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Pelosi Speaks Amid Increased Security Threats to Lawmakers; Today: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Meets with Trump; Vaccine Supply Remains a Concern as Slow Rollout Continues; Biden to Sign Executive Order to Reopen Obamacare Enrollment. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired January 28, 2021 - 11:00   ET

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

[10:59:50]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining us this hour.

Moments from now, we're standing by for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She will be speaking with reporters in the Capitol. And there is a lot to ask her about. Threats against lawmakers, new threats coming in. Requests for more security now from those very same lawmakers. And what is the path forward for the COVID relief package. And what is the latest with the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. And what kind of Republican Party is she now up against?

As CNN has now uncovered that freshman Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has repeatedly indicated in the past support for executing Democratic politicians including the House speaker herself. The speaker has not addressed this. We'll see what she has to say.

Just as the top Republican in the House Kevin McCarthy, he is planning to visit Donald Trump in Florida today in an apparent effort to get back in Trump's good graces. All of this comes as the Biden administration is right now facing a brutal reality with the coronavirus pandemic today.

The vaccine rollout continues to be spotty at best. With the federal data showing that only about half of the vaccine supply that have been distributed has actually been administered.

And a member of President Biden's COVID response team acknowledged yesterday that it will be months until every American who wants a vaccine, can get one. As for President Biden today, he's rolling out more executive orders following through on a campaign promise in one of them to help shore up the Affordable Care Act.

We're going to have much more on that in a moment. But I do want to start with these new threats to Congress this morning as the Department of Homeland Security is issuing a new warning about the danger coming from domestic extremists.

CNN's Jessica Schneider, she is following all this. She's joining me right now. So, Jessica, a lot of new developments here. First, there was just an arrest near the Capitol. What are you hearing about this? JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. So, we're hearing that this was a man who was first seen parked in the middle of an intersection right near the Capitol. And then Capitol police actually approached him, approached the vehicle and inside of the vehicle, they found a 9-millimeter handgun and 20 rounds of ammunition. So, he was taken into custody.

But this arrest on Wednesday came hours after that DHS bulletin warning of these further violent threats from domestic extremist. DHS warned about the fact that government officials and buildings could be targeted and that importantly, these extremists are feeling emboldened after their seeming success on January 6th during that insurrection.

So, Kate, law enforcement, they are on heightened alert this morning. They have been on heightened alert for week now. And they're really keeping an eye on anything even remotely suspicious as we saw yesterday with this arrest of this man with a handgun and ammunition in his car near the Capitol. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And Jessica, what exactly does this bulletin from DHS lay out? Because I think it is very important. And also, what are you hearing from lawmakers in terms of responding to this threat?

SCHNEIDER: Yes. I think this bulletin really made clear that the threat here, it's not subsiding. We're weeks out from the insurrection and there are still issues here. Members of Congress now are voicing concerns that they need help securing themselves and their staff.

They sent this letter to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as the Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. And in it, they explained this. They said, "Most members spend the majority of their time in their congressional districts where security is often sparse. Protecting members in their district is much harder because local law enforcement agencies are stretched and limited, and often don't have sufficient staffing or money to provide regular protection to members. Except for leadership, members do not have security details protecting them."

I think that is something that a lot of the American public might not know. You know these members don't have security when they leave the Capitol complex. And now they're asking for more flexibility, using some of their funding to hire local law enforcement security when they're in their home districts. They're also asking for security upgrades for their district offices and homes.

And Kate, I've talked to staffers on Capitol Hill. They say this is a big concern. They're going to their home districts. They're attending these events, yet they're also facing threats on social media and concerned that this could really -- it could hurt them in their home districts. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And you know nobody wants to have to have security if they didn't need it. They won't be asking for this if they really weren't as scared as they clearly are. Jessica, thanks so much.

All right. So, let's turn now to the pandemic and the new alarm being raised by one of the scientists who have been advising the Biden administration that variants of the virus will be driving -- he's afraid now driving a major spike in new cases in the coming weeks. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL OSTEROHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: What we're now going to see are these new variants, much more infectious viruses, much more easily transmitted, even causing more serious illness are now going to overlay on top of that very high baseline. So, what we could expect to see in the course of the next, I think six to 14 weeks, is something that we haven't even come close to experiencing yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Warnings like this really highlight once again the need for getting as many people vaccinated as soon as possible. It really is a race against time.

