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GOP Rep. Kinzinger Compares Republican Party to Titanic, Defends Rep. Liz Cheney; 6 Killed at Colorado Birthday Party; Mayor John Suthers (R-Colorado Springs) Discusses Birthday Party Shooting, Domestic Violence; Biden Speaks on Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack; Biden Addresses Getting Americans Back to Work, Pushing Back on GOP Criticism. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 10, 2021 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:31:57]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): I think what the reality is, as a party, we have to have an special look and a full accounting as to what led to January 6th.

I mean, right now, it's basically the Titanic, we're in this -- in the middle of this slow sink. We have a band playing on the deck, telling everybody it's fine.

And meanwhile, as I've said, Donald Trump's running around trying to find women's clothing and get on the first lifeboat.

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ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Tell us how you really feel.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of the few House Republicans publicly defending the third-ranking member of their caucus. Congresswoman Liz Cheney facing a vote this week that will likely strip her of her leadership role for challenging former President Trump's lies about election fraud.

It is a critical time for the party's future and for Cheney's likely replacement.

This woman, Congressman Elise Stefanik, a Trump loyalist, who is now shoring up support ahead of this critical vote.

CNN chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, joining us from Washington.

Manu, first, let's just talk about Congressman Kinzinger. He's throwing down in this Republican fight.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he is. And going after the top Republican, Kevin McCarthy. Something he's done increasingly.

And is one of the very few lonely voices within the House Republican conference to do just that, criticizing Kevin McCarthy's actions, his roles, his response to the aftermath of the January 6th attack.

Even going as far as today, in making clear that he, Kinzinger, raised concerns about the actions and the rhetoric of the Republicans in the run up to January 6th, during the -- ahead of the certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory, warning it could lead to violence.

What Kinzinger warned today or said today was that McCarthy essentially ignored those concerns.

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KINZINGER: I was on a phone call with Kevin McCarthy and the Republican conference a couple days prior to January 6th.

I said, you know, Kevin, with all this basically B.S. we're basically saying about, we can make sure the election isn't certified, it was stolen, et cetera, I'm, really, really am concerned about violence on January 6th.

The response I got was basically that cricket sound. And then, OK, Adam. Operator, next caller.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Of course, McCarthy, after January 6th, voted to overturn the electoral results in two states that eventually they had votes on.

He also supported the Texas lawsuit signed on by a number of House Republicans to get rid of millions of votes across several battleground states.

McCarthy has defended his action. But he has also gotten some criticism, too, from Liz Cheney, who wrote in an op-ed last week that McCarthy changed his tune from criticizing Donald Trump, right after January 6th, to now backing him and aligning with him.

And all this is about to come to a head on Wednesday when the fight over Donald Trump, the future of the party, and Liz Cheney's future also, is set to come to a head in a secret ballot vote on Wednesday morning -- Ana?

CABRERA: OK, just days away now.

Thank you, Manu Raju, for that update.

[13:34:55]

Officers shaken after responding to the scene of a deadly birthday party shooting in Colorado. This was just one of at least nine mass shootings across the nation this weekend. An update next.

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[13:39:58]

CABRERA: An intense manhunt under way in New York for a man suspecting of shooting two women and a 4-year-old girl in the middle of Times Square.

Police now believe the suspect's intended target was actually his own brother.

But instead, he struck three innocent bystanders, a 23-year-old tourist from Rhode Island, a 43-year-old woman from New Jersey, and that 4-year-old girl from Brooklyn.

Video from the scene shows NYPD Officer Alyssa Vogel rushing that injured child to an ambulance.

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OFC. ALYSSA VOGEL, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT: When the mother had come up to the balance with me, she obviously was in a panic that she just saw her little baby get shot.

So I was just trying to calm her down, trying to get her to breathe with me so she wouldn't have any panic attacks or anything. And I was telling her, we're on the way to the hospital, your daughter's going to be OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Just 4 years old, that little girl. And the other two victims, we're told, are stable.

The NYPD says shootings in New York are up more than 80 percent compared to this time last year.

It was just a devastating weekend across the nation for gun violence. More than 400 people have been shot or killed by gunfire in the last 72 hours.

