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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Parties Go Head-To-Head On Immigration; Gas Prices Under $3 Per Gallon; "Duck Dynasty" To Become Vegas Musical

Aired November 13, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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


JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. The "Politics Lead" now, on Capitol Hill, the shortest and least enjoyable honeymoon since Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley. While some optimistically thought the recent midterm elections would serve as something of a wake-up call leading to cooperation.

It appears that the head butting has already begun even though he was warned by Republican lawmakers that doing so would be like waving a red flag in front of a bull. President Obama is set to announce as early as next week a plan to overhaul U.S. immigration policy using his executive authority.

Joining me now to discuss this potentially ugly confrontation and how it might affect the last two years of Obama's presidency, CNN chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, live from Capitol Hill -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, things are so tense here that the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, told our Ted Barrett that he has asked the president to hold off on an executive order on immigration until, in the words of Reid, the finances of this country are out of the way. Translation, do it too soon and risk a government shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): Fresh from being elected by fellow Republicans as the next senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, lashed out at President Obama for antagonizing the new GOP congress by promising to change immigration laws by executive order.

SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R), INCOMING MAJORITY LEADER: We'd like the president to recognize the reality that he has the government that he has, not the one that he wishes he had.

BASH: Brinkmanship is back even concerns about another government shutdown. McConnell insists that will not happen.

MCCONNELL: We'll not be shutting the government down.

BASH: Still, CNN is told Republicans are engaged in private discussions across the capital to cut off funding in order to block implementation of any presidential executive order allowing some illegal immigrants to stay legally. Arizona Republican Matt Salmon actually agrees with a president on immigration reform but says executive action without Congress --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be a poison pill.

BASH: He got nearly 50 Republican lawmakers to sign this letter urging their GOP leaders to retaliate against the president on immigration by cutting off funding for immigration policies.

(on camera): So you want to use Congress' power of the purse to stop the president or at least take away what he's done on his executive order on immigration?

REPRESENTATIVE MATT SALMN (R), ARIZONA: That's really all we have. Either we can complain mightily or do something about it.

BASH (VOICE-OVER): But GOP sources tell CNN some Republicans are reluctant since the last time they used government funding to stop an Obama policy, Obamacare last year, it led to a governor shutdown.

(on camera): But you know for last year when you used the power of the purse, you risk a government shutdown. Are you willing do that?

SALMON: No one is talking about a government shutdown

BASH: That maybe true, but it's a slippery slope. As for Democrats --

REPRESENTATIVE LUIS GUTIERREZ (D), ILLINOIS: What we want the president to do is to act big, act bold and act broadly and act soon.

BASH: Most support the president going it alone. Fed up that the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill last year and the GOP-led House never acted.

REPRESENTATIVE STENY HOYER (D), MARYLAND: This is about doing what from a humanitarian standpoint and moral standpoint is right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now, that's how many Democrats here on Capitol Hill feel, that many illegal immigrants who came to the United States through no fault of their own, maybe as children, have suffered enough and it's time for the president to use his power to help.

But again, the other issue at play here is that funding for the government, Jake, runs out on December 11th and that is why, again, our Harry Reid told our Ted Barrett that he wants the president to hold off on his executive order until after that because, you know, they don't want to deal with the government shutdown on either side of the aisle.

TAPPER: Dana Bash, thank you so much. Also in politics, House Speaker John Boehner today objected to remarks by Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor and an architect of Obamacare whose comments from past speeches have just recently surfaced online and are getting attention due to his continued suggestions that those pushing Obamacare deceived voters. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN GRUBER, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: In a law that said healthy people are going to pay in, he made it clear that healthy people pay in and sick people get money would not have passed.

