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Don Lemon Tonight

Texans Still Need to Endure Cold Nights Without Water and Electricity; Freezing Cold Temperatures Killed 26 People in Texas; President Biden Promised to Send Aid to Texas; Senator Ted Cruz Left His Constituents; Local Officials Failed to do Their Job; Camaraderie Help Other People in Dire Situation; Higher Vaccine Efficacy Played a Role in Declining COVID Cases; NASA's Perseverance Rover Landed in Mars. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired February 19, 2021 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATHERINE ENGELBRECHT, FOUNDER, TRUE THE VOTE: But our focus at the moment is like preemptive challenge of just 364,000 voters who appear to be ineligible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RANDI KAYE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (voice-over): Meanwhile, less than a week after suing Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, accusing the states which Biden won of counting illegal votes, True the Vote dropped its lawsuits. Court records show by November 17th Eshelman e-mail the group's founder asking for an accounting of all the money spent and a refund of what was left.

When he says the group didn't comply, Eshelman's lawyer sent a final letter on November 23rd demanding the return of $2 million. Eshelman hasn't received a penny of his money back and that tangible evidence the group promised existed that could prove voter fraud, that has never come to light either.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Well, we'll continue to follow that story. Meantime, the news continues. Let's turn things over now to Don Lemon and CNN Tonight.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining, everyone.

Here is a question, how much does Texas have to take? How much does Texas have to take? Now it is undrinkable water, there's broken pipes, there's empty shelves in the supermarkets after days without power and with another night of freezing weather ahead. How much does Texas have to take?

Nearly 15 million people facing a water crisis there. Lining up at distribution centers because the tap is dry at home. Hospitals, fire departments don't have any water. One hospital collecting rainwater and using it just to flush toilets. People are melting snow and millions who do have water, well, they're being warned to boil it before even drinking it.

Some patients who have been discharged, staying in the hospital lobbies because they can't go back to their homes because their homes have no power.

This week has been deadly for Texas. At least 26 people have died since this crisis began. Ten from hypothermia in the Houston area just alone. The New York Times is reporting that an 11-year-old boy near Houston was found dead in his bed after his family had no power the night before.

There have been more than 600 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning. It is not supposed to be this way. Not in America. People aren't supposed to be freezing to death in their own homes. People aren't supposed to be lining up for water, for food, for basic services. Basic necessities.

People aren't supposed to be suffering while the people they elected to serve them just play the blame game while they jet off to the beach. This is a week really, think about it, when we saw what real leadership looks like and what a lack of leadership looks like sadly as well. Leadership is stepping up, taking on one crisis after another.

President Joe Biden says that he is going to sign a major disaster declaration for Texas, which would get more federal aid for people struggling in this disaster. That as his White House says starting tomorrow, they're going to be shipping more COVID vaccine doses than states have ever received before. Leadership is the president telling Americans the truth about the pandemic that is killing us and what he is doing to fight it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Getting the vaccine and having it available is not the same as putting it in someone's arms. This is going to be a continuous rolling effort. So, we'll have -- we will have ordered much of which will have been distributed, over 600 million doses by the end of July, July 29th is the expected date, but that could change.

Look what is happening with the weather now, for example. It is slowing up the distribution right now. But I believe we will be approaching normalcy by the end of this year and, God willing, this Christmas will be different than last. But I can't mate that commitment to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And leadership is telling us the truth about what went wrong and what happens now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: Just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country. My predecessor, as my mother would say, God love him, failed to order enough vaccines, failed to mobilize the effort to administer the shots, failed to set up vaccine centers. That changed the moment we took office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Leadership is stepping up to repair relationships with our allies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: America is back. I speak to you today as President of the United States, at the very start of my administration, and I am sending a clear message to the world. America is back.

