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Biden Hopes To Pay For Ambitious Agenda With Tax Hikes On Richest Americans & Businesses; Biden Hits The Road To Sell Ambitious Agenda; Biden: China's Xi "Deadly Earnest on Becoming The Most Significant, Consequential Nation In The World"; Biden on Giuliani Raid: "I Had No Idea This Was Underway"; Sources: U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan Has Begun. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 29, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Story of Late Night this Sunday 9 pm Eastern. Thank you all so much for joining me. John King picks up now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello everybody and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very important day with us. President Biden is on the road marking his 100th day in office and making the case for a sweeping rewrite of America's social contract.

He is in Georgia today, Philadelphia tomorrow and Virginia on Monday. His vice president is in Baltimore this afternoon and she spends Friday in Ohio. New sound from the President of the United States last hour in a taped interview, you want to listen to this, the president discussing another giant news story, the investigation into former President Trump's confidant Rudy Giuliani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I learned about that last night when the rest of the world learned about it. My word, I had no idea this was underway. This last administration politicized the justice part and so badly.

So many of them quit, so many left because that's not the rule - is not the role of a president to say who should be prosecuted, when they should be prosecuted, who should be not prosecuted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: More on that story ahead. But first, the president traveling sales pitch tees up a fascinating and consequential question. Can a president whose party just barely controls congress when public support and the votes for a multi trillion dollar plan he says give families and the economy long overdue help?

And that, if passed, would expand the role of government in challenges ranging from preschool for three year olds to finding a caregiver for an aging parent. In his speech to a joint session of congress last night, the president cast his once in a generation investment as critical both to addressing urgent economic needs at home and he says reinvigorating America's place on the world stage jobs was a constant focus.

President says America is again on the move. This morning a key data point backs him up, you might say in a big way. New numbers show the U.S. economy grew at a 6.4 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year, the first three months of 2021.

That beat expectations and it signals the economy is roaring back after a year plus of pandemic disruptions. Now Republicans argue that growth proves the economy does not need all this new spending and that it might stall if the president raises taxes on the rich and on corporations.

Yes, the president did ask for bipartisan help during his address, but he is not blind to Washington's polarization. And he knows the political climate. And he knows many of his proposals are simply anathema to the GOP.

So if Democrats are to pass the president's plan or something close to it, they need a compelling sales pitch from the president and strict discipline from the Democratic Party. Let's start the hour on that point. And with CNN's Kaitlan Collins in Georgia where the president will hold a rally tonight but first he's also meeting with the Former President, Jimmy Carter, Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he is, of course former President Jimmy Carter did not attend President Biden's inauguration because of the Coronavirus pandemic. So now that President Biden is coming here to Georgia, we're actually close outside of Atlanta, but he's first going to be making a stop in southern Georgia plains Georgia.

Of course, that is where the Carters reside and they have since been vaccinated. With the Coronavirus vaccine, we're told they started going back to church started resuming some of those normal life activities. And so you are going to see President Biden stop by there first to greet him.

Of course, this is something else that is a return to normal from what we did not see during the Trump presidency. You know, this interaction with the other living presidents to talk to them to get their councils has really been something you've seen President Biden pursue during his time in office.

But then John he is going to come here to Atlanta for this drive and rallies is a rescheduled rally that they have. But now while he's here, he's not going to just be touting that infrastructure plan. He'll also be touting that American family's plan that he unveiled last night.

And of course, those are these big transformational packages that also have another t trillion attached to their name. And so that is going to be something that he is trying to sell here after doing so last night in Washington unveiling that package. And as you were saying, you know, not just trying to sell it to

Republicans in the room, but even some of those moderate Democrats. People like Senator Joe Manchin who says, yes, these proposals that the president is putting out - are putting out.

They are going to have a lot of scrutiny throughout congress where you see them getting anywhere gaining any traction. And that's what President Biden said last night. He said he wanted to introduce them before they got deep into the details so that they can have those negotiations with lawmakers.

But the other part that you're going to see them embarking on this week and next is selling it to the American people because that was something they relied on when they talked about their COVID relief bill when it did not get any Republican support.

As they said, well, it had a lot of Republican support throughout the country. And so of course, John, he is coming back here and another note about Georgia. It is also the place that delivered him that small margin that he has in the Senate.

