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Biden's State of the Union Address; GOP Guests for State of the Union; Jim Messina and Pete Seat are Interviewed about Biden's Speech; Opening Statement in Trial of Michigan School Shooter's Father; Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) is Interviewed about Ukraine Aid. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 07, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-SC): Donald Trump's - you know, with his - with the names he's given to people has really been fun. And he could get by with that.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well -

NORMAN: But, no, it's time to support him and it's time to gear up for a good, long fight.

BERMAN: People do say things on the campaign trail, but people also, in the line of business you're in, make promises and say things that they either stand by or they don't stand by. You said Donald Trump rubber stamped massive increases in federal spending. You said, "Donald Trump likes to say he will drain the swamp. That was a winning message in 2016, when he was an outsider. Fast forward eight years and the outsider has become an insider." You said when Trump left the White House the DC swamp was alive and growing, just like our country's federal debt, which grew by a stunning $8 trillion under Trump. Do you stand by all that?

NORMAN: Donald Trump will admit that the swamp, and a lot of people that worked for him, that were -- supposedly had allegiance to Donald Trump turned on him. That's the swamp. He didn't --he will be far smarter when he gets elected about who he -- who he gets to work with. And as far as the spending, he would agree. I mean he came in at a tough time. But our financial crisis is the cancer in this country. And I think you will see a different Donald Trump on the spending front because we have to. We cannot keep spending. So, he recognizes all of that.

And I don't say that as a criticism. I just -- those are facts that we're going to have to handle that this administration simply has not handled. And the spending has been on steroids under him, as well as everything else that the Biden administration has inflicted on American people.

BERMAN: Congressman Ralph Norman, we do appreciate your time today. Thanks so much for being with us.

NORMAN: My pleasure (ph).

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Passionate, fiery, energized, not just what you can expect from this show, it's what the White House says -- is saying that you can expect from President Biden tonight when he delivers the State the Union. New details are coming in about his major focus this evening.

BERMAN: The National Guard headed to the New York City subways. The major step to address fears of crime and violence on the tracks.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: He took his son to buy the gun that his son used to kill four people at his Michigan High School. Will a father now be held accountable in the school shooting his son committed? Opening statements will begin very soon in the trial of James Crumbley.

We are following all of these stories and more. I'm Sara Sidner, with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL

BOLDUAN: So, tonight's the night that President Biden finishes this sentence, the state of our union is. And how he fills in the blank there is critically important to the president and the administration today, and also critically important to his chances to win a second term in the White House. You could think of this as the first major speech of the general election. We're learning more this morning about where President Biden will focus and how Republicans, including Donald Trump, are planning to counter that.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House for us this morning.

Arlette, what more are you learning at this hour about what President Biden is planning to say?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, President Biden is expected to put the finishing touches on his State of the Union Address throughout the day. His team has worked for months to prepare for this moment, trying to identify the issues to prioritize in the president's speech, but also trying to craft a message that will convince voters that he is up for a second term.

Now, one of the key focus of this speech will be touting economic issues. The president, in part, is expected to talk about efforts to raise taxes on wealthy and corporations. That includes new details that he will call for raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, and also increasing the corporate minimum tax rate from 15 percent to 18 percent.

The president will also use this speech to talk about ways to address everyday costs facing Americans. And that includes on the issue of health care and prescription drugs. He will prod Congress to expand the ability to negotiate under Medicare more prescription drug prices. That number currently stands at 20 drugs. He wants to increase that to 50 drugs.

A key focus of the president's re-election bid is preserving democracy and freedoms. That is also something that he is expected to touch on today in part as he's trying to draw this contrast with former President Donald Trump. One of those key freedoms relates to reproductive rights as the administration and campaign really believe that that will be a galvanizing issue for voters heading into November's election.

There -- then there's everything from Ukraine, how to address Israel. Also border security. And the president's unity agenda, which he's pointed to in each major address. And really this gives him one of the biggest platforms he will have in this campaign to tout his accomplishments but also lay out a vision for the second term.

[09:05:02]

Another dynamic that will be interesting to watch is the guests who are attending as -- with the first lady in the House chamber. That will include a Texas mother who had to travel out of state to receive an abortion, a woman in Alabama trying to go through IVF procedures, having it canceled due to that recent supreme court decision down in Alabama, also a key figure in the NATO alliance, Sweden's -- the Swedish prime minister, as Sweden is about to join the NATO alliance, something that Biden has pushed for.

