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New Republican-Led Congress Sworn in Today; Will Democrats Try to Distance Themselves from Obama; Jeb Bush Forms PAC for 2016 Presidential Run; Federal Gas Tax Could Be Rising; Obama Says He'll Veto Keystone Legislation; Syrian City Continuously Slammed by Bombs; Boehner Re-Elected as House Speaker; Interview with Sen. John Thune

Aired January 06, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Here in Washington, D.C., the focus is on the new U.S. Congress. Both Republican-led chambers are being sworn in today. The Kentucky Senator, Mitch McConnell, is the new Senate majority leader, replacing Democrat Harry Reid. On the House side, there have been some questions surrounding the speaker, John Boehner, in a move by some Republicans, a small number, to elect a new speaker.

Our chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is standing by on the House side. Our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, is on the Senate side.

Dana, what happened today? I take it the voting for the speaker is now over with but we don't have the official results yet, is that right?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not quite over. They've gone through the whole alphabet. They're doing this in a formal way, which the House very, very rarely does. Now they're going back to try to get the people who didn't vote for whatever reason, give them another chance to vote. But a top aide to John Boehner just walked off the House floor, and I spoke to him and I said, how are you feeling? And he said they feel that they at least have 200 votes right now and probably will get even higher than that and they feel better.

Having said that, just in listening to the way the votes have gone down, it looks like it's more than 20 Republicans who did not vote for John Boehner. Some voted for one of the three official House members who are the challengers, House Republicans. And some did genuine protest votes. One voted for Rand Paul, who's a Senator. Another voted for Jeff Sessions, who's a Senator. You don't have to be a member of the House to be speaker, though that obviously is traditionally what's done. So that is the kind of atmosphere that you're seeing on the floor. All of the Democrats -- almost all the Democrats voted for Nancy Pelosi, as is the tradition. There were some protest votes there as well from some of the Democrats from more conservative districts where it is an issue if you vote for Nancy Pelosi back home.

So, again, that's the dynamic we're seeing. It does look like once this is finished, John Boehner will be elected House speaker. But it's not over yet.

BLITZER: We'll say very close touch with you, Dana.

Gloria, what does this mean, the start of this new 114th Congress, that Boehner did face some opposition, small numbers, but opposition from within his own party?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think it's not unexpected, as Dana points out. There's nothing to lose for a lot of these members of Congress because they come from conservative districts and they wanted to have a vote against John Boehner whom they think is going to work with Democrats too much. But if he wins convincingly and it looks like he will, I don't think it does much to his agenda for one reason, Wolf. That is because he has more of a cushion this time around. He's got a larger majority in the House than he had before. So he can perhaps work with some Democrats, get some additional Republicans to do what he wants them to do in order to get some things passed and let the "hell, no" caucus as he calls them say, hell, no, and still get done what he wants to get done. This is mildly embarrassing for him, I would have to say. It happened last time around when he ran for speaker. This time there are more people against him. But knowing John Boehner as I do, as Dana does, he'll shrug and say, I'm still speaker of the House and let's move on.

BLITZER: Dana, you follow the Democrats closely in the House and the Senate. What I've sensed in recent days -- correct me if I'm wrong -- is a greater willingness among some Democrats, especially in the Senate, to go ahead and criticize the president, whether on North Korea, whether on Iran, whether on other sensitive international issues, Cuba --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Wolf, stand by for one second. The speaker is walking by.

Why didn't you smile before? Are you going to smile now? Are you going to be re-elected?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: So the speaker, as you just saw, is making his way to the House floor. Interesting bit of color here is while this vote has been going on, he has been down the hall behind me in his office. He has not been on the House floor. He has the right to vote for himself. He did not do that yet. Perhaps he's going to do that now. He still has the chance. The fact that he's making his way to the floor after, as I said, his top aide just walked by me, clearly to report what has been happening, that gives you the sense that he is confident that he is and will make the speech that the new House speaker makes on the opening day of Congress.

BLITZER: Good try, once again, Dana. Too bad he didn't stop. Was he smiling at all this time?

BASH: He did smile.

BLITZER: Or was he looking very serious.

BASH: He smiled with his lips and his eyes this time. So maybe we'll actually get a comment on the way back. Baby steps here.

BLITZER: We'll see what he says.

Very quickly, do you sense a little bit of a greater willingness on the part of Democrats in the Senate and the House, at least some of them, to try to distance themselves from President Obama starting these final two years of his administration?

