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Biden and Macron Hold News Conference At White House; Senate Reaches Deal To Vote On Bill To Avert Rail Strike; Confusion Mounts Over Whether 4 Students Killed Were Targeted. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 01, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: We've been watching President Biden's first state visit and the joint press conference there with the leader of America's oldest ally, France. So, as you saw, President Emmanuel Macron stood by President Biden in more ways than just wandering that joint news conference. I mean, they basically ended they're talking about their resolve, and I guess joined values in terms of the war in Ukraine.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Yes. They've talked about the war in Ukraine, the pressure on Putin, of course, climate as well, and plenty of topics we'll get into. Let's now go to some of our correspondents we have with us. CNN's chief White House correspondent Phil Mattingly was there in the room but let's start with CNN's national security correspondent Kylie Atwood. And, Kylie, specifically on the war in Ukraine, Macron has been a very important partner with the U.S. in making sure that the Ukrainians have the support that they need to fight off this invasion.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. And the two leaders, President Biden and President Macron are really in lockstep when it comes to the need to continue support for Ukraine with President Macron pledging to provide more military and more economic assistance to Ukraine, President Biden, of course, doing that as well. And it's notable, however, that the two have approached President Putin in different ways, with Biden saying just there that he has no immediate plans to speak with President Putin. He would only do so if there was an indication that Putin wanted to discuss a way out of this war. And so far, there has been no such indication.

Then, of course, you have Macron who has been in touch with Putin, but specifically on issues related to security in Ukraine when it comes to that nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia specifically. He plans to continue doing that, but both of these leaders being very clear that they are not going to push Ukraine to make any concessions when it comes to any negotiation that would potentially lead them to lose anything when it comes to their sovereignty.

I also think it's important to note out that President Biden was asked about those concerns -- those French concerns surrounding subsidies that are -- that were in the Inflation Reduction Act for American green companies. And what he said was that listen, he's not going to apologize for that major piece of legislation. But when you pass a big piece of legislation like that, in his words, there can be glitches.

And so, there are things that the two countries can do to work together. He said it was never the U.S.'s intention to leave France out because they are such a close partner. So, it's very clear that they're trying to work through that, which has been a major issue for President Macron. And he has made no bones about it. He's been very open about the need to work on that issue so that France is undermined by that new legislation here in the United States.

CAMEROTA: OK, colleagues, stick around, if you would. We want to bring in Phil Mattingly who was at that press conference with Presidents, Macron and Biden. He's still there. So, Phil, we understand that before this press conference, the two leaders met together for three hours. So, what did they hammer out?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, I think you've had a good window into at least the most critical issues that they were discussing in that closed-door meeting. There is no question that when it comes to the most urgent consequential issues, Ukraine is certainly at the top of the list, both given what's happening on the ground and its general threat to Europe, both on a security side of things, but also on an energy side as well.

I think Kylie hit a really critical issue, though, that President Macron made exceedingly clear in advance of that bilateral sit-down, was it A., a focal point for him and his top advisors, but B. was something that absolutely needed to be addressed in a relationship that is as close as both of the leaders have portrayed it as in the last several months. And that was on the issue of these subsidies, these kinds of protectionist subsidies, at least in terms of how the Europeans have viewed them. And I think what was interesting is that both Macron and President Biden made clear that there was a level of satisfaction with how that discussion went.

There were no specific deadlines about when a resolution would come together, there was not necessarily tangible policy shifts that were put on the table, but given how stringent President Macron was in the lead-up to the meeting about the concerns how explicit he was about his frustrations, his willingness to say that he was fairly satisfied with how the conversation went was critical. And so, too was President Biden making clear that the by American -- the subsidy provisions that were in this -- Kylie kind of hit the nail on the head and pointing out the idea that there were glitches, making clear that they believe that there are pathways to address these very real concerns on an economic side of things. So, I really think those were two central discussions inside the meeting.

