Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Live Coverage of White House Briefing; Democrats to Pass COVID Relief Soon; Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Shows Efficacy. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired January 29, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I know that's not what you're asking about, but also the ability to move materials and move vaccines. So we are tapping into any resource we can, but it's more predominantly focused on kind of a health and medical corps (ph) and that -- the ability to get those people into communities. But I will -- I will check with our team and get you something more specific.

QUESTION: OK, and just one on double-masking. There's been some increased discussion about that publicly. We've seen pictures of -- of the president double-masking, and those around him. Is that a personal preference, or has he been advised by medical -- his medical advisors to do that?

PSAKI: Well, you're going to talk to the medical advisors in just the next 15, 30 minutes, whatever the time is, and you can ask them more specifically. There hasn't been specific CDC guidance. As you have probably seen, Dr. Fauci spoke to this, I believe, the -- in the last couple days, and said it was common sense, or made sense. I can't remember exactly how he phrased it. But there hasn't been additional medical guidance given.

I've been around the president where he's been wearing one mask. I think obviously, he advised by the health and medical advice. Sometimes -- not to get too detailed, but it looks like two masks sometimes because we put the N95 one on. It's a little bit more comfortable to have this one on on top of it. But I would encourage you to ask the health and medical teams during the call that's coming up.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Jen, did the White House have advance notice of the Johnson & Johnson results? And did that affect the White House's decision to go ahead and purchase 200 million doses from Pfizer and Moderna?

PSAKI: No, the decision was made to purchase the Pfizer and Moderna doses to ensure that we had enough doses to give two shots to Americans by the end of the summer. And we did our planning without the -- the need for an additional vaccine to go through approval.

Now remember, even though we saw the news this morning, it hasn't gone through FDA approval yet. We don't have a timeline of when that will happen. We leave that to the FDA.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you. A couple questions on the economy, starting with China. Former President Trump signed a phase 1 trade deal with Beijing. Does President Biden consider that deal still to be in effect? And does he expect China to meet its commitment under that deal?

PSAKI: Well, the national security team, the -- the newly-confirmed secretary of state, President Biden are all reviewing all aspects of our national security approach including, certainly, our relationship with China. You know, we are focused on approaching that relationship from a position of strength, and that means coordinating and communicating with our allies and partners about how we are going to work with China. It means strengthening our economy at home, and that mean -- it means, you know, determining the best path forward to address a range of issues, not just economic, but strategic, and also security.

So again, everything's under review, but I don't have anything for you on the -- more on the China relationship.

QUESTION: To -- sorry, to clarify, so it is still in effect, as the past administration left it off?

PSAKI: Well, again, everything that the past administration has put in place is under review, as it relates to our national security approach. So I would not assume things are moving forward. We are just reviewing what the path forward looks like and doing that, again, from a position of strength, which means coordinating with our allies, members of Congress and making a determination before we engage further.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Sorry, Jen. Can you confirm the Politico story about the president warning his family members to avoid any conflict of interest with his presidency and their business ties?

PSAKI: Well, I'm not going to get into private conversations between the president and his family members, we all have lots of conversations with different family members, I'm sure. The president is committed to ensuring we have the most ethically vigorous administration in history, and that includes restrictions on what -- how his image can be used and -- and that is something that he's conveyed publicly and privately as well.

So let me just reiterate the policy for all of you, which is I think maybe your next question, or I'll just reiterate it proactively. It's the White House's policy that the president's name should not be used in connection with any commercial activities, to suggest or in any way -- in any way that could reasonably be understood to imply his endorsement or support.

He's issued the farthest-reaching executive order with respect to the ethical commitments required of his appointees ever, and he's very proud of it. And you know, that's something that he is committed to conveying to anyone it applies to.

Let me just get to a few more in the back. Go ahead, all the way in the back.

QUESTION: Thank you very much. Does President Biden endorse the characterization of genocide concerning the Chinese treatment of the Uyghur minority?

PSAKI: Yes, Secretary Blinken -- I almost called him President Blinken, I'm giving him a bit of a promotion, never know -- he spoke about that during his confirmation hearing, so I would certainly point you to those comments.

QUESTION: President Biden?

PSAKI: He was speaking on behalf of the U.S. government.

QUESTION: Thank you.

PSAKI: Did you have a question right there? Go ahead.