Just like the lack of transparency a huge political advantage and basically that was really, really critical to get the thing passed and it's the second best argument. Look, I wish mark was right, we could make it all transparent, but I'd rather have this law than not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said he vigorously disagreed with Gruber and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took it even further. Here she is today asked about Gruber.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: I don't know who he is. He didn't help write our bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Actually, Gruber did help write the bill. He was a paid adviser to the Obama White House. As for Leader Pelosi not knowing who he is -- this is 2009.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: Our bill brings down race. I don't know if you've seen Jonathan Gruber's analysis of the comparison to the status quo versus what will happen in our bill, those seek insurance within the exchange and our bill takes down those calls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Joining me now, CNN senior political commentator and former Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Republican strategist, Ana Navarro. Jay, this is bad.

JAY CARNEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's not good, Jake. It's doesn't help when someone who help write not only Obamacare, the president's Affordable Care Act, but also the precursor to it, which was Governor Romney's health care reform initiative in Massachusetts.

You know, speaks from the Ivory Tower with remarkable humors about the American voter and by extension the American Congress. The fact is that any health care reform that sought to control costs and expand insurance would involve winners and losers.

And that's always going to be the case. That's certainly the case, to speak that way, very harmful politically to the president.

TAPPER: And Obamacare obviously the law of the land although there are a lot of Republicans in Congress who want to overturn it or at least pick out it and there's a pending Supreme Court case. Do you think these remarks will have any impact on what is going on the status quo reality of the bill?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think it helps the bill whatsoever. I do think that it gives Republicans more to be suspicious about. What was that lack of transparency? Did they take advantage of the less than intelligent American people?

I mean, it is astounding to see somebody like Jonathan Gruber speak such an elitist and showing such disdain for the American people. I've never seen something like that. We're not just seeing it once.

He's now been caught on video saying this at least four times. So this wasn't a mistake. It was very purposeful.

TAPPER: Jay, I wonder, I know you're not in the White House anymore, so you're not talking about specifics, but theoretically, when something like this happens, how to game an out in the White House?

Do you dispute talking about should we respond to this, should we not respond to it? Does it have to rise to a certain level? Do we have to distance ourselves? How do you figure that out?

CARNEY: When something like this happens, you basically take a step back and see if it's going to have resonance and continue as a story in this case because there was more than video, more than one instance that confirmed that this was Gruber's view.

I think the White House or I would and it seems to have recognize that it had to respond and I think they are doing what they have to do which is, say, look, forget about what this player in the drawing of the bill has to say about it and his opinion about it.

Here are the facts. Yet it is reducing the rate of health care inflation. There's no question about it. It's at the lowest rate in half a decade.

TAPPER: The weakening economy is probably responsible for most of it.

CARNEY: Well, I understand that that is part of it.

TAPPER: Right.

CARNEY: But we are now five years plus since the recession ended. So I don't think any economic rational economic analysis could suggest that it's only because the recession has ended. That's part of it but there are other factors.

Also it has expanded health care insurance to millions of people. It could expand it more if other states would allow for the Medicaid expansion. So there are things --

NAVARRO: And this doesn't help that issue. There are states making that decision. CARNEY: No, but it still leaves those states to decide whether or not they are going to provide these benefits to their citizens of deprive them of health care insurance and that's a tough political --

NAVARRO: But it emphasizes the narrative, it emphasizes the belief that this was a huge piece of legislation written unilaterally behind closed doors that was ran through with just one party and --

CARNEY: I remember more than a year of debate about the legislation. Also, again, it didn't just appear out of magic. It was drafted originally in Massachusetts by Governor Romney and his team, including Jonathan Gruber.

TAPPER: Let me ask you a question. Republicans are saying that efforts to repeal Obamacare will only come when they have something to replace it, which is seems to be a recognition that you can't just like all of a sudden take millions of people off of health care with no repercussions to your political party.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, Jay's successor says it's the Republicans who are being less than forthright and transparent when it comes to what they are going to do about Obamacare and replace it with.

He has a point. I mean, I realize that's a distraction from the Gruber issue, but he has point. No?

NAVARRO: Yes, I think it's not enough for Republicans to be against Obamacare. If they are going to replace it, they have to tell us with what and show that it's a better option.

I believe Senator Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan are working on a joint piece of legislation, a joint plan to replace Obamacare and fix some of the things in Obamacare that even Democrats agree need fixing.

