Well, turning now to
some breaking news. President Joe Biden is just a moment away from touching down n Arizona as he begins his four day Southwest trip team jobs. Bram Resnick is on the
ground live from the Grand Canyon National
Park Airport. And Bram, what's the significane of the president's trip? Specifically, why is he coming ? Well, I do want to warn you, Ma, we see Air Force One on approach to Grand Canyon Airport should let be landing within minutes. So we'll cut away to that. I think you can see a shot of Air Force One right now. President's coming to
the to designate a National Monument
monument of about 1,000,000 acres on the North and South side Grand Canyon
National Park. Uranium mining will be
banned in that area. That has been a long sought goal of tribes here in the area. I spoke to 1 tribal leader
a few minutes ago. She told me she never thought this day would come. Uranium has a legacy of poisoning tribal members, poisoning the environment goingk to the Cold War era when uranium mining was done on
the Navajo Nation. So this National Monument
on the North and South sides of the
Canyon is expected. We're expecting the president to announce this tomorrow. Hasn't been formally announced, but that will ban future
uranium mining. There's a couple mines in the bat within the boundaries. They are not doing any work. They are not producing
any or so it's it's a huge day for the tribes , something our members of Congres have worked out for several yea. And right now Air Force One is t to touch down at Grand
Canyon Airport. This runway is as long as the ry at Andrews, a Joint Andrews Bas, Air Force One's home, and Air Force One is touchdown. President Biden has landed at Grand Canyon Airport and in a big cloud of dust. They certainly must. They must have had some spectacular views on the approa. Looks like they came
in from the north. It would have gone right over, right over the Canyon. Quite a . The last president who
flew Air Force One here was President Barack
Obama back
in 2009. He did it like the tourist. Still he brought the family on r Force One to visit the Grand Ca. They had a great time. Everybody made a great fuss ove. Now Joe Biden coming again for n announcement, for an
announcement tomorrow. We expect him to announce
the designation of a National Monument near
the Grand Canyon. There is opposition to it. I should note uranium
miners are opposed. They say it's not necessary. They say uranium mining is safer today than it was 20304050
years ago. Some ranchers are opposed. They're concerned about grazing rights and things like that. The National Monument would not get in the way of grazing right, we are told. Mark Bram, how much of this do you think with an election year coming up is for optics versus an importat reason to actually come to Ariz? It's clear to me there's a lot of substance to this. This isn't just some issue that he's decided to take care of. This is something that's been an issue for quite a while. President Biden, sorry, President Obama back in 2012 imposed a moratorium on uranium mining in this area for 20 year. President Donald Trump back in 8 tried to overturn that and fail. President Biden decided to maket permanent by designating
this monument. At the same time, we have to note Kamala Harris ws here just a month ago speaking o a tribal nation close to Phoeni. Connecting with those voters. Tomorrow, President Biden will
speak to
a large group of tribal members
who are voters too. In a close election. Those votes count. I would, I have to say though, I can't recall a White House getting this close to tribes and tribal issues in a long, long time. And it is that brand because thy feel that the the tribal members are an untapped voting bloc that they need to try to get within e tent with another election proby against Donald Trump coming up. Well, ask any candidate,
statewide candidate, They know they're a voting bloc, particularly the Navajo. They c. There's a voting block they might be able to grow. You know, when they say doing
good by doing good, it's certainly enough a politicl opportunity as well as
a policy opportunity. I do want to add that Congressmn Raul Grijalva of Tucson is here. He is one of the cosponsors of legislation to create the monum. Monument. Congressman Ruben Gallego of Phoenix also here, both Democrats. Tomorrow, we do expect
to see Senator Kirsten Sinema up there
with President Biden, or at least in the crowd she he. She sponsored legislation in the Senate along with Senator
Mark Kelly. So there's a large group of Arizona members of Congress whot behind this cinema and Grijalva, the two most prominent ones. Mark Graham, I wanted to ask you about the lay of the land there. You're at the Red Butte Airport. A lot of Arizonans probably havt even ever heard of that airport. Well, I I need to correct you t. We're actually at the Grand Canyon airport right now. Red Butte is an older, older airport that's a a little bit of ways from here. You wouldn't see the Grand Canyn airport from the road and and yu can't even see the Canyon from . It's just a airport that gets a lot of use by the airplanes that fly people over the rim, helicopters or fly
them over
the rim. I should add, Marine One is her, so they're ready to fly the president somewhere close, I would presume to the
event tomorrow, on Tuesday. That hasn't formally
been announced yet. So we're still waiting on that. Yeah. And this is part of a, it's part of a much larger trip, right, Brand. He still has stops in New Mexico and Utah as well. Good point. It's a big Southwest swing. He'll be going
to New Mexico on Wednesday and then Utah on Thur. I believe a big Southwestern Western swing. Utah's an interesting state.
