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CNN This Morning

Search For Possible Missing Amid Iowa Apartment Building Collapse; Biden & McCarthy Racing To Sell Their Debt Agreement To Congress; Lawmakers On Both Sides Of The Aisle Raise Concerns Over Deal; Memorial Day Weekend Travel Breaks Pandemic-Era Records; Russia Targets Kyiv with Latest Drone Attack of Conflict. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 29, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thank you as always for sharing this tradition with us, for sharing those words with us, and of course, for your service. We appreciate you today and every day.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you for the best of you. Thanks.

HILL: And the next hour of CNN This Morning starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's off the smart for the seventh game. Now (INAUDIBLE) tipped in, but the buzzer sounded. The light was on. It'll be reviewed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think he got that in in time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're saying on the floor, they're counting it. The Celtics are going to win. There's a game seven back in Boston.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Good morning, everyone. I mean, the ultimate buzzer-beater there when they didn't know for a moment, did they get it in, did they not? Is it going to count? Well, it counted. And tonight, the Boston Celtics are going to try to make the greatest comeback in NBA playoff history. So if they beat the Miami Heat tonight, the Celtics will then be the first ever team to win game seven after losing the first three games of the series.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning we are about to get an update from officials in Davenport, Iowa, where a search and rescue operation is underway. That's after a six-story apartment building partially collapsed.

HILL: Plus, President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy reaching a deal on the debt limit. Now, though, they have to persuade lawmakers to pass it. We're going to speak with the White House moments from now. This hour of CNN This Morning starts right now.

We begin in Davenport, Iowa this hour, whereas, Rahel mentioned any minute now, we are expecting to hear from authorities. This is rescue teams continue to search for anyone who may be missing following a six-story apartment building's partial collapse. At least seven people, we know, have been rescued. That collapse happening on Sunday.

Authorities, though, are warning of the building's instability this morning. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus joining us live. So the damage we see in those pictures is really something, which means, I would imagine, this is a very delicate rescue effort. What more do we know about those efforts and the number of people who remain unaccounted for, Adrienne?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, good morning to you. We still do not know how many people are missing. We do know authorities were able to rescue at least seven people. And as you mentioned, we are standing by to get an update from authorities regarding the search and rescue efforts that are still underway after this.

If you see on your screen, it's a partial apartment collapse in Davenport, Iowa. We did hear from the Fire Chief Mark Carlsten, he says, this is going to be a long, lengthy process, and he says it's going to take us a while to get this taken care of.

Overnight. crews worked. As you mentioned, this is a delicate process. But the big concern right now is the stability of the structure and crews are working to see if anyone is under the debris there in downtown Davenport, Iowa, Erica.

HILL: So we also know the city, Adrienne, had ordered the building owners to make some upgrades. Do we know more about those upgrades this morning?

BROADDUS: So here's a little what we know. During that news conference where the fire chief addressed members of the media, we were told the building owners did have permits in place for, quote, repairs to some of the exterior walls. And it appears that is where the work on this apartment was taking place.

But here's something that is telling. Before this partial collapse, tenants of the building voiced and expressed their concern, calling the city, quote, numerous times for things and these repairs to the building were ordered by the city.

So as you can imagine, as crews are there, right now, we're taking a look at some live pictures, you see them looking. We -- they're looking up. You see debris there. They're kind of sifting through the debris and even as they were searching through the night, we're told, some of the debris was falling.

So I can't underscore enough that big concern, not only for folks who may be trapped there, but this crew that is working to find anyone who is inside the integrity of the building, the stability of this structure, Erica. HILL: Adrienne Broaddus, appreciate the updates. And we'll continue to check in with you. Thank you.

SOLOMON: Well, the House is set to vote on the debt limit deal just about two days from now, and the race is on for President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy to try to rally enough lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to back their plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what do you say to members of your own party who say you've made too many concessions in this deal?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They'll find, I didn't.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: I think you're going to get a majority of Republicans voting for this bill. This is a good bill for the American public. The President agreed with this bill, so I think there's going to be a lot of Democrats that go vote for too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:03]

SOLOMON: As for the debt ceiling, the latest warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen estimates June 5th is when the government might not have enough money to pay all of its debt on time. That is one week from today.

Our Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju live for us on Capitol Hill. So Manu, look, this was a significant development, but we're already hearing pushback from progressives and the Conservative House Freedom Caucus. So this is -- though, we're close to being over.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Compromise that will anger pretty much everyone and leave lawmakers in a very complicated position. They're going to have to decide whether to accept really the only viable option to avoid the nation's first ever debt default as soon as next Monday or reject it.