But really, this is a high-stakes moment for President Biden as he's trying to convince voters that he is up for the task of a second term in office as he's expecting a very close race against former President Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: Arlette, thank you so much. It's great to see you this morning, laying it all out for us.

And you can see right there, John, the list who is in the gallery with the first lady, a statement of priorities, a statement of what you think is an accomplishment, and also a statement of the work you want to do ahead.

BERMAN: Yes, and, look, the State of the Union is not just a speech. It's the entire day. It's the run-up to it. It's the president meeting with reporters.

BOLDUAN: It's - yes.

BERMAN: It's who's in the gallery.

BOLDUAN: Yes, do they do the lunch?

BERMAN: They do the lunch.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: And then, of course, there is the Republican response as well, which we'll get to right here.

And we did just get in the full list of guests the Republicans have invited to be there when the president speaks. Each person, obviously, is a sign, a signal about the Republican messaging plan, as House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged Republican lawmakers to show respect during the speech. You just heard Congressman Ralph Norman from South Carolina saying that he does hope that Republicans behave in the chamber there.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is near Mar-a-Lago, where Donald Trump will be watching tonight.

Kristen, this list of Republican guests, who's on it? What does it tell us?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, well, it tells us what the Republican priorities are. And it really shows that Speaker Johnson is using this as a platform to highlight those priorities with one glaring exception. So, let's pull up the list of just some of the people who will be there with Speaker Johnson tonight.

The first one is that outlier. That is the parents of Evan Gershkovich. Obviously, "The Wall Street Journal" reporter who has been imprisoned in Russia. Speaker Johnson himself has come under fire for not passing Ukrainian funding so that they can fight against Russia. But the rest of this reads like a play-by-play of the Republican list of priorities. One, you have the parents of service members who were killed in the Afghanistan withdrawal. You have, on immigration, two NYPD officers who were attacked outside of a migrant shelter. You also have someone who was kidnapped in the Israel-Hamas war. You have people from cultural issues who have focused on that, an advocate for women's single spaces, as well as a man who has been outspoken on biological men in women's sports.

The other thing I want to point out here is what you talked about with Johnson urging respect and decorum. Sure, that is inside the chamber and he can say that to his members in his position. But what happens outside the chamber? What happens with former President Donald Trump, who is not necessarily known for his decorum, or respect levels, because we know Donald Trump plans to live post all about the State of the Union, reacting in real time, pushing back on his social media platform Truth Social.

The other thing I want to point out is what was launched earlier today by the super PAC that is aligned with Donald Trump. And this was an ad that started airing on cable, particularly on a program that Joe Biden is reported to really like, and this was hitting Biden particularly on his age and mental acuity. At one point a narrator even asked, could he even survive another presidency?

So, again, you have Johnson on one hand, you have this ad coming out the day of the State of the Union on the other hand. But, obviously, as we know, the issue of age, mental acuity, fitness for office, that's going to come into play and going to be a huge factor in this election in November.

BERMAN: Yes, although it is interesting, Donald Trump doesn't often talk about age specifically because he's not all that much younger.

Kristen Holmes, great to see you. Thank you very much.

Sara. SIDNER: All right, to continue the conversation, with me now is Pete

Seat, former White House spokesperson for George W. Bush, and Jim Messina, former Obama campaign manager.

Gentlemen, thank you both for being here this morning and good morning to you.

Jim, I'm going to start with you.

What must President Biden do tonight to change perceptions about him and his will to sort of fight back really hard to keep Donald Trump out of office?

JIM MESSINA, FORMER OBAMA CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, I think that's what you're going to see him do tonight. You have the White House chief of staff saying you're going to see an energetic and focused president. And he needs to answer one simple question, which is, whose side are you on? You know, elections need to be choices. When I ran President Obama's campaign, I said to him all the time, look, it's a referendum on the incumbent. The incumbent usually loses. If it's a choice, he will win. And that's the choice he's going to lay out in pretty stark terms tonight, but he's going to do it with optimism, he's going to do with hope, because that's one place President Trump just won't and can't go.

SIDNER: I do want to talk to Pete about President Trump, who says he is promising to fact-check in real time President Biden during the address.

[09:10:02]

The irony, though, cannot be overstated here after Trump was clocked telling more than 30,000 lies over four years according to "The Washington Post" fact-checkers who tracked his speeches.

