Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Chinese Rocket Debris Could Crash to Earth as Soon as Tomorrow; Biden Reacts to Disappointing U.S. Jobs Report; Biden: We're still Digging Out of an Economic Collapse; Biden: Jobs Report Shows Workers Can't Find Jobs; Pfizer Seeks Full FDA Approval of COVID Vaccine For People 16+. Aired 12-12.30p ET

Aired May 07, 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: It's all so fascinating. Let's see what happens this weekend. Thank you all so much for joining us today. Thank you for a very good week. I'm Kate Bolduan. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello, everybody and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very busy Friday with us. We are standing by any second now to hear from the President of the United States on the economy.

There's also important COVID news today Pfizer asking for full approval of its Coronavirus vaccine. And there's big immigration news Vice President Harris meeting virtually with Mexico's President and asking for help to slow the migrant surge. But we will spend time let's get straight to the president on the big news today and unwelcomed unemployment report.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I want to put today's jobs report in perspective. And look, we came to office, we knew we're facing a once in a century pandemic and a once in a generation economic crisis. And we knew this wouldn't be a sprint, it'd be a marathon. Quite frankly, we're moving more rapidly than I thought we would.

This morning, we learned that our economy created 266,000 jobs in April hadn't been adjusted again yet but that's what it says 266. And listening to commentators today, as I was getting dressed, you might think that we should be disappointed.

But when we pass the American rescue plan, I want to remind everybody it was designed to help us over the course of a year, not 60 days a year. We never thought that after the first 50 or 60 days everything would be fine.

Today there's more evidence our economy is moving in the right direction. But it's clear we have a long way to go. All told our economy has added more than 1,500,000 new jobs since I took office. That's the most number of jobs created in the first three months of any presidency in our history. Just for perspective, in these three months before I got here, the

economy added about 60,000 jobs a month, not a half a million. In the three months since I've been here, the economy has added 500,000 jobs per month. This is progress.

And it's a testament to our new strategy of growing this economy from the bottom up and the middle out. It's a clear testament to why it's so needed? Some critics said that we didn't need the American - the American rescue plan, that this economy would just heal itself.

Today's report just underscores in my view, how vital the actions we're taking are? Checks to people who are hurting, support for small businesses for childcare and school reopening support help families put food on the table. Our efforts are starting to work. But the climb is steep. And we still have a long way to go.

Today's report also put some truth to some loose talk that we've been hearing about the economy lately. First, that we should stop helping workers and families out for fear of overheating the economy. This report reinforces the real truth.

For years working people and middle class people, the people who built this country have been left out in the cold, struggling just to keep their heads above water. All those at the top have done very well. We're still digging out of an economic collapse.

It cost us 22 million jobs. Let me say that again. It cost us 22 million jobs. When we came in, we inherited a year of profound economic crisis and mismanagement on the virus. And we proposed and what we propose is going to work, we're going to get to 70 percent there.

But look, it's also going to take focus, commitment and time to get the economy moving again, as we want it to move. We've got work to do. And to state, the obvious we have work to do, look, let's keep our eye on the ball. That's why the American rescue plan is so important.

I said we build it as a yearlong effort to rescue our country. It's already working. Eight weeks later we passed it was afterwards passed. But parts of the bill are still getting underway. Here's one example. I know you all know this but it's worth repeating.

State and local governments have to balance their budgets as a consequence of these pandemic revenues is way down in cities and states. State and local governments had to have - had to lay off 1.6 million employees.

That's an awful lot of firefighters, police officers, sanitation workers, essential workers. But later this month, we're going to be distributed in the first tranche of the state and local assistance from the American rescue plan.

[12:05:00]

BIDEN: We won't get all 1.6 million of those jobs back in one month. But you're going to start seeing those jobs in state and local workers coming back.

Starting this month, we will also deliver assistance to tens of thousands and I noticed every Republicans have in our home state talking about this has been a good idea tens of thousands of restaurants and bars across the country and by the way, the majority of the jobs that have come back and been in the entertainment in those industries.

And so, you know, we're going to help schools and children and child centers across the country as well accelerate reopening and that's underway. So look, this is going to continue to improve. Today's report makes clear.