And then -- and that's going to be the question, if they can accept the concessions that were made as part of this furious round of negotiations. That happened typically, negotiations that could take months to take place. They essentially had to do it in a matter of days because the White House had resisted any talks for several months because they wanted the Speaker to simply raise the debt ceiling without any conditions attached.

The Speaker refused, demanded spending cuts. Ultimately, the White House bowed to that demand and cut a deal that is angering some folks on the left, but also angering some folks on the right who believe that the Speaker gave in too much. As part of this deal, it would suspend the dead limit for two years up until January, 2025.

Conservatives wanted it much shorter to give them another chance to extract some concessions from the White House, but it also has a range of spending cuts that that would affect domestics programs that Democrats are particularly have protected and sought to protect over the years.

And it would impose new work requirements on social safety net programs like food stamps, expand some of the existing work requirements as well as new work requirements on the temporary assistance for needy families program, things that progressives, in particular, are concerned about.

So the question will be whether they can afford to lose votes on the left and afford to lose votes on the right, and put together a coalition to get this through the House. At the moment, the expectation is that there will be the votes. To pass this in the House, given that there are support from center left Democrats and 11 number of Republicans who are not a part of that far-right block of members who are willing to push this through, get this through the House as soon as Wednesday.

And then it's over onto the Senate, which will have the expectation there that they could get 60 votes to overcome a GOP filibuster attempt to block it, pushing it potentially into the weekend just before that default deadline. So Congress again with his back against the wall, potentially taking up this very complicated agreement that the Speaker and the President reached over the weekend. Now it's time to count the votes, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Complicated is a good way to put it, Manu. And as you just pointed out, it still has to get through both chambers. From your POV, what's the next big hurdle here?

RAJU: Yes, tomorrow will be something to watch. The House Rules Committee, which is the first process step in this process, essentially has to put together the parameters for the debate on the House floor that will happen on Wednesday. That House committee is stacked with members who oppose this bill.

There are two in particular, Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina. Both of them have been outspoken members who have criticized this bill. Another member to watch there, Thomas Massie. If all three of those members vote against this in the committee, tried to stop it from moving forward, it could essentially stop it in its tracks assuming no Democrats break ranks to vote.

Its vote for this to move ahead. So that committee vote tomorrow will be so significant to watch going forward. And also, that was all part of the agreement that Speaker McCarthy cut back in January to become the speaker of the House on 15 ballots. He allowed three hard-right members to be part of that very powerful committee.

The question would be, will that come back to bite him tomorrow in this key moment to try to avoid a debt default? If he's able to get it through that committee, then it's on to the House floor, and then we'll see what happens then.

DEAN: Yes. Certainly, a lot at stake here.

Manu Raju, thank you.

RAJU: Thank you.

HILL: Joining us now, White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt. Ben, good to see you this morning. Let's pick up where Manu just left off there. How much concern is there at the White House this morning about that House Rules Committee?

BEN LABOLT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, look, I want to take a step back first and talk about what's in the agreement, because I think most members of Congress understand how important it is to pass this. As you pointed out, on June 5th, the government will no longer be able to pay its bills and would default for the first time in history if this legislation doesn't pass.

And economists have predicted that that could lead to 8 million jobs lost. Retirement accounts would be hit. We could tip into a national and global recession. And so, what's critical in this legislation is that we act, that Congress acts to prevent default. And that's what we heard from most members of Congress that we briefed yesterday on the Democratic side of the aisle.

The 100 members of the new Democrats, the Center Left Coalition in Congress put out a supportive statement. Congressman Clyburn put out a supportive statement.

[08:10:06]

They're just getting the bill text, so it will take some time for members to review. But we're hopeful this is a reasonable bipartisan compromise that members of both parties will support the agreement.

HILL: So I'm not hearing an answer though when it comes to the House Rules Committee. Is that a major concern for the White House this morning?

LABOLT: Well, look, we'll leave to the Speaker to win support from Republicans in Congress to move this forward. Yesterday, when he was on television, he said that he expected the majority of Republican members in the House to support the legislation.

You know, the President brought in all four congressional leaders throughout this process and worked closely with the Speaker to make sure that they all felt that they could win support from members of both parties to get a bipartisan vote to get this through, which is always how we've prevented default in the past.

HILL: And so we did hear, to your point, we heard from Speaker McCarthy, we played a little bit of that sound earlier, saying he's confident we'll get through in terms of votes. The President also feeling pretty good about it. And yet, we do know that there are lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have some reservations this morning.

I just want to play a moment from yesterday, right here on CNN, on State of the Union. Congresswoman Jayapal was asked whether the administration should be concerned. Here's how she answered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Democrats watching right now at the White House. Your friend, Hakeem Jeffries, others, do they still have to worry about the Progressive Caucus and whether or not your caucus will support?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Yes.

