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Biden Meets with Democrats on The Hill; Biden Heads to G-20 Today. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 28, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:28]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Top of the hour here. I'm Erica Hill in New York.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto, live in Rome, where in a matter of hours President Joe Biden will arrive for his first G-20 Summit as commander in chief, the first time in two years, in fact, the G-20 leaders have met face to face. But the president's departure from Washington delayed as he tries to reach agreement with members of his own party on his broad economic agenda.

We're going to have more on Biden's visit here to Europe in just a moment.

Erica.

HILL: Yes, but, first, more on why that trip has been delayed now this morning, as you pointed out, Jim.

Before President Biden does leave for Europe, he's making a detour to Capitol Hill where he'll meet with the House Democratic caucus reportedly in an effort to try to convince progressives to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill that they've been using as leverage to advance the social spending bill. Sources telling CNN the president plans to use this meeting to lay out some of the long awaited details of this $1.75 trillion economic and climate package.

Now, whether the president can ultimately convince lawmakers to get on board, that still remains to be seen. This after another progressive priority, paid family leave, which was already slashed from 12 weeks to four, now appears to have been sacrificed altogether and yet another compromise to moderate West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): To expand social programs when you have trust funds that aren't solvent, they're going insolvent, I can't explain that. It doesn't make sense to me. I want to work with everyone as long as we can start paying for things. That's all. I can't put this burden on my grandchildren. I've got ten grandchildren and -- and I'll be -- I just can't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Here's where the chair of the Progressive Caucus, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, said last night about the president's visit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Here's the thing, if there isn't a deal, which is what I'm still hearing, that we don't have agreement of Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema on a framework, even on a framework, much less on legislative text, then I'm not sure what the president is going to present to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: In private meetings, the president has acknowledged his credibility on the global stage is on the line here, locking eyes with lawmakers and warning that America's prestige is also at stake as he works to secure a deal on the bulk of his domestic agenda. To say there's a lot riding on this day may be an understatement.

So let's begin now with the latest developments in Washington. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is at the White House. Congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill.

Jeremy, let's begin with you.

What more do we know now about the details, about the framework and ideally the details that the president is hoping to sell to Democrats this morning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, we are getting a lot more details this morning on exactly what is in this framework that the White House is announcing and that President Biden plans to brief the members of the House Democratic caucus on in just moments as he arrives on Capitol Hill.

Listen, it's going to be $1.75 trillion in spending according to the White House, with universal preschool included, subsidized child care for families, a one-year extension of the child tax credit. There's also going to be over $550 billion in terms of policies to fight climate change, including $320 billion in clean energy tax credits.

There's also an expansion of Medicare coverage, to cover hearing services and also some policies here to help with higher education, an increase in Pell grants by $550.

This is the framework that the White House is releasing. And to be clear, the White House was not assuring reporters this morning as they spoke to us that they have assurances from Senator Sinema, from Senator Manchin or from any other lawmakers, frankly. But the White House does believe that President Biden is behind this and they want to make the case to House Democrats this morning.

They're also laying out how they're going to pay for this. On the revenue side of things, they estimate $1.99 trillion, mostly including tax increases on corporations and on the wealthiest Americans. A 15 percent minimum tax on large corporations, which we know Senator Sinema, for example, has agreed to already. A 1 percent tax on stock buybacks. And then these rate increases on income above $10 million and on income above $25 million. That will still need to be scored by the Joint Tax Committee in order to actually see exactly how much revenue can be taken out of that.

But let's be clear, President Biden is taking a risk in going over to the House today to make the case for this, even though there is not yet support, not yet clear, explicit support from those two moderate senators and certainly not yet from the progressive members of the House as well.

[09:05:10]

But the president will be making that case as he prepares to leave on his second foreign trip in a matter of hours.

HILL: Lauren, you know, as we just heard, Congresswoman Jayapal saying overnight she needs that assurance, right, which Jeremy just pointed out isn't there from Senators Manchin and Sinema. So that is lacking this morning. In addition to a lot of focus on what is not in this bill in terms of paid family leave, it was already slashed by a third. Now it's out.

