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Pope to Address Congress; Congress Members, Supreme Court Justices, Cabinet Arrive for Pope's Address. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 24, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think this pope is a pope who wants to be defined by the culture wars, so to speak? It is almost as if he's saying these issues of sexuality, of the social values, yes, we have to deal with them, but actually there's so much more to deal with.

ARCHBISHOP JOSEPH KURTZ, PRESIDENT, U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: He's a man of faith. He wants to point to Jesus Christ. And he says, I want to see the person before the idea. You notice that was a theme in Cuba. And -- and he says, you know, the person means that I'm not going to spend all of my energy arguing with someone. I will -- I will be true to my convictions. I'll be a son of the church, as he says it. I'm not changing church teaching. But he said, I truly want to engage. I want to learn from that person. And I want to make sure that everyone is welcome.

He -- his talks yesterday, he must have said it three dozen times. He said, the message of Christ's salvation is meant for all of us, for everyone. And then he said, no one is to be excluded. So he -- he really, I think, is asking us to see that person. And I do believe that brings out the best in people. If cheers are any indication, and we saw a lot of it, including from our brother bishops, that's a sign that he's touching a cord with people. And I kind of like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So there you had Archbishop Kurtz talking about this inclusive pope. He's not going to say you're a bad catholic and you're a good catholic. We're all people, we're all committed to social justice.

John Allen is out there also waiting and watching and he's been following the pope from the Vatican all the way here for years.

John.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Hi, Christiane.

Yes, this is, I have to say, I've been covering the pope -- popes, plural, three of them, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis, for the better part of 20 years. But even I am a little out of my depth this morning because, as we know, no pope has ever addressed a joint meeting of Congress this morning or on any morning. I do suspect we got a short preview of coming attractions in the speech the pope gave to President Obama on the White House South Lawn ceremony yesterday. But buckle your seat belts, boys and girls, it's going to be an exciting morning.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: John, it's Wolf. This is not the first time, though, a pope has addressed a parliament. That has happened around the world on the few occasions, right?

ALLEN: Yes, that's right. John Paul II addressed both the parliament of Poland and the parliament of Italy. Benedict XVI addressed the Bundestag, the parliament in Germany, when he made a state visit to that country. So if you're keeping track -- and, of course, Francis has actually addressed the European parliament, which is not a national but a super national parliament. So this is roughly the fifth time that a pope has stood in front of a legislature, but obviously the first time it's happened in the United States.

BLITZER: And it's a -- Delia Gallagher, it's a huge, huge deal, obviously, for the Vatican, for the pope, but for the United States of America as well.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, absolutely. And I think one of the things -- one of the themes of this pope has been bringing here and is very current right now in Europe is the question of immigration. And we saw him come and say, I am the son of immigrants. And I think that introductory mark in itself endeared him to -- to our country, but also ties in all of the current issues that at least in Europe for the moment but also here we are dealing with.

BLITZER: We are awaiting the speech of the pope. Pope Francis getting ready to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress. We're all anticipating his words. He'll speak in English. Get ready. Pope Francis in America. Our special coverage continues in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:38:07] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Welcome back to CNN's special coverage of this historic visit of Pope Francis to the United States. And today is the big one according to Vatican officials. This is the big speech. The first pontiff ever to address a joint meeting of Congress and, boy, have the people responded. The crowd is electrified. Those of us who have worked in Washington, D.C., have never seen this city like this in terms of security. And certainly this level of enthusiasm that we're seeing for the pope here today is unique as well.

Thousands and thousands of people are lining the streets. They're getting as close as they can to the Capitol because that's where the action is going to be. The pope does have other points on the agenda today where people will get exposed to him. And this is the moment for these people who have come here to see Pope Francis. What will he be like?

Down in the crowd is Rosa Flores. What is it like down there today?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Chris, it is electrifying. Now, you and I were on a riser yesterday, so you kind of get the feel of the crowd. No, here, you really feel the energy because you see young, you see old, you see green, purple, blue, white, black -- every color of people here hoping and waiting to see Pope Francis.

Now, I want you to take a look because there are giant jumbotrons, thousands of people here hoping to get a glimpse of the pope. But then he is actually expected to come out of the speaker's balcony and wave at the crowd. That's what everybody's waiting for. They just want to make sure that they actually see the pope, not from a television screen, but actually see the pope in person.