You heard the leaders, guys, at the top of the press conference, they went through a litany of about 50 things and both acknowledged that we could have gotten much longer in terms of where the actual bilateral cooperation stands right now, but those are the most critical issues. And I think when it comes to Ukraine in particular, there have been differing approaches. On a 30,000-foot level, there is no question there is alignment. There's no question that goals are the same.

[14:05:04] Approaches have been different, sometimes in subtle ways and sometimes in more explicit ways. I think there was very clear alignment on some of those divergences when it came to President Macron making explicitly clear that there would be no peace agreement or negotiations moving forward without Ukraine making clear they were the ones driving. There'll be nothing agreed to or nothing put on the table without Ukraine driving that idea itself.

And then President Biden opening the door to speaking with President Putin, even though he's made clear there's no plans on it. There's certainly no schedule for that in the near term, but should President Putin come to the table and say there were discussions that he wanted to have President Biden said he was willing to do what President Macron is doing and that is to keep a line of communication open with President Putin. Obviously, there's no sense that that's coming anytime soon, but the president at least put it on the table, guys.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in now CNN's chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour. Christiane, President Macron comes to the U.S. in his second term. And now, after Angela Merkel left the chancellorship there in Germany, he's a senior European leader bringing a different degree of heft. What did you see and hear the exchange between these two leaders?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, look, I think it's really interesting because if you remember, President Trump had President Macron at the White House's first State Dinner. So, you know, it's a very interesting situation. In this case, back then Macron tried to -- try to convince Trump not to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, if you remember. Trump went ahead and did it. And now we're in deep, you know international problems between the U.S. and Iran. This time, Biden and Trump -- and Macron have to talk about the other big issues, which are, obviously, the transatlantic cooperation on Ukraine, and then the actual transatlantic cooperation between the United States and Europe, and even further on China.

So, on Ukraine, President Macron has all along, tried to present himself as the open link if you like to President Putin while obviously condemning while standing shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the NATO allies and being very strong on that, there has always been a sense from him that somehow there might be an ability to bring the both sides to the table. That is not happening right now. I spoke to President Zelenskyy not so long ago, in the midst of all this Ukrainian suffering and the Russian missile attacks on the city. And he basically said people can try to push us wherever they want. We are not negotiating until Russian troops leave our territory.

So, what they want is a lot more weapons and defensive weapons. And if this meeting leads to a lot more of that, then that'll be important. I, yesterday, spoke to the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He was at a NATO meeting in Bucharest, and he said the same, we're trying to do as much as possible to help Ukraine.

This is the key and fundamental issue that Europe and the United States have on their plate right now. I just spoke to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And she chooses -- watching very closely, she says that the NATO, U.S., all its partners, including Israel must keep giving even more high-level defensive weapons to Ukraine. They need Iron Dome. They need -- you know all the anti-air defense systems that they can possibly get. Because democracy, the rule of law, human rights depends on Ukraine winning and Putin losing. So, that's the very clear moment.

And then, of course, as you know, President Macron complained that the Biden administration was showing an aggressive protectionist approach to trade. And I think they've had to talk about that, as you heard from the press conference and others. And so, those are the issues on the table.

CAMEROTA: OK. Christiane, thanks for all that. Let's bring in CNN's Abby Phillip now. So, Abby, this is the first state visit -- the first state dinner for President Biden as president, and so what's the significance of that and that it's France?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I think it really highlights that Biden -- both Biden and Macron want to highlight that this is the relationship of this era, the one between the United States and Europe and Macron presenting himself on the world stage as effectively the leader of Europe. You know, this relationship between the two men is personally warm. I think personally very real. They've known each other for some time.

And I think that for Biden, this is a moment for him to say globally into the country, that he is, in fact making progress in doing what he campaigned on, which was reestablishing American leadership on the global stage after an era in which Europe at least perceived the United States withdrawing from some of its commitments, withdrawing from its leadership position.

