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Biden Expects no Honeymoon, Wants Help to End a Nightmare; Trump Pardons Former Blackwater Guards Involved in Baghdad Massacre; Biden Announces Miguel Cardona as Education Secretary Nominee. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired December 23, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for President-elect Joe Biden to formally announce his pick for education secretary. There's a live picture of the room. We're going to bring you that when it begins. But, really, he could be commenting on anything and anything could happen really after yesterday's press conference where Biden went directly after President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: The truth is this, the Trump administration failed to prioritize cybersecurity.

This assault happened on Donald Trump's watch when he wasn't watching. It's still his responsibility as president to defend American interests for the next four weeks. But rest assured that even if he does not take it seriously, I will.

The president's team for the next four weeks need to cooperate fully because they haven't been doing it, share information when it becomes available.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And that was before President Trump tried to blow up the year-end spending deal, the COVID relief package and before he issued a wave of presidential pardons.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Wilmington, Delaware. He's joining us now.

Jeff, Biden didn't mince words yesterday. You were there. Now, that Trump is creating even more chaos, what do you expect we're going to hear today?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, it will be interesting to see if President-elect Biden decides to weigh in on really what has become a confusing situation over the last 12 hours or so. Is President Trump going to sign the bill or is he not? We will see if he does weigh in on that.

But he did talk about how he praised members Congress on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans alike, for coming together to pass $900 billion COVID relief bill. But he said, look, that is just the beginning, that is just a down payment, in his words.

So we asked him, how can anything even larger get done in a divided, narrow Congress? Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Do you believe that you will have a honeymoon to get things accomplished?

BIDEN: I don't think it's a honeymoon at all. I think it's a nightmare that everybody is going through and they all say, it's got to end. It's not a honeymoon. They're not doing me a favor.

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've got to do because they know it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, clearly, the president-elect believes he can use powers of persuasion and just the reality that things need to get done in the country. It's why America set a divided government to Washington, so we will see how difficult that actually is in the New Year, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And, Jeff, yesterday, Joe Biden said, and a lot of people took note, that the Pentagon, the way he put it, isn't briefing his team on many things. The Pentagon is pushing back on that. What are you hearing this morning?

ZELENY: Well, Pentagon is pushing back on that through unnamed officials overnight, really disputing what the president-elect is saying. We should point out that these are political appointees of the president, the current president, the outgoing president, pushing back on all of this notion that the Biden transition has been blocked in some way from receiving briefings, but we do know that they have.

Really, this has been bubbling up for the last several weeks and it came to a head last week when the Biden transition team suddenly learned they were blocked from these transition meetings with the Pentagon.

So we're getting a new statement this morning just in a few minutes from the Biden transition team from a spokesman, Ned Price, who is pushing back again at those Pentagon officials. He says this. Let's take a look.

He says, there's been no substantial progress since transition officials spoke to the intransigence of the department's political leadership late last week. As we said no department is -- as we move along here, no department more pivotal to our national security than Department of Defense. And unwillingness to work together could have consequences well beyond January 20th.

So that is from Ned Price, spokesman for the Biden transition team handling national security matters. Kate, the word, intransigence, was used there.

So the broader point to all of this, back and forth, why does this matter, in 28 days, Joe Biden takes office. He is the commander in chief. This massive cyberattack certainly is a major issue to the country right now, and the country when Joe Biden takes over, that's why all of this matters, Kate.

[11:35:00]

So we'll see if anything more comes of this today, but, so far now, no meetings are scheduled between the Biden transition team and Pentagon until after the New Year, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for the update, Jeff.

We are standing by to hear from the president-elect. We will bring that to everyone when his remarks begin.

Coming up still for us, on President Trump's long list of pardons are four former military contractors convicted over a massacre of Iraqi civilians. The message one survivor of that massacre now has for President Trump, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:00]

BOLDUAN: Among the presidential pardons announced last night by the White House, four former Blackwater contractors who were found guilty of multiple federal charges after the 2007 massacre of civilians in Baghdad, including children. Among the charges, first-degree murder and multiple counts of manslaughter, one of the men had been sentenced to life in prison.

CNN's Arwa Damon, she is joining me now with much needed perspective on this. Arwa, can you remind people of what happened here?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're talking September, 2007. It was a bright, beautiful day and people were just out as they normally would be around this one traffic circle called Al Nusoor Square, when all of a sudden the Blackwater convoy comes barreling through very quickly, shots start being fired. There are reports that there was automatic machine gun fire, an automatic grenade launcher used.

Suffice to say that the firepower Blackwater decided to unleash on these civilians were so severe that cars ended up exploding, entirely scorched. And all in all, 17 Iraqi civilians were killed and more than two dozen of them were wounded. And, Kate, among those who were killed were a nine-year-old child and 11-year-old child.

This was an incident that shook Iraq to its very core because one also has to remember that back then, these private security companies were just going around the streets of Iraq with complete and total impunity. They would barrel through anything that anyone was in their way. They had no to very little respect for the Iraqi people. And among all of them, Blackwater was the worst offender.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It reverberated all the way back to the United States. These men were charged and convicted.

