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President Trump May Sign COVID Relief Bill Tonight; Interview With Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) About COVID Relief Bill; Authorities Have Identified A Person Of Interest In Nashville Explosion; Interview With Dr. Anthony Fauci On Post-Seasonal COVID-19 Surge; CDC Reports 1.9 Million Vaccine Doses Administered In U.S. So Far. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired December 27, 2020 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:15]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Dana Bash in Washington and we begin tonight with breaking news. The relief and spending bill which the president has been slamming for days, he could now be ready to sign it.

I want to go straight to White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond who is traveling with President Trump and joins us from West Palm Beach, Florida.

So, Jeremy, what are you hearing tonight?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, all we have so far is a tweet from the president. He put on Twitter, "Good news on COVID relief bill. Information to follow."

And, Dana, what it appears here is that the president is tweeting this -- treating this like the latest iteration of his reality TV show, even as the financial security of tens of millions of Americans hangs in the balance. Remember, it was five days ago that the president took to Twitter with this video calling the coronavirus relief bill a disgrace, blind-siding lawmakers on Capitol Hill, blind-siding White House officials and putting that desperately needed relief for millions of Americans into limbo.

We do know tonight that according to one source that a private ballroom at Mar-a-Lago has been set up now with a signing desk and a chair, ceremonial, ready to go for the president to potentially sign this before he heads to dinner as we expect him to this evening. But whether or not he ultimately follows through on that still is a question because the White House staff did the same thing on Christmas Eve.

They set up a signing desk, a chair and those ceremonial pens that the president uses to sign legislation on Christmas Eve, so Thursday evening, after that legislation was flown down from Washington, down here to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. Only for the president to ultimately scrap those plans and decide not to sign the legislation. So again, there are a lot of questions here. But one thing is clear,

Dana, whether the president signs this legislation tonight or not, you will already have seen the financial impact on at least 12 million Americans. That is because more than 12 million Americans lost those supplemental unemployment benefits provided by the federal government last night after the president failed to sign this legislation yesterday.

So the president, as he delays this here and seems to be treating this like a reality TV show, you are already seeing the impact on tens of millions of Americans and so we will have to see whether the president draws this out further or if he decides to finally end this tonight.

BASH: Yes, and given the reporting that you just talked to about from our colleagues Kate Bennett and Kevin Liptak, who knows considering the fact that there was a plan in place to do this on Christmas Eve as you said. And you're right. I mean, he has been so capricious about this, even fickle about something that is so vital to so many -- to millions and millions of Americans who are really suffering now.

Americans who are his -- who he's in charge of. I mean, he is the president of the United States still for 20-plus days. And his own team led by his Treasury secretary was intimately involved in negotiating this bipartisan deal.

DIAMOND: Yes, and we've seen the president take to Twitter in recent days to insist that all he's trying to do here is simply get those stimulus checks increased from $600 to $2,000 per American under a certain income level. But if that was really the president's goal, then he would have done that before this legislation was passed by Congress, by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in both Houses of Congress and with the blessing of his own administration through his Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, who was supposedly negotiating on the president's behalf.

But ultimately what we know, Dana, is that the president in the weeks and months leading up to that legislation being passed by Congress throughout all of the arduous negotiations between Republicans and Democrats and this White House, the president was on the sidelines. He was focused in the weeks after the election on trying to overturn the results of that election and in the weeks before the election he was focused on campaigning and trying to win another four years in office.

And so it really boggles the mind to see the president now jump in and try and make changes to this legislation and you heard several Republicans today, Senator Pat Toomey of the state of Pennsylvania, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, both of them jumping in to say the president should have said this before this legislation was passed, and expressing a lot of concern about the chaos that the president is sowing here not only in Washington, but again as we've been talking about and to bring this point home, for the tens of millions of Americans, not only those who are on unemployment benefits, but also those businesses who are hoping to get those additional PPE funds released.

[19:05:03] And then of course there's this issue of vaccine distribution. As we are seeing this vaccine being rolled out, there are billions of dollars in funding to help that process run more smoothly in this coronavirus relief legislation that the president has delayed signing now for five days.

BASH: So much in this. I've got a list of things and it goes on and on, in this $900 billion stimulus bill which of course is also attached to -- you know, keeping the government running which is a whole another conversation which the president has conflated a bit in his tweets.

