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Senate Averts Shutdown Amid GOP Threats Over Vaccine Mandates; Pres. Biden Speaks On November Jobs Report. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired December 03, 2021 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: I'm also told that members of the Conservative House Freedom Caucus huddled with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy this week to strategize about how they can push this issue forward. One idea is trying to use the national defense policy bill to further this debate on the vaccine mandates. Because Republicans they see this as good for their base, it plays well with their base back home. But it's worth pointing out that vaccines are the most effective lifesaving tool we have available to fight this virus. So essentially, Republicans are undermining the Biden's -- the Biden administration's ability to curb this virus, even as they criticize him for failing to get the pandemic under control, Jim.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And people's ability to protect themselves and their family in the process, Melanie Zanona, thanks very much.
ZANONA: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: Joining me now to discuss, CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger. OK. So they've got some money to run the government for a couple months.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
SCIUTTO: There is this larger, you know, there is this central piece of the Biden agenda Build Back Better sitting there past the House. That took a lot of work.
BORGER: Yes.
SCIUTTO: Well, you have Sinema and Manchin again saying, no so fast. So what happens?
BORGER: Democrats.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: Democrats.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: We don't, you know, we don't know what happens. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader is saying, you know, we want to do this in mid- December. And I intend to do it. I think the big question here is what the President of the United States can do. And that means he's got to sort of figure out what is within the realm of the doable. And whether he can cajole and coax these folks into doing something that right now they clearly don't want to do.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: And I don't, you know, I would never predict --
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: -- what's going to happen in this situation.
SCIUTTO: I guess the only potentially if it happens, it'll be like last minute or something, something like that.
BORGER: Yes, exactly.
SCIUTTO: The bigger question here, right, for Democrats, at least by the way, Republicans have their own internal problems. We've seen them blow up this week. But is that they got a bigger issue, it seems with voters, right? I mean the Biden's approval way down. Their agenda, while pieces of it are popular, people still associate Build Back Better was just being a big blank check to the country.
BORGER: Which Republicans say is socialism.
SCIUTTO: Exactly. Your comment, you know, Marxism. But it was interesting to hear this and you read this I know, this prominent Democratic pollster in Virginia.
BORGER: Right.
SCIUTTO: Did some focus groups. It's like, this is a bigger problem. One line in here stuck out to me. He said people think we're more focused on social issues in the economy, and the economy is the number one issue right now. Are Democrats hearing that? And --
BORGER: Well, they should.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: They should. And that is an issue. First of all, when the Democrats started talking about all these spending measures, all people heard about was $3 billion.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: They only heard about the price tag. They didn't hear about what's in it. When you pull people and that's what this pollster was saying, they care about the economy, the economy. People have short memories. They don't remember the American Rescue Plan, which helped an awful lot of people.
SCIUTTO: Yes. BORGER: So the infrastructure bill, easy to digest, this is going to help us pave roads, streets, rebuild bridges, et cetera, et cetera. People understand that.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: What is now facing people is this question of, the price at the pump and inflation.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: The cost of groceries, for example, the president and the Democrats have to start talking about what they are doing to help this.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: And get that through. If they were to pass Build Back Better, they could talk about that. They could say perhaps family and medical leave will begin, we don't know. But perhaps, you know, these are the one, two, three, four things we're going to do for you. We're going to help you with Medicare, for example.
SCIUTTO: Right.
BORGER: We're going to help you with your kid's education, on and on. They have not spoken about specifics as much as they should be. I think they're starting to do it more so why should people understand what's in it?
SCIUTTO: Yes, yes.
BORGER: Just know that it cost a lot of money.
SCIUTTO: Well, then folks in certain bubbles, you know, it's never going to penetrate. OK. So divisions with the Republican Party, Nikki Haley, went down to kiss the ring in Florida after, you know, public, very publicly criticizing holding President Trump responsible for January 6th. Is that actually a mending offenses there?
BORGER: I doubt it. I spoke with a source this week was recently spoken with President Trump, who said to me that the President was not really happy at all with Nikki Haley and with Ron DeSantis. He sees them as potential rivals. Nor of course was he happy with his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and the book that he's written. So, you know, I think that these politicians feel they have to go down there and kiss the ring. But I think Donald Trump's playing a game with them. I think he doesn't forget people who have crossed him and he takes him them off their list. He blows hot and cold as we know on folks.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: But if you're going to potentially run against him for President he's going to -- he's never going to love you.
[10:35:00]
SCIUTTO: Why doesn't that lesson get learned because they're literally I can't think of exceptions to the one -- to the rule of the basically once you cross them you're out you're on the outs, right? I mean, look, well, the Sessions and the Pences of the world, right?
