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Uvalde Report Stirs Outrage; Viktor Orban Visits Trump at Mar- a-Lago; Biden Takes on Republicans in State of the Union Address. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 08, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:57]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Coming out firing, President Biden takes on Republicans and tries to put to rest any doubts from Democrats, as he delivers a State of the Union unlike those we have seen in the past.

Those same lawmakers in the audience, meantime, face a midnight deadline to prevent a partial government shutdown, the Senate needing to pass bills to keep the lights on for the government, a heavy lift in a sharply divided chamber.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, a new report on Uvalde leads to frustration and fury from the community from parents who lost children in the massacre and are still waiting for accountability nearly two years later.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here at the CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Today, President Biden looking to carry some Beltway momentum into battleground states.

Next hour, he will be in Pennsylvania after delivering the type of feisty State of the Union address that Democrats were hoping for last night, aggressively defending his record and his second-term plans.

Throughout the speech, he knocked former President Trump, though not by name. It was clear who he was speaking about, though, and he contrasted his vision on key issues like the economy and immigration against Republicans' more pessimistic view. The official GOP rebuttal detailed a so-called American nightmare.

CNN's M.J. Lee is on the trail ahead of Biden's arrival there in Pennsylvania.

M.J., another focus last night was, of course, the Israel-Hamas war. And I know you have some new reporting about a recent conversation between Biden and Netanyahu. What can you tell us?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, if I could just quickly take you back to a phone call between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu on January 19.

As you can imagine, the two leaders had a lot of heavy issues to discuss related to the war. And what sources tell CNN is that, at one point in this phone call, Prime Minister Netanyahu bristled at President Biden over some media reporting that had quoted some U.S. officials anonymously saying that the U.S. government was reportedly planning for a post- Netanyahu government.

And what we are told by our sources is that President Biden, for his part, basically swatted away that idea, saying that it was kind of farcical and essentially saying, look, why are we even talking about this? You are the current leader of Israel and the U.S. government, my administration is going to work with whoever the leader of the Israeli government is.

Both men apparently agreed and made clear in this brief exchange that these kinds of anonymous sourcing and quotes from U.S. officials were irritating. This was an exchange -- again, told to us that it was a brief exchange in this phone call -- just says a lot about this tenuous relationship that we have seen between the president and the prime minister that has become increasingly strained throughout the course of the war.

And what we know is that, of course, the war has had serious political implications for both of the leaders. And, increasingly, we are also seeing that, when it comes to the end of the war, their political interests are not entirely aligned.

And when we go back to last night and the State of the Union speech, there was just this incredible moment that was caught after the president had given his remarks where, on a hot mic, the president basically suggested that his relationship with the prime minister was at a crossroads. Take a listen to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I told Bibi -- don't repeat this -- I said: "You and I are going to have a come-to-Jesus meeting."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And this came, keep in mind, just moments after the president, in his State of the Union remarks, very strongly called out the Israeli government for not doing enough to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Take a listen to that moment from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: To the leadership of Israel, I say this. Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.

[13:05:07]

As we look to the future, the only real solution to the situation is a two-state solution over time. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And Israel, of course, was one of the many sort of tough issues that we heard President Biden having to navigate in his remarks last night.

And, today, we are here in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where he is going to be making his first post-State of the Union campaign stop. And we're going to see him taking some of the vision that he laid out for the country in yesterday's speech to a number of battleground states in the coming weeks, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, M.J. Lee there in Pennsylvania ahead of the president's arrival, thank you -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Well, the president was going toe-to-toe with Republicans and taking swipes at his presumptive opponent in November, former President Donald Trump was staying mostly out of the spotlight as he awaited a controversial guest today.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us now live from West Palm Beach, Florida.

Kristen, 13 separate times, President Biden mentioned his predecessor, but never by name. How did last night's State of the Union go over in Trump world.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, first of all, you say he stayed out of the spotlight. Well that wasn't by choice. He obviously was trying to get into the spotlight.

It's a little bit hard to do when you're not the president of the United States. He issued a prebuttal. Then he was trying to live- respond on his social media page through social, but there were a number of glitches.

It was clear while he was responding that he was growing somewhat aggravated at some of the things that Biden was saying about policies. He was saying Biden should not be taking credit for this. This is me.

But, unsurprisingly, today he has heard from allies and advisers, all of them telling him what you would expect to hear from loyalists to Donald Trump, that the speech wasn't good, that Biden sounded angry, that he was yelling, all things that are good to placate the former president.

Now, I will remind you he had set up a war room with his team, small team, here at Mar-a-Lago. They had gone through, watched the speech, responding in real time. We saw a series of personal attacks by Donald Trump, really fixating on Biden, talking about his hair, his demeanor, at one point really going after the fact that he was coughing, not that surprising, given that we know Donald Trump is a germaphobe.

