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Democrats and GOP Senators Lobby White House for more Targeted Relief Bill; Why Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Dumped President Trump; Officials Express Concern over Shortage of Coronavirus Vaccines. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 25, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: $1.9 trillion relief plan.

[07:00:02]

But there's already push back. Senators on both sides of the aisle think that Democrats need to explain more about how to use this money or how they would target it. Democrats laying the groundwork to do it without Republicans, if necessary. This morning, we have new details about where the talks stand.

And later today, President Biden will reinstate and expand coronavirus travel restrictions that President Trump tried to eliminate on his way out the door. This comes amid growing concern about the new coronavirus variants. Health officials now say the new U.K. variant may not only be more transmissible but also more deadly than previous strains.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: So, later today, the House of Representatives will deliver the articles of impeachment against the former president to the Senate. The trial will not start for another two weeks. But in that gap, we're learning stunning new details about how the former president tried to use the Department of Justice to overturn his election loss.

And just into CNN, two new arrivals at the White House, Champ and Major. They are now in residence, we are told, the Biden's German shepherds. You can see them playing with the first lady on the White House grounds. We're told that Champ is enjoying his new dog bed by the fireplace. Major is partial to running on the south lawn.

Now, we're also hearing Republicans have launched an investigation into the dogs. Susan Collins, we're told, is concerned and Tucker Carlson is devoting 15 minutes a night to saying the dogs represent cancel culture because it obscures a discussion that he so desperately wants about cats.

CAMEROTA: You really stayed up too late tonight, didn't you? Were you watching football? Is that's what's happening right now.

BERMAN: There was a lot of football.

CAMEROTA: I can see something is happening. Joining us now, we have CNN Political Analyst David Gregory and Natasha Alford, Vice President of Digital Content and Senior Correspondent at The Grio. Great to see you guys.

Okay, David, if you don't have anything to say about the Super Bowl, I'll just move on.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I just want to graduate Tom Brady, because I know John cares about that. Pretty amazing.

BERMAN: Well, I just think at some point, he needs to be appreciated. I think he is underrated.

GREGORY: I do appreciate him. I do.

BERMAN: I think his accomplishments haven't been touted enough. That's all I'm saying.

GREGORY: It should lead the 7:00 hour.

BERMAN: It led at 6:00. It changed. We need rotate the context.

CAMEROTA: I'm sticking around for the next hour.

Okay, can we get on to the economic relief?

GREGORY: We can, we can.

CAMEROTA: Okay. So, David, they had this conference call with this bipartisan group of senators yesterday. And, you know, the White House was trying to sell the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and the senators wanted to know where they're getting their numbers. How they came up with this number? They wanted to know more about the math. They wanted to know how they're going to target it to make sure it gets to the Americans truly in need. I mean, that sounds pretty legitimate, those questions. Is there something we're missing?

GREGORY: Well, I think it's going to be a tough sell for a lot of Republicans on the package, the way it is. But I think there's fundamental elements of it that are about the virus response, about vaccines, about testing surveillance, about help to schools, which have to reopen. And the president has made that a priority that Republicans are onboard with.

And I also think for all of this talk about budget reconciliation, which is a process by which you only need a simple majority, rather than two-thirds in the Senate, this administration wants to try to negotiate first. They want to try to be an administration that can attract Republican support. So I guess my only question is, does it stay at that package? Are there certain things that are taken out? And does it become really COVID-centric, is what I'm looking at.

BERMAN: I mean, the calculation that the White House has to make, Natasha, is, are any Republicans really gettable in the end? Can they get -- is there something or anything they could do to get Republicans to sign on to a bill that the White House wants in the end? So is the effort worth it? Do you think under any circumstances Republicans are gettable?

NATASHA ALFORD, VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL CONTENT AND SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, THE GRIO: Yes, I think that the Republicans who are part of this conversation, you know, they at least give us some sort of silver lining or sliver of hope, right? COVID crisis is not a red or blue issue, it's affecting all Americans across the board, at least low-income Americans and those who, you know, are most at need. So that's not a political issue. And I think it's reported they came out of that meeting feeling that there was a genuine dialogue and that they all agree that COVID relief and the production of the vaccine had to be a priority.

But I have to say, what came close second to the viral Bernie Sanders memes were memes about Joe Biden giving people their $1,400 checks. People have not forgotten that promise. And they're going to hold them to it. And it's no laughing matter for them. We know that there are so many folks who have lost jobs, and particularly women who are suffering, people of color who are suffering. So, ultimately, I think it comes back to the American people and the constituents of these lawmakers, who are saying, get it done by any means necessary.