[22:05:01]

The Transatlantic alliance is back, and we are not looking backward. We are looking forward together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That is what leaderships -- leadership looks like. Leadership is showing empathy, letting people know you feel their pain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: And now when things change, people get really worried and scared, but don't be scared, honey. Don't be scared. You are going to be fine, and we're going to make sure mommy is fine, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Leadership is actually listening to people, trying to help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Here is what I would like to do. If you are willing, I will stay around after this is over and maybe we can talk a few minutes and see if I can get you some help.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So that mom reportedly was put in touch with the White House COVID response team to get help for her son who has a lung disease, and for other people in similar situations, that's leadership.

But lack of leadership was sadly on display this week as well, with a governor who played a political blame game while the people of his state were shivering in their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America. Our wind and our solar got shut down and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power in a statewide basis.

It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas as well as other states, to make sure that we will be able to heat our homes in the wintertime and cool our homes in the summertime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The fact is that most of the power outages had nothing to do with wind or solar energy. They were due to coal, natural gas, nuclear energy plants going offline. None of it had anything to do with the new green deal. That was a lie.

Lack of leadership also on display with the senator who calls himself a good dad but blamed his own daughters for his decision to skip town in the middle of a statewide crisis and head to Cancun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): My girls wanted to take a trip with their friends and, frankly, get somewhere where it was warmer, and Heidi and I agreed. We took them. I flew them down last night and then I just flew back today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Does he really expect anybody to believe that? He doesn't even believe that. A senator who blew up his own excuse that he was just dropping off his daughters when he had to admit he planned to stay through the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: We left yesterday. The plan had been to stay through the weekend with the family. That was the plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A senator who admits he realized it was a bad idea right around the time people started taking pictures of him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: I have to admit, I started having second thoughts almost the moment I sat down on the plane because on the one hand, all of us who are parents have a responsibility to take care of our kids, take care of our family. That's something Texans have been doing across the state.

But I also have a responsibility that I take very seriously of fighting for the state of Texas and, frankly, leaving when so many Texans were hurting didn't feel right, and so, I changed my return flight and flew back on the first available flight I could take.

I couldn't take a morning flight because the current restrictions require a COVID test, so I had to get a COVID test this morning before I could get on a flight back. So, I took the first flight I could get after getting the COVID test and testing negative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Just so you know, you guys all know this, right, when someone does that much explaining. Because usually, like, the answer for things is usually a simple answer. Look, I really messed up and I knew it. Boom. That was it. That's it.

But he's doing a lot of explaining, and a lot of the pictures he's on the phone, obviously no doubt he saw himself on social media because people started posting the pictures right away. As a matter of fact I started to see them before the show was over but we couldn't confirm that it was actually him in the trip, so they confirmed it the next day, but those pictures started going up immediately and no doubt he saw them and said, whoops, this is not what I expected.

And then he said he had to get a COVID test to come back. You go to Mexico in the middle of a pandemic, you are going to have to take a COVID test when you want to come back. That's how it works.

[22:09:53]

So, this is what -- this is what Ted Cruz could have done, right, because we all have messed up before. And when you truly -- you apologize, people accept it or not. But if you do it, you know, you do it and it is heartfelt, you do it.

This is what would have shown leadership though. OK. For one thing, he could have apologized. He didn't. He just said, I screwed up. He didn't really apologize. Instead, he went right on to Fox News, of course. Fox News to make excuses. You can be a dad and a senator at the same time, senator. I don't know what all of the uproar is about. Really?

he could have gotten off that plane from Cancun, because it was the daytime, and he could have gone right out into the community to help. Why? Because he is a public servant. He could have gone to a food bank. He could have gone to a water distribution center.

Unless, you know, they were serving water at the -- wherever he is doing the Fox News interview. There are a whole lot of things that he could have done like, say, he could have, you know, raised money to help Texans in need. But the fact is his mere presence as a public servant who was elected by the people of Texas, that was a lot. But, instead, Cancun Beach.