Pete, what do you make of this new tactic by the president to try to do this on his social media platform?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, there's nothing new about it. It's campaign 101. Jim knows this well. Any campaign worth its salt has pre-written, ready to go, queued up fact check content for social media, for press releases, and it's like, you know, Pee-wees playhouse, when you hear the secret word, boom, you hit send and it goes out into the world. So there's nothing really new, maybe because it's going to be on his personal platform. There's something interesting about it. I would be more interested if he did this mystery science theater 3,000 style and was actually doing live commentary during the State of the Union.

SIDNER: All right. Three years ago the Capitol was under attack. Donald Trump was president. He refused to calm or condemn the violence for hours. And yet here we are with these poll numbers, and these are poll of polls. And all four of the polls that you're about to look at, Donald Trump is up. And it's within the margin of error, but up in four points in two, and two points in the other. Jim, is there something, after looking at this polling, and this is just a snapshot in time, but something that Joe Biden can do to begin to change these polling numbers tonight with his State of the Union speech?

MESSINA: Well, its a perfect time for the State of the Union speech because now voters are starting to grapple with the fact that it's going to be Biden versus Trump. Some 70 percent a week ago said they didn't think that was going to be the matchup, 80 percent, that's not the matchup they wanted. But this is the matchup they're going to get. And so people are going to start thinking about, OK, how do I make this choice?

And tonight really is one of the two moments that an incumbent president of the United States gets to make his case directly to the public, the State of the Union and his speech at the Democratic National Convention. So, it's a high-stakes moment for him to look at the country and say, here's what I'm doing to make your life better, and here's what the other side isn't doing. And I think that kind of contract is what we need in this race.

SIDNER: All right, Pete, one of the people that is being brought to this State of the Union by the Democrats, by Biden, is someone who had to leave her state because she -- her life was in danger and she had to get an abortion outside of the state because of the laws there, the overturning of Roe versus Wade and that sort of knock on effect that we've seen, like the decision by Alabama's supreme court that had an effect on IVF and stopped it there for a while. Is this something that Republicans are worried about?

SEAT: Well, it should be. The Republican Party does not have a consistent message on the issue of abortion. But I think these guests up in - up in the balcony with the first lady and the laundry list of policy proposals get lost in all the coverage. People are watching -- this is a made for TV event. And what does that mean? They're not necessarily listening, they're watching. What do they see on that screen? And he needs to, tonight, assuage not just economic anxiety concerns, but concerns about his age.

The good news for Joe Biden, this is a very body language friendly event, so he should be able to at least clear that bar for tonight. But I think the American people are going to be watching more than listening to this speech.

SIDNER: Pete Seat, Jim Messina, thank you both for that analysis. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: We need more body language friendly events. Just saying.

SIDNER: Like our set?

BOLDUAN: Like our - what? Perfect.

SIDNER: I mean -

BOLDUAN: All right, coming up for us, a crime crackdown in New York City. Why the National Guard is being called in now to help the city's subways.

And the Russian defense ministry is claiming responsibility for the strike in Ukraine that came so close to President Zelenskyy he said he could hear it and see it.

Right now, James Crumbley on trial. Opening statements will be -- should be happening any minute in the trial to decide if the father of the Michigan school shooter should also be held criminally responsible.

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[09:18:32]

BERMAN: Any minute now, opening statements set to begin in the trial of the Michigan school shooter's father. Just weeks after his wife, Jennifer Crumbley, was found guilty of manslaughter, James Crumbley is now on trial on the same charges.

CNN's Jean Casarez is with us now. And, again, these opening statements are about to start any second now.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes. The judge is giving instructions right now, which happens in this jurisdiction right before the opening statements began.

But, once again, this is a precedent setting case because this is a homicide case. And this father is on trial with the prosecution saying, you are responsible for the four deaths at Oxford High School. You didn't pull the trigger, your son independently did it, but you are the one that needs to be held responsible here. And it's 15 years in prison he's looking at. And it's precedent setting because this is the first time that a parent has ever been charged with this.

And one big issue that he has against him is he bought the gun for Ethan. It was Black Friday, four days before, Ethan was begging for it. He went to the gun store with him and he got it. He was the registered owner. And that assumes a responsibility. Even as an adult with a child in the home, you have a responsibility when you have a gun in the home.

