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Hardliners Press Johson on Spending Deal; Biden Visits Pennsylvania to Make Pitch; Rise in Swatting Calls. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 12, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:53]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: This morning on Capitol Hill, hardline conservatives are pushing Speaker Mike Johnson to walk away from a topline spending deal which, of course, was struck with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats. It's a move that threatens to derail bipartisan talks to keep the government open.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC BURLISON (R-MO): I didn't come up here to spend more money than Nancy Pelosi as a Republican, and I'm not going to be a part of it.

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HILL: CNN's Lauren Fox is live in Washington for us this morning.

So, we have exactly one week now until this partial government shutdown, Lauren. Republican opposition here. Is this -- I mean, how much jeopardy is this deal in? Is this going to tank it?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, let's walk through the timeline a little bit. On Sunday night we saw that Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a topline spending agreement with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Yesterday morning, however, he was met with a number of hardline conservatives who are pushing him to walk away from that deal. That deal, obviously, is a long-term investment in the country's funding deadlines. It's to ensure that there isn't a government shutdown. And yet, despite reaching that agreement, Mike Johnson had those members in to have a conversation.

Now, Johnson emerged after that meeting saying he'd made no commitments to them. But this just shows you that he's really in the middle of this fractious Republican conference and in the middle of a fight between moderates and hardliners within his ranks.

You are hearing from some moderate members who are saying, Johnson has no other choice but to stick with this deal that he cut. Here's Representative Don Bacon to me yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. DON BACON (R-NE): The country's got to govern. We want stability. You know, the alternative is going to be a shutdown or, you know, this long CR, which is downsizing (ph) the military. The agreement is the best way forward. And I supported the speaker yesterday publicly and in the conference, and I'm going to ask him to hold on to the agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Meanwhile, even if they stick with this agreement, appropriators are warning there's not enough time to write the bills. That means that they need to have another short-term measure to get them over and pass that Friday deadline coming up next week. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took procedural steps on the floor last night to ensure that the Senate will move to make sure that there is a stopgap measure in place. But that just shows you that right now Johnson has one week to go, and it's not clear which direction he's headed.

HILL: It is something.

Lauren, appreciate it. Thank you.

Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, back to our breaking news this morning, the U.S. and the U.K. carrying out strikes against Iran- backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Coming up next, we're going to break down why this area is so important. You see the level of the strikes there, and why so much is at stake globally. How the conflict there impacts us here.

Stay with us.

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[06:37:17]

HILL: There is growing concerning this morning about an escalating conflict in the Middle East on the heels of these U.S. and British military strikes overnight targeting multiple Houthi targets in Yemen. Phil is at the magic wall now to break down what the development really means, not just for the region, Phil, but for the world, and that is where this growing concern comes from, right, is how it spreads.

MATTINGLY: No question about it. And there is a very real reason why the Biden administration sought for weeks to avoid the very moment we're in right now. There were warnings, both public and through back channels, U.S. officials tell CNN, trying to get the Yemen rebels to pull back, the Houthis to pull back.

The acute international focus, and now the U.S.-led action, is tied to that rebel group from a tiny war-torn nation. And it serves to underscore the complex and dynamic nature of an area that serves as a geopolitical and economic lynch pin. You see the scale of the strikes that have come from Houthi rebels over the course of the last several weeks. Now a response.

Why? Well, let's starts with the global economy. Officials point to the waterway, the Red Sea, as the main route for roughly 12 to 15 percent of world trade. That is a huge number. But what does it actually mean?

Since the Houthi attacks began, the largest shipping companies, you see them here, in the world have steadily moved to halt transit through the Red Sea. What has that led to? Well, that has led to a drop of 20 percent or more in Red Sea activity. That's according to Lloyd's List. It marks the start of a potentially cascading effect, which the World Bank outlined in a report this week. And this is important to know. Warning in that report that energy supplies could be disrupted, leading to spikes in prices, which would, in turn, spill over into other commodities that would heighten global tensions and, of course, at an inflation high moment, economic uncertainty.

