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White House Marks One Year of Biden Presidency by Cleaning Up Remarks; Biden Says Democrats Will Have to Break Up Spending Bill; Biden Says, Elections May Be Illegitimate if Voting Bills Not Passed. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 20, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Thursday, January 20th. I'm John Berman, Brianna on night duty this week. Kasie Hunt here to mark one year of the Biden presidency.

KASIE HUNT, CNN NEW DAY: I'm very happy to be here in Washington with you, John.

BERMAN: Yes. Look, there's a huge effort this morning by this White House to reassure the world that the president did not just give Vladimir Putin permission to move troops into Ukraine. His remarks at a news conference raised immediate alarm in Kyiv where our reporters are fueling furious responses from Ukrainian officials.

Still, the president spoke in stark terms of what he sees as a likelihood of a Russian invasion, and that was on top of other major developments in this news conference, one where, for the first time, he said he would be willing to break up his signature domestic agenda bill, one where he refused to say the next elections would be legitimate and where he confessed surprise by the intransigence of Republicans and the lingering power of Donald Trump. But the most immediate concern for the White House this morning is clearly Ukraine.

HUNT: And the president's comments come at a tipping point in that region as Russia nearly completes its buildup of forces along the Ukrainian border, an invasion that Biden suggests is all but inevitable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Russia will be held accountable if it invades. And it depends on what it does. It's one thing if it is a minor incursion and then we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera. But if they actually do what their they're capable of doing with the force amassed on the border, it is going to will be a disaster for Russia.

My guess is he will move in. He has to do something.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: And less than an hour later, the White House trying to clean up those remarks, saying in a statement, quote, President Biden has been clear with the Russian president. If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that's a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe and united response from the United States and our allies.

CNN has reporters on the ground covering the Russia/Ukraine crisis from both sides of the border with Nic Robertson in Moscow and Matthew Chance in Kyiv.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I'm Nic Robertson in Moscow, where the Kremlin seems a little uncertain about how to interpret President Biden's comments about incursion and invasion. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying that it perhaps indicates a certain willingness to discuss some issues but it lacks the clarity that the Kremlin is looking for, the written response to Russia's proposals, the demands for security guarantees.

The foreign ministry, however, taking a tough line on the talk about a possible invasion, saying that this is a western and Ukrainian media effort to build a pretext for the cover of some kind of big provocations in Ukraine, including military provocations, she said.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matthew Chance in Kyiv. And Ukrainian officials say they were shocked to hear President Biden suggest that a minor Russian incursion into Ukraine would elicit a lesser response than a broader invasion. U.S. usually talks about crushing sanctions if there's any kind of military action.

One displeased official told me the Ukrainian government was stunned by the remarks. The official said that they could be seen as a green light for Putin to enter Ukraine at his pleasure. The White House has been quick to clarify, saying any further seizure of Ukrainian land would be seen as a Russian invasion and be wet me the with a swift, severe and united response.

HUNT: Our thanks to Matthew Chance and Nic Robertson for those reports.

Let's bring in now Founding Partner and Washington Correspondent for Puck, Julia Ioffe. Julia, it's great to see you this morning.

Just looking for your perspective here as someone who has been a longtime watcher of Vladimir Putin, has so much personal experience in the region, what did you hear and what do you think Putin heard as the president said in his news conference that there were divisions within NATO and that in the event of a, quote/unquote, minor incursion, there could be those kinds of disagreements?

JULIA IOFFE, FOUNDING PARTNER AND WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yes. Well, first of all, hi, Kasie. It's so good to see you back in the chair. I'm glad you're feeling better.

HUNT: Thank you. IOFFE: It was interesting, like I didn't have -- watching Biden's remarks, I didn't have the same alarmed response because, to me, it was everything that his advisers and people in the state department have been saying privately for the last few weeks. And it was just, oh, this time, it is coming from the horse's mouth, from the president of the United States. And he basically gave voice to everything that's been said in private, which is that, right now ,NATO looks a little split. The Germans and the French might be trying to drag their feet on sanctions because they have more economic interest or more economic ties to Russia. But if there is an invasion or an incursion, they will probably be unified.

