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Biden Warns China: "We Will Act To Protect Our Country"; House Oversight's First Hearing On Handling Of Hunter Biden Laptop Story; Task Force: Expand Blood Pressure Screenings For All Pregnant Women; Chiefs, Eagles To Face Off In Super Bowl LVII. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 08, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:30:11]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Just moments ago, President Biden boarded Air Force One for Wisconsin after what the White House is saying this morning was a successful State of the Union speech. The President sparred with Republicans on the House floor. But there was at least one moment of bipartisanship among a few when he called out China for its suspected surveillance balloon.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm committed to work with China where we can advance American interests and benefit the world, but make no mistake about it. As we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country and we did.

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SCIUTTO: Joining us now to discuss, former Republican Congressman, Will Hurd, also worked for the CIA. Congressman, thanks for taking the time this morning.

WILL HURD, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Always a pleasure to be on with you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So CNN is now reporting, as is the Washington Post that U.S. intelligence officials believe the spy balloon is not a one-off. It's part of a broader surveillance program run by the Chinese military.

From your vantage point, is this network a new threat? Does it have new technology that we should be aware of?

HURD: We have to assume that it has new technology that we should be aware of. Let's start with a couple of assumptions. One, the Chinese government knew at some point, the United States was going to -- are going to find this and potentially capture it.

And two, the below -- that whatever that those balloons were doing was important enough that they had to do it in order to deal with the blowback to the bilateral relationship. And this thing was huge. The fact that it was able to go undetected, because it had a small, you know, digital exhaust and footprint.

The concern is, what are the kinds of technologies that they were probably testing to see if it worked?

[10:35:02]

SCIUTTO: Now that we're showing pictures of the recovery off the coast of South Carolina, now that the U.S. has at least pieces of it, not just the balloon, but the array that was under the balloon, does that give an opportunity to one learn about that technology and mitigate it?

HURD: Of course it does. Of course, we're going to be able to determine the kinds of capabilities that it had. But also, let's start with that assumption I said, they knew that we were going to get this. So is there going to be some new high-tech hardware that was on there?

What I'm more concerned about was what software was on there. One of the things that I think is a worst-case scenario, was this testing some kind of quantum communications? Was this -- did this have some kind of collection of communication on there that was able to operate? Was this a test to see if they could operate in a comms-denied environment?

They knew what our response was going to be, once we -- once we found it. We were going to use electronic warfare tools and techniques to prevent that -- the hardware from communicating wherever it was communicating. Was that -- was that what was designed to do to go?

Now, unfortunately, we're probably not going to see what software was on there, because it probably had a kill switch or something to that effect, but we should be concerned with this. And I wish this would have gotten a little bit more attention last night in the State of the Union.

SCIUTTO: This is the first I've heard someone mentioned the possibility of quantum computing capabilities. That, of course, has been a subject of much alarm and concern as a -- as a future prospect and concern that China is ahead of the U.S., but you're saying it's plausible, they've already deployed something in that category?

HURD: Look, we know that the Chinese government is working in putting hardware in China in order to do quantum communications within the government. We've known and they've published some of the work that they've done in space when it comes to quantum communications.

Here's what I have learned in my last couple years, being on private sector and helping, you know, cutting-edge technologies. These technologies are moving so fast, and they're moving at a speed that nobody -- that nobody thought was possible. So we have to be prepared.

And again, I think that's a worst-case scenario, but we need to make sure that we're ready for this in the future.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. And I want to show, of course, with quantum is that you break encryption.

Let's talk bigger picture here. Would this have been a deliberate decision by China? Because on the flip side, one, Chinese lost, possibly some advanced technology here. They also lost a summit with the Secretary of State that didn't want it because China wants, we're told, to improve their economy now and they need to soften, cool down relations with the U.S. to do that. Was this deliberate? Or did they make their own mistake here by going too far?

