Biden, No Hurry to Make a Decision on Presidential Run; Stacey Abrams to Give Rebuttal to Trump's State of Union
BALDWIN: With the Democratic field for president expanding quickly, the current front-runner according to the polls appears to be in no hurry formally announce. I'm talking about the former Vice President Joe Biden here. He has led most early polls when Democrats are asked who they would support for president. But today CNN caught up with Biden at the airport and he says, he is in no rush to make a decision on 2020.</s>JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think there's any hurry to have that announced -- I don't have any particular timetable. I don't think there's any hurry, but there's a bigger hurry to decide just personally.</s>BALDWIN: The former vice president was asked about the possibility that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz could run for president as an independent, he downplayed any concerns that Schultz would actually hurt Democrats chances of beating Trump.</s>BIDEN: I think he's smart as hell and I think it's his decision.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think it'll hurt Democratic chances of beating Trump?</s>BIDEN: I think it's premature and so far out, and who knows what it's going to look like a year from now. I mean, you know, one of the things that I think we're doing is -- and it's us, not the press -- we're starting awful early. I think we should be concentrating on figuring out how to deal with the damage he's doing right now.</s>BALDWIN: So far five Democrats have announced that they are running for president in 2020. Three others have formed exploratory committees and several more are expected to throw their hats in the proverbial ring in the coming weeks or months. Also just in, Senator Chuck Schumer says Stacey Abrams will deliver the Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union address next Tuesday.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you asked Stacey Abrams to deliver the Democratic response and has she accepted the State of the Union?</s>SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), MINORITY LEADER: Well, Speaker Pelosi and I are going to issue an official statement shortly, but yes. Three weeks ago I called Stacey Abrams and asked her to deliver the response to the State of the Union. I was very delighted when she agreed and she is just a great spokesperson. She's an incredible leader. She has led the charge of voting right which is at the root of just about everything else. And she really has -- if you look at her background, she knows what working people, middle class people go through. So, yes, I'm very excite that had she's agreed to be the respondent to the President and the State of the Union.</s>BALDWIN: Stacey Abrams gained national attention during her bid for governor of Georgia. Had she won, she would have been the first African-American woman governor in the nation. So let's go straight to our CNN congressional correspondent, Phil Mattingly. And, Phil, what statement, what message are Democrats hoping to achieve or to send by choosing Stacey Abrams?</s>PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, at least at first, it's further confirmation the State of the Union will actually occur which means we are at least temporarily in a better place than we were for the better part of about 35 days. Brooke, I think what this underscores is something that isn't exactly a secret. That is within the party, Stacey Abrams is considered a rising star. Now yes, she lost her race for governor in Georgia. She was the first female black major party candidate in history in Georgia and she is somebody that national Democrats are very interested in in terms of what her future may be. There's a lot of talk here on Capitol Hill that perhaps she will run for Senate in 2020 there is a seat up for Georgia, so I think I think there's something to see with that. But also, key in on what Senator Schumer said about her work on voting rights. That is a major piece of the Democratic agenda in the House right now. It is a major thing the Democrats just in general are talking about, pushing back against Republican efforts, particularly on voter ID. And Stacey Abrams has been in the forefront of that. Now you know her history quite well. Obviously, serving in the Georgia state House, the very high-profile race in Georgia. Brooke, she won more votes total than any Democratic candidate state wide in the history of Georgia. And that obviously kind of has tongues wagging as Democrats look at potential new battleground states going forward. Now Stacey Abrams did just release tweet about this issue. She tweeted out, quote, at a moment when our nation needs to hear from leaders who can unite for a common purposes, I'm honored to be delivering the Democratic State of the Union response. And, Brooke, it's worth noting, when it comes to State of the Union responses, Stacey Abrams will be at least as far as I'm aware, the first unelected official to give a response to the State of the Union. Steve Bashir, the former Kentucky governor, gave the response in 2017. But before I get attacked on Twitter, that was not actually a State of the Union address, just a joint session of Congress. So obviously, Democrats have very high opinions of Stacey Abrams and again, is going to be very interesting in what she has to say next Tuesday.</s>BALDWIN: Yes, happening next week. Phil, thank you very much. Also we are learning the head of the Congressional budget office is standing behind its estimate how much the shutdown actually costs. So on Capitol Hill today he reiterated his findings which found that the 35-day shutdown cost the economy, you ready? $11 billion. That is 3 billion that will never be recovered. Here is what he said about the permanent losses.</s>KENNETH HALL, DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: We are looking at the effect over in the context of the entire economy, which is really huge. But if you look at the impact on just federal workers it's much higher. If you look at the impact on private contractors it's higher. And some of that effect is going to be permanent for those contractors. We also don't see it entirely recovering. We think that on the whole we'll see some recovery over the next three quarters but we'll still GDP output will still be short about $3 billion. You won't make up for that government output.</s>BALDWIN: Despite the CBO report, the White House is disputing the long-term effects of the government shutdown. Here is what the top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, had to say when he was asked about it.</s>LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: We frequently disagree with CBO, with all respect, they're doing the best job they can. I get that. No. I don't -- I won't knowledge any of that right now. You know, in a $20 trillion economy it's awfully hard to make even the best guestimates of those kinds of small fractions of numbers. Now that the government has reopened the switch goes right back on. There is certainly no permanent damage to the economy.</s>BALDWIN: Lawmakers have until February 15th to reach an agreement to avoid another shutdown. Next, an alarming bug that is impacting everyone who has Apple's Facetime software. Have you heard about this today? It allows people to eves drop on you without you ever picking up a call. Details on what you can do to prevent it while Apple is hurrying up and fixing it.