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Pentagon Analyzing Potential Spy Balloon Near Alaska; Alaska Governor Signs IVF Protections Bill into Law; Biden Administration Staff Reveals President's State of the Union Address will Tout U.S. Economy and Emphasize Threats to U.S. Democracy from Former President Trump; U.S. Voters Prefer Former President Trump to President Biden on Handling of U.S. Economy; Approval Rating for President Biden Lowest in Recent History at This Point in a President's First Term. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired March 07, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Paula, it's great to have you. Thank you so much for pulling it all together for us. It's good to see you. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New details just in about the president's State of the Union address tonight, maybe the biggest speech of his presidency, the new tax proposals, the surprising guests he is bringing, and just how energetic his staff says he will be.

BOLDUAN: It's a new day in Alabama with a new law protecting IVF treatments, providers, and patients. What doctors and fertility clinics are planning to do now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And this morning, the father of a Michigan high school shooter will face a jury. His wife has already been found guilty in the first trial. Her testimony, by the way, could be a key piece of evidence in her husband's trial. Will he become the second parent ever to be charged and convicted in a mass shooting committed by his child?

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: Just in, brand new details of how President Biden plans to approach the State of the Union address tonight, a speech that the White House readily acknowledges has huge implications for the president. The White House this morning unveiled details of a new tax plan and revealed new guests of the president who will be in attendance. The president's chief of staff says voters will be, quote -- see, quote, a very energized president.

And just moments ago, the White House press secretary shared this about what the president plans to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He's going to talk about his unity agenda. There are issues, there are issues that both sides care about -- ending cancer, fighting for our veteran families. Those are important. Making sure we're getting fentanyl out of our communities.

And it is important for this president to continue to talk about our freedoms and how they are under attack. They are, in extreme ways by extreme Republicans. And so he's going to continue, you're going to see whose side he's on, the side of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House this morning. Arlette, a lot of work, a lot of preparation has gone into this moment tonight.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. And President Biden is expected to spend the day putting those final touches on this speech as he tries to use this big platform to convince voters to give him a second in term in the White House. This caps off months of preparation from his senior advisors who crafted the speech. And also the president, I'm told consulted, with presidential historian Jon Meacham, someone he's often turned to in these big moments to talk to the American people.

Now, the task at hand for the president and his advisers was identifying the priorities that he would push in this speech, but also trying to find a way to craft a message that will convince voters he is up for a second term. The president's speech is expected to focus heavily on economic issues. He is expected to call for an increase in the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, as well as setting the corporate minimum tax rate from 15 percent to 21 percent.

The president is also expected to address everyday costs that Americans are facing, especially on the issue of prescription drugs. He's expected to press Congress to expand the ability for Medicare to negotiate drug prices for more drugs. Right now that number is 20. He wants to get that up to 50.

The president is also expected to speak a broadly about the need to preserve democracy and freedoms. One of those key freedoms that he often speaks about is reproductive rights, which the administration and White House really believed can galvanize voters heading into December.

There's also border security, Ukraine aid, aid for Israel, all things that the president is likely to talk about this evening as he addresses lawmakers in the House chamber.

But another interesting dynamic playing out in the House chamber is who the first lady has invited to attend the State of the Union. Oftentimes these guests speak to the priorities that the president will discuss. And just to run through a few names of the 20 people who will be seated in the first lady's box, that will include Kate Cox, that Texas mother who had to travel out of state to seek an abortion after facing a life-threatening pregnancy. Also, LaTorya Beasley. She is a woman from Alabama who was undergoing IVF but had her procedure canceled due to the Alabama's a Supreme Court decision relating to IVF last month.

You will also see the Swedish prime minister who today, it comes at an important moment as Sweden is set to join the NATO alliance today, a move that President Biden had pushed for a back when Russia had invaded Ukraine. And it also comes as former president Donald Trump has questioned whether the NATO alliance should move forward.

So much of this speech, even if the president doesn't mention Trump by name, will be an opportunity for him to try to draw a contrast with the former president and Republicans. Of course, the president is facing a challenging reelection to fight in this moment, and one of his key tasks at hand will be trying to convince voters that he's up for a second term.

