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Congress Passes $900 Billion Economic Relief Package; White House Considering Proof of Negative COVID Test for U.K. Travelers; Pfizer and Moderna Testing Vaccines Against Coronavirus Variant. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 22, 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]

REP. MIKIE SHERRILL (D-NJ): For example, people in my district didn't have to wait until December 22nd to know that they weren't going to have to be kicked out of their homes at the end of the month, right after Christmas. However, this is an important piece.

It has some great stuff in it for vaccines. Extending the eviction moratorium. Getting direct payments out to people, including children, extending unemployment. There's things that I fought hard for, that I think we still have to address in the Biden administration, such as state and local funding to make sure that we're not furloughing more teachers as we go through this.

I have four kids that are still being home-schooled. We desperately need our teachers, our cops, who are not only helping get us through this crisis, but will be helping get everyone vaccinated in my state. So, there's more to be done.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, look. You said more needs to be done in the Biden administration. President-elect Biden, himself says this is a down payment. But, how are you going to get more? I mean, in all honesty, this took five months, and you had a fairly large-ish majority in the house. As of January, you're going to have a three- vote majority in the house, Democrats, so how are you going to get more?

SHERRILL: Well, John, it's really not the house. We -- like I said, have been able to pass legislation through the house. It's convincing the Senate. And I think now, when we started on some of this legislation, really the pain of coronavirus was being felt in certain areas of the country.

My area, in particular. New Jersey was one of the first areas hit by the coronavirus, one of the hardest-hit areas. And so, we have been feeling the effects longer. It's probably why very early on, I started the Northeast Regional Recovery Taskforce with Pete King because we were working hard for our region that had been hit so hard.

Unfortunately, this has spread across the country. So many people across the country are seeing the need for further relief, and I think that will help us get bills passed through the Senate and then signed by the president.

BERMAN: So, I mentioned in the intro, you, of course, are a Navy veteran. I don't know if you heard Barbara Starr's report coming into this, that there are discussions within the Pentagon now, concerns about what the president might do or ask for in the next 29 days.

We know there was a discussion of martial law and having the military oversee reruns of elections in swing states, which of course, is just ridiculous. But as someone who served in the military, can you ever imagine, in a million years, having discussions like the ones that are being held now?

Where military officers and leadership are trying to figure out contingency plans for what to do if the president asks something dangerous.

SHERRILL: You know, this -- these reports from the Pentagon are not new. In fact, I'll tell you, back in the Spring, I was beginning to become very concerned that the president would not accede to a peaceful transition of power. So, during a House Arms Services Committee hearing, I asked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense, if they understood their constitutional responsibilities. Their responsibilities under the uniform code of military justice. Their responsibilities under United States statutes. And they did.

Especially, the chairman, you know, got back with all the questions, saying he deeply understood it. And he saw no role for the military in a partisan-political battle, and was very strong on that. I think, as you -- you know, as your reporting shows, the military does not want to be engaged in a partisan battle.

And I think is working very hard to fulfill their commitments under the constitution to ensure that they are not engaged in that. But it was striking to me that members of the president's inner circle are coming up with these ideas of, really, how to overturn a democratic election in the United States of America. If this was happening elsewhere, in another country, we would send in election monitors at this point.

BERMAN: I mentioned you were a Russia policy expert with the U.S. Navy as well, policy officer. You have been briefed also on this huge hack of all kinds of U.S. government systems and agencies. A hack that Mike Pompeo and Bill Barr say the Russians are responsible for. What can you tell us about what you've learned, and how do you look at this through your much-more-highly-trained eyes than ours?

SHERRILL: Well, I think we're still learning the breadth of this hack. But I can tell you, this appears to be the largest cyber-hack that the United States has experienced. Covering many of our government departments, many Fortune 500 companies. We're still looking at this as an act of espionage. Was it an information- gathering hack or will there be some denial of service attacks, which is a different type of attack that needs to be remedied and addressed in a different way? But, in any event, Russia needs to be held accountable.

