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COVID Variants Could Lead to Many More Deaths; CDC has Warned that U.K. Strain Could Make Pandemic Worse; Biden Pushes $1.9 Trillion Relief Bill Despite Stalemate; U.S. Lawmakers Concerned About Security After Insurrection; Trump Looms Large as Republicans Face Identity Crisis; Parkland Families Call for Congresswoman Green to Resign. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 29, 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: A new variant of coronavirus is detected in the United States just as there are new predictions of a much higher potential death toll.

Donald Trump left the White House, but many Republicans are refusing to leave him. We have the latest as some party members swear their loyalty to the former president.

And the sub Reddit page that has Wall Street in a spin, and a Senate committee to hold hearings. The latest on GameStop's crazy ride on Wall Street.

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.

A new forecast warns that more contagious strains of the coronavirus could cause an additional 85,000 deaths in the U.S. by May. The first two cases of the variant first detected in South Africa have now been confirmed in the U.S. It's already circulating in at least 30 other countries. The two Americans who have it don't know each other and haven't traveled abroad.

Now this variant may make at least one potential new vaccine less effective. Drug maker Novavax says U.K. trials showed almost 90 percent effectiveness, but it was only at 60 percent in South African trials. The easy spread of that variant and others may complicate U.S. vaccination efforts which are lagging in many states. Here's Nick Watt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The more contagious variant first found in South Africa is here. Two cases just confirmed in different parts of South Carolina.

DR. BRANNON TRAXLER, INTERIM DIRECTOR, SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: There is no known travel history and there is no known connection between the two cases.

WATT (voice-over): These first documented infections actually happened weeks ago. All this means the mutation is spreading on American soil, and lab tests of this variant versus the vaccine? The vaccine is.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Diminished by multiple in its ability to cover it. It's still within the range of what you would predict to be protective, but I take no great comfort in that.

WATT (voice-over): Still, fewer than 50 million vaccine doses distributed, a little over half of them actually in arms.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: On the administration side there is some delay in reporting.

WATT (voice-over): In these states, more than half their doses are still sitting in the freezer, maybe states holding back second doses?

WALENSKY: We need to or me to make sure that that's available for them when they return for their second shot. 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.

WATT (voice-over): Twenty thousand National Guard already deployed to the effort, FEMA now asking for more help. Up to 10,000 active duty could be deployed.

MAX ROSE, COVID SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are actively considering support for the vaccine effort and are prepared to certainly do so.

WATT (voice-over): The various variants now circulating here also impact tests, says the FDA.

DR. TIMOTHY STENZEL, DIRECTOR, FDA OFFICE OF IN VITRO DIAGNOSTICS AND RADIOLOGICAL HEALTH: There may be a performance difference going forward.

WATT (voice-over): Testing never quite reached the numbers needed and now it's falling. Right now, average new case counts are falling all across the country. But still averaging over 160,000 new cases every day, and those faster spreading variants.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICIES, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Are now we're going to overlay on top of that very high baseline. So what we can expect to see in the course of the next, I think, 6 to 14 weeks, it is something that we haven't even come close to experiencing yet.

WATT: Now the superintendent of schools here in Los Angeles, the second biggest district in the nation said maybe schools can reopen here and across the country. More schools, sometime, later in the spring.

[04:05:00] The word maybe is doing a lot of work there. He wants to have all staff in this district vaccinated before the school's open and the infection rate here is going to have to drop dramatically before those schools can reopen.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Health officials are particularly worried about forbearance. The South African strain we've mentioned, plus others from Brazil, the U.K. and a new one emerging in California. Earlier CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta discussed these variants with our Chris Cuomo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: So, the numbers are starting to come down in cases. And now, we start getting the variants. And, you know, it raises a question that people don't want to ask, let alone answer, which is, are these variants going to force -- should we expect lockdowns? Because if they spread so much more quickly, and we know we don't have the mask compliance we need, is it going to change the case rate, and require some type of more extreme measure?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Because if they spread so much more quickly, and we know we don't have the mask compliance we need, is it going to change the case rate, and require some type of more extreme measure?

