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White House: Not Going to Speak about GOP Congresswoman's Disturbing Posts; DHS: Heightened Threat from Extremists Frustrated with Election; Biden Speaks, Signs Executive Orders on Climate Crisis. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 27, 2021 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: So I think she gave her the back of her hand, saying, sorry, we're not going to dignify this.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It's kind of interesting, Gloria.

BORGER: Yes.

KEILAR: Certainly, there's a school of thought, I'm sure, on the Democratic side of politics, that Marjorie Taylor Greene with her views so out there is someone -- we've seen Republicans do it, you know, with Democrats, too.

They take someone who they think is sort of like a caricature, and they think that they're so extreme. And they try to tag an entire party with that.

The White House is forgoing that saying they're not going to elevate that?

BORGER: Yes, I think this comes from the top. I think Joe Biden has a lot of work to do. The Republicans have a lot of problems with QAnon and Marjorie Taylor Greene and figuring out what they do about here and what they -- how they handle her themselves.

They used to have that problem with Steve King, if you recall. And they will have to figure that out.

I don't think Biden wants to get into this fight right now. He's got too much work to do. Bill and Kaitlan were just talking about what we heard on climate. They've got a COVID relief bill to get past.

Jen Psaki read a whole list of engagements, which they've had with members of Congress in both parties and interest groups. So, they need to get stuff done.

And they don't want her, and discussion about her, to bring the conversation down in any way. And to just, you know, get in the way of the serious work. So, I think this is a reflection of what the president wants.

KEILAR: Yes. It seemed very clear.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: You know, the word came down when she said that.

BORGER: You bet.

KEILAR: Kaitlan, Bill, Gloria, thank you so much to all of you for that.

I should mention, too, that President Biden is going to be speaking any moment.

We also have breaking news. Homeland Security issuing a new and heightened terrorism advisory, pointing to risk of violence from domestic extremists who are upset with the election. We'll have details next.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:35:02]

KEILAR: We're going to be talking about the Biden administration's focus on climate change.

First, though, breaking news. The Department of Homeland Security has just issued a bulletin signaling that there's a heightened threat environment following President Biden's inauguration.

CNN justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider, is following this.

How significant is this bulletin, Jess?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This is significant, Brianna, because this is DHS warning about these threats from domestic extremists.

We typically see advisories as it pertains to foreign-terrorism threats. But this one is about the threat from right here in the country.

In fact, the last time we saw an advisory like this, Brianna, was last January. It related to Iran-related threats after the U.S. issued those strikes that killed the Iranian General Soleimani.

But this is specific to the threat right here in this country by people who are here in this country already.

To be clear, DHS has not raised the threat level here. They're just issuing a bulletin, which relates to generalized threats around the country. This is what DHS is saying. It says, "DHS does not have any

information to indicate a specific credible plot. However, violent riots have continued in recent days."

"And we remain concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives could continue to mobilize a broad range of ideologically motivated actors to incite or commit violence."

Now DHS continued in this bulletin, talking about the fact that these domestic extremists are probably motivated, Brianna, by their unrest after the 2020 election and now that Joe Biden is president.

They also talk about the unrest concerned COVID-related restrictions as well as some racial tension in this country.

What's interesting here is that this bulletin also talks about the fact that these domestic violent extremists have been emboldened by what happened on January 6th.

We've heard that in the past few weeks, we've heard that from the former administration, we've heard it from the FBI director, that there's all this chatter, warning of things possibly to come.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Jess, I'm going to have you pause for just a moment.

Let's listen in to President Biden.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know the press has just had a long session with the team here about what we're talking about today and this afternoon.

And let me just start by saying I can't tell you how much I appreciate the three people next to me here, for what they've agreed to do to help.

Particularly my best buddy, John Kerry. Asking a former secretary of state to come back and do this is has been a -- I know it's a big ask on the part of myself. I was going to blame Kamala for it as well.

(LAUGHTER)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I got it.

BIDEN: And -- but John's been deeply involved, the secretary has been deeply involved with climate issues as a Senator and one of the leaders and a legislator as well.

I don't think anybody knows more about the issue and the damage that's been done by so many executive orders of the previous administration.

And you run everything. Thank you very much.

Let me get to it.

Today is Climate Day in the White House, which means today is Jobs Day at the White House. We're talking about American innovation, American products, American labor.

And we're talking about the health of our families, cleaner water, cleaner air, and cleaner communities.

We're talking about national security and America leading the world in a clean energy future.

It's a future of enormous hope and opportunity. It's about coming to the moment to deal with this maximum threat that is with us now, facing us, climate change, with a greater sense of urgency.

