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Live Coverage of the White House Briefing; Biden to Focus on Passing COVID Relief Bill; Senate at Standstill Over Power-Sharing. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 22, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't have an update for you on when that will take place at this point, but I would expect to have, of course, additional foreign leader calls next week, as has been the case with our national security team. You can anticipate that those will start with our allies and partners, including many of the Europeans, but I don't have a specific day-by-day calendar for you at this point.

QUESTION: It's his first weekend in the White House. Does he still plan to go to Mass every weekend? And has he picked a parish here in the Washington area, or a place where he plans to go?

PSAKI: Well, his faith is certainly quite important to him, as you know, from covering him, and I would expect that he attends church -- continues to attend church regularly. He has not selected a church yet, but if -- if and when that happens, we'll certainly keep you updated.

Let's see. I haven't taken the -- go ahead. All the way in the back.

QUESTION: Jennifer, is time to first talk to us about (inaudible) game in six months, but they have not made a (inaudible) because of (inaudible) because of travelling. So (inaudible), or if the (inaudible) to be (inaudible) in Tokyo? And does he feel safe to (inaudible) to Tokyo in this summer?

PSAKI: Well, as a big Olympics fan, I am certainly looking forward to it, but I have not talked to the president or our national security team about plans for this summer or the games. So we'll have to take that question, too, and circle back with you. Did you have another one? Maybe I can get another one.

QUESTION: Yes. How about the (inaudible) Indo-Pacific policy (inaudible) Japan (inaudible)? I understand the -- Mr. (inaudible) have talked with his Japanese counterpart. (inaudible) in Japan.

PSAKI: Well, U.S. policy and Japan as it relates to North Korea?

QUESTION: (inaudible).

PSAKI: (inaudible), OK. Well, our -- the president's view is, of course, that is without question that North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile and other proliferation-related activities constitute a serious threat to the international peace and security of -- of the world and undermine the global nonproliferation regime. We obviously have -- still have a vital interest in deterring North Korea, as does Japan, of course. We will adopt a new strategy to keep the American people and our allies safe. That approach will begin with a thorough policy review of the state of play in North Korea in close consultation with South Korea, Japan and other allies on ongoing pressure options and the potential for any future diplomacy. So I will say we will -- as we have historically, the United States will work closely with partners in the region to determine a path forward and work together on deterrence.

QUESTION: (inaudible). Is President Biden (inaudible) join the TPP (inaudible)?

PSAKI: Well, again, I think, you know, T -- President Biden knows TPP wasn't perfect, and believes we need to make it stronger and better. But at this point, you know, our focus and his focus as it relates to the economy is on doing everything we can to advance working families, in the American middle class, and so that will be his focus in the coming months.

Go ahead, Justin.

QUESTION: Just a quick one. On -- on inauguration day, China sanctioned a number of outgoing Trump administration officials. I know the NSC has put a statement out and it's denounced in that, saying that it was a -- a political act. But there's been a call from some Republicans on Capitol Hill to either retaliate with sanctions against Chinese officials, or to install the ambassador here in Washington. I'm wondering if you're contemplating either of those actions.

PSAKI: For those who didn't have the statement, I'll just -- because it was -- just been a lot going on this week, I think we can all agree.

The Biden-Harris administration has noted China's sanctioning of more than two dozen former Trump administration officials. Imposing these sanctions on Inauguration Day as they did, it's seemingly an attempt to play partisan divides Americans of both parties should criticize as unproductive and cynical move, and President Biden looks forward to working with leaders in both parties to position America to outcompete China.

I don't have any additional update, though, on other considerations.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you, ma'am. This morning, the White House put out a statement on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. As a candidate herself, the vice president proposed an abortion rights law akin to the Voting Rights Act. Is that something that she still supports? Is that something that the president is exploring?

PSAKI: I don't have any updates on the vice president's policy. Obviously, her policies are the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, and the statement today speaks to those policies.

QUESTION: Thanks, Jen.

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: We have ventured (ph) to get to a week ahead, and I promise that we will do it in the future, but we don't have any really detailed specifics to share with you at this point in time, other than the president will not be leaving the DMV, I can assure you, next week and he will continue to sign additional executive actions and engage with members of Congress. We will have a more detailed schedule, but we're still ironing out all the specifics.

Thank you, everyone, let's do this again on Monday.

QUESTION: Thank you.

[14:05:21]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, we've been listening there to the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Before her we heard from the National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, talking about this big COVID relief package.

I want to bring in, now, our chief political analyst Gloria Borger. We also have our chief business correspondent Christine Romans, and our chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. I am surrounded by wonderful chiefs here today to talk about all of this.

