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White House Press Conference on Debt Ceiling, Special Counsel Appointed on Biden Docs Probe; WH: Did Not Get Advance Notice of Special Counsel Appointment; Report: Officials Were Warned that 1st Grader Might Have a Gun. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 13, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

(CROSSTALK)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I mean, I've said that the -- our Office of Leg Affairs in touch with the new Congress to make sure that they know who to reach out, the appropriate people to reach out to the Office of Leg Affairs.

So we're going to continue -- we're always having conversations with members of the Congress. And the president always has multiple conversations with members of Congress. As you know, he has longtime friends who are over on the other side of Pennsylvania. And so that is something that continues.

But when it comes to this and the debt limit, it should be done without conditions. It was done under the last president three times, in a bipartisan way, and so this should continue.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Very quickly, on the CPI data yesterday, pretty good result coming on the heels of the jobs data, which was pretty strong. Your position has been kind of jazzed about that, it seems, on the TV in the last hour or so.

Is it fair to say the White House is thinking what a soft landing could look like or not getting that far?

JEAN-PIERRE: What we can say --

(CROSSTALK)

JEAN-PIERRE: I'll say this. As you said you heard from many of my colleagues in -- who are economists who have been working on this issue, pushing forward the president's economic plan.

Look, it just goes back to the president's economic plan. And we see it as it's working, right? The vision that the president has for this country.

When you think about when he came in, he passed the American Rescue Plan and all the other historic pieces, the infrastructure legislation, the bipartisan infrastructure legislation. I talked multiple times at the top about the Inflation Reduction Act.

Look, it is -- it matters what the vision of a president is and him acting out on it. That's what you saw. When you see inflation down for six months, that matters. Right? That's because of the president's economic plan.

When you see annual inflation down 6.5 percent from where it was this summer, just this summer, 9.1 percent. Gas prices down by more than a buck 70 from its peak. All of that matters.

And so that's how we're seeing this. We're seeing it as the president's economic plan is indeed working. We are going to continue to put the American families and American people first.

And work on this issue that you hear us talk about all the time. His number-one economic issue is bringing down inflation. That's why the Inflation Reduction Act, what I talked about when you think about health care, when you think about Medicare and negotiating those prices.

When you think about what the amounts in Georgia, 250,000 will be created. All of that, all of that matters and all of that is in important.

And more broadly speaking, it's about the president's economic plan.

Look, we believe we continue to be in this transition of stable and steady growth. And I think that's what we believe that's what the numbers continue to show as you talk about the jobs report we saw recently and as we talk about the CPI data.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

JEAN-PIERRE: I'm saying we are in this transition of -- transition to stable and steady growth and we believe the president's economic policies he's put forward in the past two years, we'll see that working.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thanks. U.S. Attorney John Lausch was looking into this for several weeks before he was in touch with --

JEAN-PIERRE: Looking into what exactly?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The classified documents.

JEAN-PIERRE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He was in touch with President Biden's counsel. I want to know, was President Biden, was the White House surprised, along with Merrick Garland, that he decided more investigation was needed and a special counsel was called?

JEAN-PIERRE: What I can tell you we were not given a heads-up, that Attorney General Garland was going to make -- made his announcement yesterday on the special counsel.

That is something that we learned like many of you watching the news. I'm not going to get into anything further from that.

I can't speak to this person who you news mentioned who has been having conversations or making comments. I'm not going to get into that or give reactions from here.

What I can tell you is, again, I'll refer to you the White House counsel, and office to talk to my colleagues on any particular questions that you may have that's related to this process.

And if it's something that you want to know specifically about the review I would refer you to the Department of Justice.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When President Biden did say god willing --

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: And we have been listening for the last few minutes to the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Addressing a couple of issues, including the debt ceiling, which the government is set to hit next week.

But that aside, the prevailing issue has been on how this administration and the how the president specifically has been handling their response to news that a special counsel has been appointed to investigate the president's handling of classified information and documents.