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The other thing you've been hearing is that, at this point, it's not that the White House is giving the green light to Putin, it's that they are looking at the intelligence on the ground. And they think it's pretty much a done deal but they don't know how Vladimir Putin is going to invade Ukraine. Is it going to be cyber measures and kind of asymmetric diversionary measures or is it going to be kind of full- scale ground invasion?

So, what I heard was basically just the president saying what everybody around him has been saying out loud. I think the Ukrainians have had to respond and the Russians have had to respond because it's like he took it all public but none of it was surprising.

BERMAN: I think to hear a president say that he believes there will be a likelihood of an invasion is alarming, maybe not problematic. That's not the problematic thing. President Biden admitting that he thinks that Vladimir Putin might invade is not problematic. Clearly, what is problematic though is suggesting that a minor incursion might not elicit some response. And the problem with the word, incursion, is it's not action, right? Incursion it requires some sort of territorial entry. And that's a real problem. I do think that he said that out loud. Yes, no, otherwise?

IOFFE: I disagree with you. I think incursion and invasion, whichever word you use, they have different shades of meaning. It is still entering a sovereign state without being invited. Is it larceny or robbery? They're still forced entry into your home. And, yes, they have different punishments, different -- they have -- they carry a different weight. Is it just going to be massive cyberattacks? I think the U.S. and NATO have to respond differently than if it was a full- scale ground invasion.

And, again, I think it's good that the president is being honest about the situation on the ground, which is it's very alarming. He did not create the situation on the ground. Vladimir Putin did. And he's merely describing what's going on and what all of his advisers are talking about behind closed doors, which is that -- and what we're hearing out of Ukraine is that they are locked and ready to go. And we should be aware that this might be coming, you know? I don't think it's a bad thing for a U.S. president to say here's what's going on, and it doesn't look good. HUNT: Well, I noticed your tweet, Julia, citing the potential level of casualties that could come if, in fact, Putin does invade here. And I do take your point that the American public should be prepared for something like that. Julia Ioffe, thanks very much for your time and analysis today. We really appreciate it.

IOFFE: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: So, aside from Ukraine, there was a major shift from the president in terms of the stalled Build Back Better plan. For the first time, really, President Biden said he would be willing to break up the bill and try to get it passed in parts or chunks, or what he calls big chunks. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: It's clear to me that we're going to have to probably break it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now is White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese. Brian, thank you so much for being with us.

We're going to have to break it up. So, specifically, what does that look like, Brian?

BRIAN DEESE, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Well, what it means is that the president is focused on the issue that is most central to Americans' minds right now, which is what can we do to provide some relief to the costs that American families are facing. Build Back Better is really about reducing costs and the core elements go to the core costs that Americans are facing, prescription drugs, health care, child care.

So, the president is saying is what he has been saying for sometime, which is we are going to get done everything we can get done now. We're going to move on that. We're going to get that done. And then we're going to keep fighting for the other provisions as well. So, that was his message and that is our strategy and that's what we're going to execute.

BERMAN: Can you enumerate for me specifically what the chunks are that the president and White House intends to push for first?

DEESE: Well, I think you heard the president yesterday and it will not be surprising that negotiating from a podium or on cable T.V. is not the way we're going to do this. But I think you also heard the president articulate clearly the American people overwhelmingly support core elements of Build Back Better. And there's a lot of support in Congress for those as well, lowering prescription drug prices. Everybody recognizes that prescription drug prices are too high and there are some common sense steps we could do to provide relief to families.

Lowering child care costs, this bill would mean for middle class families they would not have to pay more than 7 percent of their income in child care. That's a practical step that would make a big difference for families and would help get more people, particularly women, into the workforce.

[07:10:01]

Those are the kinds of things that have support, they make a lot of economic sense right now and are the kinds of things that we think that could anchor an effort to get this done.

BERMAN: The president spoke about inflation and the clear impact it's having on the American people. Your job is to try to get an idea of where the economy is headed and what moves will be coming. How much longer do you anticipate inflation to be at this level?