It's pretty red and you have to wonder what the president
sees there. Nevertheless, it's on his list. They think there's some opportunities it appears. I had to point out that Air Fore One is now taxiing slowly towar. It is ultimately going
to come to
a halt right in front of our
camera position. I would say it's at least
a about 100 yards away and closing fast as it gets ready to taxi to the end of this flight from from suburban Maryland. Yeah, Bram and Biden should be pretty well rested. I've been seeing photos of him vacationing at the beach
here recently. Over the past week or so. He was at one of his favorite s, the the Delaware beaches. On a personal note, that was one of my wife's favore spots when they were kids living in the Washington DC are here. It's a great, it's a great beach community th. He celebrated the Houston Astros World
Series victory at the White House earlier today before heading out here to Ariz. It'll be just a short
swing we expect. And there you saw Air
Force One going by it's going to make
a U-turn and then we should shortly see the Presit of the United States descending from Air Force One to get his Arizona trip underway. Bram President Biden won
Arizona last time in a a very much contested
and as you know discussed controversial
election, at least in his mind an election that he thinks he won. I'm sorr. President Trump thinks that he . I'm wondering how important
this visit is and is this the first of man, do you think, by the Biden team as they try to make sure that ty have Arizona in the next electi? I would expect more visits. I was told to expect more visit. We had again Kamala Harris
here last month, Joe Biden here this month. This is the August recess
for Congress. So members of Congress
are coming out here to join to join the presid. We we are on the map. That's clear. And Republican minds, they don't think they need to wn Arizona in order to take the See but Joe Biden definitely
needs to win Arizona in order to take
the White House. I and I should say Republicans , don't think they, they
Republicans need Arizona to win the White
House as well. But they're just kind
of hard to
see what kind of push they're
going to make here. It's hard to see, especially depending on who the Senate candidate is. Yep, I I checked the approval ratings today for Biden right now. Right now they're like the approval ratings for Biden. Biden are at about 46% approval, 52% disapproval. How
big of an impact for voters do you think
these visits make? Do they make a difference at al? That's a good question. It's it's hard to know
who gets exposed to them who knows about them ins busy busy media world we live in where you're bombarded with mess and video by the by the second. I think in this case what the White House is doing is, is is pursuing a very specific p with a lot of common interests and I think it's safe to say that would have a big impact. I remember when Bernie, Bernie Sanders and a Democratic Senate candidate for president 6 made a visit to the Navajo Nati. That was the first visit ever ba presidential candidate
to the Navajo Nation. That made an impact.