KING: In a critical battleground state interesting for the president to make this case they're first out in the road. Kaitlan Collins, grateful for the live reporting, we'll watch the president's travels today.

Now let's discuss his plan joining me to share their insights and their analysis, our CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash and the Chief Correspondent at the Washington Post, Dan Balz.

[12:05:00]

KING: Dana, I want to start with you, because a lot of talk in Washington, the president several times said, I want to work with everybody. But it's hard to have bipartisan when a lot of what you propose is outside of GOP norms.

And the president was making the case last night in this speech. He said, yes, I'm going to raise taxes, but only on the rich. So don't believe Republicans when he says the president was trying to say don't believe Republicans, I say I'm raising everybody's taxes.

And by the way, it's hard to have bipartisanship when the President of the United States looks Republican in the eyes and say the way you do economics is wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: 650 people increase their wealth by more than $1 trillion during this pandemic. And they're now worth more than $4 trillion. My fellow Americans, trickle down. Trickledown economics has never worked, this time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I'm right, you're wrong. So are you saying the Republicans there?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm right, you're wrong. And I'm going to transform the way that the leadership of - at the starting at the White House in particular has approached government since Ronald Reagan. Since trickledown economics became a thing during Reagan.

And that notion of smaller government trickledown economics being part of it, but particularly shrinking the government was what lord, a generation of Republican leaders, many of whom he has worked with some of whom were Democrats before, he is telling them that that is not what the American people want anymore.

And by the way, it's not just Republicans, Bill Clinton said their big government is over. And it's not as if President Obama was aggressively trying to expand the government. ACA aside, I mean, Obamacare is definitely an exception to what I just said.

But what Joe Biden is banking on in his democratic colleagues in congress, is the fact that COVID show people, you need government, you need government, some sectors of your life, the private sector doesn't always work for you.

And he's trying to go big on that and transform the government in a way that we haven't seen in decades.

KING: Dana says big damn balls up. She's right, bigger than we have seen in decades. You write about this morning. I want to read a little bit of that. But first, I want to listen to the president making the case looking the American people in the eye and saying I want a giant plan. It's a lot of money. He likes to use the words, jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: American jobs will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to economic growth in the years to come. It is a - it is an eight year program. These are good paying jobs that can't be outsourced. Nearly 90 percent of the infrastructure jobs created an American jobs plan do not require a college degree. 75 percent don't require an associate's degree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Dana this is how you cast this in the post today. His speech was a reflection of his presidency to date and appeal for big and bold action described in the most workaday rhetoric. And by a leader whose demeanor and temperament are the very opposite of his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

You go on to say Biden is attempting transformative change on a base smaller by far than any of those previous presidents enjoyed, which is what makes the political gamble so big. That is the fascinating question.

But back to the how the president sells it. You know, Bernie Sanders just talked about a political revolution. Joe Biden says, I'm going to give you a job guy.

DAN BALZ, CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, it's so interesting, John, the way he has approached this. There was nothing in that speech last night that suggested that he wanted to talk about this in grand philosophical terms or in you know, in speaking of revolution or transformative change.

He simply wanted to talk about the steps that he is initiating and proposing. And many of those, as we know, enjoy some support, probably majority support. But he's not trying to wrap it up with a big bowl and to try to say, I'm here to reverse the Reagan revolution, though, in fact, that would be the impact if he's able to do that.

But as you, as you noted, as I wrote today, he's trying to do this with the, you know, with the narrowest majorities imaginable. And that's why this is such a big test and a big gamble for him and for the Democrats.

KING: Big test and big gamble. And look, the president hopes this helps his party in the short term. But what an interesting part of his pitch was trying to appeal to American patriotism trying to appeal to Republicans, although they're not going to like the details here by saying, look, this is important here at home.

But we need to do these investments because the world is now watching a competition between democracies like ours. And the president went out of his way several times, listen to a snippet here to say this is a race. This is a fight with China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We can't be so busy competing with one another, that we forget the competition that we have with the rest of the world to win the 21st century. Secretary Blinken can tell you I spent a lot of time with President Xi, he's deadly earnest about becoming the most significant consequential nation in the world.

