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New Day

Senate Ruling Says, $15 Minimum Wage Cannot be Included in Relief Bill; U.S. Carries out Airstrikes in Syria Targeting Iranian- Backed Militias; Coronavirus Cases on the Decline as New Variants Spread in U.S. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 26, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: And we want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

And we begin with a big moment for the Biden administration and its first major piece of legislation. Today, the House votes on the president's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. It is expected to pass along party lines. This one will include a $15 an hour minimum wage hike, but when it goes to the Senate, that minimum wage will be stripped from the bill, after the Senate parliamentarian has ruled it cannot be included.

President Biden calls that decision disappointing, but it may just get the measure through the Senate. President Biden heads to Texas hours from now to tour the damage from last week's winter storm.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Also developing this morning, the Biden administration carrying out its first military strike, a bombing run, targeting Iranian-backed militias and weapons in eastern advisory. The move is widely seen as retaliation for recent attacks on U.S. personnel in the region. And we have new information from the Pentagon in just a moment.

First, though, CNN's Lauren Fox live on Capitol Hill, where this morning, Lauren, an increase in the minimum wage, which would have increased salaries for millions of Americans, effectively dead this morning.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly right. It is out of the Senate bill at the very least. And I think, John, this is significant, because this was something that progressives have been pushing for, for not weeks or months, but really years. And they saw this moment as the opportunity that they could finally realize that policy and legislative goal.

Now, what we know is that the House of Representatives will still include the $15 minimum wage in their version of the bill, expected to pass today.

Now, the reason it won't be -- the reason it will not be included in this Senate bill, of course, is because this legislation was not allowed under the strict rules by the Senate parliamentarian. She ruled that this was not going to comply with those budget reconciliation rules. Democrats need those rules to be followed if they want to pass this bill, which is 51 votes.

So, the alternative right now is that the minimum wage is going to have to wait. You can expect that progressives are still going to be pushing for it, but anything that they would pass would likely need 60 votes, John. So a significant blow to Democrats' overall goal for this bill but obviously, still a massive piece of legislation. It includes more money for getting kids back to school, additional funds to make sure that small businesses can deal with this pandemic. And, of course, those $1,400 direct checks to Americans. John?

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much, Lauren. I appreciate all of that reporting.

Joining us now is CNN Political Analyst David Gregory. David, great to see you.

So, is this -- I mean, you know, President Biden says this is a disappointment. Is this a disappointment that it was spiked or is this a blessing in disguise for this?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, I mean, I think it underscores a couple of things. The Democrats have a very slim majority, so they have to deal with their left flank and they have to deal with their more moderate flank, right, Joe Manchin in particular, who can have a real impact. And the third element is whether any Republicans are onboard.

There's a delicate dance around some of these issues, especially where there's a big fight over something like the minimum wage hike.

So there's still an opportunity here for the administration to try to reengage this debate and do this as a standalone bill, which the administration may do and try to drive a bargain with Republicans, some kind of compromise on this, there's also talk of procedural ways they could still move forward, but that seems less popular in the White House.

CAMEROTA: Yes. By blessing in disguise, I mean procedurally. I mean, that Senator Manchin and Sinema weren't going to vote for this bill, they claimed, with the $15 per hour minimum wage in it. So this allows it to pass the Senate. But it's not, obviously, a blessing for the millions of families who rely on a minimum wage.

And, you know, David, yesterday, Christine Romans reminded us, this is not the minimum wage of the '80s. This is not the minimum wage of when I made $2 an hour at Friendly's. The majority of people who are now making this current $7 an hour minimum wage are women, many of them mothers. They are families. This isn't about teenagers anymore. This is totally different for the American families that are struggle now.

GREGORY: It is, and there's a lot at stake at a time when the economy has been ravaged by COVID-19.

[07:05:01]

There's still a debate about this. Obviously, businesses who want to higher lower-skilled labor could be in a difficult position with a minimum wage that goes this high.

There's the other complicating political area, which is, there are regions of the country that already do have a minimum wage at this level, within the states or within cities. And so, that can break up a little bit of that support.

