Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Florida Judge Urges Rhetoric to Ramp Down; Scott Campaign Sees Victory; Democrats Flip Arizona. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 13, 2018 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the supervisor's office. They should report it to a local law enforcement officer.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's get to Brad Todd, a senior adviser to the Rick Scott Senate campaign.

Brad, thank you so much for being with us.

We heard from the judge urging both sides to ramp down the rhetoric. So what change will we see from the Scott campaign today?

BRAD TODD, SENIOR ADVISER TO GOV. RICK SCOTT'S SENATE CAMPAIGN: Well, you know, Governor Scott's position has been clear throughout this process. He wants the laws of Florida to be followed. And he wants to shine a light on the noncompliance with Florida's anti-fraud laws.

You know, John, fraud hides in the shadows of noncompliance. And it -- the only way to make sure we don't have --

BERMAN: But, Brad, you keep using the word fraud here. You keep using the word fraud here. And, again, that judge made clear yesterday, and the secretary of state's office made clear the other day, there has been no evidence of fraud committed.

TODD: Well, hold on just a second. Brenda Snipes, the supervise of elections in Broward County, has admitted that she comingled invalid ballots with valid ballots and counted them anyway. And the now lawyers for Bill Nelson, Marc Elias, are currently in court trying to commit fraud in open public. They're trying to invalidate laws that have kept out invalidate votes. Those laws in Florida are very clear to prevent fraud. Each county canvasing board has to evaluate absentee ballots as they come in. And the Nelson campaign wants to count even votes that have already been deemed invalid by judges.

BERMAN: The Nelson campaign also, I think, wants to wait until the overseas ballots come in. And, you know, that deadline has not been reached, even though the president of the United States wants only votes that came in by Election Day to be counted.

Do you stand by the president's call to only have votes by Election Day be counted?

TODD: Hold on, you're mischaracterizing the Nelson campaign's position. The Nelson campaign's position is that Florida law -- our election law should be tossed out the window. Florida law says that overseas --

BERMAN: But, Brad -- but, Brad, I was talking about -- I was talking about the president's statement, who also -- who also, I think, wants to toss out election laws, who says that only votes there by election day are counted.

TODD: Hold on. No, no, you started out -- John. No, John -- no. Governor Scott -- Governor Scott's -- Governor Scott's position --

BERMAN: When you know the law -- hang on, hang on, hang on, Brad. The law does allow -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- the law does allow for overseas and military ballots to come in until the 16th, correct?

TODD: Yes, it is. And Governor Scott has said that Florida's election laws should be followed. In Florida, you do count ballots that come in, as long as they have been received by Election Day. And you have to announce the total of those ballots that you have to count with the exception of the military ballots. In Broward County what we've seen is --

BERMAN: Which can be counted until -- which can be counted until the 16th. They don't have to be in by Election Day, they have to be postmarked by Election Day, correct?

TODD: Overseas ballots. That's correct with overseas ballots.

BERMAN: OK.

TODD: But Bill Nelson's campaign is seeking more than that. Bill Nelson's campaign is seeking to throw out Florida's anti-fraud laws. They want to count votes that were mailed from Florida after the deadline and received in Florida after the deadline from domestic sources. Nelson's campaign's position is that we should ignore Florida's election laws.

BERMAN: All right.

TODD: That's their stated position in court in multiple lawsuits. Rick Scott's position is that we should follow election laws.

BERMAN: OK, Brad, and I do hear what you're saying here, and you do keep on using the word fraud, even though, I just want to state this, the secretary of state's office has said clearly they have seen no evidence of it. And that judge, that we just heard from, I'm just stating this as a fact because we did hear it, said he has seen no evidence of it yet either.

So, Brad, let me ask you this, because I'm an avid watcher of "Cuomo Prime Time." And you were on last night. And Chris doesn't throw many softballs. He asked what I considered to be a huge softball, where he asked you outright if, after the recount, somehow, and I know it's unlikely, but somehow Bill Nelson were to prevail, would Rick Scott, who is the governor right now, certify that election? And you wouldn't say yes. So you had a night to think about it. So is the answer this morning yes? TODD: Well, John, I'm also not going to answer whether Rick Scott's

going to win the Heisman Trophy, because he's not. But he is going to be the senator from Florida. He's won the election. The machine recount on Thursday at 3:00 is going to say that he has won the election. And the question is, will Bill Nelson accept that outcome?

