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Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) is Interviewed About Trump Demanding GOP Senators to Support $2,000 Stimulus Payments and Whether Trump Losing His Grip on the GOP; Stimulus Bill Delays Pose Financial Hardship for Workers. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 30, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: One of the latest victims is Republican Congressman-elect Luke Letlow of Louisiana. The 41-year-old, just 41, was set to be sworn in this weekend. He died less than two weeks after revealing his diagnosis.

Also breaking this morning, another coronavirus vaccine getting the green light. The U.K. has approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The first doses will be given there on Monday. Crucially this vaccine is cheaper, a lot easier to store and transport than the two approved so far here in the U.S. It could be a game changer in the effort to vaccinate people in many countries, including this one.

We begin our coverage with CNN's Athena Jones on the news of the U.K. variant found here in the U.S. What seems to be key here, right, is these Americans, they have it, but did not travel, which then indicates there's been community spread.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim. That's right. And this is really the last thing this country needs. Colorado officials announcing they found the first known case of this U.K. variant, which we know according to U.K. scientists is significantly more contagious than the already contagious virus we've been dealing with all this time, found in a man in his 20s in Elbert County, Colorado. And as you mentioned there is now a suspected second case with this same variant, also in Elbert County. Both men were working at a very small assisted living facility, about 25 patients in the town of Simla. They were serving in nonclinical roles, and they were only there to fill in, to help out due to staffing shortages after an earlier outbreak at that facility two-and-a-half weeks ago that killed at least two people.

The state health department has dispatched a rapid response team to the facility to test all of the residents and staff. They are also in touch with the CDC. And we understand, as you mentioned, the first man had no known travel history, which certainly suggests that this virus had already been circulating undetected in the community, and the fact that you have this second suspected case suggests that that may be, in fact, what was going on.

And of course, the frightening prospect of a more transmissible virus is coming at a time when we are already experiencing what doctors say is a surge upon a surge upon a surge. Yesterday two new records, more than 3,700 deaths in a single day to coronavirus, and nearly 125,000 people hospitalized.

And we should remind folks that this month, December, has been the deadliest month of the pandemic so far. More than 70,000 people dying due to COVID, 5.9 million cases. And at this rate we are just days away from reaching the figure of 350,000 lives in America lost to the coronavirus. That's like losing half the population of Washington, D.C. or Boston or all of the population of Honolulu, Hawaii, or Anaheim, California. So truly staggering figures here. Jim, Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Athena, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

Joining us now is Dr. Ashish Jha. He's the Dean of Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Jha, the news this morning, all the breaking news that we are dealing with, is really unsettling this morning. There's just so many things compounding the situation. I think we were hopeful that with the vaccines things were going to be looking up. They're not looking up -- 3,745 Americans died just yesterday. And then there's this new variant that's more transmissible, more contagious, now discovered in Colorado. We don't know how widespread it is. All we know is that the young man in his 20s had no known travel history. That means that there's community spread. He picked it up in his rural county in Colorado somewhere.

And then add to that that there are five hospitals in L.A. County that are having to turn patients away, very sick patients, because they can't get them oxygen, they don't have the infrastructure to dispense this much oxygen that people need right now. It's just -- it just seems very bleak right now.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Yes, good morning, Alisyn. It does seem bleak. We are in the middle of the sort of toughest days of the pandemic. I think right now next four, six weeks are going to be very, very difficult. This is why President- elect Biden yesterday said the hardest days are ahead of us. Not for a long time. Again, four to six weeks, I do think things are going to be really tough. They will start turning around if we can start getting people vaccinated, and if we can keep the kind of lid on high levels of infection that are spreading in many parts of the country. So we've got the tools to get through this. I am pretty confident we will get through this. But it's definitely very difficult right now.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Jha, a lot of hope, understandably, placed on the rollout of vaccines, and on the good side, they were developed very quickly. The trouble is distribution here in the U.S. Let's remind people of this administration's promises and how they've been whittled down over time.

