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President Obama Concludes End-of-Year Press Conference; Analysis of President's Press Conference

Aired December 20, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So 85 percent of the population, whether they know it or not over the last three years, have benefited from a whole set of the provisions of the law. And, by the way, if it were to be repealed, you would be taking away all of those benefits from -- from folks who already are enjoying them.

You had this sub-portion of the population, 15 percent, who either don't have health insurance or are buying it on the individual market. And that's still millions of people. And what we're doing is creating a marketplace where they can buy insurance and we can provide them some tax credits to help them afford it.

The basic structure of that law is working. Despite all the problems, despite the website problems, despite the messaging problems, despite all that, it's working. And, again, you don't have to take my word for it. We've got a couple million people who are going to have health insurance just in the first three months, despite the fact that probably the first month-and-a-half was lost because of problems with the website and about as bad a bunch of publicity as you could imagine, and yet you still got 2 million people who signed up, or more. And so what that means, then, is that the demand is there and, as I said before, the product is good.

Now, in putting something like this together, there going to be all kinds of problems that crop up, some of which may have been unanticipated, and what we've been trying to do is just respond to them in a commonsense way. And we're going to continue to try to do that.

But that doesn't negate the fact that, you know, a year from now or two years for now, when we look back, we're going to be able to say that even more people have health insurance who didn't have it before, and that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. That is part of the reason why I pushed so hard to get this law done in the first place.

And, you know, I've said before, this is a messy process. And I think sometimes when I say that, people say, well, A, yeah, it's real messy, and, B, you know, isn't -- isn't the fact that it's been so messy some indication that there -- there are more fundamental problems with the law?

And I guess what I'd say to that is, when you try to do something this big, affecting this many people, it's going to be hard. And every instance, whether it's Social Security, Medicare, the prescription drug plan under President Bush, it's -- there hasn't been an instance where you've tried to really have an impact on the American people's lives and wellbeing, particularly in the health care arena, where you don't end up having some of these challenges.

The question is going to be, ultimately, do we make good decisions trying to help as many people as possible in as efficient a way as possible? And I think that's what we're doing.

QUESTION: So with 72 hours ago, you make this change, where people are buying the junk -- frankly, a junk-type policy that you weren't -- you were trying to get people away from.

OBAMA: Well, keep in mind, first of all, that the majority of folks are going to have different options. This is essentially an additional net in case folks might have slipped through the cracks. We don't have precision on those numbers, but we expect it's going to be a relatively small number, because these are folks who want insurance and the vast majority of them have good options. And in a state like North Carolina, for example, the overwhelming majority of them have just kept their own plans, so -- the ones that they had previously.

But we thought, and continue to think, that it makes sense that, as we are transitioning to a system in which insurance standards are higher, people don't have unpleasant surprises because they thought they had insurance until they hit a limit, and next thing you know, they still owe $100,000 or $200,000 or $300,000 for a hospital visit, that as we transition to higher standards, better insurance, that we also address folks who get caught in that transition and their unintended consequences.

And I'll be -- that was the original intent of the grandfather clause that was in the law. Obviously, the problem was it didn't catch enough people, and, you know, we learned from that, and we're trying not to repeat those mistakes.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) to be enforced (OFF-MIKE)

OBAMA: Absolutely. Yeah.

Let's see.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. What was the message you were trying to send with not only your decision not to attend the Sochi games, but also with the people you named to the delegation to represent the United States at those games?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, I haven't attended the Olympics in the past, and I suspect that, you know -- you know, me attending Olympics, particularly at a time when we have got all of the stuff that people have been talking about is gonna be tough.

Although I would love to do it.

I'll the going to a lot of Olympic games post-presidency.

(LAUGHTER) OBAMA: I think the delegation speaks for itself. You got outstanding Americans, outstanding athlete; people who who will represent us extraordinarily well.

And, you know, the fact that we have got folks like Billie Jean King or Bryan Watano (ph) who themselves have been world-class athletes that everybody acknowledges for their excellence, but also for their character, who also happen to be members of the LGBT community, you should take that for -- for what it's worth, that when it comes to the Olympics and athletic performance, we do not make distinctions on the basis of sexual orientation. We judge people on how they perform, both on the court, and off the court, on the field, and off the field.

