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Biden: Vaccines Will Be Available for All Americans by End of July; President Biden Brings Compassion, Centrism to CNN Town Hall; Trump Slams McConnell as 'Dour, Sullen & Unsmiling Political Hack'; Nearly 3 Million Customers Still Without Power in Texas. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired February 17, 2021 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
[05:59:25]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, February 17, 6 a.m. here in New York and merry Christmas.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you.
BERMAN: So I know it's the middle of February, but that's the headline of a deeply revealing town hall with President Biden overnight, his first, right here on CNN. Merry Christmas. That is when, God willing, he says the country and our lives might start to feel normal again.
He made all kinds of news during the town hall. He says the U.S. should have enough vaccine doses for everyone who wants one by the end of July. He said now was the time to go big on an economic relief bill. He wants K-8 schools open by the end of his first hundred days in office, not just one day a week, but five days. He wants teachers prioritized for vaccination.
So a lot of specific news line items. But the biggest takeaway was a literal and total call for a return to normalcy. Not just in coronavirus, but in life.
The president said the last four years has been spent talking about Trump. He wants to spend the next four years talking about the American people.
CAMEROTA: OK, meanwhile, more than two dozen people have died from a massive winter storm crippling much of the south. Millions are still without power this morning in Texas in the middle of record-breaking cold temperatures. Much of America's fourth largest city, Houston, is still in the dark.
There are growing questions this morning about why the Texas electrical grid failed so badly.
The weather is also impacting vaccine distribution, appointments being canceled, shipments being delayed. We'll talk to local officials about what's next.
But first, we begin with all the headlines from President Biden's town hall with Jeremy Diamond. He is live for us at the White House -- Jeremy.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.
President Biden making his first official trip as president to the state of Wisconsin, where he spoke with -- with Americans at a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The president talking about when every American will be able to get access to a vaccine, and critically, when we will be able to get out of this pandemic and return to normal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND: President Biden pitching his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package during a CNN town hall --
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hi, folks.
DIAMOND: -- giving Americans a new timeline for a return to normal, with a dose of cautious optimism.
BIDEN: As my mother would say, with the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors, that by next Christmas, I think we'll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today. But we don't know. So I don't want to overpromise anything here.
DIAMOND: Biden pledging there will be enough vaccines for all Americans within five months.
BIDEN: By the end of July, we'll have over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American.
DIAMOND: Even as he warned it would take longer to get those shots in arms.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: When you say by the end of July, do you mean that they will be available or that people will have been able to actually get them? Because Dr. Fauci --
BIDEN: They'll be available.
DIAMOND: In the meantime, Biden wants to prioritize teacher vaccinations, even as he warned it's up to states to decide who gets access when.
BIDEN: I think that teachers and the folks who work in the school, the cafeteria workers and others, should be on the list of preferred to get a vaccination. But I can't tell the state, you must move such and such a group of people up.
DIAMOND: The president also clearing up comments made by the White House press secretary last week, when she suggested hitting school reopening goals could mean only one day of in-person learning a week. BIDEN: That was a mistake in the communication. But what I -- what I'm
talking about is, I said, opening the majority of schools in K-8th grade, because they're the easiest to open, the most needed to be open in terms of the impact on children and families having to stay home.
COOPER: So when do you think that would be, K-8, at least --
BIDEN: I think we'll be --
COOPER: -- five days a week, if possible?
BIDEN: I think we'll be close to that at the end of the first hundred days. We'd have a significant percentage of them being able to be opened. My -- my guess is, they're going to probably be pushing to open all -- all summer.
DIAMOND: As congressional Republicans push for a smaller relief package, Biden standing firm.
BIDEN: We can't spend too much. Now's the time we should be spending. Now's the time to go big.
DIAMOND: But the president's more moderate politics on display on other issues, like police funding and immigration reform. Biden again rejecting a proposal introduced by a group of top congressional Democrats aimed at canceling up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower, saying he has other priorities.
BIDEN: I will not make that happen. But I do think that, in this moment of economic pain and strain, that we should be eliminating interest on the debts that are accumulating, No. 1. And No. 2, I'm prepared to write off $10,000 of debt, but not 50.
DIAMOND: And with his predecessor's second impeachment trial now in the past, Biden eager to move forward.
BIDEN: For four years, all that's been in the news is Trump. The next four years, I want to make sure all the news is the American people. I'm tired of talking about Trump.
It's done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND: And what we also saw on display from the president last night was one of the political qualities that helped make President Biden the president of the United States. And that is his ability to empathize with people.
