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Biden Says, Vaccines will be Available for All Americans by End of July; Nearly 3 Million Customers Still without Power in Texas; Trump Slams Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Dour, Sullen and Unsmiling Political Hack. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 17, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Why is the power out in Texas still?

[07:00:02]

Millions still suffering, yes, they have had awful weather. But this morning, new questions about how much of this is not about an act of God but bad acts of management and bad choices that have everything to do with money over the last few years.

We begin though with the president's town hall. Jeremy Diamond live at the White House.

Look, a lot of headlines here, a lot of news out of this. But I think, as Alisyn said, the big news might have just been a huge tonal shift.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No doubt. And President Biden in his first official trip outside of Washington as president, addressing an audience at the CNN town hall, talking about his administration's response to the coronavirus so far and also talking about the future, including when all Americans will be able to get access to a vaccine and when we'll finally be out of this pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND (voice over): President Biden pitching his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package during a CNN town hall --

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: 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 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'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 five days a week, if possible?

BIDEN: I think we'll be close to that at the end of the first hundred days. We have a significant percentage of them being able to be opened. My guess is they're going to probably be pushing to open all summer.

DIAMOND: As congressional Republicans push for a smaller relief package, Biden standing firm.

BIDEN: We can't spend too much. Now is the time we should be spending. Now is 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 accumulated, number one, and number two, I'm prepared to write off $10,000 debt, but not $50,000.

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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (on camera): And also on display from the president were moments of empathy, like when he tried to reassure an eight-year-old girl about his fears of the coronavirus or when he talked to a mother about to a mother about speaking with her after to get access to a coronavirus vaccine for her son with a pre-existing condition.

Now, tomorrow, President Biden will once again head out of Washington, this time heading to the state of Michigan to tour a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant. Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Jeremy, thank you very much.

Joining us now to talk about all of the headlines, we have CNN Senior Political Reporter Nia-Malika Henderson. She's the co-host of the CNN podcast, Political Sound. Also with us, CNN Political Analyst David Gregory. Great to see both of you.

So, Nia-Malika, one of the things we talked about before the town hall, and we didn't know if he would do it successfully, was, was the going to sell that $1.9 trillion relief bill, was he going to sort of put any meat on the bones of would it be targeted enough, would he compromise on the $15 minimum wage?

[07:05:03]

Did he move the needle on that at all last night?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, listen, the thing that Biden should take comfort in is this plan is actually broadly popular with average Americans. It's also popular with state and local officials from both parties, because they need the money. They want to see their schools open. They want to see their small businesses get relief.

The big question is, did he hold Democrats together, right? He's got to have those 51 Democrats. You've seen people like Joe Manchin express some skepticism about that $15 minimum wage. And you saw Joe Biden himself be open to negotiation in terms of that $15 minimum wage.

There is a sense that maybe now isn't the right time to do that given the economic catastrophe that's going on across the country. And maybe you have some sort of phased in $15 minimum wage, and that is what Biden talked about.

I guess the other question is, do you bring along, if you're Biden, based on his performance last night, any other Republicans, right? People like Mitt Romney, the usual suspects, Susan Collins, people like Lisa Murkowski, who did want to see something more targeted. You heard Biden last night essentially say, the bigger, the better. This almost $2 trillion plan is what he thinks is the right size. And so I think he is confident in knowing that he likely has those 51 Democrats and that is really all he needs to get this thing passed by March or so.

BERMAN: Yes. I have to say, he didn't, to me, sell as hard as I thought he would, the relief package. What he really sold was normal. What he really seemed to be leading into for the entire event, David, was normal and also compassion. And Jeremy brought it up. So let's play it, the moment with the eight-year-old girl, Leyla Salas, who is concerned about the fact that she doesn't have the coronavirus vaccine. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Well, first of all, honey -- what's your first name?

LEYLA SALAS: Leyla.

BIDEN: Leyla, a beautiful name. First of all, kids don't get the vaccine -- don't get COVID very often. It's unusual for that to happen.

So you're the safest group of people in the whole world within, number one.

