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President-Elect Biden Holds Press Conference. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 22, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: While I'm disappointed by the response of President Trump, I was pleased to see leaders in both parties in the Congress speak out loudly and clearly on this attack.

[15:00:04]

Again, I want to thank prominent Republicans in the Senate particularly for speaking out. It's a sign, a sign that, with a new administration, we can confront these threats on a bipartisan basis with a united front here at home.

That should be encouraging to the American people and a warning to our adversaries.

In the meantime, the president's team for the next four weeks need to cooperate fully, which they haven't been doing, to share information that becomes available on both the impact and our response to ensure a smooth transition to protect the American people, as administrations change.

Over the next month, I intend to continue focusing on building my team, so that the right people are in place on day one of my administration to take over this effort, to prioritize cybersecurity across the board.

I'll consult with experts to plan for the steps that my administration will take in order to secure our systems, improve our cyber-defenses, and to better withstand future attacks that we know will come, and to impose costs on those who conduct them.

And I fully expect bipartisan support from this, based on what we have heard so far. Our adversaries are highly capable. Cyber-threats are among the greatest threats to our global security in the 21st century. And I believe we have to treat them with the same seriousness of purpose that we have treated threats of other unconventional weapons.

We have to work with our allies to establish clear international rules and mechanisms to enforce them and consequences for those countries that violate them.

I want to close with this. As I look at the first of what will be millions of vaccinations going into the arms of Americans, after hundreds, thousands of lives lost, a Congress finally passing an economic relief package after months and months of delay, and a new urgency for bipartisan approach to cybersecurity, after years of a president who has refused to stand up to our adversaries and hold them accountable, I'm reminded of a quote this season from a Jesuit priest named Alfred Delp.

He wrote -- quote -- "Advent is a time for rousing."

Delp believed, at first, we are shaken to our depths, and then we are ready for a season of hope. As a nation, we have certainly been shaken to our depths this year. Now it's time to awaken, to get moving, time for hope. We have gotten through tough times before in this nation, and we will get through these difficult times as well.

And we will do it by coming together, by working with one another, by being -- you have heard me say a number of times, we are at our best the United States of America. There are certain things that rise way above bipartisan differences that threaten the United States.

There are national security interests that require us to cooperate. And I'm confident, I'm confident we will be able to do that.

After a year of pain and loss, it's time to unite, to heal, to rebuild.

For all those who are suffering right now, who have had enormous loss, and who lie awake at night wondering what will tomorrow bring, I say, well, God bless you all, and I promise you we're going to continue to push as hard as we can to finish the job.

May God bless you all. May God protect our troops. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all.

And I will be happy to take some questions.

Megan (ph), I'll let you tell me who is--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: of

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect.

President Obama once referred to this emerging cyber-battlefield as the Wild West. President Trump, in commenting on this most recent breach, said the situation was well under control.

Given what you just said about this, that it represents a grave risk, do you believe it also represents an act of war? And will you respond in kind, if so?

BIDEN: The answer is, first of all, it is a grave risk and it continues. I see no evidence that it's under control. I see none. Heard of none.

Defense Department won't even brief us on many things. So, I know of nothing that suggests it's under control.

[15:05:00] This president hasn't even identified who's responsible yet.

Number two, the question of the damage done remains to be determined. We have to look at very closely the nature of the breaches, how extensive they are, and what damage has been done.

And, thirdly, there's going be a necessity. As Barack -- as President Obama and I and our administration talked about, we need international society -- international rules of the road on cybersecurity.

We have to bring along our allies and our friends, so we hold everyone accountable who breaches any of these basic fundamental rules.

And, lastly, I believe that, when I learn the extent of the damage and, in fact, who is formally responsible, they can be assured that we will respond in kind, and probably respond in kind. There many options, which I will not discuss now.

QUESTION: Why not lay out those kind of options publicly, though?

Isn't part of the issue here deterrence, and the fact that Russia felt some impunity, if it is indeed Russia, to do what they have done here?

BIDEN: We have not done that in any other areas where we have faced international crises.

We don't sit here and say that we're going to strike you with a nuclear weapon. We don't sit and we're going to say -- and so on. Let us determine what the extent of the damage is, and I promise you, there will be a response.

QUESTION: On another issue, sir, as you know, the run-off elections in Georgia could well determine whether there's a Democratic Senate in January or a Republican Senate in January.

Is the -- are you waiting for the outcome of those two races to make some of the final selections for your Cabinet, including the attorney general, the most significant, outstanding Cabinet secretary yet to pick?

