On this “Face the Nation” broadcast moderated by Margaret Brennan:
- Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 response coordinator
- Rep. Adam Schiff, Democrat of California
- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez
- Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S.
- Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo
Click here to browse full transcripts of “Face the Nation.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan in Washington.
And this week on Face the Nation: President Biden is battling a COVID infection, as the world prepares for another health crisis.
Nearly two-and-a-half years into the COVID pandemic, President Biden is experiencing what millions of Americans have gone through, a bout of what may be the latest mutation of COVID.
(Begin VT)
JOE BIDEN (President of the United States): I’m doing well, getting a lot of work done.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: But the country is facing another health crisis as the rapid spread of monkeypox prompts the World Health Organization to declare a global emergency.
(Begin VT)
TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS (Director General, World Health Organization): This is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will discuss the strategy for containing monkeypox, the evolving threat of COVID, and the president’s own prognosis with White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha.
Meanwhile, a dangerous heat wave rolls through the U.S., bringing with it intensifying drought and raging wildfires. We will hear from the mayor of Miami Republican, Francis Suarez, about how his front-line city is preparing for rising sea levels and extreme weather.
And with the president’s environmental agenda stalled in Congress, we will ask Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about what’s next for climate and competition with China.
Then: The committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol reveals new details about former President Trump’s conduct during and after the assault.
(Begin VT)
DONALD TRUMP (Former President of the United States): I don’t want to say the election is over.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Will the revelations have any legal or political impact on Mr. Trump’s future?
(Begin VT)
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If I announced that I was not going to run for office, the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will check in with California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, a member of the Select Committee.
And just hours after a U.N.-brokered deal was signed to release vital Ukrainian grain exports, Russia bombs the very ports where they’re stored. As the war continues to roil the global economy, we will talk with Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova.
It’s all just ahead on Face the Nation.
Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation. We have a lot of news to get through this morning.
But we want to begin on the medical beat with the latest on President Biden’s condition and the fight to contain both COVID and monkeypox.
We’re joined now by White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha.
Welcome to Face the Nation.
DR. ASHISH JHA (White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator): Good Morning, Margaret. Thanks for having me here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the White House physician has said that it’s the BA.5 variant that likely infected the president. That’s the dominant variant across the country right now. It’s highly transmissible. How is the president’s health? And do you know where he got it?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, so it is the BA.5 variant, which is, as you said, is about 80 percent of infections.
The president’s doing well. I checked in with his team late last night. He was feeling well. He had a good day yesterday. He’s got a viral syndrome, an upper respiratory infection that is — and he’s doing just fine.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There is so little known about long COVID, but given the president’s age, do you expect that the White House will continue to make disclosures if he has long-term symptoms from this infection?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, absolutely.
You know, we think it’s really important for the American people to know how well the president’s doing, which is why we have been so transparent, giving updates several times a day, having people hear from me directly, hear directly from his physician.
And, obviously, if he has persistent symptoms, obviously, if any of them interfere with his ability to carry out his duties, we will — we will disclose that early and often with the American people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: About six out of 10 Americans, according to CDC, live in areas of high transmission right now. That includes major cities like New York, Phoenix, Miami.
There are no indoor mask mandates there. Does that concern you?
DR. ASHISH JHA: In areas of high transmission, I think it’s very prudent for people to be wearing masks indoors, especially if they’re in crowded, poorly ventilated spaces. That’s what the CDC recommends.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I also want to ask you about this other health challenge with monkeypox.
The World Health Organization yesterday declared it a public health emergency of international concern. That’s the highest level of alert. The Biden administration, specifically HHS, has stopped short of doing that.
Should you declare it a pandemic? Should you declare it a public health emergency?
DR. ASHISH JHA: We are seeing outbreaks that are out of control in many, many parts of the world. It’s very important that we get our arms around this thing.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But is it an emergency here?
DR. ASHISH JHA: In the United States — well, in the — in the U.S., right now, we’re looking at public health emergency as a — as something that HHS might deliver, but — I mean, might invoke, but it really depends on, what does that allow us to do?
Right now, we have over 2,000 cases, but we have ramped up vaccinations, ramped up treatments, ramped up testing, and we’re going to continue to look at all sort of policy options.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You said back in May that you think we can get our arms around this. You said monkeypox is a virus that we understand.
Are you saying today, just like then, you think monkeypox can be contained?
DR. ASHISH JHA: I do think monkeypox can be contained, absolutely.
The way we contain monkeypox is, we have a very simple, straightforward strategy on this, right, which is make testing widely available. We have done that. And now testing is far more frequent and common.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was slow.