All right, Jeremy, I know you're going to stay close. Tell us -- raise your hand when you have any news on what the president is or isn't going to do. Thanks for that reporting.

DIAMOND: You got it.

BASH: And joining me now is Oklahoma Republican Congressman Markwayne Mullin.

Congressman, thank you so much for taking the time on this holiday weekend to come on. First, you know, you're a member of Congress. I know you voted no on this. We're going to get to the reason in a second. But what are you hearing about what the president may or may not do?

REP. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): Well, we haven't heard a whole lot about it. We do expect the $2,000 that he's wanting per individual to go through. That was kind of really his only demand that he wanted on the stimulus money. I don't think there's a whole lot of push back.

The question was, how was we going to pay for that and that is still a question that needs to be answered. But I -- and my understanding is if he gets to $2,000 per person, which he said that before, this isn't the first time he said that, he said that before, that he's willing to sign the stimulus package at that time.

BASH: I'm sorry, so you think that somehow somebody promised that he would get this $2,000, and just for people who might be just tuning in --

MULLIN: No --

BASH: Just a little background, what is in this bill is $600 check for individuals. And what the president said after he already got the bill is that it should be $2,000 per individual. Are you telling me that he got assurance maybe from leadership in the Republican House or the Senate?

MULLIN: No, I don't know that for sure. Dana, I don't know that for sure.

BASH: OK.

MULLIN: I can just tell you the president is very clear that that's what he's wanted.

BASH: OK.

MULLIN: And as you know and as I know, the president doesn't back down or away from his words. And so if that's what he said he wanted in it, he's got good news, I would make the assumption that that's what he's received, that he's been told that the Senate will allow that to go through. The House will be able to pass it.

The Senate there's been questions if they would be able to pass that or not. And the question still comes down to, I believe, possibly how it was going to be funded or paid for or which area it was going to be taken from.

So I think that's probably what it is. But, Dana, I was making phone calls as we came out trying to figure out what it was and so far I haven't been able to get ahold of anybody.

BASH: Well, thank you for trying to do that. You mentioned the fact that it was the Senate and still apparently as far as we know, still is the Senate. It's not just the Senate. I mean, Democrats in the Senate for the most part are OK with the $2,000 check that the president is now calling for.

It was the president's fellow Republicans for months who were pushing back on this, your colleagues in the United States Senate mostly. Some in the House too, but particularly in the Senate.

What makes you -- well, let me just ask you this. You personally, you are a Republican lawmaker. Are you OK with what the president is now asking for?

MULLIN: Well, as I said before, Dana, it wasn't the first time the president said he wanted to spend more money. If we're going to fund all these foreign governments, he made it very clear that we need to take care of America first. He said that in his first campaign. That has always been his style of managing and he made that clear walking into this. How it got crossed during negotiations, I really don't know. Nancy Pelosi kind of held all those cards close to her during the negotiations --

BASH: Well, Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Republican leaders were involved, too.

MULLIN: Right.

BASH: But go ahead.

MULLIN: Well, to some degree. It mainly was taken care of with Nancy Pelosi because she kept it very close to her chest. However --

BASH: Well, she doesn't negotiate with herself. But go ahead.

MULLIN: Well, for a lot of the part she does. And I just tell you that because all of us are frustrated as lawmakers because of the process. But however the president made it clear that he wants $2,000. And I commend him for that. Once again, putting America first. That's where his mind has been for the last four years and that's where he's still at today.

BASH: So you voted against this very large relief bill. It's more than 5,000 pages because you said that you only had a few hours to read it and you didn't have time so you voted no. Have you read it since then?

MULLIN: We went through it to some degree. 5,993 pages -- 5,593 pages, it takes a while to go through that. Keep in mind, Dana, this is the second largest bill in U.S. history and in the top five most expensive. So we have spent some time going through it just because we want to know what was actually in this bill. And, you know, when we find more and more stuff, there's still stuff that so bothers me inside this and that shouldn't be there.

[19:10:08]

But I can tell you one thing is for sure, if we can spend all this money in foreign aid, if we can spend all this money in funding like the Kennedy Center which is -- which is closed. I mean, $23 million which -- I'm not arguing about the Kennedy Center. I think they play a pivotal role. But $23 million and we can't do $2,000 to U.S. citizens? There's a problem there. And so the 5,593 pages, the process was broke. That process should include all members, not just held in the speaker's office.

