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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Republican Divisions; Biden Nominee for OMB in Jeopardy; FDA Calls Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Safe and Effective. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired February 24, 2021 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Today, some hope, a new vaccine on the horizon, COVID cases and hospitalizations trending down, and a plan from the Biden administration to provide masks to people in vulnerable populations here in the U.S. who may need them.

We're going to start with the healthy today and those three promising signs as we try to get out of this pandemic.

First, in days, the U.S. could have its first single-dose COVID vaccine, after the Johnson & Johnson version cleared a major hurdle. The FDA said today that the J&J vaccine is safe and effective.

Next, a CDC estimate that always seems to predict more bad news is finally making a prediction in the other direction, now forecasting the pace of deaths will slow down even further, all encouraging signs in the battle against this virus that has stretched the better part of a year now, as CNN's Amara Walker reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A third vaccine on the horizon in the U.S.

JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: We will waste no time getting this lifesaving vaccine into the arms of Americans.

WALKER: The Food and Drug administration announcing today the Johnson & Johnson vaccine meets requirements for emergency use authorization, which could come as early as Friday, the White House COVID Task Force on Wednesday saying they have already started preparing for distribution.

ZIENTS: If authorized, we are ready to roll out this vaccine without delay. If an EUA is issued, we anticipate allocating three to four million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine next week.

WALKER: But that's less than what the White House was originally expecting.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We were surprised to learn that Johnson & Johnson was behind on their manufacturing. As you noted, it was kind of reported earlier to be about 10 million, and now it's more like three to four million doses that they would be ready to ship next week.

WALKER: Experts say they expect the potential third vaccine to expand access and get more people vaccinated faster because it's a single dose.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: My suspicion is, is that it's going to start with those people who are lower risk for severe disease to begin with, so people without comorbidities, people who are younger, the general population.

WALKER: Vaccine maker Johnson & Johnson told Congress Tuesday they're ready for the rollout.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will have 20 million doses of the vaccine to be made available by the end of March.

WALKER: Adding to the 220 million doses that Pfizer and Moderna have pledged to make ready for shipment in the same time frame, after some initial delays in manufacturing.

JOHN YOUNG, CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, PFIZER: We did initially experienced some problems with the initial ramp-up of our vaccine.

WALKER: Record vaccine supply is getting to states this week. And the White House is encouraging sites to be open 24 hours a day. To get more shots in arms, the task force says they will mobilize 1,200 National Guardsmen to serve as vaccinators.

Even with progress on the vaccine front, the White House today also announcing they will distribute 25 million masks beginning next month to get them to some of the most vulnerable.

ZIENTS: Many low-income Americans still lack affordable access to this basic protection.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: And, Jake, this just in, Moderna is testing vaccine boosters to combat the South African variants, so just another dose of good news.

I do want to mention we're here at the Delta Flight Museum. This is where the Georgia National Guard has been deployed. It's one of four mass vaccination sites in the state of Georgia. They have been here to support the vaccination efforts.

I also should mention, despite the fact that we have been seeing a downward trend in coronavirus cases, experts say that they predict a surge in April or May, all the more reason why we should all be wearing masks at all times and also practicing social distancing -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Amara, thank you so much. Let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta now.

Sanjay, if the J&J vaccine gets emergency use authorization, which is anticipated, this will be the only single-dose vaccine in the U.S. I could see somebody theoretically preferring a single dose over the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

I assume your guidance would be to anyone watching just get whatever vaccine is available.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that's right, Jake, because we're still in a situation where the demand outstrips the supply.

But I think we do have to be thoughtful about this when we think about these vaccines. And that's going to be part of the job of the committee that's going to advise the CDC on this, if this is authorized.

So, for example, we know it's a good vaccine in terms of preventing severe illness, maybe not quite as effective or -- the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine. So, are we going to hear a scenario where maybe this would be recommended for people who are not as vulnerable to severe illness, people under the age of 60?

And because it is a single dose, should it be sort of more reserved for people who are more transient, less likely to show up for a second dose?

[16:05:05]

So, this is the sort of thoughtfulness that needs to go into this. Now, executing that can be challenging, but there are different characteristics of these vaccines. And as the supply increases, I think it's going to be really important for the CDC to be thoughtful about how they recommend this vaccine and other vaccines that follow based on those unique characteristics.

