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House Approves $2,000 Stimulus Checks, Measure Heads to Senate; U.S. Again Hits Record Number of Hospitalizations; Trump Suffers Rebuke When 100-Plus House Republicans Vote to Override His Veto. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 29, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN NEWSROOM: Good morning. I'm Bianna Golodryga in for Poppy and Jim.

President Trump ripping Republicans for overriding his veto of a $740 billion defense bill. Now, the pressure is to the GOP-led Senate ahead of its own vote. But it doesn't stop there. Republican senators also feeling the heat to pass a House bill increasing stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000, something the Republicans have opposed for months but now being pushed by President Trump.

Also this morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci warning that January could look worse than December after millions ignored warnings and traveled over the holidays. It comes as the nation's hospitals are growing more full by the day. And the situation is so bad in California that critical health care such as nurses and respirators could be rationed. More on that in just a moment.

But, first, CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill. Lauren, do we know if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will allow a vote on the $2,000 stimulus checks just passed by the House last night?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, that's the big question on Capitol Hill this morning. We know that the Senate will convene at noon today and we expect to hear some remarks on what direction Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is going to go on those $2,000 checks.

Notably, when he congratulated the president on finally signing the stimulus and spending bill, he made no mention about any promises that he was going to keep in terms of bringing up a vote on the floor of the Senate for those $2,000 checks.

Now, a complicating factor is that an independent senator, Bernie Sanders, has said that he will not vote for the NDAA veto override. That's a major defense bill that the Senate was hoping to vote on tomorrow unless Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promises a vote.

Also on top this morning, you're going to see the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, try to get unanimous consent for these $2,000. We expect because any one senator could object to this that that isn't going to pass, Bianna, but that giving you a little bit of a sense of what the scene is today on Capitol Hill.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, Democrats putting extra pressure on Republicans, also aided surprisingly by the president himself.

Let's go to Boris Sanchez. You're following the president in West Palm Beach. I know he's taken to Twitter this morning. What is he saying?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bianna. When we were with you last hour, the president had just tweeted that the Republican leadership was tired and weak. And it was over this likely vote to override his veto of the defense spending bill. Since then, the president has gone a step further on Twitter and made clear this is also about the fact that he lost the election and that he's angry that the Republican leadership in Congress is not playing out this fantasy that the election was stolen from him.

Take a look at these most recent tweets from President Trump in all caps. He writes, quote, we need new and energetic Republican leadership. And then he goes on to say, our leaders, not me, of course, are pathetic. They only know how to lose. And then this, I got many senators and congressmen, congresswomen elected, I do believe they forgot.

That was actually the earlier tweet that was sent by the president. The latest one, he's effectively saying that he got these Republican leaders elected and they are abandoning him. He feels that he is owed a debt by them.

And, of course, Mitch McConnell has not really gone along with claims that the election was rigged the way the president would like, this fantasy that the election was stolen from him, and now the president is lashing out.

We've heard from officials inside the White House, senior officials, who said that the president's behavior in recent days has been frustrating. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: No surprise. With the president, it's always a one-way street in terms loyalty is only to him, no mention of loyalty to the American people. Lauren Fox and Boris Sanchez, thank you both, as always.

Health officials this morning are warning that medical facilities may soon have to ration care if coronavirus hospitalizations keep hitting new highs. The U.S. set another record yesterday, 121,000 patients are now hospitalized with COVID-19, that's the most since the pandemic started. And while coronavirus cases are giving the nation hope -- vaccines are giving the nation hope, it will be a long time before a majority of the population has access to those shots.

[10:05:06]

We're covering all angles of the story for you today. CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Los Angeles and Kristen Holmes is in Washington. Let's start with you, Kristen. Later today, President-elect Joe Biden plans to call out the Trump administration for the slower than expected pace of coronavirus vaccinations. What does he want to see happen here?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, I think he wants to see -- well, we all want to see, which is the process sped up, but the big question is how his incoming administration plans to do that, and that's what we're hoping to hear today.

