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Biden Unveils Comprehensive Plan to Fight COVID-19; Top Republican Wants Trump Impeachment Trial Delayed; Vaccination Rates Remain Very Low Across the U.S.; Coronavirus Variants More Contagious but Not Necessarily More Deadly; U.K. Considering Closing Borders to Stop Variants; European Health Officials: New Variants Making Spread Worse. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 22, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Biden gets down to business. The new president signals a war time effort to fight coronavirus as he signs a slew of executive orders.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump awaits his second impeachment trial, but might that trial be delayed? Republicans are floating the idea.

And coronavirus has canceled many events for a second year in a row, but Japan's Prime Minister says he's determined to host the Tokyo games this year.

Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber, this is CNN NEWSROOM.

Joe Biden is quickly laying out his agenda in his first few days as U.S. president. He's expected to focus on economy today and how his administration will provide economic relief to those suffering amid pandemic. Lawmakers must sign off on some of those plans and the president my meet with Congressional leaders to discuss legislation as soon as today.

President Biden's strategy to handle the pandemic is coming into clear focus. His plan relies on bolstering production of vaccines and better coordination from the federal government. Phil Mattingly reports.

(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, CNN 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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 requirement during interstate travel on trains, planes, and buses. And a key symbolic focus, reestablishing trust in the federal government.

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF 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 speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): But the problems facing the nation's administration are significant, sources say. With Jeff Zients, the White House COVID response coordinator saying bluntly, quote, what we are 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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 possible. Come on, give me a break, man.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Broadly, it's a change in direction that goes far beyond just the pandemic. As Biden threw executive action, has moved to undo some of his predecessor's key initiatives.

BIDEN: There is no time to start like today.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): 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: We're going to need a legislation for a lot of the things we're going to do.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): 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 and looming over everything on Capitol Hill, the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: It will be soon. I don't think it will be long.

[04:05:00]

MATTINGLY: 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 adviser said.

What's going on behind scenes right now is their effort to push Congress into that place. Efforts from the legislative affairs team, from the top economic official 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)

BRUNHUBER: The Trump impeachment trial may not begin as quickly as some had hoped. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell is calling for it to be delayed a few weeks. Democrats ultimately control the timing, but they're apparently considering the proposal if it results in smoother cabinet confirmations. Manu Raju has more.

(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 hard a time getting an attorney to represent him. We are 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 are 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 will 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 is telling his colleagues, he has not decided what to do just yet.

I'm told by 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. For the moment, McConnell wants to delay, Democrats are considering it, and Donald Trump is awaiting his future -- his political future, as Republicans and Democrats weight what to do.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Joining me now from Los Angeles is Jessica Levinson, she's a professor of law at the Loyola Law School and the host of the Passing Judgment podcast. Thank you very much for joining us.

We just heard Nancy Pelosi say impeachment will be soon. Mitch McConnell is saying, not so fast. His plan would see it start essentially in mid-February. Do you think Democrats will agree to this delay? Essentially as a quid pro quo for quick confirmation of Biden's top nominees? Or will they think it's, you know, too slow and all the air and momentum will have gone out of impeachment? And you know, it will lessen the pressure on McConnell to actually convict?

JESSICA LEVINSON, PROFESSOR OF LAW, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: Yes. That's a great question. And I think this will be, frankly, I'm going to kind of dodge the question by saying I think this will be the real big test of the Democrats. They do now control the Senate. It's razor thin because you need Vice President Kamala Harris as that tie breaking vote. But that's still a majority.

And I have the strong feeling that if the rules were reversed, that Senator Mitch McConnell would say, that's our majority. And so again, I think this is really going to be an initial test of how much will Democrats say, absolutely not, Republicans. How much will they try to take, frankly, I think a little bit of a honeymoon period.

Some of their political capital out for a spin, and say here's what we're going to get, confirmation of these nominees and the Senate trial. Not in two weeks, not in two months, but now, because there's no good reason for the delay.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so we're hearing more and more from Republicans that they and the president's legal team are likely to focus on the unconstitutional argument, that a former president can't be convicted by the Senate.

