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Tensions in the Red Sea; CNN at the Forefront of Houthi Battle; Following House's Impeachment Vote Against Mayorkas, GOP Leaders Comments; Republican Leaders Address After Democrats Won Seat in Special Election in New York; GOP Defeat in New York Special Election Downplayed by Speaker Johnson; Rare Case of Human Bubonic Plague Detected in an Oregon Man. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 14, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Talk to us a bit about what you experienced.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Rahel, we were really on the front lines here of the U.S. Navy's fight against the Houthis in the Red Sea. The Houthis, an Iran-backed group in Yemen. They've been launching missiles and drones into the Red Sea, targeting commercial ships as well as U.S. and coalition forces in the Red Sea for several months now.

And it's really hard to overstate the really frenetic pace of operations on board the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier where we were embedded for several days with fighter jets taking off every hour, 50 plus flights per day. So, these fighters are in the air and ready to respond at a moment's notice if necessary to strike targets inside Yemen to take out these missiles and these drones as needed.

Now, we also got the opportunity to go inside the command center of a U.S. warship, the USS Gravely, which is the tip of the spear of this fight against the Houthis as well. That is the ship that most often, as long with other destroyers, shoots down these incoming missiles and drones that the Houthis have been launching. And we really got a sense for just how quickly the crew has to respond when they see an incoming missile coming out of Yemen. Here's what we saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All stations air, kill (ph) track 80306. I assess an anti-ship cruise missile inbound Gravely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kill (ph) track 80306 with missiles, this is Gravely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Break. MSS, kill (ph) track 80306.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MSSI, missiles away, 80306.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERTRAND: Now, this happens almost daily. These U.S. warships are intercepting missiles and drones on a regular basis and it's really taking a toll on the crew. They say they are prepared to respond really as and when necessary. And they are going to continue this mission for as long as it takes really. We spoke to a commander of Carrier Strike Group 2, which is in charge of the Eisenhower aircraft carrier that we were on. And he reiterated that as long as the president says that these guys are going to stay in the Red Sea to fight the Houthis, then they are going to stay there and they are going to do just that. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL MARC MIGUEZ, COMMANDER, CARRIER STRIKE GROUP 2: The sustainability, we can go for a long time. We've got our logistics train already mapped out to stay here as long as the president needs us to stay here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: So, he is saying there that the U.S. can outlast the Houthis. The Houthis have said, they are not going to stop their attacks on U.S. coalition forces in the region. They are not going to stop their attacks on commercial vessels there. The question now, of course, is how much is the U.S. going to be able to degrade and destroy their capabilities? That is a question that the officials on board didn't have a great answer for us for. Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yes, it's certainly a question a lot of people have been asking. Natasha, what a fascinating piece. I mean, obviously, we've been hearing so much about these missions over the last few months, but very rarely have we actually been able to see inside what happens. Thanks for the reporting. Great job. Natasha Bertrand there.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: All right. She called him unhinged and diminished, but wait until you hear what Nikki Haley now says about whether she will support Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BERMAN: All right. We are watching right now live on Capitol Hill. Let's put up the pictures so you can see it right now. House Speaker Mike Johnson addressing reporters. Just a second ago he said -- well, he's taking questions. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does that mean that House Republicans have a challenge in keeping the majority, and what should House Republicans do?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: No, the result last night is not something, in my view, that Democrats should celebrate too much. Think about what happened there. They spent about $15 million to win a seat that President Biden won by eight points. They won it by less than eight points. Their candidate ran like a Republican. He sounded like a Republican, talking about the border and immigration because everybody knows that's the top issue that is on the concern of the hearts and minds of everybody. That incumbent had been a three-term member of Congress and he had a hundred percent name ID and a deep family history in the district.

Our candidate was relatively unknown in that comparison and had a very short runway. She ran a remarkable campaign. You know, there was a weather event that affected turnout. There are a lot of factors there. That is in no way a bellwether of what's going to happen this fall. We are absolutely convinced. I've been to 17 states in the last 12 weeks. I'm telling you, whether I'm out west, on Long Island, in the Deep South, midsouth, in Midwest, it doesn't matter.

