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Can Obama Get Presidency Back on Track; New Year Could Bring New Debt Battle; More Issues for Obama During Second Term; Awaiting Obama's End-of-the-Year Press Conference

Aired December 20, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, we're about half an hour away from the president's news conference over at the White House before he leaves for the Christmas/new years holiday.

The president is also hoping to leave some of the problems of the past year behind him, including the botched rollout of healthcare.gov, the fallout from the NSA surveillance controversy and a major drop in his job approval numbers, credibility ratings just to name a few. Here's the question, can he get his presidency back on track? Save his second term? What does he need to do to turn things around in 2014?

As we await the president, let's bring in correspondents to talk about his efforts to move beyond the troubles of 2013, our senior White House correspondent, Brianna Keilar; chief Congressional correspondent, Dana Bash; and chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper.

Brianna, what about this White House strategy for getting back on track? You've been doing some significant reporting on this over the past several weeks. What are you picking up over there?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We, Wolf, I think when you hear President Obama come out here to the briefing room and what he's going to say is really going to show you what that is. He's outlined had his agenda, one of the three pillars is the economy. You've heard him talking a lot recently with a populist message talking about income inequality. We're going to hear him talk about that today. We expect him to give brief remarks, maybe five or seven minutes before he takes questions from reporters.

The other thing that he needs to do really to get things back on track, and certainly the administration is well aware of this, is he needs to do the clean-up when it comes to the Affordable Care Act to Obamacare. Needs to get that federal website up and running which, you know, in a recent check was actually having problems today just in the last hour. So he needs to make sure that he can clean that up and ultimately rebrand it, as well. He needs some success in that because that has been draining so much of the energy that his administration has towards putting forth the agenda that he wants to accomplish in his second term.

BLITZER: And whatever he's trying to accomplish almost all of it if not all of it, a lot of it, Dana, is going to require Congressional legislation, passage in the Senate and the House legislation he will then sign into law. Certainly he can do things through executive action but how much cooperation can he expect in 2014 a midterm election year?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, on some issues, maybe more than you would think. On other issues not so much. Let's start with what Brianna was talking about. Obamacare, that is the signature legacy issue, and it is the issue that Republicans who run the House still, and are heading into an election year, are going to continue to hit extremely hard. They have the ability to have oversight hearings, over and over again. And you can bet they're going to do that because they're intending, intent on running on that issue because they think that is the best for them, meaning Republicans.

But then on issues like immigration reform, that might be something where although it got stopped up after the Senate passed it this year, there might be a way to add that to a legacy for President Obama because the House speaker, John Boehner, is pretty clear eager to move something. The president has put some olive branches out there about the way that they go about doing it, meaning you don't have to do one big bill, maybe baby steps would be something he would be willing to consider. That might be something they might be able to go forward on.

But when it comes to other issues, they're still stopped up in the Senate, for example, the nuclear option. This is maybe something that has come under the radar. But the nuclear option that Senate Democratic leader put in place to take away minority rights could make it more difficult for the president. It already has, to get his nominations through to get his key players in place. That possibly could continue into the next year.

BLITZER: And when you say minority rights, you mean Republicans, who are the minority in the U.S. Senate. The president --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Exactly.

BLITZER: That nuclear option dealing away with the opportunity to filibuster requiring 60 votes to the pass legislation supposed to a simple majority of 51.

Jake Tapper is with us as we await the president.

What does he do? You covered President Obama during the first term. How is he preparing right now? What about the reporters? They're going to be gearing up. They know this is an opportunity for them to ask the president of the United States a significant question. Take us a little bit, Jake, behind the scenes.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: So reporters right now are making lists of questions to ask. Knowing that probably A.P. will be called on first and probably the A.P. will ask about the fact that healthcare.gov is down right now. Although, they might ask about the NSA recommendations for the spying agency. But you're making a list of your questions, talking to people on your team, talking to people on your staff trying to come up -- I assume that there are a number of reporters debating within themselves if they get called on seventh or eighth, am I going to be the one that asks the "Duck Dynasty" question. That's probably a conflict people are having right now.