[08:05:03]

In September the promise was 100 million doses by the end of this month, that's tomorrow. Then in November it was 40 million, then in December it was 20 million. At this point so far 2.1 million total vaccinated. Is there a fundamental problem in the distribution plan in this country, and if so, how can it be corrected?

JHA: Yes, super frustrated about this, right, because I have been making the assumption that when the administration said 20 million people will be vaccinated by the end of December, that 20 million people would be vaccinated. Right now what they're saying is they have allocated 20 million doses for early January, but the problem has been that the administration has essentially decided that their job essentially ends when the vaccine gets to the state and there's nothing more to do.

What needs to happen is resources needed to have gone to states, we should have set up vaccinations centers. It's not like we had no idea that vaccines were coming. We have known for months that this was going to happen, and there were no planning for that last mile. Now I think states are scrambling and trying to figure it out. I think they will, but it's going to cost us many, many weeks of unnecessary delays, essentially because the federal government has made no real effort to get the vaccination infrastructure. They got the vaccines, but the infrastructure to get people vaccinated, they just decided that was not their responsibility.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Jha, this is a tragedy. I just have to underscore this. This is a tragedy. A fraction of the people, a fraction that we expected to be vaccinated by now, the reason that we had hope was because we thought, OK, well, 20 million people will be vaccinated by tomorrow. That was the deadline, the end of this month. And it's something like 2 million plus people. And so obviously President Trump long ago abdicated any responsibility for this, he's completely checked out, he's played 15 hours of golf this week that we know of, but do the states -- can the states do this? Do they know how to do this? Do they have the infrastructure to do this?

JHA: So states will figure this out. The good news is Congress just passed over the weekend the bill that the president signed has money for states. Part of the problem has been that there's been no money for states, so even if they knew how to do it they couldn't figure out -- they didn't have the resources. Now they will. They're working really hard to set all this stuff up.

I am confident that a majority of states will be able to figure it out. But, again, why didn't we start this planning in September? It's like everybody knew vaccines were coming. On November 9th we knew the Pfizer data was really good and we knew it was going to get authorized any day though. Why didn't we start then at least? It strikes me as a level of incompetence I have to say I am stunned by, because we did this with testing, we did this with PPE, but I thought we were going to get it better with vaccines, and it really doesn't feel like we are, and now states are going to have to figure this out. I think they will, but it's going to be tough.

SCIUTTO: OK, so in the midst of this we have a variant on U.S. soil now, likely already subject to community spread based on what we know, it's more transmissible. That's going to be reflected in the numbers of infections and, sadly, deaths at some point. France, they instituted severe travel restrictions in response to this and had success, by a factor of 20 reducing new infections. Do you support or recommend if not broad travel restrictions, lockdowns, targeted, what should the response be?

JHA: Yes, so first and foremost what we need to do is figure out how widespread this variant is. The fact that one, maybe two people in Colorado have it, they hadn't traveled, means that this is probably far more widespread than we think, right, because they didn't get it from traveling to the U.K. And before we know how widespread it is, I'm not sure that we should be doing lockdowns or travel restrictions, because I don't know where we would want to put travel restrictions in.

So the first thing we need to do is genomic surveillance. Our country has a lot of capacity to do this. Again, we haven't been doing it. We've got to start doing much more widespread genomic surveillance. Once we know how widespread the virus is, the variant, then we can make decisions about what travel restrictions are needed.

CAMEROTA: What does that even mean, genomic surveillance? It means that when you go to your doctor, your primary care physician or testing facility, they look at your swab and see what version of this you have?

JHA: Exactly. So let's say -- let's say I got tested today, and let's say I'm positive and that I have virus in my throat and that's what turns out positive. What we should do is take a large chunk of those samples and then sequence the genome of the virus. That's how you figure out which variant it is. U.K. has been sequencing about 10 times as many of these as we have. That's why these variants get found in the U.K. It's not because the U.K. -- it may have arisen in the U.K., we don't know if it did, but it got found there because they've been doing this sequencing. We have incredible capacity to do this sequencing, we just haven't been doing it.

