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Biden Unveils Comprehensive Plan to Fight COVID-19; Top Republican Wants Trump Impeachment Trial Delayed; Japan Determined to Hold Olympic Games Despite Cancellation Rumors; U.S. President: Vaccine Effort a 'Wartime Undertaking'; Independent Panel: Global COVID-19 Response Was a Failure; Historians Assess Trump's Legacy; First Full Day for VP Harris. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired January 22, 2021 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Michael Holmes.

[00:00:44]

Straight ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, the vaccine rollout in the United States has been a mess, to put it likely. The Biden administration has released its plan to fix it, but does it go far enough?

Plus, with nearly 100 million global coronavirus cases in one year, the World Health Organization trying to figure out why the fight has gone so wrong.

And a twist in the former U.S. president's current drama. Why his impeachment trial could be delayed until next month.

Appreciate your company, everyone.

Joe Biden has wrapped up his first full day in the White House, unveiling a plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic. He says the plan is based on science, not politics.

The new U.S. president signing executive actions to ramp up supplies for vaccinations and testing, and boost the development of therapeutics to treat the virus. And he wants travelers to the U.S. to now provide proof of a negative COVID test.

Meanwhile, Republican leader Mitch McConnell wants the Senate to delay Donald Trump's impeachment trial until mid-February.

First up, CNN's Phil Mattingly with more on the ambitious new plan for fighting COVID.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me be very clear. Things are going to continue to get worse before they get better.

PHIL MATTINGLY, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On President Joe Biden's first full day in office, a singular focus: the fight against the pandemic.

BIDEN: We will get through this. We will defeat this pandemic.

MATTINGLY: The Biden administration unveiled a raft of executive actions designed to centralize the federal response and bolster its effectiveness.

BIDEN: To a nation waiting for action, let me be the clearest on this point. Help is on the way.

MATTINGLY: One that includes new uses of the Defense Production Act to surge supplies; development of advanced therapeutics; data collection; and the establishment of a pandemic testing board; as well as new actions to extend masking requirements during interstate travel on trains, planes, and buses. And a key symbolic focus: reestablishing trust in the federal government.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is, and know that's it, let the science be, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.

MATTINGLY: But the problems facing the nascent administration are significant, sources say, with Jeff Zients, the White House COVID response coordinator saying blunting, quote, "What we're inheriting is so much worse than we could have imagined."

Biden echoing that point.

BIDEN: The rollout has been a dismal failure thus far.

MATTINGLY: But Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed back on the idea that the Biden team was left with nothing.

FAUCI: We certainly are not starting from scratch, because there is activity going on in the distribution.

MATTINGLY: Fauci did acknowledge a ramp-up, as Biden pledged an all- of-government approach.

BIDEN: We'll move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated, for free, and create more places for them to get vaccinated.

MATTINGLY: Even as he bristled at a question of whether the administration's goal of 100 million shots in 100 days was less than ambitious.

BIDEN: When I announced it, you all said it's not impossible. Come on, give me a break, man.

MATTINGLY: Broadly, it's a change in direction that goes far beyond just the pandemic, as Biden, through executive action, has moved to undo some of his predecessor's key initiatives.

BIDEN: There's no time to start like today. MATTINGLY: Already moving to rejoin the Paris climate accord, while

killing funding for the border wall; rescinding a travel ban on Muslim-majority countries; and revoking the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, even as a clear reality hangs over the new administration.

BIDEN: But we're going to need legislation for a lot of the things we're going to do.

MATTINGLY: Biden officials already working behind the scenes to build support for his $1.9 trillion relief package, sources say. But first, a need to confirm top appointees, with only one, director of national intelligence Avril Haines, confirmed so far. A number -- one -- that falls short of Biden's predecessors.

[00:05:07]

And looming over everything on Capitol Hill? The impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): It will be soon. I don't think it will be long.

