Face the Nation: Hassett, Birx, Swenson and Williams

[0:04] welcome back to face the nation we turn now to the director of the national economic council [0:09] kevin hassett who joins us from the white house north lawn kevin thank you so much for being with [0:14] me great to be here thank you i want to start by getting your take on the state of the economy [0:20] because a kind of confusing picture emerged this week the dow jones hit an all-time high [0:26] and yet consumer sentiment hit an all-time low mortgage rates hit a nine-month peak inflation [0:31] is up earnings at big box stores like walmart are up in part because people from across the [0:36] income spectrum are being drawn to low prices right now are there storm clouds gathering in [0:42] the economy no i don't think there are storm clouds gathering at all and in fact let's start with the [0:48] consumer sentiment number because that was a number that was very striking to me and to you i know [0:52] when it came in very very low and what we did is we went to their website and we looked that they [0:58] actually break it out by political affiliation so they have it for democrats independents and [1:02] republicans and if you look at it consumer sentiment at the sort of peak of the biden inflation the [1:08] stagflation was way above 100 and it's dropped all the way down into the low 30s now about the lowest [1:13] it's ever been for democrats but for republicans it's held about steady and if you look at it [1:19] independents and democrats are really highly correlated which suggests to us that their sample is democrats [1:24] and so if you go to consumer confidence which is something that's actually i think a more [1:29] scientific survey the consumer confidence is consistent with all the other positive numbers [1:33] we're seeing right now but you don't dispute that the war has taken a toll on parts of the economy [1:39] right now consumer confidence is the highest it's been in you know since the beginning of the year [1:44] and so you don't see a toll of the war on consumer confidence which is the conference board survey [1:49] uh but again gdp now the atlanta feds estimate of second quarter gdp is north of four percent we've [1:55] got uh initial claims for unemployment insurance as low as they've been since the 60s and so there's [2:00] so much going on that is really i think surprising people that think that the disruption from the [2:05] middle east is going to harm the economy it's just not there in the data except for the consumer [2:09] sentiment data but i actually think that we should stop calling it consumer sentiment and start [2:13] calling it political sentiment because the variables really it's really a political variable not an [2:17] economic variable the data on gas prices is pretty undeniable memorial day weekend gas prices are at [2:23] a four year high triple a says they'll remain elevated throughout the summer at least last month you [2:29] said that high gas prices would be a temporary phenomenon did the white house paint too rosy a picture [2:35] of the impact that this war would have by emphasizing that this was going to be a four to six week excursion [2:43] well i think the four to six week was uh an accurate description of like when that sort of active [2:49] kinetic events were going to happen right now you know i'll let the president decide on whether he [2:55] thinks the deal is ready to go this week or not but the bottom line is once the straits are open [3:00] then the tankers are going to go back and they're going to refill the refineries almost right away a [3:05] tanker goes about 300 nautical miles a day and so the places like india and pakistan which are close to [3:10] the straits are going to get their uh oil and then turn it into refined product right away singapore [3:16] which is one of the places where jet fuel prices are the highest is going to get its stuff just about [3:20] right away but if you're down in new zealand it'll take a little bit longer but really like between a [3:25] month and two months we expect everybody to have all the oil they need at every refinery on earth [3:29] well we know that things will get better once the strait reopens the question is when will it reopen [3:34] right well that's that's that's something for the president marco rubio and the iranians to work out [3:39] uh i realize that as director of the white house economic council this 1.8 billion dollar [3:46] anti-weaponization fund is not part of your portfolio but the backlash to that fund did [3:53] uh derail a bill this week that included funding for ice and the cbp and government funding is part [3:59] of your portfolio so what is the administration doing if anything to try to cool members of the [4:05] president's own party down on this issue they seemed really angry and really blindsided well i don't [4:11] know if across the board they were but there's certainly some people who felt that way and and [4:16] our head of ledge affairs james braid is a real professional he's been talking to everybody he's [4:22] been arranging for phone calls with those of us in the white house that want to talk to people and [4:26] hear people's concerns but the bottom line is that you know we expect the progress that the president [4:32] wants to see in congress to happen congress has delivered over and over under the leadership of [4:37] mike johnson and so i understand that you know there's something that was a little bit different [4:41] this week that maybe you expected but i don't expect that to go on and one thing we've seen from [4:45] primaries is that people that buck the president you know generally regret it politically the wall [4:51] street journal editorial board really took a swipe at the president over that fund over the ballroom [4:57] on saturday they said quote republicans don't want to say this publicly but privately they do [5:03] president trump's personal political obsessions are hurting his