That was a big deal. That was national news. This
monument may only matter to folks here in the Wes, Maybe a parochial issue in that, and it certainly does matter to a lot of Arizonans, certainly not just tribal membe. But if you wanted look at a specific block of voters, it's clear to me it matters a lot to tribal members not to trivialize this visit and the importance, importance of the issue brand. t is Do you think that part
of the president's motivation for making this trips to contrast with what's going on in Washington right now with wih former President Trump battling his third indictment and possiby later this week getting a fourth indictment from the
state of Georgia? Well, I yes and no. I think those poll numbers you pointed out a minute ago get a get a the problem. The economy is doing very well.d President Biden is pointing
to several pieces of legislation passed ons watch that he says are
helping helping make that happen. And that's one of the things he wants to point out on this trip, the impact of its investments in clean energy and infrastructure and really the fe of the country. And he does have several pieces of legislation you can point to. The question is, is that going to move the needle on his approval rating and move the needle with voters? And I have to say it's getting a little loud now. Air Force One is about 50 yards away from us. I'm going to have to take a little break. What a sight. No matter where you stand politically, seeing that beautiful plane with the United States of America written on the side, it is stil, even after seeing it
countless times, a magnificent sight. Yeah, I've seen it before
at Sky Harbor. I've gone there specifically
just to see it. You have to see it in person to really understand, like, the full scale of how ginormoust plane is and just how
impressive
it is. And if you're just tuning in, President Biden on the ground in Arizona tonight at the Grand Ca, he's expected to create a new National Monument on more than 1,000,000 acres of land adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Pa. Right? Trying to preserve those areas from being high Mark and Cree bacon. Can I
point something out? Can I point something
out to you? We're accustomed to seeing
the big stair steps. We're accustomed to seeing
the big stair steps being wheeled
up to Air Force One and the President making
his exit from the front door just below
the the cockpit. Joe Biden uses the back door right behind that engine there, the engine closest to us, and he'll be emerging, we believe from the back door. There is no large stair being moved to the front door. That's been his habit
lately, I suppose. A concession to age. Can't blame him. It's a long walk down those sta. We expect him eventually
to emerge from the back, the back staircase. I see no movement by this by the larger stairs to the to the front door. Or maybe is he Garrett? I'm going to say photographer. Is he coming out the front
staircase here? Perhaps the front staircase staircase than the upper one. OK what do you. So Piers, he's coming out the
forward staircase. I thinks So what appears he's coming out
the forward one. Yeah. The internal staircase within Air Force One as a the short, the shorter one. Yeah. As opposed to what you were talking about, Graham, which is the the scene we normally see with the g set of stairs being rolled up te front door of Air Force One, ri? Just momentarily as you our live coverage here on 12 News, we should see the president
coming out. Graham, what do you know
about the schedule? I mean, he's landing this eveni. So what is he doing
for the rest
of the evening and what's
he doing tomorrow? Don't know. They have not officially released the schedule. We know he's going to make
a big announcement, the big announcement of the mont that's expected to happen tomor. A lot of tribal members are in n for that and we now
it's just
in town for that and we'll just have tot to get our formal advisory on w, where and when that's going to . And you're seeing the beast pulp to the front steps of Air Force. Kind of a country beast and SUV, Not the Cadillac, the big bolt up Cadillac we're used to seein. And the large convoy of
vans behind
as well. I count by vans, looks like a military
vehicle behind. There's usually an
ambulance
as well. I don't see that. And we expect the president
to emerge at any moment to the
right of that SUV. If you can see it is Ruben Gall, Congressman Ruben Gallego
in the dark suit, Congressman Raul Grijalva in the lighter suit. They are waiting to greet the president on the tarmac, Congressman Gallego staff told me earlier He will be asking the president to give the give FEMA a nudge about declaring heat emergencies when the heat gets too extreme. That's his little message to the president. We had to point out that even our local politicians have to take a selfie of the moment. Did you see them a moment ago, Congressman Guy? They took a selfie together in both of them, obviously. Let's do, let's see
what happens once. Yes, I was going to say in bothe two of them have all go ahead. y have also been really pushing this monument as well. Yes, they have. They are among the group of Arizona senators and members of Congress who've been pushing this monument. You can say the lead has
been taken
by rule. Grijalva, he's been pushing for this for at least eight years from his Tucson district. He's had a high profile royal re on the environment committee. Oh, I'm going to stop. And there's the President
of the United States descending the staircase, shaking hands with Congressman Rule Grijalva and a hug for Rule Grijalva, longtime congressman. Another hug for Ruben Gallego. It's like a warm exchange of views of their discussion. Grah. It is 9 should add