So, taking responsibility as a public servant, that is what Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did. Look at your screen. AOC tweeting, she has raised $2 million, flying to Texas to help distribute supplies, flying to Texas. She wasn't elected by the people of Texas. Ted Cruz as an elected representative of the people of Texas had

talked a lot of, you know what, trash about her but she is helping the people, she is helping his constituents. She flew to Texas, not to Cancun.

And how about Beto O'Rourke who lost the 2018 Senate race to Ted Cruz, he ran a virtual food bank to connect senior citizens in Texas with resources during the disaster. There's a whole lot Ted Cruz could have been doing. So, stop saying, what is he going to do? He wasn't going to go and plug in the electrical grid. Everybody knows that, people aren't dumb, but there are a bunch of other things he could have done.

This is not about politics. This is not about Republicans or Democrats. This is about doing the right thing. This is about leadership and helping people, the people you were elected to serve.

So back to my original question. How much does Texas have to take? People lining up for water after days without power, more freezing weather ahead tonight. What will it take to make sure nothing like this happens again?

[22:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Freezing temperatures across Texas again tonight. Now the state's hit with a major water crisis. Nearly 15 million people, about half the state's population, either have no water or are warned to boil water before they can even use it. President Biden saying that he will sign a major disaster declaration to provide desperately needed aid.

Let's go straight to CNN's Ed Lavandera who joins us now on the ground in Dallas for us. Ed, good evening to you. Urgent water crisis in Texas tonight amid this freezing temperature and over half the population of Texas experiencing water disruptions. Tell us what you know.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is staggering, Don, when you think about it. One hundred sixty-one of the 254 counties in the state of Texas dealing with water disruption issues. As you mentioned, nearly half, or roughly half the population dealing with all of this, 161 water municipalities across the state trying to figure this all out.

So, it is going to take some time, and that will be the main concern throughout much of the weekend. But really everybody here just holding on for one more rough night. No rain or snow or anything like that falling right now, but temperatures below freezing once again. Everyone just trying to hold on for one more night.

LEMON: Ed, what about Governor Abbott? he's now saying, what is he saying now about paying for the weatherization of the power plants, of that grid, so that this doesn't happen again?

LAVANDERA: Right. Well, the state legislature here in Texas meets once every two years. It just happens that right now the legislature is in session, so the governor is calling for the weatherization of power plants to be an emergency item for the legislate -- for the state lawmakers meeting in Austin.

And today he once again called for funding to make sure that that happens, but, Don, you know, it's a popular thing to champion right now. This is an issue and these types of regulations have been discussed and shot down multiple times over years and years here in Texas.

So exactly how this is going to play out in this legislative session, what is really going to come of this, are people going to forget about what has happened here this week? We'll have to see. But there's a great deal of skepticism, especially among the critics of the Republican leadership in this state.

LEMON: Ed Lavandera on top of the story for us. Ed, thank you very much. We'll talk to you soon.

Now I want to bring in Matthew Dowd, the former chief strategist for President George W. Bush. He lives in Texas and he has been dealing with the water and power crisis like millions of his fellow Texans.

Matthew, sorry you are having to deal with that. We appreciate you coming on.

Let's talk about the millions of you and your former Texans dealing with water disruptions, people can't find food. Frozen, you are dealing with frozen pipes. Tell us what you and your family have been through just these past few days.

MATTHEW DOWD, FORMER CHIEF STRATEGIST FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, thanks for having me on, Don. I mean I've been more blessed, I think, than many others. I lost my power like most people here in this community did, and we had rolling blackouts, which were more like rolling lights on. We had the lights on for a shorter period of time than the blackouts, and my pipes have frozen.

[22:19:55]

So, there are power is back on, but I have my pipes are frozen. I have to try to see if I can get that fixed over the next few days and see if there's any cracks in them. Today, that's why I have my -- I haven't shaved for the show, but I was actually out today most of the day delivering water to folks so they could flush their toilets and they could have drinking water.

