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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

200 Million Under Alerts As Deadly Winter Storm Heads Northeast; Crucial Weeks Ahead As Dems Push to Pass $1.9T Rescue Bill; Biden Weighing Difficult Options for Afghanistan Strategy. Aired 5- 5:30a ET

Aired February 16, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:25]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. We have reports this morning from the White House, the U.K., Seoul, Abu Dhabi and the Pentagon. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans. It is Tuesday, February 16th. It is 5:00 a.m. in New York.

A brutal winter storm so intense it is making history. This morning, more than 200 million people are under alerts from southern Texas to Northern Maine. More than 1/3 of the U.S. reporting subzero temperatures since yesterday, causing icy roads, leaving about 5 million people without power.

Texas in a deep freeze, 4 million people in Houston warned to stay indoors and off those roads. Cell service in some areas breaking down because backup generators and towers are freezing or running out of fuel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINA HIDALGO, HARRIS COUNTY JUDGE: I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The next few days are going to be very tough. To those who have lost power, I know you are frustrated. I know you are miserable. I know you're uncomfortable. I know it is very miserable in this cold without heat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Utility companies across 14 states from Texas to Minnesota resorting to rolling outages to save energy.

The severe weather is also slowing or shutting down coronavirus vaccination distribution across the country. Harris County in Texas had to quickly redistribute 8,400 doses at risk of spoiling because of a power outage at the public health department. Almost 1,000 doses went to college students at Rice University.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I literally dropped everything, got everything on and sprinted here. Apparently everyone else had the same thought as me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The city of Abilene just west of Dallas, 100,000 people had to shut off the water due to power outages.

But the threat extends well beyond Texas. Overnight, three people were killed by a tornado in North Carolina. Search and rescue is still underway. The system is heading to the Northeast today.

Meteorologist Tyler Mauldin is live in the CNN weather center.

This is -- this is quite, quite a deep freeze there.

TYLER MAULDIN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It absolutely is. Temperatures running 30, 40, 50 degrees below average across a portion of the country.

And notice this, between Miami, Florida, and International Falls, Minnesota, there's 110 degree difference. That 1 degree temperature in Dallas, that is colder than Fairbanks, Alaska. That's the type of air that we're dealing with. If you add in the wind, it makes it feel much, much colder.

So, we continue to have wind chill alerts from Canada, to Mexico, and areas to the east, and now includes portion of the South, Mississippi and Alabama. Unfortunately, the record high electricity demand is leading to power outages as this cold hits, 4.5 million roughly without power.

Many of you will be using portable generators. If that's you, to help you keep warm, and to bring in a little normalcy, while the lights are out, if that's you, make sure that you operate your generator safely. Make sure you operate it outside away from the windows and doors and invest in carbon monoxide detector to protect you from those harmful, deadly fumes.

Now, here's a set up here, we have the jet stream, it's dipping down, it's bringing arctic air all the way into Texas and portions of the South. Along that jet stream, we're also seeing spokes of energy and you see one area of low pressure here. It's the same that brought snow and ice to portions of the plains. It's now affecting the Great Lakes and portions of New England on its heels of another one, guys. And that's going to be affecting us across Oklahoma and Texas later on today.

Oh, those temperatures, they're going to continue to be below average for the next several days.

ROMANS: All right. These pictures are coming out of Texas in particular, you know? Snow on the beach in Galveston, I mean, it's just an upside-down world even in the middle of winter.

MAULDIN: It's historic.

ROMANS: It sure is.

OK, Tyler, thank you so much for that.

JARRETT: All right. Millions of Americans need help right now but the margin for votes in Congress, well, they're tight. Democrats are racing to pass their $1.9 trillion rescue bill before employment benefits lapse, and President Biden is taking his vision for ending the crisis outside of Washington with a CNN town hall tonight.

CNN's Jasmine Wright is live at the White House for us.

Jasmine, what do we expect to hear from the president tonight?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Laura, we expect to hear the main goal from the president is to get this COVID relief emergency bill passed and to do that quickly.

[05:05:00]

And, look, this comes after the shadow of the Senate impeachment trial of his predecessor is now off his back. It looms over the first few weeks of the administration. Now the Senate is free and able to fully turn to this COVID relief bill. But one of the questions is, of course, can it get passed. But, also, can it get passed with that bipartisan support that we hear from President Biden that he wants, that we hear from his allies that he is actively seeking?

Biden administration senior adviser, Cedric Richmond, was asked about this on CNN yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CEDRIC RICHMOND, SENIOR ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT: We have many Republican mayors, we have Republican governors, we have more than 50 percent of Republicans in this country, 46 percent of Trump supporters. There's just one place that we don't have anybody who has signed on yet, and that's in the United States Congress. What we won't do is slow down and not meet the needs of the American people by just waiting, while there's obstruction on inertia, President Biden is not willing to wait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: Now, that rationale that President Biden is not willing to wait, that is going to accelerate and use that rationale to push this bill to get it done quickly. Now, we know that it is making its rounds in the house going through markups. They hope to get it to the Senate.