DR. ASHISH JHA: Get vaccines out.
Yes, but we have right now the capacity to do 90,000 tests a week — I’m sorry — 80,000 tests a week. That’s an extraordinary number. We’re going to be releasing hundreds of thousands of more vaccines in the next days and weeks. So, there is a very substantial ramping up of response that is happening right now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But I asked you about containment because you could have shifted allocation earlier, surged it differently, sooner switching from at-risk individuals to areas where there are active high case counts and an outbreak.
The CDC director said just a few days ago her agency has no data on who has been vaccinated. She said there’s one key important similarity with COVID and with monkeypox, and that is the CDC’s inability to see data in real time.
So this seems to be still an issue for our health agencies to act quickly to contain an outbreak. This is a problem.
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, so what I would — I would remind us is that public health in America has always been led by states.
It is important for states to be sharing data with CDC. We’ve been working with states across the country. Lots of states have been forthcoming. And my expectation is that, in the days and weeks ahead, we’re going to be able to get more and more data from states. And that will help us understand the national picture a bit more — in a bit more detail.
But we do have a pretty good feel right now for how widespread monkeypox is, as I said, about 2,000 or so cases across the country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: A fellow Democrat, Congressman Adam Schiff, who will be on this program today, sent a letter to HHS, saying: “The federal government is falling short of the response that is needed. Skyrocketing cases, limited vaccination supply worldwide suggests that the monkeypox virus will continue to spread for years to come, if not indefinitely.”
Is monkeypox now endemic? Will it continue to spread indefinitely?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Well, it is endemic in certain parts of the world. It is not endemic here in the United States.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m asking about here.
DR. ASHISH JHA: And the plan here is very straightforward.
We — the plan is to eliminate this virus from the United States. I think we can do that. We’ve got the vaccines and we’ve got the diagnostic tests.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There are now two children with it that the CDC knows of, at least, and the CDC said both of these children are traced back to individuals who come from the men-who-have-sex-with-men community.
How actively is this being spread? And are you still only talking about the gay community because you’re only looking there?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, so we obviously know that this virus is spreading largely in the — in the gay community, among men who have sex with men.
But, obviously, there are other people who are at risk as well, people they interact with, people — anybody who has monkeypox can spread it to others. It is through skin-to-skin contact, direct and prolonged contact.
We’re doing a very broad surveillance. This is why not only have we ramped up testing capacity. We’re — we’re encouraging physicians, working with physician groups to do more broad-scale testing.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about one other issue right now.
We heard in the state of New York, the first case of polio in nearly a decade was confirmed in an unvaccinated 20-year-old man in Rockland County, New York. He was hospitalized back in June. Are there other cases? And if he was infected back in June, why are we only now hearing about it?
DR. ASHISH JHA: Yes, so this is a place where the CDC is working very closely with the Department of Health. It is in an unvaccinated individual.
Thankfully, most Americans are vaccinated against polio. Most of the world is vaccinated against polio. If — obviously, if you’re not vaccinated against polio, critically important.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. Well, I have a small child. It takes time to get fully vaccinated. Should I be concerned that there are polio cases spreading in New York and in the United States?
DR. ASHISH JHA: There is a lot of surveillance that we do for polio. There’s wastewater surveillance that goes on.
We are not seeing outbreaks of polio elsewhere. But I do not expect polio to become more widespread in the country, again, because so many Americans are vaccinated against this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Dr. Jha, thank you for your time this morning.
Face the Nation will be back in a moment. Stay with us.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We now turn to the January 6 investigation and the latest findings from the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.
On Thursday, the committee detailed hours of inaction by President Trump during the assault as he sat in his dining room, watched the violence unfold on television and chose to do nothing to stop the siege of Congress, despite pleas by advisers, Republican lawmakers and allies.
(Begin VT)
GEN. MARK MILLEY (Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff): You know, you’re the commander in chief. You’ve got an assault going on, on the Capitol of the United States of America. And there’s nothing? No call? Nothing? Zero?
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We learned that Secret Service agents protecting Vice President Mike Pence feared for their lives.
(Begin VT)
WHITE HOUSE SECURITY OFFICIAL: There were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth. The V.P. detail thought that this was about to get very ugly.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we saw for the first time top congressional leaders working with the acting secretary of defense to get back to certifying the electoral votes.
(Begin VT)
SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-New York): The earliest we could safely resume?
CHRISTOPHER MILLER (Former Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense): I — here’s my assessment. I would say, best case, we’re looking at four to five hours.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: The hearings to date have featured a wide range of witnesses, but the through line of nearly all the testimony has been former President Trump and his relentless efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
Committee members say the investigation is far from over, with more hearings planned for September 20.
