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The Lead with Jake Tapper
CDC Reluctant To Update Guidance As More States Lift Mask Rules; Biden Denounces Florida's GOP's "Don't Say Gay" Bill As "Hateful"; U.S. Official: Russia Adds 2,000 Combat Forces In Last 24 Hours; NFL Commissioner Goodell Responds To Racial Discrimination Claims; January 6 Committee Subpoenas Former Trump Adviser Peter Navarro; Biden Invites Senate Judiciary Democrats To White House To Discuss His Supreme Court Justice Pick. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired February 09, 2022 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: You know, we get these every couple years, these kind of surveys. It depends what I'm giving up.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: OK, what can you not live without?
BLACKWELL: If I have to alive cheese-free life and live until 90. But if I have cheese and takes two years off, I'm tipping out of 88.
CAMEROTA: Right, you don't live longer. It just feels longer.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Are Democrats following the science or the polling?
THE LEAD starts right now.
More and more blue states lining up to ditch the mask mandates. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is insisting, hey, this is all way too soon.
A storm cloud in the Sunshine State. President Biden versus Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after the White House attacks the proposed new Florida school law that critics call the law the "don't say gay" bill.
And feeling the heat on and off the field? Roger Goodell getting tough questions this afternoon about institutional racism and hiring head coaches. We're going to talk to a former NFL player who was head of the players union.
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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
We start with the health lead today and the growing gap between states and the Biden administration looking more and more like a deep COVID canyon. Today, New York's governor announced that starting tomorrow, masks and proof of vaccination will no longer be required for indoor businesses in the empire state. That adds or the a growing list of Democratic-led states that have already announced plans to roll back mask mandates in the coming days and weeks.
At the same time the New York governor was speaking, we heard the Biden administration stress the complete opposite message that it is not the time to lift those restrictions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: We are working that guidance. We are working on, you know, following the trends for the moment. What I will say though is, our hospitalizations are still high. Our death rates are still high. So as we work toward that and as we are encouraged by the current trends, we are not there yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: COVID cases, new cases, have dropped 46 percent since last week. Hospitalizations have dipped below 100,000 for the first time in a month. And thankfully, the number of COVID deaths is also trending deaths since last week.
CNN's Alexandra Field starts us off today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Facing a confused public, the CDC trying to be clear on masking.
WALENSKY: At this time, we continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission. That is much of the country right now.
FIELD: But more governors across the country are taking matters into their own hands. Today, Massachusetts, Illinois and Rhode Island announcing plans to begin rolling back mask mandates.
New York will keep masks in schools for now, while relaxing other restrictions.
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: At this time, we say that it is the right decision to lift this mandate for indoor businesses and let counties, cities, and businesses to make their own decisions on what they want to do with respect to masks or the vaccination requirement.
FIELD: Under pressure from governors to issue new guidance, the CDC says it will update recommendations but not yet.
WALENSKY: We've always said the decisions will have to be made at the local level. Many of these decisions re using a phase approach, not all of these decisions are being made to stop things tomorrow. They have to be done at the local level. But I'm really encouraged that cases are continuing to drop
dramatically. Hospitalizations are continuing to drop dramatically as people are making these decisions, and as we are working on our guidance.
FIELD: Dr. Fauci telling the "Financial Times", as we get out of the full blown pandemic, these decisions will increasingly be made at the local level and that there will be more people making their over decisions on how they want to deal with the virus, which is as we start to see the other side of the omicron surge, the relief so many have waited for.
CAROLINE GERSTNER, PARENT: I hope the school makes the choice. If you're more comfortable with your child wearing a mask, they can wear a mask. For those of us who want a choice and to unmask our kids, I want them on allow us to unmask our kids.
FIELD: But public health experts are pleading for patience while warning parts of the country are not there yet.
DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: Do parents in an ideal setting want their children in masks? No parent would want that if it is not needed. I think our goal should be where we can pull back on these restrictions as often, as quickly as possible and as safely as possible.
