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CDC to Release School Guidance; Trump's Impeachment Defense; Potential Danger to Pence's Nuclear Football; Enough Vaccine for 300 Million People; Australian Open Without Fans. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired February 12, 2021 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Even though the numbers are coming down, we're getting below 100,000 now for the first time in many, many weeks. We're going to start seeing that upswing as we go into the middle of March. So how do we get the population vaccinated as quickly as possible? How do we get to up 3 million immunizations a day? That's the murky question that I don't have an answer to and that we haven't heard a lot of clarity about. And that's the part that I'm worried. I'm -- I'm really feeling good about the country over the summer, but I'm worried about the spring.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: But is there answer -- I mean is it possible there's not an answer? Is it possible that they can't get there before April given the amount of materials, given the manufacturing challenges?
HOTEZ: Well, that may be the case, but it would be nice to get some clarity from the administration on that point, number one. Number two, you know, there are some levers possibly we can pull and push. One of them is, I understand, but it needs to be confirmed that we have -- we're sitting on tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, which has been released under Emergency Use Authorization by the European Union, through the EMA, their regulatory agency. Maybe we need to revisit that and look at putting it out there sooner rather than later to bridge us through that inert (ph) period. I think that's a worthwhile point looking into.
So there are things like that we can do, kind of out of the box stuff that I really hope we can look into.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I want to talk about this new National Education Association survey. So the NEA surveyed their teachers and it's interesting what they have found. I'll pull a graphic up for you.
Eighty-two percent of teachers in the country have not been vaccinated, 70 percent, of course, would feel safer about working in person in the classroom if they were vaccinated, 20 percent of white educators have been vaccinated, only 9 percent of black educators have been vaccinated, 64 percent are currently working in schools all or part of the time. And I know you have strong feelings about this. I mean, on one hand,
we hear that schools, the classroom, have not been super spreader events. But on the other hand, we hear how anxious and nervous are teachers are about going back into the classroom.
So what's the answer?
HOTEZ: Yes, my point is, we've done a pretty good job last fall, better than I would have expected in terms of level of transmission. But a couple of points. One, we don't have a lot of clarity on how deadly this epidemic has been for teachers. We don't have numbers of the number of teachers who have lost their lives. And we should have that number and teachers should have that number to make informed decision and superintendents. We're hearing maybe as many as -- least 500 teachers have lost their lives in 2020. But that's probably a gross underestimate. That's the first point.
And the second point, we've got the U.K. variant coming through. So this is going to make it even more challenging. So I think we need to support our teachers better. I think we need to look at a strategy where we can prioritize them for vaccinations so they feel safer going back to the classroom. And not just the teachers, but also the staff and the bus drivers.
So I think as we look at the next few months, I think a prioritization plan has to be looked at. One, saving lives and, two, protecting our teachers and staff and making them feel safe if we're serious about opening up the schools.
I think one of the problems is we're trying to be everything to everybody. We're trying to open up the economy. We're trying to save lives. We're trying to open schools. We're trying to interrupt transmission. And over -- and we will be able to do all of those things by the summer. But for the next few months, we've got to make a priority list. We've got to say, what's the most important thing to do right now? And from my perspective, it's saving lives, halting hospitalizations, and protecting our teachers and making them feel secure. We've not treated them well over the last few months. So, you know, we've had some terrible things come out of the White House and the CDC last year, basically these Lord Farquaad speeches of, many of you may die, but we have to do this. And it was just unconscionable what happened. We can't do that again. We've got to stand up for our teachers.
CAMEROTA: Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you very much for all of that expertise.
Donald Trump's lawyers get their turn today. So what will their defense be? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:38:13]
BERMAN: Very shortly, the former president's lawyers will make their impeachment defense. Joining us now, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal
prosecutor.
Elie, besides short, how would you approach your strategy here if you were defending the former president?
ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, John, well, the facts are bad for Donald Trump, but the jury is good. And I think if you gave any trial lawyer their choice there, they'd go with the jury because the jury has the bottom line.
So let's break it down. The Senate, right now, is 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Of course you need two-thirds of the senators, 67 senators, in order to convict. So if we do the math here, let's assume all 50 Democratic senators are in to convict, plus the six Republican senator who voted that this is a constitutional proceeding a few days ago. That gets you to 56. So if you're Donald Trump's lawyers, all you have to do is avoid losing 11 more Republican votes.
So the point here is, as Ben Ginsberg said, if you're defending Donald Trump, you're looking to play it safe, you're looking to play defense and you're looking to get this thing over with.
CAMEROTA: OK, so take us through the first argument that you think we should expect to hear and how strong it is.
HONIG: Yes, so the first argument we're going to hear is this First Amendment free speech argument. We're going to hear for Donald Trump's lawyers today. Yes, he got up in front of that crowd. Yes, he engaged in political rhetoric. But they're going to argue, it did not cross the line. They're going to say, this is not impeachable, this is not incitement.
We're going to hear a lot about this particular line that Donald Trump said at the January 6th rally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HONIG: They're going to argue, look, a lot of politicians say things like that. I guarantee you, we will see a montage of other politicians saying things like that. And they're going to argue, he never specifically said, I want you to go down to the Capitol, cause property damage, and cause violence.
[06:40:02]
Now, the House managers, yesterday, did an effective job of anticipating this argument.
Here's what Representative Jamie Raskin said on the floor. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Our president, whoever he or she is, must choose the side of the Constitution. Must! And not the side of the insurrection.
And if he or she chooses the wrong side, I'm sorry, there's nothing in the First Amendment, or anywhere else in the Constitution, that can excuse your betrayal of your oath of office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HONIG: Alisyn, I think on the merits, this is a losing argument for Donald Trump. I think the managers have the better of the argument here. I would not make this argument, but I think we can rest assured that Trump's lawyers will make it today.
BERMAN: You also expect the former president's lawyers, Elie, to go deep down the partisan rabbit hole. How so?
HONIG: Yes, I do, John. We got a preview of this in Trump's attorney's pre-trial brief. They wrote very sort of inflammatory thing. They said, this is all because of Democrats' fevered hatred of Donald Trump. They talked about, on page one of their brief, Trump derangement syndrome. They wrote that the speaker of the House and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the moment for their own political gain.
Now, is any of that legally relevant? Not at all. In fact, I think it's counterproductive. But remember who the client is here. Donald Trump. So are we going to hear this kind of thing? Again, I wouldn't do it, but I think it's a fairly safe bet that Donald Trump's lawyers will give thus kind of argument today.
CAMEROTA: Elie, we've also talked about how they will make the process argument, that you can't try a former president, but hasn't that already been put to bed? They've voted on it. They -- it's moved forward.
HONIG: In a normal trial, yes, it's put to bed. But this is not a normal trial, Alisyn, of course. This is impeachment. Virtually anything goes.
This is the one thing I would do if I was defending this case. Why? Because it's the safest way to get your juries that you need to hold an off-ramp to vote not guilty. That's all you're looking to do if you're looking to bring this case home for Donald Trump.
First, I'd make this argument that you cannot try a former official. I don't think it's the better of the argument, but there is a legal dispute. There are legal scholars who have written this. And, more importantly, you already have 44 senators who are onboard with it.
I'd also -- I think we'll also see this due process argument, which essentially boils down to, well, we haven't had enough time to prepare our defense to review the evidence. And, finally, I think you will hear an argument that it's over. Now,
that's not a legal argument, that's a political argument. But I think you'll hear an argument, Donald Trump's gone, the voters have sent him away and it's time to move on and get down to business. So that's the safest way I think for Donald Trump's lawyers to get this thing over the finish line.
BERMAN: Elie Honig, thank you very much. Don't go far because we're coming back to you with much more analysis coming up.
