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Tesla Recalls 362,000+ Vehicles Over Self-Driving Crash Risk; Soon: EPA Chief Speaks On Impacts Of Chemical Leak, Explosion; Biden Speaks On Flying Object Shootdowns After Days Of Silence. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired February 16, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Bianna Golodryga.

Any moment now, President Biden is expected to update Americans on the recent and unprecedented shootdowns of objects over North America. The president has been facing growing pressure to bring more transparency to the issue that's gripped the nation for over the last month.

BLACKWELL: Let's get straight to Jeremy Diamond in Washington. So, what are we expecting to hear from the president, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this will be the first time that we hear directly from President Biden in a formal setting on the downing not only of that Chinese spy balloon but also those three unidentified objects that were down by U.S. fighter jets between Friday and Sunday. And to get to this point, a couple of things had to happen because the White House has really been in discussions over the last several days about the wisdom -- the merits of the president potentially addressing this issue. They were wary at first of making this a bigger issue than it actually is. And they were also wanted to make sure that the president waited until the intelligence community had a more firm assessment of the situation before he got ahead of any of the facts in this case.

And so, what has changed over the last couple of days is not only have we seen lawmakers on Capitol Hill from both parties increasingly calling for President Biden to address this issue for the White House to show more transparency on this issue, but also what we've seen is the intelligence community growing increasingly confident in their assessments that these unidentified objects that were shot down over the weekend were likely benign, or for some kind of commercial purposes, not linked to that Chinese spy balloon, which traverses the whole of the continental United States before eventually being down off the coast of South Carolina. And so, today, we're expecting to hear President Biden explain to Americans what the United States actually knows about these unidentified objects. And also, to lay out some of the steps that he's taking.

We know that he has tasked the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, with leading an interagency group that's going to involve officials from various federal departments and agencies to look at how the United States handles these situations. And we also know that the White House is developing protocols going forward for how these types of objects are treated, whether or not they are shot down, and what indeed, would merit these objects being shot down. And one of the key factors here is looking at the height at which these objects were flying. That was part of what prompted the shootdowns over the weekend because they were flying in that range of commercial airspace, whereas that Chinese spy balloon was flying much higher at about 60,000 feet. And that's why they allowed that one to float over into the ocean before ultimately shooting it down.

GOLODRYGA: So, Jeremy, do we know if the president is also going to be addressing that Chinese spy balloon -- the surveillance balloon, or he's this just focused on those three objects that the U.S. shot down last weekend?

DIAMOND: Yes. We don't have a clearer sense right now. But it -- I would anticipate that he would address all of these situations together mainly for the fact that we have not heard from him in a really kind of extensive formal setting on that Chinese spy balloon. And it's also important just for the sake of laying out the differences between those two situations. We know that this is also coming at a time where U.S. officials are increasingly exploring this potential theory that the Chinese did not intend for that spy balloon to float over the continental United States, that there may have been an issue here of wind currents that led it to take that path, ultimately. That's something that U.S. officials are still working to determine. And that's also something to acknowledge here.

Even as we're expecting the president to come and address this situation, we know that the U.S. government does not yet have all of the answers. They haven't recovered those three unidentified objects that were shot down over the weekend, in part because of the remote territory over which they were shot down, including the Yukon, frozen ice over the coast of Alaska, and of course, Lake Huron, between Michigan and Canada -- and Canada. So, there's still a lot that the US government is working to uncover but this is going to be an attempt by the White House for the president to come out here to say what we do know and to also try and calm concerned Americans who have watched this kind of unprecedented nature of fighter jets being scrambled to shootdown these objects three times in a matter of three days just this past weekend.

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BLACKWELL: So, we are expecting to hear from the president in just a few minutes. Of course, you saw we have the live shot there from the White House. As soon as the president begins to speak, we will bring that to everyone live. Jeremy Diamond there, thank you for the reporting.

GOLODRYGA: In the meantime, we're also following other breaking news. Tesla is recalling more than 360,000 of its vehicles that are equipped with its full self-driving feature. They say it poses a possible crash risk.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Gabe Cohen is following this one for us. So, what are you learning?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Victor, Bianna, we are talking about a lot of vehicles here. Three hundred -- nearly 363,000 Teslas that are now being recalled by the company. That is a large portion of all four of their models. And it's because of that self -- full self- driving beta software that's on board. You can see the models on your screen. So, we're talking about certain model S, model X, model 3, and model Y vehicles spanning 2016 to 2023, depending on the model.