TAPPER: The White House COVID Task Force weighed in on J&J's production problems that forced the revised estimates on its vaccine delivery. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZIENTS: I think they're in a better place now. We have helped them with equipment and raw materials. I think it was disappointing when we arrived. I think the progress is real. And we look forward to continuing to work with the company to accelerate their delivery and their capacity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, Johnson & Johnson now says that their company can push out 100 million doses by the summer. How solid is that estimate?

GUPTA: Well, I spent a good chunk of the morning, Jake, talking to people on the manufacturing side of that vaccine.

And, look, they're very confident. I mean, it is clear that the numbers out of the gate are lower than I think what they anticipated. And there's all sorts of different reasons for that. As was explained to me, there's sort of three phases, get the raw ingredients, do the manufacturing, and then the fill and finish sort of component of it.

And a combination of those three things sort of led to some of these estimates that are lower than what we expected. But, to your question, they are very confident, 20 million doses by March and then 100 million doses by June, and possibly even quicker than that.

Keep in mind, contextually, Jake, while we talk about these doses for the United States, they are planning on making a billion doses by the end of 2021. I bring that up only to give you a sense of their overall manufacturing capacity.

TAPPER: So, the single-dose vaccine was 85 percent effective against severe illness in the U.S., and, notably, also in South Africa, where that highly contagious variant quickly spread.

It also prevented hospitalizations and deaths. So, explain what these kinds of efficacy results tell you.

GUPTA: You know, I think what it basically means is that, for the situation that I think people care about the most, am I going to get really sick from this, possibly need to be hospitalized or die, this is a good vaccine. It's very protective against that.

But it also shows this sort of fade effect that the variants have on these vaccines and why many of these companies, including Johnson & Johnson, are thinking, maybe do we need to add a booster shot? Do we need to retool our vaccines because of those top-line numbers?

There is a difference, obviously, in South Africa, where the people that were being trialed there were predominantly infected with the variant that is circulating in South Africa. So, we now know the variants make a difference, but not necessarily in terms of things that people care about the most.

I will say another thing, Jake, I think interesting, buried sort of in the identity of the 62 pages that came out today was very early data that this vaccine also seems to decrease the likelihood of becoming infected, right? The vaccines, we know, protect you from getting sick.

A longstanding question, how well do they do at preventing you from getting infected? Small numbers, but it looks like around 70 percent protection against actually getting infected as well. That's going to be something we're really going to follow, Jake.

TAPPER: And that's a measure of whether or not you're contagious, so whether or not you have to wear a mask if you go to school after you're -- let's say you're a teacher, you get the J&J vaccine, you go in. You don't have to wear a mask if you're not infectious. Is that what you're talking about? GUPTA: Yes, I mean, so that that's the ultimate point. Can we get to

-- right now, the guidance says you got to wear a mask, even if you have been vaccinated. You could still carry the virus, still transmit it.

And I think that is still the guidance, to be clear, but we're getting increasing evidence of what this vaccine does in terms of you becoming infected and potentially transmitting it.

And so far, early data looks promising from Johnson & Johnson.

TAPPER: OK, so nearly a year after this pandemic hit the U.S., Sanjay, we're finally bending the curve in a significant way.

In the last month, the seven- day averages in COVID deaths has dropped 34 percent, hospitalizations down about 52 percent, the average of daily cases down about 59 percent. So, what's working here? And then make sense of it, because Amara just told us in the previous report that there is expected to be a surge in April and May.

Why would that be?

GUPTA: Yes, well, first of all, just contextually, Jake, just because you and I have been reporting on this for so long, if you look at those curves you just put up, it's like one of these psychological things.

You're right. All these numbers are coming down. We're still at or higher than the peaks from before, these peaks that we couldn't even imagine before. We're still at numbers that are higher than that. But the trend is favorable. And that's good.

[16:10:03]

I think there's a couple things to keep in mind. And I have been talking to epidemiologists about this quite a bit, trying to make sense of it.

One is you have got to remember the people who have been, like, in long-term care facilities, nursing homes, they are -- increasingly been vaccinated. They accounted for about 35 percent of overall deaths in this country. You know, if you go back to early part of the pandemic to now, more than a third of the deaths occurred in that small sort of group of people. They have largely been vaccinated.

The numbers may still go up because of these variants that are transmissible, but the death rates, Jake, may still be very, very low as a result.

TAPPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

A very public display of the Republican divide, things got awkward when the number one and number three House Republicans both were asked about Donald Trump and the role he should play in the party.

