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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Biden's First Address To A Joint Session Of Congress Soon; Three Men Charged With Federal Hate Crimes In Ahmaud Arbery Death; Raid At Giuliani's Apartment & Office As Feds Advance Criminal Investigation Into His Lobbying Activity In Ukraine; Crisis In India: Deaths Top 3,000 In One Day As Hospitals Run Out Of Oxygen; Secretary Blinken: It's "Possible" Withdrawing U.S. Troops Could Lead To Civil War, Taliban Takeover In Afghanistan; CNN Poll: 66 Percent Of Americans Approve Of Biden's COVID Handling. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 28, 2021 - 17:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Earlier today, President Biden spoke at length off the record with a number of TV news anchors, including me, one of the points Biden made on the record was that beyond the initial challenges of stemming the tide of the pandemic and helping those suffering economically because of it, he felt that he needed to succeed right out of the box because the American people need to have faith that there our government can work, "We can't afford to lose out of the box."

He says he told his staff at the time, "We cannot afford to lose this first effort on," because he sees what's next as a major task as to whether democracy can survive in the 21st century. Chinese President Xi is betting against it. He said, "This government is founded on this notion that, you know, sounds corny, we the people.

And there's nothing we're going to be able to get done unless we can convince the American people, it's possible to do it," he said. President Biden also told us, "Everybody talks about, can I do anything by partisan? Well, I got to figure out if there's a party to deal with. We need a Republican Party. We need another party, whatever you call it, that's unified, not completely splintered and fearful of one another."

Republicans have said they're looking for President Biden to make serious efforts at bipartisan outreach this evening. But it is not clear if his latest legislative push will get any Republican support. And CNN Phil Mattingly now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: For Joe Biden, finally, his moment, he's addressed to Congress, his presidency after more than three decades in the audience as a senator and eight years seated behind his boss, Biden will be flanked by history.

For the first time to women's speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris will be seated right behind the president, and its history he will call on official say as he recounts the first 100 days leading a country brought to the brink by dual economic and public health crises.

In an insurrection that touch the very spot he'll be standing, the pandemic reducing attendance to just around 200, with only a single supreme court justice, two cabinet officials and no designated survivor. Biden has been working through the speech for weeks officials tell CNN.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK MAJORITY LEADER: I expect President Biden unlike his predecessor, will lay out the facts and appeal to our better angels.

MATTINGLY: And he spent the entire day going through final edits and practice sessions. The remarks set to recap the more than 215 million vaccine doses delivered and more than 160 million stimulus checks deployed.

SCHUMER: Tonight, President Biden will address a joint session of Congress to mark the progress of our first 100 days and talk about where we as a country still need to go.

MATTINGLY: Driving forces behind an approval rating that sits at 53% according to a CNN poll, but Biden now set to press forward and go even bigger.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're also going to hear him talk about how much more there is to do.

MATTINGLY: And effort eight, say that will be designed to emphasize the urgency of the moment and his view that government can and will deliver.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: People will hear from him tonight is not just how far we've come but the fact that government can work.

MATTINGLY: The centerpiece a new $1.8 trillion plan to transform education and the social safety net, proposing hundreds of billions of dollars for child care, paid leave universal pre-k, free community college and anti-poverty tax credits, its proposal to be financed by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, all democratic priorities, but the proposal leaving out two crucial progressive objectives, expanding Medicare and cuts to prescription drug costs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (on camera): Jake, no shortage of hurdles facing that nearly $4 trillion legislative agenda the President is laying out but he will start to meet with the highest ranking members in Congress, hosting a meeting the first of his presidency with the big four, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Mitch McConnell, and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.