Thank goodness, we passed the American rescue plan. Help us here. And more help is on the way and more help is needed. Second, today's report is rebuttal to loose talk that Americans just don't want to work. I know some employers are having trouble filling jobs.

But what this report shows is that there's a much bigger problem. Notwithstanding the commentary you might have heard this morning, it is that our economy still has 8 million fewer jobs than when this pandemic started.

The data shows that more workers, more workers are looking for jobs and many can't find them. While jobs are coming back, there are still millions of people out there looking for work. And the idea that they don't want to work most middle class working class people that I know, think the way my dad did.

He used to say, and I know I'm repeating myself, but I'm going to continue to because I think it's critical. A job is a lot more than a paycheck. He'd say Joey. It's about your respect, your dignity, your place in the community; more than a paycheck is people's pride. It's about being able to look your child in the eye and say, honey; it's going to be OK.

I've never forgotten that. I've never gotten those folks I grew up with. I think about them every day as President. They didn't have a lot of money. But they busted their next their whole life to take care of their families.

And all they ever wanted was a shot, a fair shot of making it. Last month there were 266,000 more Americans with dignity that comes for the job. And there are millions, millions of Americans out there who through no fault of their own have been knocked flat on their back this past year.

The viruses stole their jobs; I'm determined to give them a fighting chance. That's why I've been so focused on vaccinating the nation and getting our economy running again. That's why we fought so hard to pass the American rescue plan.

And again, the American rescue plan was for the whole year. It plays out over a year and it's working. But we can't let up. This jobs report makes that clear. We got too much work to do. And the American rescue plan is just that a rescue plan is to get us back to where we were.

But that's not nearly enough. We have to build back better. That's why we need the American jobs plan I propose to put us in a position where we can build back better to reclaim our position as the leading and most innovative nation in the world and win the future the 21st century.

We need to rebuild the nation's roads and highways and bridges and ports and airports. We've got water systems all over the country that need repair. There are over 400,000 schools and daycare centers with lead pipes that where the water goes through 10 million homes.

I saw a water project system yesterday in New Orleans that was over eight years old. It's a need of major, major overhaul. And by the way, if they don't get it fixed, New Orleans itself is in real trouble. They need reliable, affordable high speed internet throughout this country.

Our businesses need to compete worldwide. Our rural communities need to be able to compete and make their own judgments as to when to buy and sell. And our kids need to succeed in school. As my wife Jill says any nation that out educates us is going to out compete us.

We also need to up our game in our education system. 12 years of education and 2021 is not enough to compete in the 21st century. In my view, we need 16 years of public education guaranteed.

In this country from preschool for three and four year olds at the early end to two years of community college after high school with some serious decisions they make and fundamental choices.

[12:10:00]

BIDEN: And think about it. How much better off is the country, if we have tens of thousands of graduating seniors from high school and beyond going to get two years of community college, doesn't that increase our capacity significantly.

This month's job numbers show we're on the right track; we still have a long way to go. As I said, my laser focus is on growing the nation's economy and creating jobs. My laser focus is on vaccinating our nation and we're making continued progress.

My laser focus is on one more thing, making sure working people in this country, hardworking people are no longer left out in the cold. They're going to get to share the benefits of a rising economy. It's been a long time since that happening.

I've called my plan, the blue collar blueprint for America that's exactly what it is. So let's not let up. We're still digging our way out of a very deep hole we've put it; no one should underestimate how tough this battle is. We still have a job do here in Washington; the American people are counting on us.

So let's get it done. Let's build an economy that delivers dignity gives everybody a chance. I'm confident we can do this because there's nothing beyond the capacity of the American people. When I thank you, God bless you and may god protect our troops. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President do you believe enhanced unemployment benefits had any effect on diminishing a return to work in some categories?

BIDEN: No, nothing measurable. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Mr. President, do you--

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --you walked up to the podium with your mask on, why do you choose to wear a mask so often when you're vaccinated and you're around other people who are vaccinated?

