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Biden Talks About Infrastructure Law's Benefits In New York; Biden Funding For The Hudson Tunnel; Interview With White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield; Biden Meeting With Speaker McCarthy Tomorrow; Ukraine Requests For Fighter Jets And More Weapons; After Seven Big Interest Rate Hikes, Fed Meets To Discuss 2023 Moves; Academy Meets Today To Review Promotional Campaigns On This Year's Oscars; Interview With Variety Senior Awards Editor Clayton Davis. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 31, 2023 - 14:30:00   ET

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

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[14:30:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: For the second day in a row, President Biden was out touting projects in his signature infrastructure law. Today, he traveled to New York where he spoke about funding for the Hudson Tunnel to improve the rail commute between New York and New Jersey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: For too long we've talked about assertive American leadership once again building the best economy in the world, but to have the best economy in the world you have to have the best infrastructure in the world. People don't build factories that are not rail stations, where they're not ports, where they're not access to highways, they don't attract businesses unless you have the best infrastructure. To get products to market, to create thousands of good-paying jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And tomorrow, the president will sit down with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to talk about the debt limit and spending as the standoff over the debt ceiling nears a crisis point.

Joining us now is Kate Bedingfield. She is the White House communications director. Kate, good to see you again.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Nice to see you, too, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's start here. We've spoke with -- we heard from Speaker McCarthy today ahead of tomorrow's talks. Here's what he has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): It's irresponsible says the leader of the free world to say he's not going to negotiate. I hope that's just his staff and not him. I think the most responsible thing to do is that we sit down. We've got time period between now and June, and we find places that we could find savings for the American public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Irresponsible not to negotiate. What's the White House strategy heading into the meeting?

BEDINGFIELD: It would be irresponsible to allow the country to default on its financial obligations. So, let's start with the fact that Congress has a constitutional obligation to prevent default and address the debt ceiling. Speaker McCarthy knows that. He voted for a debt ceiling increase with no preconditions three separate times under President Trump. So, he knows full well, Congress has an obligation to prevent default.

The president is going to ask him in this meeting tomorrow, will you commit, will you guarantee to the American people that you will not hold the economy hostage, you will not hold the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to these negotiations? The president is not going to negotiate over Congress's constitutional responsibility.

[14:35:00]

The second thing the president is going to do in the meeting tomorrow is say, he is putting forward his budget on March 9th. And he's going to call on Speaker McCarthy to put his budget on the table, to be transparent with the American people and say, are you -- where are you looking to make these cuts? Are you looking to make cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as many members of your caucus are? Are you looking to make cuts to the Affordable Care Act?

If you want to have a conversation about fiscal responsibility, President Biden has lowered the deficit $1.7 trillion in the last year, we've managed to pay for the Inflation Reduction Act. So, we have a record of definite reduction. The president will ask Speaker McCarthy, put our budget on the table and let's see the cuts that you're proposing.

BLACKWELL: So, the president says, as part of these debt ceiling talks, the negotiations, cuts are off the table. But the president, then as vice president in 2011, led the talks for the White House on this very subject. And I want to read what he said at the end of the negotiations. He clearly valued them, the statement from his office, as the president and I have made clear from the beginning, the only way to make sure we begin to live within our means is by coming together behind a balanced approach that finds real savings across the budget, including domestic spending, defense spending, mandatory spending and loopholes in the tax code. We owe it to the American people to take every responsibility step to do right by our economy and the nation's future. That's part of the debt talks in 2011.

Are those values and virtues not important this time around? BEDINGFIELD: As president, he has put forward a program that has cut the deficit and that has put in place programs that are growing the economy, that are creating jobs, that are growing wages. As you just saw, he's in New York talking about how we are fixing tunnels and bridges and roads that are helping communities all across the country. He's done all that while living by those values, of fiscal responsibility, lowering the deficit.

And what's going to ask Speaker McCarthy tomorrow is, are we going to see a plan from you that does the same? Be candid with the American people about where you want to make these cuts. What he's not willing to do is jeopardize the progress that we've made over the course of the last two years in bringing our economy to a more stable and growing place by playing these political games around the debt limit. So, that's a big piece of the conversation that he is going to have directly with the speaker tomorrow.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let me ask you about some new reporting here. According to a Justice Department official and another source familiar with the matter, the FBI searched President Biden's former think tank office in Washington in November after the discovery just before the mid-term elections of the documents with the classified markings. Were any additional classified documents found as part of that search?