He's met with more than 130 lawmakers in person since he's taken office, but never this group, obviously the most powerful on Capitol Hill. But also note he speaks regularly with his two Democrats, and also is spoken by phone with Mitch McConnell. This will be his first conversation with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy since Inauguration Day, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. Let's discuss with my panel. Dana, let me start with you. His first address to a joint session of Congress, walk us through how important tonight is for President Biden?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's incredibly important because he is going to be setting the table, setting the stage for this incredibly aggressive agenda that he has that we've been reporting on during the first 100 days, and there is even more, and it's going to be such an important sales pitch that he's going to make and the tone of it.

And the way that it's described is going to be critical because it's going to be so different from the Democratic president, you and I started covering Bill Clinton, certainly before our time, Ronald Reagan, but that time it was all about government is too big and we need to shrink it. This is all about how government should be big and should be bold. And can work for you. And it is a quite different tone and a quite different strategy and approach.

[17:05:08]

TAPPER: Abby, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he'll be listening for signs that President Biden is serious about bipartisanship. Is there anything Biden can say that would appeal to Republicans? I mean, theoretically, Republicans use bridges and roads and would appreciate eldercare. But I don't sense that the price tags are going to be anywhere near what Republicans are willing to vote for?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's really doubtful whether there's anything that Biden can say tonight that would cause Republicans to have a fit of bipartisanship and want to cooperate with him on some of these things. Especially because it's not just about roads and bridges, it's about the price tag of those roads, roads and bridges.

It's about how you pay for it, whether you raise taxes. And what you'll hear from Biden tonight is that it's also about human capital. They're not going to shy away tonight from this idea that the administration wants to invest in America's people just as it invests in roads and bridges. And that's the idea that I think is harder for Republicans to wrap their minds around.

And I think beyond that, it has been very difficult to get, you know, they need 60 votes for a lot of things in the Senate. It's been very difficult even to get one or two of those 60 votes. And so it's hard for me to see anything Biden saying tonight really changing that substantively.

TAPPER: Dana, let's turn for one second to talk about the optics of this evening, because it's going to be jarring for a lot of viewers, a mostly empty chamber about 20 percent filled, no guests. No, Scott, next, the special guests of the president sitting in the in the gallery, everyone will be wearing masks except for the president when he's speaking, the Biden's going to tout his administration's progress on fighting the pandemic.

But I think the environment will be a reality check that we're still in the middle of this pandemic.

BASH: Yeah, no question about it. And that is a part of the goal here for the President to make that point. Not just rhetorically but also visually, not to say that, that this is the theater that a lot of Republicans are criticizing him for not having more people in the chamber, since a lot of the members, I would even say most of the members are vaccinated by now. But there is still a ways to go. And we're certainly going to hear from the President on that.

One of the things I would add on the optics is, of course, the first time in history, we're going to see two women sitting behind the President of the United States. I just came from a small briefing with the Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

And she talked about how looking forward she is to that to having another woman there. And she said that the phones are ringing off the hook, Jake, that people are calling globally about the imagery and what that represents.

TAPPER: Abby, we know that policing reform will also be another major focus of President Biden's address. Both parties are projecting confidence that they'll be able to reach a deal on Capitol Hill.

But you know, a lot of people are still skeptical, given how partisan the country is right now, how unwilling Democrats and Republicans seem to be on giving on this one major issue on policing reform, which has to do with qualified immunity for police. What do you think is the right tone for Biden to strike on this tonight?

PHILLIP: Well, the Biden strategy has been to let Congress sort this out. And that might be one of the most important things that he can do is on the logistics of this, stay out of the way. But you're going to hear him talk about the urgency of the issue, not just from the perspective of trying to save lives, potentially, but also from the perspective of equity and justice.

And so that's the role of the president is to take the high ground here and set the tone for what the sort of moral standard for the country ought to be. That's going to be very important. But at the same time, while he'll be urging lawmakers to do something, I do think that the White House's strategy has been to let the lawmakers who have credibility with each other, work with each other behind the scenes and try to get something done.

And so far, it seems from everything that I've been hearing and that others have been hearing that is happening. It's happening quietly, but it is happening.

