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Biden To Host Senate Judiciary Democrats At White House Tomorrow; V.P. Harris To Attend Munich Conference, Rally Allies On Ukraine; Bruce Heyman, Former U.S. Ambassador To Canada, Discusses Canada Trucker Protest Disrupting Continent's Busiest Border Crossing; U.S. Skier Crashes Out Again, U.S. Gets First Gold Medal; Rogan: Backlash Over My Use Of Slurs "Political Hit Job". Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired February 09, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:34:18]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: There are fewer than three weeks before President Biden's deadline to announce his Supreme Court pick.

And tomorrow, he'll meet with Democrats from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Their support will be critical in this confirmation process.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: CNN's M.J. Lee is at the White House for us.

M.J., what do we know about the president's Supreme Court search?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know it's part of the ongoing effort for President Biden to consult with various Senators as he try to decide who to nominate to the highest court.

He has continued having conversations with Republican members as well. Of course, he has stressed it is very important to him to make sure he's consulting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

[14:35:06]

And this is really a flurry of activity that we have already seen coming from the White House.

We know that President Biden has met with the top two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We know he has spoken with Mitch McConnell.

And essentially the vetting really has started. We know that White House officials have reached out and started reaching out to potential candidates to this vacancy.

Now, keep in mind, the deadline we are still working with is the end of February. This is when President Biden has previously said he would like to have a nominee announced and in place.

We will see if that timeline ends up holding. This is a president, of course, known for blowing past deadlines.

The White House has made clear this is a very, very big and top priority issue that is on his plate.

BLACKWELL: M.J., let's turn toward the vice president now. We know that she'll travel to Germany for the Munich security conference next week. Of course, there's this Russian build up along the Ukraine border.

What's a win here for the White House? What do they want to accomplish?

LEE: Here's what we know about the vice president's trip. We know she is expected to have some one-on-one meetings with -- she is expected to deliver remarks.

And those remarks will focus largely on trying to show this united front with the U.S. and its allies as these countries try to work together to deter Russia from invading Ukraine.

Of course, it is difficult to underscore too much how sort of volatile this geopolitical moment is.

We've heard from the president in recent days essentially saying, look, I believe Putin has the capability to invade, but I don't know what he's going to do.

We don't know if he's made a decision either way on whether to invade and he has warned American citizens in Ukraine to get out. So that is how sort of volatile the situation is on the ground.

So you can bet that global leaders are going to be tuning in to the vice president's remarks and really trying to dissect every word to get a sense of exactly where the United States stands at this very critical moment.

CAMEROTA: OK. M.J. Lee, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Another major disappointment for one of the greatest athletes to ever put on a pair of skis. And the U.S. gets its first gold medal. We'll have all the action ahead.

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[14:42:10]

BLACKWELL: Canadian anti-vaccine protests are nearly paralyzing the busiest border crossing in North America. It's the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

And 40,000 vehicles, $300 million in goods usually cross that bridge each day. Today, a trickle of traffic is getting through from Canada to the U.S.

CAMEROTA: But it's a full shutdown the other way. Truckers have been protesting a vaccine mandate since late last month and the movement has spread to include opponents of various COVID policies.

Let's bring in Bruce Heyman. He served as U.S. ambassador to Canada and co-wrote a book, "The Art of Diplomacy, Strengthening the Canada/U.S. Relationship in Times of Uncertainty."

Ambassador, great to have you.

You are not convinced in terms of what we're seeing there in terms of the trucker blockade is about vaccine mandates. What do you think it is?

BRUCE HEYMAN, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CANADA & AUTHOR: So, look, first of all, everybody should realize Canada is our best friend. Allies with us in NATO and NORAD and there for us whenever we've been in need.

It's almost a storybook relationship. Plays on Broadway, taking hostages out of Iran. And all we would want is a stable, prosperous democracy next door.

But what's happened is a small band of truckers -- and I say small, there's something about 90 percent of the truckers are fully vaccinated. So this is about 10 percent.

They're upset. They want to protest. But they have been co-opted by the far right. And that far right is now professionalized and energized and raised money to go against and try to destabilize the Trudeau government.

So this is much more complicated than just a small group of people who are frustrated about vaccine mandates.

Not when you're waving Nazi flags and Confederate flags and having far right extremists marching in the streets and threatening local residents in Ottawa and now shutting down the largest commercial pathway to the United States.

This is very destabilizing.

BLACKWELL: I understand you believe this is no longer a grassroots effort. But for those who began this, who started this several days ago, the point of a protest, the contrarian view here is to disturb the peace.

That's the point. To get enough attention. To get some change.

To -- as long as they're being non-violent, to do something like this to get the attention of their government.

