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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Biden Adds More Former Obama Staffers to His Team; New Yorker: "Dianne Feinstein's Missteps Raise a Painful Age Question Among Senate Democrats"; Critical Vaccine Meeting Happening As U.S. Hits 3,000 Daily Deaths; Stimulus Talks Stall as Millions Desperate for Relief. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired December 10, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:03]

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And, Jake, President- elect Biden has really in these early cabinet picks focused on people that he trusts and has relationships with. But many of those relationships were forged during the Obama administration. If you take a look at his recent cabinet picks over the course of the past few weeks, there are so many familiar faces that worked and came up during the Obama administration that Biden has decided to tap into, including long time friends like John Kerry and also Tom Vilsack, close aides like Tony Blinken. These are all people that Biden worked with closely in the Obama White House.

And if you take a look at the five cabinet, or five appointees and nominees he's expected to announce tomorrow, four of those worked in the Obama administration, looking at Tom Vilsack who's already served as agriculture secretary twice -- over two terms before, also Susan Rice, who will be leading the White House domestic policy council.

So, Biden -- he has said that he's not presiding over an Obama third term, but the circumstances are different now. But he's certainly turning to people that have that experience and that he has relationships with.

One of Biden's selling points during the presidential campaign is that he would be ready on day one, and you are seeing that carry through in his cabinet announcements with these types of picks, and the president-elect is hoping that he will have his cabinet filled out by Christmas -- Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. Arlette Saenz in Wilmington, Delaware, thanks so much.

Let's discuss this with my panel.

Laura, after his first round of cabinet announcements, Biden was asked by Lester Holt from NBC about people who thought he was trying to create a third Obama term.

Listen to what Biden had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: This is not a third Obama term because there's -- we -- we face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration. The president -- President Trump has changed the landscape. It's become America first, it's been America alone. We find ourselves in a position where our alliances are being frayed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, he says it's not a third Obama term because the landscape is different. But, you know, these are just some of the people who worked under President Obama who Biden has added to his team. It's a lot of reheated Obama administration officials. I guess the biggest question is, empirically, is there anything wrong with that, Laura?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, so far, Democrats haven't taken particular issue with the fact it's a lot of carry- overs. There have been -- progressives have been slightly frustrated that there aren't as many progressive or bold picks as they would like to see or that who they wanted to go in certain slots didn't end up there like Congresswoman Fudge. A lot of members wanted her to be agriculture secretary. Instead, Secretary Vilsack who was agriculture secretary during Obama's full eight years is now going to be carrying that job again and is very close with Biden.

So, it's not just Obama officials but also people that have close relationships with Biden that he appears to be picking over other picks that members are putting forward.

TAPPER: Ron, "The New York Times" describes Biden's staff picks like this. Quote, for all the talk Mr. Biden is a Biden of a complicated formula of ethnicity, gender and experience as he builds his administration, and he is, perhaps the most important criteria for landing a cabinet post or a top White House job appears to be having a long-standing relationship with the president-elect himself.

Now, certainly you want a team that gets along, you want to be comfortable the people you're picking are good people. But is there also a risk that by choosing people that he has close relationships these are, "A," officials who won't want to tell him no, who won't speak up when something is wrong? And "B," is there not a risk he's passing over other talented people just because he doesn't know them as well?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I think on both fronts, there's a risk, and there's even larger macro risk. I think there is a kind of yellow flag or yellow light coming from this collection of appointments as he goes, which I think is kind of a strange assortment that he is putting together here. It is older and it is people that are familiar with him and people who have long experience in Washington.

You can make the case, yeah, that's what you need to be ready for day one. You can also make the case Joe Biden's greatest challenge as someone who's spent 50 years in public life, he had the longest span between his first election and nomination of any presidential nominee in American history. His biggest challenge I think in many ways is to show he understands it's a different world than he operated in for most of his tenure.

And the fact he's not reaching out as he promised during the campaign to that next generation of leaders I think kind of bespeaks a larger question about whether he's ready to adapt his own thinking and his own approaches to a very different circumstances that obtained for most his career in Washington.

