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Biden: Student Debt Forgiveness Plan Is "Responsible And Fair"; NY Special Election Win Fuels Midterm Hopes For Democrats; Ukraine Independence Day Falls On Half-Year Mark Of Russian Invasion. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired August 24, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've talked about this Atlanta. This is really important. We're proposing to make what's called an income driven repayment plan simple and fair. And here's how, no one with an undergraduate loan today or in the future, whether for community college or four year college will have to pay more than 5 percent of the discretionary income to repay their loan. That's income after you pay the necessities like housing, food and the like.

You currently pay 10 percent. We're cutting that in half to five percent. And after you pay your loan for 20 years, your obligation will be fulfilled if it hadn't already been fulfilled, meaning you won't have to pay anymore period. And bars the original balance was less than $12,000, many of whom are community college students, will be done paying just after 10 years. These changes will save more than a thousand dollars a year on average from the borrower. It's a game changer.

We're also fixing what's called, and this has been the bane of driving me crazy when I was out of office, the public service loan forgiveness program. Now, this program forgive student loans to encourage those students who have those loans if they go and do public service.

Think of the millions who are public school teachers, local police officers, workers at local charities, members of the military and the National Guard and so many more. Think of the folks who work for federal, state, local and tribal governments, keeping essential services going, responding to national disaster, all those firefighters and cops.

The program is designed so that if you serve in one of these jobs and we'll be able to list those and you'll be able to accurately assess whether you do and make your loan payments for 10 years even if it's not consecutive years. Your remaining balance will be completely forgiven.

It's a great idea, but the program's a mess. It's so inefficient and complicated too many people just give up. Think of a service member defers their student loan payment while they're deployed. The system is so restrictive that they're active duty service didn't count as public service and the loan isn't forgiven as promised. It's outrageous.

Well, the man to my left is going to fix it. The Department of Education has recently proposed changes that will make this program work better and over the long-term much better. And now the department issues emergency temporary changes to retroactively credit public service, so it counts and loans are forgiven.

Since I've been in office more than a 175,000 teachers, nurses, police officers have been able to get over $10 billion dollars in loan forgiveness so far through this program. But this opportunity expires on October 31st 2022.

So my message to all servants, all public servants, all those who are the ones that are volunteering is out with student debt to go - here's what you want - if you're worried about how to do it, go to pslf.gov before October 31st to see if you qualify for public service to student loan forgiveness. This is another game changer and we're going to have people who are there to help get you - help direct you and work you through process.

And one more big change we're making to the system is we're holding colleges accountable for jacking up costs without delivering value to students. We've all heard of those schools (inaudible) students with the promise of big paychecks when they graduate only to watch these students be ripped off and left with mountains of debt.

My predecessors looked the other way for some reason with good reason to do anything about this fraud. My administration is taking it on. For example, the Department of Education works with private education associations to accredited college - to accredit colleges and universities so they can receive federal aid.

Well, last week the Department of Education fired a college accreditor that allowed colleges like ITT and Corinthian to defraud borrowers. And combined with our emergency actions, the public service forgiveness program and other action we've taken, we've been able to cancel more than $32 billion of student debt for 1.6 million borrowers including those defrauded by these bad acting schools. Our goal is to shine a light in the worst actors so students can avoid these debt traps.

Now, I understand not everyone - not everything I'm announcing today is going to make everybody happy.

[15:05:00]

Something is too much. I find it interesting how some of my Republican friends have voted for those tax cuts and others think that we shouldn't be helping these folks.

Something is too little, but I believe my plan is responsible and fair. It focuses the benefit on middle class and working families. It helps both current and future borrowers and it'll fix a badly broken system. These actions built on my administration's effort to make college more affordable in the first place.

It includes unprecedented investments. Nearly $6 billion in historic black colleges universities, much of which is focused on pandemic relief to help students cover tuition and other costs so they can stay in school.

And I must be honest with you, I'm going to continue to fight for doubling the Pell Grants, I didn't get that done this time. Let me say it again, 12 years of universal education is not enough. I'm going to continue to work for universal pre-K for every three and four year old and universal community college for education beyond high school.

