Transcripts For CNNW Inside 20240703

Today on Inside Politics a moment memorialized for all of history. For the very first time, Television Cameras capture the former president of the United States sitting stoic inside a croom. Lets be clear, his entrance was a madefortv setup, all about his campaign. Beyond trumps stage craft, the trial poses a very real threat to his business empire. Will he get by with help from new friends . The speaker readies for a revolt that will try to take the gavel, staying in his job may depend on democrats. Governor gavin newsom honors a promise to elect a black woman to fill the seat vacant by dianne feinstein. Barbara lee will join me in minutes. Im dana bash, behind the headlines and Inside Politics. Up first, the former president flanked by his lawyers captured sitting behind the Defense Table in a New York City cr courtroom. That glimpse will be the only one we get of donald trump. The judge overseeing His Civil Fraud Trial decided to keep the media from broadcasting Opening Arguments live. The trial is about money, power and yes, of course, politics. Before the trial began, the choreography made that very last part really clear. The former president s entraj son eric, senior advisors, striding into court as if this was a campaign event. They were followed by the former president who stopped and talked and talked and talked, delaying the start of his trial by nine minutes. His rant was typical and remarkable for venom aimed at the new York Attorney general. This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time. We have a rogue judge who ruled that properties are worth a tiny fraction 0. 01 of what they are. We have a racist Attorney General who is a horror show who ran on the basis that she was going to get trump before she even knew anything about me. She used this to run for governor. She failed in her attempt to run for governor. She has virtually she said ill go back and get trump again and this is what we have. Its a scam, a sham. Cnn is live outside the court. What is happening at this hour . Yeah. Dana, theyre wrapping up a tenminute break at the moment. We understand that former president has now just walked right back into the courtroom so we expect the proceedings to continue. Again, as he did when he first went into the courtroom, he did not acknowledge Letitia James as you showed your viewers a sound of what he was saying about her, but didnt acknowledge her when he walked past her and seated next to his attorneys. Before this we heard Opening Statements from his attorneys, the defense, and then also from the states attorney. Let me get into what has been discussed. As far as the states attorneys, essentially they have said that trump and his family and the Trump Organization falsified Business Records for several years trying to gain interest, better interest rates, trying to get loans, and they did this knowingly. They showed a number of Deposition Videos from trump, former president , son, former members of the Trump Organization giving the deflection of who was in charge of signing off on all these Business Records and wrapped up his moment which lasted about a little less than an hour saying asking the judge to bar trump and his sons from ever doing business in the state of new york. Now as far as the defense is concerned, we know that trump has been talking with his attorneys as he was seated there, weighing in. On the defense side, essentially he has been saying that trump did everything by the book, that he complied with all regulatory requirements and that even bringing someone in from the stearns new York Business Business School to explain how he came up to evaluations of properties to explain again it was all by the book. We know that trump is eager according to his people to testify in this trial, and he is listed as a witness on both the states side and as the defense. We dont expect him to take the stand today, but its possible we could see that happen next week. This is right now laying out exactly how this trial is going to look, which could last, again, for about three months were hearing from the judge. Its unclear how long exactly it will last but thats how long its on the books. It all comes after a big ruling last week from that judge who decided that elements of parts of this trial he did, the trump and his family, were liable and they are going to owe money and business certifications were stripped from them. You laid out what trump said. I want you to hear what the Attorney General said before she walked into court. Good morning, everyone. Donald trump and the defendants have committed persistent and repeated fraud. Last week we proved that in our motion for Summary Judgment. Today we prove our other claims. Our message is simple, no matter how powerful you are, how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law. It is my responsibility and my duty in this job to enforce it. Both powerful and fragile, and today in court, well prove our case. I thank you all for being here. And again, justice will prevail. Thank you. Reporter shes making those statements, things weve heard her say and shes coming off the win, which the judge decided last week in her favor. The judge will be deciding everything in this case. This is not a jury trial. This is a bench trial. Of course as you said, this is a civil, not a criminal trial. Thank you so much for your reporting. Here with me to talk about it are some legal and political insights. Cnns cordero, defense attorney joey jackson and cnn kristen holmes. Want to start with you, kerry, talking about whats at stake. Were talking about properties, trump