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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Biden Pleads with Americans to Do Their Part to End Pandemic; Officials Caution Against Overconfidence as Pandemic Eases; Administration Facing Surge of Migrants At Southern Border; U.S. and Allies Facing Renewed Threats from China. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 12, 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]

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JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will not relent until we beat this virus, and I need you.

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LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden makes an appeal to the American people and lays out his timeline for a return to normal.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A nation divided. More states move to reopen business and drop mask mandates despite warnings from officials.

JARRETT: And an influx of migrant children at the southwest border. What is the plan to help these kids?

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett. Happy Friday.

ROMANS: Happy Friday. I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you. March 12th. It's 5:00 a.m. exactly in New York.

So, start the clock. President Biden offering this hopeful path out of the pandemic and he's giving a timeline by early summer. In his first primetime address, the president urged all-Americans to do their part.

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BIDEN: If we do all of this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th, there's a good chance you, family and friends will be able to get together in your backyard, neighborhood, have a cookout, barbecue, celebrate Independence Day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Key here, the president urging all states to make all adults eligible for a vaccine available in two months.

CNN's Jasmine Wright is live for us at the White House this morning. Jasmine, we finally have some dates here. Vaccines are on the way for

everyone. Lay out the president's goals.

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, last night, Laura, the president really did two things. First, he tapped into the empathizer in chief role that we are getting to know from him so well meeting with Americans, as you said, to do their part. He said, I need you in terms of making sure they're continuing to be responsible as this pandemic is ongoing. He acknowledged the large scale deaths pointing to the card that he carries but also those small sacrifices that Americans have made, those first days, those meetings with their family celebrations. And then he tapped into salesman in chief making the case that this is what the federal government can do for you if it works correctly.

And a show of that federal government effort, he announced that by May 1st, all adult Americans will be eligible to get that vaccine, putting a timeline on that.

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BIDEN: All adult Americans will be eligible to get a vaccine no later than May 1. Let me be clear, that doesn't mean everyone will have that shot immediately, but it means you'd be able to get in line beginning May 1. Every adult will be eligible to get their shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: Now, White House officials say that this will be done using the Health and Human Services Department. Let's not make any mistake, Laura. This is a big, big task and it likely will be difficult to implement.

Now, the American Rescue Plan, President Biden didn't give it that much play time last night but he will make up for it in this next week as he and his vice president and emissaries hit the country, educating Americans on exactly what they stand to benefit from the bill trying to keep the pressure up. We're going to see them nearly every day out in the country, keeping that pressure up to keep this bill having broad support -- Laura.

JARRETT: Yeah. I thought it was interesting. You know, the president signed it a day earlier than expected. He was supposed to sign it today but he wanted to have the checks land in bank accounts this weekend, as soon as people.

Jasmine, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Three minutes past the hour.

Record support from the Fed and Congress has nursed along the idea that life will return to normal. But we're not there yet. Look at the past year. Look at the split screen.

On the left, a stock market that crashed last spring and then surged to record highs. In the job market on the right, a deep hole, 22 million jobs were lost in March and April last year. The labor market now is still down 9.5 million jobs.

The president's rescue package is meant to stop that disconnect, pumping in $1.9 trillion mainly to help Americans and low income families.

The Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that price tag is not too big.

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JANET YELLEN, TREASURY SECRETARY: I don't believe we've overshot the mark. I think that this package is the right size. We put it together by asking, what are the needs of Americans? Where do we need to get money and how much to relieve all the suffering that's occurring in the economy?

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[05:05:04]

ROMANS: The suffering has been uneven. Black and Latino workers still have higher unemployment rates than white workers. Employment for black and Hispanic women down the most. It's why we've been calling this a she-cession.

Another 720,000 people filed for the first time for unemployment benefits last week. It's still higher than during the peak of the great recession. There's real hope here that those numbers will start to taper off once the money starts pumping into the economy, Laura.

JARRETT: So, the president says get ready for barbecues on the 4th of July. But there is still so much work to do. One in 10 Americans fully vaccinated, but at the same time, more than 1,400 people still dying each day, and more contagious variants are still spreading and spring break just around the corner.

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DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPTIAL OF PHILADELPHIA: I think we're going to get fooled. I think what's going to happen is you're going to see as we enter the summer months, numbers are going down, people are going to think, great, we're good, they're going to be less interested in getting the vaccine because they'll think we've conquered this pandemic.

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JARRETT: Even though, Los Angeles County is preparing to relax restrictions again next week. It's allowing gyms and movie theaters to reopen with restrictions.