[06:05:08]
We saw him try and reassure an 8-year-old girl who was scared of the coronavirus, telling her, Don't be scared, honey. And then he also spoke with the mother of a 19-year-old man who has a pulmonary disease. The president offering to stick around after the town hall to help her get access to a vaccine, something that she said that she was struggling with.
And so empathy was a key, you know, thing that ran through President Biden's appearance during this town hall. We will see the president travel out into the country again tomorrow, where he's heading to the state of Michigan to tour a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Jeremy Diamond at the White House. Thanks so much.
Look, since Jeremy brought it up, let's play it. Let's play the moment where President Biden was talking to a -- what was it? -- 8-year-old girl in second grade --
CAMEROTA: Second grade, yes.
BERMAN: -- about her fears of coronavirus. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Well, first of all, honey, what's your first name?
LAYLA SALAS, SECOND GRADER: Layla.
BIDEN: Layla. Beautiful name. First of all, kids don't get the vaccine -- get COVID very often. It's unusual for that to happen. So you're the safest group of people in the whole world, No. 1.
No. 2, you're not likely to be able to be exposed to something and spread it to Mommy or Daddy. And it's not likely Mommy and Daddy are able to spread it to you either. So I wouldn't worry about it, baby. I promise you. But I know it's kind of worrisome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. Joining us now, CNN senior political analyst John Avlon. Also with us, CNN political analyst Margaret Talev. She's the managing editor at Axios.
I'm glad we got a chance to play that before the discussion here. And couple that with the last thing in Jeremy's piece, where President Biden said, the last four years, we talked about the other guy. The next four years, we're going to talk about the American people. And to me, that was the biggest takeaway, John, from this town hall where there were a lot of news items. There really was. But I think the biggest takeaway was the tonal shift.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I agree. It was the clear contrast between Biden and the previous president in empathy, in policy specifics and political moderation, but also straight talk. And it was in full display.
I think that moment where he connected with the second grader and spoke directly to her about her fears and her concerns about coronavirus is the moment that's going to resonate the most.
But there were a lot of big moments like that last night where he was just able to -- you know, just rejecting out of hand one question about whether student loan debt would be forgived [SIC] up to $50,000. No instinct to pander. No, I'm not going to do that.
And the really laying out more details about opening schools, which is clearly the toughest issue in some respects facing the administration right now.
CAMEROTA: Let's hear that student loan moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need student loan for forgiveness beyond the potential $10,000 your administration has proposed. We need at least a $50,000 minimum. What will you do to make that happen?
BIDEN: I will not make that happen. It depends on whether or not you go to a private university or a public university. Here's what I think. I think everyone -- and I've been proposing this for four years -- everyone should be able to go to community college for free. For free. That's -- that costs $9 billion, and we should pay for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: So, Margaret, when his opponents, you know, try to use the socialism, you know, criticism against him, what -- where are they getting it?
MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, the Democratic Party is certainly further to the left than it's been before, and as a result, it has moved President Biden further to the left.
But you still see him staking out, Alisyn, this center-left position. And I think what was really interesting about some of these very human interactions last night is, in addition to giving people a sense that he was connecting or empathetic, they also served as proxies for how he's going to message and interact with some of these sectors inside of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
I think his interaction with the young girl, the 8-year-old, in a way is a proxy for the messaging he's giving to teachers about how they can feel safe and about how they can assure parents and children of safety.
And I think that interaction with the woman over the student loan debt is, in some sense, a proxy for his conversations with, you know, Bernie Sanders or the left flank of the Democratic party saying, Look, I'm going to meet you part of the way on student loan debt, but in the middle of a pandemic, like, we're not doing $50,000 write-offs.
But the -- last night's town hall, like, overall, I think you saw played to some of Biden's greatest strengths, which are the empathy, the simple conversation, the connecting with the individual.
And also to some of his worst instincts, like talking for too long or not making concise points or drifting into a conversation about China and then catching himself and being like, Oh, my God, what am I doing? [06:10:03]
So it was an interesting, like, warm-up drill for him. You can see -- I can just imagine his staff, after eight years of covering him as vice president, being like, Oh, God, no, no, no. Not China!
BERMAN: Abort! Abort!
TALEV: Right, exactly.
But then also really connecting on some of these mom-and-pop issues that people really care about. And the idea that they want not just policy prescriptions, but comforting and connection from -- from -- from the person in the White House.
BERMAN: Yes. Let me tell you something. I mean, it's notable, he actually did not answer the question from the mother and the daughter, Jessica and Layla Salas. The question was, when can kids get vaccinated? The president didn't answer that.
CAMEROTA: Well, he did say -- he actually did say kids haven't been tested yet.
BERMAN: Right.
CAMEROTA: He said, We haven't tested the vaccine on kids.