properties, like the trump tower, Trump International hotel, central park, the westchester golf club, 40 wall street, and i just want to look at the claims were discussing part of this, persistent and repeated fraud, conspiracy to falsify Business Records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to falsify financial statements, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Yeah. I think what this case is really about in this stage of the case is about is the Trump Organizations ability to continue to do business in the state of new york. The judge already issued the decision last week that pertained to some of the charges that found that they did engage in fraud already and so now there are some of the remaining allegations that the state Attorney General is making and there is the issue of liabilities and damages and how much they will need to pay and whether theyll be able to continue to retain their entities and do business in new york. And joey jackson, you are very familiar with the court system in new york, particularly New York City. What do you make of this coming up now and also the fact that somebody who observed donald trump in new york, even before he was on the political stage that notion of him inflating his worth was not like a big secret. This is now making a giving him a financial penalty . Sure. Its exactly that. This is a place for the new York State Attorney general to be clear. Not only prosecutes criminal cases, which this is not to be clear, as you noted, but also has a duty to the consumers with regard to unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business practices, and so what weve seen is a threeyear investigation by the state Attorney General and with respect to that investigation, the unearthing of significant fraud, fraud to the tune of valuations over 2 billion annually and to the extent that that assisted him the getting loans for better rates and conducting other business activities, and so based upon the new york state law, the Attorney General decided to move forward here and, of course, got whats called a Summary Judgment motion last week. What that means is that the judge concluded there is north a dispute in terms of material facts relating to many of the counts of fraud and with respect to those counts, you move on to the issue of damages, what now are the consequences for doing that. Just to be clear, as a civil case, mr. Trump is not required to be in court. He, of course, has the right to. It affects his monetary interest. He is, but the reality is, that theres place for this. The judge, and again hes made certain claims, mr. Trump has, with respect to this being unfair, et cetera, the judge in the 30some odd page ruling was specific and clear to the nature of fraud and took the attorneys to task in terms of the issues about, you know, look, you guys are making arguments, and im sanctioning you for that. Here we are to decide the other cases relating to fraud as well as the damages that flow from will there be an independent receiver, the role of that in terms of dissolution, the penalty look like with regard to the fees and whether or not all of The Business Certificates will be canceled. The consequences here are very significant. Very significant indeed. You mentioned, joey, kristen, im going to take this to you, that the former president didnt have to be there. This is his lifes work, his business, so its understandable that someone would want to be in a courtroom. It is also not a price. The former president is using this image, weve never seen an image like this before, it was brief because they didnt want cameras to stay in the courtroom, but that image to be a spectacle, a very trumpesque spectacle he is trying to use to his advantage. Already fundraising off of the fact that he is in this courtroom, kristen. Yeah. Dana, it appears they are treating this trial as though it is a campaign event. Remember, trump and his team are very good at manipulating the optics and they want good visuals, they want the Media Coverage on them no matter what coverage is. I have been asking them, how are you going to navigate a president ial campaign alongside these multiple looming trials, and the answer continued to be we dont know yet. Were working it out. Shorter days and rallies at night. It appears they have at least figured out one part of that which is turning these trials, in this case, into a campaign event. A Senior Adviser to trump told me as much, conceded that is what they had done in this case. They knew where the cameras were in that room. He knew to go. He knew to pause before he spoke so that the cameras were rolling, they were that he gave them time to take him, they were going to take him on news. He is aware of how to do this and take control of the narrative. And this is how theyre going to do it. I do want to note one thing here, yes, that can be true and it is true, based on the advisors and allies ive talked to thats what theyre doing here. The other part, this case is central to Donald Trumps brand and identity, not just as a human being, but as a politician. If you go back to 2016, one of the arguments that got him into the white house was this idea that i am a rich businessman. Because i am a rich businessman i can actually make these deals on your behalf. Deals that make me rich will make you rich. Look how i run this business so successfully, now i can run the country successfully. I hear voters talking about that. It does go to the very identity of the man who was elected in 2016. Im glad you mentioned that. Lets play some of the arguments that donald trump has made on the Campaign Trail