Now, in just the month before the U.S.-led strikes that happened last night, the volume of containers transported through the Red Sea plummeted. That's not a joke. That's not an error. That's the actual line. By more than half. Right now almost at 70 percent of the usual volume expected is where - is how much it has dropped. That has led to a dramatic increase in the cost to ship goods.

Now, look at this spike right here. You see the spike to ship a 40- foot container. Now, again, that sounds a little bit in the weeds here. However, that is critical. Explain why in a second. And it has more than doubled since November.

Now, it's true, consumers probably haven't seen a tangible effect at the stores they're going to right now, but economic officials warn it's only a matter of time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO FORGIONE, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INSTITUTE OF EXPORT AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE: A significant amount of what transits through Suez are inputs, so it's fuel, it's ingredients, it's components that enter into the manufacturing sector. So, the impact on just in time manufacturing processes will be even more significant and have a longer term impact.

[06:40:00]

This confusion and disturbance is going to take months to correct.

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MATTINGLY: So, why were U.S. officials so wary of striking the rebel group directly despite increased pressure from allies and those who had concerns about how they were operating? Well, in a region that is already clearly aflame in the wake of the October 7th and the Gaza war, the escalation was viewed as particularly acute. The risk of escalation. The Houthi rebels, they are one of many Iranian proxy groups that have launched attacks since the start of the war. Obviously, there have been attacks in Syria, attacks from Iraq that the U.S. has responded to. Iran is suspected of supplying Houthi rebels with weapons, and, the U.S. says, Iranian intelligence has been critical to enabling them to attack U.S. and allied ships in that region.

Now, key allies in the region, most notably Saudi Arabia, have quietly urged the U.S. to show restraint over the course of the last couple of weeks. And that's critical here because it gets to the geopolitical volatility that serves as the backdrop to all of this.

This is why. Take a look at this. This was the scene in 2019. One of the best protected places on earth. One of the largest energy production hubs in the world. Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia that resulted in this. It happened over the course of several years. One example of the group's reach that has, over the course of the last several years, not just included Saudi Arabia, has also included the UAE and Bahrain as well. Obviously, concerns here in Saudi Arabia. Those strikes, part of a war that had raged since 2015, a civil war, that was also a proxy war, killing hundreds of thousands, leaving 80 percent of Yemen's population dependent on humanitarian aid. It was the Biden administration that play a central role in a 2022 truce that has continued to hold since.

The risk of that falling apart, now center stage. So too is the risk of Iran, which is behind not just the Houthis, but also those proxy groups in Syria and Iran, as well as Hezbollah and Lebanon, and the fact that they may escalate. And that, U.S. officials make clear, is the greatest concern in a moment when an unstable region sits perilously close to the brink.

Erica.

HILL: So important and such a great explainer.

Phil, thank you.

President Biden set to head back to Pennsylvania today as new polling shows him in a tight race there with Donald Trump. We'll take a closer look.

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[06:46:28]

HILL: In just a couple of hours, President Biden will travel to the battleground state of Pennsylvania to make his economic pitch. Pennsylvania, of course, crucial to Biden's 2024 chances. And there's new polling in the state that shows him in a tight race with Donald Trump. It's actually the first in Pennsylvania to also show him with a slight lead over the former president.

MATTINGLY: Now, in a new social media video, President Biden reacting to Trump saying he hopes an economic crash happens this year.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When there's a crash, I hope it's going to be during this next 12 months because I don't want to be Herbert Hoover, the one president, I just don't want to be Herbert Hoover.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's acknowledging that my economy is doing pretty darn well because he doesn't want that to continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Leah Wright Rigueur, John Avlon and Lee Carter are back with us now.

I'm struck -- that's actually kind of like an agile social media strategy to some degree, but I think the bigger question is - and that we've all had and talked about ad nauseam is, the message hasn't connected. Is it going to change now?

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND HISTORIAN: So, this is why Pennsylvania is so important because Pennsylvania is one where, you know, Joe Biden has roots, he has talked about, you know, his relationship to the state. It was a huge part of the 2020 strategy. In 2016, Pennsylvania, we saw it got kind of blown off, and it had dire consequences. You know, we've said for a long time that how goes Ohio, so goes the nation, but maybe the phrase should be, how goes Pennsylvania goes the nation.