[04:10:00]

Because, essentially, it has no constitutional authority to put a private citizen on trial. So, what do you make of that argument? And is that the right move?

LEVINSON: So, if this is your argument when -- if you're facing a Senate impeachment trial and this is your argument, you have no other arguments left. Because I think that the weight of the law absolutely indicates that the Senate can go forward with the trial even when somebody is out of office.

Now why do I think that? Number one, the Senate has done that in the past. All the way back almost centuries, to a secretary of war. Why else do I think that? Because the punishment for a Senate trial, the punishment for impeachment, is not just removal. The punishment can be, if convicted, you can't run for office again. And that's part of the Constitution. And that's a specific and concrete punishment, that obviously holds huge sway, even when you're talking about a private citizen.

And it wouldn't make a lot of sense to put that in the Constitution if you could just resign from your current post, avoid the Senate impeachment trial, and then just keep running for things.

BRUNHUBER: Our thanks to Jessica Levinson there.

The world rejoiced when effective vaccines against coronavirus were announced, but in the U.S. vaccination numbers are still low. We'll have that story and more straight ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:00]

BRUNHUBER: The United States leads the world in COVID cases and deaths, and the virus is taking a terrible toll on the country. There have been more than 410,000 American lives lost to the virus in the year since the outbreak began. The states shown here in the darkest red have the highest number of deaths and as you can see, vaccination numbers are still very low. About 38 million vaccine doses have been distributed but less than half of those have been administered. Our 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): If the nation continues at this sluggish rate, it'll be more than a year before 75 percent of American adults are fully vaccinated.

LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: This needs to be all hands on deck. Really, a wartime effort.

WATT (voice-over): You just heard the new president actually has a detailed plan and 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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. And that is really a challenge, that I don't think most people realize yet.

WATT (voice-over): Inauguration day, a near record COVID death toll reported, 4,375, 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 (voice-over): The CDC now projects this nation could reach over half a million COVID dead, maybe 100,000 more lives lost before Valentine's Day.

WATT: 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 it, you're not more likely to die, but overall, more contagious could mean more death.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Coronavirus cases in England are no longer falling despite a third lockdown. In fact, a study by Imperial College London found that cases might even be rising. Now Britain's environment secretary says the government is considering fully closing the U.K.'s borders to contain the spread of the new virus variants.

The situation is dire. The U.K. is now nearing 95,000 deaths with daily fatalities averaging more than 1,000. It's the fifth most effective nation from the pandemic worldwide both in the number of cases and deaths according to Johns Hopkins.

It comes as European health authorities warn nations to take extra measures now as cases surge in Western and Eastern New York, some countries are proposing tough restrictions on travel. Portugal is banning flights from the U.K. and the Netherlands will pose a nightly curfew starting this Saturday.

So let's bring in our team. Melissa Bell is in Paris. But let's begin with Scott McLean in London. Scott, what can you tell us about potentially closing all borders? I mean that would be a drastic move which reflects the seriousness of the situation there.

[04:20:00]

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kim. So it's important to keep in mind that at this moment any travelers coming into this country from abroad have to not only test negative before they get on a plane, but they also have to quarantine for ten days just for good measure.

This morning a British cabinet secretary said in an interview on Sky News that the government is considering a plan to significantly make those restrictions a lot tougher to keep out all foreign visitors. All in the name of keeping out new coronavirus variants that could spread easier or could be more resistant to a vaccine.

The U.K. is already dealing with its own variant of the coronavirus which spread most quicker over the past week. The U.K. has averaged more than 1,200 COVID-19 deaths per day. You have to look pretty hard to see signs that things are getting better in this country.

The head of the National Health Care Service in the London area said that while ICU beds are starting to fill up, to numbers of emergency calls and the numbers of patients occupying general and acute care beds are starting to fall.

So that is the small glimmer of hope that this lockdown is actually working. Though the government also said yesterday that there continues to be a small number of people who just do not want to follow the rules. So it's planning to impose stricter penalties on them. The government also making clear, Kim, that lockdown restrictions are not going to be eased any time soon. Despite the fact that the U.K. is vaccinating more people or more of its population than any other country in Europe.

