Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

White House Pushes Congress To Pass COVID Relief Package; UK PM: UK COVID Variant May Be Linked To "Higher Degree To Mortality"; Senate Confirms Lloyd Austin As Defense Secretary. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 22, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: It's a play by Democrats to say Mitch McConnell, we better work this out or else, yes, we're going to have an impeachment trial next week.

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It looks like the latter, John. Basically, that's it, like a sort of a ticking time clock, right? They have until Monday, basically, to come up with a deal about how they want to sort of conduct this trial.

I think, you know, Republicans are very much laying out this argument right now, you can see it happening. And I think we're going to see it coming to the floor even more in the coming days, that they think Trump needs more time that he needs due process rights that they're concerned about sort of the process that went on in House, that Trump didn't get a chance to defend himself.

And that's why you saw McConnell come out yesterday and say he wants two weeks for Trump to basically get his defense in order, be able to come up to this trial and lay out sort of, you know, his defense. And so it's going to be interesting to watch, because, you know, we've heard from even this morning, people like Senator Lisa Murkowski, who said Trump committed impeachable offenses, plain and simple, but saying that she agrees with McConnell in terms of wanting a certain type of process.

And so it'll be really interesting to see what they come up with, do they delay this trial to give Trump more time? Are they going to allow him to come in and call witnesses if he wants it? You know, Democrats are obviously going to say this is a red herring, right, that you can see plain and simple what Trump did on January 6th. But there is a process component. We heard it in the last impeachment, and we're hearing it again.

KING: And this, Dana, is what we heard, I mean, not direct language, but from then President-elect, now President Biden, when this whole impeachment was happening, what is this going to do to me and you see these pictures of the White House briefing room now he wants to come out of the gate, he wants to come out of the gate with momentum, he's going to use executive actions to try to juice the economy, some essentially to kick his government to be quicker, more responsive than the Trump government was getting checks out, expanding food stamps, helping people with the hunger crisis.

But now he's learning like what happens to me and my agenda, my team, they're my confirmations, Senate consideration of a COVID package.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

KING: How much does this throw everything into uncertainty?

BASH: It's all part of the negotiations. And that really is what the whole move by Speaker Pelosi to send the impeachment articles on Monday or to announce that she's doing so is all about. It's a now a time crunch for McConnell, for Schumer to come up with some kind of plan, just come up with a plan that will govern the impeachment trial, and less so about the whole, what they call an organizing resolution, how the 50-50 Senate is going to work.

You know, I was told this morning that they are actually kind of separate tracks. But of course, given the fact that President Biden is so determined, understandably, to get things going on his agenda, given the crises that Americans are facing, they are, you know, somewhat related. But, you know, what we are seeing right now is the game of chess playing out in public.

KING: Right. And part of the chess again, Rachael, is if you're the new president, you say, OK, I'm going to do everything I can with executive actions to show people I'm at work, to show people I understand the economic pain and the vaccine question. So that's why we have the vaccine rollout, the COVID plan. Yesterday, we're getting now some economic details today.

But the bigger package is up on Capitol Hill. And you have, I want to show you a tweet from our colleague Manu Raju here at CNN. Susan Collins dismissed massive stimulus package. If Biden can't get Collins onboard, Dems will have problem getting 60 votes in the Senate have to rethink their plans. So there you see the 60 votes. That's why progressive say just sorry, Mr. President, we know you want to be bipartisan, we know you want to try, we know you're a creature of the Senate, and you're not so sure about getting rid of the filibuster. But listen to Bernie Sanders right here. He doesn't use the word filibuster right here. But he says, look, Democrats have power. We have enough votes. Let's just be bold.

BADE: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): We have the majority, we should use that majority in a very aggressive way. Now, I'm going to be a chairman of the Budget Committee, which handles what we call reconciliation. And that is a Senate process by which you can pass not all kinds of legislation, but a whole lot of very important legislation with a majority vote, not 60 votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's Bernie Sanders talking about the reconciliation process. He's calling Elizabeth Warren has been more blunt and direct saying look, filibuster, just get rid of it.

BADE: Yes, look, I mean, President Biden really faces a choice right now, does he want to sort of lower his ambitions on his coronavirus proposal, try to strike a deal with Republicans, there's a bipartisan group of senators that's going to be meeting with some of his top officials over the weekend, or does he want to, you know, keep the whole package and sort of plow through, you know, potentially do this sort of reconciliation strategy where they can pass it on a party line, Democrats only vote.

And this is -- it's interesting to watch because, obviously President Biden he has a sort of reputation for being a centrist Democrat, moderate. He wants to reach out to Republicans. His whole inaugural address was about unity and working together, moving past all the divisiveness of the past four years. But Republicans are very clearly signaling that his proposal is a non-starter for them. They think it's too much money after this package that passed over Christmas. So can he actually move them closer to his position? Or is he just going to go without them?