[11:05:04]

CNN's Kristin Holmes, she is looking into all the facets of this in. She is joining us right now. So, Kristen, where do things stand with vaccine distribution as we know it today?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, most of the experts, the officials that we've talked to say that it's just not a good place that we're in. And it should be better to be further along.

But we are learning now about what might be causing at least part of the bottleneck. I want to pull up the most recent numbers here. This is the number of vaccines distributed versus administered. And this has been an ongoing question.

We've seen a discrepancy like this since the beginning of the roll out and we weren't sure why. We've asked state officials, I mean look at this, 47 million versus 24.6 million. That is a huge gap.

Now, these officials gave us several different reasons. One, being that it was hard to transport this vaccine and others being that they just simple not have enough people to administer it. But we're also learning now that at least some states have been holding on second doses. So, meaning that their keeping actual doses on the shelves.

Now, it is unclear whether or not this is a day's long thing, is this something that they put a shot on the arm and then they keep that on the shelf for 20-plus days or is this just something that happens when you're trying to get ahold of someone to actually administer that second dose. We're still trying to get to the bottom of that. But it is very clear here that some of these states are concerned about when they're going to get that next dose, that next round of delivery. So, they feel like they have to hold on to some of this.

Now, a White House official says, that is not what they should be doing. They should be giving out all of the doses. But many of the state officials I've talked to say, look, we are very happy with what the Biden team has told us about this big increase. We're going to see in supply. But we're not going to actually believe it until we see it. We've heard stuff like this just yet.

BOLDUAN: A good reason to be cautious. Kristen, thank you very much. Many questions on this.

Joining me right now is Dr. Paul Offit. He is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a member of the FDA's vaccine advisory board. Doctor, it has been a bit. Thank you so much for coming back in. I wanted to ask you first about what Michael Osterholm was kind of his concern and what he was raising there that we played, his concern about these new variants and what it could -- what could be coming because of these variants in the next six weeks. What do you think of it?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER AT CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: I think the variants - at least the UK variant has been shown to be more contagious. There is not clear evidence it is more virulent. Meaning more likely to cause severe disease. If you look at people who are admitted in the United Kingdom, for example, to the hospital with either a variant or non-variant strain, it looks like the mortality rate is roughly the same. So, I'm not sure we can clearly say it's more virulent.

But the good news is it is still spread by small droplets. It still could be largely prevented by masking and physical distancing. So, I think that is what we need to do. And at least to date we don't see any clear evidence that this variant or these variants are likely to escape vaccine induced immunity which I think really would be a major problem.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And also, I wanted to ask you, get there about the question over vaccine distribution. The new CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky during CNN's Town Hall last night. And on a play, what she said and how she explains talks about shots being - shots sitting on shelves and the shortages of vaccines. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: When you do all that math, you still end up with some millions of doses that are sitting on the shelves and have not yet been administered and in fact, that is one of the bottlenecks and one of the ways that we have to get resources to the states to make sure that they can quickly administer the vaccines that are on their shelves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And Dr. Offit, with that, I do need to break away and go to the Capitol. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is speaking now.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The following Wednesday, the House impeached Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection that week before. In just one week, he was impeached. And the Wednesday after that, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were inaugurated as the President and Vice President of the United States; history-making in so many respects. Yesterday, on Wednesday, we celebrated the one week since the inauguration. In that one week, President Biden - starting on day one, President Biden and Vice President Harris have driven a bold agenda for progress and for justice, issuing transformative executive actions ranging from crushing the coronavirus, equity, racial equity in so many ways, and again, addressing the climate crisis.

Legislatively - those are executive orders. Legislatively, we had been working - I'm very proud of our committees who are diligently working on the coronavirus relief legislation as a basis for reconciliation, should that be needed.

[11:10:04]

We will pass a reconciliation bill under leadership in our House. So, it's John Yarmuth, Mr. Sanders in the Senate, will pass a reconciliation bill, if we need it.

