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States Sound Alarm on Vaccine Demand; No Vaccine Rollout Plan; New Evidence in Capitol Riots; Biden Dismantles Trump Foreign Policies. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired January 21, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:13]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: So there was no plan. Striking news this morning as sources tell CNN that President Biden's team will begin a vaccine rollout plan from scratch.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: How can that be? Despite inheriting no plan, they are still committing to 100 million people being vaccinated in the U.S. in these first 100 days of the administration. So far just about 16.5 million doses have been given.

Let's go to our colleague, Alexandra Field. She has more on this vaccine race and the desperation in growing states.

Good morning, Alex.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy.

And that 16.5 million number is so important because when you look at that, that's the number of shots in arms, but it really represents the fact that just about 46 percent of the shots that have been delivered and distributed have actually made their way into arms.

So the Biden administration knows that they have a number of crises to tackle in a number of fronts on which they must do it.

They are working desperately to try to increase the supply of vaccine across the country, but they know that in order to succeed here, they will also critically need to improve the mechanisms that states are using to deliver those shots and also to provide states with the necessary resources to get that job done.

You've got President Biden signing a flurry of executive orders today that are intended to help smooth the process. On top of that, the federal government has announced that they will be working with states and localities to try and set up more sites quickly and, most critically, to work to staff those sites.

But the White House's new coronavirus coordinator has also acknowledged a major problem in communication, saying there's been a ton of confusion among states about how many doses of vaccines they will actually receive. And that's a problem that's hitting home right here in New York where Governor Andrew Cuomo is saying that we're in danger of running out of vaccine in a matter of just a couple of days and that this is a pattern that is likely to repeat itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): What's clear now is we're going to be going from week to week. And you will see a constant pattern of basically running out, waiting for the next week's allocation and then starting up again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Governor Cuomo among the governors across the country who are pleading with the new administration to help them get more supplies. The governor says at this rate it would take more than seven and a half months to vaccinate just the eligible pool of people in New York right now.

Poppy. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Oh, my gosh. Wow.

Alex, thank you for that. That puts it all in perspective.

Dr. Leana Wen is with us. She's an emergency room physician. Also formerly the Baltimore health commissioner.

Hearing that is so disheartening and how long it's still going to take for people to get vaccinated. I should note one up side, I think, that we heard from Dr. Fauci this morning is that it looks like the Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial, they're going to start getting those results, the data analysis, in a week or two. You're part of that trial.

Will that significantly change things, or is this merely a distribution issue at this point?

DR. LEANA WEN, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: I think it's both, Poppy. I think the more supply that we have, the better it's going to be. And Johnson & Johnson will definitely be a game changer if the results come out that the vaccine is safe and effective because this is a one-dose vaccine. It's also a vaccine that can be stored in refrigerated temperatures for months. And so you know that the simpler the logistics, the more likely the operation is going to be successful.

And so I think we need to work on the supply issue, but also very critically on the administration of the vaccination. And, frankly, none of us should be surprised at this point that the Trump administration did not have a plan for vaccination beyond getting the vaccines to the states.

The question, though, is, what about the vaccine supply in and of itself?

[09:35:02]

I think that's something that the Biden team should tackle as their number one priority, exactly how many doses of the vaccine are available right now? And how many are expected for the rest of this month? States need this information to plan their own operations.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Wen, so this is a, at least in part, a last mile problem, like getting it, not just from the storage centers, but into people's arms.

So what's the fix? I mean where are you and I and our families going to get this eventually? Will it be from our GP? Will it be from a CVS? Will it be lining up at a sports stadium? You know, how's it -- how's it going to get fixed?

WEN: It needs to be all of the above. And that's something actually in the last days of the Trump administration former Health Secretary Alex Azar announced and it sounds like the Biden team is going to be continuing in this plan of having as many sites as possible, meaning that the vaccine should be available absolutely in community pharmacies.

You look at a state like West Virginia and they've been able to do vaccinations very quickly because they've enlisted their community pharmacies where people go.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WEN: Also health centers and doctors' offices should have access to the vaccine. And we need these mass vaccination sites, especially in hard-hit areas. So it needs to be all of the above. This needs to be all hands on deck, really a wartime effort. And I think the Biden administration's number one, two and three priority need to be the vaccination rollout.

HARLOW: You just wrote a really important opinion piece about not only is sort of mass distribution necessary but equitable distribution. And along with the U.S. re-entering the World Health Organization, this went a little less noticed but really important, the U.S. is now joining COVAX. That's the effort to equitably distribution vaccines around the world, especially to those poorer countries that the Trump administration refused to be a part of.

