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Now, Biden at Walter Reed Medical Center for Annual Physical; Today, Hunter Biden to Testify Behind Closed Doors; Wildfires Tear Through Texas Panhandle, Burn 570,000-Plus Acres. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 28, 2024 - 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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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You are live in the CNN Newsroom.

We are following breaking news. President Biden is at Walter Reed for his annual physical. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is standing by to weigh in.

Meanwhile, up on Capitol Hill, Hunter Biden is testifying. What we're learning about the president's son and what he's going to say behind closed doors.

And disaster in Northern Texas, wildfires are raging across the panhandle as communities are scrambling to evacuate.

One resident tell CNN it looks like Armageddon. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington and this is the news right now.

And we begin with the breaking news. President Biden at Walter Reed Medical Center right now for his annual physical, marking what is likely to be his last update on his health before the 2024 election.

Joining me now is CNN White House Correspondent Arlette Saenz and our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Arlette, let me go to you first. What do you think we're going to hear from the White House about this visit?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, President Biden has been at Walter Reed Medical Center for about 40 minutes now. And the White House says that they will provide a summary of his annual physical upon his completion a little bit later today.

This typically takes several hours, so we likely won't be seeing the president back here at the White House until a little later in the morning or in the early afternoon. We're also expecting for him to deliver some remarks when it comes to the issue of combating crime in American communities.

But this comes as the president, as his physical fitness and his age have been under scrutiny in the 2024 campaign. Now, this is an annual routine physical that the president is undergoing. He did one back in 2021 and also around this time in 2023.

At that point, his physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, in his summary, after the physical, said that the president was healthy, vigorous and fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.

But many will be watching this physical and the results very closely at a time where his age has come under scrutiny. The president is 81 years old, the oldest to ever serve as president. If he's elected for a second term, he would be 86 at the end of that term.

And this comes, as you have heard, his Republican opponents really try to hammer away at the president's issues when it comes to his age, when it comes to his memory. And there is some concern from some American voters as well. If you take a look at a recent Quinnipiac poll, it found that only a third of voters think that the president has a physical fitness and the mental fitness to serve a second term in the White House. So, many will be closely watching to see what exactly this physical will outline.

One thing that some of his Republican opponents have noted is that they think the president should take a cognitive test. But cognitive tests really haven't been a part of these presidential physical examinations in the past. Ultimately, that is something up to the patients and their doctor as well. And in the past, the White House has said that they didn't feel that this was warranted.

But everyone or many will be watching for the president's results very closely as he's undergoing this annual routine of physical over at Walter Reed. We expect to know a little bit later this afternoon about how it went.

ACOSTA: All right. Arlette, thank you very much.

Let me go to Dr Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, Arlette was just saying, you know, Biden had this physical around this time last year. What is your sense of it? What are we going to learn about the president's health from this physical?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think probably similar to last year, Jim, we'll get a written summary at some point. I don't think that they'll make the medical team available for questions. In the summary, we'll sort of look at what a routine physical really sort of hones in on.

So, we know, for example, from 2023, we know, as Arlette said, that he was felt to be healthy and vigorous, also taking a statin medication. He's on a medication to prevent blood clots, known as Eliquis. That's because of his atrial fibrillation. His gait, his walking, has changed a lot over the years. Last year, they said that was primarily due to spinal arthritis and some arthritis in his foot, as well as some neuropathy.

So, these are the sorts of things we are likely to hear. It's typically not very -- it's not -- there's not a lot there, Jim, in terms of overall medical information. It's a very typically a brief sort of summary, unless there's some sort of concern. [10:05:06]

Obviously, we hope to hear it if there is. Lab tests and stuff like that are done as well. A lot has been made, as Arlette was talking about, regarding cognitive testing.

I will tell you that just to give you some context, Jim, about 16 percent of seniors who go in for routine physicals get some sort of cognitive testing. So, the majority of people do not, and it's typically something that is directed by the doctor.

The doctor says, hey, look, I have some concern. Let's screen for any kind of cognitive problems. What you're looking at on the screen there, Jim, you may remember this, this is the Montreal cognitive assessment. This is the one President Trump took a few years ago, said it scored a 30 out of 30 on that.