Our community -- and not only do I not have water, our community is actually under a mandatory boil order as well. So, I have -- I'm staying with a neighbor right now up the street from my house so I can have a shower and have running water, but it is a really tough time. The grocery stores are bare. It is hard to find food. The restaurants are closed.

And we finally sort of got some warmer weather today, so it melted some of the ice on the roads, but it is a sort of disastrous situation. It feels like if you are walking -- I said to somebody today, it's like you broke down the Berlin Wall and went into east Germany and found that everything was back 50 years ago. That's what it feels like.

LEMON: It's not an exaggeration too to say that store shelves are empty because every bit of video I see the store shelves are literally empty, there's nothing to buy. How much -- how much of this crisis though is compounded by huge leadership failure in your state, Matthew?

DOWD: Well, I don't think it is actually compounded. I think it is caused by the leadership failure. Obviously we have -- it is an act of God or a natural disaster, this cold came which was, you know, an historical cold front came in, but it wasn't as if people weren't prepared, people weren't aware that it was coming and, too, that these things could happen.

As you know, Don, 10 years ago there was a report written to the legislature and the governor that you better winterize everything, you better get prepared, these kinds of things can happen. They've happened before where we've had freezes.

And so, I don't think it's just -- I think we have natural disasters, but this it could have been prevented if decisions had been made that weren't based on either profit motive or some other motive and were based upon what was in the interests of the people of Texas.

And that's what I think the leaders have forgotten, from Ted Cruz to the governor to so many others. They don't serve the people of Texas anymore. They serve, you know, whatever some other special interest or whatever it happens to be. And so, it is a leadership failure.

LEMON: Well, the mayor, I understand, has been doing what he can, Mayor Sylvester Turner spoke with Wolf Blitzer earlier. This is what he said and then we will talk about it. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER (D), HOUSTON, TEXAS: I have had several conversations with the Biden administration, several of them. So, we've -- you know, I have had those conversations, but I have not had an opportunity to speak with the governor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Matthew, does it make any sense to you that Governor Abbott hasn't spoken with the mayor of the state's largest city?

DOWD: No, it makes no sense. I mean, if any -- if you or I or anybody else was the governor, the first thing we would do is get the city and county officials on an expansive conference call or Zoom call and go through and find out everything they need, what's going on, find out all of the things they need to do and then bring to bear the resources on it.

And so, the first thing, as you know, Don, the first thing that the governor did here was blame it on the green new deal which, as you know, doesn't even exist right now. But the idea that wind turbine somehow caused this, which all the facts have pointed that's wrong, it's completely wrong. It's the deregulation of the oil and gas industry here and our inability to pay for infrastructure that caused the problem.

But the governor, if he has been around, it has been issuing press releases and said he is going to make hold people accountable, but the one person he is not holding accountable is himself.

LEMON: You know Senator Ted Cruz. You worked with him. What did you think --

DOWD: Yes.

LEMON: -- when you saw him abandon his constituents for Cancun?

DOWD: Well, you know, I know Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz worked in the policy department in the 2000 Bush campaign and I worked in the political department of the Bush campaign in 2000 and then I worked in 2004. It didn't surprise me because Ted from the days I knew him back then when he was a staffer, Ted has always been concerned about himself.

One of the things about leadership that is so evident in the midst of this, we thought we learned a lesson last year in COVID. We thought we learned a lesson in how people are going to preserve our democracy, but the two things -- leaders have to have many values, but the two ones that are most important is first service.

You are there to serve your constituents or serve the people you represent and telling the truth and being honest. And in both cases Ted has proved what he's always been, which is he's only about self- service, and he is incapable of telling -- of telling people what the truth is. And we saw that as his ever-changing story in the midst of this.

[22:24:55]

I will tell you one story. One of the quickest ways to end a meeting in the Bush campaign, when we were in the Bush campaign, was to invite Ted Cruz to it because no one wanted to be in a meeting with Ted Cruz.