And that is a value that I think is at the heart of not just America, but American sports.

I'm going to roll down these last few real quickly. Ari Shapiro (ph), last day of the White House, he deserves a question.

QUESTION: Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Senator Max Baucus was widely seen as the best hope for a large- scale deal to overhaul of the tax code. What does your decision to nominate him for ambassador to China say about your hopes for a major tax bill in the second term?

OBAMA: They (ph) said that Max Baucus is going to be an outstanding ambassador to China, and I'd like a swift confirmation. And, my expectation and hope is that if both Senate Democrats, or if Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate are serious about tax reform, then it's not going to depend on one guy. It's going to depend on all of us working together. And my office is ready, willing and eager to engage both parties in having a conversation about how we can simplify the tax code, make it fairer, make it work to create more jobs, and do right by middle-class Americans.

Jackie Combs (ph)?

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

And how do you say it in Hawaii, malakalikimaka (ph).

OBAMA: Malakalikimaka (ph).

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Since we've been looking back at the year, I'd like to ask you what your reaction was to the nonpartisan truth-telling group "PolitiFact" when it said that the lie of the year was your statement that if you like your health care plan, you can keep it.

And related to the health care problems that we've seen over the past year, the fallout from that seems to be making Democrats, particularly in the Senate, a little rambunctious and independent of you, which is evidenced most clearly in the debate over the Iran sanctions. It looks like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has expedited consideration of an Iran sanctions bill for January, even as your administration and you have been trying to get them to lay off sanctions while you're...

(CROSSTALK)

OBAMA: Jackie, I've got to say you're stringing a bunch of things along here. Let's see if we can hone in on a question. I mean, I -- I...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: That's a lot less than Ed Henry (ph) had.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: How about I separate out the Iran question from the health care question?

On the health care question, look, I think I've answered several times, this is a new iteration of it, but bottom line is that, you know, we are going to continue to work every single day to make sure that implementation of the health care law and the Web site and all elements of it, including the grandfather clause, work better every single day.

And, as I said in previous press conferences, you know, we're gonna make mistakes, and we're gonna have problems. But my intentions have been clear throughout, which is, I just want to help as many people as possible feel secure and make sure that they don't go broke when they get sick. And we're gonna just keep on doing that. On Iran, there is the possibility of a resolution to a problem that has been a challenge for American national security for over a decade now, and that is getting Iran to, in a verifiable fashion, not pursue a nuclear weapon.

Already, even with the interim deal that we struck in Geneva, we had the first halt and in some cases some rollback of Iran's nuclear capabilities. The first time that we've seen that in almost a decade.

And we now have a structure in which we can have a very serious conversation to see is it possible for Iran to get right with the international community in a verifiable fashion to give us all confidence that any peaceful nuclear program that they have is not gonna be weaponized in a way that threatens us or allies in the region, including Israel.

And as I've said before and I will repeat, it is very important for us to test whether that's possible, not because it's guaranteed, but because the alternative is possibly us having to engage in some sort of conflict to resolve the problem with all kinds of unintended consequences. Now, I've been very clear from the start, I mean what I say. It is my goal to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but I sure would rather do it diplomatically. I'm keeping all options on the table, but if I can do it diplomatically, that's how we should do it. I would think that would be the preference of everybody up on Capitol Hill, because that sure is the preference of the American people.

And we lose nothing during this negotiation period. Precisely because there are verification provisions in place, we will have more insight into Iran's nuclear program over the next six months than we have previously. We'll know if they are violating the terms of the agreement. They're not allowed to accelerate their stockpile of enriched uranium. In fact, they have to reduce their stockpile of highly-enriched uranium.

Ironically, if we did not have this six-month period in which we're testing whether we can get a comprehensive solution to this problem, they'd be advancing either further on their nuclear program. And in light of all that, what I've said to members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, is there is no need for new sanctions legislation. Not yet.

Now, if Iran comes back and says, we can't give you assurances that we're not going to weaponize, if they're not willing to address some of their capabilities that we know could end up resulting in them having breakout capacity, it's not going to be hard for us to turn the dials back, strengthen sanctions even further. I'll work with members of Congress to put even more pressure on Iran. But there's no reason to do it right now.