BIDEN: No, not based on the attorney general. That's just a matter of getting to it and through it, and being able to announce them all.

They will all be announced either just before or just after. And we're going to make an announcement tomorrow. And we may have another announcement between then and Christmas -- Christmas and New Year's. We're just working through all of the efforts to do due diligence.

QUESTION: And, lastly, has the issue of the investigation of your son come up in discussions with your team and with potential candidates about attorney general?

BIDEN: No. No.

I guarantee you, I'm going to do what I said. The attorney general of the United States of America is not the president's lawyer. I will appoint someone who I expect to enforce the law as the law is written, not guided by me.

QUESTION: Thank you, sir.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-Elect.

There is growing concern today about that new variant of a COVID-19 sweeping across the U.K. Should the United States right now impose a travel ban on flights coming in from the U.K.?

BIDEN: As you know, there already is one unrelated to that finding that new strain, number one.

And the question is whether or not, at the very least, it only allows Americans coming home to be able to come back to the States, citizens.

One of the things I'm waiting to get a response from my COVID team is whether or not we should require testing before they get on an aircraft to fly home, number one, and, number two, when they get home, should they quarantine? That's my instinct. But I'm waiting to hear from my experts right now.

QUESTION: You talked about how you want to propose a new COVID relief plan when you do take office.

BIDEN: Yes.

QUESTION: It took more than six months for Congress to reach this new deal. Americans are suffering at this moment. How can you assure Americans that relief will come, and come soon?

BIDEN: You all ask the most interesting questions.

Have you ever known anyone in the history of the United States of America that could be president and assure exactly what the Congress is going to do?

So, I can't assure anything, but I can tell you what I expect. I fully expect, on those critical issues that we're facing, number one, being able to get all the work we need done and all the funding to be able to get that vaccine in everyone's arm, and that's 300 million people.

We will get that done because you're going to see that the responsibility has already been recognized by the Republicans and Democrats in the Congress, because the constituency is going to demand it, number one.

Number two, all those people are out there hurting, who have lost jobs through no fault of their own, they have extended unemployment for 10 weeks. Simply not sufficient. Necessary to get it done, to get through the holidays, but I predict you we will get cooperation and get that done.

I have been arguing from the very beginning -- and I'm told how -- I love it, it makes me sound so much younger -- how naive I am about how the Congress works.

[15:10:06]

I think I have been proven right across the board. The things that are left to deal with, from employment, to people needing unemployment insurance, to the ability to have access to health care, the ability to get this -- the treatment for free, et cetera, all of that is something that the public is not going to stand for us not doing.

And I think, with Donald Trump not in the way, that will also enhance the prospect of things getting done.

QUESTION: Will your plan include a new round of stimulus checks to the American people?

BIDEN: Yes.

QUESTION: And if so, for how much?

BIDEN: Look, that's a negotiating issue. But it will. Yes, it will.

And I think -- by the way, I think we owe Bernie Sanders and his Republican colleagues the thanks for getting not all the stimulus we looked for, $1,200, but getting $600 done.

I think you're seeing that there is a clear understanding that these issues go beyond any ideology. People are desperately hurting. And the Republicans are hurting as badly as Democrats.

There are a few people -- and I'm not saying they are responsible for any of this -- a few people who are doing extremely well in that K- shaped recovery. And they're doing fine. But they still need access to the vaccines. They still need access to making sure that we are able to handle crises in the hospitals, et cetera.

So, I think there -- on the things relating to, A, vaccine distribution, which is going to cost billions more dollars -- it's simply going to cost billions more dollars. We need national standards to lay out to help governors to start how they're going to get that vaccine throughout their -- throughout their communities, number one.

Number two, we're going to need to take care of those people who, through no fault of their own, are unemployed. They have worked like hell, but they have no job because of the COVID crisis.

And, thirdly, we're going to have to begin to rebuild the country. We can't wait. We can't wait to rebuild the economy. We're going to have to start doing that now, on infrastructure programs and a whole range of other things.

I think -- the sort of the dawn is broken on the vast majority people. There are still people who don't want to help. They're still people who are assisting my way or the highway. But the vast majority of the members of Congress, I believe, will be able to work out those specific issues that are of national consequence.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-Elect.

BIDEN: Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. President-Elect, thank you.

BIDEN: Thank you.

QUESTION: I'm still not sure if I heard you say specifically, though, sir, what is your ask of the Congress? In just one month's time, what is your ask of the Congress, after you have watched over these many months, and people in your party as well did not necessarily act as quickly as some Americans would have liked?

What is your ask, sir?