FIELD: And, Jake, on the long-awaited vaccines for children under 5, the federal government is now preparing to roll out an initial 10 million doses of vaccines for little ones as soon as the FDA authorizes it. Vaccine advisers are getting together on discuss that next week -- Jake.
TAPPER: Alexandra Field, thanks so much.
Let's bring in William Haseltine. He's a former Harvard Medical School professor known for his work in researching deadly viruses.
Mr. Haseltine, good to see you.
Only today did the number of people in the hospital with COVID drop below 100,000. The CDC director says this trend is encouraging. She repeatedly said hospitalizations remain too high for states to lift the mask mandates.
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Do you agree?
WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: I agree if you take United States as a whole. We have more cases than we had at the peak last December. We have about 340,000 cases. That's reaching the peak. So we have a lot of COVID still in the country, an awful lot.
Secondly, the number of people who died from COVID yesterday was about 3,300. That's a lot of people. And again, on par with the worst we've ever had.
Now, I look at this as coming out of a tornado and going into a hurricane on average. But an average isn't your local area. So what people will decide to do, you know, when people say it goes down 40 percent. Forty percent down from a tornado is not good.
So that's what the CDC is looking at. But other people look at what's happening in their local area. And I urge everybody to go online. Go online and look up COVID by your zip code. It's right there on Google. You can find it.
So that's what I would do if you really want to do how dangerous it is.
If I can make a comment about masks if I have a minute.
TAPPER: Go ahead.
HASELTINE: And that is, masks are a good thing in general. This is flu season. A mask helps stop flu. This is RSVs, respiratory syncytial virus, that hurt very little children and older people. Masks help that.
I think that all this heat about a mask, we should begin to think about masks as just a regular part of life during the flu and cold season. And when COVID is there, it is even more important to think about it. So I think that's something that people should keep in their mind.
Other countries do that around the world, in the winter, to mask up. It's not a big deal for kids. It's not a big deal for adults either.
TAPPER: Dr. Walensky said the CDC is not there when it comes to calls to change the guidance. Do you think the CDC is acting too slowly when it comes to changing guidance?
HASELTINE: I don't think so. We see that the CDC only makes recommendations in any event. We are a country where states and local communities have a great deal of power. It's not a -- it's not a federal mandate that everybody wears masks. It is a strong recommendation. And I think that's the prudent thing to do when we have as much COVID right now today as we had at the peak in December and much more than we had when people were worried about it before.
So it is all relative. Yes, it is coming down but it hasn't gone away.
TAPPER: Democrat Stacey Abrams is running for governor in Georgia. She came under fire for taking off her mask at a school event in which every child in the picture had a mask on. I want to note something from her apology about why she says she took her mask off. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STACEY ABRAMS (D), GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I approached the podium with my mask off. I followed the protocols. I said I'm taking my mask off because I'm reading to kids who are listening remotely as well and we were socially distanced. The kids were socially distanced from me. I told them that's what I was doing.
Protocols matter. And protecting our kids is the most important and anything that can be perceived as undermining that is a mistake and I apologize.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: But I think that I think a lot of folks wonder about is -- I should note that she was talking to my colleague Erin Burnett. Stacey Abrams is making the point about trying to communicate with kids, taking off the masks which I understand.
But it should apply for more than just a concern for when a candidate is speaking to a classroom of kids. I think a lot of people are very concerned about whether kids need to be masked up, whether kids, their speech development and other socialization skills are being hurt here. Do you have those concerns?
HASELTINE: The first thing I would say about this Stacey Abrams situation is a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, it's not a good picture. Simple as that.
And the second thing about kids, I have grand kids. And they have no problem with their masks. There may be kids that do have a problems with masks, I understand that. But the kids I see, and all the kids in class, are very happy, seem to be happy wearing their masks.