BASH: Yes, well, and I'm sure you know, you're not the first rank-and- file member to be upset about not being able to read a giant bill. This has happened -- I've covered Congress for a lot of years and I've heard that from both sides of the aisle many times. But now that you have --

MULLIN: It's (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: And I get it. And I get. Now that you have had time to go through it, do you think -- had you had the time, would you have voted yes?

MULLIN: No. I still wouldn't have voted for the bill. Even if we would have had an accurate time. And it's not that I haven't voted for bills -- spending bills, I have. I voted for a lot of spending bills. But this just isn't the type of money we need to be spending during a pandemic. We really do need to focus more on America first. And these 5,593 pages, it really didn't do that. If we're going to fund all of these agencies, we need to fund them in a way that makes sure that we're taking care of what's most important and that's our communities.

BASH: And what do you say to people in your community who hear you say, no, I wouldn't have supported it, I didn't support it, but I don't support it on the substance of it, who say, wait a minute, you know, it's not everything I want, but it is $600 and that's not nothing.

It could help me pay rent or the provision in here that says that I won't be evicted, and if I can't pay my rent or the provision in here that says that I'll get, you know, more unemployment benefits or that my state will get money to make sure that I can get a vaccine? How do you explain to your constituents that you said, no, I'm not voting for that?

MULLIN: Well, Dana, Oklahoma has been open for business. Not like California or Massachusetts. We've been open and so our -- my constituents are at work. And we have been working. And our businesses are open. And we are doing what we need to do to make sure we take care of our communities. And so my constituents spoke very clear after the vote, they're glad I didn't vote for this. They think we can do better. They think we need to be more responsible for our spending.

Just think about this, Dana. Every taxpayer out there just added $6200 on the debt they already owe the United States government because the money we continue to borrow if this bill goes into law. That's significant money. If we're going to pay it or somebody is going to pay it, but the debt just doesn't go away.

The debt has to be paid back at some point. And we got to become responsible for the dollars that we're spending because my constituents are hard-working taxpayers and they expect us to do what's right in Washington, D.C., and spend the money correctly.

BASH: I also have to ask about another bit of drama that's going on and that is the --

MULLIN: (INAUDIBLE)

BASH: Yes, I know. The National Defense Authorization Act. It's the Defense bill.

MULLIN: Right.

BASH: This is a bill that passed with huge bipartisan support. You voted for it. It has passed for 59 years in that way. The money in it raises wages for troops and it gives -- modernizes equipment, it sets defense policy and many, many other things. The president vetoed this bill. There will be a vote this week, I believe tomorrow, to override the president's veto. Will you vote yes on the override?

MULLIN: I will not be voting to override the president's veto. Now Chairman Inhofe who is obviously the chairman of the Senate Armed Services, a great friend of mine, a mentor, almost like a grandfather to me, did a great job negotiating the bill. At the end of the day I voted for it on the floor, but President Trump is our commander-in- chief and he has built one of the biggest and strongest military we've seen in recent history and he has his reasons to veto it. And if he's vetoed it, I will not vote to override his veto.

BASH: But, Congressman, the reasons that he has given are largely twofold. One is because of the renaming of some Confederate -- bases that are named after Confederate leaders and, two, much bigger, something that is not even related to this which has to do with social media companies, what's known as Section 230.

MULLIN: 230, right. BASH: So why -- so why do you put those frankly ancillary issues over

funding the troops in harm's way, giving them pay raises and all the other things that this bill does that you obviously like because you voted for it in the first place.

[19:15:10]

I mean, that's -- you exist as a check and balance against the president. Just because he vetoes it doesn't necessarily mean constitutionally that you have to go with him. Why did you make that decision?

MULLIN: Well, at the end of the day he is our commander-in-chief. Not just the president but he's the commander-in-chief. And he has done right by the military since he's been in office. And I trust he will continue to do right. He has his reasons.

And as commander-in-chief, I'm going to support that. As I said before, he has rebuilt the military and to the strongest it's been in years. And if he's able to do that, then I'm going to follow him all the way to the end. And if he's going to veto the NDAA, then I'll support his veto.

BASH: Are you worried about getting blowback from your constituents who are, I'm sure, largely Trump supporters if you do that? Is that part of the reason?

MULLIN: Keep in mind, Oklahoma went overwhelming for President Trump.

