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Senate Dems Preparing to Pass Relief Without GOP Support; House Impeachment Managers to Outline Their Case Against Trump; McConnell Slams Congresswoman Greene Over Her Conspiracy Theories; CDC: Only 38 Percent of Nursing Home Staff Accepted COVID-19 Vaccines; Futures Up As Concerns Over Trading Frenzy Ease. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired February 02, 2021 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.
This morning, the battle over going big to rescue the economy divides Washington as health and economic crises are gripping the nation.
Hours from now, Senate Democrats are expected to begin the process to allow them to fast track Biden's $1.9 trillion rescue package without Republican votes.
The Republican proposal was less than a third of the president's and the Democrats' offer. Bipartisan deal or not, the fact remains it will take weeks at least to get relief to millions of struggling Americans. It takes time. And it comes as health experts warn the nation's vaccinations effort must ramp up immediately, calling it a race against time. Why? Well, new coronavirus variants are spreading quickly across the country.
HARLOW: That's right. And we're now one week away from the second impeachment trial of former President Trump. That starts next Tuesday. House Democrats today, though, will issue their first pretrial brief. That's going to come next hour. Their focus, the president's lies about widespread election fraud, barring him from future public office, and why they argue it is constitutional to try him even though he is no longer president.
The former president's legal team, they have until noon to basically issue their rebuttal to that and how they will defend him.
We've got a lot to get to. Let's go to our colleague Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill.
Good morning to you, Lauren. So at least the optics were of progress in the Oval Office yesterday. Susan Collins leading that meeting with the president. But was there substantive progress? LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, sure. I think
Republicans felt like it was a good meeting, it was a good opportunity to speak directly with the president about what their hopes are for their own COVID relief package. But, look, Democrats are charging forward with their plan to use that budgetary tactic to go ahead and pass that $1.9 trillion bill with just Democratic votes.
They are arguing essentially that Republicans are willing -- if they are willing, they are allowed to come forward and vote for this process. They are welcome to be a part of it, but they are saying they need to be bold, they need to go bold, and you really saw that yesterday reflected in the statement from the White House press secretary after that meeting had wrapped. Essentially Democrats plan to move forward.
Look, we're going to see that budget resolution today from Senate Democrats. It's going to give committees instructions to go ahead and begin writing this bill. I am told that that process is really going to start and get under way next week. You're going to have House committees working in consultation with the Senate committees to write that legislative text. And it's going to look a lot like that $1.9 trillion plan that the Biden team released months ago.
So that's where they're headed, but I will tell you, Democrats are not going to wait for Republicans if they don't want to come along on this -- Jim and Poppy.
SCIUTTO: And Republicans who have the challenge of whether they want to vote against aid like that. The other issue still unresolved is a power sharing agreement in the Senate. You have a 50-50 split but with the vice president breaking the ties in effect. I mean, we're weeks in to this new Congress. What's holding up an agreement here that allowed votes, for instance, on the president's nominees?
FOX: Well, you're starting to see some of the wrinkles of not having an organizing resolution really show up. One of them, of course, the fact that Lindsey Graham who is still technically the chairman of the Judiciary Committee saying that he would like to see a two-day confirmation hearing for the attorney general nominee, but one of the concerns he has is they're going to start that Senate impeachment trial on February 9th.
They were scheduled to begin the confirmation hearing on February 8th. He's saying that's not enough time, but one of the reasons that this isn't already wrapped up is the fact that Democrats and Republican leadership aides are still squabbling behind the scenes about what this organizing resolution could look like.
I am told that they could come to an agreement as soon as today that the discussions are really weedy, and that it's essentially just a difference of opinion on how to move forward, and these are some small changes that they need to come up with. But essentially it is halting Senate business here on Capitol Hill.
SCIUTTO: We'll see when that changes. Lauren Fox, thanks very much.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is at the White House.
So, Jeremy, Biden's camp is making clear, and they've made it clear for some time, if no bipartisan deal was within reach, they're willing to do this without Republicans. I just wonder, I mean, they've been talking about this two-track approach for some time, right? You know, proceeding with reconciliation, while keeping their ears open to possible compromises here. But after that meeting yesterday, I mean, is there a path? I mean, are Republicans willing to come up on that figure, Democrats down?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's not clear. And I think what we saw yesterday was both the potential and the limits for bipartisanship with President Biden in the White House and the current make-up of the House and the Senate. We had on the potential side that two-hour long meeting hosted by President Biden. His first meeting at the White House with lawmakers intended to send a clear signal that he isn't just talk but he is serious about these calls for unity and bipartisanship.