HURD: Well, look, I think what you're seeing is two different entities operating without each other's corroboration within China. This was obviously a Chinese People's Liberation Army activity. And the military is operating and probably did not brief the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

And we saw early on when this was first discovered, the Chinese MFA, their State Department, respond and basically apologize, which had never happened before. And then -- and then now you see their stance of shaking their fists and saying that's ours. That's what likely were to happen.

But again, I think we have to begin with the assumption that they knew this was going to happen, they knew this was going to get uncaptured.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Well, some alarming prospects there. I'm sure they're still trying to figure out just how far this goes.

Congressman Will Hurd, good to have you on this morning.

HURD: That was a pleasure, Jim.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Still to come here, the new recommendation, a specific screening for all pregnant women. Why?

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[10:40:36]

HILL: House Republicans right now following through on their promise to investigate President Biden's administration and family. The House Oversight Committee holding its first hearing to discuss how Twitter handle the New York Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop.

SCIUTTO: This as the Republican Committee Chairman, James Comer, says he plans to also go after Hunter Biden's financial information even if the Treasury Department does not give him exactly the records he wants. Comer told CNN he's not ruling out subpoenaing the president's son's banks as well.

CNN's Sara Murray following the latest from Capitol Hill. What's the focus of today's hearing?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, this is essentially a kickoff of the Hunter Biden investigation and a kickoff of their investigation into tech companies. You know, we saw them framing up the politics around this in their opening statements in the hearing.

James Comer, who is of course the chairman of House Oversight, arguing that the American public should have had information about this Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election. That Twitter was essentially colluding with the federal government to try to suppress this information.

Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat basically saying, why are we still talking about this? This is just an excuse to dig up Hunter Biden's laptop again. Twitter is a private company.

But we are hearing, for the first time publicly from James Baker. He was Twitter's Deputy General Counsel and previously served as the FBI's General Counsel. Essentially saying, we didn't do anything illegal anything wrong. There was no unlawful coordination. Take a listen to what Baker said.

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JAMES BAKER, FORMER TWITTER DEPUTY COUNSEL: I was not aware of and certainly did not engage in any conspiracy or other efforts to do anything unethical, improper or unlawful while I was at Twitter. Period.

I did not act unlawfully or otherwise inappropriately in any manner with respect to Hunter Biden's laptop.

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MURRAY: This is a flavor, I think, of the pushback we are going to get from these three former Twitter executives who Republicans have called to testify today. They've basically said, look, we may have erred in the moment to temporarily suppress this story, but we did not want to repeat the mistakes of 2016 when we, of course, saw misinformation spreading on these platforms.

And where tech companies, frankly, were hammered for not doing more to police disinformation, especially coming from foreign governments. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Sara Murray. We're going to be hearing a lot about this. Thanks so much.

Well, for the first time, a new proposal recommends screening all pregnant women for hypertensive disorders.

HILL: So why the recommendation? Well, new data shows hypertensive disorders during hospital births increased from 13.3 percent to 15.9 percent.

Dr. Tara Narula is with us now. Blood pressure screenings, that's already recommended at every prenatal visit. I asked you at the break. Were you surprised by this? You said no. Why is this so important? Why are we seeing the chain? TARA NARULA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, we know that cardiovascular disease, we talked about this last week, is the leading cause of maternal mortality. And the majority of that is coming from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

So this is a draft recommendation that's basically open for public comment until March 6. And it expands on the 2017 recommendation by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which basically said, all women should be screened for preeclampsia. So this is now saying, let's screen them, not just for preeclampsia, but for gestational hypertension, for their history of chronic hypertension, and also CLABSI. So all hypertensive disorders.

And those screens should happen at every prenatal visit. And if a woman screens positive, so a blood pressure of greater than 140 over 90 separated by several hours measured twice, then that should trigger obviously the next steps in terms of following her.

