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President Biden Pledges to Speed Up Vaccine Deliveries to States; 25 GOP Senators Reject Constitutionality of Trial Signaling Likely Acquittal. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 27, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

President Biden promising more vaccines are on the way. He says his administration will buy 200 million more doses. That should be enough to vaccinate the entire country by the end of summer.

And what about schools? The CDC now says evidence indicates that schools are not super spreaders. They can reopen safely if proper protocols are followed.

The first White House coronavirus briefing will be held today and it will be led by doctors, not politicians.

January is the deadliest month of the pandemic so far. Nearly 80,000 Americans have died this month alone.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Right now on Capitol Hill, new developments in the impeachment trial of the former president. 45 Republican senators tried to make the argument that there can't be a trial for an ex-president. Only five effectively voted to keep the trying going.

So let me ask you a question here. Riddle me this. If the impeachment process takes a minimum of weeks, not months, are Republicans suggesting that the Constitution allows the president to commit treason or high crimes and misdemeanors for a period of weeks or months with total impunity? Does that sound like the kind of thing that the founders believe?

We're also learning more about how the impeachment managers plan to present their case. Video and social media posts to demonstrate how the former president's words, tweets, actions, incited the Capitol insurrection. We want to warn you, we haven't censored the video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: You don't concede when there's theft involved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We already voted and what have they done? They stole it. We want our fuck back. Let's take it. Let's go. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. We'll have much more of this and the role it might play in the Senate trial.

But let's begin with the pandemic. Joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, great to see you.

I think we can all agree, more vaccine is better than less vaccine. But in terms of what President Biden announced yesterday, that his administration is buying 200 million more doses of these first two vaccines that are available, just tell me, is that wise given that we hear that J&J, the single-dose vaccine, may be right around the corner, which would be easier to administer for everybody?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, you know, we don't know for certain if that's going to be what the data is going to show on Johnson & Johnson, whether it's going to be authorized. But as you point out, it does look pretty promising. And if we start to do the math there, we can show all the various doses from all the various companies that the United States government has now purchased.

But it is well more than what would be needed to vaccinate everybody and certainly to get to that point of herd immunity, 300 million doses of Pfizer, 300 million of Moderna. Remember, they also have 300 million of AstraZeneca. And by the way, AstraZeneca is going to be meeting representatives with the CDC today to talk about their vaccine, and the list goes on.

But some of these are just bets. You know, I think they're trying to hedge their bets. And is it possible that there may still even be booster shots of some of these vaccines necessary, as we're talking more about the variants? So it's -- I think that they're just making some bets and trying to figure out what the future really holds.

BERMAN: So, Sanjay, when the president says they're going to increase the amount of vaccines shipped by 16 percent next week, really, I think the question is important to people, what does that mean for when my father gets the vaccine? What does it mean for when Alisyn gets the vaccine? Does it mean that they will be more likely to be able to get that vaccine sooner?

GUPTA: I think it does. But it is worth pointing out, when we look at the amount of vaccine that has been distributed to states and the amount of vaccine that has actually gone into people's arms, there is still a shortfall there. You've heard from all of these various governors. Some states, obviously, getting their vaccine into people's arms much more quickly than other states.

I mean, West Virginia has been held up as a model of a place that has done this very efficiently. Where I am in Georgia, there's been a gap between the amount of vaccine that's been distributed versus the amount that's actually been administered. So, there is still that problem a little bit.

[07:05:01]

But, overall, I do think that more vaccine will help address that problem. But you've also got to make sure you have enough of the basic syringes. We've talked about this. You've got to make sure that you have enough of the vaccinators, people who actually push the vaccine into people's arms. And President Biden has talked about all of this, but all of that needs to come into place.

Even as you start to talk about the national retail pharmacies, who I talk to representatives on a pretty regular basis, they do have the ability to really ramp up vaccine administration, but they're going to need resources. Some of that is, again, people who are actually administering the vaccine.

Some of it is just square footage within these places, so that you can keep people still distanced, people can be observed for 15 to 30 minutes after they get their vaccine. So there's all of these nuances that still need to come into place. More vaccines is a really important part of that puzzle, but this is complicated, as we've known all along.

CAMEROTA: As John knows, I've been lying about my age for so long. It was to be younger. Now with the vaccine, I'm lying to be older.

BERMAN: You're 29.

