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Biden Warns Of Threats To Democracy, Targets Trump; Government Shutdown Nears, Congress Deadlocked; Menendez Rejects Resignation Calls Amid Democratic Division; Trump Skips Debate, Focuses On Union Workers In Michigan; Governor Hochul Worries About Shutdown's Impact On New York. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 28, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: With a potential 2020 rematch on the horizon,President Biden is targeting Donald Trump in a warning over threats to democracy. We'll bring you his address live.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And on Capitol Hill, no deal on preventing a government shutdown,but there is an impeachment inquiry hearing into President Biden,and sources are telling CNN the Republicans don't think it is going as planned. And one day after facing a judge,Senator Bob Menendez faces his Democratic colleagues,the majority of whom want him to resign. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

SANCHEZ: President Biden will issue a stark warning focused on the Republicans' presidential front-runner and his possible opponent next November. Specifically, President Biden will focus on the danger that he says Donald Trump poses to American democracy. Also new today, a House committee is holding its first impeachment inquiry hearing for President Biden. We'll have more on that in a moment, but let's begin with CNN's Arlette Saenz,who's live for us in Tempe, Arizona. That's where President Biden is going to speak at an eventhonoring his close friend, the late Senator John McCain.

So Arlette, the setting of this speech is very deliberate.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it is, Boris, and President Biden will be hereto talk about the late Senator John McCain, hearkening back to an era of bipartisanship that the president has tried to promote in his own time in office. But he is delivering this speech here in Arizona, a critical battleground state, which was also at the center of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

And it is here where President Biden is preparing to lay out his starkest warning yet of this election cycle about the threats that the former president and his movement pose to democracy. Now, according to some excerpts of the remarks the president will give, he's expected to say,there is something dangerous happening in America.There is an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy, the MAGA movement. He notes that not every Republican is part of that MAGA movement.

But he adds, there is no question that today's Republican Party is driven and intimidated by MAGA extremists.Their extreme agenda, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it. The president is expected to add, we have to stand up for America's values embodied in our Declaration of Independence because we know MAGA extremists have already proven they won't. We have to stand up for our Constitution and the institutions of democracy because MAGA extremists have made clear they won't. History is watching.

Now, this is one in a series of speeches the president has delivered during his time in office warning about the threats posed to American democracy by the former president. He did so also heading into the 2022 midterm elections. But the president and his team have been taking a very careful and deliberate approach in how they've been addressing the former presidentas these indictments and these trials are beginning to play out.

But now, we've really seen the president lean in a bit further as he's trying to make this contrast heading into a possible general election match-up. It was just a few weeks ago that the president, in a closed- door fundraiser, warned to donors that Trump and MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy democracy. So by speaking here in Arizona,the president is hoping to elevate and further lay out the stakes of what a potential Donald Trump presidency could mean if he were to be re- elected. But it also comes at a time when President Biden's own re- election prospects are uncertain.

You've seen concerns in polling about the president's age and his handling of the economy and also his handling of the job as president. But one thing that Biden's advisors believe is that these warnings about the threats to democracy, that this is something that will resonate with voters, and that is part of the reason the president is starting to make this case early as he could potentially be elected as he could potentially be heading towards a general election matchup against the former president.

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SANCHEZ: Arlette Saenz, live from Tempe, Arizona. Of course, we will bring those remarks to you as they come. Thank you so much, Arlette. Again, right now, House Republicans are holding their first impeachment inquiry hearing into President Biden already. Some inside the Republican Party say they are frustrated. In fact, one senior Republican aide calling the hearing a quote, unmitigated disaster. With us now, CNN political correspondent Sara Murray. Sarah, today's hearing not really playing out how some Republicans had hoped, especially given what their own witnesses have been saying.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, it's interesting listening to this hearing because Republicans on the panel are basically showing up like there aren't really outstanding questions when it comes to Joe Biden. You know, they're saying he lied to the American people. They're taking it as a foregone conclusion that Hunter Biden profited off the family name and that Joe Biden knew about this and somehow benefited from it as well. Again, all of these allegations related to Joe Biden are allegations. They're things that this panel has not been able to prove. They have not been able to show that any of the money from Hunter Biden's business dealings or other family members overseas business dealings went to Joe Biden.

