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Biden Pushes for Bipartisanship in Speech Before Divided Congress; Zelenskyy Meets with King Charles During First Visit to U.K. Since Invasion; 11,000-Plus Dead, Desperate Search for Survivors Two Days After Quake. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 08, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Erica Hill.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

This morning, President Biden is making his way to Wisconsin, taking his post-state of the union message to the battleground state, just after setting the stage for what is a very likely 2024 for re-election bid.

HILL: The president is calling for unity, for bipartisanship in that address, an optimistic speech to a divided Congress. And despite some pebbling, which we certainly heard from a number of House Republicans, the president vowing to, quote, finish the job.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict gets us nowhere. That has always been my vision of our country and I know it's many of yours, to restore to soul of this nation, to rebuild the backbone of America, America's middle class, and to unite the country. We have been sent here to finish the job.

There are millions of other Americans who don't or are not on Medicare, including 200,000 young people with type 1 diabetes and needed this insulin to stay alive. Let's finish the job.

Let's finish the job and close the loophole that allowed very wealthy avoided paying their taxes.

We want to have the best educated workforce. Let's finish the job by providing access to pre-school for three and four years old.

When police officers and police departments violate the public trust, they must be held accountable.

Let's come together to finish the job on police reform, do something. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: All right. Let's kick things off this hour at the White House with CNN Senior White House Correspondent M.J. Lee. So, how is the administration feeling this morning, M.J.?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: White House officials are feeling pretty good this morning because they mostly feel like the president accomplished some of the main things that they wanted him to in last night's primetime address. Obviously, a big one is just getting the president to layout some of the strides that they believe the country has made over the last two years, whether it is the economy turning around in a big away, whether it is the COVID pandemic now being in the rearview mirror or the president really talking in great detail about some of the bipartisan legislative accomplishments over the last two years.

We also know that White House officials really wanted the president to be able to reach out to constituents who feel invisible. We had some messaging that we know was catered towards the blue-collar rural workers, for example, and just people who generally -- across the country, who feel left behind. And then, of course, there was a forward-looking vision, sort of trying to lay out and make the case to the American people on why the country would be better off having two more years or even perhaps six more years of President Biden.

Now, there were, of course, moments in the House chamber that got quite rowdy. I do not know that even White House officials might have anticipated just how rowdy the speech might in moments. Here is one of those moments.

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BIDEN: Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and social security to sunset. I'm not saying it's the majority.

I'm politely not naming them but it is being proposed by some of you. Look, so, folks, as we apparently agree, social security and Medicare is off the books now, right? They're not going to be (INAUDIBLE). All right, all right. We've got unanimity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: White House officials really welcomed this dynamic. They really felt like they couldn't have choreographed this moment better for themselves, trying to draw the contrast between Republicans and President Biden.

Now, he is going to be taking his economic message out on the road. He is about to actually take off behind me to travel to Madison, Wisconsin. This will just be the first stop of many that we expect. And all of this, of course, is going to start paving the road for him to make a re-election announcement, and that is something that could come in a matter of weeks.

HILL: M.J. Lee, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Republican tensions, as we just saw, they are on display on the House floor. Also on display before the president's speech over embattled Congressman George Santos, who, as you know, has lied repeatedly about his personal life and his career.

[10:05:08]

SCIUTTO: So, a remarkable and I imagine quite uncomfortable moment last night, Republican Senator Mitt Romney told Santos, quote, you do not belong here. That is according to a member of Congress who witnessed the exchange. Romney later told CNN that Santos should have been quietly sitting in the back, not standing in the front, trying to shake hands with President Biden.

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SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): And he should not be in Congress and they are going to go through the process and hopefully get him out. But he should not be there. And if he had any shame at all, he would not be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Quite strong words.

CNN's Manu Raju joins us now. And you are seeing more Republican voices say that, including Republican members of the House from New York State, like George Santos, members of the Republican House from New York State. What is the movement here? I mean, is it getting to the point where he is going to have to step down?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At the moment, no, because there is really no forcing mechanism to get him out of Congress unless there was an actual vote on the House floor to expel him from Congress. That would require a support of two-thirds of a majority. Right now, Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, is not supporting calls for him to resign. Santos, of course, holds a swing. A resignation would open up a special election that McCarthy simply does not want in this very narrow House majority that he currently has.

But even so, Senator Mitt Romney told me last night in that exchange he is disappointed with Kevin McCarthy for not calling on Santos to resign. So, the pressure is going to grow as the investigations do as well.

And on the floor last night, there was ample tension. Republican members calling out Joe Biden, heckling Biden, calling him a liar over his comments in saying that Republicans are pushing for cuts to entitlements, like social security and Medicare, even though Kevin McCarthy himself urged members not to have outbursts of sorts, worrying it would undercut their message coming out of the state of the union.