BEDINGFIELD: That's not something I can comment on from here. That's something you'll need to ask the Justice Department. What I can say is that we have been cooperative and transparent from the outset. We put out multiple statements from the president's personal attorney describing the process and being clear that the president takes this seriously, and that he cooperated and will continuing to cooperate with the Justice Department in full.

And, you know, the other thing I would say while we are on this topic is, you know, over the weekend, CBS had a poll out that showed that the majority of Americans think President Biden is handling this well, and we've also seen that it hasn't impacted his approval ratings because while he absolutely takes this seriously and continues to cooperate, he's also continuing to focus on things that matter in peoples' lives, like visiting the tunnels today that is finally getting those infrastructure dollars after so many years of not being to get it done.

BLACKWELL: So, Kate, you are claiming transparency, but I am bringing this to you, you aren't bringing it to me. This happened in mid- November. If you are, indeed, being transparent, why the continued trickle of disclosure around these classified documents?

BEDINGFIELD: We have released multiple statements from the White House and President Biden's personal attorney has released multiple statement over the last month, walking through the process and agreeing to be fully, fully cooperative with the Justice Department. This is a process that plays out. We are responsive to the Justice Department's request. We have been clear from the outset that the president will cooperate with every request the Justice Department has and we put out multiple statements describing that process. BLACKWELL: Well, one more one Ukraine here. The president was asked about providing fighter jets to Ukraine, that President Zelenskyy has asked for them, his answer was a flat no. However, we've heard that from the president and then, reconsideration and then, giving the Ukrainians what they have asked for, stinger anti-aircraft missiles, that was a no. The Ukrainians now have them. Howitzers, HIMARS rocket launchers with the precision rounds. Also, those were nos. They're now going to Ukraine.

The M-1 Abrams tanks we just saw. The Patriot missile battery, those were nos. Those are now headed to Ukraine, if some of them -- the Patriot missile battle there. Zelenskyy says, let's skip the no, no, no and OK, and just supply what we need now. Is there any reason to think that this is going to be different that three months from now those fighter jets will not be going to Ukrainians?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, I don't have anything to add to what the president said yesterday. But I will say you just laid quite effectively and comprehensively all of the support, ammunitions, the artillery weapons that we have continued to provide to Ukraine and have continued to work with our allies to provide to Ukraine. We are obviously in constant communication with the Ukrainians about their battlefield needs and we will continue to be supportive.

[14:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Kate Bedingfield, thank you.

BEDINGFIELD: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Well, after seven historic interest rate hikes in the past year to fight inflation, the Fed's strategy may be shifting. What this means for you.

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BLACKWELL: There are more signs of wavering confidence in the economy. A key index is down almost two full points from December.

[14:45:00]

CAMEROTA: The Federal Reserve is now holding its first meeting of 2023 after a stretch of seven consecutive interest rate hikes last year. CNN's Matt Igan is here. So, Matt, what are they looking at?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Alisyn, Victor, you know, the Fed is still in the middle of this war on inflation, but we have gotten some signs recently that maybe the Fed is starting to get the upper hand here. Because we know inflation itself has actually cooled off. The jobs market remains sturdy. And today, we learned that wages are slowing down a bit.

So, wages up by 1 percent in the fourth quarter. That was a slight slowdown from the third quarter. Slower than expected. Year over year the wave growth stayed at just over 5 percent. Now, it's worth noting that wages are still hot here historically. I mean, this is like twice the pace of the pre-COVID era of wave growth, but they are not going straight up anymore, which, I think, you can see on the chart.

And that is exactly what the Fed wants to see. Because Fed chair, Jerome Powell, his big fear is a wage price spiral, right, where high prices at the grocery store cost consumers to demand higher and higher wages, which force companies to pass on the clause through higher prices. It can become a negative feedback loop and can lead to runaway inflation.

So, today's report is encouraging because it suggests that is not happening here. Of course, from a worker perspective, you can't be happy about the idea that wages are not going up by that much because you are not keeping up with inflation. And so, perhaps, that's one reason why we learn that consumer confidence took a bit of a hit in January. The biggest declines for consumer confidence were felt by families, low-income families and those under the age of 35. And those, of course, are two groups that are really exposed to the cost- of-living.