TAPPER: The big Republican on policing reform, of course the South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, who will be delivering the opposition response this evening. Abby Philip and Dana Bash, thanks to both of you. Coming up next, breaking news with the Department of Justice is announcing about the Ahmaud Arbery case. Plus, federal agents rating Rudy Giuliani's home and office what it says about the investigation and what that might mean for Donald Trump? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:13:32]

TAPPER: We have some breaking news in the nationally the Justice Department just announced that is charging three Georgia men with federal hate crimes in connection with the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Arbery, as you might recall was a 25-year-old black man, shot and killed while jogging near Brunswick, Georgia on February 23, 2020.

Greg McMichael and his son Travis were later charged with felony murder and aggravated assault, a third man, William "Roddie" Bryan was subsequently charged with murder after authority said he joined the pursuit and recorded that haunting cellphone video. Let's go straight to CNN's Evan Perez who joins us. Evan, tell us what you learn?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, this is now -- these are federal charges that are being brought and it has to do with hate crimes and kidnapping against the father and son Travis and Gregory McMichael as well as William Bryan, who was the man who shot the video, the video you just talked about.

And what this shows is really a reinvigoration of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department. The one of the things that we've seen just in the last few days is a number of investigations of police departments, for their use of force involving black people.

And so what we've seen this pattern and practice investigations, denounced by the Merrick Garland, the new Attorney General and I think one of the things that you're seeing and this is a part of what you're now is going to be seeing a lot more from the Civil Rights Division. In this case, these men are charged with hate crimes and kidnapping and it has to do with this incident in February 2020.

[17:15:02]

The men are already facing state charges. So one of the criticisms is, why do you have to add federal charges? But I think one of the things that you hear from justice officials is that this is one of those cases that was so egregious, it demands a federal response.

TAPPER: And we have even more huge news today on the Department of Justice front because Rudy Giuliani's attorney confirms that federal agents executed a search warrant today at Giuliani's New York City apartment in office. The Raid escalates a criminal investigation, launched in 2019, related to Giuliani's lobbying activities in Ukraine. And Evan, do we know exactly what the Fed seized?

PEREZ: Yeah, they seized his devices. And as you pointed out, this is an investigation into foreign lobbying that has been going on for a couple of years. A couple of Giuliani's Ukrainian associates, Igor Fruman, and Lev Parnas were arrested back in 2019, Jake, and this is a case obviously, that stems from Giuliani's activities, to try to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his family.

And according to the sources that we've been talking to, they've been looking now for a couple of years to see whether Giuliani violated these lobbying laws, whether he was acting on behalf of Ukrainians, or was he acting as the President's lawyer as he would argue?

So in this raid today, they took his devices. The -- his lawyer said today that it was over the top, it was thuggery. And his son just a little while ago, came out and said it was absurd and represented politicization of the Justice Department.

TAPPER: Although as you know, the investigation started in the Trump administration.

PEREZ: Right.

TAPPER: OK. But they only act it now, but it is unusual to raid the office of an attorney, because so often that all the documents in materials are attorney client privilege, the last time I can remember this happening was with the President's prior --

PEREZ: Right, and --

TAPPER: -- attorney, Michael Cohen.

PEREZ: Right. And because it's so unusual, and because of all those things that you mentioned, it is one of those things that requires high level approval in this case, it had to go up to the tightest levels of the Justice Department. In this case, the Deputy Attorney General's Office has to be aware, has to provide input, they can block it, this was blocked by the way.

The first time the Southern District of New York tried to do this happened under Jeffrey Rosen then did the Deputy Attorney General and he raised concerns about whether this case was sufficient, whether there was enough evidence to bring, to get these this warrants.

TAPPER: Evan Perez, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Let's bring in Preet Bharara. He was a former U.S. Attorney for the same Manhattan office handling the Giuliani case. The same office Giuliani once served as U.S. attorney before he was elected to become mayor of New York City. Preet, your take on this raid, its significance, whether it possibly is overreach?