OK, I want to start first, Kaitlan, with some of the headlines that we saw coming out of this. Let's start with coronavirus, this is really the pressing crisis here for our nation. And one of the big questions here was about the doses, right? Is this goal of 100 million in 100 days ambitious enough?

We actually heard the White House press secretary kind of cleaning up something that the president said yesterday, which wasn't true, that he said the media had said it was not possible to hit 100 million in 100 days, that actually was not the consensus of the media.

She seemed to say that, you know, it was ambitious. That -- she said, "Many doubted we could even get there." I don't know if that's exactly true, maybe some issued some questions about it, but a lot of people thought this was doable even when it was announced.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. And she was saying, you know, they announced this before those vaccine doses had actually started being administered. But the question now -- and the one that's up to the White House on whether or not they're going to change their stated goal on that -- is whether it should be more ambitious.

Given, if you look at CDC numbers, they're already pretty close to that. Because getting 100 million doses in 100 days would mean 1 million doses per day, we're getting really close to that, I think we might have crossed that threshold, you have to check the latest CDC numbers. But last week we're at about 900,000 on some days.

So the question for the president yesterday was, should you aim higher than this, given we're so close to that?

And what was when he kind of bristled at that question and said that the media had said they couldn't get there, of course, now here we're close. And so the question is what's next? Are they moving forward, what is their next goal on this.

And so not a lot of clarity on that, on where that's going to go, if they're going to change that position about 100 million in 100 days, or if they're going to push it higher, given they are promising that they are going to speed this vaccination process up, that they're going to streamline it.

And one thing that we have heard from the White House chief of staff Ron Klain is about establishing a database, basically, where people can go to figure out how to get vaccinated. Because the problem that we're seeing -- and what you heard from Dr. Fauci -- is also the hesitancy in getting vaccinated, and also the struggle and the difficulty to actually find somewhere where you can get a vaccine.

And so she was asked for a timeline on when that central database is going to be established, they didn't provide a specific one. But that is going to be a big question, going forward.

And I should note one more thing. We've been hearing a lot of talk about the Defense Production Act and whether or not Biden had actually invoked it specifically. It's more than just signing a piece of paper, it's actually working with those private companies to get them started on specifics.

And Ron Klain did say last night that they are working with a company on developing a syringe that could have more doses of the vaccine, about six compared to the five it has now, which would increase their capacity about 20 percent. That would be significant once those syringes are available.

And Jen Psaki did just say there that, yes, they have actually invoked the Defense Production Act, so we'll be looking for details on that as well.

KEILAR: And I wonder, Gloria, what you think about this goal. You know, I'm trying to think about something to compare it to, maybe something like, you know, if you're planning in advance for, say, fundraising for a good cause, and you say that as you get into fundraising your goal is to hit $5,000 in the first couple of months, but you hit it -- you're already there on day one. Shouldn't you adjust your goal?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

KEILAR: I mean, I don't know if that's exactly the right way to compare it, but do they need to -- especially knowing that, you know, you have another vaccine maybe coming online soon -- do they need to adjust it? BORGER: Well, you know, the rule in politics is you under-promise and you overdeliver. And I think that's what we're seeing here. Although Jen Psaki made the point, look , we set this goal early on, so you can make the case, Bri, that you should up what your goal is.

But I think they need to succeed and be judged as a success one way or another, so I think they've under-promised here, quite frankly.

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, they're definitely going to hit it, so they can say --

BORGER: Sure.

KEILAR: -- that they hit a goal --

BORGER: Yes, exactly.

KEILAR: -- but does it look like maybe they really achieved something that was going to be a challenge.

BORGER: And maybe they'll up it, who knows. Because they are being challenged on it very directly, not only by the media but also by members of the scientific community.

KEILAR: And I also wonder, Gloria, I mean, it just comes down to whatever is achieved, it's not going to be as quickly as Americans want it. I mean, Americans want this vaccine, they want to get back to normal.

[14:10:02]

BORGER: Exactly. Well, they have to take the confusion out of it, as you were just talking about. You know, you have to -- people have to know where to go to find out when they can get their shots and how they can get their shots and what if you're not computer-literate or you don't have a cell phone. You know, this has to be made more user- friendly.

And I think that was the problem early on with Obamacare, and they've been through that, a lot of people in this administration. And so they're working on it and they've got to figure out how to do that.