There is a fervor among the American people and it is bipartisan. People know that this country is on the wrong track. 74 percent in the latest poll believe that the country's on the wrong track. Why? Because of the leadership from the White House. They see what is happening. President Biden has the lowest approval rating of any president who has ever run for re-election. I think it's 37 percent in the latest poll. It goes down precipitously. And the reason is because of his -- all the things we've talked about today. It is a total lack of leadership.

And now, more and more Americans have made their own opinion about his fitness for office. And so, I think that's going to have a big effect in the fall as well. So, New York 3, was what it was. But that has nothing to do on the efforts going forward.

Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY AND CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: On the issue of immigration and New York 3, the candidate there seized upon the fact that you guys rejected this bipartisan border security deal in the Senate. Did you mishandle this issue and effectively give Democrats something to campaign on?

[10:40:00]

JOHNSON: No, not at all. Look, the American people are with us on this issue. I mean, they are with us because they understand you have to actually solve the problem. And the product that was produced by the Senate did not solve the problem. You've all heard us hammer over and over, H.R.2, right, that was our signature piece of legislation that we passed many, many months ago, last year.

And the reason that all those components are important, again, is because they have to fit together. That's got to solve the problem. You have to address all of them. The Senate bill didn't do that, and that's why it was rejected over there. We have to do it.

It's been mentioned that I've been requesting a meeting with the president for weeks now. A month. I've been asking to sit down with the president to talk about the border and talk about national security. And that meeting has not been granted. And I'm going to continue to insist on that because they're very serious issues that need to be addressed. And if the Speaker of the House can't meet with the President of the United States, that's a problem.

I don't know why they're uncomfortable having the President sit across the table from me, but I will go in good faith because we have to solve this issue and do every single thing we can. And as you know, he has a broad arsenal of executive authority that he could use right now, he could have used yesterday, he could have used months ago to stem the flow. That's not our view. That's what the law says, and we've spelled that out.

We also documented 64 specific actions that he took from the day he walked into the Oval Office and his agencies to open that border wide and create this catastrophe. And that is why we have a problem. We've got to get to it.

Scott in the back.

SCOTT: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You've talked about the challenge the president's cognitive abilities. You've said he is not fit to be president the way he can do the job. Why do you think that a meeting, a one-on-one meeting, with the president of the United States would solve all the big problems?

JOHNSON: Well, that's a very good question, but I have to do everything that I can. And he is the commander in chief right now. As uncomfortable as that makes, most of this country, and I have to work with what I have. I have to do my job, and I'm going to insist it continue to do that.

The House Republicans are going to continue to do our job. We're going to continue to move the ball forward. We're going to continue to demand that before we take care of issues all around the world, we take care of our own first. And I'm telling you, that is not a campaign message. That is the truth. And that is what resonates in the hearts of the American people. We are on their side, and it's the side of common sense. It's the side of security. It's the side of stability. It's the side of sanity. And the president of the United States will not acknowledge that. And it is a great alarm to us.

I'll take one more. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome back, Mr. Speaker. Great to see you. You have said that you want a meeting with the President, as Scott was saying. H.R.2 is dead in the Senate. You, yourself, were part of killing the Senate, compromised it, but you called it dead on arrival from what you knew. So, my question to you is, while you say there need to be solutions, what are House Republicans doing to get to a solution on the border and on Ukraine? Or are you going to actually do nothing? What is your proposal? What are you doing?

JOHNSON: No, we're addressing each of those issues. They're important issues on the table. We are not going to be forced into action by the Senate who, in the latest product the Senate's over, does not have one word in the bill about America's border. Not one word about security.

The reason that the other one was dead on arrival is because it did not meet the moment. It didn't -- would not have solved the problem. You can't leave giant loopholes and codify some of the things that have gotten us into this situation.

So, what we're doing right now is we -- the House is working its will. The House Republican conference, we just met an hour ago with all the members and there are lots of ideas on the table of how to address these issues. We will address the issues. We'll do our duty on that matter, and all that begins in earnest right now. We have to address this seriously. We have to actually solve the problems and not just take political posturing as has happened in some of these other corners. That would -- thank you. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about the government shutdown, sir?