GUPTA: You're right. No one wants to hear this, Chris. And I feel like I look at the data and understand what is happening in other countries. We talked to Clarissa Ward in the U.K. yesterday. I mean it's a dire situation, as the transmissibility of the U.K. variant, you know, has really wreaked a lot of -- a lot of transmissibility over there.

Let me show you the important sort of numbers here if we have them. Basically, if something is more lethal, versus more contagious, play that out, play it out for a month.

A month is six generations. A generation is five days, right? That's sort of the average incubation period. What happens? After a month, after six generations, you get far more deaths from something being more contagious versus being more lethal. People need to let that sink in.

But basically, it's more contagious, therefore it's likely to spread to vulnerable populations, therefore encounters where you weren't likely to get infected before. Become higher-risk encounters, you know, grocery stores, whatever it may be. And that's how you get a much higher case fatality rate.

What causes shutdowns? People will see those numbers. But I can tell you what ultimately drives it is what's happening in hospitals. You start to get hospitals that are simply overwhelmed. They have no more space. And they call the leaders, and they say, look, we've got no escape hatch here. You've got to -- you've got to stop transmission. And the most effective way to do that is to just basically stop people actually coming together in any way for a period of time.

Who knows? I don't think the country's ready for it. I mean, like you said, they don't even wear masks. But that would be an effective strategy, at least for a period of time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The economic fallout has caused the biggest contraction in the U.S. economy since 1946, the year after World War II ended. President Joe Biden began his term by introducing an ambitious relief proposal with a price tag of almost $2 trillion. But political divisions mean that quick passage of the measure isn't likely. CNN's Phil Mattingly reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And the first thing I got to do is get this COVID package passed.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But President Joe Biden's goal of a bipartisan coronavirus relief package may be slipping away.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are not going to do this in a piecemeal way or break apart a big package.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): The White House and their allies on Capitol Hill, ready to press forward.

PSAKI: Republicans can still vote for a package, even if it goes through with reconciliation. There is no blood oath, anybody signs. They're able to support it regardless.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): And top White House officials, including the president himself, continued to have discussions with Republicans in search of a path forward.

PSAKI: He wants this to be a bipartisan package. He's listening to Democrats and Republicans, we all are, to ensure that that is what it looks like at the end of the day.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): But Biden has also made clear splitting key elements out to reach a deal is not on the table.

BIDEN: Time is of the essence. And I must tell you I'm reluctant to cherry pick and take out one or two items here and then have to go through it again, because these all are kind of, they go sort of hand and glove.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): And Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly convinced a deal with any Republicans on Biden's $1.9 trillion proposal is simply not possible, sources say.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The smartest thing we can do is act big.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): And they are ready to push ahead on a partisan basis.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: We would hope that we would have bipartisan cooperation but we're not taking any tools off the table should they not.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): All as the depth of the economic destruction rocked by COVID comes to light. The U.S. economy contracted 3.5 percent in 2020, the first annual decline since the 2008 financial crisis and the worst drop since 1946.

BIDEN: (INAUDIBLE) COVID crisis.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): The damage from the pandemic also driving Biden's newest executive action on Obamacare. The man who made BFD famous.

BIDEN: This is a big (BEEP) deal.

[04:10:00]

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Now reopening enrollment for the law of its deal was so big, as he presses to undo his predecessor's efforts to kill the law.

BIDEN: Basically the best way to describe it is to undo the damage Trump has done.

MATTINGLY: And while President Biden's first eight days in office have focused largely on executive actions, there's no question about it when you talk to top White House advisers. That COVID relief package, that $1.9 trillion proposal, is the focal point of the administration right now.

Now the president, as I noted in the piece, has been reaching out to Republicans. He'd spoken to two Republican senators behind the scenes, Rob Portman of Ohio, also Susan Collins in Maine, seeing if he can bring them along.

But again, the reality right now both on Capitol Hill and in the White House is there is recognition, that a bipartisan proposal given how big Democrats want to go, Democrats including President Biden, seems very out of reach at the moment.

But they have the numbers right now, no matter how slim those margins are to get something passed, and both Biden and his top economic advisers have said going big and acting fast is their number one priority, the number one priority that likely at this point in time won't get Republican support.

Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: In a few hours U.S. President Joe Biden will be making a trip to visit wounded service members. That's according to his public schedule released by the White House. The president is to visit with troops at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The White House hasn't released any other details yet.

