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Texas Food Bank Faces Surging Demand; McConnell Moves on Potential Bill; Dave Barry's 2020 Year in Review. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 30, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: McConnell pushed that vote in the Senate until next year. Faree (ph) has said if she and her husband both got the $2,000 and her kids got stimulus checks, it would have taken care of all the rent they owed and made a huge dent in their credit card debt. But, Alisyn, she's not confident that she'll see any type of money like that soon. Until then she says she's just going to have to find a way to make it work as the bills keep piling up.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: People are on the edge, Vanessa, and you just showed us that perfectly. Thank you very much for all of your reporting.

A Texas food bank is facing high demand as food insecurity has surged. Today it's holding its 67th mass distribution event since the start of the pandemic.

CNN's Camila Bernal is live in Austin, Texas, with more.

So what does it look like there?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn, good morning.

This event has not even started, but if you take a look here, this is the beginning of the line. It goes all the way back to the end. There is about four rows of cars. And I can't even see the end of the line. All of these cars here represent a family, a family in need.

I spoke to so many people here who told me that they're here mainly because of the pandemic and the economic struggles. They say they need to feed their families and this is the only way to put food on the table.

Take a listen to what one man told me in regards to feeding his three girls and his wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RC HUGGINS, AUSTIN RESIDENT AND RETIRED CONTRACTOR: It's been very difficult. Very difficult. I don't think people have any idea how difficult it is worrying about how to feed your family day in and day out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: Now, organizers do say that about 14 percent of the people who are coming here in December, in comparison to November, are all new. They never came to these events before. They say that in this area, about 560,000 people are in need of food.

Just to put that into perspective, that is one in every five adults, one in every four children. This is not going away. The reality is that even though we're celebrating a new year, this is going to linger. People here already preparing for January.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Camila, thank you very much for showing us that really staggering line behind you.

So is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell playing President Trump by pretending he's serious about those $2,000 relief checks? We discuss with Scott Jennings, who worked closely with McConnell, knows how he operates and can give us an insight into what's happening here, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:37:07]

CAMEROTA: Developing this morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introducing legislation that ties two of President Trump's pet demands to those $2,000 relief checks to Americans. The move is almost certain to fail.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator Scott Jennings. He's a long- time campaign adviser to Mitch McConnell and has known him for more than 20 years. Also with us, CNN White House correspondent John Harwood.

Scott, the McConnell whisperer that you are. So just so we understand this, by doing this, by tying these things together, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for all intents and purposes, is killing this bill. And this is something that President Trump says he wants, these $2,000 checks to Americans, and these two pet demands. So is he playing President Trump somehow?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he's giving the president exactly what he asked for. I mean if you read the president's signing statement from when he signed the year-end package over the weekend, he said he wanted three things, the checks, Section 230 and the voter fraud commission. Democrats, by the way, immediately --

CAMEROTA: Right, but it's not going to work.

JENNINGS: I'm sorry? CAMEROTA: But he's not going to get it. It's not going to work. In

other words, you can say that this is a bill but it's not going to go --

JENNINGS: Why? Here's what I don't understand. Everybody -- but here's what I don't understand. Everybody immediately claims that this won't work. But I -- I don't -- I don't quite understand why. Democrats have staked out a position here. A, they've made the president the leader of their negotiating faction, which is strange, but OK. B, they have said that $2,000 checks are all that stands between, you know, the American people and the abyss. Well, if that's what your belief really is, it strikes me you'd be -- you'd be willing to accept something large to get that, such as Section 230. I'm not a tech lawyer by the way but people tell me that if Section 230 were repealed, the stuff that would come off the Internet first is all the QAnon garbage, election conspiracy garbage and everything that you say, Democrats say, is hurting American democracy.

