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CNN Newsroom

Obama News Conference

Aired December 20, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Brianna, in the next minute or so, we expect he'll be walking out.

The new CNN poll numbers show his job approval number down at 41 percent, 56 percent disapproval. How sensitive are they at the White House to this collapse in January? A year ago, it was, what, 55 percent, his job approval number.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. White House officials will insist they don't pay attention to polls, but certainly, in the next breath, they'll also point out that there is some evidence that perhaps he has bottomed out in the polls. So you know that is certainly something that they are paying attention and that they are sensitive to, and also that threatens the president's agenda. That's really the issue there.

But I think, for the administration, when you look at some of the priorities the president has put forward, it's fascinating. He talks about his agenda perhaps being immigration reform, which would be a huge legacy item. The other issues, he's pushing on the economy and climate change are things that he may circumvent Congress on. So I think that President Obama is sort of looking for some ways to rebound.

But when you're talking about polls, I think that's one question, Wolf. But the other question has to do with history, with his legacy. He may be able to rebound in the polls. I think the expectation is that while that's something he will be able to do, the question is, what will he be able to do in terms of rebounding in history? How could he really make a mark in his second term? And this is a key moment for that. It's going to be much harder for him to try to do something that really cements his legacy in his second term than it is for him to just rebound in the polls. So we talk about polls and that's very important, but I also think that White House officials and the president are also focused on something larger and arguably much more difficult for him.

BLITZER: Stand by for a moment. I want to bring in Dana Bash, our chief congressional correspondent.

Dana, you've been speaking to Democrats, Republicans, members of the House, the Senate. Is there any one thing they're looking for the president to say at this news conference now before he gets out of Washington, heads over on his vacation to Hawaii? Is there something that unites all factions up on Capitol Hill that they would like to hear from the president, other than merry Christmas and happy New Year?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I have been talking to members of Congress, specifically the Senate, which is in still this week. They just left a few hours ago. And what I heard to a person was the fact that despite some skirmishes over what we talked about a little while ago, the fact that there's a problem with procedure in the Senate, big picture, they feel that this budget agreement that they got passed through the House last week, the Senate today, the agreement that they got, ironically, out of the government shutdown, is that they hope the beginning of a new sense of compromise, a new sense of working together. But to a person, every senator, even and especially those in the president's own party, insist that the president has to continue to get in the game on that. That they can only do so much here in Congress and that certainly the president started the year trying to establish, and I don't even want to say reestablish, establish a relationship that he was really lacking with members of Congress, that he's got to continue to do that because leadership from the presidency, no matter who the president is, to establish that kind of relationship and bipartisanship is absolutely essential.

BLITZER: All right, Jake Tapper is watching.

You know, Jake, there's going to be, I suspect, several foreign policy national security questions that are thrown to the president in this news conference. Iran, a move by some senators, Republicans and Democrats, to intensify sanctions, assuming that this deal with Iran doesn't get off the ground. Syria, Afghanistan, a subject that you know quite well. The president has to make a big decision in 2014, whether to keep thousands of U.S. troops there for the next decade at a cost of billions of dollars to U.S. taxpayers. These are tough issues for him.

JAKE TAPPER, ANCHOR, CNN'S "THE LEAD": They're very difficult issues and every single one of them poses very complicated questions. Especially, I think right now, most pressing for the president is Iran, just because there is such pressure, bipartisan pressure, from the Senate to increase the tensions -- the sanctions. There is not support, necessarily, even from Democrats on Capitol Hill, for the process that has been laid out for easing the sanctions in exchange for Iran giving up some of their nuclear weapon program, or at least some of the enrichment program. So that's going to be difficult for the president. He said he's going to veto legislation if it comes to his desk that would increase sanctions.

BLITZER: Because he's afraid that that could derail the entire interim agreement that's supposed to test Iranian nuclear intentions over the course of the next six months. He's afraid even if Congress were to pass legislation, that wouldn't take effect for a year to intensify sanctions. That, by itself, could undermine the whole agreement.

TAPPER: Syria, as you point out, also an incredibly complicated story and one that we've really not covered much since we almost went to war against Syria several months ago. There is this process in place to take this chemical weapons out of Syria. But there are still thousands of innocent Syrian civilians being killed, not by chemical weapons, but by other weapons by the Assad regime. There's also a large civil war, that's too strong a term, but there's a large fight going on among rebel factions with Islamists taking control of many parts of the country. And Assad's still very much in power. So there's some tough questions to ask there. And as you say, the dilemma about what to do in Afghanistan, whether and how many troops should stay in that country after the withdrawal they -- for combat troops of 2014. Still many questions remain unanswered.