One of the survivors of this attack is now responding to President Trump's actions. What are they saying?

DAMON: Yes, there's a lot of shock, Kate, especially if you think about the fact they had to wait seven years to even see justice. And a lot of these survivors, the one we spoke to included, actually traveled to the U.S., testified. Many of them felt that since they had gone all the way there and with the sentences that were handed down, that they could believe in the American justice system.

But listen to what Jasim Mohammed Al-Nasrawi is saying now. He is saying, the decision by Trump to pardon the perpetrators is unjust for the victims and wounded and the families of the victims. My message is not to pardon them, not to release them. They are terrorists.

We spoke to another survivor who now says that he doesn't have any faith in America's judicial system. These men are murderers. I mean, again, to go back to that day, Kate, there is one doctor whose son and wife were in the first vehicle that came towards the Blackwater convoy, the one where the contractors allege they thought was coming to attack them, had a woman and a young man in it. They were both killed.

And this doctor, Kate, had to scrape his son's brain off of the sidewalk. He couldn't recognize his wife's body. The pain and agony that this caused so senselessly is something that is still felt today and is something right now, with this pardon, everybody is being reminded of once more and also being reminded of the fact, again, America does not act as if it values Iraqi life.

BOLDUAN: Arwa, thank you for bringing that.

Coming up next for us, a quarantine bubble with a small group of friends and family, it may sound safe, but experts have new warnings about COVID pods as we head into the holidays and the winter. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:00]

BIDEN: I heard there was a sighting of a sleigh and Santa Claus. He's been circling around to see what he's going to do.

Folks, good afternoon. Actually, it's still morning. Good morning, I'm Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden's husband. just like educators everywhere, being an educator is what she does. That's who she is.

Once again during this pandemic, we've seen who our educators are. They're selfless, they're dedicated, they're cut from a true cloth of character and commitment. They represent one of the most professions in America, and that's not hyperbole, that's a fact. From cradle to career, they give people of all ages the confidence to believe in themselves, to equip them to succeed. And As Jill says, any country that out-educates us is going to outcompete us.

In this critical moment of our nation's history, it's essential that there is an educator serving as secretary of education. I want to make that clear again, an educator, someone who's taught in the classroom, comes out of the classroom.

Today, I'm pleased to announce such nominee we have, Dr. Miguel Cardona. Like other cabinet nominees and appointees, he is brilliant, he is qualified and he is tested. And he is going to join the Biden/Harris cabinet and it's going to be a historic cabinet.

Already there are more people of color on this cabinet than any cabinet in the history of the United States. There are more than women ever than ever, first openly gay cabinet member, it's a cabinet that looks like American, taps into the best of America, that opens doors and includes the full range of talents we have in this nation.

And like the rest of the team, Dr. Cardona is ready on day one. Vice President-elect Harris and I were going through -- you're on this side, I apologize. We're going through this and we were doing it on Zoom. And we're getting all this advice and we looked at each other and you said, no, no, it's Cardona. It's really easy.

So, vice president-elect knew we needed an education secretary who truly understands what it's been like for educators, administrators, families, caregivers and students this past year. They worry. They're under stress. They stretched local budgets that have left educators out of work. There's mixed signals from the White House that have left more confusion than calm. And they left so many parents and schools feeling like they're on their own.

But we also need someone who knows what it's like -- what it takes to get through this crisis. Reopening schools safely will be a national priority for the Biden/Harris administration. Early next year, I will put forward before the Congress our plan as to what comes next, but I ensure you it includes funding to keep educators on the job, just like we did during the Recovery Act, and saved 400,000 education jobs and the future of millions of children.

It also includes asking Congress to provide funding needed so we can achieve the ambitious but doable goal of safely opening a majority of our schools by the end of our first 100 days.

[11:50:08]

We can do this if states and cities put strong public health measures in place that we can all follow.

For example, in our first hundred days, I'll be asking all Americans to mask up for 100 days. We'll require masks in federal buildings, interstate travel and the like and on trains, where I have the authority to insist that happens.

We've also been talking to governors and mayors and county executives with both parties to try to do the same in their cities and their states. We can do it if we get schools, districts, communities and states to clear guidance and the resources they need for so many things that aren't in their already tight budgets.

They need funding for testing to help people reopen schools, more funding for transportation so students can maintain social distancing on school buses. There's a need for school buildings for additional cleaning services, protective equipment, ventilation systems.

But to lead the national effort requires an education secretary with the skills to partner with educators across the country in states, localities and tribal nations and all across students and families, as well. That also requires someone who understands the need to prevent the pandemic from further exacerbating the inequities in our education system that represents a compounding problem we're having. The hold back children, they hold back educators, they hold back our country from filling its potential.

Take remote learning. How can it be in America that parents must drive to a parking lot of a coffee shop or a library for Wi-Fi that they can't afford at home so their children can sit in the car, participate in class and do their homework over the net? This gap of broadband technology and the opportunity could -- some kids cost them a full year or more of learning. That's unacceptable in the United States of America. We need to act now. And it's only just the start.