But I agree with you, with the bigger point, which is, this was not trending in the right direction as the White House saw it. The biggest priority is on the overall bill, and they still have ways to fight another day on the minimum wage.

CAMEROTA: Right. But, I mean, for the families who have been waiting on tenterhooks, waiting to find out if their life is about to change and they're about to get economic relief, maybe a standalone bill is the way to go since that's what -- well, I don't know, it might attract some sort of bipartisan support.

GREGORY: Well, right, and even the idea of how quickly it would happen, right? I mean, we're talking about the acute need now, and it sounds like this is something that would be phased in over time. So the bigger bill is still where more immediate relief is going to come.

CAMEROTA: David Gregory, thank you very much, we really appreciate getting the analysis.

GREGORY: You're welcome.

BERMAN: You worked at Friendly's? I want a Friendly's. How come you don't bring me your (INAUDIBLE)?

All right, developing overnight, U.S. air strikes targeting a site in Syria linked to Iranian-backed militias. The air strikes were in response to recent attacks against American and coalition forces in Iraq.

CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon. And this is seen as the first military action from the Biden administration, at least that we know of, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGONN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely right, John. The first one from Joe Biden as commander in chief, and something that very much will be noticed around the world as people begin to assess him as that commander in chief.

Ordering the strikes yesterday, against this encampment, said to be a weapons storage facility in Syria, just over the Iraqi border, a site used by Iranian-backed militias, which used these Iranian-supplied weapons, according to the U.S., and they have launched a number of their rocket attacks against U.S. interests and U.S. troops inside Iraq in recent days. So, all of this leading to President Biden ordering a response and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin talking to reporters about how they came to the decision. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We're confident that that target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes.

We allowed and encouraged the Iraqis to investigate and develop intelligence and that was very helpful to us in refining the target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: And the Biden administration, the Pentagon, taking pains to call this a defensive precision strike. They do believe a number of militants at the area were killed in the strike, but they are talking about this in very limited terms.

The Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby, issuing a statement saying in part, this operation sends an unambiguous message. President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel. That's the Biden message as commander in chief to the world. He will take military action to protect American troops, but very much not going too far, not wanting to escalate tensions with Tehran. John, Alisyn?

BERMAN: All right. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

Joining me now is CNN Global Affairs Analyst Susan Glasser, she's a Staff Writer at The New Yorker.

And, Susan, the question is, what does this first military action by the Biden administration tell us about the Biden foreign policy? There are a few things here. It was a strike in Syria just over the border, not in Iraq. The president reportedly offered more options that would have been more severe, chose a limited action.

And, finally, the way that the Biden administration has announced is, there isn't necessarily the chest thumping that we saw during the Trump administration. How do you read this?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I think that's an excellent point, John. This is not an administration for whom hashtag swagger is the foreign policy motto, as it was in just a few weeks ago really here in Washington.

I do think that it's important to note that very calibrated and sort of targeted nature of this response. The last thing that the Biden administration wants a few weeks into its tenure is to be sucked into an all-consuming focus on the Middle East.

Many presidents have tried to pivot away from the Middle East, however, and I think it is notable and striking that that just isn't possible given the geopolitical realities.

And this is the friction point, right there, between Iraq and Syria, where there is a U.S. presence in the Middle East, and therefore, there are increased risks. And this appears to be in retaliation and in response to a recent series of rocket attacks that injured U.S. personnel, U.S. contractor, on the ground there.

[07:10:07]

And I think so part of the message is simply to these Iranian-backed militias, back away. Just because there's a new leadership in Washington doesn't mean that you have free liberty to take shots at our personnel.

But I would note that the timing is really significant as well. And it's very complicated, because, first of all, the Biden administration wants to make a deal to renew the Iran nuclear deal with Tehran, at the very moment that they're also pushing back against, with military force against Iranian-backed militias, number one.

Number two, look as the timing of the very first phone call that President Biden had with the king of Saudi Arabia, who perceives Iran to be its largest political threat and security threat in the region. The Saudis are very concerned, of course, that this administration could have a very different foreign policy approach than the Trump administration did and might be engaged much more in negotiations with Iran, Saudi Arabia's biggest enemy.