It's also a space where he can come out and he can specifically talk about a number of different things, in part because Pennsylvania is a good representation of kind of the full diversity of the country, class, race, ethnicity, religion, all of these things, and he can talk very specifically about the kind of infrastructure programs, the job programs, you know, they have rehabilitation programs that are going into the streets and into churches and into public parks. So, these are all of the things that are both hitting with Pennsylvanians, but also that - that Biden really needs to do as part of this larger messaging strategy.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND ANCHOR: Yes, but the entire logic of Biden's candidacy originally was Pennsylvania, right?

RIGUEUR: Right.

AVLON: He's the boy from Scranton. Neighboring Delaware.

LEE CARTER, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER: Yes.

AVLON: So, he's got to win, you know, Pennsylvania. And the fact this is the first poll in a long time showing him up is good news for the Biden campaign. But it's also necessary news, frankly.

CARTER: It's absolutely necessary. And I actually was surprised to see that he wasn't winning Pennsylvania, because not only was 2020 so important in 20 -- was Pennsylvania so important in 2020, also in the midterms what happened with Fetterman, Dr. Oz, with the governor, it really has been squarely going to the left. And so the fact that there was any polls suggesting that Trump was having a surge to me was a big surprise. So, I think this is very important news for the Biden administration.

MATTINGLY: No, no, go ahead.

HILL: But, Leah, you bring up, you know, sort of all of the things that are available to the Biden campaign in terms of messages and people who they can hit. What's fascinating to me, though, is, we know this economic message is not hitting. Part of that is because of the way that people feel. And we have talked about it so much. Numbers are one thing. How you feel is something else.

Do you see any indication, John, that the campaign itself has figured out how to talk to the feelings instead of the numbers?

AVLON: Not yet, but I think -- I think that, you know, that social media strategy of saying that Trump's, a, rooting for a depression crash, and, b, that de facto acknowledging that the economy is very strong is - is a step in that direction. They haven't come up with kind of the sticky stats and sound bites that you need. Trump always hammered home the economy. The Biden team hasn't done that as much and they really need to. The other thing is, a lot of the landmark accomplishments of this administration, the Chips Act, the Infrastructure Bill, those folks haven't really been felt yet.

[06:50:01]

But, you know, Biden's always talked a lot about the middle class. The middle class needs to feel that they're improving under his economy. And those piece of legislation may do that.

MATTINGLY: What I think is interesting, and I'm admittedly making too much of a single social media video that was clearly staged (INAUDIBLE) but I'm stuck -

AVLON: I defended (INAUDIBLE).

MATTINGLY: But I do - like, isn't that kind of capture the entire strategy to some degree of, Donald Trump says a thing, Biden responds to a thing, and that's how they get people to actually key in on the election and the contrast here.

CARTER: Well, I always say the person that's reacting is losing, right? And so I think Biden's strategy right now is very reactionary. I don't think he's setting - I - I don't think he is the one that's setting the agenda. I think he's trying to say, everybody who cares about the economy, let me talk about the economy, is not that bad. It's actually better than you think. It's never been better. and people are saying, you don't get it. And so I think he's really got to be more of a pacesetter, rather than a reactionary. And I think, you know, him going out to Pennsylvania right now is a really important move. And I think he hasn't found his footing on the economic message. I think if he had said, look, I understand that things are hard. It's going to take some time. But here are some indicators to look at that things are going in the right direction.

MATTINGLY: That's some - that's some really long social media message.

AVLON: It is. Look - look, I mean, I wrote a column about this for CNN, though -

CARTER: Fair enough.

AVLON: Like, you know, are you better -- is America better off than we were three years ago, in January of 2021. The argument -- the - the answer is yes if you look at what was happening in our country on January 1st.

HILL: That's not the message, though, for -

AVLON: No, but it should be.

HILL: Yes. Well, and to that point, right, the campaign doesn't seem to -- I don't know if it's because there's so much going on in the world, right. But to your point about it being reactionary, the campaign also doesn't seem to have figured out a way to talk about, through their surrogates, right, even if it's not the president, about, hey, here's why you should stick with me for four years because these things are going to get better.

