Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Bipartisan Lawmakers Propose $908 Billion Stimulus Plan; Attorney General Appoints Special Counsel in Russia Probe Investigation; Frontline Workers in Colorado Struggle to Cope with Pandemic. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 02, 2020 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: For their first joint interview since their election victory, it's a CNN special event, tune in tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. only right here on CNN. A new proposal to help millions of Americans struggling during the pandemic, and we'll speak with one of the senators who just introduced a bipartisan relief bill, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: In a matter of days, millions of Americans are set to lose extra benefits they have been receiving, thanks to coronavirus relief legislation. Is it going to happen even as the pandemic gets worse here. A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a nearly a trillion-dollar relief plan, but as of now, Mitch McConnell not getting on board with that proposal at all. Joining us now, one of the lawmakers part of the plan, independent Senator Angus King of Maine. Senator, thanks so much.

Let me just lay out what's in this plan, $160 billion for state and local government funding. There is additional money for an extension of unemployment benefits, also money for small businesses. Why is this $900 billion plan with bipartisan support the right one?

[07:35:00]

SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): Well, it is the right one. And it was worked out on a bipartisan basis, importantly, John, not just by a group of nine senators, but a group of house members from both parties. We now have and announced 50 supporters in the house, 25 Democrats, 25 Republicans. We have four Republicans, four Democrats, and me in the Senate.

And we really tried to come to a middle ground, and we got tired of waiting, frankly. And I don't understand what the majority leader's problem is. But John, there's an important thing about the majority leader that isn't in the civics book. And that is that he or she has absolute power over what comes to the floor of the U.S. Senate. We could have a bill supported by 99 senators, and if the majority

leader said, I'm not going to bring it up, it doesn't come up. And there's no mechanism seriously to make that happen. So, he's got to listen. And I'm hoping he's going to listen to the members of his caucus saying, look, we need to do something, it's urgent. People are going to be losing benefits. People are going to be losing their places to live. They're going to be evicted. Schools are going to have really serious problems. We've got to do something, and we put forward a good faith effort to make that happen.

BERMAN: You say, I don't know what the majority leader's problem is. His plan that he's laying out is half, if that, of what you're suggesting, doesn't include any state and local government aid at all. If that's the only thing that gets to the floor, is that better than nothing?

KING: Well, that's a decision we're going to have to make. I mean, this business of no help for the states and localities, I don't get. I mean, what we have here, John, is a natural disaster. It's a -- it's a biological hurricane, if you will. And it's striking some states more seriously than others, although I just looked last night, there's something like 25 Republican-dominated states, red states, that are in serious financial difficulty, both in their localities and in their states. So, it's not just a blue state problem.

But what really bothers me is, you know, I bet you, I voted on 10 or 12 or 15, I don't know how many natural disaster bills for various parts of the country, and it never occurred to me to ask, well, is this a blue state or a red state that's going to get this money?

If Florida gets hit by a hurricane, we give them some help. And we're one country, and that's really what this is all about. And somehow at the beginning of this, Senator McConnell got into his head this -- he used the term blue state bailout. And it's simply trying to help states and localities that are struggling to keep, for example, first responders on the payroll.

Otherwise, states can't borrow like the federal government and they're going to either have to raise taxes or cut expenditures, which means laying people off, and that's just not a practical alternative. I really wish the majority leader would take a broader view of this and realize, this is really important. And by the way, what we're proposing in this framework is less than half of what the National Governors Association --

BERMAN: Yes --

KING: Said that we really need.

BERMAN: And it's half of what the president had said he would accept a few months ago. On the majority leader, President-elect Joe Biden did an interview with Thomas Friedman, columnist for "The New York Times" overnight, and he talked about working with Mitch McConnell going forward. This is what Biden said.

He said, "I think there are trade-offs that not all compromise is walking away from principle, Biden added. He knows me, I know him. I don't ask him to embarrass himself to make a deal." So President-elect Biden is holding out hope to be able to work with Mitch McConnell. How much hope realistically do you have that, that will be successful?

KING: Well, I think that the real -- the real question is, what does his caucus think? And if he gets enough members of the Republican caucus -- and by the way, we had a number come forward yesterday saying, we think this is a good plan, we'd like to be involved. So if that -- if there's sort of a growing momentum there, you know, he's going to work with his caucus, and I hope that he understands that this is really something important for the country, and the issue of assistance for state and localities, look, they're really hurting.

And many of them -- and ironically, there's a lag here where states that are just going into the real crisis mode are going to see the fiscal impact in a month or two.

BERMAN: Yes --

KING: They may think they're OK now, and then they're going to find out their revenues are collapsing. So, this is -- it should be an essential part of this. It was a hard-fought negotiation --

BERMAN: Let me --

KING: In our -- in our group. But I think it makes a lot of sense.

[07:40:00]

BERMAN: Let me ask you about one piece of other news. We learned remarkably overnight that the Attorney General William Barr has appointed John Durham to be a special counsel to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation. Now, you supported a bill in the last Congress that would make it harder to fire a special counsel. Now that John Durham is a special counsel, hey, what do you make of that decision, and do you still stand by the idea that it should be harder to dismiss a special counsel?