BERMAN: What they wanted -- and so the answer to the question is what? And he avoided that.
So what I'm saying -- what I'm saying is that -- while he was occasionally short on specifics, John, what he did was exhibit a moderation both capital "M" in terms of political moderation, as if moderates were a party, and lower case "M," as if moderation were a thematic shift. And I think you saw both of it in that student loan answer. In the answer to the mother and daughter about coronavirus.
AVLON: Yes, I think that's -- that's a very fair and important point.
But you know, that tonal shift really is a proxy also for a fundamental disposition, right? It didn't come at the expense of policy specifics. Even, you know, while he's connecting to people where they are. He was willing to say "no."
You know, look, Joe Biden is not a person who talks particularly in sound bites. There are circuitous sentences. One of his verbal tics is when he apologizes mid-sentence for getting too deep in the weeds on policy.
But that itself is sort of a clear contrast. This is someone who cares about policy, has a command of it. And is trying to be honest and talk to people eye to eye. That itself is a differentiating factor.
And the fact that he's not -- you know, all these stereotypes that get thrown at Democrats, Biden's not biting on that. He's basically saying, Look, I'm going to play my game. This is a center-left party, I'm a center-left person, and I'm going to talk to people eye-to-eye.
And that really resonates for folks at home, especially after the last four years.
CAMEROTA: OK. Margaret, John, thank you both very much. You're going to stick around. We have many more questions for you.
BERMAN: Yes. Obviously, there was a lot last night, and President Biden tried to make a clear shift from the past administration.
In terms of the past, holy cow. This fight inside the Republican Party just went to a new level with the former president lashing out at Mitch McConnell. So what happens now?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:17:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Have you picked up the phone and called any former president yet?
BIDEN: Yes, I have.
COOPER: Do you want to say who?
BIDEN: No, I don't. They're private conversations. But, by the way, all of them have, with one exception, picked up the phone and called me, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: President Biden signaling there that he has not spoken to former President Trump, as Biden attempts to move past the Trump era.
But Trump is not going away quietly, the former president going after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, blasting him in a critical statement, writing, quote, "Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again."
John Avlon and Margaret Talev are back with us.
I smell a ghost writer, Margaret and John. I'm not sure we've ever heard President Trump use the terms "dour" or "sullen." Where his favorite "disaster" or "like a dog"? OK? So we'll put that aside for a second, Margaret. Given Mitch McConnell's --
AVLON: That was your takeaway?
CAMEROTA: That was my takeaway welcome No. 1.
And No. 2, given the incredibly critical stuff that Mitch McConnell said over the weekend about Donald Trump, who's going to win this battle, Margaret? TALEV: On the question of "dour," right, you're saying this was the
scaled-back, edited version of the original statement.
Look, it's just no coincidence that this statement from Donald Trump is coming out after Mitch McConnell put out his own statement or positioning through an interview in the "Wall Street Journal," where he said he's willing to engage in primary contests with Republicans to try to, essentially, keep the lineup of nominees for the '22 contest from being too Trumpy. Right? Those were not his exact words, but that's the meaning of what he was trying to say.
And now you have Trump coming out, and like, two lines after the "dour" line, saying, he's going to engage in primary contests. So there's now going to be this battle royal inside the Republican Party for who are going to be the face of the nominees.
What McConnell is saying is, if you put a bunch of Trump-modeled nominees up in 2022, it's going to prevent Senate Republicans from retaking the majority. It's going to prevent House Republicans from retaking the majority, as they had hoped to do.
And Trump is betting in the opposite direction in terms of money and enthusiasm and turnout.
So it's the 2022 version of the same conversation we've been having for five years now, right, which is, is a smaller, but more motivated base more valuable, or is a slightly bigger tent that's a little bit less emotional valuable?
BERMAN: Yes.
TALEV: And this is going to affect everything in the next couple of months. Right? Because how are you going to have compromise? How are you going to get Republicans to cut deals on stuff like a COVID relief bill when they're reminded in stark terms of what the primary stakes are going to be.
[06:20:04]
AVLON: Yes, but sorry, just a couple of things here. First of all, we know the answer to that. Donald Trump lost the popular vote twice. Right? Yes, he's enormously popular in his party. This is the GOP civil war that's playing out in real time.
But Republicans, I think, are also being reminded of that Winston Churchill quote, "Appeasement is feeding the crocodile, hoping it eats you last."
To that, for Mitch McConnell, also through in Omar from "The Wire." "If you aim for the king, you best not miss."
And so this is sort of a self-inflicted wound by trying to have it both ways.
You know, Donald Trump is playing true to form, whether or not he's got the going through a ghost writer or not on Aly's point about "dour" being a not generally Donald Trumpian world. But this is why Joe Biden got an applause line last night when he said he's tired of talking about Trump. He wants to talk about the American people.
The GOP is still deeply in this thrall, to be clear. But it's a reminder of just how pathetic and petty so much of the last four years has been because of the previous president.
BERMAN: You want to know something really ironic, in the true sense of the word? Is that the former president did the current president a favor inside that, because he attacked Mitch McConnell --
AVLON: Yes.
BERMAN: -- for not being supportive of the $2,000 payment, right? So if you are a Trump supporter, and you're reading that, you're like, Oh, a $2,000 bonus, that's a good thing, which is why you might see so much Republican support for the Biden relief plan.
I promise you -- I promise you, the former president didn't want to do that. This is not three-dimensional chess. This is barely tic-tac-toe from -- from the former president in this case, but it is interesting that he can't quite process it at that level.
I am curious, Margaret, about what Mitch McConnell does now, about how much further he will press this. Is this just it? Was that the last we're going to see of this? Or has, by the way, Donald Trump figured out that he doesn't need Twitter. He can just put out these statements and probably get them read at length on places like FOX News.
TALEV: Yes, I mean, the -- his media strategy is going to be pretty interesting to watch going forward in terms of how much coverage he gets and how much attention people are paying.
But I think for McConnell, like, McConnell has pretty much signaled now what he's going to do. He's going to keep his eye on primary contests, and he's going to try to keep his eye on the prize legislatively in terms of what he thinks is a winning political strategy and what he thinks are the right policy prescriptions.
And I think, you know, he's going to get some help from a couple of moderate Democrats on some of these issues, like Joe Manchin, who's already shown that he will be the one to hold up the $15 minimum wage in the Senate package for COVID relief if he needs to be that guy.
But McConnell is in this interesting place, as you say, where there are so many now Republicans, now-members of the Republican Party who are populist and big government. They want low taxes, but now big government. That there's going to be some overlap with what Biden wants and his agenda.
And that could be tricky if McConnell has these arguments on the merits instead of just leading arguments against -- you know, against Biden. And that's why there are so many Republicans saying, Let's just be solid in our opposition against Biden. That will be the way we can get through the next two years.
CAMEROTA: John.
AVLON: Yes. But I'd add to that, the flip side is that Mitch McConnell may be realizing why it's better to negotiate with Joe Biden in the realm of something called reality than trying to pander to the outer reaches of politics with Donald Trump.
It could not only have the effect that Berman points out, where some Trump supporters say, Oh, right. Yes, we supported that $2,000, you know, stimulus check. And by the way, so did Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley, although I wouldn't hold your breath for them backing the Biden plan.
But it could also have the impact of reminding Mitch McConnell why dealing with Donald Trump was a fundamentally destructive option. Tim Alberta said in a recent piece, you know, the problem with the Faustian -- there's no expiration date on a Faustian bargain, and I think a lot of Republicans, particularly at senior levels, may be remembering this with this outburst statement yesterday.
BERMAN: John, if you had to choose Churchill, Omar, or Tim Alberta, who -- who's your favorite person to quote this morning?
AVLON: Omar.
BERMAN: If you had to choose? OK. That's the right answer. That's the right answer.
CAMEROTA: He employed the trifecta there, which I think is -- he can also do. OK. Dealer's choice. Thank you both very much.
So nearly three million Texans are still without power this morning in this record-breaking cold. And there's more snow and freezing rain falling right now. So we have the latest live report for you, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:28:40]
BERMAN: Developing this morning, more than two dozen people have now died from this powerful winter storm that has crippled much of the southern United States. Millions of customers are still without power this morning in Texas, and the snow and freezing rain keeps falling.
CNN's Camila Bernal live in Dallas with the latest on this. First of all, welcome to NEW DAY. It's great to have you. Second, this is a mess.
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Good morning.
It really is a mess. And what you're seeing here behind me, this really is a rare sight in Texas. People are literally freezing inside their homes, temperatures reaching 20, 30 degrees. And they're wondering why this is still happening.
This storm came in Sunday into Monday, and people are still without power this morning.
Encore, the power company here in Dallas, did say that overnight, the lowering of the demand helped bring back some of the power, but the reality is that here in Texas, nearly three million people are still without power.
There's a lot of political finger pointing, but people are just wanting to know when their power is going to be back. And at the moment, they do not have those answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BERNAL (voice-over): Arctic temperatures and rolling blackouts hammering Texas, as the country sees record lows throughout the south and Plains States.
More than three million homes and businesses without power and heat, including more than one million residents in the Houston area.
City officials slamming the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the private company.
