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Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) is Interviewed about Cases of the COVID-19 Variant; Biden Optimistic about the Nation; Iran Warns of Retaliation. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired January 01, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

CARLOS GIMENEZ (R), FLORIDA REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: Escaping socialism and communism. And so, yes, we have a natural bond and I think that that bond will play itself out during the next two years.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman-elect Carlos Gimenez, I really appreciate your time.

Again, Happy New Year. Thanks so much for waking up with us and sharing your thoughts and perspective today. Good luck.

GIMENEZ: Happy New Year to you, too, and to all your -- to all of your viewers.

CABRERA: Thank you.

GIMENEZ: God bless you all.

CABRERA: You, too.

Slow rollout for COVID vaccines here in the U.S. as we begin to see a new variant spread. The governor of Colorado joins us next to talk about it.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[09:35:01]

CABRERA: Right now states are facing serious pressure to get vaccines rolled out. The CDC says fewer than 3 million Americans have received a shot. Add in confirmed cases of a new variant and Colorado has a lot to tackle.

Joining us now to talk about all of this is Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

Good morning and Happy New Year. I know it's extra early there, so thanks for waking up early for us.

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): Good morning, Ana. Good to see. CABRERA: We have important stuff to get to.

Health officials in your state say they believe they found a second case of the U.K. variant that is more contagious, more transmissible in that state. Both the confirmed and the suspected case we know are National Guard members deployed to help a nursing home.

Have you been able to confirm that second case now and have you identified any others?

POLIS: So the early indicators are there. It's now going through the complete analysis to confirm that case. It is in the same chain of transmission, meaning likely exposure to the first person who contracted the variant.

This variant is not the prevalent variant in Colorado. We've been analyzing a number of samples. I was proud of Colorado scientists to be the first to isolate it in somebody. Since then it's been identified in several other states.

CABRERA: How concerned are you about this new strain?

POLIS: Well, you know, what we saw in the United Kingdom was it became the prevalent variant in an area of the United Kingdom over a period of about a month or two, which is one of the reasons that scientists there indicated it likely is more contagious. Right now we're monitoring it closely. Ultimately, we're just trying to figure out, you know, whether, in fact, this is here in a major way or whether it's just an isolated few cases.

CABRERA: How do you plan to respond to it knowing it is more contagious and more transmissible? How do you prevent it from becoming the prevalent strain?

POLIS: Yes, well, that's tough. You know, we are screening more and more samples for this strain. But the good news, Ana, is that the same exact techniques worked to control the spread of this strain than the already very transmissible strain that was already prevalent. To be clear, the normal form of COVID-19 is extremely contagious. That's why we're in the grips of this global pandemic.

So, wear a mask, avoid socializing with people outside of your household and keep a distance of at least six feet with others. All very important. Tried and true. They might not work quite as well against a new variant, but those are the most effective weapons that we have.

CABRERA: Meantime, you just announced that you are easing some restrictions in some counties there in Colorado based on sustained decline of cases for 13 days, as well as the availability of ICU beds. But knowing that you have the new U.K. variant, and we're -- we are seeing a surge in cases, deaths and hospitalizations all around the country, why is now the time to ease restrictions?

POLIS: Well, we have a number of counties that are just on the cusp of meeting that criteria where they have had, as you indicated, declining caseloads for two weeks and also enough hospital capacity to weather another surge. Our north star has always been we don't want to avoid overwhelming our hospitals in Colorado leading to unnecessary loss of life. Thus far we've been able to do that. But our ability to do that through the vaccination program really depends on people's ability to wear masks and avoid socializing with people outside of their households for another few weeks and months.

CABRERA: Right. So are you prepared to reverse course and re-impose restrictions, especially given that there may be spikes from holiday gatherings?

POLIS: Well, fortunately, Colorado has really stepped up over Thanksgiving and there -- we did not have a significant spike from Thanksgiving. I think the early indications are we're hopefully seeing the same kind of smart behavior over Christmas. We hope the same is the case with New Year.

But we always look at the data in real-time every day. We were a little worried three or four weeks ago as we were nearing hospital capacity in some areas of our state. We even considered activating some of our extra hospital capacity that we built, our centers that we built, came very close to that. We didn't have to do that and I'm very grateful for that.

CABRERA: Well, aren't we all. I sure hope that these numbers continue in the right direction there in Colorado.

I do want to ask about the vaccine rollout because the latest numbers on Colorado's website show more than 94,000 residents have been vaccinated so far, at least with that first dose.

Is that number satisfactory to you?

POLIS: Well, I'm proud that we're in the top five states for percentage of vaccine in people's arms. We're moving as fast as we can. We were constrained by how much vaccine that we receive. If we got more, and also particularly, Ana, if we knew we were getting more a few days ahead or a week ahead, we would -- we would schedule to get that in arms.

We're currently inoculating people 70 and up in many parts of our state. In some parts of our states they're still completing people that work in the health care workers that work in COVID wards, nurses and doctors and others.

CABRERA: Help us understand why there is such a discrepancy between, you know, how many doses have been shipped to your state versus how many people have actually received shots in the arm because an analysis from CNN and Johns Hopkins shows that more than 246,000 doses have been delivered to Colorado and yet, as we just mentioned, 94,000 people have received those doses.

[09:40:13]

Where is the breakdown in getting knows doses into people's arms? POLIS: So as has been reported, there is a lag factor in there. All of

our partners, hospitals, providers, et cetera, have three days to enter the data from when they do the inoculation.

