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Manchin Won't Ditch Filibuster, Says "Minority Needs Input"; Police Out In Force To Prevent Tiananmen Square Vigil; Detained Journalist Appears On State T.V., Critics Say He's Hostage. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 04, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): If anyone understands the process it's President Joe Biden. We've got to work together, you know. You can only do so much by yourself. You can't make it worse unless -- work unless the minority has input. You can't disregard a person that's not in the majority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Manchin says Biden understands. He was, of course, there when President Obama spent the better part of his first term trying to deal with the GOP and got nowhere.

CNN's Daniella Diaz is live on Capitol Hill for us this morning. Daniella, good morning.

Senator Manchin says the minority needs to have input but he appears to prioritize the input in the face of all this obstruction.

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: That's certainly how a lot of Democrats see this issue. Democrats are losing patience with negotiating with Republicans, but Sen. Manchin is adamant that these talks need to continue. And Manchin has this power because Democrats need his vote on these key issues for Biden's agenda, especially since he's not budging on this idea of getting rid of the filibuster -- the 60-vote threshold needed for legislation to pass through the Senate.

And Manchin is really devoted to this idea of a tradition of civility and cooperation in the Senate, and that's not even that different from President Joe Biden, himself, who made that like a landmark of his campaign and his presidency. But it's also an idealized vision of a political system that doesn't exist, you know.

And there's few signs that Republicans really want to negotiate with Democrats on these key issues of Biden's agenda and they don't really want to offer President Joe Biden a win or anything that doesn't help their own midterm agenda.

But, Manchin is really standing on this issue of not nuking the filibuster, of negotiating with Republicans, and that's exactly what he told our Manu Raju yesterday in an exclusive interview. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're also just in the center of so many issues in Washington.

MANCHIN: I understand.

RAJU: And you're -- one of the issues is you're working on trying to get a voting rights bill passed with Lisa Murkowski.

MANCHIN: Let me just say this.

RAJU: You're working -- just, look, can I -- let me finish the question.

There's no sign that there's actually going to be 60 votes to get that done. Some of your Democratic colleagues say Joe Manchin should agree for an exemption. Allow voting rights to pass on a simple majority. Change the Senate's filibuster rules and do that.

MANCHIN: I asked everybody --

RAJU: Would you be open to that?

MANCHIN: Ask everybody how well did the 2013 nuclear option work when in 2017 they came back and took it off the Supreme Court. That's all. What goes around comes around so let's work together. Let's find a pathway forward.

RAJU: So you --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAZ: Senator Joe Manchin is aware that if they do nuke the filibuster this is something that if they lose the majority in Congress -- next Congress -- it could be used against Democrats. He's aware that this could be a cycle that goes through the Senate and doesn't want to nuke the filibuster for that reason.

So, bottom line here is he's standing down on this issue of not getting rid of the filibuster and being adamant about cooperation and negotiations with Republicans -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right, Daniella, thanks so much.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. As for the infrastructure plan itself, just how far apart are President Biden and the GOP?

CNN's Jasmine Wright live in Washington. I know that the president is hinting that he could be movable on the size of an infrastructure package and key here, how to get corporate America to pay for it, but they are still very far apart. JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Christine. In fact, they are billions of dollars apart and that's after weeks and weeks of negotiation.

Now, we know that President Biden and Sen. Capito are expected to talk today and the GOP are expected to come back with another proposal.

Now, their latest proposal had about $928 billion in it, but only $257 billion of new spending. They wanted to repurpose money passed in that March COVID relief bill and the White House said uh-uh, we don't want to do that. We don't want to repurpose that money.

So, President Biden is lowering his price. How he's asking for about $1 trillion, but that has to be all in new spending. And that's on top of the already $400 billion that he wants over five years to maintain those programs that are in place right now. So he's asking Republicans to come up. So that's one issue is new spending, right?

