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Biden Facing Bipartisan Calls For Stronger Action Against Russia; WAPO: Lower-Income Families Suffering From Inflation The Most; Biden Supreme Court Pick Expected Within The Next Week. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 22, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: And so to that point, we're going to hear from the President. He's going to not only unveil the new sanctions, he's going to give his update on what he sees on the situation on the ground. And obviously, the President has access to intelligence that no one else does. So we will hear from the President, the question is really stick to this standard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will hold Russia accountable for its actions, the West is united and resolved, we're ready to impose severe sanctions on Russia if it further invades Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: If you've met the definition of further invades the, A, number one, then what you bring to the table. And number two, the President also has to be mindful. They cleaned it up pretty quickly. But he had the limited incursion remarks of several weeks ago, and Putin sending some more troops into areas where there already are Russian troops and are Russian influence, you could define that as a limited incursion.

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CONGRESSIONAL EDITOR, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Absolutely. And I mean, every time that the President or someone in the administration has tried to draw what Natasha was referring to as this sort of tiered line of, well, you know, we would do something if they got to a certain point, but then we'd hold back and maybe, you know, leave ourselves some room to do more, they've gotten in trouble, because the political pressure is to act strongly to act as aggressively as it's possible to act given what Putin has been doing, and showing no signs of backing down from doing.

You've heard this debate as well on Capitol Hill, Bob Menendez, who you were speaking to earlier, when he put out this statement saying, if additional troops go in, then we will be prepared to propose and impose crippling sanctions. Well, what is additional? How many additional, right? And that is a question that's going to be very difficult for the President to define. And it'll be interesting to see what kind of language he uses when he speaks in a little while here to figure out whether they are going to try to leave themselves some room to ratchet up or whether indeed they're going to respond to this pressure from both political parties saying, you really have to act against him now as strongly as possible to act. And now that the E.U. has taken their action, maybe that's a little bit easier of the calculation for him to make.

KING: Right. And it's the moments interesting in the sense it's a giant test for the President. You hear Senator Menendez, Senator Chris Van Hollen, the President's very good friend Chris Coons, who has his seat from Delaware, all saying you need to be stronger, the White House needs to be stronger than this. And you have Mitch McConnell just moments ago back in his native Kentucky, who has been with the President saying I support the President and tough approach to Putin. But listen to Mitch McConnell say this is a mess of his own making.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: I don't believe Vladimir Putin would have couple of 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine, had we not precipitously withdrawn from Afghanistan last August. But that's where we are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's a reminder that the biggest issue is Putin, Ukraine and what the President does. But a reminder that we're going to -- because we're in a midterm election year, there's a political aspect of this test for the President.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You can't take the politics out of it. Clearly, Putin has his own internal politics around his messaging. Every European leader has their own politics. For Biden and the Democrats, these midterms are shaping up to be disastrous. Midterms are not typically fought on foreign policy. They're fought around the economy or around other domestic developments. But for Republicans, it's going to be very tempting to find that sweet space that with some overlap with Russia to use this as a bludgeon to say Biden is weak. And for Republicans, the question is going to be, at what point is that OK, and at what point do you have to rally behind the leader of the country, whatever party they are, there's a divide inside the Republican Party about that question right now. But at this moment, Mitch McConnell is willing to play off the string a little bit.

KING: And do you have Republican amnesia about the way the last Republican president treated Vladimir Putin, which is essentially is an I believe him free pass.

[12:33:45]

Up next for us, the Ukraine crisis rattles global financial markets and the sanctions meant to hurt Vladimir Putin, could hurt your bottom line too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Global financial markets are down and energy prices up because of the Ukraine crisis. And you see the big board on Wall Street right there down 378 points at the moment. The global benchmark for crude oil also jumped past $99 a barrel this morning. We're still learning of course about new sanctions from the United States and European allies. But it is all but certain that sustained efforts to punish Putin will at a minimum cause your energy costs to rise.

Here with some insight and expertise, our CNN economics and political commentator, Catherine Rampell. Catherine, grateful for your time on this day. That is part of the President's message in about 20 minutes that he's imposing new sanctions on Putin, but he needs to explain to the American people this is incredibly important. And guess what? It's going to hurt you a little bit.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. And look, gas prices are already up. Global oil supply is struggling to keep up with demand. If nothing else, the conflict in Ukraine is going to make those problems worse, right? If we have disruptions to supply either because of the conflict itself or because of sanctions, that's going to drive prices up and American consumers need to prepare themselves.

KING: And if you look at just Russia's role in the global oil market, the United States is the number one producer, Russia is number two, the Europeans get a lot of that Russian fuel. So they will take a more immediate hit if you will directly. But just the turmoil you see in global financial markets overnight, Putin gives this fiery speech yesterday. So today is almost day one of this next chapter of this crisis but the volatility in financial markets at large and then the energy markets on the smaller scale is going to be with us for a while.

