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Biden Team Lays Out National Strategy to Fight Coronavirus; Biden Reverses Decision to Withdraw from World Health Organization; Biden to Invite Congressional Leaders to the White House Soon; Senate Confirms First Cabinet Nominee in Biden Administration; GOP Senators Warn McConnell Could Face Backlash If He Votes to Convict Trump; CNN: Impeachment Article Could Be Sent to Senate Tomorrow; McConnell Pressures Schumer to Keep Senate Filibuster. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 21, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:53]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good post-inauguration Thursday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

Well, the work starts now. President Joe Biden's first full day in office focusing on fighting this deadly pandemic. The White House releasing a new national strategy, much of it aimed at testing and vaccine distribution. But CNN has learned this morning that when the Biden administration came in, they essentially inherited a nonexistent vaccine distribution strategy from the Trump administration. Despite that, they are still confident they can deliver 100 million vaccine doses in the next 100 days.

SCIUTTO: It will take a lot of work. Well, the new administration is also pushing a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package to help fight the deep economic fallout of this health crisis. We will hear from the president later today on all this. He's also expected to sign another slew of executive orders.

Our reporters and correspondents are standing by covering every angle of this new administration. Let's begin, though, with CNN White House correspondent MJ Lee.

MJ, so Biden's team tells you there was no plan. No vaccine plan. Nationally? I mean, from a federal standpoint or literally no plan whatsoever?

MJ LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's pretty remarkable. It's just going to be a matter of time before the Biden team really gets a handle on what exactly they inherited from the Trump administration. But what sources with direct knowledge told CNN within hours of Biden being sworn into office is that there essentially was no plan. No vaccine distribution plan under the Trump administration.

Take a look at this. One source telling CNN there is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch. Another source saying it was further affirmation of complete incompetence of the Trump administration that the Biden White House now has to start essentially from square one.

Now this is, obviously, from very strong language that we are hearing. And what we are learning is that some of the Biden COVID advisers wanted to be careful during the transition process because, remember, they were already having a pretty difficult time getting essential information from the outgoing Trump administration on everything related to COVID and vaccines. And now that Biden has been sworn in to office, the hope is that the Biden team can sort of go in on almost like a fact-checking mission trying to figure out what exactly is the status of everything on the ground, what is it that states need, where do things stand in terms of vaccine supplies and production.

And I just want to point out something that the White House COVID coordinator, Jeff Zients, told reporters yesterday. He said, "For almost a year now Americans could not look to the federal government for any strategy, let alone a comprehensive approach to respond to COVID. And we've seen the tragic cause of that failure. As President Biden steps into office today, that will change tomorrow."

Now, of course, today is Biden's first full day in office and we know that he is going to be almost entirely focused on COVID, signing 10 executive orders. And look at these goals that they have laid out, right? Restoring trust with the American people. Launching a vaccination campaign. Trying to contain COVID through measures like masking and testing. Reopening schools and businesses.

We are about to find out how quickly and how successfully the Biden White House can try to execute some of these plans, but it is just incredibly striking, guys, the fact that the Biden White House is even trying to lay out any kind of national strategy at all on these fronts.

SCIUTTO: Yes. It stands out there. To safely reopen schools, businesses and travel as well in the midst of this.

MJ Lee, thanks very much.

Well, the Biden administration is now working to pick up the pieces, vowing to expand, in particular, the nation's coronavirus vaccination effort.

HARLOW: Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is with us this morning.

Good morning, Elizabeth. I was so disheartened to see that news --

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

HARLOW: -- that in several states vaccine had, you know, expired, gone to waste, not been stored properly. It's devastating. How soon can Americans expect to be vaccinated now that Biden is in office?

[09:05:04] COHEN: So, Poppy, the reason for that devastating news is what MJ just told us. When you don't have a national plan, which the Trump administration did not have, their plan was, let the states figure it out. Here's some money. You guys figure it out. That's not a plan. We saw how well that went.

So how fast we get vaccinated depends on how quickly the Biden administration can administer this plan. The CNN data team has done an analysis of how quickly we could get to 75 percent of the U.S. population being vaccinated, which, approximately gets you to what we call herd immunity. In other words, the virus wouldn't spread any more or wouldn't spread in any significant way.