[07:05:03]

And I think you're going to have a lot of support, again, on the liberal Democrats side and, again, just everyday people who will say, do what you have to do to get it done, whether Republicans support it or not.

CAMEROTA: I mean, WWMD, what would Mitch do? If he had a -- the swing vote, if it was a Republican vice president and Mitch McConnell were in charge with an evenly divided Senate with that swing vote of a Republican, what would he do, David?

GREGORY: Well, I mean, if your question is, would he just ram through reconciliation, yes, I mean, there's every evidence to suggest through history that he would just do whatever it took. And I think a lot of progressives are saying exactly that, which is, let's get on with it.

But, you know, this is not the prevailing view in the White House. President Biden wants to show that he has a unique ability to attract some Republican support. And he's going to, I think, spend a little bit longer trying before he goes that route. He has been open to the idea of killing the filibuster, but not there yet.

So, I mean, this is a crucial time because the president has a lot to do and he doesn't have a lot of time in which to do it, where he's actually got the political Capitol. And that's true in any administration, but here he's facing a crisis. So he knows in a crisis, you can go big and that's what he's doing and he's trying to put Republicans, you know, put their backs to the wall, a little bit, knowing that that more needs to be done on the virus.

Especially the vaccine piece of it, right? We're starting to have those conversations about, well, what's the deal on the vaccine? Are we getting any information? That's going to only grow and create daily pressure on them. BERMAN: So, Natasha, we're finding out all kinds of new information about what happened prior to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. As if an insurrection isn't bad enough, now we're getting new information about discussions that the former president was having behind the scenes to try to overturn the election. All of these talks that he was trying to toss the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, put in his own guy, overturn the election results in Georgia.

And I think you put it really well, Alisyn. I mean, we're realizing now how close we got, as bad as it was, to something even worse, Natasha.

ALFORD: Yes. If you thought the phone call to Georgia election officials was bad, right, an embarrassing low, well, there was more to discover. So what we're hearing is that, you know, there was essentially an attempted coup by this attorney, Jeffrey Clark, to replace the acting attorney, Jeffrey Rosen, because he would not go along with Trump conspiracies. And I think what's even scarier about this scenario is that it was a lawmaker who was involved in introducing Jeffrey Clark to Trump, and letting him know that he was open to supporting these conspiracy theories and open to basically finding the evidence.

And this is a pattern that we saw with the Trump administration, that Trump was willing to create evidence, anything that would support his narrative of electoral injustice. And so, the folks who stormed the Capitol thought they were the patriots, but in reality, the patriots were the DOJ officials who stood up, they got together and they said that we will resign en masse if this happens.

And so, ultimately, when President Donald Trump was presented with that scenario, all of these DOJ officials resigning, he decided that it was a bad look and he didn't go forward with it. But imagine if they didn't have the courage to stand up and say something, we would be in a very different situation right now.

CAMEROTA: That leads us to the Senate trial of Donald Trump. David, we now know that will be in two weeks. And you're starting to hear Republicans, some Republicans, say, is this really necessary? I mean, that was two weeks ago.

BERMAN: It was just an insurrection.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it was just an insurrection. Let's move on. I mean, isn't time to just move on?

BERMAN: All the insurrectionists are really angry, by the way, and you don't want to make the insurrectionists angry by having an impeachment trial.

CAMEROTA: Yes, that's good.

GREGORY: Yes, that's right, they might storm the Capitol.

CAMEROTA: Right, great point. But one last thing, David, before I let you speak on it, because Lindsey Graham, Senator Lindsey Graham though had a statement in which he feels it's very important for Congress to get answers about things like this.

So here's what he said. We do not need an administration-led investigation to answer the question of what the president knew, what he was told and what action he chose to take before, during and after the attack. The American people deserve to know the facts about the attack. And the facts that have come to light thus far paint a disturbing picture.

The president needs to step forward and explain -- oh, I'm sorry, David, that was two months after Benghazi.

[07:10:05]

That was how Lindsey Graham felt about Benghazi and a different marauding mob that killed four Americans, but now he feels differently.

GREGORY: Right, it's a good point and it's a good slice of history. Here is where I think we are. Obviously, a trial is moving forward. The Republicans are not in the space of condemning or rather excusing what Trump did. They're arguing on process. Why do we really need this? It's clear that the pressure points that Republicans feel is raising the ire of Trump or his followers, as they think about the future of the party.