And now we've gotten this recall notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and it really lays out what it says the problem is. It says that the self-driving software could allow the vehicle -- the Tesla vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, it could enter a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or it could proceed into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution. And the system could respond insufficiently to changes in posted speed limits, or it may not adequately account for the driver's change in speed if it exceeds -- when it exceeds posted speed limits in the area.

So, this report lays out Tesla's response as well saying that it was clear Tesla did not agree with the agency's analysis here, that the software was unsafe, but decided to issue this voluntary recall where they're going to be releasing this free over-the-air software update. The question now is how is this software update actually going to fix the problem. Remember, this technology has been under the microscope for years now. And this recall is coming less than a week after we saw an attack ad during the Super Bowl created by the Dawn Project that showed Tesla's smashing into mannequins of children claiming that the vehicles are using this unsafe software.

Now according to this recall notice, Tesla has identified 18 warranty claims related to these issues. But as of now, no reports of any injuries or deaths. We are still waiting for a more -- formal response from Elon Musk, but I can tell you he just tweeted in the last few minutes saying that the word recall for this over-the-air software update is just flat wrong. So, again, that's the response from Tesla at this point, but the big headline here, 363,000 Tesla vehicles that are being recalled, Victor and Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: So, they have been recalled, so glad we cleared that up. Gabe Cohen, thank you.

Well, we're also following yet another major disruption for you to tell you about this time at New York's JFK Airport. A power outage at terminal one that a source says is due to a fire overnight, well, it has since been extinguished.

BLACKWELL: Right now, New York Port Authority is trying to restore power. They're working on circuits that were impacted by the fire. The aircraft ramp around Terminal 1 is closed, not set to reopen until tomorrow morning. That's according to the FAA.

Also happening right now, EPA Administrator Michael Regan, he's in East Palestine, Ohio. He'll be speaking soon. He's assessing the response to the derailed train disaster there. Nearly two weeks ago, a Norfolk Southern train carrying potentially deadly materials suffered a major mechanical failure, derailed, and then caused this massive explosion which burned for days, upended the lives of an entire community.

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Jason Carroll joins us live now from East Palestine. And, Jason, residents are understandably worried about whether the air they are breathing is safe, the water they're drinking is safe. What can the EPA Administrator possibly say to them to reassure them?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a couple of things. First of all, when we spoke to him a short while ago, he wanted to reassure the people here in East Palestine that the water is safe, and that the air again is safe as well. He also expressed real disappointment for Norfolk Southern, and the reason and -- whatever reason they had which of course, they felt as though they could not attend last night's town hall for their safety, but he expressed disappointment over that saying that a representative should have been there. At that town hall last night, Bianna, as you can imagine, the people that we spoke to feel as though they still have a lot of unanswered questions.

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Despite what state and local officials are saying about the air and the water, they want more assurances. And they still have unanswered questions about who's going to be here testing a year from now, who's going to be here two years from now to make sure that this community is still doing as it should be. Just a short while ago Michael Regan was meeting with one local resident, Kristina Ferguson. And I want you to listen to what she had to say about how she's feeling about her situation.

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KRISTINA FERGUSON, EAST PALESTINE HOMEOWNER: We need help. We do. We need -- we need President Biden. We need FEMA housing. People were getting sick. We should not have been like back into town until all of this was done. You don't bring families back with their kids and their loved ones and then tell them to scrub with dawn.

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CARROLL: All that emotion there really just says it all. We should also tell you, Bianna, that Ohio's governor has been in contact with the White House this morning asking for more federal help, or according to his office, specifically asking for more help from the Department of Health and also from the CDC, asking the CDC to get some of their medical experts here on the ground so they can talk to people about some of the -- some of the symptoms that they say that they are having as a result of what has happened here. I also want to update you with some more information that we are just now getting from the governor's office about some of the air testings in the homes here in East Palestine. According to the governor's office, 474 homes have been tested for air quality inside those --

BLACKWELL: All right, Jason, we have to interrupt. We're going to the White House now. The president is going to speak about those objects shootdown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our military through the North American Aerospace Defense Command, so-called North -- NORAD closely scrutinized the -- our space including enhancing our radar to pick up more slow-moving objects above our country around the world. In doing so, they tracked three unidentified objects, one in Alaska, Canada, and over Lake Huron in the Midwest. They acted in accordance with established parameters and determined how to deal with unintended fight aerial objects in U.S. airspace.