How big of a game changer is that, not just for us, for people in the U.S., but for the world?

WEN: Well, I think we've all seen in this pandemic that if you have an infection somewhere in the world, it's not just going to remain in that part of the world, that this is really a global problem that requires a global solution.

And I think equity also has to start right here at home as well. We know that this pandemic has affected people unequally. That communities of color, low-income people have really borne the brunt of this pandemic. And these disparities are not going to go away on their own. And, actually, if you have first come, first served type of operations, it's the people who are hit the hardest who are still not going to have access to the vaccines.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WEN: And so that focus on equity, in addition to focusing on speed, is going to be really important. Doing things like making vaccines free, figuring out where it is that people really need the vaccines, tracking demographic information and then targeting those areas, we need to do all the above.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Wen, it's a long list. Thanks very much.

Well, new evidence is emerging of just horrifying scenes police officers faced while fighting for their lives during the deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill. Officers were beaten with everything from a fire extinguisher to the American flag.

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[09:42:07]

SCIUTTO: This morning, new video evidence of just the real danger Capitol Police officers faced while fighting for their lives during the Capitol insurrection. Body camera footage shows police were attacked with flag poles, fire extinguishers, fists, really anything the rioters could get their hands on.

HARLOW: One U.S. Capitol police officer, of course you know him, his name, Brian Sicknick, he was the one killed during the attack. More than 100 other officers injured. At least 15 of them hospitalized.

Our justice correspondent Jessica Schneider is following these developments as they come in.

Worse by the day to learn what actually happened.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is. That's right. We're getting more and more of these details about how these officers were literally in this fight for their lives as these rioters turned anything they could into weapons. And the details of really this hand- to-hand combat that these officers endured, they're -- it's being disclosed as more and more people are arrested and charged.

The most serious charges we're seeing are against those who attacked police. And that includes a retired Pennsylvania firefighters prosecutes say actually threw a fire extinguisher at a group of police officers and he struck three of them in the head, including one of them who was taken to the hospital. You can see the video right here.

And then, of course, there was that D.C. police officer who talked to CNN. He said he was repeatedly Tasered in the neck. That actually caused a heart attack. And he told us he had to beg the rioters to spare his life, telling them that he had kids, and that's when they let him go.

So it's really just a devastating picture that's emerging as we get more of these criminal complaints filed in court. And, of course, Poppy and Jim, as we're seeing more and more video, including from police body cams.

SCIUTTO: So there were, of course, the violence here. But there's also the intelligence loss -- potential intelligence loss. We have a woman now accused of stealing a laptop from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She was in court for a bail hearing. What's the latest?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, so it's happening right now. And prosecutors are expected to ask the judge to keep her in jail. They say that she's a flight risk and could obstruct justice. You know, she's facing a multitude of charges. And it's really been a bizarre and concerning set of accusations so far.

So a tipster who was Riley's ex-boyfriend told the FBI that she actually wanted to sell that laptop to Russia's foreign intelligence service. So she's now facing charges of aiding and abetting the stealing of government property because prosecutors say that maybe she didn't take it herself but maybe she actually filmed a gloved hand lifting it off a table inside the Capitol. So there are a lot of questions here and the FBI's still investigating those charges. It's not really clear if her ex-boyfriend just made the allegations up, but it really does show -- all of these cases, it shows how quickly the FBI's working to apprehend and charge people.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SCHNEIDER: And so far more than 100 people charged and we're likely to see a lot more, guys.

SCIUTTO: And just what a security breach it was.

Jessica Schneider, thanks very much.

[09:45:01]

All right, so will President Biden's administration mean a return to the world stage for the United States? A position of leadership? How changes the president has already made signal a big transition from the Trump administration.

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HARLOW: Well there is reaction from President Biden's inauguration pouring in this morning from around the world. Take a look at some of the newspaper headlines from across the globe.

SCIUTTO: In the U.K., "Time for Unity." I heard that word before. "End this Uncivil War." "Democracy has Prevailed." In Spain, "We Have Much to Heal."

[09:50:00]

Just a glimpse of how some countries around the world hopeful for what the new administration will bring.

It's not unanimous. Others not so happy. Joining us now to discuss, Ambassador Richard Haass. He is president

of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "The World: A Brief Introduction." He served in the George W. Bush administration.

Good to have you on, as always.

AMBASSADOR RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Hi, Jim.

