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Analyzing President Obama's Press Conference

Aired December 20, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As important and as necessary as this debate has been, it is also important to keep in mind that this has done unnecessary damage to U.S. intelligence capabilities and U.S. diplomacy. But I will leave it up to the courts and the attorney general to weigh in publicly on the specifics of Mr. Snowden's case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama speaking about a proposal that was floated over the weekend by a top lawyer for the national security agency suggesting perhaps Snowden should be allowed to come back to the United States, receive amnesty in exchange for coming clean, handing over all of the documents, 1.7 million documents he stole from the NSA.

Let's bring in our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto.

The president didn't exactly answer the question. He sort of punted to the justice department because there's criminal action pending against Snowden, but he also didn't rule it out, but he certainly didn't support it.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we certainly showed there that he's still angry at Snowden, saying, explaining the rationale for why it's done great damage to U.S. intelligence gathering, to its credibility abroad, that kind of thing. So, it doesn't seem like he's really making the case for him getting that reprieve.

But I think there was a significant statement by the president on the overall behavior of the NSA here and admitting changes have to be made. He said, we may have to refine this further to give people more confidence both here at home and overseas. He got more specific in that, Wolf, saying that he's open to this idea of moving that phone metadata, all that information on millions and billions of phone calls of Americans from the NSA's possession, back into private hands of the phone companies. And he explained there may be a way to redesign the program, in his words, to give the NSA the information when it needs it, but to eliminate or at least reduce the potential for abuse there. And that was really one of the most significant recommendations from this intelligence reform panel that just came out a couple days ago. So, the president signaling there that he may acceptable that recommendation. BLITZER: He didn't exactly give a ringing endorsement to General James Clapper, the director of national intelligence. When he was asked about statements that Clapper had earlier made, a lot of Republicans want Clapper to resign, and the president, I'm paraphrasing, he said don't conflate me with General Clapper. That sort of jumps out to me and I don't know if it did to you too.

SCIUTTO: No, it definitely jumped out, especially after we saw the verbal gymnastics that the DNI, the director of national intelligence went through yesterday to explain that lie or that misstatement in March. You remember when he was asked if the government is gathering mass data and he said no. And then, of course, three months later when Edward Snowden releases all these documents, we find out that they did. And then Clapper saying well, I didn't, you know, I didn't know you were asking about that particular program. I mean, when you have to explain the answer so many times over, it makes your credibility suffer. And there, we saw the president not doing him favors either.

BLITZER: All right, stand by. Brianna Keilar still over at the White House for us.

Brianna, you asked the president a good question and a very news worthy answer you received when you ask the president if he would be willing to make a deal, that turn to some sort of negotiations with Republicans to raise the nation's debt ceiling in February. He looked at you and said, you know the answer, Brianna. He said absolutely not. That's going to impact markets and all sorts of other factors out there.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And the question, I think, Wolf, as well is, is there a little wiggle room in there? Would he agree to any sort of conditions? And the truth is, we have heard President Obama say the last two times the debt ceiling has been increased that no, he won't negotiate.

But the truth is also in a way, he through Senate Democrats, kind of did. There were conditions on both of the deals he lauded and what he did say is he did say, Wolf, you know, it would be crazy, he would think, for people, Republicans, read Republicans, to go thru what they went through with the government shutdown. He said he couldn't imagine that following this budget deal, that whatever daylight is breaking, that people, read Republicans, would pull, Congress would pull Washington back into this area of brinksmanship.

But at the same time, Wolf, notice he also said when it came to Paul Ryan, because it is Paul Ryan, the House budget committee chairman who said there might be this fight that's going to happen come February and March, he also said he's willing to work with Paul Ryan on things, for instance, tax reform.

So, at the same time in a way, maybe offering an olive branch that there could be some area of agreement, that if the debt ceiling is increased, there could be some process moving forward for something, how big would it be? It seems like we're looking at a lot of incremental things. The last budget deal, while significant, was incremental. And so, I think there is still kind of a lot of unanswered questions, we'll see how it plays out in January and February.

BLITZER: We certainly will. Brianna, stand by.

Newt Gingrich is still with us, Van Jones, John King.

