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Trump Has Signed COVID Relief Bill; Interview with Representative Adam Smith (D-WA) about Trump Signing the COVID Relief Bill; Interview with Representative Tom Reed (R-NY) and Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) about Trump Signing COVID-19 Relief Bill; Nashville Police Release Video of Christmas Day Explosion. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired December 27, 2020 - 20:00   ET

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


[20:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Ending in a bear market. But stocks rebounded quickly to record highs, buoyed by government stimulus, explosive rallies in stay-at-home stocks and big tech, and the Federal Reserve.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Feds bought up trillions of dollars in securities, pumping new money into the economy.

ROMANS: 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 turn around 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)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Dana Bash in Washington. The breaking news this Sunday night, President Trump is suddenly hinting that after days of slamming the $900 billion coronavirus relief package, he could be ready to sign it. This is an announcement that could come at any minute.

The bill could restore benefits, which ran out overnight for millions of Americans who have lost their jobs and so much more in this pandemic, along with providing direct payments to Americans and giving states aid to help with vaccinations to start to get on the exit ramp for this pandemic.

I want to get straight to CNN's Jeremy Diamond who is traveling with the president. He is in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Jeremy, what are you hearing now? JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, we have

that cryptic tweet from the president where he took to Twitter saying, "Good news on COVID relief bill. Information to come." And now we are waiting for official word as to whether or not the president has signed this legislation or intends to sign it this evening.

We do know that the president left his Mar-a-Lago golf club and that he went to dinner at his -- forgive me, he left his Mar-a-Lago resort and is now at his golf club where he is having dinner. Whether the president has actually signed that legislation is something that we are trying to confirm right now which is why I'm looking down at my phone here. But all indications are that the president either has or appears that he will sign this legislation this evening.

The question, Dana, once we find out will be whether or not -- whether or not the president actually got anything out of this. You know, it was five days ago that the president appeared to signal that he might even veto this legislation because he was complaining about a series of provisions in the spending bill that is attached to this coronavirus relief bill, provisions that of course were actually in his budget request to Congress.

And then also this issue of the stimulus checks, $600 to $2,000 is what the president was demanding. Of course that legislation was not amended. House Democrats actually tried to bring a unanimous consent request to the floor of the House. But it was not approved. And so now the question is whether the president was able to secure perhaps some other agreement with congressional leadership, like the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

And Dana, I am now just getting word that the president has indeed signed this legislation. So five days after making this threat, President Trump has signed this massive spending bill, which includes $900 billion of coronavirus relief. But of course, we should note, Dana, that this only happened after the president allowed those unemployment benefits for more than an estimated 12 million Americans to lapse at midnight last night.

So while the president is signing this legislation, it is not without some pain for millions of Americans that has already occurred. But at the same time, perhaps millions of Americans can also begin to breathe a sigh of relief this evening knowing that some help at least will be on the way.

BASH: Yes, and, Jeremy, I was just going to take it back from you to let you look down at your phone. I have been there before. I know what it's like to try to get news from sources while you're talking on TV. It's not easy. If anybody can do it, you can. I know.

But this is big news. And it shouldn't be big news. It shouldn't be big news because this should have been signed the moment that the president got this legislation. And it's because his team was involved. His Treasury secretary was a major negotiator in this bipartisan deal. Was it what the president wanted? No. Was it what Democrats wanted? No. Was it what his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill wanted? No. That's why it's called compromise. It's not called I get everything I

want. I mean, it's the art of legislating. And the fact is that what the president has been saying for the past several days on Twitter, that there needs to be a higher amount when it comes to the direct payment, what he just signed, what is now the law of the land, people will start to get -- who qualify -- $600 checks for individuals.

[20:05:04]

He wanted it to be $2,000. Democrats wanted that all along. They were ready to try to call his bluff. What we don't know -- and as you mentioned -- is whether or not, somehow behind the scenes, he was able to convince his fellow Republicans. They were the ones pushing back on that $2,000 payment. Whether he somehow convinced them to go along with it in some way, shape or form this coming week, we don't know the answer to that right now.

DIAMOND: Yes. And if he did secure that kind of a commitment, at most it would probably be a commitment from the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to actually bring that legislation that House Democrats are planning to introduce in the House chamber to allow that legislation to come to the floor in the Senate.