[07:35:00]

And what concerns me is that, again and again and again, this president has refused to hold Russia accountable. So, even at the very beginning in 2016, when we had reports from U.S. Intelligence that Russia had hacked into our election system, the president's response in Helsinki was to meet with Putin and say, no, he told me they didn't. That's ridiculous. We know that -- I know that, when I was in the situation room, I said the president needs to get to the bottom of these Russian bounties, and if true, hold Russia accountable.

Please, commit to me that he will do so. And instead, he refused to even read the intelligence. We have a president who is, again and again and again, deflected on questions of Russian culpability, Russian aggression.

And this is just another instance when his inner circle -- people who have -- to date, been really apologists for the president, like Pompeo, like Barr, saying -- disagreeing with him and saying, no, it's Russia. And the president is tweeting out, you know, that this is sort of fake news, doesn't give me a sense of security that he is going to address this problem appropriately. And I'm sure the Biden team right now is looking at how we are going to address this.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, thanks so much for being with us this morning, hope you and your family have a safe and healthy holiday.

SHERRILL: You, too, and thanks so much for having me.

BERMAN: All right, so what do we know about this new variant of coronavirus now spreading in the United Kingdom? Couple of people whose job it is to know about this -- experts, join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The White House may require people traveling into the U.S. from the U.K. to prove they have tested negative for coronavirus before they'll be allowed into the U.S. Dozens of countries have already banned or restricted travel from the U.K. at this point because of this new variant of coronavirus spreading there.

Joining us now, David Montefiori, he directs an AIDS vaccine research lab at Duke University. He's also a member of the Operation Warp Speed Laboratory Program for COVID-19 vaccines. And Bette Korber is a computational biologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and an expert in HIV evolution, though now, is turning her attention to the coronavirus fight.

It's so good to have both of you with us because I think it really helps put into perspective what we're looking at as we talk about this variant. And so, just to -- just to break it down, Bette, I want to start with you. We know, right, or we've now learned that those of us who do not study this, that it is not uncommon for a virus to mutate.

This happens all the time as a virus evolves. What I'm learning though is that COVID-19 is actually evolving fairly slowly, and that's good news for both the existing vaccines and any immunity they may produce. Why is that, Bette?

BETTE KORBER, COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGIST, LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY: Why is it evolving slowly or why is that good news?

HILL: Why is it good news that it evolves slowly?

KORBER: I'll comment on both equally, right. It has a proofreading mechanism, when it copies itself, it proofreads. And not all viruses have that. HIV doesn't have that. And so, it is evolving, it changes its amino acids and its proteins, and its bases and its genetic materials slowly. And there's -- this is good news for a vaccine because you put in a copy of some part of the virus, the spike protein, that little bit that sticks off the coronavirus' that people are using. And if that is not changing much, then the vaccine is going to look like the virus that's out in the world.

And so, when you make an antibody response to that or an immune response to that, antibody response will carry over and recognize the other variants that are out in the world, is the hope. And --

HILL: Yes, OK --

KORBER: We're monitoring those changes just to make sure -- when I say we, I mean, the global-scientific community -- to make sure that those changes don't impact the immune response. And we're in the middle of doing something like that right now with that English virus.

HILL: As you're looking at that, so, David, when we look at the vaccine part of this, right? Especially based on your expertise here. As you're testing these samples as I understand it, you're testing some of the samples from phase three of the Moderna trial where they're looking for these antibodies, to see what people have now, right, after that trial. How does this change what you're looking for, if at all?

DAVID MONTEFIORI, DIRECTOR, LABORATORY FOR AIDS VACCINE RESEARCH, DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: So, one of the things that we're interested in doing is testing this new variant to see if it's susceptible to the antibodies that the vaccines are inducing. So, we are re-creating this variant in the laboratory right now, and once we have that made, we will be testing it with serum samples from the phase-one trials of the vaccines that are being tested in phase three right now, because those serum samples are available. And some of them are already in my lab.

HILL: Which is great to know that they're already there. As we talk about this virus, the fact that this variant was, I guess, first identified back in September. As we heard from other experts, one of the things that the U.K. has done really well is reporting this sequencing information that they're getting. And one of the doctors actually told us, they've sort of upped the

information that they are sending out there to the rest of the world, whereas some other countries have dropped off a little bit. David, how important is that information? And why is it needed?