We need somebody with the experience to help us build back better with the Biden/Harris education plan. We need to make sure that every child in this nation has access to a good education regardless of their zip code. I know you're probably tired of me saying that, but it's critically important. I've been saying it for over a year, regardless of their -- any disability. That's why my plan triples funding for title one schools, which serve the highest number of children from low-income families.

We need to make sure every child will have access to high-quality universal pre-K. I'm not talking about daycare. I'm talking about universal pre-K. That is starting at age three, four. We need to finally pay teachers what they deserve. The work they do is of extreme national importance and their salaries should reflect that.

But they can't do it alone. So we're going to make an unprecedented investment to double the number of school psychologists, counselors, nurses and social workers in our schools. When trained professionals are helping care for students' mental health and behavioral needs along with concerns around things like housing and food, it frees up educators to focus on teaching and the other critical work that teachers do in the classroom.

We'll make sure students with disabilities have the support to succeed by fully funding the individuals with Disabilities Education Act. We're going to upgrade school infrastructures to make sure classrooms are safe, bill schools that are hubs of innovation and cutting edge learning.

We know that in the 21st century, 12 years of schooling is not enough and that young people are getting crushed by the burden of student debt. Under the legislation, we're going to be proposing, we're going to have a number of policies to provide affordable higher education to alleviate that financial burden. This includes anyone being able to get into community college and be able to go there for free. Public colleges, universities will be tuition free for families earning less than $125,000. We're going to cut student loan payments in half by using those income-based payments.

You know, if you're making 25,000 or less per year, you won't owe a dime of payment or interest while you're only at that level. If you make more than that, you'll only pay a small percentage of your income in order to be able to pay off your debt.

Our legislative plan also means that if you choose to go into public service, whether you're a teacher, a pandemic, counseling victims of domestic violence or whatever else, it's only right that our country wipe out your student debt altogether over time. It includes forgiving debt for undergraduate public tuition, if you're earning less than $125,000 a year.

[11:55:02]

It includes -- it means immediately forgiving $10,000 in student debt in the midst of this economic crisis.

We'll also invest more than $70 billion in historic black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions to help prepare these graduates, like our vice president-elect, for good-paying jobs and industries of the future.

There's so much we can do, so much we can afford to do it. We can build an economy that eases the financial burden of the care-giving crisis, make sure working families don't pay more than 7 percent of their income on child care, for their young children.

And like we did during the Obama/Biden administration, we can combat campus sexual assault under Title 9, something the Trump administration and the current secretary of education have only undermined.

The bottom line is we can achieve all of these critical things, but we need someone who gets that education isn't just what we do as a nation. It's who we are. It's who we are. It's the reason why we are one of the first nations in the world have universal education. It was the reason why we got propelled in the 20th century to begin to lead the world economic.

And that person who understands that, I'm proud to announce, is former secretary of education -- now -- well, I'm talking about his existing job. Actually it's not called education, but, anyway, secretary of education we nominate is Dr. Miguel Cardona, fourth grade public school teacher, the youngest principal in the state of Connecticut, first official Latino to serve as the education commissioner -- I started to call him the secretary of education -- educational commissioner. Dr. Cardona rose up the ranks to become an assistant superintendent in the school district that he attended as an English learner student, the same district where he was born in public housing, the son and grandson of parents and grandparents who moved from Puerto Rico in search of new opportunities.

He made a point of taking new teachers on tours of his district's neighborhoods. The wealthy blocks where students grew up with every resource they needed to get ahead and the blocks for families that are struggling to get by where a new calculator or a nutritious breakfast weren't a given. He understands that the deep roots of inequities exist as a source of our persistent opportunities gaps. He understands the transformative power that comes from investing in public education.

In our conversations, Dr. Cardona, talked about how public education was the great equalizer. It gave him a chance to reach the dream his parents and grandparents had for him, a place where a high school teacher inspired him to be an educator, public education that helped Miguel become one of the first in his family to go to college, the first, the first to earn a doctorate. And with that preparation and grounding, Dr. Cardona has brought his heart, his knowledge and his passion for education to bear on behalf of the students across Connecticut.

And when that pandemic struck, he was ready. He helped secure more than 140,000 laptops, more than 40,000 internet connections for students who lack them. Because of him, Connecticut became the first state in the nation to ensure that every single public school student was equipped to engage in remote learning regardless of family income.

As the months passed, he followed health guidance and he got the funding and the resources to provide masks and plexiglas and testing so schools could reopen and operate safely.

That's the vision. Resolve and initiative that are all going to help us contain this pandemic and reopen our schools safely and build back better. And it's the standard of care that comes from having taught in a classroom.

That comes from a hard-working family who found their way in America through public education. It comes from someone who knows from his core that our nation's children are the kite strings that lift our national ambitions aloft. He is the secretary of education for this moment and I thank him and his family for accepting this call to serve. We cannot do this without them or him.

To the career staff of the Department of Education, you'll have a fantastic and trusted leader who will help you carry out the department's mission with honor and integrity, the honor and integrity of an educator. And to the American people, to educators, families, caregivers and students, help is on the way.

[12:00:01]

I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday. May God bless you all and may God protect our troops.