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President Biden Promotes His "Bidenomics" Policies; Biden Focusing On Economy In Reelection Campaign; Giuliani Interviewed In 2020 Election Interference Probe; Today, Georgia's Secretary Of State Testifies In DOJ 2020 Election Investigation; Trump Defends Classified Docs Audio: "It Was Bravado -- I Didn't Have Any Documents"; 80M-Plus Americans Under Air Quality Alerts Today. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 28, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I'm doing -- I knew I would have to have had this. All those major legislations to be passed, people go, that's great. But it takes time to get it in the field. It takes time to see it.

I'm not here to declare. But I'm here to say we have a plan that's turning things around incredibly quickly. But we have more work to do.

For example, does anyone here think that the federal taxes are fair? Raise your hand. No matter how much money you make. We're going to make it fair by eliminating loopholes, crypto traders, hedge fund managers.

They got over $200 billion dollars last year. They got a $30 billion tax credit. We're going to get billionaires to pay up a little bit, at least a minimum tax.

You know, when we began, there were -- before the pandemic, there were 750 billionaires in America. Now there's 1,000. You know how much average taxes they pay in federal tax? 8 percent taxes. No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a schoolteacher, firefighter or a cop.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: I'm not talking about the old, old days of 70 percent tax. I'm talking about a fair shot. If they just paid the top tax rate that exists now, 30 percent, we would raise billions and billions of dollars, lowering the deficit, allowing us to pay for so much more we have left to do.

That's the next phase of this fight, making the tax code fair for everyone, making the wealthy, the super wealthy, the big corporations begin to pay their fair share, without raising taxes at all out middle class.

I made a commitment when I got elected. No one in America making under $400,000 should ever have to pay a single penny more in federal taxes, as long as I'm president. And I have kept -- (APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: that promise.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: $400,000 is a lot of money where I come from.

Let me close with this. When I came to office, I had a fundamental decision to make. We're going to continue trickle-down economics as a policy, but it's failed time and again.

It grew in inequality. It saw jobs go overseas. Towns were hollowed out. I ran on the promise I was going to end this and I would build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up.

We're not going to continue down the trickle-down path as long as I'm president. This is the moment we're timely going to make a break and move away from an economy that's exited in a fundamentally difficult direction.

Here's the simple truth about trickle-down economics. It didn't represent the best of American capitalism. It represented a moment where we walked away, and how many in this country -- from how this country was built, how this city was built.

Bidenomics is about the future. Bidenomics is another way of saying restore the American dream. It worked before. We've always been best as investing in America, investing in Americans.

When we invest in our people, we strengthen the middle class, see the economy grow, and it benefits all Americans. That's the American dream.

Forty years of trickle-down limited that dream, except for those at the top. Too many for too long have suggested that it's only available if you have a four-year college degree. You can work at a tech center.

These new factories opening up, the fabs opening for semiconductors, without a college degree, you'll make $100 to $120,000 a year working in those fabs, $120,000 a year.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Well, I believe in every American willing to work hard should be able to get a job no matter where they are, in the heartland, in the small towns, in every part of this country, to raise their kids on a good paycheck and keep their roots where they grew up. That's Bidenomics.

I think the economic philosophy will not restore the American dream we have now, that Philosophy, but this in one will. And I think it will help lessen the division in this country, by bringing us back together.

It makes it hard to demagogue something when it's working, although they do it all the time.

I've long said -- I was on Benton Plateau with Xi Jinping, I've spoken with him more than any other state, because it started when I was vice president. He was the vice president. We knew he was going to be successful.

It was inappropriate for Barack to spend time with him, but I spent time. I met alone with him, just he and I and a simultaneous interpreter 68 times, 68 hours, 68 times, more than 68 hours.

[13:35:11]

By the way, I turned in all my notes.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: But he asked me, can you define America for me? I said, yes, in one word, and I meant it -- possibilities. Possibilities. We're a land of possibilities. I told him it's never been a good bet to bet against America. Never.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: I can honestly -- I can honestly say I've never been more optimistic about America's future, I swear to God. I've never been more optimistic. Just remember who we are. We're the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we work together.