And prosecutors -- I just heard part of the instructions of the jury, storing the gun and ammo so that the shooter was - so the shooter was able to find it.

BERMAN: Again, his wife was convicted weeks ago. He's on trial for the same charges, but it's interesting because as you note, this was always considered, I think, not -- not a tougher case, the easier case for him, a tougher for him because he did buy the gun.

[09:20:03] CASAREZ: Tougher for him because he did buy the gun. But when they went into the sheriff's department right after the shooting, he sat down, he said, I hid the gun. I hid the gun in the armoire and I hid the bullets in another place. And so the jurors -- you know, during jury selection there are a lot of gun owners on that jury and they talked about the care that they have with their gun. One potential juror yesterday said that I -- I store my gun unloaded in a case. Another person said, I store it unloaded in a locked safe. But if he hid the gun, will jurors give him a little bit of slack there because Ethan, obviously, found it. James didn't put it in his hand.

BERMAN: We will watch this very closely.

Jean Casarez, thank you very much.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, what does it mean for actor Alec Baldwin, who now has a case against him, now that the woman who was in charge of weapons on the set of "Rust" has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter?

Also, Hamas leaders have -- leave ceasefire and hostage talks in Cairo, dimming hopes of reaching any deal within weeks.

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[09:25:55]

BOLDUAN: This morning, the Russian defense ministry is taking responsibility for a high precision missile strike on the Port of Odessa in Ukraine. Now those strikes came extremely close to a convoy carrying Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and the prime minister of Greece. At least five people were killed in that attack. And this was likely -- really is kind of being described as the closest call yet for the Ukrainian president in the two years long war.

Russia stepped up its strikes on that region in recent days, forcing Ukraine to fall back from some long-held and strategically located towns. And while future U.S. aid to Ukraine remains stalled in Congress and caught in a political quagmire.

Let's talk about this. Joining me right now is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Congressman Michael McCaul.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for coming in.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: You seem fairly confident that funding for Ukraine is going to get a vote - get a vote in the House, maybe even this month. I mean there's been bipartisan support for this funding for months, it's just getting it to the floor that's been a real problem. What's changed? MCCAUL: I think the urgency of the moment, I think you're, you know,

what you talked about, what's happening right now in Ukraine, it's getting very dire. We don't have a whole lot of time. And I think leaders that are responsible in the Congress, on both sides of the aisle, understand this. And we expect a vote on the floor.

I've talked to the speaker. Once we get through the normal appropriations process this month, the first thing that should hit the floor after that would be the emergency supplemental bill that talks about both Ukraine, but also Israel and Indo-Pacific.

I'm working on a draft and we have to have a House version of this. It won't be all that different from the Senate, but it will have things like the Repo Act, which allows us to attach Russian sovereign assets, to be able to tap into those resources so that Russia has to pay for their own war crimes. And also things like a loan program for direct government assistance. Those things together, I will tell you, Kate, they're the majority of the majority on both sides of the aisle. We can pass this bill today if it was on the floor. We have that support on both sides, you know, of the aisle. It's going to be imperative that we get it on the floor after we get through this appropriations cycle.

BOLDUAN: You talked about the majority of majority. There are Republicans, though, like I've heard Marjorie Taylor Greene I think it was maybe a month plus ago have said that she'd make the move to kick out Speaker Johnson from the role if the House passes more Ukraine aid. I mean do you think that threat is real and exists today?

MCCAUL: Yes, I do. I mean that is part of the problem is this threat of putting a gun to the speaker's head that if you put this on the floor we're going to oust you as speaker. But I will tell you, I think there's not a lot of -- I don't think my colleagues, and, frankly, many Democrats, don't want to see us go through what we went through last fall and basically impede any progress in the Congress for a month and get nothing done. And I think even the Democrats understand, if that is done, a motion to vacate the chair, that that would be extremely unwise and would delay a Ukraine funding bill even more so.

We can't -- time is not on our side in Ukraine. And if it gets delayed, even a month more because of a vacated the chair, I think even the Democrats understand, unlike with Kevin McCarthy, they understand in this case that that would be fatal.

BOLDUAN: So, let me ask about Israel because this morning Hamas negotiators left Cairo today with no breakthrough on negotiations. Israel saying they don't believe them when they say they don't know which hostages are alive and which are dead.

[09:30:02]

What is your sense and what are you hearing but how real the negotiations are here for hostages and cease fire?