So let's take a look at those numbers. So far in the U.S., about 16, 1-6, 16 million Americans have been vaccinated. That gets us to about 829,000 per day. If we keep up that pace, 829,000 a day, we will get to 75 percent in February 2022. 2022. More than a year from now. If we can increase that to one million a day, then we could get to that 75 percent by the end of this year. If we can get it up to 1.6 million per day, then it's the end of the summer.

So, really, it just depends how quickly this can be done. This has been a very fragmented and chaotic effort. Hopefully the Biden administration can streamline it.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Listen, Americans want those vaccinations. I think we all do for ourselves and our families when they're ready and available.

So another decision immediate from President Biden reversing the Trump administration's decision to leave the World Health Organization, WHO. What does that mean practically right now?

COHEN: You know, it really slowed things down. You can't fight a pandemic as one country. The virus doesn't know any national boundaries, and so policies should not know national boundaries. But what Trump did was he put those boundaries on there by saying let's get out of the WHO. So let's talk about what Biden did. He did it so quickly, you know, just inaugurated yesterday. So Dr. Fauci, who is, of course, his chief medical adviser, he made an announcement this morning. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, PRESIDENT BIDEN'S CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: I am honored to announce that the United States will remain a member of the World Health Organization. Yesterday President Biden signed the letters retracting the previous administration's announcement to withdraw from the organization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So let's take a look at what exactly President Biden signed. He said that the U.S. is going to resume regular engagement with the WHO. It will fulfill its financial obligations and return U.S. staff who had been at WHO but then were pulled out. Not only that but Dr. Fauci thanked the WHO for their role in the pandemic, for accelerating vaccines, and drugs and tests, also for holding regular press briefings, for supplying supplies and for helping nations fight against COVID-19.

So, Jim, Poppy, what we're seeing is how adults deal with things. You thank people. You don't antagonize them -- Jim, Poppy.

HARLOW: That's for sure. Thank you, Elizabeth, very much.

New this morning, President Biden will invite congressional leaders to the White House soon, we're learning, to discuss his legislative agenda.

SCIUTTO: CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny joins us now with more.

So, Jeff, do we know when that meeting could take place and what we expect Biden to push in that meeting?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Jim and Poppy. I'm told that meeting could take place as early as tomorrow. It could potentially slide to early next week. But the significance of this meeting will certainly be President Biden's opening bid to a former working relationship with the top four congressional leaders, as well as talk about his agenda going forward.

I mean, everything that we've been discussing this morning so far, coronavirus first and foremost, is at the heart of what he wants these conversations to be about. His entire legislative package, that American rescue plan, $1.9 trillion, hinges on support from Congress. Are they going to get all of that? No. They know that they won't but that's a starting point. But you need to start negotiating.

So President Biden already has been, you know, spending some time with these leaders. We saw him start his day yesterday even before being sworn in, intentionally inviting the four top congressional leaders. Nancy Pelosi, now Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Senate minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, to mass with him.

So they spent some time at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle before the inauguration ceremony. They spent some time privately, I'm told, after the swearing in. So certainly the ice has been broken. Now it's time to have an actual conversation about the way forward legislatively. So that is the agenda item for the meeting which I'm told could come as early as tomorrow.

[09:10:02]

So this is really a continuation of what we saw the last time Mr. Biden was in the White House. He often led these negotiations with Capitol Hill with President Obama on economic concerns. So that is the relationship that the dynamic he wants to continue. But one key point, impeachment also is going to complicate things in the Senate. So he wants to send a message that you can do two things at once. Have the impeachment hearing and trial in the afternoon and keep confirming the nominees in the morning.

That is the agenda item for a meeting that could come as early as tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: We'll see. We know a lot of Republicans have said they would not support that.

Jeff Zeleny, outside the White House, thanks very much.

Just last night, the Senate did confirm President Biden's first Cabinet nominee, Avril Haines, as director of National Intelligence, senior most intelligence official in the country. She is now the first woman ever to lead the U.S. intelligence community.

HARLOW: Our Jessica Dean is with us this morning.

Good morning to you, Jess. Haines' nomination in doubt for much of the day yesterday.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They went back and forth on that. Good morning to both of you. But here's where things stand today. Avril Haines has been confirmed so the Biden team has one of their nominees confirmed. That leaves a lot, still to make their way through Capitol Hill, still to make their way through these Senate confirmation hearings.