BIDEN: My ask will be laid out there in detail.

But it relates to four things, number one, making sure we have all the money we need to get the vaccine to 300 million Americans, at a minimum, over the next year, the next calendar year, number one.

Number two, making sure that all those people who are unemployed through no fault of their own because of the COVID crisis, as small businesses and big businesses, et cetera, are shutting down, that they continue to be able to live day to day. They don't engage in food shortages. They're not in a position where they get thrown out of their homes.

I would also be asking for a moratorium on being evicted from your homes for failure to pay rent, moratoriums on -- relating to the issue of whether or not your mortgage are going to be paid.

Thirdly, I think it's critically important we provide all of the PPE, as well as the direct payments to small businesses and others, to be able to stay open, to be able to keep their people employed. That is something that's going to increase as time moves.

And, lastly, we're going to need to make sure that we're in a position that we can provide for the opportunity for people to begin to go back to work and get new jobs, developing infrastructure.

QUESTION: Given the narrow majorities in the he House and Senate -- you have watched many administrations come and go -- do you believe that you will have a honeymoon to get things accomplished?

BIDEN: I don't think there's a honeymoon at all.

I think it's a nightmare that everybody's going through. And they all say, it's got to end. It's not a honeymoon. They're not doing me a favor.

I will ask you a rhetorical question I don't expect you to answer. And that is, do you think that Republicans who are losing their businesses, do you think Republican constituents out there who can't pay their mortgage, do you think they're not letting their Republican representatives know they got a problem?

[15:15:00] Do you think the person who just lost some -- a family member and is worried about losing another one who happens to be a Republican, a staunch Republican, isn't telling his or her Republican senator or state representative, you have got to help, you have got to get something done?

Do you think all those people who are making judgments of whether or not I'm -- my child will be able to go to school, and I have to stay home, and I can't go to work, therefore, I have no income, are all Democrats?

I think there's just been a dawning here. And, look, you have a different team in town. You have a different team in town. I'm not going to villainize the opposition. But I'm going to stand and say, this is what we got to do, because they know it. They know it.

It's not like I'm saying, what we want to do is, we want to make sure that we are going to sign a new trade agreement with A, B or C.

This is life and death. That's why I believe we will get it done.

QUESTION: Sir, if I could ask a follow-up to the attorney general decision.

You and President Obama selected Eric Holder on December 1. Every recent president has selected their attorney general by this point. What is taking you so long to make this critical decision? And do you believe that this is a time, in the post-Trump era, where you need someone who is not steeped in politics, who may have a life's work above or beyond politics?

BIDEN: The answer is, first of all, we have gone -- we have gone faster than everybody in the total Cabinet. So, we--

QUESTION: Not President Obama and yourself, sir.

BIDEN: The whole Cabinet?

QUESTION: The whole Cabinet.

BIDEN: The whole Cabinet?

QUESTION: Well, there were a few missteps on Commerce, as you remember. But--

BIDEN: I do.

QUESTION: I'm sure.

BIDEN: I didn't want to raise them, though.

QUESTION: Right.

BIDEN: But, look, this is -- we're looking for a team who will instill the greatest confidence in the professionals at DOJ to know once again that there is no politics, there's no politics. As you know, there's been a great debate about, in every single

appointment, whether or not people -- there are enough African- Americans, enough Hispanics, enough Asian Pacific Americans, enough people who have -- are new and young.

So, we're just working through it. It's not by design. There's not an obvious choice in my mind.

QUESTION: Thank you, sir.

BIDEN: Thank you.

QUESTION: Merry Christmas.

BIDEN: Merry Christmas.

QUESTION: Thank you, President-Elect.

BIDEN: Hey.

QUESTION: You just spoke about your confidence that there -- it will be possible to get things done once President Trump has left office.

But--

BIDEN: Not -- no, excuse me, not just because he's left office. Because it's all becoming obvious exactly what's at stake.

QUESTION: Right.

But, even so, are you concerned about the effects long term that his presidency and now, in the transition, his refusal to concede, his challenges to the election, will have on American politics, will have on the Republican Party, especially if he does take the step of filing for reelection next month -- or running -- to run in 2024?

Are you concerned about him lingering around? I know -- I see you smiling, but I still to have ask it.

And kind of a corollary to that, would you consider filing for reelection early next year to show that you're not going to be a lame- duck?

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: I'd not going to be a lame-duck. Just watch me. Just watch me.

I have been saying this from the very beginning. Look, let's just get the work of -- from this point on, for the next several years, there is one objective. And it's not my political future. It's bettering the circumstances for the average American.

