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Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) On Johnson's Defiance Amid Growing Threat To His Speakership; U.S. To Impose New Sanctions On Iran After Missile Attack On Israel; Biden To Call For Tripling Tariffs On Chinese Steel And Aluminum. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 17, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: With us now is Democratic congressman from New York, Tom Suozzi. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

Before we get into the speaker's job, I want to talk about aid to Ukraine. You were just there. Why do you think this aid is so important?

REP. TOM SUOZZI (D-NY): The Ukrainians are desperate. They need our help right now. There were power plants destroyed last night. There are missiles coming in. They're running out of ammunition.

As the prime minister of Japan said the other day, the United States is the indispensable nation. They need us right now.

There are some people that are just sad and anxious and frustrated by the behavior of the United States of America. There are other people, including allies of ours, that are mad at us. We have got to help save Ukraine, beat back Vladimir Putin, and really, do our job.

BERMAN: Given that you feel that way, when you see Republicans in the House of Representatives threaten the speaker's job for merely discussing putting a bill on the floor to aid Ukraine, what's your reaction?

SUOZZI: It's pathetic. It's irresponsible. It's immoral.

We see that there -- we see that they're Republicans. Most of the Republicans want to support this bill. They want to support Ukraine, and Israel, and Taiwan. They want to get the humanitarian aid. They want to get the military aid. They want to do it.

It's a small group of jokesters that have to be stopped who are parroting -- according to very senior Republicans, are parroting Vladimir Putin's talk points. So we have got to show them that the emperor has no clothes.

I will vote to keep Johnson as speaker. Just do your job and put it on the floor, and let's get this thing done already.

BERMAN: So you will not support a motion to vacate. You would stand in the way of a Republican effort to basically oust him.

SUOZZI: Absolutely. It's -- and I think other Democrats will as well if he puts Ukraine on the floor and doesn't put a bunch of extraneous stuff on the bill. I'm ready to do that. I said that three weeks ago.

BERMAN: Yeah.

SUOZZI: And we have -- we've got to forget about Democrat-Republican. This is serious business -- life and death. This is the future of democracy. People are counting on us all over the world. We have got to get out of this small little petty mindset and think about we have really important jobs to do and we need to do them.

BERMAN: How do you think the speaker feels about the fact that he may only be able to stay in his job because of the help of Democrats like you?

SUOZZI: You know, I don't agree with Mike Johnson on a lot of things. I started with him in Congress. But the bottom line is I think he's a good person and he wants to do the right thing.

Now he's got to stand up and show us that that's the case. And he's got to stand up to these people that are parroting Putin's talk points and get the support for Ukraine. Get the support for Israel. Get the support for the Indo-Pacific.

Let's do our jobs. This is, like I said, very serious business.

BERMAN: Now, as we were coming to air, I had not seen that there is text of this legislation. In other words, Mike Johnson was talking about it for the last few days but they haven't produced.

Do you worry that maybe he's getting cold feet here?

SUOZZI: I don't think he's going to get cold feet. I mean, I just can't imagine it. I think it's just too important and he knows how important this is. He knows how serious an issue it is.

I'm concerned that we haven't seen the text, you know, but it may be -- maybe we're just going to do the Senate bill that was proposed in the first place and not do all these different machinations. We can't put a bunch of extraneous stuff in here. We've got to get this done as close to the Senate bill as possible.

Now, they want to break it up into the four pieces to maybe get it so we don't have to go through suspension votes.

I don't know if your viewers are aware, but if you pass things out of the Rule Committee, they just need a majority. If you don't go through the Rule Committee, you have to get a supermajority. So if it goes through the Rules Committee, then you just need a majority. If it doesn't go through the Rules Committee, you need 290 people.

So I feel very confident that we can get the majority on each of these different issues. The supermajority -- you know, I think we can do it but it's going to be much tougher. BERMAN: Look, our viewers understand this kind of stuff. You'd be shocked how much they know about House rules.

Congressman, I'm old enough to remember when you won a special election and I was standing in Carle Place. I think it was February 13 when it all happened.

Is this what you signed up for when you wanted to get back to Congress?

SUOZZI: You know, I believe in public service, and I want to get things done, and I want to help people. And I think one of the most important things that we need to do right now is to get beyond this division. Get beyond this petty partisan attacking and remember why we got into politics in the first place -- to actually help people.