You know, Bill Nelson's been in office since I was two years old. The question is, does he want to have that long of a lifetime of service to Florida to be unwritten and for his only legacy to be the guy who was a sore loser and wouldn't go away when voters rejected him.

BERMAN: I don't presume to know Bill Nelson's thinking, but you could also look at that and say, if he is going to leave public life, does he want to do it before all the legal procedures as mandated by Florida law, does he want to do it before they're all carried out? And I just want to give you one more chance because, again, I consider this to be the softball of all softballs. If the law is carried out in Florida and this recount takes place and somehow -- and perhaps it is unlikely -- Bill Nelson ends up with more votes, you are telling me right now you won't guarantee that Rick Scott will certify that election?

TODD: I'm going to guarantee you Rick Scott will insist that Florida election law is followed. That's been his position all along. He's won this election. He's won it fair and square. The only way that the Democrats could possibly see anyone besides Rick Scott would be an insurmountable theft in the courts.

Now, just -- let's talk about that word unsurmountable. Bill Nelson's own lawyer, Marc Elias, has called smaller leads than this insurmountable. He said that those people who trail by that many votes should graciously concede.

[08:35:01] Now, the question is, at 3:00 on Thursday, when this machine recount is completed and Bill Nelson is still going to trail by many thousands of votes, will he graciously concede?

BERMAN: So -- so --

TODD: That's the question we have to ask ourselves.

BERMAN: The thing that is also interesting to a lot of people is, if you believe the math is what it is, if you are so certain that the outcome will be what it is, why have you all been so caustic? Why not just wait for it to come out the way you are so certain it does? It makes people think you have an ulterior motive. That there's something else besides concern about the election outcome.

TODD: You know what, I think there may be an anterior motive here at play. And I -- let's ask that, John. You know, Bill Nelson's not going to overcome this deficit. So why are the Democrats so furiously suing over every possible plank in the Florida elections code?

BERMAN: Because it's the law. The law says the recount needs to take place. TODD: You know -- you know what -- no, John, you know what, plenty of

-- plenty of candidates have conceded with margins less than this. I think that Bill Nelson and the Democrats are suing to throw out Florida's election law because they think they need to get rid of the election laws to elect president -- defeat President Trump in 2020.

BERMAN: It's just surprising to me that given --

TODD: I think this is all about 2020.

BERMAN: Given your commitment to the math being what it is, that you're also being still so political about your arguments here. Why not just wait?

TODD: I'm not being political. I'm being legalistic. The laws should be followed. Brenda Snipes has not followed the laws in Florida. Susan Booker has not followed the law in Florida. The laws should be followed. The ballots that were legally cast and timely received should be counted. And that's it.

BERMAN: And recounted?

TODD: That's the law.

BERMAN: And should there be a recount as legal?

TODD: We're in the middle of a machine recount right now. It's going to show Rick --

BERMAN: Do you applaud the following of the law here by doing what is legally mandated and engaging in this recount?

TODD: We are in a machine recount right now. The Scott campaign is completely cooperating with that machine recount according to the laws of Florida. We will continue to cooperate with a recount according to the laws of Florida. That's our position. It will continue to be our position. The only campaign that's trying to throw out the laws of Florida and not following the laws of Florida is the Nelson campaign. They're in open court trying to get rid of the very regulations that Nelson's own lawyers sought two years ago that passed unanimously by a bipartisan vote in the Florida legislature.

BERMAN: All right, Brad, I have a feeling we'll have a chance to talk to you again over the next few days --

TODD: All right.

BERMAN: Because your position does not seem to have changed despite the judge's ruling. We do appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

TODD: Thanks a lot, John. All right.

BERMAN: Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: More fallout from a crash of a Lion Air flight that killed everyone in board. Did Boeing actually keep pilots in the dark about a new flight control system?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:27] HILL: The family of a security guard gunned down by police at a bar in Illinois has fired a federal lawsuit against the police department and the officer who killed him. Jemel Roberson was fatally shot by an officer who was responding to a shooting on Sunday in Robbins. That's just south of Chicago. An attorney for the 26 year old's family says Roberson was holding a man down following a shooting inside the bar where he worked. The Midlothian Police Department has not said why one of its officers opened fire. The Illinois State Police, though, is investigating.

BERMAN: "The Wall Street Journal" reports that Amazon has choose both New York's Long Island City, and Crystal City, Virginia, to split duty as its second headquarters. Amazon's national contest really a taxpayer funded version of the corporate bachelor. This contest was dubbed HQ2. It was launched last September. The e-commerce giant based in Seattle is expected to make an official announcement later today.