[08:05:08]

BERMAN: Arlette Saenz at the White House, it will be a busy day there. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Let's talk about one big aspect of the speech, as Arlette Saenz has just laid out. Joining us right now is CNN economics and political commentator and "Washington Post" opinion columnist Catherine Rampell. Let's talk about how Joe Biden is, according to all sources, is going to lean in heavily, Catherine, into his economic message, the economic winds, but also there's got to be the work to be done.

Let's start with the wins. What can Joe Biden, do you think, legitimately tout tonight and should at the State of the Union when it comes to the economy?

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: On paper, the U.S. actually looks pretty spectacular. I'm referring to things like unemployment being below four percent for two years. Inflation still too high, obviously, but has cooled significantly. GDP, a measure of the size of the economy, has beaten expectations quarter after quarter. And in fact, we are doing better today in the U.S. economy than had been predicted in pre-pandemic forecasts. So on all of those metrics, the U.S. looks pretty good.

BOLDUAN: You talk about on paper, and I think that's part of the key distinction, right? Because that the weakness, the weaknesses for President Biden, the weaknesses that the White House is even acknowledging kind of in these interviews in the leadup to the State of the Union, it is more -- it is a lot to do with not on paper, but how it feels. Where are the weaknesses?

RAMPELL: Exactly. There has been this sort of curious gap between, again, how the economy looks by traditional metrics, and softer measures like consumer confidence or views of the economy and the economic outlook.

For a couple of years now, in fact, Americans have been about as pessimistic and dour about the economy as they had been during some of the deepest, darkest depths of the great recession following a once in a century financial crisis. And there's been a sort of a puzzle about that.

In recent months, I should say, consumer confidence has been picking up. It's still not great, but there has been significant improvement in the past few months. And the real question has been, to what extent will consumers, obviously, continue that upward trend. And then to what extent will that growing positivity reflect well upon President Biden? If you look back to the 2012 election, then President Obama's reelection chances were considered kind of was iffy about a year out. But then as economic confidence grew, that reflected well upon President Obama and significantly improved his reelection chances.

BOLDUAN: And let's talk about some of the puzzle. You wrote about this in "The Washington Post" this week on how Americans, as you said, are feeling better about the economy. But the president, former President Trump, is getting a lot of credit for that. What did you find?

RAMPELL: Yes, it's very strange. So as I said, Americans look a little bit rosier, if not fully rosy, about the economic outlook. But then if you ask them, how do they view President Biden's handling of the economy or do they think Biden versus Trump if given a second term would handle it better, even though Americans are feeling more favorably about the U.S. economy, they seem to be -- they seem to be assigning credit, in some sense to former President Trump, which is somewhat bizarre. If you look at things like which candidate, if you're into the second term, would be more likely to get prices down versus up, about twice as many Americans give that, say, another term to Trump would lead to lower prices, as they say, of Biden.

And that's bizarre in some sense, because if you look at the actual policy proposals, while certainly Bidens handling of the economy and some of his policy proposals leaves some to be desired, if you look at what Trump has laid out, he has laid out a number of proposals that would pretty clearly make inflation worse. I'm thinking about adding a 10 percent tariff, that is a tax, on all global imports, things that consumers buy. I'm talking about things like slashing both legal and illegal immigration, so reducing the number of visas granted to farm workers who can come here. That would drive prices up, produce prices up, for example. Other things like interfering with the political independence of the Federal Reserve. That is crucial.

[08:10:01]

It's a little understood issue, but if in fact the Federal Reserve is not able to do which job, which is one of its two main goals is price stability, that would have serious consequences for inflation going forward. Other measures like big tax cuts that would drive up deficits, in the long run that likely to contribute to inflation. So there's somewhat of a disconnect between how Americans view Trump's economic agenda and what it would likely do at least on the margin to the things that American say that they care about.

