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Don Lemon Tonight

People Running Out Of Food, Gas And Water In Texas; Millions Freezing In Texas Amid Power Crisis And Severe Storm; Texas Mother Describes Her Family's Struggles Amid Power Outages And Coronavirus Pandemic; Biden's COVID-19 Relief Plan; More Notable Arrests In Capitol Riot; More Than 220 Charged In Capitol Insurrection Investigation; CDC Report Warns Variants Could Lead To Rapid Rise In COVID Cases. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired February 17, 2021 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST (on camera): So breaking news tonight on the deepening crisis in Texas. Millions of residents are without power after a winter storm crippled the state's power facilities. It has been three days but there is still no estimate as of when the power will be restored. With temperatures plunging below freezing, many are struggling just to survive. They have no heat. They're running out of food, water, and gas.

I want to start tonight with CNN's Ed Lavandera on the ground for us in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The temperature in Jose Limon's house in Del Rio, Texas, is 35 degrees. He lost power Sunday night.

JOSE LIMON, DEL RIO TEXAS RESIDENT: I just stay in this room. Keeps the room warm.

LAVANDERA: He can handle the cold but he needs a generator to keep his oxygen machine going. Limon spent three weeks in a hospital intensive care unit recently battling COVID-19. He still needs around the clock oxygen.

LIMON: I'm nervous. I'm more nervous than I was, when the power is going to come out. That's a lot, around the house, that is a lot of people who have light, but not me. I don't know why.

LAVANDERA: The bitter cold has now turned to heated anger over the catastrophic failure of the state's power grid. Texas Governor Greg Abbott made the rounds on Texas television news programs to say it is a total failure of the organization known as ERCOT which runs nearly all of the state's power grid. He has called for an investigation and for executives to resign.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): ERCOT stands for, Electric Reliability Council Of Texas. And they showed that they were not reliable.

LAVANDERA: Most of Texas runs on its own power grid, separate from the rest of the country. State leaders designed it this way to avoid federal regulation. ERCOT officials insist the decision to take power away from millions of homes using controlled outages spared the entire state from a system wide failure that could have taken months to repair and left even more people freezing.

BILL MAGNESS, CEO OF ERCOT: If we had waited and not done outages, not reduced demand to reflect what was going on in the overall system, we could have drifted toward a blackout.

LAVANDERA: According to ERCOT officials, equipment failures at oil and gas plants account for the largest amounts of power knocked offline. Despite that, right wing pundits have used the Texas freeze to blast the reliability of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. In the middle of this crisis, Governor Abbott went on Fox News.

ABBOTT: This shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal. It is essential that we as a country remain where we continue to provide access to fossil fuels for heating, for taking care of our homes.

LAVANDERA: But before the Governor made that appearance, he was telling Texas news stations that one of the biggest concerns was frozen equipment at natural gas plants which provides most of the heat for Texas homes.

ABBOTT: The power generators froze up and their equipment was incapable of generating power. And then on top of that, the natural gas that flows into those power generators that has frozen up also.

UNKNOWN: There is no green new deal in Texas. That is a j-o-k-e joke.

LAVANDERA: Democratic Texas Congressman Marc Veasey says the Governor and state Republican leaders are trying to shift blame.

REP. MARC VEASEY, (D-TX): I would say 100 percent of the blame goes to Greg Abbott and the Republicans just for years and years of neglect and mismanagement.

[23:05:02]

UNKNOWN: We are starting to get really frustrated.

LAVANDERA: In the meantime, Texans like Jordan Orta and her little boy are scrambling to fight off the freeze. They slept in their car last night and fear they'll do the same tonight.

JORDAN ORTA, SAN ANTONIO RESIDENT: It is uncomfortable, as you can imagine. It's not like sleeping in your own bed. But we were warm and we were able to make it through the night. I'm just hoping that tonight is a better night.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (on camera): So, Don, the bottom line and the question that everybody cares about the most at this point is when will the power be fully restored? And unfortunately, we just don't have a clear cut answer at this point. State power grid officials say that they are hoping that power can be fully restored in the next day or two.

That they're at the mercy of power plant operators to get their systems fixed. And that's why they say they can only hope that in the next couple of days, all of that will be fixed. But at this point everyone knows full well that hope does not make you warmer, Don.