QUESTION: Yeah, the governor of Puerto Rico said last (ph) (inaudible) he was in touch with the White House about releasing the remaining disaster relief funds held up by the previous administration. Do you have an update on that?

PSAKI: I don't, but I will venture to talk to our team about where the -- what the status of relief funds is for Puerto Rico.

QUESTION: One other question, is the White House tracking confirmed cases of South African strain that has been found in South Carolina? Have you been in touch with local officials there?

PSAKI: Certainly our health and medical team have been. And again, they'll speak to it at their briefing that's coming up at 11 a.m., encourage you to join that. But as we see reports, our team has been monitoring variants as there have been developments around the world, and the potential for them to travel here.

It reiterates -- or re-emphasizes, I should say -- the importance of getting vaccines into the arms of Americans, something that our health team has said will make people safer and also reiterates the need for getting the American Rescue Plan passed so that we can ensure we can expedite that effort.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thanks, Jen. Just two quick questions. One following up on the political question. It's about -- about degree. Is the White House going to make a commitment one way or the other that members of Biden's family is not going to serve in the administration?

PSAKI: We have made that commitment, so that continues to be the commitment. QUESTION: Sorry, so nothing (ph) (inaudible) Biden or anybody else?

PSAKI: Nope, reports that there was an office in the West Wing are -- were not accurate.

[10:35:00]

QUESTION: Gotcha. And then one Marjorie Taylor Greene, I know you said earlier that you would not like to be commenting on her, but it's (inaudible) story. Does the White House have any concerns about a QAnon supporter, someone with a history of racist, now we're seeing anti-Semitic comments, harassing school shooting survivor families, serving on House committees?

PSAKI: Well, I think the reason I conveyed that is because we don't want to elevate conspiracy theories further in the briefing room, so I'm going to speak -- I'm going to leave it at that. And I'll...

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ...serving...

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: We'll leave -- we'll leave -- we'll leave decisions about committees to members of Congress, and we've certainly seen Speaker Pelosi speak to that.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you. Twenty-four Republican members of the -- Republican senators sent a letter to President Biden yesterday requesting a meeting after some of the executive orders and actions targeting the domestic energy sector. Is that a meeting that President Biden will take?

PSAKI: Well, President Biden is committed to -- and this is -- this -- you can see this through his actions -- working and engaging with Democrats and Republicans to address the crises we're facing, including climate, which is one of the crises that he's identified.

I -- we don't have no plans for a meeting of that kind that I can read out for you at this point in time, sounds like a lot of people to be in a meeting during COVID too, but he is certainly engaged on an individual basis with leaders in the Senate, members of -- Democratic and Republican senators, and they can certainly raise any concerns they have through that means.

QUESTION: And one more question, apologies if you answered this in response to Steve's (ph) question, but I just want to be clear here, is -- do you anticipate President Biden to address the GameStop controversy when he meets with his economic team a little bit later this morning?

PSAKI: No. Do we -- anticipate him addressing it publicly, you mean?

QUESTION: No, talking about it with his economic team.

PSAKI: Well, the focus of the meeting is about the recovery plan, about the status of the economic recovery, about obviously the data that we saw yesterday. I'm sure they'll cover a range of topics during that meeting, but that's not the focus.

QUESTION: ... story? OK.

PSAKI: I know it's a big story, but it doesn't -- you know, obviously the -- our focus and our big story is getting the American people back to work.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: I know hundreds of White House staffers now have been vaccinated...

PSAKI: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: ... the coronavirus. Any specific updates in terms of who that has -- who has been covered by that? And then also more broadly, because of that, does that give the White House sort of, you know, is that a model for the rest of the country? Schools for instance, should every teacher be vaccinated in the next 90 days so that the president can meet his commitment to (inaudible) schools?

PSAKI: Sure. Well, on the first, we -- I think we announced a couple of weeks ago that about three dozen members of the senior White House staff, including members of the cabinet, national security officials had received their first dose, which means right around now, a number of people will be receiving their second dose.

We are also, as you noted, had released a couple of days ago that the objective and the plan of the White House medical unit was to vaccinate hundreds of additional staffers to create a COVID-safe environment here.

As you know, there has been -- the president has -- and our team, I should say, has spoken about the prioritization, of course, of teachers and educators and child care providers. We'd certainly defer to CDC on what that should look like, and they may speak to that on this 11 a.m. call as well, but I'm not going to get ahead of their outlines or prioritization or specifics.