Kids are really adaptable. And I'm not sure that there's really good science behind the claims that the masks are impeding education. What does impede education is not being able to go to school because you have COVID or somebody in your family has COVID.
So I don't think the mask impending education is a hard proven fact. The kids are very adaptable. Other people may have seen other situations.
TAPPER: All right. William Haseltine, thank you so much for your time today, sir. Really appreciate it.
President Biden says no way, speaking out against a controversial proposed law being debated in Florida.
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And breaking news out of Los Angeles, the NFL commissioner has been peppered with questions about the league's issues with institutional racism. Let's talk about how he responds. That's coming up. That's coming up.
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TAPPER: In our politics lead, the White House under pressure to weigh in on the growing list of states that are rolling back their mask mandates today. The White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that students and teachers should continue to follow CDC guidelines on masks, regardless of state rules.
Let's bring in CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House.
Kaitlan, states are asking for the White House to take the lead on providing guidance into update guidance, frankly. Why the reluctance?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And, Jake, so far, they haven't gotten that guidance yet from the White House that they say they've been seeking for several weeks now. And instead, you're seeing the CDC is staying cautious. They are maintaining those guidelines, those recommendations that they've had when it comes to masking, not just indoor settings but also children in schools.
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Even as you're seeing several blue states change their minds, change their mandates, as you saw several of those announcements happening today. And the CDC director told me that this is because they believe that the case rates are still too high. The death rates are still too high.
So, while they are working behind the scenes on what that new guidance would look like, they're not prepared to issue it yet. I think the confusion that causes, Jake, is that it causes people to wonder, who do you listen to? Your governor or the CDC when it come to what the mask recommendations are going to be for you?
And, of course, we know the CDC director told me earlier that it is a local decision. It's a local guidance decision that they are going to make. Jen Psaki said a little different. She said schools should be listening to the CDC, if you're a parent.
President himself, though, Jake, not weighing in today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Fundamentally --
COLLINS (voice-over): President Biden gathering CEOs from the major electric utility companies at the White House today.
BIDEN: You're here saying you support this. And you're going to try to move if we can get this build back better piece done.
COLLINS: On the agenda, clean energy and the climate aspect of his Build Back Better proposal.
PAT VINCENT-COLLAWN, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PNM RESOURCES: Your support of clean energy and the clean energy tax policies will really allow us to accelerate that making energy reliable, affordable, and cleaner sooner.
COLLINS: But the president is promoting a plan that's currently totally stalled on Capitol Hill. SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): The build Back Better has been presented
over what the last, seven, eight, nine months. That bill will no longer exist. Okay?
COLLINS: Even those hoping to revive it like First Lady Jill Biden are allowing that free community college will be missing from whatever reemerges.
JILL BIDEN, U.S. FIRST LADY: I was disappointed, because like you, these aren't just bills or budgets to me, to you, right? We know what they mean for real people.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Okay.
COLLINS: Also today, the White House denouncing legislation proposed by Republicans in Florida that would limit discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom.
PSAKI: It's cruel. It's harmful.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: It tells youth who are different and whose families are different, that there's something wrong with them out of gate and I do think that continues to the shocking levels of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts among LGBTQ youth.
COLLINS: Biden directly calling the bill hateful and offering his support for children who would be affected, tweeting, quote, I have your back and my administration will continue to fate for the protections and safety you deserve. If the bill becomes law, parents would be able to sue if they believe a school is violating any provisions. Critics have dubbed it the "don't say gay" bill. The advocates are insisting it's about parental rights and Governor Ron DeSantis is offering his support.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: We've seen instances of students being told by different folks in school, oh, you know, don't worry. Don't pick your gender yet. Do all these other stuff. They won't tell the parents about these discussions that are happening.