I don't understand why Democrats immediately rejected the deal. They made the president their leader. McConnell, who, by the way, they're -- I don't think there's momentum for $2,000 within the Republican conference, but McConnell went ahead and gave them the deal that the president asked for anyway. Why is it being rejected out of hand? I don't understand. (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: That's really interesting. That is a really interesting insight, I think. And I think that part of it is the fraud of the voter commission. But, OK, I hear you.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: I mean voter commission, I don't know, Scott, you and I have talked about this, you say, well, you know, why not just investigate. Let's just remember the Justice Department under Bill Barr has already dismissed these claims. The Supreme Court has. Multiple Trump appointed judges, as well as Democrat appointed judges. GOP election officials and multiple recounts and recanvasing, right?

JENNINGS: Yes. Hey, Jim, I totally -- hey, I totally -- and, by the way, you're right, I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you, which is why I don't understand why the Democrats are rejecting it. If they were smart, they would take it. And it would give them another way to prove that Donald Trump's claims are crazy about the voter fraud. Again, it's a win for them on all three counts it seems to me.

[08:40:03]

SCIUTTO: Except that it gives oxygen, right? I mean he did this in 2016, by the way.

But I do want to ask John Harwood for your view because I wonder if -- if it's a win, win, win for Mitch McConnell here because, one, you would -- you would let Loeffler and Perdue, in those key Georgia Senate races, vote yes on checks, that's popular, you would put Democrats in a bind where they might have to vote no because of these poison pills attached, and, at the end of the day, you don't get these checks passed, $465 billion that Mitch McConnell doesn't want spent here, right? I mean it -- could that be the end result? JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jim, what Mitch McConnell

is doing is what any babysitter does when they are taking care of a child whose blown a gasket and they're trying to run out the clock until the parents come home. In the case of Mitch McConnell, the parents come home in three weeks when Joe Biden becomes president. This is not about a serious attempt to make law.

But I think it's important to point out that Mitch McConnell's behavior is not responsible for this incredible situation that we find ourselves in. The two parties believe different things. Mitch McConnell leads a caucus that believes in smaller government and lower taxes as much as possible. Democrats are more apt to use government to solve problems like this pandemic. Democrats thought that their view would be affirmed more emphatically in the election than it was. It was not. So this was the compromise that came out, was able to get signed and Mitch McConnell played it pretty well to get the misbehaving child president to end up signing the bill.

Now, what's happening in this situation, while Mitch McConnell tries to run out the clock, Democrats are trying to use this to get an outcome that will improve their legislative position.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARWOOD: That is to say, dramatize the contrast on $2,000 to win these two Georgia Senate seats. They understand that this is not about making law. You don't make law in the last two days of a lame duck session before you have a new president come to office.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: OK, but John -- but, John, I hear you. I --

HARWOOD: This isn't serious. This is a result of a president saying lunatic things.

SCIUTTO: That's a good point.

CAMEROTA: I hear you that there's political theater happening here. But, John, what about what Scott said, why don't Democrats call Mitch McConnell's bluff and be like, OK, we'll go along with your phony voter commission thing, give us those $2,000 checks? We'll vote for that.

HARWOOD: I think Scott makes some good points there, but I think Democrats don't want to affirm the idea which is not true that there is voter fraud. We -- as Jim pointed out, we went down that road after the 2016 election. The whole thing was a joke. It was -- the president convened it. He was trying to prove that he got the most popular votes. He didn't. Nothing happened.

On Section 230, I think Scott is right again, that the QAnon stuff and the crazy, ridiculous conspiracy junk that is more common on the right than on the left would come off, but I think there are unintended consequences to any big change you would do in election law. Again, this is not a serious attempt to make law, this is the two parties positioning each other, McConnell trying to run out the clock with President Trump, Democrats trying to win these two Senate races, in which case they will be able to get a lot better legislative outcomes than they got in the COVID relief bill Trump just signed.

SCIUTTO: Listen, you both see through the politics so well. I think you've been around Washington for a little bit. It's good -- it's good to draw on your -- on your wisdom.

And we should note, a big stimulus deal did eventually get passed and signed by the president, though, belatedly on the weekend. So that's some progress.