BIDEN: Is - by you? No, it's a joke, it's a joke. Why am I wearing the mask, because when we're inside is still good policy to wear the mask. That's why when I'm outside, and the problem is lots of times I walk away from this podium you notice I forget to put my mask back on because I'm used to not wearing it outside.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, are you at all concerned about Vladimir Putin amassing troops on the border of Ukraine? Do you see that as a message to you and could it impact your desire to have a one on one meeting with him?

BIDEN: Does not impact my desire to have a one on one meeting and he noticed he had more troops before he's withdrawn troops. There are still troops a mass but significantly less than he had a month ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We expect that--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, Mr. President, do you believe that the Iranians are serious about negotiation in Vienna?

BIDEN: Yes, but how serious and what they're prepared to do is a different story. But there's we're still talking. Sorry you had a question. I had to cut you off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you have any update on whether you're - you'll be able to meet Vladimir Putin in June? Is that going to happen?

BIDEN: We're able to do. We don't have any specific time or place that's been worked on. Thank you for--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: President of the United States leaving the event at the White House most of about 12 minutes of speaking focused on a disappointing employment report. Today the economy created only 266,000 jobs last month, many economists thought it would create more than a million.

The president saying that's proof that things are getting better but he argues also proof that more government spending A, already past spending that is in the pipeline and B, the president's new jobs plan or infrastructure plan he says it's necessary for more. At the end a couple of foreign policy questions, president says he still hopes to meet Vladimir Putin, the Russian President in June. And he says that what many in Europe especially believe is a dangerous Russian troop buildup along the border of Ukraine.

The president says it's troublesome but there are fewer troops there now than there were a month ago. President also says he's helping diplomacy with Iran works out but still an open question of how far Iran is willing to go. But most of the conversation about the economy the president making his case, yes, tough report, but the things is improving and the things will continue to improve.

Let's get some reporting and insights from Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times and CNN's Phil Mattingly. Phil, let me start with you at the White House because this happens. Welcome to the Presidency Mr. Biden, this report in many ways he has been saying for weeks, look at the numbers. Look at the numbers. The economy is roaring back. This is a bit of a two by four saying it is coming back. But--

PHIL MATTINGLY, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, there's no question about it. Obviously, if you look at GDP, if you look at private employment, if you look at really unemployment claims weekly over the course of the last several weeks, everything has been pointing to an economy primed really to take off in the post pandemic era.

Not that we're quite there yet, but clearly on the pathway there and this was some cold water on that opinion or that kind of position in the White House. I think we saw the president do today was one try and frame that report and make clear that when the White House came in they were still dealing with dual crises economic crisis, public health crisis.

And they didn't expect to be out of those crises at any point soon regardless of the positive economic numbers they've been looking at over the course of the last couple of weeks.

[12:15:00]

MATTINGLY: But I think what I was most struck by in his remarks before taking questions, was his effort to rebut concerns about his economic proposals that happened before the report and rebut the concerns that have come directly related to the report.

On the later he answered it directly, eventually, when he was asked about it. The enhanced unemployment benefits, obviously, you hear from private employers that they believe that this has been a disincentive for employees to come back to work.

They suggest this implies a tighter labor market than perhaps people acknowledge the White House disagrees with that completely. The president saying explicitly, he doesn't believe there's data to back that up. But I think if you talk to economists, that's clearly playing some role here. But it's a bigger picture, then maybe just one issue.

And then I think on the rebuttal and in this regard to maybe the Larry Summers, but also Republicans as well, in terms of inflationary pressures and whether or not more government spending would only serve to overheat the economy and create huge problems. The president actually using this jobs reported disappointing jobs report to try and make the case that the economy is nowhere near that point yet.

So it was just interesting how he was trying to use the numbers wanted to use the numbers and his team is clearly also pointing out that these numbers, at least in their view can potentially help make their case against some of the arguments they've gotten about their past agenda and also their very extensive future agenda, John.

KING: And Jeanna, as you well know, every now and then you get a report that makes you stop and say, huh, and you start digging through the weeds of it, because it is so contrary to what was expected or so contrary to what maybe the last report showed.

And so let's go through some of the numbers here. First, let's look at what happened. If you look at the month to month this year, and the president made note of this in January, the economy out of 233,000 jobs and in February 536,000 jobs then in March 770,000 jobs.