I would be highly skeptical and I'm sure you doubt it as well that the president at this hour would have secured a commitment to actually have that legislation pass with 60 votes in the Senate. That is something that perhaps he will still need to work on. But either way, I mean, the president may characterize that as a win even if he did secure that commitment. But he could have had this win perhaps before this actually passed in Congress.

And it is now coming at the cost of financial insecurity for millions of Americans at a time of deep financial uncertainty and in the middle of the holiday season. I mean, it is just remarkable. We have more than 20 million Americans right now in this country who are unemployed, you know, people who have children, people whose children are hoping for Christmas gifts, for Hanukkah gifts, for whatever it may be.

And perhaps they weren't able to provide that for their children because of the fact that they weren't sure what kind of money was going to be coming in, whether it was the $600 stimulus check. That was money that some Americans were counting on to be coming this coming week. Now, even though the president has signed this legislation, it is going to mean a delay in those checks actually going out as well as those unemployment benefits, which, you know, you have to deal with these different state systems, state by state, it's all different.

And some of these states have very archaic systems. And it may take days as much as a week maybe for those unemployment checks to actually begin to go out. So again, even if the president characterizes this as a win tonight, if he was able to secure some kind of deal on those stimulus checks, it came at a pretty severe cost, Dana. And I think that's something to note tonight.

BASH: Absolutely. All right, Jeremy, I'm going to let you go. Do some more reporting. We'll get back to you I'm sure shortly.

I want to bring in now Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington. He chairs the House Armed Services Committee.

Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for joining me. We have a lot to talk about. Let's start with the big news that the president signed the bill that his team helped negotiate along with his colleagues in -- Republican colleagues -- I should say, fellow Republicans, not necessarily colleagues, in Congress and also Democrats. Your reaction?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): Well, it's great news. I mean, the need, it could not be greater in the country right now, as you have documented throughout your -- CNN's coverage today. I mean, people are desperate. The economy is in terrible shape. This bill is one way to help them. So that the president has decided to do that is good news. I mean, it points up his limitations as a president. He really doesn't pay much attention to the details of the legislation that he is working on, or to the impact it has on people, or he would have signed this in the first place.

Because as you noted, this is the deal that his White House negotiated. So I'm glad he is signing it because it's going to help a lot of people but it does point up the frustration of his approach to the presidency.

BASH: And just to go through some of the -- we've been talking broadly about the bill without, you know, talking about too much detail. It's very long, over -- it's 5,000, close to 6,000 pages. People, individuals will get checks, $600 plus an extra $600 per child. Unemployment benefits. People will get an enhanced benefit for 11 weeks of $300 weekly. It reopens that PPP, the Payment Protection Program.

And it will do other things including give much needed money to the states to help with the vaccination process. I'm guessing this is not what you initially wanted. You supported it.

SMITH: Well, I mean, it's --

BASH: But that's the art of compromise.

SMITH: I wanted more.

BASH: Right.

SMITH: We supported a $3 trillion package back in mid-May, a $2 trillion package at the end of September. The need is great. The public health need as you mentioned with the vaccine, dealing with the virus, the economic impact of people who are facing economic hardship, losing their homes and not being able to pay rent. We've seen the line at food banks.

The need is enormous. And look, we now have a light at the end of the tunnel. And that light is the vaccine. If we can keep the pandemic or get the pandemic under control, through the vaccine, then we can start to rebuild. People need the bridge to that point however. [20:10:04]

The impact on businesses and individuals has been devastating. The bridge is what we in Congress can provide, what, you know, should have provided a long time ago. But the Senate didn't want to do it. The president -- and also the president just bounced all over the place. I mean, the idea that he is living and dying for $2,000 instead of $600 doesn't track with what he has been saying and doing for the last six or eight months. So I'm glad we were able to get there. But the people need more is my position. It's a good start. But it's a lot more we need to do.

BASH: And as you said, Democrats have passed several pieces of legislation that does have more money, the kind of money that the president is asking for, before he signed it, and when the president was tweeting that he wanted those $2,000 checks as opposed to $600, the House speaker said, OK, we're on it. We'll do it. We'll pass it.

SMITH: Yes, we wanted that right from that start.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Do you think that's still --

SMITH: Right.

BASH: Do you think that's still going to happen this week?

SMITH: I think we're going to pass it in the House.

BASH: Yes.

SMITH: Or I assume it will pass. It's not going to be passed in the Senate. But look, an underreported part of the negotiation that's been going on is the real -- one of the big conflicts has between Mitch McConnell and Trump. You know, Trump will say one thing, McConnell says the other. For five or six months they've gone back and forth on this. McConnell was saying we can only do I think it was like a $500 billion package. The president came out and said I think it ought to be $2 trillion. They couldn't get on the same page, which is part of the reason that this package took so long to deliver.