Behind the scenes in the White House, they are preparing for any question that can be thrown at them. They're preparing for questions about the website, healthcare.gov being down right now, about the NSA spying recommendations, about reports from abroad about things going on, about the Sochi Olympics. I am assuming they're preparing for cultural questions such as, what color is Santa, what race is Santa --

(LAUGHTER)

-- what do you make of Phil Robertson's comments about gays and the Bible? So they're preparing, deciding which ones the president will answer, how they'll answer, testing them out. Probably debating whether or not the president should even answer some of these questions about some of those dicey pop-culture social issues.

BLITZER: I'm sure the president is also looking ahead saying I can't wait to head off to Hawaii with my family --

TAPPER: Yes.

BLITZER: -- for a little bit.

Stand by, Dana.

Brianna, stand by, as well.

We're waiting for the president's end-of-the-year news conference scheduled to begin right at the top of the hour.

But the New Year could also bring a new fight with Congress over raising the nation's debt ceiling. Supposed to be done by February. We'll preview that potential battle, other battles. We're counting down to the president's news conference. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: In 20 minutes, the president goes before the cameras, the reporters. That begins the news conference at the White House right at the top of the hour. We'll have live coverage for you, of course. The president will certainly face tough questions from White House correspondents and also face the potential fight with Congress over the raising of the nation's debt limit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: We, as a caucus, along with our Senate counterparts, are going to meet and discuss what dollars we want to get out of the debt limit. We don't want nothing out of this debt limit. We're going to decide what it is we can accomplish out of this debt limit fight. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Let's bring back our correspondents to talk about this and more, Brianna Keilar, Dana Bash. Jake Tapper is here, as well.

Let's go to Congress first.

Dana, how big of a fight do we anticipate over the raising of the debt limit? Supposed to be done, according to the Treasury Department by February, maybe March they can delay it.

BASH: It's really unclear. I think the reason is because Republicans haven't decided how much of a fight they're going to put up. Certainly you heard Paul Ryan saying they're going to demand something extract something from Democrats in order to agree to raise the debt ceiling. You've heard comments from Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, who, not an unimportant dynamic, is facing re- election but, first, a primary challenge from the right. He's under pressure to try to demand something but then other Republican sources in the House say they've learned their lesson. They had this big fight over the government shutdown and the president made it very, very clear that he wanted to, in his words, "break the fever" not just about the that, but more importantly, about the debt ceiling. So I think that Republicans are going to spend the next months or two trying to figure out amongst themselves just how much they want to fight, and there certainly does seem to be disagreement internally.

BLITZER: Let's go to Brianna over the White House.

I suspect some reporters over there will probably ask the president, Mr. President, are you staking by your position that you will not negotiate over raising the debt limit? Congress must do it. These are debts the U.S. has already gotten over the years. No concessions, no negotiations, just do it. I assume someone will ask the president if that is still his position.

KEILAR: I think that's one of the first questions that is going to be asked, Wolf. The president said in the last debt ceiling negotiation, he wasn't going to negotiate. It is sort of interesting to point out though when you look at the last two times the debt ceiling was increased, the president did allow for provisions that ultimately put in place the budget deal that he now has lauded and we're expecting will sign soon. The question though is with that budget deal having dispensed with that issue, maybe what kind of thing would he agree to. What he's made clear, and he made very clear in October, he's not going to negotiate on Obamacare. That is just something he will not touch. He will not entertain. So I think the question is, where might there be some common ground. I will tell you, when you talk to White House officials about some of the language we heard Paul Ryan use, the word fight for instance, they just sort of kind of want to roll their eyes a little bit because the president and White House officials here feel that what was done in that case was done very much to the detriment of Republicans. And they don't understand why they would want to do it again. You heard Dana using the term "break the fever." I think the expectation here is they believe in a way a lot of Republicans learned a lesson and they're hoping ultimately that it's not going to get to a brinksmanship situation like we saw in October and at least a government shutdown is off the table.