That is entirely inappropriate and we need -- schools need to be teaching kids to read, to write. They need to teach them science, history.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS (on camera): Jake, also back here at the White House today, President Biden had his third call with the French president within a week. Of course, that comes after Emmanuel Macron had just traveled to Russia and to Ukraine. They talked about deterrence efforts when it comes to those troop that are on Ukraine's border. We should note, those conversations are happening as the Pentagon says Russia is still adding more forces.
TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much. Appreciate it. And in our world lead, the White House has now approved a plan for
some 2,000 U.S. service members to help Americans evacuate from Ukraine if Russia attacks. They are setting up processing areas inside Poland.
Meanwhile, Russian warships are approaching the Black Sea. And as Kaitlan noted, in the last 24 hours, Russia has sent another 2,000 combat forces to areas close to Ukraine's border.
CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now live from Moscow. Sam Kiley is live in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Sam, let's start with you. You're 30 miles from the Russian border. How are Ukrainians where you are, feeling about this looming potential conflict?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're very anxious, Jake, but they're not digging in. They're not yet building barricades and tearing up the bridges between here and Moscow, so to speak. What they are doing, and have been over the last few days, is insisting on unity on the Ukrainian-ness. And the reason for that is that 75 percent rather, for more than three quarters of the population here speaks Russian as a mother tongue. They might have expected -- Putin might have expected a degree of sympathy among the population.
But we're not seeing that on the ground. What we have seen is politicians from the far right and the far left coming together. We've seen small number of civilians going out to learn how to fight and train and use live ammunition, both men and women.
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And here, which is a major industrial base, they are frantically rebuilding tanks, refitting T-64 tanks from the 1960s into sparkling new tanks with new technology to try to take on a Russian invasion, if it comes to it. But a great deal of diplomatic effort is going into this. And there is a hope here, Jake, that the diplomacy may stall long enough for the ground to just get too muddy for Russian armor to come across that border that is so close -- Jake.
TAPPER: Nic, let's talk about that diplomacy. There have been so many diplomatic meetings this week. Moscow is going to host more Western diplomats in the days to come.
What does the Kremlin make of all these efforts?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They gave a readout today on what they think happened in Ukraine when Macron met Zelensky there, the two presidents. They feel that some of it was positive, some of it less positive.
They say look, the fact that the French agree that the Minsk talks are the best way forward to bring about peace and stability in Ukraine. The Russian, pro-Russian separatists, that's positive. Less positive, they say, is that the Ukrainian leadership has done nothing they should have done per those Minsk agreements. Of course, the wider view, that in the United States and most of NATO allies, is the Russians have not done their part. Ukraine has broadly done most of what was expected from them.
The Kremlin remains silent on the big issue of what Putin is going to do next. He is sitting and waiting and watching, while all these diplomatic moves going on. There will be talks in Berlin tomorrow on those Minsk agreements. He's putting pressure on the Germans and the French to get what he wants out of it. So he is waiting and watching right now.
TAPPER: And, Sam, Russia is gearing up for these military exercises in Belarus and the Black Sea. What is the goal of those drills?
KILEY: Well, the official goal is that these are exercises, as the Russians would say, to demonstrate and integrate Russian and the allied forces with Belarus in the face of what they claim to be growing NATO aggressions. That's not how NATO sees it. Not how the Ukrainians see it.
And the arrival of General Gerasimov, the commander of the Russian armed forces, in Belarus, has reassured nobody. He is the author of the Gerasimov doctrine which we've seen played out and attempts to interfere politically in the United States, potentially in the Brexit vote, trying to break up Europe. Hybrid warfare, as it is called. He specialized the development of that doctrine in Russia.
And there is concern here that some kind of false flag operation could be conducted. Some kind of nefarious plot or plots to continue to destabilize Ukraine, even if it doesn't get actually invaded, Jake.
TAPPER: And, Nic, Russia keeps fortifying its positions. But the Kremlin claims that Russia and Belarus are the ones facing unprecedented threats, they say from NATO.
