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Transcript: Amos Hochstein on “Face the Nation,” Jan. 28, 2024
The following is a transcript of an interview with Amos Hochstein, a White House envoy and top energy adviser to President Biden, that aired on “Face the Nation” on Jan. 28, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the conflict in the Middle East and the Biden administration’s efforts to prevent a regional war. White House envoy Amos Hochstein is with us. And he’s been working on a diplomatic accord between Israel and neighboring Lebanon. He’s also a top adviser to the President on energy. How concerned are you right now that we are about to see another front open up in this war?
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: Well, I think we should all be very concerned about another front. And in fact, we have a somewhat of a front already. So from the beginning of this conflict, the day after October 7, October 8, there was shelling and action coming from Lebanon towards Israel, reaction. And since then, we’ve been in a, sort of a low grade fight between Israel and Lebanon, President Biden has been clear that we want to do everything we can to prevent an escalation of that lower level conflict into an all out conflict that would drag us further into war and risk civilian lives on both sides. And that’s what we’re trying to do is to avoid that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, Hezbollah has been firing rockets, Israel has been carrying out strikes into southern Lebanon. You had brokered a maritime border between Israel and Lebanon. How close are you to getting a land border negotiated here?
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: So just over a year ago, we were able to negotiate a maritime boundary, which is really the first time Israel and Lebanon who, Lebanon doesn’t recognize Israel diplomatically, reached any kind of boundary agreement. What we need to do now is to get to two things. One is the cessation of hostilities across both sides, so that people over almost 100,000 people on each side and Lebanon and Israel are refugees in their own countries, because they can’t live in southern Lebanon or in northern Israel. So we have to get to a cessation of hostilities. But post October 7, we also have to make sure that Israelis and Lebanese can live in their homes with security. And that is not just a ceasefire, it requires a more intricate piece of the negotiations to ensure that the Lebanese army is in that area, that there is more parameters of security for civilians. Once we do that, though, we do need to start looking at how do we mark the border, an actual border, between the two countries so that we can have long term security and long term peace in an area that’s seen so many rounds of conflict over the last several years.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And are you headed back soon?
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: I will likely head back soon. But I think we, this is something we do every day, not just when we’re in the region. We do this also when we’re here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because the Israeli government has said time is running short. Their defense minister said what, end of January?
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: Well, I don’t know about hard deadlines. But–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: The window for diplomacy is definitely there. And that is what President Biden has said we have to try to solve this diplomatically. I don’t deny that the status quo of where we are now can’t last forever. And that is why we need to make sure that we can get to diplomatic resolution.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So oil prices jumped Friday, as you know, there was a tanker carrying Russian oil going through the Red Sea that was hit by rockets fired by Houthi militias. And we can see here a lot of ships going through that area have had to take longer routes because of this conflict here. How are you gauging the geopolitical risk when it comes to energy prices going forward?
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: Well, I think we’re, we’re in a remarkable situation where we have two global conflicts, one, the ongoing war of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and what’s happening in the Middle East and the Houthis attacking the ships. So the first thing to remember, we are responding to the Houthi attacks. And this is not an attack on the United States or related to Gaza. This is an attack on the global commercial system, on global shipping lanes. This is not about just the United States. And that’s why the reaction has not just been the US. It’s US led, but this is a coalition, and a coalition that’s growing, both the diplomatic coalition, as well as the military coalition.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s also not stopping the attacks.
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: Well, I think that we’ve seen a reduction of attacks. But let’s take the example that you gave of the ship on Friday. It was not an American ship not had not destined for Israel, either. It’s part of the global commercial system. It was aided by the US Navy, the French Navy and the Indian Navy, all vessels that were in the area, so and save the ship that was able to then move on safely and securely. The impact on the markets? Look, I think that there is a clearly a sentiment issue where prices have gone up a little bit because of this, but the actual cost to energy commodities, cargo ships, yes, they have to go around a further distance. It’s more logistics cost than it is an actual cost. The costs do go up. But if you look at what they impact, the inflationary impacts are relatively muted and we’re act– and we’re going to continue to work to mitigate and to grade the efforts that the Houthis have to attack.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: But also make sure that we can look at the global markets and make sure they’re not affected.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So the Washington Post reported you oppose the decision the White House announced Friday, to put limits on some liquefied natural gas projects in order to conduct environmental review. First of all, is that true? And given that we haven’t seen LNG prices really move, how significant can this decision really be? It looks very political.