Newt Gingrich, there are two wings on the Republican Party on a whole bunch of these issues -- the John Boehner-Paul Ryan wing on the budget, for example, Marco Rubio-Rand Paul on the other side, they hated it. These other guys, they said we have no choice, Republicans had no choice. Two wings on international issues, isolationists, as some like Peter King was calling Rand Paul yesterday. Where are you in these wings?

NEWT GINGRICH, CNN HOST, CROSSFIRE: I'm not sure it's as clear and simple as a two-wing theory. Look, I think the house Republicans passed the best budget they could negotiate at this point.

BLITZER: So you're with Boehner and Ryan?

GINGRICH: I said all along, if I were a junior speaker, I might have voted no. If I was a speaker, I might have rammed it through. But I think it depends on part on where you are in the structure. Republicans are very likely to have a very big win next fall if they can avoid hurting themselves. And I think in that sense, it's important for them to think through a strategy where they fight for things they believe in, they make clear what certain votes are, but they also maneuver not to take any of the spotlight off Obama. The longer the country watches, like yesterday's fiasco, of an entire list of ways in which you can avoid demanding. And if you read it, it's an absurd.

The more we can allow the country to understand big government doesn't work, this particular big government doesn't work, the better off Republicans are going to be in November and that's the real prize. I think they could easily win control of the Senate.

BLITZER: Van, how worried should the president be that there are Democrats, especially those up for reelection in 2014, that means the whole House of Representatives and a third of the Senate, but there are plenty of Democrats who might try to run away from him in seeking their reelection?

VAN JONES, CNN HOST, CROSSFIRE: Well, I mean, first of all, I just want to translate what I just heard from the speaker, which is that the best thing Republicans can do is just sort of stay out of sight and hope that, again, Obamacare doesn't work, that people don't like Obama. That's basically going to be their strategy and their playbook.

I'm not saying they're inventing something new. I'm just saying it's interesting to me. Listen, it would be much more interesting to me if they said they were going to put forward constructive ideas, governs as a responsible party. What they're saying and he's not the only one saying it, they just hoping that Obama keeps messes up. That's their basic strategy.

Now, as far as what you are saying for Democrats, there will be some Democrats who separate themselves from this president. That happens to second-term presidents in midterms. People will act like the sky is falling. And now, Obama's presidency is over. That's the normal pattern in American politics. He shouldn't be worried about that. He should worry this little opening for bipartisanship gets a little bit more oxygen and he get something done on either minimum wage or immigration. If he does anything done on minimum wage, you go to the states, you put it on every state ballot, the minimum wage thing and Democrats hold on to the Senate.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the question, Wolf, the president has gone on vacation now and George W. Bush faced this, Bill Clinton faced this, every president faces this when they're down, and they are down right now, is does he change or does he come back with the same, you know, strategy, the same tools and just trying to win the next chapter even though he lost the last chapter? I think that's a big question with the president.

Is he willing to compromise a bit on immigration say I will take a path to legal status, not citizenship, then he could put a lot of pressure on John Boehner to actually bring that vote up. And that will pressure the Republicans. Will he do that? Will he drop his number on minimum wage and say, why don't we cut a deal on this? And it's not what I want. I want more but again, let's take the Murray- Ryan model and split the difference.

Well the Republican give on that, I don't know. But the first question is, is the president going to change temperamentally, how he goes into this, or does he think heading in 2014, let's push on immigration demand a path to citizenship, let's push on issues like minimum wage and the labor unions revolve it? Does he play to the base or try to see if there could be a second down payment on some compromise (INAUDIBLE)?

JONES: He's got more room to maneuver on the minimum wage than I think he might on immigration. Our base is as dug in and tough on immigration as the tea party is against it. I don't know what happens there.

BLITZER: Newt, you heard the president express hope that for the long-term unemployment, 1.3 million people who are about to lose their unemployment benefits as of January 1st because they have been on unemployment for more than 26 weeks, he was hoping there could be a bipartisan agreement for a three-month extension. Is that going to happen?

GINGRICH: I think there will be. My hope is they will add a training component and get past the point of giving people money without some learning. When people got 99 weeks; that would be an associate degree. I men, just think about it. We give people money to not learn, to not do anything. And I think we would be much better off to accept some responsibility, if you can't find a job, but then to say you need to accept the responsibility of getting trained while we're giving you money. BLITZER: You think about 1.3 million people, a lot of people, a lot of families dependent on those people as well.