BASH: You know, I'm not sure if it's so much distancing themselves from President Obama. But it is definitely the case that they feel that they need to be more aggressive about their progressive or liberal ideals and that you have a lot of Democrats who think that one of the reasons they got trounced in the Senate and in the House is because they didn't speak up enough for their ideals and their base was kind of deflated. So that's why you have a lot more focus on the Elizabeth Warrens of the world and not just that. You have Nancy Pelosi in the last month of the last Congress leading her caucus in a more liberal way than she had before. So I think that's the reason -- it's not so much about bucking the president if he's unpopular. It's about letting the Democratic base out there know that they are fighting for their ideals going into the next election where they are going to need the Democratic base not just potentially to win back the Senate and the House but also to get excited for whatever presidential candidate they have out there.

BLITZER: I was sort of surprised over the weekend to hear Bob Menendez, the Democratic Senator from New Jersey, on some of the Sunday talk shows, if you will. He was very tough, angry at the president on his policies towards North Korea as well as Cuba. He's the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. You heard that as well, right, Dana?

BASH: That's right. I was interviewing him on Sunday. And he was incredibly critical of the president on foreign policy. And that is his wheel house, if you will. On Cuba, it's personal. He is of Cuban-American descent. But on North Korea, he is actually more with the Republicans. He feels that the president needs to do more. So I think in that sense, you probably will see Democrats who tend to be more hawkish, be more aggressive and feel unshackled politically that they can be more critical of the president now that they're not in the official leadership roles that they were, like Bob Menendez is a perfect for example.

BLITZER: And, Gloria --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Go ahead, Gloria.

BORGER: I was going to say, Wolf, if they're not afraid of kind of distancing themselves from the president, watch for them to start attaching themselves to Hillary Clinton, who is likely, as we all know, to run for the presidency, and also as Dana pointed out, to Elizabeth Warren, who's the leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic party. The president, as he has shown, can still be powerful these last two years, particularly given the executive orders that he's issued. But people have to start forming some new alliances in the Democratic Party. And we're going to watch that unfold among Democrats in the Senate as they decide who to support.

And also, by the way, that, no on the Republican side as well because you have about four Republicans who could be running for the presidency in the Senate and some other governors, like Chris Christie, former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, who might also throw their hats in the ring. So there's going to be a lot of shifting alliances going on here. And that will affect the congressional agenda going forward.

BLITZER: And we're waiting to see if John Boehner has been re-elected speaker of the House of Representatives. They're continuing the tally, the roll call right now. They're almost done, Dana, right, but still a few more names have to be called out? Is that right?

BASH: That's exactly right. They're waiting for the stragglers to come in. There were some people who did not vote, some perhaps abstaining on purpose, some perhaps not here for whatever reason. So it's not formally been called. It's not formally over. But it should happen in the next few moments because as we saw live here, the speaker himself has just gone back to the floor which gives you a sense that he's feeling good that he will be re-elected the speaker.

BLITZER: And if he's re-elected in the next few minutes, what happens? Does he go to the floor and start speaking? Is that what happens?

BASH: The tradition, exactly, is that soon after the vote is finished, he will make formal remarks. He's done that over the past two -- first of all, I should say he actually has to formally get the gavel. There's a ceremonial moment for that. And then he makes remarks addressing the House.

BLITZER: While we're waiting, Gloria, very quickly, I see Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, now for all practical purposes, a Republican presidential candidate, even though he hasn't made a formal announcement. He did create a new political action committee today to make it clear he wants to raise as much money as he can. He's going after those big Republican bucks, as they say. For all practical purposes, he's in this race right now, isn't he?

BORGER: Right. You'd have to say the odds are overwhelming. He didn't take that final step to form a presidential exploratory committee. But this allows him to raise money and to say to people who have been holding back, people who might have been thinking, gee, maybe I'm going to give some money to Chris Christie, maybe I want to push Mitt Romney to get into this race. This allows Jeb Bush to call up these funders and say, you know what, donate to my PAC, I'm kind of sticking a foot in the water here. So the money scramble begins right now, Wolf. So you have all of these people competing for the same pot of dough. It grows larger and larger and larger every cycle. And it starts earlier and earlier every cycle. But Jeb Bush clearly figured that if he's going to be a serious presidential contender, he has to start dialing for dollars, too.

BLITZER: I want you to stand by, Gloria, Dana.

Momentarily, we should know whether or not John Boehner has officially been re-elected speaker of the House of Representatives. We'll stand by for that.

I'll also speak live with one of the Republican leaders in the Senate, John Thune. His party is now the majority in the U.S. Senate. Lots to discuss with him.

Our special coverage continues right after this.

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BLITZER: Vice President Joe Biden -- take a look at this -- about an hour or so ago. He's the president of the U.S. Senate. He was swearing in the new members -- these are actually live pictures right now. He's taking photographs with some of the newly elected and re- elected Senators, their family members. Joe Biden, part of the job. He's the vice president of the United States but he's the president of the Senate. So he swore in a whole bunch of newly elected Senators and re-elected Senators. You see Senator Orrin Hatch joining the festivities there. That's going on right now.

As gas prices drop at the pump, the U.S. federal gas tax could be rising. The last time that happened, that was back in 1993. Back then, gas prices were as low as $1.09 a gallon. I was CNN's senior White House correspondent at the time. I remember President Bill Clinton signed that into law, brought the total tax to 18.4 cents per gallon at the -- at first, the money was used to reduce the deficit, and later, was redirected to help the Highway Trust Fund create highways, infrastructure across the country.

For more on this and a lot more, I'm joined by Senator John Thune, Republican from South Dakota. He's a Republican leader. He's the chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee as well.

Senator, thanks very much for joining us.

SEN. JOHN THUNE, (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: Good afternoon, Wolf. Nice to be with you.

BLITZER: Congratulations. Republicans are now the majority in the U.S. Senate, 54 Republicans, 46 Democrats, among them, two of those independents. So is this a good idea to raise the gas tax right now with the price per gallon pretty low?

THUNE: It certainly wouldn't be my preference, Wolf. We have a whole bunch of people who have made suggestions out there. We have some Senators who have proposed a gas tax increase. We have some Senators who have proposed using energy development. We have some Senators who proposed tax reform and using repatriated funds from off multinational corporations, offshore earnings coming back in and helping that fund infrastructure. So a whole bunch of proposals out there. One thing I do know is we have a deadline, May 31st. We have to come up with a resolution to this issue. Obviously, what we've done in the past is not sufficient. We've now -- to the tune of $62 billion, borrowed money out of the general fund, transferred it and used it to replenish the shortfall on the Highway Trust Fund. All that does is add it to the debt and hand the bill to our children and grandchildren. If we're going to have infrastructure, we have to come up with a way of financing it. Already a number of proposals out there, all of which will probably be discussed in the days ahead.

BLITZER: If you could go revenue-neutral -- in other words, raise the gas tax but at the same time lower taxes elsewhere, is that something you'd be open to?

THUNE: Well, I think that that would have to be -- I don't think there's any way anything would pass a Republican Congress that had any net tax increase. So it would have to be a reduction elsewhere in the tax code. But I think one thing that's been talked about that's gaining some traction, gaining some favor in both the House and the Senate -- we've had conversations with both, and the administration is looking for a solution to this as well. If we could do something on tax reform that would lower rates overall, go to a new tax system when it comes to business taxation and get a lot of those offshore earnings brought back into the United States that you might be able to find a way to not only reform the tax code and lower rates but also fund infrastructure in this country. That's something being talked about. I would say right now that's probably the idea that has the most currency and is getting the most support. But like I said, there are a number of proposals that are out there, all of which I think will probably be discussed as we get into trying to come up with a solution to this issue.

BLITZER: You've just posted an op-ed on CNN.com. You said Republicans want to get right to work on job-creating legislation, starting with the legislation, to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.

The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, moments ago, spoke about the Keystone Pipeline. I want you to listen because he made news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Would you consider putting Keystone in some sort of overall legislative package where you give some things, you get some things in return?

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I haven't heard any Republicans float that as a possible measure. So I think I'd withhold judgment on that. But the president has been pretty clear that he does not think circumventing a well-established process for these projects is the best thing for Congress to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He also went on to say the president will not sign into law the Keystone Pipeline legislation, assuming it passes the House and the new Republican majority in the Senate. Your reaction? THUNE: Well, that's a disappointment to us, Wolf. And I think the

president fails his first big test when it comes to whether or not he wants to work with Congress. Saying that somehow this is circumventing a process -- this process has been in place for six, seven, eight years. There have been multiple environmental impact statements it's time to make a decision. The president doesn't want to make a decision, and I think he is listening to his left wing base. A lot of folks in the extreme environmental community are, I think, have his ear on this issue. And it's unfortunate, it's going to stand in the way of getting something a majority of Americans want and something there's bipartisan support for in Congress. We'll have a lot of Democrats Senate and in the House, as well, that will vote for this. The question is, will we have a sufficient number if the president vetoes it to override the veto. I think that's the question we don't know the answer to at this point.

BLITZER: You think you have at least 60 votes to overcome a filibuster attempt. But you might not have 67 votes or whatever you need to override a veto. Is that what you need to override a veto?