LEMON: Ed Lavandera, thank you so much. You're right about that. I want to bring in Doug Brinkley now who has been without power and water. Douglas, I'm so sorry that this is happening. We thank you so much for joining us, frigid temperatures in Austin tonight. Millions of people across the state without power. You're in the thick of it. How are you doing?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN (on camera): I'm hanging in there. My family is happening in there, but there's bad news everywhere you turn. I tried to get out of my driveway today. There are branches left in roads here in Austin that haven't been picked up. They have no salting devices or any way to de-ice or get rid of ice. And Governor Abbott has been making a fool out of himself over and over again. Angering the people of Texas.

It is not just ERCOT who's going to be at lawsuits. And people are going to be looking into what happened that this energy state, Texas, known around the world for exporting energy, doesn't have even the most rudimentary ways to turn on electricity for people. I was in Katrina, Don and I learned about the 48-hour window. If you don't get to people with rescue, relief and power pretty quickly, you are going to have unnecessary death on your hands.

LEMON: It is a catastrophe already. And Douglas I see -- what are you using? Flashlights? I see you got a flashlight behind you.

BRINKLEY: I've got flashlights and candles right now. And I wanted to help you guys and just tell you that it is a bigger disaster, this black-out, than you are even reporting on the news. It is so widespread. It is creating a sense of depression and fear everywhere. Very few people have the privilege of wealthy people do with generators.

And by the time we look at this, just like the 1evies that failed New Orleans during Katrina, We are going to be looking at ERCOT and their delinquency because since 1935 they bucket Franklin D. Roosevelt and they want to control their own energy input and they just have let it go down and down and down. It's a state and government filled with climate deniers and I see this, Don, as a climate event going on.

LEMON: Let's talk about that. By the way, do you have a fireplace? A wood burning fireplace? I hope you have something that's keeping you warm.

BRINKLEY: We're doing OK. We have a fireplace and are making ends meet. But you know, just talking to neighbors and all, talking, I'm a professor at (inaudible) the people in Houston, the deprivation going on is very serious. It kind of started slow the story and now it's just millions of people with frozen water pipes, having to turn off water.

LEMON: I think you're right. I think it's going to be worse than we can see. Because a lot of the places you can't get to, right. The roads -- the power is out. The weather teams there and the local news, I mean, they are -- Texas is a big place for them to cover all that ground, it is really tough for them.

I want to follow up on a couple of things that you said. First, I want to talk about, you know, the power grid there and how they're independent of everybody. But let's talk about Abbott. Because you mentioned him first. You said, he's embarrassing himself, that he has been pointing fingers at wind energy and slamming the green new deal. When it has nothing to do with what's happening in Texas, Douglas.

BRINKLEY: Can you believe it? A Governor of Texas blaming AOC for his massive failure in leadership.

LEMON: Are not you the most energy rich state in the union?

BRINKLEY: It is. And they worry about exporting the natural gas and they have shoddy facilities here and it is all frozen up. And Abbott had the audacity to go on television and try to do that big 180 political thing. He -- you know, he went armored, he went military- like. He went going after people instead of healing our state. He should be out there talking about his mistakes right now.

What he's going to do to fix things instead of pointing finger in every different direction. I saw during Katrina, that happened with (inaudible) and others in this state of Texas. Abbott is to blame and he's going on the airwaves trying on pretend like, he's a climate denier and he is now refusing to recognize that.

[23:10:15]

Look, the wind mills you mentioned, Don, they're running up in Minnesota and Alaska, and Canada. (Inaudible) 7 percent of the energy. But Texas doesn't have heaters put on their wind. People told them to do it, but they cut, cut, cut, because a lot of Texas fat cats make money on energy but there is no trickle down and tonight people are in darkness by the millions, all over the state.

LEMON: There are places that have either full or mostly renewable energy use and they're doing just fine and in cold places. So let's talk about what you said about being independent, not connected to the power grid. Because Austin Mayor Steve Adler says a lot of this has to do with Texas' pushed for deregulation. Where the only concern was developing cheap power, you said, cutting costs, right? He said the state needs to step in and set standards. Do you think that's right?