I think even Democrats agree that it is an imperfect law. You are right. It's hard to take things away from people once they've had it and now people have had Obamacare for over a year.

TAPPER: Jay Carney, Ana Navarro, thank you so much. Great to see you, guys, as always. Wolf Blitzer just popped in. A new beard? What's up with that?

NAVARRO: It's the winter look.

CARNEY: He stole my glasses.

TAPPER: Give us a preview before we run out of time.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, is going to join us. Lots of discussion on the war on ISIS. Has there been some of sort of terror merger going on? What's going on that front?

You know, it's really interesting. Also, all of a sudden the secretary of state, her boss, he shows up in Amman, Jordan. King Abdullah II is there. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, he is in Amman. They do a conference call with the Egyptian president. There's stuff going on. We're going to discuss.

TAPPER: That sounds great. We're going to Capitol Hill where the speaker of the House, John Boehner, is taking questions. We want to let you listen to some of them.

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: -- the constitution. It's not to shut down the government.

We are looking at all options. They are on the table. Our goal here is to stop the president from doing this. Well, you know, every administration needs this and that and all kinds of things. If he wants to go off on his own, there are things that he's just not going to get. Nice to see you all.

TAPPER: All right. House Speaker John Boehner exiting. We're going to take a quick break now. Coming up next, the arctic blast that we've been promising, well, you're now soaking in it. How long it will stick around.

Also, if you've long thought the only thing missing from "Duck Dynasty" are singing and dancing, well, you're in luck. The Robertson family is apparently going to put on a show in Vegas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In our "Money Lead," just how low will it go and how long will it last? You've seen on street corners.

The constant drop in gas prices, a new report says we could see this stick around for a while. Many of you can already fill up for less than $3 a gallon. Right now the national average is just $2.91 a gallon. That's according to the AAA, almost a 30-cent drop in just the last month.

Let's bring in CNN Money correspondent, Cristina Alesci. Cristina, how long could we see this trend last?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: That's an excellent question, Jake, and many customer -- consumers are asking right now, but we can't talk about gasoline without talking about the price of oil. Until now we've seen an oversupply of oil, which is depressing prices.

But the experts that I spoke to today do not see that trend continuing into 2015 and that's because at some point the major producers are not going to find it economically viable to continue drilling and they'll pull back.

In fact, some experts are saying countries like Saudi Arabia will start pulling back on production. Libya, perhaps the conflict there will curtail output there. And perhaps harsher sanctions in Iran may actually increase things. But at the same time, in the short term, when it comes to the prices at the pump, that in the short term will remain the same because it takes time for the price of oil to actually catch up and impact the price at the pump.

TAPPER: With this trend, we're seeing Americans revert back to bigger is better days and buying big SUVs again.

ALESCI: Yes, that's right. Sales of hummers are up. In fact, major automakers are reporting that their SUV sales are up, as you mentioned, particularly Chevy, the traverse, up 24 percent for the month of October, Jeep, up 52 percent, Ford Escape, 12 percent.

Here's the thing, it's not like consumers are buying cars across the board, right. More fuel-efficient car sales are actually dropping. So we see this very acutely in big cars. It's funny that the short- term memory consumers have when it comes to gas prices, that they are going out and doing this.

But it's not just cars. The largest retailer today, Walmart, says they are seeing an increase in sales because consumers are feeling better about their wallet because they are saving money at the pump.

TAPPER: All right. Cristina Alesci with our Money Lead, thank you so much.

Now to our National Lead, a story you can feel. The east coast is now getting that early blast of winter that much of the country has already been feeling for days now.

Let's take you out west if you're away from your television. That's a webcam at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Check out the steam billowing up from the old faithful geyser, pretty cool.

In Pennsylvania today, it's lake effect snow coming off Lake Eire. The snow plows can't work fast enough. As soon as they scrape a path, more snow falls.

And in Colorado, the cold weather broke a record more than a century old. Meteorologist Chad Myers joins us live now from the CNN Severe Weather Center. Chad, the temperatures seemed to the big story for much of the country right now.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Denver last night was 13 below zero, Jake. That beats an over 100-year-old record. The old record for the morning low is minus 4. They beat it by 9 degrees.