In my view, we've already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis. We can't wait any longer. We see it with our own eyes. We feel it. We know it in our bones. And it's time to act.

I might note parenthetically, if you notice the attitude of the American people toward great impetus on focusing on climate change and doing something about it has increased across the board, Republican, Democrat and Independent.

That's why I'm signing todays an executive order to supercharge our administration's plan to confront the existential threat of climate change. It is an existential threat.

Last year, wildfires burned 5,000 acres -- as nobody knows better than the vice president, the former Senator from California -- an area roughly the size of the entire state of New Jersey,

More intense and powerful hurricanes and tropical storms pummeled states along the gulf coast and along the east coast. I can testify to that in Delaware.

[13:40:03]

Historic floods, severe droughts have ravaged the Midwest.

More Americans are seeing and feeling the devastation in big cities, small towns, coastlines and in farmlands, in red states and in blue states.

And the Defense Department reported that climate change is a direct threat to more than two-thirds of the military's operational critical installations. Two-thirds. So this could well be on the conservative side.

And many climate and health calamities are colliding all at once.

It's not just the pandemic that keeps people inside. It's poor air quality. Multiple studies have shown that air pollution is associated with an increased risk of death from COVID-19.

And just like we need a unified national response to COVID-19, we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis because there's a climate crisis.

We must lead global response. Because neither challenge can be met, as Secretary Kerry has pointed out many times, by the United States alone.

We know what to do. We've just got to do it.

When we think of climate change, we think of it -- this is a case where conscience and convenience cross paths. Where dealing with the existential threat to the planet and increasing our economic growth and prosperity are one in the same.

When I think of climate change, I think of -- answer to it, I think of jobs.

A key plank of our "Build Back Better" recovery plan is building a modern, resilient climate infrastructure and a clean energy future that will create millions of good paying union jobs. Not $7, $8, $10, $12 an hour but prevailing wage and benefits.

We can put millions of Americans to work modernizing our water systems, transportation, our energy infrastructure, to withstand the impacts of extreme climate.

We've reached the point where we're going to have to live where it is now. That's going to require a lot of work all by itself without it getting any worse.

When we think of renewable energy, we see American manufacturing, American workers, racing to lead the global market.

We see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process.

I want to parenthetically thank the secretary of agriculture for helping to put together that program during the campaign.

We see small businesses and master electricians designing and installing innovating energy, conserving technologies and building homes and buildings.

And we're going to reduce electric consumption and save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in energy costs in the process.

When the previous administration reversed the Obama/Biden vehicle standard and picked big oil companies over American workers, the Biden/Harris administration will not only bring those standards back, we'll set new ambitious ones that that our workers are ready to meet.

We see these workers building new buildings and installing 500,000 new electrical vehicle charging stations across the country as we modernize our highway system to adapt to the changes that have already taken place.

We see American consumers switching to electric vehicles through rebates and incentives.

And the residents of our cities and towns breathing cleaner air. And fewer kids living with asthma and dying from it.

Not only that. The federal government owns and maintains an enormous fleet of vehicles, as you all know.

With today's executive order, combined with the "Buy American" executive order I signed on Monday, we're going to harness the purchasing power of the federal government to buy clean, zero-emission vehicles that are made and sourced by union workers right here in America.

With everything I just mentioned, this will mean one million new jobs in the American automobile industry. One million.

We'll do another thing. We'll take steps towards my goal of achieving a 100 percent carbon pollution-free electric sector by 2035.

Transforming the American electric sector to produce power without carbon pollution will be a tremendous spur to job creation and economic competitiveness in the 21st century. Not to mention the benefits to our health and our environment.

Already, 84 percent of all new electric capacity planned to come onto the electric grid this year is clean energy. Clean energy. Why? Because it's affordable. Because it's clean. Because in many cases, it's cheaper. And we're keeping up. They're keeping up.

[13:44:59]

We're going to need scientists and national labs, land grant universities, historical black colleges and universities, to innovate the technologies needed to generate, store, and emit clean electricity across distances. And battery technology and a whole range of other things.

We need engineers to design them and workers to manufacture them. We need iron workers and welders to install them.

Technologies they invent, design, and build will ultimately become cheaper than any other kind of energy. Helping us dramatically to expand our economy and create more jobs with a cleaner, cleaner environment.

And we'll become the world's largest exporter of those technologies to create even more jobs.

You know, we also are going to build 1.5 million new energy-efficient homes and public housing units that are going to benefit communities three times over.