BRINKLEY: Absolutely. Mayor Adler is spot on. As I started mentioning, it started since the 1930s. They didn't like FDR and the new deal. Texas doesn't like being regulated. It is why you have toxic cancer alleys around Houston where -- or debris, environmental injustice is just rampant. And in this case, it is a state that is regulated. So nobody has been watching the energy sources, because they're saying

this is a 100-year storm. It is not a 100-year storm. I get a book on Woody Guthrie or read about the dust bowl freezing blizzards coming. (Inaudible) novels about dead blue cattle and periodically there is a -- ice storms and this state wasn't prepared for it.

LEMON: I'm worried about people who are -- and as you know, they are putting themselves in danger there. You know, I'm worried about carbon monoxide from the cars. All kinds of things. I just hope that people take care and be careful with those candles, Douglas. We need you.

BRINKLEY: I'm going to blow them out so they don't burn my library behind me when I get off.

LEMON: Yes. Douglas, we'll see you back tomorrow. Save your energy and your flashlight and we'll see you back tomorrow for an update. You be safe, OK.

BRINKLEY: Alright. Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Thank you very much. Douglas Brinkley, Austin, Texas there. Right in the middle of it.

The extreme winter weather taking a devastating toll on many Americans who are already struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic. People like Sylvia Cerda Salinas, a mother in Texas who had nearly two dozen boxes of insulin for her kids. Well, it got spoiled because of the power outages.

She spoke with me. This was two months ago, you may remember her, about how difficult it was to even get food on the table since she lost her job during the pandemic. Well, Sylvia joins me now on the phone and we're so grateful that she could joins us. Sylvia, thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us.

SYLVIA CERDA SALINAS, A MOTHER IN TEXAS (on the phone): Hi, Don. Thank you for having me. I'm sorry, I'm a little bit emotional.

LEMON: It's OK.

SALINAS: I think it is just overwhelming. It's cold and there is no food. There is no food at the grocery stores. And as it was, times were already tough. I wasn't working because of the pandemic. So financially, I mean, we don't have the option to go out and buy a generator or to purchase fast food even. So it's hard. It's tough.

LEMON: Do you think it's going to be more widespread as Douglas Brinkley just said? He's in Austin. You're in McAllen. Do you think it going to be more widespread than people even know at this point and people are suffering more than we can imagine right now?

SALINAS: It's horrible. It's horrible. The shelters are at capacity. There are no hotels anywhere even if I wanted to take my kids somewhere to be warm, there is nothing. We've been driving around during the day with the heater on in the car just to keep warm. There are local restaurants that have barbecue chicken plates and had been giving them out.

We stood in line for dinner today. We stood in line for about an hour and a half to wait for chicken. To wait for dinner. It's tough. As an adult, I can manage. But when you have little ones that are looking at you, I have a little boy who is autistic and he keeps clicking the switches waiting for the lights to turn on and he doesn't understand. I think it is just, it is just overwhelming in so many more ways. It's horrible.

LEMON: Let me tell people about your family. Because we spoke to you during the pandemic. You have five kids. Two are diabetic.

SALINAS: Three.

LEMON: Three are diabetic. Yeah?

SALINAS: Yes. Three are diabetic and then I have my youngest who is 7 and he's autistic and he's in Texas.

[23:15:05]

LEMON: And you've lost 20 boxes of the kids' insulin because you couldn't refrigerate it without power. Your husband also has health issues. So that's three of your kids who have special needs.

SALINAS: Yeah.

LEMON: You don't want to go to a shelter, right? Because do you think it is a COVID rich environment for your family?

SALINAS: Yeah. I really do. I've got, out of my five children, three are diabetic and one is autistic. He is also missing a chromosome, I mean he has a pituitary gland issue so their immune systems are already compromised. I don't want to risk that. I can't. It is so hard because even if I wanted a hotel, Don, there are no hotels available.

There's warming shelters, the library, the city has opened up spots throughout the city for warming spots that you can go to during the day, but there are so many people out there that it is not safe. So you're either risking, you either go to the shelter to get warm or you stay home, stay cold and stay away from the pandemic.

LEMON: Now are you getting any information about when power can get, when you're going to get power back?

SALINAS: I just saw on the news, I've been trying to check through AEP's website and ERCOT to see if there is any updates. There hasn't even been an update. They've told us that they haven't even planned on a date to turn back on our power. And we -- Abbott just announced that there is going to be another freezing storm heading our way on Thursday. So we have to prepare for that tomorrow night.

LEMON: Oh my God. Listen, is this true that you're considering driving to Mexico just to get power?