BASH: Right. And as you know, because McConnell's own caucus, his Republican caucus was very much split over how to approach this, whether to approach it at all.

SMITH: Yes.

BASH: There's other very important news, particularly in your wheelhouse. And that has to do with the Defense bill that the president vetoed.

SMITH: Yes.

BASH: And this is a bill that for -- I don't need to tell you. For 59 years has passed with big bipartisan support. SMITH: Yes.

BASH: Do you feel comfortable and confident -- well, let me just tell the viewers, you helped craft this bill so you know what's in it. But so they know it's $740 billion. It includes pay raises for U.S. troops, modernizes equipment and broadly and importantly sets Defense policy.

Do you feel comfortable that the Congress will override the president's veto?

SMITH: I do. I mean, it passed in the House I think 335 yes votes and I think there were 78 no votes. Passed with 84 votes in the Senate. There's an overwhelming bipartisan majority to pass this bill. I'm confident that we will repeat that tomorrow in the House and then the Senate will do it shortly thereafter. And also crucially, the president has really no good reason for vetoing this bill.

I know the intricacies of legislation, you know, are boring by and large to a lot of people. But the president didn't veto the bill because of anything that's in it. He vetoed it because of this whole section 230 social media issue, which isn't in the bill.

BASH: Right.

SMITH: And which also the president didn't even talk about until months after we had passed it in the House and the Senate, and we were just finalizing a deal. So this was a last-minute whim on a very controversial issue totally unrelated to Defense policy. And the president vetoed the Defense bill, hurting our troops, hurting our national security, undermining a series of very important policies just because at the last second he decided he wanted something totally unrelated to the bill.

And I think most members, both Republicans and Democrats, recognize that. And they will vote to override the president. We will get this bill done.

BASH: Most might. But last hour, I talked to a Republican member, Markwayne Mullin, from Oklahoma who voted yes on this and told me now that the president has vetoed it, I'm out. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What's your take on that? And you're not worried that there are enough Markwayne Mullins that this could be in trouble?

SMITH: Right. Look, a couple of things about that. I know Markwayne really well. I work with him. In fact, he was able to get a crucial piece of legislation into the bill last year that we passed. I like him. I respect him. I find what he just said to be sad and pathetic.

We're the legislative branch. OK. You know, if you agree with the president's reason for vetoing the bill, sure. But he is commander-in- chief so he just gets to on a whim and kill the Defense bill? I just -- I mean -- I -- you know, Markwayne knows his constituency better than I do. But that's a terribly defensible position.

I will say, look, if we were in a really tight vote here, yes, that would make me nervous. But, A, we're going to pull over some more Democrats who didn't vote for it the first time, who will vote for it the second time because they don't agree that the executive branch ought to disregard the legislative branch in this way. So we'll pick up some of them.

[20:15:11]

And then fortunately, we don't need that many Republicans to get there. I'm not betting the mortgage here, Dana. But I'm reasonably confident that we'll have enough support to get this done. And I'm 100 percent confident that we should. This is a crucial piece of legislation that Congress should not let President Trump kill on a whim.

BASH: Adam Smith, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, congressman from Washington, thank you so much. Have a Happy New Year. Appreciate it.

SMITH: You as well. Thanks, Dana.

BASH: Thank you.

And again our breaking news tonight. CNN has learned that President Trump signed the coronavirus relief and government spending bill, the same bill that he has been slamming for several days vocally opposing it, at least doing that on Twitter. We're going to have much more on that ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: And back with our breaking news this hour. President Trump has finally signed that $900 plus billion bill that will give relief to many, many Americans suffering from the effects of COVID and also keeps the government running with a spending bill.

Jeremy Diamond is traveling with the president in West Palm Beach, Florida.

So, Jeremy, what's the latest?

DIAMOND: Well, Dana, we now have official word from the White House that President Trump has indeed signed that massive spending bill that includes $900 billion of coronavirus relief, five days after the president called the legislation a disgrace and appeared to threaten to veto that legislation. The president is now explaining in a lengthy statement why he waited five days and ultimately decided to sign this piece of legislation.

And earlier, Dana, we were speculating that the president may have secured a commitment from the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to bring that standalone bill to increase those stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000.