QUESTION: And just one more on GameStop, not to belabor the point, but...

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: I love the effort, you guys are trying so hard on this.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: What is the broader message to the American public and people around the world, that in large cases, individual investors, acting collectively against large financial institutions, are shut down pretty much overnight while the big banks and financial institutions responsible for the 2008 housing crisis got a get-out-of- jail-free card?

PSAKI: Well, the message is that the U.S. government is starting to work how it should. The SEC is a regulatory agency that oversees and monitors developments along these lines, it is currently in their purview. They've put out several statements this week, we will certainly defer to them on that. And I'd point you to them for further questions.

Go ahead in the back.

QUESTION: Thank you. Jen, can we expect to see the president in this briefing room any time soon?

PSAKI: Are you eager to see him, is that what you're saying?

QUESTION: (inaudible), sure.

PSAKI: You know, the president took questions earlier this week when he did an event, and we certainly are going to look for opportunities to continue to do that. The location of where the questions will take place, I don't think I have anything further but we'll look for additional opportunities for him to take additional questions from all of you.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you, Jen.

[10:40:00]

What does President Biden make of reports that Senate Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, who will chair the Budget Committee -- chair its Budget Committee, are planning to expand the use of the budget reconciliation process for legislation that's not revenue -- does not direct -- directly impact federal revenue, like the $15 minimum wage? Is that something that President Biden's OK with?

PSAKI: Well, the president's going to leave it to Congress to determine their parliamentary process for moving legislation forward, as should be the case. You know, I think it's obviously been broadly reported that there is consideration on the American Rescue Plan of what the path forward will look like and how to expedite moving that forward. And there's an urgency, and we certainly feel that.

But our view is that this bill should be bipartisan. Seventy-four percent of the public support it, and we want Republican -- to work with Republicans on fighting COVID and putting the American people back to work. But as we work on this bill, it -- you know, we are going to -- our priority is on -- on getting it through, and not on -- the focus on what the parliamentary process is.

QUESTION: (inaudible) What is his message to progressives who are arguing that the $1.9 trillion relief package should be the floor, and not the ceiling? And would President Biden considering pushing a relief bill that is more than $2 million? What about the idea of reoccurring stimulus checks that some progressives are advocating for?

PSAKI: Well, we've seen those reports and obviously, he's had conversations, as our team has, with members of the Progressive Caucus and other progressive members of Congress. And as I've said in here many times before, I mean, part of this process is that the president laid out his vision. He is getting feedback. Some -- a lot of the focus in here has been members who have said it's too big, but some are saying it's too small. And as a part of the discussion, we have those engagements and determine how to improve the bill, and what opportunities there are to do exactly that.

So he welcomes their engagement. He welcomes their ideas. But he's put forward his plan, and main bottom line is that we -- we're not going to break it apart, and the three components of it are pivotal in moving it forward. But the size and scope of the package -- this is the legislative process. This is democracy at work now.

QUESTION: Well, certainly, he has an opinion, and was very influential in the process. So would he think it's too little (ph)? To go above $2 trillion?

PSAKI: Well, again, I think the best place to look for what's realistic is to members of Congress and their whip counts, and I'm sure that the leadership can give you an assessment of that.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Is there any chance that the -- the Summit for Democracy, which was mentioned during the campaign, could happen before summer?

PSAKI: Before summer?

QUESTION: Yeah.

PSAKI: I don't have any -- I know it was a campaign promise and something that was mentioned during the campaign, but I don't have any more details on plans at this point in time.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: Yesterday, we saw Vice President Harris do local media interviews in the states of West Virginia and Arizona. You know, obviously, there's been a lot of focus on your efforts to get Republicans on board. Are you concerned that budget reconciliation even -- you know, may not be realistic, or -- or that you may lose some Democrats? Is that why Vice President Harris was making those calls, to shore up Democratic support?

PSAKI: Vice President Harris was making those calls because we want to make the case to the American people across the country. And obviously, she's not traveling to those states and holding big events, or even events with, you know, not big crowds, but some crowd. And so this is a way to do exactly that.

QUESTION: Why -- why those states specifically? PSAKI: I -- I think she'll do a number of addition -- more regional calls and regional interviews, as will other members of the team and -- including on national networks, of course, and that will continue in the days ahead.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: One more on -- you've covered the topic, reconciliation. I know it's wonky but...

PSAKI: That's OK. That's what we're here for.

