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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is Interviewed about a Stimulus Deal; East Coast Braces for Snowstorm; Former Officer Arrested over Voter Fraud; Answers to Coronavirus Vaccine Questions. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 16, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: 908, is that separated into two different bills?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): No, no, no, it will be one bill, I'm sure. Whatever they come out with will be one, major piece of legislation, at least this size, OK.

CAMEROTA: But no -- but no state and local municipalities getting aid in that one?

MANCHIN: That's just -- that's just -- that's what I'm hearing now. We're not at the table right now. It's basically the four corners working off of what we've had, looking at what they can incorporate in or work off of. So what they actually come up, we'll see. I'm understanding that it could be maybe some direct payments in lieu of state and local. I'm not --

CAMEROTA: What would those look like if -- the direct payments, because that was a big sticking point? And, obviously, the progressives in the House really want that. So, how much?

MANCHIN: And that I don't know. I can't speak to that. I know it wouldn't be more than $1,200, but I think it will be in the $600 -- probably $500, $600 range to try to help through these most difficult times. That would be my guess. I have no knowledge of this whatsoever. I'm telling you I think -- and this is the conversations we've been hearing for the last day or so. So they're looking for a pathway forward. That might have been the pathway.

We all wanted to do that. We just knew we couldn't get anybody to agree above the 900 and we didn't want to go below the 900. That was the amount -- figure that we knew that would stimulate this economy in an emergency situation. And that's what we're in right now, an emergency up through the first quarter, which will be April 1 of 2021.

CAMEROTA: Yes, for sure.

Will this bill, as you understand it, include vaccine -- money for vaccine distribution?

MANCHIN: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think they might have increased that, too. We had $16 billion and it might need more than that. There won't be any problem getting the money that we need for vaccines so people will have the vaccine that they need to protect themselves and get our economy moving and get their lives back to more normal.

CAMEROTA: So, I mean, it sounds like you're very hopeful this morning that this is going to happen this week.

MANCHIN: Oh, most certainly. I most certainly am. I knew when we -- I knew when we broke the log jam, I felt very good about that because every one of the people that worked on it, and we had 15, 20 people from Democrats and Republicans, from the House and to the Senate, that all agreed on what we put together, the 748, and then we got two tranches and basically they could do what they wanted, to either incorporate two, come up with something different, but the 900 figure was -- took us about two weeks to negotiate back and forth to get to the 908 figure.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

And given all that --

MANCHIN: So --

CAMEROTA: I mean given all that trouble, do you now wish, in retrospect, that Democrats had taken -- or worked with what President Trump offered back on October 10th, which was the $1.8 trillion?

MANCHIN: Oh, hindsight being 20/20 absolutely. You know, I've always looked -- I'm always looking for that deal. And I tell you, that's what people expect us to do. You have to compromise to make a deal. If you want to hold your position, then basically you get nothing done. And we've seen the stalemate. That's why I'm so hopeful when Joe Biden is our president, working with the Congress and the Senate that he knows so well, that he understands what we have to give and take a little bit to make things happen. And that's -- that's going to be interesting. It's going to be exciting.

CAMEROTA: And on that front, as you know, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, just yesterday, finally acknowledged President-elect Biden's win.

What did you think of that timing?

MANCHIN: I thought it was great. And I just thought it was great. It's never too late. I mean it needs to be done and it should have been done sooner. But I understand the pressure they're under. And you can't -- you know, you can't sit here in hindsight and say, oh, they should have done this, this, this and this. I would have said the same we've done as Democrats before in 2016 never thinking that Hillary Clinton would lose to Donald Trump. But, graciously, we moved on. We have to move on. And I want all my Republican colleagues and all the supporters of Donald Trump to understand, this is democracy. The rule of law is who we are. And it's time to move on and come together because you should always want your president, where you voted for them or not, whether it's the person you would have chosen, or political party, you want them to succeed. If they succeed, we succeed. West Virginia will do well if this

president does well. We will have a lot of challenges if they don't do well. So why don't we all work together so we can all benefit from it.