MATTINGLY (on camera): And while the exact dynamics of that impeachment trial remain unknown, one thing is for sure when it comes to Capitol Hill. The Biden administration desperately wants a legislative win out of the gate, and they believe, desperately needs, a legislative win. When it comes to the multiple crises they're facing, whether it's economic, or public health, they need Congress to act, Biden advisers say.

What's going on behind the scenes right now is their effort to push Congress into that place. Efforts from the legislative affairs team, from their top economic officials, to get not just Democrats, but Republicans on board with a bipartisan proposal to address the economic and public health issues raised by the pandemic.

Right now, Republicans, they are blanching at the idea of a $1.9 trillion price tag. But make no mistake about it. President Biden ran on the idea that he is a bipartisan deal maker. His time in the Senate, he says, proves that. Well, he'll get another chance to prove that in the coming weeks. Whether that ends up being the case, well, that remains an open question.

Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: It could take a few more weeks before the U.S. Senate begins Donald Trump's impeachment trial. The top Republican in that chamber asking for a delay, and Democrats just might be willing to go along. CNN's Manu Raju reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has proposed delaying the start of former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial until mid-February. His argument? The Trump team needs some time to prepare.

The former president has actually had a hard time getting an attorney to represent him. Told from sources that he has talked to various people, but now he has settled on one, a South Carolina-based attorney, to lead this case. We expect other attorneys to be named, as well.

Now, Mitch McConnell has spoken to that attorney; says there needs to be some time for them to prepare for defending the president against a charge of inciting an insurrection.

Democrats have to agree in order to delay that trial, and it's possible they may. They're considering it right now. But they also want, in exchange, some assurances that some of Joe Biden's nominees could get confirmed by the United States Senate. That has not happened as fast as Democrats would like. So we'll see how that shakes out.

We'll also see if Republicans break ranks and vote to convict Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell, one of the key votes everybody is looking at. He has said, privately he believes Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses, but publicly, he is telling his colleagues, and privately, he's telling his colleagues he has not decided what to do just yet.

I'm told from Republican senators that, if he votes to convict Donald Trump, he could face a hard time retaining his leadership position in the next Congress. So there is a lot riding on this for McConnell, as well.

And some Democrats are concerned that delaying the trial even further could give Trump some benefit here. Because passions, potentially, could have cooled by the time it comes to vote on whether to convict Donald Trump.

And if he is convicted, then there will be a vote to bar Donald Trump from ever serving elected office again. So a lot is riding on the decisions here, but at the moment, McConnell wants to delay. Democrats are considering it. And Donald Trump is awaiting his future -- political future, as Republicans and Democrats weigh what to do.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Ron Brownstein is CNN senior political analyst and the -- and a senior editor for "The Atlantic." He joins me now from Los Angeles.

Boy, I've got to say, Ron, Joe Biden, you know, he's trying to meet with Republicans to get cooperation on COVID and things like that, but we're already seeing Mitch McConnell do what he always does, and that is what will be best for Mitch McConnell, power-wise. I mean, he's the minority leader now. What's going on?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, they are -- exactly. And Mitch McConnell is now in the middle of, really, I think, an unprecedented threat, trying to intimidate the Democrats into preemptively abandoning any possible effort to roll back of the filibuster by using a filibuster on the organizing resolution for Congress. Basically, preventing the Senate from organizing, in a way, that establishes the Democratic majority control of the committees, and so forth. I don't think this has ever been done.

I mean, the Senate changed hands -- let's see -- 1980, 1986, 1994, 2006 and 2014, and no one thought, at any of those points, Michael, that you could simply stop the majority party from taking over by blocking the basic rule to -- to organize the place. So it is an indication that Mitch McConnell, once again, is prepared to play hardball to impede Joe Biden and the Democratic agenda.

HOLMES: That -- that leads me right into what I was going to ask you. And to that very point, how hard do Democrats, who have long been accused of playing softball, need to push their agenda?

[00:10:04]

I mean, the progressive wing is already a little suspicious of how hard Biden will play the political and legislative game. And now, as you point out, we're seeing how Mitch McConnell's going to play, the way he's always played.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, look, I think on this front, the Democrats are going to hold together ultimately. They're not going to let Mitch McConnell, as minority leader, decide the rules by which they, as the majority, can run the Senate.