All right, stand by. Much more analysis of the president's news conference. He is getting ready assume he's packed. He and the first family, they are leaving Washington, D.C. pretty soon for a little vacation in Hawaii.

Our coverage continues right after this.

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OBAMA: So, if you are measuring this by polls, my polls have gone up and down a lot through the course of my career. I mean, if I was interesting in polling, I wouldn't have run for president. I was polling at 70 percent when I was in the U.S. Senate. I took this job to deliver for the American people. And I knew and will continue to know that there are going to be ups and downs on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President, at the news conference, responding to question about his poll numbers. They're now at a record low, and our new poll just out today, our CNN poll, his job approval rating is 41 percent, 41 percent approve of the job he's doing. That's down from 55 percent -- 56 percent disapproved, but at the beginning of the year, a year ago, his job approval number was 55 percent.

Let's bring in our chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash.

Are you getting any immediate reaction? I know most members of the Senate and the House, they fled Washington. They're out of town. They're on their vacations, they are getting ready to relax a little bit. Getting any immediate reaction from democratic or Republican leadership, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not any official reaction. I have been e-mailing and texting with some of the few people who are actually still in this building because you're right, it's a ghost town here. Everybody has now left.

And generally, as you can imagine from the Republican side, partisan reactions, particularly to what they consider his non-answers on issues dealing with the NSA, for example. But sort of big picture, going back to what you said, Wolf, about the poll numbers and what the president said about his poll numbers.

The reality is that this is a man, and a politician, who until recently had been pretty much riding high. When he was here in the Senate, he's right, it was 70 percent. When he took office, he was somebody who people here in Congress were afraid to stand up to because he was so popular, and that matters with regard to how much Congress, people in both parties are willing to push back. When they have a president who is at 41 percent, you do see situations like, for example, Iran, where no matter what the president said about, you know, it being people who were worried about their own reelections, that's why they're pushing these new sanctions, you have not just Republicans, but Democrats, high profile influential Democrats pushing for new sanctions on Iran. You probably wouldn't see that aggressive pushback if the president's approval rating, if he were more popular.

BLITZER: Hold on for a moment, Dana, because I want to bring in Professor Danny Boston into the conversation. He is with the department of economics at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta.

Professor, just tell our viewers what's at stake for the United States, the economy, its credit rating, its credit worthiness if there's no increase in the debt ceiling come February, because you heard the president flatly say he's not negotiating, no concessions. This is a debt that's already been accumulated by the U.S. it's got to be raised, otherwise the U.S. credit worthiness would be undermined. So, give us your economic analysis of what's at stake in this debate because Republicans like Paul Ryan, they say they want some concessions on these economic issues from the Democrats and the president.

DANNY BOSTON, GEORGIA TECH DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS: Well, Wolf, in my opinion, this would be the worst time to create the kind of uncertainty in the economy around that issue that we have experienced in the past.

The economy is moving forward now. In fact, more robustly than we have experienced since the recovery began four and a half years ago. And it's largely because corporations that were sitting on piles of cash at one point, they were sitting on a record pile of cash of about $2 trillion, about a quarter of that would normally have been invested. They're beginning to invest that now. That debate would create again the uncertainty and the idea of having a downgrade of the credit rating will send shock waves through the market.

And so, it would bring to a halt the progress that we're currently making with the economy. So that's a certainty, I think, a debate you don't want to have and a cliff that you don't want to fall off of.

BLITZER: Yes. It is certainly an important issue.

Brianna Keilar, our senior White House correspondent, asked the president that question. It generated a lot of movement out there. By the way, take a look at the Dow Jones right now. It's still up today and I think it's up about 65 points. But as the news conference started earlier, it was up about 100 points. I don't know, obviously, if that answer that the president gave where he said he's not negotiating any concessions on raising the debt ceiling had an impact on the markets. That's for others to speculate about. But clearly the answer that the president gave, he's not making concessions on raising the debt ceiling. That is of high interest to people out there who worry about these kinds of matters. All right, stand by. Everyone stand by. We'll take another quick break. We will get back to U.S. domestic and international surveillance programs, the NSA, what the president said about that when we come back.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: 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 I sure would prefer it. That sure is the preference of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Obama at his news conference urging members of the House and Senate not to pass new anti-Iran sanctions legislation at this delicate moment as the U.S. is exploring a diplomatic resolution of the Iranian nuclear program with the Iranian government.