And I think what is causing Republicans so much angst who are watching this play out is that the witnesses Republicans lined up for this hearing are essentially saying, look, Republicans have a lot of allegations. They have a lot of questions to ask, but they don't have a lot of hard facts to back it up. Take a listen to what two of the Republican witnesses had to say today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHATHAN TURLEY, CONSERVATIVE LAW PROFESSOR: I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment. That is something that an inquiry has to establish.

UNKNOWN: I am not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud or any wrongdoing. In my opinion, more information needs to be gathered and assessed before I would make such an assessment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: And again, these are the Republican witnesses today. So this is the kind of hurdle that House Oversight Chairman James Comer is going to face is actually trying to produce evidence to prove that Joe Biden was somehow involved in this, something he's been unable to do so far. And he's doing it all against the backdrop of this looming government shutdown. That's something that Democrats on the panel have not allowed Republicans to forget throughout the course of this hearing today. Boris.

SANCHEZ: This hearing currently in a recess will, of course, keep an eye on it and get back to Sara Murray. Thanks so much, Sara. Busy day on Capitol Hill.

KEILAR: It certainly is. And it's getting busier. We have some breaking news. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez told his colleagues he will not resign, which is what he has been saying. And he continues to repeat that. We have CNN's Lauren Fox on the Hill. He just met them in what was a lunch, Lauren, and he had to face these 30 senators in his own party who have been calling on him to resign. Tell us more about what you're learning.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, 30 senators who were skeptical of what they would hear from their Democratic colleague when Senator Menendez addressed them going into this meeting. I talked to one of those members, Peter Welch, who told me, what can he tell us? You know, there was cash and there were gold bars at his home. We are told, according to Senator Joe Manchin, who just left this meeting, that Senator Menendez vowed he would not resign. He did not address his political future. He's up for re-election in 2024. But our colleague Haley Talbot also caught up with Menendez as he left

this meeting with his colleagues. He told reporters, quote, I will continue to cast votes on behalf of the people in New Jersey, as I have for 18 years. And I'm sure when they need those votes, they'll be looking forward to me to cast those votes.

You can hear there some defiance coming from Senator Menendez, as he has said over and over again, he will not step aside from his Senate post. He will continue to serve the people of New Jersey. And this comes, as you noted, there are 30 Democratic colleagues, including the Democratic whip, calling for him to be removed. Senator Ben Cardin, who is taking over as the interim chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he told a colleague earlier today that he was still weighing whether or not he was comfortable with Senator Menendez remaining on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, given the sensitive information that that committee has to handle. Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah, because one of the allegations here, Lauren, is that he took sensitive, non-classified, but sensitive information about U.S. embassy staff in Cairo and shared that through his wife with Egyptian government officials. Do we know if any senator said, hey, what's up with that to him?

FOX: Yeah, we asked Senator Joe Manchin as he came out if there were questions, if there was sort of an exchange back and forth between Senator Menendez and his colleagues. Senator Manchin told us that there were not and there was not an exchange. There were not questions that were asked. It was simply Senator Menendez gave a statement and then left the meeting.

[14:10:03]

I also think it's interesting, Senator Chris Coons, who's a member and chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, he actually stepped out for this portion of the Democratic lunch. And just to keep in mind that Democratic senators have a lot of other issues to deal with besides just Senator Menendez. So Senator Coons entered and went back into the lunch to hear more about the state of the government shutdown. But that just gives you a sense of how serious Democratic colleagues are taking this. Brianna.

KEILAR: Very interesting. Lauren, thank you so much for the details there of that behind closed door meeting. We do appreciate it. And still to come, as he leads in the polls with a wide margin, former President Donald Trump is sticking to his strategy and will not attend the third Republican primary debate.