[16:35:03]

TAPPER: And, Laura, Biden made five officials today, including former chief of staff, Denis McDonough to lead the V.A., former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice to lead the Domestic Policy Council. Are any of the choices going quiet the concerns of progressives that you refer to earlier who feel like that they're not represented in a Biden administration?

BARRON-LOPEZ: I don't think so because from the progressives that I spoke to today, you know, after looking over the entire slate including the ones announced today, they don't feel as though they're entirely represented. I spoke to two progressive members who are also members of the Congressional Black Caucus who said that they really want to see an African-American as the attorney general or that they want to see someone who has experience with being discriminated against, who understands what that's like. And so far as we know, it appears as though the favorite for Biden right now is Doug Jones, again, an outgoing senator who has a close relationship with Biden.

So, right now, there's a lot of pressure on Biden whether it's to appoint a black attorney general or there's also Latino lawmakers who are now pushing him to make sure that there's a Latina in the cabinet because so far he hasn't named one to be his secretary.

TAPPER: All right. Laura Barron-Lopez and Ron Brownstein, thanks to both of you.

Chatter on Capitol Hill today after a piece in "The New Yorker" magazine raised questions about Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. Jane Mayer reporting that aides familiar with the senator's situation describe her as struggling, quote, speaking on background and with respect for her accomplished career. They say her short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have, unquote.

CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill for us.

Manu, how much concern has there been about Senator Feinstein in the Senate when it comes to her awareness of everything that's going?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There has been a fair amount of concern among Democrats who are -- who look at the issue and it's difficult for a lot of them given that she is a respected member of this body. She's the longest serving woman currently serving in this body and she's accomplished so much in her career, but there has been a decline that has been evident to people who have interacted with her. Reporters have interacted with her and aides and members as well.

And that all led to something earlier this year which is very unusual in the Senate which is her essentially agreeing to step aside as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Rarely do we see that happen and she did that in the aftermath of the outrage over her handling of the Amy Coney Barrett hearing. She was not one of the lead Democrats that was involved in the strategy, the other Democrats on the committee were.

Even though she is the top Democrat in the committee, she's essentially let other Democrats take charge and during the committee hearing while she did ask Amy Coney Barrett a number of questions about her issues and raised concerns as well, she also praised Barrett multiples and she also praised the handling of the hearings by the Senate Republican Chairman Lindsay Graham at the same time as Democrats are trying to contend that the hearing process was a sham.

That all led to Democrats saying that she should step aside. Ultimately, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said he had a very stern conversation with her afterwards and "The New Yorker' article says that he had to have that conversation with her on multiple occasions and I am told from a source that that is an accurate reflection of how that interaction went down. So she has stepped aside from that top post.

She will -- even if Democrats take the Senate, Jake, she would have been the first woman to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, and that is not going to happen any more now that Dick Durbin is the top Democrat in the committee.

But, Jake, she was just reelected in 2018, so she still has a few years to serve even though she's the oldest member of the Senate at 87 -- Jake.

TAPPER: Yeah, my late grandmother used to have a needle point in the kitchen that says old age is not for sissies. A sad situation.

Manu Raju, thank you so much.

Any minute, the FDA could recommend a green light for the Pfizer vaccine. We are live at one of the facilities that will start shipping the vaccine. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:43:42]

TAPPER: We're back with breaking news in our health lead. Any minute, an FDA panel could vote on a recommendation of emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for coronavirus.

I want to bring in CNN's Pete Muntean who is standing nearby the Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Pete, assuming that the FDA grants this emergency authorization shortly after the show, let's say, how soon will shipments go out?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Pfizer says that trucks carrying the vaccine, Jake, could begin leaving here within 24 hours of the FDA emergency use authorization.

We know that this spot, Pfizer's plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is critical to vaccine distribution, its largest facility, 1,300 acres, a sprawling complex. We know a vaccine arrived late last month and Operation Warp Speed says vaccine would be leaving here bound for 600 individual locations, places like hospitals, CVS, Walgreen's pharmacies.