And the other is exactly what you said -- how to pay for it -- corporate taxes. And, President Biden is actually making kind of a big concession, right, because we know that the GOP hardline is that they don't want to raise the price. President Biden originally proposed to raise the price to 28 percent on corporations and Republicans were like uh-uh, we don't want to do that. We don't want to get rid of those 2017 tax cuts.

So, President Biden is taking that fully off the table. Instead, he is offering that they put in place a 15 percent minimum corporate tax rate to kind of catch all those companies that aren't paying what they call their fair share because of loopholes. And also, enforce taxes on all Americans just more stringently, right. So those are kind of the two things that they are considering.

And now, really, it kind of feels like the ball is in Republicans' court to come up to where President Biden wants them to, to kind of go forward and see how they can make a deal -- Christine.

[05:35:02]

ROMANS: Global -- that global corporate minimum tax, of course, would have to be something that the Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen will have to talk to her colleagues at the G7 coming up here to try to get everybody on board with that.

All right, Jasmine. Nice to see you this morning. Thank you.

JARRETT: All right, now to a remarkable story that has U.S. intelligence officials stumped. For years, American Navy pilots have witnessed unidentified flying objects and a new report is expected to say the Intel Community has found no evidence that these objects are alien spacecrafts. OK, seems normal enough.

But at the same time, they haven't reached a conclusion about what these mysterious sightings might actually be. And according to sources, the report does not rule out the possibility that they are alien spacecraft. That echoes something former President Obama said recently.

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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What is true -- and I'm actually being serious here -- is that there are -- there's footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't know exactly what they are.

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JARRETT: Also cannot rule out the possibility that these were spacecrafts belonging to adversaries like Russia or China, which the report is expected to say is actually something more troublesome than aliens.

ROMANS: All right. A major gas pipeline, dozens of government agencies, Florida's city water supply, one of the world's top meat producers, all targets of cybercriminals.

Now the Justice Department plans to coordinate its effort on these attacks with the same protocols as it does for terrorism. And the White House pushing for businesses to take ransomware more seriously. Of course, not all of these companies have the resources to pay for major defensives.

It's time for three questions in three minutes. Let's bring in CNN Business lead writer Matt Egan. So nice to have you back here on the set. Nice to see you. I hope your family is well -- everyone is good.

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS LEAD WRITER: Yes, it's great to see. Happy Friday.

ROMANS: Thank you.

EGAN: I feel like it's been a bit since we've been able to say that in person, on set. It feels nice.

ROMANS: It's been about 15 months to be exact, but yes, we are back and so are the hackers. They're moving away from sort of targeting information to sell or exploit and identity theft, and they're moving into things like fuel pipelines, meat suppliers. This is ransom -- getting ransom from companies.

Why this shift? What's the shift?

EGAN: Yes, Christine -- I mean, this is clearly pretty alarming. I mean, you mentioned Colonial Pipeline just last month -- I mean, America's most important fuel pipeline held hostage. This attack on JBS, one of the world's biggest meat producers is halting meat production for a few days. I mean, that was -- that was stunning to see.

ROMANS: Yes.

EGAN: The Martha's Vineyard ferry service. So clearly, there has been this shift. It's not just about trying to steal sensitive data or money from banks, it is about trying to actually cause chaos. And the whole rationale here is the more mayhem they can cause the more likely it is that companies are going to actually pay up the ransom.

And now, the federal government has identified 16 different industries that they say are critical here. Everything from energy, healthcare, financial services, water, transportation. And the cybersecurity and infrastructure agency says that a cyberattack there can have a debilitating effect on the U.S. economy and security.

The White House issued an open letter to the national -- to the public just this week and let me read you a key line. The National Security Council's top cyber officials said that "All organizations must recognize that no company is safe from being targeted by ransomware, regardless of the size or location. We urge you to take ransomware crime seriously and ensure your cyber defense matches the threat."

No company is safe, Christine.

ROMANS: Yes.