SCIUTTO: You say among the biggest failures of the Trump administration was damage to American democracy. And I imagine, as a result, soft power.

Is that rescued by this election? I mean it was only a couple of weeks ago we had people storming the castle, right, the Capitol. How does Biden repair that? Can he repair that, all the damage?

HAASS: Look, reputations take a long time to build up. Whether they're individuals or countries. Pretty easy to down. It's going to be a while before we dig ourselves out of that. Those images will stay with the rest of the world and we've got to demonstration, day in, day out, week in, week out, that our democracy can deliver. Whether it's effective governance, deal with racism, of the other things that have plagued this society for years. I think the rest of the world is hopeful. Yesterday most of the world will see yesterday as finally the arrows are going in the right direction here. But we've got a -- we've got a long road to go back.

HARLOW: You wrote just a few days ago that Trump's final act has accelerated the onset of the post American world. And you -- what I -- what struck me most actually in your piece was, you talked about the need for America to be self-aware.

Can you explain that a little bit more?

HAASS: Yes, I mean, the first half of it was the idea that the rest of the world won't see us quite the same way and won't depend on us quite the same way.

HARLOW: Right.

HAASS: If this could happen once, the fear is it could happen again, whether in four years or some other time.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HAASS: The self-awareness is, I think we have to be much more conscience of our own flaws, of our own shortcomings, enough with this stuff about shining cities on a hill, American exceptionalism.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HAASS: Let's make the place work. Let's make the American dream a reality rather than just a dream. Let's do something with infrastructure, do something about COVID. We've got a long list of things we've got to repair here at home. SCIUTTO: Yes.

Yes, you've been preaching that for a number of years in a number of books to your credit about repairing the issues at home, helps build your power abroad.

I want to ask you, because certainly many things will change, I mean from Keystone Pipeline, you know, to commitment to NATO, et cetera. But one thing unlikely to change or change dramatically, right, is the U.S. approach to China. That this more confrontational standing up to China has become something of a bipartisan position, has it not?

HAASS: It has. And the reason is it's a gentleman named Xi Jinping. The biggest change is not U.S. -- is not what happened here. We're reacting to what's happened there. This is a more repressive China. It's a stronger China militarily. It's a more assertive China. And what you've seen, as you say, Jim, across party lines, the United States is essentially come to a different conclusion. Rather than seeing China on a trajectory where it would eventually moderate at home and abroad, we've now concluded that's not going to happen, we have to respond to that.

HARLOW: Your friend and Eurasia Group President Ian Brenner, said last week after the Capitol insurrection, quote, you can't lump U.S. democracy in with Canada, Germany and Japan anymore. And his belief is that we're now midway between them and Hungry.

Do you agree with him? Do you think it changed it that much for a long time?

HAASS: Look, the answer is, we don't know. We'll have to see what happens. Now, I don't mean to avoid your question, but I'm worried. I think what happened, just not on January 6th, but over the previous years, is real. We don't teach civics in this country. We have increasing a world of narrow casting rather than broadcasting. People live in communities and go to churches where their own views are reinforced. Seventy million odd people -- 75 million people voted for Donald Trump despite his attacks on the courts, on the media and you name it.

So, yes, I think the question of the future of U.S. democracy is very much in play. As good as yesterday was, no one can breathing a sigh of relief.

SCIUTTO: Before we go, a lot of talk here in this country, and we've said this too, job number one, right, is addressing the pandemic at home. But abroad, what would you say is the most important first step for him, first challenge to face abroad?

HAASS: Getting the pandemic under control.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HAASS: It will show a reassertion of American confidence, getting the economy back will then follow. Showing that American politics basically are being conducted politically rather than physically. If we can do that, a lot of good things will follow. If we can't do that, foreign policy can't compensate.

HARLOW: Ambassador Richard Haass, thank you. We love having you on. Thanks for joining us, especially today.

HAASS: Thanks for having me. Take care.

HARLOW: Of course.

Sources say that coronavirus vaccine distribution plan that was inherited by -- from the Trump administration to the Biden team was non-existent.

[09:55:04]

They're basically starting from scratch. How can that be? We'll have the details, next.

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HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. Top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Here we are, day after the inauguration and President Biden at square one in terms of getting Americans vaccinated as the CDC predicted 100,000 more deaths in less than a month.

Sources tell CNN this morning that the Trump administration had no vaccine rollout planned.

[10:00:01]

One source saying, quote, it is further affirmation of complete incompetence.

HARLOW: Hard to believe that is the fact.

[10:00:00]