That's why I think a lot of people thought OK, the economy's adding jobs is a lot of money from the government and the pipeline, April will be even higher and there April goes down to 266,000 jobs.

And if you look at it by sector, the leisure and hospitality industry did have a big gain 331,000 jobs services up a little the couriers and the messengers, temporary workers, in many cases down there, manufacturing also down a little bit. When you look into the weeds, what jumps out as you as maybe potential warning signs or this is just this month, wait till next month?

JEANNA SMIALEK, FEDERAL RESERVE AND ECONOMY REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I think we look into the weeds of this report, the more it baffles you. You know there is a talking point in this report for anybody who wants to find one, because it's sort of internally very strange.

Like you mentioned, we saw this really big hit to employment couriers which doesn't make, you know, any logical sense to me why that would be the case. At the same time, we saw this expected increase in employment and leisure and hospitality and particularly in restaurants and in hotels.

And so that's sort of seems to confirm the priors of what would be happening in this moment in time as vaccine spread and the economy reopens? And so as unsatisfying as it is, I think the most responsible thing we can do with this jobs report, it's kind of wait to do the next one, you know, see what comes out in the wash because it does seem like there are a lot of conflicting signals here. And I think it's really hard to line up too decisively behind any one individual narrative.

KING: And Phil, Jeanna's point is critical in the sense that there are two tracks, you want to wait for the next report, if you're an economist. If you're someone out there trying to figure out what the data means these reports do happen.

You get a blip and plus we're coming out of a ditch, especially when you're coming out of a ditch sometimes you get a little back and forth. That's the economic track. And then there's the political track. You're part of CNN reporting today.

The president wants to get his infrastructure plan. He calls it the jobs plan, through. He's committed to at least trying to bipartisan route you're reporting is the White House says let's give that a chance for about two weeks.

And so there's not going to be a big vote in Congress this argument. You know, the president says we need more juice from the federal government. The Republicans say, aha, see, it's that those unemployment benefits are keeping people at home, we won't get a vote to test any changes in opinion here in town for a while, right?

MATTINGLY: Yes, look, this is going to be a long process, at least in terms of when it comes to negotiations of the effort at bipartisanship. Next week is going to be a huge part of that process. The president welcoming Republicans to the White House also will welcome Congressional leadership to the White House.

And I think what's important to note in the president obviously talked about the proposals he's laid out $4 trillion in proposals he's laid out going forward is that both sides are kind of trying to figure out where the other one is.

On the staff level, they've been trading documents back and forth, having discussions really at a granular level, particularly about physical infrastructure, trying to see if there's a pathway forward yet haven't gotten to the really hard stuff yet how to pay for any of those plans, if there is a potential agreement there.

And so I think this is going to be a process and I think that's where, you know, Jeanna makes a really good point, you can kind of take this report, and each side can pick out the point they want and say, aha, see, this makes my exact point. This is what I've been talking about over the last several weeks or months as it relates to the policies we're considering going forward. But it's probably a little bit short sighted to do this.

One point, one final point I would make in talking to folks on the economic side over the course of the morning, you know, we don't have a road map necessarily for coming out of a catastrophic pandemic driven economic crisis that knocked out 22 million jobs over a two month period.

[12:20:00]

MATTINGLY: And if you look through the data, you're talking about supply chain disruptions. You're talking about parents who can't get back to work, because they have children at home. You're talking about the enhanced unemployment benefits.

And so there's just so many different factors converging right now. But I don't know that this necessarily has an impact on what's going to happen on the legislative talks beyond the fact that each side probably has a few talking points there'll be able to deploy.

KING: Right. And to that point, you were talking about some federal reserve numbers earlier about this, the hardships on getting back to work, whether it's childcare challenges, exacerbated, particularly among in communities of color.

When you take this outside of Washington to the people who just study the economic data and don't worry about D's and R's, and votes on specific proposals? What is the mainstream view among economists on? Is the federal money coming into the economy now helping, or is it too much at this point?

SMIALEK: You know, I think this is an active debate among economists. And I don't want to play that down. I would say that among sort of the sort of core of the mainstream economic, sort of, you know talking or at this point, most people do say that, you know, this is an appropriate amount of money.