SCIUTTO: Sad facts, and we're paying for it. Dr. Jha, thanks so much, as always.

[08:10:02]

JHA: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, we have more breaking news this hour. Wait for this. Powerful explosions rocked the airport in Yemen's port city of Aden shortly after a plane carrying the country's newly form government arrived from Saudi Arabia. One of the blasts captured on camera by media that were there covering the arrival. It's alarming to see. Have a listen.

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SCIUTTO: Arwa Damon is live in Istanbul with breaking details. What do we know, Arwa? ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, those images

are very dramatic. You can see the members of the newly formed cabinet departing from the airplane, and then that explosion happening in the building behind them. What we do understand is that it was, in fact, three explosions that went off inside the waiting area.

Now, according to the minister of information of this newly formed internationally recognized Yemeni government, no members of the new government, of the cabinet, were injured in this attack, but there have been multiple injuries, people wounded and killed. We don't yet have the specifics on that, but they are blaming the Iranian-backed Houthis.

You'll remember for years now Yemen has been ripped apart by war, to the point where poverty, hunger, disease has become so widespread amongst the general population, it is something of the norm. And now we have even more violence as this newly formed internationally recognized government arrives in Aden at this stage. Now, the Houthis have not claimed responsibility for this, they have not made any sort of statement at this stage, but I think this really just underscores how war-torn Yemen continues to be.

And another thing that's worth pointing out, Jim, especially since we are in the holiday season, is that aid organizations in Yemen, whether they are local organizations or international ones, have been begging for more funding to be able to provide for the population that is growing increasingly desperate. They have not yet received the funding that they need. And once again we have a reminder of just how dangerous that country continues to be.

Again, in this attack it was not members of the newly formed government, newly formed cabinet that were among the killed and injured. It was presumably people working at the airport, people in that waiting room where the explosions took place.

SCIUTTO: Understood. We know you will follow it closely. Arwa Damon, thanks very much.

President Trump is lashing out at Republicans who are defying his last-minute demands on stimulus checks. Is the president losing his grip on the GOP, or are they still with him? We're going to speak to a Republican congressman. That's next.

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CAMEROTA: This morning, President Trump is demanding that Senate Republicans vote in favor of the $2,000 stimulus payments to Americans, saying they have, quote, a death wish if they don't. The president is also lashing out in what he calls, quote, weak and tired Republican leadership, end quote, after more than 100 House Republicans voted to override the president's veto of the defense bill.

Joining us now is Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger. Good morning, Congressman.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Hey, good morning.

CAMEROTA: Are you one of those weak and tired Republican leaders, or who is the president referring to?

KINZINGER: I don't know. I mean, look, the one thing you learn now is loyalty is one way with President Trump. You know, if you have these leaders that have done a lot for Donald Trump and they don't follow through on this, then he'll throw them under the bus. I mean, you see, you know, the president's two biggest supporters, the governor of Georgia and the governor of Arizona, both thrown under the bus. In fact, secretary of state of Georgia last night, the president said on his Twitter that his brother is owned by China, but I guess the secretary of state doesn't even have a brother.

This is kind of that moment we're in where just stuff comes out on Twitter. And, you know, where I feel really bad, though, is just the people that are, you know, struggling during the pandemic that are giving President Trump's campaign money for this recount because they believe him and it's just a scam, it's a big grift.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh. I mean, we have some numbers about that. I think the president has sent 554 fundraising emails since election night. So since election night, since he lost the election, what's he raising money for? And people are still giving him money.

KINZINGER: Yeah. I mean, look, you know, they believe in him. And you can -- I think we have to step back and understand, you know, people that feel very disaffected, Donald Trump spoke to them.

But here is the problem is up until the election, you know, it's an election, it's just a competition of ideas, but after an election it has turned into an undermining of the democracy. And that's the differentiation between, you know, people that say, well, Adam, you know, was supportive of the president in the past.