BLITZER: Yes. I want to go back to Brianna at the White House. The president getting ready to walk in where you are, Brianna. The health care website - the health care - the health care website was down for a while today, but I take it it's now back working, is that right?

KEILAR: It is. We understand it is, Wolf. And truly just in the nick of time for President Obama because we'd heard that the website, because of some unplanned errors, had been taken down for a fix, meaning that it was down or not really operational for a lot of people who were going on to it. We've learned this is a very powerful visual. We've seen HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testify on Capitol Hill. And when that website is down, it sort of creates a situation where, you know, the president could be talking about healthcare.gov or trying to promote some of the progress that has been made, and that's a pretty powerful visual to see when the website is not operational. So it appears just really in the nick of time for this press conference. That will not happen.

BLITZER: Yes. All right, hold on for a minute. The president getting ready to walk out. I'm sure the economy will be among the top issues the president will talk about in his opening statement. Danny Boston is joining us from Georgia Tech University, the Department of Economics.

These numbers are pretty encouraging, economic growth in the third quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial's record high numbers right now. What do you think? Have we turned the corner? Is the U.S. economy in 2014 going to be strong and robust?

DANNY BOSTON, GEORGIA TECH DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS: It will be strong and robust. What it appears is that we've actually entered a new phase of the recovery in the sense that we're getting sort of coordinated progress moving the economy forward. In the past, we've had one sector moving forward and another sector dragging behind. For example, it could be consumers were spending and businesses were hoarding money. Now we have all of those sectors spending, and that's playing out in terms of creating new jobs. Still need higher-quality jobs, but we're creating new jobs at a pretty rapid clip. And so thing are --

BLITZER: How worried - how worried should you -- are you, how worried should we all be, about the growing gap, the disparity between the rich and poor?

BOSTON: It is a serious problem and a problem that has no short-term solution. It's very, very serious. A part of it is due to the collapse in the housing market and the destruction of home equity, which is a major form of wealth for both middle class and working class Americans. That's a part of it. But the other part of it is related to the dynamics that are taking place in the labor market. The consistent long-term unemployment, 4 million people, and then we have 8 million people still employed part time but would like to have full-time jobs.

BLITZER: For the Dow Jones, above 16,000, record highs. It was about 7,000 when the president was sworn in five years ago. So people who have invested in the markets, they've done well. It's up 103 points right now at 16,282, which is very impressive. But at the same time, you have a statistic, and you're familiar with this, professor, that there are record numbers of Americans on food stamps right now, that millions and millions of people have been added to the food stamps list because they need it basically to survive. So what's going on here? Dow Jones is doing great, but there are, what, 50 million Americans who require food stamps to survive?

BOSTON: Absolutely. And that's one of the dilemmas of a market economy. The Dow Jones is doing great because corporations have gotten off the sideline. They're investing. They're seeing record profitability and they're sustaining that growth. On the other hand, we have these global pressures that are really changing the economy in some fundamental ways, and it has - those -- that upper -- the progress at the upper end has not trickled down to what's happening at the lower end. And so we do have record amounts of poverty. We have people that we've not seen now before, among working class and middle class families, on food stamps. Those issues need to be addressed. And they have to be addressed in a sensible way with more reasonable, long-term strategies.

BLITZER: As we await the president at the news conference, let's bring back CNN contributor Maria Cardona and Ben Ferguson.

Ben, how much credit does the president deserve for this enormous rise in the markets, from 7,000 five years ago to 16,000 right now? The growth in the third quarter above 4 percent. Pretty impressive.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

BLITZER: Unemployment numbers going down. Housing markets going up. How much credit do you give the president?

FERGUSON: I don't give him a lot, mainly because I haven't seen policies this White House has pushed forward that have helped those issues grow. I mean you've got to give credit to the private sector for actually getting off the sidelines and being willing to take chances and risks, as you just heard the economist talk about right there.