BORGER: That's right. That's right, particularly if you're going to run against him.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: I mean, look, he can hate Steve Bannon at one moment.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: And then start talking to him again. But Steve Bannon is not going to run against him for the presidency. So I think they know, but I also think they have to show Republican base voters that they have reached out to Donald Trump because Donald Trump is very important to Republican base voters.
SCIUTTO: Right.
BORGER: And so you don't want to be someone that Donald Trump is out there saying, don't, this person is terrible, because just in case Donald Trump doesn't run, you know --
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: -- he's going to have to decide who he is for.
SCIUTTO: And just before we go, I'm going to ask you to forecast here. Where's your gut, is Donald Trump running or likely to run?
BORGER: Well, I honestly --
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BORGER: I go back and forth on this, but the source I spoke with this week who spoke with the President said to me 99.9 percent, he's running.
SCIUTTO: Well, OK, here we go, Gloria Borger --
BORGER: Until it changes.
SCIUTTO: Yes, exactly. Thanks so much.
BORGER: Sure.
SCIUTTO: Coming up next, honoring a hero, a shockingly young hero. How community wants to memorialize a teen who gave his life trying to stop the suspected school shooter?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:41:04]
SCIUTTO: At noon, prosecutors in Michigan are expected to hold a press conference with updates on that deadly school shooting in Oxford, Michigan. We are also waiting to hear whether the parents of this suspected shooter might face charges for rampage that has left for students dead. So far, seven others injured. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz live in Oxford, Michigan this morning. I'm curious, do we know what charges the parents would face if prosecutors choose to go that way?
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly the issue with the gun. You know, investigators here have been telling us on the ground that they believe that the parents actually bought this gun for their son. So that is something that they've been investigating and looking into. And so it can range from anything from the fact that they had failed to safeguard this weapon. That was something the prosecutor has mentioned.
But it could be more severe charges, more serious charges as well, anything from involuntary manslaughter to something else. It's a big concern here for prosecutors and investigators, when they looked at all the evidence and information they had. They saw some things that really concerned them in terms of the purchase of this weapon. Here's the sheriff talking about that this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF MICHAEL BOUCHARD, OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN: Legally, that's not his. He cannot own or, you know, possess that weapon outside the house or, you know, any kind of process of transporting, carrying or using without very few restrictions. You know, there's some places where it's possible an underage person can use a firearm at a range or on private property in a range fashion, things like that, within a home, they can hold and possess it but not outside the house and they can't legally own it either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PROKUPECZ: And, Jim, the other thing that investigators and the prosecutor have been saying is that the family knew something and they have been investigating that. And the fact that they believe that he brought the gun with him in his backpack on the day of the shooting, perhaps there's some evidence that suggests that the parents knew this. They knew he had access certainly to this weapon. So that is something that has concerned investigators as well as well. And then also the school gym, what did they know?
You know, we've had information from the sheriff that two teachers were concerned about behavior so much that they call the parents in, the school never notified police of this behavior and the police are having some issues with the fact that the school never did that. So there were a lot of perhaps missed opportunities here to stop this.
SCIUTTO: Yes. They met with the parents and the shooter that morning, just remarkable. Shimon Prokupecz, thanks so much.
Well, what are the four students fatally shot in the Oxford High School tragedy is now being called a hero, 16-year-old Tate Myre was reportedly killed while trying to disarm the 15-year-old suspect. Authorities say deputy loaded Myre into their car after the shooting. He died though on the way to the hospital. A fellow student and friend of Tate Myre spoke about the loss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAVON PITTMAN, SENIOR, OXFORD HIGH SCHOOL: I can't see Justin. I can't see two of my closest friends. Tate was like a brother to me and Justin was too. I play football in two years, since being a varsity. And I play with his older brother too, and I can't imagine what he's going through either being an older brother, losing your younger brother is something so stupid like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: A petition to rename the school's football stadium after Myre has already collected more than 48,000 signatures. The University of Michigan football team will add a logo to their uniforms for Saturday's big 10 championship game, honoring those impacted by the shooting. And that young man there gave his life to save others.
We've just been given two minute warning that President Biden will soon go to that podium there at the White House to discuss this latest jobs report. As we wait, Gloria Borger, CNN senior political analyst with me here. So how does the President couch it, spin this?
[10:45:18]
BORGER: I think he probably says, we have a long way to go. We are making progress. We are in the middle of a pandemic. And, you know, there's always way to spin numbers. Obviously, these are not the numbers they wanted. But they will always find the silver lining in some of these numbers, which is that there were 1.13 million new jobs created last month, and that's very important. And so I, you know, I -- the 210,000 number was not a number that they expected, it was expected to be much higher.
SCIUTTO: And this has been a consistent, you know, forecasting problem, right? You know, for the last several months, the initial numbers come in in their forecast app, which by the way, we're in these numbers too.