AMOS HOCHSTEIN: So first, no, it is totally, I don’t know who’s saying that I oppose that, I did not oppose it. I think this is the right decision. I, the White House, in the White House in the Department of Energy and across the administration, there was full support for this decision, I was one of them. Look, where we have to look at this decision, as, for what it is. One, we are today, the largest exporter of LNG in the world. Based on what’s under construction with the United States, we’ll double our exports of LNG, our capacity to export LNG over the next three, four years. So we’ve already done an enormous amount. At some point, you have to stop and say, alright, this is how much we’re exporting. We now need to look, what are the economic impacts? Does the market still need significantly more that will come post 2030? And as we learn more, what are the environmental impacts so that we’re not just building this out without looking at all of the parameters that needs to be looked at when we, that’s why we do permitting.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Senator Manchin says he’s going to hold some hearings to get answers to the questions on, on what happened here and we will watch for that, and thank you for coming in. We’ll be back in a moment.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a landmark bill aimed at establishing first-in-the-nation safety measures for large artificial intelligence models.
The decision is a major blow to efforts attempting to rein in the homegrown industry that is rapidly evolving with little oversight. The bill would have established some of the first regulations on large-scale AI models in the nation and paved the way for AI safety regulations across the country, supporters said.
Earlier this month, the Democratic governor told an audience at Dreamforce, an annual conference hosted by software giant Salesforce, that California must lead in regulating AI in the face of federal inaction but that the proposal “can have a chilling effect on the industry.”
The proposal, which drew fierce opposition from startups, tech giants and several Democratic House members, could have hurt the homegrown industry by establishing rigid requirements, Newsom said.
“While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data,” Newsom said in a statement. “Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it. I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology.”
Newsom on Sunday instead announced that the state will partner with several industry experts, including AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, to develop guardrails around powerful AI models. Li opposed the AI safety proposal.
The measure, aimed at reducing potential risks created by AI, would have required companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state’s electric grid or help build chemical weapons. Experts say those scenarios could be possible in the future as the industry continues to rapidly advance. It also would have provided whistleblower protections to workers.
The legislation is among a host of bills passed by the Legislature this year to regulate AI, fight deepfakes and protect workers. State lawmakers said California must take actions this year, citing hard lessons they learned from failing to rein in social media companies when they might have had a chance.
Proponents of the measure, including Elon Musk and Anthropic, said the proposal could have injected some levels of transparency and accountability around large-scale AI models, as developers and experts say they still don’t have a full understanding of how AI models behave and why.
The bill targeted systems that require more than $100 million to build. No current AI models have hit that threshold, but some experts said that could change within the next year.
“This is because of the massive investment scale-up within the industry,” said Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI researcher who resigned in April over what he saw as the company’s disregard for AI risks. “This is a crazy amount of power to have any private company control unaccountably, and it’s also incredibly risky.”
The United States is already behind Europe in regulating AI to limit risks. The California proposal wasn’t as comprehensive as regulations in Europe, but it would have been a good first step to set guardrails around the rapidly growing technology that is raising concerns about job loss, misinformation, invasions of privacy and automation bias, supporters said.
A number of leading AI companies last year voluntarily agreed to follow safeguards set by the White House, such as testing and sharing information about their models. The California bill would have mandated AI developers to follow requirements similar to those commitments, said the measure’s supporters.
But critics, including former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, argued that the bill would “kill California tech” and stifle innovation. It would have discouraged AI developers from investing in large models or sharing open-source software, they said.
Newsom’s decision to veto the bill marks another win in California for big tech companies and AI developers, many of whom spent the past year lobbying alongside the California Chamber of Commerce to sway the governor and lawmakers from advancing AI regulations.
Two other sweeping AI proposals, which also faced mounting opposition from the tech industry and others, died ahead of a legislative deadline last month. The bills would have required AI developers to label AI-generated content and ban discrimination from AI tools used to make employment decisions.