THUNE: That's correct. And if people vote the way they have in the past and those who have expressed support on the Democratic side, we would have the filibuster proof majority, 60 or north of there. But 67, of course, is a higher threshold. That becomes a more difficult hill. But it's disappointing to hear. I think this to me is a signal certainly, first signal about how he wants to work with the new majority in the Congress.

BLITZER: Did you get the invitation next Tuesday? Apparently, the White House is inviting the Democratic and Republican leadership to the White House next Tuesday. I assume you'll be invited.

THUNE: Correct. We have been. And we'll look forward to that meeting, and I hope that we can have a conversation that leads to some solutions for the country and that the president will decide to meet us half way. There's certain Republicans in Congress who want to get things done. But it's going to require a president who wants a step forward and provide the necessary leadership to make that happen.

BLITZER: John Thune, thanks for joining us.

THUNE: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll find out if John Boehner has been re-elected speaker of the House.

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BLITZER: We're standing by to see if John Boehner has been re-elected speaker of the House. We should know momentarily what the roll call was. Standby for that.

Meanwhile, there have been some other important news that we're following as we await the decision of the House of Representatives.

Syria's biggest city may have slipped from the headlines lately, but fierce fighting is underway. As neighborhoods are slammed by regime bombs, it's almost impossible to live, let alone learn.

Nick Paton Walsh leads us on a tour of life there, from the shifting front lines to the unwavering resiliency in makeshift classrooms, all through the lens of the Brazilian photojournalist, Gabriel (INAUDIBLE).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(EXPLOSION)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here at the siege of Aleppo, where there's little space for life, there is somehow still space for learning. They can't fit all the children into here who want to come, even though the regime has bombed the teachers' previous schools five times.

This is held in secret in a house. When class breaks, it's not for the bell but often to the sound of a regime jet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

PATON WALSH: "If they're in the square of the school," he says, "they run to inside and close the windows of the classes, some have pale faces, some become sick every time the war plane comes. Every time the war plane comes, the children and even the adults become scared."

English won't be spoken in Syria any time soon. So these are lessons of the future dreamt of elsewhere.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (INAUDIBLE)

PATON WALSH: Where families are broken, food often scarce. The regime has ravaged their homes with barrel bombs, huge makeshift devices dropped from helicopters on to their charters. See what happens when asked if they've seen one.

(CROSSTALK)

PATON WALSH: It was a surface-to-surface missile that hit, killing four, hospitalizing her for three months.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL (through translation): This accident happened to me three months ago. And my hope and trust in God was big. I will stand up using my legs again and I won't be afraid anymore.

PATON WALSH: Mohammed is 10. This is his definition of war.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY (through translation): The war means shelling and killing small children.

PATON WALSH: Aya Omarr (ph) is happiest playing Barbie, saddest when remembering her brother killed by a mortar.

AYA OMARR (ph), STUDENT (through translation): After he died, they brought him to us and we saw his body.

PATON WALSH: What would she like to say to him?

OMARR (ph) (through translation): They miss you.

PATON WALSH: Refusing to leave Syria or give up hope for a distant future that may not be unbelievable (ph).

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Krazata (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Breaking news, John Boehner has been re-elected speaker of the House.

Let's go to Dana Bash. She's in the House of Representatives right now.

Sounds like a lot of applause going on, Dana.

BASH: A lot of applause. And if you look now, you can see John Boehner's wife, who is in the gallery there looking down on what just happened. The clerk just announced that John Boehner got 216 votes, which was a majority, because only 408 members voted. So a big round of applause after that was announced. And we expect after a little bit more --

UNIDENTIFIED CONGRESSIONAL CLERK: The gentleman from California. The gentlewoman from California, Ms. Pelosi. The gentleman from Louisiana. The gentleman from Maryland. The gentlewoman from South Carolina, Mr. Clyburn. The gentleman from Oregon. The gentleman from California.

BASH: And, Wolf, I paused to listen to what the will clerk was saying for a moment. They're going to go through some of the formalities to get the leadership into place and then, relatively, in relatively short order, we should see the speaker formally get the gavel, retake the gavel, I should say, and give a speech.

BLITZER: Do we yet know, have you done the math, how many Republicans voted against Boehner?

BASH: I don't know exactly how many voted against because -- I could say it's north of 20. 21, 22. We're going to get you the math as soon as we can because, what happened was there weren't just votes for his opponents. Somebody voted for Colin Powell, for example. Once we get all that nailed down, we'll let you know. But it was more than 20. Last year or two years ago, 12 Republicans voted against him.

BLITZER: All right. John Boehner re-elected speaker of the House of Representatives.

Dana, thanks very much.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room." For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is coming up next.

For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.