SALINAS: Yes. LEMON: Are you going to do it?

SALINAS: Don, I called. We live 15 minutes away from Mexico. And I called the hotels that were right there, and they're all, all, they have no vacancies, nothing. Nothing in (inaudible) is available. We considered, I literally told my husband, I said let's just drive to Mexico and we'll get a hotel over there. And we called before going and there's nothing. There's nothing available over there either. I guess all the people from here have thought the same thing and started going over there.

LEMON: Oh, Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia, I am so sorry. Listen, you be safe. And I wish I was there. I'm not there. And I don't know what I would -- I just wish I was there to help out but I'm here and I'm going to keep broadcasting this story and trying to get help for you guys and get some answers.

SALINAS: Keep us in your prayers, Don.

LEMON: And I will pray for you guys and I hope that the nation does as well. So, listen, we'll have you back tomorrow. Whatever you do, be safe. Watch the candles and all of that stuff. Thank you so much. Again, we're so sorry.

SALINAS: Thank you. You guys stay warm tonight.

LEMON: Thank you very much.

So there you go. Yeah. I'm not even going to say we are going to talk about it. We'll be right back. We'll continue on with the story and we'll talk about more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President Biden feeling optimistic about his COVID relief bill saying Americans want everything in the plan. But will he be able to get lawmakers onboard with the $1.9 trillion package? Joining me now, CNN's White House correspondent John Harwood and former Democratic Senator from Alabama, Doug Jones. He's now a CNN political commentator. And we're so glad to have both of them this evening.

Let's start with you, John. President Biden sent polling shows that he has got the support of Americans. Where do negotiations stand right now on Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'd say it's pretty far along, Don, in terms of negotiations between President Biden and Democratic leaders and Republicans, they're probably not going to go much further because it does not appear that there is a critical mass of Republicans willing to meet Biden and Democrats anywhere close to what Biden thinks is necessary.

On the other hand, if he can hold under the procedures they are pursuing this bill under, if he can hold off 50 Senate Democrats he will be able to pass that bill and it appears that he will be able to do that. There will be some drama at the end, as there always is on a package this large. We know that there is uncertainty as to whether or not the 15 dollar an hour minimum wage is going to stay in this bill.

There will be ruling by the parliamentarian as to whether it's germane under the rules to belong in this package. And if it is stricken then, you know, some on the left will be upset. President Biden has predicted it will be stricken.

If it stays in the package then you have a question about Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who have said that they are not comfortable with the $15 an hour minimum wage. But it does appear that there is enough cohesion within the Democratic team that they are likely to get this through in the end.

LEMON: So, Senator Jones, listen, I know Biden is hoping for bipartisanship. But with unemployment benefits expiring in less than a month, is there enough time for that?

[23:25:00]

FMR. SEN. DOUG JONES (D-AL), CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There is enough time. Whether or not he can get it, I don't know, but there is enough time. There's always enough time. He's working the phones, I am sure his staff is working the phones to try to get this. You know, he is hope it is, look, there are things in there you don't like. There are things in here that you might would to do differently. But we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

And if people would listen to folks like Sylvia that you just had on, you know, they are folks like out there that are hurting right now. Our county and city government are hurting right now. How do we respond to these crises? I think these kind of economic and personal arguments make some impact, even in the Republican caucus and the U.S. Senate. So, I'm still going to be hopeful just like President Biden is.

LEMON: Senator, you know, as a Democrat, who used to represent a red state, what are the implications of Biden pushing this bill through?

JONES: I don't think that there will be any implications except it's going to pass. And he's going to get credit for it. He ran on that. Over 80 million people voted for him. And I think to push this through is going to be something, is going to be a signature win for him, regardless of whether he -- how many Republican votes he gets.

I think he has to do this. I think the people of America are wanting this and once they get those relief checks, once they see the relief that is coming through here, I think they will be thankful that it happened. And then we will just see how the politics play out.

But I don't think there's going to be any blow back once we get through this. I just wish we could get some of the Republican colleagues to go forward and do this thing and get it right and do it quickly.

LEMON: So, John, President Biden getting some blow back from the left after he rejected the plan to wipe away $50,000 in student loan debt, but says that he supports making community college free for everyone. He supports $15 minimum wage, but moderate Democrats, they don't want it in that relief bill. How is he doing navigating this push and pull, these forces from the moderate wing of the party to the left wing of the party?

