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New Day
Biden Administration Faces Backlash over Schools Reopening; More Americans Getting Vaccinated; Impeachment Managers Finish their Case; Mavericks Resume National Anthem. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired February 11, 2021 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:14]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the Biden administration is facing questions about whether they are living up to the president's promise of reopening schools. The explanations keep changing.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Biden's pledge to reopen most schools in his first hundred days may be in doubt.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's time for schools to reopen safely. Safely.
DIAMOND: Teachers unions are holding firm on demands for new safety measures and the Biden administration has delivered muddled messaging. But new CDC guidelines anticipated this week could provide a clear way forward.
RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: We've been trying to get unequivocal guidance and the resources since last June. So I think that -- that the guidance from CDC, which this president, unlike the last one, will actually wrap himself around because of the science of it, is going to be a huge step forward.
DIAMOND: The new guidance comes amid fresh blowback over comments made by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who suggested Tuesday an open school could mean just one day of in-person learning per week.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: His goal that he set is to have the majority of schools, so more than 50 percent, open by day 100 of his presidency. And that means some teaching in classrooms. So at least one day a week. Hopefully it's more.
DIAMOND: Psaki clarified her statement on Wednesday but didn't commit to a clear benchmark.
PSAKI: Certainly we are not planning to celebrate at 100 days if we reach that goal. We certainly hope to build from that, even at 100 days.
DIAMOND: Despite the uncertainty, Chicago brokered a tentative deal with its teachers union to reopen schools for in-person learning. And in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced middle school students would begin to return to the classroom by the end of the month.
The new CDC guidance isn't expected to require teachers be vaccinated, instead focusing on safety measures like masking, hand washing, ventilation, and social distancing.
ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CDC: Safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated.
DIAMOND: The head of the nation's largest teacher's union concedes vaccines aren't a precondition for returning to the classroom, but says teachers should be a priority.
WEINGARTEN: What the vaccines do, it is a layer of protection so that essential workers, when you have huge community spread, are protected outside in their communities, as well as doing their work.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND: And we do still expect that CDC guidance on school reopenings to come by week's end.
On the foreign policy front, meanwhile, President Biden, after three weeks in office, holding his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to a senior administration official, President Biden talked about areas of cooperation, like economic and climate change and nuclear proliferation issues, but he also raised a series of concerns about China's behavior at a time when U.S./China relations are really at a low point.
The president talking to Xi Jinping about human rights abuses committed by China in Hong Kong, as well as in that Xinyang (ph) province. And they also talked about the coronavirus, which has really impacted this relationship. Now, Biden administration officials tell us that they are conducting a full review of the U.S.' policy towards China and for now they are not planning to remove those tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, which they see as leverage going forward.
Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Jeremy, thank you very much for all of that reporting.
Now to a COVID update. The United States reported 3,219 new coronavirus deaths overnight. That's a number that is still shockingly high, but it is coming down by the day.
California now surpassing New York as the state with the highest number of coronavirus deaths. More than 10 percent of Americans have received their first vaccine dose. And 3 percent are fully vaccinated. CNN's Erica Hill has the latest on the pandemic.
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ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Across the country, vaccine access is improving.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Finally. I've been trying for so long.
HILL: New mass vaccination sites announced in Texas and New York on Wednesday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are deploying federal teams immediately to work hand in hand with the state and local jurisdiction.
HILL: More supply flowing into states.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're sending us 5 percent more doses per week. That's nearly a 30 percent increase since the beginning of this administration.
HILL: Confidence is also growing. Seventy-one percent of Americans now say they'll get the vaccine. That's up 6 percent since December, though available doses still dwarfed by demand.
That same poll finding two-thirds of Americans are not satisfied with the rollout.
[06:35:00]
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We could be doing half a million people a week if we had the supply.
HILL: The goal for Citi Field alone, 5,000 to 7,000 people a day. But on day one, just 200 shots in arms.
Still, the push is on to make sure New Yorkers are ready. As the White House announces members of its new COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
DR. MARCELLA NUNEZ-SMITH, CHAIRMAN, COVID-19 HEALTH EQUITY TASK FORCE: It is our top priority for anybody who is at "yes" and it is their turn that they're able to connect with vaccination.
HILL: The CDC updating its mask guidance, recommending moldable nose wires, wearing cloth masks over disposable ones, which can block over 92 percent of potentially infectious particles, and cinching masks for a tighter fidget.
The fast-spreading variant first identified in the U.K. now linked to between 1 and 4 percent of U.S. cases, according to the CDC.
WALENSKY: We do not believe the variants are distributed equally across the country at this time.
HILL: California and Florida currently reporting the highest numbers. Despite the spread, new cases overall continue to drop. Hospitalizations, too. In New York, major stadiums and arenas can reopen at 10 percent capacity on February 23rd, with additional safety measures in place.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): A negative PCR test with face coverings, with social distancing, and then mandatory assigned seating.