So, I think for both men, it's highly symbolic. The warmth between the two of them is genuine even in spite of all of these issues and perhaps you know tensions that might have played out behind the scenes in their lengthy meetings today.

[14:10:08]

BLACKWELL: All right, Abby Phillip, Phil Mattingly, Christiane Amanpour, Kylie Atwood, thank you.

All right, breaking news on Capitol Hill, the Senate reached a deal to vote on a bill to avert the rail strikes.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's get right to CNN's chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju. Manu, is paid sick leave in this bill?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not at the moment, but there will be votes this afternoon. And in just actually a matter of minutes, the Senate will vote. That is significant because it needs -- required the support of all 100 senators to agree simply to schedule a vote. And that deal has been logged in. Meaning we are going to get to the final passage of this deal to avert a rail strike this afternoon. And assuming that gets 60 votes that will be approved, it'll be sent to Joe Biden's desk. Now, there is a process for this to happen. First, there will be an amendment by Republican Senator Dan Sullivan to actually delay the December 9th deadline where a strike would -- could occur if no deal is reached between the railways and the workers. That -- they're trying to delay that to December 9 deadline for two months. That is expected to fail also fall short of 60 votes.

Then there's the issue of paid sick leave. This is what's been causing the hang-up for some time because the agreement between the rail workers and the union -- and the industry is silent on the issue of paid sick leave. Democrats and progressives like Bernie Sanders are demanding seven days of paid sick leave for workers. There's going to be an amendment to change the bill to include that paid sick leave. That is also expected to fail, fall short of the 60 votes needed.

And then assuming those fail, they will move on to the final passage of the measure of the underlying agreement, sending it to Joe Biden's desk. Now, there is also a debate within not just the Republican Conference but also the Democratic caucus about whether to add paid sick leave. Moderates like Joe Manchin told me today they don't -- he doesn't believe that Congress should be dictating the terms of an agreement. While progressives like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, differ. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D-MA): On the one hand, we don't want to shut down the economy. On the other, we don't want to say to rail workers, if you have a heart attack or you break your leg, you either show up to work or you're going to lose your job.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN, (D-WV): I'm very much concerned about us jumping into that when you have eight unions have agreed to the package that they negotiated with the Department of Labor and with the president. I'm very reluctant on the other for us to jump in and set a precedent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, most Republicans align with Joe Manchin's position, which is why it is expected that the effort to mandate paid sick leave will fail. There may be a handful of Republicans who do vote for it. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, told me today he will vote for the issue of paid sick leave. But the question too will be how many Republicans ultimately vote for the underlying agreement.

We do expect Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to vote for this. He has been indicating this bill needs to pass to avert a rail strike next week. That would break from the House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who voted against the plan yesterday and said saying it was surely the administration dealing with this issue, not Congress. But nevertheless, there is the expectation here that because of such dire consequences if Congress doesn't act, the Senate will get the votes, will pass this after a series of days of marathon negotiations. A very bumpy road but it looks like on track for passage, and just a matter of a couple of hours here, guys.

BLACKWELL: Manu Raju with the breaking news there on Capitol Hill, thank you, Manu.

CAMEROTA: OK, thanks so much. More on the economy. Now a key economic indicator out today shows signs of easing inflation, the PCE Index rose 6 percent in October compared to last year, that's down from the 6.3 percent rise in September.

BLACKWELL: And gas prices are now lower than they were on February 24. That day is relevant because that's the day that Russia invaded Ukraine. The average price per gallon is now $3.47.

Let's bring in now, senior adviser to President Biden, Gene Sperling. Good to see you, Gene. Let's start with the breaking news from Capitol Hill, a deal to avert the rail strike, but no paid sick leave. Is the president satisfied with that legislation? Will he sign it?