[12:40:01]

RAMPELL: Right. And it's not just the United States and Russia obviously that may suffer from all of this. The big victims here may in fact be the European Union, which is very dependent on Russia, not only for oil, but for natural gas, which again, is in limited supply, and Russia supply something like 40 percent of Europe's natural gas consumption. So if there are disruptions here, you're going to see already very expensive heating bills get even higher, particularly in the E.U. And you may see some knock on effects here in the United States as well.

KING: And the President will make the case that it is necessary pain because of the importance of standing up for Ukraine. But it comes at a time Americans are already even though most of the economy is pretty strong, dealing with the inflation kicking the teeth, as I call it, you write a very smart piece today about why the poor suffer most from inflation, even though their wages have risen a lot walk through that, that this will be additional pain at a moment, you know, those who are already hurting are getting a good kick.

RAMPELL: If you look at how much incomes rose or I should say earnings rose last year, relative to how much people are actually shelling out on higher prices. At the very bottom of the income distribution, people -- poor people are coming out way behind, their bills went up way more than their actual earnings went up.

At the top end of the income distribution, it's the opposite. People who are higher income -- in higher income households have found that their total earnings have vastly outpaced inflation. And that's a little bit, so the contrary of the narrative you've been hearing from the White House and many economists. And that's partly because people are looking at the percent change in hourly wage growth, which is a reasonable thing to look at. But the problem is that lower income households tend to work fewer hours, they're living paycheck to paycheck, they're buying different things than higher income households, they spend much more of their consumption on, for example, gas and groceries which have had the highest price increases over the past year.

So when you net it all out, when you look at how much people are spending, when you look at what they're spending on, when you look at how many hours they are working. The consequence is that poor people are falling behind at least if you're looking at earnings. Now they've gotten a lot of cash from the government which has made up much of the difference. But they're falling behind. Rich people are pulling ahead.

KING: Catherine Rampell, great for your perspective.

Up next for us, the latest on some other big Biden challenges, the President is moving closer to a Supreme Court pick and marking up the early drafts of his State of the Union address.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:47:03]

KING: We're about 15 minutes away now from the President of the United States announcing new sanctions against Russia in the showdown over Ukraine. The President also get his take on Russian military activity in that region. It's a big moment for the President and it comes at a time he is very busy with other significant challenges as well. We are told he's getting closer to making his Supreme Court nomination that will come in the week ahead.

And a week from now, he will also deliver his State of the Union address, a big speech always for any president, for this one all the more important because it is in the midterm election year. Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Margaret Talev, still with us. Let's start with the Supreme Court pick. Let's just put up the top three candidates up there. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Judge Leondra Kruger from the California Supreme Court, and the Federal District Judge J. Michelle Childs, the President's done at least one interview we know. And we know he's been going through the files and everything. This is going to come in the next couple of days. And yes, we're spending most of our time on Ukraine right now but a defining moment for the President.

DAVIS: Absolutely. I mean, this is something that his advisors and the President himself, his allies on Capitol Hill have been anticipating since he took office. It's a choice that he takes very seriously. He's a former Judiciary Committee Chairman himself. He knows this process in and out. He knows how nasty it can get. And he knows the significance of both the position and what he has pledged, which is to put the first black woman on the Supreme Court and that I do think is going to shape the tone of the debate here.

You already have Republicans saying, you know, that they don't like the idea of having someone who's I think Mitch McConnell said they don't want the decision, outsourced to the radical left. They don't like the idea of having a liberal on the court. But this is -- this would be a liberal, replacing another liberal Justice Stephen Breyer. And so, you know, we'll have to see how aggressive the Republicans get given that it will be the first black woman nominee at attacking this person who the President is going to put forward within next few days.

KING: And a week from now, the president will be delivering a State of the Union address. He'll be talking about his Supreme Court pick will have been made by that unless something goes off the track talking about that. Also talking about his agenda at a time it's the giant platform for any presidents, the largest audience you tend to get at any time. Here's his approval rating at the moment, 41 approved, 55 percent disapprove. If that number holds up, that's the average of the recent poll, if that number holds up, the Democrats will likely lose both the House and the Senate.

So that's part of the big President's Challenge. There's always a competition. What can I get in the President's speech, every agency in government, everybody outside? There's a new study, Dan Balz writes about in "The Washington Post" today from the progressive policy institute, two more centrist Democrats, they're progressives, but they tend to be more in the middle of the party, Bill Galston and Elaine Kamarck writing that she believes that -- they believe the party has been led astray by three persistent myths, the people of color, think and act the same way that economics always Trump's culture, and that a progressive majority is emerging. The point being is Biden speech going to be all about the economy, or is he going to get into these other cultural issues that are driving Republican politics right now.