presidency hurting the chances for [5:08] further foreign policy gains and putting control of the house and senate in jeopardy does the president [5:15] realize that he is putting republicans in a tough spot by forcing them to take votes on things that are [5:21] unpopular like the fund like the ballroom like the war in a midterm election year look look i respect the [5:28] wall street journal very much i saw paul jagot at the kevin war signing in on just on friday but the [5:34] bottom line is the president believes that the ballroom is something that should have been there for a long [5:38] time and he's using his own money in the money of donors to make it so that the taxpayers don't have to [5:44] pay for that ballroom and as far as weaponization i don't think that well they would have to pay a billion [5:49] dollars correct no it's not for the ballroom that's for securing the entire white house and my goodness [5:54] to argue about that after we were all here yesterday i actually wasn't here i was at my home a couple [5:59] blocks away when the shooting happened of course we've got to make the white house more secure but [6:03] on the 1.8 billion dollar uh you know fund for weaponization i don't think you would disagree right [6:08] the the previous administration and the obama administration weaponized government against [6:13] president trump and what he wants to do is make sure that never happens again and compensate the people [6:18] who were the targets of the destruction of their lives you know what they would do is they would [6:23] call people in to jack smith's office and then bury them in subpoena requests and bankrupt them and [6:29] that's something that should never happen again never and and i think that that i doubt that there's [6:34] anyone that disagrees with that kevin hassett the director of the national economic council appreciate [6:39] your time this morning thank you same here and we'll be right back we turn now to the escalating ebola [6:47] outbreak in the democratic republic of the congo joining us to discuss is the former white house [6:52] coronavirus response coordinator dr deborah burks who also previously helped coordinate the international [6:58] response to the 2014 ebola outbreak when she was global aids coordinator dr burks thank you so much [7:05] for being with us good to be with you nancy doctor the white the uh the who rather says there are now [7:14] almost 750 suspected cases in the congo around the congo and nearly 200 deaths how does the severity of [7:22] this situation compare to previous outbreaks well the problem with this particular outbreak is there was [7:31] probably two three or four cycles of infection before it was even reported and so a lot of the numbers [7:37] you're seeing and the rapid rise of the numbers is because it went undetected and under reported for [7:44] probably three or four weeks that resulted in a lot of case reporting all at once and so i can't [7:50] really tell you what the slope of new cases are which is really the important thing when you're [7:54] following an acute infectious disease but just to make it very clear to your audience the people we [8:00] are seeing today that are cases were probably infected two weeks ago and so i think that's what [8:06] makes us all concerned is we're looking at this at this virus and this outbreak with really old data [8:12] i want to get to that delay in reporting the outbreak in a moment but first we saw this week [8:18] that a plane from paris to detroit had to be diverted to montreal after a person from the congo was [8:25] mistakenly allowed to board what do americans need to know about the transition of this disease and the [8:32] risk here at home i think people are worried well when you see this level of outbreak ever since [8:40] covid i can understand why people are worried but remember drc has had 17 or 18 of these outbreaks in [8:47] the last 20 30 years so this is actually fairly commonplace although this is a large one i think we [8:53] learned from covid how to be much more proactive about preventing the virus getting to the country ever [9:00] since we had those cases almost a decade ago what we did is we really strengthened hospitals now we [9:06] have biocontainant facilities in multiple hospitals so we're prepared if it ever happens or someone [9:11] enters the country but it's important that we are proactive like they have been and when you have [9:17] a travel ban you have to really enforce it and it's what they did when they diverted the plane is [9:23] this travel ban the right answer people from the congo the travel other countries not being able to [9:30] come into the u.s even green card holders if they've been in that area over the past 21 days or so [9:38] you know i it's part of a comprehensive response which it is and i don't think it's getting that [9:43] much coverage but within four days the u.s sent a dart team a lot of the usaid people who are no [9:50] longer in the usaid building are now in the state department and have been part of ebola responses the [9:55] 2014 and 2018 response they're already on the ground there's a cdc group that was in conchasa is [10:02] permanently in conchasa they're responding and so when it's part of a comprehensive funding [10:07] response yes not as a an only one solution as you know in the past year and a half the trump [10:14] administration has largely dismantled usaid it has withdrawn from the world health organization [10:20] it cut funding to the congo and uganda do you think that those moves contributed to the delay in [10:29] reporting this outbreak and are they contributing to the lack of supplies in dealing with the outbreak [10:36] in the congo well when i look what the administration has done recently i think they put 50 100 million [10:44] dollars out there immediately and sent people what's part of the response i think the bigger [10:49] question to me is a lot of us in the global community invested extensively