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Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) Discusses Senators Frustrated by Delay of Bill to Punish Russia, Ruble Recovering Despite Sanctions; Ukraine Sends Bus Convoys to Mariupol for Rescue Effort; Biden Announces New Effort to Cut Gas Prices. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 31, 2022 - 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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[13:31:13]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: After plunging under crushing sanctions, the value of the Russian ruble has almost completely recovered to his pre- war levels.

But a bill that would further punish Russia by revoking its normal trade status, along with Belarus, remains stalled in the U.S. Senate.

Joining us now is Democratic Senator Bob Menendez. He is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

Forgive me if I have to interrupt our discussion to go live to the president.

But I do want to ask you -- because we keep hearing desperate pleas from Ukraine for the U.S. and for our allies to do more. And revoking trade status is another way to put economic hurt on Russia.

So why is this bill stuck in the Senate?

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): Well, Ana, it's presently challenged by some of our Republican colleagues, who are insisting on amendments and/or changes in provisions that really, for the most part, don't go to the heart of the question.

But are necessary to deal with in order to get to 60 votes so we can pass this by consent versus a prolonged process on the floor because time is of the essence.

And I know that Leader Schumer is very much engaged. I just came from a meeting on some of these issues. And I think we will get there, hopefully, before the end of the week.

CABRERA: There's a sense of urgency. And this bill passed the House by a vote of 424-8. That was two weeks ago.

Every day, innocent civilians are dying. Their cities are being demolished. Are you saying lawmakers are playing politics with this? MENENDEZ: Well, I'm simply saying that provisions that are, in my

view, extraneous to the core effort, which is what we're trying to do, to continue to create the economic noose around Putin's neck to become tighter and tighter, more consequential for his horrific actions in Ukraine, to take place.

And unfortunately, various of the elements being asked for here have nothing to do with that question.

But it is the legislative process in the Senate. Hopefully, some of my Republican colleagues would appear before you and try to explain it.

CABRERA: Who is holding it up?

MENENDEZ: Well, I'm not going to get into those elements of the negotiation because I want to see a deal succeed. But we have several who have raised issues that, as I say, they're extraneous to the core issue.

CABRERA: And it's just Republicans who have issues, no Democrats?

MENENDEZ: No, I don't know of any Democrat that has -- we actually -- if you remember, Ana, this was brought by the majority leader to the floor. Asked unanimous consent.

Last week, I joined with him in an effort to get unanimous consent. It was only Republicans who objected to that consent.

CABRERA: You talk about wanting to put the economic stranglehold on Russia. We just reported the ruble is almost back to his pre-war levels.

If Russia's economy is recovering, what does that mean for Putin's war on Ukraine?

MENENDEZ: Well, listen, I think a temporary rise in the ruble isn't a permanent one.

The Russian economy is going to go under severe contractions. And those contractions will ultimately be reflected in the value of the ruble.

So whatever fluctuation may have taken place by Russians trying to prop up the ruble cannot sustain the coming onslaught of sanctions, which have a tail to it.

You know, sanctions, when they're first imposed, they have the beginnings of consequences. But as they permeate and deepen in the international order, they even have more consequential actions.

[13:35:09]

I know this as someone that's been the architect and author of a whole host of sanctions. And that the more -- as time goes by, the deeper the consequences.

Putin understands that. Which is why Lavrov is going to China and seeing if China will help themselves out of the consequences.

CABRERA: I really value having you here because of your insight as the chair of the Senate foreign affairs -- or Foreign Relations Committee.

You were at a classified briefing on Ukraine just yesterday. Without sharing classified information, what was your biggest takeaway?

MENENDEZ: My biggest takeaway is that the Biden administration has been fully committed to give the Ukrainians everything they can that the Ukrainians can use, use expeditiously, use effectively in their battle against Russia and Putin.

That nearly $2 billion in the year and a third that this administration has been in office has been supplied in lethal assistance to Ukraine. More is coming.

