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President Biden Signs Executive Orders on Dealing with Coronavirus Pandemic, Economy, and Immigration; Biden Administration Officials State Trump Administration had No Plan To Distribute Coronavirus Vaccine; President Biden to Meet with Congressional Leaders; Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is Interviewed About Biden's Agenda. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 21, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's a situation depicted in this, the brand new cover of "Time" magazine just released.

More breaking news. Just a short time ago, the White House released this 21-page strategy for fighting the pandemic. Item number one, which is interesting, restore trust with the American people.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That will be a heavy lift.

Overnight President Biden signed 17 executive actions dealing with the pandemic, the economy, and immigration. And if you tried to fall asleep last night, you were possibly awakened by the mother of all fireworks shows. Even if you were across the country, it's possible you heard Katy Perry singing. President Biden also spoke last night at the Lincoln Memorial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have learned again that democracy is on precious. And because of you, democracy has prevailed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: And we begin this morning with that breaking news on the pandemic. M.J. Lee, it is her reporting. She joins us now. What have you learned?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, Joe Biden is about to get a much clearer picture in the coming days and weeks of what exactly he inherited from the Trump administration on COVID and vaccines. But sources with direct knowledge told CNN within hours of Biden being sworn into office that there simply was no vaccination plan under the Trump administration. One source telling CNN that "There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch." Another source saying that it was "further affirmation of complete incompetence" of the Trump administration, learning that they would have to now start essentially from square one.

Now, this is obviously some very strong and critical language that we are hearing, and what we have learned is that during the transition process, some of Biden's COVID advisers wanted to be careful to not be overly critical during the transition process of the Trump administration because, remember, they were already struggling to get important data and information about COVID and the vaccines from the outgoing administration. Now what they hope to do since Biden is now officially in office is to almost go on this fact-checking mission to try to really get a sense of what is going on here, what is it that the states need, where do things stand in terms of vaccine supply and production and all of the above.

It was noteworthy, yesterday the White House COVID coordinator, Jeff Zients, said this to reporters. He said "For almost a year now Americans could not look to the federal government for any strategy, let alone a comprehensive approach to respond to COVID. And we've seen the tragic costs of that failure. As President Biden steps into office today, that will change tomorrow."

Well, today is Biden's first full day in office as president, and we know that he is going to be almost entirely focused on COVID, planning to sign 10 executive orders having to do with COVID, having to do with vaccine production. And what is so striking is that these goals the Biden White House is laying out, they are such a contrast from how the Trump administration handled all of this. Look at this, restoring trust with the American people, launching a vaccination campaign, trying to contain COVID through things like masking and testing, using the Defense Production Act, reopening schools and businesses.

So these goals in and of themselves just speak volumes about the different approach that the Biden White House is trying to take, and just such a contrast that they are even trying to set up any kind of national strategy at all, Alisyn.

BERMAN: M.J. Lee, thank you so much for that reporting. Really appreciate you being with us.

Joining us now, CNN senior political correspondent David Axelrod and CNN political commentator, former Republican senator Jeff Flake. David, just to bring people up to speed on what happened before 6:00 a.m. on January 21st, before 6:00 a.m. this morning from this White House we learned, they told us there was no plan from the previous administration to distribute the vaccine, and then they released this, their plan, their goals for fighting the COVID pandemic. Take us behind the scenes, as someone who has been there on day one of an administration. Why did this happen this way on day one of the Biden presidency?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is a new day in Washington, but it's not a new problem. This is the most vexing problem Joe Biden faces. They know that this is how they'll be judged. And everything else in certain ways depends on this, getting this virus response right.

And they also had some insight. Obviously, they're working with some people who were involved. Dr. Fauci chief among them, in the last administration's response so they knew what they were deal with. And they knew that they had to send a strong signal coming out of the box that they were going to change things, and they needed to change things quickly.

[08:05:00]

So this is not surprising that this should come out of the box here, and it's absolutely essentially that they change what has gone before. The last administration wasn't honest with the American people from the beginning on this virus, and that had deadly consequences. They didn't provide consistent guidance and coordination for state and local governments, and that had tragic consequences. And now as we're trying to disseminate this vaccine, it is more important than ever that, a, they be candid about where we are, and, b, that they work closely with those delivering the vaccine to make sure that it gets into the arms of people.