HILL: Chicago boosting capacity for indoor dinning, bars and events as experts urge caution.
DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, FORMER HEALTH DIRECTOR IN THE CITY OF DETROIT: If we let up to early, we risk having a new onset of new cases.
HILL: Erica Hill, CNN, New York.
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[06:40:42]
BERMAN: In just a few hours, House impeachment managers conclude the bulk of their case against the former president. This after damning, never-before-seen videos of the Capitol siege as it unfolded.
Joining us now, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig.
Elie, you've gone through the case yesterday and thought forward to today.
Let's start with, what do you think the most important thing was that the House managers accomplished yesterday?
ELLIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, John, so I was a prosecutor for 14 years. I've never seen anything like what we saw yesterday. I've never seen a single day with so much evidence that was so compelling.
Now, the first takeaway from yesterday was that as bad as it was inside the Capitol on January 6th, it really could have been even worse. We saw how dangerous it was for police officers who were there that day, for staffers. We even saw the direct threat to some of our highest-ranking elected officials. We saw that indelible video of Senator Mitt Romney walking through a hall of the Senate until police Officer Eugene Goodman comes running by, turns Mitt Romney around and saves him from a mob that was just feet away. An act of absolute heroism by Officer Goodman. We saw similar videos of the vice president and congressional leaders being evacuated.
And if it wasn't clear enough, Representative Eric Swalwell, one of the House members, brought it directly home for the senators sitting in front of him.
Here's what Swalwell said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): You were just 58 steps away from where the mob was amassing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HONIG: Just 58 steps. So the House managers drove home that it was just by pure happenstance that this wasn't even worse. And the managers argued that Donald Trump was directly responsible for that.
CAMEROTA: OK, Elie, what's your next takeaway from yesterday?
HONIG: So the second big take away from the House managers' argument was that it's about the big picture. It's not just about the January 6th rally, it's also about the before and the after. They argued that January 6th was really the culmination of a months-long, coordinated effort by Donald Trump to spread the big lie, to undermine democracy, to attack the election itself and ultimately to weaponize his followers.
Here's how one of the House managers, Representative Joe Neguse, put it in his argument.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOE NEGUSE (D-CO): His false claims about election fraud, that was the drumbeat being used to inspire, instigate, and ignite them, to anger them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HONIG: So the managers also focused on Donald Trump's actions after the rally. They said, is this how a person would act if they were truly horrified, as his lawyers claimed, about what had happened. And the managers kept on coming back to this tweet that Donald Trump sent on January 6th at 6:01 p.m., where he praised the rioters as great patriots and said, remember this day forever. And they asked, is that a person who was horrified or is that a person who was pleased by what he had seen?
BERMAN: And one more thing, Elie, you think they did. And this involves something that I've been harping on all morning. It has to do with Mike Pence.
HONIG: Yes. So they argued that Donald Trump really controlled the insurrectionists. That they responded to everything he said. We saw this really telling video, right after Donald Trump had tweeted about Mike Pence, how he lacks courage, we got to see how the crowd reacted, how quickly that was taken as a command.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump sent a tweet out saying that Mike Pence let us down. Mike Pence let us down, people. If you want to get something done, you're going to have to do it yourself.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HONIG: The managers also showed us other examples where the rioters took Donald Trump's words and took those words as a command. He gave the command and they responded.
CAMEROTA: OK. So, Elie, what do they need to do today? What -- what -- how -- what can they do to bring it home?
HONIG: So, first of all, I think we're going to see the managers rebut the defenses that they're expecting. In a criminal trial, the prosecution gets to go last, but not here. So I think that we're going to see them anticipating this First Amendment free speech defense, the due process defense.
Second of all, I think we're going to see the managers set the stakes, make clear to the Senate, if you do not convict and disqualify Donald Trump, he could well be back. Are we OK with that? And also for historical purposes, if we don't impeach and convict for this, what will we ever convict somebody for? And, finally, I think we're going to see a focus on the victims. We didn't hear much yesterday about Officer Brian Sicknick.
[06:45:00]
I think we'll hear him talked about today. And I think we'll see them celebrate his heroism and his sacrifice.
BERMAN: We'll see in just a few hours and it will be fascinating to watch. And if the last couple of days are any evidence, there will be surprises.
HONIG: For sure.
BERMAN: Elie Honig, thank you very much for that.
HONIG: Thanks, John.
BERMAN: QAnon tearing families apart. We have the story of two women who say they've lost their parents to the conspiracy.
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CAMEROTA: QAnon conspiracy theories are tearing families apart.
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan looks at the very real consequences of falling into conspiracies.
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DANIELLE MARSHALL, MOTHER BELIEVES IN QANON: I live just a few blocks south of the Capitol. And so I started seeing people walking on the sidewalk heading up to the Capitol with Trump flags and red hats. And I thought to myself, I wonder if my mom's here. I just thought to myself, let me check her YouTube. And lo and behold she was.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are here at this rally. Look at this! UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will never stop loving my parents, but it's
this switch that flips in them when they're talking about what the latest Q drop means.