I think if you're the president, if you're the administration, what do you worry about here? That you're going to give Donald Trump the one thing he loves, which is a platform. And it's within a couple of weeks from losing office that he can use this to mount a defense and launch attacks and on and on and on, highly distracting.

The other hand of this is, I think, very clear, which is, how do you not move forward when you have a president who does this, including this new information about the Justice Department. I don't know how you don't move forward.

So It's a very difficult thing. I still think it's hard to imagine getting 17 Republicans to vote to convict him. But, you know, those who are for it and history is likely to look very closely at who made a statement at this time.

CAMEROTA: David, Natasha, thank you both very much.

So, one of the big unanswered questions heading into the Senate impeachment trial, will Mitch McConnell vote to convict Trump? He has said some things that led people to believe he will. But we have new reporting on McConnell's state of mind, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: Later today, the House will send the articles of impeachment against the former president to the Senate. The burning question is, after all is said and done, will Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vote to convict the former president? And how could the threat of creating a third party influence that decision?

Joining us now, Jane Mayer, author of Why McConnell Dumped Trump, her latest piece for The New Yorker. And, Jane, it's a terrific piece and we're really glad you're here to share some of your reporting with us.

I actually want to the end though. I want to ask the last question first, which is, after all is said and done, how do you really think Mitch McConnell will vote on whether to convict the president?

JANE MAYER, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORKER: Oh, gosh, you know, he's the cagiest member of a very cagey Senate. It's -- he'll do -- there's one theme that runs really through McConnell's entire career, which is, he will do what's in his self-interest. If he thinks it will help him get back to become majority leader in 2022 and he has the support to do that and it will bring his caucus along with him to vote to convict, I imagine he may do this.

But he's given himself many, many exit ramps and, you know, I wouldn't bet either way on him. It's hard to predict. But he's already shot a very loud warning shot at Trump, which is what was interesting to me. Because for four years, he's really cut a deal with Trump, where he's enabled him and he finally said something highly critical of Trump from the floor of the Senate.

CAMEROTA: And so let's talk about that. When did Mitch McConnell sour on Donald Trump? Because as you point out, he's been such an enabler or a collaborator, call it whatever you want. So was he faking it then? And then at the end of the administration, he no longer needed President Trump and could wash his hands of him?

MAYER: That sounds exactly right from what I'm hearing from my reporting. I interviewed John Yarmuth, who is a congressman from Louisville, Kentucky, who's known McConnell for decades. And he said, McConnell has hated Trump from the start, basically. And he's told people so. But he's just kept his mouth shut while he could get what he could out of Trump. And so they kind of held hands and held their noses.

And, you know, he thought that -- I mean, the whole won seat of the Republican Party's establishment wing through these last four years has been that they could kind of control Trump and get what they wanted out of him, exploit him and somehow ignore the forces that he was unleashing of chaos. And that began to fall apart after the election.

McConnell took six weeks before he acknowledged that Biden won. So he continued to kind of humor Trump, as Trump began to lie about winning the election. And he kept his mouth shut in large part, according to the reporting I've done, because he so much wanted to win those two Senate seats in Georgia.

So even when -- even when the officials in Georgia, the Republican officials, were saying, watch out, you know, this is going to end in bloodshed, these lies are really spinning people up, McConnell, as the leader of the Republicans in the Senate still said nothing and neither did almost all of the other senators. They didn't confront these lies. They let them grow and sink in and radicalize the Trump base.

And it was really only on January 6th that McConnell finally spoke out, harshly, and even more since, of course, the Capitol riot insurrection on that day.

BERMAN: Well, he had two awful days, Mitch McConnell, January 5th and January 6th. January 5th is when he lost the Senate, because Georgia turned out to be bad politics. I mean, he placed his bet on Donald Trump helping him win Georgia and the exact opposite happened. The Republicans lost Georgia, by and large, because of Donald Trump.

MAYER: I know. It's an incredible irony, really, because they kind of made an a Faustian deal, the establishment wing, which is really led by McConnell, saying that they needed to keep quiet about what Trump was doing in order to win those two Senate seats.

[07:20:08]

And, in fact, what happened was, there was a huge reaction against Trump in Georgia. The suburban and more moderate Republican voters stayed home and a lot of the really conservative voters who loved Trump were told by Trump that the election was rigged and they didn't bother to vote. And so it actually came back and bit McConnell. He lost those two seats and he lost the leadership of the Senate, which is the thing that he holds most dear.