And I just caught up with one of those members who did heckle Joe Biden, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who just told me she has no regrets.

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RAJU: Speaker McCarthy seems to think that you guys took the bait from the president last night. Did you guys take the bait from him?

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I did not take any bait. I am a representative of the people, and that is exactly what I did last night. As a matter of fact, I got so many messages from people in my district and people across the country. It was like I won my election again.

You know what, people are pissed off. And for the president of the United States to come into the people's House and lie like he did about the economy, the border and then act like he is terrified of China and unwilling to talk about the fact they spied on us last night, yes, he got exactly what he deserved and I'm not sorry one bit. And I don't think Speaker McCarthy is upset with any of us for expressing our views and been unwilling to allow the president to lie. What am I going to do? Stand up and give golf claps? No, thank you, I do not clap for liars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, this is reminiscent of what happened in 2009 when Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress and gave a speech over healthcare. Congressman Joe Wilson, a Republican, yelled out, you lie. That is something that McCarthy did not want to have happened here on the House floor. Earlier this morning, McCarthy is saying that he believes some of his members simply took the bait. He said that he believes that they need to be smarter, not give into what President Biden was trying to do and sort of egg them on, but as you can hear there, Marjorie Taylor Greene, no regrets. And also Congressman Bob Good, who also called him a liar last night, told me the same thing, he perfectly fine in doing so. He claims that Joe Biden deserved it. Guys?

SCIUTTO: That is quite a moment in the House chamber. Manu Raju, thanks so much.

HILL: Well, that moment, which is certainly getting a lot of attention this morning, one of many Republicans heckling during the president's state of the union address, it was specifically the talk about social security and Medicare, of course, that really got a good reaction.

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The president was trying to goat the members and the members are passionate about it. But the one thing the president was saying is something that he knew was not true. I just spent an hour with him. I have said it many times before, social security and Medicare are off the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So, there you see Speaker McCarthy reacting this morning.

Joining me now is CNN Economics and Political Commentator Catherine Rampell. Listen, I think it is interesting, you have the speaker this morning and we know that the speaker had said that prior to the state of the union. I mean, we'll put all the facts on the table. It's interesting, though, there were Republicans who were calling for this, right? So, both things can be true in this moment.

I found it interesting, M.J.'s reporting, the White House saying they felt they couldn't have choreographed this better. It feels like maybe there was a little choreography. Well, does it help more in terms of that economic message?

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I do think Republicans have sort of boxed themselves in because they keep on saying they care about deficits and dent. Their deficit concerns are like cicadas, they go underground for a few years while the president is a Republican and then they reemerge when a Democrat is in office.

[10:10:02]

They keep saying that they care about deficits.

And some of them actually have called for cuts and major changes to entitlement programs. You can look at the Republican study committee's report from last year, the House committee. They explicitly said, raise the retirement age, et cetera.

Some of them have called for these things but then others have rolled them out. And so they basically rolled every possible mathematical path to getting deficits down, whether we're talking about raising taxes, cutting entitlements, cutting defense, wiping out what's called discretionary non-defense spending, et cetera. So -- it's because those things are unpopular to do.

So, I think that they boxed themselves in. They think it would help them to say, we are fiscally responsible, but then if you actually look at the kinds of things that would be required to achieve that fiscal responsibility, even if you think that's a good thing, they are not popular things to do.

HILL: No, it's a lot of uncomfortable conversations and decision- making.

But putting that out there, right, we know people perk up when they hear social security, when they hear Medicare or even Medicaid. President Biden, part of his goal there too in terms of this economic message, is to make people feel better about things. There were a lot of people who still do not feel great, even though we've gains in the economy, and also his goal was to show, hey, I get it, I get these kitchen table issues.

I think one of the things that really resonated, I know it resonated with you, but when he called out all of these different fees, saying it is $50 for your family to sit together on an airplane, just so you can your seats so your kids are with you, and these resort fees, those are actually all really relatable. Can we see, do you think, could there be some action there?

RAMPELL: It would require legislative action to do some of these kinds of things, and I don't how helpful I am that any of these will get through. Look, I realize these are very small potatoes kinds of issues, like the fees that you get charged when you go to a concert or when you book a hotel room. But they are so annoying. They always get under my skin. It is extremely relatable.

Will an emphasis on those things be enough to draw away the frustration that Americans feel about broader forms of price increases that they are experiencing every day? Because, again, inflation has been moderating but it is still higher than it normally is. I do not know. I hope that for my own sake, for my own mental piece of mind, that they do go after these resort fees. But I do not know if that is sufficient to make people feel like their finances are keeping up with the cost of living.