Number two, 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: David, what did you see there?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Just a compassionate person, an old-fashioned politician who knows how to talk to people, adults and children alike, and who understands that there has been a real missing part of compassion in our national dialogue around this pandemic, to have leaders say, we understand what you're going through, we understand this is really hard.

And that's what we're hearing from everyone. And I think Biden is able to do that. It's a good forum for him. He wants to be able to speak to the American people, as he said, to level with the American people. And I think he's bringing all of that.

I think as the president talked about normal, he's got a big challenge about opening schools. We talk about the vaccine timeline, talk about when we really start to feel normal. There's a lot of pressure about opening schools, and there should be.

And I will say, I do still think the president is dancing around this issue of teacher being resistant to reopening. He is not taking this head-on because it's a union issue. And I do think, ultimately, it could be a failure of leadership. You're talking about kids at the high school level, as well, not just K-8, who are on track to lose a year and a half of their high school time in terms of the school calendar. That's a lot. They've got to get back to school. There is science that supports the safety of doing such.

So, the idea that we should get everybody who works in a school to the front of the line in terms of the vaccination, fine, if we're able to do that, great, but he's going to have to really take this on and push so that in the beginning of the fall of this new school year in the fall, that people are really resuming some normal about going back.

BERMAN: What you're talking about is he didn't do that. He sort of dodged what is the major issue, which is, should or can schools reopen without teachers being vaccinated. What he did say was he would like to see teachers moved to the front of the line. I don't think there's anyone who doesn't want to see teachers moved to the front line if they can be.

But the question is are you willing to push to use political capitol to suggest that schools should be reopened even if they aren't moved to the front of the line? And I don't think he got anywhere near that answer.

GREGORY: Yes, that's -- and I think that's the issue. And, again, even whether -- you know, the science tells us there's not as much risk as what the scientists thought initially. So even pushing all teachers to the front of the line, there are teachers who might be vulnerable for some reason. But I think this goes back to Trump. This was a lot of schools said, if Trump wants the schools reopened, that must be a bad idea, so we're not doing it, and you've got told us it's safe.

[07:10:04]

Yes, there need to be more federal funds to make it safer, but at some point, we're talking about a huge loss for our children all around the country and that has to be addressed. And the president is not addressing that by saying, well, let's see if we can get them to the front of the line but I don't have the power to do that.

CAMEROTA: There was another interesting exchange -- yes, go ahead.

HENDERSON: I was going to say, one of the important things we're not talking about here is parents who are resistant to taking their kids -- sending their kids back to school. There are a lot of schools that are reopened. I have friends in South Carolina. Their teachers, their schools are reopened. They are going to the classrooms. They are going to classrooms with two or three students in there, because parents don't feel comfortable yet sending their kids back to school.

So this notion that it's just, you know, teachers aren't really working, teachers don't want to go back. A, teachers are working, they're doing remote learning and they're trying to obviously perfect that. But it is parents who have a lot of hesitancy in sending their kids back to schools that are big, that are not really up to snuff in terms of the ventilation. A lot of old schools, particularly, in states like South Carolina and throughout the south and then some of these big schools in cities, as well.

So, listen, I think we've obviously had a lot of focus on teachers and teachers unions, but a lot of parents also very reluctant. Here in D.C., for instance, a lot of parents are reluctant to send their kids back to school, even though the schools are open.

GREOGYR: Yes, good point.

CAMEROTA: The other issue, one other issue that came up, was student loan forgiveness. And you heard a different tone, I would say, Nia- Malika, here when somebody was saying, she desperately needs help with that, it wasn't necessarily that he led with compassion. Here was his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need student loan forgiveness beyond the potential of $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 public university.

Here is 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 costs $9 billion and we should pay for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: What did you hear on that response, Nia-Malika?

HENDERSON: Well, listen, progressives are not going to be happy about this. This is an issue that they have been pushing for. They say he does have the authority to make the limit $50,000 to wipe that out. He is obviously saying $10,000. So after that response, you had a lot of progressives, people like AOC on Twitter essentially pushing back on this president, because this is a real, real issue for the progressives, particularly in the House. This new class of people who are bringing a lot of energy to the House caucus, this is a really important issue for them.