BERMAN: We have about 30 second left, Susan. How do you think Iran reads this morning? As you mentioned, this comes at a time when the Biden administration is trying to get back into the Iran nuclear deal.

GLASSER: Well, I think that's right. And that certainly is the inescapable context here. They're also planning to release the administration is, the Trump administration's secret report on the killing of a Saudi dissident, American newspaper columnist, Khashoggi, which was kept secret. This is very embarrassing to the Saudis and another potential tension point.

So in that sense, this shows the Saudis that the U.S. will still act at times in concert with their views. But I do think it's a complicating factor for the renewal of the Iran nuclear talks.

BERMAN: Yes, a lot to see in a very limited action. It tells us a lot about where the Biden administration is this morning and where I want wants to be over the next several weeks. Susan Glasser, thank you very much.

GLASSER: Thank you.

BERMAN: So Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine could soon get the green light from the FDA. We're going to speak to a member of the key panel making that decision, next.

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[07:15:00]

CAMEROTA: An FDA panel will meet today to decide whether to grant emergency use authorization to Johnson & Johnson's single-dose coronavirus vaccine. joining us now is Dr. Cody Meissner, he's a member of that FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee. Also with us, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay gupta.

Dr. Meissner, let me start with you, because you are on the committee making the decision, what questions do you still have? What do you need to see today?

DR. H. CODY MEISSNER, MEMBER, FDA VACCINES AND RELATED BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Well, I think what's very important, Alisyn, is that we need every tool that we can possibly get to curtail the spread of this pandemic.

As you know, thousands of Americans are dying on a daily basis, so we need a safe and effective vaccine. And we need the more vaccines that become available, the better.

BERMAN: There had been some concern -- with any vaccine, there's always concerns with side effects or reactions, and Bell's palsy had come up as something of an area of concern with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. What are you looking for there? What questions do you need answered?

MEISSNER: Yes. Bell's palsy is a neurologic issue that relates to movements of the face. It's a -- there's no increased association. The calculations have been carefully performed by the FDA and there's no evidence of an increased risk at this time of Bell's palsy following either Moderna the Pfizer messenger RNA vaccines.

So I doubt that there will be any evidence of this sort of a problem following Johnson & Johnson's vaccine. But we will look -- the committee will look very carefully to be certain that that is not a problem. But I don't think people should be concerned about that as a side effect. There's really no statistically significant difference between people who receive the placebo vaccine and those who actually receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

CAMEROTA: So last, Dr. Meissner, when -- if all goes well today with your committee and the emergency use authorization, when could we be getting those vaccinations with J&J?

MEISSNER: Well, it will depend, of course, on what recommendation the advisory committee makes to the Food and Drug Administration. And the Food and Drug Administration is not obliged to follow the recommendation of this committee, the FDA. We'll take it under advisement. And I think it's quite likely that the FDA will follow the recommendation, but, again, they're not required to do that.

I think if we look back at the experience with the two existing messenger RNA vaccines, the FDA acted within 24 hours of the recommendation by VERPAC, that is the Vaccine and Biological Products Advisory Committee. And I anticipate there's a good chance that will happen this time. And then I happy the CDC will meet in the near future and make recommendations for the use of this vaccine.

[07:20:05] BERMAN: Dr. Meissner, thanks for being with us. We're going to let you go. You've got to get ready for this panel hearing later today and all the questions I know you're going to ask about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Sanjay is with us now. And, Sanjay, I want to take a look at the case numbers in the United States, because they've been dropping like a rock for weeks and weeks and weeks and they've stopped dropping as much as they were. And they started to tick up a little bit, maybe, if you're looking at the seven-day moving average.

Now, the hospitalizations are continuing to drop. That's a good thing. The reason I bring this up is because we're now seeing cities and states loosening restrictions and talking about loosening even more restrictions, like ending mask mandates, for instance, letting people eat inside and go to movie theaters. There are certain things that make some sense.