HILL: I don't know if that announcement comes with roses or not. Do you have any intel on that?

BERMAN: Several -- several roses.

HILL: Yes, several dozen at this point.

BERMAN: I don't know what they have to do to get it, as we often wonder in "The Bachelor."

HILL: Yes, that's a separate issue.

A report in "The Wall Street Journal" says Boeing withheld crucial safety information about its new model 737 planes. An investigation found Boeing failed to warn the industry about a possible fault in its new flight control system. That feature is suspected to have played a role in a crash in Lion -- of the Lion Air jet in Indonesia last month. That crash, of course, killed all 189 people on board.

BERMAN: Unprecedented security in Brooklyn, New York, this morning for the start of the criminal trial of drug kingpin Juan "El Chapo" Guzman. That includes armed escorts for the jurors. The 61-year-old El Chapo is accused of international drug trafficking, conspiring to murder rivals and money laundering. He faces life in prison if convicted. Guzman allegedly earned nearly $14 billion as head of his drug cartel.

HILL: The Vatican is ordering the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to delay taking action on reforms that would hold clergy accountable for failing to protect children from sexual abuse. Let that sink in for a moment. The group had planned a vote Wednesday on a code of conduct for bishops on sex abuse issues and to establish a lay commission for investigating misconduct.

BERMAN: Stars from the Marvel universe and the rest of the country paying tribute to the man who was Marvel comics, the legendary Stan Lee. He died Monday. Lee created a cast of iconic superheroes, Spiderman, The Hulk, The X Men, countless others. The head of Marvel Studios says that Stan Lee leaves an extraordinary legacy that will outlive us all. Lee was 95. I'm a huge comic book fan. I always have been. And Stan Lee, he made my life better. So I appreciate him and the impact that he had.

HILL: Someone tweeted yesterday, and I wish I could remember who it was. It was some famous person, not John Berman, another one, who said, they say you should never meet your childhood heroes. They were wrong. And he was talking about when he met Stan Lee and just what an incredible man he was.

BERMAN: After the show I'm going to hulk out of this suit. I'm going to, you know, burst out in honor of him.

HILL: He only does that on Tuesdays, just for the record.

Comics taking on the president's trip overseas, along with his thoughts on the Florida recount. Here's a look at your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": The president went on Twitter today to demand they stop the vote while the Republicans are ahead. He said large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere in Florida. And they didn't show up out of nowhere. They're in the mail. I refuse to believe he doesn't know how mail works. It's how he got at least two of his wives, OK?

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Just out in Arizona, signatures don't match, electoral corruption, call for a new election? Sure, how about 2016.

[08:45:00] JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": Now, over the weekend, Donald Trump joined dozens of other world leaders in France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Just to be safe, Trump brought a note from his doctor saying he absolutely couldn't fight.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": Look at the other leaders. Trump's that guy that invites a friend to brunch that nobody else likes. Actually, Putin showed up to the event late. He was like, forgive me, I was overseeing recount in Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You should know, the president is writing up a storm this morning about France and what happened there. So obviously it's still on his mind --

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: And perhaps he was up late last night watching the comics, so he felt like he needed to respond.

HILL: Possible. That is possible.

All right, one week since Election Day. Erica got me this special anniversary one week from election day detox tea gift. There is still more House and Senate seats in play. We're going to get "The Bottom Line," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:00] BERMAN: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has won the race for Senate in Arizona, turning that seat blue for the first time in more than 20 years.

So what will the Senate look like? What will the House look like when this race finally comes to a close some time in the next day, week, month?

Let's get "The Bottom Line" with CNN political director David Chalian.

David, happy anniversary to you. One week officially since Election Day. We're all celebrating in our own way. I know you're going to have a private ceremony later today.

Look, I --

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Don't you miss when elections ended on Election Day? That was -- yes.

BERMAN: Well, I have Frank Rooney (ph) here. We lived the Florida recount together. We're both having relapses, you know, breaking out in a sweat again. So, you know, elections tend to have strange endings.

This one has really had a different, I think, ending, a week later than it did early Tuesday night. And this is one big reason.

CHALIAN: Yes.

BERMAN: This Arizona Senate race provides a whole different lens, I think, to look maybe at the entire election.