We would hope that we would have bipartisan cooperation to meet the needs of the American people in terms of their health, in terms of distribution in an equitable way of the vaccine, continue with testing, tracing, treatment, et cetera, but also to meet their economic needs. So, we would hope that, but we're not taking any tools off the table should they not.

While our committees are advancing this reconciliation legislation, at the same time, the Executive actions continue. Today's Executive action will open up the ACA's enrollment period and take additional steps to expand health care. We're very excited about that because, of course, we're in the middle of the pandemic and we see this as a matter of life and death, very different from the Trump Administration who fought the Affordable Care Act, still don't have the verdict from the Supreme Court, to destroy the lifeline for affordable, quality health care for all Americans. So, we're very excited about that particular health care initiative today, in addition to the others that the President has put forth in relationship to the coronavirus.

Again, again, we are preparing for the impeachment - well, we have impeached the President, but we're preparing for the case. I'm very proud of our Managers, led by Jamie Raskin, our distinguished array of Managers working very hard. They continue to prepare for trial before 100 jurors, Members of the United States Senate.

This trial is about the protection of the Constitution and the preservation of our Republic. We will insist upon the integrity and fairness of the proceedings, recognizing the role that the Senate plays in all of this.

No one is above the law, not even a President of the United States, and Trump must be tried and convicted to ensure that no future President will ever think it's OK to incite insurrection, to stop the ascertainment of who the next President of the United States will be by falsely inflaming people, falsely, about the outcome of the election.

In that regard, in terms of security, security, security, which is what we do, protect and defend the Constitution, security, protect the American people is our very first responsibility. And when they come to the Capitol, whether to work as a legislator, a staffer, a journalist, whatever, we want people to be safe.

Later today, I'll be meeting with General Honore, Russel Honore, who's leading a security review of the Capitol complex. Updates on the timing, scope and details will be forthcoming. Protecting the Capitol is a matter of protecting our democracy, and the House will not be distracted or delayed from our work that we are doing, again, to crush the virus, to meet the economic needs of the American people, and to do so in a way that is fair and just.

Any questions? Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION: Madam Speaker, I wanted to ask you about Marjorie Taylor Greene. How concerned are you about her past posts, remarks, rhetoric? What would you like to see done about those?

PELOSI: What I'm concerned about is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives who is willing to overlook, ignore those statements - assigning her to the Education Committee when she has mocked the killing of little children attending Sandy Hook Elementary School, when she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. What could they be thinking? Or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing? It's absolutely appalling, and I think that the focus has to be on the Republican leadership of this House of Representatives for the disregard they have for the death of those children.

Not only are they not interested in gun safety and gun violence prevention by passing legislation for background checks legislation, which is overwhelmingly supported in a bipartisan way in the country

[11:15:01]

But to have someone who would mock, call it a fake - those fake events - is just beyond, it's just beyond any understanding of any regard that the House Republicans would have for the House of Representatives, for the Congress of the United States, and for the heartbreak of the families at Sandy Hook and at Marjory Stoneman High School. It really - at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It's really beyond the pale. You're just going to have to ask them why they thought that that raised itself to the level of something appropriate to do in the Congress of the United States.

QUESTION: Madam Speaker?

PELOSI: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Point of clarity on the stimulus. Are you going to bring a budget resolution next week to the House -

PELOSI: Yes.

QUESTION: Before you start that? PELOSI: Yes. We're going to bring a budget resolution to the Floor next week, and then we'll send it over to the Senate. Then if they change it, then we'll take it back and address it. But by the end of the week, we will be finished with the budget resolution, which will be about reconciliation, if needed. I hope we don't need it; but if needed, we will have it.

QUESTION: And one more question. Does Congress have any role in this GameStop stock manipulation issue that's going on in Wall Street right now?

PELOSI: I understand - interesting, isn't it? I understand that the Administration is taking a look, the SEC is taking a look at what that is, but we'll all be reviewing it. But interesting, it's interesting, yes.

A completely different - you had two questions. That was not considered a follow-up, would you say?

Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Just to follow on security, you had 30?plus members of the House send you and the minority leader a letter asking for more money for security. You have members who are worried about not only their safety at the Capitol, but when they go back to their home districts.

PELOSI: Yes.