HONIG: I'll be here.
CAMEROTA: On retainer.
HONIG: I'm here for you.
BERMAN: All right, the mob of domestic terrorists who stormed the U.S. Capitol came within feet of the vice president's nuclear football. Yes, they got within feet of some pretty important stuff that the Pentagon had no idea. We have fascinating new reporting on this, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:46:59]
CAMEROTA: Listen to this. The nuclear football, the device that stores the classified nuclear launch codes, was within yards of the insurrectionists on January 6th. As Vice President Pence was rushed out of the Senate chamber here, a military officer was behind him carrying the nuclear football.
CNN's Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with more.
I mean, just every time we hear just how much worse it could be, Barbara, this is another example.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It is really extraordinary, Alisyn. What we are being told from military officials is that indeed they did not know at that time the peril that the vice president was in and the military officer carrying the football, the people in charge of the authorization to launch nuclear weapons. Now, look, was there risk to the nation from this? Probably not. The president was at the White House. He had his football.
But the vice president always carries a duplicate in case the president is, for some reason, unable to carry out duties. So that is the issue here at hand, the duplicate nuclear football close to these insurrectionists.
If they had gotten their hands on it, could they have launched nuclear weapons? Certainly not officials tell us because they would not have understood what they were looking at. But the risk perhaps is, could they have taken pictures, could they have posted it online, had untold propaganda and intelligence value if they had done it? It's beginning to raise fundamental questions after decades of having this procedure of having a military officer carry around this heavy equipment in public that's the most classified information, is it time to change the way of doing business?
John.
BERMAN: Yes, you don't want bad people anywhere near that thing. And they got close.
Barbara Starr, that is fascinating, new reporting. Thank you very much.
STARR: Thank you.
The Biden administration will address two contentious issues today, how to safely reopen schools and the possibility of requiring negative tests for domestic air travel. It comes as President Biden has announced that his administration has purchased 200 million more vaccine doses.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond live at the White House this morning with more.
Jeremy.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
The U.S. is indeed speeding up the delivery of coronavirus vaccines. President Biden announcing yesterday that the U.S. will have enough vaccine doses by the end of July to vaccinate every American adult. President Biden also struggling (ph) some of the highlights that his administrations has faced in these -- in this first month in office, and he put the onus on his predecessor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (voice over): President Joe Biden announcing the U.S. will have more coronavirus vaccine more quickly, finalizing a deal securing 200 million more doses by the end of July.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That means lives will be saved.
DIAMOND: Visiting the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, Biden said Pfizer and Moderna will deliver an additional 100 million doses each by the end of July, much sooner than previously anticipated. He added that 100 million doses from the two companies will be ready earlier, by the end of May.
[06:50:06]
Biden also slamming his predecessor, claiming former President Trump left him without a plan.
BIDEN: While scientists did their job in discovering vaccines in record time, my predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job in getting ready for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions of Americans.
When I became president three weeks ago, America had no plan to vaccinate most of the country.
DIAMOND: While the U.S.' vaccine rollout has been messy, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Trump officials have pushed back on similar assessments from Biden's team.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution. We're coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas that were not bad ideas with the previous administration. You can't say it was absolutely not usable at all.
ALEX AZAR, FORMER SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: This is a concerted effort by the new team to down talk where things are so they can look like heroes when they come in.
DIAMOND: But now the Biden administration is doubling down.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We came in, again, three weeks ago, if you can believe that, and there was no stockpile of vaccines. There was no stockpile. There was no national strategy or plan. No national plan for vaccine distribution.
DIAMOND: Low vaccine supply is the number one hurdle in the distribution plan. Americans are scrambling to secure appointments for a very limited supply of vaccines nationwide. Even Biden warning that securing more vaccine supply doesn't always mean shots in arms.
BIDEN: Now there's a big difference, a logistical difference between having a vaccine and having vaccinators.
