GOP Election Fraud in North Carolina?; George H.W. Bush Remembered
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. And we're still chatting with our panel about that moment at the Bush 41 funeral, when the Trumps walked in and the air turned ice cold as he hit the pew. And Paul -- one thing I have seen with a lot of criticism of President Trump on social media and elsewhere, I have seen some conservatives criticizing Hillary Clinton, who nodded at Melania Trump, but did not acknowledge the president of the United States.</s>PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He didn't reach all the way across two or three other people to shake her hand.</s>TAPPER: So it's his fault.</s>BEGALA: Of course. It always is. But so what? You know, our president met the minimal standards of decency. And that's news. OK? I'm more impressed with the Bush family, having worked against George H.W. Bush, helped defeat him. What largess of spirit that they included our president. But they did, because Urban served in the Army, he went to West Point, and he knows, you salute the uniform, not the man or the woman. And the Bush family honored the office of the presidency today by including our president, even though he has said some rather unkind things to George W. Bush, Jeb Bush and even George H.W. Bush. I think that shows a largess of spirit on the part of the Bush family that far overshadows some maybe tiny micro-snub from Donald Trump today.</s>TAPPER: Can I say one thing? I want to show this. Willie Geist tweeted this information. Jon Meacham, the historian, the former journalist who gave a eulogy at the funeral today, a lovely eulogy, it turned out, according to Willie, Meacham read that to George H.W. Bush before obviously he passed away, and H.W. Bush's response was, "That's a lot of me, Jon. That's a lot of me," which is classic H.W. Bush. Whatever you thought of him, whatever you thought of his policies, he was a man who was uncomfortable talking about himself. He didn't go to the ticker tape parade after the first Gulf War. He didn't go to Berlin after the wall fell. And that's one of the things people like about him.</s>KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes. And this funeral was classic George H.W. Bush. It was about tradition, it was about family. And it was about country. And I think that's what he gave us today, and he was very involved in planning this day. And so, you know, kudos. Kudos to the Bush family and kudos to the president.</s>DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think there has been a lot of debate about this and discussion about this, that, regardless of what kind of president you think President Bush was, 41 was, you have to admire him as a man. You have to admire the individual. He was a good man, a decent man, a guy that everyone should aspire to be, a person everyone should aspire to be in our country. Whether you're a president or not, when service and country and family, this guy should be kind of chiseled up there on Mount Rushmore as a fixture. I know there is a lot of debate about the Gulf War and other things. But he really is a decent human being.</s>TAPPER: Amanda, one of the things that's so interesting in terms of the differences between Trump and Bush, without getting into the personality right now, is policy. George H.W. Bush, somebody who really was into international relations, alliances, international organizations, he is the one who negotiated NAFTA, which Bill Clinton signed. And President Trump having a difficult time right now with China in these negotiations on tariffs. He called himself tariff man. The stock market not doing so hot. And he tweeted this morning -- quote -- "Very strong signals being sent by China, once they returned home from their long trip, including stops from Argentina. Not to sound naive or anything, but I believe President Xi meant every word of what he said at our long and hopefully historic meeting. All subjects discussed." It is unclear what exactly is going on right now when it comes to this so-called pause in the trade war.</s>AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When it comes to Trump's tariff policy, I don't think it's any more complex than Trump views it as a way to punish people he doesn't like. It's a way -- listen, taxes or tariffs. This is about winners and losers, and Trump exerting his power and influence abroad. I don't think there's any principles behind it.</s>URBAN: Sure there is.</s>CARPENTER: And that's why it's so jarring and you're seeing the effects in the stock market day-to-day.</s>URBAN: This is about basic fairness. The president has stated this out over and over. If there are no tariffs anywhere in the world, he would not be for tariffs. He's simply for leveling a playing field here.</s>CARPENTER: And there is an argument on China. But it's so willy- nilly.</s>URBAN: You're going to steal I.P. from us, if you're going to tax our products, we're going to do the same. And we're going to level the playing field for American workers.</s>CARPENTER: Sure, but you don't announce it by tweet.</s>TAPPER: After the president called himself tariff man on Twitter, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of the Commonwealth of Virginia responded -- quote -- on Twitter: "Tariff man? Reminds me more of the Beatles' nowhere man. He's as blind as he can be, just sees what he wants to see." Your response?</s>JEAN-PIERRE: All right, Tim Kaine. Wow.</s>TAPPER: You like that.</s>TAPPER: Not the hippest pop culture reference.</s>JEAN-PIERRE: I think here is the problem. The problem is that he has -- Donald Trump has no strategy. And it is impacting workers. Just ask the workers at GM. It is problematic.