Let me close with this, I ran for office to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out. Because when we do that everybody does better. Everybody does well. The wealthy do very well. The poor have a way up and the middle class can have breathing room and that's going to help America win the economic competition of the 21st century, because much of my time is spent how do we remain the most competitive nation in the world with the strongest economy in the world, with the greatest opportunities in the world.

That's what today's announcement is about. It's about opportunity. It's about giving people a fair shot. It's about the one word America can be defined by, possibilities. It's all about providing possibilities. We're going to have a lot more to say about this. There's a lot of material that's going to be put out as to how this has been implemented and I want to thank you all and God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, how much advance notice that you have of the FBI's plan to search Mar-A-Lago?

BIDEN: I didn't have any advance notice, none, zero, not one single bit. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, is it unfair to people who paid their student loans or chose not to take out loans?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Okay, there you have it. President Biden laying out his case. Let's listen to this answer here.

BIDEN: ... do not own multibillion-dollar businesses, if they see one of these guys getting all the tax cuts, is that fair? What do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about people who paid their loans, struggled to pay their loans and now others don't have to?

CAMEROTA: Okay, that was a little harder to hear than what he said in laying out his case about why he is today announcing some student loan debt forgiveness. Something that he says he's been wanting to do and he told a really - I thought heart rending story about why it is personally so important to him his family could not afford to send him to college and he talked about how his father felt ashamed.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Yes. As the President often does, tells the stories from home, inform his policy decisions. He calls this plan reasonable and fair. The top line was the forgiveness of the $10,000, but many, many other initiatives listed today.

CAMEROTA: So let's bring in CNN Senior White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly. We also have CNN Business Correspondent Rahel Solomon, CNN Economics and Political Commentator Catherine Rampell and CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju.

I want to talk with you, Manu, because the President ended there, he said, I know everybody will not be happy with this. He basically gave like the Goldilocks explanation. Some people will think it's too small, some people think it's too big, but Republicans have already been criticizing it, so what are they saying?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Republicans are unified against this. They are saying that this is unfair that this would drive up inflation. This would drive up the deficit. There's been unity among Republicans.

Democrats have been divided. Yes, there has been some support, particularly on the left. Democratic leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Majority Leader who has lobbied Biden for more than a year for really since in the aftermath of the - of him winning the presidency in November 2020, had a meeting with him on November 20th 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware, made a pitch for him there. Continued to make a pitch privately and publicly urging him to go as far as eliminating $50,000 in debt, even making the case to him privately in May when the two were coming back from the funeral for the shooting of the Buffalo - shooting victims from the massacre, that mass shooting in Buffalo at that point on Air Force One.

Schumer urged Biden to take this step saying it was the right thing to do morally and economically. But that is not the case for all of Democrats, particularly some Democrats in difficult election races. Some of candidates who are running in a state like Ohio, Tim Ryan a Senate candidate, they're not supportive of this move. Another Democrat in a tough district in New Hampshire for so-called frontline Democrats, someone who was vulnerable raise some concerns, with Chris Pappas of New Hampshire raised concerns saying that this is simply needs to be more targeted.

[15:10:07]

And Congress should be taking this step, not the administration taking this action administratively.

So while Democrats - while Republicans are rallying against this, Democrats are divided. Some on the left say it does not go far enough, other say Congress should have acted, but still some support, significant support from the Democratic leaders, both Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Phil, let's bring that to you. How much of a political pressure point has this been for the administration as they reach this deadline?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Huge. I mean, I can't really describe it in a more nuanced manner. There has been significant pressure and there's also been a recognition inside the White House that this just isn't about Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Raphael Warnock constantly contacting White House officials and the President trying to get something done on this front. They are very cognizant of the fact that their internal polling has shown that the youth vote in particular youth support in particular has just fallen off a cliff over the course of the last several months.