That's what it's all about. And I want to communicate to the American people what I hope they already understand about me. It's about them. It's not about me. It's not about me.

QUESTION: Still, do you think that the climate will be different after President Trump than it was before him?

BIDEN: Well, we will see. I don't know. I mean, I'm not a fortune teller.

But I can tell you that the calls I have gotten from sitting Republicans in powerful positions, they know me. They know I level with them. They know I never mislead. They know I tell them the truth. And they know I don't go out of my way to try to embarrass.

QUESTION: And in terms of the transition, are there areas where the Trump team has not been cooperative that have not been made public? We have heard a bit about the issues at the Pentagon last week.

Are there other areas that you think the public should be aware of?

BIDEN: There are other areas. I'm not sure it's relevant whether the public should be aware of.

Look, what I'm trying to do is pull together the political parties that are in the Congress that know that we're facing four serious crises. And we have to address all of them. None of us will get all we want, but we can make real progress.

[15:20:01]

And so my focus is on uniting, not emphasizing the divisions.

Thank you.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-Elect.

Russia, as you said, is suspected of carrying out this massive cyber- hack. You said it happened under President Donald Trump's watch. But, of course, in January 21, it will then, of course, land on your doorstep.

My question is, what are the--

BIDEN: Well, let's get something straight what will land on my doorstep. His failure will land on my doorstep.

QUESTION: Yes.

BIDEN: OK.

QUESTION: What are the practical implications of overseeing a government where experts say it could take years to know where the hackers went and years to remove them?

How can you ensure that the systems will be safe, given what experts are saying?

BIDEN: I can't ensure, but I can demand, based on the experts, both here and among our allies, what is needed to find that out. It may cost literally billions of dollars to secure our cyberspace. It may take a great deal to get it done. First and foremost, it takes people who are knowledgeable and vigilant about what is happening and how it's happening.

And so I'm just going to do all that need be done, all that need be done to determine, A, the extent of the damage, B, the nature of how it occurred, C, what I should be doing internally in terms of my administration to protect against it in the future, and, number four, getting together with our allies to try to set up an international system of what constitutes appropriate behavior in cyberspace, and get us all to get to the point where we hold -- all hold any other country liable for their breaking out of those basic rules.

QUESTION: And just to be clear, at the top of that, did you say you couldn't ensure that the systems would be safe when you came into office then?

BIDEN: Of course I can't. I don't know what the state of them is.

They're clearly not safe right now. And then, between now and January 20, the likelihood of my being able to garner all the information, the extent and depth of the violations, exactly how the codes or how they were breached, what was breached, what was done is not within my power to do that.

But it will be an overwhelming focus for my administration.

QUESTION: And my other question is on immigration.

BIDEN: Yes.

QUESTION: I was just reading about the fact that officials in your transition, Jake Sullivan, Susan Rice, they say you won't be immediately rolling back Trump's immigration policies.

And I expressed immediately. There are some immigration advocates who say, why not roll back the remain-in-Mexico policy? Why not roll back the asylum restrictions? What is your timeline for rolling back some of the specific Trump administration immigration policies?

BIDEN: I have already started discussing these issues with the president of Mexico and our friends in Latin America.

And the timeline is to do it so that we, in fact, make it better, not worse. The last thing we need is to say, we're going to stop immediately the -- the access to asylum the way it's being run now, and end up with two million people on our border.

It's a matter of setting up the guardrails, so we can move in the direction. I will accomplish what I said I would do, a much more humane policy based on family unification. But it requires getting a lot in place and requires getting the funding to get it in place, including just asylum judges, for example.

So, it's a matter of -- it will get done. And it will get done quickly. But it's not going to be able to be done on day one, lift every restriction that exists and find out that -- and go back to what it was 20 years ago, and all of a sudden find out we have a crisis on our hand that complicates what we're trying to do.

QUESTION: Would you say to immigration -- what would you say to immigration advocates, then who say maybe you're possibly dragging your feet too -- and it might take too long? Are you -- it sounds like you're saying you need to be patient.

BIDEN: I say, trust me. Look at me. I have never told them anything I haven't done. I'm working with them now. We're dealing with some of those very organizations as we speak.

And I will do what I said. It's going to take not day one. It's going to take probably the next six months to put that in place.

QUESTION: Thank you so much.

BIDEN: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, guys.

BIDEN: Merry Christmas, everybody. Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. President-Elect, do you still think that the stories from the fall about your son Hunter were Russian disinformation and a smear campaign, like you said?