ROBERTSON: Yeah. This is -- this is their position all along. They want concessions out of NATO. They're going to stand tight and demand concessions. And you know, the concern is during the meetings between President Putin and President Macron when they discuss different options, different positions, I think that was the language that was used. Some of those positions might fly.
The concerns are while acknowledging as President Macron appeared to do, that Russia has some cause for concern while acknowledging that, if you're going to diminish that concern, do you give a concession? And I think that's the worry. And I think that's part of President Biden's conversation with macron, making sure that he is aligned with everyone else in NATO.
No concessions for Putin's position of keeping up that maximum pressure on Ukraine.
TAPPER: Sam Kiley in Ukraine. Nic Robertson in Russia, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.
Breaking news out of Los Angeles, the NFL commissioner just answered questions about claim that owners are offering coaches money to lose games. What did he say in response? That's next.
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TAPPER: There's a breaking news for you in our sports lead. Just moments ago during a pre-super bowl press conference, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell faced some tough questions about the NFL's rather dismal record on hiring black and minority head coaches. With the recent hiring of Lovie Smith as head coach of the Houston Texans, the NFL now has only two Black head coaches, despite black players making up roughly 70 percent of the league's players.
This renewed scrutiny of the league's poor record comes following the class action lawsuit filed by the former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores which alleged racial discrimination.
CNN's Andy Scholes is live for us in Inglewood, California, just outside Los Angeles, the site of this Sunday's Super Bowl.
Andy, you were at this press conference. Tell us what Goodell had to say.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Jake, it was a lot more of just talk with no real solutions. Roger Goodell has been asked about the lack of minority coaches in the NFL many times for many years, at this press conference. He even said they started off last year with at the very same topic and here we are yet again.
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Roger Goodell has been NFL commissioner for 15 years and he was asked, you know, do you take responsibility for the lack of diversity? And he said I do. I take responsibility along with the ownership.
Goodell also said he's not aware if the hiring process is flawed in the NFL, but that is something they obviously do need to find out. One solution he did talk about today is bringing in independent people to take a look at the whole process.
And here's more of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: What we want to see is the outcomes. We want to see Black head coaches in the NFL and coaches of people of color, and eventually gender that we think is important. So, it's an inclusive process and hopefully an inclusive outcome.
We won't tolerate racism. We won't tolerate discrimination. If there are policies that we need to modify, we're going to do that. We will absolutely do it. If we see evidence of discrimination, we will deal with it in a very serious way.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: Yeah, Jake, when it comes to the Rooney Rule, Commissioner Goodell said, you know, keep the rule, add to the rule, throw it out, and come up with something altogether. He said everything is on the table moving forward.
TAPPER: So Flores had this allegation that he was paid to lose games in order to get a better draft pick for the dolphins. What did Goodell have to say about that?
SCHOLES: Yeah, he was asked about that. And he basically said they take integrity of the game just as importantly as they do with diversity. They're going to investigate those allegations. If they find out that some rules were broken, they will be handled severely.
TAPPER: All right. Andy Scholes in Inglewood, thank you so much.
Here to discuss, former NFL quarterback Domonique Foxworth. He played with the Broncos, Falcons and Ravens. He's also a past president of the NFL Players Association.
So good to see you.
NFL Commissioner Goodell, you just heard him saying, the league won't tolerate racism and discrimination and the NFL will deal with it in a very serious way if they find it. What's your reaction?
DOMONIQUE FOXWORTH, FORMER PRESIDENT, NFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION: Yeah, I think Roger, his hands are tied, honestly, in the situation. If you look at the league office, the hires that Roger has control over, diversity is pretty good. There are plenty of women executives and men and black men and former players.
But the problem is once you go to the teams, the owners have the power. Often we talk about it as if it is an institutional or systemic problem, which we've been calling it that for a long time. And I think that gave the owners cover, but it doesn't seem lying it is systemic or institutional. It feels individual because the opportunity to hire black coaches has been there. It is there every year.