about why voters should support him because he knows how to make a lot of money. Heres the good news. Im very rich. I have an unbelievable company. The money youre talking about is peanuts for me. All my life i made money. I made money. Ive always been good at making money. Number one best sellers. One of the bestselling books of all time. Ive been successful wait a minute ive been successful in every business ive been in. Real estate. I have made billions of dollars in business making deals. Im my own donor essentially. I have a lot of money in this deal. Hes definitely not his own donor right now, raising money as we speak as i mentioned. Kerry, look, he did make money. I mean, he has a giant plane, and he has made money. The question has been, about whether he has inflated that and its, again, what the trial is about, it isnt just a political question about whether he is speaking in hyperbole which everybody will say duh, hes donald trump, thats baked in politically, this is whether or not it costs taxpayers money and costs Insurance Companies and maybe not investors but Insurance Companies money. Right. Whats different about this particular trial as compared to his ability to make public statements or be on the Campaign Trail or some of the other cases that he may face that could have juries, this is a judge trial and this judge is presiding over who has already considered the prior cases and in the judges opinion last week, the judge indicated that he is not amenable to rhetoric and inflating ideas and things that are not true. He said, in fact, in his last opinion, he said that the defenses arguments, the trump teams arguments, quote, showed a continued reliance on bogus arguments and papers and oral arguments. And then he went on to accuse the Trump Defense team of living in, quote, A Fantasy World not the real world. So that is, i think, the fact that this is in front of this judge only and that is the trier of fact is going to be different for the former president. Very, very different. Thank you so much for explaining that. Joey and kristen, thank you. Congressional democrats weigh mccarthys fate as republican hardliners revolt against him and this blunt statement from the former speaker of the house, she was appearing with jake tapper on state of the union. Listen to this. Youre wasting your time on that guy because he has no sway in the house of representatives. Except to get on tv and to raise money on the internet. To take Speaker Mccarthys lunch money in every negotiation. The speaker of the house has responded to these reports of a secret side deal on money for Ukraine Opaquely stating that he still wants to fund ukraine and our border. I have a few replies to this. First, the speakers statement confirms the existence of a secret deal. And i have talked to members of our own leadership who have said, they didnt even know that Speaker Mccarthy was negotiating a secret side deal outside of our conference, outside of his own leadership team, for the sake of ukraine. Second, ukraine has lost the sip support of a majority of the majority. The last time there was a freestanding vote on ukraine, 117 republicans voted against it. According to the hastert rule, Speaker Mccarthy agreed to in january, you cannot use democrats to roll a majority of the majority certainly on something as consequential as ukraine. So for all the Crocodile Tears about what may happen later this week about a motion to vacate, working with the democrats is a Yellow Brick Road that has been paved by Speaker Mccarthy, whether the debt limit deal, the cr, or now the secret deal on ukraine. Third, this is swampy log rolling. The American People deserve single subject bills. I get that a lot of folks might disagree with my perspectives on the border or ukraine, but can we at least agree no matter how you feel about ukraine or the southern border, that each deserve the dignity of their own consideration and should not be rolled together where they might pass where each individually wouldnt . This is what were trying to get away from. This is the spirit of the january agreement we made with the speaker. No more lark these issues together so that American Peoples interests are subjugated here on the floor of the house. How we should stand up for our border, demand that United States state senate take up our single subject appropriations bill that funded the border, created republican unity. We voted for it. It has the policy demands that the continuing resolution that Speaker Mccarthy advocated for on this floor did not. Our Dhs Funding Bill requires he verify and then hours later after we passed that, the speaker wanted us to vote for a continuing resolution. Retreat is never a strategy to win anything. So mr. Speaker just tell us, just tell us. What was in the secret ukraine side deal. What commitments were made to President Biden to continue the spending of President Biden in exchange for doing things for President Biden . It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the house already works for. Its not the republican conference. Mr. Speaker, i would ask that these questions be answered soon because there may be other votes coming together or later this week that could be implicated by the answers to these questions. Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with joe biden on ukraine. Ill be listening. Stay tuned. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personality were listening to matt gaetz the republican congressman of florida. A lot of threats there against the House Speaker and the accusations, but manu raju, as i bring you in, he didnt do the deed. He did not make the motion to vacate. Talk about that and i know he that you also spoke with Kevin Mccarthy this morning and got a response to the accusations about the side deal with democrats about ukraine. Yeah. That is what were expecting, matt gaetz to issue this, actually file this motion to vacate, which would be a historic move if he were successful. Never before in the history of this country has something been successfully executed. Not doing that at the moment because he contends there are questions that the speaker has to answer, namely, about a about something that joe biden said yesterday that there may have been a deal that was reached with the speaker to put ukraine Funding Package on the floor of the house. That was left out of the recent funding bill to keep the government open until midnovember. When asked about this earlier today, mccarthy did not say that there was a deal. In fact, he said he said that president , in his view, didnt actually assert they had some sort of deal and went on to say that ukraine aid is important and talked about border security, not answering directly the level of discussions that they had on this. Well see if we get any more clarity from the speakership. Gaetz is maintaining that he is still planning to move ahead, although he suggested there perhaps some of the answers to the questions could change his approach in some way. Now, if it gaetz does move ahead, all he would need are five republicans to side with him if all democrats agree to boot him out. That is still the key question. What Will Democrats do . What will Speaker Mccarthy do . Will he rely on democrats to save him . Dana, were expecting matt gaetz right now coming down the steps, and well talk to him in a minute about what he plans to do here. But the speaker earlier today would not say whether or not he would rely on democratic votes to save his job. Simply saying this is about the institution, we need to worry about the institution. Well wait for gaetz here. Ill step aside here and see what he has to say about his plans now. Mr. Gaetz, mr. Gaetz. Could you mr. Gaetz. Mr. Gaetz. Why didnt you go forward right now and are you backing off of your plans to push him out of the speakership . No one is in town. Its monday on a fly in day at noon. Well have more folks later today. Speaker mccarthy said he will survive this. Should he be that confident . Hes probably right. As i said this past weekend, Kevin Mccarthys True Coalition Partner on all things of substance has been the democrats. He worked with democrats on the Debt Limit Bill and only democrats are really campaigning on that bill. Republicans arent campaigning on the Debt Limit Bill. That was a Democrat Bill passed with mostly democrat votes. We get to the appropriations process and Speaker Mccarthy purposely delayed us. He tried to back us up against shut down politics, tried to not pass single subject spending bills. At the end of the day he had to utilize democrats to pass a continuing resolution. If Kevin Mccarthy works for democrats and utilizing democrats in order to keep power, that would be consistent with everything weve seen from him. If you lose [ inaudible ]. For some people, Policy Failures are recast as personal because their own failures are personally embarrassing to them. This isnt personal. I can cite to you the specific elements of house rules that have been violated. Kevin mccarthy agreed to a rule that we would have 72 hours to read legislation. He blew past that. Kevin mccarthy agreed to a rule that we would not put anything over 100 million on the Suspension Agenda so it couldnt be amend. He blew past that. Kevin mccarthy agreed to the hastert rule. You would never use the democrats to roll a majority of the majority. On the last ukraine supplemental, 101 republicans voted for it, 117 republicans voted against it. So this doesnt does this sound personal to you . Im pointing to specific things that kevin agreed to that he hasnt complied with. Hes trying to subjugate his real and significant breaches of our agreement as some sort of personal dispute. Thats more about him than it says about what were trying to do to change washington. If you lose this vote do you believe share your sentiment, House Republicans or overall . Tens of millions of americans share my sentiment. If you look at, you know, Newt Gingrich and mark levine trying to attack me on line, it is an avalanche of criticism from their own supporters and own followers and listeners where those folks are standing with me, not some of these folks with mccarthy. Can you get more than five or six republicans to sign on to this. Well see. Well see where the votes lie. If you lose this vote, will you continue to do this and are you worried about throwing this institution into chaos, perilizing an institution your party runs . What perlizes us, what i think throws this institution into chaos, marching us toward the dollar not being the global Reserve Currency anymore. Talk about chaos as if its me forcing a few votes and filing a few motions. Real chaos, is when the American People have to go through the austerity that is coming if we continue to have 2 trillion annual deficits. You dont know chaos until youve seen where this congress and this party is bringing us. Chaos is not forcing a vote. Who would you want to see as speaker . We have a lot of talented people in our conference. Theres probably 100 republicans in congress i would vote for for speaker and maybe 100 republicans throughout the country i will vote for. The speaker doesnt have to be excuse me. Im finishing answering your question. If you interrupt it the other people cant use