A Confident State of the Union; Tracking Paris Terror Attackers; Rebels Take Over Yemen's Presidential Palace
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: the responses pouring in to President Obama's State of the Union Address. He presented a surprising bold new agenda. But will the president's promises get through or lead to more gridlock? We'll break down the big moments, the big applause lines, and the big moments of controversy this half hour. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour. President Obama struck a confident tune last night, seemingly undaunted as he gave his State of the Union speech to an entirely Republican-controlled Congress. The president putting forward the agenda of an economic populist aimed at ensuring the middle class enjoys the fruits of the economic recovery. Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta has the details.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, this was not a speech from a president who sees himself as a lame duck. In the State of the Union Address, President Obama came out and declared the nation's economy is on the rise. But he also offered up his prescription for lifting up the middle class, raising taxes and fees on the wealthy and big banks in exchange for new tax breaks or middle income earners. Now, as part of the middle class economics scheme, the president also talked about free community college, but he also covered other subjects. He asked lawmakers to give him a vote to authorize force on ISIS. He called on Congress to lift the embargo on Cuba, slammed the Keystone pipeline, vowed to veto Iran's legislation. But he also called on the country for a better kind of politics at this turning point of the presidency away from 9/11 and the financial crisis, and towards the future. Here's what the president had to say.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Fifteen years into this new century, we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and begun again the work of remaking America. We have laid a new foundation. A brighter future is ours to write. Let's begin this new chapter together. And let's start to work right now.</s>ACOSTA: The president will take his message to Idaho later today, and then Kansas on Thursday. Those are both red states. But a Democratic source tells me the president will be visiting more red states in the coming months. He wants to engage Americans who don't agree with him to sell his agenda. And also coming soon, the president's budget, which includes that tax plan, one Republicans have already deemed dead on arrival -- John and Christine.</s>BERMAN: Our thanks to Jim. You know, Jim highlighted one of the lines there on the president's speech last night. He said, we picked ourselves up, we dusted ourselves off. That is a direct reference to his first inauguration speech nearly seven years ago where he said, we need to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and move forward on the economy. So, what you saw last night was essentially saying mission accomplished on part of the economic recovery. So, it was very interesting to hear that.</s>ROMANS: But not everybody feels that wages have been stagnant. You got a stock market that's doubled. Best jobs picture in six years, but people don't feel it. And that's why there's an attack on pushing the middle class.</s>BERMAN: Obviously, the Republicans did not agree they took a much dimmer view of the economy in their rebuttal following the president's speech. Freshman Iowa Senator Joni Ernst spoke of stagnant wages and lost jobs and the hurt caused by cancelled health care plans. She seized on the mandate for change that Republicans say they won the November elections.</s>SEN. JONI ERNST (R), IOWA: Americans have been hurting, but when we demanded solutions, too often, Washington responded with the same stale mindset that led to failed policies like Obamacare. It's a mindset that gave us political talking points, not serious solutions. That's why the new Republican majority you elected, started by reforming Congress, to make it function again. And now, we're working hard to pass the kind of serious, job creation ideas you deserve.</s>BERMAN: Away from Capitol Hill, the president's speech got mixed reviews. A CNN instant poll found a generally favorable response, 51 percent of Americans who watched the speech had a very positive reaction. That is up from last year. And significantly better than the response George W. Bush received at the same point in his presidency. Some political figures mulling White House bids for 2016 also weighed in. Hillary Clinton, you know, she may run for president. She praised the speech in tweet saying, "It pointed a way to an economy that works for all." She added, "Now, we need to step up for the middle class." Look at that #fairshot and #fairshare. I bet we hear that again. On Facebook, Republican Jeb Bush praised Joni Ernst's rebuttal and advise the president to be mindful of the strong message American voters sent in November and work with the new Republican congressional majority.</s>ROMANS: As the economy continues to grow in the next year and a half, this is how -- this is the debate that will be framed for sure in the next election. Let's fact-check the president's statement about the economy. He boasted strength of the recovery.</s>OBAMA: At this moment, with the growing economy shrinking deficits, bustling industry, booming energy production, we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on earth.</s>ROMANS: All right. Let's look at the numbers. That's mostly true. Job growth was the strongest since 1999 last year. Unemployment keeps falling. But hiring has not pushed wages up. And many Americans feel like they are just getting by. How about his claims on oil?</s>OBAMA: America is number one in oil and gas.</s>ROMANS: True. The U.S. passed Saudi Arabia a few years ago in terms of oil production. It's also the top producer of natural gas. And finally, let's fact-check this on paid sick leave.</s>OBAMA: Today, we are the only country on Earth that doesn't guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers.</s>ROMANS: That is true. But remember, a few states have passed bills to offer paid family leave. Some states have taken this on themselves. But on these points about an economy that is growing again, it is true. You know, the stock market has more than doubled. The job creation -- the job opening is the highest in 14 years, but not everybody feels it. And that's what the president has really to tap into.</s>BERMAN: But that's why he talked about the middle class economy. He seems to have found that narrow zone to thread that needle.</s>ROMANS: Right. And social media was buzzing as Americans and lawmakers took to Twitter and Facebook to sound off on the president's speech. One particular part of the State of the Union Address went viral on Facebook. It first prompted shock laughter and then a lot of applause. Listen.</s>OBAMA: I have no more campaigns to run. My only agenda --</s>ROMANS: Ooh. That was a big dig of the Republicans.</s>BERMAN: It was huge dig. Now, that wasn't scripted. That wasn't a line that was scripted. A lot of time, unscripted lines are planned. We don't know if that line was planned there. But I think that sent a huge message that this president is not going to roll over because he lost in the midterm. Democrats loved it. I guarantee you Republicans did not like it. So, it will only create more of the controversy that surrounds this president and his relationship with the other party. Republicans they did stand up and cheer the president in a few points, notably when he invoked the U.S. fight against global terror.</s>OBAMA: We stand united with people around the world who've been targeted by terrorists, from a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris.</s>BERMAN: President Obama gave much the same message of support to French President Francois Hollande in a phone conversation earlier in the day. Later today, the French prime minister set to outline new anti- terrorism measures at a news conference in Paris. All this as investigators in Paris pore over new surveillance video -- look at this -- this is obtained exclusively by CNN. It appears to show the Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly and his partner Hayat Boumeddiene, they seemed to be doing is casing a Jewish institution in Paris. Simply chilling. Let's turn to senior international correspondent Nic Robertson who is live in Paris with the latest this morning. Good morning, Nic.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. The very latest we have from the prime minister leading off his press conference now, saying that there are 120,000 police officers spread out across France, tackling this issue. We heard from the French prosecutor a little earlier, saying that they're making good progress on getting information on about Amedy Coulibaly, saying that the four persons they still hold on with him when he purchased the car that was used in the attack, that three of them at least had been involved in purchasing weapons. One of them, their DNA found at the crime scene. However, not saying -- the prosecutor not saying that they had direct knowledge of the attack. But what's interesting, however, the names that have been listed, they're not Muslim names. Tony, Kristof, just two of those names. The indications are, and certainly the impression the prosecutor is giving is that these are criminals with criminal records, who were involved in buying weapons, but not necessarily knowledge of the impending attack. We're expecting to hear more from the prime minister right now. And his flank to this press conference by the interior minister, foreign minister, defense minister, justice minister, which gives an impression of the range of scale and scope of areas that they -- that we're going to hear from them on as to how France is going to combat this terrorist threat that is now affecting the population here -- John.</s>BERMAN: All right. Our Nic Robertson in Paris, that investigation ongoing. So many threads to follow. Thanks, Nic.</s>ROMANS: OK. Happening now in Belgium, the country's public prosecutor getting set to address a police operation Tuesday, very close to the border with France. So far, officials have only said that 82 people were evacuated from 33 apartments and this operation went calmly. No comment yet on whether this was a terror-related operation as suspected. Meantime, officials are searching for Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of an ISIS-linked Belgian terror cell. CNN has obtained tape of Abaaoud defending ISIS tactics. Listen.</s>ABDELHAMID ABAAOUD, SUSPECTED RINGLEADER: It's not fun seeing blood spilled, but it gives me pleasure from time to time to see blood of the disbelievers run because we grew up watching, we've grown up, seeing on TV, in the whole world the blood of Muslims being spilled.</s>ROMANS: He also calls on Muslims to find honor through jihad and martyr them.</s>BERMAN: Now to Yemen where Shiite Houthi rebels have successfully staged a coup that have overtaken the presidential palace in Sana'a. Yemen's minister of information tells our Nick Paton Walsh the president is no longer in control in Yemen. There are concerns that a government collapse could send that country into a full-scale civil war. It is a level of chaos that has already being exploited by radical groups, especially al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which, of course, claimed credit for the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks. There are growing concerns about U.S. interest there. A U.S. embassy vehicle was shot at near an embassy checkpoint Monday night. Two Navy warships have now moved into the Red Sea, ready to evacuate Americans from the embassy if need be.</s>ROMANS: Breaking overnight, a Palestinian man has been arrested after nine people were stabbed on a bus in Tel Aviv. Israeli police are calling this a terror attack. The attacker was eventually chased down, shot by police and arrested. It's the latest in the string of attacks against the Israelis in recent months. Several of them have been deadly. The Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, praised the stabbings as brave and heroic. Japan vowing to save hostages taken by ISIS. But will the country -- will Japan pay the $200 million ransom demanded by the terrorists? We're live in Tokyo with the very latest, next.