We have also learned that UPS and FedEx will carry the packages containing the vaccine doses. UPS responsible for the eastern half of the country. Those packages encased in dry ice, the Pfizer vaccine needs to be negative 100 degrees Fahrenheit and each package will contain a thermal monitor able to broadcast the temperature of the package back to UPS headquarters in case there's any sort of problem.

[16:45:05]

So, Jake, this is a massive movement and it all begins right here in Michigan.

TAPPER: A huge, logistical challenge.

Thank you so much, Pete Muntean in Kalamazoo. Appreciate it.

Joining us now to discuss is the -- Rick Bright, a former director of HHS Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. He is now an adviser for President-elect Biden on COVID.

Rick, good to see you again.

As Pete just reported and FedEx and UPS are ready to ship at moment's notice.

When are we going to be able to actually see the impact of this vaccine in terms of lives saved and the spread being slowed?

RICK BRIGHT, BIDEN COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER: Jake, thanks for having me on. Today's been a really busy day as you can imagine the FDA reviewing every bit of information that is available about the Pfizer vaccine.

It's been a great day for science. If anyone's tuned into the seven hours that they're ongoing now, you can see how seriously these independent experts and scientists are taking every piece of information, so we'll have confidence when they make a recommendation to the FDA that the vaccine would be useable under the emergency use authorization.

As you mentioned right before, it's a very complicated distribution plan that will happen. The first dose will go into people soon and then a second dose three weeks later and there's very few doses of vaccine available. So I don't think we'll start seeing a really notable impact in the

large population until we have a lot of people vaccinated. That's still going to take us probably into next spring because of the number of doses that are available and how complex it is to get it downstream and as you know, trying to convince people to take the vaccine is still a big challenge because there is still a lack of confidence in the vaccine that we need to work on.

TAPPER: Well, let's talk about that because according to a new Quinnipiac poll, 61 percent of Americans say they are willing to take the vaccine. But 33 percent say they are not. And I think Dr. Fauci has said that somewhere between 65 and 75 percent of the population needs to take the vaccine in order for there to be some sword of herd immunity, in order for the spread to be stopped.

How do we get to 70, 75 percent if we're not there yet in terms of people being confident in saying that they will take the vaccine? What is the Biden administration planning on doing?

BRIGHT: Jake, we have to rebuild the confidence and trust that the American public has in the vaccine that they have in their government and they have in this entire pandemic response. If you break down that percent confidence with the people who said they'll take the vaccine into subgroups. You will find there are some groups, some cultural groups, some racial, ethnic groups our country with that number is much lower than the average you're mentioning now.

So we really need to invest in getting the message out, communicating to people in all cultures, and all communities across America, looking into those groups that are impacted most, racial disparities, all of those challenges. We need to enlist those trusted messengers, their faith-based organizations, community organizations, people they trust so that they can communicate and build that confidence.

I think once people see more people getting vaccinated with this vaccine they see that it's safe. Nothing bad is happening. I think people will start to also gain confidence in understanding the value of being vaccinated and the benefit received from vaccination versus the risk of getting infected and maybe dying, and I think we'll start to see that confidence level rise up with communication and the vaccination process.

TAPPER: What about the individuals who right now it's not clear that it's safe for them to take the vaccine? I'm specifically referring to people who weren't part of the test group, pregnant women, kids 16 and under, people who are immuno-compromised. We now know that if people have bad allergic reactions to medications, they should be included in this group because of what happened in the U.K. with two individuals having reactions that weren't good. They're okay now.

But what about these other groups of people? Is this just data that is going to accumulate based on people who are willing to get vaccinated? How are we going to find out about all these groups?

BRIGHT: As you can imagine, those have been hot topics of discussion throughout the day, with the FDA, the expert panel and the company and the ethicists as well and the public as well. There is an hour for the public to weigh in on these questions.

There is some -- there's a lot of data actually still outstanding. You don't often have all of that information when you are at the emergency use authorization or the EUA stage of consideration. A lot of that data comes later and it comes into the consideration whether you license or approve the vaccine.

[16:50:03]

So, part of today's discussion includes ongoing clinical trials that the company will continue to conduct to get extra data in the populations that were not included in the first trials. It's likely that we'll have to have data from those groups before the FDA will be able to be -- able to make an indication for those special populations.