The chief judge of federal court in Washington, D.C., scolded Capitol riot suspects at a hearing on Thursday. Judge Beryl Howell says it wasn't a peaceful protest on January 6th but was an attack on the peaceful transfer of power. Suspect Richard Barnett who bragged about sitting at a desk in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office will remain in jail. The judge says he still poses a danger to community and has shown a disregard for the law.

And U.S. capitol police on Wednesday arrested a man who say they had a gun and 20 rounds of ammunition near the U.S. Capitol. The 71-year-old West Virginia man was taken into custody near the Capitol when he started angrily shouting at National Guard troops. They say he had "stop the steal" paperwork with him, along with contact information of Senators and Representatives.

While Republicans lost the White House, Senate and House during Donald Trump's single term, so why do some of them still believe he can help Republicans regain majority control two years from now? We'll explain coming up after a short break. Stay with us.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: The deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th has many lawmakers deeply concerned for their own safety. The acting Capitol Police chief has proposed ringing the Capitol with a fence but it's not popular idea with lawmakers in both parties. They don't want the people's house to become a fortress and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says the security threat isn't just outside the Capitol, she says it's also coming from other lawmakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Former President Trump may have retired to Florida, but his influence within the Republican Party is as potent as ever. Despite the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, some Republicans still cling to Trump as the key to their political futures. Here's CNN's Jeff Zeleny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The American flag is proudly waving today at former President Trump's Mar- a-Lago resort. But the shining sun belies the storm brewing inside of the Republican Party. Kevin McCarthy, the House GOP leader, made a pilgrimage to Florida, hoping to get back into the former presidents good graces after angering Trump, following a deadly attack on the Capitol.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The president bears responsibility for Wednesdays attack on Congress by mob rioters.

ZELENY (voice-over): McCarthy has been backpedaling ever since. Making clear, he still sees Trump as the leader of the Republican Party. A view not shared by Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who hasn't spoken to Trump in more than a month.

The Mar-a-Lago meeting was focused on taking back the House in 2022 -- Trump aides said in a statement. Adding, he's endorsement means more than perhaps any endorsement at any time.

With his looming impeachment trial, Trump remains front and center in the Republican Party, even as it faces an identity crisis.

In a private call with House Republicans this week, McCarthy admonished his members to stop the infighting, CNN has learned, bluntly saying, to cut that crap out with no more attacks on one another. But he has done little to actually stop it. With Florida Congressman, Matt Gaetz, a loyal Trump ally, traveling to my Wyoming today to try taking down Liz Cheney, the number three House Republican, who voted for Trump's impeachment.

REP. MATT GAETZ, (R-FL): If you want to prove that you have the power, defeat Liz Cheney in this upcoming election, and Wyoming will bring Washington to its knees.

ZELENY (voice-over): The GOP turmoil is playing out as a series of sideshows. None louder than Georgia Congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who deleted her social media posts after CNN reported she harassed victims of the Parkland School shooting and endorsed violence against Democratic lawmakers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enough is enough, enough is enough.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): That's what happened. People will still do mass shootings, be used by the left because you're young.

ZELENY (voice-over): The Congresswoman, who is promoted QAnon conspiracy theories was given a plump seat on the House education and labor committee. Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 House Republicans to support Trump's impeachment, said the party is in a dangerous crossroads.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Let's be clear, she is not a Republican. I personally don't think she should have any committees.

[04:20:00]

ZELENY (voice-over): A fear of reigning fringed Republican elements has created an opening for Democrats, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seized on today.

PELOSI: Assigning her to the education committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. When she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School? What could they be thinking?

ZELENY: David Hogg, the Parkland students, who is the subject of Taylor Greene's harassment, telling CNN, he had a message for leader McCarthy.

DAVID HOGG, PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTING SURVIVOR: If you say this is not your party, actually call it out and hold her accountable.

ZELENY: So, just a week after Donald Trump left office, clearly in disgrace facing a second impeachment, many Republicans said it was time to turn the page. But House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, made one thing clear, the GOP is still the Party of Donald Trump.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: CNN politics White House reporter, Stephen Collinson, joins me now from Washington. Stephen, after the election, I spoke to plenty of experts, I'm sure you did as well, who thought that, you know, this was it. Donald Trump's incitement of the insurrection would give them the cover they needed to distance themselves from them and make the Republican Party more than just the Party of Trump.