There are plenty of black coaches in the pipeline to like successful coordinators. Eric Bieniemy comes to mind as someone who held the offensive coordinator job at Kansas City, a job that was held by two men previous to him, both of those got head coaching jobs. Eric Bieniemy, his owners and statistics have been better than both of those guys, still doesn't have a job.
And the owners also are willing to go outside the traditional pipeline to hire white coaches. I think of like Joe Judge, Kliff Kingsbury, Brandon Staley, Josh McCown has been a finalist for many of these jobs that had very little coaching experience.
So I think we have to be honest about what the problem is. The problem isn't the system or the institution. It feels like the problem is the biases inside the people who make the decisions and who have the ultimate power. We can't blame Roger for this. Roger is doing as much as he can. The people that are above him, the guys who own the teams have to
confront themselves and confront the way that they view the candidates out there and make honest choices. Not the choices that are skewed by their own biases.
TAPPER: Yeah, it's interesting. It's a good point. We like to think of Roger Goodell as being in charge, but he's not really in charge. All he can do, I mean, he's not -- he can't make anybody who is a team owner not be racist, right? I mean, he has no power. He can't say, hey, billionaire number five, stop being a racist.
FOXWORTH: Yeah. They elected him. He needs to keep them happy. It's not the other way around. Like he doesn't have the power over them.
They come to him to do things like did he today, which is one of my points, one of the most important things is that we take the questions to the ownership, because Roger's job, part of his job is to stand up there and us to ridicule him and judge him for the problems in the NFL. In this case, for the issues of racial bias in the NFL.
He takes these arrows while the owners can stand in the background and continue to kind of mistreat the candidates that are out there and bring guys in like David Culley, not give him a full chance in Houston before you fire him. The same thing happened in Arizona with Steve Wilks. Other black coaches get these opportunities that aren't true opportunities.
So I think Roger is doing the best he can. I think of all the people in the NFL, Roger is one of them who wants this to be different. But you can't go into the heads, the hearts and the minds of the people making decisions and make them for them.
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So I'm not sure. Maybe it is something that they don't -- it's unconscious. Maybe they don't know that they have these biases but the numbers certainly kind of pan out that the biases exist and they need to address it.
TAPPER: The NFL has this thing called the Rooney Rule. It requires teams on interview at least two external coaches for positions. It's been in place almost 20 years. Since the rule was adopted, only 11 percent of head coaching positions have been filled by black candidates. What do you think of the Rooney Rule? Is it a failure?
FOXWORTH: I think it's certainly a failure. There has been some progress made. I think the Rooney Rule was introduced because they wanted to elevate the perception of certain coaches. So, they thought bringing black coaches in for opportunities would then raise their profile and then next cycle, they might get an opportunity.
It hasn't really worked that way. It has become a box to check. And that's part of what Brian Flores was upset about. Many Black coaches have turned down interviews because they recognize that the team has already decided who they want to hire. That's a real thing across all industries. Oftentimes, the person in
charge has the decision to make knows who they want to hire. There are other formalities to go through before they hire their candidate.
And the Black coaches have been sick of this and many have been turning down opportunities. So the Rooney Rule hasn't worked, because the point of the Rooney rule was to bring people to the owner's attention. The hope was the owners were not individually biased. They just didn't know these people.
And now, we're going to introduce them to you and now you will not have an excuse. They've been meeting these people. They've been seeing these Black coaches. They've been succeeding at lower levels. They've been succeeding in other jobs. They still are not getting the opportunities as consistently as they should.
And often, when they get the opportunity, David Culley comes to mind, it's not a true opportunity. It's an opportunity to come in there and keep the seat warm until they find a coach they actually want.
Same thing with Brian Flores. The hope was to bring them down there. Allegedly he would lose, they would tank, they'd get a high draft pick and then they would bring the coach that they really want.
TAPPER: You can lead the horse to water but you can't make him not racist.