BLITZER: Jake, very quickly, there are a bunch of Republicans who say if you get into a fight over the debt ceiling, that detracts from what they see as their winning argument about Obamacare. Why allow that to be derailed by having a separate fight over the debt ceiling?

TAPPER: Because it is an important part of the Republican message that he spends too much money and Republicans want to rein him in. That's their political argument. And the debt ceiling argument is about whether or not, if the United States continues to spend money, you know, spend $3 for every $2 the United States government takes in, whether that's sustainable. I do think you will see some fight. Paul Ryan said -- as has been mentioned, Paul Ryan said that the negotiations basically have started already. They want something in return. I don't think that people like Paul Ryan want the same kind of standoff with the same threat to the bond ratings for the United States government and the like. I think they want to get the process going now, but you never know what's going to happen.

BLITZER: That's the beauty of Washington. We don't know what's going to happen.

TAPPER: It hurts both sides. At the end of the day, people remember there was a mess. And they hold everyone in Washington accountable.

BLITZER: They lose confidence in D.C.

Stand by.

We're setting the stage for the president's news conference coming up at the top of the hour.

Up next, Maria Cardona and Ben Ferguson are both joining me to discuss more issues that the president has during his second term, the prospects of potentially getting back on message.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're now only a few minutes away from President Obama's news conference. You're looking at like pictures from the briefing room. As soon as it starts, you'll see the whole thing live on CNN.

As we await the president, let's talk a little more about the president's agenda during this second term, his prospects of getting some things done.

Joining us are CNN political commentators, Maria Cardona and Ben Ferguson.

Maria, our new CNN poll that just came out this hour has the president's job approval number at 41 percent. Pretty low. In January, almost a year ago, at 55 percent. Why do you believe it's collapsed like that?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, certainly, it's been a very tough year for the president, Wolf, and I think he'll be the first to admit that with the NSA issue and the Obamacare rollout, which he also admits there was a huge downfall, but I think the president has a terrific opportunity in front of him. We now see even the website, even though they're saying it was down today, I was on it, it's now up again. It's signing up people by the tens of thousands, Wolf. I think by the time you get into next year, the focus on Obamacare is going to be how this president is going to add to Americans' not just health security but economic security, knowing if they get sick or a family member gets sick, their economic security is not going to be in jeopardy. He also has a big opportunity to focus on immigration, on income inequality, all those issues where he's best in terms of focusing on middle class and the benefits a good and thriving middle class bring to the country.

BLITZER: Ben, a lot of people blame the Republicans for the 16-day government shutdown exactly when the Obama care rollout came. Looking back, was it a blunder for Republicans to shut the government down because there was no connection to Obamacare?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know if it was a blunder, but I don't think I would do it again in 2014, and I don't believe anyone would allow it to happen on the Republican side this year. The reason why you see the president's numbers down, it goes back to the core of trust. The American people, a lot of them voting for him not once but twice on an issue of trust. They said I believe him when he tells me things. When we find out the White House knowingly and willingly put a lie out to the American people you could keep your plan if you liked it, keep your doctor if you liked it, all the doctors would be included, all the top hospitals would be included and we find out the top hospitals are not in the exchange, not a possibility for people fighting cancer, for example, that's the real reason why I think the president has had such a terrible year, on top of a website he sold as the best or easiest thing since sliced bread, and people as of today can't use the website. He's got to overcome the trust issue, and then the other issues. Foreign policy was a bad year for him. Look at Syria with the red line there. People are still being killed in Syria, and who is leading on that? Russia. We punted to Russia. His biggest accomplishment in foreign policy is having gay and lesbian athletes be our delegates to the Olympics with Russia, yet we punted to Russia on Syria. That's not a big leadership issue.

BLITZER: All right, Maria --

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: And I think that's a problem.