HILL: What do you think the president could have said in that moment? Because for many people, even though we do see these -- there are positive economic indicators, right? I mean, we look jobless claims. Every time they come out, it's sort of like, wow, here we are again. There are other signs that things are better slowly, inflation is only moderating. And yet there are a lot of people in this country who say, I am worse off or I feel like I am worse off. Is there anything?

RAMPELL: It is a bit of a puzzle at this point in a sense that, yes, the job market is very strong. If anything, hiring has been accelerating recently if you take the data at face value. Inflation is still too high but is moderating. That is better.

If you look at the consumer sentiment numbers, they are very out of sync with those data. And if you talk to members of the administration, they will blame the media, saying that those of us in the media are too negative. I think people look at their bank accounts and they look at how much they're paying at the grocery store, whether or not they this message enforcement from the media, they are going to be upset.

People in the administration have also said, well, people are just worn down because of COVID and that is the reason they are so dour about the economy and their bank accounts or whatever. I don't know. I think the challenge for the administration is to celebrate the wins without sounding tone deaf, right, to talk about where they're making progress without wishing away the real struggles that Americans are still feeling, and they still are feeling struggles, whether it's because of price increases or because their wages aren't going up sufficiently.

HILL: Always good to talk to you, Catherine. I appreciate it. Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Well, right now, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is meeting with King Charles at Buckingham Palace. He arrived in London this morning for just his second trip outside of Ukraine since Russia invaded nearly a year ago. He has already met with the prime minister and he addressed parliament.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We know freedom will win. We know that Russia will lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Last night, Zelenskyy thanked President Biden for voicing his support for Ukraine during the state of the union address. Here is what Biden said.

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BIDEN: Will we stand for the most basic of principles? Will we stand for sovereignty? Will we stand for the right of people to live free of tyranny? Will we stand for the defense of democracy?

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For such defense matters to us because keeps peace and prevents open season on would-be aggressors and threatens our prosperity. One year later, we know the answer. Yes we would, and we did. We did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Yes, one of the rare moments last night that got bipartisan applause.

We also learned today that Zelenskyy will meet the French president and the German chancellor in Paris. First, though, he is visiting training Ukrainian troops in the U.K.

With me now, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Good to have you on, as always. So, these meetings are important in terms of the relationships but I want to focus on what is happening on the ground and training because you have 10,000 Ukrainian troops trained inside of the U.K. in the last six months, another 20,000 to be trained in the U.K. this year. This is quite direct involvement of a NATO ally in terms of training the Ukrainians. What is it training them to do?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So, there are a lot of things, Jim, that they're doing, and this couple with the training that is going on in Germany, at Grafenwohr, at the training center there, plus at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. So, we are all involved in the training of the Ukrainians right now.

So, one of the big things that they are looking at is the Challenger tank. And when you see exactly what they are doing, this one, of course, doesn't have the armament on it, no cannon, but they are practicing driving it, they're practicing moving it through the mud, which is really important for the terrain in Ukraine.

SCIUTTO: As the ground thaws, that's going to become an issue in those eastern battlefields. LEIGHTON: Absolutely. And this particular tank it quite maneuverable in those conditions. And they hope that they can take as many of these as possible so that they can then use them in offensive of operations throughout the eastern sector, especially.

SCIUTTO: And we saw that announcement just a couple of weeks ago because the Germans are sending the Leopard tanks, the U.S. is going to sending Abrams tanks. And you can't just send the things. They have got to learn how to use them because they are different than the Soviet tanks that they have been using so far.

LEIGHTON: That's exactly right. And as much as you get that with the tanks, you also have that issue with aircraft. And one of the key things, I think, Jim, to note about the visit to the U.K., for the first time ever, a country that is training the Ukrainians is saying very specifically that they are training Ukrainian pilots on NATO standard aircraft.

SCIUTTO: Like the F-16?

LEIGHTON: Exactly, so like the F-16. And you can see here, there are a lot of key features of the F-16. Speed, of course, is quite clear. It uses radiation detection abilities to detect air defense systems. It has got 20 millimeter gun. It also has bombs, like the JDAM. It also has missiles, like the Sidewinder that took down the Chinese balloon, the surveillance balloon. And, of course, it's got air-to-air capabilities, plus air-to-ground capabilities, and that is critical.

SCIUTTO: So, folks have been talking about sending western aircraft to Ukraine since the start of the war, which is going to be a year in just a couple of weeks' time. But the view of NATO, including U.S., has been that's too much of an escalation. One, they do not really need those now. That is not the weapon we should be focusing on, but, two, the concern being you send these aircraft, you are more and more in direct conflict with Russia or Russia would view it that way. But are we moving toward this becoming a reality?

LEIGHTON: I think so. I mean, the impetus is certainly there. There are a lot of people, military analysts like myself, people who are watching what the Ukrainians are doing, they are saying very specifically the Ukrainians need this in order to really prosecute the war effort. And if they don't do that, they cannot win, is the, in essence, what we're looking at.