BASH: Exactly.

MULLIN: And they like his style and so do I.

BASH: So you're worried about blowback from your constituents?

MULLIN: No, absolutely not. Not from my constituents at all. They like his management style and I agree with them. And like I said, he loves the military. I love the military. But he has his reasons to veto it and I'll support that.

BASH: Congressman Markwayne Mullin, thank you so much for joining me. Again, a lot to talk about. Thank you.

MULLIN: Well, Dana, thanks for having me on. I look forward to seeing you next time.

BASH: Thank you, Congressman.

And investigators in Nashville are now saying they know who blew up the RV there Christmas morning but there are still so many questions needing answers like what's the motive. The latest on that investigation and a live report from Nashville coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: CNN breaking news right now, this from Nashville, city and federal officials, a short time ago, positively identified the person they believe triggered that massive destructive explosion on Christmas morning.

[19:20:09]

I want to get straight to Shimon Prokupecz who is in Nashville right now.

So, Shimon, police have the name of this bomber. How confident are they that this is the person responsible?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're 100 percent confident in terms of how quickly they worked here. It's like a real-life "24" here. You know, that TV show where things get solved in 24 hours. I mean, really, when you think about how remarkable what the FBI did here with the local authorities, what the ATF was able to do, the Nashville Police Department, everyone working together to really find the person responsible for this and probably less than 24 hours.

What they did here was when they got to the scene and they started looking for evidence, they found the vehicle identification number and through that, despite how massive this explosion was, they were still able to recover this piece of I.D. on the RV that they then linked to this bomber and then from there they got tips about the RV and they really worked quickly. They then got a DNA sample from a family member.

They flew everything to Quantico, Virginia, where the FBI got the DNA matches. And that is all quickly. That happened late last night. They were able to get that DNA match and today identifying the man as Anthony Quinn Warner. He's 63 years old.

Dana, you had teased this about the motive. That is still a really big question here. And it could be that we may never learn the exact motivation here for why this happened. Authorities are still trying to figure out. There was a lot going on in this man's life and they're using that information to try and perhaps piece together what happened. But in terms of a clear-cut motive, there's been a lot of speculation all over the place.

The FBI right now says they don't have it. They don't have that clear motive and they're not about to start speculating.

BASH: Which is completely understandable, Shimon. And it is really interesting that despite all of the tools that people have and that law enforcement has, there are some cases where they just can't figure out what the motive is. So we'll see if this will be that or they will have a much more clear sense as they dig into this.

Shimon, thank you so much for that reporting as always.

And medical experts fear another surge may be on the way. Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's more like a surge upon a surge. My interview with him is next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:26:08]

BASH: About 9 1/2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have so far been shipped across the United States with close to two million doses already in the arms of those -- some of those who need it most. This morning I talked to Dr. Anthony Fauci about the experience he had being vaccinated and his predictions for the pandemic in the coming months.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Dr. Fauci, first you had a big birthday on Christmas Eve. Happy birthday to you.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Thank you, Dana. Appreciate it. Yes. Thank you.

BASH: So I want to ask about the vaccine that you received. You received the first dose in the past week. You did it in public along with other health officials. I know you said you were feeling find initially. At this point, is that still the case or have you had any side effects?

FAUCI: No, absolutely. The only thing I had was about maybe six to 10 hours following the vaccine, I felt a little bit of an ache in my arm. That lasted maybe 24 hours, a little bit more. Then it went away and completely, other than that, I felt no other deleterious type of effects. It was really quite good. It was even as good or better than an influenza vaccine. So nothing serious at all. Perhaps when I get the boost I might feel a little aching because the immune system will be revving up even more but I'll be getting that in about three weeks.

BASH: Now I want to ask you about something that President-elect Biden said last week. He said the darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us.

Dr. Fauci, as you know, over 100,000 of our fellow Americans spent their holiday hospitalized with COVID-19 and we're averaging nearly 200,000 new cases, more than 2,000 deaths each day. Do you agree that the worst is still yet to come?

FAUCI: You know, I do, Dana, and the reason I'm concerned and my colleagues in public health are concerned also is that we very well might see a post-seasonal, in the sense of Christmas, New Year's surge, and as I've described it, as a surge upon a surge because if you look at the slope, the incline of cases that we've experienced as we've gone into the late fall and soon to be early winter, it is really quite troubling.