Let's just hope that the story we just talked about with natural gas will also go down because the heating bills are going to go up this year if we don't break this pattern and I don't see an end in sight.

Take a look now, in Minneapolis, 24. Over to Denver, up to 11. Wow. You're breaking records there. Not really. The high yesterday was 5. Tomorrow, you get to 30 or so. Chicago, 21.

Tomorrow morning, though, in New York City, 31, same in D.C. all the way down even to Charlotte. If you're out tonight, you're going to see temperatures in the 30s and 40s. Across the northeast, still, almost below zero by tonight.

In Rapid City all the way down into Billings, Montana, and into Nebraska, temperatures are going to be very close to zero for lows tonight. A lot of people in New York have these baskets hanging out on their balconies.

D.C. is same story. You know, that garden basket, well, those temperatures are at 29, 30, 31. It will not be good for those plants out there for sure -- Jake.

TAPPER: Chad, did you just say that you have no idea when this is going to end?

MYERS: Well, there is something called an omega block. It's the new term. It's the new buzz word. It's not the polar vortex. It's not any of that. This is a block in the jet stream that is causing all of this cold air to come down from Alaska.

Now, if you put a road block up, you have to drive around it. The jet stream has to drive around this high and drive all of that cold air into the U.S. No end in sight to that omega block.

TAPPER: That doesn't sound good. Chad Myers, thank you so much.

Coming up next, Vegas does not exactly seem to be the place that a conservative Christian with anti-gay believes would want to be hanging out, but if there is money to be made, the "Duck Dynasty" clan might be game. So will sin city embrace the family's new musical?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. Our Pop Culture now, good news for everyone who thought that the rich tradition of American musical theater didn't have enough scenes of grown men sneaking on golf courses to steal frogs.

The cast of "Duck Dynasty" is working on a musical stage adoption of their hit reality series, "Got A Sing, Got To Dance, Got To Hunt?"

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My idea of happiness is killing things.

TAPPER (voice-over): Have you heard the one about the bearded clan of duck hunters?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amen.

TAPPER: They take their family values to sin city and debut a stage show at the same casino featuring Chippendales. Well, it's not a joke. The Robertson family made famous by "Duck Dynasty" is looking to expand their multimillion dollar empire to the stage.

That's right. This A & E Commercial is about to become reality. "The New York Times" says the producers behind "Jersey Boys" are set to make the Bayou Boys a musical this February -- with the cast of professional singers, of course.

PATRICK HEALY, THEATRE REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": The "Duck Dynasty" family has had a great run on TV for several years, but their ratings are starting to decline so they are looking at other ways to build out their franchise.

TAPPER: Musical theater occasionally embraces such crazy ideas. There was a real life Jerry Springer, the opera, in London's west end even an Octomom musical. But before the curtains even open on the duck commander family musical, questions are being raised about the family's fundamentalists Christian beliefs. The family's patriarch, Phil Robertson says his views about homosexuality come from scripture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are God haters.

TAPPER: Nevertheless, they've caused the family to defend their faith from accusations that they believe in hateful bigotry.

WILLIE ROBERTSON, CEO, DUCK COMMANDER: You're not sure what you're quoting in the scripture, it just pours out and he's very unashamed. But we love everybody. We're not the judge.

HEALY: Evangelical Christians are not always in the casino looking for entertainment.

TAPPER: The real question is can the Robertson succeed at bringing their strict values to a city known for sin in an industry with a strong gay tradition?

HEALY: A lot of Broadway producers and artists are liberal, gay, or both and they have been expressing a lot of surprise that prominent colleagues of theirs on Broadway are getting involved with the show.

TAPPER: It seems producers are willing to give it a shot. After all "Duck Dynasty" has drawn as many as 11 million viewers at a time to A & E and according to Forbes, the merchandise that goes with it brings up to $400 million certainly enough to bet on in Vegas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- Wolf.