Joining us now is a member of that panel, Congressman Adam Schiff of California, who is also the chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
Good to have you here with us.
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF (D-California): Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Before I go further on January 6, I do want to quickly just button up what Dr. Jha addressed in regard to that letter you wrote this week in regard to monkeypox.
You said the federal response falls short in terms of supply and timeliness regarding a vaccine. The current supply accounts for only 3.5 half million residents. Some shipments are not even expected to arrive until 2023.
Why do you think the federal response is failing, when Dr. Jha says it’s contained and under control?
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: I don’t know why there aren’t more vaccines available.
I’m hearing from health care providers in my district that there are people lining up to get vaccinated and they don’t have the vaccines for them, and that is a real problem.
As I think you indicated, we really don’t know the future course of this virus. But what we do now, early on, just as was the case with the pandemic, will determine just how bad this may get. And so I want to light a fire under the administration and get them to make sure that we up production, that we up distribution and that people that are ready and willing and able to get vaccinated have the ability to protect themselves.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll continue tracking that on this program.
But let me get back to January 6. When you were last on this program, you said you believed that it would be more dangerous for the Justice Department to decide against prosecuting the former president than it would be to go ahead with a prosecution.
Here’s how Attorney General Merrick Garland responded when my colleague Jeff Pegues asked him about potential prosecution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERRICK GARLAND (U.S. Attorney General): Look, no person is above the law in this country. Nothing stops us.
JEFF PEGUES: Even a former president?
ATTORNEY GENERAL MERRICK GARLAND: No — I don’t know how to — maybe I will say that again. No person is above the law in this country.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: What do you make of those remarks?
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: Well, the attorney general is committed to following the evidence to wherever it may lead. And it has led to Donald Trump.
And so I think the president should be investigated. Whether they’ll ultimately conclude they have proved beyond reasonable doubt to charge him and to convict him, that’s — that will it be up to the department.
But what we have demonstrated just in the last couple of hearings is that, when all else failed, when all these other lines of effort to overturn the election failed, he made the decision to bring a mob to the Capitol. When he learned they were armed, his response was, then take the magnetometers down.
He wanted to march with that mob, that armed and dangerous mob, to the Capitol. And when he was refused and brought to the safety of the cafeteria or the Dining Room of the White House, he wouldn’t lift a finger as he watched on TV police officers being beaten and gouged and sprayed with chemicals, in the most supreme dereliction of duty ever.
But, also, those multiple lines of effort, I think, invoke various criminal laws. And his conduct ought to be the subject of investigation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we’ll see if the Justice Department starts one.
On the things that the committee has laid out in this congressional forum, we still haven’t seen a direct link substantiated between the White House officials and the militias like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers who were part of the violence that day. Are you still trying to substantiate that?
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: That remains an ongoing part of our investigation. We have certainly shown some links between the president, the key advisers like Roger Stone and Mike Flynn, and elements of these white nationalist groups.
But that component of our investigation continues. And, as is the case more broadly, witnesses continue to come forward. We’ll be presenting new information in the fall. But, as we continue to ask about additional evidence, I think we really need to think about what we’ve demonstrated already about the president’s knowledge that the election wasn’t stolen and his response and his intent.
And, to me, that is most graphically demonstrated when he told top Justice Department officials basically to say — just say the election was stolen or just say it was corrupt, and that he would take care of the rest.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: Those kind of pieces of testimony, they’re directly on the president’s knowledge and intent.
And this gets back to your previous question about the Justice Department. I hope they’re watching. I hope they’re watching carefully, and I hope they understand the implications of what we’re presenting.
MARGARET BRENNAN: When it comes to implications, your colleague Liz Cheney was on two other networks this morning, and she said that you all are discussing a potential subpoena for Ginni Thomas, who is married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Are there lines that shouldn’t be crossed here when it comes to the Supreme Court? Because one of the objections to the premise of a subpoena here is that it — it sets a dangerous precedent by putting the spouse of a justice in this political forum.
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed, but those lines involve sitting Supreme Court justices not presiding or appearing or taking action in cases in which their spouse may be implicated.
And, in this case, for Clarence Thomas to issue a decision in a case, a dissent in a case where Congress is trying to get documents, and those documents might involve his own wife, that’s the line that’s been crossed.
And I think, for Congress to be looking into these issues, looking into conflict of interest issues, but, here, looking into issues, whether it involves the wife of a Supreme Court justice or anyone else, if they have information or role in an effort to overturn an election, yes, they’re not excluded from examination.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It sounds like you’re saying you favor that subpoena?
