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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Biden Pushes to Unravel Trump Foreign Agenda; Dem Senator Manchin to Oppose Biden Pick for Budget Office; Israel Study: COVID Infections Plummeted 85 Percent after First Does of Pfizer Vaccine, Canada Researchers Find 90 Percent Drop; Thorny Political Issues Hang Over Garland's Confirmation Hearing. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired February 19, 2021 - 16:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a speech alongside the leaders of France, Germany and Britain, Biden vowed to reengage with Europe, to confront the rise of China, Russia's bullying, and the threat to democracy around the world.

[16:30:08]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Democracy doesn't happen by accident. We have to defend it. Fight for it. Strengthen it. Renew it.

MARQUARDT: Biden's first visit to an agency as president was at the State Department, a clear signal that he plans to reverse or dramatically change course from Donald Trump's inward looking, self- centered approach.

DOALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: From this day forward, it is going to be only America first. America first.

BIDEN: American and alliances are our greatest asset and leading with diplomacy means standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies.

MARQUARDT: One of Trump's first moves was to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and impose the so-called maximum pressure campaign. Now, the Biden administration says it is ready to talk again.

TRUMP: This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made. It didn't bring calm. It didn't bring peace. And it never will.

BIDEN: The threat of nuclear proliferation also continues to require careful diplomacy and cooperation among us. We need transparency and communication to minimize the risk of strategic misunderstanding or mistakes.

MARQUARDT: Today, the U.S. officially re-entered the Paris climate accord which Trump had withdrawn from and repeatedly criticized.

TRUMP: I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.

BIDEN: Together, we need to invest in the technological innovations that will power our clean energy futures and enable us to build a clean energy solutions to global markets.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT (on camera): President Biden was speaking to a friendly European audience, welcoming him with open arms. The British prime minister even saying that the U.S. is unreservedly back as the leader of the free world. Now, that does not mean however that they're going to be in lockstep and that Europe is going to simply follow the U.S.

Europe has become more independent during the past four years of Trump, forging its own path and will, in the future, have significant differences with the U.S. on the critical issues of China and Russia -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Alex Marquardt, thanks so much.

It seems the new acceptance test for the Republican Party involves a trip to a private club in Florida. Who is in and who is out? That's next.

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[16:36:55]

TAPPER: We have some breaking news for you now. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia just announced that he will vote against President Biden's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Neera Tanden, putting her nomination in jeopardy.

Manchin saying in a statement, in part, quote, I have carefully reviewed Neera Tanden's public statements and tweets that were personally directed towards my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, from Senator Bernie Sanders to Senator Mitch McConnell and others. I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of the Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Let's bring in our panel.

Alexander Rojas, this would be Biden's first defeat and obviously a defeat for Neera Tanden personally because of a bunch of tweets that she's done that were rather harsh.

ALEXANDRA ROJAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JUSTICE DEMOCRATS: Yeah, and I mean, there is public record of those tweets. But the reality is I think that Joe Manchin is the one being divisive right now. We're in the middle of a public pandemic. Joe Biden was just re-elected by a huge mandate by the American people. We have to deliver as Democrats and we need to deliver and need people in positions of power who are ready to good big this moment and not leave anybody behind. The mentality has to be of the Democratic Party but any elected

official that we have to move quickly to save as many lives as possible and I would also point out that he had to problem voting to confirm other appointments of clearly partisan members when it was the previous Republican administration. There should be no, I think, opposition to some, you know, folks that are being proposed by the Biden administration who have, you know, clearly are ready to do the work and get the job done and they feel are the best prepared to do it.

TAPPER: And, Mary Katharine, it needs to be pointed out, the Republican resistance, I'm not sure how many of the 50 Republican senators are against her nomination but obviously enough that her nomination is in jeopardy. Republicans, for four years, said, oh, I didn't see the tweet. I haven't seen the tweet. I didn't see the tweet whenever asked about Donald Trump's tweets which by the way were far worse to Neera Tanden's, as obnoxious as some of Neera Tandent's tweets were. It is bizarre to see a bunch of Republican senators who have read a lot of tweets and been suddenly very offended.

MARY KATHARINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I think it is minimal. It goes more to being the head of a liberal think tank for a long time and being part of the liberal movement, like this is an -- this is a partisan and ideological divide, not so much tweets.

I also don't love people going down for mean tweets. But here is the thing. Senator Joe Manchin has a pinky ring and it one ring to rule them all. He is in charge of these things and in huge ways because of the very nonexistent margin that Democrats have right now. And so, I think he's allowed to have a vote of conscience in which he decides that this nominee doesn't work for him.

And I don't necessarily want to -- well, and I think the Democratic Party shouldn't want to question his motives because they've got to keep getting him on their side.

[16:40:06]

TAPPER: Yeah, no, it's true.