He also attacked members of Congress and senators who have been critical him of him in the past, including Senator Joe Manchin, Mitt Romney. But one person that he heaped praise on was Katie Britt, the Republican GOP junior senator who delivered that rebuttal to Joe Biden, and probably because of some of the language she used very emphatically. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KATIE BRITT (R-AL): Right now, our commander in chief is not in command. The free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And I tell you, Boris, I'm sure you have heard the same thing that I have heard from Republicans, as well as from the general public, and giving her a hard time for her performance last night.

But I will tell you, when I talk to people in Trump world and when I really talk to Republican lawmakers, they all have a lot of sympathy for her. This is a thankless role. Almost nobody who does this gets high praise afterwards. And Donald Trump did give it to Katie Britt.

I will let you know that they have spoken recently. They talked a lot about that Alabama ruling. She is in favor of IVF, something that he said changed his mind or at least informed him on the topic. But, again, most people that I have spoken to said they were sympathetic to the fact that no one ever does a great job when they're delivering that rebuttal.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Kristen, she is seen as someone who is on a pretty short list of potential vice presidential picks. Let's pivot to that controversial visit that I mentioned a moment ago, Viktor Orban of Hungary visiting Donald Trump today in Mar-a-Lago.

Tell us about that.

HOLMES: Yes, so, this is just going to happen in a few hours. And we have asked the team, what is this going to look like?

They are calling it -- or at least one senior adviser is calling it a social meeting. And by that, they say it is a friendly sit-down between two people with no agenda. Obviously, it is hard to imagine a friendly sit-down between Donald Trump and Viktor Orban with no agenda.

But the reason why this carries so much significance is twofold. One, the White House did not issue any sort of formal invitation to Orban. Orban did not reach out to the White House for any sort of specific meeting with anyone from the Biden administration or the president himself, even though he is a NATO leader.

Donald Trump is not just the former president, but he is also the presumptive Republican nominee, and he could be president again. And what this does is, with a meeting with an authoritarian like Viktor Orban, gives us some insight into how Donald Trump might align himself with world leaders if he is in fact reelected to the White House in November. [13:10:00]

He has often been a fan of the strongman. In fact, one of the things that he said about Orban was that not a lot of people like him because he is so strong, but it's nice to have a strong man that is in control of the country.

That praise has been mutual between the two of them, and they are also aligned in policy. Now, the one really interesting factor here is that Donald Trump is technically a civilian. Yes, he is a former president, but the meeting between the two of them doesn't have to be released. There doesn't have to be any kind of official record, because he's not currently a world leader.

His team has told us that they will give us some sort of readout on what happened, maybe provide some pictures. But, of course, we will be asking our sources to try to figure out what exactly the two men are talking about, and if, in fact, there is no agenda, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Orban, a darling of the MAGA right.

Kristen Holmes live from West Palm Beach, Florida, keep us updated on that meeting.

Let's discuss with former adviser to George W. Bush and creator of "The Circus," Mark McKinnon. Also with us, CNN political commentator and host of "The Big Deal With Errol Louis" on Spectrum News, Errol Louis. Thank you both for being with us.

Mark, first to you.

The Joe Biden that we saw last night vastly different than I think some of the appearances that he's made in the recent few months, I'd say. Do you think that version of Joe Biden has a much better chance of beating Donald Trump than the one that we have seen perhaps not as polished in recent weeks?

MARK MCKINNON, FORMER MEDIA ADVISER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, it's the only version.

And I don't think it's overstating the case, or even being overly dramatic to say that, if Joe Biden wins a reelection, that we can trace it back to this speech as being largely responsible. Of course, a hundred other things have to happen between now and then. But this had to happen.

I mean, the narrative was really being said that Joe Biden didn't have the energy, didn't have the fight, didn't have the acuity to take on Donald Trump. And I think what we saw -- I mean, the criticism from Republicans, ironically, is that it was angry. Well, angry is a lot better than being asleep.

And so I think that what a lot of people wanted to know is, does Joe Biden have the fight to take on Donald Trump? And I think, unequivocally, that's what came across last night.

KEILAR: Yes, Errol, listen to this moment. It was after the speech between Congressman Jerry Nadler and Biden caught on mic. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): You were on fire. You were on fire today.

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D-NY): Nobody's going to talk about cognitive impairment now.

(LAUGHTER)

CUELLAR: Yes. You were on fire tonight.

BIDEN: I kind of wish sometimes there was cognitive impairment.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: There he is joking about it, but Nadler's saying, "No one's going to be talking about cognitive impairment now."