CAMEROTA: I really have forgotten, actually. I don't know how old I am at this point.

Sanjay, let's talk about schools. The CDC has new research out that they are not super spreaders. And some parents have said they've known that all along, that if kids wear masks, if you adhere to the masks, they can go to school safely.

But, of course, it's complicated by teachers' unions, who don't want to expose, of course, their teachers to unnecessary deadly risk. But it sound like the latest research from the studies suggests that schools can reopen.

GUPTA: I think so. You know, and I'll preface by saying, I was skeptical of this. I looked at the data going back to last year, I looked at some of the data coming out of South Korea on contact tracing studies. And I also just know having kids, kids oftentimes, one of my kids got a respiratory virus, cold or something, everybody would get it. That was this sort of, I think, belief walking into this.

Now there's plenty of data and we can show some of the data. I know you've been talking about this study this morning. But from the CDC, this was published in their weekly report. This was 17 schools in Wisconsin. And they were mainly rural schools, but they had good resources. Kids were given masks. It sounds like they had space, but what they found was that the incident of COVID among the students was actually lower than the surrounding communities.

And that's not the first time we've seen that. We've seen that in other districts around the country and we've seen that in other places around the world. There was about 5,300 total staff and students and 191 over the fall term got -- became infected. But only seven of those 191 actually came from the school itself. So there is the data.

I think the question is, and I think it's a legitimate question for teachers' unions and teachers to be asking is, could we do the same thing in our school district? What were the ingredients to make that happen? And could we give added confidence? The vaccines, for sure, hopefully that will ramp up as we talk about.

But we still don't talk enough about testing. I know that President Biden has talked about $50 billion allocated towards these rapid antigen tests. The thing about these antigen tests, these are for people who don't have symptoms. If you have symptoms, you should stay home. I think that has been well established.

But if you don't have symptoms, could these rapid antigen tests answer the question you're really trying to ask, which is not, do I have the virus, it's, am I contagious? That's the real question these tests can answer. And if they are widely available at schools, at Hudson yards, where you guys are, and all of these big locations, could we get to a point of confidence and comfort for the teachers or staff or everybody else, whatever the setting may be?

BERMAN: All right, Sanjay, we're going to talk to you again. So, stick around, don't go far. Thank you very much.

GUPTA: Okay.

BERMAN: Also another, obviously, another big development overturn and that's the U.S. Senate. 45 Republicans suggesting they don't even want to have a Senate trial about the insurrection at the Capitol. They don't want to hear the case against the former president, that he incited the mob to invade the Capitol, an invasion that led to the death of five people, including the direct killing of one Capitol police officer.

Joining us now CNN Political Analyst Margaret Talev, she is the Managing Editor at Axios.

And I want to make one thing clear, Margaret. You know, we don't know what the verdict will be in the Senate trial. There could be new evidence that the senators will hear this and there were some Republicans who voted not to have a trial yesterday, who paradoxically say that they may be willing to vote to convict.

That aside, I do think that we learned something about the Republican Party yesterday. We've been framing and you've been writing in Axios every day about the battle for the soul of the Republican Party. What battle? What battle? 45 Republican senators don't want a trial.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, John, yes, good morning. There's not really two ways to read that vote. That was a test vote about the prospects for conviction in an impeachment, and unless something extraordinary were to develop between now and a few days from now, we know the answer before it started. [07:10:08]

And so that's what you're seeing. You're seeing this group of, you know, basically five -- it's now the gang of five -- Republican senators who are showing a consistent willingness to break away and vote with Democrats, to kind of hold a block against some things. But when you need to get to even 60 votes, much less two-thirds, five Republican senators doesn't get you there.

And so it is both a bulwark for former President Trump, now out of office, and it is also a real sign for Democrats of -- and for, I think, President Biden, for some of the governing challenges they're going to have going forward.

So I think what we're looking at now is increased discussions around the idea of some alternate measure. My colleague, Alayna Treene yesterday at Axios, reporting that Senator Tim Kaine, who's a Democrat, and Senator Susan Collins, of course, who's a Republican talking about siding up together now again on the idea of a censure vote against President Trump.

It would be history-making. It would obviously have less teeth than a conviction, but there would be the censure of an ex-president for actions that he did in his waning days and renewed talk among a Democrats including Kaine, about the 14th Amendment, which would be a way potentially prevent former President Trump seeking office again. Again, both of these would require 60 votes and it's not simple majority vote. They would need more Republicans than they have now, essentially, to get thing done.