Domonique Foxworth --
FOXWORTH: Well done, Jake.
TAPPER: You can -- you can have that. That's a gift from me to you. Thanks so much. Domonique, good to see you.
FOXWORTH: Good to see you.
TAPPER: A different way to follow the money, the latest target of a January 6th committee subpoena is one of Trump's most controversial advisers.
Stay with us for the details.
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TAPPER: We have some breaking news for you now in our politics lead. Another Trump loyalist and former top aide has been handed a subpoena by the January 6th committee investigating the deadly insurrection. This time, it's former White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro.
CNN's Ryan Nobles join is live on Capitol Hill.
Ryan, Navarro joins a long list of close Trump allies who have been subpoenaed. What does the committee want to hear from him? RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this doesn't come
as a surprise at all, Jake, in particular because Peter Navarro has been so brazen in talking about his efforts to stand in the way of the certification of the 2020 election results. And that's exactly what the committee wants to talk to him about.
Navarro was part of a plot trying to find evidence of fraud in some of the swing states and also, part of the group of people that were coming up with reasons for the former Vice President Mike Pence to stand in the way of the certification process on January 6th. And we know that the committee truly believes that this peddling of information about election results in their mind fomented this anger across the country and led to so many people coming to Washington on that day and then eventually storming the Capitol.
So, Navarro, as I've said before, has not been shy to talk about the role he played in all of this. He wrote a book where he detailed some of that work. He's done extensive interviews talking about it. So, now, the committee wants him to get in front of them, to discuss what else he knows, what he hasn't talked about in these public settings, to find out more about how this all connects together.
Jake, Navarro is somebody who is usually willing to tangle in settings like this. So, we've reached out to him for comment to see how he was going to respond to all of this. But he is certainly somebody the committee is very interesting in talking to -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Ryan Nobles on Capitol Hill for us, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
President Biden is looking for advice, calling on Senate Democrats to share their thoughts on his possible Supreme Court pick. What is he likely hearing? That's next.
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TAPPER: Welcome back.
In our politics lead, the search for the next Supreme Court justice is fully underway. President Biden is inviting Senate judiciary Democrats to the White House for their advice. A Biden official telling CNN that President Biden spoke with Republican this is week but declined to provide further details on that.
Let's bring in Supreme Court analyst, Joan Biskupic, and CNN anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY", Abby Phillip.
Abby, the president said from the beginning he would seek the advice of the Senate in the process to pick the next justice. What does it look like so far?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY": Well, as far as we know, he's met with the Judiciary Committee's ranking member, Senator Grassley. The White House won't say more than that but you can imagine there are several other moderate Republicans potentially that the president would want to talk to.
Some who have spent on out about the Supreme Court issue. Senator Graham, Senator Tim Scott both from South Carolina, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and others, Susan Collins, these are potential people. But remember, President Biden has said, he doesn't want to be the president's senator anymore.
And I think the White House is intentionally staying mum so as to not give the impression he is diving too deep into the vote counting. I think probably these conversations are happening privately.
TAPPER: And, Joan, the White House says Biden spent several nights in the White House studying binders with all sorts of information about potential picks. What is he looking for?
JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: He's already going through some cases. He will receive over the next several days much more material on the leading contenders. Ketanji Brown Jackson of the D.C. circuit, Michelle Childs, the district court judge down in South Carolina, and Leandra Kruger, a California Supreme Court justice.
What he will want to see is the records, their judicial records, the biographies. He wants someone with the intellectual tools to be on the court. And of those three, there's no question that they are all very competent, you know, superior credentials. But he will also look for judicial temperament.
You know, when he was the chairman, he was always doing these gut checks. What made people tick. What kind of leaders would they be and he wants to be able to roll out someone that will get the attention that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or Sonia Sotomayor, somebody who sort of speaks to, resonates with Americans.