CAMEROTA: And do you think that your fellow -- well, the Republicans in the Senate will heed his advice that Mitch McConnell gave on that behind the scenes conference call basically to stop any argument anymore and not join in with the House Republicans who may try to challenge it on January 6?

MANCHIN: Well, the House is a little different than the Senate. I mean our founding fathers knew it would be different. They intended it to be different. So if our House -- if our Senate Republicans can give some leadership and calm down the House Republicans and say, come on, we're all on the same team. There's 535 of us rooting for the United States of America and supporting the United States of America for the same goals, that we can help -- help our constituents have a better quality of life and defend our country and keep us free and open as we've been.

So we all have the same goal, everybody has a different way of getting to it, but I'm hoping that they rise -- the patriotism rises above the political rancoring that goes on. It's too long. People are tired of this. We're getting a little bit of reprieve now. We don't see the animosity coming in as it has through the tweets attacking people that don't agree. That's not who we are. It's never who we've been and it can't be who we're going to be. So it's time to get back to a little bit more normal.

[08:35:00]

It might not be as exciting. You all might not have as much news to report on by a minute by minute basis, but it will be something we can accomplish and we all can be proud of.

CAMEROTA: Senator Manchin, what I would do for a slow news day. Thank you very much for all of the information of this. It sounds like soon to be breaking news. We really appreciate it.

MANCHIN: Yes. Take a deep breath, Alisyn, and enjoy the calm.

CAMEROTA: Umm. Thank you for that moment of zen.

MANCHIN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, talk to you soon.

MANCHIN: Bye-bye.

CAMEROTA: It could be the biggest snowstorm to slam the Northeast in years. More than a foot of snow is expected and Chad Myers has our forecast, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are on the verge of a big winter storm here in the Northeast, 70 million people in the path of this thing.

Let's get the latest look at the forecast. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers here with that.

Chad, what are you seeing?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, it is starting. Already getting snow out into Virginia, ice into the Carolinas. It's been snowing all night in Indianapolis and even into Cincinnati.

There's the storm right now, snowing across parts of upstate New York, eventually later on today snowing in Ohio, already seeing the white here into parts of Virginia.

[08:40:07]

Seventy million people, as you said, under some type of advisory. Everywhere that's purple here is a foot of snow or more. Now, I'm going to get back to this graphic, but just bear with me, one to three, one to four down across the south. Why? Because it mixes with sleet and freezing rain. That's probably not better than snow. Sleet makes noise when it hits your wind, freezing rain just freezes when it hits the ground. Four to 8 around Philadelphia, eight to 12 around New York City, a little bit more if you get back to the north and west.

This is the problem right now that I see. You see that there's a lot of snow here, no snow here, but there's ice in the middle, and that's the ground right there around I-95. Now, by noon, the snow doesn't get to Philadelphia yet.

By 4:00 it's trying to snow in New York City, trying. You're going to look at the radar on your app, on your phone and go, well, it should be snowing, but it's not, the air is too dry to snow just yet. But the air will fill in, the humidity will come up and the snow will hit the ground.

By 8:00 snowing heavily.

By 2:00 a.m. maybe even thunder snow in some spots across parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, all the way back down towards New York City.

And then by 8:00, by this time tomorrow, it's already done for New York City, tapering off. Not for Boston, though. You don't get out of this until about 4:00 tomorrow afternoon.

Not only will there be snow, there will be wind. Some wind gusts over 60 miles per hour. Here you see Nantucket, 3:00 in the morning, coming up, 48 miles per hour. So this purple is not pleasant when there's snow on the ground, blowing it around, and maybe even blowing some trees into power lines. There certainly could be power outages with this.