on the East Coast. So getting a little bit late for the president. Does he have anything official, to your knowledge, on his agenda for tonight? Nothing we know nothing about. There's nothing on his official schedule that we're aware of. I haven't seen anything. It's possible I I may
have missed it, but I have not seen
anything about his. What's happening tonight? I asked Congressman Guy. Hey, go about it. He said he didn't know, so we'll have to leave
it at that
for now. Graham, you have covered so man, I should point out. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. I did want to point t Governor Katie Hobbs isn't here, but she will be at
the event tomorrow where we expect the monument, the National Monument,
to be announced. Graham, I was going to say you'e covered so many presidential vi. Does this ever get old
to see this site? No. Never. Never. It's it's something. And just watching, watching the approach of Air Force One. Maybe it's because I'm a guy, I don't know, a relatively
new American, still gives me chills. It gives me chills. I it's it's a powerful symbol of this nation. We need more and even more powerful symbols right now. But it's now. It's a big hunk,
big hunk of metal. But I think it's a powerful sym. There's that big suburban
president now inside Secret Service,
waiting outside. And in just a few moments,
the Beast, as they call it, will
be on the road. And we have some special
guests standing by to give us some context
on this visit. But we wanted to bring
you this live coverage of Air Force One arriving
in Arizona, the president's second trip here since he became president. The first was back in
December of
2022 when he was here to visit the
construction site of the TSMC microchip
plant in Phoenix. And now here he is back to talk about dedicating million acres f land adjacent to the Grand Cany. And the purpose of this monumens to preserve some sensitive area. In addition to permanently
withdrawing some of those areas from
uranium mining, they're also trying to protect some underground aquifers and se drinking water to be protected e for some of the local communiti. So it covers a pretty big area, about 1.1 million acres surroung the Grand Canyon. And of course, this is just one stop of a biggr trip that Biden has planned. He'll be making visits
in New Mexico. He'll be going on to Utah as we. He'll be talking about
climate change, clean energy and also some vetes benefits during his trip
out to the West. And the president is on the move. Bram,
any last thoughts? It's going to be an exciting
election year, I'll tell you that. And this is the is not the last you've seen of Joe Biden in Arizona? No, I I would, I would tell yout the administration needs it to t carry Arizona and he will be bak here before it's all said and d. Graham, thanks. All right. We are now joined in studio. We have two special guests withs to discuss President Biden's vi. We have Aaron Lieberman, a former Democratic candidate for Arizona governor, and Christine Jones is a former Republican candidate for govern. Both of you, thanks so much for joining us here in the studio ad for waiting along with us for te president to arrive
for quite
a while. What do you guys make of this t? We'll start with you, Christine. Well, I think you guys
made the point earlier that no matter how many times you see Air Force One lan, and I think Aaron and I both hae been there in person as as have, it's a really special site. And regardless of whether you support the president or not, it is the president of the Unitd States and he is here to visit us and that's really special. I I do agree with Bram on in one sense that we will see a lot of Joe Biden in the coming months because Arizona is a swing stat. And whether you're a Trump suppr or a Biden supporter and whether you think he wanted or not, he does need Arizona to be the deciding factor in,
in another victory. So I think we'll see a lot of h. I do want to talk about
the monument, but. And I don't want to monopolize . No, no, look, I I think Arizona is very
narrowly divided. Joe Biden barely won. That's just the reality of it. And every single vote is going to make a difference. You know, when this trip was originally announced last week, what I heard it was
going to be about was in part the inflation
Reduction Act, the whole clean green energy ef. They're now focusing a
lot on the monument, and that's awesome. It's really important to the tr. But I think there's
a huge story that Arizona has been a massive
beneficiary of, which is that kind of clean energy jobs package. And I think that's meant a lot to anybody who's, you know, withstood all the heat we've had in Arizona this summer. I I have to ask you both a ques. How can a president come to Aria and not visit the border when is such an important issue for thoe of us who live here, especiallyr people who live near the border? We know that immigration is a he topic for the upcoming election. If you're here in Arizona, is it a mistake not to
visit the border? Well, I think I certainly
visited the border when I was writing state. I know Aaron did. It is a very different
experience
to go there in person and
actually see human beings walking across
the line on
a map. Obviously they're they're trying to do it to gain a better life, but it is something that's impot and personal to the
people of Arizona. I think both Harris and Biden he made a mistake not going there. But also, Mark, why not
come to Phoenix? Why not go to the fifth largesty in the country if you're going e in the state and you're making s broad sweeping trip
to the Southwest? It is a little bit of
bit of a backhand to the voters in Phoenix that he absolutely needs to be successf. I mean, we all understand that n 2023 and upcoming, 24