But bottom line, the most important thing is the political judgment. With just one vote majority in the Senate, it's got to be somebody who is full proof. No surprises,, you know, ultimately. He will want to have the confidence of this person's record that there won't be any slip-up in the end.
TAPPER: Yeah.
PHILLIP: There is no question he probably has an eye out for the oppo book effectively. You want to be looking at the cases, not just to see what kind of judicial temperament they have that attacks can come from. He's gone through this process before, many, many times. He understands that much of this process really is political no matter how people want to take it out of the political sphere.
TAPPER: So there does seem to be some quarters for South Carolina District Court Judge Michelle Childs. She has the backing of Congressman Jim Clyburn, who's the third ranking Democrat in the House. Also, the two Republican senators from South Carolina have said nice things. That doesn't mean they'll vote for her but they've said nice things, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham.
Does that mean that somebody should think, well, we know Biden likes to be bipartisan and obviously, the whole promise of a Black woman on the court is Jim Clyburn's demand in exchange for his endorsement in the primaries, it's probably going to be Judge Childs or no?
BISKUPIC: No, I don't think -- I actually don't think it necessarily will be. It could end up being but I think that choice is at least 15 days out from that kind of choice that we would all see.
I think Jim Clyburn is important here. I don't think Lindsey Graham is important. I think the statement of Lisa Murkowski to you on Sunday is more important about bipartisanship.
But I think that Judge Childs is not the only one who could get bipartisan support.
PHILLIP: Right.
BISKUPIC: You know, first of all, Judge Jackson has been before the Senate judiciary committee three times already from -- when she was on the sentencing commission, when she was on the district court and on the D.C. Circuit. She has been embraced by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and some of the Republicans on the judiciary committee.
PHILLIP: Including Lindsey Graham.
BISKUPIC: Exactly. And Leondra Kruger has a record that's a little bit more moderate that might draw bipartisan support, too. So, I don't -- as I said, I think what Lisa Murkowski says has a little more breadth than what Lindsey Graham says. Lindsey Graham has been supporting Judge Childs since she was a district court nominee. He went to her, he presented her to the Senate.
PHILLIP: The big issue for not just for Clyburn, but perhaps for some other Republicans like Graham and Scott is Judge Childs' background. She is not from an Ivy League school, like many of the justices who currently sit on the Supreme Court are. That is all good and well. And that is important, but you also have the back tropical of a lot of Republicans gearing up to argue that this potential nominee is being chosen because of her race and not because of her qualifications.
It is actually kind of a tough spot to put the White House in potentially, where you could be teeing up a nominee who is not from an Ivy League pedigree and then going on the Republican side and attacking that person for the same reason.
BISKUPIC: And I just want to add one more thing, Jake, that you remember. This is going to be the first Democratic appointee since 2010. They didn't get their appointees through in 2016 with Merrick Garland. So after a dozen years, are they going to pick somebody they really want or someone they think Republicans want?
TAPPER: Joan Biskupic and Abby Phillip, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.
In it for the long haul, protesters now blocking multiple border crossings between Canada and the U.S. And it does not seem like they're moving any time soon. We're going to go live to Canada. Stay with us.
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[16:59:01]
TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
This hour, not what it seems. Canadian truckers protesting a vaccine mandate at several border crossings into the U.S. But there are several lies you may have heard about these protests. We're about to dispel them.
Plus, a tale of two leaders. An inside look at how Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are taking very different paths for the future of the Republican Party.
And leading this hour on the front lines. We learn about what U.S. forces are doing in Eastern Europe in preparation for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. CNN went to where the action could soon be, where Ukrainian troops are preparing for battle.
As CNN's Alex Marquardt reports, Ukrainian forces are constantly aware that the Russians are dangerously close and armed and ready to move at any moment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flying low over the Ukrainian countryside, this Soviet era military plane heads toward the border with Russia.
We traveled here with senior Ukrainian officials and military leaders to get a sense of the mood and preparations where Russian troops are the closest, near Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