One, by alleviating the affordable housing crisis. Two, by increasing energy efficiency. And, three, by reducing the racial wealth gap linked to home ownership. We're also going to create more than a quarter of a million jobs to do

things like plug the millions of abandoned oil and gas wells that pose an ongoing threat to the health and safety of our communities.

They're abandoned wells. They're open now. And we're going to put people to work.

We're not going to lose jobs in these areas. We're going to create jobs. They're going to get a prevailing wage to cap those over one million wells.

These aren't pie-in-the-sky dreams. These are concrete actionable solutions.

We know how to do this. The Obama/Biden administration reduced the auto industry -- rescued the auto industry and helped them retool.

We need solar energy, cost competitive with traditional energy, weatherizing more -- we made it cost competitive, weatherizing more than one million homes.

The Recovery Act, in our last administration, our, the Democratic administration, made record clean energy investments, $90 billion -- the president asked me to make sure how that money was spent -- on everything from smart grid systems to clean manufacturing.

Now the Biden/Harris administration is going to do it again and go beyond.

The executive order I'll be signing establishes a White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy and it will be led by one of America's most distinguished climate leaders, former EPA director, Gina McCarthy.

As the head of the new office and my national climate adviser, Gina will chair the National Climate Task Force, made up of many members of our cabinet, to deliver a whole of government approach to the climate crisis.

This is not time for small measures. We need to be bold.

So, let me be clear. That includes helping revitalize economies of coal, oil and gas and power-plant communities.

We have to start by paying new good-paying jobs capping those abandon wells, reclaiming mines, turning old brown-field sites into new hubs of economic growth.

Creating new good paying jobs in those communities where those workers live because they helped build this country.

We're never going to forget the men and women who dug the coal and built the nation. We're going to do right by them. Make sure they have opportunities to keep building the nation in their own communities and getting paid well for it.

While the whole-of-government approach is necessary, it's not sufficient. We're going to work with mayors and governors and tribal leaders and business leaders who are stepping up. And the young people organizing and leading the way.

My message to the young people, you have -- the full capacity of the federal government, your government, that's going to work with you.

Today's executive order also directs the secretary of the interior to stop issuing new oil and gas leases on public lands and offshore waters wherever possible. We're going to review and reset the oil and gas leasing program.

Like the previous administration, we'll start to properly manage -- unlike it, we're going to start to properly manage lands and waterways in ways that allow us to protect, preserver the full value that they provide for us for future generations.

Let me be clear -- and I know this always comes up. We're not going to ban fracking. We'll protect jobs and grow jobs, including through stronger standards, like controls from methane leaks and union workers willing to install the changes.

Unlike previous administrations, I don't think the federal government should give handouts to big oil, to the tune of $40 billion, in fossil fuel subsidies.

I'm going to be going into the Congress asking them to eliminate those subsidies.

We're going to take money and invest it in clean energy jobs in America. Millions of jobs in wind, solar and carbon capture.

[13:50:05]

In fact, today's action is going to help us increase the renewable energy production from offshore wind and meet our obligation to be good stewards of our public lands.

It establishes a new modern-day civilian climate corps that I called for when I was campaigning, to healing our public lands and make us less vulnerable to wildfires and floods.

Look, this executive order I'm signing today makes it official that climate change will be at the center of our national security and foreign policy.

And Secretary Kerry, as our special presidential envoy for climate, with him, the world knows how serious I am about one of America's -- by appointing one of America's most-distinguished statesman and one of my closest friends, speaking for America on one of the most pressing threats of our time.

John was instrumental in negotiating the Paris climate agreement that we started -- that we rejoined -- this administration rejoined on day one, as I promised.

Today's executive order will help strengthen that commitment by working with other nations to support the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, and to increase our collective resilience.

That includes a summit of world leaders that I'll convene to address this climate crisis on Earth Day this year.

In order to establish a new effort to integrate the security implications of climate change as part of our national security risk assessment and analysis, will also be included.

With this executive order, environmental justice will be at the center of all we do addressing the disproportionate health and environmental and economic impacts on communities of color, so-called fence-line communities.

Especially those communities, brown, black, Native American, poor whites. It's hard -- the hard-hit areas like Cancer Alley in Louisiana, or the Route nine corridor in the state of Delaware.

That's why we're going to work to make sure that they receive 40 percent of the benefits of key federal investments in clean energy, clean water and wastewater infrastructure.

Lifting up these communities makes us all stronger as a nation and increases the health of everybody.

Finally, as with our fight against COVID-19, we will listen to the science and protect the integrity of our federal response to the climate crisis.