We've also set up a system -- one of the reasons I think Colorado is one of the highest states in terms of percentage of vaccine that's already been deployed, is we -- any of our partners at -- these are community health clinics, hospitals, et cetera, if they are going to be administering vaccine, anything we give them, they need to use within 72 hours or we will simply reassign it to another provider that can get it into the arm to start the protection clock for somebody whose 70 and up.

CABRERA: So, quickly, because I'm out of time, but I just want to understand, have you already used all of those 246,000 doses, they just haven't -- the results haven't been reported?

POLIS: Those doses should get us through Monday. We're not expecting to -- we generally receive new doses on Monday and Tuesday. Sometimes even into Wednesday. So the uncertainty factors into it because you don't want to actually run out for a period of days. But, generally speaking, we want to schedule all the doses to be used right around the time we're expecting the next set of doses to be used.

CABRERA: OK.

POLIS: So we get a large number on Monday and Tuesday, sometimes Wednesday, use them through the week, through the weekend, they have to be distributed to different parts of our state. We usually won't -- don't expect any additional doses until the following Monday or Tuesday. So it's really making sure that we have the ability to continue that in an uninterrupted way.

CABRERA: OK, thanks for pulling back the curtain and helping us understand. I appreciate it.

Governor Jared Polis, good to see you. Thanks for being here.

POLIS: Take care.

CABRERA: It's a new year, but it is the same old road blocks for President-elect Biden's transition team. They say they are still fighting with the Trump administration over access.

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[09:46:11]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT FOR THE UNITED STATES: I'm more optimistic about America's chances than I've ever been. And I've been around this for a while. I find that we're in a situation where we once again have to step up and lead the world and lead the nation. And we -- I -- and, look, there's never been a single thing America has been unable to overcome no matter how drastic it's been. I am absolutely positively confident, confident, we're going to come

back and come back even stronger than we were before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: President-elect Joe Biden feeling good about the new year, but his transition team says they are still hitting some road blocks. They have accused the administration of withholding critical information that could be damage to go national security. President Trump's defense and budget officials adamantly deny this.

CNN political correspondent MJ Lee is following all these developments.

What have you learned, MJ?

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, we're seeing he said/she said between the Biden transition team and the Trump administration. You'll recall that Biden himself earlier this week said that there have been road blocks and obstruction from some parts of the Trump government, particularly pointing to the OMB and the DOD saying, look, my teams are not getting all the information and the cooperation that they need.

And the latest back and forth is this, we've got a letter from the OMB director to the transition team saying yesterday these are false accusations. We have been fully cooperative. We have done everything right. And what he also wrote was that he will not help the Biden transition with their legislative priorities. That what he doesn't want to do is help them dismantle this administration's work. Those are his exact words from this letter.

And so that prompted the Biden transition team to put out a new statement of their own last night as well, essentially calling all of this out as partisanship and accusing the Trump administration of hurting their opportunity to sort of be really prepared and do important things like prepare a budget, for example. So this is sort of the latest back and forth between the OMB and the Biden transition.

Ana, you'll also recall we did a lot of reporting earlier this week on the friction between the DOD and the Biden transition. The Biden transition accusing of DOD of not scheduling enough meetings, saying that we're not getting the important national security information that we need. Well, the latest update on that front is that the Pentagon saying last night that next week there are going to be 30 meetings scheduled between the Biden transition team and members of the DOD. So we'll have to see if this sort of marks a turning of the corner, at least on the DOD front. But, needless to say, this has been a messy, messy transition with a lot of back and forths, Ana.

CABRERA: All right, MJ Lee, thank you.

U.S. tensions with Iran spiking sharply ahead of a big anniversary this weekend. We will have the latest on the threats and warnings from both sides when we come back.

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[09:53:29]

CABRERA: Growing tensions in the Middle East this morning over a possible attack by Iran against American forces. Sunday marks one year since the U.S. drone strike that killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and his successor is suggesting any further retaliation for the killing could come from someone within the United States.

CNN's Barbara Starr joins us now from the Pentagon.

Barbara, I understand you have some new information?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Ana.

Yes. I mean the troubling indicators are only growing. A U.S. official with knowledge of the latest information tells us that Iran has raised the readiness levels of its maritime forces, its forces at sea in the Persian Gulf region, in the last 48 hours.

Now, let's be clear, what the U.S. says is that readiness by the Iranians has been increased but the U.S. doesn't know at this point what Iranian specific intentions are. Is it defensive because they expect an attack by the U.S. or is Iran actually preparing to conduct operations against U.S. forces at sea? So a very troubling indicator in the last 48 hours that they are watching carefully.

And all of it comes, as you say, as Iranian rhetoric is growing as we approach the one year marker of the U.S. assassination ordered by President Trump against General Qasem Soleimani, the one-time head of their Quds force. The current head, one of just many Iranian officials speaking out as that anniversary date approaches, and he said just hours ago, and let me quote some of what he had -- he did say.

[09:55:05]

He said, our path in resistance will not change according to U.S. mischief, with the extent of the crimes that you have committed, people from your own house may end up being the ones who retaliate.

So potentially suggested threat there that a retaliation could come from someone, some entity inside the United States. And we know that the Iranians have been threatening for months, basically an eye for an eye, one of their generals dying and the eye for the eye, unpleasant to say. But the reality is, their threats have been directed against U.S. military personnel. So a very watchful situation because at the same time the U.S. watching carefully to see for any indications, as you just said, of an attack against U.S. troops across the way inside Iraq.

Ana.

CABRERA: It is concerning and the rhetoric, as you point out, is escalating, if nothing else.

Barbara Starr, thank you. Grim news on the toll the coronavirus is taking as we start this new year. More than 10,000 Americans have died just in the past three days.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Don't go anywhere.

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