DEESE: Well, today is an important day. It's the one-year anniversary of the Biden presidency. And I think it is important to look at the economic context that we find ourselves in. 2021 was the strongest year of job growth in our nation's history on record, 6.4 million jobs, the largest decline in unemployment on record, unemployment down to 3.9 percent, and the strongest economic growth. Our economy grew stronger in 2021 than any year in four decades. So, we have seen very significant economic progress and we have work yet to do, particularly on addressing elevated prices.

But as the president said yesterday, those prices are really about families trying to make decisions around their kitchen table. And one of the most important and immediate things we could do is provide some relief on costs. So, we are focused here on what we can do to actually provide relief. And the president was very clear he's got a plan to do that. He has got a plan to fix supply chains, to boost competition, to go at those kitchen table talks. And it was a fair question he posed to his Republican friends, what are they for? We know what we're for. We're going to keep taking those steps. And what do we do? We think that it will deliver some very tangible, practical results for the American people.

BERMAN: The president made clear in terms of Ukraine and a possible Russian invasion that the costs would be devastating to Russia. But he also said, and it's just a statement of fact, that there would be a cost to the United States as well. So, what would the economic impact on Americans be of the sanctions the president is talking about, the possible sanctions the president is talking about in Russia?

DEESE: Well, I'm not going to preview specific sanctions in this context, but what I will say is that the actions that we have readied and that we are working closely with our allies to deploy would impose very significant costs across time on the Russian economy, and it would do so in a way that mitigates the impact on the global economy and American economy.

We are, as an economy, not particularly exposed to the way in which we would implement these costs. And so there's obviously concern in energy markets, for example, in the risk premium in oil prices, that's an issue that we are closely focused on, and looking at how we can take actions to mitigate. But the reality here is that the steps that we are prepared to take would impose asymmetric and very significant costs on the Russian economy. And that's the most important issue right now.

BERMAN: Just last question, just in general terms, you're, I'm sure, inside the building of the complex during the news conference. How do you think it went?

DEESE: Yes. I think what we saw is a president in command of the facts, in command of his agenda, but also connecting with where the American people are right now. The American people are legitimately anxious and frustrated about COVID and prices but also recognizing that we're in a dramatically different place than we were a year ago.

I just underscored the economic progress that we have made over this last year is historic and it positions us very well to try to address the challenges ahead of us. And I think you heard the president be very clear-eyed about that but also outline a very specific plan. He has a plan to keep this economic growth going, to keep the historic job growth, keep this historic economic growth going while helping American families.

I think you heard that loud and clear. You saw it and you saw that he is ready to take on this year in the way that he has taken on this past year, direct, speaking directly to the American people. And so I think that that was probably pretty refreshing for the American people to see.

BERMAN: Brian Deese, thank you very much for that.

Look, Brian is right that unemployment is very low and economic growth is very high. And that is something that the president can brag about. But the problem and the true dilemma is for this White House, is that as great as those numbers are, the American people just aren't feeling it or say they're not feeling it. And John King was noting it yesterday, you just can't tell -- and David Axelrod says this, you can't tell Americans how they feel. They know how they feel.

HUNT: They do know who they feel. And the reality is that COVID is still dictating a lot of the problems that are coming into people's lives. People are having trouble with getting care for their children. Inflation, as you discussed with him, is a problem.

I do think it was pretty interesting, as he was talking about the press conference, that the phrase that he used to describe it was in command. He says the president is in command. I mean, that tells me that they are hearing what President Biden's critics are saying and understand that that's a message that is reaching a lot of voters that they are going to need especially in the midterms and potentially in 2024.

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BERMAN: I also noticed the congressional reporter in you sitting up on the idea he won't exactly make clear what the chunks of Build Back Better that the president would go after first, prescription drug costs, child care. He did sort of say that. But it's going to be important how they break it up and with whom and which parts they try to pass first. And I don't necessarily understand why there isn't clarity on that first, why it wouldn't help them, to be clear about that.

HUNT: I have one name for you, Joe Manchin. It's going to be whatever Joe Manchin wants.