GENE SPERLING, WHITE HOUSE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN COORDINATOR: Well, first of all, I'm hearing this from you, so you know I've been around too long to get ahead of a congressional vote. But the president's been extremely clear. A rail strike is not an option. It would be devastating to the economy and not just even the 700,000 to a million jobs, but virtually everything from clean water to food shortages, to refineries, being able to send oil to factory workers and farmers getting the supplies they need. And so this president has called for an agreement -- on the tentative agreement obviously, we have a lot of sympathy with -- for the desire for paid leave. The president supports a national paid leave and would love to work with Republicans on getting this done.

[14:15:03]

But right now, it is about averting this rail strike and this economic catastrophe that could hit our economy as we go into the -- into the holiday season. And this is an agreement that was negotiated by the 12 Union leaders, it's been ratified by eight out of 12. And right now, this is what the president is calling for being passed. But the real issue is what gets 60 votes. And I hope that your report turns out to be accurate. And the president, of course, will sign such a bill.

CAMEROTA: But, Gene, just to be clear, the sticking point and the reason that they were threatened -- the workers were threatening to strike was because they want paid sick leave.

SPERLING: Yes.

CAMEROTA: They were willing to have four days, but now it might be up to seven. That's what they're asking for. So, you're saying that President Biden will still sign this deal even if it doesn't have that paid sick leave?

SPERLING: The president has been very clear that this tentative agreement, which to be clear, is by far as is true with many negotiations, or virtually all negotiations, not perfect -- not perfect on the other side. It was strong --

CAMEROTA: And it doesn't have the paid sick leave? SPERLING: It was strong on the wage increase. 24 percent wage increase. It was strong on other measures. This was an area it was not as strong on. But 12 union negotiators agreed and eight of their unions ratified. This is the tentative agreement. And if this is what can be passed to prevent a rail strike and this economic catastrophe, yes, this president will sign that bill --

BLACKWELL: All right, let's talk about the --

SPERLING: But we have to work if it passes both houses.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about gas prices now, down now, lower than they were at the start of the invasion in Ukraine. But there's an OPEC+ country meeting coming up in a couple of days. At the last meeting, they cut production by effectively more than a billion gallons a day. What's your expectation? Will prices stay low? Will they go lower?

SPERLING: Well, I do want to say today did have a little bit of a -- of a Goldilocks feel to it in terms of the economic reports for the last couple of days. We saw growth go higher at 2.9 percent than we thought for the third quarter. We saw strong spending. We saw real incomes going up. And at the same time, what did we see today? We saw that the core PCE which I know sounds complex, but it's the main inflation indicator the Federal Reserve looks at was only 0.2 this month, which was lower than expected.

And as you said gas prices are now depending on whether you're looking at AAA or GasBuddy between $3.40 and $3.43. And the median price is $3.31. And the most common is $2.99. So, that is good news. That's an extra $160 per family at the higher levels.

What the president said today is look, you know, it's a volatile global economy. We -- you know, there's probably going to be bad days, but what we are seeing is what we all want to see which is a resilient economy where people keep working, where they keep spending, where they're strong, and at the same time, we start seeing that moderation of prices inflation. We're seeing it. We're not there yet, we got a ways to go but it is good to see things moving in the right direction.

CAMEROTA: Gene Sperling, thank you.

SPERLING: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: On World AIDS Day, there's promising news about an experimental HIV vaccine. We have details ahead.

CAMEROTA: And where the murder of those four Idaho college students targeted or not? New police statements only adding to the confusion. So, we're live in Idaho with the latest.

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[14:23:14]

BLACKWELL: Let's go to Idaho now for the latest on those brutal stabbing deaths of four university students. Police are sending mixed messages now over whether the killings were actually a targeted attack.

CAMEROTA: CNN correspondent Veronica Miracle is in Moscow, Idaho for us. So, Veronica, was it a targeted attack or not? What's the latest?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn and Victor, it's been a very confusing 12 hours. The Moscow police department telling me this morning, they stand by their theory that this was overall a targeted attack. But all of this confusion started yesterday when the Latah County prosecutor said in an interview that he believes one or two of the victims may have been specifically targeted, or that the residents itself may have been targeted.