And I was really shocked when I got here how discouraged so many people are in Congress. They're just so -- you know, why'd you come back? You know, it's so terrible.

Well, this is a chance to change that. Let's turn the page. Let's work together --

[07:35:02]

BERMAN: I mean --

SUOZZI: -- across party lines and help people.

BERMAN: One of the things you ran on was immigration, and you had been critical of the White House for what it had not been able to do on the border. What has the White House done since you were sent back to Congress mid-February to make things better?

SUOZZI: I think the president gave a very strong speech in the State of the Union. It's slipped off the front pages since then. I think it's going to come back on once we get through this crisis of this financial aid bill for our allies -- Ukraine, and Israel, and Taiwan. I'm going to keep on working with my colleagues to try and find a bipartisan solution to push this through.

The Senate bill -- which was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, by The Wall Street Journal, by the president of the Border Patrol union who is a big Trumper -- made a lot of sense. You can't get a more conservative, ethical, trustworthy, hardworking Republican senator than James Lankford. So, you're not going to do better than that.

So let's get together. Let's actually solve the problem and stop all the B.S.

BERMAN: Congressman Tom Suozzi from New York -- from Long island -- great to see you this morning. Thank you very much -- Kate.

SUOZZI: Thanks so much. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And he says he was surprised how discouraged people were. It's hard not to be discouraged when you see -- I mean, today is a perfect example of what's happened on Capitol Hill. Regardless, hope springs eternal for Tom Suozzi.

Coming up, let's turn to this right now -- a steady drumbeat of pressure. The Biden administration now promising to hit Iran with new sanctions. These targeting Iran's missile and drone programs in response to Iran's brazen attack on Israel last weekend.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan -- he's now saying that the sanctions will also target entities supporting Iran's defense ministry.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem with much more on this. Nic, some suggest this is a subtle message to Israel that they can exact a price on Iran without escalating things further.

What are you picking up?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, the idea that they can even count it as a win last weekend. The fact that their defense systems worked so well and keep all that international support. But you're seeing today in the flesh -- in person -- that international pressure on Israel to not escalate the situation in the region.

British Foreign Sec. Lord Cameron here, and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock here as well. Cameron's position here, very clearly, and his understanding as well I think significant at this time as we will try to figure out what Israel is going to do. The British assessment -- Israel is going to strike back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: It's clear the Israelis are making a decision to act. We hope they do so in a way that does as little to escalate this as possible and in a way that, as I said yesterday, is smart as well as tough. But the real need is to refocus back on Hamas, back on the hostages, back on getting the aid in. Back on getting a pause in the conflict in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And the message those two foreign secretaries getting back from Israeli officials is look, thank you very much for all the support over the weekend to help and defend Israel. We want you to now give us diplomatic support. But the G7 meeting coming up and the U.N. meetings that will happen around this to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

And look, people here are concerned about what the international community thinks and the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One poll that we haven't been able to fully verify -- but it suggests that three-quarters of people here really do want the leadership to listen to what international allies are saying because they don't want to lose that significant defense support that they have.

And I was speaking last night with a former senior defense official here -- intelligence official here who was actually involved in two of Israel's most significant strikes back -- threats in the region. He was the fighter pilot that dropped a bomb on Iraq's nuclear reactor back in '98 -- 1981 and 2007. He put together the plan to take out Syria's nuclear reactor as well.

Look, his read of the situation is Iran reads this increasing tension between the United States, particularly between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu, is being read by Iran as weakness, and that was why Iran believed it could strike back over the weekend.

So this support from the international community for Israel is a vital part of Israel's defense, and that's why people feel strongly about it.

BOLDUAN: So interesting. Thanks for coming on, Nic. It's great to see you. Great reporting as always.

The Biden administration has been touting its work to convince big drug companies to cap the price of inhalers and to help people pay for their inhalers and not bust their budgets -- to cap them to $35.00. But this morning, parents and doctors are warning that there's something of a big loophole here -- inhalers for children left out.

[07:40:00]

CNN's Meg Tirrell has more on this and she's joining us now. Meg, what's going on?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, it's really just about the companies that made these pledges for $35.00 a month out-of- pocket for asthma inhalers and the companies that make specific daily inhalers that kids with asthma -- the youngest children -- rely on to make sure that they don't have asthma attacks.

There are different companies, unfortunately. So the three major drugmakers that committed to these $35.00 caps are GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, and AstraZeneca. Unfortunately, none of those three major drugmakers make three of the drugs that kids rely on -- the youngest children -- to prevent asthma attacks.

Those asthma inhalers are called generic fluticasone -- or Flovent -- that used to be made by GSK but it took the branded version off the market in January and a different company makes the authorized generic version.

Another one is called Asmanex and one is called Alvesco. Now, these can be $100.00 to $300.00, or even more per month out-of-pocket. Even with insurance coverage, if that comes in -- and it doesn't always -- these can be very expensive.

And what's important to know about these is little kids need this kind of device. This is called a spacer. You have a metered dose of haler that basically gives you an aerosol. And little kids can just breathe out of this face mask and that makes sure they get their medication.

Those three drugs are the only ones that can work for these little kids. And doctors and parents are telling us they can't get these because a) their insurance might not cover them; b) one of them is in shortage -- Asmanex; and they can just be really, really hard to find. So it's quite a problem.

BOLDUAN: With that in mind, what are families doing? What are you hearing?

TIRRELL: Yeah. So we've heard from families that this kind of led them on these sort of odysseys trying to get their medications. Their doctors are fighting with insurance companies.

We talked with one mom, Julie Leach, whose 13-year-old daughter Abby has a rare disease that restricted her lung development. She was doing really well on Flovent until the discontinuation came and her insurance stopped covering the drug. Her doctor at Johns Hopkins, Christi Sadreameli, and her team had to sort of fight with insurance. It took six weeks, finally, for them to get a drug that worked. And in that time, Abby had to go without her medication.

So families are really, really concerned about this and doctors are, too.

BOLDUAN: That is maddening, especially when you've found the medication that works for your kid. That is maddening to imagine.

Meg, thank you very much for the reporting -- John.

TIRRELL: Yeah.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, one restaurant in Italy is making a proposition to diners. If you put your cellphone under lock and key during your meal, they will give you a free bottle of wine. The owner of the restaurant said for too many people, technology is like a drug. This way, they have an opportunity to put it aside and drink some good wine.

According to him, 90 percent of customers have opted in. It is unclear how many, after a bottle of wine or two, forgot they ever had cellphones.

Pennsylvania could be the key swing state in this election. We have new reporting on what President Biden will offer to a key bloc of voters there.

And an incredible scene. A pregnant woman needing emergency medical assistance airlifted from her cruise 180 miles offshore.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:47:32]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, President Biden calling for a huge hike in steel tariffs on China and doing it from the heart of traditional steel country in Pennsylvania. The president will propose tripling tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum as he meets with steelworkers at their union headquarters in Pittsburgh this morning.

CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz is in Scranton where the president is waking up this morning. So what are we expecting, Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, President Biden will make his latest play for blue-collar and union voters as he speaks in Pittsburgh in just a few hours with steelworkers at the headquarters there.

Now, the president will call for and urge his U.S. trade representative to consider tripling the existing 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum -- a move the president is making as he's trying to portray himself as a defender of the U.S. steel industry.

This comes just a few weeks after President Biden publicly opposed the sale of U.S. steel to Japan, saying that it is vital that the company remain American-owned.

Now, the president today will also highlight efforts by the administration to crack down on China's efforts to flood the market with cheap products -- essentially, making it more difficult for U.S. companies who are trying to sell higher quality products but at higher prices.

Now, these announcements today come as the president is also seeking to insulate himself from GOP criticism, including from former President Donald Trump, that he is weak on China. Trump really made these tariffs on Chinese imports a key focal point of his global economic strategy in office. And he has also proposed increasing tariffs across the board if he is elected to a second term.

Now, while Trump spent most of the start of the week in a New York City courtroom facing criminal trial, President Biden currently is on a three-day swing through the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania.

His main argument to voters here has been trying to say that the two men fundamentally have differing views on how to approach the economy. Biden making the argument that he is looking out for the middle class, turning to his roots here in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, while arguing that Trump is on the side of the wealthy.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You learn the best way to get rich is inheritance. Not a bad way. And you learn that paying taxes is something people who work for a living did -- not him. You learn that telling people you're fired was something to laugh about. I guess that's how you look at the world when you're on Park Avenue or Mar-a-Lago. Because if you grew up in a place like Scranton, nobody handed you anything. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:50:21]

SAENZ: Now, this messaging push comes as President Biden has been struggling with voters when it comes to economic issues, with many Americans still feeling that they are -- have poor personal financial states and disapproving of his handling of the economy.

And, of course, the president is making this argument here in a critical battleground state like Pennsylvania where 19 electoral votes are up for grabs. If you take a look at recent polling, they have shown that there is no clear leader in the race. A very close contest. And Pennsylvania is one of those blue wall states that the president is trying to hold onto as he's seeking a second term in office.

BERMAN: Arlette Saenz in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Arlette, thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And joining us now is former White House spokesman for President George W. Bush, Pete Seat. And CNN political commentator and former spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's campaign, Karen Finney.

Karen, when Biden's former chief of staff -- and we're talking about Ron Klain, longtime adviser to Biden -- said last week that he should really stop talking about bridges in terms of trying to push his economic agenda.

Is the president -- what we just heard, is this President Biden listening?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPOKESPERSON, HILLARY CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN: Well, I think it's President Biden trying to drive a contrast and to talk about middle-out economics, which means you have -- we have to have a strong middle class -- that's critical to a strong democracy -- and drive a contrast with, as he pointed out, someone who inherited a million dollars when he started his first business and we see oftentimes when he's at Mar-a-Lago, is golfing all day. I mean, most Americans can't -- don't have that kind of time.

And so, I think he's trying to drive that contrast and show, again, difference of values but also different economic theory of the case -- trickle-down versus middle-out.

BOLDUAN: It's interesting because this is exactly the same kind of case he was also making at some points in 2022. Like, this guy doesn't get you.

FINNEY: Um-hum.

BOLDUAN: This guy doesn't speak for you.

FINNEY: Right.

BOLDUAN: And we're going back to that.

Pete, let me play something else that Biden said to voters along this very same thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: When I look at the economy I don't see it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago. I see it through the eyes of Scranton. He looks at the economy from Mar-a-Lago where he and his rich friends embrace the failed trickle-down policies of the failed working families for more than 40 years. Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Saying he doesn't feel your pain and he's out of touch -- that is a strategy that -- look, it has worked in the past.

Should the Trump campaign be nervous about this strategy shift, if it's a strategy shift, Pete?

PETE SEAT, VICE PRESIDENT, BOSE PUBLIC AFFAIRS GROUP, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER SPOKESMAN, INDIANA REPUBLICAN PARTY (via Webex by Cisco): No. It's an incredibly odd messaging framing and contrast from the president.

I'm curious to see if he swaps out Scranton for wherever he is on the campaign trail. Is it going to be Milwaukee values and Marietta, Georgia values, and Dearborn, Michigan values as he goes along?

The other part is I think a lot of Americans aspire --

BOLDUAN: I can basically tell you yes. We've seen now with presidents past. He's going to.

FINNEY: Probably.

BOLDUAN: And the key is --

SEAT: And that --

BOLDUAN: -- to make sure you're saying the right city you're in. We've seen that be a problem for presidents past, too.

SEAT: And that could be -- that could be disastrous if he doesn't.

But look, I just want to add, too, I think a lot of Americans aspire to live in a place like Mar-a-Lago and they know in this economy -- in this inflationary economy under Joe Biden that those types of goals, those types of dreams are even further out of reach. So I don't know why he would try to paint this contrast at this time. It makes no sense.

FINNEY: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: Karen.

FINNEY: Can I just point out, though, I think the president -- President Biden is absolutely trying to speak to people's aspirations but acknowledging that we don't all start out with a wealthy parent and a million dollars -- and it's great if you do. But let's make sure the system is more fair. Yesterday, he was talking about taxes, for example, for the rest of us who don't start with those advantages. I think that's what he's trying -- going to be talking about.

Yes, he'll mention the cities that he's in.

The other thing I just really quickly want to mention -- this issue about Chinese companies flooding the zone. This is a huge issue for American businesses. And we saw Janet Yellen was in China working on this issue recently. And you're going to hear him talk about that more because, again, he's trying to say here are the things I'm trying to do to lower your costs.

BOLDUAN: I want to talk to you guys both about the approach of the -- how the courtroom is going to be impacted in the campaign going forward. How the Biden campaign plans to deal with maybe Trump in court and facing trial. Maybe still somewhat of a question.