PREET BHARARA, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think it's very significant. You know, just as a matter of looking at the arc of Rudy Giuliani's career, he's not been charged, he may not be charged, but to take a step against any lawyer generally, in this regard with a search warrant of devices and premises is a big deal requires those approvals that Evan described. And to do it, when that person was the lawyer to the former president of United States is a very significant step. And so, you know, he's fallen pretty far in terms of how far along

this investigation is. I think, again, there's no way to conclude for certain whether or not there will be charges. But in a case like this, given the circumstances, given the status of Rudy Giuliani, how long the investigation has gone on, how aggressively it seems that the SDNY folks have been seeking to get the warrants, tried and failed before the election, tried and succeeded again now, I think there's a very high likelihood that they believe their charges to be brought.

And they may be pretty far along. Sometimes it's the case that you have a lot of evidence. You know, it's not true that they're going to be getting some of the correspondence and electronic communications Rudy Giuliani only because they've seized these devices now. You get those kinds of communications from third party sources, AT&T, you know, whoever, you get the devices because you want more evidence.

And you want confirmatory evidence, and you want to see if there was destruction of evidence, which may have happened since Giuliani has known about this, but it's very, very significant. It's a very aggressive step. I know the folks at the SDNY. I hired a lot of them. And they would only do something like this. That's so significant if they believed very strongly based on the facts and the law, that there's something worthwhile pursuing here.

TAPPER: As Trump was leaving office, as you recall, Giuliani was front and center helping Trump promote the big lie about the election, falsely claiming there was mass voter fraud. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP'S PERSONAL LAWYER: So over the next 10 days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we're wrong, we will be made fools of. Let's have trial by combat. I'm willing to stake my reputation. The President is willing to stake his reputation on the fact that we're going to find criminality there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:20:04]

TAPPER: And there's no evidence that anything related to the post- election activities has anything to do with this investigation. But during that period, there were questions about whether Trump was going to give Giuliani and others a preemptive pardon. He did not do it. That privilege is gone. He can't pardon him now, as a former president, is there anything he can do in terms of asserting some sort of privilege, attorney-client privilege, presidential privilege in terms of his communications with Giuliani as his attorney?

BHARARA: The great irony is, it may be the case that the Justice Department that stymied the ability to search some months ago, may have caused a delay in doing the search and maybe bringing charges and had they not done that. It is conceivable that the Justice Department would have done the search maybe even abroad charges, sometime during the transition period, which probably would have prompted a pardon from Donald Trump. That's point 1.

Point 2, yeah, look, you have to be very sensitive about information that you take from a lawyer. And there isn't attorney client privilege, which is why we'll probably be hearing in the coming days in court, about the Southern District of New York employing, you know, a filter team. Sometimes people call it a taint team, to make sure that there's a group of lawyers and investigators who are looking at the documents, and not impinging on any attorney client relationship or privilege.

That's an ordinary thing that exists in the law and has nothing to do with the fact that Donald Trump used to be the president of the United States. I don't think there's any executive privilege that applies here. Rudy Giuliani was his personal lawyer, as far as I know. But yeah, that will be something that will be litigated and be talked about, assuming that there's information that falls into that category.

TAPPER: Giuliani hasn't said anything publicly about this, to my knowledge, but his son Andrew, who was a former White House aide, and also is considering running for governor of New York, came out and spoke to the media not long ago, he said this showed an out of control, Justice Department, the politicization of the Justice Department and that the federal agencies to everything in the apartment except the one thing that was actually incriminating, and that thing was not incriminating of his father, Rudy Giuliani, but it was incriminating of Hunter Biden, what's your reaction?

BHARARA: Look, I've overseen you know, lots and lots and lots of prosecutions. When prosecutors and agents take an investigative step or bring a charge, they are infrequently sent flowers and chocolates from their targets. That is a thing that people say. That is the thing that the relatives of people say.