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: Well, I — if she has relevant information or investigation, we hope she comes in voluntarily.
But if she doesn’t, then we should give that serious consideration. And, yes, I think those that we decide have important enough information should be subpoenaed.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congresswoman Cheney also said the committee expects to hear again from Tony Ornato, that lead Secret Service agent, and that both he and another have hired private criminal defense counsel.
What does that suggest to you?
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: Well, I think, if they’re hiring criminal defense counsel, then they probably have a concern about their potential criminal liability.
We want to hear from these witnesses. Some, we want to hear from again. We want to put them under oath, if they weren’t previously under oath, so that we can understand exactly what was happening on January 5 and January 6.
And we have profound concerns about what’s going on at the Secret Service. We are now, for the first time, getting documents that we had requested long, long ago. There’s one issue about why they weren’t provided earlier, but they’re also showing us some new things.
And, furthermore, we want to obtain those text messages, if there’s any way to retrieve them. But, either way, we want to get answers as to why those were destroyed.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, we will continue to watch what the committee does when you reconvene in the fall.
Thank you very much, Congressman.
And for a closer look at what the hearings have revealed about the former president, we’re joined now by CBS News chief political analyst John Dickerson.
John, it’s good to talk to you. We were side by side just on Thursday night during these prime-time broadcasts of the hearings; 17 million Americans watched them. But this is a political process before Congress. It’s not a legal one, as we just discussed.
How do we start to assess the impact?
JOHN DICKERSON: Well, it’s good to be with you, Margaret.
I think the impact of this Thursday’s hearing was different than all the other hearings. When Donald Trump sometimes boasted about refusing to act as president, the consequences seemed far off.
What Thursday showed was the most direct connection between Donald Trump choosing not to act as president and the dire consequences of doing so.
So, as Americans watched January 6, most of them were heartsick. They thought — they wished something could be done. What could be done? Donald Trump watched also. And he could do something. It was his duty as president to preserve, to protect and defend. He did nothing.
His family called him and said, because of your special connection to the rioters flying your flag, you should do something. He did nothing.
So, for three hours, while he watched what everybody else was watching, he did not respond. And that is the most clear representation of his refusal to do the job and actually doing the job.
So what was amazing about Thursday was not the specific testimony, which was amazing, but that no one can testify that he took actions consistent with his job, not the witnesses who talked about what he didn’t do, but that no one can bear witness to him doing the job as commander in chief.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
And that was — that inaction was something Congressman Kinzinger put his finger on. And he was on another network this morning saying that, when it comes to the hearings, for Republicans in general, this doesn’t appear to be having a ton of impact.
And I thought that was interesting because, when you open “The Wall Street Journal” editorial page, “The New York Post,” it drew a lot of attention that they both were unusually harsh in their criticism of the former president in the past few days.
“The Journal” wrote: “Character is revealed in a crisis. Mr. Pence passed his January 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his.”
How do we assess where the conservative movement is on this?
JOHN DICKERSON: Well, we will — we will have to see. Donald Trump’s reputation is in flux.
When we think about the Republican Party, it’s got kind of two challenges. And there are a lot of tensions in an election year, two challenges and one thing that’s going well for it.
If you think of Donald Trump, the challenge is, he has been judged by the leaders of his party, Mitch McConnell in the Senate, Kevin McCarthy in the House, Mike Pence, as having failed in a fundamental duty of the job.
So, how does a party go forward, when its most popular leader has failed at a core job in a democracy? The other challenge is in the movement of people who look at what happened on January 6 and think that the rioters didn’t go far enough, who have an apocalyptic sense of politics and think that anything goes if you demonize the other side sufficiently. Those are two problems and challenges for the Republican Party.
The upside for Republicans at the moment, which will cause them to push that beach ball under the water, is that they have got a very favorable political environment, with Joe Biden’s weakness, Democratic lack of enthusiasm, and the general historical trend that the party out of power does well in the midterms.
All of those things will encourage Republicans to leave their problems to the side for the hopes of winning power back.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What do you think that legacy of Trumpism is? Is it blow up the system?
JOHN DICKERSON: Well, the legacy as it’s come through these hearings, let’s think about what these hearings have lifted and what it means.
It kind of goes beyond Donald Trump, but it goes to the two challenges of a — in a democracy. One of the things we have seen in these hearings is that people who were challenged and under pressure of the Trump administration and Donald Trump, they did the right thing under pressure. And we have seen that for weeks.
The other challenge, though, is the people who knew better and didn’t act.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
JOHN DICKERSON: Which of those two wins out?
MARGARET BRENNAN: John Dickerson, always good to chat with you.