Plus, new information about just how bad Tiger Woods' injuries are -- one doctor saying he could have very well lost his legs.

Stay with us.

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[16:15:08]

TAPPER: Back now with our politics lead.

This afternoon, the White House says it is still fighting for Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget, despite the fact that two key committee hearing votes on Tanden's nomination were unexpectedly canceled today, signaling their were Democratic fears there is not enough support for Tanden to clear those hurdles, as CNN's Kaitlan Collins now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden's pick to run the Budget Office now in jeopardy.

(on camera): President Biden, what makes you so confident that Neera Tanden will be confirmed?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you.

COLLINS (voice-over): The Senate committees that were supposed to vote on advancing Neera Tanden's nomination abruptly postponed the vote today with no explanation, a sign her nomination is on the verge of failing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearly, there is a tremendous amount going on right now.

COLLINS: The White House says they have no plans to pull Tanden's nomination, for now.

PSAKI: Well, there's one nominee to lead the budget department. Her name's Neera Tanden, and that's who we're continuing to fight for.

COLLINS: Two critical senators the White House is watching closely are Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, and Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, who haven't said which way they will vote.

The White House is watching them closely.

PSAKI: It's a numbers game, right? It's a matter of getting one Republican to support her nomination.

COLLINS: Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Friday on Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan.

All eyes in Washington are now on the little known Senate parliamentarian, who will decide soon whether Biden's proposed $15 minimum wage can be included. Democrats are still sharply divided over whether the wage increase should be in the bill at all. REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): In my humble opinion, building back

better includes a $15-per-hour minimum wage.

COLLINS: Meanwhile, Republican leaders are urging their members to oppose the bill unanimously.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I think all Republicans believe in three simple things. They want a bill that puts us back to work, back to school and back to health. This bill is too costly, too corrupt and too liberal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And, Jake, there was a bit of a notable moment in the Oval Office earlier, when President Biden was meeting with this bipartisan group of lawmakers talking about the United States' supply chain.

But some of those Republican lawmakers who were in the room are the same ones who were either slow to recognize his victory or questioned it during that period following the election in November.

And so I asked him, now that you have these Republicans sitting here in the Oval Office with you meeting on your agenda, do they now recognize that you are the legitimate president? He just smiled, Jake, and he said that "You will have to ask them."

TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, you're a mischief-maker at the White House.

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: Thanks so much.

In our politics lead: House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy today refused to answer when asked if he agreed with his colleague, the number three Republican in the House, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who said that the proposed 9/11-style commission looking into the January 6 attack on the Capitol, whether it should investigate Trump's role in inciting the insurrection.

Cheney says yes. McCarthy wouldn't answer.

CNN's Ryan Nobles joins now.

Ryan, what do we know about the potential makeup of this commission?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, we know right now there's a big divide between Republicans and Democrats about who should sit on this panel and ultimately what their mission should be.

And you're right. That played out in real time today, both the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, criticizing Democrats' efforts to essentially widen the scope of this commission, have it look beyond just the events of January 6 itself, but what led to those events, and even include some of the findings by the FBI and other agencies that have determined that this was planned ahead of time and it could have come from white supremacist elements.

Now, Republicans believe that the commission's scope should be very narrow. Right now, they are balking at the proposed legislation that's being put forward by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But Steny Hoyer, who's the House majority leader, said today that he hopes to have a vote on this bill in the House by the middle of March -- Jake.

TAPPER: And, Ryan, there's this phone call that McCarthy had with Trump on the day of the insurrection. We have heard about it from colleagues of Kevin McCarthy. Trump suggested he was siding with the violent insurrectionists.

McCarthy was asked about the call today. What did he have to say?

NOBLES: He basically just didn't answer, Jake.

He did not at all dispute the account from Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, but he also did not confirm it. He said he just didn't want to talk about it, and he wanted to move on. This is not a surprise, McCarthy continuing to walk this fine line when it comes to President Trump.

TAPPER: Let's discuss.

Ryan, thanks so much.

Bring in my panel now.

Nia, so, McCarthy and Cheney were also asked if they thought Trump should speak at the CPAC conference. It led to something of an awkward moment. Take a listen.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCARTHY: Yes, he should.

QUESTION: Congresswoman Cheney?

REP. LIZ CHENEY (D-WY): That's up to CPAC.

I have been clear in my views about President Trump and the extent to which, following January 6, I don't believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country.