in creating the [10:55] african cdc for this very reason for this very response hundreds of millions of dollars went into [11:01] building laboratory capacity in the drc at the african cdc and for some reason that failed us and so [11:08] what we need to do is figure out why didn't we detect this earlier why didn't the institutions [11:14] that we all stood up as a global community effectively control this outbreak early so that [11:19] it didn't spread as far and wide as it has within the drc i understand it's a conflict area but we have [11:26] to do better we owe it to the people in the drc i hear what you're saying about the fact that the money [11:31] is now flowing from the u.s to the region but we talked to aid workers in the region as well who said [11:38] that a lot of local programs were terminated after us aid was dismantled programs aimed at ebola [11:45] preparedness and response and so they just don't have the same capacity as they did before i think [11:54] it's a great question and we need to really look at that i know cdc's global health security program [12:00] was retained and a lot of that funding retained i know we had people in kinshasa as part of the cdc [12:08] if you look at the uganda funding now i'm looking at it from the hiv side which really built a lot of [12:12] the laboratory capacity this year they're getting over 400 million dollars so maybe there was a five [12:18] percent cut but i think the american people were thinking that these programs had been slashed if you [12:24] look at the mous the agreements that the u.s government have been made i've actually been reassured [12:29] by the numbers that are there on paper the u.s right now does not have a confirmed head of the [12:35] cdc it does not have a confirmed head of the fda doesn't have a confirmed surgeon general is the u.s [12:43] prepared to deal with an outbreak of ebola or any other infectious infectious disease if it comes to our [12:50] shores i think it's a great question and watching how this plays out will be very important and i'm [12:58] watching that they've already created an interagency ebola response task force and just to reassure the [13:04] american public i was in the federal government for 40 plus years and in the military for 29 there's a [13:11] deep bench and so yes it's important to have the leads of all of these agencies i think people have [13:17] been nominated to at least the cdc so i think that's very important but we do have a deep bench in many of [13:24] these agencies and i really i know them they're great people i think this interagency response is [13:30] already putting assets people and money on the ground and i think what we do need i just keep [13:36] coming back to african cdc because that was supposed to be our early mobilizer of protective gear of [13:43] testing of community work and we just need to figure out how to strengthen that even further got it [13:48] dr deborah burke thanks so much for being with us thanks for the context we appreciate it [13:54] and we'll be back in a moment to commemorate memorial day as we approach our country's 250th [14:02] birthday margaret sat down with two medal of honor recipients retired army lieutenant colonel william [14:08] swenson and retired army command sergeant major matt williams here's part of their conversation [14:15] will when president obama presented you the medal of honor he said americans like will remind us of [14:23] what our country can be at its best a nation of citizens who look out for one another who meet [14:30] our obligations to one another not just when it's easy but also when it's hard is it a burden to carry [14:37] expectations like that with you when you enter private life i think we have to remember that [14:46] the crucible of war is unfair and it does bring out both the worst of us and the best of us in moments of [14:52] uh great risk to our own lives we do things that are inexplicable and we see things that are [14:59] almost at the level of miracles people are coming together as a team to do things that ultimately [15:05] flies in the face of of good decision making but ultimately what they're doing is fighting on behalf [15:11] of each other and on behalf of their country and when i recognized that i received individual [15:18] accolades from the president one of the things that we have to remember specifically as medal [15:24] honor recipients is that we're ambassadors to other people's stories we're ambassadors to those whose [15:28] stories were not told we're ambassadors to those who were with us on the battlefield johnson johnson [15:33] kennethick layton and westbrook and they didn't come home their stories are part of our story we wear [15:40] this medal as a representation of service not as a representation of ourselves and that is a weight [15:46] that we as recipients of this award have to remember is our responsibility is to continue telling the [15:52] stories not just of us but everyone we served with and everyone who will serve that feels heavy [15:59] it feels like you will always be part of public service after going through something like this [16:08] i would say as medal of honor recipients we are a very fair representation of america we're a snapshot [16:13] of this country we come from towns cities all walks of life different political views and ultimately [16:19] we are a very democratic representation of the values of this country but as recipients of this award [16:25] we have to take those backgrounds some humble some not and with that continue to try to lead lives that [16:32] are emblematic of what this award represents um and i understand both of you are continuing to try to [16:40] to help and to serve particularly with veterans um matt president trump said of you we salute your [16:45] unyielding service your unbreakable resolve and your untiring devotion to our great nation do you [16:53] think of those words as a as a burden or as an assignment for the the