EGAN: Let's hope that alarm bells are ringing across corporate America.

ROMANS: Yes, in the early iterations of discussions about infrastructure there was talk about spending on cyber, so we'll see if that lasts.

Speaking of infrastructure -- we were talking about that just a minute ago -- you have new analysis this morning. Critics of Joe Biden's economic packages are arguing that it's going to backfire and overheat the economy. What are they saying?

EGAN: Well, there is that argument. And listen, there's no doubt that inflation is here. The debate is how long will it last? I mean, for now, we've seen prices go sharply higher on everything from gasoline to used cars, to lumber, and that is causing some issues.

And there's also no doubt that Washington has spent a ton of money for good reason -- about $5 trillion -- more than $5 trillion to support the economy during the pandemic. President Biden -- his Build Back Better agenda calls for $4.5 trillion in spending. That's around infrastructure.

ROMANS: Right.

EGAN: Also, support for childcare and for education.

And I think what's really important though is we have to make sure we're not confusing what the Biden administration is proposing right now with short-term stimulus. This is not a repeat of the American Rescue Plan. There's no stimulus checks here. There's no forgivable loans. There's no bailouts for various industries. This is long-term focus. These are long-term investments designed to increase not demand, but supply -- specifically, the supply of workers.

[05:40:01]

So that's why I talked to Mark Zandi --

ROMANS: Yes.

EGAN: -- at Moody's Analytics and he told me that -- he said, listen, "Build Back Better is about long-term growth, not short-term stimulus. I'm not concerned that the economy will overheat because of that."

We should mention, though, there is no playbook here. We don't really know how the economy responds --

ROMANS: Yes.

EGAN: -- after a once-in-a-century pandemic, particularly this modern economy with everyone -- a lot of people working from home.

So we do have to watch inflation because I think the one thing that could sink the Biden agenda is an inflation scare that freaks out the bond market.

ROMANS: Yes, watching that very carefully.

Meanwhile, a critical issue for business is climate, of course. Now, an official from the International Monetary Fund warning the climate crisis could ignite a financial crisis. What's that connection?

EGAN: So, I talked to Tobius Adrian. He's one of the senior officials at the IMF.

And he was talking about how there are financial stability risks involved in the climate crisis, and it's all about expectations. If, all of the sudden, people realized that there's a bigger risk to fossil fuel assets because of the climate crisis or if there's extreme weather that causes really serious issues, he said yes, it could absolutely cause a financial crisis.

Let me read you a key quote. He said, "The climate crisis is slow in the making, but it's potentially disastrous."

Now, we are seeing big companies around America -- they're responding. We had Netflix and Disney, Amazon, Microsoft --

ROMANS: Sure.

EGAN: -- they're teaming up on this new alliance aimed at accelerating investments in climate solutions. Clearly, corporate America is taking this a lot more seriously.

ROMANS: All right, Matt Egan. So nice to see you this morning. Have a nice weekend. JARRETT: Thanks, Matt.

EGAN: Nice to see you guys.

ROMANS: Laura.

JARRETT: All right.

Need to fly from New York to London in about 3 1/2 hours? Well, the Concorde isn't around anymore but United Airlines is set to buy 15 ultrafast planes from startup Boom Supersonic. It's the first airline to financially commit to purchasing the planes, a bet on the return of luxury and business travel.

United says it will complete the purchase once the planes meet safety and sustainability requirements. Boom says the planes cost $200 million each, making the deal worth about $3 billion.

ROMANS: That is a bet on high net worth individuals.

JARRETT: That's for sure.

ROMANS: That is a bet that people are going to have -- a segment of society who's going to have a lot of money --

JARRETT: They're going to have some money.

ROMANS: -- and want to go to London in 3 1/2 hours.

JARRETT: Yes.

All right. We'll be right back.