Both sides, the Republican, the 10 Republicans who were meeting with the president as well as the White House, making clear that this was a good-faith discussion, that there were some points of agreement but then in terms of the limits of bipartisanship, what you saw in the wake of this was the White House making very, very clear that they do intend to move forward with this legislation and they're certainly not going to compromise more than they believe is necessary, and more than they believe is necessary in terms of what is needed for the American people.
[09:05:16]
You look at these two plans and you can see how tremendous the gap is. More than a trillion dollars separate these two plans, what President Biden is proposing and what the Republicans. You look at the stimulus checks. You can see big differences there. And of course there's this issue of the minimum wage and state and local aid. None of those -- neither of those are in the Republican plan.
So you're going to see the White House move forward here, approaching a budget reconciliation. That appears to be the direction that the White House is headed. Still keeping that line open to those Republicans on Capitol Hill, but again the emphasis from the White House here this morning is this sense of urgency to pass needed aid. And that's where they're going to focus on.
HARLOW: Jeremy Diamond, thank you very, very much from a beautiful looking Washington, D.C., this morning.
Two big --
On top of all that we just talked about, two big developments in the second impeachment trial of former President Trump. At any moment, House impeachment managers will provide a detailed legal analysis of their view of the constitutionality of impeaching a former president. The legal team faces a deadline today. Actually next hour for the Democrats and noon for the Republicans to respond. SCIUTTO: CNN's John Harwood and CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen with us
now. Norm served as impeachment counsel for House Democrats during former President Trump's first impeachment trial. He was also former special counsel to President Obama.
John, let's begin with you because over the weekend there was talk that one reason the president fired his initial legal team was because he just wanted to quadruple down on the idea the election was stolen from him. But is now the focus with his latest legal team just to go after the constitutionality argument?
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Seems pretty clear from the argument that the lawyer made on television last night and that is the obvious place for President Trump to go. He's had 45 Republican senators already vote to affirm the idea that it is unconstitutional to have this trial. Never mind that the consensus of legal scholars is that it is constitutional. There is precedent for it.
Mitt Romney has said -- has made that point. Mitt Romney, of course, was one of the ones who voted the other way. But that seems the shortest path, the path of least resistance for the president. He clearly is consumed by this idea, this false idea, the lie that he spread that resulted in the insurrection that he won the election, that it was stolen from him, but what lawyer, what self-respecting lawyer wants to stand up and make that argument when everybody knows it's not true.
HARLOW: It's a good point. But things do surprise us. Norm Eisen, the -- what we're going to see, our reporting is in the document put forth by House Democrats impeachment managers next hour is that they're not only going to argue the president incited the violence at the Capitol and the insurrection, but they're going to say it was intentional and months in the making because of his lies. I wonder how high the bar is to prove intentionality.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
NORMAN EISEN, FORMER IMPEACHMENT COUNSEL FOR HOUSE DEMOCRATS: Well, Poppy, thanks for having me back. The intentionality stems from the known facts here. There's just no other way to look at the president's long pattern of misconduct. He started attacking this election before it even happened saying that if he lost, it would be rigged, and then just continued to accelerate the false statements.
He's responsible for what happened. And his behavior was appalling throughout this process. It's no wonder --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: Norm, I hear you, and I know you're on the side against the president last time around. I'm just wondering legally, like politics and opinions aside, isn't a bar for proving intentionality pretty high?
EISEN: They don't need to meet that legal bar here.
HARLOW: OK.
EISEN: As if it were a criminal trial, Poppy.
HARLOW: OK.
EISEN: This is an impeachment trial. What they need to show is a high crime and misdemeanor. And inciting an insurrection, including using those fighting words on January 6th, on top of the long pattern that came before it, that is more than sufficient to meet the standard of a high crime and misdemeanor.
SCIUTTO: Can they make that case, Norm Eisen, without calling a significant number of witnesses? I mean, Democrats fought for witnesses in the first impeachment trial, got blocked by the White House by and large. Why not now? Why not push for a significant list of witnesses if you're proving that case? Right? I mean, beyond January 6th, right, you could talk to the folks the president pressured across the country to overturn the election.
EISEN: Jim, I'm sure that they are looking at which of those key witnesses they can bring in.
[09:10:05]
But, remember, there's an enormous amount of evidence that is already in the public record here. And we know from the previous trial that this is a team that is going to put on devastating audio and visual evidence, including the president's own words. Not just on January 6th, bad enough, but over a period of months inciting this insurrection. So while witnesses are always an important part of a trial, we also have to be mindful of the fact that there is a pile of information, and nobody has put it all together yet. I think we're going to see that in this trial.