Now back to the map as I told you. New York City probably 10 to 14, maybe 16, we'll see. Boston eight to 12. Later -- it takes longer for it to get to Boston. Philadelphia, six to 10. Less in Camden, more in like Allegheny County or back out toward the west and certainly more into Lancaster. Then you get into D.C., one to three. The problem in D.C. is the ice.

Back to you guys.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Chad, I don't know what's worse, the heavy winds, the ice or the thunder snow.

MYERS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: It all sounds slightly apocalyptic.

MYERS: Right.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for keeping an eye on that.

MYERS: You're welcome.

Now to this disturbing story out of Texas this morning. A former Houston Police captain arrested and charged with carrying out an armed vigilante traffic stop after President Trump's bogus claims of voter fraud.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is live in Texas with more.

This is such a disturbing story, Ed. What do we know?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, it is a shocking story and a dangerous example of what can happen when powerful politicians continue banging the drum beat of baseless, made up voter fraud accusations and in a dangerous rhetoric that can have real life consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice over): A former Houston Police captain is now charged with assaulting a man with a deadly weapon. The former officer suspected the victim of being an election fraud mastermind. Authorities say Mark Anthony Aguirre, who was part of a private citizens group trying to investigate still unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud claims, ran an air conditioning repairman off the road and pointed a gun at him two weeks before the election. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg (ph) says Aguirre crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime and we're lucky no one was killed.

Aguirre's attorney disagrees.

TERRY YATES, MARK ANTHONY AGUIRRE'S ATTORNEY: Well, I believe it's a political prosecution.

LAVANDERA: Prosecutors say Aguirre was hired by the conservative group Liberty Center for God and Country to investigate allegations of voter fraud. The group paid him more than $266,000, prosecutors say. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His company definitely worked for the organization.

With respect to what happened regarding the incident in question, not very familiar with the details of that yet, but we will be looking into it.

LAVANDERA: According to court documents, Aguirre said he had been surveilling the repairman for four days, thinking he was hiding 750,000 fraudulent ballots in his truck. According to the arrest affidavit, Aguirre thought the repairman was using Hispanic children to sign the ballots because the children's fingerprints would not appear in any database. There is no evidence this occurred.

In a statement, Harris County prosecutors said on October 19th Aguirre ran his SUV into the repairman's truck and then allegedly pointed his gun at him and forced him to the ground and put his knee on the man's back. It said part of the incident was captured on a police body camera.

In the repairman's truck, only tools and air conditioning parts were found, no ballots.

Houston Police called the allegations of voter fraud unfounded. Aguirre's attorney says his client did not initiate the confrontation.

YATES: He was working and investigating voter fraud. It was an accident. They were surveilling a vehicle.

[08:45:01]

There was an accident and then a member of the car got out and rushed toward him and that's where the confrontation took place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: The former Houston Police officer is being held on $30,000 bond in jail in Harris County. He could face up to 20 years in prison if he's convicted. And it's important to point out that he is connected to this wealthy Republican donor there in the Houston area that was responsible in that effort, if you might remember, to overturn almost 130,000 ballots that were cast in Harris County during the early voting period, it was during that period of those drive-thru ballots and those drive-thru voting locations that were -- that were set up. This officer is connected to the man that was pushing that effort to overturn those ballots.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, the efforts are getting crazier and more desperate and turning violent. And so we just see how that progression happens.

LAVANDERA: Right.

Ed, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

OK, back to coronavirus. Up next, Dr. Sanjay Gupta will answer some of your vaccine questions. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:27]

BERMAN: "Here's to Your Health."

Many of you, many of us have a lot of questions about coronavirus vaccines. Luckily, we know someone who's got some answers. Dr. Sanjay Gupta back with us now.

Sanjay, Andrew from Arizona writes, what will be the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine on the number of confirmed daily cases going forward? When will we likely see a meaningful change in daily cases?

You know, it's interesting, I just basically asked that same question of Admiral Brett Giroir. If Andrew's looking for a new job, he can come in and do mine.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Yes. It's a good question.