RIGUEUR: Right.

HILL: There's no forward-looking vision.

AVLON: That's right. Huge problem.

CARTER: That's right.

RIGUEUR: Well, yes. And I also think, just very quickly here, I think the other thing that - we're actually -- the Biden campaign could learn from Trump is that he is all -- Trump always said, I see you, I hear you, I feel you, even as he was hammering all of these other economic things. And this is the place where Biden really has an opportunity to step in, in Pennsylvania and say, I hear you, I understand and I have a plan to fix it.

MATTINGLY: All right, guys, Leah, John, Lee, thanks, guys, very much.

CARTER: Thank you.

HILL: Police say the judge who's presiding over Donald Trump's civil fraud trial was the victim of swatting. There's been a major uptick in these dangerous prank calls. We're going to take a closer look.

MATTINGLY: And more on our breaking news this morning. A U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. We're going to discuss the global risks of the U.S. getting involved in an already very tense situation in the region.

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[06:56:25]

HILL: There are new details this morning about the bomb threat at the home of the judge who's presiding over Donald Trump's civil fraud trial. Police say the threat was unfounded and said it was a swatting incident. You're hearing that a lot more these days. Swatting is that dangerous practice where fake emergency calls are made that then cause SWAT teams to show up at people's homes. Officials say they've seen an uptick too in the disturbing trend.

CNN's Rene Marsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE YOST, OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL: They claimed that I had shot my wife.

RENE MARSH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Ohio's Attorney General Dave Yost.

LT. GOV. BURT JONES, GEORGIA: They had shot their spouse and that - and that they had somebody else tied up.

MARSH (voice over): And Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, both police say targets of a dangerous trend on the rise called swatting.

It's a hoax where the caller makes a panicked false report to 911 about a violent crime in progress at their target's home, triggering a large police response with armed officers, like the one Georgia State Senator Clint Dixon experienced when he says he was swatted on Christmas Day.

CLINT DIXON, GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: I went to the front door and opened the door and answered the door and was met by six officers that were carrying ARs.

MARSH (voice over): Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she was targeted the same day. The police report says the caller told an emergency dispatcher he shot his girlfriend and Greene's home was the scene of the crime.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The intent is to harass the individual who's the subject of the swatting call, but there are serious consequences potentially. Officers responding very quickly to the scene, thinking that there's some major crime in progress, it puts -- which puts the person who is the subject of the swatting at risk.

MARSH (voice over): In a divisive and toxic political environment, both Republican and Democratic political figures seem to be increasingly the targets. Many of them viewed by Trump supporters as political opponents.

This Sunday, D.C. police responded to a 911 call for a shooting at the home of the federal judge in Donald Trump's election interference case. The police report says once units arrived, they realized the judge was not injured, and there was no one in her home.

Last month, Jack Smith, the Justice Department's special counsel overseeing two federal cases against Donald Trump, was swatted, a law enforcement source tells CNN. So was Maine's secretary of state after she ruled Trump ineligible to appear on the state's ballot. And just hours before Thursday's closing arguments, a bomb threat at the home of the judge presiding over Trump's civil trial.

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: These threats of violence are unacceptable. They threaten the fabric of our democracy.

MARSH (voice over): In May, the FBI set up a database to track swatting cases for the first time. Since then, the agency says it has received more than 500 reports. But finding the perpetrators who often mask their caller I.D. data can be difficult, and that's why political figures who have fallen victim to the crime are urging Congress to ask.

DIXON: If there was, you know, a federal law on the books given that this person is calling from another state, that, you know, you'd have that jurisdiction and hopefully be able to apprehend those folks more effectively.

MARSH (voice over): As elections draw near, states are doing what Congress has not. Last year, Ohio passed a law making swatting a felony. And Georgia has drafted similar legislation.

MARSH: Well, it's not just high-profile political figures falling victim to swatting. It runs the gamut from Jewish and other religious institutions, government buildings, schools, to election workers and members of the military.

[07:00:00]

Now, law enforcement stresses that this is a dangerous hoax. They point to a 28-year-old Kansas man who was actually killed after someone called in a fake 911.