CAMEROTA: How much do you think is playing into Mitch McConnell's calculus that Donald Trump is threatening to create this other party, the MAGA party, the patriot party, whatever he plans to call it? How much do you think that's keeping Mitch McConnell up at night?

MAYER: Well, I mean, I think it's got to be a nightmare for him. Basically, if his aim is to win in 2022, get back the majority, he needs to keep his caucus with him. He needs to have his members get re-elected. And, basically, what Trump is doing now is vowing vengeance against anybody who might go against him and saying he will run primary challengers against them.

So this is a nightmare for Mitch McConnell. He is basically -- there was a quote from Adam Jentleson, who is a longtime Senate observer who's got a great new book out about the Senate called Kill Switch. And at any rate, he's -- he says, McConnell is like the cartoon character with one foot on both sides of the ravine, as the sides are getting further and further apart.

He has been trying to bridge these two parts of the Republican coalition that they need the win, which is the -- sort of the business community, the big, sort of plutocratic Wall Street community that provides money to the party and also, the populist base, the sort of working class, mostly white, often male, kind of angry social conservatives.

And he has been bridging that gap with Trump's help through the Trump administration, but it's getting wider and wider apart and it's creating fissure that could become a civil war within the Republican Part. BERMAN: One thing I know about cartoons, is that character's pants always split when he's trying to straddle both sides.

How much weight do you put into this relationship that we keep on hearing about between Mitch McConnell and President Joe Biden? Does it matter?

AYER: You know, I'm sure it helps a little bit. I've read McConnell's memoir, and he's a little bit dismissive of Biden. He says he likes him very much, but he also describes how he thinks Biden talks too much and, I mean, he's kind of condescending to Biden in his own memoir about him.

So I wouldn't say he starts with deep, deep respect. What he says is that Biden is someone he can do business with. And, you know, maybe that's a hopeful sign.

CAMEROTA: Maybe that's all we need. Jane Mayer, thank you very much for sharing all of your reporting with us.

MAYER: Thank you.

BERMAN: Thanks, Jane. We're getting new information about cities and states lacking vaccines they need, people having appointments canceled. What do we know about where the vaccines are and what is being done to get them? New York City's health commissioner joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

CAMEROTA: This morning, a stunning revelation from the new CDC director. She says that the U.S. government has no idea exactly how many coronavirus vaccines it has on hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: One of the biggest problems right now is I can't tell you how much vaccine we have. And if I can't tell it to you, then I can't tell it to the governors and I can't tell it to the state health officials. If they don't know how much vaccine they're getting, not just this week, but next week and the week after, they can't plan. They can't figure out how many sites to roll out. They can't figure out how many vaccinators that they need. And they can't figure out how many appointments to make for the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So are states running out of supply? Are people's appointments being canceled because of lack of doses?

Joining us now is Dr. Dave Chokshi, he is the health commissioner of New York City. We are so happy to have you here, Doctor, because we keep hearing all of this conflicting reporting coming out.

So, as of right now, this morning, do you -- does New York have enough doses or is it running out?

DR. DAVE CHOKSHI, NEW YORK CITY HEALTH COMMISSIONER: Well, first, thank you so much for having me on the program. And the short answer is, no, New York City does not have enough doses. We don't have enough doses to be able to meet the demand that we know exists among New Yorkers. We don't have enough doses to be able to fulfill the capacity that we have stood up to be able to turn vaccines into vaccinations.

CAMEROTA: Can you give us some numbers? How many doses do you have left right now?

CHOKSHI: We have only a few thousand doses left. And all of them will be used in the next 24 to 48 hours, based on the appointments that have already been booked. But that also belies the fact that we could be scheduling far more appointments. We have the capacity to administer much more vaccine if we had more supply.

There's one other important point that I want to emphasize here. It's not just about the absolute numbers, although that is critically important. What our goal is, is to vaccinate as many New Yorkers as quickly as possible, but we also need the line of site to be able to plan, not just for tomorrow, not just for next week, but also for next month. And this is critically important at this stage in the pandemic.

CAMEROTA: How many people could you vaccinate a day if you had enough supply?

CHOKSHI: Well, we know from an earlier week in January when we had more supply, we were able to vaccinate one New Yorker every three seconds. That's over 220,000 doses of vaccination just in a single week.

[07:25:03]

We think we could easily double and probably go even higher than that.