We will be right back in a moment with more Face the Nation. Stay with us.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: If you can’t watch the full Face the Nation, be sure to set your DVR.
We will be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be right back with a lot more Face the Nation.
Stay with us.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: A brutal and sweltering heatwave is impacting large swaths of the country this weekend. Temperatures are expected to break records today in states across the northeast and the middle of the country as cities brace for heat indices of 100 degrees or more.
CBS News senior national correspondent Mark Strassmann is in Tampa Bay with this report.
(BEGIN VT)
MARK STRASSMANN (voice over): There’s this southern expression, even Satan’s sweating today.
WOMAN: It’s too hot – it’s too hot right now.
MAN: This is hot. This is brutal. Brutal.
MARK STRASSMANN: Better get used to brutal.
Today’s blowtorch forecast, lots of triple digit highs. Heat alerts again for more than 80 million Americans. For many of them, that heat is considered dangerous.
Places like Texas, where this heatwave feels like a siege of standing right next to one of the wildfires burning near Fort Worth or California near Yosemite. More than five dozen communities in 20 states this past week hit record highs.
MARK STRASSMANN (on camera): Take Tampa Bay, hit for most of the last week by hot, humid winds off the Gulf of Mexico. The daily high for the feels- like temperature between 102 and 107.
MARK STRASSMANN (voice over): Texas and California have had highs of 115. Overheated people in Dallas hunted for air conditioning anywhere. Libraries seemed cool again. Geoscientist blamed inaction on climate change and warned hot house summers are here to stay.
JOELLEN L. RUSSELL, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: These are spectacularly tough things and they’re only going to get worse unless we tackle the problem with everything we’ve got.
MARK STRASSMANN: Europe’s week of heat was historic and deadly. Thousands died. Most of them, elderly. Wildfires in Spain. In the U.K., where central air is rare, temperatures reached 36 degrees above normal. Portugal’s high, 117.
On both sides of the Atlantic, people have shared triple digit misery, and talking about the weather has meant more than making small talk.
WOMAN: They should take it seriously because heat-related illnesses can be life-threatening.
(END VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: That was Mark Strassmann reporting.
We turn now to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. He is a Republican and the current chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He joins us from Miami.
Mr. Mayor, good to have you with us.
You just heard our reporting there. You know, in this 2,000-page report, the U.N. put out earlier in the year, it refers to Florida as an example of a place where the impacts of climate change are already being felt. And it mentions people are likely going to have to move away if they live on the coastline.
You and your city have had to come up with a strategy and the one released would spend 4 billion, 3.8 billion, over the next few decades to build seawalls, take other measures. That’s quadruple your annual operating budget.
Can you afford what’s coming?
MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R-Miami): Well, first of all, Margaret, it’s not theoretical for us in the city of Miami. It’s real. We deal with it day in and day out, year after year. We’ve been dedicating a tremendous amount of resources, updating our building codes over decades since 1992 when we had a 200 mile per hour event called Hurricane Andrew.
Now, our latest challenge, of course, is the water and the heat, as you’ve said in the prior segment, and we — our citizens approved right after Hurricane Irma in 2017, which created a four to six foot storm surge in our central business district, a plan called Miami Forever. And the basis of the plan is to spend hundreds of millions of dollars what were voter approved, there was actually a voter approved tax, and combine them with other funding sources, like the state and federal government, to be able to upgrade our infrastructure to deal with all the things that are being thrown our way from mother nature.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But when you said you can’t afford not to take it seriously, I wonder if you think the national Republican Party takes the problem of climate change seriously.
FRANCIS SUAREZ: Well, what we’re seeing at the national level is that the only action that is occurring is action that’s taken in a bipartisan basis. The Democrats, unfortunately, have failed to be able to pass bills to address climate at any sort of scale. So, the infrastructure bill, which was recently passed —
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they don’t have any Republican votes. They also don’t have all Democrats onboard, but it would help if they had Republican votes.
FRANCIS SUAREZ: Right. Yes, exactly. Well, but – I think what it means is that it has to be bipartisan in terms of their outreach, in terms of their messaging, in terms of, you know, which is how they passed the, you know, the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with Republican votes. And we still haven’t seen any funding from that bill, by the way. Like I said, we dedicated $200 million in funding from our city residents.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why not?
FRANCIS SUAREZ: We’re — that’s a great question. You know, they have a great infrastructure czar, which is a former mayor of New Orleans, who was a president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, who we work with, but we still have not seen a penny of that money trickle down, peculate down to the cities, and we need it because, as I’ve said, we’ve dedicated a couple of hundred million dollars.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
FRANCIS SUAREZ: We’ve gotten about 30 or 40 million from the state. But we need significantly more than that as you’ve indicated in your initial comments.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, there was this $2 trillion American Rescue Plan that passed back in the spring with zero Republican votes. Florida did benefit. Republican Governor DeSantis allocated over 400 million to help coastal communities in Florida. So, have you gotten that money in your hand? And how much more do you need exactly?