We know a lot about the outdoors. People can do things outdoors. But just the idea of all of a sudden saying, okay, go into the restaurants and stop wearing masks, seems like a good idea right now?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not a good idea, because we're still very much in the middle of this. And even the numbers are still -- even though they're coming down and the case numbers that decline may have leveled off, death rates still 9 percent lower than the seven-day average before hospitalizations, 21 percent lower. But, clearly, there's still a very contagious virus out there and there are people who are vulnerable. That's sort of the big sort of, I think, takeaway.

What I will say, and we've talked about this now for a year, is that probably the truest measure in all of this is hospitalizations, because that's something that, you know, they very carefully measure, they test people, is this a COVID-related hospitalizations, and those do continue to come down, as you point out.

I think there's a couple of things that I'm really looking at. Is when you're looking at this data, we, for a year now, have reliable said, here is where the cases are. A couple of weeks later is when the hospitalizations go up. A couple of weeks later after that is when the deaths go up. And here is the proportionality of that.

What I'm looking for now is, even if cases come back up, and they might given these new variants, do the hospitalizations follow, and if they do, at the same proportion or not? I'm suspecting they won't, because we have, you know, seen increased immunity due to the vaccinations and natural infections. So we'll see, but I'm optimistic about that part of things.

CAMEROTA: I hope you're right, Sanjay, because just to put up the numbers, here are the new hospitalizations on Tuesday, they were 55,000. On Wednesday, they were 54,000. On Thursday, it had dropped to 52,000. So that's all good, going in the right direction, but as you point out, it's a lagging indicator. And so when we look at the cases, as John just pointed out, on Tuesday, there were 69,000 new cases. Then Wednesday, it ticked up, 73,000 new cases. Then yesterday, it ticked up again to 75,000 new cases. So I'm nervous because this is the first time we've seen an uptick in a couple of weeks. And then, hopefully, with the vaccination, people won't get as sick as they had been getting.

GUPTA: Yes, that's really -- that last part, I think, is the key. And I don't know that for sure. I mean, we all have to be humble, especially with this virus. But I do think that that is the important point here, is that the virus is still -- again, it's out there, it's a very contagious virus. We're probably going to be dealing with it for a long time. And if you look at the models, there's a chance that we may go into some form of herd immunity over the summer and possibly pop back out over the fall, as the virus becomes more contagious due to the seasonality.

But if we're in a situation where those increased cases are not translated to more hospitalizations and deaths, it's not ideal. And I'm not suggesting anybody, you know, wants this virus. There's still so much about this virus we don't know, long-hauling symptoms, all these other things. But the idea that it does not translate to hospitalizations and deaths as robustly, I think, you know, I've talked to lots of people who have been following this closely from a modeling standpoint, and that seems to be quite likely, even if the numbers pop up.

And, by the way, I don't know if they're going to pop up as much now, but they may pop up in a few weeks from now, even more so. So don't be alarmed by that. Let's follow the hospitalizations and deaths after that and see what happens.

BERMAN: Look, you're right here, Sanjay. We're watching it very closely. Thanks so much for being with us. You'll be back later to answer questions about vaccines that so many people have.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Sanjay.

Okay. Now to this story, the acting Capitol Police chief revealing frightening new details about the deadly capitol insurrection and what they are hearing about the potential for another attack.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOGONANDA PITTMAN, ACTING U.S. CAPITOL POLICE CHIEF: We know that members of the militia groups that were present on January 6th have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the state of the union.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: A chilling warning from the acting U.S. Capitol Police chief. Domestic terrorists who were involved in the insurrection are planning another attack at some point, possibly, when President Biden addresses a joint session of Congress later this year.

Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. She's a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which held yesterday's hearing into the security failures on January 6th. Congresswoman, great to have you.

You had some tense, I would say, exchanges with the acting chief, because you were trying to get answers. Basically, she was saying, this is not over. January 6th was not the end. They are planning to do something more, these Trump supporters, aka domestic terrorists. Do you have confidence that the U.S. Capitol Police are now on top of it?

REP. JENNIFER WEXTON (D-VA): Well, I think that they will definitely err on the side of overpreparing now instead of underpreparing, as they did on January 6th. And I think now, with the security fencing that's in place, with the National Guard presence, I do feel safe on the Capitol grounds.

[07:30:05]

But the fact that there are still threats out there make it that much clearer that we really need to.