You know, I heard Jamal Bowman (ph) say at one point yesterday, that would be a red line for him. How are -- how are lawmakers looking at this, this morning, heading into that meeting?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president's ability here to sell this deal is going to be imperative, in part because he's really working against two issues that progressives are facing going into this caucus meeting this morning. The first is what this bill does not include. The paid family leave piece is significant, in part because it is so popular and Democrats have talked about it for so long. It is a core provision that Democrats say that they have been fighting for, and yet they had this opportunity and it is not expected to be included in this piece of legislation as of right now.

The other challenge for the president going into this meeting is the reality that progressives have asked for more than just a loose framework or just some promises from the president that he's going to be able to get Senators Sinema and Manchin on board when push comes to shove. What progressives have said, what they are saying going into this meeting this morning is they need legislative text, and some of them need a vote or some kind of public promise from Manchin or Sinema that this proposal is something that they are committed to getting behind and voting through.

So, it's not just what is missing in this bill, what it includes, it's also the fact that progressives feel like this isn't fully cooked. It's not fully baked yet. So the president's challenge going into this meeting, and it is a gamble, is that he needs to remind people that he is about to go out on the world stage, he needs something in hand and he has talked and listened long enough. Now is the moment that he needs his Democratic Party to get in line and get behind him. Will he be able to do that today? That's the huge question going into

this meeting.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

Lauren Fox, Jeremy Diamond, appreciate the reporting. We'll continue to check in with you. For now, though, let's toss it over to Jim in Rome.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much, Erica.

Joining me, Susan Glasser, staff writer for "The New Yorker," and Kaitlan Collins, CNN chief White House correspondent, who's also here in Rome with me covering the president's trip.

Kaitlan, if I can begin with you, President Biden has acknowledged in private meetings with lawmakers that his credibility to some degree, his credibility on the world stage is at stake in terms of getting his agenda through. That to come here empty handed would damage his and the country's credibility.

I wonder, is the framework that the president plans to announce this morning enough to assure allies that this is a president getting things done at home?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think the White House has tried to kind of tamp down the expectations when it comes to that, Jim, by saying that he is meeting with other world leaders while he's here. They understand domestic politics. That's what they're framing it as.

Though it's the president himself who has kind of set this standard, telling other lawmakers that he believes the prestige of the U.S. was on the line when it came to getting an agreement on this. And he's made clear, very clear publicly, that he did want to have this agreement by the time he came here.

But I think the other question, of course, is what the reaction to the president's visit to Capitol Hill this morning is going to be, from his own party, given you heard what Jeremy and Lauren just laid out. And what's not included in this are some really big things that the president had pushed for, for months on the campaign trail, since he took office, and that's not just limited to community college and two free years of that and also, of course, paid leave, which we are now told is not going to be included in the framework that the president lays out today, but also when it does come to expanding Medicare, it's only going to include hearing based on this framework right now. That is not what Senator Bernie Sanders wanted. He wanted vision and dental in there as well.

And also prescription drug prices. We're told that negotiating those also not included in this framework. So those are some really big sticking points that we have heard from lawmakers. And so I think how the president leaves Washington today will really depend on what the outcome and what the reaction is from his own party after he meets with them behind closed doors.

But I do think that this played into the factor of why he's delaying this departure a little bit, going up there to speak with them, so he can have something behind him when he does leave to come here to Rome.

SCIUTTO: Susan, this is, of course, President Biden's second big overseas trip. And when we were with him in June in Geneva, the message at the time had been America is back, a message both to allies and adversaries that he met there.

Since then, we've had very public disagreements between the U.S. and some of its closest allies on the swift Afghanistan withdrawal, the open fighting, you might call it, between the U.S. and France over the sub deal with Australia.

[09:10:12]

Is it safe to say that the shine -- the shine and -- as I'm asking that question, Joe Biden has arrived on The Hill. This, of course, the moment Kaitlan was describing, going on The Hill there to try to garner that support, keep in mind among his own party, for his domestic agenda.