That is the thing that has been, you know, taken to an art form, whether good or bad art depending on your perspective by Giuliani, his family members and people around him attack the people who are bringing the case, you know, we usually only himself was the United Sates attorney, as you pointed out, and had this happen to him. I filter all that out, let's see what the facts show. Let's see what the evidence shows. And let's see what actions publicly are taken by that office.

TAPPER: The -- we know that there are the crimes relating to lobbying on behalf of a foreign government. But a lot of times those crimes in previous years were regarded as, you know, paperwork crimes, not necessarily particularly serious. This is a very dramatic step to raid Rudy Giuliani's office.

This is more dramatic than reading Michael Cohen's office. And that ended with Michael Cohen in prison. What crimes could they be investigating here that would be that serious that would merit such a dramatic action by the Justice Department?

BHARARA: Well, you know they have to set that out in the search warrant affidavit in support of the warrants. So, you know, be great. You and I could read that. So we don't know. But we do know is some Rudy Giuliani's associates had been accused of in the same court of the Southern District of New York, of campaign finance violations, straw donor violations.

There's the swirling question of what other things might have been going on with respect to the payments of I'm speculating about all this here. But your question is a good one, about transfers of money from foreign individuals, foreign nationals into a campaign presidential campaign or other campaigns.

There could be money laundering issues that go on when you have transfers of money based on, you know, false pretenses. Some of what Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman are charged with is a fraud with respect to this company, fraud guarantee. And again, I don't know if this is true or not. And I don't know if those folks are giving information about Rudy Giuliani, but that could be part of it as well.

TAPPER: Preet Bharara, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it. Every day, one city is cremating 600 people who have died of coronavirus, every day. We're going to go live on the ground to India. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:29:01]

TAPPER: In our worldly today, it's horrific and it's tragic. Crematoriums in India are burning anything for fuel so they can keep up with the influx of bodies. People are gasping for breath, patients crammed into makeshift hospitals.

It's happening right now throughout India where coronavirus infections have exploded to more than one million new cases every three days. CNN's Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward is in New Delhi for us. And Clarissa you've reported from some of the most ravaged, war-torn parts of the world. How does what you're seeing in India compare?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, there is no question this country is in the grips of a vicious, terrifying and heartbreaking tragedy. We saw people on the streets today waiting in line for six hours trying to get some life-saving oxygen.

Most of them weren't able to find beds in hospitals for their loved ones, even those who were able to find a bed, those loved ones still weren't able to receive that oxygen. And so they go every day, they crowd source online. They get on Twitter. They share information. They're pulling together.

[17:30:04]

And so they go every day. They crowdsource online. They get on Twitter, they share information, they're pulling together. And they say, listen, guys, at this spot in 10 minutes, there's going to be some oxygen and then you just see this mass wave of people arriving, getting in line and trying to get some of that life-saving oxygen. We also visited a crematorium, where it became abundantly clear that the government figures, Jake, really don't come close to capturing the true scale of the horror and the loss of life. Delhi's crematoria combined saying that they're cremating somewhere in the region of 600 bodies a day, that's twice the amount of government figures. We visited one crematorium where they've had to spill out into a car park in order to accommodate these huge numbers.

And when you think, Jake, that last year, at the peak of the first wave, 100,000 people a day were new cases of COVID. And now we're talking about well over 300,000 new cases a day. As one scientific researcher here put it, this wave makes the first one look like a ripple in a bathtub.

TAPPER: and just this morning, Clarissa, the CDC and the U.S. government announced that they would send supplies and assistance to India. What are they sending?

WARD: Well, they're sending a host of different things from ventilators, to oxygen creators machinery that will help people to breathe, which is so desperately needed here. But when you talk to people on the ground, they'll say to you, listen, this is a healthcare system on the brink of collapse. It is going to take more than donations and aid from other countries to try to write the course of this ship.