First of all, if you just look at the models overall, there's sort of a plateau and then hopefully a decrease in the overall trajectory of new cases by end of January, early sort of February timeframe. That takes into account less about the vaccine and more that states, once they hit certain numbers of new people being infected, that they will start to implement some sort of mitigation measure, whether it be masks or shutting down certain indoor locations.

As far as the vaccine itself, it's interesting. It's likely to have impact on death rates first because the more vulnerable people are being vaccinated first, which makes sense, then hospitalizations and then case rates. So it's almost going backwards in terms of the impact of the vaccine.

And, you know, people say once you get to 30 percent vaccination you'll start to see some impact, but it's really this herd immunity number that we keep talking about, 70 percent, 80 percent of the country being vaccinated, which they anticipate, if everything goes well, sort of end of spring, you know, sort of summertime sometime. It depends on how many vaccines actually come online.

But it's happening and we should see impact, you know, sort of along that calendar.

CAMEROTA: OK, this one comes from John in Texas. Why would someone who has had the virus and recovered and thus has some level of antibodies need the same two shot regimen that a person who has not had the virus need?

GUPTA: Right. Yes, this is -- this is another -- it's a great question. And the point is that if you've had the natural infection in a sense you become immunized for at least a period of time. Your body is likely making antibodies or has made antibodies. These proteins that can help fight the virus. The issue really is that we -- we don't know how long the immunity

lasts in people who have had natural infection. We don't even know how long it lasts in people who have been vaccinated. But part of the idea of the vaccine, you get the prime shot and then you get a boost shot. The goal and the hope is that that sort of immunity will be longer lasting and stronger as well. So, you know, at some point people who have been naturally infected, their immunity will likely wane. The vaccine should give them protection for a longer and stronger amount of time.

BERMAN: So Laura from New York writes, I had a strong reaction to penicillin a few years ago. I'm 62 and this happened only once. Will I be able to take the Pfizer vaccine or do I need to take a different one?

GUPTA: Yes. And, you know, I'll preface by saying, Laura, we're all learning in real time here. This became an issue because of what happened in the United Kingdom. There were two health care workers with previous history of strong allergies, strong enough that they carried epipens who had a reaction to this vaccine. They recovered and had no longer-lasting issues, but that was what sort of has prompted this discussion.

There's sort of two points. One is that if you look at the trials from Pfizer and Moderna, they excluded people with a history of severe allergic reactions in the past and they did not find people had significant allergic reactions during the trial. So for whatever that's worth.

I asked Dr. Fauci about this specifically and what he said is that people who have had strong allergic reactions, certainly flag that. And you have a discussion because your health care person or whoever's helping administer the shots may want to know exactly what your allergic reaction was, did you feel tightness in the chest, did you have significant rash or flushing on your skin? And based on that, make a recommendation. You may be monitored longer, 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes. You'll be in a situation where epinephrine is available if you need it. Some people may get pretreated with Benadryl and some people may be told not to get the vaccine. But it's likely to be on a case-by-case basis.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sanjay, really good to know. Thank you very much for all of the information.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, time now for "The Good Stuff."

A North Carolina man going all out for his Christmas decorations turning his home into a winter wonderland for local families. Boyd Chapman says he wanted to give families something interactive which includes a mailbox for letters to Santa, a selfie sleigh, a candy cane ring toss and a snowman bowl alley.

[08:55:12]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOYD CHAPMAN (ph): It's great to see all the families out here. It gives them an opportunity to do something during the holiday, see Santa Claus, mail a letter, have some fun outside. It's just an opportunity for families to really spend some time together and get out of the house in a way that they haven't been able to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That is so generous. Chapman also put up a very special Christmas tree where people can hang their hopes and wishes for the new year.

That's beautiful.

How fast can we get to North Carolina to participate?

All right, CNN's coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)