At their recommendation, I gave the order to take down these three objects due to hazards to civilian commercial air traffic and because we could not rule out the surveillance risk of sensitive facilities. We acted in consultation with the Canadian government. I spoke firstly with Prime Minister Trudeau and Canada -- from Canada on Saturday. And just as critically, we acted out of an abundance of caution and an opportunity that allowed us to take down these objects safely.

Our military and the Canadian military are seeking to recover the debris so we can learn more about these three objects. Our intelligence community is still assessing all three incidences. They're reporting to me daily, and we'll continue the urgent efforts to do so and I will communicate that to the Congress. We don't yet know exactly what these three objects were. But nothing right now suggests they were related to China's spy balloon program or there were surveillance vehicles from other -- any other country. The intelligence community's current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather, or conducting other scientific research.

When I came into office, I instructed our intelligence community to take a broad look at the phenomenon of unidentified aerial objects. We know that a range of entities including countries, companies, and research organizations operate objects at altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate scientific research. I want to be clear. We don't have any evidence that there has been a sudden increase in a number of objects in the sky. We're now just seeing more of them partially because of the steps we've taken to increase our radars -- to narrow our radars.

And we have to keep adapting our approach to the lane -- to dealing with these challenges. That's why I've directed my team to come back to me with sharper rules for how we will deal with these unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not. But make no mistake. If any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down. I'll be sharing with Congress these classified policy parameters when they are completed and remain classified so we don't give our roadmap to our enemies to try to evade our defenses.

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Going forward, these parameters will guide what actions we will take while responding to unmanned and unidentified aerial objects. We're going to keep adapting them as challenges evolve if it evolves. In addition, we direct -- I'm directing my national security advisor to lead a government-wide effort to make sure we are positioned to deal safely and effectively with the objects in our airspace.

First, we will establish a better inventory of unmanned airborne objects in space above the United States airspace, and make sure that inventory is accessible and up to date. Second, we'll implement further measures to improve our capacity to detect unman objective -- objects in our airspace. Third, we'll update the rules and regulations for launching and maintaining unmanned objects in the skies above the United States of America. And fourth, now my Secretary of State will lead an effort to help establish a global -- common global norms in this largely unregulated space.

These steps will lead to safer and more secure skies for our air travelers, our military, our scientists, and for people on the ground as well. That's my job as your president and commander-in-chief. As the events of the previous days have shown, I will always act to protect the interest of the American people and the security of the American people.

Since I came to office, we've developed the ability to identify, track and study high-altitude surveillance balloons connected with the Chinese military. When one of these high-altitude surveillance balloons entered our airspace over the continental United States earlier in the month, I gave the order to shoot it down as soon as it would be safe to do so. The military advised against shooting it down over land because of the sheer size of it. It was the size of multiple school buses, and oppose the rest of people on the ground if it was shot down where people lived. Instead, we tracked it closely, we analyze its capabilities, and we learn more about how it operates.

And because we knew its path, we were able to protect sensitive sites against collection. We waited until it was safely over water, which would not only protect civilians but also enable us to recover substantial components for further analysts -- for further analytics. And then we shot it down, sending a clear message -- clear message, the violation of our sovereignty is unacceptable. We will act to protect our country, and we did.

Now, this past Friday, we put restrictions on six firms that directly support the People's Republic Liberation Army, people's lives -- the People's Liberation Army aerospace program, that includes airships and balloons, denying them access to U.S. technology. We briefed our diplomatic partners and our allies around the world. And we know about China's program and where their balloons have flown. Some of them have also raised their current concerns directly with China. Our experts have lifted components of the Chinese balloons' payload off the ocean floor. We're analyzing them as I speak. And what we learn will strengthen our capabilities.