HARWOOD: Right. I think, Jim, it's important not to forget $900 billion is a lot of money.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARWOOD: And there were a lot of valid public purposes that are advanced in terms of the unemployment benefits, the $600 checks and vaccine distribution and advances in testing.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARWOOD: All of that stuff we shouldn't act like that's nothing just because the $2,000 checks aren't going to happen.

SCIUTTO: It's a good point. Bigger than TARP, right? You know, the entire stimulus passed after the 2008 financial crisis.

Scott, John Harwood --

JENNINGS: It was -- it was a good bill.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JENNINGS: It was a good bill, but the politics of this week suggest to me that if the president had gotten engaged earlier in the process, maybe the checks would have been bigger. But I just have to say, if you want $2,000 checks and you're a Democrat, rejecting the idea of linking these things out of hand strikes me as irresponsible. And so I -- I don't know why they did it, but that's their -- that's their choice.

SCIUTTO: Right.

Well, we'll be watching -- we'll be watching the politics.

Scott, John, best to you and your families for the holidays.

HARWOOD: You bet.

SCIUTTO: All right, so a question many of you have probably been asking, we certainly have, is 2020 the worst year ever? Pulitzer Prize winning Dave Barry, writer, humor writer, has a few thoughts and he joins us next. CAMEROTA: But first, see how America's 39th president used his passion for music to win the 1976 election. The CNN film "Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President" premieres Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. on CNN.

[08:45:01]

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: One of the things that have held America together has been the music that we share.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jimmy Carter used music in politics. It had never been done quite that way.

CARTER: I want to introduce to you the Allman Brothers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He enjoyed our music and he became a friend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a kindred spirit of a rare kind. A man you don't meet every day and that you're lucky to meet if you ever do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jimmy and I basically come from the same spot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we went to the White House, we were welcomed in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His love for music made sense to me because music is the voice of the heart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the music of change and dissidents. There was a risk politically to that and it didn't matter to him.

CARTER: I think music is the best proof that people have one thing in common no matter where they live, no matter what language they speak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President," Sunday at 9:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Well, we're just hours away from 2020 coming to an end and how psyched are you about that? We know Dave Barry is. "The Washington Post" magazine published Dave Barry's year in review this week and he writes, we're trying to think of something nice to say about 2020. OK, here goes, nobody got killed by the murder hornets.

[08:50:02]

As far as we know. That's pretty much it.

Joining us now is Dave Barry, Pulitzer Prize winning humor columnist. He's the author of the paperback edition of his latest book, "Lessons from Lucy." It's out now.

Hi, Dave.

DAVE BARRY, PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING HUMOR COLUMNIST AND AUTHOR: Hi, Alisyn. How are you?

CAMEROTA: I'm doing well.

So how bad did 2020 suck?

BARRY: Pretty bad. I have lived through some stuff in my -- I'm a very old person. I have lived through the' 60s, I lived through the disco era, I never lived through anything like this -- this past year. I don't know if we're allowed to say the word poop storm on CNN --

SCIUTTO: Oh, there's been worse, yes.

BARRY: It's like a category five poop storm and it just rained down.

The only good thing really kind of is it rained down on all of us. You know, we have now this common experience like other generations with other horrible things, but at least we went through it together.

SCIUTTO: Yes, we did. We did. I mean although people still have different views of reality, right, in the midst of this. I mean even still to this day, I mean it's December 30th, right? Some folks still don't believe the pandemic, right, or are not willing to do anything about it.

BARRY: Well, they're apparently not watching your show.

SCIUTTO: Yes. They're not listening to the doctors.

CAMEROTA: Dave, I like that you -- that you somehow find an analogy between this poop storm that we're in and disco. See, I think you're giving disco a raw deal.

BARRY: Well, we used -- disco is kind of shorthand for, you know, just general badness. It really wasn't all that bad. But -- but, you know, like those of us who were not big fans of disco like to refer to that era. Like, OK, another one would be like the "Jersey Shore" era, can I use that?