ROMANS: Honolulu suffering badly from reduced tourism is allowing bars to reopen immediately for the first time since the start of the pandemic. In a move literally putting politics ahead of people's lives, the attorney general of Texas has followed through on his threat to sue officials in the capital city of Austin. Austin decided to keep a mask mandate in place even after the government repealed it statewide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: You wear your mask because your governor tells you to. You're wearing a mask because you want to protect yourself, you want to protect your loved ones, you want to protect your community members.

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ROMANS: 2020 marks the deadliest year for the U.S. in at least a century. More than during war or earlier pandemic. Coronavirus drove the death rate in the United States up 15 percent last year.

JARRETT: Just remarkable.

Well, overnight, CNN learned U.S. border patrol agents are encountering a large group of families. We're talking over 100 or more people here in the Rio Grande Valley, and the influx of children becoming more and more unsustainable with now more than 3,700 minors in border patrol custody. To be clear here, when we talk about Border Patrol custody, we're talking about jail-like facilities at times.

ROMANS: So, why are more people crossing the southern border? Two devastating hurricanes, long-term poverty made worse by the pandemic, and the perception of relaxed immigration enforcement under President Biden. The Biden's policy to never turn away children is having unintended consequences.

Ed Lavandera is on the border for us this morning in McAllen, Texas.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, we have new details this morning highlighting the intensifying surge of migrants, and especially unaccompanied children migrants at the U.S. southern border and how federal agencies are scrambling to handle the situation.

The way it's supposed to work is that when a child is encountered by Border Patrol agents at the border, they're taken into custody and within 72 hours, they're supposed to be processed into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

But because the number of unaccompanied children arriving at the border is outpacing the number of available shelter space with HHS, there's essentially a backlog, a bottleneck, and they are forced to stay in the care of Border Patrol longer than they should.

HHS currently says that they have 8,800 children in their custody right now. That number has jumped by almost 1,000 in just the last week. The agency says it has room for about 13,600 children, but these numbers are expected to continue escalating in the coming weeks. And because of that, the Biden administration says it is looking at a NASA facility in California to serve as a temporary shelter for more unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S. southern border -- Christine and Laura.

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JARRETT: Ed Lavandera, thank you so much for that.

Well, President Biden scored his first legislative win with the recovery package. It's the next priorities already running into some trouble.

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JARRETT: Fresh off a major legislative victory with the pandemic relief package, President Biden has a lot of work to do in Congress. The next phase of his agenda already facing challenges on Capitol Hill.

CNN's Daniella Diaz live on Capitol Hill with more.

Daniella, he's got a lot on his plate. A lot he wants to get done, a lot of progressive items. Which is most likely to run into trouble with this Congress?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, Laura, probably everything honestly. This -- Biden has now achieved this massive $1.9 trillion COVID-19 legislation, the first priority of his administration. But now that that's done, he has to move on to the other issues that he campaigned on. Some of these issues include immigration reform, health care, and these issues include immigration reform, health care.

And these issues and -- I'm sorry, this massive infrastructure package that is a priority for Democrats, but the thing is, Biden needs to work with Democrats, progressives and moderate Democrats to be able to pass this legislation.

And he already ran into this issue, when he was trying to get the votes he needed to pass his massive, COVID-19 legislation. And that is with, possibly, no Republicans, ever, signing on to support any of the measures his administration wants to pass.

And the House has, already, passed some measures that Democrats campaigned on, in the last election, included -- including, expanded gun reform, background checks, as well as expanded-voter access, and making it easier for people to unionize.

But it doesn't matter that it passed through the House. It now has to go through the Senate, where they need 60 votes to be able to pass this legislation.

[05:15:06]

And Democrats are worried that they won't get the 60 votes or ten Republicans to sign on to support these measures. So, now, it's renewed a debate on the filibuster. Whether -- and some

Democrats want to kill the filibuster and some Democrats want to keep it. So it is a renewed debate in the Senate on this issue.

JARRETT: Yeah. Fifty-one votes only get you so far. You can't use reconciliation for everything.

Daniella, thank you so much.

ROMANS: All right. Today, a virtual meeting of U.S. allies to confront and contain China. Why this could be the president's most important task, yet.

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[05:20:04]

ROMANS: Welcome back.

This morning, the president and the vice president will meet, virtually, with fellow leaders from what's known as "The Quad". That's India, Australia, Japan, and the U.S. The pandemic, the economy, the climate, all this on the agenda. No doubt, China will be a big part of this conversation.

"Washington Post" columnist, CNN political analyst, and friend of EARLY START, Josh Rogin, is here this morning.

And he is the author of a great, new book, "Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle of the 21st Century."

Josh, so nice to see you this Friday morning.