The allergic reaction was actually a bit of a surprise coming out of the U.K. Again, it's not a surprise that we discover some adverse events once the vaccine is used more broadly. It was really encouraging to me is it was caught really soon, reported really soon and we had information from the FDA just in the last half hour that they are working very closely with the regulatory authorities in the U.K.

There might be some warning or some caution as part of the fact sheets on the vaccine that if you have a history of allergic reactions, perhaps you shouldn't take the vaccine, or if you do, make sure that the health care provider has a treatment for anaphylactic shock or allergic reaction, basically, if they see one after the administration of the vaccine.

So, there are ways to accommodate it and manage it very carefully if something comes up.

TAPPER: All right. Rick Bright, thank you so much. Appreciate your time and your expertise as always.

Americans going hungry, millions without jobs, running out of time from much needed help from the federal government. Can Congress get a deal done before it's too late?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:56:15]

TAPPER: We're back with our money lead and 853,000 -- 853,000 Americans feeling for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, a heartbreaking number that is significantly more than was expected this weekend, the highest number since mid-September.

We are seeing this play out across the country, in the images such as these in Pomona, California, with cars filling a racetrack, waiting for food donations. Or here in Dallas, bumper to bumper traffic in search of food, or in New Jersey where boxes of food are ensuring families have dinner for the holidays, and things are going to get worse if Congress doesn't act. Twelve million Americans will run out of unemployment benefits the day after Christmas.

CNN's Lauren Fox joins me now live.

And, Lauren, Americans are desperate for help. Where do things stand with the stimulus package?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, Jake, I wish I had better news for you this afternoon. On Capitol Hill, these talks have stalled out and one of the reasons for that is that you're hearing a lot of Republicans in leadership essentially throwing cold water on what that bipartisan group has been able to do so far. They're arguing essentially that there's no deal that they can get on liability and they're still negotiating, trying to get a deal on liability that would satisfy the Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

In fact, he instructed staffers to make it clear that there is nothing at this point that he sees that the bipartisan group could do on state and local and liability that could get them over the finish line in time. Remember, the expectation this entire time has been that whatever happens on the stimulus will be attached to that big spending deal, Jake, and that deadline is next Friday. Right now, that doesn't give them much time to come up with some kind of legislative text.

What you've heard from the majority leader is essentially, let's take out what we don't agree, and that's liability protection, that's state and local funding something that Democrats have asked for, and let's agree and pass what we can. That is an extension of those unemployment benefits, that is more money for individuals to get food stamps. That is another round of paycheck protection program money for small businesses.

That's what the majority leader is saying at this point. Meanwhile, Democrats say they need to let that bipartisan group continue its work.

When I pushed the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday as to whether or not she would get in a room with McConnell and actually negotiate, she said if that's what Republicans are suggesting, good for them, they can get in a room and negotiate with the majority leader.

TAPPER: Excuse me. What happens next if there is no deal?

FOX: Well, I think that that's really what members are struggling with right now. What happens next is Americans who are relying on unemployment and an expansion of the unemployment program which took them from getting 26 weeks of protection to 39, they're going to run out of those benefits and like you said, that's 12 million Americans, Jake, the day after Christmas.

TAPPER: And it's just absolutely a catastrophe. I don't even know what to say.

All right. Thank you so much, appreciate that, Lauren Fox. More than 291,000 have died from the coronavirus and we want to take a

moment today to remember just one -- just one of those lives taken too soon.

Jeremy Morgan was 44 years old. He was a husband, a father, a high school football and softball coach in North Texas. He passed away Sunday after being hospitalized due to COVID-19.

His children sharing their grief on Twitter. His son Will writing: To the man who taught me how to be a man, I say thank you. All I've ever wanted to do is be like you and never have I been more proud to call you my father.

His daughter Adeline says he was, quote, perfectly healthy before contracting the virus.

Jeremy Morgan remembered as a beloved coach, mentor and father. May his memory and the memories of all of those we have lost in this horrific pandemic be a blessing.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

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