Well, the difference here is what it's doing to undermine our democracy and the fact, again, that people that work hard for their money, hard-working taxpayers are giving their money to this, because they are convinced because the president is telling them this that they can win, and they can't.

I mean, the scam in Congress with January 6th, all these members of Congress that are, you know, posting crazy things so they can get a ton of followers and retweets and raise money, it's just -- I think we have to calling it out finally, because if we don't, people are just going to believe it.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about what's going on on Capitol Hill right now because, as you say, people are financially devastated by coronavirus right now, they desperately need those -- whatever the number of the check is going to be, $600, $2,000, whatever. But yet, Mitch McConnell is holding it up by adding two of the president's pet peeves to the $2,000 check proposal bill. So, one about Section 230 which I've never heard any American around any dinner table say is one of their top priorities, and then another commission to study voter fraud, though the last one disbanded without any findings.

So, what is that? What's Mitch McConnell doing?

KINZINGER: So, look, there's real concern about the deficit and I voted for the $2,000 checks when they came up, I guess, yesterday or the day before. But, look, this -- I mean, we're coming out of here with $29 trillion in debt, we're going to have to make some sacrifices. So, I think there is a legitimate question about what the size of that check needs to be.

But, you know, my view on it is, it's a time where we are in such a bad position that if you're going to spend money and you're put it in people's pockets so they can spend money, it needs to be now.

And I don't know if Mitch McConnell is just slow-walking it or whatever, but keep in mind -- I mean, the president has just gone after Mitch McConnell now, you know, and gone after anybody that's ever done anything good for the president because he cannot take personal responsibility for his loss. He's got to put it on other people.

CAMEROTA: From where you sit, are you seeing Republicans distance themselves now from President Trump? I mean, for instance, voting to override the veto, or are you seeing them still cater to his demands such as Mitch McConnell lard larding up this bill with President Trump's demands? Which one is it on the Hill?

KINZINGER: I think they're privately distancing more. We've talked about this a lot, I wish more would speak out, but I think they're starting to -- I tell you the base is starting to turn. I get texts every day and granted people that are mad at me that are my friends probably aren't going to text me.

[08:20:00]

But a lot of people that I thought would be upset with me kind of calling this out that are texting saying, you know what, you're right, it's time, and nobody else is saying it. You know, if the president says the election is stolen and nobody rebuts him, you're generally going to believe him. And so, I do think it's starting to turn.

I think he will be a player in the Republican Party for sure, I just don't think he's going to be around as a player for as long as people are predicting right now.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting.

I want to ask you about Congressman-elect Luke Letlow. It's such a tragedy this morning in the news. He died after as far as we can tell two weeks of battling coronavirus.

I mean, it just happened so suddenly, and from everything I've read, he had such a promising future in public service. I mean, he was about to be sworn in this Sunday. Did you ever have a chance to meet him?

KINZINGER: You know, unfortunately, I didn't. When they all came out to D.C., you know, we've been maintaining our distance.

But everything I have read about him, a great guy, great family man, my age. I mean, you know, people I think my age or younger tend to think they're immune to this disease where it's not going to bother them. He was a healthy guy. You know, just -- I think the ultimate tragedy, too, of being elected to Congress but not getting a chance to ultimately serve that great institution.

My prayers go out to the family. It's just a reminder to everybody -- guys, this is a serious virus, right? You may be just fine, you may not. Let's just all do our part here and we are going to get through it, we will get vaccinated and we will be okay. But, you know, this is a moment, we've got to take this seriously.

And so, my heart and prayers are with his family.

CAMEROTA: Do you have any idea why someone like Rudy Giuliani in the first days of his illness gets to have the Regeneron antibody cocktail in a hospital? He's not an essential worker. But regular people like Luke Letlow don't get something like that, access to that therapeutic?

KINZINGER: Yeah, I don't know the answer. I did read an article recently that doctors were actually pretty astounded that that's not being given to people more often, basically that there's plenty of it but maybe the doctors that are initially treating it aren't using it because they think it's more rare.

