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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Biden Hosts Bipartisan Infrastructure Meeting at White House; COVID Cases Rising; Iran Accuses Israel of Attacking Nuclear Site, Vows Revenge; Canada Facing Vaccine Shortage, Asking U.S. For Help. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired April 12, 2021 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:01]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: That's good news.

Here's the bad news. COVID cases are spiking across the country. They're up 10 percent from last week. And Michigan remains a real hot spot, with the U.K. variant of the virus rapidly spreading there. Hospitalizations there are up fourfold from just two weeks ago.

And health experts are warning the surge in Michigan could be a sign of what's to come nationwide.

CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, looks at how vaccine distribution is stacking up against the looming threat of another surge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what the vaccine rollout looked like at the end of last year, less than three million doses administered total.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whenever I make up my mind, I want to get that thing get done.

GUPTA: Those are my parents, and my mom's not lying. This is how they managed to get a COVID-19 vaccine, waiting in line overnight for hours just to get a number and then hope for a shot.

Cut to today, and the United States has finally hit its stride, vaccinating, on average, more than three million people every day. That's 35 people a second.

(on camera): When you first heard that the goal was to basically roll out hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine, what went through your head?

CLAIRE HANNAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATION OF IMMUNIZATION MANAGERS: I guess I said a quick prayer.

GUPTA (voice-over): Claire Hannan is the executive director of the Association Of Immunization Managers, which works to help improve immunization coverage in the United States.

HANNAN: On every level, this is unprecedented, the dry ice, the ultra-cold storage, the mixing with the diluent, the three different vaccine regimens with different days apart. There's just so much going on.

GUPTA: Vaccine manufacturers have worked to address these concerns, from figuring out the right needles to extract every dose, to working toward less cold storage temperatures, and, of course, helping the biggest piece of the puzzle finally fall into place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we need is more vaccine.

GUPTA: With millions of doses now steadily coming off the line, it's up to states to make sure those shots are getting into arms. But there's not a one-size-fits-all solution here.

For example, look at New York vs. North Dakota. According to a CNN analysis, they will be the first states to vaccinate all willing adults, but for very different reasons. In New York, they have one of the fastest rollouts in the country, vaccinating almost 1 percent of the state's population per day.

North Dakota is vaccinating slower, but has a higher rate of vaccine hesitancy. That's why Hannan says there is no silver bullet. She does say that sites like these, though, have made one of the biggest impacts.

HANNAN: The response to set up mass vaccination sites, to increase throughput, to have these large-scale sites where we can really manage inventory, that was a tremendous response, a tremendous shift.

GUPTA: And, soon, there's going to be a bigger shift, as the Biden administration seeks to open up eligibility across the entire country later this month, something Hannan thinks we need to be ready for.

HANNAN: We always have to try to stay one step ahead of any kind of lull in demand.

And so we have got really good momentum going. And it's time. It's time for people who are 16 and up, it's their turn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: Now one thing Hannan did say as well, Jake, was that it made sense to prioritize those people who are most vulnerable, elderly, at the beginning of the vaccine roll up, because they were the people most likely to get sick.

But I want to show you what's happening in places like Michigan now. Take a look at this graphic. One week on the left there is ending in December 23 of last year. The one on the right is ending at the end of March of this year. That green area, Jake, that sort of represents people between the ages of 40 and 69.

You can see that they make up an increasingly large percentage of those being hospitalized, as people who are older, that percentage, continues to shrink. What does this mean? We need to vaccinate them. People who are younger thinking maybe this wasn't something that was necessary for them should take a look at this graphic, because it tells an important story of where we need to go, Jake, get those vaccines to the people who need it most -- Jake.

TAPPER: Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

One Republican senator today criticized President Biden's tweets, yes, you heard me correctly, a Republican senator criticizing President Biden's tweets.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:38:51]

TAPPER: In our politics lead today: With Congress back from recess, President Biden made his first direct pitch to try to sell his $2 trillion infrastructure plan.

He hosted a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers at the White House this afternoon, while his administration continues to redefine language Washington's meeting of bipartisanship today, referring to support in the polls among Republicans, not Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Senior Biden adviser Anita Dunn reportedly told "The Washington Post" the definition -- quote -- "doesn't say the Republicans have to be in Congress" -- unquote.

I want to bring in CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

Kaitlan, any signs of willingness to negotiate between the two sides, particularly from the Republicans in the room today?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we didn't hear from the Republicans. They did not come out to the microphones afterwards, like typically you have seen some of these lawmakers do.

But President Biden himself said while he was in the room that he is open to negotiating not just how to pay for this package, which has kind of been a point of contention since he proposed it, but also the extent of what's in here.

So, whether or not that actually comes out in the wash at the end of the day when we see what the text of this is going to look like, that still remains to be seen.