I'm just leaving it up on the screen for a couple of minutes. People can get a sense of what this test is like. You're connecting numbers and letters. You're drawing a three-dimensional cube. You're drawing the clock hand of a certain time. You're having a test of memory. That's what it does. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes and serves as a screening tool, not diagnostic, but a screening tool that would actually lead people to do further testing.

ACOSTA: Yes. Sanjay, I do remember, and I've seen you so many times in the White House briefing room when the president's health comes up. And I'm just curious, how is President Biden, when it comes to revealing what is going on with his health versus Donald Trump? I mean, that was one of the issues when Trump was in the White House. They were not so revealing about how his health is doing. And that became an issue back then.

GUPTA: I would say for most people, even going back to President Obama for example, it's been pretty -- there hasn't been a lot of substance there. It's been usually a very brief sort of paragraph summary of things, the medications they're on and any specific issues that they're dealing with, something as simple as allergies to, as I mentioned with President Biden's case, the gait, the spinal arthritis that he has that causes him to walk the way that he does. But it's usually not very detailed, Jim.

I'll tell you just as a side note, you and I worked here a long time. Back in 2008, Senator McCain was running for president. He was 71 at the time. At that point he picked a couple of us to go review all of his medical records. There was some several thousand pages of medical records and he said, look, I just want to be as open and transparent as possible. So, he gave us a few hours to review that and come to our own conclusions. Really, we haven't seen that over the last 15 years or so now.

ACOSTA: Yes, and the public deserves to have that information. That's why we're always clamoring for it, no matter who is in the White House.

All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much, I really appreciate those insights.

In the meantime, right now, a pivotal moment up on Capitol Hill as Hunter Biden is about to face off, the Republicans behind closed doors. They will finally get their chance to question the president's son for their impeachment inquiry into the president following months of tense negotiations and some key concessions.

And join me now is CNN Chief Legal Correspondent Paula Reid and former Federal Prosecutor Shan Wu.

Paula, let me go to you first. You just got a new statement from Hunter Biden. What does it say?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This is a very personal statement, Jim, from the president's son. This is going to be his opening statement ahead of this deposition. In part, he says, for more than a year, your committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad. You have trafficked an innuendo, distortion and sensationalism, all while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face. You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn't any.

He also goes on to say in one part of this statement, it's pretty lengthy, so I'm going to read you some parts of it. He says, to be clear, I have made mistakes in my life and I have squandered opportunities and privileges that were afforded to me. I know that, I am responsible for that and I am making amends for that. But my mistakes and shortcomings are my own and not my father's who has done nothing but devote his entire life to public service and trying to make this country a better place to live.

Now, as you noted, we saw Hunter Biden head in with his attorney, Abbe Lowell, just a few moments ago. Notable, Jim, that today's deposition, they had to move it to a bigger room because they are expecting a record number of members to attend. And this is a make-or-break moment for GOP lawmakers who so far have not been able to provide any clear evidence that President Biden benefited from his son's foreign business dealings.

And now this was made possible, this appearance of his closed-door deposition because the lawmakers, GOP lawmakers did make some concessions. They agreed not to videotape this deposition, whereas they have videotaped the other witnesses' depositions in this investigation. And they're also expected to release the transcript promptly.

Now, these concessions were meant to allay concerns from Hunter and his lawyers that Republican lawmakers would selectively leak portions of any closed-door appearance.

[10:10:08]

Which is why, initially, he insisted that he would only testify publicly. Now, he's testifying in a deposition behind closed doors. It's unclear if you will ever appear publicly. That was one of the many questions that was shouted at him as he arrived here today. He did not answer.

ACOSTA: Very interesting. All right, so, obviously, a very feisty statement there from Hunter Biden.

Shan, I mean, let me let me ask you about this. What is the significance of this testimony today? And, I mean, Paula was talking about this a few moments ago. I mean, that is one of the struggles that Republicans in the House have right now. They just don't have a whole lot of evidence. And they're bringing Hunter Biden, I suppose, to see if they can figure out something to hang their hat on at this point, which hasn't been much.

SHAN WU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I think there's going to be so much smoke being blown in that room by the questioners that the smoke alarms may go off. I mean, they're really looking to disguise the fact that their main, unreliable source is now being charged with lying to the FBI, this Smirnov. And in light of that, they're anxious to try and distract from that and to salvage what they can from the questions of Hunter Biden.

