Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

President Biden Gives Speech about COVID Relief Bill; President Biden States Coronavirus Vaccines May be Available to All American Adults by May 1st; Rep. Mike Sherrill (D-NJ) is Interviewed About President Biden's Address; Interview with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 12, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

TAMIKA PALMER, MOTHER OF BREONNA TAYLOR: Thank you, that I'm grateful that the work hasn't went unnoticed, but to not lose focus, to not give up. Because we still haven't got what we came for, and that's justice. And so until that happens, I just, I hope they continue to have the strength and the courage to be out in the streets.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Tamika Palmer, Lonita Baker, thank you both very much. We are thinking of you as we will be tomorrow as well.

PALMER: Thank you.

LONITA BAKER, ATTORNEY FOR BREONNA TAYLOR'S FAMILY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: And NEW DAY continues right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: And good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. And this morning, imagine a July 4th barbecue, a backyard barbecue.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Are you inviting me?

CAMEROTA: Yes, I am inviting you, John, and maybe we can even be closer than six feet apart. Imagine what that would look like with your friends and family. President Biden says it's a realistic goal if we all buckle down a little longer. In his first primetime address last night, the president pledged to make all adults eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by May 1st. That's just seven weeks away, and a month earlier than the last projection.

BERMAN: So the president spent only part of his speech touting the $1.9 trillion relief package that is now law. But the hope is here tour, as they're calling it, is about to begin with the president and vice president hitting the road to promote it. The first round of direct payments to Americans, they will arrive in bank accounts this weekend. We're going to speak to a member of the Biden cabinet in just a moment.

CAMEROTA: We begin with CNN White House correspondent John Harwood. John, great to see you this morning. So what was the takeaway from President Biden's speech last night? Some people thought that he was going to be doing more of a sales job, but that isn't exactly what the message was.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, I think spiking the football is the last thing that President Biden wanted to do. What was notable about the speech was the appeal to universal values. It was striking in the way that the president conveys empathy in unadorned language, trying to appeal to the common experiences that all Americans have been missing during this pandemic, appealing to them for assistance.

We have had four years of a president who recently departed who was saying to the American people, you need me. Joe Biden was saying I need you. He was also saying, I need science, I need the business community to continue ramping up these vaccines. I need state and local governments to push these vaccines out, and I'm backing them up with a rushing river of money from the American Rescue Plan. And most of all, I need Americans to mask up and do the things, the public health guidelines that will enable us to achieve those goals by the July 4th.

This is a president who has consistently under-promised and overdelivered. You can bet that they're confident that they can achieve these goals if they can keep the American people on task.

BERMAN: I think that's a reasonable reading of it. If you're promising May 1st and July 4th, the way this White House has handled things, you would think they may actually hit some of those even weeks earlier at this point. John, you talk about what the president needs and wants. What does he want now politically? What are the goals for him as he and cabinet members hit the country with this hope is here or help is here tour?

HARWOOD: Well, the first thing he needs to do politically is to convey to the American people exactly what this rescue plan is going to do, get them to understand the benefits, get his government to stand up the programs needed, including assistance to small business, many businesses that haven't been eligible before, to try to make sure that that aid gets out the door.

That effort to achieve the goals of the rescue plan and sell the rescue plan show the American people not just $1,400 checks, which are going to land in their mailbox, but thing like the child tax credit, the effect of the aid to state and local governments, all the things that come with that bill, they have got to make that case. And that gives them a little bit of time to figure out what comes next, because one of the things we don't know, John, is the unity that was achieved by Democrats on the plan, no Republican support, they rallied around the president's objective.

Can they replicate that with the next phase of legislative activity? He wants a big infrastructure plan. Disagreement over whether you try to do it through the same process that only requires Democratic votes. Do you reach out to Republicans? Does that slow things down? Can you recreate what they have just done? They don't know the answer to that, and they're in the process of figuring it out.