And as we speak, Jake, there are still political rallies being held in part of the countries -- of country for state elections, which gives many people pause for thought that the government has truly got a handle on the situation and is doing everything that needs to be done in order to try to mitigate some of this horrific loss of life.

TAPPER: Yes, we saw something like that play out here in the United States last year with former President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Modi, similarly he took a victory lap a few months ago, he said that India had effectively defeated COVID. How are the people of India reacting to the government's mishandling of this crisis?

WARD: There's no question, Jake. You know, talking to people on the streets, along with the despair and with the sadness and the grief, there is growing anger and there is growing frustration. There's a real sense among many people here that Modi's government failed to take all the steps that needed to be taken after the first wave, to buy more ventilators, to put more beds in hospitals, to ensure that there would be enough oxygen for people in the country to breathe.

Not only that, you had these huge political rallies playing out with some of these state elections. You had this massive Hindu festival, the Kumbh Mela, with millions of pilgrims gathering together. You've had cricket matches, you've had weddings, all these sort of large scale events, mask wearing sort of became a thing of the past at one point, and for a number of reasons.

People are really pointing the finger at the Modi government saying that they have failed and that they should be held accountable.

TAPPER: All right, Clarissa Ward for us doing important reporting in New Delhi, India. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

So what is the U.S. doing to help? It's a pain point for the Biden administration. Some Biden officials want to share doses of vaccine while others want to be confident in our vaccine efforts at home before passing out any extra. Secretary of State Tony Blinken was on the lead yesterday. Listen to what he said when I asked him how the 60 million AstraZeneca doses that the U.S. is not using and already set aside for foreign countries, how they will be allocated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're going to decide whether to do some or all of that through Covax or how much of that will be done directly country to country. All of that is in the works and we'll have a plan in place in the coming days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: CNN's Kylie Atwood joins us now from the State Department. Kylie, the Director of the World Health Organization told The New York Times that vaccine sharing would be a, quote, test of character for various governments. What are the internal arguments happening in the Biden administration right now?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, there are those who are looking at the nitty-gritty details surrounding the vaccines domestically here in the United States. You know, what does that look like as the J&J supply comes back online? How many Americans have been vaccinated?

Is there enough vaccine if there were to be anything that went wrong with the U.S. stockpile at this point? They are wanting to be conservative before they start sharing with any other countries.

Then you have other folks who are growing increasingly frustrated because they're saying, look at the big picture here. The Union States is doing quite well in comparison to other countries, particularly look at India, and the U.S. should start sharing vaccines sooner rather than later.

[17:35:09]

And I spoke with officials who had actually reached out to private industry, to business and interest groups, encouraging them to come on the record and encourage the Biden administration to share these excess vaccine doses sooner rather than later, sort of kind of a backdoor way to put pressure on the administration.

And they think that that is having at least a bit of an impact. Now, a senior State Department official took issue with that and told me that the AstraZeneca sharing that the U.S. plans to do that they announced they would be doing in the coming weeks, it was actually a product of the assessment that they could share, while there would be enough domestic supply for American.

So this is an ongoing issue. And what we're looking at here is which countries are going to be getting these vaccines and when.

TAPPER: Yes. And I think Secretary Blinken said that AstraZeneca hasn't even put in for Emergency Use Authorization here in the U.S.

Kylie Atwood, thank you so much.

We just got some new excerpts from President Biden's address tonight. What the President plans to say, that's next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:16]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, the White House just released the first excerpts of President Biden's address tonight to a joint session of Congress. The President plans to tout his administration's accomplishments and voice optimism about the future saying in part, "After just 100 days, I can report to the nation. America is on the move again. Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength".

Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana joins us now. Senator, thanks so much for being here. Welcome to the Lead. So this is going to be the first joint address since the insurrection. And I do want to ask you about that because last night, one of the D.C. officers who responded to the attack discussed the reaction of some lawmakers to what happened on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFC. MICHAEL FANONE, DEFENDED THE CAPITOL ON JANUARY 6: It's been very difficult seeing elected officials and other individuals kind of whitewash the events of that day or downplay what happened. A lot of us are still experiencing the emotional trauma. And some are still grappling with physical injuries as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: And I want to make it clear to our audience that you did not engage in any of those election lies and you have not been guilty of downplaying what happened on January 6 at all. So this is not about you, but that is a police officer pained by colleagues of yours and I'm wondering what you think.

SEN. TODD YOUNG (R-IN): I think now, each of us in elective office and frankly, the leaders of our major institutions, be at media or higher ed, or our churches, and synagogues and so forth. We all have a responsibility to try and bring together people during these trying times. The January 6 events, the rioting and violence that we saw over last summer, these are trying times for our nation. That's why I was so encouraged candidly by President Biden's inaugural address where his emphasis was indeed on unity.

And my disappointment has been that at the federal level, there has not been that unifying force. There's been rhetorical unity and emphasis on unity in speeches. But when it comes to actions, there hasn't been nearly enough unity. And I think that's the best and most constructive way that elected officials can really make a difference right now. So hopefully this evening that will be a real point of emphasis for President Biden in his address.

TAPPER: And I know there is hope on Capitol Hill by Democrats and Republicans, that there can be something achieved in terms of a compromise when it comes to policing reform. You are working closely with Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is spearheading the approach for Republicans in the Senate on his policing proposal. Are you still optimistic where to bipartisan talks stand now in terms of finding something that can pass the Senate and get to President Biden's desk?

YOUNG: Well, I mean, I think we're very close. There's so much overlap when you really look at what the so-called Republican bill that Senator Tim Scott is walking point on drafting and the democratic legislation. The only major difference I can see in it is that -- then the Democrats version, it would eliminate the so-called qualified immunity, the liability protection that's currently enjoyed by our men and women in uniform.

And whatever one thinks about that, I don't think we should eliminate those protections. I think right now, we definitely need to be standing up for our men and women in law enforcement.

But why can't we come together on the other provisions like ensuring that our officers are equipped with body cameras, protect themselves, protect members of the community, make lynching a federal crime, ensure that bad cops aren't shopped around from police -- district to police district after being fired.

We can do these things together. And then we can have principled disagreements and debates related to the areas in which we can't come together. That's how this place used to work.

That's how it should work again, even on big spending bills, which is what we spent a lot of time discussing in recent weeks here in Washington. So, I hope that that is the vision that President Biden passed this evening. Unfortunately, we haven't seen a lot of that in Washington in the last couple of months.

TAPPER: So Senator, one of the things that the President Biden told news anchors today that was on the record was about how he thinks that this is a challenge, the 21st century as to whether democracy can thrive the Chinese President Xi is betting against democracy and our ability, you know, in a messy government situation to achieve consensus.

[17:45:15]

You just introduced a bipartisan bill along with Senator Schumer that would bolster U.S. technology research so as to compete with China. So what the President say is that is relevant to what you're doing here. Why is this technology race against China is so important?

YOUNG: Well, thank you for bringing this up. The Endless Frontier Act, this bipartisan legislation that I am working on proposes bold investments in some discrete technology areas like artificial intelligence, and robotics, and advanced manufacturing and quantum computing.

These are important because these are sort of the platform technologies that will be integral to growing our economy at a more rapid rate in the future, therefore driving the prosperity of rank and file Americans, and they also have military application.

So none of us wants a military conflict in the future. But the best way to avoid one and to exert diplomatic leverage against the Chinese, so they don't steal our trade secrets, and they don't undermine our values and our way of life is to be prepared for this sort of conflict.

So this is why we've attracted bipartisan support for this piece of legislation. It's also essential while we unify during this divided time, around this particular initiative to demonstrate that, at least as it relates to national security and issues pertaining to China, and their misfeasance and their bad behavior, that we can unify on an issue of that great consequence.

TAPPER: All right, Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana, thanks so much for joining us today. Appreciate it.