BOLDUAN: Part of the, part of the puzzle for the Biden campaign, it'll be interesting to see what President Trump, how he addresses it tonight to begin. Its' good to see you. Thank you so much, Catherine. Sara? SIDNER: All right, let's break this all down. How do voters feel

ahead of Biden's big moment? Let's break it all down with the lover of data, the bringer of facts, Harry Enten. Let's begin here. What is Biden fighting against? His own approval rating, correct?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: That's exactly right. Lover of data, lover of pasta, lover of pastrami. Let's take a look at what the Joe Biden's approval rating has been on March 7th over the last four years. This is not the type of trend line you want if you're president of the United States. You go back to 2021 to 54 percent, 2022, 43, 2023, hey, maybe a little bit higher, but basically the same at 44. And now were at the bottom of the trough at just 38 percent on average. This is not where you want to be if you're the incumbent president of the United States with the election just months away.

SIDNER: It makes this speech so very much more important, and the pressure is on. What does this look like for past presidents though, at this point?

ENTEN: Yes, so if Biden is it 38 percent, that is lower than any president over the last 40 years. The tops was Ronald Reagan at 54. Bill Clinton was at 52. Bush and Obama, W. Bush and Obama were both at 49. And then right at the bottom, which is where Biden is closest to, was Donald Trump back in 2020 at 42 percent, and George H.W. Bush in 1992 at 41 percent.

Now, why is that important? Well, if you know your presidential election history, the two presidents on this list who lost reelection were Donald Trump and George H.W. Bush. And that's who Joe Biden's approval rating looks the most like at this particular point.

Now, look, we still have months to go until the November election. But if history is prologue, this is not the prologue you would like if you're a fan of Democrats or a fan of President Biden.

SIDNER: Does the State of the Union matter? Can that make the difference, or at least some difference in the popularity of a president?

ENTEN: It can, but on average, it does not. So if you look at Joe Biden, the average shift in his approval rating based upon the State of the Union, it's gone up by a single point. Now, if you're at 49, maybe going to 50 would be a pretty gosh darn big deal. But if you're at 38, going to 39 is not really much of a big deal. If you look at presidents since 1978, the average shift is zero points. In fact, sometimes they go up a little bit, sometimes they go down, but on average, it averages out to no shift whatsoever.

Now, why is that, Sara? Why perhaps is there no shift? Who are the people who tune into the State of the Union? Well, it's usually fans of the president of the United States. In 2019, a lot more Republicans than Democrats tuned in. Remember, that was when Donald Trump was giving a State of the Union address. Look at last year, what do we see? Plenty more Democrats than Republicans tuned in. So it could be tonight that Joe Biden is really just preaching to the

choir. Now, maybe some Republicans can tune in, maybe there will be some good press for Joe Biden coming out of the State of the Union that perhaps could generate some approval rating rise. But the fact is tonight he's probably going to be speaking to a lot more Democrats and Republicans. And of course, most Democrats already like Joe Biden.

SIDNER: And we know that President Trump, former President Trump has promised that he's going to do something while this is going on to try to pull people away. We will see what happens there.

But you know what, I love it when you bring the numbers, I hate it when you say 1900 and something. It makes me feel like I'm 100 and thousand years old. Thanks a lot, Harry.

Now you feel like the way that I feel daily. I was 65 at eight, and I am now 105 at whatever age I am currently right now. I'm not going to reveal that.

SIDNER: I can't. I just can't with the 1,900 and something. I love having, though. Thank you, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: John?

BERMAN: I like the honesty.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: A brand new CNN report highlights how President Biden's talk about the border has undergone big changes since he first ran for the White House before 2020.

The Defense Department just revealed new information about a potential spy balloon found off the coast of Alaska.

And would-be parents are restarting IVF treatment in Alabama after a new law passed, but does it clear up all the controversy after the Supreme Court there all but derailed the process?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:19:21]

SIDNER: Right now, the Pentagon examining debris found by fishermen off Alaska's coast to see whether it's from a spy balloon again.

About a year ago, US fighter jets shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that made its way across the United States.

CNN's Katie Bo Lillis joining us now.

What are you learning about this object in the sky?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, so Sara, the big news here is that the federal government now in a statement from the Defense Department last night, confirming for the first time that the debris that they've taken custody of and are examining is in fact some kind of balloon.

This all started last week when commercial fishermen off the coast of Alaska found some sea trash, shall we say, in the water that was interesting enough and suspicious enough to them that they took some pictures of it and reached out to law enforcement.