Now, Chris, I've got the tell you, you know that all of the pomp and circumstance is happening in that historic building that you see behind me. You know that that's not what Pope Francis enjoys. He enjoys being with people. So I bet he would rather be here with the crowd talking to these children right here behind me, kissing babies. We've seen lots of babies.

[09:40:02] So what is Pope Francis going to do after? In very much Pope Francis fashion, after speaking before Congress, he is going to go visit with the homeless, Chris. So just --

CUOMO: Yes.

FLORES: Just -- just to make sure that he keeps grounded and we know that that's very much in Pope Francis' fashion, after having an event like this, he's going to go spend some time with the homeless, feeding the homeless. We've seen him do that many, many times in other countries and the United States is not going to be the exception.

Chris.

CUOMO: Thank you, Rosa.

That's right, instead of going to the big fancy lunch that the congressman are going to afterwards, he's going to go feed the homeless at Catholic Relief Services.

I just want to show you, if you're just tuning in now to our special coverage, here it is, moments ago, there it is, the papal Fiat, as Jim Sciutto says. The pope is in there coming along. That car is as famous as anything now. It's become its own figure in this situation. And he came through, the crowds are going crazy.

And waiting for him was Speaker John Boehner. And I want to show you the picture of Speaker John Boehner. He was obviously nervous as he got to meet the pope. Boehner, a very devout catholic. He set this up. He sent the invitations. In fact, he sent invitations to the last three popes. So, you know, this pope and two before him, Benedict and John Paul II. He wanted this to happen. There's Vice President Joe Biden coming in now. We just saw his motorcade pass a few minutes ago. People are coming in attendance. There will be announcements made inside as the hall gets seated before the pontiff comes.

Now, this is very elaborate from a security perspective, from a logistical perspective and from a political perspective. And it's taken months and months of planning. Let's get to Jeff Zeleny for more on that.

Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Chris.

We can see those members of Congress, the senators, the representatives, walking through Statuary Hall right now into the House of Representative chambers. Now, the pope is going to be speaking inside the House. It will be familiar to viewers because that is where the president gives the State of the Union Address. But, Chris, this will not be the same atmospherically.

I was talking to several catholic senators, including Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia. He said that lawmakers will -- are going to treat this, he hopes, as a sermon, as a church-like exercise. Not up and down. Not applauding a lot and certainly he hopes not jeering at the pontiff. It would be hard to imagine that.

But I can tell you that most lawmakers, for all of the discussion about the tough message here, Senator Kaine said he is actually expecting more of an optimistic uplifting message, not a harsh in tone message. So we will see, you know, within the half hour or so. But Speaker Boehner said this just a couple weeks ago, "for a catholic boy like me, this is big stuff." And that sums it all up. He's a, you know, an Ohio Republican, went to mass every day, and this is his doing here, why the pope is addressing this joint meeting of Congress here.

There are going to be four Supreme Court justices inside this House chamber. Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Kennedy, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Three of those are catholic. And they are going to be watching this from the front row, as well as some members of the diplomatic force and other ambassadors from across Washington. So we are seeing them line up right now, sort of taking their seats.

This is a big moment for members of Congress. Only one member, a congressman from Arizona, said he is boycotting this speech. But everyone else I can tell you, to a person, Chris, is excited about this speech, whether they're catholic or not, whether they agree with the pope or not.

CUOMO: And that's an important point. Yes, Senator Kaine is hoping it gets treated like a sermon in terms of decorum, but to be clear, Pope Francis is not hoping to, as they would say, preach to the converted.

Let's go over to Jake Tapper right now, as you've been pointing out rightly all morning, this is about politics. These are real issues. He knows who he's talking to. The question is, how does he try to communicate what he thinks matters?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "STATE OF THE UNION": That's right, Chris. And, in fact, one of the ways that the pope will be communicating what he thinks matter is by speaking in English, which is, of course, hardly the first tongue for this man of Italian ancestry, raised in South America. Jeff Zeleny just mentioned that one member of Congress, a Republican from Arizona, will be boycotting the event. Ana Navarro, you spoke with a member of Congress who told you that the

speaker of the House was very clear on what behavior is acceptable and what behavior is not acceptable for members of Congress.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean they -- they received a memo telling them not to clap, telling them not to get up, telling them not to try to take selfies, not to rush the aisle as they do during the State of the Union. So they are supposed to be on their best behavior. And I think this is a very important moment for John Boehner. It's a culmination of an effort for him for years and he love this pope in particular, despite some differences on the political front. So I hope they are going to be on the best behavior. Let's see if they can restrain themselves.