</s>URBAN: The GM workers had nothing to do with the tariffs.</s>JEAN-PIERRE: No, but he said last week that he trusts his guts more than the brains of his economic advisers. And that's scary. I mean...</s>JEAN-PIERRE: This is somebody who bankrupted businesses.</s>URBAN: Nothing to do with the tariffs.</s>TAPPER: I want to let Paul in.</s>BEGALA: Politically, it is interesting. Tariffs are taxes. And they do fall disproportionately on our country on Trump voters and Trump counties. That's what is so amazing about this politically. Soybeans, China has somewhat diminished its importation of American soybeans. By somewhat, I mean 95 percent reduction. Eight of the top 10 producing states of soybeans voted for President Trump. And so he's punishing his own voters out of these fits of pique. And maybe over time he will get us out of it. But he certainly got us into it and he's hurting his own voters.</s>TAPPER: All right, so I wanted to shift gears here on our national lead. There is now a criminal investigation into the apparent election fraud in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District. And apparently it's even worse than many thought originally. CNN has learned potentially more than 1,000 absentee ballots may have been purposely destroyed and some Republican operatives may have taken partially completed absentee ballots from voters with the envelope still open and then filled out the rest. All of this calling into question of course the results in that House race, where Republican candidate Mark Harris edged out the Democrat Dan McCready by 900 votes. "The Charlotte Observer"'s editorial board today issued a challenge saying it's time to hold a new election in North Carolina's tainted 9th District. CNN's Drew Griffin is in North Carolina for us. Drew, how strong of a case are investigators building here?</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know exactly, Jake. But what we do know is this investigation has been going on for nearly a year. And it's not just involving the vote fraud allegations, but also campaign finance operations behind it. All of this, as you say, bringing into question the outcome and the validity of North Carolina's 9th District Congressional race.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): The voting irregularities in North Carolina's Ninth District congressional race are part of a criminal investigation that began in January and include possible vote fraud that could have affected the outcomes in three elections. Among the allegations, more than 1,000 absentee ballots from likely Democratic voters were gathered and destroyed.</s>LORRIN FREEMAN, WAKE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: You're looking at several thousand or approximately 2,000 absentee ballot requests from this most recent election. About 40 percent of those, it appears at this point, may not have been returned.</s>GRIFFIN: Lorrin Freeman, the district attorney for Wake County, North Carolina, was sent this letter back in January by the district attorney of Bladen County, asking for help to investigate voter fraud allegations and possible false statements to affect election outcomes allegedly perpetrated by McCrae Dowless. Dowless is this man, a political operative hired by Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris. Harris won the 9th District race in a squeaker, just 905 votes. But that vote count is now in doubt, because the operation run by McCrae Dowless could have affected more than 1,000 of the votes. Freeman says her office and a North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation are also looking at these hundreds of absentee ballots which were cast, but with suspicious witness signatures on them, a second part of the alleged scheme, where absentee ballots were only partially filled out by voters, then gathered up unsealed, allowing political operatives working for the Republican to fill in the rest. (on camera): Does it appear that there was a scheme for one or a couple or a group of people to stamp a bunch of ballots the way they wanted to stamp them and send them in?</s>FREEMAN: I think this, again, is a matter that is very much under investigation. Those are the types of allegations that we are reviewing currently.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): Voters like Aubrey Atkinson say McCrae Dowless showed up at his door to help him fill in his absentee ballot.</s>AUBREY ATKINSON, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I had to get them to spell it out to me, because I can't read and write.</s>GRIFFIN: He can't remember who he voted for. Lacy Allison had help, too. He remembers voting for sheriff, but not for Congress. (on camera): What about the congressional race, a guy named Harris and a guy named McCready?</s>LACY ALLISON, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I don't remember which one, but I do remember those two names.</s>GRIFFIN: Jake, Mark Harris, the Republican candidate who won this race, denies any knowledge of illegal behavior done on his behalf. But it turns out he may have at least indirectly paid for some of that behavior. Mark Harris' campaign paid a campaign group $400,000. That group hired this fellow named McCrae Dowless. As for Dowless, he continues to ignore our calls for comment -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: All right, Drew Griffin, thank you so much. Coming up: a billionaire New Yorker looking to shake things up in Washington. No, not that one. A different one, who is making huge 2020 waves today. Stay with us.