CAMEROTA: OK. Matt, thank you for explaining all that.

EGAN: Thank you, guys.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Matt.

He has been defiant since he arrived on Capitol Hill. So, why is Republican Congressman George Santos, saying he now wants to remove himself from his committee assignments. That's ahead.

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CAMEROTA: The Academy Awards Board of Governors is meeting today under a cloud of controversy to review the promotional campaigns for this year's Oscar nominees.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Some members are surprised by the lead actress nomination for Andrea Riseborough in the Indy film "To Leslie." It was released on small number screen, only took in about $27,000 at the box office, but Riseborough received a noticeable flow of support online from A-list stars like Ed Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow and others. And now, some are questioning if the rules were broken in how their studios pitched their film it to Academy members.

Clayton Davis is the senior awards editor for from "Variety" magazine. Clayton, good to have you.

I read your piece to these anonymous thoughts from members of the Academy. And we will put one up here. I'm not going to read the whole thing. But someone said, do you know how many movies and studios break the rules? And I'm talking about blatantly e-mailing members in a chain and saying, OK, team, it's voting day. You know what to do.

I mean, so, is this really so far outside the norm?

CLAYTON DAVIS, SENIOR AWARDS EDITOR, VARIETY: Hi. Well, first, thank you for having me. And secondly, you're correct. I mean, based on everyone that I have spoken to and what I have seen throughout the years in this industry, there are people who bend the rules because the Academy's rules, specifically number 10, which talks about lobbying is very vague. So, it seems as, what, Andrea Riseborough's camp did was a lot of what I see year in and year out, but perhaps flew a little bit too close to the sun.

CAMEROTA: But it's also possible that maybe they were just super clever about it. I mean, if they -- if you have friends like Kate Winslet and Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow and you say, hey, could you, you know, put something on social media about whether you loved my movie, or maybe not even that blatant, just here's the movie, and they did it on their own. Isn't that a fantastic grassroots effort? I mean, why should she be penalized for that?

DAVIS: Yes. And we see that year in and year out. There's a lot of candidates and, you know, contenders that have other actors, you know, endorse their performance, but it's not -- that's not so much the -- what's at fault here with such a concentrated effort to get her nominated.

We had 218 -- you only need 218 votes -- number one votes to become an Oscar nominee because only the actors are voting on that specific category. So, I believe that is the problems, that they were very specific in telling people how to vote and that's what has been alleged. But unless they have a smoking gun, I don't think we're about to see her nomination rescinded, not to overbake this or overplay this, if they did rescind it without any concrete evidence, it would essentially be the end of the Academy. So, I don't expect that to happen today when the meeting begins later on.

BLACKWELL: $27,000 really is just, what, a few hundred people, a few thousand people who saw this film released, paid for it on a theater. I wanted Viola Davis to be nominated for "The Woman King." I thought that was fantastic, but isn't this in part what the Academy wants, those smaller budget Indy films, those actors to get the credit they are due and the applause they're due, right?

DAVIS: Yes. And I believe that is what they want. They want smaller films. They want it to be about the movies, not so much about the campaigns. So, you know, you drive down Sunset Boulevard, you're going to see 30 billboards and FYC banners. Now, it's a -- it's millions of dollars that are spent on trying to get an Oscar nomination. The spirit of Andrea Riseborough's nomination I love, and a lot of people love.

And I think it became more pronounced when you didn't see Viola Davis nominated for "The Woman King" or Danielle Detwiler for "Till" because Andrea Riseborough's camp was able to assemble so many people to help her to give her that endorsement. We don't see that for women of color in this industry. So, I think that's why it became more pronounced.

[14:55:00]

But like I said, what I think is going to end up happening, the Academy will revise and amend some rules, get very specific on what lobbying is, and then, we might see a couple of suspensions for Academy members who called out other competitors in their social media campaigns because that is not allowed. Rule number 11 talks about not calling out the competition.

BLACKWELL: Wow. I didn't know there were 10 other rules. Clayton Davis, thanks so much.

DAVIS: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: All right. What's going on at the Dallas Zoo? Who is tampering with the animals? We have new details ahead.

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