Now we're also continuing to engage with China, as we have throughout the past two weeks. As I've said, since the beginning of my administration, we seek competition, not conflict with China. We're not looking for a new Cold War. But I make no apologize -- I mean I make no apologies and we will compete. And well we response -- we'll responsibly manage that competition so that it doesn't veer into conflict.

This episode underscores the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between our diplomats and our military professionals. Our diplomats will be engaging further, and I will remain in communication with President Xi. I'm grateful for the work of the last several weeks of our intelligence, diplomatic and military professionals who approve once again, to be the most capable in the world. And I want to thank you all.

Now, look. The other thing I want to point out is that we're going to keep our allies and Congress contemporaneously informed about all we know and all we learn. And I expect to be speaking with President Xi. And I hope we have a common -- we get to the bottom of this. But I make no apologies for taking down that balloon. Thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL (voiceover): Let's see if he takes a question.

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: Give me a break, man.

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: OK. You come to my office and asked that question. We have more polite people in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, why have you chosen Poland for your trip to mark the anniversary of the war, and what's your message? What?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you speaking to President Xi, Mr. President?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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BLACKWELL: All right, President Biden there listen to a couple of questions, did not answer any of those. But we heard about eight minutes of remarks, the most extensive thus far on the shutdown of the Chinese balloons, and also those three mysterious objects. And, Bianna, he says that the most recent three seemed to have no connection to that first Chinese balloon that flew over the United States and also continuing with what we heard from White House officials that no evidence of surveillance, as they've described them benign balloons. GOLODRYGA: Yes. He said that those three balloons are most likely linked to a private company or research that some institutions are conducting right now. But he drew a sharp line between those balloons and the surveillance balloon that was sent over by China. He said that the United States had been monitoring that balloon since it had been transversing over the continental United States and made no apologies for shooting it down and said that they took some restrictions on three Chinese firms, that's -- firms that supply the People's Liberation Army with that type of technology and equipment as well.

Let's bring in our panel to discuss further. Anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY," Abby Phillip. CNN national security reporter Natasha Bertrand. And CNN Global Affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Military analyst, retired Air Force, Colonel Cedric Leighton. And back with us is CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond.

Let me start with you, Colonel Leighton. Were you satisfied with the president's explanation that these were in fact, likely benign objects that were shot down, especially since we have yet to find and retrieve these objects?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Bianna. Not really. And here's why. You have to hinted at it because we haven't really been able to retrieve objects or -- from the crash sites of these downed objects, so we really don't know very much about them. It is certainly possible that the president is completely right about these objects, and the intel community is completely right about them but they're -- the one thing that we have to be careful of is not to mirror image the way we do things with what other countries are doing because the distinction between the private sector and the public sector in other countries is not as profound as it is here in the United States. So, I wanted to be very cautious.

These may be from a different entity. They may be something completely different. It may be completely benign. But I'm not convinced that they are not some kind of surveillance craft of one type or another. But we will see that as these results hopefully come in at some point.

BLACKWELL: Natasha, a couple of the senators we have spoken with over the last few days have said that the president should come out, a -- he should certainly speak to the American people when he has something new when he can tell them something more about at least these three most recent objects that have been shot down. I've been waiting for it. I was ready to write it. But I don't know that we learned a lot more anything new than what we've already heard from John Kirby and other officials close to the president.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right, Victor. I mean, John Kirby, who is the spoke -- one of the spokespeople for the National Security Council did say earlier this week that it is the preliminary assessment of the intelligence community that these three objects that were shot down were not being used for intelligence purposes and that they were likely benign, they did not have hostile intent, and that they were likely balloons, but were not necessarily being used for surveillance. And that is something of course, that the president did echo here. He

did say -- he did go a little bit further saying that they could have been, you know, tied to private companies, for example, are used for things like weather. But ultimately, it was the message that we've been hearing over the last week, which was that this was done out of an abundance of caution. And of course, that it was done because they were at a particular altitude that was potentially dangerous.

Now, the one thing I did find particularly interesting about Biden's comments which did seem new is that the president has directed his team to come up with policy parameters so that they can better kind of figure out essentially what poses a threat in U.S. airspace and what doesn't, so that they're not constantly shooting things out of the sky, right, every time they see one. This was a really unprecedented series of events where they saw these three objects in one after the other and shot them down with U.S. fighter jets. And these policy parameters, the president said, will be classified so that enemies don't have a roadmap to evade our detection.