my own. They dont want to put you on because youre not a reporter for their network. We have a lot of folks in congress i think would be capable to serve as speaker. We need to rebuild trust. I think we need someone who can connect the most conservative features of our conference to the most moderate features of our conference. I understand that. Im not running for speaker. I understand that it might not be someone who agrees with me on every position, but it is awkward to talk about names until we understand how mr. Scalise comes out of his treatment for blood cancer. I am not the type of person that just says you blow by somebody because theyre getting a medical treatment. Just to follow up go ahead. You didnt lose this resolution today. Some are saying youre going to string this along for a few days. Tell us par he men tarry. Are you going to draw this at 2 00. Wednesday, thursday. Explain the timing. Im going to be doing it this week. President trump talked to you about this if this does fail will you bring it up again . Yeah. How often . Every day. This would, you know, do you think that you could win this vote eventually and keep doing it until you think you have the votes . It took Speaker Mccarthy 15 votes to become the speaker, so until i get to 14 or 15, i dont think im being any more dilatory than he was. Some of your colleagues say they want to change the motion to vacate rule after you bring it forward saying that one person shouldnt be allowed to do this. That was an agreement that you came to in january. What do you say to those colleagues who want to change the motion to vacate . These are gop colleagues . Certainliy within the prerogative of my colleagues. That would be subject to a vote on the house floor. Theres a procedure and process to do that. The rules arent written in stone. Well see how that goes. Have you spoken to President Trump about this . I have. And what was his advice . I think im going to keep that between the two of us. Have you talked to Speaker Mccarthy . Why are you waiting . Oh. Excellent catch. A very interesting, Very Colorful Impromptu Press Conference from matt gaetz, the republican of florida, who just went on the house floor and did not yet make the motion to vacate. He just said because for procedural reasons he couldnt do it, but he will very much do it later this week. Manu raju was there. Thank your Photo Journalist that was excellent work as you were talking, capturing all of that. Mr. Eddie. Of course it was. Thank you, eddie. A lot to unpack there. But that last question that you asked him, about donald trump, whether he has spoke tonight former president , and he said yes, theres a lot of drama there, particularly since its, quote, unquote, kevin, Kevin Mccarthy, who matt gaetz is trying to toss out of the speaker chair. Yeah. Look, remember, what Kevin Mccarthy, the first thing he said after winning the speakership after 15 bells, he walked out of the house floor, walked into the hall and said i thank President Trump for helping me win the speakership. He credited President Trump with winning the speakership. What is trump saying to gaetz behind the scenes . The fact that they talked is interesting given that gaetz is still moving ahead. We know that things have been a little frosty, at least from trumps side of some of the comments that mccarthy made recently about trumps strength as a candidate. Mccarthy has not endorsed him for the presidency, but mccarthy very much has aligned himself with trump knowing full well the power that the former president has with many members of his of the gop conference. Thats going to be interesting to see how that plays out. But also, making clear, dana, he still plans to move ahead. As you heard there, he could move ahead repeatedly and lose the first vote, procedural vote or on the merits to kick mccarthy out. He claims hes going to do it over and over again until he gets his way. Can mccarthy keep a coalition together to fend this off . Weve never seen this before in the history of the country successfully pull off ousting the sitting speaker. Mccarthy is ready to grit it out. Does he have the votes . How many republicans will side with matt gaetz . Will democrats at the end of the day help him . All major questions of this chaotic moment untolds. You heard matt gaetz says hes not concerned about the chaos. He says its not him, lets the leadership creating the day os. Matt gaetz is not concerned about the chaos. Thank you so much for that great reporting. Thanks to eddie. I want to bring in my panel who is this is an amazing panel to talk about whats going on on capitol hill. They know it very well. Jackie kucinich from the boston globe karls from the New York Times Rhonda Colvin and Lee Ann Caldwell from the washington post. Carl, since you taught me how to cover capitol hill, sorry New York Times, what do you make of it . What a moment that was. One person creating such a disruption, but i will say this about matt gaetz, he has proven so far that he knows where the votes are. He talked repeatedly he could have the votes to block the spending deal, and some people doubted him. But he did have it. I think he knows he has enough republicans with him to pull this off. He was also saying, later this week, later this week, maybe hes trying to drag out the drama. Its going to be the trump thing is interesting. The former president said on his Social Network shut it all down if you dont get everything they want. They didnt get everything they want. They didnt get much of what they wanted. So, you know, its all about the democrats at this point, what are they going to do. Yet, when mccarthy