YOUNG: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Thousands of potentially life-saving COVID vaccines at risk of expiring in Philadelphia today because there aren't enough people willing to get the shot. Come on, Philadelphia. What's going on?

We're going to talk with Dr. Sanjay Gupta next, coming up.

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[17:51:36]

TAPPER: In our health lead today, President Biden will address a mostly empty House chamber tonight, only about 200 people are allowed to attend his speech in person, the decision based on guidance from the House physician due to the COVID pandemic. Let's bring in CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, 200 people, that's about an eighth of the typical guest list if the lawmakers are already vaccinated. I mean, is this not excessive?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, it is cautious. I -- reading through the sort of policies in the protocols, I think people either had to prove they vaccinated or have a negative test. I'm not sure if everyone who's attending is, in fact, vaccinated.

You may know better than I. But, yes, I mean, these guidelines just came out yesterday that basically said if everyone was vaccinated, people could be in their indoor still wear a mask. But, you know, have an event like this, movie theaters was one of the examples they gave in the guideline, this is a bigger space than that. But I think this is caution. They want to make sure people have enough space to physically distance. I think they want to keep people away from the President. So, you know, they're not like trying to ask for autographs and things like that. I understand. But it is a cautious approach.

TAPPER: Tonight's speech comes as the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. has slowed. We're averaging in the U.S. about 2.7 million doses a day, a number that's been falling since April 16th. What's responsible for the slowdown? Is it just vaccine skepticism?

GUPTA: I think I think that's a large part of it now. If you look at the numbers overall, first of all, we know that second doses are now happening at a faster pace than first doses. So people are getting their second doses, but not as many people signing up for the first doses.

If you look overall, just at vaccine willingness, you get about 61 percent of the country that says hey, look, I -- I'll get a vaccine or I plan on getting a vaccine, I've already had it, what not, and we're about 55 percent of the country that is received at least a single dose.

So those numbers kind of match up, Jake. We're sort of hitting that ceiling of what, you know, people say that they're willing to do. Another 5 percent more maybe will fall into the -- I'm willing to go ahead and do this -- got about 17 percent of the country that is waiting and seeing.

So they're waiting now probably for the 60 percent to go first. And we'll see if they actually start to go ahead and get the vaccine. They're going to be necessary, you know, if you want to get to this herd or community immunity.

And, Jake, there's probably going to be an authorized vaccine for 12 to 15-year olds sometime soon. When you start looking at people 12 and older in the country, that's closer to 85 percent of the country of the population.

TAPPER: A new CNN poll out today shows 66 percent of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the pandemic. But let's look at the breakdown, 97 percent approval among Democrats, 65 percent of Independence, 30 percent approval from Republicans. What does this tell you?

GUPTA: It tells me that, you know, just about every aspect of this pandemic has been politicized. I mean, I'm a medical reporter and, you know, we end up talking a lot about the political divides on this. I've been focused a lot on the vaccines.

So, you know, you look at the same sort of polling data, but you say what is the vaccine willingness or hesitancy and see what -- how it breaks down by party. I mean, this is pretty remarkable.

I mean, you have 46 percent, less than half of Republicans say they will get this closer to 80 percent of Democrats. So that is, obviously, a significant difference. The big question, I think, is what do you about it?

[17:55:00]

Historically, what we've seen is that more than any other group of people, it's people's own doctors or nurses that are going to be most likely to convince them to get it more than political leaders.

TAPPER: Yes. If only President Trump, it's been half as much energy trying to convince his supporters to get vaccinated as he did, lying about the election.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

I had the new details. We're learning about President Biden's big speech tonight. Stay with us.

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TAPPER: If you are so inclined, you can follow me on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter @JakeTapper. You can also tweet the show @TheLeadCNN. Join me and my team tonight for our coverage of President Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress. Our special live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. As for now, our coverage continues with Wolf Blitzer. He is right next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM."