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Biden Says, Trump Has Never Succeeded in Creating Jobs; Biden Says, A.I. is Most Significant Technological Development in Human History; Biden Acknowledges Civilians in Gaza Have Been Killed By U.S.-Made Weapons. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 09, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: We've heard all that before, nothing new under the sun.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And it's almost depressing and embarrassing about where politics have sunk in America.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, politics has caught up with sort of our culture, right, in terms of reality T.V. and this sort of being the norm.

HUNT: Yes, very quick --

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, WALL STREET JOURNAL: He has not won an election since 2016. So, it's not the case that people are coming out of the woodwork to say, this is fine with me.

HUNT: That is a great way to punctuate this conversation, Molly Ball. Thank you guys very much for being here. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Don't go anywhere.

CNN News Central starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A CNN exclusive with the president, Joe Biden's red line now when it comes to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. His warning to Israeli leaders, the U.S. will stop sending offensive weapons if it, if it invades the Gaza city of Rafah.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Standing by for Stormy. Stormy Daniels back on the stand shortly in the criminal trial against Donald Trump after testifying in detail about their alleged sexual encounter. We have new reporting on how the defense team plans to change strategies in its questioning.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And what is going on with the Miss USA Organization? This week, not one but two winners have given up their crowns. Miss Teen USA is the latest to resign days after Miss USA resigned. But the two have very different reasons for stepping down.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: The CNN exclusive sit-down with President Joe Biden. For the first time, he is warning Israel that the U.S. will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launches a major offensive in Rafah.

In this one-on-one interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Biden also said civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs. This also marks the first time, really, President Biden is using his power as Israel's main weapons supplier to publicly demonstrate he's not happy with the direction of Israel's military campaign and the direction it's headed now.

Biden spoke to Erin in Wisconsin, where he was promoting new economic investment in the battleground state, a state he won in 2020, a state Donald Trump won in '16, and a state both of them need in '24.

The focus for many voters in Wisconsin, the economy, Biden touting a new $3.3 billion investment there, coming from Microsoft.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. President, thank you so much for being with me.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Thanks for having me.

BURNETT: So, Trump attended a groundbreaking here where we are for Foxconn. He promised 13,000 jobs and only about 1,000 of those actually exist right now. So, I know you're promising more than 2,000 union construction jobs and that 100,000 people are going to get trained in A.I. here. Why should people here believe that you will succeed at creating jobs where Trump failed?

BIDEN: He's never succeeded in creating jobs and I've never failed. I've created over 15 million jobs since I've been president, 15 million in three and three and three quarters years. And, secondly, Microsoft is a serious player, and they're very much engaged in making sure that they pick this area as a sort of the home base for their A.I. initiative in the nation, and they're going to do it.

And just like -- and, by the way -- well, I shouldn't go into it, but Trump is -- he started off with the golden shovels, you know --

BURNETT: For the groundbreaking here.

BIDEN: For the groundbreaking and talked about this being, you know, the eighth wonder in the world. When has he ever done anything he said? I'm not being facetious. Think about it. He started off. He lost. Other than Herbert Hoover, he is the only other president who lost more jobs and created in his four year-term. He's -- and the way he managed the end of his last year when we were dealing with COVID, a million people died. He'd tell people, inject bleach, that may do it.

It wasn't a real problem when he did an interview with one of your colleagues where he just flat out acknowledged he knew how dangerous it was, but he didn't want to speak to it. You know, I just -- and look at what he says he's going to do if he gets elected. He says he's going to do away with what I've done on Medicare, reducing the price of Medicare drastically. He said he's going to do away with the Affordable Care Act. He said he's going to do it just down the line.

So, we have a very different view. I look at it from physician, not being facetious, from a Scranton perspective. He looks at it from a Mar-a-Lago perspective. He wants to give more significant tax cuts to the super wealthy.

[07:05:02]

Now, we've got a thousand billionaires in America. You know, what their average federal tax is? 8.3 percent. He talks about if I want to raise it to 25 percent, that would raise -- it would raise $400 billion dollars over ten years You can further reduce the deficit, which I've been able to do. I mean, it's just a completely different perspective on how we should proceed.

BURNETT: When it comes though to the a hundred thousand jobs specifically that we're talking about here, people training in A.I., the actual jobs, when are they actually going to have jobs, those a hundred thousand people that are being trained?

BIDEN: Beginning probably the first tranche in three to four years, the community colleges are going to -- the one we're at, we're going to provide for 2,000 folks and to be able to be trained, 200 a year. And it's going to go -- the whole pipeline goes all the way through out to high schools and training facilities.

You know, it used to be that when I was in high school, I mean, even at the tail end, very tail end before you went to high school, most public high schools had shop and home, you know, learning to work with your hands. It doesn't exist anymore. And so it allows people who have skills and be able to train to technical skills to be able to make a decent living without a college degree. And it's what we need.

BURNETT: So, when we talk about the bet on A.I. and sort of what it means, I don't know if you saw this weekend, Warren Buffett had his annual meeting and he talked about A.I.

So, the first thing he said was, okay, it's got a normal, enormous potential for good, but then he likened it to the development of nuclear weapons in the U.S. And he said, it scares the hell out of him. You know, he always says it like he sees it. And then he says, quote, he doesn't understand a damn thing about it. And that may capture how many Americans feel. Does A.I. scare you?

BIDEN: A.I. has enormous potential, enormous downside potential. That's why three years ago I got together the major architects of A.I. from the different operations around the world. I met with them in Europe and here in the United States. And it ranges all the way from one of the leaders saying it's a real, it's going to take over human thinking all the way to those phones that say, no, it's not a problem.

And so that's why I set out certain standards that it has to -- it can do no harm. And we have to make sure we know how to do that. We have to make sure it's controlled. And that's all. That's -- and how we -- how it -- it's the most significant, I think, technological development in human history.

BURNETT: The most significant in human history?

BIDEN: Yes. And not in terms of war and peace, but in terms of being able to -- one leader in the A.I. community said to me, it's going to overtake human thinking, and which is frightening.

BURNETT: Terrifying.

BIDEN: But the other, most think it can be used for everything from find cures for cancer to significantly increase productivity.

BURNETT: So, when you talk about the economy, of course, it is by far the most important issue for voters. It's also true right now, Mr. President, that voters, by a wide margin, trusts Trump more on the economy. They say that in polls. And part of the reason for that may be the numbers. And you're aware of many of these, of course. The cost of buying a home in the United States has doubled what it was when you look at your monthly costs from before the pandemic. Real income, when you account for inflation, is actually down since you took office. Economic growth last week, far short of expectations. Consumer confidence, maybe no surprise, is near a two-year low.

With less than six months to go to Election Day, are you worried that you're running out of time to turn that around?

BIDEN: We've already turned it around. Look at the Michigan survey, where 65 percent of American people think they're in good shape economically. They think the nation is not in good shape, but they're personally in good shape. The polling data has been wrong all along.

How many of you guys do a poll with CNN? How many folks do you have to call to get one response, the idea that we're in a situation where things are so bad? The folks that -- I mean, we've created more jobs. We've we're in a situation where people have access to good paying jobs. And the last I saw, the combination of the inflation, the cost of inflation, all those things, that's really worrisome to people with good reason. That's why I'm working very hard to bring the cost of rentals down, to increase the number of homes that are available.

Let me say it this way. When I started this administration, people were saying there was going to be a collapse of the economy. We have the strongest economy in the world.

[07:10:01]

Let me say it again, in the world.

BURNETT: Although GDP last week was far short of expectations.

BIDEN: Oh, was it? Look, GDP is still growing. Look at the response of the markets, overwhelmingly positive, overwhelmingly positive. And one of the reasons why people feel good about it not being as strong as it was before is they believe that the Fed's going to respond.

BURNETT: They hope they're going to get a rate cut?

BIDEN: Yes. But, I mean, no president has had the run we've had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9 percent when I came to office, 9 percent.

But, look, people have a right to be concerned, ordinary people. The idea that you bounce a check and you get a $30 fee for bouncing the check, I changed that. You can't charge more than $8 for that. Or your credit card, you know, your late payment, $35. I mean, there's corporate greed going on out there, and it's got to be dealt with.

BURNETT: What about -- I mean, but there's real pain. I mean, grocery prices are up 30 percent, more than 30 percent since the beginning of the pandemic and people are spending more on food and groceries than they have at any time really in the past 30 years. I mean, that's a real day-to-day pain that people --

BIDEN: No, it really is, and it's real. But the fact is that if you take a look at what the people have, they have the money to spend. It angers them and angers me that you have to spend more. For example, the whole idea of this notion that Senator Casey talked about, Shrinkflation, I think it's on your program.

BURNETT: Same price for a smaller bottle of juice or something.

BIDEN: Yes, right. For example, Snickers bar, they did a thing, and it's like 20 percent less for the same price. That's corporate greed. That's corporate greed. And we've got to deal with it, and that's what I'm working on.

BURNETT: I want to ask you about something happening as we sit here and speak, and that, of course, is Israel is striking Rafa. I know that you have paused, Mr. President, shipments of 2,000-pound U.S. bombs to Israel due to concern that they could be used in any offensive on Rafah. Have those bombs, those powerful 2,000-pound bombs, been used to kill civilians in Gaza?

BIDEN : Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers. And I made it clear that if they go into Rafah -- they haven't gone on Rafah yet. If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.

And we're going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks, like it came out in the Middle East recently, but it's just wrong. We're not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used that have been used --

BURNETT: Artillery shells as well?

BIDEN: Yes, artillery shells.

BURNETT: So, just to understand what they're doing right now in Rafah, is that not going into Rafah as you --

BIDEN: They haven't gotten into the population centers. What they did is right on the border. And it's causing problems with, right now, in terms of with Egypt, which I've worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help. But I've made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet, they're not going to get our support if, in fact, they go in these population centers.

We're not walking away from Israel's security, walking away from Israel's ability to wage war in those areas.

BURNETT: So, it's not over your red line yet?

BIDEN: Not yet, but it's -- we've held up the weapons. We've held up the one shipment, as an old shipment that has been designed, we've held that up.

BURNETT: And I want to ask you one more thing, if I may. The images that people see out of Gaza are horrific. The U.N. is talking about, you know, some of these mass graves and the summary executions that there's been evidence of, torture, the images of children, it breaks anyone's heart to look at it.

And obviously we've seen that frustration here in the U.S. on college campuses. And Mr. President I had signs at college campuses. Some say Genocide Joe. Any of us that have gone to those campuses, sometimes we hear that chant. Do you hear the message of those young Americans?

BIDEN: Absolutely, I hear the message. Look, two things. First of all, there's a legitimate right to free speech and protest. There's a legitimate right to do that. You have a right to do that. There's not a legitimate right to use hate speech. There's not a legitimate right to threaten Jewish students. There's not a legitimate right to block people access to class. That's against the law. That's against the law.

And if you look at the data, these demonstrations are real but they're not -- you know, I mean, look, and everybody's -- I made a speech on the Holocaust the other day.

[07:15:08]

And I pointed out that, you know, it took seven decades to get to the place where after the Holocaust occurred and there's still anti- Semitism. Look what's happened in seven weeks, I mean, what's happening? Everybody has sort of forgotten about what happened in Israel. Those 1,200 young kids murdered. I saw pictures, oh, I went over there shortly after, a mother and a daughter being roped together in a kerosene and burned to death, nothing like that to happen in the Jewish community since the Holocaust.

So, when I went over immediately after that happened, I said to Bibi, don't make the same mistake we made in America. We want to get Bin Laden. And we'll help you get Sinwar. But we went into Afghanistan to, it made sense to go get Bin Laden, it made no sense to try to unify Afghanistan, it made no sense in my view to engage in thinking that in Iraq they had a nuclear weapon. Don't make the same mistake.

Focus on -- we'll help you focus on getting the bad guys. And we got to think through what is happening after Gaza, after this is over? Who's going to occupy Gaza? I've been working with the Arab states. I won't mention them because I don't want to get them in trouble, but five leaders in the Arab community who are prepared to help rebuild Gaza, prepared to help transition to a two-state solution.

BURNETT: To govern it?

BIDEN: Well, to maintain the security and peace while they're working out a Palestinian authority that's real and not corrupt.

BURNETT: Mr. President, thank you very much. I appreciate your time today.

BIDEN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. So, what has the impact been already from this revealing interview? House Speaker Mike Johnson just called it, quote, a senior moment. We've got new reporting from around the world.

And she told the courtroom she had sex with Donald Trump. She told them what he was wearing. She even told them how it all happened. So what else will Stormy Daniels reveal when she gets back on the stand this morning? And what new plans do Donald Trump's lawyers have up their sleeves?

Miss USA quits. Now Miss Teen USA quits. The new controversies engulfing the pageant world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: President Biden with a warning about American politics while talking to our Erin Burnett. He says he's sure his Republican rival, Donald Trump, won't accept the results of the 2024 election if Trump loses. In his one-on-one interview with Erin Burnett in the battleground state of Wisconsin, Biden talks about how he sees his own campaign doing so far. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: So, obviously, we're here in Wisconsin. It was a crucial state for you, one of the ones that put you over the top. It was the same for Trump when he won in 2016, and he was actually here last week on his day off from the Stormy Daniels trial.

He told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mr. President, quote, if everything's honest, I'd gladly accept the results of the election. And then he continued though with this, if it's not, you have to fight for the right of the country. How seriously do you take that threat? BIDEN: Seriously, just like they did in September 6th -- I mean, January 6th. The guy is not a Democrat with a small D. I mean, he is the idea -- look, you can't only love your country when you win, number one. How many court cases did they have, Supreme Court cases? They all said this is totally legitimate election. This is Trump. I mean, it's the same whether he -- and he may not accept the outcome of the election. I promise you, he won't

BURNETT: Promise that he won't?

BIDEN: He won't.

BURNETT: So --

BIDEN: And which is dangerous. Look, I traveled around the world with other world leaders. You know what they all say? Not a joke. 80 percent of them after you have a major meeting, they go, we've got to win, my democracy is at stake. Their democracy is at stake. Because when you think of the things he's saying, he's saying, if I'm re- elected -- if he's re-elected president, he's going to make sure his attorney general prosecutes those he tells him to prosecute and he --

BURNETT: On the first day.

BIDEN: On the first -- not just -- no, no. He said this about prosecution across the board. He's going to be -- I am your retribution. What person has ever said anything like this? But he means it, going to wipe out the changes we made in Medicare, changes we made in terms of drug prices, changes we made, you know, wipe it all out. And then he's going to put in a 10 percent tax, which is going to increase everybody's cost to average American cost $1,500 a year. I mean, listen to what he's saying.

BURNETT: So, when you look at your campaign, at this moment, you know, it's tight. It's tight. And Barack Obama, your predecessor, of course, he has said that this is an all hands on deck moment. That's how he described it.

So, he believes your rematch with Trump is going to be incredibly close.

[07:25:02]

It certainly looks like it will be. What's his advice to you when you talk to him?

BIDEN: Keep doing what I'm doing and to make sure -- what his advice is the same advice I sort of gave him when I was his vice president. Look, you've got to organize, block and tackle, people knocking on doors, putting up signs. We have over, we're over 1.5 million individual contributors in America. That never happened before, 97 percent less than $200. We've opened a hundred headquarters across the country. He's opened none. We have 5,000 paid staff. We're doing the blocking and tackling. We're going out and making sure that we knock on doors, get folks out the old fashioned way. That's basically -- because it's awful hard and we have raised more money than any president has at this point in the campaign. And so I think I'm feeling good about the trajectory of the campaign. And you know as well as I do, most people don't really focus and make up their minds in the fall. There's a lot going on and, and we'll see what happens.

BURNETT: Mr. President, thank you very much for your time.

BIDEN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. With us now, Democratic Strategist Julie Roginsky, also former Trump administration official Matt Mowers.

A lot in this interview, not sure where to begin, but let me just begin at the end there, Julie, if I can. If Barack Obama's advice to Joe Biden really was keep doing what you're doing, how sound do you think that advice is?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, look, first and foremost, he's not running in a vacuum to president. He's running against Donald Trump. And all he has to do to get the Democratic base to turn out, which is what he needs to do in these swing districts, is to explain to them exactly what he's saying, which is that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.

This is not a policy dispute like we used to have with George Bush or Mitt Romney or John McCain. This is a threat to our way of life. And the bottom line is that that's something the president has to remind people over and over and over again.

There are very few undecided voters at this point. Everybody has made up their mind. They either love Donald Trump or they loathe Donald Trump. They either support Joe Biden's policies or they don't. All either side has to do is make sure their voters get to the polls and that's what the president has to make sure his voters do.

BERMAN: Matt, I think the headline out of this entire interview was President Biden's pronouncement on aid to Israel and offensive weapons that he says he will not provide if Israel goes into the population centers in Rafah.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who, by the way, was part of the Republican leadership that held up a vote on aid to Israel for some time, although ultimately it did get passed, he said to Politico overnight, actually just released a short time ago, he thinks that the President's statements to Erin were a senior moment, his way of saying he disagrees with that. How do you think it plays politically?

MATT MOWERS, FORMER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think it plays poorly for President Biden. You know, if you look at polling recently, more Americans still believe that Israel is right to respond to the horrific attacks of October 7th. They're actually opposing many of the demonstrations they're seeing on college campuses throughout this country. And not only that, it's not just bad politics, it's bad policy.

You know, I served in the State Department. We've seen what happens when you hamstring our allies as they need to respond in these critical times. And, by the way, the worst way to run any sort of conflict is from a capital thousands of miles away dictated by politicians. These decisions are best made by those who are actually in the field, those who actually have the military assessments and capabilities in the field to make those decisions. And at times like this, it's a president's responsibility to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies and their leadership, not try to hamstring them as they try to respond to one of the most brutal attacks that they've ever seen.

And that's what I think Speaker Johnson was expressing frustration about and was really speaking for the majority of Americans when he did so.

BERMAN: I'm want to come back to Speaker Johnson in just a minute with you, Matt. But, Julie, just one last point on the President Biden interview. How do you think it will play, particularly his pronouncement on aid to Israel with the Democratic coalition as it now is?

ROGINSKY: Look, this is an incredibly, incredibly complicated issue. You've got the president's internal politics here domestically. You've got Israeli domestic politics, which are driving Bibi Netanyahu's decisions in as much as they're being driven by military considerations.

You've got our allies who are trying to negotiate, our allies in the Middle East, who are trying to negotiate a ceasefire with a terrorist government in Hamas. You've got our allies in Western Europe who are increasingly disturbed by the way that Israel is prosecuting its war in Gaza.

And so, you know, it's very easy to say we should just give Bibi Netanyahu everything he wants, but there are considerations in both capitals, both in Jerusalem and in Washington, domestically about what that means. And that's something the president has to weigh.

BERMAN: So Matt, you brought up Mike Johnson, who survived a motion to vacate move.

[07:30:03]

I guess it was never actually a full vote on the motion to vacate because they ended up failing on the motion to table right there.