And Democrats overrule hope to get this bill on President Biden's desk by March. But before that happens, President Biden is going to sell this plan to the American people, first stopping in Milwaukee for a CNN town hall telling Americans why this bill needs to happen -- Laura. JARRETT: Yeah, of course, those unemployment benefits will end in

just four weeks if Congress does not act. The urgency, you can feel it here.

All right. Jasmine, we appreciate it. See you soon.

ROMANS: All right. President Biden and Democrats in the House this week pushing ahead with an ambitious plan to rescue the coronavirus economy with stimulus checks, beefed up jobless benefits, a big effort to get money to poor families with children. It's almost $2 trillion, on top of the historic money already spent.

Missing? The usual hand-wringing about inflation. The president says the risk is doing too little not too much, amid an historic health and economic crisis. Echoing its treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, who has repeatedly said the benefits of this stimulus plan outweigh the risk of inflation and could help the economy recover faster.

Biden has been in this position before, during the Great Recession. Conservative economists warn that going too big on stimulus would risk inflation. The recovery in the years after suffered, they didn't go big enough.

In the face of another economic crisis, some economist, including the former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers have warned there is a risk of the economy overheating by going too big, by injecting too much support.

Both Yellen and the Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell have pushed back on that idea, but the Fed keeping interest rates zero and Powell saying they will stay there while the economy recovers.

Nobody wants to repeat the mistakes, Laura, of 2009 when it took eight or nine years to get back to where we started because they didn't want to spend a trillion dollars.

JARRETT: Yeah. Of course, the situation here is just equally --

ROMANS: Much different.

JARRETT: Yeah, yeah.

Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling for a 9/11-type commission to investigate the riot on Capitol Hill. It would have to be established by legislation, just like the ones after September 11th. Calls for bipartisan commission have grown in recent weeks. It could be the last possible way to hold Donald Trump accountable after he was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial. Commission members would come from outside the government.

All right. Still ahead for you, the U.K. is starting to hit its vaccination targets and medics on the front line for a year are already seeing a difference. CNN has a live report coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:12:58]

JARRETT: Wales is the first part of the United Kingdom to meet its goal for vaccinating the most vulnerable against COVID. That includes exhausted ambulance workers on the front lines, who already notice a difference.

Nick Paton Walsh rode along with an ambulance crew in Cardiff. Here's what he found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): Endless bad news here has traces of good in it, now.

Paramedic team, Angie and Lynda, have months of exhaustion and loss, race between back-to-back COVID callouts.

This is a normal, busy morning for the ambulance crew. But with one, key difference. They are finding that, in the middle of a two-day period, where these COVID cases are dramatically dropping off.

One day, we spent here, in this city of half a million, Cardiff, there were only four. Could it be just a glitch? Or a global first? Vaccines sweeping in and easing pressure on the very frontline.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, my sweetheart.

WALSH: This, turning up to an elderly, possible-COVID patient and discovering Khartoum Makani (ph) had the vaccine two weeks ago, will soon be the norm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Struggling to breathe?

WALSH: Khartoum says a home test found COVID, but only has a slight fever and is awaiting a proper test.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shivering. My mouth is getting really, really dry.

WALSH: Khartoum decides not to go to hospital, as she is already alone enough.

This house mired in a new solitude and grief.

Her son Raheem died just days ago, from a non-COVID heart attack.

The U.K. has one of the worst death tolls, but also, the fastest vaccination rates. In Wales, where nearly a quarter all the vulnerable have had their first dose by this day, they are even ahead of the U.K.'s schedule. They went into lockdown a little faster than England, too.

[05:15:00]

And now, something could be changing, as we only see one other COVID case in two days, who isn't that sick. Angie and Lynda have been a team for 12 years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We finish each other's sentences.

WALSH: But this year, had patients they'll never forget.

ANGIE DYMOTT, PARAMEDIC: She was my next-door neighbor. So I knew her. I called for an ambulance myself.

WALSH: Must be harder to know the person.

DYMOTT: It was really, really hard. Really hard. To tell her that she really, really needed to go in, which, I don't think she expected to.

WALSH: She was okay?

DYMOTT: No, she wasn't. No. So -- so that particular lady did pass away, five days later.

LYNDA STEPHENS, ADVANCED EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN: And you know it might be the last time they say good-bye to their family on the back of the ambulance.

WALSH: Is there a patient that stays with you, when you say that?

STEPHENS: A woman.

WALSH: What were they saying to each other?

STEPHENS: Just -- mostly, just good-bye. Don't worry. I love you. That sort of thing. Yeah.

I think, well aware if -- family are well aware they might not see their family, that person, again.