CAMEROTA: Senator Flake, I am eager to get your thoughts on where we are today, in terms of the vaccine, in terms of everything. Yesterday was such a display of Americans, at least a majority of Americans, desire to turn the page on the Trump era, desire to reset. But, of course, you can't in some ways, because the Trump era is now woven into the tapestry of our nation, and there are repercussions of decisions that were made then, such as where we are with COVID.

JEFF FLAKE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. Well, David's right. The Biden administration is going to be judged by how they deal with COVID first and foremost. But here's what you -- the problem you have when you deride anybody working in government as part of the deep state. And this was -- we knew this was coming, that there would be a reckoning here. We had a couple of weeks ago this knowledge that vaccines that they said that were going to fill in for other vaccines, we found out that they've been depleted, that that stock wasn't available. So we've had signs that it just wasn't going well. But I'm sure when the Biden administration really dug in to this so-called plan, they found there's not much there, there. And I think they're going to find that with many other agencies that they have to deal with.

BERMAN: We just got some breaking news from CNN's Jeff Zeleny. It says that President Biden will invite congressional leaders to the White House soon to discuss his legislative agenda. An administration official tells him that could come as early as Friday. Congressional leaders, and I assume that means bipartisan congressional leaders, David Axelrod. And the reason I say I assume that is because, obviously, unity was a giant part of the president's inaugural address. And one line in particular that David Chalian, our friend, pointed out to me that I think may have been glossed over but is important in terms of Biden, Biden said that in moments of crisis, enough of us came together to carry us all forward, enough of us pulled us all forward. So who is he targeting in terms of that enough, David?

AXELROD: And Jeff Flake can speak to this very well. There are people of good will in both parties who understand that crises like these require cooperation, and he's targeting them. And he's trying to split off -- he's trying to put together a coalition of the willing, as it were, in the Congress to help him face this and other significant problems that he's taking on.

And one of the advantages that Joe Biden brings to this White House is those 36 years in the Senate. He understands how legislators think. He doesn't disdain their political concerns. He understands them, and he knows how to work across the aisle. Whether he can penetrate the kind of Manichean dynamic that we have right now in our politics remains to be seen. I thought yesterday was a good start, but it's wise to bring party leaders of both -- leaders of both parties from the Congress to the White House and engage them in discussions about how to move forward now. I think that it's totally appropriate, and hopefully it will move things forward.

CAMEROTA: How about that, Senator Flake, do you think there's a willingness from the majority of Republicans to work with the Biden administration?

FLAKE: I do. There are certainly enough. We'll see if it's a majority or not. But I was part of many delegations that went to the White House to talk to the president about, for example, how to deal with DACAS. And we had what we called the 10:00 a.m. president versus the 2:00 p.m. president. At 10:00 a.m. during meetings he'd say, yes, I'm not the expert here. You guys write the legislation. We would go back to the Hill thinking, well, maybe we can do something. But by 2:00 p.m., the president had talked to certain advisers, or, heaven forbid, you'd go into the next day and the president would have heard FOX News at night, and then come back and say, no, we're not going to go there anymore.

So it was intensely frustrating for members of Congress of good will who wanted to work with the president, Democrats included, who just weren't able to. And Joe Biden, I think, will be different here.

[08:10:00]

He is, in a very good way, a creature of the Senate in that he knows how to compromise. He knows how to work across the aisle, and has a desire to do so. And I don't think you'll see this schism between how he acts in the morning as opposed to how he acts in the afternoon with regard to dealing with Congress.

BERMAN: David Axelrod, "Politico" coined a phrase this morning. They called President Biden bipartisan curious.

(LAUGHTER)

AXELROD: Yes, I think he's bipartisan eager, but he also is a realist. And one of the big decisions he's going to have to make is how much time he gives to trying to get bipartisan support before he uses devices and tools that are available to him to move forward on a more partisan basis, particularly on this virus and the funding that he needs to get this program moving.

So, look, I think that Joe Biden is absolutely sincere. I know this. I worked with him in the White House. He's absolutely sincere about his desire to work with people on both sides of the aisle. He understands that that is the best way to move forward, and it's important for the country. But it's also important for the country to -- speed is really, really important here, especially as it pertains to the virus. So I think he's going to test early how much people are willing to work with him to get that done.

I just want to say one thing about what Jeff said. The consistency is so important. The ability to know that the guy you talk to in the morning is going to be the guy you talk to at night. That when he agrees to something, he will stand by that agreement, that his word is good, that he respects you. All of those things are important. Those are real assets that this president brings that, frankly, the last president didn't.