CHALIAN: I think that's fair, John. First of all, let's just say, now with Democrats picking up this second pick-up, Republicans overall are going to be limited at most to a net gain of two seats if Rick Scott hangs on in Florida and they keep the seat in Mississippi when that goes to a runoff on November 27th. And, you know, if those elections go another way, it will be less than that. So a max gain of net two pick up for the Republicans in the Senate.

But to your point, I think, about specifically what Arizona represents here. As you noted, this is the first time a Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat since 1988 when DeConcini won re-election back then 30 years ago. This is not just by happenstance. If you recall, there's sort of been a ten-year project in the Democratic Party. Started in many ways by David Plouffe, Barack Obama's campaign manager back then, about turning Arizona red to purple to blue. And it's not just Arizona. Democrats are also eyeing Georgia and

Texas. You saw the Democrats there at the top of the ticket getting very, very close, though, at the moment, coming up short. And so I do think that you are seeing here the impact of what it means for a Republican Party, in the image of Donald Trump, to run in these states where perhaps what used to be reliably red are becoming more competitive for Democrats.

HILL: How will that figure in then for Republicans? I mean we know, as we look at this, this is -- this is great. Democrats love hearing this, right? How does that figure in for Republicans as they move forward? Because there are other states where thing do not look quite so rosy for the Democrats as we know. See, Ohio.

CHALIAN: Yes, that's true. Ohio trended to be a bit more red. And if indeed when the recount is done, Ron DeSantis is on top in Florida, those are two big governorships that the Republicans can certainly be happy to get. But the victories -- the big victories that Republicans had on election night were in mostly deep red territory, like North Dakota, or Indiana or Missouri. Those are states Donald Trump has to rely upon to get re-elected.

If you look in the Midwest, though, Erica, in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, specifically the states that delivered the presidency to Donald Trump, without them he would not have been president, they all elected Democratic governors, Democratic senators got re-elected in those states. That looks like a -- sort of a blue wall that Donald Trump obliterated in 2016 rebuilding itself.

BERMAN: So the House right now stands at 30 flips, a gain of 30 so far for the Democrats. I think we have 10 outstanding races.

CHALIAN: That's right.

BERMAN: And it's a safe bet that Democrats will pick up some, if not many or most of all of those. What's the impact there, David? And what does that mean maybe for Nancy Pelosi?

CHALIAN: Well, that -- that's is probably the most immediate and important impact to Pelosi, which is that if she can pad her majority by getting, as you said, you know, a big chunk of these ten remaining races, that means, as she's trying to count her votes to become speaker, she has a little more wiggle room. So that it is its most immediate impact.

But, John, this also is spelling trouble, or at least warning signs for Donald Trump. I sort of think the election results are a to-do list for him. If they end up winning 37 seats, it is going to be not just where Hillary Clinton won. Their -- a majority of those pickups are in seats Donald Trump won, where he is clearly having problems now with independent voters, with suburbanites, clearly with female voters. The very voters that powered this Democratic majority that has now occurred. And this is his 2020 to do list if he hopes to get re- elected.

BERMAN: And, in fact, just -- we have to let you go. But looking to Arizona one last time, Jeff Flake -- this is Jeff Flake sees that Kyrsten Sinema won. You have to wonder if Jeff Flake, had he run for re-election, if he could have won a general election. He wouldn't have won the primary. Donald Trump, in a way, forced him out, but he may have been a Republican who could have kept that seat. Something to remember and think about going forward.

CHALIAN: Yes.

[08:55:08] BERMAN: David Chalian, great to see you. I'm sure you'll be part of tonight's special week long CNN election coverage. Look forward to that.

CHALIAN: That's right.

HILL: We'll be watching. David, Thanks.

Stay tuned, "The Good Stuff" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Time now for "The Good Stuff." A nurse in Michigan is using her voice to lift the spirits of her patients.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): You light up my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: That is nurse Brenda Buurstra singing to Robert Olson. His daughter, Roberta, never thought her father would make it, and then Nurse Buurstra entered the picture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That, for me, is what nursing is all about. To touch their life. To touch their heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Her voice giving Robert the energy he needed to make it back home to recover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just hope this woman knows what she's done for my dad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's so nice. You know, so many different faces to love. So many different things you can do. And that's so nice.

HILL: Yes, it's great. It's a great story and a good reminder for all of us.

[09:00:01] BERMAN: And you'll sing to me in just a little bit.

Time now for CNN "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto.

Hit it.