And Mark's so right. This was getting set. You had the Hur special counsel report where, what did he say, that he came off as a well- meaning elderly man with a poor memory? Do you think the speech dispels all of that?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know if it dispels it for every last person, but it certainly put some cognitive dissonance into the air, meaning, when the Republican response came up and he was described as dithering and diminished, anybody who had just watched the speech had to be wondering what the senator was talking about.

He was not dithering. He was not diminished. He's -- they set the bar so low. They criticized him so fiercely that, in a way, all Joe Biden really had to do was step to the podium and not drool on himself and speak in coherent sentences. He did all of that and much, much more.

And so I think, for those who might truly be on the fence, they really, I think, did themselves a disservice by pretending that the president is weaker than he actually is.

There are only a couple of really big events between now and Election Day. There's the State of the Union. There's whatever debates might happen, and there's the convention speeches. And he took really advantage of this first big opportunity to define his opponent and also to define himself, redefine himself as somebody who is vigorous and able to get the job done.

SANCHEZ: Now, part of what we were trying to watch last night as sources at the White House indicated that the president was going to try to bait Republicans the way that he did last year on the issue of Social Security and Medicare. We watched an impromptu moment from President Biden specifically talking about the issue of immigration, which, politically, has been seen as a liability for this White House.

I think we have that sound bite to play now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: That bipartisan bill would hire 1,500 more security agents and officers, 100 more immigration judges to help tackle the backlog of two million cases, 4,300 more asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in six months instead of six years now.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: What are you against?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: How did you feel about that moment, Errol, and whether it really sways public opinion how the White House has handled the issue of immigration?

[13:15:08]

LOUIS: Well it does make the case that the White House and the Democrats have to make, which is that these are Republicans who have called for all kinds of changes, and a very conservative bill made it through a bipartisan process, after which, on the explicitly political order of Donald Trump, they killed their own bill.

And that includes Senator Britt, by the way. She was one of the negotiators who put the package together. So, look, you're going to have maybe something that has faint echoes of the Harry Truman 1948 campaign, when he accused a do-nothing Congress of not taking the steps that they needed to take.

I think, on this issue, it gets away from some of the substance into just the core question of, are you here to legislate, or are you here to do politics? That argument on this issue works in favor of the Democrats.

KEILAR: Mark, I wonder what you thought about Katie Britt's rebuttal afterward. I'm always sympathetic personally, because it turns out it's really hard to talk for a long time live with a teleprompter, unless you're Boris Sanchez.

SANCHEZ: That's false. That's absolutely false.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: But what did you think watching it?

MCKINNON: Well, what I thought was that a lot of what happened last night was about expectations. There were very low expectations for Joe Biden. There were very high expectations for Katie Britt.

And she miserably failed to meet those expectations. And this was an example, I think, where somebody was completely overcoached for a speech. And it was so overly dramatic and so ridiculous to be in a kitchen. It was clear what they were trying to do. And I think it had just the opposite effect. For a lot of women, it's like it's sort of this Republican throwback to the '50s to put a woman in the kitchen. But the presentation was just disastrous. And, I mean, it's sort of going down in the annals of history along with Marco Rubio's response and the disaster that he had.

So, again, in terms of expectations, Joe Biden killed it, Britt was a disaster, really.

SANCHEZ: Errol, quickly, do you, I'm curious to get your thoughts on the rebuttal.

LOUIS: Well, look, I thought she did -- she was speaking to a very particular slice of America. And anybody who's familiar with the politics and the culture of evangelical Christians who are publicly active, that's really who she was talking to.

It was a base argument to her base. Unfortunately, it kind of freaked out the rest of us who were watching. And so she, I think, missed an opportunity to talk to a broader public.

KEILAR: Yes. Nice cabinets, though.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: Errol, Mark, thank you so much to both of you. Appreciate it.

LOUIS: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come this afternoon CNN NEWS CENTRAL: outrage in Uvalde, Texas, after an investigator hired by the city clears all local law enforcement of wrongdoing in the deadly shooting. And then the investigator abruptly walked away. Why he says the officers don't bear any blame.

KEILAR: And the U.S. is on the verge of another possible government shutdown. Can senators pass a spending bill before tonight's deadline?

Plus: He's back. Expelled congressmen and accused fraudster George Santos running for office again. Where and why he's throwing his hat back in the ring.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:22:57]

KEILAR: Frustration and fury growing louder nearly two years after the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

An independent report unveiled on Thursday cleared officers of wrongdoing, saying they acted in good faith the day that 19 students and two teachers were killed. You will remember it took 77 minutes for law enforcement to confront the shooter even as children were calling 911 from inside the school pleading for help.

SANCHEZ: Part of the reason for the frustration is that these latest findings diverge from multiple agencies who've called it a botched response.