I think Hunter Biden and his team are probably rather looking forward to this. They've negotiated very smart conditions, no videos, transcripts have to be released in full pretty much simultaneously, so there can't be any political spinning taking things out of context.

So, substance-wise, I don't think they're going to get much, but they will do as much as possible on the optics side.

ACOSTA: Yes. Paula, I mean, this impeachment inquiry is on thin ice right now after that key FBI informant was charged with lying, as Shan was just talking about. He has a trial scheduled for April. But a lot of this today is going to be kind of a fishing expedition, it sounds like.

REID: Yes. And we did have the opportunity. Some Republican lawmakers did come over here to the mics to field questions from reporters, including Chairman Comer. And we pressed him, I pressed him, others pressed him on exactly what evidence he has to directly link President Biden to the allegations at the center of this impeachment inquiry.

I believe we have that sound. If we do, we should take a listen to his response.

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REID: Chairman, you could say the Bidens, suggesting that includes President Biden. But what evidence do you have directly linking President Biden beyond a dinner, a letter of coffee and some appearances on speakerphone? It keeps saying the Bidens. We're talking about the President Biden specifically. What evidence do you have that you're confident on this (INAUDIBLE)?

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): We have two checks. Again, I don't cite Politico very often, but they ran a good story that, for some reason, Politico didn't put on their morning link, but it was about the AmeriCorps Health, $200,000 payment Joe Biden received directly from an influence peddling. There's no question about it. Joe Biden received two payments.

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REID: A little bit muffled there, but you can see in response to our question, what specific evidence do you have linking President Biden, either before his office or now, to his son's foreign business dealing or in any way benefiting from influence peddling? And he pointed to two checks. Of course, one of them is a $200,000 check from his brother, repayment from a loan. It's about there is no evidence that they have presented, no clear and direct evidence connecting President Biden to influence peddling or corruption.

Comer did come and take questions. He was pressed repeatedly. And there is, again, no direct evidence that they have presented, nothing that clearly connects President Biden to influence peddling or corruption. And that's what they're going to try to use today's hearing to get from his son. But, again, this investigation has been going on for a long time and they still have not been able to present the evidence.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, they're kind of trying to make fetch happen, it seems. I mean, you know, Shan, you know, help me out here. I mean, Paula asked them for evidence just now. There's no evidence.

At some point, don't they have to have -- or I guess you could just sort of shamelessly keep doing this. But at some point, there has to be evidence for you to say that there's evidence.

WU: Well, in a criminal investigation, unlike a congressional one --

ACOSTA: There's a difference?

WU: There's a difference. If you ran into a situation like this, you have no evidence, your main witness has crashed and burned, you would look to save face by maybe just cutting your losses, maybe giving a little ball of plea offer and declare victory and leave. That can't happen in a congressional investigation and not on this one. So, I think it would just stagger onwards.

ACOSTA: Maybe they could keep the government open. Maybe you could do things like that.

WU: There are other things they can do up on Capitol.

ACOSTA: All right. Shan and Paula, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Right now, in the meantime, more than half a million acres scorched in northern Texas. One is burning. fet this, an average 150 football fields a minute. 150 football fields a minute. We'll have the latest on this disaster just ahead. Stay with us.

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ACOSTA: This morning, devastating wildfires are charging across Northern Texas.

Yes, take a look right there. You can hear the siren blaring as farmers are scrambling to keep their livestock safe.

Also, take a look at this, these strong winds pushing a wall of flames right across this roadway. This is the smokehouse fire. It's the largest of the blazes now burning north of Amarillo this morning.

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It mushroomed to a half million acres, more than half the size of Rhode Island. In just two days it has become the second largest wildfire in Texas history. As of now, it is out of control with zero containment.

Overnight the flames crossed into Oklahoma. Communities, large and small, are racing to evacuate hospitals and other facilities had to move their patients to safety.

In all, there are at least five fires actively burning in Northern Texas right now. You can see them on the map right there. And today, workers are returning to the Pantex nuclear weapons facility after being evacuated out of an abundance of caution. This is located in Amarillo. Pantex is the nerve center for assembling and disassembling the nation's nuclear arsenal.

Joining us now is Terrill Bartlett. He is the mayor of Canadian, Texas. Mayor thank you so much for joining us.