Right now what's kind of holding that up is that Democrats and Republicans still haven't hammered out their power-sharing agreement there which means they're not sure who is leading committees. So this is slowing it down a little bit. But there has been progress made on these Senate confirmation hearings.

We know that Transportation secretary-nominee Pete Buttigieg is going to testify later today. CNN did obtain a copy of his remarks. He's going to talk about the importance of infrastructure, which we know is very important to the Biden team. It's a legislation they want to get through. And so he's going to talk in his hearing about infrastructure and about how important that is, as he makes his case to be Transportation secretary to that Senate committee.

Widening it out a little bit, here's what else we know this morning. We know that there are several other nominees who have already testified before the Senate, in those hearings. That includes Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary nominee, Tony Blinken, the secretary of State nominee, and also Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security nominee. They are waiting a full Senate vote on their nominations.

We also know that today, guys, and this is key, the House is going to vote on retired General Lloyd Austin's waiver to serve as Defense secretary. A lot of people coming forward to say they will support that. That is good to the Biden team's ears. We'll keep an eye to see what happens there -- Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: OK. Jess, thank you for that reporting.

We have a lot ahead this hour. Still to come, as the Biden administration focuses on improving the COVID vaccine rollout, it needs to be majorly improved, states are in a dire situation. Doses in short supply. Some doses even going to waste and a death toll that is surging.

SCIUTTO: Doses to waste. Just incredible. And more from the hill on President Biden's calls for unity, but how far will bipartisanship really go in this new administration?

And something everyone can get behind. This was the scene last night. It was just stunning. I mean, man, if you haven't seen clips of it, please do. There's one over Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day.

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[09:15:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. So this morning, we're learning the house Democrats could send that article of impeachment against the president over to the Senate for a trial as early as tomorrow. A group of Senate Republicans at the same time is warning Mitch McConnell, now the minority leader of backlash if he votes to convict the former president.

SCIUTTO: CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill. For more on this, Lauren, this is your reporting. So, if the articles go over to the Senate on Friday, how soon could a trial in the Senate begin, and is there talk of it being as short as three days?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, this is certainly part of the effort to move this process along so that it does not overshadow Biden's presidency for very long. Essentially what we have heard from two sources now is that the plan could be to send these articles over as soon as tomorrow. Now, one of the complicating factors here is the fact that President Donald -- former President Donald Trump does not have a lawyer yet, and that is essentially giving Democrats a little bit of pause about how fast they want to move forward with this. Remember, they are trying to make a case to their Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate that this is a fair trial. Essentially, they want to make sure that he has representation.

But we are hearing that these articles or this article could be sent over as soon as tomorrow. That potentially could put the Senate on track for having an impeachment trial as soon as next week. Now, one of the other complicating factors here, of course, is whether or not any Republicans would vote to convict former President Trump. You've already heard from some Republicans who argue it's unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial on an ex-president. You also have some Republicans saying that justice needs to be done here. So essentially, a little bit of a divide. Meanwhile, Majority leader Mitch McConnell has not said which way he would vote on a conviction charge. And you have Republicans who are arguing that the party cannot move forward without President Donald Trump in office as someone that they can look to. So here's what Lindsey Graham said yesterday on "Fox News". (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If this party is going to survive, we've got to realize that Donald Trump had a consequential presidency for conservatives. That he's going to be the strongest voice in the party. If you're wanting to erase Donald Trump from the party, you're going to get erased.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:20:00]

FOX: So, again, McConnell facing potential backlash if he voted to convict former President Trump on that charge, that article of impeachment for inciting insurrection. But a lot of pressure here and Republicans still working through how to move forward in the days ahead. Jim and Poppy?

SCIUTTO: We know you'll be watching it, Lauren Fox, thanks very much. Joining me now to discuss is Senator Edward Markey; Democrat from Massachusetts. Senator, thanks for taking the time this morning.

SEN. EDWARD MARKEY (D-MA): Good morning. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: So you heard our reporting there that the articles could go to the Senate and to you and your colleagues by Friday. If that happens, how soon could a trial start, next week?

