Transcripts For CNN The State of the Union Address and Repub

Grateful heart for our heroes who keep us free. That young man, and everyone who has served before him, all of those who serve alongside him, and the thousands we know who will be called upon to serve after him, deserve to know they have a country and Community Back home, doing our part in the fight for freedom. America is great because we are free. But today, or freedom is under attack. And the america we love is in danger. President biden and the democrats have failed to you. And it is time for a change. A new generation of Republican Leaders are stepping up, not to be caretakers of the status quo but to be changemakers for the American People. We know not what the future holds, but we know who holds the future in his hands. And with god as our witness, we will show the world that america is still the place where Freedom Rains and liberty will never die. Thank you. God bless you and god bless america. Republican governor of arkansas, sarah how could be sanders, giving the republican response to President Bidens state of the Union Address. Join us now in studio, the former speaker of the house, congresswoman nancy pelosi, the first time i have ever called you congresswoman, as opposed to leader pelosi. Let me ask, you there was a very powerful moment this evening when President Biden specifically praised your husband paul, who, we all know, was grievously attacked. He called your husband as tough, a strong and this as resilient as they get. I want to just show a little bit of that, if thats okay with you. Here tonight in this chamber is a man who bears the scars of that brutal attack, but is as tough and a strong and as resilient as they get. Thats my friend, paul pelosi. Paul, stand up. What did that moment mean to you, congresswoman . And how is paul doing . Paul is doing fine. He still on a path. It will take him another few months to be well, normal. But he is strong and resilient. What it meant was that so many of my colleagues of course, the democrats but many of the republicans, have been very prayerful and kind about this. Some of them are not. But most of them have been. And so, when they responded to that, it had some authenticity for me. It was not just, they are applauding, because it really match the words that they had said. And it was lovely of the president , to make mention of, it not because as a personal matter, but in terms of what it meant for our country, that any of us in the public arena could be under siege. And Speaker Pelosi which, i am told, i can still call you, which feels more natural, if thats okay Speaker Pelosi, theres Something Else i want to get your response to. Again, its a minority of the republicans we are talking about. Its not a majority of them. But there was heckling like i have never really heard at the state of the Union Address. Lets play some of that. Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some republicans some republicans want medicare and Social Security to sunset. Im not saying its a majority. Oh oh anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I will give you a copy i will give you a copy of the proposal. That Means Congress does not vote oh let me tell you i see. And i enjoy conversion. We should point out as a matter of fact that republican senator senator, rick scott, of florida, has proposed sunsetting all federal programs, which presumably would include Social Security and medicare. What did you think of the federal heckling . I think they were protesting too much. They knew they had been identified as putting medicare and Social Security on the table. And they were trying to dismiss that. But the fact is, it still is part of who they are. They never really support today to begin with. But rather than go into that, as we go forward, the president has said, how do you intend to list the debt ceiling, produced a national debt. Tell us what your and up until now, they have been talking about it. And the leader of the Senate Campaign committee, as you mentioned, senator scott, had that as the priority of what they will do. So, this was sort of showbiz. It did not bother you though, did it . The lack of decorum . No. It was, for them, fairly well behaved, from what we see every day of the week in the house of representatives, unfortunately. The flip side of that and we were talking about this before you came on with that the president interacted and reacted to that in a way that maybe showed people what he was made of. What did you think of that . First of all, let me just say, thank you for the opportunity to say how great i think the president was tonight. What do we want in our president . We want judgment. We want values. We want knowledge. Therefore, its Judgment Springing from that. And we want connection to the American People. You want to hopeful message and that is what he gave us. He proved it by what we have done, but recognizing there is much more to be done. So, his interaction, i think, was a sign that this comfort level, of all that i just said. He did talk about his desire to work with republicans who are now in control of the chamber. Given your experience, dealing with or not dealing with people across the aisle, how realistic is that right now . Im hopeful that that is possible. But all of it depends on the American People. President lincoln you have heard me say he said, public sentiment is everything. With, it you can accomplish almost anything. Without it, practically nothing. So, the message has to go to the American People. This is what the choices are. Chaos or stability. And they have demonstrated how chaotic they can be from the first day electing a speaker, to their behavior on the floor. On the other hand, there are some infrastructure bill, and we had 13 republicans vote