BORGER: Right.
SCIUTTO: September and October forecasts upward, and they were already quite strong numbers. There is a fundamental disconnect here that does not seem to be getting broken. And that is, despite its 4.2 percent joblessness rate --
BORGER: Which is so, oops.
SCIUTTO: Here comes the president here. Let's see what he says.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Before I start, I'd like to report that later today, I'll be signing the bill funding the government operations for the next few months. Funding the government isn't a great achievement. It's a bare minimum of what we need to get done.
But in these times, a bipartisan cooperation is worth recognition, so I want to thank Senators Schumer and McConnell, and Speaker Pelosi for getting this done. And I want to thank the substantial bipartisan vote in the Senate for sending this bill to my desk today to avoid disruption of government operations. And I want to urge Congress to use the time this bill provides to work toward a bipartisan agreement on a full-year funding bill that makes the needed investments in our economy and our people, from public health, to education, to our national security.
Now, for today's news, every year, December brings the joys of the holiday season and gives us an opportunity to reflect on the year gone by, and look ahead and begin to imagine the new year to come.
This year, we can reflect on some extraordinary bit of progress. Our economy is markedly stronger than it was a year ago. And today, the incredible news that our unemployment rate has fallen to 4.2 percent. At this point in the year, we're looking at the sharpest one-year decline in unemployment ever. Simply put, America, America is back to work and our jobs recovery is going very strong.
Today's historic drop in unemployment rate includes dramatic improvements for workers who have often seen higher wages and higher levels of unemployment, excuse me, higher levels of unemployment. They are receiving higher wages. And the rate of Black and Hispanic unemployment is also dropping sharply.
But that's not just jobs that are up. Wages are up, especially for hardworking Americans often ignored in past, in past recoveries. Workers in transportation and warehouses have seen their wages go up approximately 10 percent this year. Workers in hotels and restaurants have seen their wages go up 13 percent this year.
And thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we've delivered significant tax cuts to families raising children. Tax cuts and rising wages for middle-class families mean that Americans, on average, have more in their pockets today than they did each -- in each month since we've been in office than they did last year after accounting for inflation. Let me repeat that, even after accounting for rising prices, the typical American family has more money in their pockets than they did last year.
In fact, we're the only leading economy in the world where household income and the economy as a whole are stronger than they were before the pandemic. Applications for new small businesses are up 30 percent compared to before the pandemic. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we're cutting child poverty in America by more than 40 percent. And millions of children who spent last Christmas in poverty will not bear that burden this holiday season.
Today's news means that the unemployment rate has now fallen by more than two percentage points since I took office. That's the fastest decline in a single year on record. And it's about three times faster than any other President in their first year in office.
The number of people claiming unemployment has fallen from 18 million when I took office, to 2 million this week, another record drop. We've also learned today that in November, 235,000 jobs were created in the private sector. And when they went back and recalibrated, they found the last two months, hey found that job growth over the prior two months, September and October, actually created 82,000 more jobs than had previously been reported which means that we've averaged nearly 400,000 new jobs a month over the last three months, a solid pace.
[10:50:20]
All told, in the first 10 full months of my administration, the economy has created 6 million jobs, a record for a new President. This is a significant improvement from when I took office in January, a sign that we're on the right track. Because of the extraordinary strides we've made, we can look forward to a brighter, happier new year ahead, in my view.
But I also know that despite this progress, families are anxious. They're anxious about COVID. They're anxious about the cost of living and the economy more broadly. They're still uncertain. I want you to know: I hear you. It's not enough to know that we're making progress. You need to see it and feel it in your own lives around the kitchen table, in your checkbooks.
And that is why, every day, my team and I are working to deliver consistent, determined, focused action to overcome the challenges we still face. Now, chief among those challenges is COVID-19. Yesterday, I laid out the key actions we're going to take this winter to fight this virus, to protect one another, to protect our economy and our economic recovery.
They include, number one, expanding our nationwide booster campaign with more outreach, more appointments, and more hours. I was thrilled to see that yesterday we had more vaccine shots administered than any day in the past six months.
Number two, we're launching hundreds of new family vaccination clinics to make it easier for children and parents, the whole family to get vaccinated in one place, and new policies to keep children in school instead of quarantining them at home when someone in the class comes down with COVID, if they do.
Thirdly, making free at-home tests more available than ever before by having them covered by our private health insurance plans. The availability of community health centers and other sites for the uninsured will be the alternative as well. So, if you have insurance, you're going to be, it will cover these tests. And if you don't have insurance, we have facilities you can attend and get these tests.
Increasing our surge response is the fourth thing, our surge response teams. They're made up of doctors and nurses and medical staff who go into communities with rising cases and provide the needed staff for overrun hospitals, for their emergency rooms, their intensive care units, to get help to them as they need it. And we're about tripling the number of those surge teams.