DIAMOND: In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti is temporarily closing this mass vaccination site at Dodgers Stadium, as well as four others, due to lack of supply. All of this comes as the CDC is expected to announce its new guidelines to reopen schools after a week of mixed messaging from the administration on how much time in classrooms constitutes an open school.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are eager to hear more about the clear science-based guidelines for opening schools and how we can do that safely and how we can keep them open. The president will not rest until every school is open five days a week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND: And as President Biden works to ramp up vaccine distribution, his administration has continued to stress the importance of this $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan in order to actually meet some of those goals. That's why today you'll see President Biden sitting down with a bipartisan group of governors and mayors to continue to try and drum up support and stress the urgency of this need for relief. These are the nine Republican and Democratic mayors and governors who will be meeting with the president.
And, John, in case you're wondering what's behind me here. You can see these candy hearts set up on the North Lawn of the White House. This was set up by the office of the first lady, Jill Biden, doing this just a couple days before Valentine's Day. She and the president have this tradition of surprising each other for Valentine's Day and this is what the first lady is doing. Her office says that Valentine's Day has always been one of her favorite holidays, sending messages of healing, unity, hope, and compassion. This is her valentine to the country.
John.
BERMAN: I thought that's what they were, Jeremey, it's just that I'm used to the naughty version of --
CAMEROTA: No.
BERMAN: I didn't know -- I didn't know there were like rated "g" versions of the heart.
CAMEROTA: Yes, for schoolchildren, John. Yes, there are.
BERMAN: Oh.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
BERMAN: Oh.
CAMEROTA: I thought it was Jeremy's unsubtle way of asking us to be his valentine. But, no, it's the first lady.
BERMAN: That's implied. I mean that's like a given.
DIAMOND: I only knew of the g-rated version. I don't know what you're talking about, John.
CAMEROTA: Thank you. Thank you, Jeremy. He doesn't have a dirty mind like you.
BERMAN: I have. I can tell you what I'm talking about. What?
CAMEROTA: No, thank you.
BERMAN: Yes.
All right, grand slam lockout. Why fans are being turned away from one of the world's most important tennis tournaments. The "Bleacher Report" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:58:11]
CAMEROTA: A new coronavirus outbreak is forcing the year's first tennis major to close its doors to fans.
Coy Wire has more in the "Bleacher Report."
Hi, Coy. COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.
A lot of these tennis players from around the world haven't played in front of fans in nearly a year. Thirty thousand fans have been allowed on the grounds for the first several days of the Australian Open in Melbourne. But a five-day lockdown will take effect and the entire state of Victoria, we're talking more than 6 million people, about an hour from now, after just 13 new coronavirus cases were tide to an employee of a quarantined hotel. Fans must exit the grounds within the next 30 minutes to make it home by 11:59 p.m. local time.
Now, Serena Williams' third-round victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was one of the last matches before the lockdown takes effect. The tournament will go on, but players have to stay in their hotels except to practice and play matches. The earliest fans could return, the semifinals next week.
Also developing overnight, the president of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee is stepping down. Yoshiro Mori, Japan's prime minister in the early 2000s, has been under fire for comments he made last week saying, quote, board meetings with lots of women take longer, unquote. Mori has apologized and acknowledged that his inappropriate statements caused a lot of chaos. The Olympics are set to begin just over five months from now on July 23rd.
Alisyn, organizers insisting that the games will go on despite a rising number of coronavirus cases in Japan.
CAMEROTA: OK, Coy, thank you very much for all of that.
And NEW DAY continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The evidence is clear, President Trump incited an insurrection that he alone had the power to stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has condemned violence and doesn't in any way want to be associated with what happened in this violent incident.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of these people who have been arrested and charged, their leader must be held accountable, as well.
[07:00:04]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president continued to say the election was stolen. Well, the president built that story. So how do you defend that? How?
