, it is more important, since the voters spoke, for -- to try and uphold at least the appearance of norms and the importance and legitimacy of institutions and go through the walk-through.

To be clear, while Biden in the back of his head may be thinking about kind of, I cannot believe we're here. I can't believe this happened, the meetings themselves will be very much as substantive as the former president, president-elect Trump, wants them to be.

[11:45:09]

And Biden will try and give him his advice, his thoughts and how he feels about things, precisely because he believes that voters voted and this is important, despite how he and his team feel.

BROWN: All right, Phil Mattingly, Jeff Zeleny, Karen Finney, Shermichael Singleton, thank you so much.

FINNEY: Thanks.

BROWN: We're going to go back out to the White House right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Today, a reminder of how our democracy is supposed to work.

Right now, President Biden is meeting with his successor, president- elect Donald Trump, to assure Americans of a peaceful transfer of power.

Kaitlan Collins joins us now from the White House North Lawn.

[11:50:02]

So the meeting is ongoing, right, Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Yes, Pam, it's been about 40 minutes or so since the group of reporters that went into the Oval Office and captured those images that we saw of Biden and Trump shaking hands happened.

This meeting is still ongoing, we believe. We're waiting to see when the White House tells us that it's wrapped up. And, of course, a big question of what these two are talking about behind closed doors, that's going to be the center of the White House briefing later on, when aides are taking questions from reporters.

And just looking at this moment here as the two of them are meeting in that sign of respect that you noted that Trump did not afford to Biden when Biden won the election four years ago, but clearly is something that's important to President Biden, as he has been seeking his entire four years in office to restore the norms that his team felt like Trump busted while he was in office.

I will say, Pam, that it is notable that Trump's team is also here on the White House grounds. One of his aides just posted a picture as they're hanging out near the Rose Garden while Biden and Trump are meeting. But this comes at a critical time for this transition effort that's under way, as we have been following all of this very closely when it comes to who is meeting, who is -- Trump is hiring and who he's putting in these key positions.

I should note that still no agreement has actually been signed, a formal one, between the two transition teams, which means Trump's team has not yet started receiving national security briefings from the federal government or getting those FBI background checks for clearances, all part of the important process, part of that's under way, and part of that's because of disagreement Tin he language of those disclosures and those agreements.

And part of that is because Trump is just suspicious of the federal government and getting briefings like that. And so it is something key happening behind the scenes. There have been some brief conversations between Biden's chief of staff and the two people who are heading Trump's transition team, but still our understanding has been that there has been no agreement on that.

Just a critical point that underscores the transfer of power that is very coming -- that is coming very soon to Washington in just about 68 days from now, Pam, as all of this is still under way, and still waiting to see what's said between the two of them.

I should note we just got a word that the meeting is still ongoing between Trump and Biden.

BROWN: All right, we will see how long it goes. I remember, with President Obama and Trump, it went longer than expected, I believe over an hour. So we will see how long this one goes.

Kaitlan Collins from the White House for us, thanks so much.

And joining us now to put it in perspective, historical perspective, is presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

This meeting is an act of diplomacy, carrying on the norms, traditions that Trump, as we have talked about, did not grant Biden four years ago. There they are right now, the two men meeting, shaking hands. There is so much here.

And, by the way, I do want to note for my colleague Dana Bash she did mean to say the bust of RFK, not JFK. I promised her I would say that.

But just explain as we watch this, explain why this is so significant.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, in our democracy, it's really seen as the handing off of power.

Yes, the big moment is going to be at the inaugural. But this shows that two bitter rivals can suddenly sit down, have coffee, tea, conversation, inform each other on what they know about what's going on in the world and start talking about how to make the transition less clumsy, less difficult by the art of cooperation.

It's supposed to be seen as a healing moment. Just the photograph of them two together will at least make some Americans feel like, wow, we're getting back to normal after that bitter campaign.

BROWN: In the Oval Office today, Trump will be sitting just a few feet away from the dining room where he watched the January 6 attack unfold. He left the White House then a pariah, right, in disgrace, trying to interfere with the transfer of power.

And it is an extraordinary political comeback, right? He is leading in the popular vote by millions. He won all seven battleground states. He is coming back more empowered and emboldened than ever. I mean, are there any parallels to this?

BRINKLEY: Well, they used to call Bill Clinton the comeback king. But you're looking at Donald Trump, and he is -- he's the comeback king times 10. I mean, nobody thought after January 6 he would be able to reenter the White House.

He had 34 felony charges. People wouldn't suspect that would be a person you would even want wandering into the White House. But, lo and behold, I'm sure President Trump today is looking at the landscape at the White House, one he knows so well, realizes he will be living there soon, and is probably replaying in his mind January 6.

Some of the Biden aides, if you were a visitor to the White House, used to go and give you a little mini-tour of how Trump acted that day, where he watched television, instead of treating January 6 as a real national emergency.

[11:55:10] And the other thing that's going to come out of this is, look, Trump's going to have his story and Biden is. I remember when Jimmy Carter was president and lost in 1980 and he invited Ronald Reagan for meetings similar to this, and, later, Carter said: I couldn't believe Reagan. I told Reagan that it's really about a 12-hour day. You don't get much sleep as president.

And Reagan said, oh, no, I will never -- I only need like six or eight. I'm going to spend a lot of time watching movies and just taking it easy. And Carter couldn't believe it, because he was a micromanager, just the two styles of Carter and Reagan so different.

And that became apparent just on that moment of transition. So there's a lore that's going to develop out of this. I also think there are about four or five things on the table, with Ukraine-Russia being number one.

BROWN: Yes, certainly a lot on the agenda. Douglas Brinkley, thank you so much.

This meeting still ongoing at the White House at last check.

Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Pamela Brown. You can follow me on Instagram, TikTok and X @PamelaBrownCNN.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a short break.