But what the president is trying to do is unplug the electricity from the ideological polarization as he moves forward. Didn't take direct shots at President Trump last night, didn't take direct shots at the governors who are lifting mask mandates, but went straight to the American people and said I need you to act. And the decisions of those Americans more than the decisions by the governor are going to determine whether or not we can get out of this pandemic in the way that he wants to.

[08:05:16]

BERMAN: There were some indirect shots at the former administration and suggestions about where the vaccine situation was, some that stretched the facts a little bit. We'll get to that in a little bit.

John, I do want to ask you, and I'm asking you rather than Sanjay this question, what's the concern about the variants? Are they hedging some of the politics of this because of concern about the science?

HARWOOD: Yes. And that's one of the things that the president emphasized in his speech. He talked about, this is our goal. But things can go wrong. Things can go sideways. And that's not only if Americans don't follow the public health guidelines and stick to it the way they have been in the last several weeks. It also has to do with whether or not the manufacturers can keep up the pace, continue accelerating the pace and delivery of vaccines, whether state and local governments can push them out, but also whether or not the science can stay on top of the variants and show that we can manage when this problem escalates in its difficulty.

So far, the variants have been a little more manageable, I think, than some in the scientific community had feared. So that's good news. But there's a whole lot that we have learned over the last year, which is that this is an unpredictable virus, a difficult virus, and I think they have got to be alert to that possibility that things could get more difficult than they look right now.

CAMEROTA: John Harwood, thank you very much for all the reporting.

Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. She serves on the Armed Services Committee and is a former Navy pilot. Congresswoman, great to see you. What was your takeaway from the president's speech?

I don't think that's her voice. Congresswoman, hold on one second. We're going to fix our audio issues right now. Hold on. I don't think we are fixing it yet.

I think we're hearing about John Harwood's coffee plans in the background.

(LAUGHTER) CAMEROTA: That's so dangerous, but intriguing. That is so dangerous. OK, Congresswoman, can you give us a little mic check? No, no, no, she can't.

OK, I think we're going to take a little break in that case. And we're going to take a quick break right now. We'll be right back. I promise.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:08]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Sorry about that, everyone. You cannot imagine what's been going on here during the commercial break, but we think we've resolved it.

Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. She serves on the Armed Services Committee and is a former Navy pilot.

Let's give this a try again. Good morning, Congresswoman.

REP. MIKIE SHERRILL (D-NJ): Good morning. Can you hear me?

CAMEROTA: I can, perfect. That is wonderful.

Okay, you were -- before you were rudely interrupted, you were telling us what was your takeaway, what should the takeaway be from President Biden's address last night?

SHERRILL: Well, you know, when you serve in the military, you really put a premium on leadership. It's the difference between life and death in some cases. So what I saw last night was American leadership at its best.

The president was empathetic. He was thoughtful. He had a plan. There were dates, May 1st for vaccinations for everyone who can receive them. July 4th for getting back together with your families.

But what really made the biggest impression on me was when he looked directly into the camera and said, I need all of you. That's what's in our DNA as Americans, coming together. Each person having a responsibility to our country to make our country better, to get us through this crisis. I thought it was very powerful.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about what has propped up with this cable TV host. You have taken real umbrage about what he has said about women in the military. So, let me just play for people a portion of what Tucker Carlson said Tuesday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: So we've got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits. Pregnant women are going to fight our wars. It's a mockery of the U.S. military. While China's military becomes more masculine as it assembled the

world's largest navy, our military needs to become, as Joe Biden says, more feminine, whatever feminine means anymore, since men and women no longer exists. The bottom line is, it's out of control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: If you read his whole transcript, as I have in my hand here, he's very worried about I guess pregnant women, but really all women I think in the military. What do you want him to know?

SHERRILL: Well, I want him as -- Tucker Carlson has never served in our military force, so I want him to rest assured that we have the best fighting force in the world, including China. That we are ready and prepared to handle anything that comes along that threatens the defense and security of the United States of America. And we're able to do that in large part because of the wonderful women who serve.

I have served with women who have put themselves in grave danger, who have been in convoys in Iraq that have been blowing up. Women who go into and enter the homes of women and children in Afghanistan to make sure there are no weapons being hidden there.