[12:35:18]

KING: Right. It's a fascinating question. And as you jump in, I just want to listen, we're waiting for Jen Psaki and, again, the chairman of the National Economic Council to come out and speak to us about these new executive orders. Jen Psaki knows the new President's DNA. She knows he served 37 years in the United States Senate. She knows he means when he says I want to try to see if Republicans will give me a chance, she also understands that the pulse of the Democratic Party right now is we have this moment of power, let's be bold. Let's use it. This is her this morning trying to say give us a little time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He thinks we can get to a bipartisan package. At the same time, we're not going to take tools off the table because addressing this is what he was elected to do. But we're going to start, we're going to pursue a bipartisan package first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: She knows, she's not new to Washington, she works in the Obama administration, any new precedent has this narrow window of time where you think you have at least a chance to get momentum out of the gate. This is a difficult juggle.

BASH: It is. And he really does have two roads to go down right now. One Road is the road that Bernie Sanders was just talking about that as you said progressives, no question want him to take, which is to say, this is what we want, this is what we're going to get, we have the votes to do it, we're going to use the sort of legislative tricks and tools at our disposal to just pass this with straight party line Democratic votes.

But on the other hand, it's not all that in totally clear that with a couple of moderate Democrats, that that is even that feasible. I mean, we don't know that Joe Manchin, for example, of West Virginia is going to vote for that, that John Tester of Montana is going to vote for that hook line and tinker. So that is why these conversations that the Biden administration very likely Joe Biden himself will be having in you know, the minutes, hours, days to come to try to figure out what is the sweet spot. And is there a sweet spot kind of in the in the middle there.

I mean, my understanding from the very beginning is that they wanted to, out of the gate have this big package to keep those options open so that if they have to negotiate, they're negotiating from way out here as opposed to here and not negotiating with themselves, if you will.

KING: It's an excellent point. And it also the way you frame that raises another point, Rachael, that I think is getting sometimes obscured because we're talking about, you know, the Democrats do away with the filibuster, can Joe Biden make Republicans work. At the root of that is no matter what happens on the procedural questions, no matter what happens on the bipartisanship questions, Joe Biden needs extraordinary discipline among Democrats because the House Democratic majority is so small, it's a 50-50 Senate with Kamala Harris breaking ties.

So before he can even think about reaching out to Republicans, he needs to make sure that he has remarkable discipline among Democrats, because if he has that discipline, he has some leverage over Republicans. If Republicans see the Democrats are having family feuds, they're going to step back and let it play out.

BADE: Yes. And I mean, you don't have to look very far to see, you know, this family feud that is happening right now among the Democratic Party, that's going to be a really tough thing for Biden to do to keep Democrats united, you have progressives who want to move in one direction, moderates who are worried about sort of their reelections, wanting to move in another.

And, you know, I think the Democratic infighting this year is going to be one of the biggest stories we're following, not just on this coronavirus package, but on everything from immigration, to climate, and infrastructure. And I think, you know, Republicans, that's going to be a big strategy for them to just, as you said, step back of the Democratic infighting happen, and, you know, basically run against all of that in their own reelections as they try to flip the House in 2022.

KING: Right. President Biden voices confidence he can manage this and it won't become fighting. It'll become just feisty debates and conversations, but that's one of the many challenges for our new President. He's on day three right now. We'll watch it play out.

[12:39:04]

We're going to sneak in a quick break. We want to keep our eyes on that picture right there. When we come back, we're expecting White House Press Secretary, one of the new President's top economic aides to outline some brand new executive actions today, trying to get more checks and more food assistance to Americans still struggling in the coronavirus economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Mind our viewers, we're standing by for a briefing right there in the White House briefing room. Jen Psaki, the new press secretary, Brian Deese, the new director of the National Economic Council, they're going to come in and explain some new executive actions President Biden is taking today to try to get relief checks and more food assistance to Americans facing a growing hunger crisis here in the United States. We'll take you there live when it happens.

In the meantime, though, some very important international news on the coronavirus front that matters to everybody. The U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson just a short time ago, giving a very concerning update on the COVID variant first seen in the U.K. and now reported in several states here in the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We've been informed today that in addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant, the variant that was first identified in London and the southeast may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's bring in our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen for a bit more on this. That sounds quite concerning, Elizabeth.

[12:45:02]

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, John, certainly. This is not news that we wanted to hear. So Patrick Vallance who is a U.K. health official telling reporters today that this new variant seems to be in and of itself more deadly and the example that he gave is if you took 1,000 men in their 60s, who had the regular COVID, before the variant appeared, 10 of them would die. If you took 1,000 men in their 60s who got this variant that was first spotted in the U.K., 13 or 14 of them would die.