FRANCIS SUAREZ: Yes, we have, actually. The American Rescue Plan, our budget (ph), as you describe it, it’s coming in two tranches, 950 billion last year, 950 billion this year. And we have allocated it effectively. And we are trying to leverage the money that we have to do things like, you know, increasing our seawalls, tidal valves that prevent the black flow of water into our city during storm events, pump stations, which we have built more and more and are planning to build significantly more. So we are addressing the issue head on. And certainly the funding that we’re going to be receiving from the state and from the federal government, hopefully, eventually, from the infrastructure bill, is critically needed for us to be able to tackle this problem and make sure that we have Miami Forever.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, we mentioned you are a registered Republican. Mayor of the second largest city in Florida.
When you were on this program last, back in January, you told me that you had repeatedly reached out to your governor, fellow Republican, to talk to him about health precautions you wanted to take in Miami, but you had no contact, no outreach. And I wonder what you think that says about Ron DeSantis’ executive leadership in a time of crisis?
FRANCIS SUAREZ: You know, we are – we’re different. We have different perspectives and different personalities and different philosophies in terms of our leadership style. You know, we – you know, I – we — I lead, like you said, the largest — arguably the largest urban city in the state. And his mandate is significantly greater in terms of number, but it’s also very different in terms of cities in rural areas. You know, so, you know, he —
MARGARET BRENNAN: Does he talk to you now? Does he talk to the mayor of the second largest city in the state?
FRANCIS SUAREZ: We do. We have spoken on a variety of occasions. In fact, one of the ones that we spoke about recently happened to be about resiliency. We actually — the state did give us about $40 million that we combined with the $200 million and we did a press conference together in Broward County. So, on the environment, I have to say, his record, over the last four years, including the legislature’s record, has been very much pro-environment and something that he and I share.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What about on issues of health? I mean when it comes to Covid, Florida’s response has been heavily scrutinized. Monkeypox, right now, Florida has the third highest case count of any state in the country.
Are you, in Miami, getting the vaccines you need? Are you getting the testing you need? Has that part of the health rollout working with the state been smooth?
FRANCIS SUAREZ: You know, we’re monitoring this outbreak, as you mentioned. I am not aware of any shortages in vaccines or testing at this particular juncture. None of it has been — you know, come to my attention. But certainly we’ll work with the state and certainly we’ll work with the federal government to make sure that our city is protected and that those here get the necessary testing and vaccination to protect themselves against the monkeypox virus.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Mayor Suarez, thank you for your time today.
And we’ll be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today marks five months since Russia launched a full- scale war on Ukraine. The invasion has cost tens of thousands of lives and it has roiled the global economy. For a look at where the fight stands now, we are joined by Ukraine’ ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova.
Madam Ambassador, it’s good to have you back on the program.
OKSANA MARKAROVA (Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S.): Good morning and thank you for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about what happened in the past 24 to 48 hours. There’s an estimated 20 million metric tons of grain stuck in Ukraine, can’t get out. This is contributing to food inflation and food shortages around the world. So less than 24 hours after signing this U.N. brokered deal to allow Ukraine’s grain to export, Russia sent missiles into the Odessa port city where that grain would be transiting. This is what the State Department says. Your government said it’s like spit in the face of the U.N. and Turkey. But you’re sticking with the deal? Why?
OKSANA MARKAROVA: Well, what happened in the port is so Russian and it’s very telling about what has been happening for the past eight years. For the past eight years, Ukraine always acted in good faith and tried everything possible and sometimes impossible to end the war and to return our sovereignty. Similar was this 151 days. We are defending. We are standing strong in defending our country.
And, at the same time, we will find any options in order to resolve the crisis. It’s like this food crisis that Russia has created for other countries, not only for Ukraine. So, we will do everything in order to perform and fulfill our part of the deal.
Now, when Russia is violating it, they are clearly showing who they are and that they need to be stopped.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So is Russia technically violating it? Because unnamed U.N. officials are quoted as saying they may not have –because Russia never pledged to avoid attacking the parts of the Ukrainian ports that are not directly used for grain exports. Really? That seems like a pretty big oversight.
