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Jake Tapper One-On-One With Bill Maher Tonight At 9 E.T.; Soon, Biden In Virginia For Health Care Speech, Expected To Hit GOP For Social Security, Medicare Cuts; Interview With Keisha Lance Bottoms, Senior Adviser For Public Engagement To President Biden; Putin Admits Russian Intel Agency Suffered Losses In Ukraine. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired February 28, 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]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL MAHER, HOST, HBO'S "REAL TIME": And it is such a pleasure.
My audience who comes to my show now understands me. They think like me. They have open minds. They're not woke. They're generally liberal, but they can be conservative, too. And we have a great time. And there's no groaning. And I love it.
But, look, any comic in this era, anybody in this era can absolutely fall off the ledge at any point. It just makes me laugh when people say to me, you know, you're un-cancellable.
Are you kidding? I could -- in two seconds, I could get canceled. Anybody could.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: We talked a lot about that. We talked about the state of the Democratic Party, state of the Republican Party, state of comedy today.
It was a very interesting conversation. Obviously, he's somebody that has something to say that will piss off everybody.
But also, he, you know, is one of the preeminent political comics of our time, if not the -- you know, the most eminent, just in terms of just specifically political comedy.
And of course, he works at HBO Max, which is our sister channel.
So it was a really interesting conversation.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: I'm looking forward to it. I do wonder how much bleeping we're in for tonight.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: No bleeps! I said no bleeps! We're not governed by the FCC. We're cable, Abby! PHILLIP: OK. OK.
TAPPER: We can say what the -- whatever the "F" we want to. We can.
PHILLIP: It's 1:00 in the afternoon.
Jake Tapper, thank you very much.
TAPPER: Fair enough.
PHILLIP: You can watch Jake's interview with Bill Maher. It airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time on CNN primetime.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:36:15]
PHILLIP: Any moment now, President Biden will head to Virginia Beach to talk up his health care agenda. And he's also expected to criticize congressional Republicans for seeking to cut programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
CNN White House reporter, Priscilla Alvarez, is in Virginia Beach, where President Biden will be very shortly.
Priscilla, what are we expecting to hear today?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We expect President Biden to continue to hammer Republicans over their previous proposals to make cuts to essential programs like the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.
And of course, these remarks come against the backdrop of what is an anticipated showdown over the debt ceiling in the coming months.
Now, the White House has been leaning into those previous -- or at least the GOP calls to make spending cuts in their negotiations over the debt ceiling.
But they haven't given concrete proposals. And in the absence of that, we're expecting President Biden to talk about the impacts of some of the cuts that have come up before.
Again, two of those essential programs, like the Affordable Care Act, where President Biden is expected to talk about the millions of Americans who could lose health care, should that go away, as well as Medicaid.
Now, of course, we should note, the Republicans haven't been actively pushing for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act for some time.
But with the president's budget expected to drop very soon, and in the absence of any proposals from the GOP, that's where we'll see President Biden leaning in today in his remarks. As he tries to further the theme of the State of the Union, that he's
going to finish the job. But also, as he emphasizes the importance of affordable health care -- Abby?
PHILLIP: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, thanks for all of that reporting.
With me now is Keisha Lance Bottoms. She's the senior adviser to President Biden for public engagement.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Tell us a little bit, what are we expecting to hear from the president in Virginia today?
KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS, SENIOR ADVISER FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, what the president will remind people, Abby, is what's at stake if the Affordable Care Act is put back on the chopping block.
What we're potentially facing, more than 100 million people with preexisting health conditions, having their coverage cut.
Tens of millions of people could see their precipitation drug coverage cut back. Forty million people with health insurance in this country today potentially could see that go away.
Over seven million seniors and people with disabilities could see their home care, nursing care cut back. There's so much at stake.
And unfortunately, what's old is often new. We have seen MAGA Republicans put the Affordable Care Act on the table, on the chopping block, time and time again.
And the president is going to remind people the catastrophic results that this country could face if there are cuts to this program.
PHILLIP: And I do want to ask you about that, because I think Priscilla really laid it out well.
You know, I understand that these proposals -- some proposals like this have been on the table in the past, but there really is no indication that they're on the table right now.
Is it really constructive to focus on things that were brought up years ago if they're not currently part of the talks?
LANCE BOTTOMS: Well, when you say that this has been put up for a vote more than 50 times, when MAGA Republicans have voted more than 50 times to cut this program, then it's certainly important to remind people.
Especially of when we know that we don't have anything else from leader McCarthy and other Republicans to consider, that we have to assume that potentially the Affordable Care Act will be back on the table. And again, people have to remember how important this program is. This
impacts millions upon millions of people who rely on Medicare, Social Security, who we lie on Medicare.
[13:40:05]
These are important programs to everyday working American people. And so the president is taking his case right to the American people.
And hopefully, by sharing this message with people across Virginia and across the country, then hopefully this will not be on the table. But it's certainly worth a discussion at this point.
PHILLIP: Well, look, the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said just Monday that these extraordinary measures that they're taking to extend the debt limit will expire in early June.
That means, really, the talks should be happening right now.
When can we expect the president to sit down, once again, with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle and hammer out an actual way forward on the debt limit?