But as we watch that, Susan, overseas, has the shine come off Joe Biden, the Joe Biden presidency?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I think we're at the point where Biden both domestically and internationally needs to show results as opposed to just rhetoric or the fact of his presidency is no longer enough to ensure goodwill. And Biden himself and his advisers have set this up as a moment when he was going to be going overseas with commitments and actual action in hand. It's very tenuous whether he's going to achieve that.

One thing I'm really struck by is that we should remember, Biden, at this point, has just been negotiating with members his own party and internationally dealing with concerns from the allies. He's not negotiating with China. He's not negotiating with Republicans right now. These are his own people who he's had such a challenge to fall in line. And that's the reality of an incredibly divided and dysfunctional system that we have right now in the U.S.

SCIUTTO: One thing we should note, the two world leaders who are not coming to Rome, they're going to be joining virtually, are the leaders of both China and Russia due to COVID concerns, they say.

Kaitlan, as we see the president arriving on The Hill now to make, in effect, a last pitch before he travels, he's making a bit of a bet here, is he not, announcing a framework deal and almost daring members of his own party to go against it. Does he win that game of chicken?

COLLINS: Yes, and it is a big dare because, of course, to have the president come up there and privately make his case to you and say I really like you to vote for this, I need you to vote for this, it's hard for a progressive member to say no to that because it is the president, of course, of their party. But also, as you heard Lauren say, a lot of these progressives want to

see the actual text of this. They want to see what this agreement is going to say, not just hear broad outlines or bullet points. But what we were told by the White House earlier is, there is still no legislative text. And so when it comes to that end of actual votes and how this plays out, that's up to the House speaker, Pelosi.

And so the question, whether it solves this, I think it depends on, you know, just how eagerly the president makes his case behind closed doors and whether or not progressives do feel like he has secured the agreements of Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema when it comes to the text of this and what it's going to look like and that it's something that they can agree on.

But you are right, that the president is making a bet here by going up to The Hill. And so the question is, you know, if they do reject that, how does that leave the president in his standing as he's leaving Washington and what these negotiations look like over the next several days. And so it is a risk, it is a bet on the president's behalf and we don't yet know how it will play out.

SCIUTTO: Susan, top of the agenda here in Rome for G-20 is the climate. Leaders will leave here and go to Scotland for the U.N. Climate summit known as COP26, where they'll be joined by some 200 other world leaders.

Part of the president's framework agenda is an investment in clean energy, climate provisions in the U.S. amounting to almost -- or just above, in fact, half a trillion dollars. Is that commitment enough to please and convince, I should say, U.S. allies that he is committed to climate measures?

GLASSER: Well, look, the backdrop here is deep ongoing uncertainty, which this deal, even if it is a deal, is not going to resolve. Deep uncertainty about whether the United States actually has a commitment in -- to go forward in a stable and predictable way on the world stage. Remember that President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris accord on climate, and Biden reversed that decision. But, you know, Chinese officials and everyone else can do the math, can look at the numbers and say, this is a country that may or may not still be committed to these climate policies in two years if Congress is lost by the Democrats in several years if there's a Republican president, if Donald Trump returns to office. And so there's the question of what kind of reliable actor the United States can be on the world stage, even if Biden secures this agreement of his own party right now and moves forward with the climate provisions that are in the bill that they're currently debating.

So, right now, that is the huge issue overshadowing everything through the United States internationally and diplomatically is that nobody is really certain what kind of an actor the U.S. is on the world stage. Can we trust America's word or not?

SCIUTTO: Yes, and do -- does the U.S. come in and out of international agreements like the Paris Climate Accord, like the Iran Nuclear Deal, depending on which party is represented in the Oval Office, as we've seen in the last several years.

[09:15:10]

Kaitlan, given the challenges at home, and the challenges abroad, is there, as you speak to White House officials, is there nervousness in the White House? Do they see that they are, and particularly as they watch his approval ratings at home decline sharply, are they nervous about his position at home?

COLLINS: I think that it's more of a challenge for them this time around. The G-7, it was a lot easier for them to walk into that and have the message that, hey, I'm not former President Trump. I am President Biden and we are going to restore these alliances, restore what you were used to.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

COLLINS: And so I think that it is more challenging for them. There's no overarching message that he is bringing to the G-20.