But the important reason why -- the reason why this is so critical is that we know that as you mentioned, hypertensive disorders have gone up over the last 20 years. They're responsible for, not just risk of death for the woman postpartum, usually in those first six weeks postpartum, but also complications. So things like stroke, retinal detachment, organ failure, complications for the baby, so low birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction and stillbirth. So this is really a huge problem, not to mention the risk that comes after pregnancy.

SCIUTTO: So what does need to be done to help women after they give birth? What more needs to be done?

NARULA: And, Jim, this is a problem that I see all the time as a cardiologist. Many women have these hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, and they're not informed, but guess what, that not only increases your risk for hypertension, postpartum in the future, but cardiovascular disease in general.

And so they basically leave the hospital, they never get that necessary preventive follow-up care, their risk factors are never looked at. And so really what needs to happen is women get plugged in postpartum with a cardiologist or a primary doctor who can put them on the road to prevention.

Also, we've talked about this before but, you know, what happens to women during pregnancy starts preconception. So getting a woman's blood pressure under control before she even gets pregnant, getting her weight at a healthy point, having her exercise and eat healthy diet is just important -- just as important before pregnancy as it is postpartum. But really, that connection of care when a woman leaves the hospital is so critically important.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean, it seems to be an endemic problem across the healthcare system on so many conditions.

Dr. Tara Narula, thanks so much.

NARULA: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, we're just five days away from that football game that they call the -- oh, yes, the Super Bowl. It's the first one. And this is key. It's notable. I was telling my sons this yesterday. The first one to feature two African-American starting quarterbacks. We're going to take you to Arizona for more on that big matchup that's coming up.

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[10:50:29]

SCIUTTO: Just few more days to Super Bowl LVII. The Kansas City Chiefs, they're going to take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Arizona. No sign, sadly, on the New York Giants.

HILL: Sorry about that, Jim. This morning, we are hearing from some of the players as they gear up for the game with media day action. CNN's Coy Wire is in Arizona. What are we hearing?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. Hi, Erica and Jim. Hey, my Falcons and Bills aren't there, Jim. Join the pity party. It's going to be a great matchup between the Chiefs and Eagles.

And did you know that 17 of the last 20 Super Bowls have featured a quarterback in the AFC named Brady, Roethlisberger, or Manning. But this is a new era that you've seen the passing of the torch, including this one.

Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs will now have starred in three of the last four Super Bowls. He's an inspiring leader. He's charismatic, he's got his sidearm no look passes. He makes anything on a football field seem possible. And with one Super Bowl win and one Super Bowl loss under his belt, he has plenty of big game experience.

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PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEF'S QUARTERBACK: I know what it feels like to win the Super Bowl now and to lose the Super Bowl. And winning it, even though I didn't -- I didn't put our best game. I came through when it counted and was able to win it.

And then the loss, obviously, I left everything out there, but we -- you lose and that feeling you had in the locker room after is -- it's a terrible feeling because you're so close to your ultimate prize. And so you take motivation from that and try to do whatever you can to make sure you have that winning feeling because that's one that you can have forever as well.

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WIRE: Now at 24 years old, Patrick Mahomes had become the youngest player to ever win a league MVP and win a Super Bowl. He's now the wise old age of 27, cool, calm, calm collected just this incredible leader.

[10:55:13]

And, you know, this is going to be one of the most evenly matched Super Bowls we've ever seen. There have only been four Super Bowls where the spread was fewer than two points. This is one of them. The Chiefs are slight underdogs, but Chiefs nation, they're going to be leaning on Patrick Mahomes, his leadership, his incredible play to hopefully get them yet another Super Bowl win.

HILL: Lot of folks will be watching for that. Should be a really good game. Coy, appreciate it, my friend. Thank you.

Thanks to all of you for joining us today. I'm Erica Hill.

SCIUTTO: I'm going to eat my way through the Super Bowl. That's my plan. I'm Jim Sciutto. "AT THIS HOUR WITH KATE BOLDUAN" starts after a quick break.

HILL: You won't be alone.

SCIUTTO: I won't.

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