We are also working internationally to get our allies to transfer equipment that the Ukrainians know how to use versus trying to send them a new system and air defense systems that they would have to take months to learn.

We're actually getting transfers of equipment by neighboring countries for which we will have an obligation later on to deal with and replace.

So there's a full-court press to make sure that everything humanly possible to get the lethal assistance the Ukrainians need is in their hands, so they continue to take the battle to Putin.

CABRERA: Senator Bob Menendez, thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate your time and your insight.

Moments away now, the president will lay out his plan to help Americans at the gas pump. Stay with us.

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[13:41:53]

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: I'm Don Lemon, back with you here from a rainy Ukraine.

Some of the key headlines right now. Russian forces are concentrating their airstrikes on four areas, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Izyum and the Donbass. That is according to a senior U.S. defense official.

When it comes after Vladimir Putin signed a decree to draft more than 134,000 additional Russian citizens to the military as his troops suffer heavy losses.

And there's hope for the 100,000 people trapped in the besieged port city of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials say Russia has agreed to open a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians.

Let's get straight to CNN's Ivan Watson in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

Ivan, hello to you.

A convoy of buses departed from your location to help with that evacuation. What more do you know?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Ukrainian government says that it received word from the Russian military, via the International Committee of the Red Cross, this morning, saying that the Russians were going to allow evacuation from Mariupol.

So the Ukrainians then announced a ceasefire. And then promptly sent 45 buses in the direction of Mariupol.

And the most recent announcement has come from the Mariupol city council saying that some of those buses have reached a Russian- occupied town, not far from Mariupol, and that they anticipate that there will be an evacuation today.

Now in the last hour, we've gotten mixed reports from different arms of the Ukrainian government here in Zaporizhzhia whether or not this evacuation will actually take place today. A lot seems very much up in the air.

But the fact of the matter is that the Ukrainian government estimates that there are more than 100,000 Ukrainian civilians that have been trapped to this day in Mariupol, enduring a month-long siege and Russian incoming fire, coming from land, sea and air.

For weeks people cowering in basements, in the halls of their apartments.

I have personally interviewed dozens of people who have successfully escaped. And about half of them said that their homes were destroyed by the Russian incoming fire.

So the key right now is to try to get these civilians out. And that process has been troubled for the past weeks.

There's a glimmer of hope. But we cannot report that anybody has made it out until they safely make it here.

In the interim, there's a wrinkle that has come up. There are these Russian-backed separatist regions in the east of Ukraine. They've been there since 2014.

The leader of one of those breakaway regions announced today that he is going to set up his own administration in Mariupol. I interpret that as the first step towards trying to annex this Ukrainian city to a proxy of Russia.

It is complicated by the fact, not only that there's still more than 100,000 Ukrainians cowering in the ruins of Mariupol. But also there are Ukrainian soldiers and armed forces still controlling a part of that city, still fighting against the Russian siege there.

[13:45:13] But we're getting a sign of the direction Russia is going for, which looks like trying to annex this city to one day create a land corridor between the Crimean peninsula and mainland Russia.

It is complicated by the fact that, A, there are armed Ukrainian soldiers and, B, lots of Ukrainian citizens still in that city who do not recognize the potential annexation of that by Russia's proxies in this country -- Don?

LEMON: Ivan Watson in Zaporizhzhia. Ivan, doing incredible reporting all over Ukraine. I've been glued to it.

Thank you, Ivan. We appreciate it.

Let me get back to Ana in New York.

CABRERA: Thanks, guys.

We're following other news. The last time Chris Rock was on stage and delivered a joke, Will Smith delivered a slap right to his face. Well, last night, the comedian was back onstage and broke his silence about that incident. Hear it, next.

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CABRERA: We're going live to the president at the White House and his announcement on oil.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I want to talk with you about the cost here at home of Putin's decision to brutally and savagely invade a sovereign nation.