[07:45:00]

MONTEFIORI: Well, it's very important to have sequences from around the world, so that this variant can be tracked. Right now, you know, as Bette has shown, there is not the concerted effort in the world that early in the pandemic that helped us track the D-614 gene mutation, which was one of the first mutations that occurred, that spread, and it's now the dominant form of the virus globally. Those sequences were very helpful in tracking that and seeing how prevalent it was across the globe.

That sequencing effort isn't going on, at the same extent anymore. And so, hopefully, this will stimulate scientists to re-initiate their sequencing efforts, double their efforts, and get those sequences deposited in the international database that all scientists around the world can access.

HILL: So, if you both laid out for us, you know, I think the important take-away here is the confidence that you had and why the existing vaccines would work, just based on the way this virus mutates and evolves. So Bette, to you, people look at this, they see a new variant. They see that it may be more transmissible. How concerned should someone be this morning in the United States?

KORBER: In the United States, we don't have this particular variant circulating yet at this point. If it is -- if it does turn out to be more transmissible as the experimental evidence accrues, I think it's going to be very important to monitor how it's moving, and maybe be able to do things like, you know, restricting travel in places that it's -- that it's focused. I think that there's a lot of variants that are coming up that we might not be noticing because the U.K. actually has submitted tens of thousands of sequences to this international database, it's called Disk Idin(ph).

It's this open resource for everybody, all the scientists to look at. And because of that, it was -- it was relatively easy to spot a new variant and we also need to be tracking other variants. So, David doesn't only have this variant in his lab. He has other ones that are not coming up at the same frequency, but show up in the world that you just want to be sure don't pack the vaccine.

And that's what this database enables us to do in the vaccine context. So, I think we do have other variants in the United States that aren't increasing in frequency right now, relative to the forms that are circulating that we're aware of. But we also don't have tens of thousands of sequences in the international repository to look at, like the U.K. does.

HILL: Right.

KORBER: So, you know, I think it behooves everybody to get more sequences out there, the countries that provide those sequences benefit because then everyone has their eye on them and people like David can put them into their laboratories and see what -- you know, see what the implication of the mutation is.

HILL: OK --

KORBER: If it matters or if it doesn't.

HILL: More information definitely better in this case. Bette Korber, David Montefiori, thank you for joining us this morning, thank you for all of the work that you are both doing on a daily basis. And thanks for dumbing this down for us to make it understandable and make it all a little bit less scary, really appreciate it. Thank you.

MONTEFIORI: Yes, thank you.

KORBER: Thank you.

BERMAN: We want to remember some of the 319,000 Americans lost to coronavirus. Fifty three-year-old Rhonda Lee Nelson was a sister-in- law to former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley. Haley mourned her brother's wife on Twitter noting that she loved God, her family and all who knew her. Nelson leaves behind a husband of 33 years and three children.

Performer Noe Montoya fought for social justice through his music and acting in northern California. The civil-rights advocate, Montoya marched with Caesar Chavez and always wore the emblem of the United Farm workers, he was just 66 years old. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:00]

HILL: Russia's Security Service says a recorded admission by one of its agents claiming he helped poison a top opposition leader is a fake. A Kremlin spokesman even calling the opposition leader who tricked the spy into admitting his role a megalomaniac with a Jesus complex. CNN's Clarissa Ward has done some stunning original reporting that led to all of this, and she joins us now from London. Stunning I think is putting it mildly, Clarissa.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, this was a pretty extraordinary tirade coming from the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov; he is the spokesperson for President Vladimir Putin, and he was not holding back. He called him, as you said, Alexei Navalny; the opposition leader who very nearly died of Novichok poisoning back in August, he said that he was paranoid essentially, that he has a Jesus complex. And then my personal favorite nugget, Erica, he says he has an almost Freudian obsession with his own crotch.

That in of course reference to the fact that we now know the poison was placed in Alexei Navalny's underpants. But all of these elaborate obfuscations and insults don't detract from the point, which is that the facts of our reporting remain, and even Peskov himself did not appear to deny that. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (voice-over): It is an extraordinary scene, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the phone with one of the FSB units he believes poisoned him in August. Navalny is pretending to be a senior figure from Russia's National Security Council investigating the attempted assassination.