BRUNHUBER: All right, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson apparently holding a press conference later today. So we'll see if he announces any more on that potential border closure.

Let's go to Melissa. There are growing concerns across Europe over how slowly vaccinations are rolling out and how quickly that variant is spreading.

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: That's precisely it. What we were just hearing from Nick Watt over in the States about those fears over the spread of these new variants is precisely what the Centers for Disease Control here in Europe is warning about, that these new variants, they warn, could lead to more hospitalizations and more deaths.

And of course, here in Europe which has borne the brunt of a particularly vicious second wave, hospital staff in so many countries are exhausted, ICUs in countries like Germany continue to be at near capacity. Germany has now pasted the 50,000 COVID-19 related deaths mark. With of course a further tightening this week of restrictions that were already substantial, an extension and a tightening there in order to try and bring the spread of the virus back under control.

With Angel Merkel once again on Thursday speaking of her fears over the spread of this new variant in particular, the one first identified in the United Kingdom. It is also at the heart of concerns here in France and elsewhere in the EU. European leaders met digitally on Thursday to look at how they could better coordinate further travel restrictions. Which they believe will be necessary.

France has now announced that it will require a negative PCR test for people coming from other European countries. And what we expect on Monday to hear, Kim, is for new proposals for within the EU on how they coordinate and beef up their travel restrictions. Because it is exactly that, the spread of those new variants that is causing deep concern here in the European continent.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely, all right, thank you so much. Melissa Bell in Paris and Scott McLean in London, we appreciate it.

Now earlier I spoke to Dr. Jerome Kim. He is the director general of the international vaccine institute. And I asked him about the significance of the United States return to the World Health Organization.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEROME KIM, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL VACCINE INSTITUTE: The U.S. rejoining the World Health Organization during a pandemic, the U.S. joining COVAX to help with the distribution of vaccines around the world is a very, very important step.

The United States as an opportunity to show global leadership. The appointment of Dr. Fauci as the representative I think is another very important sign that the United States is planning to lead with science and can provide the kind of leadership around COVID vaccination that it did around COVID vaccine development.

So, again, I'm very hopeful that this is a sign that the United States is now stepping up. And really, bearing response -- helping to bear responsibility for what is going to be a global fight against COVID- 19.

BRUNHUBER: Part of that global fight is against this new variance that are popping up in different countries. There is a preliminary evidence suggesting that the vaccine might be less effective against the South African variant, for instance. And we're seeing just how fast these new variants are spreading. There is a projection that the U.K. variant could be the dominant one in the U.S. by March. So that doesn't give us a lot of time to get people vaccinated.

So how worried should we be that the spread of this variance will outpace our vaccination efforts?

KIM: We have to be very concerned. And we have to be concerned at multiple levels. You know, we wanted to have a lot more people vaccinated, for instance, in the United States and in Europe than have been vaccinated.

[04:25:00]

As with many things, reparation, planning, institution of a nationwide program for vaccination, these are all things that need to be done, not only in the United States but in countries around the world. It's going to be difficult to prevent the spread of new mutants. It's going to be difficult to get a hold over the pandemic if we don't start officially vaccinating.

So, remember that these mutations, these changes in the virus occur as the virus is growing and spreading. Effective vaccination, the use of masks, social distancing, and avoiding crowds are always that we're going to contain the virus and keep it from mutating.

So, get vaccinated, wear your mask, keep a distance, avoid crowds. These things are goin to apply. It's going to be very important. I mean, the pandemic has already taken out, you know, over $20 trillion from the global economy. If we want this to be fixed, if we want to go back to a life somewhat close to what we had before then people around the world are going to have to help and cooperate. I mean, we're in this together.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, authorities have announced new charges for several people who stormed the Capitol in a deadly siege. We'll have more on that and the connection to hate groups after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

National Guard troops are now being allowed back into the Capitol complex in Washington D.C. after they were banished to a parking garage. Lawmakers erupted in outrage over the treatment of the troops as they were told.