We have not gotten an outlined detailed plan from the incoming administration on how they plan to tackle the vaccine distribution. And it is going to be a large hurdle for them tackle, particularly if the numbers remain so woefully behind where they should be or where we were expecting them to be.

Now, remember that the current administration promised 20 million vaccine doses in arms by the end of the year. We are two days away from that deadline. And according to the CDC, just about 2.1 million vaccines have actually been administered. Remember, there's a difference between distributed and administered.

So, I spent the morning on the phone talking to sources about why exactly this was so far behind. And one senior administration official told me that this is exactly where they expected to be given the usual lag in reporting data. So what exactly does that mean?

Well, a senior official with Operation Warp Speed told me that there is an expected lag between shots going into arms and data being reported, because health care providers report doses to state, territorial and local public health agencies up to 72 hours after administration.

Now, Dr. Fauci was on our air earlier today and he poured a bit of cold water on this, essentially saying that even with this large underestimate number that they're still behind. Take a listen.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We certainly are not at the numbers that we wanted to be at the end of December. You heard, talking about 40 million doses for 20 million people. I mean, even if you undercount, 2 million is an undercount. How much undercount could it be? So we are below where we want to be.

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HOLMES: Now, administration officials tell me they are tracking these numbers incredibly closely. They are watching and they will make some sort of a decision on what to do next week as those numbers continue to come in. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: And perhaps this could be expedited once we do have more vaccines on the market as well. But, of course, that's going to take at least another few months. Kristen, thanks to you. Now, let's go to Stephanie Elam in Southern, where that region's stay- at-home order is likely to be extended. What more can you tell us?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And this we learned yesterday, Bianna, when Governor Gavin Newsom had an update he said that when they look at the data through yesterday that they do expect they'll extend the stay-at-home order in two of the five regions. That would be the San Joaquin Valley, where they're out of ICU beds, and here in the Southern California region, where we're also out of ICU beds, this as it's painting a picture of just a dire situation.

Some of the hospitals in Southern California, in Los Angeles County, in particular, are so full of COVID patients that they're treating some of these patients inside of ambulances, outside, they've even turned some areas at the hospital that normally should not have patients into places where they're now treating people for the coronavirus.

Here in the L.A. County, they're saying, every minute, nine to ten minutes people are testing positive for the virus as well. These numbers are astronomical and this is what they're really concerned here, is that these numbers are going to continue to rise because they're saying they saw this rise start at the beginning of November after Halloween. That's when people seemed to get lax and start to spend more time outside of their bubbles.

Then we had Thanksgiving and the surge after that. And we can already tell you, based on TSA saying that they had more people go through their checkpoints on Sunday than any other day since the pandemic began, people are mixing. And so because of that, they're expecting a surge upon a surge.

Dr. Anthony Fauci earlier on CNN today saying that January could be worse than December. And keep in mind right now, December is the most deadly month that we've seen since the pandemic began. We've also seen that the number of cases has been the most during this month, and that's beating out November's record.

So, you see that these the numbers are going in the wrong direction and the hospital workers, the staff, they are beyond taxed. Taxed isn't enough of a word to how they are dealing with this in some parts of -- especially Los Angeles County, but you can see it across the state, Los Angeles hitting -- I'm sorry, I should say California hitting a record number of hospitalizations on Monday along with seven other states.

So, overall, when you look at the fact you have 121,000-plus people in the hospital, that's a record there, on top of the fact that for the last 27 days, we've had over 100,000 people in the hospital in the United States.

[10:10:01]

The numbers are staggering. And, again, when I say these numbers, I really need people to understand that these numbers are people. These are people battling the virus and many of them losing their lives, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, and many of them currently being treated in gift shops and chapels because these hospitals are so inundated, and for these hospital workers, this is now their second or even third surge that they're dealing with. Our thoughts are with them. Thank you so much, Stephanie Elam, we appreciate it.

And I'm joined by Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also on the CDC advisory committee on immunization practices. Doctor, thanks for coming on with us.