[16:40:00]

But he did have four Republicans there, just as those four Democrats were also there. They're involved in the drafting of what this is going to look like, Jake. And he said that some parts of it are not negotiable to him, water,

broadband, things of that nature that are in here. But he did say that he does believe this will all work out perfectly in the end, though, of course, perfectly and the definition of that is going to depend on who's looking at this, because you have heard Republicans like Liz Cheney say that this bill, this proposal from President Biden on infrastructure, would have to be -- quote -- "fundamentally redone" in order to actually get Republicans on board.

So that remains to be seen, what it's actually going to look like.

TAPPER: And, Kaitlan, there are plenty of valid things to criticize President Biden over, of course, but, today, we saw something rather odd from Republican Senator John Cornyn.

He tweeted a link to a story that noted that President Biden's messaging has been rather disciplined. He sticks to scripted events. He sends out very conventional tweets. He doesn't do as many interviews with mainstream media outlets as Trump used to do.

Cornyn said this -- quote -- "Invites the question, is he really in charge?"

I don't know that it invites that question. That's quite a leap. How is the White House responding?

COLLINS: I think that's a popular stereotype that you often see the president's detractors want to play up.

The White House responded in particular to one part that Cornyn had tweeted. And this is actually from the Politico story. This wasn't his own commentary, but he was tweeting where it said or quoting where it said that his -- President Biden's tweets are unimaginably conventional, I believe is the phrase that they used.

And they asked Jen Psaki about this earlier today during the press briefing, and she said, yes, that she can confirm he does not spend his days tweeting conspiracy theories. Of course, that's a reference to what we often saw on former President Trump's Twitter feed, Jake.

TAPPER: Well, maybe Biden should go on "Judge Jeanine" and lie about COVID or something along those lines. Maybe that would reassure John Cornyn.

Thanks so much, Kaitlan. Appreciate it.

New accusations today that a high-profile nuclear site has been the target of terrorism. The allegations could have a global impact.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:46:19]

TAPPER: We're back with our world lead. And in an apparent act of sabotage, the Iranian government is

protesting a blackout at one of its key nuclear sites, the Natanz facility, where the country enriches uranium that could be used to make a nuclear bomb. Iran is blaming, not surprisingly, Israel, describing the blackout as an act of terrorism and vowing revenge against Israel.

Joining us now to discuss, retired Admiral General William McRaven, the former head of U.S. Special Operations Command and author of the new book, "The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived."

Admiral, I'll get to the book in a second but I do have to ask you -- Iran is vowing revenge. What do you expect that might look like?

ADMIRAL WILLIAM MCRAVEN (RET.), FORMER HEAD OF U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND: Well, first, good to be with you. You know, certainly all indications are certainly pointing towards Israel, and I would offer that that's a little disturbing in light of the fact that we are trying to renegotiate the JCPOA.

It's just not helpful, and frankly, I'm not exactly sure what it accomplishes. It's a little bit of a shot across the bow but Natanz will be down for maybe a week or so.

So, now, when Iranians start to look at retribution, you know, there's always a lot of talk and a lot of times not a lot of follow-through. So, certainly, you know, you never know what might happen to Israeli leadership, and I think they've got to be on guard.

But, again, a little -- a little troubling to see this action occurring right now.

TAPPER: But, Admiral, do you think Israel would carry out such an act of sabotage without informing the U.S. government either before or after?

MCRAVEN: Well, this is the problem. This does not look good. It implies that we were either complicit or we were ignorant. And neither one of those things is a good look for us. And again, the disturbing part of this is as we are trying to renegotiate the JCPOA, this seems to undermine our efforts.

So, you know, the truth may never come out, but on the surface of it, it just -- it doesn't look good for either side frankly.

TAPPER: The timing, as you note, is crucial because this U.S. delegation is overseas right now involved in these talks to possibly revive the Iran nuclear deal. You think this complicates those talks definitely? I mean, there's no proof that Israel did it. We all suspect it, perhaps, but there's no proof of it.

MCRAVEN: Yeah, I think your word is correct. It complicates the talks.

The fact of the matter is Iranians want to come back to the table. We certainly want them to come back to the table. This just complicates matters unless all of a sudden, they have a smoking gun which clearly they don't have at this point.

TAPPER: Let's talk about your new book "The Hero Code." You told the stories of some of the most outstanding heroes you've met in your life, ranging from service members to astronauts, to celebrities who spend their time in relief efforts.

What was your biggest takeaway after writing this book?

MCRAVEN: Yeah, you know, the fact of the matter is, you know, we all need heroes. I mean, every society needs heroes, and heroes, frankly, they inspire the younger generation to be better than the current generation, and that's kind of what moves societies forward.

And the fact of the matter you is don't have to be a hero that is on the marquee. What you see are heroes every single day that have these noble qualities. I mean, that is the definition of a hero -- people that we admire for these noble qualities, courage and humility and perseverance, a sense of sacrifice.

So, I was fortunate in my 40 years both in the military and at University of Texas to meet some remarkable heroes. And I hope these -- this younger generation, the millennials and the Gen-Z, of which I am their biggest fan, I hope they'll enjoy this book, as well as some of the older crowd.