How's it going? Have you had to evacuate your city? What's going on?

MAYOR TERRILL BARTLETT, CANADIAN, TEXAS: Yes, we did have to evacuate last night. I think about half of the town got evacuated before there was a wind shift and smoke and flames prevented anyone from leaving to the south. Of course, the north highway is bleeding out of town. That had been closed for some time.

So, basically, I guess about half the town was forced to shelter in place all night. Luckily, there was no one -- no one was severely injured. We did not -- no one lost their life. But there were quite a few homes burned. I do not have any kind of official number yet. Emergency services are still trying to assess the damage and just to try and get people relocated that did lose their home.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Mayor, I mean, one of the things that we're noticing with some of this extraordinary video is the high winds. It really is contributing to this fire spreading out of control. What can you tell us about that?

BARTLETT: Yes, we did have a lot of high winds yesterday and on Monday. The biggest problem was just the constant wind shift. For a long time, the winds was out of the south, and it shifted west and then northwest, and then back southwest, and then back north. And it just made first responders a very difficult situation that were trying to fight the fire. And I might also add that most of the firefighters in this area are all volunteers. So, these people leave their homes and families to, and the tone on that pager goes off, and they just -- they really do a heroic effort when they are called out.

ACOSTA: And we understand, Mayor, the county hospital was evacuated in your area. Is that operational? And what about injuries, loss of life, anything you can tell us at this point on that?

BARTLETT: As far as the hospital, I do not know officially if it is back open. I know the roads are all open, so I would believe that at some point today that it would be fully reopened.

ACOSTA: All right, very good. Mayor Terrill Bartlett, all the best to you, thinking about your community right now. I'm very sorry for what you're going through right now. I hope you get some relief very soon. But in the meantime, thanks for being with us.

BARTLETT: Yes sir, you're very welcome.

ACOSTA: I appreciate it.

All right, let's bring in Bill Weir, CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent. Bill, I mean, you just heard the mayor there. You're seeing this video. I mean, we're not calling it apocalyptic the people on the ground are calling it that, and this is February. How is it we're seeing these massive wildfires already this year?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, Jim. Historically, there's a lot more fires in Texas late in the summer, like you would imagine, but the top ten fires all time all came before April, because the vegetation is dead or dormant, and the winds are much higher this time of year, much faster.

The temperatures above, in Amarillo, 25 degrees above normal when this thing started, and then when it kicked off, the winds were up to 65 miles an hour, so the intensity that's spreading this.

And in Texas, they measure both time and distance on a football field. So, imagine 150 football fields a minute being consumed by this fire, a couple of seconds. It's moving so fast.

And so you see the kind of lack of imagination that fire can do this. And I've seen from Maui to Paradise, California now to the panhandle.

ACOSTA: And how does climate change factor into this, Bill?

WEIR: Well, it's just dryer conditions. The water cycle is completely out of whack, high temperatures desiccates whatever vegetation is there, and it just drives it out.

[10:25:00]

The record was 2011 when nearly 4 million acres burned from 30,000 fires. That was an epic drought year there. And they're not even in a drought right now, Jim. It's been a fairly average and a little bit wetter winter right now.

They got a break in the weather today. It's a little cooler, but the hot temperatures, 70-degree temperatures and above are coming back on Friday. So, your heart goes out, not only to those firefighters trying to get their arms around this thing moving so fast, but those communities that are just losing everything and are now sort of in the five stages of grief for the normal they knew.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. And, you know, when the mayor was just saying there a few moments ago that they rely on volunteer firefighters, Bill, you know this all too well, you go to these things all the time. A lot of these communities that are hit by these wildfires, that's what they rely on.

WEIR: Absolutely. And they lay bare how tight-knit, how much trust, how much connection there are in these communities as well. But, if anything, this is not a one-off that we should be watching these events happen. These are lessons for a hotter, drier, more unpredictable future. And we need to harden our homes, ourselves, our communities because this is the this is the new normal, I'm afraid.

ACOSTA: Yes. It's not just the temperature going up. It's all these other things that are happening as well. Bill Weir, as always, thank you.

Still to come, Donald Trump and President Biden cruise to easy wins in Michigan, but uncommitted voters did send a message from Michigan. We'll talk about that next.

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