At least 15 were killed and 30 were injured in nine separate mass shootings.

Here's a look at where those shootings took place. Nine shootings. Four more people were killed or injured by gunfire.

The deadliest was in Colorado Springs this weekend, where a massacre at a birthday party left seven people dead, including the shooter.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov is live in Denver for us.

Lucy, what are you learning about that shooting in Colorado Springs?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ana. I mean, yes, another devastating shooting in Colorado. This one taking place at a birthday party at a mobile home park in the early hours of Saturday morning, after midnight.

We understand that the house was full of adults and children. Police say a man, who was the boyfriend of one of the victims, drove over to the residence. He walked inside and began shooting people at the party before taking his own life.

And police are still investigating the motive and have not specified the weapon used.

Now, my producer, Ashley, actually spoke with one of the survivors, Freddy Marquez, who was a relative at the party on Saturday night. He left about two hours before the shooter arrived.

He told CNN that the six victims were all part of the same extended family. The seventh was the shooter.

Now, the birthday party was for Marquez's wife, Nuvia (ph), who had just turned 29 and her older brother who would have turned 31.

She left the party early with her husband but she lost two brothers and their mother in this shooting.

We understand the suspect was the boyfriend of one of the relatives. Freddy Marquez confirmed that.

He said he doesn't know the motive of the boyfriend. He's only met him one time, about four or five months ago. And said he went by the name Junior.

He told CNN that people were already asleep when the shooting took place.

Only one adult actually survived the party. He happened to be in the bathroom when the shooter came in. And he said it happened in the blink of an eye.

He said, and I quote, "There was no commotion. There was no fighting. He went in there and did what he had to do" -- Ana?

CABRERA: So horrible.

Thank you, Lucy Kafanov, for that report.

Joining us now is the mayor of Colorado Springs, John Suthers. He also served as attorney general in Colorado.

My heart is heavy for you, sir, and your community and all the people in my home state of Colorado.

I have to warn you that we are expecting the president to speak any moment now. Hopefully, it won't cut our conversation short.

But this is the fourth deadliest shooting in your state's history, Columbine, the Aurora theater shooting, the King Soopers grocery store attack, which are all just seared into our minds.

What is it like for your community to be going through this?

MAYOR JOHN SUTHERS (R-COLORADO SPRINGS): It's a tragedy. And it's a stark reminder of the potential lethality of domestic violence.

Because, Ana, unlike these other incidents you mentioned, this is -- has all the appearances of a domestic violence incident.

We have to remember that, you know, 20 percent of the victims of homicides related to domestic violence are not the partners. They are bystanders, police officers that show up, people in the wrong place, wrong time.

And that's what happened here. We had a lot of very innocent people that were killed in the midst of what appears to be a domestic violence incident.

CABRERA: It's just so horrible.

I know the police chief has said that the police officers who responded were really shaken after going to that scene.

Forgive me, Mayor, I have to interrupt for the president.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- Colonial Pipeline. This is something that my administration, our administration has been tracking extremely carefully. And I have been personally briefed every day.

The Department of Energy is working directly with colonial to get the pipelines back online and operating at full capacity as quickly and safely as possible.

The FBI also has engaged to assess the -- and address this attack. The agencies across the government have acted quickly to mitigate any impact on our fuel supply.

[13:45:12]

Over the weekend, at my direction, the Department of Transportation issued an emergency order to loosen restrictions on truck drivers in order to allow more fuel to be transported by tanker.

We're prepared to take additional steps depending on how quickly the company is able to bring us pipeline back to full operational capacity.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has determined Colonial's network was infected by ransomware. And it's a criminal act, obviously. FBI released details of the attack so others can take steps to prevent being infected.

My administration takes issue -- takes this very seriously. We have efforts under way with the FBI and DOJ, Department of Justice, to disrupt and prosecute ransomware criminals. And my administration will be pursuing a global effort of ransomware

attacks by transnational criminals who often use global money laundering networks to carry them out.

My administration is also committed to safeguarding our critical infrastructure, which -- much of which is privately owned and managed like Colonial.

Private entities are making their own determination on cybersecurity.