You mentioned the numbers yourself quite correctly when you're dealing with a baseline of 200,000 cases -- new cases a day and about 2,000 deaths per day with the hospitalizations over 120,000. We're really at a very critical point. If you put more pressure on the system by what might be a post-seasonal surge because of the traveling and the likely congregating of people for, you know, the good, warm purposes of being together for the holidays, it's very tough for people to not do that.

And yet, even though we advise not to, it's going to happen. So I share the concern of President-elect Biden that as we get into the next few weeks, it might actually get worse.

BASH: Well, I want to ask you about travel. According to AAA, as many as 85 million Americans were expected to travel over this holiday. More than 1.1 million people were screened at airports yesterday. So what should we expect in terms of a post-Christmas COVID surge when you look at those numbers?

FAUCI: Well, again, there's no guarantee it will happen, but there certainly is a danger of that. When you travel, you see pictures on the TV screens, Dana, of people at airports crowded in lines, trying to stay physically separated but it's so difficult to do that. And that generally is followed when people get to the destination they want to be, that you're going to have mixing of household people at a dinner or at a social function.

[19:30:03]

Those are the things that naturally happen. And as much as we advise against that, nonetheless, it happens, and that's one of the reasons why we're concerned about that being a real risk situation for the spread of infection.

BASH: Let's talk about some of the solutions in terms of coronavirus. You acknowledged to "The New York Times" that you've moved the goalposts in terms of what it would take to reach so-called herd immunity in the United States.

Here's what you said. You said, "When poll said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent. Then when newer survey said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought I can nudge this up a bit, so I went to 80 to 85." And then you go on to say that it may be as high as 90 percent.

So my question is, why weren't you straight with the American people about this to begin with?

FAUCI: No, actually, Dana, I don't think it can be interpreted as being straight or not. We have to realize that we have to be humble and realize what we don't know. These are pure estimates and the calculations that I made 70 to 75 percent, it is a range. The range is going to be somewhere between 70 and 85 percent.

The reason I first started saying 70 to 75, I brought it up to 85. That's not a big leap to go from 75 to 85. It was really based on calculations and pure extrapolations from measles. Measles is about 98 percent effective vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine is about 94 to 95 percent.

When you get below 90 percent of the population vaccinated with measles, you start seeing a breakthrough against the herd immunity. People starting to get infected like we saw in the upper New York State and in New York City with the Orthodox Jewish group when we had measles outbreak.

So I made a calculation that COVID-19 -- SARS-CoV2 is not as nearly as transmissible as measles. Measles is the most transmissible infection you can imagine.

So I would imagine that you would need something a little bit less than the 90 percent. That's where I got to the 85. But I think we all have to be honest and humble, nobody really knows for sure. But I think 70 to 85 percent for herd immunity for COVID-19 is a reasonable estimate. And in fact, most of my epidemiology colleagues agree with me.

BASH: Yes, of course. Nothing is exact. I guess, my question was about polling. It seemed in that quote, to suggest that you were basing your recommendation on polling and what people could accept. Is that not what you meant?

FAUCI: No, it mean, it's a bit of that. I want to encourage the people of the United States and globally to get vaccinated because as many as we possibly get vaccinated, we will get closer to herd immunity.

So the bottom line is, it's a guesstimate. I gave a range. And I use any discussion like we're having now, Dana, to encourage people to get to that goal of 70 to 85 percent of the people vaccinated. That's what we really want to be.

BASH: Okay, and just to put the button on it, no sugarcoating. You're saying 75 to 80 percent is the goal. In your view, as of now, based on what you know, when it comes to herd immunity, not 90 percent?

FAUCI: Right. Right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: We're going to have much more with Dr. Anthony Fauci in the next hour, including what he thinks of that COVID-19 variant discovered in the U.K. and also elsewhere.

And when we come back, our panel of experts is standing by: Dr. Celine Gounder and Dr. Ashish Jha will join me to talk about what Dr. Fauci just said and much more. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: As the U.S. passes the 19 million mark in confirmed cases of the coronavirus, many Americans seem to be brushing off pleas to curb travel.