[07:55:00]

The operative, Konstantin Kudryavtsev is hesitant at first, but then reveals the poison was placed on Navalny's underpants.

ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN POLITICIAN (through translator): Well, imagine underpants and in what place?

KONSTANTIN KUDRYAVTSEV, RUSSIAN SPY (through translator): The insides, the groin.

NAVALNY: The crotch of the underpants?

KUDRYAVTSEV: Well, the so-called flap. There are some seams there, so across the seams.

WARD: The explosive admission punches a gaping hole in the Kremlin's repeated denials that the Russian government played any role in Navalny's poisoning. Kudryavtsev was one of an elite team who trailed Navalny for years, as CNN and online investigative outlet "Bellingcat" reported last week. The unit was headquartered in this unassuming building in a Moscow suburb. Most of its members were doctors or scientists. Kudryavtsev graduated from the Russian Academy of Chemical Defense.

When Navalny was poisoned back in August, his flight was suddenly diverted to Omsk. Flight records show that just five days later Kudryavtsev flew to that same city, taking possession of Navalny's clothes.

On the 45-minute call with Navalny, he offers an assurance that no trace of Novichok would be found on them.

KUDRYAVTSEV: Yes, all is clean.

NAVALNY: Visually, it will not be visible. They did not remove, there are no stains on them, nothing?

KUDRYAVTSEV: No, nothing. They're in good condition and clean.

NAVALNY: Pants?

KUDRYAVTSEV: There is the same inside area, perhaps something was left on it, too. We washed it off there also, but this is presumably because there is contact with the pants. Perhaps there was something on there, too. WARD: The FSB toxins team trailed Navalny on more than 30 trips

around Russia. Five of its members flew to Siberia around the same time as Navalny during the fateful August trip when he was poisoned. Toxicologists have told CNN that Navalny is lucky to be alive and that the intention was almost certainly to kill him. A point Kudryavtsev himself appears to acknowledge.

KUDRYAVTSEV: If he had flown a little longer and perhaps would not have landed so quickly and all, perhaps it would have all gone differently, that is, had it not been for the prompt assistance of doctors or ambulances on the landing strip and so on.

NAVALNY: The plane landed after 40 minutes, basically this should have been taken into account while planning the operation. It wasn't that the plane landed instantly. They calculated the wrong dose, the probability, why?

KUDRYAVTSEV: Well, I can't say why? As I understand it, we added a bit extra, so --

NAVALNY: Now we've got everything, yes.

WARD: At the end of the call, Navalny and his team are elated that their sting operation has worked and despite everything he's discovered, he's still determined to return to Russia as soon as possible.

NAVALNY: He told the whole story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: It's just so incredible. So, Clarissa, now Russia responding, though, with sanctions. What more are we learning?

WARD: So, this is just breaking. We are learning that we don't know how many exactly, but several EU representatives will be sanctioned by Russia. I think this should be seen as a largely symbolic tit-for-tat kind of move because the EU has already sanctioned senior FSB and Kremlin leadership for its role in this attempted assassination.

But we know that the ambassadors for Germany, France and Sweden were all summoned to be told about this, and those countries that choice is not any accident, those are all the countries where independent laboratories confirmed traces of Novichok, that lethal nerve agent in Alexei Navalny's blood.

So, the Kremlin clearly now today trying to send a message to the world that it is swinging back. The question still remains, though, how will the U.S. respond? We really haven't heard anything substantive from the White House on how it intends and if it intends to condemn this frankly, outrageous behavior.

HILL: Yes, it's such an excellent point, and we will -- we will be waiting right along with you to see if there is any reaction at all. Clarissa, excellent reporting, thank you again. NEW DAY continues right now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Concerns are growing about a new variant of COVID-19 in the U.K. that reportedly spreads faster than others.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It does mean that we have to work a little bit harder about preventing the spread.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crisis throwing travel and trade into a nightmare before Christmas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After months of partisan haggling, a stalemate, gridlock, finally, the two sides have come together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The final stage here is to get it on President Donald Trump's desk.