HARWOOD: You know, Don, I've covered big packages like this for a long time, and what I don't see is a determination by anyone on the Democratic team to bring this thing down. And in the end, the willingness to stand behind the new president of the party ends up being decisive in these things.

A $15 minimum wage phase in, as President Biden said in that town hall with Anderson last night, is something that attracts substantial support within the party. It is a bridge too far, if you talk to Joe Manchin, Senator Jones, he's former colleague, about that right now, but if Bernie Sanders is able to persuade the Senate parliamentarian that this does belong in that bill, and that decision sticks, is Joe Manchin going to defect and bring this bill down?

I don't see a determination on his part to do that. As I mentioned earlier, President Biden has forecast that it will not stay in the bill, and I think that is what Democrats generally expect. John Yarmuth, the House chairman of the Budget Committee, from Kentucky, has told me as well that he does not think it's going to stay in the bill.

And if it doesn't, are there any people on the left who are, Bernie Sanders, or anyone else, Elizabeth Warren, who are going to bring the bill down because it's not in there, I doubt it.

LEMON: Gentlemen, thank you so much. I appreciate. New arrests in the Capitol insurrection including the son of a well-known conservative critic. A UCLA student and one rioter who passed out marijuana to others. Those details next.

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[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON (on camera): Federal authorities filing charges against several more people identified in the Capitol insurrection. Among them the son of a prominent conservative commentator, and he is hardly the only one with a high profile background.

Here is CNN's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the day the Capitol was sacked, conservative activist Brent Bozell was defending Trump supporters.

BRENT BOZELL, CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST (voice-over): Look, they are furious that they believe this election was stolen. I agree with them.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But he was also condemning the violent attack.

BOZELL (voice-over): I think it's absolutely wrong.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Now, his own son, Leo Brent Bozell IV, is charged in the uprising. That's him in the Senate chamber, according to authorities, and he is not alone among notable defendants.

Officials have accused metal band guitarist Jon Schaffer of six charges, including physical violence in a Capitol building, tied to the many clashes with police, some captured on security cameras. Investigators say Schaffer was among those using pepper spray on officers.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): They have bear spray in the crowd! They are spraying the crowd!

FOREMAN (voice-over): Also swept up by authorities, Scott Fairlamb, the brother of a Secret Service agent who once protected Michelle Obama. Adam Honeycutt, a bail bondsman, who says he was just documenting history. Officials say Eduardo Gonzalez passed out marijuana to other rioters. James Mels, according to court records, said he wanted to give Capitol police a company of the Constitution.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): FBI! Let's see your hands!

FOREMAN (voice-over): Neighbors were stunned in California at a dawn raid to pick up a college student, Christian Secor.

UNKNOWN: I just woke up to the lights flashing.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And Christopher Ray Grider, according to court documents, was close by when that female rioter was shot and killed. Those legal records say he told his wife to get rid of his Trump things when the police were closing in. Authorities say they found him, anyway, and arrested him.

[23:35:01]

FOREMAN (voice-over): Now, his lawyers question, why isn't the biggest name of all being picked up?

BRENT MAYR, ATTORNEY FOR CHRISTOPHER GRIDER: My client is locked up in a federal detention center in Middle America while Donald Trump is down in Florida doing whatever he wants to, trying to pass the buck and pass the blame.

FOREMAN (on camera): Authorities say they picked up a mother and son after they were photographed in the Capitol wearing body armor and carrying zip tie restraints. They've been in jail ever since. A federal judge said they need to stay there. They represent a clear danger to the republic.

That's just a couple of cases but there are more than 220 people who have been charged so far and the number keeps growing. Don?

(END VIDEO TAPE) LEMON (on camera): Tom Foreman, thank you so much. I appreciate that.

The riot is a reminder of the prejudices that have existed in this country for generations. How this country moves forward while holding people accountable? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

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LEMON: Investigators are still unraveling more details about who was in that mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6th. And law enforcement warns that the threat from right-wing extremism is still very real. But this hate isn't new to America. So, what can we do to stop it from boiling over again?

Joining me now to discuss is CNN political commentator Mitch Landrieu, the former Democratic mayor of New Orleans. Thank you, sir. I appreciate you joining us.

MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: Thank you.