[20:20:07]

That appears to have happened. The president saying in a statement that the Senate will, quote, "start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000." And he also says that the Senate will also consider legislation to repeal Section 230, which is those protections for those big social media companies that the president has been talking about and also investigations into voter fraud.

We don't know whether any of those things will ultimately happen beyond the first one, which seems to be the most substantial and actual tangible one because we know that there is a piece of legislation in the House that could work its way quite easily to the Senate. Whether that actually passes is another matter.

And the president also says that he's going to sign this legislation but sent a message to Congress that he still opposes a number of the funding provisions in that omnibus spending bill, which we know that the president was railing against in that video message that he posted on Twitter last Tuesday.

The problem of course, Dana, is that many of those items, in fact nearly all of them, were actually in the president's budget request to Congress, the annual budget request to Congress that the president submits.

And ultimately, Dana, the president is going to try and sell this as a win. But what the president did here was needlessly deepen millions of Americans into financial uncertainty over the holiday season. The president could have raised this issue of the stimulus checks before Congress passed this. The problem, Dana, is that before Congress passed this, the president was completely checked out from the business of governing this country.

And it was only after this legislation passed that the president decided to finally check in and make this demand for the stimulus bill. And the only result that we have actually seen tangibly, 12 million plus Americans lost their unemployment benefits this weekend because of the president's delay and millions more Americans saw this uncertainty of whether or not they would actually receive that $600 check this coming week -- Dana.

BASH: Yes. And let's be clear, you're right, of course he's trying to spin it as a win. It is a win for the people who are finally going to get the relief that you just talked about. It might not be everything that they want. It might not be everything that either the president or the Democrats want. Politically speaking, just on the raw politics of it, it could have been a win for the president had he come out and said, I -- you know, I know that my Treasury secretary negotiated this and other members of my team, and you know, we're going to take what we can get and it's great for people in America, but he didn't.

He muddied it. He bashed it. He, you know, attacked it for days. And now he is saying that the win is that he is going to get the House to vote on something that is something that he supports. And it's the Democratic-led House, which of course has passed bigger bills that include this $2,000 at least more than $2,000 So I think those reality checks are quite important.

DIAMOND: That's right. And there's still no -- and there is still -- yes, there's still no guarantee, of course, that the Senate will actually pass this bill.

BASH: None.

DIAMOND: Remember, it was because most Republicans were opposed to $2,000 checks that it wasn't included in legislation.

BASH: Exactly.

DIAMOND: And so the idea that -- it's just -- you know, we're living in a very strange world, Dana.

BASH: We have been for quite some time, especially you, my friend. Thank you so much, Jeremy. I appreciate it.

I want to now go to CNN politics reporter and editor at large, Chris Cillizza.

So, Chris, as we were just -- well, first, let me just get your broad reaction to this.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Sure. Well, congratulations. The president did his job five days after he was supposed to. I mean, this is the thing. It's like Jeremy hit on this. This was a deal that was negotiated between Nancy Pelosi in the House, Mitch McConnell in the Senate and the administration, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who had been deputized by the president to be his lead negotiator on this.

So the deal that was produced, presumably all Donald Trump had to do is sign it because it had been produced as with his voice in it in theory. The fact that we just did this whole, to quote my dad, rigmarole, over the last five days, Dana, is sort of pointless theatrics. Yes, I know about the statement and what Donald Trump claims he's going to get.

Look, there's no voter fraud. I mean, the Senate can investigate all they like. There's been no evidence of it. There's never been any evidence of widespread voter fraud in any study that has ever been conducted. So all the -- if we get down to what matters, right, the meat here, the meat is that he signed something that he could have signed five days ago that his administration had a large role in negotiating.

BASH: Yes. And I was reading through this lengthy statement that he put out. I can just sum it up. He is trying to save face. That's what this is.

CILLIZZA: Yes, I mean --

[20:25:01]

BASH: He is trying to save face and going through and talking about the fact that now I understand that many small businesses have been forced to close. And then he goes on to blame Democrats who run cities and so forth.

CILLIZZA: Yes.

BASH: But the key here is that what he says that he got in return for this is the House, which is run by Democrats, which wants more money in the first place, support this. I'm sorry, the political term is duh. But the key is that the Senate.

CILLIZZA: Right.

BASH: Which is run by Republicans and is a place where about half, maybe more of the rank and file Republicans in the Senate oppose giving this kind of money, particularly if it adds to the deficit. So he just got it looks like a commitment that they were going to start the process. That means nothing.