in the chips in science bill, we had 24 republicans. But nonetheless, bipartisanship. Still counting votes. It was interesting to me, because some of those the chips and science they would not vote with us until we saw we would win it on our own. And they thought that that was a that event. So, they came on board. But we always have to we know that some of them know they were for the bill the day before the ships in science. And then the day of, they managed the opposition to it. But we knew that many of them believed in making these ships in america. And many republicans, we know, went home to their districts and touted the belief, even if we voted against. It i said about infrastructure and chips. I will see you at the groundbreaking. I want to go a little bit about back to what dana was saying. Because this speech was the context of a president who may run for reelection pretty soon. And you probably heard by now, a recent poll found about 30 only about 30 of democrats say he should run again. It seems like a lot of democrats, theyre happy with joe biden, they think he has done a great job, but they are wondering if he should step to the side. You have made that choice on your own, ushering in a new generation of democrats in the house. What do you say to that criticism . And do you think he did anything tonight to quiet some of the rest of this among democrats . About, should joe biden be the person leading the country into the future . Last week and i was at the Democratic National Committee Meeting in philadelphia. I know there were some would say, perhaps we should consider somebody new. But even in the 30 poll that you said, 90 of democrats would be joe biden if he runs what they might hope for in this earlier stages of a campaign and what they have decided they would do are actually two different things. They are for joe biden. Joe biden is a person of vision, knowledge, judgment, Strategic Thinking to get the job done. He was a remarkable two years. A remarkable two years. And again, he connects very empathetically with the we are good people. So, i hope he runs. Im for him if he runs. And i know that the democrats will fully embrace him. If he runs, its over. That is i dont think there will be any primary challenges to him. I dont think so. Dana was talking to aoc earlier today. And she said something dana, correct me if im wrong to the effect of, she appreciates the primary process. I mean, do you think that you think there will be any democrats to jump in to try to challenge joe biden on this generational argument . No, i dont. I think that you have to weigh all the equities. Yes, the age issue is something that we all have to contend with in every line of work. But i do think that the fact is that weighing the equities this is a president 12 million jobs and all of the things that he has done, he has a record unmatched by any recent president. Maybe Franklin Roosevelt, who hasnt recent. But Franklin Roosevelt had 319 democrats. We had 220 and got done that record of achievement. So, he knows and he has a shared mission with america and he is a unifier he really is. It does not go looking for differences. He goes to look for hopeful unity and he talked about for unifying things when he talked about he talked about the cancer moonshot. He talked about veterans and he talked about the issues that relate to fentanyl fentanyl but also Mental Health issues that sort of relate to that where we have made some progress in a unified way. So, hes always hopeful about that. So, progress he made progress. You give us hope. He made it clear, we have much more to get done. We did not finish our job. But we really went down the path in a way that demonstrated that he is a president with great judgment. Sometimes that judgment comes with age. I remember when jerry brown was running for Governor Office when he was young he said, its time for a change. Then, when he ran for a governor, the second time, there is no substitute for experience. Experience counts for a lot. I think, tonight, he showed the energy, the empathy, the hopefulness that a president ial candidate would have. I think it was a triumph for him, for the country and certainly for the democrats. People were so excited about his presentation tonight. All right, former House Speaker nancy pelosi, thank you so much for being here. We are glad paul is on the mend. Its always good to see. Thank you. Lovely to be with you. Jake, thanks so much. Shes not only a historic figure. Shes also a student of history. I love how she can sort of wheel off the house counts of Franklin Delano roosevelt. Yeah. And also the jerry brown when 40 years apart for governor of california once as an agent of change and then as an agent of experience. But we ought to talk a little bit about Sarah Huckabee Sanders Sanders what did you think of her speech . It was a little bit of a speech into parts. But the first part, it was almost as if she was just talking to the base of the republican party. It was very, very it was searing. She said the difference in america is between normal and crazy. He was Donald Trumps press secretary. I mean, there is real irony in that. But she was stoking the red meat to the base. And shes probably someone who has ambitions of her own Down The Line in National Republican politics. And this did not hurt her. But if the goal was to speak to a broader swath of americans, i dont think she achieved that. I like that she leaned into education choice. School choice is always a win, not just the republican base. From a Policy Perspective that was good. But yes, Sarah Huckabee sanders is not just thinking about her time and anytime in the Governors Mansion but she has been considered to be on a short list to be trumps running mate. Made a lot of sense that she was throwing some red meat to the base. I probably wouldve followed it with a more unifying message and then put some more red meat at the end. So listen, shes a talented, savvy politician and make sense that they chose her. The juxtaposition on age. The youngest governor of the country meets president in history. By the way, hasnt every president visited the troops that yeah, we were all laughing. She was yelling it as if it were a remarkable achievement. I will say, its through afghanistan and iraq in the same deal with the plane in the lights off and all that stuff. But you cant help but be inspired by the troops. And so that is not the province of any particular president or any particular party. And anybody who goes comes back without same sense of inspiration. I thought she came across as mean. And shes not mean. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is not a mean person. I think she came across as mean. And i thought that it was not necessary. She wants to help kids in arkansas, they should not need to help. She did not have to put down every democrat to it didnt make sense to me lets go back to the president speech because one of the things, then, you had referenced before was some of the sort of Kitchen Table issues that he talked about with airlines and other things, tickets for concerts. I just want to play some of what he said. We all Kitchen Table stuff. Banned surprise resorted fees that hotels charge on your bill. Those fees can cost up to 90 a night at hotels that arent even resorts. The idea that cable, internet and Cell Phone Companies can charge you 200 or more if you decide to switch to another provider give me a break. We can stop service fees on tickets and concerts and sporting events. And make companies disclose all fees upfront. We will prohibit airlines from charging 50 round chip for the family just to be able to sit together. Baggage fees are bad enough. Airlines cannot tree your child like a piece of baggage. A, look, it sounds like someone is running for president. It does but it also sounds like someone who knows what is going on in the idea that hes old and out of touch, this is the stuff that drives people nuts. You are trying to raise kids, you are getting nikola and ayman screwed over all the time and no one is on your side. And he shows up and he says, look, i get it and im on your side. And i thought it was powerful because it shows that government can do at least through the small stuff we have a thing is, i think probably, one of maybe that we can parts of the speech was his discussion of inflation and how much better inflation was getting. This was a way of saying, i get the things in your life that are irritating in hard hes got to take some rocks out of your shoe. Is that what we depend on the president for . To rail against the i mean, look, i agree with you, these are irritants. I mean, call me old fashioned. But this is the commanderinchief of the most powerful military in the world. And hes talking about resorts before he ever got to china . Not resorts whatever. Which just flew a balloon over our country, which he really sort of failed to do anything about for several days i thought the whole thing is totally backwards. I understand the political usefulness of complained about things that irritate everyone. It felt small to me. If i can go back to sara for just a second, he seemed to be negative on her having some sort of partisan pieces of her speech that were for her base. What percentage of joe bidens speech was purely for Democratic Base that does not want him to run again . I think the whole tenor and tone, scott, of bidens speech was really constructed to try and speak to a broad audience. Sure, there were some issues on which democrats are much more supportive than republicans. But it wasnt the sort of scorched earth. Let me just be real frank about this. One of the things that is wrong with the politics in our country is the fact that we dont just disagree on issues. But we disqualify ourselves as americans and as human beings. And she sort of strode right into that lane. And that, i think, many the base. But i dont think it is good for the country. And i dont think the country as a whole react well to that. And you know, joe biden did not do that in his speech. And thats not who joe biden is. Thats one of the reasons why hes president of the United States and donald trump is not. You are saying you dont think joe biden is a strident, artisan democrat . I just disrespectfully respectfully disagree. The most important Thing Sanders did to juxtapose the republican position against biden wants to make this generational argument. There is a clear Market Demand for biden not to run again. Not by republicans, but democrats. There is a clear demand for trump to not run again. And so what she is appealing to is probably the only unifying thing in the country. But you didnt but you didnt respond to a point i am making im responding. No, you are not. You are doing what a trained political professional does. You are changing the subject. What i am saying is what im saying is, that the at the end of the speech biden spoke to the fact that we need to not treat each others enemies but as fellow americans what. I heard in her speech was, no, lets treat each others enemies. That was the tone and tenor of her speech. I agree that the education stuff had a much broader appeal. I think there are two im sorry, go ahead, van. When its generally shuttle peace. And sothebys hander spoke to that well. But are you going to be a uniter or a divider . Joe biden and republicans voted because joe biden was a united and i then republicans across the border. Not what i can lose, just real quick and, sarah sponsors the generational message was the most powerful. But trump still the front runner for the gop. So are we goin