LEMON: Boy, oh, boy, you and I have a lot to talk about. These are things we usually discuss online and off. We've talked about it, you know, offline a lot lately.

On January 6th, seeing confederate battle flag carried into the Capitol by an insurrectionist reminds us that this hate isn't new in our history. But it's a history a lot of Americans don't want to confront. It is a history I would think a lot of Americans don't want to confront. How do we move forward if we don't want to acknowledge our shared past, mayor?

LANDRIEU: It is very difficult to move forward if there's not an acknowledgement. I do think one of the most surprising things is that people were really surprised by January 6th, as awful as that was and as very shaking as it was.

For people who know our history, people know that this wasn't the first time that armed insurrectionists tried to stop peaceful transfers of government. It is true that that's the first time it happened in our nation's capital, but it happened in Louisiana, it happened in Oklahoma, it happened in Alabama. It has been happening across the south for a very long period of time.

It was shocking to most Americans to see the confederate flag make its way in the middle of an insurrection. I think it woke people up much like the George Floyd murder did. But, of course, George Floyd was not the first time that happened. People can remember Emmett Till. This has been going on for quite a long time, Don.

Both you and I are from the south, you from Baton Rouge, I'm from New Orleans, so this is not new to us, although this is now transfixing the country. I think we're going to make a terrible mistake if we really don't stop in this moment and dig down deep and acknowledge what happened, acknowledge that it is a very serious threat to the republic itself and that we have to go after it in a very, very aggressive way.

LEMON: So many of the folks charged, the rioters, the charged rioters, they are saying, in their defense, that Trump directed them. What happens if the man who instigated the attack faces no real consequences?

LANDRIEU: Well, I think that's a real problem. I think the evidence is pretty clear that Donald Trump incited an insurrection against the United States of America, and I think that he should be held accountable.

I think that the United States Congress and the Senate should have voted to impeach him for the sake of making sure that everybody knew that there were consequences for that.

However, it also true that everybody who also participated in that insurrection should be held accountable. On top of that, though, we have to step back for a second and say, how long has this been going on?

The FBI has said for many, many, many years that white nationalism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism should be a focus of the work that we do, not just terrorism from overseas, but at the end of the day, the whole purpose is to protect the homeland from people from afar and people that are here. And I don't think that we can close a blind eye to that.

I think also the African-American community is right in yelling at the top of their lungs at the treatment that they see from law enforcement and who gets the benefit of the doubt and who doesn't. I think we have to look at that.

And I think we have to find a way to come back together. But you can only do it, A, if you acknowledge, and B, if you find a pathway forward through law enforcement that actually makes sense and keeps all of us safe all of the time, not just some of us some of the time.

LEMON (on camera): I am sure you heard this, but I want to play it for you. This is President Biden saying in the town hall last night that the country isn't as divided as people think. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The nation is not divided. You go out there and take a look and talk to people. You have fringes on both ends. But it is not nearly as divided as we make it out to be, and we have to bring it together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): Is he right or is that wishful thinking?

LANDRIEU: He -- I think he's half right most of the time in this regard. I think that there is a lot of consensus, for example, around the expansion of Medicaid. I think there's a lot of consensus around creating an immigration system that works for everybody. I think there is a lot of consensus around major issues like that.

It is also true, though, that a good 20 percent, maybe 25 percent of folks, in this instance on the far-right, are really pushing an agenda that we haven't seen in a long time. This is not really about being a Republican or a Democrat.

[23:45:00]

LANDRIEU: I think you're seeing many Republicans now waking up to the notion that this idea of white nationalism, this white supremacy, this desire that these people have to forcefully overthrow the government is not anything that they signed up for.

However, this is not new. And so I think it is hard for people to deflect and say they didn't know, they didn't understand, they really didn't know the history. The history is there to be seen by everybody and it is something that we have to deal with. It is not an attack on the white people of America.

As Mitch McConnell so eloquently said after he voted wrongly, I might say, that it wasn't the 74 million people, you know, that went to the polls and voted for Donald Trump, it was a small group of people in America that think that because they didn't have their way, they somehow through violent insurrection can overthrow the republic.

And that is just not who we are as a country. So, yeah, we are together on some things, but we clearly have an issue with white nationalism and white supremacy in the sense of hatred that has permeated this country for a very long period of time amongst a small group of people who are not afraid to take up arms, hurt people, lynch people, and do what they think is necessary to maintain power. And that's just not the American way.