Meanwhile, there's obviously the civil war going on in the Republican Party. Top House Republicans Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise made the trip to Mar-a-Lago and now, Senator Lindsey Graham is heading there to try to make peace between former President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell said he's not going to bend the knee.

And then, Alexandra, there's Nikki Haley, she's trying to straddle the two sides, criticize Trump for his behavior since Election Day but also praising Trump. She wanted to meet with Trump and he refused to meet with her, Alexandra.

ROJAS: Well, I mean, the party -- the Republican Party is trying to figure out what to do with Trump. He's too unpopular to fully embrace, but he's too popular within the base of the GOP to completely denounce and move on. I think it is important to call out that Nikki Haley, folks like Lindsey Graham who are also trying to quell the civil war, bring some peace, also prior to four years ago where on the record saying how much they disliked the former president and now they have to own the responsibility of what they're party has become.

And so, again, while the Republicans are in this sort of civil war and are going to continue to be down that path, I think for a little while because all of the conversation about what the future of the Republican Party looks like are in the context of Donald Trump, it's just going to be very difficult.

And I think Democrats have to take this opportunity to show that we could really deliver. Which is why I think we're just talking about Senator Joe Manchin, it is important that we move as quickly as possible to save as many lives as possible. So that means passing bills as quickly as possible, making sure that we're providing a wage increase for worker -- essential workers especially in this moment, and a number of other issues that we could deliver on while the Republicans are in disarray.

TAPPER: And, Mary Katharine, the Senate's number two Republican, John Thune, is defending his colleagues who voted to impeach or convict former President Trump saying basically that all of the these county and state Republican Party censuring the people who voted their conscience are engaging in Republican cancel culture. What do you think?

HAM: Well, honestly, I think that is the best tactic, to speak up vociferously and defend your vote of conscience and on behalf of others because I don't think that it gets you much to go to Mar-a-Lago other than maybe a tan because I don't think that Trump is necessarily interested in the future of the party. He's interested in the future of Trump.

And that is always been the case. That is not a controversial statement, even for people who really like Trump. There is -- you must admit he's a transactional human being.

And here is the problem. (AUDIO GAP) post January 6th and post impeachment finds that 54 percent of Americans want Trump out of politics entirely. They find him to be a toxic force, 74 percent of Republicans want him active with 50 percent of them wanting him to be the head of the party. So there is a tough line to walk here, like Graham is saying, hey, can you not go to war with us in primaries, please, please, please.

Don't know if that's going to work, if he feels like going to war, he's going to go to war. But if the Republican Party has a future where it could reach the votes it lost, it is going to be somebody who could walk the line like a Nikki Haley or more likely like a DeSantis who is governing and doesn't have time to get into a lot of discussions with Trump.

He's like, that I think works in his favor as somebody who might be able to walk that line in the future.

TAPPER: Yeah. Mary Katharine Ham, Alexandra Rojas, thanks to both of you. Really appreciate it.

Tune in this Sunday morning to CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION". Dr. Anthony Fauci, Texas Congressman Mike McCaul, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal join my co-host Dana Bash. It's at 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern on Sunday.

Coming up, to wait or not. That's a question many are asking about the second vaccine dose as millions are still waiting to get their first shots.

Stay with us.

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[16:48:07]

TAPPER: In our health lead today, new evidence in two different medical journals suggested that after the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, rates of COVID infection appeared to drop by as much as 90 percent. This news raises questions about whether it is worth delaying second doses, so that more people could use the second dose as their first shots.

Let's bring in Dr. Paul Offit. He's on the FDA advisory committee that reviews vaccines for authorization.

Dr. Offit, good to see you.

Right now, the U.S. has distributed 73 million doses of vaccine and put 57 million dose news arms and a single dose would immediately double the supply available if everybody got the first instead of getting two.

What do you make of that idea, delaying the second dose until most have had their first?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE: I think that is a bad idea. I mean, where that comes from is that when, for example, Pfizer did their trial, they give dose one, and then there was a three week interval before they gave dose two. So you had that three-week period of time to see whether one dose worked.

And what they found is if you looked sort of between 14 and 21 days when people got sick, they were much more likely to have received the placebo than the vaccine. So during that one week period of time based on small numbers that the vaccine was about 92 percent effective for a few weeks. I mean, the reason this is a to dose vaccine is that when Pfizer and Moderna did the so-called phase one studies to see whether or not they needed a second dose, they found when they gave the second dose they have a much, much higher response to the so-called neutralizing antibodies, virus neutralizing antibodies than the first dose, and more importantly, most importantly, you develop the kind of immune cells that predicted memory. So it is clear that this is a two-dose vaccine. That you're going to

have longer, better, more complete immunity with the second dose and I worry that if people wait a long time for that second dose, I'm not saying like, you know, that you can't wait say six weeks between dose one and two, but if you're waiting months and months, I think you're going to have this false notion that your protected when you may well not be.