CAMEROTA: It's amazing, Senator Flake, to hear how different 10:00 a.m. President Trump could be versus 2:00 p.m., or post Hannity Trump. That's just a fascinating insight. And so Senator, how much time do you think Congress should devote to the Senate trial of Donald Trump? Do you think they should still pursue that now?

FLAKE: Well, they have no choice. It's coming over. And I heard plans are three days. And I think that that would be sufficient. And the Senate can do two things at once, three things at once if they really need to. In this case, they do.

And with regard to testing Congress's willingness to be bipartisan on something, boy, the pandemic and dealing with vaccine distribution is a great place to start because there you'll find a majority of Republicans willing to work with the administration on this issue. But, yes, I think that they can move ahead doing a number of things together.

BERMAN: I want to put up a group of 16 senators, in addition to the leaders who we understand will be invited to the White House to speak to the president as early as Friday. This group of senators being called by some the "Sweet 16" meeting with White House staff over the next few days to try to figure out a way to hammer out a plan for economic stimulus, the $1.9 trillion plan that the White House wants. Some of the Republicans on the list include Mitt Romney, Rob Portman, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski.

And Senator Flake, one of the questions I've actually been dying to ask you for this moment, for after the beginning of the Biden presidency, is what is the reasonable expectation that a lot of Democrats should have for Republicans who were willing to stand up to Donald Trump? Mitt Romney stood up to Donald Trump, but it doesn't all of a sudden mean he's going to be some Massachusetts liberal Democrat. So what can they reasonably expect from these Republicans?

FLAKE: Well, Republicans tend to act more conservative when they're in the minority. And so you're going to have a number of Republicans who maybe you thought that you could get on some of these fiscal issues or some of these spending programs that just won't be there now that Republicans are in the minority. But that list of Republicans, eight Republicans, is a good place to

start. There are a few others that I would add to that list. But let me tell you, when you get to the Senate, you want to legislate. You want to work with the other side on certain issues. And many of my former colleagues are really tired of just doing what's called the president's executive agenda, appointments to the bench or to his cabinet, instead of actually negotiating and legislating. And so I think that the president and certainly Chuck Schumer and the Democrats will find willing negotiators on the Republican side. But I wouldn't get expectations up too big in terms of what Republicans will do on the fiscal side, on spending issues.

AXELROD: Can I just say on this point, Jeff said they'll want to work with him on certain issues.

[08:15:00]

There's nothing wrong with that. There's a reason there are two parties. They do have differences.

The thing that has plagued us is this notion that if you work -- if you disagree on some things, you can't work together on anything. And that's what Biden was addressing yesterday in his inaugural address. That is antithetical to his idea of how one should behave in government and how the legislature should behave relative to the executive and the executive to the legislature.

So the real test will be, can you disagree on some things but still find common ground on others, and how do you identify those areas where you can work together and will the bases of both parties allow that? That is what we are going to see in short order here. And let's hope that they can find some common ground.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: David Axelrod, Jeff Flake, thank you both very much.

So, President Biden's first big legislative priority, comprehensive immigration reform, what's the reality of that in an evenly divided Senate? A key senator on the Foreign Relations Committee, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy -- unity. Unity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:20:01]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Unity.

And on that front, CNN just learned that President Biden will invite congressional leaders to the White House, bipartisan congressional leaders, we understand, as early as tomorrow.

Joining us now is Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon.

Senator, thank you so much for being with us.

The first thing I want to get your reaction to is the breaking news. We also learned from the Biden administration, the White House says they came into office inheriting no plan for distribution of the coronavirus vaccine. No plan they say, they have to start from scratch.

Your reaction?

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Well, that certainly fits with our understanding because the plan was, let the states figure it out. And so we had no national plan.

And then we found out that the administration was essentially lying to the states when they said they had a large reserve for the second shots that could now be distributed because they had a sufficient supply chain support, and it turned out there was no reserve. It had already been distributed.

So there wasn't transparency. There wasn't honesty and there wasn't a plan. This is an affirmation or confirmation of that. And it just tells you how important it is now to have a seriously competent team at work to get these vaccinations into the arms of Americans.

BERMAN: How much desire do you have for any kind of investigation into what happened at the end, how there could be a lack of a plan from Operation Warp Speed?

MERKLEY: I tell you, I was thinking back to when Patty Murray and I sent last March a letter to the White House saying there's nothing more important than having a plan for vaccination distribution because when we finally get it, it's going to save a lot of lives if we can do it fast and effectively.