[09:45:12] Look, I think even for the most jaded political folks in Washington, and certainly the folks in Congress are, this is an exciting moment. Having the pope here is a big, big deal, particularly if you are a Catholic but also for non-Catholics. I think this congressman, Congressman Gosar from Arizona, made a huge mistake. I mean, who boycotts the pope, for God sake's?

TAPPER: Well, he does.

NAVARRO: I mean look, the good news for the Congressman from Arizona is that God and the pope love all of God's children, even the mistaken ones.

TAPPER: John King, let's talk about some of the presidential candidates we expect to see. We know that Dr. Ben Carson has been invited, as is New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is an observing Catholic.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And then you have the sitting United States Senators, three on the Republican side, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Donna was joking was beforehand there will be seven presidential candidates, declared presidential candidates, in the hall. And over the pope's shoulder will be the Vice President of the United States, whose decision we're still waiting on. So maybe there's eight. But there's seven and one pondering.

It's an interesting moment for them as well. We're in the middle of a campaign in which the Republican front-runner who is not there likes to call his critics stupid, uses very harsh language. Some of the other candidates have delved into very harsh language at times, drawing distinctions. Maybe they could all -- I don't think they will, but maybe they could all learn a lesson from the pope. But when he makes his points politically, does it very gently.

TAPPER: OK, and we're going to take a very quick break. When we come back, as members of the Congress and other American and other dignitaries convene in the Congress, we're going to go to Dana Bash who is there as well. Right after this very, very quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:51:07] BLITZER: Welcome back to our special coverage. The pope getting ready to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress. You see the House Speaker John Boehner, the Vice President Joe Biden, who's also the President of the U.S. Senate, Joe Biden. They will be sitting right behind the pope when he addresses members of the United States Congress.

Dana Bash is inside the chamber of the House of representatives. Dana, first of all, walk us through some of the decorum, the preparations, the instructions that have been given to members of the Congress on this historic day.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we've heard a lot of our colleagues talking about the fact that leadership had told their rank and file members, both verbally and in some cases in writing, please don't treat this as the partisan event. Treat this very differently, with respect and so forth.

But a lot of times when we're watching the State of the Union and big joint meetings like this when the president comes, you have a lot of people who go to the aisle seats so that they can get in the shot and get in the picture shaking the president's hands. There are members of Congress who go there for hours, hours and hours beforehand, so that they have that opportunity.

In this case, the leadership actually saved seats for specific members in Congress who, for lack of a better way to say it, they know would behave properly. And they had those members of Congress, these are Democrats and Republicans, sit on the aisles.

In some cases they are good friends of the leaders; in other cases they are people who they know who are Catholics. But by and large it is those who they know will actually behave and keep the decorum that both leaders and both parties want to have in this event.

BLITZER: They are announcing the diplomatic corps now coming in. The ambassadors here in the United States are led by the dean, the acting dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Ambassador Hersey Kyota of the Republic of Palau. He is there. Shortly the Supreme Court justices will be introduced and then members of the president's cabinet.

There are also Dana, U.S. presidential candidates inside as well.

BASH: That's right. There are of course the members of Congress who are running for president who are here. I saw Senator Rubio, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Bernie Sanders, Snator Cruz. But in the gallery, the visitor's gallery, there are a couple of presidential candidates who were invited and wanted to come here and see the pope for themself -- for themselves, I should say.

Ben Carson, I spoke to him briefly. I said why are you here? What made you want to come? And his answer was that he wanted to come and see somebody who is famous for his faith and not just a celebrity because he is an actor or a singer and so forth. He just wanted to be part of the moment. And same goes for Chris Christie; though in Chris Christie's case, he is here, he is a Catholic. That is his faith. But he said he was invited by a freshman member of Congress from his home state of New Jersey about 10 days ago. And he snapped up the ticket as soon as he could to witness it. So they're both actually sitting right behind the press area where we are and the gallery overlooking the entire scene.

And I should just also briefly say that there are only 446 seats on the House floor, and this is for, of course, as you were mentioning, senators, for House members, for some members of the diplomatic corps, some members of the Supreme Court are going to come as well. But all told, including the galleries, between 800 to 900 people are inside this chamber who can witness this event.

BLITZER: A hot ticket, indeed, here Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. Dana, you're inside.