BLITZER: Let me let Maria respond.

Go ahead. There was a lot there, Maria.

(LAUGHTER) CARDONA: Thanks, Wolf.

Look, there's no question this year has been difficult, and again, the president would be the first to say so. But on issues of foreign policy, I think he also has a terrific opportunity. He's been leading on Syria, on Iran, on al Qaeda. I think people remember, front and foremost, he got bin Laden, and we're safer today from al Qaeda than we ever have been. On issues of foreign policy as well, he has put the American people front and center. And America is looked at in a much better light than they were under George W. Bush. So again, yes, tremendous challenges are ahead, but I think it's a terrific opportunity. And as long as this president focuses on a thriving middle class, on equality for everyone, I think he's going to do a very good job because, in comparison to the GOP, when all they're looking at is dividing America on these issues and we're seeing it now with this kerfuffle about "Duck Dynasty," then they are not in a good place --

BLITZER: All right. Hold on.

CARDONA: -- especially going into a presidential election.

BLITZER: Very quickly, Ben, I'm just curious, your thoughts on this division, this split that has emerged among Republicans, especially on NSA surveillance, foreign policy, shall we say the Rand Paul wing of the Republican party versus the Peter King wing of the Republican party. These two guys have gone after each other.

FERGUSON: Well, I think we have graciously been losing to Barack Obama for five years. And there's many conservatives who said we're tired of losing and shaking hands at the end of the day, so you do have a battle. I think it's a positive thing because, otherwise, the Democrats are winning every major argument because we weren't fighting hard enough. So there are people who aren't happy with Speaker Boehner and they're not getting along, and that's a good thing because they're a lot of concerns. What's the point of acting like we get along and nice if we're consistently losing against this White House and this president on issues that we disagree with and we were sent to Washington to fix and change, so that's why it's there and I'm OK with it.

BLITZER: Ben Ferguson and Maria Cardona.

We're getting ready for the president's news conference.

Guys, thank you.

CARDONA: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: The president's end-of-the-year news conference only a few minutes away. You'll see the whole thing live on CNN. That will begin when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer, in Washington. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

Within the next few minutes, the president of the United States will walk into the briefing room, open with a statement, and answer reporters' questions, and then he's heading off to Hawaii for some vacation time.

Brianna Keilar is at the White House.

Set the scene for us. Do we know what the president will say in the opening remarks?

KEILAR: Wolf, talking to White House officials, I expect that he will be talking about the economy, certainly, which as you know is part of his agenda for the coming year. And he recently has talked a lot about a populous message, income inequality and trying to reduce the disparity between the rich and poor. I think we may hear something on that. We may also hear him acknowledge this is really a big week and a half ahead of his administration when it comes to the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, some key deadlines, people who need to sign up for coverage in order to have it by January 1st. And certainly there may be some considerations that are being made for some people who may not be able to do that at this point. But it's something he's going to have to acknowledge as well as really just the progress when it comes to the website and the rollout of his key legislative achievement of his first agenda -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Jake Tapper is here as we get ready.

A little awkward today on this day, the president wrapping up the year with a news conference. The website was down for a few hours.

TAPPER: It's bad. And this gets into one of the challenges the president is facing, and what his aides are talking to him about right now, which is staying on message, some of the messages Brianna was talking about, talking about how good the economy is, better than expected economic numbers coming out this morning. Talking about how the Affordable Care Act, there are problems with the website, but ultimately, it's going to be a plus. And talking about how he's going to take the reforms recommended about the National Security Agency security programs very seriously.

The challenge for him is not to be knocked off message, not to engage. You might remember during his first year when he engaged in that very last question in a press conference about his friends, Henry Lewis Gates arrested in Cambridge and he said the police acted stupidly. Threw his administration off message for at least three or four days. They had to have that beer summit. That's the thing the president is going to try to avoid doing so he can focus like a laser on his message.

BLITZER: He's got his work cut out for him.