TAPPER: Yes, they do. OK, Congresswoman Jayapal, thank you so much --

JAYAPAL: Yes, they have to worry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So she was very clear there. Yes, they have to worry. You have to worry. What are those discussions this morning? What is the messaging behind the scenes as you try to allay some of those concerns?

LABOLT: Well, there's a few pieces to it. The first I talked about preventing default is absolutely essential for hardworking Americans. The second is for members of the Progressive Caucus who voted for all of the signature legislation of this administration over the past couple of years that has led to the creation of 12.7 million jobs and the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.

Things like the Chips and Science Act that will allow us to build a semiconductor industry in this country. The infrastructure law, the largest investment in clean energy ever in the Inflation Reduction Act. Those are protected and funded in this agreement. And so if you voted for those items, you should vote for this as well in addition to how essential it is to prevent default that would have a catastrophic impact on the American people.

HILL: You're talking about things that were voted. When we look at the -- one of the concessions that was made here, about a quarter of the IRS funding that was passed, so $20 billion being cut out of the $80 billion that was promised to the IRS. This was put out there as a way to not only modernize the technology, right, but also to go after high-end income tax sheets.

And the reason behind all this is this was going to bring in more revenue. Do these cuts jeopardize that goal?

LABOLT: Well look, we don't think they jeopardize the ultimate goal. If this was the budget that the President had written on his own with a Democratic Congress, it would have preserved a 100 percent of that funding. But this is the nature of a bipartisan compromise and the nature of governing like the President said yesterday.

There was a 10-year time horizon on those funds. We think the IRS will still be able to do its job in terms of modernizing, improving customer service and going after wealthy tax cheats. And some of those funds had to be re-appropriated to make sure that we were protecting essential programs for hardworking Americans like education, like healthcare.

HILL: The White House, the President had been adamant that there would be no negotiation here. When asked about it yesterday, he said, well, I didn't negotiate on the debt ceiling. When you look at the messaging here, that's a challenge for the President to overcome in terms of whether he did or did not negotiate.

Semantics are one thing. But as he's going out there and trying to sell things, how important is the messaging on this deal and where Democrats stand on it?

LABOLT: Well, look, I think the messaging is always important. And I'll remind you that the President started setting the contours of this debate really in the State of the Union address earlier this year when he said it's essential that we don't cut Medicare. It's essential that we don't cut Social Security. And Republicans subsequently agreed to that.

He'd been advocating for a budget since March 9th that invests in hardworking Americans that protects the economic gains of this administration. He had an approach to deficit reduction that included taxing the wealthiest and asking corporations to pay their fair share.

Unfortunately, Republicans wouldn't entertain revenue as part of this discussion, but we think we've landed in a reasonable place that recognizes that there's a Democratic White House and a Republican House, and ultimately, some bipartisan compromise is needed for the legislation to pass at the end of the day.

[08:15:03]

HILL: Ben LaBolt, good to have you with us this morning. Thank you.

LABOLT: Thank you for having me.

SOLOMON: Well, Memorial Day weekend travel has already broken pandemic era air travel records twice. And despite the large crowds, the airlines in the FAA have been able to keep up.

CNN's Pete Muntean, live at Reagan National Airport. So Pete, it's been good so far. I mean, do you expect that to continue? It is early, it's 8:15 Eastern.

MUNTEAN: We're through the first wave, Rahel, and it's been so good. So far, so good. The second wave now is the big question. All of these people coming home all at once.

Think about the backdrop here against the backdrop of last Memorial Day when airlines really kicked off that summer of flight cancellations and all of these people traveling all at once. This was always going to be a huge test for the airlines.

The TSA is on pace to meet its 10 million passengers screen nationwide forecast. On Friday, they screened the pandemic-era air travel record, 2.72 million people at airports nationwide Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, those numbers are all bigger than the same day back in 2019 before the pandemic.

The good news here is that the cancellations have been relatively low, peaking on Friday about 200 cancellations. So we've seen about 600 cancellations between Thursday and today. Today, pretty low as well.

But think back to Memorial Day back in 2022 when airlines over the same period canceled about 2,700 flights, really being celebrated by Transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg. He says that the cancellation rate right now is less than one percent, but the meltdowns of last year according to travelers I've been talking to still top of mind for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is absolutely in the back of my mind, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I get home without a hitch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope that when I go back on Tuesday, I won't have a problem because I have to get to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: The FAA anticipates handling 42,000 commercial flights today. It says that there could be some hiccups today in the New York area, at Newark and LaGuardia because of high wind; also in San Francisco, because of fog, although no ground stops just yet, Rahel. No major delays so far.