So, clearly, moving forward, the president has heard some of this criticism that this was a bit much, right, and moving forward. They want to establish some kind of parameters so that they're not having to do this constantly because, you know, the American people as well as lawmakers, were saying that they need to know more about what the U.S. -- what the threshold is going to be right for actually taking these objects out.

GOLODRYGA: And, Natasha, it's interesting because -- and I'm going to -- I'm going to pick out from what Natasha said, Kim, and take this question to you. Because it's interesting that the president said he's going to lay out these parameters, and they apply obviously, domestically.

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But then he also said that he's going to set new parameters in terms of setting global norms to regulate what is an unregulated space right now. And the first thing I thought of, obviously, were countries like China, Russia, I mean, who's going to be adhering to these new global norms and regulations? The president made clear that he wants to keep the channel of communication open between the United States and China, but that's going to be a fine line to walk.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Exactly. What military officials have been warning against is that China has wanted to militarize what they call the near space area between 60,000 and 80,000 feet. And there really isn't any national -- international law that applies to that right now. So yes, Secretary of State Tony Blinken could convene with other world leaders and try to figure out some new norm to apply to that.

But China doesn't pay attention right now to the international waters issues off its coast. So, why is it going to sign on to anything that limits what it can do between 60 to 80,000 feet? Now, what shooting down those three objects did do, however, is notify anyone who might have gotten sloppy with following FAA or FCC regulations for their weather balloon launches, everyone is going to be really careful about filing their flight plan from now on.

BLACKWELL: Abby, there's been bipartisan, maybe criticism is too strong, but a call for the president to speak to the American people, he has now done it. I wonder, Abby, if this satisfies that request or if we'll see the calls for more transparency to hear from the president again on this.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think the president's critics are probably not going to be satisfied with what he said today, or maybe anything that he says on the subject. But I do think that what he did reveal today actually just shows how little he's able to say. I mean, he's talking about very sensitive national security issues, a lot of which is classified. And so, the degree to which he can be transparent to the American public is always going to be limited to some extent.

I think it was important for him to explain what happened over the last several days and over the weekend and to make it clear to the American public that there was not this sort of ongoing, perpetual threat of these balloons flying over U.S. territory. But I think beyond that, I'm not sure what more he can say to the public. And I think the White House probably feels like this is as far as they are willing to go.

I mean, they've really hesitated to even get to this point, to come out and speak. And I think that this might be barring some other kind of major incident. This might be one of the few times that we hear the president talking about this particular issue out in public, just given the sensitivity of the matter at hand here.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Jeremy, if I can get back to you about what this means for U.S.-China relations, the president alluded to possibly speaking to President Xi, at some point in the future, there had been reports that Secretary of State Blinken will be meeting with his counterpart in Munich this week, any indication that that meeting will take place?

DIAMOND: That is not -- that much is not clear. But what you did hear very clearly from the president was an attempt to do two things as it relates to China. The first of which was to make clear that the U.S. views this as a violation of U.S. sovereignty to have that balloon flying over the United States. The president called that violation of sovereignty unacceptable. And he reiterated that he makes no apologies for taking down that balloon.

But on the other hand, you also heard President Biden talking about the future of the U.S.-China relationship. And this is something that he has come back to time and again, which is the notion that the United States doesn't see a conflict with China. But that while there will be competition, that it doesn't want that competition to boil over and to spill over into any kind of conflict.

But the president throughout this really what I found interesting was he was not directly addressing the criticism that he has faced, but he was effectively addressing it by mentioning the fact that it was the military who advised him to wait, for example, until that balloon was over water in order to shoot it down. He referenced the fact that it was -- he was following the advice of the military in the case of those three balloons that were shot down over the weekend. That is also a reference to some of the criticism that the president and the U.S. military may have overreacted as it relates to these instances.

So, President Biden very clearly wanting to show that he acted on this with purpose, and also to note that in allowing that balloon to cross over the United States, they were still able to protect those sensitive military sites and also able to track that balloon, analyze it, and get information out of it. That was also clearly a defense of his actions and a justification in the face of some of the criticism that he's faced over the last week.

BLACKWELL: All right.