was on Face The Nation this weekend he made a point, saying former President Trump is going win the primary and probably going to be the next president and just being effusive and theres always a reason and that little that question by manu at the end seems to be why. You know, lets not he used to be my kevin, but matt gaetz and it wouldnt be its my man. More like hes trying to make it their kevin and i dont and if trump decides that thats the case, hell turn his back on him. While we were watching this, you were talking about a reality check, which is in those statements, matt gaetz was saying, he should be kicked out of the speakers chair because he made a secret deal with the democrats on ukraine funding. But lets just say that didnt happen and the government shut down. He would still be trying to kick Kevin Mccarthy out of the speakers chair. Absolutely. My when we all thought the government was going to shut down, my reporting last week was that matt gaetz was going to do a motion to vacate this week because the government shut down. Matt gaetz, of course, was a person who was blocking and opposing these shortterm funding bills. Now the government is open and because of democrats and now thats matt gaetzs reason. It was also interesting that matt gaetz focused on the ukraine component in this backhanded deal, apparent deal, that he has with the president over it because matt gaetz also said there were nearly 120 republicans who voted against ukraine aid on the house floor and so he is trying to bring those people and widen his support to oppose mccarthy. Oh, my gosh. Thats so clever and so true. Lets just sort of fast forward a little bit to later this week as matt gaetz said whenever this vote happens. Probably not get too in the weeds but you have to learn this when this happens, there will be a motion to table, meaning a motion, check me on this, am i right, a motion to table, a motion to do away with this idea of vacating the chair or sort of killing Kevin Mccarthy from his job. And then if depending on how that goes, there will be a motion to get rid of Kevin Mccarthy. The question on both of those, the first vote in particularly, is what will the democrats do . Exactly. Lets listen to what alexandria ocasiocortez told jake tapper about that. My vote beginning this term for speaker of the house was for hakeem jeffries, and i do not intend on voting for a republican speaker of the house, but i believe that its up to the republican conference to determine their own leadership and deal with their own problems. But its not up to democrats to save republicans. So you from themselves, especially. But she also said, you know, i do have a vote and its not free. Other democrats have said that too. Translation, sure, i can support Kevin Mccarthy if he makes a deal with us that we like. Exactly. So to get the speakership, Kevin Mccarthy had to make concessions with his party. Were looking at what the democrats are going to be asking of him. Thats the biggest question of the week. How will they navigate this . This is a big deal for them. Covering the hill for the last few months of this congressional term, you usually hear from democrats that theyre the party of unity, they have used that as their mantra the whole time. This week were going to see are they going to be unified and coalesce around something that will, you know, help Kevin Mccarthy out. Theyre not going to help him out for just anything or out of the kindness of their hearts. They are thinking about ways to make this beneficial for them. What nancy pelosi said about this, which is that democrats should follow their leader, was her way of saying, they need to Stay Together on this. Well see if they do. I want to take a step back for a second. As we were listening to matt gaetz, and he said over and over that mccarthy was with the democrats on their Yellow Brick Road and the worst thing that hes done is work with democrats. I know this is pollyanna, and i know this is not the world were in, but isnt this what america wants . Maybe not the base. Maybe not the bases. Bases. But when you talk to people who roll their eyes at washington its because cant they just get along and Work Together . This continuing resolution doing that bipartisan way was out of desperation, but its not unheard of that there is bipartisanship in order to get out of a crisis or, got forbid, get legislation passed. It has to be bipartisan right now because the democrats control the senate and the white house, so its the republicans control a half of a third of the three chambers. But in republican circles in particular, they want what they want. I think they do over estimate their leverage, but if you look at the Appropriations Bills that theyve been pushing, theres no way they can pass with democrats. The two things that happen this year that had to happen so far, increasing or suspending the debt limit and getting a cr happened with more democratic votes in the house than republicans. Very telling. Thats one of Democrats Ask is a Coalition Type of government. Everybody, thank you so much. What a roller coaster. And were just here now. Were about go back up here. California governor gavin newsom announced he appointed somebody to replace the late dianne feinstein. This person is not barbara lee who was already a candidate for senate and someone the congressional black caucus, among others, were pushing for. Congresswoman lee will join me after a quick break. To duckduckgo on all your Devie Duckduckgo comes with a builtn engine like google, but its pi and doesnt spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. And theres no catch. Its