And so I'm not surprised that there's been some talk from some members of Congress about new sanctions. I think the politics of trying to look tough on Iran are often good when you're running for office or if you're in office. But as president of the United States right now, who's been responsible over the last four years, with the help of Congress, in putting together a comprehensive sanctions regime that was specifically designed to put pressure on them and bring them to the table to negotiate, what I'm saying to them, what I've said to the international community, and what I've said to the American people is, let's test it. Now's the time to try to see if we can get this thing done.

And I've heard some logic that says, well, Mr. President, we're -- we're supportive of the negotiations, but we think it's really useful to have this club hanging over Iran's head. Well, first of all, we still have the existing sanctions already in place that are resulting in Iran losing billions of dollars every month in lost oil sales. We already have banking and financial sanctions that are still being applied even as the negotiations are taking place. It's not as if we're letting up on that.

So I've heard arguments, well, but, you know, this way, we can be assured and the Iranians will know that, if negotiations fail, even new and harsher sanctions will be put into place.

Listen, I don't think the Iranians have any doubt that Congress would be more than happy to pass more sanctions legislation. We can do that in a -- in a day, on a dime. But if we're serious about negotiations, we've got to create an atmosphere in which Iran is willing to move in ways that are uncomfortable for them, in contrary to their ideology and rhetoric and their instincts and their suspicions of us, and we don't help get them to a position where we can actually resolve this by engaging in this kind of -- this kind of action.

All right? OK, everybody. I think I'm going to take one more question, and that is it.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

OBAMA: There you are.

QUESTION: Some of your long-term advisers are leaving the White House. Some new folks are coming in. Others are taking on new roles in the West Wing. As you reshape your team a bit, how does that change the dynamic here? And how does it impact what you think you can accomplish going forward?

OBAMA: You know, I just had lunch with Pete Rouse, who's leaving me. And that's tough. He says so not right now, at least.

(UNKNOWN): (OFF-MIKE)

OBAMA: No, you know, I -- I love that guy, and -- and that will be a significant loss, although he'll still be in town, and hopefully I'll be able to consult with him on an ongoing basis.

I think the fact that John Podesta's coming in will be terrific. He may deny it, but I've been trying to get him in here for quite some time. He ran my transition office. I asked him when he was running the transition office if he would be willing to join us, and at that time I think he was still feeling that he wanted to develop CAP (ph) and other organizations.

But John's a great strategist. He is as good as anybody on domestic policy. And I think he'll be a huge boost to us and give us more bandwidth to deal with more issues. I suspect that we may have additional announcements in the new year. You know, there's a natural turnover that takes place. People get tired. People get worn out. Sometimes you need fresh legs.

But what I can tell you is that the team I have now is tireless and shares my values, and believes the thing that I think I've repeated probably four or five times in this press conference, which is we get this incredible privilege for a pretty short period of time to do as much as we can for as many people as we can to help them live better lives.

And that's what drives them. That's the sacrifice they make being away from families and soccer games and birthdays and some of them will end up working over Christmas on issues like Iran. And the fact that they make those kinds of sacrifices, I'm always grateful for. And if they then say to me after making those sacrifices for three, four, five years, you know, "I need a break," you know, then I completely understand.

All right? Have a great holiday, everybody. Appreciate you. Merry Christmas. Happy new year.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, he spent an hour in the White House Briefing Room with an opening statement of, what, five to seven minutes or so, but then he answered reporters' question.

By my count, 10 reporters had a chance to ask a question. There were some pretty tough questions to the president of the United States, especially that PolitiFact notion that he offered the lie of the year when he said, if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

The president also was asked a few times whether 2013 was the worst year of your presidency for a variety of issues.

Let's assess what we just heard from the president of the United States. He's getting ready to head off on vacation right now with his family in Hawaii.

John King, what jumped out at you?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At a time, if you look at the polls, if you talk to Democrats around town, he's at the lowest point of his presidency.

He was zero for 2013 in terms of what he wanted to accomplish from a policy standpoint, and, yet, when many Democrats would look at the glass as half-empty or three-quarters empty, the president there, Wolf, tried to end the year by saying, I think it's at least half- full.