LEMON: I was just saying that they put him, you know, in coach at a bulkhead. But you know, the next best thing or the worst thing would have been in the back by the bathroom.

But let me ask you, who is -- who is going to be held -- who is going to be held accountable for this? I mean they think it's $18 billion right now, burst pipes and collapsed roofs and so on. It could be more. Who is going to be held accountable?

DOWD: Well, I think in the end the voters have to decide. We're responsible for this as the people that vote and the people that don't vote, because they will keep being irresponsible and not responding to constituents and doing things that are completely unjust unless we hold them accountable because they'll figure they got a pass on this. And I -- you and I talked about this a little bit last week, but I

think about what happened in the Civil Rights, you know, the whole era and everything, the years and years and years. And what the Civil Rights movement did was they didn't forget about things that happened. They didn't forget when Emmet Till got killed. They didn't forget when Medgar Evers got killed. They didn't forget when Jimmy Lee Jackson got killed.

They used all of those tragic circumstances to build a movement to force change, and we finally got the Voting Rights Act and we finally got the Civil Rights Act.

Voters here in Texas and voters across the country because we are faced with so many different crises, have to never forget what happened and never forget how their leaders failed them and never forget the injustice happened and it's mainly to people that are the most vulnerable and mainly to people of color that every time bad decisions are made, they suffer the most. So, I would ask people in Texas, don't forget.

LEMON: Yes. We're going to have Colin Allred on in our next hour to talk about exactly what you just mentioned. Thank you, Matthew Dowd. And good luck to you and your family. Everybody is OK, right?

DOWD: Everybody is OK. We're just -- we're managing through it. You know, I grew up in Michigan, so I have a four-wheel drive truck so I'm doing better than most.

LEMON: Thank you, Matthew. You take care. I'll talk to you soon.

DOWD: Thanks.

LEMON: So, they lost power.

DOWD: You too.

LEMON: Then they lost water and now they have resorted to melting snow. An Austin resident tells me the realities of the desperate situation Texans are in, that's next.

[22:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So tonight, three of the biggest cities in Texas, including Austin, continuing urging everyone to boil their water. Just getting water is the biggest challenge right now for nearly 15 million people. Can you imagine? Fifteen million people. More than half the state's population. Austin lost at least 325 million gallons so far this week after thousands of pipes burst in the sub-freezing conditions.

Smita Pande lives in Austin, she is among those taking extreme measures to get through this disaster, and she joins me now. Samita, thank you so much for joining us.

So, let me tell -- we appreciate it. I'm going to tell people a little bit about you. You live with your husband, your two dogs, and you have --

SMITA PANDE, RESIDENT, AUSTIN, TEXAS: Yes.

LEMON: -- two friends from New York visiting. And as I understand, you lost power on Sunday, so you went to stay at a friend's home, right?

PANDE: Yes.

LEMON: So, tell me what happened from then, from there on.

PANDE: Yes, absolutely. So, actually, we lost power and we were anticipating getting it back sooner than we did. So, we tried to tough it out for the first few days wearing a lot of layers, just snuggling up and trying to keep ourselves entertained through candle lit board games.

But then after that we did actually go to a friend's house where we all showered and just tried goat our spirits up and just get warm again. And then after that our friend actually ended up losing water himself, and so we ended up relocating to another friend's house where he graciously took us in.

He had power for a short amount of time, and then also lost water, at which point we relocated back to our house, all five adults and two dogs, and we started harvesting snow because we had also lost water at that point. Harvesting snow for toilet water.

LEMON: So, you bring the snow in, let it melt and then you use it to flush the toilet, right?

PANDE: Yes. Essentially. And honestly, we bring the snow in, but when you melt it -- at least for me, you don't realize how little you actually get in water.

LEMON: It's not a lot.