KING: Yes, I believe that if you appoint a special counsel, they should have some protections so that they're not being able to -- they're not able to be removed politically, wherever that political motivation is coming from. So, yes, I stick with that position. I don't understand the appointment. John Durham was appointed months and months and months ago to look into the origins of the Russia investigation. Apparently, he hasn't found anything, I don't know what he's going to find in another couple of months.

I'm -- as you know, John, I worked on this for over -- for four years now with the Senate Intelligence Committee. I can tell you, there's nothing for him to find. There's been investigation on top of investigation that found that the Russia investigation had a solid basis and they had to go forward with that investigation based upon the information they had in the Summer of 2016. So, I don't know what this appointment means, except, perhaps, to just be a burr under the saddle of President Biden. But I don't think it's going to go anywhere because there's nowhere for it to go. BERMAN: Senator Angus King, we appreciate you being with us today.

Thank you very much.

KING: Absolutely, John.

BERMAN: So, it's not just a risk to their physical health. Frontline medical workers are coping with the emotional toll of the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANNON TAPIA, GERIATRICIAN: I don't want to say it's been harder for us than it has for everybody else, but the truth is, it has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Nurses and doctors share their stories, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:45:00]

HILL: Hospitals in Colorado are buckling under the weight of coronavirus cases. Hospitalizations in that state continue to break records daily. And the pandemic is taking an emotional toll, a huge one, on frontline workers. Doctors and nurses are fighting the good fight, but they've been doing this for months and they are struggling to cope. CNN's Lucy Kafanov is live in Denver with more. It is so important that we hear from them, Lucy.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is, Erica. Hospitals here in Colorado and across the nation are struggling with new levels of strain amid a continuing surge of this virus. And, you know, even though we've been talking about a vaccine potentially coming around the corner, the healthcare workers on the frontlines who have been on the frontlines for months of this pandemic, they're bracing for another surge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPIA: We might not show it if we're interacting with you, but it's so hard.

KAFANOV (voice-over): The words of a Colorado physician who's had enough. Dr. Shannon Tapia is one of thousands of healthcare workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.

TAPIA: Sleep is on short supply right now.

KAFANOV: A geriatrician and a single mom who works with the elderly, she switched to tele-health to keep her patients and herself safe.

(on camera): What do you want people to know about the experience of these frontline healthcare workers including yourself under COVID?

TAPIA: We might not talk about it because we know people don't want to hear it. We know everyone is struggling. We know COVID changed everybody's lives. It's just been so hard. And I don't want to say it's been harder for us than it has for everybody else, but the truth is, it has. It has. It's -- it's not the same and it's not the same when you feel responsible for people's -- whether it'd be their life or their quality of life, because you care.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Colorado is in the midst of its third pandemic surge. Cases and hospitalizations have been breaking records.

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): What matters now is in Colorado, 1 out of 41 people are contagious. So, it could be anywhere.

KAFANOV: More than 14,000 Coloradans have been hospitalized since the pandemic began. Among those facing the brunt, doctors and nurses like Allison Boerner.

ALLISON BOERNER, CHARGE ER NURSE, CENTURA-PARKER ADVENTIST HOSPITAL: As an ER nurse, I haven't cried a lot on the job. You hold that back and you know, you want to stay tough for the family and stoic, and there's been a lot of tears shed in ER rooms during COVID. Because we are treating that person dying like our loved one dying because they don't have anyone else, and they need that grace and they need that human touch and they need someone to be there when they're taking their last breath.

KAFANOV: Before the pandemic, she said work had never caused her to lose sleep. Now, she regularly has nightmares.

(on camera): How has the COVID crisis impacted nurses and yourself on a personal level? I mean, you're seeing this day in and day out.

BOERNER: Yes, on a personal level, it's hard. You know, we lean on each other. It's -- the holidays have been rough for a lot of us. We're not seeing our families. We're doing everything we can to keep the public safe, and so it's extremely frustrating for us when people are not doing that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here on the frontlines, this virus is incredibly real.

KAFANOV (voice-over): With cases climbing, her employer, Centura Health released this PSA.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please, let's have each other's backs.

KAFANOV: A message Dr. Tapia shares. She's seen first-hand, the devastating toll on residents of long-term care facilities, who account for 40 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the country. Many die alone.

TAPIA: It's so hard on their loved ones and their families because they can't grieve it the way they should be able to.

KAFANOV: She's found new ways to cope. A puppy, therapy and anti- depressants. But with the virus raging unabated, she worries how much more she and other frontline workers can take.

[07:50:00]

TAPIA: And I think there's going to be a huge reckoning when things calm down and people get to really process what's happened to them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAFANOV: Dr. Shannon Tapia is in hospice and geriatric care. She is no stranger to death, same goes for that ER nurse Allison Boerner. These are people who are trained to help humanity in their darkest moments, but nearly nine months into this pandemic, there are still folks who are not taking COVID-19 seriously enough. These doctors, these nurses, they've been pushed to their limit. Erica?