[13:35:05]

I want to get back to Phil Mattingly at the White House.

We kept hearing a recurring line, that is, "I refer you." "I refer you to the DOJ. I refer you to the White House counsel's office."

Can't help or blame a reporter for trying to ask that question a number of ways. What was your takeaway from what we heard?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is the new normal. It's a new normal that's kind of evolving over the course of the last three or four days.

And gotten a lot more serious, at least inside the White House, since Attorney General Merrick Garland decided to appoint the special counsel yesterday.

There has not been a lot of disclosure or transparency as it pertains to the specific details of the review that had been under way by the U.S. attorney in Chicago or the process that the president's private attorneys were going through in their own search for documents that concluded a day or two ago.

In part, at least as it's been explained to me, was because lawyers made clear that as long as the president's private attorneys were continuing their search -- they hadn't completed going through all the locations where documents may have been held.

And really ensured they had a full understanding of where things were and what might be out there. But there weren't going to be kind of lengthy or fulsome comments about what was going to happen.

Whether or not that was going to change, when that search ended, as it did, really is kind of a nonfactor now that there's a special counsel.

So you've seen this posture be maintained. And I don't get the sense that thinks it is going to end any time soon.

Everything will be referred to the White House Counsel's Office. They're all lawyers and not exactly fulsome in their responses in all things.

And more importantly, I think everything related to the investigation itself over to the Special Counsel's Office, which is still in the process of being set up or the Justice Department.

I think the reality is, right now, this is a White House very cognizant of the fact they need to be careful about everything and everything they said.

The downside, which is very obvious, and you have seen it in the briefings, is there are just a lot of questions outstanding about timeline, about messaging, about when things were said publicly and why some things weren't said publicly, about processes.

All questions remain outstanding. And, at least at this this point in time, the White House sees no incentive in answering them given the fact they're facing a special counsel investigation.

GOLODRYGA: The only bit of information divulged was the White House was not given a heads up about the appointment of a special counsel. And according to Karine Jean-Pierre, the president and the administration are prepared to cooperate with this investigation.

Phil Mattingly, thank you so much. Of course, we will stay on top of this developing story.

And still ahead, a massive tornado outbreak leaving a trail of death and destruction across the south. Hundreds of homes and businesses damaged. And one corner says searchers, quote, "keep finding bodies." We are live in hard-hit Alabama.

Plus, a shocking development in the case of a 6-year-old boy accused of shooting his teacher. Turns out officials might have been warned the child had a gun prior to the shooting.

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[13:42:16]

GOLODRYGA: A stunning new development in an already stunning case. The Virginia school superintendent says officials were warned that a first grader might have a gun before the child allegedly shot his teacher. That is according to our affiliate, WTKR.

CNN's Brian Todd joins us with more.

Brian, who notified officials this boy may have a gun and how did officials respond to that?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bianna, that's a little unclear. The spokesperson for the school district just told CNN the superintendent did not say who initially reported that the 6-year-old student may have had a weapon.

The superintendent, George Parker, did say that at least one school administrator was notified earlier on the day of the shooting that the student potentially had a weapon.

Parker said a search of the boy's backpack found nothing. That's according to WTKR. We did get a hint he may have concealed it elsewhere, other than his backpack, from the Newport News Police Chief Drew.

The chief said that in an interview with CNN on Tuesday morning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE DREW, CHIEF, NEWPORT NEWS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Put it in his backpack and was driven to school by his mother later that morning. And then, at some point, it came out of his backpack and was concealed on him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: We have another new development in the case this afternoon. The chairwoman of the Newport News School Board now says that walk-through metal detectors will be installed at Richneck Elementary School.

They want to get it done as soon as possible. The school re-opens Monday. And they're putting metal detectors, 90 metal detectors in schools throughout Newport News.

Bianna, the superintendent says that was something he hated to think about doing but that is where we are. Metal detectors in elementary schools at least in that district.