PANDE: Yes, you get a whole tub of snow but then it's actually just a little bit of water. So, we tried to come up with new ways of like collecting the water melt, the snow melt which is outside and just trying to get creative with what we can use to flush.

LEMON: Is that what the cooler was I saw there on the porch, was that you trying to collect the run-off? I got it.

PANDE: Yes.

LEMON: Very smart of you, or like a plastic garbage can and then you had buckets there as well. Man, listen, you do what you can, you do what you have to. I got a question for you. Are local officials or organizations providing help getting food or water or supplies, are they being helpful?

PANDE: Yes, I would actually say so. We haven't personally leveraged those resources, but I do know that going on to the Austin subreddit, there have been a lot of resources that have been available. I haven't, again, personally used them, but I do think that based off the reaction that I've been reading online that it's been -- it's been a positive experience for most people who are not as fortunate as we are.

LEMON: Have you heard anything, any word from lawmakers about when you will be getting running water again?

PANDE: Well, word on the street is that we will be getting water in the next two or three days, but at this point, you know, we can't really -- we can't plan on that. You know, at this point we are planning on getting water in a week, right. We have to -- we have to assume that worst-case scenario. So, we are hearing two or three days at this point. We're going to hope for the best.

[22:34:56]

LEMON: And, look, I know that you talked about the sporadic water in some places, no water as you -- you know, as you are dealing with, people struggling to find food on the store shelves. So, who do you hold responsible for what is happening?

PANDE: I think, Don, that's a tough question, but I mean my go-to answer, politicians, the representatives that we vote for to take care of their constituents. It is very easy to play the blame game and, of course, I'm very angry and I want to blame the people that you have been mentioning.

But right now, honestly my focus is on helping my neighbors who are helping me in return. I cannot think about who is to blame at this point. I'm just thinking about trying to keep my family and my friends safe and warm and surviving. But there, yes.

LEMON: I totally understand that, but someone has to be held accountable.

PANDE: Yes.

LEMON: Because this is unacceptable. And I understand you've got to take care of what's happening right now, what is in front of you. Smita, thank you. Best of luck to you and your family and your friends. OK? I appreciate you coming on.

PANDE: Thank you for having me.

LEMON: Thank you.

Six million shots waiting to be shipped. Winter weather preventing those vaccines from getting out, but not preventing President Biden from checking out Pfizer -- Pfizer's vaccine plant.

[22:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President Biden sending a strong message to our allies around the world today. America is back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm sending a clear message to the world, America is back. The Transatlantic alliance is back. We are not looking backward. We are looking forward together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Joining me now CNN White House correspondent John Harwood. John, it's good to see you. Thanks for joining me this evening. The message from the president, President Biden clear today, America first no longer the foreign policy of the United States.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Don, it was a day when on several fronts President Biden's message converged on a single theme, and that is collective action. So, he said that America first, America alone, as Donald Trump tried to run it, doesn't cut it in a connected 21st century world.

And so, he said he's going to work with NATO, work with our allies to tackle the economic and security challenges that are posed by countries like China and Russia and Iran where that nuclear deal the president is trying to get back into, that nuclear deal.

He also said the same is true on economic recovery worldwide and on battling the pandemic. So, he urged countries around the world to continue efforts to revive their economies, stimulate their economies. Pledged $4 billion to the World Health associate -- World Health Organization's COVAX-supported project to try to get vaccines to poor countries.

And he said the same thing at home in the afternoon when he went to Michigan to tour the Pfizer plant. He challenged the Pfizer CEO to further accelerate the production and delivery of vaccines, but also called on Americans to keep up the steps, mask wearing and social distancing, that will together with vaccines help us get on top of this pandemic going forward in the rest of the year.

LEMON: And then he visited that plant and also at the White House today he says that they were looking at a backlog of about six million vaccine doses because of the weather. What are they doing to get this, the supply chain issues under control and to keep the pace with the vaccinations? They've got to keep it up because we are fighting against these variants as you know.