JOHNSON: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, do you get those spending bills done in time?

BERMAN: All right. That was House Speaker Mike Johnson. They're speaking the morning after Republicans lost a seat out on Long Island, which reduces their already razor thin majority in the House by one. Interestingly enough, House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to turn that around and suggest that somehow the Democratic victory was a loss for them, he said that. And, or that it doesn't matter. It doesn't signify anything, even though the Democrat did run on immigration and the fact that House Republicans have spiked recent compromise measures to address the situation at the border.

One other interesting thing, House Speaker Mike Johnson did at the very top of his news conference and then towards the end, the very first thing he brought up were issues about President Biden's age. That's obviously something the Republicans have been talking about for some time. But since the special counsel report from Robert Hur out last week, it's now something you are hearing almost in an official way from Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson trying to make it an issue wherever and whenever he can.

With us now, CNN Senior Political Analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic" Ron Brownstein, and CNN Political Analyst and Washington Bureau Chief for the paper of record the Boston Globe Jackie Kucinich.

[10:45:00]

Ron, let me start with you. House Speaker Mike Johnson, with a narrower majority, it's like 50 percent narrower depending on how you count it today now that Tom Suozzi won out in Long Island. He dismissed it as either insignificant or representative of Democratic weakness. How accurate?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC: Well, look -- I mean, this was a district where if you look at suburban districts, really, north of the Mason-Dixon line where the terrain is probably as difficult for Democrats anywhere because their best issue abortion probably isn't as salient given the Democratic control over the state party -- state government. People aren't as concerned about that.

And on the other hand, you have the, you know, concentration of the migrant and crime issue in New York City that is broadcast intensely by the New York City media, and yet Democrats won again. And they won, you know, in a way that was very reminiscent of what we saw in 2022 and the elections of 2023 where, you know, Tom Suozzi himself said that Joe Biden was underwater in the district.

And yet, as we saw in those earlier elections, a substantial slice of voters who are dissatisfied with Biden still were unwilling to vote for Republicans. And I do think that Suozzi pointed them toward a message that is going to be about something along the lines of a modernized Truman-esque do nothing Congress. Republicans putting Trump's interests over the national interests on the border, Ukraine, and other issues.

BERMAN: Jackie, stand by for one minute. I'm going to come to you in just a second.

First, Manu Raju, our Senior Congressional Correspondent -- Chief Congressional Correspondent and anchor, who was in that news conference is with us now. Manu, House Speaker Mike Johnson spinning a little bit after what happened last night in Long Island.

RAJU: Yes, that's right. In fact, I tried to ask him about something that a lot of members have been talking about here in the hallways, it's about how they have handled the issue of immigration. Their governing majority here and whether or not he mishandled that in any way given that he would -- they scuttled the Senate bipartisan deal and essentially gave Tom Suozzi an issue to campaign on to push back against Republican attacks. He downplayed all of that as he tried to push their own. Republican messaging on the issue of immigration, a bill that they believe that they should pass is essentially going nowhere in the United States Senate.

Also, there's been a lot of debate, John, in the halls of Congress in the aftermath of last night. A lot of members blaming Republicans from New York who pushed out George Santos, said that that should not have been done to begin with. Others saying that that was absolutely the right thing to do. And some saying, frankly, the dysfunction in Congress is the reason why they are in the position that they are in. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): If he was found guilty, then yes, he should remove himself from Congress. And if he wouldn't remove himself, then the chamber would have a responsibility to do that. But to preempt that, to score political points was stupid.

RAJU: A lot of Republicans here are already blaming you guys for pushing out George Santos. What do you say to them? REP. MARC MOLINARO (R-NY): There are a lot of decisions that have occurred these last couple of months that have shrunk the majority. Perhaps George Santos, being honest, would have kept one more seat here in Congress.

REP. RICHARD HUDSON (R-NC): Republicans have got to take advantage of early voting, and we can't start so far behind.

RAJU: Trump is the one who has criticized early voting. I mean, are you guys still feeling the ramifications of all that?