TAPPER: You say being hero is not limited to the strong, the courageous, the famous.

[16:50:01]

You say it's something all of us can do.

Explain what you mean by that.

MCRAVEN: Well, yeah. I think we all learn these noble traits from our parents, guardians, coaches, teachers. You can learn to be courageous. You can learn to be humble. You can learn to have a sense of duty.

And so, we can all acquire some of these noble traits if we'll take the time to learn and hopefully to learn from some of these great examples that are in the books, but also in the great examples of the young men and women and the older generation that are out there today doing these noble deeds.

TAPPER: All right. Admiral William McRaven, great to see you as always. Thanks for joining us.

Congrats on the new book. Again, it's called "The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived." Thanks again, sir.

MCRAVEN: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: Health care workers in Canada are now waiting up to four months for their second dose of the COVID vaccine. What is fueling the vaccine shortage in our neighbor to the north? What's going on there?

Stay with us.

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[16:55:35]

TAPPER: Some bad news for our neighbors north in our world lead.

Canada is now outpacing the United States in terms of coronavirus cases per capita. This is a concerning uptick considering that the Canadian vaccine rollout is not going well at all.

By comparison, in the U.S., more than one in three Americans have gotten at least their first shot. In Canada, fewer than one in five received their first shot.

CNN's Paula Newton now finds out what's causing Canada's vaccine drought.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TASLEEM NIMJEE, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN, HUMBER RIVER HOSPITAL: That's hard to stomach, real hard to stomach.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Doctors frustrated, exhausted as a growing third wave of COVID cases spreads across Canada even more serious than the first two, and vaccines are arriving far too late to stem the surge.

One horrifying look inside Canadian ICUs filled to capacity and beyond and it's clear, doctors say, Canada's vaccine shortage is now their problem.

NIMJEE: We went through a period where we were rapidly trying to immunize our health care workers both first and second doses to, all of a sudden, we're not getting the supply that we thought we would. We have nothing and it went down to I remember weeks where there was no vaccine. Vaccines change the game of this pandemic.

NEWTON: And Canada is still on the losing end for a country that had categorically claimed to have secured more doses per capita than any other in the world, doses have not arrived in time and doctors say the early vaccine drought will cost lives.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada no longer has any domestic production capacity for vaccines, and unlike the U.S. and the U.K. was not able to ramp up domestic manufacturing so Canadians are at the mercy of imports, not even from their American neighbor but from Europe.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: We continue our discussions with the American administration on getting more doses into Canada.

NEWTON: The Biden administration sent is 1.5 million AstraZeneca vaccines in recent weeks but so far no plans to accepted more and Europe has received 8 million doses, all of it not enough for a country of nearly 38 million people, forcing most Canadians, including front line workers, to get only one dose with the second shot postponed as long as four months.

That's prompted the head of the world renowned University of Ottawa Heart Institute to plead with the Ontario government to quickly get a second dose to medical staff.

DR. THIERRY MESANA, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA HEART INSTITUTE: It's not a small problem. It's not a small problem. People were exhausted. We see staff not coming to work because they may have COVID and they are not hospitalized, but they have symptoms and they stay home even with the potential one dose.

NEWTON: And the weeks ahead will be more gut-wrenching still. Many provinces are now locking down and triaging and transferring patients, activating surge capacity in its health care system that is now under threat of COVID-19 like never before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON (on camera): And, Jake, look, this is a problem. You have to rewind decades to really get to the heart of this problem, but that doesn't let the Trudeau government off the hook. They have been in power for more than five years. They heard dire predictions this.

Country for decades had a competitive advantage in making vaccines. The research was right here. Look, Canadians will now pay for that complacency. Trudeau promises that domestic manufacturing will ramp up next year.

Jake, you and I both know it's just too late at this point in time. Third wave is punishing. I'm speaking to doctor especially in the hot spot of Toronto.

You know, Jake, they are letting people into the sick children's hospital, adults, in order to be able to treat them for COVID. A lot of things to talk about here, including the fact that even though the dire predictions were there, no government acted for decades on the vaccine rollout.

TAPPER: Yeah, it's a real failure by the Trudeau government and our Canadian cousins deserve a lot better.

Paula, thank you so much for that. Appreciate your report.

Finally today, we want to take time to remember just one of the 562,000 people we in the United States have lost to the pandemic.

Enrique Valdovinos, he was the head chef and owner at what "The Cape Cod Times" called the best Mexican restaurant in Cape Cod. It was his dream to open Mi Pueblo and make customers feel at home. And h succeeded.

His daughter Laura said he was the jokester of the family even though he never took a day off.

When COVID restrictions hit his town of Hyannis, the restaurant struggled but Valdovinos chipped in to help the community. He made burritos for the homeless. Valdovinos' dad died of coronavirus just weeks before Enrique lost his fight in late January.

He was only 45 years old. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. May his memory be a blessing.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

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