[12:10:00]

He and others, autocrats think that democracy can't compete in the 21st century with autocracies, because it takes too long to get consensus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Dan, to you first, what did you make of that the president casting all this as part of a very important domestic competition, but almost more importantly, as a global fight?

BALZ: Well and I think he's right on that. I mean, in the grand scheme of things that that we are in a moment in history in which there is a - there is competition between two forms of government autocracies in democracies.

Early on when he was a candidate, as you recall, he was criticized for seeming to be too dismissive of the challenge from China and of the competition that China presents clear as president about that competition and his willingness to lean into it.

I mean, what we've seen so far in his presidency is that there is a clear focus on Asia and China in ways that did not happen in either the - certainly in the Obama administration. And so last night, he wanted a vein of domestic pure domestic politics with his fight, which is impossible to elevate out of.

But nonetheless to cast it in a - in a broader way that might make it more appealing to people who have some specific issues about the size of what he's trying to do.

KING: And I think, Dan, at a closer conversation, Dan makes an interesting point leaning into China's is - will this be a constant refrain? Remember his former boss, President Obama mock Mitt Romney back in 2012, when he said China was the largest geopolitical challenge, Mitt Romney was right.

BASH: No, no question. I mean, it's very clear that this is authentically Joe Biden that he's truly concerned about China and how important it is to, you know, combat China. And if you look at it and look at history, I mean, you know, we've talked about moon shot for cancer, so on and so forth.

It's not dissimilar to what President Kennedy did with regard to Russia. You know, we got to harness the abilities and capabilities of America get together to do it in order to achieve a goal then it was going to the moon. Now it's staying on top economically and preserving democracy.

KING: Dana Bash, Dan Balz, grateful for the reporting and insights. We'll watch the president on the road today in this debate as it plays out. Up next for us though a bit of shift big lies from Donald Trump and big legal troubles for his confidant Rudy Giuliani.

First though, a display of bipartisanship in the house chamber last night. Look at this a fist bump between the President and Republican Liz Cheney.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: We know today that Rudy Giuliani is in deep legal trouble the feds yesterday serving search warrants on his New York apartment and his office. That raid because of Giuliani stature likely required approval from way up upper levels of the justice department. Last hour though in a taped interview, President Biden says he knew nothing about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I give him my word. I was not I made a pledge. I would not interfere in any way order or try to stop any investigation. The justice department had no way. I learned about that last night when the rest of the world learned about it. My word, I had no idea this was underway. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Dana Bash is still with us. We're also joined by our Senior Justice Correspondent even Perez. Evan, I want to start with you. Just you hear that right there President Biden said this when he took office. I'm not getting involved in the justice department that stuff happened back in the Trump days. I'm done with it.

There is zero indication he knew about this. You hear right there. He learned about it just like us a walk through the process at DOJ for how this happened.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, John, look, this is something that has been in the offing. I think the president, the current president might have learned when we reported back in February. My colleague - Charisse Canal and I reported that this request for to do a raid on Rudy Giuliani had first surfaced here in this building back last year.

And in the closing months of the previous administration, Jeffrey Rosen at the time, there are a number of reasons why they didn't approve it. And so, but it went to the Deputy Attorney General level.

And one of the reasons was, you know, that there was an election, then there was the post election litigation in which Rudy was running around trying to play a role in and that made it difficult for the department.

And also they had some qualms about the evidence. In the end, this came back to the current leadership and it was approved that went, as you said, it has to go up to the deputy attorney general's office.

In this case, it would have been approved or at least, you know, they would have they would have to send it to the office of - of the Deputy Attorney General, that would have been John Carlin at the time or Lisa Monaco would have had the chance to stop it or just let it go through.

And in this case, they let it go through. And what the president is describing is exactly the way the justice department is supposed to work, which is the president doesn't get told about things, especially something that has like a political tinge on it, you know, there's a political element to it. And they're very careful about that.

KING: What the president is describing Dana Bash is normal, as Evan just said, which is, which part is of - I mean, it's one of the things you say, oh, it's normal, but that's part of the Biden appeal after four years of chaos.

BASH: Absolutely, it is not normal was not normal for President Trump to get as involved as he did with investigations, basically of himself, you know, not directly but people in and around him. And that was that was a big campaign promise that that now president made to not get involved.