They are hopeful, though, of course, with the absence of the Chinese and Russian leaders that this will be an opportunity for President Biden to kind of make an American presence known there. And so that is something that they'll be looking to take advantage of when the president does arrive here.

So we'll see how it plays out, how he's greeted by the world leaders, of course, following Afghanistan, following that dispute with the French over the submarine deal. There are a lot of factors at play here. And so we'll see publicly how these world leaders receive President Biden compared to how they did at the G-7, you know, just about four or five months ago.

SCIUTTO: Yes. No question. How quickly things can change.

I remember the almost bravado of Joe Biden on that first overseas trip in Geneva with that message, as we mentioned earlier, of America is back, reassuring allies, sending a warning to Vladimir Putin over Russian cyberattacks on the U.S. But here we are, Susan Glasser, five years later, where reality, some events unexpected, and some mistakes, frankly, by this administration have interfered and diminished Biden's standing on the world stage.

What does he need, Susan Glasser, to leave Rome, and then Scotland for the U.N. climate summit, what does he need to leave these overseas trips with to call them a success?

GLASSER: Well, I think the most important factor here is what, if anything, is going to come out of the U.S. and China when it comes to climate. Between the two of them, they're responsible for something like 40 percent of the world's emissions. Right now there's not been a lot of leadership frankly from either country when it comes to that. And the U.S. and China really are on a state of almost hostility bordering on a new cold war. And so there have not been successful negotiations between the two countries leading up to this. There was an incredibly cold reception to John Kerry, the former secretary of state, who is Joe Biden's climate envoy when he tried to go to Beijing recently to set this up. And, you know, Xi Jinping is not even going to be coming to the climate summit or the G-20 in person. That's going to make it even harder.

And so right now I think the world is looking and trying to understand what is the nature of this rivalry between the two countries whose decisions are going to shape what kind of a world goes into this challenge and this problem of climate change. That's number one.

Number two, how is Joe Biden going to do with the allies? This is the first time since there's been this sort of diplomatic spat with France that they're going to be seen in person all together. Can the west present this united front?

Remember, early in his presidency, Joe Biden framed what he wanted to do with foreign policy as to show the world that a rejuvenated alliance of democracies could take on the resurgent authoritarian nations of Russia and China. Right now, that's really a question mark and I think people will be looking to see an alliance really exists right now.

SCIUTTO: It's a great point because White House officials have noted that, that Biden has to show, in effect, that democracy works. U.S. democracy works. It can deliver on climate change and other issues.

Hold on for a moment, Susan and Kaitlan. I want to bring in Lauren Fox on The Hill where, as we saw earlier, President Joe Biden has now arrived to meet with lawmakers.

Lauren, he's, in effect, going to dare members of his own party to stand in the way of his agenda. Does he have them behind him? Will this framework agreement be enough?

FOX: Well, Jim, I think it was a powerful visual statement. You saw him walking into that room, just a few minutes ago, flanked by Democratic leaders, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, the majority leader. This is a clear indication that this is not just the president who wants this deal. This is also Democratic leaders. And they have the backing of the president.

For weeks, a lot of moderates behind the scenes have been grumbling about the fact they wish that the president would have asked his progressive members to get behind that bipartisan infrastructure deal weeks ago. Remember, they were at this impasse about a month ago now. Now this moment has arrived, where the president is going to go in and say, I need you with me.

[09:20:01]

And I think that that is going to be a very important question mark of whether or not progressives are going to be listening.

I mean going into this meeting, progressives were where they were yesterday, saying that they needed text, they needed more assurances, this framework is too loose. Perhaps something that the president says in this meeting today gets through to them, perhaps it doesn't, but this is a critical moment. It is a moment in which all bets are off in terms of asking politely for their votes. What he needs now is just everybody to get in line behind them before he goes out on the world stage.

SCIUTTO: Well, as a number of Democratic lawmakers have described to me in recent days, it's a question, do members of his own party trust not only the president's word on this, that he will back and deliver on this framework, but also, Lauren Fox, do they trust their, for instance, colleagues in the Senate, Senator Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, who have set their own red lines on this, do they? As you've been speaking to members, will they believe that a framework is enough to be convinced, not only if Biden's behind this, but Sinema and Manchin are.