As I said, like, if you could do this routinely, every time we've changed power in the last 40 years, it would be -- you know, it would be the minority -- the party leaving control that would get to set the rules. It's ridiculous.

But the longer-term question, I think, is very real. I mean, Joe Biden ran on this idea of unity, that he could make deals with Republicans. He's testing that with his $1.9 trillion rescue package. He wants to go through regular order on that, which means that he would need 10 Republican senators to break a filibuster. It's going to be really hard. I mean, Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, two of the most likely targets have already expressed skepticism about it.

If he can't get 10 Republicans on that, on the fiscal plan, he does have the fallback of using a special tool called reconciliation that he can pass with just a 51-vote majority. But on almost everything else they care about, and particularly the racial justice agenda, Voting Rights Act, police reform, democracy reform, immigration reform, that tool is not available.

So sooner or later, they are going to confront this issue of whether they allow the filibuster to survive, and in effect, give a veto to the Republican minority.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. And again, for international audience, because of the peculiarities of the American system of government --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

HOLMES: -- there will be midterm elections next year. Democrats have got a razor-thin majority in both houses. And how great is the Biden need for speed and aggression, really? He possibly has, essentially, less than two years to get things done.

BROWNSTEIN: Tremendous need for speed. I mean, if you look at what happened to Obama, in 2010, the Democrats had the worst midterm election for either party since 1938. And it effectively ended his ability to drive legislation for the rest of his presidency.

And one reason they felt that they did so poorly in his first two years, partially one of them was their choice. When they passed the Affordable Care Act, they backloaded a lot of the provisions, thinking that would actually diminish resistance. In fact, it meant that people had not felt the positive impact of it in their first two years.

And even more important, facing the exact same situation that Biden does now, Obama significantly cut his economic stimulus plan in '09 to win the three Republican Senate votes he needed to break a filibuster there. And Democrats, to this day, said that had the effect of not allowing the economy to recover fast enough, and thus, hurting them in the midterm.

Biden faces exactly the same, I think, dynamics here. If he cannot get the virus under control and the economy moving, it is going to be a very tough 2022 for Democrats. And each day that goes by without making progress toward that, you know, increases the odds of that kind of negative result.

HOLMES: Always great to speak with you, Ron Brownstein. Appreciate it. Great article in "The Atlantic." People should check it out.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you. Thanks for having me, Michael.

HOLMES: All right, Ron.

Now, the Japanese government says it is determined to host the Olympic games this summer, despite rumors and reports that they might be canceled.

Let's get right now to CNN's Selina Wang in Tokyo with the details.

What do we know about the likelihood of the games being held? What are these rumors?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, according to a report from "The Times of London," they say the Japanese government has privately concluded to cancel the Olympics because of the pandemic. This is citing an unnamed senior official of the ruling coalition.

Now, the Japanese government has denied this report to us, the prime minister just today reaffirming that the country is determined to host the Olympics.

And just yesterday, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, saying there is no Plan B. The Olympics will move forward as scheduled.

But, of course, Michael, no surprise that there's growing skepticism here. The outlook is grim. We are just six months away from the Tokyo Olympics. Japan is in the middle of a new surge, a vicious surge in COVID-19 cases. Tokyo is in a state of emergency. Foreigners are currently banned from entering Japan.

Not to mention the fact the Olympic Committee has not even decided if foreign spectators will be allowed to attend these games.

I spoke to the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee, Dick Pound, and he is not entirely confident that the games will move forward as planned. Take a listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK POUND, MEMBER, INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Confident but not -- not -- it's not a guarantee, of course. And everyone understands that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WANG: And I cannot over emphasize, Michael, how big of a deal it would be if these games were canceled. Of course, not just to Japan, but to the athletes, the sponsors involved, the massive economic loss. Japan, according to audits, has spent at least $25 billion on these games.

[00:15:06]

It would also be a massive loss of face. Japan wants to be the first country to host these massive, joyous games after the COVID-19 pandemic. The prime minister has said he wants it to be proof of human victory over COVID-19.

But public opposition here in Japan is growing. According to recent poll from national broadcaster NHK, nearly 80 percent of people in Japan now think these games should be canceled or further postponed.

And when I'm speaking to people in the ground here in Japan, the mood is very much they are hopeful, but they think it's largely unrealistic that Japan can pull this off -- Michael.

HOLMES: Eighty percent. Boy, that's quite a number. Selina Wang in Tokyo. Appreciate it. Thank you for that.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, an independent panel has a new damning report on the COVID-19 response around the world. Who it faults when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Let me be very clear. Things are going to continue to get worse before they get better. The memorial we held two nights ago will not be our last one, unfortunately. The death toll will likely top 500,000 next month. The cases will continue to mount.

We didn't get into this mess overnight, and it's going to take months for us to turn things around. But let me be equally clear. We will get through this. We will defeat this pandemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The U.S. president there, who's calling the battle against coronavirus a wartime undertaking.

Now Joe Biden says he will use the Defense Production Act to speed up the making of everything needed to protect, test and vaccinate, as he said.

Now so far, some 38 million vaccines have been distributed to U.S. states, with less than half of those doses actually administered. The top U.S. infectious disease expert says vaccines will not only keep the virus from spreading, but they'll also hamper it's ability to mutate into new variance.

Now, the U.S. added more than 3,700 new COVID cases on Thursday, bringing its total past 410,000.

Nick Watt picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In California, it could take about five more months to vaccinate 75 percent of the over 65's, if the current sluggish rate continues.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get on the ball, guys. We're out here.

WATT: New York state has just two or three days' worth of doses on hand.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): You will see a constant pattern of basically running out, waiting for the next week's allocation, and then starting up again.

WATT: If the nation continues at this sluggish rate, it'll be more than a year before 75 percent of American adults are fully vaccinated.

[00:20:07]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This needs to be all hands on deck. Really, a wartime effort.

WATT: You just heard the new president actually has a detailed plan, more vaccines are coming. Likely among them, a single-dose option from Johnson & Johnson.

But will vaccines work against the various variants?

FAUCI: From the reports we have, literally as of today, it appears that the vaccines will still be effective against them, with the caveat in mind, you want to pay close attention to it.

WATT: Nationally, average new case counts are falling, for now. Rising in just one state, Virginia.

FAUCI: Right now it looks like it might actually be plateauing.

WATT: But the more contagious variants could change that.

FAUCI: The one that is in the U.K. appears to have a greater degree of transmissibility, about twice as much.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, CORONAVIRUS ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I worry desperately in the next six to 12 weeks we're going to see a situation with this pandemic unlike anything we've seen yet to date. T=And that is really a challenge, that I don't think most people realize yet.

WATT: Inauguration day, a near record COVID death toll reported. Four thousand three hundred seventy-five, dead. Now among the dead, the sign language interpreter at COVID briefings in Hawaii. Patty Sakal was also a mother and a grandmother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The virus just took hold in her body and ravaged it.

WATT: The CDC now projects this nation could reach over half a million COVID dead, maybe 100,000 more lives lost before Valentine's Day.

(on camera): So these new variants that they say are more contagious, they're apparently not more deadly. But here is the problem. If they're more contagious, there will be more cases. There will be more hospitalizations. Therefore, there will be more deaths.

So if you get you're not more likely to die, but overall, more contagious could mean more death.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: New guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It may be acceptable to mix and match vaccines if you absolutely have to.

The CDC says the Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech vaccines are not interchangeable, but it may be OK to get one dose of each, in order to complete both doses. People have been worried their states might run out of whichever vaccine they receive first.

Now the CDC also says the second dose may be given up to six weeks later if necessary. But three to four weeks before injections is recommended by Dr. Fauci and others.

We are seeing tougher restrictions across Europe to keep more contagious versions of the virus from spreading.

There are several coronavirus hotspots right now to tell you about. The director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control says whatever these variants have become established wherever that you can established, is precisely where the situation is getting worse.

European leaders now looking into restrictions on non-essential travel, both within and to the E.U. The European Commission plans to discuss new measures on Monday.

Now the world is fast approaching 100 million COVID-19 cases, that figure from Johns Hopkins University. And this is a little more than a year after the virus was first discovered.

So how did it all go wrong? A new report is trying to answer that. It is criticizing China, for starters, as CNN's Cyril Vanier explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the first day of his presidency, Joe Biden reversing many of Donald Trump's policies. Among them, the decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization in the midst of a pandemic.

"The WHO plays a crucial role in the world's fight against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic," wrote Biden on inauguration day, "and the United States will continue to be a global leader."

The director-general of the U.N. body tweeting back, "We are family."

A timely shot in the arm for the WHO, whose independent panel just released a damning report on the fight against COVID. "Global leadership has been exercised weakly," it says, and "the worst of the pandemic and its impact are yet to come."

The panel, based in Switzerland, was set up to assess the global response to the greatest health crisis since the Second World War. It points to a string of missteps, starting with China. Beijing didn't alert the WHO to a new respiratory disease until December 31. That's several weeks after symptoms appeared. And didn't put Wuhan under lockdown for several more weeks.

[00:25:06]

"Health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January," says the report.

The WHO is also found wanting, its emergency committee not convened until the third week of January.

HELEN CLARK, CO-CHAIR OF THE INDEPENDENT PANEL FOR PANDEMIC AND PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE (via phone): It was still one month after the alarm was sounded in Wuhan that the international system sounded its highest alarm available.

VANIER (on camera): And the buck doesn't stop there. By early February, there were still fewer than 200 declared cases outside China. And the world had definitive evidence at that point of human to human transmission, so the need for urgent containment measurements was clear.

Yet in many countries, the report says too little was done.

(voice-over): Panel members also lament a crisis of solidarity, with wealthy countries able to secure equipment, therapeutics and now vaccines, while poorer countries are often left behind.

ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF, INDEPENDENT PANEL CO-CHAIR (via phone): As our report says, where you are born should not be the factor that determines your place in the vaccine queue.

VANIER: Something the Biden presidency may help alleviate. The 46th U.S. president has pledged to join COVAX, a global effort aimed at ensuring access to COVID vaccines for every country in the world, a program Donald Trump had refused to join.

Cyril Vanier, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Britain's prime minister needs to forge a new relationship with the new U.S. president, but that may be tricky after some of the things Boris Johnson said about President Joe Biden's former boss, Barack Obama. We'll have that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back. Joe Biden will make his first call to a foreign leader as U.S. president in the coming hours. He will speak with a close ally, and that is the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

The White House says they will likely discuss Biden's executive order to revoke the permit for the Keystone oil pipeline. Now Mr. Trudeau said that he was disappointed in that decision but welcomes the president's commitment to fighting climate change.

A new U.S. president means a new chapter in the country special relationship with the U.K. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had a seemingly cozy relationship with Donald Trump. Now he has to build a good rapport with President Joe Biden and push for a trade deal with the U.S.

Nic Robertson tells us what can stand in the way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[00:30:00]

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I look forward to working with him and with his new administration, strengthening the partnership between our countries.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): U.K. P.M. Boris Johnson quick to embrace Joe Biden's presidency. And with good reasons. He was close to former president, Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know who this is? Does everybody know?

ROBERTSON: Less than 18 months ago, U.S.-U.K. relations were blossoming, a much-needed trade deal seemingly close.

JOHNSON: I think we're going to do a fantastic deal.

TRUMP: They call him in Britain (ph) and people saying that's a good thing.

ROBERTSON: Then came Trump's election loss to Biden and the Trump- inspired insurrection.

JOHNSON: I unreservedly condemn encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way --

ROBERTSON: But Johnson's speedy denouncement belied many missed opportunities for Democrats' support.

NICHOLAS BURNS, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL/FORMER U.S. DIPLOMAT: I don't think trade is going to be the first issue of concern to the United States, to the new administration.

ROBERTSON: Johnson and his predecessor were relying on Trump for a fast trade deal to gloss over the economic pain of leaving the E.U., Brexit, and overlooked building better relations with Democrats.

KIM DARROCH, FORMER U.K. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: It was one of my frustrations when I was in Washington --

ROBERTSON: Kim Darroch was U.K. ambassador to D.C., witnessed the damage among Democrats.

DARROCH: There's a bit of sore feelings about that.

ROBERTSON: Trump liked Brexit, liked the disruption to E.U. power, distrusted NATO. Joe Biden and his former boss, Barack Obama, believed in NATO, the value of the E.U., and actively opposed to Brexit. Obama warned Brexit would hurt the possibility of a U.S.-U.K. trade deal.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The U.K. is going to be in the back of the queue.

ROBERTSON: Johnson, then mayor of London, scolded Obama.

DARROCH: That Boris Johnson comment about President Obama's Kenyan heritage and his dislike of the British empire, certainly reverberated in Democrats, of course, in Washington. And there were some Democrats who really took this very badly.

ROBERTSON: Biden, unlike Trump, however, may brush aside hurtful slights in favor of national interest.

BURNS: It's in the interests of the United States to, in essence, recreate a special relationship with the United Kingdom. A U.K. that's out of the E.U. might possibly be a U.K. that wants to have an even tighter military and intelligence, and political relationship that would be to the advantage of both countries.

ROBERTSON: Yet, as Johnson celebrates Brexit, something Biden's secretary of state pick, Antony Blinken, called a total mess, there is no disguising the U.K. slip on the ranking of U.S. allies.

BURNS: The United States is going to -- is going to great -- have to greatly enhances its partnerships with Germany and with France, and the other major countries of the European Union.

ROBERTSON: Where Johnson sees a path to relationship repair, is over shared goals.

JOHNSON: Compacting (ph) climate change, building back better from the pandemic, and strengthening our transatlantic security.

DARROCH: We're hosting the G-7 in 2021, and we are also boosting this big climate change conference, COP 26, in November, which will be a great to relaunch for America on the climate change scene. Then maybe that will override the -- any remaining bad feelings about -- about those Johnson comments.

ROBERTSON (on camera): The reality is, Johnson's political recoveries are legendary, surviving, what, for others, would be career-crushing setbacks, accused of lying, infidelity, political gaffes, to name but three.

But in Johnson, Biden is unlikely to find another politician with a greater desire to rekindle his hero, Winston Churchill's, special relationship with the United States. And that might just count for something, too.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Joining me now from Annandale, Virginia, CNN political analyst Michael Shear. He is White House correspondent for "The New York Times."

Good to see you, Michael.

Jen Psaki spoke of the need to rebuild the nation's reputation and alliances. Regaining America's seat at the table.

And bear with me, because I saw one German official quoted, saying what -- no matter what comes next, America will now always be the country that elected Trump. There was a poll released by the European Council on Foreign Relations. Six in 10 voters in Europe said they think the U.S. political system is broken.

How much damage was done, that reputation, those alliances?

MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think -- I think there's a concern inside the White House, this new White House, that a lot of damage was done, and that some of it will be lasting.

[00:35:04]

I mean, I think you're going to have some things that will snap back very quickly. Some of the really durable relationships that the United States has had for a long time, I think, you know, will be repaired over time. And, you know, the kind of intelligence sharing between partners like the French, and the British, and the Israelis. Like, all of that's going to continue. I don't think that it's a cataclysmic end to U.S. leadership.

But look, I think the U.S., under Biden, over these next four years, is going to have to earn some of that trust back. They are going -- you know, the United States rejoined the World Health Organization yesterday. They rejoined the Paris climate accords.

But simply rejoining isn't going to be enough. They're going to have to demonstrate, again, that they want to be, that we, that the United States, wants to be the leader of some of these organizations, which was where -- you know, which was where the United States was when Donald Trump decided to yank -- yank them out of these organizations. And I think it's going to take some time.

HOLMES: Quite right. There's another way of looking at it, I suppose. I mean, Donald Trump tore up foreign policy norms by the roots. But -- and there is no doubt that damage was done.

But -- but in some ways, is it an opportunity, in a way, for a Biden administration to, I don't know, reimagine what U.S. foreign policy means? Rebuild it in a different way? It wasn't perfect.

SHEAR: Right. Look, I think, you know, two examples that come to mind of that are China and Russia. Two really adversarial relationships that, I think, it's fair to say, the United States, pre-Trump, was struggling to figure out how do we build, you know, kind of relationships with these adversarial countries, you know, in a way that balances the things we -- we don't like about those -- the leadership in those countries, but at the same time, recognizing the sort of powerhouses that they are. Especially in China's case, the economic powerhouse and the links, the global links, economic ties between the Chinese and the rest of the world.

And I think, while Don -- while Joe Biden isn't going to agree with the manner and the way that Donald Trump went about it, that you know, tariff -- imposing tariffs on China and the like, I do think that it will sort of force a reexamination of, OK, how does the United States interact with China? How -- you know, what kinds of demands to we make on the leadership? And how do we work with them to -- you know, to sort of move forward?

You know, Jen Psaki got a question today at the briefing about, you know, the extent to which the United States wants to hold Russia accountable and China accountable for some of these cyberattacks. You know, those are questions that they're going to have to grapple with.

And, you know, in some ways, you're right. In some ways, there's been a sort of reset for the last four years. And this will force them to take a new look at things.

HOLMES: And I have to also Iran around, of course. The nuclear deal on life support, the image done by the U.S. withdrawal. I mean, which only really led to more enriched uranium for Iran. I mean, it's -- is it clear whether it can be salvaged in any meaningful way?

SHEAR: Well, I mean, so on the plus side, I think there has been a lot of, over the years since the Trump administration sort of pulled out of that agreement, there's been a kind of consensus among the other nations, the other European nations that were partners to the U.S., that they wanted to salvage it.

I mean, I think the -- I think the real question is, you know, can you achieve, even with the kind of partners that the Obama administration had assembled to negotiate that deal with the Iranians, can you -- can you, you know, put the genie back in the bottle? Can the Iranians be coaxed back to the table?

And if they come back to the table, what kind of deal could you get now? You know, does the -- does the United States have the kind of credibility, frankly, on the world stage, having -- having gone through the last four years and -- and adversaries and allies, alike, seeing agreements being ripped up that people had put stock in?

You know, does the United States come to the table with I ran with enough credibility to really strike a deal that makes sense to strike? And I think the jury is out on that. I think they will try, because so many of the people around Biden are the people who developed that deal for the Obama administration. And so I think they'll try again. The question is whether they can succeed.

HOLMES: Yes. And I guess, also, you know, what's the alternative?

Michael Shear, got to leave it there. Really appreciate it. Thanks for joining us. Good to see you back in the White House briefing room today.

SHEAR: Thank you. Happy to do it.

HOLMES: And we will be right back.

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HOLMES: "TIME" magazine released its latest cover, and it paints a stark picture of the problems U.S. President Joe Biden is inheriting from former President Donald Trump.

Captioned day one -- we'll show it to you -- the illustration by Tim O'Brien shows Biden standing in a trashed Oval Office, decorated with a MAGA hat overflowing paperwork, even French fries spilling over.

The cover reflects claims that Trump's administration left little in order for Biden.

Thousands of National Guard troops are being welcomed back into the U.S. Capitol complex to rest. On Thursday, they were told they could no longer use the complex for breaks and were sent off to a nearby parking garage. One Guardsmen told CNN they felt betrayed after the inauguration they were brought in to protect went so smoothly.

Well, since then, several senators tweeted their outrage and support for the Guard to be allowed back into the Capitol.

I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate you spending part of your day with me. I will have more CNN NEWSROOM in about 20 minutes or so. Do stick around now for WORLD SPORT.

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