CAMEROTA: Margaret, remember when Republicans cared about a police officer being killed? Remember their outrage at Antifa when there's violence? Remember the hearings that they held for the better part of a year after Benghazi? I mean, the idea that they're not talking about Officer Brian Sicknick, that they aren't demanding somebody be charged for that. As far as we know, no one has been charged yet for that officer's death.

And I was so struck, Margaret, by something that former Ambassador Nikki Haley said yesterday -- said on Monday, I should say. She was talking about the victim here. But the victim, as she sees it in the insurrection, is Donald Trump. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), FORMER U.N. AMBASSADOR: They beat him up before he got into office. They're beating him up after he leaves office. I mean, at some point, I mean, give the man a break. I mean, move on. If you are truly are about moving on, move on. The idea that they're going to do impeachment, that's not going to bring our country together. That's only dividing our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Move on from the Capitol insurrection?

BERMAN: Or, give him a break. Poor guy.

CAMEROTA: Give President Trump a break after the words that we heard, the words that the mobsters heard that they say incited them?

TALEZ: I think you're raising an important point about the context of this impeachment, because it is a historical first when you think about the context of the events leading up to it, right? I mean, there was loss of human life, as a result of the siege on the Capitol and former President Trump certainly whipped up the crowds before. I think if you're a prosecutor, if you're an attorney, you can debate legal predicate for incitement.

Impeachment has always been a political tool. You don't need the same standards for impeachment. Impeachment is the will of a body. And in this case, the will of the body doesn't seem to appear to have the willingness to go forward with a conviction. But you don't need to meet the same standard that you would in a court. So the question is kind of what is going on? I think it's a separate criminal question, who is going to be held, which individual protesters are going to be held accountable for individual acts and certainly those investigations are moving forward.

But on the political question of former President Trump's accountability, you do see in the Republican Party, and everyone has different reasons, I would not mistake what Nikki Haley is saying for Nikki Haley thinking that President Trump is a great guy. But she is looking ahead at a 2024 potential presidential run and so is every other Republican and several of them are looking at 2022 runs.

We did a survey with one of our partners on college voters, college- aged voters and college voters. It's really interesting. This is a different group of Republicans or Republican-leaning Americans, right? They tend to be more, you know, more centrist, more establishment. They see Mitch McConnell as the new leader of the Republican Party. Most Republicans in this country do not, do not see that. And I think that is a crossroads that these Republicans are at.

[07:15:01]

And they are looking at politics right now. They're looking at this decision through the lens of politics as well as through the lens of accountability.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, Nikki Haley doesn't think that President Trump is a good guy, but she does think he's a victim. I mean, it's just amazing. Margaret, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

TALEV: Bye. Thanks.

BERMAN: All right. Dr. Anthony Fauci, top doctor from the president's coronavirus team join Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta for a new town hall tonight at 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time.

Some Republicans are now taking aim at fellow Republicans, who voted to impeach the former president. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Republican Senator Rand Paul claims impeachment is, quote, dead on arrival after a vast majority of Senate Republicans signaled the trial of former President Trump may be unconstitutional. This was a procedural vote, but it does suggest, likely, acquittal for the president's role in citing that insurrection at the Capitol three weeks ago today.

[07:20:01]

The attack led to the deaths of a U.S. Capitol police officer, Brian Sicknick, and four other Americans.

Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Katherine Clark, she is the assistant speaker of the House. Congresswoman, great to have you here.

So you all sent this article of impeachment from the House over to the Senate and then last night, 45 Republicans decided that the Senate trial is unconstitutional. So what is your response?

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): Well, it's good to be with you, Alisyn. And my response is, impeachment is moving forward. There was a procedural vote and we will now move on to a trial.

And let's think about what this impeachment is really about. It is about justice and it is about accountability for this president. And the senators who voted not to move forward with the impeachment took the same oath of office that I did at the beginning of the month. We have to live up to our constitutional duty. We owe it. We were there. We were witnesses to this violence, to this insurrection.

And we heard the words of the president, telling people, this mob to fight like hell, signaling out to come to Washington because it was going to be wild, in his words. What we have now is a democracy hanging in balance. The trial will go forward and the senators must uphold not only their oath to be impartial jurors but their oath of office and duty to our Constitution.