And also to address some of the bipartisan concerns about spending and the long-term financial future of the country?
LANCE BOTTOMS: Well, Abby, you know the president invited Speaker McCarthy over to the White House to have a discussion. Those lines of communication are still open.
The president has made an entire career based on being able to get things done in a bipartisan manner.
It's important to remind people that the debt ceiling has been raised repeatedly, many more times under Republican presidents than not.
And the president is very interested in having meaningful discussions with leaders of the Republican Party.
But there are some things that he just will not compromise on. He will not compromise on Social Security. He will not compromise on cutting Medicare coverage. He will not compromise on cutting Medicaid coverage.
He will not compromise on these things that will impact millions of people across this country. But he's willing to have these discussions.
But the congressional leaders, Republican congressional leaders have to come with a plan.
It's not enough when you are in leadership to say, I am against everything that you are for. We are still waiting on a plan from these leaders.
PHILLIP: OK, I have to ask you, today, the Supreme Court is taking up two challenges to President Biden's student loan forgiveness program. And 26 million people have applied, 16 million were approved.
That's a lot of people who are in limbo right now. What do they do if the court strikes this down?
And I wonder if -- you know, if you think that it's fair to say that perhaps they were given false hope putting this program into place.
It was struck down after the president himself was the one who said he didn't have the power to do so.
LANCE BOTTOMS: Well, I don't think at all it was giving people false hope.
What we saw the president do, with the power of the pen through executive authority, was to grant relief to millions of people across this country.
Millions of people automatically qualified. Millions of people applied for this debt relief.
And the president will encourage people to rely -- to speak out, stay in touch with your congressional leaders.
Because we have to remember this relief will impact people mostly who are already working, who make less than $75,000 a year. This relief will impact Independents, Republicans, Democrats across the board.
So it would be great if Congress would join in making sure that this relief stays in play.
So we just encourage people to please reach out to your congressional leaders and remind them how important this is to everyday working people across this country.
PHILLIP: And if the court does strike it down, Congress really would be the only available avenue left for those individuals.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, thank you so much for joining us, as you are getting ready to step away from this role and into something new. We appreciate it.
LANCE BOTTOMS: Thank you.
[13:43:59]
PHILLIP: And a rare admission from the man who is still calling his unprovoked war on a sovereign nation a "Special Military Operation." What Vladimir Putin told a bunch of his top security officials about losses in Ukraine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:48:41]
PHILLIP: Vladimir Putin delivered a major speech a short time ago to the FSB. That is Russia's federal security service. Putin admitted that members of the FSB have actually been killed in
Ukraine. And he urged the intelligence agency to step up its work to counter Western spy agencies.
That speech comes as intense fighting continues around the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(EXPLOSION)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Ukrainian forces say that the situation is getting dire and they are running out of ammunition.
Let's bring in Steve Hall. He's a national security analyst and a former CIA chief of Russia operations.
So, Steve, I wonder, what was your takeaway from Putin's speech this morning? Was the point here to kind of rally the troops at a really tough moment in this war?
STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, certainly, that's part of it. There's a lot going on in this speech, a lot that Putin wanted to try to accomplish.
First and foremost was to try to increase morale within the FSB, one of the major security services, probably the strongest in Russia.
They have folks on the ground in Ukraine. Like many intelligence services, security services, they have a wartime sort of paramilitary capability, both collection and also to conduct attacks and so forth.
[13:50:01]
But as Putin alluded to, they also have a very, very important role that they need to continue playing inside of Russia, and that's the counterintelligence piece that you mentioned several times in the speech.
PHILLIP: And he also urged the FSB to step up their operations to counteract Western intelligence services, who he says has boosted their operations.
So I wonder, should the West, the U.S. and the NATO nations be concerned about what this means for them in the near term?
HALL: I don't think it's a real change. These things are sort of going on in the background and Putin mentioned them in the speech. It's all one big ball of responsibilities that the FSB has inside of Russia.
When Putin refers to counterintelligence, he's not just talking about the work of the Western intelligence services and other intelligence service, although that's part of it. What he's really concerned about is dissidents inside Russia. And
there's an entire center inside the FSB that is responsible for not only monitoring but also taking care of, eliminating, like the Russians say, liquidating dissidents.
And he's very, very concerned about that because of how poorly the war is going. He's got to monitor it very, very carefully.
PHILLIP: And, yes, they're taking a lot of the casualties, those casualties going back to Russia. What effect that will have I think we're definitely looking to see.
Thank you, Steve Hall, for all of that analysis.
And coming up, a monumental hearing over at the Supreme Court. What the justices are saying and potentially hinting at the future of President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:56:09]
PHILLIP: He was a black sailor and a statesman born into slavery. And now he has a U.S. warship named in his honor.
Take a look what the is now the "USS Robert Smalls."
It used to be called the "USS Chancellorsville" after a Confederate Civil War victory. Smalls was known for hijacking Confederate ships and delivering slaves to freedom.
The renaming of the ship is part of a push within the military to move the names that commemorate the Confederacy on military installations.
And that does to for me. Thank you for joining us. But don't go anywhere just yet. There's much more news still ahead right here on CNN.
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