OKSANA MARKAROVA: Well, let’s call it what it is. Everything Russia is doing in Ukraine is a violation of pretty much every international law. Attacking a sovereign country is a violation. It’s a war crime. So, we have the deal with U.N. and with our colleagues from Turkey. We are fulfilling the deal. They agreed also with Russia and they have to first stop the war, you know, and they have to do everything without even any initiative signs.
But, with this, I think they’re just showing their true face again. So, the good response to that should be more weapons to Ukraine so that we can defend ourselves, we can get them out from our country, and we can unblock our ports and unblock all Ukraine in order not only to ship the grain, but the sunflower and everything else that is being stuck in Ukraine.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. That impact your baby formula.
OKSANA MARKAROVA: Absolutely.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That impacts food stops (ph) for everything.
But – but does this attack make it – make that food crisis worse? Will this hurt your ability to export what little is getting out?
OKSANA MARKAROVA: We will do everything possible. And we are exporting even now, through the western border, of course, the capacity –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Through land.
OKSANA MARKAROVA: Through land, through railroads, through all possible ways. And we will continue doing so. Our farmers are even planting and harvesting under the fire. So, we will, as we defend the country, we will continue also to rebuild at the same time and plant and do everything possible to feed us and feed the world. Hopefully, and we see already good results of the new HIMARS and artillery being provided to us, that will allow us to go on to – on the counter offensive and free our territory, which we need to do not only for grain, but also to save our people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So your first lady was here in Washington and addressed Congress and specifically asked for air defense systems. We know the U.S. has pledged to send national advance surface-to-air missile systems, but they haven’t actually arrived in Ukraine yet. Is that what she was referring to and what specifically are you asking for?
OKSANA MARKAROVA: Yes, very effective visit of the first lady and her message that — while Russia kills, America saves, I think have been heard by everyone here. And, yes, we are talking about the (INAUDIBLE) and other air defense systems. We’re also talking about more firepower, more artillery, more HIMARS, which just last Friday we heard the announcement of more coming.
MARGARET BRENNAN: These are precision guided rockets?
OKSANA MARKAROVA: Exactly. And we already see that with that equipment, that is very effectively used by our defenders, we are able to destroy the ammo dumps that Russia is creating on the uncontrolled territories and that we actually are moving into free and more territories in the south and, hopefully, with sufficient number of weapons, we can do the same in the east. But the situation remains very, very difficult still.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It is. And we know now – U.S. intelligence says Russia controls about 20 percent of Ukraine.
OKSANA MARKAROVA: That is correct.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to make sure that I bring this up with you because it was so deeply disturbing when I heard it. A State Department official, Ambassador Victoria Nuland, said, Russia makes orphans and then it steals orphans. She said up to 1,000 Ukrainian children have been stolen and given to Russian families. What exactly is happening? What can the U.S. government or the American people do about it?
OKSANA MARKAROVA: It has been one of the key pleas of the first lady here on all uncontrolled territories, from Mariupol to other places, Russia is forcefully deporting not only adults and families, but specifically children. And Russians themselves already admitted that 350,000 children have been evacuated, as they say, but kidnapped. Let’s call it the way — what it is, to Russia. They have relaxed their own legislation in order to allow them to be adopted quickly into Russian families.
This is a brutal violation, not only of international law, but of common decency. How can you steal our children and try to hide them somewhere in Russia? Only 47 children were able to return to Ukraine right now. And as of August 1st, Ukraine will be starting a platform, Children at War, which will allow people throughout the globe, including Russia, to add information they — about all the children. It’s our first priority to locate, find them and return them. And it’s very difficult because we don’t have control over this territories.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And do you have any hope that you can actually return these children without the United States or other countries getting involved?
OKSANA MARKAROVA: We need everyone who can to get involved. And I can assure you that everyone in Ukraine will not rest until all of them are located and returned.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Ambassador, thank you very much for your time.
We’ll be back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We now want to turn to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Thank you for joining us.
GINA RAIMONDO (Secretary of Commerce): Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you have been making this big push for this chips bill that would direct about 50 billion towards the semiconductor industry. Those are those computer chips and phones and dishwashers, weapons and basically everything.
GINA RAIMONDO: In everything. Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The bill now also has about $200 billion in additional spending, which I understand you would play a role in helping to dole out in some way.
For people at home, why should U.S. taxpayers subsidize a profitable industry?
GINA RAIMONDO: Right now we are dangerously dependent on other countries, mostly in Asia, for our supply of semiconductor. We don’t make any leading- edge semiconductors in the United States. And those are the sophisticated chips that you need for military equipment and high-end computing. We buy almost all of them from Taiwan.
So, the reality is, we need companies to expand in America. And other countries around the world are providing incentives.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But doesn’t rolling out state subsidies of private industry create a dangerous precedent, or are you arguing we’re just in a scenario where we need to start thinking of vital industries as partially state funded or subsidized?