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[05:46:31]

JARRETT: Overnight, Hong Kong police coming out in force in Victoria Park, which has been the home to the annual vigil of the Tiananmen Square anniversary.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is live for us in Hong Kong. Kristie, if police are out in force they must expect a presence out there. What are you hearing?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Laura, I'm just outside Hong Kong's Victoria Park on this sensitive anniversary. We know that 300 to 400 police officers are out in force ready to take swift action against any unauthorized July fourth vigil or protest this day.

Already, we know that two people have been arrested today, including a Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil organizer. She was arrested at her home this morning for publicizing the event.

For two years in a row, Hong Kong police have banned the once-annual vigil, citing coronavirus restrictions. I should note that on Thursday, Hong Kong -- the city of 7 1/2 million people -- reported only one new imported case of the virus.

Last year, the vigil was also banned for similar reasons -- for coronavirus restriction reasons. Thousands of people, nonetheless, took part in a vigil last year and as a result, arrests were made.

In August, 24 pro-democracy activists were arrested -- among them, the high-profile activist Joshua Wong. Just last month, he was sentenced to an additional 10 months in jail for participating in the vigil last year.

Now, despite the ban, many Hong Kongers have been planning to remember this day -- what happened in Tiananmen in 1989 -- by lighting a candle at home or taking part in vigils at church -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right, Kristie. Thanks so much for being out there for us.

ROMANS: All right.

A detained journalist in Belarus appearing again on state T.V. Critics of the government are worried. They say the young dissident is a hostage under duress.

Frederik Pleitgen live for us in Berlin. Fred, what are activists saying about this journalist's so-called confessions?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're absolutely shocked. They believe that he is being tortured while he's there in detention.

And it was -- it was quite difficult to watch that video. One of the things that we did is we actually took a closer look and at some point, Roman Protasevich, this journalist who is in jail there -- he puts his hands in front of his face and you can actually see deep marks in his wrists that certainly look like he had some pretty tight handcuffs on not too long before doing that interview.

In the interview himself, he pleads guilty to everything. He says he would never take up political activism again. He praises Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, calling him a man who, quote, "acts as someone who has balls of steel."

As you mentioned, the opposition absolutely crying foul. This morning, the opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya -- she called on tougher sanctions by the West against the Belarusian regime. There are, indeed, new U.S. sanctions that went into effect yesterday against nine Belarusian state companies.

However, the regime, today, firing back at the U.S., saying they are going to limit the amount -- the number of personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, and that includes both diplomatic personnel as well as technical personnel as well.

So as you can see, things are continuing to escalate. Right now, Lukashenko shows no sign of backing down.

We are also waiting for another decision by the E.U. to further limit, possibly, Belarusian airlines flying in E.U. airspace -- guys.

ROMANS: All right, Fred for us in Berlin this morning. Thanks, Fred.

JARRETT: All right.

Famed defense attorney F. Lee Bailey has died. Known for his courtroom flair, Bailey was part of what became known as O.J. Simpson's "Dream Team" of lawyers in 1995. Bailey was also involved in a number of other high-profile criminal cases defending the likes of Patty Hearst and the Boston Strangler.

[05:50:06]

F. Lee Bailey was 87 years old.

ROMANS: All right, to business now -- Friday edition of CNN Business this morning.

Looking at markets around the world, Asian shares closed narrowly mixed and Europe has opened down a little bit. On Wall Street, stock index futures this hour very, very mixed here -- barely moving.

Stocks closed lower Thursday despite some positive signs for the labor market. The Dow finished down 23, snapping a five-day winning streak. The S&P and Nasdaq also down.

The big event today, more information on jobs -- the May jobs report. Expectations are 650,000 jobs were added back last month. If that number holds, the economy is still down about six -- 7.6 million jobs in the pandemic -- a reminder that the jobs piece of the roaring recovery still needs some work.

Thirty-two years after Tiananmen Square, the administration wants to prevent China from continuing to use technology to repress democracy.