WALSH: And then, there was April, when Ange became a COVID patient, herself. Raced, by her own colleagues, to hospital.

DYMOTT: I was really scared. I was scared. And I -- I -- although, I kept telling myself, you know, I -- I'm -- I'm healthy and I'm, you know, youngish. I -- I, still, kept thinking, you know, I could deteriorate, at any time, now. My oxygen levels weren't getting any better.

WALSH: Was there a moment of panic, at some point?

STEPHENS: Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah.

WALSH: Would it be impossible to come back to work, without Ange, for you?

STEPHENS: Probably not, no. I hope this vaccine is what -- what we need to, you know, we really hope there's not a third wave. I think we're all exhausted now.

WALSH: Wales's first minister, Mark Drakeford, thinks the lockdown is more behind the drop in cases than the vaccine.

MARK DRAKEFORD, FIRST MINISTER OF WALES: We'll begin to make a difference. We know it's three weeks before the vaccine begins to make a difference, and we are only 66 days into our program, altogether, today. What has really made the difference was the decision we made, the very difficult decision to go into a full lockdown, before Christmas.

WALSH: Hope, good news, something so alien now, to these streets, it will take time to be sure of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: Now, the United Kingdom, which Wales is part, have reached their target of giving the first dose of the vaccine to 15 million people. That happened, over the weekend. And you will, I think, here, see people begin to suggest that the drop in cases here is, possibly, impacted by that because, as you saw there.

When an ambulance crew, the real frontline here, assessing how many ill people are actually falling in need of urgent assistance with the coronavirus. When they start seeing more of their elderly patients have already had the vaccine, they will probably start seeing less- severe illness. That's the first taste of it there.

You, also, saw there, too, how the Wales first minister was keen to point out lockdown restrictions were also working, as well. That's a big issue here in the United Kingdom, because while they are doing exceptionally well when it comes to the vaccine rollout.

There, also, have been intensely criticized for not only a very bad death toll over the past year. But also, what many critics call a bungled-lockdown response, moving too slow, and too -- too narrowly, as well. Less so, in Wales, where they move a lot faster.

So real pressure here to see exactly how those vaccine are impacting people's ability to resist the virus.

Back to you.

JARRETT: Nick, great reporting. Thank you so much.

ROMANS: All right. Eighteen minutes past the hour.

After almost 20 years, America's longest war is now at a crossroads. What options President Biden is considering, and what it means for American troops.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:15]

JARRETT: In Iraq, a rocket fire hit a base run by U.S. and Iraqi forces near Erbil's airport. A civilian contractor was killed. A U.S. service member and five other contractors were injured, four of the five, Americans. Secretary of State Tony Blinken said he spoke with the prime minister

of the regional government, and pledged support to hold those behind the attack responsible.

ROMANS: The secretary general of NATO says the alliance will not pull troops out of Afghanistan, quote, before the time is right. The U.S. promised to remove its remaining, 2,500 troops from Afghanistan, in a few months. But the Taliban have now positioned themselves around several, major-population centers. And, of course, ending America's longest war is complicated, as you might imagine.

CNN's Oren Liebermann lays it all out for us, what the president's options are, from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The Biden administration has only weeks to decide what to do with U.S.-troop levels in Afghanistan. And broadly, what the strategy is in Afghanistan before a May deadline for a full-troop withdrawal, under an agreement signed between the U.S. and Taliban, one year ago.

Ahead of that, Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, will meet this week virtually with his NATO counterparts. They are expected to press him on the U.S.'s strategy, in Afghanistan, moving forward.

The Biden administration has signaled that Afghanistan is a priority. But that doesn't mean there are really and truly any good options here. The first option is to simply withdraw the remaining troops but that can easily be seen as conceding defeat to the Taliban, and handing the country over to them. And perhaps, even to a civil war.

The second option is to ignore the agreement, to this point, and hold those remaining 2,500 troops there. However, that could easily invite attacks on U.S. troops from the Taliban.

[05:25:00]

And the third option, broadly speaking, is to try to renegotiate the agreement, or find some sort of wiggle room with the Taliban to keep troops in country. The difficulty there is that U.S.-intelligence agencies believe the Taliban doesn't see any wiggle room here. And to try to keep troops, to try to renegotiate the agreement could invite attacks on U.S. troops, again, from the Taliban.

The difficulty here is that the Biden administration has to make a decision, based on these options, fairly soon. And that's where the pressure comes in, as the U.S. tries to figure out what to do with a 20-year war -- Christine and Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Oren, thank you. A deadly, winter storm, crippling a huge part of the country. Right now, Texas, at a virtual standstill for days to come. It feels so cold in Little Rock, we can't even get a reading. The storm now heads to the Northeast. ROMANS: And Joe Biden's first trip as president for a CNN town hall

tonight in Wisconsin, to sell his American rescue plan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)