MARKEY: Well, I hope it starts as soon as possible. We need to ensure that we have full accountability for what Donald Trump did in inciting that insurrection, and we can't erase that. He did it. You know, he incited that mob. He incited that attack on the house and the Senate. On --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

MARKEY: Our temple of democracy, which is the Capitol building. He did it. So we need the trial. We need the vote on conviction, and we should do it as quickly as possible. But consistent with the impeachment managers having a case that they have prepared fully and are ready to present to the United States Senate.

SCIUTTO: "Politico" is reporting that there's discussion of a trial as short as three days. Would that be sufficient to meet the standard of a fair trial, a thorough trial and investigation?

MARKEY: Well, it's a one count impeachment. And in many ways, the Senate members were eye witnesses to this crime against our democracy. So I think that we can use a process by which all of that evidence is laid out before the Senate and to the American people, and then, well, we can have a vote on his conviction. And if that's successful, then a subsequent vote on barring him from ever again running for the presidency of the United States. I think that's imperative as well. But I think that case can be made in a relatively brief period of time. The evidence is there, America saw it. The Senate was under attack. We know what happened. And I think we could conduct that trial in a very truncated but efficient and ultimately conclusive way, so the American people know that justice was done.

SCIUTTO: OK, as you know, President Biden and others want to have a two-track plan here, right? Consider at least the president's nominees in the morning, do a trial in the afternoon. Many Republicans have pushed back on that. Is there any agreement emerging for a two-track plan or will it have to be trial first and other business later?

MARKEY: Well, I know that leader Schumer is talking to Mitch McConnell about a schedule. My hope is that we could reach an agreement on that because it is important for us to discharge our constitutional obligation to conduct this impeachment trial. But we also have to confirm the cabinet nominees of Joe Biden and pass the big, bold legislative agenda that Joe Biden addressed the nation yesterday and challenged us to respond to these multiple crisis that we are facing. So, I think we have to do it all. I think we can do it all. We're going to have to work around the clock in the Senate and the house in order to accomplish those goals, but I don't think we have a historic choice. We have to do it.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned the discussions between Schumer and McConnell, also part of those discussions, McConnell demanding that Schumer take off the table the possibility of Democrats eliminating the filibuster. Is that an agreement that Chuck Schumer should make with McConnell?

MARKEY: Well, my feeling is that President Biden has called for a bold agenda to deal with the climate crisis, the crisis of racial injustice in our country, the coronavirus pandemic crisis, the economic recession that our country is in. We're facing multiple crisis. And so, from my perspective, we have to leave every option on the table, including the filibuster in order to make sure that we deal with each and every one of those crisis. Donald Trump has left the presidency with our country in crisis. And we have to be able to respond and the Senate rules have to be used in a way that is -- that is consistent with dealing with those incredible problems that we have right now. And that means all options have to be on the table, including eliminating the filibuster.

[09:25:00]

SCIUTTO: Final question, of course, you listened to the president yesterday speak about unity, bipartisanship. He's been meeting with Republican leaders. You, I know, speak to your Republican colleagues. Is that going to happen for real? I mean, we know the politics within the Republican Party, and some already pushing back against any sort of cooperation. But do you see and do you have conversations with Republican colleagues that give you confidence there are areas you could work together on?

MARKEY: Well, my hope is that we can work together. The coronavirus pandemic is not a red or a blue problem. We have to deal with this recession that we're in. We have to deal with it on a bipartisan basis. Immigration reform, we were making progress seven or eight years ago before the Republican-controlled house blocked it. So, I know there are many areas where we can work together. But it's going to require putting this Trump era behind us. It was just so loaded with -- SCIUTTO: Yes --

MARKEY: Acrimony and bitterness that we have to turn the page. You know, Joe Biden's favorite Irish poem -- poet, Seamus Heaney said that --

SCIUTTO: Senator --

MARKEY: "There are moments in time where hope and history rhyme." My hope is that the Republicans can see that this is that time, and we have to respond to this historic moment.

SCIUTTO: Senator Ed Markey, we wish you the best of luck. Thanks for joining us this morning.

MARKEY: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, several states are this morning really sounding the alarm on their vaccine supply or lack thereof. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says here in New York, the supply is going to be depleted in just a few days and is essentially begging the Biden administration for more help now. We'll have more on that, next.

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