GOLODRYGA: Unbelievable. We're talking about 6-year-olds here and also another reminder of the heroism of their teacher --

TODD: Absolutely.

GOLODRYGA: -- who helped save all of the other students in that classroom. Just unbelievable.

Brian Todd, thank you.

TODD: Sure.

GOLODRYGA: Well, today, families across the southeast are picking up the pieces after dozens of reported tornadoes. At least seven people died in Alabama.

The storms Thursday hit the central part of the state especially hard. One corner saying officials keep finding more bodies today.

Severe damage also in Georgia. A 5-year-old was killed after a tree fell on a car. Falling debris also killing a state employee.

Some students and staff in Griffin, Georgia, spent the night in a middle school. They couldn't go home until early this morning because storm debris made the roads impassable.

Out west, in California, a different potentially deadly weather event is once again unfolding. More heavy rain is moving in. Weeks of wet weather already has led to 18 deaths.

[13:45:00]

We have teams covered on both ends.

First, Ryan Young in Selma, Alabama.

Ryan, the damage behind you was caused by a tornado on the ground for at least 50 miles. Tell us what you're seeing now.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you people are still shaken by this. They are looking all around them and see these signs of destruction as they try to start cleaning up.

This is one of the cars that was damaged. You can see it was pretty much torn up from front to back.

This is the famous Broad Street right mind me where the Edmunds Pettus Bridge is down the street the other way. Traffic snarled as people have been trying to work their way around the area because power lines and trees are down everywhere.

When you look back at this direction, you can see the tremendous amount of damage just in this singular area. There were people running for cover. One woman said she did the best she could to hide in the closet.

Take a listen to this man talking about what it was like when that storm touched on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHANIEL WALKER, TORNADO SURVIVOR: About two or three minutes before the storm came, I saw a lot of dark clouds over the school right here, this very school.

YOUNG: OK.

WALKER: I went to the center of the house and sat down. And, man, I really thought that -- I thought the worst. I'll be quite frank with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: We've been surveying the area all day long. We can't move a lot of our truck and equipment around because the power lines are down.

Take a look from above. When you see from above, almost every single roof has been touched by this storm. People are determined to try to get a tarp up before the rain falls again.

When you look in this direction and see the power that this storm had and it moved some of the buildings off their foundation, you understand the cleanup will be massive.

In the last two hours, there have been helicopters surveying some of the damage here.

We've heard stories of people trying to figure out where they'll stay for the next few days. Hotels from here to Montgomery are starting to book up as power companies from all over the state and other states are starting to move in to supply power and get lines back up.

But, again, when you talk about the loss of life, that is something that has a lot of people just so upset and understanding how dangerous this storm was.

GOLODRYGA: The two constants we always hear and used to describe scenes like this, it does look like a war zone behind you. And how quickly these storms come through as well. Not much of a heads-up at all for resident there who have to pick up the pieces.

GOLODRYGA: Ryan, thank you so much.

Well, to Florida now -- to California now, rather. Veronica Miracle is in San Francisco.

Veronica, how are conditions there right now? We know more storms are expected.

VERNICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bianna, it is coming down right now. This is the first of three storms to hit the region this weekend.

A startling 15 million people in the central California coastal area under flood watches this weekend starting tomorrow morning.

And really truly it is coming down here. But the worst is expected starting on Saturday through Sunday, potentially into Monday.

Officials are concerned about widespread flooding, mud, rock and landslides, high surf warnings and wind advisories. That is after a couple of weeks of destructive and damaging rain.

There has been little to no relief in Monterey where we were yesterday. There's already widespread flooding after what officials called light rain on Thursday.

So they are concerned that this weekend there will be even more destruction, potentially cutting off arteries, major highways into the region, and people will not be able to get in and out -- Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: Hard to fathom the resident also have to deal with storm number 10 by midweek next week, according to meteorologists.

Veronica Miracle, thank you.

The political pressure and the red flags over finances piling up for the man elected to Congress on a mountain of lies. Up next, we'll talk to a former election official who has a lot of questions for Republican Congressman George Santos.