HARLOW: John Harwood, yesterday Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, because there are no organizing rules agreed on so Republicans are still leading these committees, responded to Senator Dick Durbin in terms of Durbin's call for the confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Merrick Garland to be ahead of the second impeachment trial of Trump to happen within a week.
Graham says that's, quote, "highly unusual," he said impeachment requires the Senate's complete focus. Graham makes the case that the last five attorney general nominees had two-day confirmation hearings. Is he right on that, and where do you think this goes?
HARWOOD: Obviously, the Senate could go ahead and confirm Merrick Garland if they wanted to. Let's just review a little Lindsey Graham history here. 2016, participated in the blockade of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. Later said use my words against me if there's a Republican president, we will not rush it through in an election year. We saw what happened with Amy Coney Barrett.
In 2016, he ran against Donald Trump, said he's a xenophobic bigot who would destroy the Republican Party, then he became Trump's best friend. Same pattern on Ukraine. He said if it's a quid pro quo, it's really bad. Then when a quid pro quo was proved, it wasn't really bad. And then finally with the insurrection he said in the moment of the violence, I'm out. Then he got right back in.
I don't know how you avoid the conclusion that Lindsey Graham is an Energizer Bunny going straight in the direction of what is the most expedient thing for him in that moment and this seems to be another example of that.
SCIUTTO: John Harwood, Ambassador Eisen, thanks so much to both of you.
EISEN: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Still to come this hour Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, interesting to say those words, does something most of his colleagues in the House will not do. He publicly calls out congresswoman and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, Marjorie Taylor Greene, condemning her, quote, "loony lies," calling her, again quoting, "a cancer for the Republican Party."
Will leaders in the House follow his lead?
HARLOW: Yes, it's a really extraordinary step. We'll get into that.
And this, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez detailing the moments she experienced during the insurrection at the Capitol. And also for the first time publicly opening up about her own sexual assault.
And distribution is not the only challenge facing the vaccine rollout. How debunking disinformation is key to getting more Americans vaccinated.
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[09:15:00]
SCIUTTO: This morning, there's growing pressure on the top house Republican Kevin McCarthy to act, speak out, as Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell delivered a sharp rebuke of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, though he did not directly name her.
HARLOW: But he was clearly referring to her when he condemned, quote, "loony lies and conspiracy theories as a, quote, 'cancer' on the Republican Party." Greene fired back in a tweet saying the real cancer is in her mind, weak Republicans. All of this put house Republican leaders on the spot. Brendan Buck is with us.
He is a former top aide to both house Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner, and notably, you worked for Kevin McCarthy as well. So I've got to ask, given how rare it is to hear a leader in the Senate speak about an issue in the house in this way, what's your read this morning?
BRENDAN BUCK, FORMER TOP AIDE TO HOUSE SPEAKERS PAUL RYAN & JOHN BOEHNER: Yes, it is really rare. Typically, there's sort of an understood rule that Senate leaders take care of their own conference, don't mess with what's going on in the house.
So there's either one of two things going on here. Either Kevin McCarthy asked for Mitch McConnell to back him up a little bit or probably more likely, Mitch McConnell is just really concerned about the direction that the party is heading, and feels like in the absence of anybody else saying something, he needs to speak in defense of Liz Cheney and make clear that conspiracy theories aren't welcome here because he's worried about the long-term political implications of a party that welcomes conspiracy theorists.
SCIUTTO: Yes, the trouble, of course, Brendan, right, is those conspiracy theories and lies are not confined by any means from Marjorie Taylor Greene. I mean, the most popular man in the Republican Party, Donald Trump, has been a chief propagator of lies. I mean, for years, right, and continues with the election lie. I just wonder, do you find McConnell's rebuke of Greene -- and by the way, he's rebuked Trump's lies on the election as well, but is she an avatar at all for a larger battle here, the party attempting to, or some in the party attempting to marginalize Trump himself?
BUCK: Yes, absolutely. Mitch McConnell seems to be the only person in Republican leadership right now who recognizes that the long-term political damage of continuing to welcome in anybody into the party, whether it's conspiracy theorists or dismissing white supremacists or anything that the president, you know, sort of winked and nodded at, is a disaster.
[09:20:00]
You cannot have a functioning party that is not willing to set clear principles on basic things like shootings of children are staged. You know, you can't have a party that welcomes people when people think you're a conspiracy theorist.
And so he's thinking that the long view, I think on the house side, a lot of the leaders there are more frankly is playing the short game. They're more concerned about keeping the house conference at ease and not creating any pressure on themselves where Mitch McConnell sees this as a bad path to go down, and we're in trouble if we don't change course right now.