TALEV: Yes, you know, we've been hearing this ramped up drumbeat in the last couple of weeks, centrist Democrats, saying that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has gone too far that there's a backlash that we're seeing it play out in school politics. They think that is going to be shaping the conversations to some extent inside the White House about what to emphasize in this speech, Russia as a new element into what needs to get tackled in this address, Biden's ability to position himself as a world leader, not just a domestic leader, then I think like COVID is still the big cloud that's hanging over everything, both on the health front and the economic front.

[12:50:21]

And Biden has to find a way to set expectations without repeating all the pitfalls of Jimmy Carter and malaise. And, you know, it's going to be a very complicated speech, some of our reporting, my colleagues, Hans Nichols and Jonathan Swan over the weekend reporting on the discussions inside both the White House and Biden's outside circle of advisers about whether he needs a foil, a Republican foil, and who that foil could be, can't be Trump, can't only be Trump, we know that from the Virginia race. Can it be Ron DeSantis or would that backfire? Does anyone outside of Washington or Bakersfield know Kevin McCarthy? Could it be Mitch McConnell? Would Biden do that? Or can it be a composite foil? Can there be a kind of Trump MAGA January 6th foil for Biden to run against, will we see any of that messaging in the State of the Union?

KING: Well, a fastening week ahead. Again, the President about 10 minutes away from new sanctions against Russia, we will start there and then follow it through the week ahead. Coming up for us, an emotional moment outside of Georgia courtroom today after a federal jury finds three white men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery guilty of all charges in their federal hate crimes trial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:05]

KING: Topping our political radar today, all three of Ahmaud Arbery's killers found guilty of federal hate crimes today. After hours of deliberation, the jury ruled Gregory McMichael, his son, Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan killed Arbery because he was black. The Arbery family spoke after the verdict. They say they were pleased with the outcome but angry with the Department of Justice for initially attempting to give the killers a plea deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANDA COOPER-JONES, AHMAUD ARBERY'S MOTHER: I as a mom will never heal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got to say it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got to say it.

COOPER-JONES: I want to go back to the DOJ. I told the DOJ that, yes, they were prosecutors. But one thing they didn't have. They didn't have a son that was lying in a cold grave. And they still didn't hear my cry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The Attorney General Merrick Garland responding just a short time ago getting emotional while speaking about the verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I cannot imagine the pain that a mother feels to have her son run down and then gunned down while taking a jog on a public street. My heart goes out to her and to the family. That's really all I can say about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A bizarre story now in Oklahoma where a Democratic candidate for Congress is apologizing for her behavior at a sleepover for a group of 12 and 13 year old girls. "The New York Times" reports Abby Broyles, a former television investigative reporter, said she has no memory of what happened after mixing alcohol with sleep medicine. Other parents though, of kids that that sleep over complained Broyles verbally abused their children then vomited into one of the girls shoes.

It's a landmark day today for the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team and equal pay for women in sports. Dozens of current and former players will receive $22 million settling the equal pay dispute with the U.S. Soccer Federation, that dispute of course, dragging on for two years now. Another 2 million will go into an account for players and their post career goals and charitable efforts.

This quick programming note for us, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, could he be how big of a threat is he to American democracy? A new CNN special report explores can he be stopped. Megaphone for Conspiracy: The Alex Jones Story begins Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Thanks for your time on Inside Politics today. Don't forget you can also listen to our podcast download Inside Politics wherever you get your podcasts. Just moments away, very important announcement at the White House from the President United States on Russia sanctions. Dana Bash picks up our coverage right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Dana Bash in for Ana Cabrera.

Moments from now, the U.S. response, President Biden will address the nation on Russia's escalation in eastern Ukraine. A senior administration official tells us to expect the President to make significant announcements. The White House is preparing to roll out a new round of sanctions targeting Russia hours after Vladimir Putin ordered troops into separatist held regions of Ukraine. A move the White House now describes as an invasion.

We are covering this story from across the globe. Jim Sciutto and Clarissa Ward are in Ukraine. Nic Robertson is in Moscow. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon. And MJ Lee is at the White House. So MJ let's start with here with you. What are you hearing from your sources about what we're going to hear from the President?

MJ LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, the reality is that the American people are waking up this morning to a new reality. And that is that a Russia invasion of Ukraine is now underway. That language is from the U.S. administration officials and it is a new language that we are hearing this morning compared to what we heard last night, when officials really declined to say whether Vladimir Putin's decision to send in more troops to Eastern In Ukraine mounted to a new invasion.

[13:00:02]