QUESTION: ... the president...

PSAKI: (Inaudible).

QUESTION: ... the president, as you said multiple times, is reaching out to Republicans in an effort to get a bipartisan bill. At the same time, Majority Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi seem to be aggressively moving towards reconciliation.

Do you think -- does the president think that the Democratic leaders' push for reconciliation at this time is hurting his chances to get Republicans on board?

PSAKI: Well, the president's focus is on the end goal of delivering relief to the American people, not the parliamentary procedures, as -- as we've said. And we can't imagine that the one in seven families who are hungry or the thousands who have lost a loved one to COVID care much about the procedure either.

So I would...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

PSAKI: I would flip it the other way to you. I think a fair question you might ask our GOP or Republican colleagues is why they oppose proposals that have the support of 71 percent -- 74 percent, sorry, of the American public.

And even if this bill moves forward through the reconciliation process, again a parliamentary procedure, it doesn't mean they can't vote for it. And the president's objective and focus is to -- is to continue to have those conversations and pursue a path forward where he can gain bipartisan support.

But, again, the public -- 74 percent of the public is with him in that endeavor and their constituents.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: The president spoke with the NATO secretary general the other day. Is the president satisfied with the level of defense spending by NATO allies?

PSAKI: Well, we did... QUESTION: (Inaudible) come up in their conversation?

PSAKI: I know we put out a readout of that and a fun video, if I may note, of his -- of his conversation with the U.N. secretary general.

You know he had spoken about the importance of NATO allies and partners. You know making that -- playing the role and contributing their fair share when he was vice president. That remains his commitment.

But I don't have any more detail of the call than what has already been read out.

QUESTION: Thank you, Jen.

PSAKI: Thank you, guys. Have a great day.

Oh, let me do one more thing.

So, it's important to me but also the president that everybody know everybody on the press team. So I'm just going to embarrass TJ, who you guys all know, and Karine, who are two deputies in the press office. Principal Deputy Karine, Deputy TJ, who you all should know, the public should know. They're going to be pivotal faces and they play an important role.

So thank you, everyone. Have a great Friday.

[10:47:48]

JIM SCIUTO, CNN ANCHOR: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki there, finishing a lengthy press conference, welcoming news of the Johnson & Johnson --

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- vaccine, although deferring to the health experts who will grace that podium in about 15 minutes' time.

I mean, interesting to me, one, seems like full steam ahead, does it not, on the stimulus bill. Perhaps some trimming around the edges, but clearly the president wants something big and he wants it quick.

HARLOW: How nice too, Jim, to see reporters allowed to ask follow-ups on challenging questions. I think it's just notable --

SCIUTTO: Yes. It's, you know --

HARLOW: -- and matters a lot right now.

SCIUTTO: -- it'll always be a spin room, nature of the White House podium. But --

HARLOW: There you go.

SCIUTTO: -- to not have a torrent of lies and kind of deliberate attacks is kind of nice too.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Well, we're joined by John Harwood, Manu Raju, Dr. Mark McClellan. John, I want to begin with you because she dos -- she did say, Jen Psaki, that it should be bipartisan, the stimulus plan, but that our priority -- in her words -- "is getting it through." I wonder what the level of confidence is you're hearing from White House officials on getting something big and quickly?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Very high, and it's also very high among Democrats on Capitol Hill. This is a key dynamic here. You know, Joe Biden, earlier this week, when he was asked to define unity, he said unity is not going to be defined by whether it gets Republican votes, it's going to be defined by whether it attracts broad support from the American people, whether there's consensus among economists it will have an effect.

And we're seeing that ethos pushed by the White House, pushed by Democrats on the Hill, saying we're going to talk to Republicans but we have the ability to pass it by ourselves, and we're going to move as if we can. That makes it more likely, not less, that Republicans will engage in negotiations. Either way, I think there's a very high level of confidence that they're going to get it done and get it done quickly.

And it's notable, on that way that Joe Biden defined unity. Kevin Hassett, the Trump top White House economic adviser, has embraced the package. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has praised the package.

[10:50:00]

The polling shows, as Jen Psaki cited today, substantial support for significant action and aid in this direction. You know, it's very difficult to get very narrow polling on legislative proposals, but there's broad support in the American people for moving forward, and that's propelling this process right now.