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SANCHEZ: It's a three-peat, sort of. Donald Trump reportedly will not attend the next Republican primary debate. The front runner for the GOP nomination skipped the first and second debates, instead taking his campaign to Michigan last night, where he attempted to cast himself as a fighter for union workers, despite a history of siding against unions. And he also spent a lot of time griping about his legal troubles. Listen. [14:14:57]

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just like you're fighting for your rights and your American dream, I'm fighting for my rights and fighting for my freedom against the coordinated, corrupt, very politicized forces of evil. I've never seen anything like it. It's weaponized justice. We have a weaponized justice system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Notably, his visit comes just a day after President Biden made history in Michigan, becoming the first sitting president to join a picket line walking alongside striking UAW members. Joining us now is CNN reporter Alayna Treene. Alayna, it seems like the general election has started before the primary has even ended.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORT: Well, that's exactly right. I mean, Michigan is not one of the early primary states thathis Republican contenders are focused on. And really, I mean, it shows that Donald Trump is very focused on Michigan. He knows it's a state that he needs to win over in order to be successful in 2024. Of course, Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016, thanks to the support of many people who were in the room last night. But he lost it to JoeBiden in 2020. And he's really trying to court these working class voters in states like Michigan and Wisconsin, Ohio, in order to give off that general election perception. But also, he knows he needs them to win in 2024.

Now, last night during that speech,he did try to show that he stands on the side of autoworkers. He said that he opposes the swift transition to electric vehicles, something that Biden has called for and that many worker sworry could cost them fewer jobs. But he also tried to recast a lot of his record from when he was in office, something that many union leaders argue was anti-union, pro-business. And Donald Trump as well had a message for a specific union leader, Shawn Fain, the president of the United Autoworkers. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you could speak to Shawn, he's listening right now, I'm sure. Shawn, endorse Trump and ou can take a nice two month vacation, come back. You guys are going to be better than you ever were. Because the other way you won't have a vacation, Shawn. And in a short period of time, you're not going to have a union. You're not going to have jobs. You're not going to have anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So a few things here, Boris. One is that the UAW has not yet endorsed in 2024. They did endorse Biden in 2020. And as you mentioned, Shawn Fain was there on Tuesday with President Biden. He walked the picket line with him and he's had only really negative things to say about Donald Trump since then. But Trump advisers do tell us that they think there's a divide between the union leaders and union members in their support for Donald Trump.

SANCHEZ: We should point out some of those members were very frustrated when Trump was president --

(CROSSTALK)

TREENE: Right.

SANCHEZ: -- and told them not to move away from Youngstown, Ohio, for example, because he was going to save their jobs.

(CROSSTALK)

TREENE: Exactly.

SANCHEZ: -- And ultimately, that didn't come to fruition. How was his message received last night?

TREENE: Well, it's interesting. If you look at the people in the room, it was an invite only crowd. It was very curated by Donald Trump. That's why you heard a lot of the cheering. It was many Trump supporters. There were some autoworkers, some current and former, current and former union members, including some who are on strike. But it was a crowd that they wanted to have there. As for outside of the room, I talked with many people, GOP strategists, Trump allies, and they told me that they actually think that this event that he held last night was far more of an effective counter programming event to the debate than his first counterprogramming event in August when he sat down with Tucker Carlson.

They said it's good to see him out there talking to these voters, talking to voters. They know he needs to win over and they think that was a good strategy on his part.

He remains head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to polling. So, Alayna Treene, thanks so much.

TREENE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, the U.S. soldier who ran across the DMZ into North Korea. He is now back on American soil. We have details on his return straight ahead.

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[14:19:57]

KEILAR: The nation is on the brink,and Congress is failing to come together in these final days.The federal government going to shut down herein less than three days if lawmakers do not pass a spending bill by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Saturday when the current funding expires. And the closure would mean nearly 4 million federal workers would get no paycheck after this weekend. Many would still work. They would just not get paid. The FDA and OSHA would limit or delay inspections. Disaster relief funds could be halted. Food assistance programs, too, would be impacted. And right now, the House and Senateare pushing separate bills, neither of which has a chance of getting passed through Congress at this point.

Joining us now is the Democratic governor of New York, Kathy Hochul. Governor, thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. We do appreciate it.

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D- NY): Thank you.

So this is obviously a big concern for states. What are your biggest concerns in New York about a shutdown?