Some residents east of Atlanta were evacuated while others were told to shelter in place to avoid contact with a chemical plume after a fire at a chemical plant.
Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel told reporters that a sprinkler head malfunctioned around 5 a.m. Sunday at the BioLab plant in Conyers. That caused water to mix with a water-reactive chemical, which produced a plume of chemicals. The chief said she wasn’t sure what chemicals were included.
A small roof fire was initially contained, but reignited Sunday afternoon, Sheriff Eric Levett said in a video posted on Facebook as gray smoke billowed into the sky behind him. He said authorities were trying to get the fire under control and urged people to stay away from the area.
People in the northern part of Rockdale County were ordered to evacuate and others were told to shelter in place with windows and doors closed. Sheriff’s office spokesperson Christine Nesbitt did not know the number of people evacuated.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division were both on site, county Emergency Management Director Sharon Webb said. The agencies are monitoring the air “to give us more of an idea of what the plume consists of.”
McDaniel said crews were working on removing the chemical from the building, away from the water source. Once the product is contained, the situation will be assessed and officials will let residents know whether it is safe to return to their homes, she said.
An evacuation center was opened at Wolverine Gym in Covington.
Washington — Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off on Tuesday in the first and only vice presidential debate of the cycle, as the two candidates look to prop up the Republican and Democratic tickets with fewer than 40 days until Election Day.
The debate, hosted by CBS News at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, will be moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan.
Here’s what to know about how the candidates are preparing for the debate:
How JD Vance is preparing for the VP debate
The Ohio Republican has been preparing for the debate for more than a month, a source directly involved told CBS News, including with “murder board” sessions with a small team that includes Vance’s wife and his advisers, along with senior Trump adviser Jason Miller.
Among Vance’s main focuses during the preparation has been studying Walz’ debate style and policy record, the source said, noting that Vance will attempt to highlight what he sees as the Minnesota governor’s left-wing views during the debate.
Vance told reporters last week that his plan is to break down what the Trump-Vance administration would do to make “life better” and connect that to policy.
“So, we’re studying up as much as we can on the issues that matter to the American people, and I’m looking forward to it,” Vance said.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, is standing in for Walz during Vance’s debate prep, four sources familiar with the preparations told CBS News. Emmer and Walz have deep roots in Minnesota and are close in age.
Emmer told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he’s known Walz for decades and has spent the last month working to “get his phrases down, his mannerisms.”
“My job was to be able to play Tim Walz so JD Vance knows what he’s going to see,” Emmer said.
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How Tim Walz is preparing for the VP debate
Walz has been preparing for the debate with a close team of advisers, a source familiar with the preparations told CBS News. Some of the people involved also helped Vice President Kamala Harris take on former President Donald Trump, among others, like a long-time aid to Walz who worked with him during his bids for governor.
For Walz, whose name recognition was until recently limited outside of Minnesota, the focus is on continuing to introduce himself to the American people, according to the source. He’ll also work to highlight Harris’ vision for the nation’s path forward.
“You’ll hear me talk like I have about things that impact Americans, making sure they have the opportunity to thrive, making sure that we’re being factual in how we talk about that,” Walz told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow of the debate earlier this month. “And so I’m looking forward to it. I’ll work hard, that’s what I do.”
During debate prep, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is standing in for Vance, a campaign official familiar with the preparation told CBS News. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also assisted Harris during her debate prep in 2020, and is close in age to Vance.
When and how to watch the presidential debate
Debate coverage on CBS News 24/7 begins at 4 p.m. ET, with the debate getting underway at 9 p.m. ET on Oct. 1.
The 90-minute debate will be streamed on CBS News 24/7 and Paramount+ across all available platforms and CBSNews.com. The debate will also be simulcast across other broadcast and cable networks.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes first-in-nation AI safety bill
Residents in Georgia ordered to evacuate or shelter in place after fire at chemical plant
Israeli airstrikes kill dozens across Lebanon as Hezbollah confirms a 7th top commander was killed
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes first-in-nation AI safety bill