So God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERING)

(MUSIC)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We have just been listening to President Biden in Chicago, delivering the first major economic speech from him of his 2024 election season. The president selling his economic vision to the country, Bidenomics.

He opened by blasting trickle-down economics, a champion by many Republicans, the president saying we are tired of waiting for the trickle down. Blasting the wealthy and corporations, saying that that vision of economics has failed America.

The president then talking about Bidenomics, which he says he did not name, but he argues he will take credit for it, because he says it is working.

He touted enormous job growth since the end of the pandemic, historically low unemployment. The president also talking about huge investments in infrastructure and efforts to boost domestic production of all sorts of good includes vitally microchips.

The president also talked about inflation going down by half, he says, the last year. Remember, it peaked at 9 percent last year. It's hovered between 4 percent and 5 percent. The president also saying we have more work to do.

Let's discuss this with CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is traveling with the president, and CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, who joins us as well.

First to you, Christine.

Your impressions of what President Biden describes as a fundamentally different direction for the U.S. economy?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he wants to talk about building the American economy from the middle out and from the bottom up.

And he cast that in sharp relief from what Republican policies are to cut taxes for wealthy people and cut taxes for corporations. That's the difference that he's casting here.

He's trying to tout and remind people all of the things this administration has done over the past couple years that are meant to relieve price pressures on American families, lower costs for everyday Americans. That's where he says his focus is.

He points rightly to more than 13 million jobs have been created in his presidency. The unemployment rate among Hispanic-Americans are at record lows, and that women, a record share of women are working in the workforce right now.

But remember, Boris, when you look at the polling, people still feel pretty negative about inflation. It has come down, but inflation seems to be the issue that's still coloring the view of so many Americans and how they feel about the economy.

SANCHEZ: And on that point, Christine, to you, Jeremy, CNN did a poll in May that showed roughly 66 percent of Americans disapprove of how he's handling the economy. Over 75 percent feel the economy is in poor shape.

Despite his record touting his accomplishments, it is likely going to be an uphill battle on this issue going into the next election.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it. That is why you have the president now delivering this speech and why they're entering this more aggressive messaging push centered around Bidenomics.

The White House believes this is the moment for them to begin to take credit for what they see as signs that the economy is trending in the right direction.

Inflation is cooling. The jobs market remains strong. Economists are pulling back their predictions of an impending recession. The White House increasingly believing they are headed toward that elusive soft landing.

And what you heard from President Biden today, he made very clear he's not yet taking a victory lap for the economy, that there's still more work to do.

But he does believe he has a strong message. He believes that if he can take credit for the positive direction of the economy.

And what was interesting, Boris, is that the president's speech today was just as much about what his economic vision is as what it is not.

[13:39:59]

You've heard him repeatedly, from beginning to end, talking about trickledown economic policies, saying he doesn't believe those are working.

Instead, he drew a straight line from other impactful presidents. He talked about FDR. He talked about Eisenhower's investment in the highway system.

And basically, the point that the president was making is that trickle-down economics, in his view, was an aberration and that America is strongest when it invests in the economy and when those public sector investments can spur private sector growth.

That has been at the core of so much of the president's economic policies. When you look at the way that he's put industrial policy at the center, bringing about what we're starting to see a real growth in the manufacturing sector.

Lastly, you know, the president essentially saying he wants to bring the country back to investing in the country. He believes, as Americans start to see the benefits of the legislation he's passed, he believes the view of the economy will turn around. At least that's the White House's hope.

SANCHEZ: Christine, something that struck me from the president's speech that Jeremy just alluded to, it's going to be a while before Americans see the benefits of the investments in infrastructure.

He talked about the challenge in changing perception because it will likely be well after 2024 that Americans feel that kind of investment, right?

ROMANS: They'll probably start to see some projects probably in their hometowns. He rolled out today the investment in high-speed Internet. Seven percent of Americans don't have reliable high-speed Internet access. And they're rolling that out right now.

And the Chips Act, which is a semiconductor investment in the United States, that will take time as well.

But those are big investments that will make a big difference in domestic industrial policy here in the United States. But, again, it won't pay off immediately.