And one of the things I think the president did do a better job of at the end was starting to realize that all the mandates of Obamacare that were stalling many companies from hiring people at full-time work because they were afraid of all the mandates and they were switching to part-time work, that's part of the reason why you have so many people on food stamps now is because they didn't realize the repercussions for those mandates. And when they allowed some of these companies this one-year hiatus, you saw some of them get off the sidelines and start hiring people back again for a little bit and they've got to do a better job of that in the future. BLITZER: Maria, you know that, what, 1.3 million Americans who have been receiving long-term unemployment benefits, starting January 1st, after 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, they're not going to continue to receive those benefits. The Democrats, they worked out a budget deal with the Republicans, but they didn't demand that those long-term benefits remain in the deal. Are you upset about that?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I am. And I think a lot of Democrats are. But let's be very clear that that's going to be something that the Democrats are going to continue to fight for and that I think will also help define not only what this president is going to continue to fight for, but what Democrats will fight for, which is for the middle class to have the opportunity to continue to live up to the American dream.

Let's be very clear here. The president deserves a lot of credit for the uptick in the economy. He's created in four years more jobs than George W. Bush created in eight years. The American Recovery Act, and economists from all sides of the spectrum will say this, is credited for bringing us back from the brink of a great depression. That is a huge accomplishment for this president. And in this press conference, he's going to continue to focus on the economy, which, frankly, Republicans have taken their eye off of.

FERGUSON: Maria -

CARDONA: Imagine if Republicans started working with this president. Imagine where we would be today.

FERGUSON: Maria, with all due respect, I don't think the doubling of the people on food stamps that's happened under the president's first five years in office, I don't think those people would agree with your assessment that it's an amazing job market for them when you've doubled the number of people on food stamps and government assistance. One in four Americans right now is on government assistance in some form. That is a problem. And there's a difference between helping people and coddling people. And I think we've got to help people but not allow them to have two years to go find a new job with unemployment benefits just so you can get voters to like you more.

CARDONA: And who were the ones who wanted to cut those food stamps for those people and giving them absolutely no social safety net? That's the Republicans. Republicans don't understand how to fight for those who need help. And this is what this president is going to focus on, I think, in the second term, is that income inequality. Because as long as we have that disparity, and you're right, not a lot of people are participating in the recovery, and president will make sure to focus on what we need to do to help those people, because as long as people are losing in this economy, America itself is not doing as well as it can be, and we hope Republicans can join this president instead of trying to block him every step of the way.

BLITZER: All right, hold on, guys. Hold on. Ben, Maria, we're going to come back to you. Once again we're waiting for the president of the United States. He'll be walking into the Briefing Room. He was supposed to do that a few minutes ago. Running, obviously, a few minutes late. We'll hear from the president momentarily.

Jake Tapper has been watching together with me.

You know, this new CNN poll has some interesting numbers comparing where President Obama is right now in this end of the fifth year of his presidency in his second term, to where other two-term presidents recently were. The president now is at 41 percent, his job approval number. That's the same number that George W. Bush was in December 2005, 41 percent. Bill Clinton, at the same time in his second term, was at 56 percent job approval. Ronald Regan in 1985 was at 63 percent. So I'm sure when the president sees that he's in the same boat right now as George W. Bush was five years in, he's not very happy about it.

TAPPER: It's not a reassuring place to be, especially because it's easy to plunge as a politician. It's easy to plunge in popularity and job approval. It's difficult to climb out of the hole. George W. Bush never got out of his hole. After he went underneath 50 percent, he never got back. And I'm not saying that's going to be the same thing with President Obama. We'll see. But it is very difficult because once you've lost trust, once the American people decide that they don't trust you anymore, and polls indicate that more Americans don't trust President Obama than trust him, which is a staggering number that just happened about a month ago, and also the plunging of numbers of people who think that he is looking out for their economic interest, I think it went down 26 points - or 20 points from 26 percent over the Republicans to now just 6 points above the Republicans. It's difficult to regain that. Difficult to regain, in the eyes of the voters, the idea that you are trustworthy and the idea that you do have their economic interests at heart. So he's going to try to turn that around. And it starts - it starts right now when he comes out.

BLITZER: Yes, when he comes out.

We'll take a quick break as we await the president of the United States. We're waiting for that two-minute warning the White House gives us. Have not yet received it. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Once again, I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We're now told only a few seconds away from the president walking into the Briefing Room, making an opening statement. We assume he'll talk about the economy, probably health care, other issues and then start taking reporters' questions. This news conference could last as long as an hour if past history is any precedent for what could happen. I know a lot of reporters in there are getting ready to ask the president some tough questions. Questions involving the economy to be sure, there Obamacare issues, NSA surveillance, foreign policy questions, Iran, whether or not the president could go along with some additional sanctions, although yesterday the White House said the president would veto legislation even if it were passed by a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans to tighten up some of those sanctions if this deal with Iran doesn't go forward.