You know, the U.S. is at odds with China on just a bunch of issues, right? Trade, tech, the Uyghurs. Just yesterday, China changed Hong Kong's electoral system, and a top U.S. commander this week said China is growing its military, trying to supersede American power, in Asia.

Where do these leaders begin, in confronting Beijing?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Well, this is a group of countries, that are sharing a -- a -- the same challenges coming from China. And those are challenges, to the international-world order, to human rights, to trade, to commerce, to tech.

And during the Trump administration, there was a lot of talk about the challenges, but not a lot of coordination because our relationship with our allies was so poor. And the hope, here, is that the Biden administration can coalesce like-minded countries, Democratic countries, to meet these challenges, not to have a war with China but to avoid a war with China by confronting some of their worst behavior.

JARRETT: Josh, we are, of course, still, in the middle of this pandemic, that began in China. And, soon, spread everywhere. You write that U.S. diplomats actually warned about a Wuhan lab back in 2018. But nobody listened. You write: Chinese diplomats told U.S. officials that they would cut

off exports of medical supplies, if Washington didn't back off the rhetoric. Tell us more about this.

ROGIN: Well, that's right. Here we are, exactly-one year, since the pandemic was, officially, declared. And we still don't know how it started. And this was a very, highly charged, political issue during the Trump administration because the Trump administration politicized it, highly.

And now that they're gone, a lot of people inside and outside the government are taking another look at these two theories. One is that it was a natural spillover. And one is that there was some-human error or some connection to the research that was being done in these Wuhan labs.

To be clear, we don't know which one is correct. What the Biden administration is now saying is that there are some suspicious signs. There are some activities at that lab they didn't disclose and we need more investigation and that's all.

So, it's not to say that the lab did it. It's not to say that the lab didn't do it. But now, we have, with the benefit of hindsight, some more evidence that says we need to take a closer look at this lab. Which diplomats did warn about, three years ago.

ROMANS: Josh, your book is, literally, it's called "A Battle for the 21st Century." And the U.S. and China are competing superpowers. You know, you could argue that President Trump was the first leader to confront China, and it was overdue. So, what happens next?

ROGIN: Well, the idea is to take some of the work, that the Trump administration did in confronting China. And improve on it, if possible, by making it more multilateral. By taking away some of the racist and fear-mongering rhetoric that president Trump used, especially on the campaign trail, and then, to come up with a strategy that all Americans can join in and with allies and partners along for the ride, hopefully.

That's a big challenge. That is a big job. I think the Biden administration's just beginning on -- with that. And the Quad meeting today is part of that. And the meeting in Alaska, between American and Chinese diplomats is part of that, as well.

JARRETT: Yeah. We just actually confirmed that Japan's prime minister will be the first-foreign leader to visit the U.S., in person, since Biden took office. And, of course, you just mentioned that meeting. And -- with Chinese counterpart in Alaska next week, which would all be very interesting.

Josh, so nice to see you. Thank you so much for getting up with us.

ROMANS: Good luck with the book, Josh.

ROGIN: Thank you so much. JARRETT: All right. Still ahead, barbecues by Independence Day,

stimulus checks by the weekend. Vaccine appointments, by May 1st, and a website to help you sign up for those appointments. All, part of the president's push for a return to normal.

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[05:28:35]

JARRETT: Welcome back.

The coronavirus pandemic is still raging in Brazil. It has the second- most deaths worldwide, about 273,000 now. Hospitals filling to dangerous levels. ICUs in at least three states have exceeded 98 percent capacity. But the president, telling his people to, quote, stop whining.

CNN's Matt Rivers reports, now, from Mexico City.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, despite the fact that there have been record-daily increases in the number of coronavirus deaths, recently, despite the fact that local leaders across the country, in Brazil, are saying that their health-care systems are collapsing, if you listen to Brazil's health minister and president, on Thursday, you might walk away thinking, well, maybe, things aren't as bad as the data would seem to show. And that economic concerns Trump all.

Asked about the status of the country's health-care system, Brazil's health minister said, quote, our health system is very impacted. But it has not collapsed, nor will it collapse. He attributed the increases in hospitalizations and deaths, mainly, to new variants of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the president of Brazil was talking about not putting in more-restrictive measures on people's movements, saying how long will our economy resist? If it collapses, it will be a disgrace, he said. What will we have? Soon, supermarket invasions, buses on fire, strikes, pickets, work stoppages.

But these two men seem to be ignoring what the data is telling us. As of midday Wednesday, of Brazil's 26 states plus its federal district, 13 are on the verge of collapse, with an ICU occupancy rate above 90 percent or higher.