So what they seem to be saying, and they didn't share the data, you know, completely, but what they seem to be saying is that they're see people get sicker and die more frequently when they're infected with this variant. And, John, you know, we've talked so much about how this vaccine campaign needs to speed up. This is one of the reasons viruses mutate when they move from person to person. So this virus has moved to so many people, it's gotten so many chances, millions upon millions of chances to mutate. And that's what it's doing. This variant, the one that was first spotted in South Africa, if we can get people vaccinated, we won't have so many chances to mutate like it is now. John?

KING: Elizabeth Cohen, grateful for the important context there. You're right. It's a very sobering update. A reminder acceleration of the vaccine process is absolutely critical, even more so now.

Again, we're waiting for a very important briefing at the White House. We'll take you there live as the new executive actions from the president, President Biden to juice the economy in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. And up next we're told the impeachment trial could begin as early as next week. What would that mean for all those pending confirmation hearings for team Biden?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:10]

KING: President Biden adding a new member to his Cabinet today after an overwhelmingly bipartisan confirmation vote this morning. Retired General Lloyd Austin is now Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense. And he arrived at the Pentagon just moments ago as you see there on your screen. He joins the confirmed Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, in the Biden Cabinet.

As for the rest of the Cabinet picks, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he hopes to have Janet Yellen confirmed as treasury secretary and Antony Blinken to the State Department soon. Our CNN congressional correspondent Ryan Nobles joins us now with more on the status of the Cabinet. And Ryan, the status is thrown into more question today by the possibility of an impeachment trial next week.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Certainly complicating things, John, and this is no doubt a source of frustration for the Biden administration. They were already delayed in getting many of these Cabinet picks up and running by the time the new President took the oath of office. And this is just further delaying the process.

As you mentioned, there was hope that Secretary of State pick Antony Blinken and treasury secretary pick, Janet Yellen, could be confirmed as soon as this afternoon. But already that process is being held up. And that is in part because of this 50-50 split in the Senate. Yes, Democrats control the majority. But it doesn't take much for Republicans to gum up the works that Democrats had hoped to bring these nominations to the floor under a term called unanimous consent.

But just one Republican can raise concerns and prevent unanimous consent from happening. And that appears to be what's happening right now with Blinken and Yellen. There's still the opportunity that their votes could come up later this afternoon. But it is more likely now that it will happen on Monday. But just take a look, John, at this list of Cabinet secretaries that President Biden is still waiting to be confirmed, his pick up for the Veterans Administration, his ambassador to the United Nations, Commerce Secretary, Energy Secretary, all of these picks have yet to even have a hearing here at the Capitol much less beyond the road to confirmation that makes life very complicated for the Biden administration.

They've been forced to put in career members of these different Departments as acting secretaries in the interim. It just delays this process of getting the Biden agenda up and running. And it is could perhaps foreshadow, John, just some of the difficulty of the Biden team could have been shepherding through legislation when it gets to that point in the coming days and weeks. John?

KING: You would think there was one thing Washington could get right a little common courtesy at least said the hearings. But I guess not. Ryan Nobles, grateful for the reporting there. And we know you'll keep track of that for us.

[12:53:36]

And still ahead for us, it's a sad day, baseball icons, civil rights legend, Hank Aaron, dead at age 86, the life and legacy of Hammerin Hank, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Baseball's former homerun king, Hammerin Hank Aaron has died. The Atlanta Braves Hall of Famer held the all-time record for career home runs for decades that after of course breaking Babe Ruth's record. CNN sports correspondent Andy Scholes joins us now. Andy, sad day to legend.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: You're right, John. I mean, it's a sad day for the sports world. Hank Aaron certainly a legend, a hero to so many people, he passed away at the age of 86 years old peacefully in his sleep. The last time we saw Hank Aaron publicly just a couple weeks ago, January 5th, he was at the Morehouse School of Medicine getting his COVID-19 vaccine and he said he wanted to do that publicly to inspire other black Americans to follow in his leave.

You know, there's no question many consider Hank Aaron the greatest player to ever play the game of baseball. His signature moment came back in 1974 when he broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record hit number 715. And at that time, I mean, he faced many racist remarks, racist letters, death threats from people who didn't want to see him break Ruth's record. But Aaron always conducted himself with such class, his longevity.

KING: I'm sorry, I'm sorry we lost --

SCHOLES: -- more homeruns.

KING: Having a little trouble with Andy Scholes. Having a little trouble with Andy Scholes' connection there, so I'll just talk as we finished watching these pictures. I remember growing up watching that moment with my dad and to Andy's point about Hank Aaron, great baseball player, also a pioneer for racial justice. That was the way a lot of people were I grew up in the city of Boston said, look at that man. He's great. It has nothing to do with the color of his skin. He is great. We will miss Hank Aaron. Died at the age of 86. Also inspirational again to the end, he wanted to have that COVID vaccine to set example, an example of excellence and grace throughout his life. Hank Aaron, again, dead at 86.

[13:00:05]