He hopes the economy in 2014 makes for better political circumstances. He hopes people view the health care law a lot better six months from now better than they do today. One last footnote. if Edward Snowden was expecting a hint that he might get amnesty as a Christmas present from the president, no.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: No. It's not surprising, even though a senior lawyer at the NSA the other day floated that idea maybe he should be granted amnesty if he comes clean, returns all the documents and all of that.

Van Jones and Newt Gingrich, the co-hosts of "CROSSFIRE," here as well.

Did something jump out at you, Van?

VAN JONES, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Well, first of all, that was Barack Obama as Muhammad Ali doing the rope-a-dope.

He was tired. He was laying on the ropes. His main goal, I think, today was to get through that press conference and get on that airplane and not cause himself any problems. And he did that, but there is good news in what he said.

I think we have been really focused on some of these downsides. Listen, the economy is growing. They had to revise the numbers up 4 percent. He pointed that out. Unemployment, good. Fuel prices, low. We're focusing on the bad stuff. In the background, good stuff is accumulating. I think this president pointed that, took some blows and got out of there.

BLITZER: He did say, the president, that when the debt ceiling has to go up again in February, he's not negotiating with the Republicans on this.

This is a debt, Newt Gingrich, that the United States has already accumulated and there are no negotiations on this, even though Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, and others say, you know what, let's make a deal.

NEWT GINGRICH, CO-HOST, "CROSSFIRE": Look, I thought overall, it was sort of an Eisenhower-quality press conference in which he managed to obfuscate and obscure whatever he needed to avoid getting in trouble on, and I think Ike would have been proud of him.

The fact is, though, when you listen to that one section, he has learned nothing. This is really embarrassing.

BLITZER: When you listen to what he said about the debt ceiling?

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: Because what you say is, I think Congressman Ryan has many good ideas. I would like to reach out to the House and Senate Republicans. I'm sure we can find a way to get a solution which might not be on the debt ceiling, but they will be really happy to then pass the debt ceiling.

The idea that you end the year the way you started the year by saying I'm an imperial president, I expect you to do what I want you to do, we're not going to negotiate, is just -- it's just dumb.

JONES: Well, I see it differently.

From my point of view, probably the biggest achievement of this for this past year was breaking the fever. He broke the back of this Tea Party obstructionism. He said we're just not going to keep doing this. And it opens the door for bipartisanship.

Your Paul Ryan is going to be more successful now because this president stood up to all that crazy stuff.

BLITZER: Hold on a second.

John, he started the year, according to our CNN poll, his job approval number was 55 percent, but throughout the year, it went down. And now he ends the year at only 41 percent job approval.

KING: Which, Wolf, this -- life in politics aren't fair, but that's the exact same number George W. Bush had at this point.

And that's why the president has a lot of thinking to do on this vacation, because it's not just the Republicans. Does he want to be more conciliatory next year? Does he want to try to reach out? Will they reach out in an election year even if he does reach out is an open question.

But the president has to worry about Democrats because they see that number and the risk of holding the Senate is at stake, losing seats in the House is at stake. So, the Democrats are nervous at the president right now. George W. Bush had that number at this point. They lost 30 seats in the next midterm election.

No one thinks the Democrats are going to lose 30 seats right now, but if you talk to Democrats in the House, Democrats in the Senate who are in competitive and vulnerable seats, they're nervous and they no longer are willing to say, let's see what the president wants to do, let's let him go first, let's let him lead. They're pushing and poking and screaming at this White House to do more.

BLITZER: And the president did not back down at all as far as Iran sanctions are concerned. And he took an indirect swipe at some fellow Democrats who are pushing for some new sanctions legislation, whether it's a Chuck Schumer or Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

That sort of jumped out at me.

JONES: Absolutely.

Well, he's responding to some of these dynamics that John was just talking about, where you're starting to get some Democrats who are willing to get off of the reservation, for lack of a better term, and he threw a brushback pitch at them. He's done that before.

But I also think it's important to recognize these economic numbers are good. The Obamacare situation is actually beginning to improve. You have a couple million people now who are beginning to benefit.