BERMAN: So, tell us.

HUNT: Well, So, I think one of the things that stood out to me as a congressional reporter in the news conference yesterday was particularly the death of the child tax credit, because that is specifically at the feet of Joe Manchin. He has expressed concern about that. That is something that directly helps American families that is potentially a real problem for the White House as they head into the midterms.

So, all right, let's turn away from politics now. Just in, divers making a remarkable discovery hundreds of feet under the sea, acres of giant blossoming coral reef in what's known as the ocean's twilight zone, with no evidence that the reef has been harmed by Earth's climate crisis. Scientists hope it could hold the secret for major climate events.

CNN's Rene Marsh joins us now. Rene, tell us more.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, besides being visually stunning, this is factually stunning, when you consider that nearly half of the world's coral reef had been wiped out by this climate crisis and warming waters due to climate change. And the latest projections are that some 90 percent -- there will be a 90 percent decline over the next couple of decades. But here we are looking at these beautiful images. At least to the naked eye, it appears that it is a two-mile stretch of beautiful coral reef has been untouched by this climate crisis.

And so for the researchers who are affiliated with the United Nations who discovered this, the big question is how is this possible. Why is it that this one was able to flourish and others have not? And so the hope is that whatever answers they find, it will help them to save possibly the rest of the world's coral reef, which is a critical ecosystem within the ocean.

But the other really unusual thing here is the depths at which this thing was found, nearly 230 feet below the surface, that's unusual. This is an area of the ocean known as the twilight zone. It sounds very scary. But, essentially, that's the area of the ocean where there's just enough light to sustain life. And that's where this was discovered.

I can tell you that usually coral reefs are found at around 80 feet, so this one is significantly deeper. But what this all -- the big picture here highlights is how little we know about the ocean. And that in itself is very unsettling to researchers because the ocean is number one as far as influencing our climate. And so if we don't understand this critical piece of climate science, there's a lot that we're missing here.

And so there is this push to better understand the ocean and map the ocean floor by the end of the decade. And I will be talking about that a little later on CNN.

HUNT: Really remarkable. It's just been fascinating to be looking at these pictures as you've been helping us understand what they are showing us. Rene Marsh, thank you very much, as always, for being with us.

MARSH: Thank you.

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, senators clashing after two Democrats and Republicans -- well, look, Republicans unanimously voted against these voting rights bills. Democrats, two of them, wouldn't change the rules to get them through. And it was a big night. Just days after Martin Luther King Day, Florida is pushing a bill that many say would shield white people from guilt about America's racist past.

HUNT: And if you beat a breakthrough COVID infection, can you start living like it's 2019? We're going to see what the experts are saying about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm not saying it's going to be legit. The increase and the prospect of being illegitimate is a direct proportion of us not being able to get these reforms passed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Biden there saying that the upcoming midterms might be viewed as illegitimate if voting rights legislation doesn't pass Congress. Senator Mitt Romney sharply credit sizing Biden saying, quote, it's the same path that Donald Trump went down. I don't think they're the same person by any means but I do believe that this road of questioning the validity of elections is a fraught one.

Joining us now, CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins and CNN Contributor and Staff Writer for The New Yorker Evan Osnos, he is the author of Joe Biden, the Life, the Run and What Matters Now.

Kaitlan, I want to start with you. Let's give credit where credit is due. This was a very long news conference. He took questions from every reporter in the room, even though he suspected would be unfriendly to him but there is also a lot of handwringing at least that I'm picking up from the Democrats. What are you hearing from the White House overnight?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, of course, his comments on voting rights and where that is moving forward came just hours ahead of what was an expected, widely expected failure on Capitol Hill by Democrats to either advance voting rights legislation or change the rules so they could advance it on their own without any Republican support. Of course, that is something that Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema have made clear that they don't support.

But I think going back to President Biden's comments yesterday in the argument that he was making there has obviously and rightfully raised a lot of eyebrows given he was saying he did not know if the upcoming elections can be considered illegitimate. I think it fits in with the argument he is making, which is that getting that legislation passed is so dire that it does affects the outcome of the election.