GINA RAIMONDO: Yes. What I’m saying is, this is a matter of national security and I don’t think we can put a price tag on it because we are in a very vulnerable spot. So, if you talk to the military experts or the national defense contractors, you know, they’ll tell you they need chips. There’s 250 chips in a javelin launching system, and that’s not as sophisticated as some of the new equipment.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s a long list of things Congress needs to get done in a very short period of time.
GINA RAIMONDO: I understand that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you confident that the votes are actually there to get this passed?
GINA RAIMONDO: Yes, I am.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Sixteen Republicans voted to move along with this.
GINA RAIMONDO: Yes. Sixteen Republicans.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is still not done. And – and it’s being tweaked here. So I want to ask you about some of the things that have been proposed.
You have skeptics on both the right and the left for this, right? Bernie Sanders has said he doesn’t like it. It’s a blank check to profitable companies. Rick Scott of Florida, Republican, has compared it to corporate welfare. A former labor secretary from the Clinton administration called it pure extortion. That doesn’t sound like this is truly bipartisan, as you called it. This sounds like this is fairly controversial.
GINA RAIMONDO: No, I don’t think so. I mean it’s clearly bipartisan. You don’t get 64 votes in the Senate every day, right? And —
MARGARET BRENNAN: On this final bill, you think, despite these detractors, it’s going to pass?
GINA RAIMONDO: This will be a big bipartisan vote in the House and the Senate. Yes, I believe so.
Now, also I fully dispute Senator Sanders’ characterization of this. It isn’t a blank check. There are many strings attached. Strings attached, companies can’t use this money to build facilities in other countries. Companies who accept this money can’t then turn around and be building facilities in China for leading-edge technology. There’s a lot of strings attached around, you know, the quality of jobs that have to be created, working with small contractors and minority-owned contractors. There are labor protections. So, to say it’s a blank check is just dead wrong.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are those sufficient though?
GINA RAIMONDO: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because you have Marco Rubio of Florida coming out and arguing high-tech chip production should be further sort of restricted here on the national security portion. He says that corporations that receive the funding cannot expand chip production in China, but there are some things grandfathered in that are loopholes here.
I mean are there other places you need to tighten up stricter export restrictions, for example?
GINA RAIMONDO: Yes. We always have to be looking at our export controls. So, I would say, I feel very comfortable about this bill. It protects national security and protects taxpayers. Also –
MARGARET BRENNAN: As written?
GINA RAIMONDO: As written. As written. There are – there are taxpayer protections. It will be a competitive transparent process. And – and there’s claw back provision. If we give the money to companies and they do what they’re not supposed to, we’re going to take the money back. I feel very confident around the taxpayer protections and the China guardrails.
MARGARET BRENNAN: For other industries as well?
GINA RAIMONDO For all technology. We have to do everything we can to make sure that our leading-edge technology, whether it’s in chips or artificial intelligence or other areas, can’t get into the hands of the Chinese.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you’re open to further export restrictions?
GINA RAIMONDO: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: On Taiwan, because, you know, embedded in this is the assumption that Taiwan is at risk potentially of annexation by China. How confident are you when you get briefed by U.S. intelligence that this is an immediate threat?
GINA RAIMONDO: I feel confident in saying it’s not immediate and I feel also confident in saying that there’s no crystal ball. But we need to be prepared. That’s our job, to protect the American people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Has inflation peaked?
GINA RAIMONDO: I think probably. But, look, if I had said that a year ago, you know, assuming another war doesn’t break out, assuming we don’t have another Covid, assuming – you know, there’s so much out of our control. What — inflation is being — inflation is a global problem.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you as well about climate. NOAA is under your purview.
The climate agenda for the administration is completely stalled. Is the fact that you’ve been unable to unstick that climate agenda but you’ve moved this far with chips, does it signal to you that you need to make private industry a partner in this?
GINA RAIMONDO: I would say yes, but business — much of business is onboard. Like, let’s be honest with ourselves. Climate-related events are more frequent, more dangerous, and more expensive than they’ve ever been. So, do we need to do more to get business onboard? Maybe. And it’s, you know, something we are always wondering, how do we get things done in this divided political environment. But make no mistake about it. The climate investments that the president proposed are good for the economy and good for business. And business knows that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Madam secretary, thank you very much for coming in and talking to us today.
GINA RAIMONDO: Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s it for us today. Thank you for watching.
Tune in next Sunday for our first CBS News battleground tracker poll on the upcoming midterm elections.
Until next week, for FACE THE NATION, I’m Margaret Brennan.
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