QUESTION: You have a member who has talked about executing you.

PELOSI: Yes.

QUESTION: And you had a security bulletin yesterday from DHS about ongoing domestic violence threats. What are you saying to your members about protecting themselves? And what can be done to - for them to feel safe?

PELOSI: Well, first of all, I appreciate the letter from the members, but most of the questions, the items on their list have already been done. Perhaps they were not aware, and I take responsibility for them not being aware, in terms of use of their MRA funds and some of the other issues that are in there.

Today, when I meet with General Honore, he is looking at members here, members at home, and in between. So, we want to have a scientific approach to how we protect members. I do believe, and I have said this all along, that we will probably need a supplemental for more security for members when the enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about, in addition to what is happening outside.

But I think - again, what's in that letter. We won't - that's just a matter of communicating to them. That has been done: the MRA, the rest of that. I do think, though, that while it's appropriate that they use their MRA for their security, they shouldn't have to because that money is there for them to meet the needs of their constituents. In the meantime, to protect themselves and their constituents when they communicate with them, that that is confidential, private and not provocative, but then also for us to have - and that's what we'll be looking at recommendations from General Honore. We'll have some interim report today, and then he'll continue his work as we go forward. But it's very important.

QUESTION: You've been the subject of the threats. That comes with the job of being speaker. Many of your members, not necessarily, some of them feel like they're targets now. What do you say to your caucus, your fellow House members?

PELOSI: Well, what we're saying is that we're going to approach it in a way that will truly protect them, that the issues they raised in their letter have, by and large, been in effect. So, they may be relieved to hear that.

They'll be hearing also from the sergeant-at-arms today. He will - and you'll see his letter, talking about how their further - their protection is further enhanced by certain initiatives that were taken. And, as I said, General Honore is looking to see what really will work in terms of their service here, their service at home, their transportation in between. But I call to your attention the sergeant- at-arms's letter because it will be more specific about air marshals, et cetera.

[11:20:08]

But this is very, very important. It shouldn't be, it shouldn't be that not only is the president of the United States inciting an insurrection, but keeps fanning the flame endangering the security of members of Congress to the point that they're even concerned about members in the House of Representatives being a danger to them.

QUESTION: Speaker Pelosi?

PELOSI: Yes, ma'am.

QUESTION: What exactly do you mean when you say that the enemy is within? What exactly are you saying?

PELOSI: It means that we have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the Floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress.

Yes, sir, back there.

QUESTION: Madam Speaker, do you believe that the President can get a fair and complete trial that lasts only one week?

PELOSI: Of course, of course. And that's what our system is about. I don't know how long it will take. It depends on the response that he will make, but it will be a fair trial and respectful of the role that the Senate plays now that it goes over there. Yes, I do.

Yes, sir. QUESTION: Madam Speaker, on LGBTQ issues, the President campaigned on signing the Equality Act into law within the first 100 days in office. When will you hold a vote on the legislation?

PELOSI: We're - I thank you for that question. This is such an exciting piece of legislation for us. We passed it in the last Congress, no success in the Senate. It went to Mitch McConnell's graveyard, the "Grim Reaper." But I'm optimistic about it because I do think we will get strong bipartisan support in the House and in the Senate. We're working with Mr. Cicilline, the author of the bill, for when we will roll it out with him and Mr. Merkley, the Senator, and then we will again calendar it. It will be a - it's an early priority for us, H.R. 5. And, again, it's about ending discrimination.

I'm very pleased with what President Biden has done so far, especially pleased about eliminating the prohibition on trans people from serving in the military. That too, I think, was a triumph for decency and justice in our country. But some other initiatives that he took about contracting and this or that, it's really, it's amazing that we would even have to do such things.

But we're particularly proud of the Equality Act because it's so comprehensive. And, again, ending discrimination in the workplace and every other aspect of life, not only is good for the LGBTQ community, for our whole society, but also for the businesses that want the very best. They should be hiring without any concern of complaint about the diversity that they are introducing into there. That's why we think we'll have strong bipartisan support. We think the business community will help us in the Senate, yes.

One more.

QUESTION: Madam Speaker?

PELOSI: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: On the impeachment -

PELOSI: No. Sir, I said - Yes, sir.