[06:50:02]
They're not logical anymore. They're not understanding. And often they're not kind.
MARSHALL: Not only does she really believe it, but it intersects in her mind with her religion. She has never put anything else on the pedestal equal to the Bible. And it really feels like that with this QAnon stuff.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER (voice over): A conspiracy theory has taken over both these women's lives, but not by their choosing.
MARSHALL: I just want to have a mom who loves me. We're just -- we're past that.
O'SULLIVAN: They say their parents have been sucked into QAnon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My childhood was as perfect as any childhood could be. In the recent year, or two years, where this has become so much stronger within them, they've become completely different people.
O'SULLIVAN: This woman is still desperately trying to save her relationship with her parents. It's why we've agreed to hide her identity.
O'SULLIVAN (on camera): How did this all start with your parents?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All through growing up, it was constantly, oh, my gosh, like, the Clintons. Oh, my gosh, the illuminati, things like that. But it all started really in the 2016 election cycle. Hillary Clinton and all of the Democrats are pedophiliac and cannibalistic people that are trying to control the world. Things definitely heightened when I got to college. They would background search my professors. Hey, your professor, yes, like they're a registered Democrat.
MARSHALL: She knows my wife is a Capitol police officer. When she did that, that said everything to me, that she was willing to put my wife's life in danger. And if she had called me up or texted me later that day or the next day and said, hey, listen, I was at this rally, it got way out of hand, I'm really sorry, how are -- how are you guys, that would have changed everything. But it's been crickets. I haven't heard from her.
O'SULLIVAN: (voice over): We repeatedly reached out to Danielle's mother for comment and she did not responded.
O'SULLIVAN (on camera): Have they changed their lifestyle in any way as a result of this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, last time I was there, at my family's house, they told me that they have a three years' supply of meat in the freezer. They told me that they bought up a bunch of ammo.
O'SULLIVAN: Are you concerned that they might blow their life savings on these freeze-dried foods and 300 pounds of meat?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Not their life savings, my college tuition, right? That's hard.
O'SULLIVAN: Whoever is the person that was running this Q account, what would you say to them if you -- if you could sit down and talk to them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd tell them that they ruined my life. That they ruined my family. That they took what's supposed to be the best, most consistent, most loving part of my life and they turned it into evil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'SULLIVAN: And this is a story that might be far too familiar to many American families and families around the world who are watching this morning.
We have a much longer, extended interview with both of those women posted on to cnn.com this morning and they have a lot to say. It's a very scary story. And while, you know, Trump might have left the White House here in Washington, D.C., QAnon has infected so many homes in this country.
Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Donie, you're so right. And it's amazing how much more widespread the tentacles are than we sometimes think. I really look forward to watching the longer piece on cnn.com.
Thank you very much for all of your reporting on this.
Regardless of what happens in the Senate trial, President Trump could still face criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the election results. The new investigation in Georgia, next.
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[06:58:12]
BERMAN: So the Dallas Mavericks bring back the national anthem after the NBA reminded them of league policy.
Coy Wire with more on the "Bleacher Report."
Good morning, Coy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Team owner Mark Cuban had directed the Mavs to stop playing the anthem before the season according to multiple reports. Early yesterday, a team spokesperson told CNN there were no plans to play the song in the future. But that all changed by the afternoon when the NBA then announced that all teams would play the anthem. The Mavs changed course and played it before last night's game against the Hawkes.
Cuban released a statement saying, quote, we respect and always have respected the passion people have for the anthem and our country. I have always stood for the anthem with the hand over my heart no matter where I hear it played. But we also hear the voices of those who do not feel the anthem represents them, unquote.
And the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrating their victory with a boat parade yesterday. And it produced some wild moments. Exhibit A, Tom Brady with the riskiest pass of his career. The Lombardi Trophy from his yacht to another boat. Come on! The 43- year-old MVP didn't appear to have his sea legs when he finally got back to dry land. Looks like he had too entire hard seltzers walking like that. His seventh Super Bowl parade unlike any other. Brady explaining in a tweet, noting to see her, just little avocado tequila.
John, Alisyn, his tight end Cameron Brate, who made that clutch catch, said afterwards that had he dropped that pass, he probably would have just had to go ahead and retire.
BERMAN: I know.
CAMEROTA: What a proud moment for you, John.
BERMAN: Look, he's human. Little-known fact, actually, I mean I don't think he drinks that much because it doesn't have like avocado in it. But back in the day, in -- their linemen on the Patriots used to say that he could chug beer better than the 400-pound linemen could.
[07:00:01]
He was known -- even that he did right (ph).
CAMEROTA: OK, well, something's gone wrong. He's hammered. He's hammered.
BERMAN: Yes. He lost those skills apparently, over time.
All right, Coy, thank you very much.
WIRE: Thank you.
