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Biden Signing Executive Order Lifting Transgender Military Ban; Split Forming Within GOP On Future Of The Party Post-Trump; Republican Party Tries To Figure Out Its Post-Trump Future; Dominion Voting Systems Files $1.38 Defamation Suit Against Giuliani. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 25, 2021 - 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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[12:30:06]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All right. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, guys.

BIDEN: That's a long way to come (INAUDIBLE).

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Come on you guys, let's move. Let's go, Fleyt (ph). (INAUDIBLE), thank you.

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: President Biden just moments ago, that's tape, signing an executive order reversing the Trump ban on transgender Americans serving the United States military. The President standing there with the Vice President Kamala Harris and the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said he will take questions later today. He's also signing another executive order designed to boost Made in America manufacturing.

Let's bring in our Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins and our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara, I want to start with you. Obviously, this is yet another break from Biden to Trump from changing Trump administration policy very early on. Walk through the significance of this inside the Pentagon and the practical effect it will have on the military.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are currently about 1,600 transgender persons serving in the United States military, according to advocates, in that community. But nobody really knows, of course, because so many of them have been forced to hide their transgender identity and so many people were banned from joining the military under the Trump administration. This now reverses it, there will be some need to put some very

specific things back into place. So, everyone has the opportunity to join the United States military who is physically fit to serve as President Biden and the new Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have said.

Every indication this will go smoothly. That is what the President wants. We are seeing this come in these very opening days of Lloyd Austin being in charge at the Pentagon. He has already put out a memo on sexual assault, telling the services, you know, bluntly to get it together. Those numbers, those statistics also very troublesome. Congress wants some answers and Lloyd Austin has told the services to tell him within two weeks, what's working, what's not what needs to be done.

Racial discrimination, racial equality issues also on the table. Perhaps most significant at the moment, Austin and General Mark Milley, who you saw there, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs working together on recommendations on how to detect, prevent and deal with extremism in the ranks of the U.S. military, whether it's white supremacist, or violent extremists or whatever.

They are really struggling to find a way ahead on this, especially in the wake of the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, January 6th. We haven't heard a lot about it, but we do know in these hallways of the Pentagon, that is a topic front and center. Milley working on some recommendations, Austin wanting to get those and figure out with the Joint Chiefs what can be done.

Let me say, first time we are seeing Joe Biden reference Mark Milley as his Chairman, as his top military adviser compliment him on being a great help. That is going to be noticed around the Pentagon. That is a signal that Milley who served President Trump also, apolitical will stay and serve this President, John?

KING: Very important, very important. Peaceful transition of power. You see the new President working with the military brass. Barbara Starr, appreciate the perspective.

And Kaitlan, to that point, we're watching. We have a brand new President. He's in his first full work week, six days, I guess in office, if I'm doing the math right there. We've seen him on the COVID crisis repeatedly. Later today, he's going to talk about American manufacturing. This is, we saw him on Inauguration Day with the former presidents at Arlington National Cemetery, a very important moment there. Here in the Oval Office, sort of his first White House event, playing up the commander in chief part of the job.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he certainly is. And it's also notable in that room how few people are in there, because typically during a President Trump Oval Office, right, we should note there would always be several staffers in the back of the room.

That was not the case today. Instead, reporters were ushered to the back of the room as an indication of the safety protocols that have been put in place here at the Biden White House. And instead, you just saw the four of them at the front with Chairman Milley, the Vice President Kamala Harris, of course, the President, they're seated at the Resolute desk and his new Defense Secretary to his left flanking him as he signed this executive order.

And this executive order we should note is another sign of how he is trying to undo so many facets of Donald Trump's legacy in his first few days in office, because they'd already given us an indication that this was going to happen, but we're seeing how quickly it's happening given us as you know, only as we noted his third full day, weekday in the job.

And so here he is already in front of cameras bringing us in, signing this executive order, but there are still a lot of questions to come. And so he noted he's going to take questions this afternoon. They did not take any questions there, either the Defense Secretary or the President.

And so this afternoon, he is going to be facing a lot of questions, of course, on one of the biggest things that could be happening on Capitol Hill which is a potential blockage of this COVID relief proposal that he has laid out there that we are now seeing bipartisan pushback on it.

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So that's going to be a big question of what this agenda is going to look like beyond just executive orders because an executive order can only do so much, it does not have the full force of a law passed on Capitol Hill. The White House is well aware of that. So we're waiting to see how it is they're going to try to shepherd that through and what these early days are going to look like beyond just these executive orders, John?

KING: This fascinating time, new administration getting its footing, a lot of questions to be answered. We'll check in later today. Kaitlan Collins, grateful for the quick hassle out of the Oval Office there.

When we come back, as Kaitlan noted, Democrats getting used to a new President. Republicans debating now what to do about the former President.

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[12:40:03]

KING: Republicans are just beginning what promises to be a bruising debate about the role of Donald Trump and the GOP future. It is playing out here in Washington as Republicans in Congress face choices on issues ranging from impeachment to immigration and climate change. And that is playing out in the States, especially in places where Trump allies are now looking to censure or otherwise punish Republicans who supported impeachment in the House or who criticized the former President for repeatedly lying about the 2020 election results.