HARLOW: You know, Kevin McCarthy is the one who stripped Steve King from Iowa of his committee assignments, it basically made him irrelevant in Congress and he didn't get elected again. And he has the same power to do it, this time around, and maybe he's going to. But I wonder -- I don't know, I just wonder if his thinking is different this time, and I wonder what you think about Marjorie Taylor Greene last night, saying, don't do this Democrats because the precedent is bad and it's going to -- it's going to come back to bite you.
BUCK: Well, I do think the president will be bad if Democrats were deciding what Republicans are on what committees.
HARLOW: That's right --
BUCK: This is typically something that each party controls their own. You're right. Kevin McCarthy took action after a long string of things that Steve King said. It is one of the most severe things you can do to a member. The house runs on committees. If you're not on a committee, you have really very little power to do anything. So, I think that if she continues to go down this route of being unapologetic about these crazy things she says, I think he'll have no choice but to remove her.
HARLOW: Continues --
BUCK: A lot of this stuff obvious --
HARLOW: She's --
BUCK: Yes --
HARLOW: Been doing it for years.
BUCK: Right. And so I think that there's a bit of a principle here to think about that. Her constituents elected her knowing that she's said these things. And it's not necessarily his place to --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
BUCK: Overrule those people who said that. But that said, he does have some tools here, the committees. And so, I think that will be --
HARLOW: Right --
BUCK: What he'll need to look at. Is this someone who is redeemable? And if she's irredeemable, then yes, you've got to yank her off the committees and make clear that she's not welcome or anybody like her is not welcome.
SCIUTTO: Brendan, you served Republican leaders for a number of years, McCarthy, McConnell, Paul Ryan. You're still plugged in. You know, this is a larger battle within the party right now. And I wonder, what's your sense of who is winning, right? I mean, which -- is it the McConnell -- we've got to expunge this part of the party or the other side, still hold the upper hand?
BUCK: Well, McConnell is a lonely voice right now. I wish there were more people who were speaking like McConnell. McConnell seems to be the only one who is fighting this fight other than maybe Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse.
So, absolutely, the people who are standing with Trump are winning because hardly anybody else is fighting back, and that's why I'm so encouraged by Mitch McConnell basically saying, OK, enough is enough, we can't continue going down this road because, you know, we talk about a Republican civil war. There's not really much of a war going on because everybody is on the side of Trump still.
SCIUTTO: Yes, listen, it was 139 house members voted still after January 6th, right, to overturn the results of the election in states. It's remarkable. HARLOW: But Senator Cassidy did just step in and say, you know,
McConnell is totally right on this. So, we'll see if this is the beginning of something turning the page here. Brendan, it's good to have you -- I want to know for people who are looking and can't really see your face, it's kind of a dark sharp because you've got the light behind you. We're sorry about that. This is what happens sometimes in COVID land, and --
BUCK: Yes --
HARLOW: We're sorry we couldn't fix that, but thanks for being here --
BUCK: OK --
HARLOW: Your insight is so --
BUCK: Sure --
HARLOW: Important. Jim?
BUCK: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: Well, they are a top priority for coronavirus vaccinations. So, why have only 38 percent, a little more than a third of nursing home workers where so many people have died, accepted shots?
HARLOW: We're also moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures higher across the board this morning, concerns over the Reddit trading frenzy have really been rocking Wall Street. GameStop, one of the retailers boosted by those investors is seeing another big decline today in pre-market trading. Remember, that stock rose some 400 percent last week. It was a stunning headline for the struggling chain. Investors also keeping a close eye on Washington as lawmakers battle over this massive stimulus plan. We're following all of it.
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[09:25:00]
HARLOW: Dr. Anthony Fauci says more Americans need to get vaccinated as soon as possible in order to stop new more -- this new more contagious COVID variant, not just one, a few of them from developing and spreading even more. So far, 26 million people in this country have received at least one dose of a vaccine, nearly 6 million have been fully vaccinated.
SCIUTTO: You know, watching that number closely. It needs to go up, but those efforts have been slowed by powerful Winter storms, nearly a dozen vaccine sites across New York and New Jersey closed now due to heavy snow, dangerous conditions there, yet one more obstacle. CNN's Jacqueline Howard joins us now. Jacqueline, it has taken longer than they would wanted to get vaccines in arms still progressing more slowly, but the pace is picking up. Tell us how we know that and how much it's picking up. JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Yes, the pace is picking up,
and there's more of a sense of urgency, Jim and Poppy. The reason why going back to how you mentioned those variants. We now have three variants that have been identified. One in Brazil, one in the U.K., first identified in the U.K. and Brazil and one first identified in South Africa.