SCIUTTO: Okay. So, let's talk about what folks are concerned about right now, and that is that Russia is mounting the forces, and there's evidence of this, along the border here for a new offensive. When I speak to the U.S. military officials, they say, sure, but those aren't particularly capable forces, they're not particularly well-equipped or armed. Should Ukrainians be concerned about a major and effective Russian offensive?

LEIGHTON: Yes, they should. Because one of the things to think about, Jim, is that quantity has a quality on its own, as the saying goes. And so when you look at, for example, let's take a look at the -- SCIUTTO: (INAUDIBLE). Well, you have -- I mean, the reason we have the pictures of them bombing Kharkiv is that they seem to be a softening the battlefield.

LEIGHTON: Exactly, and that's precisely what they're doing. So, you are seeing what they call preparation of the battle space. And when you look at some of the things that can happen here, for example, you see the area around Kremmina, right, in this area, the Russians could potentially move in this way, they could potentially go after Izium right here. There is a possibility that they could roll back the Ukrainian gains that the Ukrainians made.

SCIUTTO: Which only happened a few months ago when they very quickly, the Ukrainians, pushed back Russians from here.

LEIGHTON: Exactly. And so when you see that and then you look at what could happen in the south, so you could see what's happening in the north and you could see what's happening in the south, because when you see what you are doing with Kherson, the Ukrainians took Kherson but it is still under Russian artillery range. It is not a safe place to be, as we've reported many times.

And these natural boundaries right now, they are helping the Ukrainians but they're also helping the Russians because they're keeping the Ukrainians out of here for the moment.

[10:20:01]

But if the Ukrainians get more maneuverable forces, they could potentially forward the river and go down this way.

SCIUTTO: And let go, take some more back. And that's why those tanks could essential there. Cedric Leighton, thanks so much, as always.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Jim.

SCIUTTO: And still to come this hour, President Biden warned of China last night, he said, we will act to protect our country. Was it strong enough? Former Texas Republican Congressman Will Hurd, he is going to join us to discuss that and the broader threat from China.

HILL: Plus, hope for families desperate to find their loved ones potentially buried in the rubble after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the death toll there climbing to more than 11,000. We are live on the ground. Stay with us.

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SCIUTTO: Rescuers working as fast as they can, holding out hope as they tried to find survivors of that mass earthquake in Turkey and Syria. This is drone footage to give you sense of just how extensive all of this is, complete devastation, buildings turned to rubble. And it was 4:00 in the morning when this struck, a lot of people were sleep in their beds. HILLS: Workers are not just battling these dangerous conditions in terms of what is left of some of these buildings, but the weather is a challenge as well, freezing temperatures setting in. Survivors have been found, though, full 60 hours after that initial quake. And there are some signs of life at the recovery site where we find CNN International Correspondent Jomana Karadsheh, joining us now Adana, in Turkey.

Last hour when you were with us, they had asked everyone to get down, everyone to be quiet. Do we know if they heard any sounds in that rubble, Jomana?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately, Erica, they have gone back to digging after nearly about 45 minutes or so of quiet, where there was a bit of hope that they might have found something. So, unfortunately, right now, it looks like there is no good news coming from this search and rescue site.

This is one building, one residential building here, a 14-storey building that was flattened, as you can see, by the earthquake. Speaking to people in this neighborhood, they say that they believe about 100 people are living in that building. And today, we see a lot of their family members, relatives, friends, people who have just gathered here are trying to find out what happened to their loved ones who were inside that building they believe at the time of the quake.

I mean, right now, we understand from the search and rescue teams is they haven't been able to find any survivors so far. I mean, this is getting close to 72 hours since the earthquake. This is a race against time. They are trying to do everything they can because every second counts, as you know very well right now. But, so far, no good news, at least 13 people, according to residents in this neighborhood and according to officials here that have been bodies that have been pulled from underneath the rubble.

They are continuing to work. They are continuing to try and find survivors. And I can tell you, this is an absolutely nerve- racking time for people here who have been waiting for a couple of days out in this bitter cold, trying to locate their loved ones, trying to find out what happened to them. And we are just starting to hear the stories about people who were living in this building, families with young children, just unimaginable heartbreak in this situation. And, again, this is just one building in one province that is part of this massive earthquake. You can imagine with thousands of destroyed buildings, how many stories like this that are unfolding across this earthquake zone.

SCIUTTO: Every moment must be agony for those family members waiting outside for some news. Jomana Karadsheh, thanks so much.

Still ahead, President Biden's strong words for China in his state of the union address, and the question Republicans want answered about the Chinese surveillance balloon and others. We will have more coming up.

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