QUESTION: Do you believe that - you say reconciliation is a backstop, that you would rather have a bipartisan bill?

PELOSI: Yes, always.

QUESTION: You're - it sounds like you're not hope - you're not optimistic that that will happen. Is that correct?

PELOSI: Well, we have to be ready. I do think that we have more leverage getting cooperation on the other side if they know we have an alternative as well. But I would think, if we're talking about additional funding for vaccines to be - not only production but their distribution, if we're talking about putting money into the pockets of the American people with the direct payments, if we're talking about supporting state and local government so that they're able to implement all these things, open our schools, our health care workers, our police and fire, first responders, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers, transportation, sanitation, food workers, I would hope that the Republicans would be supportive of that. Many of the localities that will benefit have Republican mayors and Republican county executives, so I would hope that that - we would be able to do it in a bipartisan way.

And, again, I've said if there's an argument that needs to be made to people that we need more funding for the vaccines, more distribution resources, more of the vials and syringes and all that make this happen, I think many of the Republicans would be supportive of that, and I hope so.

[11:25:07]

But we cannot not have it happen. We have to act. And that is why I said we want it to be bipartisan, always, but we can't surrender if they're not going to be doing that. Instead, we will pass it.

Thank you all very much. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Just wanted to see the last moments there. You're listening right there at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking with reporters. A couple of important things that she said. Let me bring in CNN's Jessica Dean, she's on Capitol Hill as well as Nia-Malika Henderson.

Jessica, she is very clearly taking the security of the Capitol obviously, but security of members of Congress very, very seriously. Something she said that got a lot of attention is she's concerned about the enemy is within the House of Representatives.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And you heard that reporter in the room ask her, what do you mean exactly, that the enemy is within. And she said there are members who are carrying guns and making threats against other members here in the Capitol.

And of course, referring there to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and you saw our reporting on her previous post leading up to her election where she appeared to indicate her support for violence on members of Congress.

But, look, there are a number of people here in these halls, Kate, who are concerned about their safety. And we did obtain a letter that they are sending to Nancy Pelosi and to others saying they feel like they need more security. It is important for people to realize that a Congress person here doesn't have security that travels with them when they go outside these walls typically unless they're in leadership.

And so, Nancy Pelosi there saying that she's taking it very seriously that they do have meetings coming up later today where they're going to look at what is feasible, what can they do. But she said, Kate, and you heard her, that there needs to be supplements in there -- supplemental security because these members do fear for their safety.

BOLDUAN: And she said, sergeant at arms is putting out more guidance on that today. So, some things will be changing.

Nia, as Jessica mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene, the House speaker, she came ready to respond.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: She did. We know that Marjorie Taylor Greene has affiliated herself with QAnon, a conspiracy theory and other conspiracy theories about school shootings and here she is going to be on the Education Committee. Kevin McCarthy said at one point that he's going to pull her aside and have a conversation with her. Whether or not she remains on those committees that she's been on is unclear.

There is precedent for members being taken off of committees. We saw that of course with Steve King. But we'll see what happens with Marjorie Taylor Greene. But it is clear and startling and shocking to hear the speaker of the House say that the enemy is from within the House of Representatives. And, of course, they're speaking in part about Marjorie Taylor Greene who has said or liked some terrible things about the people who are her colleagues now.

So, I mean, that kind of stopped me cold when she said that. Because you have these folks who are going to their jobs and they're fearing their colleagues. It is not even necessarily people outside of the building but I'm sure there are some threats there as well. But people that they go to work with every day and serve with.

So, this is a real dangerous and terrible time for this country when you think about, for years, the threat was overseas, right? And that is why DHS was formed. And now this sense that there is some domestic terror threat that is here, that we saw on January 6th and that some are fearing work in the hallowed halls in Congress.

BOLDUAN: Yes. The House speaker saying it is absolutely appalling and she's talking about the Republican leaders giving Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene a committee assignment in what was not new, was known when she entered the halls of Congress. Thank you both very much.

Coming up on exactly what we're talking about here, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, he is down in Florida to meet with Donald Trump. So, does that settle the fight over who is going to lead the Republican Party in the post-Trump world.

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