HILL: Yes, they absolutely have, and the hardest part of course is that, you know, it's continuing and they know that, that fight has to continue for a number of months ahead. Lucy, such an important piece. Thank you again. President Trump's fight meantime against the election results. It may feel like it's about him, but the reality is that impact is wide and it is dangerous. A must see reality check is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Still a remarkable statement out of Georgia about the cost, I'm talking the very real cost and risk of the president's lies about the election. It's not just what the president says, it's the people who watch in silence. John Avlon here with a reality check.

[07:55:00]

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling had a stunning message for President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIEL STERLING, ELECTION OFFICIAL, GEORGIA: Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt. Someone is going to get shot. Someone is going to get killed. And it's not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: He's right. And it isn't hyperbole. Trump's desperate attempt to overturn a democratic election is inflaming hate in our country. It's spreading like wildfire through the ranks of his hardcore supporters, some who are now making threats against election officials.

Well, Trump's legal team loses every major court case because there is no evidence of fraud except in their own hyper partisan fever dreams. One of the Trump campaign's lawyers Joe diGenova said that Chris Krebs, that DHS official who Trump fired for telling the truth about election security should be executed.

But Krebs is now considering legal action, diGenova came back with a very Trumpian defense that he was only being sarcastic about killing Krebs. But the head of the government accountability project pointed out that threats like these trigger an avalanche though, that avalanche has already been triggered.

Because no less than six election officials around the country, many of them Republicans have received serious death threats to date. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger requires security, his wife getting messages on her cellphone that read, "your husband deserves to face a firing squad."

His deputy Gabriel Sterling is getting threats while an election technician was accused of treason and sent a noose. In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has received a deluge of death threats including a post on the conservative social media site Parler, she says, reads, "let's burn her house down and kill her family and teach these fraudsters a lesson."

While protesters gathered outside her home shouting, "we are watching you". In Philadelphia, Commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican received a barrage of death threats while his deputy Seth Bluestein got anti- Semitic abuse as well, and listen to Clark County Nevada registrar Joe Gloria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE GLORIA, REGISTRAR, CLARK COUNTY NEVADA: I can tell you that my wife and my mother are very concerned for me, but we have security here. Yes, I am concerned for the safety of my staff. We will not allow anyone to stop us from doing what our duty is in counting ballots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: These election officials and no doubt many more are getting death threats simply because they're doing their jobs with integrity, and it's part of a pattern. Dominion Voting Systems employees received death threats as a result of Trump's conspiracy theories. Steve Bannon remember, pondered beheading Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Wray as a quote, "warning to federal bureaucrats".

In Milwaukee, health inspectors are now getting police escorts after death threats at a pro-Trump rally to say nothing of the alleged pre- election plot to kidnap and kill Michigan's governor or Trump's threats against the CIA whistleblower, or lawyers aligned with Trump Lin Wood calling for martial law and a new election yesterday.

This is all the opposite of law and order, and tone comes from the top. Donald Trump is doing violence to our democracy with his refusal to respect the election, and now some of his supporters are threatening to do real violence on his behalf, unlike the Republican senators who are remaining silent, they actually believe his lies because they've been fed a toxic diet of disinformation in safe space echo chambers where they're told political opponents are the enemies of the people. It's got to stop because we are playing with fire here.

As Voltaire once said, "those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities", and that's your reality check.

BERMAN: And look, that's the point here. I mean, this whole thing is so clearly a sham, but it's a sham that's putting people at risk --

AVLON: In real-time --

BERMAN: In real physical risk. And what the president is doing is overtly and in public trying to overturn the results of an election.

AVLON: It's that simple and people are getting threats because of it. It's not a game, folks, it's our democracy right here.

BERMAN: Thank you very much for that.

AVLON: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. We have major news on the coronavirus vaccine. NEW DAY continues right now.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, this is NEW DAY, Erica Hill in this morning for Alisyn, great to have you here.

HILL: Always good to be with you.

BERMAN: You're here for some serious breaking news. The first coronavirus vaccines just days away from being delivered. United Kingdom announced overnight they will begin vaccinating hundreds of thousands of people next week. The U.K. granted emergency use approval to the Pfizer vaccine. So who is first in line for the shots and when will the vaccines be administered here in the United States? The chief science adviser for Operation Warped Speed believes we may be just a week or so away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENCE ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: I would expect the FDA to reach a similar conclusion, things will follow their course, but I hope by the 10th or the 11th of December, the Pfizer vaccine is approved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. And this just in to CNN. The White House Coronavirus Taskforce has issued an extremely dire warning saying, quote, "we're in a very dangerous place with the pandemic". In a moment, we will speak about who gets the vaccine first in the United States with the head of the CDC Advisory Board that just voted on the recommendations.

HILL: Also breaking overnight, a potential pardon spree in the final weeks of the Trump administration.