So, the administration has said that the goal was for 20 million people to be vaccinated by the end of the year. As you know, we are far, far below that. What can be done now over the next few weeks to speed up this process?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, INFECTIOUS DISEASES DIVISION AT VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Well, Bianna, those goals were always aspirational and things always look easier from Washington than they do down in the field. You know, we have over 6,000 local health departments across this country. They're all starting their vaccinations along with many major medical centers. And we're all doing it very, very carefully.

As we get through our first week or two weeks of doing it that way, we can speed things up. And I know here at Vanderbilt, we have no slots for vaccine recipients that are going unused. So things are clearly revving up. Think of it like a locomotive getting started. Those first few wheel turns are slow and difficult and then things move faster.

And so, as we get into the New Year, I think things will move much more rapidly, particularly as we get more vaccine.

GOLODRYGA: Well, let's hope for that. I want to ask you about what President-elect Biden is going to be referencing today, and that is speeding up the process. Would something like enacting the Defense Production Act be helpful at all?

SCHAFFNER: Well, actually, I would think that every vaccine manufacturer is absolutely working day and night to produce more vaccines. The Defense Production Act might help us with personal protective equipment and other things that we need in hospitals in order to care for patients. That would probably be a good idea. But I would think the vaccine manufacturers, they are working 24/7 full speed ahead. And then if we get some new vaccines that are approved, that, of course, will help things also.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, I want to follow-up on that, because that obviously would help the situation tremendously to have more vaccines on the market. When do you expect the next vaccine to get emergency approval by the FDA?

SCHAFFNER: Well, sometime this spring. I always like to underpromise and overdeliver. So I would say sometime this spring.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Where were you when they said 20 million doses by the end of the year, you could have cautioned them at that point.

We know that millions of people traveled for the December holidays. Should they now be quarantining for 14 days when they get home?

SCHAFFNER: We would like them to do that, of course. Do we think that's likely? Of course, not. So we clearly all anticipate, all across the country, a surge upon a surge upon a surge. And as your -- as your previous correspondents told you, hospitals all across the country are being stretched.

I know here at Vanderbilt, we've done many things to open up more beds, but at a certain point you can't open up more beds because there are no personnel to work them. You need highly trained personnel at the bedside. It's not just the bed itself. And so there will be strains all across the system we are sure going into the New Year.

GOLODRYGA: I still go back to the idea of patients being treated in gift shops and chapels. And I do wonder if we're going to see more hospital shifts, like we saw earlier in the year. It is a terrible situation that this country is in right now. Do you anticipate those types of circumstances?

SCHAFFNER: Oh, certainly. I think hospitals across the country are being very imaginative in how to make more places for more COVID patients. And a lot of that will continue. We're treating for patients more effectively as outpatients. We've learned so much in our capacity to do that. And that has eased the situation a little, but, nonetheless, many people need hospitalizations. And of those, some of those people will have to be in intensive care units. And that's where the squeeze is going to be.

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GOLODRYGA: Dr. William Schaffner, you have a way of telling us the truth but also making us feel a bit at ease as well. I appreciate that. I always look forward to talking to you. Thank you so much.

SCHAFFNER: Thank you. Thanks, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And still to come, coronavirus vaccinations begin at the nursing home that saw the first COVID outbreak in the United States. We return to the country's original epicenter, Kirkland, Washington, Straight ahead.

Plus, dramatic police video shows the chaos of the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville. We have the latest on the search for the bomber's motive.

And in about 30 minutes, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and you'll see it right here live on CNN.

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GOLODRYGA: As President Trump enters his final three weeks in office, there are signs that he's losing his grip on the Republican Party.

Joining me now is CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood and Brendan Buck, former top aide to former House Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner.

John, let's begin with you. There actually appears to be some sort of bipartisan taking place, 109 Republicans in the House voting to override the president's defense bill veto. Are we seeing the tide shift here or is this just an unusual circumstances?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, clearly, the tide is shifting in the sense that President Trump is only going to be in office for three more weeks. And so, obviously, power is rapidly draining away from him.