So to jump start greater private-sector investment in cybersecurity, we launched a new public/private initiative in April and began through the hundred-day sprint to improve cybersecurity in the electric sector.

And we'll follow that with similar initiatives in the natural gas pipelines, water, and other sectors.

In addition to companies stepping up, we need to invest to safeguard our critical infrastructure. That's one of the many things my American Jobs Plan is designed to do.

I also want to update the people on the progress that we've made in our recovery and the next steps that we're going to be taking.

As we learned Friday, the economy created 266,000 jobs in April. In fact, all together, since the time we took office, we've created more than 1.5 million jobs in the country.

It's the most jobs created in the first hundred days of any president on record. More than three times the solid job creation that President Carter saw in his first 100 days and more than six times what President Reagan saw.

In the three months before I got here, our country was creating roughly 60,000 jobs a month. In the three months since we've gotten here, we've been creating 500 -- on average, 500,000 jobs per month.

In the first quarter, our economy grew at 6.4 percent rate, outpacing the growth we're seeing from our friends in the Euro zone.

Because of the American Rescue Plan, forecasters are projecting we'll see the fastest economic growth in nearly 40 years in the months to come. We're moving in the right direction.

So let's be clear. Our economic plan is working.

I never said, and no serious analyst ever suggested, that climbing out of the deep, deep hole our economy was in would be simple, easy, immediate, or perfectly studied.

Remember, 22 million Americans lost their jobs in this pandemic.

So, some months we'll exceed expectations, others we'll fall short. The question is, what is the trend line? Are we headed in the right direction? Are we taking the right steps to keep it going? And the answer clearly is yes.

I also want to offer a bit more detail on the month's jobs numbers in particular.

These months -- these monthly reports are a snapshot, as you all know. One -- they take one week, a moment in time.

Since this snapshot was taken around the week of April the 12th, since then COVID-19 counts are down by more than 40 percent since then.

And vaccination rates, among working age Americans, has roughly doubled since then.

This survey was taken before adults -- before every adult was eligible to be vaccinated.

So back then, 18 percent of working age adults were fully vaccinated. Today, if it were taken, 34 percent are fully vaccinated.

No wonder things in America feel better today than they did back when the survey was taken.

With that context, here are the steps we're going to be taking to maintain our progress.

[13:50:02]

First, today, we're opening a portal for state and local governments to apply for the first funds from the American Rescue Plan. Because states and local have to balance their budgets.

A lot of them had to lay off employees when the economy -- state employees and local employees -- when the economy slowed and tax revenues fell. We're talking about 1.3 million state and local employees out of work.

But now, the money we're distributing now is going to be distributing now, is going to make it possible for an awful lot of educators, first responders, sanitation workers to go back to work.

Second, this is a year-long program. Second, we're delivering assistance to tens of thousands of restaurants and bars across the country.

Today, we're sending out the first relief checks to 16,000 hard-hit restaurants with help for many more to follow. A lot more people are going to be employed.

Third, the employers bring back laid off workers. To help them do that, we're going to remind them there's some progress they can take advantage -- some programs they can take advantage of.

For example, employers can hire back their laid off workers part-time without those workers having to give up all of their unemployment benefits. Here is another example. In the American Rescue Plan, we expanded a

tax incentive called Employee Retention Tax Credit. This can provide a recovering small- or medium-sized business a direct credit for each worker they keep on or a job that they rehire.

Fourth, we're going to provide real help for people struggling with the challenge of childcare, which is making it hard for many parents who need to work, especially women, to get back to work.

During this crisis, thousands of childcare providers and centers were forced to close because they couldn't make ends meet with fewer students and higher costs to keep them safe.

As a result, parents lost support -- lost the support system they depended on for childcare. And tens of thousands of childcare workers lost their jobs.

In fact, there are 150,000 fewer childcare jobs now than there were pre-pandemic.

The American Rescue Plan has already allocated funds to states to address the immediate challenge to our economy and of too few childcare operations.

This is the largest investment in childcare since World War II.

Today, my administration is releasing guidance to states to help get the funds they need out the door as quickly as possible to allow dramatic expansion and availability of childcare in this country.