CILLIZZA: And, Dana, I'll add one other thing. Let's say -- and we're not there. Let's say they do get it to an actual floor vote in the Senate. Do you know how bad the politics are for that for Republicans? It's an easy vote. You know, Democrats support it in the House. Great, we have more money. Do you know how hard that vote is for Republicans? Kelly Loeffler, David Perdue, who are on verge of -- you know, they're in these runoffs.

To your point, the reason that they there wasn't more in these checks is -- and Jeremy made this point just a minute ago -- because Republicans didn't want there to be more money.

BASH: Right.

CILLIZZA: Mitch McConnell wanted a $600 billion bill. The Democrats wanted a $2 trillion plus bill. The reason that we're compromising in the middle is not because Democrats wanted less money, it's because Mitch McConnell do. So suddenly we're going to say, OK, $1400 more in every single check? Well, now, Susan Collins and Kelly Loeffler and Tom Perdue, and Lisa Murkowski and Rob Portman and all of these people who were stuck in between the traditional pillars of the Republican Party, which is smaller government, less debt -- Donald Trump doesn't care about that.

But less debt and deficit, and voting against more money for people who quite clearly, you know, on its face, need it. It's a terrible position as the -- forget the leader of the country, which I think he's abdicated long ago, but as just purely politically as the leader of your party, it is a terrible position to put those senators in to vote on. BASH: Yes. Well, and I will also say, as we say thank you to you,

there's a statement from Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, which we'll talk about in the next segment, and what is absent here is a promise that there's going to be a vote.

CILLIZZA: There's going to be a vote.

BASH: Which is not surprising.

CILLIZZA: No.

BASH: Chris Cillizza, thanks again for coming back with us.

CILLIZZA: Thanks, Dana. Yes.

BASH: And as I mentioned, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell just responded to the president signing this bill. We're going to have more on what this says and what it means for you out there who are looking for -- hoping for help. Well, it looks like the president just signed it and you're going to get some. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:31:25]

BASH: Tonight's breaking news, President Trump has finally signed the coronavirus relief package after months of battles on Capitol Hill, five days in limbo. He thought twice about not signing it or maybe even vetoing it. And now help is finally on the way to millions of struggling Americans, including $600 relief checks. That same amount that the president out of nowhere called a disgrace on Twitter.

Also importantly, the bill keeps the United States government running. Funding was going to run out tomorrow leading to a shutdown. But as it stands the president waited until after unemployment benefits ran out for some 12 million people overnight, leaving them extremely anxious.

I want to get straight to our congressional reporter, Lauren Fox, who is now on the phone.

Lauren, tell me what you're hearing from your sources and I know we have a new statement from the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Right. We're starting to get some of that reaction, Dana. And I think it's really important to note because we haven't heard anything from McConnell over the last several days as we have been in limbo. We know behind the scenes, congressional leaders, Republicans were trying to get the president to sign this piece of legislation.

And it was a delicate balance because in some ways the president had felt like some Republicans on Capitol Hill were moving on without him given the fact that he lost the election in November. He was very upset about that. But I want to read part of this McConnell statement. You know, I thought it was interesting that he didn't get into what was traded for the president's signature. But he did say, quote, "The president's leadership has prevented a

government shutdown at a time when our nation could not have afforded one. I'm glad that the American people will receive this much needed assistance as our nation continues battling the pandemic."

And one juxtaposition is just the president's statement, which was very lengthy and revealed all of the things that he thought he was getting in exchange for his signature, including he said a vote on those $2,000 stimulus checks, we know that there will be a vote in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives tomorrow. We expect that there will be a vote set up in the Senate.

But just a reminder, Dana, as you know, there likely aren't enough votes in the U.S. Senate to actually pass $2,000 stimulus checks. This was one of the sticking points all along. A lot of Republicans didn't even support $1200 stimulus checks, not to mention $2,000 stimulus checks. So promising a vote and promising an outcome are two very different things.

And I think that that's important context to remember as the president is sort of talking on Twitter about what he received in exchange for signing this piece of legislation and making a lot of Americans and a lot of lawmakers on Capitol Hill very nervous over the last five days.

BASH: Yes. A lot of heartburn to go with the eggnog, for sure. You know, one other part of Mitch McConnell's statement that strikes me, Laura, and I don't know about you, is he makes pretty clear that this was not just their deal. He says, "The bipartisan rescue package that Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration negotiated with the Democrats will extend another major lifeline to workers, struggling small businesses, et cetera."

