The Lead with Jake Tapper Aired June 13, 2024 - 17:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:00:15] JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, major moves concerning America's reproductive rights. Just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to keep the abortion drug mifepristone on the market, there was a major vote in the Senate where Republicans blocked a bill that would guarantee access to IVF, in vitro fertilization, and OB GYN watching the impact of all of this in her own hospital is going to join us ahead. Plus, new comments today from Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor with a criminal case against Donald Trump that seems to be on hold. One day after a CNN interview with Nathan Wade, her former staffer and romantic partner was interrupted, just as Kaitlan Collins started asking about the timing of the romantic relationship with District Attorney Willis. And leading this hour what House and Senate Republicans are saying about their back to back meetings today with former President Donald Trump and that handshake with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Let's get straight to CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill. And Manu, what are you hearing from the Republican lawmakers after their closed door meetings? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of the Republicans were very positive coming out of the meeting, even some of those who have been critical of the former president believing that this is a good effort to try to unify a party that has been badly divided. And some of the dissenters in the Senate Republican meeting actually did not even attend the meeting. So there was really not much dissension that was voiced within the room. In fact, Susan Collins of Maine, someone who voted to convict Donald Trump has not endorsed him, did not attend the meeting. Neither did Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. And immediately after the meeting, I caught up with Senator Lisa Murkowski. And I asked her about her concerns within about her party getting behind Donald Trump so quickly, even though there has been some divisions. And whether she herself would support the former president. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: And you're still -- there's no chance you'll support him? SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): I already made clear that I am not satisfied with either choice that we have in as Republicans or Democrats. RAJU: Was it awkward being at that meeting given your position on Trump? SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I'm here to work for my state. I'm there for the workload. So it's not awkward to work with someone who hold -- show will be the next president. That's my job. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he make any reference to the conviction vote? CASSIDY: Yes (inaudible). RAJU: Well, you're not supporting him yet, right? CASSIDY: I don't know how -- see you all, guys. (END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: That last comment is from Senator Bill Cassidy, who was also one of the seven Republicans who voted to convict Donald Trump after January 6 has not endorsed Trump yet. And I asked him there if he's still going to support him now. But he didn't say that. But he did indicate that he believed that this was a positive meeting, which was the Congress with the most members voice even as Donald Trump gave a rather unwieldy, sometimes rambling speech to his -- to both the House and the Senate talking about a variety of things, airing out a number of grievances criticizing the conviction against him as terrible, calling the Justice Department dirty, no good bastards for one of the -- for one, not talking much about policy, but he did counsel Republicans about not going too far on the issue of abortion, warning them about political backlash if they do, and that certainly is one that has divided his party, but when he recognizes could be a problem for his party politically, if it's not handled the way voters want them to, Jake TAPPER: And Manu, this was the first time that former President Trump and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reunited were in the same room together face to face. Since the 2020 election, Senator McConnell has had some very harsh things to say about Donald Trump. What do we know about this reunion? RAJU: Yes, in fact, they actually agreed today, shook hands. I asked McConnell about it in the immediate aftermath of the meeting as well. And I said -- I asked him if they spoke, he said that they did shake hands. They seem to exchanged some pleasantries that the issues of all the bad blood between them simply did not come up, it seems. In fact, I asked this multiple senators about whether January 6 itself the attack at all in any capacity came up, the answer was resoundingly no. And of course, that's exactly what broke down the McConnell Trump relationship in the aftermath of January 6. McConnell called Donald Trump morally and practically responsible for the events of that day. They have not spoken since December of 2020 after Donald Trump -- after McConnell called Joe Biden the victory after the Electoral College certified the victory for Joe Biden they haven't spoken till today but despite their bad blood, despite Donald Trump attacking