There's a huge crisis right now, a huge issue between the United States and India that the president potentially could address. Of course, Syria is an important issue. North Korea, an important issue. I assume there will be questions on a whole range of domestic and national security issues once the president comes into the Briefing Room.

The reporters have been seated. They're getting ready to ask their questions as soon as the president winds up his opening statement. Once the news conference is over, the president and the first family, they'll board Marine One first, then Air Force One. They'll fly to Hawaii for some badly need R&R. This has been a very, very tough year for the president, the first year of his second term, and certainly culminating with many of the serious problems of the Affordable Care Act, especially the website, which had some major, major problems. Seemed to be improving. Even for a few hours today it was down, but we're now told it is up and running. There's only a few days left for people to get the insurance they need in order to make sure they have full protection, or at least a lot of protection, on January 1st. So this has been a big issue for the president. Here comes the president.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All right. Good afternoon, everybody. I know you are all eager to skip town and spend some time with your families. Not surprisingly, I am, too. But you know what they say: It's the most wonderful press conference of the year right now.

(LAUGHTER)

I am eager to take your questions, but, first, I just want to say a few words about our economy. In 2013, our businesses created another 2 million jobs, adding up to more than 8 million in just over the past 45 months. This morning, we learned that over the summer our economy grew at its strongest pace in nearly two years. The unemployment rate has steadily fallen to its lowest point in five years. Our tax code is fairer, and our fiscal situation is firmer, with deficits that are now less than half of what they were when I took office.

For the first time in nearly two decades, we now produce more oil here at home than we buy from the rest of the world. And our all-of- the- above strategy for new American energy means lower energy costs. The Affordable Care Act has helped keep health care costs growing at their slowest rate in 50 years. Combined that means bigger paychecks for middle-class families and bigger savings for businesses looking to invest and hire here in America.

And for all the challenges we've had and all the challenges that we've been working on diligently in dealing with both the ACA and the website these past couple months, more than 500,000 Americans have enrolled through HealthCare.gov in the first three weeks of December alone. In California, for example, a state operating its own marketplace, more than 15,000 Americans are enrolling every single day. And in the federal website, tens of thousands are enrolling every single day. Since October 1st, more than 1 million Americans have selected new health insurance plans through the federal and state marketplaces.

So all told, millions of Americans -- despite the problems with the website -- are now poised to be covered by quality affordable health insurance come New Year's Day.

Now, this holiday season, there are mothers and fathers and entrepreneurs and workers who have something new to celebrate, the security of knowing that when the unexpected or misfortune strikes, hardship no longer has to. And you add that all up, and what it means is we head into next year with an economy that's stronger than it was when we started the year, more Americans are finding work and experiencing the pride of a paycheck, our businesses are positioned for new growth and new jobs.

And I firmly believe that 2014 can be a breakthrough year for America.

But, as I outlined in detail earlier this month, we all know there's a lot more that we're going to have to do to restore opportunity and broad-based growth for every American. And that's going to require some action.

It's a good start that earlier this week, for the first time in years, both parties in both houses of Congress came together to pass a budget that unwinds some of the damaging sequester cuts that created headwinds for our economy. It clears the path for businesses and for investments that we need to strengthen our middle class, like education and scientific research. And it means that the American people won't be exposed to the threat of another reckless shutdown ever few months. So that's a good thing.

It's probably too early to declare and outbreak of bipartisanship, but it's also fair to say that we're not condemned to endless gridlock. There are areas where we can work together. I believe that work should begin with something that Republicans in Congress should have done before leaving town this week, and that's restoring the temporary insurance that helps folks make ends meet when they are looking for a job.

Because Congress didn't act, more than 1 million of their constituents will lose a vital economic lifeline at Christmas time, leaving a lot of job seekers without any source of income at all. I think we're a better country than that. We don't abandon each other when times are tough. Keep in mind, unemployment insurance only goes to folks who are actively looking for work -- the mom who needs help feeding her kids when she sends out her resumes, or a dad who needs help paying the rent while working part-time and still earning the skills he needs for that new job.