Fact is, he's causing thousands of deaths and untold destruction.

Working with our NATO allies and our European partners and beyond that, we're responding.

We're aiding the Ukrainian people with both economic and militarily while leaving the most punishing economic sanctions against Russia ever used against another nation in place and increasing them.

Thus far, these actions are crippling Russia's economy, isolating Putin from the world, and helping Ukrainians fight for their country and ease their suffering.

But as I've said from the start, Putin's war is imposing a cost on America and our allies and democracies around the world.

Today, I want to talk about one aspect of Putin's war that affects and has real effects on American people.

Putin's price hike that Americans and our allies are feeling at the pump. I know how much it hurts.

As you've heard me say before, I grew up in family, like many of you, where the price of a gallon of gasoline went up, it was a discussion at the kitchen table.

Our family budgets, your family budgets to fill a tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war.

So today, I'm laying out a two-part plan not only to ease the pain that families are feeling right now but to end this era of dependence and uncertainty and to lay a new foundation for true and lasting American energy independence.

[13:50:09]

Parenthetically, just imagine if Europe didn't have to rely on Russian oil, if they were energy independent. It would change the nature so much.

The problem we're facing with gas prices has two roots. First, the pandemic. When COVID struck, demand for oil plummeted, so production slowed down worldwide.

Because of the strength and the speed of our recovery, demand for oil shot back up much faster than the supply. That's why the cost of gas began to rise last year.

The second root is Vladimir Putin. The start of this year, gas was about $3.30 a gallon. Today, it's about averaging $4.20 or $4.22. It's higher in many states, nearly a dollar more in less than three months.

And the reason for that is because of Putin's war. And now, many people no longer buying Russian oil around the world. I banned the Russian import of oil here in America.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress called for it and supported it. It was the right thing to do. But I said at the time, it's going to come with a cost.

As Russian oil comes off the global market, supply of oil drops and prices are rising. Now, Putin's price hike is hitting Americans at the pump.

Which brings me to the first part of my plan.

To immediately increase the supply of oil, our prices are rising because of Putin's action. There isn't enough supply.

And the bottom line is if we want lower gas prices, we need to have more oil supply right now.

For U.S. oil companies that are recording their largest profits in years, they have a choice.

One, they can put those profits to productive use by producing more oil, restarting idle wells or producing on the sites they already are leasing.

Giving the American people a break by passing some of the savings on to their customers and lowering the price at the pump. Or they can, as some of them are doing, exploit the situation, sit

back, ship those profits to the investors, and while American families struggle to make ends meet.

Look, this is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families. It's also a moment of patriotism.

I want to acknowledge those companies that have already announced they're increasing immediate production. They're investing money to produce more oil, and also clean technology we need to reduce our dependence on oil in the future.

They have everything they need. Nothing standing in their way. And they've indicated they will be producing an extra one million barrels of oil per day, probably starting as early as this fall. That's progress.

But some companies have been pretty blunt. They don't want to increase supply because Putin's price hike means higher profits.

One CEO even acknowledged that they don't care if the price of a barrel of oil goes to $200 a barrel. They're not going to step up the production.

I say, enough. Enough of lavishing excessive profits on investors and payouts and buybacks when the American people are watching, the world is watching.

U.S. oil companies made nearly $80 billion in profit last year. And this year, those profits are expected to continue to soar.

This is the time -- not the time to sit on record profits. It's time to step up for the good of your country, the good of the world, to invest in immediate the production that we need to respond to Vladimir Putin, to provide some relief for your customers, not investors and executives.

Look, I'm a Capitalist. I have no problem with corporations turning a good profit. But companies have an obligation that goes beyond just their shareholders, to their customers, their communities and their country.

No American company should take advantage of a pandemic or Vladimir Putin's actions to enrich themselves at the expense of American families.

Investing those profits in production and innovation, that's what they should do. Invest in your customers.