CAMEROTA: As you point out, as we all saw with our own eyes, this blood-thirsty mob beat the hell out of police officers. So it was striking to hear former Ambassador Nikki Haley talk about how you guys are actually beating up on President Trump. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: They beat him up before he got into office. They're beating him up after he leaves office. I mean, at some point, I mean, give the man a break. I mean, move on. If you truly are about moving on, move on. The idea that they're going to bring our country together, that's only dividing our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Is it time to give poor President Trump a break?

CLARK: You know, these cries of victimhood will just induce some eye rolling if they weren't so deadly dangerous. What she is proposing is that we say to all future presidents and to President Trump, you can do anything that you want. You can lead an insurrection, you can divide this country, you can lead a giant lie about our elections and their security. You can erode the fundamental pillars that hold up our democracy and it's okay. Because I, Nikki Haley, have my eyes on running for president and I think this is the formula.

It is shocking, it is against our Constitution and, fundamentally, all of this is about the security of the American people.

In this pandemic, are we going to finally put our eyes on them? You know, they just voted for Joe Biden because this administration wasn't seeing them. To somehow decry that this is just picking on poor Donald Trump, when not only did he lead an insurrection but he has never had a national strategy, and here we sit, 420,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19, there was no strategy for vaccination. And in one week of the Biden administration, they are turning that around.

CAMEROTA: I'm sorry to interrupt. I do want to get to what you're calling on for COVID relief in a second. But, very quickly, you know, Congresswoman Liz Cheney shares your outrage about what President Trump did in the terms of the words that he used and the incitement of the mob. But now, you know, her fellow Republicans are trying to oust her. I mean, Matt Gaetz is going to the Capitol of Wyoming tomorrow to hold a rally against her. What does that tell you?

CLARK: It tells me that Matt Gaetz has forgotten who he works for. Matt Gaetz has forgotten his oath of office. We work together for the American people. And the ideas that we don't agree on every policy, but that we take an oath of office, that we will uphold the Constitution.

And to turn on people who have said that they feel that a president who leads an insurrection, who continues to feed a lie and propaganda to the American people about who won that election is somehow a victim and makes people who stuck to their conscience, look at the fact.

[07:25:18]

We were all there. We are witnesses to this violence and what the words of the president and his enablers did, what they caused.

So it is long past time that we remember our oath and who we work for, and that our top priority as members of Congress and for any president is the security of the American people.

CAMEROTA: Quickly --

CLARK: And that is why it is so important that we get to that work. And we're going to do this on two tracks because we have to, impeachment and crushing this virus and restoring our economy.

CAMEROTA: Quickly, I do want to talk about what you're calling for with COVID relief. Because, as you well know, women have been hit so hard by COVID, and I don't just mean getting sick, I mean, losing their jobs. The statistics are just stunning. I mean, women are 66 percent of the people who have left the labor force. They are dropping out at four times the rate of men. Very few female business owners have gotten those PPE loans. And then there's this, 140,000 jobs were lost in December. They were all women. All of those jobs were women.

And so I know that you're calling on more money for child care to be included in the COVID relief. But wouldn't just opening schools solve a big portion of this? Isn't it time to get kids back in school?

CLARK: We have to do all of the above. Child care is absolutely critical infrastructure if we want to reopen an economy. And we have to look at it also, child care is a great example of what you were just talking about, the devastating effect for women in the pandemic economy.

So we look at who helps us raise our children. Who provides the early education. It is women and predominantly women of color. And we have this terrible paradox in this country where child care is very expensive for parents and pays very low wages and benefits for providers.

All of the pieces that we need to rebuild an economy are really seen in the child care example, because we need to support women with pay equity, with paid family leave, making sure that we are raising the minimum wage and that people are paid a living wage that when they're working full-time, they can support their family.

And schools have to become the safest place in our communities. We are not going to have a recovery even, with a fair and equitable vaccine distribution, if we don't address these issues. We always have known they existed, but now they're in stark relief (ph).

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, it does sound like the CDC is releasing research that shows schools are safer than people feared. Congresswoman Katherine Clark, thank you very much for talking about all of these issues. Great to have you on New Day.

CLARK: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: The CDC now says it's safe to reopen schools if precautions are taken. So how can that be done?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]