HARWOOD: It's a big challenge, Don. And Andy Slavitt, who is one of the leaders of the coronavirus response team at the White House, addressed that in the briefing today. What he said was that those doses are about three days' worth of supply, that it doesn't make sense to ship them if they can't be used and kept in storage, because if they are unfrozen, if they leave the supply chain of temperature control, they would spoil. So, they're holding back those, keeping them in storage and saying that they can redouble their efforts and catch up next week with the administration of those doses.

LEMON: Biden also expected to sign a major disaster declaration for Texas. They need it. I mean, that should help with their recovery efforts, but they have a long road ahead of them, John.

HARWOOD: It's going to be a huge challenge. The president's been and his team have tried to be responsive. Speaking yesterday with Governor Abbott, extending water, generators, other supplies, but this major disaster declaration which Governor Abbott asked for yesterday, but signing that, that unlocks new levels of aid for Texas residents as they try to recover from this and it is going to be a long recovery.

LEMON: John Harwood, thank you, sir. I appreciate you joining us.

I want to bring in now --

HARWOOD: You bet.

LEMON: -- Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency room physician and former Baltimore City health commissioner. Doctor, good to see you. Thanks for joining this evening.

Let's talk about this new Mayo Clinic study. Thirty-one thousand people finding that Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are up to 80 percent effective at preventing coronavirus infection, not just preventing symptoms. I mean, this could have a lot of implication. What is your -- a lot of implications. What's your reaction? Could this be why we have seen such a big drop in cases?

LEANA WEN, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Well, I don't know if the vaccinations thus far are what account for the big drop in cases, but I do think that there is accumulating evidence for this unanswered question, which is we know that these vaccines are wonderful at preventing severe disease and preventing hospitalizations and deaths, but do the vaccinations also prevent you from being a carrier of coronavirus and prevent you from spreading it to other people, too.

There's growing evidence that it does, which has, as you said, Don, huge implications because I think right now there is missing guidance on what it is that fully vaccinated people can do.

[22:44:59]

We know it's good for society to get vaccinated and we know that it protects you, but people want to know, can I fly across the country and see my grandkids, can I see my friends again, can I go to work and school. And I think there's growing evidence that you should definitely do, for example, essential activities.

If you have been putting off your colonoscopies or elective surgeries, you should do then. But also, fully vaccinated people can probably also see one another pretty safely, including indoors without masks. Still, don't go to bars and bar hop, and definitely still keep wearing masks while in public, but I think there are a lot more freedoms that come with being fully vaccinated that we need to start telling people about.

LEMON: There's a lot of discussion happening now about two new reports that found the Pfizer vaccine gives a high degree of efficacy from just that one dose. I want you to listen to what Dr. Fauci says about that. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Even though you can get a fair degree of, quote, "protection," after a single dose, it clearly is not durable. We know that. The durability is not as much as the durability that you would get with the boost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What do people need to know about these studies, doctor?

WEN: Yes, so I really agree with Dr. Fauci here. I think what people should know is that the way that the Pfizer and Moderna studies were done was with this two-dose regimen in mind. So the first dose is the primary, the second dose is the boost. You really need both in order to get to the very high degree of protection.

I know that some people are saying, hey, why not give one dose to more people and maybe that's a way for us to increase the -- or to stretch out the amount of limited supply that we have. But I really believe that this will create more problems than it solves because at some point the major issue, the major reason why we don't reach this herd immunity is not supply. The major reason is going to be vaccine hesitancy.

The number one reason that I hear from people about why they're hesitant to get the vaccine is they think it was rushed. And I reassure my patients that every scientific safeguard was followed, the process was followed, there were no short cuts taken. If we are now prioritizing expediency over science there could be huge repercussions and we could not reach herd immunity because of some short-term actions that we are choosing now.

LEMON: Doctor, Dr. Chris Murray from the IHME told Anderson, this was earlier tonight, that they're expecting over 100,000 additional deaths between now and June. That's actually a little lower than last week. I mean it's not good, but it's lower than last week.