Now, is that the driving force behind the final policy? No. Guys, there have been intensive debates deliberations about how to reach this point, very real disagreements inside the White House inside the President's own team about how to reach this point, both on the legal authority and on the economic side of things.

I think when you talk to officials, they feel like they were able to thread a needle, one that as Manu acknowledged wasn't going to make really anybody totally happy, but address some of the issues that the President wanted to addressed and was able to actually do something very substantial, very significant for 10s of millions of those that have student loan debt. But I think there's the economic policy, there's the legal policy here, but there was most certainly a political element that White House officials despite what they may say publicly when asked about it were very cognizant of throughout this process.

CAMEROTA: Okay. So Catherine, beyond the politics, let's talk about the policy, does this fix a broken system?

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR: No. I mean, this does very little to address the underlying problem, which is the cost of college and that it pays off for most people, I should be clear. It is an investment that does pay off for most people, but not for everyone. There are a lot of fly by night operations that produce degrees that are worthless, a lot of students never graduate, they take on the debt and they never get the benefit of the degree. This doesn't solve any of that.

The - some of the changes that were announced will effectively make college cheaper for people in the sense that the changes to the income driven repayment programs will cap the payments that people make by month essentially, and then have that - have their balance forgiven much sooner than is the case under current law.

Now, what does that mean, in the long run? I don't know. Maybe colleges' respond by raising tuition because people feel like they can borrow more, because more people will be forgiven, which again, doesn't get at the underlying problem which is the cost of college.

BLACKWELL: Rahel, the critics point first to the cost of this program. What's the impact more broadly on the economy?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think there are a few ways you can think about this, right? It's the actual impact of the debt, which doesn't go away. It just sort of shifts hands from the borrower to the federal government and the impact on consumer spending and, of course, inflation, with inflation at 8.5 percent.

So the argument is that in pausing the repayment which some economists, certainly Larry Summers, but also others have said in pausing that repayment, you have essentially allowed people to continue to spend as they have been, right? For example, let's say the average student loan payment is about $300 per month and it is before the moratorium.

If those repayments were to start next month, well, suddenly you have $300 less to spend in the economy and that would be disinflationary. Others, however, say, look, these payments, haven't - they haven't had to pay these payments in two years, so household budgets are what they are.

And so there is a lot of fierce debate Jason Furman just tweeting out within the hour that this is reckless. There is a lot of debate about whether this adds to the inflationary fire. That said, it certainly provides relief for some who need it right. I mean, the President said 43 million people will qualify for some relief, 20 million will have almost all of their debt forgiven the question and what's I think still debatable is what impact that has longer term on fighting inflation, which we all are dealing with.

BLACKWELL: All right. Rahel, Catherine, Manu, Phil, thank you all.

CAMEROTA: All right. A primary victory in the Bellwether District is giving Democrats renewed confidence. Democrat Pat Roberts is projected to win New York's 19th district there. At the moment, he's 3,000 - well, roughly 3,000 votes ahead there in this special election and his campaign pivoted to focus on abortion rights after the Roe vs. Wade decision.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's discuss now with CNN senior political analyst John Avlon, CNN National Politics Reporter Eva McKend and Alyssa Farah Griffin, CNN Political Commentator and former Trump White House Communications Director. Welcome to you all.

John, let me start with you. How much can Democrats - should Democrats extrapolate from the win a margin broader than President Biden had in that district in 2020?

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JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think they can feel comfortable that one of the dynamics we've seen since the repeal of Roe is renewed enthusiasm among Democrats in a way that blunts the typical environment in a midterm election, which is the enthusiasms in the out party. That seems to have changed and fairly decisively.

The other reason this matters, this is a genuine, that rarest of things, a swing district, a competitive district special election and two sane candidates. Two sane responsible candidates, also a rarity in our politics today. And Marc Molinaro, the Republican, had run for governor. He's the Dutchess County Executive. Pat Ryan, Ulster County Executive.

So you've got two people who are known in the community. The fact that in this environment, the Democrat pulled it out by emphasizing Roe I think speaks to Democrats feeling that maybe just maybe it won't be a devastating red wave this winter. Maybe there was a blue wall that they can erect to blunt some of that force.