Bob Baer is joining us right now. He is a CNN national security contributor, a former CIA operative.

How serious is this possibility? Looks like the votes are there in the Senate and the House that they would pass tighter sanctions against Iran, but they wouldn't go into effect for a year, give the president this opportunity to see if this interim agreement can work. What's your take on this?

BOB BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, Wolf. I think sanctions right now are bad idea. Everything I'm hearing out of Iran is they really do want a deal. They are going to make concessions. They are going to stop building a weapon and the rest of it. I think now's the time to give them the opportunity and the president is absolutely right. Let's see. With this new president, things are different. A year is probably enough time but sanctions right now would be a mistake.

BLITZER: Because the Iranians say if there are new sanctions right now, all bets are off, the deal is over with. The supporters of this new anti-Iran sanctions legislation like Bob Menendez, the Democratic senator of the Foreign Relations Committee, and others, they say the only thing that brought the Iranians to this negotiating table, to this moment right now, were the earlier sanctions, keep the pressure on. You don't buy that argument.

BAER: Well, pressure has been put on and that's one reason they have come to the negotiating table, you know. But right now, we have to get them on board on all sorts of problems. One is Iraq. We need their help there. We need their cooperation on Syria with chemical weapons and, you know, we've got to give these guys a chance. We can always put the sanctions on six months from now, a year from now, but in the meantime, this is a golden opportunity.

BLITZER: I want to talk about NSA surveillance, but you believe that Rouhani, the new president, is much more moderate than Ahmadinejad.

BAER: It's not so much him, it's the entire regime wants this. The Iranians have really been hurting the last couple years and they don't have a choice. You know, except to reintegrate into the international community. And so, yes, sanctions have worked, but you know, it's the carrot and the stick. Let's let up for a bit, see how it goes.

BLITZER: What did you think of what the president had to say about the NSA surveillance programs? He's got recommendations now from this outside committee. They came up with some 46 recommendations. He says he's going to go on his vacation in Hawaii, study them and sometime in January, give us his verdict. What's your assessment?

BAER: I think he's going to have to change it. You know, Americans are uncomfortable, all this metadata sitting in the national security agency hard drives. The chances for abuse are enormous. I don't trust the NSA with it. Let the NSA or let the department of justice get warrants, court orders to look into this stuff. Give it back to the companies. And we really need to do an audit to see what sort of abuse has occurred so far.

You know, today, it's come out that we were tapping the phone of the Israeli prime minister. Unnecessary and it's that kind of thing that worries people.

BLITZER: Because earlier, we had learned that the U.S. was listening in on conversations of Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, and obviously that caused a big rift.

One of the recommendations, I want your quick take, is for the U.S. to negotiate agreements with friendly countries, we're not going to spy on your leadership, don't spy on us. Is that at all realistic given your knowledge of the real world of espionage?

BAER: No. I mean, right now, the Russians are listening in on our cell phones in Washington, D.C.

BLITZER: I'm not talking about Russia. I'm talking about France and Germany, for example.

BAER: They do the same thing. They spy on us. If you're an American businessman, go to Paris, you know, you have your hotel room broken into and the intelligence service would copy what's in your briefcase or on your hard drive. We can't get them to stop and they can't get us to stop. We need some sort of convention, but you know, a promise not to spy on each other is not going to work.

BLITZER: Yes. That sounds, given the history of espionage, friendly espionage, given the history of what's been going on, I suspect that's a tough one. And I'm not just talking about businessmen. I was specifically referring if there should be new agreements that you don't spy on the chancellor of Germany and they don't spy on the president of the United States. But we'll leave that, Bob, for another occasion to continue the conversation.

Bob Baer, our CNN national security analyst. I'll be back in one hour. Much more coming up in the SITUATION ROOM 5:00 p.m. Eastern. But right now, Jake Tapper picks up our special coverage with "THE LEAD."