A few high-profile Republicans seem to have taken some hesitant steps, then came scurrying back. So, of all the ways, Republican showed their fealty to Trump in the past, you know, week or so, what surprised you the most?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I think what surprised me the most, Kim, is that nine days into the Biden administration, the fight for democracy that took place during the last few weeks and months of the Trump administration isn't over. In fact, it may be just beginning. The forces in the Republican Party that supported and lifted and were exploited by Donald Trump are very much alive.

And far from learning the lessons of his defeat, the loss of the House, and the loss of the Senate over his four-year term, those radical extremist voices in the Republican Party are doubling down. They've decided, I think that the future of their party lies with Trump and Trump voters.

BRUNHUBER: You asked the question rhetorically in your excellent piece there, the question is, is yet another doubling down on grassroots fury and the Trump base, the best way to win back Americans. Especially those in suburban areas who rejected the ex-president, lost the House, the Senate, and the White House, in a single four term year.

So, the answer seems to be, yes and no, depending on whether you're talking about the House, or the Senate. Sort of explain the contrast here, because as you say, I mean, they lost everything. So, why would you double down on that?

COLLINSON: That's right. Now, one of the reasons why the House and Senate are different is because a lot of the districts in the House have been gerrymandered. They've been drawn by the parties in such a way that is very difficult for them to lose. You get, you know, bunches of Republican voters put in one district. Bunches of Democratic voters put in another district.

What that really means is in the House, which is elected every two years, you have to have a massive base turnout from your more enthusiastic activists, and you can win seats that way. So, you know, we are talking about probably, 40, 50 competitive seats in the House. So a massive turnout either way can swing it. And that's why you really need your engaged base.

BRUNHUBER: It seems like such an easy win to sanction the extreme of the extreme, like Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene, instead of promotion, and you know, a stern talking to. What is the calculus there? Because it's not as if she wields enormous influence and power.

COLLINSON: The extreme of the extreme is becoming the mainstream of the Republican Party. It's much more right-wing than it was even four or eight years ago. I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is not an outlier, in terms of the way that she is viewed by the base of the party.

And she may actually be a herald of more extreme radical conservative conspiratorial candidates that are coming up. You know, Kevin McCarthy, he's made his bed with Trump. He cannot now start sanctioning people who are endorsed by the former president and who support the former president.

Marjorie Taylor Greene had a town hall meeting in her district in Georgia just this evening and she was recycling those lies about the election being stolen. Of course, it wasn't. Massive numbers of Republicans believe that, believe those conspiracy theories now. That's Donald Trump's legacy and that is now working on the Republican Party and U.S. politics more generally.

[04:25:03]

BRUNHUBER: So among the people calling for the expulsion of Marjorie Taylor Greene for Congress are Parkland school shooting survivors and victims' families. Scott Beige was one of the 17 people killed in the 2018 school shooting. The geography teacher was shot while trying to save his students. His mother spoke earlier with CNN. We'll hear from her in just a moment.

But first, a video she shared before talking with CNN's Don Lemon. Now I have to warn you some may find it disturbing. It's silent and show the moments her son opened the door to his classroom to allow students to run to safety before he was shot. before he was shot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTING OF SCOTT BEIGE WHILE HE SAVED HIS STUDENTS) LINDA BEIGEL SCHULMAN, SCOTT BEIGE'S MOTHER: Because Congresswoman Greene talks about the shooting as a staged event. It was not a staged event. You know, I only wish that the body in the casket that I identified was a prop and not my son. For the, you know, for the past 1,080 days, and that's how many days it was since the massacre, and I will probably be counting days for the rest of my life, I wish the shooter was a paid actor.

If that was so, then my live would be allowed today and I'd be watching your show not be on it responding to her lies. I mean, she has no right to trivialize the murder of 17 innocent lives that were taken on February 14th, 2018. She has no right to negate Scott's heroism and she has no right to demean my son's memory with her conspiracy theories.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Heartbreaking. We'll have more news after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)