[14:45:03]

So from that point of view, what's your reaction to this is what a protest is supposed to do? Again, as long as there's no violence?

HEYMAN: I am pro-protest. I am pro-free speech. I am pro having the rights we have in the United States. But when it bleeds over to blocking roadways and pathways so people

can't get to the hospital. People can't get medical need that they have in terms of drugs and health care, where the food is being blocked from the United States to come into Canada. And so it would dramatically impact them.

This moves from a legitimate protest to something that is much more destabilizing then when we have a far-right news channel in the U.S. going full blast each night this week that is encouraging this activity.

And then there's fundraising in the United States amongst some of these groups to help stabilize Canada, I think this has crossed the line.

CAMEROTA: What should Prime Minister Justin Trudeau do about this?

HEYMAN: That's the point for me, as a former ambassador, not to tell the Trudeau government about what they have to do domestically.

But this now will bleed into a difficult situation for the U.S. if this continues.

Because we will either have backed up the goods that will be perishable on the U.S. side in food, then equipment to run many of our factories in Michigan and Ohio, et cetera, because we make our cars and we do this together jointly.

So this could escalate. So hopefully, they will find a pathway and the Canadians will choose to do that without U.S. interference. They'll do that in a way that resolves this problem.

But every time the U.S. starts poking their nose in it -- and we're not going it government-wise. We're doing it with people who are in U.S. government, but they're using social media and media to foment this disruption.

CAMEROTA: Ambassador Bruce Heyman, great to get your perspective. Thank you for being with us.

HEYMAN: It's a pleasure. Thanks, Alisyn and Victor.

CAMEROTA: So what are we to make of the various Joe Rogan controversies? He says he's embarrassed. He says he's going to do better. Are we at a tipping point on punishing people or is this something else?

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[14:52:11]

CAMEROTA: Heartbreak once again for Team USA Skier Mikaela Shiffrin. After crashing in her first race, she failed to finish her second race after missing one of the slalom gates.

She was trying to become the first U.S. skier to win three golds at a single Olympic.

BLACKWELL: CNN "WORLD SPORT" anchor, Alex Thomas, is with us now.

Alex, what happened?

ALEX THOMAS, CNN "WORLD SPORT" ANCHOR: Well, as you say, she crashed out with seconds into her run, which was so surprising.

To put it into context, the last time she crashed out at two such event in succession, she was a 16-year-old, more than a decade ago.

This will go down, even if she hung up her skis tomorrow, as the greatest women's skier in history. We expect her to win almost every time.

Huge pressure. She's used to dealing with it.

To show how upset she was, not only did she ski to side of the course with her head in her arms looking inconsolable, but she also said this afterwards.

Tearfully going through interview, saying she had to rethink everything.

"Makes me second guess the last 15 years, everything I thought I knew about my own skiing and slalom and racing mentality. There's a lot more going on than just my little situation but I feel ready bad."

Her father passed away two years ago. And this has real similarities to what we saw Simone Biles go through, a bit of a mental health disintegration.

CAMEROTA: There's some good news for Team USA. Tell us about the first gold medal?

THOMAS: A wonderful fairytale story of redemption. Lindsey Jacobellis was 20 back in 2016. About to cross the line in first place, did a triple at the final jump, crashed and missed out on gold.

Three successive Olympics saw her come and fail to win a medal.

At the age of 36, she's an Olympic champion in snowboard cross. They go down the board together. So many chances to crash out or get tripped up by competitors.

Just wonderful to see her win at last.

BLACKWELL: Alex Thomas, some good news for us there. Thanks so much, Alex.

[14:54:24]

In just a few minute, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be in front of reporters. He's expected to face questions about the league's hiring practices after allegations of racial discrimination. We'll watch those and bring you the latest. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Controversial podcast host, Joe Rogan, says he's relieved his controversial comments -- OK, racist comments -- have come to light. Particularly his repeated use of the N-word.

BLACKWELL: He also called a compilation video that shows him repeatedly using the N-world a "political hit job."

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

JOE ROGAN, PODCAST HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE": In a lot of ways, like all this is a relief because it's like, that video had always been out there. It's like this is a political hit job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ROGAN: They're taking all this stuff that I've ever said that's wrong and smush it all together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

ROGAN: It's good because it makes me address some (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that I really wish wasn't out there.

(END AUDIO FEED)

CAMEROTA: Well, I admit I'm out of ideas for what to do about Joe Rogan. I'm officially out of ideas.

[14:59:56]

BLACKWELL: I'm confused by both it's out there, but this is a political hit job. It feels good it's out but also I really need to address this.

It seems like there are three different narratives that are coming.