CAMEROTA: Come on. That's where I'm from. The Jersey shore is fantastic, Dave Barry.

BARRY: Something that -- no, no, I know the Jersey shore is fantastic, I'm talking about the TV show.

CAMEROTA: Oh, thank God.

BARRY: "Jersey Shore," OK? Can I --

CAMEROTA: Got it, got it, got it. That is a poop storm.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I'll let you make that comparison over disco. I'm going to defend disco right along here with Alisyn.

BARRY: I didn't mean to get this -- this become a fight about disco.

CAMEROTA: Put up your dukes, Dave Barry.

BARRY: Disco is over, OK, but, well -- we -- disco is wonderful now, in retrospect. Looking back on it, comparing to 2020, disco was wonderful. Can I say that?

SCIUTTO: OK, give us another -- besides us not dying from murder hornets, give us something else to smile about, please. We need it.

BARRY: Well, there's more toilet paper, folks. That's the good news I -- I bring to America. I was in the supermarket yesterday and I'm still at the point where every time I'm in the supermarket, even if I don't need toilet paper, I always go to the toilet paper aisle just to take a look. And I'm proud to say that here at least in Miami we have toilet paper.

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE).

SCIUTTO: You have to look at the CNN promo for New Year's tomorrow night because there is a big walking dancing toilet paper roll. Just, you know, just a measure of the year.

CAMEROTA: We have that to look forward to. We have that to look forward to.

And, Dave, can you believe how much we stuffed into this year? I mean we were just doing a retrospective yesterday and Jim and I were marveling, like, oh my gosh, the year started with President Trump being impeached, with the impeachment trial.

BARRY: Right.

CAMEROTA: That feels like a decade ago.

BARRY: And you would have thought -- exactly. You would have thought, in any other year, yes, that would have been the biggest story of the year by far, no question about it. And that's what -- every year I write this year in review and my friends would say to me, like, wow, you have a lot of material this year. And I feel like every month was like a year.

But I've really honestly think we're -- and it's not quite over and I don't know that we should even dare presume that nothing else horrible will happen. But -- but I honestly feel personally that if I had not rounded up 2020, it might have gone on forever. I think America owes me a debt of gratitude.

SCIUTTO: Only 36 more hours, 30 -- you know, about more hours to go.

How do you think the Trump era ends for this country? Does it?

BARRY: I -- well, to me, the enduring -- I mean if there's one wonderful thing that came out of this whole thing, I could sum it up in the following name, four seasons total landscaping.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes.

BARRY: That sort of just the ultimate perfect metaphor for kind of how the -- how it worked, how the administration ended with that wondrous display of, you know, ineptitude in the parking lot there as the -- as the election was being announced, you know, in reality land there was also the four seasons total landscaping. And this sort of was a perfect metaphor for how this year went and how it went for the Trump administration.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BARRY: So, if we look at it as humor, which is how I have to look at things because that's what I do for a living, it was a wonderful ending.

SCIUTTO: Yes, don't forget the crematorium and the porn shop, they were right next door.

BARRY: Right. You could not --

SCIUTTO: No.

BARRY: You could not make that up. I mean if you had written a movie with that in it, everybody in the -- you know, the -- in Hollywood would have said, no, we can't use that, it's too ridiculous, nobody will buy it.

[08:55:03]

But it happened.

CAMEROTA: Dave Barry, thanks for making us laugh. Again, the paper back of "Lessons from Lucy" is out now.

Great to see you. Have a wonderful New Year's.

BARRY: Thanks. You, too. Everybody enjoy the new year. It's got to be better than this past year.

SCIUTTO: It does.

CAMEROTA: Stay healthy. We will talk to you soon.

And CNN's coverage continues next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Good morning. I'm Bianna Golodryga, in for Jim and Poppy.

[09:00:00]

This morning, Colorado flagging a second suspected case of the U.K. coronavirus variant just hours after confirming the first one here in the United States.