Just yesterday, more than one million people passed through U.S. airports. Dr. Ashish Jha is with me now. He is Dean at the Brown University School of Public Health. Also with me, Dr. Celine Gounder, who is on the Coronavirus Advisory Board for President-elect Joe Biden. Dr. Gounder, I'll start with you. You heard Anthony Fauci before the

break talk about the post-Holiday period, calling it a surge upon a surge. What is your take on that, particularly given the fact that you are advising Joe Biden and that could really spike at the time of his inauguration?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, MEMBER, CORONAVIRUS ADVISORY BOARD FOR PRESIDENT- ELECT JOE BIDEN: Dana, we are really, really concerned. We already had a surge even before going into the Thanksgiving Holiday, and then with all of the travel and people seeing family and friends over Thanksgiving, we saw a big increase in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.

And now we're seeing the same kind of traveling, in fact, even more traveling around the Christmas and New Year's Holidays than we did over Thanksgiving. And this is really concerning to those of us, including myself who are still serving on the frontlines taking care of patients where we see hospital beds, full ICUs, full doctors and nurses exhausted and some even throwing up their hands and quitting in the face of this. So we're very concerned.

BASH: Understandable, and Dr. Jha, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could get approval in the U.K. within days according to British media. On Twitter, you repeatedly are saying, okay, it sounds promising, but there's not enough data. What data do you want to see?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Yes, so Dana, first of all, thanks for having me on, you know, we're all excited about more vaccines and the AstraZeneca vaccine would be a very, very important contribution if it were to be approved by the U.K. and ultimately, by the F.D.A.

The problem is that -- there are two problems, and the first, they've been really kind of confusing in their own messaging about what data they have. The CEO basically said, there's new data that shows that it's as effective as Moderna and Pfizer. And my take is, that's great. They should make that data publicly available so that people can examine it.

And if it turns out that indeed it is as effective or even closer to, then that would be fabulous. We would need that extra vaccine. The world needs the extra vaccine. But instead of just a line in a news report, I'd actually like to see that data.

BASH: Yes. And if that vaccine comes or it doesn't, the goal is for what's known as herd immunity. And Dr. Gounder, I know you actually received the first dose of the vaccine, you heard Dr. Fauci tell me that he clarified that he estimates 70 to 85 percent of the population needs to get vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.

What is your estimate on how long that could take given where we are with just the two vaccines at this point approved and out there?

GOUNDER: Well, Dana, we have 330 million Americans in this country. And both of the vaccines that we currently have available to us require two doses. So that means 660 million doses. In the first week, when these vaccines were being rolled out, we

accomplished basically about a million doses. And what the President- elect is aiming for is a million doses a day. But if you do the simple math, 660 million divided by one million, that's 660 days. So it is going to take a while to get everybody in this country vaccinated even at the pace at a much faster pace the President-elect is hoping for, and so we really do need to double down.

As Dr. Jha said, additional vaccines would certainly help our cause here and bottom line, everybody really needs to be trying to get vaccinated when it's their turn. It really is an American citizen's duty to help with achieving this herd immunity level.

BASH: And Dr. Jha, right now, there are about 20 million Americans -- sorry, Operation Warp Speed's goal is to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of the year. Dr. Fauci said that he still thinks that that this country is on track, to have a good portion done by the end of the spring. Do you agree with that timeline?

JHA: Well, I agree with Dr. Fauci on the end of the spring timeline. I think Operation Warp Speed has always had a very ambitious agenda. We started seeing some of those numbers slip. Obviously, we're not going to get 20 million Americans vaccinated by the end of the year, which is only a few days away.

But now, the new target is maybe 20 million vaccine doses shipped by the first or second week of January.

Look, this is all difficult. I'm sympathetic to how hard this is. I think we should set realistic targets and then I think we should try our best to meet them.

Slipping by a few days is not a big deal, but we really do have to get these vaccines into people's arms relatively soon. A lot of people are waiting for them.

BASH: They sure are and I guess if you're called Operation Warp Speed, you kind of by definition, have to have an ambitious agenda. Thank you so much to both of you. Happy Holidays. Appreciate you coming on particularly on this Holiday weekend.

JHA: Thank you.

BASH: And we are following breaking news out of Mar-a-Lago. CNN is learning that President Trump was going to sign the Coronavirus Relief Bill on Christmas Eve during a ceremony only to scrap that plan at the last minute. More on that and what might be happening right now.