KEILAR: And let's talk, Christine, about the economic piece of this, which is so inextricably linked to the coronavirus crisis. We heard from Brian Deese, saying -- you know, he was saying this period that we've just seen is actually a worse period economically than we ever saw in sort of a finite period in the Great Recession.

And he's making a case that if Congress does not act now, America's actually going to fall into a deeper hole and there's things that will suffer because of that, vaccine distribution and school reopenings. What did you think about the case he built?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, I think he's right on about if you don't have more aid, quickly targeted aid, quickly, you risk running the same kind of scenario we saw after the Great recession, where it took a decade to get back to pre-recession levels for employment, right? We know that we need to spend smartly and quickly to get a bridge to a time when the economy is better again.

And, you know, they're going to have a struggle, they're going to have a fight in Congress and it could take some time to get more aid through. In the meantime, you've got these executive orders that are trying to use the levers of government to get money to people who need it.

Poor families with children, for example, to get more food aid, that is really critical. There are millions of families who report that they don't have enough food on the table right now, that's a problem.

There's also 8 million people who haven't even received a stimulus check yet. So they're saying the Treasury Department needs to go in and figure out how to fix that in particular.

So they're trying to use the levers of government that they already have to get money in the pockets of poor families. Quite frankly, you know, poor families in America, it's depression-level, some of the economic statistics that they're living through right now. So we don't really have the luxury of saying, oh well, let's wait, the economy's going to get better later this year. A lot of people need help right now.

KEILAR: And, Kaitlan, the press secretary would not say if the president thinks that Donald Trump should be convicted in this impeachment trial.

COLLINS: No, she wouldn't. She said he's no longer in the Senate -- of course, Joe Biden did serve in the Senate for a long time -- and so she said it's up to those who currently are, how they're going to handle that.

She's pointed to this, saying several times, saying, well, he did run against the president, if that gives you an idea of whether or not he thinks he's fit for office. But that would be an interesting question to see Biden answer, about what he would like to happen.

Because we know that, privately, Biden officials believe that this Senate trial is going to hinder their agenda. In the early days, when you want to hit the ground running, this is obviously going to potentially be a roadblock for them. And so I do think there's some apprehension about that. They're not addressing that, they're saying it's up to the Senate.

And they're pressuring the Senate, basically saying they can do two things at the same time, which is focus on this COVID relief bill that Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass, and also focus on getting his nominees confirmed.

Of course, the whole reason that the president has been impeached -- the former president has been impeached and is going to face this trial is his role in that insurrection that happened here at the Capitol a few weeks ago. And one thing she announced there that was really interesting -- and

we'll be waiting to hear details on -- was they're going to build out a capability within the National Security Council to counter the rise of domestic terrorism, she said.

That's interesting it's going to be placed in the National Security Council, maybe not somewhere else; it's not totally clear why, we'll be waiting to hear more on that and exactly what that capability is going to look like, because they've also asked for a pretty comprehensive threat assessment, basically, of the rise of domestic terrorism here in the U.S.

And so you are seeing them address it in a way that the last administration did not. Because I remember, when the FBI director testified on Capitol Hill about the rise of extremism and white supremacy, he was saying that that was a massive threat here in the United States. And we were told the president privately was angry about that.

And so it will be interesting to see how that is, going forward, and what happens and what comes out of that.

KEILAR: No, it certainly will be. It's a threat that has spanned these administrations, and perhaps now we'll get a clearer picture of that.

And, Gloria, on this issue of impeachment, you know, even though the press secretary would not say what the president thought about whether Donald Trump should be convicted, she did say there's a -- you know, of course, there's a constitutional obligation the Senate has.

But she was very clear that the White House does not want to see this getting in the way of the number-one agenda item, this COVID relief bill, which sort of gives you an idea of the timeline that the president is expecting for how quickly this can pass Congress, which then will prompt the question, can it do that with Republican support or are Democrats going to go it alone.

[14:15:01]

BORGER: Well, it's really a question of whether you can walk and chew gum in the same day, and not just at the same time. And I think what they're clearly saying and what she laid out was, look, in the very recent last impeachment, there was other business going on in the Senate during that impeachment trial.

I'm sure they've done their research on this, there were committee hearings going on, there was progress being made. She also pointed out that the House can pass legislation waiting, like planes on a runway, to get into the Senate.

So she is saying -- it's very clear. Look, Biden wants to get his people confirmed, he wants to have his legislation taken up, and he wants to get things done on stimulus. But she's saying to them, look, you can get this done. And I'm presuming that the administration doesn't want it to take a month. I think while they -- I'm sure they want to give Donald Trump his due and a trial, et cetera, but they don't want to stretch it out.