Christiane Amanpour is with me. Christiane, some of these presidential candidates, U.S. presidential candidates, will love what the pope is about to say but some of them won't be so happy about certain sensitive issues.

[09:55:08] Some of the Republican candidates, for example, when the pope starts talking about immigration or climate change, some of those issues. They might not necessarily be all that thrilled to hear what he has to say.

AMANPOUR: Well, it's so interesting to me because there are a lot of international issues that the pope has been very closely aligned with that he is unlikely to discuss today. For instance, Cuba. He was the one who sent the invitations to the president, to the head of -- the presidents of both Cuba and the United States and mediated that rapprochement. He had said that he would have liked to have come to the United States through Mexico, but that it was too complicated for him to do that. So as soon as the rapprochement happened, he decided to make the trip from Cuba to here.

But we're told by the Vatican press --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Speaker, the Chief Justice and associate justices of the Supreme Court.

AMANPOUR: That as the Chief Justice and other justices come in.

BLITZER: Chief Justice John Roberts is coming in with some other -- some of the other justices. Chief Justice Roberts, as you know, Christiane, is a Catholic. Three justices who are coming in are Catholic. One of the justices who's coming in, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is Jewish.

AMANPOUR: Indeed. So a real sort of ecumenical group there. And there are couple of points to make on that. Let's just get back to Cuba. He will not talk about the Cuban embargo. There's a lot of people in Congress who are quite jittery about that. He has welcomed the rapprochement or the Iran nuclear deal. He will not talk about that in this speech. But it must be quite odd for him to come to the United States as this Catholic leader --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Speaker, the president's cabinet.

BLITZER: Members of the president's cabinet have been invited as well. They will have a front row seat there. There you see the Secretary of State John Kerry, followed by the Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew. Other members of the cabinet are coming in as well. It almost has, Christiane, feel, of a presidential State of the Union address, although there are significant differences.

AMANPOUR: Well, precisely. And of course it's not being called a joint session. No business is going to be done there. It's a meeting. It's an invitation to the pope. A meeting of Congress here, both houses. Secretary of State Kerry, a Roman Catholic. He came acropper (ph) during his run in 2004. The whole issue of divorce, remarried, and communion, they did a huge big deal that this pope is going to be dealing with, and that was a major moment during his presidential run in 2004 when he was forbidden from taking communion.

BLITZER: All right, so the pope is about to be introduced. The Pope and the Holy See will be introduced by the sergeant of arms (sic) Paul Irving, and he will walk down that aisle and walk towards the podium.

We're also told after his remarks he won't walk back that same route; he'll go out through a door, none of the glad-handing if you will. There you see senators there. We saw Al Franken, the senator from Minnesota. You see other representatives there, members of the Senate, and there's some of them -- there's the Chief Justice, John Roberts. Anthony Kennedy one of the justices as well.

So this is a very, very distinguished group who are inside and outside. And you see on the left part of your screen, there are literally tens of thousands of people who have gathered on the Washington mall. There are big duratrons (ph). They will listen, they will hear what the pontiff has to say. And they will of course be moved. Those of us who have had a little advanced word on what the pope will say.

Delia Gallagher is with us. You've had a chance to get a sense, just in broad themes, he's going to get into some of these sensitive issues.

GALLAGHER: Oh absolutely. I mean, he hasn't shied away from it from the moment he touched down, actually. He went straight in with the White House address to talk about the -- what to him are the top priorities, about immigration, about the economic unjustice and injustice in the world, about the environment to a certain extent. But mostly about our responsibility, one to the other, both on an individual level and as a nation.

BLITZER: Dana, you're inside there. I guess the anticipation is really, really getting ready for the climax.

BASH: Absolutely. I mean, you can really feel it. And just more specifically I'm looking down at John Boehner and Joe Biden, two devout Catholics and people who probably just absolutely can't believe that they're standing where they're standing, about to witness what they're going to witness. And Boehner in particular, he has been wanting this to happen for 20

years. He's invited three popes. Of course, this is the first and only one to come. And just in general, when it comes to his temperament, he is not somebody who's excitable or gets excited, but you can see he's kind of on the tips of his toes right now in anticipation of this moment. It's kind of incredible as somebody who has watched the Speaker for, really, for decades in Congress here. This is something that I've never quite witnessed to see, somebody who clearly seems to be nervous and emotional.

[10:00:05] That we've seen before.