This framing from The Washington Post today, "The central issue between the parties warring party elements is whether Republicans will continue to organize themselves around fealty to Trump, or whether a broader coalition should be built in the coming years that can welcome both his most avid supporters and those who have condemned his behavior".

Among the authors of that article is Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post, he joins us now. Josh, it is a fascinating conversation. It's not just here in Washington, we see it out in the states as well. If you look at polling, your newspapers pull back earlier in the month, 60 percent of Republicans say follow Trump's lead. That's what the Republican voters say. But there's a sharp debate about, a, whether to do that at all, and if so, how much?

JOSH DAWSEY, POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, there is a sharp debate, John, on what role the President should play in the party going forward. The President's been a very infuriated with a number of the Republicans, particularly Liz Cheney and Tom Rice. Liz Cheney of Wyoming who voted for his impeachment and wants revenge against him.

Once Liz Cheney out of leadership has news to other allies and advisors about forming a third party though some of his advisors say he's not actually that serious about it. But once they use it as leverage to convince Senate Republicans not to convict him.

The President remains the dominant force. I mean, he won 74 million votes, obviously, a few months ago and many of his supporters are still with him. I would say an overwhelming majority are still with him. And he is likely to get back on the road this spring and reemerge after a few weeks of being down.

But then you have, you know, Mitch McConnell and others who are obviously infuriated by what he did on January 6th who want his presidency to end and then you have kind of folks in the middle of the Lindsey Grahams, other (ph) world, the Ronna McDaniels, the RNC Chairwoman, who are trying to piece together this coalition of, you know, keeping the party intact while not turning off Trump voters. It's the soul searching within the GOP I think is going to be a fascinating story for the next year or two to come.

KING: Right, definitely for the next year or two, and perhaps even beyond that. And you mentioned the idea, well, this prospect thread, I don't know what to call it, of maybe forming a third party. The President doesn't have his Twitter chainsaw anymore. So this, to me seems to be one of his tactics to intimidate if you want to put pressure.

Jason Miller, his former campaign spokesman gave this statement to CNN. I know he's involved in your reporting as well. "The President's made clear his goal is to win back the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022. There's nothing that actively being planned regarding an effort outside of that". And here's the part, "but it's completely up to Republican senators if this is something that becomes more serious". In other words, do not vote to convict the President at his impeachment trial, or he will hang this over your head. DAWSEY: Well, in the campaign, or I guess that's not a campaign anymore, it is packed as outside group is looking to do polling and a lot of these states to try and convince Republicans that the supporters are still with backing President Trump.

Their view is a further -- they get away from January 6th, the less likely there will be, you know, a large number of senators that vote to convict the President. But there's lots of work going on behind the scenes, even though the President's been basically, or the former President, I say, has been basically dark for a few days. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes to try and pressure Republicans not to vote for conviction in the trial, which I guess will come up in a couple of weeks or so.

KING: Right. We'll have to watch that one as it plays out. Josh Dawsey, grateful for your reporting and your insights.

And let's continue the conversation and get some perspective on this question from a former Republican Congressman who wants a clean break from Trump and Trumpism. If the GOP wants a future, it must look in the mirror. That's the take of former Republican Congressman Will Hurd, who was an undercover CIA officer before his three terms representing Texas in the House.

In a Washington Post essay, Hurd writes this, "If you elevate a flag that has someone else's name on it to the same level that you elevate your national flag, then you are not a patriot. You are part of a cult. If Republicans want to change their persistent popular vote losses at the national level", Hurd argues, "then we must realign our actions with our values".

Former Congressman Will Hurd joins us now. And so, Congressman, grateful for your time. I'm sure you're enjoying your time out of Washington although you're not that far away in Arlington at the moment. So, the conversation we're just having and you hear, you know, this idea, oh, you know, vote to acquit me in the Senate, or else I might start a third party. What should Republicans, when they hear that from the former President or his aides and allies, what should they say?

WILL HURD (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Well, that's not a commitment to growing the party. And I think the way Republicans can be successful in the future is make sure that we're based on clear values that represent American values, and there can be a diversity of thought within the Republican Party and that should be fine.

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It shouldn't be blind loyalty test to a certain individual, but we should share some basic themes and those basic things as we should empower people not in power the government. We should believe in free markets lead to people moving up the economic ladder and not socialism.

And so, if we talk about these values and take it to -- there's a lot of folks in the middle of the country and in the middle of the philosophical belief, that want to see a party that's based on values, on those traditional conservative values. And if we articulate that, we can bring more people into the party. If we make the Republican Party look like America, we can be successful.

And in this last election, there were plenty of Republicans that outperformed Donald Trump at the ballot box. And so, we should be looking, you know, forward not looking back. And I think we're going to have an opportunity to draw contrast with the Biden administration and steps that they're going to take.