fre. We make money from ads, but they dont follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. Newsom announced his pick to finish out the late senator Dianne Feinsteins term. Laphonza butler will become the sole black female senator serving in congress. Joining me to talk about this is congresswoman barbara lee who has been running for that seat since senator feinstein announced she would not seek reelection. Thank you for joining me. I want to give a backdrop to our viewers of some of the things that have been going on here. Before senator feinstein passed away Governor Newsom said if he needed to fill her seat he would make an interim appointment wouldnt be you or any candidates running in upp2024 ba black woman. The idea a black woman should only be a care taker to checking a box is insulting. What i said stands. If under that hypothetical situation i am asked to make an appointment, i will make an appointment of an African American woman, period full stop, why, because i think the best person should be there, and i happen to think that representation matters. So with all that as a backdrop, what is your take on Governor Newsom picking Laphonza Butler . Thank you for having me. First, let me just take a moment to off mire condolences to senator feinsteins family, friends, our great state of california. Because this is a moment, really of sadness of grieving, but also celebrating her life. We all have memories of senator feinstein. I want to mention one to put this in context. You know, right after the authorization to use Military Force against afghanistan in 2001 was passed, of course, i was the only one who voted no in the house and senate, and, you know, senator feinstein disagreed with my vote but she was an artist, and she knew i loved orchids and painted an orchid for me which i still have hanging in my place here and she signed it for me and dated it in 2001. And that just showed you the kindness and her spirit and yes, she was a great leader, very forceful, very smart, very visionary, paved the way for so many of us, but yet she was a very kind person and when she had disagreements with you, she would also understand the disagreements and didnt consider it a personal disagreement but also gave was very gracious with myself in terms of her understanding and knew what i was going through then. It was awful in terms of the death threats. I just have to take a moment to remember her today again and in mourning and in grieving for her loss. With regard to laphonza, i wish her well and look forward to working with her to deliver for our golden state. Im very focused on winning this election, though. Let me tell you, we have put together a great grassroots organization. People under estimate what we have going on for us in my campaign. Our revolution has endorsed me. Theyre the organization that ensured that Bernie Sanders won the primary in california, working family party. I have the endorsements of six out of the eight constitutional officers, local mayors, assembly mayors. Were focused very clearly on winning this race. Congresswoman, you said that a black woman shouldnt be a caretaker. We are learning that apparently there was no such deal, that Laphonza Butler should not just be a caretaker, meaning if she wants, to she is free to run for that seat against you. Did governor gavin newsom do the right thing here . We have been pushing from day one that any African American woman who he appointed should have the right and opportunity to run. And so we were glad that he made that decision to open that up and to back off of the restriction that was placed. If that restriction no longer is there, are you disappointed that you werent appointed to the seat . Listen, i am running very hard to win this race. Of course, it would have been great if i because i did want to fill the vacancy, if, in fact, that occurred, but listen, we all have to just focus on what were doing, and im running very seriously and we have this coalition, multiracial, multigenerational coalition, genz for change, you name it, and our campaign is powered by people and the voters are going to decide who will win this race, and im going to make sure that voters vote for barbara lee for the United States senate. Have you spoken to Governor Newsom . No, i havent. Any regrets about your public criticism or do you think that that got him to the place he is today . No regrets because he said he was not going to appoint anyone who was in that primary. That was very clear from day one. Okay. Before i let you go, im out of time, yes or no, will you vote to keep Kevin Mccarthy in his job . Listen, this is a crisis of the republicans. They have to figure this out themselves. Of course our of course our leadership, our leaders and others are talking about a path forward. But this is something that they have to figure out and something that they created. They are in chaos. We see this. They dont know what were doing and they are not delivering for the people of our great country, they are putting politics over people. Congresswoman lee, thank you for sharing your memories of senator feinstein. Nice being with you. And ahead honoring the legacy of Supreme Court justice and pop culture icon ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ruth Bader Ginsburg put her stamp on u. S. Law and now the u. S. Is putting her on a stamp. The new stamp shows ginsburg wearing her signature white beaded collar. The stamp is being released 30 years after she was nominated to the Supreme Court by former president bill clinton. Thank you so much for joining us on Inside Politics. Cnn news central starts after the break