You know, it was pretty clear, I think, reading between the lines, speaking a little bit of McConnellese, from covering him for so many years, what he was trying to express there and the message he was trying to get through there, that this wasn't just me, this was your team, Mr. President. So I'm glad we got this done.

[20:35:02]

FOX: Exactly. I mean, I think it's important to remind viewers at home that the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was part of these discussions, not just in the days leading up to the deal, but really over the last several months. And there was a real trust when Republicans got a deal with Democrats when they were delivering this to their rank and file members that it had the president's backing because Mnuchin had been in the room.

And when you walk the plank as a Republican member, and you vote for a bill that maybe you have some concerns about, but ultimately you think is a step in the right direction, and you're hearing your president supports it, and then all of a sudden the president changes his mind a few days later and goes on a Twitter spree against it, that's problematic for you, especially when you are a Republican member who you know whose base is going to follow President Trump wherever he goes. And I think that that was the tension we've seen over the last several

days in terms of lawmakers that I was having conversations with, very frustrated about the fact that the president seemed to have someone in the room negotiating for him and then backtracked off that deal. So McConnell's statement definitely highlighting that a little, Dana.

FOX: Yes. Absolutely. And I was talking with Chris Cillizza before talking to you, Lauren, about the fact that absent from McConnell's statement was any talk about any promise for a vote on the $2,000 stimulus check.

But Lindsey Graham, who golfed with the president around Christmas, who is -- tends to be a conduit between the president and his fellow Republicans in the Senate, just tweeted, "Congress will vote on additional stimulus checks and repealing Section 230," which is about social media. That's his holdup on the Defense bill. "All wins for the American people."

So Senator Graham is saying that there will be a vote in the Senate. But as you know, just because there's a vote doesn't mean it will actually pass. But that could be what the president feels that he got out of this.

A lot of behind the scenes stuff going on over the past 48 to 72 hours. And it's now just kind of bubbling up to the surface.

Lauren, we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much. Let us know if you get any reporting on any of this.

And I want to bring in our CNN political commentator David Swerdlick who joins me now. He's an assistant editor for the "Washington Post."

So, David, what do you make of all the drama, and if you ask Republicans and Democrats in Congress, they'll call it unnecessary drama?

DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Happy Holidays, Dana. I think there's a couple of things going on here. First off, let's just say, this is good news for people who were going into this last week of the year maybe not being able to make rent, maybe not being able to buy groceries. It's not much relief but some is better than none.

I think what you had here was the president doing a couple of things. First of all, he's having to get used to the fact that government is moving on without him. And this was a way for him to reinsert himself in a process that basically went on without him. If he had signed it last week, he would have just been a rubber stamp. And this was his way of getting back to the center of attention.

The other thing I think as we got into this weekend was this issue that if it had gone to tomorrow with the unemployment benefits already lapsing, facing a government shutdown and Democrats poised in the House to pass the $2,000, he would have put members of his own party in the Senate on the spot. And no one on the Republican side wanted that. So this is the president getting himself involved, making up some kind of negotiation, but really not changing the actual substance of what was delivered to the American people.

BASH: That's exactly right. And, you know, we've been talking around this. And I want to keep going back to some of the specifics that -- the things that are in this huge bill that is now law of the land.

SWERDLICK: Right.

BASH: $600 going to individual adults with an adjusted gross income of up to $75,000 a year. The enhanced unemployment benefits, $300 per week. And aid targeted for small businesses, which the president talked about, $285 billion in additional loans back towards that what was called the PPP, the Paycheck Protection Program.

SWERDLICK: Right.

BASH: And funding for vaccines for states to help implement the vaccine distribution process.

SWERDLICK: Right. All of this is critical. The parties in Congress could not agree for months on how much they wanted to do. But, you know, by all accounts, there was agreement that something should be done some time. And this went down to what -- closer to what Republicans wanted, the bare minimum of a deal. But then President Trump threw a Monkeywrench into that plan when he refused to sign the bill. And because we're up against the end of this Congress on July 3rd, there was no opportunity for Congress to, after the 10-day signing period, to pass it over his unsigned pocket veto, if you will.

