We are continuing our coverage. Looking ahead.
Tonight's State of the Union address President Biden's annual address
to Congress and the nation,
a critical moment for the president.
He's going to be to talk about his agenda and
rally voters for his reelection campaign.
To get into all that,
we're joined by the US Transportation Secretary,
Pete Buttigieg. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being
here.
I know you can't talk about campaign issues under the
Hatch Act.
Was a lot of issues facing the American people that
we can get into
the approval rating? I think we do have to address
up at the top.
Back in 2021, depending on what poll you're looking at,
the president was in the 50s,
now he's in the 30s.
How do you turn that around?
Well, I think the most important thing is to communicate
directly to the American people about what's been achieved and
just as importantly about the future and how different Americans
futures can be in a positive way if we continue
with the successful and I would add popular policies that
the president has led on,
but these things don't sell themselves.
That's part of why tonight is so important.
This is a chance for the president to talk about
the strides that our economy has made under his leadership,
adding more jobs than any president ever.
It's a chance to talk about
how things like the bipartisan infrastructure law that he led
are now leading to improvements to roads,
bridges and more in every part of this country.
Issue after issue where we've got to talk about what
we've done
and where we've headed. I'm looking forward to the president
making that case this evening.
The economy case is a really important one.
People care about it deeply,
of course, and the perceptions don't always seem to match
up with the top line indicators.
And that may be because,
as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said
in our last hour, inflation is outpacing wage growth.
He he put it at
17.9%, the overall inflation rate under the Biden administration.
What's your answer to that if people are not feeling
a good economy at home?
Well, look, we we all know what our economy went
through during and after COVID.
But also thanks to President Biden's leadership,
we have had less inflation than any of the other
world's leading economies.
And right now, wages are growing faster than prices.
It takes a while to feel that for sure,
and different households are in different circumstances.
But that's exactly why the president has been so focused
on lowering costs for everyday life,
whether it's the action that he took.
And by the way, House Republicans did not back him
up.
They stood with Big Pharma.
But he took action to make sure that insulin would
be capped at
$35 for seniors. He would have done it for every
American and still will,
if Congress would just work with him on that,
making sure we get rid of junk fees from credit
cards and other institutions that are often ripping people off.
That is the focus of this administration.
And you're going to hear,
I think, a contrast tonight.
He look has a sharp disagreement from congressional Republicans priority
of tax cuts for the wealthy.
He wants to make sure as he always says that
we build our economy from the bottom up in the
middle out.
That's why he's proudly pro union and that's why he's
proud of the wage growth and historic job growth taking
place on his watch.
The 1st president in history to actually join a union
protest line.
So that's something let's talk about the border an issue
that cuts across a lot of different categories a lot
of different issues overall.
Speaker Johnson and and people in general have been saying,
I get the president has said work with me,
Republicans, Republicans arguably have said no,
we're not going to. We want this as an issue,
not as a solution. But why doesn't the president then
take executive action?
He could reinstate remain in Mexico which would reduce the
number of people coming over and staying and waiting.
Look the president has taken a number of actions with
the authority that he has.
There are some things he's not going to do,
like family separation because it's wrong.
But what he is doing right now is make sure
that
he's supporting the kind of border moves that we all
know that we need.
Most Americans think we ought to do it.
There was a bipartisan deal to make it happen and
congressional Republicans killed it.
And I think that demonstrated that they would prefer to
have the problem,
which is politically useful, than the solution that most Americans,
including the president of the United States,
want to see happen. But it almost seems like he
wants the problem too,
because there are these things he could do that he's
not doing and remain in Mexico.
That's an example of it.
Again, he's doing everything that he responsibly can under the
law as it now stands.
He has called on Congress to update the law
and send more funding. And so far,
Congress has said no, even after negotiating associations,
by the way, led by very conservative Republicans working with
Democrats,
only for House Republic congressional Republicans to kill that bipartisan
deal.
We can talk about solutions,
or we can just talk about the politics of the
problem.
But he's here tonight to talk about solutions.
Yeah, it's something I pressed the speaker about.
I want to talk about abortion and IVF.
I'm sure abortion will come up tonight.
The question of where life begins legally as defined and
whether IVF,
where that is in in that spectrum has come up
recently and and the the speaker said Congress is not
going to take up the question in legislation about whether
IVF is the destruction of a human life when you
dispose of an embryo.
Do you think, given all the the confusion,
the hesitation from providers, do you think Congress needs to
address this directly?
Here's the thing, this shouldn't be up to politicians in
the 1st place,
but that's the world we're living in ever since Republicans
in this building and in this town and in the
Supreme Court around the corner killed Roe versus Wade and
ended a woman's right to choose.
And look, Alabama is the 1st place where IVF started
to be blocked.
It won't be the last.
And this has been the agenda
of Congressional Republicans for as long as I've been alive.
I personally believe that the question of when life begins
is a theological or moral or philosophical question,
not to be decided by politicians,
but that the decisions, especially decisions about a pregnancy,
should be made by women.
I trust women to make those decisions.
So does the president. He's going to make that clear
tonight.
And like most Americans believe that that is something to
be decided between families and their doctor,
not by politicians around here.
Mr. Secretary, thank you very much.
One of the things voters always tell me that remember
the the president said was that he's a bridge candidate.
I hope tonight we're going to let a little bit
more about where that bridge is leading.
I appreciate you being here with us.
Thank you. And we will send it back to you
all in New York.
That is a question. He did say a bridge candidate.
Nice to see the secretary there,
Tony. Nice job in DC.
We'll see you back at the table tomorrow.