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So, if the president argued that the elections could go forward without that legislation passed, I think it would put a dent in his argument that he is making.

But what I did not hear from President Biden yesterday was what the backup plan is going to be. And that is what we have heard from so many voting rights groups, so many voting rights activists and civil rights leaders who have said they haven't seen the forceful push from President Biden on this issue in the way that they have seen it maybe on infrastructure or other legislative priorities.

And so while yesterday he was talking to black voters who have supported him in so many of his elections, saying that he's always had their back, that he will continue to do so, he did not really lay out what a backup plan to this voting rights dilemma that he finds himself in is going to be. And I think that is a big question when it comes to Democrats and, of course, what this next several months is going to look like for President Biden.

BERMAN: Evan, there was so much news in this news conference yesterday between Ukraine and breaking up Build Back Better. Thematically, I think one of the biggest admissions the president made was that he was somehow surprised by Republican intransigence and he was somehow surprised by the lingering power of Donald Trump, though he didn't mention him exactly by name there. That's a big thing.

If you were surprised by that, maybe you weren't paying attention to the reality that was taking place when you took office. And it may have had just a giant impact on the first year. How could he have been surprised by that?

EVAN OSNOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it is a window into his thinking and really how he prepared strategically and sort of philosophically to deal with this moment in Washington. I remember talking to him in the summer of 2020 as the election approached. And he imagined, he said, look, if we can get maybe two or three Republicans to join us on bills, he said that would allow us to make some progress. He said, once you remove Donald Trump from the scene, and these were his words, he said, the vindictiveness, the pettiness. He said, it's not going to change everything overnight but it will change some things.

And I think what you heard him saying in this press conference was a candid admission from him that after a year of trying and twisting and cajoling and trying to win over any support he could, that he asked the audience, and he was really asking himself out loud. He said, did any of you truly anticipate that not a single Republican would join me on one of these bills and that Donald Trump would still hold this, kind of, to use the word he used yesterday, intimidating effect on members of the Republican minority.

That, I think, really was a moment of him, in a sense, kind of him coming to terms with where Washington is and how it has fallen short of what he hoped might be this ability to thread the needle by being open enough to compromise, open enough to making a deal that you can peel off one or two key figures, and he hasn't been able to do that.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, I wasn't in the room yesterday, but I can say those of us who have been closely observing Congress for the last decade or so were not terribly surprised that Republicans hung together to oppose these pieces of his agenda.

Kaitlan, let me ask you about Ukraine, because the White House had to very quickly put out a statement cleaning up his comments that a minor incursion might incur a different response from NATO, and our allies then something else. They had to basically clarify what he meant by that. CNN has been reporting overnight that Ukrainian officials are extremely alarmed by that. What is your view on how the White House and how the president projected himself to Vladimir Putin in that moment and what are White House aides saying behind the scenes about any damage that may have been done?

COLLINS: Well, I think you can see why Ukrainian officials are concerned about this because they are living in a really delicate situation right now, waiting to see what's going to happen. They want to see a lot stronger action from the United States. And the Ukrainian president has said he would like for them to go ahead and enact sanctions that they threatened now as a deterrence, or he said maybe that he doesn't think the sanctions they have threatened is enough to deter them.

But I actually viewed President Biden's answer differently than a lot of people yesterday, because I prefer at a press conference when a president offers a candid assessment of what he genuinely thinks of the situation. And I think that is what David Sanger and the other reporters in the room so successfully did yesterday was President Biden said exactly what he thinks is going to happen there, saying that he doesn't know Putin has made a final decision. But he does think that, in the end, he will likely invade Ukraine.

And the comment about the minor incursion and NATO allies not all being on the same page about what an invasion exactly would look like and what would compel him to take action was really revealing. And I think that's what President Biden was saying yesterday with this comment about a minor incursion. And you see the White House try to clean it up by defining that he means a cyberattack, a paramilitary attack.

[07:30:04]

That's what he was referencing. But if Russian forces actually go into Ukraine and their boots cross --