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[13:50:50]

GOLODRYGA: Republican New York Congressman George Santos facing intense pressure from his party to resign as questions swirl over the fake resume and questionable campaign finances.

One example, his refusal to reveal the source of the $700,000 loan to his campaign.

Here's what Santos said yesterday in a friendly conversation with fellow Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): When you donated that money to your campaign, is there anything else you can say about the work you did that was the origin of those resources?

REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): Look, I've worked my entire life. I've lived an honest life. I've never been accused of any bad doings.

So it's my -- it's the equity of my hard-working self. And I invested inside of me. Like I say, didn't come from Burisma, didn't come from Ukraine, Russia, China, unlike some folks that we all know that get money from those sources.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: Another lie right there in that answer. Santos pivoting away to the familiar attack lines on President Biden.

Joining me is Saurav Ghosh, a former enforcement attorney at the Federal Election Commission.

His nonpartisan watchdog group, the Campaign Legal Center, has filed a civil complaint with the FEC, accusing the Santos campaign of violating finance laws.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Tell us how these investigations typically work now.

SAURAV GHOSH, FEDERAL CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM DIRECTOR, CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER & FORMER ENFORCEMENT ATTORNEY, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION: Thank you, Bianna. A pleasure to be here. We filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that starts

the process for which they have to look into the allegations that we have raised and hopefully initiate a formal investigation.

The FEC has subpoena power and can go further than the reporters have been able to go so far. They can subpoena Mr. Santos, his campaign treasurer, and get answers about where this money actually came from.

And whether Mr. Santos, contrary to everything he's said publicly, did get the money from an outside source and funneled it into his campaign, as we allege in our complaint.

GOLODRYGA: How long could an investigation like this last? Santos is defiant, says he is not going anywhere.

GHOSH: Right. He says he is not resigning and did nothing wrong. But it's ultimately up to what the investigations uncover.

We also referred our complaint to the Justice Department and they typically act much more efficiently promptly. FEC investigations can take much longer. We would be looking at years not months.

GOLODRYGA: Right.

GHOSH: So we're hopeful that, at least initially, the Justice Department takes some action.

GOLODRYGA: He's up for re-election in two years. You're saying this takes years. This could take even longer.

There's a question why I have about why this wasn't caught sooner and why it was ultimately investigative journalists that discovered the lies, these fabrications and inconsistencies in his stories and why voters were duped ultimately.

How can this be avoided going forward?

GHOSH: One thing to make clear is that the FEC flagged the campaign for a variety if problematic disbursements. But I think what was reported after he had been elected kept rising and rising in terms of the level of seriousness.

It's one thing to say a campaign has irregularities or is reporting poorly but what was reported after the election is alarming. It raised red flags.

Because he essentially went from having no money or assets to make the loans to his campaign to suddenly having millions of dollars pouring into the personal accounts, which, according to him, was money earned through hard work.

But to us and everyone looking at the campaign claims, that doesn't hold water. It looks like someone else was actually funneling money to him.

GOLODRYGA: Have you ever seen a case as egregious as this in your investigations?

GHOSH: I have never seen a case as egregious as this with that presented so many problems throughout his campaign finance, as well as, of course, the mountain of lies he's told about the personal and professional background.

[13:55:04]

And the two intersect here. He is talking about money that he earned through a private enterprise and funneled into the campaign. But it doesn't make any sense.

And as we saw in that interview you played before we started talking, he is not being forthcoming and straight with the American people about where the money came from.

And that's very much on brand for him. Wait another day and hear another story reported about something he said that was utterly untrue.

GOLODRYGA: We'll see what the DOJ does in response to your referral and the other referrals as well on this matter.

Saurav Ghosh, thank you.

GHOSH: Pleasure to be here. Thanks.

GOLODRYGA: And that does it for me this hour. But there's much more news ahead after a quick break. Have a great weekend, everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)