Earlier this month, I nominated Dr. Eric Lander, a brilliant scientist, who is here today to be the director of the Office of Science and Technology.

I also nominated another brilliant scientist, Dr. Frances Arnold, and Dr. Maria Zuber, to co-chair the President's Council on Advisors on Science and Technology, so-called PCAST, that President Eisenhower started six weeks after the launch of Sputnik.

It's a team of America's top scientists charged with asking the most- American of questions: What next? What's the next big breakthrough? And then helping us make the impossible possible.

Today, I'm signing a presidential memorandum making it clear that we will protect our world-class scientists from political interference and ensure they can think, research, and speak freely and directly to me, the vice president, and the American people.

To summarize this executive order, it's about jobs, good-paying union jobs. It's about workers, building our economy back better than before.

It's a whole-government approach to put climate change at the center of our domestic, national security and foreign policy.

It's advancing conservation, revitalizing communities and cities and on farmlands, and securing environmental justice. Our plans are ambitious. But we are America. We're bold. We're

unwavering in the pursuit of jobs and innovation, science and discovery. We can do this. We must do this. And we will do this.

I'm now going to sign the executive order to meet the climate crisis with American jobs and American ingenuity.

And I want to thank you all.

I'm going to go over and sign that now.

The first order I'm signing is Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.

[13:55:13]

This next one, Restoring Trust in Government Through Science and Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking.

And this last one is the President's Council on Environment and Science and Technology's establishment.

I thank you all for your time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, what are you asking --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go. Thank you.

KEILAR: All right. President Biden not taking any of the questions there the press pool is shouting at him.

Let's bring back in Bill Weir and Kaitlan Collins to talk about this.

I wonder, Bill, they're watching him sign these executive orders, listening to him talk on the issue of climate change so early in his presidency. What does this signify to you?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It signifies he gets it. That he listens to the people at NASA and NOAA who, just last week, showed us the last seven years is the hottest seven years humans have ever experienced.

That the planet has changed. That what we're used to, unfortunately, is gone. We have to adapt to what's coming and try to head off the worst damage.

And it always comes up. Isn't it going to cost so much? No one ever talks about what it will cost if we do nothing. A scientist, at Duke and NASA, testified before Congress that holding

to two degrees, we've raised ourselves - we've heated up the planet by 1.1 degrees. Holding it to two would save 4.5 million premature deaths, 3.5 million hospitalizations, 300 million lost workdays.

That's 37 trillion dollars just from the air pollution health costs that we don't really appreciate the damage that that is doing. Not to mention what it will do to slow this cooking of the planet.

One headline that made news it left out is commitment not ban fracking. That will upset some environmentalists because methane that comes out of fracking sites -- a story out today. An infrared camera showing it spewing out.

But he's going to try to at least contain the leakage that comes from that. He mentioned those two million to three million wells leaking out there.

But just how this will touch every -- have tentacles in every sector of society, because we live in the climate. It grows our food. And a stable climate gives us a sense of predictability.

If the last year taught us anything, it's that we're not guaranteed trips to grandma's and not guaranteed Disneyland open all the time when nature starts fighting back.

And at a certain point, when it gets too hot, you can't land an airplane, or train tracks begin to buckle.

Those are things every community, whether you live on the coast, in California where fire country is, it's changing insurance rates, it's changing zoning codes.

It's going to create immigration problems. Already, people from Central America were hit with double hurricanes back-to-back. There will be another caravan coming our way. And there will be Americans moving north as this happens.

So, again, this is a massive, sweeping, ambition plan, which is exactly what he promised.

And it's exactly why young people, who were skeptical, like the Sunrise Movement, who thought he was squishy on this, really dug in and helped him get elected.

KEILAR: And, Kaitlan, it is ambitious, as Bill says. It's vastly more ambitious than any plan for this in U.S. history. For this, he would need help from Congress.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. You've already seen already a lot of Republican pushback to this plan.

You saw several officials, including the president there, trying to get out ahead of criticism that will come alongside this, which a lot has to do with jobs and with the price tag on it. Earlier, about the price, you heard former secretary of state, John

Kerry, now getting a seat on the National Security Council over this, talking about the cost of dealing with hurricanes.

He cited Erma and Maria specifically. Comparing that to what the cost would be in a preventative sense, was basically how he argued this.

President Biden there was directly talking about the jobs aspect of this. Because that's what you heard from so many Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill while going over what these executive orders are going to look like.

[13:59:59]

And he was saying that because today is Climate Day at the White House, he says that means today is Jobs Day at the White House.

And he talked about what those jobs could look like moving forward with this really ambitious, really far-reaching plan he's laid out.