I don't know the answer. I just know that we've made some really good strides and, you know, hopefully that stuff -- those therapeutics get better as the vaccine rolls out, we get more vaccines approved.

But I think the president of the United States should obviously get the best treatment. I don't know what necessarily puts Rudy above a congressman-elect or anything, though.

CAMEROTA: Yeah. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, thank you very much. Great to get your take on all of this this morning.

KINZINGER: Anytime. See you.

CAMEROTA: Millions of Americans are struggling and they could miss their unemployment checks this week because President Trump did not sign the relief bill last week in time. So what that could mean for families, next.

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[08:26:24]

SCIUTTO: There was some good news and some bad news in the new pandemic relief package, the one that passed already for the millions of Americans working in the gig economy. The measure extends their unemployment support by nearly three months, but because the president delayed signing it, most will not see any assistance, assistance they desperately need, until next year.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich spoke to one of those families.

Vanessa, I mean, it's tough because folks need this aid now.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And those pandemic unemployment programs expired on December 26th and that one day of delay for getting that stimulus package signed the following day on the 27th now means that millions of Americans could be waiting weeks for those checks.

Now, the Department of Labor said that they would be retroactive, but this time when families are so vulnerable every dollar counts. We spoke to one family in Brooklyn who talked about how they're planning to survive.

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YURKEVICH (voice-over): Fareeha Haq and her husband Amir Bukhari are raising a family of six on less than $400 a week on unemployment. Next week, they could go without that money.

AMIR BUKHARI, UNEMPLOYED: It's going to hit -- it's going to hit rock bottom but right now, we were able to eat. You know, forget the rent.

YURKEVICH: That money that was supposed to arrive this week was just to feed your family.

BUKHARI: Just to feed the family.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Pandemic unemployment programs for millions lapsed on December 26, a day before a new federal aid package was signed. That delay means most Americans will have to wait until next year for states to issue their checks.

FAREEHA HAQ, UNEMPLOYED: Like I'm very grateful that money will be coming in, but sometimes it takes so long for the money to actually kick in.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Fareeha and Amir are both gig workers, she drove a school carpool, he an Uber. The loss of income in March put the family on to a growing pile of bills.

BUKHARI: If I tell you all the bills is up to date, no, they can't be. It's just impossible.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Nearly 12 million renters will owe more than $5,800 in back rent by January. Fareeha and Amir owe nearly that much, and they're $8,000 in credit card debt.

HAQ: You have to take the letters and you have to put it on the flowers.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Their small apartment is a virtual classroom and the four kids eat all meals at home, that's 16 a day.

HAQ: You can do it. Come on, mommy has to go make breakfast.

I get so emotional because I'm overwhelmed. I don't know how to live anymore. Sometimes it's so hard.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): A recent survey shows 27 million Americans say they don't have enough to eat. This family relies on food stamps and the food pantry at the Brooklyn community service group COPO. It's familiar for Fareeha.

MOHAMMAD RAZVI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COUNCIL ON PEOPLES ORGANIZATION: You're going to get raspberries and squash. I got these special cucumbers.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): She used to work here handing out the food.

HAQ: I was there helping people receive benefits and now I'm on the other end and I'm asking for benefits.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): And the need for many Americans is only getting greater.

RAZVI: They're run you go out of their checks, that's why they're given more in hardship because they are not sure how they're going to make ends meet.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): The new stimulus bill adds an extra $300 a week in unemployment through mid March, a much needed boost to families like this one.

HAQ: Before you see the money, it's gone already. I already know where I'm going to spend all that money. And it's hard to get back to that place where everything will be okay.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH (on camera): Now, one of the things that Fareeha said would have made her family feel more okay would have been increasing those stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000. It passed in the House, but Senator McConnell pushed that vote in the Senate until next year. Fareeha had said if she and her husband both got the $2,000 and her kids got stimulus.

[08:30:00]