KING: But as you know, you know this very well, your opinion is not often shared, or not always shared anyway, inside the House Republican conference. And you just had Liz Cheney, who voted in the House to impeach the President. Matt Gaetz, one of the President's allies from the state of Florida is going to Wyoming to make a stink about that. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader says no, she should not be purged from the leadership but --

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: I support her but I also have concerns. She took a position as a number three member in conference. She never told me ahead of time. I support her but I do think she has a lot of questions she has to answer to the conference.

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KING: The leader is -- the leader of House Republicans is certainly not ready to break from this President.

HURD: Well, Liz Cheney --

KING: Former President, I should say.

HURD: Sure, sure. Liz Cheney and tough is -- and here's the reality, anybody who's elected, their bosses are the people that sent them into Washington, D.C. It's not the minority leader. It's not whoever the head of the Republican National Committee is. It's there -- they're representing the people in their districts and their states that they represent. Those are their bosses and those are the people that they're accountable to.

And so, this notion that the Republican Party is supposed to be homogenous and vote a certain way, I think that's ridiculous. That's no way to grow a party. And we should be getting away and talking about the issues. There are serious issues going on in this world. We are in a new Cold War with the Communist Party of China, they are trying to surpass the United States, as the global leader in advanced technology. That's going to have tectonic impacts on our economy, on our way of life.

These are some of the questions we should be debating. And if we take an agenda to the American people, then we can be successful, and that will translate into votes. So we need to get away from he said, she said. We should be talking about the future and put out a plan that's based on clear, articulated values and we'll be successful. Not some of this inside baseball, a conversation that constantly happens in Washington, D.C.

KING: Someone I've known for a very long time, I think -- I know shares your view about let's have big policy debates. Let's take votes, maybe my side will win, maybe my side will lose, but let's take votes and let's debate things. Is Senator Rob Portman of Ohio who just announced he's not going to seek reelection in two years. He says it's just simply not fun anymore. Listen.

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SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R), OHIO: It's kind of shirts and skins, isn't it? And that makes it more difficult to find that common ground because elected officials aren't rewarded for that. What they're rewarded for is, you know, throwing out the red meat on the talk show.

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KING: Does it worry you? I would describe Rob Portman as a pragmatic conservative. He served in both Bush White Houses so he's got deep executive experience, knows how the government works, essentially saying you can't have policy conversations anymore. It's all red versus blue, right versus left. Does that -- is that the way for the Republican Party to find its way for people like that to say I'm out of here?

HURD: Look, Senator Portman is a great American. I consider him a friend. He has served his country for a good majority of his adult life and he can leave or stay whenever he wants. That's his prerogative. But, look, things are difficult in Washington, D.C., there's no doubt about this. However, you still can't get things done.

When I was in Congress, I got 20 pieces of legislation signed into law under a Republican president, under a Democratic president, under a Republican speaker, under a Democratic speaker. And so it can be done. But we need to get the majority of folks in Washington, D.C. and elected officials to focus on what unites us, not what divides us.

It's real easy to preach to the choir, right? But go out and try to convince someone of your idea, go out and try to earn a new convert to your ideology or your party. That's much tougher to do and that's what the Republican Party is going to have to do if we want to continue to be successful.

We've lost that seven of the last eight popular elections for President.

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We lost the presidency, the House and the Senate in four short years. So, we're going to have to change our ways in order to grow the party and see that success because I think it's those conservative values that the country needs at a time when America's economic and military dominance is no longer guaranteed in this quickly changing world.

KING: It's going to be a fascinating process to play out, as you know, throughout the next year, obviously, the impeachment trial in a couple of weeks from now and then the 2022 and 2024 elections. Hope we can keep in touch when that all plays out. Former Congressman Will Hurd, grateful for your time today, sir.

HURD: Thank you, John.

KING: Up next for us, Sarah Sanders, remember her, the former White House Press Secretary she's back home in Arkansas, testing her skills in this post-Trump GOP.

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KING: Topping our political radar today, Dominion voting systems filing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against former President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. That lawsuit specifically points to media appearances and podcast episodes where Giuliani spread falsehoods about dominion.

[12:55:14]

He said it was owned by Venezuelan communists, for example, and he said Dominion was corrupting the election. Dominion's attorney says the company is not ruling anybody out when asked if it plans to sue the former President. Giuliani calling this lawsuit, quote, another act of intimidation. And the former Trump White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced today she is running for governor of Arkansas.

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SARAH SANDERS, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I've been tested under fire, successfully managing one crisis after another at the table with President Trump confronting our most dangerous adversaries like China and North Korea.

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KING: Sanders is the daughter of the former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. She left the White House on good terms with the former President and plans to tout (ph) her work in the Trump White House on the campaign trail.

Up next for us, the first dogs, Champ and Major, getting acquainted with their new home, the White House.

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KING: Little fun before we go today. It's a big day for two four- legged friends at the White House. President Biden's German Shepherds, you see them right there. Champ and Major moved into the White House Sunday and they were spotted this morning enjoying some outdoor space there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Major is the first shelter dog to live in the White House. This, having pets at the White House, a return to tradition. President Trump and his family did not have any pets at the White House during his term.

Thanks for joining us today on Inside Politics. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.