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Biden Set to Meet with Pope Frances, Attend Summit G20 in Europe; Zuckerberg Could Reveal Facebook Name Change Today; Wall Street Journal Slammed for Publishing Donald Trump's Lie-Riddled Op- Ed. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 28, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: President Joe Biden visited the Capitol just a short time ago to make a last-minute push for his broad domestic legislative agenda. I'm told by a member who was in the room for the president's meeting with lawmakers that many members started to chant vote, vote, vote, following the president's sales pitch. We'll see if they get their wish. In a short time, the speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will hold a press conference. We will bring that to you live to see if there are any announcements, any hard plan for a vote. That's still an open question.

In just hours, the president will then leave Washington to fly here in Rome for his first G20 summit as commander-in-chief, a broad agenda for world leaders, U.S. allies and adversaries, among them climate change, also the supply chain crisis. Will President Biden come here with his legislative agenda approved or at least an agreement to move toward on it or will he arrive empty-handled? It matters. The president has told lawmakers it might damage his credibility to come here without that plan in place.

Joining me now is former Defense Secretary William Cohen, also a longtime member of both the House, also served in the Senate. Good to have you on with us this morning.

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: Great to see you, Jim. And you're in one of my favorite cities.

SCIUTTO: It's great city. I will grant you that.

You know the importance of the president's domestic agenda as he comes here to this key international summit. The president has said as much to lawmakers. He needs these plans in place not only to have a climate change plan, because that's top of the agenda at G20 and next week in Scotland, but also to show that the U.S. democratic system can work. That's crucial to his success and to America's pitch in effect to the world. How much would the president be diminished as he arrives here in Rome without an agreement in place?

COHEN: Well, I think it's not only the president who would be diminished. I think United States would be diminished. I think everyone knows in the G20 and elsewhere knows that President Biden has said America is back. Well, America may be back as far as President Biden is concerned, but if the Congress is not with him, that means our government is basically dysfunctional.

[10:35:05]

And I think that will undercut not only President Biden, it will undercut America's leadership throughout the world because it's certainly not going to come from Russia, China or any other country, it has to come from the United States. And if the president doesn't have the backing of Congress, it sends a signal that Joe Biden may be back but America is not back.

SCIUTTO: I've spoken to a number of diplomats in the last couple weeks from U.S., European allies have expressed exactly that point, concern among European leaders about U.S. leadership going forward. And this, of course, follows the hopes they had following the Trump presidency that Joe Biden would bring America back to alliances, back to a position of leadership on issues such as climate change.

I wonder, though, where does that stand given that the U.S. foreign policy really is on something of a pendulum swing? You have am Obama putts the U.S. in the Paris Climate Accords, Trump takes them out, Biden puts them back in, the next president may take them out again. Do U.S. allies look and wonder what does America's word mean today?

COHEN: Oh, I think they do. The one thing that most countries want is predictability, continuity. Change is just simply contributing to the volatility, and when you have volatility, people can't plan, they can't invest, they're not sure whether or not there's going to be an economic recovery or a recession.

And what they are saying, the Europeans, as well as I say people in this country, is a line out of Jerry Maguire, show me the money. In this case, they're saying show me the money and show me some action, because without action it's just words. That's what Joe Biden has to persuade the Congress first and then his colleagues in the G20.

SCIUTTO: Beyond stumbles at home or at least delays at home in getting his agenda across the finish line, which may change this morning, we'll see, you have very public disagreements between the U.S. and its allies in recent weeks over the swiftness of the Afghan withdrawal, great disappointment there, an open feud really with France over U.S. nuclear submarine deal with Australia. What constitutes success for Joe Biden during this G20 visit? What does he need to come away from here to make some progress in repairing that damage?

COHEN: Well, Joe Biden has done something that very few, if any of other presidents, have done, saying, I made a mistake. I think a mistake obviously was made in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and how it was carried out, not the fact that we withdrew but how it was carried out.

I think a mistake was made in terms of how we handled the French. As someone, a friend told me, the French will always love you, they just won't trust you. Well, I think part of that means that Joe Biden has to go out of his way to talk to each of the individual members of the G20 to be sure, and NATO, to regain that trust that we mean what we say and that we're in this together. If they don't have trust and his word, then, again, the world suffers because the United States has to be the leader of the free world.

SCIUTTO: One world leader who will not be here in person, will be joining virtually, is Xi Jinping of China. And in addition to the U.S. and China needing to work together on issues such as climate change, there are deep concerns about growing tensions between the two countries, particularly over the fate of Taiwan.