[20:40:07]

This -- I -- you know, Senator McConnell put that statement out saying that there will be votes -- or excuse me, the president put that statement out saying that there will be votes on the $2,000. But as Lauren said in that report, that doesn't mean it's going to pass. And part of the reason is because if Republicans in the Senate wanted to pass it or even wanted to pass a compromise number like that $1200 figure you mentioned, they could have done this at any time in the last few months and they could have done it at any time in the last several days.

BASH: Yes. And as I said to Lauren, Senator Graham tweeted that Congress will vote on additional stimulus checks. We assume that's $2,000. We don't know what it's going to be. But it certainly is going to be interesting to see how the president's fellow Republicans vote on that, if in fact it does come to pass.

It's going to be a busy week between Christmas and New Year. That is for sure.

Thank you so much, David Swerdlick. Appreciate it.

SWERDLICK: Thanks, Dana.

BASH: And if you're just joining us, breaking news out of Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the president has finally signed the coronavirus relief bill after a delay for several days. And a lot of uncertainty for a lot of Americans.

When we come back, I'm going to speak to the co-chairs of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus about all this. Stay with us.

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BASH: The breaking news this Sunday night, President Trump has finally just signed the COVID relief and government funding bill that not only puts $900 billion into the fight to help millions of Americans recover from economic disaster, from the health disaster that is happening, but it keeps the government from running out of funding tomorrow.

I want to bring in the co-chairs of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, Democratic Congressman John Gottheimer of New Jersey and Republican Congressman Tom Reed of New York.

I'm sure people watching who may not know are happy to know that there is such a thing as a Problem Solvers Caucus, and I know you two take this idea very, very seriously.

[20:45:13]

So let's talk about what we saw over the last several days. And Congressman Reed, I'll start with you. Take me behind the scenes to the text chains and the phone calls that have been going on among Republicans about the fact that the president was going to sign it and then suddenly didn't sign it, and started trashing this bill that his administration helped to craft and then finally signed it tonight.

REP. TOM REED (R-NY): Well, obviously, there was a tremendous amount of anxiety that evening at about 7:15 when we all saw the Twitter. It caught us all by surprise, to be perfectly honest with you, as everyone knows. But we immediately went to work. Josh and I got on the phone immediately. We called our friends in the Senate that we now work with in a bipartisan, bicameral way.

And then started immediately reaching out to the White House, to the president himself. And we started the dialogue. Working with my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle in the House with folks from all different walks of different spectrums of the ideology. And just said, look, we have to get this delivered. And what are the issues? And then the issues started to come into focus with the $1400 in addition to the $600 to get to $2,000 the president is shooting for.

The concern over the Section 230 repeal. But at the end of the day, it was a tremendous amount of work. Josh and I were working on Christmas Day. We convened the Problem Solvers Caucus, 50 members strong, to get their thoughts, inputs, strategy and tactics. And I'll just tell you, working together, we communicated where we stood, you know, to the president. And we thanked the president.

I thanked the president for signing the bill tonight at 7:48 p.m. and we are glad that we now have this relief flowing to the American people. BASH: And Congressman Gottheimer, talk more about those conversations

that were going on and what this means practically going forward. Tomorrow there will be series of votes, I believe, that were already planned before this toing and froing was happening behind the scenes. But how will this play out in terms of voting on what the president says that he wants?

I know in some cases, like, $2,000, the Democrats have been pushing for that for months and months and months. So that's an easy one.

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Well, it's something that Tom and I both support, more direct payments to help Americans. But most importantly, tomorrow we're going to vote -- we're going to actually have a relief get out the door to people, who have been right in the holiday time so needing extra support, whether that's for unemployment, and we're going to get $300 more a week going out more or more help with food because we got people in food lines for the very first time, with rental assistance, as you know unemployment.

Officially the extension ran out yesterday so that's now going to be extended. So many people will get a lifeline there. And getting vaccines out. More support for vaccine distribution, which is so key. So really what was most important is getting these dollars out the door, these resources out the door, the $600 will go out the door. And now we'll fight for more resources. That's what we're going to vote on tomorrow.

And I know the Senate has said they're going to be voting on that as well. At least starting the process. That's important. Tom and I have been behind supporting the direct payments getting out the door for some time. So now it's just a matter of getting that done. But again a huge sigh of relief for so many families who need help right now tonight. So many small businesses that are on the verge of going out of business.

So many people sick across our country that need help. So this is very important that the president signed this into law. And I'm really, really pleased that he did.

BASH: Yes. No, and I hear you. I mean, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that what was celebrated when Congress finally got together, thanks to the work that you two did and your colleagues over in the Senate, that this is actually now the law of the land. But people are now listening to the president, looking at his Twitter feed and thinking, well, maybe now I'll get more money, maybe next week Congress will pass $2,000.