optics are huge. And to your point, you know, mae this wasn't a swing
and a miss. Aaron, look, I love the Grand Canyon. I think it's a great place to gn the summer. And there's millions of Americans who do that too. I I don't think it's
ever crazy
for a president to come visit
the Grand Canyon. I think it's awesome
to have him here. I suspect, like you guys
are talking about, we'll see a future return
trips and they'll kind of check all of
those additional boxes that they need to right n. But I, you know, I'm a big fan of the Grand Cany. The Grand Canyon in the summer. That's a pretty apple pie. All America setting for me. And I thought if the plane lookd great touching down up there. Yeah. So Speaking of
the Grand Canyon, what do you think the
significance really is of this new National
Monument there? Well, it's hard to think of this as not being political. And the timing is a
little bit suspect, right? We've had other presidenn the past that have
looked at
this and instead of designating a monume, have maybe put in some environmental restrictions. But let's focus on what's actually being done here. We're talking about designating 1.1 million acres, Okay, that is larger than the state of Rhode Island, approaching the size of the president's home state of Delaw. More than 50% of Arizona will now be under federal control. And that is a big deal, particularly for people who are in the clean energy space. And I think Mr. Lieberman probably can talk about that a little bit. But we're talking about designating a massive piece of property around the Grand Canyo, which will be limited basicallyr time and all eternity
against any kind of mining or drilling
or development. And that's a that's potentially a problem for Arizona. How about you, Aaron? I'm going to go out
on a limb
here and say if you ask the average Amern average Arizona and should
we be drilling for uranium in the Grand Canyon, they're going to say no. I mean we want to preserve
the Grand Canyon. It's literally a a wonder
of the world. I think to Christine's point frm the political dimension there's clearly an element
all of our tribes, not just the tribes, not just the habit
suit by all
of the tribes feel very a deep
connection
to the Grand Canyon and will
be touched
by this. Again these elections come downo its little tiny slivers of of of voters and if you can
get more
of the tribal voters to turn out becaue you came here and made
this monument, that could quite literally be te difference in getting President Biden reelected. I I I agree with what Bram said. There's actually a lot
of substance
to this. There's a lot of substance. I'm, I'm working on the clean energy world right now. There's a lot of substance
to what they've done with that inflation
reduction act. There's 13,000 new jobs in Arizona just because of it. I saw our congressman Stan put out something today, 6000 in the East Valley alone. These are things that
actually matter to Arizonans in terms of getting our environment under control ad trying to start battling some of this incredible heat that we've. I think seeing the president shw up and be here here in the state is is always a good thing. How crucial do you think the tribal voting bloc is and can you convert those by going up there? I think it's very critical and e had some politicians
in Arizona
who are more successful at this than ot. Obviously, former Senator
McCain was very close with the Native
American communities. It's very critical, I think
to Aaron's point, in a very narrow case
when you literally need a few thousand extra voteso appeal to those people and gettg any community of of
an interest group out to vote is critically impor. And this might be the
thing that that pushes people over the edge to y he is really taking this seriou. Let's band together. Let's get tribal voters
to the polls. And this could really, actually help. I I think honestly, especially
for Democrats, you can really make a compelling case at the Navajo reservation. Elected Governor Hobbs was a key constituency and getting her ovr in that very narrow margin proby really helped Biden get there. Just just do the math. I think there's 300 Navajo livig on the reservation right now. Those elections are complicated. You got to go with somewhere to vote for their your tribal elections and somewhere else to vote for the federal elections. If you get thousands of more pee to kind of take that
additional walk, I can absolutely be a game chan. Yeah. OK. So last question for you guys before we head out. Do you think Biden can win Arizona again in 2024? What? Can we just point out that it's ridiculous that we're going to have another Biden Trump electi? But putting putting that aside, I think it's anybody's game. The Republicans are serious about taking Arizona back, and the state chairman now is much less about election conspiracy theories and much more about winning elections. So I think it's down to the wire here and I think Arizona decides the presidential race. I I think that last part
is definitely true. And I think Biden can beat Trum. I mean, the reality is
it's really clear. We could have the, the state chairman say
whatever he wants. The guy at the top of the ticke, all he wants to talk about is the election four years ago. We have a president in the White House is actually trying to move forward and do things to move te state in the country forward. Arizona's close, but if you have an extreme candidate like Donald Trump and a guy who's just trying to get things done like President Bide, that's the type of Democrat that can win in Arizona. He's done it once and I think he'll do it again. Aaron Lieberman, Christine Jone, thank you both you, you really helped give us some context about the importance ofs visit and what lies ahead in 20. We certainly appreciate it.