So when Congress comes back to work, their first order of business should be making this right. I know a bipartisan group is working on a three-month extension of this insurance. They should pass it, and I'll sign it right away.

Let me repeat. I think 2014 needs to be a year of action. We've got work to do to create more good jobs, to help more Americans earn the skills and education they need to do those jobs, and to make sure that those jobs offer the wages and benefits that let families build a little bit of financial security.

We still have the task of finishing the fix on our broken immigration system. We've got to build on the progress we've painstakingly made over these last five years with respect to our economy and offer the middle class and all those who are looking to join the middle class a better opportunity. And that's going to be where I focus all of my efforts in the year ahead.

And let me conclude by saying just as we're strengthening our position here at home, we're also standing up for our interests around the world. This year, we've demonstrated that with clear-eyed principled diplomacy, we can pursue new paths to a world that's more secure, a future where Iran does not build a nuclear weapon, a future where Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles are destroyed.

By the end of next year, the war in Afghanistan will be over, just as we've ended our war in Iraq. And we'll continue to bring our troops home. And as always, we will remain vigilant to protect our homeland and our personnel overseas from terrorist attacks.

Of course, a lot of our men and women in uniform are still overseas and a lot of them are still spending their Christmas far away from their family and their friends, and in some cases still in harm's way. So I want to close by saying to them and their families back home, we want to thank you. Your country stands united in supporting you and being grateful for your service and your sacrifice. We will keep you in our thoughts and in our prayers during this season of hope.

So before I wish a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. I will take some questions.

Jay prepared a list of who's naughty and nice, so we'll see -- we'll see who made it.

Julie must be nice. Julie Pace. (inaudible).

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Despite all of the data points that you cited in your opening statement, when you look back at this year, very little of the domestic agenda that you outlined in your inaugural address and your State of the Union (inaudible).

Health care roll-out, obviously, had huge problems, and your ratings from the public are -- are near historic lows for you, when you (ph) pick (ph) this all together, has this been the worst year of your presidency?

OBAMA: I -- I gotta tell you, Julie, that's not how I think about it. I have now been in office five years, close to five years. Was running for president for two years before that and, for those of you who cover me during that time, we have had ups and we have had downs.

I think this room has probably recorded at least 15 near death experiences. And what I've been focused on each and every day is, are we moving the ball in helping the American people?

Families have more opportunity, have a little more security to -- to feel as if -- if they work hard they can get ahead.

And if -- if -- I look at this past year, there are areas where there obviously have been some have frustrations, where I wished Congress had moved more aggressively.

You know, not passing background checks in the wake of Newtown is something that I continue to believe was a mistake. But then I also look at, because of the debate that occurred, all the work that's been done at state levels to increase gun safety, and -- and to make sure we do not see tragedies like that happen again.

There's a lot of focus on legislative activity at the Congressional level. But, even when Congress does not move on things they should move on, there are a whole bunch of things that we're still doing.

So we do not always get attention for it, but the Connect Ed Program that we announced, where we're gonna be initiating wireless capacity in every classroom in America will make a huge difference for kids all across the country, and for teachers.

The manufacturing hub that we set up in Youngstown is something I talked about during the State of the Union is gonna create innovation and connect universities, manufacturers, job training to help create a renaissance -- build on a renaissance we're seeing in manufacturing.

When it comes to energy, this year is going to be the first year in a very long time where we are producing more oil and natural gas, here in this country, than we are importing.

That is a big deal.

So -- so I understand the point that you're getting at, Juli (ph), which is that, a lot of our initiatives in Congress have not moved forward as rapidly as I would like.

I completely understand that.

Which means that I'm going to keep at it.

And if you look at for example immigration reform, probably the biggest thing that I wanted to get done this year, we saw progress. It passed the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote. There are indications in the House that, even though it did not get completed this year, that there is a commitment on the part of the Speaker to try to move forward legislation early next year.

And the fact that it didn't hit the timeline that I prefer is obviously frustrating, but it's not something I end up brooding a lot about.

QUESTION: It's not just your legislative agenda. When you talk to Americans, they seem to have lost confidence in you, trust in you, your credibility has taken a hit. Obviously, the health care law was a big part of that. Do you understand that those -- the public has changed in some way their view of you over this year? OBAMA: Julie, I guess what I'm saying is if you're measuring this by polls, my polls have gone up and down a lot through the course of my career.