I think I would make the argument that, unlike George W. Bush, his worst days are probably behind him. It would be very hard for him to do much worse than he's done. And you now have, I think, the shot at bipartisanship. It's not a given, but because he stood up to some of this crazy stuff in the fall, you have got a shot now to get something done maybe on immigration.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He did say, the president -- and I want Newt Gingrich to respond -- he did say, I have got to -- and I'm paraphrasing -- I have got to assume they're not crazy enough to start that all over again, referring to Republicans who might try to negotiate with him over the debt ceiling.

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: Just take that phrase alone, OK, having now appointed a guy who compared House Republicans to Jonestown fanatics.

BLITZER: He apologized.

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: I know he apologized. But I'm just saying, so you're a normal -- you're a Republican. You watch this. You think you have any signal that this guy has any interest in serious bipartisan conversation?

We're the ones -- you know, we're the ones who are going to start things? He's the president of the United States. He has every opportunity to reach out. He has every opportunity to be bipartisan.

BLITZER: He said -- he did say, look, I'm willing to talk to them. I'm always looking for good ideas, but when it comes to the debt ceiling, no negotiations.

GINGRICH: But it's not just about the debt ceiling.

First of all, I think, on the Iranian sanctions, the margins in the House and Senate are going to be so big, that he's not going to veto the bill, because...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The White House yesterday said he would veto it. I don't know if there's enough votes to override a veto.

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: Oh, I think there will be.

JONES: Do you think Harry Reid is going to let that get to the floor?

GINGRICH: I think there are certain moments when the majority leader if he wants to be the leader decides he's going to lead where they want him to go.

JONES: I don't know if Iran is the issue to do it on at this particular point in time.

KING: His deputies want that vote. Harry Reid can -- he can shut them down if he wants, but his deputies want that vote. His candidates on the ballot want that vote.

I think the question for the White House is, will they try? If the speaker is right, and I think he is right where the margins are right now, does the White House try to negotiate some more of an open trigger, more language in there saying -- to make it clear to the Iranians this is not about now?

That's what everyone says, it's not about now anyway, but try to develop some more clear language that would allow the White House to say, OK, we can hold maybe our nose and take it now. BLITZER: Were you surprised by his answer, John, when he was asked what was your biggest mistake of the year and he answered the rollout of Obamacare? He said, I would meet every few weeks, but I didn't appreciate the enormity of the Web site, the technology issues, and the other matters. But he acknowledged that was his biggest mistake of the year.

KING: Presidents hate those questions, but I think it's somewhere in the documents...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He said, I'm in charge.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: We holds these truths to be self-evident.

BLITZER: He said, since I'm in charge, we screwed it up.

Sort of reminded me, you remember this, Newt, when, what was it, George W. Bush asked about his mistakes, he couldn't think of any. Remember that news conference?

GINGRICH: Well, I actually think this was a good thing for the president.

BLITZER: To acknowledge that?

GINGRICH: Yes, when you have something this big go wrong this publicly, it's actually helpful to the country to hear that you're at least in touch with reality.

JONES: Yes.

Well, I want to -- and, by the way, speaking of being in touch with reality, I want to fact-check PolitiFact. PolitiFact has now come out and saying this is the lie of the year, but I look back. When he first said it, they said it was half-true.

So how is PolitiFact getting away with -- double-check this -- how is PolitiFact getting away with, when he first said the thing about being able to your keep thing, it's half-true, now it's a full lie and the lie of the year?

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRICH: Because we found out that in fact it was totally untrue and they knew it at the time.

KING: They knew it for more than two years. They knew it in the middle of the reelection campaign it wasn't true.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: Yes, there's mixed reporting on that. KING: They kept saying it.

JONES: There's mixed reporting on that.

But I do agree with the speaker. It is good when he steps forward, and he says, I screwed up, and he owns it. And I thought that there were other opportunities that he had. There were questions there where you could see him, almost like he was saying, well, I'm just going to keep rope-a-doping, as opposed to really becoming confessional.

BLITZER: Hold on a minute.

We're going to continue this conversation, the president -- once again, I'm paraphrasing -- since I'm in charge, we screwed it up, referring to the rollout of Obamacare.

You know what? People make mistakes. The American people are very forgiving. We will see how forgiving they are.

Let's take a quick break, resume our analysis right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)