[07:55:02]

Let me -- here's why I say that. Let me play Biden's campaign co-chair and how he handled the -- handled talking about this with John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH LANDRIEU, CO-CHAIR, NATIONAL BIDEN REELECTION CAMPAIGN: The former president is otherwise predisposed as a consequence of actions and things that he has done. And everything this guy touches turns to dirt.

BERMAN: Are you dancing around it for a particular reason or, I mean, is the campaign --

LANDRIEU: I'm not -- I'm not dancing around it at all.

BERMAN: -- going to talk about the fact that --

LANDRIEU: No.

BERMAN: -- the president -- former president is in court?

LANDRIEU: Well, you asked me the right question.

BERMAN: Yeah.

LANDRIEU: The president is being the president. He is running the country. He's creating jobs. He's putting people back to work.

Donald Trump is stuck someplace else as a consequence of his own actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Karen, do you think they should be hesitant to take it on directly? FINNEY: No. I think it's -- he's right that there -- I mean, we saw the split-screen yesterday. You saw President Biden focused on doing the job, showing up, and asking people for their votes.

And Donald Trump, who was in court, who -- again, even when he walked out of the courtroom, what is it about him? It's about I'm your retribution. I am being attacked. Not -- and even when he's on the campaign trail we don't really hear him talking about the people he's actually there to speak to. So I think that's a real contrast.

BOLDUAN: Well, let's talk about the contrast. Flip side, Trump has been in court. Trump will be in court again tomorrow, Pete. He does seem angry, be it real or be it show, because he has been running on I am your vengeance. He was admonished by the judge for loudly murmuring. Observers in the court also say that Trump seemed drowsy again in court.

Is there political risk of Trump losing his temper in court or outside?

SEAT: Possibly, but the thing he has going for him, Kate, is that there are no cameras in the courtroom. We wouldn't actually see an outburst. We would be taking the word of those who are inside the courtroom on what took place and what happened.

But I want to go back real quick to a word that Karen used -- unfair. And if you look at polling, especially an AP poll that came out yesterday, the American people see these prosecutions against Donald Trump -- a decent number -- plurality -- 44 percent think the New York prosecutors are being unfair to Donald Trump. Forty-two percent think the Georgia prosecutors are being unfair. Forty-five percent think federal prosecutors are being unfair.

So I think some of that -- his anger in that courtroom -- he's channeling what a large segment of the American people feel about what's happening in that courtroom.

BOLDUAN: Case in point on both sides. You've got to work with what you've got when you're in the middle of a campaign.

It's good to see you both. Karen, thank you. Pete, good to see you. Thank you -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, a pregnant cruise ship passenger is now getting medical care on land after a dramatic emergency rescue at sea. New video shows the moment that the Coast Guard basically airlifted her. She was on a Disney ship near Puerto Rico. The 35-year- old was reportedly experiencing serious health complications.

Newly unsealed court documents show that if New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez testifies in his upcoming trial on criminal bribery charges, he may blame his wife Nadine. According to the documents, Menendez says that -- may say that she withheld information leading him to believe nothing unlawful was taking place. Both Menendez and his wife have pleaded not guilty to the charges. So, this morning, we're hearing from the valedictorian from the University of Southern California who will not speak at her college graduation. The school says safety concerns for the ceremony led them to pull the plug. Asna Tabassum, who is Muslim, says they are trying to silence her. She met with university officials and joined CNN Abby Phillip to discuss the details of that meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASNA TABASSUM, 2024 VALEDICTORIAN, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: I expressed an opinion through a link that I had on my Instagram. The hate and the vitriol that was unleashed towards me after I think was part of the reason that the university caved in. And so, when it comes to being a free speech issue, sure, maybe my valedictory speech is a privilege. But at the end of the day, my views -- the views that I have expressed and the views that USC has instilled within me as well were stifled and were subject to hate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The heaviest rainfall in the history of the United Arab Emirates has left much of the city of Dubai underwater. This morning, the airport there is telling people not to come unless it's absolutely necessary. A 70-year-old man died after floodwaters swept away his vehicle.

With us now from Dubia, CNN's Eleni Giokos. Eleni, very quickly, tell us the situation this morning.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, as you can see, this is unprecedented. This has never happened in Dubai to this extent. We had around four inches of rain in around 12 hours. That is as much as Dubai basically receives in a year.

We have seen roads completely flooded. People trapped in their homes unable to leave. And, of course, infrastructure incapable of handling this type of waterfall. And, of course, the airport has been dramatically impacted.