We'll see at Mar-a-Lago. Stay tuned. You're live in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:56]

BASH: With the COVID-19 Stimulus Bill in limbo for the past several days, many people have been left wondering what is going to happen. This bill provides small business support that people are looking to, hoping that it will help them keep their small businesses alive; jobless benefits, relief checks for millions of Americans.

If the President goes ahead and doesn't sign it, it raises the question of the prospect of a government shutdown. And so the question now is what is going to happen with this President? And more importantly, what is the big picture for the notion of the political fallout from what has happened and what could still happen in the next 25 or so days that he is still in office?

I want to bring in CNN Politics Reporter and Editor-at-Large, Chris Cillizza who is joining me now. Chris, nice to see you. I haven't seen you since Christmas. Merry Christmas.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Hey, Dana. I know. Merry Christmas. Thank you for having me.

BASH: All right. So let's just go back to some news that our White House team broke earlier this evening, Kate Bennett and Kevin Liptak, and that is we're waiting to see what happens tonight, if anything does. But regardless, their reporting is that on Christmas Eve, the President was ready to sign this stimulus and funding bill. And there was a signing ceremony ready, he backed out at the last minute. What does that tell you?

CILLIZZA: That the strategy and let me say strategy, putting in air quotes because I just don't think there is much one, but to the extent there is a strategy, it's just Donald Trump's whims at this point, Dana.

I honestly think that was true for the last four years. It's even more true now. Even if he won't admit that he lost, we know he lost. He at some level knows he lost.

So, he just kind of does things. I think context matters here.

This President was effectively absent by his own volition, absent from the negotiations over a COVID -- the second COVID Stimulus Bill, over avoiding government shutdown, which wound up as you pointed out, getting sort of smashed together. He was absent from this.

He deputized Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary to handle it, and he tweeted about the election, played golf and he did other things, but he wasn't involved. So at the last minute after a deal has not only been negotiated, but voted on by the House and Senate and approved to then say, actually, we need $2,000.00, not $600.00 for each of these checks, and we need to get rid of the pork.

Yes, you can't do that sort of thing if you are acting in the best interest of, as you point out, Dana, a country that badly needs this money amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

BASH: And you wrote this week about the fact that this is always how the Trump presidency was going to end. I mean, there was no question about it. CILLIZZA: It is presidency built on a cult of personality. There's no

belief system that undergirds why Donald Trump does what Donald Trump does. He does things that -- he likes to do things that are good for him, and he doesn't like to do things that he deems to be not good for him.

So at the end of his term, he thinks, well, if we could get $2,000.00, rather than $600.00 with my name on the checks, that would be good for me if I want to run again in 2024.

Unfortunately, he skipped the whole part of the negotiation where the Democratic House and the Republican Senate came together after months and found some sort of compromise that will, to your point, unemployment insurance, small business help, not to mention that if nothing is signed by Tuesday, the Federal government will close.

Whether or not he signs something, Dana, I think it's important to remember this is a fundamentally selfish act. This was negotiated and agreed upon, and at the last minute, he decided on a whim he didn't want to do this.

So we should not celebrate him, if he does decide to sign this. He is simply doing what was expected of him days ago.

BASH: That's right and put a lot of people through a lot of angst. You know, politically his own fellow Republicans who crafted this but more importantly, people out there who are very much suffering and may not be happy with the $600.00 check, may agree with the President that $2,000.00 would be a whole lot nicer. But, you know, that's the art of compromise and I think in Washington --

CILLIZZA: But you know, just add, Dana, I just want to add, I think the important thing is, and you know, this better than anyone, it's not a choice between six hundred and two thousand. It is a choice between 600 and nothing.

BASH: Exactly.

CILLIZZA: Because $2,000.00 is not going to happen, right? I mean, of course, we would all love for people in need to get more, but the reality is this deal was negotiated extremely delicately. So it's not as though if he doesn't sign it, it is $2,000.00. No, it's $600.00 or nothing.

BASH: Yes, I mean, I talked to a Republican Congressman earlier who thinks that there might be a way to magically get legislation through that could get those $2,000.00 checks through, they'd have to convince a whole lot of Republicans.

CILLIZZA: Yes.

BASH: Who were very resistant for a very long time. Democrats are on board. They're saying, you know, do it tomorrow.

All right. We're going to have to leave it there. Chris Cillizza, great to see you. Happy New Year. Love to the family. CILLIZZA: Thank you, Dana. You, too. Thank you.