It's, you know, we went too small after the Great Recession, and we had an anemic recovery, that dried out for years and years, and really hurt a lot of working people as a result. And so it's important to not repeat the mistakes of the immediate past.

Of course, as Phil mentioned earlier, there are some pretty loud voices, including Larry Summers, who are questioning whether we may be overdoing it. And then there are other people like Jason Furman comes to mind who are saying, you know, it's important to allow the possibility that we might be overdoing that.

We might overheat the economy and think about how we would react if that were to happen. And so I think this is an active debate. I think we're going to hear about it all year. It's going to be the major, major story and economics because at the end of the day, we don't know what happens next.

This is a totally unprecedented experience. And we're basically running this grand fiscal experiment. We're testing to see what this economy can do. And I don't think anyone has clear answers to that.

KING: Right, we're going to have to learn along the way as we go through it Jeanna Smialek and Phil Mattingly grateful for the important reporting and insights out of the president's remarks there. And up next for us the latest COVID numbers and Pfizer takes a step that might just might reduce vaccine hesitancy at least to a bit.

And as we go to break through creative ways people across the United States now getting vaccinated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: In Alaska, where workers are delivering vaccine to deep sea fishermen using a contraption called a "Man Basket"; a bucket suspended in the air the swings from one ship to a neighboring vessel, vaccinating more than 100 people on each ship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: The Drug Maker Pfizer now says it will ask for full approval in the United States for its Coronavirus vaccine. You'll remember Pfizer now has emergency use authorization it was the first to get permission to use that vaccine in the U.S. market.

Let's put that walk through the numbers and we'll have some context in the vaccine fight for what that means? Here's the new cases our seven day average right now 45,109. You see the Thursday number though? 47,366 still nagging close to 50,000 new infections a day.

Your eyes don't lie. It's a big improvement from the horrors of the winter, but it's still at a high number of public health experts would like to shove that down some. One way to shut it down is to get more Americans vaccinated to prevent new cases.

33 percent of the population fully vaccinated. 45 percent of the American population has received at least one dose, among those 18 and older, it's 42 percent fully vaccinated, and among those 65 years of age and up 70 percent are now fully vaccinated.

So let's look through where are the top five states from fully vaccinated their populations while they're all in New England, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Maine lead the country in getting the percentage of their population fully vaccinated up at least one dose here. This is at least one dose I'm sorry, up there.

If you look at the vaccine pace, you see that again, your eyes don't lie. It's down. It's down above 3 million here. 2.1 million on average now doses going into arms of American citizens that is down and it are not down because of a supply problem.

If you see here, the supplies of the vaccines have stayed relatively steady. A spike at the end of March and early April up to more than 30 million doses a week but 29 million doses out there this week. 30 million doses out there last week 28 and 28 the weeks before the drop in shots in arms it's not because there aren't vaccines on the shelves there.

If you look at where these vaccines are coming from of Americans who are fully vaccinated 55 million of the 109 million have received the Pfizer vaccine 45 million Moderna 8.5 million the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine.

Pfizer announcing today again, all of this is under emergency use authorization Pfizer says it's ready now to ask the FDA for full permanent authorization if you will. At the White House COVID briefing today Jeff Zients, the top White House Coordinator on COVID says that is more proof science works. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZIENTS: Given the nature of the pandemic, FDA will move as expeditiously as possible without compromising its gold standard for safety. Our focus remains on getting 70 percent of Americans adult Americans at least one shot by July 4th as the president has laid out that goal. And it will certainly be an important day if full approval is granted but the process will be fully led and run by the FDA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's get some expertise and insights now from Dr. Paul Offit. He's a member of the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee and Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital Philadelphia.

Dr. Offit great to see you again what does it mean that the Pfizer vaccine is out there on the market? So it is available to people today, tomorrow and next week? What does full approval mean? Is that a more psychological benefit? Is it a public health benefit?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: I think it's more of a psychological benefit. There's actually not that big of a difference between approval through emergency use authorization or licensure.

And I'll tell you why?

[12:30:00]