BIDEN: Yes. Yes. Yes. God love you, man. You're a one-horse pony, I'll tell you.

Thank you. Thank you.

I promise you my Justice Department will be totally on its own making its judgments about how they should proceed.

Thank you.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: The president-elect there, Joe Biden, in his final formal remarks of the year, talking about a lot of things, right, number one, of course, the COVID vaccine.

[15:25:03]

He rolled up his sleeve right around this time yesterday, saying he has total faith in the vaccine, but recognizing that it is in short supply and wants to make sure that all 300 million Americans can get it next year, also applauding Congress for unifying, specifically calling out Republicans, the bipartisan way in which they were able to pass this COVID relief bill to help Americans who, as he kept saying, by no fault of their own, are hurting this year, called out Russia, something this current president certainly hasn't done, and, again, applauding the bipartisanship in Congress for calling them out.

Lisa Lerer is with me. She's a national political reporter with "The New York Times." And, Lisa, if there were a word cloud, I think, for what we just heard from Joe Biden, the word that kept coming back to me was bipartisanship, bipartisan.

What did you think?

LISA LERER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that's exactly right.

And, look, that was a theme throughout his presidential campaign. It was one that he was criticized for his. As Biden himself said, many people called him naive.

But what was striking to me about this speech was that this wasn't -- he wasn't talking about bipartisanship as some gauzy value. The most striking thing he said was that he doesn't expect to have a honeymoon period because this is a nightmare.

And he was really arguing that Republicans have no choice but to adopt a position of bipartisanship and get things passed up, because the situation in the country is so dire. He was warning Americans that our darkest days may still come before us, that there's going to be more deaths, even with the vaccine being rolled out, that things are going to get worse.

And he was really warning Republicans that they are going to have to work together if they want to put the economy back on stable footing. He outlined a number of priorities, helping unemployed people with things like a moratorium on evictions, funding infrastructure to help the country return to normal after the immediate crisis has passed, which would presumably mandate -- involve some kind of funding for state and local governments.

He talked about Congress passing enough money to get vaccines distributed. And he also talked potentially about some form of stimulus check -- checks, additional stimulus checks, and support for small business owners.

So, he was really laying out his priorities and his expectations for a Republican Congress pretty clearly.

BALDWIN: Yes. I -- Jeff Zeleny had that great question about, will you have in honeymoon in Congress? Not a honeymoon, he says, as they're not doing me a favor. He said, I'm not going to villainize, though, the opposition.

Lisa, stay with me.

Let me bring in Josh Campbell. He's with me now from Los Angeles.

And, Josh, he also talked about the that the cyberattack on the U.S. government believe to be conducted by Russia. He called it in grave risk that was carefully planned. Take a listen to what he just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The truth is this. The Trump administration failed to prioritize cybersecurity.

It did that from eliminating or downgrading cyber-coordinators in both the White House and at the State Department, to firing the director of Cyberspace (sic) and Infrastructure Security Agency, to President Trump's irrational downplaying of the seriousness of this attack.

Enough is enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Josh, I mean, obviously, he seemed pretty frustrated with the Trump administration.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, that's right.

And talk about a contrast between two individuals. You have the incoming president, president-elect Joe Biden, coming out forcefully, calling this cyber-breach a grave threat, calling it a threat to U.S. national security.

And you compare that with what we have heard or what we have not heard from President Donald Trump. The two men could not be more different. President Trump, despite some of the indications from experts and others, including those in government, saying that this was the work of the Russian government, President Trump sought to essentially defend the Russians and raise questions about whether this was actually the Chinese.

He took a swipe at the media, saying that we were overblowing this, whereas, when you listen to experts, they say that this was a massive breach. So that is one of the key takeaways from what we just heard there from Joe Biden.

The second thing is, he actually directly laid into President Donald Trump and actually faulting him. Most politicians during the lame-duck period try to backtrack. They don't want to be painted as lame-ducks. They want to get things done.

Donald Trump has seemed to embrace that, because he's been nowhere to be seen as it relates to these national security threats. Joe Biden pointing out there that the president is still president for another four weeks, and calling upon the administration to take this matter seriously.

One little nugget of information that we did get there, a couple things. First, Joe Biden said that these actors, the threat actors from the Russian government appear to have been working on this until late -- since late last year, so a very concerted effort.

But also perhaps more troubling, Brooke, is the fact that Biden is saying that his team is not fully being briefed by the Defense Department on the nature of specifically of this threat.

And if you put yourself in his shoes, as a person who's now going to have to assume power and respond to this attack, not being fully briefed is obviously something that they -- they take great exception to.