[16:50:02]

I think it's a mistake.

TAPPER: I also want to you ask about the CDC director today saying that schools can open at any stage of community spread. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: The numbers that remain red, we -- so with universal masking and physical distancing and de- densification of classrooms, there are opportunities for in-person learning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: You work at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. What do you think?

OFFIT: Well, I agree with Dr. Walensky. I think the school is a more controlled situation. So in theory, if you do the things that you should do, mask, physical distance, do the kinds of mitigation procedures for example have people sitting as much as you can six feet apart, don't have everybody get together in the cafeteria, that you could have less spread in that setting than you would say in the community which has been shown in a couple of studies. So I agree with that.

TAPPER: Dr. Paul Offit, thank you so much. Appreciate your time, sir.

OFFIT: Thanks.

TAPPER: Coming up, what do Hunter Biden, Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani have in common? That's next.

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[16:55:42]

TAPPER: In our politics lead today, the Manhattan district attorney's office just added a seasoned, widely respected white collar criminal prosecutor. The idea to bolster its team investigating possible fraud by former President Trump.

This happens as high-profile investigations are heating up and Attorney General Nominee Merrick Garland will face tough questions at his Monday confirmation, including into potential investigations into Trump, Rudy Giuliani, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and perhaps even President Biden's son Hunter as CNN's Jessica Schneider reports.

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JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: Our law is not the instrument of partisan purpose.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Judge Merrick Garland guaranteed impartiality when he accepted the nomination for attorney general one day after the Capitol insurrection. But the issues he's expected to face at next week's are very political.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We made a mistake.

SCHNEIDER: This week, Senate Republicans demanded Garland commit to fully investigating New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo in what Republicans are calling a cover-up for not reporting all COVID-related nursing home deaths in 2020. The FBI and the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn have already opened an inquiry, sources tell CNN, and that's not the only probe Republicans will press on.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I'm absolutely calling on a special counsel to look at all things Hunter Biden.

SCHNEIDER: A Republican aide says senators will raise the investigation of the president's son Hunter Biden who federal authorities are looking into for possible violations of tax and money laundering laws and business dealings with foreign countries, China in particular.

The Department of Justice has already charged more than 220 people in connection with the Capitol attack.

TRUMP: We fight. We fight like hell.

SCHNEIDER: But Garland is expected to face questions about whether to investigate former President Trump for inciting the insurrection and how to broaden the domestic terrorism background, something Garland tackled head on as a top official at DOJ in 1995 when he was on the ground one day after the Oklahoma City bombing.

GARLAND: From a personal point of view, I wanted to go. I mean, it was a terrible scene on the television.

SCHNEIDER: Garland has acknowledged his personal connection to the Justice Department.

GARLAND: Entering the Department of Justice will be a kind of homecoming for me.

SCHNEIDER: He started his legal career there in late 1970s and worked as a prosecutor before becoming a top official during the Clinton administration.

JAMIE GORELICK, FORMER DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: I'm very confident that he will look at every case on the merits. He will make sure that the department operates seamlessly across different elements.

SCHNEIDER: People who know him say Garland will bring his deliberate demeanor as a judge to a position that has been politicized over the past four years by four different attorneys general. And he'll have to decide whether to continue defending Trump era policies in court, something Biden officials have already begun backtracking on.

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SCHNEIDER (on camera): Merrick Garland will likely face intense questions from Republicans on Monday. And he'll really have to walk a fine line here since he's still technically a sitting judge and is really not seen specific details about the cases, he'll soon have to confront.

And Jake, I'm told that his opening statement on Monday will focus on the importance of an independent DOJ and the value of integrity and how civil rights will be a top priority at DOJ -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Jessica Schneider, thanks so much.

Also in our health lead today, Dr. Anthony Fauci this afternoon said that the world needs a universal coronavirus vaccine, one that covers all of the mutations of the deadly virus.

Moments ago in an interview with Georgetown University, Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert said shame on us if we do not develop such a vaccine, since all coronaviruses such as COVID-19 have what he calls pandemic potential.

Finally, we'd like to remember just one of the almost 500,000 lives lost to coronavirus in the U.S. a pandemic which is disproportionately affecting minorities.

Trisha Moten was a 49-year-old mother of two and a nurse, she worked at the First Surgical Hospital in Bel Air, near Houston, Texas. She was a nurse for 15 years. For 12 years, she was the chief nursing officer.

She got sick with COVID in December. She stayed on a ventilator for six weeks. She died on February 5th.

Her husband Derrick says he will miss hearing her voice the most.

May her memory be a blessing to her kids, her husband and all who knew her.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @JakeTapper. You can tweet the show @TheLeadCNN.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

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