But I do think that people have somewhat misinterpreted the meaning of Trump's hold over the GOP. Trump's hold over the GOP has been reflected in Republicans' willingness to let him do and get away with things that he wants to do. It has not been in Donald Trump being able to force Republican elected officials to do things they don't want to do. They float in the same direction on policy, on judges, on tax cuts, that sort of thing.

And so in this case, Republicans really want to pass this defense bill, and they're going to do that. That's what we've seen in overwhelming votes in the House and Senate for passage and the House vote to override.

The same is true with respect to the $2,000 stimulus checks. Republicans in the Senate really don't want to pass $2,000 stimulus checks and they're not going to pass them. Mitch McConnell doesn't want to do it. And even if the Republicans are afraid of Trump, afraid of mean tweets, afraid of him calling for primary opponents, if they really have a strong feeling about a particular policy, he has not shown the ability to move them off that.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. The defense bill has passed every year for the past 60 odd years or so, which is why it's stunning that we're in this position right now.

But, Brendan, in terms of the $2,000 checks, you say the remarkable thing about the House vote, which included 44 Republicans shows President Trump very well could have at least gotten a bit further if he had bothered to engage while the bill was still being written, that's assuming Mitch McConnell was going to play ball at all. But what does that say about him coming in after the fact?

BRENDAN BUCK, FORMER TOP AIDE TO HOUSE SPEAKERS PAUL RYAN AND JOHN BOEHNER: Yes, I think John makes a really interesting point. It's not that he couldn't get people to do things legislatively if he wanted to, he has just never shown any interest in it. For four years, he never bothered to understand the legislative process, to engage in it, to drive towards any particular outcome.

Look, he has incredible power and sway over Republican voters that could manifest itself in being able to marshal an agenda through Congress because there are so many Republicans who will do anything he says. If he had engaged earlier on in this process and said, I need $2,000 checks, I'm quite confident he could have gotten it into the process.

But not only was he not interested, I don't even know that he was really not aware of what the details were. And so it was not until after the bill was already that he woke up and saw what it was.

Now, I think that a lot of this was about his grievance over the election, so I think it's sort of a post-policy issue. But if he had engaged earlier on, I'm very confident people would be getting $2,000 checks instead of what they ended up with, 600.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. It was stunning that the president even seemed to conflate in that video the omnibus bill with the coronavirus bill, that, clearly, he had not been involved closely in either.

But, John, if we can get back to the Mitch McConnell aspect here, he has been able to somewhat successfully navigate his own objectives and priorities over these past four years and tempering the president and trying to develop somewhat of a workable relationship. Has that completely just faded in these last few weeks in office?

HARWOOD: Well, I think it's kind of become irrelevant. Mitch McConnell's objective at this point is to get out of this Congress with that COVID relief bill passed in law, with the defense bill passed in law, and to hold control of the Senate. He's got a very good chance to do that. If he wins one of these two Georgia Senate races, he's going to still be the Senate majority leader still and Donald Trump is going to be a former president, yes, a former president with a large Twitter following.

But Mitch McConnell has been focused on his personal bottom line and his Senate caucus' bottom line for a long time and he seems to be in pretty good shape on that. And the fact that the president lashes out after a legislative negotiation has been concluded, perhaps out of spite because Mitch McConnell recognized that Joe Biden is the president-elect, I don't think that's going to bother Mitch McConnell all that much by being quiet, by keeping a low profile, by playing his cards at the right time. I think he's going to be able to get past whatever Donald Trump is throwing at him at the end.

[10:25:02]

GOLODRYGA: And a big test, obviously, will be what happens one week from today, the Senate runoffs there in Georgia. John Harwood and Brendan Buck, always great to have you on, happy holidays to you both and your families.

HARWOOD: You too.

BUCK: You too.

GOLODRYGA: Up next, vaccinations begin at the Washington State nursing home that saw the first U.S. outbreak of COVID-19, but the threat of this deadly virus still remains. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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