One of the reasons I think the White House is out there with this Bidenomics, trying to remind people, hey, we have made some big calls and taken some big swings, and you will see that homerun eventually.

SANCHEZ: And we'll see if these efforts by the White House pay off in the president's reelection bid.

Christine Romans, Jeremy Diamond, thank you both so much.

Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: New details about what Yevgeny Prigozhin wanted to accomplish with his revolt in Russia. He reportedly planned to capture two of Vladimir Putin's top military officials. We'll have details on that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:29]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Federal investigators are now speaking with two people who have direct knowledge of Donald Trump's scheme to steal the 2020 election. One is Rudy Giuliani. CNN has exclusively learned the special counsel's team interviewed him recently.

Another, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He will be interviewed today. This, more than two years after Trump urged him in a now taped infamous phone call to find some 11,000 votes, just enough to overturn the results of the election in that state.

CNN's Sara Murray is here.

Sarah, first, with Rudy Giuliani, who was a very public voice, both of false claims about the election, but also it seems a pressure campaign to overturn the election, do we know if he is a witness regarding Trump or a target himself?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We know federal investigators, in speaking to Giuliani, we don't have reporting he's a target in this. But we do know was named in a number of subpoenas that went out long ago seeking communications involving some election lies, including people like Giuliani.

Giuliani, we know he got a subpoena months and months ago about payments he got around 2020, and he played a role in overseeing the fake electoral process across 11 states. We know prosecutors had been asking about that recently.

SCIUTTO: And we know some of those electors have been offered immunity for their testimony.

Let's talk about Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state of Georgia. He's been very public about some of these attempts to overturn the election.

How do we view how his testimony plays in all of this?

MURRAY: It's interesting they're talking to him so late in the game. He is such an obvious person. We knew so much about that January 21 phone call, almost in real time.

This could be a sign that Jack Smith just wants to check the box, make sure the team talks to everyone that could be relevant.

It could be a sign they're looking more into what occurred in Georgia. We haven't heard much from the secretary of state's office. They basically had a statement that Georgia's elections are secure.

SCIUTTO: And quickly, do we know where this places the investigation in the timeline or do we know how close the investigation is?

MURRAY: People familiar with the case are pointing to this sort of flurry of activity. They say it feels like it's in the late stages. It seems like Jack Smith wants to check the boxes with some of these people, get some interviews he's done. So we'll see.

SCIUTTO: We will be watching.

Sara Murray, thank you so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: The other focus of the special counsel's probe of the former president centers on his alleged mishandling of classified documents. And now Trump is scrambling to defend himself after a key piece of the prosecution's case was made public.

In the 2021 recording of Trump, he discusses and potentially physically holds -- it certainly sounds like it -- a classified document he kept after leaving the White House.

I want to bring in CNN's Alayna Treene.

Really, Alayna, it sounds like Trump has a new excuse here.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: He's said a number of things to defend himself regarding the audio that we obtained. But even then, knowing that audio, people had said he waved around a classified document with staffers in the room who did not have security clearances.

So his most recent response is, of course, he denies any wrongdoing. That's something he's maintained repeatedly since the indictment.

But at first, initially he didn't even bring up the document in his first statement. He referenced different plans that were scattered on his desk, different copies of articles.

[13:50:08]

Let's listen to what he initially told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My voice was fine. What did I say wrong on those recordings? I didn't even see the recording. All I know is I did nothing wrong. We had a lot of papers, a lot of papers stacked up. In fact, you could hear the rustle of the paper.

And nobody said I did anything wrong. Other than the fake news, which, of course, is FOX, too.

I had a whole desk full of lots of papers. And mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So the thing here, Brianna, that I found interesting was again he didn't mention or deny having a classified document as he did in an interview with FOX News just last week where he said there was never a classified document there.

And also when he was talking about the plans that he had. We reached out to the Trump campaign, like what plans are you referring to?

Because we know that prosecutors aren't only interested in him turning over the original documents that he may have had in his possession but also any copies of documents. But his campaign told us they were political plans.