But, listen, this is Joe Biden. He is much more of a centrist. He is sticking to his guns on this and essentially saying, $10,000 is the limit, and hoping that he can bring some of those progressives along who want to see a much, much more aggressive approach to student loans, a lot of this debt saddling a lot of people around the country, particularly in vulnerable communities, black and brown folks in particular. But, listen, he is standing ground on this and not appearing to move to where progressives want him to be.

BERMAN: look, you don't often hear a politician say no to a voter directly like that. That was what was notable about it. He's like, no, no, no, I'm not going to give you what you want there. Like, oh, that's odd. It's just not something you hear every day.

David Gregory, Nia-Malika Henderson, thank you very much.

So this major winter storm has now killed more than two dozen people. It continues to hit the Southern U.S. More than 3 million customers are still without power in Texas this morning, and that's a real issue, honestly, because this isn't about an act of God, it's about an act of mismanagement over the last several years.

CNN's Camila Bernal live in Dallas with the latest on this. Camila?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Yes, still so many questions that are still yet to be answered, and specifically because people are cold. They are freezing in their home, the temperatures reaching 20, 30 degrees, and there's nothing they can do. And so they are asking local authorities, state leaders, what in the world is happening here in Texas and why haven't they gotten their power back, despite the fact that this started Monday. This started on Sunday night into Monday morning. And still, people are still freezing inside of their homes.

Governor Greg Abbott talking to a number of local stations last night, and he sounded upset. He's specifically pointing the finger at ERCOT. ERCOT is that private company here in Texas that runs the power grid. And the CEO speaking to us saying that they are doing everything they can. And instead, they're doing the work to try to keep people with power at the moment.

[07:15:05]

He says that if they weren't doing this work, then they would be completely in the dark.

But Governor Greg Abbott is upset. He says there needs to be some sort of investigation into why this is happening. And we did hear from the CEO who is trying to defend this whole scenario. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAGNESS, CEO, THE ELECTRIC RELIABILITY COUNCIL OF TEXAS: I think from the perspective of the grid collapsing, I think what has happened here is a response that kept the grid from collapsing, that kept us from going into a blackout.

Certainly, we need to look at what has happened here, once we get everybody back online, which is the number one priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And for many residents, that is just not enough because they are trying to deal with this going into another day of cold temperatures. It was snowing this morning. This, of course, is not something that usually happens here in Texas. The site behind me is a rare sight. And people want this to be over. They feel like they've been in this for years, even though it's only been days. And so even though there were some of the homes that received power overnight because of the low demand, there are still about 3 million people just in the state of Texas without power. The governor did also say that there is problems when it comes to the turbines and the natural gas. There is also a low supply of that. But residents here are just hoping that this will be over soon. They still don't have that answer, John.

BERMAN: No, they want this answer right now, but they also need it answered before the next winter storm that they get so it doesn't happen again. Camila Bernal, thank you very much.

So this morning, Republican Thunderdome, two men enter. How many get to leave? The former president lashing out at Mitch McConnell, that's next.

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[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): They're now at each other's throat. I'm more worried about 2022 than I've ever been. I don't want to eat our own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Lindsey Graham, who has been on both sides of almost every Republican divide, now speaking out against political cannibalism. We will see if he changes his mind on that.

This has to do with a scathing letter released under the former president's name, attacking the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who has said the former president is responsible for the Capitol insurrection. This new statement says, 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.

Joining us now, CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman, she is a Washington Correspondent for The New York Times. Maggie, great to see you this morning.

What's behind this letter, which, by the way, is in lieu of a tweet? The former president seeming to realize that he can actually put out statements if he wants. But what was behind putting out this statement?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Sometimes, John, things are actually are what they seem. And in this case, what was behind it was that McConnell gave a very, very tough and line-drawing statement about Donald Trump and Donald Trump's role in the party going forward on Saturday, after McConnell had voted to acquit Trump on the impeachment -- incitement of insurrection charges.

He has made clear in an interview with The Wall Street Journal and in an op-ed with the journal that he does not want Trump to be dictating what the party does going into 2022. He said this was a reaction, but it took, as it often does, sort of this childish form of name calling, insulting, it read like a lot of tweets strung together, frankly.