KEILAR: No, they do not.

It has been wonderful talking with all of you. Gloria, Christine, and Kaitlan, thank you so much for joining me.

I want to bring in our CNN political director David Chalian now. David, the Senate, it's at a standstill. I think some people thought, wait, two Democrats won in Georgia, Kamala Harris is the tiebreaker, she's the vice president. Why is this happening? Help us understand.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, it's a good question, right? Right after the inauguration ceremonies on Wednesday, we saw Kamala Harris, as vice president swear in these three new Democratic senators, two from Georgia, one, her replacement from California. And Chuck Schumer made his maiden speech as majority leader, and yet we're at a standstill. Here's why.

There's no power-sharing agreement right now in place between Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell for how the Senate is going to govern itself in a 50-50 evenly divided Senate. What does that mean? Well, it means that the committees are currently operating under the rules of the last Senate.

So Republican chairmen, Republican chairwomen are running these committees right now. A lot of the committees are holding confirmation hearings for Biden's cabinet nominees, they're being chaired by Republicans. But wait, I thought Democrats were in charge of the Senate now. Yes, but the old rules are still in place and governing how the body works.

The other thing to watch is that they're -- we've seen a delay on passing Biden's nominees. He's got two cabinet members, he was sworn in on Wednesday. He has a director of National Intelligence; today, he got a Defense secretary. But we're still seeing some delays in getting his secretary of the Treasury, secretary of State, some of these big nominees -- Homeland Security, you heard Jen Psaki mention them all in that briefing, Brianna -- through the Senate.

And the other piece, once it figures out how to deal with itself, how is the Senate going to operate in terms of getting legislation passed? That's what's holding up this power-sharing agreement. Take a look, it's all about the filibuster, OK, Brianna?

Look at this. Mitch McConnell, as the minority leader, now coming in, is trying to hand on to minority rights. So he would like the filibuster to be preserved on legislation for the next two years as a part of this power-sharing agreement.

He wants to make sure that Democrats don't do what Democrats and Republicans did on judicial confirmations, on cabinet appointments, which is make it just a simple majority, 50 votes, 51 votes gets you what you want. On legislation, the Senate has held to tradition, which is that you need 60 to break a filibuster.

Well, Democrats are threatening to take that away, and Mitch McConnell says, promise me you won't do that and I'll agree to share power in the Senate.

Chuck Schumer says no. First of all, he's got a bunch of progressives who are really pushing to eliminate the filibuster, they do not believe that there is going to be a chance at getting enough republicans to come on board to get compromise to get 60 votes, they want to move ahead with agenda on Democrats only, 51 votes to get their legislative agenda through.

What did Schumer say today? A filibuster, dealing with the rule of the filibuster, has never been part of an organizing resolution in the Senate. So he says to McConnell, I'm not accepting your turns, this has never been the rules of the road for getting an organizing resolution about the Senate business getting under way. We can deal with the filibuster separately.

Mitch McConnell's trying to play the card he has right now. And what do you have? A stalled Senate.

KEILAR: Yes, I can hear it from here, the sound of Congress grinding to a bit of a halt right now. David Chalian, thank you so much for walking us through all of that.

And still ahead, I'll be speaking to a former Trump economic adviser who supports Biden's nearly $2 trillion COVID stimulus plan.

Plus, Capitol Police investigating a Republican congressman for trying to carry a gun onto the House floor, and now some of his colleagues say they don't feel safe around each other any more, which is extraordinary.

An uproar after National Guardsmen are kicked out of the Capitol and into the parking garage. Who ordered this and why?

[14:20:02]

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Soon, President Biden will be signing a new round of significant executive actions. The president is using his second full day in office to target the economic challenges that are facing millions of Americans struggling in this pandemic.

TEXT: Biden Executive Orders on Economic Relief, Asks USDA To: Increase pandemic food benefits for kids in low-income families; Expand access to enhanced SNAP benefits; Update SNAP benefit amount to meet modern costs.

Biden's Executive Order to Protect Federal Workers; Promote $15 minimum wage; Restore collective bargaining power and worker protections

KEILAR: In this hour, he is expected to sign an executive action to expand access to food stamps, and Biden will also expand protections for federal employees, raising the minimum wage for federal workers to $15 an hour among other things.

TEXT: Biden's $1.9 Trillion Plan, Measures for COVID Relief Include: Another round of $1,400 stimulus checks; $20 billion for vaccines, $50 billion for testing; $30 billion in rental and utility assistance; $15 billion for small busines owners; $350 billion for state and local government

KEILAR: Now, these executive orders are just a prelude to Biden's massive economic COVID relief proposal. Moments ago, a top economic adviser to Biden warned that the country was at a precarious moment, that it was at risk of falling into a serious economic hole if Congress doesn't pass the president's nearly $2 trillion COVID rescue package.