Donald Trump later on his plane coming back from New Hampshire told other reporters it was referring to building plans or plans for golf clubs. Some variation in what they've been saying.

And I think the other thing as well is he then later denied there was ever a classified document. He's kind of been all over the board here on his response here.

KEILAR: There were people in the room, though, right, who prosecutors can speak to and at least try to get some answers from them.

TREENE: That's true. And I think that's the part of this that is really so problematic and potentially damning.

One, we know the prosecutors are reaching out to people, people like Mark Milley, who was the subject of a lot of these conversations with regard to the document in question.

And also, I think just having the audio itself is really problematic for Donald Trump. And so I think that's something that they're really looking at specifically.

And the other thing, too, is the different variations of the different responses he's been giving to this, it is kind of a moving target for the jury and prosecutors as well as they try to nail down what exactly happened in that room.

And that's why they're relying so heavily on who was in that room and who are the witnesses who are coming forward here. KEILAR: And they'll be relying on his credibility, someone who does

change the story a lot. Maybe they will determine that they just don't believe what he's saying, which could be key here.

Alayna, thank you so much for that report.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Right now, more than 80 million Americans are under air quality alerts because of wildfire smoke continuing to push in from Canada. The worst air quality centered over the Great Lakes where code purple, or very unhealthy readings are being reported.

This is the view in Pittsburgh, and you can see that haze is covering some of the city's famed hot spots, famed bridges as well.

And live pictures from Chicago. You can see the skyline absolutely smothered there in what appears to be even smoot on this camera.

This was also the scene in St. Paul, Minnesota, today. The sky hazy just about the entire day.

We want to get to CNN meteorologist, Chad Myers, who's been tracking all of this for us.

Chad, how long are you expecting this smoke to be out over the Midwest?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, today will be the worst day. Tomorrow gets a little bit better because we're going to have some thunderstorms and that upward motion and the mixing of the raindrops in the atmosphere will kind of wash at least some of the smoke away tomorrow.

And then, Friday, it really begins to go down. I don't think we'll get anybody above 100 parts per million there. But right now, it is a real mess.

Now, the white stuff you see here, this is all cloud cover. White on the east coast and in the middle part of the country.

But it's this gray right through Indiana where things have been canceled, sporting events canceled, all the way through Detroit, into Cleveland. And it is just a mess all the way from Pittsburgh to the west.

This is a live picture from Earth Cam of Cleveland. Here's what it looked like two days ago. Here's what this camera should look like. You should see the lake. You should see downtown. But not right now. It doesn't look like that at all.

So this is unhealthy for some people to be outside today. Especially if you have to go outside and exert yourself.

Visibilities are down. Chicago only one and a quarter mile. So some planes even having to back up, spacing themselves out. This is the area here that we're expecting these air quality alerts

for today and for tomorrow. And then down a little bit for Friday.

Now, the fires are still going. This is the problem. We're still adding this ash. We're still adding these P.M. 2.5, these small little particles that can get stuck in your lungs.

They're still there because the fires are still going. And they're going up here in Quebec and Ontario. And there are still fires obviously going in British Columbia and Alberta and Saskatchewan.

[13:54:59]

But look at all the areas here in red that's unhealthy. And very unhealthy in the purple. These numbers you can see on purpleair.com, iqair.com, a number of places where you can actually see what number is near you.

I actually have a little machine that I can put outside and see what it is every morning to know what it is. In Atlanta today, our number was 28. That's a pretty good number compared to some of these spots that are above 200 already this afternoon.

Things get a little mixed up in the atmosphere. You start to see some of the mixing by 2:00, 3:00 as the air moves around, gets blown around. But still, this is tomorrow. And then obviously until Friday.

The colors are less. That's the good news. Boris, getting better.

SANCHEZ: Getting better. Still, that picture of Cleveland, Ohio, looked like the monitor had gone gray for a second.

Chad Myers, thank you so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: There are some new developments in the investigation into the "Titan" submersible. The recovered wreckage has just arrived back in Canada. You can recognize, in fact, the profile of the "Titan" from before the implosion, even when you look at these photos.

So what are officials looking for next as they determine why the submersible imploded, killing five people? We'll have that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)