[08:20:07]

The FBI took a look at some of these images and said, this is suspiciously similar enough to the kind of surveillance balloon that the Chinese -- the kind of Chinese surveillance balloon that blew off course last year and flew across the entirety of the United States before the Biden administration shot it down, that they wanted to take a look at it and see exactly what it was.

So the FBI met this ship when it came into port. The Defense Department has now taken custody of this object. It's now at a base in Alaska, according to the Defense Department, where the DoD and other federal agencies will do forensic analysis on it to try to determine both its origin and its purpose.

But what the Defense Department is now telling us is that they do in fact believe that this is some kind of balloon. Open questions, of course, are whether or not it's some kind of weather balloon, whether it's actually a surveillance balloon that was operated by a foreign government, and how, of course, it came to be in waters off the coast of Alaska, Sara.

So we will be watching closely to see what the Defense Department and the federal government is able to learn about this balloon.

SIDNER: And we'll be waiting to hear those details as soon as you get them.

Katie Bo Lillis, we appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So IVF patients in Alabama are breathing a sigh of relief this morning. The state's governor just signed a new law trying to fix some of the fallout from that State Supreme Court ruling.

And opening statements begin this morning in the trial of the man who bought the gun his son used in the deadliest school shooting in Michigan State history.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:12 ]

BOLDUAN: At least to Alabama fertility clinics say they will resume IVF treatments after the governor signed a new law overnight aimed at protecting IVF patients and providers. A third clinic though holding off saying that the new law still is not clear enough to make them comfortable. The issue, we have been covering this extensively, that the law

potentially does not address personhood, which was at the center of the State Supreme Court ruling that said that frozen embryos were equal to being children under state law, which threw all of fertility treatments in Alabama into chaos and had state lawmakers scrambling.

Let's talk about what today means now, this very big day for Alabama and providers and patients in the state.

Joining me right now is Dr. Mamie McLean, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at Alabama Fertility, one of the facilities that was impacted by the State Supreme Court ruling.

And Doctor, you just told me that you are going to be able to start back up with treatments today after this law -- after this bill became law overnight. What does today mean for you and your patients?

DR. MAMIE MCLEAN, REPRODUCTIVE ENDOCRINOLOGIST, FERTILITY SPECIALIST AT ALABAMA FERTILITY: Today is a really special day.

I think embryo transfers have always held such important and so much hope but today is the day that we get to resume embryo transfers.

The patients were contacted last night by their physicians. We understand that they burst into tears with the joy that they get to receive the care that they need today.

BOLDUAN: And I was going to ask you what you've heard from your patients, because as I learned from our last conversation, when you were with -- when you came on with one of your former patients, that relationship is so much more than I would say a typical doctor-patient relationship when you're with them, when you're talking about fertility.

Talk about what you're hearing from patients.

MCLEAN: Yes, you're right. The relationship between a fertility specialist and their patients are incredibly close. It's very personal what we're doing and these are, I say, short-term, very intense relationships with our families.

There is nothing more special than seeing patients back to have a second child, and that's really filled our last few weeks as couples who've been successful, who want to have a second child, and the uncertainty posed by the ruling has been untenable.

So the ability to now say to these patients, let's go, let's do your embryo transfer, let's start IVF, let's build your family is incredibly powerful.

BOLDUAN: One of the clinics in the state that had put kind of some services on pause says that they are not yet comfortable to start back up.

I want to read for you part of what they said. What they say is: "At this time, we believe the law falls short of addressing the fertilized eggs currently stored across the state and leaves challenges for physicians and fertility clinics trying to help deserving families have children of their own."

Now Doctor, I'm not going to ask you for your legal analysis of what we're looking at here, but it does make me wonder if you think that more is needed to correct the fallout from the Supreme Court ruling if you think that more needs to be done.

MCLEAN: Sure.

We know this larger conversations are ongoing and certainly, we are concerned that long-term access to complete IVF care will always be under threat if this Supreme Court ruling stands.

We know that there was a poll performed over the weekend from Republican GOP primary voters in our state and then an overwhelming two-thirds are supportive of this question going on the ballot this fall.

So we think that there is a lot of support from a conservative Republican base to protect IVF access and ultimately that does mean addressing the Supreme Court ruling.

[08:30:12]