[14:25:11]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN DEESE, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: Economists across the board, including today, President Trump's former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, are arguing strenuously that now is the time for that type of decisive action for the economy. There's a lot of support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That Trump adviser that Brian Deese was touting is with us now, he is Kevin Hassett, former economic adviser to President Trump. He's also a CNN economic commentator.

I mean, he was there from the White House briefing room, Kevin, touting that you are someone who approves of this $2 trillion plan. But early indications from Senate Republicans is they are not. So what do you say to that?

KEVIN HASSETT, CNN ECONMIC COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that let's take a step back. And you might remember that it was just a little bit less than a year ago when I was coming on CNN as a contributor, I was on Poppy's show, and I said we're going to be looking at a quarter that's as bad as anything since the Great Depression.

And when I was saying that, I was just looking at the effect of COVID on the economy and shutdowns. And you could just sort of do the math and figure out that you're going to have a massively negative quarter.

Now, the sad thing is that if you look at the real-time data, that you can see lots of signs that people are starting to hunker down a lot. I think it's because the prevalence is high, but also because with a vaccine coming, if you sort of hide in your basement for three weeks, then you might have made it to the other side.

And so the percentage of low-wage workers that are unemployed relative to last January has gone from having made up a lot of ground in October, to being still down 25 percent today. the percentages of small businesses that are closed now is 30 to 35 percent, it sort of varies every day. And so we're going back into an almost kind of shutdown quarter that's

going to be really big and negative if we don't hit it hard with stimulus. And so I think that Brian's exactly right, it's time for people to act and just to build a little bit more of a bridge to the other side because we're almost there.

But if we don't do anything, then I would expect there'll be a lot of small business bankruptcies and a lot of hunger and other things that go along with those numbers I cited.

KEILAR: So, I mean, those are not -- it's not difficult to imagine that happening. Yet what we're hearing from, for instance, Senator Susan Collins is an assessment that there is not a need yet. So perhaps that is in line with what you're saying, but you're saying there's going -- or not with what you're saying.

But the point you're making is there is going to be a need and we can definitely see it from here.

HASSETT: Right.

KEILAR: So what do you say to lawmakers who -- you know, they're not taking that into account?

HASSETT: Right. Well, you know, I think, Brianna, there's actually a pretty simple reason, and that is that the traditional economic statistics that come out from the government are backward-looking. and so if you look at the data except for initial claims for unemployment insurance, it doesn't look that bad because there was a recovery in the fall.

The fact is that now, with computers being what they are, we have real-time data that show that things are really, really winding back, really in December and January and probably even more going forward. And so it's looking a little bit like the first half of last year, and I'm very anxious about it.

Now, certainly, there are things that I would advise the -- not that they would ask me for advice -- the Biden White House to take out of the bill, like I don't think it's a good time to raise the minimum wage, I think they've got too much money for states. So there are things that I would change in the bill. But the idea that you shouldn't act right now, I think is not consistent with the real-time data.

KEILAR: What about the $1,400 checks going to pretty much everyone, including people who are employed? Should that be the process by which those are distributed?

HASSETT: Yes, I think that that's the best part of it. And I think, you know, the PPP, the loans to businesses, I think right now, if you look at it, I think there's enough cash in there.

But I think that the basic way to think about it is we should almost not call it stimulus. Like, if you or I had a business and we've been making money forever and ever, but right now because of COVID we're not, then somebody who saw that, you know, beginning in the summer we're going to make money again, they should rationally lend us money to survive and to make it through the summer.

And then of course, for individuals who are going to be, you know, back at work soon, we need to give them the money they need to make it to the other side as well.

And so it's more like the government is giving people a loan to help them through the hard time, or giving them a relief because there's been this terrible disaster. It's not so much a stimulus. But if you look at the real-time numbers, it's absolutely essential that they act more and I would 100 percent support the additional checks to people, and putting more money into PPP if that starts to run out.

KEILAR: Right now, Senate Democrats are laying the groundwork to proceed in a way -- it's called budget reconciliation, but to proceed in a way that would not require that 60-vote threshold to do something that would not require them to have Republican help if it comes to that.

If Republicans are not on board with a stimulus bill that is this big, which you think is very necessary, is it important enough to pass, in your view, something of this size to the point that Democrats should be going it alone?

[14:30:03]