I have graduated from the Naval Academy with one of our first admirals, and also, the first woman who is going to command an aircraft carrier.

So, our fighting force depends on the fantastic women that we have in our military, and I'm so proud of that, and really, so offended that anyone would think otherwise.

CAMEROTA: Well, Senator Tammy Duckworth I think put a finer point on some of your feelings about Tucker Carlson. She, of course, is a wounded veteran. She received a Purple Heart. She was in the army.

She tweeted: F Tucker Carlson. While he was practicing his two-step, America's female warriors were hunting down al Qaeda and proving the strength of America's women. Happy belated International Women's Day to everyone but Tucker who even I can dance better than.

She's wheelchair-bound.

Did you consider going that far?

SHERRILL: Well, it's great to hear that from a Midwesterner. Here in New Jersey, we're no stranger to some salty language. So to hear it from a Midwesterner, I think, shows just how offended we women military veterans are. And I think all military veterans, as you see the support for our women in service from really everyone, men and women alike.

CAMEROTA: You make such a great point. That is our standard New Jersey greeting. Such a great point. OK.

(LAUGHTER) CAMEROTA: As a Jersey girl myself.

OK. So let's talk about, on a serious note, what's happening with the investigation into the insurrection at the Capitol. Veterans are disproportionately represented among the 300 people facing charges in connection there. At least 29 current and former service members have been charged so far.

What is that about?

SHERRILL: Well, it's really something that is concerning and that I think we need to look into.

[08:20:01]

Our men and women in service have a great deal of responsibility, and it's incredibly important that we root out any sort of extremism in our service.

It's part of the reason I supported General Austin as secretary of defense, because I know that he takes this so seriously. We know that someone from the Marine One Squadron, they fly the helicopter that I used to fly, the H-3, and we know that that is an elite squadron of people that fly the president of the United States and one of the crew chiefs, it sounds like, has just been arrested.

So we know this has been a problem in our military. We have seen it on January 6th, and we are going to do everything we can to insure we root that out of our military.

I sit on the House Armed Services Committee, and this is something that we will be looking at critically and holding hearings on to make sure that we can get to the bottom of this and root it out of our military.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about another unfolding crisis, and that's what's happening at the border. There are now 8,800 minors, unaccompanied migrant minors who have shown up. We don't have enough beds for them. We don't have enough case workers to process them. We don't even have an infrastructure to process this amount.

What -- I mean, number one, do you consider this a crisis? Number two, what can Congress do?

SHERRILL: Well, Congress is working on comprehensive immigration reform, which is desperately needed. And part of what that does, part of what we're looking at, is addressing the problems from the home countries of our migrants so that we can address the issues there and make those countries more resilient, make them able to get through a crisis better, so we don't have these young children thinking that their best hope for a future is to make this dangerous trip to our border.

We also have to provide pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, TPS recipients, people who are here. Right now, we just have an immigration crisis. And the comprehensive immigration bill that we're working on now really, I think, provides better security at the border, but also addresses some of the root causes of that immigration.

CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, thank you very much for your patience and for being on NEW DAY this morning.

SHERRILL: Thank you so much for having me.

CAMEROTA: Part of President Biden's historic relief package targets food insecurity in America. One of the president's cabinet secretaries joins us live to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The president promises that by May 1st, every adult American will be able to sign up to get a vaccine, and by July 4th, back to some kind of a sense of normalcy.

Joining us now is Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. He's also the former governor of Ohio.

Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for being with us.

Those dates now circled on the calendar. What's the biggest obstacle do you think to getting there?

TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: Making sure that folks understand the importance of getting vaccinated. I think it's pretty clear that we're ramping up vaccinations. We've got more vaccines. We've got more people administering the vaccinations, and we have more places to be vaccinated.

[08:25:02]

If people take full advantage of that, as the president said last night, we should begin to get on the other side of this COVID virus.

BERMAN: Now, there was also, in addition to asking Americans for help, which he did. He says, I need you.