MCCARTHY: On that high note, thank you all very much.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you think, Nia? What do you think this says about the party divisions?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, listen, there is a division, but it's a very unequal division.

The McCarthy side of this, obviously, with Trump, is probably about 80 to 85 percent of where the party is. They're firmly in Trump's camp. And you have got Liz Cheney, who really is trying to be the kind of leader of the post-Trump party.

That's really the rump of the party, maybe 20, 15 percent of the party. And so this, I think, is the fight that we will see play out. Again, it's a very uneven fight, an unequal fight in so many ways, but that is what we're going to see.

We're going to see it not only in the coming weeks. We will see it in 2022. And we will likely see it in 2024. Whether or not Donald Trump runs in 2024 for the Republican nomination, there still is going to be a huge Trumpist wing of the party represented by any number of people who are vying for that nomination.

But it is quite interesting to see Liz Cheney there. This is the moment that I think a lot of Republicans in the House Caucus wanted to prevent, this sort of mixed messaging from the leaders of the party. That's why they didn't want Liz Cheney in that number three position. But she is really sticking to her principles and to her guns in terms of saying that the party should move beyond Donald Trump.

TAPPER: And, Gloria, this division, we see it all over the place.

Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, a Republican, yesterday, he shared this conspiracy theory -- bonkers -- that the insurrectionists at the Capitol...

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

TAPPER: ... were not Trump supporters; they were provocateurs and fake Trump protesters.

He said it. It was lunacy. It's completely contradicted by all evidence and law enforcement. To that, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, he tweeted -- quote -- "It's disgraceful for a sitting senator to spread disinformation so blatantly. It's a disservice to the people, he serves to continue lying to them like this. It's dangerous, and it must stop."

And I should note, this is not a split just between Trumpists and non- Trumpists or conservatives vs. moderates. It's really just, to put it plainly, subscribers to lies and conspiracy theories, like Ron Johnson and Kevin McCarthy, and people, conservatives, who just acknowledge facts and reality, like Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.

BORGER: Yes, it's the truth vs. lies.

And the difference between Ron Johnson and Kinzinger and Cheney is that Ron Johnson is doing this because he can, because it's easy, because he's trying to appease a political base that he feels that he needs. For whatever reason, he's trying to make the former president happy, so he will like him, and that will help his political career. What Kinzinger and Cheney are doing is much more courageous. I mean,

what struck me about Liz Cheney is the -- her spine. I mean, this woman, if she had to answer the question, could have just said, no, I don't think he ought to speak at CPAC. I have made my views known, as she said, and ended there.

No, she didn't. She said exactly what her views were, which is that Donald Trump should have nothing to do with the future of the Republican Party. This puts her in great political peril in her district, which went 70 percent for Donald Trump. It puts Adam Kinzinger in great political peril as well in his district.

They know what they're doing. They are laying their careers on the line because they believe it is in service to the country and the party, as opposed to people like Ron Johnson, who are just lying because they can, and because it's easy for them to appease.

TAPPER: And there's also a third group of Republicans, I should say, which is, there's the truth-tellers, and then there's the liars, and then there's all the people who know better who are keeping their mouths shut.

BORGER: That's right.

TAPPER: Interestingly, today, Nia, we're learning that Donald Trump Jr. was deposed by the D.C. attorney general during an investigation into the use of inaugural funds from 2017.

The Manhattan DA has subpoenaed financial records related to Steve Bannon's crowdfunding for that border wall, just more reminders that law enforcement is going to be -- continue to be busy working on investigating the Trumpsters for quite some time.

HENDERSON: That's right.

And Donald Trump, of course, going to face this same sort of scrutiny as well, whether it's in Georgia, whether it's what's going on with his finances in New York as well.

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You know, it's just a reminder about all of the people who were caught up in Donald Trump's web who ended up facing some sort of penalty, some sort of court case, some sort of scrutiny. Donald Trump so far has escaped that. We will see how long that lasts.

But he always talks about hiring of the best people. And a lot of those people ended up showing themselves to be quite corrupt. Somebody like Steve Bannon, of course, was pardoned by the president, but there is more to come in terms of his legal troubles.

And we will have to see how that plays out, as well as of Donald Trump Jr.

TAPPER: Nia-Malika Henderson, Gloria Borger, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Coming up: new information about the Tiger Woods car crash -- why investigators are focusing on the SUV's black box data recorder.

Stay with us.

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