In a remarkable moment today where the Taiwanese president speaking to my colleague, Will Ripley, acknowledged in a public statement today for the first time that U.S. forces, a small contingent, but U.S. forces nonetheless, are on the ground in Taiwan.

I wonder from your view, having watched that relationship for so long, is that presence material in terms of deterring a potential Chinese invasion?

COHEN: I'm not familiar with the mission of the troops that are there. I assume they're there for training, the Taiwanese to be able to defend themselves against an assault by the mainland. But I think we have to be careful here.

That's a red line for the Chinese in terms of whether we're providing the kind of assistance that would constitute a changing of the balance as far as they're concerned. That's a red line that we should not be willing to cross.

So, I think we have to be careful. We say we have a one-China policy. We have a Taiwan relations pact, but we have to make sure we're not sending the signal that we are suborning any sort of autonomy or independence for the Taiwanese because that will certainly cause the Chinese to take action. And I think that would be not sad, it would be tragic, for the Taiwanese and the consequences for China and the United States.

SCIUTTO: And we've seen some of the public comments, reactions to that news today from Chinese officials. William Cohen, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

[10:40:01]

COHEN: Good to be with you. Thank you for inviting me.

SCIUTTO: Much more to come from Rome and Washington in the next hour. Erica, back to you.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEWSROOM: Yes. Speaking of much to come from Washington, Jim, we should be hearing from Speaker Pelosi in just moments addressing members of the press after that key meeting this morning, President Biden coming to Capitol Hill to meet with Democrats. So what is their new message? This as Progressive Leader Pramila Jayapal just weighed in. Her thoughts on what the president had to say, that's ahead.

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HILL: We are less than an hour away now from President Biden's speech on his economic agenda, this after he wrapped a meeting just a short time ago with House Democrats on the revised version of the economic spending bill.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi telling her caucus after that, she wants a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill today. Here's what we just heard from Progressive Leader Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal about that meeting and what it means. Take a listen.

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REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Well, the president made a really compelling speech for both bills. He said he wants both bills to pass. He asked for votes on both bills. He went in to some detail on the framework. I would say nothing different than what I knew before. And I thought he was, you know, really impressive with his knowledge of all the pieces of the bills.

He did not ask for a vote on the bill today. The speaker did. But he did not. He said he wants votes on both bills. And he said what we do on these two bills is going to be determinative for how the world sees us, which I --

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) position of progressives then, do you --

JAYAPAL: Well, let's see. I mean, we're going to meet, but I can tell you that, you know, we have had a position of needing to see the legislative text and voting on both bills and we'll see where people are. But I think a lot of people are still in that place.

REPORTER: You don't think your caucus is ready to vote on it this week?

JAYAPAL: Let me have our caucus meeting first and then I'll let you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN Political Director David Chalian joining me now from Washington. I mean, look, I think the real question here, right, is we know that Speaker Pelosi does not like to bring a bill unless she knows she has the votes. She'd like a vote today.

Based on that reading, what we just heard from the Congresswoman Jayapal, what we heard from Senator Dick Durbin a short time ago about the support from Senate Democrats for this potential plan, right, that weighs heavily on whether or not you're going to see House Democrats voting in terms of the infrastructure bill. How does it look to you at this hour? DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, I thought what was most pertinent that we just heard from Congresswoman Jayapal there, Erica, was when she said, I didn't learn anything that I didn't know before. Well, then that would argue that it's hard to imagine her position would change if she already was in the position of not voting to proceed with the bipartisan infrastructure deal, well, she didn't learn anything new to move her from that position.

So, we'll hear from Speaker Pelosi shortly. We'll hear from the president shortly. But he went up to Capitol Hill, it seems, with the message of with all the White House did this morning by releasing this framework as sort of negotiations have come to a close. This is now what it's going to be.

Is there enough trust between House progressives and the Senate moderates to actually move ahead and start voting on the infrastructure legislation and then, of course, build back better? Right now, it sounds like we're still in the same place, which is that progressives perhaps have enough votes to say, no, we want to see that legislative text.

HILL: What's remarkable too as we look at all this, I mean, I just have to wonder, there was a lot of pressure weeks ago for the president to be more involved. We saw that involvement really ramp up in the last week or so especially making his way to Capitol Hill this morning. That is no -- that is not a small thing for the president to walk up there and say, here's what I need everybody to do, I need you to get in line. But I think there are legitimate questions about whether that could have been done sooner.