CAMEROTA: Alyssa, as a Republican, how do you see this? Do you think that this was a statement about abortion?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I don't disagree with John's analysis. It's no doubt that Dobbs was a factor in a swing district like this. But I think even more broadly, Republicans need to be thinking about these majority maker districts, these ones that Biden just marked - narrowly won. Because those are the ones they have to hold on to, to win back the majority.

And I would argue that some of the sort of fringy or elements of the more divisive issues that have been championed lately by the GOP are also hitting in these, hurting in these districts. So the more that the election lies are promulgated by the most prominent Republicans in the country, that hurt somebody in a race like this in New York.

So I think it's a number of factors, Dobbs is certainly part of it. But I think the fringe elements also hurt moderate Republicans.

BLACKWELL: Eva, let me come to you in order to talk about the Pennsylvania Senate race there between John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz. And the Oz campaign released this statement after the coup d'etat video in which the communications adviser Rachel Tripp said, "If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have had a major stroke and wouldn't be in the position of having to lie about it constantly."

Fetterman condemned this, plenty of people have, is the campaign standing behind - does Dr. Oz standing by the statement made by his advisor?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Victor, he seems to be and it really marks a shift in strategy, because initially when Fetterman suffered the stroke, Oz seem to be very gracious saying he was going to welcome him back to the campaign trail. But this does mark a shift in tone as we get closer to November. This is more biting and he seems to be telling Pennsylvania voters suggesting that Fetterman if elected would not be fit to serve.

Now, this is a conversation that is happening amongst the media, the Fetterman's health condition, but it's not what I'm hearing from his supporters. His supporters telling me they think he's fine. His supporters telling me if octogenarians can serve in the Senate, so can he.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, John, I want to ask you about Charlie Crist running, again now against Ron DeSantis. Has this changed the feeling in Florida?

AVLON: Look, blast from the past. Charlie Crist backed former Republican governor. What was surprising about last night was his margin over Nikki Fried. That was a really decisive win by Charlie Crist. Look, Ron DeSantis has done a good job consolidating power in Florida. In a way that outpaces the actual strength of the Republican Party, Chris is going to try to build bridges to the center. You saw him not distancing himself from President Biden today, in fact, doing the opposite. It's an uphill fight. Also keep an eye on that Senate race, Val Demings versus Marco Rubio.

So now we at least know who the contenders will be. And Democrats are feeling, okay, they've got an experienced hand and they're just - there might just be a shot here in Florida.

BLACKWELL: Yes. On that experienced hand, Alyssa, Charlie Crist has run for Senate in Florida, has run for governor in Florida, he was the Democratic nominee before becoming the Democratic nominee again. Do you think he is a strong contender against DeSantis?

GRIFFIN: So he should be a strong contender. He's a former Republican and to win and very, very red Florida, you've got to be a moderate Democrat. However, I was a little bit surprised by his remarks after winning the nomination where he essentially said that many of the DeSantis supporters have hate in their heart and he doesn't want to win over those people. He only wants to win over reasonable Republicans, Independents and Democrats.

Well, that kind of language is incredibly divisive. It's the kind of thing that people in - who pride themselves in being in the free state of Florida reject. And I thought that was a very odd opening salvo for somebody who's going to need to run to the center to even have a shot at taking down the highly popular Ron DeSantis.

CAMEROTA: Okay. So back to abortion, I want to play for all of you a really interesting moment from a South Carolina Republican, a lawmaker, who has had what sounds like a change of heart about his vote for a very restrictive law in South Carolina.