President Biden has expanded a list of Chinese companies banned from U.S. investments. The executive order prohibits Americans from owning or trading any securities tied to 59 Chinese firms Washington believes are linked to China's military. The original order signed by Trump applied to 31 companies. Huawei and China Mobile on the list.

The move shows Biden isn't easing up on tech and trade policy with China -- tougher policies begun under the Trump administration. The new order goes into effect August second.

Big changes for Facebook. Facebook expected to announce today it's ending a controversial policy that shields politicians from content moderation rules that apply to other users. The Verge reports the change comes after Facebook's oversight board criticized Facebook for setting special rules for politicians.

Facebook has been repeatedly blamed for being too lenient with elected officials, especially during the Trump presidency. He and his colleagues and allies could say things that regular people couldn't.

The Verge also reports Facebook plans to reveal the secretive system on strikes it gives accounts for breaking its content rules.

JARRETT: Well, for the first time in his career, LeBron James is heading home after the first round of the playoffs.

Andy Scholes has more in this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy, LeBron has got to be disappointed in this.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (via Cisco Webex): He certainly is, and all the Lakers fans as well, Laura. LeBron was a perfect 14 and 0 in the first round but not anymore thanks to the Phoenix Suns. And for the first time since 2010, we will not have LeBron or Steph Curry in the NBA finals. It's the end of an era.

Anthony Davis tried to play through that groin injury last night but reinjured it very early and left for good just 5 1/2 minutes into the game.

And Jevon Carter and the Suns just pounced on L.A. from the get-go. Booker hits six threes in the first quarter alone. Phoenix led by 22 after the opening quarter. Booker had 47 in the game.

The Suns would win 113 to 100 and knock out the defending champs.

And after the game, LeBron, turning 37 later this year, said the long break will do him some good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, FORWARD, LOS ANGELES LAKERS: Just from the moment we entered the bubble to now, today, has been draining -- were mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally draining. That did not stop me from committing to the game, committing to my teammates, committing to the work -- you know, putting in the work. Mentally, trying to stay as sharp as I possibly could. But throughout, it's been mentally draining.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, LeBron also is saying he was going to playing for the Tune Squad this summer and not in the Olympics -- a plug for his "Space Jam" movie there.

And a cool moment after the game. LeBron giving Devin Booker his signed jersey.

All right, the Suns are now going to face the Nuggets in the second round. This year's likely MVP, Nikola Jokic putting away the Blazers last night. Jokic is leading the Nuggets on a 17 to two run in the fourth quarter. He hit a deep three as a part of that run that had his teammates so impressed some of them were falling on the floor.

The Nuggets would win 126-115 to take the series in six.

The Mavs could earn that final spot in the second round in the west if they beat the Clippers tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG FLUTIE, FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK: The USFL is back. See you in 2022.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Well, that was Doug Flutie announcing the return of the USFL 35 years after it folded. At least eight teams are going to compete next spring. The games will air on Fox.

Flutie, one of the big stars in the mid-80s, playing for the New Jersey Generals who were owned by former President Trump. He also made a big splash by signing Herschel Walker right of out college back in the day.

And you know, guys, there were a lot of fun team names in the USFL. Houston Gamblers was my favorite. We'll see if it works. You know, these spring football leagues -- XFL, it didn't work. It's actually going to come back. AAF didn't work, so we'll see.

JARRETT: It's like a name soup. I can't keep track of that.

ROMANS: All right, Andy Scholes. Nice to see you, Andy. Have a great weekend.

[05:55:00]

JARRETT: Thanks, Andy -- appreciate it.

SCHOLES: All right -- you, too.

ROMANS: All right, thanks for joining us on this Friday edition of EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman on this new day.

A new CNN analysis shows President Biden's goal to vaccinate 70 percent of American adults by next month will be an uphill climb. See the numbers.

Plus, a key Democratic senator speaks to CNN, saying that he's not ready to give up on Republicans.