HOCHUL: We have many concerns about this impending extreme Republican shutdown. First of all, we have thousands of military members in our state, people who are literally willing to put their lives on the line to protect our democracy. At the same time, their own elected representatives are undermining the foundations of our very country. I'm concerned about 400,000 children who will not get the food assistance that they need to fill their little bellies. I'm concerned about the safety of our passengers at our three regional airports. New York City is a major hub. If we don't have the TSA and the air traffic controllers being paid, so there's just chaos.I have disaster projects that are not gonna be worked on during this time of the shutdown. And so we are very concerned here in New York.

[14:24:57]

And what is so disingenuous, there's a lot of talk about the border by the Republicans, but their plan actually cuts over 800 border patrol agents who are doing the job we want them to do. So -- they're so disingenuous. They're so detached from reality. And states like New York and the nine Republican governors I have in New York, their own constituents will be hurt by this. They need to know that.

KEILAR: So you mentioned, are you talking about WIC or are you talking about SNAP when you're talking about that nutrition assistance to women, infant and children?

HOCHUL: Both programs.

KEILAR: Okay, I wanna ask you about that because when it comes to WIC, we heard from the secretary of AG, he said that there's really only a day or two for WIC. SNAP is going to be, that's what people know, I think colloquially is food stamps. That's going to be funded for much longer. Federally about, I think it goes into October. When you're talking about WIC, it really depends on what the state funding level is. How long does New York have before it's impacted? How many days, how many weeks do you have before those benefits stop going out to women, infants and children?

HOCHUL: Well, this is what we're deeply concerned about is that we don't know how long this shutdown will last. They have gone as long as 35 days --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: No, but for you, for New York, -- so federal,-- I'm asking because the federal funds only have like a day or two. So how long, how much does New York state have?

HOCHUL: We can continue a little bit longer, but I'll talk to my team. I don't think it's gonna go a lot longer than the federal government resources are there. And why they even have to bring us to this point where I have to worry about whether or not we're going to have programs in place to take care of women and children. They don't realize that they're just wreaking havoc in the lives of people all across America. And it's not just in states like New York, who we benefit from programs like stamp -- WIC and the food stamp program.

There's a lot of rural poverty in their districts. There's a lot of poverty throughout this country and their own constituents. These Republicans were ignoring, ignoring the collateral damage that'll ensue because of their ignorance and their inability to just do what's right. Then there's gonna be fallout. And I think they're gonna, they will pay consequences in future elections. And they should be aware of that. Everything they do is so politically motivated. They should be thinking about the fact that New York state, I have nine Republican governors who are not standing up for their constituents. And we're gonna make sure everyone is reminded of that.

KEILAR: Look, no doubt the stakes are very high for the neediest Americans. And we're seeing that. You are expecting for thousands of Venezuelan migrants in New York to be authorized to work. And I know that you have some questions about whether the shutdown is going to affect that. Have you gotten some clarity from the Biden administration on that?

HOCHUL: I'll tell you what I don't think is going to be good for us is that the Biden administration has sent 50, 60 personnel to work in their citizenship office to help us start the processing. So if they have to leave, they're not being paid or they're not able to reach out to a department of labor office or another social services office to make connections. It's going to stop our ability to get people out of the shelters, which is exactly what president Biden was trying to do when he granted TPS, temporary protective status for Venezuelans. And again, this is all about giving them the opportunity to work, putting them to work in a country, in a state that needs the workers. So Republicans don't even care about that.

We had Republican governor, Greg Abbott here in New York, trying to tell us how to manage the crisis. I said, go back to Texas, talk to your 25 Republican members of Congress and tell them to get back to work and help us out here. So I'm just, it's very frustrating as you can tell for all of us who are being affected by the inability of Republicans to do what's right for this country.

KEILAR: You want migrants in New York and not just Venezuelans, migrants to be able to work so that they are not such a strain on taxpayer funded housing there, social services. Does that mean that you want the Biden administration to grant them temporary protective status?

HOCHUL: Well, they do it country by country. And right now it has been dramatically helpful for us to know that the Venezuelans who arrived before July 31st, that they will have the opportunity to work within 30 days, within a very short time. My department of labor stood up a portal so businesses can let us know what jobs they have available so we can match the skills, which is what we're surveying right now, the skills of the Venezuelans. We'll have at least 15,000 people who can go to the 460,000 jobs I have open right now in New York.