What is worrying here is that they don't think that the U.S. will reach herd immunity before next winter. I mean, that's a pretty scary proposition. What do you think?

WEN: I think that Dr. Murray and his colleagues are probably right. I think it's going to take us quite some time to get to the point of having enough supply. Hopefully, we will reach that by midsummer, but then we still have to get everybody vaccinated. And of course, because we can't get our children vaccinated yet because those studies are still ongoing, we really need the vast majority of adult Americans to take the vaccine.

And I'm afraid that because of the pandemic of disinformation and misinformation that it's going to be really difficult to do that, and so I'm hopeful we can do this by winter and have a normal Christmas and New Year's. But it is going to take a lot of hard work for us to get there, and the variants could really throw a wrench into the works, too.

LEMON: OK. So, speaking of that, throwing a wrench into the works, what about this winter weather and this delay in vaccine distribution, how big -- and the variants, as you have said, what does that -- how is that going to affect everything?

WEN: I think we can catch up after this delay. So, I think that there are some people who are very worried about missing their second dose. They were supposed to get their second dose this week but now it's going to be delayed. Delaying by a week or two because of extenuating circumstances like this is not going to be a problem.

So, I think that will take care of itself in a few weeks' time. I really do worry about the variants though because if you have something that's a lot more transmissible, then it's not just a matter of linear spread. It is something that's 50 percent more transmissible, you are now going to get 50 percent more infections, you'll get many, many, many times more infections.

And so, I worry about these variants that are more transmissible. I also worry about variants that potentially could be less effective with the vaccines that we have. We may always have to play catch-up. So, we vaccinate everyone but then there are variants and then we have to get boosters to target those variants --

LEMON: Yes.

WEN: -- so we could always try to play catch up here --

LEMON: Yes.

WEN: -- and that's a big problem.

LEMON: Before we go, I want to get this in. I've got to ask you about these photos, it's in Palm Beach. Palm Beach County officials investigating this mostly maskless crowd in an indoor event. Governor Ron DeSantis organized this even by the way. One guy shirt says masks are slavery. What's DeSantis and these people, what are they thinking?

WEN: You know, there is -- this is that pandemic of disinformation that we've been talking about. I mean, I think all of us are really upset that something as basic as a mask is now being seen as a political symbol rather than as the public health imperative that it is.

[22:50:06]

And people keep on talking about individual freedom, but your freedom doesn't extend to your ability to infect, sicken, and cure others. We have laws for this reason against drunk driving. This is similar. Wearing a mask and protecting yourself also is what will get us all through this together.

LEMON: Boy. Doctor, thank you. It's sad. Thank you, doctor. I appreciate it.

Ever thought you could see Mars? Well, take this. NASA's rover is already sending back pictures, and we've got them for you, next.

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[22:55:02]

LEMON: So, take this. NASA's Perseverance Rover sending back a never before seen view, and that view is what it looks like to land on Mars. It is amazing. The rover's landing system snapping a selfie as it touched down after a nearly 300-million-mile journey. Can you imagine, 300 million miles.

Here on Earth, NASA had no way to control Perseverance as it descended to the planet's surface, it's just way too far. That's why it was so thrilling when the rover landed safely on its own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Touchdown confirmed.

UNKNOWN: Yes!

UNKNOWN: Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars.

(CROWD CHEERING)

UNKNOWN: Ready to begin seeking the signs of past life.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Three hundred million miles. Wow! OK. And this, the first color photo from the rover's landing site showing the planet's signature red, dusty surface. I want to see this myself. That's amazing. It's -- look at that. Perseverance will search for evidence of ancient life and collect samples from Mars that will eventually be returned to Earth by the 2030s.

It might seem like a long time to wait but those samples may help answer one of life's greatest questions. Are we really alone? We'll be back.

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