With these funds, states can help hundreds of thousands of providers reopen and stay open. And provide safe and healthy learning environments for more than five million children.

These funds will also allow states to provide over 800,000 families or subsidies to pay for childcare. Simply put, it's going to help working parents get back to work.

This one-time investment is a real answer to a real problem our economy is facing right now.

Well, look, the fifth thing we're going to do, we're going to make it clear that anyone collecting unemployment, who is offered a suitable job, must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits.

There are a few COVID-19-related exceptions so that people aren't forced to choose between their basic safety and a paycheck. But otherwise, that's the law.

I know there's been a lot of discussion since Friday's report that people are being paid to stay home rather than go to work. We don't see much evidence of that. That is a major factor.

We may not see that -- look, it's easy to say the line has been, because of the generous unemployment benefits that it is a major factor in labor shortages. Americans want to work. Americans want to work.

As my dad used to say, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity, your place in the community, being able to look your kid in the eye and say everything is going to be OK.

I think that people who claim Americans won't work, even if they find a good and fair opportunity, underestimate the American people. So we'll insist that the law is followed with respect to benefits.

[13:55:10]

But we're not going to turn our backs on our fellow Americans. Twenty- two million people lost their jobs in this pandemic. Through no fault of their own.

They lost their jobs to a virus and to a government that bungled its response to the crisis and failed to protect them.

We still have eight million fewer jobs than we did when the pandemic started. For many of those folks, unemployment benefits are a lifeline.

No one should be allowed to game the system. And we'll insist the law is followed. But let's not take our eye off the ball.

Families, families who are just trying to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head, they aren't the problem.

We need to stay focused on the real problems in front of us, beating this pandemic and creating jobs.

Again, the law is clear. If you are receiving unemployment benefits and you're offered a suitable job, you can't refuse that job and just keep getting the unemployment benefits.

We're also working to overcome all the barriers that may be making it harder for people to get back to work, childcare, getting vaccinated, getting schools open.

We're making progress in all these things. And we need others to step up and play a role as well.

For example, we need employers to step up in a couple of ways.

First, we need them to get help to their people and get them vaccinated.

Two weeks ago. I announced we'll provide a tax credit to employers if they give workers paid time off to get a shot and recover from the side effects if there are any.

Our economy can't achieve its full potential until we get more people vaccinated. Employers can help that.

We also need to recognize that people will come back to work if paid a decent wage.

The last Congress before I became president gave businesses over 1.4 there will dollars in COVID relief.

Congress may have approved that money, but let's be clear, the money came from the American people. And it went from the American people to American businesses, many of them big businesses, to help them get through this pandemic and keep their doors open.

I'm not questioning it. It was the right thing to do.

But my expectation is that, as our economy comes back, these companies will provide fair wages and safe work environments. And if they do, they'll find plenty of workers.

We're all going to come out of this together, better than before.

So we need to stay focused on creating jobs and beating this pandemic today and building back better for tomorrow.

The American Rescue Plan is just that, a rescue plan. It is to get us out of the crisis and back on the track. But it is not nearly enough.

That's why we need the American Jobs Plan, which is an eight-year investment strategy, to make sure working people of this country get to share in the benefits of a rising economy.

And to put us in a position to win the competition with China and the rest of the world for the 21st century.

That's the next stage. That's what we're doing right now. We're working to get that passed.

I want to thank you all. And may God protect our troops.

Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, you had to protect critical infrastructure from a criminal actor. How can you possibly protect it from a state actor?

BIDEN: We can do both. And we will.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you think Russia is involved at all with the attack?

BIDEN: I'm going to be meeting with President Putin. And so far, there's no evidence from our intelligence people that Russia is involved.

Although, there's evidence that the actor's ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you decided who will get the AstraZeneca doses, Mr. President?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us on NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

You were listening there to President Biden making his first comments about the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack. The administration, the president says, is working with that company to investigate how this happened.

He also addressed his plan to get America's back to work, pushing back against criticism, a lot from Republicans over the weekend.

[13:59:57]

One lawmaker accused the president of sending the economy into, his word, "a tailspin."

The president says he is following the trend line and that that trend line is headed in the right direction.