LEMON: What we need is a consensus around truth, mayor. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

LANDRIEU: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Thank you.

LANDRIEU: Thank you for all your work.

LEMON: Thank you very much. You, as well.

The CDC is warning of a rapid rise in coronavirus cases because the new variants are spreading. Stay with us.

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[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON (on camera): So Dr. Anthony Fauci is telling "CNN Tonight" that he agrees with President Biden's prediction that the country may be back to normal by Christmas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The president made an estimate which I think is a quite reasonable estimate. I would be right in that ballpark myself. What we are talking about is that maybe not 100 percent exactly the way we were before all this happened, but what he was referring to and I would agree with that, is that we're going to be able to do things that we right now are not able to do.

For example, indoor dining, going to a theater, going to a movie, and being able to congregate in a setting with dinner, with people beyond those who are in your own household.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): Dr. Jonathan Reiner is the director of the Cardiac Catheterization Program at George Washington University Hospital. He joins us now. Good to see you. It has been a minute. Thanks for coming on.

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST, DIRECTOR OF CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION PROGRAM AT GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Yeah. Hi, Don.

LEMON: You said the U.S. is not administering enough shots. If vaccinations don't speed up, is it possible that Biden and Fauci will have to push back their estimates of getting back to normal by Christmas?

REINER: Well, I hope not. We are currently vaccinating somewhere around on average about a million and a half people a day, which sounds good except with a two-dose shot now, we're roughly 50 percent first shot and 50 percent second shot. We need to be vaccinating more new people.

So we need to put our -- put the gas pedal to the floor and really move. You know, we need to be vaccinating two, two and a half million people a day. That's how we get to herd immunity, that is how we get our schools open this fall, and that is how we get people back to work, vaccinating people as if our lives depend on it, which obviously they do.

LEMON: Dr. Fauci says the U.S. will have enough vaccines for all Americans in July. What needs to be done now to get ready for this increase in supply, Dr. Reiner?

REINER: You know, we need to rethink how we give vaccine. You know, it's great to get vaccine into the community pharmacies, but that sort of vaccinating people, you know, one at a time, a lot of places one at a time but sort of one at a time. We need mass vaccination events all over the country. And we're starting to see it, you know, in New York and places like Yankee Stadium and Citi Field where, you know, you're vaccinating thousands of people a day. That's how we need to think about vaccinating this country.

When there was a smallpox outbreak in New York 75 years ago, New York vaccinated six million people in one month. So we have the ability to do this. We just have to put together the infrastructure and then finally have the vaccine.

When the J&J vaccine comes on the scene hopefully in the next couple weeks and as more supplies of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines become available, we will have the ability to do that. But we need to be thinking bigger. We need to be thinking vaccinating two to three million people a day.

LEMON: So the new COVID infections are trending down in the U.S., but there are still concerns about new variants of the virus. Do you think we can still see another surge? Here we are talking about surges again, the possibility. Boy, I hope we don't have to go back there.

REINER: Boy, I hope not. But here is the interesting thing. If you look around the world, you know that cases are plummeting in the United States and hospitalizations are plummeting in the United States.

But you can see this all around the world and you can see this in places where the predominant strains, where the only strains are the variants we're worrying about, places like the United Kingdom, places like South Africa.

So something is happening around the world and it's probably a combination of the populations really learning, you know, how to social distance and how to wear masks finally, also maybe the seasonality of the virus, and also finally the fact that so many people have been infected with this virus, we're starting possibly to see some elements of community immunity.

[23:55:09]

REINER: So I'm not so sure. Look, I'm just a simple heart doctor, but I'm not so sure that we're necessarily destined to see another major surge. We need to continue what we're doing now, vaccinate, wear masks, and continue to push this virus down. It's not a done deal that we're going to see another major spring surge.

LEMON: Well, you may be, as you say, just a heart doctor, I think you're downplaying your --

REINER: I said simple heart doctor.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Even more so. I think you're downplaying your accomplishments but -- and your bonafides. But I do have to say that pretty much everything that you predicted during this has been right on. Thank you, doctor. I appreciate it. I will see you soon.

REINER: My pleasure, Don.

LEMON: So, thanks for watching, everyone. Be safe out there. We'll continue to cover what's happening in Texas. We'll stay on top of it. Our coverage continues.

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