There was also a little bit of a threat, explicit in one case. I want to play that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we don't stay vigilant and the conditions change, then we may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track. And please, we don't want to do that again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So what would be the trigger? What would be the trigger for more restrictions, and exactly what restrictions is he talking about?

VILSACK: I think the president is just trying to point out the fact that we are headed in the right direction in terms of the virus, but if we take a step back, we could potentially see an increase in cases, an increase in deaths, which would result in states taking the step to restrict how many people can be in a restaurant and so forth.

We don't want to go back there. We want to move forward. I think we all want to get together on July 4th with our friends and family in the backyard barbecue, as he suggested. And that's just simply requires us to get vaccinated, to make sure we get on the other side of this so we can reopen the economy fully and completely and get back to building back better, as the president says.

BERMAN: You are the secretary of agriculture, a job you have held before, I should note, and there's a lot in this bill under your umbrella. Part of it, for some reason, bothers South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. And that's aid to black farmers.

I want to play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If you're a farmer, your loan will be forgiven up to 120 percent of your loan, not 100 percent, but 120 percent of your loan, if you're socially disadvantaged, if you're African-American, some other minority. But if you're white person, if you're a white woman, no forgiveness as reparations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Your reaction?

VILSACK: Well, I think it's important to point out that over the course of time, we know there was discrimination at the Department of Agriculture that impacted and affected socially disadvantaged farmers. We also know that there's a cumulative effect of that discrimination. You get behind and you never catch up.

This bill, I think, is the first step towards a process of creating greater equity in terms of USDA's programs. It provides debt forgiveness and provides resources to pay the tax that would result from the debt forgiveness.

So, at the end of the day, we begin to get people in better shape financially. Then what we need to do is make sure we expand market access, give folks an opportunity to participate fully and completely in the USDA programs.

We have compensated people for specific acts of discrimination. We have not yet dealt with a cumulative effect of discrimination. This is an effort, a first step and an effort to do that, and I'm looking forward to basically implementing this in the way Congress intended.

BERMAN: What else can people expect in terms of food relief as part of this, again, under your department?

VILSACK: Well, tragically, we have a lot of unemployed folks out there that are struggling. So, this is an increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It's going to be extended.

There's an opportunity for parents whose children are not going to school, but don't get the benefit of a free breakfast or lunch, a little extra cash to buy groceries, opportunity as well to expand the women and infant and children program for young children and young moms to get more nutritious food. A real effort to try to get people to a point where they feel more comfortable and less stressed.

It's a terrific opportunity, as well, to begin that process as the president often says of rebuilding the middle class in the country. We just have to get on the other side of COVID to really start doing this in full force.

BERMAN: I want to ask about the facts of last night. One thing he said is that when he came into office, there wasn't enough vaccine for every American. Of course, there wasn't because it was still being produced at that point, but the previous administration had orders, so says the GAO, for 800 million doses by July 31st. And there are people who are suggesting, you know, that President Biden isn't giving due credit to the former administration for putting the infrastructure in place that is making this possible.

VILSACK: Well, I think the president gave credit where credit is due, which is to the pharmaceutical companies. They're working in partnership to expand the number of vaccines and to continue to increase more doses.

The partnership that he referred to between Merck and Johnson & Johnson is a good example of the kind of thing that's going to lead us to the opportunity to have sufficient vaccine to be able to vaccinate folks at a more rapid rate.

We've seen a terrific increase in the number of vaccinations. Nearly double what it was when the president took office. And that's a pretty extraordinary step in 50 days.

If we do this in the next 50 days, we're going to get a long way towards that July 4th barbecue.

BERMAN: Secretary Tom Vilsack, thanks so much for being with us.

VILSACK: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Now to this developing story, John. A second wave of coronavirus is ripping through Brazil, pushing hospitals and ICUs to their limit. New cases are spiking, as you can see on your screen, and daily deaths are also hitting new records.

CNN's Matt Rivers is live for us in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with more.

What's the situation, Matt?