HUDSON: Well, I think the president understands what we're saying. There's a difference between mail ballots and in person. And, you know, these are certainly conversations we'll have with the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that last comment coming from the House GOP's campaign chairman, Richard Hudson, who is part of that effort to try to get the Republican, Mazi Pilip, across the finish line. Indicating they're very concerned about the early voting, the lack of early voting among Republican voters costing them the election.

Of course, that is a debate over campaign tactics that they may have to have with their party's potential and likely nominee, Donald Trump, who has thrown cold water, of course, a mail in voting, early voting and sorts. But that is one big reason why Republicans are concerned about their prospects in the future.

So many issues here, John, about exactly what they need to do differently. But a lot of Republicans agree something needs to change ahead of November.

BERMAN: Manu Raju, thank you for running out from that news conference. It was interesting to hear your question and also what other members had to say to you.

I want to bring Jackie Kucinich and Ron Brownstein back into this. Jackie, I want to know what you heard most from the House Speaker Mike Johnson. Is that someone in control now?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: I mean, as for someone who said that he wasn't going to talk about your political talking points of political rhetoric, I heard a lot of political rhetoric and a lot of political talking points. So, the reason that Mike Johnson is even standing there as the speaker is because of Republican infighting. And we've seen this throughout the entire -- this entire Congress. They just can't seem to get out of their own way.

And that doesn't seem with what happened in New York. It doesn't seem like that's going to be any time soon. Be it, you know, inside the House conference, the House and the Senate conference. No one seems to be able to be going in the same direction, even though they all, you know, seem to be gotten behind their presidential candidate. Nothing else seems to be going right for Mike Johnson in terms of being able to lead this unleadable conference.

[10:50:00]

BERMAN: Jackie Kucinich, Ron Brownstein, thank you for sticking around, listening to the House Speaker Mike Johnson. We will wait and see what we hear next for him. There are some big decisions he is got to make about aid to Ukraine, not to mention, a shutdown that could happen without -- within days. So, thank you so much for being here.

Rahel.

SOLOMON: All right, John. Sill had for us a rare case of the bubonic plague. Coming up, we'll tell you how the disease, which killed millions in the Middle Ages popped up now in Oregon.

Plus, the streets of Kansas City are filled with a lot of red today, and it's not because it's Valentine's Day. We will preview the victory parade for the Super Bowl champs in a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLOMON: All right. Now to something you probably don't hear often. A person in Oregon has been diagnosed with the bubonic plague, which might make you think of the Middle Ages, but occasionally cases of this disease do still emerge.

[10:55:00]

So, let's bring in CNN's Jacqueline Howard, who joins us now. Jacqueline, this is certainly something that got all of our attention. How did this person get the plague?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Rahel, what we're hearing from health officials in Oregon, this person may have been infected by their pet cat. Now, the person was treated early on in the disease. The health officials say, there's very low risk of the plague spreading.

But what the plague is itself, it's a bacterial infection and it's caused if you do encounter a flea that is carrying the bacterium or it can spread if you encounter an infected animal like the pet cat in this case. And every year only about seven cases of the plague in humans are reported here in the United States. In the state of Oregon, this most recent case is the first confirmed case since 2015.

So, this is rare. The person was treated with antibiotics pretty quickly. The pet cat was treated. The person's close contacts were given medication to prevent this from spreading. But it does, you know, raise questions around how this does emerge occasionally, and the symptoms can include having swollen, painful lymph nodes, fever, headache, chills.

Again, there's no need to panic. The risk of this spreading is very low. But if you would like to reduce your risk, it just comes down to practicing basic good hygiene and preventing fleas if you do have pets. And avoiding contact with animal carcasses, for instance. So, that's what we know so far, Rahel. And again, this is just a reminder that this does pop up every now and then.

SOLOMON: Wow. All right. Good information, Jacqueline. Good to know that the Oregon man is OK, as is the cat.

HOWARD: Yes.

SOLOMON: Jacqueline Howard, live for us there in Atlanta. Jacqueline, thanks so much.

All right. John.

BERMAN: All right. House Speaker Mike Johnson playing cleanup this morning after Republicans loses a crucial special election. This makes their margin even smaller in the U.S. House. What does this mean for Democrat's hope to perhaps retake the House in November?

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[11:00:00]