So it could be a pretty good day when it comes to cancellations and we may stick the landing here when it comes to a smooth start to the summer.

SOLOMON: I see what you did there, Pete Muntean. I like it. Thank you.

I talked to Pete on Friday on the 9:00 AM show and he said this is a big test for the airlines.

HILL: Yes.

SOLOMON: Big test for the TSA, it looks like they passed it.

HILL: So that's good to hear.

SOLOMON: Yes.

HILL: All right, summer. Here we go.

SOLOMON: Here we go.

HILL: Just keep up.

SOLOMON: All right, coming up next, overnight, Russia launching one of its largest ever drone attacks against Ukraine.

And the president of Belarus claiming that nations who enter into an alliance with Russia will be provided with nuclear weapons. We will have the latest from the ground in Ukraine coming up next.

HILL: Plus, Turkey's President Erdogan winning re-election in a runoff but now extends his rule into a third decade. We'll take a look at the global impact just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:39]

HILL: We have some new video to show you just into CNN. Crowds gathering in a key metro station during an air attack. Ukraine's military says its forces shot down nearly 40 air targets just today. And this comes after nearly 70 targets were shot down hours earlier in the capital city. This is being called Russia's largest drone attack yet on the capital city.

CNN's Sam Kiley is live in eastern Ukraine for us.

So the attacks seem to be on the uptick. Is that what you're experiencing and what you're hearing from folks?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly there is an increase in the focus of the number of attacks on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. This is the 63rd day or night this year that Kyiv has come under sustained and concentrated attack.

What's unusual and arguably an escalation this morning is the use of Iskandar missiles or what I believe to be Iskandar missiles, which are very sophisticated, very heavy war headed missiles produced by the Russians against Kyiv in daylight, driving people underground, causing children to run screaming through the streets, clearly intended to both attack civilians, but also sow fear among the civilian population.

So this is an additional effort to the overnight effort, which essentially is directed at trying to get missiles through against the command and control structures inside Kyiv, and absorb as much of the Ukrainian air defenses, a lot of them supplied by the international community, notably, Patriot, but not just that from the United States, Germany and others, and Netherlands but other missile systems that protect Ukraine against the Russian dominance of the airs.

It's a very careful balancing act there in terms of resources and the Russians clearly trying to get the Ukrainians to use as much of that resource and waste it on the low-tech Shahed drones, in particular in the overnight attacks, but these attacks during the day are much more sinister nature.

HILL: I also wanted to ask you about Russia or Belarusian President Lukashenko now claiming that he will offer nuclear weapons to nations willing to join the union state of Russia and Belarus. Not clear to me that he actually has any nuclear weapons to share with anyone, but certainly an interesting statement.

KILEY: It's a sort of statement that he might not have made without the permission or encouragement of the Kremlin, but as you rightly point out, Belarus does not have any nuclear weapons. So it's a bit like saying, I'll give a million bucks to anybody who will be my friend. The problem is I don't have a million bucks to give away.

But what it does signal via him is perhaps Kremlin's suggestion that it will nuclearized its sphere of influence in the face of increasing pressure, both economic and military that it is facing more directly here in Ukraine over its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

It is facing being an international pariah, it is facing economic hardship as a result of international sanctions. So Russia's potentially only card to play longer term is to say we will abandon nuclear non-proliferation and start spreading nuclear weapons amongst our friends, but it's certainly not in the gift of the president of Belarus. He doesn't have any nuclear weapons to give anybody.

HILL: Yes, important to point out, Sam Kiley, appreciate it, as always, thank you.

[08:25:05]

SOLOMON: Turning now to Turkey where Turkey's longtime president, Recep Erdogan is set to remain in power after winning a high stakes runoff election.

Erdogan beat the opposition with 52 percent of the vote yesterday, according to election officials there. As you can see in some of this video, thousands of supporters gathered outside the presidential palace to celebrate his win.

Turkey is a key NATO ally, but throughout his presidency, he has faced strong criticism for consolidating power, jailing his political rivals, and developing close ties with Russia and Iran.

Erdogan and Russian president, Vladimir Putin have what Erdogan has called the "special relationship" telling CNN's Becky Anderson last week that the two nations "need each other in every field possible."

HILL: So just released video to share with you. Look at this. This is -- I mean, it's a shocking video, a bus driver and a passenger in a shootout. And as you can tell there by watching the video, this happened on board a moving bus. We will tell you what happened next.

SOLOMON: And take a look at this. This is from yesterday's Indy 500.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

SOLOMON: So you see that car spin out there. It hit a tire and sends it soaring over the fence toward the crowd, where it landed, and what happened to the driver, that's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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