Congresswoman Dingell said this morning said very clearly on New Day she has never seen the sausage making be this messy and certainly not this messy publicly. That's taken a toll.

CHALIAN: Yes, and especially because the sausage make we're seeing, Erica, is all intraparty, right? It's not actually trying to get Republicans and Democrats together on something here. I mean, I think the first time Biden went to the Hill at the end of September, that initial arbitrary deadline that they put on this, he found out real fast from House Democrats they were nowhere near ready to move forward.

There's then been this month-long process of getting Manchin and Sinema on board and these constant negotiations and how far he can go. We saw last week at the CNN town hall him beginning to sort of put specifics out there for everyone to understand where this was headed, and today formally unveiling a framework that says, we're at the end of the line here, this is what it is.

Now, I'm not sure that could have happened sooner because when Biden went to the Hill a month ago, his caucus, his Democrats were just not in line. There was nothing he seemed to be able to do to get them in line. And today, he once again leaves the Hill without some unity in the whole party and victory and we've crossed the finish line here. That's not what they're saying just yet.

HILL: I only have time for a yes or no. Do you think he misread the room, and by the room, I mean, his own party?

[10:50:01]

CHALIAN: No. I think this is a man who worked on Capitol Hill for 36 years as a senator who knows how to ploddingly move legislation forward as best he can.

HILL: Emphasis on ploddingly, as we've all noticed. David, always good to talk to you, thank you.

CHALIAN: Sure.

HILL: Up next, Facebook now considering a name change in the midst of a damning leak showing the company's role in spreading misinformation.

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[10:55:00]

HILL: In just few hours, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may unveil a new name for the company, this, of course, as it faces a growing crisis over those leaked internal documents. CNN has also learned Facebook just sent out a legal hold notice to employees, so that tells them, of course, not to delete any internal documents or emails, the company also acknowledging in its quarterly SEC filings that it is facing government investigations.

CNN's Brian Stelter joining us now. So, a rebrand. So, when facing these questions about how to do business, what's going on, let's get a new name seems like a solid plan.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: That's seems to be the idea, but it's not going to change anything, right, Erica. Potato or poe-tah-toe, it doesn't matter if the produce is rotten and produce is rotten, no matter you call it.

But Mark Zuckerberg is trying to look to the future today. Today, he's presenting his vision for the metaverse, a melding of real life and virtual life, think Zoom but in a way that's actually immersive, where you want to spend time on the webcam and wear those fancy goggles. He is trying to talk about the future.

And, look, if he comes up with a new product people actually want to use, that may take some pressure off Facebook. But a name change, that's not going to cut it.

HILL: Yes, probably not going to, in fact, may invite more conversation about the company, but what do I know?

STELTER: Exactly.

HILL: Meantime, this is really getting a lot of attention this morning. So, letter -- former President Trump letters The Wall Street Journal editor, which blames Facebook for his election loss in Pennsylvania. This is a letter full of falsehoods, not surprisingly, baseless conspiracies about the 2020 election, and it is generating a lot of pushback from reporters at the paper.

STELTER: That's right. I'm getting messages from reporters very frustrated by this. The Journal is the outlet that has done pioneering reporting about Facebook misinformation, yet the opinion pages, which are run another department are running misinformation from the former president. A reporter said to me overnight, it's very disappointing that our opinion section continues to publish misinformation that our news side worked so hard to debunk. He said, they should hold themselves to the same standards we do. So, there's tension between the news side and the opinion side.

But, look, the opinion side is powerful, and what Trump is doing is reaching tens of millions of people throughout all the various platforms he has, even though he's not being on Facebook and Twitter. It is so striking, Erica, as you cover the Democrats talking about the budget, while the leaders of one party are trying to pass laws to help families, the leaders of the other party are engaging in election denialism, that's what Trump is doing, and riot denialism, that's what Fox is pushing pushed out with Tucker Carlson overnight. It is a stunning difference between these two parties as we see whether Biden gets a bill through today.

HILL: It is also incredibly sad when you look at where things are. Brian Stelter, I appreciate it, as always, my friend. Thank you.

Thanks to all of you for joining us today. For Jim Sciutto in Rome, myself here in New York, thanks for being with us. Please be sure to join us tomorrow for a special live coverage of President Biden's visit from Rome.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts after a quick break.

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