FOX: Well, if the White House is banking on progressives in the House to trust Manchin and Sinema, the answer is that trust is nonexistent at this point. I think the progressives view those members as standing in the way of huge, major policy provisions that they've been campaigning on, whether that's paid family leave or certain tax increases that they thought that the Democratic Party was all united around.

Right now the president's best case scenario is to go into this room and make the case that you have to trust me, you have to trust that I can convince Sinema and Manchin to get behind this proposal.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

FOX: And, over time, in private conversations, the White House and the president is very clear on where Manchin and Sinema are. You heard Manchin yesterday say, after multiple rounds of meetings with White House officials, they know where I am. It is up to the White House at this point in what direction they want to go.

Clearly the direction they wanted to go was get as far as they can in terms of what an agreement would look like and then take as much possible legislation to the House Democratic caucus today and make it clear these are the provisions we have, this is the direction we're going, I think I can get the votes, can you please be with me to support this bipartisan infrastructure bill? This is our best chance in years to do something big.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And, by the way, it's exactly what many lawmakers have been asking for in recent weeks, they want Biden to take the lead on this. But it's interesting, we talk a lot about lack of trust between Democrats and Republicans. Here we have an instance of lack of trust within the Democratic Party.

Lauren Fox, great to have you on The Hill, Kaitlan Collins, here in Rome with me, Susan Glasser as well.

Lots more to come.

Erica, back to you.

HILL: Yes, certainly a busy day. And just a -- just a better sense of where the president stands as he

was walking in, obviously reporters shouting a number of questions at him. Most of them we're told by our colleagues were ignored. The president, though, saying it's a good day. When asked about certain members of Congress supporting this, he said, jokingly, according to our reporters, everyone's on board.

We will see what comes out of this meeting and we will, of course, be watching it very closely.

We are also keeping a really close eye on new developments out of New Mexico, where the sheriff investigating that fatal shooting on the set of the movie "Rust" now says the focus is down to two members of that crew.

Plus, COVID vaccines for younger kids set to roll out as soon as next week. And in advance of that, some public health officials are increasingly worried about threats to their safety.

Plus, as I mentioned, we are going to stay on this breaking news. Capitol Hill, the president is there, as our Lauren Fox mentioned, flanked by leaders in a show that this needs to get done. So, will it work? We'll ask one senator if the framework is enough to get those votes.

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[09:28:14]

HILL: At this moment, President Biden in a room on Capitol Hill with the Democratic caucus. No cell phones aloud inside as they huddle. The president trying to get everybody on the same page, trying to make sure that there is support for this $1.75 trillion framework he is now laying out.

What do we know about that? Well, the president's version, which he is again laying out to members now, hoping to get everybody on board, what's in, universal pre-k, some $320 billion in clean energy tax credits. As of now, though, one of the major headlines, paid family leave, out.

We're going to get you updated as soon as we get new details and, of course, as soon as we get details from what's happening inside that meeting.

Meantime, a lot of other news we want to make sure that you're caught up on today as well.

That deadly shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin's movie "Rust." The Santa Fe, New Mexico, sheriff says the focus for the investigation is now squarely on two people, the film's assistant director, David Halls, and the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez. While noting that no one here, the sheriff says, has been cleared, and he said that includes Alec Baldwin. This as he tells CNN officials are focusing their investigation on how a live round got on to the set, got into that gun, that Alec Baldwin fired. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF ADAN MENDOZA, SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO: Right now we can't determine exactly how that live bullet got into the firearm. That's going to be the basis for further investigation. We need more interviews and that's going to be the million dollar question is how a live round ended up in the revolver that Mr. Baldwin fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN correspondent Lucy Kafanov has been following this for us from the beginning. She's in Santa Fe with the latest this morning.

So, in terms of what we know today, we know what they're still focusing in on, but we're also learning a little bit more about the gun, as I understand it, Lucy.

[09:30:09]