And, of course, the result was no plan. I'm much more interested right now in doing everything we can to support the administration in getting the vaccination out and saving lives. We can analyze down the road. I'm sure the think-tanks will analyze.

But right now, the emphasis has to be on getting that vaccine out, not on spending our time analyzing the failures of the last administration.

BERMAN: So part of handling the pandemic is also dealing with the economic strain from it and the Biden administration is proposing a major stimulus/relief bill. And our understanding is the Biden team is looking to meet with a group of bipartisan senators as soon as this weekend.

Punchbowl is calling it the Sweet 16. We're putting the facts up on the screen now. The Democrats include Joe Manchin, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Warner, new Senator Mark Kelly. What do you make of this group of senators? And are these the people,

you, Senator, want to see hammering out this legislation?

MERKLEY: Listen, this is putting the centrists together from both parties, which is fine.

But it's really important the president's team does regular consultations with the breadth of the party. It was progressives who put forward the vision of massive intervention to help families get their health care and housing and education and good-paying jobs. It's progressives that drove the conversation over climate, over equal opportunity.

It is so important that this administration not simply adopt, we're going to talk to the middle of the spectrum because I can tell you the energy that drives the Democratic Party is coming from the progressive side and progressives need to be at the table.

BERMAN: And how do you feel about the fact there are no progressives at that table this morning?

MERKLEY: Any one meeting is fine, but I think it's very important to remind the administration that that's not going to get us where we need to go, and it certainly isn't going to get us the momentum to continue to have a blue majority supporting the president after 2022. So we need to work together. There's so much that needs to be done.

You know, you need both. I think back when I was speaker of the House and I had people far to the left making outrageous demands. You know, those sometimes made the middle of the spectrum move.

So, it's valuable to have deep consultations with folks that you think may be a little ahead of the curve because they can move the direction of the country.

BERMAN: So unity. We heard that word a lot yesterday. It doesn't necessarily mean meet in the middle?

MERKLEY: No, not at all. Unity certainly means, let's bring all the views to the table. Work together. Just think about the ways right now, how fast we could move on a national vaccination plan if we were able to get on the floor of the Senate right now the funding for such a vaccination operation. Think about how we could affect the stimulus for ordinary Americans if we were right now having a group getting ready to put a bill on the floor with none of the normal delays that Mitch McConnell is famous for.

He's built his career on obstruction and delay as a political strategy rather than solving problems. We need to change that. We need to have Mitch McConnell move his heart in the direction of being an American who cares about the big issues facing our nation and works to address them.

[08:25:09]

BERMAN: So I know immigration reform is something you worked on for a long time. It's an issue you care a lot about. If the votes aren't there to pass the legislation that Joe Biden is asking for, filibuster-proof legislation, what's your feeling on doing away with the filibuster?

MERKLEY: Well, certainly, there are some issues where we have taken an oath to the Constitution that we have to fulfill. And right at the basis of that is the access to the ballot. So we have massive corruption of our election system through gerrymandering, through voter suppression, through dark money.

Right now, we're hearing Republicans across the nation saying, hey, you know, the way to win next time around is more voter suppression.

Earlier, the conversation was about systemic racism. There's nothing more involved in systemic racism than denying black Americans access to the ballot through all these sorts of manipulation.

So if we have a bill like the "for the people" bill which is going to be S1, the first Senate bill on the floor, and we are defending or working to repair the integrity of the foundation of our democracy, the ability of people to vote and the Republicans block it through the McConnell veto. That's going to be a major point of confrontation.

We have to find a way to honor our oath, to defend the Constitution. That means to repair the corruption of our election systems. That would be an example.

Immigration, I'm much more optimistic we can get bipartisan support. We had a bipartisan bill go through the Senate. We had bipartisan support for a plan to address the Dreamers.

What the president is calling for on that is a path to citizenship for 11 million Americans. He's calling for more border security. He's calling for investing in Central America to reduce the flow.

I think we can build a bipartisan coalition around those three points.

BERMAN: Just yes or no, would you support doing away with the filibuster?

MERKLEY: Well, I would support -- I personally would support doing away with it, but that's not the option on the table right now.

BERMAN: OK.

MERKLEY: The -- when it becomes a barrier to doing the important work to save America on multiple fronts, then we'll have that conversation.

BERMAN: Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon, we always appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much.

MERKLEY: Thank you, John. Good to be with you.

BERMAN: All right. We heard from the Biden administration before dawn that they inherited no plan on distributing the coronavirus vaccine. So how can the White House get more Americans vaccinated? Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains, next.

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