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Because his eyes have been opened to what this means for women. He heard the story of a young woman, 19 years old, who was having a miscarriage and the doctors at the health clinic could not treat her because of this new law and told her that she was going to have to go home and basically suffer on her own, so here's his thoughts today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NEAL COLLINS (R-SC): The doctor told me at that point, there's a 50 percent chance. Well, first, she's going to pass this fetus in the toilet. She's going to have to deal with it on her own. There's a 50 percent chance, greater than 50 percent chance that she's going to lose her uterus. There's a 10 percent chance that she will develop sepsis in herself die. That weighs on me. I voted for that bill. These are affecting people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Alyssa, I mean, what do you think about his sort of candor, number one, and if that will somehow pay off, and the fact that now this is coming home to roost and they're actually understanding that this can hurt women? GRIFFIN: Well, it's a gutting testimony and I'm grateful to him for

sharing it. Listen, I'm a pro life American, but my party traditionally always believed in exceptions for rape, incest in life of the mother. And what he's talking about, that wouldn't even come into play if you have those boundaries in effect.

What I would say is this, as you know, most of our European friends have some limitations on abortion, even if it's something like 14 or 15 weeks. That position is not outside of the mainstream in the U.S., 80 percent of Americans believe in access, but also some limitations. But this very extreme position will backfire on Republicans, not having exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother, and I absolutely think we need to course correct.

BLACKWELL: Alyssa Farah Griffin, John Avlon, Eva McKend, thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right. The US announces nearly $3 billion in aid for Ukraine as the nation under attack by Russia marks its Independence Day.

BLACKWELL: And after multiple delays, the Uvalde school board and the victims' families are meeting today on whether to fire School Police Chief Pete Arredondo.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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CAMEROTA: Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine began six months ago today. And today also marks Ukraine's Independence Day. That's celebrating the day that it broke with the Soviet Union 31 years ago. Ukraine's President told the United Nations today that an airstrike at a train station in the east has killed 15 people.

National security officials said the U.S. is aware of attacks happening today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: This war was completely unjustified and unprovoked, so would you ask how does the President want to see it end - I think my answer would be he wants to see it end now. And it could end now if President Putin did the right thing and pulled his troops out of Ukraine. There's no reason for them to be there in the first place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, President Biden renewed the U.S. commitment to help Ukraine for as long as it takes, announcing another $3 billion in security assistance for air defense systems and artillery. Joining us now Evelyn Farkas, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia and the Balkans and she's now the Executive Director of the McCain Institute. Welcome back.

Let's start here with these warnings from the U.S. government of attacks across Ukraine, they are aware of attacks. Now, what are you expecting over these next days as we are in this crucial week for Ukraine?

EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA/UKRAINE/EURASIA: Yes. Well, thanks for having me back on, Victor and Alisyn. Unfortunately, I mean, I think the Russians have made it pretty clear through their official statements and then media statements that basically have been calling for retribution for the killing of Ms. Dugina who was the daughter of a philosopher who is basically behind Russia's nationalist thinking, including that of President Putin. They've been blaming Ukraine.

And of course, the whole war really is in essence an attempt to erase Ukraine as a political entity from the map. I mean, Russia wants to control Ukraine, and they don't believe that Ukraine should really be independent politically, economically and otherwise. So that's what's at stake. So Independence Day matters to the Ukrainians, obviously, but the Russians are using it as an excuse to provoke and further launch aggressive attacks against the Ukrainians.

CAMEROTA: So Evelyn, the United States just announced another $3 billion in weapons assistance to Ukraine, we can put up on the screen all the different things that it will go towards. Will that make a dent? Does that help Ukraine get the upper hand here?

FARKAS: Yes, I think it does, Alisyn, because what you see here are much more highly capable systems, including additional ammunition for some of the systems we've already given the Ukrainians. So in the first phase, you might remember, we were providing the Ukrainians with a lot of kind of Ukrainian and Russian Soviet era systems and ammunition, and now they're using longer range artillery, better air defense systems, ship, maritime attack systems being provided from the United States and also from other countries.

Yesterday, I believe, Germany and the United Kingdom also announced additional assistance. So it's the quality of this assistance, and then also, of course, drones, and counter drone systems.

BLACKWELL: I want to read for you what a NATO official said to CNN about the end game and some larger questions. "Do we all still have the same view of the end game? Is it just getting back to the borders before Russia invaded or is it back to pre-2014 before Russia annexed Crimea?

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