Accelerate, fifth, we're accelerating our efforts to vaccinate the rest of the world and strengthening international travel rules for people coming into the United States. This is a plan all Americans can rally behind, in my view.
We're also addressing another concern for families: prices. Just about every country is grappling with high prices right now as they fight the pandemic. And as the world economy continues to come back to life, the more price pressures are going to ease as things begin to move.
But we're not sitting around waiting. In the meantime, I've used every tool available to address price increases, and it's beginning to work. Take gasoline and gas prices. Last week, I announced the largest-ever release from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase the supply of oil and help bring down prices.
And I brought together other countries, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, who all agreed, all agreed to join me in releasing additional oil from their reserves. And China, China may very do well -- do more as well. They haven't done it yet.
This worldwide effort we're leading won't solve the problem of high gas prices overnight. But over the last month, likely due in part to the anticipation of this action, we've seen oil and gas prices out of the wells, oil and gas prices on the wholesale market come down significantly.
Since the end of October, excuse me, the average weekly price of gasoline on the wholesale market, that's what you sell to the gas stations, has fallen around 10 percent, and that decline has picked up in recent days. That's a drop of about 25 cents per gallon. These savings are beginning to reach Americans, and should pick up in the weeks ahead. And it can't happen fast enough.
And I've asked the Federal Trade Commission to consider whether potentially illegal and anti-competitive behavior in the oil and gas industry is causing higher prices for consumers when they don't need to be that high because the wholesale price has come down so much. So, we can ensure that the American people are paying a fair price for gas.
[10:55:16]
At this time of the year, another concern that is facing American families is about being able to find what you need in the holidays, whether it's gifts or groceries. As I laid out earlier in the week, because of my actions, the actions that my administration has taken, in partnership with business, excuse me, with private business and labor, retailers and grocery stores, freight movers and railroads, these shelves are going to be, the shelves of our stores are going to well-stocked.
We've sped up operations at our ports. For example, at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two busiest ports in America over the last month, the number of containers left sitting on the docks for over eight days is down by 40 percent.
I've said that before and people have come up to me and said, "Well that does that mean? And so, they're down 40 percent." Well, it means that the products are no longer sitting on the docks, they're getting off the docks into trains, into trucks, into vehicles to get them to the stores' shelves. That is an incredible success story.
On Monday, I convened a group of CEOs from some of the largest retailers and grocery stores, as well as leading companies that works with small businesses across the country.
And they reported that their investments are up, shelves are well- stocked, and they're ready to meet consumer demand for the holidays. Now, I said that yesterday, and then I saw a couple of your stations put on, you found some empty shelves. They're old empty shelves, but it doesn't matter. But go back and take a look at some of those shelves again. OK?
But the point is that the vast majority of the shelves are filled, and the CEOs of not only the suppliers, but the CEOs of UPS and FedEx, which are on track to deliver more packages than ever, are saying the same thing.
So, we're heading into the holiday season in strong shape. Again, this is about a concerted, focused action. We averted this potential crisis by figuring out what needed to be fixed, and then we brought together the people that have the capacity to fix it or at least alleviate it.
Now, now it's time to build on the success we've had this year on jobs, wages, creation of more small businesses, and fixing challenges in the economy. We need to cut costs further for families. That's what my Build Back Better plan does that's still being considered in Congress. It will lower the out-of-pocket cost for childcare, eldercare, housing, college, healthcare, and prescription drugs.
In fact, a new independent analysis released this week showed that my plan would mean $7,400 in tax cuts and savings for the typical family of four with two children. Seventeen Nobel Prize winners in economics have written a letter to me, affirming that this bill would reduce long-term inflationary pressures in the economy.
And two of the leading rating agencies, you know, liberal think tanks two of the leading rating agencies on Wall Street confirmed this month that my plan will not add to inflationary pressures.
What I've always proposed and what I'm proposing now is having a way to lower, lower some of the most difficult costs, and what are they? The difficult costs families pay every month by asking corporations and the wealthiest Americans including, for example, the 55 corporations that paid zero in federal income tax last year, despite generating $40 billion in profits and I'm happy they're profitable to begin to pay their fair share.
For example, just requiring corporations to pay a minimum 15 percent in taxes, raises enough revenue to pay for lowering the cost of childcare for 90 percent of families and provides universal preschool for three and all three and four year olds in America.
Now, what's better for those corporations? Is it better for them having childcare so parents can come back to work today and they have a better-educated workforce in the future, or having not paying any tax?
Once again, no one, no one making less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more in federal taxes. My Build Back Better plan is fiscally responsible. It's the first major piece of legislation in more than a decade that's not only fully paid for, but will generate more than $100 billion in deficit reduction this decade.
[11:00:03]