Here's what a DOJ report found -- quote -- "In addition to the overall failure to appreciate the active shooter nature of the situation, responders also failed to act promptly even after hearing gunshots around 12:21 p.m., which should have spurred greater urgency to confront the subject" -- end quote.

The independent investigation led by retired Austin police Detective Jesse Prado did say there were many failures. But after presenting his report at yesterday's city council meeting, he abruptly left without taking any questions, sparking outrage and disbelief from families of the victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY MATA-RUBIO, PRESIDENT, LIVES ROBBED: Where did he go? Bring him back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has left the building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He gave his report.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He left.

MATA-RUBIO: Bring him back! I want you think about the people that you love most in this world, your children, a spouse, a parent. You think about them huddled together in a dark room with a deranged person with an AR-15.

Somebody calls 911. Help is on the way. Are these the people that you want responding to your loved ones? Guaranteed it's not.

FELICHA MARTINEZ, MOTHER OF UVALDE SHOOTING VICTIM: How does he sleep at night knowing that this is what he had to say? And he hurt all of us today.

There was cops already in there, and they didn't do nothing. They froze. Us parents, families were willing to go into that school, willing to give their lives for them to get them out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:25:11]

KEILAR: Joining us now is retired Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis.

I mean, looking at the findings here, Ed, looking at the process of this report, do you view this as legitimate?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: I do not. It's incomprehensible that someone could come to these findings after the facts have been laid out in a very extensive and effective report done by the United States Department of Justice.

They brought nine experts, police leaders, chiefs, and deputy chiefs from around the country in to take a look at this, people who have been through tragedies in different areas, in Pennsylvania and Aurora and in Florida. And their report was very comprehensive.

And then they bring in this single retired detective from a town a couple of hours away to come up with these findings that are just completely incongruent with what the Justice Department has found and with what we're seeing with our own eyes.

That's the thing that bothers me about this, is how someone can with a straight face make a report out like this, when we know that 77 minutes elapsed, there was gunfire occurring in the classroom at two separate occasions during that 77 minutes.

And we all know what the protocols are. I have been trained in the protocols after Columbine. Police officers all know they're supposed to go to the sound of gunfire, and that did not happen here. So how you can just exonerate everybody is just beyond me.

SANCHEZ: And to your point about contradictions, this new report details some key findings, that officers reportedly didn't have that rifle-rated shield that they wanted to breach the classroom at 12:21 p.m.

The state investigation said that state officers did have that shield. I'm wondering how much of a difference that makes, whether, with or without it, officers should have still gone, as you said, to the sound of gunfire.

DAVIS: Our training is to go to the sound of gunfire. The shield and a rifle-rated shield is much heavier. They call it a body bunker. It's much more effective in stopping a round, but you can't just wait all that time.

And if there was a shield on site, no matter what the shield was, and you still hung back like that, how do you explain that to the parents? How do you explain that to the community? It's just our job to go in there, as dangerous as it is. And I know it's easy for me to say that at a distance.

These guys are under withering fire from a military-style weapon, but there are children there. You just can't wait.

KEILAR: Yes, I haven't been shot at. So I always think about that as I'm trying to judge the situation. And there's this element, of course, that this is the worst-case scenario in law enforcement that they sign up for.

And it's become such a reality of American life. So I wonder, when you say this isn't a legitimate report, and it's someone from a town, Austin, who's doing this. Ed, what do you think is the reason for coming to this conclusion then? What is the motivation for putting out a report like this?

DAVIS: Well, that's the thing that bothers me most about this. What is the town attempting to accomplish in commissioning this report? Why was this done after the Justice Department report was delivered

some months ago? And what -- like, didn't -- were they clueless as to what the reaction would be from their constituents and the victims' families on this? I don't understand it.

You can hire an expert to tell you just about anything. I have known that after 35 years of going to trial on any number of cases. And if you take an incident and you break it down person by person, and what -- sort of a ticktock on every second that transpired, you can justify almost any kind of behavior that occurs.

It seems as though that's what happened here. But why would the city of the town of Uvalde need this? Why -- it just did nothing but inflame people. I don't understand the reasoning.

KEILAR: Yes, 21 dead. They waited 77 minutes. So many failures documented in this report, and yet no wrongdoing. It's just confounding.

Ed, it's great to have you and your insights on this.

DAVIS: Thank you. Thank you both.

KEILAR: Next: Congress finds itself once again on the verge of a government shutdown. Deja vu. Can they strike a deal before the clock runs out at midnight?

And another aid mission in Gaza reportedly turning deadly, as President Biden says on a hot mic it's time for a -- quote -- "come-to Jesus" moment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

We will have the latest on the crisis next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)