And it isn't just like -- it's not the patriotic view. It's good for your business as well.

Right now, oil and gas industries are sitting on nearly 9,000 unused but approved permits for production on federal lands. Or more than a million unused acres, they have a right to pump on. Families can't afford that companies sit on these -- on their hands.

So, to help execute this first part of my plan, I'm calling for a "Use It or Lose It" policy. Congress should make companies pay fees on wells on federal leases they haven't used in years, and acres of public land they're hoarding without production.

[13:55:07]

Companies that are already producing from these wells won't be affected. But those sitting on unused leases and idle wells will either have to start producing or pay the price for their inaction.

Look, the action I'm calling for will make a real difference over time. But the truth is, it takes months, not days for companies to increase production. That's why the next part of my plan is so important.

Today, I'm authorizing the release of one million barrels per day for the next six months. over 180 million barrels for the strategic -- from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

This is a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until production ramps up later this year. And it is by far the largest release of our national reserve in our history.

It will provide a historic amount of supply for historic amount of time, a six-month bridge to the fall.

And we'll use the revenue from selling the oil now to restock the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when prices are lower. So, we'll be ready. We'll be ready for future emergencies.

Folks, I've coordinated this release with allies and partners around the world. Already, we have commitments from other countries to release tens of millions of additional barrels into the market.

Together, our combined efforts that will supply well over a million barrels a day.

Nations coming together to deny Putin the ability to weaponize his energy resources against American families and families and democracies around the world.

Now, for the first part of my plan, it's about meeting an immediate crisis.

The second part is about declaring real American energy independence in the long-term so that we never have to deal with this problem again.

Ultimately, we and the whole world need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels altogether. We need to choose long-term security over energy and climate vulnerability.

We need to double down on our commitment to clean energy and tackling the climate crisis with our partners and allies around the world.

And we can do that by passing my plan that's literally before the Senate right now, the United States Congress right now.

It's been there for well over a month. To speed the transition to clean energy future that's made in America with American products and American values.

We need to embrace all the tools and technologies that can help us, free us from our dependence on fossil fuels, move us toward a more home-grown clean energy.

Technologies made by American companies and American workers, so we can bolster democratic -- excuse me, domestic supply chains here at home and export those technologies around the world to reduce greenhouse gases.

That's why, today, I'm issuing a directive to strengthen our clean energy economy.

I'm going to use the Defense Production Act to secure American supply chains for the critical materials that go into batteries for electric vehicles and the storage of renewable energy, lithium, graphite, nickel and so much more.

We need to end our long-term reliance on China and other countries for inputs that will power the future. And I'll use every tool I have to make that happen.

Yes, building a made-in-America clean energy future will help safeguard our national security. Yes, it will help us tackle climate change. Yes, it's going to help us ensure that America's creating millions of good-paying jobs for generations to come.

But most important, the most important thing my plan will do right away is save your family money.

Here's what I mean. Under my plan, which is before the Congress now, we can take advantage of the next generation of electric vehicles that a typical driver will save about $80 a month from not having to pay gas at the pump.

If your home is powered by safer, cheaper, cleaner electricity like solar or heat pumps, you can save about $500 a month on average.

Don't take my word for it. The CEOs of 11 of America's largest utility companies came to see me at the White House several weeks ago. They told me, if we pass my plans before the Congress now, typical families will see savings show up on their utility bills immediately.

And costs will come down even more as we innovate and develop cutting edge energy storage technologies, clean hydrogen technologies, advanced nuclear technology, carbon capture, and sequestration technologies.

And by the way, this week's -- the benefit I included in the bipartisan infrastructure law to help families weatherize their homes are being delivered.

[13:59:48]

My administration is making $3.2 billion available from this legislation to provide up to $6,500 direct payment for working-class families to be able to weatherize their homes, to save them money, to keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

It's a direct grant. This program has been around for a while.