BASH: And live pictures right now of Capitol Hill. What is the fate of the bill that I was just talking about with Chris? We're going to go live to Mar-a-Lago for the latest from our correspondent there, Jeremy Diamond after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:55:24]

BASH: In 2020, we witnessed world changing, paradigm shifting events from the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis to social justice movement to a historic presidential election.

CNN's Christine Romans explores an unprecedented year in business.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: 2020, a year like no other for business. The pandemic touched every part of the economy altering the way Americans live, work and shop.

Historic job losses prompted unprecedented stimulus, but as benefits dwindled, Americans suffered. And while a few companies thrived, some may never recover.

ROMANS (voice over): This year, the pandemic triggered the worst job loss in U.S. history. Twenty-two million jobs vanished in just two months, wiping out a decade of gains.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The largest single month of job losses since the Great Depression.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The worst jobs report in American history.

ROMANS (voice over): Nearly every sector shed workers during the spring lockdowns. The U.S. still hasn't recovered all those jobs and hiring is now slowing again.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you all.

ROMANS (voice over): Historic losses prompt a historic response.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The motion is adopted.

ROMANS (voice over): The government passing an unheard of $2 trillion relief package back in March.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This is the largest aid package in history.

ROMANS (voice over): The government enhanced unemployment benefits funded stimulus checks for families and loans for hard hit industries. But there was a catch: all measures had expiration dates.

Small businesses said PPP loans ran out fast if they managed to secure one at all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first round sent tens of millions of dollars to bigger publicly traded companies like Potbelly, Ruth's Chris and Shake Shack.

ROMANS (on camera): All three later returned the money. As unemployment aid expired, Americans lined up at food banks in record numbers.

They used to feed about 50,000 families a month. Now it's over 100,000 a month.

ROMANS (voice over): And eviction moratoriums without rent forgiveness became a ticking time bomb.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Evictions are about to skyrocket.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two hundred eviction orders have come through the Harris County Courts for this week.

ROMANS (voice over): Experts warned for months that more stimulus was needed, but congressional gridlock kept a new deal in limbo. Meanwhile, that economic pain stalled growth.

CUOMO: The second quarter was the worst quarter in terms of GDP action in America's history.

ROMANS (voice over): And even with a record summer bounce back --

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: We are still not back to levels that we were at before the COVID crisis hit.

ROMANS (voice over): The pandemic essentially froze the economy. Americans largely stopped eating in restaurants, attending movies and live events and traveling leading to some big losses.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two airlines, American and United announced that they are laying off a combined 32,000 employees.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Marriott says that the financial impact of this pandemic is worse than 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis combined.

ROMANS (voice over): Homebound Americans fueled an online shopping spree helping behemoths like Amazon while devastating brick and mortar.

SCIUTTO: J. Crew becomes the first major retailer to file for bankruptcy protections as a result of the outbreaks.

ROMANS (voice over): Lord & Taylor, the nation's first department store filed for Chapter 11.

As the country lived, worked and attended school online, sales exploded for companies like Zoom, Peloton and Nintendo and a new breed of essential worker -- UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As million stay home, millions are out risking

exposure to the virus on the front lines.

ROMANS (voice over): Delivery employees helped keep the economy afloat in 2020.

Amid the pandemic, the death of George Floyd in police custody in May sparked protests over racial justice, and a racial reckoning for Corporate America.

Companies pledged to address diversity in their hiring, and some recognized the Juneteenth Holiday. Major retailers promised to better support black businesses, while others retired problematic logos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Aunt Jemima brand will retire the image acknowledging its racist past.

ROMANS (on camera): Minority and low-wage workers also bore the brunt of job and income loss this year. Meanwhile, the stock market thrived.

There was a big plunge in March.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Trading has stopped because we've seen a drop of seven percent.

ROMANS (voice over): Ending in a bear market, but stocks rebounded quickly to record highs buoyed by government stimulus, explosive rallies and stay-at-home stocks and Big Tech and the Federal Reserve.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: The Feds bought up trillions of dollars in securities pumping new money into the economy.

ROMANS (voice over): This is the historic disconnect of 2020. The so- called K-shaped recovery. Main Street suffers, but Wall Street gains by betting on the future that vaccines and more stimulus will trigger a rebound.

Can the economy turnaround in 2021 after a year of historic losses? Next year can only be better, but it may be a dark winter before we get there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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