And make clear that the Attorney General, people at the justice department represent the American people and not him. KING: Evan, do we have any sense obviously, if you're going to serve search warrants on somebody of Rudy Giuliani stature? It's a big deal. Does it tell us anything or does our reporting tell us anything about where they are in the process of an investigation as in how close to a decision point?

[12:20:00]

PEREZ: I think we're some months away, John. I think one of the things that we know is that they've had a lot of Rudy Giuliani's communications, this has been going on now for about two years. It's begun under the Trump Administration and DOJ, they've had a ton of his communications already.

So they know a lot of what they were looking for. And you know, so long as nobody and Rudy Giuliani's world took bleach bit to the hard drives of any computers or devices. You know I think, you know, the DOJ knows what they're looking for.

And you know, there should be, you know, they can wrap this up fairly quickly. But you know, one of the things we know is that his assistant was, she received a subpoena to appear before the grand jury next month, John.

And so we expect that this is going to go on for a few months before the decision is made of where the charges are brought.

KING: And Dana Bash a close on this part. It's an incredibly important legal investigation. But it also of course, ripples into politics. Last night, Tim Scott tries to give the official Republican response you can agree or disagree with that at home.

But it was, you know, Joe Biden is a big spender. You need to trust Republicans to keep the government from running amok. That's the case the Republicans want to make on a day warrants are served on Rudy Giuliani.

And when the former President of the United States again, the Tim Scott is saying trust Republicans. The former President of the United States comes out and says this, I'm not going anywhere. And I'm going to keep lying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you thinking about running against Mr. President in 2024?

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, 100 percent. And the polls show that everybody wants me to do it, 100 percent I'm thinking about running. And we will, I think be very successful. If we were very successful at 10:30 in the evening, everyone thought the election was over and that we had won.

All of a sudden, late in the night, they closed up the tabulation centers and they came out with new numbers. This election is a disgrace to our country. And the whole world knows that they're watching.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What the whole world knows with the exception of a small group of people, I'll just leave it at that is that that's a lie. That's a lie. They kept counting votes.

The world knows we had an election that has now been audited and looked at and looked at and looked at and in Arizona, they're still looking at it, that he lost. He lost. How can the Republican Party say trust us when he's their leader?

BASH: That's a great question. Not only is it that he's their leader, it's that you have members of the leadership either ignoring those lies, sidestepping those lies or co signing those lies. That is the problem.

That is the reason why Liz Cheney goes out and is unabashed in her opposition to the notion of Trump 2024. And to the notion of the 2020 election not being anything other than free and fair.

And just optics wise, why you - she made sure to walk towards the aisle in that clip you showed earlier and fist bump President Biden, not necessarily because she you know, she supports President Biden, but because she supports the office and the election that got him there.

KING: She supports integrity of institutions.

BASH: Exactly.

KING: And truth and facts and as I like to say math. Dana Bash, Evan Perez, grateful for your time. President Biden's wish list is long and costly. Democrats and Congress now need the votes to pass it. Democrat Jonah Goose you see him here he chatted with the president after the speech. He joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: This important news just into CNN, the beginning of the end for America's longest war. U.S. defense officials say the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is now underway. Let's get straight to our CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr for the details. Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John, U.S. officials are now confirming this it is a small number of troops to begin with perhaps less than 100 focusing on contractors on civilian employees. But officially yes, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan now underway.

They have to get a total of about 2500 U.S. troops that are openly acknowledged to be in Afghanistan, get them out. But there are also several hundred additional special operations forces that the military doesn't openly talk about. They too will come out under President Biden's orders. They withdraw

was to begin no later than May 1, which is of course Saturday. The big concern now is to get this done safely for all U.S. forces, all U.S. personnel.

There is a good deal of concern that the Taliban could decide to strike starting on May 1, because that was the agreement that Trump Administration had, everybody would be out by him by May 1 and certainly now they will not be.

So the military has assembled a pretty significant force. About 650 additional troops are going in mainly army rangers, they will be on the ground to cover the withdrawal. There will also be artillery and rocket systems to be able to target the Taliban at greater distances so they don't get near U.S. troops.

If they decide to cause trouble, they will be on the ground. An aircraft carrier will be in the Arabian Gulf able to conduct airstrikes if needed and even B52 bombers will be in the gulf region.

[12:30:00]