The Moscow Police Department yesterday night said hold on a second, that's not what we are saying. And they sent a statement that reads in part. We remain consistent in our belief that this was indeed a targeted attack. But have not concluded if the target was the residents or its occupants.

So, you know, I think what's happening here is that different people are saying different things. And the Moscow police department for their investigation is saying that this was overall a targeted attack. I have been told that they are collecting evidence from the scene that is pertinent to this investigation that they cannot tell the public because it would compromise the investigation. But they are getting confidence about what progress that they're making. They're receiving tips. They are building a picture that allows them to believe that this was indeed targeted.

But I think here in the community, ultimately, a suspect hasn't been arrested. And that's where a lot of the anxiety is coming from. And when people are receiving mixed messages, it only adds to that anxiety, Victor, Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: Certainly, does. Veronica Miracle, thank you.

[14:25:01]

Let's bring in our former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. Commissioner, good to see you again. When you hear the police saying it was targeted, the -- a prosecutor saying, well, maybe one or two or maybe the residents, what do you see here? Is this law enforcement that bungling this or just kind of the nuances are confusing people?

ED DAVIS, CEO, ED DAVIS LLC SECURITY: Well, I believe in this particular case, there's a lack of coordination among the prosecutors and the various police agencies that are involved in this, the Moscow police with the responding agency. But the state police are involved in it and the FBI. There's a lot of different players here. And, you know, unfortunately, no one particular person is in charge of everything, except that in most cases, the prosecutors -- the law enforcement officials will defer to the prosecutors because they're in charge of providing justice, in this case, the prosecution and in the charging. So, in this particular case, it sounds like they're not on the same page. And that's unfortunate because the community suffers when you don't have a consistent message.

CAMEROTA: Commissioner, put on your police chief hat for us right now, does this look like a targeted attack to you or a random attack?

DAVIS: It's impossible for me to say that without understanding what the evidence was at the scene. They have interviewed people, they have collected hundreds of pieces of evidence, but they're not telling us what the evidence is. And they say they can't tell us why they believe it is a targeted attack. That's a problem.

If you can't communicate the reasons behind your public statements, then you're going to be in trouble with the public. If you don't know, then you should just say you don't know. If you do know, you need to back that up. And right now, they can't do that. That's why there's a problem.

BLACKWELL: So, we're going to talk about some of the evidence that they've collected. Some of that DNA, they're starting to get the results of some of the forensic tests, with two and a half weeks or so now, since these bodies were discovered, this should accelerate, one would expect the investigation, maybe narrow some of the potential suspects?

DAVIS: I believe so. The way I see this, there are three topics that they shouldn't be pursuing at this point in time. When you don't find immediate evidence right at the scene, you need to back up a little bit and expand your perimeter, so to speak. So, DNA is going to be really critical. When there's a violent attack like this, oftentimes, the suspect will leave some trace. Either blood or some other trace evidence there. So, that's going to be crucial. The other thing is cell phone data. Dumping those cell phone towers and having the FBI team go through that will place people in this area.

And then -- and then finally, video, you know, the biggest lead here I think is going to -- going to come about because these murders happened at three o'clock in the morning. There's not a lot of people moving around at that time in the morning. So, every ring camera within a two-mile radius of this place should be downloaded. Every video outlet should be exploited to see who was moving around and to try to track those people down. With those three leads or categories of leads, I think you can solve this crime.

CAMEROTA: I hope so, Commissioner. I mean, we all hope so, certainly. I'm surprised that the police haven't put out any of that video, just be on the lookout for this car, who knows what -- you know, this license plate or something like that, but they haven't yet. So, obviously, we all wait every day to see if there's any developments. Ed Davis, thank you very much for your expertise.

DAVIS: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: The Biden administration unveils a new global mission to end AIDS by 2030 as we get some new results from a promising potential HIV vaccine.

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