So, Congressman Reed, give people out there a reality check. Do you think your fellow Republicans in the Senate will go for that, enough of them will go for that that it will actually pass?

REED: Well, first, you've got to recognize Rosie is excited. That's Josh's dog in the background there so we applaud Rosie's excitement, too.

(LAUGHTER) REED: But, Dana, what we're so proud of in the Problem Solvers Caucus is, you know, we're 50 members strong and now we got our eight to 10 members in the Senate that we're working with on a regular basis. And what we really try to do is we're practical. We're proud Republicans. We're proud Democrats. And we try to find that common ground that can get 60 votes in the Senate and 218 votes in the House. And it's going to be difficult, to be perfectly honest with you, to get that increased $1400.

[20:50:02]

We're talking -- you know, that's approximately, if I did the math correct, that's about another $350 billion to $400 billion of additional money that needs to be found somewhere, that's going to have to be accounted for. And so I'm glad that this bill got signed. I'll do my part, as I indicated to the president, that I would support his request for $1400 additional stimulus. And as Josh said, he and I both agree on that additional relief.

But, you know, getting 218 and 60 takes a lot of work. And we're going to do our part. And I promise you that. But at the end of the day, that's going to be a tall order to crack, especially in the United States Senate. Think we'll get it through the House. But in the Senate, it can get 60 votes there, I'll tell you it's going to be difficult in my humble opinion.

BASH: And as you were speaking, the House speaker put out a statement that says -- among the things she says is now the president must immediately call on congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and join him with Democrats to support standalone legislation to increase direct payment checks to $2,000. So that is going to be interesting to see how that plays out because now it is a question about whether or not the Republicans, who for so many -- as you know, Congressman Reed, for so many years have followed the president on some many things. Whether they will add this to the list, and that's something the Democrats would be happy about if they do.

Thank you so much to both of you. Happy Holidays. And please give Rosie a pat on the head for us.

(LAUGHTER)

GOTTHEIMER: I will. She's very excited that the bill was signed into law.

BASH: I can tell. I can tell. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

And more breaking news on CNN. Right now the massive explosion that rocked Nashville on Christmas morning, police there just released video footage of the moment the bomb went off. You're going to see that footage and hear the latest on the FBI's investigation next.

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BASH: CNN breaking news right now from Nashville. Police there have just released a video footage there of the massive explosion on Christmas morning. There's no sound on this video but it shows the exact moment about 6:30 on Friday morning, a giant explosion.

[20:55:08]

(VIDEO CLIP)

BASH (voice-over): Wow. Look at that. That giant explosion we now know came from a parked RV on this street in downtown Nashville. It shakes the entire neighborhood and damages dozens of buildings. Investigators say the bomber died in the blast. Very likely an elaborate suicide.

On the phone with me now is CNN's Shimon Prokupecz who is in Nashville.

And Shimon, wow. That video is just remarkable.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stunning, right? Just when you think about it, and you can see just the force of that explosion from that RV. In the video, you can actually see the RV. It's there in the distance. And you see that officer -- you know, we heard about such heroic efforts from officers who came to the scene to evacuate the neighborhood. And you see one of those officers.

I suspect -- I think it was one of the officers who was injured who from the blast was pushed forward. I would think that that probably that officer. But just the impact from the size of that explosion and all the damage that it caused. You can see that from that -- just the size of that explosion. And what I guess everyone at this point right now is trying to figure out was how -- what was used to make this bomb, the materials because it was just so powerful.

Of course all this coming on the day that authorities, through DNA, were able to confirm the identity of the bomber, finding human -- some sort of they say human tissue that they then used to compare it to family DNA. And that's how they identified him. And really, when you look at this video, Dana, what you really -- what's so shocking to me in so many ways is that no one died. No innocent people died. None of the officers were seriously hurt in this because the impact was just so great.

BASH: It absolutely was. And, you know, Shimon, you've been doing terrific reporting down there. And one of the things that you have been saying is that we don't know what the motive was. And it's possible we never will. But we will be listening to you as you get information from your sources continually.

Thank you so much for that, Shimon. Appreciate it.

(On camera): That does it for CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Dana Bash. Don't go anywhere. The CNN Film "PRESIDENT IN WAITING" takes a very personal look at the role of the vice president, and that starts next.

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