I do think that you are now going to see this divide between the two of them, which had been growing for a while since November 3rd, just out in the open. And what that portends for how the party tries its chances to take back the majority in the Senate and the majority in the House. And 2022 is a real open question. They are setting themselves up on either side of the primary candidate line here.

CAMEROTA: It did read much like a lot of his tweets in terms of tone, but not the words, dour and sullen, those were new entries, I felt, into the vocabulary.

But, Maggie, moving on from that, what's going to happen with this battle? Is it now sort of at a stalemate or is this brewing battle between McConnell and Trump going to get worse?

HABERMAN: I think that for the first time in the McConnell/Trump relationship since Trump became president, there is a huge imbalance where McConnell has a lot more power, he has a leadership position, he still has a Twitter feed. He has ways to communicate that Donald Trump does not right now. Donald Trump has historically had one speed with which to go after other Republicans and it was over his Twitter feed. So I think you are going to see him continuing to say things.

I do think it ups the chances that we see Donald Trump show up, say, at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Committee, conference later this month. I think that it accelerates the timeframe by which Donald Trump is going to start talking more. But I don't think the fact that he said thing is a surprise. I think that he felt like he had to. It is notable that he didn't do it at something like a news conference, where he likely would have given much more freewheeling answers.

BERMAN: Well, why? I mean, first of all, the CPAC thing, are you suggesting he is going to go to CPAC? And why has he felt --

HABERMAN: I think it's likelier that he's going to go.

BERMAN: Okay, that's interesting.

HABERMAN: I think it's likelier that he's going to go, yes, I do. But I also think -- which doesn't mean he will. He changes his mind lots of times every day.

On the news conference piece, a lot of his aides had wanted him, as you know, there was talk about him doing one yesterday. He didn't do one yesterday. One aide told me that the statement ended up essentially being in lieu of that. Another aide said, no, no, this was really because the press conference was supposed to be ball spiking after the acquittal and talking about what's next. And if they're being honest, they don't really know what comes next for Donald Trump, which is why there is this sort of improvisational quality to how this is going.

CAMEROTA: But the CPAC thing suggests that he is staying engaged and influential.

HABERMAN: It would suggest he's staying engaged and he wants to be seen as influential. I think a big test, Alisyn, of how influential he is, is how the candidates that he backs do fare in these elections next year. There has been some talk from some of his aides about recruiting a slate of candidates who are going to oppose the House Republicans who voted to support impeachment when the articles were being passed in the House.

[07:25:06]

Now, are they actually going to recruit ten candidates or are they going to recruit a few candidates and then the former president backs primary opponents and then claims that those were his candidates? No idea. They're clearly making this up as they go along.

The reason that I think that CPAC is likelier now is because I think he feels like he has to establish more dominance than he felt the need to based on McConnell's clear desire to move past him in the party.

BERMAN: One of the things that's interesting about the statement is the one little piece of policy he seemed to wedge in there, where one of his big complaints about McConnell was not supporting the $2,000 relief check he wanted to send to people in December. I don't know if the president realizes, that might help Joe Biden right now, who is arguing for more direct relief checks.

HABERMAN: John, I'm going to go with that he doesn't realize that. It is absolutely true that the former president is arguing something that had he voiced that at any point publicly or to lawmakers in a real way during the actual negotiations when he was still president, something different might have happened. As we know, that he preferred sort of being in the office and then commenting from the sidelines, as if he had no power.

There was another piece in there that I didn't mention that I should, which is significant, which is that Trump took a shot at McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, who is the former transportation secretary in the Trump administration, and it was a nasty shot. And it was a sort of threatening shot about how McConnell is conflicted on China because of his family business ties to China.

That's the kind of ugliness you're also going to see from Donald Trump going forward, because that's the only other speed which he knows, which is lob threats. What that ends up looking like, I don't know. But it was of note to me that that was in that statement.

CAMEROTA: Really interesting. Maggie, thank you very much for sharing all the reporting.

HABERMAN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: President Biden offering comforting words to an eight-year- old girl last night. That girl and her mom join us to talk about that moment from CNN's town hall, next.

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[07:30:00]