McConnell for months and months, including his wife and sometimes racist terms, none of that seem to matter today. And McConnell's ready to move on and apparently Donald Trump is to. [17:05:07] TAPPER: Buy guns. Manu Raju, thanks so much. Let's bring in a panel of political voices and one of our journalists to weigh on and how this all could impact the election. Matt, let me start with you, Republican Congressman Tim Burchett described his conversation with Trump like this. He said, "I said, Mr. President, you do a good job of laying out all the bad things and we know that. But you do a better job of laying out how to fix those things. I encouraged him to do a lot more of that." What do you make of that, Matt? MATT MOWERS, FORMER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, I think it's, you know, clearly Donald Trump is one of the most effective attack dogs in American politics. I mean, this is the guy who literally coming down that golden escalator in 2015, knew how to, you know, put a moniker on an opponent, whether it was low energy Jeb or crooked Hillary or you name it, but you have actually seen the campaign put out a lot more policy this go around which -- look, I was part of the 2016 campaign when it wasn't like there was a big policy team around the presidential race that year. You are seeing the agenda 45 coming out or agenda 47. President Trump's putting out a number of different policy issues, whether it's about how he's going to reform the bureaucracy, what he's going to do on tax code. You actually saw him just announced the other day in Nevada that he's going to actually eliminate a tax on tips, which is a direct appeal to wage workers in the blue collar class here in the United States. And so, it's clearly shows that he's actually looking forward and maybe he's listening to Tim Burchett a little bit. TAPPER: Former Congressman Delaney, Republican senator J.D. Vance, a top VP contender was asked today, how there can be unity around Trump when senior Republicans blame him for January 6. And we saw Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, both of them voted to convict him after the impeachment hearing. Here is what JD Vance had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JD VANCE (R-OH): I think that no real Republican with any critical landed party is still blaming him with January 6. Even frankly, some of his -- some of his critics were in the room and were supportive and are supportive. And so it's a good thing. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: No real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming Trump for January 6. Do -- I know that you're a Democrat, but do you agree with that? And what does it say about Trump's hold on the party? JOHN DELANEY, (D) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: You know, I used to think that JD Vance was a beautiful writer. And now when I listened to him, I don't know what he's talking about, right? There isn't unity in the Republican Party, because a lot of Republicans realize what happened on January 6 was a national embarrassment and a scar on our nation and our democracy. And they know Donald Trump's fingerprints are all over it. And a lot of good minded Republicans, in my opinion, like Paul Ryan, last week, came out and said, character integrity matters. What happens on January 6 disqualifies Donald Trump in his judgment from being president of United States. Obviously, I agree with that, as do many Republicans. So there isn't unity in the Republican Party, and that's one of the problems that Donald Trump has, right? He will not consolidate the Republican base, this election. We'll do it. TAPPER: But Eva McKend, I want to show you this picture. Look at who is surrounding former President Trump. OK, we got Senator Rick Scott, Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Roger Marshall, Senator John Barrasso, gave Trump a birthday cake with a 47 candle. He's obviously not 47. On the right, we got JD Vance, Josh Hawley, Senator Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And look at this image, obviously, McConnell and Trump shaking hands even though as Manu points out, Trump has had some very harsh, even racist words about his wife, Manu said. What does that tell you? EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: I think that this episode really illustrates that they view the former president as an asset and not a liability. And, you know, every Republican is going to run their own race, ultimately. But what Democrats have been doing to some effect is trying to tie even the most moderate Republican to the former president. This is a MAGA Republican. This is -- this, if you support this candidate, they are going to be in service to the MAGA agenda. And I think this episode today, this sort of kissed the ring that we saw from elected Republicans really allows Democrats to continue to, I think, be able to advance that message. TAPPER: And Senator Vance is also leading a new effort in the Senate by Republicans to block the fast tracking of President Biden's judicial nominees and U.S. attorney nominations for what Vance and his friends or his colleagues are calling the weaponization of government of the Justice Department against political opposition. Here is his offer to Democrats. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VANCE: The first to Democrats, and it's very simple, that if you guys stopped using the judicial system weaponized against your political opposition, we'd be happy to be more cooperative. So, take that as an offer. You guys need to stop. It's destroying the American people's faith in our system of law and order. And if you stopped it we'd be happy to try to let some of these nominations through. (END VIDEO CLIP) [17:10:09] TAPPER: Congressman, you're a Democrat. And he's -- that's your -- his offer to Democrats. What do you think? DELANEY: Well, I think first of all, the premise is preposterous. This notion that the Democrats, some conspiracy of Democrats, are weaponizing the entire judicial system of the United States of America. It's preposterous. President Trump is now a convicted felon, convicted and, you know, decided by a jury of his peers, that is our system. JD Vance doesn't like the result of that. So his proposal is I will hold the government of the United States hostage and not do my job, not advanced nominations, not consider them not to all the things I'm supposed to be as U.S. senator, because I don't like the results of a trial in New York. It's a ridiculous comment. And it's -- you know, it's -- when you're running for vice president, you pull over on the side of the road, and you get on some camera and you say stuff like that, and that's what we're seeing. TAPPER: So Matt Mowers, we have some breaking news. I want you to respond to this. I don't even know what it says myself, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, former House Republican leader in terms I think she was conference chair. Now she's out of the Congress and a very strong Trump critic, she just posted on Twitter or X about this McConnell Trump photo, saying in part, quote, "Trump and his collaborators will be defeated. And history will remember the shame of people like Leader McConnell, who enabled them." What's your take on Liz Cheney's words? MOWERS: I'm not sure it's entirely news that Liz Cheney is not supporting Donald Trump. She's made that very clear. TAPPER: Well, harsh words for McConnell. MOWERS: It is. That's right. Well, you know, here's the thing to remember about Mitch McConnell is he is actually a principled ideological conservative. But when you look at the tactics, the input deploys, it's real politic. He sees Donald Trump as an imperfect vessel to advance a conservative agenda for four more years. He also knows, to Eva's point, that actually it's not the worst thing to be a MAGA Republican to the key Senate states. When you're talking about Tim Sheehy against John Tester Montana, or Bernie Moreno against Sherrod Brown in Ohio, certainly, Jim Justice in West Virginia, Donald Trump's going to win all those states by at least eight points, in Montana, West Virginia to be 20 plus points. It's not a bad thing to be a Donald Trump MAGA Republican in those key states that they need to win to take control the Senate, Mitch McConnell knows it. And that's one of the reasons you saw unity coming out of the conference today. TAPPER: Eva. MCKEND: Yes, I don't know if you would characterize it as principle. But we have seen above all else McConnell be strategic and he recognizes that he lost this fight. His vision of the party would not be Trump at the helm. He has made that clear. But he's run out of cards to play and he recognizes that a few months out from the election, they are -- he -- Trump is their guy. TAPPER: Yes. There certainly is no other Republican presidential nominee that's going to appear. Thanks to one and all. Good to see everybody again. Coming up, the interrupted CNN interview with the Georgia prosecutor Nathan Wade just as CNN's Kaitlan Collins was asking about the timing of his romantic relationship with District Attorney Fani Willis. Kaitlan is going to join us of course, with her thoughts on that, shall we call it a bizarre moment. Plus, a story so many of you can identify with the skyrocketing cost of childcare. According to one report, two children and daycare is more expensive than rent in every single state in the United States. The ripple effect on families and entire communities, that's coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:17:24] TAPPER: In our law and justice lead, speaking at a church outside Atlanta, Georgia today Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she is too busy working to concern herself with any insults thrown her way while District Attorney Willis did not directly mention former President Donald Trump and his effort to get her kicked off his election subversion case. Willis did acknowledge the scrutiny that she's under. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: So when I declare all must be treated equally, and all must be held accountable, I had no idea that that was a controversial concept or topic for America. I had no idea by stating myth, it would make me a controversial figure that will become worthy of constant personal attacks, and death threats. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: She is probably also of the mind that she had no idea that her romantic relationship with now former Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who served under her, would come out and would be used against her. As for Wade's perspective, well, he let CNNs Kaitlan Collins know what he thinks about Willis and Trump's election subversion case. And CNN's Kaitlan Collins joins us now to talk about this. So Kaitlan, this was a remarkable interview. Last night, I texted you immediately after it was over. Once you started to question him about the timeline of his relationship with Fani Willis, which was an obvious question that you were going to ask, any good reporter would ask and it's obviously the central issue as to the argument that Trump is making as to why she should be thrown off the case because the argument goes that they were using this to make money and go on trips and blah, blah, blah, the hiring of her lover. After you asked about the timing, there was this bizarre moment when Wade's team stopped the interview. Well, let's watch what happened. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Just to clarify, when did the romantic relationship between the two of you start? NATHAN WADE, FORMER FULTON COUNTY SPECIAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, so you know, we get into -- there's been this effort to say that, OK, these exact dates are at issue and these exact dates are -- I'm getting signaled here. [17:20:02] COLLINS: Everything OK? WADE: Yes. COLLINS: Just to revisit the question, it was to clarify when the romantic relationships started and when it ended? WADE: Sure. So, you know, I believe that the public has, through the testimony and other interviews, the public has a clear snapshot that this is clearly just a distraction. It is not a relevant issue in this case. And I think that we should be focusing on more of the facts and the indictment of the case. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: I mean, kudos on the straight face. What do you make of all that? COLLINS: I mean, it was the most remarkable moment of the interview, Jake, especially obviously, when his -- it was his media consultant who got up and came in that he was huddling in the corner there with, and obviously, as you saw, before that happened, he started to answer the question and kind of get into the confusion over the timeline, because they had testified, you know, one thing that it was before the August indictment of Donald Trump, and another moment he had said it was by the end of the -- of 2022. And so that was the confusion. And then obviously, you saw after that moment, he had a very different answer. And it was really just talking about how it wasn't relevant to the heart of this. Now, I will say two things. One, it was a pretty obvious question about the timeline, because that is really the central part of all of this. They testified about it when they were both on the stand. And secondly, Jake, obviously, this is a matter that is not resolved yet. This is still going before the Court of Appeals in Georgia. It's why this case is entirely frozen right now. Judge McAfee can't do anything. And we likely won't hear anything on it until the spring at the earliest. And so, that case is not happening before the 2024 election. And so, it actually is quite important. He made the point that what his relationship with was with Fani Willis isn't relevant to what's in the heart of the indictment. That's obviously true. But of course, as Judge McAfee noted, it's important to have credibility when you are prosecuting anyone, much less the former president of the United States. TAPPER: Yes. And the judge has been fairly critical about whether or not District Attorney Willis has been completely forthright about the timing of this all. Did Wade show any remorse for his relationship with Fani Willis, which it potentially could derail the case against Trump? It is it seems to me the most consequential inter office relationship since President Clinton was in office. COLLINS: Yes, it's obviously, you know, that instance where you're asking -- I asked him, you know, do you have any regrets about this? How are you reflecting on this now that it's been three months since he was forced to resign by the judge, where the judge said, either Fani Willis and the whole team has to go or Nathan Wade has to go and he resigned, obviously, as we saw in the letter that day. And what he said in that letter that day, Jake, was that he didn't want to be a distraction. He wanted for democracy this case to move forward. But of course, because of this, the case is not moving forward. However, he told me he doesn't believe that his actions, his relationship with the district attorney played any role in this even though that is exactly what the Court of Appeals is going to be hearing in the motion to get Fani Willis off the case. And also Jake, I asked him at the end, does he regret having a relationship with Fani Willis? Was it a mistake to have a relationship with the district attorney? He said no, it was not, Jake. The only thing he regrets is the timing of it. But of course the timing is central to all of this. TAPPER: OK. Kaitlan Collins, good interview. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. COLLINS: Thanks, Jake. TAPPER: Don't forget, you can watch Kaitlan tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on her show, "The Source." The IVF legislation blocked just hours ago by Senate Republicans and just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision. And OB-GYN is with me next with the impact of these issues on her patients. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) …