rest of your life how do you [16:59] think of it i think it's probably a little of both but but i'll kind of frame it a little bit differently [17:03] you know to me it's a privilege uh because not everybody gets the opportunity to put this medal on [17:11] well over 50 of the medals that have been awarded have been awarded posthumously [17:15] um to so to be able to stand there in front of the nation in front of your family in front of [17:21] your peers in front of your team and have the president of united states of america present an [17:25] award to you that you can never feel like you actually ever earned because it's just impossible [17:31] you know is extremely heavy and it is a burden at the end of the day and you know one of our [17:36] my friends and fellow recipients you know kyle carpenter says all the time he calls it a beautiful [17:40] burden and i agree with him to a point but i also i also think it's a privilege at the end of the day [17:46] it's a privilege to be able to continue to serve serve our country serve our people serve our [17:50] fellow recipients and serve the fellow service members that are out there across the globe today [17:55] another key anniversary uh is afghanistan um there has been so much scrutiny in this country over [18:04] the war that ended five years ago this august hard to believe um america's longest war i wonder [18:12] how that sits with you since you both served on that battlefield um what do you think of those [18:18] who sacrificed in that conflict it's it's spoken about in so many different heated ways but for you [18:27] when you think of that war how do you make sense of america's experience as military service members [18:35] we were asked by our country to go serve overseas on behalf of the defense of the nation it's as simple [18:41] as that we did our jobs we did our jobs honorably and we did our jobs to the measure that we left [18:48] some of ours behind there was a loss of life because we believed in the mission and ultimately [18:54] as service members that's what we do we serve to the best of our ability when our nation calls us to [18:58] serve is it difficult to hear people talk about the war our war is part of our history our service [19:05] overseas is part of our history if we don't tell these stories we as a nation don't know how to always [19:11] improve we are an imperfect nation that's always trying to improve and it's through our history [19:16] as a lens that we look forward on how to do better next time how do you feel about conversation about [19:22] america's longest war i mean is it painful i think we have to talk about it you know we have to learn [19:28] from it you know you can you can love it or hate it or agree with it or disagree with it and that's all [19:33] fine and that's your prerogative and that's that's part of living in a free country you know that's why [19:38] we did what we did so that you can disagree or like or hate or whatever it doesn't matter [19:43] um you know i think about it a little bit differently you know i'm not i'm not sad about [19:49] it i know what i did over there i know what i saw people do over there my experiences have [19:54] made me grow as a as a husband a father as a man and i think all those things are extremely important [20:00] i know what i serve for i know what i did i know what we accomplished together as [20:04] as a team and as an oda and as a special forces community writ large and i'm very proud of that [20:09] i'm very proud of my service to afghanistan we are coming up on this 250th anniversary of the american [20:17] experience what specifically makes you optimistic because this country at times can feel dark these [20:24] days there's a lot of darkness what makes you feel optimistic well ultimately because we're in [20:31] washington dc and everything revolves around politics we have to remember that politics aren't [20:35] everything american lives continue on children are born children go to school lives are achieved [20:41] dreams are achieved this country is a great place it's not politics it's not just what's the uh news [20:46] bites coming off of media ultimately we continue forward as a country continually imperfect continually [20:51] evolving forward always trying to achieve a more perfect union that's what's important to remember [20:57] what we can achieve aspirationally no other place in history time or on this planet have ever gotten [21:03] to where we are today we need to be proud of that and we need to remember that is what we stay focused [21:08] on what we can be what we can be and the promise of it what makes you optimistic it's so important to [21:15] remember who we are as a country and and take an opportunity to celebrate that and think about all the [21:21] challenges that we've overcome how far we've actually come you know i think if you if you frame it that [21:26] way you think very deeply about our trials and tribulations from beginning to today um we've made [21:33] tremendous strides and our country is you know we're a super global superpower our economy is doing well [21:39] all those things are great um and take politics aside out of this whole conversation be grateful for what [21:45] you've got the opportunities i just provided for you uh and if you do that i don't see how you can't [21:50] be optimistic about our future well thank you thank you both and thank you for your service thank you [21:59] two of america's best the full conversation is on our website and on our youtube channel we'll be [22:04] right back that's it for us today thanks for watching margaret will be back next week on behalf [22:12] of all of us here at face the nation to our military our veterans and their families thank you for your [22:17] service for face the nation for face the nation for face the nation for face the nation for face the nation for face the nation for face the nation for face the nation for 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