HARLOW: Manu Raju, what was your read on that?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that it's pretty clear that they are not going to wait to try to get Republican support. I mean, there are discussions that are happening with Republicans in the Senate side, with this bipartisan group that's discussing this -- what they can agree to. But that really is not seen as the serious effort here to try to get a law.

The serious effort is going to be to try to get a bill through both chambers with Democratic support only. And they're signaling that privately and publicly, signaling that they're not going to back off this $1.9 trillion package, a price tag that is too high for even the most moderate Senate Republicans.

But if they were to pare it back to win over those Republicans, they could lose some key support from the left. And Democrats have the procedural tools to move a bill through the Senate without Republican support by advancing it through the budget process, something that will dominate Senate action and the House action in February.

And already, Democratic leadership is paving next week to begin that process, to bring a bill to the floor by the end of next month that would essentially advance and potentially push into law this $1.9 trillion package.

So the White House is not backing off. They are optimistic -- the Democratic leadership is too -- that even the most moderate members, Joe Manchins of the world, will eventually get behind this because most of the party does believe more spending is needed, even the most conservative members.

SCIUTTO: And for those with short memories, we should remind folks that the signature economic package of the Trump administration and the Republican Congress, the tax cut, also passed through reconciliation.

Scott McClellan -- Mark McClellan, on the issue -- there was a Scott McClellan years and years ago. Mark McClellan, more importantly, on the issue of this J&J vaccine, there's going to be a briefing in a couple of minutes, when we hear from the health experts. Clearly, you know, the Biden administration welcoming (ph) it (ph).

I wonder, you know, if big picture, the good news here, right? Is the Biden administration has the ambitious goal to get a hundred, 150 million people vaccinated quickly. Now it's got three options.

MARK MCCLELLAN, JOHNSON & JOHNSON BOARD MEMBER: It does have three options, the administration does have three options -- potentially. And just to be clear, this vaccine still needs to go through the FDA review process, the results are going to be looked at very closely.

But it does look very effective, especially in preventing severe complications, hospitalizations, deaths not only from the current versions of the COVID virus, but also from the very worrisome ones that are spreading around the world. So those issues are going to be looked at in the short term.

And for the administration, this means with the additional doses that J&J could provide, we could have enough vaccines for all adult Americans, everybody who's potentially eligible for getting the vaccine, by June. So that would be really helpful --

HARLOW: Yes, wow .

MCCLELLAN: -- in getting to control of the serious consequences of COVID.

The challenge is -- and this gets back to the stimulus package too -- we need to really ramp up our capacity to get shots into arms and to engage with the public about the benefits of the vaccines, make sure they understand the risks and the limitations. This is -- to get to that goal, we need something more like 3 million vaccines administered per day, not the 1 million or so where we are right now.

HARLOW: Dr. McClellan, not only are you the former FDA commissioner, so you know what J&J will go through next week to try to get that EUA approval, but also you're on the board of Johnson & Johnson. Can you explain for people who may have a bit of pause, be given pause this morning by the J&J numbers of 66 percent efficacy but 85 percent for people seriously, preventing serious COVID illness?

MCCLELLAN: Yes, Poppy. So this was a vaccine that was tested across the United States, and also across the world including in areas of the world where there are now much more worrisome strains of the coronavirus being active. They're more likely to cause infection, maybe more likely to cause serious consequences. And where we know there's some concerns about whether existing vaccines work quite as well.

So the important thing from these results is that the vaccine is effective in preventing any kind of symptoms, so the FDA's bar was at least 50 percent effective, it's above that including for these more worrisome kinds of the coronavirus. And especially effective in preventing the kinds of complications that have made this pandemic so bad for health and for the economy.

So 85 percent effective including against the variants or higher in preventing very serious cases, meaning, you know, something that would lay you out for a few days. And in the vaccine group, in this clinical trial, no patients who got the vaccine had to go to the hospital, and none died including across all these variants all across the world.

[10:55:17]

And we need to contain this pandemic as quickly as possible, not only in the U.S. but across the world, prevent these alternative forms of the virus from developing and to hopefully get us all back towards a more normalcy.

SCIUTTO: Right. We'll be looking forward to more data on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as well.

Our thanks to Dr. McClellan, John Harwood and Manu Raju.

HARLOW: Yes, thank you gentlemen, all very, very much.

And thanks to you for being with us today and all week. Have a safe, healthy weekend, we'll see you on Monday. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto, NEWSROOM with Kate Bolduan starts right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]